Right thoughts in sad hours representing the comforts and the duties of good men…

One piece of Injustice attending of that conclusion is; There is a wrong thereby done to the Kindness of God. With such ⟨p. 16⟩a clap of Thunder as this may the Lord reprove your hard opinion of him, You think worse of me than I deserve! Our good God hath assured us, in Rev. 3. 19. Whom I love, I rebuke and chasten; why then shall we contradict him with such a vain imagination as this, I am Rebuked only that I may be ruined, I am Chastened only because I am abhorred by the Lord?

Another Injustice expressed in that conclusion is; There is thereby a wrong done to the Wisdom of God. They of Old reflected hard, when they said, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Thus do they that say, Can any good thing come out of Affliction? Well, and I pray, Why not? What should hinder Good from coming out of that grievous thing? Is it impossible unto that God, who is wise in Counsel, and wonderful in Working? We are informed in 1 Pet. 1. 6. It is only if need be, that we are brought into Heaviness: The Lord would not let one Affliction give thee any Trouble, if some Occasion did not call for it, if much Advantage did not come by it.

One more Evidence of Unreasonableness in this conclusion is, The people of God at the Period of their Afflictions, will themselves confess, this conclusion to have ⟨p. 17⟩been Unreasonable. What our Lord said unto the Inquisitive Peter, the same he says unto the Afflicted Christian, What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter: Verily, when we do hereafter know, how God has at once Afflicted us and Amended us, then we shall say, He hath done all things well. When we have got through the black Valleys, out on the other side, then we shall see what now we will hardly believe, then we see that the Thoughts of God about us were Thoughts of Good and not of Evil; then we see that the Aims of God were to do us Good in the latter end; then do our Triumphing Souls declare as in