AFFLICTION'S. 319 may be reduced; and leave the light of them to be ap- plied in particular to the relief of the souls of men, as God shall be pleased to make them effectual. And, first, such disquiet and objections against the peace of the soul and its acceptance with God, will arise from AFFLICTIONS: they have occasioned this dis- quiet of old, they do so in many at this day. Afflictions. I say, often deeply affect the mind, and sometimes pre- vail to darken it so far as to generate thoughts that they are all messengers of wrath, all tokens of dis- pleasure; and consequently, evidences that we are not pardoned or accepted with God. The present is to many a time of great affliction. Some have met with a dreadful surprisal in things not looked for, such as do not occur in the providence of God in many generations. Such is the condition of those who are reduced to the utmost extremity by the late consuming fire ;* some have had their whole fami- lies, all their posterity, taken from them ; in a few days they have been bereaved, as in the plague.t Some in their own persons, or in their relations, have had sore, long, and grievous trials from oppression and persecu- tion; and these things have various effects on the minds of men. Some we find crying with that wicked king, " This evil is of the Lord, why should we wait any longer for him 2" and giving up themselves to seek re- lief from their own lusts. Some bear up under their * By the fire of London in 1666, 13,200 houses were destroyed, and many families utterly ruined; but few lives were lost. f In the plague of London, A. D. 1665, 69,000 persons died.
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