^ It is sad to be a stranger at home, and to be least acquamtcd with a man's own heart. — Aristotle. It is said of knowledge, non habet inimicum prater ignorantem.
472 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. V,
ducts of special or of common grace. Now, most Christians having but small measures of grace, holiness, and sanctification in them, and these small measures being much obscured and buried under the prevalency of fears, doubts, and unmortified lusts, can speak but weakly and darkly for them ; and upon this ground they are not fond of bringing in this witness of sanctification to speak for them. In civil courts, men are not ambitious to bring such witnesses to the bar as can witness but weakly and faintly in their case. It is so here.
Sixthly, Satan is a grand enemy to the peace, joy, comfort, assur- ance, settlement, and satisfaction of every poor Christian ; and there- fore he will leave no stone unturned, nor no means unattempted, whereby he may keep them in a low, dark, unsettled, and uncomfortable condi- tion, Ps. Ixxvii., Ixxxviii. When once a poor soul is brought over to Christ, how does the devil bestir himself to keep such a soul so under fears, doubts, and bondage, as that it may not in the least have an eye to anything that may have a proper tendency to its comfort, joy, assur- ance, peace, or quiet. The devil will do all he can to furnish such as as are ' begotten again by the resurrection of Christ from the dead' with all sorts of deadly weapons out of his armoury, to fight against those arguments and evidences which make for the peace and comfort of their own souls. He that shall look seriously and impartially upon the subtle, close, strong, and rhetorical arguings of many distressed Christians, above their own natural parts, against the peace, rest, com- fort, and settlement of their own souls, may safely conclude that a hand of Joab, a hand of Satan, yea, a strong hand of Satan, has been with them, 2 Sam. xiv. 19. He that shall please to read the life of Francis Spira, though he be no great philosopher, yet he may easily discern with what subtlety and wonderful sophistry Satan helped him to argue against the pardonableness of his sins, and the possibility of his salva- tion. Satan knows how to transform himself into an angel of light, 2 Cor. xi. 14. Satan does not always appear in one and the same fashion, but he appears in as many several shapes, fashions, and changes, as Proteus did among the poets. To deceive some, he has assumed a lightsome body, as if he were an angel of heaven, as if he had been a holy one clothed with the brightness of celestial glory ; to deceive others, he has appeared as an angel ol" light, suggesting such things to them, and injecting such things into them, under fair and specious shows and pretences of religion, piety, zeal, and holiness, which have had a direct tendency to the dishonour of God, the wounding of Christ, the grieving of the Spirit, the clouding or denying their evidences for heaven, the strangling of their hopes, and the death of all their comforts and joy. But,
Seventhly and lastly, Some Christians live under high enjoyments and sL7igular manifestations of God's love to them; they have God every day a-shedding abroad of his love into their hearts by the Holy Ghost, Rom. V. 5. God is every day a-filling their souls with life, light, love, glory, and liberty, Ps. Ixiii. 2-4. Christ every day takes them up into the mount. Mat. xvii. 4, and makes such discoveries of himself and his glory to them, that they are ready frequently to cry out, Bonum est esse hie, it is good to be here. Christ often whispers them in the ear with an ' O man, 0 woman, greatly beloved,' Dan. ix. 22, 23 ; Christ's
Chap. V.] a cabinet of jewels. 473
' left hand is every day under their heads, and his right hand doth embrace them,' Cant. ii. 6 ; they sit down every day ' under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit is sweet unto their taste ;' he makes out every day such sweet and clear manifestations of his admirable favour to their hearts, that their souls are daily satisfied as with marrow and fatness, Ps. Ixiii. 2-5. There are some precious Christians, — I say not- all, I say not most, — who live daily under singular glances of divine glory, and who are daily under the sensible embracements of God, and Avho daily lie in the bosom of the Father, and who every night have Christ as a bundle of myrrh lying betwixt their breasts. Cant. i. 13. Now these choice souls who live daily in the glorious manifestations of the Spirit, and enjoy a little heaven on this side heaven, these many times are so taken up with their high communion with God, with their spiritual enjoyments, and with their tastes of the glory of that other world, that they do not much mind such evidences as we have had under our consideration. And thus much for the reasons why some cry down Scripture marks, signs, and evidences of grace, of holiness, of sanctifica- tion, and why others don't much mind them, or take any great notice of them. But,