discouragements that possibly may befall you, consider, Right
Secondly, To premise some directions to further you.
1. For the first, by way of motive to move you to hold on against all discouragements that possibly may befall you, consider, Right Honourable, these few things, and all you that hear me this day:—
(1.) First of all, Consider this, that all the afflictions and troubles that you meet withal shall never hurt nor harm you, but be very advantageous to you. All the arrows that wicked men shoot at your heads shall stick fast in their own hearts: 1 Peter 3:13, 'And who shall harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?' Interrogations are strong affirmations. It is a strong affirmation, 'none shall harm you:' devils nor men, let them roar and rage, none shall harm you. For as one speaks truly, Nemo proprie Iæditur, nisi a seipso, No man is properly hurt but by himself and his own fault. All the afflictions and troubles that you shall meet with in the ways of well-doing, they shall be advantageous to you; they shall be a means by which God will convey more of his grace and mercy, more of himself and his glory into your souls: Hosea 2:14, 'I will allure her into the wilderness, and then I will speak friendly to her'—or as the Hebrew has it, לבה-ודברתי על, uedibbarti gnal-libbah, I will earnestly speak to her heart. God will make all afflictions, even a wilderness, to be an inlet to more of his own self. All the discouragements that you meet with in the ways of well-doing shall but rub off your dross, and empty out that filth that is in you, and so make more room for more of himself and of his glory to be communicated to you. In Heb. 12:10, 'But he afflicts us for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.' They were before partakers of his holiness. Oh, but God will make afflictions conduit-pipes, through which he will convey more of himself and of his holiness to his children's souls. That is the first thing. All the afflictions that befall you shall not harm you, but be very advantageous to you. Who would not then hold on in the ways of welldoing, notwithstanding any trouble or affliction that may befall them?