SPIRITUAL PEACE AND COMFORT. 301 or just when they were pardoned, justified, adopted, and put into a state of salvation.' This must needs be undeniable, if you grant the former point, That the least measure of grace yieldeth not assurance of its sin- cerity, (which is proved;) and withal, if you grant this plain truth, That it is God's ordinary way to give a small measure of grace at the first. This I prove thus : 1. Christ likeneth God's kingdom of grace to a grain of mustard-seed, which is, at the first, the least of all seeds, but after, combth to a tree ; and to a little leaven, which leaveneth the whole Lump. I will not deny but this may be applied to the, visible progress of the gospel, and increase of the church. But it is plainly applicable also to thekingdom of Christ within us. 2. The Scripture oft calleth such young beginners, babes, children, novices, &c. 3. We are all commanded to grow in grace; which implieth, that we have our smallest measure at the first. 4. Heb. v. 12. shóweth that strength 'of grace should be according to time and means. 5. Common experience is an invincible argument for this. Men are at a distance from Christ, when he first calleth them to come to him ; and many steps they have toward him before they reach to him. We are first so far enlightened as to see our sin and misery, and the meaning and truth of, the gospel, and so roused out of our security, and made to' look about us, and see that we have souls to save or lose, and that it is no jesting -matter to be a Christian. And so we come to understand the tenor of this covenant, and Christ's terms of saving men. But, alas, how long is it usually after this, before we come' sincerely to yield, to his terms; and take him as he is offered, and renounce the world, flesh, and the devil, and give up ourselves to him in a faithful covenant ! We are long deliberating- before we can get our backward hearts to resolve. How, then, should a man know just when he was past the highest step of common or preparativegrace; and arrived at the first step of special grace? Yet mark, that I here speak onlyof God's ordinary way of giving grace ; for I doubt not, but in some God may give a higher degree of grace at the first day ofconversion, than some others do attain in many years. And those may know the time of their true conversion, both because the effect was discernible, and because the suddenness 'makes the change more sensible and observable. But this is not the ordinary course. Ordinarily, convictions lie long on the soul before they come to a true conversion. Con- science is wounded, and smarting long, and longgrudging against our sinful and' negligent courses, and telling us of the necessityof Christ, and a holy life, before we sincerely obey conscience, and
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=