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
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
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