Page:A Narrative of the Captivity, Sufferings, and Removes of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.djvu/127

should be sometimes jealous lest I should have my portion in this life. But now I see the Lord had his time to scourge and chasten me. The portion of some is to have their affliction by drops, but the wine of astonishment, like a sweeping rain, that leaveth no food, did the Lord prepare to be my portion. Affliction I wanted, and affliction I had full measure, pressed down and running over. Yet I see when God calls persons to never so many difficulties, yet he is able to carry them through, and make them say they have been gainers thereby, and I hope I can say, in some measure, as David, It is good for me that I have been afflicted. The Lord hath shewed me the vanity of these outward things; that they are the vanities of vanities, and vexation of ʃpirit. That they are but a shadow, a blast, a bubble, and things of no continuance. If trouble from smaller mat-