M. But Christ saveth not all men. What hope have you that he will save you more than others? P. Is it not said, that he is the Saviour of all men, and that he is the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world?

M. Yes; through his sacrifice pardon is made possible to all men; but till they believe and repent, they are not actually pardoned. Though a physician may undertake to cure all the patients who will trust him and take his remedies; yet all may die, who will not trust him and be ruled by

him.

P. But I do believe in Christ, and believers are forgiven.

M. If you truly believe, you have good reason. for your hopes; but I am afraid lest you should be mistaken in so great a business. I must first tell you, therefore, what true believing is. Every true. believer doth believe in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And he believeth all God's word to be true; and he heartily consents, that God be his only God, and that Christ be his only Saviour, and the Holy Ghost his Sanctifier; and he trusts himself wholly to God for happiness and salvation. Do you do this?

P. I believe in God, and trust in him.

M. I hope you do; but let me ask you, Do you believe that, without repentance, conversion, and holiness, none can be saved, and see God? and that if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his? If you do not, you have not a true and sincere faith.

Do you consider the love of God and the glories of heaven to be your happiness; trusting to nothing in this world, neither health, life, wealth, nor plea

sure, for your only comfort and your supreme content?

Do you desire and trust that Christ will save you from all your sins, and will teach you the will of God; and that he will sanctify you by the Holy Ghost, that you may live a spiritual life in the love of God, and mortify all fleshly desires; and that you may be exalted and advanced to the greatest degree of Christian holiness?

P. I really think it difficult to answer these questions.

M. You may know, whether you believe and trust in God and Christ, or not, if you will consider the following particulars:

You must trust in God as your Lawgiver and Ruler; and you must trust in Christ, to justify and save you from your sins; and you must trust in the Holy Ghost, to illuminate, sanctify, and quicken you, and, by degrees, to make you perfectly holy, as far as human nature will admit. These are the things for which God is to be trusted.

To believe in God, is to believe his word: and it you believe the word of God, you must believe that he will save converted believers, and condemn all the ungodly and unbelievers?

Belief and trust in God will be seen in their effects. A man cannot truly believe that he shall have a life of joy in heaven for ever, if he lives a carnal and worldly life. It is impossible truly to believe that the wicked shall be turned into hell; and yet go on still in wickedness.

P. I cannot deny that what you say is plain truth.

M. Suppose you were sick, and only one physician could cure you and he offered to do it freely,

if you would trust your life to his skill and care; and some gave out that he was but a deceiver, and not to be trusted; while others tell you, that he never failed where he undertook to heal. If you trust him, you will commit yourself wholly to his care, and follow his counsel, and take his medicines, and forsake all others: but if you distrust him, you will neglect him; and if any should say, "I trust this physician with my life," and yet will take neither his advice nor his medicines, would you not count him mad, that looked for a cure by such a trust?

P. I confess this helps me better to understand what trusting in God and believing in Christ is. I fear many say, they trust in him, who keep their sins, and hold fast the world, and never think of forsaking all for the hopes of heaven.

But I thought, Sir, that this command of forsaking all, and taking up our cross, had been spoken only to such as lived in times of persecution, when they must deny Christ or die; and not to us, who live where christianity is professed. God forbid, that none should be saved but martyrs !

M. So say I: but you are to be told, that it is the law of Christ, that we deny ourselves, and forsake all things and persons that would prove an hinderance to our salvation, and even take up the cross, if required, and follow him, or else we cannot be his disciples. Matt. x. 37. And do not all that are baptized, promise and vow to forsake the world, the flesh, and the devil, and to take God for their only God? But you cannot renounce this world as you have promised, unless you love God and heaven better than the world.

P. No man is likely to do that, to which his heart is not first disposed, and which he is not resolved to do.

M. You see, then, the case is plain, that every one who will be Christ's disciple, must forsake the world in heart and resolution. "If any one love the world in an inordinate degree, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John ii. 15.

By this time you may perceive, if you are willing, whether your faith in Christ, and trust in God, have been true or false. And now tell me, what else you have to prove, that your hope of salvation

is built on God?

P. My next proof is, that I hope I truly repent of my sins and God hath promised to forgive them that repent.

M. Repentance is a good evidence as well as faith but here you must be sure to understand well what true repentance is.

P. To repent, is to be sorry for my sins, when I have committed them, and to wish I had never done them.

M. If you know repentance no better than this, you may be undone by the mistake. True repentance is such a settled change of the mind, will, and life, from a carnal and ungodly state, to a spiritual and heavenly one, as maketh us hate the sin which we loved, and heartily prefer a holy life, and all those duties to God and man, from which our hearts were before averse. And this change is so firmly established in us, that it is become as a new

nature to us.

P. There is a great deal in this. I pray you, Sir, explain it to me more particularly.

M. By this you may see what makes a true

repentance, and distinguishes it from that which is partial and false.

True repentance is a change of the whole soul, the judgment, the will, and the life. It is not a change only of a man's opinion, but of his heart, and his conversation.

It is a turning to God, and setting our hearts and hopes on heaven, so as to love holiness, and seek. God's kingdom above this world. It is merely the effect of melancholy, when men cry out against the vanity of this world, yet set not their hearts upon a better, and seek not after heavenly felicity.

True repentance is a settled and an effectual change. It is but a counterfeit repentance, when men are sorry for having sinned, but amend not; are sorry to-day, and yet sin again to-morrow.

P. But Christ bids us forgive those that seven times in a day trespass, and seven times in a day return and say they repent. And will not God, then, do the same?

M. Christ speaketh of true repentance, as far as we can judge, and not of saying, I repent, when it is an apparent mockery. Infirmities, often returning, may consist with true repentance, because the sinner would fain overcome them, if he could. And so, if a man often wrong you through infirmity, and often repent, you must forgive him; but if your servant should every night come to you and say, 'Master, I have done no work to-day; but I repent, I wish I had done it," and so hold on from day to day; would you take this for repentance! Do you think it possible for an ungodly, worldly man, to repent truly of such a life to-day, and turn to it again to-morrow? It cannot be.

When the drunkard is sick, or findeth that no