Try every day, on what bottom thy hope of glory is built, and whether it was laid by the hand of Christ. If not it will never be able to endure the storm that must come against it. Satan will throw it all down, and great will be the fall thereof. *_Glorious professor!_ Thou shalt be winnowed; every vein of thy profession will be tried to the purpose: ’tis terrible to have it all come tumbling down, and to find nothing to bottom upon. *_Soaring professor!_ See to thy waxen wings betimes; they will melt with the heat of temptations. What a misery is it, to trade much, and break at length; and to have no stock, no foundation laid for eternity! *_Gifted professor!_ Look there be not a worm at the root that will spoil all thy fine gourd, and make it die about thee, in a day of scorching: look over thy soul daily, and ask, Where is the blood of Christ to be seen upon it? Many eminent professors have come at length to cry out, _Undone, undone to all eternity_! 2. Consider the greatest sins may be hid under the greatest duties. See the wound that sin hath made in thy soul be perfectly cured by the _blood of Christ_; not skinned over with duties, humblings, enlargements. Apply what thou wilt besides the _blood of Christ_, it will poison the sore. Thou wilt find that sin was never mortified truly; nothing can kill it but the beholding _Christ’s righteousness_. Nature can afford no balsam fit for the cure of a soul. Healing from _duty_, and not from Christ, is the most desperate disease. Poor ragged nature, with all its highest improvements, can never spin a garment fine enough to cover the soul’s nakedness. Nothing is fit for that use, but _Christ’s perfect righteousness_. Whatsoever is of nature’s putting on, Satan will come and plunder it, and leave the soul naked and open to the wrath of God. All that nature can do will never make up the least dram of grace that can mortify sin, or look Christ in the face one day. 3. Thou goest on hearing, praying, and receiving, yet miserable mayst thou be. Look about thee; didst thou ever see Christ to this day in distinction from all other excellencies and righteousness in the world, and all of them falling before the majesty of his love and grace! *If thou hast seen Christ truly, thou hast seen pure grace, pure righteousness, far exceeding all sin and misery. If thou hast seen Christ, thou wouldst not do a duty without him for ten thousand worlds. If ever thou sawest Christ, thou sawest him a _rock_, higher than Satan or sin; and this _rock_ doth follow thee, and there will be a continual dropping of honey and grace out of it to satisfy thee. Examine, if ever thou hast beheld Christ as _the only begotten of the Father_, full of grace and truth. Be _sure_ thou art come to Christ, that thou standest upon _the rock of ages_, hast answered to his call to _thy_ soul, hast closed with him for justification.