26 CHRISTIAN PARADOXES. 



and a lion ; a reed and a cedar. He is sometimes 

 so troubled, that he thinks nothihg to be true in 

 religion ; yet if he did think so, he could not at all 

 be troubled. He thinks sometimes that God hath 

 no mercy for him, yet resolves to die in the pursuit 

 of it. He believes, like Abraham, against hope, 

 and though he cannot answer God s logic, yet, with 

 the woman of Canaan, he hopes to prevail with the 

 rhetoric of importunity. 



25. He wrestles, and yet prevails ; and though 

 yielding himself unworthy of the least blessing he 

 enjoys, yet, Jacob-like, he will not let him go without 

 a new blessing. He sometimes thinks himself to 

 have no grace at all, and yet how poor and afflicted 

 soever he be besides, he would not change conditions 

 with the most prosperous man under heaven, that is 

 a manifest worldling. 



26. He thinks sometimes that the ordinances of 

 God do him no good, yet he would rather part with 

 his life than be deprived of them. 



27. He was born dead ; yet so that it had been 

 murder for any to have taken his life away. After 

 he began to live, he was ever dying. 



28. And though he hath an eternal life begun in 

 him, yet he makes account he hath a death to pass 

 through. 



29. He counts self-murder a heinous sin, yet is 

 ever busied in crucifying the flesh, and in putting to 

 death his earthly members ; not doubting but there 

 will come a time of glory, when he shall be esteemed 

 precious in the sight of the great God of heaven and 



