40. Take heed of Satan's policy, ' That God hath forgotten me because I am in extremity;' nay, ratlaer God will then shew mercy, for now is the special time of mercy, therefore beat back Satan with his own weapons.
41. "Whatsoever God takes away from his children, he either supplies it with a great earthly favour, or else with strength to bear it. God gives charge to others to take a care of the fatherless and widow, and will he neglect them himself?
42. That is spiritual knowledge, which alters the taste and relish of the soul: for we must know there is a bitter antithesis in our nature, against all saving truths ; there is a contrariety between our nature and that doctrine, which teacheth us, that we must ' deny ourselves,' Titus ii. 12, and be saved by another. Therefore the soul must first be brought to
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relish, before it can digest : there must be fii-st an holy harmony between our nature and truth.
43. If we walk aright in God's ways, let us have heaven daily in our eye, and the day of judgment, and times to come, and this wall stern* the course of our lives, and breed love in the use of the means, and patience to undergo all conditions. Let us have our eye w^ith Moses upon him that is invisible, Heb. xi. 27.
44. A man may know that he loves the world, if he be more careful to get than to use. For we are but stewards, and we should consider, I must be as careful in distributing as in getting : for when we are all in getting, and nothing in distributing, this man is a worldling ; though he be moderate in getting, without wronging any man, yet the world hath gotten his heart, because he makes not that use of it he should.
45. It is a sottish conceit to think that we can fit ourselves for grace, as if a child in the womb could forward its natural birth. If God hath made us men, let us not make oui'selves gods.
46. As natural life preserves itself by repelling that which is contrary to it, so, w^here the life of grace is, there is a principle of skill, of power, and strength to repel that which is contrary.
47. It is the nature of the soul, that when it sees a succession of better things, it makes the world seem cheap ; when it sees another condition, not liable to change, then it hath a sanctified judgment to esteem of things as they are ; and so it overcomes the world.
48. In the covenant of grace, God intends the glory of his grace above all. Now faith is fit for it, because it hath an uniting virtue to knit us to the mediator, and to lay hold of a thing out of itself ; it empties the soul of all conceit of worth, or strength, or excellency in the creature : and so it gives all the glory to God and Christ.
49. Whatj we are afraid to speak before men, and to do for fear of danger, let us be afraid to think before God. Therefore we should stifle all ill conceits in the very conception, in their very rising : let them be used as rebels and traitors, smothered at the first.
50. The heart of man, till he be a believer, is in a wavering condition, it is'never at quiet, and therefore it is the happiness of the creature to be satisfied, and to have rest : for perplexity makes a man miserable. If a man have but a little scruple in his conscience, he is like a ship in the sea, tossed with contrary winds, and cannot come to the haven.
51. The righteousness of works leaves the soul in perplexity. That righteousness which comes by any other means than by Christ, leaves the soul unsettled, because the law of God promiseth life only upon absolute and personal perfonnance. Now the heart of man tells him, that this he hath not done,- and such duties he hath omitted ; and this breeds perplexity, because the heart hath not whereon to stay itself.
52. Glory follows afilictions, not as the day follows the night, but as the spring follow^s winter ; for the winter prepares the earth for the spiing : so doth afilictions sanctified prepare the soul for glory.
53. This life is not a life for the body, but for the soul ; and therefore the soul should speak to the body, and say, ' Stay, body, for if thou movest me to fulfil thy desires now, thou wilt lose me and thyself hereafter.' But if the body be given up to Christ, then the soul will speak a good word for it in heaven ; as if it should say, ' Lord, there is a body of mine in the
* That is, 'steer,' = place a helm at the stern. — G.
190 DIVINE MEDITATIONS
earth, that did fast for mc, and pray with me:' it will speak for it as Pharaoh's butler to the king for Joseph, Gen. xH. 9.
54. Afflictions makes a divorce and separation between the soul and sin. It is not a small thing that will work sin out of the soul ; it must be the spirit of burning, the fire of afflictions sanctified : heaven is for holiness, and all that is contrary to holiness afflictions works out, and so frames the soul to a further communion with God.