his Heart to do Farewel Thomas Goodwin Philip Nye COLE 1216. The Application of Redemption by the effectual work of the Word and Spirit of Christ for the bringing home of lost Sinners to God The Ninth Book ISAIAH 57. 15. Thus saith He that is the High and the Lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is Holy I dwell in the High and the Holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit THe Work of Preparation having Two Parts First The Lords manner of Dispensation as he is pleased to deal with the Soul for the setting up the praise of his Rich and Glorious Grace and therefore with a holy kind of Violence he plucks the 〈◊〉 from his sins unto himself and his Christ. This hath been dispatched already in the former Discourse The Second now follows And that is the Frame and Disposition which is wrought in the Hearts of such as the Lord hath purposed to save and to whom he hath dispensed himself in that gracious Work of his Contrition Humiliation This Disposition consists especially in Two Things That so I may follow the Phrase of Scripture and retain the Lords own Words in the Text where the Lord saith that he dwels with him that is of an humble and contrite Heart To omit al manner of Coherence and other Circumstances we will pass all the other Specials in the Verse and point at that Particular which will suit our proceeding and may afford ground to the following Discourse that we may go no further than we see the Pillar of Fire the Lord in his Truth to go before us We shal fasten then upon the last words only as those that fit our Intendment To make way for our selves in short there is one word alone to be opened that so the Point may be better fitted for our Application we must know what it is to dwel or how God is said 〈◊〉 dwell in a contrite and humble heart I Answer To Dwell implies Three Things First That the Lord owns such as those in whom he hath an especial interest and claims a special propriety as though he left all the rest of man-kind to lie wast as a Common that the World and the Devil and Sin may 〈◊〉 and use at their pleasure reserving the Honor of his Justice which by a strong hand he will exact as a Tribute due to himself out of all things in Heaven and Earth and Hell and all but persons whom he thus fits he reserves for his own special Improvement As Princes and Persons of place and quality do lease out and let some Forrests and Commons to the Inhabitants bordering thereabout reserving some acknowledgment of Fealty and Royalty to themselves but the choyce and best Pallaces or Granges of greatest worth and profit they reserve for their own peculiar to inhabit in So here the Lord leaseth out the World and the wicked in it to the Devil and his Angels and Instruments reserving a Royalty and Prerogative to himself as that he will have his Homage and Acknowledgment of dependance upon himself but his broken-hearted ones are his own for his own Improvement Deut. 32. 8 9. When the most High divided to the Nations their Inheritance and separated the sons of Adam he set the bounds of his People according to the number of the Children of Israel for the Lords Portion is his People Israel the Lot of his Inheritance Ye are the Temple of the Living God 2 Cor. 6. 16. Yea to them the Lord himself saies Ye are my People and they shall say thou art my God Zach. 13. last Therefore he professeth that though in the course of his Providence he goes on progress over all the world yet he takes up his dwelling and abode amongst his own People For Secondly Where a man dwels as he owns the house so he takes up his abode there it is the place of his residence we say any may know where to seek men or where to find them at home at their own house That 's the difference between Inning and Dwelling we Inn at a place in our passing by when we take repast only and bait but depart presently intending not to stay but where we dwel we settle our abode we take up our stand there and stir no further So the Lord is said then to dwel in the Soul when he vouchsafes the constant expression of his peculiar presence and assistance to the soul. True it is that the Lord fills Heaven and Earth with his presence yea the Heaven of Heavens is not able to contain him Jer. 23. 24. His infinite Being is every where and one and the same every where in regard of himself because his being is most simple and not subject to any shadow of change being all one with himself Yet he is said to take up his abode in a special manner when he doth put forth the peculiar expression of his Work as in Heaven he dwels because he puts forth the constant expression of his Glory and that in the full brightness of it without any alteration and change Here in this Spiritual Temple the Souls of his Saints he puts forth the peculiar expression of the constant assistance of his blessed Spirit I will pray the Father and he shall send you another Comforter who shall abide with you for ever John 14. 16. 1 Joh. 2. 23. Ye have received an anointing which abideth in you Dwelling if it be attributed to the chiefest Inhabitant and Owner of the House it implies also the ruling and ordering of the occasions that come under hand there the exercising of the Government of the house and family where the Owner is and dwels He that lodgeth at a House as a stranger comes to an Inn as a Passenger he takes what he finds hath what he can receive of kindness and courtesie but the Owner is the Commander of the House where he dwels and the orderer of all the Affairs that appertain thereunto So doth the Lord with a broken Heart Thus we are said to live in the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit Gal. 5. 25. And it 's that which follows by Inference upon this ground John 15. 4. 5. If I abide in you and you abide in me you shal bring forth much fruit and therefore it s added also in this place that the Lord dwels in the contrite and humble heart to receive the Spirit of the contrite ones they yeeld themselves to be acted by him and they shall be acted and quickened by him to Eternal Life So that the full meaning is The contrite and humble heart is such to whom the Lord vouchsafes acceptance special presence and abode and peculiar guidance he owns him abides with him and rules in him for ever True it is said Christ dwels in our Hearts by Faith Eph. 3. 17. and as many as beleeve in him they receive him John 1. 12. That is done as by the next and immediate hand by which we say hold on Christ and
give entertainment to him but unless the heart be broken and humbled we cannot receive Faith that we may receive Christ. And while the soul is thus breaking and humbling Faith also is coming in a right sense rightly understood whereof we shal speak somwhat largely if the Lord give us leave to come to that place The Words thus opened the Point is the very letter of the Text which looks full upon every Hearer or Reader that will look upon the Text. The Heart must be broken and humbled before the Lord will own it as His take up his abode with it and rule in it There must be Contrition and Humiliation before the Lord comes to take possession the House must be aired and fitted before it comes to be inhabited swept by brokenness and emptiness of Spirit before the Lord will come to set up his abode in it This was typified in the passage of the Children of Israel towards the promised Land they must come into and go through a vast and a roaring Wilderness where they must be bruised with many pressures humbled under many over-bearing difficulties they were to meet withal before they could possess that good Land which abounded with all prosperity flowed with Milk and Honey The Truth of this Type the Prophet Hosea explains and expresseth at large in the Lords dealing with his People in regard of their Spiritual Condition Hos. 2. 14 15. I will lead 〈◊〉 into the wilderness and break her heart with many bruising Miseries and then I will speak kindly to her heart and will give her the Valley of Achor for a door of hope the story you may recal out of Jos. 7. 28. when Achan had offended in the execrable thing and the hearts of the Israelites were discomfited and failed like water spilt upon the ground because they had caused the Lord to depart away from them the Text saies they having found out the offender by lot they stoned him and they said thou hast troubled Israel we will trouble thee and they called it the Valley of Achor and after that God supported their hearts with hope and encouraged them with success both in prevailing over their Enemies and in possessing the Land So it shall be Spiritually the Valley of Consternation perplexity of Spirit and brokenness of heart is the very gale and entrance of any sound hope and assured expectation of good This I take to be the true meaning and intendment of the place and part of the description of a good Hearer Luke 8. 15. Who with an honest and good heart receives the Word and keeps it by strong hand and brings forth fruit with patience the fruit is Obedience Patience is part of Sanctification and the holy disposition of heart that must be in the heart that brings and bears such fruit that which makes the heart good is Faith in Vocation which enables the soul to lay hold upon Christ in the Word and from him to receive that lively vertue of Patience and readiness to every holy word and work And an honest heart is a contrite and humble heart so rightly prepared that Faith is infused and the soul thereby carried unto Christ and quickened with patience to persevere in good Duties As we say of Grounds before we cast in Seed there is two things to be attended there It must be a fit ground and a fat ground the ground is fit when the weeds and green sword are plowed up and the soyl there and made mould And this is done in 〈◊〉 and Humiliation then it must be a fat ground the soyl must have heart we say the ground is plowed well and lies well but it 's worn out it 's out of heart Now Faith fats the soyl furnisheth the soul with ability to fasten upon Christ and so to receive the Seed of the Word and the Graces of Sanctification and thence it produceth good 〈◊〉 in Obedience Upon this condition Gods favor is promised Psal. 34. 18. The Lord is nigh to them that be of a contrite spirit and saveth them that be of a broken heart Isay 61. 3. He gives the Garment of praise to those that have had the spirit of heaviness it will suit none fit none it 's prepared for none but such it 's their Livery only Upon this condition it is obtained Mat. 18. 3. Unless ye be converted and become as little Children ye can in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 2 Chron. 33. 12. It 's said of Mannasseh he humbled himself greatly and made supplication and the Lord was intreated of him such persons and services are highly accepted Psal. 51. 17. A broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise nay he wil undoubtedly accept of it The Reasons of the Point are taken partly in regard of the heart which without these will neither be fitted nor enabled to act upon God in Christ for any good partly in regard of God all his Ordinances and Dispensations will be unprofitable and unable to do that good which he intends and we need To the first in regard of our Hearts those Lets and impediments which put a kind of incapability yea and impossibility upon the soul whereby the coming of Faith into the Heart and so the entrance and residence of the Spirit are hindred are by this disposition wrought and removed These Impediments are two The 〈◊〉 which stops the way and work of Faith is a setled kind of contentedness in our corrupt condition and the blind yet bold and presumptuous confidence that a natural man hath and would maintain of his good condition Each man sits down willingly well apaid with his own estate and portion sees no need of any change and therefore not willing to hear of it Each man is so full of self-love that he is loth to pass a sentence against his own soul to become a judg and self-condemner and consequently an executioner of all his hopes and comforts at once and so put his happiness and help out of his own hand Besides we are Naturally afraid out of the privy yet direful guilt of our own Consciences to profess the wretchedness of our own miserable and damnable Condition as to put it upon a peremptory conclusion and that beyond question I am undone I am a damned man in the Gall of bitterness in the bonds of iniquity lest they should stir such horrors which they are neither able to quiet nor yet able to bear And therefore out of the presumption of their own hearts they would easily perswade and delude themselves they have no cause to alter their condition and therfore they should not endeavor it Hence the carnal heart is said to bear up himself against all the assaults of the Word Deut. 29. 19. When all the Curses of the Law were denounced with never so much evidence yet the presumptuous sinner blesseth himself promiseth all good to himself and secretly feeds himself with vain hopes that he shal attain it therfore he wil
it vexed al the veyns of their hearts that 's the way to weary them and there they solace themselves ah it's roast meat to them and thus it is a pastime to a fool to do wickedly but know thou art a hard-hearted fool a graceless wretch in the wise mans account do not our plantations groan under such sons of Belial such senceless 〈◊〉 do they not swarm in our streets are not our families pestered with such Esau-like when he sold his 〈◊〉 eat and drank and rose up and went his way not affected with what he had lost not ashamed of what he had done but 〈◊〉 of al or like the man in the Gospel possessed with the Devil sometime he cast him into the fire and sometime into the water so these rush headily into sin and impudently continue in such 〈◊〉 courses they commit sin and continue in sin hasten Gods wrath and their own ruin and go away senceless of al so that it 's now seasonable to take Jeremiahs complaint I 〈◊〉 and heard and no man sayd what have I done 〈◊〉 Jer. 8. 6. He might and did hear of hideous vile evils without any diligent hearkning see and meet loathsom distempers without any searching but when he followed men home wondring in what quiet do these men live what comfort do these men find how do they bear up their hearts under such hellish carriages I wil go see how they lye down in their beds and whether they dare sleep or no under such trangression and such guilt and when he came he hearkned surely I shal now hear them mourn bitterly afflict their hearts with unfained grief there is no such thing no man said what have I done not a word of that it was the least part of their care the furthest off their thoughts And this is the temper the condition and disposition of scores hundreds of you that hear this word at this instant Is not the day yet to dawn the hour yet to come that ever you shed a tear sent up a sigh to heaven in the sence of thy evils or set thy self in secret to bewail thy distempers before the Lord God knows and your hearts know the Chambers where you lodge the Beds where you lie can bring in witness against you you are strangers to this blessed brokenness of heart yea enemies to it you were pricked no not so much as in your eyes nor in your tongues God and his word and al means that have been tried could never wrest a tear from thine eye not a confession out of thy mouth thou wilt commit thy follies and die in the defence or excuse of them but to have thy heart affected in serious manner with the filth of thy sinful distempers it is to thee a riddle to this day Nay there be thousands in the bottomless pit of hell that never had the like means as thou never committed the like sins and yet never had such a senceless sottish heart under such rebellions as thy self Wo be to you that laugh now you shal mourn those flinty spirits of yours wil not break now they shal certainly burn you draw a light harrow now you find no burden of your pride and stubbornness rebellions idleness and noysom lusts they are no burdens ye can go boult upright with them and Sampson like carry the very gates of hell upon your backs and never buckle under them wel the time wil com you wil cal to the mountains to fal upon you and the hills to cover you from the infinite weight of Gods everlasting displeasure Tast a little the sting of this sin and see the compass of this accursed condition of thine and go no further than the point in hand Thou art far without the walk of the Almighty there is no dealing and entercourse between thee and the holy one of Israel the Almighty passeth by and wil not so much as change a word with thee or cast a look 〈◊〉 thee to leave any remembrance of himself upon thy soul thou livest as though thou hadst nothing to do with him nor he with thee nothing to do with grace or heaven the holy spirit a wes some humbles others some it quickens that were sluggish establisheth others who were weak onely thou art senceless of any operation of the Lord thou hast a heart that puts away the presence of the Lord out of thy mind if it were possible thy fleece is dry when there is dew upon al the earth this is that which the Apostle discovers to be the cause of that heavy curse of the heathen Eph. 4. 18. strangers from the life of God by reason of the hardness of their hearts Oh thou hast a 〈◊〉 heart and leadest a strang life even as opposite to God as darkness to light hell to heaven differs onely but in degree from that 〈◊〉 which appears most eminently amongst the Devills and damned even to be an adversary to God and his grace to stand it out in defiance with the divine goodness of God his power and faithfulness Pharaoh he 〈◊〉 it but thou dost it 〈◊〉 it out with the Almighty and impudently darest the great God who is Jehovah I know not Jehovah neither wil I let my heart go to yield subjection and service to him I know no authority of a command that shal rule me nor admonition that shal awe or reforme me Thus thou art a stranger to the wisdom of God the folly of thine own self-deceiveing mind and heart leads thee and deludes thee thou art a stranger to the grace and holiness of the Lord the perversness and rebellion of thine own wretched heart takes place onely with thee yea a stranger to mercy and to the compassions and consolations of the Lord Jesus and his blessed spirit who choosest thine own ruin lovest thine own death following lying vanities and forsakest the mercies purchased and tendred to thee Upon these tearms in which thou now standest God hath appoynted no good for thee while thou continuest in this temper as he said write this man childless so write upon it write thy soul graceless that shal never prosper Isa. 61. 1. 2. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord hath annointed me to preach good 〈◊〉 to the meek to bind up the broken hearted liberty to the captives opening of the prison to those that are bound to appoint to them that mourn in Zion beauty for ashes the garment of gladness for the spirit of heaviness thou hearest the glad tidings of mercy pardon and peace grace of life that passeth understanding joy unspeakable rich and plentiful redemption from al sins and miseryes which God hath layd up in his everlasting decree and laid out in the great work of redemption by the Lord Jesus but thou mayest set thy heart at rest as long as thou seest that hard heart of thine thou shalt never see good day joy and comfort and liberty they are not thy allowance they are childrens bread it