462 MEMOIRS OP MR BOSTON. March g. 17n. (22.) My V. D. Sir, It was on Friday the 3d inftant that yours of the ill came to my hand. That of the 18th and 24th of February coming on the Sabbath thereafter, being the 5th, I had withal, on the Tuefday before, got an uncertain word of the ill fituation of your affairs, which, by reafon of what you had [hewn me before, did feem very probable. But while I was altogether uncertain of the ftate of your affairs in my concern for ,you before the Lord, you frill appeared to me fruiting ; fò that getting the let- ter of the lfl inflant, it did fo anfwer the continuing idea of you, that I declare, though the fituation-ofyour affairs was very alfe Ling, I behoved to lay that letter before the Lord, and folemnly give him thinks for it and afterwards receiving that of the 18th February, wherein you was under the damp, I could not but obferve that kind and wife Providence, that kept it up till I, had got the former of that date ; and reckon it up among the many happy well- ordered diídppointments 1 have met with. It is ordinary with the Lord's people falling into trouble, as it is with a perton wading a deep and cold water; who is, upon, his fiat entering it, ftruck to the heart ; but the firft gliff, as we call it, is the word. In this point the world's frowns and fmiles do readily agree ; appearing at !blue diftance, or in the firíl encounter, they thewordinarily greater than afterward they are found really to be. Henceour fears of the one, as well as hopes from the other, are readily carried beyond the juft bounds; and Satan prefently falls a-tithing in the drumly waters, fairs them affiduoully, to make them more drumly and awful like. Many a time have I thought a great point gained, when one gets a view of his naked crofs and trial ; for it is hard to get a fight of it without a ponderous cover on it, partly of our own, and partly of Satan's making; and therefore I am convinced there is great need of making ufe of Chrift as a prophet under our troubles, that by his light fhining into our fouls, we may fee what that crofs or trouble is precilely which he has laid before us, to take up and bear, that we may fet ourfelves to bear that and no more. And I am very fure that at this rate croffes and trials lofe a great deal of their weight. What but the art of hell ufed in a difturbed mind, would bring in the wounding of the interefts ofreligion, by the pats your affairs werebrought to, the opening of the mouths of the wicked íhaming the faces of the godly, &c. ? .Every body knew you to be a lober man, a man of unordinary application to your bufinefs. The occafion of the confufion of your affairs, arifing from others at a diftance from you, would not be hid., And no body is fb ignorant of the
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