hateth his brother is a murderer and hath not eternal life I hate my Brother Therefore I am a Murderer and have not eternal life These are all of them conclusions quite contradictory to the vain principles that did dwell in the secure sinner which being set home by the Spirit must needs make him fear what shal become of him In like manner doth the Spirit bring the heirs of the promise to the assurance of hope by some such practical Syllogisms as these He that loves the Brethren is passed from death to life I love the Brethren Therefore I am passed from death to life Or He that repents and believes shall be saved I repent and believe Therefore I shall be saved Now the Spirit hath revealed and inspired holy men to leave upon record to us the Propositions in these two Syllogisms the same Spirit also works in us that Faith by which we are enabled to believe those Scripture Propositions to be divine infallible truths he also worketh in us every gracious habit and exciteth those gracious acts which be the evidences and marks of our conversion justification and title to glory he also helpeth to feel and discover those acts in our selves and by comparing them with the rule to find their sincerity which is his concurrence with Conscience in making the assumption and lastly he helpeth sanctified reason from the premises to inferr the Conclusion whatever is beyond this is not essential to assurance but something separable from it Sometimes our assent to the premises and conclusion is stronger sometimes weaker hence the different degrees of assurance sometimes upon this assurance peace of Conscience we are marvellously enlarged with consolations called joy in the holy Ghost sometimes nor Obj. Some may say Is there no other way of working assurance but this doth not God sometimes testifie without any such discourse and ratiocination hath he confined himself to Syllogisms doth he not sometimes make some impressions on us by which we are assured that we are the children of God without the help or use of any argumentation Answ I have been alway apt to think that there is no other ordinary way of assuring the soul partly because the Scripture no where encourageth us to look for assurance in any other way and partly because to grant an immediate testimony seemed to me to open such a gap to Euthusiasme as it was impossible well to shut and I am somewhat imboldned in that sentiment by the concurrent judgment of a sober judicious Divine Mr. Tho. Blake who in his Treatise of the Covenant thus expresseth himself They that go about to assert an immediate testimony in any will never secure the soul from delusion Sathan will soon find an artifice to counterfeit this testimony and bear witness in the Spirits stead and when we think that we have the Spirit of truth to assure us we shall have the father of lies to deceive But in regard many of eminent piety and learning do assert an immediate testimony it may not be amiss to enquire a little what they mean by it and how they do bound it and then to shew what may be thought of it By this immediate Testimony they tell us that they do not mean any proper whisper or voice such as young Converts mistaking such Scripture phrases as Say unto my soul thou art my salvation are apt to wait for but they say it is a perswasion impressed upon a man suddenly and he knows not how quieting all his doubts and fears and making him chearfull and comfortable If you ask them How a Child of God who is to try all things dare adventure to take any such comfort how he knows it not to be a delusion of Satan they tell us that as there is in the eye a certain in-bred light to make it discern light and colours without a sound and air within the ear to make it discerne the sounds without So there is in a godly man grace a new nature and habitual instinct of heaven whereby it discernes the consolations of Gods Spirit testifying that he is the Son of God some secret and inexpressible lineaments of the fathers countenance in the child that the renewed soul at the very first blush knows and owns it Moreover they tell us 1. That although the Spirit thus testifie without application of any particular word yet he never testifies contrary to the word he never speaks to those who are regenerate though they do not know themselves to be such 2. That the Spirit doth not ordinarily thus testifie but after or in attendance on some ordinance or performance of some duty or after some very great abasement of a mans Spirit and more then ordinary soul-humiliation or after some very hard adventure for God or after some great combat and conflict with temptation 3. That such of the Testimonies of the Spirit do beget but an actual assurance during the present exigence or in order to some present design that God is working thereby Now to give my sense of this opinion 1. The Authors of it seem so to bound it as that it would be uncharitableness to think that they have any ill or pernicious design in it 2. The things which they say are done by impression are not without ratiocination only the ratiocination is not so distinct and explicite as when a man comes to his assurance by that difficult work of examination Philosophers say that what is done by beasts through instinct and impulse is not done without something analogous to ratiocination they commonly give us the examples of such Syllogisms as they suppose to be made by beasts as namely lambs when they come to their dams and flie away from the wolves So I conceive that in all the impressions made on the soul whether they be by way of comfort or incitation to duty there be some characters either in the matter or manner of them either in their holiness or greatness or vehemence or unusualness by which a Christian knows them to be from God and so accordingly rests in them the which characters did he not find he would either not regard them or reject them with abhorrence 3. I would not have any one lay the stress of his hope of heaven on any such impression nor upon the account of any such impression alter his opinion in reference to any point of Doctrine or adventure upon any practice that is in the least questionable unto him If he should I take it he would give the devil great advantage against him and subject himself to infinite delusions as will soon be manifest to him that will be at the pains to read over the discourses of Dr. Casaubon and Dr. Moore concerning Enthusiasme Mr. John Fox our holy and learned Martyrologist had many impressions some of which are taken notice of by his son in the History of his life but did they not sometimes fail him and discover themselves to be neither Divine nor True Let any one judge
indeed had his Revelations but those were not the ordinary standing lasting ground of his gloriation but the testimony of his Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God he had had his conversation in the World 2. Cor. 1.12 What that we are bid by St. Peter to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure 2. Epist 1.10 Which implyeth that assurance is not onely to be expected by extraordinary immediate Revelation 2. If we cannot have assurance 't is either because we cannot be sure what puts us into a state of grace or because we cannot be sure that we are in that state of grace To say that we cannot know what puts us into a state of grace or makes us children of God and disciples of Christ is too great an absurdity for the Papists themselves to swallow it doth indeed make the one half of the Scriptures needless for what doth Scripture more design then to lay down the distinguishing marks betwixt sincerity and hypocrysie faith and unbelief the power of Godliness and the form It will therefore perhaps be said that we may know what true grace is but we cannot know our selves to have true grace wrought in us because of the deceitfulness of our hearts Now that the heart of man is deceitfull deceitfull above all things will not be denied by any who either studieth Scripture or his own heart But we may well say that the deceitfulness whether natural or acquired is in part cured and removed by sanctifying grace and the Spirit also doth assist as is more to be shewen hereafter the sanctified faculty to observe and take notice of its own frame and therefore its remaining deceitfulness notwithstanding it may come to some certainty of its own condition To make short I ask Was Conscience designed by God to be a Witness and a judge did he intend it should somtimes justifie somtimes condemn If he did not design it to any such work or office why then all both Heathens and Christians have mistaken its nature and office if he did why then may not a renewed Conscience witness concerning a mans renewed and justified condition Doubtless it may witness and give such a Testimony as God will own hereafter and man may for the present comfortably acquiesce in As from our hearts condemning us we may infer that God will condemn us so from our hearts not condemning us we may collect that God will not condemn us and that with such firmness or certainty as will give us boldness in the presence of God and assure our hearts before him that we shall have the things we ask of him 1 John 3.20 21. Had the Testimony been so obscure and uncertain as Papists make it to be St. Paul would not have so rejoiced and gloried in it as we before observed him to do from 2 Cor. 1.12 3. If no assurance were attainable then some duties enjoined us would be altogether either unprofitable or impossible I instance in two or three Why are we bid to search and try our waies if it cannot be known whether they are right Why are we bid to examine our selves whether we be in the faith 2 Cor. 13. if it cannot be known whether we be in the faith How should we rejoice in the Lord and glory in tribulation if when we have done all our title to heaven must be uncertain if we may at last for ought we know to the contrary have our portion in the lake that burnes with fire and brimstone Set a man upon a very high pinacle and let him know he may fall from it and see whether you can perswade him to rejoice the possibility and much more the probability of any danger that is intolerable must needs damp all joy Much less could a Christian be earnest and vehement in his desires to be dissolved and be with Christ if he could have no sure hope that when he is dissolved he should be found in Christ Why hath God set Promises as thick in the Word as Stars in the Firmament if by no means we can clear up our interest in them If the sweetness of all the Covenant were strained into one single Promise what would that avail me if by no means I could be perswaded that I shall one day be permitted to taste of it This argument did horribly puzzle Bellarmine and in answer to it he recites three opinions of Catholicks as he calls them according to none of which he thinks men will be left under any necessity of doubting concerning their reconciliation with God and at last he tells us that all they contend against is onely a certainty of Faith properly so called but we are wiser then to lay the stress of so material a question upon a School-phrase Let it but be granted that the soul can have such a knowledge of its own sincerity as makes it certain that it is not mistaken we shall sit down under the shadow of that concession and eat the sweet fruit of it leaving it to the Tridentine Doctors to determine whether this may be called Faith Catholick and if not whether yet it may not be called Divine Faith differing from Catholick Faith differing not in certainty and exclusion of doubting but onely in universality I must needs say I understand not how any man can be said to believe that he believes and if any of our Writers have so expressed themselves which is more then I know they spoke not properly Wendeline in his larger System of Divinity propounding against himself this objection as from the Papists What is certain with the certainty of Faith is either expresly contained in the Word of God or by due consequence may be thence deduced But that this or that man I or thou do truly believe is not expresly contained in Scripture nor can by any due consequence be thence deduced therefore it cannot be certain with a certainty of Faith doth well answer The conclusion doth not contradict us for we do not in kind say that we can by a certainty of Faith be certain that we truly believe but indefinitely that we may be certain With what certainty then I answer with a certainty of inward vision or the testimony of our mind enlightned by the holy Spirit who witnesseth to our spirit that we are the sons of God and do truly believe This certainty therefore is not written in the book of Scripture but in the book of our heart and that by the finger of the Spirit Hence we believe not that we believe but see feel As we do not believe that we do think of God but know and perceive by our mind quoting for the confirmation of his answer an elegant sentence of S. Augustine lib. 13. De Trin. Fidem suam quisque qui eam habet videt in corde suo tenet certissimâ scientiâ clamante conscientia In which way if he had proceeded in answering the self same objection
loves Christ diligently endeavours to amend his life is ordained to eternal life I love Christ and endeavour diligently to amend my life therefore I am ordained to eternal life Is the Major here true or false if it be true then it is their error to say that love to Christ is not proper to the elect if it be false what becomes of the conclusion inferred from it If it be said which is all they can say that if aman can feel in his heart a sense of Gods love he may thence infer a conditional certainty of his election viz If he shall persevere in his love that is no more then what the non-Elect may have Suppose we one of them to know that he is a believer yet cannot he thence infer that he is elected or shall persevere to eternal life because he neither thinks true faith to be proper to Gods elect nor to have any promise of certain perseverance made to it to say that none of these brethren are true believers is the highest uncharitableness for what Scripture is it saith that it is essential to Christianity to be rightly informed concerning the connexion of faith with election or where is this doctrine so clearly revealed in the word as that all must needs be supposed to be wilfully blind who will not see and acknowledge it 3. This perswasion is in order of Nature after Faith therefore the nature of Faith cannot lie in it The Antecedent is presently proved because I must first be in the favour of God which I cannot be but by Faith ' ere I can know or be perswaded that I am in the favour of God for a proposition is alway in order of nature true before it is known to be true as every mans reason doth tell him And this order as it hath its foundation in reason so also in Scripture 1 John 5.13 These things have I written to you that believe in the name of the Son of God that ye may know ye have eternal life Bellarmine saw this and therefore inferrs that according to the opinion commonly received among Reformed Divines in his time men are justified before they do believe and methinks the learned Chamier doth not like himself when he goes about to untie this knot for he saith that Faith doth if not in order of time yet of nature follow justification a saying contrary to the whole current of Scripture 4. If Faith did consist in this perswasion it would follow that some who do hear the Gospel either were not bound to believe or were bound to believe a lie That any who hear the Gospel should not be bound to believe cannot be for then unbelief would be no sin to them and if no sin then could it not deserve condemnation when as we know from Scripture that it is the condemning sin And that some if obliged to believe that either they are elected or justified would be bound to believe a lie is as plain for certainly among those that hear the Gospel some are not chosen nor pardoned But what is more absurd then that any man should be bound to believe a lie can any thing be the object of faith but what is true or any thing the object of Divine Faith but what is so true that it cannot be false More need not be said against this error But it will be asked whether though the nature of Faith do not consist in this assurance yet it be not that which every believer doth some time or other find or whether any Child of God do so walk in darkness as that the light of Gods countenance is never lifted up on him no not before his death This I shall endeavour to answer by the following conclusions 1. No question as the Sun after it hath for all the day been hid in the clouds doth sometimes shew it self and that gloriously just before it sets so the Faith of a Christian after it hath for the greatest part of his life been clouded with doubts and fears doth near unto his death sometimes so manifest it self by some lively acts as that he can no longer doubt of its sincerity but cries out my Lord my Saviour In that little experience I have had in the world I have known sundry who have all their life been subject to fears and filled every Minister and Christian of their acquaintance with dreadful complaints against themselves who yet when they have been on their death-beds or have apprehended themselves so to be have triumphed over death in the Apostles language O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15. They that are in the least conversant in our English Martyrology cannot but know how usual it was with God to seal up his love to his servants just when he called them out to set their own seals to his truth so high was their assurance that you would have thought that they had heard the Musick of the Coelestial Choire when they heard the ratling of the chains with which they were to be tied to the stake When Mr. Robert Glover was condemned to die and was now at a point to be delivered out of the world it so happened that two or three days before his heart being lumpish and destitute of all true consolation he felt in himself no aptness but rather an heaviness I all along use Mr. Fox his own words and dulness of Spirit fall of much discomfort to bear the bitter cross of Martyrdom whereupon fearing in himself lest the Lord had utterly withdrawn his wonted favour from him he made his moan to a Minister complaining how earnestly he had prayed day and night and yet could receive no motion nor sense of comfort from God but so soon as he came to the sight of the stake he was so mightily replenished with Gods holy comfort and heavenly joys that he cryed out clapping his hands Austin that was the name of the Minister to whom he had complained He is come he is come The Apostles that did alway beare about in their bodies the dying of our Lord Jesus that were alway delivered unto death for Jesus sake had also the life of Christ made so manifest in them that though they were troubled on every side yet they were not distressed did so constantly and assuredly know that he which raised up Jesus would raise them up also by Jesus and that their light afflâ—ctions which were but for a moment wrought for them a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory that they did not faint but rather waxed more bold by their bonds The same truth might also be compassed about with a cloud of witnesses of such as did die a natural death But that work is done to our hands by Melchior Adam and others who have delivered to us the story of the life and death of men famous in their generations for piety and learning Yea so usual is it with Christs Disciples to have their inward man renewed day by day
throw away the bread and water appointed by God for the satisfying of those natural appetites then may he hope to perswade the experienced Christian that all his desires after Christ are but the workings of a melancholy phansie or to despise the Body and Blood of Christ the onely things that ever he found to satisfie those desires Obj. What then can the Assured Christian answer every question that a subtil diputant makes can he solve every fallacious argument of a cunning Sophister A. No perhaps he cannot answer any one of his fallacies but he hath such a sense of the reality and preciousness of the things against which the fallacies are framed that he knows them to be but fallacies and cares not much were it not for others sake whether they be ever answered or no. If a condemned Malefactor dead in Law should have his Princes pardon brought him and had accepted it and upon acceptation of it found himself restored to life again and every thing that made his life comfortable unto him how little would he matter it whether he were pardoned by an immanent or transient action or whether he did receive his pardon by an act of the understanding or of the will by one act or by many or whether the acceptation of his pardon were the instrument or the condition of his pardon As little will he who hath a sense of his faith and of his justification by faith matter it how those controversies are decided that have of late years occupied the pens and tongues of so many both learned and unlearned As little doth he matter it I say as to himself though for the sake of others he rejoyceth to see truth accurately handled and rescued from those absurdities where-with adversaries taking advantage from the less cautious expressions of her friends had loaded her What sayest thou now O Christian is this Assurance worth thy seeking after and praying for or is it not Wilt thou give all diligence to make thy calling and election sure or wilt thou still put all to the adventure and leave thy eternal condition at uncertainties Methinks after so many glorious effects of Assurance have been opened every one that nameth the name of Christ should be restless till he have it and should go from ordinance to ordinance till he could say I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine Till he can see his name written in the Lambs book of life till he find the white stone in his hand till he taste the hidden Manna with his mouth and find the Spirit witnessing to his spirit that he may be of good cheer because that his sins are pardoned I would take it for granted that so it shall be were it not that the flesh will alway be drawing back from and framing objections against every thing that requireth diligence and cometh not till after many Prayers and Endeavours Endless it would be to attempt to answer all the cavils of slothfull persons against the work I have been pressing two it may not be amiss to take notice of Object We have known those who have gloried much in their Assurance whose Assurance was never found to produce any of the forementioned blessed effects Answ I have also known those who have boasted much of their great love to Christ and yet made no conscience of keeping his Commandements this did never make me think that universal Obedience was not the fruit of true Love but onely that their Love was not true Semblably when I observe any who say they have Assurance shewing forth their Assurance by none of the fore-mentioned blessed effects I conclude their Assurance to be the counterfeit Assurance or carnal confidence known commonly by the name of Presumption 't is to me so manifest that he who hath Assurance will I. Be above the tormenting fear of death 2. Despise the perishing vanities of the world 3. Sleight and despise the censures of the ungodly 4. Expresse an holy boldnesse in his prayers 5. Take comfort in the Word and Sacraments 6. Abound in Praise and Thanksgiving 7. Kindly mourn for sin and watch against it 8. Not regard cavils against the Truths the power whereof he experimentally feeleth that where I find not these I adventure to say there is no Assurance and I would have all the fore-mentioned particulars made use of in way of Examination as well as Motive that if any one do not find his perswasion of the goodness of his condition accompanied with them he may thence as he hath the greatest reason inferr that it is not wrought in him by the Spirit of God Object But is it not time enough to get Assurance hereafter Will it not suffice if some time before a man do depart out of this world he be sealed by the Spirit Answ 1. Sure he that makes this Objection doth not believe what I have been all along asserting out of Scriptures concerning the benefits of Assurance else he would be hugely desirous not to want it for one moment longer it would be death unto him to be without it till death seize on him 2. No man can have this Assurance but by the Spirit now he is a most free and arbitrary Agent blowing when and where he listeth He who now refuseth his consolations may perhaps want them everlastingly 3. The longer any one stayes without Assurance with the more difficulty will he obtain it at last The longer any one doth walk in the dark the more hard thoughts doth he insensibly take up concerning God and the more unhappily skilfull doth he grow in disputing against his own consolations the longer that the heart hardneth it self through the deceitfulness of siâ— the more unfit is it to receive the Seal of the Holy Spirit of God What-ever is brought against late death-bed Repentance may be also brought against late death-bed Assurance with this onely difference that whereas Repentance is necessary to the very being of a Disciple Assurance is onely necessary to his well-being Quest 6. What means are to be used for the attaining of this Assurance Answ Before I direct to means it will be needfull that I premise some things I. That I do suppose true solid Assurance to be intended in the Question As for Presumption 1. It is needless to prescribe any means for the getting of it 't is like some ill weeds which in some soils will grow do the Husbandman what he will or can Satan will both plant and water and also give increase unto it and so deep roots it taketh that the very approaches of Death cannot pull it up Nothing more usual then for men that live under the Sun-shine of the Gospel to drop out of a golden dream out of a fools paradise into Hell 2. If it were in the least needfull to give any Directions for the attaining of this presumptuous perswasion I durst not give them for it is the work of Gospel Ministers to throw down to the ground all those buildings that are built with