Stimulator. Or, The case of a soul walking in darkness awfully & suitably considered.…

First; A Darkness on our Minds, whether we are in Good Terms with Heaven, or no, it must needs bring a Weakness on our Essays to Love GOD, & Live unto Him. It was a lust Remark; Neh VIII 10. The Joy of the Lord is your Strength. The Joy of a Soul Reconciled unto GOD, and knowing, yea, feeling it self Bound up in the Bundle of Life, Oh! how it would Strengthen us to Walk with our GOD, Yea, How would it Enlarge our Hearts to Run in the Ways commanded of GOD! This Joy would be the Life of our hand, in doing the Works of GOD which our Hand finds to do, & would cause us to Sing in the Ways of the Lord. When we Hear our GOD saying to us, Be comforted, Thy Sins are Forgiven thee! Nothing will have such a Tendency to render all Sins Bitter and Hateful unto us. GOD Speaking Peace to us, this more than any thing will keep us from Returning to Folly any more. When tis testified unto us, That GOD has made us Heirs of the Kingdom which He has ⟨p. 17⟩promised for them that Love Him, there will soon be Testimonies, How Holily, and Righteously, and Unblameably, we shall behave our selves. Did we know that we are Bound for Heaven, and that we have all the Spiritual Blessings of the Heavenly places reserved for us, what Heavenly Tempers would be thereby produced in us! How should we have our Conversation in Heaven while we are on the Earth: & Soar, & Fly, & Mount up as with the wings of Eagles thither! All the Delights of Earth, & all the Troubles of Earth, how Mortified, how Indifferent, should we be unto them all? But now, while you Walk in Darkness, O ye Feeble Folk, How is it possible for you to Walk with GOD, and be Stately in your Goings? While you cannot Rejoice, how Weak, how Dull, how Low, will be all your Actions in Working of Righteousness? How poorly will the Love of GOD be flaming in you, while, for ought you know, you have the Wrath of GOD Lying on you! Will you Love GOD, while you have a Suspicion, That He is your Adversary, and that your King has of old Ordained a Tophet for you! How Sorrily will you Live to GOD, while you are Jealous, that you have never yet passed from Death to Life; Jealous, that after all the Sparks you have kindled you must Lie down in Sorrow: It will be found, That a Great occasion of it, why there is to be seen so little ⟨p. 18⟩of Godliness in the power of it among us, & we are mostly such Feeble, Meagre, Minor Christians, tis this;

First; A Darkness on our Minds, whether we are in Good Terms with Heaven, or no, it must needs bring a Weakness on our Essays to Love GOD, & Live unto Him. It was a lust Remark; Neh VIII 10. The Joy of the Lord is your Strength. The Joy of a Soul Reconciled unto GOD, and knowing, yea, feeling it self Bound up in the Bundle of Life, Oh! how it would Strengthen us to Walk with our GOD, Yea, How would it Enlarge our Hearts to Run in the Ways commanded of GOD! This Joy would be the Life of our hand, in doing the Works of GOD which our Hand finds to do, & would cause us to Sing in the Ways of the Lord. When we Hear our GOD saying to us, Be comforted, Thy Sins are Forgiven thee! Nothing will have such a Tendency to render all Sins Bitter and Hateful unto us. GOD Speaking Peace to us, this more than any thing will keep us from Returning to Folly any more. When tis testified unto us, That GOD has made us Heirs of the Kingdom which He has