The Right Method for a Settled Peace of Conscience, Direction 13
DIRECTION XIII.
13. From the laſt mentioned Obſervation, there is one plain Conſectary ariſing, which I think you may do well to note by the way, viz. That According to Gods ordinary way of giving Grace, it cannot be expected that Chriſtians ſhould be able to know the very time of their firſt receiving or acting true ſaving Grace▪ or juſt when they were Pardoned, Juſtified, Adopted and put into a ſtate of Salvation.
THis muſt needs be undeniable, if you grant the former Point, That the leaſt meaſure of Grace, yieldeth not Aſſurance of its ſincerity (which is proved:) and withall if you grant this plain truth, That it is Gods ordinary way, to give a ſmall meaſure of Grace at the firſt. This I prove thus: 1. Chriſt likeneth Gods Kingdom of Grace to a grain of muſtard ſeed, which is at firſt the leaſt of all ſeeds, but after cometh to a tree: And to a little leaven, which leaveneth the whole lump. I will not deny but this may be applied to the viſible progreſs of the Goſpel and increaſe of the Church: but it is plainly appliable alſo to the Kingdom of Chriſt within us. 2. The Scripture oft calleth ſuch young beginners, Babes, Children, Novices, &c. 3. We are all commanded ſtill to grow in Grace; which implieth that we have our ſmalleſt meaſure at the firſt. 4. Heb. 5.12. ſheweth, that ſtrength of Grace ſhould be according to time and means. 5. Common experience is an invincible argument for this. Men are at a diſtance from Chriſt when he firſt calleth them to come to him: and many ſteps they have Toward him before they reach To him. We are firſt ſo far enlightned as to ſee our ſin and miſery, and the meaning and truth of the Goſpel, and ſo rowſed out of our ſecurity, and made to look about us, and ſee that we have ſouls to ſave or loſe, and that it is no jeſting matter to be a Chriſtian: and ſo we come to underſtand the tenour of the Covenant, and Chriſts termes of ſaving men: But alas how long is it uſually after this, before we come ſincerely to yield to his termes, and take him as he is offered, and Renounce the World, Fleſh and the Devil, and Give up our ſelves to him in a faithfull Covenant! We are long deliberating before we can get our backward hearts to Reſolve. How then ſhould a man know juſt when he was paſt the higheſt ſtep of common or preparative Grace, and arived at the firſt ſtep of ſpecial Grace?
Yet mark, that I here ſpeak only of Gods ordinary way of giving Grace: For I doubt not but in ſome God may give a higher Degree of Grace at the firſt day of their converſion, then ſome others do attain in many years. And thoſe may know the time of their true Converſion, both becauſe the effect was ſo diſcernable, and becauſe the ſuddenneſs makes the change more ſenſible and obſervable.
But this is not the ordinary courſe. Ordinarily Convictions lye long on the ſoul before they come to a true Converſion. Conſcience is wounded, and ſmarting long, and long grudging againſt our ſinfull and negligent courſes, and telling us of the Neceſſity of Chriſt and a holy life, before we ſincerely obey Conſcience, and give up our ſelves to Chriſt. We ſeldom yield to the firſt conviction or perſwaſion. The Fleſh hath uſually too long time given it to plead its own Cauſe; and to ſay to the Soul, Wilt thou forſake all thy pleaſure and merry company and courſes? Wilt thou beggar thy ſelf? or make thy ſelf a ſcorn and mocking ſtock to the world? Art thou ever able to hold out in ſo ſtrict a courſe? and to be undone? and to forſake all and lay down thy life for Chriſt? Is it not better venture thy ſelf in the ſame way as thou haſt gone in, as well as others do, and as ſo many of thy forefathers have done before thee? Under ſuch ſinfull Deliberations as theſe we uſually continue long before we fully Reſolve: And many demurres and delayes we make before we conclude to take Chriſt on the terms that he is offered to us. Now I make no doubt but moſt or many Chriſtians can remember how and when God ſtirred their Conſciences and wakened them from their ſecurity, and made them look about them, and rouſed them out of their natural Lethargy: Some can tell what Sermon firſt did it: Others can remember by what degrees and ſteps God was doing it long: The ordinary way appointed by God for the doing of it firſt, is the inſtruction of Parents: And (as I have fullier manifeſted in my Book of Infant Baptiſm) if Parents would do their duties, they would find, that The Word publikely preached was not appointed to be the firſt ordinary means of Converſion and Sanctification; but commonly, Grace would be received in childhood: I ſpeak not of Baptiſmal Relative Grace, conſiſting in the pardon of Original ſin; nor yet any infuſion of Habits before they have the uſe of reaſon (becauſe I ſuppoſe it is hid from us, what God doth in that.) But I ſpeak of actual Converſion: and I prove that this ſhould be the firſt ordinary way and time of Converſion to the children of true Chriſtians, becauſe it is the firſt means that God hath appointed to be uſed with them. Deut. 6.6, 7, 8. Eph. 6.4. Parents are commanded to teach their children the Law of God, urgently, at home and as they walk abroad, lying down and riſing up; and to bring them up in the admonition and nurture of the Lord: and to train up a child in the way he ſhould go, and then when they are old they will not depart from it, Prov. 22.6. And children are commanded to Remember their Creator in the dayes of their youth, Eccleſ. 12.1. And if this be Gods firſt great means, then doubtleſs he will ordinarily bleſs his own means here, as well as in the Preaching of the Word.
From all this I would have you learn this leſſon: That you ought not to trouble your ſelf with fears and doubts leſt you are not truly Regenerate, becauſe you know not the Sermon or the very time and manner of your Converſion: but finde that you have grace, and then, though you know not juſt the time or manner of your receiving of it, yet you may nevertheleſs be Aſſured of Salvation by it. Search therefore what you are, and how your will is diſpoſed and reſolved, and how your Life is ordered, rather then to know how you became ſuch. I know the workings of the Spirit on the ſoul may be diſcerned, becauſe they ſtir up diſcernable Actings in our own ſpirits. The ſouls Convictions, Conſideration, Reſolutions and Affections are no inſenſible things: But yet the work of Grace uſually begins in common Grace, and ſo proceeds by degrees till it come to ſpecial ſaving Grace, even as the work of nature doth, firſt producing the matter and then introducing the form; firſt producing the embryo, before it introduce a Rational ſoul. And as no child knows the time or manner of his own Formation, Vivification or Reception of that ſoul, ſo I think, few true Believers can ſay, Juſt ſuch a day, or at ſuch a Sermon I became a true Juſtified, ſanctified man. That was the hour of your true Converſion and Juſtification, When you firſt preferred God and Chriſt and Grace before all things in this world, and deliberately and ſeriouſly Reſolved to take Chriſt for your Saviour and Governour, and give up your ſelf to him to be ſaved, taught and governed, and to obey him faithfully to the death againſt all Temptations, whatſoever you ſhould loſe or ſuffer by it. Now I would but ask thoſe very Chriſtians that think they do know the very Sermon that converted them, Did that Sermon bring you to this Reſolution? Or was it not only ſome troubling, rowſing preparation hereto? I think ſome deſperate ſickneſs or the like Affliction is a very uſual means to bring Reſolutions to be downright and fixed, with many ſouls that long delayed and fluctuated in unreſolvedneſs, and lay under meer uneffectual Convictions.
Obj. But this runs on your own grounds, that ſaving Grace and common Grace do differ but in degrees.
Anſw. I think moſt will confeſs that as to the Acts of Grace, and that is it that we are now enquiring after; and that is all the means that we have of diſcerning the Habits: Yet remember that I ſtill tell you, That there is a ſpecifical Moral difference, though grounded but in a gradual Natural difference. Yea and that one grain of the Spirits working, which turns the Will in a prevalent meaſure for Chriſt, (together with the illumination neceſſary thereto) deſerves all thoſe elogies and high titles that are given it in the Word; ſo great a change doth it make in the ſoul! Well may it be called, The New Creature: Born of the Spirit: The Workmanſhip of God: The new Life: yea The Image of God, and The Divine Nature (if that Text be not meant of the Divine Nature in Chriſt which we are Relatively made partakers of in our Union with him.) When you are weighing things in the balance, you may add grain after grain, and it makes no turning or motion at all, till you come to the very laſt grain, and then ſuddenly that end which was downward is turned upward. When you ſtand at a loſs between two highwayes, not knowing which way to go, as long as you are deliberate, you ſtand ſtill: All the Reaſons that come into your minde, do not ſtir you: But the laſt Reaſon which Reſolves you, ſetteth you in motion. So is it in the change of a ſinners heart and life: He is not changed (but preparing towards it) while he is but Deliberating, Whether he ſhould chooſe Chriſt or the world? But the laſt Reaſon that comes in and Determineth his Will to Chriſt, and makes him reſolve and enter a firm Covenant with Chriſt, and ſay, I will have Chriſt for Better or Worſe, this maketh the greateſt change that ever is made by any work in this world. For how can there be greater then the turning of a ſoul from the creature to the Creator? ſo diſtant are the Terms of this change. After this one Turning act Chriſt hath that Heart, and the main bent and endeavours of the life, which the world had before. The man hath a new End, a new Rule and Guide, and a new Maſter. Before the Fleſh and the Devil were his Maſters, and now Chriſt is his Maſter. So that you muſt not think ſo meanly of the Turning, Determining, Reſolving act of Grace, becauſe it lieth but in a gradual difference naturally from common Grace, If a Prince ſhould offer a condemned beggar to marry her, and pardon her, and make her his Queen; Her Deliberation may be the way to her Conſent, and one Reaſon after another may bring her near to conſenting. But it is that which turns her Will to Conſent, Reſolve, Covenant and Deliver her ſelf to him, which makes the great change in her ſtate. Yet all the foregoing Work of common Grace hath a hand in the change, though only the turning Reſolution do effect it: It is the reſt with this that doth it: As when the laſt grain turns the ſcales, the former do concurre. I will conclude with D… Preſtons words in his Golden Scepter, pag. 210. Obj. It ſeems then that the knowledge of a carnal man and of a Regenerate man do differ but in Degrees, and not in kind. Anſ. The want of Degrees here alter the kind. As in Numbers the Addition of a Degree alters the ſpecies and kind. Reade for this alſo D. Jackson of ſaving faith, §. 3. ch. 3. pag. 297, 298. and frequently in other places. So much of that obſervation.