CONFIRMED CHRISTIAN. 489 least of some excellent preacher, as of Christ's I And to forget that these are but his messengers and instruments, to convey unto us several parcels of that truth, which is his and not theirs, and which (naturally or supernaturally) they received from him ; and all these candles were lightedby him, who is the sun ! And how little doth this weak Christian refer his common knowledge to God ; or use it for him ; or to the furtherance of his own and others' hap- piness! 1. Tim. ii. 4. 3. And the seeming Christian, though materially he may be eminent for knowledge, yet is so far from resigning himself to the teachings of Christ, that he maketh even his knowledge of Chris- tian verities to be to him but a common camal thing, while he knoweth it but in a common manner, and useth it to the service of the flesh, and never yet learned so much as tobe a new creature, nor to love God as God above the world; 1 Cor. -X. 1. A Christian indeed is one whose repentance hath been deep, and serious, and universal, and unchangeable : it hath gene to the very roots of sin; and to the bottomof the sore, and bath not left behind it any reigning, ynmortified sin, nor any prevalent love to fleshly pleasures. His repentance did not only disgrace his 'sin, and cast some reproachful words against it, and use confessions to excuse him from mortification, and to save its life, and hide it from the mortal blow ; nor doth be only repent of his open sins, and those that are most censured by the beholders of his life; but he specially perceives the dangerous poison of pride, and unbelief, and worldliness, and the want of the love of God; and all his out- ward and smaller sins do serve to show him the greater malignity of these, and these are the matter of his greatest lamentations. He taketh not up a professionof religion, with strong corruptions secretly covered in his heart : but his religion consisteth in the death of his corruptions; and the purifying of his heart : he doth not secretlycherish any sin as.too sweet or too profitable to be ut- terly forsaken, nor overlook it 'as a small, inconsiderable matter. But he feeleth -sin to be his enemy and his disease, andas he de- sireth not one enemy, one sickness, one wound, one broken bone, . one serpent in his bed, so he desireth not any one sin to be spared in his soil ; but saithwith David, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me,, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me : and lead me in the way everlasting; " Psal. cxxxix. 23. He liveth in no gross and scandalous sin ; and his infirmities are comparatively few and small ; so thatif he were not a sharper accuserof himself, than themost observant spectators are, (that are just,) there would little be known by him that is culpable and matter of reproof. He "walketh in all the commandments and ordinances of God blameless," (as to any notable miscarriage,)' VOL. 1. 62
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