A choice Bed of Spices. 57 The Ninth Maxim or Confideration. NJ Inthly, Confider this, That in divers men there are N divers degrees of Affurance, and in one and the fame gracious Soul, there are different degrees of Affurance at divers times, but there is in no man at any time in this life, perfection of degrees, for our underflanding and knowledg in this Life is irnperfed, both as to the faculty and its ads, I Cor. 13. 12. For now we fee through a glafr darkly (Gr. in a Riddle) bkt then face to face : Now I knol,v in part) brit then fball I know even* as allO I am known. A clear diflinort, immedi- ate, full and perfeet knowledg of God is defirable on earth, but we fluff never attain to it till we come to Heaven, this Well is deep, and for the molt part we want a Bucket to draw withal, the bat ofmen can better tell what God is not, than what he is ; the molt acute and judicious in Divine knowledg, have and muffacknowledg their ignorance, wit- nefs that grear.Apoffie Paid,who learned his Divinity among the Angels, and had the Holy Ghoft for his immediate Tu- tor, yet he confeffes that he krfew but in part ; certainly there is no man ender heaven that hath fuch a perfed, corn- pleat and full affurance of his Salvation (in an ordinary way) as.that one degree cannot be added to the former; Nei- ther is there any repugnancy in afferting an infallible Ail-. rance, and denying a perfed affurance, for I infallibly know that there is a God, and that this God is holy jull and true, and yet I have no perfed knowledg of a Deity, nor of the holinefs juftice and truth of God, for in this -life the moil knowing man knows but in part : Dear friends, in the Church of Chrift there are Believers of feveral growths, there are Fathers, young men, Children and Babes, 1 John J. i 3, 14. I 'Pet. 2. 2. And as in moil families there , are commonly more Children and Babes than grown- men ; fo' in the Church of ` Chrift there are commonly more 'weak flaggering doubting Chriftians than there are ftrong ones, grown up to a full affurance. Some think, that as foon as I they * As, is not a note of equality, but likenefs, fo that the fenfe may be this look as God knoweth me after a man- ner agreeable to his infinite excel- lency, fo fhail I kr oN God accor- ding to my capa- city, not obfcure- ly, but perfatly, as it were face to face.
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