582 / 674
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
of
his
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
:"
Those
whom 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-