7. It is a very humbling consideration, that the mercies of God should work otherwise upon my spirit, than they are accustomed to do upon the spirits of others, to whom they come as sanctified mercies from the love of God. Ah, Lord, what a sad consideration is this! enough to lay me in the dust; when I consider, that their mercies have greatly humbled them. The higher God has raised them, the lower they have laid themselves before God. Thus did Jacob, when God had given him much substance; "And Jacob said, I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands," Gen. xxii. 10. And thus it was with holy David, 2 Sam. vii. 18. When God had confirmed the promise to him, to build him a house, and not reject him as he did Saul, he goes in before the Lord, and saith, "Who am I? and what is my father's house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?" And so indeed God required of Israel, Deut. xxvi. 5. When they brought to God the first-fruits of Canaan, they were to say, "A Syrian ready to perish was my father." Do others raise God the higher for the raising of them? And the more God raises me, the more shall I abuse him and exalt myself? O what a sad thing is this!

Others have freely ascribed the glory of all their enjoyments to God, and magnified not themselves, but him, for their mercies: So David; "Let thy name be magnified, and the house of thy servant be established," 2 Sam. vii. 26. He does not fly upon the mercy, and suck out the sweetness of it, looking no farther than his own comfort; no, he cares for no mercy except God be magnified in it. So in Psalm xviii. 2. when God had delivered him from all his enemies, he says, "The Lord is my strength, and my rock; he is become my salvation." They did not put the crown upon their own heads, as I do.

The mercies of God have been melting mercies to others, melting their souls in love to the God of their mercies. So Hannah, 1 Sam. ii. 1, when she received the mercy of a son, said, "My soul rejoiceth in the Lord;" not in the mercy, hut in the God of the mercy. And so

Mary, "My soul doth magnify the Lord; my spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour," Luke i. 46. The word signifies to make more room for God; their hearts were not contracted, but the more enlarged towards God.

The mercies of God have been mighty restraints to keep others from sin. So Ezra ix. 13; "Seeing thou, our God, hast given us such a deliverance as this, should we again break thy commandments?" Ingenuous souls have felt the force of the obligations of love and mercy upon them.

The mercies of God to others have been as oil to the wheels of their obedience, and made them fitter for services; 2 Chron. xvii. 5. Now if mercies work contrarily upon my heart, what cause have I to be afraid that they come not to me in love? This is enough to damp the spirit of any saint, to see what sweet effects they have had on others, and what sad effects on him.

SECTION II.—A Season of Adversity.

The second season in the life of a Christian, requiring more than a common diligence to keep his heart, is the time of adversity. When Providence frowns upon you, and blasts your outward comforts, then look to your hearts, keep them with all diligence from repining against God or fainting under his hand; for troubles though sanctified, are troubles still; even sweet-briar and holy thistles, have their prickles. Jonah was a good man, and yet how repining was his heart under affliction! Job was the mirror of patience, yet how was his heart discomposed by trouble! You will find it as hard to get a composed spirit under great afflictions, as it is to fix quicksilver. O the hurries and tumults which they occasion even in the best hearts!

The second case then will be this-how a Christian under great afflictions may keep his heart from repining or desponding under the hand of God? Now there are nine special helps I shall here offer, to keep the heart in this condition; and the first shall be this

1. Consider that by these cross providences, God is faithfully pursuing the great design of his love on the souls

of his people, and orders all these afflictions as means sanctified to that end.

Afflictions fall not out by casualty, but by counsel, Job v. 6; Eph. i. 11. By this counsel of God they are ordained as means of much spiritual good to the saints; "By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged," Isa. xxvii. 9. "All things work together for good," Rom. viii. 28. They are God's workmen upon our hearts, to pull down the pride and carnal security of them; and being so, their nature is changed; they are turned into blessings and benefits; "It is good for me that I have been afflicted," Psalm cxix. 71. And surely then thou hast no reason to quarrel with this dispensation, but rather to wonder that God should concern himself so much in thy good, as to use any means for the accomplishing of it. Paul could bless God, if by any means he might attain to the resurrection of the dead," Philip. iii. 11. "My brethren," says James, "count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations," Jam. i. 2, 3. My father is about a design of love upon my soul, and do I well to be angry with him? All that he does is in pursuance of, and in reference to, some eternal glorious ends upon my soul. O it is my ignorance of God's design, that makes me quarrel with him! He says to thee in this case, as to Peter, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter."

2. Though God has reserved to himself a liberty of afflicting his people, yet he has tied up his own hands by promise never to take away his loving-kindness from them. Can I look that scripture in the face with a repining, discontented spirit, 2 Sam. vii. 14.? "I shall be his father, and he shall be my son; if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: but my mercy shall not depart away from him." O my heart, my haughty heart, dost thou well to be discontented, when God has given thee the whole tree, with all the clusters of comfort growing on it, because he suffers the wind to blow down a few leaves. Christians have two sorts of goods, the goods of the throne and the goods of the footstool, movables, and immovables. If God have secured these, never let my

heart be troubled at the loss of those; indeed, if he had cut off his love, or discovenanted my soul, I should have reason to be cast down; but this he has not; nor will he do it.

3. It is of marvellous efficacy to keep the heart from sinking under afflictions, to call to mind that thine own father has the ordering of them. Not a creature-moves hand or tongue against thee, but by his permission. Suppose the cup be a bitter cup, yet it is the cup which thy father hath given thee to drink; and canst thou suspect poison to be in that cup which he delivers thee? Foolish man, put home the case to thine own heart, consult with thine own bowels; canst thou find in thy heart to give thy child that which would hurt, or undo him? No, thou wouldest as soon hurt thyself as him. "If thou then being evil knowest how to give good gifts to thy children," how much more does God? Matth. vii. 11. The very consideration of his nature as a God of love, pity, and tender mercies, or of his relation to thee as a Father, Husband, Friend, might be security enough, if he had not spoken a word to quiet thee in this case; and yet you have his word too, "I will do you no hurt," Jer. xxv. 6. You lie too near his heart for him to hurt you. Nothing grieves him more than your groundless and unworthy suspicions of his designs do. Would it not grieve a faithful tenderhearted physician when he has studied the case of his patient and prepared the most excellent receipts to save his life, to hear him cry out, "O he has undone me! He has poisoned me!" because the medicine gives him some pain?

4. God respects you as much in a low, as in a high condition; and therefore it need not so much trouble you to be made low: nay, to speak plainly, he manifests more of his love, grace, and tenderness, in the time of affliction, than in prosperity. As God did not at first choose you because you were high, so he will not forsake you because you are low. Men may look shy upon you, and alter their regard, as your condition is altered. When Providence has blasted your estates, your summer friends may grow strange, as fearing you may be troublesome to them; but will God do so? No, no. "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee," Heb. xiii. 5. Indeed if adversity and poverty could bar you from access to God, it were a

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sad condition; but you may go to God as freely as ever. My God," says the church, "will hear me," Mic. vii. 7, Poor David, when stripped of all earthly comforts, could yet encourage himself in the Lord his God; and why cannot you? Suppose your husband or child had lost all at sea, and should come to you in rags; could you deny the relation or refuse to entertain him? If you would not, much less would God. Why then are ye so troubled? Though your condition be changed, your Father's love and respects are not changed.

5. And what if by the loss of outward comforts, God will preserve your souls from the ruining power of temptation? Surely then, you have little cause to sink your hearts by such sad thoughts about them. Are not these earthly enjoyments the things that make men shrink in times of trial? For the love of these many have forsaken Christ in such an hour; "He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions," Matth. xix. 22. And if this be God's design, what have I done in quarrelling with him about it? We see mariners in a storm can throw overboard rich bales of silk and precious things, to preserve the vessel and their lives with it, and every one says they act prudently. We know it is usual for soldiers in a city besieged, to batter down or burn the fairest buildings without the walls, in which the enemy may shelter themselves in the siege; and no man doubts but it is wisely done. Such as have mortified legs or arms, can willingly stretch them out to be cut off, and not only thank, but pay the surgeon for his pains. And must God only be repined at, for casting over what will sink you in a storm? for pulling down that which would advantage your enemy in the siege of temptation? for cutting off what would endanger your everlasting life? O inconsiderate, ungrateful man, are not these things for which thou grievest, the very things that have ruined thousands of souls? Well, what Christ does in this, thou knowest not now, but hereafter thou mayest know.

6. It would much support the heart under adversity, to consider that God, by such humbling providences, may be accomplishing that for which you have long prayed and waited. And should you be troubled at that? Say,