Again, A good conscience is another spring of assurance :- 2 Cor. i. 12, ' For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in sim- plicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abund- antly to you-wards.' So 1 John iii. 21, ' Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God.' A good conscience hath sure confidence ; he that hath it sits, Noah-like, in the midst of all combustions and distractions, [in] sincerity and serenity, uprightness and boldness. A good conscience and a good confidence go together.*
What the probationer-disciple said to our Saviour, Mat. viii. 19, * Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest,* that a good con- science says to the believing soul. I will follow thee from duty to duty, from ordinance to ordinance ; I will stand by thee, I will strengthen thee, I will uphold thee, I will be a comfort to thee in life, and a friend to thee in death ; ' though all should leave thee, yet 1 will never for- sake thee,' Mat. xxvi. 35. A good conscience will look through the blackest clouds, and see a smiling God.^ Look, as an evil conscience is attended with the greatest fears and doubts, so a good conscience is attended with the greatest clearness and sweetness. And as there is no hell in this world to an evil conscience, so there is no heaven in this world to a good conscience. He that hath a good conscience hath one of the choicest springs of assurance, and it will not be long before God will whisper such a man in the ear, and say unto him, ' Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee,' Mat. ix. 2.*
Again, real love to the saints is another spring of assurance, and this spring is a never-failing spring. This spring is in the weakest as well as in the strongest saints : 1 John iii. J -4, * We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that lovetli not his brother abideth in death.' The apostle doth not say. We think, we hope, &c., that we are translated from death to life, but, ' we
* A saint's motto is Spero meliora ; the hypocrite's hope is like the moraing dew, Job viii. 13, 14.
* Tolle conscieniiam, tolle omnia. Ccmscientia pura semper secura.
' It is a notable speech of Salvi, Such as are truly blessed in their own consciences, Cannqt be miserable by the false judgments of others. [Query, Salvian ? — G.]
* Innocency is bulwark enough, if you be not guilty, saith Seneca. [' Epistles ' and ' Blessed Life ' often. — G ]
324 HEAVEN ON EAUTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34.
know' that we are translated from death to life, because we love the brethren.' Love to the brethren is not the cause of our passing from death to life, that is, from a natural state to a spiritual state, from hell to heaven, but an evidence thereof. I confess it is very sad to consider how this precious stream of love is even dried up in many.
It was wont to be a proverb, Homo homini deus, one man is a god to another ; but now it may be truly said, Homo homini dceinon, one man is a devil to another.* He that wants love to his brethren, wants one of the sweetest springs from whence assurance flows. A greater hell I would not wish any man, than to live and not to love the beloved of God.
Now is it not as easy a thing as it is pleasant, for a man that hath several sweet springs in his garden, to sit down, draw water, and drink? John iv, 14. O believing souls ! there are springs, there are wells of living water not t)nly near you, but in you ; why, then, do you, with Hagar, sit down sorrowing and weeping, Gen. xxi. 15-19, when you should be a- tasting or a drinking not only of the springs above you, but also of the springs within you ? A man that hath fruit in his garden may both delight his eye and refresh his spirit with tasting of it. Gal. v. 22, 23. Certainly we may both eye and taste the fruits of the Spirit in us, they being the first-fruits of eternal life. I think none but mad souls will say that grace is that forbidden fruit that God would have us neither see nor taste. We ought not so to mind a Christ in heaven, as not to mind ' Christ in us the hope of glory,' Col. i. 27. Christ would not have his spouse so to mind her own blackness, as to forgeft that she is all fair and gk)rious within, Cant. i. 5, iv. 7, and Ps. xlv. 1 1.
Sixthly, The Holy Ghost exhorts us ' to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure,' 2 Pet. i. 10, and presses us to look to the obtaining of a ' full assurance.' Therefore believers may attain unto an assurance of their everlasting happiness and blessedness : ' Wherefore the rather, brethren,' saith the apostle, ' give diligence to make your calling and election sure ; for if you do these things, you shall never fall' The Greek word^ translated ' give diligence' signifieth two things: (1.) All possible haste and speed ; (2.) All manner of seriousness and intention in doing. Make it your main business, your chiefest study, your greatest care, to ' make your calling and election sure,' saith the apostle.* When this is done, your all is done. Till this be done, there is nothing done. And to shew the necessity, utility, excellency, and possibility of it, the apostle puts a 'rather' upon it: 'Wherefore the rather give all diligence to make your calling and election sure ;' or, as it is in the onginal, ' firm or stable.'^ It is the one thing necessary ; it is of an internal and eternal concernment to make firm and sure work for your souls. Assurance is a jewel of that worth, a pearl of that price, that he that will have it must work, and sweat, and weep, and wait to obtain it. He must not only use diligence, but he must use all dili-
' oIlafittM, to know certainly ; we are as certain of it as we are certain that we live.
* Or, homo homini leo, one man is a lion to another. ' 2<r«t/Sa»^aTi. Vide Beza and Jansen.
* Luther saith he bad rather obey than work miracles.
'" Bi/Ja;a», firm or stable. God loves cvrrittaa, not quceriatas, the runner, 'not tlie questioner. He is taken most with them that are more for motion than notion, for doing than talking,
Rom. VIII. 32-34-.] heaven on earth. 325
gence ; not only dig, bmt he must dig deep, before he can come to this golden mine. Assurance is that * white stone,' that ' new name,' that hidden manna, that none can obtain but such as labour for it as for life. Assurance is such precious gold, that a man must win it before he can wear it. Win gold, and wear gold, is the language both of heaven and earth.