in hell, are always in this prefence of God, but it is their torment, rather than their privilege. The laft is proper to the glorified faints and angels. Such a prefence embodied faints cannot now bear; but it is his fpecial gracious prefence which is made over and fecured to them in the covenant of grace; and this prefence of God is manifested to them two ways:

12.

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 inftructed and taught the meaning of the rod, Pfal. xciv. "Bleffed is the man whom thou chasteneft, and teachest him "out of thy law." O it is a bleffed thing to be taught fo many leffons by the rod, as the Spirit teacheth them! Surely they reckon it an abundant recompenfe of all that they fuffer. "It is good for me "that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy ftatutes," Pfalm 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 "comforts delight my foul," Pfal. xciv. 19.

Yea, by the prefence and bleffing of his Spirit, our afflictions are fanctified to fubdue and purge out our corruptions. "By this fhall the " iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away fin,” Ifa. xxvii. 9. Now, if a man be instructed in the ends and designs of the rod, refreshed and comforted under every ftripe of the rod, and have his fins mortified and purged by the fanctification of the Spirit upon his afflictions; then both the burdenfomenefs and bitterness of his afflictions are removed, and healed by the internal prefence of the Spirit of God with his afflicted ones. But,

2. Besides this, God is providentially prefent 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, ftill leaving us fome mercies and comforts to fupport and refreth us, when others are cut off. In measure doth he debate with his covenanted people, ftaying the rough wind in the day of the eaft-wind, Ifa. xxvii. 8. He might justly fmite all our outward comforts at once, fo that affliction fhould not rise up the fecond time: for what comfort foever hath been abused by fin, is thereby forfeited into the hand of judgment. But the Lord knows our inability to fuftain fuch ftrokes, and therefore proportions them to our strength. We have fome living relations to minifter comfort to us when mourning over our dead: He makes not a full end of all at once. Yea, and his providence fupports our frail bodies, enabling them to endure the fhocks and ftorms of fo many afflictions, without ruin. Surely there is as much of the care of Providence manifested in this, as there is in preferving poor crazy leaking barks, and weatherbeaten veffels at fea, when the waves not only cover them, but break into them, and they are ready to founder in the midst of them.

O what a fingular mercy is the gracious presence of God with men! even the special prefence of that God, "who is above all, and through all, and in you all," as the apoftle fpeaks, Eph. iv. 6. Above all, in majefty and dominion; through all, in his most efficacious providence; and in you all, by his grace and Spirit. As he is above all, fo he is able to command any mercy you want, with a word of his mouth; as he is through all, fo he must be intimately acquainted with all your wants, ftraits, and fears; and as he is in you all, fo he is engaged for your support and supply, as you are the dear members of Chrift's myftical body.

Objection. But methinks I hear Gideon's objection rolled into the way of this fovereign confolation: "If God be with us, why is all "this evil befallen us?"

Solution. All what? If it had been all this rebellion and rage against God, all this apoftacy and revolting more and more, all this contumacy and hardness of heart under the rod; then it had been a weighty and ftumbling objection indeed: but to fay, If God be with us, why are all these chaftening corrections and temporal croffes befallen us? why doth he fmite our bodies, children or eftates? is an objection no way fit to be urged by any that are acquainted with the fcriptures, or the nature and tenor of the covenant of grace. Is afflicting and forfaking all one with you? muft God needs hate, because he fcourgeth you? I question whether Satan himself hath impudence enough to fet fuch a note or comment upon Heb. xii. 6. "For whom "the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every fon whom he " receiveth."

No, no, Christian, it is not a chaftening rod, but the denying of fuch a favour, and fuffering men to fin with impunity, and go on profperously in the way of their own hearts, that speaks a rejected man, as the next words, ver. 7. inform you. As he never loved you the better for your profperity, to you may be confident he loves you never the lefs for your adverfity: 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, Pfal. xci. 15. Will not fuch a prefence revive thee? What then can do it! Mofes reckoned that a wilderness with God, was better than a Canaan without him. "If thy prefence go "not with me, (faith he,) then carry us not hence," Exod. xxxiii. 15. And if there be the fpirit of a Chriftian in thee, and God should give thee thine own choice, thou wouldst rather chufe to be in the midst of all these afflictions with thy God, than back again in all thy profperity, and among thy children and former comforts, without him.

Arg. V. As this covenant affures you of God's gracious and special prefence, fo it fully fecures all the effentials and substantials of your happiness, againft all hazards and contingencies; in which security lies your full relief and complete remedy against all your troubles for the lofs of other things.

There be two forts of things belonging to all God's people, viz.

1. Effentials.

2. Accidentals.

1. They have fome things which are effential to their happiness; fuch are the loving-kindness of God, the pardon of fin, union with Chrift, and eternal falvation. And they have other things which are accidentals, that come and go, live and die, without affecting or altering their happiness; fuch are health, estates, children, and all forts of relations and earthly comforts. These are to our hap piness, as leaves are to the tree, which fade and fall away without endangering the tree; but the other as the vital fap, without which it withers and dies at the very root. Now if it can be made out that the covenant fully fecures the former; then it will strongly follow, that it therein abundantly relieves us under all our forrows for the latter: And that it doth fo, will evidently appear by reviewing the covenant, wherein you thall find all these fubftantial and effential mercies of believers, fully fecured against all hazards and contingencies whatfoever.

There the loving-kindness of God is fecured to their fouls, whatever afflictions he lays upon their bodies. "Nevertheless my loving"kindness will I not take away," Pfal. lxxxix. 33. And their pardon is as fafe as the favour of God is; it is fafely locked up in that promife, "I will remember their fins no more," Jer. xxxi. 34. Yea, heaven, together with our perfeverance in the way to it, are both put out of hazard by that invaluable promife, "They fhall never perith, neither fhall any man pluck them out of my hand," John x. 28.

Thus are all the effentials of a believer's happiness fecured in the covenant; and these being safe, the lofs of other enjoyments should not much affect or wound them, because if he enjoy them, they add nothing to his happiness; and if he lofe them, he is still happy in God without them. And this unriddles that enigmatical expreffion of the apoftle, 2 Cor. vi. 10. "As having nothing, yet poffeffing all "things" i. e. the substraction of all external things cannot make us miferable, who have Chrift for our portion, and all our happiness en

tire in him.

If a man travelling on the road, fall into the hands of thieves, who rob him of a few fhillings, why this doth not much affect him; for though he has loft his fpending money, yet his ftock is safe at home, and his eftate fecure, 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 pound per annum, and returning home thould chance to lofe his gloves, or his handkerchief, fure if the man be in his wits, be will not take on or mourn for the lofs of these trifles, whilft the pardon or grant is fafe. Surely thefe things are not worth the mentioning.

It is true, the lofs of outward and earthly things are to a believer real trials, yet they are but feeming loffes: and therefore they are expreffed in the apoftle's phrafe, with a tanquam, ficut: "As shaften

"ed, and not killed; as forrowful, yet always rejoicing," 2 Cor. vi. 9. And if your loffes be but as it were loffes, your forrows fhould be but as it were forrows: much like a phyfic-fickness, which we do not call a proper fickness, but as it were a fickness because it conduceth 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 ftroke of God were at our fouls, to cut them off from Chrift and heaven, to raise our names out of the covenant, or revoke the pardon of fin; then we had caufe enough to justify the extremity of forrow; caufe enough to weep out our eyes, and break our hearts for such a dismal blow as that would be. But bleffed be God you stand out of the way of fuch strokes as thefe; let God ftrike round about you, or lay his hand upon any other comforts you poffefs, he will never fmite you in thefe effential things, which is certainly enough to allay and relieve all your other forrows.

My name is blotted out of the earth, but still it is written in heaven. God hath taken my only fon 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 fure and immoveable for ever. My houfe and heart are both in confufion and great diforder, but I have ftill an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and fure. I cannot fay my fon liveth, but I can ftill fay, "I know that my Redeemer liveth. The grafs withereth, and the "flower fadeth; but the word of the Lord abideth for ever," Ifa. xl. 8.

Arg. VI. As God ftrikes none of the substantial mercies of his covenant people, fo when he doth fmite their external accidental comforts, the covenant of grace affures them, that even those strokes are the ftrokes of love, and not wrath; the wounds of a friend, and not of an enemy; which is another fingular relief to the afflicted foul.

The moft frightful thing in any affliction, is the mark or character of God's wrath which it seems to bear: take away that, and the affliction is nothing. "O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither "chaften me in thy hot difpleasure,” Pfal. vi. 1. He doth not deprecate the rebukes, but the anger of God; not his chaftening, but his hot difpleasure. God's anger is much more terrible than his rebuking, and his hot difpleasure than his chaftening. Therefore he intreats, 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 if a man be well fatisfied, that whatever anguish there be, yet there is no anger, but that the rod is in the hand of love: O how it eafes the foul, and lightens the burden! Now this defirable point is abundantly cleared in the covenant; where we find a clear confistence, yea, a neceffary connection betwixt the love and the rod of VOL. VI. No. 50.

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God, Pfal. Ixxxix. 31. and Heb. xii. 6. Nay, fo rare are the afflic tions of the faints from being marks of his wrath, that they are the fruits and evidences of his fatherly love.

Two men walking through the ftreets, fee a company of boys fighting, one of them fteps forth, and fingles out one of those boys, and carries him home to correct him; which of the two, think you, is that child's father? The cafe ftanding thus with all God's people, furely there is no reafon for their defpondencies whatever their afflictions be.

Arg. VII. Laftly, The covenant doth not only discover the confiftence and connection betwixt the love and the rod of God, but it alfo gives full fatisfaction to the faints, that whatfoever contemporary mercy they are deprived of, which was within the bond of the covenant when they enjoyed it, is not loft, but fhall certainly be restored to them again with a rich improvement, 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 forrows, for the death of our dear relatives which died interested in Chrift and the covenant! 1 Theff. iv. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. "I would not have you igno"rant, brethren, concerning them which are afleep," 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 reafon, to which, upon awaking, the foul returns again. Juft fuch a thing is that which in believers is commonly called death. And we do not ufe to bewail our friends because they are fallen afleep and therefore it no way becomes us to forrow 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 fecured both to them and us by the refurrection of Jefus from the dead. The influence of his refurrection is by the prophet Ifaiah compared to the morning-dew, Ifa. xxvi. 19. to fhew 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 refurrection of Christ, fo revive and quicken the dead bodies of thefe faints; their bodies shall be restored by virtue of the warm animating dew or influence of his refurrection.

Objection. But the marvellous change which the refurrection makes upon glorified bodies, and the long feparation of many ages betwixt us and them, feems to make it impoffible for us to know them, as those that were once related to us upon earth; and, if fo, then that comfort which refulted from them, as in relation to us, is perished with them at death.

Solution. Whatever change the refurrection fhall make on their bodies, and the length of time betwixt our parting with them on earth, and meeting them again in heaven fhall be; neither the one nor the

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