hateth his brother is a murderer and hath not eternal life I hate my Brother Therefore I am a Murderer and have not eternal life These are all of them conclusions quite contradictory to the vain principles that did dwell in the secure sinner which being set home by the Spirit must needs make him fear what shal become of him In like manner doth the Spirit bring the heirs of the promise to the assurance of hope by some such practical Syllogisms as these He that loves the Brethren is passed from death to life I love the Brethren Therefore I am passed from death to life Or He that repents and believes shall be saved I repent and believe Therefore I shall be saved Now the Spirit hath revealed and inspired holy men to leave upon record to us the Propositions in these two Syllogisms the same Spirit also works in us that Faith by which we are enabled to believe those Scripture Propositions to be divine infallible truths he also worketh in us every gracious habit and exciteth those gracious acts which be the evidences and marks of our conversion justification and title to glory he also helpeth to feel and discover those acts in our selves and by comparing them with the rule to find their sincerity which is his concurrence with Conscience in making the assumption and lastly he helpeth sanctified reason from the premises to inferr the Conclusion whatever is beyond this is not essential to assurance but something separable from it Sometimes our assent to the premises and conclusion is stronger sometimes weaker hence the different degrees of assurance sometimes upon this assurance peace of Conscience we are marvellously enlarged with consolations called joy in the holy Ghost sometimes nor Obj. Some may say Is there no other way of working assurance but this doth not God sometimes testifie without any such discourse and ratiocination hath he confined himself to Syllogisms doth he not sometimes make some impressions on us by which we are assured that we are the children of God without the help or use of any argumentation Answ I have been alway apt to think that there is no other ordinary way of assuring the soul partly because the Scripture no where encourageth us to look for assurance in any other way and partly because to grant an immediate testimony seemed to me to open such a gap to Euthusiasme as it was impossible well to shut and I am somewhat imboldned in that sentiment by the concurrent judgment of a sober judicious Divine Mr. Tho. Blake who in his Treatise of the Covenant thus expresseth himself They that go about to assert an immediate testimony in any will never secure the soul from delusion Sathan will soon find an artifice to counterfeit this testimony and bear witness in the Spirits stead and when we think that we have the Spirit of truth to assure us we shall have the father of lies to deceive But in regard many of eminent piety and learning do assert an immediate testimony it may not be amiss to enquire a little what they mean by it and how they do bound it and then to shew what may be thought of it By this immediate Testimony they tell us that they do not mean any proper whisper or voice such as young Converts mistaking such Scripture phrases as Say unto my soul thou art my salvation are apt to wait for but they say it is a perswasion impressed upon a man suddenly and he knows not how quieting all his doubts and fears and making him chearfull and comfortable If you ask them How a Child of God who is to try all things dare adventure to take any such comfort how he knows it not to be a delusion of Satan they tell us that as there is in the eye a certain in-bred light to make it discern light and colours without a sound and air within the ear to make it discerne the sounds without So there is in a godly man grace a new nature and habitual instinct of heaven whereby it discernes the consolations of Gods Spirit testifying that he is the Son of God some secret and inexpressible lineaments of the fathers countenance in the child that the renewed soul at the very first blush knows and owns it Moreover they tell us 1. That although the Spirit thus testifie without application of any particular word yet he never testifies contrary to the word he never speaks to those who are regenerate though they do not know themselves to be such 2. That the Spirit doth not ordinarily thus testifie but after or in attendance on some ordinance or performance of some duty or after some very great abasement of a mans Spirit and more then ordinary soul-humiliation or after some very hard adventure for God or after some great combat and conflict with temptation 3. That such of the Testimonies of the Spirit do beget but an actual assurance during the present exigence or in order to some present design that God is working thereby Now to give my sense of this opinion 1. The Authors of it seem so to bound it as that it would be uncharitableness to think that they have any ill or pernicious design in it 2. The things which they say are done by impression are not without ratiocination only the ratiocination is not so distinct and explicite as when a man comes to his assurance by that difficult work of examination Philosophers say that what is done by beasts through instinct and impulse is not done without something analogous to ratiocination they commonly give us the examples of such Syllogisms as they suppose to be made by beasts as namely lambs when they come to their dams and flie away from the wolves So I conceive that in all the impressions made on the soul whether they be by way of comfort or incitation to duty there be some characters either in the matter or manner of them either in their holiness or greatness or vehemence or unusualness by which a Christian knows them to be from God and so accordingly rests in them the which characters did he not find he would either not regard them or reject them with abhorrence 3. I would not have any one lay the stress of his hope of heaven on any such impression nor upon the account of any such impression alter his opinion in reference to any point of Doctrine or adventure upon any practice that is in the least questionable unto him If he should I take it he would give the devil great advantage against him and subject himself to infinite delusions as will soon be manifest to him that will be at the pains to read over the discourses of Dr. Casaubon and Dr. Moore concerning Enthusiasme Mr. John Fox our holy and learned Martyrologist had many impressions some of which are taken notice of by his son in the History of his life but did they not sometimes fail him and discover themselves to be neither Divine nor True Let any one judge
waters and when he had so done put it on his own head he had a talent for his pains but lost his life for setting it upon any head but his Soveraignes so they shall have honour for contending for the truth but their souls shall God require of them because they gave not him the glory of all their zeal Wherefore as you would not grieve the Spirit when you see a drunkard say Who made me to differ or say as the Holy Martyr Bradford was wont to say God be mercifull to me a miserable sinner When you hear of one denying the Divinity of our Saviour say Nor could I have said that Jesus is the Lord but by the Spirit of God If either men or devil suggest that thou hast done well say It was not I but the grace of God in me I have nothing but what I have received and must not boast as if I had not received but ascribe all to him who worketh in me both to will and do of his own good pleasure 5. Fathering on him the ugly and monstrous brats of the spirit which worketh in the children of disobedience How much was the mother in Solomons time grieved when her living child was taken away and a dead one laid in room of it More must the Spirit be grieved when Humility Obedience Subjection to higher powers his natural issue are taken away and instead of these disobedience and rebellion laid at his door To do wickedly and to say that we do it by the impulse of the Spirit is to make God such a one as our selves and what a provocation that is you may learn from Psal 50.21 These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest I was altogether such a one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set thy sins in order before thee Nor shall they fare better who do not father their impieties on the immediate impulses of the Spirit but yet on the Word revealed by the Spirit For causa causae est causa causati whatever is found in Scripture is conceived of the Holy Ghost if we do wrest and torture Scripture to salve our Phaenomena we do thereby injure and lie against the Holy Ghost This is the honour of Christian Religion that it can wound all other religions with their own weapons and principles They rob it of this honor who go about to fight against is also with its own Sword quoting texts of Scripture to authorize such actions as are perfectly destructive of Christianity No sin so hainous as theirs who pretend to sinne by authority from God 6. The ascribing that to the devil and his instruments which is the work of the Spirit This is not onely to grieve him but also to blaspheme him What was the unpardonable blasphemy against the Holy Ghost mentioned Mark 3. but the Pharisees ascribing that to the Prince of Devils which was done by the finger of God Every work of the Spirit hath not so clear an impression of the Spirit on it as had the miracles of Christ and therefore to mis-call them renders not ones case so desperate as was the Pharisees But yet sure after God hath by the conversion of so many discovered himself to be in the ministers of the Gospel of a truth for any to say that they were all literal legal antichristian which was the language of the late times was a blasphemy of a very high nature and I have observed that such men mostly have waxed worse and worse deceiving and being deceived nor can I conceive much hopes of their repentance who do so far wrong the Spirit as to ascribe all his works of conviction and contrition to the predominance of the melancholy humor or to a cracked brain and all the fervent importunate expostulations of Gods devoutest supplicants to sauciness such speeches do greatly dispose tot he unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost We may hence inferr against the * I say the Judaizing Socinians because this seemeth to have been the opinion of the Jews that the Holy Ghost was nothing but the afflatus or energy of God and therefore Lactantius who denied the substantiality of the Spirit is said by Hierome to symbolize with Jews Epist 55. Yet the ancient Doctors of the Jews acknowledged and believed the Son to be an eternal person of the Divine essence and worthy to be called Jehovah as they who want other books may see proved by Julius Conradus Ouho lib. 1. Gul. Razia cap. 4. Judaizing Socinian the personality of the Holy Ghost Grief is a personal affection How a person should be grieved we can understand how a Divine person should have that done against him which would grieve him were he capable of griefe is not inexplicable but how a quality a power or an operation should be grieved is unconceivable 2. Hence may be inferred the love and tender care the Spirit hath for us and of us Had he not graciously condescended to take on him the offices of Advocate Intercessor Comforter he would not have so far concerned himself in our miscarriages as to be grieved for or by them 3. If we are not to grieve the Spirit then sure we are not to blaspheme or offer despight unto him which cannot be done but by sinnes of the greatest and most hellish malignity and in the highest degree wilfull 4. This will also inform us what to think of them who take up their pleasures in sin which grieves the Holy Spirit of God we may think that either they never were partakers of the Holy Ghost or if ever partakers that now he hath quite forsaken them and an evil Spirit from the Lord hath seised on them If Christ at his second coming would spare all other sinners yet doubtless he will damn all those that believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse 2 Thes 2.12 But the main I intend to dwell on is the counsell of the Text propounded indeed negatively but yet must be supposed to include in it many affirmative duties indeed all by which that good Spirit can be pleased and delighted I will first propound some motives to perswade men to abstain from all sins by which the Spirit is grieved they shall be drawn from the person and office of him whom they grieve from their own estate who do grieve him from the sad and wofull effects of greiving him I. Consider who it is you grieve Were he but some created Angel you ought so farr to respect his ministry as not to grieve him The woman is to keep a covering on her head because of the Angels 1 Cor. 11.10 lest the contrary indecency should offend those pure Spirits Nay were He but a Saint compassed with flesh and blood we must not no not by the use of a lawful thing grieve him unless we will walk uncharitably Rom. 14.15 which would be to break the bond of perfection But he is greater then any holy man or Angel even an uncreated divine person I know this
concerning particular remission of sin pag. 1158. he had given the adversary less advantage for my part I do not make it any Article of my Faith that my sins are pardoned 4. We argue the attainableness of Assurance from the weakness and rottenness of the grounds on which the Papists the greatest adversaries to this truth do proceed in the denying of it 1. 'T is not unlike that the covetousness of the Pope and his Clergy is one reason why the doctrine of Assurance is so denyed For this sect of men is somewhat a kin to Judas who was a Thief and carried the Bag. Were the Pope to pay as much for redeeming a Soul out of Purgatory as he commonly gets by it I dare say Purgatory before this had been reckoned amongst things that are not were they to loose as much gold and silver by keeping men in doubts and fears as commonly they get certainty had not been made so impossible as now it is 2. Their own Hypocrisie and formality makes them and that justly to question their own state present and to come and therefore they think that none how sincere and upright soever can be assured of these matters Very apt we be to measure other mens cloth by our own ells to make our own hearts and experiences a standard and pattern to our fellow Christians Many eminent Reformers who had perhaps the candle of the Lord mostly shining on them and lived perpetually under the beams of his countenance did place Faith in Assurance and so discouraged some weak Christians The Papists on the other hand being alway void of assurance would needs perswade us that no Faith did ever rise up to assurance being continually tormented with shivering fears they envy all others who have more serenity and calmness then themselves But doth it follow that if an house built on the sands cannot stand that it cannot stand neither though built on the rock A Papist as a Papist holdeth no one doctrine by faith for seeing as Papist he must needs take the Popes infallibility in causes of faith for his foundation which foundation being not onely untrue but also heretical cannot be apprehended by faith it follows that he neither doth nor can believe any point of saith unless perhaps the conclusion can be of faith when the premises or cause of assent to that conclusion is contrary to Faith Nor can they have any certainty of their salvation for that depends with them on their having the Sacrament of penance truly administred and this on his being a Priest that doth administer it now that any one is a Priest is that of which there can be no certainty for for ought any one knows to the contrary he that ordained him had not intent to ordain him or he that baptised him had no intent to baptise him or if both could be known to have directed their intentions aright yet twenty other things might happen that would nullifie his priesthood But no necessity is there that Protestants should be uncertain of their right to or meetness for heaven who reject all these errors and are taught to believe that no man shall ever fare the worse for what never was in his power to prevent 3. Papists much object the multitude of Professors who have much boasted and talked of assurance and yet neither had it nor could have it as by their manifold miscarriages inordinate walkings they have most manifestly discovered This no doubt they may have observed and it hath been of late years especially a great stumbling block to some to see and hear persons of very slight and frothy spirits tell so many and so high stories of their enjoyments and experiences But shall we say that a man may not be certain of that about which multitudes have been mistaken Who sees not then that we must bring Pirrhonisme into the World put our selves under a necessity of turning Scepticks Because some have phansied their chambers to be full of company when no person was nigh them cannot I be sure that sometimes I see people sitting in their seats to hear me Because some have imagined that they sat about richly furnished tables when no meat was nigh them cannot I therefore be sure that my meat is before me and give God thanks for it There is no such great likeness betwixt Assurance and Presumption that a man if he will be sincere need mistake the one for the other The rules given by Divines to distinguish them are such that a man cannot be mistaken about them unless he have a mind to be mistaken 1. Presumption is the daughter of Ignorance so is not Assurance 2. Presumption is got and maintained without any difficulty or pains so is not Assurance 3. Presumption unless in great extremities when usually it turns into despair is alway uniform and like unto it self so is not assurance which is higher or lower according to the influences of the Spirit growth and exercise of the habit of Faith 4. Presumption is unwilling to be examined so is not Assurance but most gladly joyns with the most lively and searching Ministry by these and many other characters which shall be after suggested Assurance may as easily be discerned from Presumption as may the true metal from that which doth but counterfeit it 4. It is much urged that Assurance would breed Pride security carelesness the bane of all our graces and pious endeavours but to this many answers may be returned 1. By concession it will not be denied but that if God should pour this wine into old bottles there might be danger of their breaking if he should give these apples to those who were never sick of love they might breed wind but God never gives the new name but where he gives the new nature He sets not his Seal on a flint but on the wax In whom after ye believed ye were sealed with the Spirit of promise Ephes 1.13 As for unbelievers they are uncapable of it and could they have it they would turn it into wantonness as they do all Grace they receive nay nor doth God set his Seal on every vessel of Honour He doth not feed every child with hidden Manna but onely such as he findes to hunger after it and to be ready to faint and perish without it 2. I say our Assurance is not perfect or free from all doubts but hath alway mixed with it some either actual or habitual fear Perfect Assurance might such is the corruption remaining in us be abused to security and occasion Pride but our wine is mixed with water on purpose that it might not intoxicate us With such a measure of Assurance we are trusted as keeps under doubts and fears not with such as quite expels doubts and fears They go too far who say That the assurance we have of the pardon of our sins and right to Eternal Life is equal to the assurance we have of the common objects of Faith Christs Resurrection or Gods Omnipotence That Christ is
let but any discourse with the generality of troubled Christians he shall find that many of their doubts had never been if when they had first given themselves up to God they had then also given themselves up to some judicious and pious Pastor that would have been at pains well to instruct them in the Articles of Religion in the first principles of the Oracles of God some mistakes they sucked in when first they began to be serious which made them ever after to fear where no fear was Had their eye been single their whole body had been full of light but their eye being evil their whole body was full of darkness and they could never know whither they went Three errors especially I have observed some unskilful in the word of righteousness to have sucked in which have occasioned unto them much perplexity 1. Error hath been about the terms and condition of the Covenant of grace they make more necessary to their acceptation with God then God ever made though their hearts be prepared to seek the Lord God of their fathers yet because they are not cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctuary though their works are done in sincerity yet because they have not been found by them to be full and perfect therefore have they drawn sad and dreadful conclusions against themselves Ask them whether they do not believe the truth of the Gospel and whether they do not heartily consent that Christ should be theirs and they his they dare not deny it yet will they not be comforted because they suppose faith to be quite another thing a firm perswasion that they are already justified Ask them whether it be not their hearty and earnest desire and endeavour to obey the whole Law of Christ they 'l answer they hope it is and yet put away from themselves all the comforts and priviledges of the Covenant because they find in themselves many sinful suggestions of the flesh or because it is not with them as it is with some others as if the condition of the Covenant were perfect and unsinning obedience and not sincere obedience or as if all Gods children were of the same size and stature Hence sad dreadful complaints are made by men that they do not believe nor obey Christ when yet it is manifest they do believe and obey onely they are mistaken in their notion about the nature of Faith and Evangelical obedience 2. A conceit That all who are converted must needs know when they were converted and by what means and how they were converted whereas with some The Kingdom of God is as if a man should cast seed into the ground and should sleep and rise day and night and the seed should spring and grow up he knoweth not how Mar. 4.26 27. As for knowing the time of Conversion I am so far from judging it to be necessary to all Christians that I think it is in an ordinary way impossible to any Christian Those indeed whose lives have been stained with enormous crimes do usually know when they first began to be reclaimed and what were the thorns with the which their ways first were hedged up but how they should know what was the Ultimum non esse of the Old Man and the Primum esse of the New Man how they should understand the nick of time in which they ceased to be natural and began to be spiritual without some such assistance as is not usual I conceive not Yet even in this particular a deluded heart hath turned some aside so that they cannot deliver themselves and say Is there not a lie in my right hand Men could not be held long in such a snare as this if they did not pin their Judgments on the sleeves of some well meaning Teachers all whose dictates they swallow without consideration 3. Some are hugely tormented because they mistake themselves about the way of working Assurance and about the nature of Assurance They have thought that Assurance is wrought by some vocal or as it were vocal testimony of the Spirit which is not ordinarily the way of working Assurance and they think that so soon as they be assured they must needs be void of all fears and filled with all joy in believing hence when they have Assurance yet they complain they want it but this is a mistake for glorious and ravishing Joy is a separable accident from Assurance nor yet doth Assurance exclude all doubting and fear but onely such doubting and fear as ariseth from infidelity and reigning hypocrisie IV. Some are kept from Assurance because they do keep the Devils counsel and bury those doubts and fears about their condition in their own bosoms which they ought to discover unto others This is mostly the condition of those who are pestered with the horribilia de Deo buffetted with blasphemous thoughts or with temptations to uncleanness these dishonourable loathsome workings of soul they are unwilling to make known hence they are like unto the troubled sea that cannot rest but is continually casting up its mire and dirt If Women when in their pangs should not send for the Midwife to deliver them how few would not miscarry If Students should never have recourse unto their Tutors to solve their doubts how little would be their proficience And must not they who will not make use of the help and assistance of their spiritual Guides and Teachers go much about and stay longer under bondage and in the place of bringing forth of children then they needed else to do There are some to whom God hath given the tongue of the learned that they may speak a word in due season to him that is weary Isa 50.4 some whom God hath comforted to the end they may comfort others with the same consolations wherewith they themselves have been comforted 2 Cor. 1.4 some to whom it is said Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Joh. 20. vers 23.24 These God will have owned and honoured not by confessing to them all the sins of our lives but by opening to them such doubts as God seems to deny us satisfaction to upon our own private prayers and endeavours for not doing this many are kept a great while on the rack that else might soon find ease and relief The Spouse in the Canticles ch 3. vers 3 4. after she had enquired of the Watchmen Whether they had seen him whom she loved had not passed farr but she found him But then persons must make conscience of dealing plainly and truly with those who do watch over their souls which I do therefore suggest because it is too usual with those that are troubled not faithfully to relate where the shooe pincheth them but with the Lapwing to make the greatest noise when they are furthest off from the nest Moses was troubled that God should think of sending him into Egypt and he would needs make as if his