especially the Temptations of Prosperity do oftener make me fear, then those of persecution and adversity. I am sometimes afraid, lest it be but the weakness of my Body, and the distance of Objects, and smallness of Temptations, that makes them no more prevailing with me: And that if I had as strong a body as others, and were in that Dignity, Wealth and Abundance of all things, as some are; whether Honours, Car•al Pleasures, Sports, Delightful Meats, Drinks, Beauty, and such vanities might not carry me away, as I see they do others, ⟨p. 165⟩that made as great a show of Holiness. Yet do not these doubts much affright or disquiet me, because I find God at present possessing me with those Resolutions to cast away all for Christ, which, I doubt not, are the work of his own Grace, and because I have experience of abundance of preventing and sustaining Grace; and because I find at the present that God enableth me to account all things loss and dross and dung for him, and easily without much reluctancy to empty my purse for him and his poor, and to lay out my time and strength for him and his Church, and with some good success to resist Temptations; and that I have no Desire, (in any activity or prevalency) to be any higher in the world then I am, but think God hath chosen out for me the best condition and station that I could have desired in all the world. And then for Perseverance and Salvation, this is my Case: It is my strong opinion that no man who hath attained to a Rootedness in the Faith, and so is throughly sanctified, doth ever totally and finally fall away: which Christ seemeth to intimate in saying that the Cause why men fall away in Tribulation and Persecution, is because the seed had not deep Rooting, Mat. 13. And I am yet more confident that none of the ⟨p. 166⟩Elect shall ever fall away; and persuaded, that all the Rooted, through-Christians, are Elect. But yet I dare not say, that I am Certain of this, that all are elect to salvation, and shall never fall away totally and finally, who sincerely Believe and are Justified. It is my opinion, but I dare not put it into my Creed among either the Points of absolute Necessity, or undoubted Verity. I know how many Texts of Scripture seem to speak otherwise: and I know how generally the Primitive Fathers thought otherwise, if a man can know their minds by their Writings:
especially the Temptations of Prosperity do oftner make me fear, then those of persecution and adversity. I am sometimes afraid, lest it be but the weakness of my Body, and the distance of Objects, and smalness of Temptations, that makes them no more prevailing with me: And that if I had as strong a body as others, and were in that Dignity, Wealth and Abundance of all things, as some are; whether Honors, Car•al Pleasures, Sports, Delightfull Meats, Drinks, Beauty, and such vanities might not carry me away, as I see they do others, ⟨p. 165⟩that made as great a shew of Holiness. Yet do not these doubts much affright or disquiet me, because I finde God at present possessing me with those Resolutions to cast away all for Christ, which, I doubt not, are the work of his own Grace, and because I have experience of abundance of preventing and sustaining Grace; and because I finde at the present that God enableth me to account all things loss and dross and dung for him, and easily without much reluctancy to empty my purse for him and his poor, and to lay out my time and strength for him and his Church, and with some good success to resist Temptations; and that I have no Desire, (in any activity or prevalency) to be any higher in the world then I am, but think God hath chosen out for me the best condition and station that I could have desired in all the world. And then for Perseverance and Salvation, this is my Case: It is my strong opinion that no man who hath attained to a Rootedness in the Faith, and so is throughly sanctified, doth ever totally and finally fall away: which Christ seemeth to intimate in saying that the Cause why men fall away in Tribulation and Persecution, is because the seed had not deep Rooting, Mat. 13. And I am yet more confident that none of the ⟨p. 166⟩Elect shall ever fall away; and perswaded, that all the Rooted, through-Christians, are Elect. But yet I dare not say, that I am Certain of this, that all are elect to salvation, and shall never fall away totally and finally, who sincerely Believe and are Justified. It is my opinion, but I dare not put it into my Creed among either the Points of absolute Necessity, or undoubted Verity. I know how many Texts of Scripture seem to speak otherwise: and I know how generally the Primitive Fathers thought otherwise, if a man can know their mindes by their Writings:
