Precious faith considered in its nature, working, and growth

Again, If thou wouldst have Assurance, be much in mortifying of Sin. This is the great troubler. If thou indulg it, a cloud will come over thy Conscience & darken thy Evidences; thy Graces will all droop, and like a Candle in the socket, be ready to die, the Law will arm it self against thee, ⟨p. 439⟩and from one threatening or other will flash Hell in thy face: Satan will rake in thy old wounds of Guilt, and put thee into fresh torments; the holy Spirit will be gone, and carry away all his Cordials with him; the Promises will be as dry Breasts, and let out never a drop of sweetness to thee; thy Duties will hang the wing, and become dead and spiritless, and without comfort. In the end thou wilt experimentally find, That in crooked Paths Peace cannot be found. Awake therefore, O Believer, to the work of Mortification. Look upon sin, as it is an evil, an only evil, an hellish abomination, infinitely more loathsome than the Dogs Vomit, or the Sow's Mire, or the menstruous Cloth, by which it is shadowed out in Scripture. Arraign it as the greatest Malefactor that ever was. Call in Death, and Hell, and a blasted World, and groaning Creatures, and the Ruins of Angels, and Souls of Men, and the bloody Passion of Christ, and the horrible Injuries done to God himself, To bear witness against it: Each of these can tell sad stories about it; and all of them cry out, Crucify it, Crucify it, It is worthy to dye. Pass therefore thy doom upon it, that it may do to. Strip it of all its veils, and false covers, and bewitching appearances; pluck off its Golden Profit, and Silken Pleasures, and Purple of false Honour, that it may look as it is in its own ugly nakedness, sinful, out of measure sinful. Nail it to the Cross by holy Restraints. if it start in a Thought, or creep in at a Sense, ⟨p. 440⟩or hide it self under thy Lawful things, have one holy Truth or other as a Nail ready to fasten it, that it move no further in thee. Pierce it, let out its vital blood, I mean the love and joy and delight of it. Surrender up thy Affections to God and Christ, and heavenly things, that it may give up the ghost; bury it out of thy sight; never give it a look or glance more; converse no more with it, than thou wouldst do with the dead; raise it not up again into any fresh embraces; no, not so much as the picture of it in a sinful thought or fancy.

Again, If thou wouldst have Assurance, be much in mortifying of Sin. This is the great troubler. If thou indulg it, a cloud will come over thy Conscience & darken thy Evidences; thy Graces will all droop, and like a Candle in the socket, be ready to die, the Law will arm it self against thee,