cruel and painful torment They might as well deny the Sun-light at noon-day who deny this Truth To turn plain Scripture into Allegories is to turn substance into a shadow It cost Origen a self-mutilation for mutilating divine writings thus He was called Centaur for monstrous Opinions flowing from Allegorical strainings of Scripture Christs Manhood should be so precious to us as not to endure affronts put on it Therein God and man do most sweetly meet which will help weak faith in every time of need 3 Against both the parts of his humane nature his soul and Body many also fight Apollinarius denying him a human soul as if the Godhead had supplied the want thereof Eutyches destroyed both by his pretended swallowing of them up into the Divine Nature The Manichees and Valentinians allowed him but an aery phantastical Body running through the womb of Mary as through a Pipe Mahometans fain it to have passed through Maries Paps and by the smell of a Rose Divers Novelists are daily broaching strange conceits about it The Vbiquitarians give him a monstrous Body immense and filling all places the Papists as monstrously would have his Body to be distinctly in many places at once to be without quantity without extension without sensible accidents to be made a new daily at the Priests will to be broken and not broken by himself and by all their Priests c. Many such contradictions against Scripture and sence Reason and all Sciences they are forced to for their fictitious Transubstantiation sake All such Malignant vapours which infest many will be effectually dispelled by the right use of your spiritual confection Christ was and abides ever a perfect man consisting of Soul and Body both subsisting in his divine Person being united to the divine Nature therein It will shew you that his soul was sorrowful to death and was made sensible of all humane affections though without sin as clear Chrystal water moved without any mud It will teach you that his Body had flesh and bones after his Resurrection as before which a spirit hath not That the same Body did visibly ascend into Heaven before the Disciples eyes and shal return thence in the same manner That the Heavens must hold him till the Restauration of all things That the glorifying of his Body hath not could not have annihilated it or changed the substance though it hath bettered the qualities thereof It will help you to know the flesh of Christ spiritually though you learn to know him no more after the slesh carnally It will teach you that his bare flesh and the fleshly sence thereof profits nothing a Capernaitish soul being destitute of his Spirit but that it s his Spirit that quickens us giving Life to his flesh and to his Word that both may be Spirit and Life to us in a spiritual and lively improvement Christs manhood is that precious Golden Ring that sets forth the Jewel of his Godhead to us It s a curious Vail of his contriving that his glorious face may through it be beheld It s a Chrystal Glass of the Lords framing to reflect thereby his Image upon us Out of Christ God is a consuming fire but thereby he becomes a Reconciled Father If Christ were not man still there were no hopes for man if we know him not thus we know him not at all It s not a figment of our own divising but the man Christ Jesus that must be our Saviour He cannot be ours unless wholly ours 4. Against his Person appear Nestorius dividing it into two Persons Sabellius Arius all Antitrinarians denying his distinctly eternal Personality from the Father The Socinians and Notionists that fancy the distiction of persons in God to be but nominal according to various dispensations witness Hob's Leviathan among many other poisonous books so commonly scattered abroad TO queneh the force of these pernicious Errors your Counter poison will season your soul with the scriptural description of Emmanuel our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God with us It will prove him to be God-man having both Natures divine and humane subsisting in his person the Son of God the second Person of the divine Trinity by Hypostatical Union it will clear him to be the Brightness of his glorious Father and the express Image of his Person being that one Mediator between God and Man and therefore God-man that he might conquer by suffering and make his suffering infinite for vertue and value for satisfaction and acquisition It will shew you that there are three in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and that those three are one That this Mystery is not against Reason though above it in its common shallow apprehension that the Son sends the Spirit Comforter from the Father and is therefore distinct from them both yet that he and the Father are one in Essence though distinct in person That Gods Reason is the Rule of ours being revealed to us in his divine monuments that we may assent to his Assertion though we cannot fathom the Explicitness thereof no more then Bruits can fathom our rational expressions That the Person of Christ coming out of the water must needs be distinct from that Person of the Spirit who came in the likeness of a Dove lighting on him at his Baptism and from the person of the Father whose voice from Heaven said This is my Beloved Son hear him Thus the Grace and Knowledge of Christ will teach you that he who thought it no Robbery to be equal wtth God being in the form of God substantially made himself of no Reputation that as God-man he might restore man to God in the gloryfiing of all divine Attributes Our Faith is not true if we do not own the true God truly as he holds forth himself in three distinct persons Those divine persons are not meer modes or manners of Attribution or Manifestation but real subsistences The Father is not the Son the Son is not the Spirit personally though they be one God essentially The person of the Son alone was incarnate not that of the Father he could not be Son not that of the Spirit there had been two Sons then The Word became flesh not the Father nor Spirit Divers Emblems are used to set forth this glorious Mysterie but Scripture-Language describes it best to a sober faith The Word Person is a Scripture Word very proper and significant They that deny this right use thereof make way for further denyal of Truth The Person of Christ is then to be owned by all that intend to be owned of him 5. Against Christs Spirit stirs first Macedonius denying him to be a divine Person distinct from the Father and Son Secondly All Antitrinitarians who oppose the distinction of divine Persons Thirdly The Greeke who deny the Procession of the Spirit from the Father through the Son Fourthly The several Blasphemers that vaunted
us and we have seen his Glory So the beloved Apostle witnesses of him He took on him not the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham Thus the Son of God became the son of man being miraculously conceived of the Holy Ghost in the womb of Mary the Virgin over-shadowed by Gods Spirit and born of her in the humane nature like to us in all things except sin Thus was God the Son made manifest in the flesh by assuming the Nature not the person for then had he been two sons and two persons of man to himself This Man Christ Jesus hath body and soul the two substantial parts of Man even as we have as appear'd in his whole progress both which he hath Glorified not nullified This Fatherless man is as Wonderful as the same motherless God for who can declare his Generation as to the manner of it Thus Infiniteness confined himself God eternal was born of a finite poor Virgin Here is an Object indeed for the best knowledge of the best man God become man 3. Christ is God-man Emmanuel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God with us The true Ithiel God with me the very Vcal who is All. In him by hypostatical Union the humane nature with the Divine do both subsist in God the Son the second person of the divine Trinity Here is indeed a complication of ineffable wonders As there one Divine Nature subsists distinctly in three divine Persons So here two Natures the divine and humane subsist both in one person each of them acting and remaining distinctly conjunctly and inseparably incommutably and unconfusedly as the Fathers expressed it to avoid Errors on both hands Here is no mixtion nor composition no confusion nor conversion but a mysterious and transcendant Union from whence flow the various expressions of Scripture 1. When that is attributed to each Nature which properly belongs thereto as suffering to humane Nature and also when that is attributed to the person which therein belongs to both natures as to be Mediatour this is most proper Secondly When that which is common to the whole Person as to be Mediator is attributed only to one of the Natures suppose to the humane this is more improper Thirdly When that which is proper to one Nature is attributed to the other Nature in concreto by a name denoting the whole Person In that sense its true that God purchased his Church by his Blood and that the King of Glory was crucified by communication of Properties Yet this acception is the most improper of the three being Metonymical as the second is Synecdochical In man two imperfect Natures Soul and Body are coadunated with reservation of Proprieties to the constituting of one Suppositum and Person by the vertue of God Christs Person in the divine Nature being most perfect took the humane nature into the unity of one person by his own Vertue So that its one and the same Christ visible according to the humane invisible according to the divine Nature This hypostatical Union was the work of the Trinity mediately of the Holy Ghost immediately and of the Son terminatively The Fathers compare this Mysterie to the joint work of three Sisters making up one vesture and putting it all conjunctly upon the second of them It was necessary that Christ should be God 1. To impart an infinite value and vertue to his compleat Obedience 2. To overcome all sufferings and enemies 3. To communicate all effectually by his Spirit to his people It was as needful that he should be man 1. Because the Godhead could not suffer Secondly because the same Nature that had offended was to satisfie 3. That our Nature corrupted by the first Adam might be restored by the second Christ Jesus our Lord. Thus is Christs Person the Amiable Object of our Knowledge Secondly CHrist considered in his Office is a precious Object his chief business as Mediator being to procure effectual Reconciliation to the saving of his people by his perfect Oblation presented to God for them and applied to them by Gods Spirit He assumed the Name and function of Jesus the Saviour He was anointed as the Christ of God with all suitable qualifications and made Lord of all but especially made our Lord and Saviour by personal appropriation and effectual application Thus was Christ voluntarily made of a woman under the Law subjecting himself in that wonderful dispensation of his Mediation to receive from the Father his Call to that redeeming Function There was no defect in God but in us only who wanted skil power and will utterly to the curing and saving of our selves Christ therefore was divinely anointed to be our Soveraign Prophet Priest and Prince to effect all for us and in us needful to salvation As a Prophet he Reveals the whole Council of God As a Priest he makes full expiation to God and Intercession for us As a Kingly Prince he subdues all spiritual Enemies and makes all things serviceable to the guidance and protection of his people under his Soveraign Rule and Government All this he did and doth by his Eternal Spirit as the Scripture Records freely fully surely and singularly being therein a glorious Object of Christian knowledge Thirdly Christ in his Progress is considerable under a double state of Humiliation and Exaltation 1. HIs Humiliation appeared in all the steps of his Conception and Birth of his Life and Passion of his death and Burial most wonderfully This God head was then covered with the dark vail of his humane Nature mourning as it were in the sad habit of his infirmities for his peoples Enormities He willingly then eclipsed his divine light within the dark Lanthorn of this submissive state he humbled himselfe to exalt us he emptied himself that he might fill us He parted with all that he might give us all He shewed himself to be the Son of man to the lowest degree that he might bring all his into the state of Children Had there not been an absolute necessity thereof he had never done it Had not our case been so desperate could any other way have expiated and destroyed his peoples sins Christ had not come down from the height of Glory to the bottom of ignominy Here is an object of admiration indeed God humbled to a childs state growing up by degrees in Stature and Grace doing and suffering every moment for his enemies in rebellious arms Behold the Son of man wrastling with earth and hell yea with heaven it self conflicting with mans rage the devils fury and the wrath of God! What think you of sin the murtherer of this Christ and of that Love which gave him to the death Thus made he his soul a sacrifice for sin that he might see his seed and the good will of the Lord prospering in his hands He laid in the grave to confirm his
of Impretation So by his Exaltation he works it out by power in a way of Application The many cavils objected against it Paul fully confuted over and over The Popish pretences for their Transubstantiation have been from Scripture sufficiently taken off by many choice Pens That Capernaitical conceit Christ himself took pains to refute It much wrongs the Glory of Christ to bring him again from Heaven to earth daily to mangle and abuse him by the hand of their Mass-Priests and expose him to shame and suffering again Though they call their Mass an unbloody Sacrifice yet do they make themselves the Butchers and Executioners of Christ in pretending to offer his corporal flesh and blood Scripture indeed cals the Bread and Wine his Body and Blood so doth it call Christ the Door the Vine c. by the like Metaphors yet is not Christ turned into a Door nor Vine no more are the Elements turned into his Body and Blood Christ explains the meaning of those phrases so doth his Apostle to the full As for the Vbiquitarians conceit to make Christs Body present corporally with the Elements and everywhere the absurdity thereof abuses grosly Christs Exaltation in his humane Nature and their Consubstantiation is refuted with that Scripture Reason that dispels the Popish Impanation Their straining of figurative speeches beyond their scope fetches Blood out of Scripture by dreadful violence and absurd consequence Yet will they admit figures in many other places not controverted 12 The Word of Christ suffers much likewise 1. From the forenamed Tenets 2. Formal Antiscripturists old and new quite denying the need and use thereof and questioning the purity sufficiency clearness and divineness of it 3. By Papists charging it with obscurity corruption insufficiency defectiveness and needlesness They keep it from the peoples common use unless licenced teaching that Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion They prefer their vulgar Latin version before both Originals They equalize their unwritten Traditions therewith and the Church commands yea prefer them often before it They bind all to receive its Interpretation only from their mouth They patch to the Canon many Apocrypha's and spurious books stored with lies and contradictions absurdities and fables ascribing thereto the like divine Authority 4. The Quakers join with them in slighting Scripture equaling their pretended Revelations therewith abusing the words thereof to contrary sences wresting it to the disguising of their gross Errors giving to their pretended Light within that Infallibility which the Papists give to their Pope and Council 5. The Behmenists and Notionists that turn it into Allegories and uncouth Eictions changing Realities into shadowes and the substance of Scripture into Chymical Fumes witness Paracelsus Wigelius Behmens several Books which are stored with non-sence and vile blasphemies bold Intrusions into hid Mysteries all under specious colours with bombastical words AGainst these woful Drugs the Knowledge of Christ will be successfully improved shewing us the Excellency and Necessity the sufficiency and purity the clarity and utility of Scripture It will take off all the mistakes objections and cavils made against the Divinity and right use thereof It will clear it to be the sole and sure Standard and Rule of Religion being the full Declaration of Gods Will and Mind the Fountain of all Goodness Truth It will shew the need that all have to study it day and night and observe it in all things It will detect their folly who add thereto their unwritten Traditions additions and Revelations besides above or against it as abominable to God It will discover their madness who pretend to speak and write as good Scripture and will not own the Bible to be the Word of God It will shew that all Scripture was written by Inspiration from God and is sufficient to compleat the Man of God to every good work That it came not by the will of man but that the men of God writ as they were moved by the Holy Ghost That the abuse of it by some must not prejudice the right use thereof corruptio Optimi pessima that if he be hid it s to them that perish That the Word is Light and gives Light That the Spirit of Christ still speaks in his Word whether to Life or to Death being inseparable from it That its never a dead Letter though it be sometimes a killing Letter That Translations are but the Taps of Scripture to broach those full vessels which therefore should be fitted to the use of all and are so far to be owned as they agree with the original sense That the sense of Scripture is Scripture though it may be variously expressed That no mans Interpretation is to be received further then it agrees with the whole Scripture That all seeming contradictions therein are easily cleared by comparing of Scriptures minding the context and scope in a sober humble manner with studious diligence That the sense of Scripture Translations when dark must be brought to the Original Light That all things absolutely needful to Salvation are clearly laid down in Scripture That Scripture Consequence is Scripture That some things are obscure therein to exercise our sobriety industry That it s so fitted to every mans condition that the simplest may reap the benefit thereof That Christ bids all search the Scriptures and sends them to the Law and Testimony for decision and prediction stil That the wisest Christians are most studious of Scripture finding stil most need of it being most sensible of their remaining Ignorance That pride and blindness make men to conceive so highly of their knowledge as to think themselves wise enough without it or as wise as it That they are foolish self-seducers who thus think and say That God indeed spoke to our Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in divers parts and manners by piece-meal as it were but he hath now contracted all in speaking to us by his Son That therefore having closed the Canon and sealed up those Records by his Sons Apostles who ever adds to or detracts from it is liable to that sentence there denounced by the Lord himself That the Lords Will revealed in Scripture obliges all being the Beck and hint of our Soveraign who can becken us all into nothing at his Will That since the compleating of Scripture immediate Inspirations are expired being needless the divine Rule of all being perfectly given out That all pretended Enthusiasms not agreeing with the Word must be suspected to be from evil spirits The several Errors of the Apocrypha are discovered by Scripture Light and have been abundantly confuted by many worthy hands The abuse of Scripture by feigned Allegories is thereby detected also when men will be wise above what 's written giving heed to Jewish and Chymical Fables yea to Magical Notions and Fictions as Paracelsus Behmen c. they are justly given
places in Ezekiel and other Scriptures hold this forth to the Life by the increase and Improvement of the Sanctuary-waters A fruitfull Parable the Lord himself spreads before us to express this emphatically by a large and pregnant Allegory whose divine Branches have been elaborately trimmed to this purpose by a very worthy Pen. The God of all Grace likes not to see his gracious Off-spring wasted with Rickets in a decaying posture His Messages from Heaven to the seven Churches of Asia testifie the same and hold forth a lively resemblance of his various dealings with his people from that time hitherto according to the various proportions of their Growth or Decay Reason 1. Their Nature requires it full of Spirit and Life they are and must needs grow The more of Life in any thing the more of Growth The more of Spirit the more of liveliness Grace is spiritual Life the seed of Glory and eternal Life It s the Life of Christ the operation of his holy Spirit as far as man is capable thereof The best of a mans natural Life is but dull and dead in comparison of this gracious Life Union to the living God and Communion with him in Christ through the Spirit is the Principle of this supernatural Life The new Creature must needs grow that Partakes so much of the divine Nature in similitude though not in sameness in quality though not in equality Want of lively Principles makes so many glorious Professors to wither and waste so miserably They were but seeming Branches as Cions meerly fastened about the stock but never incorporated therein intimately They that have their root and Life from earthly Nature still may for a while flourish but will soon be blasted The Root and Life of the new man is above in Gods bosom in the heart of Christ still supplied by his Spirit to safeguard them from all winter-blasts of renewed Temptations and corruptions Reason 2. Gods honour cals for it All things are made for him as they were framed by him Of him through him and to him are all things as in Nature so in Grace peculiarly This people hath he formed for his praises They are the plants of his setting the work of his hand that he may be glorified And herein is their Father glorified that they bring forth much fruit The growth of his Garden is the glory of that Divine Husbandman The thriving of his children must needs commend his Fatherly care His Love and service cannot but press thereto If his children be so unlike him they can neither honour nor serve him aright He hat much work for all his servants in every Relation and occasion If they be sickly and wasting what are they fit for Must not his people be lively like him that they may be stil faithful and successful The more Christ is known in a gracious way the more doth sin waste and Grace flourish The vigor of a Christian is still in his Christ The Love of Christ must needs constrain him to live more to him in being more like him Much strength and Spirit is still required in every part of the Lords service He would have us fervent in spirit as Paul himself was therein which doth require a spiritual growth to make us vigorous Reason 3. Mans Interest challenges it their credit and comfort their honour and happiness depend upon their growth Their profit and pleasure their helpfulness to others still attend the same A wasting sickly life is as uncomfortable as unserviceable to our selves and others Rickets and Consumptions render our children useless and burthensom spiritual decaies are far more offensive unto Gods children They can neither help themselves nor others that are thus pining and consuming The life of our life is in our health and strength without it we cannot receive nor do good to any purpose A diseased Life is but a living Death and a dying Life Christ must be known more graciously stil that we may enjoy more of his comforts and be more useful to all his members The more any Limb receives from the head the more assistance may the same afford unto its Body We must still be deriving from Christ what we are stil to communicate to our fellow members Christian sympathie and communion will still challenge serviceableness from every part of his mystical Body Vse 1. See the Necessity and Benefit of a perpetual Ministry and Ordinances They are the special means appointed and blessed for the promoting of this spiritual growth He gave Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the Work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ untill we all come into a perfect man in him to the full measure of his stature that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine but speaking the Truth in Love may grow up into him in all things who is the Head even Christ The slighting of Christs Institutions makes so many to decay apace in their profession and affection in their parts and practice They are the food and refreshings of Gods House suited to the case of all his children and servants therein The neglect abuse and poisoning thereof must needs be very sinful and woful How can they but languish and perish that scorn and defile that spoil and pervert the precious Means of their Life and growth Providence ever knits the End and the Means What the Lord appoints he doth surely and seasonably bless Out of his road he will not be look'd for nor assure his Grace where he Records not his Name His General presence fils all places indeed and Rules in hell it self Judicially But his favourable and fatherly presence is to be sought and found in his gracious Ordinances What can Rebels expect from a Soveraign whose Orders they stil oppose and reject Who can look for the Blessing of Heaven in following the waies of darkness What hope of growing in any good things without answerable supplies and relief We waste a pace and need refreshing still that we may grow in the knowledge of Christ Vse 2. It may convince and humble all ignorant and negligent Christians It s our sin let it be our shame and sorrow that we grow so little under such helps in the Lords husbandry This evil reigns in most it remains in the best Most continue in the love under the power thereof making a trade and a sport of it the best find much cause to be still judging themselves for the sad Reliques of these unhappy weeds The dunghil abounds continually with filth and Vermin so doth mans unrenewed heart The best Garden will ever be troubled with some trash or other to be look'd after Their case is saddest that are most sensless of it and secure in it The soundest bodies
retain some ill humors that will augment too much Putrefaction if not timely removed Thence the cause of so many Diseases that hinder the growth of the inward and outward man But how dreadful is their condition that stil feed their disease and love nothing but what increases distempers Corrupt nature stil will bring like to like and undo it self by pampering self God provides us very wholsom food in his Ordinances but like foolish children we frowardly dislike it and prefer any trash rather We feed on crude and corrupt matter which breeds choler phlegm and worms a pace Thence an increase of putrefaction which spoils our appetite and taints our palate Want of exercise and orderly care in the wayes of Christ makes us such weaklings and such punies in his Grace and Knowledge How doth it trouble us to see our children wasting with Rickets worms and Feavers through their own folly Is not our case much worse under our many spiritual consumptions stil contracted by our negligence Let is humble us and make us ashamed that we grow so little in that which is good and so fast in that which is evil is it not our folly and our misery Should not it be our shame and sorrow Vse 3. Examination Doth your spiritual Life appear to your self and others by your growth Is it universal proportional and continual Living things do grow in every part stil with proportion and continuance Do you thus spiritually grow in the gracious Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Observe it in the particulars 1. Is it an universal growth both internally and externally 1. Internally do you grow in every faculty and power of the inward man Doth your mind and Judgement your reason and conscience your will and Affections your memory and Sense grow more spiritual solid and substantial Are you better acquainted with his Person and Office Progress and Purchase Relation and Influence Do you feel thereby more vigor and strength flowing into your soul out of his fulness Do you find his Spirit quickning your spirit by every Ordinance and Providence of his to an higher Degree of Grace and Knowledge Are you more sensible of your need thereof as of your own insufficiency to support and supply you in every Relation Do you long for it and delight in it grieving for the want striving after it restless without it refreshed with it Is Christ sweeter and sin bitterer to your soul more and more 2. Externally do your leaves buds and fruit encrease in Loveliness towards God and man Do you grow as Christ did in Grace and Favour Is it your study design and labour to perfect holiness in the fear of God by putting away every filthiness of flesh and spirit through the improvement of his precious Promises Is your growth uniform in its universal augment Do you abhor sins of Omission as much as you do sins of Commission Have you an eye still to the second Table in minding the first and to the first in minding the second Do you make conscience of the least Precept in improving every Promise Doth not your Interest encroach upon Christ or your Neighbours various concernments Are you more sincere and self-denying more couragious and zealous for Truth and for Peace Do you grow in Patience and Prudence also as in diligence and Dependency Are formality and hypocrifie more loathsome stil to you as to God Doth your hand grow stronger and steadier in all offices of Justice and Charity as of Piety and true Devotion Is your speech active and lively is your life speaking 2. Is your growth proportional Doth it answer the measure of every part It s a Monster that grows not aright in Nature and Grace for quantity order and quality Observe how Plants spread with fit proportions and sensitives in every member mind the very growth of your own others Bodies to compare your spiritual case therewith Do you grow downward in self-denial and humility as well as upward in knowledge and comfort Is there no disproportion between your profession and Conversation your parts and practice Are not you sick of spiritual Rickets that puff up the head and waste other limbs Do your sence and motion grow spiritually orderly and fitly Are you not like Mushroms of a sudden monstrous disproportionable growth Hath every faculty its proper increase for the service of all other parts Do you digest well spiritual Nourishment which every part must assimilate into its proper substance and use Doth your increase of Gifts and Knowledge make you to grow in all Judgement of Christian helpfulness towards every Relation above you about you under you Do all the parts of the New creature keep an harmonious symmetry and orderly motion within you Is there no excrescence or exuberance no dislocation or disruption there willingly suffered Are not you like Hydropical Bodies puffed up with wind water and humours Is your Judgement sound and affections warm your will supple and conscience tender your tongue seasoned and your whole man strengthened daily by this gracious Knowledge Doth your Growth answer Christ provisions 3. Is it continual Is it stil your desire and delight design and labour to be found ripening towards Gods Harvest Is your way stil as the morning Light which shines more and more to the perfect day Do you hold on in that gracious course waxing stronger and stronger as he that hath pure hands Do you abhor sinful Remissions and intermissions in your self and others Observe the growth of all living things how they hasten stil after their proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perfection Is it so with you on a spiritual score Have you learned with Paul to forget things behind and stil press forward Do you therefore labour to cast off every weight that doth hinder you and the sin that so easily besets you The Lord is continually dropping down fatness from Heaven upon you Do you Return thither answer your Receipts thence Are you like a Plant in the Lords Garden spiritual and civil in Church and State ripening still towards a better state Do you mark and bewail your failings neglects Do your fals and slips quicken your pace and your watchfulness Doth others folly teach you more wisdom to walk more steadily in this slippery age whilst the Seducers do wax worse and worse both in deceiving and being deceived Are you stil striving to grow better and better Are you not like the high way stony or thorny ground which are but for a time but like the good ground fruitful to perfection Do you Resemble those true Believers who through faith patience inherited the Promises rather then Judas and Alexander Anannias and Saphira with thousands more that failed half-way Do Hymeneus Philetas and Demas awaken your care and quicken your diligence that you may not prove like to them in forsaking Christ Do you give your Lusts neither Peace nor Truce in your