have any strong Christians among them yet we have had the knowledge of such at home 2. Besides the Difficulty of the Subject is a clear Argument that a strong Christian may be uncertain of it God hath made all those points plain in Scripture which must be Believed as of Necessity to Salvation But the Certainty of all Believers Perseverance is not a Point of flat Necessity to Salvation to be Believed Otherwise it would be a hard matter to prove that any considerable number were ever saved till of late or are yet saved but in a very few Countries It is a Point that the Churches never did put into their Creed where they summed up those Points that they held necessary to Salvation There are a great number of Texts of Scripture which seeming to intimate the contrary do make the Point of great Difficulty to many of the wisest And those Texts that are for it are not so express as fully to satisfie them Besides that the examples of these ten years last past have done more to stagger many sober wise Christians in this Point then all the Arguments that ever were used by Papists Arminians or any other To see what kinde of men in some places have fallen and how far as I am unwilling further to mention If you ask me what I think of this my self and consequently what Assurance I have of my own Salvation I will freely tell you both how far I am arrived in Assurance of Sincerity of Grace and Justification and how farre in the matter of Perseverance and so of Salvation I lay seven years under great Doubtings of the truth of my Sanctification especially for want of those Lively Affectionate Heart-melting effects which I desired to have found and for want of Deeper apprehensions of God Christ Glory Sin Misery Mercy Duty c. which made me still fear that all I had was but the meer effects of Education Reading and Speculative Knowledge and so that I had only a Notional Religion that touched my Phantasie and swom in my Brain but workt not throughly on my Heart for want of more Deep and Serious Believing of those holy Truths which should be operative Yet all this while Probabilities of Grace affording me that which we commonly call Hope did bear me up Now through the great unspeakable Mercy of my God I have attained to so strong a Probability of my Sincerity and Sanctification as in a large sense may be called Assurance or Certainty but not in the strictest sense much less is it a perfect Assurance I have so strong a perswasion of the truth of my Faith and so of the pardon of my sinnes as overcometh most doubtings and trouble of minde and keepeth me in quietness and peace of minde and some Joy in the holy Ghost and Delightfull thoughts of my everlasting Rest and gives me a Confidence in God and Access with boldness to the Throne of his Grace But yet I finde that carnal security hath a great hand in the alaying of my troubles though not in the raising of my Joyes And it is no unusual thing for a good Cause and a bad Faith Assurance and Carnal security to joyn together in one effect even in expelling trouble from the heart Yet dare I scarce say in the usual sense of the word that I am certain of my Sincerity and so of my Justification especially when Temptations have prevailed and the strength of the fleshes interest and the weakness of Christs interest in my Estimation and Will and Affections have appeared more then ordinary And when I have thought how much stronger Trials I may yet be put to which others daily undergo especially the Temptations of Prosperity do oftner make me fear then those of persecution and adversity I am sometimes afraid lest it be but the weakness of my Body and the distance of Objects and smalness of Temptations that makes them no more prevailing with me And that if I had as strong a body as others and were in that Dignity Wealth and Abundance of all things as some are whether Honors Carâ—al Pleasures Sports Delightfull Meats Drinks Beauty and such vanities might not carry me away as I see they do others that made as great a shew of Holiness Yet do not these doubts much affright or disquiet me because I finde God at present possessing me with those Resolutions to cast away all for Christ which I doubt not are the work of his own Grace and because I have experience of abundance of preventing and sustaining Grace and because I finde at the present that God enableth me to account all things loss and dross and dung for him and easily without much reluctancy to empty my purse for him and his poor and to lay out my time and strength for him and his Church and with some good success to resist Temptations and that I have no Desire in any activity or prevalency to be any higher in the world then I am but think God hath chosen out for me the best condition and station that I could have desired in all the world And then for Perseverance and Salvation this is my Case It is my strong opinion that no man who hath attained to a Rootedness in the Faith and so is throughly sanctified doth ever totally and finally fall away which Christ seemeth to intimate in saying that the Cause why men fall away in Tribulation and Persecution is because the seed had not deep Rooting Mat. 13. And I am yet more confident that none of the Elect shall ever fall away and perswaded that all the Rooted through-Christians are Elect. But yet I dare not say that I am Certain of this that all are elect to salvation and shall never fall away totally and finally who sincerely Believe and are Justified It is my opinion but I dare not put it into my Creed among either the Points of absolute Necessity or undoubted Verity I know how many Texts of Scripture seem to speak otherwise and I know how generally the Primitive Fathers thought otherwise if a man can know their mindes by their Writings I know that Austin himself the Mall of the Pelagians seems to be either unresolv'd or more against this Perseverance then for it I know how many Learned Godly men do differ from me and deny the Certainty of Perseverance I know how sad and shaking examples this age hath afforded And therefore I am not Certain properly strictly Certain of my Perseverance and so not fully strictly Certain of my Salvation Nor so near to a Certainty of my Salvation as I am to a Certainty of my Faith Justification Adoption and Sanctification Yet am I so strongly confident of it that I shall hold out and be saved that it doth not only calm and quiet my minde and overcome my troubles and fears but also enable me to Rejoyce in Hope of the Glory to come and to Desire Christs coming to Judgement and to think of Death with much more contentedness and
he will move a scruple whether it were not too Good or too much You shall not cloath your self but he will move you to scruple the lawfulness of it You shall not come into any company but he will afterward vex you about every word you spoke lest you sinned The like I may say also about your condition but more of that anon DIRECTION XXVII 27. When God hath once shewed you a Certainty or but a strong probability of your sincerity and his special Love Labour to fix this so deep in your Apprehension and Memory that it may serve for the time to come and not onely for the present And leave not your soul too open to Changes upon every New Apprehension nor to question all that 's past upon every Jealousie Except when some Notable declining to the world and the flesh or a committing of Gross sins or a wilfulness or carelesness in other sins that you may avoyd do give you just Cause of questioning your sincerity and bringing your sâ—ul again to the bar and your estate to a more exact review SOme Antinomian Writers and Preachers you shall meet with who will perswade you whatsoever sin you fall into never more to question your Justification or Salvation I have said enough before to prove their doctrine detestable Their reason is Because God changeth not as we change and Justification is never lost To which I answer 1. God hated us while we were workers of Iniquity Psal 11.5 5.5 and was angry with us when we were Children of wrath Eph. 3.1 2 3. And afterward he laid by that Hatred and Wrath and all this without change If we cannot reach to apprehend how Gods unchangeableness can stand with the fullest and frequentest expressions of him in Scripture must we therefore deny what those expressions do contain As Austin saith Shall we deny that which is plain because we cannot reach that which is obscure and difficult 2. But if these men had well studied the Scriptures they might have known that the same man that was yesterday Hated as an Enemy may to Day be Reconciled and loved as a Son and that without any change in God even as it fals out within the reach of our Knowledge For God Ruleth the world by his Laws They are his Moral Instruments By them he Condemneth By them he Justifieth so far as he is said in this Life before the Judgement day to do it unless there be any other secret act of Justification with him which man is not able now to understand The change is therefore in our Relations and in the Moral Action of the Laws When we are Unbelievers and Impenitent we are Related to God as Enemies Rebels Unjustified and Unpardoned being such as Gods Law Condemneth and pronounceth Enemies and the Law of Grace doth not yet Justifie or pardon and so God is as it were in some sense obliged according to that Law which we are under to deal with us as Enemies by destroying us And this is Gods Hating Wrath c. When we Repent Return and Believe our Relation is changed The same Law that did Condemn us is Relaxed and Disabled and the Law of Grace doth now Acquit us it Pardoneth us it Justfieth us and God by it And so God is Reconciled to us when we are such as according to his own Law of Grace he is as it were Obliged to forgive and to do Good to and to use as sons Is not all this apparently without any change in God! Cannot he make a Law that shall change its Moral Action according to the change of the actions or inclinations of sinners and this without any change in God And so If it should so be that a Justified man should fall from God from Christ from sincere Faith or Obedience the Law would Condemn him again and the Law of Grace would Justifie him no more in that state and all this without any change in God 3. If this Antinomian Argument would prove any thing it would prove Justification before and so without Christs satisfaction because there is no change in God 4. The very point That no justified man shall ever fall from Christ is not so clear and fully revealed in Scripture and past all doubt from the assault of Objections as that a poor soul in such a Relapsed estate should venture his everlasting salvation wholly on this supposing that he were Certain that he was once sincere For my own part I am perswaded that no Rooted Believer that is Habitually and Groundedly Resolved for Christ and hath crucified the flesh and the world as all have that are throughly Christs do ever fall quite away from him afterwards But I dare not lay my salvation on this And if I were no surer of my salvation then I am of the truth of this my Judgement to speak freely my soul would be in a very sad Condition 5. But suppose it as certain and plain as any word in the Gospel that a Justified man is never quite Unjustified Yet as every new sin brings a new obligation to punishment or else they could not be pardoned as needing no pardon so must every sin have its particular pardon and consequently the sinner a particular Justification from the Guilt of that sin besides his first general pardon and Justification For to pardon sin before it is committed is to pardon sin that is no sin which is a Contradiction and Impossibility Now though for daily unavoydable Infirmities there be a pardon of Course upon the Title of our Habitual Faith and Repentance yet whether in case of Gross sin or more notable Defection this will prove a sufficient Title to particular pardon without the addition of actual Repentance and what Case the sinner is in till that actual Repentance and Faith as I told you before are so difficult questions it being ordered by Gods great wisdom that they should be so that it beseems no wise man to venture his salvation on his own opinion in these Nay it 's certain that if Gross sinners having opportunity and knowledge of their sins Repent not they shall perish And therefore I think a Justified man hath great Reason upon such fals to examine his particular Repentance as well as his former state and not to promise himself or presume upon a pardon without it 6. And besides all this though both the Continuance of Faith and non-intercision of Justification be never so certain yet when a mans obedience is so far overthrown his former Evidences and Perswasions of his Justification will be uncertain to him Though he have no Reason to think that God is changeable or Justification will be lost yet he hath Reason enough to question whether ever he were a true Believer and so were ever Justified For Faith worketh by Love and they that Love Christ will keep his Commandments Libertines and carnal men may talk their pleasure but when Satan maintains not their Peace sin will break it and Dr. Sibs words will be
requireth you to Desire the Blessedness to be enjoyed after Death and that so earnestly as may make Death it self the easier to you Thank God if the fear of death be somewhat abated in you though it be not sweetned Men may pretend what they please but nature will abhor death as long as its nature and as long as man is man else temporal death had been no punishment to Adam if his Innocent nature had not abhor'd it it was an evil to it Tell me but this If Death did not stand in your way to Heaven but that you could travel to Heaven as easily as to London would not you rather go thither and be with Christ then stay in sin and vanity here on earth so be it you were certain to be with Christ If you can say Yea to this then it is apparent that your loathness to dye is either from the uncertainty of your salvation or from the natural averseness to a dissolution or both and not from an unwillingness to be with Christ or a preferring the vanities of this world before the Blessedness of that to come Lastly it may be God may lay that affliction on you or use some other necessary means with you yet before you dye that may make you willinger then now you are DOUBT XIX GOd layeth upon me such heavy Afflictions that I cannot believe he Loves me He writteth bitter things against me and taketh me for his enemy I am afflicted in my health in my name in my children and nearest friends and in my state I live in continual poverty or pinching distress of one kinde or other yea my very soul is filled with his terorrs and night and day is his hand heavy upon me ANSWER I Have said enough to this before Nor do I think it needful to say any more when the Holy Ghost hath said so much but only to desire you to read what he hath written in Heb. 12. and Job throughout and Psal 37. and 73. and divers others The next doubt is contrary DOUBT XX. I Read in Scripture that through many tribulations we must enter into heaven and that all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution and that he that taketh not up his Cross and so followeth Christ cannot be his Disciple and that if we are not corrected we are bastards and not sons But I never had any Affliction from God but have lived in constant prosperity to this day Christ saith Wo to you when all men speak well of you but all men for ought I know speak well of me and therefore I doubt of my sincerity ANSWER I Would not have mentioned this Doubt but that I was so foolish as to be troubled with it my self and perhaps some others may be as foolish as I though I think but few in these times our great friends have Done so much to Resolve them more effectually then words could have done 1. Some of those Texts speak onely of mans duty of bearing persecution and tribulation when God lays it on us rather then of the Event that it shall certainly come 2. Yet I think it ordinarily certain and to be expected as to the Event Doubtless Tribulation is Gods common road to Heaven Every ignorant person is so well ware of this that they delude themselves in their sufferings saying That God hath given them their punishment in this life and therefore they hope he will not punish them in another If any soul be so silly as to fear and doubt for want of Affliction if none else will do the Cure let them but follow my Counsel and I dare warrant them for this and I will advise them to nothing but what is honest yea and necessary and what I have tried effectually upon my self and I can assure you it cured me and I can give it a Probatum est And first see that you be faithful in your Duty to all sinners within your reach be they great or small Gentlemen or Beggars do your duty in Reproving them meekly and lovingly yet plainly and seriously telling them of the danger of Gods everlasting wrath and when you find them obstinate tell the Church-Officers of them that they may do their duty and if yet they are unreformed they may be excluded from the Churches Communion and all Christian familiarity Try this course a while and if you meet with no Afflictions and get no more fists about your ears then your own nor more tongues against you then formerly tell me I am mistaken Men basely bawk and shun almost all the displeasing ungrateful work of Christianity of purpose lest they should have sufferings in the flesh and then they doubt of their sincerity for want of sufferings My second Advice is Do but stay a while in Patience but prepare your Patience for a sharper encounter and do not tye God to your time He hath not told you when your Afflictions shall come If he deal easier with you then others and give you a longer time to prepare for them be not you offended at that and do not quarrel with your mercies It is about seventeen years since I was troubled with this Doubt thinking I was no son because I was not afflicted and I think I have had few days without pain for this sixteen years since together nor but few hours if any one for this six or seven years And thus my scruple is removed And if yet any be troubled with this Doubt if the Churches and Common trouble be any trouble to them shall I be bold to tell them my thoughts onely understand that I pretend not to Prophesy but to Conjecture at Effects by the position of their Moral Causes I think that the Righteous King of Saints is even now for our over-admiring rash zeal and high profession making for England so heavy an Affliction and sharp a scourge to be inflicted by seduced proud self-conceited Professours as neither we nor our Fathers did ever yet bear Except it should prove the merciful intent of our Father onely to suffer them to ripen for their own destruction to be a standing Monument for the effectual warning of all after-ages of the Church Whether pride and heady Zeal may bring Professors of holiness And when they are full ripe to do by them as at Munster and in New-England that they may go no further but their folly may be known to all Amen I have told you of my thoughts of this long ago in my Book of Baptism ALL these Doubts I have here answered that you may see how necessary it is that in all your troubles you be sure to distinguish between Matter of Doubting and Matter of Humiliation Alas what soul is so holy on the Earth but must daily say Forgive as our trespasses and cry out with Paul O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death But at the same time we may thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ If every sin should make