A Body of Practical Divinity

3. Let your Hearts be endeared in Love to God; If God gives his People Correction, they must love him, much more when he gives them Assurance. Psal. 31.23. O love the Lord ye his Saints. Hath God brought you to the Borders of Canaan, given you a Bunch of Grapes, crowned you with loving Kindness, confirmed your Pardon under the Broad Seal of Heaven? How can you be frozen at such a Fire? How can you choose but be turned into Seraphims Burning in Divine Love: Say as St. Austin, Animam meam odio Haberem, I would hate my own Soul, if I did not find it loving God. Give God the Cream and Quintessence of your Love, and show your Love, by being willing to lose all for his Sake.

3. Let your Hearts be endeared in Love to God; If God gives his People Correction, they must love him, much more when he gives them Assurance. Psal. 31.23. O love the Lord ye his Saints. Hath God brought you to the Borders of Canaan, given you a Bunch of Grapes, crown'd you with loving Kindness, confirm'd your Pardon under the Broad Seal of Heaven? How can you be frozen at such a Fire? How can you choose but be turn'd into Seraphins Burning in Divine Love: Say as St. Austin, Animam meam odio Haberem, I would hate my own Soul, if I did not find it loving God. Give God the Cream and Quintessence of your Love, and shew your Love, by being willing to lose all for his Sake.

4. If you have Assurance, improve it for Gods Glory, several ways; 1. By encouraging such as are yet unconverted; Tell them how sweet this hidden Manna is; Tell them what a good Master you serve, what Veils you have had; Tell them God hath carried you to the Hill of Myrrh, to the Mountains of Spices; He hath given you not only a Prospect of Heaven but an Earnest: O persuade Sinners, by all the Love and Mercy of God, that they would enrol their Names in his Family, and cast themselves upon him for Salvation. Tell them God hath met with you, and unlocked the Secrets of Free Grace, and assured you of a Land flowing with those infinite Delights which Eye hath not seen. Thus by telling others what God hath done for your Soul, you may make them in love with the ways of God, and cause them to turn Proselytes to Religion. 2. Improve Assurance by comforting such as want it; Be as the good Samaritan, pour Wine and Oil into their Wounds. You ho have Assurance, are gotten as it were to the Haven, you are sure of your Happiness; but do you not see others who are struggling with the Waves of Temptation and Desertion, and are ready to sink? O now Sympathize with them, and do what you can to comfort them when they are in this deep Ocean,