FAITH. Well, I was not so fond of his company at first, but am as sick of it now. What shall we do to

be rid of him?

CHR. Take my advice and do as I bid you, and you shall find that he will soon be sick of your company too, except GOD shall touch his heart and turn it.

FAITH. What would you have me to do?

CAR. Why, go to him, and enter into some serious discourse about the power of religion; and ask him plainly, when he has approved of it, (for that he will) whether this thing be set up in his heart, house, or conversation?

Then FAITHFUL stepped forward again, and said to TALKATIVE, Come, what cheer? how is it now?

TALK, Thank you, well; I thought we should have had a great deal of talk by this time.

FAITH. Well, if you will, we will fall to it now; and since you left it with me to state the question, let it be this: How doth the saving grace of GoD discover itself when it is in the heart of man?

TALK, I perceive, then, that our talk must be about the power of things: well, it is a very good question, and I shall be willing to answer you: 'and take my answer in brief thus :-first, where the grace of GOD is in the heart it causeth there a great outcry against sin. Secondly,

FAITH. Nay, hold, let us consider of one at once: I think you should rather say, It shows itself by inclining

the soul to abhor its sin.

TALK. Why, what difference is there between crying out against, and abhorring of, sin.

FAITH. Oh! a great deal. A man may cry out against sin, of policy, but he cannot abhor it but by virtue of a godly antipathy against it: I have heard many cry out against sin in the pulpit, who yet can abide it well enough in the heart, house, and conversation. JOSEPH's mistress cried with a loud voice, as if she had been very holy; but she would willingly, notwithstanding that, have committed uncleanness with him'. Some cry out against sin, even as the mother cries out against her child in her lap, when she calls it slut and naughty girl, and then falls to hugging and kissing it.

TALK. You lie at the catch, I perceive.

FAITH. No, not I, I am only for setting things right. But what is the second thing whereby you will prove a discovery of a work of grace in the heart?

TALK. Great knowledge of gospel mysteries.

FAITH. This sign should have been first: but, first or last, it is also false; for knowledge, great knowledge, may be obtained in the mysteries of the gospel, and yet no work of grace in the soul. Yea, if a man have all knowledge he may yet be nothing, and so consequently be no child of God. When CHRIST said, "Do ye know all these things?" and the disciples had answered, Yes, he added, "Blessed are ye, if ye "do them." He doth not lay the blessing in the knowing of them, but in the doing of them. For there is a knowledge that is not attended with doing: “he "that knoweth his master's will, and doeth it not.” A man may know like an angel and yet be no christian:

therefore your sign of it is not true. Indeed to know is a thing that pleaseth talkers and boasters; but to do is that which pleaseth GOD. Not that the heart can be good without knowledge; for without that the heart is naught. There is therefore knowledge and knowledge knowledge that resteth in the bare speculation of things, and knowledge that is accompanied with the grace of faith and love, which puts a man upon doing even the will of God from the heart; the first of these will serve the talker; but without the other the true christian is not content: "Give me "understanding and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall "observe it with my whole heart'."

TALK. You lie at the catch again; this is not for edification.

FAITH. Well, if you please, propound another sign how this work of grace discovereth itself where it is.

TALK. Not I, for I see we shall not agree.

FAITH. Well, if you will not, will you give me leave to do it?

TALK. You may use your liberty.

FAITH. A work of grace in the soul discovereth itself, either to him that hath it, or to standers by.

To him that hath it, thus: it gives him conviction of sin, especially of the defilement of his nature, and the sin of unbelief, for the sake of which he is sure to be damned, if he findeth not mercy at God's hand by faith in JESUS CHRIST'. This sight and sense of things worketh in him sorrow and shame for sin; he findeth,

Pfal. cxix. 34. 2 Mark, xvi. 16. John, xvi. 8, 9. Rom. vii, 24.

94

FAITHFUL SHOWS THE SIGNS OF A WORK OF GRACE;

moreover, revealed in him the Saviour of the world, and the absolute necessity of closing with him for life; at the which he findeth hungerings and thirstings after him; to which hungerings, &c, the promise is made, Now according to the strength or weakness of his faith in his Saviour, so is his joy and peace, so is his love to holiness, so are his desires to know him more, and also to serve him in this world. But though, I say, it discovereth itself thus unto him, yet it is but seldom that he is able to conclude that this is a work of grace; because his corruptions now, and his abused reason, make his mind to misjudge in this matter; therefore in him that hath his work there is required a very sound judgement before he can with steadiness conclude that this is a work of grace.

To others it is thus discovered:-1. By an experimental confession of his faith in CHRIST.-2. By a life answerable to that confession; to wit, a life of holiness; heart-holiness, family-holiness, (if he hath a family) and by conversation-holiness in the world; which in the general teacheth him inwardly to abhor his sin, and himself for that, in secret; to suppress it in his family, and to promote holiness in the world; not by talk only, as an hypocrite or talkative person may do, but by a practical subjection in faith and love to the power of the word. And now, Sir, as to this brief description of the work of grace, and also the discovery of it, if you have aught to object, object;

■ Pf. xxxviii. 18, Jer. xxxi. 19. Matt. v. 6. 2 Pf. 1. 23. Ezek. xx. 43. Phil. iii, 17-20.

Rev. xxi. 6.
Rom. x. 9, 10.

A&ts, iv. 12.
Matt. v. 8.

Gal. i. 15, 16. John, xiv. 15.

if not, then give me leave to propound to you a second question.

TALK. Nay, my part is not now to object but to hear let me therefore have your second question.

FAITH. It is this: Do you experience this first part of the description of it? and doth your life and conversation testify the same? or standeth your religion in word or tongue, and not in deed and truth? Pray, if you incline to answer me in this, say no more than you know the GOD above will say Amen to; and also nothing but what your conscience can justify you in: "for not he that commendeth himself is approved, "but whom the LORD commendeth." Besides, to say I am thus and thus, when my coversation and all my neighbours tell me I lie, is great wickedness.

Then TALKATIVE at first began to blush; but, recovering himself, thus he replied: You come now to experience, to conscience, and GOD; and to appeal to him for justification of what is spoken: this kind of discourse I did not expect; nor am I disposed to give an answer to such questions; because I count not myself bound thereto, unless you take upon you to be a catechizer; and though you should so do, yet I may refuse to make you my judge. But I pray, will you tell me why you ask me such questions?

FAITH. Because I saw you forward to talk, and because I knew not that you had aught else but notion. Besides, to tell you all the truth, I have heard of you, that you are a man whose religion lies in talk, and that your conversation gives this your mouth-profession the lie. They say you are a spot