blessings. Ah ! how often, Christians ! hath God kissed you at the be- ginning of prayer, and spoke peace to you in the midst of prayer, and filled you witli joy and assurance, upon the close of prayer ! That ninth of Daniel, from the seventeenth to the four and twentieth verse, is full to the point in hand ; I shall only cite the words of the four last verses : Dan. ix. 20-23, ' And whilst I was speaking, and praying, and confess- ing my sin, and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my suppli- cation before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God ; yea, whilst I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly,^ touched me about the time of evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications, the command- ment came forth, and I am come to shew thee, for thou art greatly be- loved ; therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.' In these words you see, whilst Daniel was in prayer, the Lord appears to him and gives him a divine touch, and tells him that he is 'a man greatly beloved,' or as the Hebrew hath it, ' a man of desires.'* So Acts X. 1-4. ' There was a certain man in Csesarea, called Cornelius, a cen- turion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house ; which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always ; he saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it. Lord ? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.'' Praying Cornelius, you see, is remembered by God, and visited sensibly and evidently by an angel, and assured that his prayers and good deeds are not only an odour, a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable and well pleasing to God, but also that they shall be gloriously rewarded by God. So when Peter was praying, he fell into a trance, and saw heaven opened, and had his mind elevated, and all the faculties of his soul filltd with a divine revelation, Acts X. 9-16 ; so when Paul was a-praying, he sees a vision, Acts ix. 11-16, Ananias a-coming and laying his hands on him, that he might receive his sight. Paul had not been long at prayer before it was re- vealed to him, that he was a chosen vessel, before he was filled with the voice and comforts of the Holy Ghost ; so our Saviour was transfigured as he was praying, Mat. xvii. 1, 2. Thus you see, that praying times are times wherein the Lord is graciously pleased to lilt up the light of his countenance upon his people, and to cause his grace and favour, his goodness and kindness, to rest on them, as the spirit of Elijah did rest on Elisha, 2 Kings ii. 15.
Obj. But some may object and say. We have been at the door of mercy, early and late, for assurance, and yet we have not obtained it ; we have prayed and waited, and we have waited and prayed, we have prayed and mourned, and we have mourned and prayed, and yet we cannot get a good word from God, a smile from God ; he hath covered
^ ^Vl PjyD, with weariness or flight, tired as it were with his making speed. *, nniDn, Chamudoth, a man of desires, that is, one that id very pleasing and delight- ful to God. * Kick Calvin and (Ecumenius on the words. VOL. 11. A a
370 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34.
himself with a cloud, and after all that we have done, it is still night with our souls ; God seems not to be at home, he seems not to value our prayers ; we call, and cry and shout out for assurance, and yet he •hutteth out our prayer ; we are sure that we have not found praying times to be times of assurance to our souls, &c.. Lam. iii. 8. Ans. 1. Now to this objection I shall give these answers : (1.) First, That it may be you have been more earnest and vehement for assurance, and the effects of it, viz., joy, comfort, and peace, than you have been for grace and holiness, for communion with God, and conformity to God.' It may be your requests for assurance have been full of life and spirits, when your requests for grace and holiness, for communion with God, and conformity to God, have been lifeless and spiritless. If so, no wonder that assurance is denied you. Assurance makes most for your comfort, but holiness makes most for God's honour. Man's holiness is now his greatest happiness, and in heaven man's greatest happiness will be his perfect holiness. Assurance is the daughter of holiness ; and he that shall more highly prize, and more earnestly press after the enjoyment of the daughter than the mother, it is not a wonder if God shuts the door upon him, and crosses him in the thing he most desires. The surest and the shortest way to assurance is to wrestle and contend with God for holiness, as the angel contended with the devil about the body of Moses, Jude 9. When the stream and cream of a man's spirit runs after holiness, it will not be long night with that man ; the Sun of righteousness will shine forth upon that man, and turn his winter into summer, and crown him with the diadem of assurance, Mai. iv. 2. The more holy any person is, the more excellent he is. All corruptions are diminutions of excellency. The more mixed anything is, the more it is abased, as if gold and tin be mixed ; and the more pure it is as mere gold, the more glorious it is.^ Now the more divinely excellent any man is, the more fit he is to enjoy the choicest and highest favours. Assurance is a jewel of that value, that he will bestow it upon none but his excellent ones, Ps. xvi. 3. Assur- ance is that tried gold, that none can wear but those that win it in a way of grace and holiness, Rev. iii. 18. It may be, if thou hadst minded, and endeavoured more after communion with God, and con- formity to God, thou mightest before this time have looked upward, and seen God in Christ smiling upon thee, and have looked inward into thy own soul, and seen the Spirit of grace witnessing to thy spirit that thou wert a son, an heir, an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ, Rom. viii. 15-17. But thou hast minded more thy own comfort than Christ's honour ; thou hast minded the blossoms and the fruit, assur- ance and peace, more than Christ the root; thou hast minded the springs of comfort, more than Christ, the fountain of life ; thou hast minded the beams of the sun, more than the Sun of righteousness ; and therefore it is but a righteous thing with God to leave thee to walk in a valley of darkness, to hide his face from thee, and to seem to be as an enemy to thee.
Ans. 2. But secondly, I answer, It may he thou art not yet Jit for so
* It is better to ask and not receive, than to receive and not ask — Clement. » The Jews havu a saying, that tliose seventy souls that went down to Egypt were more worth than the seventy nations of the world.