Fourthly, God hath hy promise engaged himself to assure his people of their happiness and blessedness. ' The Lord will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk up- rightly,' Ps. Ixxxiv. 11. If he will withhold no good thing, then cer- tainly he will not always withhold assurance, which is the great good thing, the only thing, the chiefest thing, the peculiar thing that be- lievers seek after. So Ezek. xxxiv. 30, 31, ' Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God. And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God.' So John xiv. 21, 23, * He that hath my commandments, 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 will manifest myself to him.' ' If any man love me,' saith Christ, ' he will keep my words : and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.' Now hath the Lord spoken it, and shall it not come to pass ? Men say and unsay, they eat their words as soon as they have spoken them, but will God do so ? Surely no, he is faithful that hath promised,* ' All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen,' 2 Cor. i. 20 ; that is, they are stable and firm, and shall really be made good. The promises are a precious book, every leaf drops myrrh and mercy, therefore sit down and suck at these breasts, warm thyself at this fire.* God hath been always as good as his word, yea, he hath sometimes
• Qtiicquid fieri potuit, potest, that which hath been done may be done.
' Heb. xiii. 8 ; Rev, i. 8, 11. Plato, a heathen, saith that God is one and the same, and always like himself. [See Grote's ' Plato and hia Friends,' and Index under Grote.
• Antiochus promised often, but seldom gave ; but God gives as much, and as often as he promiseth. He hath a king's heart, as well as a king's purse. Nil Deo difficile, there is nothing hard for God. TuUy, a heathen , frequently called God Optimum maximum, the best and greatest. Plato called God, the horn of plenty, and the ocean of beauty, without the least spot of injustice. [As supra. — G.]
' }a&. Ixiv. 4 ; 1 Cor. ii. 9 ; Ps. xxi. 3 ; Isa. Ixt. 24. VOL. II. X
322 HEAVEN ON EARTfi. [ROM. VIII. 32-34.
been better than his word ; he hath ever performed, and he hath over performed. He promised the children of Israel only the land of Canaan, but he gave them, besides the whole land of Canaan, two other king- doms which he never promised. Ah ! how often hath God prevented us with his blessings, and hath given us in such mercies as have been as far beyond our hopes as our deserts. How hath God, in these days of darkness and blood, gone beyond the prayers, desires, hopes, and con- fidences of his people in this land, and beyond what we could read in the book of the promises.^ Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst : he promises honour and pays with disgrace, he promises pleasure and pays with pain, he promises profit and pays with loss, he promises life and pays with death ; but God pays as he promises, all his pay- ments are made in pure gold ; therefore take these promises wherein God hath engaged himself to assure thee of his love, and spread them before the Lord, and tell him that it makes as well for his honour as thy comfort, for his glory as for thy peace, that he should assure thee of thy everlasting happiness and blessedness.
Fifthly, There is in all the saints the springs of assurance, and therefore they may attain to assurance.
Precious faith is one spring of assurance, and this is in all the saints, though in different degrees, 2 Peter i. 1. ' Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ), to them that have obtained* like precious faith with us, through the righteousness of God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ.' Faith in time will, of its own accord, raise and advance itself to assur- ance. Faith is an appropriating grace ; it looks upon God, and saith with David, ' This God is my God for ever and ever, and he shall be my guide unto the death,' Ps. xlviii. 14. It looks upon Christ, and saith with the spouse, ' I am my beloved's, and his desire is towards me,' Cant. vii. 10. It looks upon an immortal crown, and saith with Paul, ' Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of glory,' 2 Tim. iv. 8. It looks upon the righteousness of Christ, and saith, ' This righteousness is mine to cover me.' It looks upon the mercy of Christ, and saith, ' This mercy is mine to pardon me.' It looks upon the power of Christ, and saith, ' This power is mine to support me.' It looks upon the wisdom of Christ, and saith, ' This wisdom is mine to direct me.' It looks upon the blood of Christ, and says, ' This blood is mine to save me,' &c.^
As faith, so hope is another spring of assurance. Col. i. 27, ' Christ in you,' saith Paul, 'the hope of glory.' So Heb. vi. 19, 'Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.' Hope taketh fast hold upon heaven itself, upon the sanctum sanctorum. A Christian's hope is not like that of Pandora, which may fly out of the box, and bid the soul farewell, as the hope of hypocrites do ; no, it is like the morning light, the least
• Vives reports of a Jew, that having gone over a deep river on a narrow plank, in a dark night, and coming next day to see what danger ho had escaped, fell down dead with astonishment. Ah, the astonishing mercies that we have had in these late years !
■ Xax'vffi, obtained by lot. [Cf. Joshua xiv. 2 ; xv. 1, et seq. — G.]
* I may say of faith, as Luther says of prayer : it hath a kind of omnipotency in it, it is able to do all things. Est qucedam omnipotentia precum. Tanlum posiumut, quantum eredimus. — Cyprian. [See this lather in Index under pr«ce«. — G.]
Rom. VIII. 32-34;.] heaven on earth. . 323
beam of it shall commence into a complete sunshine ; it shall shine brighter and brighter till perfect day.^
When Alexander went upon a hopeful expedition, he gave away his gold ; and when he was asked what he kept for himself, he answered, Spem majorum et melioram, the hope of greater and better things. So a Christian will part with anything rather than with his hope ; he knows that hope will keep the heart both from aching and breaking, from fainting and sinking ; he knows that hope is a beam of God, a spark of glory, and that nothing shall extinguish it till the soul be filled with glory. Souls that are big in hope, will not be long without sweet assur- ance. God loves not to see the hoping soul go always up and down sighing and mourning for want of a good word from heaven, for want of possessing what it hopes in time to enjoy. Hold out hope and patience ' a little longer, and he that hath promised to come, will come, and will not tarry,' Heb. x. 37, /i/xgo» o<sov, oaov.