Infer,
1. How excellent a grace is faith ! [It is faith, and faith only, that can enable us to view God's dispensations in this light. If we are weak in faith, we shall be easily drawn to fretfulness and murmuring ; but if we are enabled to see the hand of God in our trials, they wiU all administer occasions of joy and gratitude. Faith is the phi- losopher's stone, that turns all to gold, and enables us to glory in that, which, to flesh and blood, is a source of sorrow and disqiiietude. Let us, then, cultivate this grace, and keep it in continual exercise : and, if any thing occurs, the reasons of
« Job, David, Paul, and, above all, Christ himself.
f Heb. xii. 6. Deut. xxxiii. 25.
s Jer. XXX. 11. ^ Vs. cxix. 75. '1 Cor. iii. 22.
which we cannot immediately comprehend, let us content our- selves with saying, 'What I know not now, I shall know here- after,']
2. How resigned should the believer be under all his troubles !
[Nothing can come to him which is not the fruit of God's mercy and truth. Not so much as a hair can fall from his head but by divine appointment. Believer, art thou sick and in pain ? God knows that health and ease would have been pre- judicial to thy soul. Hast thou sustained some heavy loss ? God sees, perhaps, that the thing which thou hast lost might have been a weight about thy feet, and have retarded thee in running thy race. Art thou persecuted by the world, or tempted by Satan ? It is a discipline whereby God is preparing thee for future victories, and everlasting triumphs. These may be mercies in disguise ; but they are mercies notwith- standing ; and therefore should be received with resignation, and improved with diligence.]
3. How lamentable is the state of unbelievers !
[While we disregard God's covenant, and his testimonies, we neither enjoy any mercy, nor have an interest in any pro- mise. On the contrary, our very blessings are cursed to us, and every threatening in God's word is in full force against us. Moreover, oiir troubles are pledges and earnests of infinitely heavier calamities, that shall come upon us in the eternal world. Let us, then, if we be yet in unbelief, embrace the covenant of grace, and set ourselves diligently to keep the tes- timonies of our God. So shall the blessings of the covenant flow down upon us, and we shall know by happy experience, that " the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth from generation to generation."]