(73) Delight, Confidence, Hope, &c. fo I finde they are Caufes ofmy Comforts. But I muff needs fay that it is far harder to me in thefe kinds to take half that comfort in my Graces and Duties which I fhould take, then not to take tooMuch : and I have no need of an Antinomian at my elbow to hinder thefe confolations, and to fay to me, Takeheed that you make not Holinefs andDu- ty the Occafion, or caufe of your comfort, left you be a Papift For I have '.atan at my elbow, as it were pleading more effectu- ally, divertingme from that Duty, diminifhing the exercife of thole Graces, without which God will not be enjoyed, nor my foul maintained in a comtortable frame. To have comfort and fpiritual delights in God, from my Graces or Duties in any of thefe allowable ways, is no fuch eafie matter with me, as that.I fhould need fuch breath to cool my comforts. I think that were all one, as to fay I have need ofhelp to make me lets holy, and todeitroy my Graces and Communion with God. For the fouls Delight and Complacency inGod is the height ofits Holinefs,and the topofall its duties I do not fay, that I have no temptation toCarnal confidence in Duties-or that I amnot guiltyofany fuch fin ; But Pure I am, when I take all the helps ofconfolation toge- ther, the Love of God, the BloodofChrift, the Glory promifed, the Evidences of my intereft, &c. I have more adoe to reach to the thoufandthpart of that delight and fatisfaftion ofmind which I fhould have, then to keep it under. And in this my experience anfwereth my judgement of the in- tereft of our own Works or Graces in our Comforts. For if we look to the value of them. and the matter of Itria Merit, I ever took that which fome call Merit to be but A not 41eriting the contrary. Even ,id ,flt in innocency,had he fo continued, had more fitly been Paid to have not deferveddeath, then to have deferved- life. And they that believe and obey the Redeemer,may be laid, 2ot to have Merited the laic of Chrift and life by a final Rejetlion ofhim. (though in other refpeas they might) then to have Me- rited a pa'. t in 'thrill and lifeby believing andobeying.. Yet dare I not fay that holinefs and duty bath no pofitive intereft in the plea. fing of God becaufe it hathnoneby way of ftrift merit : or dare I think that it is but 4bfentia contrarii, and not to be unholy formally that he expecteth : for fo a tree or a ftone fhould pleafe God as well as a Saint. And the Rate of the glorified Saints L would
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