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
throw away the bread and water appointed by God for the satisfying of those natural appetites then may he hope to perswade the experienced Christian that all his desires after Christ are but the workings of a melancholy phansie or to despise the Body and Blood of Christ the onely things that ever he found to satisfie those desires Obj. What then can the Assured Christian answer every question that a subtil diputant makes can he solve every fallacious argument of a cunning Sophister A. No perhaps he cannot answer any one of his fallacies but he hath such a sense of the reality and preciousness of the things against which the fallacies are framed that he knows them to be but fallacies and cares not much were it not for others sake whether they be ever answered or no. If a condemned Malefactor dead in Law should have his Princes pardon brought him and had accepted it and upon acceptation of it found himself restored to life again and every thing that made his life comfortable unto him how little would he matter it whether he were pardoned by an immanent or transient action or whether he did receive his pardon by an act of the understanding or of the will by one act or by many or whether the acceptation of his pardon were the instrument or the condition of his pardon As little will he who hath a sense of his faith and of his justification by faith matter it how those controversies are decided that have of late years occupied the pens and tongues of so many both learned and unlearned As little doth he matter it I say as to himself though for the sake of others he rejoyceth to see truth accurately handled and rescued from those absurdities where-with adversaries taking advantage from the less cautious expressions of her friends had loaded her What sayest thou now O Christian is this Assurance worth thy seeking after and praying for or is it not Wilt thou give all diligence to make thy calling and election sure or wilt thou still put all to the adventure and leave thy eternal condition at uncertainties Methinks after so many glorious effects of Assurance have been opened every one that nameth the name of Christ should be restless till he have it and should go from ordinance to ordinance till he could say I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine Till he can see his name written in the Lambs book of life till he find the white stone in his hand till he taste the hidden Manna with his mouth and find the Spirit witnessing to his spirit that he may be of good cheer because that his sins are pardoned I would take it for granted that so it shall be were it not that the flesh will alway be drawing back from and framing objections against every thing that requireth diligence and cometh not till after many Prayers and Endeavours Endless it would be to attempt to answer all the cavils of slothfull persons against the work I have been pressing two it may not be amiss to take notice of Object We have known those who have gloried much in their Assurance whose Assurance was never found to produce any of the forementioned blessed effects Answ I have also known those who have boasted much of their great love to Christ and yet made no conscience of keeping his Commandements this did never make me think that universal Obedience was not the fruit of true Love but onely that their Love was not true Semblably when I observe any who say they have Assurance shewing forth their Assurance by none of the fore-mentioned blessed effects I conclude their Assurance to be the counterfeit Assurance or carnal confidence known commonly by the name of Presumption 't is to me so manifest that he who hath Assurance will I. Be above the tormenting fear of death 2. Despise the perishing vanities of the world 3. Sleight and despise the censures of the ungodly 4. Expresse an holy boldnesse in his prayers 5. Take comfort in the Word and Sacraments 6. Abound in Praise and Thanksgiving 7. Kindly mourn for sin and watch against it 8. Not regard cavils against the Truths the power whereof he experimentally feeleth that where I find not these I adventure to say there is no Assurance and I would have all the fore-mentioned particulars made use of in way of Examination as well as Motive that if any one do not find his perswasion of the goodness of his condition accompanied with them he may thence as he hath the greatest reason inferr that it is not wrought in him by the Spirit of God Object But is it not time enough to get Assurance hereafter Will it not suffice if some time before a man do depart out of this world he be sealed by the Spirit Answ 1. Sure he that makes this Objection doth not believe what I have been all along asserting out of Scriptures concerning the benefits of Assurance else he would be hugely desirous not to want it for one moment longer it would be death unto him to be without it till death seize on him 2. No man can have this Assurance but by the Spirit now he is a most free and arbitrary Agent blowing when and where he listeth He who now refuseth his consolations may perhaps want them everlastingly 3. The longer any one stayes without Assurance with the more difficulty will he obtain it at last The longer any one doth walk in the dark the more hard thoughts doth he insensibly take up concerning God and the more unhappily skilfull doth he grow in disputing against his own consolations the longer that the heart hardneth it self through the deceitfulness of siâ— the more unfit is it to receive the Seal of the Holy Spirit of God What-ever is brought against late death-bed Repentance may be also brought against late death-bed Assurance with this onely difference that whereas Repentance is necessary to the very being of a Disciple Assurance is onely necessary to his well-being Quest 6. What means are to be used for the attaining of this Assurance Answ Before I direct to means it will be needfull that I premise some things I. That I do suppose true solid Assurance to be intended in the Question As for Presumption 1. It is needless to prescribe any means for the getting of it 't is like some ill weeds which in some soils will grow do the Husbandman what he will or can Satan will both plant and water and also give increase unto it and so deep roots it taketh that the very approaches of Death cannot pull it up Nothing more usual then for men that live under the Sun-shine of the Gospel to drop out of a golden dream out of a fools paradise into Hell 2. If it were in the least needfull to give any Directions for the attaining of this presumptuous perswasion I durst not give them for it is the work of Gospel Ministers to throw down to the ground all those buildings that are built with
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
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