Fourthly, Faith is a permanent thing, an immortal seed which never dies, it is built upon the rock of ages, and cannot be moved, it hangs upon an infallible word, the least jot or tittle thereof cannot fall to the ground, it is fed with an everlasting spring, the holy spirit being in the believer as a well of water springing up to eternal life, but assurance is transient; now the believer hath nothing but wine and honeycombs of grace, and a little after he hath a cup of gall and wormwood; now a sheet full of celestial joys and comforts is let down to him, and then all is taken up into heaven again: he is much like Joseph, sometimes in the coat of many colours, in the visible badges of his fathers love, and anon stripped and cast into the pit; like poor Heman, free among the dead, and laid in darkness, he is a spiritual Heliotrope, who is all day in heavenly amours, wheeling and turning about to the light of Gods countenance, and anon, when night approaches, contracts his leaves and hangs down his head, till there be another Sun; it the offence of faith be in assurance, the believer stands, as it were upon a sea of glass, in a very lubricous condition, 'tis well with him whilst ⟨p. 142⟩he hath the light of Gods countenance, whilst Gods spirit bears witness to his, that he is a child of God; but what if God withdraw and retire as it were into his unapproachable light? what if the crannies of the heart be all shut up, so that neither the sunny beams of Gods favour, nor yet the starry graces in the heart can appear? what if the arch-enemy Satan come with those instruments of death, the threatenings, and rake in the old wounds of sin, and join the darkness of temptation to the darkness of corruption in the believer, to cause, if it were possible, utter darkness? must he be an Apostate, a castaway, a man fallen from grace? God forbid. St. Bernard, speaking of the manifestation of Gods love, cries out, Rara hora, brovis mora, O si durâsset! it is a rare hour, but a short stay, Oh that it would continue with me! the believers standing is not in it, but in his union with Christ; this was notably exemplified to us in Christ, when he cried out, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me, Math. 27.46. the hypostatical union was not dissolved, but the present vision subtracted;
Fourthly, Faith is a permanent thing, an immortal seed which never dies, it is built upon the rock of ages, and cannot be moved, it hangs upon an infallible word, the least jot or tittle thereof cannot fall to the ground, it is fed with an everlasting spring, the holy spirit being in the believer as a well of water springing up to eternal life, but assurance is transient; now the believer hath nothing but wine and honycombs of grace, and a little after he hath a cup of gall and wormwood; now a sheet full of celestial joys and comforts is let down to him, and then all is taken up into heaven again: he is much like Joseph, sometimes in the coat of many colours, in the visible badges of his fathers love, and anon stript and cast into the pit; like poor Heman, free among the dead, and laid in darkness, he is a spiritual Heliotrope, who is all day in heavenly amours, wheeling and turning about to the light of Gods countenance, and anon, when night approaches, contracts his leaves and hangs down his head, till there be another Sun; it the effence of faith be in assurance, the believer stands, as it were upon a sea of glass, in a very lubricous condition, 'tis well with him whilest ⟨p. 142⟩he hath the light of Gods countenance, whilest Gods spirit bears witness to his, that he is a child of God; but what if God withdraw and retire as it were into his unapproachable light? what if the crannies of the heart be all shut up, so that neither the sunny beams of Gods favour, nor yet the starry graces in the heart can appear? what if the arch-enemy Satan come with those instruments of death, the threatnings, and rake in the old wounds of sin, and join the darkness of temptation to the darkness of corruption in the believer, to cause, if it were possible, utter darkness? must he be an Apostate, a castaway, a man fallen from grace? God forbid. St. Bernard, speaking of the manifestation of Gods love, cries out, Rara hora, brovis mora, O si durâsset! it is a rare hour, but a short stay, Oh that it would continue with me! the believers standing is not in it, but in his union with Christ; this was notably exemplified to us in Christ, when he cried out, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me, Math. 27.46. the hypostatical union was not dissolved, but the present vision substracted;
