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

This much I have been fain to premise, lest my words for Consolation should occasion security and desolation. But now let me desire you to peruse the Direction, and practice it. If when God hath given you Assurance, or strong probabilities of your sincerity, you will make use of it but only for that present time, you will never then ⟨p. 382⟩have a settled Peace in your soul: Besides, the great wrong you do to God, by necessitating him to be so often renewing such discoveries, and repeating the same words to you so often over. If your Child offend you, would you have him when he is pardoned no longer to believe it then you are telling it him? Should he be still asking you over and over every day, Father, am I forgiven, or no? Should not one answer serve his turn? Will you not believe that your money is in your purse or chest any longer then you are looking on it? Or that your corn is growing on your land, or your cattle in your grounds any longer then you are looking on them? By this Course a Rich man should▪ have no more content then a beggar, longer then he is looking on his money, or goods, or lands: and when he is looking on one, he should again lose the Comfort of all the rest. What hath God given you a Memory for, but to lay up former apprehensions, and discoveries, and experiences, and make use of them on all meet occasions afterwards? Let me therefore persuade you to this great and necessary work. When God hath once Resolved your Doubts, and showed you the truth of your Faith, Love or Obedience, Write it down, if you can, in your book (as I have advised you in my ⟨p. 383⟩Treatise of Rest) Such a day upon serious perusal of my heart▪ I found it thus and thus with my self. Or at least, Write it deep in your Memory; And do not suffer any fancies, or fears, or light surmises to cause you to question this again, as long as you fall not from the Obedience or Faith which you then discovered. Alas, mans Apprehension is a most mutable thing: If you leave your soul open to every new apprehension, you will never be settled: You may think two contrary things of your self in an hour. You have not always the same opportunity for right discerning, nor the same clearness of Apprehension, nor the same outward means to help you, nor the same inward Assistance of the Holy Ghost: