So, when it pleased God to call Paul by his grace, and to reveal Christ in him^ and to him, ah ! how doth he labour, as for life, to bring others to an acquaintance with Christ, and to an acceptance of Christ, and to an assurance of everlasting happiness and blessedness by Christ! After Paul had been in paradise, he makes it his all to bring others to paradise, 2 Cor. xii. So the spouse in the Canticles, having assurance of her interest in Christ, how doth she labour, by all holy and heavenly rhetoric and logic, by all the strains of love and sweetness, to draw the daughters of Jerusalem to a sight of Christ ! Cant, v. 10-16, and vi. 1, &c. When a beam of divine light and love had shined upon Andrew, he labours to draw his brother Simon to the fountain of all light and love, John i. 40-42. And when Philip had but a cast of Christ's coun- tenance, his pulse beats, and his heart calls upon Nathanael to come and share with him in that loving-kindness that was better than life, John i. 43-47.
The constant cry of souls under the power of assurance is, ' Come, taste and see how good the Lord is,' Ps. xxxiv. 8. Ah, sinners, sinners ! ' his ways are ways of pleasantness, and all his paths are peace,' Prov. iii. 17 ; his ' commands are not grievous,' 1 John v. 3, but joyous ; ' his j'oke is easy, and his burden is light,' Mat. xi. 30 ; not only /or keeping, but also ' m keeping of his commands there is great reward,' Ps. xix. 11. Assurance will strongly put men upon winning of others by counsel, by example, by prayer, and by communicating their spiritual experiences t6 them. Assurance will furnish a man with will, skill, and expe-
' Eph. V. 8 ; 1 Cor. i. 30 ; Col. it 10 ; Isa. i. 6 ; Eph. v. 26, 27 ; Cant. iv. 7. ^ Gal. i. 15, 16, i> t/tii, in me.
516 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34<.
rience to confute all those false reports that vain men frequently cast upon the Lord and his ways. It will make a man proclaim to the world ' that one day in the Lord's courts is better than a thousand years elsewhere/ Ps. Ixxxiv. 10 ; that there are more glorious joys, more pure comforts, more abiding peace, more royal contents, more celestial de- lights, in one day's walking with Ood, in one hour's communion with God, &c., than is to be found in all things below God. And by these and such like ways, souls under the power of a well-grounded assurance do endeavour to make others happy with themselves. A soul under assurance is unwilling to go to heaven without company. He is often a-ciying out, Father, bless this soul too, and crown that soul too : let us to heaven together, let us be made happy together.
[6.] The sixth difference. Sixthly, A well-grounded assurance of God's love, and of a man's everlasting happiness and blessedness, will exceedingly avni and strengthen him against all wickedness and baseiiess, Ezek. xvi. 60-63. No man loathes sin, and himself for sin, as such a man ; no man wars and watches against sin more than such a man ; no man sighs and mourns, bleeds and complains, under the sense of sinful motions and sinful operations more than such a man, Luke vii. 44, 50. Every stirring of sin makes a man that is under the power of assurance to cry out, * O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?' Rom. vii. 22-25 : Ps. Ixxxv. 8, * I will hear what God the Lord will speak ; for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints : and let them not turn again to folly,' or, as the Hebrew will bear, ' And they shall not return to folly.' God's speaking peace to his people fences and fortifies them against folly and vanity.
The assurance that Joseph had of his master's love armed him against the lascivious assaults of his lustful mistress ; and will not divine love, that is stronger than death, do this and more ? Cant. viii. 6, 7. Assur- ance makes a man say to his sins, as he to his idols, ' Get you hence, for what have I any more to do with idols ?' ' So says the assured soul. Away pride, away passion, away worldly-mindedness, away uncleanness, away uneharitableness, &c., for what have I any more to do with you ? Assurance makes the soul speak to sin as David speaks to sinners : Ps. cxix. 115, ' Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity; for I will keep the commandments of my God :' so says the assured soul. Depart from me, O my lusts, for I have tasted of the love of God, and I have given up myself wholly and only to God, and I cannot but keep the com- mandments of my God. The Jewish Rabbins report, that the same night that Israel departed out of Egypt towards Canaan, all the idols and idolatrous temples in Egypt, by lightning and earthquakes, were broken down. So when Christ and assurance comes to be set up in the soul, all the idols of Satan and a man's own heart are cast down, and cast out as an abomination. Sound assurance puts a man upon 'purifying himself, even as Christ is pure,' 1 John iii. 2, 3. The assured Christian knows, that it is dangerous to sin against light, thnt it is more dangerous to sin against love, that it is most dangerous to sin against love revealed and manifested. God may well say to such a
• Hosea xiv. 8, compared with verses 2-6.
Rom. VIII. 32-34] heaven on earth. 517
Christian, Is this th j kindness ta thy friend ? To sin under assurance, is to sin against the bowels of mercy, it is to sin against the highest hopes of glory; and this will certainly provoke God to be angry. 1 Kings xi. 9, * And the Lord was angry with Solomon,* because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, that had appeared to him twice.' To sin under assurance, is to sin in paradise; it is to sin under the flaming sword, it is to sin in the suburbs of heaven, it is to run the hazard of losing that favour 'that is better than, life,' of that 'joy that is unspeakable and full of glory,' and of that ' peace that passes under- standing.' To sin under assurance, is to cast reproach upon Christ, to grieve the Spirit, to wound conscience, tO' weaken your graces, to blur your evidences, to usher in calamities, to embitter your mercies, and to provoke the tempter to triumph over your Saviour. Verily, that assur- ance is but presumption that works men to play with sin, to be bold with sin, to make light of sin, to walk on in ways of sin. Such assur- ance will never bring a man to heaven, it will never keep him from dropping into hell, yea, it will double his damnation, and make him the most miserable among all damned, miserable, forlorn spirits. Ah, Lord ! from such an assiirance deliver my soul ; and give me more and more of that divine assurance that makes sin to be more hateful than hell, and that makes the soul to be more careful to avoid the one, than it is fearful of falling into the other.^
[7.] The seventh difference. Seventhly, A well-grounded assurance is always attended with three fair handmaids, or with three sweet companions,