The saints dignity and duty· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardness. /…The saints dignitie and dutie· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardnesse. /…

I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it: but I take this to be the main thing intended there, which makes for my present purpose: Name there signifies Adoption; and the white stone, Absolution: the Lord will absolve and acquit him of all those sins that he is guilty of, and withal, he will give him the name of a son. The Lord sealeth to the soul of a Christian man, that he is God reconciled to him: ⟨p. 210⟩Now when the soul findeth this, and the like, and withal hath an inward work, which, though happily he cannot discover the manner and order thereof, nor express it to others, yet he knows more thereof then any man under heaven. Ask a child, How do you know such a man is your father? Alas, he cannot tell you, yet he hath a strong affection toward him above all others, and feels in himself such a leaning in his affection towards him, as another feels not. So the mother of the child that was brought before Solomon, had no Argument in the world to prove the child to be hers, but the yearning of her bowels, and relenting of her spirit toward the child, proved it sufficiently. So there is in a Saint of God an inward tenderness of affection, a leaning of his soul towards God, which no man knows but he that hath it.

I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it: but I take this to be the main thing intended there, which makes for my present purpose: Name there signifies Adoption; and the white stone, Absolution: the Lord will absolve and acquit him of all those sinnes that he is guilty of, and withall, he will give him the name of a sonne. The Lord sealeth to the soule of a Christian man, that he is God reconciled to him: ⟨p. 210⟩Now when the soul findeth this, and the like, and withall hath an inward work, which, though happily he cannot discover the manner and order thereof, nor expresse it to others, yet he knows more thereof then any man under heaven. Ask a child, How doe you know such a man is your father? Alas, he cannot tell you, yet he hath a strong affection toward him above all others, and feels in himself such a leaning in his affection towards him, as another feels not. So the mother of the child that was brought before Solomon, had no Argument in the world to prove the child to be hers, but the yerning of her bowels, and relenting of her spirit toward the child, proved it sufficiently. So there is in a Saint of God an inward tenderness of affection, a leaning of his soul towards God, which no man knowes but he that hath it.