The safety of appearing at the day of judgement, in the righteousness of Christ

2. The first act of closing with Christ is not so sensibly done, but that he does take some notice of it: some after acts of faith may be more plain, and in continuance of time the soul may lose the exact knowledge of the time of his first closing with Christ and the circumstances of it: but this first closing with Christ is not so secret a thing, but that it falls under the observation of conscience, Jer. 3.22.

This is clear For,

1. The act it self is very observable: when the soul comes at first to close with Christ, there is a weighty change wrought in it, it is a thing quite contrary to what he has been doing; he has been reasoning against it, making objections, standing out against all the pleadings of God with him, but now when he closes with Christ, he lets fall all his objections, and gives entertainment unto Christ, before he despised him, now he prizes him, before arguments did not sink into him, now they do, now he makes Christ well-come: this is exceeding remarkable, easy to be observed, this carriage of the soul is ⟨p. 134⟩set forth in Scripture, by opening to Christ, coming to him, marrying of him, is so contrary to his carriage immediately before, that it is of easy observation▪