Jeremiah 45

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XLV.—Alas, how unwilling our hearts are to take up our cross and follow Christ! Very small difficulties are apt to discourage young beginners in the service of God. And often it is more their unbelieving fears than their real dangers that make them to complain. If we had less desire after, and less expectation from, creatures, and more faith in Christ’s word and views of the spiritual nature of his kingdom, external events would trouble us less. While therefore God so exactly observes me, let me never seek my own more than the public welfare. Let me never seek great things here, where every thing is less than nothing, and vanity, and as uncertain as a shadow or a vapour. If God preserve and protect me in evil times, it is more than I deserve, or perhaps could expect