Sacramental meditations upon divers select places of scripture

Now to resolve the Query out of these distinctions.

First: Though all Believers have not the formal Sealings of the Spirit, yet they have the objective, or material Seal; that is, the Spirit is in them as a sanctifying spirit, putting a real difference betwixt them and others, when he is not with them by way of evidence and assurance of sanctification.

Secondly: Though all Believers are not Sealed at one and the same time, yet there are few, if any Believers, but do meet with one season or other in this life, wherein the Lord doth Seal them; if not at their first close with Christ, as many have been Sealed, yet in some choice and eminent season of communion with God, such golden spots of time, such precious seasons most Christians ⟨p. 73⟩can speak of. Though as Bernard speaks, it be rara hora, brevis mora. Seldom but sweet: Or if not in the course of their active obedience, 'tis a thousand to one but they shall meet it in the way of their passive obedience, if God exercise them eminently under the cross, or after a dark cloud of desertion, or in a dying hour.