Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

yet ye may come to the pool, where many such diseased persons as ye are, have been cured: ye have none to put you into it, yet ye may lie at the side of it: and who knows but the Lord may return, and leave a blessing behind him, as in the case of the impotent man, recorded, John v 5, 6, 7, 8. I hope Satan does not chain you to your houses, nor stake you down in your fields on the Lord's day; but ye are at liberty, and can wait at the posts of wisdom's door, if ye will. And when ye come thither, he doth not beat drums at your ears, that ye cannot hear what is said: there is no force upon you obliging you to apply all you hear to others; ye may apply to yourselves what belongs to your state and condition: and when you go home, you are not fettered in your houses, where perhaps no religious discourse is to be heard; but ye may retire to some separate place, where ye can meditate, and pose your conscience with pertinent questions, upon what ye have heard. Ye are not possessed with a dumb devil, that ye cannot get your mouths opened in prayer to God. Ye are not so driven out of your beds to your worldly business, and from your worldly business to your beds again; but ye might, if ye would, bestow some prayers to God upon the case of your perishing souls. Ye may examine yourselves, as to the state of your souls, in a solemn manner, as in the presence of God; ye may discern that ye ⟨p. 127⟩have no grace, and that ye are lost and undone without it; and may cry unto God for it. These things are within the compass of natural abilities, and may be practised where there is no grace. It must aggravate your guilt, that you will not be at so much pains about the state and case of your precious souls. And if ye do not what you can do: ye will be condemned, not only for your want of grace, but for your despising of it.

yet ye may come to the pool, where many such diseased persons as ye are, have been cured: ye have none to put you into it, yet ye may ly at the side of it: and who knows but the Lord may return, and leave a blessing behind him, as in the case of the impotent man, recorded, John v 5, 6, 7, 8. I hope Satan does not chain you to your houses, nor stake you down in your fields on the Lord's day; but ye are at liberty, and can wait at the posts of wisdom's door, if ye will. And when ye come thither, he doth not beat drums at your ears, that ye cannot hear what is said: there is no force upon you obliging you to apply all you hear to others; ye may apply to yourselves what belongs to your state and condition: and when you go home, you are not fettered in your houses, where perhaps no religious discourse is to be heard; but ye may retire to some separate place, where ye can meditate, and pose your conscience with pertinent questions, upon what ye have heard. Ye are not possessed with a dumb devil, that ye cannot get your mouths opened in prayer to God. Ye are not so driven out of your beds to your worldly business, and from your worldly business to your beds again; but ye might, if ye would, bestow some prayers to God upon the case of your perishing souls. Ye may examine yourselves, as to the state of your souls, in a solemn manner, as in the presence of God; ye may discern that ye