170 The Gofpel-Myflery Dire t. X, thdfe rfraelites íhould enter in ; as the event did quickly manifeft, Dent. 1, 20, 21, 29, 3o. Yet were they not bound.in this cafe to truft confidently in God, to give them vk ory over their enemies, and to give them the prffeflion of the land ? had they not fufficient ground for fuch a faith? was itnot juit with God to confume them in the wildernefs for their un- belief? "Let us therefore fear, left a prornife being it made of entering into this everiafting reft through 'c Chrift, we fhould come fhort of it and fall after cc the fame example of unbelief," Heb iv. r, r z. Fourthly, The profeffors of true godlinefs, that we read of through the fcrircures of the old and new Teftarnent; did commonlyprofefs their affurance and perfuafion of their intereft in God and his falvation, and were directed by the word of God fo to do; and true faints had fti11 fume true affurance of it. And we have no caufe to judge, that this affurance was grounded on the certainty of their own good qualifi- cations, but rather on the promifes of Godlay the di- recd aft of faith. We may judge of the ordinary pro- feftion of the frame of Spirit that was in faints, by forne inftances. I (hail begin with the profefiion that the church made when it was very corrupt, at its frrft coming out of Egypt, when fewof them could affure themfelves, by their own good qualifications, that they were in a Rate of grace already; which ma- ny now imagine to be the only wayof affurance. Ev- en in that corrupt time, the children of Ifrael fang that triumphant fong of Mofes, "The Lord is my ffrength and my long, and he is become my falva- 6' Lion : he is my God," &e. Exod. xv. 2. Mofes taught them in this long, to affure i hemfelves of their own perfonal intereft in the falvation; andhe guided them to the praetice of their duty. And they did' not find fault withMofes, as fome do withminifters in thefe days, for putting them to exprefs more con- fidence in their long, than they can find ground for from their qualifications; but they applied themfeives
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