Christ; whereof perhaps the Apostle, 1 Thess. i. 4. Knowing, beloved, that ye are the elect of God; and the Psalmist, Blessed is he, whom thou choosest and causest to dwell in thy courts, Psaim ixv. 5; for, notwithstanding this noble and happy privilege, little would it avail us to be sure of this, and no more: no profession, no dignity can secure us from being perfectly miserable, but an eternal election to gory; whereof St. Paul, Eph. i. 4. God hath chosen us in Christ, before the foundations of the world, that we might be holy and blameless before him in love; and, to his Colossians, As the elec of God, holy and beloved; such as, to whom saving faith is approprated, the style whereof is Fidus eleciorum, the jaith of the elect; Tatus

i. 1.

Such then is our Calling, and Election.

Now this calling, this election, must be MADE SURE or FIRM, as the word Bebaía signifies: sure and firm; not on God's part, who, we know, is unchangeable in his nature, in his counse's; so as, in that regard, our election, if it be at all, is most sure, and surer cannot be but on ours; not only in respect of the object, which is the truth and immutability of the thing itself; but n respect of the subject too, the soul that apprehends it: so sure, that it cannot be falsified; cannot be disappointed.

It is not for us to expect such a certainty of knowledge in this point, as there is of principles of arts; or of those things, whereof common sense assures us. Our schoolmen make distinction of a certainty, evident and inevident.

Evident, which ariseth out of the clearness of the object itself, and the necessary connection of the terms; as, that the whole is greater than a part.

Inevident, which arises not so much out of the intrinsical truth of the proposition itself, as out of the veracity and infallibleness of the party that affirms it. So both divine and human faith receive their assurance from the divine or human authority, whereon it is grounded: and this inevident assurance may be so certain, as to expel all prevailing doubt, though not all troubling doubt. Neither need there any other for the Articles of our Creed, which we take upon the infallible trust of Him, who is the truth itself; and can no more deceive us than not be.

This latter is the certainty, which we must labour to attain unto. In the grant whereof, our Romish Divines are generally too straitlaced; yielding yet a theological certainty, which goes far, but not home: although some of them are more liberal; as Catharinus, Vega, Ruardus, Tapperus, and Pererius following them, which grant that some holy men, out of the feeling and experience of the power of God's Spirit in them, may, without any special revelation, grow to a great height of assurance; if not so as that they may swear they are assured of this happy estate of grace, yet so as that they may be as confident of it as that there is a Rome or a Constantinople, which one would think were enough: but the rest are commonly too sparing, in the inching out of the possibility of our assurance by nice distinctions.

Cardinal Bellarmin makes six kinds or degrees of certainty; whereof three are clear, three obscure.

The three first are the certainty of understanding, the certainty of knowledge, the certainty of experience. The first of them is of plain principles, which, upon mere hearing, are yielded to be most true, without any traverse of thoughts: the second, is of conclusions, evidently deduced from those principles: the third, is of the matters of sense, about which the eye or ear is not deceived.

The three latter certainties, which are more obscure, are those of faith, or belief, and the degrees thereof. The first whereof is the certainty of the catholic or divine faith, which, depending upon God's authority, cannot deceive us: the second, is the certainty of human faith; so depending upon man's authority, and in such matters, as shut out all fear of falsehood or disappointment in believing them; as that there was an Augustus Cæsar, a Rome, a Jerusalem: the third, is the certainty of a well grounded conceit, which he pleaseth to call conjectural; raised upon such undoubted signs and proofs, as may make a man secure of what he holdeth; and excludes all anxiety, yet cannot utterly free him from all fear.

This last he can be content to yield us; and indeed, in his stating, the question stands only upon the denial of the certainty of a divine faith, in this great affair. We are ready to take what he gives. So as then, here may be a certainty in the heart of a regenerate man, of his calling and election; and such a one as shall render him holily secure, and free from anxiety. Let the distinguisher weary himself with the thoughts of reconciling certitude with conjectures; security, with fear: let us have the security, and let him take the fear to himself.

Shortly then, while the Schools make much ado of what kind of certainty this must be taken, whether of faith, or of hope, or of confidence; surely, if it be such a hope and confidence as makes not ashamed by disappointing us, both are equally safe. It is enough, if it be such a fiducial persuasion, as cannot deceive us, nor be liable to falsehood.

But how far then reaches this assecuration?

So far as to exclude all fears, all doubting and hesitation? Neither of these.

Not all kind of Fear; for we are bidden to work out our salvation with fear and trembling; Phil. ii. 12, and to spend the time of our pilgrimage in fear; 1 Pet. i. 17.

Not Doubting; which the Council of Trent would seem to cast upon our opinion. We cannot be so senseless, as not, in the conscience of our infirmities and manifold indispositions, to find ourselves put to many plunges: but yet so, as that, by the power of our faith, which is the victory that overcomes the world, at last we do happily recover; and find ourselves freed, by a comfortable and joyful eluctation. If any man could be so fond as to think, we stand so sure, that we shall never shake or move, he grossly misconceives our condition; but if so sure, that we shall never be

turned up by the roots, never removed, after we are fast planted and grounded in the house of God, he takes us aright. This is a certainty, that we may, that we must, labour to aspire unto. Commovetur fides, non excutitur; as Chamier well. We must, therefore, give all diligence, to make this effectual calling, this eternal election thus sure unto us.

Mark in what order: first, our calling; then, our election: not beginning with our election first. It were as bold, as absurd a presumption in vain men, first to begin at heaven, and from thence to descend to earth. The angels of God upon Jacob's ladder both ascended and descended; but, surely, we must ascend only from earth to heaven; by our calling, arguing our election. If we consider of God's working and proceeding with us, it is one thing: there, he first foreknows us, and predestinates us; then, he calls us, and justifies us; then, he glorifies us; Rom. viii. 29, 30. If we consider the order of our apprehending the state, wherein we stand with God; there, we are first called, then justified; and thereby come to be assured of our predestination, and glory. Think not, therefore, to climb up into heaven; and there to read your names in the book of God's eternal decree; and thereupon to build the certainty of your calling, believing, persevering: this course is presumptuously preposterous: but, by the truth of your effectual calling and true believing, grow up, at last, towards a comfortable assurance of your election; which is the just method of our Apostle here, Make your calling and election sure.

Mark, then, the just connexion of these two: if, the calling; then, the election: one of these doth necessarily imply the other. Many thousands are outwardly called, who yet have no right in God's eternal election: here is as much difference, as between many and few. But, where the heart is effectually called home to God, by a true and lively faith applying the promises of God, and laying effectual hold of Christ, there is certainly an election.

Doubtless, there is much deceit and misprision in the world, this way. Every faith makes not an effectual calling. There is a górnaiços, a temporary, there is an infirm, there is a counterfeit faith, Many a one thinks he hath the true David; when it is but an image stuffed with goats' hair. We know how deceitful man's heart is; and how cunning Satan is, to gull us with vain shews, that he may hold us off from true and solid comforts.

But if there be false faith, we know there are true ones: yea, there could not be false, if there were not a true one. So much more must be our diligence, to make sure work for our faith; and, by that, for our calling; which, ascertained, will evince our elec tion: as men, when they hear there are many counterfeit slips and much washed and clipped coin abroad, are the more careful to turn over and examine every piece that passeth through their hands. So then, those, whom God hath thus joined, neither man nor devil can put asunder; our calling, and election.

Three heads then offer themselves here to our present discourse. 1. That OUR CALLING AND ELECTION MAY BE MADE sure. 2. That

H

WE MUST ENDEAVOUR TO MAKE THEM SURE. 3. HOW AND BY WHAT MEANS, we may and must endeavour to assure them.

I. As for the FIRST of these, the very charge and command itself implies it. The justice of God doth not use to require impossibie things from us: when, therefore, he bids us give diligence to do it, what doth it imply, but that by diligence it may be done? What will our diligence do, in a business, that cannot be done? Should a man be bidden to take care that he fly well, or walk steadily on his head, this would justly sound as a mockery; because he knows they are not feasible: but, when he is bidden to walk circumspectly, and to take heed to his feet, it presupposeth our ability, and requireth our will to perform it: and so doth this precept here.

Men are apt to employ their wits to their own d'sadvantage. The Romish Doctors have been of late times very busy to cry down the possibility of this certainty: they, and none but they for all Protestants, of what profession soever, disclaim this doctrine: even those our brethren, that follow the school of Arminius, are herein, for the possibility of our present certainty, with and for us: ¿ño Pontificiam, they are their own words, nos seriò dammamus et aversamur; "This Popish doubtfulness and irresolution we hate and condemn, &c." So as only the Pontifician Divines are, in this point, opposite to us all. And not all of them neither: Catherinus is for us, and some others come close to us. But the stream of them runs the wrong way; teaching, that we may hope well, and give good conjectures, and attain perhaps to a moral certitude of our present acceptation and future blessedness: but that no assurance can be had hereof, nor none ought to be affected without a special revelation; as their St. Anthony, St. Francis, St. Galla, and some few others have had: the contrary whereof their Estius dare censure, for perdita et perditrix hæresis. Why will wise men affect to be thus much their own enemies? Is not salvation the best of good things? Should not a man rather incline to wish himself well? What pleasure then can it be for a man, to stand in his own light; and to be niggardly to himself, where God hath been bountiful? to stave himself off from that comfortable certainty, which God hath left in his possibility to make good to his own soul?

Let us, then, a little enquire into the feasibleness of this great improvement of our holy and Christian diligence. And, certainly, if there be any let in the possibility of this assurance, it must be

* 'Enox, Pontificiam nos seriò damnamus et aversamur; et toto cœlo errant, qui hanc cum isto dogmate confundunt. Alia est istæc perpetua dubitatio sive fluctuatio; quâ statuunt Pontificii, neminem in hac vita certitudine fidei certum esse posse se gratiam apud Deum adeptum esse. Quid hoc ad præsentem quæstionem? Quis nostrúm hanc Pontificiorum sententiam unquam approbavit ? Imo, ut huic calumniæ maturè obviam iremus, in propositione sententiæ nostræ, circa quintum articulum, exsertè professi sumus, thesi 7. Verè fidelem, ut pro tempore præsente, de fidei et conscientiæ suæ integritate certum esse posse; ita, et de sua salute, et salutiferá Dei erga ipsum benevolentiá, pro illo tempore cer▾ tum esse posse ac debere; addentes insuper, Pontificiam sententium nos hic im◄ probare. Remonstr. Defens. 51. Articuli. p. 338.

either in our Present Faith, or in the Perpetuation of it; for, in the connexion of a lively faith with saivation, it cannot be. That he, who Effectually Believes and Perseveres to the End, shall be saved, no man, no devil can deny. all the doubt is, whether the man can Know that he Doth thus believe; that he shall Continue so to believe. And why should there be any doubt in either of these?

1. I am sure, for the FIRST, the Chosen Vessel could say, I know whom I have believed; 2 Tim. i. 12. and speaks this, not as an extraordinary person, an Apostle, but as a Christian; therein affirming, both the act of his faith, and the object of it, and his knowledge of both: for, while he saith, I know whom I have believed, he doth in effect say, "I know that I have believed, and I know what I have believed: God, my Almighty Saviour, is the object of my faith: my faith layeth sure hold on this object; and I know that my faith lays undoubted hold on this happy object: I know whom I have believed."

And why should not we labour to say so too? Some things, the Apostle did, as a singular favourite of heaven: of this kind, were his raptures and visions: these we may not aspire to imitate. Other things, he did as a holy man, as a faithful Christian: these must we propose for our examples.

And, indeed, why should not a man know he believes? What is there in faith, even as we define it; but knowledge, assent, application, affiance, receiving of Christ? and which of these is there, that we cannot know? Surely, there is power in the soul, to exercise these reflex actions upon itself. As it can know things, contrary to the fanatic sceptic; so it can know that it knows. These inward acts of knowledge and understanding are to the mind, no other, than the acts of our sensitive powers are unto our senses; and a like certain judgment passeth upon both: as, therefore, I can know that I hear, or that I see, or touch; so can I no less surely know, that I do know, or understand.

And the object doth no whit alter the certainty of the act: while a divine truth goes upon no less evidence and assurance, why may not a man as well know that he knows a divine truth, as a human?

The like is to be said of those other specialties, which are required to our faith. Our faith assents to the truth of God's promises: what should hinder the heart from knowing that it doth assent? Do not I know, whether I believe a man on his word? why should I not know the same of God? When an honest man hath, by his promises, engaged himself to me to do me a good turn, do not I know, whether I trust to him; whether I make use of that favour, in a confident reliance upon the performance of it? The case is the same betwixt God and us: only, we may be so much the more infallibly assured of the promised mercies of our God, by how much we do more know his unfailingness, his unchangeableness.

Yea, so feasible is this knowledge, as that our Apostle chargeth his Corinthians home in this point; 2. Cor. xiii. 5. Prove yourselves, whether ye be in the faith. Try yourselves: know ye not your own