Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	evil_a	good_a	motive_n	1,128	5	11.3729	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69777	The intercourses of divine love betwixt Christ and his Church, or, The particular believing soul metaphorically expressed by Solomon in the first chapter of the Canticles, or song of songs : opened and applied in several sermons, upon that whole chapter : in which the excellencies of Christ, the yernings of his gospels towards believers, under various circumstances, the workings of their hearts towards, and in, communion with him, with many other gospel propositions of great import to souls, are handles / by John Collinges ...	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1683 (1683)	Wing C5324; ESTC R16693	839,627	984

condescension beyond the grasp of our faith The greatness of it causeth in us a difficulty to believe it Who is a God like our God a Saviour a Redeemer an Husband like our Saviour our Redeemer our Spiritual Husband When they told David that he should have Michal the Daughter of Saul to Wife and persuaded him to it Seemeth it to you saith he a small thing to be a Son-in-law to a King If there be any of you not affected with this Love this transcendent Love give me leave to speak to you in the language of David Seemeth it to you a small thing to be the beloved the friends the companions of the Lord Jesus Christ Ah! That I could send you away this day admiring the divine Love that he should take the fellowship of our nature upon him that he should make us his fellow Citizens admit us to a fellowship with him both in grace here and in glory hereafter that he should be our Companion in tribulation our Companion in labour and follow Soldier But I leave this to be further improved by you in your more private meditations 2. Secondly This notion is of wonderful use to relieve and comfort the People of God under all their present afflictions or fears of greater The face of things as to Gods People hath been a long time gathering blackness and there is this day a great blackness Prisons in the Primitive times were more the habitations of Gods People then Palaces God grant we may not see them to be so again we have been so used to beds of Feathers Down that the thoughts of a bed of straw make us shrink so wedded to our own Country that a strange land appeareth to us a strange thing The Providence of God looketh as if it were preparing Prisons and Fetters and banishments for his People and the hearts of Gods People are every where as sad as the times What a wonderful comfort and relief to the People of God at such a time is it for them to hear the Lord Jesus Christ calling them his Companions His Companions in tribulation and to call himself their fellow Souldier and fellow Prisoner There are a great many arguments with which the suffering Servants of God may be relieved Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer said the Angel to the Church at Smyrna Behold the Devil shall cast some of you into Prison that you may be tryed and you shall have tribulation that you might be tryed and you shall have tribulation for ten days Rev. 2. 10. There are several arguments 1. It is the Devil that cast Saints into Prison He doth it by men as his instruments but he filleth them with their rage and malice 2. It is that they may be tryed God permits it the Devil could have no power against a believer more then against Christ if God did not permit it The Devil and his instruments design is to ruin and to destroy them Gods end is to try them 3. It shall be but a tribulation for ten days a short time The rod of the wicked shall not always rest upon the lot of the righteous Well but how shall they hold out these ten days See Isaiah 43. 1 2. Thus saith the Lord that created thee O Jacob and he that formed thee O Israel Fear not for I have Redeemed thee I have called thee by thy name thou art mine When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee When thou walkest through the fires thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee In the ten days of tribulation the Child of God shall not be alone he that Redeemed them will be with them This was made good to the three Children in the fiery fornace in Babylon Dan. 3. 24. Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire saith Nebuchadnezzar lo I see four men loose walking in the middest of the fire and they have no hurt and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God He was with Daniel Daniel 9. 22. With Paul and Sil●s Acts. 16. They could never else have sang in the Prison at midnight Let the People of God lift up their heads as Moses seeing him who is invisible Only take the caution of Peter 1. Pet 4. Let none of you suffer as a Murderer or as a Thief or as an Evil doer or as a busy body in other mens matters But if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God one this behalf Let men look that they suffer for righteousness sake that is to avoid sinning against God all such suffering is for righteousness sake then they shall never be alone Saul Saul why saith Christ persecutest thou me calling out of Heaven to Paul when he was in his full carreer of persecution of the Church No man can expect that Christ should be a companion to him in his tribulation while he suffereth meetly for his stomach or out of humour much less if he suffereth for doing that which is plainly sinful and which he ought not to have done but if he suffereth to avoid sin against God to keep himself unspotted from the World as he is made a partaker of Christs sufferings so Christ will be a partaker of his sufferings his Companion in suffering and whensoever Christs glory shall be revealed he shall be glad with exceeding joy It is a marvelous sweet notion to suffering Christians to hear that Jesus Christ is and will be their Companion in sufferings fear not therefore Christians in despight of evil men and evil times to keep a good Conscience but Jam. 1. 2. Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations A good Conscience was yet never in Prison alone Nor will this be strange to us if we consider that even death it self though it makes Soul and Body part Company yet it doth not make Christ and a believer part Company Our Bodies shall be raised from the Grave by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us Rom. 8. 11. There are two great arguments amongst others to comfort the People of God in all their noons of Afflictions 1. That even then they are Christs fellows They then are in the fellowship of his death Phil. 4. 10 11. They suffer with him Rom. 8. 17. They are made conformable to his death Christ is magnified in their body They make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ 2. That Christ will then be their fellow it is to the Spouse at Noon that he saith here O My Love My Fellow c. When the World is spitting their Venom shewing their utmost Malice and hatred even then Christ is calling to them and saying My Love When the World is casting them out as Pestilent fellows then is Christ saying unto them My Companions Then will he be with them and manifest himself as a friendly Companion to them In

hath it that walks with God and hath a fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ By way of Argument let me but plead with you 1. To observe the difference between sensual and intellectual pleasures And again betwixt rational and spiritual pleasures Who is there that observes not how much the satisfaction of the mind in the possession of Learning and Vertue excels all that satisfaction which the Eye hath in seeing or the Ear in hearing Christ is pleasant to the Soul not to the outward but to the inward man The pleasures of the mind are rational or spiritual The proportion which knowledge beareth to the understanding of man and which moral Vertue bears to his Reason makes them pleasant and creates an intellectual rational pleasure But alas it must be imperfect for as the Eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the Ear with hearing so neither is it possible that the Soul should be satisfied with knowledge or moral accomplishments especially when it is awakened to consider Eternity Hence the Learned man that before took pleasure in his knowledge being awakened cries out I with my Learning may go to Hell when one that knows much less may go to Heaven where 's the pleasure But now the Soul that is possessed of Christ hath its heart perfectly at rest because it sees its eternal Interest provided for and cannot discern it self in danger of future misery Furthermore the things in which it takes pleasure are above the rank of all sublimary contentments even such things as Eye hath not seen nor hath Ear heard nor can it enter into the Heart of man to conceive Besides Conscience is quiet Conscience is that which spoils much of the Worlds pleasure for as a good Conscience is a continual feast so an evil Conscience is more or less a continual torment Now Christ is he alone that quieteth the Conscience Many a poor Christless Soul drinks Wine in Bowls and boast in their outwardly happy condition but by and by a finger of a mans hand appears their Conscience begins to stir and to tell them they are damned undone sinners what becomes of their pleasure But now the Soul that is in Christ his Conscience speaks peace to him he hath peace without trouble And to give you a demonstration of this pleasantness of a Christian's life as I remember Christ said of the Lillies they neither spin nor sow yet Solomon in all his glory is not like one of them So give me leave to say Step unto the poor Cottages of Christians who have searce Bread to eat no Silken Rayments to put on no Musick to make them merry no Money to spend no Orchards or Gardens to delight them and yet there 's many a Nobleman many a Gentleman who have all these in abundance yet in all their glory are not like one of these Lillies these poor Souls have more true content and pleasure in one day than they have in all their life nor would they change conditions with them So true is that of Solomon Prov. 15. 16 17. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great Treasures and trouble therewith Better is a dinner of Herbs where love is than a stalled Oxe and hatred therewith I dare warrant you that the Philosopher could have dined more sweetly at home with Bread and Water than at the Tyrants Table of Dainties in view of a sharp Sword hanging over his head by a thred There 's many a poor Christian in this like a true spiritual Diogenes that satisfieth himself with the influence of the Sun upon his Tub better than an Alexander could do himself with a whole World subdued to his feet 2. Observe from hence the difference between Christ and lusts Christ and the World The Soul of man cannot be alone it is either espoused to lusts and to the World or else to the Lord Jesus There 's many a one whose Soul is united to it's lusts Lust is its beloved Can this Soul say Behold thou art fair my Beloved yea pleasant Doubtless nothing less Reason tells the Drunkard that his Drunkenness is a foul thing and Reason tells the Unclean person that his Soul is united to a filthy thing Take him that is united to the World to the Riches of it or to the Honours of it Reason tells him they have no beauty in them nor are they more pleasant than beautiful Ah! what racks of Conscience have prophane sinners oft-times The Wine tickles the throat as it passeth but it maketh the stomach sick The lusts of the flesh leave a Thorn in the Conscience which abides when the pleasure of them is vanished The World pleaseth the Eye while the figure of it passeth before it but it is no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great fancy and vexation of spirit spoils the pleasure of it But Christ is pleasant never any Soul that followed him repented of it yea those that follow him weeping never repent of their repentings Bring me that Soul which ever said I would I had never known or never walkt with Christ Let this therefore prevail with every Soul that hears me this day to get acquaintance with Christ And 2. With those who have interest in him to labour to grow up in him 1. The former Because he is pleasant 2. The latter Because they have not tasted the bottom of that pleasantness which attends him and the full Enjoyment of him Pleasantness is an alluring thing When Eve saw that the Apple was pleasant to the Eye she took it Gen. 3. 6. When Issachar in Jacob's Prophecy Gen. 49. 15. saw that the Land was pleasant he bowed his shoulder to bear Were you but possessed of this one Truth that Christ is pleasant that the way of Christ is a way of pleasantness it would go a great way to persuade men into it Hearken to the Wise man speaking of Wisdom of Christ indeed and his Grace under the notion of Wisdom Prov. 3. 17. Her waies are waies of pleasantness and all her paths are peace She is a Tree of Life to them that lay hold upon her Hearken you that are at ease in Zion that drink away care and spend your time in singing away the Evil day you that lie upon Beds of Ivory and stretch your selves upon Couches and eat the Lambs out of the Flock and Calves out of the midst of the stall you that chant to the sound of the Viol and invent to your selves Instruments of Musick you that drink Wine in Bowls and fare deliciously every day and dress your selves in gorgeous Apparel I tell you there 's many a poor Soul that hath Christ and is clothed with Rags and feeds upon Roots and drinks Water whose Soul is more at ease and enjoys more pleasure than yours doth O! therefore return you Shulamites return and understand aright the waies of true pleasure from those things that are meer empty shadows of vanity 2. Let this engage you that have received Christ to grow

the Rule which God hath given us Our Souls communion with God through the Spirit is not out of Ordinances but in and by them The Teaching of the Letter is not opposed but subordinated to the Teaching of the Spirit There is room enough for the Teaching of the holy Spirit after the Minister hath done what he can to teach us nor is it to be blasphemed by ill tongued men because themselves do not understand what it means they only speak evil of the things they know not The Power of God upon the heart fastening the words we read and hear upon our hearts and consciences as a Nail in a sure place is a thing only known unto the Souls that have had experience of it But the great thing I desire you might be instructed in from this discourse is The difference betwixt a prophane person and hypocrites and the true Children of God which may be discerned from their affections to the Word of God The prophane person wholly despiseth and slighteth the Word of God both the written Word and the Word Preached it serveth him for nothing but a subject to exercise his prophane wit upon The Hypocrite driving another design glorying in shew and appearance he must have some pretended respect at least to the Word of God but he rests meerly in reading or in hearing and regardeth not either how far God in the Word communicates himself to him nor yet how far he communicates his Soul unto God in the Ordinance Let an Hypocrite go with a multitude and hear a Sermon he hath enough if he can but say I have been at the Ordinance whether his Soul hath been at all instructed or affected whether any Word of God hath come nigh to his heart laid any hold upon his conscience yea or no he hath no true thirst after any communion with God in the Ordinance if he hath been but seen in the Lord's Courts or at most be furnished with matter of discourse to talk of amongst Christians so as they may take him to be a Disciple his ends are satisfied But it is otherwise with a Child of God he is troubled when he cometh from an Ordinance if he doth not find he hath had some communion with God in the Ordinance That God hath either more sealed and further confirmed some Truth to his Soul or convinced him of some sin or comforted him with some Promise some way or other spoken unto his heart Methinks the difference betwixt an Hypocrite and a Child of God in this case may be resembled by the going of a Child with another companion who is no Child to a Father's house where they find themselves splendidly entertained but the Child seeth not his Father's face the Child's companion is pleased and comes home talking and boasting of his entertainment but the Child's heart is sad the end of the Child's Journey was to see his Father's face and to have his Father's blessing without this the good chear doth him no good The formal Hypocrite comes home from Ordinances pleasing himself that he hath been at Church that he hath heard a quaint learned discourse and his tongue may run great descants upon such things as these The Child of God is satisfied with none of these things he went to his Father's house that he might see his Father's face if he can find no evidence of that his Soul is discontented and unsatisfied he cries I have laboured in vain I have lost another day of grace and opportunity of salvation I have been seeking the Lord in vain and waiting upon him for nothing And this is the very reason why a pious Soul cannot hear every body nor take up with all Sermons or discourses he doth not go to Church to hear the voice of a man but the Word of God and goeth with an expectation to meet with a blessing from God and therefore he will hear where the Word of God is so opened so applied as he can expect God's blessing upon it He cannot expect that God's blessing should go along with any to whom he hath said Psal 50. 16 17. What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee He will not therefore sit under the Ministry of one that is openly prophane and wicked and of a scandalous life Nor one that teacheth other Doctrine than what is according to sound Doctrine and godliness and the form of sound words delivered in the Word of God or him that giveth heed to Fables and endless Genealogies which minister Questions rather than godly Edifying which is in Faith 1 Tim. 1. 4. When he goes ●o an Ordinance he goeth not to hear the words of men puffed up but the words of God and expecteth that God should meet him and bless him and therefore governs himself accordingly in hearing so as he may probably meet with a blessing from God which he cannot expect from one who so dischargeth his work as he proclaimeth to all that God never sent him though he runs In the next place this will give us another advantage to try our state with reference to God's favour An earnest desire after an inward spiritual communion with God in any Ordinance or Duty and the dissatisfaction of a Soul without it will very much argue a man or woman to be a Christian indeed whereas a bare going to an Ordinance a bare fancy or desire to hear or a meer hearing will speak a man no more than a nominal titular Christian and be an evidence that the Soul resteth in a meer bodily labour and exercise which profiteth nothing This is a great point the being in the Sanctuary will satisfie an Hypocrite nothing but the seeing the power and glory of God in the Sanctuary will satisfie David the man according to God's own heart But it is hard for us to keep a medium in any thing almost As in the heart of a Formalist there is nothing of this desire nothing of this dissatisfaction so many times in the heart of a good Christian there may be too much of this dissatisfaction and a discontent and dissatisfaction founded in some mistake let me therefore a little enlarge upon this so useful a Subject 1. A satisfaction with a bare reading or hearing the Word speaks nothing above formality nothing above what an Hypocrite may arrive at It is said that Herod heard John Baptist gladly yet he was not got up to the Hypocrite's Form There was a people in Ezekiel's time of whom God complained Ezek 33. v. 30 31 32. that talked against the Prophet by the walls and in the doors of their houses yet spake every one to his Brother saying Come I pray you and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. And came as the people came and sate before the Prophet as the Lord's people and heard his words but would not do them with their mouths the●

he had withdrawn himself and was gone She sought him but she could not find him she called him but he gave her no answer It is the case of many good and pious Soul The holy Spirit moves it to some evident piece of spiritual duty for I am not speaking for extravagant impulses to things no where prescribed or directed in the Word of God the Soul is under some spiritual Torpor and listlesness it agrees the thing ought to be done and disputes nothing but the necessity of doing it presently it neglecteth it it may be when it would open to it s Beloved it finds that he hath withdrawn himself and is gone It seeketh him but it cannot find him 2. Secondly We are as prone also vainly to think within our selves If we sin we will repent if we fall we will rise Or though we run into temptation yet we will not fall by it All this while forgetting that although we live yet it is not we but Christ lives in us and we shall stand in need of drawing grace to run after God It is true that if the Believer sinneth he hath an Advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the Righteous If he falls he shall rise God will succour him when he is tempted but all this proceeds from an influence forreign to him God is able to make him to stand and faithful so as he shall stand But yet his own endeavours are necessary to his standing and Divine Grace is necessary if he be lapsed to his recovery and though he may know if he knows that he is Elected and effectually called and justified that he shall not perish for ever yet this can by no means encourage his presumptuous sinning for these two Reasons 1. Because while he lies under the guilt of sin not repented of he can have no knowledge of his Election or Effectual Calling but hath reason to suspect he hath all this while mistaken the case and state of his own Soul 2. Because he may be saved as through fire and go with an aking conscience even to the gate of the City of God Now it is impossible that in the Judgment of any Soul under the conduct and command of reason the pleasure of sin should appear compensative of the rack of Conscience and the feeling the terrours of God upon the Soul but for a few days If indeed man having fallen from his integrity had a power to rise again at pleasure by the help alone of his own hands he might have from hence a motive to indulge his corruptions but if he hath no such power but what he derives from drawing grace certainly it is the vainest thing imaginable for man to sin upon a presumption of what is not in his power and though he be certain of it in the issue yet he may want it so long as may leave him little pleasure of his sinning little fruit of those things for which he hath been so long ashamed Thirdly From this representation of the state the present state of Man We may observe the difference betwixt our present state and the state of our Pro-parent Adam in the state of Innocency It is a point not half enough thought of and the want of a due consideration of it causeth so many swellings against and blasphemings of the Truth of God in this point They will not understand that although God made Man upright and in Honour yet he abode not in Honour but by seeking out inventions became like unto the Beast that perisheth The state of Man at first was such 1. That he needed not have come to Christ for life he had his li●e in his hands There needed no Saviour before we were lost no Mediator or Intercessor before man had offended and consequently no applications of our Souls unto him for life and Salvation and this by the way may shew you the weakness of their reply who when they are told that it is no more injustice with God to call to us for those exercises of Grace in order to our salvation which in our lapsed state we have no power to perform than it is in man to call to him to whom he hath lent a great sum which he by his debauchery hath spent to pay him what he oweth him and to lay him in Prison though he hath nothing to pay for God in creation gave unto man a power to do whatsoever in that state was necessary to his Salvation I say when they are told this they usually tell us That Adam never had a power to repent and believe in Christ Nor was repentance or faith in Christ necessary in that state wherein Adam was created nor would it ever have been necessary either to him or us had he stood in that estate God gave unto Adam and to us in him whatsoever was necessary in that state and if our Fore-fafather and we who dyed in him and fell with him have made a Mediator necessary and repentance and faith in the Mediator necessary and we have no power to these acts nor ever had no not in Adam how yet is God unrighteous in requiring those acts of us though we have no power to perform them Secondly As in that state there was no need of a Christ of a Saviour a Redeemer nor consequently of a being drawn or a coming to him So neither was there need of any such potent drawing in order to our running after him Adam had a perfect power connatural to him to walk with God in the obedience of his will It was the fall that lamed us in our feet and introduced this necessity of Christs drawings in order to our running Let us in a word or two take a view of man now in this that he stands in need of these divine drawings 1. He now stands in need of a Mediator and there is no name given under Heaven by which any Soul can be saved but only the name of the Lord Jesus Christ no Salvation by any other 2. He stands in need of drawing to this Mediator not only of a Child to be born a Son again a Saviour prepared but of the work of the Father and the holy Spirit to draw us to and after this Mediator 1. Drawing as I have shewed you imports a fair treating intreating alluring Souls to what is their great and only happiness this speaks man 1. In a state of aversion from God and his only felicity Mans supreme happiness lies in his union and communion with God as the supreme and greatest good yet he must be drawn to it drawn with the cords of a man allured by mans Rhetorick persuaded to it by mans Logick and ratiocination we as the Embassadours of Christ must beseech and intreat men to be happy in being reconciled to God and thus much is granted to us by those who make themeanest and most jejune interpretation of this drawing 2. Drawing secondly signifieth an act of power This speaketh us not only averse but impotent

their own Child above any others The man of art takes most delight in his own workmanship God can do nothing but what is truly and highly good and he cannot but be most pleased in his own work 2. Secondly The beauty of the Child of God is Christs beauty and lyeth in the Souls assimilation or being made like unto Christ Is he justifyed It is by the imputation of his righteousness Is he regenerated It is through his Spirit and by his regeneration the image of God and Christ is renewed in him in Knowledge righteousness and holiness the like mind is in him that was in Christ Likeness is the Mother of Love and all Love floweth from some likeness or conceived likeness in the object beloved Christ cannot but love that Soul that is made partaker of the Divine nature renewed according to his image made like unto himself The believer was predestinated to be conform to the Image of the Son by Faith Regeneration he is made conform renewed according to the image of God according to the Apostles phrase If Jacob knew his sons coat again and the sight of it was enough to set the Fathers bowels on yerning Christ will doubtless know his own robes and cannot but account that Soul most beautiful that is adorned with dressed in them This in the first place may serve to convince us of the truth of what John tells us 1. John 5. 19. That the whole world lyeth in wickedness For these Souls whom Christ judgeth and calleth the fairest amongst Women The most lovely and beautiful Souls are those who in the Eyes of the generality in the world are counted the most unlovely despicable and contemptible Persons in nature in so much that Godly men and women may take up the words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 4. 9. concerning himself and those of his own order 1 Cor. 4. 9. We think that God hath set as forth as it were appointed unto death for we are made a spectacle to the world to angels and to men We are fools for Christs sake profane leud men they are wise we are weak they are strong they are honourable we are despised the People of God in the present age in all former ages are they who hunger and thirst who are naked and buffeted and have no certain dwelling place yet they labour working with their hands being reviled they bless being persecuted they suffer it being defamed they intreat yet are they made as the filth of the world as the off-scouring of all Nations even to this day Thus it was under the Old Testament the prophet complained in his time Isa 59. 15. That truth failed and he who departed from evil made himself a prey but he addeth and the Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no judgment It was so under the New Testament who was more despised and rejected of men then Christ Who was more reviled contemned abused both in words and deeds then John the Baptist Christ and his blessed Apostles and all the Primitive Christians Christ foretold his disciples that the world should hate them that they should speak of them all manner of Evil persecute them turn them out of their Synagogues c. It is so in our times if there be in any places Persons fearing God and working righteousness Persons that make a conscience of their waies that fear an Oath that durst not drink and swear and curse and blaspheme the living God as others do that make conscience of their worshipping God and are a little more strict and frequent in it then others are These are the Persons against whom the world spits all their venom against whom their hands are lifted up men may meet together to drink and revel to hear leud and profane Songs and Plays but not to pray not to consider and exhort one another to love and to good works what is this an Evidence of but that the world lyeth in wickedness Christ judgeth pious Souls the fairest Souls these are they sor whom he died Whom he calls his Sister his Spouse the fairest Souls in the creation these are those Souls whom the World sets up as marks to shoot all their invenomed arrows bitter words against to offer all affronts and indignities unto Shall not the Lord visit for these things Shall he not be avenged on such a generation Shall a gallant in the World draw his Sword upon the man that affronts his Paramour or Mistress a wanton Woman that he hath espoused or to whom his heart cleaveth and shall the Lord bear these affronts these injuries offered to Souls that are more precious in the Eyes of their Lord then all the world is beside Hear what the Lord said by his prophet as to that antient People of his Isa 43. 2 3. I am the Lord thy God the holy one of Israel thy Saviour I gave Egypt for thy ransom Ethiopia and Seba for thee Since thou wert pretious in my sight thou hast been honourable and I have loved thee therefore will I give men for thee and People for thy life Was this spoken for the Jews only think we or did this concern the profane part of the Jews or those only that feared the Lord walked in his commandments and worshiped him in Spirit and in truth That it was not to be understood with reference to or upon the account of the leud and profane part of the Jewish Nation is evident by Gods declared detestation of them by the same prophet and by others of his Prophets If it were spoken with reference to such as feared God and walked in his commandments and kept close to the rule of Worship which he had given them it holds good still to all Souls that fall under that Character They are precious in Gods fight honourable he hath loved them the holy one of Israel is their Saviour and the worlds hatred of them profane mens reviling contemning abusing them is but a continued Evidence that the world knoweth them not and speaketh evil of and doth evil to things and Persons they know not Or that it lieth in wickedness in a vile and wicked Error of judgment judging those vile and base whom God judgeth precious and honourable and those worthy of hatred whom he loveth though the Lord may for a time suffer his good righteous Servants to be thus reviled thus treated thus abused by leud and ungodly men for the trial of their faith and for the exercise of their patience and that some of the blood of his Saints may be poured into the cup of wicked mens sins that the cup of their iniquities may be full and they may fill up their measures of sinning That upon them may come all the righteous blood of his People which hath been shed yet be assured the Lord will not suffer it alwaies but awake as one out of sleep plead the cause of his People and give Egypt for their ransom and Ethiopia and Seba