duty and providence calls them too and with the Chymist are to extract some good from every thing they deal with and like the Bee gather Honey from weeds yet this good they get from persons and things is not in them but conveyed through them from the great Purchaser with whom they deal good from every thing to these heavenly Traders and Heirs of Salvation is made over in the propromise All things shall work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose Rom. 8. 28. and shall in due time through these Conduits be emptied out to Believers by the hand of Jesus So that it is properly and strictly but with one great Merchant those Traders have to do with for the goods they lay out or take in all other things and persons are but ways and instruments of his appointment through which it shall be delivered and this makes Wisdom's Trade so good that the advantage of it is not depending on those secondary Agents they have to do with but upon one that is more excellent both great and good able and faithful to answer both his promises and the expectations of those that deal with him As to his Quality and personal Grandeur he is above all and over all King of Kings and Lord of Lords He hath a vesture on his thigh whereon is written King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. 19. 16. He is the Majesty on high the Glory of Heaven and Earth he hath Angels to worship him Thrones and Principalities under him all creatures in Heaven and in Earth to serve him O! how honourable is it to deal with him to whom Kings and Potentates pay their tribute and to whom Men and Angels yield their homage It 's taking with Men to converse with those that are above them and to manage concerns with Persons of Honour and Greatness but here 's one Souls that offers to trade with you from whom all creatures receive their glory Yea his Goodness answers his Greatness and sweetly tempers his personal converse for the encouragement of the meanest Soul that hath occasions with him Greatness without Goodness rather checks than relieves the hopes of those that are beneath it but such is the sweetness of Christ's nature as that his Glory doth but render his Goodness the more amiable and his Goodness represents his Glory the more desirable he values no man by his own worth nor despises any for their low estate the meanest Soul hath as easy access to him and as gracious a reception as persons of highest reputation with men I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Isa 57. 15. He is of a sweet and gracious temper of a free and generous spirit good to all especially to those that seek him this renders persons desirable who would choose to deal with men of ugly natures and churlish dispositions affability and sweetness do strongly invite men to converse with such and none like to Jesus for excellent goodness and loving kindness for pitty and bounty goodness is his nature mercy his delight he takes pleasure in doing good none that trade with him but he will see them to be the better for it He is also able as well as good Some men have excellent natures but straitned capacities they are willing to do good beyond their power but it is not so with the Saints friend He hath all power in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28. 18. and can do what-ever pleaseth him he hath all creatures at his command all the treasures of Heaven at his dispose he is infinitely rich and hath all that good that Souls can need or desire he hath goods of all kinds of supply his Customers with it is not so with men no Merchant can furnish his Traders with every thing they need but one sells this ware another that here men sail to one Countrey for one Commodity and to another Countrey for other Wares they ransack Nature's treasures by Sea and Land borrow something from every Nation that hath a peculiar excellency to make up their supplies and furnish all their occasions and pleasures but the Lord Jesus hath all that in him and at his dispose which you need he can supply all your wants having all fulness dwelling in him Phil. 4. 19. He hath that in him which your Souls want and the command of that you need for your Bodies also He can give you the desires of your heart Psal 37. 4. He is able to make all grace abound towards you that you always having all-sufficiency in all things may abound in every good work 2 Cor. 9. 8. Here 's no less than five All 's that flow from the ability of Christ to Believers All grace abounding in them All sufficiency enjoy'd by them All ways in All things for All good works Did Souls but believe the all-sufficiency of Christ they would not so perplex their spirits when in wants with what shall I eat and with what shall I be clothed and how shall I get this and the other mercy I want when all is offered to Wisdom's Merchants freely for godliness hath the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come and these promises are in the hand of Jesus for all that come to God by him All things are delivered to me of the Father Matt. 11. 27. The Lord Jesus is not only able to give you all that you ask according to his will having all things delivered to him for that end but he can keep it for you and secure it to your use I am perswaded that he is able to keep that good thing I have committed to him against that day 2 Tim. 1. 12. This all-sufficiency of Christ is argument enough to new-Covenant-federates for a calm and quiet dependance on him and holy walking before him Gen. 17. 1. And that which is exceeding pleasing to Traders also he is faithful as well as able he is one of his word that makes good all his promises to a tittle to those that by Faith deal with him The holy one of Israel cannot lie or alter the word that is gone out of his mouth hath he said and shall he not do it hath he spoken and shall he not make it good Numb 23. 19. and Rev. 1. 5. He is the faithful witness faithful is his name And he that sate upon the Throne was called faithful and true Rev. 19. 11. And faithfulness is his nature in comparison of whom every man is a liar Let God be true and every man a liar Rom. 3. 4. If the Lord Jesus were not faithfull to his word and undertaking the Father would not have trusted him with all the concerns of his glory and people in the world neither had he been a fit person for the Elect to have committed unto him their souls and all
of his mouth more than your necessary food Can you be content to let your own things sit that you may seek the things that are Christ's and sit at his feet when others are in the market-place and abroad in the croud of their earthly affairs Are you alone with Christ in a corner If so your Mercy is singular and your Obligations strong to be entirely the Lords to be no more your own but wholly devoted to his fear to live a life of praise and welpleasingness uno God to think well of Christ and bear his pleasure to be patient in tribulation continuing instant in prayer to long for the Well-head of your mercies and to be beginning a life of glory while you are here in a life of grace I shall close up this Discourse with a few words of general Advice to you all First lay the foundation sure on which you build all your Temporary labours and your Eternal hopes You cannot be too certain in that on which depends your all Consider how often Satan hath battered down yea your own hearts have disputed away those Evidences on which you could sometimes have adventured your Souls and yet the strongest Assaults are to come and the greatest Forces of Hell reserved for the last Battel Bottom not your hopes on any thing short of a Crucified Christ not on your Frames but on his Favour not upon your Duties but his Righteousness nor upon any kindnesses received from him short of a saving union with him rest not till your Convictions be clear deep and distressing such as discover sin to be the greatest evil in its nature and fruits and its residence and indwelling in you a burden intolerable such Convictions as will not admit of after favour or reconciliation to the least known or most beloved sin that can make your heart to bleed afresh upon every new touch of it and never at rest till the whole kind of it be destroyed out of your Souls Labour to see such a Beauty in Christ as may render all Created Glory as dross and dung in your Eye stop not till you come to the Excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ as your Lord till you can discern such a worth in the Person as well as Purchase of Christ as will make you content to throw all over board to take in him and be sick of love till you enjoy him be sure your close with Christ be right with his whole Person Will and Designs to be one with him upon all his own terms And that this union be not in Judgment and Consent onely but in Heart and Will from your whole Souls finding an inward likeness and love to him in your renewed nature 2ly Go on towards perfection press after nearer and more compleat Conformity to the Nature and Will of Christ every day Think how short your highest measures do come of perfect holiness in the sight of God set the Pattern before you every day that you may be the more ashamed at your present attainments in Grace and more provoked to higher Aims and Atchievements compare your selves with them that are above you with the Rule of Righteousness and with all your Obligations Time Means and Mercies to keep you humble in your own eyes look upon your Wants as well as Enjoyments that you may be as poor in spirit as in condition that which is wanting in you cannot be numbred Who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort 1 Chron. 19. 14. Keep low thoughts in your selves under the greatest services you do for God and the highest honour you receive from God Alas said the Lord Du-Plessis to one that commended him for the improvemt of his Talent What is there of mine in that Work say not that it was I but God in me I know more saith another by my self to abase me than any man could know to extol me So much humility a man hath so much grace he hath and worth and no more Dr. Har. 3ly Keep up a life of faith upon Christ in the promises As the first quickening of a Christian is by faith so his whole life is maintained by believing no longer than you believe can you live Gal. 2. 20. Your life is hid with Christ in God Draw fresh Influence thence by faith upon your Hopes Comforts and Graces under every want fears and deaths within you make not your graces or duties the grounds of believing but encouragements to Faith study more the nature freeness fulness and unchangeableness of redemption grace and get acquaintance with the promise and perswasions of the truth of them in Christ To live onely by faith saith Dr. Harris and a bare Promise without a pawn and to give all to free grace and to Christ alone are mighty works and some of those things he found most difficult 4ly Walk in Love as Christ hath loved you This is the life of Heaven and beginning of that Excellent glory which shall never be removed there is nothing does make thee more like to God more near and dear to him and more fit for his use than this Grace of Love Let your Affections be extended as large as the objects of them unto God his Word Ways and People love God to obey him his Ways to walk in them his People to delight in them to sympathize with them to mourn over them in their sufferings to help them in their necessities to rejoyce with them in their consolations counting their mercies your own which is no easie part of your duty It is far harder saith one to adopt anothers Comforts than his Sorrows and to hold ones self exalted in anothers exaltation 5ly In the enjoyment of the World get above it and while you live in it be daily dying to it so much as you get above the World so near are you to God and Glory and no nearer Covet not anothers Goods the World is none of your Portion if God be your part Oh how much beneath the Extraction Dignity and Duty of Saints is the love to and life upon this low and dirty World leave not Childrens bread to feed on such Carrion doggs-meat and filthy excrements with which Satan feeds his Labourers But having spoke largely of this matter in the Book I advise your Eye and Heart thither for Conviction and Counsel herein 6ly Make much of the Time and Means of Grace while you have them your Glass runs your Sun hastens and the Wind blows when and where it listeth O make use of Time while you have it God who made nothing in vain hath work for every hour of your short Day work as hard as you can you will find something to do when you come to die Loss of time saith Dr. Harris on his Death-bed sits very near upon me work work apace assure your selves nothing will more trouble you when you come to die than that you have done no more for that God which hath
satisfied till God be yours The King's Son or no Husband Rutherford The rational soul saith Augustine being capable of God can be satisfied with nothing but God Direct 4. Fourthly Come over into the family of Christ if you would drive on this Heavenly Trade to purpose Apprentices are houshold servants up-rising and down-lying and so must Wisdom's Traders be they must be members of Christ's family and dwellers in the house of God Psal 65. 4. Blessed is the man whom thou chusest and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy Courts we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy Temple Those whom God chuses for himself he brings to himself and makes them dwellers in his Courts Such In ejus familiam recensitus ut fide integra inter sanctos coeli cives vitam degat Buc. a one is entered into his family that he being a sound Believer may spend his life among the holy Citizens of Heaven Those whom the Lord takes into Covenant he takes into communion not onely with himself but with his people Jer. 3. 14 15. I am married unto you and I will take you one of a City and two of a Family and I will bring you unto Sion and I will give you Pastors according to my own heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding This was intended of Gospel-times and Churches When all the Nations shall be gathered to the Name of the Lord to Jerusalem verse 17. And the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel verse 18. which began to be fulfilled upon the breaking down of the partition wall and the bringing in of the Gentiles unto Christ Ephes 2. 14 15 19. When Believers should be no more strangers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and foreiners but fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God The Apostle hath reference to the 12th verse where souls out of Christ are said to be aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers to the Covenant of Promise but now having access to God by one Spirit verse 18. Ye are no more strangers and foreiners a In respect of the Church of God you are no longer strangers saith Zanchy but fellow-citizens with the Saints and in regard of the Covenant of God you are no more foreiners but of the houshold of God In whom all the building fitly framed together that is every stone in the building groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord verse 21. The Church of God is his Temple where he is rightly served Rev. 7. 15. Therefore are they before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple which is his Church saith Mr. Durham here begun by fellowship in his Ordinances and in f Respectu Reipublicae Israelis i. e. Ecclesiae concives sanctorum respectu foederis cum Deo esse domesticos Dei Heaven compleatly Ezek. 20. 40. For in my holy Mountain in the Mountain of the Height of Israel a type of Gospel-Churches saith the Lord God there shall all the house of Israel all of them in the Land serve me there will I accept them there will I require your offerings Plainly intimating that God hath no acceptable service but in the Churches of his Saints I mean as to publick worship Persons cannot give God his full instituted worship till they come into fellowship with his people seeing Church-fellowship is it self an institution of Christ Matth. 28. 19 20. Acts 2. 41 42. 1 Cor. 12. 28. Mat. 18. 17 18 19. The Church of Christ is his body where he hath set his members 1 Cor. 12. 18. That being fitly joyned together they might increase with the increase of God Ephes 4. 16. Col. 2. 19. His Vineyard where his work lies and into which he sends his Labourers Isa 5. 7. Matth. 20. 1 2. His Garden where his Lillies and Beds of Spices are Cant. 6. 2. His Family where he feeds and instructs them where he guides and governs them 1 Tim. 3. 15. Ephes 3. 15. His Sanctuary where he hides and secures them Psal 78. 69. His Galleries where he walks and is held by his Saints Cant. 7. 5. His Golden-candlesticks where his Lamps are burning The Firmament and Heaven where his Stars are shining and the Sun of Righteousness ariseth with healing in his wings Rev. 2. 1. There 's his Granary where he laies up his provisions his manna marrow fat things and spiced wine Isa 25. 6. There 's his School where he instructs his Disciples and makes them wise to salvation Isa 54. 13. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children There are his Oracles and Secrets Rom. 3. 2. The Adoption the Glory the Covenants the giving of the Law and the Service of God and the Promises Rom. 9. 4. There 's his Nursery where his tender plants are set to grow where he brings in those that shall be saved Acts 2. 47. And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved His converting the Gentiles is called a perswading them into the tents of Shem that is the Church of God Gen. 9. 27. Yea the House of God is the gate of Heaven Gen. 28. 17. This is none other but the House of God this is the gate of Heaven v Per portam Ecclesiae in portam Paradisi By the gate of the Church saith Augustine we enter into the gate of Paradise How goodly then are these Tents of Jacob How amiable are those Tabernacles of Israel As the valleys they spread forth as gardens by the Rivers side as the trees of Lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted and as Cedar-trees beside the waters Numb 24. 5 6. To your Tents then O Israel 2 Sam. 20. 1. Fly to your windows O ye Doves Isa 60. 8. Love the habitation of God's house and the place where his honour dwells Psal 26. 8. Where are such pleasures treasures light life where are your chiefest interests your priviledges your work your Lord the first-fruits of your eternal glory if you have taken Christ for your Teacher you must take his Church for your School you must dwell where he dwells where you may sit at his feet and receive his Doctrine Direct 5. Fifthly Be mortified to this present world get your hearts loose from things below No man that warreth a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tricis laqueis implicatur entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him that hath chosen him to be a souldier 2 Tim. 2. 4. He does not lay ties and snares about his feet which throw him down and hinder the course he engages to follow Christianity is a Warfare and Race earthly things in the heart are as entanglements about the feet which hinder this undertaking you will have no liberty to heavenly things till redeemed from the Earth nor can run the race towards glory till you lay aside the weights that
And they that feel their daily need of soul-relief that will be at any pains to enjoy it Isa 41. 17. Secondly Get a believing sight of Christ's grace and fulness that he is able to enrich you and willing to help you Heb. 11. 6. This brought Naaman to the Prophet Elisha for cure of his leprosy he believed his servants report that he was able and cherished hopes that he was willing to heal him 2 Kin. 5. 3. And she said to her Mistress would God my Master were with the Prophet that is in Samaria for he would recover him of his leprosy One told this to her Lord and hereupon he goes and adventures ver 5. And he departed A perswasion of Christ's ability brought the Leper to him for cleansing Mat. 8. 2. Lord if thou wilt thou can'st make me clean He was perswaded that Christ was able and had hopes that he was willing or would never have come to him A thorough belief of Christ's ability to help will make a soul to cherish hopes of his willingness also So the blind men Mat. 9. they believed Christ's ability to help them ver 28. And they had hopes of his mercy too that he would do it ver 27. Thou Son of David have mercy upon us and this hope made them not only to come to Christ but to follow after him whatever persons pretend to a believing in Christ's ability to save and sanctify them they have not this faith who question his willingness to satisfy the longing soul and save all that come to God by him you confess he is able to furnish you with all you can want or desire believe his willingness also to supply all your wants who sincerely wait upon him Quest But how may I know that Christ will furnish me if I come for these heavenly treasures there are many come and go without their errand Some ask and have not Jam. 4. 3. run and receive not strive to enter in and are not able 1 Cor. 9. 24. Luke 13. 24. There are some the Lord threatens he will not hear Prov. 1. 28. Isa 1. 15. Zech. 7. 13. And I have sought these spiritual blessings many a time and God hath not answered How may I be sure Christ is willing to give these treasures unto me Sol. The Lord Jesus hath made an offer of grace to all sensible Sinners who feel their need and thirst for supply Isa 55. 1. Joh. 7. 37. and called upon them to come and receive it without exception Matth. 11. 28. Now it cannot stand with his divine goodness and truth to offer mercy and not intend to give it he cannot deceive or be deceived who is the faithful one nor invite his creatures to an expectation and then fail them Now he hath called all to come and required no other condition but their coming and receiving him and the things he hath offered He hath also promised as well as offered to give to him that thirsteth Rev. 20. 6. I will give to him that is a-thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely I will give not sell or let out on any terms of self-worthiness for if there be any thing to make the creature worthy 't is not a gift but debt Rom. 4. 4. To him that is a-thirst nothing else is required but a pinching sense of souls need and an unsatisfied desire of supply I will give freely out of no respect to any thing in the creature but his necessity and misery the moving cause is his own grace and free mercy to Sinners as Sinners I will give liberally too let him drink freely take as much as he needs or is capable to receive I will give sutably such things as you desire and need and such things as are capable of satisfying you of the fountain of the waters of life Matth. 7. 7. Psal 36. 7 8. Joh. 6. 37. Isa 41. 17. You will find nothing in these Scriptures required in the person but sense of his need seeking satisfaction coming believing and a real subjection to all God's terms and a pure designing of his ends I disclaim all the Port I would be in at is redemption and forgiveness through his blood Ruth Now if he hath promised to give to them that seek he must be willing to give For the holy one of Israel cannot lye Numb 23. 19. He hath received all his Mediatory fulness of purpose for the giving out to those that come unto him Joh. 1. 12. Psal 68. 18. Thou hast received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell amongst them He is the Angel Messenger and Mediator of the new Covenant the Trustee and Feoffee entrusted with that great estate for the use of his people that need it and come unto him for it Mal. 3. 1. Heb. 9. 15. And therefore is said to appear in Heaven in the presence of God for them as an Advocate to follow their cause The Lord Jesus is wonderfully pleased too in giving to his needy seeking ones Mic. 7. 18. He delighteth in mercy Psal 35. 27. He hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servants the more he gives the more he sees of the travel of his soul and is satisfied Isa 53. 11. The more he gives the more he receives The gifts and graces of God are as the rivers that flow from the Sea and return to the Sea again 1 Chron. 29. 14. Of thine own have we given thee The more Christ gives to his people the more he receives his talents come in again with improvements Mat. 25. 27. The more he gives the more he is glorified Joh. 14. 13. Answer these questions before you doubt Christ's willingness to part with spiritual goods freely to all that truly seek them Do you think really that Christ can dissemble offer mercy and have no mind to give it Do you think that the Lord Jesus can break his word or become false to his promise Can you imagine he will be unfaithful to his trust Can he delight in giving and yet not willing Doth he gain by giving and yet not willing to give Is he glorified by giving and yet be loth to give then would he not care for his own name Suspect your willingness to receive not Christ's to give you all that grace you need and seek of him Fourthly Another thing wherein this heavenly Trade lies is to carry on heavenly work and to be daily driving on the great business of godliness Religion hath its work as well as the world every Trade hath its employment and so has godliness Christianity is not a notion or opinion a name to live and no more 'T is a miserable vanity and cheat for a person to think a bare Lamp will light him to Heaven and a few lazy wishes bring him to glory though he travel not the way to it Alas to espouse the principles of Piety without the practice of it to get over to priviledges and be strangers to Purity to profess Faith
God fares deliciously in his soul feeding on marrow and hidden manna that he or she is greatly beloved of God Thy lot O soul is fal'n in a peculiar plot of mercies ground and should not the Lord Jesus be admir'd of such a one seeing he is come to him in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel O bless God for this unspeakable gift Thirdly 'T is an earnest of eternal mercy They that sow to the spirit shall reap life everlasting Gal. 6. 8. And such as abound in holiness shall have an abundant entrance administred to them into the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour 2 Tet. 1. 11. God will never throw away savoury salt to the dunghil nor burn up fruitful branches Trees full of sap are the Lord's trees which he will transplant into his Paradise above Psal 104. 16. The Lord 's ripe fruit shall be gathered not shaken on the ground and safely hous'd in Heaven Grace is too precious seed to be lost Such as sow it now though in tears shall surely come again and bring their sheaves with them Psal 126. 5. Poor troubled Soul God will not despise the day of thy small things much less thy soulenlargements after him he will be tender of thy smallest blossoms and secure them into fruit much more shall thy encreases arrive to the fulness of the measure of the stature of Christ Eph. 4. 15. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which you have shewn towards his name Heb. 6. 10. It may be thou hast forgotten many a duty and hearty testimony of thy love to Christ his name people and ways and canst see nothing in all thou hast done but art ready to say on every turn When saw I thee an hunger'd and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink when saw I thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and clothed thee or sick and in prison and came to thee Matth. 25. 35. But God cannot be so unrighteous to forget it or let it pass so but keeps a record of all thy meanest duties and will make the most of them in the day of righteous judgment I know thy works and thy labours and thy patience c. Rev. 2. 2. When thou wast under the Fig-tree I saw thee Joh. 1. 48. He takes notice of a Daniel by the river Hiddekel of a Peter on the house-top of Elijah under the Juniper-tree 1 King 19. 4 5. yea of what was but in David's heart to do and requites it 8 King 8. 18. Will not an Ahasuerus let the good deeds of Mordecai go unrewarded and shall not the Judg of all the Earth do right and crown the works of his own hands Your labours shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. O then be blessing God for the least good he hath wrought in you and for you for any prosperity in your souls There are no offerings come up with that acceptance on God's Altar as thanksgiving-offerings Psal 69. 30 31. What a delightful remark did the Lord Jesus put upon the Lepers return to praise him for cleansing Luke 17. 18. the more spiritual the more rejoyeing Isa 52. 8. No such thriving souls as God-praising souls Jer. 31. 12. Therefore they shall come and sing in the heighth of Sion and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord for Wheat and for Wine and for Oil and their soul shall be as a watred Garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all Quest How might I know whether I have good trading in Spirituals or no that I might have ground for rejoycing in God Could I find this soul-welfare you speak of I should bless God with my whole soul but I fear 't is otherwise that I am one of those who fall back and decay in my heavenly Trade Sol. There are seven signs of good Trading especially in evil times which men usually reckon to be discoveries of a thriving Trade First When men go not back in the World but hold their own they lose nothing 'T is much in bad times to keep ones ground to be savers in such a season is a piece of gain Try in this how 't is with you do not you go back in your spiritual estate is it not worse with you than heretofore Is not your faith love humility patience less than heretofore If you go not back in grace you go forward there 's no standing at a stay in Religion men go forward or backward in the way of Vertue they that do not decay do thrive in Spirituals Job proves his good estate by his standing fast in shaking times Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lip I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food My foot hath held his steps his way have I kept and not declined Job 23. 10 11 12. and thence concludes a gainful issue When he hath tried me I shall come forth as Gold And the Apostle reckons it good profit in soul-conflicts to stand ones ground if he cannot gain yet not to lose But having done all to stand is victory Eph. 6. 13. Christians have their winter-seasons when growing is not visible then to keep alive is commendable Do you hold fast your integrity and keep your garments on Do you preserve your conscience pure from the defilements and temptations of the day and place you live in and your hearts unspotted from the World your desires as warm your purposes of cleaving to God as firm and your feet as quick to run the way of God's commandments as heretofore then have you good trading considering the times you live in which is an hour of temptation and an evening of darkness Secondly If wares go off well 't is good trading when goods vend at a good rate men count it thriving Is it so with your souls do your prayers come up to God with acceptance do duties turn to any profit to you what returns have you of your religious services do hearing prayer conference bring you any soul-advantage do not goods lie by you undisposed of but your graces are exercised your talents gifts opportunities improv'd then 't is good Trading If the Lord give you light you lay it out for the good of others if he restore to you the joy of his salvation and uphold you with his free Spirit you teach transgressours his waies and endeavour to convert sinners to him Psal 51. 12 13. When God drops in comfort to you you pour it forth to others that they may be comforted also with the same comforts wherewith you are comforted of God 2 Cor. 1. 4. When you are come to duties publick or private do graces go out in them you shew parts it may be but do you lay out grace as well as gifts spiritual as well as natural affections Do you pray with the Spirit and hear with Faith do hope fear humility holy fervency heavenly breathings sincerity go off in your religions duties