286 Go fpel-Converfaien. much good in the Kingdom ofChrift, but that gracewill help you comfortably to enjoy, and fpiritually to improve all the good things hi the Kingdom ofJefus Chrift to an e- verlafling advantage. z o. Vie if the Kingdom ofChrift be not of this world, then the greater mercy to thy foul; that ever thou waft brought under this Kingdom of Chrift : Oh 1 thou maiefit look back unto thy former time, and know that thou hadit a worldly heart, worldly aptrehenfions, thy fpirit was worldly, altogether for things ofthe world, taken with the pomp and glory, and the pleafures of thisworld : How comes it to pals that thou thouldeft have a Heavenly Kingdom reveal'd to thee ? Whence was it chat ever Jefus Chrift fhould be known to thy foul, that was fo worldly, fo drollie,fo earthy a foul ? thou waft as deep rooted in the world (it may be) as any, and yet that the Lord fhould cull thee out ofthe world, and reveal fuch a Kingdom to thee, that is fuch a m; fiery as the Princes of the world have not known, that thou that art a poor creature fhouldeft come to underftand the realities of Chrift, that the wife and lear- ned men of the world have not known : Oh ! the Free Grace of God to thee, and not unto the world ! As ?silos, (not Ifcariot) faid, How is it that thou revealeft thy felfto us,and not unto the world ? how comes it to pafs that fuch wife men,that bear fway in the world,they have very poor, and low, and mean, and contemptible thoughts of the Kingdom of Jefús Chrill ? they look upon it but as a meet potion, and a conceit ofmen, and the ratherbecaufe they fee but a few poor people that arebut ofmean parts that do imbrace fuch a way, upon that they contemn it ; and through the worldly wifdom that they have, they come to undervalue it. Oh l then biefs God that ever he fhould chufe fuch a poor weak wretch as thou art, for to make known the things of the Kingdom ofChrift unto ; and therfore of al men,your rich covetous men they are hardeft to be wrought upon by the Miniftry ofthe Word. When Ch rift Himfelfwas preaching,itisraid in Luke i6. i4.. That the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=