- bounded felicity; if we are "persecuted for righteousness
sake," or suffer by any consequences of a good life; we ought to "rejoice and be exceeding glad," and to glorify the goodness of God, who, by uniting us in our sufferings with saints and martyrs, will join us also in our reward.
But it is not uncharitable to believe of others, that this is not always the reason of their sufferings, and certainly no man ought to believe it of himself, without a very severe and cautious examination, long continued, and often repeated; for nothing is more dangerous than spiritual pride. The man that esteems himself a saint will be in danger of relaxing his circumspection, of stopping in his progress of virtue, and, if once he stops, of falling back into those infirmities from which his imaginary exemption made him presumptuous and supine. Every man, therefore, when the hand of God is heavy upon him, must apply himself to an attentive, and exact retrospection of his own life. He must inquire, if he has avoided all open enormities, and scandalous degrees of guilt; whether he is not punished for some secret crime unknown to the world, and, perhaps, almost forgotten by himself; whether, in surveying himself, he does not overlook some favourite sin, some criminal indulgence; or whether he has not satisfied himself with increasing his devotions, instead of reforming his morals, or whether, from too much confidence in his morality, he has not been too negligent of his devotions; and whether he has not contented himself with an imperfect and partial satisfaction for some injury done to his neighbour, when an adequate and complete reparation was in his power.
To this inquiry he will be incited by remembering that God is just, that there is undoubtedly a reason for his misery, which will probably be found in his own corruption. He will, therefore, instead of murmuring at God, begin to examine himself; and when he has found the depravity of his own manners, it is more likely that he will admire the mercy, than complain of the severity, of his Judge.
