Part 16

preventing hereof, let the directions here following be carefully observed.

1. Be watchful against every sin, yea against the very beginnings of sin. Give no place to the devil. Take heed lest there be at any time in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. Especially let us take heed of sinning against our own judgment and knowledge, against the persuasion of our heart and conscience, and against the revelation and motion of God's Spirit in us. Sin is deceitful, and Satan is subtle. They allure men step by step to descend, till by degrees they bring us into this irrecoverable downfall of the sin against the Holy Ghost.

2. Have the Gospel, the Word of salvation, in high account. As we have knowledge thereof, so let us set our heart and love upon it. Love of the Gospel will make men cleave close unto it, and will keep them from renouncing it. If men receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, and be damned. Through light esteem of the Gospel, men often come to reject it: and to prove Apostates.

3. Duly weigh the difference between Christ and the world; how Christ can uphold thee, and preserve, and protect and prosper thee against the world: but all the world cannot shelter thee from his wrath. True knowledge of Christ, of the benefits we reap by him, of the privileges we have in him, of the comfort and peace we receive through him, will make us account all the things of this world, in comparison of Christ, but as dung: and it will make us also stand the more resolutely against all the assaults of the world, and not suffer ourselves thereby to be drawn from Christ. Let us often call to mind that which Christ hath said to this purpose, What is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall he give in exchange for his soul?

4. If at any time through his own weakness, or the violence of any temptation, a man be so far overtaken, as to deny the Gospel, and to forsake Christ, let him not persist therein; but rather (as Peter did) upon the first occasion offered to discover his folly, let him thoroughly humble himself, and speedily repent. The longer sin continueth, the stronger it groweth: and the greater advantage will Satan take thereby.

Deadly poison being speedily purged out, may be kept from infecting the vital parts.

5. After once thou art recalled, having before time denied

Christ, be the more watchful over thyself, that thou deny him not again, and again. If the devil being once cast out, return again, He will come with seven other spirits more wicked than himself. If after men have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

6. While thine heart is pliable pray; earnestly, instantly pray, as against all sins, so especially against presumptuous sins (as David did) and in particular, against this unpardonable sin. Nothing more powerful against sin and Satan than faithful prayer: without this all other means are fruitless.

This means is to be used as for ourselves, so also for others (as we have before shown). There is nothing against which we ought more earnestly to pray, than against this sin: for no estate more desperate than theirs who fall into this sin.

34. Of the persons who cannot fall into the sin against the Holy Ghost.

As this Treatise was begun with the declaration of God's Mercy, in forgiving all manner of sins, so it shall be concluded with the application of comfort to the elect, and that in regard to the nature and issue of the sin against the Holy Ghost. That which makes this sin seem like a hot fiery thunderbolt, even that which makes it most terrible and dreadful, that, I say, ministers matter of comfort to the elect, namely, that it is impossible it should be pardoned, and that the committers thereof are sure to be eternally damned.

The comfort is this, that the elect are absolutely freed from it, so as they cannot fall into it.

The reasons are evident.

1. When they come to be enlightened, together with their illumination, regeneration is wrought in them. Now they who are born again cannot so wholly give up themselves to sin and Satan, as to sin against the Holy Ghost. The Apostle (in a more inferior degree and kind of sinning, than in this kind against the Holy Ghost) says, Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin: for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he is born again.

2. All the sins of the elect in the issue and event are Venial, such as shall be pardoned. For though in the nature and kind of sin, every one of their sins is (as the sins of all others) mortal (For the wages (and due deserts) of sin (not any one sin excepted) is death) yet has Christ by his death satisfied for all their sins. All therefore shall be pardoned to them.

3. All that are elected are elected to eternal life: and being elected thereto, they shall assuredly be made partakers thereof. God's purpose and decree remain firm and stable and cannot be made frustrate. They are not therefore in danger of eternal damnation: and so cannot fall into that sin.

Yet let no man be presumptuous or secure in this regard: for first, he may be mistaken in his election, and think he is chosen when indeed he is not. If he be deceived and mistake the marks of his election, then is he not exempted from this sin, and the fearful issue thereof.

Again, though he be elected, yet if he be not watchful over himself, he may fall into so great a gulf of sin, and be so near the pit of eternal damnation, as he will have cause again and again to repent his folly, as we have * before shown. Let us therefore work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Unto which salvation that we may be kept blameless, The Grace of the Lord

Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with us all. Amen.

FINIS.

The Mind of the Front

This constant, complete soldier opposes

The failing world, the infecting flesh, the devil

In Jesuit-ed. Angel-shape: three foes

Deadly, still tempting men to evil.

Christ comforts with his own name-inscribed ensign; And crowns his own victory in the end.

Backsliding Julian is at peace with hell; Conflicts with heaven; the known truth does despite; Whom Christ's victorious banner does compel

To yield the glorious conqueror his right.

Snares, swords, fire, brimstone, are his fearful lot; He now feels him, whom before he feared not.

Self-strangling Judas, and self-stabbing Saul, Stand as everlasting pillars of despair, To warn future generations of their dreadful fall, Never to be repaired by faithful prayer: Yet heaven's three years and six months congealed frost

Elijah's fervent prayer thawed at last.

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