Book II
Offaith of assurance. That all justifying faith is not assurance of our per sonal interest in Christ. That yet assurance of salvation may be obtained. How assurance is caused by three witnesses in heaven, and three on earth, and of the difference of their testimony. The discoveries and manifestations which Christ makes of himself to the soul. Of joy in the Holy Ghost.
Directions unto the faith of such who want assurance how to take in, and to make use of God s eternal, electing love, in believing with comfort.
CHAPTER I.
That justifying faith is not assurance of our personal interest in Christ, though
it be an assurance of the truth of the promise.
He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the So?i hath not life. 1 JOHN. V. 12.
THE first conclusion we will begin with and premise as a foundation to what follows, is, that that act of faith which justifies a sinner, is distinct from knowing he hath eternal life, and may therefore be without it, because
it doth not necessarily contain prevailing assurance in it. By prevailing assurance, I mean such an assurance as overpowereth doubts and sense to
the contrary, so as, in the believer s knowledge, he is able to say, Christ is
mine, and my sins are forgiven ; such an assurance whereby a man is a
conqueror, as Paul speaks, Rom. viii. 37, when he expresseth such strong assurance. And this I first lay down, not only for more clear and orderly proceeding in this point, but also thereby to allay the cavils and exceptions which men have against the doctrine of assurance. When it is affirmed
that none are in the estate of grace, and true believers, but only those who
are, or have been, undoubtedly assured, by an overpowering light of the
Spirit in their own sense, that Christ is theirs, and that their sins are for
given them ; when it is asserted, that then, and not till then, they did
begin to believe, by such an assertion the generation of many just ones ia
condemned, whose faith, either through weakness, never came to such a
growth of persuasion, or through temptations and prevalence of fears and doubts are interrupted in it, who yet cleave to Christ with full purpose of
heart, and walk obediently towards him in all their ways. And, indeed, if
that were the meaning when assurance is spoken for, that it were made the
essential act of faith whereby a believer is justified, there were just cause
for many and great exceptions. And yet my scope further herein is, not
to encourage any to rest in such a faith, without such assurance, and con
tent themselves with it, as many do, making a bad use of such a doctrine, and so neglect seeking for a further work of assurance to be superadded. No, the next conclusions shall manifest the contrary ; but the intent of this
CHAP. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 839
present conclusion is, to keep such as have their hearts drawn to Christ, and upheld to believe, though without such prevailing assurance, from such
discouraging thoughts, as therefore to think their estates accursed, and that
they cannot be in the estate of grace, because they want such a work; for
if faith be without it, then such souls that do entertain such thoughts do entertain an untruth, and that against their own souls, and the work of God in them, and make him a liar. And also my end is to keep off those that have assurance superadded to faith, from censuring the present condition of many of their brethren, as if they were without grace, because they want such assurance.
First, I will therefore first prove, that true faith may bo without such assurance.
1. Because justification and blessedness hath been pronounced to such a condition as hath wanted this assurance, and this by Christ himself, who
is to judge at the latter day who are in the estate of grace and who are not. Thus, Mat. v. 3, in the first sermon, whereof we have the notes, of blessed
persons recorded, he pronounceth a blessedness to, the poor in spirit, to the meek, to those that mourn, to those that hunger and thirst after right eousness, all which estates want assurance. Now Christ s scope was not
to draw those in which such dispositions were, to begin now to believe, for that were to found faith upon conditions ; but his scope is to shew that such have true faith begun. Poverty of spirit is when they apprehend themselves poor and empty, it is not being spiritually poor, for then they could not be pronounced blessed, but an apprehension of their condition, as such (opposite to the apprehension the church of Laodicea had of them
selves, who thought themselves rich, and that they had need of nothing), and so implies want of assurance. So mourning under the sense of their
sin and misery implies wanting comfort, as the promise that they shall be comforted implies, which comfort assurance brings always with it, and is indeed the thing promised to these, afterwards to be given them. So
hungering after righteousness implies emptiness, and the thing promised is
fulness, so as all these want assurance, and all these Christ pronounceth blessed, and none are, or can be called blessed, but such whose sins are at the present forgiven ; as Paul after him defines the blessedness the Scrip ture speaks of to consist in this : Kom, iv. 6, 7, David describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness ; he gives a description, a definition of it, that it lies in this,
* Blessed are those whose
iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. If blessedness then lies
herein, then surely the estate of those persons was such as their sins were
forgiven, and yet they wanted assurance, and yet not faith, for a man is
* To him that believeth on him that
justified only thereby : Bom. iv. 5,
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Therefore, these that were poor [in] spirit, that mourned, that hungered and thirsted
after righteousness, had faith lay at the bottom, as is necessarily to be
supposed ; for a man never comes to be truly poor in spirit, till ha
sees the riches that are in Christ and in free grace ; for it is Christ s
fulness, and the sight of it, that empties a man, more than all the legal
sight of his insufficiency and misery, and yet the believer in the sight of
all this fulness still thinks himself therefore deeply poor (wanting assur
ance), for though he admires that there should be such riches, yet he hath no share in them in his sense yet, and no power to lay hold on them. Faith in its first act discovers at once with one eye a man to be poor and
ungodly, and with the other looks up to Christ s riches, and to him that
justifies the ungodly, Bom. iv. 5. So hungering and thirsting after Christ s
340 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [?AET II. BOOK II.
righteousness (to instance in no more) doth imply faith as the bottom of
it ; for none can so hunger truly, but he that sees the true worth and
preciousness of Christ. Unto them that believe only Christ is precious, 1 Peter ii. 2 ; and Christ is precious not out of self-love only, but out of an
apprehension of the suitableness and fitness of all that is in him for them, for
true hunger also implies that. What makes the stomach hunger after things but suitableness ? Thus the soul hath an instinct to Christ as its meat and nourishment, and that supposeth faith also, though assurance be the
eating of him with comfort and filling contentment ; and as hunger goes afore eating, so faith goes afore assurance. Now if such souls Christ pro nounced blessed here, surely if they should die in this condition, at the
* Come, ye blessed, also. Neither is their blessedness pronounced to a future
latter day he would not go back from his word, but he would say,
condition to come, which these dispositions made way for, for, besides what is before said, Christ in the very words tells us, he speaks it of their
* theirs is the kingdom of God. This he spake to such as John s ministry had converted, and that truly, who (as it is in Acts xix. 4) did teach the people not humiliation only, but faith also,
present condition,
saying to the people, that they should believe on Jesus Christ. And Christ he comes after to preach assurance to such, and to tell them that
their sins were forgiven them. As a farther confirmation, I will add to
this an instance or two.
(1.) Let us look on the poor publican, and let us consider his estate, which Christ there approves, and we shall find it to have faith in it, and
yet not assurance, Luke xviii. The Pharisee he had an assurance that his
estate was good, built upon himself; for, ver. 9, Christ s scope was to
discover their presumption that trusted in themselves that they were
righteous, and to this end tells them of a poor publican that indeed comes
into God s presence, but it is at a distance : he stood afar off. Had he had assurance, it would have encouraged him to have drawn near with boldness : Heb. x. 22,
* Let us draw near with full assurance of faith.
But, on the contrary, he was so much cast down with shame, that he could not lift up his eyes to heaven, and yet he lifts up an eye of faith: Lord, be merciful to me a sinner. He flies out of himself, and hath recourse to God s mercy, which, by all his carriage, and the opposition made, he had no assurance of. The presumptuous Pharisee could do nothing but give thanks, his assurance was so great. This man in an humble prayer begs that mercy that he yet wanted in his own sense, and yet Christ pronounceth the state of this man justified : ver. 14,
* I tell you, saith Christ (and I
promise you I will believe him), that this man went to his house justified, rather than the other. He was then certainly justified, and therefore out of his example he makes this promise to such as are truly in his condition, that they shall be exalted, in the same verse.
(2.) That also of the woman of Canaan, to whom Christ wouLd give no outward word of encouragement, who yet had true faith, which Christ
extraordinarily commends, Mat. xv. 22-26.
Besides these instances, I will give you demonstrations of it, and then the reasons and grounds of it. K (1.) The first demonstration is drawn from the state of desertion, where
in a true believer may want assurance, when yet he continues to believe ; for the just live by faith, Hab. ii. 4. Therefore as when the heart ceaseth beating the man dies for it, so when faith ceaseth exercising itself the believer would die. And again, that which is a true act of faith to
continue our union with Christ, may be a true act to begin that union.
CHAP. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 841
Now, it is not assurance continues our union and being in the estate of
grace, therefore it doth not necessarily begin it. And now then if in the
course of a Christian s life he be brought to live by faith without assurance, then much more may he begin to live by it, for at the beginning it may be
supposed weakest ; as a man that hath had experience he hath lived may be brought into a swoon, when he doth not perceive himself to live, or
into a frenzy, so as he doth think himself dead, and to live amongst
ghosts, as some have done, so much more may a child that is in the womb live and not know it. Thus Heman likewise, as to his spiritual state thought himself (through a frenzy) a man dead, and to be free
among the dead, and to be one whom God had cut off, and remembered no more, Ps. Ixxxviii. 5, and from whom God did not only hide his face in
regard of the light of his countenance (which some have said is the only desertion can befall a Christian in which he retains his assurance, and
doubts not but that God still is his God though he hides his face), but had
cast him off, verse 14, he says he was one cut off by his hand. And yet when Heman had such desperate thoughts prevailing over assurance, he had faith, and expresseth it in verse 1 :
* Lord God of my salvation, I have cried night and day afore thee. Mark it, and you will find that it is
just the voice of faith wanting assurance: he cannot call him his God; he
* My God, my God, as Christ could, when he wanted the light of God s countenance, assurance of faith remaining in him when the com
says not,
fort of faith was wanting, but yet Heman doth look up to God as the God of his salvation ; that is, as that God who must save him, and in whom his salvation, if ever he be saved, lies; from whom he looks for
salvation, and to whom he hath recourse for it, though he could not say, God is my salvation. Yea, and thus it had been with him from his youth, verse 15, either he had once assurance, and now had lost it, or from his
youth and first beginning had ever wanted it. And if it was either of the
two, the argument holds good to prove faith not to be assurance, for
still he hath recourse to God by faith in prayer, and so had faith in his
heart, when yet he was under terrors and apprehensions of God s casting him off. Why should I instance in Job, David, Jonah, and many more ?
I will only give that direction in Isaiah 1. 10. The prophet having in the
* It is God
verses immediately afore expressed that triumphing assurance,
that justifies me, who shall condemn? now, saith he, if a soul that fears God wants such a light as comfortably enableth his soul to say so, yet let him trust in the name of the Lord. You see then that he might exercise
faith in that condition. And to say the case of this man the prophet speaks of was not a state of justification, is a gross absurdity, for the prophet calls God his God; though the dejected soul could not say so, yet the prophet
says so for him.
As for those that will say, that faith is a triumphing, a prevailing assur
ance, I would refer them but to ten or twenty years experience, which may (if they be not the more wary) lamentably confute them ; foi\they may fall into this darkness as well as Job did, and then if they do so, what
is the faith they live by ? It is that of Heman s, a casting themselves
upon the God of their salvation, a cleaving to him; it is that of the church
< The Lord is my portion, says my soul,
in the like distress: Lam. iii. 24,
therefore will I hope in him. God did not aloud say to her soul that he was her God, but he enabled her soul to say that he was her portion ; that
is, to pitch on him, and choose him, and rest in him, and betake herself to him,
as all the good and portion she ever looked for, which act of recumbency
afforded hope as the consequent of it. Faith notes out a betaking a man s self
342 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK II.
to God, a choice of him as a man s portion, as one all the good I look for
lies in, and therefore I will hope in him, for help is to be had only in him, and from him, and I will do anything that there may be hope for me. Now if sometimes those who have assurance are brought to this faith, then
surely it is good faith ; and if it be good faith after assurance, then it may be so before ; and yet to this, one that hath had assurance may be
brought.
(2.) That there may be true faith without assurance is evident from this, that if doubting be a corruption, as you will easily grant it is, then as all other corruptions may prevail against the spirit and other graces, so may doubting prevail against assurance of faith, and there is no more privilege of freedom promised from the one than the other. If David may fall into a gross sin, and murder and adultery may prevail, I know not but that
doubting may prevail too. For believers are perfectly freed from the pre
vailing of no sin but that against the Holy Ghost ; and if the power of sin may prevail against grace in other faculties, I know not but the guilt of sin may prevail against assurance in the conscience also. And further, I am
sure that though the Holy Ghost, the witness, be God, yet the light he witnesseth by is but a creature, a beam, a voice, a saying to a man s soul,
* Thy sins are forgiven ; and therefore, as other prevailing workings may be interrupted, so may that also, and then what faith have men recourse
unto, but such as is a casting a man s self on free grace, that faith which stood them in stead at first ? It is not the remembrance of his former assurance will uphold a man, for he may grow blind, and forget he was
purged from his old sins, 2 Pet. i. 9. He speaks of assurance in that and the following verses. Assurance depends on strict and holy walking, and
so may be interrupted by our remissness and negligence.
(3.) That true faith may be where prevailing assurance is not, appears by this, that the sense of belief of general principles and foundations of
faith may be over-clouded and prevailed against by temptations to the
contrary, and by the atheism of a man s heart, so that a poor believer shall
say, I doubt whether there be a God or no, whether the Scriptures be true or no ; I cannot find I believe the truth of the promises. Thus the natural atheism of the heart may overflow, and seem to conquer this faith that there
is a God, and yet then the soul believes strongly, at the same time, that there is a God ; and it appears in its actions, though not in its sense and
light, for the soul fears this God in all its ways and walks, as believing this
truth. Hence I argue, that if faith in the general may be overpowered in sense and inward light, when yet a man truly believes, then much more may the particular persuasion of a man s being in the estate of grace, which
is but a deduction out of those general principles, be, in a man s sense,
prevailed against by doubting, when yet secretly he doth most truly believe. The apostles, when Christ was dead and crucified, did almost begin to call in question the general principles of faith ; they were much staggered in them, as appears from that speech, Luke xxiv. 21, We trusted, said they,
it had been he should have redeemed Israel, and it is now the third day, when he promised to rise, and yet we see him not. His sufferings staggered their faith, and therefore, ver. 25, he calls them slow of heart to believe what the prophets had written ; and yet then they did secretly believe, and had recourse to the sepulchre, and an eye what should become of him. Thus Thomas also would not believe the resurrection of Christ, a main
article, unless he saw him. Now if the faith in the principles may be in the heart, and yet be prevailed against by doubting, then much more the
particular conclusions derived thence to ourselves, which are at no time so
CHAP. II.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 343
fully assented to as the other ; and yet faith must then be in the heart, for
a man dies else. If the main root and stock may seem dead, much more
the branches and the buds.
(4.) Wicked men are not immediately bound to have assurance, and
therefore it is not the essential act wherein faith consists. They are con
demned, you know, for not believing. Now if the first act of faith com manded were to believe that Christ is mine, and that my sins are forgiven, how could a man in the state of nature be bound to it ? For such an
assurance of Christ being his, is not a truth in the state wherein he stands ; but yet he is every hour bound to come to Christ as the fountain of life, and to cast himself on him for his pardon, and to choose him as that means
appointed by God for remission ; for Christ blames the Pharisees that they did not do so : John v. 40,
* Ye will not come to me, that ye might have
life. Therein, therefore, lies the act of faith which justifies.