of saving grace and must necessarily by their frequent failings and transgressions make much work for an accusing conscience nor indeed do I see that it would be for the advantage of less obedient and exact Christians to have Assurance rather it might beget in them security and pride sins to which novices are prone Object Is it not said Gal. 4.6 Because ye are sons God hath sent the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba father And if the Spirits emboldning to cry Abba father be given to sons because they are sons then it may be thought to belong to all sons even new born babes who are as truly sons as those who are most grown in grace Answ Some to avoid this difficulty do not render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because but that and it may be so rendred and a very fair sense given of the words viz. the Spirits being sent into their hearts crying Abba father was an evidence that they were sons but let it be rendred as by most it is because ye are sons yet it must be granted that by sons here are to be understood not all who are born again not all who are no bastards but onely such sons as have ceased to be children and are no longer under tutors and governors such as have received the adoption of sons such are not those Christians of whom we are now speaking for though they be delivered from the observation of the Ceremonial Law yet are they as ignorant and Carnal as those who were in bondage to it Object Doth not this put the poor newly converted Christian into continual doubts and fears and strike at the very root of all his hopes and comforts Answ We are not creators of comfort but onely dispensers we cannot make an easier or speedier way to Assurance then Christ hath made nor can we approve of or so much as excuse those who do snatch at comfort before they be meet for it It is sufficient that we can assure all that Christ hath purchased remission of sin for them upon his own terms the receiving of him as Prophet Priest King and that all who repent are justified in the sight of God though not justified in their own consciences and that in due season their own consciences shall justifie them also and that Christ will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax and that it cannot be that the merciful God should condemn those who tremble at his Word and lie at his feet enquiring the Law at his mouth and grieved at nothing more then that they cannot yield perfect and compleat obedience unto it II. Another Reason why so many want Assurance is because they seek not for it with so much diligence as a matter of that nature requires Some little pains they will take to find out the marks of sincerity and some little time they will spend in comparing their hearts with those marks but they will not continue the great duty of self-examination till the matter be brought to some issue they will not behold their faces in the glass long enough to beget in themselves a true notion or Idea of themselves but go away and presently forget what manner of persons they were How few are there whom we can perswade at a night to catechize their own souls to criticize on the actions of the day past How few that can be prevailed with to spend any considerable proportion of time in Closet devotions yet better may we expect eminent skill in the most abstruse Arts and Sciences without great labour then expect Assurance without all morally possible sedulity Wherefore the rather give diligence to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 Give the more diligence so the Old Translation Indeed the making of calling and election sure doth deserve all diligence and require all diligence it is not a little diligence that will serve to find out the manifold subtilties of a deceitfull heart nor a little diligence that will frustrate the devices of Satan who will not fail to joyn himself with carnal reason and to beget in us hard thoughts of God Psal 63.1 2. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee My soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is To see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary Like care and desire expressed the Spouse in the Canticles to recover the sight and to her apprehension lost love of Christ Cant. 3.1 2 3. Object If this be so What shall become of those that are poor in the world who have but little time to spare from the duties of their particular calling either for the reading of the Word or communing with their own hearts Can none of these have a sense of Gods love must they perpetually lie under doubts and fears about their eternal state Answ God forbid I should so say God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him Jam. 2.5 But there is no good man so poor but he will find out some considerable proportion of time to mind the state of his soul in God giveth unto all such a contented mind which makes them they do not desire much nor make haste to be rich he giveth unto them also wisdom and prudence by which they can husband their opportunities so as to keep themselves from beggary and yet give as many visits unto God as they do that have abundance Besides what our Lord Christ determined in the case of the Widow that the two mites she threw into the treasury was more then the much cast in by the rich because they did cast in of their abundance but she of her want did cast in all that she had even all her living Mar. 12.43 44. holds true here also the poor mans hour is more then the rich mans two hours because his hour is all that he can tell how to redeem from the necessities of nature and relations and therefore he shall be so blessed and assisted by God in that hour that he shall reap as many comfortable fruits of the Spirit as those who can spare a far greater proportion of time III. Some do want Assurance through the ignorance that is in them 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves Know ye not that Christ is in you except ye be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 void of judgment 'T is onely for them that are of full age that by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern betwixt good and evil Heb. 5.14 therefore the Apostle prayeth Phil. 1.9 That their love might abound more and more in knowledg and in all judgment that they might approve things that are excellent or that they might discern things that differ as it is in the margin of our present translation and in the text of the former
by inward sense therefore the Conclusion may be of Faith so that they make such Conclusions to be of faith not immediately but onely by consequence and that on supposition That a Proposition certain from inward sense is stronger then a Proposition certain from Divine revelation which is not universally true Nor yet do we say that this testimony of the Spirit doth make us infallibly certain onely we say that it makes those who keep Consciences void of offence and are zealous of good works have such a certainty as is not mixed with any actual tormenting doubt or fear so as they can their hearts not accusing them nor having any ground to accuse them of presumption call God Father and Christ their elder Brother and the Spirit their Advocate Yet after all this they will not swear that they are the children of God or if they should they would thereby do an act sufficient to darken all the evidence they before had of their Adoption for no one hath power to require such an Oath nor can any controversie be ended by such an Oath which could not be ended without it otherwise we do swear in sundry matters in the which we have not a greater or so great an evidence as it is possible for a man to have of his Adoption And in all Churches there is either from the Parents or other Sureties required as oft as Children are baptized an abrenunciation of the World Flesh and Devil and when the baptized children come to be adult and receive Confirmation 't is required of them that they profess before the Bishops and all the Congregation present That they do renew the solemn Promise and Vow that was made in their name at Baptisme ratifying and confirming the same in their own persons and acknowledging themselves bound to believe and to do all those things which their Godfathers and Godmothers then undertook for them Vid. Engl. Liturgy of the last Edition Now if so be persons could not be satisfied that they are sincere in their resolutions we should by calling them to make such Vows but teach them to dissemble and play the hypocrites Object But do not some of our Divines speak of an immediate testimony of the Spirit Answ They do But it is to be hoped that they mean no more then that the soul is sometimes more then usually meet to receive the Seal of the Spirit more then ordinarily disposed to give in its witness with the witness of the Spirit of God i. e sometimes it hath so abased it self before God or done acts so apparently tending to Gods glory so manifestly contrary to flesh and blood that it cannot upon the least reflection but discern the well-pleasingness of such actions unto God and consequently take comfort in them If they intend more then this by their immediate testimony they must not blame others if they say they understand them not or that they fear they understand not themselves Should any one hear a voice saying to him Thy sins are forgiven yea should he not onely hear such a voice but also see some glorious creature uttering that sound this would be an extraordinary testimony but before a man either could or ought to receive it and take comfort from it he must first have some rational evidence that the apparition or voice is from God and not from Satan who both can and frequently hath appeared and spoken not as from himself but from God We have in Scripture an example of Zachary punished because he did not believe the words of Gods Angel Luk. 1.20 there being sufficient evidence that he was an Angel of God and nothing in the Message that should render it incredible But we have also an Example of a Prophet more severely punished for believing one that pretended a Message from God whose Message had every thing in it that might make it unlike to be from God 1 Kin. 13.18 22 23. Wherefore to every young Convert who not patient to wait for his Assurance in a way of self-reflection and communing with his own heart looks for any thing like a vocal testimony I may say as did Gregory to Gregoria Videat cui ad manus non sunt Gregorii Epistolae A Lapide in 8◠ad Rom. v. 16. who had written to him that she would not let him alone till he had obtained a revelation that her sins were pardoned Rem difficilem postulas inutilem A difficult thing because it is not like that God in these dayes should so manifest his love and unprofitable because I should have as much ado perhaps to distinguish that voice as to discern the sincerity of my own actions Consult History and it will be found that where one hath been mistaken that did search and try his heart and ways hundreds have been deluded by voices apparitions impressions These delusions have been most frequent among the Romanists the sense whereof made Luther not many years before crept out from among them to say Pactum feci cum Deo meo ne vel visiones vel somnia vel etiam angelos mihi mittat Com. on Gen. cap. 38. I have agreed with God that he send neither visions nor dreams nor Angels Object Do not very eminent Divines say that Faith is general or special and that general Faith is little worth without special Faith Answ They do so and a good and convenient interpretation may be given of that distinction yea is given by the learned Dr. Hammond as to all the objects of Faith But it may not be dissembled that some of great note have made the essence of Faith to lie in a particular perswasion that a mans sins are pardoned an errour purposely refuted in the ensuing Treatise and which I am glad to observe rejected now almost by all Divines Indeed it makes us justified before Faith and therefore tends manifestly to harden unconverted sinners in their unbelief and puts the maintainers of it upon most horrible shifts in expounding sundry places of Scripture I instance in one which I do in the following sheets make much use of Ephes 1.13 In whom after ye believed ye were sealed Who would hence conclude that Faith does at least in order of nature if not of time go before Sealing or Assurance How can any who placeth Faith in fiducial Assurance bring himself off But poorly For Piscator who is even by Arminius a Professor of different perswasion from him much commended for solidity and clearness Vid. Epist Ecclesiasticas will not yield that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be rendred having believed but in the Present believing So the Vulgar Latines credentes which Estius is fain to excuse by Ampliation a kind of Licentia Logica must be the best translation Besides we know that God maketh use of the Ministry of men to work faith but if faith were an assent to this that John or Thomas is pardoned it will be hard to explain how any man who hath not the gift of discerning Spirits
waters and when he had so done put it on his own head he had a talent for his pains but lost his life for setting it upon any head but his Soveraignes so they shall have honour for contending for the truth but their souls shall God require of them because they gave not him the glory of all their zeal Wherefore as you would not grieve the Spirit when you see a drunkard say Who made me to differ or say as the Holy Martyr Bradford was wont to say God be mercifull to me a miserable sinner When you hear of one denying the Divinity of our Saviour say Nor could I have said that Jesus is the Lord but by the Spirit of God If either men or devil suggest that thou hast done well say It was not I but the grace of God in me I have nothing but what I have received and must not boast as if I had not received but ascribe all to him who worketh in me both to will and do of his own good pleasure 5. Fathering on him the ugly and monstrous brats of the spirit which worketh in the children of disobedience How much was the mother in Solomons time grieved when her living child was taken away and a dead one laid in room of it More must the Spirit be grieved when Humility Obedience Subjection to higher powers his natural issue are taken away and instead of these disobedience and rebellion laid at his door To do wickedly and to say that we do it by the impulse of the Spirit is to make God such a one as our selves and what a provocation that is you may learn from Psal 50.21 These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest I was altogether such a one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set thy sins in order before thee Nor shall they fare better who do not father their impieties on the immediate impulses of the Spirit but yet on the Word revealed by the Spirit For causa causae est causa causati whatever is found in Scripture is conceived of the Holy Ghost if we do wrest and torture Scripture to salve our Phaenomena we do thereby injure and lie against the Holy Ghost This is the honour of Christian Religion that it can wound all other religions with their own weapons and principles They rob it of this honor who go about to fight against is also with its own Sword quoting texts of Scripture to authorize such actions as are perfectly destructive of Christianity No sin so hainous as theirs who pretend to sinne by authority from God 6. The ascribing that to the devil and his instruments which is the work of the Spirit This is not onely to grieve him but also to blaspheme him What was the unpardonable blasphemy against the Holy Ghost mentioned Mark 3. but the Pharisees ascribing that to the Prince of Devils which was done by the finger of God Every work of the Spirit hath not so clear an impression of the Spirit on it as had the miracles of Christ and therefore to mis-call them renders not ones case so desperate as was the Pharisees But yet sure after God hath by the conversion of so many discovered himself to be in the ministers of the Gospel of a truth for any to say that they were all literal legal antichristian which was the language of the late times was a blasphemy of a very high nature and I have observed that such men mostly have waxed worse and worse deceiving and being deceived nor can I conceive much hopes of their repentance who do so far wrong the Spirit as to ascribe all his works of conviction and contrition to the predominance of the melancholy humor or to a cracked brain and all the fervent importunate expostulations of Gods devoutest supplicants to sauciness such speeches do greatly dispose tot he unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost We may hence inferr against the * I say the Judaizing Socinians because this seemeth to have been the opinion of the Jews that the Holy Ghost was nothing but the afflatus or energy of God and therefore Lactantius who denied the substantiality of the Spirit is said by Hierome to symbolize with Jews Epist 55. Yet the ancient Doctors of the Jews acknowledged and believed the Son to be an eternal person of the Divine essence and worthy to be called Jehovah as they who want other books may see proved by Julius Conradus Ouho lib. 1. Gul. Razia cap. 4. Judaizing Socinian the personality of the Holy Ghost Grief is a personal affection How a person should be grieved we can understand how a Divine person should have that done against him which would grieve him were he capable of griefe is not inexplicable but how a quality a power or an operation should be grieved is unconceivable 2. Hence may be inferred the love and tender care the Spirit hath for us and of us Had he not graciously condescended to take on him the offices of Advocate Intercessor Comforter he would not have so far concerned himself in our miscarriages as to be grieved for or by them 3. If we are not to grieve the Spirit then sure we are not to blaspheme or offer despight unto him which cannot be done but by sinnes of the greatest and most hellish malignity and in the highest degree wilfull 4. This will also inform us what to think of them who take up their pleasures in sin which grieves the Holy Spirit of God we may think that either they never were partakers of the Holy Ghost or if ever partakers that now he hath quite forsaken them and an evil Spirit from the Lord hath seised on them If Christ at his second coming would spare all other sinners yet doubtless he will damn all those that believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse 2 Thes 2.12 But the main I intend to dwell on is the counsell of the Text propounded indeed negatively but yet must be supposed to include in it many affirmative duties indeed all by which that good Spirit can be pleased and delighted I will first propound some motives to perswade men to abstain from all sins by which the Spirit is grieved they shall be drawn from the person and office of him whom they grieve from their own estate who do grieve him from the sad and wofull effects of greiving him I. Consider who it is you grieve Were he but some created Angel you ought so farr to respect his ministry as not to grieve him The woman is to keep a covering on her head because of the Angels 1 Cor. 11.10 lest the contrary indecency should offend those pure Spirits Nay were He but a Saint compassed with flesh and blood we must not no not by the use of a lawful thing grieve him unless we will walk uncharitably Rom. 14.15 which would be to break the bond of perfection But he is greater then any holy man or Angel even an uncreated divine person I know this
is denyed by Socinians nor do I purpose fully to refute their blasphemy onely I shall take notice of one Scripture because it not onely proves the Deity of the Holy Ghost but also sheweth the exceeding sinfulness of doing any thing against him seeing he is God Wend. p. 248. Posteriora haec exaggerant declarant priora ut quando mentitus est Spiritui sancto intelligeret peccati magnitudinem quod Deo esset mentitus siquidem Sp. S. est deus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cadem sensu dicitur Synonymum in eodem loco est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 5.3 4. Why hath Sathan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost thou hast not lied to men but to God There are here three assertions 1. Ananias lied to the Holy Ghost 2. That in so lying he did not lye unto man 3. That he lyed unto God Our argument lies in the opposition of which no fair account can be given if the Deity of the Holy Ghost be not supposed for if so be the Spirit had been an Essence distinct from God the Apostle after he had said Thou hast lied to the Holy Ghost would not have said Thou hast lied not to men but to God but thus Thou hast lied neither to men nor to the Spirit but to God Nor will this argument be evaded by saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the third verse is joyned with an Accusative case and should be translated to counterfeit the Holy Ghost for besides that in some Copies 't is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the propositions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make it all one as if a Dative did follow besides this 't is most certain that sometimes with an Accusative it signifieth to deceive or cheat and it must here so signifie because this sin is called a tempting the Spirit of the Lord How violent would it be to expound that phrase by counterfeiting of the Spirit of the Lord every time we grieve the Spirit of God we grieve God And is that a small matter in our eyes Can there be a greater aggravation of sin If one man sin against another the judg shall judg him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him 1 Sam. 2.25 but this would also further be considered by us that though there be no difference as to the Essence of the Persons yet there is a difference in the oeconomy he that grieveth the Spirit grieveth that divine person against whom alone such a sin can be committed as is unpardonable Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh a word against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him neither in this life nor in that which is to come Mat. 12.32 To sin against Father or Son is not so dangerous as to sin against the Spirit because he acting not in his own name but in the name of Father and Son from both of whom he is sent to sin against him is to sin against all the authority of God all the love of the Trinity the lowest condescention that divine goodness ever did or can make II. Consider we how little the Spirit hath deserved to be thus grieved by us Many good works saith Christ John 10.32 have I shewed you from my Father for which of them do ye stone me Many good works hath the Spirit from the Father and the Son done you O Christians for which of them do ye grieve him Did I say many I might have said all there is no good gift that is either wrought in you or for you or by you but it is to be ascribed to this Spirit Is Christ precious to you he was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary he descended upon him in his Baptism and anointed him to all his offices raised him from the dead bears witness of him and pleads his cause against the unbelieving sinful world Is there any sweetness in the Scriptures why these are all from this Spirit Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 Are you taken with those admirable gifts that you see in your Ministers All that diversity of gifts is from the same Spirit 2 Cor. 12.4 called all therefore the manifestation of the Spirit vers 7. Or are you more affected with the works of God in you they are all the fruits and effects of the Spirit whether conviction or contrition or humiliation or regeneration or consolation they are all wrought by the Spirit this is the argument made use of in the Text Grieve not the holy Spirit of God by which ye are sealed to the day of redemption In calling him the holy Spirit of God he meaneth not onely that he is of essential original indefectible sanctity but also because he worketh all the holiness that is in any of Gods servants And when we are said to be by him seaed up unto the day of our redemption by that phrase is signified that he doth all that which answereth to the nature and various ends and uses of Sealing But with that phrase I am not to meddle as yet nor list I to run over all his works but pitch on that of comforting and press that to keep men from grieving him The Spirit is the Comforter sent from the Father upon the prayer of his Son to supply the absence of his corporeal presence to open those wells of Salvation that were hid and did lie under ground in the days that the Messiah did dwell among men In some Churches they have an officer who is called Consolator Aegrorum whose work is to put the brests of consolation into the mouths of those who have received within themselves the sentence of death should any whilst this Officer is at his bed-side labouring to take out the sting of death vex him with untoward language and not to give over till he had forced him to depart his room would not all say that this man were either in a phrensie or else in the very gall and bitterness of spiritual death The wickedness of those who do grieve the Spirit of God is far greater For 1. This sick Comforter cannot alway be with those whom he visits but is now discoursing with them and anon gone either to some other languishing person or to his own relations But the Spirit is a Comforter alway abiding with you John 14.16 Not that he actually comforts at all times but that he always preserves the root of comfort alway tenders comfort were not Christians either so sullen or so stupid as not to receive it 2. The Comforter of the sick may endeavour to comfort and not be able to comfort Men may not be so wise as to open to him the root of their
indeed had his Revelations but those were not the ordinary standing lasting ground of his gloriation but the testimony of his Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God he had had his conversation in the World 2. Cor. 1.12 What that we are bid by St. Peter to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure 2. Epist 1.10 Which implyeth that assurance is not onely to be expected by extraordinary immediate Revelation 2. If we cannot have assurance 't is either because we cannot be sure what puts us into a state of grace or because we cannot be sure that we are in that state of grace To say that we cannot know what puts us into a state of grace or makes us children of God and disciples of Christ is too great an absurdity for the Papists themselves to swallow it doth indeed make the one half of the Scriptures needless for what doth Scripture more design then to lay down the distinguishing marks betwixt sincerity and hypocrysie faith and unbelief the power of Godliness and the form It will therefore perhaps be said that we may know what true grace is but we cannot know our selves to have true grace wrought in us because of the deceitfulness of our hearts Now that the heart of man is deceitfull deceitfull above all things will not be denied by any who either studieth Scripture or his own heart But we may well say that the deceitfulness whether natural or acquired is in part cured and removed by sanctifying grace and the Spirit also doth assist as is more to be shewen hereafter the sanctified faculty to observe and take notice of its own frame and therefore its remaining deceitfulness notwithstanding it may come to some certainty of its own condition To make short I ask Was Conscience designed by God to be a Witness and a judge did he intend it should somtimes justifie somtimes condemn If he did not design it to any such work or office why then all both Heathens and Christians have mistaken its nature and office if he did why then may not a renewed Conscience witness concerning a mans renewed and justified condition Doubtless it may witness and give such a Testimony as God will own hereafter and man may for the present comfortably acquiesce in As from our hearts condemning us we may infer that God will condemn us so from our hearts not condemning us we may collect that God will not condemn us and that with such firmness or certainty as will give us boldness in the presence of God and assure our hearts before him that we shall have the things we ask of him 1 John 3.20 21. Had the Testimony been so obscure and uncertain as Papists make it to be St. Paul would not have so rejoiced and gloried in it as we before observed him to do from 2 Cor. 1.12 3. If no assurance were attainable then some duties enjoined us would be altogether either unprofitable or impossible I instance in two or three Why are we bid to search and try our waies if it cannot be known whether they are right Why are we bid to examine our selves whether we be in the faith 2 Cor. 13. if it cannot be known whether we be in the faith How should we rejoice in the Lord and glory in tribulation if when we have done all our title to heaven must be uncertain if we may at last for ought we know to the contrary have our portion in the lake that burnes with fire and brimstone Set a man upon a very high pinacle and let him know he may fall from it and see whether you can perswade him to rejoice the possibility and much more the probability of any danger that is intolerable must needs damp all joy Much less could a Christian be earnest and vehement in his desires to be dissolved and be with Christ if he could have no sure hope that when he is dissolved he should be found in Christ Why hath God set Promises as thick in the Word as Stars in the Firmament if by no means we can clear up our interest in them If the sweetness of all the Covenant were strained into one single Promise what would that avail me if by no means I could be perswaded that I shall one day be permitted to taste of it This argument did horribly puzzle Bellarmine and in answer to it he recites three opinions of Catholicks as he calls them according to none of which he thinks men will be left under any necessity of doubting concerning their reconciliation with God and at last he tells us that all they contend against is onely a certainty of Faith properly so called but we are wiser then to lay the stress of so material a question upon a School-phrase Let it but be granted that the soul can have such a knowledge of its own sincerity as makes it certain that it is not mistaken we shall sit down under the shadow of that concession and eat the sweet fruit of it leaving it to the Tridentine Doctors to determine whether this may be called Faith Catholick and if not whether yet it may not be called Divine Faith differing from Catholick Faith differing not in certainty and exclusion of doubting but onely in universality I must needs say I understand not how any man can be said to believe that he believes and if any of our Writers have so expressed themselves which is more then I know they spoke not properly Wendeline in his larger System of Divinity propounding against himself this objection as from the Papists What is certain with the certainty of Faith is either expresly contained in the Word of God or by due consequence may be thence deduced But that this or that man I or thou do truly believe is not expresly contained in Scripture nor can by any due consequence be thence deduced therefore it cannot be certain with a certainty of Faith doth well answer The conclusion doth not contradict us for we do not in kind say that we can by a certainty of Faith be certain that we truly believe but indefinitely that we may be certain With what certainty then I answer with a certainty of inward vision or the testimony of our mind enlightned by the holy Spirit who witnesseth to our spirit that we are the sons of God and do truly believe This certainty therefore is not written in the book of Scripture but in the book of our heart and that by the finger of the Spirit Hence we believe not that we believe but see feel As we do not believe that we do think of God but know and perceive by our mind quoting for the confirmation of his answer an elegant sentence of S. Augustine lib. 13. De Trin. Fidem suam quisque qui eam habet videt in corde suo tenet certissimâ scientiâ clamante conscientia In which way if he had proceeded in answering the self same objection
uncertainties concerning our selves did we not sleight some Ordinance or omit some Duty or give way to some Lust 3. Though one may be a Child of God who doth want this Assurance yet is there no Child of God who sits down satisfied under the want of it who doth not desire to attain to the full assurance of hope Uncertainty of our condition is not so light an evil as that a Christian can carry it as if it were no burden nay but he follows Christ with unutterable sighs and groans he travelleth from Ordinance to Ordinance till his Evidences be cleared up and his Title to the Promises of Pardon be made out If a Child should have some doubt thrown into his mind concerning his Fathers love to him would he be at rest till it were removed How then can any Believer be himself under prevailing doubts concerning the good will of his Heavenly Father Hath God promised us his Spirit to seal us up to the day of redemption hath he besides his Covenant given us his Sacraments that we might have the more abundant consolation and after all this shall we quietly sit in the dark as if nothing ailed us how then dwelleth the love of God in us Especially those who have sometimes had the light of Gods countenance shining on them and have after lost it must needs be restless till they have recovered it Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Psal 30. v. 7. Troubled with a witness for it was his daily sorrow of heart yea it was as death to him for this he made his tears day and night he poured out his soul in him and his upbraidings by his enemies with this were as a sword in his bones Psal 42.3 4 10. As for the Spouse in the Canticles we do find Chap. 5. v. 6. that when her beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone her soul failed when she spake she sought but she could not find him she called but he made no answer Hereupon she goes to the Watchmen to the Daughters of Jerusalem charging them if they found her beloved to tell him she was sick of love v. 7.8 He never duly estimated the friendship of Christ who can bear his strangeness without great sorrow and heaviness of heart In answer to the third question How or in what way assurance is wrought by the Spirit I say His way of working is very dark and mysterious and assurance it self is better felt then expressed compared therefore as some conceive Rev. 2.17 to the Manna that is hid and to the white stono and the new name written in the stone which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it The Spirit working in our regeneration is inexpressible compared therefore John 3. to the Wind that bloweth where it listeth the sound whereof we hear but know not whence it cometh nor whether it goeth his working in assuring us that we are regenerate is much more inexpressible There are two kinds of Acts in the soul 1. Direct Acts such as is that by which the soul cleaves to Christ or lays hold on him or believes in him for remission of sins and salvation 2. Reflex Acts such as is that by which a man returns on himself and doth though not believe yet know that he believes believes sincerely Such reflex acts are the most noble royal operations ' the most refined Spiritual workings sufficient if we had no other arguments to prove the souls immortality But such workings of the soul usually are but weak and transient Radius reflexus languet is the rule in Opticks and which leaves us at a greater loss those places of Scripture from which we should borrow our light in this matter are so vexed with variety of descants and interpretations that it is not easie to know what to make of them It would quite tire out the patience of an ordinary Reader if I should but recite the variety of Comments on that place 1 John 5.8 There are three that bear record on earth the Spirit the Water the Blood and these three agree in one That indeed seems to be more plain Rom. 8.16 The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God But first Grotius will have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he brings for proof a place or two in Scripture in which it seems to be so used because it is applyed to the witness of Conscience well having no other foundation to build his conceit on we may easily rid our hands of him for the witness of conscience is a joint witness it witnesseth together with God and is therefore called as some think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But then granting that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie a joint-witnessing it will not be so easie to find out what the other partner is that is joined with Gods Spirit in this action as we translate it should seem to be our own Spirit But the Rhemists translate not with our Spirit but to our Spirit which translation is put into the Margin of the English Bibles now read and was in the Text of those formerly used and then it will be a question whether our spirit be not the joint-witnesser but onely the recipient of this witness and the joint-witnesser the Son of God or that voice caused in us by the Spirit of God Yet because some do therefore want assurance because they look for it in an undue and unwarrantable manner expecting some vocall testimony to tell them that they are the children of God I shall therefore endeavour to unfold the matter as I am able And this I lay down in the first place That look in what way the Spirit of bondage doth work Fear in the same way the Spirit of Adoption doth work Hope and Assurance now the Spirit bringeth unconverted persons under fears and troubles concerning their estate by convincing them of the demerit of sin and shewing them that they are under the power of sin John 16.8 He will convince the world of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is errorem prâ—…conceptum profligare and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that fallacy in which something onely seemingly and not really contradictory to the question is proved is called ab ignoratione elenebi The secure unconsidering sinner lives in sin as if it were a very harmless innocent thing he makes a mock of it The Spirit therefore to awaken him out of his security and to put him under a necessity of enquiring after a Saviour doth joining with his conscience bring him under a three-fold conviction of Law of fact of state by some such Syllogisms Every liar shall have his portion in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone I am a Liar Therefore I shall have my portion in the lake that burnes with fire and brimstone Or He that believeth not is condemned already I believe not Therefore I am condemned already Or He that
hateth his brother is a murderer and hath not eternal life I hate my Brother Therefore I am a Murderer and have not eternal life These are all of them conclusions quite contradictory to the vain principles that did dwell in the secure sinner which being set home by the Spirit must needs make him fear what shal become of him In like manner doth the Spirit bring the heirs of the promise to the assurance of hope by some such practical Syllogisms as these He that loves the Brethren is passed from death to life I love the Brethren Therefore I am passed from death to life Or He that repents and believes shall be saved I repent and believe Therefore I shall be saved Now the Spirit hath revealed and inspired holy men to leave upon record to us the Propositions in these two Syllogisms the same Spirit also works in us that Faith by which we are enabled to believe those Scripture Propositions to be divine infallible truths he also worketh in us every gracious habit and exciteth those gracious acts which be the evidences and marks of our conversion justification and title to glory he also helpeth to feel and discover those acts in our selves and by comparing them with the rule to find their sincerity which is his concurrence with Conscience in making the assumption and lastly he helpeth sanctified reason from the premises to inferr the Conclusion whatever is beyond this is not essential to assurance but something separable from it Sometimes our assent to the premises and conclusion is stronger sometimes weaker hence the different degrees of assurance sometimes upon this assurance peace of Conscience we are marvellously enlarged with consolations called joy in the holy Ghost sometimes nor Obj. Some may say Is there no other way of working assurance but this doth not God sometimes testifie without any such discourse and ratiocination hath he confined himself to Syllogisms doth he not sometimes make some impressions on us by which we are assured that we are the children of God without the help or use of any argumentation Answ I have been alway apt to think that there is no other ordinary way of assuring the soul partly because the Scripture no where encourageth us to look for assurance in any other way and partly because to grant an immediate testimony seemed to me to open such a gap to Euthusiasme as it was impossible well to shut and I am somewhat imboldned in that sentiment by the concurrent judgment of a sober judicious Divine Mr. Tho. Blake who in his Treatise of the Covenant thus expresseth himself They that go about to assert an immediate testimony in any will never secure the soul from delusion Sathan will soon find an artifice to counterfeit this testimony and bear witness in the Spirits stead and when we think that we have the Spirit of truth to assure us we shall have the father of lies to deceive But in regard many of eminent piety and learning do assert an immediate testimony it may not be amiss to enquire a little what they mean by it and how they do bound it and then to shew what may be thought of it By this immediate Testimony they tell us that they do not mean any proper whisper or voice such as young Converts mistaking such Scripture phrases as Say unto my soul thou art my salvation are apt to wait for but they say it is a perswasion impressed upon a man suddenly and he knows not how quieting all his doubts and fears and making him chearfull and comfortable If you ask them How a Child of God who is to try all things dare adventure to take any such comfort how he knows it not to be a delusion of Satan they tell us that as there is in the eye a certain in-bred light to make it discern light and colours without a sound and air within the ear to make it discerne the sounds without So there is in a godly man grace a new nature and habitual instinct of heaven whereby it discernes the consolations of Gods Spirit testifying that he is the Son of God some secret and inexpressible lineaments of the fathers countenance in the child that the renewed soul at the very first blush knows and owns it Moreover they tell us 1. That although the Spirit thus testifie without application of any particular word yet he never testifies contrary to the word he never speaks to those who are regenerate though they do not know themselves to be such 2. That the Spirit doth not ordinarily thus testifie but after or in attendance on some ordinance or performance of some duty or after some very great abasement of a mans Spirit and more then ordinary soul-humiliation or after some very hard adventure for God or after some great combat and conflict with temptation 3. That such of the Testimonies of the Spirit do beget but an actual assurance during the present exigence or in order to some present design that God is working thereby Now to give my sense of this opinion 1. The Authors of it seem so to bound it as that it would be uncharitableness to think that they have any ill or pernicious design in it 2. The things which they say are done by impression are not without ratiocination only the ratiocination is not so distinct and explicite as when a man comes to his assurance by that difficult work of examination Philosophers say that what is done by beasts through instinct and impulse is not done without something analogous to ratiocination they commonly give us the examples of such Syllogisms as they suppose to be made by beasts as namely lambs when they come to their dams and flie away from the wolves So I conceive that in all the impressions made on the soul whether they be by way of comfort or incitation to duty there be some characters either in the matter or manner of them either in their holiness or greatness or vehemence or unusualness by which a Christian knows them to be from God and so accordingly rests in them the which characters did he not find he would either not regard them or reject them with abhorrence 3. I would not have any one lay the stress of his hope of heaven on any such impression nor upon the account of any such impression alter his opinion in reference to any point of Doctrine or adventure upon any practice that is in the least questionable unto him If he should I take it he would give the devil great advantage against him and subject himself to infinite delusions as will soon be manifest to him that will be at the pains to read over the discourses of Dr. Casaubon and Dr. Moore concerning Enthusiasme Mr. John Fox our holy and learned Martyrologist had many impressions some of which are taken notice of by his son in the History of his life but did they not sometimes fail him and discover themselves to be neither Divine nor True Let any one judge
glory if they find not in themselves the Spirit the onely seed and root of this hope Answ This notwithstanding there are divers good reasons why the Lord when he hath put grace into our hearts may yet not publish it in our consciences For 1. If we speak not of moderate but of high Assurance I think it is a wine too strong for our weak heads a wine too strong for our vessels to hold long a glimpse of it is enough to dazle the eye of the understanding neither our bodies nor our souls can long hold much of Heavens glory consult experience and you 'l find it so Peter James and John were upon the mount of Transfiguration but they were then besides themselves they knew not what they said Mar. 9.6 Paul when he was wrapt up into the third Heavens saw things that he could not utter but the sight transported him whether he were in the body or out of the body he could not tell 2 Cor. 12.3 4. Some Christians especially of the weaker sex being all affection do too much slight a setled calm and peace of soul as if it were little worth falling upon such passages as Rom. 15. Filled with all joy in believing and rejoycing with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 They think God hath forsaken them and that they want faith when they find not such a sugred joy and delight as the judicious Mr. Richard Hooker sitly calls it pag. 546. but to such I say they know not their own strength should God so feast them continually they would be less healthy and sound unfit for the duties of their ordinary particular callings and employments too much honey as it follows in the same Author Ibid. doth turn to gall and too much joy even spiritual would make us wantons yea as the full spring tide is preparatory to a low ebb so usually these highest passionate joys do make way for or at least go before the highest sorrows and fears therefore it is well all things considered that such cordials are not made our diet that such suavities are not common But if we speak even of Moderate Assurance there be sundry Reasons that may move God to let his servants be without that at least for a season 1. To keep them from Relapses Should a Father after manifold foul miscarriages upon the first submission of his Son receive him to Table and entertain him with Paternal smiles he would but encourage him to return to his former disorderly conversation but by keeping him at a distance and returning into favour with him by degrees he makes him more watchful Semblably if God upon our first recovery from the sins into which we have fallen should presently pardon us not onely in the Court of Heaven but also in the Court of Conscience if he should not onely pardon us but also let us have the assurance of pardon we might be apt to take up too slight thoughts of sins guilt and too easily run into the occasions of it but by letting us feel the smart and anguish of sin for days months years he maketh us more watchful he causeth us to make the straighter paths unto our feet for ever after David being left under the anguish of broken bones under the quick and smart sense of his Murder and Adultery did more ever after dread those sins then ever did a burnt Child dread the fire Let no man say that it is a low and legal business to keep from sin because of its bitterness for though I grant that the love of God be the most perfect motive yet it is not the most proper and powerful for those who are flesh as well as spirit and I verily believe the most refined Christians had they not either felt the smart of sin themselves or conversed with those that had would make too many bold adventures on the patience forbearance and long-sufferance of God After all this is come on us for our evil deeds aod for our great trespass should we again break thy Commandments Ezr. 9.13 14. 2. To keep them Humble For though times of Assurance should be times of Humility yet few are of so strong a grace as to be able to digest so great an happiness Pride will not sooner breed in any thing then in those sweet consolations that are shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit of God assuring us of our interest in the Promises that vision of God which is apt in its own nature to make the soul abhor it self in dust and ashes Job 42.5 6. doth through the corruption in us but puff it up When St. Paul had been in the third Heavens enjoying Revelations to an hyperbole God then thinks meet to buffet him with the Messenger of Sathan after such extraordinary Vision of God he was ready to look on himself rather as an Angel then as flesh and blood therefore was there given him a thorn in the flesh He had either some very violent temptation to some fleshly lust or some other very piercing tryal and he tells us twice in one verse 2 Cor. 12.7 that this befel him lest he should be exalted above measure Also when Moses had been in the Mount and had acquired a lustre by conversing with God 't is so ordered that at the very foot of the Mount he meets with something to humble him and take him down Thy people have made a golden Calf then which no words could possibly have more cut his heart Our Saviour who vouchsafed to be tempted like unto us in all things was then led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil when he had just heard the voyce This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Matth. 3.17.4.1 Happier a great deal is that mans case whose soul by inward desolation is humbled then he whose heart is through abundance of spiritual delight lifted up and exalted above measure Better it is sometimes to go down into the Pit with him who beholding darkness and bewailing the loss of inward joy and consolation cryeth from the bottom of the lowest Hell My God my God why hast thou forsaken me then continually to walk arm in arm with Angels to sit as it were in Abrahams bosome and to have no thought no cogitation but I thank my God it is not with me as with others saith the learned Hooker pag. 546. 3. God may hide his face from his servants and let them be in dark to make them the more earnest in their prayers and supplications As among us Fathers do hide themselves that their Children may seek after them and purposely make as if they did not hear that they may either come nearer them or cry louder None more servent none more frequent in prayers then they who did once live in the light of Gods countenance and have lost it Read but the Psalmes of David penned by him when he was in any desertion you 'l think that he breathed out his soul
forementioned places earnest though by the Rhemists constantly pledge for it doth among the Greek Fathers so signifie and the Spirit is a part of that reward which is promised he that hath this Spirit may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Chrysostome's phrase No wonder that he who hath this earnest of the true riches can part with the unrighteous Mammon no wonder that he who is secured of what is his own can lose that which is another mans especially if called to part with it for the sake of Christ who with his own blood purchased the everlasting inheritance for him III. Assurance will marvellously strengthen against the censures and reproaches of wicked men For why should he count it any great matter to be judged of men who knows that God hath justified him What need it disquiet him that the World accounts him an hypocrite who hath Gods testimony that he is sincere What need he be cast down that some do brand him for a factious fellow so long as he sees himself by the Spirit sealed for a son of peace or others call him a Tobias and Sanballat so long as he is assured that he opposeth none but such as are building Babel and not Sion 'T is because our Conscience gives but a dark testimony that we are so disquieted with the railings of those whose tongues are set on fire from Hell Were we but once sure that we are not the men we are represented to be we might then glory in our reproaches and esteem them great riches knowing that they shall work together for good and that they are the badges of our Sonship and that there is a time coming when our righteousness shall shine out as the light and the mouth of every adversary be stopped 1 Pet. 1.14 If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth on you We may rejoyce in as much as we are made partakers of Christ's sufferings and conclude therefrom that when his glory shall be revealed we shall be glad also with exceeding joy If any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf vers 16. He that hath the testimony of a good Conscience not onely that he is a Christian but also that he suffers as a Christian he may glory that he is accounted worthy to suffer reproach But when a man hath never so clear testimony that he is a Christian if he should suffer not as a Christian but as an evil door or as a busie-body in other mens matters if he should then rejoyce he would but glory in his shame IV. Assurance will beget holy boldnesse in Prayer 't is therefore made one and indeed the chief effect of the Spirit of Adoption to teach us to cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 to send us to God with as much confidence or more then we go to our Fathers according to the flesh to make us rest satisfied that what we ask according to the will of God we shall have it in due season as surely as if we had it already If we are once assured that an Act of Indempnity and Oblivion is passed and that God is as much our Friend as if there had been no variance betwixt us we may then sure come with boldnesse to the throne of grace Heb. 4.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a liberty to say what we list provided the matter we pray for be grounded on Divine Precept and Promise provided also we remember that we have to do with him who abhorreth the sacrifice of fools and unto whom our words should be but few full of weight and affection void of all heartless tautologies and vain repetitions Whereas when Assurance is wanting a man is ready to faint very pusillanimous afraid to look up to God under doubts and fears whether ever any thing will come of the requests he maketh whether God would not be as well pleased if he should hold his peace as if he spake There is as much difference betwixt a Christian with and without Assurance as betwixt a Tree in Summer and Winter as betwixt Sampson when his locks were on and when they were cut off he indeed thought when he had lost his Hair to have done as formerly but he soon found by the prevailing of the Philistines that he could not so he that hath lost the witness of the Spirit may think to rub up his graces and pray with as much life and boldness as formerly he did but he shall find himself mistaken Whatever weakneth Evidence weakneth Prayer also Prevailing of Lust darkneth our Evidences it also deadneth us in Praying Psal 40.12 Innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold of me so that I cannot look up they are more then the hairs of my head wherefore my heart faileth me His heart that should have furnished him with matter and affection failed him nor durst his eyes look up to the place where Gods honour did dwell In another Psalm he tells us his mouth was shut Mine iniquity is ever before me I am so troubled that I cannot speak Words which at other times he had at his command were now wanting and he stood as it were a mute O let all who complain of straitness and deadness and dauntedness remember what it is that must quicken embolden and enlarge them viz. the witnessing sealing act of the Spirit that once obtained a Supplicant goes on as doth a Ship with full sail where there is Sea-room enough V. Assurance will sweeten the Reading of the Word and the Receiving of the Sacraments For with what delight must he needs read over all the Promises of the Covenant who hath the Spirit assuring him that they are all his With what comfort must he needs behold the Body and Blood of Christ and meditate on the benefits thence flowing who is perswaded that he hath an undoubted interest in them and that his sitting at the Sacramental Table is but a pledge of his sitting with Christ in the Kingdom of his Father and that when he eats the Bread and drinks the Wine he doth but touch and taste of that with the fuller meals whereof he must be satisfied to all Eternity Yea the Laws and Commandements which formerly seemed burthensome will Assurance once gained be accounted not grievous but easie and delightful because a man then feels that love in his heart which is the fulfilling of them yea the very threatnings and curses of the Law which before Assurance cannot but make the heart exceedingly to quake and tremble Assurance once obtained are read and meditated on with the greatest pleasure because a man knows himself through faith in Christ to be delivered from them It is a kind of Hell on Earth when a man goes up and down fearing lest every place of Scripture he meets with should kill him but it is a very Heaven on Earth when a man can look on all things contained
otherwise they should rejoyce over me and magnifie themselves against me when my foot slippeth Double to these are the pleas proper to deserted souls that may be picked out of the Book of Psalms but I forbear to gather them together commending the Book it self as the best Directory to furnish those who are in trouble with fit praying-matter onely let them be sure that they be sincere using Davids prayers with Davids heart i. e. humbly believingly charging their souls to wait on God so He that shall come will come and will not tarry So shall he who now stands as an Enemy or as a Stranger say Is Ephraim my dear son is he a pleasant child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still Therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will have mercy on him so shall the wilderness and the solitary place be glad and the desart rejoyce and blossom as the rose blossom abundantly and rejoyce with joy and singing The ransomed of Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladnesse and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation Amen FINIS The TABLE COherence and parts of the Text pag. 1 2. Q. How is the Spirit said to be grieved p. 3. A. 1. Properly if by Spirit we understand the renewed part of man p. 3 4. 2. But if the Spirit of God because that is done against him which would grieve him were he capable of grief p. 4. 3. When we make the Spirit so to carry it towards us as persons do towards those that have grieved them p. 5. Q. 2. Why are we said rather to grieve the Spirit then Father and Son p. 6. A. Because sin is most opposite to his appropriate work p. 6 7 Q. 3. What sins do grieve the Spirit Ibid. A. Generally wilfull deliberate sins Specially 1. Lusts of Uncleanness p. 8 9 10. 2. Sins of Anger Malice c. p. 11. 12 13. 3. Sleighting of the Divinely Inspired Writings and preferring Humane Writings p. 13 14 15 16 17. 4. Robbing the Spirit of his glory and taking his praise unto our selves p. 17 18 19 20. 5. Fathering on him the ugly brats of the evâ—l spirit p. 21 22. 6. Ascribing to the Devil the works of the Spirit p. 22 23. Inferences 1. The Spirit is a Person p. 23. 2. Hath a tender care of Believers ibid. 3. Not to be blasphemed p. 24. 4. They wretched who take pleasure in sin which grieves the Spirit p. 24. Motives not to grieve the Spirit 1. He is a Divine Person the onely Divine Person against whom a sin is irremissible p. 25 26 27. 2. He hath little deserved to be grieved p. 27 28 29 30 31. 3. They who onely are in a capacity to grieve him have least reason so to do p. 32 33. 4. Dreadfull are the effects of grieving the Spirit of God 1. Hence ensue foul and dishonourable lusts p 34. 2. Ordinances become unprofitable p. 35. 3. The heart is filled with sad distressing doubts p 37. The Spirit is pleased if 1. We grieve when he is grieved p. 38. 2. Bring forth the fruits of the Spirit p. 38 39. 3. Pray to him and for him p. 39 40. 4. Honour his gifts in others especially those for Ministry no time to be expected in which no Ministry p. 40 41. 42. What meant by the Day of Redemption 1. Not the day of Baptism p. 43. 2. Some day after this life for till then 1. Redemption from the power of sin is not perfect p. 43 44. 2. Forgiveness of sin not perfect p. 44. 3. Redemption of the body scarce begun p. 45. Godly should groan for this day p. 45 46. Wicked should kiss the Redeemer p. 47. Nature and ends of Sealing p. 47 48. By the Spirits sealing is meant not his regenerating but assuring work p. 48 49. Assurance possible proved by four Arguments p. 50 to 56. Why Papists deny Assurance p. 57 58 59. Differences betwixt Assurance and Presumption p. 60. Assurance breeds not sloth p. 61 62 63. Faith consists not in Assurance p. 64. to 69. Q. Whether all Believers sometime or other have Assurance p. 69. A. In four Propositions I. Some have Assurance just before death who had it not before p. 69. to 72. II. Some that had it before want it then 1. To quicken others to preparation p. 72. 2. To harden worldlings p. 73. 3. To punish falling from first love p. 73 74. 4. Through the nature of some diseases 5. Through the malice of Satan III. 'T is rarely seen that any understanding Christian runs out his whole course without some Assurance p. 75. IV. Yet is it not impossible it should be so ibid. This no ground for idleness for 1. Men argue not so in temporals p. 76. 2. 'T is a sin to want Assurance p. 77. 3. None can be a child of God who doth not desire to attain the full Assurance of hope p. 77 78 79. Q. How is Assurance wrought A. 1. In a very mysterious way p. 79 80 81. 2. In the same way that bondage is wrought in unconverted sinners i. e. discursively p. 82. 83 84. Immediate testimony explained and cautioned by its assertors p 85 86. What to be thought of it p. 87 88. Discursive way the most ordinary and safe p. 89. to 92. Antinomians who deny the use of Marks confuted p. 93 94. Stupidity of sinners reproved p. 94 95 96. All that fear God perswaded to make use of this way of examination Some Marks visible if not others p. 96. If none visible then Examination no duty p. 97. Q. Why does God suffer his children to want Assurance p. 98. A. Assurance is two-fold high and moderate high too strong for our weak vessels long to hold p. 99 100. Good reason why God lets Believers for a season want even moderate Assurance 1. To keep them from relapses p. 100 101. 2. To keep them humble p. 102 103. 3. To make them more earnest in Prayer p. 104. 4. To try and exercise their graces p. 105. 5. To make them more value Assurance when they have it p 106. 6. To make them more able to comfort others p. 107. 7. To make them more long after Heaven p. 108. 8. To encourage good and confound wicked p. 108 109. 9. To manifest his own power and patience p. 109 110 111. Therefore we ought not when God withdraws to charge him foolishly p. 111 112. Q. How do Believers meritoriously procure the want of Assurance A. 1. Through the smalness of their graces Conversion more discernable at the first Plantation of the Gospel then now Some Objections answered p. 113. to 116. 2. Because they seek it not with diligence enough the case of poor Christians considered p. 117 118 119. 3. Because of their
THE BELIEVERS DUTY Towards the SPIRIT And the SPIRITS OFFICE Towards BELIEVERS OR A Discourse concerning Believers not Grieving the Spirit AND The Spirits sealing up Believers to the day of Redemption Grounded on Ephes 4.30 Hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is in us Rom. 5.5 The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God Rom. 8.16 LONDON Printed for SA GELLIBRAND at the Ball in S. Pauls Church-yard 1665. A PREFACE TO THE READER Christian Reader HOw needfull it is to have a right belief of the Holy Ghost appears not only from the Ancient Creeds which in how few words soever comprehended did alway make mention of Him but also from the wretched Socinians who blasphemously denying his not onely Deity but also Personality and in their Catechism roundly asserting the no-necessity of any operation of his in order to our assenting to the Gospel have been so filled with a Spirit of Delusion that they retain not truth enough to denominate them either Christians or Hereticks The text upon which the ensuing discourse is founded afforded very fair opportunity of proving the Personality and Deity of this blessed Spirit and of shewing that our natural corruption cannot be cured but by his inhabitation But contenting my self to wave or slightly to touch these matters I mainly insist on our being by this Spirit sealed to the day of redemption a phrase which as most others that are metaphorical hath had the hap to be many ways interpreted Bellarmine who seems to have read holy writ onely to serve a design applies it to that indeleble character supposed by the Romanists to be imprinted on all that are baptized but how vainly appeareth 1. By his own Cajetan who saith Sacramenta imprimere characterem ex scriptura non habetur sed ex Ecclesiae authoritate non multum antiquâ 2. By the miserable shift he is put to before he can find any imaginable foundation for this Chymaera in the words He is fain to read with the vulgar Latine in the day though against the Greek and Syriack yea and against sundry latine Manuscript copies as Estius tells us yet this very writer Ephes 1.13 when he thought it would be more for his turn forsaking the vulgar Latine which readeth in whom believing flyeth to the Greek after ye believed 3. Besides how absurd is it that any indeleble character or cognizance of Christianity should be imprinted on all in Baptisme when as we see that many after Baptisme do utterly and maliciously renounce Baptisme and all the Principles of Christianity Other Pontifician writers do refer the phrase not to the Sacrament of Baptisme but Confirmation So Estius so our Country-men the Rhemists who have this note on Ephes 1.13 Some refer this to the grace of Baptisme but to many learned it seemeth that the Apostle alludeth to the giving of the Holy Ghost in the Sacrament of Confirmation by signing the Baptized with the sign of the Cross and holy Chrisme But they are well told by the judicious Dr. Fulk That rhe learned men they speak of must needs be Masters of the new learning for the ancient learning had no such interpretation instancing in Chrysostome Ambrose Theodoret Augustine Primasius Hierome Oecumenius Theophylact who carry the text quite another way All Protestant Writers are not agreed what may be intended by this Sealing of the Spirit sure it is for our credit that we can allow our selves to differ one from another in expounding a place of Scripture I refer it not to the Holy Ghosts regenerating or renewing us but to his assuring us of the adoption of sons his creating in us a sense of Gods Paternal love towards us and of our filial love towards him in so doing I follow not onely sundry learned sons of our own Church but also Cornelius a Lapide whose comment on Ephes 1.13 being translated is this As by the impression of a Seal the Letters of Kings and publick tables are sealed that those which are authentick may be distinguished from doubtful those that are genuine from false and it may be certainly manifest that these are the Letters and Tables of the King So ye Christian Ephesians as it were The Epistle of Christ written not with ink but the Spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in the fleshly tables of your heart are signed with the Holy Ghost as it were with a Seal that it may be manifested that ye are the not feigned but authentick Epistle of Christ that ye are truly the people and Church of the true and high God Having thus descanted on the text he frames against himself this objection If this be so then may Believers be certain that they are in the true faith and grace of God and for answer denieth the consequence because this Seal is not altogether and physically certain and evident to them for who certainly knows who dares swear that he is sealed with the Holy Ghost as with a seal but onely probable and morally as it were certain from signs and conjectures so in like manner it is not to them clear and certain that they are in the true faith and grace of God For the further clearing of this doubt He refers us to what he had said on Rom. 8.16 Consulting him on that place I find him to give this note That the testimony of the Spirit by which he witnesseth that we are the sons of God is not certain with certainty of Faith nor certain with infallible certainty as Catharinus and Cajetan would have it but onely with a conjectural certainty which certainty yet increaseth with Holiness so that Vega and Ruard and Pererius following them think that some men very holy without the special revelation of God from the signs and effects of the Holy Ghost which they find in themselves very frequent clear and efficacious have a certainty not indeed infallible so as they dare swear that they are in the grace of God but yet such and so great as excludes all fear of the contrary not onely from the affection and confidence but also from the understanding and perswasion so as such do as certainly know and believe that they are in the grace of God as we certainly know and believe that there is such a place as Constantinople or Alexandria Let the Papists read this and if they have not lost all ingenuity acknowledge that some eminent Writers of their own go as high or higher then we do For we do not say that we are certain with a certainty of faith that we are sanctified or pardoned or if any do so say it is onely a Philosophical mistake for they do not intend that it is to any one revealed by any vocal or written testimony that he is sanctified or pardoned but onely that seeing these Conclusions do arise from Premises the one whereof is Scripture though the other be known onely
can give any ground of Faith Would the Papists but as freely censure the errors of their former Writers as we do the errors of ours soon would all the controversies about Assurance come to an end but that being an happiness rather to be wished then hoped for let all less judicious Christians satisfie themselves to know 1. It is the receiving of Christ that gives us a right to be the sons of God 2. That he who receives Christ shall be by God owned as a son whether he know himself to have received Christ or no. The promises run clear Whosoever believeth in Christ shall not perish but have eternal life Joh. 3. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Blessed are those those that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied Matth. 5. The condition of these promises being fulfilled the promises themselves must be fulfilled else God should be unfaithful and deny himself For shall the too hard thoughts the too humble conceit of a man concerning himself wake void the faith of God God forbid scarcely among ingenuous men doth any one fare the worse for an excess of modesty and can the Father of Mercies shut a good man out of Heaven because that conscious to himself of daily weaknesses and manifold passions warting within him and frequently prevailing he cannot be firmly perswaded of his own goodness 3. That it is the office of the Spirit to make us to know the things that are freely given us of God 4. That as he is ready to witness to carnal persons that their ways are ways of sin and wrath and that they are the men who except they become new creatures are marked out for damnation so he is ready to witness to those who are spiritually minded the truth of their graces and by that their interest in the promises of Justification Adoption Glorification 5. That our work lieth in making our selves which yet we cannot do but by the almighty power of the same Spirit fit and meet to receive this testimony of the Spirit which meetness we shall then come to if 1. We well inform our selves about the terms of the Covenant of grace 2. Have frequent serious abiding thoughts about the fulness and freeness of its promises 3. Giving all diligence add to faith vertue and to vertue knowledg and to knowledg temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity 4. By reflex acts often compare the frame of our heart and course of our lives with the rule 5. Watch and pray that we may be free from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pride and prejudice which make us though so sharp-sighted as to see a mote in our brothers eyes yet so blind as not to see a beam in our own eyes That thou mayest Christian Reader have some small help in all these matters was the end aimed at in making the following Treatise thus publick The Authors name could not make it more acceptable and is therefore concealed but his prayers are that it may be effectual to beget in all those into whose hands it shall fall 1. A tender care not to grieve the Spirit of promise by which they who believe are sealed up to the day of Redemption 2. A cordial respect to all those upon whom the Spirit of the Lord is and who are by the Lord anointed to Preach good tidings to the meek and sent to bind up the broken hearted to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion to give unto them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness Jan. 25. 1664. Farewell The Printer to the Reader THough great care hath been used in publishing these Papers yet by reason of an ill-written Copy and the Authors absence some faults have escaped There is in some Pages a change of Persons which though it might be defended yet was not by the Author intended Those few Errata's that can be thought to disturb the sense thus amend PAg. 26. lin 15. r. Praeposition p. 28. l. 26. r. also that He. p. 30. l. 23. r. loose p. 32. l. 17. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 35. l. 21. r. are the enticing p. 36. l. 7. r. more glorious p. 44. l. 28. r. yet is He. p. 86. l. 13. r. speaks but to p. 88. l. 10. r. did not they sometimes p. 152. l. 25. r. till he feel p. 157. l. 9. r. and not heard of Ephes 4.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption THese words are by some conceived to contain an absolute Independent counsel but the Greek Scholia's suppose them to be brought in as an argument to enforce the immediately preceding dehortation Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth as if the Apostle had said If you think it a small matter to allow your selves in such speeches as have no tendency to edification as are no way fit to minister grace unto the hearers If you have no respect to your own souls nor to the souls of others which must needs be offended by such unprofitable communication yet you will have some regard for the Spirit of God who is himself holy and the author of all holiness and he being as he is grieved by all unprofitable discourse you will account your selves ingaged to abstain therefrom If we receive this connexion as why may we not sith it offers no violence to the context and is backed with so good authority then may we observe in the Text 1. A reason by which the Ephesians are taken off from idle words lest they should grieve the spirit 2. A description of this Spirit from his Nature Office Grieve not the holy spirit of God The form of speech seems to be borrowed from the Old Testament Isa 63.10 They rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit therefore he was turned to be their enemy and he fought against them But notwithstanding we have found out a parallel place yet must we still inquire Quest 1. How the Spirit can be said to be grieved for seeing he is God and so infinitely perfect how can we conceive him capable of grief which is not onely a passion but also of all passions the meanest and lowest as arising from the sense of some present evil which we cannot master And this objection is the more considerable because of the emphaticalness of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which saith Aretius complectitur omnis generis dolores and is therefore used to set out that anguish and sadness of mind which our blessed Saviour did feel in the Garden Math. 26.37 But all this notwithstanding we may give a very fair account of the phrase for 1. There are who by the spirit of God do understand the renewed part of man and indeed it is not unusual in Scripture for God to call his own work by his own name now the renewed
soul whether our own or others is capable of being vexed in a proper sense but this sense seems not here intended yet this I must tell you that God interprets all that is done against his children as done against himself and therefore do you beware how you grieve the Lords holy ones either by saying or doing any thing which you know their souls cannot but abhor perhaps it grieveth not some of your souls nor grateth on some of your ears to hear the name of God taken in vain or blasphemed or the good ways of God spoken against but true Believers are of another temper Psal 42.10 As with a sword in my bones mine enemies reproach me While they say dayly unto me where is thy God 2 Pet. 2.8 Lot vexed his righteous soul from day to day with the unlawful deeds which he saw and heard in Sodom and Gomorrah Wherefore Sirs be not ambitious to strike father and sons at one blow let it suffice that you dishonour God but do not dishonour him at such times and places when and where his Saints may stand by and see and hear the wrong and dishonour that is reflected on their heavenly Father 2. We may be said to grieve him when we do that which would grieve him were he capable of grief The Scripture calls not things according to success and event he that looks on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery in his heart though he never act that brutish lust Matt. 5.28 He that hateth his brother is a Murtherer 1 John 3.15 not that every one that hateth doth properly kill but that he who hateth his brother had undoubtedly killed his brother could his brother have been thought to death his hatred would have brought forth murder had not something strangled it in the womb So we do by the Spirit we do that against him which would grieve him and more then grieve him were he capable of being grieved or any way altered for the worse O man take it from me every time thou sinnest presumptuously thou dost what in thee lieth to annihilate the fountain of all essences thou dost what thou canst to leave the world without a God He will be in heaven maugre all the malice of men and devils no thanks to them were he capable of being deprived of life they by their sins had deprived him of life long since Hence he complains that he was broken in pieces by the whorish heart of Israel Ezek. 6.9 So true is that of the Schoolmen that omne peccatum is deicidium 3. We are said to grieve the Spirit of God when we make the Spirit of God so to carry it towards us as persons do towards those that have grieved them If by any unworthy carriage I have vexed my friend he intermits all acts of friendship and familiarity So doth the Spirit when any thing is committed contrary to his nature or offices withdraw his benigne influences and consolations which are better then life I judge as do the generality of Reformed Divines that the Spirit of God doth never forsake those totally whom hee hath once chosen for his temple In this we know we are not deceived nor can we deceive you when wee teach that the faith whereby yee are sanctified cannot fail it did not in the Prophet it shall not in you They which are born of God do not sin any such sin as doth quite extinguish grace clean cut them off from Christ Jesus because the seed of God abideth in them and doth shield them from receiving any irremediable wound saith the judicious Mr. Richard Hooker Sermon of the Certainty c. pag. 545 546. But de non existentibus et non apparentibus eadem est ratio the Spirit may when greived so dwell in a man as if he did not dwell in him he may be quite gone as to any present sense and feeling he was so as to David which made him pray Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit Quest 2. Why are we rather said to greive the Holy Ghost then the Father or the Son Answ No question we do by sin grieve the Father and the Son as well as by every Renewed act of repentance we do minister joy to them Every wilfull sin is an high affront to the thrice blessed and glorious Trinity Psal 78. v. 40. How oft did they provoke him in the Wilderness and grieve him in the desert Psal 95. vers 10. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation But the Divine Persons though agreeing in their common essence are distinguished by relations and operations or rather by their manner of operation the father being unbegotten worketh of himself the Son from the Father the Holy Ghost from both Father and Son hence though all works terminated on the creature are common to all three Persons yet each work is most commonly ascribed to that person whose manner of subsistence doth most eminently appear in that work It is the appropiate work of the holy Ghost to reveal unto us the mistery of godliness to make application of the death and resurrection of God the Son and therefore when we do any thing contrary to the doctrine which is according to godliness or unworthy of the death of Jesus we cross the Spirit in his work and so are said to grieve him Quest 3. What are the special sinnes by which we do more eminently grieve the Spirit Answ If the question were put concerning the general nature of the sins by which the Spirit is grieved soon might it be resolved for it seems to be past all controversie that we grieve him not by sins of dayly incursion not by meer unavoideable infirmities such as by the measure of grace vouchsafed on this side heaven we cannot escape but by sins that are in some degree deliberate and wilfull but seeing it is put concerning the special kinds of deliberate sins which are most grievous to the Spirit it will deserve a larger answer I say therefore the sins that are more then ordinarily grievous to the Spirit are such as these 1. All the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All those lusts of uncleanness whether natural or unnatural the living in these is called walking according to the flesh which we know is made diametrically opposite to walking according to the Spirit by whose help we are to mortifie the deeds of the flesh This kind of sin hath something in it peculiar for whereas all other sins that a man doth are without the body he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body 1 Cor. 6.18 A Graecis sexcentae dantur huic loco interpretationes Vid. Dr. Feaâ—ly in lecum saith Clarius that interpretation which seems most proper is that other sins though acted by the body and leaving an ill impression on the body yet have not that force over mans body as to enslave it to another which yet fornication hath for by fornication the fornicator is made a member of the
seem that to take any evidence from our graces is to receive humane witness to the things of God which is incongruous Answ I understand not but we may receive an humane testimony to witness the things of God though the last resolution of Divine Faith must be into Divine Veracity But we need not enter into that dispute for the answer of this objection for our graces are not wrought in us by our own power but by the power of God and if they were yet they are only the means by which our condition is known to us the efficient cause of this knowledg is the Spirit illustrating our graces and making them visible and enabling us to conclude from them II. Here 's terror to all those wicked persons who perswade themselves that they are the Children of God though they have in them none of the marks of the children of God I know we are apt to be deceived by others and much more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use St. James his word Jam. 1.22 to deceive to put a fallacy on our selves Yet a man would wonder how they who pretend to reason should be able so to impose on themselves or where they found the premises from which they inferre that conclusion that they are the children of God Doth the Scripture any where say that they who walk not after the Spirit but after the flesh shall live or that drunkards and swearers shall inherit the Kingdome of God if the Scripture say not this but the clean contrary how come they then to promise themselves peace Are they still to learn that God is not such a one as themselves or that they must be judged not according to the proverbs that pass for current among men but according to the law of liberty Sith this law doth every where condemn them how is it that their own Consciences do not condemn them also Is it not onely because they do torture and wrest the Scriptures and so to bring them down to their own humor and fancies But do they not do this to their own destruction must not the great day of necessity shake bring down this house which hath no foundation but their own imaginations exalting themselves against the knowledg of God Let all such if they be not as perfectly void of common sense and reason as they be of Divine Faith but consider these Scriptures Gal. 6.7 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reaps for he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdome of God Or if they will not hearken to the stiller voice of the Gospel let them yet hearken to the thunder of the Law Deut. 29.18 19 20 21. Lest there should be a root among you that beareth gall and worm wood and it come to passe when he heareth the words of this curse that he blesse himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk after the imagination of my heart to add drunkennesse to thirst the Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man and all the curses that are written in this Book shall light on him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven and the Lord shall separate him for evil III. Let all that fear God be perswaded to make use of this way of getting Assurance and not think to get it by I know not what Enthusiastical injections or by going up and down with complaints against themselves but look for it in this way of trial and examination Let not any one say that the Writing of God is so blurred and blotted that he cannot tell what to make of it the Waters so mudded that he despairs of ever seeing his face in them for 1. If some signs be not visible others may and they will suffice to lead thee to the conclusion that thou art in the Bond of the Covenant if thou canst not take comfort in some Qualifications yet there are others that will afford If thou canst not find Faith yet canst thou not deny but thou fearest God and tremblest at his Word why these are marks of a child of God Isa 50.10 Isa 66.2 and so is a desire to fear God Neh. 1.11 onely be sure it be an earnest unwearied industrious desire 2. But if any man be under such sad dark temptations as that he can see no light at all if he be confusion all over such a one I advise not to examine examination at such a time is not a duty but serves onely to breed further fears and uncertainties In such a case let a man put forth the first act of Faith cast himself on God commit himself to him in well doing he hath a command so to do therefore he need not fear it will be an act of presumption he hath a promise if he do so that he shall be safe let him therefore so do and in continuance so to do he shall if by any way come to find that he hath laid hold on the Covenant and that his condition before though it was not comfortable was safe and known to God though not to himself Quest 4. What 's the reason why the children of God do want Assurance or how comes it to passe that all who have grace do not presently know themselves to have it Answ This is not one Question but two and therefore without distinction no one thing can be replied to it The word Reason all one with cause may either refer to the meritorious or final cause either the meaning of the Question is what are the gracious Intendments and Purposes of God in permitting his Children to want Assurance or what are the ways by which they do sinfully procure unto themselves the want of Assurance Of these I will speak distinctly though I take it they are but rarely separated God doth not usually let his servants be under darkness but for sin and he would not permit them to fall into sin but that he hath an intent to make those very falls and the punishments he inflicts because of them subservient to his glory and their good Quest 1. Therefore enquire we why the Father of Lights suffers the Children of light to walk in darkness why he sets the seal and impression of the Spirit so obscurely upon them that they do not know themselves to be sealed with it to the day of redemption especially seeing he doth hereby lose a very great tribute of praise and glory For how can they praise God for this though incomparable gift if they know not themselves to have received it How can they rejoyce in the hope of