w.._ork good out of jour a!Mtions, but we can fay to you, that yoa your felves have .found it fo 9y experience, that God bath made iormer affiittions to be great benefits to you, and that you woufd not have been without them, or without the good that came by them for aworld_; fuch experiences will exceedingly quiet the· heart, and work H to Contentment: therefore think thus with thyfelf, Lor?, why may this affiittion work as great ago.od upon me as affMbons have done heretofore f Perhaps you may find' many other Confiderations befides in your own meditations, thefe are the principal ones that I have thought upon: ·I'll only add one word more to this, of one thu once was a great Me[- ch~nt and Ttades-.man, a_na it happened on a time that he fuffered Ship· rack, and faith he, I never made abettervayage,and fail'd hetter than at that time that I fuffered Ship-rack: this \Vas a flrange fpeech (his name ~vas Zeno) that be fuould never make a better voyage: it IVonld be a fhange paradox .to you that are Mlri 11 ers,to fay,that's a good voyage when you fuffer Ship-rack: but be meanr, becaufe he got fo much good by it, God was plea~ fed to olefs it fo..(a r to him, that he gained fomuc.b unto his foul by it, fo much- foul-riches, that he made account it was the belt 1oyage that ever he had: and truly, f{lmetimes· it is fo, yea, t0 you that are godly, r make no quellion hut you find it fa. that your wodl voyages have proved your bell, when you have met with the greatefi crcff.cs in a voyage, God bath been p!eafed to t utn the.m to a greater good' to you in fome other way. It's tr,Ue, vve may defire crotfes that they may be turned to other · a-dugtages ; but when God in his providence doth fo order things that you m:et with ill voyages, you may expe6\ that God will turn them to a greater go'Od, and thofe that have .been exercifed jn the waies of God~nefs any long rime~ I make no queflion but they have abundance of experience that ·tbey have ga,in'd lly them: You know f.ometimes it's better to be in a little thip, for they have ad vantage of the gre~ter ones in florms,many times in a fiorm a little Sbip can thrufl: mto a thallow place, and fo be fafe, but your great Ships cannot, they mull be abroad.and ,tofi up and down in the ftorm a~d temRefi, and fo many t1~es fplit againfi the tocks. And (o )t ~ay be God fees there 1S a fiotm
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