ON HOSEA XIV.- VERSES 5 -7. .201 Paul's in the shipwreck, Acts xxvii. 20. 25. . God is never so much glorified by the faith of his servants, as when they can hold up their trust in him against sight and sense ; and when reason saith, Thou art un- done, for all help fails thee, can answer in faith, I am not undone, for he said, I will never fail thee, nor for- sake thee. [7.] The power which the church bath to rise up above her pressures, to outgrow her troubles, to revive after lopping and harrowing, to make use of affliction as a means to flourish again, all this is from him. That in trouble we are not overwhelmed, but can say with the apostle, " As dying, and behold we live ; as chastened, and not killed as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing ; as poor, yet making many rich ; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things ;" like the corn which dies and is quickened again, like the vine that is lopped and spreads again, all this is from him who is the resurrection and the life, John xi. 25. who was that grain of wheat which dying, and being cast into the ground, did bring forth much fruit, John xii. 24. the branch which grew out of the roots of Jesse, when that goodly family was sunk so low, as from David the king unto Joseph the carpenter. [S.] As God is the author of all these blessings unto his people, so when he bestows them he doth it in perfection ; the fruits which this dew produceth, are the fruits of Lebanon, the choicest and most excellent of any other. If he plant a vineyard, it shall be in a very . fruitful hill, and with the choicest plants, Isa. v. 1, 2. a noble vine, a right seed, Jer. ii. 21. When in any kind of straits we have recourse to the creature for supply, either we find it like our Saviour's fig-tree, without fruit, or like our prophet's vine, as good as empty, the fruits thereof not worth the gathering,
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