* Wo say he is a wise child that knows his father ; such wise ones believers are.
« ' With eager desire,' an early form of ' wistfully.' — G. Qu. Is it not rather connected with weak, sour wine ? Wuht/-w<uhi/ is a colloquial compound. — £o.
Rom. VIII. 32-34.] heaven on earth. 329
all those that aflSrm that believers cannot in this life attain unto a certain well-grounded assurance of their everlasting happiness and bless- edness,— as papists and Arrainians : all know that know their writings and teachings, that they are in arms against this Christ-exalting, and soul-cheering doctrine of assurance. ' I know no such thing as assur- ance of heaven in this life,' saith Grevinchovius the Arminian.* As- surance is a pearl that they trample under feet ; it is a beam of heaven that hath so much light, brightness, and shining glory in it, that their blear-eyes cannot behold it. Assurance is glory in the bud, it is the suburbs of paradise, it is a cluster of the land of promise, it is a spark of God, it is the joy and crown of a Christian ; the greater is their im- piety and folly that deny assurance, that cry down assurance under any names or notions whatsoever. They are rather tormenters than com- forters that say, poor souls may know that there is a crown of right- eousness, but they must not presume to know that they shall have the lipnour to wear that crown ; and that makes God like King Xerxes, who crowned his steersman in the morning, and beheaded him in the evening of the same day.^
Arminians are not ashamed to say, that God may crown a man one hour, and. uncrown him in the next ; they blush not to say that a man may be happy and miserable, under love and under wrath, an heir of heaven and a firebrand of hell, a child of light and a child of darkness, and all in an hour. Oh what miserable comforters are these ? What is this but to torment the weary soul ? to dispirit the wounded spirit, and to make them most sad whom God would have most glad 1 Ah ! how sad is it for men to affirm, that wounded spirits may know ' that the Sun of righteousness hath healing in his wings,' Mai. iv. 2 ; but they cannot be assured that they shall be healed. The hungry soul may know that there is bread enough in his Father's house, but cannot know that he shall taste of that bread, Luke xv. 17. The naked soul may know that Christ hath robes of righteousness to cover all spots, sores, defects, and deformities of it, but may not presume to know that Christ will put these royal robes upon it. Rev. iii. 18. The impoverished soul may know that there be unsearchable^ riches in Christ, but cannot be assured that ever it shall partake of those riches, Eph. iii. 8. All that these men allow poor souls, is guesses and conjectures that it may be well with them. They will not allow souls to say with Thomas, ' My Lord, and my God,' John xx. 18 ; nor with Job to say, ' My Redeemer lives,' Job xix. 25 ; nor with the church, ' I am my beloved's, and his desire is towards me,' Cant. vii. 10. And so they leave souls in a clou3y, questioning, doubting, hovering condition, hanging, like Mahomet's tomb at Mecca, between two loadstones ;* or like Erasmus, as the papists paint him, hanging betwixt heaven and hell.^ They make the poor soul a M agor-missabib, a terror to itself
' Sensum eleetionis adghriam in hac vita nullam agnotco. — Grevinchov. [That is, Nico- las Grevinchovius : Apologia, 1617, 4to. — G.]
* (1.) Is the surety of the new covenant grown so poor? Hob. vii. 22. (2.) Is the pro- mise now come to be yea and nay ? 2 Cor. i. 20. (3.) Is the power of God grown so weak ? 1 Peter i. 5. (4.) Is the decreeing will of God become immutable ? [mutable ? — G.l 2 Tim. ii. 19. (5.) Is the free, eternal, and everlasting love of God become changeable '? Jer.'xxxi. 3 ; John xiii. 1, that these things can be?
' unlix^'K^rrov, not to be traced out. [Cf. Rom. xi. 33. — G.] * A n?;/<Athat still lives, — G.
' The Protestant Reformers also, from the great scholar s lukewarmness. — G.
330 HEAVEN ON EARTa [RoM. VIII. 32-34.
What more uncomfortable doctrine than this ? What more soul-dis- quieting, and soul-unsettling doctrine than this ? Thou art this moment in a state of life, thou mayest the next moment be in a state of death ; thou art now gracious, thou mayest the next hour be graceless ; thou art now in the promised land, yet thou mayest die in the wilderness ; thou art to-day a habitation for God, thou mayest to-morrow be a syna- gogue of Satan ; thou hast to-day received the white stone of absolu- tion, thou mayest to-morrow receive the black stone of condemnation;' thou art now in thy Saviour's arms, thou mayest to-morrow be in Satan's paws ; thou art now Christ's freeman, thou mayest to-morrow be Sa- tan's bondman ; thou art now a vessel of honour, thou mayest suddenly become a vessel of wrath ; thou art now greatly beloved, thou mayest soon be as greatly loathed; this day thy name is fairly written in the book of life, to-morrow the book may be crossed, and thy name blotted out for ever. This is the Arminians' doctrine, and if this be not to keep souls in a doubting and trembling, and shivering condition, what is it ? Well, Christians, remember this is your happiness and blessed- ness, that ' none can pluck you out of your Father's hand,' John x. 29 ; that you are ' kept,' as in a garrison, or as with a guard,^ ' by the power of God through faith unto salvation,' 1 Peter i. 5. ' That the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed ; but the kindness of the Lord shall not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on you,' Isa. liv. 10. * That Christ ever lives to make intercession for you,' Heb, vii. 25 ; and that men and devils are as able, and shall as soon, make a world, dethrone God, pluck the sun out of the firmament, and Christ out of the bosom of the Father, as they shall pluck a believer out of the everlasting arms of Christ, or rob him of one of his precious jewels, Deut. xxxiii. 26, 27. I shall close up this chapter with an excellent saying of Luther : ' The whole Scripture,' saith he, ' doth principally aim at this thing, that we should not doubt, but that we should hope, that we should trust, that we should believe, that God is a merciful, a bountiful, a gracious, and a patient God to his people.' '
Containing several weighty propositions concerning assurance.
The first proposition that I shall lay down concerning assurance is this. That God denies assurance for a time to his dearest and choicest ones, and that upon many considerable grounds.
(1.) As, first, for the eocercise of their grace. A gracious soul would always be upon mount Tabor, looking into Canaan ; he would always be in his Father's arms, and under his Father's smiles ; he would always be in the sunshine of divine favour;* he would always have the heavens open, that he might always see his Christ and his crown ; he would