The mourners cordial against excessive sorrow discovering what grounds of hope Gods people have…

3. There are some who only lead a sober and civil life among men. They make no great open profession of piety, they are not in their carriage and dep•rtment of themselves, zealous for the promoting of the interest of Religion, though they discover nothing against it, but show a favour for it; they live honestly and quietly among men; they are neither drawn into debaucheries with lewd men, nor to the strict duties of piety with Godly men; though they attend upon the commodities of Religion: thus they live, and thus they die; there is very little can be said for them, and very little against them. Concerning such as these let these two things be observed.

3. There are some who only lead a sober and civil life among men. They make no great open profession of piety, they are not in their cariage and dep•rtment of themselves, zealous for the promoting of the interest of Religion, though they discover nothing against it, but shew a favour for it; they live honestly and quietly among men; they are neither drawn into d•baucheries with lewd men, nor to the strict duties of pie•y with Godly men; though they attend upon the commodities of Religion: thus they live, and thus they dy; there is very little can be said for them, and very little against them. Concerning such as these let these two things be observed.

1. Here is very little if any ground for a positive and concluding Hope concerning such as these are. And why? because there wants something that is positive for such an ⟨p. 99⟩Hope to build upon: and such as the ground are, such the Hope must needs be. It is certain that where there is no Saving Grace wrought in men, there is no Foundation of Salvation laid in them; and Grace, wherever it is, is an active principle: and […] it be not alike active in all men, yet it can no further appear than we make the discovery of the actings of it, or of something that crries such a resemblance in it, that we […] able to argue concluding and affirmatively concerning any: If we know nothing by them, it follows that we can determine nothing concerning them. Restraint from enormous sins, and doing of moral duties to men among whom they live, and maintaining of a form of Godliness & practised duties in the proofs, sion of Religion, as, going to hear the word preached, reading the Scriptures and praying in the Family, and externally Sanctifying the Sabbath: though they are in themselves commendable, yet they are such common things among professors, that they speak very little positively, especially where in conjunction with them there is nothing made of any thing more than a kind of indifferency.