i ,25.6 2-he saints perfea freedom, or Pf. çr. 3 broken, and is thyfoul efcaped from the Pare of the Hunter ? Haft thoureally feen thy felfe loft, undone, made miferable? haft thou Peen that thyfelfwas inCaptivity, and that thou waft deaf, and dumb, and blind, and lame ? that thou wert Phut up in darkneffe and death ., and that there was none in Heaven or Earth able to help thee in the leaft, but thou feeing thy felfe fo miferable and bopelefs, that thou wert at thy wits end,and nohelp at all appeared ? If this have not been thy condition, though thou couldft fpeak never fo ex- cellently of theLetter and the Hiftory, and though thou fub- mittedit to the higheft forms, and to the fobereft, and molt ftri& courfe of life, being confaant and auflere in obfer- ving of thy rules for hearing, and reading, and let times of prayer, and confiant examining thyfelf, to keep thy felfe up theoricier to thy Rules ; alas poor foul, all this is nothing , i Cor.13,1 though thoucouldeft fpeakwith the longue of Hess and An- gels, and praywith fuch fh'eet words and language as might ravishall the men on earth : Ifthou doefi not finde Chrifi Jails in thee, breaking every bond, and looíiing every yoal¿, and that no other in Heaven or Earth could do it but he, thou wert neveryet delivered, but art fill under wr zth, death, and bondage. Thechiefthing that every foul i -s to mind, in readingand hearing, is, to examine whether the fame thing be wrought in them ; whatever we find in the Letter, if it be not made good in us,what are the words to us ? we mutt fee howChr crucified and buried in us, and how he is rifen and railed from death in as ; the chief thing, I fay, is, to look into our own breads. All generally that hold forth a profefíion ofChrifi, they fay inwords, that Chrifi is the Deliverer, but that is not the thing ; but is he a Deliverer to thee ? Is that Rotnat.z6 glorious HESS I AHpromifed, and the Deliverer out of Si- on come withpower into thy foul ? hath he exalted himfelfe there ? and hath hemade bare his arm, and been a glorious CONYv E KER in thee ? hath he taken to himfelf his Rev:u.i7, great power to raign in thee ? Is he King of Kings, and Lord of Lords in thee ? &c. Beloved, all preaching, and reading, and praying, and duties
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=