,,A choke Bed :of Spices'. 9 in him, fprings more from the Spirits removing his flavifh fears, and ..;nfwering his doubts, and shining upon his graces, and fupporting his foul, than it does from that excellency and beauty of grace which )(Eines in him. A man may read the promifes over and over a thoufand times, and yet never be affeaed, delighted or taken with them, till the spirit of the lord fet them home upon his foul, And a man may read the threatnings over and over a thoufand times, and yet never flartle nor tremble,. though he knows himfelf guilty of thofe very fins again-ft which the threatnings are denounced, till the Spirit of the Lord fets home, the threatnings in power upon his confcience ; and then every ithreatning will be like the hand-writing upon the wall, which will caufe his counte- nance to be changed, and his thoughts t& be troubled, and his joynts to be loofed, and his knees to be dallied one againfr another. It is jufi fo in the tatter of our graces, and graci- ous evidences, till the holy Spirit Thine upon them, till in the light of the Spirit we come to fee them, they won't be wit- neffing, comforting and refrelhing to us ; and therefore let not the pious Reader think, that by the ftrength of his natu ral light he (hall ever attain to knoW the certainty of that grace which is in his foul, but let him rather beg hard: of God for his holy Spirit, and that his Spirit may Thine upon that good work which he hath begun in him, that fo he may be perfwaded, affured and comforted. Without the light of the Spirit, the work of. the Spirit 'Can't be feen, no more than a book written in the faireft hand or print, can be feen without light to fee it or read it by. But, The ninth Propofition is this.Sincere Chriflians may fafe- ly and gronndedly rejoyce, delight and take comfort in thofe graces, or in thofe divine qualities, which in the light, of the Spirit they fee and know are wrote in their fouls. I don't fay that a Chriftian should build the comfort of his justification upon his graces, or that he Mould reft on his graces, or truft to his graces, or make a Saviour of his graces, for this would be fuch a piece of Pharifaical Popery, as is juftly to be de- tefted Dan. 5; 6, 7. Aloft Chrifii- ans by experi- ence find that their,afturance and joy riEs and falls as grace and hell- oes) and as the evidences of ikh
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