Sermon 9

(2 Peter 1:10) Therefore the rather, Brethren, give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure.

The point of doctrine I am yet upon in the prosecution of these words, is this: That Christians ought to put forth a great deal of diligence to make this sure to their souls, that they are effectually called by Jesus Christ. In the handling of which I have gone over many particulars, and resolved several cases of conscience. I have yet two cases more to resolve, and then shall wind up all in a general use. Therefore,

Fourthly, when, or at what time does God fill the souls of his people most with the assurance of their effectual calling? And then

Fifthly, wherein lies the difference between that assurance a godly man has of his effectual calling, and those presumptuous persuasions that wicked men have, that they are called effectually, when they are not.

First, when, or at what time does God give to his people most and strongest assurance of their effectual calling? And here in answer to this, I shall comprise all I have to say under four heads; that in four cases or times God does usually give to his people most strong assurance.

First, after the Lord has greatly humbled the hearts of his people, and broken them for sin, then does he usually give in most assurance of a man's effectual calling, and of the happiness of his future condition. When you can say as David did (Psalm 38:3), there is no rest in my bones, by reason of my sin. When you can say as the Psalmist does (Psalm 51:8), let the bones which you have broken rejoice. Then is the time for God to make you break forth with joy, when he has broken your hearts with sorrow. God had broken David's heart under the sense of that uncleanness he had committed: O says David, you have broken my heart, now let my broken spirit rejoice; and God gave him comfort, and did restore the joy of his salvation to him. You have a phrase (Psalm 34:18): the Lord is near to them that are of a broken heart, to save them that are of a contrite spirit. The Lord is near to them. Near, what to do? Not only to give them deliverance from outward trouble, but from inward sorrows; to give them inward joy, and inward comforts, that the bones which he has broken might rejoice. The Lord is near to them that are of a broken spirit, to give them comfort (Luke 4:18). It is said there that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Christ; what to do? It was to bind up the broken in heart, and to comfort those that mourn. So (Isaiah 61:1-3): to those that mourn, he should preach comfort, and bind up the brokenhearted. When the Lord has broken you under sin, and humbled you under the sight of your evils, then is the time when God will break in upon you with great joy. Come to me all you that are weary, and heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). Rest, there has not only reference to our rest in heaven, that we shall rest there from sin, and rest there from sorrow, and rest there from temptation. But it has reference also to a promise in this life, that if you are heavy laden, that you count your iniquities a burden too heavy for you to bear, Christ has promised you peace, inward peace in your own consciences, in the assurance of your everlasting estate, in assurance that you are called to a state of grace, and shall come to a state of glory. You know when the ground is plowed, the clods are broken, and the breaking of the clods makes way for the deeper rooting of the corn, and that it may spring up with greater increase. It is so when you plow up, in the Prophet's language (Jeremiah 4), the fallow ground of your hearts. When you break the clods of your hearts by humiliations, this makes way for the corn and grain, that precious grain of assurance to spring and grow up to a fuller measure. So that you are out of God's way then to have strong assurance, that never have been humbled in the sight of sin. I say it is God's ordinary way. I do not deny but God may bring you to heaven, though you have no legal workings and horrors upon you. Yet God will never give you such strong assurance, and such ravishing comforts, as he gives them that are most broken in spirit. Look through the whole range of Scripture, and you shall find that those that were most broken in heart, they were most strong in comfort. That house that has the deepest foundation, is like to be the most beautiful fabric and building. Whereas your tents and lesser cottages, a little rooting in the earth will serve their turn. It is likely God may make you as a little cottage, though not deeply rooted. But you will never be reared up a beautiful building, to become an amiable Christian in point of comfort and assurance, if God has not bottomed you low in humiliation. It is a true rule in grace: they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. The deeper you are in sorrow, the higher you shall be lifted up in joy.

Secondly, after the people of God have been tossed and tumbled, and turmoiled with the violent assaults and temptations of the devil, then is God's time of filling his people with greatest joy and most comfort. You know at the mill, at the flood-gate, when the stream goes strongest, then the mill goes fastest. Beloved, God lets the stream of temptation grow strong against you, but to make your mill to go, to make you grind your lusts to powder, and to make you grind your sins as corn under the millstone. God does but make the flood to be strong at the gate, to make your comforts to be more strong, and your graces to be more firm. When God lets in a flood of temptation, and tosses you upon those waves and billows, then is the time for God to give you the strongest comforts (Isaiah 54:10-14). O you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted — mark their estate. Now what will God do with a soul thus tossed with a temptation? Read the verse before: My covenant of peace shall not depart from you, O you afflicted. God does here speak most peace, and tenders most freely his covenant in this condition, when they were most tossed and tumbled. And verse 13: Your children shall be all taught of God, and great shall be their peace. And verse 14: In righteousness you shall be established, and you shall not fear. Here you see how God as it were bolsters and bears up a dejected heart: O you tossed with a tempest, behold, I have made a covenant of peace with you, and behold, you shall not fear. See how God keeps up the hearts of his people in this condition — when you are most tossed and tumbled with the tempest of temptation, then does God ordinarily speak to you most inward peace and strongest assurance. As you know it is with an oak, the more they are shaken by tempestuous winds, the firmer and faster are they rooted in the bowels of the earth. It is so with Christians; they are compared in Scripture to an oak, whose fruit and sap is in them. Now a Christian, the more he is shaken by a tempestuous temptation, the Lord makes him by that to be the more firm, and to be the more fastened and settled in strong comforts and assurance.

Thirdly, when God has any extraordinary work for his people, either to do or suffer, this is a time when he fills his people with most assurance. Should God put his people upon outward sufferings, and give them inward fears, they were not in a capacity to undergo the condition with joy or patience. Therefore when he calls his people to some extraordinary measure of suffering, this is the time when God will fill them with more than ordinary comforts. I have read in the book of Martyrs of Mister Robert Glover, a famous man in his generation, who during the time of his imprisonment, was much troubled in mind for want of his assurance, yet the story tells us, when he was brought to the stake to be burnt, as soon as ever he saw the fire, he broke out in the hearing of the people and said, He is come, he is come; I am now as full of joy as my heart can hold. All the while he was in prison, he was blubbering and much troubled, till God brought him to an eminent suffering, to suffer death for him, and then he was full of comfort. I have read also of one Adolphus Clarebachius, who was a man subject to melancholy, and lay under many doubts and fears, yet as soon as ever he was brought to the stake he openly declared to the people, I have been naturally of a sad temper, but now I profess before you all, I think there is not a merrier heart in all the world than mine is. Thus they being to go through extraordinary sufferings, God gave them extraordinary assurance. Beloved, this is God's time, when he will give you most assurance, when he calls you to most sufferings. When you are to go through an ocean of sufferings and afflictions, the Lord will make you swim in a sea of inward peace and spiritual joys.

Fourthly, God gives his people most strong assurance, when they walk most closely in communion with their God. Great peace shall they have, says David, that love your law; they shall have peace, and great peace, while they walk in love to God and his ways. Keep in communion with your God, and that is the time for God to give you greatest comfort. If you lash out from God and break his law, he will break your hearts. When the shepherd has a lamb, or a sheep, that straggles from the fold, it shall meet with a crook, perhaps with the bite of a dog. It may be God may catch you with his hook — perhaps you shall be bitten with a temptation, and bitten with desertion, if you straggle from his fold. But the more you keep in communion with God, the more likely you are to keep in your comforts. Walking with God is the very fuel that kindles the fire of comfort in a Christian's breast, that keeps comfort alive. The more you flag in your communion, the more shall you flag in your assurance, and the more shall your comforts die. Communion with your God has two particulars in it. First, in keeping you free from sin (John 11:14-15). Secondly, in keeping in the exercise of grace (Isaiah 32:17). Now, the more you keep out sin, the more you keep in comforts; the more you increase in grace, the more you increase in comforts. Grace and comfort, the one promotes the other — grace promotes comfort, and comfort heightens you in the increase of grace. Therefore Paul in his salutations puts them both together (1 Corinthians 1:3). And thus having finished this query, there is only one more, which, God willing, I shall dispatch at this time.

Fifthly, wherein appears the difference between that man that has assurance of his effectual calling upon good ground, and between those men that only have presumptuous persuasions of their effectual calling, when they are not? Beloved, this question is worthy the discussion; and to resolve it, I shall lay down nine or ten differences.

First, that man that has sound and true assurance of his effectual calling is very careful to take heed of sin, that so he might not eclipse his comforts, or lose his assurance. He is careful (I say) to free his heart from sin as much as may be, considering that though he cannot sin away his soul, he may sin away his comforts; though he cannot sin away his salvation, he may sin away his consolation. A man that has this assurance knows the worth of assurance, and he knows how soon it is lost, and how hardly it is gained; and that makes him very tender of sin (2 Corinthians 7:1). Having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves. When a godly man knows that God is his God (for that's the promise spoken of in the verse before), knowing that he belongs to God and the promises belong to him, it makes him cleanse himself from all filthiness, both of flesh and spirit, that he keep no sin in the spirit, nor any sin in the body. A man that has assurance, it makes him very tender of every sin. But now, a man that has presumptuous persuasions of his own goodness — his persuasions will make him more bold, and more adventurous to run into sin; he will make no bones of sin, and he cares not for falling into one sin today, and another sin tomorrow, and committing wickedness day after day; he is bold and adventurous upon every sin. (Jeremiah 3:4-5) You have cried to me, 'My Father, my Father, you are the guide of my youth; will you reserve anger forever, and shall there be no end of your indignation?' Yet what does God say? Yet you did evil as much as you could. As if he should say, 'You cry, My Father; you persuade yourselves God is your Father, and yet you will speak and do evil as much as you can.' Here God brands them for a presumptuous people. To persuade yourselves that God is your Father, and yet to do wickedness as much as you can, and to be drunk as often as you can, and swear as often as you can — alas, you deceive your own hearts in this, for God cannot be your Father in this sense. And beloved, I beseech you in my going over these heads, that you would lay them to your own hearts, and see if you may be distinguished from those presumptuous persuasions that go over the world.

Secondly, a man that has real assurance of his effectual calling, that man meets with more assaults and temptations from the devil to annoy him in his peace, than other men do that have only a counterfeit assurance. As you know those shops that have the best wares, and richest treasures, goldsmiths' shops, they are most exposed to robbery; when men will not meddle with a petty stall. Those ships that are most richly laden, they are in most danger to meet with pirates at sea, when your smaller barks laden with goods of lesser value escape free. It is so with Christians. Those Christians that are most richly laden with the treasure of assurance, that have in their hearts this precious jewel, they are in most danger of the devil's temptations, to be as a pirate or robber by force to set upon them, to annoy them. It is those that have most assurance, that the devil envies most, that he will never let them alone, but hunts them as a partridge over the mountains by dejections, and by suggestions, and by variety of temptations. Satan's fiercest darts; and by distrust, and by injected scruples, and by cavils of carnal reasonings, and by consulting with flesh and blood, and for want of comfortable feelings; the devil will be still putting them on, to see if he can damp their comforts, and make them cast away their confidence, which has a great recompense of reward. Hence it is the Apostle presses that Christians should not cast away their confidence (a metaphor some think drawn from a ship at sea; merchants, when they are at sea, when their ship by a storm and tempest is tossed upon the billows, and likely to suffer shipwreck, being heavy laden, they will cast away their wares, to save their lives). Now some in allusion to this, think that the devil so tosses a poor soul in point of comfort, as a ship is tossed upon the sea by the wind. Now if you are tossed upon the sea of temptation, and upon the waves of trouble and assaults, do not cast away your wares, do not throw away your comforts. This implies that godly men are often set upon, and often assaulted; that though the devil cannot bring you to hell, he would fain have you to have a hell in your consciences while you live. He does not only envy your happiness, but your comforts also. Whereas on the contrary, men that harbor persuasions they are called, when they are not; the devil lulls them asleep, he lets them alone, and never troubles them. Luke 11:21: When the strong man possesses the house, the goods are at peace. That is, when the devil of hell has whole possession of the soul of a man, he is no way tempted, his thoughts are at quiet. When the devil sees a man build upon a sandy and corrupt foundation, he will never shake that by a temptation lest you should by shaking be awakened to look after a better and more enduring substance. When the devil sees you lulled asleep in a golden dream of presumption, he will never awaken you by temptation, but lets you sleep on, because he knows that sleep will be a sleep to death. As a man lying asleep on a steep rock, dreams merrily of crowns and kingdoms, but suddenly starting in joy, breaks his neck, and tumbles into the bottom of the sea; so is it with a man that harbors ungrounded persuasions of his good estate. That which a carnal man makes his evidence, that he is in a good condition, is an undoubted demonstration he is in a bad. You shall have a wicked man, when he hears a godly man to be troubled in mind and wounded in spirit, he will tell you, he thanks God he was never troubled since he was born, the devil never disturbed him, and he has had a strong faith ever since he can remember. Alas, beloved, this is a sad sign; you make this a sign of your comfort, whereas indeed it is a demonstration of your want of a sound assurance; for were your assurance good, the devil would never let you alone, but would still be laboring to make you cast away your confidence; but being bad, he would have you nourish it still. We say those oxen that are fed in the greenest pastures, they are nearest the slaughter; when the poor lean ox that has the yoke and whip every day, and is at daily labor, is long-lived, and in a better condition. Those men that the devil lets alone, and never tempts, that are as fatted oxen, never come under the whip and yoke, and never are troubled; it is an argument they are near the slaughter, and under a great deal of danger of their souls. But those that are under the yoke, that are often tempted, and the pricks of Satan lie upon them; this is an argument their comforts are right, and their evidence good, because so assaulted and opposed by the devil.

Thirdly, true assurance is more or less in a man's spirit, by how much more or less that man keeps in communion with God. If a man does relax in his conversation with God, and grow careless and formal, and a stranger to God, he shall grow a stranger to himself in the end, and to his comforts also. But if a man keep close to God, and keep close to duties, can retire and recollect himself to converse with God in a more solemn and serious manner, is preparedly and fruitfully exercised in ordinances, can pour out his soul into God's bosom — that man is in the way to have his comforts raised up. Whereas now for men that have false comfort and persuasions, whether they are much or little with God, all is one to them, their comforts are at the same standstill. Come to a man that has false comforts, and at all times he is alike peremptory, he is in the same persuasion he was 3, 4, or 7 years ago. Ask him any week in the year, any day in the week, any hour in the day, and he will tell you he has the same comforts, and the same evidences still. He had a strong faith in God, and he has it still; he had strong hopes to be saved, and so he has still. He is still peremptory in his comforts, though he never so much alter in communion with his God. This is an argument your persuasions are false, because a Christian's communion and converse with God does feed his comforts. Now as the body, by how much the more or less it is fed, by so much the more it is weakened or strengthened — so it is with your comforts. So much as they are cherished by your walking with God, so much they grow weak or strong. Now let a wicked man grow never so vile, and never so sinful, it interrupts not his peace; he has hopes and assurance still, and he will trust in God still, though he sin ever — this is an argument his comforts are unsound. You have a lively picture of this (Micah 3:11). The heads of the people judge for reward, the priests teach for hire, and the prophets divine for money; and yet they will lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? That is, though they have these sins among them, and did walk thus and thus, yet they would hope in God to be saved for all this. Why, Beloved, you will find God to fail you; though he never failed an assured Christian, yet he will fail that man that leans upon him, when he belongs not to him. When you do intermit walking with God and do launch forth into a gulf and sea of lusts, and yet can still say you are the same in your comforts, and the same in your persuasions — it is an argument all your comforts are but false, and your evidence unsound.

Fourthly, real assurance of your estate bears up the soul under the greatest outward sorrow and sufferings that it can meet with in this world (Hebrews 10:34). They suffered joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and more enduring substance. What made them so rejoice to see their houses plundered before them, their estates taken from them, but this — they knew in their own selves, and had assurance in their own hearts that Christ was theirs, and heaven was theirs; and this made them suffer joyfully the spoiling of their goods. So (Psalm 119:50): This is my comfort in affliction, that your word does quicken me. That is, this bears up my heart when I am afflicted, that I have a word to build upon, that I have assurance, I have interest in a promise to build upon; this quickens and bears me up under my sorrows. So (Psalm 119:81): My spirit had fainted within me, only that I hoped in your word. That is, I had hope and confidence built upon your word, and that kept me from fears, and fainting, and discouragement under my affliction. So (Isaiah 33:24): The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity. Beloved, assurance will lift up and bear up the heart under all sorrows. Assurance in a Christian is like oil. Now pour oil into a sea or ocean of water, and the oil will never be kept under, but still be uppermost. So this oil of comfort, and this oil of assurance, it will bear you up on the top, though you should be cast into a flood of troubles, and an ocean of sorrows. I have read in Latimer's writings a notable saying of his to Ridley, that famous martyr. Sometime, says he, when I live in a settled and steadfast assurance about the state of my soul, I think I am as bold as a lion, I can laugh at all trouble, no affliction daunts me. But when I am eclipsed in my comforts, I am of so fearful a spirit, that I could run into a very mouse-hole. Beloved, it is so with godly men: when they want assurance of their estate, and the soundness of their call, every affliction daunts, and every trouble startles them. But when they can live in a settled assurance of their interest in Christ, and calling by him, they are as bold as lions and they are borne up with comfort, under all the sorrows and sufferings they meet with. But now men that have false persuasions — their persuasions can never bear up the heart under a trouble, and at a loss, and at a pinch; because it is not a saving and inward comfort, it can never create inward peace. The comforts of wicked men when they come to suffer, they are like cloth that is ill woven. Cloth that is well made, let a man be in a shower of rain, it will never shrink. But ill woven cloth, let it be but in a shower, it shrinks immediately. It is so with men's comforts: bring comforts well wrought into a shower of trouble, and that man will not shrink under his trouble. But bring an ill wrought and unsound assurance, and that will shrink, and fail, and pull in, and will not bear up the heart under the sorrows and sufferings he may meet with. Presuming Pindleton, that boasted his fat flesh should fry in the fire before he would forsake his religion, when he came to the trial, flagged immediately.

Fifthly, sound assurance, wherever it is, makes the heart more humble towards God and man, and makes men more vile in their own eyes. Galatians 2:20. There you have this character: I live, says Paul, by the faith of the Son of God; and Christ has loved me, and given himself for me. Here is his assurance: what then? Does this lift up Paul? No, it makes him more vile: I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. Paul recollects himself: I live — no; it is not I that live, but Christ that lives in me. See how Paul was beaten off from a supercilious pride and exaltation of spirit in himself. It is not I that live. The thoughts of his comforts made him recollect himself, and seem vile in his own eyes. Whereas, alas, false persuasions puff up the soul with pride, and make a man supercilious and high-conceited, crying out as Jehu did, Jonadab, is your heart like mine? Come see my zeal for the Lord. They make him proud like Jehu in his false persuasions.

Sixthly, sound comforts and real assurance do engage the soul to walk before God in a course of holiness (Psalm 26:3). Your loving kindness is before my eyes — that is, I am assured, if I saw the thing with my eye, that God's loving kindness is towards me. What then? And I will walk in your truth. I will walk before you with a holy and sincere heart; and I will not haunt with vain persons (verse 4). And I will wash my hands in innocency (verse 6), and so on. So that you see David would walk in a course of holiness, because he had an evidence and assurance of God's love to him. So (1 John 3:3): he that has this hope in him, purifies himself, even as Christ is pure — that is, a man that does nourish hopes and persuasions of heaven, his hopes will make him a Christian endeavoring to purify his own heart, and to be holy as Christ is holy. This is the nature of true assurance. But now for false assurance: the man that has it does not look after holiness at all; he thinks himself well enough, that he has attained that which every wise man should rest in, without meddling any further. Nay, he is so far from laying bonds upon himself to walk in a course of holiness, that he will rather take encouragement from there to walk in a way of looseness and profaneness. Because grace abounds, he will abound in sin — this is the ill use that false comfort makes of God's grace. And therefore, beloved, look over your hearts. Do the comforts you pretend to have, and the assurance you pretend to enjoy, make you more to pursue holiness? That you can say as David did: I see your loving kindness is before me, and therefore I will love your ways, and hate sinfulness. Or can you say, you have comforts, therefore you will run into sin, and wallow in wickedness? This is an argument your comforts are not true.

Seventhly, true assurance is got and kept with a great deal of diligence and industry. Your best things are hardest to get, and hardest to keep. Stones are to be had in every place; but gold you must dig deep, and take pains to dive into the bowels of the earth, before you can get that. Weeds grow easily, but your fine garden-flowers must be often watered and carefully looked to, or else they will not grow. Beloved, this weed of false persuasion and assurance is a weed that will grow under every hedge, and thrive in every garden without looking after. Whereas, alas, the flower of true comforts and saving assurance is hard to make grow; and when it is grown, it is hard to keep it from withering and blasting. Assurance costs a man the waiting many a year, the shedding many a tear, the making of many a prayer, before he can get or keep it. Whereas, alas, false assurance is easily gotten and easily kept. A man may get presumption without any pains at all; the Devil will urge you on both to get and keep it. Therefore you that easily get your comforts without prayers, and keep your comforts without pains, you may be sure your comforts are but false.

Eighthly, true assurance is gotten by the Word, and grounded upon the Word. It is got by the Word (Isaiah 57:19): I create the fruit of the lip, peace, peace, to them that are near, and to them that are far off. The fruit of the lips — that is, the fruit of the minister's preaching — God has ordained and created that to be the way to work and create peace, peace; that is, a sound peace in the hearts of his people. And it is not only got, but it is grounded upon the Word also. It is the Word, and something in the Word, that bears up the hearts of the people of God (Psalm 119:49): Good is the Word of the Lord, wherein you have caused your servant to hope. So verses 50–51: it is the Word of God that grounds the comforts of the people of God. Whereas look now upon wicked men, and they neither got their comforts by the Word, nor do they ground upon the Word. But first, they have had strong hopes in God ever since they could remember. And secondly, they keep and ground them either upon their good meaning, that they mean well towards God. Or else thirdly, they ground them upon this, that they are not so bad as other men are — a poor weak ground. The Pharisee could say so: I am no extortioner, no drunkard, no adulterer, and the like — yet never came to heaven for all this. Or else fourthly, they ground their comforts on this, because they receive from God abundance of outward mercies. And this you find was their ground of presumption (Hosea 12:8): Ephraim said, I am become rich, and I have found me out substance; in all my labor they shall find no iniquity in me, that is, sin. Ephraim would say, I am become rich, and have gotten me an estate, and now I am an honest man, and they shall find no sin in me — yet this was a mere presumption, because God tells us (Ecclesiastes 9:1): No man knows either love or hatred by the things that are before him. And sometimes, says Solomon, God gives men riches to their hurt. And therefore this can be no evidence of a grounded assurance.

Ninthly, that man that has a good assurance, he is willing to be tried either by God or man, touching the truth of his assurance. This you find, (Psalm 26:2-3): Try me, O Lord, examine me, prove me; and try my [reconstructed: reins] and my heart, for your loving kindness is before me. As if he should say, Lord, I make a profession, that I have your loving kindness in my eye, that I am assured you love me; Lord, I put my soul upon the trial: Do you try me, if my heart be not right in my assurance. And not by God only, but they are willing to be tried by man also. And therefore you have that phrase of the Apostle, (1 Peter 3:15), that when men ask you an account of the hope that is in you, you should be ready to give answer; that is, when men ask you what hopes you have of heaven, and upon what ground do you hope to be saved? The Apostle says, you should be ready to give answer of that hope that is in you. And who were they that should do so? They were those that had a good conscience, those men that had consciences free from sin, and had evidence in their own consciences, that they belonged to God, they were ready, whoever asked them, to give a reason why they hoped for heaven. Whereas a man that has false persuasions of heaven and of his effectual calling, that man cannot endure to be tried either by God or man. He is like the man that has stolen goods in his house. A man that is an honest man, let the constable come, let search be made, it never troubles him, because they are his own goods that he has bought with his own money; but the thief, when the constable comes, and search is made, every trunk that is opened, his heart trembles. It is so with an unsound-hearted man; a man that has false assurance, lest there should be a flaw found in it. Come to a man that has false persuasions, (as to you formalists, and those that are presumptuous wretches) come to these men, and put this question to them, Upon what ground do you hope for salvation? What evidence can you give of your effectual calling? How can you make out upon Scripture-grounds, that you shall go to heaven? Such questions as these will puzzle an unsound heart, that he cannot give you any reasonable answer at all. And herein the difference is palpable between a grounded assurance and those false persuasions that wicked men have.

Tenthly, true assurance, wherever it is, it makes a man so to value the comforts of the Spirit of God, that he does undervalue all other comforts in the world in comparison of them. (Psalm 4:6): Lord, lift you up the light of your countenance upon me; what then? And this shall more glad my heart, than when my corn and wine and oil increases. Beloved, assurance, it does so transport and raise up the heart, that it makes all things in the world, all comforts here below to be nothing in comparison of that. The favor of princes is nothing to that man that has the favor of God. Life, and all the comforts of life, are nothing to that man that has comfort in reference to his eternal life. (Psalm 63:3): Your loving kindness, O Lord, is better than life. David did not value his life, nor all the comforts of it, so as he valued the loving kindness of his God. But now, a man that has false persuasions, these do not so transport his spirit, and take up the whole man, and fill the soul with [reconstructed: joy] unspeakable and full of glory; these do no whit abate his comforts in the world. A man you know that has tasted honey, other things are of an unpleasant taste to him that are eaten after. Beloved, assurance is like honey; nothing so sweet to a godly palate, as that is. Now when a godly person tastes of the honey of assurance, all other outward comforts, they are but as gall and wormwood, things unpleasant to his taste and palate. And thus you see I have laid down ten particulars to you. I would entreat you to distinguish in your own hearts, whether you are the people that have a true assurance, or only false persuasions of your effectual calling. And let me tell you, the reason why I speak of this, is, because the most of men in the world do miss of heaven by false persuasions. Where desperation damns one soul, presumption damns a thousand. I might say of this, as it was sung in the triumphant song of David and Saul, Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands: so I might say, desperation has slain a thousand, but presumption ten thousand. Thousands and ten thousands are slain and undone for ever, by harboring presumptuous and groundless persuasions of their effectual calling, when they are not.