Reason 4. And if there were no more but the malice of Satan and his cursed seed, the seed of the serpent, it is not possible to avoid the cross. And God, that his children may not love the world, hath made the world hate them. And it is safe for God's people to have the hatred of the worst people. Their hatred will do them more good than their love. Their hatred breeds a separation, and commands a separation in conclusion. For what shall we do with familiarity and acquaintance with them whose com- pany we cannot enjoy in heaven ? And therefore God will have his children exercised with the worst men ; and then he desires to take them out of the world, and to set God up in his due place. God is God, and the Creator, when we be stript of all worldly comforts. Then vanity is vanity. God will not have us idolize anything below, and therefore suffers us to fall into extreme wants and dangers. Many other reasons there be, which I do give you but a taste of.
You see then the state of God's children in regard of the world. But what is it in regard of him ? They be not forsaken, they be not utterly cast off. So they are patient in both ; patient in regard of the trouble they meet with in the world, patient in regard of God's dealing with them. God forsakes them not so as to destroy them. He leaveth them not in a desperate condition, as he doth the wicked.
iJoct. 2. Again, observe this, that the life of God's children in this world is a mixed life, woven of afflictions and of comforts, intermixed of both. It tastes of both the malice of the world and the goodness of God.
They oftentimes enjoy sickness. They be sometimes in dumps and sad- ness. Their life is woven of comfort and discomfort, and it is good for them in this world to be so, till they be in their proper place in heaven. And this is our comfort always, though troubles be many, and manifold, and great, and growing, and the last day worst, yet as the waters of afflictions grow, so do their comforts and the graces of the Spirit grow like waters of the sanctuary ;* as troubles increase, so the waters of consolation increase. And it is better to be in trouble than to be kept from the trouble without the comfort. There is more sweetness in affliction than in freedom from it without the sweetness. If we look to the world, you see what we may look for. If we look to heaven, you may see what to expect thence.
Use. If this be so, that their condition is thus mixed, it is good in our
prayers to allege to God our ill condition, to argue extremity. ' Help, Lord :
for vain is the help of man,' Ps. Ix. 11. ' Save, Lord : the water is entered
into my soul,' Ps. Ixis. 1. Help, Lord : if thou wilt not, none will ; if thou
* Cf. Ezekiel xlvii, 1, seq.—G.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. IV, VER. 7-9. 401
canst not, none can. God will be bound with these arf;umcnts. It was the speech of Philo, ' A man's help failcth, where God's begins' (it).
And it [is] a good argument to allege to God in matters of sin, ' Lord, pardon. Lord, forgive, for my sins are many and great,' Ps. xxv. 11. This is a good argument with God, for he is infinite in mercy ; therefore allege it as a binding argument.
But if God himself seem to be our enemy. What course shall we take then ? Sometimes God acts a pai't that is not his own, that he may shew afterward a greater mercy. In such times we must get the eye of faith, and break through the clouds between the soul and God's face, and see his fatherly countenance in Jesus Christ. Faith hath piercing eyes, and breaks through the clouds between God and us, and bindeth him with his own nature and promise, whatsoever part he acts. ' Lord, howsoever thou dealest, thy nature in Christ is gracious, merciful.' ' Thou hast made rich promises that thou wilt not fall from.' ' Forsake me not.' Bind him with his word, with his nature ; he cannot deny his word, his nature, himself; allege them to him in Christ, and allege his own promise, and they will be effectual.
Use. Again, we see here that it is a good art, and needjul in times of trouble, to look to the (jood, as well as to the ill. The apostle doth not only confess ingenuously all the ill that the enemies might object to weaken the reputation of the gospel, they are people cast down and despised. AU this is true, but we are not forsaken, we are not in despair, not destroyed. This is a good art in every affliction. It is better to have our eyes on the good, than to have our ej'es altogether ujjon the ill. God hath taken away one child, he might have taken many. God hath afflicted with sickness, but he might have taken away our wits. Therefore have not both eyes fixed upon the grief, for that is Satan's policy, to rob God of his glory, and our souls of comfort.