a wearinesse to mee to sanctifie the Sabaoth and hearing praying and other holy duties are a burthen to mee to this day my heart is not prepared for mercy good Lord to this day I am a wretched carnall man This is something Now there is some hope And the Soule goes on further and saith Good Lord what will become of my Soule am I Gods to dispose of no no pride and peevishnesse hath rul'd mee and I must cloath my selfe as Pride would have mee This is somewhat indeed And the adulterer saith If the adulteresse come I must goe though I dye for it When the drunkard comes to pull you out tell him of this and say Who hath disposed of you this day and all your life a drunken wretch and a base queane You have heard the word of God checking of you and yet nothing would doe Oh now at last yield and say The Lord hath not disposed of me Now therefore labour that God may dispose of you and let the mighty God pull downe that mightie heart Challenge the Lord with his promise and give him no rest till hee have mercy upon you And you servants humble your selves and say Wee have beene proud and idle together now let us mourne and pray together The time shall come when you will be content that God should dispose of you and you shall desire the Lord to looke graciously towards you and that God would take away your corruptions and that pride which accuseth you and all those abhominations that have beene a shame and disgrace to you therefore now resolve with your selves and say Lord take away this sinne and subdue that corruption and doe thou rule and reigne over my heart and life for ever let the power of thy truth carry mee and turne me from my wickednesse and over-power this proud will of mine and whatsoever vanity is in my life good Lord take it away and frame me after thy minde When this time comes say That a poore Minister did wish you good and that you had a faire offer If you will be at Gods disposing in minde in heart and life the Lord will prepare a place for you in heaven and rancke you there amongst his blessed Saints and Angels for evermore If another mans servant come to demand of you meat drinke and wages you will say You have not beene at my command therefore goe to the Master that you have served let him pay your wages So it will be with you if you goe to God for mercy and comfort in that day the Lord will send you to your lusts and new fashions c. but if any man be Gods servant then every thing shall be fitted for him and though that day be troublesome to the proud and haughty spirit yet it will be a comfort to the godly that they have submitted themselves to Gods word For then Christ shall fill their mindes with wisedome and their wills with holinesse and their lives shall be made honourable and acceptable before him Think of this and labour to bring your hearts to it that Gods will may be your wills and if you be humbled you shall and must be for ever comforted Thus much of the triall of the truth of our humiliation The second part of the use Now I come to the second part of the use that is to examine the measure of our humiliation for as I conceive all the difficulty of a mans course lyes here and the cause why a man receives not the assurance of mercy from God that hee desires or that comfort that he might it is all from hence I say because he is not empty For if the heart be prepared Christ comes immediatly into his temple and the lesse wee have of our selves the more we shall have of Christ This is mervailous usefull and therefore you must know that though the heart be truly humbled and laid low in it selfe in truth and the thing is done yet there remaines a great deale of pride in the heart Take a mighty Castle though it be battered downe yet there remaines many heapes of rubbish and happily some of the pillars stand many Winters after So it is with this frame of Spirit in a high imagination 2 Cor. 10.5 in these Towers of loftinesse Though this Dagon of a mans selfe be fallen downe yet still the stumps remaine and will doe many yeares And it will cost much horror of heart and much trouble before this haughtinesse of heart will be every way pull'd downe and made agreeable to the good will of God Though this distemper is mervailous secret yet a man may take a measure and scantling of it How to try the measure of humiliation The first particular Triall and hee may know how much of this cursed rubbish remaines in his heart by these foure particular rules First looke what measure there is of carnall reasoning against the truth of God when it is made knowne what measure there is of it either subtilly comming in upon the heart or else that doth violently transport the spirit against the spirit so much need thou hast of Humiliation and so much thou wantest of it This is a cleare case Every Saint of God is willing to know the truths that he shall doubt of and is content to yeild himselfe to the truth that shall be revealed and of which he shall be convinced yet there remaines much carnall reasoning against the truth As the Apostle saith Let no man deceive you intruding into those things which he hath not seene Coloss 2.18 vainely puft up in his fleshly minde The ground and roote of this carnall reasoning or the measure of it may appeare in two causes First There is a kinde of perverse darknesse in the heart still sticking in the minde and understanding even of a gracious Godly man And from hence namely out of this mistaking of the minde followes all that carnall reasoning that howsoever the Soule is satisfied yet it will not sit downe but still it sticks in this carnall reasoning and the sinner cannot conceive the truth nor fathom the compasse of it by reason of his owne weakenesse therefore it is long before hee will be perswaded that it is truth and that he is bound to yeild to it When the wisedome of the truth is so plaine and evident that he cannot resist the clearenesse of it yet because he cannot conceive of it he thinkes that hee is not bound to yeild thereunto Object But some will say should a man yeild to that which he cannot conceive Answ To this I answer When the minde is so farre enlightened that he cannot gain-say any thing in reason though he cannot compasse the depth and bottome of the truth yet he should yeild to it and rather goe with reason then follow his owne imagination when there is no reason for it Iust so it was with Nicodemus When Christ spake of the worke of regeneration Ioh. 3.9 he said Can a man be borne
that is you will not goe out from your selves to the Lord Christ and therefore cannot receive mercy and grace from his Majesties hands though thou art never so base and vile if thou couldst goe to the Lord Iesus and rest upon him for mercy nothing should stand betweene thee and heaven but if thou stickest in thy selfe all the grace in Christ can doe thee no good Secondly This carnall confidence makes a man unprofitable under all the meanes that God bestowes Ier. 17.5 6. As the Prophet Ieremy saith Cursed is he that trusts in the arme of flesh and departs from the Lord Why What shall become of him the text saith he shall be like an heath in the wildernesse and shall never see good The nature of the heath is this though all the dew of heaven and all the showers in the world fall upon it and though the Sunne shine never so hotly it will never grow fruitfull it will never yield any fruit of increase but it is unfruitfull still Such a Soule thou wilt be thou that restest upon thy own services sayest because thou hearest and prayest and doest sanctifie the Lords Day therefore thou must needs goe to heaven I say thou shalt never see good by all the meanes of grace if thou makest them independent causes of salvation all the promises in the Gospel shall never establish thee and all the judgements in the world will never terrifie thee thou shalt never have any saving grace wrought in thee by them The truth is hee that hath all meanes and hath not a Christ in all hee shall never see good by all Therefore thou that restest upon thy parts and gifts and upon thy duties thou wilt have a heart so besotted that grace will never come into thy heart and God will never quiet thy conscience It may be a poore drunkard is converted and humbled but thou standest still and canst get no good by all the means in the world Therefore say thus to thy selfe doth this carnall confidence cut mee off from all the grace and mercy that is in Christ and without mercy and pardon from Christ I am undone for ever and without grace I am a poore defiled wretch here and shall be damned for ever after if I rest here I may bid adue to all mercy Nay all the meanes that I have never doe mee good Is this the fruit of my carnall confidence Oh Lord withdraw my heart from it Lastly When all the meanes of grace will not plucke away the Soule from resting upon it selfe The fourth meanes when reason will not rule him nor meanes will not prevaile with a poore sinner as commonly a great while they will not then the Lord tires a poore Soule with his owne distempers And the Lord deales with the Soule as an enemy deales with a Castle that he hath besieged When the Citizens will not yield up the Castle he famisheth them and cuts off all provision and makes them consume within and so at last they are forced to resigne it up upon any termes So When the Lord hath laid siege to a carnall heart and hath shewed him his woefull condition and yet the heart will not of nor will not take up any termes of peace but still hee will shift for himselfe Now what doth the Lord doe hee takes away the comfort of all the meanes that he hath till hee is famished with the want of Gods favour and then hee is content to yield up all to the God of heaven and earth It was just so with this Prodigall all the world could not perswade him but he might live better of his portion and so away hee goes and when hee had tried the world and could get no succour at last he confest it was better to be at a fathers finding and now he saw that a fathers house was admirably good and that the servants and children in their fathers house are happy for they have bread enough and enough againe and to spare too and so hee is forced to returne So it is with many poore distressed soules all the arguments under heaven cannot quiet them and all the meanes in the world cannot plucke them from themselves and we tell them daily that they must not expect grace nor power nor pardon from themselves 2 Ioh. 3. It is mercy and peace saith the Apostle You would have peace of conscience and pardon of sinne and assurance of Gods love and whence would you have it you would have it from your duties it is not prayer and peace nor hearing and peace but it is mercy and peace and therefore away to the Lord Iesus that you may receive mercy from him Yet we cannot get poore creatures from themselves but they would faine shuffle for themselves and have a little comfort of their owne and they say Lord cannot my prayers my care and fasting merit salvation Now what doth God then he saith to such a Soule goe try then put to the best of thy strength and use all the meanes that thou canst and see what thou canst doe See if thou canst cure thy conscience and heale those wounds of thine and subdue the corruptions of thy heart with thy prayers and abilities but when the Soule hath made triall and weltred and wearied it selfe at last he finds that all the meanes he can use cannot quiet him nor comfort his conscience and the poore sinner is pinched and wearied and the Lord will not answer his prayers nor sweeten the desires of his Soule and the Lord will not blesse the Word to him for his comfort and at last the Soule saith Such a poore Christian even a man of meane parts and weake gifts how is he comforted and such a profane drunkard is puld home and hath gotten the assurance of Gods love The Lord hath puld downe the proud hearts of such and such and they live comfortably and sweetly and I have no peace nor assurance of Gods love You may thanke your selves for it they saw nothing and they looked for nothing from themselves and therefore they went home to the gate of mercy to the Lord Iesus Christ and they have bread enough if you would come home to Christ you might have beene comforted also Now therefore goe to the Lord Iesus Christ and as certainly as God is in heaven refreshing and comfort will come into your hearts and mercy which is better then marrow shall satisfie those feeble fainting spirits of yours You see what the way is and what the helps be to pluck off our hearts from resting upon these duties and therefore thinke thus with thy selfe and say is my misery so great and are my duties so weake and is my carnall confidence so dangerous that I may be troubled for ever for any thing that I can doe of my selfe and is comfort no where else to be had but in the Lord Iesus Christ Oh then Lord worke my heart to this duty Sticke not in your selves doe all this but goe
beyond all that you can doe and labour so to approve your hearts to God that you may see greater mercy in God then in all that you can doe Now there are two Cavils which carnall persons slander this truth of God withall and these must be answered before I can come to the trials The first Cavill The first cavill with which wretches are content upon this truth it is this Oh say they What is it so that all our prayers and hearings all our care and desires and all our improvement of meanes are nothing worth will not all these justifie us nor make us acceptable to God then let us cast care away let us sweare and ryot and drinke and live as wee list wee heare that all the duties that wee can doe will not save us the Minister tells us so Thus a company of carnall wretches runne headlong downe to eternall destruction one sweares and another casts all the commandements of God behind his back Answ To this I answer Doth the Minister say so nay the Word the Scripture the Spirit of God saith so and the Lord Iesus himselfe speakes it In the meane time wilt thou gain-say that which the Lord Christ hath spoken Doth not the Apostle say You are saved not of works c. And in another place It is not in him that wills nor in him that runnes but in the Lord that shewes mercy Rom. 9.16 It is the spirit of God that saith it and doest thou stand to out-face the Lord Iesus Christ in it But stay a while and take a full answer with thee and know these three things thou that doest abuse this doctrine of Gods free favour First howsoever thy good workes are not sufficient to save thee yet thy evill workes are enough to damne thee As the Apostle saith 2 Thess 2.12 that all they might bee damned which beleeved not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse You that take pleasure in your drunkennes and prophanesse and in your jibing and jesting at the meanes of grace there is roome enough in hell for you all that all you might be damned Yea thou that delightest in thy drunkennes thou maist drinke downe thy last and thy damnation too and thou that blasphemest against the truth of Christ take heed that God poure not downe his wrath upon thee It is true though thy good workes are not perfectly good and cannot save thee yet thy bad workes are perfectly naught and and will condemne thee nay thy prayers are an abhomination to the Lord and will the Lord save thee for that which is abhominable to him thou thinkest hell is broke loose because mercy is come into the world this thy wickednes will condemne thee for evermore Secondly they that thus stand it out against Gods free grace in Iesus Christ the Lord in mercy open their eyes my soule mournes for them and for that strange punishment that shall befall them except the Lord breake their hearts in time as any sinne is enough to condemne them so their sinne is of an unconceiveable hainousnesse and their judgement will be answerable Their sinne is become out of measure sinfull because mercy is revealed and they have made a mock of it The very height of all that wrath that is in God shall be their portion Good Lord is it possible that ever any man should dare to despise the mercy of God and to trample the blood of Christ under his feete and not onely to commit wantonnesse but to turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and to make the Lord Christ the Patron of all their filthinesse How will the Lord Iesus take it at at their hands that whereas the Lord Iesus came into the world to destroy the works of the devill they should make Christ a meanes to uphold the works of the devill Oh that ever any man should dare to sinne because mercy abounds and because they heare that Christ will one day save them therefore they in the meane time will do all they can against him that must save them See what S. Paul saith against such Despisest thou the riches of his goodnesse Rom. 2.4 5. long sufferance and forbearance not knowing that the goodnesse of God leadeth to repentance but after thy hardnesse of heart thou treasurest up to thy selfe wrath against the day of wrath Thou that livest in the bosome of the Church where the Angels come downe from heaven and rejoyce in this free grace of God in Christ and hast thou the offer of this mercy and doest thou despise it then thy drunkennesse is not bare drunkennesse but there is a treasure of vengeance in it And thou sayest thou wilt be drunke and prophane because thy sobriety and thy good works cannot save thee I tell thee it is not bare scorning and bare prophanes but there is a masse of vengeance in all these And when thou shalt stand before the judgement seat of Christ and shall be indited for a drunkard and a scorner and a prophane person and such a one as hast tossed the people of God with scornes upon thy Ale-bench when the Law hath thus proceeded against thee then will mercy come in against thee and say Lord execute vengeance upon him for mee and for me saith another for I have beene dishonoured and because mercy did abound he would have his sinne abound also And then comes in the blood of Christ and cries aloud saying Vengeance against that drunkard indeed Lord there 's a poore wretch that knew no other but vengeance Lord against that drunkard and that scorner because my blood was shed and mercy was offered and hee despised it You that know your drunken neighbours and servants and see their ryoting and scorning tell them that there is a treasure of vengeance in those sinnes and you that are guilty of it goe your wayes home and mourne and the Lord give us hearts to mourne for you You that know what this sinne is when you goe to the Lord in Prayer put up one petition for them and say Good Lord take away that treasure of vengeance Oh pray that if it be possible this great sinne may be pardoned Thirdly all such persons must know that it is carnall confidence in the meanes that withdrawes a blessing from them in the use of the meanes What things were gaine to mee saith Saint Paul I accounted losse for Christ Phil. 3.7 that is when he put any confidence in them hee lost the benefit of the meanes The second cavill Secondly Some will say you doe nothing but reproove us for duties and labour to plucke us from them then why should we pray and heare and what good shall we have by all that we doe if we cannot be saved by these meanes then what use is there of them Answ To this I answer Yes there is great use of them and much good to be had by them As the Apostle saith Titus 3.14 Let us also learne to maintaine good works
when all other meanes cannot doe the deede that the Lord should then I say looke upon a poore sinner and refresh him with one drop of mercy Oh this is unspeakable mercy As the Prophet David saith All my bones can say Lord who is like unto thee as if hee had said This eye that hath wept for my sinnes this tongue that hath confest my sinnes and this heart that hath grieved for sinne all these have beene refreshed by thee This prayer is not like to thee this fasting and these priviledges are not like to thee for these could not succour mee but thou art the Lord that didst deliver and succour thy poore servant And secondly herein is also admirable freenesse of mercy that when the Lords mercy was but lightly looked after that then the Lord should give mercy and that to an enemie For the Soule can say if any thing in the world would have saved mee I should not have gone to the Lord for mercy and yet when all would not doe and when I did not thinke of any such matter then the Lord saved mee This is free mercy The hope of Israel is not like others and the God of Iacob is not like other Gods You distressed Soules did not you know the time when God terrified you and then offered mercy and you would none but you would scramble for mercy and shift for your owne comfort and yet the Lord brought downe those proud hearts of yours and when you were at a dead lift and could find comfort no where else then did the Lord shew mercy to your Soules Was not this free mercy wonder at it and give God glory for it even for ever Vse 1 This being so that the Soule that is throughly humbled yields to submit it self to the Lord Then this is like a Bill of inditement against all the stout ones of the world This shewes how unworthy they are of any mercy Nay how unfit they are for mercy They are so farre from partaking of Gods mercy that they will not be humbled and therefore they cannot be exalted Nay they have a base esteeme of it and so they hate their everlasting salvation For looke how farre they are from submission so farre they are from the comfort and happinesse of the Lord. He that will enter in at this strait gate of subjection is so farre from ever going in the way to life that he never set one foot yet in this way Let me speake as once the Prophet did Heare and tremble all you stout ones of the earth you that account it a matter of credit to cast off the Commandements of God and that you can lift up your selves against the Almightie Good Lord is it possible you know what I say there is many one here and if they be not here as commonly they are not let them heare of it How is it that men slight all corrections and snap all Gods Commandements in sunder as Samson did the Cords and they say their tongues are their owne and their lusts are the commands that carry them Nay is it not come to this passe now adayes for the Lords sake thinke of it that men account it a matter of basenesse of spirit to be such childish babes and to be so womannish as to stoope at every command Oh you must not be drunke saith one it is a hot argument and are you such a childe as to yield to it No let us follow our owne wayes is it not thus I appeale to your owne Soules there are too many guiltie in this place Doe you thinke to out-brave the Almightie in this manner doe you provoke the Lord to wrath and doe you not provoke your Soules to your owne confusion Doest thou thinke to goe to heaven thus bolt upright the Lord cannot endure thee here and will Hee suffer thee to dwell with himselfe for ever in heaven What thou to heaven upon these termes Nay thou must not thinke to out-brave the Lord in this manner and to goe to heaven too How did the Lord deale with Lucifer and all those glorious spirits He sent them all downe to hell for their pride Let all such spirits heare and know their misery I doe not trouble my selfe with any matter of indignation it is no trouble to me but onely because of your sinnes for you are the greatest objects of pitty under heaven You that know such and have such husbands oh mourne for them exceedingly The Lord doth detest their persons As the Wise man saith Prov. 11.20 The froward in heart are an abhomination to the Lord. The Lord doth abhorre that heart of thine And shall God abhominate that proud heart of thine and yet blesse it and save it and will He dwell with such a heart in heaven No he hath some body else to give heaven to Secondly thy estate is desperate here and marvellous unrecoverable As the same Wise man saith He that being often reprooved hardneth his necke and will not stoope to any counsels nor reproofes but saith Who meddles with you and I know what I have to doe and let every Tub stand uppon his owne bottome How many of you here have beene reprooved for your swearing but you leave it not How many of you have beene reprooved for your prophaning of the Lords Day doe you withdraw your selves from it Oh no such matter Goe your wayes then and mourne over those hard hearts of yours and in private say thus This is my sentence right The Lord be mercifull to my father saith the child and the Lord be mercifull to my proud husband saith the wife and to my wife saith the husband are not we they that have beene often reprooved have not we had such exhortations as have made the Church to shake the divels would have gotten more good if they had had them and yet we have cast of all and we would not come in we doe not yet pray in our Families but we throw away all the Lord hath said it hee that being often reprooved hardeneth his necke and will not come in shall perish hee is gone then and therefore thou may say Oh my husband is but a dead man and my childe is a dead childe he shall perish but is there no remedy may some say No the text saith so he shall suddainly be destroyed and that without remedy The truth is I need say no more but you that know your owne hearts bewaile those hard hearts of yours that as the water by continuall dropping at last melts the flint so if it be possible those proud hearts of yours may be brought downe If a drunkard or an adulterer will submit to the Word there is remedy for them but there is no remedy for him that will not yield to the Spirit of God The Lord bee mercifull to the Soules of them Will you see your sturdy hearted husbands and children perish the Lord in mercy set this home to your hearts at last and prevaile with them Will you perish
and that suddenly Oh let us pitie them will you not yield now but you will stand it out to the last man The Lord comes out in battell aray against a proud person and singles him out from all the rest and when the vyalls of his wrath are poured out upon all wicked ones mee thinks the Lord saith Let that drunkard and that swearer alone a while but let mee destroy that proud heart for ever You shall submit in spite of your teeth when the great God of heaven and earth shall come to execute vengeance and doe not think to scarre God with your mocks you that wil sweare a man out of your company Consider that place in Iob and see how the Lord comes with all his full might against a proud man Iob 15.25.26 27. It is good to read this place often that God may pull downe our proud hearts For he stretcheth out his hands against the Almighty saith the text and strengtheneth himselfe against God and he saith I will do it though my life lie at the stake for it he strengthens himselfe and will doe it Surely God is afraid of him he comes so well mann'd the Lord must deale some way with him to overthrow him Mark what the text saith The Lord runnes upon him even on his neck upon the thick bosses of his bucklers because hee covereth his face with his fatnesse and maketh collops of fat upon his flankes the Lord comes upon him not at the advantage but in the height of his pride and in the rage of his malice the Lord will come upon him and ruinate him for ever Those that now stand it out and cast off all carelesly throwing away the commandements of God I would have them at the day of their death to out-stand the curse of God The Lord God commands to sanctifie his Sabbaths and to love his truth and his children yet you will not but you will strive against all I would haue you to out-stand the curse of God in the day of judgement and when the Lord Iesus shall say Depart from me yee cursed into everlasting fire stand it out now and say I will not goe to hell Lord I will not be damned No no you broke the cords here but the Lord will binde you in chaines of darknesse for ever remove those chaines if you can No Esay 2.17 the haughtinesse of men shall be brought low and the loftinesse of men shall be abased and the Lord shall onely be exalted in that day Vse 2 The second Use is for instruction to shew unto us that an humble Soule is mervailous teachable and tractable and is willing to yeeld unto and to be guided by any truth it submits and there is no quarrelling against the commandements of God one word of Gods mouth is enough If the Lord reproves it takes the same home to it selfe if the Lord promiseth it beleeves and if the Lord threatens it trembles It is easie to be convinced of whatsoever it is informed if it have no good reason to gaine-say it It is not of that wayward and pettish disposition that it will not be satisfied though all his reasons be answered and all objections taken away It is not led by his owne humours as many a man is though his conceits be against reason and opposite against God and his grace Nay it is content to yeeld to the authority of the truth and to take the impression of every truth it heares and yields Iob 34.32 and obeyes and frames it selfe answerably As Iob saith That which I know not teach thou mee and if I have done any iniquity I will doe so no more The humble Soule is content to confesse his ignorance and to submit to any truth that may enforme him and it is content to receive that mercy and grace that is offered by what meanes soever God seeth best to Communicate it Nay the heart that is truly submissive is as willing to take comfort when it is offered upon good grounds as it is to performe dutie enjoyned By a foolish pettishnesse the divell withdrawes the hearts of Gods owne people from much comfort that God hath dished out of purpose for their benefit For howsoever the Soule of a poore sinner be truly touched yet for want of this lowlinesse and this teachablenesse and submission it refuseth that sap and sweet that it should take and receive from the Lord. Take a poore sinner that hath many sinnes burthening of him and hee is crushed with them and that in truth he desires comfort but receives none Let the Minister of God come and answer all his arguments and satisfie all his quarrels that he can make and set him on a cleare boord and tell him that the work of grace is cleare and mercy is appointed for him Now marke how he flyes of through that sullennesse and untoward peevishnesse and pride of Spirit hee casts away the mercy and yields not to the comfort offered though he is content to yield to the duties enjoyned and so he deprives himselfe of that mercy and comfort that is offered and thus when all is done time after time the Soule saith I see it not and I perceive it not and all the world shall not perswade me of it Why what are you wiser then all the world what a pride of heart is this Oh saith he another man may be cozened and deceived but I know my owne heart better then any Minister doth But you tell the Minister what your condition is and so what you know hee knowes and hee hath more judgement to enforme you then you have of your selfe Then saith the Minister all your cavils and objections are answered and remooved and all that worke of grace that God hath wrought you have made it knowne and revealed and all this is made good by the Word of God now if all these quarrels be answered and if all the reasons and evidences of the worke of grace be made cleare that you cannot deny them then why may not you take comfort Downe with that proud heart of yours that will not beleeve whatsoever the Minister saith Oh the height of pride and haughtinesse of heart in this case I speake to you to whom comfort and mercy is impropriated downe with those proud spirits I say It is not because you cannot but because you will not It is said in Esay God prepares the garment of gladnesse for the spirit of heavinesse When the Lord seeth the soule prepared and humbled Esa 61.3 he takes measure of it and disheth out a comfort answerable he prepares a consolation as fit as may be and yet the Soule will not put it on nor be warned and refreshed with it as it is with some way-ward untoward childe who when his father hath prepared a suit of cloathes fitting for him because he hath not such and such a lace hee will not put it on but throwes all away Oh it is marvellous pride of spirit a rod
never be blessed for I have had these ends and by respects in all my duties it is I that have sinned against checks of conscience and against knowledge and therfore it is just that I should carry this horror of heart with mee to my grave it is I that have abused mercy and therefore it is just and righteous with God that I should goe with a tormenting conscience downe to hell Oh that if I be in hell I might have a Spirit to glorifie and justifie thy name there and say Now I am come downe to hell amongst you damned creatures but the Lord is righteous and blessed for ever in all his dealings and I am justly condemned Thirdly Hence the Soule comes to be quiet and frameable under the heavy hand of God in that helplesse condition wherein he is so that the Soule having beene thus framed aforehand it comes to this that it takes the blow and lyes under the burthen and goes away quietly and patiently hee is quiet and saith not a word more oh this is a heart worth gold He accounts Gods dealing and Gods way to bee the fittest and most reasonable of all Oh saith he it is fit that God should glorifie himselfe though I be damned for ever for I deserve the worst whatsoever I have it is the reward of my owne workes and the end of my owne way if I be damned I may thanke my pride my stubbornnesse my peevishnesse of Spirit and all my base corruptions what shall I repine against the Lord because his wrath and his displeasure lyes heavy upon mee let mee repine against my sinne that made him do it Let me grudge against my base heart that hath nourished these adders in my bosome shall I bee unquiet and murmure against the Lord because this horror of heart doth vexe mee oh noe let mee blesse the Lord and not Speake one word against him but let mee repine against my sin as the holy prophet David saith Psal 39.9 I held my tongue and Spake nothing because thou Lord haddest done it So the Soule saith when the sentence of condemnation is even seazing upon him and God seemes to cast him out of his favour then he saith I confesse God is just and therefore I blesse his name and yeild to him but sinne is the worker of all this misery that hath befallen mee The holy Prophet Ieremy pleading of the great extremity that had befallen the people of God saith woe is mee for my hurt Ier. 10.19 my wound is grievous but I said truly this is my griefe and I must beare it This is the frame of a heart that is truly humbled it is content to take all to it self and so to be quiet saying this is my wound and I must beare it this is my sorrow and I will suffer it thus you see what the behaviour of the heart is in this contentednesse Hold these well for they are of marveilous difficultie and great use Quest But what is the dealing of the Lord that the Soule must be contented with Answ The behaviour of the Lord towards the Soule in this kind discovers it selfe in two things First In what hee will do to the Soule Secondly in the manner of his dealing how hee will deale with the Soule and the heart must bee contented with both these Sometimes a man will beare a thing but not the manner of it that kills him but God will make a sinner wayt upon God for mercy and beg againe and againe and bee content with the harshest of his dealings and glad he may have it so too The first thing that God will have the Soule contented with 1. First thing that God will doe to the Soule and which the Soule must be contented with is that salvation and happinesse and the acceptation of a mans person now must be no more in a mans own hands nor in his owne abilitie the Lord hath taken the staffe out of his hand and salvation must bee no more put in his owne power Here is a wonderfull height of pride exprest before the Soule will yield to this When Adam was created in his innocency the Lord put a faire stocke into his hand and hee might have traded for himselfe and he had libertie of will and power of grace so that he might have gotten the favour of God by that which he could doe if hee would have done hee might have lived But when Adam had betrayed that trust which God committed to him in the state of Paradise because hee had forfeited this trust the Lord tooke all away from him and nothing shall be in him or from him any more in the point of Iustification or acceptation as any way meritorious Adam in his innocency might have required mercy by vertue of a Covenant from God but Adam shall now have nothing in his owne power any more but he shall have his Iustification and acceptation not in himselfe but in another even Iesus Christ So that the reason why any Soule is justified and accepted with the Lord it is meerely in an other not in himselfe It is a great matter to bring the heart to this for the Soule to see nothing in himselfe but all in and through Christ Oh this is a difficult worke The Lord will not trust him with a farthing token There are two passages marveilous usefull this way and therein you shall see the exceeding pride of a mans heart and it is very common One passage is in the Romanes Where the text saith Rom. 9.31.32 The Iew and the Gentiles sought for righteousnesse that is how they might finde acceptance and righteousnesse in the sight of God The Iew sought this by the works of the Law that is by himself by his sacrifices and washing and the like and he thought these would have acquitted him in the sight of God But the text saith Israel which followed after the Law of righteousnesse hath not attained it that is they have not attained it because they sought it not by faith and from Christ but in and of themselves and therefore they never came to attaine it But most pregnant is that other place Rom. 10 2 3. where the Apostle saith I beare them record that they have the zeale of God but not according to knowledge for they being ignorant of Gods righteousnesse and going about to establish their owne righteousnesse have not submitted themselves to Gods righteousnesse the cause why any man is acquitted of God it is not because of any thing that he hath or doth but it is from anothers righteousnesse But what a great matter is this The text faith That going about to establish their owne righteousnesse they have not submitted c. here in this place there is this remarkable They thought to establish their owne righteousnesse that is their owne duties and services their owne parts and abilities and because they thought to find acceptance for what they did they did not submit Submission argues
see this in that cursed shift of a carnall man When Balack sent for Balaam saying Num. 22.23.19 Come curse this people and I will advance thee The Lord met Balaam and said thou shalt not curse them then Balaam rose up early and said to the Princes of Moab get you home for the Lord refuseth to let me goe with you hee laid all the fault upon God as if he had said I have a good affection to goe with you but the Lord will not give me leave Well when they came againe hee said tarry here all night that I may know what the Lord will say unto me more He would goe to advise with God to doe that which God had formerly forbidden Thus the carnall heart goes to worke when hee cannot avoyde the truth and he would faine have some reservations and such exceptions and hee saith is it not possible that I may be drunke and adulterous and covetous and yet make a shift to go to heaven too this is a wretched heart as Balaam did so do many nay the most of the world do so consider that place of Scripture and let me have your judgements in it 1 Ioh. 3.2 he that hath this hope saith the Apostle purgeth himselfe as Christ is pure He doth not say he may and ought to do it but he doth purge himselfe and the Apostle Peter saith be yee holy as Christ is holy in all manner of conversation 1 Pet. 1.15 He doth not say hee may and should bee so but be holy as Christ is holy that is in truth and sincerity as a child goes like his father though not so fast as he And as an apprentice workes as fast as his Maister though not so well and as the Apostle saith abstaine from all filthinesse of the flesh and Spirit as if had said if there be ever a harlot or alehouse in the world avoyde it and all those appearances of evill come not neare them This is the condition that God requires You heare all these truths now let me call for record from heaven I would faine know what any wicked opposer can say against these truths oh that I could know your minds a little You that thinke a man need not bee so exact and precise nay you blame your children and servants for it I know not what you would say except it be this It is true this is good but doth any man do it and it were to bee wished that wee could do it and happy are they that can do it a man may bee a man though not so good as an other man c. away with those tricks the text saith hee that hath this hope purifies himselfe as Christ is pure though not for the measure yet in the same manner Thou and I and all of us must do it or els wee may cast away all hope The Lord be mercifull to us If your judgements were humbled I can tell what you would do the heart that is humble takes the truth and yeilds to the authoritie of it whereas a carnall heart Lords it over the truth if it bee thus with thee thy mind was never soundly enlightened and as the Lord lives never humbled never converted and neuer brought home to the Lord see what our Saviour saith Matth 15.3 why do you also by your traditions transgresse the commandement of God They set their owne carnall traditions cheeke by joll with the commandements of God they made the Command of God without any royalty or power They were content to give Christ the hearing but they turned aside from the truth that should have prevailed with them If ever thou wouldest have the word worke upon thee to do thee good then whereas heretofore thou wouldest not come in nor yeild now shew thy selfe to be humbled and go thy way home and let this truth take place in thy heart and be delivered into the forme of this doctrine now in hand and when profainenesse leud and ungodly sports come then remember this and say I must purge my selfe as Christ is pure did Christ ever thus and thus did he ever sit up till twelve a clocke at night ryotting and banquetting it is a truth oh Lord let it take place in my heart and let it bee fastened there When the Lord hath a man in his fetters and breakes the heart with horror Iob 36.8 9 10. he openeth his eare to discipline and commands him to returne from iniquitie Hee doth not leave a man there and say this is the way and the truth walke in it but he saith I must have that uncleane heart purged and that carnall company abandoned and so forth and so the Lord saith to the Ministers command that dissembler and that hypocrite and that base wretch to come out from their ungodly practises and to yeild to mee Oh let the power and royaltie of this truth take place in your hearts as it will do if you be Subjects of the truth I charge you before God and his Angels if you know any command obey it and if you know any sinfull course remember the commandement is plaine you must purge your selves as Christ is pure Let this word prevaile and have his authoritie over you and be not carnall hypocrites to oppose it now and so to bee damned for it everlastingly The will must be subject As the reason must be subject to Gods will so the will and affections must be humbled and the frame that is contrary to this humilitie is this when the will and heart of a man and that part whereby you say I will have this and I will not have that when this part doth not yeild to the authoritie of Gods word when there is a kind of Soveraigne Command in this waywardnesse of heart and the heart would challenge a kinde of monarchicall authoritie and would not be overtopped by the truth of God This cannot stand with any saving worke of humiliation The generall is thus Ieremy 2.31 As the people said wee are Lords we will come no more unto thee wee know what to doe And as it is said in the Psalmist Psalme 12.4 our tongues are our owne we ought to speake who is Lord over us Object But some will say how shall we know that our corrupt hearts wils and affections doe thus over-power the truth of Christ and challenge to it selfe a soveraigne command Here is the maine wound and and women that are weake in their reasons are wonderfull refractory in their wils Answ We shall know it by these three particulars First The heart is weary of the command and wisheth secretly there were no command of God to crosse him in his course and to hinder him in his way of sinne I will not declare what I have heard wicked wretches say in this kinde because I will not teach men to be wicked He wisheth that there were no righteous God to bound him The adulterer wisheth that there were no such Law as this
but what their pride and idlenesse will Prov. 28.18 The wise man saith He that is perverse in his wayes shall fall at once And the Apostle saith When you were the servants of sinne Rom. 6.20 you were free from righteousnesse What 's that Holinesse and Gods command had nothing to doe with them that never tooke place in their hearts Doe you thinke these mens hearts are at Gods disposing See what the Apostle saith Fashion not your selves like unto this world Rom. 12.2 I onely appeale to mens consciences what strange apparell and haire laid out and what Spanish locks be there now adayes who disposeth of these things Oh forsooth they are newly come up and they must come up to thy head and armes and all These strange fashions doe argue strange distempers of spirit and doe you thinke that God rules in those hearts and minds and God over-power those affections when as they will not give him leave to meddle with a haire or a locke or an excrement this is my judgement in this case If it be so that the Word of God may not take away a lap and an excrement our shame and those things that are scandalous then surely the Word of God must not plucke away our lusts No no you are as farre from subjection as heaven is from hell and as the divell is from the God of Hosts The Lord speakes plainly by the Prophet Zephany Zeph. 1.8 Hee will visit all those that are cloathed with strange apparell When the fire shall flame about your eares and the enemies come to plucke your feathers from your Caps then you will remember this You would not have God to dispose of your cloathes and haire and the like and therefore God will now dispose of your lives and liberties and when you lye upon your straw and see that you must not goe gay to heaven you would then be content that the Lord should dispose of you and looke graciously towards you and then you will recommend your souls to God But then the Lord will make you answer and say who had the disposing of you before a drunken adulterous and fashionable Soule therefore let them succour you now get you to your fashions and let them make you fry and roare in the fashion he that will not have these base trifles to be at Gods command surely he will never have his heart at Gods disposing and therefore neither minde nor heart nor life Secondly If God will over-rule wicked men a little and pull downe their trim fashions and will gripe the Vsurer and send the thiefe to remember his Chests and if the Lord say you shall not be rich nor honourable as you would though you seeke them never so fast Yet secondly they use all carnall shifts and sinfull devises to come from that woefull condition into which God hath cast them A man cannot endure to be poore and therefore he will steale coosen or oppresse and take any course to lift up himselfe Thirdly Sometimes a man is content to be at Gods disposing in an outward conformitie and he will doe the duties that God reveales and leave the sinne that God forbids and gives a charge against but why will he doe this He doth not these to honour God but for some by and base ends As when the hypocrite prayeth God doth not make him pray as the first mooving cause of the worke but his hypocrisie and so the dissembling professor that will professe for advantage to draw people to his house or to sell off his Wares more readily And that people may say Oh he is a marvellous honest man yes and a covetous wretch too and he makes Religion as a stalking Horse for his lusts You are not at Gods disposing unlesse you be at his command in all these Thus you see the pride of a mans reason in his will his heart and life wherein you see the desperate villany of a mans nature and all is opposite against the God of heaven If every bird had her feathers and the worme her silke and every creature their owne what would become of the man that is proud This is base enough yet this is nothing to that Masse of haughtinesse and Luciferian wretchednesse that is in the heart That a poore creature should set his will against Gods will and his way against the way of the Almightie before whom the Angels stand amazed and the divels doe tremble God saith I will have this and the Soule saith I will not have it God saith thou shalt not walke in this way but the Soule saith I will walke in it God saith thy reason thy will thy life and all shall be subject to race but the Soule saith they shall not Is not this infinite intollerable haughtinesse What to make God no God and that he must have no will no providence and no rule over a mans life Oh you that are guiltie in this case take notice of it And let me exhort you all that have heard the Word of God this day and are poore ignorant men and prophane and carnall hypocrites Ignorance rules one man and his corrupt lusts rules an other man but there is no good rule at all You have the Word of God and his counsels and you have seene the way set out now what remaines but that you be intreated to goe home and humble your selves in secret and say this is my proud reason my proud heart and this is my proud carriage it is I that would not submit to the command of Gods Word And let every servant come in and say this is my proud heart my Master and my Mistris may not speake but I give word for word this is my fault And you wives reason thus Now the Lord hath revealed the pride of my heart and this is my proud reason and will that would not yeild to the command of my husband though never so warrantable Let the child also humble himselfe and say when my father counsels mee I turne my deafe eare and my mother is but a woman and therefore I would have my owne will and walke in my owne way this is my vaine minde How many be there present here this day that are not willing to know some truths You know you have made many conspiracies against the Word of God in the middle of the night because your honours ease and liberties lay at the stake therefore the Word must not rule If it be thus then to this day you are carnally minded and stout-hearted and vaine Goe home therefore I charge you and as you tender your owne good goe into your private chambers or else into some fields and there get downe your knee though your hearts will not bow and say good Lord I know and confesse it to this day my carnall minde hath not beene brought under and this vaine and idle conversation hath not beene ordered by thy word I have known much and gone on in rebellion against thee and it is
againe the second time Well Christ opens the mystery of regeneration and the secrecy of it the second time and when Nichodemus could not comprehend what Christ had spoken yet hee would hold his owne and said how can this be I cannot conceive it because he could not comprehend it therefore he throwes all away Marke how Christ hits him in the right veine and strikes him to the bottome and see how hee tames him Art thou a Master in Israel and a Doctor in Law and yet art such a novice in this worke of regeneration downe with that proud heart of thine Lay downe all thy carnall reasoning and become a foole and so thou may understand this truth that is communicated to thee This is ordinary amongst us for a man to say I cannot beleeve it I see it not and I thinke not so and yet they have no reason at all to carry them but because they cannot comprehend it by that light which they have therefore they will not yeild to any reason because they cannot see it by their owne light they will not use Gods spectacles as I may so say looke how much of this carnall reasoning thou hast so much pride thou haste and this is very much specially in the most ignorantest Soules Secondly because of the weakenesse and feeblenesse of their judgements which are not able to hold a truth when they have it in their hands but it goes away like lightening and because the minds of these poore creatures are over-worne with many thoughts and cursed reasonings and troubled therewith they grow unable to helpe themselves against those distempers And hence it is that though the Word of God be let in and made cleare yet a man stoopes to those conceits and cursed reasonings that have beene attended to so that they take of the power of the truth As it is with a Ferriman hee applyes the Oare and lookes home-ward to the Shore where he would be yet there comes a gust of winde that carryes him backe againe whether he will or no So many a poore humbled creature that is truly wrought upon and hath a true title to Christ he applyes his Oare and would have assurance of mercy from Christ yet the over-whelming of carnall reasonings and cursed suggestions that are either cast in or stirred up in his heart throwes him backe againe and take of the power of the truth insomuch that he can see nothing nor yeild to any thing for the good and comfort of his Soule I take this to be the ground of all the trouble that befals a broken heart Let any man under heaven give mee the reason of this why any Soule that is truely burthened for sinnes as sinne and hath found God marvellous gracious to him this way why I say after all his cavils are remooved and all his objections are fully answered and all controversies are ended and this often done yet a poore broken hearted creature will still recoyle to his former carnall reasonings againe the reason is because all the answers that were given are now forgotten and all his cavils and carnall conceits will be fresh in his minde as ever they were partly from the haunt they have had in his minde and partly from that selfe-willy waywardnesse of the heart that is content to goe that way They that have beene long over-whelmed with these cursed carnall cavellings they will rather labour to oppose a direction then to hold it and to walke in the comfort of it onely because of the weakenesse of their understandings and their carnall reasonings are so violent against them Vpon this hindge it is that as I take it all the objections of a company of poore broken hearted doe hang and by this meanes they keepe out that comfort which they might have and in the strength whereof they might walke all their dayes I might propound many instances as thus come to a contrite Soule and say to him why walkest thou so uncomfortably seeing thou hast now a title to mercy and salvation in Christ see what he replies I a title to mercy nay I am utterly unworthy of that title it is a great gift and few have it and I have beene a vile wretch and an enemy to God and his glory what I a title to mercy we reply againe God gives grace to the unworthy he justifies the ungodly and not the godly and if he will give you mercy too what then hee replyes againe What mercy to me Nay it is prepared for those that are fitted for it had I such a measure of humiliation and so much grace if I were so and so fitted and if my heart were thus disposed then I might have some hope to receive it wee reply againe But have not you beene weary of your corruptions and are you not content that God should doe that for you which you cannot doe for your selves this is the qualification which God accepts and requires and by which hee fits the Soule for mercy unlesse you have that other of your own conceits you will have none and so you deprive your selves of mercy you have a childs part and a good portion too if your proud hearts would suffer you to see it Then the Soule saith I would have the Lord say to my Soule be of good comfort I am thy Salvation if the Lord would witnesse this to mee by his Spirit then I could beleeve it content then only let us agree upon the manner how it must be done and how God shall speake it Will you then yeild it Yes then know this what the Word saith the Spirit saith for the hand and the sword the Word and the Spirit goe both together For as the text saith My Word and my Spirit are one Then take the Word and lay thy heart levell to it and see it The Word saith Every one that is wearie shall be refreshed Hast not thou beene weary and hast not thou seene sin worse then hell it selfe The Text the Word the Lord and his Spirit saith Thou shouldst come and the Spirit saith thou shalt be refreshed Oh saith the sinner I cannot finde this assurance and this witnesse of Gods Spirit I cannot see it and I cannot beleeve it Thus he leaves the judgement of the Word and Spirit and cleaves to the judgement of his finding and feeling and thus he judgeth Gods favour in regard of his own imaginations and not according to the witnesse of the Word and Spirit the Spirit saith Thou art fitted for mercy but because thy ignorant blinde minde conceives it not hence it is that thou shuttest the doore against the mercy of God revealed and that would be setled upon thy Soule for thy everlasting comfort Thinke of this and say Whether is it fit that my wit should determine my estate or the word of God Will you determine the cause and perke into the place of judgement and say I feele it not and I feare it Is not all this carnall reason Here they runne amaine even
Sanctification and Obedience is answerable and thy Glory shall be suteable Now to conclude all The conclusion Doe you consider that it is possible to have an humble heart doe you consider the danger if you have it not and doe you consider the good that comes by an humble heart and doe you sit still as he said in another case Me thinkes your hearts begin to stirre and say hath the Lord engaged himselfe to this Oh then Lord make me humble Mee thinks your countenances say so The Lord make mee and thee and all of us humble that we may have this mercy Let mee make but this one question to your Consciences and give mee an answer secretly in your soules when the Lord shall close up your eyes here and put an end to your pilgrimage would you not be content to dwell with Christ in heaven which the Apostle did account his greatest happinesse to be ever with the Lord we shall be ever with Christ to comfort us when we shall be no more with sinne to vexe and trouble us would not you be content to be with Christ mee thinkes your hearts say that 's the end and upshot of all that 's the end why we live and pray and heare that we may be ever with him And doe not you meet with many troubles while you are members of the Church Militant I know you have sometimes distempers without and troubles without would you not have comfort against them all and what would you give that Christ would looke in and aske how your Soules doe and say thou art my redeemed and I am thy Redeemer No you know all flesh desires it Would you not be content to have some honour in the Church and to leave a good name behind you that the disgraces which wicked men cast upon you may not be as a blot upon your names and when you shall bee no more and you shall bid adue to friends and honours and meanes would you not be blessed and though you would be content to be the meanest in the Kingdome of heaven what would you give to be the greatest in heaven let mee put a condition to you get but humble hearts and you have all Men brethren and fathers If there be any Soule here that is content in truth and sinceritie to be humbled and to be at Gods disposing in all duties to be done do not you make too much hast to goe to heaven the Lord Iesus Christ will come downe from heaven and dwell in your hearts hee will sit and lye and walke with you his grace shall refresh you and his Wisedome shall direct you and his Glory shall advance you and as for happinesse take no thought for that Everlasting happinesse and blessednesse lookes and waites for every humble Soule Come saith happinesse thou that hast beene vile and base and meane in thine own eyes and in the contempt of the world come and be greatest in the Kingdome of heaven Brethren though I cannot prevaile with your hearts yet let happinesse that kneeles downe and prayes you to take mercy let that I say prevaile with you And answer mee now who would not be humbled If any man be so regardlesse of his owne good I have something to say to him that may make his heart shake within him But who would not have the Lord Iesus to dwell with him who would not have the Lord Christ by the glory of his grace to honour and refresh them and that he should set a crowne of happinesse upon their heads Mee thinkes your hearts should earne for it and say oh Lord breake my heart and humble mee that mercy may be my portion for ever Nay mee thinkes every man should say as Saint Paul did I would to God that not onely I but all my children and servants were not onely thus as I am but also if it were Gods will much more humbled that they might be much more comforted and refreshed The Lord in his mercy grant it Let all parents labour to have their children humbled and every master his servant This will give them cheering of heart in that great Day of accounts when palenesse comes upon your faces and leannesse to your cheekes then I know you would leave your children a good portion then get their Soules truly humbled Me thinks it cheeres my heart to consider of it if a man could get his own heart and the hearts of all truely humbled when he leaves the world if he could but say my wife is humbled and such a child and such a child is humbled how comfortably might he goe away and say though I go away and leave wife and children behind me poore and meane in the world yet I leave Christ with them Brethren though you care not for your selves yet care for your little ones never leave exhorting of them never leave praying for them and for your selves too that you and they may get these humble hearts When you are gone this will bee better for them then all the beaten gold or all the honours in the world There are many that have heretofore stood out against the Lord and they would not come in nor yeild to the conditions of mercy all those proud haughtie and rebellious spirits that have stood out against Gods Truth his Word and Ministers and have stood out long some twenty some thirtie and some fortie yeares let all such feare and tremble and now resolve not to stand it out any more but since the Lord offers so kindly to comfort you and to honour you upon your Humiliation Now kisse the Sonne be humble yeild to all Gods commands take home all truthes and be at Gods disposing There must be subjection or else confusion will you out-brave the Almightie to his face and will you dare damnation as you love your Soules take heed of it As proud as you have beene crushed and humbled Where are all those Nymrods and Pharaohs and all those mightie Monarchs of the World The Lord hath thrown them flat upon their backs and they are in hell this day Therefore be wise and be humbled under the mightie hand of the Lord. It is a mightie hand and the Lord will be honoured either in your Humiliation and conversion or else in your damnation for ever Let all the evill that is threatned and all the good that is offered prevaile with your hearts and though meanes cannot yet the Lord prevaile with you the Lord emptie you that Christ may fill you the Lord humble you that you may enjoy happinesse and peace for ever FINIS
they are no gods at all able of themselves to save us but they are the ordinances of God that leade us to God yet they cannot give salvation to any that rests upon them It is the nature of a sinfull heart to make the meanes as meritorious to salvation yet mistake me not these duties must be had and used but still a man must not stay here a man will use his bucket but he expects water from the well these meanes are the buckets but all our comfort and all our life and grace is onely in Christ if you say your bucket shall helpe you you may starve for thirst if you let it not downe into the well for water so though you brag of your praying and hearing and fasting and of your almes and building of hospitals and your good deeds if none of these bring you to a Christ and if these are not meanes to settle you on a Christ you shall die for thirst though your works were as the works of an Angel But why doth the soule seeke for succour from it selfe and will not goe out to Christ Reason 1 The first reason is because the sinner being conceived not yet to be in Christ out of the guilt of sin dares not be so proud as to thinke that he shall have any favour at Gods hands for the sinner being now overwhelmed with the body of death and the guilt of his abominations galling of him and being starved by reason of his sinnes and still his sinnes being before his eyes and to this day having gotten no assurance of the pardon of them and God being angry against him his heart shrinkes in consideration of the eternall wrath of the Almighty against him and he saith because I have despised justice and abused mercy how dare I appeare before Gods justice for feare justice consume me and execute vengeance upon me and therefore the soule dares not yet venture to come before God and hence it is that the soule saith can I not take some course of my selfe and doe it without Christ must I needs goe and heare certainly the word will condemne and must I needs goe and confesse my sinnes what shall I a rebell goe before a Prince to come before him it is the next way to be executed and have some plague throwne upon me As a malefactor will devise some shift that hee may not come before the judge so while the soul may have some succour from himself and the staffe is in his owne hand there is some hope and he would willingly doe any thing for himselfe but for the soule to have salvation out of his owne reach and to put the staffe out of his owne hand and to hang his salvation upon Gods good pleasure whose love and mercy as yet he was never perswaded of Oh this is very hard and the heart is marvellous shie and carefull in this and it is with the heart in this kinde as Rabshecah said to the people of Israel If you say to mee Esa 36.7 is not that hee whose altars you have broken downe c. Thus hee laboured to plucke away the hearts of this people from trusting in the Lord The soule in this kinde sometimes shakes and shrinkes in the apprehension of his owne vilenes and saith as this wretch did have you offended him and doe you looke for any succour from him this argument was very peevish and keene and yet false for they were the altars of Idols but the soule saith against it selfe and marvellous truly when a Minister would perswade a man to goe to heaven for mercy the soule begins to reason thus with it selfe and saith shall I repaire to God Oh that 's my trouble is not he that great God whose justice and mercy and patience I have abused and is not he the great God of heaven and earth that hath beene incensed against mee oh with what face can I appeare before him and with what heart can I looke for any mercy from him I have wronged his justice and can his justice pardon mee I have abused his mercy and can his mercy pitie mee what such a wretch as I am If I had never enjoyed the meanes of mercy I might have had some plea for my selfe but oh I have refused that mercy and have trampled the blood of Christ under my feet and can I looke for any mercy no no I see the wrath of the Lord incensed against mee and that 's all that I looke for the soule rather desires the mountaines to fall upon him that he may never appeare before God Nay I have observed this in experience In the horror of heart the soule dare scarce reade the Word of God for feare he should reade his owne necke verse and he dare not pray for feare his prayers be turned into sinne and so increase his Iudgement thus the soule out of the guilt of sinne dare not seeke out to the Lord and therefore it will use any shift to helpe it selfe without going to God Reason 2 The second Reason why the soule dare not seeke out to Christ for succour it is this because the mysteries of life and salvation through Christ are not yet made knowne to the soule the soule being yet considered as barely broken and wearied with the burthen of sinne Let me say as the Apostle doth the new and living way in Christ is not yet revealed to the soule and it is not yet set open before his eyes though it shall be revealed taking it as in this precise consideration only prepared for Christ Nay those supernaturall truthes namely that the soule must live by another mans life and be made holy by anothers holinesse and be sanctified by anothers spirit these are not yet revealed these doe exceed our corrupt nature Adam after his fall could not have found out this way if the Lord had not revealed it Had not the Lord Iesus Christ that came from the bosome of his Father made this bosome truth knowne we had never beene acquainted with it therefore the soule cannot come to Christ upon these termes As our Saviour saith Ioh. 3.13 No man hath ascended up to heaven but hee that came downe from heaven Now this poore distressed sinner as yet guiltie of his sinne and yet not seeing a way revealed and not able to ascend into this heavenly mystery because it seeth no better way it will betake it selfe to these duties that may be done by his owne strength without seeking to Christ Reason 3 Because for a man to be able and to have a power and principle of life to performe duties of himselfe and to please God of himselfe it was once possible in the time of mans innocency Adam had it and he might have procured Gods favour and have kept the Law and have beene blessed by the Law because the Lord had given him a stocke in himselfe and made him able to doe it of himselfe and we retaine thus much of Adams nature we are loath
without a Christ yet it may be much hindred from comming to Christ but those that are not soundly broken and wrought upon by the worke of contrition they are daubed up and come to ruine and destruction for ever When the soule lyes under the hand of God and under his stroke and a man seeth his drunkennesse and his base contempt of God and his grace and all his sinnes are presented before him Oh then he voweth and promiseth to take up a new course and every man will mend one and he begins to approve himselfe in the reformation of the evils committed and then he thinks he need doe no more and now the soule saith well now I see the justice of God is provoked and I see now what sinne is and what the danger of it is I will have no more drunkennesse now I will be a sober man and now no more scoffing and scorning at those that goe to heare the word I will attend upon the good word of God my selfe and by this time he thinks thus what can you say against me what can I doe more to heaven I must goe all this is but a mans selfe It s true this is the way and these are the very meanes but all these cannot procure the pardon of one sinne if he goe no further We have many such trials I have knowne many that have done great works but never had a thought of Christ and never expected salvation from him and thus they fed upon the huskes and when the divell saith you pray and heare and doe duties so did Iudas and many others that are now in hell then the heart seeth his vilenesse and he is driven to a desperate despaire so that no Minister under heaven is able to comfort him but he goes away with the huske of duties but Christ who is the substance of all and the pithe of a promise is forgotten and a Christ in hearing and a Christ in prayer is not regarded and therefore he famisheth for hunger The ground of the second point Now see the successe that the Prodigall found the case is cleare hee found no reliefe at all No man gave unto him his hungry stomacke was not refreshed and his wants were relieved so that now the soule of the poore man sinkes unrecoverably in his misery And that hee doth thus consider two phrases first in the 16. verse no man gave unto him Not that no man gave him huskes for he that fed the swine might have fed himselfe but the meaning is no man gave him mans meate if he might have had mans meate though never so poore and meane he would have beene content but no man did give him and hence followes the phrase in the 17. verse How many hired servants in my fathers house have bread enough and I die for hunger It was not because hee had no huskes but because hee had no bread as if he had said perish I shall I see no succour nay I looke for none I may shuffle on here for a while but if I stay here I am a dead man This condition of the Prodigall discovers the second passage in the description of Humiliation So the Doctrine from hence is this 2. Doctrine The broken hearted sinner finds no help nay he hath no hope to receive any help from himselfe in the matter of justification You see the ground of the point is cleare The Citizen relieved him not but hee gives himselfe as as lost and saith I cannot help my selfe and no man will succour me and therefore I perish for hunger This is the picture of a soule that is famished for want of the sense of Gods favour though hee use meanes and heareth and praieth and fasteth yet he finds no good and no sound comfort in all these not that a man must not use these meanes but hee must not rest upon these a man must not thinke that his bucket can quench his thirst but he fetcheth water from the fountaine with it So these duties are as the bucket a man may famish for all these duties unlesse hee goe to the Fountaine of Grace and pardon and mercy and in the use of all these see a need of Christ and goe to God for a Christ by them these meanes must be used but these cannot be saviours of him these meanes must bee used to bring him to a Christ yet they cannot save him without a Christ What was spoken temporally to Ephraim it is true of the Soule spiritually When Ephraim saw his wound Hosea 5.13 and his sicknesse hee went to Ashur and King Iarib but they could not help him nor cure his wound It is true this Text mainly aimes at a temporall deliverance but this may draw us to consider the successe that a poore Soule finds in his duties resting upon them When a poore Soule is broken in the sight of his sinne and weary of it he sends downe to praier and hearing and the like but these cannot succour him without Christ Esay 55.2 and therefore the Prophet Esay saith Why lay you out your money for that which is not bread c. The Lord accounts the paines of his faithfull servants good labour and would not have them lay it out for that which is not bread All the profits that may inrich a man and all the honours that may advance a man nay all the priviledges that a man hath as Word Sacraments and Ordinances and that a man is baptized and hath often come to the Lords Table these come no farther then the very bare huske if they goe no farther and have not an eie to their Saviour these are no true bread the horror of heart cannot bee quieted nor his sinnes pardoned barely by these duties doing the meate of the Soule is not the bare Word nor the bare Sacraments but a Christ in all these this is the prop of the Soule all the bare duties in the world cannot succour us if we rest upon them without justification through Christ The Apostle Paul a learned Pharisee Phil. 3.5 6 7. and a man of an unblameable life because hee was a man of a good life of the Tribe of Benjamin and a Iew circumcised the eighth day hee thought to doe great matters and hee thought he had done enough hee counted these his priviledges gaine What learned Paul reverend Paul unblameable Paul What not he goe to Heaven hee accounted these his greatest gaine as if he would lay downe enough upon the naile to purchase Heaven to himselfe but these were so farre from saving of him that he found them to be losse Thus you see that a distressed sinner finds himselfe helplesse and hopelesse in regard of any sufficient succour in himselfe or the creature if he goe no further then the very duty Now the Soule finds that there is no saving succour to be had in these duties barely I say he comes to see it by these three meanes First from his owne experience that forceth him to
confesse it Secondly from the examples of others Thirdly The greatnesse of the evill that lyes upon him makes him see an utter inabilitie to receive any good from that which he doth First From his owne experience Though hee thought to take up a new course and to performe holy duties and thought that without all question these would save him yet hee finds now that these will not doe the deed hee hath no saving good in these and that appeares by these three particulars First He seeth that the guilt of sinne still remaines and the justice of God being unsatisfied still pursues him though he pray and heare and performe many duties as the Lord told the people when they were sharking for their owne comfort and they thought to give God content by their new courses Yet the Lord tells them Though thou wash thee with Nitre Ier. 2.22 and take thee much sope and though thou use all meanes of reformation yet thy sinnes are sealed up and thy iniquitie is marked before mee It is with a poore sinner as the Psalmist saith of himselfe Whither shall I goe from thy Spirit Psal 139.7 8 9. or whither shall I flie from thy presence if I ascend up into heaven thou art there if I lye downe in hell thou art there if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea even thither shall thy right hand leade mee c. So let a poore sinner goe where he will and do what he can the guilt of sinne will ever be with him it will lye downe and rise up and walke with him in the way His sinnes remaine unpardoned and the wrath of God is not appeased and hence it is that all his prayers are but as so many inditements against him and he dare not reade the word for feare hee should reade his owne damnation Nay at every Sermon that he heares he seeth more vilenesse in himselfe and every Sacrament that hee receives increaseth not his comfort but his horror and he thinks thus with himself good Lord I have taken my bane this day for I come unpreparedly and the Lord knowes what an unfaithfull and unbelieving heart I have Secondly as the guilt of sinne cannot be remooved by all his duties so his conscience cannot be quieted by all that he doth if his heart be throughly pierced by the Sword of the Law still conscience calles upon him and quarrels with him and takes exceptions against him in the best of his duties so farre they are from yielding any satisfaction to God or from bringing any peace to his conscience if hee rest upon the bare performance of them I speake of a broken hearted sinner for the conscience is now Eagle eyed it was full of filme and scales before but now it is open and Eagle eyed and can spie all his weakenesses and picke matter of disquiet even in the best of all his duties that are done The Soule thought them very good payment yet now the heart is touched and conscience is awakened and tells him of his barrennesse and deadnesse and roaving thoughts when hee doth pray and how insufficient he is to pray and therefore he dare not pray with his Family and conscience saith to him you have formerly contemned prayer and now you cannot pray And when the Soule comes into the congregation there Conscience notes him and when he goes home Conscience saith thus unto him how dead were you and how unreverently did you attend to the Word and how unwilling was your heart to be in subjection to the Word thus Conscience becomes Gods Serjeant and saith doest thou thinke that these prayers will save thee Nay they are rather a meanes to condemne thee so heartlesse so cold and so dead hearted thou art in them and is this hearing sufficient to save thee Nay will not the Lord curse thee for thy weake performance of these duties Now the distressed Soule comes to a stand with it selfe and he seeth so much weakenes in his duties that he almost leaves off all saying I had as good not goe to the Word at all for I profit not by it and I had as good not pray at all as pray thus deadly and untowardly thus the Lord drives the Soule out of himselfe and when Conscience thus picks quarrels with him and saith Will prayer and hearing and these duties so meanely performed save you Nay may not God justly confound you for them It is admirable mercy that God did not confound you in hearing and strike you dead in praying and then Conscience calls him in question for his old sinnes and saith If God may condemne thee for these duties and for these praiers Then what may God doe for thy old drunkennesse and railing at good men 1 John 3.20 and good meanes as the Apostle saith If our conscience condemne us God is greater then our Consciences and knoweth all things so the Soule saith I know thus much by my selfe but God knowes more Thirdly as the guilt of sinne cannot be removed nor Conscience quieted meerely in the performance of duties if the Conscience be truely inlightened so in the last place the sinne that hath taken possession in the heart cannot bee subdued by the power of any performance that hee doth I speake still of one that is not yet ingrafted into Christ rebell against his sinne he will but kil it and subdue it that hee cannot and hence it is that the Lord lets in upon the Soule a great many infirmities and a swarme of weakenesses that are present with the Soule and so hee seeth an utter inabilitie in himselfe to help himselfe against them the one of these two things befalls him If hee be a man of meane parts and small gifts hee seeth himselfe so weake and so unprofitable under all meanes that his Soule almost sinkes downe in desperate discouragement and when he gets nothing by all the duties that he doth he falls out with himselfe and pineth almost to desperation And if hee be a man of great parts and gifts and learning and hath wisedome to conceive of things the Lord suffers many corruptions to fall upon him and when hee comes to humble himselfe before God he saith I am able to discourse of this and that and I can heare and pray but oh this heart of mine a man had as good move a mountaine as move my heart this hard heart will not stirre nor be broken under all and helped against these as it should bee Now the Soule upon these termes is even content to leave off all and it befalls the heart in this case as it did Hagar Gen. 21.15 16. When her bottle of water was spent she cast the child under a tree and sate a farre off because shee would not see the child die so it is with the Soule When the bottles of these Saints and scantie duties are done the soule sits down in discouragement and saith Good Lord it will never bee my
satisfie for the sinne that thou hadst committed before conversion and if thou canst not maintaine thy owne grace then there is an absolute necessitie of going to Christ for all Nay aske your owne hearts and services and say thus prayer wilt not thou save mee and hearing wilt not thou save me they will all professe plainly and say salvation is not in mee saith prayer and salvation is not in me saith hearing and salvation is not in me saith repentance and amendment Indeed wee have heard of a Christ that hee hath dyed and satisfied and suffered and risen and delivered his poore servants and pluckt poore Soules from hell and we need a Saviour to pardon us alas we cannot save our selves All thy duties will say to thee as the King said to the woman when the famine was great in Samaria And the King was going upon the wall there cryed a woman to him 2 King 6.26 27. saying Helpe oh King And the King made this answer If the Lord God succour not how can I helpe So mee thinkes the Soule saith When it is besieged with the wrath of God Oh helpe prayer and hearing and Sacrament and the like Mee thinks I heare them reply in this manner Alas how can we helpe you have prayed sinfully and heard the Word untowardly and received the Sacraments unworthily Oh let us all goe to heaven for a Mediator good Lord pardon the sinne of these prayers and these hearings and the unworthinesse of these Sacraments and all this frothinesse and deadnesse in hearing Thus they will all send you to heaven for a Christ and say alas I cannot save you how many commands have I disobeyed how many duties have I slighted and therefore send to Christ for pardon we are weake and feeble and onely come to the eare and to the eye but the Lord Iesus must come downe from heaven and be powerfull every way to doe good to your Soules You must goe to a Christ to batter the proud flesh and to pardon all that is amisse and to performe all duties that you would have done When Elisha tooke up the cloake of Eliah he said where is the God of Eliah he did not say 2 King 2.14 Where is the the cloake but where is the God of Eliah All the ordinances of God are but as the barke of the tree but Christ and the Promise are the pith The heart and life and power of all is in Christ onely therefore looke higher then these for they doe all proclaime that there is no succour but in Christ The third meanes to drive our hearts from resting upon our duties is this The third meanes We must consider the unconceivable hazzard and danger and the inconvenience that will come if we put any affiance in any of those priviledges that we have or any duties that we performe The very consideration hereof is able to withdraw our hearts from resting upon them The danger appeares in two particulars First This carnall confidence in what we have and doe shut a man out from having any part in Christ He that is guiltie of this sinne withdrawes himselfe from the favour of the Lord and he becomes uncapable of that mercy and good which God hath revealed and Christ hath purchased for poore distressed sinners For this is all that the Lord lookes for at our hands that we should deny our selves and wholy cast our selves upon his goodnes and mercy nay that man which relyes upon what he doth puts himselfe without the reach of all that mercy and great salvation that is in Iesus Christ Christ came not to call the righteous to repentance nor them that trust in themselves nor them that thinke they can save themselves but he came to call sinners to repentance and those that see an utter insufficiency in themselves to save or succour themselves in the day of trouble there is great salvation in Christ and plenteous redemption purchassed by Christ and you heare of all this and it is all true but this I must tell you all that Christ hath done and deserved shall never doe you good if you rest upon your selves You doe thinke that it is such a great sin as indeed it is sometimes you make conscience of drunkennes and other sinnes if you make conscience of any thing then know that this is the greatest sinne in the world Gal. 5.2 See how the Apostle sets himselfe against this carnall confidence where speaking to the Galathians that trusted in their owne circumcision that answers to our Baptisme Behold saith he I Paul say I not a bare man but I Paul enspired with the Spirit in an extraordinary manner and I an Apostle that doe not nay that cannot erre I that have received a commission from the Lord I say that if you be Circumcised that is if you trust in your Circumcision Christ shall profit you nothing nay saith he Iesus Christ is made of none effect to you if you seeke to bee justified by the workes of the Law Verse 4. If you rest in the merit of your prayer Christ is made of none effect to you and you shall never receive any power from the death of Christ the bloud of Christ will never purge those filthy hearts of yours and his resurrection shall never quicken you Whatsoever your case and condition is or can be if your sinnes were never so haynous for greatnes continuance and for number if you wil but renounce your selves and goe to Christ nothing shall condemne you but if your sinnes were never soe well reformed and amended and reformation nay Christ himselfe shall never doe you any good It is with the Soule of a poore sinner as it is with the body of a man If it had some slightie disease or sicknes and that may haply be cured but if his throate begin to swell and the vitall passages be stopped up that he can receive no meat nor phisicke every neighbour will say he is but a dead man all the meanes and men in the world can doe him no good he can receive nothing downe So it is with the Soule it is annoyed with many base corruptions and sinfull distempers and if it be wounded with many rebellions there is meanes enough in Christ to cure all If thou were a filthy besotted drunkard or an adulterer the blood of Christ can purge thy drunken adulterous heart one touch of Christ can cure all thy bloody issue If thou wert dead in trespasses and sinnes the Lord Iesus could quicken thee and raise thee from death to life but if thy proud heart swell with thy owne sufficiency and thou wilt rest upon thy selfe all the merits and grace in Christ can doe thee no good This is the maine conclusion Ioh. 5.40 into which all the rest is resolved You will not come to mee saith our Saviour that you might be saved He doth not say you have many sinnes and shall not be saved but you will not come to me c.
for necessary uses When he had spoken of free Iustification through his grace then the Text saith teach a man to maintaine good works for necessary uses and in the 4. and 5. verses Verses 4. 5. hee saith After that the kindnesse and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration Now least any man should say if God doe not save a man for his works then why shall we doe good works and the like See what he addes Let us learne to maintaine good works c. There are many necessary uses of the meanes though they be not meritorious and of absolute sufficiency Were not he a mad man that should say what shall I doe with my money if I cannot eate it and what shall I doe with my boate if I may not dwell in it A man may buy meate with his money and row with his boat So you must use all meanes and improve all importunities and if ever pray and fast pray and fast now in these dayes of trouble but thinke not to bee saved nor justified by the worth and merit of them yet use them for some necessary uses and the uses are three Vse 1 First We must use all the meanes that gives us as guides Of the means to leade us by the hand to the Lord Iesus Christ and as lights to shew us where life is to be had Iohn Baptist professed plainly that hee was not the Messiah but he pointed at him and said Behold the Lambe of God that takes away the sinnes of the world So I say all the ordinances of God which are honourable and commendable and comfortable they all professe that they are not our Saviours onely they point us to a Saviour even the Lord Iesus Christ the Word reveales Christ and Prayer goes to a Christ and the Sacrament presents Christ to us and therefore they all say with one accord let us goe to the Lord Iesus and looke up to him When your hearts are troubled and disquieted all your duties knocke at your hearts and say would you not have mercy and power against corruption and some evidence of Gods favour Oh say you it is that which we want and it is all that we desire in this world Come then saith Prayer and the Word we will goe to Christ with you there is all fulnesse in him this is the end of all the holy ordinances of God not to make them Saviours but to lead us to a Saviour Vse 2 Secondly as they are guides to lead us to a Christ soe they are meanes to convey grace Of the means mercy and comfort from Christ to our soules Though they are not meate yet they are as dishes that bring the meate They are the meanes whereby salvation hath beene revealed and is conveyed to you There is a fountaine of grace in Christ but the word and prayer and Sacraments and fasting these are the conduites to convey this water of life and to communicate this grace to us You doe not use to drinke the conduite but the water that the conduite bringes Aske that your joy may be full saith our Saviour and so the Lord speakes by the Prophet Esay Esay 55.3 incline your eare and come unto mee heare and your soules shall live As if he had said waite upon God in his word and ordinances and your soules shall live Though the meanes are not life it selfe yet life is conveyed by them In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisedome and knowledge Colloss 2.3 If you would have any grace and holinesse the treasure of it is in Christ The word is as the Indenture or great will of God whereby the treasure of Gods favour is made knowne to your Soules The bond or will is not the treasure but conveyes the treasure to us and makes us have a right and title to it our Saviour saith my peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you and all the promises in Christ are yea and Amen yea that is truth it selfe and Amen that is confimed now you must receive the tenure of all these in Christ And the holy Sacraments are as the broad seales whereby the Covenant of grace is confirmed made authenticall and ratified to your Soules When a man hath much goods and lands and would make an other his heire he passeth his lands or goods over to him by will and if the will is not onely drawne but also sealed then though this will is not the treasure it selfe yet it is a speciall meanes to convey this treasure to the heire that must have it So the Word is the will of God and the Sacraments are the Seales of it and all that mercy and goodnesse in Christ is made knowne to you by the Word and made sure to you by the Sacrament the Word and Sacraments are not this treasure but they are blessed meanes to convey this treasure to your Soules Therefore when your hearts are dead weake and heavy and you begin to breath for some consolation saying who will tell mee how I may have my dead heart quickned and my heavy heart refreshed as David once breathed for the water of Bethlem then mee thinkes the word and prayer and Sacraments doe all say we will goe to the Lord Iesus Christ for all these for you and then Christ will sanctifie you in his word and if you have strong devils hanging upon you fasting and prayer will fetch power and grace from Christ and cast all these devils out So then you see their good use of all these Thirdly the last use of the meanes is this Vse 3 that by the exercise of our selves in them Of the means and by the improvement of our times and meanes we may glorifie the God of grace that hath given us all these meanes and that we may waite upon him with feare and reverence and honor God in his word and come to his table and there partake of the dainties of life and salvation and expresse the virtues of him that hath cald us to this marvellous light that we may see Gods grace in prayer and in professing and delight in the duties of his worship These are all very good uses so then the conclusion is this you must not thinke that your duties can pardon one sinne yet they must be used and blesse God for them and if ever now is a time to improve all these for they are a meanes to leade us to Christ and to convey grace and life from Christ into our soules and thereby we may glorifie the God of grace that hath beene so mercifull to us When we doe despaire of all help in the meanes The second thing that I mentioned is this When shall wee know that our hearts are brought to this passe that the meanes of grace do worke so kindly that our hearts may bee brought to this holy
is blanke and justice carries him downe to the place of execution and he shall not come thence till he have paid the utmost farthing And then the Soule saith some comfort some mercy and consolation for mee oh saith he I have received the Sacrament and prayed and fasted and professed canst thou not feede of these oh no! saith the Soule these are huskes bread for me as the world thinkes of a man that hath got nothing by his trading such a man that made wonderfull shew in the world to day so many hundreths and thousands worse then nothing this is lamentable Iust so it will be with thee if thou hast not gotten Christ If a man have gotten Christ in his hearing and praying hee will answer all easily and when the divell comes in and saith Thou hast many sinnes who shall satisfie Gods Iustice for them The Soule makes this answer Christ hath paid all Oh but thou hast broken the Law of God saith the divell Oh saith the Soule Christ hath fulfilled all righteousnesse for mee You have many corruptions saith the divell but Christ hath purged mee saith the Soule Oh but you shall be damned saith the divell to him Nay saith the Soule there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ but I am in Christ and therefore shall not be damned Thus the divel shall goe away ashamed and say That man is out of my reach I shall never get him downe to hell he hath gotten Christ But here this question may be asked Question how may a man goe beyond himselfe in all his duties Answ Because this is a skill above all skills therefore for the answer hereof take these three directions First The first Direction labour to see an absolute necessity of a Christ in all these priviledges that thou hast and in all the duties and services that thou performest First in all thy priviledges See a need of Christ to make all these powerfull to thy Soule Hearing and reading and fasting will doe thee no good except thou have a Christ to goe with all these As a Ship that hath faire Sailes strong Masts except there be a winde it can never goe So the Soule is like the Ship and the precious ordinances of God are faire Sailes and good Masts and it is good hearing and good reading and good fasting but except the Spirit blowe with these thou canst get no good by them the Spirit bloweth where it listeth and except the Lord Iesus Christ by the power of his Spirit go breath upon thy hearing Preaching and upon all the ordinances they can doe thee no good When the Lord was to come into his Garden which was the Church The Spices are the graces of Gods Spirit The Spices could not growe because the Spirit would not blowe upon them and therefore the Spouse saith Arise oh North Cant. 4.16 and come oh South and blowe on my Garden that the Spices thereof may flowe out As if she had said Good Lord blowe this way and that way and give a blessing to the meanes and then comfort will come indeed And as there is need of Christ to blesse all meanes so secondly there is need of Christ to make all thy services acceptable to God the Father Oh send to heaven for a Christ that he may hide all thy weaknesses and present all thy duties to God his Father in his merits and righteousnesse They that brought a Sacrifice in the time of the Law were to offer it upon the golden Altar and no Sacrifice was accepted without it So if thou wilt have thy hearing and praying and fasting acceptable to God lay them upon the golden Altar the Lord Iesus Christ And know that thou hast need of Christ to cover all the failings weaknesses in thy duties The second Direction Secondly In all the beautie and excellencie of Gods ordinances that thou seest and prizest See a greater beautie and excellencie in the Lord Iesus Christ then in all these See what comfort it is that thou wouldest finde and what sweet is it that thou wouldest get from hearing and reading praying and professing goe beyond all this and say if the beames be so sweet what is the Sunne it selfe and if the ordinances of God be so sweet and comfortable what is the Lord Iesus Christ then You come to heare and it is well that you will come What would you have in hearing You would have some life to quicken you and some wisedome in your mindes to direct you and some grace into your Soules to purge you and then mee thinks I heare you say Blessed be the Lord this day I found my heart something more quickned and my Soule somthing inabled to hate sinne and to walke with God blesse God for that But is a little life in the word so good and is a little grace in the Sacrament so sweet Oh then away away higher if these be so sweet what is the Lord Iesus the God of all wisedome grace and power If the Word doe so much quicken thy Soule what would the Lord Iesus doe if thou couldest get thy heart possessed of him Let all these drops of life and mercie draw up thy heart to heaven When the Spouse in the Canticles had sought after her beloved see how she describes him Can. 5.10.16 his mouth is white and ruddie and so forth and in the 16. verse shee saith Hee is most sweet yea hee is altogether lovely The originall hath it he is altogether pleasant yea pleasantnesse it selfe You have some comfort and some discomfort with it you have some wisedome and some folly some power and some weaknesse with it but the Lord Iesus is all comfort and no discomfort he is all power and no weaknesse he is all life and no deadnesse therefore in all the ordinances of God carrie your hearts a little higher and looke upon that fulnesse that is in Christ Thirdly Let us labour in the use of all meanes The third meanes as to see the beauty of a Christ surpassing all meanes so let us be led by all meanes into a neerer union with the Lord Christ As a wife deales with the letters of her husband that is in a farre Country she findes many sweet inklings of his love and shee will read these letters often and daily shee would talke with her husband a farre off and see him in the letters Oh saith shee thus and thus he thought when he writ these lines and then shee thinks hee speakes to her againe shee reads these letters onely because shee would be with her husband a little and have a little parlee with him in his pen though not in his presence so these ordinances are but the Lords love-letters and wee are the Ambassadors of Christ and though wee are poore sottish ignorant men yet wee bring mervailous good newes that Christ can save all poore broken hearted sinners in the world You doe well to come and heare but it is all
that you may chat and parlee a little with Christ Our Saviour saith Matth. 24.28 Where the carkasse or the dead body is there will the Eagles be This is the nature of an Eagle shee will not goe to catch flies that 's the nature of the hedge Sparrow but shee will prey upon the carkasse So this is a good heart that will not prey upon dead duties but upon the Lord Christ who is the life of the Soule If thou art of a right brood thou wilt not fill and glut thy Soule with a few duties like a hedge Sparrow still mistake me not I doe not dispraise these duties but I say they are nothing in the way of justification if faith in Christs merits be not joyned with them Therefore if thou hast a dunghill heart of thine owne thou may'st goe and content thy selfe with profession and with a few cold dead duties but if thou art an Eagle and a sound hearted Christian and one that God hath beene pleased to doe good unto thou wilt never be but where the Lord Iesus is and where his grace and mercy is As we doe at a Feast the dish is greater then the meat yet wee reach the dish not for the dishes sake but that we may cut some meat So the ordinances of God are as so many dishes wherein the Lord Iesus Christ is dished out to us Sometimes Christ in his merits is dished out in the Sacrament to all the sences and sometimes he is dished out in the Word therefore as you take the dish to cut some meate So take the Word that Communicates Christ to the eare and Prayer Communicates with Christ and the Sacrament Communicates Christ to all the sences cut the meate and let not the Lord Christ goe whole from the Table and no man looke after him fill your hungry Soules with Christ When a poore travelling man comes to the Ferry he cryes to the other side Have over have over his meaning is he would goe to the other side by a Boat he onely desires the use of the Ferry-man to convey him over So Christ is in heaven but we are here on earth as it were on the other side of the river the ordinances of God are but as so many Boats to carry us and to land us at Heaven where our hopes are and our hearts should be Therefore you would be landed Have over have over saith the Soule The Soule desires to bee landed at the Staires of Mercy and saith Oh bring me to speake with my Saviour Mary came to the Sepulchre to seeke for Christ and therefore when the Angel said to her Woman why weepest thou shee made this answer Oh they have taken away my Lord. Ioh. 20.13 So it is with you if you be not hypocrites Is there ever a Mary here is there ever a man or woman that prizeth a Christ and seeth need of a Christ and that comes weeping and mourning to the holy ordinances of God whom seekest thou saith the Word and Prayer and the Sacrament Oh saith the broken hearted sinner they have taken away my Lord Christ Oh this sinfull heart of mine oh these cursed corruptions of mine if it had not beene for these Christ would have comforted my conscience and pardoned my sinne if thou seest my Christ and my Saviour reveale him to my Soule that I may receive comfort and consolation by him This is the frame of a Christian Soule when the Ferry-man hath carried the traveller over hee stayes not there but goes to the house of his friend and saith is such a man within he desires to speake with him and to receive some good from him We heare and pray and reade till we are weary we doe not cry Have over let mee come to enjoy a neerer Communion with my Saviour that I may dwell with him and have a neerer cut to the Lord Christ I would have way that I may receive grace and mercy from Christ according to my necessities When a man hath gotten so many hundreth pounds he not onely tels that he hath met with the Ferry-man but he shewes the money that he hath gotten So you come to Church and goe from Church and you have your hearing for your hearing and your professing for your professing and the like but you should labour to say I have gotten the pardon of all my sinnes and the assurance of Gods love to my Soule I have beene with my Saviour and thus graciously and mercifully hee hath dealt with mee All that I have said is but a speech of a little time but it is a taske for all a mans life Oh thinke of it and say what have I gotten by all that I have done and what would I get when I goe to prayer I would have a Christ and mercy from him This is not in our minds I tell thee what thou must ayme at and labour for heare and pray for a Saviour See a need of Christ in all and see greater beauty in Christ then in all and be lead neerer to Christ by all or else you get nothing by all that you doe If there were no gold in the West-Indies the King of Spaine would not care for his Ships nor for that place Schoole-boyes care not for the Carrier but for Letters from a Father So now raise up your hearts higher towards heaven All holy duties are but as Ships and Carriers but the golden Mines of mercy are all in the Lord Iesus Christ It was a sweet speech of a man whether he was good or bad I know not that a man should loose the creatures in God So I would have you doe loose your selves and all ordinances and creatures and all that you have and doe in the Lord Christ How is that Let all be swallowed up and let nothing be seene but a Christ and let thy heart be set upon nothing but a Christ As it is with the Moone and Starres when the Sunne comes they loose all their light though they are there in the heavens still and as it is with rivers they all goe into the Sea and are all swallowed up of the Sea and yet there is nothing seene but the Sea So all the ordinances and creatures are as so many rivers from that Ocean of mercy and goodnesse in Christ and they all returne thither therefore onely see a Fountaine of grace goodnesse wisedome and power in Christ When a man is upon the Sea he can see no fresh water it is all swallowed up So let it be with thy Soule when thou wouldest finde mercy and grace The ordinances of God are good in themselves yet loose them all in Christ That wisedome in Christ is able to direct and that grace and mercy in Christ is able to save when all other helps faile and that power of Christ must support the Soule in the time of trouble There is some comfort and sweet and some refreshing in the Word and in the Sacrament and in the company of Gods people
him and threw him flat on the ground and when Paul saw that the Lord Iesus had the advantage against him hee yeilded himselfe and said Act. 9.6 Lord what wilt thou have mee to do This is the lively picture of the Soule in this case this subjection discovers it selfe in foure particulars First take the Soule despairing of mercy and succour in himselfe hee seeth and confesseth that the Lord may and for ought he knowes will proceed in justice against him and execute upon him those plagues that God hath threatned and his sinne deserved and he seeth that Iustice is not yet satisfied and all those reckonings betweene God and him are not made up and therefore he cannot apprehend but that God may and will take vengeance of him he seeth that when he hath done all that he can he is unprofitable and Iustice remaines unsatisfied and saith thou hast sinned and I am wronged and therefore thou shalt dye See what the text saith can a man be profitable to the Lord as he that is wise may be profitable to himselfe Iob 22.2 3. is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous or is it any gaine to him that thou makest thy way perfect So the Soule saith Is all that I can doe any thing to the Lord is the Lords Iustice any gainer by it Nay Iustice is yet unsatisfied because there is sinne in all that I doe and therefore Iustice may proceed against me therefore the soule resolves that the Lord may and will Nay why should he not come in vengeance and Iudgement against him Secondly he conceives that what God will doe he can doe and he cannot avoyd it The anger of the Lord cannot be resisted If the Lord will come and require the glory of his Iustice against him there is no way to avoyd it nor to beare it and this crusheth the heart and makes the soule to be beyond all shifts and evasions and all those tricks whereby it may seeme to avoyd the dint of the Lords blow As Iob saith Hee is one minde and who can turne him Iob 23.13 14 15 16. and what his soule desireth that doth he It is admirable to consider it for this is it that makes the heart melt and come under When the Soule saith If God come who can turne him hee will have his honour from this wretched proud heart of mine hee will have his glory from mee either here in my humiliation or else hereafter in my damnation And in the next verse Iob saith Many such things are with him As if he had said hee hath many wayes to crush a carnall confident heart and to make it lye low He wants not meanes to pull downe even the most rebellious sinner under heaven And now marke what followes He can crush them all what became of Nimrod Cain Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar They are all brought downe therefore saith he I am troubled at his presence when I consider it I am afraid for God maketh my heart soft and the Almightie troubleth mee Thirdly As the sinner apprehends that God may doe what he will and he cannot resist him So the soule flings away all shifts and tricks that he had and he resignes up the power of all his priviledges that he hath to defend himselfe withall he casts away his weapons and falles downe before the Lord and resignes himselfe into the Soveraigne power and command of God This was in the Spirit of the Prophet David 2 Sam. 15.25.26 When the Lord had cast him out of his Kingdome hee said to Zadock Carry backe the Arke of God into the Citie if I shall finde favour in the eyes of the Lord hee will bring mee backe againe and shew mee both it and his habitation But if he thus say to mee I have no delight in thee Behold here I am let him doe with mee as seemeth good in his eyes Or as it was with those people 2 King 10.2.3 4. 2 Kings 10.2 3 4. Where when Iehu sent this message to the people of Israel saying Now as assoone as this letter commeth to you seeing your masters sonnes are with you and there are with you chariots and armour and a fenced Citie looke out even the best and fittest of your masters sonnes and set him on his fathers throne and fight for your fathers house But the text saith they were all exceedingly afraid and therefore they sent word to Iehu and said two Kings could not stand out against thee and then how can we stand We are thy servants and will doe all that thou shalt bid us wee will make no King doe thou that which is good in thine eyes This is the frame of a poore Soule When a poore sinner will stand upon his own priviledges the Lord saith beare my Iustice and defend thy selfe by all that thou hast if thou canst and the Soule saith I am thy servant Lord doe what is good in thine eyes I cannot succour my self therefore the heart gives up it selfe to be at the command of God Fourthly The Soule thus yielding up the weapons and comming in as to an enemy and as conquered then in the last place the soule freely acknowledgeth that it is in Gods power to doe with him and to dispose of him as he will and therefore he lyes and lickes the dust and cryes mercy mercy Lord. He doth not thinke to purchase mercy at the Lords hands but onely saith it is onely in Gods good pleasure to doe with him as he will but hee lookes at his favour and cryes mercy Lord to this poore distressed soule of mine And when the Lord heares a sinner come from wandring up and downe in his priviledges the Lord replyes to the soule in this manner and saith Doest thou need mercy I had thought thy hearing and praying and fasting would have carried thee to heaven without all hazard therefore gird up thy loynes and make thy ferventest prayers and let them meet my Iustice and see if they can beare my wrath and purchase mercy Nay saith the sinner I know it by lamentable experience I have prooved that all my prayers and performances will never procure peace to my soule nor give any satisfaction to thy Iustice I onely pray for mercy and I desire onely to heare some newes of mercy to relieve this miserable and wretched soule of mine it is onely mercy that must helpe me Oh mercy if it may be possible the issue is thus much The sinner seeth that all he hath and can do can never succour him and therefore he throwes away his carnall confidence and he submits himselfe to the Lord and now he seeth that the Lord may justly come against him and that his justice is not satisfied and that he cannot beare Gods wrath nor avoyd it and he casts away all his shifts and lyes downe at the gate of mercy As it is with a debtor that stands bound for some farre greater summes then ever he is able to pay to
satisfie of himselfe he cannot and his friends will not and he knowes that the bonds are still in force and his creditor will sue him avoyd the suit he cannot and to beare it he is not able and therefore he comes in freely and offers himselfe and his person and gives up himselfe into his creditors hands onely he beseecheth him to remit that which he can never pay Iust so it is with the soule of a poore sinner The Soule is the Debtor and Divine Iustice is the Creditor When the poore sinner hath used all meanes to save and succour himselfe and to make payment and he hath as it were made a gathering of prayers all the Countrey over and yet he seeth that there is a controversie betweene God and him and yet his sinne is not pardoned and God is Iust and will have his honour and he is not able to avoyd the suite nor to beare it Psal 139.7 8. and the Soule saith as David did Whither shall I goe from thy spirit and whither shall I flye from thy presence if I ascend up into heaven thou art there c. So the Soule saith God will have his payment from this heart blood of mine if I goe into the East the Lord will follow mee and bid his Serjeant Conscience to arrest mee and I shall lye and rot in the Prison of hell for ever Now the Soule offers himselfe before the Lord and saith Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee Oh shew mercy if it be possible to this poore distressed Soule of mine thus the Prodigall did An other Similitude is this Me thinks the picture of those foure famished Lepers may fitly resemble this poore sinner When the famine was great in Samaria 2 King 7.3.8 9 c. There were foure leprous men sate in the gate of the Citie and they said Why sit we here untill we die If wee enter into the Citie the famine is there and if we sit here wee dye also Now let us therefore fall into the hands of our enemies if they save us alive we shall live and if they kill us we shall but die They had but one meanes to succour themselves withall and that was to goe into the Campe of their enemies come said they we will put it to the venture and so they did and were relieved This is the lively picture of a poore sinner in this despairing condition When the Soule of a poore Leprous sinner is famished for want of comfort and hee seeth the wrath of God pursuing of him and the Lord besets him on every side at last he resolves thus with himselfe I say when he hath used all meanes and finds succour in none hee resolves thus with himselfe and saith if I goe and rest upon my priviledges there is nothing but emptinesse and weakenesse if I trust in them and if I rest in my naturall condition I perish there also Let mee therefore fall into the hands of the Lord of Hosts who I confesse hath beene provoked by mee and for ought I see is mine enemy I am now a damned man and if the Lord cast me out of his presence I can but be damned that way and then hee comes to the Lord and falls downe before the footstoole of a consuming God and saith as Iob did What shall I say unto thee oh thou preserver of men I have no reason to plead for my self withall and I have no power to succour my selfe my accusations are my best excuse all the priviledges in the world cannot justifie me and all my duties cannot save me if there be any mercy left Oh succour a poore distressed sinner in the very gall of bitternesse This is the behaviour of the Soule in this work of subjection The reason why the Lord deales thus with the Soule and why hee plucks a sinner upon his knees there is great reason why he should doe it The reason is two-fold First That the Lord may herein expresse and glorifie the greatnesse of his power And secondly To shew forth the glory of his mercy Reason 1 First the glory of his power is mervailously magnified in that the Lord shewes that hee is able to pull downe the proudest heart and to lay low the haughtiest spirit under heaven and those that have out-braved the God of heaven and beene opposite to him and despised the glory of his name For herein is the glory of his name greatly exalted that hee makes a poore wretch to come and creepe and crawle before him and begge for mercy at his hands and to be at his dispose Exod. 9.27 It is a fine passage You know how Pharaoh would out-face the Lord saying Who is the Lord that I should obey him And as the Master sometimes saith to his servant You shall And you shall doe this saith the husband to his wife This is the sturdy fiercenesse of a company of wretches Well the Lord let him alone for the while but in the 27. verse when the Lord had freed and delivered his servants and had plagued the Aegyptians with the haile then Pharaoh said Now I know that the Lord is greater then all Gods and that he is righteous but I and my people are wicked Where is Pharaoh and Nimrod and all the rest of those mighty ones of the world they are all gone downe to hell and God hath destroyed them for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly hee was above them Herein is the glory of Gods power So it is here As we use to say Doe you know such a man Yes What was he A profest drunkard and a desperate despiser of God and his grace and one that did hate the very face of an honest man Oh the Lord hath brought him upon his knees Oh admirable saith he what is he humbled and is his heart broken Oh yes the Lord hath dejected him in that wherein he was proud As it is amongst men If two men be in controversie and the one enters into suit with the other and before a man will submit and yeeld himselfe hee will dye and rather spend all that he hath then to want his will and he will make that tongue denie what it hath spoken He thinks this his excellencie So it is with our God Herein is the power of the Almighty magnified that he hath brought downe those great Leviathans and all those Nimrods and great Kings which said Who is the Lord hee hath made such as these are to come in and to submit unto him Secondly The second Meanes by this meanes the Lord doth mervailously promote the praise of his mercy First Partly for the greatnesse of it And secondly partly for the freedome of it First in that the Lord helps a poore sinner at a dead lift and when all prayers and hearings prevailed not and when all priviledges were not able to purchase mercy and favour then the Lord shewes mercy Doth not this argue the excellencie of that Balme that will cure
a point of subjection and the want of this horrible pride This is marveilous divellish pride that a man should set up the lusts of his owne righteousnesse and duties and thinke to finde acceptance and reconciliation with and pardon from the Lord because of these So that now the Soule is nothing and the Lord saith unto him thou shalt goe in ragges all thy dayes that Christ may be thy righteousnesse Thou shalt be a foole that Christ may be thy wisedome and thou shalt be weake that Christ may be all thy strength and I will make the submit to that righteousnesse of Christ Nay the Lord saith further if you thinke to finde acceptance and to purchase mercy by what you can doe then come your way and bring all those prayers and duties and see if they can all answer my exact Law of righteousnesse and satisfie my Iustice Thus the Lord is faine to emptie a man of himselfe this is an admirable worke of the Spirit when the heart is thus content to be at Gods carving and to have nothing of its owne to be ignorant weake and meane and to have all from a Christ This is considerable every man would faine bring something with him even where God hath wrought grace and then we are all dead in the nest and all amort when we find it not and we are ready to say if I had these and these enlargements then God would accept mee but because I have not the Lord will reject mee What is this but to set up the merits of a mans parts and duties therefore it is that the Lord will bring the Soule to this to be content to be justified not for what he hath but for something in another besides what hee can doe to entitle himselfe to heaven and happinesse Therefore the Apostle saith Rom. 4.5 To him that worketh not but beleeveth on him that justifieth the ungodly is faith accounted for righteousnesse This is our nature We would faine be Ioynt-purchasers with Christ and have something of our owne of merit to make us finde acceptance with God as well as Iesus Christ in the point of Iustification But the Lord will bring the heart to this it shall come as an ungodly wretched traitor that the Lord may Iustifie him in Christ Why dare not a poore sinner sometimes come to Christ and looke to him for mercy Oh he is not worthy But art thou not content to see thy unworthinesse Yes saith he but I see such pride such lithernesse in holy duties and such corruption that I dare not goe to Christ for mercy If this be a burthen to thee and if thou art content to be rid of this then Christ hath prepared mercy for thee and thou maist take it the Lord will make thee know that thou art not accepted because thou art worthy but through Christ The Lord justifies the ungodly The second thing that the Soule must be content with The second part of the Lords dispose that hee brings the Soule unto it is this As the Soule must looke for what it hath from another so in the second place it must be content to take what mercy and what that other will give Not what the Soule thinkes fitting but what mercy accounts the best for him Now see this blessed frame of heart in these three particulars First The Soule is content that mercy shall deny what it will to the Soule and the Soule is content and calmed with whatsoever mercy denyes If the Lord will not heare his prayers and if the Lord will cast him away because hee hath cast away the Lords kindnesse and if the Lord will leave him in that miserable and damnable condition which hee hath brought himselfe into by the stubbornesse of his heart the Soule is quiet Though I confesse it is harsh and tedious and long it is ere the Soule be thus framed yet the heart truly abased is content to beare the estate of damnation because hee hath brought this misery and damnation upon himselfe In a word the Soule seeth that it deserves nothing at Gods hands and therefore he is content if God deny him any thing 2 Sam. 15.25.26 and it befals the Soule in this case as it did David See how willingly hee takes whatsoever the Lord shall allow him Where hee saith Carry backe the Arke of God into the Citie if I shall finde favour in the eyes of the Lord hee will bring mee againe and shew mee both it and his habitation but if he shall say I have no delight in David Behold here I am let him doe whatsoever is good in his eyes As it was with David for a Temporall Kingdome So it is with the Soule for a Spiritual Mercy The Soule saith if there be any mercy for a poore rebellious creature the Lord may looke graciously upon mee but if the Lord shall say thou hast brought damnation to thy selfe therefore I will leave thee in it Behold here I am let the Lord doe with mee what hee will Object But some may here object and say Must the Soule can the Soule or ought it to be thus content to be left in this damnable condition Answ For the answer hereof Know that this contentednesse implies two things and it may be taken in a double sense First Contentednesse sometimes implies nothing else but a carnall securitie and a regardlesnesse of a mans estate he regards not his owne Soule what he is nor what he hath nor what shall become of him This is a most cursed sinne and this contentednesse is nothing else but a marveilous negligence either of Gods glory or his owne good and it is a sinne to give way to it and it is a fore-runner of damnation to that man which entertaines it The Soule that is truly humbled and abased cannot nay it dare not say so in cold blood setting aside passions and temptations Nay this contentednesse argues damnation for ever This is not meant in this place neither is it lawfull to give way to it and it is certaine upon these termes the Soule shall never be saved God will make him prize mercy and care for it too before he have it But then Secondly it implyes a calmenesse of Soule not murmuring against the Lords dispensation towards him and this contentednesse is ever accompanied with the sight of a mans sinne and the following of God for mercy The Soule that is thus contented to bee at Gods disposing it is ever improving all meanes and helpes that may bring him nearer to God but if mercy shal deny it the Soule is satisfied and rests well apaid this every Soule that is truly humbled may have and hath in some measure Yet you must not throw all at sixe and seavens no it is a cursed distemper of Spirit that you must hate as hell it self But this contentednesse is opposed against quarrelling with the Almighty and this every humbled Soule doth attaine unto though it bee not soe plainly seene As it is with
This is our nature We would faine have something to trade withall but the Lord will keepe the staffe in his owne hand and the Soule is content to have it so He comes sometimes and God will not heare and he goes away and comes againe and then goes away fasting and well contented too See how the poore Woman of Canaan did Shee comes to beg mercy of our Saviour Matth. 15.26 and he said It is not lawfull to cast the children bread to dogs truth Lord saith she I am as bad as thou canst call mee I yeild all I am as vile a sinfull poore creature as ever any was Yet Lord the dogs may eate the crums that fall from their Masters table vers 27. You know the Dog must stay till his Master comes in and when hee is come hee must stay till he sit downe and then till he cut his meate and hee must not have the meate from his trencher neither when he hath stayed all this while he hath nothing but the crums So it is with a poore sinner you must not thinke that God will be at your becke No you must be content with the crums of mercy and pitty and lye under the table till the Lord let the crums fall The humbled soule saith Lord let my condition be never so hard doe what thou wilt with mee let the fire of thy wrath consume mee here onely recover mee hereafter and let me finde mercy and if the time be never so long if at last gaspe I may finde mercy I am content and whatsoever thou givest I blesse thy name for it The Soule doth not quarrell with the Almighty and say Why are not my graces increased and why am not I thus and thus comforted and refreshed Nay it lyes and lookes for mercy and if it have but a crum of mercy it is comforted and quieted for ever Thus the heart is brought very low Why doth the Lord thus bring the heart under Reason is this necessary and requisite Yes it is without all question not onely convenient but very necessary that it should be so And the reason is taken from the nature of the covenant of grace which requires this and without which the covenant of grace could not be fitted for us For the covenant of grace is this Beleeve and live The condition on our part is faith and beleeving Now faith is nothing else but a going out of the Soule to fetch all from another as having nothing of it selfe and therefore this resting in our selves will not stand with the nature of this covenant Now were it so that wee were not resolved to yeild to and to be guided by another it is certaine we could not have our hearts enlarged to goe to that other by whose wisedome and providence we would not be guided and disposed To be in our selves and out of our selves to have power in our selves to dispose of any thing belonging to our spirituall estate and to fetch all from another these are two contraries and therefore cannot stand together To have the dispensation of life and grace in our owne hands to dispose of it as we will it utterly overthrowes the nature of this second Covenant of mercy and grace in Christ For I pray you observe it this I take to be the maine difference betweene the second maine Covenant of grace whereof the Apostle disputes so often And the first Covenant of works which he so often confutes The first Covenant is to Doe and Live This Adam had and if he had stood still he should not have needed any Saviour The second Covenant is Beleeve and Live that is to live by another These two cannot stand together in one and the same Soule at one and the same time The same Soule that is saved by the Covenant of Grace cannot be saved also by the Covenant of Works The Lord in the beginning put the stuffe into Adams hand and he had libertie to dispose of Life and Salvation by reason of that abilitie and that principle of Grace that God had given him for he had perfect knowledge and perfect holinesse and righteousnesse and by the power of these he had libertie freely to please God and to keepe the Law and to be blessed in so doing and if he had done that which hee had power to doe hee might have beene blessed for ever and we all in him but he lost it and so overthrew himselfe and all his posteritie Now we being thus falne in Adam and being deprived of all that holinesse and righteousnesse which Adam had Now the sinner is neither able to fulfill the Law and so to purchase mercy for himselfe nor to satisfie for that which is done amisse A sinner must die and yet he cannot satisfie in dying he is dead in sinnes and trespasses and having lost all that abilitie which Adam had therefore the Soule must goe out of it selfe and since it is so that nothing which he hath or doth can save him he must goe to another that whatsoever is amisse that other may satisfie for it and whatsoever mercy is needfull he may purchase it and whatsoever is to be done he may doe it Now what we have done amisse Christ hath satisfied for it and what we cannot doe Christ hath done it hee hath fulfilled all righteousnesse And hence it is that these two are so professedly opposite the one to the other the Law and Faith The first Adam and the second Adam Consider a passage or two The Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace cannot stand together in the point of Life and Grace As the Apostle saith If it bee of grace Rom. 11.4 then it is no more of works and if it be of works then it is no more of grace As if he had said If a man be saved by grace then he cannot be saved by works and if he be saved by works then be cannot be saved by grace And in another place the same Apostle saith Rom. 4.14 If they which are of the Law be heires faith is made voyd and the promise is of none effect If a man that thinks to merit life by the Law be an heire what needed faith or the promise For it is the nature of faith to goe out to Christ and to receive all from him now if I had enough in my selfe I had no need of Christ and faith were made of none effect You are saved by grace through faith Ephes 2.8 saith the Apostle and that not of your selves There S. Paul brings in a deniall not onely of sinne but of works and saith You are not saved of your selves He doth not say of your sinne but your selves you and your works and all must be renounced and all that you are and doe as any way meritorious and not to bee found in your selves but in Christ before ever you can receive mercy from Christ So I dispute thus There is none that will save us Man nor Angel and
our works will not therefore we must goe to Christ and if we goe to Christ for all and expect all from him then we must be content to be guided by him in all Now let me propound this question Either thou must be content to be at the dispose of God and mercy or at whose dispose wilt thou be If thou wilt have any thing else besides mercy to dispose of thee thou makest that to be a Mediator to thee But haply thou wouldst dispose of thy selfe and dispose of mercy after thy owne minde Yes so I thought It may be thou sayest I will have grace if I may dispose of it Thus a proud heart would faine have it in his owne hands but upon these termes thou never hadst nay thou never shalt have grace Here is the winding of the Soule Therefore many dare not venture their salvation upon Gods free favour But they would have it in their owne power that they may receive it when they will that they may be drunke and take grace and be proud and prophane and take grace when they will It is a sottish delusion of men that are deluded and blinded by the divell But that the Soule which would have it thus cannot have it upon these termes I thus reason He that will have grace from his owne dispose shall never have grace Sillogisme because he hath none in his owne power to dispose of But he that is not content to be at the dispose of grace and to be at the dispensation of Gods good pleasure for mercy and grace he would have it to be at his owne disposing And therefore hee shall nay he never can have grace In a word Who must dispose of you Your selves then you must have that grace which you can dispose of and that 's just none at all Grace is meerely in Gods hands to dispose of Thus wee have brought the Soule to bee fitly prepared for Christ and mercy and grace Now let us doe as travellers doe The summe of all this worke of preparation they sometimes sit downe to reckon how many miles they have gone So let us enquire what we have spoken You know I mentioned two things necessary in this worke of preparation for Christ First Contrition And secondly Humiliation First God brings the sinner to a sight of himselfe and his sin makes him to be insupportably burthened with the vilenesse of it so that now the heart of a poore sinner seeth an absolute necessitie of a change and therefore thinks thus with himselfe if I rest thus I shall never see God with comfort That 's for Contrition Now he seeth that hee must change and hee is content to change and therefore though he will no more be drunke nor follow his old base practices yet he begins to sherke for his owne comfort and he useth all the ordinances of God to see what they can doe for him and he goes to himselfe and his selfe-sufficiencies and finding no succour there he falles downe before the Lord and begs mercy and yet he seeth himselfe unworthy of mercy without which hee must perish He hath nothing and hee can doe nothing to merit it yet he is content that God should dispose of him as hee thinks good onely if it bee possible he prayes that the Lord would shew mercy to a poore forlorne creature Now the sinner is pared and fitted for Christ as a graft for the stocke He is come to the very quicke and is as little as may be All his swelling sufficiency is pared away For he is not onely brought to renounce his sinne but even his sufficiency and all his parts and abilities which Adam needed not have done if he had stood in his innocency In a word hee is wholly pluckt from the first Adam for here is the maine lift So that now the second Adam Christ Iesus may take possession of him and be all in all in him as the Apostle saith Now the Soule is a fit matter for Christ to worke upon namely to make him a vessell fit to receive mercy and grace and when hee hath fitted him for mercy hee will give it to him and when he hath given him grace he will maintaine it and increase it and then quicken it and crowne it and perfect it in the Day of the Lord Iesus Christ And lastly he will glorifie himselfe in all these Here is a right Christian indeed that expresseth Christ in all Christ preparing Christ giving Christ maintaining and increasing and Christ quickening and Christ crowning Thus you see that it is not left as a matter of libertie but it is of necessitie required that the heart bee thus contented every humble heart hath this in some measure though not all so sensibly The uses are double First to the people Vses to shew them what to doe Secondly to the Ministers The uses for the people are First for Instruction Secondly for Examination Thirdly for Terror Fourthly for Exhortation The first use is for instruction and that is double The first use to the people First Is it so that the humble Soule is content to be thus at the Lords disposing then from hence we collect this use that they which have greatest parts and gifts and meanes and places abilities and honors for the most part they are most hardly brought home to the Lord Iesus Christ They that are most harly humbled they are most hardly converted how hard a thing is it for such men as have gifts and learning and wisedome or any bignesse that makes them swell naturally how hard is it I say for such men to be saved I wish their courses did not testifie the same they that are most high and greatest in gifts and place they must come in at the strait gate and what a hard and difficult worke that is judge you and therefore it is hard for them to come home to the Lord Iesus Christ Humiliation is the emptying of the Soule from whatsoever it hath that makes it swell The heart must not joy in any thing nor rest upon any thing but onely yeild to the Lord Iesus Christ to be at his disposing and carving now these parts and gifts and abilities and meanes both for Iudgement and place they are great props and pillars for the heart of a carnall man to rest upon and to quiet it selfe withall and to looke for some good there from and when the heart is setled upon such pillars as these are it is hard for the word of God to prevaile with that heart The Prophet Ieremy knew it well enough and therefore he said I will go to the rich and honorable â—eremy 5.5 and they burst all bonds asunder and brake the yoke The poore were naught but the rich were exceedingly vile and our Saviour proves it for when the rich young man came to Christ said Master what shall I do to have everlasting life Math. 19.24 Christ answered thus go sell all that thou hast
but he would not and hereupon our Saviour comes to shew the difficulty of the worke of salvation saying it is easier for a Camell to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of heaven It is true a rich man may be brought home but it is easier for a Camel c. There is great difficulty for a man that hath many gifts and parts to deny all and to bee at the Lords disposing If a man were fit to cut a Camell so small till he were fit to go through a needles eye what a worke would it be so it is with a great man The blind Pharisees saw this when they said do any of the rulers beleeve in him as if they had said Iohn 7.48 a company of Coblers and Tailors and the basest sort of people beleeve in him it is they onely that will not sweare and that will sanctifie the Lords Day But doe any of the great men and rulers beleeve The Apostle also tooke it for confest and therefore he said Brethren you see your calling how not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty men 1 Cor. 1.26 not many noble men are called Indeed blessed be God there are some great some wise and some noble men converted But not many For they have so much of themselves that they are hardly brought to renounce themselves Therfore commonly greatnesse and wickednesse goe both together And it is a pretty speech of the Prophet David There is that great Leviathan that great Whale little rivers have their little fishes but there is that Leviathan So there is that hideous pride of spirit and that strange resistance of God and his grace those fearefull crying sinnes in great men Yea many mightie men except God give them a great deale of grace they are pestered with a great deale of corruption Insomuch that they are hardly brought home For a rich man to become poore and a noble man to be abased and for a wise man to be nothing in himselfe this will cost hot water and yet it will be in all that belong to the Lord. See what the Prophet Esay saith Esay 2.12.13 The day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and loftie and upon every one that is lifted up and he shall be brought low and upon all the Cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up and upon all the Okes of Bashan and the glory of the Lord shall be exalted in that day As if he had said The Lord shall undermine the mountaines and make these tall Cedars fit to come in at this strait gate The poore receive the Gospel and he that will have the pearle must part with all that he hath not that God will take away all these outward things and parts but that he must loosen his affections from these if he will have Christ A poore creature that hath nothing may more easily come to the price of the Lord Iesus Christ then he that hath his hundreths and thousands a yeare What saith one must a man part with all these Yes the Lord will have the love that was set upon these wholy to himselfe Right worshipfull and beloved and you of the Ministery suffer the words of Exhortation The greater your parts and abilities are the greater is your danger and the greater your places are the more hard will it be for you to come home to the Lord Iesus Christ Therefore as ever you desire comfort to your selves goe aside into your closets and thinke thus with your selves The Spirit saith Not many noble men not many mightie men not many wise men after the flesh are called Hath the Lord advanced mee then the more care I had need have and the more I had need to tugge and toyle for Christ for it is marvellous hard to have this proud heart humbled and for an honorable man to lye and licke the dust and to take the crummes under the table You that have these honors and friends and means and parts for the Lords sake let none of these beare up your hearts against the truth of Christ and let none of all these make you swell and say because I am great or rich or honourable or wise therefore I must not be checked and shall such a man as I bee at the command of a poore Minister alas we desire not to have you at our commands onely we would have you be content to be at the dispose of the Lord Iesus Christ and that you must be if you belong to him and glad you may It is observable that when the Turke comes into the congregation or the Temple of his Idoll he layes by all his state and hath no man to attend him for the while so let every man that hath riches honors and parts let them be as if they had none You that are rich be as if you had no riches and you that are honorable as if you had no honors and you that are wise as if you had no wisedome when you come to heare the word of God humble your selves and say my wisedome my riches and my depth of judgment shall not hinder mee but whatsoever it is that is my part and my portion let the Lord speake to me as if I were the meanest and weakest in all the congregation The Lord give you hearts to do it the worke is hard and therefore put hard to your hearts to do it Secondly The second use for instruction is an humble Soule content to be at the Lords dispose then hence I collect that an humble heart makes all a mans life quiet and marvellously sweetneth whatsoever estate hee is in That which makes a man content in every condition must needs make him quiet whatsoever estate he is in howsoever the heart that is truly humbled may sometimes be tossed and troubled yet he is not distracted because he is contented as it is with a ship upon the sea when the billowes begin to roare and the waves are violent if the Anchor be fastened deep it stayes the ship let the tempest be what it will so this worke of humiliation is the Anchor of the soule the world is the sea and the ship is a soule that is truly humbled the deeper this humiliation is the more quiet is the heart and the more it is calmed When Iob in the time of his extremity gave way a litle to his proud and sturdy heart he quarrelled with the Almighty his friends and all but when the Lord had humbled his proud heart Iob 40.4 he said behold I am vile and base once have I spoken yea twice but now no more And it is observed of Ionah that when hee was in peace and in quietnesse he had a fullen heart and when the Lord said dost thou well to be angry yea saith he I do well to be angry See how distracted a distempered proud heart is but take Ionah in
for the other haply they come to quicken up their hearts and to renew that which they knew before What swayes our Reasons First Let us try whether we submit in our judgements or no Here is a maine breach contrary to this submission is a mans carnall reason and that marvellous height of our conceits when we raise up our owne carnall reasonings as so many holds and we maintaine them against the truth of Christ and wheresoever this frame of minde is there this worke of Humiliation was never wrought And this is in too many When a man swels in his owne conceits against the truth of Christ That 's a sweet place to this end in the Romans Where the text saith The Wisedome of the flesh or as it is in the Originall The carnall minde is enmitie against God Rom. 8.7 for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be The carnall minde and all the reasonings and wisedome of it is not onely an enemy but it is enmitie against God The Apostle doth not say that a carnall mans wisedome and reason doth not obey but he is not able to beare the truth he as it were sets himselfe in battle aray against it it cannot be subject to the Law of God This is a maine wound in all the sonnes of Adam That a man as it were deifies himselfe and his owne dreames and devices and makes his owne conceit a line and levell to all his conversation So that the carnall minde will bend the truth to his minde though he breake it Here is the marvellous pride of a mans minde Hence it is that the Apostle adviseth us to be wise with sobrietie Rom. 12.3 As if he had said a man may be drunke with his owne conceits as when a drunkard hath gotten his braines well steeped in Wine and Beare then whatsoever he conceits in his minde must needs be as true as Gospel So it is with a carnall minde Though arguments be never so plaine and Scriptures never so pregnant yet a carnall wretch will carry himselfe against all and say it is not my Iudgement I am not of that minde This is the height of our minde as if he did say I doe not thinke it let the word of God and his Ministers say what they will to the contrary they shall not perswade mee of it Doest thou finde this in thy selfe then it is an undoubted argument thou never hadst a heart truly humbled See what the Apostle saith If a man thinks that hee knowes any thing 1 Cor. 8.2 he knowes nothing as he ought to doe You thinke you are as wise as you need to be and you are not children yet You that thus lift and set up your selves in your owne conceits whatsoever you bee you know nothing as you ought to do And therefore the Apostle speaks of some that were puft up in their owne conceits Colloss 2.18 intruding into those things which they have not seene vainely puft up in their owne minds You conceive and imagine thus and thus and will not beleeve the Minister of God whatsoever he saith therefore you are puft up and this is not a heart truely humbled and kindly wrought upon A carnall man presseth into some imagination as to his owne propper possession As the old proverbe is The foole will not leave his bable for all the Citie of London So a carnall heart saith I cannot be otherwise perswaded I say then the case is cleare is it so with thy judgement and carnall reason then as yet thou wert never under the power of this truth thou shuttest up doores against Iesus Christ he cannot come in to informe thee thou art so full of thy selfe Object But some will say how doth this carnall reasoning lift up it selfe against the truth of Iesus Christ Answ To this I answer the lifting up of my carnall reason makes it selfe knowne in three particulars and by these you shall know when your conceits carrie you aloft from the truth of Christ First A carnall reason being thus puft up it is not willing to know the word of God nor his truth especially those truthes that are troublesome and tedious to him preach and speake what you will but preach not that Hee either wisheth himselfe deafe that hee could not heare or the Minister dumbe that hee could not deliver those truthes The Lord sent the Prophet Esay to preach to the people and yet to seale them downe to eternall destruction Esay 6.9 10. and therefore the Lord saith Goe tell this people heare but understand not see but perceive not make the heart of this people fat they winke with their eyes As it is with a bleare eye that is not able to looke against the Sunne but shuts for feare the Sunne should hurt it So a carnall proud minde is not able to looke into the truthes that may trouble it and that would awaken his bleare eye And in another place the people doe intreate the Prophet Esay to goe out of the way and to turne aside out of that path Esay 30.11 cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before us As if they had said We cannot endure this holinesse wee cannot brooke this exactnesse you bid us to be holy or else God will destroy us get you out of that path they were weary of those blessed truthes A double example we have of this distemper of spirit in holy Scriptures As in Iob Where the wicked say to God depart from us for wee desire not the knowledge of thy wayes The drunkard desires not to heare of any horror of heart for his sinne and the hypocrite desires not to heare that he must be sound and sincere and keepe touch with God in every thing and so all vngodly men goe against the truth of God which crosseth their lusts and corruptions And in Timothy it was the tange of a cursed distemper of spirit in a company of wretches in this age The text saith The time shall come when they shall not endure sound doctrine Tim. 4.3 And here it is to be noted that a company of carnall Gentlemen and base refuse people of other degrees are come to this passe that let a plain searching truth be discovered they turne away from it and cannot heare it with patience but if any man will tell them some fine stories Oh this pleaseth them admirably they cannot endure sound doctrine that searcheth the heart and awakens the conscience they cannot brooke that now an humble heart is of another minde it is willing to heare any thing from the Lord and any message from heaven and the humble Soule saith Speake on Lord thy servant desires to heare the word never so troublesome and the truth never so much crossing his lusts hee is well content to heare it Nay hee desires that especially and hee is calmed with it Marke what Eli said Sam. 3.17 Keepe not back from me but let mee heare whatsoever
the Lord hath said unto thee An humble Soule comes to this passe and saith If there be any sinne or any wickednesse in my heart good Lord discover it and if there be any duty to be done Lord let me know it And as Cornelius said Acts 10.33 Wee are all here present before the Lord to heare whatsoever thou art commanded us of God So the humble Soule saith Whatsoever trouble it brings I yield to the truth and desire to heare it Thirdly As the carnall reason shuts his eye and will not looke upon the truth so in the second place if it be so that it must heare that which it would not what is the next shift that it hath hee will not suffer himselfe to be convinced by the truth but when the truth comes in with plainenesse and power he labours what hee can to gather up objections and cavills against the truth that he may oppose the power of Gods word that sith it is so that he must heare it he labours to make it false This is considerable Rom. 2.8 Vnto them that are contentious and doe not obey the truth but obey unrighteousnesse shall be indignation and wrath Who are they that are contentious not onely they that contend with their neighbours but they that contend against the truth for so the words following doe import so much Which obey not the truth One man heares a close point and then hee goes away and saith I will not beleeve it I know reason and I will be bound to confute it and all this is nothing but a smoake and he deales by the truth as men doe with an enemie in this case First they labour to keepe him out from their confines and if they cannot doe that then they leavie forces to drive him out from their land So it is with a company of carnall men they would not looke upon the truth to be enformed by it Well Heare they must and heare they shall if they live under the power of the Gospell but if they must heare it they are contentious and advise with this carnall friend and that carnall Minister and if they can get any man to plead for their lusts that they may arme themselves against the blessed truth of God they think themselves happy men If a Minister come home to the heart of a carnall wretch that will buy and sell upon the Lords Day and say to him Remember that thou keepe holy the Sabbath then hee goes to some carnall man that buyes and sels as well as himselfe and then he will have an army of forces against the truth of God As the Apostle saith 2 Tim. 3.8 As Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses so doe these men resist the truth men of corrupt minds and reprobates concerning the faith how is that When Moses came to Pharaoh to deliver the people of Israel and when Moses shewed some signes and wonders Pharaoh would not yeild to the Miracles and therefore he called for Iannes and Iambres and they made some appearances of Serpents as Moses had done and so Pharaohs heart was hardened even so When the Word of God is plaine and the evidences of it are uncontrolable then a carnall minde sends for carnall quarrels and pleas and objections and this hee doth to oppose the truth of Christ and to make an army against the blessed ordinances of God They count it a matter of favour if any man will deliver and rescue them from the truth As when this truth comes You must not buy and sell upon the Sabbath but you must be holy as God is holy c. If this truth bee troublesome oh they cannot beare it and they would faine be rescued they account this truth an enemy to them and if any man will deliver them from the truth they thinke him a God and they admire at his judgement and say such a man is wise and a deepe Scholler and hee saith thus and thus hee will defend this as well as I thus a man is fortified against the truth But an humble Soule will not doe thus After the Word and Truth of God is revealed in this kinde and all reasons answered The understanding of this humble Soule gives way and opposeth not the truth Give an humble Soule Scripture for that you say and hee hath done and lets all carnall counsels passe and all matters objected and he saith I am fully perswaded of it the truth is plaine God forbid that I should quarrell with it This is for the understanding Thirdly If the truth be so cleare and plaine that he cannot gaine-say it then he turnes aside from the authoritie of the truth and will not suffer it to take place in his minde This is the last shift which a carnall heart hath As when a debtor is arrested at first hee grapples with the Serjeant but when hee seeth the Bailiffe or Serjeant is too good for him he labours to make an escape and trusts to his feet rather then to his hands So it is with a carnall wretched heart When hee cannot but confesse and yeild that the truth is plaine and that hee cannot grapple with the truth then hee falles flat against it when his Serpent is eaten up by Moses Serpent and all carnall pleas are eaten up by the truth then he is faine to withdraw himselfe from the authoritie of it From hence comes all those shifts we tell people they are miserable and in a naturall and damnable condition Oh say they God is mercifull oh but say we the mercy of God is such that as he pardons men so hee purgeth them and if mercy will save you mercy will purge you too and make you forsake your sinnes doe you thinke that mercy will carry you and your peevish proud lustfull hearts to heaven No he will not then say they we will repent hereafter and then we tell them againe harden not your hearts to day if you will heare his voyce take mercy now while it is cal'd to day God requires repentance now and now you must humble your selves and repent Yet the Soule goes on and saith we blesse God we doe repent and when wee sweare we cry God mercy and though wee have beene and are sometimes drunke yet we are sorry for it then we make them answer and say you say you are sorrowfull but sound sorrow is ever accompanied with sound reformation As the Apostle saith This same thing that you have beene sorrowfull what carefulnesse hath it wrought in you 2 Cor. 7.11 what clearing of your selves what indignation and the like And as the wise man saith He that confesseth and forsaketh his sinne shall finde mercy Pro. 28.13 Then the sinner replyes no man can doe thus What would you have us without sinne we must be content to doe as we may Thus you see they yeild to the truth and cannot but confesse that it is plaine but they take away the power of the truth and the command of it You may
he that burnes in his lusts here shall burne in hell And the drunkard wisheth that there had never beene any Law made against that sinne and he saith it is pittie that every man may not drinke what he will and the unjust person that would be stealing and pilfering he wisheth there were no Law against that sinne and when the Word and his Conscience workes and the Law makes havocke in his heart and labours to throw him to the wall Oh he is weary of it Now a carnall heart thinks it the greatest plague in the world to be paled in within the compasse of Gods commands that hee may not doe what he list but still Word and Conscience and the Ministers checke him When the Lord required Sacrifices at the peoples hands in Malachy Malachy 1.13 They thought it a wearisomenesse and snuffed at it What every morning Sacrifice and every evening too what a wearisomenesse is this So you ought to have morning and evening prayer in your Families how are your hearts affected towards it doe not you say what a wearisomnesse is this why doe you tell us of prayer and of humbling your soules This is a burthesome thing this argues a heart that is above the truth and that would bee free from the truth and justle it to the wall therefore the wicked are as it were in bonds and fetters as the Apostle saith Rom. 1.28 they did not like to have God in knowledge As if he had said it is a vexation to their Soules still to have conscience calling be holy and humble and and be not proud nor drunke nor adulterous their consciences flies in their faces and the word galls them they doe not like to have this in knowledge And therefore the Lord deales with them after their desires and he gives them over to a reprobate mind and to a heart that shall never embrace the truth You that have no delight to heare of your duties and wish there were no minister to controll you the Lord will satisfie your desires and give you up to a reprobate sence As if the Lord did say you are weary of my wisedome and goodnesse and weary of my word and commands I will ease you of that burthen you shall have hearts that never shall be mooved with my spirit goe all you damned lusts and reigne in him rule over him and make him a slave and bring him downe to destruction for ever If the Lord comes and will needs be revealed to him then a sturdy heart layes violent hands upon the command he disposeth of it and will not let the command dispose of him he hinders the power of the truth that would draw him to God As the Apostle saith Rom. 1.18 they withhold the truth in unrighteousnesse The word in the originall is they imprison the truth as if the Apostle had said you know you should not bee loose nor covetous nor drunke is it so conscience are you drunke loose and covetous still when the conscience saith I will be loose and covetous still and you will have the vengeance of God to follow you and go to hell too They doe imprison the truth The covetous man imprisons the truth and he must have his covetousnesse still and the truth is imprisoned at the suite of the adulterer and he must be uncleane still And so the oppressor must lye and dissemble and oppresse still and therefore he justles the truth and will of God to the wall Hee takes the wall of Gods will As the people said there is noe hope but wee will walke after our owne devices Ier. 18.12 and wee will doe every one the Imaginations of his evill heart They said most desperately wee will doe it heare it and feare all you whose consciences doe convince you of it and you know that theeving and stealing and pettishnesse and peevishnesse and all your profainnesse is forbidden what saith your hearts to this who disposeth of your wills in this case doe not you say 1 Sam. 8.19 wee will doe what wee list As when Samuell had made an evcellent sermon and told them the danger of having a King they said nay but wee will have a King over us So it is with many of you Is this humilitie The Lord saith you shall not and you say you will oh fearefull is this humilitie aske but common reason you say wee must have and we will have it wee have had our liberties and wee will have them and so destruction too Thirdly This is the lowest and least kinde of rebellion the Soule is content happily to doe what God requires but it must be upon his owne conditions and his owne termes This is the last and it argues no saving worke of preparation for Christ The hypocrite is content that God shall have his glory but hee must doe it And a man is content to be painefull in his place provided hee may have ease and honours and parts and preferments and be respected but when these faile then God hath broken his condition and hee will none Thus God is at his dispose and stands to his agreements This is a cursed hypocrite You can be content to heare and pray that you may have some corruption and that under the name of profession you may be adulterous and loose still The God of mercy send some veine of good motions into your hearts to awaken you if it be possible Thus it is with some Ministers that are content to be painefull in their places so long as they may have honour and be respected but if they misse of their end they give over all If there be any such here you are hypocrites and shall never be comforted upon these termes Now I come to the third passage of this triall A mans life must be subject namely what it is that disposeth of our lives A mans life and conversation must be at Gods disposing If the heart be distempered and the reason be thus lifted up then the actions of a mans life must needs be answerable If those wheeles goe false then the actions of a mans life must strike false As they said they would walke in their own wayes And as the Lord saith Esa 66.4 I will bring their feares upon them and my soule shall loath them because they did choose their owne devices That is whatsoever their owne corrupt hearts would have that they will take and that way they will walke in Not according to Gods will but according to their owne rebellious hearts So that all the practices of a mans course are nothing else but as so many distempered behaviours of a rebellious carnall minde and heart This disordered carriage discovers it selfe in three particulars First when a mans life and conversation comes contrary to God and goes abreast against the Almighty as they did or whom the Apostle speaks Having their understandings darkened Eph. 4.18 have given themselves over to all lasciviousnesse They doe not what God will
conceive that they doe well to be discontented and they cast all the fault upon their sinne Answer This is a desperate hinderance to all good duties and therefore I answer it thus It is true the Lord allowes it and warrants it that thou shouldest be displeased with thy sinne not to bee under the power and rule of it and the humbled heart is at the dispose of God nor at the dispose of sinne but yet bee wise in this case It is one thing for a man to bee discontented with his corruption and its an other thing to be discontented with that condition wherein he is Thou mayst and oughtest to bee discontented with thy pride and corruption and with thy unbeliefe but take heede that thou be not discontented with the weakenesse of thy gifts and parts This is damnable pride and it is an argument that thou art not content to bee at Gods finding and this is thy disease twenty to one Now that thou mayest know whether thy discontentment is for thy corruption or for thy estate and the weakenesse of thy parts I shew it thus he that is discontented with his sinne will never sinne in his discontentednesse As wee use to say of immoderate sorrow If any man loose a freind and begin to grieve and sorrow excessively wee use to say take heed that you mourne not out of measure Marke what he replyes may not a man sorrow for his his sinne To this I answer Art thou sorrowfull for sinne and wilt thou sinne deepely in thy sorrow and resist the good will of the Lord no thou hast lost a freind and meanes and therefore thou mournest This is carnall sorrow and in this thou never sorrowest for sinne he that is sorrowfull for his sinne will not sinne in his sorrow it is for thy condition that thou art so sorrowfull and discontented Is it not so with thy Soule that thy heart is tossed up and downe in a restlesse disquiet and art thou not out of the command of thy selfe and art thou not hurried up and downe in a confused lumber in thy mind because thou art not fit for duties if it be so with thee then thou dost sinne desperately in thy discontentment It is a rule in warre If an Army be once scattered and dispierced it will hardly come on againe because it is put out of ranke and order So that Soule is discontented with his estate that is made unfit for duties and unweldy in them that discontentment which unfits a man to be at Gods disposing it is not the worke of humiliation but a worke of pride But it is so with thee thy discontentment makes thee unable to beare Gods hand and the want of any thing and makes thee more unfit for duties and it is not for sinne but for thy weaknesse in gifts and for thy condition and therefore thou art possessed with this pride of heart The fourth and last note of the measure of our humiliation The fourth and last note and triall of the measure of our humiliation is this If thou wilt know how much pride is in thy heart then consider how thy Soule stands in regard of the word and truth of God that crosseth thy beloved lusts and those corruptions to which thy Soule hath cleaved in the time of thy wretchednesse and in this there are two passages First see how thy heart behaves it selfe in regard of the strict commands of God Secondly in regard of the keenest reproofes and the sharpest admonitions that are suggested into thy heart See how thy heart is able to beare the reproofe of an enemy or the admonition of a faithfull Minister of God when he meets with thy darling lust When thy heart comes under these commands and these reproofes if thou finde thy heart swelling and bubbling against the truth and thy heart begins to bee angry with the Word and Minister and all then know this that certainly so much of this as there is in thy heart so much thy Soule wants of Humiliation Is not this pride that the Soule should lift up it selfe against the Lord of heaven and take the way of Gods Word and when the frothy franticke heart of a man wil beare down the command of God let the command of God fall to the ground rather then let a corruption fall is not this infinite pride You may take notice of this distemper in severall passages When the Prophet came to that wicked King Amaziah and said to him Why hast thou sought after the Gods of the Heathen 2 Chron. 25.15 16. which could not deliver their owne people out of thine hand then the King said to him Art thou made of the Kings counsell forbeare why shouldest thou bee smitten Then the Prophet said I know that God hath determined to destroy thee because thou hast done this and hast not hearkened to my counsell Amaziah was naught and God did deale with him accordingly So when Gods Word doth meete with mens hearts and lusts they are mad and if it were not for shame and feare they would pull a man from the Pulpit Object But some may say can the Saints of God be thus transported with this vile distemper Answ Yes this cholericke distemper of heart sometimes creepes in upon a good Soule but the difference will appeare afterward Aza was a strange man though Divines hold him a good man When Hanani the Prophet dealt plainly with him and said 2 Chron. 16.7 10 11.12 Thou hast done foolishly in resting upon the King of Aram c. See how the King entertaines this He was wroth with the Seer and put him in prison But see what befell the King He never saw good day afterward he fell into many sinnes so the Lord leaves a man to his corruptions and after that hee fell into a strange disease in his feete A strange thing that God should leave a good man in this misery thus hee dyed and all this was for opposing the Word of God This is the nature of a peevish colericke spirit The humble spirit doth not quarrell with the Word of God Iam. 1.21 but receives it with meekenesse and with a quiet still spirit If any sinne be revealed and if any dutie be commanded he beares the Word without contending unlesse it be now and then for flesh will have his bouts Looke home therefore into your owne hearts and families how can you beare the checks and reproofes of a Master or Mistris when they say you are idle And so you wives when your husbands reproove you is not all on a light flame Oh this is infinite and intollerable pride You may bee good servants and good women but its strange if you be so Object But you will say how shall a man see a difference in all these Answ I say the Saints of God and the sinners the faithfull and the faithlesse all have this in their manner and measure but this corruption is poyson in the heart of a good man It s
true the Saints of God are sometimes discontented and discouraged but when they see it they are content that the Word should worke upon them against it and they complaine of these wretched hearts and when they finde this discontentednesse they quarrell with themselves for it and a good man would even pull out that heart which quarrels against the Word of God and he saith is not this the Word of God by which we must be saved and is not this the power of Christ and shall I be angry with it God forbid But these distempers are naturall in a carnall man and though he be reprooved for a foolish fashion yet hee will hold his corruptions still he puls and the Minister puls the Minister would pull downe his proud heart and take away his corruptions but he will have his pride and foolish fashions and his corruptions still then keepe them and perish with them and know that thou art a wretched man the humble heart contends with his corruptions and sinfull distempers and hee is not quiet therewith As it is with a treason If it be revealed to a Traitor and a good Subject the Traitor keeps it secret but the true Subject reveales it and complaines of the Traitor and the Treason and calles for justice against them so it is with a gracious good heart Hee seeth these cursed distempers and sometimes finds bublings of heart against the Word of God and this shakes his Free-hold yet when a good heart seeeth the Treason he doth not joyne with it but he complaines to the Lord of it and saith Oh treason Lord this vile heart will bee my destruction good Lord reveale it yet more to mee and take away all these corruptions take thou the possession of mee that I may serve thee here and be with thee for ever hereafter Thus much for the use of Examination Vse 3 Is it so that the heart truly humbled and prepared for mercy is content to be at Gods disposing as you have heard then what shall wee say of those that lift up themselves against the Almightie this discovers the fearefull condition of every such Soule It is certaine the haughtie Soule is furthest of all from Salvation how proove you that hee that is furthest of from Humiliation he is furthest of from the beginning of grace here and from perfection afterward the gate of grace is meerely here for except you become as little children that is except you be humbled you cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven a proud heart is farre from grace now and from happinesse in the end of his dayes For the discovery of this mans misery let mee lay open foure particulars and I would have my selfe and you to consider them that our proud hearts may be puld downe First Foure degrees of a proud mans misery Pride is professely against God and is the most directly contrary to the whole beeing of God and that in the whole man Indeed Pride opposeth God all sinnes are nothing else but a kinde of crossenesse to the Lord of Hosts and a kinde of thwarting of some Attribute or other in God As falshood crosseth the Truth of God impatience crosseth the patience of God and injustice crosseth the Iustice of God So that these sinnes goe against the Almightie in their measure some against one Attribute some against another but a proud heart smites at the whole Essence and Being of God Nay he doth as much as in him lyeth labour to take God out of the world and he would be God himselfe and have no God but himselfe The Lord doth principally Attribute two things to himselfe which can bee in none but himselfe God is the first of all causes and the last End of all All things were created by him for himselfe He made all by his Will and Wisedome and by his Wisedome and Providence he governes all for himselfe Before any thing was God was and all must returne tribute of praise and thankesgiving to God A man may be like God in Mercy and in Iustice though not so perfectly yet sincerely and a man may be like God in other of his glorious Attributes but God onely is first and last If it bee a creature then it was made but here is the venome of a proud heart he would be first and last He doth all by his owne power and hee will promote his owne praise in all that he doth As the great King Nebuchadnezzar saith Dan. 4.30 Is not this great Babel that I have built by the might of my power I built it there is the first for the honour of my Majestie there was the last So it is not the wisedome and pleasure of God that must stand but his owne proud heart it must not be what God commands but what he would have all of a proud man is against the Almighty The Saints of God have wondered that the Lord is able to beare a proud man that thus out braves God in regard of his speciall prerogatives it is a wonder that God sends not some lightning from heaven and even stamp them to pouder and send them downe packing to hell suddainely I take this to be the sinne of the devills that are now chayned up in eternall darknesse untill the judgement of the great day nay I take this pride of a mans Spirit of his minde his reason his will and affections to bee an other old man of sinne Drunkennesse is a lymme of this old man and so is adultery and other sinnes but pride is as it were the old man it selfe This is the broader the Spawne and the very mother from whence the sinne against the Holy-ghost growes and there wants nothing but the illumination of the truth to come in upon the heart when a mans understanding is enlightned and this Illumination comes upon the heart and hee is violently carried against the truth with indignation this is the sin against the holy ghost 2. Pride opposeth the covenant of grace Secondly as Pride is opposite to God himselfe so it is opposite to the covenant of grace beleive and live for the truth is that which wee call infidelitie and the ingredients of it are pride as the Apostle saith Rom. 3.7.7 Where is boasting then it is excluded by what Law by the Law of workes no but by the Law of faith If there be beleeving then away with carnall reasoning and with pride Therefore I may say by collection if faith exclude all boasting then pride or boasting opposeth the covenant of faith Faith is excluded by this pride of a mans Spirit and by this swelling of heart and the holy Prophet Habakkuk saith Habak 2.4 the Soule that is lifted up himself is not not upright within him hee that swells and bubles up in his heart and puffes up himselfe against the word of God hee hath no upright Spirit within him but the just man shall live by his faith above all see that place in Esay hearken to
mee all you stout hearted ones of the world which are farre from righteousnesse Esay 26.12 Let mee speake to all you stout hearted men and women that are heere this day you that swell against the truth of Christ and will not come under the power of Gods ordinances you are farre from righteousnesse The further you are gone in this sinne the further you are from the righteousnesse of God A stout hearted man is a thousand miles from righteousnesse Drunkards and adulterers are far enough from it but a proud man is as it were 20. hundreth thousand miles from it hee is far from the covenant of faith Faith goes out for all that it hath to an other it reacheth up to heaven for all it wants meate and nourishment and therefore it goes to Christ for all and pride onely rests upon it selfe for all faith gives the glory of all that it hath to another but pride takes all the glory to its selfe Faith goes to another for strength in what he doth but pride rests upon it selfe for strength So that though all sinnes hinder the worke of faith yet pride hinders it more then any thing You that thinke it a brave matter to be proud and you must not buckle to the Minister and you must doe what you list you are stout-hearted men but you are farre from beleeving men The more faith the lesse pride and the more pride the lesse faith 3. A proud soule is farre from mercy Thirdly As pride opposeth God himselfe and as it opposeth the covenant of grace so it followes from the two former that the proud Soule upon these conditions that it is in shall never receive any grace from the Lord. Set your hearts at rest for that You may swell and lift up your selves but if ever you receive the worke of grace and mercy upon these termes I will bee your bond-man for ever For he that is professely contrary to the grace of God that gives all and he that is contrary to the covenant of grace by which all is conveyed let him set his heart at rest for ever receiving any mercy The Lord himselfe is not able to endure the sight of a haughty spirit he cannot looke upon him much lesse will he live with him He beholds the proud man a farre off hee drives a proud man farre from heaven Psal 138.6 The Lord deales by a proud man as a man doth that is carried with indignation against his enemy he will not looke upon him So it is with the Lord hee will not be within the ken of a proud man and if the Lord doe come neere a proud man woe to him that he doth so The Lord resists the proud Hee whets all the sharpest arrowes of his vengeance and shuts them all against a proud man You broken hearts consider this The Lord gives grace to the humble but the proud man must be content with his portion he shall be resisted not received he shall be resisted not converted nor saued nor sanctified Hee may bid farewell to all grace hee shall never have it upon those termes and as God intends no good to him so a proud man comes not within the scope of mercy nor of that redemption which Iesus Christ hath wrought and purchased Christ came not to call the righteous that is them that looke loftily in regard of what they do You stout hearted people thinke of it The Lord Christ came not to call you The devill calls and you may goe to him but Christ came to call and save the poore broken hearted sinners It is said of Christ That hee was annointed of the Lord Esa 61.1 2 3. to preach the glad tidings of the Gospell to whom to the meeke c. You meekened Soules shall heare good newes from heaven But there is not any one sillable of one promise in all the Gospel that any proud spirit can conceive to belong unto him If I could seperate all the good from the bad I would have the good to stand by and heare these good newes that I have for them and if you proud hearts will come in and yeild they may be yours too You that tremble at Gods Word and are willing to doe what God shall command if there be any such here this day as I doubt not but there are many then know that the Sonne of man came to seeke and save you it is good tidings Nay in the Lord Iesus Christ are all the Treasures of wisedome and knowledge and out of this fulnesse of holinesse and happinesse he fills all your meeke hearts and hee will give all grace according to your necessities here is newes of salvation life and comfort from heaven But to whom is it Christ came to seeke and save them that are lost that is them that are lost in their owne apprehension but the proud man was never lost in himselfe A lost man in the Wildernesse is content to be guided into his right way but the proud man saith hee will be filthy and fashionable still therefore hee was never lost and Christ never came to seeke nor save him All meanes doe a proud man no good All the meanes of Grace that God gives will never benefit a proud man So that now it is as possible nay more possible for heaven and earth to meete together then for a proud man to come to heaven except God give him a heart to stoope No man can receive benefit by the word except he be under the power of it if the wax be not under the Seale how can it receive any impression As the Apostle saith Rom 6.17 They were delivered into the forme of that doctrine propounded The forme of the Gospell tooke place in their hearts There is no Soule can get any benefit by the Gospell but hee must receive what it reveales and what it commands hee must doe and what it forbids he must labour to avoyd but a proud heart is above all meanes and therefore the word will not nay it cannot worke savingly on him As those wicked ones said Our tongues are our owne we ought to speake Psal 11.4 who is Lord over us What reproofe shall awe me saith a proud heart I will be led by my owne lusts Your owne reason leades you and your owne wills rules you your owne mindes and your lusts and what your hearts will have they must have You stout hearted ones that are resolved not to yield nor to come under the grace of God you will not have your affections framed nor made more teachable then seeing you will not bee taught be for ever deluded goe your way and be for ever hardned and for ever cast off from the presence of God and goe downe to the bottomlesse pit you will have your owne wills therefore goe to your owne places for that 's all you can have You that are the faithfull of God and know any such mourne for them Fourthly Againe 4. A proud
mans end is exceeding fearfull The destruction of a proud man is both certaine exceeding heavie and it is like to be mervailous fearfull There is nothing to be expected and hoped for but totall ruine and that suddainly and unconceiveably to every proud spirit that beares up himselfe against the blessed God of heaven Let mee open it thus A proud man is marked out for Gods Iudgements and is made as it were the white against whom all the arrowes of his vengeance are fully bent When Amaziah would needs out bid the Prophet in his advice 2 Chron. 25.15 16. and said forbeare Why shouldst thou bee smitten I will forbeare saith the Prophet but know what shall befall thee I know the Lord hath purposed to destroy thee because thou wilt not hearken to my counsell You that are acquainted with your stout-hearted husbands and wives and friends and know how your children bandy themselves against the blessed truth of Christ goe in secret and bemoane their estates and pray for them that if it be possible destruction may be prevented goe in secret and say it is my husband or my wife or my childe that yeilds not to the direction of the Word and therefore howsoever we may live a while together yet I know God hath decreed to destroy him and her Thinke of this with your selves you that are proud and say If I will not be exhorted then I shall be destroyed I cannot avoyd it Oh me thinks if every proud spirit would write this upon the palmes of his hands and upon the tester of his bed that he might see it wheresoever he goes how would his heart sinke within him When thou goest abroad say for ought I know I shal never returne home God hath decreed to destroy me And when thou lyest down think thus for ought I know I shal never rise more It is not the word of man but of the Almightie When the Lord would as it were frame a path for destruction hee sends a proud heart If once the Lord intend to destroy a People or Nation he gives them over to pride of heart The sonnes of Ely did not hearken to the voyce of their father because the Lord meant to destroy them 1 Sam. 2.25 hee gave them over to proud hearts Nay the proud Soule is not onely the ayme of Gods wrath but as the Lord determines destruction for him so he brings destruction first upon him When the Citizens said We will not have this man to rule over us then the King was wroth and said Luk. 19.4.27 bring hither those mine enemies and slay them before mee c. There was no delay nor no mitigation of the punishment to be granted Oh thinke of this all you proud spirits Indeed the Lord will confound all the wicked in the Day of Iudgement but he will execute even the fiercest of the Vials of his vengeance against a proud man and when the Lord shall say where are those wretches mine enemies then the Ministers of God shall come in and say this man was a drunkard and this man an adulterer Yes saith the Lord I will plague them anone but where are those mine enemies those stout-hearted men and women that hated to be reformed let mee see those damned and destroyed for ever And for ought I know God hath a strange indignation in store for them Nay it shall bee so executed upon a proud man that there shall be no reclaiming of it and God will not be perswaded to pitty him Prov. 1.26 27 28. They shall call upon mee saith the Text but I will not answer they shall seeke mee early but they shall not finde mee So that it is no wonder though a company of rebellious wretches have no comfort upon their death beds and though a thousand divels seaze upon them and hurry them downe to hell it s no wonder I say cry and call they may but God will not heare them Nay the Lord will laugh at their destruction and mocke when their feare commeth It is a griefe for a man to be in misery but to be laughed at that 's a plague of all plagues But to have mercy rejoyce in the destruction of a man this makes the plague out of measure miserable If any man say this is false doctrine and this is too sharpe and too keene Brethren we dare doe no other and wee can doe no lesse and you had better heare of it now while you may prevent it then to heare of it and feele it hereafter when there is no remedy But here is the maine wound of our Ministery you will not stoope nor yield to our Ministery Wee speake not in wrath and anger as you imagine but in mercy wee now preach against a proud heart that you may be humbled and finde mercy and so be comforted and saved for ever Therefore take your owne shame and the Lord prevaile with those hearts which word and counsell cannot worke upon And the Lord now fit you for mercy that you may receive mercie from the Lord. That 's all the hurt wee wish you Oh that you would so heare of these plagues that you might never feele them The Lord hath an old grudge against a proud heart Goe away you proud hearts feare and tremble When you are gone from the congregation do not say What if he say so we fare well enough yet and wee see none of all these judgements and all this winde shakes no corne no no once stoope and come in and take the yoake of Christ and the Lord make it easie Goe in secret and reason thus good Lord have not I onely lifted up my selfe against man like my selfe but against God and against his ordinances and hath God yet shewed mee mercy in sparing of me and it is yet mercy that I may bow my body though I cannot bow my proud heart oh what mercy is this You wives thanke God that yet hee hath spared your husbands and that yet they have breath and being here pray to God that they may lay about them for humble hearts that so they may finde mercy against the evill day Our God is very mercifull but it is no contending with him Did ever any man provoke the Lord and prosper Come in therefore shame your selves that the Lord may humble you now and shew mercy to you hereafter Vse 4 The last Vse is for exhortation You see the woe and misery of a proud spirit What remaines then onely this Be exhorted as you desire to finde favour with God and to receive mercy from him now be content to be at his disposing Walke in this way and ayme at this marke strive hard for it and put forth the best of your abilities that you may get humble hearts You must not thinke that every lazy wish and every desire will serve the turne and that it will be enough to say is it so that a proud heart is so farre from heaven I would I had an humble heart and
so forth You must not thinke that God will bring you to heaven before you be aware of it and that a humble heart will drop into your mouthes The Saints of God have alwayes had it before they received Christ and thou must have it too if ever thou wilt have him therefore make it a chiefe part of thy daily taske to get it And suffer not thine eyes to sleepe nor thine eye lids to slumber nor the temples of thy head to take any rest before thou hast this gracious disposition of spirit You see the price the worth and excellency of this blessed grace doe not now let this grace lye lay cast it not into a bye corner but in all your desires covet this and in all your hunting up and downe after commodities prize this more then all and labour to get it above all I know one man hath his eye upon the world and another on his pleasures and every man saith what shall we eate and drinke and wherewith shall we be cloathed but doe not thou say how shall I be rich or honourable but how shall I get this humble heart What 's that to thy Soule that thou art rich and a reprobate and that thou art honourable and damned If thou bee once humbled then thou art past the worst It is the choisest good and the chiefe of thy desires should be for an humble heart Now to draw our hearts to this there are three considerations that may be seasonable and serviceable to this end And they are these First Consider that it is possible to have an humble heart Secondly Consider the danger if you have it not I will not give a rush for all that you can doe without it though you live Methuselahs dayes Thirdly Consider the exceeding benefit that will come by this grace For the first 1. Motive It is possible for any Soule present for ought I know or that he knowes to get an humble heart This may be a provocation to us to set upon this dutie If a man had no hope to get this desire he would have no heart to use any meanes for it A man had as good sit still as rise up and fall as the Proverbe is But seeing it is possible why may not thou and I or any man here get an humble heart and therefore seeke to the Lord for it and say there hath beene many as proud hearts and as stout as mine though I have beene like a divell for my pride yet they have had this grace and therefore Lord why may not I have it as well as they who knowes but God may give mee an humble heart too though my heart be now stout and stubborne and rebellious yet Lord I see no command that forbids mee not to expect this mercy and I see no truth that excludes mee no the Lord saith in his command humble your selves under the mightie hand of God Yea the Lord hath appointed meanes for the working of this grace and hath ever blessed those meanes for the good of others and why not mee Lord Lord hast thou blessed these meanes to others and made them stoope and yeild why wilt thou not blesse them to mee too Lord who knowes but God will doe it for mee as well as hee hath done it for others Therefore goe thou to God and say The truth is Lord I confesse this haughty and this rebellious heart of mine will not come downe it is not in mans power to pull downe my proud heart No it is not in the power of Angels to humble a proud heart Lord now take this stout heart and humble it and doe what thou wilt with it didst not thou tame the heart of Manasses that Witch and bloud-sucker that made the streetes of Ierusalem to swim with blood didst not thou humble him and didst not thou bring downe the proud heart of that sturdy Iaylor and didst not thou tame the heart of proud persecuting Saul Didst not thou make him come creeping in upon his knees Lord thus thou hast done Lord humble me too Thus importune the God of heaven Nay presse God with his promise and with that engagement whereby hee hath tyed himselfe The day of the Lord of Hoasts shall be upon every one that is lifted up Esa 2.12 and that is proud and lofty saith the text and he shall be brought low and upon all the Cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up and upon all the Oaks of Bashan That is upon all mighty vile sturdy and unreasonable men and what then they shall be brought full low and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day The day of the Lord shall be upon all flesh presse God with this promise and entreate the Lord to remember it and say Lord make all those sturdy hearts yield Oh that this may be the day and that I may be the man and that my heart may be the heart that thy mercy and grace may onely be admired and wondered at Thus you see that God may doe as much for you as he hath done for others and it is possible to get an humble heart therefore labour for it Secondly as it is possible to get an humble heart 2. Motive So consider that if you mistake your selves and faile here the danger is wonderfull desperate and fearefull and therfore use so much more care and diligence not to be deceived therein If you misse here never looke to be saved nor recovered hereafter Misse now and you are undone for ever it s as much as your soules be worth as your Humiliation is so your Faith so your Sanctification and your obedience will be If that be naught all will be naught It is observed by Philosophers and Physicians that if there be any fault in the first disgesture it cannot be amended in the next if the stomacke disgest the meate ill the Liver can never make good blood So a wound here can never be amended If the bottome and foundation of a building be not sound and substantiall though the frame be never so neate and handsome yet there is no mending of it it must be all puld down and the ground-worke made more sure and therefore when men set up some maine pillars to uphold a house they digge deepe and low and set them strong So if this worke of Humiliation be not deepe and low enough all the frames of a mans profession will fall downe there is no mending of it If the foundation of the house be sound though the thatch and sparres flye of there is some helpe but if that be naught the house will downe whatsoever the other be So many weakenesses may be succoured and the heart may be sustained under them all if this worke of Humiliation be good but if a man once prove false here thy faith and obedience will be naught and the Spirit of God will never dwell in thee nor quicken thee See what our blessed Saviour saith Math. 7.13 Strive to enter
in at the straite gate c. This gate or this entrance into life is Humiliation of heart When the Soule is loosened from and bids farewell to sinne and himselfe then the gate is opened And as it is in other wayes If there be but one way or gate into an house and the traveller misseth that gate he looseth all his labour and must goe backe againe but if he once get in at this gate he is safe enough then So it is here There is a most narrow way of Gods Commandements and there is but one way or gate into this happinesse it is narrow and a little gate and a man must be nothing in his owne eyes and if you misse this gate you loose all your labour and shall never come to Salvation If a man could heare and pray all his dayes yet if his heart be not humbled he and his profession shall goe to hell together In Saint Matthew the conclusion is very peremptory when the Disciples were contending who should be highest Christ set a childe in the middest of them and said Except you become as little children Math. 18.3 you cannot enter into the Kingdome of heaven You may doe any thing with Infants and all that they have to doe is to cry Vnlesse you have humble hearts you cannot enter into heaven Hee doth not say You cannot be great men or you cannot goe farre into heaven but he saith You cannot enter So then the danger being so great and the mistaking so full of hazard and seeing it is possible to have it therefore let us use all diligence to make this worke sure Thirdly 3. Motive consider the mervailous good that God hath promised and which hee will bestow upon all that are truly humbled And let all these be as so many cords to draw us to looke for this blessed frame of heart Wee have need of all the motives in the world I know it is a hard matter for a man to lay downe himselfe and his parts and all his priviledges in the dust I say it is mervailous irksome and tedious to the nature of a carnall man but it will quit all his cost in the end When wee shall tast of those sweet benefits that come by a humble heart and have gotten Iesus Christ and mercy from him then it will never repent us that wee have spent so many teares and made so many prayers and used so many meanes to pull downe the pride of our hearts Oh brethren thinke of it See and consider the admirable benefits and the exceeding great good that will come to you thereby The good things that come by a heart that is truly humbled they are specially foure and with those the truth and substance of whatsoever the heart can crave and desire The first benefit of an humble heart is this by this meanes wee come to be made capable of all those riches of the treasure of wisedome and grace and mercy that are in Christ and not onely of the blessings for a better life but of all things in this life so farre as they are good for us First wee are made capable of all those treasures of wisedome grace and mercy that are in Christ and for this cause was Christ sent to preach glad tidings to the meeke as you heard before all the Gospell and all the glad tidings of it doe belong to an humble soule And the Prophet Malachy saith Malac. 3.1 Behold I will send my messenger to prepare the way before mee and the Lord whom you seeke shall suddainly come into his Temple Iohn Baptist was Christs harbenger and hee made way for Christ and when the way was prepared Christ came immediatly Wee are the Temple of the holy Ghost saith the Apostle Now if the heart bee once prepared and humbled looke then immediatly for Christ Are you not content to have Christ dwell in your hearts If you will be humbled and so prepared there is neither want of love nor speed on his part This should mervailously lift up the heart of every man to seeke for this blessed grace If thou art truly humbled care not for the love of men the love of Christ will satisfie thee And though thy father and mother cast thee out of doores and thy husband tumble thee out of his bed yet if thou be truly humbled Christ will be in stead of father and husband and all comforts to thee God hath but two thrones the humble heart is one So the Text saith Esa 57.15 I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit c. If the Lord Iesus come to dwell in thy heart and that hee will doe if thou be truly humbled then certainly hee will provide for thee all needfull comforts for this life See what Zephany saith Zeph. 2.3 Seeke yee the Lord all yee meeke of the earth which have wrought his judgement seeke righteousnesse seeke meekenesse it may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger When all things threatned desolation and destruction see who they were that had safety promised onely the meeke Object But some will say Is it not better for a man to be proud with the proud and to play the Beare amongst Beares and the Lyon amongst Lyons and to shift for one Answ No saith the text seeke meekenesse The humble Soule may take this to himselfe as his part and portion If there should be desolation amongst us as there is in Bohemia in the Palatinate and in other Countries the humble Soule shall be hid When the mightie tall trees are blowne downe by strong winds the little shrubs may be shaken a little but they stand still they are safe and sure when the mighty Oakes are either horribly shaken or puld up by the roots So if ever you will seeke safetie and deliverance seeke meekenesse and then you shall be hidden When the proud heart shall be weltering in his blood the Lord will provide a shadow to succour and to comfort you If Christ dwell in your hearts he is bound to all reparations 2. Benefit Secondly as Humiliation of heart doth estate a man into Christ and his merits and all provision in this kinde so it gives him the comfort of all that good which hee hath in Christ There are many that have a right to Christ and are deare to God and yet they want much sweet refreshing that they might have and as the Proverbe is They never see their owne because they want this Humiliation of heart in some measure To be truly humbled is the next way to be truly comforted The Lord will looke to him that hath an humble contrite heart Esay 62.8 and trembles at his word that is an humble Soule a poore Soule a very beggar at the gate of mercy the Lord will not onely know him for he knowes the wicked too in a generall manner but hee will give him such a gracious looke
as shall make his heart dance in his breast thou poore humbled Soule the Lord will give thee a glimpse of his favour when thou art tired in thy trouble and when thou lookest up to heaven the Lord will looke downe upon thee and will refresh thee with mercy It is that which God hath prepared as a sweet morsell for his childe he will revive the humble Though the proud man shall sit and swelter himselfe in his trouble Esay 57.15 yet the Lord will not onely be in the house and heart of an humble man but looke to him and revive him It is the condition to which the Lord hath promised consolation and this Humiliation of heart is the maine termes of agreement upon which God hath ever shewed mercy Rev. 3.26 Behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any man heare my voyce and open I will come in to him and sup with him and hee with mee As when men sup together and eate in the same dish it argues a sweet rejoycing in the familiarity one of another I know you would faine have much comfort the Lord now knocks if you will but open the doore hee will come into your hearts and he will bring his owne provision with him even the sweet cordialls of his grace and comfort and hee will refresh you with those consolations which the eye of man hath not seene and the eare of man hath not heard c. only the Saints of God shall feele them Every valley shall be fill'd Luk. 3.5.6 saith the text and every hill shall be brought low and the crooked things shall be made straight and then all flesh shall see the salvation of the Lord. When shall they see it when those things are done that are there promised Iohn Baptist was to make way for Christ and the Text saith Every valley shall be fill'd that is every desperate discouraged heart and every mountaine shall be levelled that is every proud heart shall be humbled and then all flesh shall see the salvation of God here is the cause why wee finde not the assurance of Gods love that wee might and ought to have there are mighty mountaines of carnall reasonings and strange mists of discontentment betweene Christ and the Soule and these keepe of the light of Gods love in Christ which else would shine in our faces for our everlasting comfort Now be humbled and throw away all those distempers and then the Lord Iesus who comes with healing under his wings will comfort you and you shall see the salvation of God There is a Christ and comfort in him if your Soules be humbled you shall see it and finde the evidence of it When the Sunne is neere setting because there is a mountaine betweene us and it therefore wee thinke it is set when it is not whereas if a man were on the top of it he should see the Sunne cleare So it is with all those mountaines of carnall reasonings they stand betweene the Lord Iesus and thy Soule and that 's the reason why thou seest not the light of Gods countenance shining upon thee The third benefit of an humble heart Matth. 23.12 Thirdly wee also may have glory in this comfort that wee have in Christ as our Saviour saith Whosoever exalts himselfe shall be abased but whosoever humbleth himselfe shall be exalted He doth not say If such a man and such a woman humble themselves but the words are universally to be understood whatsoever thou art be thou humble and the Lord shall lift thee up It is impossible that the exaltation glory of an humble Soule should be hindered by men or devils Let the devill and all his instruments labour to cast shame and disgrace upon thee nay be thy condition never so base and meane in the worlds account be thou humbled and it cannot be hindered but that the Lord will exalt thee the Lord hath promised it and thou being as thou shouldst be the Lord will doe what he hath engaged himselfe to The Lord many times for want of this leaves men of great parts and gifts in the lirch they fret and are grieved exceedingly because such a poore man findes acceptance and is approved of and yet no man lookes after them If you know any such tell them it is by reason of their pride they seeke their owne honour and not Gods they are not humbled but seek to exalt themselves and God will abase them Let them fawne and flatter let them flatter and dissemble never so much as most men doe to get honors yet God will abase them And for this cause God blasts one mans endeavours and withers another mans gifts and brings him to shame because he is proud whereas the humble Soul that is content to honor God in his abasement the Lord will set up that man in mercy and goodnesse Psal 25.9 the Lord will teach the humble in his way Doth the Lord care for any mans parts or gifts or for his honor respect No 1 Cor. 1.28 the Lord hath chosen things that are not that is things that in the eyes of the world are accounted as nothing those hath God chosen to confound the haughtinesse of the hearts of proud men in this kinde See how David answered Michall when she mocked him and said 2 Sam. 6.20 21. Oh how glorious was the King of Israel this day c. Is not this a goodly matter for the King to doe See how he answers her it was before the Lord who chose me rather then thy father and all his house and commanded me to be ruler over his people and therefore I will play before the Lord and if this be to be vile I will yet be more vile Thy father was naught and thou art so too and hee is gone to his place The meanest in all the place wil honour the humble heart but though happily the people may feare a proud man yet they will never honour him in their hearts The fourth benefit Math. 18.4 Fourthly and lastly we have blessednesse in all that appurtaines to an humble heart Whosoever humbles himselfe as a little childe shall be greatest in the Kingdome of heaven He doth not say he that is greatest and most loftie may haply be great but he that is humble and trembles at every truth of God and every truth prevailes with him and every terror awes him hee shall be greatest in the Kingdome of heaven You take it as a disgrace to be reprooved by a servant or an inferiour but the humble Soule takes it whatsoever it is and is willing to be reprooved by any and he that doth thus shall be in the highest degree of grace here and shall be greatest in the glory of heaven and be lifted up to the highest pinacle of glory the wider and deeper a vessell is the more liquor it holds So Humiliation makes the heart wide and deepe and as thy Humiliation is so shall be thy Faith and thy
but loose all these in the Lord Christ And see that mercy and compassion and that boundlesse goodnesse that is in the Lord Iesus and that mercy that will pardon all sinnes and forgive all sorts of sinners if they be humbled before him There is no pardon in grace nor in means in Word nor in Sacraments there is none but in Christ see none but that and when thou art there hold thy heart to it drench and drowne thy Soule there and fling thy Soule into the Sea of that plenteous Redemption in Christ and though thy prayers and all faile yet that mercy in Christ will never faile Away with these rivers these are all fresh water comforts that will faile but that Sea of mercy in Christ will hold for ever See a Sea of misery and confusion in thy soule and a Sea of mercy in Christ and say none but that Lord Here sit and here fall and for ever establish thy soule that it may goe well with thee for ever Thus you ought to goe beyond all meanes and he that doth thus doth truly despaire of all saving succour in them Therefore goe home and say thus the Lord hath given mee some comfort and some grace and a heart enlarged to walke with God and to performe dutie to him but I trust not in this comfort nor in my enlargement all my comfort is in Christ that Sea of mercy is still full and I rest there go from all these to that and rest there and let that content thee for ever Thus you see how farre the Prodigall hath gone Text. What doth he now he comes to himselfe and saith I will arise and goe to my Father and say to him Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy sonne make mee as one of thy hired servants Now his stout stomacke is come downe and he comes home by weeping crosse and he that had formerly slighted the kindnesse of a father and said Hee would not alwayes be holden within his fathers house he would have his portion and he hath it and is gone and at last when his heart and all failes him he comes to himselfe said here I may starve and die too the hogges fare better then I do therefore home I will go to my father c. This is the third passage that I told you of in the description of this worke of humiliation In these words there are these two things cleare First he submits himselfe to his father Secondly he is content to be at his fathers disposing he doth not seeke to be his owne carver and say if I may be my fathers steward and have some eminent place in the house then I will go home no but he saith father I am not worthy to be a Sonne make mee as a hired servant if I can but get into my fathers house againe I will die rather then go away any more he is content to be any thing so his father will but receive him into his family though it were but to be a drudge in the kitchen here 's a heart worth gold oh saith he let all the weight lye upon me I care not what I be only let mee be a servant So then from the former of these two the Doctrine is this The third Doctrine The distressed sinner that despaires of all supply and succour in himselfe is driven to submit himselfe to the Lord God for succour and reliefe It is no thankes to the Prodigall that hee comes home now neither is it any thanks to a poore sinner that hee returnes after all his wandring away from God yet better late then never For the opening of this point I will shew two things First What is the behaviour of the heart in this worke of submission and the manner of it Secondly The reasons why the Lord drives the heart to this stand and makes it fall downe at the footestoole of mercy What is subjection The first how the Soule behaves it selfe in this subjection The sinner having a sight of his owne sin and being troubled and overwhelmed with the unsupportable sorrow that attends there unto and yet he is not able to get power over his sinne nor assurance of pardon from the Lord for you must conceive the sinner to bee in the worke of preparation and hee yet conceives God to bee an enemy against him though he is in a good way to mercy yet God comes as an angry God against him and hee takes what course he can and seekes far and wide and improves all meanes and takes up all dutyes that if it were possible he might heale his wounded Soule and get ground against his corruptions but the truth is hee finds no succour and receives no comfort in what he hath nor in what he doth and therefore being in this despairing condition he seeth he cannot avoyd Gods anger neither can he beare it therefore he is forced though loath to make triall of the kindnesse of a father and of the Lord though for the present he apprehends God to be just to be incensed against him and though hee hath no experience of Gods favour for the while and no certainty how he shall speed if hee come to God yet because he sees that he cannot be worse then hee is but hee may be better if God please and this he knowes that none but God can helpe him therefore he fals at the footestoole of mercy and lyes grovelling at the gate of grace and submits himselfe to God that he may do what he will with him When Ionah had denounced that heavy judgement and as it were throwne wild-fire about the streets saying Ionah 3.9 within fortie dayes Nineveh shall be destroyed See what they resolve upon they fasted and prayed and put on sack cloath and ashes the Lord in mercy grant that we may take the like courses who can tell said they but God may turne and repent him of his feirce wrath that we perish not As if they had said we know not what God will do but this wee know that we cannot oppose Gods judgements nor prevent them nor succour our selves yet who can tell but the Lord may bee gratious and bountifull and yet continue peace and goodnesse to us in this kind thus it is with a sinner despairing of all succour in himselfe when he seeth hell fire flashing in his face and that he cannot succour himselfe then he saith this I know that all the meanes in the world cannot save mee yet who can tell but the Lord may have mercy upon mee and cure this distressed conscience and heale all these wounds that sinne hath made in my Soule when Paule went breathing out threatnings against the Church of God and he came furnished with letters from the high Priests with all his tricks and implements to persecute the Saints the Lord met him and there was a single combat fought between them the glory of the Lord amazed