An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…

First, By an abatement of the affliction; as we are said to leave off those graces, from the degrees and lively actings of which we fall and decline: He that lacketh these things (that is, who aboundeth not, as he hath heretofore, in the exercise of them) is blind, &c. (2 Pet. 1.9.) Thou hast left thy first love, saith Christ to the Angel of Ephesus, when the heat of his former love was cooled: So the Lord may be said to remove our troubles, when he remits the extremity, and cools the heat of them.

First, By an abatement of the affliction; as we are said to leave off those graces, from the degrees and lively actings of which we fall and decline: He that lacketh these things (that is, who aboundeth not, as he hath heretofore, in the exercise of them) is blinde, &c. (2 Pet. 1.9.) Thou hast left thy first love, saith Christ to the Angel of Ephesus, when the heat of his former love was cooled: So the Lord may be said to remove our troubles, when he remits the extremity, and cools the heat of them.

Secondly, The rod is removed, when it is sanctified to us, when the Lord (who is excellent in working) causeth it to do us good. The Saints die, yet death is abolished, as to the Saints, by the death of Christ (2 Tim. 1.10.) because Christ hath plucked out the sting of their death, and made it a gain to them. Thus while Christ makes temporal losses or sufferings an advantage to the spiritual estate of his people, he takes them away. And as outward blessings are taken away, from wicked men, while they possess them, riches are not riches to them, nor is their honour an honour to them, because they are ensnared by them: So the outward cross ⟨p. 401⟩is taken away from the godly, while they suffer, because they are bettered by the cross.