were never sanctified. I confess, when a man is truly converted, the principal part of his danger is over: he is safe in the love and care of Christ, and none can take him out of his hands. But this is but part of the truth; the other part must be taken with it, or we deceive ourselves. There is still a great deal of work before us, and holiness is still the way to happiness; and much care and diligence is required at our hands: and it is no more certain that we shall be saved by Christ, than it is that we shall be kept in faith, and love, and holy obedience by him. It is as true that none can separate us from the love of God, and from a care to please him, and from a holy diligence in the work of our salvation, as that none can take us out of his hands, and bring us into a state of condemnation. He that is resolved to bring us to glory, is as much resolved to bring us to it by perseverance in holiness and diligent obedience; for he never decreeth one without the other; and he will never save us by any other way.

Indeed, when we are converted, we have escaped many and grievous dangers; but yet there are many more before us, which we must by care and diligence escape. We are translated from death to life, but not from earth to heaven. We have the life of grace, but yet we are short of the life of glory. And why have we the life of grace, but to use it and to live by it? Why came we into the vineyard, but to work? And why came we into the army of Christ, but to fight? Why came we into the race, but to run for the prize?-or why turned we into

the right way, but to travel in it? We never did God faithful service till the day of our conversion, and then it is that we begin ;—and shall we be so sottish as to think we have done, when we have but begun? Now you begin to live, that before were dead;-now you begin to awake, that were before asleep; and therefore now you should begin to work, that before did nothing, or rather a thousandfold worse than nothing. Work is the effect of life; -it is the dead that lie still in darkness, and do nothing: if you had rather be alive than dead, you should rather delight in action than in idleness. It is now that you set sail, and begin your voyage for the blessed land;-many a storm, and wave, and tempest, must you yet expect ;-many a combat with temptations must you undergo;-many a hearty prayer have you yet to pour forth;-many and many a duty to perform to God and man. Think not to have done your care and work till you have done your lives;-whether. you come in at the first hour, or at the last, you must work till night, if you will receive your wages. And think not this a grievous doctrine. It is your privilege; it is your joy, your earthly happiness, that you may be so employed; that you, that till now have lived like swine, or moles, or earthly vermin, may now take wing and fly to God, and walk in heaven, and talk with saints, and be guarded by angels ;-is this a life to be accounted grievous? Now you begin to come to yourselves; to understand what you have to do in the world; to live like men, that you may live like angels: and, therefore, now you should begin

accordingly to bestir you. I would not have you retain the same measure of fears of God's displeasure, nor the same apprehensions of your misery, nor the doubts and perplexities of mind which you were under at your first conversion; for these were occasioned by the passage in your change; and the weakness of your grace in that beginning, and your former folly, made them necessary for a time: but I would have you retain your fear of sinning, and be much more in the love of God, and in his service, than you were at first. Temptations will haunt you to the last hour of your lives; if, therefore, you would not fall by these temptations, you must watch and pray to the last. Give not over watching till Satan give over tempting, and watching advantages against you. The promise is still but on condition, that you persevere and abide in Christ, and continue rooted and steadfast in the faith, and overcome and be faithful to the death, as you may see in John xv. throughout; John viii. 31.; Rev. ii. and iii.; Col. i. 22, 23. Work out,' therefore, 'your salvation with fear and trembling.' If you have begun resolvedly, proceed resolvedly. It is the undoing of men's souls to think that all the danger is over, and to lose their apprehensions of it, when they are yet but in the way;-when their care and holy fears abate, their watch goes down, the soul is laid open as a common wilderness, and made a prey to every lust. And therefore, still know, your work is not done till your life be done.

DIRECTION III.

Be sure that you understand wherein your establishment and growth consisteth, that you may not miscarry by seeking somewhat else instead of it: nor think you have it when you have it not; or that you want it, when you have it, and so be needlessly disquieted about it.

For your assistance in this, I shall further shew you wherein your confirmation and growth consisteth in its several parts, both as it is subjected or exercised in your understandings, your wills and affections, and your conversations.

I. As holiness is in the understanding, it is commonly in Scripture called 'light' and 'knowledge,' as comprehending the several parts. And the confirmation and growth of this must consist in these seven following parts:

1. It is ordinary with new converted Christians. to see the great essential truths of the Christian profession with a great imperfection, as to the evidences that discover them. Either they see but some of the solid evidence, overlooking much more than they see; or, more usually, they receive the truth itself upon some low insufficient evidence at first, and then proceed to a kind of mixture, taking it upon some evidences that are valid and sufficient, and joining some that are invalid with them. But you must grow beyond this infancy of understanding: when you see greater and sounder evidences

learnt as to be built upon this foundation, and joined to it, as receiving their life and strength from hence; and never looked upon as separated from this; nor as more excellent and necessary.

For want of learning well, and believing soundly, these principles, essentials, or fundamentals of Christianity, some of our people can go no further, but stand all their days in their ignorance, at a nonplus: some of them go on in a blind profession, deceiving themselves, by building upon the sand, and hold true doctrine by a false unsound belief of it and when the floods and storms do beat upon their building, it falls, and great is the fall thereof. With some of them it falls upon the first assault of any seducer that hath interest in them, or advantage on them; and abundance swallow up errors, because they never well understood, or firmly believed fundamental truths. With others of them, the building falls not until death, because they lived not under any shaking temptations. But it being but a perseverance in an unsound profession, will nevertheless be ineffectual to their salvation.

2. When you have thus laid the foundation in your understanding, be sure, above all, that it be firmly laid in your heart or will. Take heed lest you should prove false and unsteadfast in the holy covenant; and lest you should take in the word but into the surface of the soul, and not give it depth of earth and rooting; and lest you should come to Christ but as a servant upon trial, without making an absolute resignation of yourselves to him; of which I warned you in the former directions.