x 32 7 he comforts of mowr,ers for fra. is his chief glory, and the rr areft def gne that ever, God had was to magna ie his free grace, and therefore thou m.ayea be upheld in thy mourning for thy firrIf a child have a loving and merciful father and mother, and the child Ihould get alone in a roome and fall a w: inging of its hands, mourning and l.mienc- ing, O. chat I can doe do More to pleafe my ficher and mother, ô alas I could doe more to give them coticenr, ô that I lhould doe my thing that lhould be a griefe to my father and Mother, thi3 is chat char goes to my heart, fuppoié thou fhouldelt look through a`key hole,:md fee thy child thus mourning and lamen- ring and wringing of its hands for this, that there Ihould b any gri_fe ro your hearts ; and you lhould know that they did it in truth , that it were no, a meere hypocritical( thing, but in the very truth of the heart of the Child there was this for - row and Mourning, would you that have but any coming-ions in you, would you not have your hearts yearn towards this child now f ;om whence is it that you have any yearning in your hearts towards it, is it not from a drop of that compa.lìon that the Lord who is an,ininite ocean ofinercy hath let our unto you take all the compaíhons of all the Parents that ever were in the world, and they are unto God but as a drop to the infinite ocean, and therefore the Lord lookes upon the bewailing of thy fin, and that thou cana doe no more to pleafe him,but doff that which is a griefe to him, he looks upon thee in thymourn- ing, and he holds his bottle, and. every teere in thy mourning thus for fin drops into the bottle of God. b Secondly, know thou haft to deale with God in a Covenant of grace, hadfi thou to deale with God, as he is Creator now, and thou a creature, in the way of the Covenant of works,thot wert undone, and all thy mourning would be to little purpofe, if thou il: oulda.bowie out all thy dayes for thy in Gbd would never regard it ; Thou mightefi mourn to eternity, and yet be tormented to eternity, but thou hail to deale with God in the way of the Covenant of grace that he hath made with poor fanners to Jefus Chria, and there mourning for fin is accepted ; if thou goea into the prefence ofGod with the guilt' of thy fin upon the confidering how holy and righteous the Lord is, little
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