"heard me, and delivered me out of all my fear." Pf. xxxiv. 4. And in confidence of this faith, "I will not fear though an host of men should

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encamp against me.' Pf. xxvii. 3. The beloved apostle faith, "We know that we have paf"fed from death unto life, and we know that we

are of God." 1 John iii. 14, 5, 19. Since therefore more is attainable than a baie perhaps, or peradventure, reft not fatisfied with this; earnestly feek for that greater certainty.

but

Caution 4th. Take heed of measuring yourself by another man's measure; of making the stature of your friend or neighbour the ftandard of your christianity; or of weighing yourfelf in the uncertain fcales, of any fuppofed good man. For Ift. We have no reason to believe that our acceptance will depend on our comparative goodnefs, and that because another is more wicked than myself, or lefs righteous, therefore I fhall be faved; which reafoning were it true, would allot falvation to all but the worft. 2d. Nor will it be fafe for you to make the flature of your friend, or neighbour, your standard for chriuianity; for ift. It is poffible the perfon you fix for your pattern, may be a very dwarf in grace, or perhaps have no grace at all; and then you are in danger of taking up with the fhadow, the mere ikeleton of religion, and live and die a stranger to the fubftance; and then you're ruined. 2d. Or if the perlon you fix on for your rule be wild and extravagant in his notions, having modelled them in his own imagination, and not according to the pattern given in the mount; and will allow no grace to have place in your heart, fo long as you feel any motions of fin, or that you can be born

of

of God while one finful thought remains; you will be in danger of depreciating the grace you already may partake of, and of indulging the most defponding, and difquieting thoughts concerning your final state. Or fhould he be one who largely partakes of the grace of God, and is grounded and fettled in the faith; you may be led to conclude that because you are not a father, you are not a child, and because you cannot perform the feats of a ftrong man, that you have no ftrength at all, nor partake of the nature of man. Again 3dly. You should not weigh yourself in the fcale of any fuppofed good man, ift, because it is a difficult matter for us truly to know ourselves, much more to know one another; he whom you fuppofe to be a good man, may poffibly in the eye of God be much the reverse.

None but our Saviour could certainly know that the Pharifees in his day, who made fo great a fhow of religion, were but like whited fepulchres; and while they had a fair outfide, were all uncleanness within: and your danger in copying after fuch a one, is too great not to warn you of. But fhould he be all that you fuppofe him, it will be quite unfafe for you implicitly to follow him; for as you attempt to copy his virtues, you may unawares be led to imitate his vices; "for "there is not a juft man upon earth that doth good, and finneth not." Ecclef. vii. 20.

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Caut. 5th. In feeking to know how it stands between God and your precious fouls, take good heed that your own hearts do not deceive you; the heart fays the prophet "is defperately wicked, "and deceitful above all things." We would generally conftruct our own cafe in the most fa

vourable

vourable manner, and prophecy smooth things to ourfelves. But alafs this is a great vanity, for if our cafe be not really good, our fondnefs for felf will not profit; nor will our foothed falfhood, by any of our selfish acts become a truth. In this enquiry a fincerity and faithfulness proportioned to the importance of the fubject, should run through the whole undertaking; and left we fhould miftake our cafe and ftate after all, we fhould with the royal faint, pray that the Lord would fearch us, that he would look well, and lead us into the way everlasting.

CAUT. 6th. Let nothing determine your cafe, but confcience in concurrence with the word of God. When you begin to enquire into the grounds of your hope of falvation come ftript as much as poffible of all pre-conceived notions and opinions; the prejudices of party, and of education, have a mighty influence upon us. Precepts and principles fucked in with the milk, incorpo→ rate themselves with our flesh and bones as it were, and are hardly eradicated, yea are with much difficulty fubdued and corrected with matureft reafon. Yet as much as may, be forgetting all you} have heard, and difregarding all you have learned; come fimply as a finner to know from God's own mouth, as it were, what you must do to be faved; and whether from what you know, or have perceived of yourself, you have any just cause to hope that you are a chi d of God.

Having laid before you these cautions which I beg your attention to; I go on to affift you in the enquiry; only permit me to observe, that the queftion to be put, is not, "Do I know that Chrift has "loved me, and has given himself for me," nor,

" Do

"Do I know the time when, the place where, or "the manner how." All which, although they may be true in the experience of some, yet are by no means to be infifted on as the common ftandard for all. But the grand question in the prefent enquiry is, "Have I any good ground from "God's infallible word to believe that I am born " of God ?"

Regeneration, is the first beginning of the spiritual life, all that precedes it, is from nature, and is defiled, and rendered loathfome by fin. The very prayers of the unregenerate, are but hideous howlings in the ears of God; for it is impoffible they can be fincere, or have any thing truly fpiritual in them, where all is corrupt and defiled, from whence true prayer can proceed. Prayer is a pious breathing of the foul after God, but it must argue a grofs mifconception of our natural state, and great inattention to the fcriptural account of our condition, to fuppofe a foul fincerely fuing for help, and fuccour, to that God, whom it naturally hates, and to whose most pure and perfect law, it fcorns to fubmit. Rom. viii. 7. The above affertion however fevere it may feem, is well fupported by holy writ; “The fa"crifices of the wicked are an abomination to the "Lord." Prov. xv. 8. And, much more "when they are prefented with a wicked mind." Ch. xxi. 27. Such an offerer, faith the prophet If. lxvi. 3, "is as a murderer in God's fight when he "killeth an ox, or if he offer a lamb, it is as if "he cut off a dog's neck;" a creature fo vile under the law that it was not redeemable.

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Our bleffed Lord in his pilgrimage below, once said, "the days fhall come, when the dead shall hear

"the

be a prayer of the

"the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear “fhall live," one of these bleffed days Saul of Tarfus faw, when filled with rage and madness against the followers of Jefus he obtained letters from the high priest to Damafcus, that he might bring to prison and death, all that he found in that way.

It does not appear that all his pharifaical holinefs, had any root but that of corrupt nature; and where the tree is not first made good, it is in vain to expect any fruit but bad. It is highly probable, that life-giving word, which the Lord Jefus fpake, was the firft beginning of spiritual life in his foul; and now it is faid of him to nnanias, Bekold be prayeth. Acts ix. 11. When Peter preached on the day of pentecoft, and the bleffed fpirit accompanied his word with an extraordinary power, brooding over the dark and uninformed hearts of thofe that heard; they began immediately to breathe the ferious and pious enquiry, men and brethren what shall we do? Acts ii. 37:

From these instances you may obferve what is the first and lowest degree of the fpiritual life; a pious breathing, and an holy hungering after God. The incorruptible feed thus fown in the heart, fometimes like feed caft into the ground in winter, lies buried as it were beneath the rubbish of the carnal, fenfual and earthly mind; and is scarcely seen to bud or bloffom in any holy duty, by reafon of a multitude of difcouragements on one hand, and manifold allurements on the other.

It is in this ftate the foul feems fufpended betwixt hope and fear, defiring yet diftrufting, determined to follow after, yet almost deterred;

the