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…

Comfort, and encouragement to those who follow the Lord fully.

IF this following of the Lord fully, be the honour of the Saints before the Lord; then here is comfort, and encouragement to those whose conscience doth witness, that their hearts, and ways are fully after the Lord. What ever others do, yet there are a generation of men in the world, who do fully follow the Lord; Blessed are you of the Lord, you are honourable in the eyes of God and man, you make up in part that hurt that is done to Religion by others; you bind up the wounds of Jesus Christ, and do in part heal his scars: If you be content to give up all to God, to betrust God with all, know that there are many ⟨p. 355⟩blessed promises, full of mercy, and encouragement for you, that God will make good to the full unto you; yea, they shall come to you fuller of goodness, and blessing than you can imagine. Caleb challenged this promise of God to him made in this place, upon this ground, Joshua 14. 8. five and forty years after it was made; for he was but forty years old when he went to spy out the Land, and when he challenged this promise in this place, be saith verse 10. I am this day fourscore and five years old. Though God may seem to defer a while the fulfilling of his promise; yet be encouraged to follow him still, for the eye of God is upon you, to make good his word unto you, and the longer it stays, the more full with good and blessing it will come. God seemed to defer a long time that promise he made to Abraham, That he would make his seed as the stars of heaven; for two hundred and fifteen years after this promise was made, there were but ⟨p. 356⟩seventy souls that came out of Abraham's loins, namely, when Jacob went down into Egypt; which if we compute the time, we shall find to be just two hundred and fifteen years: for Abraham was seventy and five years old when the promise was made; he was an hundred years old when Isaac was borne; Isaac was forty years old before he married, and he continued twenty years without a child; and Jacob was one hundred and thirty years old when he went into Egypt; so that the time falls to be just two hundred and fifteen years, which was just half the time, from the promise till the people of Israels coming out of Egypt, which S. Paul saith,