The doctrine & directions but more especially the practice and behaviour of a man…The doctrine & directions but more especially the practice and behavior of a man…

Or secondly, hast thou gotten faith? then labour to husband this grace well, and to improve it for thy best good. It is a marvellous ¹shame, to see those that are born to fair means (I mean the poor Saints of God) that have a Right and Title to Grace and Christ, and yet to live at such an under-rate: I would have you to live above the world, for the Lord doth not grudge his people of comfort, but would have them live cheerfully, and have strong consolations, and mighty assurance of Gods love: Is there not cause? why, faith (if it be right) will make the life of a Christian most easy, most comfortable. Unfaithful souls sink in their sorrows upon every occasion; but faith gives ease to a man in all his conversation: 1. Because faith hath a skill, and a kind of flight to put over all cares to another: We take up the Cross, but faith hurls all the care on Christ; an easy matter it is to lie under the burden, when another bears all the weight of it. Look how it is with two Ferry-men, the one hales his Boat about the shore, and cannot get off, but tugs and pulls, and never puts her forth to the Tide; the other puts his Boat upon the stream, and sets up his sail, and then he may sit still in his Boat, and the wind will carry him whither he is to go: Just thus it is with a faithful soul, and an unbeliever; all the care of the faithful soul, is to put himself upon the stream of Gods Providence, and to set up the sail of Faith, and to take the gale of Gods Mercy and Providence, and so he goes on cheerfully, because it is not he that carries him, but the Lord Jesus Christ: whereas every unfaithful soul tugs and pulls at the business, and can find neither ease nor success; Alas! he thinks by his own wits and power to do what he would. 2. Because faith sweetens all other afflictions, even those that are most hard and full of tediousness; and howsoever it apprehends all troubles and afflictions, yet withal it apprehends the faithfulness of God, ordering all for our good: and that's the reason why all our troubles are digested comfortably, without any harshness at all: When the ⟨p. 65⟩Patient takes better Pills, if they be well sugared they go down the easier, and the bitterness never troubles him:

Or secondly, hast thou gotten faith? then labor to husband this grace well, and to improve it for thy best good. It is a marvellous ¹