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especially if we consider, that for a sinner to live a holy life, must first suppose him to have overcome all his evil habits, and then to have made a purchase of the contrary graces, by the labours of great prudence, watchfulness, self-denial, and severity. No thing that is excellent can be wrought suddenly.

After the beginnings of thy recovery (from sin) be infinitely fearful of a relapse; and, therefore, upon the stock of thy sad experience observe where thy failings were, and by especial arts fortify that faculty and arm against that temptation. For if all those arguments which God uses to us to preserve our innocence, and thy late danger, and thy fears, and the goodness of God making thee once to escape, and the shame of thy fall and the sense of thy own weaknesses will not make thee watchful against a fall, especially knowing how much it costs a man to be restored, it will be infinitely more dangerous if ever thou fallest again; not only for fear God should no more accept thee to pardon, but even thy own hopes will be made more desperate, and thy impatience greater, and thy shame turn to impudence, and thy own will be more estranged, violent, and re

fractory, and thy latter end will be worse than thy beginning.

HOPE.

(Holy Living, ch. iv. § 2.)

Let them who are tempted to despair of their salvation consider how much Christ suffered to redeem us from sin and its eternal punishment; and he that considers this must needs believe that the desires which God had to save us were not less than infinite, and therefore not easily to be satisfied without it.

Let no man despair of God's mercies to forgive him, unless he be sure that his sins be greater than God's mercies. If they be not, we have much reason to hope that the stronger ingredient will prevail so long as we are in the time and state of repentance, and within the possibilities and latitude of the covenant, and as long as any promise can but reflect upon him with an oblique beam of comfort. Possibly the man may err in his judgment of circumstances, and therefore let him fear; but because it is not certain he is mistaken, let him not despair.

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Consider that God, who knows all the events of men, and what their final condition shall be, who shall be saved, and who will perish, yet He treateth them as his own, calls them to be his own, gives them blessings, arguments of mercy, and instances of fear to call them off from death, and to call them home to life, and in all this shows no despair of happiness to them; and, therefore, much less should any man despair for himself. since he never was able to read the scrolls of the eternal predestination.

Remember that despair belongs only to passionate fools or villains, (such as were Achitophel and Judas,) or else to devils and damned persons: and as the hope of salvation is a good disposition towards it; so is despair a certain consignation to eternal ruin. A man may be damned for despairing to be saved. Despair is the proper passion of damnation. God hath placed truth and felicity in heaven; curiosity and repentance upon earth; but misery and despair are the portions of hell.

Gather together into your spirit and its treasurehouse (the memory) not only all the promises of

God, but also the remembrances of past experience, and the former senses of the Divine favours, that from thence you may argue from times past to the present, and enlarge to the future, and to greater blessings. For although the conjectures and expectations of hope are not like the conclusions of faith, yet they are a helmet against the scorchings of despair in temporal things, and an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast against the fluctuations of the spirit in matters of the soul. St. Bernard reckons divers principles of hope by enumerating the instances of the Divine mercy; and we may by them reduce this rule to practice in the following manner: 1. God hath preserved me from many sins: his mercies are infinite: I hope He will still preserve me from more, and for ever. 2. I have sinned, and God smote me not his mercies are still over the penitent: I hope He will deliver me from all the evils I have deserved. He hath forgiven many sins of malice, and therefore surely He will pity my infirmities. 3. God visited my heart, and changed it: He loves the work of his own hands, and so my heart is now become: I hope He will love this too. 4. When I repented He received me graciously; and therefore I hope, if I do my endeavour, He will totally

forgive me. 5. He helped my slow and beginning endeavours, and therefore I hope He will lead me to perfection. 6. When He had given me something first, then He gave me more: I hope therefore He will keep me from falling, and give me the grace of perseverance. 7. He hath chosen me to be a disciple of Christ's institution; He hath elected me to his kingdom of grace; and therefore I hope also to the kingdom of his glory. 8. He died for me when I was an enemy, and therefore I hope He will save me when He hath reconciled me to Him, and is become my friend.

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