A man may have grace and yet want assurance, and this may arise from his falling short of that perfection that the Word requires, and that other saints have attained to. Ah! Says such a soul, surely I have no grace! Oh how short do I fall of such and such righteous rules, and of such and such precious Christians! Ah! How clear are they in their light! How strong are they in their love! How high are they in their attainments! How are their hearts filled with grace, and their lives with holiness! All grace, grace; they pray indeed like saints, and live indeed like angels. Now many poor souls, comparing themselves with the perfect rule of righteousness, and with those that are in the highest forms in Christ's school, and that are the noblest and choicest patterns for purity and sanctity, and finding such vast disproportion between their hearts and the rule, between their actions and lives, and the actions and lives of others, they are apt to sit down saddened and discouraged.

Suetonius reports of Julius casear, that seeing Alexander's statue, he fetched a deep

Sigh, because he at that age had done so little. So many precious souls sit down sighing

and weeping, that they have lived so long, and done so little for God, and for their own

internal and eternal good. This wounds and sinks their spirits, that they are so unlike

those in grace, that they desire to be like unto in glory; and that they are so far below such

and such in spirituals whom they are so far above in temporals. [Thomas Brooks]