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A43815 The best and worst of Paul, and his character in both conditions Hill, Thomas, d. 1653. 1648 (1648) Wing H2021; ESTC R25713 23,294 25

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The best and worst of PAUL and his character in both conditions 2 Cor. 12. 1. to ver. 11. It is not expedient for me doubtlesse to glorie I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord c. IT is worthy of consideration for your incouragement to be frequent in your addresses unto God that when a man comes from heaven having had immediate converse with Jesus Christ as great things are ordinarily communicated to him there so great things may be exspected from him As Iohn being upon the Lords day in the spirit Rev. 1. 10. which was a degree of heaven that is being possessed of the spirit and acted by it you could see little from him but what favoured of the spirit Then had he those clear Visions in the Revelation concerning the state of the Christian Church and the ruine of her numerous and potent adversaries which is most heavenly Aqu● vitae to chear her drooping spirits in her wildernesse-condition And in Acts 4. 13. when the Jewish high Commission who had convented the Apostles Peter and Iohn saw their boldnesse and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men they marvelled and they took knowledge of them that they had bin with Iesus It was visible that Jesus had left somthing upon them extraordinary No man ever came near to him but he went away better from him He delights to dart down Divine irradiations into ther minds and to leave some heavenly tincture upon the spirits of his Saints Hence it is that they who spend much time in secret communion with God know most of his mind and are best able to open the cabinet-counsels of Heaven and to reveal the deep mysteries of the Gospell to others in publick This was likewise Pauls advantage whom you find in this Chapter in varietie of postures one while you hear of his being caught up into heaven soon after you find him at the next door to hell being under such a black temptation of the devil and his messenger Here you have the best and the worst of him 1. Paul in an high pitch of communion with God which he discovers most modestly by way of self-vindication from the false cavils of others ver. 1 2 3 4 5 6. 2. Paul under the tyrannie of the messenger of satan ver. 7. 3. His ardent importunate addresse unto God by prayer ver. 8. 4. Gods gracious return by way of answer ver. 9. 5. Result thereof Pauls humble posture and most self-denying resolution ver. 10. It is not expedient for me doubtlesse to glorie I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord You have here a singular copie and I doubt we finde it unimitable in regard of our weaknesse which the blessed Apostle Paul sets us when God himself came in competition he passes by and over-looks himself and desires rather to advance God and to magnifie Christ It is not expedient for me doubtlesse to glorie he had to do with false Apostles and they sought to disparage him to cloud him and eclipse his glorie yet he would not endeavour so much to withdraw the curtain and to remove that cloud from himself as he will employ his all that the Sun of righteousnesse may appear in his most glorious lustre a It is not expedient for me doubtlesse to glorie I le come to visions and revelations of the Lord A man who is acquainted with the teachings of the great Doctor of the chair that sits in heaven hath learned to prefer God before himself to advance Gods glorie rather then his own Most men would serve themselves before they serve God Paul saith here stand thou by thy self It is not expedient for me to glory but I have had indeed visions and revelations of the Lord of them I will glorie here you have visions b {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} such discoveries as are presented to the eye of men either waking or sleeping as it were bodily representations and revelations which some make to be more sublime and Seraphicall discoveries I le come to visions saith he such things as are obvious to senses yea I le come to revelations of the most heavenly secrets such as I could never had known unlesse I had been wrapped up to heaven and the reason why a man thus taught of God will preferre his glorie before his own is Because this is indeed the essentiall and grand work of conversion and the infallible sign of grace in the heart to depose self and to set up God upon his throne therefore as by Adams fall we threw off the image of God and set up carnall self-self-love when the second Adam comes to rule in the heart then we do displace carnall self-self-love and again restore God unto his crown and dignitie this is the character of a Saint of a Disciple saith Christ in Luke 14. 26. If any man hate not his father and mother and wife and children and his own life for my sake he cannot be my Disciple He must love Jesus Christ better then the world yea better then himself and accordingly he hath an instinct within him that will incline him to preferre Christ above himself A short hint onely by way of Use Consult with your own tempers feel the pulse of your own spirits so much grace you have or so much progresse in grace you have made and not one degree not one grain more as you have learned to advance God to lift up Iesus Christ above your selves and all your own interests and ends when once they enter a contest with their Soveraign Lord the King of heaven I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago A man in Christ doubtlesse one being in Christ having union and communion with him and so referres to the subject being in Christ rather then to the object I knew a man in Christ having such and such revelations I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago All Expositours agree not whether these fourteen years ago have reference to Pauls conversion or to the time of this revelation that Paul had probably both may be reconciled in one above fourteen years ago so long it was at least since Paul was converted soon after he was converted he might be wrapped up and have this revelation and so it may have reference unto both I knew a man why doth not Paul say I Paul seeing he was the person certainly yet he speaks of himself Hence observe They who know most of God are most modest when they come to speak of themselves What said Job in the 42. Job 5 6. I heard of God great things have been spoken of him now in the later Chapters immediately before of wonderfull discoveries made but now my eye seeth thee therefore I abhorre my self in dust and ashes here is the temper of a Saint and why will he be thus modest good Reason He well knows that Pride is a cursed weed most opposite