A practical exposition of the X. Commandments with a resolution of several momentous questions…A practical exposition of the X. Commandements with a resolution of several momentous questions…

Trouble and Sorrow, less or more, will wait on them who through much Tribulation must enter into the Kingdom of God: Yet on a just reckoning there will be found no real nor well grounded Reason of dissatisfaction with this wise disposal of Divine Providence, since He never afflict •th, nor are they in heaviness through one or more, or even manifold Temptations; but when there is Need, and such need that a few serious reflections will constrain the Patient to acknowledge it, and to say, This same particular Cross so and so circumstantiated, could not well have been wanted without a greater prejudice; nay, considering the inseparable connection that God in his Eternal and Unalterable Decree, hath established betwixt the end ⟨image 3⟩and all the means that lead to it; When ever such and such a Cross is actually met with, there is ground to think that it is as necessary as the Salvation of the Christian is; that Cross being appointed as one mean with others, to bring about the purposed end, to wit, the Salvation of such a Person: which one consideration (That they are dvpointed thereunto, as the Apostle, writing to the Thessaolni •ns, asserteth) well pondered, would contribute not a l •ttle to reconcile the most sadly Crossed and Afflicted Children of God, a great deal more to their respective Crosses; and would make them to be taken up and borne more patiently, pleasantly, and cheerfully; and would with-all, make them to look out on them with a less formidable and more amiable Aspect than ordinarily they do. And since, in the second place, all their Afflictions are afflictions only of this present time, for a season, and but for a moment, not protracted according to desert one minute beyond Death, let be Eternities length; Since moreover the heaviest Loads, and greatest measures of them are but light and moderate Afflictions, and His severest correctings of them are in measure with Judgment and Discretion; He stayeth his rough Wind in the day of his East Wind, and doth in great Wisdom suit and proportion the trials, of his People to their strength and standing; in His faithfulness, not suffering them to be tempted above what they are able, but with the temptation making a way to escape that they may be able to bear it: Its not his manner to put new Wine into old Bottles, nor to sew a piece of new Cloth unto an old Garment.

Trouble and Sorrow, less or more, will wait on them who through much Tribulation must enter into the Kingdom of God: Yet on a just reckoning there will be found no real nor well grounded Reason of dissatisfaction with this wise disposal of Divine Providence, since He never afflict th, nor are they in heaviness through one or more, or even manifold Temptations; but when there is Need, and such need that a few serious reflections will constrain the Patient to acknowledge it, and to say, This same particular Cross so and so circumstantiated, could not well have been wanted without a greater prejudice; nay, considering the inseparable connection that God in his Eternal and Unalterable Decree, hath established betwixt the end