WHO LOSE THE SAINT'S REST. 95 that little which they have. ---If they could but have kept their present enjoyments, they would not have much cared for the loss of heaven. If they had lost and forsaken all for Christ, they would have found all again in him : for he would have been all in all to them. But now they have forsook Christ, for other things, they shall lose Christ, and that also for which they forsook him ; even the enjoyments of time besides suffering the torments of hell. 2. (I.) Among the enjoyments of time, they shall particularly lose their presumptuous belief of their interest in the favour of God, and the merits of Christ ;all their hopes :all their false peace of con- science ; all their carnal mirth, and all their sensual delights. § 3. (1) They shall lose their presumptuous belief of their interest in the favour of God, and the merits of Christ. This false belief now supports our spirits, and defends them from the terrors that would otherwise seize upon them. But what will ease their trouble, when they can believe no longer, nor rejoice any longer? If a man be near to the greatest mischief, and yet strongly conceit that he is in safety, he may be as cheerful as if all were well. If there were no more to make a man happy, but to believe that he is so, or shall be so, happiness would be far more com- mon than it is like to be. As true faith is the leading grace in the regenerate, so is false faith the leading vice in the unregenerate. Why do such multitudes sit still, when they might have pardon, but that they verily think they are pardoned already? If you could ask thousands in hell, what madness brought them thither ? they would most of them answer, " We made sure of being saved, till we found ourselves damned. We would have been more earnest seekers of regeneration, and the power of godliness, but we verily thought we were Christians before. We have flattered ourselves into these. torments, and now there is no remedy." Reader, I must in faithfulness tell thee, that the confident belief of their good state, which the careless, unholy, unhumbled multitude, so
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