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5ER
\I. XXXVII.]
THE C1IRISTJAN'S
TREASURE.
119
froth God
and heaven, the
same
things
are made
happy
instruments
in
the
hand
of
the Nlediatur, to furnish you
out
for eminent
service,
and
td
help you onward
to
a bet
-
ter
world.
III.
Life
and death are yours.
Life, with all
the
comfortable attendants of
it; or
even with
all
its
diffi-
culties
and
vexatious,
is
still
designed
for
your advan-
tage; and'death,
as
terrible
as
it
is
in
itself,
shall
appear
to
be
a
bcaefit
to
you.
But
I
insist no
longer
on
this
head
at
present, because
I
design
it
to be
the subject
of
following .discourses.
IV.
Things present, whether
visible
or
invisible,
and
things
to come,
are
all
yours.
1.
Visible things
present are
yours. I have skewed
you in
part
already,
how
the
wheels
of
nature are
rolling
for
you.
This
lower
creation
stands and
moves for
your
sakes,
for your
relief
and support,
while you
are travel
-
ling
to
heaven.
The
present posture
of
things in
this
world,
the
daily scenes
of
life
are continued or changed
and
still
over-ruled
by
divine providence for
your
good.
Kingdoms, and
laws,
and
governments, are established
among men for your safety:
If
the world were
without
all
government,
and
all things
run
into confusion, the
saints, with
all their earthly
comforts, would become
the
plunder and property of
the.
wicked
continually.
The
princes
of
the earth, and the political
constitutions
of
nations, are designed to
be
a.
screen
and
defence
to
the
people
of
God,
who dwell
among them,:
For
" if
these
foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do,"
Ps.
xi.
3.
" The
wicked
would bend their
bow,
and
make ready their
arrow upon the string;
and they would
not
only in
private,
but
publicly shoot
at
the
upright
in
heart,"
verse
2.
There
would be
neither
life
nor
safety
for
a
christian. Yet,
oh
the
other
hand,
when
Christ, in
the course
of
his
providence, brings confusion on states
and
kingdoms,
and when
he suffers
the
wicked
of
the
earth,
like wild
beasts
of
the wilderness, to
spoil,
devour
and
destroy,
it
is
usually designed
by his wisdom,
as
a
season
of proper
trial
for
his own
people,
and
that
country
becomes
a
scene
of
their
glorious
sufferings.
Christ,
who
is
head over
all things, sets
up and
pulls
clown
tyrants
or
good
princes,
as
may best serve
the
i4