and may wait for its promised fruit. Thou knowest what would stop me in my heavenly journey, if it be my bosom favourite, the dearest object of my love, O tear it from my heart. Thou hast given me a desire to have every rival dethroned. O come, and reign alone in me, almighty Jesus, and subdue whatever opposes thy lawful government. My Saviour and my God, make all within me feel the power of thy cross. Crucify the body of sin. Spare nothing that would hinder my walking with thee, or would deprive me of thy friendship and favours. I bless thee, I worship thee, I glorify thee for this infinite grace, that thou hast made me willing to have all mine idols pulled down. On thee I depend every moment for keeping them down. O my loving Jesus carry on thy work, and in thine own way subdue sin in me: let me be planted together in the likeness of thy death, that I may be also in the likeness of thy resurrection-Dead to sin, but alive to God. I ask this for thy great name's sake. Let it be thy good pleasure to hear and answer. I believe thou wilt. I have thy word for it. There I rest. With this faith review thy mercies. soul, what a good God has done for greater things he has still in store. measure reconciled thee to his cross. vinced, it is thy Father's appointment, contrived for the best by his infinite love, and settled on thee for thy richest portion in time-He sends it for the trial of thy faith, that it may be found unto praise and honour and glory for the exercise and for the improvement of thy patience for the mortifying of the body of sin, and for the deadening of the life of sense. This is the will of thy most loving and tender Father. He sends the cross to be the means of these blessings. Certainly then it cannot hinder thy walk with him, but in all these respects will tend to keep thee in the way, and to help thee forward in it, and thus Amen and Amen. Fourthly, It will assist and promote thy holy fellowship and communion with God. This is the principal thing in religion. We fell from God by sin, and it is the greatest mercy to be brought back to him again. In this point all religions fail, but the Christian. Christ is the way. No one cometh to the Father, but by him: for there is salvation in no other. He only can forgive sin: he only can justify sinners. And this way was contrived in the covenant of the Trinity for the highest display of their divine perfections. Which begin to be manifested, when the Spirit of life enters into the sinner, and quickens him; when the Spirit of adoption enables him to trust in the atonement and obedience of Immanuel, and thereby to see God reconciled, and to call him, Abba, Father. With this faith in Jesus he expects from the Father's love all his promised mercies. Thus he has fellowship with the Father and the Son by the Holy Spirit. He stands related to the eternal Three in their covenant offices, and he receives freely in believing the covenant blessings of each. Among these blessings the cross is not the least: for it is mercifully appointed to be the means of bringing sinners to this divine fellowship. They go on stubbornly after their own hearts, and in the error of their own ways, until the Lord send some trouble to stop them. They look wishfully at the gilded cup of pleasure, and drink greedily of its sweets without any fear of the deadly poison mixed up with it. But when God convinces of sin, then come sorrow: they feel the poison working in a sense of guilt, and dread of punishment, which teach the want of a Saviour, and are a good schoolmaster, to bring them unto Christ. So God dealt with the chief of the Old Testament sinners a giant in iniquity, who surpassed all that were before him in Jerusalem for idolatry and blood-shedding. The Lord sent his prophets to warn him of his guilt, but he would not hearken. He hardened his heart, till the Lord brought upon him the captains of the host of the King of Assyria, who took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon: and when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him, and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom: then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God. His case was not singular. It is a common thing with the Lord to send affliction to make sin bitter, that he may lead his people to true sorrow for it, and that they may seek until they find salvation. And when they have found it, he still uses the cross to keep them near unto himself. Indeed the cross alone has not this effect, but rather the contrary. The natural man has his fretfulness stirred up by suffering, and cannot help murmuring at the will of God. But grace sanctifies suffering. God makes it blessing to his children, as by it he exercises their faith in such general promises, as these. 66 If God sent great and many troubles, they shall not separate believers from him: because he will then be with them; as he spake unto Israel-" Fear not to go "down into Egypt, for I will there make of thee a great nation, I will go down with thee into Egypt." It was the house of bondage, in which the taskmasters heavily afflicted his descendants with their burdens, but the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. So it was with the Israel of God. They need not fear any affliction: for their God has promised to be with them in it, and by it to make them great Christians; the more they are afflicted the more shall their graces multiply and grow-"I will be with thee "in trouble, says God-I will redeem, I will save "thee from all thy troubles-many are the troubles "of the righteous, but I will deliver thee out of them "allyea, when thou passest through the water, "and through the fire, I will be with thee, and will 66 preserve thee from all evil-I will make all these "things work together for thy good." These promises are a great support to faith: for God engages to be with his children in every affliction. He does not intend that any should separate them from him, but that all should keep them near to himself. He says he will be with them; they therefore expect his presence, and if their afflictions be very great, they may on good grounds wait for his time of deliverance. And as his word cannot be broken, their trust in it will be confirmed, and their hearts will be established in waiting upon the Lord. If their afflictions continue long he is with them all the time, making them sensible of their own weakness, and putting forth his promised strength, both that they may endure, and may also persevere in enduring thus he improves their patience. And because they have still a carnal nature, which cannot bear the cross, God therefore keeps it upon them, in order to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts, that as they die unto sin they may live unto righteousness. Such is the declared purpose of God in afflicting his children: he would hereby cherish these graces in them, by which communion with him is kept up; and as these grow, communion with him will grow in propor tion. Faith will look more at the truth, and live more upon the faithfulness of God. Patience will depend more on his arm, and the less happiness the believer can find in the creature, he will seek and will find the more in his God. The mortifying of the old man will of course make the new man more alive: for as the power of the cross of Christ is laid upon the former, the power of the life of Christ will be experienced in the latter. But such is the goodness of God to his children under the cross, that he has given them several very particular and express promises, in order to strengthen their faith and patience. He has shewn them what fellowship they are to expect with the eternal Three in their covenant offices; for promoting which he most mercifully provided the cross. O my soul, attend to this: carefully survey this rich contrivance of divine .love, and when the cross is sent, take it up in faith, and expect to be a partaker of its covenant blessings. up nion with thy God and Saviour. The appointed trial comes. It is to give thee proof of the soundness of thy faith in Jesus, and to let thee see by experience, that thou hast not believed in vain. Thou hast fled to him for refuge, from sin and guilt, from wrath and hell: He took thee into his protection; and now thy safety in him is to be attacked. It will be seen, that the foundation upon which thou standest will bear thee in an hour of temptation. If thou hast indeed fellowship with him in his glorious salvation, it will now be made manifest to thy great profit. The cross is laid upon thee, an heavy, a bitter cross: it deprives thee of all sensible comfort; and is kept upon thee till thou hast no prospect of any. Hope in creature-comfort is failed. This is a sweet season for spiritual communion with thy Jesus. He has deadened the enjoyment of other things, that thy heart might be happier in him; therefore now thou art to bring the principles, laid down in the former chapters, into practice. Here is a fair opportunity to make use of them: for without them a man must sink under such a cross; but through faith in the righteousness of thy God and Saviour thou wilt not only have powerful arguments, but wilt also have powerful grace, to bear thy sufferings, patient under them, and thankful for them: Under them thou wilt be tried-Is it good ground upon which I have built my hope of salvation? Is it the rock of ages? Does it bear me up safe, and keep me unshaken in this time of trouble? Yes, blessings, eternal blessings on my precious Jesus: I have fled to him, for refuge, and he has set my feet upon a rock, that can never be moved: Christ, my passover, is sacrificed for me: in the blood of sprinkling I have put my trust, and I am safe from the destroyer; he is my propitiation, in whom I have redemption through faith in his blood: He is mine advocate also with the Father, standing in his presence as my surety: while the Father sees him and loves him, he will see me in him and love me with the same love: Jesus is mine atonement with him, my righ |