It Is Of No Small Commendation To

God Loves To See His Creatures Happy; Our Lawful Delight Is His; They Know Not God That Think To Please Him With Making Themselves Miserable. The Idolaters Thought It A Fit Service For Baal To Cut And Lance Themselves; Never Any Holy Man Looked For Thanks From The True God By Wronging Himself.

No Marvel If The Worldling Escape Earthly Afflictions. God Corrects Him Not. He Is Base Born And Begot. God Will Not Do Him The Favour To Whip Him. The World Afflicts Him Not, Because It Loves Him: For Each Man Is Indulgent To His Own. God Uses Not The Rod Where He Means To Use The Word. The Pillory Or Scourge Is For Those Malefactors That Shall Escape Execution.

Not To Be Afflicted Is A Sign Of Weakness; For, Therefore God Imposeth No More On Me, Because He Sees I Can Bear No More.

We Are Often Infinitely Mistaken, And Take The Falsest Measures, When We Envy The Happiness Of Rich And Great Men; We Know Not The Inward Canker That Eats Out All Their Joy And Delight, And Makes Them Really Much More Miserable Than Ourselves.

The Ear And The Eye Are The Mind's Receivers; But The Tongue Is Only Busy In Expending The Treasures Received. It, Therefore, The Revenues Of The Mind Be Uttered As Fast Or Faster Than They Are Received, It Must Needs Be Bare, And Can Never Lay Up For Purchase.