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
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
loves Christ diligently endeavours to amend his life is ordained to eternal life I love Christ and endeavour diligently to amend my life therefore I am ordained to eternal life Is the Major here true or false if it be true then it is their error to say that love to Christ is not proper to the elect if it be false what becomes of the conclusion inferred from it If it be said which is all they can say that if aman can feel in his heart a sense of Gods love he may thence infer a conditional certainty of his election viz If he shall persevere in his love that is no more then what the non-Elect may have Suppose we one of them to know that he is a believer yet cannot he thence infer that he is elected or shall persevere to eternal life because he neither thinks true faith to be proper to Gods elect nor to have any promise of certain perseverance made to it to say that none of these brethren are true believers is the highest uncharitableness for what Scripture is it saith that it is essential to Christianity to be rightly informed concerning the connexion of faith with election or where is this doctrine so clearly revealed in the word as that all must needs be supposed to be wilfully blind who will not see and acknowledge it 3. This perswasion is in order of Nature after Faith therefore the nature of Faith cannot lie in it The Antecedent is presently proved because I must first be in the favour of God which I cannot be but by Faith ' ere I can know or be perswaded that I am in the favour of God for a proposition is alway in order of nature true before it is known to be true as every mans reason doth tell him And this order as it hath its foundation in reason so also in Scripture 1 John 5.13 These things have I written to you that believe in the name of the Son of God that ye may know ye have eternal life Bellarmine saw this and therefore inferrs that according to the opinion commonly received among Reformed Divines in his time men are justified before they do believe and methinks the learned Chamier doth not like himself when he goes about to untie this knot for he saith that Faith doth if not in order of time yet of nature follow justification a saying contrary to the whole current of Scripture 4. If Faith did consist in this perswasion it would follow that some who do hear the Gospel either were not bound to believe or were bound to believe a lie That any who hear the Gospel should not be bound to believe cannot be for then unbelief would be no sin to them and if no sin then could it not deserve condemnation when as we know from Scripture that it is the condemning sin And that some if obliged to believe that either they are elected or justified would be bound to believe a lie is as plain for certainly among those that hear the Gospel some are not chosen nor pardoned But what is more absurd then that any man should be bound to believe a lie can any thing be the object of faith but what is true or any thing the object of Divine Faith but what is so true that it cannot be false More need not be said against this error But it will be asked whether though the nature of Faith do not consist in this assurance yet it be not that which every believer doth some time or other find or whether any Child of God do so walk in darkness as that the light of Gods countenance is never lifted up on him no not before his death This I shall endeavour to answer by the following conclusions 1. No question as the Sun after it hath for all the day been hid in the clouds doth sometimes shew it self and that gloriously just before it sets so the Faith of a Christian after it hath for the greatest part of his life been clouded with doubts and fears doth near unto his death sometimes so manifest it self by some lively acts as that he can no longer doubt of its sincerity but cries out my Lord my Saviour In that little experience I have had in the world I have known sundry who have all their life been subject to fears and filled every Minister and Christian of their acquaintance with dreadful complaints against themselves who yet when they have been on their death-beds or have apprehended themselves so to be have triumphed over death in the Apostles language O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15. They that are in the least conversant in our English Martyrology cannot but know how usual it was with God to seal up his love to his servants just when he called them out to set their own seals to his truth so high was their assurance that you would have thought that they had heard the Musick of the Coelestial Choire when they heard the ratling of the chains with which they were to be tied to the stake When Mr. Robert Glover was condemned to die and was now at a point to be delivered out of the world it so happened that two or three days before his heart being lumpish and destitute of all true consolation he felt in himself no aptness but rather an heaviness I all along use Mr. Fox his own words and dulness of Spirit fall of much discomfort to bear the bitter cross of Martyrdom whereupon fearing in himself lest the Lord had utterly withdrawn his wonted favour from him he made his moan to a Minister complaining how earnestly he had prayed day and night and yet could receive no motion nor sense of comfort from God but so soon as he came to the sight of the stake he was so mightily replenished with Gods holy comfort and heavenly joys that he cryed out clapping his hands Austin that was the name of the Minister to whom he had complained He is come he is come The Apostles that did alway beare about in their bodies the dying of our Lord Jesus that were alway delivered unto death for Jesus sake had also the life of Christ made so manifest in them that though they were troubled on every side yet they were not distressed did so constantly and assuredly know that he which raised up Jesus would raise them up also by Jesus and that their light afflâ—ctions which were but for a moment wrought for them a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory that they did not faint but rather waxed more bold by their bonds The same truth might also be compassed about with a cloud of witnesses of such as did die a natural death But that work is done to our hands by Melchior Adam and others who have delivered to us the story of the life and death of men famous in their generations for piety and learning Yea so usual is it with Christs Disciples to have their inward man renewed day by day
seem that to take any evidence from our graces is to receive humane witness to the things of God which is incongruous Answ I understand not but we may receive an humane testimony to witness the things of God though the last resolution of Divine Faith must be into Divine Veracity But we need not enter into that dispute for the answer of this objection for our graces are not wrought in us by our own power but by the power of God and if they were yet they are only the means by which our condition is known to us the efficient cause of this knowledg is the Spirit illustrating our graces and making them visible and enabling us to conclude from them II. Here 's terror to all those wicked persons who perswade themselves that they are the Children of God though they have in them none of the marks of the children of God I know we are apt to be deceived by others and much more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use St. James his word Jam. 1.22 to deceive to put a fallacy on our selves Yet a man would wonder how they who pretend to reason should be able so to impose on themselves or where they found the premises from which they inferre that conclusion that they are the children of God Doth the Scripture any where say that they who walk not after the Spirit but after the flesh shall live or that drunkards and swearers shall inherit the Kingdome of God if the Scripture say not this but the clean contrary how come they then to promise themselves peace Are they still to learn that God is not such a one as themselves or that they must be judged not according to the proverbs that pass for current among men but according to the law of liberty Sith this law doth every where condemn them how is it that their own Consciences do not condemn them also Is it not onely because they do torture and wrest the Scriptures and so to bring them down to their own humor and fancies But do they not do this to their own destruction must not the great day of necessity shake bring down this house which hath no foundation but their own imaginations exalting themselves against the knowledg of God Let all such if they be not as perfectly void of common sense and reason as they be of Divine Faith but consider these Scriptures Gal. 6.7 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reaps for he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdome of God Or if they will not hearken to the stiller voice of the Gospel let them yet hearken to the thunder of the Law Deut. 29.18 19 20 21. Lest there should be a root among you that beareth gall and worm wood and it come to passe when he heareth the words of this curse that he blesse himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk after the imagination of my heart to add drunkennesse to thirst the Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man and all the curses that are written in this Book shall light on him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven and the Lord shall separate him for evil III. Let all that fear God be perswaded to make use of this way of getting Assurance and not think to get it by I know not what Enthusiastical injections or by going up and down with complaints against themselves but look for it in this way of trial and examination Let not any one say that the Writing of God is so blurred and blotted that he cannot tell what to make of it the Waters so mudded that he despairs of ever seeing his face in them for 1. If some signs be not visible others may and they will suffice to lead thee to the conclusion that thou art in the Bond of the Covenant if thou canst not take comfort in some Qualifications yet there are others that will afford If thou canst not find Faith yet canst thou not deny but thou fearest God and tremblest at his Word why these are marks of a child of God Isa 50.10 Isa 66.2 and so is a desire to fear God Neh. 1.11 onely be sure it be an earnest unwearied industrious desire 2. But if any man be under such sad dark temptations as that he can see no light at all if he be confusion all over such a one I advise not to examine examination at such a time is not a duty but serves onely to breed further fears and uncertainties In such a case let a man put forth the first act of Faith cast himself on God commit himself to him in well doing he hath a command so to do therefore he need not fear it will be an act of presumption he hath a promise if he do so that he shall be safe let him therefore so do and in continuance so to do he shall if by any way come to find that he hath laid hold on the Covenant and that his condition before though it was not comfortable was safe and known to God though not to himself Quest 4. What 's the reason why the children of God do want Assurance or how comes it to passe that all who have grace do not presently know themselves to have it Answ This is not one Question but two and therefore without distinction no one thing can be replied to it The word Reason all one with cause may either refer to the meritorious or final cause either the meaning of the Question is what are the gracious Intendments and Purposes of God in permitting his Children to want Assurance or what are the ways by which they do sinfully procure unto themselves the want of Assurance Of these I will speak distinctly though I take it they are but rarely separated God doth not usually let his servants be under darkness but for sin and he would not permit them to fall into sin but that he hath an intent to make those very falls and the punishments he inflicts because of them subservient to his glory and their good Quest 1. Therefore enquire we why the Father of Lights suffers the Children of light to walk in darkness why he sets the seal and impression of the Spirit so obscurely upon them that they do not know themselves to be sealed with it to the day of redemption especially seeing he doth hereby lose a very great tribute of praise and glory For how can they praise God for this though incomparable gift if they know not themselves to have received it How can they rejoyce in the hope of
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