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

Abundance such passages tell you what manner of persons it is that God delighteth in, and what he would have you be and do. These I have recited to shame the godly out of their undecent troubles and dejectedness, as you would show a child his face in a glass when he crieth, that he may see how he deformeth it. The very Kingdom of God consisteth in righteousness, and Peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. If you would live as is most pleasing unto God, and as beseemeth those that are indeed believers, let the joy of believers be (as far as is possible) your ordinary frame: And if by sin you wound your souls, and bring smart upon your selves, dwell not in that wounded smarting state; but go to your Physicians, and beg of God that he will restore to you the joy of his salvation, and make you to hear the voice of joy and gladness, that your broken heart and bones may rejoice, Psa. 51. 8, 12.

Abundance such passages tell you what manner of persons it is that God delighteth in, and what he would have you be and doe. These I have recited to shame the godly out of their undecent troubles and dejectedness, as you would shew a child his face in a glass when he cryeth, that he may see how he deformeth it. The very Kingdom of God consisteth in righteousness, and Peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. If you would live as is most pleasixg unto God, and as beseemeth those that are indeed believers, let the joy of believers be (as far as is possible) your ordinary frame: And if by sin you wound your souls, and bring smart upon your selves, dwell not in that wounded smarting state; but go to your Physicions, and beg of God that he will restore to you the joy of his salvation, and make you to hear the voice of joy and gladness, that your broken heart and bones may rejoyce, Psa. 51. 8, 12.

And take notice throughout all the Scripture, whether you find the servants of God so much complaining of their want of assurance, and of their frequent doubtings of their own sincerity and his love. I think you will find this a very rare thing in the ancient Saints. They were sensible of sin as well as we; and they were as sensible of Gods afflicting hand, and oft (as Job, David, Hezekiah, &c.) complained under it, perhaps with some excess, and too much questioning Gods favour to them as if he had forsaken them. But (besides and without any such affliction) to live in ordinary trouble of mind through the doubting of their sincerity, and of Gods special love, and to be exercised in the complaining and disconsolate way as now abundance of Christians are, this I find little of the Scripture Saints. The reason was not because they had more holiness and less sin than many that now are thus cast down: For the Gospel