How faithlefs and diftrustful haft thou been,
Altho' his care and love thou oft hast seen ?
Thus in a single difh you have a feast,
Your first and second courfe, the last the best.

CHA P. XIV.

Sea-waters drained through the earth, are sweet;
So are th' afflictions which God's people meet.

THE

OBSERVATION.

waters of the fea, in themselves, are brackish, and unpleafant, yet being exhaled by the fun, and condensed into clouds, they fall down into pleasant showers; or if drained through the earth, their property is thereby altered, and that which was fo falt in the fea, becomes exceeding fweet and pleafant in the fprings. This we find by conftant experience, the fweetest crystal spring came from the fea, Ecclef. i. 7.

APPLICATION.

Afflictions in themselves are evil, Amos ii. 6. very bitter and unpleasant. See Heb. xii. 11. Yet not morally and intrifically evil, as fin is; for if fo, the holy God would never own it for his own act as he doth, Mic. iii. 2. but always disclaimeth fin, Jam. i. 3. Befides, if it were fo evil, it could, in no cafe, or refpect, be the object of our election and defire, as in fome cafes it ought to be, Heb. xi. 25. but it is evil, as it is the fruit of fin, and grievous unto fenfe, Heb. xiv. 11. But though it be thus brackish, and unpleafant in itself, yet, paffing through Chrift and the covenant, it lofes that ungrateful property, and becomes pleasant in the fruits and effects thereof unto believers, Heb. xii. II.

Yea, fuch are the bleffed fruits thereof, that they are to ac count it all joy, when they fall into divers afflictions, Jam. i. 2. David could blefs God that he was afflicted, and many a faint hath done the like. A good woman once compared her afflictions to her children: For, (faith fhe) they put me in pain in bearing them; yet as I know not which child, fo neither which affliction, I could be without."

Sometimes the Lord fanctifies afflictions, to discover the corruption that is in the heart, Deut. viii. 2. it is a furnace to fhew the drofs. Ah! when a sharp affliction comes, then the pride, impatience, and unbelief of the heart appears: Matura vexatio prodit feipfam. When the water is stirred, then the inud and filthy fediment, that lay at the bottom, rifes. Little, faith the afflicted foul, did I think, there had been in me that

pride, felf-love, distrust of God, carnal fear, and unbelief, as I now find. O where is my patience, my faith, my glory in tribulation? I could not have imagined the fight of death would have to appalled me, the lofs of outward things have fo pierced me. Now what a blessed thing is this, to have the heart thus difcovered.

Again, fanctified afflictions discover the emptiness and vanity of the creature. Now, the Lord hath stained its pride, and veiled its tempting fplendor, by this or that affliction; and the foul fees what an empty, fhallow, deceitful thing it is. The world (as one hath truly observed) is then only great in our eyes, when we are full of fenfe and felf: but now affliction makes us more fpiritual, and then it is nothing. It drives them nearer to God, makes them fee the neceffity of the life of faith, with multitudes of other benefits.

But yet these sweet fruits of afflictions do not naturally, and of their own accord, fpring from it; no, we may as well look for grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles, as for fuch fruits from affliction, till Chrift's fanctifying hand and art have passed upon them.

*

The reason why they become thus fweet and pleasant (as 1 noted before) is, because they run now into another channel Jefus Chrift hath removed them from mount Ebal to Gerezim they are no more the effects of vindictive wrath, but paternal chaftifement. And, as Mr Cafe well notes, a teaching af ⚫fliction is to the faints, the refult of all the offices of Jefus 'Christ. As a king, he chaftens; as a prophet, he teacheth, ⚫ viz. by chastening; and, as a priest, he hath purchased this grace of the Father, that the dry rod might bloffom, and bear fruit.' Behold, then, a fanctified affliction is a cup, whereinto Jefus Chrift hath wrung and preffed the juice and virtue of all his mediatory offices. Surely, that must be a cup of generous, royal wine, like that in the fupper, a cup of bles fing to the people of God.

REFLECTION.

Hence may the unfanctified foul draw matter of fear and trouble, even from its unfanctified troubles. And thus it may reflect upon itself: O my foul! what good haft thou gotten by all, or any of thy afflictions? God's rod hath been dumb to thee, or thou deaf to it. I have not learned one holy inftruction from it; my troubles have left me the fame, or worse than, they found me; my heart was proud, earthly, and vain before,

Correction, Inftruction, p. 82.

and so it remains ftill; they have not purged out, but only given vent to the pride, murmur, and atheifm of my heart. 1 have been in my afflictions, as that wicked Ahaz was in his 2 Chron. xxviii. 22. who," in the midft of his distress, yet "trefpaffed more and more against the Lord." When I have been in ftorms at fea, or troubles at home, my foul within me hath been as a raging fea, cafting up mire and dirt. Surely this rod is not the rod of God's children; 1 have proved but drofs in the furnace, and I fear the Lord will put me away as drofs, as he threatens to do to the wicked, Pfal. cxix, 4:19.

Hence alfo fhould gracious fouls draw much encouragement and comfort amidst all their troubles. Othefe are the fruits of God's fatherly love to me! why fhould I fear in the day of evil! or tremble any more at affliction? Though they seem as a ferpent at a distance, yet are they a rod in the hand. Obleffed be that skilful and gracious hand, that makes the rod, the dry rod to bloffum, and bear fuch precious fruit.

Lord, what a mystery of love lies in this difpenfation! that Gin, which first brought afflictions into the world, is now itfelf carried out of the world by affliction, Rom. v. 12. Ita. vii. 9. O what can fruftrate my falvation, when thofe very things that feem molt to oppose it, are made fubfervient toit, and, Contra ry to their own nature, do promote and further it?

The POE M.

'TIS Grange to hear what diff'rent cenfures fall
Upon the fame affliction; fome do call

Their troubles fweet, fome bitter; others meet
Them both mid-way, and call them bitter sweet.
But here's the question ftill, fain would fee,
Why fweet to him, and bitter unto me?/

Thou drink'ft them, dregs and all, but others find
Their troubles feet, becaufe to them refin'd,
And fanctify'd; which difference is best,
By fuch apt fimilies as these exprest :

From falt and brackish feas fumes rife and fly,
Which, into clouds condens'd, obfcure the sky,;
Their property there alter'd, in few hours,
Thofe brackish fumes fall down in pleafant fhow'rs
Or as the dregs of wine and beer, diftill'd
By limbec, with ingredients, doth yield
A cordial water, tho' the lees were bitter,
From whence the chymift did extract fuch liquor..
Then marvel not, that one can kifs that rod,
Which makes another to blafpheme his God,

O get your troubles fweeten'd, and refin'd,
Or else they'll leave bitter effects behind.
Saints troubles are à cord, let down by love,
To pully up their hearts to things above.

CHA P. XV.

The jeas within their bounds the Lord contains:
He alfo men and devils holds in chàins.

OBSERVATION.

1

It a work as

T is a wonderful work of God, to limit and bound fuch a

vaft and furious creature as the fea, which, according to the judgment of many learned then, is higher than the earth; and that it hath a propenfion to overflow it, is evident both from its nature and motion: were it not that the great God had laid his law upon it. And this is a work wherein the Lord glories, and will be admired. Pfal. civ. 9. "Thou hast set a "bound that they may not pafs over, that they turn not again t to cover the earth." Which it is clear they would do, were they not thus limited: So Job xxxviii. 8, 10, 11. " Who "fhut up the fea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had "iffued out of the womb I brake up for it my decreed is place, and fet bars and doors, and faid, Hitherto shalt thou "come, but no further; and here fhall thy proud waves be stayed."

APPLICATION.

And no lefs is the glorious power and mercy of God discovered in bridling the rage and fury of Satan and his inftruments, that they break not in upon the inheritance of the Lord, and deftroy it. " Surely the wrath of man fhall praise thee, and the remain"der of wrath thou shalt reftrain," Pfal. lxxvi. 10. By which it is more than hinted, that there is a world of rage and malice in the hearts of wicked men, which fain would, but cannot vent itself, because the Lord restrains, or, as in the Hebrew, girds it up. Satan is the envious one, and his rage is great against the people of God, Rev. xii. 12. But God holds him, and all his inftruments, in a chain of providence; and it is well for God's people that it is fo.

They are limited as the fea, and fo the Lord in a providential way fpeaks to them, "Hitherto fhall ye come, and no further." Sometimes he ties them up fo fhort, that they cannot touch his people, though they have the greatest opportunities and advantages. Pfal. cv. 12, 13, 14, 15. "When they were but a few VOL. VI.

Na

"men in number; yea, very few, and ftrangers in it; when they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to "another people, he fuffered no man to do them wrong; yea, "he reproved kings for their fakes, faying, touch not mine a"nointed, and do my prophets no harm." And sometimes he permits them to touch and trouble his people, but then fets bounds and limits to them, beyond which they must not pafs. That is a pregnant text to this purpose, Rev. ii. 10. "Behold "the devil fhall caft fome of you into prifon, that ye may be "tried, and ye fhall have tribulation ten days."

Here are four remarkable limitations upon Satan and his agents, in reference to the people of God: limitation as to the perfons, not all, but fome; a limitation of the punishment, æ prifon, not a grave, not hell; a limitation upon them as to the end, for trial, not ruin; and laftly, as to the duration, not as long as they please, but ten days.

REFLECTION.

O my foul! what marrow and fatnefs, comfort and confolation mayeft thou fuck from the breaft of this truth, in the darkest day of trouble? Thou leeft how the flowing fea drives to overwhelm, the earth. Who has arrested it in its courfe, and ftopt its violence? who has confined it to its place? Certainly none other but the Lord. When I fee it threaten the fhore with its proud, furious, and infulting waves, I wonder it doth not fwallow up all but fee it no fooner touch the fands, which God hath made its bounds, but it retires, and, as it were, with a kind of fubmiffion, refpects thofe limits which God hath fet it.

Thus the fierceft element is repreffed by the feebleft things: thou feeft alfo how full of wrath and fury wicked men are, how they rage like the troubled fea, and threaten to overwhelm *thee, and all the Lord's inheritance: and then the floods of ungodly men make thee afraid; yet are they reftrained by an invisible, gracious hand, that they cannot execute their purpose, nor perform their enterprize. How full of devils, and devilized men, is this lower world? Yet, in the midst of them all, haft thou hitherto been preferved. O! my foul, admire and adore that glorious power of God, by which thou art kept unto falvation, Is not the prefervation of a faint in the midst of fuch hofts of enemies, as great a miracle, though not fo fenfible, as the prefervation of thofe three noble Jews, in the midst of the

See the Turk's letter to the emperor of Germany, lately publifh ed by authority.