7
a thorough sight of sin? Was it ever put to resist Satan, and to feel the wrath of God lying upon thy conscience? When thou wert apprehensive of hell and the grave, then did God shew thee Christ a ransom, a righteousness, &c. Then couldst thou say, Oh! I see grace enough in Christ?' If so, thou mayest say that which is the greatest word in the world, I BELIEVE. Untried faith is uncertain faith.
To believing, there must go a clear conviction of sin and the merits of the blood of Christ, and of Christ's willingness to save a man, considered merely as a sinner. A thing more difficult than to make a world. All the power in nature cannot get so high, in a storm of sin and guilt, as really to believe there is any grace, any willingness in Christ to save.
All temptations, Satan's advantages, and our complainings, are laid in self-righteousness and self-excellency. God pursueth these by many ways, as Laban pursued after Jacob for his images. These must be torn from thee, be as unwilling as thou wilt. With these Christ will not dwell, and till Christ come in, guilt will abide, Where guilt is, there is hardness of heart; therefore much guilt argues little, if any thing, of Christ.
When guilt is raised up take heed of
