Spirit, and from thence he draws this certain conclusion, that he is in the favour of God.

Thus the witness of the Spirit appears to be not an unaccountable enthusiasm, as some have made it, but a sober rational testimony. The right understanding of this is of great use to settle the minds of many good but weak Christians, who are infinitely perplexed in their thoughts about the witness of the Spirit within them. They sadly complain of their want of it, when indeed they have it, because they do not rightly understand what it is. They expect some secret impulse or suggestion of the divine Spirit telling them directly that they are the children of God, and missing of this, (which indeed God hath nowhere, that I know of, promised,) they are in a disconsolate afflicted condition. They look for comfort only and immediately from the Spirit of God, while their own spirits are wholly inactive and idle; i. e. they do not make use of their reason and understanding, in gathering comfort to themselves, from those grounds of comfort which the Spirit of God hath wrought in them.

8:

We may very fitly apply the words of St. Paul, borrowed from Moses concerning the righteousness of faith, to the assurance of faith, Rom. x. 6, 7, The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring down Christ from above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart. So here do not seek after an oracle or immediate revelation, or expect that a voice from heaven should assure thee, that thou who

art a true believer, and a sincere penitent, art in a state of grace and favour with God; for the resolution of the case is nigh unto thee, and even within thee, and to be sought after no farther than in thine own heart and conscience. If thou perceivest that thou dost believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with all thine heart, with a faith working by love, love to God, and love to thy neighbour, thou mayest as certainly conclude thou art in a state of salvation, as if a voice from heaven had told thee so.

And so much of the first thing propounded, The manner how the Spirit of God doth bear witness with our spirits, that we are the children of God.

II. I am next to shew you what degree of hope or persuasion concerning their adoption, the witness of the Spirit doth ordinarily produce in the hearts of the faithful. And here again to this inquiry I answer both negatively and affirmatively.

1. Negatively. The witness of the Spirit doth not ordinarily produce in the faithful that highest degree of persuasion, which amounts to a plerophory or absolute and full assurance of his salvation, excluding all doubt thereof. A full assurance of salvation is that which very few of the best of Christians can boast of. Indeed this seems not expedient in any man but him that is near the end of his race, that having fought a good fight perseveringly against the world, the Devil, and the flesh, is now ready to go off the stage, and to take his crown of glory, the reward of his laborious combat; which seems to be the case of St. Paul, 2 Tim. iv. 6, 7, 8: For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth

there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day.

It is the opinion of very learned interpreters, that St. Paul was warned by an oracle or revelation from heaven of his near approaching martyrdom, after the manner that St. Peter was, 2 Peter i. 14: Knowing that I must shortly put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. St. Paul being thus ready to be offered, i. e. to suffer martyrdom for Christ's sake, and having, through the whole course of his past life, had experience of the grace of God carrying him through a multitude, an infinite variety of sufferings, with honour and victory, was assured that he should not fail in this last act, but that the same grace would complete his former victories with a crown of martyrdom. This assurance was necessary in him at this time to support him in his last trial, and there was now no danger that he should abuse it. But before this, when the blessed apostle was farther off from the end of his race and combat, he speaks in a more doubtful manner, 1 Cor. ix. 27: I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway, i. e. a reprobate. St. Paul cannot be supposed at that time, when he wrote this, to be absolutely certain of his salvation. Indeed such an assurance, as I said before, seems no way expedient for any man who is yet in the midst of his combat with the adversaries of his soul, the Devil, the world, and the flesh; because it would be apt to betray him to security. The case in this particular is much the same, between the life of our bodies and

the salvation of our souls. If divine Providence should give any man an absolute assurance of a very long life, he would be apt to neglect the means of his health, and to take no care for the preserving of his life so if God should give a man beforehand assurance of his perseverance to the end, and so of his salvation, it would probably make him careless and negligent in the use of the means appointed for his perseverance, i. e. watching and praying.

2. I answer affirmatively. And the affirmative I will lay down in these following propositions:

(1.) The witness of the Spirit of God doth ordinarily produce in the faithful such a degree of hope and persuasion of their adoption, as shall render their lives in some measure comfortable, and free from tormenting fears and anxieties, and such as shall be sufficient to encourage them in the discharge of that duty which God requires of them.

(2.) The degrees of this comfortable hope and persuasion in the faithful are ordinarily proportioned to the degrees of their other graces.

The graces of the Spirit within us, as I have already shewn, are the evidences of our titles to heaven: and therefore the greater and stronger our habitual grace is, the greater and stronger evidence we have of our title to glory.

This grace is the great witness of the Spirit within us, testifying that we are the children of God, and so heirs of salvation; and consequently the greater this grace is, the greater and clearer witness we have of our adoption. And, on the contrary, the witness and evidence of our adoption must needs be darker and more obscure, as this grace is weaker and more imperfect in us. And therefore as the

characters of the Holy Spirit in our souls are more or less apparent and legible, so will our hope and comfort be greater or lesser.

Indeed sometimes he that hath a lesser degree of grace, may have a greater measure of comfort; because perhaps in the circumstances wherein he is, he needs it; as being under some heavy pressing outward affliction, which, were he not supported by a greater measure of inward comfort, would be apt to sink and crush him. Or perhaps he is a man of a stronger and clearer understanding, or an happier temper and constitution of body, and so better qualified to take comfort from those grounds of comfort that are within him, than another who yet hath arrived to a greater perfection in grace and virtue than himself. But regularly, ordinarily, et cæteris paribus, the more grace the more comfort. The more strictly we walk with God in the ways of holiness, the greater will be the peace and satisfaction of our minds. And accordingly we may observe in Scripture a very close connection between hope and holiness. Thus the Holy Ghost, describing the exemplary piety of the primitive Christians, tells us, that they walked in the fear of God, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, Acts ix. 31. A seemingly incongruous couple, fear and joy, fear and hope, or comfort. But indeed these two are so far from being inconsistent, that they can hardly be separated. The more a man fears to offend God, and the greater his care is to please him, the greater his hope and comfort will be. The more we fear, the less reason we have to fear; i. e. if we fear God, we need not fear any thing else. In this fear we are safe and secure, and all the powers of hell cannot hurt us.