Luther, under the power of assurance, lets fall this transcendent i-ap- ture of a daring faith, Fiat mea voluntas, let my will be done ; and then falls off sweetly, Mea voluntas, Domine, quia tua, my will. Lord, because thy will. It is the want of assurance that makes the counte- nance sad, the hands hang down, the knees feeble, and the heart full of fears and tremblings, Heb. xii. 12. Oh therefore get assurance, and that will scatter your fears, and raise your hopes, and cheer your spirits, and give wings to faith, and make you humbly bold with God. You will not then stand at the door of mercy with a Tnay I knock ? with a nnay I go in ? with a Tnay I find audience and acceptance? but you will, with Esther, boldly adventure yourselves upon the mercy and goodness of God. ' Now verily, I think,' saith one, speaking of Christ, ' he can- not despise me, who is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh ; for if he neglect me as a brother, yet he will love me as a husband : that is my comfort.' Assurance will remove all strangeness from between Christ and the soul ; of two, it will make Christ and the soul one.
[7.] The seventh advantage. Assurance will sweeten the thoughts of death, and all the acJies, 'pains, weaknesses, sicknesses, and diseases, that are the fore-runners of it ; yea, it will make a man look and long for that day.^ It will make a man sick of his absence from Christ. It makes a man smile upon the king of terrors ; it makes a man laugh at the shaking of the spear, at the noise of the battle, at the garments of
1 Nat. Hist., lib. ix. c. 87. ^
' !r^>jjoip»j/a. Such full assurance as fills all the sails of the sotil. * Hemo ante funera fdix, — Solon. Nazianzen said of the king of terrors, Devour me, devour me. Death cures all diseases, the aching head, and the unbelieving heart.
4.] 0 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIIT, 32-34.
the warriors rolled in blood. It made the martyrs to compliment with lions, to dare and tire their persecutors, to kiss the stake, to sing and clap their hands in the flames, to tread upon hot burning coals, as upon beds of" roses.*
The assured soul knows that death shall be the funeral of all his sins and sorrows, of all afflictions and temptations, of all desertions and oppositions. He knows that death shall be the resurrection of his joys ; he knows that death is both an outlet and an inlet ; an outlet to sin, and an inlet to the soul's clear, full, and constant enjoyment of God ; and this makes the assured soul to sing it sweetly out, ' O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory ? * I desire to be dissolved.' * Make haste, my beloved.' ' Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.'^ Now death is more desirable than life. Now says the soul, Ejus est timere mortem, qui ad Christum, nolit ire, let him fear death that is loath to go to Christ, ^o I may be with Christ, though I go in a cloud, I care not, says the assured soul ; so I may be with Christ, I care not though I go in a fiery chariot, .says the a.ssured souL
The Persians had a certain day in the year, in which they used to kill all serpents and venomous creatures. The assured Christian knows, that the day of death will be such a day to him, and that makes death lovely and desirable. He knows that sin was the midwife that brought death into the world, and that death shall be the grave to bury sin ; and therefore death is not a terror, but a delight unto him.^ He fears it not as an enemy, but welcomes it as a friend ; as crook-back Richard the Third in his distress cried, 'A kingdom for a horse, a king- dom for a horse !'* So souls that want assurance, when they come to die, will cry out, A kindgom for assurance, a kingdom for assurance ! and as Severus said, ' If I had a thousand worlds, I would now give them all for Christ.''* So a soul that wants assurance, when he comes to enter upon a state of eternity, will cry out. Oh, had I now a thousand worlds, I would give them all for assurance, whereas the assured soul would not for a thousand worlds but die. When his glass is out, and his sun is set, he cries not out, as that lady did,^ ' A world, a world for an inch of time !' but rather, Why is it, why is it, Lord, that thy cha- riots be so long a-coming V
[8.] The eighth advantage. Assurance will very much sweeten thai little oil that is in the cruse, and that handful of m^eal that is iii the barrel,' 1 Kings xvii. 12, &c. Assurance will be sauce to all meats, it will make all thy mercies to taste like mercies. It will make Daniel's pulse to be as sweet as princes' delicates, Daniel i. 8, 12. It will make Lazarus's rags as pleasurable as Dives's robes, Luke xvi. 20. It will make Jacob's bed upon the stones, to be as soft as those beds of down and ivorj', that sinful great ones stretch themselves upon. Gen. xxviii. 18 ; Amos vi. 4.
^ Ullimus morborum medicut mart,
« 1 Cor, XV. 55-57 ; Philip, i. 23 ; Cant. viii. 14; Rev. xxii. 20.
' Morimur dum non morimur. ,
* See Index under Richard III. for former quotation and note. — (x.
* Query, Serenus, martyr. — G.
® Queen Elizabeth. See Index under Elizabeth. — G.
" Ambrose said to his friends about liim, when ho was dying, I have not so lived that I am ashamed to live ; nor yet feai I death, because 1 have a good Lord^ &c.
Rom. VIII. 32-34.] heaven on earth. 411
Look, as the want of assurance embitters all a sinner's mercies, that he cannot taste the sweetness and goodness of them ; so the enjoyment of assurance casts a general beauty and glory upon the believer's meanest mercy. And hence it is, that assured souls live so sweetly, and walk so cheerfully, when their little all is upon their backs and in their hands ; whereas the great men of the world, that have the world at will, but want this assurance, that is more worth than the world, live as slaves and servants to these mercies. Job xx. 22. In the midst of all their abundance they are in straits and perplexities, full of fears and cares ; nothing pleases them, nor is sweet unto them, because they want that assurance that sweetens to a believer the ground they stand on, the air he breathes, the seat he sits on, the bread he eats, the clothes he wears, &c. Ah ! were there more assurance among Christians, they would not count great mercies small mercies, and small mercies no mercies ; no, no ; then every mercy on this side hell would be a great mercy, then every mercy would be a sugared mercy, a perfumed mercy. Look, as the tree that Moses cast into the waters of Marah made those bitter waters sweet, Exod. xv. 23-25, so assurance is that tree of life that makes every bitter sweet, and every sweet more sweet.^