to be poor in faith and to be such a beggar as not to be endowed with one dram of grace and then you are beggars indeed As we say he is a poore man that God hates He that hath not Christ and hath not the treasures of heaven in him he is exposed to worse poverty a thousand times then he can be for imbracing the cal of Jesus Christ Rev. 3.17 Yea and he is exposed to worse persecution also that for fear of persecution neglects Jesus Christ Psal 83.5 The Lord will persecute them saith David with fury and wrath speaking of wicked men All persecution from man reaches but to the body but this from God reaches to the soul 7. And then lastly This should not hinder you from following Jesus Christ considering that though you should be poor and should be persecuted yet heaven wil make you amends for all Heb. 11.35 Heaven wil make amends for povertie when you are endowed with all the riches of Christ and Heaven wil make amends for persecution when there the weary shal be at rest and there the troubled shal be at ease And thus much be spoken of the third suggestion of the Devil that if you entertain the cal of Jesus Christ you shal be exposed to much povertie and persecution here in the world SERMON VI. 2. Pet. 1.10 Wherefore the rather Brethren give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure THE Doctrine I am yet upon is this That Christians ought to put forth a great deal of diligence to make this sure to their souls that they are effectually called by Jesus Christ In the prosecution of which I have resolved one case of conscience and am yet upon the second case namely what suggestions the Devil doth use to keep men off from imbracing the cal of Jesus Christ I have laid down and answered three already 4. Now there is one suggestion more When the Devil sees either of these wil take place then he comes in with a fourth to disswade men from imbracing the call of Christ and that is this Why saith the Devil if you wil entertain the call of Christ you wil abridge your selves of all the joy and comfort of your lives you wil never have merry daies while you live upon earth You see men that pretend to be converted and doe hear Sermons what lumpish and melancholy men they are not so jocund and jolly as others are that walk not so precisely if you follow Christ and his Gospel this wil casheer all your merry daies and this wil put you into a sad temper all your jovial daies are gone Therefore to take off this aspersion that the waies of Christ are sad and melancholy waies which hath been an aspersion that from age to age and generation to generation hath been as a Gin the Devil hath used to keep men from Christianity And I remember it is one of the greatest Engines Antichrist useth to support and uphold his Kingdom The Papists to deter men from Christianity and the Protestant Religion they would hold their Disciples in hand with this that the spirit of a Calvinist is a sad and lumpish spirit and therefore they would disswade all Nations from turning to their Religion and this the Priests were to tel in all the Churches of Rome how sad and melancholy they were that turned to the Calvinists religion and this did mightily stay the people from imbracing the truth And this aspeâ—sion hath passed from hand to hand and is many times prevalent upon the spirits of men that are of the true Religion that they must not be too forward in the practice of Religion fearing lest this should work melancholy and sad thoughts in them Now to take off this I shal onely urge four or five heads briefly First Whereas you say they are melancholy sad that are called by Christ to a profession of his waies I would answer thus That they of all people in the world have most cause of mirth gladness and they are the most truly joyful people in the world That they have most cause of rejoycing is apparent When the Disciples came triumphing that they could cast out Devils heal the diseased and work Miracles O but saith Christ Rejoyce not in this but rejoyce that your names are written in the book of life Luke 10.20 As much as if Christ should say All the endowments and extraordinary gifts of the spirit they are no such grounds of joy if you had them all but here is your joy and cause of rejoycing that your names are written in the book of Life that you are in Christ and your souls shal be saved And so Paul tels us Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alwayes again I say rejoyce The Apostle would not speak it to them with a single command but doubtless his expression to shew that they that are people that have their sins pardoned that have their souls reconciled that have a title to glory whose names are written in the book of Life these of all men in the world have most cause of joy and gladness And they have not onely most cause but they doe most truly rejoyce and have more real joy in their hearts in one day then the wicked can have all their lives 1 Pet. 1.8 They rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory What joy you have in the world the tongue is able to speak of it but the tongue is not able to speak of that inward joy that godly men have in their hearts upon the apprehension of the interest they have in Jesus Christ Psal 4.6 Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance And Thou shalt put more gladness in mine heart c. Prov. 14.13 A good conscience is a continual feast Men are never more merry then when they are at a feast godly men they carry clear consciences about them and that makes them as joyous and pleasant as if they were alwayes at a great and sumptuous feast Indeed this is true they do not rejoyce with such exorbitancies of joy as wicked men do Wicked men rejoyce in sin that they cannot do wicked men rejoyce in their lusts in their drunkenesse and their adulteries and wayes of sin that godly men dare not do Such a rejoycing as this is the foundation of sorrow This rejoycing like the Prodigal in a riotous course of living is the foundation of sorrow and will meet with you when you are to die Secondly Grant this should be true yet consider that this sorrow that godly people have it is such a sorrow that they shal have no cause to repent thereof but it is a foundation of future joy to them 2 Cor. 7.9 10. I rejoyce saith the Apostle in that I have made you sorrowful What rejoyce to see them a sad people Yes for the sorrow I made you sorrowful with was a sorrow never to be repented of you wil never repent of that sorrow and therefore Paul would do it because it was a
the company of godly men yet not be effectually called and so Demas was a companion with Paul in the Gospel yet he not called but imbraced the world and fel away 2. They may speak wel of the people of God And this John tels us 1 John 3.18 Let us not love in word or in tongue This loving in word and tongue was to speak wel of a godly man this a wicked man may do 3. They may write Letters of commendation in the behalf of a godly man And so you read of Pilat's Wife which the Scripture gives as no evidence of her conversion Mat. 27.19 She wrote a Letter to her Husband in the morning before he was to arraign Christ and told him Have nothing to do with the blood of this just man Here you see she wrote in the behalf of a good man of Jesus Christ And so we read of Claudius Lysias that he wrote a Letter in the behalfe of Paul to Felix the Governour Here were great acts of love yet these no evidence of their effectual calling Nay 4. They may think nothing too much to give to good men yet not be called And so did the Galathians whose calling Paul questions Gal 4.15 They would pull out their own eyes and not think them too dear for Paul Yet at length how cold they did grow and count Paul their enemy for telling them the truth 5. They may expresse such love that in times of danger they may take care of the safety of godly men So Acts 23.27 Claudias Lâ—sias when he heard Paul was in danger of his life he came with an Army of men to rescue him that they should not take away his life from him and yet Claudius Lysias lived and died a Heathen for ought the Scripture mentions Lastly They may relieve the necessities of the godly yet not be effectually called Now here are high expressions of love yet it is evident all these may be where calling is not But now its true in some cases love to the people of God may prove a good evidence of ones effectual call to wit if it have these four qualifications 1. If you love the people of God under this notion because godly it is an evidence of your effectual call because there is good in them more then because you receive good from them Hence it is John tels us wicked men may love a godly man because they have good from him 2 John 1. To the elect Lady whom I love in the truth for the truths sake dwelling in her Iohn did not love the Lady because she was a Lady or because she was a goodly woman but for the riuths sake that dwelt in her Whereas wicked men they love a godly man but not as godly under that notion Therefore you shal see the difference between Iohns love to a godly person and Claudius Lysias a man unconverted Acts 23.27 Claudius Lysias tels you there that Paul was in danger of his life and with an Army I rescued him Now why was it he did so did he love Paul because a godly man no for mark the next words With an Army I rescued him because it was told me he was a Roman He loved Paul for his Nation not for his conversion had he loved Paul as Paul Paul as a Christian this were an Argument of grace but to love Paul as a Roman because of Country and Nation sake this was no evidence of his call So Matth. 5.46 47. If ye love them that love you what reward have you doe not even the Publicans so So that you see a wide difference between the love of a godly man and of a wicked man 2. To measure your love to them by their graces that you love that man most that hath most grace that 's an Argument of effectual calling because it is grace in the man and nothing else you love 3. If your love be universal to all that are godly of what sort or condition soever they be this is an evidence of your effectual calling for then ' â—is evident that grace as grace is the object of your love Lastly to love a man so as to carry compassion in your brests towards him to have a sympathizing heart with him in his sufferings 1 Pet. 3.8 Suffer one with another love as Brethren This shews your love to be true when it hath pity and compassion to attend it I passe now to a third delusion which indeed is a main delusion and hath deceived many specially those that professe the Gospel to make them believe they are effectually called when they are not And that is because they discern a change in their conversation that they are not the same men they were in dayes past and hereby the Devil props up this perswasion that surely they must needs be effectually called and he alledges Scripture for it 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. Such were some of you but ye are washed c. Now this being so universal a delusion amongst most men in the world that if they have hopes of heaven it is upon this ground that they are not the same now they were in times past I shall therefore a little enlarge my self in speaking of this particular and shall lay down six or seven particulars wherein I shall shew that this ground taken in general is no infallible evidence of a mans effectual calling First Because there are many gradual changes which do not come up or amount to a saving change or alteration of the heart of man As there as a change from a Pagan to a Christian so was Julian chang'd yet a man never called by Jesus Christ Thâ—n there is a change from a persecuter to be a countenancer of Religion so we read Valerius Maximinus was changâ—d who was the vilâ—st persecuter of all men in his time and the hand of God lying so sore upon him for that sin that his very bowels rotted within him and the very worms crept out of them and in horrour of conscience he cryed out to his Nobles about him perswading them by his example to take heed never to persecute the Christians more Now both these were great changes and yet they are but gradual changes that leave men abundantly short of those saving changes that God works in them that are effectually called Thirdly There is a change from prophanenesse to profession and yet this is a step below a saving change Fourthly there is a step from profession into sincerity into a real possession of Iesus Christ Now those three steps they fall short of a saving change and therefore every change of life doth not not argue a man to be effectually called because there are many gradual changes that do not amount to so high a pitch as this to be savingly changed Secondly There may be a change in the life when there is no change in the nature or in the heart Matth. 23. they may wash the outside of the cup when within it is full of pollution The
obedience in the habit and obedience in his purposes and resolutions always attending him Secondly you find in Scripture that the strongest and ablest Christians who have done most for God have sometimes been very defective in the Actings of obedience that they could not do what they would do for God And therfore Paul complaines Rom. 7. The good that we would do we cannot do Paul himself that was a pillar in Gods house yet he tels you he could not go out in those Actings of obedience which in his heart he would do therefore if you would willingly do more then you do God accepts of the little you do Thirdly Though you can not put forth many Actings of obedience to God where there is readinesse of mind and heart God accepts the pâ—rposes of the mind for the Action it self 2. Cor. 8.12 Where there is a willing mind it is accepted of God as if the deed were done And thus much be spoken to the second case of conscience why men effectually called do so much doubt of their own call Thirdly Seeing Christians must put forth diligence in making their calling sure therefore now whereabouts must this diligence of ours be conversant or in what Channel must our diligence run that we might be sure of our effectual calling This is a very mateâ—ial question and in resolving of it I shall answer it in these two generals First if you would get assurance of your effectual calling you must put forth diligence to remove those things that will hinder you in making sure your calling And Secondly use diligence to set upon the practice of those duties that may further you in making this sure that you are effectually called First You must remove those things which do much hinder you from being assured and those hinderance that are to be removed I shall comprize under six heads As First you must use diligence to remove Melancholy from your Thoughts This iâ— a natural hinderance of assurance Melancholy is a temper in man arising from a black blood running about the body that doth naturaly occasion distrust and fear in mens mindes this temper being in the body doth work much upon the disposition of the â—oul Now if your temper Melancholy and so dispose you to distrust and fear this will be a great stop to your having of the joyes and comforts of the Lord in your hearts in assurance of his love It is a note Perkins hath upon Nebuchadnezzar when he ate grasse like a beast he writing upon that place thinks that Nebuchadnezzar was in a deep Melancholy and that did so possâ—sse him that he could not tell whether he was a man or a beast though saith he he did not eat grasse but his deep perplexity seazing upon him did make him think that he was from a man turned into a Beast Beloved Melancholy in a Christian it will make him think himself an Hypocrite when he is a Saint and therefore take heed of a Melancholy lumpish and sad temper it is a very great hinderance to this grace of assurance This I lay down only as a Natural remedy Secondly A mind filled with worldly cares and running into incumbring imployments in the world this is a great hindrance of assurance The cares of this life Mat. 13.15 are compared to thorns Now thornes they choake the seed by drawing the juyce that is in the seed to themselves and so the Corn doth not grow where thorns spring The cares of this life they are like thorns in this they are of an attractive power to suck and draw the juyce of your spirits and comforts to themselves so that you cannot have the juyce of your spirits in gathering your evidences for heaven the more incumbred you are in the world the lesse clear you will be touching the evidence of your elerlasting condition The cares of this life they peirce the soul through with many sorrowes Now when a man is pierced through with many sorrows he is in a very unfit temper to be raised up in spiritual joy the more you incumber your selves in the employments of this world the lesse you will be in the comforts of heaven I remember it was the speech of a Pope when he lay a dying When I was a painful preaching Minister then I had hopes of my salvation when I came to be a Cardinal I doubted of it but when I came to be a Pope I despaired of it I was so entangled in the Affâ—irs of this life Beloved so I may say to you When you were but ordinarie Christians in the world you were in a way to get assurance of your salvation but since you have been taken up with the affairs of the world it doth so distract your minde that yâ—u may â—â— in no composâ—d temper to have any setlednesse of heart about your everlasting estate It is the observation of Philosophers that the Sun is eclipsed by the interposition of the Moon the Moon coming between the Sun and our sight Beloved the Sun of your comforts comes to be eclipsed by the Moon which is made an Emblem of the world Rev. 12.9 Now if the Moon of the world comes between your comforts and you it will miserably darken and eclipse your comforts to you Nothing in the world doth so much impede your comfort in assurance as incumbring and carking cares about the things of this world Thirdly Take heed you do not harbour the guilt of any one known sin upon your conscience Keeping of sin upon the conscience is a great impediment to your inward comforts You will never be assured while you do thus and therefore if ever you would have assurance remove this It is an observation of Mr. Hildersham upon Psal 51.12 14. What doth David do when he prayes for assurance saying Restore to me the joyes of thy salvation establish me with thy free Spirit Restore my comforts and my evidences to me And what course doth he take Read verse 14. Deliver me from blood-guiltinesse O Lord As much as if he should say All the while that sin lay upon conscience unrepented of as it did for nine monthes together all that while David lost the joyes of the Spirit and lost the comforts of Heaven And therefore when he comes to renew his comforts and restore his assurance he doth with begging of God for assurance beg of God also to deliver him from blood-guiltinesse as knowing that if this sin should be upon conscience unrepented of and unpardoned he should never have the joyes of Gods Spirit restored Beloved you will never have assurance of your effectual calling till your consciences are freed from having sin upon them with approbation It is an observation that Aristotle hath about earth-quakes that they are occasioned by winde got into the Caverns and hollow places of the earth which having no place for vent again it makes rupturs and overturns houses and mountains and all before it Sin upon the conscience unrepented of is like winde in the earth
grace to be the multiplying of peace The more you multiply and grow in grace the more you will increase peace inward peace of conscience they are both joyned together You have a passage 2 Pet. 1.5 11. compared together Adde to your faith vertue c. The Apostle there urgeth our diligence to adde grace to grace that is to live in the improvement of grace And what wil follow ver 11. If you doe these things you shall never fall for so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord Iesus Christ You shall not onely goe to heaven but you shall have an abundant entrance ministred before you come there you shall have abundance of assurance and inward peace before you come there And here to give you a more particular direction there are these foure graces chiefly you are to improve First Improve the grace of humility Isa 57.15 The Lord doth promise there to revive the spirit of the humble It is a particular promise to that grace that God will revive you and give you a new life if you have it And reviving there is not meant of the first life of grace but of a life of comfort They had grace before but God would give them a life of comfort he will restore your consolation to you in case you are an humble people Hence it is Iam. 4.6 The Lord gives grace to the humble Yea he gives more grace The Lord gives more grace to the humble person then to any man in the world Now the more grace you have the more comfort you must needs have Humility is a foundation of more grace therefore needs must be a foundation of more comfort That building whose foundation is laid lowest is of all the most beautiful and comely Fabrick above ground So those Christians that lay a foundation low in humility they are likely to reare up a most beautiful Building in way of comfort Secondly Improve the grace of faith in beleeving and that is the way to increase comfort 1 Peter 1.8 Whom though you have not seen yet believing you rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Though they did never see Christ yet believing in Christ and improving their faith they had not onely an ordinary measure of comfort but they had more comfort in their hearts then they could utter with their Tongue They rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory So Rom. 15.13 The God of peace fill you with all joy and peace in Believing that you may abound in hope through the Holy Ghost Believing makes you full of all joy and makes you abound in it The more you are in Believing the more you will be in assurance Thirdly Improve the grace of love to Jesus Christ John 14.23 If any man love me my Father shall love him and we will come in unto him and make our abode with him If you improve in your love to Jesus Christ God the Father and God the Son will make their dwelling in your hearts Now he must needs be a comfortable Christian that hath so good a guest as God the Father and Jesus Christ to come in and make their abode with him As you know to your bosome-friend whom you love and you know loves you you will communicate all your secrets Thus will God the Father if he knowes you are his bosome-friends and seeth you love him he will communicate all his comforts to you you shall never want comforts if you increase in love to Jesus Christ Fourthly Improve the grace of godly sorrow you will never finde sweeter musick in comfort then when you are laid down in teares As the sound of the Trumpet is never more pleasant then when they are upon the water so when God seeth you flow with the water of repentance and godly sorrow then you are likely to hear the most melodious harmony in the apprehension of Gods love Psal 126. They that sow in teares shall reap in joy You shall not onely have a dram but a handful of joy as Reapers they cut down handfuls of corn at once And as you know in seed though you sowe but one grain of corn there may a dozen eares come from that one seed so if you sowe but a little godly sorrow a grain of godly sorrow may be a root to a great deal of spiritual joy Secondly If you would improve your assurance preserve a clear conscience both towards God and man A good conscience is a continual Feast Prov. 15.15 Assurance I may say of it as the Father speaks of the Holy Ghost and the comforts thereof The Spirit of God is a very nice thing every thing will give the comforts of Gods Spirit a check and distaste now if you harbour sin upon conscience you will never thrive in comfort every thing will give comfortable motions a check And as Philosophers say when the Aire is foggy it ariseth from vapours that are exhaled from the earth which makes the Aire so cloudy as it is So it is filth drawn from our earthly hearts that makes such foggy mists to arise between our comforts and us and between God and us You must keep conscience clear else you will never keep heaven clear Heaven will be clouded if the heart be filthy Job 11.14 15. If iniquity be in thy hand put it far away If sin be upon the conscience harbour it not for then thou shalt lift up thy face before God thou shalt be stedfast and not fear You shall not onely not fear but you shall have a degree of assurance You shall be stedfast if you put sin far away from you A sullied and a polluted conscience shall never be in a Christian strong in assurance You will not grow in assurance if your conscience harbour guilt Thirdly If you would improve your assurance keep close in communion with God Nothing that feeds comforts so much as a Christians holy walking Esa 32.17 The work of righteousnesse shall be peace and the effect thereof quietnesse and assurance for ever If you walk in works of righteousnesse and in a way of keeping lose communion with God this shall be peace and this shall be quietnesse and great assurance Mark how the Holy Ghost makes a gâ—adation not onely peace and quietnesse but assurance also you shall have the highest degree of peace and the highest step of comfort if you walk diligently in a way of holinesse with your God And thus much be spoken to the first sort of men those that live in the enjoyment of the assurance of their effectual calling I have now a word to those men that live in the want of this assurance who happily have in times past had some glimmering and some dimme sight of comfort touching their everlasting estate and yet are now much clouded and eclipsed in their comforts or have lost the comforts they once hâ—d what they should do to recover it And to these I â—hall by way of direction speak
onely four things First That you would set upon searching work Secondly Upon humbling work Thirdly Upon praying work And fourthly that you would set upon meditating work These four helps will through Gods blessing be very conducible to restore your wonted comforts to you First My counsel shall be to you that you would set upon searching and examining work When you have lost any thing the first thing you do is to look after it where you have lost it that you may finde it again If you have lost this precious Jewel of assurance be thus wise for your selves O set upon seeking and searching work The Scripture gives you this hint Gal. 6.4 Let every man search his own work and then he shall have rejoycing in himselfe This is the way to bring in spiritual joy and spiritual comfort to be often dealing with your own hearts David when he lay under some foul distemper mark how he deales with his own soul Why art thou troubled O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me he puts his heart upon the trial And here in your searching work I would commend five things to your examination First Search how you got your assurance Secondly Search how you grounded your assurance Thirdly Search how you managed your assurance Fourthly Search what should provoke God to take away your assurance Fifthly and lastly Search what you would give to God so you might regain your former and wonted assurance Put these questions to your hearts As First Put upon the search how you goâ— your assurance It may be it was such an assurance as you have had ever since you were born from your mothers womb that you got without care and without pain and if so this is presumption not assurance and if you have lost this it is well It is better to be in a state of discouragement then in a state of presumption Secondly Examine how you grounded your assurance It may be you bottomed it but upon self not upon Christ It may be you bottomâ—d it but upon the fantastical delusions of your own hearts and not upon the grounded evidence of Gods Word if so that your assurance have had an ill bottome it is no wonder if God turn it upside-down If it be not rightly grounded it will never long be continuâ—d Examine therefore upon what grounds you have bottomed your assurance and if you finde the fouâ—dation of your comforts to be ill laid you must pluck up all again Thirdly Search how you managed your assurance It may be you managed your assurance with pride not humility it may be with unwatchfulness and carelesnesse of spirit and did not take notice of those temptations and suggestions that might impair your comforts if so it is no wonder if the devil sows tares among your wheat it is no wonder if the devil have stolen away your comforts if you have laid down your watch Fourthly Examine what special cause there was in your hearts that might provoke God to cloud you in your comforts and to take away your assurance from you And here that you might a little be directed in this search you may reduce the causâ— of your eclipse and of the removal of your assurance unto this twofold head Either it hath been the commission of some great transgression or else the omission of some weighty duty that may provoke God to darken your comforts As First the commission of some great transgression Great sins they lay a foundation for great discomforts in tender consciences Great sins they lay the conscience waste to make it that was as a well-trimmed and impaled garden to be as a ruinous wildernesse Great relapses they bring ordinarily dark eclipses upon the soul And here that I might put you on this search I would advise you to seach what particular sin it was and how you might know the transgression that might provoke God to take away your comforts from you As First if so be God did take away your comforts immediately after the committing of any grosse sin then you may be sure that sin was the occasion Or Secondly If the commission of one sin do bring upon you more then an ordinary measure of hardness of heart then you may be sure that was the sin Or Thirdly If any sin makes you remisse in spiritual duties that was the sin provoked God to take away your comforts from you And by such a search as this you might finde out and give a shrewd guess at the particular provocation And here the particular transgressions I would have you search about they are ordinarily these four that ingages God to take away comforts from a people As First the sin of superciliousness and uncompassionateness of spirit towards doubting Christians If a soul carries a proud and supercilious eye over poor Christians and carries no compassion towards doubting souls God for that sin of wanting bowels of compassion may bring him to the same estate which he could not compassionate in other men Secondly the sin of grieving the Spirit if you grieve Gods Spirit God will grieve yours Esa 63.10 Or Thirdly The sin of spiritual pride ordinarily this may be the sin Or Fourthly The sin of worldly-mindednesse or eager pursuit after the things of this world As digging in the earth doth endanger a man to be stifled with damps so digging and poring in the world brings but a damp upon a Christians comforts and many times stifles their assurance As the Sun is eclipsed by the interposition of the Moon between it and our sight so if the world once get between the Sunne of righteousnesse and you it will eclipse the Sun that you shall not see the glory of Jesus Christ and shall not perceive nor gain that interest in Jesus Christ you had in former time Secondly Another cause you are to search If it be not the commission of some great transgression yet it may be the omission of necessary and weighty duty and the Lord may bring you upon the stage of discomfort for omission as well as commission If a man do let but a wound go undressed he may as well die as if you knock him with a Beetle upon the head Beloved If you let your wounds be undressed and let your discomforts be unlooked after and let all run at sixes and sevens if you interrupt in your duties it is just with God to interrupt you in your comforts If you keep not your watch 't is no wonder if you are surprized There are many Christians that grow carelesse in keeping communion with God that love seldome reading and seldome praying and seldome examining their own hearts alas men casting away their duties it makes God in judgement make stoppage in a way of comfort Fifthly In your searching work examine your selves what you would do in case God should restore to you your former evidences could you bring your hearts to this temper that you would think no pain too much to take no cost too much to give
your Meditations work upon those Promises that hold forth most comfort to a dejected and deserted soule And here I shall name five or six most comforatble Promises in the Word As Isa 57.15 The Lord that dwels in the high and holy places he doth revive the spirit of the humble and of the contrite one So Isa 66.2 The Lord dwels in the Heavens and yet with him also that is of an humble and contrite spirit that trembles at his Word with him will God dwell So Psal 34.18 The Lord is nigh to them that are â—f a broken heart even them that are contrite in spirit So Luke 4.18 Jesus Christ was anointed that is appointed by God the Father to preach the Gospel to the poor to binde up the broken in heart and to comfort them that mourn So Isa 66.10 The Lord will restore comfort to thee and to thy Mourners And Heb. 12.12 The Lord will streâ—gthen the weak hands and feeble knees And with that remarkable and most glorious Gospel-promise I shal end Isa 353 4 5 6. Strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees This saith God to weaken Christians whose legs can hardly carry their bodies and their hands hardly reach to their mouths Say unto the weak Christian in grace comfort and confirm and strengthen them And say unto them that are of a fearful heart Be strong Poor fearfull doubting soules that feare every temptation and feare every corruption and feare they shall lose the recompence of their reward Say unto that fearful heart Be strong and fear not For your God will come with vengeance even God will come with recompence and save you And then the eyes of the blinde shall be open and the eares of the deaf shall be unstopped it is not meant of the bodily eye but those that were blinde and could not see the mysteâ—ies of Christ and could not read their own comforts then their eyes shall be open And the deaf that as Isaiah saith refused to be comforted that would not hearken to comfort but would stop their eares against all comfortable doctrines and onely give way to sorrow their eares shall be unstopped And the lame men shall leap like a Hart the poor halting Christian that halts in his comforts that is now believing anon staggering now rejoycing anon despairing the poor lame man shall leap like a Hart And the tongue of the dumb shall sing the poor man that could not speak one word of his own graces and of his own comforts and touching his own evidence The tongue of the dumb shal sing O Beloved here is your work in case you would be Christians to restore your comforts again set upon the work of Meditation to think upon these precious Promises of the Gospel that hold forth most comfort to a drooping and dejected sinner SERMON XII 2 Pet. 1.10 Wherefore the rather Brethren Give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure THE Doctrine I am yet upon is this That Christians ought to put forth a great deal of diligence to make this sure to their souls that they are effectually called by Jesus Christ to grace and glory In the prosecution of which I have gone over many particulars There remains now onely one Use more to dispatch about this subject and then I passe to the third point drawn from these words And the Use shall be of Consolation from all that hath been said touching the assurance of our effectual calling I shall only direct my discourse to lay down six or seven Consolatory Conclusions to those Christians who are effectually called yet happily have not a sensible assurance of their own calling First take this for a truth that Assurance is necessary not for the being but for the wel-being of a Christian It is not necessary to his estate but to his comfort It is not necessary as food is to the life but only as Physick is to the body A man cannot live without food a man may live without Physick Assurance is but as a comfortable cordial to the soul Grace is as food to keep the soul alive though you doe want assurance this Cordial to bear you up Secondly that many of Gods dear children they may lie a very long time in the want of this assurance touching their effectual calling Psal 88. It is said of Heman 14 15 16. verses Lord why hast thou casâ—â—ff my soule and why hast thou hid thy face from me Mark his complaint I am ready to die And was this only a fit of desertion or was it a continued act yes Vers 16. From my youth up I suffer thy terrours I am distracted and thy fierce wrath goes over me Heman lay under the state of desertion from his childhood for here he tels you his estate that he was not troubled for a day or two or three and then his troubles were over but from his youth up he lay under this perplexity that he thought God had cast off his soule and the terrours of God lay upon him And yet this man none questions his goodnesse For he was the man as Ainsworth thinks that made this Psalm and sure God would never honour a wicked man to be a Pen-man of the Scripture The Psalm is called a golden Psalm and it is so called because hereby he would teach afflicted consciences that they may from their youth up lie under great horrour and lie under sad suspence concerning their everlasting estate and yet they may have grace at the root for all this And Heman doth not only expresse it as if he had an ordinary trouble of minde but he expresseth it that he lay under an extraordinary weight of Gods wrath Vers 7. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit of darkness and in the deep and thy wrath it lies heavy upon me He did even lie and sink in his own thoughts under the sense af Gods wrath upon him This therefor is another comfortable conclusion That godly men may not onely by fits and starts but for a long time for many years together lie under a state of spiritual desertion For some men think of Heman that he was above threescore yeares of age when he wrote this Psalm yet from his youth up till that age he lay under this horror and perplexity Thirdly That many of Gods dear children may be so long plunged under desertion and under the want of Assurance that they may refuse and withstand comforts when God offers it to them in the Gospel and yet may have grace still As a man in a feaver or distracted by some violent disease though you bring him a Cordial that may abate his disease the man in a fit will through the glasse against the wall though it be the only meanes of his remedy It is so with godly men many times they are so accustomed to sadnesse in the want of assurance that they may refuse comforts when God offers them Psal 77.2 It is the speech of Asaph my soule refuseth to be
to salvation Secondly though men have been notoriously wicked in their lives before calling yet if this notorious wickedness doth lay any engagement upon them to make them labour to be more eminent in grace after calling this is rather a sign of election then reprobation It is observable in Paul he was a notorious wicked man before his call but now this exceeding wickednesse of his before call did engage him to labour to exceed all others in goodnesse after he was converted and the more evil he was before the more holy he labours to be after As he laboured before to hale men to prison for professing Jesus Christ he is now as zealous to draw men to Jesus Christ after his call he was very industrious to do evil before his call and this made him after his call as he saith himself I was in labours more aboundant then they all And so Mary Magdalen who before her calling was a vile woman one that was a common harlot a woman out of whom Jesus Christ cast seven devils and yet this woman after her calling she laboured to be more eminent in godly sorrow then any woman before or since she washed Christs feet with her teares and wiped them with the haires of her head The like of which you do not read of any woman in Scripture And this was a very good sign when your notoriousness in waias of sin before calling shall lay such an engagement upon you to become more eminent in grace after calling this is a very good encouragement or evidence that you are within the compasse of Gods election and therefore you have no cause to be discouraged Suppose before the word laid hold upon your conscience you were guilty of filthy sins not fit to be named in the congregation if you will the more honour God and praise God now and walk more humbly and labour to excell each other in grace now as you did in sin in times past This is a great sign that you are in the compasse of Gods Elect ones Thirdly you that have been scandalous in your lives before calling for your comfort know that God in his eternal counsel doth commonly make the profane and wicked and the worst of men the objects of his election rather then civil honest men rather then men that are of an honest and civil and moral conversation here in this world And the Lord doth it upon this ground the more to magnifie the freenesse and the riches of his own grace in electing men to life For should God only chuse moderate and civil honest men in the world men would be apt to think it is that mans morality and that mas civility that was the motice which provoked God to elect them and therefore God to overthrow these thoughts he lets electfon runne rather unto men that have been notoriously grosse and sinful in â—heir lives then other men Manasseh a notorious bloody man yet falls within the compassâ— of Gods election when many a civil man is left out Maâ—y a common harlot yet chosen when many a modest chaste woman was cast into hell Matth. 21.31 32. That Christ urgeth a parable of two men One that said he would go and follow Christ but did not and the other said he would not go but did now which of these twain did the will of Christ and they said the first And Jesus said unto them Verily I say unto you that publicans and harlots shall go into heaven before you But you will say was this common this was onely one single time therefore mark the next words For Johâ— came to you in the way of righteousness and you believed not but the publicans and harlots believed in Christ John came preaching and you would not believe you Phrisees strict moral men that did not flie out into such scandals as other men did you would not believe saith Christ but Publicans men that were most addicted to extortion and unconscionable gain they imbraced Jesus Christ when moral men would not This therefore should be another comfort for you that many times election runns rather to the profaner sort of men then to men that are civil and righteous dealing men here in the world and this God hoth to magnifie the riches of his own grace Fourthly that it is no matter what you were before your callâ—ng if you are a repentant and holy people after your former miscarriages shall no way prejudice your future blessednesse 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. Neither Fornicator nor Idolater nor Adulâ—erer nor envious nor thiefe nor covetâ—us nor reviler shall enter â—nto the Kingdome of Heaven and such were some of you c. Here you see a Catalogue of vile evils heaped together and such wâ—re some of you but now you are washed now you are sanctified â— So that no matter what you were before conversion though guilty of great sins so you are now a reformed people now a sanctified people Titus 3.3 We our selves were sometimeâ— foolish disâ—bedient decieved serving divers lusts and pleasures and living in malice and envy c. You were so but after the kindness love of God appeared to you after they were converted they were not so So that these four particulars wil clearly take off this objection that no matter what you were before conversion if you are now a repentant people and bewail your evils and reform your waies your former ill led life will be no hindrance at all to your election Indeed this I must needs say that you that have been most notorious in sin God expects this at your hands that you be most eminent in grace most deep in humiliation most eminent in godly sorrow though your former evils do no way prejudice your election Secondly if the devil cannot fasten this upon you he will come upon you with this assâ—ult viz. your frequent falling into scandalous and foul and grosse enormities after you took upon you a profession of Jesus Christ And this the devil will lay close happily sin before conversion was not so great but now since you have followed Sermons and since you have professed Jesus Christ since that time you have fallen foulely into grosse and scandalous sins and surely this is inconsistent with grace and cannot befal persons within the compasse of Gods election And I confesse this is both sad and hazardous yet I shall lay down three things to uphold thee that yet for all this thou maiest be within the compasse of Gods election As First that divers persons that were within the compasse of Gods election have fallen foulely into grosse sins after their call Lot after he was called fell to be incestuous and fell to drunkenesse David after he was called fell into Adultery Peter after he was called fell to a denial of Jesus Christ Yea you read of Solomon 1 Kings 11.9 That his heart was tuâ—ned from the Lord after the Lord had revealed himself unto him twice After God had revealed himself to Solomon and converted him
after that time he did evil against his God Nay you read further Nebem 13.26 27. That Solomons wives turned away his heart from the Lord though he was the beloved of his God Though he were beloved by God and were elected by him yet his wives turned away his heart from the Lord. The like phrasâ— you have Numb 14.23 After all these works I have done among them and the miracles I have shewn them in Aegypt and in the Wilderness they have provoked me saith the Lord these ten times After they were the Lords by covenant and after they were a delivered people after this they provoked him many a time by sinning against him and yet divers of them were elect vessels of mercy So that I say many of Gods servants after their calling are fallen foulely into scandalous sins and yet have been within the compasse of Gods election Secondly if you falling into grosse and scandalous sins have not these four sinful ingredients your falling into sin after calling may be consistent with election First if you fall not into sin voluntarily Secondly if you fall not into the same sin frequently Thirdly if you fall not into sin with complacency And fourthly if you lie not under your fall impenitently If these ingredients be mixed with your sinning after your call they are inconsistent with election First if you fall into sin voluntarily that you rush into sin as a horse into the battel Secondly if you fall into the same sin frequently then it is hazardous and dangerous It is true Peter denied Christ but it was but in one fit of a temptation Dâ—vid fell into Adultery but it was never but once Lot was guilty of drunkennesse but onely in one fit For the Servants of God though they fall yet they fall not frequently into the same sin if grosse and scandalous Thirdly if you fall into sin with complacency that you take pleasure in the evils you fall into if you do as Job saith wallow sin under your tongue counting it sweet and delightsome to you And lastly if all this be joyned with impenitency that you have not a heart to repent of the evils you fall into the Lord have mercy upon you for certainly if you fall into sin with these ingredients you are not within the compasse of Gods mercy to save But now though you do fall into sin if it be not voluntary but through the force of temptation if it be not with complacency but a dislike of the sins you fall into and as soon as you do fall and see your sins you repent and rise again though you doe fall in this way it will be no prejudice to your election Thirdly falling into sinne after calling and profession made of Jesus Christ may be consistent with Election in these foure cases First if the sins you fall into be clearly discerned Secondly if they are sensibly bewailed Thirdly if they are strongly resisted and lastly if they are dayly laboured and prayed against Though you doe fall into sinne yet in these cases sin will not be damning to you or be an impediment to your election And thus I have done with the second case of conscience Only let me urge this one thing before I leave it for I would not have you make this Doctrine a Doctrine of liberty but I would have you lay this to heart that if any of you fall foulely after conversion believe it God will make you smart for this though not in hell yet you shall have a hell in your conscience you shall have the very pregustations of hell a wounded conscience and God will expect deep humiliation and great repentance if you sin after profession made of Jesus Christ It may have that influence upon you as upon David who cried out I have no quietnesse in my bones by reason of my sin God will give you no rest night nor day by reason of sin if you run into it after profession made of Jesus Christ Thirdly men do doubt of their election because God pursues them with continual afflictions and layes the continued strokes of his heavy wrath upon them and this makes many a godly man think that he is not in the number of Gods elect ones To which I shall briefly answer That this is nothing else but a temptation and not a truth and it was the very controversie that Jobs friends had with him they would fasten this upon Job that he was a Reprobate and an Hypocrite because God did so afflict him yet Job maintained his sincerity and shews his grounds that God was his friend and that he did not reject him though he did afflict him But to speak more particularly First no man can infallibly and certainly judge of Gods purposes about mans election or reprobation by any of the dispensations of God toward their bodies in the things of this life Eccl. 9.1 2. No man knows either love or hatred by any thing that is before him All things fall alike to all The same event to him that feareth God and to him that feareth him not to him that sweareth and to him that feareth an oath Secondly Afflictions from God are so far from being grounds or evidences that a man is not elected that in some cases they may prove evidences that they are the very elect of God Heb. 12.6 7. He chasteneth every son whom he receiveth they are bastards and not sons whom he chastiseth not As â—any as I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent Rev. 3.19 In some cases afflictions from God are rather tokens of love from God then the contrary As now in case afflictions be as a spur to you to make you quicken your pace in heaven-way 2. In case your afflictions be as pruning-hooks to you to cut and lop off the luxuriant buddings and workings of sinne in the heart 3. In case affliction be as a hedge to you to keep you in and to make you walk in a close communion with God and not to wander or goe astray from him 4. In case affliction be as a file to you to file off that rust that cleaves to your nature 5. In case affliction proves a furnace to refine you from that drosse of corruption that is mixt with your services In these cases afflictions are so farre from being grounds to doubt of your Election that they may rather give you evidence you are the very elect of God Thirdly That God in his wisedome doth many times expose his own people to greater troubles in this life then he lets wicked and reprobate men undergoe God will not give reprobates their hell here that so he might give them hell hereafter God will not give the elect heaven here to make heaven more desirable to them while they live here and more welcome when they come there It is Gods pleasure in the dispensations of his providence amongst men to let his own people lie under more outward sorrows then wicked men shall do Psal