106 THE GREAT MISERY OF THOSE even bear it as well as we can." Alas ! poor creature, Iet me beg this of thee, before thou dost so flatly resolve, that thou wouldest lend me thy attention to a few questions, and weigh them with the reason of a man. Who art thou, that thou shouldest bear the wrath of God ? art thou a god or a man ? what is thy strength ? is it not as the strength of wax or stubble to resist the fire ; or as chaff to the wind, or as dust before the fierce whirlwind ? If thy strength were as iron, and thy bones as brass; if thy foundation were as the earth, and thy power as the heavens; yet shouldst thou perish at the breath of his indignation. How much more when thou art but a piece of breath- ing clay, kept a few days from being eaten with worms by the mere support and favour of him whom thou art thus resisting !Why dost thou tremble at the signs of Almighty power and wrath ? at claps of thunder ; or flashes of lightning ; or that unseen power which rends in pieces the mighty oaks, and tears down the strongest buildings ; or at the plague when it rages around thee? If thou hadst seen the plagues of Egypt, or the earth swallow up Da- than and Abiram, or Elijah bring fire from heaven to destroy the captains and their companies, would not any of these sights have daunted thy spirits? How then canst thou bear the plagues of hell ? Why art thou dismayed with such small sufferings as befal thee here? a tooth -ache, a fit of the gout or stone, the loss of a limb, or falling into beggary and dis- grace? And yet all these laid together will be one day accounted a happy state, in comparison of that which is suffered in hell. Why does the approach of death so much affright thee? O how cold it strikes to thy heart ! and would not the grave be accounted a paradise compared with that place of torment which thou slightest ? It is an intolerable thing to burn part of thy body, by holding it in the fire? what then will it be to suffer ten thousand times more for ever in hell ?Why does the thought or mention of hell occasion any disquiet in thy spirit ? and canst thou endure the torments themselves ?
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