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. /…

The second is a word of Exhortation, and so I will conclude. We are all to be exhorted in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to take notice of this evil that is in our hearts. I say, all of us, for howsoever wicked men do professedly oppose the truth of God, and his Word in the faithful ministry thereof, yet the Saints of God themselves, so far as they are flesh, have resistances in them; but with this difference, a godly man when he perceiveth his heart stubborn and rebellious against God in his Word, he yet notwithstanding joineth and sideth with the Word, and laboureth to oppose that corruption of the flesh; so it was with Saint Paul in the place before named. A child of God that hath a holy disposition wrought in him by the Spirit of God, when he seeth his heart unwilling to yield to Christ and his Word, he crieth shame upon himself, that after so much hearing, so many mercies received, so many gracious promises revealed to him, the good Word of God so often laid home to his conscience, that his heart should yet remain in any measure rebellious against God; and therefore he resteth not in this condition, but takes up arms against this rebellion of heart, as well as against any corruption else whatsoever. This, I say, is the disposition of a gracious heart. But with a wicked man it is clean contrary.

The second is a word of Exhortation, and so I will conclude. We are all to be exhorted in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to take notice of this evill that is in our hearts. I say, all of us, for howsoever wicked men doe professedly oppose the truth of God, and his Word in the faithfull ministry thereof, yet the Saints of God themselves, so farre as they are flesh, have resistances in them; but with this difference, a godly man when he perceiveth his heart stubborn and rebellious against God in his Word, he yet notwithstanding joyneth and sideth with the Word, and laboureth to oppose that corruption of the flesh; so it was with Saint Paul in the place before named. A child of God that hath a holy disposition wrought in him by the Spirit of God, when he seeth his heart unwilling to yeeld to Christ and his Word, he cryeth shame upon himselfe, that after so much hearing, so many mercies received, so many gracious promises revealed to him, the good Word of God so often laid home to his conscience, that his heart should yet remain in any measure rebellious against God; and therefore he resteth not in this condition, but takes up armes against this rebellion of heart, as well as against any corruption else whatsoever. This, I say, is the disposition of a gracious heart. But with a wicked man it is clean contrary.