Lect. 71.
- The faithfull apt to thinke, they have lost al grace because they have lost their first love, delight, and fervency in good duties, 2 their faith and assurance of Gods favour, 3 their strength to overcome tentations to sin. Two preservatives against this tentation. 1 The best of Gods servants have beene thus sub∣ject to variablenesse in their spirituall estate, p. 352. God seeth it good they should bee so, p 353. Object. Wicked men will bee apt to stumble at this, Ibid. 2 Though thou thin∣kest in this case, thou hast lost all grace, yet it is not so, 1 if thou wouldst examine thine heart well, thou wouldst finde grace in it still, 2 though thou cannot another may, 3 Though neither thy selfe, nor another can discerne it, yet certainely it is in thee, for no elect childe of God, called according to his purpose can so fall as utterly to loose all grace, p. 354. This evident in all the three degrees of their spirituall decayes. p. 355.
- Obj. But though I be now in the state of grace, I feare when the fiery tryall shal come, I shall fall, I shall not be able to stand in the last and sharpest combat, I shall have with Sa∣than at my death. Answ. Certainely thou shalt not perish irrecoverably, if there be the fruit of Gods eternall love and election, in any truth of grace in thee, two pillars thou hast to uphold thee, 1 Gods power, 2 his will, p. 355, 356.