An expository comment, doctrinal, controversial, and practical upon the whole first chapter to the…An expository comment, doctrinal, controversal, and practical upon the whole first chapter to the…

If our sufferings increase, our consolations increase. So that if thy afflictions are greater, and more multiplied then ever, thou hast no cause to fear, for thy supports and cordials shall also be more increased. As thou art a man of sorrows, so thou shalt be also a man of joys, if thou callest upon all that pass by, as the Church did, Lam. 1. 12. Behold and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me! So thou shalt call to others, to come and see the wonderful mercies which God hath vouchsafed unto thee.

If our sufferings increase, our consolations increase. So that if thy afflictions are greater, and more multiplyed then ever, thou hast no cause to fear, for thy supports and cordials shall also be more increased. As thou art a man of sorrows, so thou shalt be also a man of joys, if thou callest upon all that passe by, as the Church did, Lam. 1. 12. Behold and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me! So thou shalt call to others, to come and see the wonderfull mercies which God hath vouchsafed unto thee.

But to pour this oil into the wounds of those that are afflicted, consider,

But to pour this oyl into the wounds of those that are afflicted, consider,

First, That the Lord Christ in all his dispensations, still accommodateth himself ¹to the capacity of his people. He regards what they can bear; like the wise Physician, doth not give the strongest Physic that may be, to expel the disease, but looketh to the infirmity of his Patient. We see Christ did this in the promulgation of the truths of the Gospel; if that Sun of righteousness had appeared at first in his noon-day light, weak eyes would have been offended thereat; he did not enjoin them those high observances of fasting, &c. at first. To which purpose also, (