towards him and doth not straiten it such a fear as is an helper of thy Ioy not an enemy to it such a fear as furthers the Comforts of the Holy Ghost such a fear as hath no torment in it and therefore love though perfected shall never cast it our and thou didst never see good day till this took hold of thee dost never enjoy good hour when this doth not over-rule thee 'T is a bitter thing to thee that ever thou wert without it Ier. 2.19 Thirdly Tell Him it is Him and his goodness that thou fearest his frown his absence his silence are now more dreaded by thee then all his Darts and Thunders used to be formerly the loss of a smile of a kiss a kindness is that thou most fearest and this thou takest to be a spirit of ingenuity not of slavery Fourthly He knows thy voyce and can tell whether he hear any of his own Language from thee or no how badly and brokenly soever it be pronounced though thou chatterest like a Crane or a Swallow or mournest like a Dove as Hezekiah speaks of himself Isa. 38.14 Every creature conveys its sound its tone and tune to the young ones and none of his children are still born the Spirit unties their tongues and sets them a crying Abba Father and he knows thou dost cry sometimes not coldly tender him some dead prayers but cry and not as a thief at a Bar to a Judge whom he neither loves nor hath any confidence in but as a poor child when in distress who daily asks his Fathers blessing Fifthly Desire him that he would feel thee as Isaac did Jacob the desire of thy soul is not only to have a smooth voyce but hands also so far from roughness that he may for ever own thee as one of the seed of Jacob thy heart is against a Covenant of works but for all the works of the Covenant Oh but the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously yea the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously thy Revoltings have been multiplied and thy back-slidings are many and how shall He pardon thee for this In puts God himself to a pawse to a stand to demur upon it Fer. 5.7 and chap. 3.19 How shall I put thee among the children Nay Chap. 2.29 He seemeth to put a stop to all further pleading Wherefore will ye plead with me ye all have transgressed against me saith the Lord Nay which is worst of all the Holy Spirit of God being hereby grieved where haft thou now another friend to speak a good word for thee when the Father is offended there 's the Son to mediate for thee and when Christ is disobliged yet there is the Spirit to intercede for thee but when the Spirit is vexed and quenched there 's never a fourth Person in the Trinity to make up the breach to comprimise the difference who shall now put words into thy mouth or fill thy mouth with with Arguments yet even in this case try him if he will not help thee at this dead lift and prove an Advocate for thee for he himself hath pen'd a form of prayer for one in thy case Hos 14.1 2 3. Go then even to this holy Spirit and fill thy mouth with Arguments First Tell him thou hast read or heard of his goodness Psal. 143.10 and of his Love Rom. 15.30 Not only that which he begets in the Saints but that which he bears to them all the world hath had experience of it the Church especially and thou art not altogether a stranger to it and hast now occasion further to try it and hopest to find it no whit inferiour either to that of the Father in giving his Son or that of the Son in giving himself for thee though He hath not been equally loved and honoured with then but wofully neglected and forgotten Secondly Ask him if it be possible for thee to be in a worse plight then when he first had to do with thee and did he then fall to work upon thee when he might have abhord to foul his fingers with thee and will he now forsake the work of his own hands Psal. 138.8 Thirdly Thou hopest he will dwell in thy dust when death hath done its worst unto thee and raise than again according to Rom. 8.11 and will he now forsake thy soul and not raise that again now that sin and the devil have done their worst against it for worse then what hath been thou thinkest cannot befall thee Fourthly Have not the most eminent Saints that ever he dwelt in had their backslidings and finned even against that grace wherein lay their excellency were they all restored by him and shalt thou only be abandoned Fifthly Were not all those gracious tenders to backsliders framed and filed and recorded by him Fer. 3.22 Return ye backfliding children and I will heat your backslidings Behold i ve come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God Hosea 14.4 I will heal their backslidings I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from him and in many other places and beg he would teach thee experimentally to know what is meant by Gods healing backslidings Sixthly He knows that nothing in the world ever so wounded thee or went so near thy heart as thy tempting and grieving of him hath done and thou art resolved never to forgive thy self though he do no as sometimes thou thinkest not in Heaven Seaventhly He knows that thou art to this day wailing and wondring and waiting to know wherefore thou wert so left unto they self and that thou art far from wipeing thy mouth and slighting of it thou canst not but think that God hath some design upon thee therein as he had upon Hezekiah 2 Chron. 32.31 God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his heart and little didst thou think when God first turned thy heart unto himself there had been that in it which since hath broken forth from it nor was ever any so deceived in thee as thou hast been in thy self but art resolved now against that folly of trusting in thine own heart any more Eighthly Ask him upon what termes he first entred upon thy heart Was it not with a Commission there to stay how ill soever treated or entertained So saies Christ it was agreed on Joh 14.16 And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Thou wouldst not for a world have him only upon the same account The first Adam had him in his state of innocency concurring meerly as a third Person in the Trinity but by vertue of a relation to the second and then he must never leave thee he must not only alight but abide also as upon the head so upon the Members Joh. 1.32 33. Ninthly Say to him hereby shalt thou know that he is God indeed equall to the Father and the Sonne and
he comes to get an inkling of it that he was then minded what me Lord Didst thou then think of me and dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one Iob. 14.3 Fourthyly Was it not He who then picked and chose out of Angels and men whom he would have confirmed amongst the Angels called called therefore the Elect Angels 1 Tim. 5.21 and though they were never out of favour yet they are said to be reconciled Col. 1.20 confirmation being that to them which Reconciliation is to us and they had it by renouncing their standing upon their own single bottom and running under the wing of Christ accepting and owning him as their Head Col. 2.10 God would not keep an Angel in Heaven that would not be beholding to his Son for it And amongst men he chose whom he would have recovered Rom. 9.11 13. Ask how thou mayest make thy calling and election sure and never turn this Grace into wantonness for to abuse this Doctrine is one of the blackest badges and saddest signs of Reprobation Iude v. 4. Fifthly Was it not He who ratified his choyse by a solemn Decree called the Purpose of God according to Election Rom. 9.11 The Mystery of his Will according to the good pleasure which he had purposed in himself Ephes. 1.9 the Eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord Eph. 3.11 And yet there is no unrighteousness with God which Paul foresaw some would charge him with Rom. 9. 14. No cruelty no Dissimulation no Tyranny and if the Lord hath purposed who shall dissanul its Isa. 14.24 ver. 27. Sixthly Was it not He who called for the Books and caused all the Resolves to be entered Heb. 10.5 even to the very names written in the Lambs Book of Life Rev. 13.8 21.27 with the Golden Letters of Love with indellible Characters in his blood we read of no black Book of Death and therefore I meddle not with it but hadst thou ever any help to read thy name written in Heaven this is matter of more joy then if thou coldst cast our Devils and work wonders Luke 10.20 if not yet all in good time go to the Father and he will help thee to spell thy name there by his Spirit of Adoption who was and is a member of this Councel and well acquainted with all that passed there Seventhly Was it not He who then ordered all other things in a way of subordination and subserviency to the Sanctification and Salvation of the Elect good works then received his Seal Ephes. 2.10 Evil ones by a just Analogy a Brand He then drew up the Ordinances of Heaven Passed a Decree for the Sea and for the Rain and for the opening of the Eye-lids of the morning to cause the day-spring to know its place and the Sun his going down unless forbidden as in the dayes of Joshua He then appointed natural Agents to act necessarily the Sun to shine the fire to burn the Sea to run in its course yet be set them not a going with such an irresistable swing but that be can stop them at his pleasure Free Agents to act freely the will of man to be alwayes free in all its acts if not Quoad speeificationem to do good or evil at his pleasure yet quoad exercitium he need never do evil unless he pleaseth so that he is lest without excuse And all other things were ordered as scaffolds to this building now who but a mad man would lay his bed on the scaffold and say that 's accommodation good enough and so take up with that no matter for the building beg that he would never leave thee to that mandness but lead thee to things spiritual and eternal by all externals and that all things may work together for thy good according to this ancient appointment Eighthly Was it not by an Agreement between his Son and him that he should sit as Creditor in heaven and the Son come down to be responsible to Justice otherwise there was love enough in his heart to have let the Son sit Creditor in Heaven and to have come down himself as Debtor and dyed for thee and therefore saith Christ though I should not pray for you the Father himself loveth you Iohn 16.27 Nay he loves you so well that he doth therefore love me because I lay down my life for you Iohn 10.17 what a strange expression of love is this Ninthly Did not He draw up all the Sons Articles and Instructions as 1. That he must begin his work in deepest humiliation and abasement 2. That he must pawn his Glory to go through-stich with it which he Redeems and Redemands upon his performance Ioh. 17.4 5. 3. That he must run the Gauntlop in that nature he would Redeem and be content that every one should have a fling at him 't is Hillaries allusion nature nostra contumelias transcurrit 4. That his Godhead must be eclipsed and vail'd and he made like unto his Brethren in their natural necessities sinless infirmities live by faith get every thing by prayer not do his own will but his that sent him and so fulfill all Righteousness and why was he thus conformed unto us but that we might be made conformable unto him Fifthly That he must in they days of his flesh orally and personally declare his Fathers Name and love unto his Brethren and afterwards depute and substitute some to do it to the end of the world and so long as his Leiger Embassadors reside in any place uncalled home not sent for away the Treaty of Peace holds and continues and their work is not only to declare Christ but the Father also and this was the sweetest promise that Christ could chear up his Disciples with Ioh. 16.25 The time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in Proverbs but I shall shew you plainly of the Father and that 's a most sweet and satisfying object Iohn 14.8 Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us Sixthly That he must dye a bloody painful shameful accuresed death to pay the debts of his people and then rise again from the dead and bring up his blood with him into the Holiest of Holies and there exercise and execute the office of his everlasting I riesthood if he would have his death which was of infinite value in it self to be of infinite vertue efficacy unto others and is not all this performed exactly and hath he not herein commended his love unto us with a witness Rom. 58 c. Seventhly That whatever was given him he must presently give of the same to his members to fit them for that glorious fellowship whereunto they are ordained what he receives with one hand he must give with the other and we see what David cals receiving Psalm 68.18 Paul cals Giving Eph. 4.12 as if these were one and the same thing with Christ and thou desirest no more of Christ then what the Father hath ordered
out by him Tenthly After the Father whose motion and project this was had wrought of the Son to undertake it did not he then engage to stand by him and to supply him with all necessaries a body to suffer in and a spirit to that body without measure and to bring those into him in time by retail whom he had given to him in the Lump before time was he doth more then invite as saith Arminius he doth effectually draw by an omnipotent sweetness Christ must not scruple to entertain the most Leprous loathsome sinner whom the Father is pleased to bring unto him Ay and the Father must help to keep them also whom he hath brought in Ioh. 10.28 29. a pretious Cordial in Apostatizing times and all this being done according to an antient complot and agreement Socinus cannot from these supplies or dependencies infer the Sons inferiority to the Father and the poor believing sinner may press him with all these engagements 11. Over and aboye all this Did he not put forth his paternal Authority and lay his Commands upon his Son to engage in this great service John 10.18 and 12.9 20. as Pharoah to express a Pleonasm of Love commands Joseph to be kind to his nearest and dearest Relations which one would think little needed Gen. 45.19 Go look God in the face and say as David doth Psal. 71.3 Thou hast given Commandment to save me And to whom To Man or Angels No to me says Christ This Commandment have I received of my Father If Christ fail there is not only breach of Articles but Disobedience too Thou canst not believe that Christ loves thee so well as to lay down his Life for thee But canst thou believe he loves the Father tha 's easie there 's no doubt of that Why says Christ when he was going to die that the world may know how I love the Father as the Father hath given me Commandment even so do I John 14.31 12. Yet again to make all sure least the humane nature of Christ upon its affumption should shrink at the approach of sufferings Doth not the Father engage to reward him plentifully to give him a Royal and an Everlasting Priesthood a name above every Name appoints unto him a Kingdom Luke 22.29 and above all assures him of the Salvation of those he died for according to this agrement Isa. 53. 11. without which nothing could ever have satisfied him so that as the assumption of the humane nature is the highest instance of free mercy so is the rewarding thereof in its state of exaltation the highest instance of remunerative Justice All this needed not to engage Christ to the work so much as to engage us to believe that the Father was first in willing as he is in subsisting the Son second to him therein but not in heartiness of good Will for therein they are both equal they must needs be one in Will who are so in Nature and Being but still the Father is first in Love Joh. 3.16 For God so love the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life and 1 John 4. 9 10. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him here in is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins and therefore love is laid at his door by the Apostle 2 Cor. ult. The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all The Grace of christ makes way for our enjoying the love of God but we had never known the Grace of Christ had it not been first for the love of God who therefore is called our Saviour 1 Tim. 1.1 13. And as ifas all this were not enough Did not the Father seal his Son a Comission to give life to lost sinners John 6.27 and therefore Christ so often mentions the Father as sending him and furnishing him with miracles his letters Credential where ever he came 14. Nay more If suffering for our sakes be a sign of Love as who can deny or doubt it to speak after the manner of men Had not the Father his share of sufferings as well as the Son Was it nothing for him to part with his Son such a Son an only Son the delight of his heart and eyes and that not amongst friends but enemies Who would seek and suck his blood in this sense to spare him and yet in another not to spare him but to bruise him an take pleasure in so doing Is all this nothing He may seem indeed to have an easie part to sit in Heaven and receive satis faction but you see it cost him something too nay more He denies himself and disappears and gives up the immediate management of all affairs into the hands of his Son That part the Son took was sharper but shorter lasted not much above three and thirty years but from the time of Christs resurrection 'T is along aevum before that God come again to be all in all 1 Cor. 15.24 and 28. and he in a manner remains hid till the day of Judgement now Christ is all in all Col. 3.12 The Son transacts all by the Spirit till the last day and the Father worketh now only in and through the Son Thus you see the Father veiling and eclipsing his Glory to make it shine the more hereafter and in the mean time his love that shines forth herein gloriously 15. Hath not the Father as well as Christ an hand in sending the Holy Ghost to make a discovery and application of all these things yea he is called the Promise of the Father which Christ had often hinted to his Disciples as the best news he could bring them from heaven Act. 1.4 which saith he ye have heard of me 16. Lastly Was it not he that wrapt up all this in a glorious Covenant a Covenant of Grace Life and Peace of which I may say as John of the Commandment of Love 1 Ioh. 2.7 8. 'T is both the New and Old Covenant the first and last and everlasting Covenant cal'd a Promise lest the word Covenant should scare us and make us think there 's more required of us by way of restipulation then we can reach unto Tit. 1.2 1 Ioh. 2.25 Covenants of Promise Eph. 2.12 and while we are altogether strangers thereunto we are without Hope The other Covenant was contrived and given forth chiefly to make way and welcome for this and 't is this Covennant the precious things whereof are sealed up unto us in the Sacraments This is that secret of the Lord which is with them that fear him Psal. 25.13 to make them know the Covenant he is ever mindfull of it and therefore sent
naughtiness and he can tell where there are super-aboundings over-flowings of Grace and Mercy and if he will draw up the sluces thou shalt not only honour him by believing but be encouraged to look for more then ordinary favours from him even because sin hath so abounded And is not this the faith that should come or must thou look for another or if this be it why then is not thy heart purified heart and life sactified by it Why is it not unto his servant according to his word Act. 15.9 26.18 Plead and press this hard upon him and my soul for thine he will not deny thee he will not say thee nay you may take not mine but the Apostle Peters word for it that this is the true Grace of God wherein ye stand 1 Pet. 5.12 But there is a damp upon thy Spirit a great discouragement which takes off thy boldness before him thou fearest that though thou dost as thou thinkest believe and rejoyce for a season in the Grace believed yet 't is not likely to last alwayes thou shalt not be able to hold the rejoycing of thy confidence firm unto the end thou shalt prove but a temporary a dung-hill covered with snow which will melt away thou findest so much hypocrisie in whatever thou goest about thou hast done much evil without the mixture of any good but never any good without the mixture of much evil and the hypocrite is justly hated of God and man the world hates him because he seems good and God abhors him because he only seems and is not truly such and this sometimes thou fearest will be thy portion and canst not discover the bottom of thy misery to any flesh living and this ere long will put an end to thy pleading thou fearest that both the Gift and Grace and spirit of Prayer if ever thou hadst it will leave thee according to that in Iob 27.8.9 10. For what is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him will he delight himself in the Almighty will he alwayes call upon God Well go to God in this case however Go order thy cause before him and fill thy mouth with Arguments I. Tell him He and He alone knows whether thou aymest not at entireness of heart before him both as to the subject the whole heart which thou wouldst have kept even from thine iniquity and as to the object all his Commandments thou knowest not one of them which thy spirit balks or boggles at but the more pure his word is the more thy soul loveth it And also as to the means of Grace they are all dear and pretious to thee and thou wouldst be found in the use of all his appointments bid him name that thing which he requires which thou knowingly and purposely declinest and is this the guise or way of an hypocrite only be sure thy heart reproach thee not Secondly He knows that is the secret end of thy living why thou art desirous or so much as content to continue in this world not to share in the pleasures or profits or honors thereof the worlds Trinity which it adores serves and sacrificeth it self unto but to be receiving or doing some good in thy station and generation and can it be thus with an hypocrite Thirdly He knows that thou chusest rather to be sickly or poor or disgraced and to walk close with him then in health wealth or honour to wander from him or to lie out at a great distance from communion with him yea rather to be following hard after Him though thou shouldst never enjoy his glorious ravishing transporting presence while thou livest then to swim in abundance of carnal enjoyments and to have a heart careless of him estranged from him and is it thus with any hypocrite in the world Fourthly Tell him thou hadst rather he should know all thy secret sinnings against him then that he should not know all thy secret sighings and lamentations after him the world hath seen and stumbled at many of thy miscarriages but hath not seen nor recovered by thy secret mournings but he seeth in secret and therefore tell him Fifthly It will not be for his honour to reject thee for all must out all thy secret sobbings and pantings and pursuings after him must be know one day and what would Angels and men think to see such a mourner in secret cast off to all eternity Lastly Appeal unto him He knows thou hast been usually as earnest with him for Holiness in time of prosperity as in time of straits and adversity and is this the manner of hypocrites Surely no Vzziah was marvellously helped till he was strong but when he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction for he transgressed against the Lord his God 2 Chr. 4 5. 14.15 It was not so with Iehosaphat he sought the Lord God of his Fathers and walked in his Commandements and not after the doings of backsliding Israel Therefore the Lord stablishied the Kingdom in his hand and all Judah brought him Presents and he had riches and honour in abundance And his heart was lifted up in the wayes of the Lord Piety procures a settlement and that brings off the people to an acknowledgement of their Magistrate and to a love unto Him and that ushers in plenty and abundance and an honest heart in the midst of it all is carried higher and nearer to God as the waters bear up the Ark and lifted it nearer Heaven If it be thus with thee in thy measure there may be and will be some Leaven of hypocrisie which may somewhat four thy performances which yet upon thy humiliaton shall be pardoned and thy Judge himself and his Deputy in thine own bosom will pronounce that thou art no hypocrite Peradventure thou mayest reply though I may prove no hypocrite yet I shall prove little better then a slave I fear I am awed and acted only by a spirit of fear and this is far from a Gospel-spirit from a spirit of Adoption they are set as adversaries and Antipodies one against another and if there were not a dread of God upon my spirit if destruction from God were not a terrour unto me I know not what would become of me nor whether Satan and my corruptions would hurry me Well yet go and order thy cause before him and fill thy mouth with Arguments Ask him if He have not observed ordinarily thy spirit to be more melted and humbled when he hath filled thy heart with joy and thy mouth with Prayses then by any evil felt or feared then by the sense or approach of any evil whatsoever and is this the frame of a slave or of a child Secondly Tell him 't is true thou fearest him and so do all the Saints and Angels in Heaven but 't is with such a fear as enlargeth thy heart
that though all the world should conspire against him to un-God him yet shall his invincible patience and insuperable good will raise an everlasting piller of witness in thy bosome let who will cast him off he shall be thy God for ever Who is a God like unto thee pardoning iniquities Micah 7.18 is equally true of Father Son and holy Spirit But still thy heart akes and is diquieted to think that what 's said of a man of great wrath Prov. 19.19 is also most true of thee such an one must needs suffer punishment for if thou deliver him yet thou must do it again he 'le ever and anon bring himself into the bryers and this is thy case though the sweet Spirit of God be willing to forgive thee former offences and to fetch thee off from thy imbroylments yet is he likely to have an heavy hand with thee considering thy corruptions and temptations thou art likely to run upon a new score to run into new rebellions and there will be no end of all his labour yet in this case go and order thy cause before God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ and fill thy mouth with Arguments 1. Ask Him Was not this one great end why our nature was taken into personall union with the divine that the diseases of the one might be healed by the infinite vertue an durity and efficacy of the other did Christ come only to cure the sicknesses of the body or were not all these cures the types and representations of those he came to work upon the souls of sinners sure such as touch him by faith shall have their bloody issues stopped and all other inward distempers cured in the dales of his flesh he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil Acts 10.38 and lamentable were our loss by his removall to Heaven if from thence his vertue could not reach us and if he were now on earth thou art verily perswaded thou mightst have help from him why not from Heaven 2. Did He not die that sin might die and be destroyed he was not only cloathed with our nature but strip'd by the seperation of soul and body though not of the Godhead from either that sin and our souls might be seperated why doth sin live seeing Christ died 3. Demand even of Justice if Christ hath not fully paid thy ransome why then art thou kept in bonds holden with the cords of thy sin the worst usage which the worst of men in this world are threatned with Prov. 5.22 his own iniquities shall take the wicked himself and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins the vilest dungeon to this without this is a pleasant pallace a delightfull garden as was said by some if the blessed Martyrs of their prisons 4. Complain that these corruptions do wrong defile and outrage that nature which Christ now wears in Heaven and hath exalted far above the brightest Cherub for He and his are all of piece Heb. 2.11 and this is a thousand shames and pities 5. If there be any seed of God any beginning of that everlasting work of sanctification in thee thou art not become A member of his body of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5.30 for Christ never took any but sanctified upon him and how then can he hide himself from his own flesh he would not have us do so Isa. 58.7 how can he indure to see his own flesh so shamefully abused He who made a Law a man should not hide himself when he saw his enemies beast sink down under his burden the Ass of one who hated him Exod. 23.5 Doth he take care for Oxen and for Asses and can he himself forbear to help up the soul of one that loves him and will he not help with him or if thou art afraid to say thou lovest him because thy heart is so little with him yet to be sure there 's a poor sould down and will he not help it up will he not help it and that against those oppressors which are as well the enemies of his praise and glory as of thy peace and safety And surely these Cananites are left in the Land as it was in the figure To keep down pride Deut. 7.22 To try whether we will follow the Lord or our lusts Judg. 2.23 To reach us war and to exercise our graces Judg. 3.1 To make us to keep more above upon the mountains Judg. 1.34 To become tributaries and do our drudgery 1 King 10.21 God makes our corruptions do us some service which our graces cannot do without them But peradventure thou maist think with thy self that through grace whereunto nothing is impossible thou maist be both pardoned and purified too in time but it will cost thee dear first a world of afflictions must be expected where there hath been such a world of provocations and yet remains such a mass of corruption and these fears of what may come take thee off from enjoying what is present Go with this complaint to thy Judg that these fears may be disarmed and bound over no more to molest thee go fill thy mouth with arguments for who can say his mountain is strong he shall never be moved or who can fore-tell or fore-see the things that may befall him even pardoning mercy it self is no sence against this flail of affliction 1. Tell Him whatever comes 't is thy disire to bear his indignation because thou hast sinned against him Mich 7.9 and that thy stubborn uncircumcised heart may accept of the punishment of thine iniquity because even because thou hast despised his judgments and carried it as if thy soul had abhorred his statutes Lev. 26.43 Nay 2. Tell him that thou hadst rather be under the schooling of his children then the cockering of his castawayes under the severe mercy of his discipline as Augustin speaks of that of the Church then under the impunity of those desperate lost creatures whom God hath thrown up as a lost case and will not be at the cost to bestow another rod upon them even his correcting rod as well as his supporting staff shall be a comfort to thee Psal. 23.4 no punishment like impunity 3. Though it be infinitely more eligible that way to be humbled and reformed then not at all yet tell him if he will be pleased to spare thee 't will be more for his honour to do it in the midst of prosperity because this is more difficult and more unusuall Jer. 22.21 I spake unto thee in thy prosperity but thou saidst I will not hear this hath been thy manner from thy youth that thou obeyedst not my voice Now what a glory will it be to him to bore thine ear in the midst of thy prosperity 4. As this will be more glorious for Him so more usefull to others the examples of such a convert is much more conspicuous and illustrious in miserable ones 't is hard to distinguish