RULES FOF OBTAINING FO.^,GIv"ENESS. 287 no quietness to the mind. Now, this is -so cast out by gospel-assurance of forgiveness, that though it may as- sault the soul, it shall not possess it ; though it make incursions upon it, it shall not abide and prevail in it. 3. It gives the soul a hope and expectation of the glory that shall be revealed, and supports it in sufferings and temptations. This is the hope which makes not ashamed, Rom. 5: 5, and that because it will never expose the soul to disappointment. Wherever there is the root of assurance there will be this fruit of hope. The proper object of it is things absent, invisible, eternal; the pro- mised reward, in all its fulness. This hope it cherishes in distresses, temptations, failings, and under a sense of the guilt and power of sin. Hence arises a spring of secret relief in the soul, something that claims the heart andquiets the spirit in the midst of many a storm. Now, as wherever assurance is, there will be this hope ; so wherever this secret relieving hope is, it grows on no other root but a living persuasion of a union with Christ and a personal interest in the things hoped for. 4. As it will do many other things, so, that I may give one comprehensive instance, it will enable men even to die for Christ., Death to men who see not one step be- yond it, has been esteemed of all things most terrible : but this is little, compared with looking through it as a passage. into eternity. For a man to choose death, in the most terrible manner of its approach, rather than life, expecting an eternity to ensue, argues a comfort- able persuasion of a good state after death. Now, I am persuaded that there are hundreds who, upon gospel- saving accounts, would embrace the stake for the testi- mony of Jesus, who still are unconscious that they have
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