you and I have asked had we been in their condition O that God would deliver us that he would shew us an Iland where we might never be troubled more many of us would have done this out of weaknesse but what doe they doe Vers 29. And now Lord behold their threatnings And what then They doe not say Lord deliver us from their threatnings But grant unto thy servants that with all boldnesse they may speak thy word By stretching forth thine hand to heale and that signes and wonders may be done by the name of the holy child Jesus Lord say they thou hearest their threatnings and we feare that our base hearts will be fearfull and so we shall be loath to Preach the Gospell of Christ and to doe signes and wonders as thou hast commanded therefore good Lord give us boldnesse This is the carriage of an honest holy heart So you have it of Paul ordinarily in Phil. 1. 13. There he was in bonds And in Vers 19. He doth implicitly desire the Prayers of the People for him VVhat to doe For I know sayth he that this shall turne to my Salvation through your prayers and the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ according to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all holdnesse as alwayes so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death I doe not pray you Phillippians that you would pray that God would bind the hands of Nero that he may not put me to death or that he would open the Prison gates to let me out but I pray that in nothing I may be ashamed but that with all boldnesse as alway so now Christ may be magnified in my body I care not whether it be by life or by death so God may be glorified that if I live I may doe good there and if I die I may die as a Saint and a Christian So in Ephes 6. 18. I beseech you sayth he give your selves much to prayer above all things and pray for me VVhat to doe That utterance may be given me that I may open my mouth boldly to make knowne the Mysteries of the Gospell for which I am an Ambassador in bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak He was in bonds and he desires them not once to pray that God would break his bonds O but pray that I may open my mouth boldly I find feare comes upon me many times feare of Cesar and feare of the Sword and feare of putting me to death therefore Pray that I may open my mouth boldly This is the carriage of a heart that is truly humbled Another a Seaventh thing is this a humble 7. A humble heart more carefull of benefit then comfort in afflictions heart he is alway more carefull to reape benefit from afflictions then to fetch comfort to himselfe in afflictions A proud heart is altogether for comfort he will doe any thing for comfort As Saul he will goe to the VVitch if need be for to fetch comfort but he studies not how to pertake of Gods holinesse by his afflictions Eightly to draw to a conclusion a humble 8. He neglects not Gods commands in afflictions heart doth not remit one jot of his obedience to the commands of God notwithstanding all his afflictions Proud dogged spirits I have oft observed it in my selfe and others there are some hearts that will not serve God and take paines for him otherwise then when the Lord dandleth them and cockers them and feeds them with white bread and if he doe not they will give over their callings and sit mopeing in their Closets there are diverse VVomen and other Professors that will sit mopeing in their Chambers a whole week together and why Because God hath laid such afflictions upon their spirits they will doe nothing for God all the businesse of their generall and particular callings must lie at six and seavens they will doe nothing for God when his hand is on them Now a humble heart as Job said in another case Though he kill me yet will I trust in him So sayth a humble heart let him kill me yet I will obey him I believe that he loves me there is a designe of a great reach in it there is the glory of God and the wisdome of God and the greatnesse of God in it Let him doe his work let him doe what he will and by Gods helpe I will doe my work in my generall and particular calling notwithstanding all the task that he layes on me I will not abate any thing of the obedience I am to bring in Another thing is this a humble heart alway 9. Hee sticks close to the Covenant in afflictions sticks closer to the Covenant of God in affliction then otherwise and the more the Lord will afflict him the more he will stir up his soul as Isaiah sayth to lay hold upon the Covenant As a loving child the more you whipp him the more he will endeavour in love to close with you and cling to you and catch the rod in a reverent manner in a loving way so a humble heart will get to God in affliction and lay hold upon him And this was the fault as Isay sayth of that people Isa 64. VVhen the Lord had layd his hand on them and suffered others to be Lords over them Sayth he V. 7. There is none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himselfe to take hold of thee for thou hast hid thy face from us and hast consumed us because of our iniquities Here was a great affliction on them they were consumed and God had hid his face yet there was none that did stir up himselfe to lay hold on God out of the pride of their owne hearts A proud heart alwayes goes from God in affliction As we see Judas he went not to God but to the halter and Caine he went to the Land of Nod when God was angrie he went to buyld Townes he did not goe to God and lay hold upon the Covenant so Saul he goes to Endor to the VVitch in stead of going to God and laying better hold of the Covenant So a proud heart departs from God and growes further off and looser from God whereas alway in afflictions a humble heart sticks closer to God and gets better hold of his blessed covenant Another thing is this that in afflictions a humble 10. A humble heart apt to pray in afflictions heart desires in nothing to be troubled but in every thing to make his requests knowne with thanksgiving and that implies two things First he doth not restrayne prayer as Jobâ— 1. To make requests friends sayd to him Thou art a wicked man for thou restraynest prayer before God in thy afflictions And indeed if they had sayd true of Job he had been so he had been proud at the least proud people they will not
that in Scripture is so called when men are said to be humble it is a grace that is never away from a Saint we should be cloathed with it as Peter saith I am to speake of it in that sence it is the gracious lowly spirituall humble frame of heart that is in a Saint and is in no wicked man nor can be as I shall shew afterwards Secondly when I am speaking that the sight of God in Christ humbleth the soule you must not 2 Other meanes of humiliation excluded mistake here and thinke that I exclude other meanes inferiour meanes For I told you before as God shews himselfe by any meanes by any creature by any providence or any way So he may so shew himself that way that he may humble you in that way Therefore you must not say that therefore we speake against meanes because I say the sight of God doth humble a Saint for I exclude not other meanes Thirdly and in a speciall manner take notice 3 Sight of God doth humble occasionally that this sight of God the seeing God of as Saints doe see him doth not properly humble the soule of a man but occasionally as it were It doth it not properly because you know that in Heaven when we shall be in Heaven we doe not read that we shall then be humbled We shall then be in a state of glory every way and yet we shall see God there more then ever we did before But beloved the sight of God humbleth us here occasionally that is by reason of the frailtie and corruption that is upon us Just as the Law made Paul to sinne more Rom. 7. Sinn taking occasion by the Law So I say because we are fraile and weake and vile and sinfull every apprehension of a glorious and great and powerfull God abaseth and humbleth us as in Luke 5. 8. when Peter saw a little of God in Christ working a myracle for I told you God many wayes by any meanes can reveale himself to the soule of a Saint saith he Lord depart from me I am a sinfull man Peters heart was taken downe and he was amazed to see the glory of God and why so because he considered he was a sinfull man that threw him downe and humbled him Now these three things being laid downe before-hand I shall briefly in a word prove this lesson Job 42. 5 6. when Job had seen God it humbled him I have heard of thee by the hearing of the eare but now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhorre my selfe and repent in dust and ashes So likewise Peter Luke 22. 61 62. Peter having a glance of Christ Christ looked on him and he seeing his Master looke on him he went out and wept bitterly Paul having seene the Lord he was stricken downe from his Horse and cried Lord what wilt thou have me to doe though God manifested himselfe variously and their humiliation is variously exprest and set forth in Scripture yet it is but one and the same thing so it holds true that this sight of God doth truly humble the soule I shall in the next place shew you two things First I shall give you some reasons to prove that it is so And secondly shew you somewhat why it is so Concerning the first I shall give you but these two or three reasons First of all I finde clearly in Scripture that God Reas 1. All graces wrought by seeing of God works all graces in the soules of his Saints by beholding him I say I find clearly in Scripture that every grace that is wrought in the heart of a Saint is wrought by beholding God in Christ and if every other grace be wrought thus why not this As for instance First for holines take it in a general sence 2 Cor. 3. Holinesse ult VVe all with open face behold as in a glosse the glory of the Lord in Jesus Christ We behold the glory of God as in a glasse and are changed into the same image that is we are made like unto Jesus Christ holy as he is holy we are changed from glory to glory that is by beholding the glory of God in Jesus Christ we are made holy And then you shall see for patience that comes into the soule by beholding God in Christ as Patience you shall have it Heb. 11. 27. It is said that Moses he endured and feared not the wrath of the King he endured as seeing him who is invisible How did Moses endure all the threatnings of Pharaoh The Lord revealed himselfe to his Soule and by the grace of God the Lord wrought him to a patiently bearing of all his threatnings So Stephen in Act. 7. He saw Jesus Christ sit at the right hand of glory and then he did quietly fall on his knees to pray for his enemies when they were stoning him to death So also for faith how wil you have faith see in Heb. Faith 12. 2. Looking to Jesus the author and sinisher of our faith We have not faith of our selves neither can we make a faith of our selves but by beholding of Christ the Lord works faith in our hearts to receive Wisdome him So also I might shew of wisdom and of strength as you may see Isa 45. 23 24. an observable place Strength Christ would have them to looke upon him Looke to me and be saved surely shall one say in the Lord have I righteousnes and strength Christ bids them looke to him and then they shall crie out they have strength Nay in Joh. 1. 12. you shall see that all graces are put together VVe beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten Sonne of God and out of his fullnesse we all receive grace for grace By beholding the glory of God in Jesus Christ we receive grace for grace that Jesus Christ hath we have it as they say the Paper receives the print from the Presse Now beloved if this be the ordinary way in Scripture to beget all other graces in the soule then why not the way to humble the soule before God Only with this difference which is worth your Difference in the working of humiliation and other graces observing that every other grace is wrought in the soule by a kinde of assimilation but this is wrought in a contrary way I mean thus by beholding the strength of God in Jesus Christ my soule is made strong by beholding the wisedome of God in Christ I am made wise by beholding the holinesse of God in Jesus Christ I am made holy But now of this humiliation it is not so by beholding the holinesse and power or strength or any thing else in God humiliation does not rise by assimulation by making me like but every thing in God dasheth a man and makes him nothing in his owne eyes Thus the sight of God works it Besides I finde in Scripture that every thing that is in God if I may so speake is of a humbling
I doe repent with all my heart and with all my soule But if God say if you did repent then you would leave all your sins He will say good Lord is there any man in the world without sinne and so it is endlesse the shifts and tricks and quillets whereby a man when he is Arrested by the truth all his life would avoyd the edge and power of the truth Now let us come to our owne soules you and I and see how it is with us in respect of all the blessed truths of God that are in this booke Are you willing and desirous to know them though they bring persecution And when a truth hath come that hath been crosse to you have you not taken Armes against it or contended with it as the Scripture speaks of those that obey not the truth but strive against it It is not said those that contend with their Neighbours but those that contend with the truth And so have you not used shifts What a world of endlesse shifts have men against plaine truthes There is no Drunkard nor Swearer but he knows that if he live in that sinne he shall be damned and he cannot deny but that he is a Drunkard or a Swearer or it may be a Whoremonger and yet you may talke with him two or three houres and he will goe from this to that and he hopes this and that and you shall never have him let the edge of truth come to him Thirdly and lastly and so I have done I have shewed you how you may know you are humbled by your carriage and deportment of your soules in respect of Gods justifying grace And secondly how to consider of your constant temper and carriage of your soules to the truths of God to the will of God revealed to you 3. By our carriage to Gods commands Now thirdly consider the carriage of your souls in respect of the injunctions or commands of God that are layd upon you the nature and property of a heart truly humbled by seeing of God in Jesus Christ is this to be willing to obey God in any thing that God layes upon him just as we see it was with Paul Acts 9. When he was humbled by seeing of God he cryes out saith he Lord what wilt thou have me to doe As if he had sayd I could have indented with thee formerly whether I should doe this or that and I would doe what I please and when I pleased but now Lord What wilt thou have me to doe Whatsoever it is it shall be all one only shew me what it is and I will obey it And then he bids him goe and have his eyes opened and then he must Preach and then he must be Persecuted and then he must goe into a Ship and be carried a Prisoner a great way by sea and there Souldiers were like to kill him and then the ship must be split and yet Paul was content Lord what wilt thou have me to doe he followed God in every thing so in Luke 3. 10. 11. When John Baptist did come and teach the will of God the people they cried What shall we doe and the Publicans VVhat shall we doe and the Souldiers and what shall we doe This is the disposition of a heart that is humbled he desires to know what the will and what the command of God is and he yeilds obedience to it Now on the other side it is not so with carnall Proud hearts disobey Gods commands proud people they are like those in Psal 12. 4. Our tongues are our owne we ought to speake what Lord shall controll us We will speake what we list and doe what we please we will goe our owne wayes and doe that which is right in our owne eyes As they say in Jer. 2 31. We are Lords and we will come no more unto thee We are Lords and we will goe our owne wayes Beloved every carnall man in the World though he think there is a God yet he thinks he was borne and brought into the World to doe his owne will and to please himselfe therefore as far as the will of God suits to that he will doe it but otherwise that is the maine streame of his life to doe his owne will Now as I told you in the former so in this there are three tempers in the heart of a carnall man concerning Gods commands that are contrary to the temper and posture of a gratious heart that is truely humbled The first thing that we finde in the word and by 1. A proud heart soone weary of Gods commands experience is That when the Lord lays a command upon a man that is not truely humbled it may be he doth not resist presently but he will be soon wearie and tyred and that is a base thing he will be jaded under it It may be at the first he will not fight against it as some do but he wil soon be jaded he will soon be tired There is many a man and many a woman that have taken pleasure in the will of God and in the commands of God in former time and have gloryed and rejoyced in it but now they begin to be wearie and to be jaded like tyred horses they are past their best they have no heart to it I feare it is so with too many of you Like the people in Mal. 1. 13. The Lord bids them to offer sacrifice and they say Behold what a wearinesse it is and they snuffed at it and they brought that which was torne and lame and sick So you need not wonder that God hath a quarrell with you when you say what a wearinesse is it to serve him what a wearinesse and tedious thing it is to hear the Preacher thus all day long and to be praying and hearing all the week what an endlesse thing it is to begin again to morrow and next day and every day and you snuffe at it and you are ready to loath it This is the disposition of a heart that God hath not truely humbled that hath never seen the face of God in Jesus Christ Looke in Rom. 1. The people that God layd those spirituall judgements upon to give them up to all uncleannesse to commit filthinesse man with man what was the reason of all this One was because when they knew God they did not glorifie him as God they had some knowledge but they did not improve it Another was they did resist the truth they did levie forces against it and they liked not to retaine the knowledge of God They had a little knowledge of God and that galled them because their practice was contrary therefore they liked not to retaine that knowledge they had no liking to keep that little knowledge of God they wished as Calvin sayth every wicked man in the World wisheth that he were wholly Ignorant of God for his knowledge doth but onely imhitter him and trouble him in his way That is the first thing
is the cheife principle that the creature should desire its owne preservation It is so in all creatures Grace screws up and makes nature spirituall but grace goes not contrary to the mayne and solid principles of pure nature Now therefore I say that a man by grace should be brought to wish his owne destruction it is very harsh For besides that it is contrary to the principle of nature Ground of true submission to God it is contrary to the spirit of adoption for what is it that makes me submit to God It is because I have loving thoughts of him and I conceive of his love to me and the like if I should looke upon God as an enemie I should love him no more then the Devill himselfe doth it is ordinarily so But what may be in one soul or two or a few I know not But that which I meane is in ordinarie mercies especially in temporall mercies it is the frame of a humble heart to sit still and be quyet if God denie the mercie That is one thing Another thing is this that as a humble heart 2. He is content that God should take away any mercy will be content that God should denie him any mercie So Secondly he is contented if it please God to take away any mercie that he hath God shall pick and choose and if he will take away all yet he is contented and quiet It is just with a humble heart towards God as you read of an honest hearted man in the Book of God that was humble towards David you shall read of him in 2 Sam. 19. 24. It was one Mephibosheth David had given Mephibosheth him a great deale of land for his father Jonathans sake and being a lame man for his Nurse let him fall when he was a child he had a wicked servant one Ziba and when David came home he sadled asses and brought presents and told David Mephibosheth would not come to 2 Sam. 16. 1. meet the King which was a grosse lie saith David if he be so sturdie take thou the land At the last Mephibosheth finds a way to come to David and David asked him why he did not come to 2 Sam. 19. 24. him sayth he My Lord O King my servant deceived me for he sadled an asse and went away and hath slandered thy servant unto my Lord the King c. Sayth the King Vers 29. Thou and Ziba divide the land honest hearted Mephibosheth once I gave him all but now the more was the pitty he shall have one halfe and thou the other saith Mephibosheth yea let him take all for as much as my Lord the King is come again in peace unto his owne house I care little for the land though I be a lame man and cannot get any thing for my selfe and Ziba though he were a wicked man and deserved it not yet sayth he I am so taken with the Kings person that he is come home that let him take all So a humble heart carries himselfe thus towards God that when the Lord seems to be as it were in a holy chafe and anger that he takes away his mercies he takes away a child or a husband or a mans estate or the like if thou have a humble heart thou wilt not be in a rage and say let him take all in a desperate humour but he sayth meekly let him take this or that or all if he will so I may injoy him and his love I will blesse God I say when thou canst blesse God notwithstanding all be gone This was Jobs condition God tooke all from Job one after another in a little while as we see in Job 1. Sayth Job notwithstanding God hath taken all from me Naked came I out of my Mothers wombe and the Lord gives and the Lord takes blessed be the name of the Lord. Or as it is in some old Greek coppies As it pleaseth the Lord so commeth things to passe blessed be the name of the Lord. He blessed the Lord that had taken away his children and thrown downe his house yet he could blesse him Now looke a little upon your hearts how you finde your spirits when God hath denied you mercies when God hath taken away mercies As I could give you many instances but to name one or two it may be when thou wert a carnall man that thou wert a very honourable man in thy Countrie thou wert the onely States-man the man that did doe all the businesses but now since thou art Religious thou art despised and there are none that make use of thee thy honour is gone Thou wert accounted a wise man but now thou art accounted a mope and a sot Thou wert once accounted a fine young man or woman and now thy esteeme is gone canst thou be content that God hath rubbed off these mercies that one while he takes away thine honour another while thy wealth another while thy friends and yet thou canst blesse the name of God this a humble heart can doe Another thing in respect of the mercies of 3. A humble heart will wait for mercies God is this that a humble heart can be content to wait upon the Lord though he stay never so long for the least mercie Proud hearts unlesse you feed them in hast they will be gone A proud heart will not waite on God but a humble heart will stay Gods leasure till he give him what he pleaseth and how he pleaseth Hab. 2 3. The vision is for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lie though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry Behold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him but the just shall live by his faith The proud heart and the just man living by faith are put opposite one to the other the just shall live by faith that is though he desire mercies yet he shall be content to waite on God but he that hath his soul lifted up he will be gone he will not stay for God just like that wicked King that you read of in the Book of God This evill sayth he comes of the Lord what should I stay for him any longer a wretched man So an unhumbled heart sayth what should I stay for God any longer in this and so he takes base courses to helpe himselfe and will not waite upon God and goe in Gods wayes It is a thing highly commended in the Saints throughout all the Scriptures when they had a frame of heart to waite on God As Abraham the father of the faithfull we read of him in Acts 7. VVhen God brought him from his fathers house and from his whole estate and led him abroad from one place to another and had brought him at the last to the Land of Canaan where he had not one foot of land and his posterity was not to possesse it of foure hundred yeares after yet he blesseth God and rayseth Altars
lifted up to thinke he is something more then his brethren but then even with a haire you may pull him downe to the lowest forme with the least and lowest of Saints This you have Rom. 12. Mind not high things but condescend to them of low estate A humble heart can rank himselfe with the meanest sort of Christians Proud hearts especially in this Cittie tread poore Saints under feet you have many that are only for disputing professors if he can hold an argument bravely and sophistically or be a controversiall Christian that can discourse upon this or that controversie such your spirits are carried after But a poore Saint that can hardly pray in his familie or speake a little broken fragments of godlinesse you despise him But a humble heart knows how to suite to the poorest Saint let him be weak in any thing he can be weak also As the Apostle sayth 2 Cor. 11. 9. Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burne not If any one be weake I will come downe and be weak with him if any be offended I burne that is I suit my selfe to all men that I may win some as he speaks of sinners so it is with Saints when they can be weake with the weake and ignorant with the ignorant and suite themselves with the meanest So you have two words The Third is this breifly observe it that a 3. He is jealous of those truths he knowes humble heart you shall see it by his carriage towards his brethren towards Saints by this that out of the high and honourable opinion that he hath of all other Saints he alway hath a kind of jealousie even of those truths which he is most assured of I say meerly out of the very honour and esteeme and respect that he hath of all Saints he sees them all over and above him and from thence even those truths that he is most assured off he is jealous of O the pride and the wretchednesse of some that are ready to say what doe I care what all the World thinks all the World now or they that were before and it may be it is but a conceit of yesterday or it may be it is a truth but it argueth a vile proud heart Shall I say what doe I care what others think why should I be perswaded that I am so sainted that I should not care what the Generation of the Saints that are otherwise minded say There are many things in our preaching that we may have full assurance of but there may be full assurance of understanding concerning truths that a man may preach with boldnesse and suffer and die for it with fearlesnesse and yet there may be a kind of jealousie in the soul concerning it when the Generation of the Saints that he looks on as above him are of another mind This is a mysterie and a riddle that is only knowne to humble men Acts 2â— 9. Say they let us not be too violent against Paul Who knoweth but that an Angel hath revealed this to him So a humble heart thinks this is the will of God and I dare die for it but this is the time of pouring out of the spirit and such men as are above me they are of another mind and how doe I know but God may be in it So there is a holy suspicion that yet hinders not full assurance that riseth meerly out of reverence and respect of all the Saints that he sees and thinks are above him Therefore we have proud spirits a devillsh spirit of pride among us when a man shall conceit that he only is in the right and slight others We have every good gift from above and I must not be angrie with yonder man because he doth not beleive as I say for he hath received of God what he hath But when a man shall say this thing I think to be so and all the rest of the World are Schismaticks and factious people it is an argument of a devillish spirit of a proud spirit at the best Fourthly from this for they depend one upon another you may know a humble heart in his demeanour to the Saints he is very meek 4. He is meek to Saints of another mind and patient and long-suffering towards other Saints that are otherwise minded and hence it is from his humilitie that hee is meeke and patient For he thinks eyther be is in the truth or I he thinks one thing and I another if he be in the truth and I be not God will reveale it in due time to me and if I be in the truth and he be not God will reveale it to him in due time Therefore he sayth that is a golden rule Rom. 14. 5. Let every man be perswaded in his owne mind whatsoever is not of faith is sin Therefore he will not doe as many men doe in our times if men differ a tittle from them they crie out we shall have the Common-wealth and the Kingdome undone and such and such are Hereticks and schismaticks and one will have them â—â—â—â—shed and another will have them imprisoned and there must be fire and fagot and it may be some of Gods people may be carried with the rous of blaspheming creatures that raile at the people of God who have various dispensations various graces in a various measure and manner But these are not humble persons for I never heard a humble Saint use that language And I dare say it is for want of grace eyther men have no grace at all or else it is because they have not this grace of humility in their soules Fiftly the demeanour of a humble heart toward 5. He yeelds to the reproofe or instruction of others the Saints will appeare also in this marke it a humble heart he dares not resist or slight reproofe or instruction from the meanest Saint because he sees him above him that is the reason you know the Scripture is full of it how David was a man after Gods owne heart therefore he had a humble and good heart when Ahigal a woman comes to give him instruction that he should not shed innocent bloud blessed be the Lord sayth he and blessed be thy councel it is good councel And Job sayth If I have not hearkened to my maid servant it were a wickednesse to be punished by the Judg he would hearken to her if shee reprooved him and admonished him and instructed him in any thing How was Apollo an eloquent man taken and instructed by a crafts-man and his Wife and the wife did teach him for ought I know as much if not more then her husband the holy-Ghost puts her first he learned the Gospell of God and Christ from them David did learne from his enemies he did take a reproofe from one of the worst of his enemies And sayth Paul Rom. 2. 12. When I come we shall be edified by our mutuall faith Paul thought they would doe him good and he would
and he relieved his kinsman when he was in misery and did teach his familie and relieved the King of Sodome he did many good works Though these good works did justifie his faith to the world that they knew he was a believer by it and he himselfe did know it by it yet never a one of these were an ingredient into the justification of his person that was by the righteousnesse of God without works Wee must get good works after This is the Good works to be done after we believe rule of the word Charge them that believe to maintain good works that is after they believe charge them to avoy'd the evill and to doe the good and to abound But for the poynt of justification which is the maine thing for your soule and mine to feed on that is built on another foundation upon the grave of Christ and upon the death of Christ Therefore you shall find those speeches of the Apostle Paul when he speaks of this glorious condition he speaks alway of his union with Christ I am crucified with Christ and I am buried with Christ and I am dead but Christ lives in me Learne this lesson that you may come to this Ground of humilitie for if you had learned it spiritually when you had done the most for God if you could doe ten times more then Abraham or Paul and yet Paul preached from Jerusalem to Illyricum yet then thou wouldest say I am an unprofitable servant there is not one graine that I have done that is an ingredient into the death and resurrection of Christ to help to make me a just man or to procure the favour and love of God And when you had done evill and it may be failed in carelesnesse and committed sin O what a glorious thing were it to goe home and fall upon thy knees and say Lord I have sinned grievously but yet I am not one jote the lesse just before thee because my justice and my righteousnesse is not depending upon my sinning or my unsinning upon my holinesse or my unholinesse but upon Jesus Christ Then you would find by experience your hearts The right way to mourn for sinne melt in pieces you would be able to look upon sin in the vastness and unkindness of it against a deare Father then you would see your selves the vilest objects you would not so thinke or speake of any man in the world as of your selves even for the least frailtie For then the love of God as oyle working with iron would press your hearts Then you shall know and not before what it is to be truly humbled and then you shall have power to reforme Then you would be able to say my soule is truly humbled I can mourne for sin till I am weary of weeping Then you will be able though you make not those covenants and resolutions there will be such an impression upon the soule that you cannot choose but mourne and loath your selves and avoyd the occasions of sinne seeing your selves just men in Jesus Christ For when a man sees himself unjust he can never mourne kindly for sin if he see God on Sinai as a Judge there will be but untoward mourning for sin But when a man sees the coast cleare then he can say I have been the greatest sinner in London there is never a childe of God that hath walked more barrenly then I have done and yet through Christ I am as just in Gods sight as any man in London I am Gods childe but I am an unhappie graceless childe then a man can call himselfe foole and be angry with himselfe and weep bitterly Now usually when you mourne for sinne you Men usually think justification is cracked by sin thinke there is a crack in your justification and so many sins as you have committed there are so many flawes in your justification and so many faintings of faith in the favour of God and therefore when you pray to God and are humbled for sin it is your manner and it was mine most of my dayes onely to dawb up the flawes of justification and you pray the Lord to pardon such a sin and now you see God is wrath with you and you are like to be cast off and your hearts begin to be hard and you have sad thoughts of God arising in you and unquiet and horror in your soules and you are far enough from true sorrow all this while It is impossible there should be true sorrow when you keep a coile and confess your sinnes and wrangle it out with God and you will confess your sins to day and think to make God amends to morrow and so as a man stops chincks in a wall wee think to dawb up the flawes and cracks of justification this way Whereas wee should look on justification as a thing entire in the hands of Christ that wee have nothing to doe in but it is in Christ altogether founded on his death and resurrection and all the title that wee have in it is onely by saith As Rom. 10. sheweth The righteousnesse of faith saith on this wise c. The word is nigh thee There is our title and tenure I have nothing to doe for my justification but Christ hath fulfilled the law and he did die and rise and sitteth on the right hand of God and I endeavour to believe it that is to consent that it is so and praise his name and live to him all the dayes of my life O here is the life of Christianitie I have seene people quarrell with themselves Hindrance of reforming our wayes and complaine O I have a hard heart and I desire the preachers to pray for me and when you have fallen into weaknesse you will goe and confess your sins and strive to breake your hearts and mourne for your worldlinesse and your pride and frowardnesse and yet it will not doe but your hearts grow harder then they were before and whereas when you have committed a sin to day you think to goe and reforme to morrow and to turne over a new leafe to morrow you will be worse then to day because you think to make God amends he leaves you to your selves and you grow worse The reason is this because in some sort even to this day you mix sanctification with justification Now I know it I speak what I know could you leave your justification alone in the hands of Jesus Christ and look on it as I said as cash in the cupboord not to be touched and as long as Christ is righteous say I am righteous behold your selves alway as just men and women that in Jesus Christ have fulfilled the law of God and then you will find your hearts inclined to any good thing then would your hearts break and shatter to peices when you have done the least evill against God then you would know what true sorrow and what true repentance is and not before then you would know
Gospel-Holinesse OR The saving Sight of GOD. Laid open from Isa 6. 5. Together with The glorious Priviledge of the Saints From Rom. 8.4 5. Both worthily opened and applied By that Faithful Dispenser of the Mysteries of Christ WALTER CRADOCK late Preacher at Alhallowes the Great in London 2 Cor. 3.18 But we all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Rom. 10.3 For they being ignorant of Gods righteousnesse and going about to establish their own righteousnesse have not submitted themselves unto the righteousnesse of God Published and allowed by the Author's consent LONDON Printed by M. Simmons and are to be sold by Joseph Blaik-lock at his House in Ivie-lane 1651. To the Reader THESE Sermons being exactly penned from the Authors own mouth are now brought to publique view though when he preached them had not the least thought to suffer them to be Printed but since they were thus prepared to come abroad into the world the Pious Author finding so much of the sweetnesse of Christ in viewing of them could not turn his backe upon them As for this godly Author his worth and excellency is so eminently known it would be vanity in me to speake any thing in relation to his praise let this and other of his owne works praise him Yet thus much I shall say that I doe verily believe that he preached these Choise Lectures from the bosome of Jesus Christ that these things were the very experiments of his owne soule and the lively actings of the spirit of God within him What he hath seene and heard hee hath declared that we might have fellowship with him whose fellowship is with the Father and the 1 Iohn 1. 3. Sonne and therein shall our joy be full These Sermons are not cloathed with humane Art quaint expressions eloquent speculations but choose rather to come forth in the nakednesse of truth not with the enticing words of mans wisdome but in the demonstration of the spirit and of power here is nothing to fill thy head with barren notions fruitlesse opinions or meer speculations but here is that to fill thy heart with the glory of God the life of Christ and light of his spirit I shall in a few words hint out what thou shalt find in these ensuing discourses First a glorious discovery of a saving sight of God in Christ When Moses desired to see Gods face the Lord himselfe tels him that no man can see his face and live Yet the Lord proclaimed his mercie his patience his goodnesse his truth and his justice before him Now where was Moses all this while he was in the clift of the rock Now verily that Rock was Christ we see the glory of God in Christ per speculum as it were in a glasse Christ is that glasse in which wee see the image of the Fathers glory and that as with open face Christ is called the 2 Cor. 3. 18. Heb. 1. 3. brightnesse of his Father's glory so that the brightnesse of Gods glory is manifested by Christ as the Sunne is manifested by it's boames wee cannot see the Sunne in Rotà in his Charret or circumvolution but by it's beames so the Fathers glory is revealed Tanquam per radios ac splendorem as it were by beames and brightnesse shining most excellently in Christ The Apostle saith God who hath commanded light to shine out of darknesse hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ God is known by Christ as a man is known by his face it is only hee that came from the bosome of the Father that can open the secrets of his bosome and reveale the glory and brightnesse of Gods face unto us Secondly this glorious sight of God is that that humbles the soule Because mine eye hath seen thee saith Job I abhor my selfe in dust and ashes The greatest piece of self-denyall is to discard our own righteousnesse and formality 1. Mans fleshly righteousnesse is the great idoll of the world every one is ready to fall downe unto it and call it blessed This is Anti-Christ comming forth in the habit of Christ being arrayed and decked with gold precious stones and pearls whereby the Nations are deceived but when wee know the righteousnesse of the Lord wee shall cast away our owne righteousnesse and as the Prophet speakes say unto it get yee Isa 30. 22. hence 2. Formality is in no lesse esteeme among us then the former what is the Religion of most people but a meere forme without any life or power at all Astronomers tell us that the upper Planets have their Stations and Retrogradations as well as their direct Motions So 't is with most in their Religion sometimes they move forwards sometimes backward sometimes stand at a stay and thus they tread always in one circle or round turning like a doore upon the hinges but never from off the place where they were As for most mens hearing praying fasting what is it but as a taske performed so coldly that there is no principle of divine life in it and thus they goe on but are never at their journeys end Men commonly use what they should enjoy and enjoy that they should use they will use the Lord whom they should enjoy and they will enjoy their duties and performances that they should only use and thus they starve their soules by formality in religion The third thing we may take notice of is the righteousnesse of Christ commended to us before the righteousnesse of Adam Most of the worlds righteousnesse proceedes from the principles of the old Adam which is corrupt and fleshly what is this but to be born of Ishmael the son of the bond-woman to come unto Mount Sinai in Arabia viz. the Covenant of works but Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of all the first-born of God viz. the Covenant of grace Vain man thinks to climb to Heaven by his own righteousnesse when alas it is but of the first Adam naturall weake and fleshly All the wisdome knowledg invention of man as Tongues Arts and Sciences as Philosophy Logicke Rhetoricke c. All these are but to repaire those reliques of the first Adam's corrupted principles of reason and understanding therefore if wee goe to patch up a righteousnesse of these we doe but build what the Lord will have destroyed But that which is able to restore us is an establishment of the righteousnesse of Christ upon our hearts by the participation of the divine nature Christ performs all righteousnesse for his Saints and then works all righteousnesse in them The divine will of God is righteousnesse now Christ is that divine will brought forth in a Saint working after the Lords owne pleasure The Civill law doth account Elephants and Camels to have the nature of wild beasts though they
doe the worke of tame beasts So Adam's righteousnesse commends not to God we are only accepted in the beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ingratiated through that beloved The divine treasures of righteousnesse are first in Christ and by our union with him wee come to enjoy them by way of participation Fourthly Substantiall and reall holinesse set out to be farre more excellent then all empty formes or mere professions Holinesse is God stamped and printed upon the soule 't is Christ formed in the heart 't is the very image frame and disposition of the holy spirit within us The Philosopher could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God was but an empty name without vertue so are all our professions of Christ without holinesse that being the very marrow and quintessence of all religion Holinesse is something of God in us it proceed from him it lives in him God can no more be separated from it then the beames from the Sunne Holinesse is happinesse and the more of it we have the more wee have of the life and image of God upon us Holinesse is nothing but our conformity to God and our being like him to be as he is Holinesse is the new frame the new creation the workmanship of the Lord in our hearts it is the Lord building and setting up his owne Temple Tabernacle and new Jerusalem within us filling of us with his owne glory writing his name in our fore heads by imprinting his owne divine image upon us Oh what happinesse what sweet delight and harmony of heart what soule-musicke and spirituall joy is there in having our soule wrapt up in the divine life light and beauty of the Lords holinesse Fifthly Thou hast a discovery of the inability of mans carnall principles or reason to judge of spirituall things or the things of God every truth is discovered by principles of light suitable to it selfe Hence it is that the Apostle tels us of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an animate sensual or natural man and of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spirituall man one enlightned by the spirit of God Now the naturall man is not able to judge of things above the principles of nature The Apostle tells us no man knowes the things of a man but the spirit of man which is in him 1 Cor. 2. 11. The things of man are all created things man is therefore said to be as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world or an Epitome or Compendium wherein all created things are described as in a mappe or short abridgement Now the principle of reason in mans heart is able to search out the hidden things of nature But this large principle of man is too narrow to search into the things of the spirit so saith the Apostle The things of God knoweth 1 Cor. 2. 11. 12. 14 15. no man but the spirit of God The spirit searches the deepe things of God And againe he saith The wisdome of the spirit is but foolishnesse to the naturall man And why so because saith hee spirituall things are spiritually discerned That is they are to be understood in a spirituall sense to which mans carnall reason cannot reach But now saith hee the spirituall man discerneth all things so that divine things are only known by the spirit 't is the spirit of all truth that leads into all truth Then 't is not all Maximes and rules 't is not syllogisticall reasonings and disputes 't is not Bookes and Treatises 't is not all Systems and Bodies of Divinity that can reveal the secret mysteries of truth but it is the work of the spirit for the mystery of Christ is not meerly letter and forme without us but a quickning spirit within us Yet Sixthly Wee are taught that there is a most profound spirituall reasoning in godlinesse and that it is the highest act of the minde which is the highest faculty of the soule The mind of a Saint is Gods Throne and the motions of the mind or the reasonings thereof is nothing but Christ swaying the soule according to his good pleasure It 's true that reason as t is in man is a most imperfect and weak light and fals short of the light of God being depraved and mixt with much darknesse and so is unsuitable to judge divine things but reason considered in it's height and excellency is no other then Jesus Christ and the spirit then so much as reason hath of the light of God so much it hath of Jesus Christ Then the most excellent the most supreame and the sublimest reason is in godlinesse because in it is the greatest clearenesse certainety and light The Apostle calls it demonstration now divine reason is demonstration which is an evidencing of things by the clearest surest and most irresistible light that can be Now Christ is this spirituall reason for saith the Apostle that which manifests is light Eph. 5. 13. And what is that light but Christ and his Spirit Thus I have given thee a tast of things to set an edge to thy appetite that thou mayest make a fuller meal of Divine Dainties by reading the ensuing Treatise where thou hast a Table richly spread Now if thou art one of CHRISTS Friends then come and eate of this honey and drinke of this wine yea eate and drinke abundantly O beloved Here thou maist eate and not surfet here thou maist drinke and not be drunken the more thou eatest the stronger will thy appetite be and the more thou drinkest the more thou wilt thirst and yet with the greatest saturation and consent To conclude Thou mayest find much of CHRIST in this Booke but see also whether thou canst finde much of him also in thine owne heart Now that these things which are here written with Paper and Inke may bee written upon the Table of thy soule by the finger of the Spirit is the prayer of him who is Thine in the service of Christ John Robotham Octob. 24. 1650. THE CONTENTS OF THE Former Nine SERMONS Serm. I. Doct. 1. THE peculiar priviledge of the Saints to see God page 3 Severall wayes of seeing God 4 Peculiar sight of God what 8 The manner of the Saints seeing God 15 Use I. To shew the happy estate of saints in this World 17 Use 2. The sight of God should humble Saints 21 Use 3. Highly to prize the Preaching of the Gospell 24 Serm. II. Saving sight of God known first by the apprehensions of God which are First cleare 31 Secondly precious 34 Thirdly joyfull 38 Fourthly perpetuall 40 Secondly the sight of God known by the impressions 41 First they are reall 43 Secondly through 44 Thirdly universall 45 Serm. III. Thirdly the saving sight of God known by the expressions of it 47 First purity of heart 48 Secondly changing us into Gods image 54 Thirdly love to the Brethren 56 Fourthly Fellowshipp with Saints 57 Fifthly desire to bring others to the light 59 Sixthly it enableth to suffering 60 In what order Saints come to see
will and be it little or much yet it is all amiable in the eye of a Saint and operative in his soule my meaning is this you are not to conceive as though it were the glorious priviledge of a Saint to see one side of God as it were and not another but that that is most terrible in God to wicked men that is also I say amiable and lovely in the eye of a Saint As the power of God the greatnesse of God the Justice of God Even these things that the wicked abhorre and hate the Lord useth to reveale them to his Saints in Excellent Glory That is an other thing 3. God sheweth himself variously Then thirdly God doth shew himselfe to his children by various manifestations My meaning is this God doth not alway shew himselfe in the same manner and fashion to his child God as it were comes in a new dresse every day to the Soule of his Child all the dayes of his life in this world and for ought he knowes for ever in the world to come As it is unspeakable to say how God appeares to the soule of a Saint so the manifestations are innumerable the strange ways that God comes to the soule he shews himself to day this way to morrow after another and the third day after another The Lord manifests himself variously That is another thing Then fourthly it is by various means also that God 4 By various meanes comes in by You must understand he comes alwayes through Jesus Christ but then for other lower meanes he chooseth what meanes he pleaseth he comes in somtimes by afflictions and corrections somtimes by common providence sometimes in the word preached sometimes in meditation sometimes in prayer some times one way sometimes another The Lord can take any way any creature any providence any thing to convey himselfe by to the Soule of his Child in a saving way 5 It is not constant Then lastly this sight of God which is the priviledge of the Saints it is not constant for ought I know to any Saint no not under the New Testament much lesse under the Old but the Saints have their desertions in the new Testament God hides his face though not as oft as he did in the old Now let me desire you to lay up these things because they will be necessary when we come to speak of the other doctrine So much concerning the manner how God reveales himself to his children I shall now come to the Uses of this and then way will be made for the other point to shew how this sight of God doth truly kindly and savingly humble us For the Use of this First this shews the happy estate Use 1. The happy estate of a Saint in this world of a Saint in this world that he hath as it were a heaven upon earth because he sees God If thou wouldest consider seriously that there is such a glorious priviledge as this thou wouldest say blessed is the man that hath it and cursed and unhappy is the man that hath it not it is our Saviours word in the beginning of his Sermon Math. 5. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Now purity of heart is not the blessing properly but the seeing of God He that is pure in heart is a blessed man saith Christ for he shall see God So that if thou wilt believe Christ Jesus If thou be a Saint and see God and canst say the Lord hath revealed his glory to my soule in Jesus Christ then oppose that to any miserie that can be in this world Put any miserie that makes a man unhappy in this world in the one scale and that priviledge of seeing God in Christ in the other scale and surely thou wilt see that thou art a blessed and happy man As suppose thou art a poore man a plundred man a persecuted man or a sick man or woman be it what it will if thou canst see God in the face of Jesus Christ if thou wilt believe Christ who is the truth thou art a blessed man a blessed woman Suppose a man were sick and should never see health suppose he were weake and should never see strength suppose he were poore and should never see wealth suppose he were banished and should never see his Countrey or his Friends Nay suppose a man were starke blind and should never see the naturall Sun yet if he have a pure heart he shall see God and if thou wilt believe Christ Jesus thou art a blessed man or woman All the blessednesse in this world put together all that mankind ever enjoyed from the creation is not worthy to be compared with one glance of that sight that a Saint hath thousands of in his life of the glory of God in Jesus Christ We are wont to say that there is this difference The beatifical vision in this life and only this difference betweene heaven and earth that glory differs from grace but only in degrees that glory and grace are the same and that glory is the perfection of grace That is very true I deny it not for we shall be clothed upon with glorie But some conceive that the beatificall vision that blessed sight is not in this world we shall not have it till we come to Heaven It is true we shall not fully and perfectly but it is not true any otherwise then as the part differs from the whole For here even in this world a Saint in some measure hath it he sees God as truly and rightly as ever he shall hereafter in Heaven therefore you may see what it is to be a Saint If God should take a poor Drunkard or Swearer and but shew his Soule as it were through his fingers or through a gold ring one glance of this sight he would never be a Drunkard or Swearer he would never be a Railer and live as a Sott againe all the dayes of his life No it is a glorious condition that a Saint is in Therefore meet God and labour to know his glory in Christ And for shame be not discouraged for every trifle in the world When you heare that wicked men prosper that they have wealth and they see their children before their eyes and their Bull gendereth and their Cow calveth as it is in Job envy not their quality one glance of this blessed sight is worth more then all that ever they had or shall have therefore pitty them Nay if thou wert in prison to night and shouldest dye to morrow the most cruell death that ever was yet if the face of God shine on thee thou art a blessed man it is a glorious condition thou mayest say with David My lot is fallen in a good ground I have a goodly heritage The Lord hath denyed me worldly things wit and wealth and honour and credit but God hath been pleased to bestow this the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Therefore
never look dejected or sad more envie others no more but pitty them and weep for them thou hast infinitly a greater treasure as the Apostle saith we have this treasure in earthen Vessels What is that treasure Nothing in the world but the manifestation of God in Christ therefore bring thy soule to the resolution of that Disciple Lord shew us the Father and we are satisfied So say to God Lord shew me thy glory in Jesus Christ and I have enough though I have not wealth nor glory nor money nor any thing let the world have all I have a good bargaine I will blesse and praise thee world without end And if this be the priviledge and blessednes of a St. The miserie of wicked men to see God Then see also what a miserable condition thou art in that art a poore carnall man that though it may be thou seest thy wealth increase and thy Children playing in the streets yet thou never sawest God thou never hadst one glimpse of this glorious priviledge that I now speak of Therefore as it is the chiefe thing in Heaven to see God so doubtlesse it must be the chief thing in Hell to be throwne away from Gods presence not to see God Therefore in 2 Thess 1. it is said that wicked people shall be punished from his presence that is the maine thing in Hell to be thrown from the presence of God never to see his face more so a carnall man hath a Hell upon Earth thou that art not a new creature thou art in Hel as it were already because the main thing to be had in this world and in the world to come thou dost wholly want That is the first thing Secondly if this be so that there is such a glorious Use 2. The fight of God should humble Saints prerogative of the Saints to see God then this above al things in the world should most humble thy soule for thy sins as hereafter I shall shew more fully this should move thee to mourne for thy sins Why so You all know it is not properly at least not meerly the knowing of sin and of the wrath and curse that will melt the heart that of it self hardens the heart but you know by your owne experience that when you come to the veine where those sweet teares of repentance lye it is the seeing of the kindnesse of God of the goodnesse of God of the mercy of God and then to think that I should be such a wretch as to abuse his goodnes to grieve and provoke him that is my Father and to crucifie him again and again that is my Saviour Mercies even common mercies Common mercies abused humble a Saint melt the heart when a man considers I was the other day sick and God restored me and that I should be such a wretch since this grates upon the heart as in 2 Sam. 12. 7 8. Where God by the Prophet tels David of his sin and as a motive to humble him saith he I made thee King of Israel and Judah and if that were too little I gave thee wealth I gave thee thy Masters house and thy Masters wives into thy bosome I tooke thee when thou wert a little lad following the sheep and I made thee King of Israel and if this had been too little I would have given thee more but that thou shouldest play the villaine that thou shouldest goe and take an honest mans wife he that had but one sheep and play the Beast and doe folly in Israel this was that that wounded the heart of Dauid and thereupon he went and penned 7. penitentiall Psalmes and goes and cries have mercy upon me O God according to the multitude of thy mercies These mercies that are ordinary when we walke unworthily they grate the heart But if a man can come and say God hath bestowed Spirituall mercies abused cause greatest humbling that on me that he hath not upon any reprobate the knowing or the enjoyment of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ O as it is a mercy unutterable and invaluable that the soule is not able to expresse it when it hath it Indeed the soule can say it never found the creature but it left the Soule unsatisfied or worse then it was but saith the soule if Gods face shine but a quarter of an houre if it be but in a bush or in a Garret I am satisfied I desire no more if this might but continue As a man prizeth this more then any thing in this world so if a man doe but consider that I should be so base as to anger that God that bestowed this as I doe when I sin and have knowledge enough to know it to be sin when I look through the doore and know it is a Thiefe and might keep him out yet that I should be so proud and so vaine and so idle that I should let goe so many glorious opportunities in such and such places and times O this is that that troubles a Saint Therefore we see in 1 King 11. When the Lord would humble Solomon the Son of David for his sins and bring him to repentance It is said there he went not fully after the Lord as David his Father did the more too blame he he built high places for Chemosh and Molech Solomon built Altars and offered sacrifice to Idols and likewise he did it for all his strange wives And the Lord was angrie with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel which had appeared to him twice which had appeared twice to him there is the motive to aggravate it The Lord was angry not so much because he had so many sins and had built so many Altars but this was the aggravation because the Lord had appeared twice to Solomon so as he had never done to any other from the beginning of the world the Lord appeared savingly and spiritually to him and yet he sinned against him Now if God appeared to Solomon but twice and his sin is aggravated by that how great is my sin in the Gospel where things are more clearly presented then ever they were in those times and God hath appeared two hundred times two thousand times to my soule I have seene him one while in the Sacrament I have seen him among the Saints I have seene him in such a country in such a condition in such a place in such a medow in such a wood when I read his word and called upon his name and yet that I should be such a Villaine that I should be thus proud and thus froward and love the world so much and so easily provoke God and lie so sottishly in it when I have done it is one of the greatest motives in the World to move a spirituall heart to be abased and humbled for sins past And likewise to preserve it from sin for the time Sight of God a preservation from sinne to come I have
set God saith David at my right hand that I might not sin against him that is I will keep God in my eye The Eye of God is a meanes to keep a man from sin for who will sin in the eye of God therefore saith God to Abraham walk before me and be perfect The Servant may doe ill behind his Masters back but walk before me and then thou wilt be upright therefore when men sin they are said to leave God but saith David I have set God at my right hand that I might not sinne against him I will alway see God as I see a man that walks at my right hand Thirdly if there be such a sight of God to be Use 3. Highly to prise the preaching of the Gospell enjoyed in this world and that by his word and Spirit me thinks this might teach you highly to prize and esteeme the preaching of the Gospell the word of Christ Truly beloved if you doe not look on the Gospell with a spirituall consideration to a carnall eye it is the poorest and driest and most beggarly thing in the world for there are none that have more weaknesses then the dispensers of it It is a thing that should fill men with admiration to consider what it is to have poore creatures to doe the work of God that have a world of weaknesses more then other men who are more exact in their wayes as Lawyers and Tradesmen c. To a carnall eye the preaching of the Gospell is a dead drousie thing a man shall heare many things that he heard before and be taught till he sleep and be tyred out unlesse he look on it with a spiritual eye As the East-India Merchant when he sees such a shell he considers what is in it there is a glorious Pearle in it and for that he goes many a Mile So doe you consider that the preaching of the Gospell by poore and weake meanes it is that shell that Cabinet wherein these glorious treasures are found therefore esteeme it and prise it highly look on it with reverence look for the Pearle in it prise it and praise God for it It may be some of you that are sleepy Why men see not the excellency in the Gospel creatures may say I cannot tell that there is any such thing in it others are so sottish to this day that they no more know nor understand what we have bin doing in the preaching of the word these 12. moneths then a Post It is not because the treasure is not here but you shal see the reason 2 Cor. 4. 4. the reason why you see it not is because The God of this world hath blinded your eyes that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God should not shine upon your Soules God shines upon one mans Soule and not upon another another sees nothing but a poor Preacher full of weaknesses so he gos away remembers little or nothing or it may be sleeps all the while Beloved for the Lord Jesus sake trifle not It makes me tremble to consider seriously how those decrees that are infinite and innumerable that were before the beginning of the world are to be opened when we preach the word yonder man and yonder woman we know not whether of them belong to God or the Devill but when we preach the decree is opened there is a poor man or a poore woman that belongs to life it makes him a new creature another is as very a Sot at the yeares end as at the beginning who would not tremble when God threatens to seale up your condition by it O! it is a glorious thing the Gospell Look to it you sottish people that are like the Foole in the Proverbs that tell him a tale and when you have done he will aske what is the matter or as a man asleep that knows nothing what he hath been doing For the Lords sake consider what we are doing and what the Gospell is and what it is to have one day of the Son of man it is a very strange word in Luk. 17. 32. consider of it thou poore sottish creature When Christ was demanded of the Pharisees when the Kingdome of God should come he answered them The Kingdom of God commeth not with observation Neither shall they say lo here or lo there for behold the Kingdome of God is within you or among you And he said unto his Disciples the dayes will come when ye shall desire to see one of the dayes of the Sonne of man and ye shall not see it And yet he saith after they shall see the day of the Son of man We are to consider the sonne of Man the Lord Jesus Christ hath two sorts of dayes He hath one 2 Sorts of dayes of the Sons of man day that every wicked man shall see when they shal be eating and drinking as in the dayes of Noah When the Son of man shall come to judge according to my Gospel as Paul preacheth according to the Gospel The day of judgement that you have here preached That is one day of the Son of man And thou that wilt not receive Christ thou shalt have thy belly full of that day it will be a terribble day a day of blacknes and darknes when the earth shall reele as a drunkard and the heavens shall be gathered together as a scrowle and the world shall be on fire and thou shalt be at thy wits end it will be a terrible day the Lord deliver thee from that day But the Son of Man hath another day that is The day of grace the day of grace the day wherein the Son of man in the preaching of the Gospell would bestow grace upon thy Soule Why doth he call that the day of the Son of man more then the other He delights more in it he delights not in the death of a sinner This is that sweet day that Jesus Christ delights in to offer himself to thee and to lay before thee life and salvation by his death These things were not written for them only but for us also Remember the day will come when thou shalt desire to see one day of the son of Man but shalt not see it Thou wilt say O that I had one such day as we have now in this place when the Preacher told me of seeing God and Christ O that I had but one day but one motion in my heart by the Spirit that I had then and yet I sotted it out and did forget it O that God would smile as he did then but it shall not be Therefore the Lord help you that you doe not trifle out your salvation as abundance in this Nation and in this Citty doe between sottishnes and formalitie Abundance of People heare the word but here is abundance of formalitie few men consider with whom they have to do when they heare the word of God and what the busines is but in a trifling manner
in respect of lust and sin and the world and the Devill yet it creates and begets in the soule a greater thirst for more of that apprehension Therefore we see clearely Phil. 3. where Paul runs a race as it were after the knowledge of God in Christ See what the Apostle saith I account all as Dung and Drosse for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and account them Dung I have lost all and I am not sorry for it And why is all this That I may know him and the power of his resurrection Now Paul was a Preacher and did he not know Christ there had been a blind Preacher He was an Apostle and Doctor of the Gentiles and did he not know the resurrection Yes but the meaning is this He forgate that which was behind as we see after that is all that apprehension he had of God in Christ he forgate it in regard of the affection to desire more he did not eye what he had Therefore saith he I say not as though I apprehended but I desire to apprehend him by whom I am comprehended to see the glory of God that comprehends me in Jesus Christ I speake not saith he as though I had attained as if he had said I know nothing in comparison of the insatiable desire I have to know more And that is the reason why Hypocrites are very loath to dye when danger and death approacheth Hypocrites loath to dye Why whereas a right Saint is wondrous desirous to dye Why so Saith the Apostle That I may be with Christ Phil. 1. Whereto compare that in Joh. 17. that I may see God and have the same glory with Jesus Christ Therefore thou mayest trie thy selfe by this if thou hast something that is like the apprehension of God I speak not to dull creatures that are altogether in the world all the yeare long but if God work on thee in his word and there is some light come in and some sweetnesse yet if thou be glutted with this and when thou commest home thou throwest God away and thou lookest after thy lust and after thy sin thou never yet hadst a right appresion of God For if thou see God aright thou wilt looke for more and more and for ought I know thou wilt have more and more world without end Thirdly and lastly these apprehensions are precious 3 They are accompanied with transcendent joy because there is a transcendent super-excellent exceeding joy and delight in the enjoyment of them Abraham saw my day and rejoyced saith Christ He did not see his day as an animate creature but he saw the misterie of God that should be fulfilled in those dayes that is the meaning so Araham saw my day and rejoyced So there is a very pregnant word concerning this in Isa 35. The Desart shall rejoyce and the VVildernes shall be glad By the Wildernesse and Solitary place is meant the barren Soule the Wildernes of thy heart where God will dwell The VVildernes shall be glad and the Desart shall rejoyce O! that God would make it so to us It shall blossome abundantly and rejoyce with singing The glory Lebanon shal be given unto it c. Why is all this They shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God This makes the sad Soule rejoyce and makes the barren heart blossome as a Rose when they see the glory of the Lord and the Excellency of our God Nay it is such a joy as he saith after that The Eyes of the blind shall be opened and the Eares of the deafe shall be unstopped then the lame Man shall leap and the Tongue of the dumb shall sing It is such joy as will make a dumb man sing it will make a mellancholy heavy mopish creature that naturally never smiled God manifested in Christ will make him sing and the lame man to leap for joy it is a transcendent exceeding high joy and this joy it will be the same joy Joy of Heaven What in Heaven that we had on Earth It is not Eating and Drinking and Marrying and Buying and Selling that will be the joy in Heaven but the great joy will be the beholding the Glory of God in Christ that will be the great Joy Therefore thou mayst know by this it may be thou hast a little joy Thou rejoycest in the hearing of the Word but is there not some other Joy that thou preferrest Art thou not more glad when thou hast a good bargaine or when thy affaires Psal 137. goe on in the World What is thy chiefe joy As David saith If I prefer not Hierusalem to my chief joy If this apprehension worke in thee a joy transcending all the joy in the world and make all other joyes to vanish it is a right apprehension So you see these apprehensions are First cleare Apprehensions Secondly precious Apprehensions Thirdly they are Perpetuall they are lasting Apprehensions 3 Perpetuall apprehensions By that I doe not meane that they are lasting alwayes but that they may be somtimes dimme and sometimes darke but I meane they goe not utterly out as it is said Job 21. How oft is the Candle of the wicked put out The Candle of the Hypocrite goeth out it may be he hath a little apprehension of God and then it is out it may be for half a yeare and in time it infallibly goes quite and cleane out Therefore in Heb. 6. the Hypocrite for the Apostle lays down there the estate of Hypocrites after they were enlightned c. they fell away The light was gone it only blazed a while and there was an end of it But it is not so with a Saint though God may for a moment hide his face yet as Mr. Calvin saith that light that came first into the soule of a Saint that that came first it leaves such a sent and a savour that a man can never forget it it is never quite out He may forget that he hath done naturall things We may forget what wee did twenty or thirty yeares agone we may forget where we were and may forget our Friends c. But when God reveales himselfe first to the Soule If a man could live in this World a thousand yeares the apprehension that he had of God at the first it would be as fresh as ever it was because it is an eternall thing it is a thing that we shall have more and more in Heaven it is not crruptible Triall of apprehensions by their lasting and therefore it goes not out Now it may be thou hast been a Professor before and God hath stamped a great deale of joy on thee and now it is gone and thou art poor wretch a poore drie creature as drie as a Chipp and a man can scarce see any thing in thee to distinguish thee from a carnall man trie thy self by this These apprehensions if they be right they
Dew of Heaven never sinks so deep as to come to that root Therefore as it is said in 1. Joh. 3. A man that is borne of God cannot sinne Why Because the Seed of God abides in him he hath a root in him So on the other side an Hypocrite he can doe nothing to purpose because there is a seed of sin in him there is a root there is a Coare at the heart that the Dew of Heaven never toucheth Therefore it is a signe that thou seest God aright when the impressions of it in thy Soule goe through and through that they soak into thy very soule as I may say and fetch out thy inward lusts Thirdly and lastly and there I shall leave at 3 They are universall this time these impressions are universall An Hypocrite or a wicked man in time may have some impressions upon his soule of some one thing of God or some few things As for instance Judas had an impression upon his heart and a sad one too of the Justice of God it made him goe and hang himselfe And so Saul and Pharaoh and others but that was but of one thing But now a Saint he hath impressions of all that is in God that is there is nothing in God but he hath a heart to answer it he hath as it were to speak with reverence a Coppy of God written on his soule he hath an impression of the love of God as well as of the feare of God of delight and trust in God and the like This is the difference betweene a Saint of God and an Hypocrite Therefore in Exod. 34. When Moses was so desirous to see God O Lord saith he let me see thy glory God revealed his glory and told him his name The Lord God the Lord mercifull gracious long suffering abundant in mercy keeping mercy for thousands Forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and that wil not cleare the guilty visiting the sins of the Fathers upon the Children God tells him of visiting of wicked People What was this to Moses God would not tell him halfe his name but all Therefore he tells him what he was to the Saints The Lord gracious and mercifull long suffering abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands And then he tels him what he would be to the wicked he would have the impression of the whole name of God upon Moses It is a signe thy apprehensions of God are true though they be weake and small when they be reall and thorow and universall The third thing is The Expressions or Effects of it but that I must leave till another time SERMON 3. Isaiah 6. 5. For mine eyes have seene the King the Lord of Hosts YOu remember the Lesson I doubt not that we are upon that The Saints have a peculiar priviledge above all others that they can even in this world see God They can see God in Jesus Christ I did open this and proved it and shewed you the last time how by the Word of God you might know whether ye have ever seene God in this manner whether God have ever bestowed this glorious priviledge upon any of you Three waye I tooke to shew it to you The first was by your apprehensions of God The second was by the impressions that those apprehensions of God have upon you The third thing which I am now to come to is by the Expressions of them or by their Effects If you would know whether you have seene God aright 3 By the expressions of them which are or no I say you may know it by the expressions of it How doth it set it selfe forth in thee It works something upon thee and that vents and shewes it selfe some way in thy heart and life Therefore I finde in Scripture especially in the Epistles of John where much is said of seeing God he brings the Saints usually to know the sight of God by outward expressions Because though it be cleare as I said yet it is so small that a St. cannot alway see it unlesse he consider the workings of it also upon his heart and life as well as his single apprehension Therefore saith he in one place by this you shall know that you have seene God if ye confesse Christ And in another place If yee love the Brethren c. Now there are these foure or five cleare things in Scripture that demonstrate a man to be one that hath seene God The first is this If thou hast seene God certainly the Lord hath purified thy heart the Lord hath given thee a pure 1 Purity of heart heart For saith Christ in his first Sermon Blessed are the pure in heart For they shall see God And in Heb. 12. Without holinesse it is impossible to see God Matthew 5. that is a cleare generall rule And therefore I say thou mayest then read if thou or I be a Man or a Woman to whom God hath not given a pure heart if God have not purified thy heart certainly as yet thou hast not seene God For if any man saith he hath seene God or that he walke in the light and yet live in sin he is a Lyar and there is no truth in him at all you are to give no credit to him at all al his apprehensions are but fancies Now the question will be what is the purifying of the heart Or how may I know that BELOVED according to the language of the What meant by a pure heart Scripture I find that by a pure heart is meant two things First by a pure heart is not ordinarily meant as 1 The conscience purified from guilt of sinne you take it for the killing of sinne in the soule I say not ordinarily But the chiefe meaning of the purifying of the heart is to have the conscience for the heart is taken for the conscience to have the conscience purified and washed from the guilt of sinne Therefore in Act. 15. say the Apostles and Elders Why should we doe thus and thus with them Seeing their hearts are purified by faith as well as ours That is seeing they believe in Jesus Christ and thereby have peace of conscience setled in their hearts To cleare and open this a little to you There Conscience purified What are three expressions that the holy Ghost useth in Heb. 10. that open this Heb. 10. 2. A pure heart in this sence is a man that hath no conscience of sinne that is the Scripture language one that hath no conscience of sinne Not as it is commonly in your sence one that makes no conscience of sinning one that continues in sinne But one that hath no conscience of sinne That is one whose conscience is not stained with the guilt of sinne but by the bloud of Christ there is a perfect peace setled within him Peace and joy in believing For that it is to have conscience of sinne when alway upon the least infirmitie there is guilt heaped upon the conscience of
Reas 2 All that is in God is of a humbling nature nature I find that God manifesting any attribute of his at any time to any of his children it doth humble them as for instance let the Lord shew his greatnesse in a spirituall way I meane as he 1 Gods greatnesse did to David Psal 8. when he saw the greatnesse of God that the Sun and Moone were the workes of Gods fingers then David cries out VVhat is man Lord that thou doest respect him It made poore David to be as nothing So also his goodnesse his love 2 Gods goodnesse as that in Samuell when David daunced before the Arke he cries I will be yet more vile Why so Because God hath chosen me saith he to Michel rather then thy Fathers House He saw the goodnesse of God therefore he would be more humble and more vile And so I might shew of all the rest There is nothing in God if it be discovered to a poore creature that is a sinner but it dasheth and abaseth and humbleth him I will not speake of the Scriptures that positively and punctually prove it for I spake something of them before to you But if you aske how can that be that the Quest looking upon God should make one humble how can the beholding of God worke such a grace in the heart Beloved I have told you a little how it doth Answ it and I can tell you no more and if this will not serve if you cannot see clearly how this can be I must referre you to the works of God in the creature and there you shall see some resemblance of Secret works in grace and nature it if you can tell me how Labans sheep conceived spotted Lambs by beholding the peeled rods or if you can tell me how the men were healed of their wounds by looking on the brazen Serpent then I will tell you how a man by seeing of God in a speciall manner in Christ is humbled We see in nature many such strange mysteries that we cannot unfold As they say the Basiliske with her eye will kill a man at a distance and as we see here in our owne home an onion will make a man weep at a distance Wee can give something that wee call reason but there are a world of things in the creature as the ebbing and flowing of the Sea and the like that we cannot give a reason of And if it be so in the creature why should it not in this that a poore sinner beholding God in Christ by faith spiritually should receive grace for grace from him And if we be posed in knowing the particular reason of the strange operations of God in the work of creation we might wel cease our disputes how God humbles the soule even by beholding him when God beholds the soule or the soule beholds God But the last thing I shall open is this why the Quest Lord hath ordered it that that shall be the way to humble our soules Answ Why the Lord will humble men bâ— the fight of him We cannot goe far in asking such questions as these Why God will work it thus but yet I will give you these two reasons instead of all The first is this that I find that it is a generall rule with God towards all creatures marke it all good is in God every good and perfect gift comes from him and I find that it is a generall rule God will have all to looke to him in giving that when God gives any thing to Man or Beast or Bird to soule or body he will make them looke up to him that is the giver As in Psal 145. 15. The eyes of all saith David wait on thee and thou givest them meat in due season thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing That is the meaning is that all the creatures though you know not how it is yet God makes the Birds and Beasts in the Wildernesse he makes them to eye and to looke after him Another thing is this the Lord will doe this as God will draw our hearts to him by a fight of him Christ said in another sence that he might draw mens minds and hearts to him just as we use to do when we have a mind to bring our children to love us we will have some fine thing to give them we will give it and the child must come to us there is nothing in the childs comming to make us give it but because we will not only bestow the thing on the child for his good but win his affections and bring him to know us and love us and make a Leg and to thanke us and the like so the Lord will not give any thing to us but we must come and looke to him that we may not so much love the thing as fall in love with that blessed hand that gives Therefore our life is hid with Christ in God Why so that our affections may be above where Christ is Collos 3. 2. So the Lord will not bestow any thing upon us but he will have our eye upon him that we may love and delight in him that bestowes all upon us So much briefly for the opening of it Now I shal conclude at this time with a word or two of use leave the rest for another opportunity The Use for the present is this that you may clearely learne hence that sinners and carnall men men that are not borne againe or are not new Use 1. Unregenerate men cannot be truly humbled creatures they cannot be truly humbled they can have no true humiliation because as it is evidently proved in the doctrine before they have no true sight of God therefore they cannot be truly humbled they may keep Fasts and come to church and heare Sermons and do a great many things but they cannot be truly humbled They may have divers things like humiliation but it is not true Gospell Yet he may 1 See his sins saving humiliation As for instance a wicked carnall man he may see his sins and he may be convinced of them in a naturallway just for all the world as a man by the Statutes of England if he have broken any of them if he read the Statutes by the strength of reason he may say I have brok the Statute And so he may by reading the book of God God saith that whormongers drunkards and coveteous shal not enter into the Kingdome of God and he may say but I am such a one he may doe this in a naturall way alas this is farre enough from humiliation Nay farther the Lord may put wrath in the 2 He may be terrefied Law he may put wrath in judgements and afflictions and he may be terrified and wofully troubled because of sinne and yet not be humbled So the Devils in Hell though they have enough of that yet they are not humbled So Judas and Cain and Saul they were troubled
in this manner and yet this was not the saving grace that the Saints have and that the Saints only have Nay farther he may have many acts of humiliation 3 He may doe acts of humiliation or as it were that that is like it he may expresse humiliation he may hang downe his head as a bulrush for a day he may keepe monethly Fasts as constantly as any and be sorrowfull and heavy and yet he hath not true humiliation But as the Prophet saith of the Hypocrites they hang downe their heads for a day as a bulrush but the Lord abhors them and their Service But the likest thing that I know to true humiliation is that that wicked men shall have at the day judgement Then I finde that there will be somwhat like it I find then that the wicked man his mouth shall be stopped he shall be so farre humbled that he shall have no argument to plead for himselfe he shall have no cloake for his sinne then the pride of wicked men will be pulled downe in a great measure in a sort notwithstanding it is not true humiliation for even then and for ever in Hell the wicked will be grumbling against God and a man is not said to be humbled truly till he submit to God in any thing Therefore it is said in Mat. 22. in hell there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth There is gnashing of teeth for vexation and anguish There is no true humiliation or shall be in Hell world without end Nor there is no carnall man upon earth that is truly humbled Therfore to conclude do not wonder I say cease Not to wonder that the wicked grow worse wondring for indeed a man cannot choose but wonder but endeavour to cease wondring when you see carnall men and Hypocrites notwithstanding all those meanes wherein you see God comes clearly in the eyes of them yet notwithstanding they grow worse and worse prowder prowder and more hardened and more coveteous and more carnall wonder not at it because in all these though you see God and are bettered and more humbled as now in the carriage of things in these times every honest heart makes a holy use of it and God will discover himself to many of his people through that they shal be better for it But wonder not at worldly people that they are worse they never had a sight of God wonder not that sinners and wicked men under the meanes of grace are nothing better as I feare there are many in this and in other congregations that notwithstanding all the meanes of grace notwithstanding all the teaching and preaching and beseeching and exhorting yet they sometimes in secret can laugh and jeere at religion and persecute those that embrace it A man would wonder at this how men should be so sottish as to learne nothing how men should be so prophane under such meanes and ministerie and amend nothing I say a man would wonder but only that it comes from this God hath not shewed himselfe to them if they had but one sight of God as thou that art a Saint hast it were a wonderfull Carnall men see not God in Ordinances thing indeed but it is because the Lord never revealed himselfe to them they only see a poore weake creature weaker then themselves and they heare the Word read in the Bible or they read a Chapter but there is not one jot of the sight of God in it So the other Nor in mercies day we had abundance of Victories and strangely God came into the hearts of his Saints by it how gloriously did the Lord appeare in them and ravish their soules that their hearts are yet nearer to God and they walke more humbly and closely and thankfully But we see the gang of the world Magistrates and Ministers and all carnal people are more proud and wicked and carnall and ready to beat their Fellow Servants they are worse and worse and no wonder because God hath not discovered himself in these mercies they will not learne And then for corrections a man would think that Nor in corrections God did deale with us more palpably then he did with Aegypt they had ten plagues we had twenty or thirty God hath punished us and then God stops his hand and then we break out into mischeif and cruelty and oppression And then God turnes the scale another way and then we begin to amend a little The other day the Lord did begin very fairly the Lord turned the Scales divers wayes you know how it was with Scotland and with the King One would thinke that there were no Magistrate nor Minister nor no man that hath the name of a Professor but he would learne somewhat by all this yet how many are bettered nothing in the World Wonder not because God hath never shewed himselfe in mercy in any ordinance in any correction or affliction or judgement to any carnall man I conclude with this word carnall wicked men wicked men shall one day be humbled are never humbled in this world that is certaine unlesse the Lord change them and reveale himself to them but there is no wicked man in the world but he shall have a Humiliation such as it will be There will be a day when the worst man in the world shall in some part be humbled you shall read in Luke 2â— how men shall be at their wits ends for feare of what shall come upon them And in Revel 6 when the Lord Jesus shall come to judgement they shall runne to the Rocks and to the Caves and to the Mountains to hide them from the presence of God their pride shall be pulled downe there shall be a kinde of Humiliation but no true humiliation but even in hell they shall be there grumbling against God for evermore Be pleased to learn from these few broken words that it is the will and way of God that you get your soules humbled which is the thing that I and you principally it may be want you see it is by seeing of God in Jesus Christ therfore labour to see him and study this blessed skill of seeing him and though we know not how it is yet you shall finde that that grace and every other grace will come more and more into your Soules SERMON 5. Isaiah 6. 5. For mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts THe last lesson or doctrine that we were upon from these words was this that A saving sight of God in Christ is the right and ready way to true Gospell humiliation Woe is me for I am undone because I have seene the King the Lord of Hosts First I shewed you that Every true Saint hath a peculiar sight of God That was necessary to make way for this that every such peculiar sight is the meanes or way to true Gospell humiliation I proved it and gave you the Reasons and made some short Use of it The next Use that
while thou livest and to let Christ be wisedome in thee that thou wouldest be a poore infirme fraile creature and let Christ Jesus be thy righteousnesse that thou art content to walke in raggs and let Christ be thy riches This is one thing In that place Rom. 10. 3. It was the pride of the Jews that kept them from salvation by the righteousnesse of the Gospell they would not submit to the righteousnesse of God they were a proud people So that is it that keeps many a soule that hears the word it is that that keepes you weake What it is that keepes men in inward trouble and full of woe and sorrow all your dayes You thinke it is the want of this grace and the want of that grace and other things but it is nothing but your owne stubborne heart that you will not submit to the righteousnesse of Christ You would have this grace and that grace that is you would fill up every corner of your owne shop and you would amend your owne trading but you would not shut up shop and be journey-men as I may speake with reverence to Jesus Christ That is one thing Then againe the second particular I have to demonstrate 2. To take the righteousnes of Christ on his bare word that whether you be humbled or no is this whether the Lord have brought you to be content to take the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ upon his owne bare and naked word Whether now you can say there is Jesus Christ full of righteousnesse for me and my own righteousnesse is full of raggs What evidence have you for it Here is a word Jesus Christ is come to dye for sinners I find nothing in me but here is a bare word and hereupon I am content to take his righteousnesse and throw away mine owne I doe not say but that a good Christian may Christians may make use of signes make good use of signes and marks even in earthly things Christians see the love of God by temporall outward things for God useth what Pipes he pleaseth to convey his love But the question is in matter of believing whether I should not throw away my owne righteousnesse and wholly believe in Jesus Christs righteousnesse before I see any grace or any signe A humble heart can doe it and is content that marks should come after he believes after I believe God will sanctifie me and worke grace and then I shall see his love more But the first bargain betweene God and me is his bare word therefore that Rom. 10. is glorious and cleare and comfortable The Apostle lays downe the difference betweene salvation by the Law and by faith saith he the Righteousnesse of the Law speaketh on this wise The man that doth these things shall live by them but the righteousnesse which is of Faith speaketh on this wise say not in thy heart who shall ascend into Heaven or who shall descend into the Deepe but he that believeth shall be saved Marke it this is the straine and streame and language of the Gospell that is salvation by Jesus Christ and whosoever believeth on that salvation shall not be ashamed he shall be sure of it But how shall we come to believe and to be sure of this salvation Say not in thy heart who shall goe up to heaven or who shall descend into the deep but what saith it the word is nigh thee that is God hath given a word and he will give a spirit of faith with it and there are but two words to the bargaine there is the spirit in thee and the word without thee and this is the righteousnesse of God the righteousnesse of faith saith so Say not who shall goe up to heaven or downe to the earth For the eyes of a fool are scattered about the world And when men come to believe in Christ they aske who shall ascend into Heaven how shall I come to know that I am a Saint and that I am predestinated The Lord would have us believe the word that Christ Jesus came to save sinners of whom I am chiefe Here is a word if the heart now could apply this by the spirit of faith That is another thing I would have you thinke on Your ordinary Professors most of them they Why ordinary professors want assurance have not assurance of salvation why They cannot believe Why so because they finde so many corruptions in them and they finde so many graces wanting and they have ill memories and hard hearts and if it were not for these things they could believe What is the meaning of it It is as if they should say I will never trust God in the righteousnesse of the Gospell upon his bare word God will have us trust him ere he will trust us we must take God upon his word God wil bring every child of his to this to take his salvation upon a bare word and he will blesse his name for it I have but one soule and if I had a thousand I would venture them all upon his word and say there my soule lyes sinck or swim or goe to heaven or hell here is the word that Christ came to save sinners of whom I am chiefe Now if there be pride in the heart it will not come and rest on a bare word The Lord make you understand these things that they may not be lost Thirdly a humble heart will be content not only 3. With a generall word with a bare word but with the least word and the most generall word A proud heart will not be content unlesse he hath a perticular word For my part I may mistake but I will tell you my opinion that those men how Christ dyed not for all ever otherwise they be godly some of them that doe hold that Christ did dye for all men and that he came to save Judas as well as Peter If Christ came to save all and yet many shall goe to Hell how come they to be saved It is a proud thought in the heart that would teach God how to speake and how to make promises and we poore wretched damnable creatures must shew him what language he shall speake in whereas now a humble heart will take the least and most generall word and thanke God as we see in the woman of Canaan Christ gives her never a word a great while but frownes and then he gives her a terrible word and bids her goe he calls her Dogg why that was something a Dogg hath some priviledge he hath the crums that fall from the Table he looks for outward mercies and therefore in that he calls me Dogg I have so much of that word that I will follow him for the crums Saith Christ to her O Woman great is thy faith be it unto thee as thou wilt So Benhadads servants when they came with Halters about their necks saith the King Is my brother Benhadad alive that was a comfortable word they harpt upon
and catcht at that Thy brother Benhadad is alive So we come with Ropes about our necks poore damned creatures and God comes in infinite wisedome and makes promises and a humble heart will take them and blesse God for any promise be it never so generall and not stand so nicely as proud people doe This shews a humble heart therefore examine if this be so with thee Fourthlie a humble heart in matter of justification it appeares by this that as it is content to have a righteousnesse in another 4. To renounce our owne righteousnes And secondly to hold it upon a bare word If God give more he will take it if not he will hold it upon his bare word And thirdly he will take the most generall word So fourthly he will wholly renounce and throw away his owne righteousnesse and as Paul did call it duâ—g and dogs meat So I may be found saith he in Jesus Christ Now a proud heare would have Jesus Christ only to sâ—der his owne righteousnesse and Jesus Christs together he would have Christ only to make up a little what is lacking in him to make out what is wanting There are many men that goe a great way in the pofession of religion but being pretty honest civil men before they will never be brought to renounce their owne righteousnesse Now Jesus Christ will never mend the heart by patching it but either he will make it wholly new or the Devill shall have all he will have the heart to have his righteousnesse wholly or none at all now a man must throw away all there must be nothing kept as in the practise of Saul there must be no buts for men to say but we have some good things and it is great pitty to throw away all What all my prayers and all my humiliations and all my fastings all good for nothing to make dung and dogs meat I Paul speaks as if his righteousnesse had been a chaine and a burthen Lastly a humble heart a humble man or woman 5. Notwithstanding our sins and want of preparation will do all this and he will doe it let his sinfulnesse be never so great or let his preparations be never so little There is a great deale of pride in mens hearts they will not receive grace and salvation of God because of the greatnesse of their sins There is no man that talks of the greatnesse of his sinns with a spirit of unbeliefe but it proceeds from pride When a man talks of his great sinns and therefore he is afraid to believe that is from pride for the greater a mans sins are the sooner he would believe if he had a humble heart Depart from me Lord saith Peter for I am a sinfull man He had more need to have said come to me Lord for I am a sinfull man And then if his preparations be never so little Men thinke that they could believe if they were qualified and had such preparations It is as if they should say I will get so much and then I should be but a little beholding to Christ halfe the worke is done There must be no stay for want of preparation when the Lord calls when the Lord offers Christ well that is one thing that you may trye your humiliation by your carriage towards God in respect of his justifying grace or the righteousnesse of Christ that justifies or Gods righteousnes which is the object of justification and that you see in those five things The second thing is this you may trie if your 2 By our carriage to God in his truths revealed hearts be humbled if you consider your carriage towards God in respect of his will or in respect of his truths that he manifests to you from time to time For here is the difference a humble heart will submit to every truth of Christ as farre as it is revealed Therefore it is said Rom. 8. 6. The carnall minde is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God nor can be A carnall mind is enmity against God It is not only an enemy but enmity it selfe And he doth not only say it will not but it cannot be subject to the Law that is to the will of God Beloved a proud heart or a heart that is not Proud carnall men humbled it will not submit to the Truth of God but it will alway doe one of these three things The first is this he is not willing to know all the 1. Are not willing to know all the truths of God truths of God he is not willing to know them for hee knowes if hee doe know them hee must doe them Hee thinkes it safer to bee ignorant of the truth then obey the truth and some have been ready to say if I know the will of God I must doe it But here is the question whether thou be willing to know the will of God A man that is not truly humbled alwayes when he heares spirituall truths that come to rule him he wisheth as a godly man saith that either the minister were dumb or that he were deafe for it is a burthen to him He is like those People in Isay 30. 10. The rebellious People that Isaiah was troubled with This is a rebellious people lying children children that will not heare the Law of the Lord. Which say to the seers see not and to the Prophets prophesie not unto us right things speak unto us smooth things prophesie deceits This was and is the language of the hearts of carnall Christians they say to the seers see not They wish that the Preachers could not finde out those truths that are so contrarie to nature and that crosse their corruptions they wish that Preachers would take other texts and handle other Doctrines that were more pleasing and smooth as Job sayth Job 21. They prosper and their children dance and there is the timbrell and the harpe and they say to God depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes We are not enemies to it we doe not fight against it we allow Preachers to be there but truely we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes this is the language of a proud heart Now is there in you such a heart that though Saints willing to know all Gods truths you know that you shall be saved and goe to Heaeven as an honest man once said yet have you a desire to know every truth though you suffer never so much persecution for it There is a humble heart It is so and it will be so as we see in that blessed man Eli 1 Sam. 3. 17. you know what a blessed humble man he was and when there was a Vision that Samuell saw that was for his ruine and the ruin of his House and the Lord had called Samuell and shewed him the Vision Eli calls him and said VVhat is the thing the Lord hath said I pray thee hide it not from me Samuell was
not willing to tell him being but a child he knew by his countenance it was not good tydings yet saith he I pray thee hide not from me what God hath told thee God doe so to thee and more also if thou hide any thing from me of all the things that he said unto thee O Blessed man he was willing to know it though it were a sore message that the Lord would take away the Preisthood and he should breake his neck and his Sons should be slaine in the Warrs So Cornelius Act. 10. 33. When Peter came to preach Wee are here all in the presence of God to heare all things that shall be commanded us of God We are not here that we may please our owne humours and suit our owne lusts but to heare all let it be rough or smooth with us or against us we are here to heare all that the Lord will say Canst thou say so when thou commest before the Lord and hearest the Word I am here to heare all the Lord will say Beloved I wish it were so but I seare that of all the People in England there are many in this Cittie that it may be are good People abundance of them and yet we are willing to learne nothing in the world but what we like and we crumble the bread of our salvation as children doe their bread and butter who eate one bit themselves and throw the rest to the dogs So many proud carnall sprits take a part of the word and they say that was a good note of Master such a ones and such a ones and so you call mens words and that was a good doctrine and pick out this and that and goe and tell it I never saw nor I thinke never any under the Cope of Heaven such spirits that doe so basly mince the Word of God and crumble it and take one piece and throw two away Therefore looke to that an honest heart will heare all that the Lord will say and be glad too that is one thing A second thing is this a proud carnall heart 2. A proud heart makes cavils against the truth that is not truly humbled it will appeare by this that if he cannot choose but know the truths of God as many times he cannot but he must know it if he live under the word God will make some men know it whether they will or no then the next worke of a proud heart will be to raise up cavils against the word and to make Pleas against the truth of God and arguments as much as may be when it comes in unto him Just as one man saith as we doe with a common enemy it we can we will keep him out of the country and it is safest to doe so So he will keepe out the truth if he can but if the truth come and he begin to see it and sees that it is the will of God then his next course is to levy forces to raise armes and thinks to put it out he thinks to put out the light that God hath put into his soule 2 â—â—m 3. 8. Men of corrupt minds men of rotten minds that like Jannes and Jambres resist the truth There is no mention of Jannes and â—ambres in the Old Testament but it is generally thought by learned men that the meaning is this When Moses came to Pharaoh at any time to speake of the things of God and of the will of God and that the People of Israell must goe free and he did worke miracles and that light came to Pharaoh to convince him presently he sent for Jannes and Jambres that were Southsayers and made them help him get arguments against Moses and they would argue like Moses to keep out the truth So carnall People when light comes into the soule and they cannot resist it this is their ordinary course to goe to their carnall neighbours like themselves or to a carnall Priest or Minister if they have any and get as many arguments as they can and then they will say the other was a Phancie it is not right it will not hold and so never leave till they get it out of their coasts as the Gadarens dealt with Christ Thirdly and lastly if he cannot doe this if he 3. A proud heart will shift off Gods truths cannot beat it out by violence he will endeavour to escape the edge of the toole by some shift he will use his wits and goe to pollicy and see if by any shift he can escape the power of the truth If he cannot beat it off he will labour to escape the power and the edge of it As a man that is in debt that is under an execution or an outlarie if he can he will keep far enough from the Sergeants and if they come he will shut his doore and keepe them off or if they come to take him he will throw them off But if they say if you stirre we will knock you down or kill you then he will say why I meane to pay and such a man knows it and he will give them faire words that so he may avoid the power and authority of the Law from comming upon him So carnall men desire to be ignorant of those truths that all their life time are contrary to them and if truths come in upon them they consult with all their carnall Neighbours and friends to get it out and if all will not doe then they goe to their shifts As for instance suppose a truth should come upon one of your soules that thou that art a drunkard or a whoremonger c. unlesse thou be borne againe thou shalt never enter into heaven and this truth hath seized on thee and God hath set it on thy soule that a man cannot get it out and then he goes to his shifts he saith it is true I must be borne againe or else I shall be damned but saith he I hope I was borne againe in baptisme and I hope that was a washing away of my sins And so put it on another it may be this truth comes into his soule that every man that lives in any knowne sinne shall be cast out of the Kingdome of God and of Christ 1 Cor. 6. Know ye not that neither Drunkards nor Swearers nor revilers nor extortiouers shall inherit the Kingdome of God and of Christ Suppose God set this truth home to thy soule It is true saith the man but I hope God hath given me repentance for it and all is well He hopes God hath given him repentance and he goes on in sinne then God comes and tells him that if he had repented he would leave his sinns and amend his course then saith he I hope I shall repent hereafter I shall repent sometime or other though I do not now If God tell him againe the day of salvation will be past and the doore will be shut and repentance will come too late then he shifts it off and saith I hope
Secondly He is not onely wearie of it and if he 2. He layes violent hands on Gods commands can he will be rid of it so but he will lay violent hands upon the commands of God There is a terrible word in Rom. 1. 18. The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against those that hold the truth in unrighteousnesse The word in the Greek is those that Imprison the truth There was truth came to them and they held it till they were wearie till they were tyred and jaded but then they locked it up and would not suffer it to break forth in their lives but lived as if there were no light at all in them There is some kind of light in them but it is in Prison you cannot see it and you would think there were none at all like those people in â— Sam. 8. 19. When God had said they should have no King but him but say they we will have a King and so they goe violently and desperately against the command of God Thus is it with a carnall proud heart Thirdly and lastly it may be some men will 3. Proud hearts obey Gods commands but upon their owne tearmes not doe so with the commands of God but they will obey them but it shall be onely upon their owne termes they were as good doe nothing As for instance he will obey first by sits and 1. When they please when he is at leasure As it may be you have seen a proud servant that will worke well sometimes but he is so sturdie that he will doe nothing but what he pleaseth and if the humour take him he will goe to the Shop or else it may be he will Walk at his pleasure two or three dayes together you cannot build on it So carnall unhumbled hearts when they are in the humour they will obey the commands of God but it is but for a fit Now a right Christian is holy alway according to the grace God hath given him he is alway ready to obey the commands of God Secondly a proud unhumbled heart as he will obey 2. What they please but at sometimes so he will obey but in some things he will pick and choose in the commandements and service of God what he pleaseth That is the manner of proud Servants they will worke sometimes but if a man bid them doe one thing they will doe another a man were as good be without them Such a Servant will be wiser in his owne eyes then his Master It may be he will doe his Masters work and his Master cannot say but that he is a diligent servant but he will doe but what he lists and he will doe it but in his owne way and if his Master bid him doe one thing he will doe another So it is with a carnall man when God bids him doe any thing he will doe somewhat and let his Neighbours doe the rest if they will But now an honest heart whatsoever God commands without respect to this or that be it what it will be if the Lord command it he will endeavour to obey him Thirdly and lastly as they will obey God at 3. When God gives them rewards their owne leasure and obey him in those things that they please so they will doe it if God follow them with a reward As for instance You may observe many a proud hearted man Minister or others as long as God hath given them credit enough and riches enough they will doe the worke of God bravely but take away that and they will doe nothing at all Therefore if God will let credit and riches goe alwayes with Religion he shal have Servants enough and proud ones too But now a humble Christian he values the love of God more then the things themselves and let these things come or goe his eye is upon God and his love is such to God and he sees that God loves him so that he will endeavour to obey God in all things whether he be rewarded or no. Now these be the dispositions of carnall unhumbled hearts you may examine your owne hearts by these three things By your carriage towards God in respect of his justifying grace By your carriage towards God in respect of his truths revealed to you And be your carriage towards God in respect of his injunctions and commands that he layes on you If you examine and finde that your hearts are not humbled you know what to doe desire God to shew himselfe more and as you see him more so you will be humbled more for the right seeing of God in Jesus Christ is the true and ready way to humiliation SERMON 6. Isaiah 6. 5. For mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts YOu remember the last doctrine which we had from these words which we have somthing more to say to was this that A true and saving sight of God in Jesus Christ is the way to true saving humiliation The principall meanes to saving Gospell humiliation is to have a saving supernaturall sight of God in Jesus Christ Mine Eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts Therefore woe is me I am undone This I opened to you as farre as God revealed it to me and we had some uses and lessons thence for our soules The last use of all was of tryall as we call it that you may hence see and know whether ever you have seen God aright to wit by your humiliation If you have seen God aright then you have cried out with Isaiah Woe is me I am undone and as Job I have seene the Lord therefore I abhor my selfe in dust and ashes Now the question was how shall I know whether I be truly humbled or no I told you you might know it in generall two wayes First by your carriage and deportment towards God Secondly by your carriage towards men Concerning your carriage towards God I have spoken of three things First your carriage towards God in respect of his righteousnesse or of your justification Secondly to examine your carriage towards God in respect of his truths that he hath revealed Thirdly and there I left your carriage towards God in respect of the commands he layes upon you Now to goe forward a little The Fourth 4. A humble heart knowne by its carriage to God in affliction thing is this that you shall know how farre God hath humbled you and bestowed this Gospell grace upon you by your carriage to God when he corrects you by your carriage under Gods corrections and your afflictions whatsoever they are For I shall not name them every one can best put his finger upon his owne face whether they be on soule or bodie whatsoever they are I say thou mayest know whether thy soule be a humbled soule by thy carriage in such times as these are It hath been a common rule among the godly that as a man is in afflictions so he is indeed Truely that rule hath much truth
him First he sees the justice of God the equallnesse Of his justice of Gods dealing with his soule or with his body let the Lord doe with him what he will he will not say as the people of Israel proverbially said Ezek. 18. The wayes of the Lord are not equall A proud heart will say so it will think so at least for the Scripture speaks the language of mens hearts The heart of a proud man thinks that God deales unjustly and unequally that he layes so great an affliction on him and then another affliction upon that that first takes away one mercy and then another first one Child and then another and then a third the heart out of pride thinkes God deales unjustly but if the heart were rightly humbled it would see that all that God doth is very just and equall I not onely observe it just according to Law for so a man may doe by legall humiliation that Ahab and Judas had Judas saw that it was just with God to destroy him and so did Ahab and Saul and Pharoah it is not onely According to the Gospel so but according to the Gospell there he sees that the wayes of God are very equall and that it is a righteous thing with God to afflict him I meane thus a man I say under the Gospell that sees himselfe the son of God and that God is his Father and that he is united to Christ and that his soule is justifyed perfectly by the bloud of Jesus Christ yet when God shall lay some sore affliction upon him A man would thinke now how can God justly doe this As some proud or inconsiderate people say Will God be paid twice hath he not beene paid in his son Now a humble heart will say though God be satisfyed and the Law be fullfilled and he is my Father yet I am such a graceles wretched son such a provoking son I doe so often vex and slight and neglect my Father that even according to the law of love and according to the blessed Gospell it is equall that God should deale so with me Nay he can say at all times that God layes on me according to the Gospell it selfe lesse then I deserve as they said Lament 3. 22. It is the Lords mercie that we are not consumed Indeed it is an affliction that I am whipped but it is a great deale of mercy that I am not utterly destroyed Looke to thy heart in this thing when afflictions come upon thee canst thou justifie God and say his wayes are equall and just and right as they say in Nehem. 9. 33. Howbeit thou art just and right in all this In all what you shall see in the Verse before Lord let it not seeme little before thee the trouble that hath come upon us c. And it was not little for they suffered sore and long and yet notwithstanding all that thou art righteous and just in all this that we have suffered That is one thing Another thing that he hath reverend thoughts 2. Of his Love of God for it is his love a humble heart wil be able to see a sun through a cloud he will be able to see the heart of a Father and the love of a Father when he frownes most or shakes his rod most over him God cannot shake his rod so much over a Saint that is a humbled Saint but he will be able to espie some Smiles of love Therefore I say he hath honourable thoughts of God Why Because he thinks though this be so yet it is just and equall It is true sayth he I am a son but of my conscience God hath not such another son on the face of the Earth I vex him more in one week then all the other doe in a yeare therefore for all this I see him move his eies and yearne his heart for my good so that still he hath honourable thoughts of God Now a proud heart such a one as Judas may say it is just but here he comes short he cannot say it is love Thirdly and lastly he hath honourable and pretious 3. Of his wisedome and reverend thoughts of God because in his affliction he discerns the infinite wisdome of God Truly Beloved there are but two great wisedomes that are great indeed that are before the eye of a Christian in this World that is the wisedome Two wisedomes great in the eyes of Saints that is hid in the Gospell that the Angells desire to prie into and the wisedome of God in his carriage to his Saints in affliction Now when things seem crosse and thwart when a proud heart sayth I am undone I am broken and spoyled I shall never set up again I shall never eat my bread chearfully againe a humble heart can say though I know not what God will doe yet he hath a wise designe in it it is love whatsoever it is and it is wisedome too Therefore the Lord doth with us in afflictions as he did with Peter when he washed his feet saith Peter what doest thou meane What I meane thou shalt know hereafter So a poore Saint when God strikes him he takes away it may be two or three of his Children thinks he Lord what doest thou meane Sayth God thou shalt know hereafter I have a wise designe thou shalt see it but now I must keepe it from thee thou shalt not know it And truly ordinarily when the affliction is over God comes and takes his childe a side and opens the designe to him and tells him thou didst wonder at me many times and hadst hard thoughts of me for a great while when it was under ground come now I will read thee a lesson I will tell thee the story and so takes him by the hand and sayth doest not thou remember before I tooke thee in hand what a froward creature thou wert what a proud creature thou wert thou mightest have been damned if I had not taken thee in hand and I gave thee first such a gentle affliction and then added another God shews him the whole plot and then he sayth Lord pardon all my hard thoughts of thee glorious God I see now that all was love and wisedome And God so inures his people to shew them the designe when the affliction is over that most Saints though they understand and see nothing of God in their affliction yet they know it is a glorious designe of wisdome that God hath upon them therefore they will not censure God because they see it not it is but their owne ignorance that they doe not comprehend it As if you should see a Plow-man or a countrie man come to a Mathematician that were at his Globe and his compasses and were drawing lines from one to another the Countrie man knowes nothing of this but he would not therefore say the other is a foole and doth he knoweth not what He would rather say I warrant you he is a Scholler and hath had good breeding
but allas what simple people are we in the Countrie we know not what belongs to the Globe and compasses So a Christian when he is in affliction he doth not say God doth he knows not what and he plagueth me but sayth he God hath wisdome and love in all this only I am a simple poore creature that know not this So now there are two things I would have you to observe First if you have humbled hearts you will see God in the affliction And then you will have reverent and high thoughts of God in respect of his justice and his love and wisdome towards you In the third place a soule that is humbled I meane all this while as far as it is humbled it 3. A humble soule quietly submits in affliction doth quyetly and silently submit unto the Lord in all his afflictions that the Lord may doe with him what he will and truly he hath reason enough and it cannot be otherwise if he see God in the Instruments and see such thoughts of justice and love and wisdome in God he cannot but quyetly submit this will follow As you know in 1 Sam. 3. When God told Ely that he was comming to cut off his house and his Priesthood and his Sonnes Sayth he It is the Lord let him doe what semeeth good in his eyes It is the Lord I will not suffer my heart to grumble but it is the Lord and I will submit A man would have thought he had not offended he did chide his Sonnes and told them Ye doe not well but he should have corrected them they were wicked men and because he was too Indulgent to them God sent him word that he would cut them off both him and his Sonnes yet saith he It is the Lord let him doe what seemeth good in his eyes Nay let a man be never so stout otherwise in The stoutest heart humbled will submit to God his naturall constitution let him be of never so strong and sturdie a spirit yet iâ— he have this grace if he have the spirit of humiliation he shall notwithstanding submit like a Lambe when the Lord laies his hand on him I will give you one place to prove this Isa 29. 1. 2. Woe to Ariel to Ariel the City where David dwelt let them kill sacrifice yet I wil distresse Ariel What is that That is the Lion of God God calls Jerusalem the Lion and the Lion of God you know the Lion is a stout creature It is said of Saul and his Servants that they had hearts like Lions hearts And the Lion of God that adds somthing to it yet when the Lord coms upon this Lion of God Thou shalt sayth the Lord be brought downe mark that expression in Vers 4. Thy speech shall be low to the dust and thy voyce as one that hath a familiar spirit and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust Though thou be like a Lion that roares thou shalt goe and whisper in the dust and thy voyce shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit Thou shalt peepe or chirp as it is in the Originall The Lord will make a Lion to chirp and make a Lyon lye low in the dust and whisper And if you compare Lam. 3. 28. There is an expression that doth a little more cleare it It is good for a man to beare the yoak in his youth He shall sit alone and keep silence because he hath borne it he shall put his mouth in the dust if there may be hope When it is a man that is humbled he will put his mouth in the dust he will submit and lie downe if there may be hope though he know not whether there be or no this is plentifull in Scripture in every place the people of God though they were afflicted never so soare and did abide it never so long yea those that had humble hearts they used to submit patiently and quietly to it I held my peace and was dumb because it was thy doing sayth David Psal 39. Trie your hearts by these things how you are in afflictions doe you see God in the Instruments What kind of thoughts have you of God for as the mind is so is the man have you high reverent pretious thoughts of God And doe you submit can you stoop and quench the boylings of your hearts and the stirringe of your spirits Can you say as Eli did It is the Lord let him doe as he will He hath taken one child let him take the rest if he please he hath taken one of my Familie let him take more if he will He hath taken away some of my Trading let him take all if he will This is the frame of heart of a humble man In the Fourth place a humble soule that is savingly 4. A humble heart envies not the prosperity of others humbled in his afflictions for of such I speak all this while in the greatest afflictions that befall him he doth not use to envie the prosperity of others that frame of a humble heart I find in Jam. 4. 5. Pride and envie are as it were Synonomies they seem as it were the same thing The Scripture saith not in vaine the spirit that is in us lusteth after envy But he giveth more grace wherefore he saith God resisteth the proud but giveth grace unto the humble He makes pride and envie one and the same And indeed so it is you shall never see them severed you shall never see a proud heart but it is envious Now one that is humbled is not so as you shall see Psal 37. David indeed was tempted to it but the Lord delivered him from it And in Psal 73. He speaks of the prosperity of the ungodly they flourished in the World and increased in riches and sayth he Verily I have cleansed my heart in vaine for all the day long I am plagued and whipped and chastned every morning It is a strange thing sayth he see how yonder wicked man flourisheth and prospers and for my part I am as sure to be whipped every morning as I am of my break-fast as they say But if I should say so sayth he I should offend against the Generation of thy Children I thought so till I went into the Sanctuary of God and then he understood their end and his owne folly indeed it was Davids weaknesse and it was that which his heart was not throughly humbled for as it should Therefore you see proud people in the Prophesie of Malachi Chap. 3. He more plainly describes them Vers 13. Your words have been stout against me sayth the Lord. They had stout words and stouter hearts for alway the heart is worse then the words You have said it is in vaine to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts Mark what doe we get by walking mournfully and by obeying the Commandements of God And now we call
call upon God ordinarily in afflictions and troubles Secondly it implies thankfullnesse In Phil. 4. 2. To give thankes Make your requests known with thankfullnesse A humble heart will alwayes pray and it will in the greatest affliction be praysing God why so Because a humble heart in the greatest affliction can spie somthing to prayse God for as well as to 〈◊〉 for that he wants Therefore sayth James If any be afflicted let him pray Sometimes a Saint is so afflicted that he can doe nothing else but pray and he is never better fitted to pray then when he is most afflicted Then lastly you shall discerne it by this that 11. Hee is not weary of waiting on God in his afflictions he will never be wearie of waiting upon the Lord till he have remooved it It is the pride of our hearts that makes us that we doe not wait on the Lord as the Prophet Habakkuk sayth His heart that is lifted up is not right in him but the just shall live by his faith In 2 Kings 6. 33. This evill is from the Lord sayth that wicked man VVhat should I wait on the Lord any longer A proud heart God must come in at his time and when he calls or else he will stay no longer but will be wearie As a godly man sayth what art thou that thou wilt not wait for God VVhy doest thou take such state upon thee Who shall waite God or thou Should the King waite upon the Subject or the Subject upon the King should the Master waite upon the Servant or the Servant upon the Master should the Judg wait on the Traytor or the Traytor on the Judg Such a one a humble heart sees himselfe to be he is a Servant and a Traytor if God should take him at the worst Therefore he blesseth God that he may waite for mercie O sayth he there are many thousands in Hell that shall waite for ever expecting more wrath and more flames of fire World without end and may not I blesse God that I have a little mercy though I have many sorrowes and that I may waite on the God of mercy for more mercies I will waite upon the Lord. Thus breifly I have poynted out the carriage of a soule that God hath humbled by a saving sight of himselfe in Jesus Christ I say his carriage in afflictions There is another word to shew you his carriage under the mercies of God but I cannot speake of it now without passing my owne strength and yours SERMON 7. Isaiah 6. 5. For mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts YOU remember the last doctrine that we had from these words that A true and saving sight of God in Jesus Christ is a principall meanes to humble a soule This I did open and proove fully to you out of the Scriptures And so as God led us we went along And came in the last place to examine our selves for that we were upon whether the Lord had truely humbled us by discovering himselfe to us For there is no soul that is truly humbled but he that hath seen God in Christ I speak not as I told you of a day of humiliation or of the dutie of humiliation or of a preparatory humiliation but of the Gospel grace of humiliation of that frame of heart that is or ought to be in a Saint at all times For the discovery of it I told you we should find much of it First by our carriage towards God Secondly by our carriage towards man Towards God I told you first in respect of his righteousnesse And indeed therein cheifly is discovered the pride of our hearts or the humility of our hearts by our receiving or not receiving the righteousnesse of God by faith Secondly by our carriage to the truths of God therein we may see how much of this grace God hath bestowed upon us Thirdly by the commands of God Fourthly and lastly by the corrections of God And therein I shewed you what the posture of the heart of a Christian is that is truly and savingly humbled by his carriage in afflictions For if there be pride in the soule usually affliction will bring it out I shall not repeat any thing but goe on a little further to that which remaines There is one thing more and but one thing 5. A humble hearts carriage towards God for mercies that I shall speake of in respect of our carriage towards God wherein you shall discover how much God hath given you of this grace and that is by your carriage towards God in the way of his mercies Truly mercies and afflictions are much like Summer and winter and sometimes our sicknesse will breake out in Winter that is concealed in Summer and sometimes it is discovered in Summer that is hid in Winter So in some soules the evills of the heart will breake out in afflictions more then in mercies and in some it is more discovered in a state of prosperitie in a way of mercie then in the way of afflictions As on the other side in some soules grace is more cleare and shining in afflictions then in prosperitie and truely I think that in some soules grace will shine more in the way of mercy And if God will come and have mercie upon poore England my hope is and it is my prayer and request to God that we may discover more godlinesse and more grace then in all this time We have discovered a great deale of pettishnesse and frowardnesse and pride and ambition and covetousnesse and cruelty and rashnesse but I hope there being diverse Saints among us that God will give us another frame of heart if he have mercy on us and turne away his wrath But that by the by But I was saying that the pride of the heart and other corruptions also are Corruptions discovered by Gods mercies sometimes discovered in a way of mercie that are not discovered in a way of affliction I will give you but one Scripture for it in Hosea 7. 1. VVhen I would have healed Israel then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered and the wickednesse of Samaria for they commit falshood c. Ephraim and Israel are two names almost of the same thing though Ephraim were but one tribe yet because it was a great tribe as York is a great Countie in England all Israell is often called by the name of Ephraim Now when God would heale Ephraim or Israell then their iniquity appeared So it is to be feared that if God come to heal England as he seemeth to smile on us sometimes and according to that word in Acts 7. Where he sayth I have seen I have seen the afflictions of my people in Aegypt So I hope God hath seen how the bread is done and the provision is gone and the people are ready to goe away themselves by reason of their miseries I hope God hath seen and will put an end to our miseries and I much feare that when mercie comes
and when peace comes there will then be a discovery of rotten hearts then much more then in these times yet in these times there are abundance of rotten hearts discovered that were not knowne before The Lord comes near the quick of our profession in these times there are abundance that have been professors that now jeere the Saints and dishonour God and imbrace the VVorld but in times of mercie there will be more the sun makes the Traveller put off his cloake when the wind cannot But to open it to you as I did the former that which I shall doe shall be to discover to you what the carriage of a humble heart is and what our carriage should be when God shewes mercie to us when the Lord deales kindly with us in the way of his mercy What is the posture of a humble heart then I answer First of all a humble heart he can be 1. A humble heart content to be denyed any mercy content that the Lord should denie him any mercie let it be never so deare or pretious to him though he prize it high and pray earnestly for it and wayt long for it yet if God come at last and say thou shalt not have it he can be content patiently and meekly to take a denyall from God and goe away contented if it must be so Indeed there is a kind of earnestnesse that should be in us and in a sence we should take no deniall from God we should not be easily put off As we see in Mat. 15. That Woman of Canaan when Christ put her off shee comes again and again and again But if God say say no more it shall not be so rhen a man should quietly submit himselfe to God though like Hannah he desire Children and pray earnestly and seek God againe and againe and seeme to be near towards it sometimes but at last if God come and say thou shalt never have a child then sayth a proud heart Give me children or I die I will give you an instance or two of this in 2 Sam 15. 25. David there was in a poore condition he was pursued by his enemy by Absalom his owne son and David David had the Arke and Zadock the Preist But sayth the King to Zadock carry back the Arke of God into the City if I shall finde favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both it and his habitation But if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here I am let him doe to me as seemeth good unto him As if he had said I am in a miserable condition but I will not trouble thee or indanger the Arke if I have found favour in the eyes of God he will bring me again to my house and to his but sayth he if he thus say I have no delight in him Behold here I am let him doe to me as seemeth good in his eyes God will bring me back to Jerusalem if I have found favour with him but if God say David I have no delight in thee thou shalt never see my house more Loe here I am let him doe as seemeth best to him This is the posture of a humble soule that desireth this and that and the other mercy yet if God say I have no delight in thee I will doe none of these things he can say here I am doe as it seemeth good in thine eyes I will give you one instance more in Deut. 3. 24. You have Moses there praying and he desires a great request and that earnestly of God Moses O Lord thou hast begun to shew thy seruant thy greatnesse and thy mighty hand for what God is there in Heaven or in Earth that can doe according to thy might I pray thee I pray thee Lord see how familiar he is with him Let me goe over and see that good land that is beyond Jordan and that goodly Mountaine and Lebanon Moses was going towards Canaan that was a type of the Kingdome of grace under the Gospell and a type of Heaven and they had travelled forty yeares in the VVildernesse I pray thee sayth he let me goe over and see that good land and see Lebanon that goodly forrest But sayth he the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes and would not heare me and the Lord said unto me let it suffice thee speak no more unto me of this matter Let it suffice I will heare no more concerning this thing Get thee up into the top of Pisgah I will give thee leave to looke on it but thou shalt not goe over Now in the Chapter following Deut. 4. 21. Sayth he The Lord was angrie with me for your sakes It was for their sakes that God denyed him And he sware that I should not goe over Jordan and that I should not goe in unto that good land which the Lord thy God hath given thee for an inheritance but I must die in this Land It is a broken speech I must die he doth not say it in passion must I die must I lead this people forty yeares and when there is any good to be had I must be cut off he spake it not on that fashion but sayth he I must not goe over but you shall goe over and possesse it He submits to Gods will and rejoyceth that they should goe over though it was for their sakes that he was crossed And he shewes them how they should carry themselves there A proud heart would have sayd you may get you over if you will and if it had not been for you I might have gone too but I may thanke you that I must stay and die here But sayth he God hath sayd I shall speake no more of that matter it is my lot I submit So in all the mercies of God to thee if thou canst quietly as Moses and David submit in silence when he denies thee any mercy though it be never so deare it is a signe thou hast a humble heart Truely some godly men are of opinion that a Saint can come to this to be content that God should deny him everlasting Salvation for his soul I have read of one and I have spoken with another I have knowne two godly men in that posture the one was so and the other seemed to be so by his writing that if after all the meanes used he cannot come to beleive as others doe that he can have no assurance or hope of life from God but that God almost in every Ordinance doth as much as tell him thou shalt be damned yet he can be content to goe to Hell it selfe I have seen a glorious Saint that hath said that if God should tell him he should be damned yet he could submit without murmuring Such a thing may be but I think it is not ordinary neyther Grace crosseth not principles of nature doth God expect it because grace never crosseth the ground principles of nature and of all this
notwithstanding God did all this Examine your hearts by this Againe as a humble heart can be content that 4. A humble heart content with the least mercies God should denie him any mercy and secondly be content that God should take away any mercy and thirdly be content to waite upon God for mercies So in the fourth place after all his waiting he can be content with the least pittance of mercie A proud heart will not doe so take a proud beggar and make him waite an houre or two and then after give him but a farthing and he will grumble that he should stay so long and loose other customers others that might have releeved and helped him but a humble heart is content to waite long and after all is content with a little I will give you but one instance Mat. 15. 26. There was a blessed woman that followed Christ for a mercie Christ was silent a while and said nothing and though shee cried out yet he sayth nothing At last he calls her dog sayth shee am I a dog I take it well but the dogs sayth shee eat the crums that fall from their Masters table What is the meaning of that You know the dog stayes till his Master have dined and when his Master hath dined he is content with a bone or with the least crust that falls The dog is not served presently as soone as his Master sits downe but he stayes till all have dined and if a bone or a bit fall he is content with that A humble heart is like a dog in that he will stay his masters time as that woman shee could stay Jesus Christs leasure and see him carve mercies upon other mens trenchers and she have but a bone or a crust or a bit of bread when all was done and yet be well content The Fifth thing is this that a humble heart in 5. He is thankfor a heart to receive mercies respect of Gods mercies he will be content and thankfull to God to give him a hand and a heart to receive mercies That is a great measure of this grace of Gospell humiliation when God gives a man a little mercie after all his waiting he sees his owne weaknesse though the Lord be rich in mercie yet he cannot take it though it be layd downe upon the naile yet he cannot take it up without God give him a heart It is not so with the poore beggers of the World if you give them money they have a purse to lay it up in if you give them meat they have a budget to put it in but the soul is not able to receive any mercie I mean not any spirituall mercie temporall mercies it may but not spirituall unlesse God give a hand and a heart to receive it I have seen poore women in the Mountaines of VVales and I have oft thought of it they have been so poor that when they have come to a house to beg a little whey or butter-milke they have been fain to beg the loane of a pot or a dish to put it in So we when we come to beg mercie of God we must desire the Lord when we have done our best to give us eyes to see it and a heart to lay it up and a hand to receive it for the naturall man receives not the things of God And beleiving is called receiving and it is the gift of God to beleive We cannot believe that is we cannot receive the least mercie of God unlesse he give us hands and hearts This is the disposition of a humble heart when I pray for mercie of God I see God is full of mercie and Christ is a Fountaine full of grace but I have not eyes to behold it I have not a hand to receive it We cannot carrie one graine of grace home unlesse God give us spirituall buckets As that woman said John 4. Here is water but where is the bucket to draw So God may say thou wantest grace but where is thy bucket sayth the humble soul Lord I have none thou must both give the water and lend the bucket to carry it home And then Sixtly a humble heart is discovered by this that when the Lord shall give him any 6. He is content that God give lawes how to use his mercies mercie he will be content that God shall give him as many laws as he will to use these mercies a humble heart will doe so A proud begger if you give him a couple of shillings and say be sure you buy you some cloaths with this or get some good thing for your wife and children he will be ready to say you need not tell me how I shall use it I know what to doe with it Now give a humble begger foure or five shillings and say carrie one to your wife and with two shillings buy you a paire of shooes and doe this and this he will be content to doe all you tell him make as many lawes as you will if you give him any thing It is just so with the soul of a humbled Christian when the Lord gives a mercy to a proud heart he is ready to say I know what to doe with it well enough but when he gives any thing to a humble Saint he is content that the Lord should teach him And thence it is that when the Lord offers mercie and Salvation and offers Christ to a proud heart he is content to take the mercie but he would goe on in his sins still but hold sayth Christ now thou receivest Salvation and grace thou must not live in thy old wayes thou must shake off thy old companie and be a new man No the proud heart will have none of all those he would take the mercie but he will goe on in his owne way But a humble man is as Abraham we see he stayed long for a child and then God gave him a son and when he had his son Isaac God gave him a law for Isaac Abraham sayth he there is a son and a great mercie and all Nations shall be blessed in him but thou must take thy son and carry him to such a place and with thine owne hands upon such a hill thou must cut his throat and some of the old Rabbins say that he was to take a pole and to stir his bowells in the fire and according as the Lord so Abraham handled his mercie Thus it is with an humble heart But lastly and so I shall conclude a humble heart towards God in the way of his mercie is New mercies added add to his thankfulnesse discovered by this that every addition of mercie that God bestowes upon him obligeth his heart more and more to a holy thankfullnesse and obedience And truely as I have sayd we oft break our communion with God by our unthankfullnesse and our unthankfulnesse ariseth from the pride of our hearts A proud heart thinks that Proud hearts unthankfull he hath alwayes too little
therefore he is praying for more but he forgets to pray with thanksgiving to make his requests known with thanksgiving Now let a humble heart be in never so much distresse and misery the man can see abundance of cause to prayse God if he have but water that the beasts drink and if he have but strength to dig he can say Lord I owne this as a mercie and whatsoever is on this side Hell is mercie So in Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you by the mercies of God that you give up your selves a living and holy and acceptable sacrifice to God He would have the mercies of God to bring them to obedience to give up themselves to obey God So in Rom. 2. Sayth he Doest thou despise his riches and goodnesse and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodnesse of God should lead thee to repentance The goodnesse of God and the patience of God and the mercie of God should lead all humble hearts to a holy thankfullnesse and obedience and so it doth And the more the Lord doth multiplie mercies upon him the more obedient and thankfull he is Now in all this that I have said I would desire you to examine your soules and if you find that in any of these or in any of the rest that I am yet to speake of you are faultie and come short yet I would not have you conclude therefore I am not the humbled soul that the Minister spake off there is none of this grace in me for though it be not so with thee in every poynt though thou come short of perfect humiliation that should be in thee it followes not that therefore there is none at all The end why I put these things before you is not so much to trie your selves as that you might labour with the Lord to bring up your hearts to these things And I have the rather chosen to speake of this at this time because me thinks the Lord is preparing to come towards us in a way of mercie and that I would have you to think of and pray for that the Lord may still come in a way of mercie that he may turne from the evill he hath intended or else he may easily bring us againe to the red sea if we provoke him as we have done But so much for this time SERMON 8. Isaiah 6. 5. For mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts I Hope you are not wearie of this subject though I have been somthing long upon it you may remember the last doctrine was that A saving sight of God in Christ is the principall means of true humiliation It is the principall meanes to humble the heart of any man whether he be a Saint or a sinner I have spoken much to you concerning that sight At the last we came to this to examyne whether we have seen God or no. John puts much stresse upon that word If any man love not his brother he hath not seen God I say if you have seen God in Christ as Moses had seen him and as all the Saints see him with open face it will appeare by this it will make your hearts humble it will worke a holy frame of humiliation No proud man hath ever seen God no man hath ever seen God but his heart was thorowly humbled But that begat another question How shall I know whether I have an humble heart or no I told you you might know it First by the carriage of your souls towards God In poynt of justification In regard of his commands In regard of his truths In regard of his corrections In regard of his mercies And this last was the thing I did endeavour to open to you the last day Secondly you may know whether your hearts 2. True humiliation known by our carriage towards men be truly humbled by your carriage towards men When ever men are converted to God there the hearts of the children are turned to their fathers Now among men there are two sorts in generall They are eyther Sinners or Saints I shall leave to speake of our carriage towards Saints for the last because it will require a little more time and because I shall speake but a few words of this of the carriage of a humble heart towards sinners and that I shall endeavour to shew you at this time Therefore breifly whosoever hath this humble frame of heart his carriage towards sinners is according to the rule that we 1. To sinners with meeknesse read of Titus 3. 2. To speake evill of no man to be gentle shewing all meeknesse unto all men His carriage I say is meek and affable and courteous and gentle towards all men Indeed there is no heart in the World so proud you shall observe it but it hath in it some meeknesse and especially to some men The proudest Tyrants in the World have had some favourites that they did fawne on and in some sort might be termed meek men but the Apostle sayth that we must shew all meeknesse and that unto all men to all sorts of men to whoremongers to drunkards to those that deprive us of our goods and of our good name which is hard to doe but I will give you a Scripture that will open it Collos 1. 9. I pray for you sayth Paul that you may be filled with the knowledg of his will in all wisdome and spirituall understanding c. If the Lord hath revealed himselfe that thou hast had a saving sight of him then the Lord humbleth thy heart How will that appeare By thy carriage to all men there will be all meeknesse to all men It will appeare by thy affabilitie for meeknesse and humblenesse have the same name in the Originall Moses was a humble man and Moses was a very meeke man VVhere ever there is a humble heart it is a meeke heart there will be meeknesse shewed even to sinners That you may see this I will give you but one solid instance instead of many You know that of all proud men there were none that had the name so much as the Pharisees therefore they are called the proud Pharisees And of all that have Christs meeknesse to sinners been humbled there was not such a patterne of humilitie as our Lord Jesus Christ Now you shall see how the pride of the Pharisees was expressed and how the humilitie of our Saviour is set forth by his carriage to sinners As he sayth Mat. 11. 28. Come and learne of me for I am meeke and lowly of heart It is because of the pride of our hearts that we are not meeke you shall see this meeknesse of Christ by paralell places in Luke 7. 34. You shall finde there that our Lord Christ was at a feast when he sat at meat in a Pharises house there comes in a woman and shee was washing his feet and wyping them with the haire of her head as he sate at the table The Pharisees fall a reasoning with themselves
all sinners but there is some speciall time when God will make at his heart there is a time there is one day of peculiar grace that God hath reserved almost for every sinner which is called the day of his visitation Why now a poore humble hearted Saint thinks thus yonder is a man is now jeering of the people of God he is an enemie to all holinesse and sayth he yonder man his day of visitation is not yet come but then he will blesse God in that day and say O blessed be the Lord that sent me such a friend or such a neighbour he would oft come to call upon me to goe to Sermons and I did curse him when he intreated me to goe I would stay at home and drinke and sweare but now I remember his prayers and his instructions that I did then jeere at but now they are precious to my soul And therefore thinks a poore humbled Saint why is it that I am better then the worst sinner It is because God hath sent me the day of visitation before him When God shall send his day of visitation to him I have reason to think that he may be in the Kingdome of heaven before me and therefore let me be meeke and affable towards him Beloved that stir and rigour and ridgidnesse in Ridgidnesse to sinners ariseth from pride professors towards poore sinners it ariseth only from the pride of their hearts Now I say if thou have seene God in Jesus Christ thou shalt know it by thy humble carriage towards sinners There is but one thing more and so I shall have done with this text and that is how a heart that is rightly humbled by seeing of God in Jesus Christ doth carrie and behave it selfe towards other Saints But that I must leave to another opportunity SERMON 9. Isaiah 6. 5. For mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts THE last lesson that God taught us from these words you know was this that A saving sight of God in Christ is the principall meanes of the humiliation of the soule The last Use we were upon was of examination to know whether the Lord hath given us this grace or no. For the clearing of that I told you that we may know much of it by our carriage and demeanour First towards God Secondly towards man Concerning our carriage towards God I instanced in five perticulars which I shall not now repeat Secondly we may know it by our carriage towards men which is the last thing and so I shall finish what I have to say on these words I began to speake of this the last time I told you that men are of two sorts eyther Saints or sinners according to the Scripture language not according to the cursed language of these times that denominate men from every opinion and call them Seekers and Presbiterians and Anabaptists and Independents I know not what cursed languages but I say all men are eyther Saints or Sinners thou art eyther a Saint or a Sinner Christ hath but two names for men here and will have but two hands when he comes to judge his right hand and his left hand and there are but two places after judgement Heaven and Hell So by our carriage towards Saints and Sinners we may know whether we have this grace of humiliation or no. Of our carriage to sinners I spake somwhat the last time I shall now proceed to the last thing of all that is our carriage and demeanour to the Saints and therein because we are now upon examination I beseech you in a speciall manner to have an eye upon your hearts while I am speaking that God may make this as a lookinglasse to some proud souls that they may thereby see how it is with them I shall therefore endeavour to open this to you as I did the former Now I say thou mayest know if thy heart be humbled by the spirit of Christ in Quest Answ The carriage of a humble heart towards Saints the Gospell by thy carriage towards the Saints You will say how is that It will appeare these wayes First if thou be rightly humbled thou doest usually conceive thy selfe and thou art willing that 1. He thinks himselfe the least of Saints all men should so conceive of thee to be the least of Saints I pray thee remember that I say thou doest usually reflect upon thy selfe and doest conceive of thy selfe and art willing to be so conceived of and accounted of by others as the least of all Saints I will give you but a Scripture or two for it 1 Cor. 15. Paul you know was a glorious Saint and truly in many things as far as we may have leave to judg more glorious then any of the Apostles yet sayth he speaking of those that had seen our Lord meaning the Apostles He was seene of James and of Cephas c. And last of all he was seen of me as one borne out of due time for I am the least of all the Apostles and am not worthy to be called an Apostle The Greek word signifies a child that is borne dead or as it were into the World before the time We say somtimes of a child when it is borne there is the least child that ever was borne alive but yet it was borne alive and in season but an abortive is a child that is borne by miscarriage that is borne dead it is lesse then the least child and lesse esteemed Job sayth O that I had been an abortive that my mother had buried me in secret Paul could not compare himselfe to the least Saint but as it were to an abortive to a thing not worth the mentioning among the living I am an abortive sayth he not because of the time that I did come after them though it be true that Paul was made an Apostle after the rest but sayth he I am the least of all Saints this was the reason Take but one place more Ephes 3. 8. Unto me who am lesse then the least of all Saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ To me that am lesse then the least The meaning of it is for in the Greek language in which the Apostles wrote they have six degrees of comparison now in English and in some other tongues there are but three as we say good better and best of all we goe no further a thing is little and lesse and least of all But they double it again and they say little and lesse and least and a thing lesse then the least and more little and lesse then the least of all Paul chose to goe to the lowest pin lesse then the least Saint Minor minimo lesse then the least As if he had sayd suppose we gather together all the tottered broken professors in the World that walke dishonourably to God the blind and the lame as it were that doe least resemble him yet let them
be but Saints though the blindest and loosest and foolishest and giddiest professors put them all in a company and put me in the middest and I am lesse then the least of them Canst thou say so and thinke so when thou walkest in the street or when thou art in the congregation of Saints I am lesse then the least The Apostle Paul could say so That now is one thing that is this Gospell grace Gospell humilitie to think so Not but that man understand me may conceive 1. Though God have bestowed more mercy on him that there is more grace shewed to him then to all the World besides I meane in a passive way God hath conferred more mereie and I have had more mercie from God more patience and long suffering God hath borne more with me and suffered longer then with any Saint that I know This is not contrary to the grace of humiliation for this Paul that said he was the least of Saints in 2 Tim. 1. 16. He sayth that he had received more mercy then any other and that he was made a patterne to all that should beleive not of any good in him but of grace and mercie bestowed on him from God Nay a man may goe further and yet be a humble 2. And may doe more service for God hearted Christian He may say as I have received more favours from God then others so God hath carried me on to doe more then many others I am lesse then the least of them sayth Paul yet I laboured more abundantly then they all That was no pride in him I am lesse then the least yet I Preached the Gospell from Jerusalem to Illiricum but not I but the grace of God That is the goodnesse of God that carries us on if any man be carried on to a good worke and God blesseth it let him looke on it when he hath done and he will say he was passive in it and was carried on by grace Now take those two cautions and then a humble hearted Saint will say put me into the regiment of broken professors and I am lesse then the least and the raggedest of them But you will say how can that be that a Saint A humble Saint judgeth himselfe the least should be taught in the communion of Saints should so conceive of himselfe it seemes impossible I answer there are many wayes I shall only 1. In regard of the great meanes hee hath had name a few First a humble Saint may generally conceive so of himselfe in respect of the greatnesse of the meanes he hath had It may be he hath lived in a glorious familie that he hath lived under a glorious Gospell ministerie and so he may thinke Chorazin and Bethsaida better then he he hath been planted in the Vineyard and if others had had the Gospell and the meanes that he hath had they would have been better And others it may be may think thus in respect 2. In regard of the time of the time it may be they are old professors and have but little grace and according to the rate and time they have had they see they have little or nothing for professors of a yeare or two old have more grace and more knowledge of Christ then they have in seaventeen it may be in twentiseaven yeares So another in respect of the motions of Gods 3. Motions of Gods spirit spirit he may think with himselfe the spirit of God hath striven more with me then with others I have seen other people runn mad that have not committed one of my sins and God hath cast them off and I have greived the spirit and vexed him a thousand times over and yet the blessed spirit hath come into my heart againe and restored all againe Others are carried with this consideration because 4. Seeing more good and lesse evill in others for all other S t s they see more good in them and but little ill but in themselves they see a World of ill and little good for humble hearted Saints studie their owne evills and other mens good Sayth a humble Saint I know yonder man he hath more grace and holinesse in his heart then is in mine owne I have a world of pride and frowardnesse It may be I have seen him once or twice angrie and to love the World too well but he did not continue so but mine owne heart loves the World every day too well and I am often sinfully angrie With these and the like considerations the Lord leads his people that are humbled by his spirit and by the sight of God in Christ to think themselves the least of all Saints If you say I but I canot be brought to think Ob. They that think they know more then others that I am the least in knowledge it may be in holinesse and grace I am the least but I know more then they and am able to teach and instruct others For that take these two or three words First I tell you when people conceive that 1. They know nothing they know more then others ordinarily they know nothing The Scripture sayth If any man think that be knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing And it may be thy knowledge is nothing else but darknesse there is a knowledge called ignorance and a light called darknesse Secondly it may be thou mayest know more in 2. They have not more saving knowledge divinitie there is a kind of knowledge of godlinesse that thou mayest have but in the pure saving knowledge of Christ if thou be a humble man thou canst not think that thou knowest more then another that is a Christian I may thinke I know more in the common rode but in saving knowledge and light revealed by the spirit out of the Scriptures I cannot but thinke I am least Thirdly thou mayest know more by way of 3. They have not more knowledg for the manner expression beeing a Scholler thou mayest be able to expresse thy selfe better and thou mayest know more matters more subjects and discourse of many things that another Saint it may be cannot but for the manner of knowing what thou knowest thou canst not conceit but that the least Saint knowes more then thee if thou be a humbled Saint I may know more in the rode of divinitie and more matters and subjects in godlinesse but for the manner of knowing it the poorest Saint in the World if he were able to expresse hemselfe he may know more of God in Christ then I. This is one way whereby you may know whether you be rightly humbled by your carriage to the Saints if you look on your selves as the very least of Saints Secondly if at any time your hearts in any 2. By condiscending to the weakest Saint consideration think your selves above others yet notwithstanding if your hearts be humbled you will then be willing and will easily condiscend to the weakest Saints Sometimes a humble heart may be
endeavour to helpe them Take a humble heart let him be never so excellent in grace and let him come to the least and the meanest of the people of God he thinks there is somthing in yonder Saint though he speake not three words of godlinesse yet there is something in him if I could draw it out that is able to doe me good God hath â—â—de us as the members of the body that we should depend one upon another God hath made the little toe not only for it selfe but for the whole body and the best member is beholding to it Therefore if it be a poore Saint though he be never so poore and meane yet a humble heart sees there is some treasure of God in that soul for me if I can get it though he be weake and the thing be a common thing yet if I have a humble heart I shall learne somewhat and if he come and reproove him thinks he I am the least of Saints and this man is above me therefore he dares not storme Not like many people among us that set themselves and their hearts above most of the Saints whereupon they goe on to others and tell them there is such a man he will not heare me Why Because his heart is set above most Saints and above the word of God too if we should tell Archippus that he should looke to his ministry If a poore Saint should goe to a brave Minister as he rides in his Coach and bid him take heed of the love of money and of the love of the World and that he be not proud how would he disdaine him whereas we should be more humble then any other and readier to receive reproofe or instruction from the meanest Saint then any other The Lord make us so and doe you pray to God that we may be so Sixtly you shall know the humilitie of his heart 6. He undervalues not grace in others though it be with mixture in his demeanour to the Saints by this that notwithstanding alll mixtures whatsoever in the graces of the Saints yet he dares not undervalue the grace of God in them I say notwithstanding all the mixtures for we are Gods wheat but there is a great deale of chaff in us there is a strange mixture in the Saints of flesh and spirit that is one Then there are other mixtures want of breeding it may be coursnesse it may be roughnesse of carriage it may be an untoward naturall disposition it may be want of naturall parts as some say Now a humble heart though there be any of these mixtures with it yet he will prize the grace yea even for these mixtures sake Now to proud hearts bring a clownish man though he be full of grace alas he is not for their company they know not what to doe with him he cannot tell stories as they can he is not a companion for them but take an humble heart and let it be a Barbarian or Scithian and they are strange people let it be bond or free be he what he will be so he see Jesus Christ in his soul he is company for him Beloved the very gifts and graces of God are variously dispensed to us and they have various operations As the dispensations are various to us so their works are various from us but let the dispensations and operations be what they will if it be a humble heart that sees Christ in the soul he can rejoyce in him Seaventhly in a word you shall know a humble 7. He is readier to learn then to teach heart in his carriage towards the Saints by this He is swift to hear and slow to speake as James sayth Chap. 1. 19. You will say what is that Why is that the marke of a humble heart The meaning is he is alway more ready to learne then to teach The humblest heart is alway more apt to receive then to doe it is more apt to heare then to speake to learne then to teach others Now a proud heart will be alway teaching and talking take a proud man or woman and whatsoever company they are in they look on themselves as teachers of that company all must stand still as Job sayth to heare their wisedome and they must fasten something upon them that they would have them learne But wherever a humble heart comes in company he thinks first of receiving he thinks this people are more fit to teach me and to doe me good then I can to them at least we will doe one another good mutually as Paul sayth it is the manner of some people you shall never add to them they will talke all if they be in company they will feed themselves with their owne speeches you shall never fasten any thing upon them it is the weaknesse of some women to be over forward in talking and it is the wickednesse also or pride of heart in others who else would be more willing to heare then to speake and to learne then to talke out their opportunities Eightly you shall know a humble heart by his 8. He is not discouraged by seeing greater grace in others demeanour to other Saints in this he is not discouraged in grace by the sight of greater grace in others and he is not discouraged in his endeavours to doe good though all round about him be enabled to doe more good He is not discouraged in grace by the sight of greater grace in others Indeed he is humbled that others are more watchfull and tender and live more to God but yet he is not discouraged There are some but it is the pride of their hearts when they looke one others that are greater in grace they are as a weake sight that looks on the sun then they can see nothing there is nothing but mopeing and louring whereas they should goe sweetly and humble themselves such a one hath more grace but it may be I have had as much time and as many stirrings up of the people of God and yet what a poore low creature am I Againe he is not discouraged from endeavouring to doe good in any place though others can and doe more good then he I have seen some that have gone for brave Christians heretofore that a man when he had seen them would have thought he had seen an Angel of Heaven they were such glorious Saints yet they have been struck in the head when they have come to doe good among people that they thought were more able then they Though it were their humilitie to be more apt to heare then to speake yet when I am called to doe good and doe not doe it because others are more able then I that is priae of heart because I think if I set up my little candle among so many great ones that shine brighter mine would not be seen Therefore in Galla. 6. one of the works of the flesh is emulation that is a kind of contending with others about good things when another
brother doth good and I strive and cannot doe so much as he therfore I am discouraged and will doe none at all that is emulation Emulation is taken in a good sence sometimes to do good before another but not to be discouraged because another can doe more good A Ninth thing is there is a constant sweetnesse 9. There is a sweetnesse in his heart to all Saints in the soul towards all the Saints where there is a humble heart I cannot expresse this sweetnesse but a little by the contrary 2 Cor. 12. 20. sayth the Apostle I am afraid when I come among you I shall find this and this among the rest he names swellings Now a swelling a boile or a plague sore where a swelling or any tumour is there is continuall aches and stitches and prickings and uneasinesse and the partie cannot sleep or wag or stir but is ankward and unquiet in his body So it is in the soul where there is pride there is swellings it is puffed up and blowne as a bladder And where there are swellings in the heart so much swelling so much uneasinesse and unquyet The Lord humble thee and me for it there are in our hearts stitches and aches many times towards this and that Saint I am unquyet I find fault with this and that and the other man I wrangle with him and I think the fault is in him but the swelling is in mine owne heart for we finde by experience if the Lord prick that bladder and let downe that swelling the heart will be sweet as a nut and looke on all Saints with joy Whereas take a proud professor put him into what assemblie of Saints you will he is alway jangling and wrangling there is a swelling and plague sore and prickings in the heart in Ephes 4. It is called bitternesse The Apostle may allude to a feaver when people are in a feaver there is a bitternesse on the tongue the man can take nothing in while he is in that disposition he is angrie with every thing his wife and his children cannot speake to him VVhat is the reason Not because his wife is not a loving wife and his children good children but there is a bitter humour on his tongue and the disease puts him into that aukardnesse So where there is pride in the heart there is bitternesse to the Saints we are mooved with this Saint and displeased with that and fall out with the other and we are well no where we like no way in Gods Kingdome but the reason is there is a bitternesse on thy tongue and there is a swelling in thee Therefore a humble heart hath the gallantest life of any man in the World it is full of sweetnesse there is no bitternesse nor swelling but it is alway filled with love and joy when he sees the least Saint notwithstanding all his owne graces In the Tenth place as he is not easily offended 10. He is carefull not to offend other Saints with others for I might speake much of that so he is carefull of avoyding the least offence to others Indeed a humble heart you cannot easily provoke him A hand that is full of swellings if you touch it you provoke it and make it burne or else if it be whole you cannot easily chafe and distemper it And he is very carefull also of avoyding just offence to others and therefore he doth these two things First he will if need be abate much of his light 1 In abating of his own light in his practice for offence sake There is a lesson for these times It may be some doe thus but not the Generalitie of these times Pray Evodiach and beseech Syntiche that they be of the same mind in the Lord. A humble heart will abate of his light and knowledge Paul knew many things that he did not preach nor practise We have men that say this is my light let all the World say as they will this is my light and I must contend for the faith O this is contending for corruption when there is not respect to all the Saints and a doing of our utmost to avoid offence And Secondly when he must practice any thing 2. He is sorry that he must do that which offends them that offends them there is a kind of sorrow at his heart unspeakable sorrow that he must doe any thing that shall give them offence I mean the doing of good things and his conscience foreeth him to it but he is sorry for it that he must doe them A proud heart is glad and joyfull of any new nik or notion whereby he may provoke the Saints I know diverse such that live upon found conceits as Taylors invent new fashions and though they provoke the generalitie of other Saints yet it must out every weeke or fortnight it is not so with a humble heart he will see two steps before he will tread one as we say in VVales and when he sees it and must goe a step that crosseth the light and spirit of the Saints it makes his heart ake though he must obey God The Eleaventh is this a humble heart in his demeanour 11. He is gentle to other Saints in their infirmities to the Saints is very gentle towards the Saints in their Infirmities and falls Gall. 5. 1. If any one be fallen by infirmitie ye that are spiritual restore such a one with the spirit of meeknesse He should be like a Phisitian or Chirurgeon that gently sets a bone Considering thy selfe When a man is rough to another he doth not consider himselfe what he hath been and what he may be how God may leave him or her to that corruption that he sees his brother or sister fall into it proceeds from a proud heart if a professor fall men are ready to say I expected no other I thought he was an Hypocrite and so farewell he No thou shouldst goe to him and with pitty and love labour to heale him it may be when you fall you will fall lower and worser then he This is the nature of an humble heart Another thing breiflly is this he is heartily 12. He is glad to doe any service for the Saints glad of any service he can doe for the Saints he rejoyceth in any service he can doe for the least Saint nay as he is glad to doe the service so he earnestly desires that his service may be accepted of the Saints he will blesse God if such a Saint will accept of such a service There is the strangest word one of them in the Book of God for ought I know Rom. 15. 30. I have oft wondred at it Now I beseech you brethren for the Lord Jesus sake and for the love of the spirit you would thinke there were some great businesse that you strive together with me in prayer to God for me Why what was the matter Paul did never more earnestly desire their prayers That I may be delivered from them that doe
to keep the Garden that he should come in no more Just so now since Adams fall the Lord hath set a Sword as it were to keep men from all the principles of Adam that those things shall never please God any more Or I may say of it as Josuah speakes of Jericho when hee had pulled down and destroyed it Cursed be the man that buildeth this Citty any more So when God pulled downe Adam for sin the Lord layd that curse upon him that he should never be a blessing that way any more God would never looke on him or any thing that should come from him any more God would bethink himselfe of another way but that way he would not meddle with But now this is our fault wee are still going to build Jericho againe We are every man more apt to righteousnesse then to sin such a righteousnesse as it is we are apt to goe and build up the ruines of old Adam when we goe about the service of God and to doe any thing for him or as the people of Israel Deut. 1. God bids them arise and goe into Canaan and then they would not but by and by they would goe and then God tells them they should never goe So the time was that we might have gone the way of old Adam when God made him righteous if we had continued so it had been well and the more we had endeavoured to be righteous that way the more blessed we had been But now we are fallen and God hath cursed Adam to dye now any one that goes that way is cursed that goes about to repaire those old ruines no saith God doe not now anger me in seeking to be holy in that way as old Adam was We must labour now to goe a new way and get the new Adam Jesus Christ into our soules This is the reason why as it is cleare in 1 Cor. Why godly men dye as well as other 15. men must dye why godly men must dye as well as the wicked It is appointed to all men to dye Why so The reason is this because God in Paradise condemned old Adam wholly to dye therefore Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God no peice of old Adam therefore he being a publike person and we being in him that curse must be fulfilled and wee must dye All that belongs to old Adam must dye one time or other Nolens volens Therefore as we beare the Image of old Adam though we have some beginnings of new Adam yet because we have the disposition of old Adam I speake not of sin but of naturall Adam wee are earthly as Adam was therefore we must lay downe this flesh and body because of that great curse in Paradise that Adam should dye and all that are of him But you will say why then doth not corruption Quest that is a part of old Adam dye in the wicked in Hell You say whole Adam corrupt Adam and naturall Adam must dye Now the wicked in Hell they have sin and corruption World without end for Caine is a murderer and Judas is a Traytor to this time It is true that corrupt Adam in the Saints must Answ Sin remaining in the wicked in Hell it is a curse dye but that comes not by the curse but it is by Christ and is a blessing and that corrupt Adam sinfull Adam lives for ever in them in Hell it is a part of the curse for to live in sin is to dye properly Now in that wee shall have this flesh and blood dissolved and shall have naturall wisedome and the like all dashed out therein wee are common with them that is of the curse though God after by an after game as we may speake with reverence turned it to a blessing But for the dying of corruption in us that is the blessing of Jesus Christ and no curse It is a curse to live in sin therefore though Adam be wholly to dye yet the wicked continue in sin World without end even in Hell I meane there are the sins of the heart at the least And in those places of the New Testament I conceive the holy Ghost alludes to this as that in Rom. 8. They that walke after the flesh shall dye Why doth he not say the plague of God shall come on them but they shal dye It is as if he had said doe you not remember that God threatned a curse in Paradise to flesh and he that walkes after that shall dye for God hath sayd Flesh and Adam shall dye And so Rom. 7. Who shall deliver mee from this body of death that is from this body that God hath condemned to dye Therefore I say whatsoever springs in us and comes from us from old Adam it is a dead thing that God cursed even in Paradice and therfore cannot be acceptable to him Take the best piece of old Adam and offer it to God and it is as that strange fire that Nadab and Abihu offered it cannot please God Let me give you one chiefe instance that makes Divinity mistaken my heart bleed when I think of it That thing that you call Divinity or those that you call Divines they are good words of themselves for John is called the Divine But that which you call Divinity which is the great Idoll of the World it is nothing but old Adam a kind of godlinesse learned in a naturall way a man learned after the old Adam as we learne Logick or other things in the Universities and such a one comes and scatters this among people and this you call Divinity and he is a Divine and yet this is abominable to God And that is the reason why there are many Divines that Preach excellently and yet God curseth it Why It is old Adams wisedome and invention and brave parts but God curseth the soule he curseth that Fig tree that it shall bring forth no more O Beloved that we would not suffer our selves as children I had almost sayd as fooles to be carried on wheeling in a profession of Religion and to think it enough to carry it plausibly in duties in observing fast dayes and dayes of humiliation c. But that thou and I may be content to let all the Professors in the Towne to goe before us that way let them be more gallant Professors in outward performances in all they doe let it be thy care and mine to gleane the spirit of God after them let people say there is such a man made such a brave peice of worke and such a man prayed excellent well and prayed so long let us passe by these things and if I can doe a little from the spirit of Jesus Christ and if God will frame my heart from the Lord Christ and his spirit to speake a few words to my Father this is all I care for And so for other things Therfore I beseech you let this sinck into you VVhy men are proud of their duties That makes you
is weake there is so much weaknesse and earthinesse and frailty sometimes a mans heart is right for God yet his head akes or his stomack is full of wind or he is weary and wants sleep there is some frailty or other This is all earthly Adam all this shall be gone and this kind of body and soule shall be altered and changed to the Image of the blessed second Adam we shall put off our earthynesse as well as our sinfulnesse and have his blessed compleat Image Now how glorious that shall be as you never The glory of Saints in Heaven unspeakable saw the first Adam but onely by hear-say and by reading of the Word of God so you have not seen the second Adam but you may partly know by the manifestation of his glory on earth you have heard much of his glory We saw his glory as of the onely begotten Son of God we shall then see him Phil. 3. 19. Our conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile bodies He meanes vile not onely in respect of sinfulnesse but of dustinesse of earthynesse and weaknesse that they may be like his glorious body according to his mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe that is according to his usuall manner of working he can doe what he will in Heaven and Earth We cannot conceive what an Imnge we shall have upon our bodies and soules but according to his wisedome and mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things he will doe it Therefore let me tell you this I finde few or Saints formerly had more lively expectations of glory by Christ none that have those live by expectations in these times of that glory that is to be revealed that the Saints of old had See how they speake of it What manner of love is this that we should be called the Sons of God But yet it doth not appeare what we shall be for we shall be like him And gird up the loynes of your minds be sober and watch for the glory that shall be revealed The Saints heretofore more then halfe their hearts were in Heaven before hand That is the meaning of that Our conversation is in Heaven Just as you see men that goe a long journey or as you see people that have been plundered that are returning to their owne homes their conversation is there halfe a yeare before their hearts and their thoughts are there and they wish they were there and think the time long and are thinking what they will doe and what they will be when they come there So our conversation is in Heaven the Saints doe so long after the glory that is to be revealed in the day of adoption and redemption of our bodies that the most part of them is there already Now we doe not consider of this because the new Jerusalem is not yet come into our hearts We have not that Gospel-temper and frame of spirit that the Saints had before That which remaines is a little to shew you what your duty is that the Lord hath brought up to walk according to the spirit And two or three words I have to shew you how you should every one endeavour to attaine to it or to attaine it more and more But I shall leave that till the after-noone SERMON V. Rom. 8. 4. Who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit IT is the Foundation of all our happinesse to have the righteousnesse The foundation of a Christians happinesse of the law fulfilled in us for thereby we are exempted from all misery freed from all our enemies and therby we are made capable to enjoy all happinesse and blessednesse For all the misery that man suffers here and hereafter is because he hath not a righteousnesse to fulfill the law And therefore whatsoever man or woman it is that the Lord hath bestowed this great priviledge upon they must needs be in a blessed condition Now that we may know whether we are of that number the Apostle tells us that they that have this priviledge they walk not according to the Flesh but according to the spirit which was the last thing I was upon I told you what was meant by walking after the flesh and what by walking after the spirit I gave the Reasons of it and made two or three Uses There are two things remaine which I shall endeavour to speake of at this time First you that have received the spirit of God Vse 4. Exhortation to those that have the spirit how to walke and in some measure doe walk according to the spirit and not according to the flesh that the new-Jerusalem from Heaven is in some measure come into your hearts I will give you a few Exhortations from the Lord how you should carry your selves That is the first thing I shall doe and that shall be in four or five short words The first is this that the Lord having called 1. Not to abuse this liberty you to this glorious free estate to this free condition that you would take heed of abusing your liberty that you would take heed of turning the grace of God into wantonnesse as many doe And by that I meane but two things That you would take heed of using your liberty as an occasion for the flesh And Secondly of using your liberty so as to give offence to your Brethren or indeed to any I say first beware of using your liberty for an occasion 1. Not to use it as an occasion to the flesh to the flesh That you shall have Gall. 5. 13. For Brethren sayth the Apostle you have been called to liberty only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another The Apostle shewes them in that Epistle the glorious condition and estate that they were in through grace And here in this Verse there are two things that he tells them the one is implied it is worth observing yee are called to liberty That The Gospell brings liberty is there is a freedome there is a liberty in the Gospell in diverse things that did seeme to be sinfull when ye were under the law for else what sence can you make of this ye are called to liberty onely use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh For we find that the people under the law eyther they made the law stricter or looser then it was And there is no man in the World that walks according to the law but he makes many lawes to himselfe that Christ hath not made Now when the Gospell coms in clearly all those lawes that you made of your owne head vanish Ye are called to liberty that is you see more freedome you are not bound to every thing that before you were Before you must not smile it was a sin if you seemed to laugh or smile and a hundred such things Now
saith God if I be pleased to put my law throughly in their minds their affections and actions cannot goe amiss and so poore Paul when he was strugling with corruptions Rom. 7. He ends all with this I thank God through Jesus Christ that though I serve the law of sin in my members yet my mind is whole and entire for all this So that it is the cheifest happinesse of a Christian to have his mind sanctified and of all miseries this is the worst to have a carnall unsanct ified mind But it may be you will say what is the misery of Quest a fleshly mind Give me leave in a few short words to set it out Answ The misery of a carnall mind in 6 perticulars unto you I will tell you what the Scripture saith of a carnall mind and I desire you to consider of it and O that God would help us to come out of our formallity that we may think of these things and consider doth not the Minister speak of me and am not I the man Now there are these expressions of a carnall mind First the Scripture saith the minde is blind Secondly that it is vaine Thirdly that it is rotten Fourthly that it is polluted Fiftly that it is reprobate Sixtly that it is proud Let me open these a little First it is blind that is it is darkenesse that is the word in Ephes 5. 8. For ye were somtimes darknesse 1. It is blind you were not only darke but darknesse it selfe There is not the least sparke of spirituall light in thee if thou be yet in the flesh if thy minde be fleshly Secondly it is vaine What is that The Gentiles that walked in the vanitie of their minds 2. It is vaine they became vaine in their imaginations What is a vaine minde Vaine signifies empty in Scripture as Solomon saith I saw all things under the Sun that they were Vaine what vaine that is they are empty they have no good in them So if thou be a carnall man thy mind is vaine that is it is empty of all good there are none of those sweet meditations and contemplations and considerations of spiritual things it is quite emptie Christ saith thou shalt not call thy Brother Racha that is emptie but thou mayst say so of thy minde thou mayst say I have an empty minde a minde that is Racha that is emptie Therefore saith Solomon The words of the godly are as choyce silver but the heart of the wicked is little worth as one godly man saith his very heart is not worth a half-peny so I may say of al thy thoughts that art yet in the flesh all thy thoughts through the yeare are not worth one farthing Thirdly they are rotten or corrupt Ephes 4. 3. It is rotten What is the meaning of that I shall it may be speake more of it by and by but for the present it is rotten that is it is not only empty of good but full of putrifaction it is full of superstitious thoughts full of Lusts full of evill imaginations that are abhominable to God and that rott thy mind and make it worse and worse and make it stinke before the Lord. The plowing of the wicked is an abhomination to the Lord the nearer you come to his heart the more abhominable it is 4. It is polluted thy minde being carnall every 4. It is polluted lawfull thing every indifferent thing makes thy mind fouler and fouler And take heed take heed poore soule after all 5. Reprobate this that thy minde prove not to be a reprobate mind you shall have the word in Rom. 1. 28. you may finde in that Chapter that the people had a little naturall knowledge of God but they did not know him as God but became vaine in their imagination they did not delight to keep the knowledge of God they were sorry that they knew so much of God because they could'not follow their lusts so freely Well what saith the Apostle As they did not like to retaine God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind c. A mind voyd of judgement as it is in your Margine because they had a little knowledge and regarded it not God gave them up to a reprobate minde to a mind voyd of judgement that is such a mind as never should have the knowledge of God any more you shall know no more you are troubled that you have a little knowledge of God saith God I will take away your judgement and you shall know no more And then there is a thing worse then this and 6. It is proud that you will thinke were very strange it is not strange to say there is one thing in the mind that is worse then to be Reprobate and yet thus it is the word is in Colloss 3. 18. It is called a proud minde What is that That is notwithstanding all the misery of thy mind and so by consquence of thy whole man as it is blind and vaine and rotten and polluted and it may be reprobate I feare it I feare it Proud mind what yet notwithstanding thou hast a proud minde What is that If thou compare it with Ezek. 28. 2. Thou dost set thy heart as the heart of God there is no carnall man but he thinks he is as God he thinks he knoweth all things that a man which is a mad man that is wild and hath no knowledg yet notwithstanding that he should conceive that he is wise as God as full of knowledge as God is in a maner this is the thought that is in the hearts of men and therefore you shall see in that place verse 9. saith the Lord Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee I am God Not that men say so with their Tongues but in their hearts that they are wise as God As there is many a poore carnall man that thinks he is grave and wise that he knowes as much as all the Freachers in London can teach him and yet he is rotten and blind and polluted and it may be reprobate too And therefore learne this Lesson that if thou art a fleshly man thy great miserie lies in thy mind and therefore doe not complaine so much of the streames as the Fountaine goe to God and desire him to write his Law in thy mind desire God not only change thy memory but to give thee a new mind and a new heart And from this may follow another word that Use 3. The mind cannot be good if the life be naught is you may hence learne you that are but yet simple and ignorant never conceive that thy heart is good when thy life is naught when thy words are naught and when thy thoughts are naught never say that thy mind is good or thy heart is good For I told thee thy mind is the fountaine of all thy actions of all thy affections And therefore doe not say Sir though I can