x84. Cafes of Chrifliam do~btir.g , State· If r; ofpeace will hruift Sat/m under your feet Jhort/;'. P..iuJ· raoh and his. Eg;ptian.r never made fuch a formidable ap– pearance agatnl! the lfraelitn, as at the Red-fea, after they wet:e b10ught out of Eg;pt: but then · were the purfuers , neareff to a total ove.tthrow, Exod~ xiv. Let r.ot this cafe t~erefore mak~ you raze foundatio.ns: but be ye emptied of yourfel~es, and ll:rong in the Lord, and t.o the.' power of ~ -his might; anq ye fhall come off victotious. CasE 4· But W!hen I compare my lo·v e. to God, with m'! l~ve to fo 'me cre..ated enjop.'l!entJ, !find the pu.lfo of m_y affe~· tions beat jlronger to the creature than the Creator. How .t thm can· I ca!J him Father? Nay, ala1 l thefe tur1tings o/ heart within me, · and gfonJJingi ofaffetlion to him, rwltid JometimeJ I had, are gone : Jo that /fear, all the love I tver had to the LORJ?, ha1 been but a fit and fla/h of aft · fefiion, fuch a,s h;'}ocr{tu often have• .Anf. It cannot- be de– nied, that the predotn'1nant love of the world, i-s a certain mark of an unregenerate ftate, 1 John ii .. l g• .(fany ma~t ' love the '}J)orld, the love of t!Je Fa,ther i1 not in /;im. Never– . thelefs, th.efe are not always the {lrongefi affections which are mofl violent. Aman's affection II\ay be more moved on fame occafions, ~by ar(objeCl: that is little regarded, than by a'nother that is exce_edingly; beloved ; even as a little brook fometimes makes a .g~eate.r noife than a great river.. The ftrength of our affetlions is to be meafured by the fi, mnefs · and fixedoefs ofthe root; not by the viofenceof their acrings~ Suppofe a perfon-·mee_t.ing witn a· friend who h<Js been long_ . abroad, finds his affecriofl more vehemently acting towards, his friend on that oc~~dio n, than towards his own wife and · children; will he ·therefore" fay, that he loves his friend· more than them ? Sui'ely no. Even fo, although the Cbrifli– an macy fi 'nd hlmfelf more moved in his lo·ve to the creaturet· t han in his love to God : yet he is not therefore to be faid t(); )ove th~ creature more thanGod ; feeing love to God is al~ · ~vay~ mete fi rmly rooted in agracious heart, than lov'e to any created enjoyment wbatfoever; as appears when competic tion arifes in fuch a manner, that the one or the other is t'J· be forgone. Would ye t hen know y,our cafe ? · Reti~e into. your own hearts, and there lay the two_ in the balance, and try which of them weighs down the other. Aik thyfelf~ as in the fi~ht of God, wheth~r' thou: wo.uldefl pan with: 'Ghritt~
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