55. When the soul admires spiritual things, it is then a holy frame; and so long it will not stoop to any base comfort. We should therefore labour to keep our souls in an estate of holy admiration.
5G. All those whom Christ saves by virtue of his merit and payment, to those he discovers their wretched condition, and instead thereof a better to be attained ; he shews by whom we are redeemed, and from what, and unto what condition : the Spirit informing us thoroughly, that God enters into covenant with us.
57. Spiritual duties are as opposite to flesh and blood as fire to water ; but, as anointing makes the members nimble, and strong, and cheerful, so, where the Spirit of God is in any man, it makes him nimble, and strong, and cheerful to good duties. But when we are drawn to them as a bear to the stake, for fear, or an inbred natural custom, this is not from the Spirit ; for where the Spirit is, there duHes are performed without force, fear, or hopes. A child needs no extrinsecal motion to make him please his father, because it is inbred and natural to him.
58. As the weights of a clock makes all the wheels to go, so artificial Christians arc moved with things without them ; for they want this inward principle to make them do good things freely. But where the Spirit of God is, it works a kind of natural freedom.
59. As the woman in the law, when she was forced by any man, if she cried out she was blameless, so if we unfeignedly cry unto Christ, and com- plain of our corruptions, that they are too strong for us, this will witness to our hearts that we are not hypocrites.
60. Good duties come from unsound Christians as fire out of the flint ; but they flow from a child of God, as water out of a spring ; yet because there is flesh in them as well as spirit, therefore every duty must be gotten out of the fire. And yet there is a liberty, because there is a principle in them that resists the flesh.
01. God's children are hindered in good duties by an inevitable weak- ness in nature, as after labour with drowsiness ; therefore ' the spirit may be willing when the flesh is weak,' Mat. xxvi. 41. If we strive therefore against this deadness and dulness, Christ is ready to make excuse for us, if the heart be right, as he did for his disciples.
62. A child of God is the greatest freeman, and the best servant, even as Christ was the best servant, yet none so free ; and the greater portion that any man hath of his Spirit, the freer disposition he hath to serve every one in love.
63. Sight is the most noblest sense. It is quick : it can see from earth to heaven in a moment. It is large : it can see the hemisphere of the heavens with one view. It is sure and certain : for in hearing we may be deceived. And, lastly, it is the most aflecting sense. Even so is faith the quickest, the largest, the most certain, and most aflecting. It is like an eagle in the clouds : at one view it sees Christ in heaven, and looks down into the world. It sees backward and forwards : it sees things past, pre- sent, and to come ; and therefore it is, that faith is expressed by beholding.
AND HOLY CONTEMPLATIONS. 191
64. A veil or covering had two uses amongst the Jews. One was sub- jection, and therefore the women were veiled ; another was obscuritj^ and therefore was the veil on Moses's face. Both these are now taken away in Christ ; for we serve God as ' sons,' and as a spouse her husband. We are still in subjection, but not servile ; and now also with ' open face' we behold the glory of the Lord. We behold the things themselves ; they are now clearly laid open ; the veil is taken away.
05. Our happiness consists in our subordination and conformity to Christ ; and therefore let us labour to carry ourselves, as he did to his Father, to his friends, to his enemies. In the days of his flesh he prayed whole nights to his Father. How holy and heavenly-minded was he, that took occasion from vines, and stones, and sheep, to be heavenly-minded. And when he rose from the dead, his talk was only of things concerning the kingdom of God. For his carriage to his friends, ' he would not quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed,' Mat. xii. 20. He did not cast Peter in the teeth with his denial. He was of a winning and gaining disposition to all. For his carriage to his enemies, he did not call for fire from heaven to destroy them, but shed many tears for them that shed his blood. * 0 Jerusalem,' &c.. Mat. xxiii. 37 ; and upon the cross, ' Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,' Luke xxiii. 34. So that if we will be minded like unto Christ, consider how he carried himself to his Father, to his friends, to his enemies, yea, to the devil himself. When he comes to us in wife, children, friends, &c., we must do as Christ did, bid ' Avoid, Satan ;' and when we have to deal with those that have the spirit of the devil in them, we must not render reproach for reproach, but answer them, ' It is written.'