Use 1

USE I.

Learn hence, that visible-Church membership give to no man security of his salvation, it is therefore a vain thing for any man to boast of, or put their confidence in it: and yet alas! how many are there who so do? It is only those that have the fruits of the Spirit on them, that glorify God by faith in Christ, and a well-ordered conversation, that shall see his salvation. Men indeed who are in the visible Church have opportunities and great helps thus to do; but it is not the unfailing privilege of all that are there so to do: they have means, but they despise and neglect them, and so they are never the better. If this be a truth, that there may be barren fig-trees in God's vineyard; it then necessarily follows, that men may belong to the number of God's visible Church, and enjoy all the outward advantages of it, and yet after all that, fall short of eternal life, and come under condemnation: and this should shake the carnal security of all such as cry, The Temple of the Lord.