Rules to Direct a Christian How to Use the Word of God for the Evidence of His Assurance

First, to use the word of God aright: as you must in all conditions that concern your soul repair to the Word, so you must consider your own uprightness, and what work of grace is in your soul, that will answer the word, and testify that the work of grace is true: be sure to take your soul at the best; do not always consider what is the worst part in you, nor your failings that may accuse you only, but if there be any uprightness that may speak for you, hear that also; it is injustice for any court to hear one side and not another: the Lord does not lie at catch with his children, but he takes them at the best: as (Romans 4:22) it is said that Abraham believed the promise, and it was imputed to him for righteousness: yet in Genesis 12 we see he had some doubts, but God took him at the best, and so records this of his faith. So we see that Sarah is spoken of as a gracious woman, and a pattern for women in calling her husband Lord, which was a sign of a humble heart; but yet we read that she derided the message of the Lord by the Angel; yet notwithstanding the Lord buries that, and only mentions the other in the commendations of her. Now as the Lord deals with his servants, so must we deal with ourselves, whatever is found sincere and upright, observe that as well as the other, or rather before the other. If a man should have his cause handled in any court after this fashion, and they should only observe the failings in his cause, the best cause may perhaps go against a man, therefore the court will hear all read; as if any bond or bill come in, or any matter of agreement, they will hear all: if a man have an indenture, and the lawyer only opens and reads the failings in it, and that which seems to make against the party, if the judge only hear that, it must needs go against him, and therefore the man says, Good my Lord hear all: and when they find it written that such a debt is paid, and the party satisfied, then the cause goes well; whereas if they had heard only the first part, and not the second, he had lost all. So, many bring in great indictments against themselves, and say, Oh what pride and stubbornness is in my heart, oh how weak am I, and dull, and dead, and backward to holy duties? How careless of enjoying communion with God? How negligent in sifting and trying my own heart, in watching over my senses, and mourning in secret for my daily failings? It is true; but are you not troubled with these, and is it not the greatest grief of your soul that lies upon you? Indeed, says the poor soul, I confess my heart is weary of these, and I could be content to be anything, that I could not be thus: now take your soul on this side, and hear the best part: as it is with a man's hand and the staff, I compare the promise to a staff, you know the back of a man's hand cannot take hold of the staff, but let him turn the palm of his hand to the staff, and then he can take it: so turn the right side of your soul to the promise, and then you may take it; but we turn the back-side of our hearts to the promise, when the soul says, Oh my stubbornness is great, and my inabilities and corruptions are many; this is the wrong side of your heart, and this will ever hinder you from taking hold of the promise: but your soul hates these, and is weary of them; this is the right side of the heart, turn that to the promise.

Secondly, labor to have your conscience settled and established in that truth which now out of the Word you have gotten, to bear witness of the work of grace in you; for if there be any want of the assurance of God's love, and if the evidence of the work of grace does not come powerfully in upon your heart, but there is some guilt of sin still remaining, then conscience will breed new broils, and continually nip and disquiet the heart; therefore as we must have our judgment informed by the Word that there is some good in us, so we must get conscience persuaded of it, that conscience may speak for us: as the debtor, if he be indebted to many creditors, he must agree with all; for if he agree with all save one, that one may imprison him as well as all the rest: so it is with the poor distressed soul that lies at the mercy of the Lord, and is so deep in arrears that he cannot help himself, he must labor to still conscience, that it does not accuse him, but be on his side.

The want of this is the cause why new suits and new bills are daily put up against us, only because conscience is not pacified; take a poor sinner that has all his doubts and objections answered, come to him, and say, Are all these all your doubts and objections? Yes: and are they all answered? Yes: and have you now anything to say against that which has been made known to you? No not now: say to him again, Did your conscience say to you, it is a sin to say you have no grace? Now here he demurs and stays, and says, No I dare not say so, but I rather say the contrary. Mark this, all the books are crossed, and all objections answered, and yet conscience puts in a new plea, because it was not satisfied.

Now come to him again, and say, You are sometimes captivated by sin, but you are willing to be at God's disposing, and that he should pluck away all those corruptions, are you not?

Oh says the poor sinner, I must needs yield to that; then I affirm to your soul this is a work of true grace: therefore let conscience be fully satisfied, and cancel all self-accusations; this will clear the heart, and cast out all cavil [illegible] [2 pages missing] love was made sure to us.

Thirdly, we should strive mightily to have our hearts overpowered with the evidence which reason and conscience makes good to us, that so we may quietly receive it, and calmly welcome it, and yield and subject our hearts to the truth. But here we all stick, for there are three things in the soul of a man which maintain these quarrels and oppositions against the evidence of the Word: 1. Reason objects: 2. Conscience accuses: 3. The Will of man will not submit: and we find it in experience that when a man has stilled conscience, and answered all reasons, yet the stubbornness of the heart maintains a gainsaying against the truth, and keeps the old quarrel that has been answered long ago, and that a man would think had been buried long since. It is in this case with a poor sinner, as it is with a man that has a contentious adversary; perhaps the cause that they two have in hand has been tried in all the Courts of England, and at last comes to Chancery, and there it is concluded against him, so that all things are settled and ended, as a man would think, and an honest man would sit down and be quiet: but the other being a quarrelsome fellow will not yield yet, but to the old law he will again, and he will sell all he has but he will have his will; till at the last the Judge comes to take notice of this man, and casts out the cause, and puts him in prison, and says, These things were all answered, and the cause ended long ago.

Just so for all the world is it with the heart of a gracious man that is humbled in some measure, and could be content to yield to the credit of God's word, and to the witness of his conscience, and says My condition is better than I thought it was, but there is an old proud self-willed heart that will not be quiet, but still is quarrelsome, and maintains the old quarrel; Though reasons are all confuted, and conscience bears witness against him, and every Minister casts out the cause; yet observe it, a poor distressed sinner will keep the old objections, and though they were answered the night before, yet he will have them fresh the next morning, and the next month, even when a man would think he should not dare to come in Court; and the mischief lies even here, in a proud self-willed heart that will not yield. Therefore labor to get your heart so far overpowered with the authority of the truth, whatever it is that God reveals to you for your good, and do not reject the evidence which God makes known and passes upon your soul for your everlasting welfare, do not (I say) reject it: and because you have not that comfort that you would, therefore you will have none at all: it is not properly because you cannot, but because you will not receive the promise, that so wracks and torments your spirit: this is it which breeds the quarrel: and hence it is that when reason is satisfied, and conscience convinced, ask the soul this question, and say, Are you persuaded that the Lord has done you good, and will show everlasting mercy to your soul? No (says he) all the world shall not persuade me of that; Ministers are merciful, and Christians are charitable, and are loath to discourage me, as I should do to them, but did they know me indeed they would never think thus of me, certainly I shall never find it so: What, I grace? All the world shall never persuade me to it. Mark what I say, this is merely your pride and self-willfulness that will not receive that good which God is willing to give you; this hellish and devilish pride of yours will cost you dearly one day.

Objection. But will some say, How is it pride? We are ever complaining and condemning ourselves, this cannot be pride.

Answer. Indeed I say it is abominable pride, against the Majesty of heaven; and that, I will show these two ways: First, for a man to follow his own conceits and self-willfulness against the truth, and the force of reason, and the witness of the servants of God, and his own conscience, is not this pride?

Secondly, your pride appears in this, namely, because you have not what you would, and in that manner and measure you desire, and have not that sweetness of grace and conquest over corruption that you would have, therefore you fling away all God's kindness; this is infinite pride: That measure of mercy which God has already showed your soul is incomprehensible, and yet because you cannot have what you would, you will have nothing at all. As a man that has the Law on his side, and his estate settled on him, yet because his evidences are not written in great huge letters, and in large paper, he throws them all away: so you have no grace, because you have not so much as you would have; you have no humility, because you have not so much humility: Oh pride, pride, in the highest degree.

Labor therefore to bring your heart to this blessed subjection to the truth of God, and make it your duty as well to receive comfort when God offers it upon good grounds, as to do a duty commanded, and know that it is a sin to reject mercy when God offers it, as to kill a man which God has forbidden; and therefore you Saints of God that have been pestered thus, and have been enemies to yourselves, when your hearts begin to slide away thus, take your hearts and reason thus with your souls, and say, Good Lord, this is the proud stubborn distemper of this vile heart of mine; what would I have? Is not God's word clear, and my conscience satisfied? Do not the Ministers of God affirm my state to be good? And shall I thus dishonor God?

Objection. But what says the poor soul again, Must I eat my own words, and say I have grace, when before I said I had none?

Answer. Yes, and be thankful to God that you may say so too; it is better for you to cross your own humors, than cross God's Spirit: take notice of it, and fear for ever, lest that proud and stubborn soul of yours, which now refuses consolation when God offers it, be forced to eat your flesh, and come upon your knees, and never get comfort to your dying day; and though God save you in the end, yet you shall be as it were in hell upon earth.

One would have thought it had been humility in Peter to refuse to let Christ wash his feet, but it was nothing but pride, and therefore Christ takes him up for it sharply (which is indeed the only way to cure this distemper): "If I do not wash you, you have no part in me" (John 13:8-9): if you will needs have your own humors, and will not be persuaded, you may get you down to hell with them. Peter paused with himself a while, but at last when his stomach came down, then, Lord, not only my feet, but my hands and heart and all. It is humility of heart to take what God offers. Most Christians think they are humble-hearted, but they are so far proud, as they give leave to this distemper: therefore labor to overmaster this gainsaying heart of yours, with the authority of the word of God, and learn to receive mercy when God offers it, lest he take away the comfort of his Spirit from you, and make you go howling and roaring to your graves. Though he bring you to heaven in the end, yet you may have a hell before you come there.

The last rule is this: Maintain the good word which your heart has submitted to, and keep it as the best treasure under heaven; and when you have obtained certain evidence that your estate is good, hear nothing against it, but stick fast to the same, regard nothing but out of the word of God, against that comfort and evidence of your salvation, which you have been persuaded of by the word; if Satan or carnal reason have anything to say against you, let them bring Scripture, and then yield to it, but without the word hear nothing. Look as it is with a man that is at law for lands, if he have his adversary on the hip, and have gotten some advantage against him, he will keep him there, and hold him to the point. If a man will follow every wrangling lawyer at every impertinent out-straying, he will never have any good success; it is the fashion of many attorneys rather to breed quarrels, than to end them; and therefore hold to the main point. Deal with Satan as with a subtle adversary that is full of wiles and fetches. It is the cunning of the enemy to lead you out, and he will have many vagaries, but be sure to hold to that truth which you have received from the evidence of the word, and the witness of conscience. When a man has gotten some comfort, then the devil begins to play the lawyer in this manner.

Satan: Do you not see how weak and poor you are? how destitute of all saving grace, and how contrary you walk to God?