404 DIRECTIONS FOR GETTING AND KEEPING to discover how faryou have sinned ; and let afflictions onlyquick- en you to try by the word. How many a soul have I known that, by misinterpreting providences, have, in a blind 'jealousy, "been turned quite from . truth and duty, supposing it had been error and sin; and all because of their afflictions. As a foolish man in his sickness accuseth the .last meat.' that.he eat before he fell sick, though it might be the wholesomest that ever he eat, and the disease may have many causeswhich he is ignorant of. One man being sick, a busy, secluding Papist comes to him, (for it is their use to take such opportunities,) and tells him, ' It is God's hand upon you for forsaking or straying from the Roman Catholic church, and. God hath. sent 'this, affliction to bring you home. All your ancestors lived and died in this church, and so must you, if ever you will 'be saved.' The poor, jealous, affrighted sinner, hearing this, and through his ignorance being unable to answer him, thinks it even true, and presently turns Papist. In the samemanner do most other sects. How many have the Antinomians and Anabap- tists thus seduced ! Finding a poor silly woman (for it is most commonly with them) to beunder.sad doubts and distress of soul, one tells her, ' It is God's hand on you to convince you of error, and to bring you to submit to the ordinance of baptism ; "and upon this many bave been rebaptized, and put their foot into the snare which I have yet seen few escape and draw back from. Another comes and tells the troubled soul, 'lc is legal preaching, and looking at something in yourself for peace and comfort, which hath brought you to this distress : as long as you follow these legal preachers, and read their books, and look at any thing in yourself, and seek assurance from marks within you, it will never be better with you. These preachers understand not .the nature of free grace,' nor ever tasted it themselves, and therefore they cannot preach it, but de- spise it. You must know that grace is so free that the covenant hath no condition : you must believe, and. not look after the marks. And believing is but to be.persuaded that God is reconciled to you, and bath forgiven you ;.for you were justified before you were born, ifyou are one of the elect, and can but believe it. It is not any thing of your own, by which you can be justified ; nor is it any sin of yours that can unjustify. It is the witness of the Spirit only persuading you of your justification and adoption, that can give you assurance ; and fetching it from any thing in yourself, is but a resting' on your own righteousness, and forsaking. Christ When the Antinomian bath but sung this ignorant charm to a poor soul as ignorant as himself, and prepared by terrors to entertain the impression, presently it (oft) takes, and the sinner without a wonder of mercy is undone. This doctrine, which subverteth the very seppe of the gospel, being entertained, subverteth his faith and
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