The life of faith in three parts, the first is a sermon on Heb.…

Direct. 14. Mark well whether you find not that your selves and others are usually much better in affliction, than in prosperity: And whether there be not something in the one to make you better, and in the other to delude men, and make them worse. O look and tremble at the dangers and doleful miseries of most that are lifted high! how they are blinded, flattered, captivated in sin, and are the shame of nature, and the calamity of the world! And mark when they come to die, or lie in ⟨p. 502⟩sickness, how enlightened, how penitent, how humble, how mortified and reformed they then seem to be, and how much they condemn all sin, and justify a holy life: And observe your selves whether you be not wiser and better, more penitent, and less worldly in an afflicted state: And will you think that intolerable, which so much bettereth almost all the world? Alas, were it not for affliction, there are some Nebuchadnezzars that would never be humbled, and some Pharaohs that would never confess their sins, and some Manassehs that would never be converted. Many in Heaven are thankful for affliction, and so should we, Eccles. 7.2, 3, 4, 5, 6. It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to the house of feasting: For that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter; for •y the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools: For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool.

Direct. 14. Mark well whether you find not that your selves and others are usually much better in affliction, than in prosperity: And whether there be not something in the one to make you better, and in the other to delude men, and make them worse. O look and tremble at the dangers and dol•ful miseries of most that are lifted high! how they are blinded, flattered, captivated in sin, and are the shame of nature, and the calamity of the world! And mark when they come to die, or lie in ⟨p. 502⟩sickness, how inlightened, how penitent, how humble, how mortified and reformed they then seem to be, and how much they condemn all sin, and justifie a holy life: And observe your selves whether you be not wiser and better, more penitent, and less worldly in an afflicted state: And will you think that intollerable, which so much bettereth almost all the world? Alas, were it not for affliction, there are some Nebuchadnezzars that would never be humbled, and some Pharaohs that would never confess their sins, and some Manassehs that would never be converted. Many in Heaven are thankful for affliction, and so should we,