his temptations to misrepresent God to man, and hide his love and goodness from us; as he doth it in the wicked by drawing them to fleshly, deluding love, and making them ignorant, unbelieving or forgetful of the love of God; so he doth much against better men by raising many objections against it, and filling them with false imaginations, and diminutive or suspicious thoughts against God, as if he were far more terrible to us than amiable.

13. And it wrongs some that they misunderstand the office of conscience, as if it always spake as an oracle from God, whereas it is but the act of a dark understanding, which very usually erreth, and misjudgeth of our state: and a mistaking conscience accusing falsely, as graceless, &c., shall no more condemn us at God's bar than a slandering enemy. "I judge not my ownself, (saith Paul,) I know nothing by myself (inconsistent with sincerity), yet am I not thereby justified: there is one that judgeth me, even the Lord" that is, it will not really go with me as I judge, but as God judgeth.

14. And alas! when fear beareth down both faith and reason, as to the act, no silencing reason prevaileth with the soul. I prove to them from the Gospel this great truth; that Christ damneth none (that hear the Gospel) but those that wilfully reject him and refuse his offered grace, out of greater love to something else, and this to the last. I oft convinced dejected Christians that this is true, and that this is not their case; they do not continue to refuse Christ and his grace by preferring something else. And yet this quieteth them not, nor receive they the conclusion; for fear, and feeling, and weakness, and melancholy, overpowereth their reason, as bitter physic would not let children believe that it was good for them, and given them in love.

15. Though no pretence of patience must abate our desires after full assurance and perfection, yet while we find by experience that God will have men on earth to differ much from those in heaven, and to have but low and little things in comparison of their joy and glory, it is our great duty to be thankful for our present measure, and to wait in hope for more. He that hath no comfortable apprehension of his condition, can have no thankfulness for it: and we are all obliged to great thankfulness for the least degree af grace

and hope and thankfulness is somewhat more than patience, and therefore doth include it.

The acts of the understanding and of the will go together: and if we had as full an understanding of the heavenly state, as those have that possess it, our wills by answerable love and joy would now enjoy it; and so we should have the peculiar privileges of the glorified here on earth. But this is no more suited to our present state in flesh, than it is to an infant in the womb to know what cities, courts and churches are, or what trades, and merchandize, and husbandry is, or what books, and arts, and sciences are, or what meat, and drink, and recreation are. We must be content on earth with the measure which God designeth unto earth. We see by constant experience, that he hath precluded the heavenly state from all our senses: he will not let us see what is done above. The first martyr had such a sight by miracle, but we must not expect it. He will not let our departed friends appear to us here to give us notice of what they see. He will not send angels to satisfy our desire of such knowledge; nay, infernal devils shall appear but rarely: the rareness of all these leaveth sadness in doubt whether there be any such thing or not. And Paul's sight of paradise was such as must not be uttered to us.

And full subjective certainty of salvation, which excludeth all doubts and fears, is so high a degree as few in flesh, I think, obtain. Objective certainty every true Christian hath; that is, his salvation (if he so die at least) is absolutely certain itself, so that his belief and hope of it shall never deceive him. But to be certainly known to men, that is, with an apprehension which as much excludeth doubts and fears as sight and possession would do, or as the light and the visible objects exclude all doubts, whether we behold them, or as we know that two and two are four, or that every effect hath a cause, and every relate a correlate, and that full contradictions are inconsistent; I think this degree of certainty none have on earth, without some miraculous inspiration or revelation. But we may attain to so firm an apprehension of that truth and blessedness, which is certain in itself, as may make our hope, and joy, and desire far greater than our doubts, and fears, and aversation. And this joyful life of well-grounded hope may be called a certainty or full assurance; though yet it be far short of perfect, and

the certainty of beatifical vision and fruition. And alas! it is but very few true Christians who attain this quieting, joyful degree.

All this being considered, you see that while we are on earth, we must not look for heaven; nor in the wilderness for the Land of Promise: Joshua, and Caleb's encouraging words, and the bunch of grapes, and God's promise and presence, and his conducting light, provision, and protection, must quiet us in our journey; and some few have Moses's Pisgah-sight. Murmuring at wilderness-wants, dangers, and difficulties, was the Israelites' sin and fall. We must not look for the harvest at seed-time, nor for more knowledge and assurance, and joyful apprehensions of heaven, on earth, than is suitable to the state of travellers in flesh we are yet, alas! too sinful; and sin will breed doubts and fears: we are here very ignorant, and conscious that we are very liable to err; and that every man hath many errors; and therefore we are apt to doubt even of that which we see and feel, yea, and to fear where we see convincing evidence of certainty; and we can scarce tell when and how to trust our own understanding: we are in a dark world; and in a dark body, and chained to it in our actings: all our grace and goodness is imperfect; and till every grace be perfect in us, assurance of salvation will not be perfect: for the perfection of every grace is necessary to it. And is it any wonder that such a wight as man, in flesh, and sin, and under temptations, and in a dark malignant world, which God hath very much forsaken, should not have the joy of full assurance of invisible glory? The Christians of all those ages, who held that none (or only a few rare persons) could be certain of their salvation, could not have that certainty which they thought none had? Yet they did, and we must rejoice in hope, and be thankful here for a travelling degree.

CASE XII.

The Loss of Teachers, and suitable Means of Grace and Salvation.

Another great affliction which requireth patience is, the loss of the sound and serious preaching of the Gospel, by the death or banishment, or silencing of our teachers, while our own great wants and weaknesses call for the best assistance. The soul being more precious than the body, the

welfare of it is more valuable, and its loss and famine more lamentable and we see that God ordinarily worketh according to the aptitude of means; and when he taketh away such needful means, it is a sad degree of his own forsaking us, and denying to us further grace. Alas! how bad are we under the best helps, and how dark and doubting under the most clear convincing teaching, how cold and dull under the most warm and lively ministry? And what shall we then be, if God remove our teachers from us? May we not turn cold, and dull, and worldly, and deceived under cold, dull, deceiving worldly pastors? And now grow careless of our own souls, under those that are careless of their own and our's? If in the communion of wise and holy Christians, we found it hard to grow in grace, may we not fear declining when we are separated from such, and dwell as Lot in Sodom, and must converse with worldly, or malignant men?

As to the sad case, 1. You may have the greater comfort, because you make not light of the affliction; and may be the more patient believingly, because you are not patient as contemptuous unbelievers. The patience of carnal men under such a loss, is a greater evil than the lossi tself; and the patience of faith is a greater good than the helps which you lose. Had you been so blind, and dead, and bad, as to let go the Gospel, and be easily quiet and content, as long as you enjoy your honour, wealth, and ease, this had been a far greater misery than the want of teachers; as a mortal sickness which causeth loathing and indigestion, is worse than the hardest fare with appetite and health. Thank God that you are sensible of your loss.

2. If you are true Christians you have the law and Gospel written upon your hearts, whence none can by violence take it from you, you may lose the provision of your house, and the food on your tables; yea, and cast up that which you have eaten; but if it be digested and turned into your flesh and blood, it is not so easily taken from you. O bless God, that before he took away the means, he did convert you by them, and taught you effectually before he took away your teachers. When the word was digested and turned into knowledge, faith, repentance, desire, obedience, patience, hope, and love, neither men nor devils can take it from you; your heart, where it is sown and rooted, is not

within their reach, unless you will give them the key, and foolishly betray yourselves. When God hath made you his habitation by his Spirit, and Christ dwelleth in your hearts by faith, and the kingdom of God, and life eternal is begun within you, the loss of your outward helps will not undo you. I am not imitating them that tell you that all men have sufficient light within them, or that call you to undervalue the word written and preached, on pretence of that sufficiency, as if you need no other notice of God and Christ, but to be told that he is in you. But yet rejoice that God is within you, though all these outward means were gone that is, that your faith and love have within you such an object to live upon as your Father, Saviour and Sanctifier, and such an agent as the Spirit to actuate all. When they silence your teachers, burn your books, shut up your church doors, they cannot shut out the Spirit of Christ, nor deprive you of its life, and light, and love.

3. If men take away the means forementioned, they do not therefore take away all. 1. You have all God's works to view and study: sun and stars, heaven and earth, sea and land, cities and country, fields and meadows, beasts and men, good and bad. And you are taught already by the Gospel, to see not only the great Creator in all these, but also the gracious Redeemer, purchasing, upholding, and using all as delivered to him for the good of his elect.

2. You have the daily use of meditation, as on all the works of God, so. also on Christ and the Gospel which you have learnt; yea, and of the joys of heaven.

3. You have daily and hourly leave to open your case to God; you have access to him by Christ in prayer, thanksgiving and joyful praise. If you have but an appetite, you have here a continual feast, which you may enjoy in every place; in your closet, in the fields, in a prison.

4. It is very likely that you may save your Bibles, and other good books, and so have God's word still at hand. It was written in Hebrew and Greek, but God hath used man to translate and unseal it to you; and you may choose your time, and choose the subject which you would read: and the writings of your teachers are usually more accurate than their speaking; and at a cheap rate you may have choice and excellent helps. And you may read them in your fa