An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second,…

I grant a godly man should be, and the more godly any man is, the more he will be, I am sure, the more he would or desires to be free from the thoughts, and loosed from the bands both of love to, and cares about the things of this life, that he may be the more in the meditation of, and preparation for, a better life. In those meditations he retires from the throng of worldly desires, as much as a man living alone in a wilderness withdraws from worldly businesses; he is weaned from, and mortified to the plenty and pleasures which a City life courts him with; nor is he afraid of the threatenings of any who would drive him from his duty. His soul searcheth after, and he feeds upon the green things which every where grow upon the mountains of the holy Scriptures, both for his instruction and consolation. All this I grant, as was said before, is true of a godly man raised to any high degree of spiritualness, and walking much in the Spirit. He is in the world, yet sits loose and free from the bands and baits of it. Howbeit, this warrants no man to loose himself from all bands of service in the world, much less to be so gross, as literally to make that his house, which God hath made the house of the wild Ass, The wilderness, or to take the barren Land for his dwelling.

I grant a godly man should be, and the more godly any man is, the more he will be, I am sure, the more he would or desires to be free from the thoughts, and loosed from the bands both of love to, and cares about the things of this life, that he may be the more in the meditation of, and preparation for, a better life. In those meditations he retires from the throng of worldly desires, as much as a man living alone in a wilderne•s withdraws from worldly businesses; he is weaned from, and mortified to the plenty and pleasures which a City life courts him with; nor is he afraid of the threatnings of any who would drive him from his duty. His soul searcheth after, and he feeds upon the green things which every where grow upon the mountains of the holy Scriptures, both for his instruction and consolation. All this I grant, as was said before, is true of a godly man raised to any high degree of spiritualness, and walking much in the Spirit. He is in the world, yet sits loose and free from the bands and baits of it. Howbeit, this warrants no man to loose himself from all bands of service in the world, much less to be so gross, as literally to make that his house, which God hath made the house of the wilde Ass, The wilderness, or to take the barren Land for his dwelling.