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
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
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
are perpetuall and constant in a sense Therefore it is said Joh. 14. 21. If you keep my Commandements saith Christ I will manifest my self to you Saith Judas not Iscariot Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self unto us and not unto the VVorld Saith he I and my Father will come and wil dwell with you and abide with you As for the world God passeth by as a wayfairing man that tarries but for a night but I and my Father will come and dwel with you Therefore in 1. Joh. 4. Seeing of God dwelling in God are Sinonomies one and the same thing God dwelling in us or we in God or seeing of God they are the same Because wheresoever God is seen rightly and truly it brings God by his Spirit to dwell in the Soule That is one thing you may know it by by your apprehensions Secondly you may know it by the impressions 2 By the impressions these apprehensions worke that those apprehensions have upon your hearts there will be a twofold impression upon thy soule when thou dost see God aright First as I told you before when a Saint seeth 1 Suitable to that they see in God God you are to understand that he seeth al in God with redundance he sees his love his goodnesse his power his faithfulnesse his mercy his justice Now the same apprehension of these things have such impressions upon thy heart that thou mayest clearely discerne if thy sight be right that is if every one of these doe worke upon thy heart a proportionable fitnesse or suitablenesse to that that is in God As for instance when thou lookest on God and thou seest his goodnes there is a sweet impression of love Thou seest the Justice and Righteousnesse of God it works an impression not a blaze that goes out but an habituall impression of pleasing God and of fearing God And so when thou seest his faithfulnesse it works an impression of trust that thou wilt trust him though he kill thee and so all that is in God will sinck into thy heart and worke suitable to that that is in God As to give you one instance for as it will doe by one so it will doe by all In Heb. 11. 27. It is said By faith Moses forsook Aegypt not fearing the wrath of the King For he endured as seeing him who is invisible Moses had a sight of him who is invisible Therefore he forsook Aegypt and feared not the wrath of the King What is the meaning of that The meaning of it is this he saw the King of Aegypt to be a great King a powerfull King But because he had seene God who is invisible that is he had seene the Power of God and the Greatnesse of God and that put such an impression on him that he did not feare Pharaoh And God had promised to doe him good and having seene the faithfulnesse of God he forsooke Aegypt So it will be with thee if thou see the Grace of God in Christ there will be an impression of love upon thy Soule If thou see the Greatnesse of God there will be Reverence imprinted upon thy heart or if thou see the Faithfulnesse of God there will be an impression of Trust upon thy heart But now if thou see God in Christ and see his goodnesse and mercy and grace and there be no such impression no love to God no delight in God no care to please him or to attend upon him thou hast not seene God aright Beloved these impressions you shall know them by these things in three words from any thing that is like the impressions of God upon you First they are reall Secondly they are through Impressions of seeing God upon Saints are Thirdly they are universall First they are reall By reall I meane this they 1. Reall are not idle speculations of God as a bare seeing of God and no more but only a meere contemplation but they are such reall impressions upon the heart as that they can bare up the Soule in any outward reall miserie As for instance you know the miseries of the world are reall When a man comes to Prison there is reall trouble and reall losse and Miseries of this life reall reall hunger and he is a Reall man that is the Keeper of the Prison Now an Hypocrite with all his speculations when he comes to a reall night of miserie for God all his knowledge of God proves a meere speculation and vanisheth into Ayre and there is no reality in it Now the other which is a true Saint let him be put into the worst condition let it be Reall put Bolts on his heeles let there be VVounds and Sores and Hunger and Thirst that he feeles beholds with his eyes yet he hath a thing in his Soule that is as real as the things that he feeles Therefore it is said in 1. John 1. where he speaks of Fellowship with God and walking in the light and seeing of God saith he Those things that wee have seene and heard and felt He makes the apprehension of God in Christ as reall as things that are subject to sense as the things that we see and heare and smell and feele Therefore see whether these impressions of God on thy soule be reall or no Doest thou finde when thou commest to reall miserie that there is reall comfort to hold thee up and not only imagination and vaine Speculations As you may observe many brave glorious Professors in the time of Peace that out strip all their Brethren and their expressions Why many Professors shrinke in Trouble are better then others they carry it gloriously and yet you shall have some poor creatures that can hardly speake to God in Prayer and can hardly remember any thing of the VVord and yet when they come to suffer there is a reall thing that holds them up though it may be it be but a poore little Boy or a VVench when you shall see those Brave glorious Professors that because they have no Reality they flee away and turne to the World Therefore pray to the Lord that these impressions may be reall That as the miseries wee meet withall are reall so the impressions of his blessed Majesty may be be reall Saith God to the Hypocrites Mal. 1. If I be a Father where is my Honour If I be a Master where is my feare You talke that I am your Father and your Master but there is no deepe impression of it upon your Soules Secondly as they are reall So they are thorow 2 They are thorow they fall not upon the heart of a Saint as they doe upon an Hypocrite The apprehensions of God fall upon an Hypocrite just like a little shower of raine upon the sandy ground there is some little impression but in two or three houres all is gone it never soaks to the root of the grasse An Hypocrite hath a root of bitternesse in his heart and all the
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
doe saith grace you shall mourne bitterly when you have done grace is at the heeles of it and grace overtakes it some way or other And in case he fall into the sin grace calls over him and cries out of the heart and when he hath done the sinne grace mournes it followes it oppsing till it be done and when it is done grace weeps over it It is not so with a wicked man that hath an enlightned Difference between Saints and Hypocrites conscience he may have a word or two and if that be not heard then farewel and then the Devill works effectually that is the difference between sin working in a Saint and in a wicked man The Devill works effectually in a wicked man that is he finisheth his work the Devill finisheth his worke in a Sinner but he doth not in a Saint The Devill never works in a Saint but grace overthrows it one way or other either before it be done or it overthrowes it when it is done The Devill sifted poore Peter and foiled him at the first but afterwards he wept it out there is much in this This is enough to discover an impure heart if you be a Drunkard or a VVhoremonger or a Backslider or a worldly Professor thou art a man that hath never seene God for thou hast an impure heart There is one thing briefly that I desire you to thinke on 2 It changeth them to the same image Againe whosoever hath seene God a second expression of it is this he is translated into the same image with God to that which he seeth As you have it 2 Cor. 3. ult Saith the Apostle All we with open face that is al the Saints we behold as in a glasse the glory of the Lord and are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. We behold the glory of the Lord and are changed into the same image from glory to glory I was going to tell you the last time how the sight of God hath a twofold impression upon us I forgot the last and it will not be unseasonable to mind you of it now The first was I told you it works in us a disposition snitable to what we see in God if God be great it makes me little if he be just it makes me feare if he be faithfull it makes me trust if he be good it makes me love him and the like Now the Second is this Whatsoever a Saint sees in God it works some resemblance in him of what he sees not a proportionablenesse for greatnesse in God and feare in me that suits God is great and I feare him But here I say it works a resemblance in a kinde As when I see the greatnesse of God it works and raiseth my Spirit to a holy greatnesse if I see holinesse in God it makes me holy there is nothing in God that is seene but it works a Resemblance except it be humility of which I shall shew the reason after All the Attributes in God become graces in you goodnesse in God makes you good but your goodnesse is a grace and his is an Attribute But only I say humilitie the glory of God makes me humble the glory of God makes me not proud and high but low and humble But every other thing in God makes me frame my heart and life just like God Creatures resemblances of spirituall things And there is no wonder in this we see in the Creatures for the Creatures are a resemblance of spirituall things The Creatures are so cast by God as that they might be fit resemblances and expressions of spiritual things in his word Jacobs sheep only by the working of fancie by looking upon the rods it made them conceive If fancy work so as that looking upon any thing it could make such an impression much more faith looking upon such a glorious object as God that hath such fulnesse in him shall make the soule like that it sees Therefore in Joh. 1. 14. Saith the Apostle We have seene his glory as the glory of the only begotten sonne of God full of grace and truth and of his fulnesse we all receive grace for grace VVe saw his glory and of that fullnesse of glory we receive grace for grace as the VVax receives letter for letter from the Seale or as the child receives lymb for lymb from the Parent so we receive grace for grace from Christ There is never a grace that we see in Christ but the seeing it with a spirituall eye works and creates such a grace in our Soules Therefore I pray consider of this whether you Triall of a right sight of God have had such a sight of God that when you see this it hath framed your soules according to God that you are like him If you say you see God and it is only a drie speculation that leaves you proud and carnall and malicious and high minded and froward and the like without working on you what you see in God you may justly suspect it not to be right A third expression I find in 1 Joh. 4. 12. Whosoever 3 A right sight of God works love to our Brethren hath seene God loves his Brother No man hath seene God at any time if we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us I told you before that to see God and to dwell in God are taken for one another As he saith after verse 15. VVhosoever shall confesse that Jesus is the Sonne of God God dwelleth in him and he in God and verse 16. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him No man hath seen God at any time but he that loveth his brother God dwelleth in him What is that That is he hath seen God For as I said they are all one dwelling in God and seeing of God Therefore looke to that whether God have wrought in you a heart Spiritually and purely to How Saints should be loved love the Saints as Saints not to love them that they may love me or to love them because they have a great deale of credit that they may report well of me or to love them carnally but whether I frame my heart to love the Saints as Saints as elect persons chosen of God and Members of Christ and as he beares the image of Christ on his soule if I love not my Brother surely I have never seene God therefore it is said 1 Joh. 2. 11. He that hateh his Brother is in darknesse he walketh in darknesse and knoweth not whether he goeth What darknesse Compare it with the first chap. verse 6 7. that darknesse is opposite to Fellowship in light with God and Christ If a man love not his Brother let him be a wise man let him be a Scholler let him repeat Sermons c. he is in darknesse and goes he knowes not whether for a man goes he knows not whether that hath
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
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
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
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
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
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
a man Now this is an impure heart an impure conscience And to the pure every thing is pure but to the impure every thing is defiled That is when a man hath an impure conscience that is not washed effectually by the bloud of Christ through the power of the holy Ghost then his meat and his drinke and his bed and his recreations every thing defiles him every lawfull thing defiles him as well as unlawfull Now then thou mayst reason thus if I have seene God I have a pure heart What is that I have no more conscience of sinne That is I finde an exceeding great power of the Spirit that makes my conscience cleane that notwithstanding my frailties there is no guilt lying or soaking in my Conscence That is one thing The second expression there you shall see afterwards verse 10. that they are said to be sanctified sanctification in this place is not meant as you usually take sanctification that is for mortification and vivification as we say the killing of sin and the quickning of grace though that may be called sanctification too But sanctification in this place is in the same sense as I said before when the conscience is washed and cleansed from the guilt of sin as it is interpreted in the third expression in verse 2â— Let us draw neare with a true heart in the full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled that is our consciences sprinkled having our hearts sprinkled from an evill conscience and our bodies washed with pure water An evill Conscience is an unbelieving Conscience for evill in the New Testament is ordinarily taken for unbeliefe Take heed saith the Apostle least there be in any of you an evill heart of unbeliefe to draw back from the living God That evill conscience Judas had and Saul had For sin did lye on their consciences and was not washed Now saith he Let us draw neare with full assurance Full assurance is opposed to an evill Conscience and that cannot be if you take sanctification in that sense that you use to take it Now that is one thing wherever God manifests himselfe and reveals his glory in his Son to the Soule he gives that man a pure heart a good conscience he washeth that mans conscience by the bloud of his Son that is his Spirit applies the vertue of the bloud of his Sonne to our Soules and Consciences to make them pure and peaceable 2ly a pure heart for there are but two ways in 2 Aheart cleansed from the power of sin generall that it is taken in Scripture a pure heart is a heart cleansed also from the power of sinne that is a pure heart And indeed both are comprehended here in one word because wheresoever the one is the other is also For it is impossible for a man to have his Conscience made truly peaceable by the bloud of Christ but it will be made pure and holy also Therefore in that place in Heb. 12. VVithout holinesse it is impossible to see God I suppose it is meant of Personall holinesse of Reformation and amendment of life and not of the imputed holinesse of Christ and the washing of the conscience as I said before But you will say if it be so then no man can see Object God till he go to Heaven for no man is free from sinne in this World There are many Answers that godly men give to this Objection that I cannot stand on It is ture there is sinne and corruption left in the Answ Saints yet they are said to be a pure People People Saints pure notwithstanding the remainder of corruptions 1 They grow purer every day Simile of a pure language to have pure hearts Why Because they are growing every day purer and purer that is the reason they are purified As a godly man compares them to a Well when you throw dirt or any thing into a standing poole it makes it fouler and fouler but throw it into a Well and it workes it out it bubbles and is never quiet till all be out So the Saints have pure hearts because however foule things are working and stirring in them yet they are still stirring against them and get ground of them though they be not pure that is quite free from sinne yet they are purer every day then other Then some say and they say truly that a man 2 The streame of the heart is pure hath a pure heart though there be corruption there when the streame of the heart the very streame of the heart is pure and holy Some conceive and those godly men as I told you before that there is a coare in the heart of a godly man that is pure and holy without sinne Which godly men take to be that that is meant by Spirit so frequently in Scripture saith the Apostle I serve God in my Spirit Rom. 1. And I pray God to preserve your soule and body and spirit 1 Thess 5. And that Spirit they take to be the quintessence of the soule somthing more inward then the Soule There is somthing in a pure heart that opposeth sinne and opposeth temptation there is some non ultra in the heart of a godly man Sinne gets the advantage over his eyes and over his hand and over his tongue but there is a baracado in his heart that it can goe no farther As you see betweene two Women chiding and striving who shall have the last word and one replyes and the other replyes and at last one hath the last word So there is somthing in the heart of a godly man that will have the last word As in a naturall man sinne hath the last word saith an Hypocrite I have a mind to over reach my Neighbour in such a bargaine thou wert not best to doe it saith enlightned conscience thou hearest the Preacher and hearest the Scripture say the contrary But I am resolved to doe it saith the Hypocrite then I will trouble thee saith the conscience Now there is no sinne that a Saint doth fall into but there is a coare in him that goes beyond As you see in an Onion you may pull off one scale and then another and another and at last you may come to the coare and can goe no farther Such a thing there is in a Saint this is that that is called the spirit the streame and quintessence of the Soule is holy and though there be corruption there yet there is something that is pure and holy and that coare will eat out the rest in time As to give you but one instance more looke upon your hearts as I speak and see how they agree with it take any corruption that a Saint falls into throughout the yeare there are many chidings and brawlings betweene grace and corruption I will have my will sayth corruption I will be vaine and fine and finer then my Neighbours saith grace I will not have it so But I will saith corruption I will have my will but if you
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
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
the proud happy yea they that Worke wickednesse are set up yea they that tempt God are even delivered Here is the temper of proud spirits and hearts of wicked men they are all for Honour and wealth what profit shall we have by humbling our soules and keeping Gods Ordinances O! these were stout words and stout hearts and spirits to envy the prosperity of other people while they were corrected And in Job 2â— You shall read that Job did almost fall in that poynt also but it was because he was not throughly humbled as in the end he was for then he abhorred himselfe The Fift thing is this that a soul that is truely 5. Humble hearts repent not of receiving Christ humbled in his afflictions as he doth not envie the prosperity of others the while so he doth not repent of his bargaine that he hath made in receiving of Jesus Christ though all his afflictions and miseries it may be fall on him for his sake or the most of them he never repents that he hath been so holy but that he is not more holy A proud heart repents of what it hath done for God O saith a proud heart If I had not heard Puritans and followed their Sermons and gone their wayes and lived in their Conventicles I had not been noted and hated and afflicted It is a proud heart that repents of any jot of good it hath done for God or that repents of his receiving of Christ for any affliction or misery that may befall him it is a signe of a base heart There is a blessed expression Psal 44. 9. Of David and the people of God I have oft thought of the great sufferings of the Saints there spoken of Thou hast cast us off and put us to shame and goest not forth with our Armies Thou makest us to turne back from the Enemy and those that hate us spoyle for themselves Thou hast given us like Sheepe appointed for meat and hast scattered us among the Heathen Thou sellest thy people for nought and doest not increase thy wealth by their price A strange thing thou sellest them and takest no money for them Thou makest us a reproach to our Neighbours a scorne and derision to them that are round about us c. Here is as it were an inventorie of all the troubles of the Church and wherefore doth he speake all this you shall see after For all this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neyther have we dealt falsely in thy Covenant Our heart is not turned back neyther have our steps declined from thy way Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of Dragons yet we have not stretched forth our hands to a strange God He reckons up all these troubles and yet sayth he notwithstanding all this though God have brought all these miseries upon us yet We have not been false in the Covenant nor stretched out our hands to a strange God we doe not repent that we have received thee and are married to thee and have chosen thee for our God I remember the practice of a godly Minister many yeares agoe who speaking of the manner how God useth to bring in sinners to Christ though there were a great deale of curiositie in those dayes more if I may speak with reverence to the worthy men that then lived then should have been as if a man should go about to describe the forming of a child in the wombe which it were better leave to God then studie too much how it is framed But I remember his expression sayth he God takes a sinner the first time and shewes him his miserie and shuts him up that he sees no way of deliverance at all and then after a little while he opens a little crevice that he may see deliverance and Salvation but he gives him not the least occasion of hope that he shall have deliverance but in the meane while what doth the sinner He leaves his sins as fast as he can and turnes them off and throwes them away He sees Salvation and he sayth yonder is Salvation but I have no reason to hope to have it but whether I have it or no I will never goe back to sin I am resolved whether Christ will give me pardon and Salvation or not I will not take sin any more I applie it to this when afflictions and miseries come in stormes on a poore soule shower after shower that there is no end the soule sayth I know not how I shall be delivered from these troubles here is death and misery and sicknesse upon me and I know not what the issue will be but be the end what it will by the helpe of God I will not goe back to sin I will not repent that I have received Christ but will keepe close to the Lord. This is the meaning of that phrase Mat. 13. Where Christ saith when the sun is up upon the corne it scorcheth it that is when there is Persecution for every Persecution is an affliction though every affliction be not a Persecution now when the sun of Persecution is up men are offended What is the meaning of that Men repent of their bargaine they begin to be sorrie that ever they were Professors of Religion Therefore the Lord Christ would have a man cast up the cost For when a man enters into Religion it is as if he were to fight a Field there will be losse and trouble and danger there will be tribulation and hot Persecution consider if thou be able to goe through it thou must have the shell as well as the kernell it is a decree of Heaven Therefore consider before hand that thou mayest not repent when troubles come There may be base times worse then yet if worse may be and if when tribulations come thou shalt repent that thou hast gone so farr in Religion and that thou hast been acquainted with the Saints and that thou hast been so oft in their companie thou hast to speake the least and the best of thee an unhumbled heart Sixtly a Saint that hath a humbled heart you 6. He is more carefull to carry himselfe aright then to be delivered may know it by his carriage in afflictions by this he is more carefull by far of his right carriage in it then of deliverance out of it That is alway in a humble heart he studies more how to behave himselfe like a Saint under the rod then how to get away and be delivered from it You may read in Acts 4. There was very hot persecution and great affliction upon the Saints and yet there they are blessing God notwithstanding all their Persecution to see the Scripture fullfilled that which was spoken in Psal 2. The Kings of the Earth stand up and the Rulers take counsell together against the Lord and against his anoynted they rejoyced to see that fullfilled as if they had said they killed Christ the other day and now they Persecute us Now what would
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
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
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
proud that you cannot rule your hearts but you are lifted up with pride when you have done duties it is because every fine thing you doe from old Adam makes you proud you take all in the bulke and consider not whence you doe things you consider not how much of the old Adam or of the new there is in your Prayers and Duties Therfore let this be an universall eternall rule to know the worth of all your services and actions by whatsoever is of the flesh is flesh and whatsoever of my Preaching and of your praying and lending and giving and of your publike actions if it be not from a spirituall principle from Jesus Christ according to the Gospell planted in you it is of old Adam and it is condemned labour to leave that I shall conclude with one Word more and Vse 4. To expect the fulfilling of Prophesies and promises that is this that this beeing so that this is to walk according to the spirit Then we should long very much for the fulfilling of those Prophesies and Promises that God hath made unto us concerning the latter times There is no Saint almost now that I know but expects glorious times only one Saint thinks that the glory of the Saints shall be in this thing and another in that thing but every Saint expects continually the fulfilling of those Prophesies and promises set downe in the latter end of the Revelations and they are glorious ones whatsoever the meaning of them is and I think the cheife thing there promised which shall be the height of our happinesse that the new Jerusalem shall come downe from Heaven mistake me not though it be a consequent yet it is not cheifly and properly such a way of government this or that or the other way though it be true that Government will follow upon it yet if the meaning of it were only to reforme our Churches though that were a blessing or that Christ should come and reigne here temporally and give us Inheritances and riches and the like truly a Saint would not long much for these things But the New Jerusalem shall come downe from Heaven and abundance of blessings that shall goe along with it What is that The meaning of New Jerusalem comming downe from Heaven what it is we shall have the light of the Gospell clearly revealed unto us and we shall have Gospell principles fully put into our soules which by Antichrist by Babilon we have been seduced of these thirteene or fourteene hundred yeares For that was the mischeife of Antichrist he hath kept us all his reigne under the old Testament with Altars and Sacrifices and Preists and I know not what every thing just as they used under Moses and we are not wholly gone out of Antichrist yet But the Lord will send a light into our hearts to know the truth in the power and spirit and to square our hearts to it For that is new Jerusalem if you compare it with Heb. 12. where the holy Jerusalem the heavenly Jerusalem is clearly opposite to Mount Sinai So compare it with Gal. 4. he tells us that Jerusalem which is above us is Mother of us all that is the Covenant of grace and the principles thereof in the soules of men Therefore I wish that the Lord would set your hearts and mine a longing after that that we may have more of the spirit of the Gospel and of the Principles of the New Testament in us and then for matter of Government of Churches those things would follow For to set up Government and Discipline before this comes into the soule truely it is to build Castles in the ayre for let a man take us and frame us in the Independent or Presbyterian way in what way he will unlesse the Principles of Jesus Christ in the Gospel be spiritually planted it will be a fleshly Independent and a fleshly Presbyterian service Therefore labour chiefly for that and pray the Lord to fulfill that and then your Government whatsoever it shall be God will reveale it more fully People are now generally going to build and order Churches and I know not what unlesse the spirit of the New Testament governe in the New Testament it is a vaine thing thing for if wee have our former fleshly hearts that walke according to the Law and according to the flesh all the Government in the World will never doe us good because God hath cursed Flesh and it will never be regulated and brought to good And this also should move us exceedingly to Upon what ground to long for the comming of Christ long for the comming of Jesus Christ to glory for his comming to us or our comming to him and the reason of that you shall have in 1 Cor. 15. 49. a glorious word that hath dwelt much in my thoughts I told you the reason why every man must dye a naturall death because of that absolute grand curse that Adam did fall in as a publick person and we being from him we must dye Now here is the comfort of it a blessed word it is As we have borne the Image of the earthly so we shall beare also the Image of the heavenly that is when the redemption of our bodies comes at the day of Christ then as we have borne the Image of the earthly so we shall beare the Image of the heavenly We have borne hitherto and doe beare the Image of naturall Adam we are all his Sons and Daughters just like him in our wisedome and understandings and bodies and soules poore earthly creatures naturall fraile creatures we are and by that curse that was layd upon him we must all dye and lay downe these earthly Tabernacles these earthly creatures must be dissolved As we have borne the Image of the earthly not onely as we have borne the Image of old Adam sin and wickednesse and pride and frowardnesse so now we shall beare the Image of the new not onely in respect of grace and holinesse and righteousnesse that if I be in him all those corruptions of nature shall out and I shall have a new nature That is true but that is not all but as I wholly beare the Image and shape of old Adam his body and soule and senses and all those must dye so when these bodies shall be raised we shall as absolutely and largely beare the Image of the new Adam the Lord Jesus in our body and senses and all our whole man soule and body in respect of substance as well as quality we shall beare the Image of the second dam as lively and in as large an extent as ever wee bore the Image of the earthly Adam Therefore that is a Not onely sinfulnesse but earthynesse troubles a Christian great comfort I will tell you why because it is not onely the sinfulnesse of a Christian that troubles him but his earthinesse so many distempers and troubles that it is a misery the spirit is willing but the flesh
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
you are called to Libertie but use it not as an occasion for the flesh That is take not occasion from your liberty to live more sinfully to say you are made free and others are tyed by the Law and therefore you will live more carelesly and loosely and sinfully take heed and beware of that There were some it seemes I am sure there are some now that all the liberty and freedome they heare off from the Gospel or by getting off from the Law it is nothing in the World but that they may goe on more in sin and enjoy their lusts more freely this is to pervert the Gospel And what the end of these people shall be you The danger of abusing gospel-liberty may see in 2 Pet. 1. and in the Epistle of Jude They are appointed to damnation And their damnation slumbereth and sleepeth not That is they are going on amaine they are going faster towards Hell then any Drunkard or Whormonger A Malefactor never goeth so fast to death as these doe to destruction when all the knowledge of liberty that they have is onely to give occasion to provide more for their lusts then before Let us consider and take heed of that Another thing is seeing you have liberty by 2. Not to use liberty for the offence of our Brethren walking according to the spirit for where the spirit is there is freedome that is certaine use it not for the offence of your Brethren As some there are that when they heare they are free are ready to say I care not what all the World say I know this is not a sin and therefore I will doe it Beloved that is farr from walking worthy according to the Gospel I became all things saith Paul to all men that I might win some I am under the Law to them that are under the Law and without Law to them that are without Law I became all things to all men that I might gaine some So we must not please our selves but one another for edification Rom. 15. and condescend to them of low sort Rom. 12. Who is weake saith the Apostle and I am not weake If thou see a man under the Law fumbling and wallowing upon Mount Sinai without the knowledge of the Gospel despise him not and say he is a Legallist and what have we to doe with him but endeavour to frame thy heart and thy language and carriage so suitable to him that thou mayst win upon him and so with others This is the language of the Gospell and the true way of the spirit of God when a man knowes his freedome and yet he becomes all things to all men that he may doe them good There is one word that I thinke is the word and will of God and I desire that thou mayst take it so and carry it with thee A second thing that I advise you to that are 2. To walke humbly spirituall that the Lord hath revealed a little of the Gospel to it is this that you would endeavour to walk humbly O walk humbly Why so I will tell you why because a man when he is under Because of the abundance of revelations in the Gospell the law he shall be twenty yeares striving for a little knowledge or grace and shall hardly get them but as soone as ever a man comes rightly to Christ and to know him then there is such a flood of grace and such abundance of Revelations it is the Scriptures word there is such abundance of manifestations of GOD and of the Image of GOD when they begin to come in that it is a hard thing then to keepe the soule downe for spirituall things when they come in rightly when the Floud-gates are open they come in as Waves one upon the back of another For spiritull Gospell truths multiplie in the soule a thousand fold one lesson from another and one Scripture opens another and then there is no end and then it is hard to keepe the soule humble Therfore in 2 Cor. 12. When Paul was wrapt into the third Heavens because of the abundance of Revelations that he had seene for he had seen and heard things that he could not utter and speake to others he was readie to be proud to be lifted up and least he should be so God sent a Messenger of Satan to buffet him It implies it was a hard thing for Paul the Apostle when abundance of Revelations came into his soule not to be lifted up And this spoyles some honest hearts I hope they are so and that God will bring them home that having been kept bare of food as some Souldiers that went to releive Glocester when they came home to the Cittie they killed themselves with eating full and good food So when poore soules have gone upon the bare Mountaines of Sinai and then have come to the Pastures of righteousnesse they goe so greedily and are so taken that if God be not wonderfull mercifull they will be undone by being lifted up Therfore beware of this learne from Pauls example to seeke to the Lord to keep your hearts humble A third thing is this endeavour to walk simplie 3. To walk simply I meane to keepe to the simplicity of the Gospell The Gospell though there be glorious mysteries in it to feed the soule yet notwithstanding it is a plaine simple thing Now here the Devill endeavours to undoe soules as it is ordinary in this City when men come once to understand a little of the Gospell and to tast the sweetnesse of it The Devill makes men sublimate Religion into notions the Devill screws them up to sublimate all Religion into notions to cleave a haire and Religion will be all in Ideas and conceits of the nature of God and of the creature Whereas the Gospell is a plaine thing Paul desired to know the death of Christ and the power of his Resurrection And Paul teacheth Servants how to obey their Masters and Masters how to carry themselves to their Servants and VVives to their Husbands and such simple plaine things Now these things are accounted nothing that is the Reason that many among us they doe more and more loose the Word of God unlesse it be about some sublime notions If a Minister be upon such poynts some high Ideas for they feed upon such that is worth the while but if a Minister speake of things that concerne their calling or their sex and condition that is plaine it hath no tast in it no more then the white of an Egg. It is a hard thing to keepe to the simplicity of the Gsopell As the Devill tempted our first Parents God gave Adam and Eve sufficient knowledge to doe his How the Devill tempted Eve will and they had sufficient naturall knowledge for they Named all the Creatures yet notwithstanding shee musts neds goe from the simplicity of Gods will and be curious and shee must know good and evill there was the distinction good and
heare not Many times a man heares a sound and is neare enough yet hearing he heares not so it is with many among us the Lord pittie them my heart is readie to burst every day more and more to consider and think of it hearing they heare not all the yeare long there is not one notion or exhortation from the word that sticks on their soules the reason is they mind not they mind the things of the Flesh they are feeding some lust they are providing for some fancie or when they are best they are contemplating to set up a way of justification by works and all because they mind not these things Therefore saith the Lord I say 1. Heare O Heavens and give eare O Earth I may well say so of diverse among us heare O Heavens and give eare O Earth for the Lord hath spoken I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Asse his Masters crib but Israelld oth not know my people doth not consider Heare O Heavens and hearken O Earth As if he had said I expect that Heaven should heare and that Earth should heare as soone as this people and yet there is nothing further from hearing then Heaven and nothing dulier then the Earth and yet the Prophet would Preach to Heaven and Earth before he would to this dull peoplo and saith he The Oxe and the Asse know their owners but my people have not knowne me Why They doe not consider they doe not mind So you doe not mind what we spake before that you that are drunkards and Whoremongers and Swearers that wast your Estates and soules and bodies in the service of the Devill that you are under the curse of God and must perish that there is nothing that you doe that is pleasing to God till you be borne againe did you ever mind these things and lay them to heart Did you ever say yonder man speaks really and tells us the truth But you goe home when Sermon is done and say there was a great Company a throng and he Preached a little too long and we must goe to him againe after Dinner and so you mind not the Lord Jesus pittie you that is the reason that you are ignorant and will be World without end because you mind not spirituall things And this is the reason also why you have carnall VVhy people care not for Gods Ordinances people that care not for the ordinances of God they care not to use those meanes of grace that the poor Saints doe why they mind not spirituall things they are like Gallio he cared not for those things he was busie about naturall things It is likely he was a wise judicious man but he cared not for these things So to heare Sermons or discourses or conference of thy Neighbors or at thy table of spirituall things thou art like Gallio thou carest not for them and therefore thou respectest them not Therfore desire the Lord to put his Law in thy mind O! the maine misery of a man is in his mind the man is nothing but his mind in a manner the maine happinesse of a man is in his mind if the Law of God be there Therefore before ever thou canst have thy heart good or thy wishes or prayers good thou must get a good mind desire God to put his Law in thy mind for there is the first and maine worke So also for the poore Saint this is the reason VVhy the Saints take injuries patiently why the people of God are so weaned from the world those that are spirituall Christians you can easily cozen and cheat them and take away all from them and they beare it very well Why so they mind not earthly things fleshly things Let the Devill come with all the policie and power of hell to cheat them in spirituall things to take away their peace and crack their communion with God they will see be wise and resist but come and cheat them in worldly things poore creatures they are quiet and part with them as it is the manner of many of you that are rotten Professors and self-seekes you make it a trade to abuse them but they are quiet they mind spirituall things As a cut-purse that comes into your shop and a man minds other things he may easily steale So the poore Saints are made poore and suffering because they mind God and heavenly things or else I tell you if their minds were not imployed elsewhere a Saint could be as cunning and as wise and worldly as thou but thou mayst easily steale any thing from him and cheat and cozen him because his mind is upon other things it is upon heaven and those blessed things Therefore learne that one thing learne to understand that the maine of thy happinesse or misery is in thy mind beg of the Lord to give thee a good mind to write his Law in thy mind without knowledge the mind is not good Therefore when the Lord gave the people of Israell up it is said the misery came upon their minds blindnesse of heart is hapned to Israell that is blindnesse of mind there was the maine And there is the excellency of the Saints When Paul saw nothing but flesh yet he rejoyced in God in the law of his mind therefore look on it as the fountaine of all good and evill if thy mind be fleshly and carnall thou wilt mind fleshly things and love fleshly things and walke fleshly but if the Lord sanctifie thy mind the Lord will give thee sanctified affections SERMON VII Rom. 8. 5. For they that are after the flesh doe minde the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit IN the former Verse I told you The scope of the Apostle the Apostle holds forth unto us a great priviledge the greatest that I know that a man can have that the righteousnesse of the law might be fullfilled in us For it doth protect a man from all evills for all evill is founded upon this that a man hath not a righteousnesse to fulfill the law and he that hath this priviledg it doth lead him to the enjoyment of all good for if a man hath a righteousnesse to fulfill the law then there is nothing that can keepe the Creature from a full enjoyment of his Creator Now this priviledg being so great the Apostle shews us who they are that are Partakers of it who have the actuall enjoyment of it for the worst Fleshly carnall man may come to be a Partaker but he shewes who are for the present and saith he they are those that walke not after the flesh but after the spirit That is a sure way to know and distinguish them but it is a generall way and therefore the Apostle drawes downe some particulars from this generall that are more known and easie to be discerned As in 1 Joh. 5. 1. You shall see there
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
distinguished from another good men from bad for the Apostle doth not reason here from a known thing to a darker for he reasons from the mind and the acts of it as if he had said that is the cheifest maine way whereby to know the whole man whither he be fleshly or Spirituall In naturall things the more essentiall the difference is the more certaine and sure it is and rationality is essentiall to a man you may distinguish a man from a beast otherwise a man hath but two Legs and so may be distinguished from a Horse that hath foure but this is not so certaine a Character but when you say man is rationall that distinguisheth him from all birds and beasts So there are many things in godlinesse that you may partly know a Christian by by his works and affections and actions and by his company and carriage you may know him a little from another man but these things are outward and externall but his reason is essentiall to him you may know him above all these by his reasoning in his soule that is the most essentiall thing to a Christian as reason in it selfe considered is most essentiall to a man Consider this for this is a thing by which you may understand clearly what you are made of and what you are There is nothing in godlinesse but an hypocrite and a wicked man may come up to it unlesse it be this to be carried on by spirituall reason As for instance a wicked man may know God he may have a great deal of knowledge of godlinesse and to our eyes of the spirituall estate of godlinesse Heb. 6. He may be enlightned he may discourse well and Preach excellently and Carnall men may goe far in Religion Pray spiritually he may have much knowledge and all the Saints in the Countrey may account him constantly a cheife Professor and a most excellent Christian Nay he may love all good things in a sort or for the most part a naturall man that is but commonly wrought on by the spirit of God he may love prayer and hearing and Reading and giving to the poore and other good works he may love and delight in it as Herod did to heare John speake he may love it for some carnall circumstances about it and though he love it yet all runs upon the Wheele of carnall reason As for instance I love very much to give to the poore because the pride of my heart will be much satisfied in it I would be held an emynent Professor and I invite Saints to my House and I quarell with them if they come not but it is to hold out my vaineglory not out of spirituall Love in my soule So there is no peice of godlinesse but it may be cloathed with such circumstances that a naturall man may love it an hypocrite may doe every thing in godlinesse and be an Hypocrite when he hath done But here is the difference a Saint loves good Ground of Saints loving good things and that flowes from spirituall reason and he doth good from spirituall reason As for instance I doe not give to the poore to keepe correspondence and to be well thought of and because I would be accounted such a Professor no but I doe it from spirituall reasoning Christ loved me and therefore I will love my Brother So whatsoever a Saint doth spirituall reason drawes him and this is the most essentiall Character that distinguisheth an Hypocrite from a true Christian It is not loving or knowing or doing of good but it is the Wheele that it goes on whether it be spirituall or carnall reasoning But may not a good man do some actions from naturall or corrupt reasoning how is that then a Quest sure Character A good man may doe an action from carnall reasoning Answ How a good man may be moved with naturall or carnal reason but a carnall man can never doe good from spirituall reasoning as that speech of Peter in advising of Christ not to goe to Jerusalem it was partly naturall and partly corrupt reasoning But that you may see this clearely notwithstanding this you may discerne him hereby that In the first place a Christian is moved by spirituall reason and in the second place he may be moved by naturall reason as suppose there be a good Minister that is full of grace that desires to doe good and yet he and his Family is ready to starve The first thing that he blesseth God for is that he hath opportunity to teach Christ to the soules of poore people that is the first but next he saith and blessed be God that there is a way to support my Family naturall reason is tyed to spirituall as the little boat is to the ship Secondly though a Saint may be carryed to an 2 A Saints generall course by Spirituall reason action with corrupt reason that he pays deare for yet the whole course of the life and actions of a Christian flow from spirituall reasoning O! that the Lord would give you to examine your selves by this It is not by what thou accountest of or what thou esteemest or lovest but what mooves thee what is the Wheele that sets thee on worke Is it a spirituall mind that gives spirituall arguments that moves thee all the day to good towards God or man I desire that you would carry this with you this is the essentiall difference betweene an Hypocrite and a Christian Aske when thou dost an action not how much thou doest or what men conceive of it though it be but a small action as suppose thou art a Maid that art sweeping the house or any such meane thing aske why doe I this what moves me what is the maine spring Is it that my Master or Mistris may not chide me This is natural reasoning but thou shouldest say I do it that I may obey Christ he hath called me and hath reedeemed me to live to him and so it may be a man may do thee an ill turn and thou wouldest not doe him a mischiefe againe it is a good resolution but why doest thou not doe it it is not because thou art ashamed or afraid to doe it But if there be a little spring within to thinke Christ loved me when I was wicked and therefore I will love him O! this is excellent The next thing I should come to shew you is how it comes to passe that Christians that are right are swayed and ruled by spirituall reasonings all their life I shall not have time now but must wait on God till he give another opportunity only I shall conclude now with two short Use 1. Tryall what grace or corruption is in us Uses First hence you may see by this rule you have a Standard by you to trie how much grace and how much corruption there is yet in your soules this is the perfectest Standard that I know Take it by a day or a weeke or an houre or an action see how
So the reasonings of the soule are the chiefest weapons of the minde because I told you that these they doe come immediately from it The third thing was that the reasoning is the chief character of a man as reason in a man considered in a naturall way is the most proper way of distinguishing of him from other things because it is most essentiall to him for you cannot distinguish a man so properly from a horse because he hath two leggs and that a horse hath foure but by his essence he is a rationall creature and therefore I told you a man may know good excellently a man may love good and godlines and a man may do good and suffer for good and yet be an hypocrite yet be a carnall man Why Because he may doe good and love good and suffer for good and all out of carnall reasoning he may love the good because of some fine circumstantiall things And therefore I concluded last day with two words of use but I must endeavor to make good my promise Now the last thing is how it comes to passe for I have as in reference to the Doctrine you heard That spirituall men are swayed 3. How it comes that Saints are guided by spirituall reason with spirituall reasons How comes it to passe that they are enabled so to reason and to be so guided by such Reasons Beloved in generall certainly it is only by the same spirit of God for I must advance the spirit still Not in opposition to the Scriptures mistake me not for the spirit takes of the things of By the spirit Christ and in the Scriptures sheweth you them but it is the Spirits teaching you And therefore it is said they are after the spirit that doe mind spirituall things because it is the spirit that doth worke them to mind spirituall things yee would never mind spirituall things else All the Learning in the World and all the wit in the World will never teach a man to make one sincere argument to doe good or draw him from evill But you will say how doth the Spirit doe this Beloved I told you heretofore that I doe not approove of those that doe endeavour to shew you too particularly and disbiastly how the spirit of God works in the soule as many men have done and many a godly man but they have lost much time and have puzelled the soules of poore people for thou knowest not how a Child is formed in the VVombe how his eye is made and how his Nose is made And how are we able to discover how the Spirit of God works grace in the soule which ordinarily is done that he doth this first and then that and will not doe this untill he hath done that which hath brought forth a deale of curiositie and needlesse distinctions troubling the People of God But I will give you some particulars how he doth it The wayes whereby he doth it without curiositie not saying he doth this first or that first He doth it by a Creation by spirituall Creation 1. By a creation he doth make a Caeation in the soule which is called the new man Thou that art there now sitting in the Pew that creature that old creature cannot reach the spirit of God It cannot be mended for we have hearts of stone that will not be cobled nor mended but taken out wholly our natures are so naught that they cannot be mended but God comes and by his Holy spirit makes a new Creature in the soule As man is said to be a man and hath not his denomination from the grosser part as his Legs or the like but from the more noble part his soule and his mind for where as in one place it is said What will it availe a man to get the World and loose his soule in another it is loose himselfe So as my soule is my selfe So there is an old man not according to outward age but according to the inward Now he makes thee a new creature not New legs and hands but new mind new affections and new powers in thy soule Now most people say that the Lord doth infuse new qualities into the soule that whereas thou hast an under standing and it is rotten and all is full of bad qualities thou shalt have new qualities thou shalt have an under standing that will mind More then new qualities in Saints Heavenly things Beloved that is true but I very much doubt whiter there be not something more because the Lord calls it a man and we never Reade in the Scripture where he will worke new qualities but a new man We are created a new Creature Now that is the way and therefore if ever thou wilt be a spirituall man thou must have the Lord to make thee a new creature Now the Saints heretofore pray understand me did not looke upon things as we doe we have had so many false distinctions and subdistinctions we have not the same notions and distinctions they had They alwayes looked upon rhe inward man or the new craature Now we looke without saith Paul my inward man gaineth dayly If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature Beloved that ye may understand this beare with me a little I doe find in the Scripture that a man is made a Saint made spirituall and holy two wayes One is by renewing a man to that which he was in Old Adam Secondly by creating things in him that were never there before And we have these two expressions A Saint made spirituall how in Scripture Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and created unto good works So that a Saint he is made up unto that condition two wayes Either God hath renewed in him those things he had in Adam Or else God hath created in him that which was never there before As for instance God revealeth in him Sobrietie and continuance and the like These things were in Adam and now when a man is made a Saint they are renewed only upon a new Foundation And withall the Lord creates some things that were never in Adam as for instance he creates faith there that is the the faith of the Gospell There was a faith in Adam without doubt but that faith of the Gospell to beleive in another to renounce his owne righteousnesse this was not in Adam because it was point-blanke contrary to his owne condition for he was to have righteousnesse in himselfe and to renounce it was contrary to his condition Now God Creates such a faith in us And Beloved there is another thing and it may be there are many things more I have had many thoughts of it with submission to the godly and wise I thinke that Gospell-goodnesse is a peice of the new man which was not in Adam Some thing in Saints that was not in Adam as to doe good to Enemies to love them that hate us to give drinke to a thirstie Enemy When one is wicked and
called the things of 2 Carnall priviledges the flesh it is carnall priviledges either men that are Fleshly mind their justification out of Christ or else their carnall priviledges I told you before that those are called Flesh saith the Apostle if any might I may glory in the Flesh What is that I am an Hebrew of the Hebrews c. and so the Jews in Mat. 3. Joh. 8. and 2. Cor. 11. They were apt as to stablish their own righteousnes so to glory in their priviledges we are the children of Abraham we were never slaves nor Servants We have not their priviledges to glory in yet this is a maine piece of old Adam a great part of the things of the Flesh outward priviledges let them be Church-priviledges or what you will when people rejoyce and mind and contemplate outward priviledges and doe not regard the inward power nor what is in and through and by them this is but flesh I feare you will not beare with me you will account me your enemy for telling you the truth but I am perswaded there are many among us that talke of churches and government and ordinances and priviledges and yet all is but flesh and you cannot well judge of them by their strictnesse in it for flesh will goe as strictly in its way as the Spirit but it is to be feared that diverse build of it and glory in it and it is a great part of their religion I warne you in love to looke to it and if those priviledges were taken away as Christ takes away the priviledge of being the Children of Abraham from the Jewes such people would be poore carnall people Take heed of it and let him that glories glory in the Lord. Thirdly and lastly the things of the flesh for 3 To fulfill sinfull lusts all old Adam is included in these three things that fleshly men mind is to fulfill their lusts which are many To make provision for the flesh Rom. 13. that is to be casting how to feed one lust or other Now if you would know what those lusts are in particular though in a sort it be generall you have it in 1 Joh. 16. saith he all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life These are the lusts of the world all the lusts in the world may be reduced it seemes to those 3. heads so I say these are the fleshly things that al Carnall people mind all their thoughts throughout the yeare every one runns either in stablishing their own righteousnes or in glorying and contemplating their outward priviledges or in projecting for the fulfilling of some lust or other thus they spend their whole life these are the things of the flesh that carnall men mind Now the other the things of the Spirit that are contrary to these you may comprehend them all Things of the spirit in three words That is They are either the things of faith Or else their hope and happinesse in Jesus Christ Or else their Obedience to the will of Christ All the things of the Spirit are comprehended in these three Either the things of faith They mind the 1 The things of faith things of the Spirit that is they alway mind and study how to believe in Jesus Christ and how to lay firmer and righter hold on him how they may know him more distinctly and hold him more firmly and get fuller assurance this is their worke Or they are excercised about the things of hope 2. The things they hope for by Christ that is they are contemplating and rejoycing in their happinesse by Christ how their persons are justified and their sins pardoned and the righteousnesse of the law fulfilled in them and all in Heaven and earth bestowed on them As Paul sayth Phil. 3. This is our Religion we glory in the flesh as if not but we reioyce in Jesus we have no confidence in the flesh but we rejoyce in Jesus that is in all the happinesse we have in Jesus Christ Or thirdly and lastly the things of the spirit 3 Obedience to the wil of Christ are the will of God or the commands of Jesus Christ they alway studie how they may obey and fulfill the good and acceptable and perfect will of God So that a Saint if he be spirituall he is alway either acting his faith and increasing and strengthening that or he is contemplating his happinesse in Jesus Christ Or studying which way to glorifie God to know what part of the will of God he knowes not and to studie what part of the will of God he knowes and remembers this is his excercise And let this suffice to shew what the things of the Flesh and what the things of the spirit are Now the third question breifly is what is meant Quest 3. VVhat meant by minding the things of the flesh and of the spirit by the minding of the things of the Flesh and the things of the spirit You must understand first that the meaning is not as though a man might not think upon Fleshly 1. Not but that a Saint may provide outward things things For a spirituall Saint oft thinks upon Fleshly things in a spirituall manner as to consider his sins to bewayle and to mourne for them and he may mind Earthly Worldly things to provide things honest to provide for his Familie as the Apostle saith he may think of his businesse Therfore the holy Ghost here doth not use the word Frounesis but Frounena Frounesis signifies prudence or discretion or providence in businesse He doth not use that least we should think that the holy Ghost forbids to provide to be mindfull and carefull of Worldly businesse but Frounena that signifies a further thing as I shall shew presently Now then you must understand this also 2. The understanding is not only meant that when the Apostle sayth they mind the things of the Flesh The word doth not onely signifie the understanding but it signifies all the affections also I could give you divers places of Scripture where this word is set downe to expresse the working of any affection in the soule Therefore the meaning is not only of the mind that studies but his affections his will the way of his delight his joy is in earthly things his care is after fleshly things But in particuler there are these four or five Five things meant by minding of fleshly things things implied in the word when they are said to mind the things of the Flesh The first is that the very care of his heart as 1. The caâ—e of the heart is fleshly I told you before is Fleshly and carnall A Christian hath outward VVorldly things in an outward Roome and Jesus Christ next his heart There is sayth one godly man a closet in the heart of a Saint onely to entertaine Jesus Christ. Which the Scripture calls the spirit frequently I worship God in
my spirit Rom. 1. And in 1 Thes 5. That ye may be sanctified in your spirit That is in the very Coare and quintessence of the soule Now a godly man may have many hurries of VVordly things and lusts cross and come through but the coare of his heart is for God and for holines Therefore saith Paul Rom. 7. I serve the law of the flesh with my members and the law of Christ with my mind That is inwardly with the care of my heart I shewed the meaning of that word before I shall not now goe on further in that Secondly a man is sayd to mind worldly things 2. VVhen a man savours fleshly things when a man not only thinks of Worldly and fleshly things but savours of worldly and Fleshly things Therefore the same word Frounena that is here minding is oft read to savour As in the Speech of Christ to Peter Thou savourest the things of the VVorld thou hast a smack of it thou hast a relish of carnall things So then to mind Fleshly things is when a man not only thinks of them and considers them but when a man finds most joy and tast and delight in such kind of things Put a Fleshly man about Worldly or carnall or if you will about sinful businesse O there he is as a fish in the VVater there he is his owne man he is well but put him about any spirituall thing let him come to learne a little for his soule or let his Neighbour come to teach him and admonish and reproove him he is upon thornes then he hath no tast of it at all now if thou be a Fleshly man thou mindest Fleshly things that is thou doest not onely in thy understanding consider of them but thy soule relisheth them there thou art thy owne man when thou art in the middest of the VVorld and the Flesh and earth and hell therefore looke to thy selfe Thirdly to mind Fleshly things is when the 3. When the streame of the soule goes that way streame the maine of the soule goes upon Fleshly earthly carnall things when the things of God are but by businesse to a man It is not so in a spirituall man 1 Cor. 7. He useth the world as if he used it not he minds little of the World as little as may be but the maine streame of his soule is upon Jesus Christ there he excerciseth himselfe day and night as David speaks Fourthly when a man doth studie and plod continually 4. To studie and plod for fleshly things upon Worldly things upon Fleshly carnall things When a man takes care for so the word is used oft in Scripture as it is used Rom. 14. 6. If any man doth observe a day or care for a day Curare diem as we read it in the Latine if one observe it and another will not or will not regard it When a man observes and regards and takes care and studies and plods for earthly Fleshly things this is to mind Fleshly things Therefore in Phil. 4. 7. Saith the Apostle I am glad that your care is renewed towards me saith B E Z A it is more then care there is a kind of sollicitude it is addicere animam it is a word that signifies when a man addicts himselfe when he is given wholly to a thing when a man is addicted and gives his mind wholly to the World to fulfill his lusts or to enjoy his pleasures this is to mind Fleshly things Then fiftly and lastly it is when a man doth judg of things according to the Flesh Non est Cogitare c. To mind is not only to think of it but to judge of things As you have it 2 Cor. 5. I judge no man according to the flesh If Christ Jesus were here againe I would not looke on him according to the Flesh Now when he saith they mind the things of the flesh this is the meaning of it that is they judge of things in an earthly fleshly way they judge of the worth of things by the fleshlinesse not by the spirituallnesse of them A godly How godly men judge of things man doth not so all that he accounts of in the World are the things of God and of the spirit were it not for that this World would be a Hell to him and he judgeth of every man as he hath the spirit of God he accounts of him as without that not worth any thing a carnall man judgeth of things carnally as they are fleshly and carnall and as old Adam is set up so he judgeth by carnall arguments of spirituall things Thus I have as breifly as I could opened the meaning of it I will only at this time name one Use and leave the rest till God give another opportunitie You have heard what it is to be after the flesh and what the things of the flesh and the things of the spirit are and what it is to mind the things of the flesh and the things of the spirit for we may judge of the one by the other Now the Lesson or the Use as we call it is use 1. VVhy most people understand not spirituall things this Hence we may learne and see what the reason is why diverse people notwithstanding all the meanes used even among us in this place and in other places why they cannot come to understand any thing of Heavenly things of spirituall things What is the reason Because they mind them not and why doe they not mind them Because they are fleshly I have wondred oft times and I doe beleive in my Conscience that had I been here but a twelve month and had taken any naturall thing under Heaven had I read a Lecture of Philosophie or of Logick or any thing in your Trades or State businesse there are none eyther great or small but could have given some account what the man had sayd and yet there are some among you that though we have been speaking to you as the Lord hath enabled us almost these two yeares yet you are as ignorant and as unknowing in any thing that hath been said as if you had been a sleepe or had been in your Graves all the while It is a wonderfull thing that no word should stick nothing in the world of all that hath been said If we should ask some among us doe you remember any one passage or any one thing that the Preacher hath spoken of these two yeares they remember not one word What is the reason You did not mind it that is the meaning of that word Seeing they see not and hearing they heare not that was the plague upon that people in Isaiah When a mans mind is taken up with other things a man may ride by the doore and one may say did you see such a man he came by your eye I saw him not sayth he seeing he saw not his eye was on him but his mind was not he was thinking seriously of something else so hearing they