The unsearchable riches of Christ, and of grace and glory in and through [sic]…The unsearchable riches of Christ, and of grace and glory in and thorow [sic]…

and very oft to with draw from all company, at least, that is not edifying and profitable, and to retire to the fields or to the Chamber, quietly to lay, as it were, a chase by the pursuit of Faith to the finding out of Gods Company: It will make him and her go to the poorest body in all the town or village, that is gracious, to ask the way to Zion: this is also a very rare thing: ye all know the way to Heaven, as ye think, and this makes you foolishly confident, till ye run your selves into the mire and into the pit at last, if Grace, by making a saving change, prevent not. Fourthly, This well qualified desire is a humbling desire, there is no pleading here with God, of the privilege of their Relation they have •o Abraham, and to the Covenant made with him: they cannot find in their hearts, nor have they confidence to do that: they Judge themselves to be very unlike him, and they carry humbly towards one another, glad to ask the way at, and to get some knowledge of it from one another, how they may win forward: they are like the Spouse, who saith to the Daughters of Jerusalem, Cant. 5. If ye see my Beloved, tell him that I am sick of Love, take my Commendations (as if she had said) to him and lay out my case before him: such serious and humble Souls will be glad to take help in the way from any body that can give it, which saith, that they ⟨p. 213⟩are diligent and Painful. Fifthly, This desire, as it may, is always setting forward; they are going and asking the way; and though they have a strong tide (as it were) against them, yet the wind of their own desire and impulse steereth them through and maketh them Stem the Port; and though they make but flow progress, yet it is always towards Zion. Sixthly, This desire is a Peremptory and (to say so) an illimited desire, and that in a twofold respect, 1. In respect of coming at God. It must have him and will not submit to the want of him, Communion with him it must have. 2. In this respect, that it maketh no Conditions with God of its own, but is heartily well content to take him on his own terms: This indeed is a notably good mark of a well qualified desire, when a Soul desires not so much to be at Heaven as to be at God, and when it is (as I Just now said) content to take him on his own terms:

and very oft to with draw from all company, at least, that is not edifieing and profitable, and to retire to the fields or to the Chamber, quietly to lay, as it were, a chase by the pursuit of Faith to the finding out of Gods Company: It will make him and her go to the poorest body in all the town or village, that is gracious, to ask the way to Zion: this is also a very rare thing: ye all know the way to Heaven, as ye think, and this makes you foolishly confident, till ye run your selves into the mire and into the pit at last, if Grace, by making a saving change, pevent not. Fourthly, This well qualified desire is a humbling desire, there is no pleading here with God, of the priviledge of their Relation they have o Abraham, and to the Covenant made with him: they cannot find in their hearts, nor have they confidence to do that: they Judge themselves to be very unlike him, and they carry humbly towards one another, glad to ask the way at, and to get some knowledge of it from one another, how they may win forward: they are like the Spouse, who saith to the Daughters of Jerusalem,