is good ye know well the Apostles Precept 1 Thes 5. 21. Prove all things hold fast that which is good we have found the things in kind that single Christians and conjoyn'd Christians in Church-fellowship are to hold fast respectively viz. matter of Doctrine and of Religious and Moral practice and of Church-administration Now all these are to be proved and then so farre as found good stedfastly retained Here divers things might be spoken touching the businesse of proving and trying Touching the course taken for proving what would the Apostle have Christians wander up and down into every Conventicle or every corner to hear the broachers of all sorts of Opinions or would he have Christians adventure to travell into all Countries and to intermingle in all sorts of companies to get information what all men hold and all men practice O no Beloved wofull experience in our times shews that a number of light-headed curious gadders and travellers having no ballast of weighty judgement in them are so tossed up and down with the various kindes of Opinions and waves of mens practices clashing and breaking one upon another that they scarce ever come to side at Anchor at Sea much lesse put in at any safe Harbor but still fluctuate as Scepticks in Opion and Antinomists in practice and half Atheists at least in both We need not wander up and down for variety to bring under trial for we may finde too much brought home to us to our own places to exercise our judgements if we have any and if not to distract and disquiet us A great part of Solomons curious scarch experimentally was so unnecessary and unseemly as we may suppose it cost him a great deale of repentance afterward I say no more of this But then again for what is necessarily brought under our eye for proving remember that our onely true test or touchstone or rule for proving is the written Word of God And yet here we need begg of God sound wisdom how to make a right use of this proving touchstone for surely it is most grosly abused and wrested and perverted among our people at this day what through want of Learning what through want of humility because they would be dogmatizing And I fear there be crept in among them a number of Popish and profane witts who though secret scoffers at the Scriptures are leaders into manifold Errors by counterfeiting very greatly a reverence to Scripture Authority and urging the letter of it and express commands and examples from it while in the mean time they aime at both the disparagement of Scriptures and the confusion of their silly self-conceited followers The Lord direct us all to a right esteem and use of holy Writ for 't is possible there may be such found like those of old who melted and moulded their golden earings of precious Doctrines if right used into Idolatrous Images And such as can turn a brasen Serpent from a divine institution to become a superstitious Idol Thus having considered well what course we take in the way of Trial let us as was said hold fast only that which is good Onely pure and holy Doctrine onely approvable gracious practice suitable to such Doctrine and in Church-respects whether as Pastors and Teachers or other Ecclesiastick Officers onely such administrations and wayes of Government as may be found agreeable to the minde and word of our Lord Jesus It is observable that duty of this nature in our Text viz. to hold what was had already is either expresly or implicitely charged upon every one of those Asian Churches written to by Christ except that of Laodicea for all the rest had somewhat commended in them but she nothing as if she had nothing worthy to hold fast But why this Had she not much precious Doctrine retained by her Grant it yet it seems while she held her luke-warm temper in point of Government and Discipline all her Doctrine was as if it were not O Beloved that we had not yet amongst us a number of old Laodiceans obstructing what they can all proceeding in way of a right wise and sober Reformation and zealous onely to damp the zeale of people that way and stifly to hold fast humane superstitious inventions and their proud vain-glorious conceits of them The Lord soften and bend their spirits Use 2 Use 2. A second Use of this Point let be by way of Exhortation or Incitation to the act O that we would all stirre up our selves to all care and diligence to hold fast what good we have and let us all be stirred up thereunto at present Surely there are very strong Motives hereunto which may easily be perceived if we look about us I shall only press a little those two which lie on either hand the duty in our Text or what is equivalent thereunto The first is in the beginning of the verse Behold I come quickly saith the Lord Jesus A Motive taken from his quick apprehension unto them Now that speedy coming of his needs not to be understood meerly of a personal visible coming but of his coming in such ways of providence as wherein he was to be understood as vertually and effectually present for the mannaging of them and so we must needs understand the phrase Chap. 2. 5 16. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth Where his quick coming was doubtlesse in a way of punishment or chastisement c. But how are we here to understand Christ his quick coming First In a way of Trial. He had intimated immediately before that there was an hour of tentation coming upon all the world to try them that dwelt upon the earth and he is to be thought to be in that trial professing himself to be the searcher of the reins and heart Chap. 2. 23. and here as referring unto it he saith Behold take notice I come quickly viz. to try you among other in that hour of temptation what hour was that Immediately it signified as some Expositors think with good consent that persecution which soon after followed upon the Churches under the reign of Trajanus the Emperour and in which persecution Philadelphia was tried as well as other Strabo the Geographer writes that Philadelphia was terrae motibus crebrò concussa often shaken with Earthquakes Well whatever natural or proper Earthquakes she as a City with the region thereabout was subject unto certainly as she was a Church both she and others in those Primitive times were often shaken with Political Earthquakes shaking violences and assaults by Adversaries threatning their ruine and destruction And lest this consideration should not seem to reach us at this day take notice that in the judgement of many godly learned there is now an hour
fear and trembling at the denunciation of Gods judgements and especially at the Prognosticks and signals of dangers and miseries hanging over the Church and people of God My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements so David Psal 119. 120. Good King Jehoshaphat having certain intelligence of grear Forces of combined Enemies preparing against him and Gods people he feared 2 Chr. 20. 3. And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah And such a feare well tempered ought to be found in them upon such occasion and that most rationally For consider with me I beseech you 1. The speech and voice of God when it is but preceptive onely and in the way of commanding is enough to strike his people with fear as it may be presented to them in a Majestick manner So it did at Mount Sinai when God delivered his Law to his people though then they stood upon good terms with him For there is a dreadfulness ever in the Soveraign Majestique Presence of God See Psal 89. 7. God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the Saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him Much rather then when he utters himself in the way of threatnings of judgments which are most fit to beget fears in the soul 2. We know that the very goodnesse of God and his pardoning mercy should work the soul about by the way of love unto a Reverential and Cautionary Fear of offending him Psal 130. 4. But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared How much more properly then may the severity of God and his menaced judgements cause a trembling fear in them whom they concern 3. We finde God offended at men and those of his own people not only for formal sinfull matters of provocation but even for not fearing as they should and not trembling before him in the way of his judgements So with Judah I saw saith he when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not c. Jer. 3. 8. So with the remnant of Judah during the Captivity in Babylon who went down into Egypt For God threatned them for having forgotten the wickedness of their Fathers and for not being humbled at that day nor having feared c. Jer. 44. 9 10. 4. And on the contrary we finde God in a just expectal of this fearfull trembling disposition at the voice of his threatnings and judgements and well pleased with it The Lion hath roared who will not fear Amos 3. 8. Shall a Trumpet be blown in the City and the people not be afraid Jude ver 6. To this man will I look saith God even to him that is poore and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word Isa 66. 2. Quest But what manner of fear and trembling at Gods threatnings may this be which is required Doth not the Scripture say that The righteous man shall not be afraid of evill tidings because his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord Psal 112. 7. And doth not the Scripture divers times forbid and reprove the people of God for their fear of enemies and oppressors and a sad and calamitous condition under them Who art thou saith God that art afraid of a man that shall dye and of the son of man that shall be made as grass c and that hast feared continually because of the fury of the oppressor as if he were ready to destroy c. Psal 51. 12 13. Answ It must be granted there is a great deale of fear that the poor people of God are subject unto in this life which is and may most justly be interdicted and forbidden to them and checked in them by the Spirit of God as being inordinate and sinfull in sundry respects and yet it must be held that there is a fear of threatned judgements from God which is not onely indulged to them but falls under duty There is a great deale of base slavish fear in the ground of it of excessive fear in the degree of it and of either preposterous or otherwise unseasonable fear in the time of it as it then works unseasonably when God after a time of long publick triall and affliction discovers himself by sundry tokens and evidences ready to comfort his people And so in that place mentioned in Isa 51 12 13. See the Context thereabout But while God speaks terrible things unto his his people they ought to fear Provided that their feare be thus qualified 1. It must be a Fear that hath the great God properly for its Object and not the Creature I take it to be generally observable in the holy Scripture that God finds not fault with his people or any other for fearing him no not meerly in regard of his power and wrath as King of Nations See Jer. 10. 7. Who would not fear thee O King of Nations for to thee doth it appertain forasmuch as among all the wise men of the Nations and in all their Kingdoms there is none like unto thee And Psal 90. 11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger even according to thy fear so is thy favour Isa 19. 16. In that day shall Egypt be like unto women and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of Hosts which he shaketh over it But for fearing the Creature suppose the instrument he useth of his wrath or punishing displeasure is that werein the base degeneration of humane fear lieth that men look not at or consider not the chief Efficient and Meritorious causes of judgment threatned but the matter of it the Instruments of it only And so not at the hand of God in it and his displeasure stirred up by sin but at the hand of man or other Creatures executing it and the matter of loss or smart in it Their fear is not before the Name of God Mal. 2. 5. but before the names and faces of men Now this is base and quite contrary to the temper that God requireth who in case of judgements or dangers would not have sensual but spiritual considerations taken on for they that know Gods Name aright should learn by an holy Chimistry as it were to abstract a spirituall fear of the Creator from the carnall feare of Creatures and preserve that fear by them 2. It must be a Fear that riseth not onely out of Self-love as apprehensive only of personal dangers But a fear that ariseth from true brotherly charity born towards the community of Gods People and apprehensive of Divine anger kindled against them and of dangers toward them This Prophet feared in the behalf of the people and prayed in behalf of the people of God and not of himself either only or chiefly Publique respects should outweigh private in all that would be accepted of God
and will fulfill his determined work within his appointed time for them or in plenitudine temporis in the fulness of time determined yet this is a sense that falls too short of the Emphasis of the doubling of this Phrase in our Text which may seem to import more than so Yet secondly neither do I take the midst here Geometricè precisè for the midst according to a precise measure as some do For they that think he prayes that this reviving work of God might be wrought either about the middle of the years of the worlds duration presuming it shall last 6000. years or just between Samuels Prophecying and Christ his coming or suffering supposing just 490. years between that Prophet and the Captivity in Babylon and as many between the Captivity and Christ they build upon uncertainties and that in the judgement of our latest English Annotators c. What construction then may we make of this expression The meaning may be taken up as I conceive As the Psalmist prayed for himself or rather in behalf of the Church Ps 102. 23 24. with those whom I account most judicious in these two particulars 1. In the midst of the years i. e. In the middle course of thy Church or people while yet they are not grown up to a maturity or ripeness of age suffer them not to perish but hold them up in life Now that ancient people of God saith Calvin and our Genevian Annotators after him came not to their fulnesse of age till Christ and therefore should they not have been held up in a Church frame till then they had sunk as it were in the flower or middle of their age therefore he prayes thus c. 2. In the midst of years i. e. illorum calamitosorum infaelicium dierum c. of those calamitous and unhappy dayes or years when thy people shall be under the Chaldean bondage when they shall be tumbled headlong into miseries and be even overwhelmed with the waves of afflictions rushing in upon them and over them then do thou revive thy work thy work of promised grace and goodness on their behalf Etiamsi videmur destinati esse morti tamen nos restâ—tâ—e so Calvin And this I take to be the most genuine sense of this expression This midst of years being as emphatical as Davids midst of troubles Psal 138. 7. or the mountains being carried into the midst of the Seas Psal 46. 2 c. But to proceed to the last Quere Fourthly what means that abrupt speeh make known in the midst of c. what would he have made known Truly 't is very easie to gather both what and how by referring to the foregoing words viz. Make known thy reviving and revived work c. Let it be actually seen that it is thy work that such people are thine and that such works of Providence for them are thine let them and all the world about take notice of it And withall in so doing make know what a God thou art as for wisdom and truth and power and other excellencies so for mercy in wrath remembring mercy as follows in the last clause Of which excellent and comfortable sentence I shall be able to speak but briefly and that as a ground onely of that one point I shall speak unto for our instruction which I gather up out of this branch of the Use thus Obs There be good grounds for the people of God to build their faith and prayers upon that God will preserve his Church and restore it unto a comfortable condition in the midst of the greatest dangers or miseries they can fall into in this life Or thus Gods people may rely on him for reviving grace amidst their most perplexed desperate and according to man deadest condition When there is otherwise no hope of recovery they may hopefully apply themselves unto him I take the Observation in this frame bcause I finde the Prophet praying to this purpose and all warrantable prayers are grounded upon Principles of Faith and this Prayer was intended for the use of Gods people and not for the Prophet himself onely as if the Spirit of God from heaven had shewed them how God was to be sought unto And therefore we might state the Point thus That it is the duty of Gods people to pray unto him to revive his work in the midst of most unlikely years So Calvin Sect. Now that in the depth of distresses the people of God have good ground of reliance on him for reviving grace I will first shew by way of Instance and then of Reason By way of Instance to make it appear that God hath revived his work in the midst of calamitous and disastrous times besides those of the Babylonish Captivity I will mind you but of two most memorable cases Instances out of the Scriptures We are not to omit that reviving was granted for which most directly this Prayer was made In that God hath preserved life of grace in his people druing the Captivity refreshing and confirming them by his servants the Prophets as Ezekiel Daniel and others lest they should despair and utterly sink with grief and restored them c. witnesse Haggie and Zacharie following One before that Captivity viz. Gods deliverance of his people out of Egypt For in the midst of the years of their bondage there under Pharaoh while they were groaning heavily under it and felt their pressures tasks and burdens multiplyed upon them then God sent them reviving comfort by Moses and wrought their deliverance wonderfully when according to man they were out of all hope of any such thing And this is that case which this Prophet most of all commends to their Posterity in this Prayer as a ground of Faith by way of president Though there be some mixed references in it to some other writings vouchsafed them in languishing and fainting cases while they were in the Land of Canaan Among other verses see the 13 14 15 c. Another after the Babylonish Captivity viz. The redemption of his people wrought by Christ For in the midst of years of sad and mournfull condition when his people were much degenerated and corrupted though they had the second Temple standing amongst them yet much polluted in worship as well as in other sinfull courses and thereupon left destitute of Prophets for a time and deprived of the Royal dignity among them being subdued by Romans then was Christ sent into the world and when the hearts of the best were troubled with longing expextation of a Messiah Venit Christus cum morbus creverit ad summum paroxysmum Then Christ came as a great Physitian when the disease was grown to the highest and sharpest fit of it then came he to work the Patients most necessary spiritual deliverance And this is that reviving act which divers Pontificial Expositors at least make the Allegorical sense of our Text and think it most intended by the Spirit in this place But it may suffice
8. used or was used for them in respect of their Land Isa 63. 17 18. The people of thy holinesse have enjoyed it but a while and in a small scantling c. But to draw to a conclusion 3. Would we have God revive this work for his people Then we must pray also that God would revive his work in his people and with it his people themselves and each of us is to look that it be revived in himself What work is this First The life of Faith in the main Remember The just shall live by Faith Chap. 2. 4. that is Faith shall be a principle of life exercising many lively acts in them and they shall attain to the life of Restauration and Comfort by believing Gods promises And therefore we are not to lie down in any dejections or despondences of mind through distrust of Gods power or promises in any case that may conduce most to his glory in his peoples good Secondly The Spirit of prayer for the reparation of Zion the spiritual restorement of the Church for when the Lord shall stir up his servants more generally and heartily to pray with melting compassionate affections toward the spiritual dilapidations deformities of his Churches it will be a good sign that the set time to favor his Zion is come See Psal 102 13 14. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time to favour her yea the set time is come For thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favour the dust thereof 3ly Resolutions for best endeavours in behalf of the work of Reformation This concerns you all beloved in your several places and therefore to be far from being obstructors of it through worldly and carnal ends instead of being its promoters and advancers and they that have pretended to build with Gods people when they have intended to hinder as they in Ezra 4. 2 3. God will discover them But more especially this concerns you my reverend and much respected Brethren of the Provincial Assembly to look that you put forth revived spirits toward this work If that were true sano sensu Jupiter quos servare vult suscitat then 't is as true eos per quos servare vult c. If God quicken up those whom he will save then those by whom he will save others instrumentally O let us therefore through grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stir up the gifts and graces of God in us let us quicken up our selves to use all counsels and endeavours for the furtherance of Gods Church-work and joyntly attend upon and prosecute all those good means according to our trust undertaken whereby it may be carried on forward waiting on God for the issues of all our prayers and all our endeavours which shall seem best to his heavenly wisdom However events shall fall out to us in our time resolve as our Prophet doth infer ver 17 18. Although the fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the Olive shall faile and the fields shall yeeld no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation FINIS Christs counsel to the Church of Philadelphia Rev. 3. 11. Hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown THese are a parcel of the words of Christ immediately directed unto the Angel of the Church in Philadelphia but mediately to that whole Church and every Member of it yea intended for the good of other Churches also and therefore of ours For he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the Churches It is the common Epiphonema which our Lord subjoyns to all his Epistles unto those Asian Churches written according to the dictate of his spirit by the pen of his Apostle John in the second and third Chapters of this Book He would have every one that hath an hearing ear to lend his attention to that which is spoken by his spirit to what Church soever in that such is the general nature of all Churches and Church-Members as either they do or may stand in need of all such divine admonitions as are addressed occasionally to any of them Now whether those seven particular Churches written unto by our Lord in this Context were Types of several Churches of several constitutions and temperaments and conditions to follow in after-times by divine providence I will forbear to assert positively though I cannot but say what I think that the invention of one of our own Worthies was very bright and clear in finding out those suitable correspondencies between these seven and others succeeding down to this present age respectively Now for that Church in Philadelphia to which my Text is part of that which was written this is remarkable concerning it that it that of Smyrna were the only Churches of all the seven which our Lord Christ openly reproved not at all wheras he found something reproveable in all the rest as on the other side it is remarkable concerning that of the Laodiceans that it was the only Church of the seven which Christ commended not at all whereas he took notice of something commendable in all the rest and why this not because there was nothing faulty or imperfect in those of Smyrna and Philadelphia but to shew how much the Lord favoureth humble modesty nor because there was nothing good in that of Leodicea but to shew how much the Lord disliketh proud vain-glory But I wave such general Observations I draw nigh to the words read unto Sect. you And not to take up any of our time with an exact Analysis of Christ his Epistle to Philadelphia because I shall go near to draw all the lines from the utmost circūstance of it into the center of my Text know only that after he had given testimony to the present good that was in her ver 8. and assurance of after goodness he would shew to her ver 9 10. both in subduing disguised Adversaries and in preserving her under temptations he comes in the words I have hinted upon to exhort her unto duty upon a double motive The duty is To to hold fast that which she had Brevis est hortatio sed Emphatica valde Pareus The first motive which is placed in the front is taken from the speedinesse of Christ his coming behold I come quickly The second which follows in the rear is from the possibility of danger upon neglect of that duty that no man take thy Crown First of the duty Touching which take up this Observation that It concerns the best of Gods Obser Churches and people to hold fast that which they have I purpose to handle this Point which is the principal in the Use so as ye shall perceive it reacheth not only Church-Officers but also Church-members and those of what condition soever this duty being of universal concernment to
it in this sense infringe the certainty of the perseverance and salvation of the Saints Answ No it doth not For in the community of a visible Church there is a mixture of Hypocrites with sincere Professors Now Hypocrites may lose the Crown of glory because they never had really either true Faith or holinesse but onely seemed to have them and therefore though they lose that Crown which was proposed to them to runne and strive and labour for yet is not the tenure of divine Election in the least weakened by their failing because though they were called externally yet not elected and never had the faith or grace of the Elect. And for sincere Christians who onely are elected though they shall not lose the Crown prepared and reserved for them yet they have need of such caveats as this Partly to minde them though they be kept by the power of God to salvation yet in themselves there is a Principle of defection and Apostacy and were they left unto themselves they should let go all grace and lose all glory and therefore need be the more wary Partly to keep them from loosenesse and defection for Exhortations and Admonitions from the mouth of God and set on by the Spirit of God are instrumental in Gods hand to stirre them up to duty and hold them in â—erseverance The premisses considered O Beloved how should we be strengthened in our resolutions and actuated in our strongest endeavours to stand fast and hold fast that truth that grace and all those spiritual liberties and priviledges bestowed upon us Use 3 Use 3. A third Use of this point may be to give and take some Directions for the more effectual practice of this Rule since it is a thing both of so much difficulty and of so great consequence to observe it In the way of hopefull means therefore be pleased to take notice of these few particulars 1. Would we hold fast what good we have personally and Ecclesiastically Then take an humble recognition of our own weaknesse respectively It is said of this Church of Philadelphia a little before at ver 8. that she had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little strength and indeed this duty of holdfast is directed neither to livelesse persons nor meer impotent persons in spiritual respects but it was but a little strength So it was with her that was one of the best of the sisters we are then to be humbly apprehensive of the smalnesse of our own strength even when we are at the best And then besides we may reflect back and consider whether in some particulars we have not slipped back with Ephesus and fallen from our first love and whether we are not in some particulars in a languishing condition as Sardis and so need to strengthen the things which remain that are ready to dye But I say we are to be humbly sensible of our little strength at the best and that will dispose us to more care to hold fast what we have c. 2. Take we and keep we fast hold on God by Faith and in the frequent exercise of Prayer imitating Jacob in not letting of him go He looks that his people should do so even to take hold of him and his strength in a good sense Isa 27. 5. not in a way of presumptuous contest with him but for our own support by him Stirre up our selves to lay hold on him Isa 64 7. For why Qui habet habentem omnia habet omnia so Qui retinet c. In his own might shall no man no Church be strong but we may be able to do all things through Christ strengthening us and therefore we are alwaies to walk and act in the strength of the Lord Psal 71. 16. Maintain sound Doctrine in the strength of the Lord keep the way of holinesse in the strength of the Lord perform all Church-duties in the strength of the Lord c. 3. Let it be our holy covetous aime to be getting more of that good which we are to hold fast Men of the world are ready to think that in externall things if they be not on the increasing hand they are on the diminishing And what shall we think of our condition in Spirituals If we look into the Evangelical Parable of the servants that had Talents or Pounds committed to their usance we may finde the evill servant there keeping his Talent and wrapping it up in a napkin and did he not then hold it fast but that proved neither pleasing to his Master nor comfortable to himself because he should have been imploying and improving it which because he was not therefore he was said not to have and sentenced to have that taken from him which he onely seemed to have For without some improvement a stock cannot long be kept entire together Wherefore in spiritual things beloved if we would with Philadelphia hold fast what we have we must affect the commendation of Thyatira Chap. 2. 19 to have our last works more than our first to advance in solid knowledge in true and sincere holinesse and if it be possible to have our after Church-Ministery Church-Assemblies Church-Administrations better than our former This I say must still be our aime or otherwise we shall be soon cast backward when men are in a broad wheele either to crane up things from the earth or to draw up baskets out of the water they are still steping forward or else they could not stay in the same place and circumstances of posture where they are as it is also with Birds in a turning bellcage And so when Christians or Church-Members are set into such a frame as the wheele of occurrents is still turning upon them either they must be still stepping forward or else they cannot keep the same sight of their station but be driven backward and overturned 4. We must be industrious and zealous in all the affairs which make for the preservation and improvement of what we have I commend that cluster of Apostolical precepts unto you in Rom. 12. 11. Be not sloathfull in businesse but fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. And these are connexed and subordinate one to the other First Not sloathfull i. e. neither altogether idle nor remisse or carelesse how we do what we pretend to be doing how slowly how seldom how slightly For he that is sloathfull in his work is brother to him that is a great waster Prov. 18. 9. so farre will he prove from a holder fast of what he hath For the sloathful gets nothing as the waster spends all and so in their emptiness and needinesse they come to shake hands together Again If we would not be sloathfull we must be fervent in Spirit for sloathfulnesse is from coldnesse of temper corporally or spiritually and activity is from heat and fervency so that unless one be somewhat zealous he cannot be constantly laborious As the light is gone in a manner when the flame of a candle is extinguished and the fire will quickly