and how the greatest part of Christians in name only do think themselves in a very good condition, when God knows they are infinitely removed from it; (and yet if they did not think themselves well and sure, it is unimaginable they should sleep so quietly, and walk securely, and consider negligently, and yet proceed confidently;) he that considers this, and upon what weak and false principles of divinity men have raised their strengths and persuasions, will easily consent to this, that it is very easy for men to be deceived in taking estimate of their present condition, of their being in the state of grace.

5. But there is great variety of men, and difference of degrees; and every step of returning to God may reasonably add one degree of hope, till at last it comes to the certainty and top of hope. Many men believe themselves to be in the state of grace, and are not; many are in the state of grace, and are infinitely fearful they are out of it: and many that are in God's favour do think they are so, and they are not deceived. And all this is certain. For some sin that sin of presumption and flattery of themselves; and some good persons are vexed with violent fears and temptations to despair, and all are not: and when their hopes are right, yet some are strong, and some are weak. For they that are well persuaded of their present condition, have persuasions as different as are the degrees of their approach to innocence; and he that is at the highest, hath also such abatements which are apt and proper for the conservation of humility and godly fear. I am guilty of nothing,' saith St. Paul; but I am not hereby justified:' meaning thus,

1 1 Cor. iv 4.

though I be innocent, for ought I know; yet God, who judges otherwise than we judge, may find something to reprove in me: It is God that judges,' that is, concerning my degrees of acceptance and hopes of glory. If the person be newly recovering from a state of sin, because his state is imperfect, and his sin not dead, and his lust active, and his habit not quite extinct, it is easy for a man to be too hasty in pronouncing well. He is wrapt up in a cloak of clouds, hidden and encumbered; and his brightest day is but twilight, and his discernings dark, conjectural, and imperfect; and his heart is like a cold hand newly applied to the fire, full of pain, and whether the heat or the cold be strongest it is not easy to determine: or like middle colours, which no man can tell to which of the extremes they are to be accounted.' But according as persons grow in grace, so they may grow in confidence of their present condition. It is not certain they will do so; for sometimes the beauty of their tabernacle is covered with goats'hair and skins of beasts; and holy people do infinitely deplore the want of such graces which God observes in them with great complacency and acceptance. Both these cases say, that to be certainly persuaded of our present condition is not a duty sometimes it is not possible, and sometimes it is better to be otherwise. But, if we consider of this certainty as a blessing and a reward, there is no question but in a great and eminent sanctity of life there may also be a great confidence and fulness of persuasion, that our present being is well and gracious; and then it is certain

1 Eccles. ix. 1, 2.

that such persons are not deceived. For the thing itself being sure, if the persuasion answers to it, it is needless to dispute of the degree of certainty and the manner of it. Some persons are heartily persuaded of their being reconciled; and of these some are deceived, and some are not deceived; and there is no sign to distinguish them, but by that which is the thing signified;-a holy life, according to the strict rules of Christian discipline, tells what persons are confident, and who are presumptuous. But the certainty is reasonable in none but in old Christians, habitually holy persons; not in new converts, or in lately lapsed people; for concerning them we find the Spirit of God speaking with clauses of restraint and ambiguity; a' perhaps,'' and, who knoweth?' and 'peradventure the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven thee;' God may have mercy on thee. And thaṭ God hath done so, they only have reason to be confident, whom God hath blessed with a lasting, continuing piety, and who have wrought out the habits of their precontracted vices.

6. But we find in Scripture many precepts given to holy persons, being in the state of grace, to secure their standing, and perpetuate their present condition. For, He that endureth unto the end he [only] shall be saved," said our blessed Saviour and He that standeth, let him take heed

1 Beatus Daniel præscius futurorum, de sententia Dei dubitat. Rem temerariam faciunt qui audacter veniam pollicentur peccantibus.-S. Hieron. Dan. iv. 27. "The blessed Daniel, though revealing future things, doubts concerning the sentence of God. They act with temerity who boldly promise pardon to sinners."

Joel, ii. 14; Acts, viii. 22. VOL. III.

3 Matt. xxiv. 13.

G

lest he fall' and, 'Thou standest by faith; be not high-minded, but fear :'2 and,' Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.'' 'Hold fast that thou hast, and let no man take thy crown from thee:' '4 and it was excellent advice; for one church had lost their first love,'' and was likely also to lose their crown. And St. Paul himself, who had once entered within the veil, and seen unutterable glories, yet was forced to endure hardship, and to fight against his own disobedient appetite, and to do violence to his inclinations, for fear that, 'whilst he preached to others, himself should become a cast-away.' And since we observe in holy story, that Adam and Eve fell in paradise, and the angels fell in heaven itself, stumbling at the very jewels which pave the streets of the celestial Jerusalem; and in Christ's family, one man, for whom his Lord had prepared a throne, turned devil; and that in the number of the deacons, it is said that one turned apostate, who yet had been a man full of the Holy Ghost; it will lessen our train, and discompose the gaieties of our present confidence, to think that our securities cannot be really distinguished from danger and uncertainties For every man walks upon two legs; one is firm, invariable, constant, and eternal; but the other is his own. God's promises are the objects of our faith; but the events and final conditions of our souls, which are consequent to our duty, can at the best be but the objects of our hope. And either there must in this be a less certainty, or else faith and hope are not two distinct

11 Cor. x. 12.
Rev. iii. 11.

2 Rom. xi. 20.

3 Phil. ii. 12

5 Ibid. xxiv.

graces.

'God's gifts and vocation are without repentance;' meaning, on God's part: but the very people concerning whom St. Paul used the expression, were reprobate and cut off, and in good time shall be called again; in the meantime many single persons perish. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.' God will look to that, and it will never fail: but then they must secure the following period, and not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit.' 'Behold the goodness of God towards thee,' saith St. Paul, ‘if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.' And if this be true concerning the whole church of the Gentiles, to whom the apostles then made the address, and concerning ' whose election the decree was public and manifest, that they might be cut off, and their abode in God's favour was upon condition of their perseverance in the faith; much more is it true in single persons, whose election in particular is shut up in the abyss, and permitted to the condition of our faith and obedience, and the revelations of doomsday.

7. Certain it is, that God hath given to holy persons the spirit of adoption, enabling them to cry, Abba, Father,' and to account themselves for sons; and by this 'spirit we know we dwell in him,' and therefore it is called in Scripture, the earnest of the Spirit: though at its first mission, and when the apostle wrote and used this appellative, the Holy Ghost was of greater signification, and a more visible earnest and endearment of their

1 Rom. xi. 29. Rom. viii. 15;

v. 5.

2 Rom. viii. 1.
1 John, iv. 13;

3 Rom. xi. 22. 2 Cor. i. 22, and