And likewise in Isa. xliv. 5, speaking of gracious times there, when men shall be bold for the Lord, as in all times some men will. ' One shall say, I am the Lord's, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand to the Lord, and term himself Israel.* God shall have his tongue, his hand, and all. He shall say, ' I am the Lord's,' he shall call himself ' by the name of God,' he shall subscribe to it, and own the cause.
(4.) Again, If we would know whether God be our God, we must know whether tve may lay just claim to our God as a j)ecuUar God to us, or no, and that way in which God sheweth himself to be a God in peculiar respects to us.
Quest. Now how doth God shew himself a God in a peculiar respect to his children ?
Ans. He sheweth himself to have a peculiar respect to them, —
[1.] By pecidior ffifts, uhcn he [fives to them that uhich he givcth to none else. Shall we imagine God to be our God by common gifts and common
A HEAVENLY CONFEEENCE. 473
graces ? No. For thou comest to boar the word ; so Herod did. Thou receivest the sacrament ; so did Judas, so did Simon Magus. Thou hearest the truth with some joy ; so did the ' third ground,' Mat. xiii. 20. Thou hast excellent parts ; so hath the devil himself.
But thou art in such a place of the church, teachest others : so did Judas. Are these evidences to try whether we be God's or no ? What then is the peculiar gift and love-token that God bestows upon his favourites ? They be the graces of his Spirit, especially in regard of God : an humble broken heart, and a believing heart, and a lowly heart, that goeth out of itself, that goeth unto God by faith, and towards man full of love, which argueth a great deal of self-denial, when a man can love others with denial of his own profit and ease. He that hath a humble, believing, lowly heart, hath more than all the world besides, for he hath God's peculiar gift. Many poor souls complain as if God had no regard to them, and yet in the mean time they have humble, broken hearts, which is more than if they had all the wealth and worth that the world hath, which have proud hearts, never broken. The return of these favours will be comfort in death and glory in heaven. What will the fruit of a believing heart be ? He hath God and Christ. If he hath a lowly large heart to do good, he doth that which in the issue shall further his account at the day of judgment ; and there is the love of God shewed in his special favour.
[2. j So the love of God especially shall be a peculiar comfort that the ivorld is ignorant of, es2')ecialhj in times of extremity. Inward peace of conscience, inward joy, and inward comforts, these are signs of love that God bestoweth upon a man, when he will own him in the worst times, and speak peace to his soul when nothing in the world will speak peace. When the lions roar, [when] the great lions of the world roar in extremity, he hath inward peace and joy, and comforts of the Holy Ghost. That inward intercourse of God with the soul is a sign of God's peculiar love. When God speaketh peace to the soul, when he sheweth the light of his countenance, which David in Ps. iv. 7 prefers before all outward comforts whatsoever — God's revealing of himself, as the Scripture calleth it — when God revealeth himself to his to be theirs, with peace, and joy, and comfort accompanying it, this is peculiar.
[3. J Again, A peculiar favour and love-token of God is to have seasonable and sanctifying correction. To have corrections when they be seasonable ; when we be in a way of straying, and God will bring us home by correc- tion ; and when we have sanctified correction, we find by experience that all is turned to our good. If I find anything turn me to my God, I know I am his ; if my cross be seasonable and sanctified, he is my God, for he takes that course with me which he takes with his own people. These be singular signs of God's love, when he bestoweth the graces of his Spirit, his comforts, peace, and joy, though not largely, yet so much as shall sustain the soul. And then, when he seasonably meeteth us, and will not suffer us to thrive in an evil course. Oh it is a judgment of judgments to be hardened in sinful courses of life ; how can it but end in desperation at length ? And therefore it is a great favour to be chastised ; it sheweth ' we are sons, and not bastards.' Thus we see how we may lay just claim to this, that God is our God in a peculiar manner.
(5.) To name but one more, to distinguish a spirit of presumption from a spirit of faith and truth, that God is our God, is this,