to be carried higher, unto the heavenly inheritance. Now this meekness is a fruit of holy mourning: he, who deeply humbles himself for his sins before God, will not be much exasperated by the offences of others against him: if God hath forgiven him ten thousand talents, he will not think it any great matter to forgive his brother a few pence. Nothing makes a man so untractable and rugged, as sin, that lies upon the conscience unrepented, and therefore unpardoned. And therefore, we find that David was never so cruel, as when he had for some time lain under the guilt of his two foul sins: then, he puts the Ammonites under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and makes them pass through the brick-kiln : a fearful and sad havoc! some he burnt, and some he sawed, and some he tore in pieces; which was a strange execution, and possibly more than became him to inflict. But, afterward, when he had truly repented and deeply humbled himself for his sins, though he had a far greater provocation, yet he meekly passeth it by; and when Shimei, in the madness and distraction of his rage, pelts him with stones and curses together, repentance has so humbled and tamed his spirit, that all we now hear from him, is, Let him curse: for God hath said unto him, Curse David. It is a most beautiful and excellent grace, when we can bear affronts and injuries petulantly done against us, without any great disturbance and emotion. And this grace God hath promised to crown with salvation: Ps. cxlix. 4. He will beautify the meek with salvation.

[5] A holy Hungering and Thirsting after Grace.

Mat. v. 6. Blessed are they, which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled: when we do earnestly desire, both the righteousness of Christ's Merits to justify us, and the righteousness of his Spirit to sanctify us: which vehement appetite will arise in us, if we have but a deep sense of our want of Christ and our want of grace. And, certainly, the infinite mercy of God will not suffer him to refuse the breathings of a heart, that thus amorously pants after him: but he will, according to his promise, fill the hungry with good things; when, as for the rich and the full, those that are full of self and full of pride, he will send them empty away..

Again,

[6] A Merciful Frame of Spirit.

Verse 7. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy: when we are merciful, both to the souls and bodies of others;

shewing our prone and ready charity, both in instructing the one, and in relieving and supplying the other.

Again,

[7] A holy Awe and Dread of God, is another grace that accompanies salvation.

This, possibly, is looked upon by some, now-a-days, as a mean grace; unworthy of that near relation in which we stand to God, and that freedom which we may use towards him: but, yet, the Scripture doth lay so much emphasis upon this, that it often sets forth the whole work of grace upon the soul, by the fearing of God.

[8] So, also, Love to God, Love to his People, Love to his Ways and Ordinances, and whatsoever bears the stamp of his holiness printed upon it.

These, and many more, are such holy impressions upon the heart, that, wheresoever they are truly to be found, they are most certain evidences of a state of salvation, and do always infallibly accompany it.

Thus much, for the First Enquiry.

2. The Second Enquiry is: "If I find any such like impressions upon my heart, as these, how shall I certainly know whether they are such as accompany salvation? for there is abundance of counterfeit grace abroad in the world: how then shall we discover what is true and genuine from what is false and spurious ?" I answer,

(1) These impressions are then saving, when they are Social: when they accompany one another, then do they likewise accompany salvation.

* Many, possibly, will pretend to high raptures, and some kind of ecstatic efforts of their love to God: many will boast much of their overflowing joys, that their souls are even distended with comforts, and as full of peace and satisfaction as they can hold: many may, possibly, be as confident of their election, as if God had unclasped the Book of Life to them, turned them to the very page and line, and shewed them their names written there from all eternity. But, if you would not be deluded, be sure you look how these things are accompanied in you. If ever your love cast out a holy and filial fear of God; or your confidence and rejoicing supplant a holy trembling before him: if your assurance scorn poverty of spirit,

meekness and a holy mourning, as too mean and too poor associates; if your faith reject good works, as too legal; or your works supersede faith, as unnecessary: believe it, these are not. things that accompany salvation in you; but they are glaring delusions of the Devil, who hath transformed himself into an angel of light, to impose false hopes and deceitful confidences upon you. When they are separated one from another, they are separated from salvation.

(2) They are then saving, when they are grown as it were Natural to us, and make up a Frame of Spirit.

That man cannot safely conclude that he is in a state of salvation, who only now and then feels some violent impulses and passionate motions towards that which is holy for men may hurry apace at first setting out, but then they quickly tire. But, where grace is true and genuine, there it is ordinarily di gested and turned into our very nature; so that it will, in some sort, be as natural to us to serve and please God, as ever formerly it was too natural to us to sin against and provoke him. Indeed, the very best are subject to much instability: many times, it is with them as with the sea, the highest spring-tides have the lowest ebbs: sometimes, their souls are like the chariots of Aminadab; and, anon, they drive on heavily but then they are sensible of their abatement, fluxes, and changes; and, when they cannot find that vivacity and quickness of spirit which sometimes carried them forth in the performance of duties, they mourn under their present dulness and stupidity, and endeavour again to recover their former excellency.

(3) Where these impressions are saying, they are Thriving and Improving.

The light of the righteous is as the dawn, that waxeth brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. Declining Christians have great reason to suspect themselves: and, if they quickly repent not, and recover themselves to their pristine state, and do their first works with their first zeal and alacrity, they may sadly suspect that their graces are not true; for growth in grace is the best evidence of truth of grace. Indeed, in young converts there may be a great deal of heat and fervour, which afterwards, when they are more established Christians, may abate; and they may think this a decay in their graces, when indeed it is not, For we must distinguish, between a passionate love of God, and a sedate, serene love of God. Our passions do, in our first conversion, mingle more with our graces, than after

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wards; and then we are like a torrent, very swift and rapid, but neither so deep nor so strong. And, as little brooks and torrents, though they run very fiercely, yet stop, and purle, and murmur at every small pebble that lies in their way; but great rivers, which seem to move with a slow and grave pace, yet bear down all mounds and dams, and whatsover is in their way to oppose their passage: so is it here: grave and settled Christians may seem to move more slowly, without any noise or tumult; but they have a great depth and strength in them, and are able to bear down before them those temptations and oppositions, at which young novices, who are more fierce and noisy, are forced to stop, complain, and murmur. And we must estimate the growth of our graces, not only, nor indeed so much, by the violence of its efforts, as its prevalency and effectualness, which proceeds from its being more radical and habitual in us.

We have thus dispatched the First Two General Heads.

iii. The Third remains to be yet considered: and that is, a REGULAR OBEDIENCE, IN THE WHOLE COURSE OF OUR LIVES AND

CONVERSATIONS.

The course of a man's life and actions is often, in Scripture, said to be his Way: and, certainly, such different ends as heaven and hell cannot but have as different ways to lead to them. That there is a peculiar way of salvation the very Devil acknowledgeth, Acts xvi. 17. where the Pythoness, or possessed damsel, cried after Paul and the disciples, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. Now here let us enquire,

What this way is.

How it may be known whether we walk in a saving way,

or no.

1. What this way of salvation is.

I answer: The Scripture hath given us many characters and descriptions of it. And, as those, who direct us in a road which we have not travelled, tell us what marks we shall find in it; so the Spirit of God hath set down in his Word many observable marks, which we shall meet with in this Via Regia, the highway that leads to the New Jerusalem, the City of the Living God. I shall only indigitate some of the most eminent and conspicuous.

(1) It is a Way of Holiness.

Isaiah xxxv. 8. And a highway shall be there, and a way; and it shall be called, The way of holiness: the unclean shall not pass over it. This way, though it be full of briars and thorns; and those, who pass through it, must expect to encounter with many sharp tribulations, which will pierce them to the quick, and draw tears from their eyes and blood from their hearts: yet it is a way, that hath no mire nor filth in it; a clean way, wholly separated from the defilements and pollutions of the world. Holiness is the proper badge and cognizance of all those, who are in a state of salvation. The sentence is irreversibly passed, that without holiness no mun shall see the Lord. Sin and the curse are inseparably linked together; so that he, who leads a wicked, impure life, must needs be a miserable, damned wretch, though God should not put forth his almighty power to destroy him: his very guilt would be his hell; and his crime, his punishment. As it would be inconsistent with the justice of God, not to punish an incorrigible sinner; so it is inconsistent, in the nature of the thing, that such an one should be otherwise than miserable: that habitual pravity, which is rooted and confirmed in him by many repeated acts of wickedness, renders him as necessarily and as fatally wretched, as the dreadful, but righteous judgment of God: nor is it a thing possible in nature, that such an one should escape hell, who carries so much, nay the worst part of it about him; malice, rancóur, enmity against God and goodness; and who expresses, in his actions, the same things that áre done in hell itself. So, on the contrary, a holy life doth, by a natural consequence, infer blessedness: since it is not only inconsistent with the righteousness and veracity of God, but with the nature of the thing, that those ways should not end in salvation, which have so much of salvation in them; that those should not lead to heaven, which represent the choicest excellencies and perfections of heaven, viz. purity and holiness, which indeed are more genuine and noble parts of true happiness, than all those additional glories, which we expect besides. What is a holy life, but a life resembling the life of God; when we keep ourselves from all gross and scandalous sins, and indulge ourselves in none; but, with the greatest care and conscience, endeavour to regulate our actions according to the will of God? And, certainly, wheresoever this purity is to be found, it is an infallible companion of salvation; for God will never condemn his own likeness: his justice will never punish his holiness; for it is the holiness of God, that shines forth in the conversation of

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