* Eorum qua scire nee datur, rue fat est, doeta est iffnorarUia; scientiae appctentia insanice tpedes. — Augustine.
Rom. VIII. 32-34.] heaven on eakth. 383
no way to assurance, like this. Adam disputes with Satan, and falls, and loses paradise ; Job believes, and resists Satan, and stands, and conquers upon the dunghill. When Satan, O trembling soul, would engage thee in disputes about this or that, say to him, ' Satan, revealed things belong to me,' but ' secret things belong to the Lord,' Deut. xxix. 29. It is dangerous to be curious in prying into hidden matters, and careless and negligent in observing known laws; say to him, Satan, thou hast been ' a liar and a murderer from the beginning,' John viii. 44 ; thou art a professed enemy to the saints' confidence and assurance, to their consolation and salvation. If thou hast anything to say, say it to my Christ ; he is my comfort and crown, my joy and strength, my redeemer and intercessor, and he shall plead for me. Ah, Christians ! if you would but leave disputing, and be much in believing and obey- ing, assurance would attend you ; and you should ' lie down in peace, and take your rest, and none should make you afraid,' Job xi. 13-20.
(3.) The third iTnpediment ihaX keeps poor souls from assurance, is, The want of a thorough search and examination of their oivn souls, and of what God hath done and is a-doing in them} Some there be that can read better in other men's books than in their own, and some there be that are more critical and curious in observing and studying other men's tempers, hearts, words, works, and ways, than their own. This is a sad evil, and causes many souls to sit down in darkness, even days without number. He that will not seriously and frequently observ^e the internal motions and actings of God, in and upon his noble part, his immortal soul, may talk of assurance, and complain of the want of assurance, but it will be long before he shall obtain assurance. O you staggering, wavering souls, you tossed and disquieted souls, know for a certain, that you will never come to experience the sweetness of assurance, till your eyes be turned inward, till you live more at home than abroad, till you dig and search for the mines that be in your own hearts, till you come to discern between a work of nature and a work of grace, till you come to put a difference between the precious and the vile, between God's work and Satan's work. When this is done, you will find the clouds to scatter, and the Sun of righteousness to shine upon you, and the day-star of assurance to rise in you. Doubting, trembling souls, do not deceive yourselves ; it is not a careless, slight, slender searching into your own hearts, that will enable you to see the deep, the secret, the curions, the mysterious work of God upon you. If you do not ' seek as for silver,' and search for Christ and grace ' as for hid treasures,' you will not find them, Prov. ii. 3-5. Your richest metals lie lowest, your choicest gems are in the bowels of the earth, and they that will have them, must search diligently, and dig deep, or else they must go without them.** Doubting souls, you must search, and dig again and again, and you must work and sweat, and sweat and work, if ever you will find those spiritual treasures, those pearls of price that are hid under the ashes of corruption, that lie low in the very bowels of your souls.
Tell me, O doubting souls, hath that sweet word of the apostle been
•Conradus's motto was a notable rule, Omnium mores, tuos imprimis observato, observe all men's carriages, but especially thy own. [Query, Conradus Alfonsus Mantuanus, 1574 ? G.] * So saith Pliny, Seneca, and others.
384« HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34.
ever made to stick in power upon you : 2 Cor. xiii. 5, ' Examine your- selves, whether you be in the faith ;' or, whether faith be in you, ' prove you' selves,' &c.' The precept is here doubled, to shew the necessity, excellency, and difficulty of the work ; to shew that it is not a super- ficial, but a thorough, serious, substantial examination that must enable a man to know whether he hath precious faith or no; whetlier he be Christ's spouse or the devil's strumpet. All is not gold that glisters ; all is not faith that men call faith ; therefore, he that would not prove a cheater to his own soul, must take some pains to search and examine how all is within. Climacus^ reports, that the ancients used to keep in a little book a memorial of what they did in the day against their night reckoning. But ah ! how few be there in those days that keeps a diary of God's mercies and their own infirmities, of s|)iritual experi- ences and the inward operations of heavenly graces I Seneca reports of a heathen man that every night asked himself these three questions : first. What evil hast thou healed this day ? secondly. What vice hast thou stood against this day ? thirdly. In w^hat part art thou bettered this day ? And shall not Christians take pains with their own hearts, and search day and night to find out what God hath done, and is a-doing there ? God hath his doing hand, his working hand in every man's heart; either he is a-working there in ways of mercy or of wrath; either he is building up or a-plucking down ; either he is a-making all glorious within, or else he is a-turning all into a hell. Well ! doubting souls, remember this, that the soundest joy, the strongest consolation, flow from a thorough examination of things within. This is the way to know how it is with you for the present, and how it is like to go with you for the future. This is the way to put an end to all the wranglings of your hearts, and to put you into a possession of heaven on this side heaven.
(4.) Tlte fourth impediTnent that keeps many precious souls from assurance is. Their mistakes about the work of grace. Look, as many hypocrites do take a good nature for grace, and those common gifts and graces that may be in a Saul, a Jehu, a Judas, for a special distinguish- ing grace, &c., so the dear saints of God are very apt to take grace for a good nature, to take pearls of price for stones of no value, to take special grace for common grace. Many trembling souls are apt to call their faith unbelief, with the man in the Gospel, Mark ix. 24-, and their confidence presumption, and their zeal passion, &c. ; and by this means many are kept off from assurance. Now, the way to remove this im- pediment is, wisely and seriously to distinguish between renewing grace and restraining grace, betwixt common grace and special grace, betwixt temporary grace and sanctifying grace. Kow, the difference betwixt the one and the other I have shewed in ten particulars in my treatise called ' Precious Remedies against Satan's Devices,' from page 217 to page 230; and to that I refer thee for full and complete satisfaction.