SERMONS. 377 



needs have been long since in ashes, had not his 

 miraculous mercy preserved it, who, so long as 

 he pleaseth, (and that is just so long as we please 

 him,) continues the fire to us useful and safe, ser- 

 viceable and yet innocent, with as much ease as 

 he lays it asleep and quiet in the bosom of a flint. 



2. Mercy again, that he afflicts us at all ; that 

 we are yet in his school ;* that he hath not quite 

 given us over, and turned us out as unteachable 

 and incorrigible. '\ FelLv cui Deus dignatur irasci, 

 saith Tertullian; in David's language. Blessed is 

 the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and 

 teachest him in thy law ; sendest him thy judg- 

 ments, and learnest him thy righteousness. But 

 to sin, and not be punished, is the sorest punish- 

 ment of all, saith St. Chrysostom. ^ Dimisit eos 

 secundum desideria cordis, he suffered them to walk 

 after their own heart's lusts — that is a dreadful 

 portion : let them alone, § why should they be 

 stricken any more ? That is the prosperity of 

 fools that destroys them, as Solomon ; or as David 

 phraseth it. This is for God to rain snares upon the 

 ungodly : a horrible tempest indeed ! as he there 

 calls it, and worse than the fire and brimstone in 

 the same verse. 



3. Mercy too, that he afflicts us himself, keeps 

 us still under his own discipline, and hath not yet 

 given us over unto the will of our adversaries. 



* Psm. xciv. 12. 



t" H lAsfccXyi xoXa<7t5 to ocimc^tccvbTv i^ /x>j koXcc^bo-^xi. 



X Psm. Ixxxi. 13. § Tsa. i. 5. Prov. i. 32, Psm. xi. 6, 



