the salvation of our souls. If divine Providence should give any man an absolute assurance of a very long life, he would be apt to neglect the means of his health, and to take no care for the preserving of his life so if God should give a man beforehand assurance of his perseverance to the end, and so of his salvation, it would probably make him careless and negligent in the use of the means appointed for his perseverance, i. e. watching and praying.

2. I answer affirmatively. And the affirmative I will lay down in these following propositions :

(1.) The witness of the Spirit of God doth ordinarily produce in the faithful such a degree of hope and persuasion of their adoption, as shall render their lives in some measure comfortable, and free from tormenting fears and anxieties, and such as shall be sufficient to encourage them in the discharge of that duty which God requires of them.

(2.) The degrees of this comfortable hope and persuasion in the faithful are ordinarily proportioned to the degrees of their other graces.

The graces of the Spirit within us, as I have already shewn, are the evidences of our titles to heaven: and therefore the greater and stronger our habitual grace is, the greater and stronger evidence we have of our title to glory.

This grace is the great witness of the Spirit within us, testifying that we are the children of God, and so heirs of salvation; and consequently the greater this grace is, the greater and clearer witness we have of our adoption. And, on the contrary, the witness and evidence of our adoption must needs be darker and more obscure, as this grace is weaker and more imperfect in us. And therefore as the

characters of the Holy Spirit in our souls are more or less apparent and legible, so will our hope and comfort be greater or lesser.

Indeed sometimes he that hath a lesser degree of grace, may have a greater measure of comfort; because perhaps in the circumstances wherein he is, he needs it; as being under some heavy pressing outward affliction, which, were he not supported by a greater measure of inward comfort, would be apt to sink and crush him. Or perhaps he is a man of a stronger and clearer understanding, or an happier temper and constitution of body, and so better qualified to take comfort from those grounds of comfort that are within him, than another who yet hath arrived to a greater perfection in grace and virtue than himself. But regularly, ordinarily, et cæteris paribus, the more grace the more comfort. The more strictly we walk with God in the ways of holiness, the greater will be the peace and satisfaction of our minds. And accordingly we may observe in Scripture a very close connection between hope and holiness. Thus the Holy Ghost, describing the exemplary piety of the primitive Christians, tells us, that they walked in the fear of God, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, Acts ix. 31. A seemingly incongruous couple, fear and joy, fear and hope, or comfort. But indeed these two are so far from being inconsistent, that they can hardly be separated. The more a man fears to offend God, and the greater his care is to please him, the greater his hope and comfort will be. The more we fear, the less reason we have to fear; i. e. if we fear God, we need not fear any thing else. In this fear we are safe and secure, and all the powers of hell cannot hurt us.

(3.) The Spirit of God doth always administer some degree of hope to all the faithful, so much as is sufficient to keep them from despair.

Some degree of hope is absolutely necessary to preserve the very life and being of our other graces. It is in this sense also the Christian's true motto, Dum spiro, spero; "He hopes as long as he lives " and breathes." And if ever his hope should utterly fail him, his spiritual life would expire and cease, and all his other graces would languish and die with it. And therefore the Spirit of God never fails to give some degree of hope to all the faithful.

Indeed it is possible for the hope of a good Christian to be at so very low an ebb, that he may think himself to be in despair, but indeed he is not so; there is some degree of hope still left in him, which, though he himself cannot discern, yet another that is a diligent observer may perceive, in his earnest desire of God's grace and mercy, in the conscience that he still makes of committing any sin that he knows to be such, and his endeavour to do that which he thinks to be his duty to the best of his power, and in his requesting the prayers of good people to God for him. For to what For to what purpose doth he these things, if he were indeed fully resolved in himself that his case is desperate, if he had not some degree of hope yet remaining in him?

Thus some have been known, in a melancholy fit, to think they have lost all faith, and seriously to accuse themselves of downright infidelity, and an utter disbelief of the Articles of the Christian religion, and thereupon have been plunged into horrible fears, perplexities, and agonies of mind; whereas these very fears are a plain demonstration that they are

not guilty of that infidelity, the supposal whereof is the cause of their fears. For if they had no belief at all of the matters of religion, they could not be so much troubled for their unbelief. For how can a man possibly be troubled for not believing that, which he is fully resolved and really persuaded in his own mind is false, and so ought not to be believed?

In like manner some men think themselves void of all hope, and that they are guilty of utter despair, when their own actions at the same time plainly declare the contrary. But yet to be thus next door to despair is a very sad condition, though it may be safe. And, God be thanked, the instances of good men in this pitiable estate are comparatively very rare. And where they are found, it commonly appears that much of their misery is to be attributed to an excess of melancholy in their natural temper and constitution; and much to the false notions of religion which they have imbibed and sucked in from those unlicensed, unlearned, ignorant, or corrupt teachers, which perhaps, through their own wantonness and folly, they made choice of. But still the hand of God is to be acknowledged in the case, permitting them at least by such means to fall into the heaviest of afflictions and calamities in this world, for reasons best known unto himself, always wise, just, and righteous, and, as it will appear in the issue, good and gracious too.

Obj. But here it may be objected, How is the case of these disconsolate Christians consistent or reconcilable with this truth, That the Spirit of God beareth witness with the spirit of the faithful, &c. For whereas St. Paul, manifestly speaking of all true Christians, all that have the Spirit of God in

general, saith, that the Spirit doth bear witness with their spirits, that they are the children of God; these afflicted persons, whom we suppose to be true Christians, are so far from having any such thing witnessed to them, as that they are the children of God, that on the contrary they are under dreadful apprehensions of their being reprobates and castaways.

Ans. I answer, that this passage is, as many other places of Scripture of the like nature are, to be understood, not so much of the certainty or necessity of the effect itself spoken of, as of the nature of the thing, to which that effect is attributed, and its sufficiency to produce it, if not hindered by some obstacle intervening. Thus for instance, the Gospel of Christ is every where in Scripture described as a Gospel of peace, and which should cause an universal peace in the world; because, though through the corruption of men, it too generally fails of that blessed effect, yet in its own nature it is apt and fitted to produce it, and would do so, if its most strict precepts of peace and love, and most powerful motives and arguments to enforce that excellent virtue, were duly regarded and attended to. So here the Spirit, i. e. the fruits and graces of the Spirit within us, are said to testify and witness to and with our spirits, that we are the children of God; because in themselves wherever they are, they are a sufficient evidence of our adoption; and if by this Spirit we are not actually assured of it, it is because our own spirits are not rightly fitted and disposed to receive that evidence. So that all true Christians, even those disconsolate ones, have in themselves the witness of the Spirit, which St. Paul speaks of, i. e. they have