Sermon 11

2 Peter 1:10. Therefore the rather, brethren, give all diligence to make your calling and election sure.

The doctrine I am yet upon 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 managing of which I came to a use of direction, to those who are assured of their effectual calling, and to them I gave three directions. First, that you would rightly manage your assurance. Secondly, carefully preserve your assurance. Thirdly, daily improve your assurance; the last of which I have yet to handle. And touching this third direction, daily to improve your assurance, I shall give you but three heads; which if you make use of, you may every day improve your assurance, and bring it from a little to a great measure, as follows.

First, in case you would do this, improve your graces. The more you increase in grace, the more you will grow in comfort. Grace and comfort, they are two twins, that the more one grows, the better the other thrives. Hence you read, that in the salutation of every epistle, the Apostle puts both together, "Grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied to you in Christ Jesus" (1 Corinthians 1:3). There the Apostle makes the multiplying of grace to be the multiplying of peace. The more you multiply and grow in grace, the more you will increase peace, inward peace of conscience: they are both joined together. You have a passage in 2 Peter 1:5, 11 compared together: "Add to your faith virtue, etc." The Apostle there urges our diligence to add grace to grace; that is, to live in the improvement of grace. And what will follow? Verse 11: "If you do these things, you shall never fall; for so an entrance shall be given to you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ." You shall not only go to heaven, but you shall have an abundant entrance given before you come there; you shall have abundance of assurance and inward peace before you come there. And here to give you a more particular direction, there are these four graces chiefly you are to improve.

First, improve the grace of humility (Isaiah 57:15). The Lord does promise there to revive the spirit of the humble. It is a particular promise to that grace, that God will revive you, and give you a new life if you have it. And reviving there, is not meant of the first life of grace, but of a life of comfort. They had grace before, but God would give them a life of comfort; he will restore your consolation to you in case you are a humble people. Hence it is, in James 4:6: "The Lord gives grace to the humble." Indeed, he gives more grace. The Lord gives more grace to the humble person than to any man in the world. Now the more grace you have, the more comfort you must needs have. Humility is a foundation of more grace, therefore it must needs be a foundation of more comfort.

That building whose foundation is laid lowest, is of all the most beautiful and attractive fabric above ground: so those Christians that lay a foundation low in humility, they are likely to rear up a most beautiful building in the way of comfort.

Secondly, improve the grace of faith in believing, and that is the way to increase comfort. In 1 Peter 1:8: "Whom though you have not seen, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Though they did never see Christ, yet believing in Christ, and improving their faith, they had not only an ordinary measure of comfort, but they had more comfort in their hearts, than they could utter with their tongue. They rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. So in Romans 15:13: "The God of peace fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the Holy Ghost." Believing makes you full of all joy, and makes you abound in it. The more you are in believing, the more you will be in assurance.

Thirdly, improve the grace of love to Jesus Christ. In John 14:23: "If any man love me, my Father shall love him, and we will come in to him, and make our abode with him." If you improve in your love to Jesus Christ, God the Father and God the Son will make their dwelling in your hearts. Now he must needs be a comfortable Christian, that has so good a guest as God the Father and Jesus Christ to come in, and make their abode with him. As you know, to your bosom friend whom you love, and you know loves you, you will communicate all your secrets: thus will God the Father, if he knows you are his bosom friends, and sees you love him, he will communicate all his comforts to you; you shall never want comforts, if you increase in love to Jesus Christ.

Fourthly, improve the grace of godly sorrow; you will never find sweeter music in comfort, than when you are laid down in tears. As the sound of the trumpet is never more pleasant than when they are upon the water; so when God sees you flow with the water of repentance and godly sorrow, then you are likely to hear the most melodious harmony in the apprehension of God's love (Psalm 126). "They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy." You shall not only have a dram, but a handful of joy; as reapers they cut down handfuls of corn at once. And as you know in seed, though you sow but one grain of corn, there may a dozen ears come from that one seed: so if you sow but a little godly sorrow, a grain of godly sorrow may be a root to a great deal of spiritual joy.

Second, if you would improve your assurance, preserve a clear conscience, both towards God and man. A good conscience is a continual feast (Proverbs 15:15). Assurance — I may say of it as the Father speaks of the Holy Ghost and the comforts thereof — the Spirit of God is a very sensitive thing; every thing will give the comforts of God's Spirit a check and distaste. Now if you harbor sin upon conscience, you will never thrive in comfort; every thing will give comfortable motions a check. And as philosophers say, when the air is foggy it arises from vapors that are exhaled from the earth, which makes the air so cloudy as it is — so it is filth drawn from our earthly hearts that makes such foggy mists to arise between our comforts and us, and between God and us. You must keep conscience clear, else you will never keep heaven clear. Heaven will be clouded if the heart be filthy. If iniquity be in your hand, put it far away; if sin be upon the conscience, harbor it not (Job 11:14-15). For then you shall lift up your face before God, you shall be steadfast, and not fear. You shall not only not fear, but you shall have a degree of assurance. You shall be steadfast, if you put sin far away from you. A sullied and a polluted conscience shall never be in a Christian strong in assurance. You will not grow in assurance if your conscience harbors guilt.

Third, if you would improve your assurance, keep close in communion with God. Nothing feeds comforts so much as a Christian's holy walking. The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect thereof quietness and assurance for ever (Isaiah 32:17). If you walk in works of righteousness, and in a way of keeping close communion with God, this shall be peace, and this shall be quietness, and great assurance. Mark how the Holy Ghost makes a gradation — not only peace and quietness, but assurance also. You shall have the highest degree of peace, and the highest step of comfort, if you walk diligently in a way of holiness with your God. And thus much be spoken to the first sort of men, those that live in the enjoyment of the assurance of their effectual calling.

I have now a word to those men that live in the want of this assurance, who perhaps have in times past had some glimmering and some dim sight of comfort touching their everlasting estate, and yet are now much clouded and eclipsed in their comforts, or have lost the comforts they once had — what they should do to recover it. And to these I shall by way of direction speak only four things.

First, that you would set upon searching work. Second, upon humbling work. Third, upon praying work. And fourth, that you would set upon meditating work. These four helps will through God's blessing be very conducive to restore your wonted comforts to you.

First, my counsel shall be to you, that you would set upon searching and examining work. When you have lost any thing, the first thing you do is to look after it, where you have lost it, that you may find it again. If you have lost this precious jewel of assurance, be thus wise for yourselves — O, set upon seeking and searching work. The Scripture gives you this hint: Let every man search his own work, and then he shall have rejoicing in himself (Galatians 6:4). This is the way to bring in spiritual joy and spiritual comfort, to be often dealing with your own hearts. David, when he lay under some foul distemper, mark how he deals with his own soul: Why are you troubled, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? He puts his heart upon the trial. And here in your searching work, I would commend five things to your examination.

First, search how you got your assurance.

Second, search how you grounded your assurance.

Third, search how you managed your assurance.

Fourth, search what should provoke God to take away your assurance.

Fifth and last, search what you would give to God, so you might regain your former and wonted assurance. Put these questions to your hearts.

First, put upon the search how you got your assurance. It may be it was such an assurance as you have had ever since you were born from your mother's womb — that you got without care, and without pain. And if so, this is presumption, not assurance; and if you have lost this, it is well. It is better to be in a state of discouragement than in a state of presumption.

Second, examine how you grounded your assurance. It may be you bottomed it but upon self, not upon Christ. It may be you bottomed it but upon the fantastical delusions of your own hearts, and not upon the grounded evidence of God's Word. If so, that your assurance has had an ill bottom, it is no wonder if God turns it upside-down. If it be not rightly grounded, it will never long be continued. Examine therefore upon what grounds you have bottomed your assurance, and if you find the foundation of your comforts to be ill laid, you must pluck up all again.

Third, search how you managed your assurance. It may be you managed your assurance with pride, not humility; it may be with unwatchfulness, and carelessness of spirit, and did not take notice of those temptations and suggestions that might impair your comforts. And if so, it is no wonder if the devil sows tares among your wheat; it is no wonder if the devil has stolen away your comforts, if you have laid down your watch.

Fourth, examine what special cause there was in your hearts that might provoke God to cloud you in your comforts, and to take away your assurance from you. And here, that you might a little be directed in this search, you may reduce the cause of your eclipse, and of the removal of your assurance, to this twofold head. Either it has been the commission of some great transgression, or else the omission of some weighty duty, that may provoke God to darken your comforts.

First, the commission of some great transgression. Great sins lay a foundation for great discomforts in tender consciences. Great sins lay the conscience waste, to make it that was as a well-trimmed and enclosed garden, to be as a ruinous wilderness. Great relapses bring ordinarily dark eclipses upon the soul. And here, that I might put you on this search, I would advise you to search what particular sin it was, and how you might know the transgression that might provoke God to take away your comforts from you.

First, if God did take away your comforts immediately after the committing of any gross sin, then you may be sure that sin was the occasion.

Secondly, if the commission of one sin does bring upon you more than an ordinary measure of hardness of heart, then you may be sure that was the sin.

Thirdly, if any sin makes you remiss in spiritual duties, that was the sin that provoked God to take away your comforts from you. And by such a search as this, you might find out, and give a shrewd guess at the particular provocation.

And here the particular transgressions I would have you search about — they are ordinarily these four that engage God to take away comforts from a people.

First, the sin of superciliousness, and uncompassionateness of spirit towards doubting Christians. If a soul carries a proud and supercilious eye over poor Christians, and carries no compassion towards doubting souls, God, for that sin of wanting bowels of compassion, may bring him to the same estate which he could not compassionate in other men.

Secondly, the sin of grieving the Spirit; if you grieve God's Spirit, God will grieve yours (Isaiah 63:10).

Thirdly, the sin of spiritual pride — ordinarily this may be the sin.

Fourthly, the sin of worldly-mindedness, or eager pursuit after the things of this world. As digging in the earth does endanger a man to be stifled with damps, so digging and poring in the world brings but a damp upon a Christian's comforts, and many times stifles their assurance. As the Sun is eclipsed by the interposition of the Moon between it and our sight, so if the world once get between the Sun of righteousness and you, it will eclipse the Sun so that you shall not see the glory of Jesus Christ, and shall not perceive nor gain that interest in Jesus Christ you had in former time.

Secondly, another cause you are to search: if it be not the commission of some great transgression, yet it may be the omission of necessary and weighty duty, and the Lord may bring you upon the stage of discomfort for omission as well as commission. If a man does let but a wound go undressed, he may as well die as if you knock him with a beetle upon the head. Beloved, if you let your wounds be undressed, and let your discomforts be unlooked after, and let all run at sixes and sevens — if you interrupt in your duties, it is just with God to interrupt you in your comforts. If you keep not your watch, it is no wonder if you are surprised. There are many Christians that grow careless in keeping communion with God, that love seldom reading, and seldom praying, and seldom examining their own hearts; alas, men casting away their duties makes God in judgment make stoppage in a way of comfort.

Fifthly, in your searching work examine yourselves what you would do in case God should restore to you your former evidences. Could you bring your hearts to this temper, that you would think no pain too much to take, no cost too much to give, nothing should be irksome to you that God would have you perform, in case he would give you your wonted comforts? If you find this temper of spirit in you, this is a very ready way to bring on your comforts, and restore the joys of your salvation to you.

Secondly, set upon humbling work: the only way to gain what you have lost is to mourn over your losses (Jeremiah 31:18-20). See how Ephraim comes to have his comforts restored, when he wept over his own discomforts: I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself, says God, and I said, Is Ephraim my dear son — I saw him smiting upon his thigh, humbling his soul for his sins; and since I saw him, I do earnestly remember him, and I will show mercy to him. Here you see lamenting Ephraim; God, in the very time of his bemoaning himself, restored his comforts to him. We hear many lament for their outward losses, but who laments for the loss of inward comforts? And David, after he had lost his comforts by that great sin of adultery, makes seven penitential Psalms — Psalms of lamentation or repentance — and he calls one of them a Psalm to call to remembrance. And as an author well notes, when David came to renew his comforts, he makes a Psalm to call to remembrance those sins that might provoke God to take away his comforts from him. So, beloved, let it be your work to make such Psalms in your closets, and make it your practice to call to remembrance those evils that provoke God to eclipse your comforts to you, and let that humble you. [illegible] If you cannot find out the particular sin, labor to humble your souls for every sin, and then to be sure you cannot miss that.

Thirdly, would you restore your wonted comforts? Then set upon praying work. This course you find David took (Psalm 51:8): Make me, O Lord, to hear the voice of joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken might rejoice. Create in me a new heart, and establish me with your free Spirit (verse 12). Here you read of David's praying work, how he poured forth his soul in prayer, that God would restore to him the joys of his salvation. And here in your praying work I would only cast in three directions.

First, pray for a distinct sight of those evils that provoked God to take your comforts from you.

Secondly, after you have got a sight, bend the strength of your prayers most against those evils that did so provoke God to cloud your comforts. Pray against them, as against the deadliest enemy you have in the world.

Thirdly, pray for attaining those graces that may be inlets to spiritual comfort, as the graces before named: the grace of godly sorrow, the grace of humiliation, the grace of faith, and of love to Jesus Christ. Thus if you set upon searching, upon humbling, and upon praying work, you are in a likely way to have your comforts restored.

Fourthly, set upon the work of meditation; and in this work, I shall commend four meditations you are to take into your thoughts, which may be very helpful and useful to you in restoring your comforts.

First, let your meditations run upon this, that sometimes you are not so competent judges of your own spiritual estate as others may be.

First, in a time of desertion, when God has left you and frowns upon you.

Secondly, in times of temptation, when the devil's temptations are violent against you.

Thirdly, in times of relapse, when you are fallen into some great sin, at this time you are not so competent judges of your own estate, but bystanders may see more of your own good, and your own sincerity, than you yourselves may do. As the proverb is: many times lookers-on see more than he that plays the game — it is true in this. A looker-on may see sincerity sparkle in your practice, and your graces shine in your conversation, when you cannot do it yourself. A child when it blubbers and cries can see nothing of his book — so when Christians are sad, and sullen, and sluggish, they can hardly read any thing of their evidence. Mr. Throgmorton got his assurance this way, by the testimony of a company of godly ministers that they could lay their souls in his soul's stead. Let this therefore run in your meditations, that many times bystanders and Christians that behold your walkings, and see your actions, may see more ground of comfort in you than you yourselves can do.

Secondly, meditate and think upon the comforts God gave you in former times, and call them to mind. Do as David did (Psalm 77): I called to mind the days of old, and the years of many generations. Call to mind ancient days — did not God show you his face? Did not God bear you in the palms of his hands? Did not God give you many a smile of his countenance, and many a pledge of his love, even by affliction itself? Did not God set many a seal upon your heart, that your comforts were true, your evidence clear, and your ends sincere towards God? Beloved, call to mind the former frame of your spirit, how you were in former times, and this meditation, being backed by God's Spirit, may be a great means to restore your comforts to you. Past goodness should be present encouragement.

Thirdly, meditate on what way it was that you got your former comforts and assurance, and the same way God will sanctify to restore your comforts again. What physicians say of the body — we are nourished by those things by which we are begotten and generated — so I say of comforts: the very same thing that begot comforts will restore your comforts again. Now think upon this in your practice, and consider: what way did I gain my comforts in years past? Did I gain my comforts by godly sorrow, and by lamenting after God, and by mourning over those abominable failings in my practice? Then take the same course to restore your evidences. Go and mourn in your closet over your uneven walking before God. Go lament for your sins, mourn after your Father, and tell him you are grieved at the heart that he is so great a stranger to your soul. Did you gain your assurance in days past by humbling your soul often before God? Set upon humbling work again. Did you gain your comforts in days past by walking closely with your God? Amend your paths, and direct your ways to your Maker — for days to come there is the very same way to restore your comforts that was at first used to gain your comforts.

Fourthly, let your meditations work upon those comforting promises in the gospel that hold forth most comfort to a dejected soul. And truly I am persuaded that Christians' meditations running more upon their own failings, and their own jealousies, and upon their own mistakes, than upon gospel promises, has been the great occasion they have lain so long under a spirit of bondage, and under a dark eclipse in the want of the comforts of God's Spirit. Therefore now let your meditations work upon those promises that hold forth most comfort to a dejected and deserted soul. And here I shall name five or six most comfortable promises in the Word. As (Isaiah 57:15): the Lord that dwells in the high and holy places, he does revive the spirit of the humble, and of the contrite one. So (Isaiah 66:2): the Lord dwells in the heavens, and yet with him also that is of a humble and contrite spirit, that trembles at his Word — with him will God dwell. So (Psalm 34:18): the Lord is near to them that are of a broken heart, even them that are contrite in spirit. So (Luke 4:18): Jesus Christ was anointed, that is, appointed by God the Father, to preach the gospel to the poor, to bind up the broken in heart, and to comfort them that mourn. So (Isaiah 66:10): the Lord will restore comfort to you, and to your mourners. And (Hebrews 12:12): the Lord will strengthen the weak hands and feeble knees. And with that remarkable and most glorious gospel promise I shall end (Isaiah 35:3-6): strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. This God says to weak Christians, whose legs can hardly carry their bodies, and their hands hardly reach to their mouths. Say to the weak Christian in grace, comfort, and confirm and strengthen them. And say to them that are of a fearful heart: be strong. Poor fearful doubting souls, that fear every temptation, and fear every corruption, and fear they shall lose the recompense of their reward — say to that fearful heart: be strong and fear not. For your God will come with vengeance, even God will come with recompense and save you. And then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped — it is not meant of the bodily eye, but those that were blind and could not see the mysteries of Christ, and could not read their own comforts, then their eyes shall be opened. And the deaf that, as Isaiah says, refused to be comforted, that would not hearken to comfort, but would stop their ears against all comfortable doctrines, and only give way to sorrow — their ears shall be unstopped. And the lame men shall leap like a hart — the poor halting Christian, that halts in his comforts, that is now believing, then staggering, now rejoicing, then despairing, the poor lame man shall leap like a hart. And the tongue of the dumb shall sing — the poor man that could not speak one word of his own graces, and of his own comforts, and touching his own evidence, the tongue of the dumb shall sing. O beloved, here is your work, in case you would be Christians to restore your comforts again — set upon the work of meditation, to think upon these precious promises of the gospel, that hold forth most comfort to a drooping and dejected sinner.