26 FOTïGIVî.,".;E58 OF sIN. virtue ; and to virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance ; and to temperance, patience ; and to pa- tience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly-kindness; and to brotherly- kindness, charity :" that is, carefully and diligently attend to the exercise of all the gra- ces of the Spirit, and to a conversation in all things be- coming the Gospel. What then shall be the issue, if these things are attended tog ver. 8. " If these things be in you, and abound, ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is not enough that these things be in you, that you have the root of them from the Holy Ghost, but you are to take care that they flourish and abound ; with- out which, though the root of the matter may be in you, and so you be not wholly devoid of spiritual life, yet you will be poor, barren, sapless, withering creatures, all your days. But now, suppose that these things do abound, and we be made fruitful thereby, why then, saith he, ver. 10, "1f you do these things ye shall never fall." `ghat, never fall into sin 1 nay, that is not the promise ; and he that says, when he bath done all, " that he hath no sin," he. is a liar. Or is it, never fall totally from God 1 no, the preservation of the elect, of whom he speaks, from total apostacy, is not suspend- ed on such conditions, especially not on any degree of then, such as their abounding imports. But it is, that they shall not fall into their old sins, from which they were purged, ver. 9, such conscience - wasting and defiling sins as they lived in, in the time and state of their unregeneracy. Thus, though there be in the covenant of grace, through Jesus Christ, provision made of abundant supplies for the soul's preservation from entangling sins; yet their administration bath respect unto our diligent attendance on the appointed means of receiving them. And here lies the latitude of the new covenant;
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