the other for the worship of God Christ diverts her opinion of Jacobs Well by telling her of a Well of water springing up unto everlasting life ver 14. and her opinion of Gods worship in Samaria by resolving her that salvation is of the Jews and diverting her to think of a worshiping of God in spirit and in truth ver 22 23. If I should prescribe one object in the multitude of your evill thoughts to turn them unto it should be God who is infinitely long and broad and wide beyond the extent of the souls desires or thoughts Kingdoms cannot satisfie ambition Gold as the dust of the street cannot satisfie covetousnesse pleasures to satiety and loathing content not the flesh and the mind is as unsatisfied with thinking and knowing onely God is of that infinitenesse and of that excellency that all thoughts and desires are terminated in him and all thoughts and desires that turn themselves unto God are bettered by looking upon him 3. If evil thoughts still presse in upon thee if they will not be stop'd nor diverted break them off with some violence if they be unreasonable and justle out better thoughts lay hands upon them 1 Cor. 9. 27. if the body grow unruly it must be kept under and brought into subjection Some thoughts are so wicked that they will not be cast out like those Devils without fasting and prayer If any thought within thee shall crosse Religion or reason resolve to crosse it There are some cursed imaginations which are the mother-roots of a multitude of sins as those which move Questions seriously of Gods Essence Personality Mercy Justice Power Providence and whether the Scriptures be the word of God whether the souls of men be immortal whether there be a Heaven or a Hell such thoughts as these should not be disputed withal muchlesse allowed but expelled or kill'd if but such thoughts as these be suffered and allowed within they will make a soul as desolate of grace as a City is without an inhabitant he that hath no rule over his own spirit certainly 't is true in this case is like a City that is broken down and without walls Prov. 25. 28. I shall never marvel that he is a wicked man whom I know to allow himself or others in such thoughts as these but I shal think grace is ruined in that man that disputes these things determines them against the Scripture 4. If wicked thoughts will not begone yet thou hast this remedy left call in help against them pray them away pray God in to thy help against them pray for a change of thine own nature of thine own thoughts Was not this the thing which David prayed for Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me Psal 51. 10. 'T is plain it was Let us lift up our hearts in prayer against all our sinnes in thoughts but especially against them that are wicked ones heavy thoughts and vain thoughts are errours and not excuseable from sin but wicked thoughts are of a worser generation we must purge our selves from these with greater diligence I know foolishnesse is bound up in the heart of a child an evil heart cannot but think evil Prov. 22. 15. What can I look for from an Adder but her poison and her sting yet we may pray out foolishness out of our hearts And I believe Paul often used this help against the evils of his own heart for he saith When I was a child I spake as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child but when I became a man I put away childish things 1 Cor. 13. 21. It may be thou art a child in thy speaking in thy understanding in thy thinking pray that thou mayest become a man and be able to put away childish things Thus much of the evil of thoughts and how we may by Gods assistance remedy the same I beseech you Brethren apply these remedies to the severall errours of your thoughts and they will doe you much good Object not an impossibility for any to remedy the infirmities and sinfulnesses of thoughts what nature cannot do grace may and what man cannot do God can Every Christian who hath the spirit of God is enabled by that spirit within him to do all things Evangelically or with a Gospel allowance whereunto he is called of God If God would have the thoughts of a righteous man to be just God hath not made it an impossible work what nature within thee is averse to do and what grace within thee cannot do that the spirit within thee can do and the Righteousnesse of Christ without thee hath done wherefore despair not of the work but go about it CHAP. X. ANd now Beloved I am come to speak of good thoughts with the means how to get them and the manner of their government In the handling of this so needful a duty and so fruitful a subject I must premise some introductory particulars to shew the possibility and necessity of this work it is necessary or else God would not have commanded it it is possible or else God would not have promised assistance to performance 1. Hear how God commands this duty O Jerusalem wash thy heart from wickednesse that thou mayest be saved how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee Jer. 4. 14. What is that great Commandment in the Law is it not to love the Lord thy God But how Mat. 22. 37. is it not with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength Unlesse the mind and heart be in our love and obedience there will be no strength in them nor acceptance with God of them 2. God hath promised mercy unto all who willingly endeavour to turn away from all their evil thoughts and turn unto him with all their hearts God requires a heart washed from iniquity that the soul may be saved as ye read but now and God promiseth not onely to be abundant in mercy to pardon what is past but also to perfect the work begun Isa 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon I may adde that it is a part of our regeneration to be renewed in our thoughts the Apostle urgeth it Be ye renewed in the spirit of your minds Eph. 4. 23. And further that Gospel-light requires Gospel-thoughts it was prophesied of these dayes At that time they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord and all the Nations shall be gathered unto it to the name of the Lord to Jerusalem neither shall they walk any more in the imagination of their evil heart Jer. 3. 17. When God makes the Church his Throne and the Nations gather into it to worship the Lord then shall they leave off their wicked thoughts and walk no more after them We live in these
thoughts nor at the persons of Gods sending to administer spiritual help unto us In this matter we should say with Samuel Speak on Lord for thy servant heareth 1 Sam 3. 10. or as that devout Cornelius to Paul We are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God Act. 10. 33 3. He that would have good thoughts let him pray let him intreat the Lord to enrich his soul by his sanctifying spirit for by multiplyed acts the spirit doth renew our minds God saves us but not by works of Righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost pray for that therefore that ye may be wased and saved Tit. 3. 5. The fourth meanes to get good thoughts into thy mind is to accompany Gods Saints be thou as much as conveniently and without prejudice of thy calling in the company of them that are godly whose communion will edge the good motions that are upon thy spirit as Iron sharpens Iron 2 Pet. 3. 1. Peters Epistles had power in them to stirre up the pure minds of holy men there is a power also in the interloquutories and familiar conferences of holy persons when they meet face to face Paul had a great desire of many years to see not so much the City of Rome in her then glory as the brethren at Rome Rom. 15. 23 24. that he might be filled with their company we believe a communion of Saints and shall we not desire to be assistants one to another to impart and receive some spiritual gifts interchangeably God himself is seen in the congregations of holy men and therefore as Manoah and his wife when they had seen an Angel thought they had seen the face of God So when we shall see the face of Gods people let us think we behold the face of God in them for they are the liveliest pictures of Gods image their conversation will administer thoughts of imitation their conferences will season our unsavory meditations their discourse will draw out waters of life so that we may perceive the deep things of our salvation flowing out of their bellies unto us and though Satan in the company of wicked men do beget upon their imaginations a company of wicked thoughts yet the spirit of God is as plentiful in producing good motions in godly minds by the company of sanctified men do but observe the issues of thy mind after thy fill of their company how barren dost thou return from the tables of those where thou hast not seen the face of God nor heard any talk of heaven and if amongst them Satan have but whistled an horn-pipe how is thy soul dulled or grieved or turned out of the way or unfitted for heavenly thoughts But on the contrary when thou hast been praying fasting mourning or it may be feasting with Gods Saints how cheerful will the soul be it seems to have fed upon some dish like Elijahs meat in the strength whereof thy thoughts goe a long journey in holy meditations therefore be sure of a holy man to thy friend and the more the better and make much account of him or them it 's a wonder to see what force is in the company of godly men to stirre up good thoughts and lamentable to see how Satan strangles good thoughts in some when they are ready to appeare in action by evill company so that those thoughts never live to see the light 5. He that would get good thoughts and store his heart with them must make much of them when they come they are quick movers they come suddenly and they are gone as soon if they be not kindly entertained they will not stay long at the dore knocking nor scraping for acquaintance they are the messengers of Gods Spirit and they bring good newes to the soul that bids them welcom but the non-entertainment of them or the slight entertainment of them is a grieving of the holy Spirit of God that sent them If Davids messengers be unkindly entreated by Nabal or frowned upon they will back to their Lord and acquaint him with their usage and do not thou think but. thy carriage towards holy thoughts will be carried to Gods ear But if thou give kind entertainment to good thoughts they will stay with thee to counsell and comfort thee and they will bring with them home to thine heart many more of their own kind to lodge with thee for God himself will send them in plentiful manner who loves to furnish such an host with the best commers Good thoughts in this respect are something like unto riches they come to them in most plenty who esteem them most the world must be courted and gracious thoughts must be much made of And consider good thoughts are worthy entertainment they are to be reckoned amongst our better friends a man can hardly make too much of them Ps in the multitude of these thoughts the comforts of God refresh our soules Make much of them for first they are good in themselves the births of gracious minds begotten upon them by the Spirit of God for we are not able of our selves to think a good thought Secondly these have been kind to us and done us many a good turn witnesse our solitary nights and tedious houres of sicknesse imprisonment afflictions travailes from place to place while no comforters have been our companions but God and our good thoughts We may say with David We have remembred thy name in the night and have kept thy Law Psal 119. 55. our solitary and night thoughts have benefited us for the keeping of Gods Law and have administred unto us songs in the dayes of our pilgrimage 54. Thirdly our good thoughts are likely to do us good hereafter and it may be at such a time when we shall have more need of them then ever we have had yet it was Hezekiah's great comfort in his sicknesse to think how he had walked before God in truth and with a perfect heart and he beseecheth the Lord also that he would remember him in this behalf 2 Kings â— 3. if bonds or afflictions remain us if we be cast into the Dungeon or be wounded in battail or lye upon sick-beds good thoughts will be unto us our sweetest companions Make much of good thoughts they will season the rooms where they come and make the heart the house of God But here a word of admonition to them that have not good thoughts or rather to them whose good thoughts make offer of departure Suspect beloved your entertainments of them have been harsh or distastful use them more kindly entreat their stay offer them violence keep them by force if it be possible that they go not over the threshold from you Imitate herein Jacobs bold wrestling with God hold them fast let them not go lest ye lose a blessing 6. He that would get good thoughts into his mind must have a great care to keep his
this glorious promise is annexed to a person qualified with holinesse because a holy conversation is a fruit and sign of faith and evidence of a person that is in Christ for whose sake we are saved and in whom all the promises are yea and Amen 2 Cor. ch 1. ver 20. to the glory of God by us Reas 3 Lastly because God hath ordered matters so that grace should be the seed of glory as they are of the same kind and near of kin Gal. 6. 8. He that soweth to the spirit shall reape of the spirit life everlasting and all this is that so God might Crown his own gifts in us not our merits and that he might honour himself as wel as pleasure us To improve this Point to our best advantage first we may use it by way 1 Use of Exhortation of encouragement to excite and stir up all sorts of persons to be willing to set upon this Duty and to make conscience of the ordering of their conversations aright Oh be exhorted beloved to resolve to set upon it forthwith and henceforward to make it your businesse to walk worthy of the Lord in all well-pleasing being fruitful in every good work 1 Col. 9. and ever hereafter to order your thoughts words and actions according to the Rule of Gods sacred Word The pressing Considerations to set home the Exhortation on our souls may be these that follow First because it is a thing so highly 1 Consideratio prima pleasing to God that he hath in my Text annexed so great a recompense of reward to the performers of it that they shall see the salvation of God If salvation be dear unto us let us then go on kindly and strongly under the expectation of it against all difficulties whatsoever that lie in the way to hinder us Oh salvation is a sweet thing and for ever our pains about our conversation wil be but for a short time It were our duty to order our conversation aright though no salvation followed it How much more then when we know our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. ult The second encouragement I wil use Consideratio secunda shal be this because this wil denominate us blessed persons even while we live and who is there that would not be blessed Psal 119. 1. Blessed are they that are undefiled in the way and walk in the way of the Lord c. Without this all our profession of Christianity wil prove but vanity our faith wil be but a meer phansie and all our devotions but as so many glorious suns onely in the way of holinesse lyeth the beauty and comelinesse of all our perfections This is the Diamond in the Ring that graceth all our other parts accomplishments no true peace safety comfort or security is elsewhere to be found either in our life or death 2 Cor. 1. 12. All the wayes of wisdom are wayes of pleasure and all her paths prosperity Prov. 3. 17. and the fear of the Lord is the onely wisdom experiment it who pleaseth In other wayes he shal find a great deal of cragginesse and bitternesse in the end of all Thirdly consider Gods wayes to us Consideratio tertia all his wayes are mercy and truth to those that fear him Psal 25. 10. It is not said some of his wayes are mercy and some of his wayes are truth but all his wayes are both mercy and truth mercy in promising and truth in performing And why then should you think it much that all our wayes and dealings should relish of holinesse and obedience towards God all his wayes are to pleasure us and in equity all our wayes should be to please him Or consider Jesus Christ himself Phil. 2. 7 8. he came down from heaven to accomplish the work of our Redemption and shal not we come out of the world for his sake and have our conversations in heaven Christ emptied himself for us and took upon him the forme of a servant and humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse and all for our sakes It is written of him that he pleased not himself Rom. 15. 3. And shal we so ill requite our Lord and Saviour as to order our courses to please others or humour our selves to follow the guise of the times and so content our own lusts and not rather to please him in every thing we doe I pray you lay this meditation close to your hearts This in the fourth place is the one Fourth Motive thing necessary in all our life Luke 10. 42. this is that good part which whosoever chooseth it shall never be taken from him All other things are superfluous in comparison of this He that keepeth his way keepeth his soul saith Salomon Prov. 16. 7. The very life and soul lieth at stake in this businesse Suppose thou canst rightly weild an estate or drive thy trade wel so as to be master of it Suppose thou canst mannage thy actions fairly before men Suppose thou wert able to marshal an Army or to rule a City a Nation or Kingdom Suppose thou canst govern a family and order thy servants under thee Heathens have done all these and a man may go to hell that doth them But to manage thine own heart and life aright is a far more excellent thing and it wil certainly bring thee to Heaven it being such a thing as accompanieth salvation This is to live the very life of God himself to walke in the way that is called holy hereby the life of Christ appeareth unto us I conclude this with that of the Apostle James 3. 13. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge amongst you let him shew out of a good conversation his workes with meekenesse of wisdom Mark first the frame of his conversation must be good secondly his works must flow out of the same and be made apparent thirdly the manner of the carriage of his works It must be in meekenesse of wisdom What should I need to presse you any further either that so doing you shall beautifie your Profession and adorn Religion or that hereby you shal stop the mouths of enemies and put them to a stand that they shal not be able with any face to speak evil of you or of godlinesse but all their pretenses shal be taken away or that hereby you shal much honour the work of God in your own hearts that that grace we speak so much of is not an empty sound or meer notion but there is a reality in it a life and power which wil make us do something more than the common spheare of mankind is able to effect You are in Covenant with God and being so are a Law to your selves Oh I beseech you let your actions be suitable to your principles you see the beauty of holinesse You are a holy nation a royal priesthood a precious people therefore shew forth the vertues of him that hath
be exceeding good in their kindes whence then are these lawes how came in this vanity Surely the envious enemy hath done this for vanity is not the fruit of Gods creation but the consequent of mans prevarication God made Adam in his own image and planted him as a noble vine but he turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine it came in then through the wilinesse of the old Serpent and by Adams sin In whom we all sinned and so the excellency becommeth blasted wherein we were first created and vanity hath seised upon man first Rom. 8. 21. And secondarily upon the other creatures The Creature saith the Apostle is subject unto vanity not of its own will that is not by any voluntary defection or sin in it self but by reason of him who hath subdued it under hope that is by the just judgement of God who for the sin of man hath subdued it into vanity under the hope of restitution and freedom from this vanity which there the Apostle calleth the bondage of corruption but now on the other side man is subject unto vanity of his own will and by his voluntary falling away from God from whence it followeth that man is vainer then all the other creatures not onely because he was the best and noblest of them and Corruptio optimi est pessima as the sweetest wine becomes the sowrest vinegar but also because he was the cause of the vanity in the other creatures and that which maketh other things so that must needs be more so in it selfe the vanity of the other creatures is but natural and sinlesse as being not capable of it the vanity of man is moral the other creatures are sensible of their vanity and groaning under the burden by the very instinct of nature seek out for a remedy Rom. 8. but man though he be the vainest of all creatures yet is not affected with his vanity feeleth it not and so seeketh no redresse from under it but even sports himselfe in it as if vanity were his felicity the vanity of other creatures extendeth but to time at farthest it endeth in their death or dissolution but the vanity that is in man presseth him down to hell and without Gods great mercy interposing reacheth to eternity and even then beginneth most when the other creatures vanity doth cease And to conclude besides the proper stock which he hath of his own he communicateth in the several vanities of all particular creatures and may justly be stiled vanity of vanities But it is full time me thinks to First use look homewards and to reflect upon our selves we will therfore make a pawse here and affixe the Selah It is a high point of wisdome to get some good even out of that which is evil and hereby we approach nearer unto God in perfection we therefore derive the Soveraigne vertue of this truth unto our own souls in the sundry and severall occasions thereof and first this may be useful to take downe all proud conceits in man that advance themselves against Christ to abate our lostinesse of spirit to avile us all in our own apprehensions and to lay us low in our own eyes even unto selfe-abhorrence Methinkes the serious consideration of this point and the grounded beliefe of the truth hereof that vanity is fixed even in our very natures that it sticks not in notorious sinners and deboshed persons alone but spreadeth it selfe to all Adam to every Mothers sonne not one excepted no not those that have the best natures and sweetest dispositions methinks I say that this should deeply humble us in our selves and take away that self-admiration which undoeth many a soule Secondly this is usefull for to provoke to set a higher price on all the blessings of God bestowed on us and to endeare his bounty and goodnesse towards us and so consequently to set an edge upon our thankfulnesse considering our own little worth and that we are but vanity and surely then there can be no desert of his savours Psalm 144. 3. what is man Lord that thou takest knowledge of him or the Son of man that thou makest such account of him and there the Prophet shewes the grounds of his wonderment man is like to vanity his dayes are as a shadow that passeth away c. and certainly Gods gifts are never so right valued when they are considered alone by themselves as when they are viewed joyntly together with our own wretchednesse I am lesse sayes Jacob then the least of all thy mercies his own indignity did set a lustre upon Gods smallest mercies Et dare non dignis res mage digna Deo Thirdly from hence the inference of the Scripture is forcible and very prevailing that seeing every man is vanity that therefore we settle not our trust or repose our confidence in any son of man be he never so great for then we do but make falshood our refuge and under vanity are we hid we lean on broken reeds that will pierce us through See for this at large Psalm 62. 6 7 8 9. and Psalm 146. 34. where the charge is set on with many enforcing considerations which for brevities sake I omit Even Princes themselves are not to be trusted in the duty that we owe to our superious is faithfulnesse and obedience not trust and confidence It shall be found true that never any persons smarted more in the disappointment of their expectations then those that relyed most strongly on morall men Again gather we some sweet out of this sowre that every man in his best estate is altogether vanity Use we this truth to our consolations as well as our humiliations and the comfort lyeth especially in three particulars First when we have potent enemies which are too strong for us and threaten our undoing when we begin to be terrified and dismayed this consideration may be a stay to us and cleare our spirits then be they never so great yet at the best they are but vanity and can do neither good nor hurt of themselves thus the Prophet at large Esay 51. 12 13 14 15. Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall dye and of the Son of man that shall be made as grasse I even I am he that comfort you c. it is pressed there more at large Secondly this may comfort us in respect of our own infirmities and humane weaknesses for by this vanity of ours and frailty we become fit objects for Gods pity and commiseration for what glory shall he get by contending with us that are too weak for him thus holy David Psal 103. 13. 14. that the Lord knoweth our mould and frame that we are but dust and thereupon as a Father pitieth his child so hath the Lord compassion on them that feare him Thirdly to accommodate this to the present occasion this may serve as a Cordial to moderate our grief in the losse of our dearest and noblest friends for who are they that are
faith goes beyond things visible unto those things that are not seen and fetcheth evidence home to the soul Heb. 10. 1. Presumption will be confident in prosperity but faith will rely and rest upon God when God seems to kill when sense and reason can see nothing but death and hell yet faith will believe God a Father and Heaven prepared for the poor soul The 4th act of Faith is application by it we do appropriate Gods general promises unto our own souls and claim a particular right and interest in Christs blood saying with Paul Gal. 2. 20. VVho loved me and gave himself for me with Thomas My Lord and my God Joh. 20. For the trial of our right application take this one Rule A right application doth not onely bring home Gods grants and promises unto us but the conditions also that are required on our part He that will be saved must not onely believe with the heart but also confesse with the mouth Ro. 10. that without holiness no man shall see God Heb. 12. 14. The want of this was the fault of the Pharisees Mat. 3. 8 9. They laid hold on Gods Covenant made to Abraham and his seed but never observed Gods conditions imposed upon them The Baptist adviseth them not to say they had Abraham to their father but to do the workes of Abraham to perform the condition on their parts and to bring forth fruits meet for Repentance Thus must our faith be examined and there is great need so to examine our selves because 1. God enjoynes it 2 Cor. 13. Prove your selves whether that ye be in the faith 2. Because without it there is no pleasing of God Heb. 11. 6. 3. Because it is the chief instrument we are to use in the Sacrament for the applying of Christ and all his benefits It is the eye by which we see Christ the hand by which we receive him the mouth and the stomack by which we feed upon him The third Grace to be examined is Repentance a needful grace to be examined First because we come to the Lords Table to receive by seal as it were the forgivenesse of our sins and therefore 't is fit we repent of them and be sorrowful for them Prov. 28. 13. He that covereth his sin shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy 2. Penitents finde acceptance at Gods Table as those that are dressed and apparelled for a Feast and usually according to the measure of our humiliation do we receive the measure of consolation 3. Repentance will quicken our appetites for the Lords Table and the use of it as sower herbs did for the Passeover Now in Repentance we shall finde two parts first a mournful recantation of our former errours secondly a chearful reformation of our future lives It beginneth in sorrow it ends in joy The first part is set down Joel 2. 9. A turning unto the Lord with weeping and mourning The second part Mat. 3. 8. Bring forth fruits meet for repentance Humiliation without Reformation is a foundation without a building Reformation without Humiliation is a building without a foundation And where sorrow for sin is sincere it hath these 4. properties it is 1. Godly for the nature 2. Hearty for the measure 3. Constant for the continuance 4. Quickening for the effect Concerning the first there is a godly and a worldly sorrow as the Apostle distinguisheth 2 Cor. 7. 10. It is termed godly sorrow because respect unto God causeth it When grief in us doth spring from this that we have offended a God that is most holy in himself as a God that hath been so many wayes good and gratious unto us Whereas worldly sorrow is occasioned by some worldly respect of shame or fear of danger Secondly It must be hearty for the measure the heart must be rent Joel 2. the spirit must be broken Psal 51. 17. We must lament for our sins as a man mourns for the losse of his own child Zech. 12. 10 11. a slight and superficial grief will not serve the turn Thirdly It must be constant for continuance not for a time but renewed every morning and evening Davids sins were ever before him Psal 51. 3. yea if it were possible we should so grieve for sins past that we should never sin hereafter but spend our lives in sorrow and contrition for sins already done Fourthly It must be such a sorrow as quickeneth to holy duties as prayer hearing of the word and the like Worldly sorrow makes us lumpish but spiritual and godly sorrow suppleth the heart and makes it nimble to run the wayes of Gods Commandment 2 Cor. 7. 11. Behold this same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what indignation yea what fear yea what vehement desire yea what zeal yea what revenge Mark here are seven gratious effects of sincere Repentance Further we may try our Repentance by those ordinary steps or staires of Repentance by which Gods children ascend to this grace 1. The searching and trying our wayes Lam. 3. 40. 2. Sight of sin after searching Psal 51. 3. I know mine iniquities 3. Feeling of the burden of them after sight this is to be weary and heavy laden Mat. 11. 28. 4. Humbly confessing of them with grief of heart and shame of face Dan. 9. 4 5 6 7. 5. Hateing and detesting them resolving never to commit them any more so Hosea 4. What have I any more to do with idols Lastly Power and conquest over them for the time to come Psal 18. 23. I kept my self from mine iniquity The fourth Grace to be examined is Charity The necessity of our examination of this Grace appeareth 1. Because God will not have us offer the Sacrifice of Piety upon his Altar until Reconciliation be made with our brother Mat 5. 23. 2. We are forbidden to keep this Feast with the leaven of malitiousness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth 1 Cor. 5. 8. Now for the right examination of our Charity First It must be especially affectionate to the soul of our brother My hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved Rom. 10. 1. Be we never so rich in almes-deeds courteous and inoffensive in our outward carriage yet never truly charitable to men till we affect and seek their spiritual good Secondly True charity is to the outward man as well as to the inward It joyneth beneficence to benevolence it doth not onely wish well but do well 't is bountiful externally as well as inwardly affectionate Jam. 2. 15 16. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto them depart in peace be ye warmed and filled notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body What doth it profit Thirdly True love is affirmative as well as negative that is to say doing good as well as