love,

bruised reed and he would quench the smoaking flax. But then if he can't prevail here neither,then in the third place, he would keep thee from sense of grace,in a sad and cloudy condition:be envie's thee one beam, one smile,one glance of his eye. But then if the riches of Gods goodness, do so run over, as that he will give thee a sense of his love ; then fourthly, in the last place, he would have thee abuse his grace, and corn it into wantonners But when God has planted thee in lo happy a Paradise, don't thou listen to the whisperings of the Serpent. Thou that art seald by the Holy Spirit, don't attend to a lying spirit. The devil that great plunderer of souls, would fain rob thee of thy Jewels, of thy joy, and peace, and happiness : but do thou hide them in a Chrift, in the wounds of a Saviour ; and take heed of blotting thine Evidences; thou that are a Child of light, be noo ruld by a Prince of darkness. If God give thee a sense of his

walk more ftedfastly, walk more accurately with thy God.

4. Times of Afsurance they should be times of inviting and encouraging others in the wayes of grace. Thus the Pfalmift when his Cup overflowes, he calls others to taste of it,. O taste and fee box gracious God is, that he may trust in him. Thou mayest now bring a good report upon the land of Canaan, thou mayel (hew them the goodly fruits of the land, that were cut down at the brook Emeol. Men look upon Religion as a rigid and auftere thing, that comes to rob them of their joy,they must never have a smile' more, they muft never have a Summers day after it; but thou canst tell them of the sweetnefs and deliciousness that is in the wayes of grace, thou canst affure them that all the wayes of wisdom are pleasantness ; thou canst satisfie them, that grace does not mean to take away their joy, but only to refine it; that it does not mean to put out the light, but only to snuff it, that it may burn brighter and clearer, There's no such joy to be found in the wayes of fin, there's no such joy to be ex. tra&ed from the Creature ; no the sweetest and purest honey 'cis fuck'd from a flower of Paradise. Spiritual joy 'tis the moft clatrifid joy ; , and 'cis folid and massy joy, beaten joy, like beaten gold, Aangorà xai opuchaetos.geo.ess. ), and 'uis lasting and durable joy. All the Creatures make but a blaze. but the least fpark of this 'tis immortal; Can there be a sweeter Sabbatism of Spirit ?

can

a

can there be a happiericomposedness of soul, chan to be provided for eternity; to be sure of heaven, of heppieers and glory;to have the revealiug of Gods love, the displaying of himself

, the beaming out of his face? is not the least appearance of his love more worth than a world?are not the gleanings of spirituals better than the vintage of temporals ? Methinks an assur'd Chriftian, like a Caleb or a Joshua,should be able & ready to confure all the false mtelligence of the Spies, and to answer the weak obje&ions that they bring against the land of Promise. Awake O fluggard, and arise, there is no Lion in the way, or if it'be, it has honey in it: There are no sons of Anak, or if there be before Israel even these mountains (hall become a Plain.

5. Times of Afsurance they should be times of store, 'Oux ain' Hibis ears tool Now treasure up beams,beap up light,fore up hida deo Manna. To be sure

To be sure , this Manna won't breed worms.' Then thou mayest confidently applaud thyself, Soul, take thine ease, thou hast goods laid up for many years. Happy thou, if this night thy soul be taken from thee. Storing up of former evidences, is a good provision against a cloudy day.

6. Times of Assurance should be times of breathing after full poffeffion. The espoused soul should long for the Nuptials, for the full consummation of its joy: and by a heavenly gradation it should ascend in its thoughts. Is there such sweetness in one clufter of Canaan, what shall there be in the full vintage ? is. there such pleafaptness in a proípe& of the land top of Mount Pisgah, what happiness shall there be in enjoyment of the land is there sucb glory in a beam of Gods face, what shall there be in an eternal Sun-Shine ? is there such a sparkling luftre in the white Stone, what then shall there be in all those pearls that garnish the foundations, and make up the gates

of the New Jerusalem ? is there so much in the preface of glory what shall there be in the inlargements and amplifications of it? is chere so much in the Ænigma, what is there in the explicatien ? can you see so much beauty in happiness, when her mask is on, how glorious chen will fhe appear when she is unveilda does the soul fing Co (weetly in a Cage of clay, what melody think you, shall it then make when’tis let loose to all Eternity

We now come to wind up all in a word of Application.
Now the more pure and delicious a truth is, the more do the

upon the

men

men of the world disrelish it ; the more bright and shining it is, the more offensive to their eyes. The more orient the Pearl,the more do they trample upon it.Evangelical discoveries meet with the fiercelt oppositions. The Serpent will be fare to wind inta Paradife;and the feed of the Serpent ever knew how to fill venemous and malignant consequences, out of sweet and flowery truths. 'Tis the devils work to imprison all truth, but the no. bler and more precious truths must be sure to be put in the lowe eft and darkeit dungeons. As here now, Asurance of salvation Puis the very Crown and joy of a Chriftian ; the Flos latiis the Cream of that 'Addar gažai, that is to nourilh souls ; 'cis the budding and blossoming of happiness, the antedating of heam ven, the Prepoffeffion of glory ; 'tis the very Pinacle of the Temple, the plepywr ; how fain would be throw Chriftians, from thence? how would he blaft glory in the bud? how fain would he pull down the fububrs of the New Jerusalem? how would he top all the fresh springs that are in these ? how would he seal up the luscious influences of the Pleiades?how fain would ke Lycurgus like, cut up all the vines of Canaan, that no Spy might ever bring one Clufter of the Land of Promife? He bima felt muft feed upon nothing bor duft, and how does he envy them their hidden Manna ? That Son of the morning is now bound in chains of darkness, and how does be envy them their light and liberty ? how fain would be clood and eclipse their Sun, and stop it in its race? nay, let it ten degrees backward? How does he envy them one beam them one beam of Gods face,

Gods face, a grape of Canaan, one smile, one glance of Gods eye? Now he could and out no fitter inftrument co rob Chriftians of their joy, than Antichrift shat grand enemy of the Church, that spiritual Nero, that Ty. rant of souls, that vice-Beelzebub, that Prince of darkness that rules in the children of disobedience. He rules chem, and yec they are children of disobedience for all that. This BeAian Empire, (for so 'cis fil'd in the Revelation, ) delights only in senlu. als,and Atrikes at spirituals. It ftrikes at the vicals of Religion, ad the power and essence of godliness. Here are the men that must cry dowo Affurance under the names of presumption, security, an heap of Enthufialmes, as if this hidden Manna would breed all these worms. If men do but dip in the honey.comb, and take some of these voluntary drops that sweat from it freely, of

rance,

their own accord, as Saul told Jonathan, they must certainly die for ic.. O this were a way to open their eyes, as it did Jonas thans. They are loth to let men tafe and see how gracious God is, left they might trust in him.

There are therefore iwo things which I shall here endeavoue by way of Application ,

First, to give you a brief discovery of those grounds that neceflicate the adversaries of his truth to deny Assurance.

Secondly, to rake off that vain and frivolous cavil, that afsue rance is a Principle of Libercinism, and that if men be once afe fur'd of their salvation, they may ihen do what they lift.

And frit for the grounds that make them deny Affurance, And though I might here shew at large, that all Poçery, the Quincessence of ic is extraded out of guesses and conje&ures their whole Religion is but a bundle of uncertainties,a rude heap of contingencies, built upon thoughts of others, upon the intension of a Prieft; yet I shall let that pass now, and give you these four confiderations that prevail wich them to deny Assue

Allu i. They lay too much Aress upon good works. Now Afsurance is too goodly a ftru&ure to be built upon such a foundati- . on. They part ftakes berween grace and merit, and so leave the Coul in a cottering condition. There is fo much pride bound up in the Spirits of men, as that they are lochio depend upon another for their happines, they would have an innate and domeffick happiness within themfelves. But alas, self-bottomings are weak and uncertain, and they that build upon their own good meanings, and their good wishes and good' refolutions, upon their good endeavours & good works, when they have done all, they have built but the house of the spider. These that spin salvation-out of heir own bowels, their hope kris but as a Spiders web. And there are many chac neither thus spin nor toile; and yet I say unto you, that a Pharisee in all his glory is nos clorhid like one of these. If men do but enquire, and look a little to the ebbings and flowings of their own spirits, to the waxing and waiting of their own performances: sure they will presently acknowledge, that they can't fetch a Plerophory out of these. Believe it, the soul can't anchor upon a wave, or upon its own Quduating motions. So that 'tis a peice of ingenui.

ty

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ty in them, to tell men, that whileft they build upon the land, they can have no great security that their house will laft long : they may safely say of the Spider; that it can have no certainty that its house thall stand. Whileft they lean upon a reed wee'l allow them to queftion whether it won't break or no; nay, if they please , they may very well queftion whether it won't pierce them through. They can be sure of nothing unless they be sure of ruine. Assurance cannot be founded in a bubble, in a creature, for the very effence of a crcature is doubtful and wavering , it must be built upon an immutable Entity, upon the free love of God in Chrift, upon his royal word and oath, the Ture 'expressions of his mind and love, upon the witness of the Holy Ghoft, the seal of God himself. Here the foul may reft, and lean, and quietit self, for with God there is no variablenesa nor shadow of turning. The creature is all hadow and vanity, oris filia noctis; like Jonah's gourd, man may fit under its shadow for a while, but it soon decages and dies. All its certainty is in dependance upon its God. A creature, if like a Gingle drop left

to it self it spends and wastes it self presently : but if like a drop in the fountain and Ocean of Being, it has abundance of security. No fafery to the soul, but in the arms of Christ, in the embraces of a Saviour. No reft to a Dove-like spirit, but in the “Ark of the Covenant, and there's the pot of hidden Marina. You know that dying Bellarmine was said to acknowledge, that the nearest way to Affurance, was only to rest upon the free Grace of God in Chrift. And they that cry down duties so much, if they would mean no more than this, that men muft not trust in them, nor make Chrifts of them, nor Saviours of them, (as they use to express it) wee'l easily grant them this if they'l be content with it.

2. They take away that clasping and closing power of faith ir self, by which it should sweetly and strongly embrace its own obje&. They would have the soul embrace clouds and dwell in generals; they resolve all the sweetness and preciousness of the Gospel, either into this Universal, Whosoever believes shall be saved: or elle, which is all one, into this conditional, if thou believest, thou shalt be saved. Now this is so farre froni assurance, as that the Devils chemselves do thus believe and yet tremble. The thirfty foul may know that there is a fountain, but it muft not presume to know that ever it shall caft of it. ihe wounded

soul