3.  He would look to him also, as head and husband, and life to the poor soul that adhereth to him; and this will strengthen his hope and expectation; for he will see that Christ is engaged (to speak so) in point of honour, to quicken a poor dead and lifeless member; for the life in the head is for the good of the whole body, and of every member of the body, that is not quite cut off.  And the good that is in the husband is forthcoming for the relief of the poor wife, that hath not yet got a bill of divorce.  And Christ being life and the Life, he must be appointed for the relief, the quickening and recovering from death of such as are given to him, that they may be finally raised up at the last day; he must present all his members lively in that day.

4.  He would by faith wrap himself up in the promises, and lie before this Sun of Righteousness, till the heat of his beams thaw his frozen heart, and bring warmth into his cold and dead soul, and thus renew his grips of him, accepting of him as the Life, and as his life.  Christ himself tells us, John xi. 40, that this is the Father’s will, that hath sent him, that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, might have everlasting life, and he will raise him up at the last day.  Faith closing with him, as it was the mean of life at first, so it will be the mean of recovery out of a dead distemper afterwards.

5.  He would mourn for such sins and provocations, as he discovereth in himself to have caused and brought on this distemper.  Repentance and godly sorrow for such evils, as have sinned Christ and life away, is a way to bring life back again.

6.  He would be sure to harbour no known sin in his soul, but to set himself against every known evil, as an enemy to the life and recovery which he is seeking.

7.  He must wait on Christ his life, in the appointed means; for that is the will of the Lord, that he should be waited upon there, and sought for there.  There is little hopes of recovery for such as lay aside the ordinances.  Though the ordinances without him cannot revive or quicken a poor soul, yet he hath condescended so far as to come with life to his people in and through the ordinances, and hath appointed us to wait for him there; we must be willing to accept of all his condescensions of love, and seek and wait for him there, where he hath said he will be found.

8.  In going about those ordinances of life, he would beware of putting them in Christ’s room, i.e. he would beware of thinking that ordinances will do his business; as some ignorantly do, who think that by praying so often a-day, and reading so much, and hearing so much, they shall recover their lost lively frame, when, alas! all the ordinances, without him, signify nothing.  They, without him, are cold and lifeless, and can never bring heat and warmth to a cold soul.  It is he in the ordinances whom we are to seek, and from whom alone life is to be expected, and none else.