No opposition shall prevail. God hath set us a seal on his right hand to keep us ; ay, and on his breast (as the high priest had the twelve tribes) to love us, and on his shoulder to support us. The marked and sealed ones in Ezek. ix. 4, and Rev. vii. 2, were secured from all destruction. If we be in Christ our rock, temptations and oppositions are but as waves ; they may dash upon us, but they break themselves.
Quest. Why then do we pray for the forgiveness of sins ?
Ans. We pray for a clear evidence of what we have ; secondly, as the end is ordained, so the means must be used. God doth and will pardon sin ; and therefore we must pray for pardon, as a means ordained. Thirdly, Prayer doth not prejudice the certainty of a thing, Christ prayeth for that he was most sure of : John xvii. 24, ' I pray for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine.'
Pregnant for the proof of this point is that of Peter : ' We are begotten again to a lively hope,' a hope of that life which maketh lively, 1 Peter i. 8-5. Oh but we are weak ! True, but ' we are kept by the power of God.' An inheritance is not only kept for us, but we are kept for it,
Obj. But Satan is strong, and his malice is more than his strength.
Ans. True. But we are kept as by a garrison. We have a guard about us.
Ohj. All this is true while faith holdeth out, but that may fail.
A)ts. No. We are kept by the power of God ' through faith.' God keepeth our faith, and us by faith.
Obj. But the time is long between us and salvation, and many dangers may fall out.
Ans. Be it so that the time is long, yet we are ' kept unto salvation,' even until the * day of redemption ; ' for the Spirit, by virtue of the covenant, puts the fear of God into our hearts, that we shall never depart from him. God doth not promise what we shall do of ourselves, but what he will do in ns and by us. Thus the Holy Ghost putteth a shield into our hands to ward off all objections ; and helps us to subdue the reasonings that are apt to * Cf. footnote, Vol. III. page 476.— G.
VOL. V. F f
450 A FOUNTAIN SEALED.
rise ■within us against this hlessed hope. So that this happy condition is cot ouly pure to iis, but God hath assured us of it. God's gracious in- dulgence is such, ho sees hero we go through a wilderness and are molested every way ; therefore he would have us assured of a blessed condition to come. So good is God, ho doth not only find out a glorious way of redemption by the blood of his Son God-man, but he acquaints us with it in the days of our pilgrimage, partly that we may glorify him, that he may have the praise beforehand of what good he intends us ; for assurance of that blessed condition will stir up our spirits to bless God. What the thing itself would work, faith works the same in some measure. Therefore Saint Peter, 1 Pet. i. 8, 4, ' Blessed be God,' saithhe, ' who hath begotten us again to a lively hope of an inheritance immortal, uudeiiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in the heavens.' Why doth he bless God before we have it ? Because we are as sure of it as if we had it. What is revealed beforehand is praised for beforehand. God would have us assured, that he may have glory.
Partly to comfort us : for faith is effectual to work that comfort that the thing present would do in some measure. What comfort would the soul have if it should see heaven open and itself entering into it, if redemption were at hand ? The same faith works in some measure. WTiat is more sure than the thing itself ? What more comfortable than faith in it ?
When the Israelites were in the wilderness, going to Canaan, they had many promises that they should come to Canaan, and many extraordinary helps to lead them thither — the pillar, and cloud, and angel ; and God, out of indulgence condescending to their weakness, gave them some grapes of Canaan. He put it into the mind of the spies to bring of the fruits. So God gives us some work of his blessed Spirit, whereby he would have us assured and sealed to the day of redemption,
3. The third conclusion is this, that the Spirit doth seal its. This cannot be otherwise ; for who can establish us in the love of God, but he that knows the mind of God towards us ? and who knows the mind of God but the Spirit of God ?
Then am I sealed, when I do not only believe, but by a reflecting act of the soul know I do believe ; and this reflection, though it be by reason, yet it is by reason enabled by the Spirit. Our spirits by the Spirit only, can discern of spiritual acts. It is not for us to know things above nature ; without a cause, above nature. None can know the meaning of our broken desires, so as to help us in our infirmities, but that Spirit that stirred up those desires. Again, none knows the grievances of our spirits, but our own spirits and the Spirit of God, who knows all the turnings and corners of the soul.