hap.14. An,Expofition upon the Book ofJo B . Verf. a . the years of oar livesbeen Yea, though we fhould have attained (which 7acob faid he had not) to the dayes of the years of the life of our Fathers in the dayes of their Pilgrimage. what hathman (as Solomon concludes by way of queftion concerning man in a 'na- tural con(deration) of all his lahossr; and of the -vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the Sun ? What bath manof all his labours (much more of all his fiffeeins) but trouble ? For allhis dayes are furrows andhis travel grief, cclef. 2. 22, z; . From all obferve two things. Firft, Obferve the differenceof the life of Saint§-on earth,and their life in Heaven : Here it is fewof dayes;. And full of troubles, thereit will be full of dayes, and full of comforts ; In thy ,nre- fence sfulnefs of Toy, and at thy right hand thereare pleafures for evermore. Secondly, ©bferve in thisconjun&ionof few dayes and full of -troubles in the life of man, the goodnefs of. God to man. Few dayes are (in themfelves) an affíi&ion, fulnefs of trouble is (tous) a great af§li &ion, but many dayes and full of trouble had been a great afllic`}ion. How fad would our condition be if perpetuity and mifery, a multitude of dayes and a multitude of troubles hadmet together inour lives. The curfe of Hell is eter- nityand mifery, a life without end:, and troubles without end. 'Tis a mercy, when that which is (harp is but fhort, when that whofe very beginning grieves us, ends quickly. Chrift having foretold the deftruetion of the Temple at 7erufalem, and the fgreat tribulationwhich fhould accompanyit,even fuch as was not nce the beginning of the world, no, nor ever(hall be,concludes, (Mat.24.2z.) And except thofe dales_MouldbeJhortned,therefbould noflefb befäved, but.for the Ele5.ls fake thole dayes /ball be Jhortned. God didnot make the dayes of thofe troubles ihorter then him- felf had decreed, but (horter then the enemy had determined, or thenany wife man, who judgeth onely by the rulesofhumane policy, could have expected. The troubles of thofedays feemed to be very long vifag'd, but God fhortned the dayes that the trouble of his people might be fhortned, and that fome feib, that is, force men, and thofemen force of the ews (for there is a double Synecdoche in the wordflefh) might be raved: That is, with a temporal falvation , from the Roman fword and devouring calamitses which attended that terrible War. Now as it is a mercywhen'.God fhortens the dayes of fpecial trouble, $bbb 2 into
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