REFLECTION.
pp. 54–554 passages
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
REFLECTION.
Hence may the unsanctified Soul draw matter of fear and trouble, even from its unsanctified troubles. And thus it may reflect upon it self; O my Soul, what good hast thou gotten by all, or any of thy afflictions? God's Rod hath been dumb to thee, or thou deaf to it. I have not learned one holy Instruction from it: My troubles have left me the same, or worse than they found me; my Heart was proud, earthly, and vain before, and so it remains still: They have not purged out, but only given vent to the pride, murmur, and atheism of my heart. I have been in my afflictions, as that wicked Ahaz was in his, 2 Chron. 28. 22. Who in the midst of his distress, yet trespassed more and more against the Lord. When I have been in storms at Sea, or troubles at home, my Soul within me hath been as a raging Sea, casting up mire and dirt. Surely this Rod is not the Rod of God's Children. I have proved but dross in the Furnace, and I fear the Lord will put me away as dross, as he threatens to do by the wicked, Psal. 119. 119.
Hence may the unsanctified Soul draw matter of fear and trouble, even from its unsanctified troubles. And thus it may reflect upon it self; O my Soul, what good hast thou gotten by all, or any of thy afflictions? God's Rod hath been dumb to thee, or thou deaf to it. I have not learned one holy Instruction from it: My troubles have left me the same, or worse than they found me; my Heart was proud, earthly, and vain before, and so it remains still: They have not purged out, but onely given vent to the pride, murmur, and atheism of my heart. I have been in my afflictions, as that wicked Ahaz was in his, 2 Chron. 28. 22. Who in the midst of his distress, yet trespassed more and more against the Lord. When I have been in storms at Sea, or troubles at home, my Soul within me hath been as a raging Sea, casting up mire and dirt. Surely this Rod is not the Rod of God's Children. I have proved but dross in the Furnace, and I fear the Lord will put me away as dross, as he threatens to do by the wicked,