loves Christ diligently endeavours to amend his life is ordained to eternal life I love Christ and endeavour diligently to amend my life therefore I am ordained to eternal life Is the Major here true or false if it be true then it is their error to say that love to Christ is not proper to the elect if it be false what becomes of the conclusion inferred from it If it be said which is all they can say that if aman can feel in his heart a sense of Gods love he may thence infer a conditional certainty of his election viz If he shall persevere in his love that is no more then what the non-Elect may have Suppose we one of them to know that he is a believer yet cannot he thence infer that he is elected or shall persevere to eternal life because he neither thinks true faith to be proper to Gods elect nor to have any promise of certain perseverance made to it to say that none of these brethren are true believers is the highest uncharitableness for what Scripture is it saith that it is essential to Christianity to be rightly informed concerning the connexion of faith with election or where is this doctrine so clearly revealed in the word as that all must needs be supposed to be wilfully blind who will not see and acknowledge it 3. This perswasion is in order of Nature after Faith therefore the nature of Faith cannot lie in it The Antecedent is presently proved because I must first be in the favour of God which I cannot be but by Faith ' ere I can know or be perswaded that I am in the favour of God for a proposition is alway in order of nature true before it is known to be true as every mans reason doth tell him And this order as it hath its foundation in reason so also in Scripture 1 John 5.13 These things have I written to you that believe in the name of the Son of God that ye may know ye have eternal life Bellarmine saw this and therefore inferrs that according to the opinion commonly received among Reformed Divines in his time men are justified before they do believe and methinks the learned Chamier doth not like himself when he goes about to untie this knot for he saith that Faith doth if not in order of time yet of nature follow justification a saying contrary to the whole current of Scripture 4. If Faith did consist in this perswasion it would follow that some who do hear the Gospel either were not bound to believe or were bound to believe a lie That any who hear the Gospel should not be bound to believe cannot be for then unbelief would be no sin to them and if no sin then could it not deserve condemnation when as we know from Scripture that it is the condemning sin And that some if obliged to believe that either they are elected or justified would be bound to believe a lie is as plain for certainly among those that hear the Gospel some are not chosen nor pardoned But what is more absurd then that any man should be bound to believe a lie can any thing be the object of faith but what is true or any thing the object of Divine Faith but what is so true that it cannot be false More need not be said against this error But it will be asked whether though the nature of Faith do not consist in this assurance yet it be not that which every believer doth some time or other find or whether any Child of God do so walk in darkness as that the light of Gods countenance is never lifted up on him no not before his death This I shall endeavour to answer by the following conclusions 1. No question as the Sun after it hath for all the day been hid in the clouds doth sometimes shew it self and that gloriously just before it sets so the Faith of a Christian after it hath for the greatest part of his life been clouded with doubts and fears doth near unto his death sometimes so manifest it self by some lively acts as that he can no longer doubt of its sincerity but cries out my Lord my Saviour In that little experience I have had in the world I have known sundry who have all their life been subject to fears and filled every Minister and Christian of their acquaintance with dreadful complaints against themselves who yet when they have been on their death-beds or have apprehended themselves so to be have triumphed over death in the Apostles language O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15. They that are in the least conversant in our English Martyrology cannot but know how usual it was with God to seal up his love to his servants just when he called them out to set their own seals to his truth so high was their assurance that you would have thought that they had heard the Musick of the Coelestial Choire when they heard the ratling of the chains with which they were to be tied to the stake When Mr. Robert Glover was condemned to die and was now at a point to be delivered out of the world it so happened that two or three days before his heart being lumpish and destitute of all true consolation he felt in himself no aptness but rather an heaviness I all along use Mr. Fox his own words and dulness of Spirit fall of much discomfort to bear the bitter cross of Martyrdom whereupon fearing in himself lest the Lord had utterly withdrawn his wonted favour from him he made his moan to a Minister complaining how earnestly he had prayed day and night and yet could receive no motion nor sense of comfort from God but so soon as he came to the sight of the stake he was so mightily replenished with Gods holy comfort and heavenly joys that he cryed out clapping his hands Austin that was the name of the Minister to whom he had complained He is come he is come The Apostles that did alway beare about in their bodies the dying of our Lord Jesus that were alway delivered unto death for Jesus sake had also the life of Christ made so manifest in them that though they were troubled on every side yet they were not distressed did so constantly and assuredly know that he which raised up Jesus would raise them up also by Jesus and that their light afflâ—ctions which were but for a moment wrought for them a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory that they did not faint but rather waxed more bold by their bonds The same truth might also be compassed about with a cloud of witnesses of such as did die a natural death But that work is done to our hands by Melchior Adam and others who have delivered to us the story of the life and death of men famous in their generations for piety and learning Yea so usual is it with Christs Disciples to have their inward man renewed day by day
hateth his brother is a murderer and hath not eternal life I hate my Brother Therefore I am a Murderer and have not eternal life These are all of them conclusions quite contradictory to the vain principles that did dwell in the secure sinner which being set home by the Spirit must needs make him fear what shal become of him In like manner doth the Spirit bring the heirs of the promise to the assurance of hope by some such practical Syllogisms as these He that loves the Brethren is passed from death to life I love the Brethren Therefore I am passed from death to life Or He that repents and believes shall be saved I repent and believe Therefore I shall be saved Now the Spirit hath revealed and inspired holy men to leave upon record to us the Propositions in these two Syllogisms the same Spirit also works in us that Faith by which we are enabled to believe those Scripture Propositions to be divine infallible truths he also worketh in us every gracious habit and exciteth those gracious acts which be the evidences and marks of our conversion justification and title to glory he also helpeth to feel and discover those acts in our selves and by comparing them with the rule to find their sincerity which is his concurrence with Conscience in making the assumption and lastly he helpeth sanctified reason from the premises to inferr the Conclusion whatever is beyond this is not essential to assurance but something separable from it Sometimes our assent to the premises and conclusion is stronger sometimes weaker hence the different degrees of assurance sometimes upon this assurance peace of Conscience we are marvellously enlarged with consolations called joy in the holy Ghost sometimes nor Obj. Some may say Is there no other way of working assurance but this doth not God sometimes testifie without any such discourse and ratiocination hath he confined himself to Syllogisms doth he not sometimes make some impressions on us by which we are assured that we are the children of God without the help or use of any argumentation Answ I have been alway apt to think that there is no other ordinary way of assuring the soul partly because the Scripture no where encourageth us to look for assurance in any other way and partly because to grant an immediate testimony seemed to me to open such a gap to Euthusiasme as it was impossible well to shut and I am somewhat imboldned in that sentiment by the concurrent judgment of a sober judicious Divine Mr. Tho. Blake who in his Treatise of the Covenant thus expresseth himself They that go about to assert an immediate testimony in any will never secure the soul from delusion Sathan will soon find an artifice to counterfeit this testimony and bear witness in the Spirits stead and when we think that we have the Spirit of truth to assure us we shall have the father of lies to deceive But in regard many of eminent piety and learning do assert an immediate testimony it may not be amiss to enquire a little what they mean by it and how they do bound it and then to shew what may be thought of it By this immediate Testimony they tell us that they do not mean any proper whisper or voice such as young Converts mistaking such Scripture phrases as Say unto my soul thou art my salvation are apt to wait for but they say it is a perswasion impressed upon a man suddenly and he knows not how quieting all his doubts and fears and making him chearfull and comfortable If you ask them How a Child of God who is to try all things dare adventure to take any such comfort how he knows it not to be a delusion of Satan they tell us that as there is in the eye a certain in-bred light to make it discern light and colours without a sound and air within the ear to make it discerne the sounds without So there is in a godly man grace a new nature and habitual instinct of heaven whereby it discernes the consolations of Gods Spirit testifying that he is the Son of God some secret and inexpressible lineaments of the fathers countenance in the child that the renewed soul at the very first blush knows and owns it Moreover they tell us 1. That although the Spirit thus testifie without application of any particular word yet he never testifies contrary to the word he never speaks to those who are regenerate though they do not know themselves to be such 2. That the Spirit doth not ordinarily thus testifie but after or in attendance on some ordinance or performance of some duty or after some very great abasement of a mans Spirit and more then ordinary soul-humiliation or after some very hard adventure for God or after some great combat and conflict with temptation 3. That such of the Testimonies of the Spirit do beget but an actual assurance during the present exigence or in order to some present design that God is working thereby Now to give my sense of this opinion 1. The Authors of it seem so to bound it as that it would be uncharitableness to think that they have any ill or pernicious design in it 2. The things which they say are done by impression are not without ratiocination only the ratiocination is not so distinct and explicite as when a man comes to his assurance by that difficult work of examination Philosophers say that what is done by beasts through instinct and impulse is not done without something analogous to ratiocination they commonly give us the examples of such Syllogisms as they suppose to be made by beasts as namely lambs when they come to their dams and flie away from the wolves So I conceive that in all the impressions made on the soul whether they be by way of comfort or incitation to duty there be some characters either in the matter or manner of them either in their holiness or greatness or vehemence or unusualness by which a Christian knows them to be from God and so accordingly rests in them the which characters did he not find he would either not regard them or reject them with abhorrence 3. I would not have any one lay the stress of his hope of heaven on any such impression nor upon the account of any such impression alter his opinion in reference to any point of Doctrine or adventure upon any practice that is in the least questionable unto him If he should I take it he would give the devil great advantage against him and subject himself to infinite delusions as will soon be manifest to him that will be at the pains to read over the discourses of Dr. Casaubon and Dr. Moore concerning Enthusiasme Mr. John Fox our holy and learned Martyrologist had many impressions some of which are taken notice of by his son in the History of his life but did they not sometimes fail him and discover themselves to be neither Divine nor True Let any one judge
them can it seem marvellous that they are troubled and suffered to despair everlastingly VII Many are kept from Assurance through groundless irrational scruples causing them to forbear the use of Ordinances and other sanctified means in which Assurance is usually wrought Would a sick man ever recover health that should be afraid of Physick or a weak man ever recover strength that should abstain from the good wholesom food that is appointed to beget blood and spirits Why no more will they ever meet with God or enjoy the sense of his love who come not near the place where his honour dwelleth they must needs be in the dark who will not open their eyes to behold the Sun of Righteousness needs be in a perpetual thirst who will not draw water out of the wells of salvation to quench their thirst Yet how many are afraid to come to the fire because they are cold and to put on their clothes because they are naked or to come to the Physician because they are so extreamly sick Tell them they must pray they 'l answer no because being wicked their prayers must needs be an abomination to the Lord invite them to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper they 'l tell you that finding not themselves to be in Christ they should but eat and drink judgment to themselves put them upon hearing the Word preached then they have something to object against either the call or the life of the Minister Such scruples as these are the Thieves that do wast the Candle of the Lord the Worms that eat up the hidden Manna the Veils that hide the new Name from our eyes A Conscience truly tender is the fittest subject to receive the seal of the Spirit but a scrupulous Conscience is a very hell upon earth for it either quite takes a man from the direct immediate acts of Gods Worship and Service or else it confines him onely to such keeping him from the duties of his particular calling It is hard to say which extream is more dangerous the one starving the other surfeiting the Soul Obj. But can any one give God too much time or be too Religious and careful about his Soul A. Surely no he cannot have too much of our time unto whom all our time is due nor can any one have too much of that which is his happiness or be too careful about that which if he should lose nothing can be given in exchange for but yet it is possible for us to bestow too much time on some one part of obedience and we do so as oft as we suffer it to justle out all or any of the rest The works of our Callings are the service of God when done in obedience to his Command and with an eye to his glory and for them when so done we may from the Lord expect to receive a reward and therefore when the Devil transforming himself into an Angel of light suggests What wilt thou eat or drink card or spin study any humane Author when thou knowest not but thou maist be in Hell the next moment He must be answered That obeying God sets no one nearer Hell and that though praying be in it self better then any either natural or civil action yet he that commanded it commanded them also and therefore they also are in their season to be done The Devil hath that soul at advantage enough whom he can perswade either not to pray or to do nothing but pray VIII The greatest and most common cause of the want of Assurance is some unmortified lust some secret bosome corruption unto which men give entertainment or at least which they do not so vigorously oppose and heartily renounce as they might Hinc illae lachrymae this is that which casts them on sore straights and difficulties how should it be otherwise seeing God being infinitely wise and holy either cannot or will not reveal his secrets to those who harbour his known enemies in their bosome either cannot or will not regard the whinings and complainings of those who dally with that very sin which galls their consciences and connive at the stirrings of that very lust for which he hides his face from them Doth any one come to his Minister or to his Christian friends and say Is it peace they must all answer What peace so long as thou livest in commission of any known sin or omission of any known duty All doubts and fears are begotten upon sin either real or imaginary if the sin be but imaginary a rectified judgment may scatter the doubts and fears as the Sun doth mists if the sin be real no curing the doubts thence arising but by an unfeigned repentance If I would produce all the Scriptures that prove this I must transcribe the one half of the Bible but it would be needless so to do seeing it seemeth to have been a notion engraven even on natural conscience That sin so defiles persons that till they be washed from it neither they nor their services can be accepted from whence arose the custome of setting Water-pots at their entrance into their Temples or places of Worship and those phrases Eo lavatum ut sacrificem and Num lavabis ut rem divinam facias Quest 5. What are the Motives or Arguments by which we may quicken our selves to look after this sealing work of the holy Spirit of God Answ Is there any need of Arguments to excite us to this Duty Doth not the New Creature naturally pant after Assurance as the Hart panteth after the rivers of water Yea may not the rational Soul seem to desire it Do not all wicked men catch after certainty and frame unto themselves some kind of certainty in this onely miserable that they either build on a false principle or on a true principle falsly applied To doubt of happiness is an heavy burthen but to fear extremest misery that is intolerable and yet thus must every one do till he have either Assurance or those probable hopes that are next of kin to Assurance Shall worldlings do so much to secure their Lands Goods Estates shall they require Bonds Seals Oaths Sureties and yet think all too little and shall we count any thing too much to assure unto our selves the eternal condition of our poor souls In the fear of the Lord let it be considered 1. 'T is onely the assured Christian that can either desire or so much as adventure in cool blood to die all others must needs all their life time be in continual bondage through fear of death Tell not me that some wicked ruffling Gallants who neither have Assurance nor are in any near capacity to receive it are yet very prodigal of their lives for I am speaking of men and not of brutes of those who are guided by Reason and not by Sense of those who are convinced that their Souls are immortal and that it is their greatest folly and misery to lose them not of those who have banished all thoughts of
soul whether our own or others is capable of being vexed in a proper sense but this sense seems not here intended yet this I must tell you that God interprets all that is done against his children as done against himself and therefore do you beware how you grieve the Lords holy ones either by saying or doing any thing which you know their souls cannot but abhor perhaps it grieveth not some of your souls nor grateth on some of your ears to hear the name of God taken in vain or blasphemed or the good ways of God spoken against but true Believers are of another temper Psal 42.10 As with a sword in my bones mine enemies reproach me While they say dayly unto me where is thy God 2 Pet. 2.8 Lot vexed his righteous soul from day to day with the unlawful deeds which he saw and heard in Sodom and Gomorrah Wherefore Sirs be not ambitious to strike father and sons at one blow let it suffice that you dishonour God but do not dishonour him at such times and places when and where his Saints may stand by and see and hear the wrong and dishonour that is reflected on their heavenly Father 2. We may be said to grieve him when we do that which would grieve him were he capable of grief The Scripture calls not things according to success and event he that looks on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery in his heart though he never act that brutish lust Matt. 5.28 He that hateth his brother is a Murtherer 1 John 3.15 not that every one that hateth doth properly kill but that he who hateth his brother had undoubtedly killed his brother could his brother have been thought to death his hatred would have brought forth murder had not something strangled it in the womb So we do by the Spirit we do that against him which would grieve him and more then grieve him were he capable of being grieved or any way altered for the worse O man take it from me every time thou sinnest presumptuously thou dost what in thee lieth to annihilate the fountain of all essences thou dost what thou canst to leave the world without a God He will be in heaven maugre all the malice of men and devils no thanks to them were he capable of being deprived of life they by their sins had deprived him of life long since Hence he complains that he was broken in pieces by the whorish heart of Israel Ezek. 6.9 So true is that of the Schoolmen that omne peccatum is deicidium 3. We are said to grieve the Spirit of God when we make the Spirit of God so to carry it towards us as persons do towards those that have grieved them If by any unworthy carriage I have vexed my friend he intermits all acts of friendship and familiarity So doth the Spirit when any thing is committed contrary to his nature or offices withdraw his benigne influences and consolations which are better then life I judge as do the generality of Reformed Divines that the Spirit of God doth never forsake those totally whom hee hath once chosen for his temple In this we know we are not deceived nor can we deceive you when wee teach that the faith whereby yee are sanctified cannot fail it did not in the Prophet it shall not in you They which are born of God do not sin any such sin as doth quite extinguish grace clean cut them off from Christ Jesus because the seed of God abideth in them and doth shield them from receiving any irremediable wound saith the judicious Mr. Richard Hooker Sermon of the Certainty c. pag. 545 546. But de non existentibus et non apparentibus eadem est ratio the Spirit may when greived so dwell in a man as if he did not dwell in him he may be quite gone as to any present sense and feeling he was so as to David which made him pray Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit Quest 2. Why are we rather said to greive the Holy Ghost then the Father or the Son Answ No question we do by sin grieve the Father and the Son as well as by every Renewed act of repentance we do minister joy to them Every wilfull sin is an high affront to the thrice blessed and glorious Trinity Psal 78. v. 40. How oft did they provoke him in the Wilderness and grieve him in the desert Psal 95. vers 10. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation But the Divine Persons though agreeing in their common essence are distinguished by relations and operations or rather by their manner of operation the father being unbegotten worketh of himself the Son from the Father the Holy Ghost from both Father and Son hence though all works terminated on the creature are common to all three Persons yet each work is most commonly ascribed to that person whose manner of subsistence doth most eminently appear in that work It is the appropiate work of the holy Ghost to reveal unto us the mistery of godliness to make application of the death and resurrection of God the Son and therefore when we do any thing contrary to the doctrine which is according to godliness or unworthy of the death of Jesus we cross the Spirit in his work and so are said to grieve him Quest 3. What are the special sinnes by which we do more eminently grieve the Spirit Answ If the question were put concerning the general nature of the sins by which the Spirit is grieved soon might it be resolved for it seems to be past all controversie that we grieve him not by sins of dayly incursion not by meer unavoideable infirmities such as by the measure of grace vouchsafed on this side heaven we cannot escape but by sins that are in some degree deliberate and wilfull but seeing it is put concerning the special kinds of deliberate sins which are most grievous to the Spirit it will deserve a larger answer I say therefore the sins that are more then ordinarily grievous to the Spirit are such as these 1. All the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All those lusts of uncleanness whether natural or unnatural the living in these is called walking according to the flesh which we know is made diametrically opposite to walking according to the Spirit by whose help we are to mortifie the deeds of the flesh This kind of sin hath something in it peculiar for whereas all other sins that a man doth are without the body he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body 1 Cor. 6.18 A Graecis sexcentae dantur huic loco interpretationes Vid. Dr. Feaâ—ly in lecum saith Clarius that interpretation which seems most proper is that other sins though acted by the body and leaving an ill impression on the body yet have not that force over mans body as to enslave it to another which yet fornication hath for by fornication the fornicator is made a member of the
do receive the Holy Ghost therefore they ought to be honoured and had in esteem for their office and work sake Obj. But doth not the anointing teach us all things and so teach us as that we need not that man should teach us at all Answ So indeed it is said and that by some pretending so much to the Spirit as that their usual compellation to others is Flesh but we are not to believe every spirit but to try the spirits whether they be of God and I heartily wish the spirit from whence this Objection ariseth did not too manifestly discover it self not to be of God The Spirit that Christ promised was to be sent from the Father in the name of Christ and was not to speak of himself but whatsoever he had heard he was to receive of Christ and glorifie Christ John 16.13.14 But the men who make this objection do dishonour and decrey Christ setting up Christ within them in opposition to him that suffered at Jerusalem the Spirit inspired Prophets Apostles Evangelists to deliver down unto us a rule of faith and life but these men do vilifie this written word and ministration of the Spirit and call on their proselytes to follow that light within them and make that sufficient for salvation For my part I am so far from desiring that any should envy for our sakes that I could heartily wish that all the Lords people were prophets and that his Spirit were on them Were there a Seculum Spiritus to be expectted I hope I should as sincerely pray for it and as much rejoyce in the approaches of it as another but so farr am I form finding in the Scriptures any time in which the Ministry shall cease and be useless that I rather find the Spirit is to be received by the hearing of faith and that it is one great work of the Spirit to quicken and give life to the publick Ordinances as dispensed by the Ministers of the Gospel 't is the Holy Ghost that maketh them overseers of the flock Acts. 20.28 As for that place 1 John 2.29 it carrieth it's answer in its own bowels You shall not need that any one teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you i. e. not other things nor in another way then the same anointing teacheth you but do any ministers pretend to teach other things or in another way then this anointing teacheth If they do not as it is most certaine they do not why is this Scripture so frequently urged against ministerial teaching For ever let us abhor those who cry up the Spirit so as to justle out that forme of found words which hath been delivered unto us by menguided by the Spirit Be sure you quench not the Spirit but have a care you despise not prophecyings God having put those two counsels together let no man put them asunder The Spirits Office towards Believers Whereby ye are sealed to the day of Redemption THe old Interpreter reads in the day of Redemption and by it Oecumenius and some others understand the day of Baptisme but because in the Greek t is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we have no reason to think that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we shall by this day understand the day of Judgment as most Interpreters do and as we are led to do by that twin-place Chap. 1 13.14 where the Holy Spirit of promise is said to be the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession The price of a Believers Redemption is already paid and accepted by God and they are redeemed from their vain conversation but their day of redemption cannot be said to be fully come till this corruptible have put on incorruption at least not till this life be ended for till then 1. Their Redemption from the power and dominion of sin hath not its full effect even a Paul as long as he is in the body hath occasion to complain that he is sold under sin and that the law in the members warreth against the law of the mind and leadeth him captive to the commission of Sin and omission of Duty II. Till then our Redemption the forgiveness of sin Ephes 1.7 is not perfect I know that upon our first closing with Christ our transgressions are blotted out as a mist and as a thick cloud and our iniquities thrown into the bottome of the Sea there is no condemnation to us no obligation to Eternal wrath but yet I am also sure that we are bid repent that our sins may be blotted out when the daies of refreshing shall come from the Lord Acts. 3.19 Whence it may be inferred that a Penitents sins are not so blotted out as then they shall be blotted out indeed upon the first conversion a man is put into a state of justification which is inconsistent with obligation to Eternal death yet is he not freed from all punishment nor from all obligation to punishment for where there is no obligation to punishment there is no justice in punishing The want of the Spirit is one of the punishments we have brought on our selves by sin this punishment is not taken away but by restoring of the Spirit now though the Spirit be so restored as to prevent the dominion of Sin and damnation for the time to come yet is it not given in such a measure as to prevent all sin nor the contracting of new guilt nor shall He be so given in this world III. As to the Redemption of the Body that is so far from being compleat before the Great Day that till then it may seem not to begin While it is joyned to an imperfect soul 't is vile and mortal when separated from it then it becomes yet viler is thrown into a grave and preyed upon by worms and maggots at the Resurrection it begins to be spiritual incorruptible powerfull and like to the glorious body of Christ Jesus The Adoption the Redemption of the Body we do not now enjoy but by Faith and Hope we do wait for it Rom. 8.23 On all these accounts there is reason why that Day should be called as it is The manifestation of the sons of God Rom. 8.19 For though we be now the sons of God it appears not what we shall be 1 Joh. 3.1 The best use that can be made of this Appellation is that which is made of it by the whole Creation The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for this manifestation that it may be delivered from that bondage and vanity unto which it is subject and under which it groaneth much more should you who have the first-fruits of the Spirit groan within your selves waiting for the adoption 'T is utterly a fault among Christians that they groan so much under the burden of a few Taxes and Impositions and so little under the burden and body of Sin which they carry about with them They should much and frequently bless