The right method for a settled peace of conscience, and spiritual comfort in 32…

If your mistake be from any false apprehension of the Nature of Christ, as if he were not a sufficient Saviour, or were such an enemy to your comfort that he would do you more hurt then good; if these mistakes are prevalent, then you do not know Christ, and therefore must presently better study him in the Gospel, till you have prevailed over such ignorant and blasphemous conceits (but none of this I suppose is your case.)

If then the reason why you say, you cannot believe, be from any thing that is really in Christ (and not upon mistake,) then it must be either from some dislike of his saving work, by which he would pardon you, and save you from damnation (but that is ⟨p. 59⟩impossible; for you cannot be willing to be damned or unpardoned, till you lose your Reason:) Or else it is from a dislike of his work of sanctification, by which he would cleanse your heart and life, by saving you from your sinful nature and actions: some grudgings against Christs holy and undefiled Laws and ways will be in the best, while there is that flesh in them which lusteth against the Spirit, so that they cannot do the things they would: But if truly you have such a dislike of a sinless condition, through the love of any sin or creature, that you cannot be willing to have Christ to cure you and cleanse you from that sin, and make you holy, I say, if this be true, in a prevailing degree, so that if Christ and Holiness were offered you, you would not Accept them, then it is certain you have not true faith. And in this case it is easy to discern, that your first work lieth not in getting Comfort or ease to your troubled mind, but in getting better conceits of Christ and a holy state and life, that so you may be willing of Christ as Christ is of you, and so become a true believer. And here I would not leave you at that loss as some do, as if there were nothing for you th• do for the getting of faith: for certainly God hath prescribed you Means for that end. Faith cometh by hearing, ⟨p. 60⟩and hearing by the word of God preached,