746 / 808
Ephefian.r,
Chap.6+
V
E
fight,&c.
27im.4.7.Iaceb,Gen.
32.
z8.
being
a
patterneof
all true
hearted"Ifraelites,
whofe
lives are a
wraflling by
teares and
prayers,
againft
all
fpirituall wickedneffe.
Sometimes
it
is
not
manifeft
to the
eye
of
the world
,
that the
matter
is
fo
with them
as
it
is
,
they
are
thought to
have
faire
lives;
but
many
a
man, merry in
company,
hath
a threw at
home
:
fo
the
Saints ,
though they
may feeme
tobe
plea
-
fant,
have
that
in
fecret
which doth
fill
their hearts withfighs
and
their
eyes
with teares,fomething outward, or inward, or both,where-
with they
alwaies
wranle.
It
mull
be
thus: for
the
fire
of
grace
is
like
the heat
of
the body
in
this, if the heat
of
the ftomach
had
nothing
to
wtaftle
with,
it
would bring
all
the
body,
and fo
it
felfe, into
an
utter
confumption
:
ifGods
grace had
not
fomething without or within,
exercifingof
ir,
with which it might wraftle,it
could nor,
in
this eftate
we
are in,
be preferved.
y.,
Again,
thrfe
wraftlings
in
temptation
do
bring
us
to know the
power, wildome,
and faithfulneffe
of
God, to
know our
felves and
others.
Thirdly
;
without tidying,
we
mutt not
be crowned,
2
Tim. z.
S:,
and
if
any man ftrive for
a
maftery
,
&c. for
though
this
is
not the
caufe,
it
is
the way
to
our glory.
of
t.
The
which Both, firft,
let fuch
know
who
lead pleafant
lives,
and
are
at cafe in
Sion
,
who
are
not
poured from
veffell
to
veffell,
but
walke
on,
as
if
their
league and covenant were
thicken with hell, that
their
courfe
is
not the
life
of
Chriftians
;
(this
is a
wraftling and con
-
ffiéìingg
eftate)and itis
a
liignethat
theftrong
man poke(%th
the hoüfe,
that
all
is
fo
quiet.
vfe
2.
Secondly,
this
muff
make us,
though we
finde much ftrife
in
the
way, that
we
mutt not
faint, nay we mutt take heart
:
for this,
that
we
finde
fuch
a
conffítt,
is
a
token
that
we are
the
Lords,
and
that
he hath
talc
out
the
ftrong one
of
the
world.
"Jeff.
But you will
fay,
May every one that findeth
a
ftrife be lure
of
this,:
Natural(
men have
a
fight often
in
themfelves, condemning that they
doe, approving thecontrary;
video meliore,
praboque.
togA¡.
t.4»f
,. There
is a
fight betweene the naturali light
of
confcience,
and
the
fenfuall courfes. But
by
the
three
rules
roe
may
(1:1i-erne
the
fight
of
the
fprit
and
flefb
frem
it.
t.
Firft, our
ftrife
is
caufed
not
from enormous fwarving
,
but
from
the corrupt quality which
infettethus throughout,
our
birth,
fin,
the
law
of
evill
which dwelleth
in
the members.
Now
this
is a
thing
which the
light
of
nature
doth
not defcry.
2;
Secondly, the light
of
nature caufeth
a
ftrife
,
when
we doe
flame
groffe
things,or
in groffe neglect
:
but
the
ftrife
of
the fpirit
is
in
good
things, againft
t4ie
notperfett
performance
of
them
:
thus
Pauls fight
was, that
he
could
not
xa7en
,...Say accomplifh
the
things he would,
in
the
manner he defired.
3.
Thirdly,
this naturali accufing was
in
us alwaies
:
but this
ftrife of
the fpiritwefinde by
experience, we never knew what it
meant,
till,
giving