Ah ! but assurance will make a man love as God loves, and love as long as God loves. The assured Christian will not- cease to love so long as the least buds and blossoms of grace appear. Lazarus in his rags is as lovely to an assured Christian as Solomon in his robes. Job is as delightful to him upon the dunghill as David is upon his throne. It is not the outward pomp and bravery, but the inward beauty and glory of saints that takes the assured Christian.
(11.) Ihe eleventh motive to provoke you to get a weU-grounded assurance of your everlasting happiness is this, consider that as there is a great deal of counterfeit knowledge, counterfeit faith, counterfeit love, counterfeit repentance, <&c. in the world, so there is a great deal of counterfeit assurance in the world. Many there be that talk high, and look big, and bear it out bravely that they are thus and thus, and that they have such and such glorious assurance, whereas, when their assurance comes to be weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, it is found too light ; and when it comes to withstand temptations, it is found too weak; and when it should put the soul upon divine action, it is found to be but a lazy presumption. Shall the counterfeit gold that is in the world make men active and diligent to get that which is current, and that will abide the touchstone and the fire ? and shall not that counterfeit assurance that is in the world provoke your hearts to be so much the more careful and active to get such a well-grounded assurance that God accounts as current, and that will abide his touchstone in the day of discovery, and that will keep a man from shame and blushing when the thrones shall be set and the books shall be opened ?
I have been the longer upon these motives to provoke your souls to get a well-grounded assurance, because it is of an eternal concernment to you, and a work to which men's hearts are too backward.
Though assurance carries a reward in its own bosom, yet few look after it ; though the pains of getting it be nothing to the profit that accompanies it, yet few will sweat to gain it.
If the inducements laid down will not awaken and provoke you to be restless till you have got the ' white stone ' and ' new name,' till you have got the assurance of your pardon in your bosoms, I know not what will.
' { ' Magnea amoris eat amor, love is the attractive loadstone of love.
414 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34.
Shewing the several ways and means of gaining a well-grounded
(1.) The first means. If ever you will attain to assurance, then h6 much in the exercise and actings of grace. As the believing Ephesians, Eph. i. 13, were in the very exercise and actings of grace, the Spirit of the Lord ' sealed them up to the day of redemption.' Assurance flows in upon the actings of grace. Assurance is bred and fed, it is raised and maintained in the soul, by the actings of graca Grace is most discernible when it is most in action, and grace is made more and more perfect by acting. Neglect of your graces is the ground of their de- crease. Wells are the sweeter for drawing ; you get nothing by dead and useless habits ; talents hid in a napkin gather rust ; the noblest faculties are embased when not improved ; grace in the habit is no more discernible than fire under the ashes, than gold in the ore, than a dead man in the grave ; but grace, in its lively actings and operations, is as a prince upon his throne, sparkling and shining.^
Ah, Christians ! were your grace more active, it would be more visible ; and were your grace more visible, your assurance would be more clear and full. As St Paul once spake to Timothy, * Stir up the gift of God that is in thee,'^ 2 Tim. i. 6, so say I to you, If ever you would have assurance, stir up the grace of God that is in you, blow up that heavenly fire, raise up those noble spirit.s, never cease believing nor repenting, till it be clearly given into your bosoms, that you are sure that you do believ?, and that you do repent, as you are sure that you live, as you are sure that God rules in Jacob, and dwells in Zion.
Remember, Christians, all the honour that God hath from you in this life, is from the actings and exercise of your grace, and not from the habits of grace. Remember, Christians, that all your consolations flow, not from the habits, but from the acts of grace. Remember, Christians, that the want of the exercise of grace is the reason why you do not discern your grace, and why you have no more assurance of your future happiness. He that will be rich, must still be turning the penny; and he that will attain unto the riches of assurance, must still be acting his graces, Col. ii.^. There are none but lively, active Christians, that know and feel those joys, comforts, and contents that attend the exer- cise of grace. If thou wouldst not be always a babe in grace, and a stranger to assurance, then see that thy lamp be always burning, see that thy golden wheels of grace be always going.
(2.) The second means. If you would. Christians, attain unto assur- ance, then you must mind your work more than your wages ; you must he better at obeying than disputing; at doing, at walking, than at talking and wrangling.^ Assurance is heavenly wages that Christ
'A Christian that would have assurance, must never leave blowing his little spark till he hath blowed it into a flame.
» The words are an allusion to the fire in the temple, which was always to be kept burning. Vide Calvin on the text.
' Non enim passibua ad Deum sed affecHbua currimus. Amhulas si amas, thou walkest if thou lovest to walk.
Rom. VIII. 32-34.] heaven on earth. 415