fifiritual wickedneff e. 303 have on s gracious foule,is to humble it. The fight of mercy en- creafeth the fenfe of fin, and that fenfe diffolves the foule kinde- ly into forrow, as we fee in Magdalen. The heart which poffi- bly was hard and frozen in the fhade, will give and thaw in the Sun-fhine of love , and fo long all pride is hid from the eta.- tures eye. Then (faith God) Ezek. 36. 3!. ye fhall remember your rvayes, and your doings that Were not good, andAallloath your , [elves in your ownfight, d-c, And when (hail this be, but when God would lave them from all their uncleanneffes, as app-,:ars? en 25. yet notwithflanding this, there remain fuch dregs of corruption unpurged out of thebelt, that Satan findes it nor im- poffible, to make the manifeffations of Gods love an occafion of pride to the Chriftian:and truly God lets us fee our proneneffe to this fin in the fhort flay he makes,when he comes with any great- er difcoveries of his love. The Comforter ('tis true) abides for ever in the Saints bolome, but his joyes they come, and are gone again quickly. They areas exceedfngs,with which he fealls the believer, but the cloth is foon drawn ; and why fo, but becaufe we cannot bear them for our every day food ? A fhort interview of heaven, and a vifion of love now and then upon the mount of an ordinance or affliaion, cheeres the ipirits of drooping Chriflians, who might they have leave to build Tabernacles there, and dwell under a conflant fhine of fuch manifeitations, would be prone to forget themfelves, and think they were Lords of their own comforts. Ifholy Patti was in danger of falling in- to this diftemper of pride from his fhort rapture, to prevent -wh;ch God law it needful to let him blood with a thorne in the flefh, wouldnot our blood much more grow too rank, and we too crank and wanton, if we fhould feed long on loch lufcious food ? And therefore, if ever (Chtiftian) thou hadil need to watch, then is the time when comforts abound, and God dandles, thee molt on the knee of his !nye, when his face thine§ with cleareff manifeftations, kill this fin of pride (as a thief in the candle) fhould fwaile out thy joy. To prevent which thou fhouldell do well ; Firlt, to look that thou mealurtft not thy grace by thy comfort, left fo thou beeft led. into a bile opinion,, that thy grace is flrong, becaufe thy comforts are fo. Satan will be ready to help forward Inch thoughts as a fit medium to lift thee up, and flacken thy care in duty for, the future. Such dif- cOVerieS,
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