Ejlablifhment. State Ill. nefited by it~· in fo far as it difcovers what hold the fD!.;ll has of Chri!l, and what hold Chrift has of the foul. / And look as the wind in the.bellows, which would blow out the candle, blows up the fire ; even fo it often c;omes to pafs that fuch temptations do enliven the true ·Chriifian, awak,ening the , graces o.f the Spirit in hirp ;' and, hy that rneans, ·diScover both the reality, and the firength of grace in him. A1;1d henc~, as L11-ther,' that great man of God, faith, On'r: Chri- ,.. jlian rllJho bath had ex,.verience of temptation, ;, 'W~rth a ' thoufond otfen. · ·, Sometimes a ll:ormy wind of trouble and perfecuticn from the men qf the world, Wows 'upon 'the vi·ne, i . . e. myfiical Chrift: but union with ,the fiock is a fufficient fecurity to the branohes. In a time of the church's peace a,nd out- ' ward profperity, while the angrh hold the <v,;indJ that they blow not, there are a great many branches taken up, and put into the fiock, which never knit with it, nor live by jt thou-gh they be bound up with it, by the bonds of external ordi– nances. Now thefe may fiand a while on the Hock ; and frand with great eafe~ while the calm !arts. Dut when once ,th<! fi:orms arife, and the winds . blow ; they wiil begin to, fall off one after another ; and the higher the_wind rifetb, the greater :will the number be that falls. Yeal fome ftrong boughs .of that fort, when they fall, will, by their weight, carry others of t,heir own kind, quite down to the earth , with the_m; and will bru.ife and prefs Clown fome true branches in fuch a m,anner, that they would alfo fp.lt off, were it nQt for their being knit to the ll:ock; in virtue where– ot they ~.et J.lp their heads again, and cannot fall 'off, be– caufe of that fall: hold the fiock has of them. Then it is that many ~ranches, fometime high and eminent, a~e found lying on the earth withered, and fit to be gathered up and call: into the fire, Matth. xiii. 6. An/1 when the fu.n waJ up, they w.erl> fcorched; and becaufe the_y had nq root, they 'Withered away, John xv. 6. If a man abide 1zot in me, he is,' cafl forth as a branch, and i1 ".JJithered, an :J men gather . them, and cafl them into the fire, and they are hu.rned. B.ut how~:x,~r vble_ntfy t~e winds blow, noneof the truly ingrafted branches that ale knit with the (lock, are found miffing, when the fiorm is changed int-,o a calm, John xvii. 1:2. Thofo that thou gavefi ttl:, I have kept, and non: ofthem is lofl. The Jean
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