Chapter 3

CHAP. III.

How the soul is under plenty of means and dispositions heavenly, and yet under scarcity of influences. 2. Praying and love to the word, according to the will of precept, all along through Psalm 119:3. Delighting in the word, reading and meditating thereon fetch heavenly influences. 4. Hence 18. obstructions of influences. 1. Hardness and blindness. 2. Unbelief. 3. Deadness. 4. Security. 5. Irreligious prophaness and Atheism. 6. Unconstancy. 7. Deceitfulness. 8. Pride. 9. Worldly-mindedness. 10. Fiery preposterous zeal. 11. Uncleanness. 12. Malice and bitterness. 13. Worldly sorrow. 14. False joy. 15. Self-love. 16. Wilful ignorance of the Gospel, and hatred of Christ. 17. Impatient fretting against providences, the contraries of all which help to fetch heavenly influences. Lasty, the Lords manner of contributing his influences makes us not passive lumps and blocks; the word shews that God lays a holy necessity on our will, so that we are most willing and free agents in spiritual actings. 18. Vain and wanton thoughts obstruct influences.

The heart, as including will and mind and affections, is the public Inne and lodging that receives all influences.

1. There is a sweet proportion between the influences of the spirit and the new heart.

Quest. How is it then that the soul is under sweet dispositions and plenty of means, and yet wants influences?

Answ. This is to shew the absolute freedom of grace, as Cant. 1. the Spouse is in a sweet condition, Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth, for his love is better then wine. 3. Because of the savour of your good oyntments, your name is oyntment poured out, therefore do the virgins love you. 4. The King brought me into his chambers; yet she stands in need of a pull, draw me. v. 7. Tell you me (O you whom my soul loves) where you feedest, where you makest your flocks to rest at noon-day. Here is a soul in love, longing to be embraced and kissed, smelling Christs precious oyntments, taken in to the Kings chamber; yet the prayer to be drawn, and to be instructed where to find him, teacheth, that some are at the well-head, and yet thirsty, and in Christs banqueting house, and yet the praying of such to be drawn, speaks want of influences, and hunger for more, except Christ intimately apply his influences to will and to do. Cant. 2:4. He brought me into his banqueting house, his banner over me was love. 6. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand does embrace me. What is here wanting? Is not this paradise come down from heaven? But the prayer, v. 5. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love, is a strong evidence that the Spouse, even in Christs arms, and in his house of wine, where are all the refreshments of heaven, is not sick only, but fallen into a deep swoon, if Christ hold not up the head, and stay the soul with quickning influences: what then could you make of heaven it self, and of Christs sweetest embracements, if he teach not how to improve the fulness of this free love in sweetest actings of heavenly duties? When John is in heaven, and sees heavens glory, yet if the present actings of the spirit go not between him and Angel-worship he roves; influences must then make Christ to be Christ, and heaven to be heaven, and the Spirit must open and let out upon the withered soul streams of the well of life, otherwise there is the banqueting house of wine, and there is yet the hungry and swooning Spouse; there is heaven and fulness of glory, and there is yet miscarrying John: grace must make it self our grace, and he will have us to know to whom we owe the thanks, both of Christ and of the outletting and emanations of free grace, and of the well of life, and of the flowings and streamings of that fountain, and so the created habit of grace is not to be rested on, but Christ acting in his free grace is all in all.

2. The Lord gives influences according to his will of pleasure; but we must stir and pray, and act according to his will of precept. Hence all along, Psal. 119. praying and influences of grace are woven through other, ver. 25. My soul cleaveth to the dust, that is a work of the Lords gracious will of pleasure; Quicken me according to your word, that is a duty of praying according to his will of precept.

2. His gracious dealing of his will of pleasure, is brought in as an argument to ingage the heart to pray for grace to a duty of the holy will of command. 73. Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding, that I may learn your Commandments. v. 10. With my whole heart have I sought you, O let me not wander from your commandments.

3. The acting of a duty according to the gracious will of precept, is made an argument why the Lord should bestow saving influences according to his will of pleasure; to promote us in duties, Psal. 119. 40. Behold I have longed after your precepts: quicken me in your righteousness. 58. I intreated your favor with my whole heart: be mercifull to me according to your word. v. 176. I have gone astray like a lost sheepe, seeke your servant; for I doe not forget your commandements.

4. Grace prayed for according to the will of pleasure kindles fire for an ingaged heart to do a duty according to the Lord's holy will in his word. 33. Teach me O Lord the way of your statutes, and I shall keepe it to the end. 34. Give me understanding, and I shall keepe your Law: Yea I shall observe it with my whole heart. That is, Lord lend me grace, and by that grace I shall repay duty; borrowed grace makes the soule a debter for duties. 32. I will run the way of your commandements, when you shall enlarge my heart.

5. It's comfortable for strengthening of faith, to lay before the Lord the victory of his grace, and the strength of the temptation, broken by going on a duty. Hence a temptation; 23. Princes did sit and speake against me: but an influence of grace to do the duty broke the temptation. But your servant did meditate in your statutes. 69. The proud have forged a lie against me. A strong temptation; but its broken: but I shall keepe your precepts with my whole heart. 81. My soule fainteth for your salvation, but I hope in your word.

So all along learn, 1. That our free and voluntary trading with grace bringeth home new ships of gold; and there is no danger of miscarrying and shipwrack.

2. Being once by grace breathed on, we are to hold the wheels a going: grace puts the believer in a holy circle; and running begets more running, and the motion ends at us and begins at free grace.

3. The nearest purchaser of influences is prayer. Ver. 35. Make me to go in the path of your Commandments. 36. Incline my heart to your testimonies.

4. Grace given is a strong argument to get more grace; as gold buys more gold.

5. Though grace begin and prevene us, yet the Lord having once given the stock, spiritual want comes from spiritual sluggishness: we are willing to lose the tide and complain without cause of the sea's motion.

6. The ordinary chariot and ship that carries the influences of grace is the Word of grace. David (Psalm 119) is sick of love with the Word, Law, Testimonies. Ver. 47. And I will delight myself in your Commandments which I have loved. 72. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of silver and gold. 97. O how love I your law! it is my meditation all the day. 103. How sweet are your words to my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Ver. 11, 20, 24, 46, 50, 52, 54, 70, 86, 92, 93, 96, 111, 113, 105, 159, 160, &c. and in that Psalm the influences of the spirit go all along in every verse, in a practical, loving, delightful, panting, lifting of the hands to the Commandments. V. 32. I'll run the ways of your commandments. 34. Give me understanding, and I shall keep your law: yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. 45. I will walk at liberty; for I seek your precepts. 44. I'll keep your law continually. 60. I made haste and delayed not to keep your Commandments. 66. I have believed your Commandments. 74. I have hoped in your Word. 77. Your Law is my delight. 81. My soul faints for your salvation: but I hope in your Word. 83. I forget not your statutes. 87. I forsook not your precepts. 93. I will never forget your precepts; for with them you have quickened me, &c. all which hold forth, if you would have showers of influences of grace, be in love with the Word, and let it dwell plentifully in you; for look as influences of vigor and life, and heat upon roses, flowers, herbs, grass, apple-trees, vines, corn, go along with light and shining of the Sun, so do the influences of the spirit: and the spirit in his lively actings delights to be carried in the chariot of the Word (Canticles 4:11). Your lips, O my soul, drop as the honey-comb: honey and milk are under your tongue, in regard of the precious promises of the Gospel in the sound ministry of the Church, and the savoury influences of the spirit that go along therewith; therefore he adds, the smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon. Canticles 7:9. And the roof of your mouth is like the best wine, for my beloved that goes down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak; (influences of the spirit of grace must go along with speaking) such as are ignorant of the Word, and loath the precious Gospel and stumble at the Word, cannot receive influences of the spirit.

7. There is some admirable nearness of the word to influences (Psalm 119:11). Your word have I hid in my heart: that I might not sin against you. The word in the letter can keep no man from sinning against God.

For it is 1. common to all, and if not received by faith, convinces and condemns.

Nor 2. can the habit of grace in the heart prevent sinning, except sinning to death; but not such sinning as David might, or could, yes or did fall to, adultery and murder, of which he was most afraid.

Nor 3. can the literal memory of the word hinder sinning and yielding to dreadful temptations, though it be treasured up in the memory.

Nor 4. speaks he of the spirit, and inward word of the Swenckefieldians, Libertines, and the like, who forsake the rule of faith, the word, and depend upon wicked inspirations: but by the word hidden in the heart, he must mean the Word of God, and the engraved Law of God (Psalm 40:8; Jeremiah 31:33), not simply, but as it includes the word dwelling in the heart plentifully (Colossians 3:16), loved (Psalm 116:97, 103), esteemed and prized highly (Psalm 119:72, 128), and believed (92, 42, 43), and so seldom or never have any a high esteem, or a habitual love and faith and hope in, and to the word: but influences to keep from sin go along with that word so hidden in the heart, that look as the heavens, clouds, sun, fail not to join their influences to the seed of vine-trees, roses, plants of fig-trees; and nature goes along with birds to cherish and to warm eggs for the bringing forth of young birds: so, in some infallible way, by promise, God concurs with the so hidden word to produce faith, and love, and all acts of obedience: how much then does it concern these that move the question, what shall we do to fetch the wind, and to purchase influences of grace? to read, hear, consider, love, praise, believe and choose the Word as a treasure.

8. Overcome temptations have influences suitable to grace's victory (Psalm 119:23). Princes also did sit and speak against me: but your servant did meditate in your statutes, v. 83, 69, 161, 141.

9. Felt deliverances from the oppression of man, v. 134, sense of the loveliness and excellency of God want not influences, v. 68, & 132, 133.

3. As the earth and the things that grow thereon receive the Sun's influences, so does the heart qualified with the habit of grace lodge heavenly influences, and the well-tuned string of the Harp and Viol closes sweetly with the smiting of the pulse, or hand of the Musician; but the mistuned string stricken on makes discord, and receives no concord of music: the savoury and gracious heart welcomes the breathings of God, when the Spirit can no more act by his influences on a graceless spirit, than a Musician can play harmoniously on a broken Harp, or a mistuned Reed.

Hence these evils of the heart obstruct the influences of grace.

- 1. Hardness and blindness. - 2. Unbelief. - 3. Deadness. - 4. Security. - 5. Irreligious profaneness and Atheism. - 6. Inconstancy. - 7. Deceitfulness. - 8. Pride. - 9. Worldly-mindedness. - 10. Fiery zeal. - 11. Uncleanness. - 12. Malice and hatred. - 13. Worldly sorrow. - 14. False joy. - 15. Self-love. - 16. Willful ignorance of the Gospel & hatred of Christ. - 17. Impatient fretting against Providence. - 18. Disordered thoughts and ignorance of God in Christ.

Blindness and hardening of the heart, and Pharaoh's not setting his heart (Exodus 7:23) on the miracle of turning the water of the river to blood; so that the fish in the river dyed, and the river stank, hinders influences of obedience, to let the people go (Exodus 8:1, 2, 3). Matthew 13:15: Their eyes have they closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted and I should heal them; as if they were afraid for the saving influences of the saving grace of conversion. So men keep strong forts, and imaginations against God besieging them by the preached Gospel (2 Corinthians 10:5, 6), and will not have their thoughts led captives to the obedience of Christ. Whereas softness and tenderness in Josiah (2 Kings 22:19, 20) brings stooping and self-humiliation, and receives influences for repenting, weeping and renting the cloths before God; for what impressions of grace can the stone or rock, (and such is the heart hardened, Ezekiel 36:26) or the Adamant receive (Zechariah 7:12)? Temptations, signs and wonders do nothing at all to bring down the heart (Deuteronomy 29:3). Keep your heart in some softness and tenderness, and then shall it receive smitings from God; for the very renting of the lap of the garment of an enemy, the not despising of the cause of a servant, whom the master may easily bear down; or the not warming of the loins of the fatherless, with the fleece of the flock (Job 31:13, 20), in David and in Job have abundant influences of grace going along with them, and this seems an innocent negative. And when such small fins (so they appear to men) leave an impression of remorse, the heart is like melted wax that easily admits a figure and the print of an image of a man or a Lion. Influences are some way due to softness of heart as grace to the lowly, rain and dew to meadows in the valley (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5; Psalm 25:9).

As the light of faith leads every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5, 6), so does unbelief dull the heart. The news of Christ risen again are idle tales to the Apostles (Luke 24:11). Unbelievers are men who cannot be persuaded; the Gospel leaves as little impression on the heart as a ship on the Sea, or an Eagle in the Air, where the light of faith leaves not a spiritual capacity for receiving the impressions of the Spirit of grace, and where unbelief reigns. And since unbelief has conjoined softness and a fainting at the face of great affliction, so as the heart is moved as the trees of the wood (Isaiah 7:2), there is not a seat in it under such softness to receive influences for the noble and high actings of the courage of faith in withstanding Kings and Princes, Priests, Prophets, and People, in subduing of Kingdoms, and in the believer's godly hardening of himself as a wall of brass and a fenced City against all these; yes, against death and the grave (Jeremiah 1:18; Song of Solomon 8:6, 7; Ezekiel 3:8, 9; Romans 8:35).

This is carefully to be observed, that the influence of actual grace finds either in the habit of grace, or frames and makes in the heart a gracious aptness and capacity to receive actual influences suitable to the duties in hand, either of believing, patient and joyful suffering for the Lord, and such like. As the Lord in his common influences with the Sun rising and going down, the wind blowing, the Sea ebbing and flowing strains not, nor forces the nature of second causes, nor draws them as passive lumps to act against the particular inclination of nature, but carries along the natural active principles of the Sun, Wind, Sea, and such like natural causes: so neither does the Spirit of grace, by his actual influences, carry along the rational powers of knowing, believing, willing, as mere dead and passive blocks, as the Carpenter hewing lifts an Axe and shakes and moves the Saw. But the Lord makes the suitable active concurrences of sinless nature and of grace stirring in its influences to join together and accord friendly, connaturally, and without jarring, or violence done to nature, and so carries on the supernatural and gracious actings of obedience. And therefore as this point, with all getting get wisdom (Proverbs 4:5, 6; Proverbs 2): Incline the ear, apply the heart; cry, lift up the voice for knowledge, dig for wisdom, as for silver and hid treasures — and then look for influences, v. 9: then shall you understand (by way of practice, which cannot want influences of grace) righteousness, and judgment, and equity, yes, every good path. And there is much in the walking by faith, the light of faith being the star-light and the day-light ordering the motion; and beside, which no objective light can do, it inclines and weighs the soul to spiritual acting, and the Spirit must attend the stirring of saving light so inclining the heart with gracious influences.

When we give way to deadness, and act literally, and carry on the bulk of praying, hearing, as willing to get the body of the work over, and wrestle not for life and power in praying, and blow not upon the dead heart, to stir up the habit of grace, the Spirit withdraws and acts not on deadness, as the Sun moves not vital spirits in a dead carrion, or dead corpse, for there are none in it. The naked name of living professors in the Church of Sardis, when it was but a name, is plagued with deadness, and so with withdrawing of influences (Revelation 3:1). The cock's clapping with the wings adds strength to the crowing; should we, if the iron be blunt, and the edge not whet, add and put too more strength (Ecclesiastes 10:10), and seek life by stirring, as seamen, by sailing about, seek and fetch wind, we should increase warmness of life, and hoisted up sails should receive wind. For humble sense of coldness and deadness and missing of life is a good sign when it brings forth (Psalm 119) the prayer so frequent: Quicken me, Quicken me. Prayers used as Matins and Vespers, and wandering of heart, and whorish gadding of the thoughts in private praying brings on deadness. And as a Smith blows not the bellows on cold iron and cold fuel, where there is no sparkle of kindling of fire at all, neither does the North or the South-wind in heavenly influences blow upon such hearts. Would you have God to be more serious in his influences, when you are formal and not serious at all in the work?

Security obstructs actings of grace: the Spouse sleeps (Cant. 5:2), and the Spirit withdraws influences to open to the beloved; the Disciples sleep (Matt. 26) when Christ exhorts them to watch and pray. Can the Spirit breathe upon a lying and sleeping sluggard? There is godly fear on the heart; but Peter and the rest of the Disciples in their shameful flight and stumbling at the sufferings of Christ, after their fearless and fleshly undertaking, saying that they should rather die than forsake him, prove that the Spirit's withdrawing, by which they fell in that sin, goes along with security. We would watch and fear always; and the contrary of fearing always is hardening of the heart (Prov. 28:14), which infers a withdrawing of that enlightening and softening grace. Where there is rising at midnight to praise (Psal. 119:62), a preventing of the dawning of the morning to cry to God (Psal. 119:147), there must be a continued shower of outlettings of influences of grace for the lengthening out of hoping all the day long: as when Christ cannot sleep, but watches and prays when others sleep, the life of this must hold forth a sea of flowing in continued actings of grace in him.

A profane heart, void of God, and filled with atheism also obstructs the flowings of the Spirit; so the wicked (Psal. 14:4) call not upon the Lord; there is not an owning of a God to be worshipped. And the thing that goes along with that is oppression; they eat up my people as they eat bread (Psal. 14:4). And what gracious influences can there be there, especially when the Lord complains, "They are corrupt, they have done abominable works. They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy, &c.," and the root is atheism: "The fool has said in his heart, There is not a God." God breathes not in his influences on such as deny there is a God, till he first blow away the influences of Satan, who would darken and blot out the engraven notions of a Godhead; because Satan cannot be an atheist himself, he would make the world speculative atheists, but because he cannot do this, he fills the world with practical atheists. It can neither be blotted out of the heart of damned men nor devils, but a God and Judge there is; but men live without God, as if there were not a God, and these two species of atheism are dreadful.

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Atheists without God creator. 1. When men laugh at a Godhead that created all, and live by policy, as state-atheists. Or,

2. By reason, as moral atheists; or by nature, as many philosophers and some physicians; such are dead and dry rocks, never rained on by influences, seldom while the scorchings of the river and streams of brimstone waken them are they out of a sleep; for influences on the creature in all its operations, especially in these of grace, are most proper actings of holy providence: he who denies there is such a thing in the world as fire, or a sun, must deny that there is heat and light in the world. But the other sort of atheists, without Christ, God Immanuel, are more inexcusable; as a Gospel-atheist is farther from influences of grace than a Pagan-atheist, as is clear from (Matt. 10:15; Matt. 11:22-24; Matt. 12:41-42), because farther from salvation. How few have been converted who were first temporary hypocrites, and long despisers of the Gospel? 2. Who have been long moral naturalists; and 3. long bitter and virulent enemies to the Gospel and the godly, though otherwise grave and civil? Be much in believing that God is (Heb. 11), that leads the way to the noble actings of faith in Abel (v. 4), Enoch (v. 5), Noah (v. 7), Abraham (v. 8), &c. And the faith that God is, and rules, and is good to Israel, and that he punishes wicked men though he makes them rich, leads the Prophet to the faith of God, his gracious providence in guiding the godly by his counsel, in holding them by the right hand (Psal. 73:1-3, &c., 23-25).

The inconstancy of affections obstructs influences; even now Martha believed, and then, "Lord, he stinks, for he has lain four days" (John 11:27, 39). The ebbing and flowing of the Sea, the waxing of the Moon, the full Moon, the declining of it, the article of the change, have all diverse and contrary influences on our bodies, on diseases, on living, dying, birth and health; and so may we judge of influences from the sudden changes of the heart. As

1. It may be taken away (Hos. 4:11), stolen away (2 Sam. 15:6), and as moveables can be stolen away and hid, though lands legally by fraud may be stolen away, yet physically they cannot be hid; so the love and inclination of the heart may and can be stolen away, and when hearts are from under the possession of the right owner, the Lord our God, they are not under his influences, when they are not in his world and Kingdom of grace, but in Satan's power. Hearts benighted are from under the influence of the Sun, and therefore cannot receive the rays and beams of the Sun in the night.

2. Except the Lord pursue even renewed hearts, they are not the same to close with influences now as they were the other hour.

3. The various words used by the Scripture, as

1. Bewitching of the hearts, and charming the Galatians from the sound doctrine of justification through faith only (Gal. 3:1) to justification by works, prove that influences that take yesterday will not take today, for they were hot in running, and then cold in sitting down (Gal. 5:7; Deut. 19:6), while the avenger of blood, his heart is hot. The Galatians were willing to pluck out their eyes of late for Paul, and now their affection to him being soured, they look on him as an enemy, for he tells them the necessary and lovely truth (Gal. 4:15-16).

2. The heart is a thing that may be bowed (2 Sam. 19:14); the metaphor is known to the learned, it may be allured and enticed with fair words (1 Cor. 2:4); yes, the whole soul may be bought and sold, as merchants' goods, with fair words (2 Pet. 2:3): false teachers, through covetousness, shall with feigned well-decked words, as exquisitely dressed as hair, make merchandise of you.

3. The heart may be turned as streams of a river drawn through this part of the land, or this part (Prov. 21:1), and from nilling to willing, as the Lord thinks fit, according to God's will of precept; this is often the falling of the Church of Ephesus sinfully from their first spiritual love (Rev. 2:4), and the turning from good to evil.

4. The heart may be ingaged (Jeremiah 30:21), glued and made to stick to such an object (Psalm 119:31), given up and delivered (Ecclesiastes 2:1, 2, 3; Ecclesiastes 1:13; 2 Chronicles 20:3), set and fixed to such a way (Judges 13:3; Judges 5:9), touched and moved (1 Samuel 10:26), stirred to such a work (Ezekiel 1:1), and then as the Sun in the Spring and Summer, coming near the earth, makes more excellent effects on it than the Sun farther off in Winter; when the Lord comes near, he works otherways on the heart than he does in his absence; all which with divers other words say it's not easy to lie under and receive the influences of God; the gardens and meadows stir not out of their place, the vine-trees, the corn and grass in mountains, valleys, vineyards, flee not away from the falling of wind and dew, and the aspect and dartings of heat and beams from Sun and Heavens: But ah, unstable hearts, which withdraw from under the actings of the Spirit, and weary of prayer, hearing; whereas the establishing of the heart with savoury dispositions, and delighting in the word fetch home influences, as Psalm 119 clears.

7. The desperate wickedness and deceitfulness of the heart (Jeremiah 17:9) puts the Prophet to speak to God, v. 13. O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake you shall be ashamed. Influences then must be withdrawn from deceitful workers; and if the heart be deceitful above all things, then in some regard it's deceitful above Satan, as being a heart-deceiving and murdering of our own souls, beyond the privity of Satan, we boiling in the secret furnace of the heart many naughty thoughts that are unknown to Satan; and who knows the hypocrisy of the heart? And what way God plagues hypocrisy with farther hypocrisy, and by all sins? Heart-deceitfulness is within itself a rooting of itself: now this deceitfulness being so contrary to sincere and singleness of heart must be incapable of influences, for the upright and sincere heart, and truth in the inward parts (Psalm 51:6), is desired and loved (Psalm 11:7; Psalm 146:8) exceedingly by the Lord, as most like himself. Psalm 11:7. The righteous Lord loves righteousness, his countenance does behold the upright. And so as every thing loves its own, the hen warms and cherishes her chickens, and every bird the young ones; so must the Lord follow with heavenly and quickening influences sincerity of heart, when he particularly says to them (Psalm 32:11), Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice you righteous, and shout for joy all you that are upright in heart. The Lord must then follow his own planting (for the loving of the Lord Jesus in sincerity, and the girdle of truth about the loins, is a part of the armor of God (Ephesians 6:14)) with pruning, hedging, digging, and showers from heaven, whereas upon the heart unrenewed and still deceitful, there shall fall no rain; nor is a deceitful heart more capable of lively influences, than thick gross misty air can admit of wind, or than a torch steeped in mire and dirt is in capacity to receive light and flaming; and suppose (which yet is not possible) God should send saving influences on an unrenewed and deceitful heart, remaining such, yet could not such a poisoned stem bud and bring forth acts of saving grace; as the thorn tree in the fattest and choicest soil near the Sun, under influences of a warm heaven, benign clouds, a sweet moderate air, could never bring forth delicious wine, grapes, or pomegranates: prevaricators, hypocrites, and all double-minded halters between the Lord and Baal shall rot in their soil, and be as the heath in the wilderness, and receive nothing of the actings of God; the Lord is far from their reins (Jeremiah 12:2). God is not in all their thoughts (Psalm 10:4). Salvation is far from the wicked: and what are then the influences of God on them? For they seek not your statutes (Psalm 119:155), but David, v. 156. Quicken you me according to your judgements.

8. Pride hinders not a little the out-goings of the Spirit; the proud soul is the fallow ground, the unbroken and unplowed earth, and what can be hoped of wheat or a barley harvest from rain and dew, and influences of Sun, air and clouds, where the plough never broke the earth, and the Husbandman did sow nothing? But as for the humble and humbled broken and meekened man, influences are his by the promise of God (O that is a great and an unchangeable thing) (Psalm 25:9), The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way. None can be guided and taught practically to walk in the way of God, but these who are acted by influences of grace; Christ thanks the Father because he reveals the mysteries of the Kingdom to babes or young children (Matthew 11:25), and (James 4:6) But he gives more grace, God resists the proud, and gives grace (and so influences of grace, and more influences of grace) to the humble (1 Peter 5:5). And see

2. As the Lord and his servant nature has provided a providence more active and careful in parents for suck and milk to infants, and for food to weaned children, who are as passive as stones in providing for themselves; so does the Lord rain in a more abundant providence influences of grace on the meekened and broken spirit. Low valleys lying toward the Sun kindly receive dew and rain, mountains not so.

3. If the bones be of new broken and hot, and the wound green, the tender hand of Christ lovingly and compassionately binds up such broken ones (Isaiah 61:1; Psalm 147:3). He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds: and bones easily know their own place of bones when his hand puts them in place.

4. Iron is the strongest and hardest of metals, yet being hot in the furnace receives any impression or figure, and bones yield to the smiting of the hammer, which it does not when it's cold and stiff: when the cross has graciously melted and softened the soul, then it receives influences of grace, and is ready to receive, as Saul (Acts 9:6), trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what will you have me to do? The proud self-arrogant spirit will not receive nor lodge impressions of grace from heaven; be not then high-minded, but fear, otherways there shall be no rain on you, and you shall not be ingrafted in Christ.

9. Worldly mindedness and savouring of the things of the flesh keeps the soul both under deadness and distance from God the light of glory, and the heart and conversation in heaven brings forth that which has a strong influence of grace with it (Philippians 3:20, 21). We look from heaven for our Savior the Lord Jesus, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body, when the soul is in heaven, and we all (2 Corinthians 3:18) with open face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord, we are neer to the receiving of the aspects of the glorified Redeemer. But such as mind earthly things, whose God is their belly (Philippians 3:19), can no more receive influences of grace than earth-worms, or the Serpent that eats the dust; neither can heaven and the life to come have an impression in the gracious influences of God upon a wretched man, who worships clay and has no heaven but gold. How can influences of God be received in the heart of an idolater? Heaven's glory upon the soul is so transparent, that bread and hunger had no influence upon Moses for forty days, when he was in the mount with God, and then rays and influences of glory could not but be sweetly received on the soul. It's clear in such as stand and live before the throne, who are under the eternally shining summer Sun, and receive eternally influences of glory (Revelation 7:15); the Lamb leading them, they serve God night and day in his Temple (v. 16), and see his face (Revelation 22:4), and reign for ever and ever (v. 5). And the Disciples forgot bread and garments, yes and houses for themselves to dwell in (for the three tabernacles were for Christ, and Moses, and Elias, not to shelter them from frosts and rain, and hail, for they feared not the like injuries to glorified bodies); the Disciples say, It's good for us to be here. And so it's good for us to part with houses, with ships, with fishing, with nets, with plucking of ears of corn, or buying of bread, yes it's good to part with Ordinances, preaching to the Jews or Gentiles, with working of miracles, healing the sick, or casting out of devils. Influences of glory were as connaturally received in the soul that is neer God, and heavenly minded, as the Moon and Stars receive light from the Sun, and dry fuel receives fire where clay and the earthy and drossy part of the Lord's creation, and his foot-stool, can receive no light at all. So if earthly mindedness have fixed a seat in the affections, the spirit of grace and glory cannot shine through gross and earthy hearts. Give us corn, wine and oil, and the influences of the lovely countenance of God say worldlings, we do little value; whereas it is night and winter, and hell for a child of God, when the Lord withdraws influences of faith and feeling, loving, rejoicing and neer communion with God. Worshippers of God never miss gracious influences: when the soul is sick after Christ, influences of God, for the high praise of Christ, abound (Canticles 5:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, &c. and Psalm 63:1). When the soul thirsts for God, and the heart and flesh cry out for the living God (Psalm 88:1, 2), and the soul pants, as the hart for the water brooks, for God (Psalm 42:1) (which are crying signs of a heart in heaven), then influences of grace, like a high spring-tide, and like a full river, flow most abundantly, even to the satisfying of the soul as with marrow and fatness, and to the tongue praising of God with joyful lips, and the remembering of God in the bed, in the night-watches (Psalm 63:4, 5, 6), and to the extolling of the Lord as God and King (Psalm 88:1, 2, 3), and the breaking of the heart and bones when God is reproached (Psalm 42:3, 10).

10. Fiery zeal hinders influences; burn the Samaritans with fire from heaven, say the Disciples. O Paul (say fiery followers of the Law) would destroy the Law of God, and have Christ and grace all; but received you the spirit (or his influences) by the Law? You know not the wild-fire of revenge and the spirit of anger that leads you, says Christ to the Disciples, even to the mild beloved disciple John (Luke 9:54). Come (says Jehu) and see my zeal for the Lord — liar, come see my zeal for Jehu, and for Jehu his new Kingdom; but there were here no influences of the spirit of grace, for (2 Kings 10:31) Jehu took no heed to walk in the Law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart; for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin. Therefore Jehu his fire in killing Baal's priests, and Ahab's seed, being from false principles, carnal and self ends, and called by the Holy Ghost (Hosea 1:4) blood-shed and murder to be avenged of God, must come from bastard influences. And when our Savior rights the fire of zeal in John and James, he condemns the spirit and the influences that made them so brutishly to startle (Luke 9:55).

2. He reduces them to the faith and sound believing of his coming in the world, which was to save men's lives, not to destroy them (v. 56). It's a notable healing of the too hot blood, that is in fiery zeal, to believe soundly the meekness of Christ. Therefore would hot and wild-fire influences be well tried from where they come, from heaven or from hell: for so some who kill the Lord's Apostles, judge then if sparkles of fire can come from heaven (John 16:2), when it is nothing so. Ophni and Phinehas are publicly zealous for the Lord; Moses meek in the injury done to him by Miriam, and by Korah and Dathan, and his, is fiery against the golden calf in the Lord's cause. Hence influences from God set them a work, and eat them up as zeal for the Lord's house eat up David (Psalm 69:9; Psalm 119:139) and Christ (John 2:17).

Fleshly uncleanness put them of Sodom to mock and persecute Lot a preacher of righteousness (Genesis 19:9), and their not hearing of Lot proves their influences were not of God. The Holy Ghost clears to us that David (2 Samuel 11) all along was carried by no saving influences, for there we find 1. His idleness. 2. His sluggishness, in sleeping in day light, when the Ark and people of God were in the fields. 3. His adultery. 4. His sending for Uriah to cover the matter. 5. His causing Uriah to be drunk. 6. His bloody letter to Joab to kill Uriah. 7. His bloodshed. 8. His atheistical talking the state of the war. 9. Whereas David mourned for the death of Saul and Abner his enemies, and his not looking with godly trembling on works of divine justice in the Army, he passes this over as a chance of war, in all which the spirit that led him in composing heavenly prayers and Psalms was now far away. What actings of the Spirit can swine and dogs receive from God? (2 Peter 2:12). O but a clean hearth-stone, and a chaste, holy and clean house would be kept for the kindlings and flamings of the Holy Ghost. See (Titus 2:3, 4; 1 Thessalonians 4:2, 3, 4; 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20) let the Holy Ghost, his temple that he dwells in, be neat, pure, undefiled, for influences are the breathings of the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit breathes not on brute beasts, and on slaves to the lust of the flesh.

Malice and hatred, called man-slaughter (1 John 3:15), must becloud the soul, and darken and benight, or overnight both conscience, mind, will, and affections; and so as stones or rocks, or the sea sands can receive no influences from Sun and clouds to bring forth wheat and barley, neither can the heart stuffed with malice, for the very incapacity of the soil is the cause why such ground cannot close with such impressions and influences of God. 2 Samuel 23:1: The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, (there must be quickening influences) his word was in my tongue. The man that rules in the fear of the Lord shall be as the light of the morning when the Sun rises, a morning without a cloud, as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. The just prince and ruler, full of love and mercy to the people of God, and full of righteousness, is like a morning without a cloud, that has clear influences of a shining Sun; the Lord quickening him with light of love, mercy and righteousness to the people whom he feeds, that he is as the earth receiving from the influence of the Sun, clouds and rain warmness that casts up tender grass and corn. But v. 6: The sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands. 7: But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron, and the staff of a spear, and they shall be utterly burnt with fire in the same place. Then malice reigns so in wicked men, that if a man touch them, and keep society with them in duties of love, they bleed the hands of these that touch them as briars and thorns do, except the hands be fenced with iron and steel. He notes the nations to whom David and Joshua offered peace, but they blood the people of God; and prepare war, as is clear in the Ammonites to whom David sent a message of love, and they came against him with the sword and war; now they are such thorns as are for the fire, says David, and that they may be burnt, they require no influences of Sun and rain. Proverbs 4:17: They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence. Acts of hatred are their meat and drink, and what influences of the Spirit can their way, which is the way of darkness (v. 19), require? Romans 3:15: Their feet are swift to shed blood — for v. 17, the way of peace they have not known, and there is no fear of God before their eyes. Be meek and gentle as Christ (Isaiah 42:2, 3; Isaiah 53:7), a lamb dumb before the shearer (Luke 23:34; 2 Corinthians 10:1), and that holy meek one lay near the Sun and the influences of the Spirit. Isaiah 11:2: The Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord (John 3:34), for God gives not the Spirit by measure to him, neither acts the Holy Ghost in his sweet breathings on bloody and cruel hearts of persecutors.

Worldly sorrow counterworks sound repentance and godly carefulness, holy defenses, holy anger against ourselves, godly fear, vehement desire, zeal for God, revenge, such by which we are not to be satisfied with ourselves, who have committed such wickedness: now all these require influences of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 7:9, 10, 11).

The law-spirit of bondage being hellish fear (Romans 8:15) must be another spirit than the witnessing spirit, and the influences of the one different from the other: as good wheat, that comes of the plowing and sowing of the husbandman, and wild corn that comes from no plowing or husbandry; but such wild oats grow of their own accord in mountains and in the house-tops (Romans 8:15, 16, 17).

The hypocritical sorrow of Esau weeping for the blessing, and yet saying in his heart, he would kill his brother, could have no influences of the Spirit (Genesis 27:38, 41), for heart-profaneness which was in Esau (Genesis 25:32; Hebrews 12:16, 17) cannot consist with saving influences. And Malachi 2:13, the covering of the Altar with tears, crying and weeping to God was bastard sorrow, for they married the daughter of a strange God. And compare David's godly sorrow (Psalm 51), wherein he seeks the new heart and the free Spirit to be restored to him (there were there strong influences of the Spirit), with his weeping and mourning for Absalom, when he was killed: and the difference is clear; this latter seems to be but a worldly sorrow. Such as mourn excessively for their dead friends (1 Thessalonians 4:13) banish the Spirit of faith and hope, which cheers the heart, with the comfort of the last resurrection. Much sorrow spent on (it's a case of conscience to be remembered) the death of a father, brother, husband, wife, children, loss of goods, argues a carnal mind, and blunts the stirrings of the Spirit. Consider Martha her grief for her dead brother, and her unbelief, in tying the not dying of her brother to Christ's presence bodily as man (John 11:21), and her sorrow well near drowns her faith (ver. 39, 40).

14. False joy in corn, wine and oil, in full barns (Psalm 4:7; Luke 12:19), in the pleasant things of a present world must not a little oppose the Spirit in his influences, for where that joy is unrenewed, and full and extreme at only that which is a worldly good thing, the spirit is yet carnal, and no saving influences can be there. In the regenerate the affections are like two contrary rivers, when the one river is full at the flowing in of the sea, the river in the contrary coast is low and ebb; so joy, sorrow, love, desire, &c. as the Spirit prevails (Romans 7), as the flesh prevails in its motion, so are they up in their fleshly exorbitancies, and low in their motions and flowings toward God (v. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24). But the joy spiritual at the coming and receiving of the Gospel (Acts 8:5, 6, 7, 8), the joy of believing (Romans 15:13), the joy of the hope of glory (Romans 5:2; Matthew 5:12), the joy in the midst of heaviness, if need be for a season, which is unspeakable and full of glory (1 Peter 1:6, 7, 8), the joy in suffering under reproaches, and the spoiling of our goods (Hebrews 10:33, 34; Acts 5:41; 1 Thessalonians 3:9), the rejoicing in Christian walking (Philippians 4:4), the joy of the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17), and the like, are all fruits of the spirit, and have necessarily conjoined with them heavenly influences to receive the Gospel (Acts 8), to believe with peace of mind (Romans 15:13), to hope for glory (Romans 5:2; Matthew 5:12), to be comforted under heaviness, even to love the holy afflicted (1 Peter 1:5, 8), to all patience in suffering (Hebrews 10:33, 34; Acts 5:41), to walk cheerfully in our Christian course (Philippians 4:4, 5), all which must be wanting in the false and bastard joy of the world. And the like may be said of desire, the more men waste their desires in worldly objects, the less of the Spirit have they; as these two are excellently conjoined (Psalm 73:24): "You shall guide me by your counsels, and afterward receive me to glory." Influences in perseverance in the way of God, by God's counselling and leading, are here insinuated; and beside that a spiritual desire (v. 25): "Whom have I in Heaven but you? and in the Earth (there is) none I desire beside you."

15. Self-love is a note of apostates in the last days (2 Timothy 3:2), and of men in the state of nature, where self-love prevails above the love of God; (for natural men make themselves the god of gods, and the god of their false gods (Exodus 20:4; Judges 2:19; Psalm 81:8; Amos 5:26; Hosea 13:2)) there be men who make themselves their last end, it is contrary to all true holiness and sanctification, and so to all acts and influences of the Spirit. For it is the proper work of the Spirit to make us holy, and he bears the name of the Holy Ghost, and of the spirit of sanctification upon that reason; and therefore where self is the man's god, what room is left to holiness, and to the influences of grace? And where the love of God is spread abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, which is given (Romans 5:5), and has a seat in the heart (John 21:15; John 14:15; Deuteronomy 10:12; Deuteronomy 6:4, 5, 6; Deuteronomy 30:6), as the habitual fear of God has also; what doubt is there but the Lord shall join actual influences of grace to his own spiritual habits? Which should put us to self-denial, and to be less wedded to the love of ourselves, and more to love the Lord's Word, Law and Testimonies (Psalm 119:11, 47, 72, 97, 127, 128, &c.), to love Jesus Christ, his cause and Gospel more than our own life (Matthew 16:25, 26), than houses, brethren, sisters, father, mother, wife, children or lands (Matthew 19:29; Matthew 10:37; Luke 14:26). And where this habit of love prevailing in the heart is, the Lord denies not actual influences to his own sincere followers, and strength of grace to seal his truth with their blood (Revelation 12:10, 11; Hebrews 11:33, 34, 35; Hebrews 10:32, 33, 34). And when self-confidence and self-love, and carnal fear of losing life present prevails by reason of a temptation; as is clear in Peter and the Disciples, who deny and forsake Christ contrary to their undertaking (Matthew 26:31, 32, 33, 34, 35, v. 56, 69, 70, 71, &c.), the Lord justly withdraws the influences of his spirit.

16. The ignorance of the Gospel, and the loathing of Christ, renders all Pagans who hear the rumour of Christ but receive him not, and all reprobates within the visible Church in a worse condition than rocks and deserts are in, for sun, clouds and rain send influences in them, but the malignity and dryness, and coldness of the soil is the cause why they do not spring and blossom as the gardens and meadows. But though the Lord send common helps to such Pagans and unbelievers, yet it is justice that the Spirit in his influences should be a stranger to such as live strangers to the Son of God, for the Son and Spirit go not contrary ways to their operations. Carnal professors who study only a form of godliness, and aim not at the power of godliness, and do but bear the bare letters and outward bulk of baptism, and the sound of the word preached, and hate Christ, and persecute the godly that are chosen by him out of the world, come under the name of the world, who cannot receive the Spirit nor his influences (John 14:17), and have a spirit of their own, the spirit of the world (1 Corinthians 2:12). This spirit is their tutor and guide; and such as are out of Christ are led by the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2), and are taken captive by him at his will (2 Timothy 2:26). Now can these two spirits, the Spirit of God and the Devil lodge in one and the same dwelling, and exercise their several operation on the same soul? No.

17. The sad freatings and wrestlings at the providence of God incapacitates men for influences of grace: three times Psalm 78. the people are said to tempt the Lord, and especially in asking meat for their lust, v. 18. can he provide flesh for his people? v. 20. and the Spirit of the Lord so tempted, lets not out his sweet and saving influences upon such as wrestle with his holy dispensations; was there more of the Spirit letten out to Israel for murmuring at the red sea or less? Yes less, Exodus 15. for after that they murmured again at Morat, Exodus 14. and in the wilderness of Sin, Exodus 16:1. yes, forty years in the wilderness, Psalm 95:9, 10. They tempted God, and did err in heart; and that with their first murmuring in Egypt, was a provoking cause of God's withdrawing his Spirit: all these forty years is called v. 8. The day of temptation; for to tempt God is a great wickedness. He who welcomes all dispensations with godly submission, and can bow to his Lord's will, and cashier and lay aside his own, as the man Christ, nevertheless not my will, but your will be done (Matthew 26:39), under the greatest suffering that possibly could be on created flesh, as he who is most holily passive to suffer the will of God, is most holily capacitate to receive the holy, spotless, active influences of grace, as was the holy thing Jesus, a wide and capacious vessel, as the wisdom of Angels and men can imagine, in whom was all fullness of grace. Be then humble and submissively flexible and bowable to the Lord's will, in his decrees and revealed will, and the Lord shall dwell with you, and look toward you (Isaiah 57:15; Isaiah 66:2). But what are all these to fetch the wind of the Spirit's breathings? for you must have a wind to fetch this wind, a new predetermination and influence of grace to all these duties of heavenly softness. 2. Faith. 3. Liveliness. 4. Watchfulness, &c. opposite to hardness of heart. 2. To unbelief. 3. To deadness. 4. To security, &c. and so we give (say the adversaries) nothing that we can rest on for the acquiring and purchasing of influences of grace, but we must lie dead as passive lumps (say the Libertines and Calvinists what they please on the contrary) that influences begin, and we follow is most necessary.

For 1. The Lord bows, moves, draws, and then in the same moment of time the will follows, runs, inclines itself, as Psalm 119. v. 36. compared with v. 112. Canticles 1:4. draw me, we will run; it's here first the wind blows, and the tide flows, and then we sail.

2. If grace prevene nature, and nature prevene not grace, so we must say.

3. If we pray for the influences of grace, as every page almost of Scripture teaches us, so we must teach.

4. Otherwise salvation and stirrings in the ways of God must begin at nature and at us; so shall we say against all sense, the corn grows to the end the Sun may shine and warm the earth, and the dew and the rain may fall on the grass and corn, and the sea-men sail to the end that the wind may blow? Whereas the contrary is true, the Sun must send influences that the corn may grow.

Answ. We shall be most unwilling to side with cursed Libertines, for what can be in strength of reason said against us comes to this.

If God first, before we stir, must bow and predetermine our souls to good before we can act and stir, then are all influences of grace above our reach absolutely; and then farewell free-will, for he who bows irresistibly our free-will, and firstly to that point of contradiction to willing rather than nilling, choosing rather than refusing, he must domineer over free-will, and make it a mere passive lump.

Answ. If God first by order of nature, but in the same moment of time, must stir and bow our souls to holy duties, before our souls can act and stir themselves, then must God domineer over free-will, and make it a mere passive lump in acting it, it's palpably false. For first, by order of nature, though together in order of time, prius tempore, simul natura, the Lord stirs and determines the Sun to rise and go down (Psalm 104:19, 20; Job 9:7, 8). Send an East-wind to blow in heaven, and by his power bring a South-wind (Psalm 78:26). Loose the bands of the wild Ass, and cause him to dwell in the barren wilderness (Job 39:5, 6). Causes the Hawk, by his wisdom, to stretch his wings toward the North rather than the South, and commands the Eagle to mount up at his command, and make her nest in the rock, v. 27, 28. And say to the snow be you on the earth (Job 37:6), and stir and determine all causes natural before they stir themselves; yet the Sun in moving, the Wind in blowing, the Eagle in flying, the Snow in falling on the earth, are not for that mere patients, or passive lumps in acting, but have their own activity in their motion. The holy Lord's dominion over the operations of second causes natural or free, neither strains nor does violence to the one sort of cause nor to the other, but it belongs to the perfection of the Lord's holy dominion, and perfect providence to master and rule all causes and creatures in being and working.

2. Therefore as the Lord's dominion determines the Sun to rise and move, rather than not to rise, and the Hawk and Eagle to fly toward the North, rather than not to fly toward the North; he destroys not the nature of necessary and natural causes, so we must not bid farewell to the natural operation of the one kind of causes rather than the other.

If God first, before we stir and bow our souls, as ethical, moral, knowing, and considering causes, must move, stir and determine our souls to good, then are all influences of grace above our reach absolutely, and then farewell free-will; there is no necessity of the one connexion more than the other, for the Lords first bowing of our souls by order of nature, before our souls bow themselves to good — the soul being a moral, knowing, and considering cause, as not one, but many Scriptures (Psalms 119:59, 30, 55, 52, 92; Haggai 1:5; Hosea 7:2; Psalm 41:1; Proverbs 6:6; Proverbs 24:32, &c.) prove, shall never conclude that, for the Lord so bows and determines our souls in all our moral actings, as that he leaves the soul to judge, know, consider, esteem, ponder, and weigh in the action, right and lawful, wrong and unlawful, what is acceptable to God, what is displeasing to God, and what is the consequent of the action, whether reward or punishment, Heaven or Hell; and if so, the soul has virtually, and in the consequent, in its power the foregoing influences of grace, to have them or want them willingly and delightfully.

If the Lord must stir and determine the soul to holy and free actings, so as except he turn, move and incline the will, we can do nothing (Proverbs 21:1; Ezekiel 11:19, 20; Isaiah 44:1, 2, 3, 4, 5; Ezekiel 36:26, 27; John 15:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; Philippians 2:13), and if we must pray that God would effectually, by his grace, draw the will and heart (Canticles 1:4), incline it (Psalm 119:36), teach us, open our eyes (Psalm 119:18, 33, 34, 29, 66), not lead us into temptation, but quicken us, lead us in his way (Matthew 6:13; Psalm 25:4, 5; Psalm 5:8; Psalm 86:11; Psalm 143:10; Psalm 119:40, 88, 156), and that by foregoing knowledge; then do we willingly run at the same time (though there be an order of nature here) the ways of the Lords commandments, and that not compelled, with joy and delight, without violence connaturally, as is clear (Canticles 1:4; Psalm 119:32, 60, 33, 34, 43, 44, 106; Psalm 122:1) as infinite Scriptures prove; now how Gods grace makes us both necessarily and willingly to obey, the Scripture is clear, and though we cannot give a natural and philosophick reason, no matter.

If we should distinguish between thoughts and conquering and victorious thoughts, between fixed and wanton carelessly feeling thoughts, between guarded and well watched hearts and masterless hearts; we should know that we hinder and obstruct influences though sovereignty dispense gracious influences by sinful thoughts, the thoughts being the wings of the soul. Can influences have a seat on thoughts marred by us? Surely no more than a bird can fly with broken wings; and the God of nature does not join his influences with causes impossible to act; he concurs not with the bird to fly when the wings are broken; nor the running of a dead horse, though one should ride on a carrion, and use spur and rod. But when the thoughts are seasoned with the heavenly disposition of a renewed heart, as the buds and blossoms of the vine-tree are in a nearest way to receive influences from the God of nature to become excellent wine-berries, and the most refined earth near to be turned into gold, and to receive influences for that effect; so a heart gratified with heavenly dispositions must be a subject for heavenly thoughts, and if there be a holy heart, heavenly meditations come out in the night (Psalm 63:6, 7; Psalm 139:17; Philippians 3:19, 20).

2. The Lord contempereth the actings of the spirit to the subject, being a moral agent, and all our gracious actings run through the channel of a spiritual judgement; as running the race in Christ came from known and well considered joy set before him (Hebrews 12:1). Moses chose Saints suffering more than Court-honor, for heaven or the recompense of reward, looked with another face and representation on the understanding than a poor time Court of clay did; the superexcellent knowledge of Jesus Christ is so praised by Paul, as his heavenly understanding looks on it, as his all, yes, his only all, and his all things beside are stated to his mind as loss and dung. So to Abraham's mind a tent that shepherds sleep in is judged good enough, and the world a bottomless lodging, because there stands in the eye of his mind a rightly considered City, that has a foundation whose maker and builder is God (Hebrews 11:18). And the cause of Christ's bearing patiently the cross was his sanctified judgement of injuries, and spitting [illegible], he under-judged, and in his mind under-prised shame and reproach (Hebrews 12:2), as a very shadow of a shadow and as nothing, and the glory of his Father in a redeemed and ransomed people looked broad and fair, and great on his understanding. Know and consider well, 1. God, an infinite, fair, transcendent God, and the silly poor nothing and kindless nature. 2. Judge rightly of time, and how nothing yesterday and the last year is, and weigh in your understanding vast, high, and broad, and deep, and long eternity, if you have balance with scales that can bear eternity. 3. Understand well obedience, faith the weight of the love of Christ, never quenched with many floods, and sin, hatred of Christ, and the horror thereof. 4. Take a right view of heaven, how it lies in length and breadth, and a right impression of the fire that is never quenched, and the habitual knowledge of the Lord's name, wants not influences for trusting in God (Psalm 9:10). Knowledge where to find God in Christ, has actings of the Spirit to live and dwell with him, to hold him (Canticles 1:7; Canticles 3:1, 2, 3, 4; John 4:10), to pray, to come to him (John 6:45). A soul in darkness, and the gross ignorance of God is not capable of influences of grace, as the centre and bowels of the earth and deep pits receive no Sun-light. We can draw on sinful dispositions, yes, we created these dry clouds that are above our withered hearts, by making our inordinate affections Stewards and Caterers to lay in provision for our flesh (Romans 13:14). 2. We can ask leave at our flesh to take a little sleep, and excuse it (Proverbs 6:10), Yet a little slumber. 3. Under drowsiness and security we can refuse to open and let Christ in (Canticles 5:3), and that brings on sad withdrawings of the actings of the Spirit (v. 6). 4. Violence done to sweet dispositions, when they give warning of our debt, may draw to a wronging of the Holy Ghost, who is dreadfully jealous if we counter-work the actings and breathings of the Spirit, and react against the out-lettings and flowings of the anointing, and of the well within springing up to eternal life; he puts in his hand by the hole of the door, the Spouse is convinced that it is Christ the beloved's voice, and his knock, and his very words, and no other; yet he is not yielded to, but resisted.

2. We keep not the oil clean, that it may shine more clearly in the lamp; inky blackness defaces the beauty of the white rose and the lily; the dustiness and filth of lusts' dimness darkens the precious stone, that it loses lustre and color. When a judicial darkness, even on a believer, it covers the habit of grace, and darkens the spiritual strain, the sin of the spirit is out of measure sinful; the Spirit judicially sleeping, sees and hears less in the Prophet Jonah, than carnal reason in the Heathen Mariners, for Jonah sleeps, the Heathen men do wake and fear, when wrath from Heaven blows on their ship. The lesser habit of grace that is young and green in the repenting thief, does more in adhering to Christ, because actual breathing of the Spirit is stronger and more vigorous, than the more rooted and experienced habit of grace in the Apostles, when it is now overwhelmed with the base fear of suffering, for he confesses him to be a King on the Cross, the Disciples fleeing forsake him. And the Lord preaches that we are more debtors to the Spirit of Christ than to the habit of grace; praying, praising, believing, hoping, loving, joying, as acts of kin to the Spirit, gladden the Spirit. What should we then do to fetch the wind? Grieve not the Spirit, but keep the fountain pure and clean from the muddiness of lusts, for in the light of the Spirit you see your own spots. 1 John 3:3. He that has this hope in him, purifies himself, as he also is pure.

2. Yield not to indispositions, complain of them to God, and pray them away, as Psalm 61:2; Psalm 31:22; Psalm 102:3, 4, 5; Lamentations 1:2, 3, 4, 5, &c. 22, 23.

Obj. But it is easy so to say, Be strong in the Lord, I am at huge distance from the Lord?

Answ. 1. The Lord speaks to believers as to moral agents, the actings of faith is in us both moral, and also physical or real (though moral acting in some sense be real, and not imaginary) as the fowler with sweet songs works in a manner morally, or by way of allurement upon the fancy of the bird, enticing it to the net, and the bird also physically makes use of its wings, God joining his influence; so would we, looking to the command and promise of God, be induced to bring will and affections under the acting and breathing of the Spirit, and also physically act our faith in the mean time, relying upon God for the flowings of his Spirit.

3. If any thing be said, that Sovereignty does also hinder influences, for God hides himself, will your faith and prayers conclude him that he shall not hide himself but shine?

Answ. Sovereignty should counter work sovereignty; if there were a law passed by the Lord, that ever when we pray in faith in that same very nick and moment of time, he must take off the arrestment of desertion, as if prayer were (to speak so) a sort of charming of holy sovereignty. But the law is, and the promise, that when we pray in faith for shining influences, he shall remove our night of the hiding of his face, and the Spirit's sad withdrawing, not absolutely, but in the way of his own holy and wise sovereignty, and also the prayer of faith has some other effect than the present removal of desertion. Prayer keeps the soul under sufficient graces, fresh showerings, and stays the burnt man under patient enduring of the fire in condition of a refreshing, cooling and expelling of the heat. The man Christ lies under forsaking; but influences of the Spirit, to pray, to believe, to submit, to hope keeps him vigorous and green, that gloriously and triumphingly he endures the Cross. For suffering pain in faith and joy is more excellent than the removing of pain.