z 8o Of Patience. SERUM counfel which coridufts all to fuch iffues as VII. are belt in the whole. That affliction, par- tic,ularly, .--,r--+ does not rife out of the dull, as it is expreffed in the book of fob, but it is or- dered by the infinite wifdom of God with a kind intention to promote the real advantage of all men who are fincerely difpofed to make a right improvement of it ; to correct their faults, to bring them to a ferious confidera- tion of their ways, to try their virtues, to make them partakers of holinefs, to produce in them the peaceable fruits of righteoufnefs, and fo to do them good in their latter end. Thefe and fuch-like principles, even natural religion teaches, but the fcripture more fully and par- ticularly. Its declarations on this fubjeá are very many and exprefs, that, * whom the Lord lovetb, he rebuketh and chap eneth, and fcourgeth every Jon whom he receiveth; that therefore, we ought not to defpife the chajlen- ing of the Lord, nor faint when we are re- buked of him. That 1- all things 'hall work together for the good of them that love, him; and therefore chriftians ought to count it + all joy when they fall into divers temptations; and to glory in their tribulations, becaufe * Heb. xii. 6. - Rom. viii. 28. $ t James i. z. ERom. v. 3, .f. they
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