The excellency of a gracious spirit Delivered in a treatise upon the 14. of…The excellency of a gracious spirit Deliuered in a treatise upon the 14. of…

6 To follow God fully, is to follow him so, as to be willing to venture ¹the loss of all for him, willing to decline from & cast off whatsoever comes in the way, though never so dear unto us; to follow him close whatsoever comes in competition with him; when we cannot follow him without parting with much for him, when our following him will cost us the loss of our formerly most dear comforts and contentments; to follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes, through all afflictions, through all straits, knowing that his way though it be a way of blood, yet it ⟨p. 280⟩leads to the throne; To follow Christ to mount Calvary where he is to suffer, as well as to that Mount that we read of Isaiah 25. 6. where the Lord makes to his people, A feast of fat things, a feast of wines, a feast of fat things full of marrow. It is nothing to follow him, when our comforts, peace, ease, honour goes along together with him; it cannot then be known whether we follow him or no, or whether it be our own ends that we follow: As when a Serving-man follows two Gentlemen, we know not which of these two he follows till they part, but then you shall see which was his Master: So here, when Christ and our own ends part one from another, then is the trial which was followed before. We must love the truth, not only when we can live upon it, when we can get advantage by it; but then also, when it must live upon us, when it must have our estates, our peace, our names, our liberties, our lives to live upon, and to be maintained by: ⟨p. 281⟩we must follow him when we must deny our selves, and take up our cross, when we must throughly deny our selves; for the word in the Original is a compound, noting more than a single, more than an ordinary ²self denial; when we must take up our Cross, not choose what Cross we are willing to meet with; to think, if it were such an affliction that such a man hath, I could bear it, but I know not how to bear this: but it must be our Cross, and willingly took up, and that daily too; We must be willing to follow him through the wilderness. Cant. 8. 5. Who is this that cometh from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? The wilderness is the troubles and afflictions of the Church, she comes through them with her Beloved, resting