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

My end in telling you this again (which I have told you elsewhere) is this, That you may not think (as I find abundance of poor troubled souls to do) that Faith (much less justifying Faith) is a Believing that you have true Grace, and shall be saved; And so fall a condemning your ⟨p. 193⟩self unjustly every time that you doubt of your own Sincerity; and think that so much as you doubt of this, so much unbelief you have: and so many poor souls complain that they have no faith, or but little, and that they cannot Believe, because they Believe not their own Faith to be Sincere: and when they wholly judge themselves unsanctified, then they call that Desperation, which they think to be a sin inconsistent with true Grace. These are dangerous Errors, all arising from that one Error which the heat of contention did carry some good men to, that Faith is a Belief that our sins are forgiven by Christ. Indeed all men are bound to apply Christ and the Promise to themselves. But that application consisteth in a Belief that this Promise is true as belonging to all, and so to me, and then in Acceptance of Christ and his benefits as an offered gift; and after this in Trusting on him for the full performance of his Promise. Hence therefore you may best see what Unbelief and Desperation are, and how far men may charge themselves with them. When you doubt whether the Promise be True, or when you refuse to Accept ⟨p. 194⟩Christ and his Benefits offered in it, and consequently to Trust him as one that is Able and Willing to save you, if you do Assent to his Truth and Accept him; this is Unbelief. But if you do Believe the Truth of the Gospel, and are heartily Willing to Accept Christ as offered in it, and only Doubt whether your Belief and Acceptance of him be sincere, and so whether you shall be saved, this is not Unbelief, but ignorance of your own Sincerity, and its consequents. Nay, and though that Affiance be wanting which is a part of Faith, yet it is but a hindering of the exercise of it, for want of a necessary concomitant condition; for the Grace of Affiance in the Habit and Virtually is there: so that it is not formally Distrust or Unbelief, any more then your not Trusting God in your sleep is Distrust. If a friend do Promise to give you a hundred pound on condition that you thankfully Accept it: If you now do Believe him, and do thankfully Accept it;

My end in telling you this again (which I have told you elsewhere) is this, That you may not think (as I finde abundance of poor troubled souls to do) that Faith (much less justifying Faith) is a Believing that you have true Grace, and shall be saved; And so fall a condemning your