out one hard brunt; and endure a short shock, though it be fierce and violent? It is but a storm, that will quickly blow over; and thou mayest live to see serene and bright days again, even in this world; and if not in this world, yet then, when thou shalt be got above these clouds, and this region of tempests, into that mansion of peace and joy, where never sorrows nor sufferings can enter. Indeed, impatience is a great prolonger of torment; it is not our pain, but our impatience, that makes the time seem so long and tedious to us both sense and reason tell us that the sun riseth over a sick man's bed as over the healthy and vigorous; and that the hours roll away as fast over the miserable as the prosperous; yet, how swift are our days spent in ease and pleasure! the hours seem to overtake and crowd into one another. And yet, certainly, thy sad and thy cheerful days have both one and the same measure the shadow creeps as fast about the dial of a miserable man, as of the happy. The difference lies only within thyself. Impatience, fretfulness, repining, an uncontrolled and eager spirit, vain hopes and impotent desires, make short afflictions seem long, and long ones endless. But, were these cured, thou wouldest find it altogether unreasonable to complain of the length of thy afflictions, when yet they are whirled away, and pass with the same fleetness, which makes others complain that their pleasures and their lives are too short.

However, here consider :

1. Let thy afflictions be as grievous as thy passion can describe them, yet, doth God afford thee no lucid intervals? Hast thou no intermission from thy sorrows?-no breathing-time afforded thee? Surely this is mercy; and this time of thy ease ought not to be reckoned into suffering, as commonly it is. Indeed,

men have an art of making their sorrows longer than they really are. Certainly, the affliction can be no longer than it lies upon thee; and that, usually, is but a very inconsiderable time, compared to that wherein God relieves and comforts thee. Job complains that God brought his sorrows so thick and fast upon him, that he would not suffer him to take his breath, Job ix. 18. He was like a man shipwrecked in a tempest, where the surges and billows broke so fast upon him, that he had not time so much as to lift up his head above the water to take breath. But hath God dealt so with thee?— Hast thou not had a morning as well as an evening to make up thy day? Though the clouds return again after the rain, and whatsoever affliction it be recurs, yet, it is mercy that God hath interrupted the course of it-that God hath given thee an interval of ease; and, then, thou canst no more, with truth, say, that thou hast had uninterrupted misery.

2. If thou be not relieved sooner, yet it cannot be long ere death will put an end to thy temporal sufferings. And therefore, though the days of thy pil. grimage be evil, yet since they are but few, this may recompense for the other, and persuade thee to bear patiently, what thou art not to bear long. Think with thyself, "It is but a few days, or a few years more, that I shall be in a suffering, in an afflicted condition. I am travelling through a vale of misery, but my grave is in view there I shall throw down all this load of care and trouble-where none of the vexations of this life shall disturb me," There the weary be at rest :" and what! shall I faint under my burdens, when I am to bear them but so short a time? Take courage, O soul, that happy hour is hastening on, as fast as the wings of time can

:

speed it, which shall give ease to thy pain, and rest

to thy weariness. Death will shortly come in to thy relief, take off thy load, and lay thee to sleep in thy grave.

3. All our troubles and afflictions are infinitely short, and as nothing, in comparison with eternity. If, at any time, the greatness, and soreness, and long continuance of them tempt thee to impatience, cast but thine eyes upon eternity, and they will all so shrink and vanish under that comparison, that they will scarce deserve the name of afflictions. Take all the flux of time, from the creation of the world to this present moment, and we reckon it by hundreds and thousands of years; it seems to us a mighty time, but compare it to eternity, and it presently shrinks up to nothing; it is lost and swallowed up in that bottomless gulph. Yea, the smallest drop of water is infinitely more considerable to the great ocean, than thousand thousands of years are to an eternal duration. And art thou not ashamed, then, to complain of the length and continuance of thy afflictions, since they are as nothing in comparison with the rest of thy life; and thy life itself nothing in comparison with eternity? And, certainly, could our thoughts dwell more upon that eternal state that awaits us, the consideration of this would enable us to bear our present short afflictions with patience; and we should not think them long or intolerable. The happiness of heaven may well comfort us, in respect of our miseries on earth. Christians, think but seriously with yourselves, that, though your way be rugged and tiresome, yet it is the way that leads to your Father's house; and, though you come there wet with your tears, and wearied with your burdens, yet there you shall be surely welcome, and enjoy an eternity of rest; there, you shall sit down, and, with everlasting joy, recount to your brethren, a whole ring of surrounding

saints, all the wonderful methods of Divine providence, which brought you thither; and with infinite satisfaction see the necessity and mercy of those afflictions, which you have here endured: there, your garments of heaviness, shall be changed into garments of praise—there, you shall ever rest your tired souls in the bosom of Jesus Christ, and for ever enjoy so great an happiness, that it were infinitely worth suffering all the miseries and afflictions of this life, to have but one momentary taste of it. Didst thou know what the glory of heaven is, thou wouldest be content to lie upon the rack-to endure the sharpest paroxysms of the most torturing and cruel pains all thy life long; and account them easy and short, if these could purchase for thee one hour's enjoyment of the unspeakable glory and happiness of heaven. And wilt thou then be fretful and impatient under thy present sufferings, when these are prepared to be the inlet to such enjoyment?-where thou shalt be for ever confirmed in the possession of all good-where thou shalt never more be in a possibility of suffering; nor know what a sad thought or a sad moment means. Certainly did we dwell more upon the thoughts of eternity, we should not be so irrational, as to judge that long, which takes up but a very little part of that time, which, of itself, is nothing, compared to an eternal duration.

And thus we see by how many motives patience under suffering is pressed upon us; which, if we would bring under the view of our serious consideration, we shall find enough in them, to incline the most fretfu! and peevish nature, to a quiet and meek submission to the hand and will of God. For, it is a most necessary grace for a christian, in the whole conduct of his life, which is full of troubles and afflictions; and nothing can so alleviate them as patience. The author and inflicter of all thy

sufferings is God, who is absolute in his sovereignty : our proprietor, as our Lord; infinitely gracious and merciful, as our Father-infinitely faithful to his word, whereby he hath promised,—and infinitely wise and skilful, whereby he is able to work all things for our good and benefit; and consider the great benefits and advantages that accrue to us by afflictions, as they are exercise to our graces-physic to our souls-evidences of our adoption. Consider, again, the patient bearing of afflictions is a very great honor both to ourselves and to God: it is, likewise, the best and readiest way to be freed from afflictions; no affliction befals us, but what is tolerable, and common to men; how many in the world are in a far worse condition than ourselves; and all our afflictions are but short and momentary in comparison of eternity, and these will powerfully sway us to patience under those sorrows we suffer. Let us too, consider, and bear in mind, that admirable exhortation of the wise man, Prov. iii. 11, and urged by the apostle, Heb. xii 5, "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him." Here we have a most excellent temper set forth to us, as a mean, between stupidity and desponding impatience. We ought to be affected with the hand of God; and not to demean ourselves under afflictions, as though we felt no smart, neither cared what God did against us, but rather defied him to do his worst. It is a sign of desperate incorrigibleness and deadness, when we are so past feeling, as to despise the correction of the rod. Moderate passions are allowed us; and God, when he afflicts us, would have us to show ourselves to be men, but not to be hardened so as not to feel his strokes. But then again, on the other hand, beware, that as thou dost not despise, so thou dost not despond under the corrections of thy