tions are in love, Psal. xciv. 12. "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law." All the chastening in the world, without divine teaching, will never make a man blessed, That man that finds correction attended with instruction, and lashing with lessoning, is a happy man. If God, by the affliction that is upon thee, shall teach thee how to loath sin more, how to trample upon the world more, and how to walk with God more, thy afflictions are in love: if God shall teach thee, by afflictions, how to die to sin more, and how to die to thy relations more, and how to die to self-interest more, thy afflictions are in love: if God shall teach thee, by afflictions, how to live to Christ more, how to lift up Christ more, and how to long for Christ more, thy afflictions are in love; if God shall teach thee, by afflictions, to get assurance of a better life, and to be still in a gracious readiness and preparedness for the day of thy death, thy afflictions are in love; if God shall teach thee, by afflictions, how to mind heaven more, how to live in heaven more, and how to be fit for heaven more, thy afflictions are in love: if God, by afflictions, shall teach thy proud heart how to lie more low, and thy hard heart how to grow more humble, and thy censorious heart how to grow more charitable, and thy carnal heart how to grow more spiritual, and thyfroward heart how to grow more quiet, &c. thy afflictions are in love. When God teaches thy areins as well as thy brains, thy heart as well as thy head, these lessons, or any of these lessons, thy afflictions are in love. Pambo, an illiterate dunce, as the historian terms him, was a-learning that one lesson, "I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue, nineteen years, and yet he had not learned it. Ah! it is to be feared, that there are many who have been in the school of affliction above these nineteen years, and yet have not learned any saving lesson all this while. Surely their afflictions are not in love, but in wrath; where God loves, he afflicts in love; and wherever God afflicts in love, there he will, first or last, teach such souls such lessons as shall do them good to all eternity. But, 6. If God suit your burdens to your backs, your trials to your strength, according to that golden promise, 1 Cor. x. 13. your afflictions: are in love. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able: but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." When God's strokes and a Christian's strength are suited one to another, all is in love; let the load be never so heavy that God lays on, if he put under his everlasting arms, all is in love. As Egypt had many venomous creatures, so it had many antidotes against them; when God shall lay antidotes into the soul against all the afflictions that befall a Christian, then they are all in love. It is no matter how heavy the burden is, if God gives a shoulder to bear it, all is in love. It is no matter how bitter the cup is, if God gives courage to drink it off; it is no matter how hot the furnace is, if God gives power to walk in the midst of it, all is in love. 7. If thou art willing to lie in the furnace till thy dross be consumed, if thou art willing that the plaister should lie on (tho' it smart) till the cure be wrought; if thou art willing that the physic should work, (though it make thee sick) till the humours be expelled, all is in love. Cain, Saul, and Pharaoh were all for the removing away of the stroke, the affliction: they cry not out, Our sins are greater than we are able to bear; but they cry out, Our punishment is greater than we are able to bear. They cry not out, Lord, take away our sins; but, Lord, remove the stroke of thy hand. Oh! but when an affliction comes in love upon a soul, the language of that soul is this, Lord, remove the cause, rather than the effect; the sin, rather than the punishment; my corruption, rather than my affliction. Lord, what will it avail me, to have the sore skinned over, if the corrupt matter still remains in? There is no evil, Lord, to the evil of sin; and therefore deliver me rather from the evil of sin, than the evil of sufferings. I know, Lord, that affliction cannot be so dis pleasing to me, as sin is dishonourable and displeasing to thee; and therefore, Lord, let me see an end of my sin, though in this world I should never see an end of my sor rows; O let me see an end of my corruptions, though I should never see an end of my corrections. Lord, I had rather have a cure for my heart, than a cure for my head; I had rather be made whole and sound within, than without; I had rather have a healthy soul, than a healthy body; a pure inside, than a beautiful outside. If this be the settled frame and temper of thy spirit, certainly thy afflictions are in love. There was one, who being under marvellous great pains and torments in his body, (oc casioned by many sore diseases that were upon him,) cried out, Had I all the world, I would give it for ease; and yet, for all the world, I would not have ease, till the cure be wrought. Sure his afflictions were in love. The first request, the great request, and the last request of a soul afflicted in love, is, A cure, Lord, a cure, Lord, a cure, Lord, of this wretched heart, and this sinful life, and all will be well, all will be well. 8. Lastly, If you live a life of faith in your afflictions, then your afflictions are in love. Now, what is it to live by faith in affliction, but to live in the exercising of faith upon those precious promises that are made over to an afflicted condition? These following promises have been choice cordials to many Christians under sore distresses. God hath promised to be with his people in their afflictions, Isa. xliii. 2, 3. He hath promised to support them under their afflictions, Isa. xli. 10. and lvii. 15. 1 Tim. i. 15. John s 27, 28, 29. Isa. xxvi. 3. Mat. xi. 28. 1 John iii. 14. He hath promised to deliver his people out of their afflictions, Psal. 1. 15. He hath promised to purge away his people's sins by afflictions, Isa. i. 25. He hath promised to make his people more partakers of his holiness by affliction, Heb. xii. 10. He hath promised to make afflictions an inlet to a more full and sweet enjoyment of himself, Hosea ii. 14. He hath promised that he will never leave nor forsake his people in their afflictions, Heb. xiii. 5, 6. He hath promised. that all their afflictions shall work for their good, Zech. xiii. 9. Rom. viii. 28. Now, if thy faith be drawn forth to feed upon these promises; if these be heavenly manna to thy faith, and thy soul lives upon them, and sucks strength and sweetness from them, under all the trials and troubles that are upon thee, thy afflictions are in love. A bee can suck honey out of a flower, which a fly cannot: if thy faith can extract comfort and sweetness in thy saddest distresses out of the breasts of precious promises, and gather one contrary out of another, honey out of the rock, thy afflictions are in love. The promises are full breasts, and God delights that faith should draw them, as the mother delights that the child should draw hers. They are the food of faith, and the very soul of faith. They are an everlasting spring that can never be drawn dry; they are an inexhaustible treasure that can never be exhausted; they are the garden of paradise, and full of |