220 FIFTH SERMON haply it was that Christ was buried in a garden, to note that death itself loth not destroy our bodies, but only sow them, the dew of herbs will revive them again, 1 Cor. xv. 42 -44.) but further a profiting by afflictions, that we may say with David, " It is good for us ;" when we find it bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness after we have been exercised therein. And as he promiseth these things, so we should learn to turn these promises into prayer and into prac- tice ; when we seem in our own eyes cast out of God's sight, yet we must not cast them out of our sight, but as Jonah in the whale's belly, and as Daniel in Baby- lon, pray towards his holy temple still. The woman of Canaan would not be thrust off with a seeming re- jection, not utterly despond under a grievous temp- tation, but by a singular acumen and spiritual saga- city discerned matter of argument, in that which looked like a denial, Matt. xv. 27. Soap and fuller's earth at the first putting on seem to stain and to foul clothes, when the use and end is to purify them. And God's frowns and delays may seem to be the denials of prayer, when haply his end is to make the granting of them the more comfort. Therefore in all troubles we must not give over looking towards God, but say with Job, " Though he slay .me, I will trust in him." And after all afflictions we must learn to express the fruit of them, to come out of them refined, as silver out of the fire, to have thereby our faith strengthened, our hope confirmed, our love inflamed, our fruit and obedience increased, our sin taken away, and our iniquities purged, Isa. xxvii. 9. To be chastened and taught, Psa. xciv. 12. to be chastened and converted, Jer. xxxviii. 18. If we have run away from our duties, and been cast into a whale's belly for it, when we are delivered, let us be sure to look
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