If thy hope be any thing worth, it will purify thee from thy sins.

Do not stand still disputing about your election - but set to repenting and believing. Cry to God for converting grace. Revealed things belong to you; in these busy yourself. Whatever God's purposes may be, I am sure His promises are true. Whatever the decrees of heaven may be, I am sure if I repent and believe I shall be saved.

Whatever... you pretend... if any of you be a prayerless person, or a scoffer, or a lover of evil company, in a word, if you are not a holy, strict, and self-denying Christian, you cannot be saved.

If thy hope be any thing worth, it will purify thee from thy sins.

In every sound convert the judgment is brought to approve of the laws and ways of Christ, and subscribe to them as most righteous and reasonable; the desire of the heart is to know the whole mind of Christ; the free and resolved choice of the heart is determined for the ways of Christ, before all the pleasures of sin, and prosperities of the world; it is the daily care of his life to walk with God.

The unsound convert takes Christ by halves. He is all for the salvation of Christ, but is not for sanctification. He is for the privileges, but does not appropriate the person of Christ.

There is no surer evidence of an unconverted state than to have the things of the world uppermost in our aim, love, and estimation.