The Kirk could not speak one word to Christ then, but blood & guiltiness out of measure, spake, & drew out of Christ pity & a word of life and love. 2. For weakness, we have it, that we may employ Christ's strength because of our weakness: Weakness is to make us the strongest things, that is, when having no strength of our own, we are carried upon Christ's shoulders & walk [as it were] upon his legs: If our sinful weakness swell up to the clouds, Christ's strength will swell up to the sun and far above the heaven of heavens. 2. Ye tell me that there is ⟨p. 421⟩need of counsel for strengthening of new beginners, I can say little to that, who am not well begun my self; but I know, honest beginnings are nouri head by him, even by lovely Jesus, who never yet put out a poor man's dim candle, who is wrestling betwixt light & darkness. I am sure if new beginners would urge themselves upon Christ, & press their souls upon him & importune him for a draught of his sweet love, they could not come wrong to Christ: Come once in upon the right nick & step of his lovely love, & I defy you to get free of him again: If any beginners fall off Christ again & miss him, they never lighted upon Christ as Christ; it was but an idol, like Jesus, they took for him. 3. Whereas ye complain of a dead Ministry in your bounds, ye are to remember that the Bible among you, is the contract of Marriage, & the manner of Christ's conveying his love to your heart, is not so absolutely dependent upon, even lively preaching, as that there is no conversion at all, no life of God, but that, that is tied to a m•n's lips: The daughters of Jerusalem have done often that, which the watchmen could not do: Make Christ your Minister, he can woo a soul at a dike side in the field, he needeth not us, howbeit the flock be obliged to seek him in the shepherds tents: Hunger of Christ's making may thrive, even under stewards who mind not the feeding of the flock, O blessed soul, that can leap over a man and look above a pulpit up to Christ, who can preach home to the heart, howbeit we were all dead & rotten! 4. So to complain of your self as to justify God is right, and providing ye justify his Spirit in your self; for men seldom advocate against Satan's work & sin in themselves, but against Gods work in themselves:
The Kirk could not speak one word to Christ then, but blood & guiltiness out of measure, spake, & drew out of Christ pity & a word of life and love. 2. For weakness, we have it, that we may employ Christ's strength because of our weakness: Weakness is to make us the strongest things, that is, when having no strength of our own, we are carried upon Christ's shoulders & walk [as it were] upon his legs: If our sinfull weakness swell up to the clouds, Christ's strength will swell up to the sun and far above the heaven of heavens. 2. Ye tell me that there is ⟨p. 421⟩need of counsel for strengthning of new beginners, I can say little to that, who am not well begun my self; but I know, honest beginnings are nouri hed by him, even by lovely Jesus, who never yet put out a poor man's dim candle, who is wrestling betwixt light & darkness. I am sure if new beginners would urge themselves upon Christ, & press their souls upon him & importune him for a draught of his sweet love, they could not come wrong to Christ: Come once in upon the right nick & step of his lovely love, & I defie you to get free of him again: If any beginners fall off Christ again & miss him, they never lighted upon Christ as Christ; it was but an idol, like Jesus, they took for him. 3. Whereas ye complain of a dead Ministery in your bounds, ve are to remember that the Bible among you, is the contract of Marriage, & the manner of Christ's conveying his love to your heart, is not so absolutly dependent upon, even lively preaching, as that there is no conversion at all, no life of God, but that, that is tied to a m•n's lips: The daughters of Ierusalem have done often that, which the watchmen could not doe: Make Christ your Minister, he can wooe a soul at a dikefide in the field, he needeth not us, howbeit the flock be obliged to seek him in the shepherds tents: Hunger of Christ's making may thrive, even under stewards who minde not the feeding of the flock, O blessed soul, that can leap over a man and look above a pulpit up to Christ, who can preach home to the heart, howbeit we were all dead & rotten! 4. So to complain of your self as to justifie God is right, and providing ye justifie his Spirit in your self; for men seldom advocate against Satan's work & sin in themselves, but against Gods work in themselves:
