This act of ours in believing, and the knowledge of our belie\'ing, it is oft terribly shaken ; and God is wondrous desirous, as we see by the whole passage of the Scripture, that we should be secure of his love. Ho knows that he can have no glory and we can have no comfort else. And, there- fore, when we by fiiith have sealed to his truth, he knows that we need still further sealing, that our faith be current and good, and to strengthen our faith, for all is little enough in the time of temptation. And, therefore, the single witness of our soul by the reflect act, knowing that we do believe when we do believe, it is not strong enough in great temptations, for in some trials the soul is so carried and hurried that it cannot reflect upon itself, nor know what is in itself, without much ado ; therefore, first the Spirit works faith, whereby we seal God's truth, John iii. 33, ' He that believes hath put to his seal that God is true.' When God by his Spirit moves me to honour him by sealing his truth, that ' whosoever believes in Christ shall be saved,' John iii. 18, then God seals this, my belief, with an addition of his Holy Spirit. So that this sealing is a work upon believing ; and as faith honours God, so God honours faith with a super- added seal and confirmation.
But yet we [are] not come particularly enough to know what this seal is. When we honour God by sealing his truth, then the Spirit seals us ; cer- tainly then the Spirit doth it by presence, by being with us in om* souls. What then doth the Spirit work when we believe ? How shall we know that there is such a spiritual sealing ?
I answer, the Spirit in this sealing works these four things :
First, a secret voice or witness to the soul, that we are ' the sons of God.'
Secondly, a voice or speech in us again to God, causing us to have access to the throne of grace ' with boldness.'
Thirdhj, a work of sanctification.
Fourthhj, ' peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost,' Eom. xiv. 17.
By these four ways we may know the sealing of the Spirit after we believe, and that our faith is a sound belief, and that we are in the state of grace indeed.
1. First, I say, the Spirit speaks to vs by a secret land of whispering and intimation, that the soul feels better than I can express. ' Be of good com- fort, thy sins are forgiven thee,' saith he to the soul. Matt. ix. 2, 'I am thy salvation,' Ps. xxxv. 3. There is, I say, a sweet joining, a sweet kiss given to the soul. * I am thine, and thou art mine,' Cant. vi. 3. God by his Spirit speaks so much. There is a voice of God's Spirit speaking peace to his people upon their believing.
2. And then, Secondly, the Spirit of adoption stirs iip the sj^eech of the soul to God, that as he says to the soid. Because thou bclievest, now thou art honoured to be my child ; so the Spirit stirs up in the soul a spirit of prayer to cry, * Abba, Father.' It can go boldly to God as to a Father ; for that * Abba, Father,' it is a bold and famihar speech.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 22. 457
There are two things in a prayer of a Christian that arc incompatible to any carnal man : there is an inward kind of familiar boldness in the soul, whereby a Christian goes to God, as a child when he wants any thing goes to his father. A child considers not his own worthiness or meanness, but goeth to his father familiarly and boldly : so, I say, when the Spirit of God speaks to us from God, and tells the soul, ' 1 am thine,' ' I am thy salvation,' ' thy sins are forgiven thee, be of good comfort : ' and when the soul again speaks to God, when it can pour forth itself with a kind of fiimiliar boldness and earnestness, especially in extremity, and in time of trouble, and can wait in prayer, and depend upon God,- — this spiritual speech of God to the soul, and of the soul to God, it is a seal of the Spirit that indeed we are true believers, because we can do that that none can do but Christians. God speaks to our souls, he raiseth our souls, and by-his Spirit he puts a spirit of supplication into us, and helps our infirmities ; for we know not what to ask, but he helps our weakness, and enables us to lay out the wants of our souls to God. These are evidences of the presence and of the seal of the Spirit.
3. In the third place, this scaling of the Spirit after we believe, is known by the sanvtifywg work of the Spirit : for, as I told you before in the unfold- ing of the point, the Spirit seals our spirits by stamping the likeness of the Spirit of Clirist on us. So that when a man finds in his soul some lineaments of that heavenly image of Christ Jesus, when he finds some love, he may know by that love that he is ' translated from death to life,' John v. 24 ; when he finds his spirit subdued, to be humble, to be obedient, when he finds his spirit to be heavenly and holy as Christ was ; v/hen he finds this stamp upon the soul, surely he may reason, I have not this by nature; naturally I am proud, now I can abase myself; naturally I am full of mahce, now I can love, I can pray heartily for mine enemies, as Christ did ; naturally I am lumpish and heavy, now in afflictions, I can joy in the Holy Ghost ; I have somewhat in me contrary to nature, surely God hath vouchsafed his Spirit, upon my believing in Christ, to mark me, to seal me, to stamp me for his, I carry now the image of the second Adam, I know the Holy Ghost hath been in my heart, I see the stamp of Christ there. ' Know j'ou not that Christ is in you, except you be cast-aways ?' saith the apostle, 2 Cor. xiii. 5. So upon search, the Christian soul finds somewhat of Christ always in the soul to give a sweet evidence that he is sealed to the day of redemption.