Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A69449
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The doctrine & directions but more especially the practice and behavior of a man in the act of the nevv birth A treatise by way of appendix to the former. By Isaac Ambrose, minister of Christ at Preston in Amounderness in Lancashire.
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Ambrose, Isaac, 1604-1664.
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1650
(1650)
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Wing A2955; ESTC R37037
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61,894
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74
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most hardly converted what is Humiliation but the emptying of the soul from whatsoever makes it swell the heart must not joy in any thing nor rest upon any thing but onely yield to the Lord to be at his disposing and carving now these parts and gifts and abilities and means are great props and pillars for the heart of a carnal man to rest upon and to quiet it self withal whence the Apostle Not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty men not many noble men are called Indeed blessed be God some are but not many few that have so much of themselves are brought to renounce themselves and no wonder for a rich man to become poor and a noble man to be abased and a wife man to be nothing in himself this will cost hot water and yet this must be in all that belong to the Lord not that God will take away all these outward things and parts but that they must loosen their affection from these if they will have Christ 2. That an humble heart makes all a mans life quiet and marvellously sweetneth whatsoever estate he is in indeed sometimes he may be tossed and troubled yet he is not distracted because he is contented as it is with a Ship on the Sea when the billows begin to roar and the waves are violent if the Anchor be fastened deep it stays the Ship so this work of Humiliation is the Anchor of the soul and the deeper it is fastened the more quiet is the heart when Job in time of his extremity gave way to his proud heart he quarrell'd with the Almighty his friends and all but when the Lord had humbled him then Behold I am vile and base once have I spoken yea twice but now no more And this Humiliation quiets a man both in Fiercest Temptations Heaviest Oppositions 1. In fiercest Temptations when Satan begins to besiege the heart of a poor sinner and lays battery against him see how the humbled heart runs him out of breath at his own weapons Dost thou think says Satan to get mercy from the Lord when thy own conscience dogs thee nay go to the place where thou livest to the chamber where thou liest and consider thy fearful abominations sure God will not respect the prayers of any such vile sinners True saith the poor soul I have often denyed the Lord when he called upon me and therefore he may justly deny me all the prayers I make yet thus he hath commanded that seek to him for mercy I must and if the Lord will cast me away and reject my prayers I am contented therewith What then Satan What then saith the Devil I thought this would have made thee to dispair but this is not all for God will give thee over and leave thee to thy self to thy lusts and corruptions and thy latter end shall be worse then thy beginning thou mayest call and cry and when thou hast done be overthrown God will leave thee to thy self and suffer thy corruptions to prevail against thee and thou shalt fall fearfully to the wounding of thy conscience to the grieving of Gods people to the scandal of the Gospel to the reproach of thy own person To this answers the humbled soul If the Lord will give me up to my base lusts which I have given my self so much liberty in and if the Lord will leave me to my sins because I have left his gracious commands and if I shall fall one day and be disgraced and dishonored yet let the Lord be honored and let not God lose the praise of his Power and Justice and I am contented therewith what then Satan What then saith the Devil I sure thought now thou wouldst have despaired but this is not all for when God hath left thee to thy sins then will he break out in vengeance against thee and make thee an example of his heavy vengeance to all ages to come and therefore it is best for thee to prevent this untimely Judgement by some untimely death To this replies the Soul Whatsoever God can do or will do I know not yet so great are my sins that he cannot or at least will not do so much against me as I have justly deserved Come what will come I am contented still to be at the Lords disposal what then Satan and thus he runs Satan out of breath The want of this Humiliation many times brings a man to desperate stands and sometimes to untimely deaths Alas why will you not bear the wrath of the Lord it is true indeed your sins are great and the wrath of God is heavy yet God will do you good by it and therefore be quiet In time of war when the great Canons fly off the onely way to avoid them is to lie down in a furrow and so the bullets fly over So in all Temptations of Satan lie low and be contented to be at Gods disposing and all these fiery Temptations shall not be able to hurt you 2. In heaviest oppositions when Satan is gone then come Troubles and Oppositions of the world in all which Humiliation will quiet the Soul A man is sometimes Sea-sick not because of the Tempest but because of his full stomack and therefore when he hath emptied his stomack he is well again So it is with his Humiliation of heart if the heart were emptied truly though a man were in a sea of oppositions if he have no more trouble in his stomack and in his proud heart then in the oppositions of the world he might be very well quieted Cast disgrace upon the humble heart causlesly and he cures it thus He thinks worse of himself then any man else can do and if they would make him vile and loathsom he is more vile in his own eyes then they can make him O that I could bring your hearts to be in love with this blessed grace of God! Is there any Soul here that hath been vexed with the Temptations of Satan oppositions of men or with his own distempers and would he now arm and fence himself that nothing should disquiet him or trouble him but in all to be above all and to rejoyce in all O then be humbled and then be above all the Devils in hell Certainly they shall not so disquiet you as to cause you to be misled or uncomforted if you would but be humbled What remains then Be exhorted as you desire mercy and favor at Gods hands to this Humiliation And for Motives consider the good things that God hath promised and which he will bestow upon all that are truly humbled I shall reduce all to these three following Benefits First by Humiliation we are made capable of all those treasures of Wisdom Grace and Mercy that are in Christ Secondly Humiliation gives a man the comfort of all that good in Christ Many have a right to Christ and are dear to God yet they want much sweet refreshing because they want this Humiliation
thou now restore the Kingdom of Israel to whom our Savior answered It is not for you to know the times and seasons as who should say Hands off it is for you to wait and to expect mercy it is not for you to know If you begin to wrangle and say How long Lord When Lord And why not now Lord Why not I Lord now check thy own heart and say It is not for me to know it is for me to be humble abased and to wait for mercy SECT. 4. A desire after Christ VVHen the soul is humbled and the eye opened then he begins thus to reason O happy I that see mercy but miserable I if I come to see this and never have a share in it O why not I Lord why not my sins pardoned and why not my eorruptions subdued my soul now thirsteth after thee as a thirsty Land my affections now hunger after righteousness both infused and imputed Now this desire is begotten thus When the soul is come so far that after a through conviction of sin and sound humiliation under Gods mighty hand it hath a timely and seasonable revelation of the glorious mysteries of Christ of his excellencies invitations truth tender-heartedness c. of the heavenly splendor and riches of the pearl of great price then doth the soul conceive by the help of the Holy Ghost this desire and vehement longing And least any couzen themselves by any misconceits about it as the notorious sinner the meer civil man and the formal Professor it is then known to be saving 1. When it is joyned with an hearty willingness and unfeigned resolution to sell all to part with all sin to bid adieu for ever to our darling-delight it is not an effect of self-love not an ordinary wish of natural appetite like Balaams Numb. 23. 10. of those who desire to be happy but are unwilling to be holy who would gladly be saved but are loth to be sanctified no if thou desirest earnestly thou wilt work accordingly for as the desire is so will the endeavor be 2. When it is earnest eager vehement extreamly thirsting after Christ as the parched earth for refreshing showers or the hunted Hart for the Water-brooks We read of a Scotish Penitent who a little before his confession freely confessed his fault to the shame as he said of himself and to the shame of the Devil but to the glory of God he acknowledged it to be so heynous and horrible that had he a thousand lives and could he dye Ten thousand deaths he could not make satisfaction Notwithstanding said he Lord thou hast left me this comfort in thy word that thou hast said Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will refresh you Lord I am weary Lord I am heavy laden with my sins which are innumerable I am ready to sink Lord even into hell unless thou in thy mercy put to thine hand and deliver me Lord thou hast promised by thine own word out of thy own mouth that thou wilt refresh the weary soul And with that he thrust out one of his hands and reaching as high as he could towards Heaven with a louder voyce and a streined he cryed I challenge thee Lord by that word and by that promise which thou hast made that thou perform and make it good to me that call for ease and mercy at thy hands c. Proportionably when heavy-heartedness for sin hath so dryed up the bones and the angry countenance of God so parched the heart that the poor soul begins now to gasp for grace as the thirsty Land for drops of rain then the poor sinner though dust and ashes with an holy humility thus speaks unto Christ O merciful Lord God Thou art Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end Thou sayest it is done of things that are yet to come so faithful and true are thy Decrees and Promises That thou hast promised by thine own word out of thy own mouth that unto him that is a thirst thou wilt give him of the fountain of the water of life freely O Lord I thirst I faint I languish I long for one drop of mercy As the Hart panteth for the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God and after the yearning bowels of thy wonted compassions Had I now in possession the glory the wealth and pleasures of the whole world nay had I Ten thousand lives joyfully would I lay them all down and part with them to have this poor trembling soul of mine received into the bleeding arms of my blessed Redeemer O Lord my spirit within me is melted into tears of blood my heart is shivered into pieces out of the very place of Dragons and shadow of death do I lift up my thoughts heavy and sad before thee the remembrance of my former vanities and pollutions is a very vomit to my soul and it is sorely wounded with the grievous representation thereof The very flames of Hell Lord the fury of thy just wrath the scorchings of my own conscience have so wasted and parched mine heart that my thirst is insatiable my bowels are hot within me my desire after Jesus Christ pardon and grace is greedy as the grave the coals thereof are coals of fire which hath a most vehement flame And Lord in thy blessed Book thou callest and cryest Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters In that great day of the feast thou stoodest and cryed'st with thine own mouth If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink and these are thine own words Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled I challenge thee Lord in this my extreamest thirst after thine own blessed self and spiritual life in thee by that Word and by that Promise which thou hast made that thou perform and make it good to me that lie grovelling in the dust and trembling at thy feet Oh! open now that promised well of life for I must drink or else I dye The means to obtain this desire are these three 1. Be acquainted throughly with thine own necessities and wants with that nothingness and emptiness that is in thy self a groundless presumption makes a man careless see into thine own necessities confess the want of this desire after the Lord Jesus Christ 2. Labor to spread forth the excellency of all the beauty and surpassing glory that is in the Promises of God Couldst thou but view them in their proper colours they would even ravish thee and quicken thy desires 3. After all this know it is not in thy power to bring thy heart to desire Christ thou canst not hammer out a desire upon thine own Anvil dig thy own pit and hew thy own rock as long as thou wilt nay let all the Angels in Heaven and all the Ministers on Earth provoke thee yet if the hand of the Lord be wanting thou shalt not lift up thine heart nor