them can it seem marvellous that they are troubled and suffered to despair everlastingly VII Many are kept from Assurance through groundless irrational scruples causing them to forbear the use of Ordinances and other sanctified means in which Assurance is usually wrought Would a sick man ever recover health that should be afraid of Physick or a weak man ever recover strength that should abstain from the good wholesom food that is appointed to beget blood and spirits Why no more will they ever meet with God or enjoy the sense of his love who come not near the place where his honour dwelleth they must needs be in the dark who will not open their eyes to behold the Sun of Righteousness needs be in a perpetual thirst who will not draw water out of the wells of salvation to quench their thirst Yet how many are afraid to come to the fire because they are cold and to put on their clothes because they are naked or to come to the Physician because they are so extreamly sick Tell them they must pray they 'l answer no because being wicked their prayers must needs be an abomination to the Lord invite them to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper they 'l tell you that finding not themselves to be in Christ they should but eat and drink judgment to themselves put them upon hearing the Word preached then they have something to object against either the call or the life of the Minister Such scruples as these are the Thieves that do wast the Candle of the Lord the Worms that eat up the hidden Manna the Veils that hide the new Name from our eyes A Conscience truly tender is the fittest subject to receive the seal of the Spirit but a scrupulous Conscience is a very hell upon earth for it either quite takes a man from the direct immediate acts of Gods Worship and Service or else it confines him onely to such keeping him from the duties of his particular calling It is hard to say which extream is more dangerous the one starving the other surfeiting the Soul Obj. But can any one give God too much time or be too Religious and careful about his Soul A. Surely no he cannot have too much of our time unto whom all our time is due nor can any one have too much of that which is his happiness or be too careful about that which if he should lose nothing can be given in exchange for but yet it is possible for us to bestow too much time on some one part of obedience and we do so as oft as we suffer it to justle out all or any of the rest The works of our Callings are the service of God when done in obedience to his Command and with an eye to his glory and for them when so done we may from the Lord expect to receive a reward and therefore when the Devil transforming himself into an Angel of light suggests What wilt thou eat or drink card or spin study any humane Author when thou knowest not but thou maist be in Hell the next moment He must be answered That obeying God sets no one nearer Hell and that though praying be in it self better then any either natural or civil action yet he that commanded it commanded them also and therefore they also are in their season to be done The Devil hath that soul at advantage enough whom he can perswade either not to pray or to do nothing but pray VIII The greatest and most common cause of the want of Assurance is some unmortified lust some secret bosome corruption unto which men give entertainment or at least which they do not so vigorously oppose and heartily renounce as they might Hinc illae lachrymae this is that which casts them on sore straights and difficulties how should it be otherwise seeing God being infinitely wise and holy either cannot or will not reveal his secrets to those who harbour his known enemies in their bosome either cannot or will not regard the whinings and complainings of those who dally with that very sin which galls their consciences and connive at the stirrings of that very lust for which he hides his face from them Doth any one come to his Minister or to his Christian friends and say Is it peace they must all answer What peace so long as thou livest in commission of any known sin or omission of any known duty All doubts and fears are begotten upon sin either real or imaginary if the sin be but imaginary a rectified judgment may scatter the doubts and fears as the Sun doth mists if the sin be real no curing the doubts thence arising but by an unfeigned repentance If I would produce all the Scriptures that prove this I must transcribe the one half of the Bible but it would be needless so to do seeing it seemeth to have been a notion engraven even on natural conscience That sin so defiles persons that till they be washed from it neither they nor their services can be accepted from whence arose the custome of setting Water-pots at their entrance into their Temples or places of Worship and those phrases Eo lavatum ut sacrificem and Num lavabis ut rem divinam facias Quest 5. What are the Motives or Arguments by which we may quicken our selves to look after this sealing work of the holy Spirit of God Answ Is there any need of Arguments to excite us to this Duty Doth not the New Creature naturally pant after Assurance as the Hart panteth after the rivers of water Yea may not the rational Soul seem to desire it Do not all wicked men catch after certainty and frame unto themselves some kind of certainty in this onely miserable that they either build on a false principle or on a true principle falsly applied To doubt of happiness is an heavy burthen but to fear extremest misery that is intolerable and yet thus must every one do till he have either Assurance or those probable hopes that are next of kin to Assurance Shall worldlings do so much to secure their Lands Goods Estates shall they require Bonds Seals Oaths Sureties and yet think all too little and shall we count any thing too much to assure unto our selves the eternal condition of our poor souls In the fear of the Lord let it be considered 1. 'T is onely the assured Christian that can either desire or so much as adventure in cool blood to die all others must needs all their life time be in continual bondage through fear of death Tell not me that some wicked ruffling Gallants who neither have Assurance nor are in any near capacity to receive it are yet very prodigal of their lives for I am speaking of men and not of brutes of those who are guided by Reason and not by Sense of those who are convinced that their Souls are immortal and that it is their greatest folly and misery to lose them not of those who have banished all thoughts of
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
soul whether our own or others is capable of being vexed in a proper sense but this sense seems not here intended yet this I must tell you that God interprets all that is done against his children as done against himself and therefore do you beware how you grieve the Lords holy ones either by saying or doing any thing which you know their souls cannot but abhor perhaps it grieveth not some of your souls nor grateth on some of your ears to hear the name of God taken in vain or blasphemed or the good ways of God spoken against but true Believers are of another temper Psal 42.10 As with a sword in my bones mine enemies reproach me While they say dayly unto me where is thy God 2 Pet. 2.8 Lot vexed his righteous soul from day to day with the unlawful deeds which he saw and heard in Sodom and Gomorrah Wherefore Sirs be not ambitious to strike father and sons at one blow let it suffice that you dishonour God but do not dishonour him at such times and places when and where his Saints may stand by and see and hear the wrong and dishonour that is reflected on their heavenly Father 2. We may be said to grieve him when we do that which would grieve him were he capable of grief The Scripture calls not things according to success and event he that looks on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery in his heart though he never act that brutish lust Matt. 5.28 He that hateth his brother is a Murtherer 1 John 3.15 not that every one that hateth doth properly kill but that he who hateth his brother had undoubtedly killed his brother could his brother have been thought to death his hatred would have brought forth murder had not something strangled it in the womb So we do by the Spirit we do that against him which would grieve him and more then grieve him were he capable of being grieved or any way altered for the worse O man take it from me every time thou sinnest presumptuously thou dost what in thee lieth to annihilate the fountain of all essences thou dost what thou canst to leave the world without a God He will be in heaven maugre all the malice of men and devils no thanks to them were he capable of being deprived of life they by their sins had deprived him of life long since Hence he complains that he was broken in pieces by the whorish heart of Israel Ezek. 6.9 So true is that of the Schoolmen that omne peccatum is deicidium 3. We are said to grieve the Spirit of God when we make the Spirit of God so to carry it towards us as persons do towards those that have grieved them If by any unworthy carriage I have vexed my friend he intermits all acts of friendship and familiarity So doth the Spirit when any thing is committed contrary to his nature or offices withdraw his benigne influences and consolations which are better then life I judge as do the generality of Reformed Divines that the Spirit of God doth never forsake those totally whom hee hath once chosen for his temple In this we know we are not deceived nor can we deceive you when wee teach that the faith whereby yee are sanctified cannot fail it did not in the Prophet it shall not in you They which are born of God do not sin any such sin as doth quite extinguish grace clean cut them off from Christ Jesus because the seed of God abideth in them and doth shield them from receiving any irremediable wound saith the judicious Mr. Richard Hooker Sermon of the Certainty c. pag. 545 546. But de non existentibus et non apparentibus eadem est ratio the Spirit may when greived so dwell in a man as if he did not dwell in him he may be quite gone as to any present sense and feeling he was so as to David which made him pray Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit Quest 2. Why are we rather said to greive the Holy Ghost then the Father or the Son Answ No question we do by sin grieve the Father and the Son as well as by every Renewed act of repentance we do minister joy to them Every wilfull sin is an high affront to the thrice blessed and glorious Trinity Psal 78. v. 40. How oft did they provoke him in the Wilderness and grieve him in the desert Psal 95. vers 10. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation But the Divine Persons though agreeing in their common essence are distinguished by relations and operations or rather by their manner of operation the father being unbegotten worketh of himself the Son from the Father the Holy Ghost from both Father and Son hence though all works terminated on the creature are common to all three Persons yet each work is most commonly ascribed to that person whose manner of subsistence doth most eminently appear in that work It is the appropiate work of the holy Ghost to reveal unto us the mistery of godliness to make application of the death and resurrection of God the Son and therefore when we do any thing contrary to the doctrine which is according to godliness or unworthy of the death of Jesus we cross the Spirit in his work and so are said to grieve him Quest 3. What are the special sinnes by which we do more eminently grieve the Spirit Answ If the question were put concerning the general nature of the sins by which the Spirit is grieved soon might it be resolved for it seems to be past all controversie that we grieve him not by sins of dayly incursion not by meer unavoideable infirmities such as by the measure of grace vouchsafed on this side heaven we cannot escape but by sins that are in some degree deliberate and wilfull but seeing it is put concerning the special kinds of deliberate sins which are most grievous to the Spirit it will deserve a larger answer I say therefore the sins that are more then ordinarily grievous to the Spirit are such as these 1. All the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All those lusts of uncleanness whether natural or unnatural the living in these is called walking according to the flesh which we know is made diametrically opposite to walking according to the Spirit by whose help we are to mortifie the deeds of the flesh This kind of sin hath something in it peculiar for whereas all other sins that a man doth are without the body he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body 1 Cor. 6.18 A Graecis sexcentae dantur huic loco interpretationes Vid. Dr. Feaâ—ly in lecum saith Clarius that interpretation which seems most proper is that other sins though acted by the body and leaving an ill impression on the body yet have not that force over mans body as to enslave it to another which yet fornication hath for by fornication the fornicator is made a member of the
mind to be deceived But what Lie would not they believe unto whom God had sent strong delusions as a punishment of their wantonness and proud contempt of those Guides at whose mouths they were to enquire the Law But it is hoped the folly of such men is so manifested that it will proceed no further Sure I am singing of Psalms is a duty when rightly performed that makes glad the heart of God and man by it we make melody to God the Prayer of the upright is his delight but the Praise of the upright much more the time is coming when Prayer shall be no more but Praises shall never cease 't is an heavenly work and therefore no wonder if it give those who do use it such a taste of Heavens glory as maketh them forget all their sorrows That Luther could quell all his fears by singing the 46 Psalm is almost in all mens mouths but we have a more sure and early example in holy Writ 2 Chron. 5.13 14. When they lift up their voice with the trumpet and cymbals and instruments of musick and praised the Lord saying For he is good for his mercy endureth for ever that then the house was filled with a cloud even the house of the Lord so that the Priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud for the glory of God had filled the house Direct 5. Let him that wants Assurance cast out every sin set upon an universal course of Reformation for God will not give his Cordials to one that hath a foul Stomack Those that dally and tamper with sin he will have no commerce with Rev. 2.17 To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna and I will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written These are all metaphorical expressions which being put together do amount to as much as Assurance but they are all promised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him that overcometh to him that rides on conquering and to conquer vanquishing temptations stedfast in the Faith Let loose and wanton Professors talk as they please of their high enjoyments and boast as they list of their raptures and extasies we do know that they lie against the truth If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darknesse we lie and do not the truth 1 Job 1.6 But If we have his commandements and keep them then do we love Christ if we love him we shall be loved of the Father and he will love us and manifest himself to us Joh. 14.21 More especially Assurance goes along with such acts of Obedience as do notably cross some carnal interest as 1. Acts of Charity a costly duty but very comfortable God makes known his mercy to those who are mercifull to others Isa 58.7 8 9 10. If thou deal thy bread to the hungry and bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked thou cover him and hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thy health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousnesse shall go before thee and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer thou shalt cry and he shall say Here I am If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfie the afflicted soul then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darknesse be as the noon-day and the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfie thy soul in drought The Hebrews were very charitable Christians chap. 6. vers 10. we read of their labour of love they took as much pains in relieving the poor as if they had been all Deacons and the Saints were the special object of their charity and to them they were charitable for the Lords sake Now this labour of love was that on which the Apostle did build his perswasion that they would not fall under that heavy doom he had denounced against Apostates I am perswaded better things of you things that accompany salvation things that cleave to salvation things from which salvation cannot be separated for God is not unrighteous to forget your labour of love And this diligence and unweariedness in ministring to the necessity of the Saints is that which is commended by the Apostles as the way to attain to the full assurance of hope vers 11. We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end No wonder God honours this Grace which doth so highly honour Him 2 Cor. 9.12 The ministration of this service not onely supplieth the want of the Saints but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God whilest by the experiment of this ministration they glorifie God for your professed subjection unto the Gospel of Christ and for your liberal distribution unto them and unto all Saints Those who make it their grand plot and design to grow rich do pierce themselves through with many temptations and when they come to lie down on their sick-beds they have no more ease then if they did lie down on beds of thorns But those who have wisely considered the poor the Lord maketh their beds for them in their sickness needs must they lie down in peace and sleep sweetly It is a more blessed thing to give then to receive and therefore we should rejoyce not when we receive of the bounty of others but when we have opportunities to express our bounty towards those who do serve God in a worse condition then our selves 2. The duty of Fraternal correption may possibly hazard a mans repute and esteem in the world and make him accounted a busie pragmatical fellow but it will endear us in the eyes and sight of God God will give some eminent token of his love to those who are not ashamed of him in the midst of a crooked adulterous generation men of such courage are seldome known long to lie under any anxious fears of their eternal state 3. Acts of Mortification carry in them a great contrariety to carnal pleasures and the dearer it costs any one to part with sin the more sweet and comfortable will it be to call to mind the victory got over that lust None more chearfull then they who deny themselves the chearfulness of jovial company who set a knife to their throats and walk by the strictest rules of temperance There 's no assurance of the Crown albeit we do strive if we do not strive lawfully and lawfully we do not strive if we be not temperate in all things Even St. Paul could not keep under his fears of being a reprobate longer then he kept under his body and brought it into subjection 1 Cor. 9.27 4. Peace-making is a thankless office bringing not infrequently on those who do attempt it the anger of both the dissenting parties but nothing doth more clearly evidence unto us our Adoption Mat. 5.9 Blessed are the peace-makers