the joy of the just with the signs of such. A discourse tending to…the ioy of the iust vvith the signes of such. A discourse tending to…

yet it is no less true that^b the constant and conscionable persisting in performance of such duties, notwithstanding that all good means used, the poor Christian soul cannot attain to that alacrity that fain it would, may make them no less acceptable, if not more acceptable to God, than if they were done even with the greatest delight. Suppose two persons attend the King in his hunting, or at his sports, the one that taketh much delight in the game, the other that hath little or no delight in it: or the one lusty and healthy, and that attendeth him therefore with ease; the other weak and faint, or lame, or having some hurt about him, in regard whereof he cannot follow him but with much pain and difficulty, and yet will not give over, but be hard at his heels still, as ready and forward as the former. His^c will may be every whit as good as the other, and his Sovereign is no less, if not more, for such his service beholden to him, than to the other. Nor may the service of such a poor soul therefore be the less acceptable to God, because it cannot perform it with such alacrity and delight as^d it desireth. And in like manner for Faith and dependence upon ⟨p. 158⟩God. It is not an argument of no Faith, when a man cannot yet attain to a full persuasion and assurance of Gods special favour towards him, and of the free remission of his sins in Christ, that many other faithful^e have had, and many doubtless also ordinarily have. This is a consequent rather of Faith, that as^f Augustine saith of works, rather followeth the person justified, than precedeth and goeth before justification, as Faith being^g an instrumental cause of producing it as an effect doth. It is a consequent, I say, of it, deduced from it, as the same Father well ^h