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more convinced of his own sinfulness, and wickedness of his heart; and consequently, it has a tendency to make him more jeolous of his heart. Grace tends to give the soul a further and better conviction of the same things concerning sin, than it was convinced of under a legal work of the Spirit of God; namely, its great contrariety to the will, and law, and honour of God, the greatness of God's hatred of it, and displeasure against it, and the dreadful punishment it exposes to, and deserves. And not only so, but it convinces the soul of something further concerning sin, that it saw nothing of, while only under legal convictions; and that is, the infinitely hateful nature of sin, and its dreadfulness upon that account. And this makes the heart tender with respect to sin; like David's heart that smote him, when he had cut off Saul's skirt. The heart of a true penitent is like a burnt child, that dreads the fire. Whereas, on the

contrary, he that has had a counterfeit repentance, and false comforts and joys, is like iron that has been suddenly heated and quenched; it becomes much harder than before. A false conversion puts an end to convictions of conscience; and so either takes away, or much diminishes, that conscientiousness which was manifested under a work of the law.

All gracious affections have a tendency to promote this Christian tenderness of heart, not only a godly sorrow, but also a gracious joy: "Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling." As also a gracious hope: "Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy." "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy."-Yea,

the most confident and assured hope, that is truly gracious, has this tendency. The higher a holy hope is raised, the more there is of this Christian tenderness. The banishing of a servile fear, by a holy assurance, is attended with a proportionable increase of a reverential fear. The diminishing of the fear of the fruits of God's displeasure in future punishment, is attended with a proportionable increase of fear of his displeasure itself; the diminishing of the fear of hell, with an increase of the fear of sin. The vanishing of jealousies of the person's state, is attended with a proportionable increase of jealousy of heart, in a distrust of its strength, wisdom, stability, faithfulness, &c. The less apt he is to be afraid of natural evil, having his heart fixed in trusting in God, and so, not afraid of evil tidings, the more apt he is to be alarmed with the appearance of moral evil, or the evil of sin. As he has more holy boldness, so he has less of self-confidence, and a forward assuming boldness, and more modesty. As he is more sure than others of deliverance from hell, so he has more of a sense of the desert of it. He is less apt than others to be shaken in faith; but more apt than others to be moved with solemn warnings, and with God's frowns, and with the calamities of others. He has the firmest comfort, but the softest heart; richer than others, but poorest of all in spirit; the tallest. and strongest saint, but the least and tenderest child among them.

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CHAPTER X.

Another thing wherein Affections that are truly gracious and holy differ from those that are false, is beautiful symmetry and proportion.

NOT that the symmetry of the virtues and gracious affections of the saints in this life is perfect; it oftentimes is in many things defective, through the imperfection of grace, for want of proper instructions, through errors in judgment, or some particular unhappiness of natural temper, or defects in education, and many other disadvantages that might be mentioned. But yet there is, in nowise, that monstrous disproportion in gracious affections, and the various parts of true religion in the saints, that is very commonly to be observed in the false religion and counterfeit graces of hypocrites.

In the truly holy affections of the saints is found that proportion, which is the natural consequences of the universality of their sanctification. They have the whole image of Christ upon them; they have put off the old man, and have put on the new man, entire in all its parts and members. It hath pleased the Father that in Christ all fulness should dwell. There is in him every grace; he is full of grace and truth: and they that are Christ's, do " of his fulness receive grace for grace;" that is, there is every grace in them which is in Christ: grace for grace; that is, grace answerable to grace. There is no grace in Christ but there is its image in believers to answer it. The

image is a true image; and there is something of the same beautiful proportion in the image which is in the original-there is feature for feature, and member for member. There is symmetry and beauty in God's workmanship. The natural body, which God hath made, consists of many members; and all are in a beautiful proportion: so it is in the new man, consisting of various graces and affections. The body of one that was born a perfect child may fail of exact proportion, through distemper, and the weakness and wounds of some of its members; yet the disproportion is in no measure like that of those that are born monsters.

It is with hypocrites as it was with Ephraim of old, at a time when God greatly complains of their hypocrisy: "Ephraim is a cake not turned," half roasted and half raw-there is commonly no manner of uniformity in their affections.

There is in many of them a great partiality, with regard to the several kinds of religious affections; great affections in some things, and no manner of proportion in others.-A holy hope and holy fear go together in the saints, Psalm xxxiii. 18. and cxlvii. 11. But in some of these is the most confident hope, while they are void of reverence, self-jealousy, and caution, and have to a great degree cast off fear. In the saints, joy and holy fear go together, though the joy be ever so great; as it was with the disciples, in that joyful morning of Christ's resurrection: "And they departed quickly from the sepulchre, with fear and great joy."* But many of these rejoice without

· "Renewed care and diligence follows the sealings of the Spirit. Now is the soul at the foot of Christ, as Mary was at the

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trembling: their joy is of that sort, that it is truly opposite to godly fear.

But, particularly, one great difference between saints and hypocrites is this, that the joy and comfort of the former is attended with godly sorrow and mourning for sin. They have not only sorrow to prepare them for their first comfort, but after they are comforted and their joy established. As it is foretold of the church of God, that they should mourn and loathe themselves for their sins, after they were returned from the captivity, and were settled in the land of Canaan, the land of rest, and the land that flowed with milk and honey: "And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers. And there

shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed." A true saint is like a little child in this respect; he never had any godly sorrow before he was born again, but since he has it often in exercise as a little child, before it is born, and while it remains in darkness, never cries; but as soon as ever it sees the light it begins to cry; and thenceforward is often crying. Although Christ hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, so that we are freed from the sorrow of punishment, and may now sweetly feed upon the comforts Christ hath purchased for us; yet that does not hinder our feeding on these

sepulchre, with fear and great joy. He that travels the road with a rich treasure about him is afraid of a thief in every bush."Flavel's Sacramental Meditations, Med. 4.

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