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THE E'I'EICNAï
DURATTOI.' OF
[DISC.
%TTT.
obtained the
promised
felicity,
IHeb.
vi.
12.
May
we
also
make
our
way,
by the same
motives, through the
floods
and the
fires
of
affliction,
and
distress,
to
reach
this
everlasting heaven,
and
to
escape everlasting burnings
?
In order
to
confirm our patience, and
to
animate our
zeal,
let
us
survey
the
blessed
example
of
St.
Paul,
who
was
reproached,
who was buffetted, who
was
perse-
cuted
with stones,
and
whips,
and
scourges,
and
bore
a
thousand
indignities
who
was
assaulted
with endless
strokes
of
injury
and violence,
and yet
rejoiced
in
the
midst
of
all
his suffering's in
the
view
of
his
eternal
hope.
'The
spirit of
faith
in
the midst
of
all his,sufferings
taught
him
to-sing
this divine song, "
,Our
light
afflictions,
which
aré but
for
a
moment,
are
working for
us
a
far
'
more exceeding and eternal
weight
of
glory,"
2
-Cor.
iv.
17.
"The
sufferings
of
this
present
time
are not
wor-
thy
to
be
compared
with
the glory
that
shall be
revealed,"
Rom.
viii.
18.
Nor
are
they worthy to
be
compared
with
that
exceeding and
eternal
weight
of
vengeance;
from
which
we
are delivered
by
faith and
patient
obedi-
ence to the
gospel
of our
Lord
Jesus
Christ.
Reflec. V.
"
If
the
miseries
of
hell
are eternal,
we
can
never
have our deliverance
from
them made
too secure."
If
the danger
of
any
mischief,
to which
we
might
be
ex-
posed,
were
but
slight,
and the
duration of
it
short, there
might
be
possibly some excuse for
our
delay
to
escape
it
:
But
when
it
is
total
and
irrevocable ruin
to which
we
are
liable every móment while
we
continue
in
a state
of
sin,
we
should
fly
with all
the
wings
of
our
souls,
and
never
'be at
ease
or
quiet
till we
are got without the
reach
of
danger, and settled
in
a place
of
safety,
or
on
the
rock of
our
salvation.
(ï
could
we
but perceive a thousandth
part of
the hor-
ror that
is
contained
in
an
eternal
hell,
an
eternal banish-
ment
from the face
and favour of God, and the
eternal
impressions
of
his
anger,
we
should never
give ourselves
rest
one moment,
till
we
had
returned
to
God
by
a
sin-
cere
repentance,
and
were
reconciled
to
him
that
made
us;
till we
fled
for
refuge to the blood
of Jesus,
and
to
his
sanctifying.
grace, which
is
the only hope
that
is
set
before,
us.
We
should
never
give
ourselves leave to
lie
down,
or
awake
in
quiet,
while
we
were
'destitute
of
a
saving
interest
in the salvation of Christ,
and had
at-