(9.) The ninth advantage. Assurance will make a man very angelical.' It will make him full of motion, full of action ; it will make him imitate the angels, those princes of glory, that are always busy and active to advance the glory of Christ. They are still a-singing the song of the Lamb ; they are still pitching their tents about them that fear the Jjord, Ps. xxxiv. 7 ; they are ministering spirits sent forth for the good of them that are heirs of salvation, Heb. i. 14. Assurance will make a man fervent, constant, and abundant in the work of the Lord, as you may see in Paul. The assured Christian is more motion than notion, more work than word, more life than lip, more hand than tongue. When he hath done one work, he is a-calling out for another; What is the next. Lord, says the assured soul, what is the next ? His head and his heart is set upon his work, and what he doth, he doth it with all his might, because there is no working in the grave.* An assured Christian will put his hand to any work ; he will put his shoulder to any burden ; he will put his neck in any yoke for Christ ; he never thinks that he hath done enough, he always thinks that he hath done too little ; and when he hath done all he can, he sits down sighing it out, ' I am but an unprofitable servant.'*
In a word, assurance will have a powerful influence upon thy heart. In all the duties and services of religion, nothing will make a man love like this and live like this ; nothing will make a man humble and thankful, contented and cheerful, like this. Nothing will make a man more serious in prayer, nor ingenuous in praises, than this ; nothing will
* A believer knows, (1.) that his little mercies are from great love ; (2.) that they are pledges of greater; (3.) that his blessings are blessed unto him : (4.) that they shall not at last be witnesses against him.
' The Rabbins say, that the angels attend in all judicatories.
• Assurance makes a saint all fire ; it makes him like the burning seraphims. Isa. vi. 2-4. <* Bellarmine is of opinion that one glimpse of hell were enough to make a man not
only turn Christian, but a monk, to live after the strictest rules, to be abounding in well- doing. Surely assurance of heaven will make a man do more.
412 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34-.
make a man more cheerful and joyful than this ; nothing Avill make a man fit to live and more willing to die, than this.
Ah, Christians ! if ever you would act as angels in this world, get an assurance of another world ; then you shall be dumb no more, nor dull no more, but be active and lively, like those whose hopes and whose hearts are in heaven.
(10.) The tenth advantage. Assurance will sweeten Christ, and the precious things of Christ, to thy souL^ Ah ! how sweet is the person of Christ, the natures of Christ, the aims of Christ, the oflfices of Christ, the benefits of Christ, the blood of Christ, the word of Christ, the threatenings of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the ordinances of Christ, the smiles of Christ, the kisses of Christ, to an assured soul. Now thy meditations on Christ will be no more a terror, nor a horror to thee ; nay, now thy heart will be always best, when you are most in ponder- ing upon the sweetness and goodness, the kindness and loveliness, of the Lord Jesus. Now all the institutions and adminstrations of Christ will be precious to thee. Upon everything where Christ hath set his name, there thou wilt set thy heart. Now thou wilt call things as Christ calls them, and count things as Christ counts them ; that shall not be little in thy eye, that is great in the eye of Christ ; nor that shall not be great in thy eye that is but little in the eye of Christ.'
Assurance will also exceedingly sweeten your carriage to all that bear the image of Christ. Nothing will make men bear with those weak saints whose light is not so clear as yours, whose parts are not so strong as yours, whose enjoyments are not so high as yours, whose j,udgments are not so well informed as yours, whose consciences are not so well satisfied as yours, and whose lives are not so amiable as yours.
Assurance makes men of a God-like disposition, easy to pardon, ready to forgive, abundant in goodness, admirable in patience. It makes men to study the good of others, and joy in all opportunities wherein they may strengthen the feeble, and comfort the dejected, and enrich the impoverished, and recover the seduced, and enlarge the straitened, and build up the wasted. Verily, the reason why men are so bitter and sour, and censorious, is because God hath not given into their bosoms this sweet flower of delight, assurance.'
Ah ! were their souls fully assured that God had loved them freely, and received them graciously, and justified them perfectly, and par- doned them absolutely, and would glorify them everlastingly, they could not but love where God loves, and own where God owns, and em- brace where God embraces, and be one with every one that is one with Jesus. Were there more assurance among Christians, there would be more of David's and Jonathan's spirit among Christians, than there is this day.
Were there more assurance among Christians, there would be more life and more love, more sweetness and more tenderness. Were there
' Ipse Deus sufficit ad prcemium — Bernard. It is heaven enough to see your interest in Christ.
* Assurance is like fire, very operative. Si rum operaiur non eat, if it do not work, it is an argument it is not at all.
' Rom. XV. 1. We are united in the same head and hope, eodem sanguine Christi ghitinari, we are cemented with the same hlood of Christ, as Augustine said of his friend Alypius and himself. [Epist., tvh nomine. — G.]
Rom. VIII. 32-84.] heaven on earth. 413
more assurance, there would be less noise, less contention, less division, less distraction, less biting, and less devouring among the saints.'
Assurance will make the lion and the calf, the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the bear and the cow, lie down together, and feed together, Isa. xi. 6-8. Men that want assurance love their brethren as flies love the pot. So long as there is any meat in the pot, the flies love it ; so those men will love as long as there is an external motive to draw love, but when that ceases, their love ceases.
Dionysius loved his bottles when they were full, but hurled them away when they were empty. So many that want assurance love the saints while their bags are full, and their houses full of the good things of this life ; but when they are empty, then they throw them away, then they cast them off, as Job's friends did him.