Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

Now our Afflictions, our sins, and our obedience, with the Attendencies of them respectively, are the great concernments of §. 9 our lives; what we are, in reference unto God, is comprised in them, and the due management of them, with their contraries, which come under the same rule; Through all these, doth there run a line of consolation from the Holy Ghost, that gives us a joyful issue throughout: How sad is the condition of of poor, souls destitute of these consolations? What poor shifts are they forced to betake themselves unto? what Giants have they to encounter in their own strength and whether they are conquered, or seem to conquer, they have nothing but the misery of their trials.

Now our Afflictions, our sins, and our obedience, with the Attendencies of them respectively, are the great concernments of §. 9 our lives; what we are, in reference unto God, is comprized in them, and the due management of them, with their contraries, which come under the same rule; Through all these, doth there run a line of consolation from the Holy Ghost, that gives us a joyfull issue throughout: How sad is the condition of of poor, soules destitute of these consolations? What poor shifts are they forced to betake themselves unto? what Giants have they to encounter in their own strength and wehther they are conquered, or seem to conquer, they have nothing but the misery of their trialls.

2. The second thing considerable, to teach us to put a due valuation on the consolations of the Holy Ghost, is, the matter of them, or that wherewith he comforts us. Now this may be referred to the two heads, that I have formerly treated of: the Love of the Father, and the Grace of the Son. All the consolations of the Holy Ghost consist in his acquainting us with, and communicating unto us, the Love of the Father, and the Grace of the Son: nor is there any thing in the one or the other, but he makes it a matter of consolation to us; so that indeed we have our communion with the Father in his Love, and the Son in his Grace, by the operation of the Holy Ghost.

2. The second thing considerable, to teach us to put a due valuation on the consolations of the Holy Ghost, is, the matter of them, or that wherewith he comforts us. Now this may be referred to the two heads, that I have formerly treated of: the Love of the Father, and the Grace of the Son. All the consolations of the Holy Ghost consist in his acquainting us with, and communicating unto us, the Love of the Father, and the Grace of the Sonne: nor is there any thing in the one or the other, but he makes it a matter of consolation to us; so that indeed we have our communion with the Father in his Love, and the Sonne in his Grace, by the operation of the Holy Ghost.