* Thomas Hooker, afterwards of New England. He died 1647. — G.
344 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34.
Abraham, * Say thou art my sister ; for otherwise they will kill me,' Gen. xii. 13, and xx. 2. Ah ! how was the freshness, the greenness, the beauty and glory of his assurance wore off, that he should, out of slavish fears, expose his wife to other men's pleasure, and himself and his neighbour to God's displeasure ; that he should wound four at once, the honour of God, his wife's chastity, his own conscience, and Pharaoh's soul.^
David, you know, sometimes sings it out sweetly : ' The Lord is my portion, and the lot of mine inheritance ; he is my salvation : of whom shall I be afraid ? He is my rock and fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my strength, my trust, my buckler, and my high tower,' Ps. xviii. 2. At other times you have him sighing it out : ' Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul ? why art thou disquieted in me ? why hast thou forgotten me X Ps. xlii. 5. ' O God, my rock ! why go I mourning' ? ' Thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger ; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over my head ; as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. I am troubled ; I am bowed down greatly ; I go mourning all the day long,' Ps. xxxviii. 2-6. ' Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled,' Ps. XXX. 7. * Restore to me the joy of my salvation, that the bones that thou hast broken may rejoice,' Ps. li. 12. His heart was more often out of tune than his harp. He begins many of his psalms sighing, and ends them singing ; and others he begins in joy, and ends in sorrow ; * So that one would think,' saith one, ' that those psalms had been composed by two men of a contrary humour.'* Yea, it is very observ- able, that though David had assurance in an extraordinary way that he should be king, being anointeil by that great prophet Samuel, yet the lustre and glory of this assurance wears off; and he, overcome by slavish fears, cries out, that * All men are liars,' (even Samuel as well as others), and that ' he shall one day perish by the hand of Saul.'* It is true, says David, I have a crown, a kingdom in a promise ; but I must swim to the crown through blood, I must win the crown before I wear it ; and the truth is, I am like to die before I attain it. Yea, and after he was kipg, when king Jesus did but hide his face, he was sorely troubled ;* so that neither his glorious throne, nor his royal robes, nor his golden crown, nor his glistering courtiers, nor his large revenues, nor his cheerful temper, nor his former experiences, could quiet him or satisfy him when God had turned his back upon him. Look, as all lights cannot make up the want of the light of the sun, so all temporal comforts cannot make up the want of one spiritual comfort.
So Job sometimes sings it out, 'My witness is in heaven, and my record is on high ; and my Redeemer lives,' &c.. Job xvi. 19, and xix. 25. At other times you have him complaining, ' The arrows of the
' We should rather die than lie. We are not to tell an officious [i. e. forward to lie] lie, lo tell a lie for no hurt, hut for no good, though it were to save all the world, said Austin.
* Peter du Moulin. [Better known as Molinseus. — 6.]
' Ps, cxvi. 11, *tBn, In my trembling, or in my affrightment, I said, all men are liars.
* Ps. XXX. 6, 7, Sn3, Bahal. I was troubled like a withered flower that loseth sap and vigour; so it is used in Exod. xv. 15. When God is gone, it is night with the soul.
EOM. VIII. 32-34.] HEAVEN ON EARTH. 345
Almighty stick fast in me, and their poison drinketh up my spirit,' Job vi. 4 ; ' The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.' And chap. xxix. 2—5, you have him sighing it out thus : ' Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me ; when his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness ; as I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle ; when the Almighty was yet with me !' &c.^
Now, by all these clear instances, and by many other saints' experi- ences, it is evident that the choicest saints may lose their assurance, and the lustre and glory of it may decay and wither. What the soul should do in such a case, and how it should be recovered out of this sad state, I shall shew you towards the close of this discourse.
The sixth proposition is this. That the certainty and infallibility of a Christian's assurance cannot be made known to any but his own heart. He can say as the blind man once said, ' This I know, that once I was blind, but now I see,' John ix. 25. Once I was a slave, but now I am a son ; once I was dead, but now I am alive ; once I was dark- ness, but now I am light in the Lord ; once I was a child of wrath, an heir of hell, but now I am an heir of heaven ; once 1 was Satan's bond- man, but now I am God's freeman ; once I was under the spirit of bondage, but now I am under the spirit of adoption, that seals up to me the remission of my sins, the justification of my person, and the salvation of my soul.* All this I know, says the assured saint ; but I cannot make you know it certainly and infallibly if you would give me a thousand worlds.' What I have found and felt, and what I do find and feel, is wonderfully beyond what I am able to express. I am as well able to tell the stars of heaven, and to number the sand of the sea, as I am able to declare to you the joy, the joy, the unconceivable joy, the assurance, the glorious assurance, that God hath given me.
Severinus, the Indian saint, under the power of assurance, was heard to say, O my God ! do not for pity so over-joy me ; if I must still live, and have such consolations, take me to heaven, &c. So say souls under the power of assurance : Lord ! we are so filled with joy and comfort, with delight and content, that we are not able to express it here on earth ; and therefore take us to heaven, that we may have that glory put upon us, that may enable us to declare and manifest those glorious things that thou hast wrought in us.*
Parents do by experience feel such soundings, such meltings, such rollings, such sweet workings of their affections and bowels towards their children, that for their lives they cannot to the life describe to others what it is to be a father, to be a mother ; what it is to have such rollings of bowels towards children. Assurance is that white stone that none knoweth but he that hath it : Rev. ii. 17, 'To him that
^ Tota vita boni Christiani sanctum desiderium est, tbe whole life of a good Christian is an holy wish, said one.
2 Rom. viii. 6, 11, 18 ; Eph. v. 8, and ii. 3 ; John viii. 36 ; 2 Cor. iii. 17 ; Gal. i. I, 13 ; Eph. i. 13, 14.
' Can you compass the heavens with a span, or contain the sea in a nutshell ? Then may you fully evidence your assurance to others.