6Ss Theseules efeFtuallcalling teChrift. rant inmannaging his bufìnefle : fo it is with the precious promifesofGod, thoumuff not thinke tohavewhat thouwouldefi is the promife, but thinke what will belt grow there, and what is the intent and aimeof God, in making ofthe pro. mife,andwhat comfort it will yeeld ; fo improve it, and expeZt good thereby ; the want of this wifedome is that which brings a great deale of' mifery, and cafeth men behind hand, and makes them live poore,and fcantlyin a goodcourfe : Co, faith one, had I a title and an intereft in the pro- mife, it could, notbee fowith me as it is ; it were not poffible, that an ignorant heart fhould fill poffeffeme, and that thefediftempers fhould f ill crowd in, andhinder mee ; you thinke you are good husbands all this while; but the truth is, you lore the promifes , and make a fpoile of them ; and it is no wonder that you live poorely and beggarly, and undoe your felves ;for I know not any one promife, from the beginningofGe- nefis, to the end of the Revelation, that ever fheweth any fuch thing as this, That the man which bath grace,fhould neverfinde theplagueof anaughtie heart, and neverbe peftered withcar- -ruptions within,and forrowes without; there is not one place which promifeth thus much, you improve not thepromife the right way : Icon- feffe that this is true, that all they that are in Chrift, there is no condemnation to them, and they live nor after the Refit, and theyarenot at the command of their corruptions, and fìnne !ball not beKing and Rulerover them ; this the word
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