and fiery trials. A dissapointment of what we this way look for or fear, is of no ill consequence; but to meet with it unprepared, is of the utmost danger. And unprepared we shall be, if we avoid not the corruption that reigns among the generality of all about us; nothing so catching as soul-distempers; or if we be not entirely weaned from all that is vain and sensual: for he that is not dead to sin and the world, will hardly die a martyr. Nor can we be duly prepared against an evil day, without growing strong in grace, putting on the whole armour of God, and above all taking the shield of faith; by which we believe not only the truth of the gospel, but the real love and good-will of God towards us in Christ Jesus; which will engage our love to him, and gain our obedience in life and death to his will; and thus the power of hell shall not prevail to separate us from him in either.

XLIII.

How to know our sincerity.

1736, MAY 20.-We have not only the last time, but often in the course of our conversation, mentioned the word sincerity; upon which depends the success of all we do, talk of, and hope for. I know that nothing will please you more than clearly to discern the evidences of it in your own soul, and nothing more concerns me to look for, who approach so near my grave. I will only remark at this time how our sincerity should appear in a few things:

1. In the longing of our souls for the grace of God. It should bring us not only often and fervently on our knees in prayer, but to be also mournfully thirsty at other times for a nearer

access to God, and to be anxiously desirous of doing all our works, and behaving in all our conversation to his approbation.

2. Sincerity will appear in the affliction of our hearts for sin, and in our mourning for secret and spiritual sins, for the sins of our hearts, duties and omissions. Our mourning appears, when sin, undiscernible by others, works shame, self-abasement and humiliation in us, and causes us to watch more narrowly over our hearts, our duties and conversation; and when they drive us from all self-opinion and confidence in ourselves to Jesus Christ, with a sick desire of being strengthened in his grace, choosing affliction rather than the dominion of sin.

3. In having the strongest bent of the mind towards God, and spiritual things; so that it cannot but rejoice in the enjoyment of every thing that pertains to him, his word, his people, his ordinances, and the revered mention of his holy name. In the absence of these things, secret grief and mourning fill all gracious souls; for they long to look in their Father's face, and cannot delight in the friendship of those that are no friends to him: a change being wrought in their souls, which the world is a stranger to. Instead of the gratifications here below, they seek a portion above; instead of gaping for the repute of men, their spirits cry for acceptance with God; instead of mirth and indulgence now, they desire joy and rest hereafter. Their self-loving is turned into self-loathing, their self-admiring into self-abhorring; their self-seeking into self-denying, and their self-excusing into self-condemning, which will be all the condemnation they will ever meet with, except that injurious censure

that they must be content to receive from this wicked world.

In brief, to the sincere-hearted Christians, the politeness of the world is loathsome vanity, and sin is their greatest grief, shame, and affliction. To them Christ is more precious than gold, his word sweeter than honey. God's

cause is their concern and care, his service their business, his worship their delight, his servants and children are their friends and brethren, and his glory their end. Your conversation has very much helped me to think of these characters of sincerity.

LXIV.

The Spirit in the new birth.

1736, MAY 29.-The favour of your last, as well as all the rest of your obliging letters, is most delightfully pleasing, because of the longings they discover to be in your breast after a nearer access to the fountain of eternal love. These breathings of the inward man for a more intimate communion with the Holy God, are the soul and life of religion, without which outward religious duties are but vain oblations, or dead and loathsome carcases. There is in every genuine child of God the same thirst and cry, at least in some measure, as was in the man after God's own heart, who said, "As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." These are not the aspirations of flesh and blood; no, the desires of the flesh incline another way, and can relish nothing but sensual gratifications. The Spirit of God is the parent that produceth spiritual appetites; it is from the spirit of adoption put into their hearts, that the saints do

long for God, and cry unto him Abba, Father. All men that are in the world, though in many respects of different and various tempers, are yet under the government of the one or the other of these too very different and opposite principles of flesh or spirit: they walk after, and are led by, either of them; and consequently are all comprehended in the one or the other of these two very different and opposite states of life or death. It is by this rule that the apostle concludes every individual person of all Adam's posterity, under the doom, either of everlasting death, or of everlasting life; when he says, that to be "carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." The first of these is the dismal state of every one of us by nature. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," says our Saviour. Human nature being corrupted by the apostacy of our first natural parents, what better inclinations can we by nature derive from them but such as are fleshly, corrupt and sensual. All our desires, designs and doings tend to and terminate in the gratifying of ourselves, on account of the taint that has infected every man since the fall of the first. And this our Saviour calls by the name of flesh, as he also calls that divine life and holiness, planted in the souls that are born anew, by the name of spirit,-" that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

By the spirit is meant that holy and heavenly frame of mind which bends towards God and another life; which thirsts and pursues after spiritual enjoyments as much as the sensual temper after fleshly things; and which is born or produced in the soul, and as a child begotten by the father bears his likeness, and may be well called by his name-spirit. It is also called light,

life, seed of God, the new creature, the divine nature, the image of God, and God's workmanship. It is a matter of greater admiration than we are at present capable of, that the Holy Ghost should condescend to undertake this great marvellous work of producing a new creation in us, in order to a new and better state, that he should employ his good offices to renew the spirit of men and restore the life of God within them. That the Spirit of the living God should take the matter into his own hands, to recover, revive and raise up to life, the souls of men, out of their wretched state of death and darkness, buried and lost in flesh and sin, should appear for ever marvellous in the eyes of them, who have felt the change of disposition which he has wrought in them. "For what is born of the Spirit is spirit;" that is, if there is any such thing as spirit or spiritual life and disposition in the soul, or any thing worthy that name to be found among us, that spirit is not of man, but the production of the Almighty and eternal Spirit of God.

When a beam of this Spirit is darted down from heaven into the soul of man, it causeth an effectual breaking with sin, and fleshly lusts and vanity. It sets the man right towards God, works up the heart and soul towards the Almighty, fills him with sighs and pantings for his favour, brings him to an entire dependance on God in Christ, and a willing subjection to his will; so that he desires nothing so much as to be altogether for God. His whole life and being are of no value with him but for God's honour; he cares not whether he lives or dies, if he can but be faithful to God; for him to live is Christ; that Christ may be magnified in him, whether by life or death, is all one to him: he