Book III. of J E $ us C H R 1ST. 169

cage of lb clear a Light, and the powerful Motive of fo bright an Ejiaiuple ?
C K A P. XXL
Of hearing Injuries ; and how we may judge of true
Patience.
Chrif.'] /^Eafe thy Complaints^ my Son, and^ when V^ Afflidions threaten or attack thee, call to remembrance what I endured for thy Sake : Nay, not what I endured for thine only, but what fo many brave and generous Saints have fmce couragioufiv en- dured for mine. Alas ! thy Trials yet are Imall,' nor haft thou refifted unto Blood,asI and They have done. TheirDifficulties were greater, their Temptations (har- per,their Sorrows more piercing, their Exercifes more fevere, and yet^ in all thefe they were more than Con- querors, [t will therefore be of great Service to the confirming thy Hope and Patience, if thou diligently compare thy very light, with their much heavier, Bur- then; and reproach thy felf for linking under a vVeio-ht, which they would fcarce have felt. But, if thy own Load feem fo unfupportable, and thou canft hardly be brought to think the Cafe of others fo much more deplorable ,• confider, whether this falfe Eftimate do not proceed from Partial AiFedion , Tendernefs to 1 thy felf, and a fretful Impatience , rather than from ' the true Nature and Realon of the Thing. For Thefe
corrupt Mens Judgments, and make them fee cheir 1 own and other Peoples Circumftancefe with very diiFe- ' rent Eyes. But be thy Ideas true or miltaken, yet
Itill the greater and the lefs Calamities call equally for 1 Submiffion and Conftancy. And it is not the Degree i or Meafure, but ^the Author and the Confequence
M3 of
I7Q Of tfae imitation Book iii.
of Suffering, which is the proper Motive to Patience.
Now the better thou art compofed under any Trou- ble, the more commendable is thy Wifdom^ and the larger will be thy Recompence. Nay, not only fo, but the eafier will be thy Lot too. For Confideration will reconcile thee to it, and Time and Experience make the thing familiar. Nor matters it much, who are the immediate Inftruments, or from what next Hand thy AfflicStions come. For thofe are very idle Pretences, which Men ufually labour to cover their want of Temper withal : ^^ Had this been done by an " Enemy or a Stranger, I could have born it ^ but ^^ from a Friend, a Relation, one whorpi have high- " ly obliged, and have a Right to exped better Ufa ge ^^ from, what Flefli can brook fuch Bafenefs and In- ''^ gratitude ^ Had I given any juft Occafion for that " difparaging Report, it would never have vex'd me ; '• but to beilandered and abufed, without any ground_, *^' without the lead: Fault or Provocation of Mine, ^' mechinks 'tis very hard ; The thing it felf I could ^^ away with, but the Perfon, or the particular Cir- " cumftarces, put me out of all Patience. " Alas ! thefe are nice and frivolous Diftindions ; Such as are plrogether foreign and impertinent to the Matter in H^iid ; and what the Virtue of Patience is no way concern'd in. For this takes Injuries and Affronts by the great, Vv'ithout entring into any particular Exami- nation of their Nature and Quality^and peculiar Ag- gravations ; nor does it at all regard the Perfon, by Vv/hom it is exercifed, but confiders that Perfon only, by whom it is to be crowned.
No Man hath yet arrived to a due Perfedion in this Grace, who is not content with any kind of Tryal, from any Hand whatfoever.The Differences of Friend or Foe, of Superior, Inferior, or Equal ; of a good- natur'd and confcientious,or a wicked,perverfe, vexa- tious Man, are of no confideration at ail j But, let
the