(more intensely); he prayed till he sweat, yea till he sweat great drops of blood; the reason whereof was, because he had not only the pangs of death, but the -sense of his Father's wrath to conflict withall: so it is with believers many times, outward afflictions are accompanied with inward desertions.

Truly christians, those prayers wherewith you contented yourselves in the day of your peace and prosperity, will not serve your turn in the hour of temptation; then you will call to mind your short, slight, cold, dead, sleepy, formal devotions in your families and closets, and be ashamed of them: Then you will see need of praying over all your prayers again, and stir up yourselves to take hold on God. Indeed for this very end God sends his people into captivity, that he may draw out the spirit of prayer, which they have suffered to lie dead within them. O my dove that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs; let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice: for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. Christ's dove never looks more beautiful in his eyes than when her cheeks are bedewed with tears; nor ever makes sweeter music in his ears, then when she mourns to him out of the rock, and from under the stairs, in a dark and desolate condition; then, saith Christ, thy countenance is comely, and sweet is thy voice.

7. By correction God brings the children of promise into more ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE WORD. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might

learn thy statutes. God sent David into the school of affliction, there to learn his statutes.

By correction the people of God learn to converse with the word of God more abundantly-To understand it more clearly-And to relish it more sweetly..

By affliction they come to converse with it more abundantly. It is their duty at all times to study the word; to let it dwell richly in them in all wisdom. Job esteemed the words of God's mouth more than his · necessary food. It is their happiness as well as their duty. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. But what through distraction without, and distemper within, the children of God many times grow strangers to their bibles; they suffer diversions to interpose between the word and their hearts, and therefore, God deals with them as we do with our children, we whip them to their books by the rod of correction. Princes did sit and speak against me, says David, i. e.. they sat in council to take away his life, that they might condemn him as a traitor against Saul; and what did he in the mean time! it follows, but thy servant did me ditate in thy statutes. And again, Princes have per secuted me without a cause, but my heart standeth in awe of thy word. While the persecutors are consult ing with the oracles of hell to sin against David, he is consulting with the oracles of heaven, that he might not sin against God: while they sinned and feared not, David feared and sinned not.

Again, they learn by affliction to understand the word more clearly. As it was with the disciples in' reference to Christ's resurrection, These things understood not his disciples at the first, but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they these things, i. c. they knew what they meant. So it is with the people of God many times in reference to affliction: the rod expounds the word, providence interprets the promise. The children of God had never understood some scriptures, had not God sent them into the school of afflic-. tion; then they can remember how it is written: they can bring God's word and his works together.

Lastly, Affliction makes them relish the word more sweetly. In prosperity many times we suffer the luscious enjoyments of the world so to distemper our palates that we cannot relish the word, nor taste no more sweetness in it than in the white of an egg, as Job speaks, in another case: but when God hath kept them for weeks, months, and years it may be, fasting from the world's dainties, when they are thoroughly hungerbitten in the creature, then How sweet are thy words to my taste! sweeter than honey to my mouth! These are the words which David spake in his affliction. The rod did sweeten the word: it is my delight, my joy, a nest of sweetnesses. The full soul loatheth the honey-comb when we are crammed with creaturecomforts, we nauseate many times the very word itself; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. Let God famish the world round about us, then how cor

dial is a word of scripture consolation? How precious are the promises! Oh, said a gracious woman reduced to great straits, I have made many a meal's meat upon the promises when I have wanted bread." The word is never so sweet as when the world is most bitter; and therefore God doth lay mustard upon the teats of the world, that we might go to the breasts of the word, and there suck and be satisfied with the milk of consolation. This is my comfort in my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me. Blessed be God for that correction which sweetens the word unto us.

8. God by bringing his people into troubles, especially if life-threatening dangers, doth shew them the NECESSITY OF SOUND EVIDENCE for HEAVEN and HAPPINESS.

Alas! with what easy and slight evidences do we often content ourselves in the time of our prosperity, when the candle of the Almighty doth shine in our tabernacles, when all is peace and quiet round about us! The heart being taken up with other fruitions, we want either time or will, to pursue the trial of our own estates. People mind only what will serve their turn for the present, and quiet their hearts, that they may follow their pleasures and profits with the less regret; and therefore to save themselves a labour, they take that for evidence which the sluggish carnal heart wisheth were so: But now in the hour of temptation, fig-leaves will cover nakedness no longer nothing will serve the turn, but what will be able to

stand before God, and endure the trial of fire in the day of Christ. O, then one clear and unquestionable evidence of interest in Christ, and the love of God, will be worth ten thousand worlds: shadows and appearances of grace will vanish before the Searcher of Hearts. It must be perfect love that will cast out fear; truth and soundness of grace only can give boldness in the day of judgment. Ah, what idle and deceitful hearts have we in the midst of us, that can take up with loose conjectures, go to the word and sacrament with these evidences, upon which we dare not venture to die? And yet good and upright is the Lord that will teach sinners his way; that by the thunder claps of his righteous judgments will awaken the vain creature out of these foolish dreams, in which if they should die, they were undone for ever. Well, let us be still urging and pressing this question upon our souls • Will this faith save me when I come to stand before the throne of the Lamb? Will this love give me ⚫ boldness in the day of judgment? Will this evidence • serve my turn when I come to die?'-O christians ! let us be afraid to lie down with that evidence in our beds, wherewith we dare not lie down in our graves.

9. In the time of our trouble God causeth us to see WHAT AN EVIL AND BITTER THING IT IS TO GRIEVE HIS GOOD SPIRIT.

When we are in the bitterness of our spirits, and want the Comforter, then we begin to call to mind' how oft we have grieved the Spirit, which would have