Uses of all. Use 1. Now to make some general use of all that hath been spoken, and so to end all.|| Is this so ? Here we might stand upon a point to instruct our judgment, to shew that all the corrections of God's children, they come not from vindictive justice, bnt from a fatherly affection,
* ' Or ' in B, C— G. t ' And ' not in B, C— G.
I ' They were accessary to their own deaths ' not iu B, C, but simply, ' who slept before their time, tliey cut,' &c. — G.
g In the margin here, ' As in Israel's forty years' voyage. Cf.
II ' So ' not in B, C— G.
108 judgment's reason.
against that doctrine of popery that maintains satisfaction ; that judgments are for satisfaction. A proud and damnable point. Can a man with a penny deserve a thousand pounds ? Sin deserves eternal damnation. Can we with a little suffering satisfy that ? ' The wages of sin is death,' Rom. vi. 23, eternal death. It is a gross position. No ! Tlicy arc corrections, not satisfnctions ; they come from fatherly affection. This is to rectify our Judgment in that point.
Use 2. And then again, to help ?/.s af/niiist Sateais temptations. Heiiseth afflictions as temptations to weaken our faith.
Ohj. If God did love thee, he would never do so and so ; God hates thee ;* why doth he follow thee with his judgments, but that he hates thee and hath no dehght in thee ? And why should he single out thee more than others ?
A71S. Retort back again, Nay ! because God loves me, he deals thus with me ; because he meansf to save my soul, therefore he will not suffer me quietly to run the broad way to destruction. Therefore it is rather an argument of love, from that, whereby Satan would shake our faith. Doth not Satan set upon Christ with this temptation ? He comes with an ' if.' ' If thou be the Son of God,' Matt. iv. 3, seq. If thou wert the child of God, shouldst thou be so afllicted ? Whereas, indeed, because we are the Bons of God, therefore we are afflicted. Beat back therefore Satan's weapons into his own bosom again. If God corrected his own Son, that is, the author of our salvation (when yet under the signs of his greatest dis- pleasure, his Father loved him), let us think that we may be beloved of God in the signs of his greatest displeasure, as Christ upon the cross, ' My God, my God,' &c.:|: He apprehended, in the signs of greatest displeasure, God's love, and so should we. Let us answer God's dealing with the like. His dealing is this.§ In the worst condition he calls us children, and he is our father, and loves us. Therefore, in the worst condition, let us trust him, and say with Job. ' Though thou kill me, yet will I trust in thee,' Job siii. 15.
Quest. Why?
A7is. Because thou mayest kill me, and yet be a father, and mayest do it in love. I will answer thy dealing by my faith again ; therefore though thou kill me, yet will I trust in thee.
Use 3. Again, this strengthens our judgment in the point of pterseverance, that being once in the state of grace, ice shall hold out still. For rather than God's children shall fall away, God will take a course that they should not be damned with the world ; he will correct them. It is most divinely set down, Rom. viii. 35. Saith he, among other things, || 'Neither life nor death shall be able to separate us from the love of God ;' neither life, nor the vanities of this life.
Quest. And what if we give God cause to visit us with death. IT
Ans. * Yet neither life nor death shall separate us from the love of God,' as here the Corinthians they were visited with death ; yet neither life nor death shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ ; and there- fore be stablished in the truth of that point.
Use 4. Then again, for a further use, itfenceth the soul against the scandal**
* ' God hates thee ' not in B, C.-^G.
t ' Meaneth ' in B, C— G. J ' Still ' in B, C.—Q.
§ ' His dealing is this ' not in B, C. — G. II ' Saith he among other things ' not in B, C. — G. ^ ' As here the Corinthians were visited ' inserted here in B, C. — G. ** That is, the ' stumblingblock.'— G.
judgment's eeason. 100
of the crosa, and of visitations and sicknesses and crosses that wo meet withal in the world ; for the scandal is this : shall we be in love with the ways of God, wherein we meet with these and these corrections ? Oh, yes ! take not scandal* at that which is sanctified by God to be a means to preserve ns from being damned with the world. And the child of God, take him at the lowest, take him at the worst, he is better than a world- ling at the best. Take no oficnce, therefore, at God's dispensation with his children. All is, that they may not be damned with the world. Do not only justify God, but magnify God for his corrections, and after thou Bhalt receive fruit by them. And we have reason, when we find ourselves more mortified to the world, and to have the quiet fruit of righteousness to magnify God. Hath the Spirit sanctified it to thee to make thee lead another course of life ? Say, Blessed be God for sending this cross, for indeed we have ofttimes occasion to bless God more for crosses than for comforts. There is a blessing hidden in the worst things to God's children, as there is a cross in the best things to the wicked. There is a blessing in death ; a blessing in sickness ; a blessing in the hatrl^ of their enemies ; a blessing in their losses whatsoever. There is a blessing hidden in the worst things ; and therefore let us not only justify God, but glorify and magnify God for his mercy, that rather than we shall be condemned with the world, he will take this course with us.