AFFLICTIO\S. 323 ter- spouts, and then all his waves and billows go over a person. Psalm 42:7. The deep of afflictions calleth up the deep of the guilt of sin, and both in conjunction become as billows passing over the soul. We see only the outside of men's afflictions ;; and it is supposed to be an easy thing to apply relief and comfort to those that are distressed. The rule in this matter is so clear, so often repeated, the promises annexed to this condi- tion so many and precious, that every one has in readi- ness what to apply to those who are so exercised. But often we know nothing of the gall and wormwood that is in men's affliction; they keep that to themselves, and their souls feed upon it in secret. Lam. 3: 19. God hath stirred up the remembrance of some great sin or sins, and they look upon their affliction as one in which he is come, or beginning to enter into judgment with them. And is it any wonder if they are in darkness and filled with disconsolation 1 2. There is in many afflictions something that seems new and peculiar, with which the soul is surprised, and in which it cannot readily reduce its condition to what is taught about afflictions in general. This perplexes and entangles it. It is not affliction it is troubled with, but some one thing or other in it that appears with an especial dread to the soul, so that it questions whether ever it were so with any other, and is thereby deprived of the support which from former examples it might receive. And indeed, when God intends a deep afflic- tion he will put an edge upon it, in matter, or manner, or circumstances, that shall make the soul feel its sharpness; he will not be governed by our bounds and measures with which we think we could be content;
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