262 DIRECTIONS FOR GETTING AND KEEPING yet Christ is worthy ; andhe came into the world to save only the unworthy, (in the, strict and legal sense.) 4. All your doubts and fears that arise from an apprehension of God's unwillingness to show you mercy, and to give you Christ and life in him, arise from the misapprehensions of Christ'sunwilling- ness to be yours; or at least from the uncertainty of his willing- ness; these have all a sufficient remedy in the general extent and tenor of the new covenant. Can you doubtwhether God be willing to,give you Christ and life, when he had given them already, even by a deed of gift Under his hand, and by a lawof grace ? 1 John v. 10-12. . Object. 'But yet all are not pardoned, and possessed of Christ, and so saved.' Answ. I told you that is. because they will not ; so that (I. pray you mark.it well) God bath, in these four means before mentioned; given even to the graceless so much ground of comfort; that noth- mg but their unwillingness to havé Christ is left to.be their terror. For though sin .be not actually remitted to them, yet it is condi- tionally remitted, viz. If theywill but accept ofChrist offered them. Will you remember this, when your doubts are greatest, and you. conclude, that certainly Christ is not yours, because you have no true grace ? Suppose it to be true, yet still know, that Christ may be yours if you will, and when you will. This comfort you may, have when you can find no evidences of true grace in yòurself. SO much for that direction. Direct. VIII. The next thing that you have to de, for building, up a stable comfort, and settling your conscience in a solid peace, is this ; ' Be sure to get and keep, a right understanding of the na- ture of saving faith.' As you must have right thoughts of the covenant of grace, (of which before,) the want the.eof doth puzzle and confound very many Christians ; so you must be sure to have right thoughts of. the ,condition of the covenant. For indeed that grace which causeth you to perform this condition, is your first special saving grace, which you may:take as a certain evidence. of your justifica- tion. And this condition is the very link which conjoineth all the general foregoing grace to all the rest of the following special grace,. The Scripture is so full and plain in assuring pardon and salvation to all trie believers, that if you can be sure you are a believer, you need not make any doubt of your interest in Christ, and your. salvation. Seeing therefore-that all the question will be, Whether you have true faith ? whether you do perform the condition of the new covenant? (for all other doubts God bath given you. suffi cient ground to resolve, as is said,) how.much. hen doth it concern you to have a right understanding of the nature of this faith ?
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