embraces welcom to you but his Commandments troublesom and his yoak intolerable especially considering that he affords you those refreshments that they may oyl the wheeles of your spirits and make them goe the more nimbly in his wayes Is it not just with him to with-draw the encouragements and leave you notwithstanding to your tasks of duty to toile in the brick-kilns and work out your very hearts in an uncomfortable drudgery without the least refreshment at all to quicken your spirits thereunto These are the terms upon which God will manifest himself so to his people as to dwel and abide with them John 14. 21 23. If a man love me he will keep my words And my Father will love him and we will come to him So it may be will a soul say but how long will he stay when he comes Why the next words shew We will make our abode with him We will dwel with him for continuance That expression of our Saviour Christs seems a strange expression When ye have done all those things which are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants why Because we have done but what was our duty As if it were to be the complaint of a Saint that he can do no more for God then he should CHAP. XXX An Exhortation to improve Assurance received by 1 living upon 2 pleading our Evidences II. LAbour to improve and make use of Exhortat 2. Assurance had to the utmost You need not forbear this duty because your Title is but weak and disputable This makes a man many times carelesse of bestowing cost upon a piece of Land because there is a flaw in his Evidences But here you need not with-hold your hand for that because yours are as sure as heaven and earth can make them Quest But you will ask me how I answer Answ 1 Live on it at all times A Christian hath a threefold life here by faith The Just lives by faith 1 A life of Justification and this life he lives by faith in an applicatory relying Act in its adhering depending act John 5 40. Rom 1. 17. 2 A life of Sanctification And this we live by the same Act of faith radically originally Because it is that grace which on our part makes application of Christ to the soul and the soul to Christ and so the Instrument of union Now from this union and engrafting into Christ for Justification Christ becomes to us a root of Sanctification John 15. 5. But we live a life of Sanctification quoad actus exercitos in the fruits and streams of actual holinesse not only from that act of Applicatory reliance but also because these fruits are moral acts and so must be brought forth in a moral way by Motives and Encouragements and in their most noble actings they are alwayes so from the Faith of Assurance or Evidence as was before shewn So Gal. 2. 20. 3 A life of Consolation John 14. 1. And this life we live by improving a Faith of Assurance only Faith of Relyance as I have shewne may give support but it cannot give comfort But faith of Assurance gives comfort in the saddest cases 2 Tim. 1. 12. Improve your Assurance then to a life of Sanctification and consolation 1 Improve it to a life of Sanctification Believe up your graces when they are low believe down your corruptions when they are high Believe into your Judgments light in darknesses and doubts into your Wills strength and resolution in temptations and assaults Every grace that is purchased by Christ promised by the Father wrought by the Spirit you may challenge You may if you want any materials for the spiritual Edification of your souls have recourse to your Evidences and they warrant you to take it upon the Lords soil where-ever you can find it Go to the Lord boldly and say Lord I am troubled with barrennesse and deadnesse but I find in my Evidence a Promise that my soul shall be as a watered garden Isai 58. 11. that the desart shall blossom as a rose c. Isai 35. 1. I find a great deal of weaknesse faintnesse and wearinesse upon my soul in holy Duties But I find upon my Deeds that the yoak of Christ shall be easie Mat. 11. 30. That they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength that they shall mount up with Eagles wings they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not be faint Isai 40. ult That the way of the Lord shall be strength to the upright Prov. 10. 29. I am fickle and fleeting in my resolutions But my Copy saith Be strong and God shall strengthen your heart Psal 31. 24. That God will strengthen me with the right hand of his righteousnesse Isai 41. 10. That hee will write his Law in my heart and his Statutes in my inward parts that I shall not depart from him Jer. 31. 32 33. and 32. 40. I am very subject to powerful and domineering lusts and corruptions but I find in my writings that my old man is crucified with Christ that the body of sin may be destroyed That sin shall not have dominion over me Rom 6. 6 14. That God will subdue mine iniquities Micah 7. 19. I want particular graces I cannot believe But my Evidence runs by way of Promise The just shall live by his faith Hab. 2. 4. That thy people shall say My God we know thee Hos 8. 2. I want Repentance but Lord it is written Thy Saints shall look and mourne Zech. 12. 10. Patience but I find that thou art my God and thou art the God of patience Rom. 15. 5. 1 Cor. 10. 13. I am under Affliction and I desire it may be sanctified And 't is written That all the fruit of Affliction shall be to take away sin Isai 27. 9. That it shall make me partaker of thy holinesse Heb. 12. 10 11. Say Lord I find those in my Deeds sealed in the Sacrament and I know they are growing on the soile of thy love and Christs merit Lord give them me 2. Improve it to a life of Consolation There is no condition but thou hast peculiar comforts to live upon For Spirituals Isai 40. 1. Against sins Isai 1. 18. Mic. 7. 19. Hos 14. 4. Against sufferings spiritual Isaiah 50. 10. Against Temptations 1 Corinth 10. 13 In Temporals as far as they are good Psal 84. 11. Against poverty Psal 34 9 10. Against sicknesse Psal 91. 3 4 5 6. and 41. 3. Against reproaches Math. 5. 11 12. Against persecutions Math. 5. 11 12. And abundance more of all sorts you may find in that excellent Treatise of Mr. Leigh concerning the Promises There be some special comforts which are depending upon the doctrine of the Assurance of the Saints by the Testimony of the Spirit and you have several of them in the following part of this 8 of the Romans 1 That however low your condition be for the present and how sad soever Gods dispensations of providence may seem toward you
again 2 Another Affirmative and Adversative But i. e in lieu of it you have received another-guise gift the Spirit of Adoption All these parts shall receive their fuller explication in the following Treatise which I shall marshal under four Propositions or Theses Whereof the first is Theses I. The Spirit of Bondage in Gods Elect ends in a Spirit of Adoption The handling of this point will afford us these main heads of Discourse 1 What Adoption is 2 What is the work of the Spirit of Adoption 3 How this Thesis is to be understood 4 How the truth of it appears 5 Why the Spirit doth in such persons so work 6 Certain other Questions and the use of the whole Concerning the first that falls in occasionally in this Chapter Quest 1. What is Adoption Ans Adoption is to be looked on under a double respect 1 Active 2 Passive whereby it hath relation 1 To its Causes 2 To its Subject So it is 1 An Act of Grace as it is the work of God Adopting 2 A gracious Priviledg as it is the state of man Adopted We shall joyn both together and describe it as a priviledg of ours but depending upon its causes Thus Adoption is a gracious priviledge whereby the Elect of God and they only are out of the special grace and good will of God the Father made his children through Jesus Christ and entituled with him to the joint inheritance of all the priviledges belonging to the sons of God both here and hereafter 1 The general nature of it is a gracious Priviledge And so the Scripture speaks of it every where 1 John 3. 1. Two special Notes set it out a note of Attention Behold and another importing Admiration What manner of love is this c. The word is in the Orignal In what soil doth this strange plant grow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In quo solo natus est talis amor If David thought it so great an honour and priviledg to be the Kings Son in Law 1 Sam. 18. 18 23. if it were noted as a special act of self-denial in Moses to reject that offered relation of being an adopted Son to Pharaohs daughter Heb. 11. 24 which imports it was such a priviledg as scarce any but a Moses would have refused certainly it must be a priviledg of an high nature to be made a Son or Daughter to God Almighty And this must needs be a gracious priviledge seeing the picture of it is so full of glory Rom. 9 4. 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a special Right Authority Joh. 1. 12. 2 This the more appears because it is appropriated to a very few the subjects of it are Gods Elect and they only Ephes 1. 5 He hath predestinated us to the Adoption of children And those Elect are not actually so till they become actual Believers John 1. 12. To as many as received him i e. believed in his name he gave power c. and needs must it be so for by nature we are children of wrath as well as others Ephes 2. 2 And we are the children of the first Adam till we are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 3. 2. 3 The Causes of it are 1 Principal 2 Less principal 1 The principal cause is God the Father the Fountain of this relation His is the power of adopting Sons 'T was the usual act of the Father thus to adopt No child can adopt a father because it is an honour and the Superiour is not honoured by the Inferior but the Inferiour by the Superior Ephes 1. 3 5. compared So 1 John 3. 1 What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God The vouchsafement of it is from him to us 2 The lesse principal is either 1 That that inwardly moved him which the Schools call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that as followes is his meer grace and good will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 1. 5. and this Chapter from ver 3 to 14. is a perfect common place upon it Having predestinated us to Adoption according to the good pleasure of his wil and therefore he will have that grace of his alone glorified thereby ver 6. And indeed what else could move him we being poor forlorn condemned creatures the seed of a Traitor and cast out in our nativity to the contempt of our persons c. as is described Ezek 16. 3 4 2 The outward procuring cause called also by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Jesus Christ which followes next in the description Through Jesus Christ Now Christ hath a special influence upon this work two wayes 1. As the purchaser of it unto us For he redeemed us that wee might receive the Adoption Gal. 4. 5. of sons We were not capable of this Adoption till redeemed unto it for wee were by nature the subjects nay the slaves to another Prince who ruleth effectually in the children Ephes 2. 2. of disobedience nay we were condemned by the justice of God and so til our lives and liberties were thus purchased were not capable of any inheritance our very beings and estates were legally forfeited and but by Christs purchase wee had never beene capable of inheriting any thing but Hel Ephes 1. 7 11. 1. Pet. 1. 3 4. 2. As the deriver of it upon us He being the head of all the Adopted family from whom the priviledg of the blood and right of inheritance is derived as a streame from the fountain upon us God first Adopting Christ in him us For our priviledg doth not flow properly from the natural relation of Christ to God the Father but from the moral assumed relation that which Christ received from him when he undertook to bring many children to glory for the priviledges of Christs natural relation to the Father cannot be communicated therefore he is called Gods only begotten Sonne And this is the blasphemy of the Familists both old and new that the Godhead dwelleth in the Saints as it doth in Christ whence it will follow contrary to scripture that the Saints also are the natural Sonnes of God This is that that I would say God hath annointed Christ as the second Adam and the head of his Church with the oyl of gladnesse above his fellowes bestowed upon him the graces of Justification Sanctification and all priviledges belonging to them in an eminent manner and so made him the first born son of his grace by Adoption Psal 89. 26 27. I will make him my first born This filiation is not that natural relation to God for he was never made the natural Son of God and in that respect seeing he had no brethren he could not properly be a first born It must therefore be meant of a primogeniture by Adoption and because primogeniture carries a right of Authority with it among Princes therefore it followes Higher then the Kings of the earth I 'll give him power over all the
place he bestowes upon us the right of Adoption as the most properworker of this union And as our Faith is the instrument of union so hee is the giver of faith 1 Cor. 12. 9. Faith indeed Divines ordinarily call an Instrument but 't is but an improper instrument for as all its efficacy depends upon the relation which it hath to Christ as an hand is the instrument to make rich when it receives a treasure or layes hold on it when freely offered so it doth nothing at all on Gods part But the Spirit is in a sense a proper instrument on both parts applying both Christ to us and us to Christ Christ to us by reaching us a promise to lay hold on and us to Christ by giving us an hand to lay hold on it and rest our souls upon it 2. Hee is the witnesse of our Relation And this work is principally set out to us in the verse preceding that which is the ground of our discourse The Spirit also witnesseth Rom. 8. 14. with our spirits that we are the Children of God Concerning the manner of the Spirits testifying I shall say somewhat hereafter onely take notice now that he is said to witnesse with our spirits i. e. to say the same thing with our consciences rightly informed of their condition Thus he is a seal and an earnest not to confirm on Gods part but to assure our legal title on our part Eph. 1. 13. 2 Cor. 1. 22. In the discharge of this work he is the comforter who takes of Christs and shews unto John 6. 14. his people i. e. not only saving truth in illumination and saving grace in regeneration and justification but also speciall light and comfort in manifestation of our interest in God through Christ he takes the Deed by which Christ is made the adopted head of his family and all the territories of heaven and earth are given to him and his seed for ever and shews it to the Saints and bids them cheer up for though they be now poor and persecuted wandring in sheep-skins and goat skins hiding among wild beasts in dens and holes of the earth yet they are heirs to all that heaven and earth contains and the time will come when this great estate shall come in hand and therefore they should lay out liberally upon their hopes at present and throw away all these things in a kind of holy prodigality when God calls for them being assured that their future inheritance will make amends for all This is the assuring act of the Spirit and differs from the former thus there hee barely discovers to us a promise and stirres us up to adventure upon it upon general invitations here he gives us an evidence that that promise is ours and enables us to make use of it by particular interest 3. He is the Advocate of our Cause And thus he is said also in this Chapter to make intercession for us When our title at any time comes under dispute or when any thing is detained from us which our relation and the evidences which confirm it entitles us unto he enables us to sue out our interest or if any thing befal us unworthy the children of God he helps us to write letters to our Father to complain of and bemoan our condition Rom. 8. 26 27. And this is that that is principally intended in the Text together with the former which is the ground of this the Spirit helps us to cry Abba Father by assuring us that God is our Father and putting us upon earnest and importunate requests to him as the requests of children use to be to a tender and compassionate Father And this work of the Spirit is so frequent and constant in the Saints that it is in effect attributed wholly to the Spirit God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into our heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crying as if he meerly acted our tongues Abba Father Gal. 4. 6. 4. He is the great guide of our way Ps 143. 10 He is the Tâ—tour of our youth we are not adulti till we be ripe for glory Ephes 4. 13. So we are said to Walk after and to be led by the Spirit verse 1 4 14. of this Chap. Therefore new obedience is call'd the Law of the Spirit of life v. 3. And the Spirit of the Lord is said to give liberty 2 Cor. 3. 17. Cameron in locum And so divers interpret the words of my Text with an opposition of servile obedience and filial obedience CHAP. III. Two practical Queries concerning the extent of this worke as to the subjects of it in the forementioned particulars Qu. WHat sense must this proposition be understood in That the Spirit of Bondage in Gods elect ends in a Spirit of Adoption Under which are comprized these farther enquiries Que. 1. Whether the Spirit of Adoption do work all the aforesaid works upon the hearts of all those that are elected or some of them onely upon all and all but on some Qu. 2. Whether upon all of them that have been under a Spirit of Bondage the Spirit do perform all the aforesaid workes or no Answ To both I shall give this preliminary answer and then give a more particular to each by it selfe 1. The Spirit doth give all Gods Elect at one time or other a true reall and unquestionable title to the grace of adoption and all the priviledges belonging thereunto 1. In justification making application of the soul of every elect person to Christ and of Christ to the soul 2. In sanctification making them partakers of the Divine Nature by the application of cleansing promises 2 Pet. 1. 4. For else two links of the chain next election would be broken Rom. 8. 30. Whom he predestinated them he called and whom he called he justified And this is the first work before spoken of 2. The spirit doth work in all persons that are really converted whether in the method of a Spirit of Bondage or no at one time or other so much perswasion of the love of God as encourageth the soul to lay hold upon the promises of the Gospel and to lay claim to them and to adventure the soul upon them For this is the ground of that reliance by which the soul leans upon God and hangs upon Christ for salvation wherein the nature of justifying faith in my judgment doth consist But there is a difference between this and particular assuring faith For this is grounded only upon the free and unlimited offers of the Gospel which offers Christ and Salvation to all that receive him and come to him and the Gospells invitations to accept of it that is grounded upon particular evidence that we have already accepted of him and thereby he is become ours and we his from the effects of a true and saving reliance upon him And this general perswasion so far emboldens all Gods elect that upon the warrant of that they lay claim to God as their Father
its Natural inclination which tends another way but as we do with living Creatures when we use such means to stoop them to our designes as their natures require Thus we make advantage of the hunger of the Hawk to tempt him to the fist and of the fish to bring him to the hook and watch wild creatures that out of need of rest we may make them content to become tame and tractable And thus doth the Spirit deal with men Their intellectual natures are moved to higher objects but in the same way by making use of emptiness and appetite to work upon the moving powers of the soul and carry them out towards an object that will satisfie For certainly though I am assured that moral perswasion is not sufficient to convert without a supernatural infusion of perswasible faculties wherein I stand at professed defiance with the Papist and Arminian yet this supernatual work is not ordained to perfect the conversion of any sinner he continuing meerly passive all the while for then a man would be saved by meer force and faith as the condition applying the Covenant of Grace which implies knowledg and choice were utterly uselesse and so might innocently be denyed by the Antinomians The Spirit therefore infuseth new power into the faculties and then sets them on working after spiritual objects in an order sutable to their nature I dare say There is nothing more supernatural and yet nothing more Natural in the world then sound conversion It is supernatural in its power and principle it is most natural in its manner method and order God doth not destroy but renew our faculties in conversion and when renewed makes use of them without any violence in the most natural way And therefore though he renew the understanding to apprehend and the Will to choose and the Affections to pursue heavenly objects which of themselves they had no power at all to do yet he doth not invert their usual order of working upon each other And so by consequence that transforming light which from heaven swayes the last dictate of the practical understanding where the Work of Grace begins so renewing the mind effectually works upon the will enabled at the same instant to embrace it and that in like manner stirs the affections at the same moment made ductile and obedient to the Law of the mind So then the root of this tree of Life lies in the mighty power of God in changing and affecting the Judgment And that therefore must first be brought to passe a right sentence on its own condition and the condition to which it is called that so the will may not make a blind fortuitous choice when it accepts of Christ and salvation Now can you perswade a man that Physick is good for him except you first convince him that he is sick Can you perswade a man that feels Matth. 9. 22 no fetters to cry out for liberty a man that thinks he is in the best way to take anothers Can you possibly make a man apply himselfe to one only Physician to cure him and give him any thing that he will ask yea if he ask a mans whole estate when there are many that professe to be able to do the cure and profer their service at an easier rate except you can possesse him strongly that all these be Mountabanks and he must go to that one if ever he meanes to be cured The poor woman never sought to Christ for her Flux till she had found all other Physicians had emptied her purse of its coyne but could not her body of its distemper Luke 8 43. 2. It is the usual way of the Ministers of Jesus Christ in the Old and New Testament nay the way of Jesus Christ himselfe in their Labours and Endeavours for conversion of sinners Certainly the method of the Spirit in working conversion is not different from that which God will have his Ministers walk in and which Christ himself hath thought fit to tread in to that end Now this I hope to clear by abundance of instances The Ministry of Moses who was not only a Law giver but a Typical Mediator and so his Ministry was the Ministry of Christ was in this method first he layes downe the Moral Law for conviction and ratifies it with a curse as the proper ingredient into that cup of trembling which belongs to unconverted sinners and then supposing its work to be done preacheth Christ in the Ceremonial Law as the proper remedy for such a malady Downwards observe the method of the Prophets Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel all their Prophecies are by the Holy Spirit cast into this order How severely doth Isaiah for five or six of the first Chapters convince reprove threaten the rebellious people for their sins and those precious Evangelical comforts of which he of all the Prophets is most full are cast off to the latter part of his Prophesie Jeremiahs commission is first to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down obstinate and unconverted sinners and then to build and to plant chap. 1. 10. And as that people were an obstinate and stiff-necked people see how he handles them with reproofs convictions threatnings for above twenty Chapters together before he is commissioned to speak any considerable portion of comfort to them Ezekiels commission also is full of Lamentations and mourning and woe a bitter Roll chap. 2. 10. and 3. 1. c. and for thirty Chapters downeward we find little else but the contents of that Roll scarce a dust of sugar to sweeten the Pill Hosea is to pronounce the people Lo-ruhamah and Lo-ammi a people that have not obtained mercy that were none of Gods people ere he is to administer one dram of comfort and that which he doth chap. 2. it is conditioned with threatnings of severe afflictions and judgments for sin Joel and the rest are generally in the same strain I grant the order of the Prophecies doth not necessarily imply they were uttered in the same manner as they are written yet seeing the Spirit of God who directed the Pen-men as well as the Speakers thinks fit so to dispose them it seems likely he did it for some such use as we have observed But these may to some seem Legal Preachers let us therefore see how our Saviour and John the Baptist and the Apostles bestir themselves in their Ministry The first Doctrine that our Saviour preacheth is Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand Mark 1. 15. And in the fifth sixth and seventh of Matthew how severe an Interpreter of the Law how effectual a convincer of sin how rigorous a Pronouncer of Judgement and Condemnation upon sinners doth he shew himselfe And how many woes afterwards upon all occasions doth he denounce John the Baptist convinceth the Scribes and Pharisees of their viperous hearts and vaine confidences and threatens them with wrath to come layes the axe to the root of all their hopes scorcheth their
unto me he hath pulled me in pieces and set me as a mark for the arrow he hath caused the arrow of his quiver to enter into my reins he hath â—illed me with bitternâ—…s and made me drunken with wormwood he hath bâ—oken my teeth with gravel stones he hath covered me with ashes and this hath been of so long continuance upon mee that I have forgotten prosperity I can 17. scarce remember that ever I had a better day And therefore it is no wonder if I conclude that my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Oh saith the Church this was 18. my very case when I remembred my affliction 19. the wormwood and the gall I even said as thou dost But I withall considered that though my case were bad yet it might have been worse sure God hath shewn me some mercy in that I live It is of the mercies 〈◊〉 the Lord 22. c. Therefore have I hope and therefore I 23. c. to 32. conclude that though the Lord cause grief yet he will have compassion c. Read that Chapter ter all over I have given but a draught of it and therein see thy case and thy cure As to thy own experiences urge his preservation of thee and support thus long and plead for its continuance Obj. But how can I hope Hope proceeds from faith and I cannot believe for I am yet you tell me in a state of Nature till by these troubles God converts me Answ 'T is true of the grace of hope that it proceeds from faith in order of nature and is a fruit of conversion 1 Pet. 1. 3. and till conversion we cannot rejoyce in hope of the glory of God But there is another hope that is not always gracious though possibly sometimes grace may be seminally in it and may first appear by it as the first act of faith may appear in such an act of hope as this True I am a condemned creature but there are such and such free offers of Christ and promises of mercy to sinners indefinitely and why not to me yet I say this hope is not always gracious because it is common to presumptuous as well as repenting sinners and is the very ground on which they presume This hope I shall for distinctions sake call a moral or rational hope because it is gathered from the general promises of Scripture in a rational way as also because it is but a general probable hope that is accompanied only with opinion and not faith though it may ground faith as to its act of reliance upon Christ and the promise of mercy in him where the Spirit of God pleaseth to infuse faith in such a rational way as divers times he doth Whereas the hope that flows from faith is a spiritual and infused hope and is not so much the apprehending a possibility as expecting a certainty of fulfilling the promise to me in particular arising I mean in the acts of it not in the habit or seed of it for that is infused in the first vital act of reliance upon Christ which unites to Christ and so justifies arising I say from the particular evidence of my justification by faith and so from an act of assurance and is higher or lower like it Distinguish thus The one is a kind of negative hope the other a positive The one saith I am not excluded the other saith I am included It s language is Why not I Now 't is the former hope that rational moral hope I advise thee to keep alive in thy soul Let no power of corruption no strength of temptation no length or grievousnesse of thy soul troubles no false conclusions from Gods decree of reprobation c. drive thee out of a firm assent to this proposition that though thy case be sad yet it is not desperate God hath invited such as thou art hath offered Christ and grace freely to thee among others and therefore thou art by no positive declared act of Gods excluded more then any other It is a great support that a soul in this case gets by such an argument as this is For although grace do not always attend or accompany this hope yet the Spirit of God doth use it as it doth all other preparatory works to dispose the soul for grace Nay I know not but that if the soul follow this moral hope with a constant use of all means and ordinances and in them resolve to cast himselfe upon Christ to be saved by him in his own way and upon his own terms why this hope may not be the immediate ground if not the vehicle or chariot of the very first act of justifying faith Wherefore 3ly Let this hope produce waiting Think not that thou art presently cast off by God because he doth not presently as to thy sense answer thy desires There is a great deal of impatience usually in troubled spirits And there is reason why such souls should be subject to that failing For the wound of the spirit is an intolerable wound Prov. 18. 14. And nothing is more grievous to a man in intolerable pain and anguish then delays Hear me speedily saith David else shall I be like unto them that goe down into the pit Psalm 143. 7. and when God hides long he apprehends it will be for ever Psalm 13. 1. But we must labour against this corruption and endeavour to bring our souls to a contentednesse to wait for Gods salvation as long as he thinks fit to exercise and discipline us in that condition The Scripture abounds in exhortations promises and examples pressing home this duty upon us The place Lam. 3. 26. requires not only hope but waiting the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 siluit a quiet silent waiting free from clamorous complaints against God murmuring at his delays and desperate expressions of despondency of Spirit And we have a great encouragement hereunto if we consider 1. That this time of delay is Gods waiting time as well as ours Is 30. 18. The Lord therefore waits that he may be gracious and indeed he hath waited upon us many years before he could prevail with us to give him the hearing of any his gracious invitations and do we now think it much to wait on him till he hear us Besides 2. Saving grace is a thing worth the waiting for Thou hast heard often and prayed often thou saist and yet seest no fruit of it thou hast obtained neither grace nor peace conversion nor comfort remember what the Apostle saith Jam. 5. 7. though with relation to another fruit i. e. the fruit of external sufferings yet the force of his argument is no lesse herein also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lengthen out the patience into long suffering Behold your husbandman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lengthens out his hope though the seed come not up after the first rain yet he expects another shower it is not ripe as soon as it growes up it may bee a
of Gods love 't is certaine the Holy spirit is not the Author of this because the promise of peace belongs to none of this stamp Matth. 11. 28. Isa 57. 15 16. Matth. 5. 3 4. 8. c. Undoubtedly this assurance is from the spirit of errour a false light to lead into a bogg 2. That ordinarily hee thus testifies either in or after waiting upon God in some duty or other as in praying meditation hearing receiving the Sacraments By which testimony God seals to the dutifull attendance upon him in such waies Isa 57. 19. and 56. 7. Or 3. In such great and grievous temptations and darknesse of spirit wherein a man by the cunning of Satan hath so intangled all those evidences of grace and sanctification which hee might draw assurance from with sophistical evasions that they will not fasten any thing of comfort upon him Then when a man cannot untie those knots by which Satan hath entangled his spirit somtimes the spirit of God by such a sudden irradiation puts a soule upon an inartificial and illogicall way of solution enabling him to hold to his claime of Christ by a kind of resolute confidence though hee bee not able to prove it sound at present or answer Satans sophistry to the contrary as Alexander when hee could not untie the Gordian knot hewed it asunder with his sword And as that holy Martyr that answered all the Romish Doctours Sophistry by a fixed resolution of dying for Christ though shee could not dispute for him Now wee must take notice withall 4. That such testimonies of the Spirit do beget but an actual assurance during the present exigency or in order to some present designe that God is working thereby These are extraordinary dainties that God will not have us feed constantly upon A gleam Rutherf ubi suprà of light as one calls it in a dark night when a man cannot coast the Country and diseern his way by those marks which direct him at other times perhaps lightning from a thunder-cloud that comes just in the moment when a man is stepping into a pit that would swallow him up or to discover a cottage which he may turne into till the storme bee over c. Now a Traveller wil not depend alwaies upon such a guide but if hee can will learne out such way-marks for his constant direction as may bee standing assurances to him that hee is in the way and rather choose to travel by day when hee may see them distinctly Thus though Gods Spirit divers times takes this course to shine peace into our hearts upon unusual occasions immediately viz after extraordinary seeking God in duty under the immediate violence of some desperate temptation in which cases God hath sometimes condescended even to a kind of miracle as when he preserved the glasse from breaking which the troubled and almost despairing Gentlewoman threw against the ground making its breaking to pieces and her owne Mrs. Honymood damnation a like certaine or at the houre of death especially Martyrdome yet to take these for ordinary presidents and look for them constantly without endeavouring by standing evidences to make out an habitual assurance to our soules of our calling and election is a bold and presumptuous tempting of God And therefore 5 It is a fearful error of the Antinomians which teacheth us to reject the graces of sanctification from being grounds of our assurance whiles they tell us that they are all deceiving evidences because that were to light a candle to the sun they mean to the immediate testimony of the Spirit For certainly the testimony of the Spirit cannot bee without the indwelling of the Spirit and is accompanied alwaies with the leading of the Spirit See the connexion of these two in vers 14. 15 of this chapter compared Rom. 8. 14 15 compared And wee know that hee dwelleth in us and we in him because wee have received of his Spirit 1 John 4. 13. And John 14. 16 17 Christ promiseth them the Comforter but how shall wee know him might they say seeing the world as you tel us knows him not He shal saith our Savior dwel in you The in-dwelling therfore of the Spirit is an evidence of the truth and reality of the assurance that we have from the Spirit Hence are all those marks and signes that the Scripture every where holds out called fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. so that though the Spirit testifie immediately yet it submits the trial of his own testimony to his works Nor is this any dishonour to the Spirit to be tryed by his works seeing our Saviour Christ was content to submit the trial of his Godhead to the evidences of his works John 14. 11. But more of this in the second way of the Spirits testimonie which is II. Mediately and that is twofold 1 Without Argumentation 2 With Argumentation but both from the Word 1 Without Argumentation The Spirit sometimes applies the word to the soule and enables the soule to close with it for comfort in some particular promise of Scripture wherein God speaks so patt to its case that it takes that word as a message from heaven and rests in it upon the very first apprehension of it And such is the peace that a soul gets from those promises that either expresse not any condition or else such a condition as the soul presently apprehends it self under as suppose thou art burthened for some sin hast prayed earnestly for pardon against it suppose it a sin of backsliding and whiles thou art praying for pardon or waiting upon God in his word a secret whisper of the Spirit casts into thy heart Hos 4 14. I will heale thy backslidings and love thee freely or suppose that Matth. 11. 28. Come to mee all yee that are heavy laden and I wil give you rest c. This is a direct testimony and must be understood under the former limitations of immediate evidence 2. With Argumentation when he testifies the truth of thy sonship by grace when he applies conditional promises and upon search enables thee to apply the conditions of them This is the usuall way for getting habitual assurance a reflected testimony from our owne graces which are the love-tokens of Christ to us and discover that love even when as to present influence hee is absent from us And thus doth the Spirit properly witnesse with our spirits as followes in the next verse In the other two hee witnesseth Rom. 8. 16. to our spirits in this properly with our spirits And there is as much difference between these as between the assurance that Jacob had of his Son Joseps life from the Word of his sonnes and from the Chariots that hee had sent for him Gen. 45. 26 27 28 when they only told him so hee was indeed overjoyed but was also even in a fainting condition through the strugling of fear with joy as the disciples at Christs resurrection Luk. 24. 41. But when he saw the wagons
with such a faith as he believes the Bible to be true in every part of it and this appears in those that are under a Spirit of Bondage Produce such and such promiâ—es to them they will say true these promises are excellent promises and will no question yeild abundance of marrow to them to whom they belong but they can see nothing in them that belongs to them Here is a full well but they have nothing to draw or it is a well inclosed it is not free for them 2 Particular When the Spirit helps the soul to single out such a word and opens a door of hope to the soul that it hath a share in it and this is that that makes way for and is compleated in the Minor of the former Syllogisme which I call 2 Conviction of Case Thus the Spirit enlightens the conscience to apply the Promise to its self by owning the condition of it The Word saith Such and such persons are children of God the renewed conscience enlightned by the Spirit saith This is my case I am such a person Now here the Spirit either enlightens a man to see himself under that condition by working a present assent to the truth of this Minor Proposition As suppose an Argument from the Promise He that believeth hath everlasting life but I believe Ergo. The assent to this Minor Proposition I believe may be wrought by a sudden work of the Spirit as soon as the major Proposition whereon it is grounded is apprehended and so it is a work somewhat neer of kin unto that of the first branch of Mediate Testimony wherein the testimony was supposed to be by the word yet without Argumentation Or else as usually by eliciting and drawing forth the soul to such an assent by a farther evidence of Argument For it is very seldom seen but that such souls as have been exercised with a Spirit of Bondage are not easily brought to own any good in themselves so that even the Spirit of God hath much ado to answer all the cavils of Satan and their own suspicious hearts in point of gracious self-Justification which such souls are much afraid of and not more difficultly brought to any thing then to own this Proposition But I believe or the like Now in such a case the Spirits work is longer and he is fain to bring many more Arguments to confirm this Minor True saith the soul he that believes hath everlasting life but I am none of those Believers and therefore quid ad me What doth this Promise concern such an unbelieving wretch as I am Then the Spirit satisfies the soul in the Minor by producing such proofs of Scripture as evidence faith in the Subject in whom it is such as purifying the heart love to God his wayes his Actâ— 15. 9 Gal. 5. 6 Zech. 12. 10 people grief for sin c. And possibly goes farther and proves those graces to be in the soul by farther Marks drawn from the acts of them which discover the habit whence they proceed This is a work of conviction I told you before and may be done by many Arguments or few according to the light that accompanyes them to the soul Nor is there any reason why Dr. Crisp and his followers should cry down this way of getting assurance by Marks and Signs as uncertain seeing the doubting soul will find something that seemes faulty in every grace which is presented to it as an evidence Object If the Spirit say say they Thou art a Believer because thou hast love that is a fruit of faith the soul may stil doubt Whether it have love if love be manifested by delight in Gods Commandments c. the question will still be Whether that delight be sincere or counterfeit pure or mixed ingenuous or self-ended and therefore say they there can no judgment be made certainly concerning a mans Justification by his sanctification or concerning sanctification by the operations of particular graces Ans To this we answer True these graces whiles I barely endeavour to discover them by my own reason may be still subject to question and so can make no firme assurance But in the soul that is graciously assured this way the Spirit of God rests the heart upon an ultimum quod sic convinceth him by that which is most visible in him and stops the mouth of cavilling reason from perplexing the Question any more As a wise Moderator in a Dispute that when the Argument hath been spun out so long by a wrangling companion that there can be no more said but in away of groundlesse cavilling and angry reflections c. breaks off the Dispute checks the wrangling Antagonist and determines the Controversie by his own sentence upon the whole matter So when a man 's own cavilling heart and Satan helping it have picked out all the flawes possibly in his evidence for heaven and have left no stone unturned to invalidate it and withal the Spirit hath enabled a man to plead to all exceptions of moment and yet these wrangling companions will not be satisfied at last the Spirit makes a man to see that there is nothing can be said that hath not been answered but only such wranglings as deserve no answer but scorn and so determines and enables the soul to determine the great Question by inferring the conclusion with undenyable evidence I know not why this way the Spirit of God assuring should not be lesse subject to question then immediate assurance Seeing in a time of darknesse that is as questionable and will require as long a debate to satisfie the soul whether indeed it were the voice of the Spirit or a mans owne heart and Satan colluding with it to deceive a man Let any man shew mee that 't is easier for a man to be certainly convinced that the Spirits immediate testimony is true and proceeding from the Spirit then that such and such fruits of grace the matter of its mediate testimony are not counterfeit and I have done pressing this Argument any more 3 The third thing the Spirit doth is to infer the conclusion of the grand Syllogisme in a conviction of a gracious and happy estate thus therefore Thou art a child of God an heir of glory justified sanctified c. For all these termes and many more are of equal import to the case in hand the concluding any thing in a man that necessarily accompanies salvation concludes the certainty of salvation to that person and seals up assurance In the former two acts the Spirit is the candle of the Lord without a man in pointing out the word and within a man in the application of his case to the Word and in this he acts the part of a just determiner of the controversie upon this evidence a Judg in the conscience quitting and justifying the Prisoner and this is his sentence of Absolution and therefore when it is pronounced by his Ministers as most commonly it is 't is called loosing the
satisfied There is as much difference between these two acts of the Spirit as there is between such a plea as diverts a judgment against a man at present and that wherein by an evident deed or writing it is certainly determined on his side And so we may distinguish Comfort and Assurance and Comfort and Peace For though Comfort alwayes follow Assurance so that there can be no assurance but it must comfort yet where ever there is comfort it followes not there must be Assurance For there may be comfort in a lesse evil compared with a greater and a poor soul may take comfort in this that although he be not sure he is included in the Promise yet he is not excluded but Assurance presupposeth an actual perswasion that a man hath a share in the Promise A man may be comforted with this that although it is bad with him now yet it may be better but Assurance supposeth a sense of his good condition at present Now to apply this distinction to the answer of the Question propounded I am not satisfied that any man can draw Assurance as it is thus distinguished from support and comfort from an Absolute Promise because an Absolute Promise is no legal plea for me in particular as to my present Title to God though it be for my future hopes of such a Title And my ground is this That which all are called upon to believe and which is offered to all alike cannot be a grounded plea to put a distinction between me and others but particular Assurance puts a special Mark of distinction between me and others and absolute Promises are offered to all alike and therefore Assurance cannot flow from an Absolute Promise Nay let me add it is the constant guise of Presumption to plead Absolute Promises in point of Evidence as the Promise of giving Christ to dye for sinners and therefore they are confident he is theirs as well as others All that Gods Saints draw from hence is a comfortable ground of applying themselves to Christ with constancy and perseverance because the Spirit testifies to them that they are capable of the mercy that is held forth in such Promises if they so adhere to them and leave not to urge God with them And the case is the same with general offers Gods general Offers and absolute Promises are of the same nature in this case Both may support comfort a man for the present but are no evidences for the future As a Prince proclaimeth an Act of Grace an Act of Pardon and Oblivion to Traitors and invites in general terms all persons to come and receive it upon such and such conditions among the rest one that apprehends himself more guilty then all others doubts whether it shall reach to him or no he comes into such a Market and hears the Proclamation to all Traitors c. whatsoever hereby is the man so far quieted and supported with this newes Now saith he I hear I am not excluded I am not unpardonable But now if this man go no farther but a while after come to tryal of Law for his Treasons and he thinks to plead the general Proclamation and the mercy of the Prince extending it selfe to all Malefactors will this serve for a Legal evidence to a Jury that he is a pardoned man Will it not be asked Sir What Evidence have you that you laid down your Arms and accepted this pardon Here now is required another kind of testimony So here God proclaims mercy in Christ to the greatest sinners and this he declares to proceed from his vast and unspeakable love and therupon invites all sinners to come and accept of it for he is a God merciful and gracious abounding in mercy and truth and Exod. 34. 6. will abundantly pardon returning sinners Now a poor soul doubts whether he be included in this offer Doubt it not saith the Spirit in a Sermon or other Ordinance be of good cheer man the pardon offered concerns all Now if a man rest here and believe hereupon that he is pardoned because in Gods absolute and unconditioned invitation he is not excluded when conscience is awake it will say But might not Judas and Cain c. plead as much as that How can you make it appear that you have accepted that pardon by Faith Here need Marks and conditional Promises I may plead absolute Promises and general offers to God in Prayer but I cannot plead them before God in Court God saith I will give you a new heart I will powre out the spirit of grace and supplication and so in Zech 12. 10 general offers Let whoever will come and drink of the water of life freely I may go to Apoc. 12. 17 God on these Promises and Offers and say Lord give me a new heart Lord give me Christ But if I stand before the Court of Conscience and plead these in way of Evidence That I have a new heart that I have Christ I must not prove it by Gods promising these blessings in general to me with all others but by the Evidences of my acceptance of these Offers and Gods fulfilling of these Promises I must be able to say here Lord thou hast made such offers and my heart hath accepted them Thou hast tendred Christ unto me and I have taken him upon thine own terms Thou hast promised a new heart and I blesse thy name I find my heart renewed Are not these the badges and proper cognizances of thy children and servants May I not conclude a saving interest in thee who have received such saving mercies and bounties from thee Thus have I showen you that although general offers and absolute Promises may support and in a sort comfort yet conditional promises alone properly assure CHAP. IX The maine Proposition applyed A Case concerning Election and that the misapprehension thereof hinders its Evidence NOW comes to hand the application of this point And in the first place this may reconcile the thoughts of many precious ones under bondage to a good opinion of their present condition in that it is not only the Spirits usual method where hee becomes a Spirit of Adoption to become first a spirit of of Bondage as in the former Thesis was declared but that when he hath been such a spirit of bondage hee usually becomes a Spirit of Adoption witnessing our Adoption It is a great encouragement to a sick man though hee be grievously pained at present that his disease is such out of which most recover that though sometimes it be yet seldome it is mortal Object Yea but you tell us the persons to whom it is not mortal and to whom it usually ends in ravishing comforts are the elect of God But I doubt I am none of them and therfore I may and shall die of this disease for any thing you have said and never see the face of God in comfort here or hereafter Answ 1. Observe the policy of Satan in dealing with thy soule Now
of Christ in his name shall declare that as far as the Word gives him ground to judge of thy case he fully perswades himselfe that thou art a child of God The Lord hath promised to confirme the Word of his Servants and perform the counsel of his Messengers Isai 44. 26. And it is not for nothing that he hath promised to loose in heaven what they loose on earth Mat. 16. 19. 'T is true they may err in the Application and God is not bound to justifie them in their mistakes But yet it is as true that seldom doth a godly knowing Minister and such an one only is fit to bee consulted in such cases so grosly mistake the case of his Soul-Patient as to mis-apply comforts but upon such grounds as wil hold water according to the Word and he cannot be so much an enemy to thy soul and his own as to go about wilfully to deceive thee So may it be said of the judgment of serious and experienced Christians that although they cannot absolve the troubled soul Authoritatively as Ministers can and charge you to rest in their word in the name of Christ yet they may passe a private sentence upon your condition from the Word and their own experience and you are bound not to reject it rashly and inconsâ—derately but to allow it some weight in your serious thoughts The least that you can allow to the testimony of such persons of both sorts concerning your estate is 1. A charitable Interpretation of it and the grounds upon which they give it so far as to think thus of it Why may not I in darkness and confusion of spirit be rather deceived in my judgment of my self then such persons who as they are free from my distempers and entirely love my soul so have more intimate acquaintance with God and the light of their own experience to keep them from mistaking 2 Hearty prayer to God that he will make good the words of his servants and open your heart to receive them 3 A suspension of any severer determination or sentence concerning your self seeing you find so many supposed abler then your self to be of another judgment 4 A striving and labouring with your own hearts by meditation upon the grounds upon which they pass their judgment of you to encline them to receive it 5. To follow their advice and counsel grounded thereupon as far as possibly you can and to blame your selves before God when you do not do so Isai 50. 10. Who is there among you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darkness c. CHAP. XIV The first Direction to the attaining of a Spirit of Adoption in its witnessing Act. And first concerning exercising frequent Acts of Relyance As also a Case concerning the exercise of Reliance in want of Assurance How it can be Faith in four noble Acts described AFter the removal of Hindrances follow these Directions I. Exercise frequent Acts of Relyance upon the free grace of God in Christ and the Promises in which it is held forth unto thee together with the offers and invitations of the Gospel backing them Quest But how can I rely upon that grace which I am not assured belongs unto me If I rely upon a friend in a matter of moment concerning whom I have no certain evidence that he ever intended mee any good I may deceive my self and thereby undo my selfe while I leane to a broken reed Answ 1. The being assured that God is mine in particular is not the only ground of my relyance upon him 'T is true there be acts of relyance that follow Assurance when a man relies upon God as a knowne friend But yet there are acts of Reliance that precede Assurance as when I rely upon God as one that hath offered to be a friend to all that will duly make use of him Such a friend I am not assured is my friend in particular before I go to him but I go to him take hold of his offer claim his Promise and resolve to adventure my selfe thereupon and thus at last I get a good word from him that gives me a particular assurance that it shall be with me according to my faith Mat. 9. 29. That you may understand this the more clearly know there be these four acts in faith and they are like so many staires one above the other the one being the ground of the other I deny not but they may all be brought together in time But in nature I apprehend from the Word they are produced in this order Those are 1 Acceptance The Gospel reveals life and salvation to poor undone sinners through Christ who abandoning and renouncing their own sins and righteousness are contented to receive it from him in his own way The answer of the heart to this Truth is It is a saying worthy of all acceptation 1 Tim. 1. 15. And accordingly I accept of these termes and resolve in Gods strength I will not seek salvation in any other name Lord Christ accept of me I surrender my self into thy hands I beseech thee discharge all thy Offices on and for me This is called receiving John 1. 12. It is sometimes expressed by a term of motion coming to Christ John 6. 37. yea flying for refuge to him Heb. 6. 18. Both which imply renunciation of other security and accepting his alone 2 Claim The next thing apprehended in the Gospel is the general offer of these termes and salvation by them unto all that come unto Christ and Gods earnest invitation to accept of it The first is the discovery of the way of life and that the soul likes and accepts and comes This is the discovery of the persons to whom this way is passable and those are all that exclude not themselves Ho every one that thirsteth come Isai 55. 1. Apoc. 22. 17. Let whoever will come The Answer of the heart here is Lord I come Lord I put in for a share in this Offer This is called Laying hold upon the hope that is set before us Heb. 6. 18. 3 Relyance or dependance This is a gracious Offer indeed saith the soul and I have put in for a share in it but may I depend upon it Yes saith the Gospel and there comes in the Promise seconding the Offer and Invitation thou maist adventure thy soul on it for God hath said that who ever comes to Christ he will in no wise cast out John 6. 37. That he that thirsting comes shall eat that which is good c. Isai 55. 1 2 3 Matth. 11. 28. The answer of the heart here is Sink or swim I will adventure my soul upon this Promise I will carry it to hell with me in my dying gripe if I must perish Though he kill me yet will I trust in him as Job saith under affliction Job 10. 13. This act is usually expressed by trusting in God Ephes 1 12 13. Trusting and staying a mans self on God Isai 50.
to me in my infancy and therefore I want the lively and sensible application of the element to me which might possibly if it were now to be done prove effectual to give me this assurance What use can I make of such a past Sacrament Were it not beter to re-new it Answ Thou mayst make the same use of it as the Jews did of circumcision although many years after The Jews children no more saw their own circumcision understandingly then thou didst thy Baptisme Object Yea but the mark of Circumcision saythe Anabaptists was visible afterwards and so though they were circumcised in infancy yet they might know that they were so otherwise then by bare relation But I know that I am baptized merely by the relation of friends or the Register Answ The Jewes when men might see that their foreskin had been cut off but that it was done in a sacramental way they knew onely by relation as we have our Baptisme For how did a Jew know that he was borne of Jewish Parents and not of Ishmaels posterity or Esaus among whom circumcision continued when the Covenant was removed from them but by tradition But I will rell thee how thou shalt improve even thy Infant Baptisme Whenever then thou seest that sacrament administred upon others reflect upon thy self and draw an Argument of Assurance from it thus Loe here my soul the bloud of Christ in the element of water not only powred out but applyed to yonder little one And hath not God done as much for me And hath he thus sealed to me the promise of pardon and shall I not believe it Have not I performed by his grace my 1 Pet. 3. 21. Anima non lavatione sed responsione sancitur Tert. l. de resurrectione carnis part of the Covenant in the answer of a good conscience seriously desiring and resolving to take him for my God and do my duty to him to the utmost in the strength of Christ And shall I doubt his performance on his part Did not God shew his willingness to receive mee into his favour and pardon my sins when he was so gracious as to seal his Covenant to me in my very infancy Sure that was a great mercy to me that God afforded me that seal then whereas if I had lived unbaptised to these years possibly my scrupulous spirit would have kept me from it altogether as being unfit to receive it as now it See more of this in another Treatise of the same Authour concerning the practical use of Infant Baptism lately published doth from the other Sacrament Now seeing the Lord hath prevented me with this mercy and claimed me before I could claim him let me not think he will not hold his claim to me now I do claim and lay hold upon him and let me not doubt but if I follow after him I shall in time apprehend that for which I am apprehended in this visible way of claim by Christ 2. The Lords Supper This is an Ordinance in which rightly received Assurance comes on horse-back to the soul if I may so speak so many speaking actions and so many speciall applications in the name of Christ by a Minister standing in the stead and representing the person of Christ may probably be the means to conveigh this blessed message to thy soul from Jesus Christ Sonne or Daughter be of good cheer thy sinnes are forgiven thee CHAP. XVII Containing some practicall cases concerning the Lords Supper with relation hereunto BUt here ariseth an objection Object I am not a fit receiver without this Testimony of the Spirit which you speak of and therefore 't is improper to bid me seek that testimony this way whereas I cannot apply my selfe to this way till I have it in actual assurance Answ Hereto I answer Negatively That proposition which is the ground of thy mistake is but mistaken for truth to wit That none is a fit receiver of the Sacrament of the Lords Body and Bloud but one that is certified by the Testimony of the Spirit that he is a Child of God This is that that puzzles and embroyls many a poor soul that he knowes not which way to take between sinning against Gods invitation in refusing to come and against the institution in coming unworthily But I hope to speak a word satisfactorily in this case That this is a mistaken principle I prove by this Argument The actual assurance mentioned is not required under any of those things wherein we are to examine our selves before we come therefore 't is not necessary to make a fit receiver The graces to bee examined among the Protestant Divines are usually these four Knowledge Faith Charity and Repentance Under Knowledge Charity and Repentance I believe no man comprehends the certainty of his interest in Christ they being graces in their natures quite different from it though possibly in some higher actings of them it be supposed I dare not think there can be none of these without Assurance All the doubt is concerning Faith whether the Faith required to the receiving the Lords Supper be not Faith of perswasion that I am a Child of God from the Testimony of the Spirit I conceive the Faith required to my coming to the Lords Supper is no more but the having accepted the terms of Salvation revealed through Christ my having claimed my share in the free offer thereof in the Gospel and my reliance and dependance upon Gods faithfulnesse in the making that claim good unto me And if I can find these acts have seriously to my utmost knowledg and search been performed by me I need examine no further whether I have sufficient Faith to fit me for the Sacrament And my grounds are 1. Because by these acts there is a real application of the soul to Jesus Christ for justification which the Scripture expresseth by coming to Christ believing and trusting in him as was before shewn and of Christ to the soul which is expressed by receiving him and Psalm 2. 12 John 1. 12 in these acts the nature of faith as it applies Christ for justification is sufficiently expressed Now those that come to Christ cannot be supposed to have the witnesse of the Spirit in their heart that they are Christs For rest or peace of Conscience which is the immediate fruit of that assuring Testimony of the Spirit is promised as the consequent of coming to Christ Mat. 11. 28. and becoming the children of God which is lesse then knowing we are so is set down as the consequent of receiving Christ Joh. 1. 20 And therefore by the way to receive Christ is not to know that I am a child of God but to apply my self to him that I may be so And as for trusting or believing in Christ that it is truly done without actual assurance is clear because trusting in Christ the object of the Gospel is spoken of by way of distinction from this sealing or assuring act of the Spirit as that which goes before
it Ephes 1. 13. In whom after ye heard ye trusted and after ye believed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aor 1. Postquā credidisseti◠not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dum credidistis or trusted ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise and received its earnest See also 1 Joh. 5. 13. Now coming to Christ receiving Christ applying Christ for Justification is sufficient qualification to enable a man to receive the Sacrament with profit Because where spiritual life is there is a right to all such food as may strengthen it 2. The Sacrament is a Seal of the Covenant in all its promises Now Promises become mine by claim and relyance If then I have right only to one Promise nay if I can but lay claim to one I may come to the Sacrament to have that sealed to me Suppose this I find my heart made weary of sin and account it the greatest burthen in the world I apply my self to Christ to ease me of it hereupon I lay claim to the Promise thus Lord Jesus thou hast done thus for me blessed be thy name whereas I accounted sin a pleasure once now I account it a burthen make good thy Promise to me ease me I claim this on the credit of thy Promise Mat. 11. 28. If hereupon I come to the Sacrament desiring God to seal to this Promise which I lay hold upon I cannot be said to come unworthily though I have no witnesse in my heart from the Spirit that I belong to Christ I told you before that it is the claiming of Christ and standing to that claim and being resolved to adventure my soul upon it that entitles me to him and that that entitles me to Christ gives me a right to the Sacrament as I said but now upon the former head Object But let this faith be what it will I must know that I have it ere I come else it is in vain to require Examination before I come And if so then 't is all one for substance to be assured that I am in Christ and to be assured that I believe in him because believing in him necessarily implies being in him Answ Sacramental Examination doth not presuppose a necessity of a certain or assured knowledg that I have the graces which I examine my self for But only a finding those acts in my self which ordinarily those graces appear in my heart dealing plainly and faithfully with it self in the search and my earnest desire and endeavour that they may be true though at present I see not that they are true supposing that I see nothing of weight according to the rule of the Word to judg them false Nay if I should see cause to condemne those former acts which I took for gracious as false and unsound yet upon that conviction if I seriously labour to set them right now I ought not to keep from the Sacrament for that but to draw nigh and from thence to expect strength to prosper my endeavours and give me evidence in Gods time of the reality of them If this were not true then every Christian under desertion and doubting must be excluded from the Sacrament And surely if so the fittest persons that can be will be debarred there being none more fit for a strengthning Ordinance then such souls To exemplifie the present case A man examines his faith repentance c. he finds some such acts as look like the acts of those graces yet he doubts whether they were true or no he therefore examines faith by the rule of the Word purifying the heart working by love over-coming the world Repentance by hatred of sin of all sin sincere endeavors of future obedience some such things as these he sees no sufficient ground to conclude he hath not and yet he thinks he may deceive himself in thinking that he hath them Here is his case What shall this man do Shall he come to the Supper or no I answer Yes For I am fit for the Sacrament when my heart doth not upon good grounds condemn me Unwarrantable Scruples do not unfit me it is not required that my heart do alwayes clearly absolve me See what John faith in this case 1 Joh. 3. 20. If our hearts condemne us not he doth not say if they actually absolve us many needlesse Scruples may hinder that but if they condemn us not it must be meant of the conscience enlightned by the Word An ignorant wordlesse conscience its absolution or condemnation is nothing in this case but an enlightned conscience then have we confidence i. e. ground of confidence towards God And by consequence ground of approach to those Seals in which this confidence is bestowed and encreased 2 It is not necessary to a worthy participation of the Lords Supper that I be able satisfactorily to evidence to my owne heart the truth of every grace required thereunto One grace sometimes may be more conspicuous then another And it is sufficient it I can see any thing in my self of the new creature though I know not how to improve it by Argument to prove such or such a grace thereby For example sometimes repentance may be more conspicuous to a man then faith sometimes love more visible then both sometimes a man may be able to see neither of them all distinctly yet he sees something which he cannot but acknowledg is a fruit of a mighty and supernatural change and this change he finds he cannot rest till it be increased and improved to greater perfection If he can see nothing else yet he finds earnest and hearty desires after Christ not only as a fountaine of pardoning but also of purging grace These desires as far as he can judg are not counterfeit though many times weak Now in such a case as this the soul must consider that Christ hath promised not to break the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax Though a mans grace be very infirm if it be not a staff but a reed and a reed too not firm but bruised and though the kindlings of grace be but in smoaking flax a Metaphor taken from those that kindle a fire that put some pilled stalks of flax or straw or some such combustible thing under the wood to make it burn which if it be moist will not flame out by and by but smoak a while and then kindle though grace be but yet an embryo as fire in smoaking flax which a man can scarce tel whether it wil burn or no yet God will not quench that is he will make much of it as a servant doth of a little spark of fire in a wisp of straw and gently blow it up till it flame Isai 42. 3. He is to consider moreover that he ought to conclude from these smal measures as far as he is groundedly perswaded that they are true that though he cannot see faith repentance love yet where these desires are they are good signes of a gracious change though yet but in the beginning and a gracious change
benefits to be laid hold on by me being the ground of faith the frequent repetition of that representation especially by such visible signes must needs feed it And suppose it feed meerly a faith of Applicatory reliance and adherence yet as you have been also before taught Acts of Reliance frequently exercised will grow into Acts of Assurance 4 Conference with the people of God especially those who have maintain a constant communion and familiar acquaintance with God such as walk in the light of his countenance and the joy of the holy Ghost all the day long A man that will keep a good constitution of body will sometimes converse and discourse with an aged healthy father know of him how he hath ordered himself to live to that age and maintained a constant good temper of body so long And it would be much for our advantage to converse with such persons as are most commonly in the Sunshine to learn from them how they maintain such a constant light upon their spirits whereas others have it but as a flash of lightning and it vanisheth away again how it comes to passe that God that is to others but like a sojourner or a Traveller that tarryeth but for a night becomes their constant Inmate Besides such persons mouthes are usually full of the high praises of God they speak of Psal 149. 6 the righteousnesse of God and make their boasts of God all the day long They will tell Psal 44. 8 and 71. 24 you what God hath done for their souls Psal 66 16. and glad they will be that you will give them the hearing with any delight Now it must needs feed the same gracious assurance in you to find others record the same great things of God working for and towards them which you find in your selfe As it increaseth confirmeth a mans knowledg to talk with knowing men concerning their experiences in that way of learning in which he himself is a Practitioner A melancholy man is affected more deeply with the sad stories of a melancholy companion and no question but there is a like sympathy in the affections of joy and confidence c. So it is in way of Duty As iron sharpneth iron so doth the countenance of a man his friend saith Solomon And no question God will blesse that means which he himselfe hath bestowed upon others that they may administer upon occasion 2 Cor. 1. 5. 2. Strengthning Exercises Exercise of Acts of assurance strengthens the Habits Renew the Acts of that faith of evidence which thou hast every morning and evening or oftner if it may be frequently every hour as God gives occasion Get renewed experiences of the love of God often by trusting him often in particular cases David often doth so for the conquering of such or such a corruption for the resisting such or such a particular temptation c. Adventure your selves now and then upon the credit of particular Promises which are so many Specimina so many exemplifications of our interest in God Answers of Prayers in particular cases are a great strengthening to Assurance Saving gifts and sanctifying gifts are in themselves evidences of Gods love much more when particularly asked Yet take need of tempting God Which I do 1 When I oblige him absolutely where he is bound but conditionally As in temporals and in spirituals not absolutely necessary in themselves or not so necessary as some other thing may be which possibly we ask not 2 When I put too much weight upon my desires as resolving to make experiments of Gods love by them and to conclude in case of suspension or denyal that it is an answer from God that he loves me not God will not have them made trials of his love A Father will not allow a child to say Father if you love me give me this or that But when a child submissively begs and receives them he will allow him to say Now I know my Father loves me by his giving such and such things 3 When I tye God up to circumstances of time manner measure Let me ask the things believingly according to the rule of the Word as far as they are good for me i. e. may not hinder some better designe of God or a greater good to me and if I receive take comfort in my Answers from God as those that are so many pregnant examples of his care for me 3 Strengthning Providences Providence alone is no evidence that God loves me but when he doth love a man before and a man knowes it by more certain rules this is a good confirmation to our faith Psalm 41. 11. such a one David calls a token for good Psal 86. 17. Some passages of providence have a stamp of some immediate interposition of divine grace and power for a mans good CHAP. XXVIII The discovery of several moths that eat out a Christians Evidences 3 TAke heed of several things that tend to the weakning of Assurance that promote Satans malignant design against it 1 Of spiritual pride This is a sin which is fed by the highest attainments of a Christian in this life It is thought it got into heaven in the falling Angels 'T is a hard matter for a poor contemptible worm to be taken up into the bosom and familiar acquaintance with God and not to be proud of it The proudest persons in earthly Courts are those who from a mean estate are raised up to be Favourites The stronger the liquor is that a man drinks the sooner it will flye up into his brain and intoxicate him Temporal distinctions between Saints and others find matter enough in our corrupt natures to blow up our hearts with high conceits And certainly then that which makes great difference if it find an heart apt to kindle will make the fire of pride and self-conceit flame much more But this is a dangerous sin in such a case 'T is the ready way to procure an abatement at least if not a total with-drawing of the fewel that kindles it This is a continual smoak in Gods nose a thing that wil make him turn away his face Isai 65. 5. See a remarkable example in this case 2 Cor. 12. 7. The Apostle Paul had been taken up by a special rapture into the third Heaven and had abundance of high revelations and likely enough hee was apt to be lifted up with them in his own spirit But lest it should be so God graciously prevents the kindling of spiritual pride by a Messenger of Satan which was sent on purpose to buffet him to prevent it and he was in such a case that he was faine to pray hard and often I petitioned the Lord thrice and yet he could not prevail for the removal of it If God give such harsh potions for the meer prevention of this Disease how bitter think we will he give for the healing of it Sad temptations sad falls and sad desertions ordinarily attend spiritual pride 1 This occasioneth the
To drink of the cup of which he drank and to be baptized with the Baptism wherewith he was baptized Mat. 20. 22 23. Besides some of the causes of Christs sufferings are the same with those of his members although in all there be not a parity For our Saviour Christ was under the Discipline of the rod and a learner by it God opened his ear with a rod as he doth the Saints Isai 50. 5. He was made perfect by sufferings Christs graces had an additional perfection of degrees Luke 2. 52. and in them he grew as other Saints under the Ordinances and among other Ordinances under the rod Heb. 2. 10. 17 18. He learned obedience by the things which he suffered 2 As for Temptations consider 1. The Policy of Satan who first disturbs thy peace by unlawful and vexatious clamours and then perswades thee thou hast no right to it because he hath unjustly rendered it litigious which is as if a vexatious Lawyer should call my Free-hold in question unjustly and then endeavour to perswade me to quit my Title to him because he hath made it disputable 2 Is it reasonable for me to conclude that God is not my friend because the Divel is my enemy Or rather is not the Argument more true on the contrary side because God is my friend therefore Satan will be my enemy What is Temptation but a malicious persecution of the soul by Satan tending either to foil or defile the soul and in both to work its discomfort And shall Satans malice be a ground sufficient for me to dispute Gods love upon If Satan could by temptations render such a dispute rational what child of God should ever sit quiet in the possession of Gods favour or countenance whom he hath either malice or power enough to tempt 3 Is not Christs example in this case of sufficient weight to carry this conclusion in it that no child of God is free from the worst of temptations in this life seeing our Savior himself had the most monstrous black â—uggestions that hell could yeild presented to him such as Idolatry the worst of Idolatryes worshipping the Divel himself Infidelity and distrust of Gods providence and the use of unlawful means for necessary supplies and lastly self-murder though not in the fore-head yet in the bosom and inside of that temptation Cast thy self down c Mat. 43 6 9 4 The way to be free from temptation is not to yeild them the victory in the cause they contest for but to resist them stedfastly in the faith If they weaken thy faith in the Assurance of Gods love they will quickly lay thee on thy back in more fowle failings miscariages When Satan is winnowing then a Saints faith should be most weighty that it may not easily be blown away No temptation ever got the field till faith quiâ—ted its ground Faith is the Bulwark of all other graces if Satan batter down or blow up that or any way can but make a breach in it he will quickly enter with Legions CHAP. XL. The Case of not hearing Prayers and abilitie to pray as it occasions the like Questionings stated Obj. BUt what if I have long cryed to God and he wil not bear me nor vouchsafe me an answer I am told that God hears not sinners and 't is because I am such that God will not hear me A. Surely God hears sinners in a sense or else hee hears not Saints or which is more absurd Saints are not sinners The truth is God hears not men in a sinful state under the guilt and power of sin but hee hears men guilty of sinfull acts otherwise it were sad with all the best men on earth If thou doubt thou art in a sinfull estate because God hears thee not then I enquire 1. Did God ever hear thee formerly in the dayes of thy peace If he did then either thou werst not a sinner or else God did hear sinners And if he hear thee not now then either Satan must prove that thou art now a sinner otherwise then thou werst then or else if thou be as formerly that is not the cause why God hears thee not now as hee did then because God hears not sinners 2 But the truth is the Argument is fallacious God hears not sinners the Tempter saith and therefore seeing he hears not thee thou art a sinner The consequence is invalid He should have framed it thus God refuseth to hear none but sinners therefore if he hear not thee thou art a sinner But whereas he saith meerly God heareth not sinners This Proposition may be granted and so may this also God hears not some that are not sinners and so it will not follow more that thou art a sinner then that thou art not a sinner from Gods not hearing thee 3 How many Saints have complained of this usage from God That he covers himself with a thick cloud that their prayers cannot passe thorow That he fortifies against them and when they cry and groan hee shutteth out their prayer Lam. 3. 8 44. That he is farre from helping them and from the words of their roaring Psal 22. 2. 4 Gods delayes are not denyals Except we could set down the time how long God may delay the sute of a child of his we can never draw conclusions of enmity from that delay 5 Are the things thou askest necessary to thy being here in grace and hereafter in glory or are they but things additional and convenient In such things as are not necessary to the being of a Christian many times delayes are mercies and denyals more Hasty grants even in very useful and necessary things might lose God much in point of honour and thee in point of patience faith humility c. How much more then in unnecessaries Besides sometimes thy petitions may be improper to thy condition and good things ill applyed and not administred with due respect to the patients particular case may be poyson In such a case denyals are acts of tenderest love and affection No man but accounts it an act of truest love to deny a friend a knife when he is mad Object But now in comes another objector and he may plead thus Indeed were my case such as the last you answered I could from those answers rest satisfied But my condition is yet worse For I cannot pray nor be heard because I cannot pray And I know Gods Spirit is a Spirit of supplication Ans Thou canst not pray Couldst thou ever pray A child of God may be smitten dumb who was able to speak Father plain and tell large stories of his owne condition And in such a case 't is evidence enough that thou hadst once the Spirit of Adoption that thou once couldst pray though now thou canst not 2. Thou canst not pray Nor ever wilt againe as thou hast so long as thou wilt own no relation to God If Satan can make thee question thy relation from thy impotency in this particular hee hath
10. 37. Suppose I could say to thee by a certain Revelation from heaven The next moment O sad soul the Lord will smile upon thee and sorrow and sighing shall fly away How would this affect thee Would not this make a sudden alteration in thee Would not faith joy and love and thankfulnesse strive which sould break out first surely they would But if thou werst quite dead this would not affect thee A natural man takes no pleasure in the approaches of God he had rather have him farther off They say to God depart from us Job 21. 14. If the Sun be never so near the earth yet the dead tree is not sensible of its influence it causeth no alteration therein no leaves no buds no fruits testifie its approach Object But may not a wicked man delight in the approaches of Gods comforting and refreshing presence especially under troubles of conscience although there be no spiritual life in him at all Ans He may delight in the removal of his present terrors by application of comfort But 't is not God in comfort that he looks after Let him have comfort or peace any way he is wel pleased whether God draw nigh to him or no. If the Divel will conjure down his troubles if the world will choak them if musick will fiddle them away if the cup will drown them it is all one to him shall I say nay it is more then if God spake them away But a living soul sayes If God will not let me out of this pit this dungeon I will never go out it is lesse to me to be free then to be freed by him that he is the Authour of my liberty endears it to me To enjoy a quiet conscience and not enjoy God in that quiet of conscience is a worse hell to me then my former terrors Lord restore my fetters and chains te me give me my horriâ—lâ— pit my mire and clay my watered bed my broken bones my distracted spirit again I had rather chuse them all then not receive my liberty from thy single hand Any chains are easie if they bee compared with a godless liberty 2 But grant that a wicked man may possibly desire the comforting presence of God too yet he cannot delight in the approaches of Gods sanctifying presence Friend could I tell thee that God is approaching to thee as a Refiners fire to purge out all thy drosse and take away all thy tin Isai 1. 25. that the comfortable presence of God will be the death of thy dearest lusts Surely thou wouldst say Yea Sir let him come and welcome 'T is a day I have prayed for longed for wept for waited for O I will not accept of the Monarchy of the whole world for my share in this tydings I would not take heaven upon terms of reconciliation with my lusts Is it thus with thee My life for thine thou art not dead CHAP. XLIII A Case Whether instead of growing a real Saint may not decay in the actings of some graces and yet either the universal habit of the new Creature or the same very graces grow more habitually strong in him Obj. BUt I was once more quick and lively then I am now and therefore I find sensible decayes of what good I once thought I had Now true grace where ever it is will be ever growing The path of the Just is like the morning light which shineth more and more until perfect day Prov. 4. 18. Ans I shall satisfie this Doubt by answering two Questions Quest 1. Whether a Saint may not decay in stead of growing in the actings of some grace which appeared more visibly in him before whiles yet he growes in the habit Quest 2. How a man may know that he growes in grace when he is under such sensible decayes Answ To the first I answer 1 The graces of Gods Saints in the actings and operations of them are not alwayes alike high So wee see in the holy men of God throughout the whole current of the Word The faith of Abraham how high was it upon the Mount when he would have Sacrificed his Son but how low Gen. 22. 1. c. Heb. 11. 17. 1 Sam. 20. 2 when he cowardly denies his wife David one while dares fight with a Goliah and another throwes his Gauntlet and challenges a whole Army another while he quakes and 1 Sam. 16. Psal 27. 3 trembles through distrust and cryes out I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul One while 1 Sam. 27. 1. Peter is so valiant that he drawes a sword in Christs defence and that against a whole Band of men and follows him into the High Priests Hall a little after a silly maid dasheth his faith out of countenance 1 The truth is the continued high actings of some graces are not fit for a mortal condition and those that wish them such Job 4. 19. are unmindful that they dwel in Tabernacles of clay and that their foundation is laid in the dust Such is holy joy which if kept up perpetually to the height of ecstasie must needs over-spread the spirits and dissolve nature 2 Some Graces are of a mighty uniting nature and bind the soul to the Object so that it can mind nothing else during their impressions Such are faith and love Now God hath other graces to be acted and works to be done by us wherein we may glorifie him and therefore allowes them their time also Nay a godly man is described by this that he is a tree that brings forth fruit in the season proper to it Ps 1. 4. 3. All the graces of Gods Saints are now and then assaulted with stronger temptations and powerfuller corruptions then at other times And grace that will act high when 't is free from opposition or under slender opposition will not act so under greater That strength that will bear a hundred weight will appear little or none at all when it comes to lift a thousand 4. It may bee thy condition is altered and thy grace is yet unacquainted with the way of managing a new condition As an able scholar put out of his way of study may be out-gone by a meaner because those studies to which he is disused must needes bee entertained strangely and 't will be some time ere he can get their familiar acquaintance Here the fault is not in the abilities of the man but in the newnesse of the imployment so in point of grace a very gracious man and one who in some conditions and imployments is excellent in others is to seeke not for a toole to work with but for skil to manage it As a tradesman when hee changeth his trade loseth not his skil of dealing in the world but is unacquainted with the mysterie of putting it forth to present service 5. Many times God suffers decayes and not only so but inflicts them as chastisements upon his dearest people that hee may make them 1. Humble So hee useth sicknesses of
body to mind us that wee are men and our breath is in his hand and his onely So in our graces wee are apt to bee lifted up with high actings of grace and in such elevations wee despise our weake brethren and censure them if they walke not up even with us or if they faile especially in any grosser way wee forget against the rule that wee also may be tempted Gal. 6. 1. 2. Dependent not only upon publique ordinances where God hath promised his especial quickening pâ—esence and where the Saints have used to find recovering remedies under spiritual decaies but also on private communion even with weaker brethren and principally upon himself in the use of both Psal 30. 6. 3. Wathfull lest the strength and lustre and glory of our graces be lost through our default lest the Divel throw in diversions from unnecessary things to coole and abate our zeale in those that are more necessary and momentous lest the world and its allurements inveigle us into its embraces and like Sampson in Delilahs lap we lose our strength by our dalliances Lastly lest by the misemploying gracious opportunies wee suffer our graces to starve for want of that food that should sustain them our strength is maintained by watchfulnesse Rev. 3. 2. 6. Oftentimes a contemptible temptation foyls a strong grace for want of preparation managing it in a regular way drawing stâ—ength in from God c. Souldiers say 't is not good to despise an enemy be he never so smal and contemptible such many times do much mischiefe by being neglected 7 Many times decays may not be the abatements of the actings of grace but of our own over-actings It may be I may have had more seeming zeal formerly then now I seem to have But was not my zeal more rash heady inconsiderate more mixed with selfe c. and so heightened by its imperfections and blemishes If so to continue it so were to grow in sinne rather then grace So my faith in some of its preceding actings might possibly make too bold with God depending on him besides the rule of his word and it may be occasioned by a neglect of means c. there might be much of presumption in it Now it may be I trust God and am as zealous for him as formerly but those graces act more regularly and not with so much disorder and distemper as formerly So in repentance and godly sorrow for sinne many times worldly and selfish considerations mix with it to heighten it many times the shame and disgrace that accompanies sinne the afflictions and crosses that attend it may bee some of those things whose influence may heighten it c. 2. The habits of grace may not only stand at their former pitch their bow may not only abide in strength but may grow more radicated and be more strengthened and disposed for more operations under the most sensible decays of the actings and operations of them As many times in the winter a mans hands and feet may be benummed with cold when his stomack and intrals are most hot Now to understand this you must know 1. That there is an universal habit of grace allow me the expression which is called the new man the new creature c. And this universal habit of grace is like the habitual life and heate that is in the heart of a living body There are also special habits of such and such particular graces which symbolize with the heat and life which is in the particular members of the body 2. Now as in the natural body if the heart be strengthened in a disease though the out most members languish the patient is in a hopefull way of recovery and never the nearer death for losing the flesh off his ribs and face so if the heart of grace the main frame of grace in the soul be strengthened the decayes in some actings of particula graces matter not much 3. The increase of any one particular grace strengtheneth and so farre improveth in a sort the general habit of grace though other particular graces increase not As the addition of a bucket of water to the Thames makes the whole body and bulke of waters so much the bigger And the tree is greater by the growth of one branch A man is more gracious by the growth of humility meekness though it may be he is not more believing c. 4. There are particular habits of grace and they in themselves never decay but they may be obstructed and clogged as to their operations Indeed no gracious habit can properly be said to grow or decay but only with respect to the acts that flow from it For the nature of these divine qualities is not as that of moral habits which are gotten by acts and lost by the disuse of them these being infused of God and never to bee lost cannot decay for then were they to bee lost also all corruptiblenesse tending to corruption That Souldier that may be beaten from his first ground if the assault bee followed may be routed and utterly beaten out of the field Now that these things are so appears because do but remove the obstructions and grace in such persons will act as vigorously as ever it did Samsons strength appeared not to be abated by his binding for when he was loose hee laid the Philistines heaps upon heaps as ever hee did before 5. Thou mayst be strongest many times in that particular grace where thou thinkest thou art weakest As that part of a garrison may be best lined with men where the bulwark is lowest So the poor man that cryed out Lord help my unbelief had then a greater faith then he was aware of And the poor woman of Canaan when she dared not claim a childs portion but ranks her self with the dogges yet relying still on Christ for an answer of grace was so eminent in faith that Christ himself admires her for it Mat. 15. 28. O woman great is thy faith There is a mystery of godlinesse in this which is not easily understood but by those that have their spiritual senses exercised by frequent combats and conflicts CHAP. XLIV A Case how a Saint may in the midst of the most sensible actuall decays know whether the Habits of grace grow or no. Quest I come now to the second Question last propounded How a man may know whether he grow in grace notwithstanding his present supposed sensible Decays Answ I answer 1. In some general rules for the managery of this examination Those are 1. Take heed you enquire not too rigorously after a too suddain improvement If a man cast his grain into the ground it were unreasonable he should complain it is dead because it appears not above ground the next day or if he should walking in his field every day complain to day that it is grown nothing since yesterday because he cannot discerne it Had the man patience to look on it at convenient distances of time experience would
from sin How do thy old garments fit thee Dost thou more and more grow out of love with sin and more and more put it off at least in the love of it This growth the Apostle saw when he could see none else Rom 7. 20. This is most discernable in the combats between the heart and Original sin when a man clubs it down in its first motions 't is a good token of growth A moral man may forbeare those sins in act which a godly man may fall into but a Saint labours more at the root of sin when moral men pare off the branches 3 A growth of heavenly mindednesse These toyes and trifles of the world how do they take with thee That which the Apostle saith of childish knowledg c. I may say of childish desires 1 Cor. 13. 11. A Saint then growes a man when he throwes away childish things Dost thou grow more liberal and open hearted The more a mans heart is loosed from the earth the nearer it growes to heaven Grace here is glory in the cradle and it daily growes heavenward 4. A growth of aimes and desires What dost thou purpose to thy selfe Will not small things content thee then thy appetite is growne The more manly we grow the more manly our aimes are See how the Apostle calls this growth of aimes perfection Phil. 3. 15. So that thy trouble that thou growest not and thy aimes at farther improvement discover that thou art improving Vse 3. This Thesis also is three waies for Consolation to Saints For 1. This confirms us in the Doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints For if a true Saint might fall away from grace the Spirit might justly again become a Spirit of Bondage to him For he that falls from grace falls under the Law and he that falls under the Law is liable to all its terrors as his proper portion For all that the Law speaks it speaks to them that are under the Law Rom. 3. 19. If a child of God to day might prove a child of the Divel to morrow surely the Spirit might safely tell him so 2 This scatters and dispells the greatest venom that imbitters Saints second troubles When a man looks on God as leading him into temptation it is far more bitter then when a man falls into it by his own neglect or Satans malice When a man apprehends the Spirit of God whom he expects as a Comforter to become his Tormentor this is a double torment Now against this the Lord gives us this cordial assurance once for all that to a Saint no such thing ever can be the work of the Spirit 3 This shewes Saints a ground upon which if it be not their own fault they may live in constant peace to wit by maintaining continual correspondence and un-interrupted amity with the Spirit of Adoption Surely he that never speaks Bondage after he hath spoken peace may be heard speaking peace alwayes were it not our own fault Did wee heed what hee sayes and acquaint our selves more with his voice we should find him a Comforter still But we are apt to give more eare to our owne carnal reason and Satans tentations then to his gracious and comfortable tidings Few Saints should they put their souls to Davids question Psalm 42. were able to answer it satisfactorily except there be reason why men should trouble and distract their owne spirits whether God will or no. And thus much shall suffice for this third point CHAP. XLV A fourth Thesis with its explication NOw come we to the last Thesis from the Text which is the fourth in this Treatise Doct. That one principal work of the Spirit of Adoption in the soul that hath received it is to enliven and embolden it in prayer That we may not mistake in the sense of the Proposition observe with mee first a few things tending to the Explication of it When I say a principal work I mean not to compare the assistance he gives to prayer with his work of uniting the soul to Christ in justification of quickning the soul with habitual grace in Sanctification or the work of Assurance it self For no stream can rationally be admitted into comparison with its fountain Now the Spirit of prayer is but an emanation of grace and Adoption first a Spirit of grace and then a Spirit of supplication Zech. 12. 10. And therefore this must be understood of those operations which flow from habitual grace and Assurance that of them there is no nobler act of the Spirit of Grace and Adoption enabling us to and in them then this Qu. 1. What act of the Spirit of Adoption thus works Answ When I speak of this particular boldnesse as the work of the Spirit of Adoption I would be understood of the Spirit of Adoption chiefly in his witnessing Act of which we have hitherto principall treated though I shall not here more then in the former point exclude him in his other acts only I shall shew from which work of the Spirit of Adoption this which wee treat of doth more immediatly arise For whereas I before told you twice of four works of the Spirit of Adoption to unite to witnesse to intercede to direct whereof the uniting act is the most noble and the fountain of all the rest union with Christ being the source of all communion you must farther know that the rest of these Acts do not alike primarily flow from the first but by the meditation and interposition of one another The spirit intercedes in us but by the help of his assuring work he produceth its most fervent and confident petitions And the last work his guiding work he performes by both the former viz. perswading the soul upon assurance of successe to fetch direction and assistance from God in all its wayes by faith in the promises and prayer Q. 2. Doth the Spirit work thus in all Saints Answ 1. When I say it is the work of the Spirit of Adoption I must not be understood to affirme a constant and perpetual assistance of the witnessing Spirit in all the Saints to the performance of this Duty in a like high spiritfull and confident way For the dearest Saints of God whiles they enjoy the Spirit of Adoption may be under strange deadnesse distraction and indosposednesse in Duty and under no lesse doubting suspiciousnesse and jealousie of God and his affectons to them which must needs hinder their boldness in calling him Father 2 Thus accordingly as we must distinguish times so we must distinguish between degrees of livelinesse and boldnesse in praying Between praying to God as to a Father and calling him Father aloud in Prayer or as in the words of the Text crying Abba Father For the Spirit as He unites the soul to Christ is a Spirit of Supplication helps us to pray and that with life and boldnesse But because he may possibly not alwayes act in his witnessing way although even then the soul is enabled to pray acceptably
of blowing up the coals as well as by throwing water upon them To move you hereunto consider 1 There is little difference as to the comfort of grace between grace lying dead and no grace at all A man that hath riches and God gives him not an heart to enjoy them wherein is he better as to the comfort of his life then a man that hath not a penny in the world This is an evil thing under the Sun saith Solomon Eccles 6. 1 2. A man that hath no grace enjoyes no communion with God sits dull and unprofitable under all Ordinances makes no spiritual advantage of any enjoyment and so doth the man that hath grace un-improved 2 The lesse you stir up your graces the less you will be able to use them when you have need If a mans faith humility sorrow for sin be away in one Duty or two he will not find them readily at hand when he would make use of them again A tool a man useth at every turn will not be so often out of the way as one he useth but now and then Besides suppose them constantly at hand yet if not imployed they will be rusty and unfit for use except they be rubbed up by constant imployment 3 Corruptions will be stirring daily and Satan will be perpetually blowing them up especially in the Duty of Prayer There is no Duty in which the people of God complain Ut jugulent homines surgunt de nocte latrones Vt teipsum serves non expergisceris Horat. more of distempers and distractions then that Duty The thief is abroad active and vigilant and shall the Traveller ride on carelesly and not look about him to keep his weapon in a readinesse for every assault There is no rode more infested with Thieves then the rode betweene earth and heaven the Traffick is precious and therefore a man had need stir up and quicken himself to all the cautiousnesse that may be and muster up all his strength for a convoy to secure the passage Now there is no convoy that more secures all our duties in that traffick and all our returns then a convoy of active graces 4. The Saints of God have used to do so to call upon themselves and to quicken themselves unto a spiritual and lively performance of duties to God David is frequent herein Psal 103. 1. All that is within me praise his holy name Arise faith humility self-denial joy hope and be stirring I am about a duty of importance and that to a God to whom I stand deeply obliged do your best therefore to help me to praise his holy name So Psal 57 7 8. My heart is fixed or prepared or ready Awake my glory Tongue See you do your duty lively and vigorously awake my Psaltery and I my self wil awake early i. e. I wil stir up all my graces to bear you company And the whole Church complains of the want hereof Isai 64. 7. 5 God in all his grants takes special notice of the activity of our graces in approaching to him Jer. 30. 21. Who is this that engaged his heart to approach to me saith the Lord q. d. There are many that approach to me but who is that among all the rest that engaged his heart to approach to me Of all the rest I take notice of him he quickned all his graces and stirred up all his soul on purpose that he might approach to me As if a great man come to a Town and publick entertainment be made him if any one among the rest be more active then ordinary he takes especial notice of him Who is this that makes so much ado above all the rest I must take special notice of him and gratifie him with some extraordinary favour God le ts passe an hundred lazy Petitioners and seeks out a fervent one in a throng of Christians 6 If you do not stir up your graces to seek God God will stir them up for you If an horse that hath mettal enough grow dull the rider puts to the spur to quicken him If you grow dull and careless in Duty God will spur up your graces and quicken you to your pain and cost too Indeed saith God is it so Can such a man afford me no better services then so is every slight slovenly performance good enough for me Well I will be served with that that costs him something before I have done with him With-draw thy comforts from him Spirit smite him sickness vex him Satan persecute him enemies I will warrant it I shall hear from him shortly in another guise manner Hos 5. 15. In their affliction they will seek me early Take this for an usual rule Ordinarily after a continued deadness and formality of Spirit upon a Saint in Duty comes some sharp affliction or other CHAP LII A Question how Saints may recover out of deadnesse in prayer answered something about formes Quest BUt how shall I stirre up my selfe to seek the Lord How shall I recover out of this strange deadnesse and formality of spirit which I am fallen into Answ 1 Vse not to set upon the duties in which you approach to God without meditation David says of himselfe whiles I was musing the fire kindled Psal 39. 3. Meditate principally upon the most proper moving objects of every grace Faith acts upon Gods faithfulnesse in his promises to stirre up faith therefore meditate upon God in his faithfulnesse and that as declared in some special promise that concerns thy case and condition Love and thankfulnesse are exercised upon the goodnesse of God Meditate upon the goodnesse of God to thee in particular to stirre up those graces humility is most affected with a mans own vilenesse and Gods glory compared together here then set out God in his majesty as gloriously as thou canst in thy meditations then view thy selfe and thy own vilenesse especially reflecting upon those sinnes of thine which have had most vilenesse and loathsomnesse of circumstances and are attended with the most abhominable aggravations And so in other graces 2. Choose the most free and lively seasons for duty The morning before worldly busines hath deadned flatted the spirit is of special use for prayer 'T was not for nothing that David so often made choyce of that time Psalm 5. 3. 59. 16. 88. 13. 119. 147. 63. 1. 108. 2. c. If a man will attend any businesse without distraction or disturbance that is the time to be beforehand with the disturbances of dayly businesses and occasions When we slip out of every worldly imployment into prayer or at night when we are half asleep mix nods with petitions no wonder if we complain of deadnesse and dulness and distraction 3. Watch to prayer Col. 4. 2. Continue in prayer and watch thereunto c. 1 Pet. 4. 7. Be sober and watch unto prayer Watch against Satan who will then be busie to disturbe you it may be with Atheistical and blasphemous thoughts and other
special mercy of God and excellency in prayer that we become thereby so far Masters of our selves And so much the greater because it is the greatest misery in the world to be torn to pieces as Actoeon in the Poet by a mans own kennel of unmortified passions to bee condemned to eat up and devour a mans self because he cannot better his own condition or hurt others to gnaw a flint whence a man can get nothing but broken teeth and in a word to adde affliction to a mans affliction by acting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vexing himselfe and tire a mans selfe like a skittish Jade more with flinging then with his burthen 3 It is a comfortable evidence of and help unto the 1 Present Sanctification 2 Future good issue of our afflictions 1 Present sanctification of afflictions is both discovered and promoted by the kindly temper of the soul towards and in the duty of prayer 1 Discovered because it actually fulfils one of those gracious ends which God aims at in affliction the bringing us upon our knees Physick then doth most good when it opens proper passages to vent noxious humours Then the rod doth a child good when it brings down his stubborn heart to his knees Therefore we leave not whipping till a child begs forgiveness And on the other side take this for a certain Rule A prayerlesse affliction is alwaies an unsanctified affliction It was then grievousest charge that Jobs friends gave in against him that in his affliction he restrained prayer Job 15 4. 2 Promoted because it fetcheth a power from heaven to improve the rod. As every other creature of God so the rod is sanctified by the word and prayer But much of this hath been touched upon before Wherefore I passe it here 2. The future good issue of an affliction may be concluded and is promoted by the prayer fulnesse of the Spirit in trouble And this issue is 1. Partly the glory and honour of our graces arising from such a tryal 't is in prayer that a suffering Saint most acts faith patience humility sorrow for sinne c. The honour of our graces as the honour of Knighthood in England is usually received upon the knee And no wonder for Prayer is the paloestra the arena the theatre the artillery-yard of all our graces in which they shew their activity 2. Partly the removal of trouble it selfe God like a good Physician till wee sweat kindly lays on more cloaths and applies more heat but when we do so he withdraws them as fast in such a method and proportion as our necessity will permit I will not saith he contend for ever nor will I be alwayes wroth lest the spirit should faile before me and the soul which I have made Let God march never so much like an enemy towards a poor creature yet he is so generous an enemy that he never puts to the sword a submitting supplicating foe As 't is said of the Lion Satis est prostrasse c. Ira suum finem cum jacet hostis habet That prostration abates his rage and he never preyes upon a man that he finds fallen flat upon the ground Sure the Lord will not be so cruel as to give no quarter to a poor creature begging it at his hands You know how Benhadad escaped by casting himselfe upon the mercy of the King of Israel Coe tâ—ou and do likewise For the Lord delights not to grieve or vex the children of men Lam. 3. 33. He looketh on men and if any say I have finned and perverted that which is right and it profited me not He will deliver his soul from going down into the pit and his life shall see the light Job 33. 27 28. I might adde divers other motives but the reasons may all be revived here as inducements and I hasten Object But here lies the sadnesse of my condition I am under grievous afflictions and when I set my selfe to complain of them to God I cannot pray my tongue is strangely tyed that I have scarce a word to say what shall I thinke of my felf What shall I do in such a case Answ Thou that thus complainest art either 1. An utter stranger to the duty of prayer at other times or 2. One that at other times hast been well acquainted with God and that duty but now art in an unwonted deliquy or swound of spirit that thy wonted spirits faile thee to performe it And according to this difference of persons must my Answer to this Case be different 1 Thou that art a stranger to all acquaintance with God in this way 1. Look on this as a just band of God upon thee and that which is intended by him and should be received by thee as an heavy aggravation of his present judgment upon thy soule that thou who when thou wast free wouldst not pray and didst neglect to get acquaintance with God should'st now be so shut up as not to be able to speak a word for thy selfe in so needfull a time God deals with thee as justly as may be You would not pray saith God and now you shall not pray And 't is a sad symptome that at least for the present God intends little good to such a soul that he leaves at this passe For if when God intends no good to a people he forbids his servants to pray for them and stops the mouths of his Prophets as Jer. 7. 16. 11. 14. 14. 11. Much more when he restrains a man in misery from speaking in his own condition For when God intends to hear he prepareth the heart to pray Psalm 10. 17. 2. Be humbled and afflicted greatly before the Lord for the former neglect of acquaintance with him and know that God intends this straightening of thy spirit in so needfull a time of trouble as thy greatest affliction Take it then as such and account it thy greatest burthen that God should be so farre displeased with thee as that he will not only not hear thee when thou speakest but also shut up thy mouth that thou canst not so much as speak to him As when a Prince bids stop the mouth of a Petitioner As hardening the heart judicially is the greatest judgment that can befall a man on this side Hell because it shuts a double doore on a man to exclude him from mercy both a doore of mercy and admittance on Gods part during that condition and a door of repentance and penitent addresses on his own So doth this judicial shutting up the heart against prayer put a carnal man in the inner prison of judgment and wrath and puts his feet in the stocks so that the soul which ordinarily goes to God on the feet of prayer cannot now stirre so much as one step towards reliefe Now therefore acknowledge and bewayle thy former neglect of calling upon God whiles he was near God is farther off from unconverted sinners in adversity then in prosperity because then it is a
thorow fear or temptation as at other times moving it to conceale the Devils counsell but out of distraction and oppression of spirit Now if this same soul find it selfe in the same condition before God when it sets to prayer it may lay the blame hereof on the greatnesse of its burthen and content it selfe in the assurance of as kind an acceptance of its sighs and groans as if they were drawn out in long prayers But if the straightnesse be not towards men or other imployments but only in duties to God-ward then enquire after farther causes whereof take these following 2. The admission of some late grievous sinne that yet is unrepented of Guilt is a tongue-tying thing When the man in the Gospel was taken without a wedding garment the Text sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was speechlesse Mat. 22. 12. his mouth was stopped with a gagge Great sins are great gaggs And 't is not only so with the unregenerate but with the Saints also See it in Davids example Psalm 51. 14 15. Deliver me saith he from blouds O Lord then my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousnesse Open my mouth c. Davids lips had a padlock upon them guilt had locked them up He dared not speak to God whom he had so grievously offended And no wonder if Saints dare not speak where they are sure not to speed if they be dumb when they know God is deaf David knew well enough that sinnes make Gods ear heavy as he informes us Psalm 66. 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not hear my prayer and the Prophet Isaiah tells us no lesse Isai 59. 1 2. The Spirit of prayer also will be grieved and depart from us if we defile his lodging he is a pure an holy Spirit Eph. 4. 30. In this case the counsel of Zophar to Job 11. 13 14. is very good If thou prepare thine heart and stretch out thy hands towards God If iniquity be in thy hand put it far away c. So shalt thou lift up thy face confidently c. Search out the sinne and remove it by renewed repentance and the fresh application of the bloud of Christ by faith which is the fountain of Evangelical repentance and then try again the Spirit of Grace that enables thee to mourne will bee a Spirit of Supplication too Zech. 12. 10. 3. Sometimes Gods glory is the cause of thy restaints of spirit God intending to teach thee that all thy enlargements are from him alone We often pray in the strength of natural parts or gifts at the best and it may be we idolize these last in our selves and others Now God may in his wisedome leave us to straightenednesse of spirit in prayer to make us lesse depending upon those helps And this he will do to choose at such a time when afflictions are heavy upon us because that is a time if any be when it may be supposed necessity will enlarge parts and gifts to the utmost Afflictions are usually incitements and occasions of enlargement in prayer God makes account that at that time he shall hear from his people Hos 5. 15. and in our straits commonly we give God many faire words are rhetorical more then ordinary flatter with our lips Psalm 78. 36. A Scholar at the Vniversity that seldome writes and it may be if he do oftner then ordinary yet writes curtell'd letters to his friends at other times yet against Quarter-day when hee needs his pension will be sure not to fayle of a large letter and a bill of expences annexed Hence oftentimes the people of God are very fondly conceited of afflictions and under deadnesse of spirit are too apt to wish them out of a conceit that when they come they are able to make great use of them to quicken their hearts to prayer But the Lord chasteneth their foolish expectations divers times by stopping their mouths under those very troubles whence they hoped for great improvements and enlargements hereby teaching them that the Spirit of supplication as well as the Spirit of sanctification bloweth where and when he listeth John 3. 8. This case whenever it befalls any as we may ghesse when it doth so by our former valuation of gifts and conceits of improving afflictions c. calls upon such persons to give God the glory of his own peculiar attribute the preparer of the heart and the Spirit of its own office the Spirit of Supplication and call for and rely on divine assistance meerly in that work 4. Sometimes misapprehensions of God may be the cause of straightnesse in duty Thoughts that God is our enemy c. And then we deale with God as we do with our best friends many times in an humour we have a conceit that they have done us a discourtesie or are fallen out with us it may be upon slight reports or other as slender evidence and then our stomacks presently swell so bigge that we cannot so much as speak to them Pride and discontent will so swell a mans stomack like spleen winds up to a mans mouth that he cannot speak except to belch out the language of discontent and passion Sometimes we conceive God so offended at us that he casts away our prayer Lam. 3. 8. And where a man hath little hope to speed he will have very little heart to speak whereas hope to prevaile is the most fluent fountain of Rhetorick that can bee thus want of Faith makes the voyce of prayer stick in the teeth as we use to say The Spirit of Adoption only is the Spirit of Supplication and a man cannot pray so much to the purpose as when he can call God Father Then we cry 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom 8. 15. When David was in that grievous trouble Psalm 116. What lets his tongue loose in prayer I believed saith he therefore I spake v. 10. Friends prayer is the child of Faith not Fancy not the voyce of Invention but Affection begotten not in the brain of an Oratour but in the heart of a child A child is very copious and fluent in expression commonly when he complains to a Father but will lye still and cry it out in a sullen mood and say never a word if a stranger aske what ayles it The cure in this case is Look over all your evidences remember dayes past and the years of the right hand of the most high thy songs in the night and his mercy and lovingkindnesse in the day Call to mind promises of everlasting love in and notwithstanding the heaviest afflictions apply them and labor to urge them Challenge God upon old acquaintance as Christ My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Mat. 27. 46. O Lord how comes it to passe now that I have lost my acquaintance with thee Lord return and visit me with thy ancient loving kindnesses Psal 25. 6. 2 After discovery and removal of the impediments and obstructions aforesaid Study your own case distinctly and clearly
comprehends every grace in kind and it concerns him to come to the Sacrament to promote it Caution Yet let me add lastly that I speak not this to encourage a lazy credulousness by which we are apt to be easily perswaded without any sufficient enquiry to take it for granted that we have grace because we have now and then some good wishes when as our own hearts if they were well searched would witness to us the faintness coldness inconstancy laziness of our affections towards heavenly things especially in comparison with those large measures of earnestness importunity and diligence with which they are attended in the things that concerne this present life which might be a sufficient confutation of all our good conceits that wee have of our selves Friends take heed that you do not make such truths as these a protection for your supine negligence to examine your selves more throughly and exactly The truth is the persons to whom this cordial is intended are only those who after earnest enquiry after their own estate from other evidences are driven to this Sanctuary as their last refuge not to those who because they wil spare their pains to enquire more at large and particularly fly to this as the most compendious way and that wherein least pains is required to satisfie themselves concerning their condition Yet I fear such truths by Gods just judgment accidentally stumble many souls and no wonder the Doctrine of free grace I dare say accidentally damnes millions CHAP. XVIII Three other Directions And a Case of Conscience concerning the discerning the Motions of the Holy Spirit from tentations and the inclination of our owne hearts 3 TAke notice of the least approaches Direct III. of the Spirit of God to the soul in a witnessing way and follow them by Meditation and Prayer Sometimes the witnesse of the Spirit is not full and through to the satisfaction of all our doubts yet it speaks something tending that way it speaks many things severally and by parcels which laid together would amount to a ful Testimony Now in such cases a soul must be very watchful to take and improve the least hints of the Spirit As in an humane Testimony the witnesses that witnesse in a case before a Judge do not all speak point-blank to the case in question but sometimes very faintly brokenly and imperfectly Now a good Judg in such a case doth not slight such Testimonies as come not full up to a businesse but observes and retaines in memory every thing that is deposed though very defective as to a full proof and at last what one testimony did not sufficiently clear in terminis many testimonyes will make up a full proof of if laid together by a skilful and judicious Lawyer This Art we find the Church using in desertion Cant. 29. There she discovers Christ first at a distance leaping upon the Mountains removing the great impediments to the manifestation of himself suppose conquering mountainous corruptions and mountainous temptations suppose deadnesse and flatnesse of heart in duty c. which looks like a mountain of separation betweene Christ and the soul ver 8. she finds her self unexpectedly enlarged and opened in her addresses to him Thence she concludes he is a coming he prepares his way as 't is said in another case of John he makes every mountain and hill low Isai 40. 4. and every valley he exalts that he may make his way smoother then she espies him behind the wall looking in through the lattess neerer then he was but yet he stands much undiscovered the wall and the lattess here it may be are the obstacles of prejudice and doubting and distrust in our own hearts which keep us from seeing Christ clearly when he comes to us but yet something of Christ shines through them and the Church takes notice of these dark approaches puts a Behold upon them all Behold he cometh behold he standeth behind our wall And at last he calls her forth into a pleasant converse and walk with him v. 10. 11. and there fully manifesteth himselfe to her If God write thee a love-letter though the hand in which it is written be but uneven and it be not to be read but by spelling every word wilt thou not take that pains that thou mayst understand it The spirits testimony when it comes under Gods hand and seal to the heart is oftentimes so obscurely written that a man is fain to spell and put together many words experiences providences to make it up However the evidence may be sufficient that is pick'd out of them altogether Think then such a time I was refresht at a sermon enlarged extraordinarily in such a Prayer my heart was affected with an extraordinary measure of tendernesse in such a Sacrament I was even ready to despaire and God stayed me by a promise even ready at another time to make away with my selfe and God stayed me with an unexpected providence c. All these put together may perhaps make up as much as this Fear not I am thy Salvation c. Thy sins are forgiven thee God answers sometimes Psalm 85. 8 in a soft voyce in a whisper and it concerns us to observe narrowly as Benhadads servants 1 Kings 20 33 4. Labour aftâ—r more of the Spirit of sanctification and that is the way to get the Direct IV. witnesse of the Spirit of Adoption The spirit that seals us up to an holy assurance is an holy Spirit Ephes 1. 13. This is certain the more holinesse the more assurance The promise runs so Isai 32. 17. The work of righteousnesse shall be peace and the effect of righteousnesse quietness and assurance for ever I conceive the place intends inherent righteousnesse comparing it with the former verses where it is attributed to the Spirit as his work in barren hearts The like promise we have from our Saviour Jo. 14. 21. He that hath my Commandements and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him I am confident the reason why many persons do not recover an evidence of the Spirit assuring their consciences of their good condition is either that in their judgments they preferre peace before grace ease before holinesse and powre out many more prayers and tears for those then for these or else that they content themselves with finding in themselves some generalities of good desires and sincerity in the main and so sit down in a forme of godlinesse contented to stand at that stay Beloved it will concerne us to press hard after the Lord to follow after reach forward and press on they are the phrases of the Apostle Ph. 3 12 13 14. that we may apprehend that for which we are apprehended 1. If an evidence be never so faire yet if we be carelesse of it and let it gather dust or dirt or filth we may not be able to read it And certainly
when the Spirit suggests matter of prayer as in expressions Without all question the Spirit when hee supplies will not supply the lesse materiall part of prayer and not the more principall and momentous A man of a nimble invention and a fluent tongue may be able to speak high strains of Rhetorick in prayer but is the heart warmed sutably to the expressions If the stream run only from the teeth outward as we say 't is not supplied from a divine spring 5. If the heart be warmed also yet I ask doth its warmth produce the language of prayer or rather the language it Some good natures as we call them will weep at a passionate discourse either of their own or another mans The heart is first hot where the expressions are from the Spirit It may be expressions may add to the quantity of heart-affection in duty as on the other side dull expressions will much take off from the edge of a good affection But whence was the rise of thy heate in the substance of it from without or from within A natural mans expressions in prayer are the spring of his affections a godly mans affections are the spring of his expressions 3. Adde also that the fayling of expression in prayer is much our own fault 1. Sometimes we over-prize it In desiring it too sollicitously when absent in rejoycing and pleasing our selves too fondly when present discomforting our selves when we want it as if we wanted the Spirit because we have not a wished supply of the gift and laying the foundation of our hopes of acceptance upon that when present which we may be accepted without 2 Studying more to pray then praying that we may pray Spiritual abilities for prayer of whatever kind they be are usually fetched in by prayer Luke 11. 13. as water in the well is fetched up by putting water into the pump Whiles we are asking God hears and that he may enables us to aske He giveth the Spirit to them that ask him 3. Want of meditation I mean not of expressions but things Well studyed matter yeilds plentifull expressions the Poet observes Verbaque praevisam rem non invita sequuntur Horat. art Poet. Well-conceived matter is never stifled in the birth for want of the midwifery of apt expressions 4 Want of acquaintance with the Word of God Many people complain they have a great dearth of expressions in prayer but the cause of it is in themselves They do not study the Word of God which as it is a compleat magazene of matter so it is the best and most genuine spring of expression in prayer The language of confession petition thanksgiving which the Saints of God use in the Scripture is in a sort a supply from the Spirit fetched in by industry For it is all of it indited by the Spirit to our hands Those are surely therefore the most acceptable meet expressions to send up to heaven which first descended from heaven There is a strange vein of expression in prayer that conceited persons affect in these dayes which a man if he compare with Scripture will easily conclude to be a gibberish of a wanton age unknown to the Saints of God in former times The Spirit of God loves to indite your prayers when hee doth supply your defects that way in his own familiar expressions which are those of the Scripture CHAP. XLIX Saints are informed what deadens them in prayer Where also a case what to be done when a Saint cannot call God Father and in case some sinne streighten him As also how to maintain boldnesse and fervency in prayer NOw to apply this usefull point 1. In the first place this lets many poor souls under darknesse know whence that deadnesse and flatnesse of spirit which they are ever complaing of in prayer doth proceed They do what they can to darken their evidences and take delight in finding matter of charge against themselves to the shaking of them and yet take it ill that they cannot have that freedome and liberty and livelynesse in prayer which they desire This is as if they should cut off their own legs and then complain that they cannot go They clip the very wings upon which prayer should raise it self heaven-ward and then they complain they cannot fly so high in duty as they would Qu. But what shall I do if by reason of this darknesse I cannot call God Father with confidence Answ 1. Acknowledge with sense and feeling that unworthinesse of thine which discourageth thee Say Lord I confesse I am unworthy to be called thy sonne as the Prodigal doth and endeavour as much as thou canst to fill thy face with shame and confusion in the sense hereof 2. Acquaint him with thy particular straightnesse of spirit and the cause of it tell him what tyes thy tongue that thou wouldst pray but thou darest not own any relation to him desire him for his own glory to discover that relation to thee that may embolden thee to his service 3. Maintain notwithstanding this thy claim to God as thy Father upon those promises upon which at first thou didst believe God warrants every soul to call him Father that is brought to a desire to become his child None ever call'd God Father out of a sincere desire to that relation and the duties of it from whom God refused to accept of the title We never find God quarrell with any upon this account for calling him Father except they were such as denyed him filial duty and reverence Supposing then that thou canst not call God Father upon evidence of particular faith yet do it upon grounds of relyance such as his offers invitations promises plead that promise of Relation 2 Corinth 6. 18. 4 Ask spiritual good things of him under the obligation of that relation And urge him with his Fatherly bowels in Jesus Christ to all poor souls that come unto God through him Call him Father at adventure upon Christs score and see whether he can disclaim the name The advantage of this will be the hearing and granting of thy petitions and the Answer of prayer will be an evidence of thine Interest No greater foundation of Assurance then the Answer of our Prayers Psal 66. 19. See what a kind of Argument the holy man drawes Assurance from in that place If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my prayer But verily God hath heard me That is the Minor Proposition the Conclusion is natural therefore I do not regard iniquity in my heart So in this Case the Argument will be undenyable God heareth none but sons But God heareth me Therefore I am a Son Quest But suppose some Sin of a deeper dye then ordinary straighten me and weaken my confidence in approaching to God Answ 1 Then sensibly confesse and bewaile that sin before God Acknowledge that thou dost not only deserve the darkning of thine own faith but also the darkning of his face and that not only here but
hereafter for ever That thou canst not tell with what face to call him Father having so mis-behaved thy self towards him 2 Apply thy self to his Throne of Grace for renewed pardon and that the sense of that pardon may open thy mouth again Psal 51 12 13 15. 3 Consider thy acceptance depends not on thine own worthinesse but on his meer mercy and goodnesse in Jesus Christ who is an Advocate for sinners and a Propitiation for sins 1 Joh 2. 1 2. 4 Put a bold face upon it as wee say and adventure as before upon the claim of that relation and use it in order to the obtaining of all necessary grace from God resolving in case thou ever see his face again in love yea though thou shouldst never see it again to watch against thy corruptions for time to come and walk more carefully under the Obligation of that relation then ever before Follow on this course though against the grain of thy own jealous heart and thou wilt find thy heart grow warm and thy pulse more quick by a sensible recovery of lost spirits and life to thy prayers II. This lets us know how we may maintain when we have and recover when we have lost the heat of our affections and confidence of our hearts in Prayer to wit by maintaining our Assurance of Gods love 1 John 5. 14 15. The Apostle writes to them whom he endeavours by several tokens to assure that they are the children of God and then drawes up the advantage of that Assurance And this is the confidence that we have in or concerning him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us c. The way then to keep present and renew lost boldnesse is to keep and renew assurance of Gods love by the Spirit How you may do that I have shewne before at large and so shall spare repetition here CHAP. L. Three Duties pressed on all Assured Saints The first to be much improving the supply of the Spirit in approaching to God frequently-Urged with eight Motives III. THis stirs up all who have the witnesse of the Spirit to three Duties 1 To be much in Prayer 1 Those that have it not are not to neglect it nor are they excusable for slighting it over who walk in darknesse Now if they must drive on in this rode who because the wheels of their Chariots are taken off must needs drive heavily how are you bound who have wheels and those oyled too that you may go on the more cheerfully 2. If God should with-draw what you neglect the comfortable refreshments of his Spirit and make you howle after him under spiritual darknesse in a wide and howling wildernesse of desertions and temptations you will find a difference between sailing in a clear day and a calm sea and steering the same vessel in a dark night and stormy sea when neither Sun nor Moon nor Star appeares to direct the course And then you will wish you had used days of spiritual peace for maintaining Trade with God Troublesome times are bad times to trade in The uncertainty of Adventures and returnes must needs cool the Merchants endeavours 3 Others may but you must prevail with God I mean the arrowes of prayer which by souls in darknesse are shot at adventure are not altogether without hope of acceptance but yours are beyond possibility of miscarrying and that not only in themselves but to you also you being in the light of Gods countenance are particularly assured that whatever you ask according to his Word he heareth you 1 Joh. 5. 14 15. 4 Hopes to speed are the wings of prayer Assurance as I before have shewed will be maintained by prayer and weakned by the neglect of it Let a man be never so intimately acquainted with a friend and never so certainly assured of his love yet disuse of entercourse will occasion jealousie and distrust or at least shynesse and feare of being too bold with each other 5 You wrong many others You are the Favourites of heaven how many Petitions of poor dark Saints in corners are put into your hands for dispatch to the Throne of Grace How many occasions wherein you may serve the Church come athwart you as wee say daily And can you betray all these by your negligence of improving your interest at the Throne of God No man may do more good if he attend with diligence and watchfulnesse then an honest Favourite to an earthly Prince You must not pray for your selves only but for them that cannot pray too You that are Gods Favourites may do much good if you bestir your selves 6 Know this also that God delights in the Musick of your Prayers Other men alwayes find matter of complaint but you are more fitted for Sacrifices of praise And he that offereth praise glorifieth God and so 't is no wonder if God delight most in such a Petitioner I must not be understood as if God did not also delight in the saddest complaints of a troubled spirit as they are offered up to him in a way of Petition But yet surely I think I may say God loves that Prayer most that most carries man out of himself to him and praises of assured souls are such giving Duties if I may so speak as do not only receive from God but in a sort bestow upon him 7 Adde to this that the very present comfort of communion with God if there were no other advantage to a gracious soul were encouragement enough to Duty How are the Saints of God wont to rejoyce if God give them now and then a glance of his countenance How when they have not had communion with him for a while do they complain as if every day were a year every year an Age And is the refreshment of that communion so slight unto thee that thou canst now passe many dayes it may be weeks without any sensible affection of grief and trouble at the slendernesse of intercourse between thy soul and him especially when 't is not through his strangenesse but through thine own 8 Consider what this liberty of approaching to God cost Christ for thee He laid down his dearest bloud to bring thee so nigh Ephes 2. 13. and Heb. 10. 20. He hath consecrated a new and living way through the vail i e. his flesh CHAP. LI. A second Duty pressed upon them viz. stirring up all their graces to pray with life and fervency upon six Motives 2 STir up the grace of God that is in you pray with life and fervency When we are bid not to quench the Spirit that prohibition stands between two verses wherein the proper means of preserving the Spirit alive in the soul are prescribed Pray without ceasing and in every thing give thanks 1 Thess 5. 17 18 19 20 goes before and Despise not prophecying comes after Implying if our affections be indifferent to prayer and preaching we need use no other meanes to quench the Spirit Fire will be extinguished by neglect