of your faith in Jesus Christ. I am persuaded of it, there are many that take up their faith at their foot,-they never travail in pain, and yet faith is brought forth. Is not this a mystery? Shall it be said, before they travailed, they brought forth? I do not question, but there may be lesser and greater pangs of the new birth; but this is most certain, there is always either some lesser or greater troubles, till that child be brought forth and yet I may condemn those that stay too long in the place of the breaking forth of children. Christ will never refuse you, when ye do really come; because ye have not been so many years and days imprisoned to the law. Thirdly, Let me desire you to go in and ask,-is there a grave between you and heaven, in all that way through which the saints have travelled, upon which this is written,-Here lieth a man that sincerely sought life from Christ, and he denied him? I think, without encroaching too much upon the searching forth of the exercise of the saints in heaven, there may be in heaven some queries and interrogations;-Christ shall ask, O beloved! did ye want any thing here below, when ye were sent forth to travel in the world? And ye shall be constrained to answer, no. Christ shall ask that question at you,-did I not all things well? And ye shall be constrained to answer, yes. Christ shall propose that question, are ye not well rewarded for all your pains? And ye shall be constrained to answer, yes. O but to take him! he is the blessed and most excellent one in heaven and earth: it is the best bargain that ever ye made. O ye merchants that have made many excellent bargains to your own apprehensions! will ye come and make an excellent bargain? Yea, that will make you eternally up. And what is that? Come and buy Christ, and take him for nothing. This is not our ordinary bargaining. There are few that will come to you, and bid you buy excellent things without money: but come in the gospel, and ye will get Christ without money. O niggards! that are loath to spend your money in the world, will ye come to Christ, and believe on him, take him freely? O! say ye, if I could get three things of Christ, I would come. First, I would have much gold and silver: I say, come to Christ, and ye shall get much gold and silver. Is that true? It is abundantly true: see Job xxii. 22, 25, 26, where pressing that exhortation, Acquaint thyself with God; and using many arguments, he saith, thou shalt lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks. Is not that gold enough? Yea, ye shall have silver likewise, thou shalt have plenty of silver. In the 26th verse, ye shall not only have gold and silver, but ye shall have plenty of it: and shall have the most excellent and refined gold. But O! say ye, what, will that promise be literally accomplished to me, if I come to Christ? I would only say these three things to thee. 1. Come to Christ, and if gold and silver be for thy advantage, thou shalt have it literally accomplished. 2. I say, ye shall have as much contentment in Jesus Christ, as if ye had this house full of gold. 3. I will say this to thee, Christ will be thy gold and silver, according to that word in the 26th verse, which is most remarkable,-yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, or, as it is in the original, shall be thy gold-speaking of the

promise of gold before. Secondly, Ye say, I would have this, that what I propose might be accomplished: I say, come to Christ, and ye shall have that likewise; Job xxii. 28, Thou shalt decree a thing, and it shall be accomplished unto thee; which, I conceive, doth not only take in these spiritual decrees, but likewise those that relate to temporal enjoyments. But there is a third thing I would have, say ye, and I would come to Christ, and that is, that I might have all the desires of my heart. I say, O man! and O woman! come to Christ, and thou shalt have what thou desirest: this is clear from Psalm xxxvii. 4, Delight thyself in God, and he shall give thee the desire of thine heart. What can ye have, man, but it is there? Would ye have any thing of Christ? He putteth a blank in your hand, and saith that word which is said to Solomon,—ask what would ye have, and I shall give you? Christ, as it were, putteth his name to the foot of a clean sheet of paper, and he desireth you to ask what ye would have :—and is not this an excellent bargain? O niggard! what would ye have, which ye will not get in Christ? And be persuaded, ye that refuse and will not take him, that the eternal curse of all that is in heaven will return upon thy head, -the eternal curse of all the expectants of heaven, and heirs of life, will return upon the head of that person that will not take Christ. And cursed, cursed shall that person be, who will not take Christ, and one day all the congregation in heaven and earth shall say, Amen.

THREE SERMONS

CONCERNING

THE FAITH OF ASSURANCE.

SERMON I.

2D COR. xiii. 5.-Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves: know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates ?

ASSURANCE is a precious gift, which many that live in these days do undervalue, and tread under foot. Do not the Christians of these times go halting between two opinions, being neither positive that they are received into the adoption of children, nor yet positive that they are yet in a state of alienation, and enemies in their own mind by wicked works? Yea, and that which is worse, there are many among us that walk with much contentment under their uncertainty. I think it is a fault to be condemned in many, that they pursue more to satisfy their sense for the present, than to have a solid, well-grounded assurance for the time to come. I could wish that all the debates and questions of these days, that take up so much of our time, and so much of our spirits from better things, were happily drowned in these four excellent things, which, without controversy, are of greatest concernment for all to have resolved. 1. Where shall I rest all night, when the long shadows of the everlasting evening shall be stretched out upon me? And whether or not hath Christ gone before to take up a place for me in his Father's house? 2. It is a soul-concerning question,-Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?—to be asking at him that can sweetly resolve you.

3. Not to rest there, but to be crying forth in the morning, what shall I do to be saved?—and to be crying out in the evening, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?

4. It is sweet to be asking seriously saw ye him whom my soul loveth? There is much of our time spent in asking news from court, and from abroad, concerning the revolutions of states and kingdoms.

But, I suppose, it were better to ask, what news from heaven concerning thyself?-and what news from within, and news of thy bridegroom's coming? For these are great courts,-I mean the court of heaven, and the court of conscience, the affairs of which a Christian should endeavour much to know.

It is a soul-concerning question, that a Christian should be much in proposing to himself, what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits?

It is certain, we must say, that our faith and assurance, and all our other mercies, are from him, and yet, alas! we are negligent in praises: we may, with Tamar, rend our garments of divers colours, even the garments of the king's daughter, because of spiritual whoredom against God, and ingratitude to him.

Now, having spoken unto you, at so great a length, of that precious and fundamental grace of faith, we have thought fit to shut up all in speaking a little upon those words we have now read, concerning the evidence and assurance of faith.

The apostle, in this chapter, is vindicating his ministry and apostleship from the contempt that was cast upon it: he proveth he was a minister of the New Testament, called and sent of God by the blessing and success he had among them, in that he had not ploughed nor threshed in vain; and they being so much in censuring his way, and seeking an account of his ministry, in these words, he doth, as it were, draw them off by holy diversion unto another business, as if he had said unto them, O Corinthians! I will divert you from the exercise of judging me, and will lead you into an exercise that is more divine and profitable. Be much in judging and examining yourselves; and indeed it is a truth worth our observation, That if we were more in judging of ourselves, we would be less in judging others but alas! there are some of us who are so much abroad, that we cannot be much at home.

:

-First,

In the words, there are these five things considerable :-) That there is such a thing attainable by a Christian, while he is here, as a distinct persuasion and assurance that he is in the faith, and hath an interest in Christ, by being in the faith: here is not to be understood a being in the doctrine of faith only, but is to be understood principally, being indeed really united unto Christ by faith. Secondly, The seeking after assurance is a necessary, commanded duty; for ye see here the words are very imperative, examine your-selves—prove your own selves.

Thirdly, That there are many mistakes and delusions amongst people concerning that noble and excellent thing assurance; there being many that keep a fast hope, which Christ shall once discountenance and sweep away like a spider's web; and this is imported in these words, Examine yourselves; or, as the words may be rendered, take an accurate and an experimental search of yourselves, try yourselves, or prove yourselves: it is a word that is borrowed from the goldsmiths' fining and trying of gold; and so his putting of the Corinthians to so accurate a search of themselves, saith this clearly us, there are many mistakes concerning this thing-many do pass a decree in their own favours, before Christ hath passed his approbation of them.

Fourthly, Take notice of this from the words, that there is much, and exceeding much advantage, by trying and searching whether we be in the faith or not; this is imported in his doubling the exhortation.

Fifthly, That one most excellent and spiritual way of attaining assurance, whether we be in the faith or not, is self-examination, and putting ourselves to the trial; as if he had said,-would you have a distinct persuasion that ye are in Christ? Then be much

in the exercise of self examination ;-the rest of the words of the verse we intend not to handle.

As to the first, That there is such a thing attainable, I shall only propose these seven reasons unto you to make it evident :--1. It is known in Scripture, that the saints of old have, in an ordinary way, attained to a distinct persuasion of their interest in Christ; Song vi. 3, My beloved is mine, and I am his; and Rom. viii. 38, I am persuaded, saith the apostle, that neither death nor life, &c., shall be able to separate me from the love of God in Christ; and 2d Cor. v. 1, For we know, if this our earthly tabernacle were dissolved, we have a house with God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2. It is the great scope of many Scriptures to shew how Christians may attain unto assurance; 1st John v. 13, These things I write unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life. The great end and design of John's writing in these epistles, is to make a soul acquainted with Christ, and to make men accept of him, and to give them a distinct assurance that Christ hath accepted them.

3. There are many commands in Scripture for Christians to be serious in searching after assurance; 2d Pet. i. 10, Wherefore, brethren, give all diligence to make your calling and election sure.

4. It is the blessed end of God's oath in the everlasting covenant, that a Christian might get assurance. What was the great ground and great end that God confirmed his covenant with an oath? Was it not, Heb. vi. 18, That by two immutable things, wherein it was impossible for God to lie, ye might have strong consolation?

5. If assurance of our interest in Christ were not attainable, then these precious graces of joy and love could not be well exercised: if a Christian were evermore in the dark concerning his interest in Christ, he could not give obedience to that exhortation, Rejoice, evermore; again, I say, rejoice.

6. The Scripture hath set down these means by which a Christian may win to assurance, it is clear, 1st John iii. 18, 19. 2d Pet. i. 5, compared with verse 10th, where the Apostle Peter, pressing the doctrine of making our calling and election sure, setteth down these excellent means by which they may win to it; and doubtless, the marks and evidences that are registrate in the Scripture of a gracious state, do assure us that assurance is attainable.

7. What are the ends of the sacraments, but that our assurance may be confirmed, and that our faith may be strengthened? The two sacraments are the two great seals of heaven, that are put to the charter of the covenant.

Now, as to the application, and the more full improvement of this first point, I shall only offer these considerations:-1. I would have it taken notice of, that though grace and assurance be two lovers, yet there is no such bond of union between them, that the one cannot consist without the other. A Christian may have the real grace of God, and yet walk in darkness, and have no light. A