Part 14
to speak in the case of total and absolutedesertions ; yet of the latter (which doubtless is thy case) much may be said byway of support, be it of which of the three forts it will, or in what degree it will, For, 1. This hath been the case ofmanyprecious fouls, Psal. xxii. 1, 2. Psal. Ixxvii. 2. Psal. lxxxviii. 9. Job xiii. 24, 25, 26, This was poor Mr. Glover's case, as you will find in his story, and it continuedtillhe came within fight of the stake; therefore no new or strange thing hath happened to you.
2. The Lord by this will advantage thee for perseverance, - not orly as they are cautional against sin, but as they make thee hold Christ the faster, and prize his presence at an higher rate, when he shall please Cant. iii. 4. graciously to manifest himself to thee again.
3. This shall not abide for ever: it is but a little cloud, and will blow over. It is but for a moment, and that moment's darkness ushers in everlasting light, Isa. liv. 7.
Yea, lastly, the light of God's countenance shall not only be restored certainly, but it shall be restoredseasonably ; when the darkness is greatest, thy troubles at the highest, and thy hopes lowest. He is a God of judgment, and knows how to time his own mercies, Psal. cxxxviii. 3 .
Obj. 3.But I am a weak woman, or a young person, how shall I be able to confess Christ before rulers, and look great ones in the face ?
Sol. Christ delights to make his power known in such, 2Cor. xii . 9. for he affects not social glory.
2. " Thou shalt be holden up, for God is able to make thee " stand," Rom. xiv. 4. Thou that art sensible of thine own infirmity, mayest run to that promise.
3. Such poor weak creatures shall endure when stronger(if self-confident) fall, Ifa. xl. 30, 31. " Even the youths shall " faint, and be weary, and the young men utterly fall. But "theythatwait upon the Lord, shall renewtheir strength : "they shall mount up with wings as eagles, run and not be "weary, walk and not faint."
Youths, and young men, are bold, daring, and confident persons, that trust to their own strength ; to whom such as wait upon the Lord stand here opposed; they shall faint, but these shall renew their strength.
Art thou one that waitest and dependest upon an all-fuffici-
392 Preparations for Sufferings, &c. ent God, in the sense of thine own weakness ? This promise then is for thee.
4. You may furnish yourselves at pleasure,with examples of themightypower of Godreftingupon such as you are, out of our ownmartyrology.
Thomas Drowry, the poorblindboy, Fox, vol. 3. p. 703. What a presence ofspiritwaswithhim,whenexaminedbythe
Chancellor !
Eulalia, a virgin of about 12 years of age, see how she was actedabovethose years, yea,above the powerofnature. Fox, vol. 1. p. 120. Tender women,yea, children, act above them.
when assisted by a strong God.
Andthusyou have some help offered you by aweakhand, in your present and most important work.
The Lord carry home allwithpowerupon your hearts, that if God call you to suffer for him,you may say as Paul did, "I "am now ready to be offered up,and the time of my departure " is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my " course, I have keptthefaith:henceforth there is laid up for " me a crownofrighteousness,which God the righteous Judge " shall give me at that day; andnottome only,but to them " also which love his appearing," 2 Tim. iv. 6, 7,8. And as you expect so to finish your coursewithjoy; be diligent in the ufeofallmeans, to prepare andmakeyourselves ready to follow the call of God, whether it be to bonds, or to death, for the name of the Lord Jesus.
THE BALM OF THE COVENANT
Applied to the BLEEDING WOUNDS
OF AFFLICTED SAINTS.
To which is added,aSermonpreachedfor the Funeral of that excellent and religious Gentleman JOHN UPTON ofLUPTON, Esq;
To the Virtuous and Much HonouredMadam, URSULA
UPTON of LUPTON in DEVON.
MADAM,
F I find it an hard task to write on such adoleful subject, it cannot be imagined but your part must be abundantly harder, who feel over and over what is here written. Could I tell how to administer counsels, and comforts to you, without exasperatingyour sorrows, I would certainly take that way ; but seeing the one (in this case) cannot be done without the other, it is our duty to submit to the method Providence hath prescribed to us.
is toevince the truth of what seems averygreatparadoxto most men, namely,that the afflictions of the saints can do them no hurt, and that the wisdom of men and angels cannot lay one circumstance of their condition(how uneasy soever it seems to be) better, or more to their advantage than God hath laid it. I attempt not bya flourish of rhetoric to persuade you against the demon-
you can fetch from sense and feeling to the con trary,but to overthrow the false reasonings of flesh and sense, by the allowed rules of Scripture, and sure principles of religion.
Andmethinksyou, and every Christian, shouldgladlyenter.
394 The Balm of the Covenant tainthat comfortable conclusion,when you shall find the foun dation of it as strong, as the influences thereof are sweet and comfortable.
Certainly, Madam,the intent of the Redeemer's undertaking was not to purchase for his people riches, ease, and pleasures on earth; but to mortify their lusts, heal their natures, and spiritualize their affections ; and thereby to fit them for the eternal fruition of God. Upon this supposition the truth of this conclusion (how strange soever it seems) is firmly built.
It was not without Divine direction, that the subject of the enfuingdiscourse was as pertinently, as feasonably, recommended tome by your dear husband, in the day of your sorrows for your only son. He took, I hope, his portion of comfort outofitbeforehe died, and it is now left as a spring of comfort to you,who then mourned with him, and now for him.
Heavy pressures call for strong support,and fainting seasons for rich cordials. Your burden is indeed heavy: yet Imuft say it is much our own fault our burdens are so heavy as we feel them to be; for according to the measure of our delight in, and expectation from the creature, is our sorrow and dis appointment when we part from it. The highest tides are al ways followed with the lowest ebbs. We find temperance and patienceknit together in the fame precept, and intemperance and impatience as inseparably connected in our own experience. It maybe we did not suspect ourselves of any sinful excess in the time of their enjoyment; but it now appears the creature was gottendeeperinto our hearts than we imagined by the pain we feel at parting : Did we not lean too hard upon it, there wouldnotbefuch fhakings as we feel when it is flipt from us.
But, Madam, it is high time to recal your thoughts, and bound your sorrows, which the following considerations would greatlyassistyou in.
1. What is the very ground and reason of our excessive sorrows for the loss of earthly comforts? Is it not this, That they areperishing and transitory ? That is, that you find them to be as Godmadethem. And can we expect that God should alter the laws of nature to please andhumour us ? It is as na tural to our relations to die, as it is for flowers to wither, or the mion to wane.
2. That there is no such necessary connexion betwixt these things and our comfort, that whenever God removes the one,
The Epistle Dedicatory. 395
Hemustneeds remove the other with it. Christ and comfort are indeed so united,but nothing beside him is or can be so. I hope you will shortly experience the truth of this conclusion,by the comfort Godwillgive you in the absence of those comforts you have loft. Can you not now have as free access to God as before ? Yea, do not these very afflictions send you oftenerintohis presence?AndifGodmeetyou inthoseduties, (as in days of distress he uses to meet his people),then it will be evident to you that your joy and comfort lives,though your husbandandchildren be laid in their graves.
3. That the removing of your earthly comforts hinders not but that you may still pursue the great end and business of your life, and carry on all yout designs for heaven as futcefsfully as ever. Indeed, Madam, had we been sent into this world to raise estates, contract relations, and then sit down in the midst of them as our portion, then our design had been utterly dashed and disappointed ; but you know this is not your main end, or great business upon earth, but to honour God by an holy fruitful life here,and make ready for the full enjoyment of him hereafter. And what hinders but you may as profperously manage and carry on this your design as ever? You do not think the traveller is disabled for his journey, because he hath fewer clogs andhindrances than before. I think few Christians find much furtheranceheavenward by their multiplicity of engagements or enjoyments in this world. Your cares and fears about these things, will now lie in a narrower compass than they did before,andtherebyyou may have your thoughts more about you, to attend the greatconcernsof God'sglory, and your own salvation.
4. But above all, you will certainly find your relief and confolationto lie in the everlasting covenant of God. Thence it was, that David fetched his support under a much heavier burden and smarter rod than yours : For your relations were
as gave you comfort in their lives,and left you many grounds of hope in their deaths: but his were taken away in their fins. But though the grounds of his sorrow (bleffedbe God) are not yours, yet I hope thegroundsofhis comfort in the text arefullyyours.
have prepared these things intoomuchhaste and distraction of thoughts, which in this juncture was unavoidable ; nor have I bestowed much of art or language upon them: And if I had, they would have been never the more effectual to your relief for that. But such as they are, I VOL. VII. Ddd
394 The Balm of the Covenant humbly present them to you, with my hearty prayers, that God would make them afovereign balm, by the blessing of his Spirit on them,to your wounded spirit,and to all othergodly families groaning under the like strokes of God with you, and remain, MADAM,
Your most faithful,
Sympathizingfriend and servant,
JOHN FLAVEL .
2SAM. xxiii. 5. Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure : for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. THHESE are part of David's last words. The last words of dying faints, but especially of dying prophets, are ponderous, memorable, and extraordinarily remarkable ; and such are these acknowledged to be, by all expositors : It is a golden sentence, a divine oracle, fit to be the last words of every dying faint, as well as of David.
: They are called his last words, not simply, and absolutely, as though he breathed them forth with his last breath ; (for he
things afterwards) but either they are the last he spake as a prophet, by Divine inspiration, or because he had them often in his mouth, to his last and dying day. They were his epicedium, his sweetswan-like song, in which his soul found singular refreshment, and strong support, amidst the manifold afflictions of his life,and against the fears of his approaching death .
"The whole chapter is designed for a coronis or honourable close of the life of David, and gives us an account both of the worthy expressions that droppedfromhim, and of the renowned worthies that were employed by him: But all the heroic atchievements recorded to the honour of their memories, in the following part of the chapter, are trivial and inglorious things, compared with this one divine sentencerecordedinmy text; in which we have two things to confider, viz.
1. The preface, which is exceeding solemn . 2. The speech itself, which is exceeding weighty. 1. In the preface, we have both the instrumental andprim-
applied to afflicted Saints. 395 cipal efficient cause of this divine sentence distinctly set down, ver. 1. and the efficient, or author of it, ver. 2.
The instrument or organ of its conveyance to us, was David; described by his descent or lineage, the Son of Feffe; by his eminent station, themanthatwas raised up on high, even to the top and culminating point of civil and spiritual dignity and honour, both as a king, and as a prophet ; by his divine unction, the anointed of the God of Jacob ; and lastly, by the flowing sweetness of his spirit and stile, in the divine psalms that were penned by him, whence he here gets the ti tle of the sweet pfalmist of Israel, the pleasant one, in the - psalms of Israel, as some read it. The principal efficient cause of this excellent passage, is here - likewise noted, and all to commend it the more to our special - observation and acceptance : " The Spirit of Godfpake by me, - " and his word was in my tongue." This stamps my text expressly with divine authority. The Spirit of God spake by David,he was not the Author, but only the Scribe of it. Thus the ensuing discourse isprefaced. Let us next see,
2. The matter or speech itself, wherein we shall find the maxims,and general rules of government prescribed, and the felicity of such a government elegantly described : "He that " ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God." Princes being in God's place, must exalt the righteousness of God,in the government of men; and when they do so, they
be as the light of the morning when the funriseth, even a morning without clouds, &c. Whathalcyondays shall that happy people fee, whose lot is cast into such times and places ! All this is typically spoken of David, and those pious princes who - succeeded him; but mysticallyand eminently points at Christ, who was to rise out of David'sfeed, Rom, i. 3. and to fit upon... his throne,Acts ii. 30. So that in this he was raised on high, to an eminency of glory and dignity indeed: he was so in his ordinary natural feed ; a royal race,deriving itself from him, and fittinguponhis throne in a lineal succession, till the Baby- -lonish captivity,which wasaboutfourhundred andthirtyyears, And after that, the Jews had governors of his line, at least rightfulheirsto that crown, till the promised Messiah came. But that which was the top of David's honour, the most spark- - lingjewel in his crown, was this, that the Lord Jesus was to defcendfromhim, according to the flesh, in whom all the glorious characters before given, should not only be exactly an I we red,but abundantly exceeded. And thus you findthena Ddd 2 :
398 The Balm of the Covenant tural line of the Messiah is drawn down by Matthew, from David to the virgin Mary, Matth. i. And his legal line by Luke, from David to Joseph, his supposed father, Luke ii. 23. Now, though the illustrious marks and characters of such a righteous,serene,and happy government, did not fully agree to his day, nor would do so in the reigns of his ordinary natural successors, his day was not without manycloudsboth of fin and trouble ; yet such a blesseddayhe foresaw and rejoiced in, when Christ, the extraordinary feed of David, should a rife, and set up his kingdom in the world, and with the ex pectationhereof, he greatly cheers and encourages himself: " Although my house be not fowith God, yet hath he made " with me aneverlastingcovenant," be. In which words four things are eminently remarkable. 1. Here is a fad concession of domestic evils . 2. Afingular relief, from God's covenant with him. 3. The glorious properties of this covenant displayed. 4. The high esteem and dear regard his househaduntoft. 1. Here is David's fad and mournful concession of the evils of his house, both maral and penal. "Altho' my house be not " so with God," i. e. neither so holy, nor so happy, as this description ofa righteous and flourishing government imports; alas! it answers not to it : For though he was eminent forgodlinesshimself, and had folemnlydedicated his house to God, Psal. xxx. as foonas it was built, yea,though he piouflyrefolved to walk in the midst of it with a perfect heart, and not to fufferanimmoralpersonwithin his walls ; yetgreatmifcarriages were found even in David's house and person, which Godchastisedhim for, by a thick succession of sharp and fore afflictions, Psalm ci. 2, 3, 4, 5,6, 7. Tamar was defiled by her brother Am non, 2Sam. xiii. 13. Am non was barbarous. lymurdered thereupon, by the advice of Absalom, 2 Sam. xiii. 28. Abfalomunnaturallyrebels against his father David, anddriveshim outoftheroyal city,andperishes in that rebel. lion, 2 Sam. xv. 1. then Adonijah, another darling-son, graspsatthecrown settled by DaviduponSolomon,and perish esforthat his ufurpation, 1Kings ii. 25. O what a heap of mischiefs andcalamitesdidthisgoodman live tofeewithin his own walls, besides themanyforeigntroubles that came from other hands ! How many flourishing branches did God lop off from him, and that in their fins too ? So that hisdaywasaday of clouds, even fromthemorninguntothe evening of it; Psal. cxxxii. 1. " Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions." Well might he say, " his house was not fo with God."
to afflicted Saints. 399 But what then, doth he faint anddespond under these manifold calamities ? Doth he refuse to be comforted,because his children are gone; and all things involvedintrouble ? No,but -you find,
2. He relieveshimselfbythe covenant God had made with - him: " Yet hath he made with me a covenant." He looks to Christ, "There is more in the covenant than this my house be- " fore God," as the Chaldee turns it. This little word yet, wraps up a greatandfovereigncordial in it. ThoughAmnon, Absalom, and Adonijah be gone, and gone with many smarting aggravations too; "yet hath he made with me a cove- " nant," yet I have this sheet-anchor left to secure me. God's covenant with me, in relation to Christ, this under-props and shores up my heart.
This covenant was, without controversy,a gospel-covenant. It was David's gospel: For all his salvation and all his desire were in it; which could never be, except Christ had been in it,who is the salvation of all the ends of the earth, andthedefireofall nations .
It is true, it was a more obscure and imperfect edition of the covenant of faith, yet clearer than those that were made before it; it came not up to the fulness and clearness ofthedifcoveries made by Jeremy and Ezekiel : But yet in this covenant with David,God revealed more of Christ, than had been ever revealed before; for the light of Christ, like that of the morning, increased still more and more, till it came to a perfect day. It is worthy our observation,how God made a gradual discovery of Christ from Adam, down along to the New-Testament times. It was revealed to Adam, that he should be the feedofthewoman but not of what nation,till Abraham's time ; nor of what tribe, till Jacob ; nor of what sex and family, till David; nor that he shouldbeborn ofa virgin, till Ifaiah ; nor in what town, till Micah. The first revelation of this covenant. with David, was by Nathan the prophet ; 2 Sam. vii. 12, 13,
14. afterwards enlarged and confirmed, Psalm lxxxix. By it heknewmuch of Christ, and wrotemuchof him. He spake of his person, Psalm xlv. 6, 11. Psalm viii. 4, 5, 6. of his offices,bothprophetical, Psalm xl. 8, 9, 10. priestly,Psalm cx. 4. and kingly, Psalm ii.6. of his incarnation, Psal. viii. 5. of his death on the cross, Psalm xxii. 16, 17. of his burial, Psalın xvi. 8,9, 10. resurrection, Psalm ii. 7. and triumphant ascension, Psalm lxviii. 18. there was the sum of the gospel discover-
Plus eft quamhæc domus mea ante Deum, Jon,
398 The Balm of the Covenant ed,though in dark and typical terms and forms of expression; but if out of this covenant, as obscure as its revelation was,Da vidfetchedfuch strong support and consolation, amidst such an heap of troubles, then the argument is good afortiori : What support and comfort may we not draw thence, who live undet the most full and perfect display of it, in all its riches and glory; enough hath been said to prove it a gospel-covenant ; but ifanydoubt should remain of that, it will be fully removed, by considering,
3. Theeximious properties and characters of the covenant, as we find them placed in the text ; and they are three, viz.
(1.) Everlasting. (2.) Ordered in all things, and (3.) Sure. (1.) It is an everlasting covenant, ora perpetual covenant, a covenant of eternity, * not in the most strict, proper, and absolute sense: For that is the incommunicable property of God himself, who neither hath beginning, nor end; but the meaning is, that the benefits and mercies of the covenant are durable and endless to the people of God: For Christ being the principal matter and substance of the covenant, there must be in it an everlasting righteousness, as it is called, Dan. ix. 24. everlasting kindness, Isa. liv. 8. everlasting forgiveness, Jer. xxxi. 34. and in consequence to all these, everlasting consolation, Ifa. li. 11. in all which the riches and bounty of free grace shine forth in their greatest glory and splendor. (2.) It is a covenant ordered in all things, or orderlyprepar ed,disposed, and set, as the word imports †. Every thing be ing here disposed and placed in the most comely order, both persons and things here keep their proper place : GodtheFatherkeeps the place of the mostwise contriver and bountiful donor of the invaluable mercies of the covenant ; and Christ keeps the proper place both of the purchaser and surety of the covenant ; and all the mercies in it; and believers keep their place, as the unworthy receivers of all the gratuitous mercies and rich benefits thereof, and the most obliged creatures in all the world to free grace, saying, although my house, yea, al though my heart and my life be not fo with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant. And as persons, lo things, all things in this covenant stand in the most exquisite order, and exact correspondence to each other. O it is a ra
διαθηκη αιώνέος, i. e. A covenant of age. + A ordinavit, difpofuit, aptauit.
םלוצ םירב
applied to afflicted Saints. 390 vishing fight to behold the habitudeand respect of the mercies in the covenant, to the fins and wants of all that are in it ! Here are found full and suitable supplies to the wants of all
God's people. Here you may fee pardon in the covenant, for guilt in the soul ;joy in the covenant, for sorrow in the heart ; ftrengthin the covenant, for all defects and weaknesses in the creature ;stability in the covenant, for the mutability in the creature. Never did the wisdom of God shine forth more in anycontrivance in the world, (except that of Christ, the surety and principal matter of the covenant) than it doth in the orderly dispose of all things in their beautiful order,and comely proportions in this covenant of grace.
(3.)It is afure covenant, or a covenant safely laid up and kept, as the word imports * ; and upon this account the mercies of it are called, " The sure mercies of David," Ifa. lv. 3 . And so Psalm lxxxix. 28. speaking of this very covenant,God faith, " My covenant shall stand fast with him ;" there shall be no vacillancy, no shaking in this covenant: and ver. 34.
" My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is " gone out of my lips." Everything is as its foundation is. Now, God's covenant being founded in his unchangeable counsel and purpose, wherein there can be no lubricity, and Christ being the surety of it, it must needs be, as the text calls it, a sure covenant, wherein the faithfulness of God is as illustriously displayed, as his bounty and wisdom are in the two former properties of it. And such a covenant as this, so everlasting, aptlydisposed,and sure,must needs deservethatprecious respect and high esteem from every believing soul, which Davidheredoth pay it, in 4.The singular and high valuation he had of it, when he faith, " This is all myfalvation, and all mydefire," or as some translate + " all my delight, or pleasure ;" (i. e.) here I find all repaired with an infinite overplus, that I have lost in the crea ture : Here is life in death, fulness in wants, security in dangers, peace in troubles. It is all my salvation ; for it leaves nothing in hazard that is essential to my happiness ; and all my desire, for it repairs whatever I have loft, or can lose : It is fo full and complete a covenant, that it leaves nothing to be desired out of it. O it is a full fountain! Here I repose my weary foul with full satisfaction, and feed my hungry desires with sweetest delights ; so that my very foul is at rest and ease, inthebosom of this bless fed covenant. Thus you have the צפה לכז+
* custodivit, fervavit.
402 The Balm of the Covenant parts and sense of the text. The notes from it are three. Observation 1. That God's covenant people may be exercised with many sharp afflictions in their persons and families, Eccl. ix. 9. EvenDavid's housewasthehouse of mourning;"Although "my house be not fo with God, though he make it not to " grow." All forts of outward afflictions are incident to all fortsofmen. "All things (faith Solomon)comealiketo all: " There is one event to the righteous, andtothewicked; to " the clean, and unclean; to him that facrificeth, and to him "that facrificeth not." The providences seem one and the fame, though the subject on whom they fall be vastly different. Estates and children,health and liberty,will still be like themselves, vanishing comforts, whoever be the owners of them. No man's spiritual eftatecanbe knownbytheview of his tem poral estate. Agodly family cannot be a miserable,but it may be a mournful family. Religion secures us from the wrath, but it does not secure us from the rod of God. The Lord hath chosen anotherwayof expressing his love to his people, than by temporal and external things: Therefore "all things "come alike to all." The covenant excludes the curse, but includes the cross. " If his childrenforsakemylaw, &c. then " will I visit their iniquity with the rod, and their finwith " stripes : nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly " take away." Nor indeed would it be the privilege of God's covenanted people, to be exempt from the rod; a mark ofbastardy can be no man's felicity, Heh. xii. 8. to go without the chastising discipline of the rod, were togowithoutthe needful instruc tions and blessed fruits that accompany and result from the rod, Psalm xciv. 12. Let us not therefore fay,as those irreligious personsdidin Mal. iii. 14. "It is in vain to serve God,and what profit is it "that we have kept his ordinances, and walked mournfully " before him ?" Surely none fervehim in vain, but those that serve him vainly. Godliness cannot fecureyou from afflicti on, but it can and will secure you from hell, and fanctifyyour afflictions tohelpyouto heaven. But I stay not here. Observation 2. Adecliningfamily is afarestroke from the hand of God, and so to be acknowledged, wherever it falls. It was a growing sorrow to David, that his house did not grow; and he eyed the hand of God in it, "He made it not to " grow," as he speaks in the text. He felt as many deaths as he had dead children. It is God that builds and destroys fami
applied to afflicted Saints. 401 lies; he enlargeth and straiteneth them again. Afamilymay decline two ways, viz. either,
1. By the death : or, 2. By the degeneracyofitsoffspring. 1. By their death, when Godlops offthehopeful springing branches thereof, especially the last and only prop of it, in whom not only all the care and love, but all the hope and expectation of the parents is contracted and bound up. For, The hearts of tender parents are usually bound up in the life of an only son *. As a man's wife is but himself divided, so his children are but himself multiplied ; and when all love and delight, hope and expectation, is reduced to one, the affect i on is strong, and that makes the affliction fotoo. If it were not an unparalleled grief among all earthly griefs and sorrows, the Spirit of God would never have chosen and singled it out from among all other sorrows, to illustrate sorrow for finby it, yea, sorrows for that special fin of piercing Christ, ashe doth, Zech. xii. 10. " They shall lookuponhimwhom they "have pierced, and shall mourn for him, as one that mourn- " eth for an only son." How naked are those walls, and how unfurnished is that house, wherethechildren (its best ornaments) are taken down and removed by death ? It is natural to allmen, to desire the continuanceoftheirnames and families in the earth; andthereforewhen God cuts off their expectations in that kind, they look upon themselves as dry trees, or as the withering stalks in the fields, when the flowers are fallen off, and blown away from them.
2. Or, which is yet much worse, a family maydeclineby thedegeneracy of its off-spring. When the piety, probity, and virtues of ancestors descend not with their lands to their posterity, here the true line ofhonour is cutoff, and the glory ofa family dies, though its children live; the family is ruined, though there be a numerous offspring. Surely it werebettermournfortendead children,than for onefuch living child. How many fuchwretched families can England shew this day!HowhathAtheism and debauchery ruined andfubverted many great and once famous families ! O it were better the arms of those families had been reversed, and their lands alienated, yea, better had it been a succession had failed, and thattheirnameshad been blotted out, than that Satan should rule by profaneness. in the placeswhere God was once fo feriouflyand sweetly worshipped.
Omnis in afcanioftat chari curaparentis. Virgil. VOL. VII. Ecc
402 The Balm of the Covenant a Whensoever therefore God shalleitheroftheseways subvert family, it becomes them that are concerned in the stroke, notonlytoown and acknowledge the hand of God in it, but to search their hearts and houses, to find out the fins which have so provoked him ; yet not so as to fall into an unbecomingdespondency of spirit, but withal to relieve themselves, as Davidhere doth, from the covenant of God ; " Yet hath he " made with me an everlasting covenant." Which brings us to the third and principal point I shall insist on.
3. That the everlasting, well-ordered, and sure covenant of grace, affords everlasting, well-ordered, and sure relief to all that are within the bond of it, how many or how great soever theirperfonal or domestic trials and afflictions are.
This point will be cleared to your understandings, andpre pared for your use, by clearing and opening threepropofitions, which orderly take up the sum and substance of it, viz .
Proposition 1. That the minds of men, yea, the bestmen, are weak and feeble things under the heavy pressures of affliction, and will reelandfink under them, except they be strongly relieved and under-propped. A bowing wall doth not more need a strong shore or buttress, than the mind of am an needs a strong support and stay from heaven, when the weight of affliction makes it incline and lean all one way. "Unless thy law had been my delights, " I should then have perished in my affliction," Psal. cxix.92. q. d. What shift other men make to stand the shock of their afflictions, I know not ; but this I know, that if God had not seasonably sent me the relief of a promise, I had certainly gone away in a faint fit of despondency. O how seasonablydid God administer the cordials of his word to my drooping finking foul
This weakness in the mind, to fupportthe burdens of affliction, proceeds from a double cause, viz .
1. From the sinking weight of the affliction . 2. From the irregularandinordinate workings of the thoughts of it.
1. From the sinking weight that is in affliction, especially in some forts of afflictions : they are heavy pressures, ponder. ousburdens in themselves. So Job speaks, "O that my grief " were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in theba- " lances together ! For now it would be heavier than the sand " of the sea, therefore my words are swallowed up," Job vi.
2, 3, 4. q. d. If all the sand that lies upon all the shores in the world, were shovelled up into one heap, and cast into one
applied to afflicted Saints. 403 scale, and my sorrows into the other, my grief would weigh it all up. How heavy are the hearts of the afflicted ! what infupportable sorrows do they feel, and groan under, especially when God smites them in the dearest and nearest concerns they have in the world.
2. But especially the reelings and staggerings of the mind, are occasioned by the inordinate and irregular workings of its own thoughts. Were it but possible to keep the mind ina serene, sedate, and ordinate frame, our burdens would be comparatively light to what we now feel them to be; but the falling of the thoughts into confufions, and great distractions, spoils all. Upon this account it is, that afflictions are compared to a stupifying dose, which casts the soul into amazement. Psal. lx. 3. " Thou hast shewed thy people hard things, " thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment." Afflictions are called the wine of astonishment, from their effects upon the mind : for under a great and sudden stroke of God, it is like a watch wound up above its due height, so that for a time it stands still, neither grace nor reason move at all: and when it begins to move again, O how confused and irregular are its motions ! it is full of murmurs, disputes, and quarrels : these aggravate both our fin and misery. It is our own thoughts which take the arrow of God shot at us, (which did but stick before in our clothes, and was never intended to hurt us, but only to warn us), and thrust it into our very hearts .
For thoughts, as well as poniards, can pierce and wound the hearts of men, Luke ii. 35. " A sword shall pierce thro " thine own soul ;" (i. e.). Thy thoughts shall pierce thee. They can shake the whole fabric of the body, and loose the best compacted and strongly jointed parts of the body : Dan. v. 6. " His thoughts troubled him, and the joints of his loins " were loosed." And thus a man's own mind becomes a rack - of torment to him ; a misery which no creatures, exceptmen and devils, are subjected to. O how many bodies have been destroyed by the passions of the foul 1 they cut through it, asa keen knife through a narrow sheath. "Worldly sorrow works " death," 2 Cor. vii. ro .
Proposition 2. The merciful God, in condescension to the weakness of his people, hath provided the best supports and reliefs for their feeble and afflicted spirits .
" In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts. "delight my soul," Psal. xciv. 17. Carnal men seek their relief under trouble, from carnal things ; when one creature Eee 2
404 The Balm of the Covenant forsakes them, they retreat to another which is yet left thems till they are beaten out of all, and then their hearts fail, havingnoacquaintancewith God, or special interest in him : for the creatures will quickly spend all that allowance of comfort they have to spend upon us. Some trywhatreliefthe rules of philosophy can yield them, supposing aneatsentence of Seneca maybe as good a remedy as a text of David or Paul ;but, alas ! it will not do : submission from fatal necessity, will never ease the afflicted mind, as Christian resignation will do. It is not the eradicating, but regulating of the affections, that composes a burdened and distracted foul. One word of God will fignifymore to our peace, than all the famedand admired precepts of men.
To neglect God, and seek relief from the creature, is to forsake the fountain of living waters, and go to the broken cisterns which can hold no water, Jer. ii. 13. The best creature is but a cistern, not a fountain ; and our dependance on it makes it a broken cistern, strikes a hole through the bottom of it, so that it can hold no water. " I, even I (faith, " God) am he thatcomforteth you," Ifa. lvii. 12. The fame hand that wounds you, must heal you, or you can never be healed. Our compassionate Saviour, to assuage our sorrows, hath promised he will not leave us comfortless, John xiv. 18. Our God will not contend for ever, left the spirit fail before him, Ifa. lvii. 16. He knew how ineffectual all otherconforts and comforters would be, even physicians of no value, and therefore hath graciously prepared comforts for his distressed ones, that will reach their end.
3. Godhathgatheredallthe materials and principals of our relief into the covenant of grace, and expects that we betake ourselves unto it, in times of distress, as to ourfure, Jufficient, and only remedy.
As all the rivers run into the sea, and there is the congre gation of all the waters ; so all the promises and comforts of the gospel, are gathered into the covenant of grace, and there is the congregation of all the sweet streams of refreshment that are dispersed throughout the scriptures. The covenant is the store-house of promises, the shop of cordials and rare elixirs, to revive us in all our faintings ; though, alas ! most men know no more what are their virtues, or where to find them, thananilliterate rustic put into an apothecary'ssoap.
What was the cordial God prepared to revive the hearts of his poor captives groaning under hard and grievous bondage, both in EgyptandinBabylon? Was it no this covenant with
applied to afflicted Saints. 405 Abraham ? Andwhydidhe give itthefolemn confirmation by an oath, but that it might yield to him, and all his believing feed,strong consolation, Heb. vi. 17, 18. the very spirit of joy amidst all their sorrows.
And what was the relief God gave to the believing eunuchs that kept his Sabbaths, took hold of his covenant, and chose the things in which he delighted ? " To them(faith he)will L " give in my house, andwithinmywalls, a place, and a name, " better than thatoffons or of daughters," Ifa. lvi. 4,5. Tho they were deprived of those comforts other men have in their posterity, yet he wouldnothavethemlookuponthemselves as dry trees ; a covenant-interest would answer all, and recompense abundantly the want of children, or any other earthly comfort.
Certainly, therefore,Davidwas at the rightdoorofreliefand comfort, when he repairs to the covenant, as here in the text, "Yet hath he made with mean everlasting covenant." There, or no-where else, the relief of God's afflicted is to be found.
Now, to make anything become a complete and perfect relief to an afflicted spirit, these three properties must concur and meet in it, else it can never effectually relieve anyman.
I. It must be able to remove all the causes and grounds of troubles.
II. It must be able to do so at all times. III. It must be capable of a good personal security to us. For if it only divert our troubles, (as creature-comforts use to do), and do not remove the ground and cause of our trouble, it is but an anodyne, not a cure or remedy. And if it can remove the very ground,and cause of our trouble, for a time, but not for ever, then it is but a temporary relief: our troubles may return again, and we left in as bad case as wewerebefore. And if it be in itself, able to remove all the causes and grounds of our trouble, and that at all times, but not capable of a personal security to us, or our well established interest in it, allfignifies nothing to our relief.
But open your eyes and behold, O ye afflicted saints, all these properties of a complete relief meeting together in the covenant, as it is displayed in the text. Here is a covenant able to remove all the grounds and causes of your trouble ; for it is ORDERED in all things ; or aptly disposed by the wisdom andcontrivance of God, to answer every cause and ground of trouble and sorrow in our hearts. It is able to do this at all. times; as well in our day, as in David's or Abraham's day: for it is an everlasting covenant; its virtue and efficacy is not
406 The Balm of the Covenant decayedbytime. And, lastly, it is capable ofagoodpersonal
or assurance to all God's afflicted people ; for it is a sure covenant. The concurrence of these three properties in the covenant makes it a complete relief, and perfect remedy, to which nothingiswanting in the kindandnature ofa remedy. These three glorious properties of the covenant are my proper province to open and confirm, for your support and comfort in this day of trouble.
I. That the covenant of grace is able to remove all the causes and grounds of a believer's trouble, be they never so great or many. This I doubtnotwillbe convincinglyevidencedanddemonftrated by the following arguments, or undeniable reasons.
Argument I. Whatsoever disarms afflictions of the only sting whereby theywoundus, must needs be a complete relief and remedy to the afflicted foul.
But so doth the covenant of grace, itdisarms afflictions of the only sting by which they wound us.
Therefore the covenant of grace must needs be a complete relief and remedy to the afflicted foul.
The sting of all afflictions is the guilt of fin; when God fmites, confcienceusuallysmites too: and this is it that causes allthatpainand anguish in the afflicted. It is plainly so in the example of the widow of Zarephath, I Kings xvii. 18. when herfon, her only son, and probably her only child, died, how did that stroke of God revive guilt in herconfcience, and made the affliction piercing and intolerable ! as appears by her passionate expoftulation with Elijah, who then fojourned in her house : "What have I to do with thee,Oman of God ? art thou " come unto me to call my fin to remembrance, and to slay my " son ?" q. d. What injury have I done thee? Didstthou come hither to observe my fins, and pray down this judgment upon my child for them ? The death of her son revived her guilt, and so itgenerallydoth, even in the most holy men.
When Job looked upon his wasted body under afflictions, every wrinkle he saw upon it, seemed to him like a witness rising up to testify against him. "Thou hast filled me with "wrinkles, which is a witness against me; and my leanness " rising up in me, beareth witness to my face," Job xvi. 8.
Affliction is like a hue and cry after fin in the ears of conscience, and this is the envenomed poisonous sting of affliction: pluck out this, and the afflicted man is presently eased, though the matter of the affliction still abidewithhim, and lie upon him. He is afflicted still, but not caftdown by afflicti, on; the anguish andburdenisgone,thought he matter oftrou** ble remain.
applied to afflicted Saints. 407 This is plain both in scripture, and inexperience. Suitable hereunto is that strange, but sweet expression, " The inha- " bit ants shall not say I am sick, the people that dwell therein " fhallbeforgiven their iniquities," Ifa. xxxiii. 24. It is not to be imagined these people had found such a fortunate island, or happy climate, where no disease could touch or invade their bodies; no, sickness will find out the bodies of the best men, wherever they live; wherever sin hath been, sickness and death will follow it. Heaven is the only privileged place from these miseries : but the meaning is, though they be sick, they shall not feel the pains and burdens of sickness, " they shall not " say they are sick:" And why so? because their iniquities are forgiven ; plainly confirming what was before asserted, that the anguish of an affliction is gone as soon as ever the sting of guilt is pluckt out. And hence, pardoningof the soul, and healing of the body, areputtogether as conjugate mercies : " Bless the Lord, Omy soul, who forgiveth all thine iniqui- " ties, and healeth all thy diseases," Psal. ciii. 1, 3. When the soul is at ease, the pains of the body are next to nothing : Sickness can cloud all naturaljoys, but not the joy of a pardon.
Nay, which is yet more ; pluck out but the sting of fin, and there is no horror in death, the king of terrors, and worst of all outward evils. See how the pardoned believer triumphs over it : " O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is " thy victory ? The sting of death is sin," 1 Cor. xv. 55. They are words of defiance, as men use to deride and scorn a boasting insulting enemy, when they fee him cast upon his back, and his sword broken over his head *.
Where are your boasts and menaces now ? O death, thou haft lost thy sting and terror together. Thus the pardoned believer, with an holy gallantry of spirit, derides and contemus. his disarmed enemy death. So then it is manifest, that whatever plucks out the poisonous sting of affliction, must needs be an effectualremedy and cure to the afflicted person.
But this the covenant of grace doth ; it reveals and applies gospel-remission to them that are within the blessed bond of it. "This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of " Israel ; I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their " finno more," Jer. xxxi. 33, 34. †Behold here a gracious, full, * Where is now thy threats ? See there thy fury laid. Ovid. +
חלמ
ιλεώς εσομαι, It respects the propitiatory expiationof fin by
408 The Balm of the Covenant and irrevocable pardon! I will forgive, or be propitioully bel merciful, as that word imports; pointing plainly to Christ our fru propitiation, our fins are forgiven us for his name's fake. And a pardon as full as it is free ; iniquity and sin, smaller and greater, are here forgiven; for God, in the remission of his people's fins,having respect to the propitiating blood of Christ, he pardons all, as well as some; thatblooddeferving and purchasing the most full and complete pardons for his people, 1 John i. 7. "The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all fin." And this covenant-pardon is as firm, as it is free and full. So run the expressions in the grant, I will remember theirfin no more : Or in the apostle's words,Heb. viii. 12. 8 μη μνησθω έτι, I will not remember them again: That is, not fo remem ber,as to impute them,or condemn my pardoned ones for them: For the pardoned persons come no more into condemnation, Jobv. 24. Their fins are cast into the depths of the sea, Mic. vii. 19. Sooner fhallthe East and the West, the two opposite points of heaven,meet, than the pardoned foul and its fins meet again in condemnation, Psal. ciii. 12.
Now, the case standing thus with all God's covenant people, all their fins being graciously, fully, and irrevocably forgiven them, how convincingly and sweetly doth this conclusion follow, that the covenant is a complete remedy to all afflicted believers ? As nothing can befal us before Christ and pardon be ours, which is sufficient to raise us, so nothing can befalus afterwards, whichshoulddeject and fink us. This is the first benefit afflicted believers receive from the covenant, and this alone is enough to heal all ourforrows.
Arg. II.As the covenant ofgracedisarms all the afflictionsof believers of the only ftingby which they wound them ; so it alters the very nature and property of their afflictions, and turns them from a curse into a blessing to them: And in so doing, it becomes more than a remedy, even a choice benefit and advantage to them.
All afflictions, in their own nature, are apart of the curse; they are the consequence and punishments of fin; they work naturally against our good: But when once they are taken intothecovenant, their nature and property is altered. As waters intheirfubterranean passages, meeting some virtuous mineral in their course, are thereby impregnated, and endowed with a rare healing property to the body; so afflictions passing through the covenant, receive from it an healing virtue to our by Christ, who is therefore called ιλασμος,and ελατηριων. 1John i i, 21 and Rom. iii. 25.
applied to afflicted Saints. 409 fouls. They are, in themselves, four and harsh, as wildhedge. fruits ; but being ingrafted into this stock, they yield the pleasant fruits of righteousness. " If his children break my sta- " tutes, and keep not my commandments, then will I visit " their iniquity with the rod, and their fins with stripes : Ne- " verthelets my loving-kindness will I not utterly take away, " nor suffer my faithfulness to fail," Psal. Ixxxix.30, 31. Here you may fee all the rods of affliction put into the covenant, as Aaron's rod was into the ark. And hence two things neceffarilyfollow.
(1.) That such afflictions can do the children of God no hurt. They may affright, but cannot hurt them: We may meet them with fear, but shall part from them with joy: An unsanctified rod never did anymangood, and a sanctified rod never did any man hurt: He may afflict our bodies with sickness, deny, or cut off our comfort in children, impoverish our estates, let loose perfecutors upon us; but in all this he really doth us no hurt. as he speaks in Jer. xxv. 6. No more hurt than a skilful furgeondoth in saving his patient's life, by cutting off a mortified gangrened member : No more hurt than frost and snow do the earth in killing the rank weeds that exhausted the sap and trength of it, and preparing andmellowing it to produce a fruitful crop of corn. By these he recals our minds from vanity, weans our fond and ensuaring affections from the world, discovers and mortifies those lusts which gentler methods and essays could not do : And is this for our hurt ?
thoughts and ours often differ upon thiscafe. We measure the good and evil of providences, by their respect to the ease and pleasure of our flesh, but God fees this is the way to cast our spirits into a dead formality, and in removing them, he doth but deprive us of the occafionsand instruments of spiritual mischiefs and miseries, in which certainly he doth us no hurt.
(2.) But that is not all. Afflictions once put into the covenant, must promote the good of the saints; they are beneficial, as well as harmless things. " We know (faith the apo- " fstle) that all things work together for good to them that love " God." This promise is the compass which sets the course, and directs the motion of all the afflictions of the people of God; and no ship at sea obeys the rudder so exactly, as the troubles of the righteous do the direction of this promise. Poffiblywe cannotdifcern this at present, but rather prejudge the works of God, and say all these things are against us; but here-
VOL.VII. Fff
410 The Balm of the Covenant after we shall fee, and with joy acknowledge them to be the happy instruments of our salvation. How often hath affliction sent the people of God to their knees, with such language as this, ' O my God, how vain and • sensual hath this heart of mine been under prosperity ! How • did the love of the creature, like a sluice cut in the bank of a river, draw away the stream of my affections from thee ! I • had gotten a soft pillow of creature-comforts under my head, • and I easily fell asleep, and dreamed of nothing but rest and • pleasure, in a state of absence from thee; but now thy rod hath awakened me, and reduced me to a right sense of my • condition. I was negligent or dead-hearted in the course of ' my duty, but now I can pray more fervently, feelingly, and
frequently, than before. O it was good for me, that I have • been afflicted. O, faith God, how well was this rod bestowed, which hath done my poor child so much good ; now I have more of his heart, and more of his time and company ' than ever ; now I hear the voice, and see the gracious work- • ings of the spirit of my child after me again, as in the days of •his first love. The sum of all this you may fee in the inge puous meltings of Ephraim under a sanctified rod, Jer. xxxi. 19, 20. and the founding of the bowels of mercy over him. Ephraim mourns at God's feet, and God falls upon Ephraim's ' neck. I have been as a beast, faith Ephraim : Thou art a dear son, a pleasant child, faith God. My bowels are trou • bled and pained for fin, faith Ephraim : And my bowels are ⚫troubled for thee, and my compassions rolled together, faith •God. O blessed fruits of sanctified rods ! such precious ef sects as these richly repay you for all the pain and anguish you feel. And thus, as the wound of a scorpion is healed by applying its own oil, so the evil of affliction is cured by the sanctified fruits that it produceth, when it is once put into the co venant.
Arg. III. The covenant doth not only alter the nature and property of the saints afflictions, but it also orderlydisposes, and aptly places them in the frame of providence, among the other means and instruments of our salvation ; so that a council of angels could never place them, or the least circumstance be longing to them, more aptly and advantageously than it hath done. The knowledge of this must needs quiet and fully relieve the afflicted foul : And who can doubt it, that believes it to be a covenant ordered in all things, as the text speaks ? Here all things, yea, the most minute circumstances that befal you, are reduced to their proper class, and place of service ; fo ex
applied to afflicted Saints. 411 actly ordered, that all the wisdom of men and angels knows not how to mend or alter any thing to your advantage.
If a small pin be taken out of the frame of a watch, and placed anywhere else, the motion is either presently stopped, or made irregular. And as Galen observes of the curious fabric of an human body, that if the greatest naturalists should
an hundred years to find out a more commodious situation, or configuration of any part thereof, it could neverbedone. It is so here : No man can come after God, and say, this or that had been better placed or timed than it is, if this affliction had been spared, and such an enjoyment stood in the room of it, it hadbeenbetter. All God's providences are the result and issues of his infinite wisdom : For " he works all things according to " the counsel of his own will," Eph . i. 11. The wheels, i. e. the motions and revolutions of providence are full of eyes, Ezek . i. 18. They are well advised, and judicious motions,Non caeco impetu volvuntur rotae ; they run not at random. The most regular and excellent working must needs follow the most deep and perfect counsel, Isa. xxviii. 29. "He is deep incoun- " fel, and excellent in working."
Now, every affliction that befals God's covenantedpeople,being placed by the most wise and infinite counsel of God in that very order, time, and manner, in which they befal them, this Tvery affliction, and not that, at this very time, and not at another, (it being always a time of need, 1Pet.i. 6.), and ushered in by such forerunning occasions and circumstances ; it must sol- #low, that they all take the proper places, and come exactly at the fittest seasons; and if one of them were wanting, some- ( thing would be defective in the frame of your happiness. As they now stand, they work together for your good, which displaced, they would not do.
" It is said, Jer. xviii. 11. " Behold, I frame evil, and I devise a device." It isfpoken of the contrivanceand frame of afflictions, as the proper works of God. The project of it is laid for his glory, and the eternal good of his people. It turns to their salvation, Phil. i. 19. ButO how fain would we have this or that affliction screwed out of the frame of providence, conceiving it would be far better out than in! O if God had spared my child, or my health, it had been better for me than now it is. But this is no other than a presumptuous correcting and controuling of the wisdom of God, and fo he interprets it, Job xl. 2. " He that reproveth God, let him answer " it." God hath put every affliction upon your persons, estates, Fff2
412 The Balm of the Covenant relations, just where you find and feel it; and that whole frame he hath put into the covenant, in the virtue whereof it works for your salvation : and therefore letalldisputings and reatonings, all murmurs anddiscontents cease; nothing can be better for you, than as God hath laid it; and this, one would think, should heal and quiet all. You yourselves would mar all, by presuming to mend any thing. " Who hath directed the Spi " rit of the Lord, or being his counsellor, hath taught him? " With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him , and " taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him know- " ledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding ?" Ifa. xl. 13, 14. Well then, be satisfied it is best as it is ; and nothing can be so advantageous to you, as God's projects and contrivance, which you are so uneasy under, and dissatisfied about.
Arg. IV. As the covenant forts and ranks all your troubles into their proper classes and places of service, so it secures the special gracious presence of God with you, in the deepest plun gesof distress that can befal you ; which presence is a full re lief to all your troubles, or else nothing in the world is, or can be so.
The very heathens thought themselves well secured against all evils and dangers, if they had their petty houshold-gods with them in their journies: but the great God of heaven and earth hath engaged to be with his people, in all their afflictions and distresses. As a tender father fits up himself with his sick child, and will not leave him to the care of a servant only; fo God thinks it not enough to leave his children to the tutelage and charge of angels, but will be with them himself, and that in a special and peculiar way: forun the express words of the covenant, Jer. xxxii . 40. " I will not turn away from them " to do them good, but I will put my fear into their hearts; " and they shall not depart from me." Here he undertakes for both parts, himself and them. I will not, and they shall not.
Here is the saints security for the gracious presence of God with them, a presence which dispels all the clouds of affliction and sorrow, as the fun scatters the morning mists. The God of all consolation is with you, O poor dejected believers, and will not such a presence turn the darkness into light round about you ? There is a threefold presence of God with his creatures.
1. Essential, which is common and necessary to all. 2. Gracious, which is peculiar to some on earth,
applied to afflicted Saints. 413 3. Glorious, which is the telicity of heaven. The first is not the privilege here secured; for it is necessary to all, good and bad: In him we all live, and move, and have our being. The vilest men on earth, yea, the beasts of the field, and the very devils in hell, are always in this presence of God, but it is their torment, rather than their privilege. The last is proper to the glorified saints and angels. Such aprefence embodied saints cannot now bear ; but it is his special gracious pretence which is made over and secured to them in the covenant of grace; and this presence of God is manifested to them two ways :
1. Internally, by the Spirit. 2. Externally, by Providence. 1. Internally, by the Spirit of grace dwelling and acting in them, this is a choice privilege to them in the day of affliction : for hereby they are instructed and taught the meaning of the rod, Psal. xciv. 12. " Blessed is themanwhom thou chaste nest, " and tea chest him out of thy law. " O it is a blessed thing to be taught so many lessons by the rod, as the Spirit teacheth them ! Surely they reckon it an abundant recompense of all that they suffer. " It is good for me that I have been afflicted, " that I might learn thy statutes," Psalm cxix. 71. Yea, he refreshes as well as teaches, and no cordials revive like his. " In " the multitude of the thoughts I had within me, thy com- " forts delight my soul," Plal. xciv. 19.
Yea, by the presence and blessing of his Spirit, our afflic tions are sanctified to subdue and purge out our corruptions. " By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all " the fruit to take away fin," Ita. xxvii. 9. Now, ifa man be instructed in the ends and designs of the rod, refreshed and comforted under every stripe of the rod, and have his fins morfied and purged by the sanctification of the Spirit upon his afflictions ; then both the burdensomeness and bitterness of his afflictions are removed, and healed by the internal presence of the Spirit of God with his afflicted ones. But, 2. Besides this, God is providentially present with his people, in all their troubles, in a more external way ; ordering all the circumstances of their troubles to their advantage. He orders the degree and extent of our afflictions, Gill leaving us
and comforts to support and refresh us, when others are cut off. Inmeasuredothhe debate with his covenanted people, staying the rough wind in the day of the east-wind, Ifa. xxvii. 8. He might justly smite all our outward comforts at once, so that affliction should not rise up the second time:
414 The Balm of the Covenant for what comfort soever hath been abused by fin, is thereby forfeited into the hand of judgment. But the Lord knows our inability to sustain such strokes, and therefore proportions them to our strength. We have some living relations to mini-
Ger comfort to us when mourning over our dead: He makes not a full end of all at once. Yea, and his providence supports our frail bodies, enabling themtoendure the shocks and storms of so many afflictions, without ruin. Surely there is as much of the care of Providence manifested in this, as there is inpre-
poor crazy leaking barks, and weather-beaten vessels at sea, when the waves notonlycover them, but break into them, and they are ready to founder in the midst of them. Owhata fingularmercy is the gracious presence of God with men! even the special presence of that God, " who is above " all, and through all, and in you all," as the apostle speaks, Eph. iv. 6. Above all, in majesty and dominion ; through all, in his most efficacious providence ; and in you all, by his grace and Spirit. Ashe is above all, so he is able tocommandany mercy you want, with a word of his mouth; ashe is through all, so he must be intimately acquainted with all your wants, straits, and fears ; and as he is in you all, so he is engaged for your support and supply, as you are the dear members of Christ's mystical body.
Objection. But methinks IhearGideon's objection rolled into the way of this sovereign consolation : " If God be with us, why is all this evil befallen us ?" 66
Solution. All what ? If it had been all this rebellion and rage against God, all this apostacy and revolting more and more, all this contumacy and hardness of heart under the rod; then it had been a weighty and stumbling objection indeed : but to say, IfGodbewith us, why are all these chastening corrections and remporal crosses befallen us ? why doth he smite our bodies, children, or estates ? is an objection noway fit to be urgedby any that are acquainted with the scriptures, or the nature and ten or of the covenant of grace. Is afflicting and forsaking alt onewithyou ? must God needs hate, because he scourgeth you? I question whether Satan himself hath impudence enough to set
a note or comment upon Heb. xii. 6. " For whom the " Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom " he receiveth."
No, no, Christian, it is not a chastening rod, but the denying of such a favour, and suffering men to fin with impunity, andgo on profperoufly in the way of their own hearts, that speaks a rejected man, as the next words, ver. 7. inform you.
applied to afflicted Saints
Ashe never loved you the better for your prosperity, fo you maybe confident he loves you never the less for your adversity : and will not this close and heal the wounds made by affliction ? What, not such a promise as this, I will be with him in trouble, Psal. xci, 15. Will not such a presence revive thee ? What then can do it ? Moses reckoned that a wilderness with God, was better than a Canaan without him. " If thy presence go not " with me, (faith he), then carry us not hence," Exod. xxxiii.
15. And if there bethe spirit of a Christian in thee, and God should give thee thine own choice,thou wouldst rather chuse to be in the midst of all these afflictions with thy God, than back again in all thy prosperity, and among thy children and former comforts, without him.
Arg. V. As this covenant assures you of God's gracious and special presence, so it fully secures all the essentials and substantials of your happiness, against all hazards and contingencies ; in which security lies your full relief and complete remedy against all your troubles for the loss of other things.
There be two forts of things belonging to all God's people, viz.
1. Essentials. 2. Accidentals . 1. They have some things which are essential to their happiness ; such are the loving-kindness of God, the pardon of fin, union with Christ, and eternal salvation. And they have other things which are accidentals, that come and go, live and die, without affecting or altering their happiness ; such are health, estates, children, and all forts of relations and earthly comforts. These are to our happiness, as leaves are to the tree, which fade and fall away without endangering the tree; but the other as the vital sap, without which it withers and dies at the very root. Now, if it can be made out that the covenant fully secures the former; then it will strongly follow, that it therein abundantly relieves us under all our sorrows for the latter : And that it doth so, will evidently appearbyreviewing the covenant, wherein you shall find all these substantial and essential mercies of believers, fully secured against all hazards and contingencies whatsoever.
There the loving-kindness of God is secured to their souls, whatever afflictions he lays upon their bodies. " Nevertheless " my loving-kindness will I not take away," Psal. Ixxxix. 33. And their pardon is as safe as the favour of God is ; it is safely locked up in that promise, " I will remember their fins no " more," Jer. xxxi. 34. Yea, heaven, together with our per
416 The Balm of the Covenant severance in the way to it, are both put out of hazard by that invaluable promise, " They shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand," John x. 28. "
Thus are all the essentials of a believer's happiness secured in the covenant ; and these being safe, the loss of other enjoyments should not much affect or wound them, because if he enjoy them, they add nothing to his happiness; and if he lose them, he is still happy in God without them. And this unriddles that enigmatical expression of the apostle, 2 Cor. vi. 10. " As having nothing, yet possessing all things :" (i. e.) the substraction of all external things cannot make us miserable, who have Christ for our portion, and all our happiness entire in him.
Ifa mantravellingonthe road,fall intothehands of thieves, who rob him of a few Chillings, why this doth not much affect him ; for though he havelofthis spending money, yet his stock is safe at home, and his estate secure, which will yield him more. Or if a man has been at court, and there obtained a pardon for his life, or a grant of a thousand pounds per annum, and returning home should chance to lose his gloves, or his handkerchief, sure if the man be in his wits, he will not take on or mourn for the loss of these trifles, whilst the pardon or grant is safe. Surely these things are not worth the men tioning.
It is true, the loss of outward and earthly things are to a believer real trials, yet they are but seeming losses: and therefore they are expressed in the apostle'sphrase, with atanquam, ficut! " As chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always re " joicing," 2 Cor. vi. 9. And if your loffesbe but as it were losses, your sorrows should be but as it were sorrows : much like a physic-sickness, which we do not call a proper sickness, but as it were a sickness, becauseitconduceth to the health, and not to the hurt of the person ; as all God's medicinal afflictions on his people also do.
Indeed, if the stroke of God were at our souls, to cut them off from Christ and heaven, to raze our names out of the covenant, or revoke the pardon of fin; then we had cause enough to justify the extremity of sorrow; cause enough to weep out our eyes, and break our hearts for such a dismal blow as that would be. But blessed be God you stand out of the way of such strokes as these; let God strike round about you, or lay his hand upon any other comforts you possess he will never smite you in these essential things, which iscertainlyenough to allay and relieve all your other sorrows.
applied to afflicted Saints. 417 My name is blotted out of the earth, but still it is written in heaven. God hath taken my onlyfon from me, but he hath given his only Son for me, and to me. He hath broken off my hopes and expectations as to this world, but my hopes of heaven are fixed, sure, and immoveable for ever. My house and heart are both in confusion and great disorder, but I have still an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure. I cannot say my son liveth, but I can still say, " I know " that my Redeemer liveth. The grass withereth, and the " flower fadeth; but the word of the Lord abideth for ever,' Ifa. xl. 8.
Arg. VI. As God strikes none of the substantial mercies of hiscovenantpeople, so when he doth smite their external acci dental comforts, the covenant of grace assures them, that even those strokes are the strokes of love, and not wrath ; the wounds of a friend, and not of an enemy ; which is another singular relief to the afflicted foul.
The most frightfulthing in any affliction, is themarkorcharacter of God's wrath which it seems to bear : take away that, and the affliction is nothing "O Lord, rebuke me not in thine ४८anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure," Psal. vi. 1 He doth notdeprecate the rebukes, but the anger of God ; not his chaftening, but his hot displeasure. God's anger is much more terrible than his rebuking, and his hot displeasure than his chastening. Therefore he in treats, that whatever God did to him in the way of affliction, he would do nothing in the way of wrath ; and then he could bear any thing from him. A mark of divine anger engraven upon any affliction, makes that affliction dreadful to a gracious foul.
But ifamanbe wellfatisfied, that whatever anguish there be, yet there is no anger, but that the rod is in the hand of love ; Ohow it eases the soul, and lightens the burden ! Now this desire able point is abundantly cleared in the covenant ; where wefindaclearconsistence, yea, a nécessary connection betwixt the love and the rod of God, Psal. Ixxxix. 31. and Heb. xii.
6. Nay, so rare are the afflictions of the saints from being marks of his wrath, that they are the fruits and evidences of his fatherly love. Twomenwalking through the streets, see acompanyofboys fighting, one of them steps forth, and singles out one of those boys, and carries him home to correct him ; which of the two, think you, is that child's father ? The case standing thus with VOL. VII. Ggg
418 The Balm of the Covenant all God's people, surely there is no reason for their desponden. cies whatever their afflictions be.
Arg. VII. Lastly, The covenant doth not only discover the confistence and connection betwixt the love and the rod of God, but it also gives full satisfaction to the saints, that whatsoever contemporary mercy they are deprived of, which was within the bond of the covenant whentheyenjoyed it, is not lost, but shall certainly be restored to them again with a rich improve ment, and that they shall enjoy it again to all eternity.
What a rare model or platform of confolatory arguments hath the apostle laid down to antidote our immoderate sorrows, for the death of our dear relatives which died interested in Christ and the covenant ! 1.Theff. iv. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. " 1 " would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them " which are asleep," they are not dead, but asleep. Sleep is but a parenthesis to the labours and travels of this life ; and it is but a partial privation, not of the habit, but acts of reason, to which, upon awaking, the soul returns again. Just suche thing is that which in believers is commonly called death. And we do not use to bewail our friends, because they are fallen aleep: and therefore it no way becomes us to sorrow as those that have no hope, nor to look upon them as loft ; for as he strongly argueth and concludeth (ver. 14.) their restoration to their bodies, yea, and to our enjoyment again, is fully secured both to them and us by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The influence of his resurrection is by the prophet Ifaiah compared to the morning-dew, lsa. xxvi. 19. to shew that what virtue there is in the morning-dew, to cause the languishing plants of the earth to revive and flourish, that, and much more, there is in the resurrection of Christ, to revive and quicken the dead bodies of these saints ; their bodies shall be restored by virtue of the warm animating dew or influence of his refur rection.
Objection. But the marvellous change which the resurrection makes upon glorified bodies, and the long separation of many ages betwixt us and them, seems to make it impossible for us to know them, as those that were once related to us upon earth; and, if fo, then that comfort which resulted from them, as in relation to us, is perished with them at death.
Solution. Whatever change the resurrection shall make on their bodies, and the length of time betwixt our parting with them on earth, and meeting them again in heaven shall be; neither the one or other seem sufficient to destroy the grounds of our hope, that we shall know them to be the very persons
that were once so dear to us upon earth. There may remain some lineament or property of inviduation, whereby the acute glorified eye may possibly discover who they were ; or if not,