it, not only to find him, but even to find him in ourselves: for this telleth both together that there is a Christ, and that he is

ours.

Sect. VIII.

3. The greatness of the sin of unbelief, and the danger into which it leads the sinner, or in which it leaves him, do tell us what a mercy it is to have the witness in ourselves, for the saving of us from that sin and danger. Alas! what a case were thy soul in, if infidelity should prevail! There may be so great a conflict in thy mind, through the imperfection of thy faith, and the insinuations of the tempter, as to force thee to cry out 'Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.' But if unbelief get the mastery, how miserable is thy case. Thou wilt then be left in thy lost condition! Thou wilt die in thy sin, and perish everlastingly for want of healing, while the Physician did offer thee his help, and was rejected: for how can it be expected that the Physician should heal those that will not believe him, nor trust themselves in his hands for a cure? That Christ should save those that take him for a deceiver, and do not believe that he is able to save them, and therefore do not trust themselves on his sufficiency for salvation. He that believeth not is condemned already, and that in point of law, not only because he is in general a sinner, but in special, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. (John iii. 18-20.) "He that believeth not shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John iii. 36.) No wonder, then, if a temptation to infidelity be received by a gracious soul with trembling and abhorrence, considering what would be the issue, if it did succeed. How great a mercy, then, must it needs be, to have so near and powerful a remedy against this desperate sin and danger, as is this witness that is continually resident in the saints.

Sect. IX.

4. As the sin of unbelief is great, and the punishment no less than eternal damnation, so are the temptations to it many and strong, and therefore the mercy is so much the greater to have the witness in ourselves. What can a Christian look upon in the world, which the malicious tempter will not make the matter of his temptation. The spirituality, the strangeness and seeming improbability of the matter, the plainness of the style, the seeming contradictions in the several parts, with many other the like,

doth he use as arguments to assault our belief with; and the stronger are all these temptations against us: first, because they find so much darkness in ourselves. Since we fell from God, and holiness, and happiness, we have lost most of the knowledge of that God, and holiness, and happiness, which we fell from. They are enjoyed much by knowledge; to lose them, therefore, is to lose the knowledge of them. The devil hath, therefore, a great advantage to deceive us, when he speaks to us about matters that we are naturally so unacquainted with; yea, in losing God we have lost ourselves, and therefore are very much strangers to ourselves; and so know not our own souls, and therefore are the more easily drawn to doubt of their immortality, and capacity of higher, supernatural enjoyments. Secondly, yea, we have not only a defect and darkness, but an opposition to the doctrine of our supernatural felicity, restored by Christ, till grace do overcome it. Being fallen from God to the creature, we adhere to this creature as we should have done to God; and because it hath our hearts we are unwilling to look after a higher felicity, and therefore unwilling to hear of it and believe it. We savour not, naturally, the things of the Spirit, and therefore have no mind to believe them to be true; and how hard it is for some men to believe that which they are loath should be true, experience may easily acquaint us. Men are fallen into a condition so near that of brutes, that it is more easy to persuade them that they shall die as the brutes, and are capable of no more felicity when this life is ended, than the dog or the swine, whom they lived like on earth. Having forfeited their hopes of eternal life, and so come short of the glory of God, it is more easy to persuade, that there neither is, nor ever was any such glory, of which they had any hopes or possibility. Thirdly, the stronger also are these temptations to unbelief, because man is now so mastered by his sense, and hath so much weakened his reason by subjugating it to his flesh, that he is hardly drawn to look higher than sense can reach. Because we see not God, or Christ, or heaven, or hell, we are apt naturally to question whether they have indeed any being, and to say as Thomas, Thomas, "Except I may

see or feel, I will not believe;" yea, men are ready to doubt of the very being of their souls, which is themselves, and which is that which doubteth, because they cannot see the soul. Fourthly, especially these temptations to infidelity are the stronger in that man's soul in its corrupted state is disposed to believe Satan, and not to believe God; for as this was his first sin, so was the

further than God Though we must

soul thereby habituated according to that act, hath done any thing to cure and remedy it. needs know that God is more to be credited than the devil, in general, yet when it comes to particulars he is so far above us, and the breakings forth of his light and truth are so strange to us, and also we are conscious that we are fallen under some enmity to him, and therefore are the more apt to suspect what he saith and doth; and his ways are all so cross to our corrupt conceits and interests, and the persuasions of Satan so suitable to both, that it is no wonder if we are more ready to believe the tempter than God. Fifthly, and yet stronger are these temptations to infidelity, because of the subtilty of the tempter, and the -many devices that he hath to overwit us, and his importunity and violence in driving them on; which if we should mention particularly, would be the matter of a volume. And is it not a great mercy for a soul that is thus assaulted, to have the witness in himself; and so great a help against the power of these temptations?

Sect. X.

But, it is like, some will here say; 'I know it is a great mercy to have such witness in ourselves, but I find not any such witness in me: I inquire into my own soul, and I can perceive no such matter: I hear talk of the Spirit dwelling in us, and that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his : but, yet, I cannot find that Spirit in myself.'

Answ. As for those that have not this Spirit, no wonder if they find it not: but, if, indeed, thou be one that hast it, I would ask thee these few questions, and desire thee to give a deliberate answer, before thou concludest that thou hast not the Spirit.

Quest. 1. Do you not, in your inquiry into your hearts, expect to hear or feel some effective, persuading witness of the Spirit, besides the holy changes of its sanctifying work upon you; yea, perhaps without any reference to that sanctifying work at all. If you do, for ought I know, you look for that which you have no reason to expect, much less, to depend upon as the only witness. The Spirit's holy changes upon your heart, are a standing, objective testimony, which you ought to improve to your own consolation; and it is your exciter and helper in that improvement: but, if you will expect a voice or witness within you, to tell you the same things by immediate

revelation, and not to deduce them from that permanent testimony, I shall not marvel if you miss of your expectations.

Quest. 2. Do you not mistake the matter of this inward testimony, as if it were more to be sought in some other sort of changes by the Spirit, than in that renovation of the soul, and implantation of God's image. If you think that the witness of the Spirit lieth in higher notions, or raptures, or ecstasies of the mind, or in sudden inspirations, or extraordinary gifts, which were common in the first age; no wonder, then, if you find not the witness: that witness you may find without you, in the apostles and first churches, when it was purposely given as a public seal to the public testimony, which they gave of Christ; but I cannot encourage you to expect that within yourselves. As the doctrine of the apostles was to be delivered down in writing, for the use of the church to the end of the world, so was the seal of their extraordinary gifts to be annexed, for the like public use of the church, to the confirmation of that doctrine: and, so, both their doctrine and their gifts were not for themselves, or for that age alone, but for all us that do succeed: but this being not the case of their successors, what wonder, if their successors have none of those gifts.

Quest. 3. Do you not ascribe all the workings of the Spirit in you, to yourselves, and say; This is but the work of mine own reason, or conscience, or voluntary endeavours, and not of the Spirit of God.' If you do thus, no wonder, if you have the Spirit, and overlook it. If you will needs divide what God hath joined together, and say; 'This is the work of reason, conscience, or my own will, therefore not of the Spirit :' you do but use the Spirit's witness against the honour of the Spirit, and against yourselves. You should argue contrarily; thus: 'My reason, conscience, or will, would never have moved thus, or been thus disposed, if the Spirit of Christ had not thus disposed and moved them, and taken off their contrary inclinations; therefore, even this inclination and operation of my own reason, conscience, and will, is the true effect of the Spirit, and the standing witness of Christ and his Gospel in my soul;' for the Spirit worketh on us, and so by us. Where is it that the Spirit giveth light, but into our own understandings; and, how perceive we that light, but by the rational apprehensions and discourses of those understandings. Have we any other faculty or means of perceiving them? How doth the Spirit assure us of any thing, but by giving in some evidence of it to our

understandings; or causing us more clearly to discern that evidence which we discerned not all, or but obscurely before. It is, therefore, to and with our consciences, that the Spirit doth witness, and not without them. The like, we may say, of his work upon the will; when he exciteth it, he causeth it to excite itself. All faculties would lie dead, or more disorderly, if the Spirit did not set them in joint, and guide them in their work their orderly right motions, therefore, being the effects of the Spirit, are this testimony of the Spirit within us, which we speak of.

:

Quest. 4. Do you not overvalue your natural corrupted faculties, and think they may go further than indeed they can? If when the Spirit doth set your souls in frame, and elevate them to God, and take off their earthly or sensual dispositions, you will then persuade yourselves that nature doth all this of itself, and that it is but the operations of unsanctified reason, what wonder then, if you overlook the Spirit?. This is one danger of having too mean thoughts of our depravedness, and too high thoughts of our natural abilities, lest it draw men to rob the Spirit of his honour, and say, that corrupt nature hath done those works which were done by the Holy Ghost. I will not say, that they who ascribe the sanctifying works of the Spirit to depraved nature, are guilty of that blasphemy, as they are which ascribed his miraculous works to Beelzebub; but it looks so much that way, that we should the more carefully avoid it. Let those take heed of this, that are ready to say, That no men have the Spirit, and all that pretend to it, are deluded by the strength of their own imaginations, and mere teaching, education, and industry, may produce all those effects, which we ascribe to the Holy Ghost.' I say, let these men take heed, lest they run too near to the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, before they are aware.

Quest. 5. Do you not forget the state that once you were in, and the great change which the Spirit did then make upon you, and because you feel not such further alterations proportionable to that first, you conclude that you have not the Spirit at all? I am sure this is a very common case: as the forgetting of the miserable state we were in, in the late wars, doth make us undervalue our present peace, which then we would have accounted an excellent mercy; so doth the forgetting of our wicked dispositions, and conversations in our state of unregeneracy, make us undervalue our present state of grace. We have lived since