Ver. 28. the 8th Chapter to the ROMAN S. 27 and (offerings are fo accepted by him, that they are fare to be rewarded by him, Mateh 5. 12. great it your reward in heaven. And James I. 12. Blefféd is the man that endureth temptations, for when he is tryed, he fiat! receive the crown of life, which God halt premifd to them that love him. Partly, as they are a means which God ufeth to draw us off from the love and elteem of the world; and to awaken in us an earned delire, and fertous parfait after Heavenly things. Gal. 6. 14. They conduce to mortification , and kill the gull of the fle(h; fo that our title is not only more fecured, but our hearts prepared. Partly, becaufe here is the full recompence, the good that anfwereth all obje&ions; if call out by men, you are received by the Lord ; if calumniated by the world, approved by God; if you have loft the love of all men for your faithfiilnefs and finceritv,you {hall injoÿ the love of God; if imprifoned; you (hall (hortly be in your Fathers hou(e: There all your fears and forrows will be at an end, your delires accomplifhed, and your expe- &atíons fatisfied.'Tis Heaven that turneth pain into pleafure, death into life : and partly, becaufe tho we fail in particular conlli&s, yet God fecureth oureverlalting eftate. Ro- mani prelio, fly vitïi, bello nufquam. So Chri(tians, we cannot fay, that always there is fach fenlible benefits by of hi &ions; but this is the fenfe of the place, as the following verfes (hew, That the general iffue of things is determined and put out of controverfie by it. The infallibility of Gods condu&, cannot be difcerned by every particular event 3 for a Chri(tian may not gain by every trouble he falleth into, but by alltogether his e- ternal eftate is promoted; they all are means to preferve us, till we come to Heaven. Thus you fee, how he that could turn (tones into bread, water into wine, can extra a bleffing out of our faddeft miferies and afi &ions, and make the bittereft herbs to yeild honey to the faints. 2. The certainty of this, We know. Not by an uncertain and fallible conje&ure, but upon fare grounds. What are they ? I. Thepromife of God, by which he bath fecured the falvation of his people, notwith Standing their troubles. Heb. 6. 17, 18. Wherein God willing more abundantly to fhewun. to the heirs of promife, the immutability of his counfel, confirmed it by an oath ; that by two immutable things, in which it was impofble for God to lie, we might have firong confolation, who have fled for refioge,to lay hold of the hope fit before us. Gods reïoived purpofe declared in his Covenant, cannot be altered; his promifes in time, are his eternal purpofe before time; he bath undertaken by promife, and oath, to be their God, the God of their fal- vation. 2. By the experiences of the faints, who have found it fo. Pfal. 1 19. 71. Before I was afjlihied, I went affray, but now I learn thy fiatutes : they have been perfwaded,of it, Phil. I. 19. Iltnow that this (hall turn to my falvation. All the troubles he endured, thould be fo ordered by God,as they at length turn to his eternal happinefs. 3. From the nature of the thing ; two conliderations enforce it. a. All things are at Gods difpofal, and forced to ferve him. Men, Devils croffes and comforts, nothing can fall out againft, or without his will: Angels, Devils, Men, have no power to null and fru(trate his decrees ; for he is the fupreme and univerfal Lord, Pfal. 33:1 r. The couafel of the Lord ffandeth forever; the thought of his heart to all ge- nerations. And therefore he blatts, and fruftrateth all the devices of the wicked ; and what he decreeth, thall immutably come to pats. a. His fpecial care over his people. He hath carried them in the womb of his decrees be- fore the foundation of the world; he loveth them more than a mother loveth her ten- der infant, lfa. 49. 15. Can a woman forget her finking- child, that flae fhould not have cou,, paon on the fon of her womb? yea, they may forget, but I will not forget thee. If the mo -' ther be fo tenderly affe &ed to the child whom (he carried in her womb for fome few months, will not God much more? He is as tender of them as the apple of his eye, Zech. 2. 8. He bath fecured his Covenant-love by promife, t Cor. to. 13. But God is faithful, who will not fifer you to be tempted above that you are. able; he will never leave you to infupportable difficulties. Secondly, To give a more general slate of the cafe. a. This good is not to be determined by our fancies, and conceits, bat by the wifdom of God; for God kuoweth What is better for us, than we do for our felves: we judg ac- cording to prefent appearance, but he hathg fight or infpeítion of our hearts, and a profpe& or forelight of all future events : And therefore his divine choices are to be pre. ferred before our foolith fancies i what he fendeth or perinitteth to fall out, is fitter for PUP
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