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
uncertainties concerning our selves did we not sleight some Ordinance or omit some Duty or give way to some Lust 3. Though one may be a Child of God who doth want this Assurance yet is there no Child of God who sits down satisfied under the want of it who doth not desire to attain to the full assurance of hope Uncertainty of our condition is not so light an evil as that a Christian can carry it as if it were no burden nay but he follows Christ with unutterable sighs and groans he travelleth from Ordinance to Ordinance till his Evidences be cleared up and his Title to the Promises of Pardon be made out If a Child should have some doubt thrown into his mind concerning his Fathers love to him would he be at rest till it were removed How then can any Believer be himself under prevailing doubts concerning the good will of his Heavenly Father Hath God promised us his Spirit to seal us up to the day of redemption hath he besides his Covenant given us his Sacraments that we might have the more abundant consolation and after all this shall we quietly sit in the dark as if nothing ailed us how then dwelleth the love of God in us Especially those who have sometimes had the light of Gods countenance shining on them and have after lost it must needs be restless till they have recovered it Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Psal 30. v. 7. Troubled with a witness for it was his daily sorrow of heart yea it was as death to him for this he made his tears day and night he poured out his soul in him and his upbraidings by his enemies with this were as a sword in his bones Psal 42.3 4 10. As for the Spouse in the Canticles we do find Chap. 5. v. 6. that when her beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone her soul failed when she spake she sought but she could not find him she called but he made no answer Hereupon she goes to the Watchmen to the Daughters of Jerusalem charging them if they found her beloved to tell him she was sick of love v. 7.8 He never duly estimated the friendship of Christ who can bear his strangeness without great sorrow and heaviness of heart In answer to the third question How or in what way assurance is wrought by the Spirit I say His way of working is very dark and mysterious and assurance it self is better felt then expressed compared therefore as some conceive Rev. 2.17 to the Manna that is hid and to the white stono and the new name written in the stone which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it The Spirit working in our regeneration is inexpressible compared therefore John 3. to the Wind that bloweth where it listeth the sound whereof we hear but know not whence it cometh nor whether it goeth his working in assuring us that we are regenerate is much more inexpressible There are two kinds of Acts in the soul 1. Direct Acts such as is that by which the soul cleaves to Christ or lays hold on him or believes in him for remission of sins and salvation 2. Reflex Acts such as is that by which a man returns on himself and doth though not believe yet know that he believes believes sincerely Such reflex acts are the most noble royal operations ' the most refined Spiritual workings sufficient if we had no other arguments to prove the souls immortality But such workings of the soul usually are but weak and transient Radius reflexus languet is the rule in Opticks and which leaves us at a greater loss those places of Scripture from which we should borrow our light in this matter are so vexed with variety of descants and interpretations that it is not easie to know what to make of them It would quite tire out the patience of an ordinary Reader if I should but recite the variety of Comments on that place 1 John 5.8 There are three that bear record on earth the Spirit the Water the Blood and these three agree in one That indeed seems to be more plain Rom. 8.16 The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God But first Grotius will have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he brings for proof a place or two in Scripture in which it seems to be so used because it is applyed to the witness of Conscience well having no other foundation to build his conceit on we may easily rid our hands of him for the witness of conscience is a joint witness it witnesseth together with God and is therefore called as some think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But then granting that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie a joint-witnessing it will not be so easie to find out what the other partner is that is joined with Gods Spirit in this action as we translate it should seem to be our own Spirit But the Rhemists translate not with our Spirit but to our Spirit which translation is put into the Margin of the English Bibles now read and was in the Text of those formerly used and then it will be a question whether our spirit be not the joint-witnesser but onely the recipient of this witness and the joint-witnesser the Son of God or that voice caused in us by the Spirit of God Yet because some do therefore want assurance because they look for it in an undue and unwarrantable manner expecting some vocall testimony to tell them that they are the children of God I shall therefore endeavour to unfold the matter as I am able And this I lay down in the first place That look in what way the Spirit of bondage doth work Fear in the same way the Spirit of Adoption doth work Hope and Assurance now the Spirit bringeth unconverted persons under fears and troubles concerning their estate by convincing them of the demerit of sin and shewing them that they are under the power of sin John 16.8 He will convince the world of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is errorem prâ—…conceptum profligare and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that fallacy in which something onely seemingly and not really contradictory to the question is proved is called ab ignoratione elenebi The secure unconsidering sinner lives in sin as if it were a very harmless innocent thing he makes a mock of it The Spirit therefore to awaken him out of his security and to put him under a necessity of enquiring after a Saviour doth joining with his conscience bring him under a three-fold conviction of Law of fact of state by some such Syllogisms Every liar shall have his portion in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone I am a Liar Therefore I shall have my portion in the lake that burnes with fire and brimstone Or He that believeth not is condemned already I believe not Therefore I am condemned already Or He that
glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest on me 2 Cor. 12.9 Indeed so vast a disproportion is there betwixt the joys of Heaven and the carnal pleasures of this World that should a Christian alway have assurance of his title to the former it would not be much wondred at if he despised the later but herein the power of Gods grace is seen that he brings a man into the strict despised ways of holiness with a resolution if he perish there to perish that he keeps him from the pollutions that are in the world through lust even when he doubts whether he shall have a portion among those that are sanctified Herein is seen the power of the Devil not that he keepeth men captive whilest he hath honours and pleasures to bestow on them but that he can make them to hold fast their sins when Gods judgments have laid hold of them in their sins God speaketh of such not without some admiration Amos 4.6 I have smitten you thus and thus yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. And he sets a brand of infamy on Ahaz because be sinned yet more in the day of his distresse 2 Chron. 28.22 Likewise the power of God is then most manifest when he makes any to hold their sincerity in the midst of tentation and opposition Every Christian is the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good works but in none doth his eternal power so evidently appear as in such God doth even boast of such Job 2.3 The Lord said unto Satan Hast thou not considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evil and still he holdeth fast his integrity although thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause And as his power appears in preserving them in their low condition so doth his patience in bearing with all their froward and passionate thoughts and speeches during desertion and his mercy and goodness in bringing them from under it Isa 41.17 When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them I the God of Israel will not forsake them I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of vallies that they may see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this and the holy One of Israel hath created it Corrollary Seeing God may have all these gracious and holy ends in withdrawing from us the light of his countenance and suffering us to walk in the dark it will not become us to charge God foolishly or to entertain any hard thoughts of him as if he had forgotten to be gracious or as if his truth and faithfulness were ceased for ever such thoughts will be rising for they were the very thoughts of David Psal 77. but we must chide our selves for them as he did ver 10. I said this is my infirmity but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High As also he doth in another Psalm 22. after he hid complained ver 1. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me he proceeds But thou art holy O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel This is the conclusion we must hold and not suffer our selves to be beaten from that God is Holy Just and Good if we hold this fast we shall do as Christians and though we see not how at present to reconcile Gods Providences with his Attributes yet hereafter we shall see he that can wait is blessed and shall not be ashamed of his confidence for he that shall come will come and will not tarry Second part of the fourth question The second part of the question is still behind What are the meritorious causes that do procure the want of Assurance Answ The answer to this is wholly to be made up of particular observations and experiences which are so many and various that I reckon it next to impossible to put them into order as for the more common sinful lets and impediments of Assurance they have been so fully and clearly handled by so many already in print that if I were not tied up by promise to say something about them I might pass them over in silence or content my self to paraphase on some Scriptures in Job the Psalms and Isaiah relating to this head but the laws of method calling me to say something to this part of the question also I shall so do but yet briefly 1. The smalness and littleness of some mens graces is the cause why they do want Assurance The Kingdom of God within them being but as a grain of Mustardseed which is the least of all seeds 't is no wonder they see it not the root of the matter being but small and covered over with many sinful infirmities 't is not strange that they are not sensible of it I must not so far contradict experience as to say that God doth never make the time of conversion when grace is comparatively but small a time of sealing he did so usually in the first preaching of the Gospel for then men comming out of gross darkness into marvellous light and turning from serving dumb Idols to serve the living God their change must needs be of easier observation then it is now when persons having sucked in Christian Religion with their mothers milk turn onely from a careless to a more diligent way of serving the true God And besides Religion had then nothing to commend it to mens affections but onely its own beauty and loveliness but now that Kings and Queens vouchsafe to be unto it nursing fathers and nursing mothers we cannot have so little ground of suspecting our unsincerity as might they who did no sooner make confession of Christ but they became the filth and off-scouring of all things Yea even in these days it pleaseth God sometimes after great legal humiliations to let in some hope whilest grace is but low lest his creature should be swallowed up of sorrow However usually a little faith as to any setled lasting comfort is as no faith and time with weak Christians is more profitably spent in multiplying those acts which may strengthen the habit then in enquiring whether it be already sincere habits cannot of themselves be felt but they discover themselves by their actions and weak habits put forth such faint actions and with so much interruption that it cannot easily be known whether they be the fruits of common or special grace Object But cannot the Spirit of God so irradiate the very least measure of grace as to make it visible and so the ground of Assurance Answ No question the Spirit can so do but we now enquire not what he can do but what he usually doth and this may safely be said that Gods Spirit doth not usually witness to those who have attained to the least measure
of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee By his free Spirit the Psalmist here means his Spirit to set him free from the slavish fear either of God or Man which usually makes us weary of our lives and yet horribly afraid to die But wherefore doth he desire this free Spirit not that he might be free from Gods service but that he might be free to his service that being not in bondage through fear he might win others to the faith that he might be able to encourage others to walk before God in holiness and righteousness all their days he that useth not his comforts to this end doth but turn the grace of God into wantonness 2. A good way to gain Assurance is to be thankful for what we enjoy already When Nathaneel was induced to believe meetly because he was told of his being under the tree Christ was so pleased that he promised him he should see greater things then that Joh. 1.50 So when we are thankful for the first dawnings of light God is so well pleased with that thankfulness that he causeth our light to grow clearer and clearer to the noon day Phil. 4.6 7. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus To him that is thankful for what he hath shall be given but from him who is not thankful for what he hath shall be taken away even that which he hath How can we more provoke God then if we over-look and despise all our mercies because we want some one thing which we have a mind to though no present meetness for it yet so is God provoked by bad men and by good men Though Haman be by the King advanced above all the Princes yet all avails him nothing so long as he saw Mordecai the Jew sitting at the Kings gate Hest 4.13 and even the father of the faithful uttereth words not much unlike Gen. 15. God bids him not fear for he was his shield and exceeding great reward But what doth he reply v. 2 3. What wilt thou give me seeing I go childless and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus and behold to me thou hast given no seed and lo one born in my house is my heir What wilt thou give me As if God had nothing to reward his Servants obedience with but Children as if he could not be better to them then many heirs Obj. If God should hide himself from me in temporals I could that hiding notwithstanding be thankful for spirituals But what have I to be thankful for so long as I know not that God loves me with a special peculiar love A. Is it nothing that thou art out of Hell that thou art kept from running into all excess of riot that thou art kept from laying violent hands on thy self nothing that thou art born in Emmanuels Land that thou hearest of the covenant of grace sure and well ordered in all things that thou hast Ministers and Christian friends to help thee to lay hold of this Covenant nothing that the Spirit hath brought thee under convictions of sin and enclined thy heart to seek out after the Gospel cure Surely if thou canst see nothing to be thankful for but Assurance if thou shouldest have Assurance it self thou wouldest scarce be thankful for that but quarrel at it because it is not clear enough or because others have more of it then thy self 3. He that wants Assurance must believe till he feel that he believes and put forth acts of love till he find that his love is sincere and unfeigned Direct acts would be multiplied when we have not the comfort of reflex acts this is a rule given by all and seems to be firmly grounded on that famous place Isa 50.10 He that walketh in darkness and seeth no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay on his God He that walketh in darkness and seeth no light is in as comfortless a condition as a child of God can be in What is the way to bring him into the light Even to trust in the Name of the Lord and to stay on God That is he must consider that Christ died for him and that he is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God through him yea and that he hath promised if he come not to cast him out and by express commandment hath made it his duty to believe and in the strength of these considerations the Spirit assisting to cast himself on him and lay hold of him so long till he find he hath him Those who make the being assured that God is ours in covenant to be the onely and the first ground of reliance on God do by consequence make all Preaching in vain and bring unto us a new Gospel For suppose I had to do with an Unbeliever what should I say to him that he doth not believe till he is perswaded that God is his in covenant with him Would not this be in effect to tell him that he must die in his unbelief For how should he come to know himself to be in Covenant Shall I tell him because he is elect That cannot be known to him nor if it could be known to him would it be sufficient to infer his being in covenant for the elect till renewed by grace are the children of wrath as well as others My business therefore is to convince such a man that if he die in his sins he is undone everlastingly and that his own righteousness is so every way imperfect that it cannot answer the demands of the Law I must also call upon him to meditate on the free and full offers of life and salvation that are made in the Gospel and let him know that it is his duty to lay hold of the hope that is set before him and to follow such kind of meditations with his prayers till he feel his heart resolved to adventure himself on this bottom But can any one so do Without grace he cannot By grace he can And so did Job Job 13.15 Though he slay me yet will I trust in him I but Job thing destitute at present of the sense of Gods favour might remember his former loving kindnesses and with such remembrances support himself 'T is possible he might but the soul that never had any sense of Gods love may come to this pitch of resolution nay to this pitch of resolution it must come For what else should it do To continue in a natural condition brings damnation inevitably get out of it by his own strength no man can Tell him what promises God hath made of pardon hee 'l reply that whatever is promised as to pardon is suspended on a condition which condition