575

and M or all upon the nature of Bees.

perhaps somewhat more then a Pagane performes , yet a rudeand indigested devotion, heaped up together by law and cu«

Home. Then there is the obedience of the hypocrite, in manythings resembling true devotion, super-fine carriages, but yeton one side only, to man-ward somewhat ex .ct and formall,but to God-ward rudely,carelesse, and negligent. Whatsoeveris done is not done with respect to God and conscience of hi*commandements. Lastly, there is the obedience of the true be-leever, arising from a grounded knowledge of the will of Godand faith, and from a holy fearc and love of God, conscienti-ously and respectively to approve himscl.e to God in the dis-charge of his duties, and it is exact.y modelized and squaredaccording to the rule of Gods word.

XXXVIII.

It is an observation that a man cannot draw ( even in natu- Dr. Smghm.rail things) a long straight lme perfectly exact, except he drawit by some rule ; It is not the stcddiest hand that can doe it ex-actly, but there will be some crookes. And therefore men useto take a rule to draw a line by. Certainly it must be so in Ipiri-tua 1 obedience, a man must have an eye to the word of God,and make that his card and compasle to saile by, make that therule and warrant of his actions or die though he hit (as itwere )hab nab at some circumstances, it is not formall obedi-ence. Now though a man may (hand over head, as they lay)make some hasty and tumultuous doings, patch up a great dealeof mud together, to make a wall,nor caring for a square to makeit perpendicular ( as the Humble Bees rudely compose theircombes, hand over bead without any great care or art ) yet ifa man would build a Temple or stately Pallace, he must doe itperpendicular, it must be evenly and orderly built accordingto an ex ct line both within and without also (and thus geome-trically and regularly build the Bees as it were by square andplummet) or else one part will over-top another, and all tum-ble downe. It is so in this cause, whatsoever is not squared bythe rule of Gods word, what ever materiality it may have. itbach little or no formality of obedience.

N n z

XXXIX.