or treasures of the earth If you had as you have an offer of God Christ Grace and Glory on one side and worldly prosperity in sin on the other side you would choose God and let go the other You dare not you would not give over Praying Hearing Reading and Christian company and give up your self to worldly fleshly pleasures yet you are not Assured of salvation because you finde not that Delight and Life in Duty and that Witness of the Spirit and that communion with God nor that tenderness of heart as you desire It is well that you desire them But though you be not Certain of Salvation do not you see a great likelihood a Probability in all this Is not your heart raised to a Hope that yet God is mercifull to you and means you good Doubtless this you might easily discern The second thing that I am to shew you is that there may much spiritual Comfort and Peace of Conscience be enjoyed without any Certainty of Salvation given upon these forementioned Probabilities Which I prove thus 1. No doubt but Adam in innocency had Peace of Conscience and Comfort and Communion with God and yet he had no Assurance of Salvation I mean either of continuing in Paradise or being translated to Glory For if he had either he was sure to persevere in Innocency and so to be glorified But that was not true or else he must foreknow both that he should fall and be raised again and saved by Christ But this he knew not at all 2. Experience tels us that the greatest part of Christians on earth do enjoy that Peace and Comfort which they have without any Certainty of their Salvation 3. The Nature of the thing telleth us that a likelihood of so great a mercy as everlasting Glory must needs be a ground of great Comfort If a poor condemned prisoner do but hear that there is Hopes of a pardon specially if very probable it will glad his heart Indeed if an Angel from Heaven were brought into this state it would be sad to him But if a devil or a condemned sinner have such Hope it must needs be glad news to them The devils have it not but we have 3. Let me next therefore intreat you to take the Comfort of your Probabilities of Grace and Salvation Your horse or dog knoweth not how you will use them Certainly yet will they lovingly follow you and put their heads to your hand and trust you with their lives without fear and love to be in your company because they have found you kinde to them and have tried that you do them no hurt but good yea though you do strike them sometimes yet they finde that they have their food from you and your favour doth sustain them Yea your little children have no Certainty how you will use them and yet finding that you have alwaies used them kindly and expressed Love to them though you whip them sometimes yet are glad of your company and desire to be in your lap and can trust themselves in your hands without tormenting themselves with such doubts as these I am uncertain how my mother will use me whether she will wound me or kill me or turn me out of doors and let me perish Nature perswades us not to be too distrustfull of those that have alwaies befriended us and especially whose Nature is Mercifull and Compassionate Nor to be too suspitious of evil from them that have alwaies done us good Every man knows that the Good will do good and the Evil will do evil and accordingly we expect that they should do to us Naturally we all fear a Toad a Serpent an Adder a mad Dog a wicked Man a mad Man a cruel blood thirsty Tyrant and the Devil But no one fears a Dove a Lamb a good Man a mercifull compassionate Governour except only the Rebels or notorious offenders that know he is bound in justice to destroy or punish them And none should fear distrustfully the wrath of a gracious God but they who Will not submit to his Mercy and Will not have Christ to reign over them and therefore may know that he is bound in Justice if they come not in to destroy them But for you that would be Obedient and Reformed and are troubled that you are no better and beg of God to make you better and have no sin but what you would be glad to be rid of may not you at least see a strong Probability that it shall go well with you O make use therefore of this Probability and if you have but Hopes that God will do you good rejoice in those Hopes till you can come to rejoyce in Assurance And here let me tell you that Probabilities are of divers Degrees according to their divers Grounds Where men have but a little Probability of their Sincerity and a greater Probability that they are not Sincere in the faith these men may be somewhat born up but it behoves them presently to search in fear and to amend that which is the cause of their fear Those that have more Probability of the Sincerity of their hearts then of the contrary may well have more peace then trouble of minde Those that have yet a higher Degree of Probability may live in more Joy and so according to the Degree of Probability may their Comforts still arise And observe also that it is but the highest Degree of this Probability here which we call a Certainty For it is a Moral Certainty and not that which is called a Certainty of Divine faith nor that which is called a Certainty of evidence in the strictest sense though yet evidence there is for it But it is the same evidences materially which are the ground of Probability and of Certainty Only sometime they differ Gradually one having more Grace and another less and sometime not so neither for he that hath more Grace may discern but a Probability in it through some other defect no more then he that hath less But when one man discerns his Graces and Sincerity but darkly he hath but a Probability of Salvation manifested by them and when another discerneth them more clearly he hath a stronger Probability and he that discerneth them most clearly if other necessaries concurre hath that which we call a Certainty Now I am perswaded that you frequently see a strong Probability of your Sincerity and may not that be a very great stay and comfort to your soul Nay may it not draw out your heart in Love Delight and Thankfulness Suppose that your name were written in a piece of paper and put among a hundred or fifty or but twenty other like papers into a Lottery and you were certain that you should be the owner of this whole Land except your name were drawn the first time and if it were drawn you should die Would your Joy or your Sorrow for this be the greater Nay if it were but ten to one or but two to one odds on
you elsewhere If we be imperfect and our faith imperfect and the knowledge of our own hearts imperfect and all our evidences and graces imperfect then our Assurance must needs be imperfect also To dream of Perfection on earth is to dream of Heaven on earth And if Assurance may be here perfect why not all our Graces Even when all Doubtings are overcome yet is Assurance farre short of the highest degree Besides that measure of Assurance which godly men do partake of hath here it s many sad interruptions in the most Upon the prevalency of Temptations and the hidings of Gods face their souls are oft left in a state of sadness that were but lately as in the arms of Christ How fully might this be proved from the examples of Job David Jeremy and others in Scripture and much more abundantly by the daily complaints and examples of the best of Gods people now living among us As there is no perfect evenness to be expected in our obedience while we are on earth so neither will there be any constant or perfect evenness in our comforts He that hath life in one duty is cold in the next and therefore he that hath much joy in one duty hath little in the next Yea perhaps duty may but occasion the renewall of his sorrows that the soul who before felt not its own burden at a Sermon or in Prayer or holy Meditation which were wont to revive him now seems to feel his miseries to be multiplied The time was once with David when the thoughts of God were sweet to him and he could say In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul And yet he saw the time also When he remembred God and was troubled he complained and his Spirit was overwhelmed God so held his eyes waking that he was troubled and could not speak he considered the daies of old and the years of ancient time he called to remembrance his song in the night he communed with his own heart and his spirit made diligent search Will the Lord saith he cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy clean gone for ever doth his promise fail for evermore Hath God forgotten to be gratious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercy Was not this a low ebb and a sad case that David was in Till at last he saw This was his infirmity Psal 77.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. Had David no former experiences to remind no arguments of comfort to consider of Yes but there is at such a season an incapacity to improve them There is not only a want of comfort but a kind of aversness from it The soul bendeth it self to break its own Peace and to put away comfort farre from it So saith he in vers 2. My soul refused to be comforted In such cases men are witty to argue themselves into distress that it is hard for one that would comfort them to answer them and they are witty in refelling all the Arguments of comfort that you can offer them so that it is hard to fasten any thing on them They have a weak-wilfulness against their own Consolations Seeing then that the best have such storms and sad interruptions do not you wonder or think your case strange if it be so with you Would you speed better then the best Long for Heaven then where only is Joy without sorrow and everlasting Rest without interruption DIRECTION XX. 20. Let me also give you this warning That You must never expect so much Assurance on earth as shall set you above a Possibility of the loss of Heaven or above all apprehensions of real danger of your miscarrying I Conceive this advertisement to be of great necessity But I must first tell you the meaning and then the reasons of it Only I am sorry that I know not how to express it fully but in School terms which are not so familiar to you 1. That which shall certainly come to pass we call a thing Future That which May and Can be Done we call Possible All things are not Future which are Possible God can do more then he hath done or will do He could have made more worlds and so more were Possible then were Future Moreover a thing is said to be Possible in reference to some Power which can accomplish it whether it be Gods Power or Angels or mans God hath Decreed that none of his Elect shall finally or totally fall away and perish and therefore their so falling and perishing is not-future that is It is a thing that shall never come to pass But God never Decreed that it should be utterly Impossible and therefore it still remaineth Possible though it shall never come to pass Obj. But it is said They shall deceive if it were Possible the very Elect. A most comfortable place which many opposers of Election and Free-grace do in vain seek to obscure But let me tell you for the right understanding of it 1. That as I said Possible and Impossible are Relative terms and have Relation to the Power of some Agent as proportioned to the thing to be Done Now this Text speaks only of the power of false Christs and false Prophets and the devil by them Their power of Deceiving is exceeding great but not great enough to Deceive the Elect which is true in two Respects 1. Because the Elect are guided and fortified by Gods Spirit 2. Because seducers work not efficiently but finally by propounding objects or by a Morall improper efficiency only All their seducements cannot force or necessitate us to be Deceived by them But though it be impossible to them to do it yet it is Possible to God to permit which yet he never will and so Possible for our selves to be our own Deceivers or to give Deceivers strength against us by a wilfull receiving of their poysoned baits 2. Besides Christ spoke not in Aristotles School but among the Vulgar where words must be used in the common sense or else they will not be understood And the Vulgar use to call that Impossible which shall never come to pass And indeed when we say that it is Possible or Impossible for a man to sin or fall away there is some degree of Impropriety in the Terms because Possible and Impossible are terms properly relating to some power apportioned to a work but sinning and falling away thereby are the consequents of impotency and not the effects of Power except we speak of the natural act wherein the sin abideth But this must be born with for want of a fitter word to express our meaning by But I 'le leave these things which are not fit for you and desire you to leave them and overpass them if you understand them not 2. I here told you also that you must not look to be above all apprehension of danger of your miscarrying The grounds of this are these 1. Because as is said our miscarrying
draw back Christ saith his soul shall have no pleasure in him Even those that have endured the great fight of Affliction being reproached and made a gazing-stock and that have taken joyfully the spoiling of their goods in assurance of a better and enduring substance have yet need to be warned that they cast not away their confidence and draw not back to perdition and lose not the Reward for want of Patience and Perseverance Heb. 10.22 to the end That you may escape this danger and be happy for ever take this advice 1. Look carefully to the sincerity of your hearts in their Covenant-closure with Christ See that you take him with the happiness he hath promised for your All. Take heed of looking after another felicity 〈◊〉 cherishing other Hopes or esteeming too highly any thing below Be jealous and very jealous lest your hearts should close deceitfully with Christ maintaining any secret Reserve for your bodily safety either resolving not to follow him or not resolving to follow him through the most desolate distressed condition that he shall lead you in Count what it may cost you to get the Crown study well his precepts of Mortification and Self-denyal There is no true hopes of the Glory to come if you cannot cast overboard all worldly hopes when the storm is such that you must hazard the one O how many have thought that Christ was most dear to them and that the hopes of heaven were their chiefest hopes who have left Christ though with sorrow when he bid them let go all 2. Every day renew your apprehensions of the Truth and Worth of the Promised Felicity and of the Delusory Vanity of all things here below Let not Heaven lose with you its Attractive force through your forgetfulness or unbelief He is the best Christian that knows best why he is a Christian and he will most faithfully seek and suffer that best knows for what he doth it Value not Wealth and Honor above that rate which the wisest and best experienced have put upon them and allow them no more of your affections then they deserve A mean wit may easily discover their emptiness Look on all present actions and conditions with a remembrance of their end Desire not a share in their prosperity who must pay as dear for it as the loss of their souls Be not ambitious of that honor which must end in Confusion nor of the Favor of those that God will call enemies How speedily will they come down and be levelled in the dust and be laid in the chains of darkness that now seem so happy to the pur-blinde world that cannot see the things to come Fear not that man that must shortly tremble before that God whom all must fear 3. Be more solicitous for the securing of your Consciences and Salvation then of your honors or estates In every thing that you are put upon consult first with God and Conscience and not with flesh and blood It is your daily and most serious care and watchfulness that is requisite to maintain your integrity and not a few careless thoughts or purposes conjunct with a minding of earthly things 4 Deal faithfully with every truth which you receive Take heed of subjecting it to carnal interests If once you have affections that can master your Understandings you are lost and know it not For when you have a Resolution to cast off any dâ—ty you will first Believe it is no duty and when you must change your judgement for carnal advantages you will make the change seem reasonable and right and evil shall be proved good when you have a minde to follow it 5. Make Gospel-Truths your own by daily humble studies arising to such a soundness of Judgement that you may not need to take too much upon trust lest if your guides should miscarry you miscarry with them Deliver not up your understanding in Captivity to any 6. Yet do not over-value your own Understandings This Pride hath done that in Church and State which all discerning men are lamenting They that know but little see not what they want as well as what they have nor that imperfection in their knowledge which should humble them nor that difficulty in things which should make them diligent and modest 7. Apprehend the necessity and Usefulness of Christs Officers Order and Ordinances for the prosperity of his Church Pastors must guide you though not seduce you or lead you blindefold But choose if you may such as are judicious and not ignorant not rash but sober not formal but serious and spiritual not of carnal but heavenly conversations especially avoid them that divide and follow parâ—â—es and seek to draw Disciples to themselves can sacrifice the Churches Unity and Peace to their proud humors or carnal interests Watch carefully that no weaknesses of the Minister do draw you to a dis-esteem of the Ordinances of God nor any of the sad miscarriages of Professors should cause you to set less by Truth or Godliness Wrong not Christ more because other men have so wronged him Quarrel more with your own unfitness and unworthiness in Ordinances then with other mens It is the frame of your own heart that doth more to help or hinder your Comforts then the quality of those you joyn with To these few Directions added to the rest in this Book I shall subjoyn my hearty Prayers that you may receive from that Gospel and Ministry which you have owned such stability in the faith such victory over the flesh and the world such apprehensions of the Love of God in Christ such direction in every strait and duty that you Live uprightly Dye peaceably and Raign Gloriously Amen May 9. 1653. Your servant in the Faith and Gospel of Christ Rich. Baxter To the Poor in Spirit MY dearly Beloved Fellow-Christians whose souls are taken up with the careful thoughts of attaining and maintaining Peace with God who are vile in your own eyes and value the Blood and Spirit and Word of your Redeemer and the Hope of the Saints in their approaching Blessedness before all the Pomp and Vanities of this world and Resolve to give up your selves to his Conduct who is become the Author of Eternal Salvation to all them that obey him For You do I Publish these following Directions and to You it is that I direct this Preface The onely Glorious and Infinite God who made the Worlds and upholdeth them by his Word who is attended with Millions of his Glorious Angels and Praised continually by his Heavenly hosts who pulleth down the Mighty from their seats and scattereth the Proud in the Imaginations of their hearts and maketh his Enemies lick the dust to whom the Kings and Conquerors of the Earth are as the silliest worms and the whole world is Nothing and lighter then Vanity which he will shortly turn into flames before your eyes This God hath sent me to you with that Joyful Message which needs no more but your believing entertainment to make
Salvation do question whether we may go to the Physician and follow his advice for Health and Life Why then do you that are Believers so much forget the End of your Faith and that for which it is that you Believe Believing in Christ for present Mercies onely be they temporal or spiritual is not the true Believing They are dangerously mistaken that think the thoughts of Heaven to be so accidental to the nature and work of Faith as that they tend onely to our Comfort and are not necessary to Salvation it self It is upon your apprehensions and expectations of that unseen felicity that both your Peace and Safety do depend How contrary therefore is it to the nature of a Believer to forget the Place of his Rest and Consolation and to Look for so much of these from Creatures in this our present Pilgrimage and Prison as alas too commonly we do Thus do we kill our Comforts and then complain for want of them How should you have any Life or Constancy of Consolations that are so seldom so slight so unbelieving and so heartless in your thoughts of Heaven You know what a folly it is to expect any Peace which shall not come from Christ as the Fountain And you must learn as well to understand what a folly it is to expect any solid Joys or stable Peace which is not fetcht from Heaven as from the End O that Christians were careful to live with one eye still on Christ Crucified and with the other on Christ coming in Glory If the Everlasting Joys were more in your believing thoughts Spiritual Joys would more abound at present in your hearts It 's no more wonder that you are Comfortless when Heaven is forgotten or doubtingly remembred then that you are faint when you eat not or cold when you stir not or when you have not fire or clothes But when Christians do not onely let fall their expectations of the things Unseen but also heighten their expectations from the Creature then do they most infallibly prepare for their fears and troubles and estrangedness from God and with both hands draw calamities on their souls Who ever meets with a distressed complaining soul where one or both of these is not apparent their Low expectations from God hereafter or their high expectations from the Creature now What doth keep us under such trouble and disquietness but that we will not Expect what God hath Promised or we will needs Expect what he Promised not And then we complain when we miss of those Expectations which we foolishly and ungroundedly raised to our selves We are grieved for Crosses for Losses for wrongs from our Enemies for unkind or unfaithful dealings of our Friends for sickness for contempt and dis-esteem in the World But who bid you look for any better Was it Prosperity and Riches and Credit and Friends that God called you to Believe for or that you became Christians for or that you had an absolute promise of in the Word If you will make Promises to your self and then your own Promises deceive you whom should you blame for that Nay do we not as it were necessitate God hereby to embitter all our Comforts below and to make every Creature as a Scorpion to us because we will needs make them our petty Deities We have less Comfort in them then else we might have because we must needs have more then we should have You might have more faithfulness from your Friends more Reputation in the World more sweetness in all your present enjoyments if you lookt for Less Why is it that you can scarce name a Creature near you that is not a scourge to you but because you can scarce name one that is not your Idol or at least which you do not expect more from then you ought Nay which is one of the saddest Considerations of this kind that can be imagined God is fain to scourge us most even by the highest Professors of Religion because we have most Idolized them and had such excessiveâ—â—â—pectations from them One woâ—◠〈…〉 thought it next to an impossibiliâ—◠〈…〉 such men and so many of they 〈…〉 ever have been drawn to do that against the Church against that Gospel-Ministry and Ordinances of God which once seemed dearer to them then their lives which hath since been done and which yet we fear But a believing eye can discern the reason of this sad providence in part Never men were more Idolized and therefore no wonder if we were never so afflicted by any Alas when will we learn by Scripture and Providence so to know God and the Creature as to look for More from him and less from them We have looked for Wonders from Scotland and what is come of it We looked that War should have even satisfied our desires and when it had removed all visible Impediments we thought we should have had such a glorious Reformation as the World never knew And now behold a Babel and a mangled Deformation What high Expectations had we from an Assembly what Expectations from a Parliament and where are they now O hear the Word of the Lord ye low-spirited People Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Isa 2.22 Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord For he shall be like the Heath in the Desart and shall not see when Good cometh Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose Hope the Lord is For he shall be as a Tree planted by the Waters c. Jer. 17.5 6 7 8. Surely men of Low degree are Vanity and men of High degree are a Lye to be laid in the ballance they are altogether lighter then Vanity Psal 62.9 Let me warn you all Christians for the time to come Take the Creature as a Creature remember its frailty look for no more from it then its part If you have the nearest dearest godly friends expect to feel the sting of their Corruptions as well as to tast the sweetness of their Grace And they must expect the like from you If you ask me why I speak so much of these things here It is 1. Because I find that much of the trouble of ordinary Christians comes from their Crosses in the Creature and the frustration of these their sinful Expectations 2. And because I have said so little of it in the following Directions they being intended for the cure of another kind of Trouble therefore I have said this much here of this Having premised this advice I take my self bound to adde one thing more that is An Apologie for the Publication of this Imperfect Piece whether just or insufficient other men must judge I confess I am so apprehensive of the Luxuriant Fertility or Licenciousness of the Press of late as being a design of the Enemy to bury and overwhelm in a croud those Judicious Pious Excellent Writings that before were
thought to make it publick anâ— so had no room for Marginal Quotations nor time to transcribe that Copy that might have room nor indeed much minâ— of them if I had had both room and time As in all the Removes of my Life â— have been still led to that place or state which was furthest from my own thoughts and never designed or contrived by my self so all the Writings that yet I have published are such as have been by some sudden unexpected occasion extorted from me while those that I most affected have been stifled in the Conception and those that I have most laboured in must lie buried in the dust that I may know it's God that is the Disposer of all Experience perswadeth me to think that God who hath compelled me hereto intendeth to make this hasty writing a means for the calming of some Troubled Souls Which if he do I have my End If I can do nothing to the â—hurches publick Peace either through my own unskilfulness and unworthiness or through the prevalency of the Malady yet will it be my comfort to further the Peace of the poorest Christian Though to the former also I shall contribute my best endeavours and am with this sending to the Press some few sheets to that end with our Worcestershire Agreement The full accomplishment of both the subduing of the Prince of Darkness Confusion and Contention the destroying of that Pride self-esteem self-seeking and carnal-mindedness which remaining even in the best are the disturbers of all Peace the fuller discovery of the sinfulness of impeaceable Principles Dispositions and Practices the nearer closure of all true Believers and the hastning of the Churches Everlasting Peace These are his daily Prayers who is May 7. 1653. A zealous desirer of the Peace of the Church and of every faithful soul RICHARD BAXTER The CONTENTS THE Case to be Resolved pag. 1. DIRECTION I. Discover the true Cause of your Trouble 4 The continued necessity of a standing Ministry 6 DIRECTION II. Discover well how much of your trouble is from Melancholy or from outward Crosses and apply the Remedy accordingly 7 DIRECTION III. Lay first in your understanding sound and deep apprehensions of Gods nature 17 The Benefits that arise from the Apprehensions of Gods Goodness 18 DIRECTION IV. Get deep Apprehensions of the Gracious Nature and Office of the Mediator 28 DIRECTION V. Believe and consider the full sufficiency of Christs Sacrifice and Ransome for all 32 DIRECTION VI. Apprehend the Freeness Fulness and Universality of the Law of Grace or Conditional Grant of Pardon and Salvation to all men if they will Repent and Believe 33 DIRECTION VII Understand the difference between General Grace and Special and between the Possibility Probability Conditional Certainty and Absolute Certainty of your Salvation and so between the several Degrees of Comfort that these Severals may afford 35 How much Comfort the unconverted may receive from General Grace 39 DIRECTION VIII Understand rightly the true nature of saving Faith 49 DIRECTION IX Next perform the Condition by Actual Believing 55 Object I am not able to Believe Answered 56 Direction how to get Faith 59 How far the prayers of the wicked are acceptable 60 DIRECTION X. Next Review your own Believing and thence gather Assurance 66 The Witness of the Spirit and Spirit of Adoption what they are 68 71 Whether it be a Legal departing from Christ or any sinful trusting in our own Righteousness to gather Peace Comfort or Assurance from signs within us 74 Twenty Arguments proving it lawfvl to gather Comfort or Assurance from Gods Graces in us 75 DIRECTION XI Make use in Trial of none but infallible signs 86 Five certain signs together comprizing the Description of a true Christian 88 Twenty observable explicatory points for the right understanding of these signs 91 DIRECTION XII Know that Assurance of Justification or right to Salvation cannot be gathered from the least degree of saving Grace 119 Proved from the many exceeding Difficulties that must be overcome by all that will have Assurance in ordinary ways and from other Reasons 120 DIRECTION XIII The first time of our Receiving or Acting saving Grace and so of our Justification and Adoption cannot ordinarily be known 136 To affirm that saving sincerity of Grace lieth but in a Gradual Natural-difference is no diminution of the Glory of Grace 142 DIRECTION XIV Know that Assurance is not the lot of the ordinary sort of true Christians but onely of a few of the strongest most active watchful and obedient Proved 145 The observation of the Confessions of the Godly in this 151 DIRECTION XV. Know that even many of the stronger and more obedient who have Assurance of their Conversion are yet unassured of their Salvation for want of Assurance to persevere 160 The Authors free Confession of his own state and Judgement herein 162 DIRECTION XVI There are many grounds to discover a Probability of saving Grace where we cannot yet discern a Certainty And you must learn next to the Comforts of General Grace to receive the Comforts of the Probability of Special Grace before you expect or are ripe for the Comforts of Assurance 170 Proved that a Christian may live a Joyful Life without Assurance 178 DIRECTION XVII Improve your own and others Experiences to strengthen your Probabilities 179 DIRECTION XVIII Know that God hath not commanded you to Believe that you do Believe nor that you are Justified or shall be saved but onely Conditionally and therefore your Assurance is not a Certainty properly of Divine Faith 189 It is not Unbelief or Desperation in Christians which is commonly called so 193 DIRECTION XIX Know that those few that do attain to Assurance have it not constantly 209 DIRECTION XX. Never expect so much Assurance on Earth as shall set you above all Possibility of the loss of Heaven and above all apprehensions of real danger 211 The usefulness of Apprehension of danger opened 214 DIRECTION XXI Be glad of a setled Peace and look not too much after raptures and strong feelings of Comfort And if you have such expect not a constancy of them 227 DIRECTION XXII Spend more time and care about your Duty then your Comforts and to get and exercise and increase Grace then to discern the certainty of it 232 DIRECTION XXIII Think not that those Doubts and Troubles which are caused and continued by wilful Disobedience will ever be well healed but by the healing of that Disobedience or that such can be cured by the same means as obedient doubting Christians may 246 How far a Christian can or cannot do the Good he would 251 Three sorts of sins of Infirmity or so called opened 256 The state of a Christian under gross sin doubtful 265 Proved that Assurance dependeth much on careful Obedience And that when all is done the most obedient Believer will ordinarily have most and best Assurance of his sincerity and salvation 270 The Use of the former Direction 280 The Doubtings
submission then else I should do For as I am much perswaded that the Rooted in Grace do never fall quite away so if I were sure that they did yet I know so much of the Graciousness of Gods Nature and his Covenant that he will not forsake any that do not wilfully forsake him and I have so full a Resolution to cleave to him wrought in me by his Spirit and such experience of tender Love and his preserving me in Trials that I have a strong confidence that he will never permit me to fall from him Yet do I see a Necessity of daily praying to him Not to Lead me into Temptation but to Deliver me from the evil and to live in continual watchfulness expecting daily Assaults and renewing daily my Repentance and Resolutions Thus have I as truly as I am now able opened my very heart and state to you as before the Searcher of my heart which I have done for three Reasons 1. That my Judgement may be truly known in the Point of Perseverance 2. Because I finde the communicating of Experiences of each others hearts and states is of great use to Believers 3. Because I finde that many Godly people by divers passages in my Book of Rest about Living in Heavenly Delights do think that I have attained a greater Certainty then I have and that themselves are unhappy and must live uncomfortably till they can attain to that which they think I have done As for those that think and will be ready to say that I am warping to Arminian or Popish Doubting I regard not their words or censures I am none of those that dare in the hearing of God affirm that I have the Certainty which I have not meerly to avoid the suspition of erring Nor dare I by hot Disputes maintain that which the constant Experience of my self and the best and most of my acquaintance doth contradict and believe my Authors before my own heart and the undoubted testimony of Christians concerning themselves Yet remember that I do not deny but many others may have both more Assurance of their own Sincerity and more clear understanding of the Doctrine of Perseverance then I have which may give them a Certainty that no true Believer shall quite fall away I dare not think that others have not a higher degree of Light and Certainty then â— have But I think by this time I have perswaded you that a proper Certainty of our Salvation is not so common a thing as some Controversal Doctors or some self-conceited Prosessors do take it to be And therefore that you must not lay all your comfort on your Assurance of Salvation As for them who are most highly confident both of the doctrine of the Certain Perseverance of every Believer meerly upon tradition and prejudice because they have been alway taught so or else upon weak grounds which will not bear them out in their confidence and are as confident of their own Salvation on as slender grounds having never well understood the Nature of saving Grace Sincerity Examination nor Assurance nor understood the Causes of doubting which might else have shaked them I will not call their greatest Confidence by the name of Assurance or Certainty of Salvation though it be accompanied with never so great boastings or pretenses or expressions of the highest Joyes And for your self I advise you first use those comforts which those may have who come short of Assurance DIRECTION XVI 16. The next thing which I would have you learn is this That There are several grounds of the great Probability of our Salvation besides the general grounds mentioned in the beginning and by the Knowledge of these without any further Assurance a Christian may live in much Peace and Comfort and in Delightfull Desirous thoughts of the Glory to come And therefore the next work which you have to do is to discover those probabilites of your Sincerity and your Salvation and then to receive the Peace and Comfort which they may afford you before you can expect Assurance it self I Shall here open to you the several parts of this Proposition and Direction distinctly 1. I told you in the beginning of the four grounds of Probability which all may have in general from 1. The Nature of God 2. And of the Mediatour and his Office 3. And the universal sufficiency of Christs satisfaction 4. And the general tenour of the Promise and offer of Pardon and Salvation Now I adde that besides all these there are many grounds of strong Probability which you may have of your own Sincerity and so of your particular Interest in Christ and Salvation when you cannot reach to a Certainty 1. Some kinde of Probability you may gather by comparing your self with others Though this way be but delusory to unregenerate men whose confidence is plainly contradicted by the Scriptures yet may it be lawfull and usefull to an humble soul that is willing to obey and wait on God I mean to consider that if such as you should perish how few people would God have in the world Consider first in how narrow a compass the Church was confined before Christs coming in the flesh and how carnal and corrupt even that visible Church then was and even at this day the most Learned do compute that if you divide the world into thirty parts nineteen of them are Heathenish Idolaters six of them are Maâ—ometans and only fiâ—e of them are Christians And of these five that are Christians how great a part are of the Aethiopian Greek and Popish Churches so ignorant rude and superstitious and erroneous that salvation cannot be imagined to be near so easie or ordinary with them as with us and of the Reformed Churches commonly called Protestants how small is the number And even among these What a number are grossely ignorant and prophane and of those that profess more knowledge and zeal how many are grossely Erroneous Schismatical and Scandalous How exceeding smal a number is left then that are such as you I know this is no assuring Argument but I know withall that Christ died not in vain but he will see the fruit of his sufferings to the satisfaction of his soul and the God of Mercy who is a Lover of mankinde will have a multitude innumerable of his saved ones in the earth 2. But your strongest Probabilities are from the Consideration of the Work of God upon your Soul and the present frame and inclination of your Soul to God You may know that you have workings above nature in you and that they have been kept alive and carried on these many years against all opposition of the flesh and the world It hath not been a meer flash of conviction which hath been extinguished by sensuality and left you in the darkness of security and prophanness as others are You dare not give up your Hopes of Heaven for all the world You would not part with Christ and say Let him go for all the pleasures of sin
rising from their sin It seems at present the interest of the flesh is actually predominant when no Reason or Conviction will perswade them to contradict it As ever you would have sound Comfort then in such a Case as this spare not the flesh When you have sinned you must rise again or perish If you cannot rise without fasting without free confessing without the utter shaming of your selves without restitution never stick at it This is your hour of Trial O yield not in the Conflict The dearer the Victory costeth you the greater will be your Peace Try it and if you find it not so I am mistaken Yet if you have sinned so that the opening of it may more discredit the Gospel then your Confession will honour it and yet your Conscience is unquiet and urgeth you to confess in such a case be first well informed and proceed warily and upon deliberation and first open the case to some faithful Minister or able Christian in secret that you may have good advice 3. The same counsel also would I give you in the performance of your duty A Magistrate is convinced he must punish sinners and put down Ale-houses and be true to every Just Cause but then he must steel his face against all mens reproaches and the solicitations of all friends A Minister is convinced that he must teach from house to house as well as publickly if he be able and that he must deal plainly with sinners according to their conditions yea and require the Church to avoyd Communion with them if they be obstinate in evill after other sufficient means But then he shall lose the Love of his People and be accounted Proud Precise Rigid Lordly and perhaps lose his maintenance Obey God now and the dearer it costeth you the more Peace and Protection and the larger blessing may you expect from God For you do as it were oblige God the more to stick to you as you will take your self obliged to own and bear out and reward those that hazard state and credit and life for you And if you cannot obey God in such a Trial it is a sad sign of a false-hearted Hypocrite except your fall be only in a temptation from which you rise with renewed Repentance and Resolutions which will conquer for the time to come As Peter who being left to himself for an example of humane frailty and that Christ might have no friend to stick by him when he suffered for our sin yet presently wept bitterly and afterward spent his strength and time in preaching Christ and laid down his life in Martyrdom for him So perhaps many a poor servant or hard labourer hath scarce any time except the Lords day to Pray or Read Let such pinch the flesh a little the more so they do not overthrow their health and either work the harder or fare the harder or be cloathed the more meanly or especially break a little of their sleep that they may find some time for these duties and try whether the Peace and Comfort will not Recompence it Never any man was a loser for God! So private Christians cannot conscionably discharge the great plain duty of Reproof and Exhortation lovingly yet plainly telling their friends and neighbours of their sins and danger and duty but they will turn friends into foes and possibly set all the Town on their heads But is it a Duty or is it not If it be then trust God with the Issue and do your work and see whether he will suffer you to be losers For my part I think that if Christians took Gods work before them and spared the flesh less and trusted themselves and all to Christ alone and did not balk all the troublesom costly part of Religion and that which most crosseth the interest of the flesh it would be more ordinary with them to be filled with the joys of the Holy Ghost and walk in that Peace of Conscience which is a Continual Feast and to have such full and frequent views both of the sincerity of their Evidencing Graces and of Gods Reconciled Face as would banish their doubts and fears and be a greater help to their certainty of salvation then much other labour doth prove If you flinch not the fiery furnace you shall have the company of the Son of God in it If you flinch not the Prison and Stocks you may be able to sing as Paul and Silas did If you refuse not to be stoned with Stephen you may perhaps see Heaven opened as he did If you think these Comforts so dear bought that you will rather venture without them let me tell you you may take your course but the end will convince you to the very heart of the folly of your choyce Never then complain for want of Comfort remember you might have had it and would not And let me give you this with you You will shortly find though worldly Pleasures Riches and Honours were some slight salves to your molested Conscience here yet there will no cure nor ease for it be found hereafter Your merry hours will then all be gone and your worldly Delights forsake you in Distress but these solid Comforts which you judged too dear would have ended in the Everlasting Joys of Glory When men do flinch God and his Truth in straits and juggle with their Consciences and will take out all the honourable easy cheap part of the work of Christ and make a Religion of that by it self leaving out all the disgraceful difficult chargeable self-denying part and hereupon call themselves Christians and make a great shew in the world with this kind of Religiousness and take themselves injured if men question their honesty and uprightness in the faith these men are notorious self-deceivers meer Hypocrites and in plain truth this is the very true description by which damnable Hypocrites are known from sound Christians The Lord open mens eyes to see it in time while it may be cured Yea and the nearer any true Christian doth come to this sin the more doth he dis-oblige God and quench the Spirit of Comfort and darken his own Evidences and destroy his Peace of Conscience and create unavoydable Troubles to his Spirit and estrangedness betwixt the Lord Jesus and his own soul Avoyd this therefore if ever you will have Peace DIRECTION XXV 25. My next Advice shall be somewhat near of kin to the former If you would learn the most expeditious way to Peace and setled Comfort Study well the Art of Doing Good let it be your every-days contrivance care and business how you may lay out all that God hath trusted you with to the greatest pleasing of God and to your most comfortable account STill remember lest any Antinomian should tell you that this savours of Popery and trusting for Peace to our own Works 1. That you must not think of giving any of Christs honour or office to your best works You must not dream that they can do any thing to
before some bashful or proud or tender Patients will open their disease The very opening of a mans grief to a faithful friend doth oft ease the heart of it self 2. And that this should be done to your Pastor I will shew you further anon 2. But you must understand well when this is your Duty 1. Not in every small infirmity which accompanies Christians in their daily most watchful Conversation Nor yet in every lesser Doubt which may be otherways resolved It is a folly and a wrong to Physitians to run to them for every cut finger or prick with a pin Every neighbour can help you in this 2. Nor except it be a weighty case indeed go not first to a Minister But first study the case your self and seek Gods direction If that will not serve open your case to your nearest bosom friend that is godly and judicious And in these two cases always go to your Pastor 1. In case privater means can do you no Good then God calls you to seek further If a cut finger so fester that ordinary means will not cure it you must go to the Physician 2. If the case be weighty and dangerous For then none but the more prudent advice is to be trusted If you be struck with a dangerous disease I would not have you delay so long nor wrong your self so much as to stay while you tamper with every womans medicine but go presently to the Physician So if you either fall into any grievous sin or any terrible pangs of Conscience or any great streights and difficulties about matters of Doctrine or Practice go presently to your Pastour for advice The Devil and Pride and Bashfulness will do their utmost to hinder you but see that they prevail not 3. Next consider to what End you must do this Not 1. either to expect that a Minister can of himself create Peace in you or that all your Doubts should vanish as soon as ever you have opened your mind Onely the great Peacemaker the Prince of Peace can create Peace in you Ascribe not to any the office of the Holy Ghost to be your effectual Comforter To expect more from man then belongs to man is the way to receive nothing from him but to cause God to blast to you the best endeavours 2. Nor must you resolve to take all meerly from the word of your Pastour as if he were Infallible Nor absolutely to Judge of your self as he Judgeth For he may be too rigorous or more commonly too charitable in his opinion of you There may be much of your disposition and conversation unknown to him which may hinder his right Judging But 1. You must use your Pastour as the ordained Instrument Messenger of the Lord Jesus his Spirit appointed to speak a word in season to the weary and to shew to man his Righteousness and to strengthen the weak hands and feeble knees yea and more to bind and loose on Earth as Christ doth bind and loose in Heaven As Christ and his Spirit do onely save in the principal place and yet Ministers save souls in subordination to them as his Instruments Act. 26.17 18. 1 Tim. 4.15 16. Jam. 5.20 So Christ and the Spirit are as Principal Causes the onely Comforters but his Ministers are Comforters under him 2. And that which you must expect from them is these two things 1. You must expect those fuller discoveries of Gods Will then you are able to make your self by which you may have assurance of your duty to God and of the sense of Scripture which expresseth how God will deal with you That so a clearer discovery of Gods mind may Resolve your Doubts 2. In the mean time till you can come to a full Resolution you may and must somewhat stay your self on the very Judgement of your Pastour Not as Infallible but as a discovery of the Probability of your Good or bad estate and so of your duty also Though you will not renounce your own understanding and believe any man when you know he is deceived or would deceive you yet you will so far suspect your own reason and value anothers as to have a special regard to every mans Judgement in his own Profession If the Physician tell you that your disease is not dangerous or the Lawyer that your Cause is good it will more Comfort you then if another man should say as much It may much stay your heart till you can reach to clear Evidences and Assurance to have a Pastor that is well acquainted with you and is faithful and Judicious to tell you that he verily thinks that you are in a safe Condition 3. But the chief use of his Advice is not so much to tell you what he thinks of you as to give you Directions how you may Judge of your self and come out of your trouble Besides the benefit of his Prayers to God for you 4. Next let me tell you what men you must choose to open your mind to And they must be 1. Men of Judgement and Knowledge and not the Ignorant be they never so honest Else they may deceive you not knowing what they do either for want of understanding the Scripture and the nature of Grace and Sin or for want of skill to deal with both weak Consciences and deep deceitful hearts 2. They must be truly fearing God and of experience in this great work For a Troubled soul is seldom well resolved and comforted meerly out of a Book but from the Book and Experience both together Carnal or formal men will but make a Jest at the Doubts of a Troubled Christian or at least will give you such formal Remedies as will prove no Cure Either they will perswade you as the Antinomians do that you should trust God with your soul and never Question your Faith Or that you do ill to trouble your self about such things Or they will direct you onely to the Comforts of General Grace and tell you onely that God is Merciful and Christ dyed for sinners which are the necessary Foundations of our Peace but will not answer particular Doubts of our own sincerity and of our Interest in Christ Or else they will make you believe that Holiness of heart and life which is the thing you look after is it that troubleth you and breeds all your scruples Or else with the Papists they will send you to your Merits for Comfort or to some Vindictive Penance in Fastings Pilgrimages or the like or to some Saint departed or Angel or to the Pardons or Indulgencies of the Pope or to a certain formal carnal Devotion to make God amends 3. They must be men of downright Faithfulness that will deal plainly and freely though not cruelly and not like those tender Surgeons that will leave the Cure undone for fear of hurting Meddle not with men-pleasers and daubers that will presently speak Comfort to you as Confidently as if they had known you twenty years when perhaps they know
Loving kindeness and our dishonouring the Glorious Gospel of his Son and our seconding Satan in his contradicting of that Design which hath contrived Gods Glory in so sweet a way And now Christian Reader let me intreat thee in the name and fear of God hereafter better to understand and practise thy Duty Thy heart is better a thousand times in Godly sorrow then in Carnal mirth and by such sorrows it is often made better Eccles. 7.2 3 4. But never take it to be Right till it be Delighting it self in God When you kneel down in prayer labour so to conceive of God and bespeak him that he may be your Delight so do in Hearing and Reading so do in all your Meditations of God So do in your feasting on the flesh and blood of Christ at his Supper Especially improve the happy opportunity of the Lords Day wherein you may wholly devote your selves to this work And I advise Ministers and all Christs Redeemed ones that they spend more of those days in Praise and Thanksgiving especially in Commemoration of the whole work of Redemption and not of Christs Resurrection alone or else they will not answer the Institution of the Lord And that they keep it as the most solemn day of Thanksgiving and be briefer on that day in their Confessions and Lamentations and larger at other times O that the Congregations of Christ through the world were so well informed and animated that the main business of their solemn Assemblies on that day might be to sound forth the high Praises of their Redeemer and to begin here the Praises of God and the Lamb which they must perfect in Heaven for ever How sweet a foretaste of Heaven would be then in these solemnities And truly let me tell you my Brethren of the Ministry you should by private Teaching and week-day Sermons so further the knowledge of your People that you might not need to spend so much of the Lords Day in Sermons as the most godly use to do but might bestow a greater part of it in Psalms and solemn Praises to our Redeemer And I could wish that the Ministers of England to that end would unanimously agree on some one Translation of the English Psalms in meeter better then that in common use and if it may be better then any yet extant not neglecting the poëtical sweetness under pretence of exact translating or at least to agree on the best now extant the London Ministers may do well to lead the way lest that blessed part of Gods solemn worship should be blemished for want either of Reformation or Uniformity And in my weak judgement if Hymns and Psalms of Praise were new invented as fit for the state of the Gospel-Church and Worship to Laud the Redeemer come in the flesh as expresly as the work of Grace is now express as Davids Psalms were fitted to the former state and infancy of the Church and more obscure revelations of the Mediator and his Grace it would be no sinful humane Invention or addition nor any more want warrant then our Inventing the form and words of every Sermon that we preach and every prayer that we make or any Catechism or Confession of faith Nay it may seem of so great usefulness as to be next to a Necessity Still provided that we force not any to the use of them that through ignorance may scruple it And if there be any Convenient parcels of the Ancient Church that are fitted to this use they should deservedly be preferred I do not think I digress all this while from the scope of my Discourse For doubtless if Gods usual solemn worship on the Lords Days were more fitted and directed to a Pleasant Delightful Praising way it would do very much to frame the spirits of Christians to Joyfulness and Thankfulness and Delight in God then which there is no greater cure for their Doubtful Pensive self-tormenting frame O try this Christians at the request of one that is moved by God to importune you to it God doth pitty you in your sorrows but he Delighteth in you when you Delight in him See Isa 58.14 compared with Zeph. 3.17 And if sin interpose and hinder your Delights believe it a Chearful Amendment and Obedience is that which will please God better then your self-tormenting fears Do not you like that servant better that will go chearfully about your work and do it as well as he can accounting it a Recreation and will endeavour to mend where he hath done amiss then him that will at every step fall a crying O I am so weak I can do nothing as I should An humble sense of failings you will like but not that your servant should sit still and complain when he should be working nor that all your service should be performed with weeping disquietness and lamentations You had rather have your servant humbly and modestly chearfull and not alway dejected for fear of displeasing you O how many poor souls are overseen in this You might easily perceive it even by the Devils opposition and temptations He will further you in your self-vexations when he cannot keep you in security and presumption but in amending he will hinder you with all his might How oft have I known poor passionate Creatures that would vex and rage in anger and break out in unseemly language to the disquieting of all about them and others that would drop into other the like sins and when they have done lament it and condemn themselves and yet would not set upon a resolute and chearful Reformation Nay if you do but reprove them for any sin they will sooner say If I be so bad God will condemn me for an Hypocrite and so lye down in disquietness and distress then they will say I see my sin and I resolve to resist it and I pray you warn me of it and help me to watch against it So that they would bring us to this pass that either we must let them alone with their sins for fear of Tormenting them or else we must cause them to lye down in terrours Alas poor mistaken souls It is neither of these that God cals for Will you do any thing save what you should do Must you needs be esteemed either Innocent or Hypocrites or such as shall be damned The thing that God would have is this That you would be glad that you see your fault and thank him that sheweth it you and resolvedly do your best to amend it and this in faith and chearful confidence in Christ flying to his Spirit for help and victory Will you please the Devil so far and so far contradict the gracious way of Christ as that you will needs either sin still or Despair Is there not a middle between these two to wit Chearful Amendment Remember that it is not your Vexation or Despair but your Obedience and Peace that God desireth That life is most Pleasing to him which is most safe and sweet to you If you say
Repented Believed in a Redeemer c. but for thy sin Yet I hope none will say that so doing is properly a sin though doing them defectively is God doth not will and approve of it that any soul that can see no signes of Grace and sincerity in it self should yet be as confident and merry and careless as if they were certain that all were well God would not have men doubt of his Love and yet make light of it This is a contempt of him Else what should poor carnall sinners do that finde themselves unsanctified No nor doth God expect that any man should judge of himself better then he hath evidence to warrant such a judgement But that every man should prove his own work that so he may have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another For he that thinketh he is something when he is nothing deceiveth himself Gal. 6.3 4 5 6. And no man should be a self-deceiver especially in a case of such unexpressible consequence It is therefore a most desperate doctrine of the Antinomians as most of theirs are that all men ought to believe Gods special Love to them and their own Justification and that they are justified by Believing that they were justified before and that no man ought to question his faith saith Saltmarsh any more then to question Christ and that all fears of our Damnation or not being Justified after this Believing are sinne and those that perswade to them are Preachers of the Law How punctually do the most prophane ungodly people hold most points of the Antinomian belief though they never knew that Sect by name God commandeth no man to Believe more then is true nor immediatly to cast away their doubts and fears but to overcome them in an orderly methodical way that is using Gods means till their Graces become more discernable and their understandings more clear and fit to discern them that so we may have Assurance of their sincerity and thereby of our Justification Adoption and right to Glorification Heb. 4.1 Let us therefore fear least a Promise being left of entring into his Rest any of us should seem to come short of it Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce before him with trembling Kiss the Sonne lest he be angry and ye perish Phil. 2.12 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling Not only 1. A reverent fear of Gods Majesty 2. And a filial fear of offending him 3. And an awfull fear of his Judgements when we see them executed on others and hear them threatned 4. And a filial fear of temporal chastisements and lawfull and our duty but also 5. A fear of damnation exciting to most carefull importunity to escape it when ever we have so far obscured our evidences as to see no strong probability of our sincerity in the faith and so of our salvation The summe of my speech therefore is this Do not think that all your fears of Gods wrath are your sins Much of them is your great duty Do you not feel that God made these fears at your first conversion the first and a principal means of your Recovery to drive you to a serious consideration of your state and waies and to look after Christ with more longing and estimation and to use the means with more resolution and diligence Have not these fears been chief preservers of your diligence and integrity ever since I know love should do more then it doth with us all But if we had not daily use for both Love and Fear God would not 1. Have planted them both in our natures 2. And have renewed them both by regenerating Grace 3. And have put into his word the objects to move both viz. Threatnings as well as Promises That fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom includeth the fear of his threatned wrath I could say abundance more to prove this but that I know as to you it is needless for conviction of it but remember the use of it Do not put the name of unbelief upon all your fears of Gods displeasure Much less should you presently conclude that you have no faith and that you cannot believe because of these fears You may have much faith in the midst of these fears and God may make them preservers of your faith by quickning you up to that means that must maintain it and by keeping you from those evils that would be as a worm at the root of it and eat out its precious strength and life Security is no friend to faith but a deadlier enemy then fear it self Obj. Then Cain and Judas sinned not by despairing or at least not damnably Answ 1. They despaired not only of themselves and of the event of their salvation but also of God of his Power or Goodness and Promise and the sufficiency of any satisfaction of Christ Their infidelity was the root of their despair 2. Farre is it from me to say or think that you should despair of the event or that it is no sin yea or that you should cherish causeless and excessive jealousies and fears I shall shew you towards the end the sinfulness of so doing Take heed of all fears that drive you from God or that distract or weaken your spirit or disable you from duty or drown your love to God and delight in him and destroy your apprehensions of Gods Loveliness and Compassion and raise black and hard and unworthy thoughts of God in your minde Again I intreat you avoid and abhorre all such fears But if you find in you the fears of godly jealousie of your own heart and such moderated fears of the wrath of God which banish security presumption and boldness in sinning and are as D. Sibbs cals them the awe-band of your soul and make you fly to the merits and bosom of the Lord Jesus as the affrighted child to the lap of the mother and as the man-slayer under the Law to the City of refuge and as a man pursued by a Lion to his Sanctuary or hold do not think you have no faith because you have these fears but moderate them by faith and love and then thank God for them Indeed Perfect love which will be in heaven when all is perfected will cast out this fear and so it will do sorrow and care and prayer and means But see you lay not these by till Perfect love have cast them out See Jer. 5.22 23. Heb. 12. two last verses Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear For our God is a consuming fire I am sensible that I am too large on these foregoing heads I will purposely shorten the rest lest I weary you DIRECTION XIX 19. Further understand that Those few who do attain to Assurance have it not either perfectly or constantly for the most part but mixt with imperfection and oft clouded and interrupted THat the highest Assurance on earth is imperfect I have shewed