Centuries of Meditations

6

Furthermore doth not St. Paul command us in understanding to be men? That implies that with little understanding we are but children, and without understanding are not men, but dreams and shadows, insignificant shells and mere apparitions. Doth he not earnestly pray, that their hearts may be comforted, being knit together in Love, unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ? This plainly shows, that though a weak Christian may believe great things by an implicit faith, yet it is very desirable his faith should be turned into assurance, and that cannot be but by the riches of knowledge and understanding. For he may believe that God is, and that Jesus Christ is his Saviour, and that his soul is immortal, and that there are joys in heaven, and that the scriptures are God’s Word, and that God loves him, &c., so far as to yield obedience in some measure, but he can never come to a full assurance of all this, but by seeing the riches of the full assurance, i.e., those things which are called the riches of the full assurance; for being known they give us assurance of the truth of all things: the glory of God’s laws, the true dignity of his own soul, the excellency of God’s ways, the magnificent goodness of His works, and the real blessedness of the state of grace. All which a man is so clearly to see, that he is not more sensible of the reality of the sunbeams. How else should he live in communion with God, to wit, in the enjoyment of them? For a full assurance of the reality of his joys is infinitely necessary to the possession of them.