^ The most ordinary and safe way of coming to assurance is the discursive way in which a believer, from the fruits and effects of grace, infers he hath the habit, and from the habit concludes his justification and adoption ; and as this is a way least subject to delusion, so it is also most suited to a rational creature, whose way of acting is by dis- course and argumentation.
Chap. Y.] a cabinet of jewels. 477
God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.' Our graces, our sanctification, as well as our election, vocation, justifi- cation, and glorification, are freely given to us of God ; and the Spirit of God is given as well to discover the one as the other to us. Mark, the things freely given us may be received by us, and yet the receipt of them not known to us ; therefore the Spirit for our further consolation doth, as it were, put his hand and seal to our receipts, whence he is said to ' seal us up unto the day of redemption,' Eph. iv. 80. The graces of the Spirit are a real ' earnest' of the Spirit, yet they are not always an evidential eaniest ; therefore an earnest is often superadded to our graces. For ever remember these few hints : (] .) that it is the work of the Spirit to plant grace in the soul ; (2.) that it is the work of the Spirit to act and exercise the graces that he has planted there; (3.) that it is the work of the Spirit to shine upon those graces that he has planted in the soul, and to cause the soul to see and feel what he has wrote ; (4.) that it is the work of the Spirit to raise springs of comfort and joy in the soul, upon the discovery of that grace which he has wrought in the soul. 0 Christians ! till the Spirit of the Lord shine upon your graces, you will still be in the dark. It is only God's own interpreter that must shew a man his righteousness, Job xxxiii. 23. When the Holy Ghost shines upon a Christian's graces, then a Christian finds the sprino-s of comfort to rise in his soul, and then he finds the greatest serenity and calmness in his spirit. 0 sirs ! no man can, by any natural light or evidence in him, come to be assured of the grace wrought in his soul. Look, as no man can see the sun but in the light of the sun, so no man can see the graces of the Spirit but in the light of the Spirit, 1 John v. 13. A man may have grace and not see it ; he may be in a state of grace and not know it ; as the child lives in the womb but don't per- ceive it, is heir to a crown but don't know it. Oh ! till the Spirit shines upon his own work, a child of light may walk in darkness and see no light, Isa. L 10. Look, as no man can subdue his sins but by the power of the Spirit ; so no man can see his graces but in the light of the Spirit, Rom. viii. 13. The confidence that a believer hath of the truth of grace wrought in him, springs more from the Spirit's removing his slavish fears, and answering his doubts, and shining upon his graces, and sup- porting his soul, than it does from that excellency and beauty of grace which shines in him. A man may read the promises over and over a thousand times, and yet never be affected, delighted, or taken with them, till the Spirit of the Lord set them liome upon his soul. And a man may read the threatenings over and over a thousand times, and yet never startle nor tremble, though he knows himself guilty of those very sins against which the threatenings are denounced, till the Spirit of the Lord sets home the threatenings in power upon his conscience ; and then every threatening will be like the hand-writing upon the wall, which will cause his countenance to be changed, and his thoughts to be troubled, and his joints to be loosed, and his knees to be dashed one against another, Dan. v. 6, 7. It is just so in the matter of our graces and gracious evidences ; till the Holy Spirit shine upon them, till ' in the light of the Spirit we come to see them, they won't be witnessing, comforting, and refreshing to us ; and therefore let not the pious reader think that, by the strength of his natural light, he shall ever attain to
478 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. V.
know the certainty of that grace Avhich is in his soul; but let him rather beg hard of God for his Holy Spirit, and that his Spirit may shine upon that good work which he hath begun in him, that so he may be per- suaded, assured, and comforted. Without the light of the Spirit, the work of the Spirit cannot be seen, no more than a book written in the fairest hand or print can be seen without Hght to see it or read it by. But,