fears or if they do he may not be able to reach them or if to reach them not to pull them out There are perplexities of conscience which will puzzle and non-plus the most experienced Christian or Teacher But so strong are the Consolations of the Spirit that they break through all opposition of contrary grief and trouble whether arising from afflictions or guilt of sin 3. The sick Comforter may apply comfort unseasonably and nothing is more usual then to lose clave errante to speak peace where God speaks no peace but the consolations of the Spirit are never misplaced or mistimed he pours not the oil of gladness but into broken hearts he puts not the garments of praise upon any but those in whom hath been the Spirit of heaviness he applieth not his strong consolations to any but the heirs of the Promise nor to them neither but onely when they fly for refuge and lay hold of the hope that is set before them Heb. 6.18 19. When they flie as men pursued by the Revenger of blood did to the Cities of refuge or to the horns of the Altar 4. In the absence of the sick Comforter another may do the work as well perhaps as he but the Spirit is so a Comforter as none can comfort without him all consolation therefore is called the consolation of the holy Ghost Acts 9.31 Whilest the Spirit of the Lord did rest on Sampson he could break wit hs and cords but the Spirit being departed Sampson may go out and shake himself and think to do as at other times but he shall soon find a difference the Philistines shall prevail lead him away captive and put out his eyes So those who by the help of the Spirit have in former tribulations been made to rejoice and glorie may think when assaulted afresh to shew like chearfulness but if by any sin they have made the Spirit depart they shall find a little thing too heavy to bear the loss of a child which is but a common temptation shall make them cry and take on more like men then like Christians yea more like children then men Now put all these considerations together and when corruption next stirs say What! shall I grieve my Comforter my abiding my strong my wise my onely Comforter This question will strangle it in the womb if any ingenuity be left in the soul if is be grown hard and carnal through the deceitfulness of sin then nothing but arguments drawn from wrath will work on it III. Let it be pondred who they be that thus grieve the Spirit all men are not in a capacity so to do they that are have of all men least reason to do it Amyraldus in his Theses about the sin against the Holy Spirit hath well observed that a man may be considered under a twofold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or relation one meerly natural or legall having knowledg of duty but no revelation of any mercy or pardon in case he sin he that in this case sins sinneth rather against the Father then against Son or Holy Ghost or else he may be considered as under an evangelical dispensation and that again two ways either so as onely to have heard of remission of sins but not at all to believe it or be affected with it he that sins in this state sins rather against the Son then against the Holy Ghost or so as not onely to have seen the marvellous light of the Gospel but also to have been refreshed with its beams and made to rejoice in it if in this state he sin wilfully he must needs grieve the Spirit but thus to sin is to sin at a very high rate when a man hath been made partaker of the holy Ghost and tasted of the powers of the world to come and of the heavenly gift the Spirit may say What could I have done more to endear religion and inodiate sin that I have not done To grieve the Spirit after all this by returning to folly and vanity is an affront and disingenuity not to be suffered and which shall be most severely punished either in this world or in the other or in both This leads to the Fourth Motive drawn from the sad effects and consequents of grieving the Spirit I will not say with Luther that it may make God ro carry it towards men tanquam si non esset Deus ipsorum sed Diabolus nor dare I so much as adventure to English so harsh an expression but I shall direct to one place of Scripture in which enough is said to terrifie us from grieving the Spirit They rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit therefore he was turned to be their enemy and he fought against them so far was he from assisting them against their enemies and he raised up enemies against them and caused Rebels to fall before them God's punishments under the Gospel are more spiritual not less severe As for the temporary beleever the Spirit being grieved by him may so forsake him as that the unclean Spirit may return with seven unclean spirits worse then that which was cast out he may be suffred so to fall as that it shall be impossible to renew him by repentance As for such as by the inhabitation of the Holy Ghost are consecrated and made Temples of God I am so strongly perswaded of the doctrine of perseverance that I do not think they ever again become of the Synagogue of Sathan but their grieving of the Spirit may be so punished as that 1. They may be permitted to fall into very foul and dishonourable lusts He that complieth with the motions of the Spirit is changed into the image of God from glory to glory he renews his strength as doth the Eagle but give me a man that grieves the Spirit he shall in a short time fall into abominable either opinions or practises and when we do consider how ugly have been the carriages and how scandalous the Apostasies of some that doubtless were enlightned and made the highest profession of Religion we cannot rest in any other cause of them then Gods judiciall blinding and hardening of them for vexing his Spirit of truth and holiness 2. All ordinances become unprofitable to them Promises sometimes sweeter then the honey and the honey-comb have no relish in them Commands and threatnings of which their hearts were wont to stand in awe now affect them no more then dreadful tales of men in another world Were it not for shame had they but any handsom excuse they would not come at ordinances at all the Disciples are told John 14.26 that the Spirit shall bring things to their remembrance by which I would not understand a bare calling them to mind but a bringing them to mind in their full vigor authority evidence 'T is the Spirit alone that sets home doctrines with demonstration and power the Spirit grieved the most weighty truths are no more regarded then so many idle dreams at least no more then do the enticing
THE BELIEVERS DUTY Towards the SPIRIT And the SPIRITS OFFICE Towards BELIEVERS OR A Discourse concerning Believers not Grieving the Spirit AND The Spirits sealing up Believers to the day of Redemption Grounded on Ephes 4.30 Hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is in us Rom. 5.5 The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God Rom. 8.16 LONDON Printed for SA GELLIBRAND at the Ball in S. Pauls Church-yard 1665. A PREFACE TO THE READER Christian Reader HOw needfull it is to have a right belief of the Holy Ghost appears not only from the Ancient Creeds which in how few words soever comprehended did alway make mention of Him but also from the wretched Socinians who blasphemously denying his not onely Deity but also Personality and in their Catechism roundly asserting the no-necessity of any operation of his in order to our assenting to the Gospel have been so filled with a Spirit of Delusion that they retain not truth enough to denominate them either Christians or Hereticks The text upon which the ensuing discourse is founded afforded very fair opportunity of proving the Personality and Deity of this blessed Spirit and of shewing that our natural corruption cannot be cured but by his inhabitation But contenting my self to wave or slightly to touch these matters I mainly insist on our being by this Spirit sealed to the day of redemption a phrase which as most others that are metaphorical hath had the hap to be many ways interpreted Bellarmine who seems to have read holy writ onely to serve a design applies it to that indeleble character supposed by the Romanists to be imprinted on all that are baptized but how vainly appeareth 1. By his own Cajetan who saith Sacramenta imprimere characterem ex scriptura non habetur sed ex Ecclesiae authoritate non multum antiquâ 2. By the miserable shift he is put to before he can find any imaginable foundation for this Chymaera in the words He is fain to read with the vulgar Latine in the day though against the Greek and Syriack yea and against sundry latine Manuscript copies as Estius tells us yet this very writer Ephes 1.13 when he thought it would be more for his turn forsaking the vulgar Latine which readeth in whom believing flyeth to the Greek after ye believed 3. Besides how absurd is it that any indeleble character or cognizance of Christianity should be imprinted on all in Baptisme when as we see that many after Baptisme do utterly and maliciously renounce Baptisme and all the Principles of Christianity Other Pontifician writers do refer the phrase not to the Sacrament of Baptisme but Confirmation So Estius so our Country-men the Rhemists who have this note on Ephes 1.13 Some refer this to the grace of Baptisme but to many learned it seemeth that the Apostle alludeth to the giving of the Holy Ghost in the Sacrament of Confirmation by signing the Baptized with the sign of the Cross and holy Chrisme But they are well told by the judicious Dr. Fulk That rhe learned men they speak of must needs be Masters of the new learning for the ancient learning had no such interpretation instancing in Chrysostome Ambrose Theodoret Augustine Primasius Hierome Oecumenius Theophylact who carry the text quite another way All Protestant Writers are not agreed what may be intended by this Sealing of the Spirit sure it is for our credit that we can allow our selves to differ one from another in expounding a place of Scripture I refer it not to the Holy Ghosts regenerating or renewing us but to his assuring us of the adoption of sons his creating in us a sense of Gods Paternal love towards us and of our filial love towards him in so doing I follow not onely sundry learned sons of our own Church but also Cornelius a Lapide whose comment on Ephes 1.13 being translated is this As by the impression of a Seal the Letters of Kings and publick tables are sealed that those which are authentick may be distinguished from doubtful those that are genuine from false and it may be certainly manifest that these are the Letters and Tables of the King So ye Christian Ephesians as it were The Epistle of Christ written not with ink but the Spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in the fleshly tables of your heart are signed with the Holy Ghost as it were with a Seal that it may be manifested that ye are the not feigned but authentick Epistle of Christ that ye are truly the people and Church of the true and high God Having thus descanted on the text he frames against himself this objection If this be so then may Believers be certain that they are in the true faith and grace of God and for answer denieth the consequence because this Seal is not altogether and physically certain and evident to them for who certainly knows who dares swear that he is sealed with the Holy Ghost as with a seal but onely probable and morally as it were certain from signs and conjectures so in like manner it is not to them clear and certain that they are in the true faith and grace of God For the further clearing of this doubt He refers us to what he had said on Rom. 8.16 Consulting him on that place I find him to give this note That the testimony of the Spirit by which he witnesseth that we are the sons of God is not certain with certainty of Faith nor certain with infallible certainty as Catharinus and Cajetan would have it but onely with a conjectural certainty which certainty yet increaseth with Holiness so that Vega and Ruard and Pererius following them think that some men very holy without the special revelation of God from the signs and effects of the Holy Ghost which they find in themselves very frequent clear and efficacious have a certainty not indeed infallible so as they dare swear that they are in the grace of God but yet such and so great as excludes all fear of the contrary not onely from the affection and confidence but also from the understanding and perswasion so as such do as certainly know and believe that they are in the grace of God as we certainly know and believe that there is such a place as Constantinople or Alexandria Let the Papists read this and if they have not lost all ingenuity acknowledge that some eminent Writers of their own go as high or higher then we do For we do not say that we are certain with a certainty of faith that we are sanctified or pardoned or if any do so say it is onely a Philosophical mistake for they do not intend that it is to any one revealed by any vocal or written testimony that he is sanctified or pardoned but onely that seeing these Conclusions do arise from Premises the one whereof is Scripture though the other be known onely
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
Harlot seeing mans abuse cannot disanul the institution of God by which two are made one flesh Now to take the members of Christ and make them the members of an Harlot is that the Apostle could not think of without abhorrence vers 15. but there is also sacriledg in this sin because the body unto which it is so injurious is the Temple of the Holy Ghost vers 19. To pollute the holy place was a crime of that magnitude that the Jews thought it sufficient to stir up all the people to lay hands on Paul when he was but supposed to be guilty of it Acts 21.27 28. What outcries do the Papists make against K. H. the VIII for pulling down some consecrate places after they were become receptacles of idle drones and witless and worthless creatures and yet these very men do make fornication a venial sin and trick of youth but let them mince the matter as they please we are sure that if any man defile the Temple of God him God shall destroy 1 Cor. 3.17 When there were no Christian Magistrates to punish this sin God gave his Church a power to deliver the unclean beasts that were guilty of it to Satan for the destruction of the flesh 1 Cor. 5.5 Bodily torments as well as Soul agonies did then attend excommunication which yet in its own nature separated from all such attendants is not to be thought on without trembling as being the Churches giving up a man to the devil to do with him what he will Excess in drinking also is very contrary to the Spirit and that as it doth dispose to this sin of uncleanness so much we may collect from Ephes 5.18 Be not filled with wine in which is excess but be filled with the Spirit Here are plainly two propositions and a reason assigned of the first the propositions are Be not filled with wine Be filled with the spirit and there 's an opposition betwixt these two implied in the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but as for the cause in which is excess it s not to be taken for excess in drinking for then the sence would be a little incommodious Be not you drunk with wine in which being drunk with wine Vid. Zanch. et Dr. Hammond there is drunkenness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore here rather signifies excess of venery and brutish lusts the usual effects of following wine and strong drink and the common attendants of the heathenish feasts if not integral parts of them yea and of the Jewish Feasts too when they were become Idolatrous 1 Cor. 10.7 They did eat and drink and rise up to play where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may and perhaps must signifie dancing in a light youthfull lascivious manner Fornication and all uncleanness are so unbecoming Saints that they are not so much as once to be named by them Ephes 5.3 Therefore every filthy obscene word yea and every unclean thought if morose must needs be grievous to the Spirit whose dwelling in Saints makes them to be Saints 2. The sins of Anger Malice Bitternesse and which flow thence Strife and Divisions These are commonly numbred among spiritual sins but I am sure that the Apostle doth reckon hatred variance strife seditions envyings among the fruits of the Flesh Gal. 5.20 21. and that he doth call the Corinthians carnal because there was among them envying and strife and divisions one saying he was of Paul another he was of Apollos 1 Cor. 3.3 4. 'T is thought by some that the Corinthians did not make Paul and Apollos the Heads of their Parties and Factions but that the Apostle doth by a Figure transferr this unto himself and Apollos that they might collect that if it were so foolish and carnal to glory in them endued with extraordinary gifts it was much more foolish to glory in those ordinary Pastors by whose names they did call and distinguish themselves How carnal is it then for one to say I am of Aristotle and another I am of des Cartes In reference to which parties I need not say Was Aristotle crucified for you Were you baptized into the name Cartes but doth there in either of their Writings occurr so much as the name of Christ crucified Certainly so to admire the Tenents either of the one or the other as to vilifie and deny the parts of those who close not with them is very unbeseeming any that profess to be led by the Spirit But let us allow these sins to be called spiritual as in a sense they may that makes them onely Minoris scandali less scandalous not Minoris malitiae less wicked if uncleanness and drunkenness make a man like a beast these make him like a Devil If as the School-men say that in some creatures there be the foot-steps but in others the image of God so we may be allowed to think that in some sins be to be found not onely the foot-steps but also the image of the Devil 't is as much in these sins as in any other Be angry and sin not let not the Sun go down on your wrath neither give place to the Devil Ephes 4.25 26. The order of the words implieth that so much place as we give to Anger so much place we give to the Devil To be sure these sins are so contrary to love which though it be not as Lombard thought the essence of the Holy Ghost yet is one of his chiefest fruits that they must needs hugely grieve him If a contentious woman be a continual dropping in a very rainy day and if any wise man would choose rather to dwell in the wilderness then with a contentious and angry woman how can the Spirit think you delight to dwell with those Salamanders that are never well but in the fire of contention and count themselves not to be in their element any longer then they are wrangling and disputing perversly about substantial forms and qualities or about matter motion and atomes 3. The sleighting the divinely inspired Writings or ministration of the Spirit and preferring thereunto the Writings of any men whatsoever If a person had taken much pains and put together all his Learning to set out some one Treatise and should find after it was published that men neither read it nor much enquired after it whilest the Pamphlets of some others were greedily bought up would not this grieve him And must not then the Spirit after he hath revealed unto us the deep things of God the things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard the wisdom of God in a mystery the wisdom which God hath ordained before the world be grieved if men shall more value and converse with those Writings that can onely contain excellency of Speech and enticing words of mans wisdom Object But can any professing Christianity so do Answ Yes St. Augustine confesseth there was a time when Literarum typho tumidus he despised the simplicity of the Gospel stile Confess lib. 3. cap. 5. So doth Hierom somewhat his senior
waters and when he had so done put it on his own head he had a talent for his pains but lost his life for setting it upon any head but his Soveraignes so they shall have honour for contending for the truth but their souls shall God require of them because they gave not him the glory of all their zeal Wherefore as you would not grieve the Spirit when you see a drunkard say Who made me to differ or say as the Holy Martyr Bradford was wont to say God be mercifull to me a miserable sinner When you hear of one denying the Divinity of our Saviour say Nor could I have said that Jesus is the Lord but by the Spirit of God If either men or devil suggest that thou hast done well say It was not I but the grace of God in me I have nothing but what I have received and must not boast as if I had not received but ascribe all to him who worketh in me both to will and do of his own good pleasure 5. Fathering on him the ugly and monstrous brats of the spirit which worketh in the children of disobedience How much was the mother in Solomons time grieved when her living child was taken away and a dead one laid in room of it More must the Spirit be grieved when Humility Obedience Subjection to higher powers his natural issue are taken away and instead of these disobedience and rebellion laid at his door To do wickedly and to say that we do it by the impulse of the Spirit is to make God such a one as our selves and what a provocation that is you may learn from Psal 50.21 These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest I was altogether such a one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set thy sins in order before thee Nor shall they fare better who do not father their impieties on the immediate impulses of the Spirit but yet on the Word revealed by the Spirit For causa causae est causa causati whatever is found in Scripture is conceived of the Holy Ghost if we do wrest and torture Scripture to salve our Phaenomena we do thereby injure and lie against the Holy Ghost This is the honour of Christian Religion that it can wound all other religions with their own weapons and principles They rob it of this honor who go about to fight against is also with its own Sword quoting texts of Scripture to authorize such actions as are perfectly destructive of Christianity No sin so hainous as theirs who pretend to sinne by authority from God 6. The ascribing that to the devil and his instruments which is the work of the Spirit This is not onely to grieve him but also to blaspheme him What was the unpardonable blasphemy against the Holy Ghost mentioned Mark 3. but the Pharisees ascribing that to the Prince of Devils which was done by the finger of God Every work of the Spirit hath not so clear an impression of the Spirit on it as had the miracles of Christ and therefore to mis-call them renders not ones case so desperate as was the Pharisees But yet sure after God hath by the conversion of so many discovered himself to be in the ministers of the Gospel of a truth for any to say that they were all literal legal antichristian which was the language of the late times was a blasphemy of a very high nature and I have observed that such men mostly have waxed worse and worse deceiving and being deceived nor can I conceive much hopes of their repentance who do so far wrong the Spirit as to ascribe all his works of conviction and contrition to the predominance of the melancholy humor or to a cracked brain and all the fervent importunate expostulations of Gods devoutest supplicants to sauciness such speeches do greatly dispose tot he unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost We may hence inferr against the * I say the Judaizing Socinians because this seemeth to have been the opinion of the Jews that the Holy Ghost was nothing but the afflatus or energy of God and therefore Lactantius who denied the substantiality of the Spirit is said by Hierome to symbolize with Jews Epist 55. Yet the ancient Doctors of the Jews acknowledged and believed the Son to be an eternal person of the Divine essence and worthy to be called Jehovah as they who want other books may see proved by Julius Conradus Ouho lib. 1. Gul. Razia cap. 4. Judaizing Socinian the personality of the Holy Ghost Grief is a personal affection How a person should be grieved we can understand how a Divine person should have that done against him which would grieve him were he capable of griefe is not inexplicable but how a quality a power or an operation should be grieved is unconceivable 2. Hence may be inferred the love and tender care the Spirit hath for us and of us Had he not graciously condescended to take on him the offices of Advocate Intercessor Comforter he would not have so far concerned himself in our miscarriages as to be grieved for or by them 3. If we are not to grieve the Spirit then sure we are not to blaspheme or offer despight unto him which cannot be done but by sinnes of the greatest and most hellish malignity and in the highest degree wilfull 4. This will also inform us what to think of them who take up their pleasures in sin which grieves the Holy Spirit of God we may think that either they never were partakers of the Holy Ghost or if ever partakers that now he hath quite forsaken them and an evil Spirit from the Lord hath seised on them If Christ at his second coming would spare all other sinners yet doubtless he will damn all those that believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse 2 Thes 2.12 But the main I intend to dwell on is the counsell of the Text propounded indeed negatively but yet must be supposed to include in it many affirmative duties indeed all by which that good Spirit can be pleased and delighted I will first propound some motives to perswade men to abstain from all sins by which the Spirit is grieved they shall be drawn from the person and office of him whom they grieve from their own estate who do grieve him from the sad and wofull effects of greiving him I. Consider who it is you grieve Were he but some created Angel you ought so farr to respect his ministry as not to grieve him The woman is to keep a covering on her head because of the Angels 1 Cor. 11.10 lest the contrary indecency should offend those pure Spirits Nay were He but a Saint compassed with flesh and blood we must not no not by the use of a lawful thing grieve him unless we will walk uncharitably Rom. 14.15 which would be to break the bond of perfection But he is greater then any holy man or Angel even an uncreated divine person I know this
is denyed by Socinians nor do I purpose fully to refute their blasphemy onely I shall take notice of one Scripture because it not onely proves the Deity of the Holy Ghost but also sheweth the exceeding sinfulness of doing any thing against him seeing he is God Wend. p. 248. Posteriora haec exaggerant declarant priora ut quando mentitus est Spiritui sancto intelligeret peccati magnitudinem quod Deo esset mentitus siquidem Sp. S. est deus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cadem sensu dicitur Synonymum in eodem loco est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 5.3 4. Why hath Sathan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost thou hast not lied to men but to God There are here three assertions 1. Ananias lied to the Holy Ghost 2. That in so lying he did not lye unto man 3. That he lyed unto God Our argument lies in the opposition of which no fair account can be given if the Deity of the Holy Ghost be not supposed for if so be the Spirit had been an Essence distinct from God the Apostle after he had said Thou hast lied to the Holy Ghost would not have said Thou hast lied not to men but to God but thus Thou hast lied neither to men nor to the Spirit but to God Nor will this argument be evaded by saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the third verse is joyned with an Accusative case and should be translated to counterfeit the Holy Ghost for besides that in some Copies 't is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the propositions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make it all one as if a Dative did follow besides this 't is most certain that sometimes with an Accusative it signifieth to deceive or cheat and it must here so signifie because this sin is called a tempting the Spirit of the Lord How violent would it be to expound that phrase by counterfeiting of the Spirit of the Lord every time we grieve the Spirit of God we grieve God And is that a small matter in our eyes Can there be a greater aggravation of sin If one man sin against another the judg shall judg him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him 1 Sam. 2.25 but this would also further be considered by us that though there be no difference as to the Essence of the Persons yet there is a difference in the oeconomy he that grieveth the Spirit grieveth that divine person against whom alone such a sin can be committed as is unpardonable Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh a word against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him neither in this life nor in that which is to come Mat. 12.32 To sin against Father or Son is not so dangerous as to sin against the Spirit because he acting not in his own name but in the name of Father and Son from both of whom he is sent to sin against him is to sin against all the authority of God all the love of the Trinity the lowest condescention that divine goodness ever did or can make II. Consider we how little the Spirit hath deserved to be thus grieved by us Many good works saith Christ John 10.32 have I shewed you from my Father for which of them do ye stone me Many good works hath the Spirit from the Father and the Son done you O Christians for which of them do ye grieve him Did I say many I might have said all there is no good gift that is either wrought in you or for you or by you but it is to be ascribed to this Spirit Is Christ precious to you he was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary he descended upon him in his Baptism and anointed him to all his offices raised him from the dead bears witness of him and pleads his cause against the unbelieving sinful world Is there any sweetness in the Scriptures why these are all from this Spirit Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 Are you taken with those admirable gifts that you see in your Ministers All that diversity of gifts is from the same Spirit 2 Cor. 12.4 called all therefore the manifestation of the Spirit vers 7. Or are you more affected with the works of God in you they are all the fruits and effects of the Spirit whether conviction or contrition or humiliation or regeneration or consolation they are all wrought by the Spirit this is the argument made use of in the Text Grieve not the holy Spirit of God by which ye are sealed to the day of redemption In calling him the holy Spirit of God he meaneth not onely that he is of essential original indefectible sanctity but also because he worketh all the holiness that is in any of Gods servants And when we are said to be by him seaed up unto the day of our redemption by that phrase is signified that he doth all that which answereth to the nature and various ends and uses of Sealing But with that phrase I am not to meddle as yet nor list I to run over all his works but pitch on that of comforting and press that to keep men from grieving him The Spirit is the Comforter sent from the Father upon the prayer of his Son to supply the absence of his corporeal presence to open those wells of Salvation that were hid and did lie under ground in the days that the Messiah did dwell among men In some Churches they have an officer who is called Consolator Aegrorum whose work is to put the brests of consolation into the mouths of those who have received within themselves the sentence of death should any whilst this Officer is at his bed-side labouring to take out the sting of death vex him with untoward language and not to give over till he had forced him to depart his room would not all say that this man were either in a phrensie or else in the very gall and bitterness of spiritual death The wickedness of those who do grieve the Spirit of God is far greater For 1. This sick Comforter cannot alway be with those whom he visits but is now discoursing with them and anon gone either to some other languishing person or to his own relations But the Spirit is a Comforter alway abiding with you John 14.16 Not that he actually comforts at all times but that he always preserves the root of comfort alway tenders comfort were not Christians either so sullen or so stupid as not to receive it 2. The Comforter of the sick may endeavour to comfort and not be able to comfort Men may not be so wise as to open to him the root of their
God for those enjoyments they have of him in this earthly Tabernacle but yet not be so satisfied with any such enjoyments as not to desire it may be dissolved and so they put into the possession of that house in heavens not made with hands We that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon 2 Cor. 5.4 I confess in this I look on St. Paul as our Pattern rather then as our Standard I dare not say that all who are partakers of the Spirit do thus earnestly groan after absence from the body and presence with the Lord but all have reason so to do else had not all by Christ been taught to pray Thy Kingdom come As for you who live in sin I cannot exhort you to desire this day rather you may pray as did the Primitive Christians though on a better account Pro morâ finis for to you this Day of the Lord shal not be a day of Redemption but of Confinement to the darkest dungeon it shal burn as an Oven it shall burn you up and leave you neither root nor branch The Devils who believe it do tremble at the thoughts of it and if you tremble not at it it is because you believe it not The best and most seasonable advice I can give you is to kiss the Redeemer and to follow God with sighs and groans till he hath given you hearts soft as wax then shall you also be sealed to the day of Redemption Of this Sealing of the Spirit I am now to speak and that somewhat largely being therefore to build high it is good to dig deep and lay the foundation sure The expression is undoubtedly Metaphorical and must betoken something that bears proportion to Sealing properly so called What that is we should the rather enquire because the Metaphor is so frequently used here and Chap. 1.13 and 2 Cor. 1.22 He that shall read the Learned Zanchy on Chap. 1. vers 13. will not lose his labour nay will think nothing can be added unto what he hath said I shall from him and others in a few words lend light enough to elucidate this matter to those that have a mind to understand Two things among us go by the name of a Seal 1. The Signet that makes the Impression 2. The Impression that is made by the Signet And sealing if considered in its nature is nothing else but the imparting of the Image of the Signet to that which is sealed But then the uses of sealing are divers 1. For secresie or security 2. For ratification or confirmation 3. For distinction or separation Now the question is Whether in allusion to the nature of some or all uses of sealing we are said to be sealed Doubtless the Spirit doth work in us so as to communicate unto us the likeness of God in holiness and righteousness By him we are changed into the Image of God from glory to glory 1 Cor. 3. last According to his mercy he saveth us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 We are born again of water and the Holy Ghost Joh. 3.3 We are washed we are sanctified we are justified in the Name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6.11 But seeing the sealing here intended is in order of nature after believing Ephes 1.13 I humbly conceive it is not the making of the Elect to partake of the Divine Nature but the assuring of them that they do partake of it the perswading our hearts that we have Gods mark on us God seals us with his Spirit not that he may know us to be his but that we may know our selves to be his and rest satisfied that we are his and that he will own us for his when to others he shall say Depart from me I know you not I deny not but we may be said to be sealed by the Spirit when we are by him regenerated and made new creatures but I think Regeneration is rather the Spirits writing the law in our hearts and making us the Epistle of God and that the sealing in the Text intended is the Spirits testifying unto us that we are of the number of Gods redeemed ones and have a right to the priviledges of Gods redeemed ones Now there are five things of which the Spirit may be thought to give assurance 1. Election 2. Vocation 3. Justification 4. Perseverance 5. Eternal life but because of some of these there is dispute and because it is by all sober persons granted that effectual vocation regeneration conversion are the evidences of the other of that chiefly and well nigh onely I shall speak and cast all I have to say about it into an Answer to these six Questions 1. Whether such Assurance may be had 2. Whether the nature of Faith consist in it and whether it may not be separated from Faith 3. How the Spirit works it 4. Why so many Christians are so long without it 5. What motives there be to perswade us to labour after it 6. What means are to be used 1. to gain it if we have it not 2. to keep it if we have it 3. to regain it if we have lost it 1. In answer to the Question Whether such assurance may be had I say it may which I prove 1. By arguing ab esse ad posse Assurance hath by many been attained therefore it may be attained That it hath been attained is so evident that scarce any thing can be more evident there is not one Saint almost in all the Scriptures concerning whom much is said of whom something is not said from which it may be collected that he had sometime or other good assurance of Gods love Was Job think we without assurance who maintained his integrity against the devil and his uncharitable friends clubbing their wits to prove him an Hypocrite Was not that the voice of assurance I know that my redeemer liveth Was not the Spouse assured when she said I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine Was not St. Paul assured when he so triumphed in Christ Rom. 8.38 I am perswaded that neither life nor death nor Angels nor principalities c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus The Papists do not much deny but that these persons and sundry others mentioned in Scriptures had assurance onely they say they came to it in an extraordinary way by immediate revelation which must needs be looked on as a meer evasion and shift there is not in Scripture the least hint that these came to their assurance in any extraordinary way but many things there be in Scripture which make manifest that they attained their certainty in a discursive way arguing from the effect to the cause from the fruits to the root from their mortifying the deeds of the flesh and walking according to the Spirit to the Spirits dwelling in them St. Paul
can give any ground of Faith Would the Papists but as freely censure the errors of their former Writers as we do the errors of ours soon would all the controversies about Assurance come to an end but that being an happiness rather to be wished then hoped for let all less judicious Christians satisfie themselves to know 1. It is the receiving of Christ that gives us a right to be the sons of God 2. That he who receives Christ shall be by God owned as a son whether he know himself to have received Christ or no. The promises run clear Whosoever believeth in Christ shall not perish but have eternal life Joh. 3. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Blessed are those those that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied Matth. 5. The condition of these promises being fulfilled the promises themselves must be fulfilled else God should be unfaithful and deny himself For shall the too hard thoughts the too humble conceit of a man concerning himself wake void the faith of God God forbid scarcely among ingenuous men doth any one fare the worse for an excess of modesty and can the Father of Mercies shut a good man out of Heaven because that conscious to himself of daily weaknesses and manifold passions warting within him and frequently prevailing he cannot be firmly perswaded of his own goodness 3. That it is the office of the Spirit to make us to know the things that are freely given us of God 4. That as he is ready to witness to carnal persons that their ways are ways of sin and wrath and that they are the men who except they become new creatures are marked out for damnation so he is ready to witness to those who are spiritually minded the truth of their graces and by that their interest in the promises of Justification Adoption Glorification 5. That our work lieth in making our selves which yet we cannot do but by the almighty power of the same Spirit fit and meet to receive this testimony of the Spirit which meetness we shall then come to if 1. We well inform our selves about the terms of the Covenant of grace 2. Have frequent serious abiding thoughts about the fulness and freeness of its promises 3. Giving all diligence add to faith vertue and to vertue knowledg and to knowledg temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity 4. By reflex acts often compare the frame of our heart and course of our lives with the rule 5. Watch and pray that we may be free from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pride and prejudice which make us though so sharp-sighted as to see a mote in our brothers eyes yet so blind as not to see a beam in our own eyes That thou mayest Christian Reader have some small help in all these matters was the end aimed at in making the following Treatise thus publick The Authors name could not make it more acceptable and is therefore concealed but his prayers are that it may be effectual to beget in all those into whose hands it shall fall 1. A tender care not to grieve the Spirit of promise by which they who believe are sealed up to the day of Redemption 2. A cordial respect to all those upon whom the Spirit of the Lord is and who are by the Lord anointed to Preach good tidings to the meek and sent to bind up the broken hearted to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion to give unto them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness Jan. 25. 1664. Farewell The Printer to the Reader THough great care hath been used in publishing these Papers yet by reason of an ill-written Copy and the Authors absence some faults have escaped There is in some Pages a change of Persons which though it might be defended yet was not by the Author intended Those few Errata's that can be thought to disturb the sense thus amend PAg. 26. lin 15. r. Praeposition p. 28. l. 26. r. also that He. p. 30. l. 23. r. loose p. 32. l. 17. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 35. l. 21. r. are the enticing p. 36. l. 7. r. more glorious p. 44. l. 28. r. yet is He. p. 86. l. 13. r. speaks but to p. 88. l. 10. r. did not they sometimes p. 152. l. 25. r. till he feel p. 157. l. 9. r. and not heard of Ephes 4.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption THese words are by some conceived to contain an absolute Independent counsel but the Greek Scholia's suppose them to be brought in as an argument to enforce the immediately preceding dehortation Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth as if the Apostle had said If you think it a small matter to allow your selves in such speeches as have no tendency to edification as are no way fit to minister grace unto the hearers If you have no respect to your own souls nor to the souls of others which must needs be offended by such unprofitable communication yet you will have some regard for the Spirit of God who is himself holy and the author of all holiness and he being as he is grieved by all unprofitable discourse you will account your selves ingaged to abstain therefrom If we receive this connexion as why may we not sith it offers no violence to the context and is backed with so good authority then may we observe in the Text 1. A reason by which the Ephesians are taken off from idle words lest they should grieve the spirit 2. A description of this Spirit from his Nature Office Grieve not the holy spirit of God The form of speech seems to be borrowed from the Old Testament Isa 63.10 They rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit therefore he was turned to be their enemy and he fought against them But notwithstanding we have found out a parallel place yet must we still inquire Quest 1. How the Spirit can be said to be grieved for seeing he is God and so infinitely perfect how can we conceive him capable of grief which is not onely a passion but also of all passions the meanest and lowest as arising from the sense of some present evil which we cannot master And this objection is the more considerable because of the emphaticalness of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which saith Aretius complectitur omnis generis dolores and is therefore used to set out that anguish and sadness of mind which our blessed Saviour did feel in the Garden Math. 26.37 But all this notwithstanding we may give a very fair account of the phrase for 1. There are who by the spirit of God do understand the renewed part of man and indeed it is not unusual in Scripture for God to call his own work by his own name now the renewed
do receive the Holy Ghost therefore they ought to be honoured and had in esteem for their office and work sake Obj. But doth not the anointing teach us all things and so teach us as that we need not that man should teach us at all Answ So indeed it is said and that by some pretending so much to the Spirit as that their usual compellation to others is Flesh but we are not to believe every spirit but to try the spirits whether they be of God and I heartily wish the spirit from whence this Objection ariseth did not too manifestly discover it self not to be of God The Spirit that Christ promised was to be sent from the Father in the name of Christ and was not to speak of himself but whatsoever he had heard he was to receive of Christ and glorifie Christ John 16.13.14 But the men who make this objection do dishonour and decrey Christ setting up Christ within them in opposition to him that suffered at Jerusalem the Spirit inspired Prophets Apostles Evangelists to deliver down unto us a rule of faith and life but these men do vilifie this written word and ministration of the Spirit and call on their proselytes to follow that light within them and make that sufficient for salvation For my part I am so far from desiring that any should envy for our sakes that I could heartily wish that all the Lords people were prophets and that his Spirit were on them Were there a Seculum Spiritus to be expectted I hope I should as sincerely pray for it and as much rejoyce in the approaches of it as another but so farr am I form finding in the Scriptures any time in which the Ministry shall cease and be useless that I rather find the Spirit is to be received by the hearing of faith and that it is one great work of the Spirit to quicken and give life to the publick Ordinances as dispensed by the Ministers of the Gospel 't is the Holy Ghost that maketh them overseers of the flock Acts. 20.28 As for that place 1 John 2.29 it carrieth it's answer in its own bowels You shall not need that any one teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you i. e. not other things nor in another way then the same anointing teacheth you but do any ministers pretend to teach other things or in another way then this anointing teacheth If they do not as it is most certaine they do not why is this Scripture so frequently urged against ministerial teaching For ever let us abhor those who cry up the Spirit so as to justle out that forme of found words which hath been delivered unto us by menguided by the Spirit Be sure you quench not the Spirit but have a care you despise not prophecyings God having put those two counsels together let no man put them asunder The Spirits Office towards Believers Whereby ye are sealed to the day of Redemption THe old Interpreter reads in the day of Redemption and by it Oecumenius and some others understand the day of Baptisme but because in the Greek t is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we have no reason to think that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we shall by this day understand the day of Judgment as most Interpreters do and as we are led to do by that twin-place Chap. 1 13.14 where the Holy Spirit of promise is said to be the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession The price of a Believers Redemption is already paid and accepted by God and they are redeemed from their vain conversation but their day of redemption cannot be said to be fully come till this corruptible have put on incorruption at least not till this life be ended for till then 1. Their Redemption from the power and dominion of sin hath not its full effect even a Paul as long as he is in the body hath occasion to complain that he is sold under sin and that the law in the members warreth against the law of the mind and leadeth him captive to the commission of Sin and omission of Duty II. Till then our Redemption the forgiveness of sin Ephes 1.7 is not perfect I know that upon our first closing with Christ our transgressions are blotted out as a mist and as a thick cloud and our iniquities thrown into the bottome of the Sea there is no condemnation to us no obligation to Eternal wrath but yet I am also sure that we are bid repent that our sins may be blotted out when the daies of refreshing shall come from the Lord Acts. 3.19 Whence it may be inferred that a Penitents sins are not so blotted out as then they shall be blotted out indeed upon the first conversion a man is put into a state of justification which is inconsistent with obligation to Eternal death yet is he not freed from all punishment nor from all obligation to punishment for where there is no obligation to punishment there is no justice in punishing The want of the Spirit is one of the punishments we have brought on our selves by sin this punishment is not taken away but by restoring of the Spirit now though the Spirit be so restored as to prevent the dominion of Sin and damnation for the time to come yet is it not given in such a measure as to prevent all sin nor the contracting of new guilt nor shall He be so given in this world III. As to the Redemption of the Body that is so far from being compleat before the Great Day that till then it may seem not to begin While it is joyned to an imperfect soul 't is vile and mortal when separated from it then it becomes yet viler is thrown into a grave and preyed upon by worms and maggots at the Resurrection it begins to be spiritual incorruptible powerfull and like to the glorious body of Christ Jesus The Adoption the Redemption of the Body we do not now enjoy but by Faith and Hope we do wait for it Rom. 8.23 On all these accounts there is reason why that Day should be called as it is The manifestation of the sons of God Rom. 8.19 For though we be now the sons of God it appears not what we shall be 1 Joh. 3.1 The best use that can be made of this Appellation is that which is made of it by the whole Creation The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for this manifestation that it may be delivered from that bondage and vanity unto which it is subject and under which it groaneth much more should you who have the first-fruits of the Spirit groan within your selves waiting for the adoption 'T is utterly a fault among Christians that they groan so much under the burden of a few Taxes and Impositions and so little under the burden and body of Sin which they carry about with them They should much and frequently bless
concerning particular remission of sin pag. 1158. he had given the adversary less advantage for my part I do not make it any Article of my Faith that my sins are pardoned 4. We argue the attainableness of Assurance from the weakness and rottenness of the grounds on which the Papists the greatest adversaries to this truth do proceed in the denying of it 1. 'T is not unlike that the covetousness of the Pope and his Clergy is one reason why the doctrine of Assurance is so denyed For this sect of men is somewhat a kin to Judas who was a Thief and carried the Bag. Were the Pope to pay as much for redeeming a Soul out of Purgatory as he commonly gets by it I dare say Purgatory before this had been reckoned amongst things that are not were they to loose as much gold and silver by keeping men in doubts and fears as commonly they get certainty had not been made so impossible as now it is 2. Their own Hypocrisie and formality makes them and that justly to question their own state present and to come and therefore they think that none how sincere and upright soever can be assured of these matters Very apt we be to measure other mens cloth by our own ells to make our own hearts and experiences a standard and pattern to our fellow Christians Many eminent Reformers who had perhaps the candle of the Lord mostly shining on them and lived perpetually under the beams of his countenance did place Faith in Assurance and so discouraged some weak Christians The Papists on the other hand being alway void of assurance would needs perswade us that no Faith did ever rise up to assurance being continually tormented with shivering fears they envy all others who have more serenity and calmness then themselves But doth it follow that if an house built on the sands cannot stand that it cannot stand neither though built on the rock A Papist as a Papist holdeth no one doctrine by faith for seeing as Papist he must needs take the Popes infallibility in causes of faith for his foundation which foundation being not onely untrue but also heretical cannot be apprehended by faith it follows that he neither doth nor can believe any point of saith unless perhaps the conclusion can be of faith when the premises or cause of assent to that conclusion is contrary to Faith Nor can they have any certainty of their salvation for that depends with them on their having the Sacrament of penance truly administred and this on his being a Priest that doth administer it now that any one is a Priest is that of which there can be no certainty for for ought any one knows to the contrary he that ordained him had not intent to ordain him or he that baptised him had no intent to baptise him or if both could be known to have directed their intentions aright yet twenty other things might happen that would nullifie his priesthood But no necessity is there that Protestants should be uncertain of their right to or meetness for heaven who reject all these errors and are taught to believe that no man shall ever fare the worse for what never was in his power to prevent 3. Papists much object the multitude of Professors who have much boasted and talked of assurance and yet neither had it nor could have it as by their manifold miscarriages inordinate walkings they have most manifestly discovered This no doubt they may have observed and it hath been of late years especially a great stumbling block to some to see and hear persons of very slight and frothy spirits tell so many and so high stories of their enjoyments and experiences But shall we say that a man may not be certain of that about which multitudes have been mistaken Who sees not then that we must bring Pirrhonisme into the World put our selves under a necessity of turning Scepticks Because some have phansied their chambers to be full of company when no person was nigh them cannot I be sure that sometimes I see people sitting in their seats to hear me Because some have imagined that they sat about richly furnished tables when no meat was nigh them cannot I therefore be sure that my meat is before me and give God thanks for it There is no such great likeness betwixt Assurance and Presumption that a man if he will be sincere need mistake the one for the other The rules given by Divines to distinguish them are such that a man cannot be mistaken about them unless he have a mind to be mistaken 1. Presumption is the daughter of Ignorance so is not Assurance 2. Presumption is got and maintained without any difficulty or pains so is not Assurance 3. Presumption unless in great extremities when usually it turns into despair is alway uniform and like unto it self so is not assurance which is higher or lower according to the influences of the Spirit growth and exercise of the habit of Faith 4. Presumption is unwilling to be examined so is not Assurance but most gladly joyns with the most lively and searching Ministry by these and many other characters which shall be after suggested Assurance may as easily be discerned from Presumption as may the true metal from that which doth but counterfeit it 4. It is much urged that Assurance would breed Pride security carelesness the bane of all our graces and pious endeavours but to this many answers may be returned 1. By concession it will not be denied but that if God should pour this wine into old bottles there might be danger of their breaking if he should give these apples to those who were never sick of love they might breed wind but God never gives the new name but where he gives the new nature He sets not his Seal on a flint but on the wax In whom after ye believed ye were sealed with the Spirit of promise Ephes 1.13 As for unbelievers they are uncapable of it and could they have it they would turn it into wantonness as they do all Grace they receive nay nor doth God set his Seal on every vessel of Honour He doth not feed every child with hidden Manna but onely such as he findes to hunger after it and to be ready to faint and perish without it 2. I say our Assurance is not perfect or free from all doubts but hath alway mixed with it some either actual or habitual fear Perfect Assurance might such is the corruption remaining in us be abused to security and occasion Pride but our wine is mixed with water on purpose that it might not intoxicate us With such a measure of Assurance we are trusted as keeps under doubts and fears not with such as quite expels doubts and fears They go too far who say That the assurance we have of the pardon of our sins and right to Eternal Life is equal to the assurance we have of the common objects of Faith Christs Resurrection or Gods Omnipotence That Christ is
hateth his brother is a murderer and hath not eternal life I hate my Brother Therefore I am a Murderer and have not eternal life These are all of them conclusions quite contradictory to the vain principles that did dwell in the secure sinner which being set home by the Spirit must needs make him fear what shal become of him In like manner doth the Spirit bring the heirs of the promise to the assurance of hope by some such practical Syllogisms as these He that loves the Brethren is passed from death to life I love the Brethren Therefore I am passed from death to life Or He that repents and believes shall be saved I repent and believe Therefore I shall be saved Now the Spirit hath revealed and inspired holy men to leave upon record to us the Propositions in these two Syllogisms the same Spirit also works in us that Faith by which we are enabled to believe those Scripture Propositions to be divine infallible truths he also worketh in us every gracious habit and exciteth those gracious acts which be the evidences and marks of our conversion justification and title to glory he also helpeth to feel and discover those acts in our selves and by comparing them with the rule to find their sincerity which is his concurrence with Conscience in making the assumption and lastly he helpeth sanctified reason from the premises to inferr the Conclusion whatever is beyond this is not essential to assurance but something separable from it Sometimes our assent to the premises and conclusion is stronger sometimes weaker hence the different degrees of assurance sometimes upon this assurance peace of Conscience we are marvellously enlarged with consolations called joy in the holy Ghost sometimes nor Obj. Some may say Is there no other way of working assurance but this doth not God sometimes testifie without any such discourse and ratiocination hath he confined himself to Syllogisms doth he not sometimes make some impressions on us by which we are assured that we are the children of God without the help or use of any argumentation Answ I have been alway apt to think that there is no other ordinary way of assuring the soul partly because the Scripture no where encourageth us to look for assurance in any other way and partly because to grant an immediate testimony seemed to me to open such a gap to Euthusiasme as it was impossible well to shut and I am somewhat imboldned in that sentiment by the concurrent judgment of a sober judicious Divine Mr. Tho. Blake who in his Treatise of the Covenant thus expresseth himself They that go about to assert an immediate testimony in any will never secure the soul from delusion Sathan will soon find an artifice to counterfeit this testimony and bear witness in the Spirits stead and when we think that we have the Spirit of truth to assure us we shall have the father of lies to deceive But in regard many of eminent piety and learning do assert an immediate testimony it may not be amiss to enquire a little what they mean by it and how they do bound it and then to shew what may be thought of it By this immediate Testimony they tell us that they do not mean any proper whisper or voice such as young Converts mistaking such Scripture phrases as Say unto my soul thou art my salvation are apt to wait for but they say it is a perswasion impressed upon a man suddenly and he knows not how quieting all his doubts and fears and making him chearfull and comfortable If you ask them How a Child of God who is to try all things dare adventure to take any such comfort how he knows it not to be a delusion of Satan they tell us that as there is in the eye a certain in-bred light to make it discern light and colours without a sound and air within the ear to make it discerne the sounds without So there is in a godly man grace a new nature and habitual instinct of heaven whereby it discernes the consolations of Gods Spirit testifying that he is the Son of God some secret and inexpressible lineaments of the fathers countenance in the child that the renewed soul at the very first blush knows and owns it Moreover they tell us 1. That although the Spirit thus testifie without application of any particular word yet he never testifies contrary to the word he never speaks to those who are regenerate though they do not know themselves to be such 2. That the Spirit doth not ordinarily thus testifie but after or in attendance on some ordinance or performance of some duty or after some very great abasement of a mans Spirit and more then ordinary soul-humiliation or after some very hard adventure for God or after some great combat and conflict with temptation 3. That such of the Testimonies of the Spirit do beget but an actual assurance during the present exigence or in order to some present design that God is working thereby Now to give my sense of this opinion 1. The Authors of it seem so to bound it as that it would be uncharitableness to think that they have any ill or pernicious design in it 2. The things which they say are done by impression are not without ratiocination only the ratiocination is not so distinct and explicite as when a man comes to his assurance by that difficult work of examination Philosophers say that what is done by beasts through instinct and impulse is not done without something analogous to ratiocination they commonly give us the examples of such Syllogisms as they suppose to be made by beasts as namely lambs when they come to their dams and flie away from the wolves So I conceive that in all the impressions made on the soul whether they be by way of comfort or incitation to duty there be some characters either in the matter or manner of them either in their holiness or greatness or vehemence or unusualness by which a Christian knows them to be from God and so accordingly rests in them the which characters did he not find he would either not regard them or reject them with abhorrence 3. I would not have any one lay the stress of his hope of heaven on any such impression nor upon the account of any such impression alter his opinion in reference to any point of Doctrine or adventure upon any practice that is in the least questionable unto him If he should I take it he would give the devil great advantage against him and subject himself to infinite delusions as will soon be manifest to him that will be at the pains to read over the discourses of Dr. Casaubon and Dr. Moore concerning Enthusiasme Mr. John Fox our holy and learned Martyrologist had many impressions some of which are taken notice of by his son in the History of his life but did they not sometimes fail him and discover themselves to be neither Divine nor True Let any one judge
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
forementioned places earnest though by the Rhemists constantly pledge for it doth among the Greek Fathers so signifie and the Spirit is a part of that reward which is promised he that hath this Spirit may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Chrysostome's phrase No wonder that he who hath this earnest of the true riches can part with the unrighteous Mammon no wonder that he who is secured of what is his own can lose that which is another mans especially if called to part with it for the sake of Christ who with his own blood purchased the everlasting inheritance for him III. Assurance will marvellously strengthen against the censures and reproaches of wicked men For why should he count it any great matter to be judged of men who knows that God hath justified him What need it disquiet him that the World accounts him an hypocrite who hath Gods testimony that he is sincere What need he be cast down that some do brand him for a factious fellow so long as he sees himself by the Spirit sealed for a son of peace or others call him a Tobias and Sanballat so long as he is assured that he opposeth none but such as are building Babel and not Sion 'T is because our Conscience gives but a dark testimony that we are so disquieted with the railings of those whose tongues are set on fire from Hell Were we but once sure that we are not the men we are represented to be we might then glory in our reproaches and esteem them great riches knowing that they shall work together for good and that they are the badges of our Sonship and that there is a time coming when our righteousness shall shine out as the light and the mouth of every adversary be stopped 1 Pet. 1.14 If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth on you We may rejoyce in as much as we are made partakers of Christ's sufferings and conclude therefrom that when his glory shall be revealed we shall be glad also with exceeding joy If any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf vers 16. He that hath the testimony of a good Conscience not onely that he is a Christian but also that he suffers as a Christian he may glory that he is accounted worthy to suffer reproach But when a man hath never so clear testimony that he is a Christian if he should suffer not as a Christian but as an evil door or as a busie-body in other mens matters if he should then rejoyce he would but glory in his shame IV. Assurance will beget holy boldnesse in Prayer 't is therefore made one and indeed the chief effect of the Spirit of Adoption to teach us to cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 to send us to God with as much confidence or more then we go to our Fathers according to the flesh to make us rest satisfied that what we ask according to the will of God we shall have it in due season as surely as if we had it already If we are once assured that an Act of Indempnity and Oblivion is passed and that God is as much our Friend as if there had been no variance betwixt us we may then sure come with boldnesse to the throne of grace Heb. 4.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a liberty to say what we list provided the matter we pray for be grounded on Divine Precept and Promise provided also we remember that we have to do with him who abhorreth the sacrifice of fools and unto whom our words should be but few full of weight and affection void of all heartless tautologies and vain repetitions Whereas when Assurance is wanting a man is ready to faint very pusillanimous afraid to look up to God under doubts and fears whether ever any thing will come of the requests he maketh whether God would not be as well pleased if he should hold his peace as if he spake There is as much difference betwixt a Christian with and without Assurance as betwixt a Tree in Summer and Winter as betwixt Sampson when his locks were on and when they were cut off he indeed thought when he had lost his Hair to have done as formerly but he soon found by the prevailing of the Philistines that he could not so he that hath lost the witness of the Spirit may think to rub up his graces and pray with as much life and boldness as formerly he did but he shall find himself mistaken Whatever weakneth Evidence weakneth Prayer also Prevailing of Lust darkneth our Evidences it also deadneth us in Praying Psal 40.12 Innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold of me so that I cannot look up they are more then the hairs of my head wherefore my heart faileth me His heart that should have furnished him with matter and affection failed him nor durst his eyes look up to the place where Gods honour did dwell In another Psalm he tells us his mouth was shut Mine iniquity is ever before me I am so troubled that I cannot speak Words which at other times he had at his command were now wanting and he stood as it were a mute O let all who complain of straitness and deadness and dauntedness remember what it is that must quicken embolden and enlarge them viz. the witnessing sealing act of the Spirit that once obtained a Supplicant goes on as doth a Ship with full sail where there is Sea-room enough V. Assurance will sweeten the Reading of the Word and the Receiving of the Sacraments For with what delight must he needs read over all the Promises of the Covenant who hath the Spirit assuring him that they are all his With what comfort must he needs behold the Body and Blood of Christ and meditate on the benefits thence flowing who is perswaded that he hath an undoubted interest in them and that his sitting at the Sacramental Table is but a pledge of his sitting with Christ in the Kingdom of his Father and that when he eats the Bread and drinks the Wine he doth but touch and taste of that with the fuller meals whereof he must be satisfied to all Eternity Yea the Laws and Commandements which formerly seemed burthensome will Assurance once gained be accounted not grievous but easie and delightful because a man then feels that love in his heart which is the fulfilling of them yea the very threatnings and curses of the Law which before Assurance cannot but make the heart exceedingly to quake and tremble Assurance once obtained are read and meditated on with the greatest pleasure because a man knows himself through faith in Christ to be delivered from them It is a kind of Hell on Earth when a man goes up and down fearing lest every place of Scripture he meets with should kill him but it is a very Heaven on Earth when a man can look on all things contained
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
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