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
to a false evidence I were then eternally undone Answ True And therefore I am not now perswading any man to slight any doubt bottomed either on Scripture or reason but onely such as have all their force meerly from a palpable misapprehension of God or of his covenant Let a man fear where fear is but let him not make that matter of fear which is indeed ground of confidence let him not say that God loves him not because he chasteneth him when as he scarcely could be thought to love him if he did not chasten him neither let him for every flaw or crack call himself reprobate silver nor yet make every blasphemous thought an unpardonable sin which perhaps is so far from being an unpardonable sin that it is meerly his misery and not at all his sin for if the blasphemy arise not out of my heart but be injected by Satan I not consenting to it 't is my trouble but his sin Object But I have been told that there is undiscerned as well as discerned hypocrisie and how then can I cease doubting Answ Undiscerned hypocrisie is onely in those who have no mind to discern he that honestly proveth his own works and heartily prayeth Search and try me O Lord if there be any way of wickedness in me cannot be in a way of wickedness in me and not know it God may for a season hide from us our sincerity but prevailing hypocrisie cannot at least shall not be hidden from us if we search carefully to find it out Quest 6. part 2. How may he who hath Assurance do to preserve and keep it Answ This is a right useful and weighty question for Non minor est virtus quam quaerere parta tueri no less care and prudence is required to keep up Assurance then to gain it Little as we are taught in Metaphysicks is the difference betwixt Essence and Duration Creation and Conservation The Spirit who is the author of Assurance is also the carrier of it on and those Duties and Ordinances which are the wombs in the which it is conceived are also the breasts that do suckle and nourish it Adviseable it hath been thought by some to have some one promise unto which we may have recourse when troubles threaten and caeteris paribus it is most adviseable when storms return to flie to that promise which we did lay hold of and escape shipwrack by when they did first arise Much of what was said in answer to the first part of the question will also serve to answer this second part of it yet I will speak somewhat to it distinctly He therefore that would hold fast his Assurance let him I. Labour to imprint on his heart a true and firm knowledg of the covenant of grace He that understands this may saith Luther give thanks to God and account himself a good Divine He that understands it not is neither good Divine nor Christian For therefore do our consolations not fail because this covenant is sure and well ordered in all things Two things especially there be in this Covenant in which it concerns all who would not be as the waves of the Sea driven with every wind to be well established 1. Upon what terms we take God And doubtless we take him to sanctifie and pardon and glorifie us not to make us rich and wealthy in the world Nay if we understand our selves we leave it to him if he will but make us partakers of the Divine Nature to despoil us when it may tend to his glory and our own good to the utmost nakedness To list our selves among Christs Disciples is to profess that we have it in a readiness to forsake Father and Mother Brethren and Sisters and whatever else is dear unto us A believing meditation of this will quench that fiery dart with which many a godly man hath been pierced even to the utter loss of all his Assurance of Salvation For what more usual then for persons to conclude God hath forsaken them because he hath somewhat lessened the stream of Temporal Mercies Let an Angel from Heaven tell Gideon the Lord is with him he 'l not believe as long as his people are in the hands of the Midianites If the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us Judg. 6.13 Naomi returned home laden with spiritual grace yet she saith to her neighbours Call me not Naomi but call me Mara for the Lord hath dealt very bitterly with me I went out full but the Lord hath brought me home again empty Ruth 1.20 Upon such an account also Job complaineth That God had hidden his face and did hold him for his enemy Job 13.24 Could any thus argue if they had not forgot that when they did take Christ they did then also take up his Cross 2. Upon what terms God receiveth us into favour viz. not on the terms of perfect unsinning but sincere and hearty obedience and with express promise never to forsake us till we have forsaken him which he reckons us not to have done till we let some inferiour good have more of our heart then he hath Through non-consideration of this many one hath cast away all his hope meerly because of sins of forgetfulness inconsideration passion he is over-taken with anger pettishness inordinate fear he hath eaten some little matter more then the necessities of nature required he had some wandring thoughts in duty he omitted an opportunity of counselling a friend What then therefore God is not in Covenant with him Nay but thence nothing can be inferred save onely that he is not yet with God in Heaven for whatever is of frailty omitted or committed hath a pardon on course granted unto it if any man thus sin he hath an Advocate with the Father who hath procured for him that he may lay actual claim to eternal life and make faithful plea for mercy He therefore that would keep his Assurance must when sins are brought to remembrance and set in order before him by Satan thus say Were my sins presumptuous sins enormous conscience-wasting crimes if so then is all my actual claim to the promise of Eternal Life suspended till I recover my self again by renewed repentance my right and title to Heaven I may retain but my present fitness for it is lost if they were not presumptuous sins then may I with wonted boldness go to the Throne of Grace and call God Father II. He that would keep his Assurance must thankfully and admiringly acknowledge the goodness of God in bestowing it on him God doth expect a tribute of Praise for every Mercy by not paying that tribute we forfeit the mercy but if after so great a mercy as Assurance we continue to be unthankfull we may expect that as we forfeit our Assurance so God will also take the forfeiture Indeed what will a man be thankful for who is not thankful for the sense of Gods pardoning adopting love 'T is not Heaven but it is near of kin
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