Quest. How do we prove that ?
Ans. To make it a little clearer, because it is a point of some conse- quence, even as I shewed of what consequence the sight of faith is, so I may say of this persuasion. We must labour therefore to know how we come by this persuasion, and whether it be such as we can hold out in ; whether it be such by which we can stand out in the time of temptation. If there be nothing but that argument of breeding, and of general light, of discourse, that we see one thing how it follows from another, I say it will deceive us, because constant obedience will never follow upon such a per- suasion ; nor constant holding out to death, nor constancy in death, if the conscience be once awakened ; neither will we be fruitful in our lives and conversations. To make this clear.
1. If the soul be not persuaded by the Spirit of God, together with the Spirit of the Scripture ; for the same Spirit that is in the Scripture must be in our spirit, working our natures suitable to the Scriptures to be holy; if we do not, by that Spirit by which the Scripture was indited, know those truths, we shall never he obedient to them, not constantly. For what is the reason that men when they are told, God doth forbid you to take his name in vain ; God forbids you to seek after earthly things ; God forbids you by the Scriptures to defile fyour vessels ; he forbids you to seek these things below ; he forbids you these courses ? * Now a man that hath knowledge that is not supernatural, that hath it not by the Spirit, he hears these things with a kind of scorn, and despiseth them as niceties.; he never makes scruple of these things, because he knows they are for- bidden or commanded of God, because he hears so. But he hath not known by the Spirit of God that penned the Scriptures, that these indeed are God's divine truths. The Spirit hath not sealed these truths to his soul, this is God's word. He hath not felt it in converting his soul, in mortifying his corruptions, in raising him being cast down, in working wonders in his conscience, in bringing all into a spiritual subjection. When he hath not felt the word work thus, for all his general knowledge by education, and breeding, and reading, he may be a disobedient wretch, and live and die a rebel, and bitter opposite against the power of grace, because he hath not knowledge of the word of God, and of particular truths by tbe Spirit of God, it is no persuasion of the Spirit.
And this is that that men wonder at, that know not the mystery of these
things, to see great scholars, men of great knowledge, perhaps divines,
that are preachers to others, to see such an one vicious, to see him carnally
disposed as others. When a man seeth this he thinks, What, do you talk
* The sentence is left thus unfinished. — G.
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of the word of God ? If there were such a thing, men that know these things must needs lead their Uves after the rule. It is no wonder. The devil hath knowledge enough, but he is no divine at all, because he hath it from his nature, being a spirit. So a man may be a devil incarnate, he may have knowledge of these things, and yet no true divine. But he that is taught by the Spirit of God the things in the word of God, the Spirit works a taste in them. Historical truths are known by their own light. There is no such need of the Spirit to discover them; but the promises, and threatenings, and such things are known by the Spirit. A man feels the power of the word of God. Then a man is convinced. Otherwise if the Spirit do not reveal these things, a man will never obey, but be rebellious.
2. And as there will be no obedience, so there will be no liohling out in time of peril and temptation. The persuasion that a carnal man hath, that is not a sanctified persuasion, it will not hold out in the hour of death, in the time of temptation, in strong temptation, either on the right hand by preferments and favours, or on the left hand by threatenings and persecutions. It is but a seeming persuasion. When anything comes that is stronger than it, it will not hold. When there is afflictions and persecutions in the church, we see many excellent learned men hold not out in their profession. Why ? They were drawn to the profession of religion by dependence on such kind of men, or they only followed religion as they saw reason for it, or they have been so bred in it, &c. Now reason may be brought against reason. When men have no other motives than these ; when persecution comes that they must lose their preferments or their friends, or their life, they fall away altogether, because that persuasion that they seemed to have before, it was no spiritual persuasion wrought from intrinsecal grounds of divine truth, that hath a majesty and a spiritualness in itself, but it was merely wrought out of foreign grounds. Now we see a meaner man that hath his knowledge wrought by the Spirit of God, the same Spirit it seals that know- ledge to him with the word of God that indited the Scripture, and acted the holy men of God that wrote the Scriptures. As his portion is incom- parably great, so he is persuaded of his interest in those good things. The same Spirit that convinceth him of the truth, and of the certainty of the things, it convinceth him likewise of his part in them, and this super- natural persuasion, together with his interest in those good things persuaded of, sets down the soul so as it will not move. He holds out in persecution, because he hath felt the work of divine truth in his soul. He hath found the Spirit of God casting him down, and raising him up to comfort, there- fore he holds out in his persuasion in all trials, and never apostatiseth from that estate and condition.