A 304 To&G39EzESS OF SIN. lions of faith and love to God than are mixed with his complaints. These things, I say then, are not to be judged of by spiritual sense; but we are to live by faith about them. And no soul ought to conclude, that because it has not the one, it has not the other; that because it has not joy and peace, it has no interest in pardon and forgiveness. RULE VII. Mix not foundation and building-work log ether. Our foundation in dealing with God is Christ alone, mere grace and pardon in him. Our building is by holi- ness and obedience, as the fruits of that faith by which we have received the atonement. And great mistakes there are in this matter, which bring great entangle- ments on the souls of men. Some are all their days laying the foundation, and are never able to build upon it any comfort to themselves or usefulness to others; and the reason is, because they will be mixing with the foundation stones that are fit only for the building. They will be bringing their obedience, duties, mortifica- tion of sin, and the like, to the foundation. These are precious stones to build with, but unmeet to be first laid, to bear upon them the whole weight of the build- ing. The foundation is to be laid, as was said, in mere grace, mercy, pardon in the blood of Christ. This the soul is to accept of, and to rest in as mere grace, with- out the consideration of any thing in itself, but that it is sinful and obnoxious to ruin. This it finds a difficulty in, and would gladly have something of its own to mix with it. It cannot tell how to fix these foundation-stones without some cement of its own endeavors and duties;
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