up to our own jealousies and suspicions to be our tormentors and then no wonder if we be troubled untill we return to meet the living spring of our comforts again SECT V. Of the connexion between grace and comfort I shall now pass on towards the remedy of these evils and so to make enquiry after that true comfort which all believers desire but not many attain unto at least in that degree and measure which they might were it not for some or other of the forementioned hindrances In order hereunto I shall lay down some preparatory propositions concerning the connexion between grace comfort the want of knowing or believing whereof is sometimes matter of ill consequence to the people of God in respect of their comfort 1. Prop. Wheresoever there is true grace in how weak and small a degree soever it be there is a foundation for solid comfort yea even for assurance and the comforts that do naturally flow there from Many have proved sufficiently against the Arminians that whosoever hath true grace shall certainly be saved because it is impossible respecting the decrees and promises that a truely sanctifyed person should totally and finally fall from grace and so be damned This is said not of any certain degree of grace but of the truth of grace how small soever the degree be for grace in the smallest degree is as truely grace as in the greatest degree Now the consequence is undeniably good that if they who have the least degree of true saving grace shall certainly be saved then the least degree of that grace is a foundation in it self sufficient for comfort and assurance For assurance of salvation and the comforts thence arising do naturally flow from the assured knowledge of the truth of grace and there is none that hath true grace in what degree soever but he is in a capacity of knowing that he hath that grace I know that the comfort of assurance is not an ordinary companion of the weakest grace however sometimes at first conversion when we may reasonably suppose grace to be in the smallest degree it pleases God to make the infusion of grace so manifest to the converted person as that they have thereby the comfortable assurance of their salvation although that assurance do continue sometimes but a very short while and is seldom of long continuance before it be darkened again by temptation However if there were not a sufficient foundation for assurance there could not be any true comfort upon that account no not for a moment 2. Prop. The smaller degrees of grace are very hardly discernable This comes to pass in some by reason of the many lusts corruptions which upon the first entrance of grace are not all at once expelled or subdued but continue opposing themselves and making head against grace for the rooting of it out again which though they cannot effect yet do they often prevail against grace yet in its infancy and by their strength and multitude do so overwhelm and as it were bury that small grace that the poor soul is not able certainly to say whether there be any such thing or no. In other some a good naturall disposition specially if meliorated and mended by civill or religious education doth bear so neer a resemblance to true grace that it is no easie matter to discern the one from the other so that the sincere soul being ever suspicious of it self doth not dare to conclude that there is any thing at all better in it than morall vertue And then beside all this the grand enemy of our comfort and salvation will be sure to take advantage of these and all other occasions of suspicion and by his temptations and suggestions to improve them to the utmost disadvantage to the soul whereby if possible to hinder it from the comfortable evidence of the truth of Grace 3. Prop. There is no degree of grace so large evident and conspicuous but that it may sometimes disappear Even the Sun it self hath suffered an Eclipse when the Sun of righteousnesse in his desertion cryed out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me How much less then can any of the stars though of the first and greatest magnitude be secure from being obscured sometimes by a thick cloud Great graces do not absolutely secure the owners thereof from great falls and no wonder then if great falls bring an Eclipse upon greatest graces and so obscure the elearest evidences and brightest comforts that might flow from them Remember Adam Noah Lot David Peter c. and let him that stands take heed lest he fall and when thy mountain doth stand strongest know that possibly God may hide his face and leave thee under the power of troubles These three propositions I have laid down as a ground work whereupon to build and they are useful to the production of these three corollaries 1. That there are none of Gods people excluded from comfort how weak and small soever their graces may be that none may reject their own mercies and say comfort belongs not to me because I have not yet attained to such a degree of grace formuch as every child of God is though not equally capable yet capable of equall comforts with others the weakest with the strongest and the middle size with both Yea God is pleased sometimes to impart those comforts to infant-grace which he may deny to others throughout their whole course though they may arrive to good attainments in grace unto whom that speech of Christ may fitly be applyed that the first are last and the last are first 2. That degree of grace which constitutes the middle size and so includes the generality of true Christians though in it self it render persons more capable of solid comfort than the former yet is more liable to fears doubts and troubles than any other which will not seem strange if we consider this threefold ground thereof 1. That that peace comfort which they have is commonly rather negative than positive consisting rather in the absence of trouble than in the sureness and solidity of the grounds whereupon they build For alas it is too common even with those that have true grace to content themselves with common probabilities and such hopes as spring there-from without frequent renewing the ingrafting and justifying acts of faith or rifling into their evidences to find out those of them that are unerring and will not fail them when they come to a pinch Like a man that hath been long in possession of an estate though he have good writings for it in his box yet contents himself with his present quiet possession and is not able on the sudden to prove the firmness and goodness of his title when it comes to be questioned 2. Hence it comes to pass that when their peace comes to be disturbed they are not able so clearly to discern and make out the truth of their graces as to shut out and repel the assault of temptations
the end of their lives As they grow more diligent and serious in the performance of duties they still discover more more of their own imperfections and weakness so that though they do in good earnest make a progress in grace and holiness yet their defects coming more to their sight and view they think they do believe whereby their troubles encrease upon them dayly and their expected comfort flies further and faster from them It fares with them herein as with a man that sails by a rock which seems to move from him and the faster he sails the more the rock seems to mend its pace flying from him though in truth the rock neither mends its pace nor moves but the ship in which the man is carryed So these persons the swifter they row in the ship of duty to overtake comfort the faster comfort seems to fly from them when as in truth it is not comfort that flies from them but they fly from their comforts while they place sincerity in a certain degree of perfection and therefore will not own nor receive those comforts which the Gospel holds out to their sincerity till they have attained that degree of their self-limited perfection To clear this by an instance A Child of God being convinced of the evil of sin in generall or of some sin in particular knows that there is no hope of pardon without Godly sorrow and repentance and that every kind or degree of sorrow is not sufficient Therefore in order to his own practice he lays down these two rules First that his sorrow must be true and unfeigned Seondly That his sorrow must be proportionable to the evil of his sin Hereupon he sets himself seriously by praying reading c. to discover the evil of his sin in the several aggravations thereof that so the sence thereof may excite in him a proportionable sorrow Now the issue hereof is this the more he searcheth and sees into the nature and evil of his sin the more unproportionable he still finds his sorrow to be to the hainousness of his sin so that his sorrow in comparison thereof seems to be no sorrow and much less that true and right sorrow whereto the promises of pardon are made and therefore while he lies under this apprehension he utterly refuseth and putteth away all that comfort which in the promises is held out to the penitent sinner This may suffice to discover the second hindrance of a Christians comfort but what a poor soul is to do in such a case shall God willing be shewed afterwards in its proper place when I come to speak of the remedy of these Evils SECT 3. Some other hindrances of a Christians comfort BEside those forementioned most usual lets of a Christians comfort there are yet two other which are of no less malignant influence upon the soul for the disturbance of the peace thereof and powerful for the exclusion of that joy which would make a course of holiness sweet to a believer and render his Religion the more amiable in the sight of the by-standers 1. The first is a suspition of the defect of Grace as to the being truth or necessary degree thereof And what comfort can any one take who is but serious about the things that concern his everlasting welfare who apprehends himself to be wholly void of grace or looks upon his grace but as common not saving grace or if it seem to be saving grace yet is so small weak and altogether unproportionable to the time and means he hath enjoyed that he seems rather to have less than he once had which one thing is enough to make him suspect the truth of it because true grace is a growing grace But the trouble arising upon this account is not at all times nor in all persons alike for sometimes it is more fixed and Chronical'd and sometimes more volatile and transient 1. Sometimes this suspicion of the want of true grace is rooted upon some mistaken notions which through the want of means of better information or being pertinaciously retained do long grow and bring forth this uncomfortable fruit in the soul So some looking upon conversion as a very great and manifest change wrought by the spirit of God upon the whole man because they are not sensible of any such manifest change wrought in them at any particular time they lie long under the suspicion that then sure they were never converted and therefore have no true grace Or although the signs whereby they prosecute the discovery of grace be proper yet through misapapplication or weakness in the application they are not able by the use of them to discover that grace which they seek after There are not many that have that skill and dexterity in the application of signs thereby to attain any probable and comfortable evidence of their state and sometimes the signs they make use of are such that though if they could find those signs in themselves they might conclude grace yet they find it no less difficult to find the reality of those signs than of that grace which by them they seek for Hereupon they are necessitated to seek for the signs of those signs then for the reality of those subordinate signs c. till they have lost themselves in a maze of signs upon signs and find it next to an impossibility to attain any clear discovery of grace by the use of them by which means it comes to pass that they lye long without that comfort which some good probable evidence of the being and truth of grace might afford them For instance It is a true sign of grace when we can find in our hearts an universal hatred of sin as sin It is not any kind of hatred of sin but the hatred of sin as sin so that though we do find in our hearts an hatred of sin yet there is need of other signs whereby we may know whether we hate sin as sin Again Where there is true grace there is a concatenation of all graces Now before we can conclude from this sign we must have the evidence of every particular grace before we can come to the evidence of grace in generall So when any one shall go about to seek for grace by its prevailing degree it requires many signs long observation and much experience before they can possibly know whether they have grace in a prevailing degree or no. 2. Sometimes this suspicion of the want of grace is but occasionall and accidentall and then commonly it is of no long continuance This many times happens to those who for the most part have such a probable evidence of the truth of heir grace as doth quiet heir hearts and enable them comfortably to press on towards a further measure of grace and a fuller assurance of their interest in the heavenly inheritance But occasionally in reading or hearing they meet with some such signs of true grace or necessary properties of a child of God which because
suspend their comfort upon such a kind or proportion of sorrow for sin may without difficulty be rightly determined by any one but a Papist or a like principled So then while the troubled soul rakes in its own sores to find a sorrow proportionable to the sins they stand guilty of they too much justify that doctrine which in their principles they will most fearlesly deny and while through this error they seek righteously by the law they do unwittingly keep themselves under the curse at least as to their own sense and lose the benefit of the Gospel at least as to the present comfort of it Gal. 3.10 21. 3. Prop. Every degree of true godly sorrow bears a Gospel proportion to every sin that is it is that sorrow which the Gospel requires not by way of satisfaction as the law doth but to put the sinner into a preparative capacity to receive Christ and pardon through him For this is not the difference between the law and the Gospel in requiring the same thing that the law requires a greater degree the Gospel is content with a less degree but the true difference consists in this that what the law requires it requires in perfection in order to justification immediately but what the Gospel requires it requires in sincerity with reference to Christ and life by him But what then Is the least degree of this or any other grace in sincerity and truth the most that the Gospel requires No verily for the Gospel cal s for perfection yea and a greater perfection than the law it self doth but this is the indulgence of the Gospel that the first and least degree of grace in truth and sincerity puts the person into a respective capacity of partaking of the promises and benefits of the Gospel it allowing him and requiring him all the remainder of the days of his life to be perfecting his graces thereby to be growing up in Christ his head when he comes to be fully and perfectly united to Christ he may in him be perfect in holiness and happiness together 4. Prop. That is true sorrow which produceth a willingness to be delivered from the power of all sin a reall willingness though the flesh may gainsay and be unwilling For it is no strange thing for such contradictions to be found in Gods children so long as they have flesh as well as spirit the flesh will be lusting against the spirit as well as the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary I choose to note out sorrow by its effects rather than by describing it in its nature because it is much more discernable in its effects than in its nature and the truth of it in this effect as much if not more than in any other effect thereof 5. Prop. That is godly sorrow which produceth a sight of our need of Christ and a willingness to close with him on the terms of the Gospel For whereas the tenour of the Gospell is comprehended in those two words repent and believe such a repentance is spoken of as prepares and leads a man to Jesus Christ and that is the repentance which God requires and in the Gospel calls for I need not precisely distinguish between godly sorrow and true repentance which are frequently used as terms of the same import in scripture although it do distinguish them also but so as that godly sorrow doth certainly produce repentance to salvation and therefore whether mediately or immediately it matters not but certainly that sorrow is according to God and the Gospel which prepares the heart to receive Christ by faith and then it is easie to judge whether that sorrow for sin which brings a man to see an absolute necessity of Christ and produceth a willingness to close with him upon the terms of the Gospel be a godly sorrow or no. 6. Prop. The fear of Hell and damnation is no unlawful or ungospel ingredient of godly sorrow It is matter of great perplexity to the souls of many of Gods Children to find upon serious consideration that the fear of being everlastingly damned hath a great influence upon that sorrow for sin and fear of sinning which they really find in themselves judging all such sorrow to be carnall because it proceeds not purely from a principle of love to God Indeed I cannot but look upon it at least as a piece of great inconsiderateness in some who teach that godly sorrow for sin doth purely respect God and his goodness and that that which respecteth the safety of the soul from damnation is legall and carnall which is a doctrine that is contrary both to the principles of nature and the word of God and Gospel of Jesus Christ Whoever thought it unlawfull to fear the plague sword famine poyson or the like upon this very account because they are destructive to the body or to sorrow for those outward evils when present as well as to fear them when they are yet but imminent and that for the bodies sake the being whereof is endangered thereby And if it be lawfull to fear and grieve for the sake of the body those evils which threaten the ruine thereof how much more consentaneous to reason is it to fear and grieve for sin and its consequents upon the souls account which is thereby endangered to be lost for ever But to let pass such argumentations Hath not God also in his word both permitted and commanded that we should have so much respect to our own immortal souls as well as to his pleasure and honour as for the sake of them and their safety to fear sin hell damnation yea and God himself too because of his power to destroy Heb. 4.1 Mat. 10.28 And if to fear sin upon that account so as to avoid the commission of it then also upon the same account to grieve and sorrow for sin when committed and if we may fear God because of his power to destroy then may we also sorrow for sin through fear of Gods displeasure and the displaying of that his power for the everlasting destruction both of the soul and body of the sinner I say not but that sorrow for sinners arising from a principle of love to God may be esteemed the more childlike disposition and an higher attainment and therefore to be laboured after yet this I say also that it is not at all alien from the property of a good Son to grieve for an offence committed against his father for fear of the effects of his fathers displeasure These propositions may be so applyed as to resolve all doubts and scruples that may arise concerning the occasion measure truth or Gospel rectitude of sorrow for sin whereby it may be distinguished from legall and carnall or defective which are usually the matter of the troubled souls perplexities about this point SECT IX Of the pardonableness of sin AS the assurance of the pardon of sin cannot but be matter of great joy to the people of God and is
but little satisfaction to the troubled soul to say with some that the Apostles it is impossible to renew them again to repentance doth not speak of an absolute impossibility but of a very great difficulty as when Christ seemed to make it an impossible thing for a rich man to be saved yet that it was not impossible with God I will not take upon me to disprove that interpretation but that which will be most satisfactory is to suppose the worst as to be sure the troubled soul will doe and so to look upon it as reall impossibility for such an one as the Apostle there speaks of to be renewed again to repentance And then I shall first lay down these unquestionable propositions by way of premisall 1. Prop. It is certain that those who have not onely received some enlightnings and common graces of the Spirit but are also really and truely sanctified may through temptation and infirmity doe those things which they know to be sin as no doubt but David knew murder and adultery to be sins and Peter could not but know it to be a sin to deny Christ and to common experience will bear witnesse to the same 2. Prop. It is as certain that the will may consent to the commission of known sins David was not constrained to the commission of the forementioned sins 3. Prop. And it is no less certain that such may be renewed again to repentance as David and Peter were Yet no doubt but such circumstances do render the sin more than ordinary hainous From hence we conclude that except we make the doctrin all and historical parts of Scripture absolutely repugnant and contrary to each other yea one doctrinall part to another we may safely say that a person who hath been enlightned and received the knowledge of the truth hath tasted the heavenly gift been made partaker of the Holy-Ghost and tasted of the good word of God and of the powers of the world to come may with external evident compulsion commit great and known sins without being sealed up under impenitency or his sin necessarily acquiring the black and horrid die of unpardonableness thereby But then as touching the meaning of the Apostle in the forementioned places to me it seemes plain to any considerative and impartiall eye that the Apostle speaks onely of total Apostacy and pronounceth that dreadful doome onely against Apostates i. e. those who having received and owned the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ do afterwards without any compulsion or other seeming necessity wholly renounce Jesus Christ and all the truths of the Gospel and become open and professed enemies thereunto This is apparent in the former place where the Apostle saith not if such shall fall into sin but if such shall fall away that is wholly turn away from Christ and the Gospel utterly renouncing them as fables and impostures And for the other place it is as apparent that the Apostle speaks not of every wilful sin or sin against knowledge but such wilfull sinning as whereby a man declares himself an adversary and professed enemy to Christ and the Gospel as it were trampling upon Christ in that he makes no more account of his blood than of the common blood of a malefactor and doing despite to the spirit of grace by whom he had before been brought so far onward in Christianity as to own Christ and to acknowledg the truth of the Gospel and make a profession of religion For further satisfaction I refer you to Dr. Gouge upon these places in his Comment on the Epistle to the Hebrews But these things are so clear that whether we look upon these places as containing a description of the sin against the Holy-Ghost or not yet it is manifest that howsoever the troubled soul may apprehend it self guilty of sins aggravated with wilfulness or other like hainous circumstances yet if they come short of totall apostacy from Christ and open renouncing of the Gospel they cannot reasonably conclude from these places that there sins are unpardonable and themselves sealed up under a state of impenitency and there fore they are to look upon these thoughts as temptations cast in by the Devil for the hindrance of them from returning to Christ for the cure of their spiritual distempers and the recovery of the joys of their salvation SECT XI Of the day of grace the time of visitation or the accepted time IT is certain that there is nothing so irrecoverable or irrevocable as time when it is once past and gone so that if any ones salvation do depend upon any certain particular or limited time it is as impossible for such an one to be saved if they overslip that time or opportunity as it it to call time back again Hence it ariseth that unspeakable horrour which sometimes seizeth upon the soul by apprehending that the day of grace is past and gone equall with that which ariseth from the apprehension of having committed the sin against the Holy-Ghost because it is equally impossible to recall that time which God hath fixed by a firm decree as to obtain the pardon of that sin which God hath absolutely pronounced unpardonable Now therefore for extricating the troubled soul out of this Labyrinth it will be necessary to enquire whether there be any such fixed or limited time which it is and how it may be discovered There are three expressions in scripture which are commonly looked upon as pointing out to us such a limited time In Luke 19.44 it is called the time of visitation In 2 Cor. 6.2 there is mention of the accepted time and the day of salvation It will be necessary to premise something for explication of these expressions that the way for resolving the doubts hence arising may be the more clear We must observe that the time or day of visitation is used very variously in Scripture For sometimes there is mention of a visitation in a way of judgement and sometimes in a way of mercy And indeed in the old Testament it is most frequently used for the time of Gods Punishing or destroying a people for their sins as in Jer. 10.15 Jer. 50.27 Isa 26.14 And in Numb 16.29 it is used to signify an unusual and strange kind of death and destruction This kind of visitation is desirable to none But otherwhile it is used to signify Gods merciful providences to a person or people By his common providences of mercy he is said to visit as Psa 8.4 and Psa 65.9 But in the new Testament the word is most commonly used to signify more speciall blessings 1. As the great and general blessing of sending Christ into the world to redeem his people Luk. 1.68.78 Luk. 7.16 And the particular time of this visitation is over to all not to the prejudice but to the generall benefit of the world 2. It is used to signify all means of grace and offers of mercy by Christ in the Gospel Luk. 19.44 How the time of this visitation is