296 DIRECTIONS FOR GETTING .AND KEEPING that "he that nameth the name of Christ . must depart from in- iquity ; ". 1 Tim. ü. 19. And that "'God will judge all men ac- cording to their works," and bid the workers of iniquity depart from him ; Matt. vii. 23. Now, can buy man on earth tell us just how great, or how often sinning will stand with true grace, and howmuch will not? Who can find those punctual bounds in the word of God? I conclude, therefore, that no minister, or, at least, none who is no wiser than I am, can give a true discernible differ- ence between the worst of saints, and the best of the unsanctified, or the weakest degree of true grace, and the highest of common grace; and so to help such weak Christians to true assurance of their. salvation. 2. But, as this is impossible to be declared by the teachers, so much more is it impossible to be discerned by the persons them- selves, yea, though it could possibly be declared to them ; and that for these reasons. 1. From the nature of the thing. Small things are hardly dis- cerned. A little is next to none. 2. From the great darkness of man's understanding, and his unacquaintedness with himself, (both the nature, faculties, and motions of his soul, naturally considered, and the moral state, dispositions, and motions of it;1 and is it;likely that so blind aneye can discernthe smallest thing, and that in so strange and dark a place ? Every purblind man cannot see an atom, or a pin, especially in the dark. 3. The heart is deceitful above all things, as well as dark; full .of seemings, counterfeits, and false pretenses. And a Child in grace is not able to discover its jugglings, and understand 'a book, where almost every word is equivocal or mysterious. 4. The heart is most confused, as well as dark and deceitful ; it is like a house, or shopof tools, where all things are thrown together on a heap; and nothing keeps its own place. There are such multiplicity ofcogitations, fahcies, and passions, and such irregular thronging in ofthem, and such a confus- ed reception, and operation of objects and conceptions, that it is a wonderful difficult thing for the best Christian to discern clearly the bent and actions, and so ,the state of his own soul. For in such -a crowd of cogitations and passions, we are like men in a fair, or crowd of people, where a confused noise may be heard, but you cannot well perceive what any of them say, except either . some one near you that speaks much louder than all the rest, or else except you single out some one from the rest, and go close to him to confer with him of purpose. Our intellect and passions are like the lakes of water in the common roads, where the frequent pas- sage of horses Both so muddy it, that you. can see nothing in it, especially that is near.the bottom ; when in pure, untroubledwaters you may see a small thing. In such a confusion and tumult as is
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