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2. It may be they are not great if you look upon them with scripture-spectacles, Flesh and blood many times look upon mole-hills as mountains, and scratches upon the hand, as stabs at the heart; we make elephants of flies, and of little pigmies we frame giants. Carnal reason often looks upon troubles thro false glasses. As there are some glasses that will make great things seem little, so there are others that will make little things seem great; and it may be that thou lookest upon thy afflictions through one of them. Look upon thy afflictions in the glass of the word;, look upon them in a scripture-dress, and then they will be found to be but little; he that shall look into a gospel-glass, shall be able to say, Heavy afflictions are light, long afflictions are short, bitter afflictions are sweet, and great afflictions are little, 2 Cor. iv. 16, 17, 18. It is good to make a judgment of your afflictions by a gospel-light, and by a gospel-rule.

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Artemon, an engineer, was afraid of his own shadow. Men that look not upon their afflictions in a scripture-dress, will be afraid? even of the shadow of trouble; they will cry out, No affliction to our affliction, no burden to our burden, no cross to our cross, no loss. to our loss; but one look into a gospel-glass would make them change their note. The lion is not always so great nor so terrible as he is painted; neither are our troubles always, so great as we fancy them to be. When Hagar's bottle of water was spent, she sat down

and fell a weeping, as if she had been utterly undone; her provision and her patience, her bottle and her hope, were both out together, Gen. xxi. 17, 18, 19. but her affliction was not so great as she imagined; for there was a well of water near, though for a time she saw it not. So many Christians, they eye the empty bottle, the cross, the burden that: is at present upon them, and then they fall a-weeping, a-whining, a-complaining, a-repining, a-murmuring, as if they were utterly undone; and yet a well of water, a well of comfort, a well of refreshment, a well of deliverance is near, and their case no way so sad nor so bad as they imagine it to be.

3. The greater thy afflictions are, the near-> er is delieverance to thee. When these waters rise high, then salvation comes upon the wing; when thy troubles are very great, then mercy will ride post to deliver thee, Deut xxxii. 36. "For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power (or hand) is gone, and there is none shut up or left." Israel of old, and England of late years, hath often experienced this truth. Wine was nearest, when the water-pots were filled with water up to the brim: so oftentimes mercy is nearest, deliverance is nearest, when our afflictions are at the highest, when a Christian is brimful of troubles, then the wine of consolation is at hand, therefore hold thy peace, murmur not, but sit silent before the Lord.

4. They are not great, if compared to the

glory that shall be revealed, Rom. viii. 18. "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." The apostle, upon casting up of his accounts, concludes, that all the pains, chains, troubles, trials and torments, that they meet with in this world, were not to be put in the balance with the glory of heaven. As the globe of the earth, which after the mathematicians account is many thousands of miles in compass, yet being compared unto the greatness of the starry skies circumference, is but a centre, or a little prick: so the troubles, afflictions, and sorrows of this life, in respect of eternal happiness and blessedness, are to be reputed as nothing, they are but as the prick of a pin to the starry heavens. They that have heard most of the glory of heaven, have not heard one quarter of that which the saints shall find there. That glory is inconceivable and inexpressible. Augustine, in one of his epistles, hath this relation, that the very same day wherein Jerome died, he was in his study, and had got pen, ink, and paper, to write something of the glory of heaven to Jerome; and suddenly he saw a light breaking into his study, and a sweet smell that came unto him, and this voice he thought he heard, O Augustine! what dost thou? dost thou think to put the sea into a little vessel? When the heavens shall cease from their continual motion, then shalt thou be able to understand what the glory of heaven is, and not before,

except you come to feel it, as now I do. Nicephorus speaks of one Agbarus, a great man, that hearing so much of Christ's fa by reason of the miracles he wrought) sent a painter to take his picture, and that the painter, when he came, was not a able to do it, because of that radiancy and divine splendour which sat on Christ's face. Such is the splendour, the brightness, the glory, the happiness, and blessedness that is reserved for the saints, in heaven, that had I all the tongues of men on earth, and all the excellencies of the angels in heaven, yet should I not be able to conceive, nor to express that vision of glory, to you; it is best hastening thither, that we may feel and enjoy that which we shall never be able to declare.

5. They are not great, if compared with the afflictions and torments of such of the damned, who, when they were in this world, never sinned at so high a rate as thou hast done*. Doubtless there are many now in hell, who never sinned against such clearlight as thou hast done, nor against such special love as thou hast done, nor against such choice means as thou hast done, nor against such precious mercies as thou hast done, nor against such singular remedies as thou hast done. tainly there are many now a-roaring in everlasting burnings †, who never sinned against

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1 Pet. iii. 18, 19, 20. Jude, 6. 7. Matth. x. 15. chap. xi. 23, 24,

Isa. xxxiii. 14. The fire in hell is like that stone in Arcadia, which being once kindled, could not be quenched,

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such deep convictions of conscience as thou hast done, nor against such close and strong reasonings of the Spirit as thou hast done, nor against such free offers of mercy, and rich tenders of grace as thou hast done, nor against such sweet wooings, and multiplied entreaties of a bleeding, dying Saviour, as thou hast done; therefore hold thy peace. What are thy afflictions, thy torments, to the torments of the damned, whose torments are numberless, caseless, remediless, and endless; whose pains are without intermission or mitigation, who have weeping for the first woe, and gnashing of teeth for the second, and the gnawing Worm for the third, and intolerable pain for the fourth, and an everlasting alienation and separation from God for the fifth? Ah Christian! how canst thou seriously think on these things, and not lay thy hand upon thy mouth, when thou art under the greatest sufferings? Thy sins have been far greater than many of theirs, and thy greatest afflictions are but a flea-bite to theirs; therefore be silent before the Lord.

6. Lastly, If thy afflictions are so great, then what madness and folly will it be for thee to make them greater by murmuring? e very act of murmuring will but add load un to load, and burden to burden. The Israel ites under great afflictions fell a-murmuring, and their murmuring proved their utter ruin, as you may see in that Numb. xiv. Murmuring will but put God upon heating the

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