to Heaven 't is not the Redemption but it is the first fruits of it we know that Gods people were commanded to bring their Oblation of Thanksgiving when they received their first-fruits because the first-fruits were a pledge and pawn of the whole Harvest Deut. 26. Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible c. If God had onely assured us that we should spend Eternity in some Limbus unacquainted with pain and horrour seeing we do know that by our sins we have deserved to receive our portion with hypocrites and unbelievers where there is weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth monstrous ingratitude were it not to admire so great love but if God have given us a well grounded hope that our names are written in Heaven that we have a title to that Paradise in comparison with which the Garden of Eden was but a dunghill this is such a mercy as is undervalued if it be thought on without astonishment if it do not cause us frequently with David to sit down before the Lord and say Who are we and what is our house that thou hast brought us hitherto And this was yet a small thing in thy sight O Lord God but thou hast also spoken of thy servants for a great while to come and is this the manner of men O Lord God O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for those that fear thee 2 Sam. 7. Psal 31.19 But if any one who hath the love of God shed abroad in his heart do in a short time grow so stupid as not to allow himself time sufficient to view the height depth breadth and length of that love let him not wonder if he be brought back to the valley of the shadow of death and darkness III. He that would keep his Assurance must keep himself from returning to sin especially from returning to that sin upon which Conscience in its former accusations was wont to lay the greatest Emphasis Psal 85.8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace unto his people and to his saints but let them not return to folly If they do instead of peace they shall soon find trouble for the sin which was so loathsome and uneasie as that we had no rest till we had vomited it up must needs be far more loathsome and uneasie if we do return unto it after we have cast it up If the Devil after he hath departed for a season return he returneth not alone but bringeth with him seven more spirits worse more defiling more tormenting then the former Object Can a man that is regenerate lose the Spirit of regeneration Answ If he can after grace received sin with full consent delight and contentment he may but some say that God is by promise engaged never to let him sin at such an high rate others deny that there is any such promise Which way my judgment in this controversie inclined I before shewed but this is agreed on by all sober Divines That a wilfull relipse doth notably weaken the habit of Faith and make our own spirits unable to testifie of our Adoption and so grieve the Spirit of God as that he will not testifie and give the evil spirit advantage to suggest that we are utter reprobates and in no capacity of being renewed by repentance IV. He that would keep his Assurance must be carefull to keep the vows that he did make to God in the time of his trouble It seems natural to those that are in perplexity to make unto God promises of such things as they suppose will be acceptable to him We find in Scripture this to have been the practice of bad and good But the Devil finding that at such times we have more affection then judgment puts us sometimes to vow things in their own nature unlawfull such vows oblige not to performance but onely to repentance No other is the obligation of vows made of things indeed not unlawfull in themselves but yet impossible to be done without neglecting the duties of our places and relations It is not unlawfull to set apart one day in the week besides the first to the direct immediate acts of Religion but if my body will not bear it or if the necessities of my family will not consist with it or if I am under Authority and Governours will not permit it then the separating of so much time for Religion becomes to me unlawful nor can any vow oblige me to it But the vows we have made of things in our power and pleasing to the Almighty must be performed else they will be upon us and break our peace so as nothing more When thou vowest a vow unto God defer not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in fools Pay that which thou hast vowed Better it is that thou should not vow then that thou shouldest vow and not pay Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin neither say thou before the Angel it was an error wherefore should God be angry at thy voyce and destroy the work of thy hands Eccles 5.4 5 6. Do not so much as deferr to pay for God hath no pleasure in fools It is certainly a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the meaning can be no other than that he is greatly displeased with those who go about one while to flatter him in making a vow and afterwards to mock him in refusing or delaying to perform it Say not before the Angel it was an error Do not say it was imprudently made that it was an ignorance which thou art willing to expiate Wherefore should God be angry Wherefore should he foam A dreadful place of Scripture often to be thought on by those who alter vows make enquiry Deliberation is needful before the vow be made and we sin if we vow rashly but it is one thing to sin in vowing another thing to vow to sin if we have sinned in vowing yet if the matter of the vow was not something sinful we must not alter or if we will alter we must not expect to dwell in the Lords holy hill V. He that would continue his Assurance must bring forth such fruit after Assurance as he either did not or could not before Assurance For the Rule holds here Whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he hath Mat. 13.12 God will not long let his candle shine on him who doth no more then what he might have done had he remained in darkness But if when God hath lift up upon us the light of his countenance we then walk as children of the light our light shall encrease we shall not onely be quiet but also rejoyce and make our boast of him we shall grow from
when their outward man perisheth that the Psalmist speaks indefinitely mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Psal 37.37 II. Sometimes it falls out quite otherwaies those who in their life time have had much enjoyment of the sense of Gods love and through it have comforted themselves and others have yet died with little if any assurance or actual comfort this God suffers for many holy wise ends and purposes as 1. To quicken others up to the greater preparation When death is at a distance we are apt to think it is but an easie thing to die But when we shall see that the approaches of death have startled and grievously affrighted those whom we ever judged to excel us in grace we must needs if not fast asleep begin to look about us and to consider whether we with our weak imperfect graces are able to meet with that Prince of terrors and the more importunately to pray for and depend upon some strength greater then our own 2. God may permit it judicially for the hardning of prophane Worldlings and carnallists who seeing some of their loose companions to go out of the world like lambs to have no bands in their death Psal 73. to depart quiet peaceable confident void of impatience despair or fear and others who have made greater profession of Godliness and endeavoured after greater exactness die under many troublesome disquieting thoughts presently conclude that all which conscientious Ministers press upon their followers is but unnecessary sowerness and melancholy simplicity God counts not himself any way engaged to remove such stones at which he foresees such self-deluding sots will stumble and fall and never rise more rather he may seem on purpose to order it so that they who will get no good by his Servants life shall receive no benefit by their death 3. As a punishment to his Servants for their declinings and fallings from their first love a sin big enough to provoke him to remove his Candlestick from a whole Church Rev. 2.4 5. much more not to let his candle shine on the tabernacle of some one single Christian how eminent soever As love perfects its self so fear is cast out 1 Joh. 4.18 but as love weakeneth or declineth so fear returns and tormenteth Unto which three reasons we may add 4. Such is the nature of some diseases that they do cloud the Phansie and muffle the understanding and if so it is no wonder that the best of men do make false judgment of themselves and flie away from death as if Christ had never overcome it No wonder that a mind discomposed with bodily distempers recoils at the sight of eternity rather it is a wonder that a believer when he is most himself can think of that condition without astonishment so amazing is the contemplation of it to those who are accustomed to measure all actions and perfections by time 5. The Devil at such a time will be sure to stir up and make use of all his malice and subtilty 'T is said of the natural Serpent non nisi moriens in longum producitur 't is never at its full length till it be dying The old Serpent never so much shews himself in his full dimensions as when a Christian is dying when he is just on the borders of the heavenly Canaan he will then if he he cannot trip up yet bruise his heels that he may enter in halting and uncomfortable as he would not be tormented before his time so nor would he that a Christian should rejoyce before his time hence he casts a mist before his eyes that he may not see his interest in that place of bliss unto which he is hastning apace when his time of tempting is but short then usually he comes with the greatest fury III. I think it is rarely seen that any understanding Christian walking closely with God doth run out the whole course of his life without some assurance of the love of God 'T is not likely that any one should for months and years be joined to the Lord and made one spirit with him and the Lord not let him know that he loveth him in Gods ordinary way of working the spirit of bondage doth but make way for the Spirit of adoption But yet IIII. 'T is not impossible that a Christian should live in ignorance of his own estate all his days I do not find in my best search of Scripture that God hath any where promised that every true Faith shall bud and blossom in assurance or that he who is a Believer shall some time or other know himself so to be and if God hath made no promise to work assurance some time or other in every one whom he converts nothing there can be concluded to the contrary from reason for arguing rationally why may not he who wants it one year want it ten or he that wants it ten want it all the years that he spends in the flesh If any one will contradict us in this it behoves him to shew us any thing essential to a Christian which may not in some sort be in the want of assurance Obj. This leads to laziness and idleness for if men may be in the favour of God and have a title to happiness and not know so much they will not care though they live and die in ignorance of their condition Answ 1. If such a Doctrine were delivered in another matter no such use would be made of it If I should say that bread and water were as much as is necessary to keep life and soul together would men thereupon resolve to take no care or have any thoughts for any provision beyond bread and water why should Christians then when they hear that the being of Godliness may be kept up without assurance take up there 2. 'T is a sin to want assurance We should as well have peace in our own Consciences as peace with God nor are our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience till we have so I know active desertion or Gods withdrawing of his shining manifestation is not our sin even Jesus Christ himself who though he was made sin yet knew no sin was deserted which made him to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me When he so cried out we may well conceive and most sober Divines do conceive he was under the want of the influence of actual vision and of the actual joy and comfort of union nor will I deny but that God may withdraw out of Soveraignty or for the meer trial and exercise of our graces but whether ever he did so is more then I know or should he now do so it would be but for a season if for any long time we want Assurance 't is through weakness of Faith or through spiritual sloth or some other as sinfull distemper He that bids us work out our salvation and make our calling and election sure would not let us be at
God for those enjoyments they have of him in this earthly Tabernacle but yet not be so satisfied with any such enjoyments as not to desire it may be dissolved and so they put into the possession of that house in heavens not made with hands We that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon 2 Cor. 5.4 I confess in this I look on St. Paul as our Pattern rather then as our Standard I dare not say that all who are partakers of the Spirit do thus earnestly groan after absence from the body and presence with the Lord but all have reason so to do else had not all by Christ been taught to pray Thy Kingdom come As for you who live in sin I cannot exhort you to desire this day rather you may pray as did the Primitive Christians though on a better account Pro morâ finis for to you this Day of the Lord shal not be a day of Redemption but of Confinement to the darkest dungeon it shal burn as an Oven it shall burn you up and leave you neither root nor branch The Devils who believe it do tremble at the thoughts of it and if you tremble not at it it is because you believe it not The best and most seasonable advice I can give you is to kiss the Redeemer and to follow God with sighs and groans till he hath given you hearts soft as wax then shall you also be sealed to the day of Redemption Of this Sealing of the Spirit I am now to speak and that somewhat largely being therefore to build high it is good to dig deep and lay the foundation sure The expression is undoubtedly Metaphorical and must betoken something that bears proportion to Sealing properly so called What that is we should the rather enquire because the Metaphor is so frequently used here and Chap. 1.13 and 2 Cor. 1.22 He that shall read the Learned Zanchy on Chap. 1. vers 13. will not lose his labour nay will think nothing can be added unto what he hath said I shall from him and others in a few words lend light enough to elucidate this matter to those that have a mind to understand Two things among us go by the name of a Seal 1. The Signet that makes the Impression 2. The Impression that is made by the Signet And sealing if considered in its nature is nothing else but the imparting of the Image of the Signet to that which is sealed But then the uses of sealing are divers 1. For secresie or security 2. For ratification or confirmation 3. For distinction or separation Now the question is Whether in allusion to the nature of some or all uses of sealing we are said to be sealed Doubtless the Spirit doth work in us so as to communicate unto us the likeness of God in holiness and righteousness By him we are changed into the Image of God from glory to glory 1 Cor. 3. last According to his mercy he saveth us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 We are born again of water and the Holy Ghost Joh. 3.3 We are washed we are sanctified we are justified in the Name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6.11 But seeing the sealing here intended is in order of nature after believing Ephes 1.13 I humbly conceive it is not the making of the Elect to partake of the Divine Nature but the assuring of them that they do partake of it the perswading our hearts that we have Gods mark on us God seals us with his Spirit not that he may know us to be his but that we may know our selves to be his and rest satisfied that we are his and that he will own us for his when to others he shall say Depart from me I know you not I deny not but we may be said to be sealed by the Spirit when we are by him regenerated and made new creatures but I think Regeneration is rather the Spirits writing the law in our hearts and making us the Epistle of God and that the sealing in the Text intended is the Spirits testifying unto us that we are of the number of Gods redeemed ones and have a right to the priviledges of Gods redeemed ones Now there are five things of which the Spirit may be thought to give assurance 1. Election 2. Vocation 3. Justification 4. Perseverance 5. Eternal life but because of some of these there is dispute and because it is by all sober persons granted that effectual vocation regeneration conversion are the evidences of the other of that chiefly and well nigh onely I shall speak and cast all I have to say about it into an Answer to these six Questions 1. Whether such Assurance may be had 2. Whether the nature of Faith consist in it and whether it may not be separated from Faith 3. How the Spirit works it 4. Why so many Christians are so long without it 5. What motives there be to perswade us to labour after it 6. What means are to be used 1. to gain it if we have it not 2. to keep it if we have it 3. to regain it if we have lost it 1. In answer to the Question Whether such assurance may be had I say it may which I prove 1. By arguing ab esse ad posse Assurance hath by many been attained therefore it may be attained That it hath been attained is so evident that scarce any thing can be more evident there is not one Saint almost in all the Scriptures concerning whom much is said of whom something is not said from which it may be collected that he had sometime or other good assurance of Gods love Was Job think we without assurance who maintained his integrity against the devil and his uncharitable friends clubbing their wits to prove him an Hypocrite Was not that the voice of assurance I know that my redeemer liveth Was not the Spouse assured when she said I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine Was not St. Paul assured when he so triumphed in Christ Rom. 8.38 I am perswaded that neither life nor death nor Angels nor principalities c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus The Papists do not much deny but that these persons and sundry others mentioned in Scriptures had assurance onely they say they came to it in an extraordinary way by immediate revelation which must needs be looked on as a meer evasion and shift there is not in Scripture the least hint that these came to their assurance in any extraordinary way but many things there be in Scripture which make manifest that they attained their certainty in a discursive way arguing from the effect to the cause from the fruits to the root from their mortifying the deeds of the flesh and walking according to the Spirit to the Spirits dwelling in them St. Paul
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
of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee By his free Spirit the Psalmist here means his Spirit to set him free from the slavish fear either of God or Man which usually makes us weary of our lives and yet horribly afraid to die But wherefore doth he desire this free Spirit not that he might be free from Gods service but that he might be free to his service that being not in bondage through fear he might win others to the faith that he might be able to encourage others to walk before God in holiness and righteousness all their days he that useth not his comforts to this end doth but turn the grace of God into wantonness 2. A good way to gain Assurance is to be thankful for what we enjoy already When Nathaneel was induced to believe meetly because he was told of his being under the tree Christ was so pleased that he promised him he should see greater things then that Joh. 1.50 So when we are thankful for the first dawnings of light God is so well pleased with that thankfulness that he causeth our light to grow clearer and clearer to the noon day Phil. 4.6 7. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus To him that is thankful for what he hath shall be given but from him who is not thankful for what he hath shall be taken away even that which he hath How can we more provoke God then if we over-look and despise all our mercies because we want some one thing which we have a mind to though no present meetness for it yet so is God provoked by bad men and by good men Though Haman be by the King advanced above all the Princes yet all avails him nothing so long as he saw Mordecai the Jew sitting at the Kings gate Hest 4.13 and even the father of the faithful uttereth words not much unlike Gen. 15. God bids him not fear for he was his shield and exceeding great reward But what doth he reply v. 2 3. What wilt thou give me seeing I go childless and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus and behold to me thou hast given no seed and lo one born in my house is my heir What wilt thou give me As if God had nothing to reward his Servants obedience with but Children as if he could not be better to them then many heirs Obj. If God should hide himself from me in temporals I could that hiding notwithstanding be thankful for spirituals But what have I to be thankful for so long as I know not that God loves me with a special peculiar love A. Is it nothing that thou art out of Hell that thou art kept from running into all excess of riot that thou art kept from laying violent hands on thy self nothing that thou art born in Emmanuels Land that thou hearest of the covenant of grace sure and well ordered in all things that thou hast Ministers and Christian friends to help thee to lay hold of this Covenant nothing that the Spirit hath brought thee under convictions of sin and enclined thy heart to seek out after the Gospel cure Surely if thou canst see nothing to be thankful for but Assurance if thou shouldest have Assurance it self thou wouldest scarce be thankful for that but quarrel at it because it is not clear enough or because others have more of it then thy self 3. He that wants Assurance must believe till he feel that he believes and put forth acts of love till he find that his love is sincere and unfeigned Direct acts would be multiplied when we have not the comfort of reflex acts this is a rule given by all and seems to be firmly grounded on that famous place Isa 50.10 He that walketh in darkness and seeth no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay on his God He that walketh in darkness and seeth no light is in as comfortless a condition as a child of God can be in What is the way to bring him into the light Even to trust in the Name of the Lord and to stay on God That is he must consider that Christ died for him and that he is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God through him yea and that he hath promised if he come not to cast him out and by express commandment hath made it his duty to believe and in the strength of these considerations the Spirit assisting to cast himself on him and lay hold of him so long till he find he hath him Those who make the being assured that God is ours in covenant to be the onely and the first ground of reliance on God do by consequence make all Preaching in vain and bring unto us a new Gospel For suppose I had to do with an Unbeliever what should I say to him that he doth not believe till he is perswaded that God is his in covenant with him Would not this be in effect to tell him that he must die in his unbelief For how should he come to know himself to be in Covenant Shall I tell him because he is elect That cannot be known to him nor if it could be known to him would it be sufficient to infer his being in covenant for the elect till renewed by grace are the children of wrath as well as others My business therefore is to convince such a man that if he die in his sins he is undone everlastingly and that his own righteousness is so every way imperfect that it cannot answer the demands of the Law I must also call upon him to meditate on the free and full offers of life and salvation that are made in the Gospel and let him know that it is his duty to lay hold of the hope that is set before him and to follow such kind of meditations with his prayers till he feel his heart resolved to adventure himself on this bottom But can any one so do Without grace he cannot By grace he can And so did Job Job 13.15 Though he slay me yet will I trust in him I but Job thing destitute at present of the sense of Gods favour might remember his former loving kindnesses and with such remembrances support himself 'T is possible he might but the soul that never had any sense of Gods love may come to this pitch of resolution nay to this pitch of resolution it must come For what else should it do To continue in a natural condition brings damnation inevitably get out of it by his own strength no man can Tell him what promises God hath made of pardon hee 'l reply that whatever is promised as to pardon is suspended on a condition which condition
able to pay you Ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your voice be heard on high As if he had said Never look to have your fastings accepted or your suits heard on high so long as ye continue these courses of vexation and oppression Object If we must not plead till we be meet for mercy then we must never plead for our hearts being once made meet for mercy God bestows mercy and so no need to plead for it Answ Meetness doth not consist in indivisibili but hath its latitude and degrees God doth not delay to answer when he hath brought a man to full fitness but he may and doth sometimes delay when he hath brought him to some fitness That also may be a full fitness for one that is not a full fitness for another and that a full fitness for the same man at one time that is not at another 'T is commonly said and truly that there are preparatory works to Conversion but these are not alike for degree in all those that have led orderly civil lives are usually by a less humiliation fitted for faith then those whose sins have more scandalized Religion so are those who are designed for a private life then they whom God calls to the work of the Ministry That very repentance that would have fitted a man for Assurance at first will not fit him to have it renewed after he hath by any notorious revolting lost it He also who is by God designed for exemplary strictness and eminent mortification doth commonly come by his Assurance more hardly then he who was not designed to be so choice a vessel He therefore who lives without the sense of Gods love though he have waited for it more then they who wait for the morning watch let him think that God hath some gracious end in this dispensation either to humble him afresh for former sins or to cause him the more highly to value Christ Jesus or to make him a more able experienced comforter of others yet if he be not conscious to himself of indulging any known sin let him not cease to pray that God would restore unto him the joy of his salvation nor yet humbly to expostulate with God and enquire wherefore He hides his face from him for these expostulations and pleadings are the ways in which and means by which God giveth in promised mercies and in and by which our own faith is stirred up to lay hold of Christ his Blood and Spirit We must not by our pleadings design to make any change in God with whom there is not the least variableness or shadow of turning but to make a change in our selves our wrastling is not to overcome God but to overcome our own pride and infidelity yet we are said Scripture accommodating it self to our infirmity to awaken God to prevail over God himself Hos 12.4 He prevailed over the Angel he wept and made supplication By the Angel almost every one now thinks we are to understand the Angel of the Covenant God blessed for evermore Let us see what it is from which we may so argue with God as to have power with him and prevail 1. We may argue with him from all the names suitable to our condition by which he hath called himself in Scripture Many comfortable names God proclaimes himself by Exod. 34.6 7. look what it is that best hits our condition by that we may plead with God So we find Moses to have done Numb 14.17 18 19. And now I beseech thee let the power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken The Lord is long suffering and of great mercy forgiviag iniquity and transgression Pardon I pray thee the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercies Scarcely can any deserted persons condition be clothed with such circumstances as that he may not be able to relieve himself and argue with God by some one of those seven names by which his good affection to repenting sinners is set out they are seven skirts by the which he would have us to lay hold of him and not let him go till he hath blessed us In Scripture also he makes himself known by the name of Father by that name the Church argueth with him Isa 63.16 Doubtless thou art our Father This was the hinge on which the Prodigals Faith did turn I will go to my Father and say Father Dulce nomen patris Let every deserted soul plead it with God Thou art my Father and can a Father shut his armes against a son formerly indeed disobedient but now intreating mercy with tears resolving to redeem the loss of former with improvement of the time to come He that shall thus with true remorse and hearty grief bespeak God shall not long be without the best robes the ring and the shoes without the most signal tokens of fatherly love Obj. If I durst call God Father then I were well enough but this is my misery that I have lost all that which sometimes made me to think he was my father and afforded me some boldness in my accesses to him A. If I should for once gratifie thee in thy hard thoughts concerning thy self yet thou canst not deny but that God is thy Father on a common account as a Creator Plead that relation for it will go a great way with God especially if we be also within the pale of his Church Isa 64.8 9. But now O Lord thou art our father we are the clay thou art the Potter we are all the work of thy hands Be not wroth very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold see we beseech thee we are all thy people An argument also used Psal 138.8 Job 10.8 9. In all the places there is an allusion to Gods framing mans body at first but perhaps something more is aimed at viz. that they had been by God not onely formed and fashioned in the womb but also formed and fashioned into a Church taken into Covenant and so made a peculiar people doubtless there is something to be made of this that we are called by Gods Name and that we are the sons of his handmaid born in his house some weight this nail will bear if we hang all our vessels on it then it must needs break 2. The very extremity of our condition is a very effectual plea with God he useth it as an argument to himself Isa 57.17 I will not contend for ever neither will I be alway wroth for the spirit should fail before me and the souls which I have made While no temptation hath befallen us but what is common God counts not himself so much concerned to regard us but when once we are tempted with such malice as we shall not long be able to bear God will then soon either restrain or refrain his anger When therefore our spiritual troubles are come to a true and not onely an imaginary extremity let us plead that with God so seems
otherwise they should rejoyce over me and magnifie themselves against me when my foot slippeth Double to these are the pleas proper to deserted souls that may be picked out of the Book of Psalms but I forbear to gather them together commending the Book it self as the best Directory to furnish those who are in trouble with fit praying-matter onely let them be sure that they be sincere using Davids prayers with Davids heart i. e. humbly believingly charging their souls to wait on God so He that shall come will come and will not tarry So shall he who now stands as an Enemy or as a Stranger say Is Ephraim my dear son is he a pleasant child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still Therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will have mercy on him so shall the wilderness and the solitary place be glad and the desart rejoyce and blossom as the rose blossom abundantly and rejoyce with joy and singing The ransomed of Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladnesse and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation Amen FINIS The TABLE COherence and parts of the Text pag. 1 2. Q. How is the Spirit said to be grieved p. 3. A. 1. Properly if by Spirit we understand the renewed part of man p. 3 4. 2. But if the Spirit of God because that is done against him which would grieve him were he capable of grief p. 4. 3. When we make the Spirit so to carry it towards us as persons do towards those that have grieved them p. 5. Q. 2. Why are we said rather to grieve the Spirit then Father and Son p. 6. A. Because sin is most opposite to his appropriate work p. 6 7 Q. 3. What sins do grieve the Spirit Ibid. A. Generally wilfull deliberate sins Specially 1. Lusts of Uncleanness p. 8 9 10. 2. Sins of Anger Malice c. p. 11. 12 13. 3. Sleighting of the Divinely Inspired Writings and preferring Humane Writings p. 13 14 15 16 17. 4. Robbing the Spirit of his glory and taking his praise unto our selves p. 17 18 19 20. 5. Fathering on him the ugly brats of the evâ—l spirit p. 21 22. 6. Ascribing to the Devil the works of the Spirit p. 22 23. Inferences 1. The Spirit is a Person p. 23. 2. Hath a tender care of Believers ibid. 3. Not to be blasphemed p. 24. 4. They wretched who take pleasure in sin which grieves the Spirit p. 24. Motives not to grieve the Spirit 1. He is a Divine Person the onely Divine Person against whom a sin is irremissible p. 25 26 27. 2. He hath little deserved to be grieved p. 27 28 29 30 31. 3. They who onely are in a capacity to grieve him have least reason so to do p. 32 33. 4. Dreadfull are the effects of grieving the Spirit of God 1. Hence ensue foul and dishonourable lusts p 34. 2. Ordinances become unprofitable p. 35. 3. The heart is filled with sad distressing doubts p 37. The Spirit is pleased if 1. We grieve when he is grieved p. 38. 2. Bring forth the fruits of the Spirit p. 38 39. 3. Pray to him and for him p. 39 40. 4. Honour his gifts in others especially those for Ministry no time to be expected in which no Ministry p. 40 41. 42. What meant by the Day of Redemption 1. Not the day of Baptism p. 43. 2. Some day after this life for till then 1. Redemption from the power of sin is not perfect p. 43 44. 2. Forgiveness of sin not perfect p. 44. 3. Redemption of the body scarce begun p. 45. Godly should groan for this day p. 45 46. Wicked should kiss the Redeemer p. 47. Nature and ends of Sealing p. 47 48. By the Spirits sealing is meant not his regenerating but assuring work p. 48 49. Assurance possible proved by four Arguments p. 50 to 56. Why Papists deny Assurance p. 57 58 59. Differences betwixt Assurance and Presumption p. 60. Assurance breeds not sloth p. 61 62 63. Faith consists not in Assurance p. 64. to 69. Q. Whether all Believers sometime or other have Assurance p. 69. A. In four Propositions I. Some have Assurance just before death who had it not before p. 69. to 72. II. Some that had it before want it then 1. To quicken others to preparation p. 72. 2. To harden worldlings p. 73. 3. To punish falling from first love p. 73 74. 4. Through the nature of some diseases 5. Through the malice of Satan III. 'T is rarely seen that any understanding Christian runs out his whole course without some Assurance p. 75. IV. Yet is it not impossible it should be so ibid. This no ground for idleness for 1. Men argue not so in temporals p. 76. 2. 'T is a sin to want Assurance p. 77. 3. None can be a child of God who doth not desire to attain the full Assurance of hope p. 77 78 79. Q. How is Assurance wrought A. 1. In a very mysterious way p. 79 80 81. 2. In the same way that bondage is wrought in unconverted sinners i. e. discursively p. 82. 83 84. Immediate testimony explained and cautioned by its assertors p 85 86. What to be thought of it p. 87 88. Discursive way the most ordinary and safe p. 89. to 92. Antinomians who deny the use of Marks confuted p. 93 94. Stupidity of sinners reproved p. 94 95 96. All that fear God perswaded to make use of this way of examination Some Marks visible if not others p. 96. If none visible then Examination no duty p. 97. Q. Why does God suffer his children to want Assurance p. 98. A. Assurance is two-fold high and moderate high too strong for our weak vessels long to hold p. 99 100. Good reason why God lets Believers for a season want even moderate Assurance 1. To keep them from relapses p. 100 101. 2. To keep them humble p. 102 103. 3. To make them more earnest in Prayer p. 104. 4. To try and exercise their graces p. 105. 5. To make them more value Assurance when they have it p 106. 6. To make them more able to comfort others p. 107. 7. To make them more long after Heaven p. 108. 8. To encourage good and confound wicked p. 108 109. 9. To manifest his own power and patience p. 109 110 111. Therefore we ought not when God withdraws to charge him foolishly p. 111 112. Q. How do Believers meritoriously procure the want of Assurance A. 1. Through the smalness of their graces Conversion more discernable at the first Plantation of the Gospel then now Some Objections answered p. 113. to 116. 2. Because they seek it not with diligence enough the case of poor Christians considered p. 117 118 119. 3. Because of their
of saving grace and must necessarily by their frequent failings and transgressions make much work for an accusing conscience nor indeed do I see that it would be for the advantage of less obedient and exact Christians to have Assurance rather it might beget in them security and pride sins to which novices are prone Object Is it not said Gal. 4.6 Because ye are sons God hath sent the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba father And if the Spirits emboldning to cry Abba father be given to sons because they are sons then it may be thought to belong to all sons even new born babes who are as truly sons as those who are most grown in grace Answ Some to avoid this difficulty do not render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because but that and it may be so rendred and a very fair sense given of the words viz. the Spirits being sent into their hearts crying Abba father was an evidence that they were sons but let it be rendred as by most it is because ye are sons yet it must be granted that by sons here are to be understood not all who are born again not all who are no bastards but onely such sons as have ceased to be children and are no longer under tutors and governors such as have received the adoption of sons such are not those Christians of whom we are now speaking for though they be delivered from the observation of the Ceremonial Law yet are they as ignorant and Carnal as those who were in bondage to it Object Doth not this put the poor newly converted Christian into continual doubts and fears and strike at the very root of all his hopes and comforts Answ We are not creators of comfort but onely dispensers we cannot make an easier or speedier way to Assurance then Christ hath made nor can we approve of or so much as excuse those who do snatch at comfort before they be meet for it It is sufficient that we can assure all that Christ hath purchased remission of sin for them upon his own terms the receiving of him as Prophet Priest King and that all who repent are justified in the sight of God though not justified in their own consciences and that in due season their own consciences shall justifie them also and that Christ will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax and that it cannot be that the merciful God should condemn those who tremble at his Word and lie at his feet enquiring the Law at his mouth and grieved at nothing more then that they cannot yield perfect and compleat obedience unto it II. Another Reason why so many want Assurance is because they seek not for it with so much diligence as a matter of that nature requires Some little pains they will take to find out the marks of sincerity and some little time they will spend in comparing their hearts with those marks but they will not continue the great duty of self-examination till the matter be brought to some issue they will not behold their faces in the glass long enough to beget in themselves a true notion or Idea of themselves but go away and presently forget what manner of persons they were How few are there whom we can perswade at a night to catechize their own souls to criticize on the actions of the day past How few that can be prevailed with to spend any considerable proportion of time in Closet devotions yet better may we expect eminent skill in the most abstruse Arts and Sciences without great labour then expect Assurance without all morally possible sedulity Wherefore the rather give diligence to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 Give the more diligence so the Old Translation Indeed the making of calling and election sure doth deserve all diligence and require all diligence it is not a little diligence that will serve to find out the manifold subtilties of a deceitfull heart nor a little diligence that will frustrate the devices of Satan who will not fail to joyn himself with carnal reason and to beget in us hard thoughts of God Psal 63.1 2. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee My soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is To see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary Like care and desire expressed the Spouse in the Canticles to recover the sight and to her apprehension lost love of Christ Cant. 3.1 2 3. Object If this be so What shall become of those that are poor in the world who have but little time to spare from the duties of their particular calling either for the reading of the Word or communing with their own hearts Can none of these have a sense of Gods love must they perpetually lie under doubts and fears about their eternal state Answ God forbid I should so say God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him Jam. 2.5 But there is no good man so poor but he will find out some considerable proportion of time to mind the state of his soul in God giveth unto all such a contented mind which makes them they do not desire much nor make haste to be rich he giveth unto them also wisdom and prudence by which they can husband their opportunities so as to keep themselves from beggary and yet give as many visits unto God as they do that have abundance Besides what our Lord Christ determined in the case of the Widow that the two mites she threw into the treasury was more then the much cast in by the rich because they did cast in of their abundance but she of her want did cast in all that she had even all her living Mar. 12.43 44. holds true here also the poor mans hour is more then the rich mans two hours because his hour is all that he can tell how to redeem from the necessities of nature and relations and therefore he shall be so blessed and assisted by God in that hour that he shall reap as many comfortable fruits of the Spirit as those who can spare a far greater proportion of time III. Some do want Assurance through the ignorance that is in them 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves Know ye not that Christ is in you except ye be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 void of judgment 'T is onely for them that are of full age that by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern betwixt good and evil Heb. 5.14 therefore the Apostle prayeth Phil. 1.9 That their love might abound more and more in knowledg and in all judgment that they might approve things that are excellent or that they might discern things that differ as it is in the margin of our present translation and in the text of the former
let but any discourse with the generality of troubled Christians he shall find that many of their doubts had never been if when they had first given themselves up to God they had then also given themselves up to some judicious and pious Pastor that would have been at pains well to instruct them in the Articles of Religion in the first principles of the Oracles of God some mistakes they sucked in when first they began to be serious which made them ever after to fear where no fear was Had their eye been single their whole body had been full of light but their eye being evil their whole body was full of darkness and they could never know whither they went Three errors especially I have observed some unskilful in the word of righteousness to have sucked in which have occasioned unto them much perplexity 1. Error hath been about the terms and condition of the Covenant of grace they make more necessary to their acceptation with God then God ever made though their hearts be prepared to seek the Lord God of their fathers yet because they are not cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctuary though their works are done in sincerity yet because they have not been found by them to be full and perfect therefore have they drawn sad and dreadful conclusions against themselves Ask them whether they do not believe the truth of the Gospel and whether they do not heartily consent that Christ should be theirs and they his they dare not deny it yet will they not be comforted because they suppose faith to be quite another thing a firm perswasion that they are already justified Ask them whether it be not their hearty and earnest desire and endeavour to obey the whole Law of Christ they 'l answer they hope it is and yet put away from themselves all the comforts and priviledges of the Covenant because they find in themselves many sinful suggestions of the flesh or because it is not with them as it is with some others as if the condition of the Covenant were perfect and unsinning obedience and not sincere obedience or as if all Gods children were of the same size and stature Hence sad dreadful complaints are made by men that they do not believe nor obey Christ when yet it is manifest they do believe and obey onely they are mistaken in their notion about the nature of Faith and Evangelical obedience 2. A conceit That all who are converted must needs know when they were converted and by what means and how they were converted whereas with some The Kingdom of God is as if a man should cast seed into the ground and should sleep and rise day and night and the seed should spring and grow up he knoweth not how Mar. 4.26 27. As for knowing the time of Conversion I am so far from judging it to be necessary to all Christians that I think it is in an ordinary way impossible to any Christian Those indeed whose lives have been stained with enormous crimes do usually know when they first began to be reclaimed and what were the thorns with the which their ways first were hedged up but how they should know what was the Ultimum non esse of the Old Man and the Primum esse of the New Man how they should understand the nick of time in which they ceased to be natural and began to be spiritual without some such assistance as is not usual I conceive not Yet even in this particular a deluded heart hath turned some aside so that they cannot deliver themselves and say Is there not a lie in my right hand Men could not be held long in such a snare as this if they did not pin their Judgments on the sleeves of some well meaning Teachers all whose dictates they swallow without consideration 3. Some are hugely tormented because they mistake themselves about the way of working Assurance and about the nature of Assurance They have thought that Assurance is wrought by some vocal or as it were vocal testimony of the Spirit which is not ordinarily the way of working Assurance and they think that so soon as they be assured they must needs be void of all fears and filled with all joy in believing hence when they have Assurance yet they complain they want it but this is a mistake for glorious and ravishing Joy is a separable accident from Assurance nor yet doth Assurance exclude all doubting and fear but onely such doubting and fear as ariseth from infidelity and reigning hypocrisie IV. Some are kept from Assurance because they do keep the Devils counsel and bury those doubts and fears about their condition in their own bosoms which they ought to discover unto others This is mostly the condition of those who are pestered with the horribilia de Deo buffetted with blasphemous thoughts or with temptations to uncleanness these dishonourable loathsome workings of soul they are unwilling to make known hence they are like unto the troubled sea that cannot rest but is continually casting up its mire and dirt If Women when in their pangs should not send for the Midwife to deliver them how few would not miscarry If Students should never have recourse unto their Tutors to solve their doubts how little would be their proficience And must not they who will not make use of the help and assistance of their spiritual Guides and Teachers go much about and stay longer under bondage and in the place of bringing forth of children then they needed else to do There are some to whom God hath given the tongue of the learned that they may speak a word in due season to him that is weary Isa 50.4 some whom God hath comforted to the end they may comfort others with the same consolations wherewith they themselves have been comforted 2 Cor. 1.4 some to whom it is said Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Joh. 20. vers 23.24 These God will have owned and honoured not by confessing to them all the sins of our lives but by opening to them such doubts as God seems to deny us satisfaction to upon our own private prayers and endeavours for not doing this many are kept a great while on the rack that else might soon find ease and relief The Spouse in the Canticles ch 3. vers 3 4. after she had enquired of the Watchmen Whether they had seen him whom she loved had not passed farr but she found him But then persons must make conscience of dealing plainly and truly with those who do watch over their souls which I do therefore suggest because it is too usual with those that are troubled not faithfully to relate where the shooe pincheth them but with the Lapwing to make the greatest noise when they are furthest off from the nest Moses was troubled that God should think of sending him into Egypt and he would needs make as if his