Motives to Labour to Know Our Sanctification

Having thus showed you the causes of our ignorance of our sanctification, I shall briefly tell you some reasons that should move you to seek to be acquainted with it, where it is.

1. The knowledge of God is the most excellent knowledge: and therefore the best sort of creature-knowledge is, that which hath the most of God in it. And undoubtedly there is more of God in holiness, which is his image, than in common things. Sins and wants have nothing of God in them; they must be fathered on the devil and yourselves, and therefore the knowledge of them is good but by accident, because the knowledge even of evil hath a tendency to good: and therefore it is commanded and made our duty, for the good which it tendeth to. It is the Divine nature and image within you, which hath the most of God; and therefore to know this, is the high and noble knowledge. To know Christ within us, is our happiness on earth, in order to the knowledge of him in glory “face to face,” which is the happiness of heaven. To “know God, tliougli darkly through a glass,” and but in part, is far above all creature-knowledge. The knowledge of him raiseth, quickeneth, sanctifieth, enlargeth, and advanceth all our faculties. It is “life eternal to know God in Christ.” Therefore, where God appeareth most, there should our understandings be most diligently exercised in study and observation.

2. It is a most delightful felicitating knowledge, to know that Christ is in you. If it be delightful to the rich to see their wealth, their houses, and lands, and goods, and money: and if it be delightful to the honourable to see their attendance, and hear their own commendations and applause; how delightful must it be to a true believer to find Christ within him, and to know his title to eternal life? If the knowledge of “full barns,” and “much goods laid up for many years,” can make a sensual worldling say, “Soul, take thy ease, eat, drink and be merry,” methinks the knowledge of our interest in Christ and heaven, should make us say, “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and wine increased.” “Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” If we say, with David, “Blessed are they that dwell i-n thy house; they will be still praising thee,” much more may we say, Blessed are they in whom Christ dwelleth, and the Holy Ghost hath made his temple, they should be still praising thee. “Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.” But this is upon supposition, that he be first blessed by Christ’s approach to him, and dwelling in him.

If you ask, ‘How is it that Cliiist dwelleth in us;’ I answer, 1. Objectively, as he is apprehended by our faith and love: as the things or persons that we think of, and love and delight in, are said to dwell in our minds or hearts. 2. By the Holy Ghost, who, as a principle of new and heavenly life, is given by Christ the head, unto his members; and as the agent of Christ doth illuminate, sanctify, and guide the soul. “He that keepeth his commandments, dwelleth in him, and he in him: and hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.” That of Ephes. iii. 17. may be taken in either, or both senses comprehensively, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.”

3. Did you know that Christ is in you by his Spirit, it might make every place and condition comfortable to you! If you are alone, it may rejoice you to think what company dwelleth continually with you in your hearts. If you are wearied with evil company without, it may comfort you to think that you have better within: when you have communion with the saints, it is your joy to think that you have nearer communion with the Lord of saints. You may well say with David, “When I awake, I am still with thee.” “I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”

4f. Did you know Christ within you, it would much help you in believing what is written of him in the gospel. Though to the ungodly the mysteries of the kingdom of God do seem incredible, yet when you have experience of the power of it on your souls, and find the imago of it on your hearts, and the same Christ within you conforming you to what he commandeth in his word, this will work such a suitableness to the gospel in your hearts as will make the work of faith more easy. Saith the Apostle, “We have seen, and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world:” (there is their outward experience;) “and we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him:” (there is their faith confirmed by their inward evidence: no wonder if they that have God dwelling in them by holy love, do believe the love that God hath to them.) This is the great advantnge that the sanctified have in the work of faith, above those that much excel them in disputing, and are furnished with more arguments for the Christian verity: Christ hath his witness abiding in them. “The fruits of the Spirit bear witness to the incorruptible seed, the word of God, that liveth and abideth for ever.” The impress on the lioart bears witness to the seal that caused it. Labour to know the truth of your sanctification, that you may be confirmed by it in the truth of the word that sanctifieth you, and may “rejoice in him that hath chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth.”

5. If you can come to the knowledge of Christ within you, it will be much easier to trust upon him, and fly to him in all your particular necessities, and to make use of his mediatorship with holy confidence. When others fly from Christ with trembling, and know not whether he will speak for them, or help them, but look at him with strange and doubtful thoughts, it will be otherwise with you that have assurance of his continual love and presence. When you find Christ so near you, as to dwell within you, (and so particular and abundant is his love to you, as to have given you his Spirit, and all his graces,) it will produce a sweet delightful boldness, and make you run to him as your help and refuge, in all your necessities. When you find the great promise fulfilled to yourselves, “I will put my laws in their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will 1 remember no more:” you will “have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God, you may draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having your hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience,” (or the conscience of evil) “as your bodies are washed” (in baptism) “with pure water.” “In Christ vve may have boldness and access with confidence, by the faith of him.” This intimate acquaintance with our great High Priest that is “passed into the heavens,” and yet abideth and reigneth in our hearts, will encourage us to “hold fast our profession, and- to come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” When by unfeigned love, we “know that we are of the truth, and may assure our hearts before him, and our heart condemneth us not, then we have confidence towards God; and whatever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.”

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G. W’licn once you know that you have Cliiist within you, you may cheerfully proceed in the way of life; when doubting Christians, th:U know not whether they are in the way or not, are still looking behind them, and spend their time in perplexed fears, lest they are out of the way, and go on with heaviness and trouble, as uncertain whether they may not lose their labour; and are still questioning their groundwork, when the building should go on. It is an unspeakable mercy, when a believing soul is freed from these distracting hindering doubts, and may boldly and cheerfully hold on his way, and be walking or working, when other men are fearing and inquiring the way; and may, with patiei)ce and comfort, wait for the reward, the crown of life, when others are still questioning, whether they were ever regenerate, and whether their hopes have any ground. We may be “steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, when we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord.” We may then “gird up the loins of the mind, and in sobriety hope unto the end, for the grace that is to be brought us, at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

7. When you are assured that you have Christ within you, it may preserve you from those terrors of soul that affright them that have no such assurance. O! he that knoweth what it is to think of the intolerable v;rath of God, and says, ‘I fear I am the object of this wrath, and must bear this intolerable load everlastingly,’ may know what a mercy it is to be assured of our escape. He that knows what it is to think of hell, and say, ‘I know not but those endless flames may be my portion,’ will know what a mercy it is to be assured of a deliverance, and to be able to say, “I know I am saved from the wrath to come;” and that “we are not of them that draw back to perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul;” and that “God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him:” we may “comfort ourselves together, and edify one another,” when we have this assurance.

They that have felt the burden of a wounded spirit, and know what it is to feel the terrors of the Lord, and to see hell-fire, as it were, before their eyes, and to be kept waking by the dreadful apprehensions of their danger, and to be pursued daily by an accusing conscience, setting their sins in order before them, and bringing the threatenings of God to their remembrance; these persons will understand, that to be assured of a Christ within us, and, consequently, of a Christ tint is preparing a place of glory for us, is a mercy that the mind of man is now unable to value, accordin’r to the ten thousandth part of its worth.

8. Were you assured that Christ himself is in you, it would sweeten all the mercies of your lives. It would assure you, that they are all the pledges of his love; and love in all, would be the kernel and the life of all. Your friends, your health, your wealth, your deliverances, would be steeped in the dearest love of Christ, and have a spiritual sweetness in them, when to the worldling they have but a carnal, unwholesome, luscious sweetness; and to N 2 the doubting Christians, they will be turned into troubles, while they are questioning the love and meaning of the Giver; and whether they are sent for good to them, or to aggravate their condemnation; and the company of the Giver will advance your estimation of the gift. To have money in your purses, and goods in your houses, and books in your studies, and friends in your near and sweet society, are all advanced to the higher value, when you know that you have also Christ in your hearts; and that all these are but the attendants of your Lord, and the fruits that drop from the tree of life, and the tokens of his love, importing greater things to follow. Whereas, in the crowd of all those mercies, the soul would be uncomfortable, or worse, if it missed the presence of its dearest friend: and in the midst of all, would live but as in a wilderness, and go seeking after Christ with tears, as Mary at his sepulchre, because they had “taken away her Lord, and she knew not where they had laid him.” All mercies would be bitter to us, if the presence of Christ do not put into them that special sweetness which is above the estimate of sense.

9. This assurance would do much to preserve you from the temptation of sensu;il delight. While you had within you the matter of more excellent contentment, and when you find that these inferior pleasures are enemies to those which are your happiness and life, you would not be easily taken with the bait. The poorest brutish pleasures are made much of by them that never were acquainted with any better. But after the sweetness of assurance of the love of God, how little relish is there to be found in the pleasures that are so valued by sensual unbelievers! Let them take them for rae, saith the believing soul; may I but still have the comforts ‘ot the presence of my Lord, how little shall I miss them! How easily can I spare them! Silver will be cast by, if it be set in competition with gold. The company of common acquaintance may be acceptable, till better and greater come; and then they must give place. Men that are taken up with the pleasing entertainment of Christ within them, can scarcely aflPord any more than a transient salutation or observance to those earthly things that are the felicity of the carnal mind, and take up its desires, endeavours, and delight; when the soul is tempted to turn from Christ, to those deceiving vanities that promise him more content and pleasure, the comfortable thoughts of the love of Christ, and his abode within us, and our abode with him, do sensibly scatter and confound such temptations. The presence of Christ, the great reconciler, doth reconcile us to ourselves, and make us willing to be more at home. He that is out of love with the company that he hath at home, is easily drawn to go abroad. But who can endure to be much abroad, that knoweth of such a guest as Christ at home? We shall say as Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe, and are sure, that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.” And as when he saw him in a little of his glory, “Master, it is good for us to be here.” And if the riches of the world were offered to draw a soul from Christ, that hath the knowledge of his special love and presence, the tempter would have no better entertainment than Simon Magus had with Peter, Their money perish with them, that think Christ and his graces to be no better than money.

10. How easy and sweet would all God’s service be to you, if you were assured that Christ abideth in you! What delightful access might you have in prayer, when you know that Christ himself speaks for you! Not as if the Father himself were unwilling to do us good, but that he will do it in the name, and for the sake and merits of his Son: which is the meaning of Christ in those words, which seem to deny his intercession, “At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that 1 will .pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me.” I appeal to your own hearts, Christians, whether you would not be much more willing and ready to pray, and whether prayer would not be a sweeter employment to you, if you were sure of Christ’s abode within you, and intercession for you, and, consequently, that all your prayers are graciously accepted of the Lord? You would not then desire the vain society of empty persons; nor seek for recreation in their insipid, frothy, insignificant discourse. The opening of your heart to your heavenly Father, and pleading the merits of his Son, in your believing petitions for his saving benefits, would be a more contenting kind of pleasure to you.

How sweet would meditation be to you, if you could still think on Christ, and all the riches of his kingdom, as your own! Could you look up to heaven, and say, with grounded confidence, ‘It is mine, and there I must abide and reign for ever!’ Could you think of the heavenly host, as those that must be your own companions, and of their holy employment as that which must be your own for ever, it would make the assent of your minds to be more frequent, and meditation to be a more pleasant work. Were you but assured of your special interest in God, and that all his attributes are, by his love and covenant, engaged for your happiness, experience would make you say, “In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul.” “I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet; I will be glad in the Lord.” Could you say, with full assurance, that you are the children of the promises, and that they are all your own; how sweet would the reading and meditation on the Holy Scriptures be to you! How dearly would you love the word! What a treasure would you judge it! “Your delight would be then in the law of the Lord, and you would meditate in it day and night.” To find such grounds of faith, and hope, and riches of consolation in every page, and assuredly to say, ‘All this is mine,’ would make you better understand why David did indite all the cxix. Psalm, in high commendations of the word of God, and would make you join in his affectionate expressions, “O how love 1 thy law I it is my meditation all the day. Thou, through thy commandments, hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me.”

Sermons, also, would be much sweeter to you, when you could confidently take home tlic consoiatary part, and use our ministry as a help to your faith, and hope, and joy; whereas your doubts and fears, lest you are still unre<renerate, will turn all that you hear, or read, or meditate on, into food and fuel for themselves to work upon; and you will gather up all that tends to your disquietude, and say, It is your part; and cast away all that tendeth to your consolation, and say. It belongeth not to you. And the most comforting passages of the word will be turned into your discomfort: and the promises will seem to you as none, while you imagine that they are none of yours: and the loss of your peace and comfort will not be the worst: but this will increase your backwardness to duty; and when your delight in the worship of God is gone, your inclination to it will abate, and it will seem a burden to you.

The same I may say of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. How sweet will it be to you, if you are assured, that the same Christ that is there represented as broken and bleeding for your sins, doth dwell within you by his Spirit! What welcome entertainment would you expect to find, if you knew that you brought the feast, and the Master of the feast, with you, in your hearts; and had there entirely entertained him, with whom you expect communion in the sacrament! How boldly and comfortably would your hungry souls then feed upon him! With what refreshing acts of faith would you there take the sealed promise and pardon of your sins! Whereas, when you come in fears and doubting, and must take the body and blood of

Christ, in their representations, with your hand and mouth, while you know not whether you receive him with the heart, and whether you have any special interest in him, O what a damp it casteth on the soul! How it stifleth its hopes and joys, and turneth the sacrament, which is appointed for their comfort, into their greater trouble! It hath many a time grieved me to observe, that no ordinance doth cast many upright souls into greater perplexities, and discouragements, and distresses, than the Lord’s Supper; because they come to it with double reverence, and by the doubtings of their title, and questioning their preparedness, and by their fears of eating and drinking unworthily, their souls are utterly discomposed with perplexing passions, and turned from the pleasant exercise of faith, and the delightful intercourse that they should have with God; and they are distempered, and put out of relish to all the sweetness of the gospel: and then they are frightened from the sacrament by such sad experiences, and dare come thither no more, for fear of eating judgment to themselves. And should not Christians labour to remove the cause of such miserable, distracting fears, that so much wrong both Christ and them, and to recover their well-croundcd peace and comfort?

11. Your love to God, which is the heart and life of the new creature, doth so much depend upon your knowledge of his love to you, as should make you much more desirous of such a knowledge. Love is the end of faith; and faith the way to love. So much of love as is in every duty, so much holiness is in it, and no more. Love is the sum of the com-N 3 mandments. It is the fulfillinji of the law, Tlioush God loved us first, as purposing our good, before we loved him: and we, therefore, “love him, because he first loved us,” yet doth he love us by complacency and acceptance, because we love the Father and the Son: “For the Father himself loved you, because ye loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.” And what will more effectually kindle in you the fervent love of Christ, than to know that he lovcth you, and dwelleth in you? All this is expressed by Christ himself: “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and kcepeth them, he it is that lovcth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. — If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” “If any man love God, the same is known of him,” with a knowledge of special love and approbation. This is no disparagement to faith, whose nature and use is to work by love. What a man loveth, such he is. The love is the man. Our love is judged by our life, as the cause by the effect: but the life is judged by the love, ns the fiuits by the tree, the effects of the cause. If Plato could say, “To be a philosopher, is to love God,” much more should we say, ‘This is the doctrine and work of a Christian, even the love of God.’ Indeed it is the work of the lledccmer to recover the heart of man to God, and to bring us to love him, by representing him to us as the most amiable, suitable object of our love:

and the perfection of love is heaven itself. “The yoke of holy love, Oliowsueetly dost thou surprise! How gloriously dost thou enthral! How pleasantly dost thou press! How delightfully dost thou load! How strongly dost thou bind! How prudently dost thou instruct! — O happy love, from which ariseth the strength of manners, the purity of affections, the sublilety of intellects, the sanctity of desires, the excellency of works, the fruitl’ulness of virtues, the dignity of deserts, the sublimity of the reward,” — Bernard. 1 appeal to your own consciences, Chriblians, would you not think it a foretaste of heaven upon earth, if you could but love God as much as you desire? Would any kind of life that you can imagine, be so desirable and delightful to you? Would any thing be more acceptable unto God? And, on the contrary, a soul without the love of God, is worse than a corpse without a soul. “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Chribt, let him be Anathema, Maran-atha.”

And do I need to tell you, what a powerful incentive it is to love, to know that you arc beloved? It will make Christ much more dear to you, to know how dear you are to him. What is said of affective love in us, may partly be said of attractive love in Christ. “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it:” no riches can purchase what it can attract. When you find that he hath set you “as a seal upon his arm and heart,” and that you arc dear to him as the “apple of his eye,” what holy flames will this kindle in your breast! If it be almost impossible, with your equals upon earth, not to love them that love you, (which Christ tellcth you that even publicans will do,) how much more should the love of Christ constrain us abundantly to love him, when, being infinitely above us, his love desccndcth, that ours may ascend I His love puts forth the hand from heaven to fetch us up.

O Christians, you little know how Satan wrongeth you, by drawing you to deny, or doubt of the special love of God! How can you love him that you apprehend to be your enemy, and to intend your ruin.’’ Doubtless, not so easily as if you know him to be your friend. In reason, is there any more likely way to draw you to hate God, than to draw you to believe that he hateth you? Can your thoughts bo pleasant of him, or your speeches of him sweet f or can you attend him, or draw near him with delight, while you think he hateth you, and hath decreed your damnation You may fear him, as he is a terrible avenger; and you may confess Ins judgments to be just: but can you amicably embrace the consuming fire, and love to dwell with the everlasting burnings?

O, therefore, as ever you would have the love of God to animate, and sanctify, and delight your souls, study the greatness of his love to you, and labour, with all possible speed and diligence, to find that Christ, by his Spirit, is within you. It is the whole work of sanctification that Satan would destroy or weaken by your doubts: and it is the whole work of sanctification, that by love would be promoted, if you knew your interest in the love of Christ.

12. It is the knowledge of (Christ dwelling in you, and so of the special love of God, that must acquaint you with a life of holy thankfulness and praise. These highest and most acceptable duties, will be out of your reach, if Satan can hide from you that mercy which must be the chiefest matter of your thanksgiving. Will that soul be in tune for the high praises of the Lord, that thinks he meaneth to treat him as an enemy? Can you look for any cheerful thanksgiving from him that looks to lie in hell? Will he not rather cry, with David, “In death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?” “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?” Shall the damned praise thee, or shall they give thee thanks that must be scorched with the flames of thine indignation? Can you expect that joy should be in their hearts, or cheerfulness in their countenances, or praises in their mouths, that think they are reprobated? Undoubtedly Satan is not ignorant, that this is the way to deprive God of the service which is most acceptable to him, and you of the pleasures of so sweet a life. And, therefore, he that envieth both, will do his worst to damp your spirits, and breed uncomfortable doubts and fears, and wrongful suspicions in your minds. Whereas, the knowledge of your interest in Christ, would be a continual store-house of thanksgiving and praise, and teach your hearts as well as your tongues to say, with David, “Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. — Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart.” *’ Bless the Lord,

C) my soul, ami forget not all his benefits: wlioforgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redccincth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovirg-kindness and tender mercies.” “O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed mc. O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept mo alive, lliat I should not go down to the pit. Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. For his anger endurelh but a moment; in his favour is life.” Thanksgiving would be the very pulse and breath of your assurance of Christ dwelling in you. You would say, with Paul, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who. hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in celestials in Christ. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. Having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved: in whom we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins, according to the riches of his grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us.” Thus faith and assurance, as they have an unspeakable store to work upon,’ so it is natural to them to expatiate in the praise of our Redeemer, and to delight in amplifications and commemorations of the ways of grace. Just so doth Peter begin his first epistle, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time: wherein ye greatly rejoice,” &c.

No wonder if the heirs of heaven be inclined to the language and the work of heaven. I think there are few of you that would not rejoice, and by your speech and countenance express your joy, if you had assurance but of the dignities and dominions of this Vvorld. And can he choose but express his joy and thankfulness, that hath assurance of the crown of life? What fragrant thoughts should possess that mind that knoweth itself to be possessed by the Spirit of the living God! How thankful will he be, that knows he hath Christ and heaven to be thankful for! What sweet delights should fill up the hours of that man’s life, that knows the Son of God living in him, and that he shall live in joy with Christ for ever! How gladly will he be exercised in the praises of his Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, that knows it must be his work for ever! No wonder if this joy be a stranger to their hearts, that are strangers to Christ, or strangers to their interest in his love. No wonder if they have no hearts for these celestial works, that have no part in the celestial inheritance, or that know not that they have any part therein.

But to that man that is assured of Christ within him, heaven and earth, and all their store, do offer themselves as the matter of his thanks, and do furnish him with provisions to feed his praises. What a shame is it, that an assured heir of heaven should be scant and barren in comfort to himself, or in thanks and praise to Jesus Chiist, when he liatli so much h)ve and mercy to fetch his motives from, and hath two worlds to furnish him with the most precious materials; and hath no less than Infinite Goodness, even God himself, to be the subject of his praise! “() give thanks unto the Lord; for he is ffood: because his mercy cndureth for ever. Let Lsrael say, let the house of Aaron say, let them that fear the Lord say, that his mercy cndureth for ever.” The knowledge of our interest fitteth us for his praise. “Thou art my God, and I will praise thee; thou art my God, I will exalt thee.” “O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord.” “His praise is for the congregation of his saints. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.” “Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven. He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him.” “I will also clothe his priests with salvation, and his saints shall shout aloud for joy.” Praise is a work so proper for the saints, and thanksgiving must be fed with the knowledge of your mercies, that Satan well knoweth what he shall get by it, and what you will lose, if he can but hide your mercies from you. The height of his malice is against the Lord, and the next is against you: and how can he show it more than by drawing you to rob God of his thanks and praise, when he hath blessed and enriched you with the chiefest of his mercies! Labour, therefore, Christians, to know that you have that grace that may be the matter and cause oF so sweet and acceptable an employment as the praises of your Lord.

13. jNIoreover, you should consider, that, without the knowledge of your interest in Christ, you cannot live to the honour of your Redeemer, in such a measure as the gospel doth require. The excellency of gospel- mercies will be veiled and obscured by you, and will not be revealed and honoured by your lives. Your low and poor dejected spirits will be a dishonour to the faith and hope of the saints, and to the glorious inheritance, of which you have so full a prospect in the promises. The heirs of heaven, that know not themselves to be such, may live like the heirs of heaven as to uprightness and humility, but not in the triumphant jdv, nor in the courageous boldness, which bccomcth a believer. What an injury and dishonour is it to our Redeemer, that when he hath done and suffered so much to make us happy, we should walk as heavily as if he had done nothing for us at all! And when he hath so fully secured us of everlasting happiness, and told us of it so expiessly, that our joy may be full, we should live as if the gospel were not the gospel, and such things had never been promised or revealed! When heaven is the object, and the promise of God is the groundwork of our faith, we should live above all earthly things, as having the honours and pleasures of the world under our feet, accounting all as “loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ,” whom we should love, though “we have not seen him; in whom, though now we see him not, yet believing, we should rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, as those that must receive the end of their faith, the salvation of our souls.” And how can we do this, if we are still questioning the love of Christ, or our interest in it!

Believers should, with undaunted resolution, charge through the armies of temptation, and conquer difficulties, and suffer for the name of Christ with joy; accounting it a blessed thing to be persecuted for righteousness’ sake, because “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Because of the greatness of the reward, they should “rejoice and be exceeding glad.” And how can they do this, that believe not that the reward and kingdom will be theirs!

The joys of faith and confidence on the promise and strength of Christ, should overcome all inordinate fears of man: “For he halh said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” And how can we do this, while we are questioning our part in Christ, and the promise that we should thus boldly trust upon?

14. Lastly, consider, that the knowledge of your part in Christ, may make all sufferings easy to you. You will be so much satisfied in God your portion, as will abate the desires, and drown the joys and sorrows of the world. You will judge the “sufferings of this present time unworthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us.” You will choose rather “to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of the world, as having respect to the recompense of the reward.” All this must be done, and will be done by true believers, that have an assurance of their own sincerity; they must and will forsake all, and take up the cross and follow Christ, in hope of a reward in heaven, as it is offered them in the gospel, when they know their special interest in it. For these are Christ’s terms, which he imposeth on all that will be his disciples. But you may certainly perceive, that it will be much more easy to part with all, and undergo and do all this, when we have the great encouragement of our assured interest, than when we have no more but the common offer. To instance in some particulars.

I. Do you live where serious godliness is derided, and you cannot obey the word of God, and seek first the kingdom of God, and its righteousness, without being made the common scorn, and the daily jest and by-word of the company? Let it be so: if you know that you have Christ within you, and are secured of the everlasting joys, will you feel, will you regard such things as these? Shall the jest of a distracted, miserable fool, abate the joy of your assured happiness? Princes and noblemen will not forsake their dominions or lordships, nor cast away the esteem and comfort of all they have, because the poor do ordinarily reproach them as proud, unmerciful oppressors. They think they may bear the words of the miserable, while they have the pleasure of prosperity. And shall not we give losers leave to talk? We will not be mocked out of the comfort of our health or wealth, our habitations or our friends: and shall we be mocked out of the comfort of Christ, and of the presence of the Comforter himself? If they that are sick deride you for being well, this will but make you more sensible of your felicity, and pity them that have added such folly to their wants: so will it increase the sense of your felicity, to find that you are [lossessed of so unspeakable a mercy, which others have not so far tasted of as to know its worth. If you are in your Father’s arms, you may bear the scorns of such as stand without the doors.

2. If you have the contradictions and opposition of the ignorant or malicious, speaking evil of things they know not, and persuading you from the ways of righteousness, how easily may all this be borne while you have Christ within you to strengthen and encourage you! Had you but his exam])le before you, who is “the Author and Finisher of your faith; who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, it should keep you from being weary and fainting in your minds.” But when you have his presence, his Spirit, and his help, how much should it corroborate and confirm you!

3. How easy may you bear the slanders of your own or the gospel’s enemies, as long as you are sure of your interest in Christ! How easily may you suffer them to call you by their own names, “pestilent fellows, and movers of sedition among the people, ringleaders of a sect, profaners of the temple,” as Paul was called, as long as you have Christ within you, that was called Beelzebub for your sakes. Your Judge, that must finally decide the case, is your dearest friend, and dwelleth in you. It is “He that will justify you; who is he that condemneth you?” His approbation is your life and comfort. How inconsiderable is it as to your own felicity, what mortal worms shall say or think of you? What if they call you all that is naught, and stain your names, and obscure your innocency, and make others believe the falsest accusations that Satan can use their tongues to utter of you? You have enough against all this within yon. What if you go for hypocrites, or what malignity can call you, until the day of judgment? As long as you have so good security of being tlicn fully cleared of all, and your righteousness vindicated by your Judge, how easily may you now bear the slanders of men, that prove themselves wicked, by falsely affirming it of you! Y’^ou may well endure to be called proud, while you are humble; and factious, while you are lovers of unity and peace; or hypocrites, while you are sincere. How boldly may you say, with the prophet, “The Lord (iod will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. Behold the Lord God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? Lo, they shall all wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.”

Had you but Paul’s assurance and experience of Christ dwelling in you, you might imitate him in a holy contempt of all the slanders and revilings of the world: “For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ: we are weak, but ye are strong: ye are honourable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour, we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the ofFscouring of all things unto this day.” Thus may we “do and suffer all things through Christ that strengtheneth us.” What matter is it what men call us, if God call us his children and friends, and Christ be not ashamed to call us brethren? With us it will be a very small thing to be judged of man, while we know “the Lord that must judge us, is on our side.” It lieth not on our hands to justify ourselves: it is Christ that hath undertaken to answer for us; and made it the work of his office to justify us; and to him we may boldly and comfortably leave it: and let all the accusers prepare their charge, and deal with him, and do their worst.

4. How easily may you bear imprisonment, banishment, or other persecution, as long as you are assured of the love of Christ! Can you fear to dwell where Christ dwells with you? If he will go with you through fire and water, what need you fear? Those owning, appropriating words, will make us venture upon the greatest perils, “Fear not: for 1 have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt: — For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour.” Who would not, with Peter, cast himself into the sea, or walk with confidence upon the waters, if Christ be there, and call us to him?

The eleventh chapter to the Hebrews doth recapitulate the victories of faith, and show us what the hope of unseen things can cause believers patiently to undergo. How cheerfully will he endure the foulest way, that is assured to come safe to such a home? What will a man stick at, that knows he is following Christ to heaven; and knoweth that he “shall reign with him, when he hath suffered with him?” He is unworthy of Christ, and of salvation, that thinks any thing in the world too good to lose for them. What matter is it, whether death finds us in honour or dishonour, in our own country or in another, at liberty or in prison, so we arc sure it finds us not in a state of death? Who would not rather pass to glory by as straight a way as John the Baptist, Stephen, or other martyrs did, than with their persecutors, to prosper in the way to misery? Who can, for shame, repine at the loss of temporal commodities, that is secured of the eternal joys? If assurance of the love of God, would not embolden you to patient suffering, and to lay down life aiul all for Christ, what do you think should ever do it?

But wlicii you are afraid lest death will turn you into hell, what wonder if you timorously draw back? When you know not whether ever you shall have any better, no wonder if you are loath to part with the seeming happiness which you have. Those doubts and fears enfeeble the soul, and spoil you of that valour that becomes a soldier of Christ.

5. All personal crosses in your estates, your families, your friends, your health, will be easily borne, if you are once assured of your salvation. To a man that is passing into heaven, all these are most inconsiderable things. What is Lazarus the worse now for his sores or Tags? Or what is the rich man the better for his sumptuous attire and fare? Whether you be poor or rich, sick or sound; whether you are used kindly or unkindly in the world, are questions of so small importance, that you are not much concerned in the answer of them: but whether you have Christ within you, or be reprobates; whether you are the heirs of the promise, or are under the curse, are questions of everlasting consequence.

6. Lastly, You may comfortably receive the sentence of death, when once you are assured ot” the life of grace, and that you have escaped everlasting death. Though nature will be still averse to a dissolution, yet faith will make you cheerfully submit, “desiring to depart and be with Christ,” as the best condition for you. When you “know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, you have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” you will then “groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with your house, which is from heaven: not to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. This God doth work you for, who giveth you the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore, as men that know, while you are at home in the body, you are absent from the Lord; and that walk by faith, and not by sight, you would be always confident, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord.”

Though it be troublesome to remove your dwelling, yet you would not stick upon the trouble, if you were sure to change a cottage for a court: nor would you refuse to cross the seas, to change a prison for a kingdom. The holy desires of believers, do prepare them for a safe death; but it is the assurance of their future happiness, or the believing expectation of it, that must prepare them for a death that is safe and comfortable. The death of the presumptuous may be quiet, but not safe: the death of doubting, troubled believers may be safe, but not quiet: the death of the ungodly, that have awakened, undeceived countenances, is neither safe nor quiet: but the death of strong believers, that have attained assurance, is both. And he that findeth Christ within him, may know, that when he dieth, he shall be with Christ: his dwelling in us by faith, by love, and by his Spirit, is a pledge that we shall dwell with him. Christ within us, will certainly carry us unto Christ above us.. Let Socinians question the happiness of such departed souls, or doubt whether they be in heaven before the resurrection; I am O 45 sure that they are with Christ, as the forecited places show, (2 Cor. V. 7, 8. PhiHp. i. 23.) and many other. We are following him, that when he had conquered death, and went before us, did send that message to his doubting, troubled disciples, (which is to me so full of sweetness, that methinks I can scarcely too often recite it,) “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.” O piercing, melting words, which methinks do write themselves upon my heart, whenever I read them with attention and consideration 1 Know once that you are his brethren, and that his Father is your Father, and his God is your God, and that he is ascended and glorified in your nature; and then how can you be unwilling to be dismissed from the bondase of this flesh, and be with Christ! For in his “Father’s house are many mansions 1 and he is gone before to prepare a place for us; and will come again and receive us unto himself, that where he is, there we may be also.” And that this is his will for all his servants, he hath declared in that comfortable promise, (which also I have found so full of sweetness, that I value it above all the riches of the world,) “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man will serve me, him will ray Father honour.” The Spirit of Christ within you, is the earnest of all this. Be assured of your faith, and hope, and love, and you may be assured to possess the good believed, and hoped for, and loved. “The incorruptible seed, which livcth and abideth for ever,” of which you are newborn, doth tend to the “incorruptible crown, even the crown of righteousness, which the righteous Judge will give to all that love his appearing.” “And so shall we ever be with the Lord,” as the Apostle comfortably speaks, and seasonably annexeth the use of such a cordial, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Whether we are to die by the decay of nature, or by the storm of any violent disease, or by the hand of persecutors, or any other instruments of Satan, the difference is small; they are but several ways of landing at the shore of happiness, which we were making towards, through all the duties and difficulties of our lives. May I die assured of the love of God, how little regardable is it, whether I be poor or rich till then; or in what manner death shall do its execution? And how little cause have blessed souls to envy them that are left on earth, in a quiet and prosperous passage to damnation!

And what an ease and pleasure is this to a man’s mind through all his life, to be able, with well-grounded comfort, to think of death! What cares can vex him that hath secured his everlasting state? What losses should afflict him that is sure he shall not lose his soul, and is sure to gain eternal life? What fears should disquiet him that is sure to escape the wrath of God? What wants should trouble him that knoweth he is an heir of heaven? Why should the indignation or threatenings of man, be any temptation to turn him out of the way of duty, or dismay his mind, who knoweth that they can but “kill the body,” and dismiss the soul into his blessed presence, whom it loveth, and labourcth and longs to see? What should inordinately grieve o 2 that man that is certain of eternal joy? What else should he thirst for, that hath “in him the well of living waters, springing up to everlasting life?” And what should deprive that man of comfort, that knoweth he hath the Comforter within him, and shall be for ever comforted with his Master’s joy? And what should break the peace and patience of him that is assured of everlasting rest? If the assurance of a happy death cannot make it welcome, and cannot make affliction easy, and fill our lives with the joys of hope, I know not what can do it.

But, alas for those poor souls that know not whither death will send them, or, at least, have not good grounds of hope! what wonder if, “through the fear of death, they be all their lifetime subject to bondage?” Methinks, in the midst of their wealth and pleasure, they should not be so stupid as to forget the millions that are gone before them, that lately were as jovial and secure as they; and how short their dreaming feast will be. Methinks at any time it should damp their mirth, and allay the ebullition of their frenetic blood, to remember, ‘For all this I must die,’ and it may be “this night, that the fool must deliver up his soul; and then, whose shall those things be which he hath provided?” Then who shall be the lord, and who the knight or gentleman? Methinks, Solomon’s memento should bring them to themselves. “Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.” And as the sound of these words, ’ 1 must shortly die,’ methinks should be always in your ears; so in reason, the question, ‘Whither I must then go?’ should be always, as it were, before your eyes, till your souls have received a satisfactory answer to it. O what an amazing dreadful thing it is, when an unsanctified, unprepared soul must say, ‘I must depart from earth, but I know not whither! I know not whether unto heaven or hell; here I am now, but where must I be for ever?’ When men believe that their next habitation must be everlasting, methinks the question, ‘Whither must I go?’ should be day and night upon their minds, till they can say, upon good grounds, ‘I shall go to the blessed presence of the Lord.’ O had you but the hearts of men within you, methinks the sense of this one question, ‘Whither must I go when I leave the flesh?’ should so possess you, that it should give your souls no rest till you are able to say, ‘We shall be with Christ, because he dwelleth in us here, and hath sealed us, and given us the earnest of his Spirit;’ or at least, till you have good hopes of this, and have done your best to make it sure.

And thus I have told you of how great importance it is to believers, to attain assurance of the love of God, and to know that Christ abideth in them. And now I think you will confess, I have proved the necessity of self-knowledge, both to the unregenerate and the regenerate, though in several degrees: and having opened the disease, and showed you the need of a remedy, I am next to direct you in the application for the cure.