A saint or a brute the certain necessity and excellency of holiness, &c. ...…

A common spectator when he seeth a Rose or other flower or fruit-tree, thinketh he hath seen all, or the chiefest part: But it is the secret unsearchable motions and operations of the vegetative life and juice within, by which the beauteous flowers and sweet fruits are produced, and wonderfully differenced from each other that are the excellent part, and mysteries in these natural works of God. Could you but see these secret inward causes and operations, it would incomparably more content you. He that passeth by and looketh on a Bee-hive, and seeth but the Cover, and the laborious creatures going in and out, doth see nothing of the admirable operations within, which God hath taught them: Did you there see how they make their wax and honey, and compose their combs, and by what laws, and in what order their Commonwealth is governed, and their work carried on, you would know more then the out side of the •ive can show you. So it is about the life of Godliness: If you saw the inward motions of the quickening spirit upon the soul, and the order and exercise of every grace, and by what laws the thoughts and affections are governed, and to whom they tend, you would then see more of the beauty of Religion, then you can see by the outward behaviour of our assemblies. The shell is not sweet; but serves to hide the sweeter part, from those that will not storm those walls, that they may possess it as their prize. The kernel of Religion is covered with a shell so hard that flesh and blood cannot break it; Hard sayings, and hard providences to the Church, and to particular believers, are such as many cannot break through, and therefore never taste the sweetness. The most admired feature ⟨p. 351⟩and beauty of any of your bodies, (which fools think to be the most excellent part of the body) is indeed but the handsome well-adorned case, that God by nature doth cover his more excellent inward works with. Were you but able to see within that skin, and […] once to observe the wonderful motions of Heart and Brain, and the course of the blood in the veins and arteries, and the several fermentations, and the causes and nature of chylifications, and sanguifications, and the spirits and senses and all their works: and if you saw the reason of every part and vessel in this wondrous frame; and the causes and nature of every disease;

A common spectator when he seeth a Rose or other flower or fruit-tree, thinketh he hath seen all, or the chiefest part: But it is the secret unsearcheable motions and operations of the vegetative life and juice within, by which the beauteous flowers and sweet fruits are produced, and wonderfully differenced from each other that are the excellent part, and mysteries in these natural works of God. Could you but see these secret inward causes and operations, it would incomparably more content you. He that passeth by and looketh on a Bee-hive, and seeth but the Cover, and the laborious creatures going in and out, doth see nothing of the admirable operations within, which God hath taught them: Did you there see how they make their wax and honey, and compose their combs, and by what laws, and in what order their Commonwealth is governed, and their work carryed on, you would know more then the out side of the ive can shew you. So it is about the life of Godliness: If you saw the inward motions of the quickening spirit upon the soul, and the order and exercise of every grace, and by what laws the thoughts and affections are governed, and to whom they tend, you would then see more of the beauty of Religion, then you can see by the outward behaviour of our assemblies. The shell is not sweet; but serves to hide the sweeter part, from those that will not storm those walls, that they may possess it as their prize. The kernel of Religion is covered with a shell so hard that flesh and blood cannot break it; Hard sayings, and hard providences to the Church, and to particular believers, are such as many cannot break through, and therefore never taste the sweetness. The most admired feature