Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties and Roots

We come short, very short, of the blessedness we might enjoy. But depend upon it, there are glorious things in the city of our God, which they who have an assured hope taste, even in their lifetime. There are lengths and breadths of peace and consolation there, which it has not entered into your heart to conceive. There is bread enough and to spare in our Father's house, though many of us certainly eat but little of it, and continue weak. But the fault must not be laid to our Master's charge, it is all our own. And, after all, the weakest child of God has a mine of comforts within him, of which you know nothing. You see the conflicts and tossings of the surface of his heart, but you see not the pearls of great price which are hidden in the depths below. The feeblest member of Christ would not change conditions with you. The believer who possesses the least assurance is far better off than you are. He has a hope, however faint, but you have none at all. He has a portion that will never be taken from him, a savior that will never be taken from him, a savior that will never forsake him, a treasure that fadeth not away, however little he may realize it all at present. But as for you, if you die as you are, your expectations will all perish. O that you were wise! O that you were understanding! O that you would consider your latter end! I feel deeply for you in these latter days of the world, if I ever did. I feel deeply for those whose treasure is all on earth, and whose hopes are all on this side of the grave. Yes, when I see old kingdoms and dynasties shaking to the very foundation, when I see, as we all saw a few years ago, kings and princes and rich men and great men fleeing for their lives, and scarce knowing where to hide their heads, when I see property dependent on public confidence melting like snow in the spring, and public stocks and funds losing their value, when I see these things, I feel deeply for those who have no better portion than this world can give them, and no place in that kingdom which cannot be removed. Footnote. They are doubly miserable that have neither heaven nor earth, temporals nor eternals, made sure to them in changing times. Thomas Brooks. End of footnote. Take advice of a minister of Christ this very day. Seek durable riches, a treasure that cannot be taken from you, a city which hath lasting foundations. Do as the Apostle Paul did. Give yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and seek that incorruptible crown He is ready to bestow. Take His yoke upon you, and learn of Him. Come away from a world which will never really satisfy you, and from sin which will bite like a serpent, if you cleave to it at last. Come to the Lord Jesus as lowly sinners, and He will receive you, pardon you, give you His renewing Spirit, fill you with peace. This shall give you more real comfort than the world has ever done. There is a gulf in your heart which nothing but the peace of Christ can fill. Enter in, and share our privileges. Come with us, and sit down by our side. Number two. Lastly, let me turn to all believers who read these pages, and speak to them a few words of brotherly counsel. The main thing that I urge upon you is this. If you have not got an assured hope of your own acceptance in Christ, resolve this day to seek it. Labor for it. Strive after it. Pray for it. Give the Lord no rest, till you know whom you have believed. I feel indeed that the small amount of assurance in this day, among those who are reckoned God's children, is a shame and a reproach. It is a thing to be heavily bewailed, says old Traill, that many Christians have lived 20 or 40 years since Christ called them by His grace, yet doubting in their life. Let us call to mind the earnest desire Paul expresses, that every one of the Hebrews should seek after full assurance. And let us endeavor by God's blessing to roll this reproach away. Hebrews 11.11 Believing reader, do you really mean to say that you have no desire to exchange hope for confidence, trust for persuasion, uncertainty for knowledge? Because weak faith will save you, will you therefore rest content with it? Because assurance is not essential to your entrance into heaven, will you therefore be satisfied without it upon earth? Alas, this is not a healthy state of soul to be in. This is not the mind of the apostolic day. Arise at once and go forward. Stick not at the foundations of religion. Go on to perfection. Be not content with a day of small things. Never despise it in others, but never be content with it yourself. Believe me, assurance is worth the seeking. You forsake your own mercies when you rest content without it. The things I speak are for your peace. If it is good to be sure in earthly things, how much better is it to be sure in heavenly things? Your salvation is a fixed and certain thing. God knows it. Why should not you seek to know it too? There is nothing unscriptural in this. Paul never saw the book of life, and yet Paul says, I know, and am persuaded. Make it in your daily prayer that you may have an increase of faith. According to your faith will be your peace. Cultivate that blessed root more, and sooner or later, by God's blessing, you may hope to have the flower. You may not perhaps attain to full assurance all at once. It is good sometimes to be kept waiting. We do not value things which we get without trouble. But though it tarry, wait for it. Seek on, and expect to find. There is one thing, however, of which I would not have you ignorant. You must not be surprised if you have occasional doubts after you have got assurance. You must not forget you are on earth and not in heaven. You are still in the body and have indwelling sin. The flesh will lust against the spirit to the very end. The leprosy will never be out of the walls of the old house till death takes it down. And there is a devil too, and a strong devil. A devil who tempted the Lord Jesus and gave Peter a fall. And he will take care you know it. Some doubts there always will be. He that never doubts has nothing to lose. He that never fears possesses nothing truly valuable. He that is never jealous knows little of deep love. Be not discouraged. You shall be more than conqueror through him that loved you. Footnote. None have assurance at all times. As in a walk that is shaded with trees and checkered with light and shadow, some tracks and paths in it are dark and others are sunshine. Such is usually the life of the most assured Christian. Bishop Hopkins. It is very suspicious that that person is a hypocrite that is always in the same frame. Let him pretend it to be never so good. Trail. End of footnote. Finally, do not forget that assurance is a thing which may be lost for a season, even by the brightest Christians unless they take care. Assurance is a most delicate plant. It needs daily, hourly watching, watering, tending, cherishing. So watch and pray the more when you have got it. As Rutherford says, make much of assurance. Be always upon your guard. When Christians slept in the arbor in pilgrims' progress, he lost his certificate. Keep that in mind. David lost assurance for many months by falling into transgression. Peter lost it when he denied his Lord. Each found it again undoubtedly, but not till after bitter tears. Spiritual darkness comes on horseback and goes away on foot. It is upon us before we know that it is coming. It leaves us slowly, gradually, and not till after many days. It is easy to run downhill. It is hard work to climb up. So remember my caution when you have the joy of the Lord. Watch and pray. Above all, grieve not the Spirit. Quench not the Spirit. Vex not the Spirit. Drive him not to a distance by tampering with small bad habits and little sins. Little jarrings between husbands and wives make unhappy homes. And petty inconsistencies, known and allowed, will bring in a strangeness between you and the Spirit. Hear the conclusion of the whole matter. The man who walks with God in Christ most closely will generally be kept in the greatest peace. The believer who follows the Lord most fully and aims at the highest degree of holiness will ordinarily enjoy the most assured hope and have the clearest persuasion of his own salvation. These are extracts from English Divines showing that there is a difference between faith and assurance, that a believer may be justified and accepted with God and yet not enjoy a comfortable knowledge and persuasion of his own safety, and that the weakest faith in Christ, if it be true, will save a man as surely as the strongest. The mercy of God is greater than all the sins in the world, but we sometimes are in such a case that we think we have no faith at all, or, if we have any, it is very feeble and weak. And therefore these are two things, to have faith and to have the feeling of faith. For some men would fain have the feeling of faith, but they cannot attain unto it, and yet they must not despair, but go forward in calling upon God, and it will come at length. God will open their hearts and let them feel His goodness. Number 2 Weak faith may fail in the applying, or in the apprehension and appropriating of Christ's benefits to a man's own self. This is to be seen in ordinary experience. For many a man there is of humble and contrite heart, that serveth God in spirit and truth, yet is not able to say, without great doubtings and waverings, I know and am fully assured that my sins are pardoned. Now shall we say that all such are without faith? God forbid! This weak faith will as truly apprehend God's merciful promises for the pardon of sin as strong faith, though not so soundly. Even as a man with a palsied hand can stretch it out as well to receive a gift at the hand of a king, as he that is more sound, though it may not be so firmly and steadfastly. Number 3 This certainty of our salvation, spoken of by Paul, rehearsed by Peter and mentioned by David, Psalm 4, verse 7, is that special fruit of faith which breatheth spiritual joy and inward peace, which passeth all understanding. True it is, all God's children have it not. One thing is the tree, and another thing is the fruit of the tree. One thing is faith, and another thing is the fruit of faith. And that remnant of God's elect which feel the want of this faith have notwithstanding faith. Sermons by Richard Greenham, minister and preacher of the word of God, 1612. Number 4 Some think they have no faith at all, because they have no full assurance. Yet the fairest fire that can be will have some smoke. The bruised reed by Richard Sibbes, master of Catherine Hall, Cambridge, and preacher of Graves Inn, London, 1630. Number 5 The act of faith is to apply Christ to the soul, and this the weakest faith can do, as well as the strongest, if it be true. A child can hold a staff as well, though not so strongly as a man. The prisoner through a hole sees the sun, though not so perfectly as they in the open air. They that saw the brazen serpent, though a great way off, yet were healed. The least faith is as precious to the believer's soul as Peter's, or Paul's faith was to themselves, for it lays hold upon Christ and brings eternal salvation. An exposition of the second epistle general of Peter by the Reverend Thomas Adams, rector of St. Gregory's, London, 1633. Number 6 Weak faith is true faith, as precious, though not so great as strong faith, the same Holy Ghost the author, the same gospel the instrument. If it never proves great, yet weak faith shall save, for it interests thus in Christ, and makes Him and all His benefits ours. For it is not the strength of our faith that saves, but the truth of our faith, not the weakness of our faith that condemns, but the want of faith. For the least faith layeth hold on Christ, and so will save us. Neither are we saved by the worth or quantity of our faith, but by Christ, who is laid hold on by a weak faith, as well as a strong. Just as a weak hand that can put meat into the mouth shall feed and nourish the body, as well as if it were a strong hand, seeing the body is not nourished by the strength of the hand, but by the goodness of the meat. The Doctrine of Faith by John Rogers Preacher of God's Word at Dedham in Essex, 1634 Number 7 It is one thing to have a thing surely, another thing to know I have it surely. We seek many things that we have in our hands, and we have many things that we think we have lost. So a believer, who hath a sure belief, yet doth not always know that he so believeth, Faith is necessary to salvation, but full assurance that I do believe is not of like necessity. Wall on Faith, 1637 Number 8 There is a weak faith, which yet is true, and although it be weak, yet because it is true, it shall not be rejected of Christ. Faith is not created perfect at the first, as Adam was, but is like a man in the ordinary course of nature, who was first an instrument, then a child, then a youth, then a man. Some utterly reject all weak ones, and tax all weakness in faith with hypocrisy. Certainly these are either proud or cruel men. Some comfort and establish those who are weak, saying, Be quiet, thou hast faith and grace enough, and art good enough, thou needest no more, neither must thou be too righteous. Ecclesiastes 7.16 These are soft, but not safe, cushions. These are foaming flatterers, and not faithful friends. Some comfort and exhort, saying, Be of good cheer, he who hath begun a good work will also finish it in you. Therefore pray that his grace may abound in you. Yea, do not sit still, but go forward, and march on in the way of the Lord. Hebrews 6.1 Now this is the safest and best course. Questions, observations, etc. upon the Gospel according to St. Matthew by Richard Ward, sometime student at Cambridge and preacher of the Gospel in London. 1640 Number 9 A man may be in the favor of God, in the state of grace, a justified man before God, and yet want the sensible assurance of his salvation, and of the favor of God in Christ. A man may have saving grace in him, and not perceive it himself. A man may have true justifying faith in him, and not have the use and operation of it, so far as to work in him a comfortable assurance of his reconciliation with God. Nay, I will say more. A man may be in the state of grace, and have true justifying faith in him, and yet be so far from sensible assurance of it in himself, as in his own sense and feeling he may seem to be assured of the contrary. Job was certainly in this case when he cried unto God, Wherefore hidest thou thy faith, and holdest me for thine enemy? Job 13.24 The weakest faith will justify. If thou canst receive Christ and rest upon Him, even with the weakest faith, it will serve thy turn. Take heed thou think not, it is the strength of thy faith that justifieth thee. No, no, it is Christ and His perfect righteousness, which thy faith receiveth, and resteth upon that doth it. He that hath the feeblest and weakest hand may receive an alms, and apply a sovereign plaster to his wound, as well as he that hath the strongest, and receive as much good by it too. Lectures upon the 51st Psalm Preached at Ashby de la Zuch by Arthur Hildersum Minister of Jesus Christ 1642 10. Though your grace be never so weak, if ye have truth of grace, you have as great a share in the righteousness of Christ for your justification, as the strong Christian hath. You have as much of Christ imputed to you as any other. Sermons by William Bridge Formerly Fellow of Emanuel College, Cambridge and Pastor of the Church of Christ in Great Yarmouth 1648 11. There are some who are true believers and yet weak in faith. They do indeed receive Christ in free grace, but it is with a shaking hand. They have, as divines say, the faith of adherence. They will stick to Christ as theirs. But they want the faith of evidence. They cannot see themselves as His. They are believers, but of little faith. They hope that Christ will not cast them off, but are not sure that He will take them up. Sips of Sweetness or Consolation for Weak Believers by John Durant Preacher in Canterbury Cathedral 1649 12. I know thou sayest that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3.15 Neither can I know but that in a sense of my own sinful condition I do cast myself in some measure upon my Saviour, and lay some hold upon His all-sufficient redemption. But alas, my apprehensions of Him are so feeble, as that they can afford no sound comfort to my soul. Courage, my son! Were it that thou lookest to be justified and saved by the power of the very act of thy faith, thou hadst reason to be disheartened with the conscience of the weakness thereof. But now that the virtue and efficacy of this happy work is in the object apprehended by thee, which is the infinite merits and mercies of thy God and Saviour, which cannot be abated by thine infirmities, thou hast cause to take heart to thyself, and cheerfully to expect His salvation. Understand thy case aright. Here is a double hand that helps us up toward heaven. Our hand of faith lays hold upon our Saviour. Our Saviour's hand of mercy and plenteous redemption lays hold on us. Our hold of Him is feeble and easily loosed. His hold of us is strong and irresistible. If work were stood upon, a strength of hand were necessary. But now that only taking and receiving of a precious gift is required, why may not a weak hand do that as well as a strong? As well, though, not as forcibly. Bishop Halls, Balm of Gilead, 1650 Number 13 I find not salvation put upon the strength of faith, but the truth of faith, not upon the brightest degree, but upon any degree of faith. It is not said, if you have such a degree of faith, you shall be justified and saved, but simply believing is required. The lowest degree of true faith will do it. As Romans 10, 9 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. The thief upon the cross had not attained to such high degrees of faith. He by one act, and that of a weak faith, was justified and saved. Luke 23, 42 Exposition of the Prophet Ezekiel by William Greenhill, Rector of Stepany, London, and Chaplain to the Dukes of York and Gloucester, 1650 Number 14 A man may have true grace that hath not the assurance of the love and favor of God, or the remission of his sins and salvation of his soul. A man may be God's, and yet he not know it. His estate may be good, and yet he not see it. He may be in a safe condition when he is not in a comfortable position. All may be well with him in the count of glory when he would give a thousand worlds that all were but well in the court of conscience. Assurance is requisite to the well-being of a Christian, but not to the being. It is requisite to the consolation of a Christian, but not to the salvation of a Christian. It is requisite to the well-being of grace, but not to the mere being of grace. Though a man cannot be saved without faith, yet he may be saved without assurance. God hath in many places of the Scripture declared that without faith there is no salvation. But God hath not in any place of the Scripture declared that without assurance there is no salvation. Heaven on Earth by Thomas Brooks Preacher of the Gospel at St. Margaret's Fish Street Hill, London, 1654 Number 15 You that can clear this to your own hearts that you have faith, though it be weak, be not discouraged, be not troubled. Consider that the smallest degree of faith is true, is saving faith as well as the greatest. A spark of fire is as true fire as any is in the element of fire. A drop of water is as true water as any is in the ocean. So the least grain of faith is as true faith and as saving as the greatest faith in the world. The least bud draws sap from the root as well as the greatest bough. So the weakest measure of faith doth as truly engraft thee into Christ and by that draw life from Christ as well as the strongest. The weakest faith hath communion with the merits and blood of Christ as well as the strongest. The least faith marries the soul to Christ. The weakest faith hath as equal a share in God's love as the strongest. We are beloved in Christ and the least measure of faith makes us members of Christ. The least faith hath equal right to the promises as the strongest. And therefore let not our souls be discouraged for weakness. Nature and Royalties of Faith by Samuel Bolton, D.D. of Christ College, Cambridge, 1657 Number 16 Some are afraid they have no faith at all because they have not the highest degree of faith which is full assurance or because they want the comfort which others attain to even joy unspeakable and full of glory. But for the rolling of this stone out of the way we must remember there are several degrees of faith. It is possible thou mayest have faith though not the highest degree of faith and so joy in the spirit. That is rather a point of faith than faith itself. It is indeed rather a living by sense than a living by faith when we are cheered up with continual cordials. A stronger faith is required to live upon God without comfort than when God shines in on our spirit with abundance of joy. Matthew Lawrence Preacher at Ipswich on Faith, 1657 Number 17 If any person abroad have thought that a special and full persuasion of the pardon of their sin was of the essence of faith let them answer for it. Our divines at home generally are of another judgment. Bishop Devinant and Bishop Prideaux and others have shown the great difference between recumbrance and assurance and they all do account and call assurance a daughter, fruit and consequent of faith. And the late learned Aerosmith tells us that God seldom bestows assurance upon believers till they are grown in grace. For says he there is the same difference between faith of recumbrance and faith of assurance as is between reason and learning. Reason is the foundation of learning so as there can be no learning if reason be wanting as in beasts in like manner there can be no assurance where there is no faith of adherence. Again as reason while exercised in the study of arts and sciences arises to learning so faith being while exercised on its proper object and by its proper fruits arises to assurance. Further as by negligence non-attendance or some violent disease learning may be lost while reason does abide so by temptation or by spiritual sloth assurance may be lost while saving faith may abide. Lastly as all men have reason but all men are not learned so all regenerate persons have faith to comply savingly with the gospel method of salvation but all true believers have not assurance. Sermon by R. Fairclough Fellow of Emanuel College Cambridge in the morning exercises preached at Southwark 1660 Number 18 We must distinguish between weakness of faith and nullity A weak faith is true The bruised reed is but weak yet it is such as Christ will not break Though thy faith be but weak yet be not discouraged A weak faith may receive a strong Christ A weak hand can tie the knot in marriage as well as a strong A weak eye might have seen the brazen serpent The promise is not made to strong faith but to true The promise doth not say whosoever hath a great faith that can remove mountains that can stop the mouths of lions shall be saved but whosoever believes be his faith never so small You may have the water of the Spirit poured on you in sanctification though not the oil of gladness in assurance There may be faith of adherence and not of evidence There may be life in the root where there is no fruit in the branches and faith in the heart where no fruit of assurance A Body of Divinity by Thomas Watson Formerly Minister of St. Stephen's Walbrook, London 1660 Number 19 Many of God's dear children for a long time may remain very doubtful as to their present and eternal condition and know not what to conclude whether they shall be damned or whether they shall be saved There are believers of several growths in the Church of God fathers, young men, children and babes and as in most families there are more babes and children than grown men so in the Church of God there are more weak doubting Christians than strong ones grown up to a full assurance A babe may be born and yet not know it so a man may be born again and yet not be sure of it We make a difference between saving faith as such and the full persuasion of the heart Some of those that shall be saved may not be certain that they shall be saved for the promise is made to the grace of faith and not to the evidence of it to faith as true and not to faith as strong They may be sure of heaven and yet in their own sense not assured of heaven Sermon by Rev. Thomas Doolittle of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge and sometime rector at St. Olphage in London in the morning exercises at Cripplegate 1661 Number 20 Is it not necessary to justification to be assured that my sins are pardoned and that I am justified No There is no act of faith as it justifies us but an act and fruit that follow us after justification It is one thing for a man to have his salvation certain, another thing to be certain that it is certain Even as a man has been fallen into a river and like to be drowned as he is carried down with the flood aspies the bough of a tree hanging over the river which he catches at and clings unto with all his might to save him and seeing no other way of succor but that, ventures his life upon it This man, so soon as he has fastened on this bough is in a safe condition though all troubles, fears and terrors are not presently out of his mind until he comes to himself and sees himself quite out of danger Then he is sure he is safe but he was safe before he was sure Even so it is with a believer Faith is but the aspying of Christ as the only means to save and the reaching out of the heart to lay hold upon him God hath spoken the word and made the promise to his son I believe him to be the only Savior and remit my soul to him to be saved by his mediation So soon as the soul can do this God imputeth the righteousness of his son unto it and it is actually justified in the court of heaven though it is not presently quieted and pacified in the court of conscience That is done afterwards in some sooner in some later by the fruits and effects of justification Archbishop Usher's Body of Divinity 1670 Number 21 There are those who doubt because they doubt and multiply distrust upon itself concluding that they have no faith because they find so much and so frequent doubting within them But this is a great mistake Some doubtings there may be where there is even much faith and a little faith there may be where there is much doubting Our Savior requires and delights in a strong, firm believing on him, though the least and weakest he rejects not Archbishop Layton's Lectures on the First Nine Chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel 1670 Number 22 Many formerly and those of the highest rank and immanency have placed true faith in no lower degree than assurance or the secure persuasion of the pardon of their sins the acceptation of their persons and their future salvation But this, as it is very sad and uncomfortable for thousands of doubting and deserted souls, concluding all those to fall short of grace who fall short of certainty, so hath it given the Papists too great advantage. Faith is not assurance, but this doth sometimes crown and reward a strong, vigorous, and heroic faith The Spirit of God breaking in upon the soul with an evidencing light and scattering all that darkness and those fears and doubts which before be clouded it. Bishop Hopkins On the Covenants 1680 Number 23 A want of assurance is not unbelief drooping spirits may be believers. There is a manifest distinction between faith in Christ and the comfort of that faith, between believing to eternal life and knowing we have eternal life. There is a difference between a child having a right to an estate and his full knowledge of the title. The character of faith may be written in the heart as letters engraven upon a seal, yet filled with so much dust as not to be distinguished. The dust hinders the reading of the letters yet does not raise them out. Discourses by Stephen Charnock of Emanuel College, Cambridge 1680 Number 24 Some rob themselves of their own comfort by placing saving faith in full assurance. Faith and sense of faith are two distinct and separable mercies. You may have truly received Christ and not received the knowledge or assurance of it. Some there be that say, Thou art our God, of whom God never said, You are my people. These have no authority to be called sons of God. Others there are, of whom God saith, These are my people, yet they dare not call God their God. These have authority to be called the sons of God, yet know it not. They have received Christ, that is their safety, but they have not yet received the knowledge and assurance of it, that is their trouble. The father owns his child in the cradle, who yet knows him not to be his father. Method of Grace by John Flavel Minister of the Gospel at Dartmouth Devonshire 1660 Number 25 It is confessed weak faith hath as much peace with God through Christ as another hath by strong faith, but not so much bosom peace. Weak faith will I surely land the Christian in heaven as strong faith, for it is impossible the least dram of true grace should perish, being all incorruptible seed. But the weak-doubting Christian is not like to have so pleasant a voyage thither as another with strong faith. Though all in the ship come safe to shore, yet he that is all the way seasick hath not so comfortable a voyage as he that is strong and healthful. The Christian Incomplete Armor by William Grinnell, longtime rector of Leavenham, Suffolk, 1680 Number 26 Be not discouraged if it doth not yet appear to you that you were given by the Father to the Son. It may be, though you do not see it. Many of the given do not for a long time know it. Yea, I see no great danger in saying that not a few of the given to the Son may be in darkness and doubts, and fears about it, till the last and brightest day declare it, and till the last sentence proclaims it. If therefore any of you be in the dark about your own election, be not discouraged. It may be, though you do not know it. Sermons on the Lord's Prayer by Robert Trail, minister of the gospel in London, and sometime at Kenbrook, Kent, 1690 Number 27 Assurance is not essential to the being of faith. It is a strong faith, but we read likewise of a weak faith, little faith, faith like a grain of mustard seed. True saving faith in Jesus Christ is only distinguishable by its different degrees. But in every degree, and in every subject, it is universally of the same kind. Sermons by the Reverend John Newton, sometime vicar of Olney, and rector of St. Mary, Woolnoth in London, 1767 Number 28 There is no reason why weak believers should conclude against themselves. Weak faith unites as really with Christ as strong faith, as the least bud in the vine is drawing sap and life from the root, no less than the strongest branch. Weak believers, therefore, have abundant cause to be thankful, and while they reach after growth in grace, ought not to overlook what they already have received. Letter of Reverend Henry Venn, 1784 Number 29 The faith necessary and sufficient for our salvation is not assurance. Its tendency, doubtless, is to produce that lively expectation of the divine favor which will issue in a full confidence. But the confidence is not itself the faith of which we speak, nor is it necessarily included in it, nay, it is a totally distinct thing. Assurance will generally accompany a high degree of faith, but there are sincere persons who are endued with only small measures of grace, or in whom the exercise of that grace may be greatly obstructed. When such defects or hindrances prevail, many fears and distresses may be expected to arise. The Christian System by the Reverend Thomas Robinson, Vicar of St. Mary's, Leicester, 1795 Number 30 Salvation and the joy of salvation are not always contemporaneous. The latter does not always accompany the former in present experience. A sick man may be under a process of recovery, and yet be in doubt concerning the restoration of his health. Pain and weakness may cause him to hesitate. A child may be heir to his estate or kingdom, and yet derive no joy from the prospect of his future inheritance. He may be unable to trace his genealogy, or to read his title deeds and the testament of his father. Or with a capacity of reading them, he may be unable to understand their import, and his guardian may for a time deem it right to suffer for him to remain in ignorance. But his ignorance does not affect the validity of his title. Personal assurance of salvation is not necessarily connected with faith. They are not essentially the same. Every believer might indeed infer from the effect produced in his own heart his own safety and privileges. But many who truly believe are unskillful in the word of righteousness, and fail of drawing the conclusion from scriptural premises which they would be justified in drawing. Lectures on the 51st Psalm by the Reverend Thomas Bidiful, Minister of St. James, Bristol, 1830. Chapter 8 Starting on page 135 Moses An Example By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. Hebrews 11 verses 24 through 26 The characters of God's most eminent saints as drawn and described in the Bible, form a most useful part of Holy Scripture. Abstract doctrines and principles and precepts are all most valuable in their way, but after all, nothing is more helpful than a pattern or example. Do we want to know what practical holiness is? Let us sit down and study the picture of an eminently holy man. I propose in this paper to set before my readers the history of a man who lived by faith and left us a pattern of what faith can do in promoting holiness of character. To all who want to know what living by faith means, I offer Moses as an example. The eleventh chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews from which my text is taken is a great chapter. It deserves to be printed in golden letters. I can well believe it must have been most cheering and encouraging to a converted Jew. I suppose no members of the early church found so much difficulty in a profession of Christianity as the Hebrews did. The way was narrow to all, but preeminently so to them. The cross was heavy to all, but surely they had to carry double weight. And this chapter would refresh them like a cordial. It would be as wine to those that be of heavy hearts. Its words would be pleasant as the honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones. Proverbs 31.6 and 16.24 The three verses I am going to explain are far from being the least interesting in the chapter. Indeed, I think few, if any, have so strong a claim on our attention. And I will explain why I say so. It seems to me that the work of faith described in the story of Moses comes home more especially to our own case. The men of God who are named in the former part of the chapter are all examples to us beyond question. But we cannot literally do what most of them did, however much we may drink into their spirit. We are not called upon to offer a literal sacrifice like Abel, or to build a literal ark like Noah, or to leave our country literally and dwell in tents and offer up our Isaac like Abraham. But the faith of Moses comes nearer to us. 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And remember that John Calvin in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship commenting on the words of God which I commanded them not neither came into my heart from his commentary on Jeremiah 731 writes God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions since he condemns by this one phrase I have not commanded them whatever the Jews devised there is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God for when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies and attend not to his commands they pervert true religion and if this principle was adopted by the papists all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground it is indeed a horrible thing for the papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions there is an immense number of them as it is well known and as it manifestly appears were they to admit this principle that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word they would be delivered from their deep abyss of air the prophets words then are very important when he says that God had commanded no such thing and that it never came to his mind as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required nay what he never knew