58.2 SAFETY IN THE CRAVE, tDISC. Xr. And what if God, out of pure compassion, saw it neces- sary to hide them from an army of perils at once, and to carry them off the stage of life with more purity and honour ? Surely when the great God has appointed it; when the blessed Jesus has done it, we would not rise up in opposition and say, " But I would have had them live longer here at all adventures : I wish they were alive again, let the consequence be what it will." This is not the vòice. of faith or patience ; this is not the language of holy submission and love to God, nor can our souls approve of such irregular storms of ungoverned affec= tion, which oppose themselves to the divine will, and ruffle the soul with criminal disquietude." There are many, even of the children of God, who had left a mot e unblemished and a more honourable cha- racter behind them if they had died much sooner. The latter end of life hath sometimes sullied their brightness, and tarnished the glory they had acquired in a hopeful youth : Their growing years have fallen under such temptations, and been defiled and disgraced by such failings, as would have been entirely prevented had they been summoned away into God's hiding-place some years before. Our blessed Jesus walks among the roses and lilies in the garden of his church, and when he sees a wintry storm coming upon some tender plants of righ- teousness, he hides them in the earth to preserve life in them, that they may bloom with new glories when they shall be raised from that bed. The blessed God acts like a tender Father, and consults the safety and the honour ofhis children, when the hand of his Mercy snatches them away before that powerful temptation cornes, which he foresees would have defiled and distressed, and almost destroyed them. They are not lost, but they are gone to rest a little sooner than we are. Peace be to that bed of dust where they are hidden, by the hand of their God, from unknown dangers ! Blessed be our Lord Jesus, who has the keys of the grave, and never opens it for his fa- vourites but in the wisest season ! Observation III. God has appointed a set time in his- own counsels for all his children to continue in death :" Thosewhom he has hidden in the grave he remembers they lie there, and he will not suffer them to abide in the dust for ever. When Job intreats of God that he may be hid-
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