SALVATION MADE SURE OR AN ATTEMPT TO SHOW, FIRST THAT ALL CHRISTIANS DO NOT OBTAIN THE FULL WITH AN APPENDIX. CONTAINING SOME REMARKS ON THE NATURE OF SPIRITUAL LABOURING UNDER IT. 4440 BY REV. WILLIAM BACON, REVISED EDITION. ALBANY : STEREOTYPED BY G. J. LOOMIS (RECAP)P) 5779 139 Northern District of New York, to wit: BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the fourteenth day of January, in the fiftieth year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1826, WILLIAM BACON of the said District, hath deposited in this Office the title of a Bock, the right whereof he claims as Author in the words following, to wit: "Salvation Made Sure; or, an Attempt to Show, I. That all Christians do not attain the full assurance of Hope. II. That all Christians can attain it. III. The way to attain it. And IV. The importance of attaining it. With an Appendix, containing some remarks on the nature of spiritual darkness; together with some directions to those who are labouring under it. By the Rev. William Bacon, In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned;" and also to the act entitled "An act sup plementary to an act entitled 'An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of Designing, Engraving and Etching historical and other prints." R R. LANSING, Clerk of the Northern District of New York BEFORE my entrance into the ministry of the Gospel, I was called by a particular providence of God, to search out non-professing Christians. My observations while thus occupied, convinced me that such an employment was not a little needed, and might be not a little useful to the cause of Christ. And early in my ministry I was called to labour as a missionary, in places where no churches were organized. This led me again to hunt up hidden saints. In this employment my former impressions were much confirmed. And by all my subsequent observations I have been more and more convinced, that there are more non-professing Christians in our several congregations, than is generally suppoed; and that the duty of searching them out is very much neglected by those who have the care of souls. Now the most of these persons keep from professing religion through fear that they are not Christians. They therefore need assistance to obtain a good hope. But it has appeared to me, that many who labour for the spiritual welfare of their fellow men, have thought themselves bound to aid them in every other concern, except that of gaining evidence of their own salvation: or rather that their only duty in this respect, was to guard inquirers against ill-founded hopes and that if any would have "a good hope through grace," they must find their way to it through all possible difficulties, unaided by the instructions of others. Nay I fear that in some instances they have acted from the mistaken notion, that the only way to keep inquirers from a false hope, is to increase the difficulty of gaining a genuine one. : In refusing to assist others in obtaining “a good hope through grace," these persons are probably actuated by a fear lest they shall encourage those to hope who have no ground to hope. And in general it would be unsafe to tell a man they believed him a Christian, even if they had good |