Confusions yet fresh in our Memories into which he had formerly brought us to keep alive our Jealousies on all hands of one another so that at this day mutual suspicions and ill opinions keep us at as great a distance in the days of Peace as Pikes and Musquets did in the time of War Still we are in Sides and Parties devising how to supplant and ruine each other The remembrance of former days unhappily fomenting and hightening our suspicions and jealousies to that degree that we seem rather the Laughing-stock then the terrour of our Enemies and Rome it self cannot chuse but laugh within it self to see us so industrious in doing her work for her and by our contentions and separations making an open way for that very evil which men pretend above all others to be afraid of And now seeing we have been at so much pains in assisting our professed Enemies to destroy us what can we imagine could have all this while preserved us against all those devilish devices that have been hatch'd both abroad and amongst our selves at home to undo us but that great and good God alone who overruleth all the devices of men who sitteth in the Heavens above all Powers who saith to the Sea Hitherto shall thou come but no further and here shall thy proud Waves be stayed Job 38. 11. The Lord reigneth let the earth be glad thereof let the Multitude of the Isles be glad thereof Psal. 97. 1. This Isle may be glad thereof He is great in Zion he is high above all People Psal. 99. 2. His right hand and his holy arm hath gotten him the Victory Psal. 98. 1. It is his right hand and not our Sword his wise Counsel not our Policy his wonderful goodness and least of any thing our righteousness that preserveth us in safety Except the Lord build the house all our Builders shall labour but in vain we shall quickly with our own hands pull it down upon our heads Except the Lord keep the City all our Watchmen shall wake in vain our own devices our own sins will be sure to fire all and we shall soon be like to Sodom and Gomorrha Therefore not unto us not unto us but unto the Lord alone let us ascribe the honour and the glory of our preservation and all the wonderful deliverances which he and he alone hath given unto our gracious King and this whole Kingdom in him It is only because his Counsel always stands unmoveable and cannot change that our own devices have not long e're this utterly ruined us or that the manifold devices of our Enemies have not prevailed against us 2. As we are instructed hence to attribute all our past Mercies and Deliverancies to the goodness of God who alone could disappoint the devices of men against us so are we hence also taught how both at present and for the time to come to behave our selves towards God let the times prove never so troublesome to us by reason of the restless devices of men We must always be sure to bear in mind and fix immoveably upon this one point that the Counsel of the Lord is altogether unchangeable one and the same for ever and shall undoubtedly stand for a Law to us and for a Barr against every thing that can be devised by men against us not agreeable unto it Conclude we certainly that the Lord he is God and will be so maugre all the devices of Fools that say in their heart there is no God That he will alway govern the World by his own Will and confound the wicked in their own devices That all things being ordered by him must needs be wisely ordered and therefore as no device of man is permitted by him but in wisdom so of his goodness he will either confound these devices in his own time or by them accomplish his own Wise Counsel to the destruction of his Enemies and the good of his Church and faithful Servants All things shall work together for good to them that love him Rom. 8. 28. Let therefore our Behaviour be alway such as becometh the faithful Subjects of the Great God and King of all the World and our business as we are such is pure obedience to the Laws of his Kingdom and not to help him to rule and order things by our Wisdom as tho he could stand in need of our devices or had thought good to make us of his Great Counsel Let us mind our Duty in attending to and executing cheerfully his Commands and not intermeddle with that which is properly his work any otherwise then he himself shall give to any of us Authority to Act under him Unto some he hath given his Commission to Act and Rule his People under him and for him By his Wisdom Kings Reign and Princes decree Iustice Prov. 8. 15. The Powers that be are of God He hath put a Sword into their hand and they bear not that Sword in vain Rom. 13. And they that will not stand in awe of it deserve to feel it He hath also set some in the Church 1 Cor. 12. 28. And hath made them Overseers over his Flock to feed it Act. 20. 28. And we are commanded to obey them that have the Rule over us and watch for our Souls Heb. 13. 17. These are God's Commission'd Officers put in Authority under him and over us and as they are to do their own duties in their several places towards God whose Servants they are and to whom they must give an account as well as we so can they not do their duty unto him but by governing us and using all such means as he hath ordered or allowed to keep us in due subjection both unto God and them and to see as much as is in them that we do our duties too Let no devices therefore of other men out of whatsoever School they come perswade or provoke us either to follow theirs or set up new devices of our own against this certain Will of God or to cast off the Yoke of Christ by our restless endeavours to free our selves from the Yoke of Men. We cannot be Christs Subjects if we will be our own Masters It is just that he assign to each Servant in his Family his proper work and call them to account as he shall please if we shall arrogate to our selves a right of Judging them whom he hath set to Judge us we place our selves in his Throne and usurp his Prerogative which is the highest Treason against the King of Kings and can we think that such shall go unpunished by him Let our condition be never so uneasie let our Grievances be never so many let our sufferings be never so great let us be sure to keep in mind what we are and whose we are and what is our Business to do We are not Gods nor Lawgivers to our selves but Men under his command that made us and redeemed us We are not our own but his that bought us with a price 1
except we may suppose them really in all points exactly our Equals which if they should chance to be it is impossible for us to discern it and therefore humility will be sure to weigh down the Scale on their side 1. If others be really better then we there needs not much Humility to esteem them better it is no act of condescention in us to account them as good as they are 'T is a debt we owe to Iustice and Truth to value them as much as they are worth and in doing otherwise we should sin against God and them Against God by not honouring him in his Gifts and Graces and so much of his Image as we discern in any one And against them in with-holding from them that which God hath made their due the pre-eminence unto which he hath exalted them in any kind in not honouring them whom God hath pleased to honour We ought both in obedience to God and in justice to them behave our selves towards them as our Superiors whom it hath pleased God to place above us The reasonableness and equity of this I need not to spend time or words to demonstrate seeing no man can be so void of reason as not to think it just that all real goodness or excellency should have a proportionable respect and honour tho all men have not I may say but a few men have that Humility to acknowledge those Excellencies which are in other men Nay such is the crossness and perverseness of mens spirits that instead of honouring too many have wickedness enough to envy malign and calumniate all such as they see above themselves in any gift or Vertue Place or Office whatsoever And whence is all this but from the want of Humility shall I say or rather Humanity and that confessed piece of Iustice of doing to all others as they would have others do to them 2. If others be not better but really worse then we yet if we could but once be brought to understand the work of true Humility we should soon see that it would teach us to think much otherwise of them then yet our Pride will suffer us to do and that without doing violence to truth or undervaluing any Gift which it hath pleased God to give us more then other men Let us consider but these few things 1. Humility will teach us to descend very low into our selves and to discover very much evil in our selves which lieth hid from other men It keeps the thoughts very much at home and suffereth them not to ramble much abroad to spie wonders in other mens houses to talk of and busie themselves with when they should be observing the Slut-holes and dirty corners of their own The humble mans eye is very much fixed upon his own sins infirmities and failings And when at any time he takes notice of his own good qualities of what kind soever they be as it is his duty to do it is not his business to make comparisons with others to see how much he excelleth them but to compare himself with himself and observe how much he is improved in Grace and Knowledge and how much better these have made him then formerly he was and this carries his Meditations up to God in the first place in praise and admiration of his infinite goodness who hath done so great things for him and next unto the use and end of these qualifications how they fit him to serve God and the World But nothing of this can he consider without exercising his Humility in reflecting on his own unworthyness the thoughts of his former unworthyness serve him to heighten his admiration of and thankfulness for Gods bounty to such a sinner and the thoughts of Gods goodness in thus inriching him lessen his esteem of himself and bring him to a deeper degree of Humility whilst he thinks with himself how little he answereth the end of so much goodness and how little good in the World he doth in respect of what God hath fitted him with ability to do Thus he never wants work enough at home for his thoughts to busie themselves so that they have but little leisure to search into the failings and weaknesses of his Neighbours and when he unwillingly sees them they are apt to seem but Motes to him because of the Beams in his Eye his own sins which he is apt so much to magnify that the sins of others seem small things to him in comparison of his own or he considers them only so as to endeavour their Correction not their Aggravation The humble man cannot be vile in any measure but he will be more vile still in his own eyes But this same Grace and that other which is never absent from it Charity directs a mans eye most unto the Vertues and Excellencies that are to be seen in others which shine so much to him that for them he cannot see their infirmities Their Vertues and Goodness of any kind he thinks it of some concernment to himself to see and learn and imitate and to praise God for admiring his goodness to others as well as to himself But as for their infirmities and failings they mostly concern God and their own Consciences and his Humility teacheth him to leave them to God and to take no further notice of them then Charity and his place wherein God hath set him command and these will never command us to think men worse then our selves but to endeavour to make them better then they are Thus Humility rendring our own faults yea such as others would count none very visible to us and those of other men either not at all or so far only as they are of publick cognizance reasonably moveth us to esteem them better then our selves Charity covereth a multitude of faults 2. Suppose we next that very many evils in other men do visibly appear to us yet still many of our own will also appear if we be humble and in all likelyhood many more in our selves then in them And besides those many in our selves which we daily observe we know there be and Humility maketh us think there are very many secret sins lurking within our hearts watching an opportunity to break forth and many that have privately broken forth and escaped our notice in the passage which do not yet appear to us So that how many soever the visible sins of other men be yet still the humble man fears he goes beyond them in number and weight too However when the humble man comes upon any occasion to compare himself with other men his wont is not to consider other mens failings but his own neither his own vertues but the vertues of other men And as Pride teacheth a man to compare his own vertues with other mens vices as the proud Pharisee did that he may find something in himself to boast of so Humility teacheth a man a quite contrary course to compare his own vices with other mens vertues that he may be yet more humble
that honour that cometh from God only Joh. 5. 44. And loved the praise of men more then the praise of God Joh. 12. 43. Now saith St. Paul at the 5th v. of this Chapter Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Iesus What that was he tells us v. 7. He made himself of no reputation but took upon him the form of a Servant and humbled himself If we will then be the followers of Christ and walk worthy of his Gospel this is the mind we must be of 4. It certainly blasteth all our very best performances and destroyeth all the hopes we had of a blessing upon them Even all those otherwise Pious and Charitable Acts which done in love and humble obedience are most highly acceptable to God and have his sure promise of an everlasting reward such as are Fasting and Prayer and Alms-giving when thus Pharisaically performed for ostentation and to be seen of men must all be content to take up with that poor airy pittiful thing the plaudite and praise of a few sinners instead of the approbation and reward of God that well done good and faithful servant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord Matt. 6. 5. Lastly how this Vain-glory pestereth the Church of Christ and disturbeth daily the Peace of it is a thing needless to shew in many words It hath reigned too long in the World to have the innumerable mischiefs it hath done in the Church of Christ in all Ages concealed from any observing man When once any man is infected with this disease he groweth restless in himself he longeth to go abroad and to become popular to be called Rabbi and thought a wise man in his generation a Master in Israel and then Conscience must be laid aside of necessity as a thing which would mightily disturb him in his way to glory tho a pretence to it and to a very great tenderness of it must by no means be made away for that 's the best staff he hath to lean upon Such men always think themselves too much hid in the Crowd of ordinary Christians alas what reputation and honour can it bring them to do or speak or write as other good Christians do Or what glory can come of living by the same common rules whereby the whole body of Christians are to be governed tho they be such as Christ himself hath given They are not only Papists that affect works of Super-erogation The man that will be Famous must resolve to step out boldly before the rest and attempt something that others dare not do venture to be singular in some new Doctrine or Practice that men may take particular notice of him and admire his Wisdom or his Courage saying Shew us another man that could or durst do this Nor can such an one be long without Company he that cannot have the honour of the first invention will strive for that of the first approbation thinking it some praise to be first able to discern the Wisdom of a wiser then himself Men will rather be content with a fame at second hand then want it And if he cannot maintain the Novelty by dispute yet is it possible he may soon be taught a Catalogue of bad names and when he hath them once on his Tongue whether he understand them or not he can bestow them as freely as another upon any thing he is bid to shew his dislike of especially on those dull Souls that can so contentedly go on in those beaten Roads wherein good Christians have so long walked before them Should we take a view of all the Heresies and Schisms which have troubled and rent the Church from its first Plantation to this day it is very probable we might find most of them coming from this never-failing Spring of Vain-glory. I close this with those words of the Apostle Gal. 5. 26. Let us not be desirous of Vain-glory provoking one another envying one another Qu. Some may possibly here ask Whether we Christians should be wholly regardless of our Credit and Reputation in the World and unconcerned whether we have a good name amongst men or not An. To such we say with Solomon Eccl. 7. 1. A good name is better then precious Oyntment And rather to be chosen then great Riches Prov. 22. 1. Every man ought to be truely tender of his Reputation even with bâ—d men if possible this affording him many special advantages of doing God better service among them Honour and Praise are no despicable things and they may be sought and upheld in due place as well as Riches and other Earthly Blessings without offence to God or Man Let us only take heed that we take the right course to do both and secure to our selves the true honour of really being and not seeming only wise and good and all will be well To this purpose take but a few Directions 1. See that God have his due honour intirely to himself and let us be content with ours as it shall fall unto us Let our principal care be to seek the honour that cometh from God only and to have his approbation and well done in every thing and we shall hardly want so much as is due unto us or at least is fit for us from men To honour God is our great duty and our great incouragement is this Them that honour him he will honour 1 Sam. 2. 30. Whether and how far we shall be honour'd of men whilst we are doing our duty the only thing to which it can belong let us leave it to God that ordereth all things By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honour and life Prov. 22. 4. If he give them praise him and return all we receive unto him if we want the honour men should give let this suffice us that we can approve our selves unto God By honour and dishonour by evil report and good report 2 Cor. 6. 8. 2. Having made sure that God have his honour from us and from all men as far forth as it is in our power to promote it Let us use the proper means to gain and keep up a good reputation among men yet not so much for our own sakes as for Gods and theirs Let us conscienciously do our duties every man in his respective place and calling by this means we shall be sure either to get a good name or not to deserve a bad one A good name thus gotten is very valuable because it may be very serviceable to us to many good purposes both in relation to God whom we serve and to other men with whom we have to do and to our selves as an encouragement to greater Alacrity in our duty But let us beware of these things 1. How we make our own reputation the principal motive or end of what we do for this is to seek our own honour more than God and to rob him of the honour due unto his name 2. How we seek to raise up to our selves a
say that either we are such as he ought not to punish at all or at least such as he ought not to punish after this manner If God send a Plague or a Famine or any kind of Mortal Sickness on a People for their sins is it reasonable for them to murmur against the Air and unseasonableness of the Weather And if God chastise us with evils of any other kind by what or whomsoever shall it be more reasonable to quarrel with and complain of the Instrument or the Messenger for executing upon us the Will of God then to seek out where the fault lieth whereby we have provoked him to anger and to amend it Iehu received the promise of a Kingdom to the fourth Generation for executing punishment on those whom God had determined to punish 2 Kings 10. 30. Yet did not Iehu depart from the sins of Ieroboam which made Israel to sin God sometimes giveth a King in his wrath and taketh him away again in his displeasure Hos. 13. 11. If he deliver men into the hands of their Oppressor tho he be the King of Babylon they must serve him and be quiet because they see it is the Will of God so to deal with them Ier. 27. Patience under our Sufferings and repentance of our sins and reformation of our lives and obedience to our Superiours in all lawful things even to the utmost to shew we own their Authority and decline not the hardest of their just commands are the best ways of reconciling our selves to God and turning his Judgments away from us and not to stand murmuring and complaining of that which in justice he is pleased to inflict upon us by what hand soever Why should a living man complain A man for the punishment of his sins Lam. 3. 39. Thus much for Correction III. In the next place let us be exhorted first ingeneral to attend God's Will in all things and let that take place of all the devices of our hearts Alas what would become of the World if God should disregard it slacken the reins of his Government and permit all to the hands of men Phaethon's guiding the Chariot of the Sun and firing the World would look no longer like a Fable Hot spirits and giddy heads with their bold devices and rash enterprizes would soon turn all things upside down and put more then one Nation into a combustion Men are of too different complexions and divided interests ever to unite in Peace and Order contrary humors and principles would always produce contrary Laws and Rules and every Party would be concerned to maintain that which would best uphold it not only to the ruine of the opposite Party but to the rending of the publick Peace and Welfare Then and no sooner let men talk of carrying on their own devices and designs when they either know themselves to be too strong for all men or can assure themselves that all men will be of their mind If any shall now ask whether we would have them sit still and unconcern'd how matters go right or wrong and whether it be not every mans duty to endeavour with all his might the rectifying of what he seeth amiss in Kingdom or Church To this some Answer hath been given already to which may be added thus much more 1. Be very sure that what you think to be amiss be so indeed before you go about to mend it Men are too apt to make their own irregular desires and wishes yea and not seldom an irrational Conceit and Phant'sie or even such a thing as this in some other men or party for whom they have a kindness the rule of right and wrong and so judge every thing to be amiss which they or such as they count their friends dislike Measure things by their proper rule not that of Self-interest or Affection but God's Word view and examine them by a true light be not misled by mens reports or vain surmises but try all things and then hold fast that which is good If you take not this course instead of mending what is amiss you will only marr that which his good Be sure that what you would amend be against God's Will or else it needs no mending and none will owe you thanks for your vain devices 2. Be as sure in the next place that you are every way rightly fitted and duly qualified for the work you take in hand See that you have both skill and strength and good Authority for what you undertake It is not every bold Bungler that hath face enough to praise himself and laugh at others who is fit for such a work as is the reformation of Kingdoms and Churches It is not all a thing to hold a Plow-staff and a Scepter Be content to employ your Talents accordingly as you are fitted with them and think it is Gods Will you should busie your selves in those employments for which he hath best furnished you and in those stations wherein he hath thought fit to place you If he had designed you for higher Callings he would probably have given you a more suitable Education and furnished you with better Tools And if other men who pretend to higher things shall tell you that they are wise enough both for themselves and you and thereby would tempt you to second them in their devices be sure first that they have indeed all that which you find wanting in your selves to fit them for being your leaders in such bold Attempts and that 's not only Wisdom and Strength but good Authority and a just Call unto the work from God Let them produce their Commission and shew you thus it is written and that must be the Will of God declared in his word not whispered into the Ear by a Pidgeon not dictated from an infallible Chair not sent in some flash of new Light or suggested by something blasphemously called the Spirit within them for the truth of all which you must at last be content with their own bare word which is sure to deceive you If you have not Authority from God for what you do he will say Who hath required these things at your hand Isai. 1. 12. To support the tottering Ark of God must needs appear a thing well pleasing unto God but let Uzzah do it and he dies for it 2 Sam. 6. 7. Be his zeal what it will he must have patience and expect his Call Men must know that tho it must needs be good to be zealous always in a good matter Gal. 4. 18. Yet should they take time to consider and pains to satisfie themselves that the matter be indeed as good as now it seems to them and that their zeal for it be good too for all zeal even for good is not so and that the good zeal carry them not beyond the bounds of their Authority Zeal for God must have the Will of God for its Rule it is otherwise a blind zeal a blemished Offering which God will not accept 'T is a
rame by any sin or wickedness or an hypocritical shew of Piety for this were to build our reputation upon God's dishonour 3. How we endeavour to build our own reputation upon the ruine of another mans for this is a sin against both the Iustice and the Charity which we owe unto all men 4. How we abuse our reputation amongst men to the countenancing of Faction and Sedition or any evil thing whatsoever In short Let our own glory always stoop and veyl to the Glory of God the Edification of the Church the Peace and Tranquility of State the subjection which we owe to our Superiors and the good of our Neighbours and it shall be no Vain-glory. How both these Strife and Vain-glory are to be cast out we must learn by the second Rule given us in the Text of which we are now to speak II. In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves Such a measure of Humility as will make men esteem others better than themselves will by rooting out Strife and Vain-glory settle the Church in a blessed Peace How this Doctrine will be entertain'd and practised in this proud Age God alone knows and to him we must leave it when we have done our endeayour Our Task at this time is 1. To lay down a brief Description of the Grace commended lowliness of mind 2. To shew its great Efficacy for the rooting out of Strife and Vain-glory the two grand Enemies to Love and Peace And 3. To declare the Practice of it in esteeming each other better than our selves 1. The Grace or Vertue which is here commended to us is Humility or lowliness of mind A Grace which abundantly commends it self and engageth the affections of all that see it wherever it is but as all things of greatest worth commonly are almost as rare as it is excellent One most illustrious Example of it we have to imitate which were its worth unknown is enough to commend it unto all Christians and if it do not so they are not Christians whatever they are pleased to call themselves Look upon the whole Life and Death of him who came to be the Saviour of the World Iesus Christ and you see this Divine Vertue expressed to the life How wonderful then must it be that it should be so great a stranger in the Christian World and so few that bear the name of Christ have any intimate acquaintance with it Tho all commend it in others yet few labour to find it in themselves This is it An holy frame and temper of Spirit whereby a man doth most heartily give all honour possible to God as much as is due to every man and is content with a very little for himself It wholly emptieth him of all Self-conceit checketh in him all aspiring thoughts maketh him truely sensible what he is and teacheth him not to think of himself above what he finds himself to be and to be content although others shall think him to be much less than indeed he is The humble man is very much in considering himself to be the Creature of God and to depend wholly upon him and to have nothing at all but only what it had pleased God to bestow upon him He considereth yet farther that he is a Sinner and that he offendeth God daily and serveth him at best very imperfectly and weakly that he hath often abused God's Goodness and is thereupon become less than the least of his Mercies he acknowledgeth that his wants and infirmities are much more than his Abilities and that there is hardly any Creature of God but doth now as he is a sinner excel him in something at least in innocence and that in one respect or other he stands in as much need of them as any of them do of him He remembreth how unable he is of himself to help himself to any thing that is good either for his Soul or Body without the assistance and blessing of another And now considering all this and much more to this purpose his own Glory vanisheth from his sight he entertaineth low and just thoughts of himself as a poor weak wicked and for that a very contemptible Creature that can deserve nothing at the hands of God not do either God or his Neighbours or himself any considerable part of that service which he ought to do He looketh upon all that he hath as anothers free gift and bounty He looketh upon all that he doth or can do in relation to God his Neighbour and himself as imperfect at best and without God's Blessing vain if not hurtful And hence he looketh upon himself as a very unworthy and useless thing but only as he may be an instrument in the hands of the Great and Good God and may by the Power and Wisdom of his Manager be directed to something good From hence it also cometh that whatsoever this humble man hath he holds himself as a debtor to God for it so also most unworthy of it and it whatever it be too good for him and cannot but admire Gods goodness and bounty to such a thing as he is in permitting him yet to live If he suffer any evil he accounts it a very light thing in comparison of what he hath deserved to suffer and therefore repines not at the greatness of his sufferings but admireth Gods goodness still in dealing so gently with him and blesseth him that they are no greater Whatsoever he doth if it be sinful he taketh it all to himself he owns the shame of it and thinks of himself as a sinner ought to do and if it be good he blesseth God that hath enabled him to do it and calleth nothing of it his own besides the imperfections of it nor can he think any part of the World beholden to him for doing but a very little part of his duty in it and very imperfectly Nothing that he either is or hath or doth can swell him up with any proud thoughts of himself but still he is less in his own eyes than he can be in any mans else and accounts himself a very unworthy thing This is a man of a lowly mind And that this is a right Christian temper sufficiently appeareth from two things which I need but only name 1. Because it hath so much of the Image of Iesus Christ visible in it who made himself of no reputation as before we saw 2. Because it hath his Special Blessing resting upon it Blessed are the Poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Matt. 5. 3. Which I shall now suppose enough to commend this lovely Vertue to the Practice of Christians and proceed to the second thing viz. 2. To shew in a few words the Efficacy of this Heavenly Vertue to drive out Strife and Vain-glory. And the thing is so obvious that this and this only can do that work that it seemeth even needless to say any thing of it For if only or chiefly as Solomon tells us by Pride