BAXTER'S FAREWELL SERMON. 511 if we saw, it would moderate our griefs. And even so we over- pity ourselves and our friends in our temporal sufferings, because we.sste not whither they tend and what will follow them. We'see Job on the dunghill, but look not so far as his restoration. "Be- hold we count them happy which endure: ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy ;" Jam. v. 11. There is no judging by the present, but either by staying [for] the end, or be- lievingGod's predictions of it. Use. It is allowable in Christ's disciples to grieve (in faith and moderately) for any departure of his from them : they that have had the comfort of cornlhunion with him in a life of faith and grace, must needs lamentany loss of that communion : it is sad with such a soul, when Christ seemeth strange, or when they pray and seek, and seem not to be heard. It.is sad with a believer, when he must say, 'I had once access to the Father by the Son ; I had helps in prayer, and I had the lively operations of the Spirit of grace, and some of the joy of the Holy Ghost ; but now, alas.! it is not so.' And they that have had experience of the fruit and comfort of his word', and ordinances, and discipline, and the communion of saints, may be allowed to lament the loss of this, if he take it from them. It was riounseemly thing in David, when he wasdriven from the tabernacle of God, to make that lamentation, " As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God ; my soul thirsteth for God, for the living God ; when shall I. come and ap- pear before God ? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? O my God, my soul is cast down within me," Sze.; Psalm xlii. and xlüt. And; " My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord ; my heart and my flesh brieth out for the living God ; yea, the sparrow bath- found a house, and the swallow a nest," &c. "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house ; they will be still prais- ing thee. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand; I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents ofwickedness ;" Psalm lxxxiv. 2-4, It signifieth ill when men can easily let Christ go, or lose his word, or helps, and ordinances. When sin provoketh him to hide his face, and with- draw his mercies, if we can senselessly let them go, it is a con- tempt which provoketh himmuch more. If we are indifferent what he giveth us; it isjust with him to be indifferent too, and to set as little by our helps'and happiness as we set by them our- selves. But we little know the misery which such contempt pre- pareth for : " Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee, lest I make thee desolate ; a land not inhabited ;" Jer. vi. 8. " Yea, woe also unto them when I depart from them ;"
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=