in Scripture as his own when he can say Whether it be the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are mine and I am Christs and Christ is Gods To such a one if to any other the Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart more to be desired then gold yea then much fine gold sweeter also then the honey and the honey-comb VI. Assurance will wonderfully heighten and enlarge us in Praise and Thanksgivings If the Spirit do dwell in us yet unless we have the sense and feeling of him scarcely will our hearts be filled with joy or our mouths with praise Why I pray you do the Angels and Spirits of just men made perfect spend eternity in Hallelujahs but because they do walk by sight are continually beholding God and in the possession of glory sure also not to fall from it An assured Christian cannot make such sweet and uninterupted melody because alas his assurance is not perfect but mixed with many doubts and fears but yet whilest he is under the actual sense and enjoyment of Gods love he cannot but break out into his Psalmes Hymnes and Spiritual Songs Hear how David rouseth up all his faculties to joyn and bear a part in spiritual praises Psal 103.1 2 3 c. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the Eagles Nay Assurance will not let a man be alone in this musick it will make him invite and call upon others to bear a part if Davids cup do overflow he calls on others to come and taste it O taste and see that the Lord is gracious come and I will tell you what wonderfull things he hath done for my soul O praise the Lord for his mercy endureth for ever And again and again Praise the Lord for his mercy endureth for ever As good fellows when they are well heated with Wine and strong drink begin to one another in their filthy songs and ballads so Christians being filled with the Spirit do speak to one another in Hymnes Psalmes and spiritual Songs singing and making melody to God in their hearts Ephes 5.18 19. VII Assurance will further Repentance in both its parts and acts 1. For Sorrow Nothing sooner melts the heart then a beam from the Sun of Righteousness nothing sooner sends a man out with Peter to weep bitterly then a love look from Christ his Lord one smile of his countenance on a sinful soul not hardned not asleep is enough to make it weep rivers of tears because it hath transgressed his Laws There is a repenting sorrow for or in order to the obtaining the pardon of sin and this is not say the Antinomian what he will to the contrary unbeseeming a Saint nay it is that which he is in hundred places of Scriptures called to but there is also a repenting sorrow arising from pardon a striking on the thigh because we have quenched the motions of so good a Spirit and abused that riches of grace so clearly manifested Ezek. 16.63 That thou maist remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done This may seem an harsh paradox and phantastick dream to some but they are such as are not partakers of the divine nature which is ingenuous and afflicted with nothing more then the remembrance of unkindness and unthankfulness 2. It also furthers us in the forsaking and renouncing of sin They that are tied with this cord of love will not easily break it 't is made you know the great aggravation of Solomons Idolatry That he turned from the God of Israel that had appeared to him twice 1 King 119. That manifestly implyeth that the manifestation of Gods love is not a spur to licentiousness but a bridle to keep from it Indeed they who know their garments to be made white in the blood of the Lamb will not easily suffer them to be again defiled with the pollutions that are in the world through lust corrupt nature will be taking occasion as from the Law so from the Gospel also to sin it will be suggesting sin that grace may abound but renewed nature will be throwing back such suggestions with abhortence Rom. 6.1 2. What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein How can we that know that our old man is crucified together with Christ that the body of sin may be destroyed serve sin any longer how shall we that be married to him who is raised from the dead bring forth fruit to our former dead husband We do love our sins naturally as we love either right eye or right hand Will any thing but the sense of a greater love make us to cut them off or to pull them out Nothing more constrains to the hatred of sin then the love of Christ nothing makes us more to love him then a sense that he loveth us and that with an everlasting love VIII Assurance doth marvellously deaden the heart to all needless disputes and controversies and settle the heart in the truth and fortifie it against the subtilties of seducing spirits They that can read the law written on their hearts do not dote on questions and strife of words but avoid profane bablings and oppositions of sciences falsly so called and if any will needs shew their wits and skill in disputing against any duty or act of obedience they have that within them which will not suffer them to hearken to him they care not to answer him any other way then Diogenes confuted Zeno's fallacy against local motion by walking up and down the room Had men but felt the power of those truths on their hearts which are commonly discoursed and preached they would not so easily have changed their minds about them as some in the late times were observed to do had but their hearts been established with grace they could not so easily have been carried about with divers strange doctrines there 's no such preservative against Apostacy and Heresie as Assurance No man that hath drank old wine will presently desire new for he will say that the old is better He that hath but heard of old Wine and taken his opinion of its vertue upon trust from the reports of others may be induced to drink new Wine but so will not he who hath tasted of it and felt it making glad his heart and strengthning him against his many infirmities Let the Sophister first go and perswade the weary Traveller that the appetites of hunger and thirst are but fancies or to
for they shall be called the sons of God It is the observation of Maldonat That to be called the sons of God implies somewhat more then to be the sons of God viz. that peace-makers shall be owned and published as the sons of God they shall have a testimony in the consciences of others and in their own consciences that they are the children of God 5. Loving of those that hate us blessing those that curse us praying for those that persecute us are actions very contrary to corrupt nature unto which nothing is more pleasing then private revenge but they have on them so much of the Image of him that maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth his rain on the just and unjust that they clearly evidence to him that is conscientious in exerting them his Adoption He cannot long question his own forgiveness from God who finds in himself an heart ready to forgive all who trespass against him for how should not the God of all mercies much more readily forgive then he who hath but a very dram of mercy Let any one who is of a trembling heart but go into his closet and there pour out his soul in supplications for the pardon and salvation of those who persecute him he can scarce not thence draw a deal of divine sweetness and secret sense of Gods love Unto such a one sooner then to any other would I promise settlement in a sure and glorious peace But revengeful projects are so black and hellish as that they cannot consist with calmness of conscience God indeed doth not a second time put any sins into the Book of his remembrance which he hath once blotted out but a malicious revengefull prosecution of our fellow Christians may write over in our own hearts and consciences all those sins that were by the Blood of Christ before blotted out for there is not as to all things the same reason of the Original of the Act of Indempnity kept in the hands of God and the Counterpane of it kept within our selves Direct 6. Let not any that would attain Assurance give way to any unnecessary scruples or doubts about his condition or think that every thing which calleth for trouble and shame doth presently make a man an hypocrite or out of covenant with God It is therefore wisdom as soon as any doubt ariseth presently to take our selves to task and see whether that which we have against our selves be such a matter as from whence we can rationally infer that God and we are still at enmity I shall not here take occasion to descend to particular doubts for they are numberless and besides to answer doubts in writing availeth little because a doubt as represented to a tempted soul scarce seems to be the same thing that it is when described on paper yet there are some general Rules that may be laid down which if particularly applied will be of great use for the silencing of doubts 1. I ought not to make my self an hypocrite for that which the holy Scriptures do no where make a character of hypocrisie If any consolation were tendred to me had it not a foundation in the Scriptures I were bound to reject it and so am I to put away all trouble which comes not backed with some Scripture By this rule our first Reformers did extricate themselves and others out of those labyrinths of desperation into which Popery had led them and the rule hath still a standing necessary use and if observed would set at liberty many who do account themselves bound 2. I must not make my self an hypocrite for that which would make the whole generation of the faithful Hypocrites as well as my self If I have a mind to gratifie my self in hard thoughts concerning my self yet I ought not to have hard thoughts of every one else too If I cannot see my own name written in the Lambs book of life yet I must not blot out the names of all that make up the body of Christ Jesus We may therefore observe if we have opportunity the confessions of those who are if any other sincere and if we do find but the same lustings to sin which they also complain and acknowledg to be in themselves we may not for such lustings conclude our selves to be out of covenant with God or if we do think there is not security enough in this course then may we read over the histories of those who have Gods testimony in Scripture that they were his children and if we find that our spot is but as theirs was we need not for it fear our condition 3. I need not trouble my self about that which hath been already objected against me and fully by me answered If a controversie hath been long handled the question truly stated arguments on both sides clearly produced which way a man hath gone he will go and not suffer himself to be removed from his opinion by every new book in which are onely the old arguments in a new dress without any new additional strength Sophisters if you give them an ear will be wrangling infinitely so will the Devil and our own carnal hearts we must therefore do by them as Moderators do by Opponents after their argument hath been answered bid them either urge it further or use some new argument or else be silent else shall we both lose our precious time and also wrangle away our consolations And let all those who might see the seal of the Spirit on their hearts did they not nourish needless doubts well consider that they do by disquieting themselves with childish irrational fears commit a very great sin For 1. They do rob the Spirit of all the honour due unto him for the work that he hath wrought in their hearts And can it choose but grieve him when he hath put forth power equivalent to that by which the world was created by which Christ was raised from the dead to find it overlooked and not at all acknowledged 2. He sins against his soul in hindring the growth it might make were it not hindred by continual fears that the root is still unsound Possess a builder with an apprehension that his foundation is not sure laid and you will never perswade him to carry on his fabrick with any vigour for he will still be thinking that when the storms and tempests arise it will fall and the higher he hath raised it the more shameful will be its fall 3. By thus disavowing Gods work of grace he doth dishearten and discourage his fellow Christians who observing him of whom they alway had far better thoughts then of themselves to doubt of his sincerity do begin to question their own 4. By nullifying in conceit the new creature on such weak grounds he extreamly hardens the unconverted who will hence be ready to conclude that no religion lies deeper then the phansie Object But if out of a fear not to deny a true evidence I should trust
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
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
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
by his Comment on the Revelations He was much troubled about that place Rev. 13.5 Where it is said that the Beast had power to continue forty two months after much prayer he had though not a voice yet an impression so strong that a voice from heaven could scarce have made him more confident that he must count these months by Sabbaths as Daniels weeks are counted by Sabbaths he did so by the help of some Merchants and found the years to be Two hundred ninety four just the time of the ten first persecutions Doubtless therefore saith he that was the time of the Beast But who follows him in this who almost though he cannot confirm his own interpretation doth not think himself able to overthrow this 4. The most ordinary and safe way of coming to Assurance is that I before mentioned The discursive way in which a Believer from the fruits and effects of grace inferrs he hath the habit and from the habit concludes his justification and adoption This is proved 1. Because as it is a way least subject to delusion so is it also most suited to a rational creature whose way of acting is by discourse and argumentation If any Probleme be propounded to the Understanding which is not of it self known and evident the Understanding naturally falls to finding out some middle term or argument by which it may prove that the Predicate doth or doth not agree to the Subject let any man whatever try and he 'l find he cannot do otherwise And how little would be the difference betwixt a man and a beast if a man should assent to a thing unknown through an instinct and impression and should to one who asks him a reason of his perswasion be able to return nothing in answer but this I am perswaded because I am perswaded 2. We must also make Christ to have put himself to a very unnecessary expence in inspiring holy men to give unto us so many descriptions of Grace so many characters by which the power of Godlinesse may be known from the form if we were not to come to the knowledge of our grace by making practical Syllogismes before mentioned 3. Nor should we so often and so earnestly be called on to try and examine our selves whether we be in the faith if we were not to come to the knowledge of our faith in a discursive way arguing from the Effect to the Cause Nor can we give a better reason why our good works are called fruits then this Because as the Tree is known by its Fruits for a good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit nor a bad tree good fruits so the Heart by what proceeds from it is known whether it be good or evil 4. We find the Saints in Scripture coming to their Assurance this way Our rejoycing is this the testimony of a good conscience that in godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1.12 His joy was founded on the testimony of his Conscience but from what did his Conscience testifie from his sincere conversation 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousnesse How plainly doth he here conclude his right to the Crown of Life from his having fulfilled the terms of the Covenant of Grace Nay in Scripture we do find that men are exhorted to do good works that by them they may ascertain themselves of their Calling Election Salvation 2 Pet. 1.10 Give diligence to make your calling and election sure by good works so it is in all the Latine copies so in some Greek copies not in those that our English Translators followed which is the reason why they are not in the English Bibles not as the Rhemists do slander us because we do not like them for as Dr. Fulke well replies the circumstance of the place doth of necessity require that good works be understood though they be not expressed in the Text. And the Rich 1 Tim. 6.17 18 19. are exhorted not to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God to do good to be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate to what end that they might lay up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come and lay hold of eternal life The least that can hence be inferred is that good works are a foundation of evidence or if any one dislike the term foundation and shall choose rather with Petit to translate a Bill of contract a Bond or Obligation it comes much to the same for thence it will be easie to inferr That he who is rich in good works receives and layes up an Obligation from God that this mercy of his shall have it's recompence of reward 5. What need we go further then the experience of Christians Do not all find that their Assurance is higher or lower according as they can more or less discern the fruits of holiness When they are dead lumpish doth not Hope then fail or flag And if any after back-sliding be as confident of his estate as ever he was before such back-sliding do we not think that mans Faith was Presumption Now of this that hath been said concerning the way of attaining Assurance several good Uses may be made I. It confutes those who condemn all use of Signs and Marks asserting that we are presently to believe that God loves us with a special love The late times among many other sad effects produced or brought abroad sundry who in their printed Pamphlets did make it a sin to doubt or once to enquire whether we be in Christ saying that we do never find that any in the course of Christ's or his Disciples preaching that did ask the question Whether they believed or whether their faith were sincere But what if none did ask that question then must none ask it now Are all the various conditions of troubled souls set down in particular examples in the New Testament If any one had then doubted of the sincerity of his graces could he unless some one had been present that had the gift of discerning spirits have been cured of his doubts any other way then by examining himself by marks and signs But doubtless there were then some who did doubt or else the Apostle saw they had reason to doubt for when he exhorts 1 Cor. 11.28 Let a man examine himself and Gal. 6.4 Let every man prove his own work none can rationally think his meaning was Let a man take it for granted that his state is good and force himself into a perswasion that his work is acceptable to God he that should so do would neither have rejoycing in himself alone nor in another But this evil spirit of Antinomianisme is pretty well blessed be God laid and I will not dispute against it lest I should raise it again onely I judge it not unmeet to answer one Objection Object It may
glory if they find not in themselves the Spirit the onely seed and root of this hope Answ This notwithstanding there are divers good reasons why the Lord when he hath put grace into our hearts may yet not publish it in our consciences For 1. If we speak not of moderate but of high Assurance I think it is a wine too strong for our weak heads a wine too strong for our vessels to hold long a glimpse of it is enough to dazle the eye of the understanding neither our bodies nor our souls can long hold much of Heavens glory consult experience and you 'l find it so Peter James and John were upon the mount of Transfiguration but they were then besides themselves they knew not what they said Mar. 9.6 Paul when he was wrapt up into the third Heavens saw things that he could not utter but the sight transported him whether he were in the body or out of the body he could not tell 2 Cor. 12.3 4. Some Christians especially of the weaker sex being all affection do too much slight a setled calm and peace of soul as if it were little worth falling upon such passages as Rom. 15. Filled with all joy in believing and rejoycing with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 They think God hath forsaken them and that they want faith when they find not such a sugred joy and delight as the judicious Mr. Richard Hooker sitly calls it pag. 546. but to such I say they know not their own strength should God so feast them continually they would be less healthy and sound unfit for the duties of their ordinary particular callings and employments too much honey as it follows in the same Author Ibid. doth turn to gall and too much joy even spiritual would make us wantons yea as the full spring tide is preparatory to a low ebb so usually these highest passionate joys do make way for or at least go before the highest sorrows and fears therefore it is well all things considered that such cordials are not made our diet that such suavities are not common But if we speak even of Moderate Assurance there be sundry Reasons that may move God to let his servants be without that at least for a season 1. To keep them from Relapses Should a Father after manifold foul miscarriages upon the first submission of his Son receive him to Table and entertain him with Paternal smiles he would but encourage him to return to his former disorderly conversation but by keeping him at a distance and returning into favour with him by degrees he makes him more watchful Semblably if God upon our first recovery from the sins into which we have fallen should presently pardon us not onely in the Court of Heaven but also in the Court of Conscience if he should not onely pardon us but also let us have the assurance of pardon we might be apt to take up too slight thoughts of sins guilt and too easily run into the occasions of it but by letting us feel the smart and anguish of sin for days months years he maketh us more watchful he causeth us to make the straighter paths unto our feet for ever after David being left under the anguish of broken bones under the quick and smart sense of his Murder and Adultery did more ever after dread those sins then ever did a burnt Child dread the fire Let no man say that it is a low and legal business to keep from sin because of its bitterness for though I grant that the love of God be the most perfect motive yet it is not the most proper and powerful for those who are flesh as well as spirit and I verily believe the most refined Christians had they not either felt the smart of sin themselves or conversed with those that had would make too many bold adventures on the patience forbearance and long-sufferance of God After all this is come on us for our evil deeds aod for our great trespass should we again break thy Commandments Ezr. 9.13 14. 2. To keep them Humble For though times of Assurance should be times of Humility yet few are of so strong a grace as to be able to digest so great an happiness Pride will not sooner breed in any thing then in those sweet consolations that are shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit of God assuring us of our interest in the Promises that vision of God which is apt in its own nature to make the soul abhor it self in dust and ashes Job 42.5 6. doth through the corruption in us but puff it up When St. Paul had been in the third Heavens enjoying Revelations to an hyperbole God then thinks meet to buffet him with the Messenger of Sathan after such extraordinary Vision of God he was ready to look on himself rather as an Angel then as flesh and blood therefore was there given him a thorn in the flesh He had either some very violent temptation to some fleshly lust or some other very piercing tryal and he tells us twice in one verse 2 Cor. 12.7 that this befel him lest he should be exalted above measure Also when Moses had been in the Mount and had acquired a lustre by conversing with God 't is so ordered that at the very foot of the Mount he meets with something to humble him and take him down Thy people have made a golden Calf then which no words could possibly have more cut his heart Our Saviour who vouchsafed to be tempted like unto us in all things was then led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil when he had just heard the voyce This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Matth. 3.17.4.1 Happier a great deal is that mans case whose soul by inward desolation is humbled then he whose heart is through abundance of spiritual delight lifted up and exalted above measure Better it is sometimes to go down into the Pit with him who beholding darkness and bewailing the loss of inward joy and consolation cryeth from the bottom of the lowest Hell My God my God why hast thou forsaken me then continually to walk arm in arm with Angels to sit as it were in Abrahams bosome and to have no thought no cogitation but I thank my God it is not with me as with others saith the learned Hooker pag. 546. 3. God may hide his face from his servants and let them be in dark to make them the more earnest in their prayers and supplications As among us Fathers do hide themselves that their Children may seek after them and purposely make as if they did not hear that they may either come nearer them or cry louder None more servent none more frequent in prayers then they who did once live in the light of Gods countenance and have lost it Read but the Psalmes of David penned by him when he was in any desertion you 'l think that he breathed out his soul
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
he finds not But then tell him there are absolute promises wherein God promiseth to bestow grace on the graceless here his hope begins to stir and revive The Lord hath promised to take away the heart of stone and to give an heart of flesh In that promise he hath not put my name but neither hath he excluded or put me out he may do it for me as well as for another therefore at his feet will I lie down and no longer be unwilling he should rule in my heart by his Law and Spirit and whether he ever smile on me or no which yet I have reason to hope he will I will have no other Lord or Master but himself and in the use of all good means will I wait on him and look up to him till he write his law on my heart and put his fear into my inward parts And this leads me to a fourth direction 4. Let him that wants Assurance wait upon God in the use of all good means duties ordinances till he shew his reconciled countenance to him I say all means duties c. not onely because the neglect of one may provoke God to reject our attendances on him in the other but also because 't is uncertain in which God will manifest himself 1. Sometimes in Prayer he drops the oyl of gladness into the wounded spirit and indeed in this duty as much as in any Upon the Prayers of the Church Peters bonds were loosed and could the Church be brought to as instant servent prayer for her doubting members that are fast held under the chains of their troublesome thoughts we might find them sooner delivered But as publick prayers have this advantage that by them God is most honoured so private closet prayers have this advantage that by and in them a man hath fairer opportunities to spread all his doubts before God in all their particular circumstances Look on David you would think he were not the same man at the beginning and end of some of his Psalms Before Prayer as full of fears as the night is of darkness after Prayer as full of confidence and comfort as the Sun is of light If our doubts do not prevail so far as to make us leave off praying our Prayers will prevail so far as to make us to leave off doubting Of Hannah it is said That after she had prayed her countenance was no more sad 1 Sam. 1.18 Had we more praying we should neither have so many jovial sinners nor so many dejected saints 2. Sometimes in the reading or hearing of the word of God a beam of light is let in that scatters all doubts and fears The Spirit takes off the veil that is upon the Word and the veil that is on the heart and then a man can misinterpret the Scripture no longer his title to the Promise is no longer obscure The Word it is Gods Power to Salvation 't is the instrument he maketh use of for the begetting strengthning confirming of faith it answers all the objections that carnal reason can raise against either the fulness or freeness of Divine Grace Therefore when people have been the very next door to despair by looking into this record of Gods love they have met with that which hath recovered their hope and made them to say Who is a God like unto thee pardoning iniquity transgression and sin 3. Sometimes God appeareth in holy religious conference As Iron sharpneth Iron so doth a man sharpen the face of his friend Prov. 27.17 And therefore Christians when they meet together should encourage and strengthen one another in the service and worship of God Exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3. 13. Indeed why is one comforted but that he should comfort others with the same consolations wherewith he hath been comforted When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren And that no man may despise any serious Christian though of the meanest parts let it be considered that God maketh use of the discourse of the foolish for the conversion and confirmation of those that have been in great repute for learning Thus the famous Junius was brought to be serious by hearing the hearty discourse of a Country-fellow concerning Faith and Repentance and our own renowned Bradford comforted by the discourse of an unlearned Weaver Thus will God have it to be that no flesh may glory in his presence and that no member of the body may say to another I have no need of thee 4. In the receiving of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper sometimes the Lord doth seal men up to the day of Redemption I have heard some say that they did never receive of this Banquet but they found some sensible reviving by it but they were such as made more conscience of preparing themselves then most now a days do Indeed the two main ends of this Ordinance seem to be Growth of Grace and Evidence of Grace Here the new-born babe takes in that which makes him grow up to his just and full proportion here also the soul in a swoon takes in that Wine which makes it recover and feel its own life and strength No man can open his mouth so wide but there is that in this Ordinance which will fill it for in it the whole Covenant is sealed Christ and all his benefits made over to the worthy Communicant Object None must come to this Ordinance but he who hath Assurance and therefore I do ill to prescribe it as a means to beget Assurance Answ This is a mistake men may without sin come to the Lords Table and yet have no Assurance that they are in favour with God All must examine themselves and if it be clear that they are dead in sins and trespasses they must not in that condition venture upon the sacred mysteries but if a man do upon examination find that in him which doth usually accompany true grace though he be not without some fears and doubts he may he must receive and the Sacramental Wine is the more proper for him because of those infirmities 5. Singing of Psalms also hath been much blessed by God to the quieting of mens minds and filling them with the sense of his love The Scholars of Pythagoras seem to have thought that singing had some natural tendency to procure quiet rest and freedome from ill affrighting dreams hence they used it every night And it is by the ancient Fathers much commended as very powerfull for the quieting of all passions and easing of the mind of all its perturbations Many have I read of that in singing of Psalms have been sweetly affected with the highest consolations so that it may well be wondred how this duty came in the late times to be so much difused in the Families of persons professing Religion Reasons indeed have been brought against it by some but such as could scarcely lay hold of any but those who had a
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