354 ' DIRECTIONS FORGETTING AND IeZEPING sin, and live, most disobediently, must needs be furthest from as- surance of the sincerity of their obedience, and consequently of their salvation. 2. God himself bath plainly made our actual obedience not only a sign of a true faith, but a secondary part of the condition of our salvation, as promised in the new covenant. And therefore it is as impossible tobe saved without it, as without faith, supposing that the person have opportunity to obey, in which case only it is made: necessary, as a condition. This I will but cite several scrip- tures to prove, and leave you to peruse them if you be unsatisfied ; Rom. viii. 1 -14. They that are in Christ Jesus, are they that walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but ifye by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." " Blessed are they that do his com- mandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gate into the city ; " Rev. xxii. 14. " He is be- come the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obeyhim ;" Heb. v. 9. " Take my yoke upon you, for it is easy, and my burden, for it is-light. Learn of me to be meek and lowly, &c., and ye shall find rest," &c. ; Matt. xi. 28-30. John xvi. 27. Luke xiii. 24. Phil. ii. 12. Rom. ii. 7. 10. John xv. 12. 17. xii. 21. Matt. v. 44. Luke vi. 27. 35. Prov. viii. 17. 21. Matt. x. 37. 1 Tim. vi. 18, 19. 2Tim. ii. 5. 12. Matt. xxv. 41, 42. James ii. 21 -24. 26. i. 22. ii. 5. Prov. i. 23. xxviii. 13. Lukexüi. 3. 5. Matt. xii. 37. xi. 25, 26. vi. 12. 14, 15. 1 John i. 9. Acts viii. 22. iii. 19. xxii. 16. Luke vi. 37. 1 Pet. iv. 18. i. 2.22. Rom. vi. 16.; with abundance more the like. Now, when a poor sinner thatbath oft fallen into drunkenness, railing, strife, envying, &c., shall read that these are theworks of the flesh, and that for these things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience ;' and that every man shall be judged according to his works, and according to what he . bath done in the flesh ; and that they that do such things shall not inherit the kingdomof. God ; it cannot be but that his assurance of salvation must needs have so great a dependence on his obedience, as that these sins will diminish it. When he reads, Rom. vi.,16., "His servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness," he must needs think, how such a time, and such a time, he obeyed sin ; and the oftener and the more willfully he did it, the more doubtful will his case be ; especially if he be yet in a sinful course, which he might avoid, whether of gross sin, or of any willful' sin, it cannot be but this will obscure the evidence of his obedience. Men cannot judge beyond evidence ; and he that bath not the evidence of his true obedience, bath not the evidence of the sincerity of his faith.
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