328 DIRECTIONS FOR GETTING AND KEEPING seems to feel his miseries to be multiplied. The time was once with David, when thoughts of God were sweet to him ,. and he could say, "In the multitudeof my thoughts within me, thy com- forts delight my soul." And yet he saw the time also when he remembered God and was troubled; he complained, and his spirit was overwhelmed. God so- held his eyes waking, that he was troubled and could not speak. He considered the daysof old, and the years of ancient time; he called to remembrance his song in the night, he communed with his own heart, and his spirit made diligent search. "Will ,the Lord (saith he) cast off forever? And will he be favorable no more ? Is his mercy clean gone for- ever? Doth his promise fail for evermore ? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercy?" Was not this a low ebb, and a sad ease that David was in? Till at last he saw this was his infirmity ; Psal. lxxii. 1 -10.. Had David no former experiences to remind ? No arguments of com- fort to consider of? Yes, but there is, at such a season, an inca- pacity to improve them. There is not only a want ofcomfort, but a kind of averseness from it. The soul bendeth itself to break its own peace, and to put away comfort far from it. So saith he in ver. 2. "My soul refuseth to be comforted." In such cases, men are witty to argue themselves into distress ; that it is hard for one that would comfort them to answer them ; and they are witty in repelling all the arguments of comfort that you can offer them; so that it is hard to fasten any thingon them. Theyhave a weak willfulness against their own consolations. Seeing, then, that thebest have such storms and sadinterruptions, do not youwonder, or think your case strange if it be so with you. Would you speed better than the best? Long for heaven, then, where only is joy without sorrow, and everlasting rest without interruption. Direct. XX. Let me also give you this warning, ' That you must never expect so much assurance on earth as shall set you above the possibility of the loss of heaven; or above all apprehen- sions of real danger of your miscarrying.' I conceive this advertisement to be of great necessity. But I must first tell you the meaning, and then the reasons of it Only I amsorry that I know not how to express it fully, but in school- terms, which are not so familiar to you. That which shall cer- tainly come to pass, we call a thing future. That which may and can be done, we call possible. All things are not future which are possible. God can do more than he hath done or will do. He could have made more worlds, and so more were possible than were future. Moreover, a thing is said tobe possible, in reference to some power which can accomplish it; whether it be God's
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