MANY Things confound the weak memory, a few places well weighed and proved lighten the understanding. Truth is there to be searched with Diligence where it is to be had. Tho God doth speak the Truth by man, yet in mans word which God hath not revealed to be his, man may doubt without mistrust in God: Christ is the Truth of God reveal d, unto man from Heaven by God himself, and therefore in his word the truth is to be found, which is to be embraced of all that be his. Christ biddeth us ask, and we shall have; search, and we shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto us. Therefore, O Heavenly Father! Author and Fountain of all Truth, the bottomless sea of all true understanding, send down, we beseech thee, thy holy Spirit into our Hearts, and lighten our understanding with the beams of thy heavenly grace. We ask thee this, O heavenly Father, not in respect of our deserts, but for thy dear Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's sake. Thou knowest O heavenly Father, that the controversy about the blessed Body and Blood of thy dear Son our Saviour Christ, hath troubled not of late only the Church of England, France, Germany and Italy, but ⟨p. 2⟩also many years ago. The fault is ours no doubt thereof, for we have deserved thy Plague. But O Lord! be merciful and relieve our misery with some light of grace. Thou knowest O Lord how the wicked World rolleth up and down, and reeleth too and fro, and careth not what thy Will is, so it may abide in wealth. If Truth have wealth then who is so stout to defend the Truth as they? but if Christ's Cross be laid on Truth's back, then they vanish straight away as wax before the fire. But these are not they, O Heavenly Father! for whom I make my most moan, but for those silly ones, O Lord, which have a zeal unto thee: those, I mean, which would and wish to know thy will, and yet are letted, holden back and blinded by the subtleties of Satan and his Ministers, the wickedness of this wretched world, and the sinful lusts and affections of the flesh. Alas Lord! thou knowest that we are of our selves but flesh, wherein there dwelleth nothing that is good. How then is it possible for man, without thee O Lord, to understand thy Truth indeed? Can the natural man perceive the will of God? O Lord to whom thou givest a zeal of thee, give them also we beseech thee the knowledge of thy blessed Will:
MANY Things confound the weak memory, a few places well weighed and proved lighten the understanding. Truth is there to be searched with Diligence where it is to be had. Tho God doth speak the Truth by man, yet in mans word which God hath not revealed to be his, man may doubt without mistrust in God: Christ is the Truth of God reveal d, unto man from Heaven by God himself, and therefore in his word the truth is to be found, which is to be embrac'd of all that be his. Christ biddeth us ask, and we shall have; search, and we shall find; knock, and it shall be open'd unto us. Therefore, O Heavenly Father! Author and Fountain of all Truth, the bottomless sea of all true understanding, send down, we beseech thee, thy holy Spirit into our Hearts, and lighten our understanding with the beams of thy heavenly grace. We ask thee this, O heavenly Father, not in respect of our deserts, but for thy dear Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's sake. Thou knowest O heavenly Father, that the controversy about the blessed Body and Blood of thy dear Son our Saviour Christ, hath troubled not of late only the Church of England, France, Germany and Italy, but ⟨p. 2⟩also many years ago. The fault is ours no doubt thereof, for we have deserved thy Plague. But O Lord! be merciful and relieve our misery with some light of grace. Thou knowest O Lord how the wicked World rolleth up and down, and reeleth too and fro, and careth not what thy Will is, so it may abide in wealth. If Truth have wealth then who is so stout to defend the Truth as they? but if Christ's Cross be laid on Truth's back, then they vanish straight away as wax before the fire. But these are not they, O Heavenly Father! for whom I make my most moan, but for those silly ones, O Lord, which have a zeal unto thee: those, I mean, which would and wish to know thy will, and yet are letted, holden back and blinded by the subtelties of Satan and his Ministers, the wickedness of this wretched world, and the sinful lusts and affections of the flesh. Alass Lord! thou knowest that we are of our selves but flesh, wherein there dwelleth nothing that is good. How then is it possible for man, without thee O Lord, to understand thy Truth indeed? Can the natural man perceive the will of God? O Lord to whom thou givest a zeal of thee, give them also we beseech thee the knowledge of thy blessed Will:
