dimensions" all patience," &c. In reference to suffering, as considering it according to its dimensions,long." He spake of grace in proportion to use; all patience is but little enough to make long-suffering; all patience is but little enough to manage such a profession, which all along is liable to persecution, to suffering, as long as being in this world.

Things here below have more than their naked being. They have their being and their dimensions; so big, so broad, so long. So have afflictions more in a christian, than barely to denominate him an afflicted man; they have their dimensions, their bigness and length, to denominate suffering; so great, so long; "long-suffering." Sufferings for truth are sometimes long lived. "If any man will be my disciple," saith Christ, "let him take up his cross daily," Luke ix. 23. A daily cross, daily bleeding makes long-suffering. Like to this is that expression of David, My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace, speaking of Doeg.

A christian condition is envied. Envy is a longlived thing; it will live as long as there is any marrow in the bones; it will hunt a David long; through Ziph, En-gedi, many wildernesses, though ever so long. It will find a dart to throw at a David, till it hath killed him, or stabbed itself. Envy fights desperately, and unweariedly. It will never give over as long as there is breath. It will eat no bread till it hath done its work, killed a Paul, or starved itself. Envy is all spirit, all evil spirits in one. It is a spirit of the right breed for the devil. It will fight and fight till death. It will work to the utmost, as long as nerves and sinews bind bones together. It is everlasting burning, which nothing

will quench but its own blood.

trial of it long.

Saints have had the

"Long-suffering."

A christian's condition is qualified. He hath sweet things and bitter in every dish, down along to the lower end of his table. All along his life he shall know that he is not at home. He hath enough sometimes to say, It is good being here; but never enough to say, It is best being here. His rapture has a sad breaking off. His glory a shadow. His statue a curtain drawn before it. His heavenly vision is let down and drawn up, his sun shines and is beclouded, suitable to this cloudy and impure region, thus it does throughout the day. Few and evil, many and evil, all evil, good Jacob calls his days, so were all his sweets embittered and qualified by God. If one mercy be come, another must be gone. If corn be come, Benjamin must be gone. Something for life is come, and he that had the father's soul must be gone. If some

children come home well, some evil is befallen the rest," Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces." So it was with the blessed seed afterward, which inherited the promise: milk and honey, and pricks in the sides whilst eating it; and so it must be all along, as long as in Canaan; the best people are long sufferers in the best place that earth will afford.

A christian's condition is improved; christians are God's vineyard. Into this vineyard God sends labourers to work hard, and to work so long; to the sixth, ninth, and last hour, to make much fruit. Afflictions are God's day-labourers; they work and work, throughout man's day, to plough and break his fallow heart; to grub up roots, bitter roots, and to prepare the way of the Lord, for good fruit. As

up

God hath day-labourers to labour at the ear, the heart, the inward man, and these kept at work till the ninth and last hour of man's life; so he hath day-labourers to labour at the back, the belly, the outward man, and these kept at work as long as the other, as long as man lives, the one to prepare the way for the other; one to plough and break up, and the other to sow. The heart of man hath an inexpressible hardness, the hardness of adamant; many blows will not break this stone; it must be long soaked in tears and in blood.

Afflictions are bitters to wean from sweets that are not necessary. There is but one thing needful, the soul makes many, it is whipped and whipped long ere it will leave this. Some children are not easy to wean; bitters must be laid upon the breast, and lie long there, ere the breast be cast off. It was long ere David could say, Lord, my heart is not haughty, surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother.

Afflictions are to take away sin. "By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away his sin," Isa. xxvii. 9. If afflictions and sufferings were only to torture sin, this might quickly be done, but they are to take away sin; this is long work. The furnace is to purify; it must be heated, and heated long, to melt and separate, to discover, disperse, and take away dross. Afflictions are to work truth in the inward parts; it is long ere man be good at heart. They are to heighten integrity; it is longer ere the heart become so upright as to be a heart after God's own heart. It is long ere a foul stomach will be made to cast out all. It is long ere man will be brought to observe all God's will. This makes great plagues,

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and of long continuance. "If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law, that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD; then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance," Deut. xxviii. 58, 59.

God puts weight, great weight upon truth, to make it enter, and make thorough impression. Truth is managed with great art, to put back every spring, and to make the bolt go forth as far as it should, and as fast and easy as it should. "Let these sayings sink down into your ears; for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men,” Luke ix. 44. Christ made a weight of himself, and ties this to his words, to make them sink down into men's hearts. He makes a weight now of us. He speaks and then strikes, strikes and strikes often and long, and then says secretly to the soul, Let these and these words now sink down into thine ears. Christ is fain to bore away for truth, to bore from the ear to the heart, and this many times is a long while doing-six years, ten years, twenty years.

A christian's condition is conformed. It is made to speak Christ within and without; in spirit, in flesh. The book is written within and without; in our souls, in our bodies we are made to bear the marks of the Lord Jesus: marks broad and long, just like his in every circumstance. The ploughers made long furrows on his back-as long as his life. He was "acquainted with grief;" grief and he were long acquaintance, his whole voyage about this lower world was in storms. "A man of sorrows," his life made up of sighs, groans, tears, words,

blood; thus he breathed, thus he expired: a mourning life, a bleeding death. The servant is as his Lord: sufferers both, as long as livers in this world. ✔ The apostle apprehended these christians would find it so, therefore so he prayed: "Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness."

I have given you a survey of the way to heaven; expect dirty lanes and very long. The way is narrow, it is so all along; scratching and tearing thorns and briars on both sides, touching one another, that it is hard to make one step skin-whole. Can ye bear these sayings? Can ye bear such doings? Can ye bear till your backs ache? Can ye bear till your backs break? Can ye bear till you sink and die under your burden? Can ye suffer long? as long as ye live? Can ye leave all and follow Christ? all your state, all your limbs, all your comforts, all your days? Can ye spend and end your days in misery to be blessed in another world? You may think ye can do so and be deceived; Peter was so; I will speak to this point a little.

There are three sorts of hearts which cannot suffer long: a natural heart; an engaged heart; and a careless heart. Can nothing endure much? much, long? Can man bear much who has no shoulders? Can a profane heart, a hypocritical heart, or what else carnal heart you can name, bear much, they know not for what? suffer long, and taste not inwardly, for what? A Judas will kiss Christ and depart, and hang himself rather than be hanged for Christ. Gold endures fire long, as long as you will. Cast a Joseph, an upright man, into prison, and he will lie there long, as long as the devil will, till the