The proverb that goes of him.

Men shun to deal with Kim.

better than he. He is the very stain, reproach, and shame of religion to all that know him; it can hardly have a good word in all that end of the town where he dwells, through him.* Thus say the common people that know him, " A saint abroad, and a devil at home!" His poor family finds it so; he is such a churl, such a railer at, and so unreasonable with his servants, that they neither know how to do for, or to speak to him. Men that have any dealings with him say, "It is better to deal with a Turk than with him; for fairer dealings they shall have at their hands." This Talkative, if it be possible, will go beyond them, beguile and over-reach them. Besides, he brings up his sons to follow his steps; and if he finds in any of them a foolish timorousness, (for so he calls the first appearance of a tender conscience,) he calls them fools and blockheads, and by no means will employ them in much, or speak to their commendation before others. For my part, I am of opinion that he has, by his wicked life, caused many to stumble and fall; and will be, if God prevents not, the ruin of many more.

Faith. Well, my brother, I am bound to believe you; not only because you say you know him, but because, like a Christian, you make your reports of men. For I cannot think that you speak these things of ill-will, but because it is even so as you say.

Chr. Had I known him no more than you, I might perhaps have thought of him as at the first you did; yea, had he received this report at their hands only that are enemies to religion, I should have thought it had been a slander, (a lot that oft falls from bad men's mouths upon good men's names and professions ;) but all these things, yea, and a great many more as bad, of my own knowledge, I can prove him guilty of. Besides, good men are ashamed of him; they can neither call him brother nor friend; the very naming of him among them makes them blush, if they knew him. Faith. Well, I see that saying and doing are two things; and hereafter I shall better observe this distinction.

The carcass of religion.

Chr. They are two things indeed, and are as diverse as are the soul and the body: for as the body, without the soul, is but a dead carcass: so saying, if it be alone, is but a dead carcass also. The soul of religion is the practick part: "Pure religion and undefiled, before God and the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." This Talkative is not aware of; he thinks that hearing and saying will make

⚫ Rom. ii. 24, 25.

a good Christian, and thus he deceiveth his own soul. Hearing is but as the sowing of the seed; talking is not sufficient to prove that fruit indeed is in the heart and life; let us assure ourselves that, at the day of doom, men shall be judged according to their fruit. It will not be said then, Did you believe? but were you doers or talkers only? and accordingly shall they be judged. The End of the World is compared to our harvest; and you know men at harvest regard nothing but fruit. Not that any thing can be accepted that is not of Faith; but I speak this to show you how insignificant the profession of Talkative will be at that day.*

Faith. This brings to my mind that of Moses, by which he describeth the beast that is clean. He is such a one that parteth the hoof, and cheweth the cud; not that parteth the hoof only, or that cheweth the cud only. The hare cheweth the cud, but yet is unclean, because he parteth not the hoof. And this

Faithful convinced

truly resembleth Talkative. He cheweth the cud; of the badness of he seeketh knowledge, he cheweth upon the word; Talkative.

but he divideth not the hoof, he parteth not with the way of sinners; but, as the hare, he retaineth the foot of a dog or bear, and therefore he is unclean.

Chr. You have spoken, for aught I know, the true gospel sense of these texts. And I will add another thing: Talkative like two Paul calleth some men, yea, and those great talk- things that sound ers too, "sounding brass and tinkling cymbals ;" without life. that is, as he expounds them in another place, "things without life, giving sound;" things without life, that is, without the true faith and grace of the Gospel; and, consequently, things that shall never be placed in the Kingdom of Heaven among those that are the Children of Life; though their sound, by their talk, be as it were the tongue or voice of an angel.‡

Faith. Well, I was not so fond of his company at first, but I am as sick of it now. What shall we do to be rid of him?

Chr. Take my advice, and do as I bid you, and you shall find that he will soon be sick of your company too, except God shall touch his heart and turn it.

Faith. What would you have me do?

Chr. Why, go to him, and enter into some serious discourse about the power of religion; and ask him plainly, (when he has approved of it, for that he will,) whether this thing be set up in his heart, house, or conversation?

James i. 27. See verse 2, 3, 24, 26. See Matth. xxiii. 2. ↑ Levit. xi. Deut. xiv. 1 Cor. xiii. 1-3. chap. xiv. 7.

Then Faithful stepped forward again, and said to Talkative, Come, what cheer, how is it now?

Talk. Thank you, well. I thought we should have had a great deal of talk by this time.

Talkative's false discovery of a work of grace.

Faith. Well, if you will, we will fall to it now; and since you left it with me to state the question, let it be this: How doth the saving grace of God discover itself when it is in the heart of man? Talk. I perceive then that our talk must be about the power of things. Well, it is a very good question, and I shall be willing to answer you, and take my answer in brief, thus: First, Where the grace of God is in the heart, it causeth there a great outcry against sin. SecondlyFaith. Nay, hold: let us consider of one at once. I think you should rather say, it shows itself, by inclining the soul to abhor its sin.

Talk. Why, what difference is there between crying out against and abhorring of sin?

The crying out Faith. Oh! a great deal. A man may cry out against sin no sign against sin of policy; but he cannot abhor it but by of grace. virtue of a godly antipathy against it. I have heard many cry out against sin in the pulpit, who yet can abide it well enough in the heart, house, and conversation. Joseph's mistress cried out with a loud voice, as if she had been very chaste; but she would willingly, notwithstanding that, have committed uncleanness with him.* Some cry out against sin even as a mother cries out against her child in her lap, when she calleth it slut and naughty girl, and then falls to hugging and kissing it.

Talk. You lie at the catch, I perceive.

Faith. No, not I! I am only for setting things right. But what is the second thing whereby you would prove a discovery of a work of grace in the heart?

Talk. Great knowledge of gospel mysteries.

Faith. This sign should have been first; but, first or last, it is Great knowledge also false: for knowledge, great knowledge, may no sign of grace. be obtained in the mysteries of the gospel, and yet no work of Grace in the soul: yea, if a man have all knowledge, he may yet be nothing, and so consequently be no child of God. When Christ said, "Do you know all these things?" and the disciples had answered, "Yes," he added, "Blessed are ye, if ye do them." He doth not lay the blessing in the knowledge of them, but in the doing of them; for there is a knowledge that is not attended with doing: "He that knoweth his Master's will,

* Gen. xxxix. 15,

and

and doth it not." A man may know like an ange1, Knowledge,
and yet be no Christian; therefore your sign of it knowledge.
is not true. Indeed, to know is a thing that pleaseth talkers and
boasters; but to do is that which pleaseth God: Not that the heart
can be good without knowledge; for, without that, the heart is
naught. There are therefore two sorts of knowledge: knowledge
that resteth in the bare speculation of things, and knowledge that
is accompanied with the grace of faith and love, True knowledge
which puts a man upon doing even the will of God attended with en-
from the heart. The first of these will serve the deavours.
talker; but, without the other, the true Christian is not content.
"Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall
observe it with my whole heart.”*

Talk. You lie at the catch again: this is not for edification. Faith. Well, if you please, propound another sign how this work of grace discovereth itself where it is.

Talk. Not I; for I see we shall not agree.

Faith. Well, if you will not, will you give me leave to do it?
Talk. You may use your liberty.

Faith. A work of grace in the soul discovereth itself either to
him that hath it, or to standers by. † To him that One good sign of
hath it, thus: it gives him conviction of sin, espe- grace.
cially the defilement of his nature, and the sin of unbelief (for the
sake of which he is sure to be damned, if he findeth not mercy at
God's hand, by faith in Jesus Christ.) This sight and sense of
things worketh in him sorrow and shame for sin. He findeth,
moreover, revealed in him the Saviour of the world, and the ab-
solute necessity of closing with him for life; at the which he
findeth hungerings and thirstings after him; to which hungerings,
&c., the promise is made. Now, according to the strength and
weakness of his faith in his Saviour, so is his joy and peace, so is
his love to holiness, so are his desires to know him more, and also
to serve him in this world. But, though I say it discovereth itself
thus unto him, yet it is but seldom he is able to conclude that this
is a work of grace, because his corruptions now, and his abused
reason, make his mind to misjudge in this matter. Therefore, in
him that hath this work, there is required a very sound judgment,
before he can with steadiness conclude that this is a work of grace.

To others it is thus discovered: 1. By an experimental confession of faith in Christ. 2. By a life answerable to that confes

*Psalm cxix. 34.

↑ John xvi. 8. Rom. vii. 24. Mark xvi. 16. Psalm xxxviii. 18. Jer. xxxi. 19. Gal. ii. 15. Rev. i. 6, &c. Rom. x. 10.

*

sion; to wit, a life of holiness, heart-holiness; family-holiness, if he hath a family; and by conversation-holiness in the world; which, in the general, teacheth him inwardly to abhor his sin, and himself for that, in secret; to suppress it in his family, and to promote holiness in the world, not by talk only, as a hypocrite or talkative person may do, but by a practical subjection in faith and love to the power of the word. † And now, sir, as to this brief description of the work of grace, and also the discovery of it, if you have aught to object, object; if not, then give me leave to propound to you a second question.

Talk. Nay, my part is not now to object, but to hear. Let me therefore have your second question.

of grace.

Faith. It is this: Do you experience this first part of the deAnother good sign scription of it, and doth your life and conversation testify the same? Or standeth your religion in word or tongue, and not in deed and truth? Pray, if you incline to answer me in this, say no more than you know the God above will say Amen to, and also nothing but what your conscience can justify you in: "For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth." Besides, to say I am thus and thus, when my conversation and all my neighbours tell me I lie, is great wickedness.

Then Talkative at first began to blush; but recovering himself, he thus replied: You come now to experience, to conscience, and God; and to appeal to him for justification of what is spoken. Talkative not pleas- This kind of discourse I did not expect; nor am I dised with Faithful's posed to give an answer to such questions, because I count not myself bound thereto, unless you take upon you to be a catechiser: and though you should so do, yet I may refuse to make you my judge. But, I pray, will you tell me why you ask me such questions?

question.

Faith. Because I saw you forward to talk, and

The reason why Faithful put him to because I knew not that you had aught else but that question. notion. Besides, to tell you the truth, I have heard of you, that you are a man whose religion lies in talk, and that your conversation gives this your mouth-profession the lie. They Faithful's plain say you are a spot among Christians, and that redealing with Talk- ligion fareth the worse for your ungodly conversation; that some have already stumbled at your wicked ways; and that more are in danger of being destroyed thereby. Your religion, and an alehouse, and covetousness, and uncleanness, and swearing, and lying, and vain company-keeping,

ative.

*Phil. i. 27.

† Matth. v. 9. Psalm 1. 20. John xiii. 5, 6.