spirits into a temper inconsistent with their gravity nay youthful lâ—sts if they will yet take no denyal must fight for their quarters and dâ—ive the new intruders out of doors Friends I appeal to your own spirits how many Parents and Masters are there in the World who if their childrâ—n and servants begin to entertain any relâ—gion scruples though never so necessary are apt to lay to them as Pharaoh to the Isrâ—elites ye are idle ye are idle theâ—efore you are so inquisitive after those things Go theâ—efore now and work Exod. â—5 17. 18 And thus becomes the word of our Saviour verâ—fied upon them the cares of this woâ—ld and the deceitfulnesse of riches choak the seed and iâ— becometh unfruiâ—ful Mat. 13. 2â— Thus aâ—… the naiâ—s which the Spirit fastens by the Master â—f â—ssemblies driven out by others Eccles 13. 11 of the Worldâ— making How many prâ—fâ—ne scâ—ffers jear out such blessed guests out of the soul of those with whom they are familiar Lastly how many idle drunkâ—n câ—mpanions drown the blessed convictions of the Spirit of God in themselves and otâ—ers together with their own estates and parts in strong liquors Oh you that have often by scurrilous scoffe broken these bonds of the consciences of others take heed when the Spirit comes to fetter your own if ever you be so happy and that is somewhat rare to those that sit in the seat of the scornfull your bonds will be made strong Is 28. 22. You that to secure your selves from those motions have many a time made the Tavern your asylum your refuge I cannot say Sanctuary thinke when God shall give your consciences a commission to keep an Assizes in your souls you will not find so easie a discharge from its Court as from a drawers bar and a Vintners reckoning You have broken the Spirits prison once and again it may be and therefore take heed when he takes you next you 'l pay for all hee 'l lay you fast enough for flinching His own iniquities shall take the wicked and he shall be holden with the cords of his own sinnes Prov 5. 22. or I am almost affraid to read the next words v. 23. yet take them for your warning it may be it will be worse with you the spirit may leave you to die without instruction c. CHAP. VI. A branch of the fourth Caution of the preceding Chapter concerning over-hastening of comfort Wherein is also a case concerning measures of conviction and humiliation NOr are those impatient souls altogether blamefree who because they long for the peace-full fruit of the lips will not stay the ripening of it but greedily devour it green who though the spirit have them in cure and the necessity of their disease require their confinement to rules of Physick yet will be ruled by their own heads and adventurously break those bonds and cast those cords from them as grievous and unnecessary They Psal 2. 3. cannot endure to serve an apprenticeship under a Spirit of bondage and then be made free in his way and time but hastily lay violent hands on Christian liberty and are very angry though perhaps they more need it if a Minister do but mention a searching convincing truth which may reduce them to their Master again I have my self visited those ignorant souls upon their death-beds who have called out for nothing but comfort comfort when they might had they seen their own need have rather cry'd for conviction conviction Nay among some persons 't is as much accounted a solaecisme in Divinity to search any ones conscience as it is in manners to be iniquisitive into his secrets But beloved take this for a certain rule those that run away from a Spirit of bondage and will set up with a stock of comforts without his leave as too many do wil quickly break and turn arrant bankerupts in the matter of their spirituall condition Hee that beleeves makes not haste Q. But Sir how long will you have us continue under a Spirit of bondage what measures of humiliation are requisite to true conversion and sound comfort how many years must wee serve ere you will allow us to set up A. Truly friends it is past my Skill to determine precisely neither is it necessary I should The Lord knowes I could wish it were in my power to heal every conscience the first houre in which it is smitten But the Lord thinks not fit to deal so with many of his Saints and therefore I say there is danger lest wee snatch comfort before it is fit for us or wee for it And this is all that I desire to caution you against in this that hath been said But that I may not leave you altogether unsatisfied in this point and especially that I may wound no broken ones I shal give you some rules to judg when God gives you a manumission from the Spirit of bondage and by that you may guesse when you are too hasty 1. In generall As soon as the soul is brought to see a through necessity of Jesus Christ and accordingly to close with him with true Faith it may take comfort For certainly to such an one Christ belongs The waters belong to every one that thirsteth and they are in a blessed condition that hunger and Isa 51. 1. thirst after righteousnesse And to whomsoever Matt. 5. 6 Christ belongs immediatly comfort belongs as he that hath right to an inheritance hath right to all the incomes of it Gods Ministers are bound not to defer comfort one minute from a soul concerning whom they have but sufficient grounds in charity to believe in Christ Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith the Lord Is 40. 1. And Heb. 6. 17 18. the H. Ghost tells us that God intends comfort to all that fly for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them 2. As soon as I am within any promises reach and compasse so soon belongs comfort to mee And that depends on the former Obj. But will not any troubled soul cry out for Christ and lay hold upon Christ in extremity A dying man will never dispute with himself whether he shall send for a Physician a condemned man upon the gallows whether he shall accept of a pardon and a drowning man whether he shall scramble up a rock if it be within his reach And is every such soul fit for comfort 2. A. I answer therefore more particularly 1. I ought not to refuse comfort when I find my soul weary of the bonds and fetters of sin as much or more then of the fetters of trouble and anguish for sinne Beloved when the chains of corruption are as grievous as pangs of conscience when I hate Satan as a tempter as much as I hate him as a troubler when I groan as much to be delivered from the body of death as from the weight of wrath then I am ripe for comfort But Rom. 7. 24 when I hear my heart cry louder Oh
their bondage they could not hearken to Moses for anguish of heart Exod. 6. 9. Read over to a Noble man all his pedigree to a great man all his Titles and famous atchievments shew a rich man all his baggs and his writings and tell the Gentleman of all his pleasures how his hawke flies his dogs hunt where are the richest wines the merriest company c. things that would have taken heretofore now the news of them is like unpleasing meat to a nauseating stomack like jarring musick to a judicious ear Or in Solomons language Prov. 25. 20. As he that takes away a garment in cold weather and like vinegar upon nitre so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart This heavinesse is the greatest heavinesse The Spirit of heavinesse Isa 61. 3. bitter bitternesse saith Hezechiah Isa 38. 17. 3. Soul-distracting despair I mean not that which shuts and barres the door of the heart against all reliefe blocks it up and besiegeth it on all hands yea even on the side of Heaven it selfe but that which excludes all possible means on this side the infinite Mercy of God and bloud of Christ when as David Psal 142. 4. a man looks on the right hand to Duties and Ordinances and good deeds and resuge fails they appear vestimenta inquinatorum they have guilt in them as wel as deficiency filthy rags he looks Isai 64. 6 on his left hand at the comforts of this life and at humane means to remove misconceived natural causes and finds that he cannot be ransomed by gold nor silver nor precious 1 Pet. 1. 8 stones that it is in vain to come before God with thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers Micah 6. 7 of oyle that his wounds will not be cured by Balsoms nor his Disease be cured by Potions And that there is no name but Christs in heaven or under heaven that can relieve him Acts 4. 12. This is indeed a complete work of the Spirit of Bondage till this a man is never brought low enough to be lifted up all the convictions horrors and anguish of conscience whiles removeable by other means then the blood of Christ are but sleight and superficial wounds and all the power which the Spirit exerciseth till this effects not a through Conquest a man never submits himself entirely to the Spirits handling till this time never accepts of his fetters and wears them without resistancy till now As a Prisoner never quietly submits to his condition till he finds all wayes of escape obstructed and no way to get those fetters off which pinch him but by that hand that put them on And thus these cords that bind a soul under sin may be made use of and twisted with others of a Gospel nature to draw a soul to Jesus Christ For here now properly comes in the discovery of Christ to such a soul ut infrà CHAP. IX A farther explication by assigning the means of its working Quest 2. HOw doth the Spirit work this bondage and fear in the hearts of sinners Answ The meanes is various 1. Occasional So sometimes affliction doth not only fetter a man in his body or estate but soul also Many times God brings down a proud heart as Manasseh by this way Manasseh never became the Spirits Bond-man till he was the King of Babylons captive Then and not till then he bowed himself greatly before the God of his Fathers 2 Chron. 33. 11 12. Sometimes the death of friends especially if unexpected and the thoughts of mortality occasioned thereby Sometimes seeing the strictness of those we converse with Sometimes a reproof a notorious sin which God leaves a man unto sometimes the soul-troubles of others declaring their cases and complaining are catching c. 2. Instrumental and thus ordinarily God useth the Word as his mighty instrument by which he pulls down strong Holds and casts down imaginations and every high thing that exalts it self against the knowledg of God and brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. This Word is the instrument of conviction and so of this Bondage arising thence Hebr. 4. 12. Yet is it not the bare word that can work it no though we concur to it and labour by meditation conference and other means to do it for when we have done all We receive it saith the Text. If you ask What word doth the Spirit work this bondage by I answer By the Law generally and principally though some Gospel-considerations may sometimes be admitted to whet and sharpen the edge of the Law I mean the History of the Gospel which aggravates that bondage by exemplifying the misery of being under the curse of the Law the intolerablenesse of lying under the wrath of God in the person of Christ barely suffering for imputed sin by discovering a rich and unvaluable Treasure and spreading all the glory of it before a man who must not lay hands on one farthing token of it c. But the Gospel concurs only per accidens as the sight of Lazarus in heaven increased the hell of Dives and the plenty in the gates of Samaria that Princes misery who was to dye without tasting of it 2 Kings 7. 19. But I say The Law is the proper and ordinary instrument of the Spirit in this work It is the School-master whose lash makes sinners backs smart Gal. 3. 24. which convinceth men as transgressors James 2. 9. Causeth the knowledg of sin Rom. 3. 20. Worketh wrath i. e. manifests it worketh the sense of it into the soule Rom. 4. 15. Maketh the offences of sinners to abound discovers millions of sins more then he dreamed of Rom. 5. 20. Quickens sin in the conscience and puts a weapon into its hand to kill the sinner under its guilt chap. 7. 9. It is therefore called by the Apostle 2 Cor. 15. 56. The strength of sin i. e. that which onely armes sin with terrour and makes its guilt an intolerable guilt The Spirit interprets the Law to a mans conscience and armes it with its curse to pronounce against every sin and this Law thus armed arrests and endites and accuseth and convicteth and condemneth the sinner and when it hath done so it stops there it is fain to do as Felix with Paul to leave him bound without any mitigation Acts 24. 27. or qualification of his misery till the same Spirit whose servant the Law is be pleased to let him free CHAP. X. Evidences of the Spirits usual working in this way before Conversion Quest 3. BUT how appeares it that the Spirit of God ordinarily works first this way Ans 1. Because the Spirit of God as to the order and manner of his working deals not with man as we use to do with stocks and stones We translate them from place to place and condition to condition barely by an act of extrinsecal power As we do raise a stone to the top of a steeple and prop him up there contrary to
quatenus in eaÌ„ Deus nebiscum operum respectu paciscitur I mâ—et withal in this Argument affirming divers things concerning the condition of the Jewes under the Law for which he is deservedly taxed by Peter Martyr As that The Jews received not the Spirit That what is here called the Spirit of Bondage was their Law so termed because it was a Spiritual Law That the Adoption attributed to them Rom 9. was a meere titular honour That they called not God Fatherin prayer c. And Oecuminius and Osoâ—ius follow him But surely if these holy men understand these things concerning the believing Jews they undertake to affirm that concerning them which besides the expresse Testimony of divers Scriptures against it such as Ps 51 11 12 Pro. 1 23. Ps 89 26. Is 63. 16. c. excludes them al out of heaven therefore I in charity conceive that they rather understand the body of the Jewish Church concerning whom these things may with a moderate candid interpretatioÌ„ be allowed to be spoken with respect to the major part who though professed believers yet were real unbelievers Calvin and the modern writers though they follow these Ancients in the inâ—erpretation of this place concerning the Jewes and their Law yet moderate the language they use If the Law saith he Calvin be looked upon in it self it cannot but binde men under bondage and fear of death seeing it promiseth no good but under conditions and pronounceth a curse of death upon every one that doth not keep them Gal. 3. 10. And therefore saith he the Apostle here speaks of the Law barely as a Covenant of works and so considered And Si lex in se consideretur nihil quà m miserae scrviâ—uti addictoâ— mortis quoque borrore constringere homines potest quia nihil boni promittit nisi sub conditione mortem quoque edicit in omnes transgressores Calv. in locum Aâ—d non habuerunt sporitum laetitiae libertatis à lege sed ad evangelium confugerunt Idâ—m Instit Gratia adoptionis erat obscuriùs adumbrata paucioribus concessa Gualth in locum the Jews received no spirit of Jâ—y and liberty from the Law But what of that they had was from thâ— Gospel intermixed therewith And Gualther explains it farther thus He speaks not of a distinction between the persons of the godly under both Testaments but of the different ministery of both The grace of adoption was them more obscurely shadowed out and granted to a few onely in comparison with the times of Gospel ministration Thus they But by the leave of so many learned and godly men I shall take liberty in part to follow a different Interpretation For this reasâ—n Because the Apostle here speaks not of the Spirit of Bondage and Adoption as received by the Jews but by Gentile RomaÌ„s who were never under that pedagogy and yet they were under this Spirit of Bondage once as well as now under the Spirit of Adoption Yet shall I not scruple to take so much of their interpretation as concernes the nature of the work wrought which fills the conscience with horrour of death as Calvin before speaks But whereas he takes the Spirit here spoken of only for the Instrumental causâ— the Law I cannot go with him there but interpret it concerning the efficient cause or at least the instrumental cause as it is in the hand of the efficient the Law in the hands of the Spirit But it may still be a question what Spirit it is that useth the Law in this work Augustine before mentioned interprets it of the evil spirit the Devil under whom men in the time of their unregeneracie are in bondage sutably to the Apostles other expression Eph. 2. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spirit that works in the children of disobedience This Spirit indeed is a Spirit of bondage keeping soules in the basest slavery taking them prisoners like Turkish gally-slaves and chaining them to his oars that they may do his will 2 Tim. 2. 26. But sure this wicked spirit is not here meant for in the Apostles phrase the spirit of bondage is said to be a received spirit Now the power of Satan in the hearts of unregenerate men is by reason of original corruption connatural to them and so cannot-properly be said to be received Besides the same word being used in relation to this Spirit which is affirmed concerning the Spirit of Adoption seeing the receiving of the latter is to be understood by way of gift and peculiar grace from God I think the former must be interpreted so too Now the domineering power of Satan is no gift received from God from whom comes down none but good and perfect gifts Ja. 1. 17. This Spirit therefore that works the bondage and thereby the fear we speak of we De uno eodemqâ—… Spiritu loquens diversaâ—i effect a tribuit Gualth in locum have found out at last to be a Spirit received as a gift of grace from God and that can be no other then the Holy Spirit of God He it is that creates trouble in the hearts of Gods Elect in order to conversion as well as peace after it And as he is called afterwards a Spirit of Adoption because he is the efficient cause of the enjoyment and sense of that priviledge so here the Spirit of Bondage because by the Law he reduceth the souls of Gods Elect in order to regeneration under bondage and fear 2. This then being the Spirit from whose efficiency ariseth this effect the effect must be such as is sutable to the cause The holy Spirit of God cannot be supposed to bring any soul into an unholy bondage And therefore the condition of servitude here spoken of is not such a servitude as we before mentioned a bondage or servitude under the command of sinne but a bondage or servitude under the guilt of sinne not a bondage to sin but a bondage for sin and a bondage that is the beginning of liberty from sin That bondage is a voluntary bondage a bondage which men are no way sensible of nay they are so farre from being sensible of it unto fear as the Apostle here speaks that they count it the greatest liberty and lie under it in the greatest security But this bondage is naturally involuntary such as a mans heart is by nature irreconcileably averse to and is therefore wrought in the conscience by the mighty convictions of the Spirit of God over-powring it by an irresistible and effectual illumination and binding it with the chaines and fetters of that light under a deep and serious conviction of the sinfulnesse and misery of its own condition It is in a word when a soul lies under the arrest of the Spirit arming the Law to seize upon it and dragg it before the Judgment seat of God in the Conscience to receive its sentence according to its desert a sentence of death within it selfe in the same Apostles expression though in another sense
2 Cor. 1. 9. upon the pronouncing whereof the Law lays heavy fetters and chaines of darkenesse upon the soul that keep it shut up to the hope that afterwards by the Gospel is revealed 3. The proper impressions of this condition must needs be fearfull And thence is this Spirit said to be the Author of bondage to fear And is therefore called the Spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1. 7. This is that fear which the Author to the Hebrews 2. 15. tells us that men may be all their lives long enslaved unto til Christ deliver them A fear of Death i. e. of eternal death the wages of sinne A fear that gives a convinced sinner a tast of hell here it is the very anguish and smart of the arrows of God sticking fast in Job 6. 4. a mans spirit the very wales and furrowes which when the back of conscience is plowed up with the knotted whips of its own guilt do fester and stinke and corrupt as David Psal 38 5 expresseth it that is make the spirit of a man a burthen to it selfe and that intolerable This is the condition which the Apostle expresseth and I am to handle under the notion of the Spirit of bondage i. e. That Work of Gods Spirit whereby he convinceth and terrifieth sinners in order to conversion 4. And when he doth so in the fourth place we are said to receive him that is to be through free grace the patient and submissive subjects of this influence of his bearing the indignation of the Lord because we have sined Lam. 3. 29 against him and laying our mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope until God shall command deliverance for us and pull us out of the horrible pit and out of the deep mire and clay and break those chains of hell and snares of death wherein we are fettered and bring us forth into a large place 5. The Subjects of this Work of the Spirit the Apostle expresseth under the pronoun Ye including the generality of believers among the Romans and in them the generality of beleevers among all Nations in all times these works being of a common nature to all the people of God there being nothing in any one Saint which renders him a more incapable subject of this work then in another and nothing in the Word elsewhere to priviledge one above another herein 6. And lastly the time of the Saints being under this work the Apostle plainly expresseth not to be then when by faith they could call God Father the influence of the Spirit of Adoption enabling them so to do delivered them out of that fearful condition whence it follows that the experience they had of this work was before their Adoption and relation to God thereby as before I have declared And so much shall suffice for this first Chapter the clearing of our Subject And this done wee will proceed to the handling of it in the following Chapters CHAP. II. Wherein the first grand Thesis or Proposition concerning this state of Bondage is explained I Shall begin with this state as a work of the Spirit of God laying this Thesis or proposition for a foundation of our following discourse That those convictions shakings and terrours The first Proposition or Thesis of conscience under which unregenerate sinners suffer bondage when the Law chargeth them home with the guilt of sinne and apprehensions of wrath are ordinarily the works of Gods blessed Spirit I say ordinarily because sometimes Satan brings or at least keeps souls and those the souls of Gods Elect too under this bondage He promiseth liberty when he tempts to sinne but brings into bondage when he accuseth for sinne And therefore we must make a distinction between the bondage which the holy Spirit and the bondage which the wicked spirit brings into or keeps under First therefore There is a bondage which admits and is mitigated by the conjunction of hope of liberty and works towards a deliverance and there is a bondage that excludes all hope and possibility in the apprehension of a sinner of ever being removed A bondage in which the chains with which the conscience is held and fettered are of the same nature with the Devils bonds of death chains of darknesse and despaire Now such as these the holy Spirit knits not except the despair be partial and bear relation only to humane helps and means of escape and such a despair is in every soul that makes out after Christ those that we speak of now Satan lays on the conscience these must needs call him Father because they are black dismal apprehensions like him Such he wrought in Kain and Judas that made the former desperately blaspheme the mercy of God the other deâ—perately to lay violent hands on himselfe and to those despairing terrours is a soul given up when justly excommunicated and therefore is said to be delivered 1 Cor. 5. 5. to Satan for that censure binding sinne upon a man and God having promised to ratifie that sentence in Heaven the Devill the tormentor is at hand to load such a soul with Matth. 16. 19. terrors enough if he do not contemptuously go on adding sin to sin but be any way sensible of it he endeavors to drive him to despair whence the Church is bidden upon this knowledge of Satans devices to comfort such a man and confirm comfort to him by absolution lest he be swallowed up of sorrow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 2. 8. 11. These satanical terrours have sin in them and therâ—fore as such can no way be the effects of the Spirit of God Indeed the Spirit of God may cause them inchoativè by discovering to a man his sinne and misery but the improvement of these discoveries in such a measure and to such an issue is the work of Satan who in this as in things of other nature can counterfeit the very Spirit of God and so perswade a poor soul that 't is his duty to refuse comfort and despair of Salvation 2. I say these terrours when they are wrought by the Spirit of God are in unconverted sinners which makes a farther distinction between the worke of the Spirit of God and the spirit of Satan herein the Devil makes it most of his businesse to trouble converts As for unconverted wretches that are his fast enough he seldome disturbes them as a Souldier will not disturbe his own Quarters but his enemies a Magistrate will not if he be well advised harrasle his own dominions But the Spirit of God speakes terrour to the Consciences of unregenerate sinners to whom it belongs when he speaks Law he speaks to them that are under the Law Rom. 3. 19. 3. But therin is a difference also If the Spirit of God lay the conscience under terrours it is for conversion they are not penal only but medicinal also they are one sort of Gods â—ods by which he brings men within the bonds of the Covenant Ezek 20
must serve the spirits designes in Law as wel as Gospel What would men have us do Shall we speak peace to those to whom the Spirit denounceth open war How shall we keep to our Commission if in stead of binding on earth those who are bound in heaven we let them loose and help them to escape preach doctrines of universall Redemption and Salvation and teach them how to apply generall Gospell truths to harden their souls in sin Mee thinks I hear the Lord when he gives a Minister his charge speak in the language of Jehu when he had shut up Baals worshippers in a guard If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape he that letteth him go his life shal be for the life of him 2 Kings 10. 24. Or rather in his own words to the Prophet Ezekiel 3. 18. When I say c. Yet I must tell you I would have the Law preached as it is in the hands of Christ i. e. not as casting men under an irrecoverable condemnation for every offence not as exacting rigorously every punctilio of a duty under pain of being rejected by God not as requiring obedience as a condition of a covenant of works to salvation Although it be necessary too that as a Covenant of works it should be declared to those that are under the Law that by the sight of it they may be made to fly to the Gospel as a Map discovers rocks and quicksands that men may avoid them and Physick books poisons to warn men of them By preaching it as in the hands of Christ I mean wee must withall open a door of hope shew them Christ as the end of the Law to whom all the preaching of the Law aymes For my part I meet with a dictinction often of the Law as in the hands of Moses and as in the hands of Christ I think as 't is ordinarily taken it is grounded on a principle of Socinianisme that the Spirit was not a spirit of Adoption under the old Testament But I can allow the expression in this sense Gospell must bee held forth more clearly now then it was then and believing more urged then doing and doing in a way of believing God giving them a yoke of observances which vailed the Spirit and looked much like a Covenant of works the Ministers of the Gospell are to take off that vail and shew Christs open face 3. Let this plead a little for poor troubled spirits to Ministers and friends that take paines to comfort them When we speak comfort to them and their souls refuse it as Heman Ps 77. 2. We are apt to censure them for peevish and perverse c. But friends is this reasonable to charge a prisoner with peevishnesse because he doth not shake off his bolts and come forth without the keepers leave I know sometimes there is much fault in such souls but the spirit works with their weaknesse to withhold comfort and though they be blameable for refusing it yet the spirit orders their weakenesses therein to his blessed ends Wherfore if you chide them for shutting the doors upon themselves do it so as withall to pray the Spirit to open them else they cannot open them if they would never so fain And those of us who were once in their condition were as untoward as they till Gods Spirit opened our eyes to see a well of consolation 4. Let this humble us all who have tasted any of the powers of the World to come and been made partakers of the Holy Ghost this way for our often grievings and vexings of the H. Spirit That we have stouted it out against the Spirits arrests and refused to bee his prisoners If this were wilfully done O how evill a thing was it how high a provocation If a warrant from Westminster in the hands of a Bayliffe will make a man stand and render himself prisoner How dares any man make an escape when the word arrests him by the authority and warrant of the Spirit Nay farther think what a sad case you were in should God resolve to strive no more with you Think on that terrible place Heb. 6. 4 5 6. If involuntarily this is very bad though not so bad as the Former When you look over the former convictions by the light of this Sermon Friends be humbled to think how often was the Lords Spirit in a sermon in the advice of friends in afflictions and we were not aware of it How often did hee lay his hand upon our shoulders and shew the Warrant of Scripture to arrest our souls and we fought with him and delivered our selves out of his hand Oh brethren when the Spirit seizeth on you again submit yeild your selves if his Arrests from time to time bee sleighted beware of a Writ of rebellion next See it Deut. 29. 19 20. The Lord will not spare that man but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man and all the curses that are written in this Book shall lie upon him Then will you bee outlawes to the Covenant of life and salvation and God will raise all the posse of heaven and earth and hell too for your ruine and destruction Your fear shall come as desolation and destruction shall come upon you as a whirlwind you shall eat of the fruit of your own way and bee filled with your own devices The turning away of such fools shall slay them and their false peace and prosperity shall destroy them Proverb 27 31 32. CHAP. VIII The second Thesis explained First by discovering the nature of this Work of Bondage 2d Thesis or Proposition COme we now to the second Thesis to wit that the blessed Spirit of God in the ordinary way of working becomes a Spirit of bondage before he become a Spirit of Adoption to any soul I say in the ordinary way not because I think there are any extraordinary cases in which it workes otherwise in those of full age and perfect sense but that I may qualifie the expression to some ears who plead such experiences as may be exceptions from this Rule whose spirits I am very tender of and therefore am contended to prosecute this doctrine in such qualified expressions Although I believe ere we have travelled together through this Discourse and when we come to understand one another wee shall comemore neer together and agree upon more generall terms to cloth it in As also because I will not tye up Gods hands from working miracles in this way as well as in any other if he see a cause worth the putting forth of an omnipotent Arme. But before I prove it I must answer some Questions Q. 1. Wherein doth this first work of the Spirit upon the soul consist Q. 2 By what means doth the Spirit usually work it And this done I shall first enquire how it appeares the spirit so doth and secondly why he doth so Q. 1. Wherein doth it consist Ans 1. Generally this
grieving of many whom the Lord will not have grieved may rub old sores and make them smart again which the Lord hath closed may disturb the peace of many a Saint and make them a fresh to question their condition Ans 1. Will it so Suppose it and it may not be for their hurt if it do It may be they may have built too hastily and though God will not overthrow the building for every failing of the builder yet he may exercise it with some stormes to discover its cracks and shew where it needs props and where it was cemented with untempered morter A Christians comfort and peace may have many materials of his own mixing hay and stubble in the frame and those will God one way or other work out there may be more of reason in it then of Faith it may be rather a silencing conscience then a satisfaction of conscience As a disputant may be nonplust many times by a plausible argument that yet is not satisfied Now the hand of the Spirit may sometimes apply a word to such a soul which may partially shake its grounds that he may thereby rectifie and confirme them 2. If the worst come of it that can be viz. that some Saint in the preaching the Lâ—w and the Spirit of Bondage be deepely wounded and made to question all its former evidences by a word which the Minister in his intentions and according to the mind of God in the Scripture directs to others he is not blameable for this supposing he lay down such truths with all possible caution to prevent their injuriousnesse to any real Saint but the fault is in the want of judgement and discretion in the hearer so offended to take his proper portion or in the cunning of Satan making the truths of God the matter of temptation and as to the ordering and disposing of the thing and occasion this ought to be looked upon as a providence of God by which he will do something extraordinary in such a soul But the Minister is doing his duty he is dealing blowes according to his commission among the enemies of God if a friend of God will needs run out of his way and put his head under the sword 't is his own fault if he bleed Much of this often comes to passe through our neglect of prayer before we come to the ordinance that God will manage his own sword with his own hand directing the Minister to give every one his portion and enabling us to discerne and receive ours and an over-tendernesse and scrupulousnesse of spirit that some Saints are subject unto of which in the end of the second Book 3. Suppose it be the Ministers fault not wilfully and purposely for that is a wicked Prophets character wilfully and of set purpose to make sad the hearts of the righteous whom the Lord will not have made sad Ezek. 13. 22. but through indiscretion or want of caution in the delivery of terrifying truths to wound the conscience of a spirit yet he would doe farre more mischiefe if by the neglect of preaching such Truths from a feare of so doing he should suffer the wicked whom the Lord would have saddened to flatter himselfe in his own eyes either by a perpetual handling comfortable Doctrines in mixed Auditories or convincing ones so coldly flatly and worthlessely as shall never lend a downright blow to the consciences of carnal and secure sinners Better a thousand times that a Saints conscience be groundlessely troubled if one of the two cannot be avoyded then a great many hardned and obstinate sinners deluded by a false peace this may and likely will damne these but that cannot possiby destroy the other seeing the foundation of God stands sure and they are gold that fire even of temptations will not waste but purify CHAP. XVII A further touchstone for Examination THis Thesis also lends us a touchstone for Examination Here is a touchstone whereby to try your regeneration and conversion whether it be sound or no. And oh that I could hide this Chapter from all tender consciences that I might have a free liberty to lay about me a while among the rest But seeing it is necessary truth and I must not defraud many hundred of their portion for your sakes the Lords good Spirit I hope will so guide me and guard you that no one blow shall light but where it is intended Obj. Brethren the World is full of pretenders to grace and Christ now a days Heretofore it was a kind of disgrace to be a Saint and in those times it was not to be wondred at if there were few that pretended to the name without the thing No man will personate a Saint of purpose to be persecuted for bearing the badge of a counterfeited holinesse But now God hath made the name o Religion honourable though truly except the people of God had been generally better fitted to manage the condition God hath brought them to it may be it had been better for the credit of the Gospel hereafter that it had rather still layen under hatches then been abused by Politicians to bear the name of Pilot whiles they indeed steere the vessel to their own ends but I say the Lord hath for some late years made the name of Religion honourable he hath put a diadem of glory upon its head the appearance of it hath been in divers places the main qualification for preferments and places of advantage and 't is strange to see how many converts the meer complexion of the times hath made Religion is become the mode and he is no body that how course soever his cloth be doth not bestow some of the trimming of the Age upon it There were not more Jews made by fear in the days of Hester and Mordecai then there are Christians in these dayes by Covetousnesse and Ambition Christians said I Chrestians rather that I may apply more truly the allusive nickname which the Heathens in Tertullians time falsly put upon the Primitive Saints such as make their preferment and profit the saddle and Religion the stirrup to help them into it the World the Throne and Christ the footstoole whereby to mount unto it O friends what an easie change is there in the World from the highest shall I say or lowest Forme of sinners into the most sublime noble Angelical order of Saints He that a few hours since was as inseparable an adjunct of an Alehouse as a bush at the door that was a monster of intemperance and uncleannesse a prodigious swearer a notorious scoffer at Religion Sabbath-breaker earthworme a man that he that would have drawn a picture of the Devill had not wronged if he had set him for his pattern Verterit hunc Dominus momento turbinis exit Marcus dama let the Persius Devil his Master but change his coate turne the dark side inward and the light outward perswade him for his own base ends to leave or perhaps but hide his former sinnes and sprinkle
his discourse with the holywater of a few religious phrases this man without any sight or sense of his sinnes without any sorrow for them first gives himself the name of Saint and then is angry if any ever after deny it him O sirs 't is well if Christ will own you for such at the last day Hee will not Judge you then according to your assumed Titles but he will know how you came by them Believe it sirs the passage from death to life is a rocky and a stormy passage to the most that enter into it And you must give me leave to aske many of you seriously as they did our Saviour when they saw him on the other side of the lake of Tiberias contrary to their expection Sirs when came you hither You pretend to Saintship but when or how came you by it You think you are passed from death to life but when and how got you so quick a passage For my part I cannot believe that you were transported by miracle as 't is said Christ and the Disciples were immediately at the land whether they went If you were converted in an extraordinary way though not miraculous I expect eminent fruits of holinesse from such a change For God will not do extraordinary works but they shall quit his cost But when I see all that is extraordinary in such persons for the most part is pride covetousnesse injustice oppression censoriousnesse scorne and contempt of Ministers and ordinances fearfull and horrible blasphemies heresies O Sirs shall I tell you what I think of your extraordinary conversion Truly friends I fear t wil prove your extraordinary condemnation for Atrociùs sub nominis sancti professione peccat saith Salvian and the Hell of Hypocrites shall be the standard to that of all other sinners saith our Saviour Mat. 24. 51. If your conversion were in the ordinary way that is the way which I have before described by its several stages Try then hath the Spirit ever convinced thee of the holinesse perfection equity of the Law of God and thereby of thine own filthinesse imperfection unrighteousnesse of thine own wretched cursed damnable condition under it didst thou ever fear and tremble quake and quiver at the thoughts of the wrath and vengeance of a just and righteous Infinite Almighty and Eternâ—l God Didst thou ever break a nights sleepe or loath thy ordinary food or disrelish thy beloved pleasures out of the perplexity and anguish of thy spirit wa st thou ever at such a desperate losse in thy selfe as to make it thy main enquiry what thou shouldst do to be saved such a losse as thou sawest no way out of it but onely by an infinite unspeakable unconceivable mercy such a loss that thou accountedst it even a miracle of goodnesse if ever thou escapedst out of that condition that thou judgedst all that thou couldest do towards thine own recovery though thou couldst weep an Ocean of tears fast longer then Moses or our Saviour Christ himself and pray more devoutly and fervently then all the Saints on earth hear Sermons endited by a general assembly of all the Angells in heâ—ven so short of righteousness that not any or all of them could â—eâ—ieve thee or bring thee one step neâ—…er happinesse such a losse that thou sawest an absolute necessity of obtaining Jesus Christ and his righteousnesse whatever it cost thee to seek him at Gods hands importunately so as to be put off with nothing else so as to be contented to be denyed all other things but him onely so as to be willing to part with all thy lusts and all thy pleasures and all thy profits and all thy honors to be moulded perfectly into the image of the second Adam to entertain love delight in and professe holinesse though accompanied with poverty disgrace displeasure of friends hatred and persecution of enemies prisons racks exile death it self And Lastly after all this hast thou in an holy selfe condemnation and an humble acknowledgment of thy own deserts and Gods justice acquitted God though notwithstanding all this he should turn his back upon thee and shut his ear to the voice of thy roaring Couldst thou lay thy mouth in the dust impute thy destruction to thy selfe and charg the sole cause and occasion of thy ruine upon thy own sins and in that consideration sit down under thy present condition and say Let the Lord do with me as seemeth him good If he will damme me for ever t is my desert if he save me 't is his meere mercy if I goe to hell I will cary this acknowledgment thither in my mouth Lord thou art righteous when thou judgest and just when thou condemnest If I dye I must thank my selfe if I live I must thank thee and thee onely And in these sad and dolorous thoughts and workings of heart when thou hast been in thy own apprehensions in the very belly of Hell hast thou received a beam of light through a chink of a door of hope so that in this sinking condition thou hast espied a plank to keep thee above the waves a twig to lay hold on to preserve thee from drowning whereupon thou hast by a secret power from the Spirit been enabled to fasten some free promise which although thou canst not call thine yet thou art told it may bee thine and thine or not thou wast resolved to lay hold on it and if in so doing God should cut off one of thy hands thou wast resolved to lay hold on it as the Captain in the Historian on the ship with the other and when thou couldst hold no longer with that thou wast resolved to drown looking towards his holy Temple and in these acts of holy reliance hast thou received a whisper Jonah 2. 4. from Gods Spirit Well then seeing thou wilt take no denyal no repulse be it unto Mat. 9. 29. thee according to thy faith if thou wilt needs have Christ take him and Salvation with him Be of good cheer thy sinnes are forgiven thee Christ is thy peace and I am thy salvation Mat. 9. 2. Ephes 2. 14. Psal 35. 3. Hast thou felt these works more or lesse If thou hast not friend I doubt thou setst up a profession of Saint-ship without the Spirits leave I would advise all of you that are in this case to begin again draw your indentures a new intreat the Spirit to admit you into his house of bondage that the son may make you free indeed in his own time and way O be not ashamed to unravel all that clew of ungrounded confidence which thou hast deluded thy selfe by all this while and begin upon a new bottome A mistake here is recoverable hereafter 't is for ever irremediable O think how much better 't is to take the shame of an error upon thy selfe here whiles â—t may do thee good then to be shamed hereafter before God Angels and men to thine eternal destruction and confusion in hell fire I find it
to eternity But 2. That thou acknowledgest the Justice of God herein gives good hope of thee To accept of the punishment of our iniquity and to acquit God is one good sign of the truth and soundnesse of humiliation When a man is humbled as low as hell takes it for his portion and deserved too sure God useth not to be deaf to such an acknowledgment as this The Judg at the Bench is never more inclined to mercy then when an Offendor takes his guilt on him and acquits the Bench and the Jury and confesseth his condemnation is and execution will be just 3. We may possibly offend in bringing down God to the line of men in this case and therefore there are Promises of acceptance to such as thou art Hos 14. 4. Jer. 3. 22. Though thou canst not go to God upon meer grounds of probability yet thou maist upon his own Promises and Engagements Object But possibly I have sinned against the Holy Ghost Answ 1. Every sin against the Holy Ghost is not the sin against the Holy Ghost the emphatical sin against the Holy Ghost Every Apostasie is not that sin then Peter had sinn'd unpardonably and Cranmer and divers others in the late times that have recanted the Truth and have returned againe to their stedfastnesse and dyed for it Every wilful sin against convictions is not that sin then had David no doubt in his plotted murder and adultery sinned against the Holy Ghost in this unpardonable way So had Abraham in denying his wife and Peter also in denying his Master sure they knew such acts were sins That sin is all these but you must add to make up the full nature of it that it must be a total Apostacy against full light ending in a malicious persecution of the knowne Truth and wayes of holinesse The Pharisees were such Persecutors and Reproachers of the Doctrine and Works of Christ as coming from Satan which by the miracles that accompanied him they could not but in their consciences believe came from God and therefore Christ chargeth them justly with that sin Malice there must be for persecution out of ignorance in Pauls example is pardonable 1 Tim. 1. 17 18. And in an heat of passion one godly man hath persecuted another So Asa 2 Chron. 16. 10. Lastly That thou hast not sinned that sin is clear in that thou art affraid of it and that fear is thy greatest grief and burthen c. That sinne carries with it an heart that cannot repent a seared conscience However look on thy present condition as very dangerous although not desperate Penal hardnesse of heart and the fore-mentioned attendants of it are a rode way to it Timely caution may prevent thy falling so far Please not thy selfe in such sins with this conceit that yet thou hast not sinned the sin against the Holy Ghost and therefore mayst yet go on in them with hope of mercy Presumptuous sinnes are the ushers to the great transgression Psalm 19. 13. as we render the word CHAP. XXV An exhortation to certain duties proper to this condition of bondage HEre is also an Exhortation to such as are under this condition 1. Be patient under the present hand of the Spirit A man will bear a great trouble patiently when he can see likelyhood of a good issue in it A sick man is contented to be made sicker for healths sake Finis confert amabilitatem mediis say the Schoolmen and a man that hath a gangrened arm or legge will endure the sawing it off willingly to save the whole body Troubles of conscience are grievous troubles But so long as they are in the hand of the spirit as instrumental means to facilitate conversion how patiently shouldest thou undergo them If they were to thy eternal confusion patience were meet partly as to a punishment deserved and of thy own choice partly as to a condition which repining at it may augment but never remedy How much more when these troubles are converting saving troubles or are used by the spirit to that end The good ground brought forth its fruit with patience Luke 8. 15. And if ever thou wilt see fruit of thy soul troubles thou must stay the time 2. Keep up hope under all discouragements I know a thousand discouragements are ready upon every occasion to beat thee off thy hold and hopes And against them set those promises which Scripture is every where full of to persons in thy condition together with the examples of others recorded there and to these add thy own experience both in the persons of others and thine own Think how many such sad souls in all ages Gods Spirit hath conducted through the wildernesse and caused them to rest in the full assurance and undoubted evidence of his love Read over the sad complaints of David in his convictions and soul troubles and how God at last compassed him about with songs of deliverance set in joynt all his broken bones and bestowed on him the joy of his salvation Nay how many of those Saints that you dayly do or may converse withall can speak no lesse from their own experience Thou art under a condition of hope whiles thou art under this work it is the method of the Spirit in conversion as was before shewed It is with thee as with the people Ezra 10. 2. though thy case be sad yet now God hath affected thy heart with thy sinne and misery and made thee confesse and bewail thy sinnes before him now there is hope in Israel concerning this as Shechaniah saith after the humiliation of the people for their strange wives in the preceding Chapter Thou art yet a prisoner but a prisoner of hope Zech. 9. 12. See what advice and encouragement the Church from her own experience gives Lam. 3. 26 27 28 c. It is good for a man to hope for the salvation of the Lord why so See verse 31 32. For the Lord will not cast off for Lam. 3. ever but though he cause grief yet will hee have compassion according to the multitude of his tender mercies O saith the soul what is my strength that I should hope as Job 6. 11. alas the Lord hath cast me off for ever I see my present agony and distresse of spirit that he intends to break all my bones and send me ver 4. to hell with all my bones broken on the wheele of his displeasure The more I cry ver 8. the more deaf he seems to be unto my prayer ver 4 6. he hath brought me into darknesse and made my skin old he hath builded against me fortified ver 5. his kingdome against all my attempts by a resolution that I shall not enter into his rest he hath compassed me with gall and travel hee ver 5. 6. 7. 8. 10. 11. 12. 13. 15. 16. hath set me in dark places he hath hedged me about and made my chain heavie he shuts out my prayer he is a bear and a lion
unto me he hath pulled me in pieces and set me as a mark for the arrow he hath caused the arrow of his quiver to enter into my reins he hath â—illed me with bitternâ—…s and made me drunken with wormwood he hath bâ—oken my teeth with gravel stones he hath covered me with ashes and this hath been of so long continuance upon mee that I have forgotten prosperity I can 17. scarce remember that ever I had a better day And therefore it is no wonder if I conclude that my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Oh saith the Church this was 18. my very case when I remembred my affliction 19. the wormwood and the gall I even said as thou dost But I withall considered that though my case were bad yet it might have been worse sure God hath shewn me some mercy in that I live It is of the mercies 〈◊〉 the Lord 22. c. Therefore have I hope and therefore I 23. c. to 32. conclude that though the Lord cause grief yet he will have compassion c. Read that Chapter ter all over I have given but a draught of it and therein see thy case and thy cure As to thy own experiences urge his preservation of thee and support thus long and plead for its continuance Obj. But how can I hope Hope proceeds from faith and I cannot believe for I am yet you tell me in a state of Nature till by these troubles God converts me Answ 'T is true of the grace of hope that it proceeds from faith in order of nature and is a fruit of conversion 1 Pet. 1. 3. and till conversion we cannot rejoyce in hope of the glory of God But there is another hope that is not always gracious though possibly sometimes grace may be seminally in it and may first appear by it as the first act of faith may appear in such an act of hope as this True I am a condemned creature but there are such and such free offers of Christ and promises of mercy to sinners indefinitely and why not to me yet I say this hope is not always gracious because it is common to presumptuous as well as repenting sinners and is the very ground on which they presume This hope I shall for distinctions sake call a moral or rational hope because it is gathered from the general promises of Scripture in a rational way as also because it is but a general probable hope that is accompanied only with opinion and not faith though it may ground faith as to its act of reliance upon Christ and the promise of mercy in him where the Spirit of God pleaseth to infuse faith in such a rational way as divers times he doth Whereas the hope that flows from faith is a spiritual and infused hope and is not so much the apprehending a possibility as expecting a certainty of fulfilling the promise to me in particular arising I mean in the acts of it not in the habit or seed of it for that is infused in the first vital act of reliance upon Christ which unites to Christ and so justifies arising I say from the particular evidence of my justification by faith and so from an act of assurance and is higher or lower like it Distinguish thus The one is a kind of negative hope the other a positive The one saith I am not excluded the other saith I am included It s language is Why not I Now 't is the former hope that rational moral hope I advise thee to keep alive in thy soul Let no power of corruption no strength of temptation no length or grievousnesse of thy soul troubles no false conclusions from Gods decree of reprobation c. drive thee out of a firm assent to this proposition that though thy case be sad yet it is not desperate God hath invited such as thou art hath offered Christ and grace freely to thee among others and therefore thou art by no positive declared act of Gods excluded more then any other It is a great support that a soul in this case gets by such an argument as this is For although grace do not always attend or accompany this hope yet the Spirit of God doth use it as it doth all other preparatory works to dispose the soul for grace Nay I know not but that if the soul follow this moral hope with a constant use of all means and ordinances and in them resolve to cast himselfe upon Christ to be saved by him in his own way and upon his own terms why this hope may not be the immediate ground if not the vehicle or chariot of the very first act of justifying faith Wherefore 3ly Let this hope produce waiting Think not that thou art presently cast off by God because he doth not presently as to thy sense answer thy desires There is a great deal of impatience usually in troubled spirits And there is reason why such souls should be subject to that failing For the wound of the spirit is an intolerable wound Prov. 18. 14. And nothing is more grievous to a man in intolerable pain and anguish then delays Hear me speedily saith David else shall I be like unto them that goe down into the pit Psalm 143. 7. and when God hides long he apprehends it will be for ever Psalm 13. 1. But we must labour against this corruption and endeavour to bring our souls to a contentednesse to wait for Gods salvation as long as he thinks fit to exercise and discipline us in that condition The Scripture abounds in exhortations promises and examples pressing home this duty upon us The place Lam. 3. 26. requires not only hope but waiting the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 siluit a quiet silent waiting free from clamorous complaints against God murmuring at his delays and desperate expressions of despondency of Spirit And we have a great encouragement hereunto if we consider 1. That this time of delay is Gods waiting time as well as ours Is 30. 18. The Lord therefore waits that he may be gracious and indeed he hath waited upon us many years before he could prevail with us to give him the hearing of any his gracious invitations and do we now think it much to wait on him till he hear us Besides 2. Saving grace is a thing worth the waiting for Thou hast heard often and prayed often thou saist and yet seest no fruit of it thou hast obtained neither grace nor peace conversion nor comfort remember what the Apostle saith Jam. 5. 7. though with relation to another fruit i. e. the fruit of external sufferings yet the force of his argument is no lesse herein also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lengthen out the patience into long suffering Behold your husbandman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lengthens out his hope though the seed come not up after the first rain yet he expects another shower it is not ripe as soon as it growes up it may bee a
wet seed time but it may be a dry summer and so the hazard is not over therefore having had a wet seede time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he expects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter raine too to perfect the harvest so thou hast sown in teares God hath blest the seed of the word so far to thee expect the perfecting his work in thee it may be thy continued troubles are the latter raine t is well when God followes thee with such showers keeps the ground thy heart tender feare not man this makes for the improvement of it to a joyful harvest They that sow in tears shall though long first yet at last reape in joy Ps 126. 5. And their precious seed will yeild sheaves at the last Obj. But I cannot wait I have such an impatient fretful spirit and I have so long waited to so little purpose that I am even quite wearied Though my spirit be willing yet my flesh is weak Answ 1 T is no lesse a duty because thou canst not do it 2. Pray against this distemper Lord I have an evil impatient overhasty heart that must be relieved presently or it will be gon from thy doore Lord give mee an heart willing to stay thy leisure Indeed the things I would have are precious necessary my endeavors have been frequent my Prayers urgent and importunate and therefore my froward spirit seems to take it ill to be so long disappointed in its expectation Lord give me a waiting depending enduring Spirit 3 Fetch in strength from a promise to this purpose There are abundance of promises made of and to waiting Of it see in special Psa 27. ult Waite on the Lord and be of good courage c. But what if I cannot He shall strengthen thy heart fortifie thy heart against all temptations to wearinesse and impatience See also Isa 40. 29 30 31. T is a very full promise So promises to waiting Isa 30. 18. Blessed all that wait for him Chap. 49. 23. They shall not be ashamed that wait for him 4. Yet wait in the use of means Such as 1. The word God having appointed the word as the means will have us attend it The word must be waited on for grace It is the word of grace Act. 20. 32. and the Apostle saith that there is no grace to be had i. e. ordinarily without it and that not only the word read but the word heard and that not from every one that can talke of Scripture but from a lawfull Preacher Rom. 10. 14. See the connexion between calling and preaching and hearing and faith See Joh. 17. 17. And the promise that Wisdom makes is to those that wait at her gates and the posts of her doors and constantly do so He that waiteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 day by day ie upon all opportunities Pro. 8. 34 35. And the word must be waited on for peace too T is the Gospel of peace too as follows loco dicto Rom. 10. 15. and that in the mouth of Preachers And Eph. 6. 15. And Isa 57. 19. I create the fruit of the lips peace 2 Prayer Ezek. 36 37. I will yet be enquired of c. and Acts. 9. 11. The same spirit is a spirit of grace and supplication Jam. 1. 5. Zech. 12. 10. Obj. But why shall I pray My prayers whiles I am out of Christ are an abomination to the Lord and I sin whiles I pray Answ Upon this account the Divel drives off many from grace and Christ But consider 1. It is a greater sin to neglect it It is the worst thing that can be said of any man that he restraineth prayer before the Lord Job 15. 4. T is joyned with casting away the feare of God i. e. with professed Atheisme and prophanenesse See Jer. 10. 25. Heathens and families that call not upon Gods name are put together Prayer is sin to thee but by accident vitio personae but to neglect it is a sin in its selfe 2. The Lord requires even such persons to pray Act. 8. 22. 3. The spirit of grace and supplication is usually powred out in the performance of that duty Luke 11. 13. 3. Conference The great reason why Persons goe heated and warmed from sermons and within a few minutes become key-cold againe is the want of this holy help How did our hearts burne within us say the Disciples Luke 24. 32. when hee talked with us 4. Meditation Beasts that chewed the cud were the only cleane beasts because they best turned their food into nourishment T is a special advantage that a man hath in memory seeing it is that bag whence a man Vid. infrà N. Octava by meditation fetcheth back truths and chewes on them see Psal 40. 3. 5 Seek in them conversion rather then comfort and grace then peace The reason of this advice is that which I have before told you That grace is offered and we are invited to receive it without any qualification but our want of it But peace and comfort presuppose grace Rom. 5. 1. Reall and actual peace by which wee are made of enemies as we were born friends to God and apparent or apprehended peace peace in the conscience the evidence whereof is joy and comfort are the fruits of justification Besides if we desire peace principally and not grace we give a great advantage to Satan to delude us with a false peace without grace as hee doth many a thousand We often fail in this we are earnest for Pardon and peace but not so importunate for Grace 6. Follow those meanes most constantly which 1. Caeteris paribus are appointed to thee I think not that persons are bound absolutely to their own Pastor He may be unable he may be unwilling to imploy his talent to a mans advantage But if godly able and laborious my constant attendance is to be on his labours Certainely my constant meales should be at home 2 If free those that are most scarâ—…h The Word that converts it is described by the Apostle Heb. 4. 12. 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Word that hath life in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Active and full of spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. more cutting beyond a double comparison 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 penetrating as Aqua fortis not the ear but the heart joynts and marrow Partes minimas interiores 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a critical word they that are Criticks are accurate observers of every tittle Those thou shalt know by the rising of thy carnall heart against them For there is no congruity between the carnal heart of a man that naturally loves its ease a spiritual rowzing Ministry that will search out all its hidden corruptions therefore suspect thy heart here and cross it 7. Observe and take special notice of every step of proficiency which thou makest towards heaven and acknowledg it with thankfulnesse Our sense of wants should not although through our corruption most commonly it do exclude the
place he bestowes upon us the right of Adoption as the most properworker of this union And as our Faith is the instrument of union so hee is the giver of faith 1 Cor. 12. 9. Faith indeed Divines ordinarily call an Instrument but 't is but an improper instrument for as all its efficacy depends upon the relation which it hath to Christ as an hand is the instrument to make rich when it receives a treasure or layes hold on it when freely offered so it doth nothing at all on Gods part But the Spirit is in a sense a proper instrument on both parts applying both Christ to us and us to Christ Christ to us by reaching us a promise to lay hold on and us to Christ by giving us an hand to lay hold on it and rest our souls upon it 2. Hee is the witnesse of our Relation And this work is principally set out to us in the verse preceding that which is the ground of our discourse The Spirit also witnesseth Rom. 8. 14. with our spirits that we are the Children of God Concerning the manner of the Spirits testifying I shall say somewhat hereafter onely take notice now that he is said to witnesse with our spirits i. e. to say the same thing with our consciences rightly informed of their condition Thus he is a seal and an earnest not to confirm on Gods part but to assure our legal title on our part Eph. 1. 13. 2 Cor. 1. 22. In the discharge of this work he is the comforter who takes of Christs and shews unto John 6. 14. his people i. e. not only saving truth in illumination and saving grace in regeneration and justification but also speciall light and comfort in manifestation of our interest in God through Christ he takes the Deed by which Christ is made the adopted head of his family and all the territories of heaven and earth are given to him and his seed for ever and shews it to the Saints and bids them cheer up for though they be now poor and persecuted wandring in sheep-skins and goat skins hiding among wild beasts in dens and holes of the earth yet they are heirs to all that heaven and earth contains and the time will come when this great estate shall come in hand and therefore they should lay out liberally upon their hopes at present and throw away all these things in a kind of holy prodigality when God calls for them being assured that their future inheritance will make amends for all This is the assuring act of the Spirit and differs from the former thus there hee barely discovers to us a promise and stirres us up to adventure upon it upon general invitations here he gives us an evidence that that promise is ours and enables us to make use of it by particular interest 3. He is the Advocate of our Cause And thus he is said also in this Chapter to make intercession for us When our title at any time comes under dispute or when any thing is detained from us which our relation and the evidences which confirm it entitles us unto he enables us to sue out our interest or if any thing befal us unworthy the children of God he helps us to write letters to our Father to complain of and bemoan our condition Rom. 8. 26 27. And this is that that is principally intended in the Text together with the former which is the ground of this the Spirit helps us to cry Abba Father by assuring us that God is our Father and putting us upon earnest and importunate requests to him as the requests of children use to be to a tender and compassionate Father And this work of the Spirit is so frequent and constant in the Saints that it is in effect attributed wholly to the Spirit God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into our heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crying as if he meerly acted our tongues Abba Father Gal. 4. 6. 4. He is the great guide of our way Ps 143. 10 He is the Tâ—tour of our youth we are not adulti till we be ripe for glory Ephes 4. 13. So we are said to Walk after and to be led by the Spirit verse 1 4 14. of this Chap. Therefore new obedience is call'd the Law of the Spirit of life v. 3. And the Spirit of the Lord is said to give liberty 2 Cor. 3. 17. Cameron in locum And so divers interpret the words of my Text with an opposition of servile obedience and filial obedience CHAP. III. Two practical Queries concerning the extent of this worke as to the subjects of it in the forementioned particulars Qu. WHat sense must this proposition be understood in That the Spirit of Bondage in Gods elect ends in a Spirit of Adoption Under which are comprized these farther enquiries Que. 1. Whether the Spirit of Adoption do work all the aforesaid works upon the hearts of all those that are elected or some of them onely upon all and all but on some Qu. 2. Whether upon all of them that have been under a Spirit of Bondage the Spirit do perform all the aforesaid workes or no Answ To both I shall give this preliminary answer and then give a more particular to each by it selfe 1. The Spirit doth give all Gods Elect at one time or other a true reall and unquestionable title to the grace of adoption and all the priviledges belonging thereunto 1. In justification making application of the soul of every elect person to Christ and of Christ to the soul 2. In sanctification making them partakers of the Divine Nature by the application of cleansing promises 2 Pet. 1. 4. For else two links of the chain next election would be broken Rom. 8. 30. Whom he predestinated them he called and whom he called he justified And this is the first work before spoken of 2. The spirit doth work in all persons that are really converted whether in the method of a Spirit of Bondage or no at one time or other so much perswasion of the love of God as encourageth the soul to lay hold upon the promises of the Gospel and to lay claim to them and to adventure the soul upon them For this is the ground of that reliance by which the soul leans upon God and hangs upon Christ for salvation wherein the nature of justifying faith in my judgment doth consist But there is a difference between this and particular assuring faith For this is grounded only upon the free and unlimited offers of the Gospel which offers Christ and Salvation to all that receive him and come to him and the Gospells invitations to accept of it that is grounded upon particular evidence that we have already accepted of him and thereby he is become ours and we his from the effects of a true and saving reliance upon him And this general perswasion so far emboldens all Gods elect that upon the warrant of that they lay claim to God as their Father
bondage and shall enable you to set your feet on his neck c. More clearly Isai 61. 1 2 3. He gave Christ and annointed and sent him for that end to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound and not only to proclaim it by the Word but to apply it by the Spirit ver 3. To appoint to them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning and the garment of joy for the spirit of heaviness or the Spirit of Adoption for the Spirit of Bondage So Psal 126. 5 6. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy c. And Isai 57 15. a remarkable Promise I dwell with the contrite and humble spirit wherefore To revive the spirit of the humble and the heart of the contrite ones For I will not contend for ever lest the soul should fail before me and the spirit which I have made See v. 18 19. The Spirit that is promised by Christ is called the Comforter Why so if not to denote the principall part of his work the comforting of the hearts of Gods people John 14. 26. Arg. 2. The Designe of God in troubling the conscience Soul-troubles are not brought on us meerly for their owne sakes for God afflicts not willingly nor grieves the Lam. 3. 33. children of men but they are ordinary Prologues of Comfort and Peace and therefore ordained to fit us to receive and prize it Hos 2. 14. I wil bring her into the Wilderness and speak comfortably unto her to her heart Heb. Into the Wildernesse i. e. a maze and wood of troubles that she shall know no way out of into such a condition in which a dram of comfort will be dearer then all the world and then I will speak to her heart when she is quite out of heart Gods usages to his people in this world are like Tragi-Comedies sad beginnings divers times that put all the Spectators into a maze to think what will come of them that so he may come off the more gloriously at the last by giving a comfortable close beside all mens expectations He sets off as Painters do a light colour by the neighborhood of a dark He caused light at the first to shine out of darknesse not before it or 2 Cor. 4. 6 without it but out of it And as he doth in conversion so in comfort First darknesse in conversion then light Ye were darkness Ephes 5. 8 c. so he doth in the work of consolation When I sit in darknesse the Lord shall be a light to me saith the Church Micah 7. 8. So in the Apostles experience We had the sentence of death in our selves that we might trust not in our selves but in him that raiseth the dead 2 Cor. 1. 9. And as Christ would not keep Lazarus from dying when he could have done so but rather chose to raise him from the dead by a miracle so will Christ deal with his people quite bring them to the grave that then he may get the glory of a kind of miracle and say Return ye sons Psalm 90. 3 and daughters of men Now can we think that God will lose the glory of his grace when he so aimes at it in those troubles that work it And surely he will do so if his people perish under them Thence the Spirit of God teacheth the Saints in darkness to urge that as an Argument Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead c. What remembrance of thee is there in the grave where all things are forgotten Psalm 88. 10 11 and 6. 5. q. d. I know thy aim in all these dark nights that I undergo is to make thy glory shine the clearer and is this the way to let a poor soul that would fain praise thee to drop into the grave and for ought he knowes into hell in darknesse without the least smile from thee c. Arg. 3. The duties God expects of his Saints which cannot be so perfectly and ingenuously performed by any as by an assured spirit Indeed the truth of them may proceed from a soul that is not assured but such high and noble measures cannot 1 Love to him again A man may and every Saint doth love God by a holy sympathy as soon as he is regenerated whether he know it or no and the demonstration of that love in the Saints when they come to discerne it becomes a means of assurance to them As in Antipathies sometimes they are strong in nature and no reason can be given for them Non amo te Sabidi nec possum dicere quare c So in sympathies founded in the nature of the things Why doth Iron love the Load-stone and cleave to it or the needle touched with it point Northward This I constantly affirm that where the soul loves God Gods love is the cause of that love to him and so it is whether it be manifested to his conscience or no because every grace is a fruit of Gods eternal love This I am sure is held out in that excellent place 1 John 4. 19. though I shall not grant it a fruit thereof only when knowne 'T is not said Because we are assured he loved us first but Because he loved us first But yet the love that is without assurance is not so strong so rational so active as that that proceeds from assurance when the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost for this will enable a soul to love much Luke 7. 47. to rejoice in tribulation Rom. 5. 3 5 and do many other difficult duties with more vigor and activity A young child may truly love the Father when it is unable to reason it selfe into the duty of love from experience of the Fathers love but the love that a growne child shews to the father after his experience of many acts of love for many years is more strong solid and rational So when a soul can say as David I love the Lord for c. Psal 116 1 Now God requires his children should grow up into an ingenuous filial love upon grounds of thankfulnesse and reciprocation Ephes 1. 16 17 18 19 He would have them be rooted and grounded in the experimental knowledg of the love of Christ and thence to draw strength to obey him in all things And therefore it must needs be his ordinary way to those Saints from whom he expects this fruit to give them the Spirit of Adoption to testifie this Love to them And there is a Promise that love of good will to Christ shall be seconded with manifestation of love from Christ Joh. 14. 21. 2 Joy in the Holy Ghost and that alwayes 1 Thes 5. 16 Now although a soul may have some sprinklings of joy upon the general hopes which it gathers to it self from general Promises yet it is nothing to that whicâ— particular assurance gives Now God will have the joy of his Saints full joy John 15. 11. And
fight for it Satan and Numb 13. 23 a mans corrupt heart are apt to discourage a soul under Bondage from hence What profit Job 21. 14 Lam. 3. 8. is there in serving God c. Thou prayest and he casteth out thy prayer thou hearest and art in trouble still Now God props up his people against such temptations by such Promises to all and performances to most of his Saints Reas 5 God doth it to wean his people from this world Now Lord lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation sayes Simeon when he had seen Christ in the flesh Luke 2. 29. And when a soul after long troubles of spirit recovers the assurance of Gods love O what poor things are all the treasures of the world to him Lord saith David lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and then take corn and wine and oyl who will Psal 4. 6. And then let the eyes of wicked men be even ready to strut out with sat and let them have all that they can wish yet saith he in another place I will not change portion with them for the Lord is the strength of my heart c. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and bring me to glory Psal 73. 25 26 27 28 A man that is called to be a Favourite to a King will quickly grow into a dis-esteem of his shop and retaile Trade his sheepfold or cow-stal Take no care for your stuff saith Joseph for all the fat of the Land of Egypt is yours Gen. 45. 20. So saith God to an assured soul Take no care for these earthly things thou hast in heaven a richer and more enduring substance Reas 6. Because God delights to hear from his Saints often Not only as a Master from a Servant nor as a rich man from a beggar nor as a Conqueror from a Captive but as a Father from a child as a husband from a Spouse Cant. 2. 14. The voyce of a Spouse of Christ in the cleft of the Rock i. e. relying on him upon assurance of his love is sweet Joseph could not abide long under the mis-apprehensions his brethren had of him My Lord and Thy servants Joseph thought were strange Titles to that of Brother hee longed to hear them call him by a name of relation so saith God Hosea 2. 16. to an afflicted Church CHAP. VI. A Question concerning the mediate and immediate Testimony of the Spirit HOw doth the Spirit testifie our Adoption For although divers godly Divines are of a different judgement in the point of immediate evidence yet I cannot be perswaded but that there is something in the work of the Spirits testimony which may deserve to be so expressed Ans Two wayes 1 Immediately 2 Mediately I. Immediately wherein the Spirit acts as in illumination and infusion of good motions into us by his secret influence upon the heart quieting and calming all those waves of distrust and diffidence concerning its condition by his own immediate power without the present application of any Scripture grounds to convince a mans reason that his testimony is true I shall parallel it with the motions of the Spirit thus As the Spirit many times excites a man to such or such a duty by laying his hand immediately upon the heart and therewithal a kind of secret force and power inclining the heart to obey those motions and as it many times opens the heart to such and such spiritual impressions by a physical injection of holy motions into it and warming the heart to receive them so in this case when a poor soul sits in darknesse and sees no light sometimes upon a sudden a light from heaven compasseth it about and it is it knowes not how in a moment as it were taken up into the third heaven its fears are banished by a soft whisper from the Spirit of God in the heart Thy sins are forgiven thee and this is in such a way that though the spirit of a man really believes it and is immediately calmed by it yet it cannot tell how it comes to passe And so it is sometimes in overcoming temptations a soule some other times is enabled to knock them to the ground by a scriptum est as Christ did Matth. 4. but sometimes it is stirred up to decline them and abhorre them by a secret rising of the spirit against them and to club them downe by meere force setting the bent of the will and affections against them without any present direct recourse of the soule to the written word And of this kinde is that worke of the Spirit stirring up in us sighes and groans in prayer that cannot bee uttered whereas at other times it furnisheth us with abundant matter of prayer from the promises and other straines of Scripture useful thereunto And thus as I said in conveying the evidences of Gods love the Spirit can and surely oftentimes doth alter the whole frame of a mans Spirit by a secret irradiation of comfort a man cannot tell how for as there is a kind of spiritual instinct in the soul by which it doth the things that are pleasing to God after conversion though many times it knowes not the principles upon which it acts so is there a secret and spiritual faculty in the divine nature that is infused unto us by which when the Spirit speakes peace to the soule it closeth with it without any reasoning or recourse to evidences as at other times As saith a learned man there is in the eye lumen innatum Rutherf on Jo. 12. p. 100. and in the eare aer internus a certaine imbred light to make the eye see lights and colours without and a sound and air in the eare within to make it discerne the sounds that are without so is there grace a new nature and habitual instinct of heaven to discerne the consolation of Gods spirit immediately testifying that wee are the sons of God There are some secret and unexpressible lineaments of the Fathers countenance in this child that the renewed soul at first blush knowes and ownes it But for the understanding of this you must observe with mee these few particulars for explication of this secret of experimentall godlinesse 1. That although the Spirit may testifie this immediately without any expresse and formall application of a word yet he never testifies but according to the word i. e. to subjects capable thereof and in such wayes as they are discovered to be capable by the word so that the Lords speaking peace to the soul being in the Scripture bound up to persons under certain qualifications the Spirit never speaks peace but where those qualities are real though not alwaies visible in the soule As for example if a man that feels not sin a burden heavyer then all the world that throwes away all duties of religion never prayes reads heares meditates nay goes on in some sinful way without remorse be filled with joy and peace and assurance
of Gods love 't is certaine the Holy spirit is not the Author of this because the promise of peace belongs to none of this stamp Matth. 11. 28. Isa 57. 15 16. Matth. 5. 3 4. 8. c. Undoubtedly this assurance is from the spirit of errour a false light to lead into a bogg 2. That ordinarily hee thus testifies either in or after waiting upon God in some duty or other as in praying meditation hearing receiving the Sacraments By which testimony God seals to the dutifull attendance upon him in such waies Isa 57. 19. and 56. 7. Or 3. In such great and grievous temptations and darknesse of spirit wherein a man by the cunning of Satan hath so intangled all those evidences of grace and sanctification which hee might draw assurance from with sophistical evasions that they will not fasten any thing of comfort upon him Then when a man cannot untie those knots by which Satan hath entangled his spirit somtimes the spirit of God by such a sudden irradiation puts a soule upon an inartificial and illogicall way of solution enabling him to hold to his claime of Christ by a kind of resolute confidence though hee bee not able to prove it sound at present or answer Satans sophistry to the contrary as Alexander when hee could not untie the Gordian knot hewed it asunder with his sword And as that holy Martyr that answered all the Romish Doctours Sophistry by a fixed resolution of dying for Christ though shee could not dispute for him Now wee must take notice withall 4. That such testimonies of the Spirit do beget but an actual assurance during the present exigency or in order to some present designe that God is working thereby These are extraordinary dainties that God will not have us feed constantly upon A gleam Rutherf ubi suprà of light as one calls it in a dark night when a man cannot coast the Country and diseern his way by those marks which direct him at other times perhaps lightning from a thunder-cloud that comes just in the moment when a man is stepping into a pit that would swallow him up or to discover a cottage which he may turne into till the storme bee over c. Now a Traveller wil not depend alwaies upon such a guide but if hee can will learne out such way-marks for his constant direction as may bee standing assurances to him that hee is in the way and rather choose to travel by day when hee may see them distinctly Thus though Gods Spirit divers times takes this course to shine peace into our hearts upon unusual occasions immediately viz after extraordinary seeking God in duty under the immediate violence of some desperate temptation in which cases God hath sometimes condescended even to a kind of miracle as when he preserved the glasse from breaking which the troubled and almost despairing Gentlewoman threw against the ground making its breaking to pieces and her owne Mrs. Honymood damnation a like certaine or at the houre of death especially Martyrdome yet to take these for ordinary presidents and look for them constantly without endeavouring by standing evidences to make out an habitual assurance to our soules of our calling and election is a bold and presumptuous tempting of God And therefore 5 It is a fearful error of the Antinomians which teacheth us to reject the graces of sanctification from being grounds of our assurance whiles they tell us that they are all deceiving evidences because that were to light a candle to the sun they mean to the immediate testimony of the Spirit For certainly the testimony of the Spirit cannot bee without the indwelling of the Spirit and is accompanied alwaies with the leading of the Spirit See the connexion of these two in vers 14. 15 of this chapter compared Rom. 8. 14 15 compared And wee know that hee dwelleth in us and we in him because wee have received of his Spirit 1 John 4. 13. And John 14. 16 17 Christ promiseth them the Comforter but how shall wee know him might they say seeing the world as you tel us knows him not He shal saith our Savior dwel in you The in-dwelling therfore of the Spirit is an evidence of the truth and reality of the assurance that we have from the Spirit Hence are all those marks and signes that the Scripture every where holds out called fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. so that though the Spirit testifie immediately yet it submits the trial of his own testimony to his works Nor is this any dishonour to the Spirit to be tryed by his works seeing our Saviour Christ was content to submit the trial of his Godhead to the evidences of his works John 14. 11. But more of this in the second way of the Spirits testimonie which is II. Mediately and that is twofold 1 Without Argumentation 2 With Argumentation but both from the Word 1 Without Argumentation The Spirit sometimes applies the word to the soule and enables the soule to close with it for comfort in some particular promise of Scripture wherein God speaks so patt to its case that it takes that word as a message from heaven and rests in it upon the very first apprehension of it And such is the peace that a soul gets from those promises that either expresse not any condition or else such a condition as the soul presently apprehends it self under as suppose thou art burthened for some sin hast prayed earnestly for pardon against it suppose it a sin of backsliding and whiles thou art praying for pardon or waiting upon God in his word a secret whisper of the Spirit casts into thy heart Hos 4 14. I will heale thy backslidings and love thee freely or suppose that Matth. 11. 28. Come to mee all yee that are heavy laden and I wil give you rest c. This is a direct testimony and must be understood under the former limitations of immediate evidence 2. With Argumentation when he testifies the truth of thy sonship by grace when he applies conditional promises and upon search enables thee to apply the conditions of them This is the usuall way for getting habitual assurance a reflected testimony from our owne graces which are the love-tokens of Christ to us and discover that love even when as to present influence hee is absent from us And thus doth the Spirit properly witnesse with our spirits as followes in the next verse In the other two hee witnesseth Rom. 8. 16. to our spirits in this properly with our spirits And there is as much difference between these as between the assurance that Jacob had of his Son Joseps life from the Word of his sonnes and from the Chariots that hee had sent for him Gen. 45. 26 27 28 when they only told him so hee was indeed overjoyed but was also even in a fainting condition through the strugling of fear with joy as the disciples at Christs resurrection Luk. 24. 41. But when he saw the wagons
then hee was fully satisfied So the immediate and direct Testimony of the Spirit though sometimes when the Spirit gives a man to believe it it may drowne all doubts and feares yet in a time of temptation when a soule begins to question whether all its former refreshments from the Spirit were not dreames and delusions it is never so fully satisfied as when it evidently sees and ownes the tokens of Gods love in its owne heart the fruits of her marriage with Christ and feels the child of grace leaping in the womb then saith the soule sure I am married to Christ for hee doth not drink waters out of any cisterne but his owne and the seed of true grace cannot possibly bee the issue of an unlawfull bed CHAP. VII A discourse concerning the manner of the Mediate and Argumentative Testimonie of the Spirit Q. HOW wee may distinctly conceive the witnessing of Gods Spirit with our spirits in that Mediate and Argumentative way which wee last spake of Answ For Answer hereunto seeing this worke is directly opposite to that of the Spirit of Bondage before mentioned I shall review that againe here and lay the comparison betweene them which I conceive will give us a cleare light in this particular In the work of the spirit of bondage I told you the soul was brought under the Conviction of a practical syllogisme such an one as this Every unbeliever every person that is in a state of nature in general or in particular every drunkard swearer c. living under the reigning power of such or the like sins is a child of wrath c. But thou art saith the spirit of God I saith a mans owne spirit am such an one Therfore thou art saith Gods Spirit I am saith a mans owne spirit a child of wrath c. The three Propositions of this Syllogism I told you implyed three sorts of conviction 1. Conviction of Law 2. Conviction of case or fact 3. Conviction of state with the consequents of these Sutably in unlocking this prison there must bee a key of as many wards as there are in the lock and those answerable to them For a key will not unlock a doore that hath not answerable wards to the lock that fastens it Now these wards of the Spirits key are 1. Conviction of Gospel opposite to that of Law 2 Conviction of another case sutable therunto 3 Conviction of another state arising from both these 4 And the consequents 1 Conviction of Gospel For as the law the bondwoman from mount Sinai is the ground of terrour engendring unto bondage Gal. 4. So the Gospel is the free woman the Jerusalem from above that engenders to liberty ibid. and 2 Cor. 3. 17. and so is the special ground of comfort The Law is the warrant upon which the spirit imprisons the conscience and the Gospel the warrant on which it releaseth it againe And as it is in civill affaires a man that is under an execution for body and goods by such or such a statute hides and flies and is under feare and sometimes laid fast in prison and cannot bee released but either upon a repeale of that law or the annexing some condition to it under which hee sues for and recovers his liberty so it is in this case The Law sayes every one is accursed that continues not in every thing written in that booke No fornicator idolater covetous c. shal enter into the kingdome of God Now a man that is under the sentence of this law in his own conscience is capable of release no way but either by the repeale of that Law or adding some such limitation or restriction or condition to it as may include him Therefore when the Spirit gives peace from the word by way of Argument it first produceth the law of liberty the Gospel against the law of bondage It is confest saith the spirit in the conscience of a converted sinner the law gives mee no hope but there is an addition to and an exception from that law which I plead for my release There is a pardon proclaimed for such sinners as I am Isai 55. 7. Prov. 28. 13. The Law in the new edition excepts believers Joh. 3. 26 from its sentence Now the apprehending and assenting to this truth is the first work of the spirit in order to this regular assurance of a mans heart before God A man in a state of spiritual darknesse is like Hagar in the wildernesse Gen. 21. 19. she and her sonne Ismael are ready to dye for thirst when there was a well near them but they could not see it till the Angel shewed it them So is it in the children of the Law that Hagar and Ismael shadowed out When they are under Bondage of spirit there be many precious wells of salvation in the Bible but all these are hidden from their eyes the Bible is a sealed book to them and the fountains of life are fountains shut up as to them till the spirit that leads into all truth direct a man or woman in such a case to such promises as may be a ground of peace to him that may satisfy the weary soul and refresh the sorrowfull soul Jer. 31. 25. I appeal to the experience of all the Saints of God that know what this means whether the Spirit of God hath not many times guided them to places of Scripture as it were by his own finger When they have even thrown the Bible away after much search for a comforting word and resolved to look no more for that that is not to be found there hath not a secret whisper like that to Augustine in his Conversion tolle lege been cast into them try once again and have they not unexpectedly dipt and lighted on a place that hath satisfied them as with marrow and fatnesse Hath it not been with them as with a godly Minister that I knew when I was a child who having been under a Spirit of Bondage for many years and now even ready to dye in that condition when the eighth chapter of the Romans was read to him a little before his last gaspe stopping at the first verse now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus c. Stay said he I never saw so much in those words in my days as now though I read them often so I say can you not say that you have read such and such chapters ten twenty thirty forty times over and that not slightly or cursorily but deliberately and with meditation and yet could see never a well of Salvation in them and yet afterwards from those very places of Scripture the Spirit of God hath made you draw water with joy So that 't is the Spirit that doth this first work discover and convince of Gospel truth the ground of our assurance Now this conviction is either 1. General and so the soul is convinced of those very truths long before it can take comfort from them and believes them
with such a faith as he believes the Bible to be true in every part of it and this appears in those that are under a Spirit of Bondage Produce such and such promiâ—es to them they will say true these promises are excellent promises and will no question yeild abundance of marrow to them to whom they belong but they can see nothing in them that belongs to them Here is a full well but they have nothing to draw or it is a well inclosed it is not free for them 2 Particular When the Spirit helps the soul to single out such a word and opens a door of hope to the soul that it hath a share in it and this is that that makes way for and is compleated in the Minor of the former Syllogisme which I call 2 Conviction of Case Thus the Spirit enlightens the conscience to apply the Promise to its self by owning the condition of it The Word saith Such and such persons are children of God the renewed conscience enlightned by the Spirit saith This is my case I am such a person Now here the Spirit either enlightens a man to see himself under that condition by working a present assent to the truth of this Minor Proposition As suppose an Argument from the Promise He that believeth hath everlasting life but I believe Ergo. The assent to this Minor Proposition I believe may be wrought by a sudden work of the Spirit as soon as the major Proposition whereon it is grounded is apprehended and so it is a work somewhat neer of kin unto that of the first branch of Mediate Testimony wherein the testimony was supposed to be by the word yet without Argumentation Or else as usually by eliciting and drawing forth the soul to such an assent by a farther evidence of Argument For it is very seldom seen but that such souls as have been exercised with a Spirit of Bondage are not easily brought to own any good in themselves so that even the Spirit of God hath much ado to answer all the cavils of Satan and their own suspicious hearts in point of gracious self-Justification which such souls are much afraid of and not more difficultly brought to any thing then to own this Proposition But I believe or the like Now in such a case the Spirits work is longer and he is fain to bring many more Arguments to confirm this Minor True saith the soul he that believes hath everlasting life but I am none of those Believers and therefore quid ad me What doth this Promise concern such an unbelieving wretch as I am Then the Spirit satisfies the soul in the Minor by producing such proofs of Scripture as evidence faith in the Subject in whom it is such as purifying the heart love to God his wayes his Actâ— 15. 9 Gal. 5. 6 Zech. 12. 10 people grief for sin c. And possibly goes farther and proves those graces to be in the soul by farther Marks drawn from the acts of them which discover the habit whence they proceed This is a work of conviction I told you before and may be done by many Arguments or few according to the light that accompanyes them to the soul Nor is there any reason why Dr. Crisp and his followers should cry down this way of getting assurance by Marks and Signs as uncertain seeing the doubting soul will find something that seemes faulty in every grace which is presented to it as an evidence Object If the Spirit say say they Thou art a Believer because thou hast love that is a fruit of faith the soul may stil doubt Whether it have love if love be manifested by delight in Gods Commandments c. the question will still be Whether that delight be sincere or counterfeit pure or mixed ingenuous or self-ended and therefore say they there can no judgment be made certainly concerning a mans Justification by his sanctification or concerning sanctification by the operations of particular graces Ans To this we answer True these graces whiles I barely endeavour to discover them by my own reason may be still subject to question and so can make no firme assurance But in the soul that is graciously assured this way the Spirit of God rests the heart upon an ultimum quod sic convinceth him by that which is most visible in him and stops the mouth of cavilling reason from perplexing the Question any more As a wise Moderator in a Dispute that when the Argument hath been spun out so long by a wrangling companion that there can be no more said but in away of groundlesse cavilling and angry reflections c. breaks off the Dispute checks the wrangling Antagonist and determines the Controversie by his own sentence upon the whole matter So when a man 's own cavilling heart and Satan helping it have picked out all the flawes possibly in his evidence for heaven and have left no stone unturned to invalidate it and withal the Spirit hath enabled a man to plead to all exceptions of moment and yet these wrangling companions will not be satisfied at last the Spirit makes a man to see that there is nothing can be said that hath not been answered but only such wranglings as deserve no answer but scorn and so determines and enables the soul to determine the great Question by inferring the conclusion with undenyable evidence I know not why this way the Spirit of God assuring should not be lesse subject to question then immediate assurance Seeing in a time of darknesse that is as questionable and will require as long a debate to satisfie the soul whether indeed it were the voice of the Spirit or a mans owne heart and Satan colluding with it to deceive a man Let any man shew mee that 't is easier for a man to be certainly convinced that the Spirits immediate testimony is true and proceeding from the Spirit then that such and such fruits of grace the matter of its mediate testimony are not counterfeit and I have done pressing this Argument any more 3 The third thing the Spirit doth is to infer the conclusion of the grand Syllogisme in a conviction of a gracious and happy estate thus therefore Thou art a child of God an heir of glory justified sanctified c. For all these termes and many more are of equal import to the case in hand the concluding any thing in a man that necessarily accompanies salvation concludes the certainty of salvation to that person and seals up assurance In the former two acts the Spirit is the candle of the Lord without a man in pointing out the word and within a man in the application of his case to the Word and in this he acts the part of a just determiner of the controversie upon this evidence a Judg in the conscience quitting and justifying the Prisoner and this is his sentence of Absolution and therefore when it is pronounced by his Ministers as most commonly it is 't is called loosing the
hee hath gotten an oar into the spirits boat Thou maist discerne him by his usual guise of tempting which is to direct thee from the study and care of things revealed to things secret and uncertaine In mens unregeneracie when they wallow in sin securely the word threatens curses and wrath against them see then how Satan withdrawes them from the study of and surrendring their hearts unto the power of that word by a false prophecie I shal have peace Deut. 29 19. I may live many a fair day yet and repent and die a child of God Ye shal not die Gen. 2. And so he drives men to presume And if I be elected saith such a wretchlesse sinner I shal be saved at the last let me walke how I will in the meane while But I hope I am not a reprobate c. will such an heart bee apt to assume and the issue is a resolution to continue in sinne and put it upon the adventure But when a soul is under a Spirit of bondage he turns his note but how is it Is it not the same plot new dressed Now he prophesies an utter irrecoverablenesse to thy condition and upon what ground why forsooth hee hath looked over Gods booke of life and hee cannot find thy name there and therefore do what thou wilt thou canst hope for no better but worse rather then what thou now feelest He will not suffer thee now to conclude at the same rate as before that thou hopest thou art not a Reprobate but maist for any thing thou knowest be elected as well as any other The only remedy thou hast in such cases is to consult the written Word of God Satan saith thou art not elected but is there any Mark in the whole Word of God by which a man may know he is not Elected No God in his infinite wisdom and goodnesse hath not given any such Marks by which men may know Reprobation that so he might retard no mans endeavours after grace Indeed there be marks of Election by which we may make that sure to our selves 1 Pet. 1. but the want of these doth not discover Reprobation because these are all wanting in the dearest Saints of God till they be truly converted and so if that consequence were sound Such true Graces discover Election therefore the want of them discovers Reprobation it would follow that Gods Saints before they are converted seeing they want those graces are either not elected and so Election would not precede Calling contrary to Rom. 8. 30. and Election would not be from eternity contrary to Ephes 1. 4 or else they could at one and the same time be Elect and Reprobate which implies a manifest contradiction The Word speaks plainly in this case Deut. 29. 29. Secret things belong unto God c. 2 Thou hast abundant grounds to believe the contrary viz. That thou art Elected if thine eyes were open to see them The Sanctification of the Spirit is a certaine consequent and therefore a sure evidence of Election 1 Pet. 1. 2. and Rom. 8 1. In stead therefore of searching the Decrees of God whether thou be elected or no search into thy own heart and see whether thou canst find that thou art called and so in any measure sanctified the discovery of grace in thy heart though but one grain and that of mustard seed will assure thee of thy Election and final salvation Canst thou not find in thy heart any sorrow for sin any earnest desires after holinesse any solicitousnesse to please God any tenderness of conscience and fearfulness to offend him c If thou canst think these be flowers that use not to grow in Natures garden Well conclude then I hope I am called and therefore elected and therefore shall be assured in due time CHAP. X. Excitation and encouragement to labour for the experience of this work IN the next place how effectually should this stirre up all of us that are converted by way of a Spirit of Bondage to labour after a Spirit of Adoption in its witnessing act 1. You see that the Spirit of Adoption is attainable and especially by you of all other men You are under the qualification of those to whom he doth especially belong See Isa 61. 1 2 3. To you is the word of this salvation sent Christ was annointed with the Oyl of gladnesse for your sakes Are not your hearts broken are not you mourners in Sion are not you the subjects of a spirit of heavinesse a wrinkled a contracted spirit as the Word signifies a Spirit even grown old and wrinkled with grief Here then is a word of encouragement for you let it not fall to the ground What striving is there for places when they fall in the Universities under such and such qualifications how doth every one within the qualifications bestirre himself for his interest And will you being in such a capacity lose the priviledge of that capacity 2 The Spirit of Adoption in its assuring act is a precious mercy Friends do you count it a great matter to be assured of such a temporal inheritance Will you think it worth your time to search Deeds and Records and Offices to confirm a title to your selves and your heirs and is it worth no pains to assure your immortal souls of an eternal inheritance When a Merchant adventures a ship to the sea if he adventure much in the Vessel how doth he hye him to the Assurance Office that if he can he may be no loser by his Adventure what ever chance befal him O Friends you are every day lanching forth into the Ocean of eternity your Fraught is your precious souls that are more worth then all the world The Spirit keeps an Assurance Office hye you to the Spirit and never leave till you have assured your present Adventure 1. I am assured of this Without the witnesse of the Spirit that you are the children of God no soul here deliberately dares to dye Possibly a Roman Valour may carry men on upon desperate dangers when the temptations of honour c. are present to put out of their minds the thoughts of an adventured eternity with the hopes of the present life Those Parents that sacrificed their children to Moloch could not have endured the cryes of their dear little ones roasted alive in the Arms of the cursed Idol had not the Drummes and other loud Instruments drowned the noise And truly no man can deliberately sacrifice his soul to Satan or adventure his soul neer the borders of hell whiles his ears are open to the fearful yellings scriechings of damned spirits and therefore Satan makes a terrible din in their eares jingles the fine things of this world and makes such a noise with them that he leads them first into a fools Paradise and from thence into utter darknesse Friends Did such thoughts as these possesse any of you now and then Here I crawle up and down in the world a poor worm of two or three cubits
is not enough here for him to reply Thou hast a deceitful heart and thou hast had great experience of it and there be many hypocrites and there is much counterfeit gold c. These are generals Ask him by what warrant from the Word he bids thee doubt whether thou be an hypocrite and thy gold be false If he shew not his warrant fall pell mell upon him spare him not for an illegal Assault and Battery 3 Wordlesse Scruples must be silenced especially if I either have or have had to my best and most deliberate judgment sufficient ground to convince me of the contrary In such a case if I have been formerly satisfied upon Scripture grounds I am to rest in that satisfaction if not yet if now such grounds be presented to me I am bound to receive it and at least to silence all Scruples to the contrary Otherwise the Authority of Gods Word would be far lesse with me then that of mine own groundlesse fancies or Satans vexatious suggestions Conscience is an Officer of Gods his Deputy-Iudg in the soul and therefore it must determine from and according to the most preponderating evidence from the Word of God As in matters of Law a Judg is not to hearken to every litigious Lawyer that puzleth and perplexeth a cause farther then he speaks Law to justifie his allegations but if he can bring none may and ought to proceed to sentence upon those rules of Law and Justice upon which he hath formerly judged in the like cases or such as being now urged on the behalf of the Defendant have nothing of moment objected to the contrary I know Satan can and doth often tempt with a Word in his mouth as he did our Saviour with It is written and so without all question doth where hee sees the soul will not be taken with chaff or baffled with meer scare-crows of groundlesse suggestions urge Scripture in troubling the conscience And in such cases we had need of a Spiritual palate exercised to taste words as Elihu layes the comparison between inward and outward sense Job 33. 3. But if all the Scruples of our spirits were reduced to this trial not one to a thousand but would let fall its suite rather then discover its weakness by the impertinency of its allegations Object But if I have never so plain word urged upon me to satisfie me yet if the Spirit do not make the word satisfying Satan is an impudent Accuser and mine own heart is full of darknesse and it will question whether it be day when the Sun shines and with those that are resolved to conclude snow black rather condemn the most certain of the senses for a mistake in so clear an Object then acknowledg an error in its own reasonings Ans I grant it Yet this I must do in the case in hand 1 I must acknowledg that I ought or that I see no reason at least why I ought not to be satisfied with such clear evidence there being so little objected that may reasonably disparage it 2 I ought to condemn bewayle and pray against such unwarrantable slownesse of believing where I have so much apparent ground 3 I ought at least to suspend those groundlesse Scruples for the present and act upon the conclusion which I am convinced appears most justifiable from Scripture though I cannot apprehend it altogether beyond question at present as if it were unquestionable till some new grounds of more considerable weight are urged to obstruct my proceedings As in a case of Law among men is clear A man hath a Title to such Lands as by the advice of Lawyers and from Law he conceiveth to be good or at least after many debates with an adversary that obstructs his quiet possession he sees not by any thing that can be urged to the contrary but that his own is the most likely Title If this man enter upon this Estate and use it as his own till the Advarsary produce a more legal evidence then his and justifie it in Court the man offends not So in conscience Gods Ministers that are the Counsellours in its cases tell thee according to their best knowledge in the Scriptures that thou art a child of God and hast an unquestionable Title to him this they prove by Scripture compared with the operations of Gods sanctifying Spirit in thy heart Satan sayes no and thy own misgiving heart fears lest he say true However thou seest no reason he brings from Scripture or at least none so weighty as that thou seest sufficient cause from his allegations to reject those other that make for thee nay it may be thy judgment inclines to them but thy heart is yet fearful and trembling in such a case thou maist safely practise as occasion serves upon that conclusion which thou seest least to weaken I mean thou maist act as a child of God apply Promises urge them in Prayer c. as if they were thine till some more considerable grounds be offeâ—ed to weaken the former upon which thou actedst This I say because I know it is the doubt of some precious souls whether they may pray or apply any Promises til they be altogether out of doubt that they are the children of God 4 Nay let me say more If thou have but the least ground to hope that though thou be not a child of God for the present yet thou art no where excluded from a capacity of being so thou maist lay hold upon the Promises which belong to Saints so far as to improve them to duty though thou maist not so far as to build an Assurance upon them And the reason is because the Gospel becomes mine by my laying hold upon it and claiming it as mine And God allowes a Christian an holy violence in entering upon the precious possessions thereof the violent Mat. 11. 12 take it by force If a man should never lay hold of a Promise till he be assured that it belongs to him he would never lay hold of any because as I shall tell you more hereafter Assurance that the Promises and the things promised in them are mine depends upon my laying hold of them and claiming them as mine and therefore cannot go before in an orderly and ordinary way 4. Sometimes when mine own scrupulous heart will take no satisfaction I ought to lay some weight of confidence upon the judgment of others godly Ministers and experienced Christian friends A stander by say we oftentimes sees more then the parties in action can see themselves I believe my Physician concerning the state of my body and my Lawyer concerning the state of my Sute though it may be I have strong inclinations of my self to make a contrary judgment and upon their judgment I follow the ones Physick and the others counsel 'T is not a matter of small moment when upon the sight of thy serious humiliation and sorrow for sin earnest and restlesse desires after Christ and holiness and the like signes a Minister
10. 4 Assurance A soul having gone thus far the next question is But what if seeing there be many that come and claim an interest in Christ that shall at last be cast out because they do not indeed come and claim Christ as they should I say What if I be found among them and then I shal be ashamed of my hopes and my relyance at the last when I have expected so much from it Now to this the Scripture sayes There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1. John 3. 16. Whoever believeth shall have everlasting life c. Hereby shall ye know that ye are passed from death to life c 1 John 3. 14. John 14. 21. Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect c. Psal 119 6. The answer of the heart to this is Such an one am I therefore my faith is true therefore I am under this condition or state I know that I am passed from death to life I know that I am of God 1 John 5. 19. I need not bee ashamed Now the third of these Acts to wit Relyance is an act to be exercised perpetually in order to the getting the Testimony of the Spirit in the last viz. Assurance when Assurance as most ordinarily it comes to pass is not enjoyed at the same time together with it For 1 This is the advice Isai 50. 10. Let him trust in the Lord and stay himself upon his God Who is he that is thus advised One that walks in darknesse and sees no light and therefore is not assured that God is his God though he be so he must stay upon his God first he must lay claim to him as his God and then stay and depend and rest upon him I illustrate it thus Suppose such a friend as I before mentioned that offers the highest acts of real friendship to all that come to him accept of it upon such and such termes claim his favour and rely on his promise Which is the way for me to be assured that this man will be my friend in particular Is it not this to go to him and tell him Sir your publication of your good will encouraged me to accept your offer emboldned me to claim an interest in your friendship though neither your Proclamation nor offer nor Promise named me in particular And now Sir I rely upon your Promise to enterpose for me between me and Justice to pay such a debt for me if you faile me I am an undone man I have such an esteem of your word that I am resolved I will adventure my self upon it and all that I am though I know your mind no farther concerning me in particular yet I cannot withal but desire that if you think fit you will give me a particular assurance that I am accepted by you as one of those to whom you stand so engaged that by the knowledg of my particular obligations to you I may be encouraged the more cheerfully to serve you and to be the more heartily thankful I appeal to all men whether this bee not the likeliest way to get a particular engagement from this man Apply this to the case in hand and you will see reason in my Direction to act reliance in order to Assurance 2 Besides Reliance frequently exercised will yeild Arguments of Assurance especially being acted in particular cases as suppose temptation corruption straights As though a man have no particular obligation from a friend yet knowing his principles that he never fails those that depend on him and having relyed upon him often and found he hath not failed him at any time at last he becomes assured that he will not So seeing I know that God never faileth them that trust in him and I have found that he hath stood by me in many a sad plunge of spirit in pursuance of that and the like obligations I hence argue sure he will never fail me So the holy Prophet argues 1 Sam. 17. 37. And so the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 1. 10. God hath delivered God doth deliver and God will deliver 3 Assurance is recovered the same way when it is lost wherein it is to be gotten when a man is utterly a stranger to it and this I evidence thus A soul in desertion looks upon himself as having no grace at all and therefore he doth act and if he can act no higher wee advise him to act as if he begun all anew This course were in vain if not the same in both CHAP. XV. Another Direction concerning seeking Gods face in Ordinances Such as the Word and Prayer Direct 2. II. SEek diligently in all Ordinances after the testimony of the Spirit The way for recovery of lost evidence is that as was said before which is most proper for getting it at first The Church in Cant. 3 1 2 3 4. had lost her Beloved 't was night a night of desertion and he had slipped away in the dark what doth she then She seeks him first upon her bed lay still its likely and sent some sleepy calls after him But Christ will not be found at that rate I sought him but I found him not What then See what followes I will rise now yea that is a more likely course shake off that sinful sloath and seek him in good earnest So she doth I will go about the City in the streets and in the broad wayes In the City that is in the Church set out by a City often in Scripture because of communion defence order like a City and often by the City of Jerusalem in particular In the streets and broad Apoc. 21. 2. wayes i. e. the places of concourse the Assemblies of the Saints there Wisdom uttereth her voice Prov. 1. 20 21. there shee meets with the Watch-men and she asks them c. and then when shee had advised with them and followed their Directions see what followes ver 4. It was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my soul loveth I found him that is in the evidences and refreshments of his Spirit 1 Seek in the Word If God give any soul peace in an ordinary way and who are we that we should put God to the charge of extraordinaries 't is the fruit of the lips Isai 57. 19. The fruit of whose lips even the lips of those whose lips are appointed to bee the Treasuries of saving knowledge for the Church The Priests Mal. 2. 7 lips shall preserve knowledg and the people shall seek it at his mouth But may the soul say what can he do towards that work 't is not in the power of man to ease me Man cannot heal the wounds that an Almighty God makes Yes such a man may do much ministerially and instrumentally for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts Mal. 2. 7. Certainly God could have given Cornelius direction what to do without sending him to Peter it was as easie for him to have
comprehends every grace in kind and it concerns him to come to the Sacrament to promote it Caution Yet let me add lastly that I speak not this to encourage a lazy credulousness by which we are apt to be easily perswaded without any sufficient enquiry to take it for granted that we have grace because we have now and then some good wishes when as our own hearts if they were well searched would witness to us the faintness coldness inconstancy laziness of our affections towards heavenly things especially in comparison with those large measures of earnestness importunity and diligence with which they are attended in the things that concerne this present life which might be a sufficient confutation of all our good conceits that wee have of our selves Friends take heed that you do not make such truths as these a protection for your supine negligence to examine your selves more throughly and exactly The truth is the persons to whom this cordial is intended are only those who after earnest enquiry after their own estate from other evidences are driven to this Sanctuary as their last refuge not to those who because they wil spare their pains to enquire more at large and particularly fly to this as the most compendious way and that wherein least pains is required to satisfie themselves concerning their condition Yet I fear such truths by Gods just judgment accidentally stumble many souls and no wonder the Doctrine of free grace I dare say accidentally damnes millions CHAP. XVIII Three other Directions And a Case of Conscience concerning the discerning the Motions of the Holy Spirit from tentations and the inclination of our owne hearts 3 TAke notice of the least approaches Direct III. of the Spirit of God to the soul in a witnessing way and follow them by Meditation and Prayer Sometimes the witnesse of the Spirit is not full and through to the satisfaction of all our doubts yet it speaks something tending that way it speaks many things severally and by parcels which laid together would amount to a ful Testimony Now in such cases a soul must be very watchful to take and improve the least hints of the Spirit As in an humane Testimony the witnesses that witnesse in a case before a Judge do not all speak point-blank to the case in question but sometimes very faintly brokenly and imperfectly Now a good Judg in such a case doth not slight such Testimonies as come not full up to a businesse but observes and retaines in memory every thing that is deposed though very defective as to a full proof and at last what one testimony did not sufficiently clear in terminis many testimonyes will make up a full proof of if laid together by a skilful and judicious Lawyer This Art we find the Church using in desertion Cant. 29. There she discovers Christ first at a distance leaping upon the Mountains removing the great impediments to the manifestation of himself suppose conquering mountainous corruptions and mountainous temptations suppose deadnesse and flatnesse of heart in duty c. which looks like a mountain of separation betweene Christ and the soul ver 8. she finds her self unexpectedly enlarged and opened in her addresses to him Thence she concludes he is a coming he prepares his way as 't is said in another case of John he makes every mountain and hill low Isai 40. 4. and every valley he exalts that he may make his way smoother then she espies him behind the wall looking in through the lattess neerer then he was but yet he stands much undiscovered the wall and the lattess here it may be are the obstacles of prejudice and doubting and distrust in our own hearts which keep us from seeing Christ clearly when he comes to us but yet something of Christ shines through them and the Church takes notice of these dark approaches puts a Behold upon them all Behold he cometh behold he standeth behind our wall And at last he calls her forth into a pleasant converse and walk with him v. 10. 11. and there fully manifesteth himselfe to her If God write thee a love-letter though the hand in which it is written be but uneven and it be not to be read but by spelling every word wilt thou not take that pains that thou mayst understand it The spirits testimony when it comes under Gods hand and seal to the heart is oftentimes so obscurely written that a man is fain to spell and put together many words experiences providences to make it up However the evidence may be sufficient that is pick'd out of them altogether Think then such a time I was refresht at a sermon enlarged extraordinarily in such a Prayer my heart was affected with an extraordinary measure of tendernesse in such a Sacrament I was even ready to despaire and God stayed me by a promise even ready at another time to make away with my selfe and God stayed me with an unexpected providence c. All these put together may perhaps make up as much as this Fear not I am thy Salvation c. Thy sins are forgiven thee God answers sometimes Psalm 85. 8 in a soft voyce in a whisper and it concerns us to observe narrowly as Benhadads servants 1 Kings 20 33 4. Labour aftâ—r more of the Spirit of sanctification and that is the way to get the Direct IV. witnesse of the Spirit of Adoption The spirit that seals us up to an holy assurance is an holy Spirit Ephes 1. 13. This is certain the more holinesse the more assurance The promise runs so Isai 32. 17. The work of righteousnesse shall be peace and the effect of righteousnesse quietness and assurance for ever I conceive the place intends inherent righteousnesse comparing it with the former verses where it is attributed to the Spirit as his work in barren hearts The like promise we have from our Saviour Jo. 14. 21. He that hath my Commandements and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him I am confident the reason why many persons do not recover an evidence of the Spirit assuring their consciences of their good condition is either that in their judgments they preferre peace before grace ease before holinesse and powre out many more prayers and tears for those then for these or else that they content themselves with finding in themselves some generalities of good desires and sincerity in the main and so sit down in a forme of godlinesse contented to stand at that stay Beloved it will concerne us to press hard after the Lord to follow after reach forward and press on they are the phrases of the Apostle Ph. 3 12 13 14. that we may apprehend that for which we are apprehended 1. If an evidence be never so faire yet if we be carelesse of it and let it gather dust or dirt or filth we may not be able to read it And certainly
such a defiling sullying thing is the guilt of sin For sin making a man obnoxious to the Law occasionally ingenders to See in the case of David Psalm 51. 12. bondage Gal. 4. 24. 2. Nor will the glory of God permit him to seal assuring evidences of his love to such whose conversation would reproach him for admitting them to so much intimacy As to a Covenant-interest in God so it is in Covenant peace when a wicked man claims it God stands upon termes of defiance Psal 50. 16. What hast thou to do to take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thy back To whom then will God indulge such a boldnesse See ver 5. Gather my Saints together and vers 23. who so ordereth his conversation aright to him will I shew the salvation of the Lord. 3. Regular assurance as I have told you before ariseth from the discovery of grace Now the more large the matter of my assurance is the more must my assurance be Me thinks the connexion of these four verses in Tit. 2. 11 12 13 14. shews this When grace that appears to us teacheth us to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts c. See what follows then we are most likely to look for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And that prayer of the Apostle for his Ephesians speaks it as loudly That God would grant them to be strengthened by the spirit c. to be rooted and grounded in love And what then That Eph. 3. 16 17 18. ye may comprehend with all Saints the length and breadth of the love of God 5. Follow the guidance and conduct of the Direct V. Spirit in all things Stifle not any motion of the spirit Quench not the Spirit 1 Thes 5. 19. Grieve not the Spirit by unkind repulses And that is pressed upon this ground Eph. 4. 30. by which ye are sealed to the day of redemption Certainly if wee sadden the Spirit the Spirit will not comfort us And there is nothing that saddens the Spirit of God more then the dishonour and unkindnesse of a repulse Great men if they shew extraordinary favours to us they expect we should observe them and be ready to serve them at every nodd and beck 1. He that will be a favourite in a Princes Court and enjoy his constant smiles must be very carefull of all punctilio's of observance If you will obtain the holy Spirits smiles you can surely do no lesse then observe every breathing of the Spirit and follow him where ever he leads See v. 14. of this Chapter in connexion with my Text. They that are led by the Spirit of God those are they that receive this Spirit of Adoption to call God Father 2. The Spirit best knows the mind of God towards thee and the season and way wherein the Love of God will break out to thee and if thou misse of following any motion of the Spirit thou mayst put thy selfe out of that very way wherein thou mightest have found comfort and assurance The Spirit it may be urgeth such or such a duty and thou neglect'st it How knowest thou but hadst thou been guided by the Spirit in such a motion thou mightest have obtained that that thou longest for When the Spirit blowes thou must hoise thy sailes and be assured that gale can carry thee no whither but to the region of peace and comfort When the Angel conducted Peter out of Prison he follows his deliverer step-by-step So when the Spirit comes toward thee to deliver thee from the Spirit of Bondage take heed thou leave him not one step And the caution which God gives to the Israelites when he brought them out of Egypt is very usefull here Exod. 23. 20 21. Behold I send an Angell before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared Beware of him and obey his voyce povoke him not c. Apply it to the present case If God send his Spirit before you beware obey his voyce c. Qu. But how shall I know the motions of the Spirit of God from temptations and the motions of my own heart Answ 1. Thus The Spirit of God always moves according to the Word If I leave the word in any thing I cannot follow the Spirit 'T is clear that that Spirit is a Spirit of truth and therefore cannot contradict Joh. 14. 17. himselfe and those things which he delivers in the Word hee cannot deliver 2 Pet. 1. 19 20. 21. the contrary to them in my heart The true evidence of the Spirit of God in the heart is dependance on the Word of God 1 John 4. 6. 2. The Spirit of God alwayes presseth to some Duty or other some exercise of holinesse or other And when any motions arise in our hearts prejudicing it against any ordinance or duty of Religion this prejudice is no motion of the Spirit We receive the Spirit in hearing Gal. 2. 1 2. Pray by the Spirit Eph. 6. 18. 3. The Spirit moves regularly and orderly makes not duties and ordinances to clash and enterfere The present opportunity of an ordinance is the season of the Spirit If the Spirit come in a private ordinance it is in its season if in a publick in its season Publick ordinances separated from are not the badge of the persons that have but that want the Spirit Jude 19. CHAP. XIX A Case What is to be thought of a man that as to his own sense and other mens lives and dyes without any experience of this Testimony Qu. SUppose I never attain the Testimony of the Spirit but live and dye in a state of darknesse as to assurance of Gods love what think you of my case Answ 1. I suppose thou labourest after it diligently and constantly in the use of all the means prescribed and other such Otherwise I have nothing to say to thee in this case but this that that man is neither fit for assurance here or glory hereafter that thinks much of his pains to attain them But supposing as I said I say to thee farther 2. I know no place of Scripture that says No man shall enter into the Kingdom of God that knows not of it before hand I readily yeeld the Papists teach all believers a doctrine of desperation when they tell us that no man can be assured of Salvation till he come to heaven and I am confident that occasioned many of our Protestant Divines engaged in the Controversy against them to make perswasion of salvation of the essence of justistifying Faith But I conceive they needed not to have bended the bough so much that way to set it straight 'T is no good rule for Christian disputants which is observed by cunning tradesmen Iniquum petere ut aequum ferant to aske double that they may perswade those with whom they deal to give a sufficient price I believe this proposition
are yea amen sure and firm in Christ by vertue of his purchase propter pretium solutum as a bargâ—n is to the purchaser upon consideration of the price whether any man think them so or no but 't is the Spirit that makes them sure to the parties for whom they are purchased per possessionem inchoatam by an inchoated possession as the Jewes were put in possession of the lard of Canaan by a few clusters of grapes and a man enters upon a great estate by the cutting of a turfe upon the land Assurance is a turfe of the land of promise and this is put into our hands by the Spirit I could adde many more places I will name at present onely one more and that is Rom. 5. 5. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost that is given to us And what is the fruit of that abundant sheding abroad of the Spirit Hence it comes to passe ver 4. that our hope makes not ashamed If one man build upon the Testimony of another in businesses of concernment and when he comes to produce him in open Court his Testimony come not up to the businesse in hand or his Testimony appear suspicious a man doth not only lose his Cause but his Hope also and is publickly shamed for his confidence in such a Testimony But saith the Apostle if the Holy Ghost shed abroad the love of God in our hearts i. e. plentifully assure us of it the hope that is grounded thereupon will never make us ashamed His Testimony will bear a man and his cause up before the Judgement Seat of Christ or his Deputy Conscience whenever it shall bee called in question whether here or hereafter at the great day 2. Reason And herein consider two things I. The matter of the Assurance which the Spirit gives regularly is a Demonstration A Demonstration say Logicians is Syllogismus Scientificus an Argument that produceth a certain knowledg of the thing concluded Demonstration is of two sorts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That and Why. 1 That a thing is I can certainly prove that the tree lives because it growes and brings forth leaves and fruit that a man is in a present good temper of body because he hath a good pulse and this is called Demonstratio ab effectu or Demonstratio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus the Spirit certainly proves that I am a child of God by the Effects of Adoption thus He that is led by the Spirit of God is a Son of God But this man is led by the Spirit of God Therefore he is the Son of God Here is a certain Testimony The Major of this Argument He that is led by the Spirit of God is the Son of God is plain Scripture and sets forth the proper effect of being the Son of God to be led by the Spirit or to endeavor to be holy in all manner of conversation The Minor or second Proposition is true by experience which I see by the spiritual sense which the Spirit gives me and therefore the conclusion is demonstratively true Such a man is a Son of God 2 Why it is And this also hath place here I can certainly and demonstratively prove that 't is day because the Sun shines that makes day So if the Spirit conclude thus He that is begotten of God is the Son of God But such a man is begotten of God Therefore c. The Argument is Demonstrative and producing where the Spirit sets it home a certain assent This is Demonstratio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that concludes the Effect from the Cause Quest But here is a Question Whether a man may be assured of his good estate by an Argument à priori that is by that which constitutes him in such an estate as suppose Whether a man may know that he is a child of God from the very act of his conversion which constitutes him such or rather Whether his only evidence that he is a child of God be not from the effects of his relation to God and that converting grace that made him so because grace in its first generation is dark Answ Hereunto I answer in a word 1. If the Spirit may and doth sometimes immediately testifie or mediately but not by Argument as hath been declared heretofore then he can assure a man without the present use of either of these means to prove it so that he can if hee please work an immediate consent to this Proposition at first conversion I am at this instant begotten of God which is the Minor Proposition in the Syllogisme which is an implicite assurance that such an one is a child of God 2. The Spirit testifying as he ordinarily doth i. e. by Arguments is at liberty to use his own Arguments to satisfie the conscience and the evidence or in-evidence of the Propositions shall not hinder the assent of the soul to the conclusion if the Spirit give light to them If the Spirit will tell a soul under his own vis plastica in the very womb of renewing grace in the act of Regeneration This work I am now working is a regenerating work God is now begetting true grace in thy heart therefore thou art a child of God I know not why it should not be a demonstrative evidence because the truth of this Conclusion Thou regenerated person art a child of God depends on the truth of this Proposition Every one whom God begets to a life of grace is a child of God And so certainly from Scripture The Assumption But thou art one whom God at this instant hath begotten to a life of grace is true by the evidence of the Spirit testifying to a mans own spirit who by spiritual sense is enabled to feel that work upon himself And therefore this evidence may be a sure evidence though it be à priori Yet would I be understood warily in what Cautions I say herein 1. I only affirm a possibility of receiving Assurance this way not an usual or ordinary course of the Spirit towards all or any that I know in particular because it is that which I hear oftentimes pleaded for by some of Gods precious ones whose experience in this secret work of the Spirit may be more then mine I cannot say less then this Yet for the sake of others of an Antinomian spirit that reject all trial by the effects of Regeneration which I stil affirm to be the usual rode way of the Spirit in giving Assurance I dare not say more 2 Remember that before I told you that habitual and fixed settled permanent actual Assurance is collected from the fruits of the Spirit that follow the first act of uniting grace though a present temporary actual Assurance may possibly be given in the very moment of actual union between Christ and the soul And therefore it concernes every one that hath been so assured at first not to rest there but to endeavour to ratifie and habituate that assurance
to himselfe by Arguments à posteriori from the effects of that converting grace which he hath for the present had actual Assurance of II. The formal act of Assurance as it is the work of the Spirit testifying our Sonship from such Arguments as have been mentioned or without them is likewise certaine and evidencing if we consider the witnesse who thus testifies the Holy Spirit of God In whom there are these things considerable which make a witnesse credible 1. Knowledge 2. Faithfulness 3. Disengagement 1 Knowledge This testimony is between two parties God and Man therefore 1 Joh. 5. 6 7. The Spirit witnesseth in heaven and in earth too The Spirit of God knowes both throughly and not only the parties but all their thoughts and actions he knowes the Scriptures he knowes the mind of God yea even in the deepest â—hings Gods secret decrees and intentions concerning men and their final and eternal condition which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the depths of God 1 Cor. 2. 10. even those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which the Apostle speaks Rom. 11. 33. concerning which in a way of admiration and amazement he pronounceth an utter unsearchablenesse by all power of nature and these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he searcheth out i. e. enables his people to search out he can enable his people for he is God and needs not himself search for that knowledge to search into the very decree of God concerning their eternal predestination to life And no wonder for all those secrets of God come through his hands as we say He had the drawing up of all the eternal Records of Gods Decree He is let it be understood with reverence the Secretary of God as a mans spirit is his Secretary and only knowes what is in him 1 Cor. 2. 11. See how the Apostle enlargeth upon that Subject in the former place compare ver 4 7 8 10 11 12. And all those things that are done in nature or grace they come through the hands of the Spirit See in Creation Gen. 1. 2. Redemption He miraculously operates in the Conception of Christ Luke 1. 35. in the anointing him Isai 61. 1 2. Luke 4. 18. Regeneration Job 3. 5. Sanctification 1 Pet. 1. 2. He must needs be an able witnesse to the works that he doth himself Then for the knowledge he hath of man See Psalm 139. 7. compared with the preceding and the following verses Rom. 9. 1. Thou knowest no good in thy self but the Spirit of God knowes it because he is the Author of it He knowes all thy sins and therefore when he brings under Bondage he can and doth set all our secret sins in order before our eyes A man sees himself by a new light Psal 50. 21. So in Assurance he gives a man a clear sight of that in himself which before hee could not see The Spirit knowes thy secret groans because he makes supplications in them Rom. 8. 26. Thy secret graces are his fruits Gal. 5. 22. He knowes the meaning of the Scriptures and can apply comfort soundly according to the mind of God 2 Pet. 1. 21. 2 Faithfulnesse A man that is not known to be of sufficient credit for honesty and faithfulnesse in his words is not admitted for a sufficient witnesse but an honest man that makes conscience of his words is credible in every Court and case The Spirit is such a witnesse John 15. 16. He is called the Spirit of Truth Indeed Truth is his Essence for he is God and he cannot lye but he will cease to be God 1 Joh. 5. 6. The Spirit beareth witnesse of the bloud of Justification and the water of Sanctification but how are we assured his witnesse is true He answeâ—eth because the Spirit is Truth The Spirit will never be induced to give a false evidence He never calls good evil or evil good The strength of divine consolations lies in this that it depends upon the credit of God who cannot possibly lye Heb. 6. 17 18. 3 He is disengaged And that adds a third particular 1 To the value of his Testimony The Spirit is no way a party with them for whom he testifies stands in no relation to us farther then he assumes us into communion with himself of meer grace gets no benefit to himself by his Testimony even the glory that he gets by it adds nothing to him If our own hearts witnesse alone they are parties and may flatter themselves If Satan witnesse he is also a party in that he seeks his own end viz. the eternal undoing of poor souls with himself by such a delusive comfort 2 Nay more the Spirits Testimony is the Testimony of one whom we have often resisted grieved vexed quenched Now though a persons testimony whom a man hath offended avail not against him in Law yet a discontented persons Testimony for him with whom he is offended is of great force And yet is the Spirits Testimony even against a man no lesse true because the sinner stands as an enemy against the Holy Ghost because partly that Testimony is for his good and partly because though an enemy yet he hath often laboured to perswade the sinner against whom he witnesseth to be reconciled which takes away all suspicion of malice from the Spirits condemning testimony But I here shew only this that if notwithstanding a state and acts of enmity the Spirits Testimony be valid against a man it must needs be more probable when it speaks for him though actually offended by him So much for the proof CHAP. XXI A Case Whether this Priviledg be so certain as it excludes all doubting HEre it will be needful to handle a Question before Application that is Quest Whether this Evidence be such as to admit no doubting To which I answer 1 The Testimony of the Spirit is sometimes full and plain to the point sometimes it is but partial and speakes something towards it but not throughly to satisfaction A full Testimony is a satisfying testimony and cannot at the same time admit of partial doubting This is called full assurance But Heb. 6. 4. a partial evidence may admit partial diffidence There is therefore a rejoycing with fear and trembling Psal 2. 11. though the matter of it may bee sufficient at another time to evidence yet it will not do it then 2 Full assurance arising from an entire and home-testimony of the Spirit at one time may admit such measures of doubting and diffidence at another time as may raise strong prejudices against it self Sometimes a Saint is at the top of the ladder of Assurance ready to put his foot on the threshold of heaven it self and at other times under such a sad pang of doubting and diffidence as brings him to the very brink of hel See David Psa 27. 1. 4. 6. 51. 8 11. 42. 43. ult 13. 1. and Job Job 19. 25. 6. 4. But this ariseth not from defect in the evidence but in the mans use
only by stupifying the consciences of profane wicked men which occasions their crying Peace to themselves though they walk in the wayes of their own heart but even in civil and moral men he can many times counterfeit the work of the Spirit of God and give a false peace in a serious and seemingly regular way 1 I shall not here speak much of those sudden irradiations of joy and comfort wherewith he can fill men only thus much that in all ages he hath had advantage over credulous spirits by sudden raptures and exstasies It hath been an old Art as the stories of the Anabaptists will sufficiently inform us by which he hath deluded millions of souls Now those exstacies proceed originally from disturbing and discolouring the phantasie that it may apprehend objects as he thinks fit to represent them And no question he may thus abuse the fantasie by the representation of false matter of comfort and joy and set it home with so strong an appearing evidence that a man may verily think that it comes from God himself Certainly Satan if as was abovesaid he can transform himself into an Angel of light can second these delusions with visions of an heavenly appearance possibly he may usurp the name of Christ himself I knew such a case once in mine own experience A woman not till that time noted to have had any ordinary At Pool about ten yeers since proportion of knowledg on a sudden in child bed is taken with abundance of joy and Christ himself as she fancied appearing to her giving her a revelation against Infant Baptism and perfuming her of which she was so confident that she would ask those that were about her whether they did not smel those perfumes I that had a little before spoken against Anabaptistical revelations was sent for to be confuted by so pregnant an example and she told me as much I gave her good advice told a friend I suspected an imposture and departed Within a few days after the woman was grown perfectly distracted and then the Devill put on his own blacks and appeared in his own colours and she smelt him in every thing and her sweet perfumes ended in filthy stenches c. I have before shewn you the rules by which you may judge of such immediate and reasonlesse raptures of assurance I shall only adde here If you will discern them mark the end of them for which they are given Que. How shall I know that will you say Answ Thus. Observe what is infused with them Satan seldome useth this Art to any soul but he withall infuseth some erroneous doctrine or other or stirs up to some or other irregular practice The End of that dealing of his with the party before mentioned was to scruple her in point of Infant-Baptisme as she confessed to me and his end in others is to propagate one error or other as appears in these days of delusion by ordinary experience A like revelation there was in these parts lately concerning which more may be said shortly in print to perswade a woman to leave her husband who by that very suggestion discovered it to be a delusion because it was quite contrary to the word Now a Christian must be so confirmed in the fundamental points of Religion and so well satisfied in all things that concerne the practice of Godlinesse that he should be able even hereby to discover Satans impostures by the Rule before I laid down The Spirit of God always moveth according to the Word In a word you may do well to demurre to such an evidence 'T is not good to be too hasty in owning such extraordinary perswasions at the first dash as we say A man offends not that rejoyceth under them with trembling If they come in seasonably to encourage me to any unquestionably good duty I may at present act in the strength of them But afterwards I may safely desire an evidence from a known rule whereby I may regularly be certified that they are indeed from God Nor will such a suspension of my full assent to them bee charged upon me as any affront to the Spirit of God supposing him to be indeed the Author of them or as an act of unbelief but will be kindly taken as an act of holy warinesse proceeding from a soul that puts a due valuation upon the word and desires as it ought to make it in all things a light to its feet and a lantern to its path Psalm 119. 105. God himselfe hath told me that the written word is a surer word of prophesie then immediate Revelations 2 Pet. 1. 19 and he tells me moreover that I do well to take heed to it as to a light shining in a dark place 2. Nor shall I tell you at large How far Satan may concurre in giving assurance from marks and signes though certainly he may do much this way or how far he may misapply Scripture it selfe to delude men into a false peace though this he may do also The joy of the close Hypocrite and of the meere civill Justiciary are evidences of this imposture every day to be found almost in every Congregation where the word is preached in a convincing searching way every such person hath his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his preservative or Antidote of this kind by which he keeps the word of God at a distance from his heart when it approacheth with conviction of sin Most of both sorts can plead good desires love to the brethren strictnesse in religious duties and moral conversation c. And though in all these they be miserably mistaken yet how ever for the present these gâ—ounds stop the mouth of conscience and give a present repulse to the power of a shaking sermon we will take these things for granted 2. It is as undoubtedly true that Satan thus misrepresenting Arguments a mans own spirit may consent to him and make use of them and so by deluded Reason argue himself into a strong perswasion that he is a child of God when there is no such matter Nay I doubt not but the very same Arguments which delude one man in this case may truly satisfie another and the application of the same Scriptures Satan playing the Sophister whith his reason may give a false perswasion to one man which by the convincing evidence of the Spirit may give a sound assurance to another But let me not here be mistaken I say not that these Arguments and Scriptures may Caution be managed the same way in both For seeing the conclusion is false which in a delusive assurance is to be inferred there must also be some falsehood in the premisses As in Temptation when Satan came to Christ to tempt him to break his neck the conclusion which he would perswade him to entertain from that place in the Psalm was wicked and false viz. that it is lawfull for a man wilfully and without a calling to endanger his own life therefore he must needs juggle in
the premisses which hee doth by leaving out in thy ways out of the Scripture cited so in Assurance if Satan delude a mans reason into such an Assurance to whom assurance doth not belong there is some fault or other in the premisses whence the conclusion is deduced 3. There may also I conceive be a rational assurance whose conclusion is true as to the state of the person whom it assures and yet it may not be the speciall Testimony of the Spirit but meerly the Testimony of a mans own reason enlightened by ordinary illumination For as the Spirit when he testifies testifies with our spirits Rom 8. 16. So sometimes our spirits may testifie when the Spirit doth not As there may be in a man that is convinced of sin a true conviction by the common illumination of the Spirit which differs widely from that special and effectual conviction which ushers in saving conversion So in this case the child of God may be let alone to frame to himselfe a peace by arguing and reasoning his case from the Word of God and the Spirit may accompany this endeavour of his by common illumination wherein the conclusion may be true and truly inferred nay sometimes the Spirit may leave a man that is truly converted even in the businesse of illumination and suffer him to conclude his good estate irregularly though truly As I will give you this case for explication A man that hath prayed and waited long for Assurance and cannot obtain it growes weary and can wait upon Gods pleasure no longer nay I shall suppose that the man may be unwilling to be assured without the Spirits own Testimony ye he thinks it 's long a coming and therefore desires to hasten it In this case the Spirit of God may justly let him weary himself in a maze of his own reasonings for a time and permit him to perswade himselfe that he is in a good condition and afterwards because though this conclusion were true yet it was not gathered in a right way may suffer him to fall into such a sin or such darknesse as may make him see a need of farther evidence And in this case God may deal with a man as he did with Israel in the wildernesse God had promised them Canaan and they thought long ere they had it were loath to stay till Gods time and therefore whiles they think to hasten the time they are many of them destroyed at Hormah and all turned back into the wilderness Numb 14. for forty years CHAP. XXIII A Case how to know a false Scripture Assurance from a true THese things being premised I come directly to answer the main Question in both its parts Quest 1. How may a man know a false Assurance gathered by a mans own heart with the concurrence of Satan from that which comes from the Spirit of God An. 1 Regular Assurance from the testimony of the Spirit is an heart-purifying Assurance 1 John 3. 2 3. We know saith the Apostle that when he shall appear we shall be like him i. e. in glory for of that he speaks his glory shall reflect its image upon us as the Sun doth upon a glasse or the water for we shall see him as he is A blessed hope this But what kind of people are we to be on this side glory who have this assured hope of being so glorious hereafter It followes ver 3 He that hath this hope purifieth himself as he is pure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Metaphor taken from the legal purifications of the Jewes wherein as soon as legal uncleanness was contracted they washed their bodies and their garments and vessels that they might be sure nothing they had to do withal might defile them again he is ever washing himself from sin and watching against it and takes all possible care to keep himself unspotted of this present world James 1. 23. Hates the very garment spotted with the flesh Jude 23. alluding again to the Levitical Law in which the very cloaths of a Leper one that had an Issue a menstruous woman were unclean he doth not only avoid the sins themselves but the very garments of them not only all besmeared with the flesh but garments spotted by the flesh In heaven where enjoyment is greatest purity is so too The grace of God when it appears to us as a grace bringing salvation teacheth us to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in the present world Tit. 2. 12. It teacheth all men so Doctrinally in the publication of it no Doctrine in the world such an enemy to loosenesse as the Doctrine of the Gospel but it teacheth the Saints to do so powerfully and despositively it inclines and enables them to it 2 Regular Assurance in not only a heart-purifying but an heart sanctifying Assurance Holynesse in the nature of it is the Dedication of a mans self and all that he is to the honour glory and service of God alone So God is infinitely holy because he is in all things most entirely and inseparably addited to his own glory which because he is the most excellent Being he may not only lawfully do but he must naturally and necessarily do and therein consists the perfection of his nature as the perfection of every being consists in the end to which it is so Gods perfection lies in this that he is to himself seeing he hath no nobler end to which his affections and actions can be referred wherefore if God could deny himself so far as to prefer any thing else above himself for a moment he must needs sin and cease to be happy for that time because he would be so much removed from his end which is his happinesse And of the same nature is holinesse in a Saint an entire devoting of himself and all to God Now a Saint assured of Gods love must needs bee holy because knowing the infinite excellency of God in his own light he cannot but conclude him the most worthy of all love and service and so be taken up in contemplating and conversing with him and acting for him which is holinesse and so far as he at any time lets God fall low in his eye so far he chargeth himself with unholinesse This we find the Saints frequently promise upon such discoveries Psal 23. ult Psal 116. 11 12 13. Indeed this is that which as it comes from us and proceeds from the consideration of Gods goodnesse to us is called thankfulnesse as it respects his own excellencies it is called praising and glorifying him Whence also take this Note by the way The more thankful the more holy Thankfulnesse and holynesse are the same things understood in a different conception Now how large praises doth God get every where in the Scriptures from his people under the light of such Assurance How many such whole Psalmes did David pen under such Discoveries of Gods countenance But false Assurance begotten by the collusion of Satan with our
those experiences whereas men should bring their experiences to the Word and not the Word to their experiences and then one mis-interpretation drawes on another and thus they multiply into vaine janglings and unnecessary disputes But true Assurance is a serious solid thing brings along with it a general experimental knowledg of all necessary truth which once learned out of the Word it seals unto and so it confirms a man in a practical savoury acquaintance with it whence such a sonl is full of the hidden treasures of divine truths savingly digested and is to seek for nothing but freedom of spirit from heterogeneous imployments and a little serious affective preparation of heart to ruminate upon them to dispose him to make a constant feast upon those dainties in his own private retirements and to communicate liberally of the same fare to others Thence there is nothing more grates his ears or afflicts his spirit then to have the strength and fervor of his zeal drawn out into Controversies seeing he can tell how to spend his time and that better As a studied Scholer that by long study and experience hath digested all manner of learning and can upon all occasions make profitable use of it will think his time lost to hear a company of fresh men maintain a Dispute about Grammatical and Logical trifles But a young raw headed fantastical Novice that hath gotten a little flashy learning in his brain looks upon them as matters of weight and moment and thinks himself the bravest fellow in the world when he can wrangle out such an inconsiderable Dispute 7 And lastly True Assurance is a constant spring of humility lowliness of mind it being impossible that so intimate a converse with God and the light of his countenance should not reflect low thoughts upon a mans self concerning himself such a man cannot but say Lord what am I that thou hast brought me hitherto what for such a peevish unbebelieving impatient soul as mine that have tempted thee by abundance of murmurings and other sinful provocations even in the wildernesse and at the red sea to be notwithstanding so carryed in thine armes and cheered with thy smiles and enjoy the comforts of thy Spirit O what am I vile wretch that God should deal thus with me False Assurance on the other side makes proud boasting self-conceited c. CHAP. XXIV A Case how to know whether a true Assurance be meerly rationally gathered or from the witnesse of the Spirit NOw come we to the second branch of the Question Quest How may a man know whether a true assurance as to the substance of it be gotten meerly by rational deductions or from the Spirit of God Wrought out of a mans brain or wrought into his heart by the Holy Ghost Answ I can but help you to ghesse at the difference These works though they really differ in themselves yet to appearance are very like and therefore I shall speak warily in a few particulars 1. Most of the former distinctions between the Testimony of the Spirit a false assurance from Satan and a mans own heart may be repeated here A true assurance gotten in an irregular way wants the advantage of a supernatural assistance to elevate and improve it for as it was gotten in the strength of reason so it must act only in the strength of the principle from whence it had its being and by consequence can have no influence but moral and rational to the production of those impressions of purity holinesse watchfulnesse heavenly mindednesse patience seriousnesse and solidnesse of spiritual self-entertainments humility and so all these must needs be thin and scanty and superficial in comparison of the same effects when they proceed from a divine assurance Thence 't is that you shal ordinarily find in the world a kind of formal cold thin-spread honesty just enough to keep life and soul together as we say in many persons that are really godly of whom a man may say as the Apostle Paul of divers of the chief men in the Church of Jerusalem Gal. 2. 6. Those who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to him And therefore let this be the first difference There is a mighty odds between a man divinely assured and rationally assured in the vigour and activity of all those fruits wherein it shews it self As you may see in matter of knowledge A man that is assured of a Truth teacheth it with far more life and authority then a man who sees it only in a rational probable light 2. In a meer rational assurance there is formido oppositi As in an Opinion that a man holds meerly on probable grounds though a man may stiffely adhere to it in comparison with the contrary conclusion yet the grounds of this confidence being but probable and therefore such in which he may be deceived he is ever and anon subject to say but what if it be not so all this while And though this opinion be truth and a great many other usefull conclusions as branches grow from its root yet so long as hee is but probably perswaded of it he gives his Assent to it meerly with a reserve This is true to me in the mind I now am in But I may possibly see grounds to alter my judgement Thus in point of assurance Rational assurance be it never so full excludes not haesitancy Thence you shall find when you have reasoned with a doubting Christian a long time it may be when you go away from him you leave him to appearance well satisfied and pretty comfortable as we use to say but a while after when Satan and his own heart have had a little time to unravel the web of your reasonings he begins to think he was in an errour As an unstable man in matters of judgment Let an Orthodox Preacher speak an houre with strength of Scripture and reason upon a controverted point the man seems to be fully satisfied and altogether of his mind But this holds only till the next cunning seducer assaults him with counter-reasons and then the man wavers and cryes why may not this be the truth And so if twenty come one after another he shall still suspect what the former hath said by means of the Sophistry of the latter Thence a man rationally assured can to the most say no more for himself then the Apostle Paul to allude to his expression in another case 1 Cor. 4. 4. I know nothing by my self I confesse I cannot but incline to think bettter of my self then formerly yet am I not thereby justified I dare not stand to the perswasion that I am a child of God before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ I would not willingly be deceived but I may be deceived What if that that I take for love of God be but lelfe-love and what if that that I take for repentance be but legal sorrow and what if my hatred of sin be but a meer falling out with sin without
a total alienation of mind from it It may be so though at the present I cannot but think it is otherwise with me Now it is true as I before said that divine Assurance if it proceed not from a full Testimony of the Spirit excludes not doubting but the difference between divine and rational Assurance in point of doubting is very great For when a man divinely assured doubts it is only so with him because and whiles his evidences are not full and clear But let a rational assurance that is meerly so be never so full yet its utmost height and perfection is thus incumbred with haesitacines and unresolvednesse of spirit In a word he that observes in his own spirit the differences between an Opinion and a certain Knowledge may give by the same rules of difference a very probable ghesse at the difference between a meerly rationall and divine Assurance But there remains yet a third and fuller mark of distinction which is 3. The way in which a rational assurance comes And this may give some farther light to discover it As for example Judge by these six things 1. If assurance be ushered in with an impatient wearinesse of soul-troubles This is apt to put a man upon contriving his own escape and therefore may be a temptation to an endeavour of reasoning them out of the soul Now it is true that the soul may and ought in cases of desertion and discomfort to put it selfe to the question as David doth more then once Psalm 42. and 43. why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me And the reason is because the soul-Troubles of Gods Saints after assurance had are mostly groundâ—d on phantasy and not reason so that if he put that question many times to himself he will find he is able to give very little reason why he is troubled and therefore he may lawfully endeavour to reason down reasonlesse Scruples although possibly it may be safer sometimes to cast them off without vouchsafing them so much respect as to spend reason upon them But in this case I must take heed how through wearinesse of staying Gods leasure for a release I betake my selfe to these reasonings for this is to abandon Jordan and fly to Abana and Pharphar to forsake the waters of Siloah because they run softly and Isaiah 8 6. make not so much speed towards us as we desire and labour to quench our thirst in muddy streams of our own This is to endeavour to break the Spirits prison as I have before told you rather then to stay his leasure til He turn the key And when a man seeks his Assurance only from his own reasoning 't is just with God to leave him to try it out what he can do in that way 2. If it be attended with a low esteem of prayer and other Ordinances of God as those which begin to appear bootlesse and unprofitable after so long trial to so little advantage Reason managed by prayer and by holy pleadings with God in prayer is a special means in the hand of the Spirit to work assurance but it is dangerous when it comes in the stead of prayer The nearer a soul is to a divine assurance the more hee values these divine duties and Ordinances of Gods appointment but when he growes slacker in these and flyes to Reason out of a distrust of these the more he is endangered to a rational Assurance 3. If a man when he sets upon reasoning out his evidences find himself overwilling to receive satisfaction and to take every smal hint as sufficient to bottom his confidence upon is willing to think the best of himself and so ready not so much to answer as to silence material doubts with general salvo's of the freenesse and fulnesse of Gods grace the general offers invitations and promises of the Gospel which as I have told you are rather foundations for relyance and hope then Assurance and evidence and apt to sit down upon these without descending to more differencing and distinguishing enquiries this is suspicious that the peace that ariseth thence though it be sutable to the estate of such a soul and so he being within the Covenant materially true is but rational Assurance 4 You may guess at it from the frame of your spirit under after-desertions A man that hath been assured by the Spirit is much maintained in his dependance by a reasonlesse support I call that a reasonless support which keeps up a soul in a way of relyance and dependance when he sees no reason why he should do so nay it may be sees reason why he should not do so As it is said of Abraham in another case That he believed in hope against hope Rom. 4. 18. that is Faith told him there was hope that he should be the Father of many Nations when Reason told him there was none So a soul after Assurance received from the Spirit can appeal to his former tastes and experiences and believes himselfe out of a plunge when Sense and Reason tell him there is no hope But a meer rational Assurance when it is counterbalanced by reason as probable on the contrary side affords no prop at all but sayes such a souâ— I perceive now all my former hopes were but delusions and dreams of golden mountains for I am yet in the gall of bitternesse and the bond of iniquity I shall easily grant in this as in most of the preceding differences that the distinction between the Spirits evidence and reasons to be gathered hence is not alwayes certain For possibly the Spirits evidence may afterwards be called to the Bar of suspicious reasoning and a soul that hath had it may by Satans Sophistry be at a losse but sure a man is not so liable to be reasoned out of that Assurance as one whose Primitive and Original Assurance was meerly rational As a man will easier be baffled out of the dictate and conclusion of his reason then of his sense And the Assurance of faith or divine Assurance is something in the soul like sense in the body 5 Ordinarily the Assurance that the Spirit gives surprizeth a man unexpectedly God therein loving to endear himself to his Saints comes upon them when they look least for him I mean as to the particular time of his coming though they look for him indefinitely every day he takes them at unawares There is little of mans plotting or contrivance in the bringing it about it may be in a Sermon that a man came accidentally to in a Prayer or Sacrament whence if a man might judge by the frame of his own spirit he had least cause to expect good it may be in casting a transient glancing eye upon a Scripture without a mans pre-determining such a means at least in a way of special confidence upon or expectation from it to such an end In rational Assurance a man layes the whole designe in his head before hand Now saith he I will
go meditate on such or such a subject and methodically discusse with my self such doubts and objections and labour to answer them and as he expects satisfaction from so doing so in the close he finds it God lets him alone to hammer himself out a peace upon the anvil of his owne thoughts 6 Lastly Meer rational Assurance though it may be from true yet oftentimes is drawn from mistaken Scriptures And this ariseth from the willingnesse before spoken of to receive Quod volumus facilè credimus satisfaction which makes a man easie to believe that which he would have so As in the maintaining of an opinion it many times falls out when a man takes up an opinion first and then seeks for Scripture to maintain it 't is wonderful to think how plain he presently is perswaded to think the whole Scripture speaks for it so here when this is laid down before I must have peace and hereupon a man searcheth the Word of God many times dark Scriptures that another man can see no such thing in shall serve the turne Prophetical Scriptures and Historical and it may be Doctrinal but grosly mistaken Now spirtual Assurance is usually grounded upon Scripture rightly understood and if habitual is certainly so and the clearer the Scripture is and the more plain the deductions from it the better it is For the Spirit of God understands Scripture perfectly as being the Enditer of it and so it cannot be supposed he will ground his Testimony on a Mistake Yet we must not think that it is every mistake of Scripture that is sufficient to annul a Testimony such as is circumstantial and not of moment to cast the conclusion this way or that way will not weaken the Testimony but only that which hath a material influence upon the deductions which I build upon it So a smal circumstantial mistake in a witnesse in Court is often overlooked by the Judge and Jury and the Spirit himself often quotes the sense of Scripture and omits inconsiderable circumstances As in many instances it were easie to make appear Micah 5. 2. Matth. 2. 6. Understand what hath been said with these Cautions 1 Think not I condemn the matter of such Cautions an Assurance as either hath all or most reason in it for false so that a man who hath reasoned himself into this perswasion must now question the perswasion it selfe as false For a true conclusion may be drawn from false and incongruous premisses and it may be as to form in the deduction there may be no error and a conclusion that a man receives only in a way of opinion may be certain in it self All that is in this case to be done is to hold the same conclusion by the strength of the Spirit drawn in by Faith in Prayer for the Spirit may testifie to that singly as I have before shewne and immediately and having so done to improve it to all intents and purposes as if it were never so unquestionable So a man may hold his land by a true Title but his evidences for it may not be as clear as he could wish now in this case he will not presently cashier himself out of the possession as soon as he discovers it but keeping that will labor by Act of Parliament or some other way to strengthen his evidences So when thou hast examined thy Assurance by the Marks of distinction between false and true before mentioned and findest it true though but rational keep thy hold and apply thy self to the Spirit to super-add his Testimony to the confirmation and improvement of it 2 Think not that I utterly exclude the help of the Spirit in drawing a rational evidence from the Scriptures I am so far from that that I rather judge that he helps in an ordinary way when the deduction is proper and the Scripture that grounds it is not in any material point mistaken as he doth in other works of common illumination as it was before hinted in the beginning of this last Discourse To add only a few words to the farther illustration of what was there affirmed A man may be said to preach or pray by the Spirit in a general sense when he doth those duties by the strength of common illumination and so sometimes even godly men do and the Doctrine he preacheth is the Doctrine of the Spirit and the prayers he puts up they are inspired by the Spirit in a way of common assistance But there is another kind of praying and preaching by the Spirit which the Scripture so often speaks of and calls the Spirit of Supplication and the demonstration of the Spirit performed by a special and peculiar assistance Zech. 12. 10. 1 Cor. 2. 4. of the Spirit Of which more hereafter in the handling of the last point And the like twofold influence of the Spirit is there in putting forth acts of Assurance in the heart even of a godly and sound Christian The very same man may act Assurance sometimes rationally and sometimes he may be acted to act it spiritually And yet in the former the Spirit acts too in a common way the latter only is that which because of special assistance is peculiarly said to be the Witness of the Spirit For denominatio sequitur partem potiorem though sometimes the denomination follow the best part in a thing composed of divers parts as a godly man is called a spiritual man though he have a carnal part and that may be possibly most prevalent yet most commonly the name is given from that which is most in the mixture or composition as we say an heap of barly though there may be many grains of other grain in it and in this sense the Apostle Paul calls Babes in Christ carnal 1 Cor. 3 1. So when the Assurance in the specialties of it is rational though there be some common work of the Spirit accompanying it I call it justly by way of distinction a rational Assurance Thus have I both answered the cases before emerging concerning a rational Assurance and withal let you know what use may and may not be made of it I add for a close that it is well for the standing peace of the Saints when their spiritual evidences are rational because Assurance that is praeternatural to a man is so far violent and so cannot be perpetual and therefore the Saints will do well to endeavour to make even the Spirits evidence rational and on the other side it is well for the certainty and security of their evidences that they labour to elevate the Evidence of reason into a Testimony of the Spirit CHAP. XXV The Duty of keeping the Evidences of the Spirit pressed with several Motives THis also affords us an useful Exhortation in several branches I. Labour to keep and maintain this evidence when you have it For 1 It is the surest evidence of the best inheritance in the world If a man lose all his evidences for an unconsiderable part of his
Estate or the weakest Evidences for the best part of his Estate it troubles him not much so long as he hath still the firmest Evidences of the best part of his Estate remaining because those he may bear the losse of without undoing But if these be lost he is losttoo You may lose your Evidences of your earthly estate and if heaven be sure you may not only not grieve but even rejoyce in the loss But if you lose your Evidences of heaven you are as to all the truest comfort of your lives undone men And yet if you lose but some of these and retain the main you are in a happy condition It may be you lose the evidences of Grace the spirit of Prayer in its sensible assistance the verdure life and activity of your souls in the wayes of God nay you lose the Promises you canot find one Promise in the Word of God that you dare own Now stick to the Testimony of the Spirit keep that and you have an Evidence still in stead of all and that will recover them all againe 2 It may easily be lost as to the actual enjoyment of it though the Habit cannot be lost The check of one holy motion may grieve the Spirit Eph. 4. 30. the commission of one sin especially by way of presumption and back-sliding may remove him See in David Psalm 51. 12. Lusts be cunning Theeves and if they get into your heart again the thing they most rob you of is your Deeds and Evidences for glory and then they know you are prone to be perswaded to take a portion here seeing you have lost all certain grounds of expecting a better 3 Satan is alwayes at hand to deprive you if possible of the influence of the Spirit this way He knowes what a mighty rub it is in the way of all his Temptations that Gods people walk in the light of Gods countenance and in the comfort of the Spirit Therefore the greatest and most desperate temptations of converted souls tend to the hindering or weakning of Assurance As a cunning Adversary in Law layes plots if possible to weaken the validity of his Antagonists strongest evidences or to get them into his hands and suppress them 4 The Evidence of the Spirit lost will not easily be recovered again It cost David many a tear and many an heart-pang ere he could recover him again Psal 51. 11 12 Satan having gotten your deeds into his hands or made them suspected in the Court of Conscience or it may be damned in the Starchamber of a mans own deluded heart for counterfeit it will be an hard matter to prevail for their admission ever to appear in Court again The greater intimacy and secrecy of communion there hath been between thy soul and the Spirit of God the more difficulty will there be to make up a breach if it fal out between you See Prov. 18. 19. 5 Lose that and you lose all the rest Graces will not shine Duties will be cold and dull Promises will speak nothing our owne spirits when they are called forth will bear false witnesse if the Spirit be dumb They will all say as the King to the poor woman How can we relieve thee except the Lord help thee 2 King 6. 27. Thou maist go to the Word and not one syllable of it but will witnesse against thee to thy own heart and that is possessed by Satan and dismal despair and there is nothing but blackness Call forth thy Graces and ask them and there is not one will answer to his name If thou say Come forth Love and evidence for me I am mis-called saith Love I am but selfishness Call forth Faith that is not my name saith Faith I own no name but Presumption Repentance will be called by no name but Legal sorrow Zeal will be called fury and rashness new obedience hypocrisie and formality c. Call to Duties and Prayer will say I am tongue-tied and cannot speak Hearing will say All that I can meet with in a Sermon is terror the Sacraments will say thou hast eaten and drunken damnation there is not a dram of comfort for thee in us If the Sun hide the Moon and Stars give none or a very obscure light All Hamans intimate friends when the King but frowns are so far from daring to speak for him that they cover his face and are all ready to have him away to the Gallowes whereas on the other side every grace duty providence ordinance hath something to say for a man when the Spirit of God is the foreman of the Jury they all say as he sayes CHAP. XXVI How this may be done And first concerning keeping Records of them Quest BUt how shall I keep the Testimony of the Spirit when I have it Ans 1. Record it carefully That is the way for a man to secure an Evidence of his Lands or estate to serve him at all turns to record the Deeds of bargain and sale or Donation or whatever other way the Title is secured with all the formalities of Law c. that may illustrate or confirme them There be two Courts in which these evidences are to be pleaded or impleaded And therefore it will concern you to have a Duplicate of this Evidence that there may be a copy in each Court 1 The Court of Heaven Now it is true that God enrols all such Acts of his Spirit there but this is but a private record as I may say with reverence for Gods own use The Lord knowes who are his 2 Tim. 2. 19. This private record I cannot produce at any time because Secret things belong to God Deut. 29. 29. But there is another way of laying up a more serviceable Record in Heaven which a man may have forth coming as we use to say upon all occasions that is by commending our Evidences to God in Prayer desiring his own Spirit that gives them to be our Remembrancer of them in times of need This is one of the Offices of the Holy Ghost not only to be the Comforter of the Saints but their Remembrancer and Recorder too John 14. 26. Christ had told his Disciples many comfortable things in the whole preceding part of the Chapter and now towards the upshot and period of all the great comfort with which he interlines all the rest both in this and the following Chapters is I will send you another Comforter And the Comforter shall come whom the Father shall send in my name But what shall he do when he comes Why he shall first be their Instructer and the Promoter of their farther progresse in saving knowledg wherein they were but Novices till Christs Ascension He shall teach you all things and he shal be their Recorder or Remembrancer he shall suggest so Beza renders the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suggeret or prompt your forgetful memories in all things which I have told you True there 't is not spoken barely of the things immediately preceding but of all
that God he took him for that there was error personae in the Match 7 Beware of that which I have often before warned you of vain unprofitable Erroneous or ungodly company This will not only damp convictions I have shewed you so much before but comfort also Ordinarily our spirits by sympathy become much-what of the temper and alloy with those with whom we converse 'T is a difficult thing for a mans spirit to continue free from impressions of sadnesse that converseth with a mourning company And 't is no lesse difficult for a soul to be seriously affected though he have never so important businesse in hand when the persons he is most familiarly conversant with are all set as wee say upon a merry pin 1 Vain and unprofitable company have not weight enough in them to add any balast to a spirit under the full sails of gracious Assurance nay they substract and withdraw that which it hath before within it self and then it is no wonder if it be overturned whiles the heavenly gale that fills those sailes for want of a serious care to manage it leaves the soul to a blast of frothy carnal delight which will soon over-set it 2 Erroneous and for in this case we may very well put them together ungodly company on the other side will make it their businesse to bore holes in the vessel it self to corrupt a mans principles and let in upon him such a floud of brackish and unsavoury waters both opinions and practices as will so marre all the precious lading of the soule that the Spirit in just discontent will refuse to fill its sailes any more it being not worth the labour to bring that vessel to harbour which is laden with meer trash and rotten Commodities Erroneous company will endeavour to break the chain of Truth in which Assurance hangs One Truth lost loseth it In a word The holy Spirit of God will not partake in the scandal of such an Association If I be never so much an acquaintance or intimate friend to a man yet I will not accompany him into all Societies which possibly he may bee engaged unto If he will converse with me I expect that he should do it either in a way of privacy or if in a more communicative way yet in such company only as may sute my genius or disposition my quality and reputation or else there I will leave him and if I see hee intends to make a consolidation of acquaintance and converse between me and such as I cannot comfortably converse withall I will break off familiarity with him altogether And surely I cannot expect that the Spirit of Grace truth and holynesse should serve me otherwise if I abase him so far in my esteeme as to endeavour to draw him into Partnership with me in the Society of empty erroneous and wicked men No question but such an affront will cause him to withdraw CHAP. XXIX A fourth and fifth Direction concerning the use of our Evidences 4. BE much in the Actings of Love and Thankfulness 1 Love Coolings of affection on our part towards God God cannot bear It were an unnatural monstrous ingratitude at such a time to flag in our love when we are under the fullest and most enlarged enjoyments of his love to us Then if ever when Gods countenance shines upon us will it make our faces reflect the same smiling beams of love upon him again Surely such enjoyments act much beneath themselves if they produce not a love stronger then death it self If the Saints of God use to love God and 't is their duty so to do even then when he breaketh them in the place of Dragons and covereth them with the shadow Psal 44. 19. of death if when he will not vouchsafe them one smile upon their souls will not speak one good word to their aking hearts but all they see from him is ghastly frowns and all they fear from him is chiding and thunder How much more may we think it reasonable and just they should do so when he spreads his own banner of love over them when he brings them into the Banquetting Cant. 2. 4. house when he layes his left hand under their heads and his right hand embraceth them Cant. 8. 3. 1. 2 when he kisseth them with the kisses of his mouth and paves all those Chariots of Ordinances and Duties wherein he conveyes himself to them and them to himselfe with love And Cant. 3. 10. therefore if at such a time your love kindle not beyond the ordinary proportion you cannot but provoke him to with-draw in displeasure See what one cold entertainment of a visiting Christ cost the Church Cant. 5. I opened to my Beloved but my Beloved had with-drawne himself and was gone His love was hot in the visit but hers was too cold that gave him such an entertainment and therefore when she opened at last he was gone v. 6. And then when the Scene was changed and the visit fell out to be on her part he served her in the same fashion he would not be within She sought him but she found him not 2 Thankfulnesse I cannot imagine if a soul were to wish a good thing on this side heaven and have it what it could desire like spiritual Assurance of Gods love It is as near of kin to heaven it self as possibly can be It is a kind of beatifical vision proportioned to the capacity of a mortal creature And certainly the more we are admitted to the life of heaven in happiness the more near we ought to come to the life of heaven in thankfulness Because an heavenly life is a life of the greatest fruit ion therefore it is a life of greatest thankfulness To receive extraordinary mercies with an ordinary spirit a spirit not warmed into extraordinary sensibleness of it and thankfulness for it is among the greatest provocations of God the giver of them that can be Discoveries of Gods love have used to non-plus the utmost abilities of a thankful heart Psal 116. 11 12. What shall I render saith David to the Lord for all his benefits towards me And then is thankfulnesse greatest when like the peace of God which occasions it it passeth all understanding 5 Let love and thankfulness carry you on with delight in all the wayes of Duty and obedience The truth is this is the proper use of divine discoveries Why doth the father smile upon and make much of his child is it not that he may be thereby encouraged to dutifulness and obedience Why doth the Sun shine upon the earth except to make it fruitful Upon these termes the Church is engaged to run after Christ Cant. 1. 2. 3 4. If Christ draw with Ointments and kisses the fragrant allurements and temptations of his love 't is an addition of strength and agility to a poor crippled soul Now if Christ find that you receive his favours but reject his commands that his countenance is delightful and his
yet you are sure of a glorious and happy condition hereafter This you have ver 17. And therefore that the present sufferings which you undergo are no way worthy to be laid in the ballance to abate the least dram of your joy ver 18. for you are heirs not younger children or servants to be put off with gifts as Abraham did the rest of his children besides Isaak but heirs to the estate and what is that estate Heirs of God of all that God hath and is and you partake of the same inheritance with Christ himself co-heirs with Christ 2 That in the greatest dejections deadness and decayes upon your spirits you are sure you shall have assistance enough to keep the intercourse between God and your souls alive verse 26 27. It may be Soul thou art in a strange stupidity of spirit that thou knowest not what to desire the Spirit shal teach thee what to pray for But though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bears or lifts against as a partaker of the same burthen thou know what would do thee good thou canst not ask it the Spirit shall help thy infirmities But it may be thou canst not speak a word when thou goest to seek God yet the Spirit shall help thee to groan But will God understand those groans Yes for he that searcheth the heart knowes the mind of the Spirit 3 That you shall receive benefit to your selves from the saddest of Providences ver 28. All things shall work together for good All things Ordinances Providences Prosperity Adversity sinnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 work together They are at work it is their bussnesse All the businesse of the Creatures being servants to God is for the good of his children and they work together for their good Things never so different in their natures and operations conspire for their good as several contrary ingredients in the same Medicine â—ee Ver. 31 correcting each other and one doing what the other cannot 4 That you shall want nothing that you had not better want then have ver 32. He spared not his Son Had he exercised that severity on an Angel it had been much But he spared not his Son not a Son by Adoption but a Son by Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But delivered him up for us all Delivered to whom to Herod and Pilate and Judas and Satan to what to the curse and wrath of God to the death of the Crosse for us in our stead And how shall he not with us give us all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How shall he not gratifie us with a free grant of all our desires A Saint assured of Gods love hath all the treasures of heaven and earth at command He is assured if God or creatures can supply him he shall never want any good thing Psal 23. 1. Psal 84 11. 5. That whatever your own misgiving heart tells you or Satan maliciously suggests you can never by all the power of earth or Hell be deprived of any of these priviledges nor lose them by your own sinful miscariages Sinnes cannot deprive you For this would destroy the satisfaction of Christ either Christ suffered for all the sinnes of Gods elect or for some only if for some only then none can be saved of all Gods elect seeing he cannot satisfie for that himselfe which Christ hath not satisfied for If for all then none of them can be condemned Sin may trouble them sadden their Spirits as it ought hide Gods face but it cannot condemn them The Apostle challenges sin and Divel and all in that case v. 34. And all creatures in the following verse 2. Plead it at all times 1. Before God In all those things which you come to God for you must plead Title If you come to God for any good thing you must plead some engagement upon him and the ground of your plea must be either a general or a special promise 'T is true general promises are a good plea when a man hath no other But God loves and 't is much for the comfort of Saints that we urge him upon special bonds Therefore the Saints are bid to say Father and our Father 2 Against Satan and his suggestions 1 Sinful 'T is a good Argument against temptations to sin How shal I that have had such tokens and tastes of Gods special love do this great wickedness and sin against such a God Gen. 39. 9. And if God makes it an aggravation of sin as he doth 1 King 11. 9 why may not we make it an Argument against sin 2 Troublesome When Satan molests the soul with fears and doubts of thy condition have recourse to thy Evidences Tell him thou wilt plead against him before God as a common Barretor for molesting thee in so clear a Title 3 Against the unbelief upon thy own heart This David keeps up withal Psal 73. 26. I confesse saith he I am at an utter losse both without and within yet God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psalm 42. ult and 43. he checks his heart in sadnesse upon this account Why art thou cast down c. Trust still in God who is the light of my countenance and my God CHAP. XXXI An exhortation to recover the lost evidence of the Spirit And some advice how to do it in two particulars HEnce be exhorted thirdly to labour to recover it if lost Qu. How shall I do that A. 1. Sit not down quietly rest not in that condition If a man have lost the evidences of his land he will look over all his boxes and chests and romage every corner as we say and will not leave till he hath found them again Thus in the place before quoted did the Holy man Ps 77. My spirit made diligent search The Saints of God in the Scripture could never sit still under such a dark condition It was death to them Psalm 13. 3. and 143. 3 4 7. And no wonder for the darkening of their evidences is a suspension of all influences As during the darknesse of the night or the eclipse of the sun by that interception of light there is a suspension of that quickening influence which the sun hath in things below All graces will wither when God thus hides his face all Duties will be dead and barren all comforts clouded and imbittered as I before also shewed you A woman that loves an husband is reassured of his affection to her cannot endure long absence from him If ever you have been ravished with the love of God you cannot bear his absence long Here I do not advise you to an impatient Caution restlessenesse under that condition No that is too often the fault of Saints But I caution you against a sloathfull resting in such a condition I must be contented with it as it is Gods pleasure but I must not be contented with it as it is occasioned by my default To know this you must 2. Enquire where and how
less sensible Because God permitts this darkness in designe for some special ends of his owne Now the person a man puts on upon designe commonly he useth to over-act even beyond what he would if he were reall So although when God was really an enemy as before conversion he carryed himselfe by secret supports and encouragements of the soul as one that was not utterly irreconcileable yet when he meerely intends to appeare so he carries himselfe so strangely that the soul really believes he is in earnest and intends its ruine irrecoverably Lam. 3. 5. 7 8 9. The church aggravates her sad condition from extraordinary appearances of Gods dealing with her God in such a case leaves the soul alone like a sparrow on the house Psal 102. 7. And woe to him that is alone Eccles 4. 40. 4 And thus fourthly The grounds of the horrid troubles that Gods Saints fall into after assurance may be and are occasionally from the Spirit of God though immediately and by way of an efficient cause they are not from that spirit Thus the Spirit led Christ into the wildernesse Mat. 4. 1. 1 By an active suggesting to the soul such considerations as may start a soul-trouble As when it makes a fresh disâ—overy of New committed sinnes and stirs up the soule to renew repentance for them Such motions may be the occasion of farther enquiries into a mans own heart and so of questions concerning his estate And thus by degrees they may grow into as palpable Legal Terrours as any ever the soul groaned under 2 By withdrawing that assistance from the soul which should maintain the soul in peace and joy of the Holy Ghost When the Sun hides behind a cloud or is under an Eclipse it must needs be dark If the Father let goe the little childs hand in a dark and dangerous place he will surely fall And thus is the Spirit the negative cause if I may so express my self of the saddest bondage that comes on the people of God after Assurance 5 But Lastly the Spirit to be sure doth never cause and work a feare of bondage in the soul after Assurance as it did before and that may be seen in these differences 1. Before there was a time when he convinced the sinner of a state of sin and enmity to God After it never doth tel a man so any more 2. Before there was a time when he convinced the soul of a state of wrath and condemnation arising from that enmity but having once effectually converted and assured the soul of reconciliation he never presents hell and wrath any more to the soul as its portion 3. Besides He sometimes presented every act of sinne as unpardoned Now he never doth so any more in that sense wherein he did so formerly That is that I may not be mistaken He never presents Gods vindictive or avenging Justice unto the soul as unsatisfied for such a sin though he may present Gods fatherly Justice as displeased at it 4. Before hee sometime presented every suffering of this life to the soul as a part of the curse of the Law and the earnest-penny of Hell Now he never leads the soul to the view of sufferings under that notion but only as fatherly corrections and chastisements by which God endeavours to quicken the soul into a speedy return unto him by renewed repentance and humiliation CHAP. XXXIV The proof of the Thesis from 1. Scripture 2. Reason THe truth of this point is abundantly cleer Proof from the Scripture and Reason For Scripture Take notice of the names by which the Spirit is set out to us in the Word 1 He is called the Comforter John 14. 16. And this in his peculiar Office to the Saints Now he would fail in the discharge of it if ever he should bring Gods adopted children into bondage againe Therefore when our Saviour promiseth the Comforter he also engageth that he shall abide with the Saints John 14 16. 'T is true their comforts are many times fleeting comforts But the Spirit of God is not to be blamed for that Ordinarily 't is their own fault and oftentimes Satans temptations eclipse the comforts and refreshments of the Spirit to the soule Though their comforts be fleeting the Comforter is not To debase himself from being the Comforter to the Divels imployment the Accuser of the Brethren is dishonourable to the Holy Spirit 2 Besides he is called our Seal and how long doth he continue so unto the day of redemption Eph. 4. 30. Hee will not to day scale an evidence of heaven to the soul and tomorrow seal its Mittimus to hell 3 Moreover he is called our Earnest and can we think that God will give us an earnest of heaven one day and revoke it again the next or ever deny the bargain which that Earnest secures unto us An honest man will not do so far be it from God to do what common honesty will keep man from Rom. 11. 29. 4 He is the Spirit of Adoption testifying to us that we are the children of God ver 16. of the chapter in hand And can it be imagined that he will ever tell a child of God that he is become a child of the Divel There is no lesse Reason For Reas 1. I have shewed before that The Spirit and the Word never crosse each others Testimony Now the Word never pronounceth bondage to any one that hath received the Witnesse of the Spirit nay not to any one that hath the least grace of the Spirit The Word every where speaks comfort to such Isa 40. 1 2. Rom. 8. 1 34. Reas 2. That which is the badge of a false Prophet and which God dislikes in such cannot without blasphemy be attributed to the holy Spirit of God But to make the heart of the righteous sad is a badge and sin of false Prophets Ezek 13. 22. Reas 3. That ought not to be supposed to be wrought by Gods Spirit which as often as it is on our spirits is our sin and infirmity but to doubt of the saving love of God after enjoyment of the manifestation and feeling of it is our sin and infirmity Psal 77. 20. And therefore the Spirit cannot be the Author thereof because the Holy Spirit cannot be the Author of sin Reas 4. That which hinders the most proper and peculiar work of the Spirit of Adoption cannot be the work of the Spirit except we suppose the Spirit so indiscreet as to counteract himself But if the Holy Spirit ever become a Spirit of bondage to the soule after tastes of Gods love communicated thereunto the Spirit would be guilty of counter-acting its most proper and peculiar work which as the next Doctrine from the last words of the Text shews you is to embolden and enliven the heart in Prayer For how can he call God Father with confidence to whom the Spirit witnesseth that God is an enemy Reas 5. The Spirits Testimony if it could ever become a Spirit of Bondage
from sin How do thy old garments fit thee Dost thou more and more grow out of love with sin and more and more put it off at least in the love of it This growth the Apostle saw when he could see none else Rom 7. 20. This is most discernable in the combats between the heart and Original sin when a man clubs it down in its first motions 't is a good token of growth A moral man may forbeare those sins in act which a godly man may fall into but a Saint labours more at the root of sin when moral men pare off the branches 3 A growth of heavenly mindednesse These toyes and trifles of the world how do they take with thee That which the Apostle saith of childish knowledg c. I may say of childish desires 1 Cor. 13. 11. A Saint then growes a man when he throwes away childish things Dost thou grow more liberal and open hearted The more a mans heart is loosed from the earth the nearer it growes to heaven Grace here is glory in the cradle and it daily growes heavenward 4. A growth of aimes and desires What dost thou purpose to thy selfe Will not small things content thee then thy appetite is growne The more manly we grow the more manly our aimes are See how the Apostle calls this growth of aimes perfection Phil. 3. 15. So that thy trouble that thou growest not and thy aimes at farther improvement discover that thou art improving Vse 3. This Thesis also is three waies for Consolation to Saints For 1. This confirms us in the Doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints For if a true Saint might fall away from grace the Spirit might justly again become a Spirit of Bondage to him For he that falls from grace falls under the Law and he that falls under the Law is liable to all its terrors as his proper portion For all that the Law speaks it speaks to them that are under the Law Rom. 3. 19. If a child of God to day might prove a child of the Divel to morrow surely the Spirit might safely tell him so 2 This scatters and dispells the greatest venom that imbitters Saints second troubles When a man looks on God as leading him into temptation it is far more bitter then when a man falls into it by his own neglect or Satans malice When a man apprehends the Spirit of God whom he expects as a Comforter to become his Tormentor this is a double torment Now against this the Lord gives us this cordial assurance once for all that to a Saint no such thing ever can be the work of the Spirit 3 This shewes Saints a ground upon which if it be not their own fault they may live in constant peace to wit by maintaining continual correspondence and un-interrupted amity with the Spirit of Adoption Surely he that never speaks Bondage after he hath spoken peace may be heard speaking peace alwayes were it not our own fault Did wee heed what hee sayes and acquaint our selves more with his voice we should find him a Comforter still But we are apt to give more eare to our owne carnal reason and Satans tentations then to his gracious and comfortable tidings Few Saints should they put their souls to Davids question Psalm 42. were able to answer it satisfactorily except there be reason why men should trouble and distract their owne spirits whether God will or no. And thus much shall suffice for this third point CHAP. XLV A fourth Thesis with its explication NOw come we to the last Thesis from the Text which is the fourth in this Treatise Doct. That one principal work of the Spirit of Adoption in the soul that hath received it is to enliven and embolden it in prayer That we may not mistake in the sense of the Proposition observe with mee first a few things tending to the Explication of it When I say a principal work I mean not to compare the assistance he gives to prayer with his work of uniting the soul to Christ in justification of quickning the soul with habitual grace in Sanctification or the work of Assurance it self For no stream can rationally be admitted into comparison with its fountain Now the Spirit of prayer is but an emanation of grace and Adoption first a Spirit of grace and then a Spirit of supplication Zech. 12. 10. And therefore this must be understood of those operations which flow from habitual grace and Assurance that of them there is no nobler act of the Spirit of Grace and Adoption enabling us to and in them then this Qu. 1. What act of the Spirit of Adoption thus works Answ When I speak of this particular boldnesse as the work of the Spirit of Adoption I would be understood of the Spirit of Adoption chiefly in his witnessing Act of which we have hitherto principall treated though I shall not here more then in the former point exclude him in his other acts only I shall shew from which work of the Spirit of Adoption this which wee treat of doth more immediatly arise For whereas I before told you twice of four works of the Spirit of Adoption to unite to witnesse to intercede to direct whereof the uniting act is the most noble and the fountain of all the rest union with Christ being the source of all communion you must farther know that the rest of these Acts do not alike primarily flow from the first but by the meditation and interposition of one another The spirit intercedes in us but by the help of his assuring work he produceth its most fervent and confident petitions And the last work his guiding work he performes by both the former viz. perswading the soul upon assurance of successe to fetch direction and assistance from God in all its wayes by faith in the promises and prayer Q. 2. Doth the Spirit work thus in all Saints Answ 1. When I say it is the work of the Spirit of Adoption I must not be understood to affirme a constant and perpetual assistance of the witnessing Spirit in all the Saints to the performance of this Duty in a like high spiritfull and confident way For the dearest Saints of God whiles they enjoy the Spirit of Adoption may be under strange deadnesse distraction and indosposednesse in Duty and under no lesse doubting suspiciousnesse and jealousie of God and his affectons to them which must needs hinder their boldness in calling him Father 2 Thus accordingly as we must distinguish times so we must distinguish between degrees of livelinesse and boldnesse in praying Between praying to God as to a Father and calling him Father aloud in Prayer or as in the words of the Text crying Abba Father For the Spirit as He unites the soul to Christ is a Spirit of Supplication helps us to pray and that with life and boldnesse But because he may possibly not alwayes act in his witnessing way although even then the soul is enabled to pray acceptably
displeasure on Gods 4. From the manifestation of our relation to Christ. Christs name being the only ground of all gracious boldnesse and fervency in prayer Heb 4. 15 16. and 10. 20. The Spirit shews us Christ as our mediator at the right hand of God assures us we have a mighty powerfull advocate the Fathers favourite at his right hand one who hath his ear as we say at command and his heart too who pleads strongly on our behalfe and therefore under the wing of such a mediator we may come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with assuming a liberty to speak any thing we will keeping within the bounds of reverence in the ear of God the Father As the Author to the Hebrews affirms in the place but now quoted Before the application of this point it is needfull to answer a question or two hinted at before but now particularly to bee handled CHAP. XLVII Two Cases stated whether Saints are at all times alike heightened in their spirits in prayer And if not whence the difference that is in them at several times proceeds Que. 1 ARe all that have received the witnesse of the Spirit at all times alike bold in prayer Que. 2 If not how comes it to passe that there is such an alteration in the spirits of Gods people That at one time they are more bold and fervent in prayer then at another Answ For answer to the first of these you are to know 1. That the boldnesse of Gods people in prayer depends not upon the reception of the witness in themselves but upon the actual improvement of that testimony If a man have never so good an evidence lying by him and he have it not ready to produce in Court when he is pleading his cause he cannot be so confident in his plea as at another time when he hath it in his hand And therefore 2 The best of Gods Saints as I have shewed you before may not at all times have his Evidences at hand to plead Many a Saint dares not sometimes to owne his relation to God and their Assurance admits of actual ebbings and flowings 3 Thereupon no doubt there must needs be lesse life and confidence in drawing nigh to God For at such a time 1 All the Promises are like a Book sealed to the soul In all the word of God it cannot find one Promise that it can urge with confidence For the Spirits Testimony is the only light in which we can challenge and lay claim to any Promise Now the Promises are the very spirits and life of prayer Because they are the only obligations upon which the Soul can claim any thing from God 2. In such a season the relations between God and the soul are clouded The soul thinks God an enemy oftentimes and alwayes in such a condition questions at least whether he be a friend or rather whether he be not a meer stranger Now surely a man will have little heart or face to prefer a petition to one whose love he suspects much less to one whom by all probabilities he judgeth to be an enemy 3 In such a season all graces that are the very lungs whence prayer is breathed are very low and flat in their actings The absence of the Sun in winter makes the plants cast their leaves and pluck in their blossoms and the absence of the Spirit must needs make graces look dead and withered and saplesse True there is life in the root but little appears graces are benumm'd in such a season and cannot act so freely as at other times As Samson when his spirit of strength from thr Lord had left him thought to have gone forth and shaken himself as at other times but he could not A man thinks under spiritual with-drawings of God Now I will rub up my graces and bestir my self in prayer as at other times but he is deceived the Spirit of God is with-drawn from him Quest 2. But shew more particularly from whence this variety of tempers in prayer proceeds Answ What ever clouds the testimony of the Spirit and I have spoken much to that Head before must needs cause this difference in the frame of Gods people in prayer But to answer more particularly 1 It may be neglect of our frequent applications to God in that way A friend that a man converseth with every day he can speak more boldly and familiarly to then one that he sees but now and then When a soul visits God but now and then there grow strangenesses and jealousies betweene God and him and a man is to seek whether he be the same to him as he was in times past and so speaks to him with more faintnesse and flatnesse of spirit 2 It may be a fresh guilt of sin admitted into the conscience This as it weakens Assurance so it faints prayer A child scarce dares come to ask a favour from a displeased Father And how unwilling we are under such consciousnesse of guilt to come to God in prayer see in two examples Of David Psal 40. 12. Innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I cannot look up In former times I could have looked up with life and confidence in prayer but now they force me to hang down my head yea they are more then the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me I have neither the face nor the heart to come to God which I have had The other example is that of the Prodigal when he had been sowing his wild oats and began to return towards his Father see how low he speaks Father I am not worthy to be called thy Son c. and yet he still had the comfort of his relation in some measure he could say Father still How much lower must a soul speak that hath sinned away the remembrance or at least present sense of that dear relation 3 Many times the stream of life and confidence in prayer runs low for want of an endeavour to quicken our graces and this even under the sense of Assurance For a man may live in the light of Gods countenance and that may prove a temptation to him to walk more sleightly and not make such preparations for communion with God in a Duty as formerly When a friend growes a daily guest we do not feast him as when hee comes but seldom we then entertaine him with houshold fare whereas if hee visited us but now and then we would as we say make a stranger of him and provide for him of the best So when God growes a daily guest to a soul he is apt to grow bold to addresse himseâ—f to him with an ordinary frame and temper of Spirit to make no extraordinary preparations by trimming up his graces and laying out his strength in Duty and when God sees this he frownes and we hang down our heads when we come to him afterwards CHAP. XLVIII A third Case Whether the Spirit furnishes the Saints at all times with
when the Spirit suggests matter of prayer as in expressions Without all question the Spirit when hee supplies will not supply the lesse materiall part of prayer and not the more principall and momentous A man of a nimble invention and a fluent tongue may be able to speak high strains of Rhetorick in prayer but is the heart warmed sutably to the expressions If the stream run only from the teeth outward as we say 't is not supplied from a divine spring 5. If the heart be warmed also yet I ask doth its warmth produce the language of prayer or rather the language it Some good natures as we call them will weep at a passionate discourse either of their own or another mans The heart is first hot where the expressions are from the Spirit It may be expressions may add to the quantity of heart-affection in duty as on the other side dull expressions will much take off from the edge of a good affection But whence was the rise of thy heate in the substance of it from without or from within A natural mans expressions in prayer are the spring of his affections a godly mans affections are the spring of his expressions 3. Adde also that the fayling of expression in prayer is much our own fault 1. Sometimes we over-prize it In desiring it too sollicitously when absent in rejoycing and pleasing our selves too fondly when present discomforting our selves when we want it as if we wanted the Spirit because we have not a wished supply of the gift and laying the foundation of our hopes of acceptance upon that when present which we may be accepted without 2 Studying more to pray then praying that we may pray Spiritual abilities for prayer of whatever kind they be are usually fetched in by prayer Luke 11. 13. as water in the well is fetched up by putting water into the pump Whiles we are asking God hears and that he may enables us to aske He giveth the Spirit to them that ask him 3. Want of meditation I mean not of expressions but things Well studyed matter yeilds plentifull expressions the Poet observes Verbaque praevisam rem non invita sequuntur Horat. art Poet. Well-conceived matter is never stifled in the birth for want of the midwifery of apt expressions 4 Want of acquaintance with the Word of God Many people complain they have a great dearth of expressions in prayer but the cause of it is in themselves They do not study the Word of God which as it is a compleat magazene of matter so it is the best and most genuine spring of expression in prayer The language of confession petition thanksgiving which the Saints of God use in the Scripture is in a sort a supply from the Spirit fetched in by industry For it is all of it indited by the Spirit to our hands Those are surely therefore the most acceptable meet expressions to send up to heaven which first descended from heaven There is a strange vein of expression in prayer that conceited persons affect in these dayes which a man if he compare with Scripture will easily conclude to be a gibberish of a wanton age unknown to the Saints of God in former times The Spirit of God loves to indite your prayers when hee doth supply your defects that way in his own familiar expressions which are those of the Scripture CHAP. XLIX Saints are informed what deadens them in prayer Where also a case what to be done when a Saint cannot call God Father and in case some sinne streighten him As also how to maintain boldnesse and fervency in prayer NOw to apply this usefull point 1. In the first place this lets many poor souls under darknesse know whence that deadnesse and flatnesse of spirit which they are ever complaing of in prayer doth proceed They do what they can to darken their evidences and take delight in finding matter of charge against themselves to the shaking of them and yet take it ill that they cannot have that freedome and liberty and livelynesse in prayer which they desire This is as if they should cut off their own legs and then complain that they cannot go They clip the very wings upon which prayer should raise it self heaven-ward and then they complain they cannot fly so high in duty as they would Qu. But what shall I do if by reason of this darknesse I cannot call God Father with confidence Answ 1. Acknowledge with sense and feeling that unworthinesse of thine which discourageth thee Say Lord I confesse I am unworthy to be called thy sonne as the Prodigal doth and endeavour as much as thou canst to fill thy face with shame and confusion in the sense hereof 2. Acquaint him with thy particular straightnesse of spirit and the cause of it tell him what tyes thy tongue that thou wouldst pray but thou darest not own any relation to him desire him for his own glory to discover that relation to thee that may embolden thee to his service 3. Maintain notwithstanding this thy claim to God as thy Father upon those promises upon which at first thou didst believe God warrants every soul to call him Father that is brought to a desire to become his child None ever call'd God Father out of a sincere desire to that relation and the duties of it from whom God refused to accept of the title We never find God quarrell with any upon this account for calling him Father except they were such as denyed him filial duty and reverence Supposing then that thou canst not call God Father upon evidence of particular faith yet do it upon grounds of relyance such as his offers invitations promises plead that promise of Relation 2 Corinth 6. 18. 4 Ask spiritual good things of him under the obligation of that relation And urge him with his Fatherly bowels in Jesus Christ to all poor souls that come unto God through him Call him Father at adventure upon Christs score and see whether he can disclaim the name The advantage of this will be the hearing and granting of thy petitions and the Answer of prayer will be an evidence of thine Interest No greater foundation of Assurance then the Answer of our Prayers Psal 66. 19. See what a kind of Argument the holy man drawes Assurance from in that place If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my prayer But verily God hath heard me That is the Minor Proposition the Conclusion is natural therefore I do not regard iniquity in my heart So in this Case the Argument will be undenyable God heareth none but sons But God heareth me Therefore I am a Son Quest But suppose some Sin of a deeper dye then ordinary straighten me and weaken my confidence in approaching to God Answ 1 Then sensibly confesse and bewaile that sin before God Acknowledge that thou dost not only deserve the darkning of thine own faith but also the darkning of his face and that not only here but
such distracting suggestions and you then watch against him when you set your heart against them and turne your prayers edge against them till you have cast them out and then returne to your duty again Watch against your usual carelesnesse and when you find it growing upon you do likewise Watch against vain wandring thoughts and throw them out by a speedy laying hold upon some more weighty Meditation if any such be at hand if not but thou findest thy self wholly possest with such fancies do as before I advised turn the edge of thy prayer for that while against them Watch the kindlings of the Spirit and where thou findest but one little spark of fervency and zeal glowing ply that Meditation that Subject hard that kindleth it Follow the Veyne and thou wilt be Master of the Mine at last 4 Be much in begging the Spirit of prayer and calling him in to constant assistance in the Duty Urge his Office upon him he is a Spirit of Grace and Supplication And to enliven and embolden the Saints is his principal work 5 Rest not in formes of Prayer I do no way doubt but that a godly person newly brought in to the exercises of Religion may be sometimes to seek in expressing himself before others and in such a case if a publick person or Master of a Family I am not so severe as to forbid him the use of a good form either of his own or others framing and in the closet it may be good to read now and then for example and pattern the formes of others but especially the prayers of the Saints recorded in Scripture and among them the Psalmes which are most of them made up of matter of prayer either in way of Confession Petition or Thanksgiving that they may suggest to us quickning matter of prayer Nay whiles I read anothers form wherein I meet with passages sutable to my condition I know not why I may not say Amen to such Petitions But yet I know not by what warrant any one in private or constantly before others binds himself to the very same series and frame of words Nay I think it is an Argument either of much lazinesse in not improving the utmost of a mans owne abilities and interests in the Spirit to enable him or at least it proceeds from a fond and erroneous conceit of God as if he minded more an exact composure of Petitions then the real although immethodical and lesse quaintly dressed desires of a mans heart The truth is no man useth a form of prayer much but finds it if hee know his owne heart a great deadning to his Spirit If a Preacher should twenty times in a year preach over the same Sermon would not the veryest Formalists of his Congregation and indeed all others sleep and grow weary under such preaching And do we not see the same effects generally under a form of Prayer or at least is there not the same reason why wee should expect them A perpetual use of the same form is a more tedious tautology then that which such persons often blame in conceived Prayer viz. the repeating againe and againe the same Petitions in the same prayer For this may proceed from fervency See Psalm 124. 4 5. and 116. 14 18. and 80. 3 7 19. The other imports or begets lazinesse at least it gives suspicion of it and that not altogether causeless to others which hath much of the appearance of evil in it Object But Sir will you have us alwayes adventure upon an extemporary way of prayer Shall I offer to God that that cost me nothing Ans No by no meanes But you must know that conceived Prayers upon the variation of a mans condition or other occasions are not the same with extempore prayers 1 A man may pray extempore in a forme if he come unprepared and rush upon it as too many do as the horse into the battel he offers up the Sacrifice of fools and is rash with his lips before the Lord which is forbidden Eccl. 5. 1 2. 2 And on the other side a man may alwayes very as occasions vary and yet not pray extempore having before meditated upon the matter of his Petitions and layd up store of furniture for prayer though he trust much to present gifts for expressions I cannot call this extemporary praying 3. Neither yet is it unlawful upon some occasions and in some cases to adventure upon this Duty extempore both for matter and form As in daily and hourly occasional Ejaculations in case of a sudden call unto the Duty by any unexpected providence c. in which cases Christian prudence being the Judg and judging rightly the petitions are neverthelesse welcome to God for their extemporarinesse 4 And lastly yet must we use this liberty very tenderly and suspiciously lest our hearts perswade us that there is a greater frequency of such occasions then there is and so it prove a snare to us when we find it may be more then ordinary abilityes without ordinary endeavors as somtimes when God calls to sudden service he gives in sudden supplies we may be tempted to expect the same abilities in the same way without the same call We must not tempt the Lord our God And that is done one way when we expect extraordinary supplies from him in the neglect of the ordinary way appointed by Mat. 4. 7. him for the attainment of them CHAP. LIII A third Duty to come boldly to the Throne of Grace pressed 3 COme boldly to the Throne of Grace as Children to a Father 1 Under the Assurance of Gods love this is easie This will make a man talk with God face to face as a man talketh with his friend as it is said of the familiarities that passed between God and Moses Exod. 33. 11. to commune with God and draw nigh to plead with him when others stand at a distance as Abraham Gen. 18. 22 33. 2 We may under that assurance claim it as our priviledg A Princes Son when others are kept out by Officers and Guards is admitted at all times if any Guard stop him he pleads the priviledg of his Relation So though there be never so much darknesse and fire and terror round about God that seems to guard his presence from a Creatures approach an assured Saint can say Make way there and let me come to my Father guards are appointed to exclude strangers not sons 3. God expects and requires we should come with boldnesse to his Throne Hebr. 4. 16. Let us come boldly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking liberty to speak any thing so the word signifies in the Original Not simply any thing quicquid in buccam for Solomon cautions us against that Eccles 5 1. as is abovesaid but any thing that becomes the reverential duty and honour that we owe to God as to a Father A child may say any thing to a father that is that becomes a child to speak or a Father to hear Besides he may speak
without fear of being made an Offender for a misplaced word for a fault of circumstance as other strangers are Nay when God doth not hear the Saints voice as many times when they are under some pressures that over-burthen them he may not How he calls for them and invites them to speak Cant. 2. 14. O my Dove let me hear thy voice for thy voice is sweet q. d. I wonder I heare not from such or such a child of mine It may bee my little child thinks I cannot away with broken language the language of a troubled spirit O yes the broken and stammering tongue of a child is sweet It is a mighty encouragement to boldnesse that a man cannot be more bold then he is welcome 4 This is the purchase of Christs blood We have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this bold liberty of speech through the blood of Jesus Heb. 10. 19. We may draw nigh which is an action importing confidence when we have to do with our betters but upon what account Upon the account of Christs bloud when strangers must stand off and keep distance Ephes 2. 13. And it is the fruit of his Intercession Therefore Heb. 10. 22. we are bid to draw neer in full Assurance of faith that God wil not bid us depart his presence or stand further off and the ground of this boldness is the purchase and intercession of Christ v. 20 21. Hee that hath made his way by an acceptable present or hath the protection of some honourable and acceptable Courtier will draw nigh and present a Petition to an earthly Prince with confidence God never received a present that he was more delighted with then the active and passive obedience of his Son nor can wee come to God under the wing of a more powerful Advocate On this last Head I could enlarge abundantly As by representing to you The dearnesse of this Son to God He is his beloved Son Mat. 3. ult in whom his heart is at rest The infinite value of his obedience which we plead in proportion whereunto the things we ask are lesse then nothing Hee offered that to God which by the merit of its worth might have sufficed to purchase infinitely beyond what 't is possible for us to enjoy The earnestnesse sensibleness importunity authority if I may so speak with reverence of his Intercession See the former Hebr. 4. 14 15. and 2. 17 18. The latter John 17. 24. There are in a sort Verba Imperatoria words of command shall I say Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be where I am 5 The Spirit of God is the Framer of our Petitions and we may then be bold to present them because he makes Intercession according to the will of God If a skilful Lawyer frame a Petition for a man and put every word in its place a man will be more emboldned to present it then if it were his own composure Rom. 8. 26 27 6 'T is for Gods dishonour when his children come sneakingly and pusillanimously to the Throne of Grace If a man should see a Father that his children did scarce dare to speak to but in a mumbling tremulous manner would he not have cause to look upon him as a cruel tyrannical father unreasonably severe to his children CHAP LIV. A Question answered How a man may procure this boldnesse both those that have never had it though under Assurance and those that have and have lost it are directed Quest BUt suppose I cannot come to God in this manner with an holy boldness how shall I procure it Answ I answer either 1 Thou hast never had this actual boldness and confidence in prayer though thou hast had a just right to it Or else 2 Thou hast had it and hast now lost it 1 If thou hast notwithstanding thy Assurance of Gods love or at least some comfortable whispers thereof in thy heart never had this boldnesse in Gods presence as it is possible it may bee the case of many a child of God Some children even of earthly parents though they be assured of their fathers love yet cannot for their hearts put on a bold face to speak to them as some others can and so 't is often according to the different tempers of Gods children to be seen in their addresses to God I say in this case 1. Thou must look upon it as a duty so grounded as before and such a duty as God is exceedingly delighted withall and so strive to break the bonds of sinfull modesty There is a sinfull modesty which the very Philosophers condemne as a vice in morality and call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is nothing but a rustick and foolish weakness of countenance by which a man is hindred from just and honourable actions because hee cannot look discouragements and oppositions in the face as he ought to do This is an infirmity even in Gods people They come to God many times in Duty as if they were doing that that they are ashamed to bee seen in and are afraid of being taken in the fact This they must labour exceedingly against as an infirmity and often remember that they offend against an expresly commanded Duty if they come not boldly to the Throne of grace 2. Labour to fortifie thy selfe against all such things as may weaken thy confidence Such as 1 The consideration of Gods greatness and majesty with thine own vilenesse and unworthinesse In which case consider 1. True this should stirre up a fear of reverence and caution that thou do nothing unworthy so great a presence Eccles 5. 1. But thou must take heed of a fear of diffidence a fainting discouraging fear and to this end consider 2 That though God be a great God and a great King above all gods yet he is thy Father and Royal dignityes though they require a reverence sutable to the distance that ought to be between a Prince and a subject and that even from a sonne yet they stoop themselves exceedingly to relations Ahasuerus though none be dispensed with for intruding into his presence without a solemne call by the holding forth of the golden Scepter yet remitts of the rigour of that ceremonious distance to Hester his wife and Solomon Hest when his mother Bathsheba comes to him upon the throne he arises and commands a seat to be set for her on his right hand 1 Kings 2. 19. 3. That that great God hath promised to stoop and condescend to a way of communion and familiar converse with such vile creatures under the sense and apprehension of their own vilenesse Isa 66. 2 57. 15. Psalm 138. 6. Though the Lord be high yet hath he respect to the lowly So that no man hath more right to boldnesse in the presence of God then he that is most sensible of his own vileness God will not upbraid such a petitioner with his vileness Jam. 1. 5. 4. That the Saints of God have married these two together a serse of
they are or at least insultingly require them to be in a singing tune as well as they Psal 137. This now being the temper of the world that few will own the truth of any complaint against the times but they that suffer by them I cannot but expect that those who because they feel little themselves that is afflicting will see nothing but causes of Tryumph in these dayes and the providences of them should say Ad quid perditio hoec Wherefore this waste Why a Sermon of affliction and the duty belonging to that condition in such a time 1 But friends let me tell you there are those of Gods precious Saints whom these Truthes nearly concerne The same providence that occasions the rejoicings of some drencheth others in bloud and tears and certainly then what is the case of some of Gods Saints only by passion ought to be made the case of all by compassion Let me adde secondly publick joyes may be accompanyed with private sufferings and none can tell where the shooe rings but hee that wears it Lastly What others do any where suffer you may Lay up this Treatise by you though now it be fair to your seeming you have seen many a fair morning end in a rainy afternoon 't will be no burthen to carry a cloak on a mans back or an hood in his pocket if he travel because he knowes not how soon it may do him service The SERMON 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doth any suffer ill No matter how nor from whom nor what nor how long nor wherefore whether in mind or in body or estate whether from God immediately or from men or divels from open enemies or professed friends whether the suffeing be greater or lesser shorter or longer for evil doing or well doing whether the sufferer be a Martyr or a Malefactor this is an universal Duty a Panacaea a Receipt for every Disease and a Soveraign one too Bring the party upon his knees or upon his face and let him kindly pour out his soul before God 't is present ease and future health Is any among you afflicted Let him pray Is any man afflicted Let him pray Why is not a man to pray aelwayes as the Apostle expresseth it 1 Thes 5. 17. Yes doubtlesse prayer is a Duty that is never out of season Yet as in the performance of the Duty of Thanksgiving which according to the rule also is to be in all things there are special seasons in which it is more solemne and proper So in the other sister-duty of Invocation there is a time when more of our spirits and strength then ordinary is to be laid out upon it and that is the season in the Text that of affliction Psa 50. 15. The sense of the words is clear and so is the Observation which I shall raise from them which is this Doct. A suffering season of all seasons is a praying season The truth of this Doctrine will be cleared by these few considerations 1 If we look upon God And on him 1 As the first cause whoever or what ever be the second of every affliction that befalls us the Author of all the evil of suffering that is in the City in the family in the soul in the body Amos 3. 6. If the Lord bid Shimei curse David 2 Sam. 16. 11. If the Lord strip Job by the Caldeans and Sabaeans and slay his children in the whirlewind Job 1. 21 If the Lord stir up an Hadad Rezon and Jereboam against Solomon and his seed to rend the Kingdom from them 1 King 11. 11 14 23. Nay if in the horridst act that was ever done by men the crucifying of the Lord of glory and the killing of the Prince of life as it was a meer act considered without the sinfulnesse of it on the part of the Actors and as it was a suffering unto Christ under the guilt of mans imputed sin the Instruments acted nothing but what was before determined in the counsel of God and in what he underwent the Fathers hand bruised him Acts 2. 24. and Isai 53. 10. I say if all these and the like dispensations of providence be laid out for men by the hand and counsel of God no wonder if it so much concern the Saints to make their principal addresses to him in prayer Job 5. 6 7 8. See Eliphaz his counsel to Job who in a fit of impatient frenzy chap. 3. had forgotten what in a more calm temper he before acknowledged chap. 1. and 2. Although affliction cometh not forth out of the dust c. yet man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward q d. A man may seem to pertake of nothing but the common lot of mortality in sufferings here below because it is as ordinary a thing to him as for the sparks to fly upward and possibly this may abate the vigour of those apprehensions which it becomes him to have concerning the Soveraigne hand of God in those common evils But saith he Job recal to thy mind what thou hast said and knowest well enough that afflictions depend not meerly upon natural causes as those things seem to do which grow out of the ground but there is a special hand of God in all thy sufferings and the sufferings of all other men And what doth he hence advise I would saith hee seek to God and to God would I commit my cause ver 8. 2. Look on God as one who onely can sanctifie afflictions to us support us under them deliver us from them It is a duty of great concernment in time of affliction especially to pray It 's necessary affliction should be sanctified for the more strong our physick is the more dangerous if it do not work kindly and if God do not open the ear and seal instruction and hide pride from man 't wil not be done Job 33. 15 16 17 c. Every little affliction is intolerable to flesh and blood Heb. 12. 11. Every affliction is a matter of such grief to a man that it will make a mans hands weak and bring a palsey into his knees as the word is v. 12. of that Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except God strengthen them 1 Cor. 10. 13. And if God should alwayes strive the spirit would faile before him and the souls which he hath made Isa 57. 16. Perpetual suffering must needs break the back of a creature Now to God only belong the periods and full points as well as the comma's and smaller stops of affliction To God the Lord belong the Issues to and from Death Ps 68 20. the word signifies the bounds and confines of death he layes out to men the utmost border and bound of every affliction Now all these good things they grow it is true upon the tree of mercy but they are to be plucked by the hand of prayer God gives wisdome the radical grace enabling a man to act all the rest to advantage in a suffering time liberally but then it must be asked
special mercy of God and excellency in prayer that we become thereby so far Masters of our selves And so much the greater because it is the greatest misery in the world to be torn to pieces as Actoeon in the Poet by a mans own kennel of unmortified passions to bee condemned to eat up and devour a mans self because he cannot better his own condition or hurt others to gnaw a flint whence a man can get nothing but broken teeth and in a word to adde affliction to a mans affliction by acting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vexing himselfe and tire a mans selfe like a skittish Jade more with flinging then with his burthen 3 It is a comfortable evidence of and help unto the 1 Present Sanctification 2 Future good issue of our afflictions 1 Present sanctification of afflictions is both discovered and promoted by the kindly temper of the soul towards and in the duty of prayer 1 Discovered because it actually fulfils one of those gracious ends which God aims at in affliction the bringing us upon our knees Physick then doth most good when it opens proper passages to vent noxious humours Then the rod doth a child good when it brings down his stubborn heart to his knees Therefore we leave not whipping till a child begs forgiveness And on the other side take this for a certain Rule A prayerlesse affliction is alwaies an unsanctified affliction It was then grievousest charge that Jobs friends gave in against him that in his affliction he restrained prayer Job 15 4. 2 Promoted because it fetcheth a power from heaven to improve the rod. As every other creature of God so the rod is sanctified by the word and prayer But much of this hath been touched upon before Wherefore I passe it here 2. The future good issue of an affliction may be concluded and is promoted by the prayer fulnesse of the Spirit in trouble And this issue is 1. Partly the glory and honour of our graces arising from such a tryal 't is in prayer that a suffering Saint most acts faith patience humility sorrow for sinne c. The honour of our graces as the honour of Knighthood in England is usually received upon the knee And no wonder for Prayer is the paloestra the arena the theatre the artillery-yard of all our graces in which they shew their activity 2. Partly the removal of trouble it selfe God like a good Physician till wee sweat kindly lays on more cloaths and applies more heat but when we do so he withdraws them as fast in such a method and proportion as our necessity will permit I will not saith he contend for ever nor will I be alwayes wroth lest the spirit should faile before me and the soul which I have made Let God march never so much like an enemy towards a poor creature yet he is so generous an enemy that he never puts to the sword a submitting supplicating foe As 't is said of the Lion Satis est prostrasse c. Ira suum finem cum jacet hostis habet That prostration abates his rage and he never preyes upon a man that he finds fallen flat upon the ground Sure the Lord will not be so cruel as to give no quarter to a poor creature begging it at his hands You know how Benhadad escaped by casting himselfe upon the mercy of the King of Israel Coe tâ—ou and do likewise For the Lord delights not to grieve or vex the children of men Lam. 3. 33. He looketh on men and if any say I have finned and perverted that which is right and it profited me not He will deliver his soul from going down into the pit and his life shall see the light Job 33. 27 28. I might adde divers other motives but the reasons may all be revived here as inducements and I hasten Object But here lies the sadnesse of my condition I am under grievous afflictions and when I set my selfe to complain of them to God I cannot pray my tongue is strangely tyed that I have scarce a word to say what shall I thinke of my felf What shall I do in such a case Answ Thou that thus complainest art either 1. An utter stranger to the duty of prayer at other times or 2. One that at other times hast been well acquainted with God and that duty but now art in an unwonted deliquy or swound of spirit that thy wonted spirits faile thee to performe it And according to this difference of persons must my Answer to this Case be different 1 Thou that art a stranger to all acquaintance with God in this way 1. Look on this as a just band of God upon thee and that which is intended by him and should be received by thee as an heavy aggravation of his present judgment upon thy soule that thou who when thou wast free wouldst not pray and didst neglect to get acquaintance with God should'st now be so shut up as not to be able to speak a word for thy selfe in so needfull a time God deals with thee as justly as may be You would not pray saith God and now you shall not pray And 't is a sad symptome that at least for the present God intends little good to such a soul that he leaves at this passe For if when God intends no good to a people he forbids his servants to pray for them and stops the mouths of his Prophets as Jer. 7. 16. 11. 14. 14. 11. Much more when he restrains a man in misery from speaking in his own condition For when God intends to hear he prepareth the heart to pray Psalm 10. 17. 2. Be humbled and afflicted greatly before the Lord for the former neglect of acquaintance with him and know that God intends this straightening of thy spirit in so needfull a time of trouble as thy greatest affliction Take it then as such and account it thy greatest burthen that God should be so farre displeased with thee as that he will not only not hear thee when thou speakest but also shut up thy mouth that thou canst not so much as speak to him As when a Prince bids stop the mouth of a Petitioner As hardening the heart judicially is the greatest judgment that can befall a man on this side Hell because it shuts a double doore on a man to exclude him from mercy both a doore of mercy and admittance on Gods part during that condition and a door of repentance and penitent addresses on his own So doth this judicial shutting up the heart against prayer put a carnal man in the inner prison of judgment and wrath and puts his feet in the stocks so that the soul which ordinarily goes to God on the feet of prayer cannot now stirre so much as one step towards reliefe Now therefore acknowledge and bewayle thy former neglect of calling upon God whiles he was near God is farther off from unconverted sinners in adversity then in prosperity because then it is a
time of judgment and 't is part of their plague that God will laugh at their destruction Prov. 1. 26. 27. Be-fool thy selfe and be-beast thy selfe before God that thou shouldest be so improvident as to neglect the providing of any materials to build thee a shed against a storme or to think that thou shouldest never see a time in which thou shouldst have need of God Say Lord thou art just but I am wicked It is righteous with thee to stamp my punishment with the very image of my sin Thou art righteous though thou shouldst never open my lips or my heart though thou shouldest seal my condemnation to my soul by sealing up both my heart mouth and not suffering me so much as to open my mouth to petition for a pardon 3. Earnestly gâ—oan and sigh hefore the Lord as thou canst desiring him that he will not take against thee the advantage which thy provocations have given him that he will enlarge thy heart and bestow upon thee the Spirit of supplication And who knowes whether in praying that thou mayst pray God may not teach thee to pray 'T is not for nothing that God bids even carnal men to pray Act. 8. â—… Though they cannot pray acceptably without the Spirit sure 't is because in his ordinary way of dispensation the Spirit of prayer is given in praying as the spirit of faith is given in hearing though we cannot hear acceptably without faith Me thinks the words hold forth no less Luke 11. 13. He gives the Holy Spirit to them that aske him We cannot aske the Spirit as we ought without the Spirit yet we get the Spirit in asking 4. Think not thy present estate utterly irremediable For though there be a time when God will not be found of sinners though they seek the blessing with tears Heb. 12. 17. yet know that there is no time in which he excludes a penitent and sincere hearted petitioner And the reason why many a prophane Esau failes in finding is because he failes in seeking If thy heart be now so affected as is before described know God hath in part heard thee in giving thee an heart so seriously affected with its own barrennesse deadnesse and impenitency and know farther that barrennesse felt and complained of and groaned under is no more barren but occasionally fruitfull in many sweet affections though yet thou be straightened in expressions And there may be more prayers in one groane from an heart that is sensible of its own inability to pray then in many large discourses and â—rations to God from a formal and customary devotion 5. Shouldst thou dye in this condition with thy face towards heaven yet thou mayst dye with hope that thy present seed time of tears shall end in an harvest of joy that though thy mouth be shut on earth yet seeing God hath opened thy heart it shall also be opened in heaven The Thiefs prayer on the Cross was an effectual prayer though but a short one Let that keep thee from despair but let it not encourage thee to presume He that made but one prayer in his life and that at the hour of death yet that one prayer prevailed to open Paradise I fear his example hath occasionally shut it to thousands of presuming sinners that have presumed upon the same admittance yet as to thee whose heart God hath opened I dare present it as an encouragement Tell me not God opens not thy mouth if the heart be open 't is far more then if the mouth were never so enlarged One sigh in secret of a broken heart is more then many loud howlings of frighted Formalists and Hypocrites That key that opens the heart will open heaven too 6 And lastly Now resolve in the strength of Christ and the Covenant of Grace which hath layd help upon him for thee that if ever thou get out of the present trouble if ever thou be enabled to break these bars of indisposition streightnednesse of spirit thou wilt never be so neglectful of maintaining the acquaintance thou hast gotten with God as thou hast been in getting it And take heed for time to come that thou performe thy resolutions in that kind Take heed prove not so ungrateful or ill-natured as to look no more after God when once the present turn is served and thou thinkest thou canst go alone Let God see that thou seekest his acquaintance for his own worth and excellency not meerly for mercenary ends and thy own necessities Lest God deal with thee for time to come as men use to deal with those that haunt them only when they have need of them lest he resolve not to be at home when thou knockest for him henceforward and avoid all occasions of being spoken withal walk on the other side of the street that hee may not meet thee and be occasioned to take notice of thee and know thee afar off look high Psalm 138. 6. and keep distance and either in judgement shut up thy mouth and heart to prayer again which he may easily do 't is but with-holding the supply of the Spirit and thou art as dead as a doornaile as we use to say or else open it in a greater judgment to let thee tire and weary out thy selfe with such cryes and howlings as hee is resolved to turne the deafe ear unto And that is an heavy judgement to have the mouth opened in prayer and heaven shut against it Lam. 3. 8. 2 If thou be one of that holy generation of Seekers not above duty but under it Psalm 24. 6. Hast by a constant intercourse with God entered an holy acquaintance with him in former times and therefore takest it ill that thou canst neither send to him nor hear from him now that at so needful a time thou hast lost thy wonted correspondence and canst not because all thy wonted posts of holy and flaming affections and importunate expressions are stopped give him intelligence of thy condition 1 Do not judg over harshly of thy self because thereof For it is a thing under the greatnesse of trouble incident to the best of Gods Saints and is not so much to bee imputed to them as to the burthens that oppresse them Curae leves loquuntur ingentes stupent Little troubles are loud but great ones dumb 'T was Hezekiahs case Isaiah 38. 14. Lord I am oppressed The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being a Verb of the third Person and Feminine Gender saith one of the Rabbins hath relation â—o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 12. which we translate a pining sicknesse and 't is as much as if he had said My wasting Disease hath so spent my very spirits that I am grown a meer stock so dull and stupid that I cannot perform any duty of Religion as I would And 't is the usual complaint of most of Gods people that the weaknesse of their bodies in such a condition much deadneth the vigour and activity of their spirits 'T was Jobs case chap. 6.
3. My grief is heavier then the sand of the sea therefore my words are swallowed up Verba mea semesa sunt so some render the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fract a sunt corrupta sunt therefore my words are broken mangled words Broken expressions are the very gobbets of a broken heart Others read it as we Verba mea absorbentur my words are devoured or swallowed up My sorrow feeds so upon my spirits that it devours my very words and doth not leave me so much as the slender ease of a complaint A metaphor taken from the quicksands in the sea that swallow up a ship hulk and masts and sayles and passengers and all at a morsel as it were to which he alludes as appears in that he compares his grief to the sands in the former part This heart-oppression like a known melancholy disease in the night with which some persons are troubled so oppresseth the brest that a man cannot speak This was Hemans disease an holy man too Psal 77. 4. I am so troubled that I cannot speak Nay farther a Saint may be so low under hatches in affliction especially in soul-troubles under the Spirit of Bondage or spiritual desertion that his very eyes are shut as well as his mouth Mine iniquities saith David have taken hold on me so that I cannot look up Psal 40. 12. If this be thy case then be sure God pities thee the more by how much the less thou art able to speak for thy self As we use to pity little children and persons that are dumb and are sensible of the injuries done to them more then to others Alas poor souls we use to say they cannot speak for themselves Nay we pity an horse and such other unreasonable creatures when misused upon the same account Alas poor dumb thing who would use a dumb creature so Sure then God must needs be more tenderly pitiful to a soul in such a condition And our Mediator our Advocate in heaven must needs be the more eloquent in pleading for the Saints his Clyents when they are under such a tongue-tyed condition Alas saith Christ poor soul Father hear me for him he cannot speak for himself His condition speaks aloud for him because it hinders him from speaking 2 Know there be secret wayes of acquainting God with thy straights and pressures when the more visible and sensible outlets and avenues of the soul are all blocked up They that are skilled in the Military Art have sometimes shot intelligence in a bullet in the head of an Arrow when the City or Castle hath been besieged on all parts so closely that no ordinary way of correspondence with their friends hath been left open And this intelligence though it bee short and small in bulk yet may be as pithy and as much in substance and use as a whole sheet of paper written all over We starve or We want Ammunition or men to man our works so A few dayes and without relief we can hold out no longer is as good intelligence as can be in such a case It may be thou canst not tell God a large story how 't is with thee nor limne out thy sad case in lively colours canst not paint thy present death to the life or give light enough by thine expressions to discover the darkness of thy afflictions as David Hezekiah have done when they recovered their tongues again but yet thou canst say Lord I want Lord I am sick Lord I faint Lord I dye c. Thou canst with the Publican say Lord be merciful to me a sinner Luke 18. 13. With David in his troubled condition But thou Lord how long Psal 6. 3. With Hezekiah under his fainting fit thou canst chatter Lord I am oppressed undertake for me or ease me Isai 38. 14. And if thou canst not do so much yet thou canst set thy selfe as in the presence of God and even out of the mouth of hell look towards his holy Temple cast a begging look as children do towards some Sweet meats they dare not ask for towards the Throne of Grace so Jonah did Jonah 2. 4. Thou canst sigh and groan Now this is sufficient intelligence to God whose blessed Spirit speaks in these groans and he understands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the general bent inclination and affection of the Spirit and from it can pick out his meaning because he searcheth the heart Rom 8. 27. As a Nurse can make english of the stammering broken speech of the child nay the mother sometimes knowes by the looks of the child what its mouth waters for and a skilful Antiquary can write an History out of the broken Inscriptions of old coynes and Monuments of Antiquity because he is acquainted and useth to commune with those kind of fragments And take this for a certain rule a man may have much of the spirit of prayer who hath very little of the Gift of prayer and so may be streightned very much in this when his heart runs over with the abundance of that 3 Yet is not this condition to be rested in it being that that keeps the soul in a famishing estate but the Saints of God ought by all means to endeavour the recovery of their freedom and liberty of spirit and expression in duty as knowing that much of the comfort support and strength of their spirits is abated whiles they are thus tongue-tyed And therefore for recovery out of this spiritual distemper I would prescribe these Helps 1 Examine carefully what it is that streightens the spirit and shuts the mouth which may be 1 The greatness of your burthen as before And that you shal know by these two Marks 1 If it indispose you to all other imployments as well as to prayer Thus 't was with the Author of Ps 102 the Title of the Psalm tells you his condition he was one whose spirit was over-whelmed and how doth that appear My heart saith he is smitten like grass and withered a metaphor taken from frosts that nip the grasse and intercept the juice that should come from the root to the blades and so it becomes withered so saith he the extremity of my trouble withers and shrivels up my very heart so that I am like a dead saplesse thing But it may be he was only so in the matters of God and then it might possibly be his sin No he was so in all humane affaires too I forget saith he to eat my bread verse 4. No wonder saith hee if I bee withered in the affaires of my mind when I grow even carelesse of my very body I forget to eat my bread 2. If it shut up the heart in complaining to man as well as in complaints to God A troubled soul goes to a godly Minister it may be and thinks to utter to him all that is in the heart and fain would unloade it selfe in his ears but finds it selfe so straightened it can scarce say a word that it came for and that not meerly
A man that hath but confused notions of a thing is not able to make a clear and distinct relation of it Sometimes we cannot pray because we know not what to ask Rom. 8. 26. We know not what to ask because we know not distinctly what ails us troubled we are but we cannot tell why As a man divers times in distemper of body let a Physician come to him ask him how he doth he will tell him Sick Sir very sick But ask him where the seat of his distemper most lyes he cannot tel he is very ill and that is all that he can say Thus many a man is troubled in mind indistinctly and confusedly Now such a man cannot but be shut up in prayer The head is clouded and that cloudeth the heart And as in a mist a man sees Objects at a distance that fright him but because he sees them in a mist he can give no distinct intelligence of them So here And oftentimes melancholy of body concurs to hinder by darkning the judgment and distracting the fancy 3 Study Gods Promises and let them dwell in you plentifully And especially such Promises as most concerne your condition so discovered When David hath a Promise he never wants a Prayer How often Psalm 119. doth he urge God upon his Word ver 25 28 58 116 169. The Word is the quiver of all those holy Arrowes by which a straitned soul shoots intelligence to Heaven Prayer is nothing but the Eccho of a Promise I will ease thee saith Christ Matth. 11. 28. O ease me saith the soul Wait and God shall strengthen thy heart saith the Word Psal 27. ult Strengthen my heart saith the soul My grace is sufficient for thee saith the Lord 2 Cor. 12. 9 Let thy grace be sufficient for me saith the soul of a praying Christian Get a Promise and thou hâ—st a great deal of cloath for prayer it lacks but cutting out 4. Stir up the grace of God that is in thee 1 By Meditation Meditation is the bellowes that sets grace a flaming Meditate upon the forementioned Subjects thy owne present condition Gods love and Promises add to them thy frequent past experiences the nature use necessity of maintaining intelligence with God in thy condition the nature use ends of an afflicted estate the Duties that God expects from thee in it and many more subjects of this or a like nature And thou wilt find it with thee as with David Psalm 39. 3. My heart was hot I mused the fire kindled then I spake with my tongue He was dumb before but the heart growes so full now it must needs out or 't will break for want of vent Set before thee as matters of Meditation the chapters and places of Scripture that have been penn'd by the Saints in thy condition 2 By frequent essayes Thou canst not pray How often hast thou tryed It may be once or twice and then grown weary Try again man and again and again till thou canst Some never work well till they are warm Obj. But I can say nothing Answ Then go and complain Lord I would pray but I can say nothing Then look out a Promise and turn it into a Prayer and if thou canst do no more rise again and anon fall to it again Thus children learn to spell read and write What if thou go three four twenty times together and be able to say but a few words those stil the same Christ did so in his Agony In such a case if thou hast a good form by thee of another mans I know not why at least the viewing if not use of it may not quicken the Spirit of Prayer in thee Câ—uâ—ches may help us when we are lame that hinder us when we are sound 3 If thou caust get a godly experienced friend to pray with thee discover thy case to him as well as thou canst and let him spread it before the Lord and labor thou to joyne with him Iron sharpneth iron so doth the face of a man his friend In such holy communion one prayer begets another Two lying together grow both warm Or get such friends to pray for thee 1 Cor. 1. 11. Paul acknowledgeth a great deal of help from the Corinthians prayers A diligent use of these means and frequent application of thy self to the use of them wil by degrees recover thy lost acquaintance with God again FINIS The Contents THe first Treatise concerning the Spirit of Bondage layes down these two Theses 1. That the convictions concussions and terrours which bring a sinner before conversion under a spiritual bondage to the sad apprehensions of the curse and wrath of God due to him by the Law because of the guilt of sinne are ordinarily the works of Gods blessed Spirit 2. That In order to the conversion of sinners it is the ordinary and usual way of the Holy Spirit of God to become thus a Spirit of Bondage before he becomes a Spirit of Adoption To the first of these way is made by a preface containing a brief explication and vindication of the meaning of the Apostle Paul Rom. 8. 15. where he makes mention of this Spirit of Bondage wherein I state this Question Quest What the Spirit of Bondage is in the Apostles sense and the fear that proceeds from it Chap. 1. The Thesis cleared 1. By shewing how this work as it is managed by the Spirit of God differs from a like work of Satan And in the close thereof 2. By enquiring whether this work always ends in conversion Chap. 2. A few words are added to prove it Chap. 3. Practical Corollaries from the Premises 1. By way of support Chap. 4. 2. By way of Caution in several branches 0 1. Not to harden the heart against the Spirits soft voyce 2. Not to mis-apprehend our own case under bondage 3. Not to judge others in that case 4. Not to break the Spirits bonds but by his leave whether it be 1. By profane or vain diversions and avocations of our hearts from being serious and through therein Chap. 5. 2. Or by over-greedy grasping after peace and comfort ere we are prepared for it Whence ariseth A Practical Question concerning the measures of humiliation necessarily required to conversion and comfort and concerning fitnesse of the soul for comfort Chap. 6. The 3. 4 5 6. Corolaries Viz. By way of exhortation By way of conviction of the true use of the ministry of the Law By way of plea for the frequent seeming peevishness of poor souls refusing comfort By way of humiliation to such as herein have formerly it may be frequently stifled convictions and fears c. 7. The second Thesis explained 1. By enquiring into the nature of the work of the Spirit of Bondage where conviction is described ch 8. 2. By assigning the means of this work ch 9. Evidence given of the Spirits usual working this way c. 10. Qu. Vpon what designes the Spirit most commonly workes in this method Discovered in twelve
long and after a few minutes more be spent it may be this night this hour the foot of death may tread me into the earth I carry a Jewel in this earthly Cabinet that is more worth then all the world If Satan lay hands on it I am infinitely miserable to all eternity and whether if I dye this night the divels may not come to fetch away my soul I know not O if I could dye into another world once and have hopes to live again and recover my condition if it proved worse then my expectation I might adventure one of those lives upon an uncertainty but when as I must dye into eternity that my Sun must set and never rise again that what is said of a war is more true of death that in it non licet bis errare that though the tree that is cut down through the sent of water may grow again yet when a man dyes he cannot live again in this world Job 14 9 10. 14 but must measure out either wo or happinesse by the minutes of eternity O what is it worth to have the Spirit of God testifie that we are his children new born to the Inheritance of the Saints in light O how precious a mercy is it to have the zeal and earnest of that Spirit to assure it beyond Question 2. I am assured of this also that without the witnesse of the Spirit you cannot so fully have your hearts untyed from wordly encombrances It is true indeed that a soul that hears of the excellency of Christ and the glory of those things that are within the Vail may be convinced by the Spirit of God to adventure all that he hath for them but 't is still with fear lest he should miscarry in the losse of both As a Merchant that is fully assured that there is Merchandise in the Indies that is more precious then those English Commodities that he adventures for it may be drawn to put his whole estate in hazard that he may make a voyage thither but still there are misgiving and distracting cares attend this adventure O saith he I have put all I have into such a bottom indeed if it return safe I may be a hundredfold gainer but sea and Pirates may rob me of all my hopes and then I am lost both in my present estate and future expectations So a man to whom the Gospel is preached upon the presenting Christ as infinitely precious to the soul may be brought to deny himself and forsake all to follow Christ out of hopes to enjoy him but 't is with much fear True saith he if I get Christ I am an infinite gainer But if Satan cheat me or if Christ will not entertain me then I am of all men most miserable I have lost all my comforts my portion of this life and eternity too And therefore till the soul be sure of Christ it ever casts an eye backward as Lots wife on Sodom though Grace check those fears and keeps the soul on in its course yet still I say it meets with many temptations to think upon its adventure especially if Christ frown a while and to wish that it were to do again and many sad strâ—glings of spirit it hath with these temptations 'T is an hard thing for a poor soul to adventure all the world and have nothing in hand for it but only to expect its returnes hereafter What sayes the worldling A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush and that Cardinal Give me my part in Paris and take who will my part in Paradise And as some say now as well as in the Apostles time Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dye 1 Cor. 15. 32 and after death we know not where we shall fare better But a man that gets the witnesse of the Spirit is like one that adventures for a present Commodity a Commodity in hand a thousand times beyond his price or hath the earnest of his bargain put into his hand is certainly assured of the faithful delivery of the whole at an appointed time He never looks back upon his bargain so as to be tempted to repent it but rather as rejoycing that for so little he hath gotten so much See how the Apostle triumphs in this Phil. 3. 7 8. and 2 Cor. 4. 17. and those Saints Heb. 11. 9 26 35 and 10. 34. 3 I am assured also that you cannot be assured of your state of Adoption but by the Spirit of God The Arguments from which carnal men draw their evidences for Gods love how weak how fallacious are they God lâ—ts me thrive saith one therefore he loves me Ah fool so doth the Grazier fat his beast for the day of slaughter My conscience never troubles me saith another O mad man 't were thy happinesse if it did No more doth the man in a Lethargy complain of pain and yet he is the nearer to death for it But I live under the Gospel and go to Church c. Thou shalt lye the deeper in hell for that if it prevail not with thee to conversion But I pay every one his due So did many millions that are now in hel Heathens and Pharisees But God is merciful and I hope will have mercy on me at the last Though he be so he hath damned many millions in hell already that had as much confidence in his mercy as thou But I am not such or such a sinner So said the Pharisee Luke 18. 11. and yet was unjustified The Angels sinned but once and that it is likely in thought and are in hel and many thousands are there that have sinned far lesse then thou But Christ hath dyed for all men and so I have a share in his bloud O desperate Delusion Doth not Scripture say He laid down his life for his sheep and are all his sheep are not the most of men goats and shall be set at his left hand Might not all the damned in hel have hoped for heaven upon that ground as well as thou And are they not disappointed But I have gifts more then ordinary I can pray and expound Scripture and convert and build up others And yet thou maist be like sounding brass or a tinkling Cymbal 1 Cor. 13. 1 2. Those that are converted they seek Assurance in unlikely wayes too till they receive the Spirit of Adoption One resolutely chears up his heart and as it were enforceth himselfe to take comfort and to be at peace in the assurance of his good condition without following God in Duties and Ordinances for it Another begins to idolize his Duties c. and now sure saith he my estate is good for I hear attentively pray affectionately shed tears over my sins abundantly c. Another reasons himself into this perswasion fetching from the Word such and such grounds which he perswades himself suites his condition and thence concludes all wel And you shall see hereafter how fallible these are 3
The longer you go without the Spirits testimony the more difficultly will you obtaine it the more will your hearts be instructed in Satans Sophistry to elude Arguments of comfort if you be such as look towards God the more experience wil you have of your own hearts deceitfulnesse so-that you will deal with them as we ordinarily do with common lyars hardly be perswaded to believe their Testimony when they speak the truth concerning you If you be such as neglect both grace and assurance know that the more difficultly will you bring your selves to accept of grace the longer you delay it the heart will be hardned by the deceitfulnesse of sin Heb. 3. 13. The Spirit grived c. And if you get grace a thousand to one if you get the witnesse of the Spirit to testifie that you have it Though God give such men grace as put it off to the last yet it were too great an encouragement to others to delay in like manner if he should ordinarily let them know it 'T is no easie matter at any time to get it much more difficult when delayed Many souls for many years together eat no pleasant bread and when they drink mingle their drink with weeping their sleep departeth from them and all the comforts of their lives are overcast with a sad cloud of darkness they go from sea to sea to wait on the Ordinances rise many a night to pray when others sleep chasten their souls with fasting and go heavily all the day long and this as I said for divers years together and this in the flower of their years and strength and yet with much ado can get little more then some flashes of comfort now and then some gleams of light as I told you before to save them at a desperate pinch and after long exercise in a doubtful medly of hope and fear a sad twilight of sorrowes and supports at last recover this testimony in and to their hearts that they are the children of God And therefore 't is not to be thought that persons who out of wilfulnesse or spiritual sloath put off the procuring this blessed certainty to themselves till old age or the approaches of death should suddenly leap out of a certain damnable estate into an assured certainty of salvation Sure the stream of Promises in the Word is least favourable to such persons and it is a thing most righteous in the eyes of reason it self that God should be as slow in giving as they are in seeking this assuring testimony CHAP. XI Certain Hindrances of getting Assurance of our Adoption removed Quest BUt how shall I get the testimony of the Spirit and thereby be assured of my Justification and Adoption Answ 1. There are divers Hindrances to be temoved and then divers Directions to be followed Hinderances are 1 A secret murmuring frame of spirit against Gods present dispensations towards thee as if God dealt very hardly and contrary to his wonted course with thee As if God had set thee up as the only mark of his displeasure which discontent is secretly augmented by the enjoyments and attainments of others Such and such have attained such and such comforts and walk cheerfully but God keeps me in the dark like them that art dead long ago And then as the children of Israel in the wilderness the soul many times quarrels at God for doing what he hath done and wishes any change even to what it was or the worst that can be Would God say they we had dyed in Egypt nay would God we were out of the world any way rather then to be thus tossed up and down in these tempests of spirit to be made Satans Tennis-bals the gazing stocks of the world and a terrour to our selves c. Friend who ever thou art that art in this frame of spirit know the Holy Spirit wil not be wrought to smile on thy heart by these means Such a dogged sullen frame of spirit will but procure thee the more lashes and continue thee the longer in the wilderness Israels murmurings kept them forty years in the wildernesse hereby they vexed Gods holy Spirit Isai 63. 10 and so dost thou and thou maist expect a proportionable dealing at Gods hands 2 A kind of delight in complaining against thy self and taking Satans part many times in bearing false witness against thy own soul Sometimes a kind of sinful humility sometimes an apprehension of ease in venting the causes of their trouble and sometimes a designe of provoking others to humor them in applying those corrasives and terrors to them which they think are their portion makes many persons liberal in charging themselves in this sort And somtimes Satan helping them they are apt to lay more load upon themselves then indeed belongs to them aggravating their sins beyond measure and condemning themselves for the vilest creatures upon the face of the earth And by constant use I know not what kind of pleasure grows out of such libelling themselves and they are never so well as when they are in that tune I grant a serious moderate and discreet complaining of our sins and wants to such from whose advice and prayers we may expect good and for this reason that we may get their advice and prayers they knowing our condition particularly and being thereby enabled to help us by such a through knowledge of our case is not onely lawfull and expedient but necessary But to be always in season and out of season urging these indictments against ones selfe and meerly for this reason that we may put from our selves those comfortable truths which are indeavoured to be fastened upon us doth but more indispose us to peace and satisfaction of spirit and teach Satan an art of troubling us everlastingly with our own liking and approbation Take this for a certain rule That soul that will not open to the Spirit of Adoption till he can find no matter of complaint against himselfe may go mourning all his days and thank himself for it 3. An unthankful denyal of the works of Gods sanctifying spirit in the heart Which are the material ground of all regular assurance from the Spirit of Adoption or at least mitigating qualifying and extenuating them This ordinarily accompanies the former A soul that delights it self in picking quarrels against its own peace will not bee easily brought to own any good concerning it self Tell a man in this frame Sir you are one of Gods called ones for you have had experience of a gracious change upon your heart You now hate sin count it your greatest burthen which once you loved and judged it your greatest comfort you have an unsatisfiable longing after Christ not only in his merits but in his graces and the communication of his holinesse and all the World will not satisfy you without him you have an heart perfectly broken off from all your old company and all your delight is in the Saints that are upon earth and them that excell in vertue
thorow fear or temptation as at other times moving it to conceale the Devils counsell but out of distraction and oppression of spirit Now if this same soul find it selfe in the same condition before God when it sets to prayer it may lay the blame hereof on the greatnesse of its burthen and content it selfe in the assurance of as kind an acceptance of its sighs and groans as if they were drawn out in long prayers But if the straightnesse be not towards men or other imployments but only in duties to God-ward then enquire after farther causes whereof take these following 2. The admission of some late grievous sinne that yet is unrepented of Guilt is a tongue-tying thing When the man in the Gospel was taken without a wedding garment the Text sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was speechlesse Mat. 22. 12. his mouth was stopped with a gagge Great sins are great gaggs And 't is not only so with the unregenerate but with the Saints also See it in Davids example Psalm 51. 14 15. Deliver me saith he from blouds O Lord then my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousnesse Open my mouth c. Davids lips had a padlock upon them guilt had locked them up He dared not speak to God whom he had so grievously offended And no wonder if Saints dare not speak where they are sure not to speed if they be dumb when they know God is deaf David knew well enough that sinnes make Gods ear heavy as he informes us Psalm 66. 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not hear my prayer and the Prophet Isaiah tells us no lesse Isai 59. 1 2. The Spirit of prayer also will be grieved and depart from us if we defile his lodging he is a pure an holy Spirit Eph. 4. 30. In this case the counsel of Zophar to Job 11. 13 14. is very good If thou prepare thine heart and stretch out thy hands towards God If iniquity be in thy hand put it far away c. So shalt thou lift up thy face confidently c. Search out the sinne and remove it by renewed repentance and the fresh application of the bloud of Christ by faith which is the fountain of Evangelical repentance and then try again the Spirit of Grace that enables thee to mourne will bee a Spirit of Supplication too Zech. 12. 10. 3. Sometimes Gods glory is the cause of thy restaints of spirit God intending to teach thee that all thy enlargements are from him alone We often pray in the strength of natural parts or gifts at the best and it may be we idolize these last in our selves and others Now God may in his wisedome leave us to straightenednesse of spirit in prayer to make us lesse depending upon those helps And this he will do to choose at such a time when afflictions are heavy upon us because that is a time if any be when it may be supposed necessity will enlarge parts and gifts to the utmost Afflictions are usually incitements and occasions of enlargement in prayer God makes account that at that time he shall hear from his people Hos 5. 15. and in our straits commonly we give God many faire words are rhetorical more then ordinary flatter with our lips Psalm 78. 36. A Scholar at the Vniversity that seldome writes and it may be if he do oftner then ordinary yet writes curtell'd letters to his friends at other times yet against Quarter-day when hee needs his pension will be sure not to fayle of a large letter and a bill of expences annexed Hence oftentimes the people of God are very fondly conceited of afflictions and under deadnesse of spirit are too apt to wish them out of a conceit that when they come they are able to make great use of them to quicken their hearts to prayer But the Lord chasteneth their foolish expectations divers times by stopping their mouths under those very troubles whence they hoped for great improvements and enlargements hereby teaching them that the Spirit of supplication as well as the Spirit of sanctification bloweth where and when he listeth John 3. 8. This case whenever it befalls any as we may ghesse when it doth so by our former valuation of gifts and conceits of improving afflictions c. calls upon such persons to give God the glory of his own peculiar attribute the preparer of the heart and the Spirit of its own office the Spirit of Supplication and call for and rely on divine assistance meerly in that work 4. Sometimes misapprehensions of God may be the cause of straightnesse in duty Thoughts that God is our enemy c. And then we deale with God as we do with our best friends many times in an humour we have a conceit that they have done us a discourtesie or are fallen out with us it may be upon slight reports or other as slender evidence and then our stomacks presently swell so bigge that we cannot so much as speak to them Pride and discontent will so swell a mans stomack like spleen winds up to a mans mouth that he cannot speak except to belch out the language of discontent and passion Sometimes we conceive God so offended at us that he casts away our prayer Lam. 3. 8. And where a man hath little hope to speed he will have very little heart to speak whereas hope to prevaile is the most fluent fountain of Rhetorick that can bee thus want of Faith makes the voyce of prayer stick in the teeth as we use to say The Spirit of Adoption only is the Spirit of Supplication and a man cannot pray so much to the purpose as when he can call God Father Then we cry 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom 8. 15. When David was in that grievous trouble Psalm 116. What lets his tongue loose in prayer I believed saith he therefore I spake v. 10. Friends prayer is the child of Faith not Fancy not the voyce of Invention but Affection begotten not in the brain of an Oratour but in the heart of a child A child is very copious and fluent in expression commonly when he complains to a Father but will lye still and cry it out in a sullen mood and say never a word if a stranger aske what ayles it The cure in this case is Look over all your evidences remember dayes past and the years of the right hand of the most high thy songs in the night and his mercy and lovingkindnesse in the day Call to mind promises of everlasting love in and notwithstanding the heaviest afflictions apply them and labor to urge them Challenge God upon old acquaintance as Christ My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Mat. 27. 46. O Lord how comes it to passe now that I have lost my acquaintance with thee Lord return and visit me with thy ancient loving kindnesses Psal 25. 6. 2 After discovery and removal of the impediments and obstructions aforesaid Study your own case distinctly and clearly