Chap. r 4. 4bosst 4: trance. thou b eliev.ft tkou(halt befaved. Now this is fo farre from Affurance, that the devils them ìelves do thus beleeve, and yet tremble. They will not allow the foul tobreak the theft of a Promife, fo as to come to the kernel ; They allow not faith tà fay; My Lord, andmy God. Thirdly, they deny Perfeverance, and therefore muff needs deny Affu- III. ranee. Yet the íiß ,;ni.:ru would reconcile Affuranceand non -Perfeverance. They allow a man a little brief Affurance for a moment : a brevefu/gur : a little fhi- ning of joy, that only thews it fclfthat it may vanilh : their meaning amounts to thus much : For that moment thatthou art in the (fate ofgrace, thoumayefl be fure of it : but thou can(f nor be lure that the next moment thou £halt be in the fiate ofbrace : and thus they think the grace of God to be as mutable and incontlanr as themfelves are : whereas all Gods children are preferved by the Power of God through faith untofalvation : and many of them can fay with Paul, Ran.. b. ult. I am perfwaded that neither life, nor death, nor An- gel,, fi c: Fourthly, they never had any affurance themfelves, and fo deny it unto o- thers. Thus I he foolfrith in his heart there is no God, becaufehe never. had com- munion with him : A blinde man faith there is noSun, becaufe he bath not eyes to fee ir. A deaf man believes not that there is fuch fweetnetfe in Mu- fick. Upon this account Mr. Baxter denies affurance, becaufe henever met with a- ny, nor can hear by others cf any that have it, except forte melancholy women that pretend to ir, and that for a moment only : But if he reade the life of Mr. Ignatitu Torílan of Exceller, and of Mr. johnBreen of Breen Staplefor i, he shall finde that theynot only had affurance, but maintains l it for manyyeares without interruption : the likehe mayfinde of many others in myfrft Part of Lives : and in my t/ilirreur or Lookjng-glaffe. Ob. But Solomonfaith, Eccl. 7. I. Noman knows love or hatred, therefore no man can be a/ured of hisfalvation ? Anfw. They leave out the latter words, by all that is before him, which the Solomon, meaning to be this, that noman can knowwhether God loves him, or hates him by any outward thing, as by profperity or adverfity, by health or fickneffe, &c. wherein all things fall alike to all, good and bad. Ob. But hefaith again, Prov. 28. 14. Bleffed is the man that fear th always. and if we mull alwayes feare, then we cannot be allured of our falva- tion ? Anfm. Fir(f, we mull diftinguutfh of feare : It iseither filial or fervile : the former is here meant, and fo a childe may fearehis fathers anee», thou . h he fearenot tobe call offby him. This child-like feare aboliiheth not confidence, but confirmes it. Secondly, though wemull feare our felves, and our ownweakneffe, to provoke II . us untowatchfulneffe, yet withal we may feare to offend Godfor his goodnellè, which ftrengthens our confidence. Ob. But Saint Paul atth, Rotn.' II.. 39 Who knowés the minde of the Lord ? or mho was his unfellour? thereforewe cannot know that we fhall be Paved ? Anfw. Firf4, hismeaning is, that we'cannot know the minde of God á Priori, I. before he bath revealedit, but thenwe may : Thus we know cur eleikion by our vocation, 2 `Pet. Lao. Secondly, Or thus : we know not the reafons of manyof Gods ad f, difpenfations, neither are they curiouflytobe fearched into, as Davmid pens rofef- an I feth for himfelf, Pfal. 131. I. But ápofteriori we may, a, the caufe maybe pro- vedby the effeâ, theSun by its beams, the fire by heat, &c. Ob. rz7 IV.
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