The finf ulnefe o f Sinn e. 3 61 alfö through cófort of the Scriptures might have hope; that we might learne to Bore up the paffages of Gods providence in our lives, that they may be for prefidents and rules in after- times. Men are apt to finke under the prefent knfe ofany evill that preíleth them, becaufe they doe not looke backward to Gads former waies of mer- cy towards them ; whereas if men could thus argue, I have knowne a famine,and felt a pinching feafon fo 16g agone, and I did then out -live it, and Gods providence cared for me, and carried Me through that plunge and diftreffe;I have felt a fore difcafe, and been in the mouth of the Grave,and yet I live to praife Gods power : The buff-ts of Satan have heretofore bruized my foule, and I have been even drencht in mine owne forrowes, and ¡wallowed up of defpairing and uncomfortable thoughts, and yet out of them all the Lord bath delive- red me, and let his countenance fhine upon me againe : And he is the Lime God dill, and full of compaffion to commiferare my calamities, as full of power to of ea, as full of wifdome to contrive, as full of fidelity t® per - forme his owne Promifes,as he was before : crud there- fore I will wait upon him in the waies of his own mer- cy, and refa in the conflancy, immutability, indeficien- cy of that God with whom there is no variableneffe, neither shadow ofchanging : I fay, if men could thus . learne to comfort their hearts by their experiences and review of Gods former proceedings, they might with the more quietnefre and filent affzftions expert the fal- vation of the Lord againe. Sixthly, The fame thing in temporal' and inferiour blef- frngs may belong. to one man, onely ex largitate, out of that , general" providence which caufeth the Sunne to fhine on thegood and time bad alike ; awl to another ex promiflo, okt of Gods promife ; becaufe godlinete bath the prsmifes of this life, as well as of that to o.me. Now there is a vaf.f, . difference betweene there two, to have a thing only out of
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