tions take nothing from him but his sin. Therefore his solid happiness remaineth not infringed, rather the more secured. So, "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law" (Psalm xlix. 12). To be chastened of God for what we have done amiss, and by that means to be reduced to the sense and practice of our duty, is one of the greatest blessings on this side Heaven that can light upon us. It is an evidence of God's tender care over us, and that he will not lose us, and suffer us to perish with the unbelieving and sinful world.

The truth lieth clearly in the Scripture; but to reconcile it with our prejudices,

I. I shall show by what measure we are to determine good and evil. 2. Prove that affliction is good.

1st, For the measure.

1. This good is not to be determined by our fancies and conceits, but by the wisdom of God; for God knoweth better what is good for us than we do for ourselves, and foreseeth all things by one infinite act of understanding; but we judge according to present appearance: therefore all is to be left to God's disposal, and his Divine choices are to be preferred before our foolish fancies; and what he sendeth and permitteth to fall out, is fitter for us than anything else. Could we once assuredly be persuaded of this, a Christian would be completely fortified and fitted, not only for a patient, but a cheerful entertainment of all that is or shall come upon him. Besides, he is a God of bowels, and loveth us dearly, better than we do ourselves; and therefore we should be satisfied with his dispensations, whatever they are, whether according to or against our will. The shepherd must choose the pastures for the sheep, whether lean or fat, bare or full grown the child is not to be governed by his own fancy, but the father's discretion; nor the sick man by his own appetite, but the physician's skill. It is expedient sometimes that God should make his people sad and displease them for their advantage: "Because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart; nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away" (John xvi. 6, 7). We are too much addicted to our own conceits: Christ's dealing is expedient and useful, when yet it is very unsatisfactory to us: he is to be judge of what is good for us, his going or tarrying, not we ourselves, who are shortsighted, and distempered with passions, whose requests many times are but ravings, and ask of God we know not what, as the two brethren (Matt. xx. 22), and seek our bane as a blessing, as children would play with a knife that would cut and wound them, pray ourselves into a mischief and a snare. It were the greatest misery if God should carve out our condition according to our own fancy and desires. Peter said, "Lord, it is good for us to be here" (Matt. xvii. 4); he was well-pleased to be upon Mount Tabor, but little thought what service God had to do for him elsewhere, how much poor souls needed him and the other apostles' help. We would always be in the mount with God, enjoy our comforts to the full, even to surfeit; but God knows that is not good for us. His pleasure should satisfy us, though we do not see the reason of it. So, Jer. xxiv. 5, God speaketh of the basket of good figs (whereby were represented the best of the people), " whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good." What can there be seemingly more contrary to their good, than a hard and an afflicted lot out of their own country? yet God, that foresaw all things, knew it was for their good, worse

evils would befall the place where they had been. So, to be kept under, to have no service for the present, no hopes to rise again for the future, and to be laden with all manner of prejudices and reproaches, this is for good. We think not so; but God knoweth it is so, most for his glory and our benefit. So the selling of Joseph into Egypt, “God meant it unto good" (Gen. 1. 20). Alas! what good to have the poor young man sold as a slave, to be cast into prison for his chastity and continency, and exposed to all manner of difficulties! but, alas! many had perished, if he had not been sent thither. So God taketh away many beloved comforts from us, he meaneth it for good. We think it is all against us, no, it is for us. So, "They that seek the Lord, shall not want any good thing" (Psalm xxxiv. 10). Many times they want food and raiment, want liberty, at least, in some degree: they may want many things that are comfortable; though they have things sparingly, though they have of the meanest, yet they have that which is good for them. So, "No good thing will he withhold" (Psalm lxxxiv. 11). He may keep us low and bare, feed us cibo extemporali, as Lactantius; but that is good for us. If it were good for us to have larger revenues and incomes, we should not want them. The true and absolute ground of all submission is, to think that which God sendeth is good, be it prosperity or adversity, having or wanting children, or other comforts.

the

2. The next measure is this, that good is to be determined by its respect to the chief good, or true happiness. Now, what is our chief happiness but the enjoyment of God? Our happiness doth not consist in outward comforts, riches, health, honour, civil liberty, or comfortable relations, as husband, wife, children, but in our relation to and acceptance with God: other things are but additional appendages to our happiness (Matt. vi. 33). Affliction taketh nothing from our essential, solid happiness; rather helpeth us in the enjoyment of it, as it increaseth grace and holiness; and so we enjoy God more surely. That is good that sets us nearer to God, and that is evil which separateth us from him; therefore sin is evil, because it maketh an estrangement between us and God (Isa. lix. 2). But affliction is good, because many times it maketh us the more earnestly to seek after him: "In their affliction they will seek me early" (Hos. v. 15). Therefore every condition is good or evil as it sets further off, or draweth us nearer to, God: that is good that tendeth to make us better, more like unto God, capable of communion with him, conduceth to our everlasting happiness. So, "It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth" (Lam. iii. 27); that he be trained up under the cross, in a constant obedience to God, and subjection to him, and so be fitted to entertain communion with him. If afflictions conduce to this end, they are good; for then they help us to enjoy the chief good.

3. That good is not always the good of the flesh, or the good of outward prosperity; and therefore the good of our condition is not to be determined by the interest of the flesh, but the welfare of our souls. If God should bestow upon us so much of the good of the outward and animal life as we desire, we could not be said to be in a good condition, if he should deny us good spiritual. We should lose one-half of the blessings of the covenant by doting upon, and falling in love with, the rest: the flesh is importunate to be pleased; but God will not serve our carnal turns. We are more concerned as a soul than a body: "He for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness" (Heb. xii. 10). Certain it is God will

chasten us for our profit. What do we call profit, the good things of this world, the great mammon which so many worship? If we call it so, God will not; he meaneth to impart to us spiritual and Divine benefit, which is a participation of his own holiness. And truly the people of God, if they be in their right temper, value themselves not by their outward enjoyments, but their inward; by their improvement of grace, not the enjoyment of worldly comforts: "For which cause we faint not; but, though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day" (2 Cor. iv. 16). A discerning Christian puts more value upon holiness wrought by affliction, than upon all his comforts; so that, though affliction be evil in itself, it is good as sanctified.

4. A particular good must give way to a general good; and our personal benefit, to the advancement of Christ's kingdom. The good of the church must be preferred before our personal contentment. Paul could want the glory of Heaven for a while, if his continuance in the flesh were needful for the saints: "To abide in the flesh is more needful for you” (Phil. i. 24). We must not so desire good to ourselves, as to hinder the good of others. All elements will act contrary to their particular, for the conservation of the universe. That may be good for the glory of God which is not good for our personal contentment and ease. Now, the glory of God is our greatest interest: if it be for the glory of God that I should be in pain, bereft of my comforts, my sanctified subjection to the will of God must say it is good. John xii. 27, there you have expressed the innocent inclination of Christ's human nature, "Father, save me from this hour;" and the overruling sense of his duty, or the obligation of his office, "but for this cause came I unto this hour." We are often tossed and tumbled between inclination of nature and conscience of duty; but, in a gracious heart, the sense of our duty, and the desire of glorifying God, should prevail above the desire of our own comfort, ease, and safety, and welfare. Nature would be rid of trouble; but grace submits all our interests to God's honour, which should be dearer to us than anything else.

5. This good is not to be determined by present feeling, but by the judgment of faith. Affliction for the present is not pleasant to natural sense, nor for the present is the fruit evident to spiritual sense; but it is good, because in the issue it turneth to good: "All things work together for good" (Rom. viii. 28). While God is striking, we feel the grief, and the cross is tedious; but, when we see the end, we acknowledge it is good to be afflicted: "No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness" (Heb. xii. 11). A good present is the cause of joy, and an evil present is the cause of sorrow; but there are two terms of abatement: the sorrow is from the present sense, and the conceit of the sufferer. When we are but newly under the affliction, we feel the smart, but do not presently find the benefit; but, within a while, especially in the review, it is good for me; it is matter of faith under the affliction, it is matter of sense after it. Good physic must have time to work that which is not good, may be good; though it be not good in its nature, it is good in its seasonable use; and, though for the present we see it not, we shall see it. Therefore good is not to be determined by feeling, but by faith. The rod is a sore thing for the present; but the bitter root will yield sweet fruit. If we come to a person under the cross, and ask him, What! is it good to feel the lashes of God's correcting hand, to be kept poor and sickly, exer

cised with losses and reproaches, to part with friends and relations, to lose a beloved child? sense will complain. But this poor creature, after he hath been exercised and mortified, and gotten some renewed evidences of God's favour, ask him then, Is it good to be afflicted? Oh! yes; I had else been vain, neglectful of God, wanted such an experience of the Lord's grace.' Faith should determine the case, when we feel it not.

2ndly, That, according to these measures, you will find it good to be afflicted.

1. It is good as it is minus malum, it keepeth us from greater evils. Afflictions to the righteous are either cures of, or preservatives from, spiritual evils, which would occasion greater troubles and crosses. They prevent sin: "And, lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure” (2 Cor. xii. 7). They purge out sin: "By this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged" (Isa. xxvii. 9). We are apt to abuse prosperity to self-contidence: "In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong" (Psalm xxx. 6, 7). And luxury: "But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness. Then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation" (Deut. xxxii. 15). The godly have evil natures as well as others, which cannot be beaten down, but by afflictions. We are froward in our relations: Hagar was proud in Abraham's house (Gen. xvi. 4), her mistress was despised in her eyes; but very humble in the desert (Gen. xxi. 16). David's heart was tender and smote him when he cut off the lap of Saul's garment (1 Sam. xxiv. 5); but how stupid and senseless was he, when he lived at ease in Jerusalem (2 Sam. xii.). His conscience was benumbed till Nathan roused him. Before we are chastened, we are rebellious, frail, fickle, mutable, apt to degenerate without this continual discipline: we are very negligent and drowsy, till the rod awakeneth us. God's children have strange failings and negligences; and sometimes are guilty of more heinous sins. It is a great curse for a man to be left to his own ways: "Let him alone" (Hos. iv. 17). So, "I gave them up to their own hearts' lust" (Psalm lxxxi. 12). Men must needs perish when left to themselves, without this wholesome, profitable discipline of the cross.

2. It is good, because the evil in it is counterpoised by a more abundant good: it is evil as it doth deprive us of our natural comforts, pleasure, gain, honour; but it is good, as these may be recompensed with better pleasures, richer gain, and greater honour. There is more pleasure in holiness than there can be pain and trouble in affliction : "No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness" (Heb. xii. 11); more gain than affliction can bring loss: "But he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness" (Heb. xii. 10); more honour than affliction can bring shame surely, then, it is good. There is a threefold profit we get by affliction :

(1.) The time of affliction is a serious, thinking time: "In the day of adversity consider" (Eccl. vii. 14); "Yet, if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive" (1 Kings viii. 47). We have more liberty to retire into ourselves, being freed from the attractive allurements of worldly vanities and the delights of the flesh. Adversity maketh

men serious: the prodigal came to himself when he began to be in want (Luke xv. 17). Sad objects make a deep impression upon our souls: they help us to consider our own ways, and God's righteous dealings, that we may behave ourselves wisely and suitably to the dispensation: the man of wisdom will hear the rod (Mic. vi. 9).

(2.) It is a special hearing time; in the text, "that I might learn thy statutes ;" and it is said of Christ, that "he learned obedience by the things he suffered" (Heb. v. 8): he did experimentally understand what obedience was in hard and difficult cases, and so could the better pity poor sinners in affliction: we have an experimental knowledge of that of which we had but a notional knowledge before. We come by experience to see how false and changeable the world is, how comfortable an interest in God is, what a burden sin is, what sweetness there is in the promises, what a reality in the word. Luther said, Qui tribulantur, &c. The afflicted see more in the Scripture than others do: the secure and fortunate read them as they do Ovid's verses. Certainly, when the soul is humble, and when we are refined and raised above the degrees of sense, we are more tractable and teachable; our understandings are clearer, our affections more melting. Our spiritual learning is a blessing that cannot be valued: if God write his law upon our hearts, by his stripes on our backs, so light a trouble should not be grudged at.

(3.) It is an awakening, quickening time.

(i.) Some are awakened out of the sleep of death, and are first wrought upon by afflictions: this is one powerful means to bring in souls to God, and to open their ears to discipline. God began with them in their afflictions, and the time of their sorrows was the time of their loves. The hot furnace is Christ's workhouse: the most excellent vessels of honour and praise have been formed there: "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction" (Isa. xlviii. 10). Manasses, Paul, the jailer, were all chosen in the fire: God puts them into the furnace, and chooseth them there, melts them, and stamps them with the image of Christ. The hogs' trough was a good school to the prodigal. Well then, doth God do you any harm by affliction, when he saves you by it? If we use violence to a man that is ready to be drowned, and in pulling him out of the water should break an arm or a leg, would he not be thankful? if you have broken my arm, you have saved my life. So God's children, 'It is good that I had such an an affliction, felt the sharpness of such a cross. Oh! blessed providence! I had been a witless fool, and gone on still in a course of sin and vanity, if God had not awakened me.'

(ii.) It quickeneth others to be more careful of their duty, more watchful against sin, and doth exercise and improve us in heavenly virtues and graces of the Spirit, which lay dormant in us through neglect, since pleasing objects which deaden the heart are removed. Even God's best children, when they have gotten a carnal pillow under their heads, are apt to sleep their prayers are dead, thoughts of Heaven cold, or none; little zeal for God, or delight in him: "Lord, in trouble they have visited thee; they have poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them" (Isa. xxvi. 16); "In their affliction they will seek me early" (Hos. v. 15). Because they do not stir up themselves, God stirreth them up by a smart rod. The husbandman pruneth the vine, lest it run out into leaves: the baits of the flesh must be taken from us, that our gust and relish of heavenly things may be recovered.