certainty bless him and will bless his blessing to him and in multiplying he would multiply his seed as the stars of Heaven and as the sand which is upon the Sea shore Now the Angel of the Lord viz. the Lord Jesus as his own words shew Verse 12 15 16. calls unto Abraham out of Heaven not once but twice and now he shews his admirable love in countermanding of Abraham and in providing a Ram even to a miracle for a burnt-offering And thus you see that believing times are times wherein the Lord is graciously pleased to reveal his love and make known his favor to his people and to look from Heaven upon them and to speak again and again in love and sweetness to them Fifthly Hearing and receiving Reas 5 times are times wherein the Lord is graciously pleased to cause his face to shine upon his people when they are a hearing the Word of Life and a Psal 63. 3 4. breaking the Bread of Life then God comes in upon them and declares to them that love that is better then life Acts 10. 44. While Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the Word As Peter was Also by the Holy Ghost is meant the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit Vers 45 46. Acts 11. 15. Therefore says the Apostle do not leave the substance for a shadow the Sun for a Candle and speaking the Holy Ghost that is the graces of the Holy Ghost viz. the joy the comfort the love the peace c. of the Holy Ghost fell upon them So in that Gal. 3. 2. This onely would I learn of you received ye the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith By the Spirit here Calvin and Bullinger and other Expositors do understand the joy the peace the assurance that is wrought in the heart solid Meat for Milk which none would do except they were bewitched Gal. 3. 1. by the hearing of Faith that is by the Doctrine of the Gospel for in these words of the Apostle hearing is put for the thing heard and Faith for the Doctrine of the Gospel because the Gospel is the ordinary means of working Faith Faith comes by hearing saith the Apostle So in that 1 Thes 1. 5 6. By the Holy Ghost in this Text cannot be meant the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit and that first because they were no evidences of Election secondly because many vessels of wrath have been partakers of them thirdly many of Gods choice and chosen ones have been destitute of those extraordinary gifts For our Gospel came not unto you in word onely but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake And ye became followers of us and of the Lord having received the Word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost In these words you have a Divine Power attending Pauls Ministry a power convincing enlightning humbling raising delighting reforming renouncing and transforming of them that heard him Also you have the sweet and blessed testimony of the Spirit attending his Ministry and assuring those of their Effectual Calling and Election upon whom the Word came in power and raising up their spirits to joy in the midst of sorrow Ah you precious Sons and Daughters of Sion that have sate waiting and trembling at Wisdoms door tell me tell me Hath not God rained down Manna upon your souls whilest you have been hearing the Word Yes Hath not God come in with power upon you and by his Spirit sealed up to you your Election the Remission of your sins the Justification of your persons and the Salvation of your souls Yes Without controversie many Saints have found Christs lips in this Ordinance to drop honey and sweetness marrow and fatness And as Christ in hearing times when his people are a hearing the Word of Life does lift up the light of his countenance upon them so when they are a receiving the Bread of Life he makes known his love to them and their interest in him in this feast of fat This Ordinance is a Cabineâ— of Jewels in it are abundance of Spiritual Springs and rich Mines heavenly Treasures things the Master of the Feast the Lord Jesus comes in the midst of his guests saying Peace be here Here the beams of his glory do so shine as that they cause the hearts of his Children to burn within them and as scatters all that thick darkness and clouds that are gathered about them When Saints are in this Wine Celler Christs Banner over them is Love When they are in this Canaan then he feeds them with Milk and Honey When they are in this Paradise then they shall taste of Angels Food When they are at this Gate of Heaven then they shall see Christ at the right hand of the Father When they are before this Mercy Seat then they shall see the Bowels of Mercy rowling towards them In this Ordinance they see that and taste that and feel that of Christ that they are not able to declare and manifest to others In this Ordinance Saints shall see the truth of their graces and feel the increase of their graces and rejoyce in the clearness of their evidences In this Ordinance Christ will seal up the Promises and seal up the Covenant and seal up his Love and seal up their pardon sensibly to their souls Many precious souls there be that have found Christ in this Ordinance when they could not finde him in other Ordinances though they have sought him sorrowingly Many a cold soul hath been warmed in this Ordinance and many a hungry soul hath been fed with Every gracious soul may say not onely credo vitam aeternam edo vitam aeternam I believe life eternal but I receive I eat life eternal Manna in this Ordinance and many a thirsty soul hath been refreshed with Wine upon the Lees in this Ordinance and many a dull soul hath been quickned in this Ordinance * Every wicked soul that takes the cup may say Calix vitae calix mortis the Cup of Life is made my death 1 Cor. 11. 27. I do not say That ever a dead soul hath been in livened in this Ordinance this being an Ordinance appointed by Christ not to beget Spiritual Life where there was none but to increase it where the Spirit hath formerly begun it In this Ordinance weak hands and feeble knees have been strengthned and fainting hearts have been comforted and questioning souls have been resolved and staggering souls have been setled and falling souls have been supported Ah Christians if you will but stand up and speak out you must say That in this Ordinance there hath been between Christ and you such mutual smiles such mutual kisses such mutual embraces such mutual opening and shutting of hands such mutual opening and closing of hearts as hath made such a Heaven in your hearts
The betrothed Virgin cannot shew more strong and vehement love to her beloved then by being sick and surprised with love-qualms when she meets him when she enjoyes him it was so here with the Spouse of Christ The love of Christ to Believers is a vehement love an ardent love witness his leaving his Fathers bosom his putting upon us his Royal Robes his bleeding his dying c. And it doth naturally beget Amor non nisi donum amantis Gul. Par. vehement and ardent Love in all the beloved of God Where Christ loves he always begets somewhat like himself Amor semper habet quid sui simile That love that is flat luke-warm or cold will leave a man to freeze a this side Heaven it will fit him for the warmest place in Hell Dives love was very cold and he found the flames of Hell to be very hot That love that accompanies Salvation is full of heat and fire Fifthly That Love that accompanies Salvation is lasting Love it is permanent Love the objects of it are lasting the springs and causes of it are lasting the nature of it is lasting The Primitive Christians loved not Revel 12. 11. their lives unto the death Persecutors have taken away the Martyrs lives for Christ but could never destroy their love to Christ Ephes 6. 24. Grace be 1 Cor. 13. 8. Love never faileth or as it is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never falleth away but shall last for ever in Heaven in which respect the Apostle lifts it up above Faith Hope and all the common gifts of the Spirit in the same Chapter with all that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity or in incorruption as the Greek word signifies whereby the Apostle gives us to understand That true love to Christ is not liable to corruption putrifaction or decay but is constant and permanent lasting yea everlasting That Love that accompanies Salvation is like to the Oyl in the Cruse and the Meal in the Barrel that wasted not it is like the Apple-Tree of Persia that buddeth blossometh and beareth fruit every moneth it is like the Lamp in the story that never went out it is like the Stone in Thracia that neither burneth in the fire nor sinketh in the water Cant. 8. 6 7. Love is stronger then death many waters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contemning it would be contemned Omnia vincit amor Love rides in her chariot of triumph over all calamities and miseries and cryes Victory victory cannot quench it nor thâ— floods cannot drown it If a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would be contemned Love will out-live all enemies temptations oppositions afflictions persecutions dangers and deaths Loves Motto is Nulli cedo I yeeld to none Love is like the Sun the Sun beginning to ascend in his circle never goes back until he comes to the highest degree thereof True love abhors Apostacie it ascends to more perfection and ceases not until like Eliahs Fiery-Chariot it hath carried the Soul to Heaven Many mens love to Christ is like the Morning Dew it is like Jonahs Goard that came up in a night and vanished in a night But that love that accompanies Salvation is like Ruthes love a lasting and an abiding Ruth 1. love it is Love that will bed and board with the Soul that will lye down and rise up with the Soul that will to the fire to the prison to the grave to Heaven with the Soul Sixthly That love that accompanies Salvation is an abounding This is clear throughout the whole Book of Cantiâ—les as all may ruâ— and read love an increasing love Love in a Saint is like the Waters in Noahs time that rose higher and higher The very nature of true Love is to abound and rise higher and higher Phil. 1. 9. This I pray that your love may abound yet more and more The longer a Believer lives the more eminent and excellent Causes of Love he sees in Christ Christ discovers himself gradually to the Soul Now a Believers love to Christ rises answerable to the causes of love that he sees in Christ The more light the more love Knowledge and Love like the Water and the Ice beget each other Man loves Christ by knowing and knows Christ by loving Mans love is always answerable to his light he cannot love much that knows but little he cannot love little that knows much As a man rises higher and higher in his apprehensions of Amat Deus non aliunde hoc habet sed ipse est unde amat Aug. Christ so he cannot but rise higher and higher in his affections to Christ Again the daily Mercies and Experiences that they have of the love of Christ of the care of Christ of the bowels and compassions of Christ working more and more towards them cannot but raise their affections more and more to him As fire is encreased by adding of fuel unto it so is our love to Christ upon fresh and new manifestations of his great love towards us As the Husband abounds in his love to his Wife so the Wife rises in her love to her Husband the more love the Father manifests to the Childe the more the ingenuous Childe rises in his affections to him so the more love the Lord Jesus shews to us the more he is beloved by us Christ shewed much love to Mary Luke 7. 47 48 Magdalen and this raises in her much love to Christ She loved much for much was forgiven her As the Israelites in the three and thirtieth of Numbers removed their Tents from Mithkah to Chasmonah from sweetness to swiftness as the words import so the sweetness of Divine love manifested to the soul makes the soul more sweet swift and high in the exercise and actings of love towards Christ A Soul under special manifestations of Love weeps that it can love Christ no more Mr. Welch a Suffolk Minister weeping at Table and being asked the reason of it answered It was because he could love Christ no more The true lovers of Christ can never rise high enough in their love to Christ they count a little love to be no love great love to be but little strong love to be but weak and the highest love to be infinitely below the worth of Christ the beauty and glory of Christ the fulness sweetness and goodness of Christ The top of their misery in this life is That they love so little though they are so much beloved Seventhly and lastly That Love that accompanies Salvation is open love it is manifest love it is love that cannot be hid that cannot be covered and buried it is like the Sun it will shine forth and shew it self to all the world A man cannot love Christ but he will shew it in these and such-like things as follow First Divine Love makes the Soul even ready to break in longing after a further clearer and fuller enjoyment of Christ The voice of Divine love is
he can be assured of remission or salvation but this he cannot bee before he hath faith therefore there may bee grace where there is no assurance Christ went to heaven in a cloud and the Angel went up to heaven in the smoak and flame of the sacrifice and so I doubt not but many precious soules doe ascend to heaven in clouds Act. 1. 9. Judg. 13. 20. and darknesse Now a man may have grace and yet want assurance and that may arise from these causes First from his cavilling spirit and Cease cavilling thou weak soul and say Quod fui Demine ignosce quod sum corrige quod ero dirige O Lord forgive what I have been correct what I am direct what I shall be from his siding with the old man against the new with the flesh against the spirit with corruption against grace with the house of Saul against the house of David with the worke of Satan against the worke of God Sinne is Satans worke grace holiness is Gods yet such is the weaknesse yea madnesse of many poore soules that they will fall in and side with Satans worke rather then with Gods against their owne soules Ah Christians will you condemne that Judge for injustice and unrighteousnesse that shall open his eares to the complaints of the Plaintiffe but stop his ears against When John Prostiborski Baron of Schanow was laid on the racke he with an heroical indignation cut out his tongue and cast it away being demanded why he did so set down his answer with a quill on the wall I did it said he because I would not be brought by any tortures to say any thing that is false against my selfe or others Ah cavilling souls I had almost said that you were better cut out your tongues then suffer them to be still a cavilling against the grace of God the image of God that is stamped upon you the answers of the Defendant and will you not condemne your selves for that you doe with both ears heare what Sinne and Satan hath to say against the soule but have not one eare open to heare what the Spirit what grace what the New-man what the noble part of man what the regenerate man can say for the justification satisfaction and consolation of the soule Let mee tell thee O thou cavilling soule that it is thy wisdome and thy duty to remember that that command of God that doth prohibit thee from bearing false witnesse against thy neighbour that same command doth enjoyne thee not to beare false witnesse against the worke of grace upon thy owne heart against the precious and glorious things that God hath done for thy soul And thou shouldest make as much conscience of bearing false witnesse against any thing the Lord hath wrought in thee and for thee as thou doest make conscience of bearing false witnesse against thy neighbour It cannot but be sad with the soule but be night with the soule when it makes much conscience of the one and no conscience of the other Many heathens have been so loving and faithful one to another that they would rather dye then they would beare false witnesse one against another How dare you cavilling souls then to beare false witnesse against your owne soules and the gracious worke of the Lord upon them If this bee not the way to keep off assurance and keep the soule in darknesse yea in a hell I know nothing Againe a man may have grace and yet want assurance and that may arise in the second place from the exceeding littlenesse and weaknesse of Matth. 14. 30 31. Mark 9. 24. his grace A little Candle yeelds but a little light and a little grace yeelds but a little evidence Great measures of grace carries with them great and cleer evidences but little measures carries with them but little evidence Some Stars are so small that they are scarce discernable So some Saints Luke 13 18 19. Pythagoras saâ—th That Mustard-seed hath the preeminence among those things whose power is to ascend upwards Pliâ— in hâ—s Rhet. Hist lib. 20. cha 22. speaks more of this grain vide graces are so small that they can hardly see their graces to bee graces A little fire will yeeld but a little heat a little grace will yeeld but a little comfort a little evidence A little grace will yeeld a man a heaven hereafter but it is a great deale of grace that must yeeld us heaven here A little stock will bring in but a little profit a little grace will bring in but a little peace A little Jewel yeelds but a little lustre a little glory no more doth a little grace and therefore it is that Christians that have but a little grace have but a little of the shine and lustre of Assurance they have but little joy and comfort in this world Yet that the spirits of weake Christians may not utterly faint let mee give them this hint viz. That the weakest Christian The Babe in the arms as much propriety in the Father as hee that is growne up to ripe years though he cannot make such improvement of it as the other is as much justified as much pardoned as much adopted and as much united to Christ as the strongest and hath as much interest and propriety in Christ as the highest and noblest Christian that breaths though hee cannot make so much advantage and improvement of his interest and propriety as the strong Christian who hath a greater degree of grace Hierom observes upon the Beatitudes that there are many of the promises made to weake grace Mat. 5. A childs hand may receive a pearle as well as the hand of a Gyant so may a weak faith a Christ as well as a strong 3. 4. Blessed are the poore in spirit v. 4. Blessed are they that mourne and v. 5. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst Weake Saints remember this the promise is a ring of gold and Christ is the precious tried stone in that ring and upon that stone must you rest as you would have grace to thrive and your soules to bee safe and happy Weake soules remember this as Joseph sent Chariots to bring his Father Gen. 45. and his brethren to him so God would have your weake graces to bee as Chariots to bring you to himselfe who is the cherisher strengthner and increaser of grace Hee that makes his graces to be servants and handmaids to convey him to Christ the It would very much discomfort us and terrifie us to see one haunt us that was long since laid in the grave whose resurrection we did neither feare nor repent till the sounding of the last Trumpet fountaine of grace hee shall finde the greatest sweetnesse in grace and the greatest increase of grace Againe a man may have true grace and yet want assurance and this may arise from the resurrection of old sins Ah when those sinnes which were long since committed and long since lamented and long since
loathsom Dungeon the pavement whereof was sharp shells and his bed to lie on a bundle of thorns All which this blessed Martyr received without so much as a groan breathing out his spirit in these words Vincentius is my name and by the grace of God I will be still Vincentius inspight of all your torments Persecution brings death in one hand and life in the other for while it kills the body it crowns the soul The most cruel Martyrdom is but a crafty trick to escape death to pass from life to life from the prison to paradise from the cross to the crown Justin Martyr says that when the Romans did immortalize their Emperors as they called it they brought one to swear that he see him go to Heaven out of the fire But we may see by an eye of Faith the blessed Souls of suffering Saints flie to Heaven like Elias in his fiery Judg. 13. 20. chariot like the Angel that appeared to Manoah in the flames John Hus Martyr had such choice discoveries of God and such sweet in-comes of the Spirit as made his patience and constancy A patient man under reproaches is like a man with a Sword in one hand and a Salve in the other he could wound but he will heal invincible When he was brought forth to be burned they put on his head a Triple Crown of Paper painted over with ugly Devils but when he saw it he said My Lord Jesus Christ for my sake did were a Crown of Thorns why should not I then for his sake wear this light crown be it never so ignominious truly I will do it and that willingly And as they tied his neck with a chain to the stake smiling he said That he would willingly receive the The Motto of patient souls is plura pro Christo toleranda we must suffer more then so for Christ same chain for Jesus Christs sake who he knew was bound with a far worse chain for his sake Well remember this their names that by a patient suffering are written in Red Letters of blood in the Churches Calender are written in Golden Letters in Christs Register in the Book of Life A second Reason why the Lord Reas 2 lifts up the light of his countenance upon his people in suffering times and that is for the confirmation of some for the conversion of others and for the greater conviction and confusion of their adversaries who wonder and are like men amazed when they see the comfort and the courage of the Saints in suffering times Pauls choice carriage in his bonds was the Phil. 1. 14. vide Estius confirmation of many And many of the Brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my bonds are much more bold to speak the Word without fear And as the sufferings of the Saints do contribute to the confirmation of some so by the blessing of God they contribute to the conversion of others I beseech thee says Paul for Philem. v. 10. my son Onesimus whom I have begotten in my bonds It was a notable saying of Luther Ecclesia totum mundum convertâ—t sanguine oratione The Church converteth the whole world by blood and prayer Basil affirms That the They knew it could be but a days journey between the cross and paradise between that short storm and an eternal calm Primitive Saints shewed so much comfort and courage so much Heroick zeal and constancy that many of the Heathens turned Christians so that choice spirit that the Saints have shewed in their sufferings when Christ hath overshadowed them with his love and stayed them with flagons and comforted them with apples hath madded grieved vexed and extreamly It would be too tedious to give you an account of all particular persecutors in this case whom the courage faith and patience of the Saints have tyred out tormented and made weaty of their lives and also bred wonder and astonishment in beholders and readers tormented their tormentors Lactantius boasts of the braveness of the Martyrs in his time our children and women not to speak of men do in silence overcome their tormentors and the fire cannot so much as fetch a sigh from them Hegesippus reports an observation of Antoninus the Emperor viz. That the Christians were most couragious and confident always in Earth-quakes whilest his own Heathen Souldiers were at such accidents most fearful and dis-spirited Certainly no Earth-quakes can make any Heart-quakes among the suffering Saints so long as the countenance of God shines upon their face and his love lies warm upon their Hearts The suffering Saint may be assaulted but not vanquished he may be troubled but can never be conquered he may lose his head but he cannot lose his Crown which the 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. righteous Lord hath prepared and laid up for him The suffering Saint shall still be master of the day though they Mori posse vinci non posse kill him they cannot hurt him he may suffer death but never conquest And they overcame him by the blood of Rev. 12. 11. the Lamb and by the word of their testimony O Lord Jesus said one I love thee plusquam mea plusquam meos plusquam me more then all my goods more then all my friends yea more then my very life and they loved not their lives unto the death They love not their lives that love Christ and his truth more then their lives they that slight contemn and despise their lives when they stand in competition with Christ may be truly said not to love their lives In these words you see that the Saints by dying do overcome They may kill me said Socrates of his enemies but they cannot hurt me A Saint may say this and more The Herb Heliotropium doth turn about and open it self according to the motion of the Sun so do the Saints in their sufferings according to the internal motions of the Sun of Righteousness upon them A third Reason Why the Lord Reas 3 causes his goodness to pass before his people and his face to shine upon his people in suffering times and that is for the praise of his own Grace and for the glory of his own Name God would lose much of his own glory if he should not stand by his people and comfort them and strengthen them in the day of their sorrows Ah the dirt the scorn the contempt that Exod. 32. 12. Num. 14. 13. vain men would cast upon God Look as our greatest good comes thorow the sufferings of Christ so Gods greatest glory that he hath from his Saints comes thorow their sufferings If ye be reproached for the name of Christ. 1 Peâ— 4. 14. Vide Bezam happy are ye for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you On their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified It makes much for the glory of God that his people are cleared and comforted quickned and raised spiritualized and elevated in
will shew it self at the Spring and so will the habits of Faith break forth into acts when the Sun of Righteousness shall shine forth and make it a pleasant spring to thy soul And thus much for this second particular The third Property of that Faith that accompanies Salvation is this It makes those things that are great and glorious in the worlds account to be very little and low in the eyes of a Believer Faith makes a Believer to Heb. 11. 9. live in the Land of Promise as in a strange Country it is nothing to live as a stranger in a strange Land but to live as a stranger in the Land of Promise this is the excellency and glory of Faith Faith will make a man set his feet where other men sets their hearts Faith looks with an eye of scorn and disdain upon the things of this world What sayes Faith are earthly treasures to the treasures of Matth 6. 19 20. Heaven what are stones to silver dross to gold darkness to light Hell to Heaven No more sayes Faith are all the treasures pleasures and delights of this world to the light of Psal 4. 6 7. thy countenance to the joy of thy spirit to the influences of thy grace I see nothing sayes David in this wide world onely thy Commandments are exceeding Heb. 11. 24 25 26. broad Faith makes David account his Crown nothing his treasures nothing his victories nothing his attendants nothing c. Faith will make a man write nothing upon the best of worldly things it will make a man trample upon the Pearls of this Phil. 3. 8. world as upon dross and dung Faith deadens a mans heart to the things of this world I am crucified to the world Gal. 6. and the world is crucified to me sayes Paul This world sayes Faith is not my house my habitation my home I 2 Cor 5. 1 2. look for a better Country for a better City for a better home He that is adopted Heir to a Crown a Kingdom looks with an eye of scorn and disdain upon every thing below a Kingdom below a Crown Faith tells the soul that it hath a Crown a Kingdom 2 Tim 4. 8. in reversion and this makes the soul to set light by the things of this world Faith raises and sets the soul high And hath raised us up together Ephes 2. 6. and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus saith the Apostle Faith makes a man live high our conversation Phil. 3. 20. is in Heaven and the higher any man lives the less the lower will the things of this world be in his eye The fancy of Lucian is very pleasant who placeth Charon on the top of an high Hill viewing all the affairs of men and looking on their greatest richest and most glorious Cities as little Birds Nests Faith sets the soul upon the Hill of God the Mountain of God that is A high Mountain and from thence Faith gives the soul a sight a prospect of all things here below And ah how like Birds Nests does all the riches braveries and glories of this world look and appear to them that Faith hath set upon Gods high Hill Faith having set Luther upon this high Hill he protests that God should not put him off with these poor low things Faith set Moses Heb. 11. high it set him among invisibles and that made him look upon all the treasures pleasures riches and glories of Egypt as little Birds-Nests as Mole-hills as dross and dung as things that were too little and too low for him to set his heart upon Verily when once Faith hath given a man a sight a prospect of Heaven all things on Earth will be looked upon as little and low And so much for this third Property of Faith The fourth Property of that Faith that accompanies Salvation is this It purifies the heart it is a heart-purifying Acts 15. 9. faith Purifying their hearts by faith Faith hath two hands one to lay hold on Christ and another to sweep the heart which is Christs house Faith knows that Christ is of a Dove-like nature he loves to lie clean and sweet Faith hath a neat Huswifes hand as well as an Eagles eye Faith is as good at purging out of sin as it is at discovering of sin There is a cleansing quality in Faith as well as a healing quality in Faith Sound faith will purge the soul from the love of sin from a delight in sin and from the Ezek. 16. reign and dominion of sin Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are Rom. 6. 14 21. not under the Law but under Grace Now Faith purges and cleanseth the heart from sin sometimes by pressing and putting God to make good the promises of Sanctification Faith takes that promise in Jere. 33. 8. And I will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will purifie them is an allusion to the purifications prescribed in the Law for the cleansing of polluted persons till which purifications were performed they could not be admitted into the Camp or Congregation c. cleanse them from all their iniquity whereby they have sinned against me and that promise in Micah 7. 19. He will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the bottom of the sea And that promise in Psal 65. 3. Iniquities prevail against me as for our transgressions thou shalt purge them away And that promise in Isai 1. 25. And I will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away thy dross and take away all thy Tin And spreads them before the Lord and will never leave urging and pressing seeking and suing till God makes them good Faith makes the soul divinely impudent divinely shameless Lord sayes Faith are not these thine own words hast thou said it and shall it not come to pass art thou no◠a faithful God is not thine honor engaged to make good the promises that thou hast made Arise O God and let my sins be scattered turn thy hand upon me and let my sins be purged And thus Faith purifies the heart Again sometimes Faith purifies the heart from sin by engaging against sin in Christs strength as David engaged against Goliah not in 1 Sam. 17. 45. his own strength but in the strength and name of the Lord of Hosts Faith leads the soul directly to God and engages God against sin so as that the combate by the wisdom of Faith is changed and made now rather between God and sin then between sin and the soul and so sin comes to fall before the power and glorious presence of God that is a choice word Psal 61. 2. From the ends of the earth will I cry to thee When my heart is over-whelmed lead me to the Rock that is higher then I. Look as a childe that is set upon by one that is stronger then he cryes
out to his Father to help him to stand by him and to engage for him against his enemy so Faith being sensible of its own weakness and inability to get the victory over sin cries out to Christ and engages Christ who is stronger then the strong man and so Christ binds the strong man and casts him out Faith tells the soul That all purposes resolutions and endeavors without Christ be engaged will never set the soul above its sins they will never purifie the heart from sin Therefore Faith engages Christ and casts the main of the work upon Christ and so it purges the soul from sin Luther reports of Staupicius a German Divine that he acknowledged that before he came to understand the free and powerful grace of Christ that he vowed and resolved an hundred times against some particular sin and could never get power over it he could never get his heart purified from it till he came to see that he trusted too much to his own resolutions and too little to Jesus Christ But when his faith had engaged Christ against his sin he had the victory Again Faith purifies the heart from sin by the application of Christs Blood Faith makes a plaister It is the excellency of Faith that it can turn the Blood of Christ both into food and into Physick of Christs blessed Blood and layes it on upon the souls soars and so cures it Faith makes a heavenly vomit of this blessed Blood and gives it to the soul and so makes it cast up that poyson that it hath drunk in Faith tells the soul that it is not all the tears in the world nor all the water in the Sea that can wash away the uncleanness of the soul it is onely the Blood of Christ that can make a Blackmoor white it is onely the Blood of Christ that can cure a Leprous Naaman that can cure a Leprous soul This Fountain of Blood sayes Faith is the onely Fountain for Judah and Jerusalem to wash Zach 13. 1. themselves to wash their hearts from all uncleanness and filthiness of flesh and spirit Those spots a Christian findes in his own heart can onely be washed out in the Blood of the Lamb by a hand of Faith Again Faith purifieth the soul from sin by putting the soul upon heart-purifying Ordinances and by mixing and mingling it self with Ordinances The word profited Heb. 4 2. them not saith the Apostle because it was not mixt with faith in them that heard it Faith is such an excellent ingredient that it makes all potions work for the good of the soul for the purifying of the soul and for the bettering of the soul and no potion no means will profit the soul if this heavenly ingredient be not mixt with it Now Faith puts a man upon praying upon hearing upon the fellowship of the Saints upon publick duties upon family duties and upon Closet duties and Faith in these comes and joyns with the soul and mixes her self As Christ came and joyn'd himself to his Disciples with these soul-purifying Ordinances and so makes them effectual for the purifying of the soul more and more from all filthiness and uncleanness Faith puts out all her vertue and efficacy in Ordinances to the purging of Sin is like the wilde Fig-tree or Ivy in the Wall cut off stump body bough and branches yet some sprigs or other will sprout out again till the Wall be plucked down c. souls from their dross and Tin Not that Faith in this life shall wholly purifie the soul from the being of sin or from the motions or operations of sin no for then we should have our Heaven in this world and then we might bid Ordinances adue but that faith that accompanies Salvation doth naturally purifie and cleanse the heart from the remainders of sin by degrees Sound Faith is still a making the heart more and more neat and clean that the King of glory may delight in his habitation that he may not remove his Court but may abide with the soul for ever And thus you see that that Faith that accompanies Salvation is a heart-purifying Faith The fifth Property of that Faith that accompanies Salvation is this It is soul softning soul mollifying O nothing breaks the heart of a sinner like Faith Peter believes soundly and Matth. 26. ult Luke 7. weeps bitterly Mary Magdalen believes much and weeps much Faith sets a wounded Christ a bruised Christ a despised Christ a peirced Christ a bleeding Christ before the soul and this makes the soul sit down and weep bitterly I will pour upon the Zach. 12. 10 c. house of David the Spirit of Grace and of Supplications And they shall look upon him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him All Gospel-mourning flows from believing as one mourneth for his onely son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born O the sight of those wounds that their sins have made will wound their hearts thorow and thorow it will make them lament over Christ with a bitter lamentation They say nothing will dissolve the Adamant but the Blood of a Goat Ah nothing will kindly sweetly and effectually break the hardned heart of a sinner but Faiths beholding the Blood of Christ trickling down his sides Pliny reports of a Serpent That when it stings it fetches all the blood out of the body but it was never heard that ever any sweat blood but Christ and the very thoughts of this makes the believing soul to sit down sweating and weeping That Christ should love man when he was most unlovely that mans extream misery should but inflame Christs bowels of love and mercy This melts the believing soul that Christ should leave the eternal bosom of his Father that he tha was equal with God should come in the form of a servant that he that was cloathed with glory and born a King should be wrapped in raggs that he that the Heaven of Heavens could not contain should be cradled in a Manger that from his Cradle to his Cross his whole life should be a life of sorrows and sufferings that the Judge of all flesh should be condemned that the Lord of Life should be put to death that he that was his Fathers joy should in anguish of Spirit cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me That that head that was crowned with honor should be crowned with thorns that those eyes that were as a flame of fire that were clearer then the Sun should be closed up by the darkness of death that those ears which were wont to hear nothing but Hallelujahs should hear nothing but Blasphemies that that face that was white and ruddy should be spit upon by the beastly Jews that that tongue that spake as never man spake yea as never Angel spake should be accused of blasphemy that those hands which swayed both a Golden Scepter and an Iron Rod and
all be loved with a sincere and cordial love The Apostle James doth roundly condemn that partial love that was among Professors in his days Jam. 2. 1 2. Not that the Apostle doth absolutely prohibit a civil differencing of men in place from others but when the rich Non gens sed mens non genus sed genius Not race or place but grace truly sets forth a man mans wealth is more regarded then the poor mans godliness and when men carry it so to the rich as to cast scorn contempt disgrace and discouragement upon the godly poor This is a sin for which God will visit the sons of Pride Pompey told his Cornelia it is no praise to thee to have loved Pompeium Magnum Pompey the Great but if thou lovest Pompeium Miserum Pompey the Miserable thou shalt be a pattern for imitation to all posterity I will leave you to apply it Romanus the Martyr who was born of Noble Parentage intreated his Persecutors that they would not favor him for his Nobility For it is not said he the blood of my Ancestors but my Christian Faith that makes me noble Verily he that loves one Saint for Yet there is a love of familiarity which we may lawfully shew more to one godly man then to another Thus Christ loved John more then the other Disciples the Grace that is in him for that Holiness that Image of God that is upon him he cannot but fall in love with every Saint that bears the lovely Image of the Father upon him he cannot but love a Saint in rags as well as a Saint in robes a Saint upon the dunghill as well as a Saint upon the throne Usually the most ragged Christians are the richest Christians they usually have most of Heaven that have least of Earth Jam. 2. 5. The true Diamond shines best in the dark Thirdly Our Love to the Saints is Yet this must be granted That grace in a rugged unhewn nature is like a Gold Ring on a leprous hand or a Diamond set in Iron As a Gold Ring is most pleasing and taking when it is on a neat clean hand and as a Diamond when it is set in a Ring of Gold so grace is most pleasing and taking to us in a sweet nature and not so much when it is in a rugged unhewn nature the beauty and glory of it being clouded and darkned by a rugged nature right when we love them and delight in them answerable to the Spiritualcauses of love that shine in them as the more holy and gracious they are the more we love them Psal 16. 2 3. My goodness extendeth not to thee but to the Saints that are in the earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight This is most certain If godliness be the reason why we love any then the more any excel others in the Love Spirit Power and practise of Godliness the more we should love them There are those that seem to love such godly men as are weak in their judgments low in their principles and dull in their practises and yet look with a squint-eye upon those that are more sound in their judgments more high in their principles and more holy in their practises which doubtless speaks out more hypocrisie then sincerity Verily he hath either no grace or but a little grace that doth not love most where the Spiritual causes of love do most shine and appear Surely those Christians are under a very great distemper of spirit that envy those gifts and graces of God in others that out-shine their own Johns Disciples muttered and murmured because Christ had more followers and admirers then John And Johns Disciples are not all dead yea they seem to have a new Resurrection in these days Well as the fairest day hath its Clouds the finest Linnen its spots the richest Jewels their flaws the sweetest Fruits their Worms So when precious Christians are under temptations they may and too often do envy and repine at those excellent Graces Abilities and Excellencies that cloud darken and out-shine their own The best of men are too full of pride and self-love that makes them sometimes cast dirt and disgrace upon that excellency that themselves want Eusâ—bius speaks of him in his Ecclesiastical History As that great man that could not write his own name and yet called the Liberal Arts a Publick Poyson and Pestilence There is no greater Argument that our grace is true and that we do love others for grace sake then our loving them best that have most grace though they have least of worldly goods A Pearl is rich if found on a dunghil though it may glister more when set in a Ring of Gold so many a poor Believer is rich and glorious in the eye of Christ and should be so in ours though like Job he sits upon a dunghil though to the world he may seem to glister most when adorned with riches honor and outward pomp c. Fourthly True Love to Saints is constant 1 Cor. 13. 8. Love never faileth it continues for ever in Heaven that love was never true that is not constant Heb. 13. 1. Let brotherly love continue True love is constant in prosperity Consalvus a Spanish Bishop and Iâ—quisitor wondered how the Christians had thâ—t Commandment Thou shalt love thy Neighbor as thy self so indelibly Printed in their hearts that no torture could blot it out and make them confess and betray one another or cease from loving one another and adversity in storms and calms in health and sickness in presence and in absence Thy own friend and thy Fathers friend forsake not A friend sayes the Wiseman loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity Prosperity makes friends and Adversity will try friends A true friend is neither known in prosperity nor hid in adversity True love is like to that of Ruths to Naomi and that of Jonathans to David permanent and constant Many there be whose love to the Saint is like Jobs Brooks Job 6. 15 16. which in Winter when we have no need over-flows with tenders of service and shews of love but when the season is hot and dry and the poor thirsty Travellor stands in most need of water to refresh him then the Brooks are quite dried up They are like the Swallow that will stay by you in the Summer but flie from you in the Winter It is observed by Josephus of the Samaritans that when ever the Jews affairs prospered they would be their friends and profess much love to them Augustus Caesar was a constant friends to those whom he loved he used to say Amare nec cito desisto nec teâ—ere incipio Late ere I love as long ere I leave but if the Jews were in trouble and wanted their assistance then they would not own them nor have any thing to do with them This age is full of such Samaritans yet such as truly love will always love In the Primitive
bosom that are not directed to his glory The end must alwayes be as noble as the means or else a Christian acts below himself yea below his very Reason Ah Christians it is not a flood of words nor high strains of wit nor vehemency of affections in Prayer but holy and gracious ends that will render Prayer acceptable and honorable to God comfortable and profitable to your selves and others yea the directing of one Prayer to divine glory doth more torture and torment Satan then all the Prayers in the world that are directed to ends below divine glory It is not simply Prayer but the souls aiming at divine glory in Prayer that addes to Christs Crown and Satans Hell And thus I have shewed you all the Requisits of Prayer even of such Prayer as accompanies Salvation I shall now proceed to some other particulars for the further and fuller opening of this truth Secondly That Prayer that accompanies It was a sweet saying of one O Lord I never come to thee but by thee I never go from thee without thee Salvation betters the whole Man by it Faith is increased Hope strengthned the Spirit exhilarated the Heart pacified the Conscience purified Temptations vanquished Corruptions weakned the Affections inflamed the Will more renewed and the whole Man more advantaged Prayer is a Spiritual Chair wherein the soul siteth down at the feet of the Lord to receive the influences of his Grace Prayer is the Regal Gate by which the Lord entereth into the heart comforting quieting strengthning quickning and raising of it The Scripture affords us a cloud of witnesses to prove this truth but I appeal to praying Saints Ah tell me tell me praying Souls have not you do not you finde it so I know you have and do and that is it that makes Prayer a pleasure a paradise unto you Thirdly You may judge what Prayer that is that accompanies Salvation by considering the difference that is betwixt the Prayers of the godly and the wicked Now the difference between the Prayers of the one and the other I shall shew you in the following particulars First Gracious Souls do trade and deal with God in Prayer onely upon the account and credit of Christ They It is a notable saving Luther hath upon the 130 Psalm Often and willingly saith he do I inculcate this that you should shut your eyes and your ears and say You know no God out of Christ none but he that was in the lap of Mary and sucked her Brests He means none out of him beg mercy to pardon them and grace â—o purge them and balm to heal them and divine favor to comfort them and power to support them and wisdom to counsel them and goodness to satisfie them but all upon the account of Christs Blood of Christs Righteousness of Christs Satisfaction and of Christs Intercession at the right hand of the Father Revel 4. 10 11. They seek the Father in the Son they present their sutes always in Christs Name for so is the will of Christ John 14. 13 14. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son If ye shall ask any thing in my Name I will do it John 15. 16. Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my Name he will give it you Chap. 16. 23. Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Greek is pregnant and may be read not onely whatsoever but also how many things soever ye shall ask or beg of the Father in my Name he will give them to you There is no admission into Heaven except we bring Christ in our arms Ephes 2. 18. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As no access so no acceptance without Christ Eph. 1. 6. Wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved the Father The Greek word signifies A leading by the hand it is an allusion to the custom of Princes to whom there is no passage unless we be brought in by one of their Favorites Plutarch reports That it was wont to be the way of some of the Heathens the Molossians when they would seek the favor of their Prince they took up the Kings Son in their Arms and so went and kneeled before the King Ah Christians Christ is near and dear unto the Father the Father hath determined to give out all his loves and favors through his Son if you bring As Jacob said See not my face except you bring Benjamin with you So sayes God See not my face except you bring Jesus with you Gen. 42. 20 to 34. And as David said to Abner 2 Sam. 3. 13. Christ in the arms of your Faith you gain the Fathers heart and in gaining his heart you gain all The Fathers Mercies melt his Bowels roul his Heart turns his Compassions are kindled upon the sight of his Sons Merits and Mediation As Joseph said to his Brethren Ye shall not see my face unless you bring your Brother Benjamin So sayes God you shall not see my face unless you bring the Lord Jesus with you Now gracious Souls in all their Prayers they present Jesus Christ before the Father and upon his account they desire those things that make for their external internal and eternal good Ah but vain men treat and trade with God in Prayer upon the account of their own worth righteousness worthiness and services Isa 58. 2 3. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a Nation that did Righteousness and forsook not the Ordinance of their God They ask of me the Ordinances of Justice they take delight in approaching to me Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not Wherefore have we afflicted our souls and thou takest no knowledge Here you see they stand upon their own practises and services and expostulate the case with God in an angry manner because God did not answer their hypocritical performances So the proud Pharisee stands in Prayer upon his own worthiness and righteousness Luk. 18. 11 12. The Pharisee stood and prayed This Pharisee was like the Egyptian Temple painted without and spotted within varnish without and vermin within thus with himself God I thank thee that I am not as other men are extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this Publican I fast twice in the week I give tithes of all that I possess So did those Hypocrites in the sixth Chapter and in the three and twentieth Chapter of Matthew stand very much upon their outward services and performances though they were but shining sins but filthy rags Secondly Souls truly gracious pray more to get off their sins then they do to get off their chains Though Bonds did attend Paul in every place as Acts 20. 23. himself speaks yet he never cries out O wretched man that I am who shall
presumption that works men to play with sin to be bold with sin to make light of sin to walk on in wayes of sin Such Assurance will never bring a man to Heaven it will never keep him from dropping into Hell yea it will double his damnation and make him the most miserable among all damned miserable forlorn spirits Ah Lord from This made Auselm say That he had rather be thrust into Hell without sin then go into Heaven with sin such an assurance deliver my Soul and give me more and more of that Divine Assurance that makes sin to be more hateful then Hell and that makes the Soul to be more careful to avoid the one then it is fearful of falling into the other Seventhly A wel-grounded Assurance is alwayes attended with three fair Handmaids or with three sweet Companions The first is Love O! the Assurance 1. Handmaid of Divine Favor doth mightily inflame a mans love to Christ Mary Magdalen Luke 7. loved much Christs love to her drew out her love very much to Christ Assurance makes the Soul sing it out with that sweet Singer of Israel I will dearly love thee O Lord my Psal 18. 1. strength Lovers know not how to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To love intimately and dearly as a tender mother loves the fruit of her womb keep silence lovers of Christ are full of gracious expressions Magnes amor is est amor Love is the attractive Loadstone of love It is impossible for a Soul not to love Christ that knows he is beloved of Christ Christs love constrains the Soul to love not by forcible but loving necessity Praxiteles exquisitly drew Love taking the pattern from that Passion which he felt in his own heart A Believer cannot finde the heart of Christ to be beating towards him but his heart will strongly beat towards Christ Divine love is like a rod of myrtle which as Pliny reports makes the Traveller that carries it in his hand that he shall never be faint or weary of walking or loving Love alone over-powereth all power Love is the Diadem none but the Queen must wear it Love is the Wedding Garment none but the Spouse can fit it Love is a Loadstone to draw as well as a fire to warm he that doth not love Christ was never assured of the love of Christ The second Handmaid or Companion 2. Handmaid that attends a wel-grounded Assurance is Humility David under Assurance Psal 22. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hebrew word Tolagnah that is here rendred Worm signifies a very little worm which a man can hardly see or perceive cryes out I am a worm and no man Abraham under Assurance cryes out that he is but dust and ashes Jacob under Assurance crves out that he was less then the least of all mercies Job under Assurance abhors himself in dust and ashes Moses had the honor and the happiness to speak with God face to face he was very much in Gods books in Gods favor and yet a more humble Soul the earth did never bear The great Apostle Paul under all the revelations and glorious manifestations of God to him counts himself less then the least of all Saints Ephe. 3. 8. That is Presumption that is a delusion of the Devil and no sound Assurance that puffs and swels the Souls of men that makes men prize themselves above the market above the value that God hath put upon them The third Handmaid or Companion 3. Handmaid that attends Assurance is holy Joy Ah this Assurance causes the strong waters of Consolation to overflow the Soule Assurance raises the strongest joyes in the Soul Luk. 1. 46 47. And Mary said My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my Spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour When a man comes to be assured that God is his Savior presently his Spirit rejoyces in God this truth is held forth by three Parables in that of Luk. 15. So in that of 1 Pet. 1. 8 9. Whom having not seen ye love in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dance and leap for joy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 glorified already they have heavens happinesse before hand whom though now ye see him not yet bebeleeving ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls O the Joy the Joy the inexpressible Joy that attends a wel-grounded Assurance Assurance raises a Paradise of delight in the soul In quibus operamur in ill is gaudemus saith Tertull. In what things or persons we act in those things we rejoyce a Christian under the power of Assurance works all his works in Christ in him therefore and in him alone he rejoyceth Eightly and lastly A wel-grounded Assurance sometimes springs from the Testimony and Witnesse of the Spirit of God The Spirit sometimes witnesses to a Beleevers spirit that he is born of God that he is beloved of God that he hath union and communion with God that he shal reign for ever with God Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit it self beareth witness with our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That same spirit The Spirits work is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to witnesse together with our Spirit that is to confirme and ratifie what ou◠spirits have asserted concerning our Adoption c. spirit that we are the children of God The Spirit it self witnesseth not onely the Gifts and Graces of the Spirit but the Spirit it self witnesseth together with our own spirit that we are the children of God Sometimes the Saints have two Witnesses joyning their testimonies together to confirm and establish them in these blessed and glorious Truths that they are the Sons of God and Heirs of Glory And this is their honor as well as their comfort that the blessed Spirit should bear witness at the bar of their Consciences that they are the Sons of God 1 Cor. God sometimes assures his people of heaven aforehand 2. 12. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God That is that we may know our Election Vocation Justification Sanctification and Glorification A man may receive many things that are freely given of God and yet not know them till the Spirit comes and makes them known to the soul Quest But you may say to me how shall wee know the whispering of the holy Spirit from the hissing of the old Serpent how shall we know the report the witnesse and testimony of the Spirit of Christ from that report witnesle and testimony that the old Serpent deludes and deceives many by in these daies wherein he mostly appears in his Angelicall Robes I Answer you may know the whispering Answ of the Spirit from the hissing of the old Serpent c. by these following things which I desire that you
would seriously consider as you tender the peace and settlement the satisfaction consolation and salvation of your own souls First The Spirit of Christ doth not witnesse by any outward voice as God Matth 3. ult Luk. 1. 30 31 32 33 34. did from Heaven of Christ nor by an Angell as to the Virgin Mary but by an inward secret glorious and unspeakable way he bids Beleevers be of good chear their sins are forgiven Matth. 9. 2. them as Christ said to the palsie man in the Gospel And this truth is to be solemnly minded against those poor deceived and deluded souls in Quakers and Raâ—ters these daies that would make the world beleeve that they have had such and such glorious things made known by an outward audible voyce from Heaven It is much to be feared that they never found the inward the sweet the secret the powerful testimony and report of the Spirit of Christ that boast and brag and rest so much upon an outward testimony In 1 King 19. you read of a great strong wind that rent the Vers 11. Mountains and brake in peeces the Rocks but the Lord was not in the wind and after the wind there was an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake And after the earthquake a fire but the Vers 12. Lord was not in the fire And after the fire Vers 13. there was a still small voyce and the Lord spake to Elijah in that still small voice Ah Christians the Spirit of the Lord makes not a noise but he comes in a still small voice as I may say and makes a soft and secret report to the soul that it is beloved that it is pardoned and that it shall be for ever glorified Secondly The testimony and witnesse of the Spirit of Christ is onely gained enjoyed in holy and heavenly waies as you may clearly see by comparing Acts 10. 4. Dan. 9. 20. 21 22. Isa 64. 5. Act. 10. 44 c. the Scriptures in the margent together The Spirit of the Lord is a holy spirit he cannot he wil not make any report of the love of the Father to the soule out of a way of holinesse Verily all those glorious reports that many boast they have met with in sinfull waies in wretched and ungodly waies are from the hissing of the old Serpent and not from the whisperings of the Yet this age hath many such Monsters Spirit of Grace I think it is little less then blasphemy for any to affirm that the blessed Spirit of Christ doth make reports of the love and favour of God to persons walking in waies of wickednesse and basenesse Thirdly The testimony and witness of the Spirit of Christ is a clear a â—ul a satisfying testimony and witnesse the soul sits down under the home reports John 14 17. 1 John 3. 24. of the Spirit saith Lord it is enough the soul being full sits down and sweetly sings it out My beloved is mine and Cant. 2. 16. 7. 10. I am his I am my wel-beloveds and his desire is towards me The Lord is my portion Psal 16. 5. Psal 73. 25. and the lot of mine inheritance I have none in Heaven but thee neither is there any on earth that I desire in comparison of 2 Tim. 4 8. thee Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness Make haste my beloved Cant. 8. ult c. Such power majesty and glory attends the glorious testimony of the Spirit of Christ as scatters all clouds as resolves all doubts as answers all objections as silences the wrangling soul c. If the testimony of the Spirit of Christ were not a ful satisfying testimony it could never fill the soule with such joy as is unspeakable and full of glory and with such peace as passes understanding if the testimony were not satisfactory the soul would still be under fears and doubts the heart would still be a wrangling and quarrelling I may perish and I may be undone I may have the door of Mercy shut against me c. If you bring news to a condemned person that the King hath pardoned him and that he will receive him to favor and confer such and such dignity upon him yet this doth not quiet him nor satisfie him till he knows it is the Kings act till he is satisfied in that he cannot say it is enough he cannot be chearfull hee cannot be delightful c. But when hee is satisfied that it is the Kings act that the King hath certainly done this and that for him then he is satisfied and then sighing and mourning flies away and then he rejoyces with joy unspeakable So it is with a beleeving Soul under the testimony and witness of the Spirit of Christ Fourthly Though the Spirit be a witnessing Spirit yet he doth not alwaies witness to beleevers their adoption their interest in Christ c. There is a mighty difference between the working of the Spirit and the witness of the Spirit There are often times many glorious and efficacious works of the Spirit as Faith Love Repontance Isa 50. 10. Holinesse c. where there is not the witness of the Spirit David at that very time had the Spirit and Psa 50. 10 11 12 many sweet workings of the Spirit in him and upon him when he had by sin lost the witness and testimony of the Spirit Though the Spirit of the Lord be a witnessing and a sealing Spirit yet he doth not alwaies witness Job 23. 8 9. 1 Joh. 5. 13. Psa 88. Psa 77. Mich. 7. 8 9. Isa 8. 17. and seal up the love and favor of the Father to beleevers souls as you may see by the Scriptures in the Margent and as the experience of many precious Christians can abundantly evidence All beleevers do not see alike need of this testimony they doe not all alike prize this testimony they do not all alike observe it and improve it and therefore it is no wonder if the Spirit be a witnessing Spirit to some and not to others You do but gratifie Satan and wrong your owne soules when you argue that certainly you have not the Spirit because he is not a witnessing and a sealing Spirit to your soules Though it be the office of the Spirit to witness yet it is not his office alwayes to witness to beleevers their happiness and blessedness The Spirit may act one way in one room of the A man may be a doing in one Room when he is not in another So is the Spirit in the heart of a Saint soul when he doth not act in another sometimes the Spirit works upon the Understanding sometimes upon the Will sometimes upon the Affections sometimes upon Faith sometimes upon Fear sometimes upon Love sometimes upon Humility c. Our hearts are the Spirits Harps If a man should alwaies touch one string in an Instrument he should never play various tunes he
unto the glory and praise of God Thirdly It is exceeding useful to the Saints at all times but especially in changing times in times wherein every one cals out Watchman what of the night Watchman what of the night Isa 21. 11 12. and the watchman answereth the morning cometh and also the night Ah Joel 3. 16. Hag. 26. Isa 23. 9. Isa 63. 2 3. Christians the Lord is a shaking heaven and earth he is a staining the pride of all glory he is a staining his garments with the blood of his enemies he is renting and tearing he is burning and breaking he is pulling up and throwing down Now in Jerm 45. 4 5. the midst of all these Concussions and Revolutions thrice happy are those souls that have gained a wel-grounded Assurance of Caelestial Heb. 10. 34. things such souls will not faint sink nor shrink in an hour of temptation Rev. 3. 4. 14. 4. such souls will keep their garments pure and white and will follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes Assurance is a Beleevers Ark where he sits Noah-like quiet and still in the midst of all distractions Psal 23. 3 4. and destructions combustions and confusions Rev. 6. 12. ult They are doubly miserable that have neither Heaven nor Earth temporals nor eternals made sure to them in changing times The fourth ground of my presenting this Treatise to publick view is that little wel-grounded Assurance that is to be found among Christians most Christians living Every unsettled Christian is Magor missahib a terror to himself yea his life is a very hel fears and doubts are his chiefest companions and so he judges himself unfit and unworthy to live and yet he is afraid to die and verily this is the sad condition of most Christians between feares and hopes and hanging as it were between Heaven and Hell Sometimes they hope that their State is good at othertimes they fear that their state is bad Now they hope that all is well and that it shall go well with them for ever anon they fear that they shal perish by the hand of such or such a corruption or by the prevalency of such or such a temptation and so they are like a ship in a storme tost here and there c. Now that these weak soules may be strengthned that these unstable soules may be established that these disconsolate souls may be comforted c. I have presented this Tract to the world not doubting but that if the Lord shall draw out their spirits to a serious perusal of it they shall find through the blessing of Jehovah that it will contribute very much to their attaining of a full Assurance of their everlasting happiness and blessedness as also to the keeping and maintaining of that ful and blessed Assurance which that it may I shal follow it with my prayers Fifthly I have published this following Discours remembring that my life is Jam. 4. 14. Psal 39. 12. but a vanishing vapor and that the time of my sojourning in this world will be but short Mans life is so short that Austine doubteth whether to call it a dying life or a living death Mans life is but the shadow of smoke the dream of a shadow This present life is not vita sed via ad vitam Bernard life but a motion a journey towards life the life of a Christian is rather via then vita a step towards life then life Yet do I believe that that is not a death but life that joyns the dying man to Christ and that is not a life but death that separates the living man from Christ I know I shall not speak long to Friends Saints or Sinners therefore I was the more willing to take the opportunity of Preaching Heb. 11. 4. to you when I am dead As Abel by his faith he being dead yet speaketh So this Treatise may speak and live when I shall return to my long home and fall asleep Eccles 12. 5. Acts 7. 60. in the bosom of Christ Christ his Prophets and Apostles though they are now in Heaven yet by their Doctrines Examples and Writings they still Preach to the Saints on Earth Zisca desired his skin might serve the Bohemians in their Wars when his body could no more do it O that poor I that have been but a little serviceable to the Saints in my life might by this and my former weak Labors be much serviceable to them after my death Books may Preach when the Author cannot when the Author may not when the Author dares not yea and which is more when the Author iâ— not Sixthly To testifie my cordial love and affection to all the true lovers of Christ Phil. 4. 21. Col. 1. 4. 2 Thes 1. 3. Marcellinus a Heathen Historian taxeth the Christians of his time for their dissentions biting and devouring one another till they were even consumed one of another a sad thing that a Heathen should see such miscarriages among Christs followers and to let them know That they are all though under different forms precious in my eyes and very near and dear unto my heart I bless God I am and I desire more and more to be one with every one that is one with Christ I would fain have as free as large and as sweet a heart towards Saints as Christ hath For a Wolf to worry a Lamb is usual but for a Lamb to worry a Lamb is unnatural For Christs Lillies to be among Thorns is ordinary but for these Lillies to become Thorns to tear and fetch blood of one another is monstrous and strange Ah Christians can Turks and Pagans agree can Herod and Pilat agree can Moab and Ammon agree can Bears and Lyons can Wolves and Tygers agree yea which is more can a legion of Devils agree in one body and shall not the Saints whom one Heaven must hold at last agree Pancirollus Cap. 7. de Gâ—mmis tells us That the most precious Pearl the Romans had was called Unio O the union of the Saints is an unvaluable Pearl The Heathen man by the light of Nature could say That the thickest Wall of a City in Peace and the safest Rampire in War is Unity Verily all Saints are one in Christ all Saints partake of the same Spirit Promises Graces and Priviledges All Saints are Fellow-Members Fellow-Souldiers Fellow-Travellers Fellow Heirs Fellow-Sufferers and Fellow-Citizens and therefore I cannot I dare not but love them all and prize them all and to evidence it I have dedicated this Treatise to the service of all their Souls Seventhly and lastly To fence and fortifie the Souls of real serious Christians against those Brain-sick Notions and those Airy Speculations and imaginary Revelations and Enthusiastical fancies c. with which many are sadly deluded and deceived even to their eternal overthrow I had almost said Thus have I given you a brief account I had not thought to have prest into the Press had I
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to know certainly we are as certain of it as we are certain that we live that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren hee that loveth not his brother abideth in death The Apostle doth not say we thinke we hope c. that we are translated from death to life but we know that we are translated from death to life because we love the brethren Love to the brethren is not the cause of our passing from death to life that is from a natural state to a spiritual state from hell to heaven but an evidence thereof I confesse it is very sad to consider how this precious stream of love is even dried up in many It was wont to be a Proverb Homo homini Deus One man is a God to another But now it may bee truly said Homo homini Daemon One man is a Or Homo homini Leo one man is a Lion to another Devil to another Hee that wants love to his brethren wants one of the sweetest springs from whence Assurance flowes A greater hell I would not wish any man then to live and not to love the beloved of God Now is it not as easie a thing as it is pleasant for a man that hath severall sweet Springs in his Garden to sit Joh. 4. 14. down draw water and drinke O beleeving souls there are Springs there are Wels of living water not only near Gen. 21. 15. to the 19. ver you but in you why then doe you with Hagar sit down sorrowing and weeping when you should be a tasting or a drinking not only of the springs above you but also of the springs within you A man that hath Gal. 5. 22 23 fruit in his Garden may both delight his eye and refresh his spirit with tasting of it certainly we may both eye and taste the fruits of the Spirit in us they being the first fruits of eternall life I thinke none but mad souls will say that grace is that forbidden fruit that God would have us neither Col. 1 27 Solomons Song 1. 5. Solomons Song 4. 7. Psal 45. 13. see nor taste we ought not so to minde a Christ in heaven as not to minde Christ in us the hope of glory Christ would not have his Spouse so to minde her owne blacknesse as to forget that she is all faire and glorious within Sixthly The Holy Ghost exhorts us to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure and presses us to looke to the obtaining of a full assurance therefore Beleevers may attaine unto an assurance of their everlasting happinesse and blessednesse Wherefore 2 Pet. 1. 10. the rather Brethren saith the Apostle give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if you doe these things you shall never fall The Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Beza and Jansen Luther saith he had rather obey then work Miracles translated give diligence signifieth two things 1. All possible haste and speed 2. All manner of seriousness and intention in doing make it your maine businesse your chiefest study your greatest care to make your calling and election sure saith the Apostle when this is done your all is done till this be done there is nothing done and to shew the necessity utility excellency and possibility of it the Apostle puts a rather upon it wherefore the rather give all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 firme or stable God loves curristas not quaeristas the runner not the questioner he is taken most with them that are more for motion then notion for doing then talking diligence to make your calling and election sure or as it is in the Originall firme or stable it is the one thing necessary it is of an internal and eternal concernment to make firme and sure work for your souls Assurance is a jewel of that worth a pearle of that price that he that wil have it must work and sweat and weep and wait to obtaine it he must not only use diligence but he must use all diligence not only digge but he must dig deep before he can come to this golden Mine Assurance is that white stone that new name that hidden Manna that none can obtaine but such as labour for it as for life Assurance is such precious gold that a man must win it before he can wear it win gold and wear gold is the language both of heaven earth The Riches Honours Languages Psal 127. 1 2. Luk. 5. 5. Prov. 14. 23 and favours of this world cannot bee obtained without much trouble and travell without rising early and going to bed late c. and do you think that assurance which is more worth then heaven and earth can be obtained by cold lazie heart-lesse services if you doe you doe but deceive your own soules There are five things that God Qui fecit te sine te non salvabit tâ— sine te Aug. wil never sell at a cheap rate Christ Truth his Honour Heaven and Assurance he that wil have these must â—ay a good price for them or goe for ever without them And as Peter exhorts you to give all â—iligence to make your calling and election sure So Paul presseth you to looke to the obtaining of full assurance which does clearly evidence that there is a possibility of attaining unto a full assurance of our happinesse and blessednesse in this life And we desire saith Heb. 6. 11. 12 Vide Calvin and Piscator on the text Praecepta decent exempla movent Precepts may instruct but examples doe perswade See from the 13. vers to the 19 ver of this chapter the Apostle that every one of you doe shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end that yee be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherite the Promises We must not only strive after assurance but we must strive and shew all diligence to the attaining of that rich and full assurance which wil scatter all feares and doubts which wil make a soule patient in waiting couragious in doing and cheerful in suffering and which wil make a heaven in a mans heart on this side heaven and make him goe singing into Paradise in despight of all calamities and miseries And certainly it can never stand with the holinesse righteousnesse faithfulnesse and goodnesse of God to put his people upon making their calling It was a good saying â—a quod juâ—es jube quod vis and election sure and upon obtaining full assurance if there were not a possibility of obtaining a full and well-grounded assurance of their happinesse and blessedness in this life and therefore it doth undeniably follow that they may attaine unto a blessed assurance of their felicity and glory whilst they are in this vale of misery The contrary opinion we make a mans life a hell here though he should escape a hel hereafter Seventhly
is so fully perswaded of its eternal happinesse and blessednesse that it s carried like 4 There is a divine perswasion that flows from divine principles and causes Noahs Arke above al waves doubts and fears and Noah-like fits still and quiet and can with the Apostle Paul triumph over sinne hell wrath death and devill This is sometimes called Col. 2. 2. Heb. 6 11. 18 19 cha 10. 22. full assurance of understanding sometimes it is called full assurance of hope and sometimes it is called full assurance of faith because these are the choice and pleasant springs from whence assurance flows Now though this full assurance is earnestly desired and highly This full Assurance is the maximum quod sic the highest pinacle of Assurance prized and the want of it much lamented the injoyment of it much endevoured after by al Saints yet t is only obtained by a few Assurance is a mercy too good for most mens hearts it is a Crowne too weighty for most mens heads Assurance is optimum maximum the best and greatest mercy and therefore God will onely give it to his best and dearest friends Augustus in his solemne feasts gave trifles to some but gold to others honours and riches c. are trifles that God gives to the worst of men Rev. 3. 18. But Assurance is that tryed gold that God onely gives to tried friends Among those few that have a share or Most Saints I beleeve can give aloud testimony to this truth I shall rejoyce when their experiences shall confute â—r portion in the special love and favour of God there are but a very few that have an assurance of his love It is one mercy for God to love the soule and another mercy for God to assure the soule of his love God writes many a mans name in the Book of life and yet will not let him know it till his houre of death as the experience of many precious soules doth cleerly evidence Assurance is a flower of Paradise that God sticks but Rom. 8. 16 17. in a few mens bosomes It is one thing to be an heire of heaven and another thing for a man to know or see himselfe an heire of heaven The childe in the arms may be heire to a Crown a Kingdome and yet not understand it so many a Saint may bee heire to a Crowne a Kingdome of glory and yet not know it As the babes that passes the pangs of the first birth do not presently cry Father Father so the new borne Babes in Christ that have 1 Pet. 2. 2. past the pangs of the second birth doe not presently cry Abba Father they doe not presently cry out Heaven Heaven is ours Glory Glory is ours The third Proposition is this That The third Proposition a man may have true grace that hath not Assurance of the love and favour The blinde man in the Gospel called his faith unbeleef of God or of the remission of his sins and salvation of his soule A man may be truly holy and yet not have assurance that he shall be eternally happy A man may be Gods and yet he not know it his estate may be good and yet he not see it he may Mat. 15. 22. 29. be in a safe condition when he is not in a comfortable condition All may be well with him in the Court of glory when hee would give a thousand worlds that all were but well in the court of conscience The Canaanite woman shewed much love wisdome zeale humility and faith yea such strength of faith as makes Christ admire her and yeeld to her grace her and gratifie her and yet shee had no assurance that wee read of So Paul speaking of the beleeving Eph 1. 13. They that honour God by sealing to his truth those God will honour by sealing them with his Spirit Ephesians saith In whom ye also trusted after that yee heard the word of truth the Gospel of your salvation in whom also after that yee beleeved yee were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise First They heard the word and then secondly they beleeved and then thirdly they were sealed that is fully assured of a heavenly inheritance of a Saints have eternal life 1 In praetio 2 In promisso 3 In primitiis purchased possession So 1 John 5. 13. These things have I written unto you that beleeve on the name of the Sonne of God that yee may know that yee have eternal life and that yee may beleeve on the name of the Son of God So in that Isa 50. 10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voyce of his servant that walketh in darknesse and hath no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay himselfe upon his God So in that Mich. 7. 8. 9. verses Rejoyce not against me O mine enemy when I fall I shall arise when I sit in darknesse the Lord shall be a light unto me I will bear the indignation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Lord because I have sinned against him untill he plead my cause and Zagnaph Signifies vehement anger with a sad and lowring countenance Dan. 1. 10. vide Merâ— execute judgement for me he will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his Righteousnesse Asaph was a very holy man a man eminent in grace and yet without assurance as may bee seen at large in that 77. Ps Heman doubtlesse was a very precious soule and yet from his youth up hee was even distracted with terrours Psalm 88. There are thousand Christians that are in a state of grace and shall bee Isa 8. 17. Chap. 49. 14 15 16. Ch. 54 6 7 8 9 10 11. saved that want assurance and the proper effects of it as high joy pure comfort glorious peace and vehement longings after the coming of Christ Assurance is requisite to the well-being of a Christian but not to the being it is requisite to the consolation of a Christian but not to the salvation of a Christian it is requisite to the well-being of Grace but not to the meer being of Grace Though a man cannot be saved without faith yet he may bee saved without assurance God hath in many places of the Scripture declared that without faith God never said except you be assured I will pardon you I will never pardon you except you are assured I will save you I will never save you this is language God never spoke and why then should men speak it there is no salvation but God hath not in any one place of Scripture declared that without assurance there is no salvation A man must first bee saved before he can be assured of his salvation for he cannot be assured of that which is not and a man must have saving grace before he can bee saved for hee cannot be saved by that which hee hath not Againe a man must be ingrafted into Christ before
loathed and long since crucified when those old sins which hath cost a soule many prayers and many tears and many sighs and may groans and many complaints when those sinnes that have been long buried shall bee againe revived and meet the soule and stare upon the soule and say to the soule We are thine and wee will follow thee wee are thine and wee will haunt thee Ah how will this cause a mans countenance to bee changed his thoughts to be troubled his joynts to be loosed and his heart to be amazed David and Job meeting with the sins of their youth long after they were Psal 25. 7. Job 13 26. lamented and pardoned makes their hearts startle and tremble Upon the new risings of old sinnes the soule begins to question all and thus to expostulate the case Surely my estate is not good my pardon is not sealed if it be how comes these sinnes to bee revived to be remembred hath not God ingaged himselfe in the promises Isa 43. 25 Jer. 31. 34. of Grace that those sinnes that are pardoned shall never be remembred and surely if these sinnes be not pardoned I have reason to feare that others bee not pardoned and if my sins bee not pardoned how shall I escape being destroyed Surely my repentance was not sound my sorrow was not sincere the blow the wound I gave sinne was not mortall if it had how comes it to passe that it now meets mee like an armed enemy Thus these new risings of old sinnes keeps many a mans soule and assurance asunder Again a man may have grace and yet want assurance and this may arise Perfection is desireable on earth but shall be onely enjoyed in heaven It was a sweet saying of One In libro tâ—o scribuntur omnes qui quod possunt faciunt si quod debent non possunt They are surely written all in Gods Book that doe what they can though they cannot but under do from his falling short of that perfection that the word requires and that other Saints have attained to Ah sayes such a soul surely I have no grace Oh how short do I fall of such and such righteous rules and of such and such precious Christians Ah how cleer are they in their light how strong are they in their love how high are they in their attainments how are their hearts filled with grace and their lives with holinesse all their motions towards God and towards man speaks out Grace Grace they pray indeed like Saints and live indeed like Angels Now many poore soules comparing themselves with the perfect rule of righteousnesse and with those that are in the highest formes in Christs Schoole and that are the noblest and choicest patterns for purity and sanctity and finding such a vast disproportion between their hearts and the rule between their actions and lives and the lives and actions of others they are apt to fit downe sadded and discouraged Suetonius reports of Julius Caesar that seeing Alexanders statue hee fetched a deep sigh because hee at that age had none so little So many precious Remember this Though your consolation depends upon degrees of grace yet your salvation depends upon the truth of grace soules sit downe sighing and weeping that they have lived so long and done so little for God and for their owne internal and eternal good This wounds and sinkes their spirits that they are so unlike to those in Grace that they desire to be like unto in Glory and that they are so far below such and such in spirituals whom they are so far above in temporals 5 Again a man may have true grace and yet want assurance and this may arise from that smoak and clouds those feares and doubts that corruption raises in the soule so that the soule cannot see those excellent The being of grace is a different thing from the seeing of grace The blind man you know in the Gospel calls his faith unbeleef graces that otherwise might bee discerned though there may bee many precious gems and jewels in the house yet the smoak may hinder a man from seeing them sparkle and shine So though there be many precious graces in the soules of Saints yet corruption may raise such a dust such a smoak in the soule that the soule is not able to see them in the beauty and glory Gen. 21. 19 20 The Wel of water was neer Hagar but she saw it not till her eyes were opened by the Lord. So grace is neer the soul yea in the soul sometimes and yet the soul doth not see it till God opens the Gen. 28. eye and shews it The Lord was in this Yet a Saint at worst is not like him in Plutarch who would not bee resolved of his doubts because he would not lose the pleasure in seeking for resolution No he loves and looks and longs for resolution to all his doubts place said Jacob and I knew it not so many a precious soule may say Grace was in my heart and I knew it not I saw it not Blessed Bradford in one of his Epistles saith thus O Lord meethinks I feel it so with me sometimes as if there were no difference between my heart and the heart of the wicked my minde is as blinde as theirs my spirit as stout stubborne and rebellious as theirs and my thoughts as confused as theirs and my affections as disordered as theirs and sâ—rvices as formal as theirs c. Ah Christians have not many of your soules found it so Surely yes no wonder then that though you have grace yet you have not seen it sparkling and shining in your soules as some have thought that their fields have had no corne because they have been so full of weeds and that their heap hath no wheat because nothing hath appeared but chaffe that their pile hath no gold because it hath been covered with much dross So some have thought that their hearts have been void of grace because they have been so full of Matth. 14 30 Mat. 12. 15. Gen 20. Chap. fears and doubts Peter at one time beleeves and walkes at another time he doubts and sinkes Abraham beleeves and offers up Isaac at one time hee feares and falls at another time Say thou art my sister lest they kill mee So David and Job they had their shufflings tremblings faintings shakings Psal 116. 11. Psal 31. 22. and questionings It is not alwayes high water with Saints sometimes they are reduced to a very low ebbe The best of Saints are like the Rara hora brevis mora Ber. Arke tossed up and downe with waves with feares and doubts and so it will bee till they are quite in the bosome of Christ 6 Lastly a man may have grace and yet not see it yet not know it and this may arise from his non-searching his non-examining his non-ransacking of his owne soule there is gold in the Mine and men might finde it if they would
The fifth Proposition those choice soules that have assurance may lose it they may forfeit it the freshnesse and greennesse the beauty lustre and glory of assurance may bee lost It is true beleevers cannot lose the habits the seeds the root of grace yet they may lose assurance which is the beauty and fragrancy the crowne and glory of Grace These two lovers Grace and Assurance are not by 1 Joh. 3. 9. 1 Per 1. 5. God so neerly joyned together but that they may by sinne on our side and justice on Gods bee put asunder It is wonderfull rare if possible for a man that ever had a well-grounded Assurance not to experâ—ence this truth at first or last The keeping of these two Lovers Grace and Assurance together will yeeld the soul two heavens a heaven of joy and peace here and a heaven of happinesse and blessednesse hereafter but the putting these two Lovers asunder will put the soule into a hell here though it escape a hell hereafter This Chrysostome knew well when hee professed that the want of the enjoyment of God would bee a A separation between the body and the soul will not so torment the soul as separation between grace and assurance far greater hell to him then the feeling of any punishment As you would keep your Christ as you would keep your Comfort as you would keep your Crowne keep Grace and Assurance together and neither by lip nor life by word nor works let these be put asunder It is possible for the best men so to blot and blur their Evidences for felicity and glory as that they may not bee able to read them nor understand them They may so vexe and grieve the Spirit either by grosse enormities or by refusing his Spiritus Sanctus est res delicata the Holy Spirit is a very render thing comforts and cordials or by neglecting or sleighting his gracious actings in themselves and others or by mis-judging his worke as calling faith fancy or sincerity hypocrisie c. or by fathering those brats upon him that are the children of their owne distempered hearts as that hee may refuse to witnesse their interest in him 1 Sam. 16. Joh. 14. though he be a witnessing Spirit and refuse to comfort them though he be the onely Comforter The best beleever that breaths What Latimer said of the spirit it is going and coming may be truly said of Assurance and joy it is coming and going may have his Summer-day turned into a Winter-night his rejoycing into sighing his singing into weeping his wedding Robes into mourning weeds his wine into water his sweet into bitter his Mannah his Angels-food into husks his pleasant grapes into the grapes of Sodome his fruitfull Canaan his delightfull Paradise into a barren and unlovely wildernesse Look as faith is often attended with unbeleef and sincerity with hypocrisie and humility with vaine glory so is Assurance with feares and doubts Blessed Hooker lived neer So dâ—d Mr. Burroughs of blessed memory goe to heaven in a cloud thirty yeers in close communion with God without any considerable withdrawings of God all that while and yet upon his dying-bed he went away without any sense of assurance or discoveries of the smiles of God to the wonder and deceiving of the expectation of many precious soules and without doubt in judgement to wicked men Look as many a man loses the sight of the City when he comes neer to it So many a choice soule loses the sight of heaven even then when hee is neerest to heaven Abraham you know had assurance in an extraordinary way concerning his protection from God and yet saies Gen 12. 19. Chap. 20. 2. We should rather dye then lie we are not to tell an officious lye to tell a lye for no hurt but for good though it were to save all the world said Austin Abraham say thou art my sister for otherwise they will kill me Ah how was the freshness the greenness the beauty and glory of his assurance wore off that he should out of slavish fears expose his wife to other mens pleasure and himselfe and his neighbour to Gods displeasure that hee should wound foure at once the honour of God his wives chastity his owne conscience and Pharoahs soul David you know sometimes sings it out sweetly The Lord is my portion and the lot of mine inheritance he is my salvation of whom shall I be afraid he is my Psal 18. 2. Rocke and fortresse and my deliverer my God my strength my trust my buckler and my high Tower At other times you have him sighing it out Why art thou cast downe O my soule why art thou disquieted in me why hast thou forgotten me O God my Rock why goe I mourning Vers 9. Thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore There is no soundness Psal 38. 2. in my flesh because of thine Vers 3. Vers 4 anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sinne for mine iniquities Vers 6. are gone over my head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for mee Psal 30. 7. Ps 51. 8. to 13. I am troubled I am bowed downe greatly I goe mourning all the day long Thou diddest hide thy face and I was troubled Restore to me the joy of my salvation that the bones that thou hast broken may rejoyce His heart was more often out of tune then his harpe He begins many of his Psalms sighing and ends them singing and others he begins in joy and ends in sorrow So that one would think saith one that Peter Moulin those Psalms had been composed by two men of a contrary humor Yea it is very observable that though David had assurance in an extraordinary way that he should be King being anoâ—nted by that great Prophet Samuel yet the lustre and glory of this assurance wears off and he overcome by slavish fears Psal 116. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cryes out That all men are lyars even Samuel as well as others and that he shall one day perish by the hand of In my trembling or in my affrightment I said all men are lyers Saul It is true says David I have a Crown a Kingdom in a promise but I must swim to the Crown thorow blood I must win the Crown before I wear it and the truth is I am like to die before I attain it Yea and after he was King when King Jesus did but hide his face he was sorely troubled Psal 30. 6 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that neither his glorious Bahal I was troubled like a withered flower that loosâ—th sap and vigor So it is used in Exod. 15. 15. Throne nor his Royal Robes nor his Golden Crown nor his glistering Courtiers nor his large Revenues nor his cheerful temper nor his former Experiences could quiet him or satisfie him when God had turned his back upon him Look as
the day Dan. 3. 28 29 30. of their sufferings O the sight of so noble a spirit in the Saints cause others Dan. 6. 25 26 27. to admire God to lift up God to fall in love with God and to glorifie God for owning his people and for being a light to them in darkness a joy to them in sorrow and a pallace to them in a prison God is very sensible of the many praises and prayers that he should lose did he not cause his love and his glory to rest upon his people in suffering times There is Isa 48. 11 nothing that God is so tender of as he is of his glory and that his heart is so much set upon as his glory and therefore he will visit them in a prison Gen. 39. 20. ult and feast them in a dungeon and walk with them in a fiery furnace and shew kindness to them in a Lyons den that every one may shot and cry Dan 6. Grace Grace God loves to act in Zech 4. 7. such ways of Grace towards his suffering ones as may stop the mouths of their enemies and cause the hearts of his friends to rejoyce Fourthly Believing times are times Reas 4 wherein the Lord is graciously pleased to lift up the light of his countenance upon his people when his children are in the Exercise of Faith then the Lord is pleased to make known his goodness and to feal up to them everlasting happiness and blessedness Eph. 1. 13. In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the Word of Truth the Gospel of your Salvation In whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise or In whom believing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Beza and Calvin ye were sealed that is As you were in the very Excrcise and Actings of Faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ the Spirit of the Lord made sure and sealed up to you your Adoption your Reconciliation your Pardon and everlasting Inheritance Him that honors Christ by believing by fresh and frequent actings of Faith upon him him will Christ certainly honor and secure by setting his seal and mark upon him and by assuring of him of a Kingdom that shakes not of riches that corrupt not and of glory that fades not Ah Christians you wrong two at once Christ and your own souls whilest you thus reason Lord give me first assurance and then I will believe in thee and rest upon thee whereas your great work is to believe and to hold on believing and acting of Faith on the Lord Jesus till you come to be assured and sealed up to the day of Redemption This is the surest and the shortest way to assurance That is a remarkable passage of the Apostle in Rom. 15. 13. Now the God of hope fill you with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shall fill you from signifies to be filled with joy and peace as the sails of a ship are fillâ—d with wind all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost The God of hope saith the Apostle shall fill you with all joy and peace in believing that is whilest you are in the Exercise and Actings of Faith the God of hope shall fill you with that joy that is unspeakable and full of glory and with that peace that passes understanding Faith is the Key that unlocks paradise and lets in a flood of joy into the soul Faith is an appropriating Grace it appropriates all to it self it looks upon God says with the Psalmist This God is my God for ever and Psal 63. 1. 48. 14. ever it looks upon Christ and says My beloved is mine and his desires are towards Can. 7. 10. me it looks upon the precious promises and says these precious promises are 2 Pet. 1. 4. mine it looks upon Heaven and says Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of 2 Tim 4 8. Righteousness and this fills the soul with joy peace Faith hath an influence upon other graces it is like a silver thred Tantum possumus quanium credimus that runs thorow a chain of Pearl it puts strength vivacity in to all other vertues it made Abraham to rejoyce and it made Noah sit still quiet in the midst of a deluge Faith is the first pin that moveth the soul it is the spring in the Watch that sets all the Golden Wheels of Love Joy Comfort and Peace a going Faith is a root of Grace from whence springs all the sweet flowers of joy peace Faith is like the Bee it will suck sweetness out of every flower it will extract light out of darkness comforts out of distresses mercies out of miseries wine out of Judg. 14. 14. water honey out of the rock and meat out of the eater 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Upon the Exercise of Faith their hearts are filled with joy with unspeakable joy with glorious joy Faith sees in Christ Plenitudo abundantiae There is in Christ not onely plenitudo vasis but plenitudo fontis the fulness of a vessel but the fulness of a fountain and this makes the heart of a Saint leap when he sees it by an eye of Faith and plenitudo redundantiae a fulness of abundance and a fulness of redundancy and this fills the heart with glorious joy Ah Christians believing believing is the ready way the safest way the sweetest way the shortest way the onely way to a wel-grounded assurance and to that unspeakable joy and peace that flows from it as the effect from the cause the fruit from the root the stream from the fountain There is such assurance and such joy that springs from the fresh and frequent actings of Faith that cannot be exprest that cannot be painted no man can paint the sweetness of the honey comb the sweetness of a clustre of Canaan the sweetness of paradise the fragrancy of the Rose of Sharon As the being of things cannot be painted and as sweetness of things cannot be painted no more can that assurance and joy that flows from believing be painted or expressed it is too great and too glorious for weak man Rom. 4. 18. to paint or set forth When Abraham believed in hope against hope and when in the face of all dangers and difficulties he put forth such noble and glorious acts of Faith as to conclude That the Lord would provide himself a Gen. 22. 8. Dominus providebit the Lord will provide was Maximilians pious Motto and should be every Saints Motto in straits and troubles Lamb for a burnt-offering and that in the Mount he would be seen God is so taken with the actings of his Faith and the effects of it that he swears by himself That in blessing he would bless him that is I will
applying precious promises and suitable remedies to all your maladies Have you not found God a bringing in unexpected mercy in the day of your adversity suitable to that promise Hosea 2. 14. I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her or I will earnestly speak to her heart as the Hebrew reads it yes Have you not found that God hath so sweetned and sanctified afflictions to you as to make them a means to discover many sins that lay hid and to purge you from many sins that cleaved close unto you and to prevent you from falling into many sins that would have been the breaking of your bones and the loss of your comfort yes Have you not found that you have Musk saith one when it hath lost its sweetness if it be put into the sink amongst filth it recovers it so doth afflictions recover and revive decayed graces been like the Walnut tree the better for beating and like the Vine the better for bleeding and like the ingenious childe the better for whiping yes Have you not found afflictions to revive quicken and recover your decayed graces have they not inflamed that love that hath been cold and put life into that Faith that hath been dying and quickned those hopes that have been withering and put spirits into those joyes and comforts that have been languishing yes O then stand up and declare to all the world That times of affliction have been the times wherein you have seen the face of God and heard the voice of God and sucked sweetness from the brests of God and fed upon the delicates of God and drunk deep of the consolations of God and have been most satisfied and delighted with the presence and in-comes of God When Hezekiah in his great affliction lamentingly said I shall go mourning Isai 38. 9. to 21. to my grave I shall not see the Lord in the Land of the living he will cut me off with pining sickness he will break all my bones Like a Crane or a Swallow so did I chatter I did mourn as a Dove mine eyes fail with looking upward O Lord I am oppressed undertake for me So now God comes in a way of mercy to him and prints his love upon his heart Vers 17. Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption or rather as the Hebrew reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it Thou hast loved my soul from the grave for thou hast cast all my sins behinde thy back Ah says Hezekiah I have now found that in my afflictions thy affections have been most strongly carried towards me as towards one whom thou art exceedingly taken with O now thou hast warmed me with thy love and visited me with thy grace thou hast made my darkness to be light and turned my sighing into singing and my mourning into rejoycing So when Habakkuks belly trembled Hab 3. 16 17 18. and his lips quivered and rottenness entered into his bones and all Creature comforts failed yet then had he such a sweet presence of God with his Spirit as makes him to rejoyce in the midst of sorrows Yet says he I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation And thus you see it clear That in times of affliction God makes sweet manifestations of his love and favor to his Childrens souls Eighthly Praying times are times wherein the Lord is graciously pleased to give his people some sweet and comfortable assurance of his love and favor towards them Prayer crowns Nunquam abs te absque te recedo Bern. ep 116. O Lord saith he I never go away from thee without thee He was a man very much in prayer as some Writers observe God with the honor and glory that is due to his Name and God crowns prayer with assurance and comfort usually the most praying souls are the most assured souls There is no service wherein souls have such a neer familiar and friendly entercourse with God as in this of prayer neither is there any service wherein God doth more delight to make known his grace and goodness his mercy and bounty his beauty and glory to poor souls then this of prayer The best and sweetest flowers of paradise God gives to his people when they are upon their knees Prayer is Porta coeli clavis padisi the Gate of Heaven a Key to let us into paradise when John was weeping in prayer doubtless the Sealed Book was open to him Many Christians have found by experience praying times to be sealing times times wherein God hath sealed up to them the remission of their sins and the salvation of their souls They have found prayer to be a shelter to their souls a sacrifice to God a sweet savor to Christ a scourge to Satan and an in-let to assurance God loves to lade the wings of prayer with the choicest and chiefest blessings Ah! how often Christians hath God kist you at the beginning of prayer and spoke peace to you in the midst of prayer and filled you with joy and assurance upon the close of prayer That nineth of Daniel from the seventeenth to the four and twentieth verse is full to the point in hand I shall onely cite the words of the four last Verses And whilest I was speaking and praying Dan. 9. 20. and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the Holy Mountain of my God Yea whilest I was speaking in prayer even the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision at the begining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With weariness or flight tired as it were with his making speed being caused to flie swiftly touched me about the time of the Evening Oblation And he informed me and talked with me and said O Daniel I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth and I am come to shew thee for thou art greatly beloved therefore understand the Matter and consider the Vision In these words you see whilest Daniel was in prayer the Lord appears to him and gives him a Divine touch and tells him That he is a man greatly beloved or as the Hebrew hath it a man of desires So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chamudoth a man of desires that is one singularly beloved of God one that is very pleasing and delightful to God Act 10. 1 2 3 4. There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius a Centurion of the Band called the Italian Band a devout man and one that feared God with all his house which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God alway He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an Angel of God coming in to him and saying unto him Cornelius And when he looked on him he was afraid and said What is it Lord And he said unto him Thy
prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God Praying Vide Calvin and Oecumeâ—ius on these words Cornelius you see is remembred by God and visited sensibly and evidently by an Angel and assured that his prayers and good deeds are not onely anodor a sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God but also that they shall be gloriously rewarded by God So when Peter was Vers 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 of Acts 1. praying he fell into a trance and saw Heaven opened and had his minde elevated and all the faculties of his soul filled with a Divine Revelation so when Paul was a praying he sees a Acts 9 11 12 13 14 15 19. vision Ananias a coming and laying his hands on him that he might receive his sight Paul had not been long at prayer before it was revealed to him that he was a chosen Vessel before he was filled with the voice and comforts of the Holy Ghost so our Saviour Luke 17. was transfigured as he was praying Thus you see that praying times are times wherein the Lord is graciously pleased to lift up the light of his countenance upon his people and to cause his grace and favor his goodness and kindness to rest on them as the spirit of Elijah did rest on Elisha 2 Kings 2. 15. But some may object and say We have Object been at the door of mercy early and late for assurance and yet we have not obtained it we have prayed and waited and we have waited and prayed we have prayed and mourned and we have 〈…〉 ed and prayed and yet we cannot get a good word from God a smile from God he hath covered himself with a cloud and after all that we have done it is still night with our souls God seems not to â—e at home he seems not to value our prayers we call and cry and shout out for assurance and Lam. 3. 8. yet he shutteth out our prayer We are sure That we have not found praying times to be times of assurance to our souls c. Now to this Objection I shall give Answ I It is better to ask and not receive then to receive and noâ— ask Clâ—m these answers first that it may be you have been more earnest and vehement for assurance and the effects of it viz. Joy comfort and peâ—ce then you have been for grace and holiness for communion with God and conformity to God it may be your requests for assurance have been full of life and spirits when your request for grace and holiness for communion with God and conformity to God have been liveness and spiritless If so no wonder that assurance is denied you Assurance makes most for your comfort but holiness makes most for Gods honor mans holiness is now his greatest happiness and in Heaven mans greatest happiness will be his perfect holiness Assurance is the daughter of Holiness and he that shall more highly prize and more earnestly press after the enjoyment of the daughter then the mother it is not a wonder if God shuts the door upon him and crosses him in the thing he most desires The surest and the shortest way to assurance is to wrastle and contend with God for holiness as the Angel contended Judg. 2. 9. with the Devil about the body of Moses When the stream and cream of a mans spirit runs after holiness it will not be long night with that man the Sun of Righteousness will shine Mal. 4. 2. forth upon that man and turn his winter into summer and crown him with the Diadem of Assurance The more holy any person is the more excellent The Jews have a saying That those seventy souls that went down to Egypt were more worth then the seventy Nations of the world he is all corruptions are diminutions of excellency the more mixt any thing is the more it is abased as if Gold and Tin be mixed and the more pure it is as meer Gold the more glorious it is Now the more divinely excellent any man is the more fit he is to enjoy the choicest and the highest favors Assurance is a Jewel of that value that he will bestow Psal 16 3. Revel 3. 18. it upon none but his excellent ones Assurance is that tried gold that none can wear but those that win it in a way of grace and holiness It may be if thou hadst minded and endeavored more after communion with God and conformity to God thou mightest before this time have looked upward and seen God in Christ smiling upon thee and have looked inward into thy own soul and seen the Spirit of Grace witnessing to thy spirit Rom 8. 15 16 17. that thou wert a Son an Heir an Heir of God and a joynt heir with Christ But thou hast minded more thy own comfort then Christs honor thou hast minded the blossoms and the fruit Assurance and Peace more then Christ the Root thou hast minded the Springs of comfort more then Christ the Fountain of life thou hast minded the beams of the Sun more then the Sun of Righteousness and therefore it is but a righteous thing with God to leave thee to walk in a valley of darkness to hide his face from thee and to seem to be as an enemy to thee But secondly I answer It may be Answ 2 thou art not yet fit for so choice a mercy thou art not able to bear so great a favor many heads are not able to bear strong-waters why the very quintessence of all the strong consolations Job 15. 11. Divine comfort is a delicate thing and it is not given to him that admits of any other of God are wrung out into this golden cup of assurance and can you drink of this cup and not stammer nor stagger Believe it assurance is meat for strong men few babes if any are able to bear it and digest it The Apostle saith That strong meat belongeth Heb. 5. 12 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them that are of full age or that are comparatively perfect or full grown even those who by reason of use Greek by reason of habit which is got by continual custom and long practice have their senses exercised to discorn both good and evil The Greek word properly signifies such an exercise as wrestlers or such as contend for victory do use which is with all their might and strength being trained up unto it by long exercise It may be O complaining 1 Cor. 3. 1 2 3. Christian that thou art but a scrub a babe in grace happily thou art not yet got beyond the brest or if thou art yet thou art not past the Spoon Ah Christian if it be thus Invalidum omne natura querulum Seneca Weak spirits are ever quarrelling and contending with thee cease complaining of the want of assurance and be up and growing be more aged in gracâ— and holiness and thou shalt finde assurance growing
of baseness and wickedness yet upon his resolution to return his Father meets him and instead of killing him he kisses him instead of kicking him Vers 22 23. he embraces him instead of shutting the door upon him he makes sumptuous provisions for him And how then dost thou dare to say O despairing soul that God will never cast an eye of love upon thee nor bestow a crumb of mercy on thee The Apostle tells you of some monstrous miscreants that were unrighteous fornicators idolaters 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 11. adulterers effeminate abusers of themselves with mankinde theeves covetous drunkards revilers extortioners and yet these monsters of mankinde thorow the instant goodness and free-grace of God are washed from the filth and guilt of their sins and justified by the Righteousness of Christ and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ and decked and adorned with the precious Graces of Christ Therefore O despairing souls are you good at burning that you have no mercy on your selves but to argue to your own undoing do not say O despairing soul that thou shalt die in thy sins and lie down at last in everlasting sorrow Did it make for the honor and glory of his free grace to pardon them and will it be a reproach to his free-grace to pardon thee Could God be just in justifying such ungodly ones and shall he be unjust in justifying of thee Did not their unworthiness and unfitness for mercy turn the stream of mercy from them No. Why then O despairing soul shouldst thou fear that thy unworthiness and unfitness for mercy will so stop and turn the stream of mercy as that thou must perish eternally for want of one drop of special Grace and Mercy Again tell me O despairing soul Is not the Grace of God free-grace is Sub laudibus naturae latent inimici gratiae Aug. The Patrons of mans freewil are enemies to Gods free-grace not mans salvation of free-grace By grace ye are saved Ephes 2. 8. Every link of this golden chain is Grace It is free-grace that chose us Rom. 11. 5. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of Grace It is free-grace that chuses some to be Jewels from all eternity that chuses some to life when others are left in darkness The Lord Jesus Christ is a gift of free-grace Christ is the greatest the sweetest the choicest the cheifest gift that ever God gave and yet this gift is given by a hand of love God so loved the John 3 16. Isa 9. 6. world that he gave his onely begotten Son c. Here is a sic without a sicut God Johâ— 4 10. But God O thou despâ—iâ—ing soul is Pater misâ—rationum he is al 's bâ—wels he will not stand upon giving his most lovely Son to most unlovely souls so loved the world so freely so vehemently so fully so admirably so unconceivably That he gave his onely Son His Son not his servant his begotten Son not his adopted son yea his onely begotten Son I have read of one that had four sons and in a Famine being sore opprest with hunger the Parents resolved to sell one for relief but then they considered with themselves which of the four they should sell they said The eldest was the first of their strength therefore loth they were to sell him the second was the very picture of the Father and therefore loth they were to part with him the third was like the Mother and therefore they were not willing to part with him the fourth and the yongest was the childe of their old age their Benjamin the dearly beloved of them both and therefore they were resolved not to part with any of them and so would rather suffer themselves to perish then to part with any of their children O but Gods heart is so strongly set upon sinners Heb. 1. 1 2 3. Matth. 3. ulâ— that he freely gives Jesus Christ who is his first-born who is his very picture who is his beloved Benjamin who is his cheifest joy who is his greatest delight as Solomon speaks Then I was Prov. 8. 30. by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his delights that is his greatest delight rejoycing always before him or sporting greatly before him as little ones do before their parents Why then O despairing soul dost thou sit down sighing and walk up and down mourning and sadly concluding that there is no mercy for thee Hold up thy head O despairing Christ is called the gift of God and the free gift of God five times together in Rom. 5. 15 16 17 18. soul Jesus Christ himself is a gift of free-grace the consideration of his free boundless bottomless and endless love may afford thee much matter of admiration and consolation but none of despairation And as Jesus Christ is a gift of free-grace or a free-grace gift so the precious Covenant of Grace is a gift of grace Gen. 17. 2. I will make my Covenant betwixt me and thee but in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is I will give thee my Covenant Here you see that the Covenant of Grace is a free gift of grace God gave the Covenant of the Priest-hood unto Phineas as a gift so God gives the Num 25. 12 Covenant of Grace as a gift of favor and grace to all that he takes into Covenant with himself from first to last all is from free-grace God loves Hosea 14 4. freely I will heal their back sliding I will love them freely c. So Moses The Lord saith he set his love upon you Deut 7. 7 8. to take you into Covenant with him not because you were more in number then other people but because he loved you and chose your Fathers The onely ground God will have all blessings and happiness to flow from free-grace 1. That the worst of sinners may have strong grounds for hope and comfort of Gods love is his love the ground of Gods love is onely and wholly in himself There is neither portion nor proportion in us to draw his love there is no love nor loveliness in us that should cause a beam of his love to shine upon us there is that enmity that filthiness that treacherousness 2. For the praise of his own glory 3. That vain man may not boast 4. That our mercies and blessings may be sure to us unfaithfulness to be found in every mans bosom as might justly put God upon glorifying himself in their eternal ruine and to write their names in his black Book in characters of blood and wrath And as God loves freely so God justifies us freely Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ And as poor sinners are justified freely so they are pardoned freely Acts 5. 31. Him hath God exalted speaking of Christ
compleat satisfaction if thou wilt cast thy eye upon the particulars I doubt not but thou wilt finde that profit and content that will recompence More to that point I cannot easily say thee for thy pains And this I thought more convenient to hint to thee then to write over the same things that there thou wilt finde to thy delight and settlement The fifth Impediment to Assurance 5. Impediment is their grieving and vexing the Spirit of grace by not harkning to his voice Nil nisi sanctum a sanct◠spiritu prodire potest Nothing can come from the holy Spirit but that which is holy by refusing his counsel by stopping the ear by throwing water upon that fire he kindles in their souls and by attributing that to the Spirit that is to be attributed to mens own passions and distempers and to the Prince of Smoak drives away Bees and an ill savor drives away Doves Sin is such a smoak such an ill savor as drives away this Dove-like spirit darkness and his associates By these and such like ways they sad that precious Spirit that alone can glad them they set him a mourning that alone can set them a rejoycing they set him a grieving that alone can set them a singing and therefore it is that they sigh it out with Jeremiah Lam. 1. 16. Behold he that should comfort our souls stands afar off Ah doubting souls if ever you would have Assurance you must observe the motions of the Spirit and give up your selves to his guidance you must live by his Laws and tread in his steps you must live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit you must let him be chief in your souls This is the way to have him to be a sealing Spirit a witnessing Spirit and an assuring Spirit to your hearts Believe it souls if this be not done you will be far off from quietness and settlement The word that in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The soul will not quite leave wrangling till it be quiet in the bosom of Christ 1 John 3. 19. is rendred assure signifies to perswade to note to us that our hearts are very froward and peevish and apt to wrangle and raise objections against God against Christ against the Scripture against our own and others experiences and against the sweet hints and joyings of the Spirit and this they will do especially when we omit what the Spirit perswades us to omissions raises fears and doubts and makes work for Hell or for the Spirit and Physitian of souls or else when we do that which the Spirit disswades us from If you be kinde and obedient to the Spirit it will not be long night with your souls but if you rebel and vex him he will make your Isai 63. 10. life a hell by withholding his ordinary influences by denying to seal you to the day of redemption and by giving you up to conflict with horrors and terrors c. Therefore be at the Spirits beck and check and assurance and joy will ere long attend you The sixt Impediment to Assurance 6. Impediment is doubting souls making their Sense Reason and Feeling the judges of their Spiritual Conditions Now so long as they take this course they will never reach to Assurance Reasons arm is too short to reach this Jewel Assurance This Pearl of price is put into no hand but that hand of Faith that reaches from Earth to Heaven What tongue can express or heart conceive the fears the doubts the clouds the darkness the perplexities that will arise from the souls reasoning thus I finde not that the countenance Gen. 31. 5. of God is towards me as before therefore surely my condition is bad I feel not those warmings those quicknings those cheerings those meltings as before I am not sensible of those secret stirrings and actings of the Spirit and Grace in my soul as before I do not hear such good news from Heaven as before therefore certainly God is not my God I am not beloved I am not in the state of Grace I have but deceived my self and others and therefore the issue will be that I shall die in my sins c. To make Sense and Feeling the Judges of our Spiritual Conditions what is it but to make our selves happy and miserable righteous and unrighteous saved and damned in one day I in one hour when Sense and Reason sit as Judges upon the Bench Hath God made Sense and Feeling the Judges of your Conditions No. Why then will you Is your Reason Scripture is your Sense Scripture is your Feeling Scripture No. Why then will you make them Judges of your Spiritual Estate Is not the Word the Judge by which all men and their actions shall be judged at last The word that I have spoken John 12. 43. says Christ shall judge you in the last day To the Law and to the Testimony Isa 8. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light or no morning in them Why then O doubting souls will you make your Sense and Feeling the Judge not onely of your conditions but of the truth it self What is this but to dethrone God and to make a god of your Sense and Feeling What is this but to limit and binde up the Holy One of Israel What is this but to toss the soul to and fro and to expose it to a labyrinth of fears and scruples What is this but to cast a reproach upon Christ to gratifie Satan and to keep your selves upon the rack Well doubting souls the counsel that I shall give you is this Be much in believing and make only the Scripture the judge of your condition maintain the judgement Inclinavit Deus Scripturas ad infantium lactentium capacitatem saith one God hath bowed down the Scriptures to the capacity even of Babes and Sucklings Id agit tota Scriptura ut credamus Deum esse misericordem Luth. Psal 119. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Word against the judgement of Sense and Feeling and if upon a serious sincere and impartial comparing of thy heart and the Word together of thy ways and the Word together the Word speaks thee out to be sincere to be a Nathanael to be a new Creature to be born again to have an immortal seed in thee c. Cleave to the Testimony of the Word joy in it rest upon it and give no more way to Fears and Doubts Let thy countenance be no more sad for nothing can speak or make that soul miserable that the Word speaks out to be happy Constantine would have all differences and disputes in the Nicene Councel ended by the Bible O doubting souls look cheerfully to this That all differences and controversies that arise in your hearts be ended by the Word there is danger in looking beside the Scripture or beyond the Scripture or short of the Scripture or upon sense
that you would willingly do upon a dying day Ah how would you live and love upon a dying day how would you admire God rest upon God delight in God long for God and walk with God upon a dying day how would you hate loath and abhor your bosom sins upon a dying day how would you complain of your bosom sins and pray against your bosom sins and mourn over your bosom sins and watch against your bosom sins and flie from all occasions that should tend to draw you to close with your bosom sins upon a dying day Ah doubting souls would you not for all the world gratifie your bosom sins upon a dying day and will you gratifie them on other days which for any thing you know to the contrary may prove your dying days Thrice happy is that soul that labors with all his might to do that at first that he would fain do at last that doth that on every day that he would give a thousand worlds to do on a dying day No way to Assurance like this no way to joy and comfort like this no way to rest and peace like this no way to the Kingdom to the Crown like this I earnestly beseech you trembling souls when you finde your spirits running out to bosom sins that you would lay your hands upon your hearts and thus expostulate the case O our souls would you thus dally and play with sin upon a dying day would you thus stroke and hug sin upon a dying day would you not rather shew all the dislike and hatred that is imaginable against it would you not tremble at sin more then at Hell and abhor the very occasions of sin more then the most venomous Serpent in all the world would you not rather suffer the worst and greatest punishments then to smile upon a darling sin upon a dying day Yes O would you fain do this upon a dying day why not then every day why not then every day O our souls The sixt and last Motive to provoke Motive 6. One flaw in a Diamond doth not onely take away the beauty glory and price of it but it puts men to question whâ—ther it be a Diamond Psal 40. 12. you to fall with all your might upon bosom sins is Seriously to consider that till this be done fears and doubts will still haunt the soul the soul will still be fearing that surely all is naught and that that work that is wrought upon it is not a real but a counterfeit work that it is not a peculiar and special work but a common work that a man may have and perish Till 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this be done the soul can never be able I am not able to see sin had put out Davids eyes to see grace in its own native beauty and glory the hugging of sin in a corner will raise such a dust in the soul that it cannot be able to see those Pearls of glory sparkling and shining Till this be done doubting souls you will be but Babes and Shrubs and Dwarfs in Christianitie the hankering of the soul after sin is the casting of water upon the Spirit it is the laming of Grace it is the clipping the wings of Faith and Prayer so that the soul can neither be confident nor fervent frequent nor constant in religious services so that it will unavoidably follow such souls will be like Pharaohs Gideon had seventy sons and but one Bastard and yet that one Bastard destroyed all the rest you may easily apply it lean Kine poor and starveling Look as many men are kept low in their outward estates by having a back door to some Herodians so many doubting souls are kept low in spirituals by their hankering after some particular sin Remember Christians sin is the souls sickness the souls weakness if the body be weak and diseased it grows not sin is poyson that turns all nourishment into corruption and so hinders the growth of the soul in grace and holiness Ah Christians as ever you would be rid of your fears and doubts as ever you would see the beautie and glory of grace as ever you would be eminent and excellent in grace and holiness see that effectual justice be done upon that Achan that Jonah that darling sin that hath occasioned storms within and tempests without It was a grievous vexation If there be but one crack in the honey-glass there the Wasp will be buzzing and where there is but some one sin favored there Satan will be rempting and upbraiding to King Lysimachus that his staying to drink one draught of water lost him his Kingdom Ah Christians it will grievously vex you when you come to your selves and when you come to taste of the admirable pleasure that attends the conquest of sin to consider that your hankering after this or that particular sin hath been the loss of that joy and comfort that peace and assurance that is infinitelie more worth then all the Kingdoms of the world But you may say to me O! we would Quest fain have our bosom sins subdued we desire above all that they may be effectually mortified these sons of Zerviah we would have slain to chuse But what course must we take to bring under our darling sins to get off our Golden Fetters to get out of these Silken Snares To this Question I shall give these Answers First If ever thou wouldst have Means 1. masterie over this or that bosom sin then engage all thy power and might against thy bosom sin draw up thy spiritual forces and engage them wholly against the sin that doth so easilie beset thee As the King of Syria said to his Captains Fight neither 2 Chro. 8. 30. with small nor great save onely with the King of Israel So I say your wisdom and your work O doubting souls lieth not in skirmishing with this or that sin but in coming up to a close sharp fight with the King of Israel with that darling sin that hath a Kingly interest in you and a Kingly power over you Constantine the Great his Symbole was Immedicabile vulnus ense rescindendum est when there is no hope of curing men must fall a cutting Believe it souls you must fall a cutting your bosom sins in pieces by the Sword of the Spirit as Samuel cut Agag in 1 Sam. 15. 33. pieces in Gilgal before the Lord or else you will never obtain a perfect cure Slight skirmishes will not do it you must pursue your bosom sins to the death or they will be the death of your souls The second Means to bring under a Means 2. As when one Bucket of a Well goes up the other goes down as when one of the two Lawrels in Rome flourishes the other withers so when grace gets up sin goes down when grace flourishes sin withers bosom sin is To labor to be most eminent and excellent in that particular grace that is most opposite to a mans bosom sin
name till you have got the assurance of your pardon in your bosoms I know not what will CHAP. V. Shewing the several Ways and Means of gaining a wel-grounded Assurance FIrst if ever you will attain Means 1. to Assurance then be much in the Exercise and Actings of Grace as the believing Ephesians were Ephes 1 13. A Christian that would have assurance must never leave blowing his little spark till he hath blowed it into a flame in the very Exercise and Actings of Grace the Spirit of the Lord sealed them up to the day of Redemption Assurance flows in upon the actings of Grace assurance is bred and fed it is raised and maintained in the soul by the actings of Grace Grace is most discernable when it is most in action and Grace is made more and more perfect by acting Neglect of your Graces is the ground of their decrease Wells are the sweeter for drawing you get nothing by dead and useless Habits Talents hid in a Napkin gather rust the noblest faculties are imbased when not improved Grace in the habit is no more discernable then fire under the ashes then gold in the Ore then a dead man in the grave but Grace in its lively actings and operations is as a Prince upon his throne sparkling and shining Ah Christians were your grace more active it would be more visible and were your grace more visible your assurance would be more clear and full As Saint Paul once spake to Timothy Stir up the gift 2 Tim. 1. 6. The words are an allusion to the fire in the Temple which was always to be kept burning Vide Calvin upon the Text. of God that is in thee So I say to you if ever you would have assurance stir up the grace of God that is in you blow up that heavenly fire raise up those noble spirits never cease believing nor repenting till it be clearly given into your bosome that you are sure that you do believe and that you do repent as you are sure that you live as you are sure that God rules in Jacob and dwells in Zion Remember Christians all the honor that God hath from you in this life is from the actings and the exercise of your grace and not from the habits of grace Remember Christians that all your consolations flow not from the habits but from the acts of grace Remember Christians that the want of the exercise of grace is the reason why you do not discern your grace and why you have no more assurance of your future happiness He that will be rich must still be turning the peny and he that will attain unto the riches of assurance Col. 2. 2. must still be acting his graces there are none but lively active Christians that knows and feels those joys comforts and contents that attends the exercise of grace If thou wouldst not be always a Babe in Grace and a stranger to Assurance then see that thy Lamp be always burning see that the Golden Wheels of Grace be always going Secondly If you would Christians Means 2. attain unto assurance then you must minde your work more then your wages you must be better at obeying then at disputing at doing at walking then at talking and wrangling Assurance is heavenly wages that Christ gives not to loyterers but to holy laborers though no man merits assurance by his obedience yet God usually crowns obedience with assurance John 14. 21 22 23. He that Non enim passibus ad Deum sed affectibas currimus Ambulas si amas Thou walkest if thou lovest to walk hath my Commandments 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 will manifest my self to him Vers 22. Judas saith unto him not Iscariot Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self unto us and not unto the world Vers 23. Jesus answered and said unto him If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him In these words you see that doing Christians working Christians are the onely Christians that shall have most of the love of the Father and the Son and that shall have the choicest manifestations of grace and favor and that shall have most of their presence and company So in Psal 50. 23 Unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that ordereth his conversation aright That disposeth his way as God haâ—h prescribed will I declare the salvation of God That is I will declare my self to be his Saviour I will shew him Salvation and I will shew him his interest iâ— Salvation I will save him and I will make him see that I have saved him he shall see the worth of Salvation and taste the sweetness of Salvation So in Gal. 6. 16. And as many as walk according to this rule that is the rule of the new Creature Peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God The Greek word that is here rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Bezam and Pareus on the Text. walk signifies not simply to walk but to walk by rule in order and measure without treading aside but making straight steps to our feet Now those choice souls that thus walks according to the Law of the new Creature shall have peace and mercy in them and peace and mercy with them and peace and mercy on them As many as walk according to this rule peace and mercy be on them Assurance is a jewel of too high a price to be cast into any of their bosoms that walk contrary to the Laws of the new Creature such may talk of assurance and make a stir and a noise about assurance but it is the close walking Christian that shall be crowned with assurance Assurance is a choice part of a Believers Vis nunquam esse tristis bene vive Wouldst thou never be fact then live well says Bernard happiness and therefore God will never give it out of a way of holiness The Lord hath set apart for himself the man that is godly Psal 4. 3. None are favorites in Gods Court nor none are admitted to be of his Counsel but those who are all glorious within and whose rayment is of imbroidered gold That is such whose principles are full of spiritual glory and whose practises are amiable and answerable in purity and sanctity These are the persons that shall have the honor to have Gods ear and the happiness to know his heart The third Means to gain assurance Means 3. is To be kinde to the Spirit hear his voice follow his counsel live up to his Laws The Spirit is the great Revealer of the Fathers secrets he lies in the bosom of the Father he knows every name that is written in the Book of Life he is best acquainted with the inward workings of the heart of God towards poor sinners
sense and feeling of Divine favor Absolute promises Bilney was much comforted in a great conflict by that promise 1 Tim. 1. 15. And Vrsine by that in John 10. 29. Another by that in Isai 57. 15. Another by that in Isai 26. 3. Mr. Wheatley with that in Heb. 10. 37 c. are waters of life to many precious sons of Zion they are a heavenly fire at which they can sit down and warm themselves when they cannot blow their own spark into a flame and when all Candle-light Torch-light and Star-light fails them when all other comforts can yeeld a perplexed distressed soul no comfort yet then absolute promises will prove full Brests of Consolation to the distressed soul These things being premised see now what gift of God there is in thee that brings thee within the compass of the promise of Everlasting Happiness and Blessedness and to help you a little in this I shall put you in minde of these following particulars First Faith is a gift of God that brings the soul within the promise of Everlasting Blessedness as the Scripture doth every where evidence He Mark 16. 16. John 3. 15 16 c. that believes shall be saved he that believes shall not come into condemnation he shall not perish he shall have eternal life c. Now believing is nothing else but the accepting of Christ John 1. 12. vide for thy Lord and Saviour as he is offered to thee in the Gospel and this accepting is principally if not onely the act of thy will so that if thou art sincerely and cordially willing to have Christ upon his own terms upon Gospel terms that is to save thee and rule thee to redeem thee and to reign over thee then thou art a Believer thy sincere willingness to believe is thy Faith and this gift brings thee within the compass of the promise of Eternal Happiness and Blessedness Christian Reader in the following Discourse thou wilt finde the nature the properties and the excellencies of a found saving Faith clearly and largely laid open before thee and therefore I shall say no more to it in this place but refer thee to what follows Secondly Waiting patiently on God is a gift that brings thee within the promise of Everlasting Happiness and Blessedness And he that hath but a waiting frame of heart hath that that God will eternally own and crown Isa 30. 18. And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of judgement Blessed are all they that wait for him Verily it is no iniquity to pronounce them blessed that God pronounces blessed it is no piety but cruelty and inhumanity for any not to be as merciful to themselves as God is merciful to them not to have as sweet and precious thoughts of their present condition as God hath If God sayes the waiting soul is blessed who dares judge who dares say it is not blessed Let God be true and every man a lyer Isa 64. 4. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him Prov. 8. 34. Blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at my gates waiting at the posts of my doors Isai 49. 23. They shall not be ashamed that wait for me That is I will never fail the waiting soul I will never put him to blushing by frustrating his patient waiting on me The waiting soul shall bear the Bell and carry away the Crown at last Verily glorious love and power is as much seen in keeping up a poor soul in a patient waiting on God as it was in raising Christ from the Grave and as it is in bringing souls to glory Nothing can make the waiting soul miserable Hold out Faith and patience but a little and Revel 22. 11 12. he that shall come will come and bring his reward with him Thirdly Hungering and thirsting after Righteousness is a gift that brings the soul within the compass of the promise of Everlasting Happiness and Blessedness Matth. 5. 6. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it runs in the Greek Blessed are they that are hungring and thirsting Intimating that where ever this is the present disposition of mens souls they are blessed and may expect spiritual repletions Considerable to this purpose is that of Isai 44. 2 3 4 5. Thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the Womb which will help thee Fear not O Jacob my servant and thou Jesurun whom I have chosen For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty By Water is meant the Spirit say some others understand it of the Spiritual Waters of Grace That God will power out upon those that thirst and long after an abundance of Grace c. and flouds upon the dry ground I will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed and my Blessing upon thy Off-spring And they shall spring up as among the grass as Willows by the Water-courses One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and sirname himself by the name of Israel Of the like consideration is that of Isa 35. 6 7. Then shall the lame man leap as a Hart and the tongue of the dumb sing for in the Wilderness shall waters break forth and streams in the desert And the parched ground shall become a Pool and the thirsty Land springs of Water In the habitation of Dragons where each lay shall be Gross with Reeds and Rushes To the like purpose is that in Psal 107. 9. For he satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness But that none may mistake nor miscarry in this business that is of an eternal concernment to them I shall desire them to premise with me these following things for a better and fuller clearing of this particular truth that is under our present consideration First Premise this with me All real hungerings and thirstings after Righteousness are earnest and vehement thirstings and longings they are like Rachels longing for children and like Samsons longing for water Psal 42. 1 2. As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God Philosophers observe That of all Beasts the Hart is most thirsty by nature but most of all thirsty when she is hunted and pursued by Dogs Sayes David As the hunted Hart as the wounded Hart yea as the She-hart in whom the passions of thirst are strongest panteth after the water-brooks so doth my soul pant after thee O God A gracious soul panteth and fainteth
are by Faith united to him and that have a spiritual interest in him are subject to him as a head I shall open this particular thus unto you First The Members are willingly Every true Nathaniels motto is omnia â—x voluntate Dâ—i all must be as God will have it and sweetly subject to the head their subjection is voluntary not compulsory it is so with a believing soul Psal 27. 8. When thou saidst seek ye my face my heart said unto thee thy face Lord will I seek So in Psal 110. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness So â—aul cries Acts 9. 6. out What wilt thou have me to do And professes that he is willing not to be Acts 21. 13. bound onely but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of Christ A gracious soul is in some measure naturalized to the work of Christ and Christs work is in some measure naturalized to the soul Secondly The Members are subject Their obedience is universal First In respect of the act of eschâ—wing al evil doing all good Secondly In respect of the rule the whole Word of God Thirdly In respect of their general and particular callings to the head universally they do all the head enjoyneth so the real Members of Christ do in sincerity endeavor universally to subject to all that Christ their head requires without any exception or reservation Luke 1. 5 6. Zacharias and Elizabeth walked in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless They walked without halting or halving of it with God they fell in with every part and point of Gods revealed Will without prejudice or partiality without tilting the ballance on one side or another Acts 13. 22. I have found David the son of Jesse a man after my own heart which shall fulfil all my will Or rather all my wills as the Greek hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it to note the universality and sincerity of his obedience Thirdly The Members are subject to the head constantly unweariedly the Members are never weary of obeying the head they obey in all places cases and times so are the real Members of Christ Acts 24. 16. And herein do I exercise my self to have always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Always or throughout in all cases or at all times a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men I use all diligence skill cunning and conscience to be sincere and inoffensive in all my motions and actions towards God and towards men So David in Psal 119. 112. I have enclined my heart or rather as the Hebrew word signifies I have stretched 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out my heart as a man would do a peece of parchment to do thy statutes the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word signifies to do accurately exactly perfectly alway even unto the end A gracious soul is not like a deceitful bow nor like the morning dew but he is like the Sun that rejoyceth to run his race he is like the stone in Thracia that neither burneth in the fire nor sinketh in the water Now tell me pray tell me O you doubting souls whether you do not First Labor in all duties and services to approve your hearts to God Secondly Whether you do not endeavor to get up to the very top of holiness and to live up to your own principles Thirdly Whether it be not your greatest desire and endeavor that sin may be cured rather then covered Fourthly Whether you are not taken with Christ as cheif whether you do not in your judgements and affections lift up Christ above all as God the Father doth Fifthly Whether your greatest and hottest conflicts and combates be not against inward polutions against those secret stirrings and operations of sin which are onely obvious to the eye of God and your own souls Sixthly Whether you do not in respect of the general bent frame of your hearts subject to Christ as your Head 1. Freely and sweetly 2. Universally in one thing as well as another without any exception or reservation 3. Constantly and unwearily Yes we do these things we should belie the grace of God if we should say otherwise these things the Lord hath wrought in us and for Isa 26. 12. us Well then know first that your estate is good you have certainly a blessed interest in the Lord Jesus None can do these things but souls that have union with Christ that are interessed in Christ that are acted by the peculiar and special influences of Christ and that are highly beloved of Christ Verily If these things could be found in the most shining hypocrites or any others but reall Saints they could not possibly be either a first or second evidence though a man could see them in the light of the Spirit this is carefully to be observed against those that hold these good second evidences c. these are such flowers of Paradise that cannot be gathered in Natures Garden they are Pearles of that price that God bestows them upon none but those that are the price of Christs blood All the men in the world cannot prove by the Scripture that these Jewels can be found in any mens breasts but in theirs that have union and communion with Christ and that shall reign for ever with Christ Secondly Know that it is no iniquity but rather your duty for you to suck sweetnesse out of these hony-combs and to look upon these things as infallible pledges and evidences of divine favor and of your everlasting happinesse and blessednesse Some there be that make the witnesse of the Spirit of which I shall towards the close of this Discourse speake at large the only evidence of our interest in Christ and deny all other evidences from the fruit of the Spirit but this is to deny the fruit growing upon the tree to be an evedience that the tree is alive whereas all know that the fruit growing upon the tree is an infallible and undeniable evidence that there is life We have cause enough to keep off doubtings and distresse of Spirit upon the bare sight of our evidences this complaining cavilling soules will not understand in the tree Certainly it is one thing to judge by our Graces and another thing to rest upon our Graces or to put trust in our Graces When one argues from the beames of the Sun that there is a Sun one would thinke that the most cavilling spirit in the world should lye quiet and still Now the seventh Means to get a Means 7. Though our graces be our best Jewels yet they are imperfect and do not give out their ful lustre they are like the moon which when it shineth brightest hath a dark spot Therefore we should adde still grace to grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well-grounded Assurance of your everlasting happinesse and blessednesse is to grow and increase more and
more in grace 2 Pet. 1. 5. to 11. Add to your Faith vertue and to vertue knowledge c. to v. 11. for so an enterance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ By enterance into the everlasting Kingdome of Christ is not meant a locall enterance into Heaven for Heaven is no where called the Kingdom of Christ but the Fathers Kingdome the opposition ver 9. sheweth clearly that it is meant of Assurance Now the way to full Assurance is by adding grace to grace The Greek word that is here rendred adde hath a greater emphasis it signifies to link our graces together as Virgins in a Dance doe link their hands together O we must be still a joyning grace to grace we must still be adding one grace to another We must still be a leading up the dance of graces Great measures of grace carry with them great evidence If moral vertue saith Plato could be seen with mortal eyes it would soon draw all hearts to it self O how much the more should our hearts be drawn out after the highest measures of grace the least dram of grace being more worth then all morall vertue of truth little measures carry with them but little evidence great measures of grace carries with them the greatest evidence of the soules union and communion with Christ and the more evident your union and communion with Christ is the more cleare and full will your Assurance be Great measures of grace carries with them the greatest and the clearest evidences of the glorious indwellings of the Spirit in you and the more you are perswaded of the reall indwellings of the Spirit in you The higher will your Assurance rise Great measures of grace will bee a fire that will consume and burn up the drosse the stubble the fears and doubts that perplex the soule and that causes darknesse to surround the soule Now the more you are rid of your fears doubts and darknesse the more easily and the more effectually will your hearts be perswaded that the thoughts of God towards you are thoughts of love that you are precious in his Jere. 32. 41. eies and that he will rejoyce over you to do you good for ever c. The eighth Means to gaine a wel-grounded Means 8. Assurance of your everlasting happinesse and blessednesse is to take your hearts when they are in the best and most spiritual frame and temper God-wards Heaven-wards and Holinesse-wards Times of temptation and desertion c. are praying times hearing times mourning times and beleeving times but they are not trying times they are not seasonable times for doubting soules to set themselves about so great and so solemn a worke as that is of searching and examining how things stand and are like to stand between God and them for ever Be diligent and constant be studious 2 Cor. 13 5. and consciencious in observing the frame and temper of your owne Our hearts are ponderous multum trahit de terra de carnum multum therefore we had need take them when they are in the best temper c. hearts and when you find them most plain most melting most yeelding most tender most humble most sweetly raised and most divinely composed then O then is the time to single out the most convenient place where thou mayst with greatest freedom open thy bosome to God and plead with him as for thy life that hee would shew thee how things stand between him and thee and how it must fare with thy soule for ever And when thou hast thus set thy selfe before God and opened thy bosome to God then wisely observe what report God and thy owne renewed conscience do make concerning thy eternall condition I wil hear what God the Lord wil speak saith Psal 85. 8 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 David for he will speak peace unto his people and they shall not return to folly so the Hebrew may be read O so must thou stand still when thou hast sincerely unbowelled thy selfe before the Lord and listen and hearken what God will say unto thee Surely he will speak peace unto thee he will say Son be of good chear thy sins be forgiven thee thy heart is upright with me my soul is set upon thee I have already blest thee and I will hereafter glorifie thee I have read of one who was kept A good conscience is mille testes a thousand witnesses therefore make much of its testimony from destroying of himself being much tempted by Satan thereunto by remembring that there was a time when he solemnly set himself in prayer and self-examination before the Lord and made a diligent enquiry into his spiritual condition and in the close of that work it was evidenced to him that his heart was upright with God and this kept him from laying of violent hands upon himself O a wise and serious observing what that testimony is that God Conscience and the Word gives in upon solemn Prayer and self-examination may beget strong consolation and support the soul under the greatest affliction and strengthen the soul against the most violent temptations and make the soul look and long for the day of desolution as Princes do for their day of Coronation Lastly The last Means to gain a Means 9. wel-grounded Assurance is To make a diligent enquiry whether thou hast those things that do accompany eternal salvation Heb. 6. 9. But beloved we are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation or as it is in the Greek that have salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were in the very bowels of them that comprehend salvation and that touch upon salvation O Beloved If you have those things that accompany salvation that comprehend salvation you may be abundantly assured of your salvation But you may say to me What are those things that accompany salvation To this Question I shall give this answer viz. That there are seven special things that accompany salvation and they are these First Knowledge Secondly Faith Thirdly Repentance Fourthly Obedience Fifthly Love Sixthly Prayer Seventhly Perseverance First Knowledge is one of those special things that accompanies salvation John 17. 3. And this is life eternal Vide Piscat on the words that they may know thee the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Divine Knowledge is the begining of eternal life it is a spark of glory It is called Eternal life Quia radix erigo vitae In legend is libris non quaeramus scientiam sed saporum Bern. In reading Books let us not look so much for Science as a Savoriness of the tâ—uth upon our own hearts it works life in the soul it is a taste and pledge of eternal life 1 John 5. 20. And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true And we are in him that
is true even in his Son Jesus Christ this is the true God and eternal life 2 Pet. 1. 3. According as his Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and vertue What this Knowledge is that accompanies Salvation I shall shew you anon Secondly Faith is another of those special things that accompanies Salvation 1 Thes 2. 13. But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you Brethren Beloved of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation thorow sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth 1 Pet. 1. 5. You Vide Parcus Esteum Gerhardum on the Text. who are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation Vers 9. Receiving the end of your Faith even the salvation of your souls Heb. 10. 30. But we are not of them who draw back to perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the soul John 3 14 15 16. Mark 16. 16. Acts 16. 31. Rom. 10. 9. Isa 45. 22. Phil. 2. 8. Joh 11. 25 26. 1 John 5. 10. All â—hese and many more Scriptures speaks out the same truth This dâ—uble asseveration or protestation is used onely in matters of weâ—ght and unhappy are we â—hat we cannot believe without them And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life for God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Vers 36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life Chap. 5. 24. Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my Word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life Chap. 6. 40. And this is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth he Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day Vers 47. Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting life Thirdly Repentance is another of those choice things that accompanies salvation 2 Cor. 7. 10. For godly sorrow The very word repâ—nt was very displeasing to Luther till his conversion but afterward he took delight in the work Paehitens de peccato dolet de dolore gaudet Luth to sorrow for his sin and then rejoyce in his sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death Jere. 4. 14. O Jerusalem wash thy heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved Acts 11. 18. When they heard these things they held their peace and glorified God saying Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life Matth. 18. 3. And Jesus said verily I say unto you except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Fourthly Obedience is another of those precious things that accompanies salvation Heb. 5. 9. And being Vide B. Dewâ—h of Justification 17. c. 7. made perfect speaking of Christ he became the Author of Eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him Psal 50. 23. whoso offereth praise glorifieth me and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I declare the Salvation of God Fifthly Love is another of those singular things that accompanies salvation Deus nihil corenat nisi dona sui August When God câ—ownâ—th us he doth but crown hâ—s own gifts in us 2 Tim. 4. 8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me onely but unto them also that love his appearing James 2. 5. Hearken my beloved brethren haâ—h not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdome which he hath promised to them that love him 1 Cor. 2. 9. It is written eie hath not seen nor eare heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him James 1. 12. Blessed is the man that indureth temptation for when The word Crown notes to us the perpetuity of that life the Apostle speaks of for a Crown hath neither beginning nor ending 2. It notes plenty the Crown fetches a compasse on every side 3. It notes dignity it notes majesty Eternal life is a coronation day It notes all joys all delights in a word it notes all good it notes all glory he is tryed he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him Matth. 19. 28 29. And Jesus said unto them verily I say unto you that yee which have followed me in the regeneration When the Son of Man shall sit in the Throne of his glory yee shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel And every one that hath forsaken houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my name sake shall receive an hundred fold and shall inherit everlasting life The whole is as if Christ had said whosoever shall shew love to mee this way or that in one thing or another out of respect to my Name to my Honor mercy shall bee his portion here and glory shall bee his portion hereafter Sixthly Prayer is another of those sweet things that accompanies salvation Rom. 10. 10. 13. For with the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved Act. 2. 21. And it shall come to passe that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved That is saith one hee shall be certainly sealed up to salvation Or as another saith he that hath this grace of Prayer it is an evident sign and assurance to him that he shall be saved Therefore to have grace to pray is a better and a greater mercy then to have gifts to prophesie Matth. 7. 22. Praying souls shall finde the gates of heaven open to them when prophecying souls shall find them shut against them Seventhly and lastly Perseverance is another of those prime things that accompanies salvation Matth. 10. 22. And yee shall be hated of all men for my name sake but he that indureth to the end the same shall be saved Chap. 24. 12 13. And because iniquity shal abound the love The same words you have in Mark 13. 13. of many shal wax cold but he that indureth unto the end the same shal be saved Rev. 2. 10. Fear none of
Christ Pauls great light makes him very little though he was the greatest Apostle yet he looks upon himself a◠less then the least of all Saints Of all the Evangelists John was most sharp-sighted John in the Hebrew signifies The grace of God This Barbarian said the Philosopher hath comprised more in three lines then we have done in all our volumnious discourses Matth. 11. 9 10 11. Christ wonderfully extols John Sayes Christ he is a Prophet yea and more then a Prophet yea a greater is not born of women But the greatest wonder of all is that John is so low in his own eyes most Eagle-eyed he had the clearest sight of Christ he lay most in the bosom of Christ he knew most of the minde of Christ he had the fullest manifestations and revelations of Christ and yet O how little how low is John in his own eyes John 1. 26 27. John answered them saying I baptize with water but there standeth one among you whom ye know not He it is who coming after me is preferred before me whose shooes latchet I am not worthy to unloose In this phrase John alludes to the custom of the Hebrews those among them which were more noble then others had Boyes who carried their shooes and untied them when they laid them by O sayes John I am a poor weak worthless Creature I am not worthy to be admitted to the meanest to the lowest service under Christ I am not worthy to carry his shooes to unloose his shooes After Peter had been in the Mount and instructed and enlightned by Christ he cryes out Depart from me O Lord for I am a sinful man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man a sinner a very mixture and compound of dirt and sin of vileness and baseness as you may see in comparing Matth. 17. 1 2 3 4. with Luke 5. 8. Abraham under Gen. 18. 27. all his light and knowledge acknowledges himself to be but dust and ashes Jacob under all his knowledge Gen. 32. 10. acknowledges himself to be less then the least of all mercies David under Psal 22. 2. 73 22. all his knowledge acknowledges him self to be a worm and no man he acknowledges himself to be foolish and ignorant and as a beast before the Lord. Job under all his knowledge Job 42 1 2 3 4 5. acknowledges that he hath much reason to abhor himself in dust and ashes Agur was very good and his knowledge very great and yet under all his knowledge O how doth he villifie yea nullifie himself Surely saith he I am more bruitish then any man and Prov. 30. 1 2 3 4. have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledge of the holy The Evangelical Prophet Isaiah under all his knowledge Isa 6. 1. to 8 c. and visions which were very great and glorious acknowledges himself to be a man of unclean lips and to dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips Divine and heavenly knowledge brings a man The light that the Moon borrows from the Sun discovers her own spots and makes them the more conspicuous Isa 6. near to God it gives a man the clearest and the fullest fight of God and the nearer any man comes to God and the clearer visions he hath of God the more low and humble will that man lie before God None so humble as they that have nearest communion with God The Angels that are near unto him cover their faces with their wings in token of humility Divine knowledge makes a man look inwards it anatomizes a man to himself it is a glass that shews a man the spots of his own soul and this makes him little and low in his own eies In the beams of this heavenly When a beam of Divine light had shined upon Augustine he cryed out Teneo in memoria scribo in charta sed non habeo i◠vita Gal. 6 3. Many in these days are like the Chineses who use to say That they onely did see with two eyes all others but with one light a Christian comes to see his own pride ignorance impatience unworthiness conceitedness worthlesness frowardness and nothingness That knowledge that swells thee will undo thee that knowledge that puffs thee will sink thee that knowledge that makes thee delightful in thy own eyes will make thee despicable in God and good mens eyes 1 Cor. 8. 1 2. Knowledge puffeth up that is Notional knowledge Speculative knowledge Knowledge that ripens a man for destruction that will leave him short of salvation this knowledge puffs and swells a man and makes him think himself something when he is nothing And if any man thinketh that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know saith the Apostle Will not that Philosopher rise in judgement against many of our high-flown Professors who swell who look big and talk big under their notional knowledge who said under all his knowledge which was very great Hoc tantum scio quod nihil scio This onely do I know that I know nothing Well if that knowledge thou hast be that knowledge that accompanies salvation it is a soul humbling and a soule abasing knowledge if it bee otherwise then will thy knowledge make thee both a Prisoner and a Slave to the Devill at once Seventhly That Knowledge that accompanies salvation is an appropriating knowledge a knowledge that appropriates and applies spiritual and heavenly benefits to a mans own particular soul As you may see in Job my Job 19 25. and 16. 19. Redeemer lives and my witnesse is in Heaven and my record is on high So David the Lord is my portion in Psal Psal 16. 5. 18. 2. he useth this word of propriety eight times together The Lord is my rock and my fortresse and my deliverer my God my strength in whom I will trust my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high Tower So the Spouse my Beloved is mine and I am Cant. 2. 16. John 20. 28. his So Thomas My Lord and my God So Paul I am crucified with Christ neverthelesse This is the pith and power of heavenly knowledge to appropriate Christ to a mans selfe I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who hath loved me and gave himself for me Applicatory knowledge is the sweetest knowledge it revives the heart it chears the spirits it rejoyces the soul it makes a man go singing to duties and go singing to his grave and singing to Heaven Whereas others Those that have a blemish in their eie think the Skie to be ever cloudy and nothing is more common to weak spirits then to be criticizing and contending c. though gracious that want this applicatory knowledge have their hearts full of fears and their lives full of sorrows and so go sighing and mourning
want of the Hos 7. 14. Creature and sometimes from the example of the Creature and sometimes from vows made to the Creature sometimes the frowns of God Hos 5. ult Psal 78. 34. the displeasure of God the rod of God moves them to obedience sometimes the quieting and stilling of Conscience the stopping of the mouth of Conscience and the disarming of Conscience of all her whipping racking wounding condemning terrifying and torturing power puts them upon some ways of Obedience Their Obedience always flows from some low base carnal corrupt consideration or other O but that Obedience that accompanies Salvation doth always flow as you see from inward and Spiritual causes and from holy and heavenly Motives Fourthly That Obedience that accompanies Salvation is a ready free willing and chearful Obedience First It is ready Obedience Psal 27. 8. When thou saidst Seek ye my face my heart said unto thee Thy face Lord will I seek Psal 119. 60. I made haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments Psal 18. 44. Assoon as they hear of me they shall obey me the strangers shall submit themselves unto me I have read of one who Cassianus lib. 4. c. 24. readily fetched water near two miles every day for a whole year together to pour upon a dry stick upon the bare command of a Superior when no reason could be given for the thing O how ready then doth Grace make the Soul to obey those Divine commands that are backed with the highest strongest and choicest Arguments Secondly As that Obedience that accompanies Salvation is ready Obedience so it is free and willing Obedience Acts 21. 13. Then Paul answered Voluntaes semiplena est voluntas An half will an incompleat will an unwilling will is a will in Divine account What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart For I am willing not to be bound onely but also to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus The beamings out of Divine love and glory make gracious souls willing in the day of his power Psal 110. 3. Those Divine principles that be in them make them willingly obey without coaction or compulsion So 2 Cor. 8. 3. The Macedonians were willingly obedient or as the Greek hath it They were voluntiers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely to their power but beyond their power All the motions and actings of Christ towards his people for his people and in his people are free He loves them freely he pardons them freely he intercedes for them freely he acts them freely and he saves them freely and so they move and act towards Christ freely they heat they pray they wait they weep they work they watch freely and willingly that Spirit of Grace and 1 Chron. 29. 6-18 1 Tim. 6. 18. 1 Thes 2. 8. A Saint at worst is obedient either Holiness that is in them makes them Voluntiers in all Religious duties and services It is reported of Socrates that when the Tyrant threatned death unto him he answered He was willing Voluntate plena or semi-plena with a will or an unwilling will like the Merchant that is unwillingly willing to throw his goods over board into the tempestuous Sea to save his life nay then says the Tyrant You shall live against your will he answered again Nay whatsoever you do with me it shall be my will Yet nature a little raised and refined will inable a man to do this will not Grace will not Union and Communion with Christ inable a man to do as much yea infinitly more Thirdly As that Obedience that accompanies Salvation is free and willing Obedience so it is cheerful and delightful Obedience it is a Believers meat and drink it is his joy and crown it is a pleasure a paradise to his soul to be still obeying his Fathers will to be still found about his Fathers business Psal 40. 8. I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is in my heart As the Sun rejoyceth to Psal 19. 5 11. compared Tanto magis delectat opus bonum quanto magis diligitur Deus summum incommutabile bonum Aug. A good work so much the more delighteth by how much the more God the chiefest and unchangable Good is loved In hoc cognoscitur amor Christi si quis servat praecepta Christi Bern. run his race so do the Saints rejoyce to run the race of Obedience Gods work is wages yea it is better then wages therefore they cannot but delight in it not onely for keeping but also in keeping of his commands there is great reward Psal 112. 1. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his Commandments that is in the studying and obeying of his Commandments Psal 119. 16. I will delight my self in thy Statutes I will not forget thy Word Vers 35. Make me to go in the path of thy Commandments for therein do I delight V. 47. And I will delight my self in thy Commandments which I have loved V. 143. Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me yet thy Commandments are my delight Divine commands are not grievous to a lover of Christ for nihil difficile amanti nothing is difficult to him that loveth The love of Christ the discoveries of Christ the embraces of Christ make a gracious soul studious and industrious to keep the Commandments of Christ in lip and life in word and work in head and heart in book and brest Thus you see that that Obedience that accompanies Salvation is Ready Free and Chearful Obedience Fifthly That Obedience that accompanies Salvation is Peremptory Obedience Josh 24. 15. I and my Josephus reports of such resolute Christians that in the face of al reproaches and difficulties followed Christ to the Cross houshold will serve the Lord. He is fully resolved upon it come what come can in the face of all dangers difficulties impediments and discouragements he will obey the Lord he will follow the Lord so those Worthies in the eleventh of the Hebrews of whom this world was not worthy obeyed Divine commands peremptorily resolvedly in the face of all manner of deaths and miseries So Paul was obedient to Acts 20. 23. Gal. 1. 15 16. You may as well stop the Sun from running his race as you are able to hinder gracious souls from obeying Divine commands Psal 44. 13. 24. As a wicked natuâ—e makes the wicked peremptory in their disobedience Jer. 44. 15 16 17. So the Divine nature makes gracious souls peremptory in their Obedience the heavenly vision though bonds did attend him in every place he is better at obeying then at disputing I conferred not sayes he with flesh and blood So Peter and John and the rest of the Apostles in despight of all threatnings and beatings they obey the Lord they keep fast and close to their Masters work Whether it be right in the fight of God to hearken more unto you then unto God judge ye for we cannot but
when one would have struck at his Father the affection that he had to his Father broke the bars of his Speech and he cryed out Take heed of killing the King You know how to apply it Moses was as a dumb childe in his own cause yet when the Israelites by making and dancing about their Golden Calf had wounded the honor and glory of God he shews himself to be much affected and afflicted for the dishonor done to God The statue of Apollo is said to shed tears for the afflictions of the Grecians though he could not help them so a true lover of Christ will shed tears for those dishonors that are done to Christ though he knows not how to prevent them It is between Christ and his Lovers as it is between two Lute strings that are tuned one to another no sooner one is struck but the other trembles so no sooner is Christ struck but a Christian trembles and no sooner is a Christian struck but Christ trembles Saul Saul Acts 9. why persecutest thou me Seventhly That Love that accompanieâ— Salvation doth shew it self by working the Soul to observe with a curious critical eye Christs countenance Vbi amor ibi oculus As love came in by the eye so it delights by the same door to run out to Christ and carriage and by causing the soul to be sad or chearful as Christs carriage and countenance is towards the soul when Christ looks sad and carries it sadly then to be sad as Peter was Christ cast a sad look upon him and that made his heart sad he went forth and wept bitterly And when Christ looks sweetly and speaks kindly and carries it lovingly then to be chearful and joyful as the Church was in Cant. 3. 4. It was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my soul loveth I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him into my Mothers house and into the Chamber of her that conceived me So the Church in Isai 61. 10. I will greatly rejoyce in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In rejoycing I will rejoyce That is I will exceedingly rejoyce the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath cloathed me with the garments of Salvation he hath covered me with a robe of Righteousness as a Bridegroom decketh himself with Ornaments and as a Bride adorneth her self with her Jewels A true Lover of Christ hath still his eye upon Christ and as his countenance stands so is he glad or sad chearful or sorrowful Tigranes in Xenophon coming to redeem his Father and Friends with his Wife that were taken prisoners by King Cyrus was asked among other Questions this viz. What ransom he would give for his Wife he answered He would redeem her liberty with his own life But having prevailed for all their liberties as they returned together every one commended Cyrus for a goodly man and Tigranes would needs know of his Wife what she thought of him Truly said she I cannot tell for I did not so much as look on him or see him Whom then said he wondering did you look upon Whom should I look upon said she but him that would have redeemed my liberty with the loss of his own life So a Christian a true lover of Christ esteems nothing worth a looking upon but Christ who hath redeemed him with his own Blood Eighthly That Love that accompanies Salvation reaches forth a hand Jâ—rom professed how much he loved Christ in Augustine and Augustine in Christ of kindness to those that bear the Image of Christ 1 John 5. 1 2. Every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him By this we know that we love the Children of God when we love God and keep his Commandments He that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Now because many mistake in their love to the Saints and the consequences that follow that mistake are very dangerous and pernicious to the souls of men I shall therefore briefly hint to you the properties of that love to the Saints that accompanies Salvation And The first is this True Love to the Saints is spiritual it is a love for the Image of God that is stamped upon the Soul Col. 1. 8. Epaphras hath declared to us your love in the Spirit A Soul that truly loves loves the Father for his own sake and the children for the Fathers sake Many there are that love Christians for their goods not for their good they love them for the money that is in their purse but not for the grace that is in their hearts Many like the Bohemian Cur fawn upon a good suit Love to the Saints for the Image of God stamped upon them is a flower that grows not in Natures Garden No man can love Grace in another mans heart but he that hath grace in his own Men doth not more Remember wicked men God himself is wroâ—ged by the injury that is done to his Image The contempt and despight is done to the King himself which is done to his Image or Coyn. naturally love their parents and love their children and love themselves then they do naturally hate the Image of God upon his people and ways True love is for what of the Divine Nature for what of Christ and Grace shines in a man It is one thing to love a godly man and another thing to love him for godliness Many love godly men as they are Politicians or Potent or Learned or of a sweet Nature but all this is but natural love but to love them because they are spiritually lovely because they are all Psal 45. 13. glorious within and their rayment is of imbroidered gold is to love them as becometh Saints it is to love them at so high and noble a rate that no Hypocrite in the world can reach to it Tho Wasps flie about the Tradesmans shop not out of love to him but the Honey and the Fruit that is there This age is full of such Wasps Ephes 1. 15. Col 1. 4. It was the glory of the Ephesians and Colossians that their Faith and Love reached to all the Saints It was not narrow and confined to some particulars but it was universal Secondly True Love to the Saints is universal to one Christian as well as another to all as well as any to poor Lazarus as well as to rich Abraham to a despised Job as well as to an admired David to an afflicted Joseph as well as to a raised Jacob to a despised Disciple as well as to an exalted Apostle Phil. 4. 21. Salute every Saint the meanest as well as the richest the weakest as well as the strongest the lowest as well as the highest They have all the same Spirit the same Jesus the same Faith they are all Fellow Members Fellow Travellers Fellow Souldiers Fellow Citizens Fellow Heirs and therefore must they
times it was very much taken notice of by the very Heathen That in the depth of misery when Fathers and Mothers forsook their Children Christians otherwise strangers stuck close one to another their love of Religion and one of another proved firmer then that of nature They seem to take away the Sun out of the World said the Orator who take away friendship from the life of men And we do not more need fire and water then constant friendship Ninthly That Love that accompanies Salvation doth manifest and shew it self by working the Soul to be quiet and still under Christs rebukes John 21. 16 17 18 Peter sits down quiet under a threefold reproof Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee So Eli It is 1 Sam. 3. 18. the Lord let him do what seems good in his own eyes And Aaron holds his peace Levit. 10. 3. when he saw the flames about his sons ears So David I was dumb I opened Psal 39. 9. not my mouth because thou didst it The lovers of Christ are like the Scythian that went naked in the Snow and when Alexander wondered how he could endure it he answered I am all forehead O the lovers of Christ are all forehead to bear the rebukes of the Lord Jesus The Lovers of Christ know That all his rebukes are from love whom he Revel 3. 19. loves he rebukes they can see smiles thorow Christs frowns They know that to argue that Christ hates them because he rebukes them is the Devils Logick They know that all the rebukes of Christ are in order to their internal and eternal good and that quiets them They know that all the rebukes of Christ are but fore-runners of some glorious manifestations of greater love to their souls Psal 71. 20 21. Thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the Earth Thou shalt increase my greatness and comfort me on every side They know that it is the forest judgment in the world to go on freely in a way of sin without rebukes Ebhraim is joyned to Idols let him alone Hos 4. 17. And therefore they keep silence before the Lord they lay one hand upon their mouthes and the other upon their hearts and so sit mute before the Holy One. Tenthly That Love that accompanies Salvation shews it self by working the heart to be affected and afflicted with the least dishonors that are done to Christ Love is curious of little things it is as much afflicted with an idle word or with an impure dream as lovers of Christ are with adultery or blasphemy David did but cut off the lap of Sauls Garment and his heart â—mote him 1 Sam. 24. 5. Though he did it to convince Saul of his false jealousie and his own innocency Love will not allow of the least infirmity Rom. 7. 15. That which I do I allow not Love will make a man aim at Angelical purity and perfect innocency love will be getting up to the top of Jacobs Ladder love can rest in nothing below perfection Love makes a man look more at what he should be then at what he is it makes a man strive as for life to imitate the highest examples and to write after the choicest copies Love fears The sin and the coat of the sin is to be hated saith Ambrose every Image of offence it trembles at the appearance of sin it doth not it cannot allow it self to do any thing that looks like sin it hates the Garment spotted with the flesh it shuns the occasions of sin as it shuns Hell it self This is the Divine curiosity and glory of a Christians love Love says Melius mori fame quam Idolothytis vesci Aug. Marcus Arethusius in Julians time It is better to die with hunger then to eat that which is offered to Idols I have read of a holy man who out of his love to Christ and hatred of Idolatry would not give one half-penny toward the building of an Idols Temple though he was provoked thereunto by intollerable torments Love The Nieene Fathers would not gratifie Arrius no not in one tittle knows that the least evils are contrary to the greatest good they are contrary to the Nature of Christ the Commands of Christ the Spirit of Christ the Grace of Christ the Glory of Christ the Blood of Christ Love knows that little dishonors if I may call any sin little make way for greater as little Theeves unlock the door and make way for greater Love knows that little sins multiplied become great As love knows that there is nothing lesser then a grain of Sand so love knows that there is nothing heavier then the Sand of the Sea when multiplied Eleventhly That love that accompanies Salvation will shew it self by keeping the doors of the heart shut against those treacherous lovers that would draw the heart from Christ Love is a Golden Key to let in Christ and a strong lock to keep out others Though many may knock at Loves door yet Love will open to none but Christ Cant. 5. 6. I opened to my Beloved 8. 7. Many waters cannot quench love neither can the floods drown it If a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be contemned Bon Jabuzu contemning it would be contemned When the world would buy So did Luther Galeaciouâ— that noble Italian his love he cryes out with Peter Thy money perish with thee Love makes a man look with a holy scorn and disdain upon all persons and things that attempt either to force or flatter her out of her love and loyalty to her Beloved It is neither force nor fraud it is neither promises nor threatnings it is neither the Cross nor the Crown the Palace nor the Prison the Rod nor the Robe the Hempton Halter nor the Golden Chain that will make love embrace a stranger in the room of Christ Go says Divine Love offer your Gold and empty Glories to others your Pleasures and your Treasures to others put on your Lyons skin and fright others As for my part I scorn and contemn your golden offers and I disdain and deride your rage and threats Love makes a man too noble too high too gallant and too faithful to open to any lover but Christ to let any lie between the Brests but Christ Cant. 1. 13. A bundle of myrrhe is my welbeloved unto me be shall lie all night betwixt my Brests When Basil was Plato saith Pliny took as much delight and glory in those dignities and honoâ—â— he denied as he did in those he did enjoy It â—s just so with the Saints tempted with money and preferment he answers Pecuniam da quae perma neat ac continuo duret gloriam quae semper floreat Give money that may last for ever and glory that may eternally flourish Love makes a man cry out when tempted Let
As the Publicans God be merciful to me a sinner Thirdly There is conceived prayer and prescribed prayer Fourthly There is publick or private prayer These hints may suffice as to this wherein we speak to God in Faith Humility Sincerity and Fervency of Spirit through the Mediation of Christ begging those good things that we and others want deprecating that we and others fear and giving thanks for that we and others have received Prayer is a speaking to God face to face it is Iacobs Ladder by which the soul climbs up to Heaven it is Noahs Dove that goes and returns not till it brings Assurance of Peace But not to please you with notions you must remember that that Prayer that accompanies Salvation is such Prayer as hath in it all the requisites of Prayer Now there are four requisites in Prayer First The person must be righteous Iam. 5. 16. The fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much John 9. 31. God heareth not sinners The Jews urge it as a Proverb An unclean person polluteth his own Prayers Good motions from a bad heart make no musick in Heaven the sweet words that drop from a Lepers lips are but lies in the account of God Hosea 11. 12. I have read of a Jewel that being put in a dead mans mouth loseth all its vertue Prayer in the mouth of a wicked man that is dead God-wards Christ-wards Heaven-wards and Holiness-wards is a Jewel that loseth all its vertue Psal 50. 16 17. But unto the wicked God saith What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou Quid prodest voce invocare quem operibus negas Jerom. What availeth it to invocate him with thy voice whom thou deniest in thy works shouldest take my Covenant into thy mouth Seeing that thou hatest instruction and castest my words behinde thee Bias an Heathen being at Sea in a great storm and perceiving many wicked wretches with him in the ship calling upon the gods O saith he forbear Prayer hold your tongues I would not have the gods take notice that you are here they will sure drown us all if they should You are wise and know how to apply it The second requisite in Prayer is It was both a prophane and blasphemous Speech of that Atheistical wretch that told God he was no common beggar he never troubled him before with prayer and if he would hear him that time he would never trouble him again Heil Mic p. 376. this viz. The matter of your Prayer must be good 1 John 5. 14. And this is the confidence that we have in him That if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us The Favorits of Heaven have no further the ear of the King of Kings in Prayer then the matter of their Prayer is good and agreeable to his will Rom. 8. 27. The matter of your Prayer must fall under some particular or general precept or promise or else God will never own it nor honor it with acceptance You must not pray as Augustine prayed before his Conversion he prayed for continency with a Proviso Lord give me continency saith he but not yet Such Hypocrisie is double Iniquity and God will deal with such sinners accordingly Thirdly As the matter of your Prayer must be good so the manner of your Prayer must be right God regards not so much the matter as the manner of our Prayer God loves Adverbs better then Nowns not to Criton pray onely but to pray well Non bonum sed benè agere not to do good but to do it well Now for the better and further clearing of this truth I shall shew you by Divine Assistance what it is to pray in a right manner and that I shall do in the following particulars First To pray in a right manner is to pray understandingly to pray knowingly 1 Cor. 14. 15. I will pray with understanding He that doth not pray understandingly doth not pray but prate as that Parrot in Rome that could distinctly say over the whole Ignorat sanè improbus omnis saith Aristotle Ignorance is the source of all sin the very well-spring from which all wickedness doth issue Creed John 4. 22. Ye worship ye know not what sayes Christ So many pray they know not what Without knowledge the minde cannot be good Prov. 19. And can the Prayer be good when the minde is bad A blinde minde a blinde Sacrifice and a blinde Priest are abominable to God It was a good saying of one God heareth not the words of one that prayeth saith he unless he that prayeth heareth them first himself And verily God will never understand that Prayer that we do not understand our selves Secondly To pray in a right manner is to pray believingly Heb. 11. 6. He The Philosopher could say Qui timiâ—è rogat docet negare He that craveth fearfully draweth on a denial that cometh unto God must believe that he is that is that he is really as good as gracious as glorious as excellent as constant c. as his word reports him to be And that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Mark 11. 24. Therefore I say unto you what things soever ye desire when ye pray believe that ye One of the Ancients describes Prayer thus It is saith he Ascensus mentis ad Deum a climbing up of the heart to God which cannot be done but by the power of Faith receive them and ye shall have them In the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Present-tense Ye do receive them to shew the certainty of receiving them You shall as certainly receive the good things that believingly you ask in Prayer as if you had them already in your hand God will never let the hand of Faith go empty away in Prayer Faith is Gods darling and he never fails to give it a worthy portion a Benjamins portion a Hannahs portion a double portion Iam. 1. 5 6 7. If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him But let him ask in faith nothing wavering for he that wavereth is like Unbelief is virtually all ill therefore fight especially against it a wave of the Sea driven with the wind and tossed For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. He that prayeth doubtingly shuts the Gates of Heaven against his own Prayers It is reported in the life of Luther that when he prayed it was Tanta reverentia ut si Deo tanta fiducia ut si amico with so much reverence as if he were praying to God and with so much boldness as if he had been speaking to his friend Faith in Prayer makes a man divinely familiar and bold with God in Prayer That Prayer that hath not the image and stamp of Faith upon it is no Prayer in Divine account The sweetest flowers of Paradise are onely
deliver me from my Bonds but O Rom. 7. 23. wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from my sins from this body of death David cryes not Perii but Peccavi Psal 51. Not I am undone but I have done foolishly But wicked men strive in Prayer more to get off their chains then to get off their sins more to be delivered from enemies without then lusts within more to get out of the Furnace then to be delivered from their Spiritual Bondage as the Scriptures Psal 78. 34. Zach. 7. 5 6 7. Isai 26. 16 17. in the Margent do evidence Thirdly The Stream and Cream of a gracious Mans spirit runs most out in Prayer after Spiritual and Heavenly Psal 4. 6 7. 27 4. things as is abundantly evident by those Prayers of the Saints that are upon record throughout the Scripture But the Stream and Cream of vain mens spirits in Prayer runs most out after poor low carnal things as you may see in comparing the following Scriptures together Hos 7. 14. Zach. 7. 5 6 7. Jam. 4. 3 c. Fourthly A gracious Soul looks and lives more upon God in Prayer then upon his Prayer He knows though Prayer be his Chariot yet Christ is his food Prayer may be a staff to support him but Christ is that Manna that must nourish him and upon him he looks and lives Psal 5. 3. In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee or Martial and set in order my Prayer as it is in the Hebrew and will look up or look out as it is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Pihil as a watchman looks out to dâ—scover the approaches of an enemy But vain men they live and look more upon their Prayers then they do upon God Nay usually they never look after their Prayers they never observe what returns they have from Heaven they are like those that shoot Arrows but do not minde where they fall Wicked men think it is Religion enough for them to pray and to look after their prayers to see how their prayers speed is no Article of their Faith But a gracious Soul is of a more noble spirit when he hath prayed he will stand upon his watch-tower and observe what God will speak Psal 85. 8. I will hear that God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints But let them not return to folly or as the Hebrew may be read And they shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will lissen and lay my obedient ear to what the Lord shall speak not return to folly Veal iashubu le Chislah Wicked men would have God to be all ear to hear what they desire when themselves have never an ear to hear what he speaks But deaf ears shall always be attended with dumb answers Justice always makes mercy dumb when sin hath made the sinner deaf Fifthly No discouragements can take gracious Souls off from Prayer but the least discouragements will Aristotle though a Heathen could say That in some cases a man had better lose his life then be cowardly Ethic. 3. c. 1. take off carnal hearts from Prayer as you may see in the following Scriptures compared together Psal 40. 1 2. 44. 10-23 Matth. 15. 21-29 Mal. 3. 14. Isai 58. 1 2 3. Amos 8. 3 4 5 c. When one of the Ancient Martyrs was terrified with the threatnings of his persecutors he replied There is nothing saith he of things visible nothing of things invisible that I fear I will stand to my profession of the name of Christ and contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints come on it what will It is neither the hope of life nor the fear of death that can take a real Christian off from Prayer He is rather raised then dejected he is rather quickned then discouraged by delays or denials he will hold up and hold on in a way and course of Prayer though men should rage and Lyons roar and the Furnace be heat seven times hotter c. But it is not so with carnal hearts Job 27 9 10. Sixthly When a gracious man In his course his heart is in his Prayer he findes by experience that the heart is the Primum mobile the great wheel that moves all other wheels It is the chief Monarch in the Isle of Man prayes he hath his heart in his Prayer when he falls upon the work he makes heart-work on it So David in Psal 42. 4. When I remember these things I pour out my heart So Hannah in 1 Sam. 1. 15. I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit saith she and have poured out my soul before the Lord. So the Israelites in 1 Sam. 7. 6. Poured out their souls like water before the Lord. So the Church in Isa 26. 8 9. The desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early Gracious Souls know The voice of God is Da Mihi cor that no Prayer is acknowledged accepted and rewarded by God but that wherein the heart is sincerely and wholly It is not a piece it is not a corner of the heart that will satisfie the Maker of the heart The true Mother would not have the childe divided As God loves a broken and a contrite heart so he loaths a divided heart God neither loves halting nor halving he will be served truly and totally The Royal Law is Thou shalt The heart as a Prince gives Laws to all other Members The Heart is Christs Bed of Spices it is his Presence Chamber it is his Royal Throne it is one of those four Keys that God keeps under his own girdle love and serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul Among the Heathens when the Beasts were cut up for Sacrifice the first thing the Priest looked upon was the heart and if the heart was naught the Sacrifice was rejected Verily God rejects all those Sacrifices wherein the Heart is not Now wicked men are heartless in all their Services in all their Prayers as you may see in comparing the following Scriptures together I shall not transcribe the words because I must cut short the work Isai 29. 13. Matth. 15. 7 8 9. Ezek. 33. 30 31 32. Zach. 7. 4 5 6. 2 Chro. 25. 1 2. As the body without the soul is dead so Prayer Prayer without the heart is but an empty ring a tinckling symbal without the heart be in it is but dead Prayer in the eye and account of God Prayer is onely lovely and weighty as the heatt is in it and no otherwise It is not the lifting up of the voice nor the wringing of the hands nor the beating of the brests but the stirrings of the heart that God looks at in Prayer God hears no more then the
see the worth of Assurance I have long sought Assurance and now I finde the sweetness of Assurance Ah it is such a Pearl of price it is such a Beam of God it is such a spark of glory that makes my Soul a rich amends for all its waiting weeping and wrastling So when it pleased Gal. 1. 15 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In me God to call Paul by his grace and to reveal Christ in him and to him Ah how doth he labor as for life to bring others to an acquaintance with Christ and to an acceptance of Christ and to an Assurance of Everlasting Happiness and Blessedness by Christ After Paul had been in Paradise he makes it his 2 Cor. 12. all to bring others to Paradise So the Spouse in the Canticles having assurance Cant. 5. 10 ult 6. 1 c. of her interest in Christ how doth she labor by all holy and heavenly Rhetorick and Logick by all the strains of love and sweetness to draw the daughters of Jerusalem to a sight of Christ and to an assurance of the love of Christ When a Beam of Divine light and love had shined upon Andrew John 1. 40 41 42. he labors to draw his Brother Simon to the Fountain of all light and love and when Philip had but a cast of Vers 43 44 45 46 47. Christs countenance his pulse beats and his heart calls upon Nathaniel to come and share with him in that loving kindness that was better then life The constant cry of Souls under the power of Assurance is Come taste and Psal 34. 8. see how good the Lord is Ah sinners sinners his wayes are wayes of pleasantness Prov. 3. 17. 1 John 5. 3. and all his paths are peace his commands are not grievous but joyous his yoke Matth. 11. 30. is easie and his burden is light not onely for keeping but also in keeping of Psal 19. 11. his commands there is great reward Assurance will strongly put men upon winning of others by counsel by example by prayer and by communicating their Spiritual Experiences to them Assurance will furnish a man with will skill and experience to confute all those false reports that vain men frequently cast upon the Lord and his ways It will make a man proclaim to the world That one Psal 84. 10. day in the Lords courts is better then a thousand years elswhere That there are more glorious joyes more pure comforts more abiding peace more royal contents more celestial delights in one dayes walking with God in one hours communion with God c. then is to be found in all things below God And by these and such like wayes Souls under the power of a wel-grounded Assurance do endeavor to make others happy with themselves A Soul under Assurance is unwilling to go to Heaven without company he is often a crying out Father bless this Soul too and crown that Soul too Let us to Heaven together let us be made happy together Sixthly A wel-grounded Assurance of Gods love and of a mans Everlasting Happiness and Blessedness will exceedingly arm and strengthen him against all wickedness and baseness No man loaths sin and himself for sin Ezek. 16 60 61 62 63. as such a man no man wars and watches against sin more then such a man no man sighs and mourns Rom. 7. 22 ult bleeds and complains under the sense of sinful motions and sinful operations Luke 7. 44. ult more then such a man Every stirring of sin makes a man that is under the power of Assurance to cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Psal 85. 8. I will hear what God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints And let them not turn again to folly or as the Hebrew will bear And they shall not return to folly Gods speaking peace to his people fences and fortifies them against folly and vanity The Assurance that Joseph had of his Masters love armed him against the lascivious assaults of his lustful Mistress and will not Divine love that is stronger then death do this Cant 8. 6 7. and more Assurance makes a man say to his sins as he to his Idols get you hence for What have I any Hosea 14. 8. compared with the 2 3 4 5 6. versâ—â— more to do with Idols So sayes the assured Soul away pride away passion away worldly mindedness away uncleanness away uncharitableness c. For what have I any more to do with you Assurance makes the Soul speak to sin as David speaks to sinners Psal 119. 115. Depart from me ye workers of iniquity for I will keep the Commandments of my God So sayes the assured Soul depart from me O my lusts for I have tasted of the love of God and I have given up my self wholly and oneâ—y to God and I cannot but keep the Commandments of my God The Jewish Rabbins report that the same night that Israel departed out of Egypt towards Canaan all the Idols and idolatrous Temples in Egypt by Lightning and Earthquakes were broken down So when Christ and Assurance comes to be set up in the Soul all the Idols of Satan and a mans own heart are cast down and cast out as an abomination Sound Assurance puts a man upon purifying himself even as Christ is 1 John 3. 2 3. pure The assured Christian knows That it is dangerous to sin against light that it is more dangerous to sin against love that it is most dangerons to sin against love revealed and manifested God may well say to such a Christian Is this thy kindness to thy friend To sin under Assurance is to sin against the Bowels of Mercy it is to sin against the choicest Remedy it is to sin against the highest Hopes of Glory and this will certainly provoke God to be angry 1 Kings 11. 9. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord was angry with Solomon because Vaiithannaph in Pihil to shew that the Lord was greatly angry with Solomon the Root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies properly to snuff with anger It notes such anger as appeareth in the paleness of the face and snuffing of the nose his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel that had appeared to him twice To sin under Assurance is to sin in Paradise it is to sin under the flaming sword it is to sin in the Suburbs of Heaven it is to run the hazard of losing that favor that is better then life of that joy that is unspeakable and full of glory and of that peace that passes understanding To sin under Assurance is to cast reproach upon Christ to grieve the Spirit to wound Conscience to weaken your Graces to blur your Evidences to usher in Calamities to imbitter your Mercies and to provoke the Tempter to triumph over your Saviour Verily that Assurance is but
should never make pleasant musick no more would the Spirit it he should be alwaies a doing one thing in the soule therefore he acts variously sometimes he will shew himselfe a quickning Spirit sometimes an enlightning Spirit sometimes an humbling Spirit sometimes a rejoycing Spirit sometimes a sealing Spirit and alwayes a surporting Spirit c. Fifthly The testimony and witness of the Spirit is a sure testimony a Titus 1. 2. John 14. 17. 1 Cor. 2. 10 1 Joh. 4. 1 2 3 4 sure witness the Spirit is truth it self he is the great searcher of the deep things of God the Spirit of the Lord is the Discoverer the Confuter and Destroyer of all false spirits The Spirit is above all possibility of being deceived he is omnipotent he is omniscient he is omnipresent he is one of the Cabinet-Councel of Heaven he lies and lives in the bosome of the Father and can call them all by name upon whom the Father hath set his heart and therefore his testimony must needs be true It is a surer testimony then if a man should hear a voice from Heaven pronouncing him to be happy and blessed You may safely and securely lay the weight of your souls upon this testimony it never hath it never will deceive any that hath leaned upon it This testimony will be a rock that will bear up a soul When other false testimonies will be but a reed of Egypt that will deceive the soul that will undoe the soul As I am afraid many in this deluding age have found by sad experience Sixthly The testimony of Gods I do not say that the testimony of our spirits is always accompanied with the testimony of the Spirit No for a Beleever hath often the single testimony of his own spirit when he wants the testimony of the Spirit of Christ and the single testimony of his own conscience wil afford him much courage and comfort 2 Cor. 1. 12. Yea it wil make a paradise of delight in his soul c. Spirit is alwayes accompanied with the testimony of our own these may be distinguished but they can never be separated when the Spirit of God gives in witnesse for a man his own spirit doth not give in witnesse against him Look as face answers to face so doth the witness of a Beleevers spirit answer to the witness of the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit witnesseth together with our spirits that we be the Sons of God Now if our own Consciences do not testifie first that we are Sons and Heirs the Spirit doth not testifie for the Spirit beares witness together with our spirits St. John is very expresse in 1 Joh. 3. 21. But if our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence toward God But if our hearts condemn us God is greater then our hearts and knoweth all things 1 Joh. 5. 8 9 10 11 12. And there are three that bear witness in Earth the Spirit and the Water and the Blood and these three agree in one The Spirit doth witness eminently and efficiently but Water and Blood materially and our spirits and Reason instrumentally By the Spirit we may understand the Holy Ghost by whose strength wee lay hold on Christ and all his benefits by Water we may understand our Regeneration our Sanctification and by Blood we may understand the blood and righteousness of Christ that is imputed and applyed by faith to us and these three agree in one that is they doe all three of one accord testifie the same thing Seventhly The witness of the Spirit is ever according to the Word there is a sweet harmony between the inward and outward testimony between the Spirit of God and the VVord of God The Scriptures were 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. all indicted by the Spirit and therefore the Spirit cannot contradict himselfe which he should do if he should give in any testimony contrary to the testimony of the word It is blasphemy to make the testimony of the â—pirit to contradict the testimony of the Word The Spirit hath revealed his whole mind in the Word and he will not give a contrary testimony to what he hath given in the Word The Word saith they that are born again that are new Creatures that beleeve and repent shall be saved But thou art born again thou art a new Creature thou beleevest and repentest therefore thou shalt be saved saith the Spirit The Spirit never looseth where the Word bindeth the Spirit never justifies where the Word condemnes the Spirit never approves where the Word disapproves the Spirit never blesses where the VVord curses In Deu. l 3. 1 2 3 4 the Old Testament all Revelations were to be examined by the VVord Isa 8. 20. To the Law and to the Testimony 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light or no morning in them So in that of John 16. We are not only blind but lame too therefore the Spirit shall lead us to the knowledge and practice of all necessary saving truths 13. The Spirit shall lead you into all truth for he shall not speak of himselfe but what he shall hear that shall he speak Here the Holy Ghost is brought in as some Messenger or Ambassador who onely relates things faithfully according to that he hath in charge Such as look and lean upon the hissing of the old Serpent may have a testimony that they are happy against the testimony of the VVord But where ever the Spirit of Christ gives in his â—estimony it is stil according to the VVord Look as Indenture answers to Indenture or as the Counterpaine exactly answers to the principall Conveyance there is Article for Article Clause for Clause Covenant for Covenant word for word So doth the testimony of the Spirit exactly answer to the testimony of the VVord Eighthly It is a Holy witness a holy Nil nisi sanctuÌ„ à sancto spiritu prodire potest Nothing can come from the Holy Spirit but that which is holy testimony it is formally holy it is originally holy it is effectually holy Nothing makes the heart more in the love study practise and growth of holines then the glorious testimony of the Holy Spirit and the more clear ful the testimony is the more holy and gracious it will make the Soule Nothing puts such golden Engagements upon the soul to holiness as the Spirit sealing a man up to the day of Redemption as the Spirits speaking and sealing Peace Love and pardon to the Soul Psal 85. 8. 1 Cor. 15. 31. 2 Cor. 5. 14. Nothing makes a man more careful to please Christ more fearful to offend Christ more studious to exalt Christ and more circumspect to walk with Christ then this testimony of the Spirit of Christ Verily that is not the blessed whispering of Christs Spirit but the hissing of the old Serpent that makes men bold with sin that makes men dally with sin that makes