Againg Vrinclp.alities. in thy own bofome, or abroad in the world. What faith thy' fle, when God hedgeth up thy way,, and keeps thee from that fin which Satan bath been foliciting for ? If on Chrifts fide thou wilt rejoyce when thou art delivered out of a temptation, though it be by falling into an afill6tion ; as David laid of A- bigail, fo wilt thou here : Bleffed be the Ordinance, bleffed be the Providence which kept me from finning againft my God ; but if otherwife thou wilt harbour a fecret grudge againft the Word which Rood in thy way, and be difcontented,thy detigne took not. Anaughty heart (like Amnon) pines while his luft bath vent, Again, what mufick do the atchievements of Chrift in the world make in thy Bare? when thou heareft the Gofpel thrives, the blinde fee, the lame walk, the poor gofpellized,doth thy fpirit rejoyce in that houre ? If a Saint, thou wilt, as God is thy Father, rejoyce thou haft more brethren borne; as he is thy prince, that the multitude ofhis fubjeas increafe ; fo when thou feeft the plots of Chrifts enemies difcovered, powers defeated, canft thou go forth with the Saints to meet King Jefus, and ring him out of the field with praifes ? or do thy bells ring backward, and fuck newes make thee hark like Haman, mourning to thine houfe, there to empty thy fpirit fwolne with rancour againft his Saints and truth ? or if thy policy can mailer thy paffion, fo far as to make faire weather in thy countenance, and fuffer thee to joyne with thepeople of God in their acclamations of joy, yet then art thou a clofe mourner within, and likeft the work nobet- ter then Haman his office in holding Mordecai's flirrup, who had rather have held the ladder ; this fpeaks thee a certain enemy to Chrift, how handfomely foever thou mayeft carry it be- fore men. Secondly, bleffe God, 0 ye Saints, who upon the former tri- Vle al can fay, you are tranflated into the Kingdome ofChrift, and fo delivered from the tyranny of this ufurper : There are few but have fome one gaudy day in a year which they folemnize ; fome keep their birth-day, others their marriage ; fome their manumiffion from a cruel fervice, others their deliverance from fome imminent danger ; here is a mercy where all thefe meet. You may call it,as Adamdid his wife, Chavah,the mother of all the living ; every mercy rifeth upand calls this bleffed ; this is thy birth-day,thou Wert before, butbeganft to live, when Chrift began.
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