to be right : but neither will it prove us to be wrong. Christ's have ever been a " little flock," and his way " a narrow way:" and if ever we would be saved, we must come forth, like Lot, from Sodom ; and be saved, like Noah, in the Ark prepared for us.]
3. That no trial shall come upon us beyond what our all-wise God shall see fit to permit, and what our infinitely gracious God will overrule for our good —
[Of all the heavy trials which our blessed Lord sustained, there was not so much as one which was not allotted to him by infinite Wisdom, and rendered subservient to the great ends of his mission. No one could seize him before his time : and though they drove nails through parts full of small bones, and pierced his side with a spear, no one was permitted to break so much as one of his bones. Now, thus will God take care of us, both in our individual and collective capacity. The attempts to destroy his Church have been numerous and sanguinaiT: but the gates of hell have never been able to prevail against it. And our trials, also, may be heavy ; but God has engaged, that " they shall all work together for our spiritual and eternal good." We may well, therefore, adopt the language of the Psalmist ; and say, " We will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled; though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof11." Behold the Lord Jesus Christ as enthroned in glory, and see in what his troubles have issued: or behold Joseph, when at the highest post of honour in Egypt, and his parents and his brethren were bowing down to him. There you see in what his successive trials issued ; and how every one was but as a link in the chain of God's eternal purposes ; a link without which, humanly speaking, all God's purposes respecting him had failed. Be not then cast down, because your troubles are numerous and heavy, and because you cannot yet discern what will be the end of them ; but commit yourselves to God, in the assured expectation, that " if you suffer with your adorable Lord, you shall also reign with him in due time, and be eternally glorified together."]
h Ps. xlvi. 2, 3.