If God gives them in his wrath, and does not sanctify them in his love, they will at last be witnesses against a man, and millstones for ever to sink a man in that day, when God shall call men to an account, not for the use, but for the abuse of mercy.

Rem. 6. Seriously consider the end and the design of God in heaping up mercy upon the heads of the wicked, and in giving them (a quietus est) rest and quiet from those sorrows and sufferings that others sigh under. David in Psalm lxxiii. 17-20, shews the end and design of God in this: I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. So in Psalm xcii. 7; When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed for ever. God's setting them up is but in order to his casting them down; his raising them high, is but in order to his bringing them low. And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth, Exod. ix. 16. I have constituted and set thee up as a mark, that I may let fly at thee, and follow thee close with plague upon plague, till I have beaten the very breath out of thy body, and got myself a name, by setting my feet upon the neck of all thy pride, power, pomp, and glory.' Ah, soul, what man in his wits would be lifted up, that he might be cast down? would be set higher than others, when it is but in order to his being brought down lower than others? There is not a wicked man in the world, that is set up, with Lucifer, as high as heaven, but shall, with Lucifer, be brought down as low as hell. Canst thou think seriously of this, O soul, and not say, O Lord, I humbly crave that thou wilt let me be little in this world, that I may be great in another world; and low here, that I may be high for ever hereafter. Let me be low, and feed low, and live low, so I may live with thee for ever. Let me now be clothed with rags, so

thou wilt clothe me at last with thy robes. Let me now be set upon a dunghill, so I may at last be advanced to sit with thee upon thy throne. Lord, make me rather gracious than great, inwardly holy than outwardly happy; and rather turn me into any first nothing, yea, make me worse than nothing, rather than set me up for a time, that thou mayst bring me low for ever.'

Rem. 7. Solemnly consider that God does often most plague and punish those, whom others think he most spares and loves; that is, God plagues and punishes them most with spiritual judgments, (which are the greatest, the sorest, and the heaviest) whom he least punishes with temporal punishments. There are no men on earth so internally plagued, as those who meet with the least external plagues, O the blindness of mind, the hardness of heart, the searedness of conscience, that those souls are given up to, who in the eye of the world are reputed the most happy men, because they are not outwardly afflicted and plagued as other men. Ah, souls, it were better that all the temporal plagues that ever befel the children of men since the fall of Adam, should at once meet upon your souls, than that you should be given up to the least spiritual plague, to the least measure of spiritual blindness or spiritual hardness of heart. Nothing will better that man, nor move that man, who is given up to spiritual judgments. Let God smile or frown, stroke or strike, cut or kill, he minds it not, regards it not. Let life or death, heaven or hell, be set before him, it stirs him not: He is mad upon his sin, and God is fully set to do justice upon his soul. This man's preservation is but a reservation unto a greater condemnation. This man can set no bounds to himself; he is become a brat of fathomless perdition; he has guilt in his bosom, and vengeance at his back, wherever he goes; neither ministry nor misery, neither miracle nor mercy can mollify his heart; and if this soul be not in hell on this side hell, who is? It is better to have a sore, than a seared conscience. It is better to have no heart than a hard heart; no mind, than a blind mind.

Rem. 8. Dwell more upon that strict account which vain men must make for all that good which they enjoy.

Ah, did men dwell more upon that account, which they must ere long give, for all the mercies that they have enjoyed, and for all the favours that they have abused, and for all the sins they have committed, it would make their hearts to tremble, and their lips to quiver, and rottenness to enter into their bones; it would cause their souls to cry out, and say, O that our mercies had been fewer and less, that our account might have been easier, and our torment and misery, for our abuse of so great mercy, not greater than we are able to bear! O cursed be the day, wherein the crown of honour was set upon our heads, and the treasures of this world were cast into our laps! O cursed be the day, wherein the sun of prosperity shined so strong upon us, and this flattering world smiled so much upon us, as to occasion us to forget God, to slight Jesus Christ, to neglect our souls, and to put far from us the day of our account.'

Philip the third of Spain, whose life was free from gross evils, professed, that he would rather lose his kingdom, than offend God willingly; yet, being in the agony of death, and considering more thoroughly of the account he was to give to God, fear struck into him, and these words brake from him; O would to God I had never reigned. O that those years that I have spent in my kingdom, I had lived a solitary life in the wilderness! O that I had lived a solitary life with God! How much more securely should I now have died! How much more confidently should I have gone to the throne of God! What doth all my glory profit me, but that I have so much the more torment in my death?' God keeps an exact account of every penny that is laid out upon him and his, and that is laid out against him and his; and this in the day of account men shall know and feel, though now they wink, and will not understand. The sleeping of vengeance causes the overflowing of sin, and the overflowing of sin causes the awakening of vengeance. Abused mercy will certainly turn into fury. God's forbearance is no acquittance; the day is at hand, when he will pay wicked men for the abuse of old and new mercies. If he seem to be slow, yet he is sure; he has leaden heels, but iron hands: the farther he fetches his blow or draws his arrow,

the deeper he will wound in the day of vengeance. Men's actions are all in print in heaven, and God will in the day of account read them aloud in the ears of all the world, that they may all say Amen to the righteous sentence that 'he shall pass upon all despisers and abusers of mercy.

Dev. 9. The ninth device that Satan has to draw the soul to sin, is by presenting to the soul the crosses, losses, reproaches, sorrows and sufferings, that daily attend those that walk in the ways of holiness. Says Satan, • Do not you see, that there are none in the world who are so vexed, afflicted, and tossed, as those who walk more circumspectly and holily than their neighbours? They are a by-word at home, and a reproach abroad. Their miseries come in upon them, like Job's messengers, one upon the neck of another, and there is no end of their sorrows and troubles. Therefore you had better walk in ways that are less troublesome and less afflicted, though they are more sinful; for who but a madman will spend his days in sorrow, vexation and affliction, when it may be prevented by walking in the ways that I set before him?'

Now the remedies against this device of Satan are these

Rem. 1. Solemnly consider that all the afflictions that attend the people of God, are such as shall turn to the profit and glorious advantage of the people of God. They shall discover that filthiness and vileness in sin, which yet the soul has never seen.

It was a speech of a German divine in his sickness; In this disease I have learned how great God is, and what the evil of sin is. I never knew to any purpose what God was before, nor what sin meant, till now.' Afflictions are a chrystal glass, wherein the soul has the clearest sight of the ugly face of sin; in this glass the soul comes to see sin to be but a bitter-sweet. Yea, in this glass the soul comes to see sin not only to be an evil, but to be the greatest evil in the world, to be an evil far worse that hell itself.

Again; they shall contribute to the mortifying and

purging away of their sins. Afflictions are God's furnace, by which he cleanses his people from their dross. Afflic tion is a fire to purge out our dross, and to make virtue shine. It is a potion to carry away ill humours. The Jews, under all the prophets' thunderings, retained, their idols; but since their Babylonish captivity, it is observed, there have been no idols found amongst them.

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Again; afflictions are sweet preservatives to keep the saints from sin, which is a greater evil than hell itself; as Job spake; Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more. That which I see not, teach thou me; if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more. Once have I spoken foolishly, yea, twice; I will do so no more. The burnt child dreads the fire. Ah,' says the soul under the rod, sin is but a bittersweet; and for the future I intend, by the strength of Christ, that I will not buy repentance at so dear a rate.' The rabbins, to scare their scholars from sin, were wont to tell them, that sin made God's head ache; and saints, under the rod, have found, by woful experience, that sin makes not only their heads, but their hearts ache also. Augustine, by wandering out of his way, escaped one that lay in wait to mischief him. If afflictions did not put us out of our way, we should many times meet with some sin or other, that would mischief our precious souls.

Again; they will work the saints to be more fruitful in holiness. But he afflicts us for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. The flowers smell sweetest after a shower; vines bear the better for bleeding; the walnut tree is most fruitful, when most beaten; saints spring and thrive most internally, when they are most externally afflicted. Afflictions are called by some, 'the mother of virtue.' Manasseh's chain was more profitable to him than his crown. Luther could not understand some scriptures till he was in affliction. The Christ-cross is no letter, and yet that taught him more than all the letters in the row. God's house of correction is his school of instruction. All the stones that came about Stephen's ears, did but knock him closer to Christ, the corner-stone. The waves did but lift Noah's ark nearer to heaven; and the higher the waters grew, the more near the ark was lifted up to heaven.

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