signifies v. 16. Wash you make you clean cease to do evil learn to do well and then come saith the Lord v. 18. though your sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow In the sixt of Micah v. 6. a question is proposed Wherewithall shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God shall I come before him with burnt offerings with Calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousand of Rams or ten thousand of Rivers of Oyl This is much and who is there that can repent at so dear a rate but there 's more yet shall I give my first Born for my transgression and the fruit of my Body for the sin of my Soul The Answer 's Negative none of this will do no the Lord hath not required it Why what then hath the Lord required that follows at the 8. v. and I pray you mark it well He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God there 's the top of all the humiliation of the Soul to walk humbly with thy God If the Prophets in the Old Testament by such pathetical passages endeavoured to lessen the esteem of outward ceremonial worship and press upon the Jews the inward and moral what may we expect from Christ and his Apostles in the New when Types and shadows are vanisht and have given place to the substance now exhibited Christ hath denounced no less then eight woes in one Chapter against Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites that appear beautiful outwardly and clense only the out-side of the Cup and St. Paul hath set it down for a rule to Timothy Bodily exercise is of little profit Wherfore if I were to speak to such as are superstitiously addicted to the outward form of Godliness denying the power thereof that there would be such the Apostle hath foretold such would I beseech to remember Esay's Quis requisivit who hath required these things at your hands and that frustra colunt which our Saviour urgeth Mar. 7. In vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Cōmandements of Men. The aim of my Speech is not to cōdemn any humane Ordinance for the better ordering of the Church not repugnable to Gods word but this is my drift that we would all employ our chiefest care to serve God with that which he most cares for and therefore I beseech you Fathers and Brethren that you present your Souls a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God A living Sacrifice Behold here a main difference between this and the legal offering the Beast was slain the Soul then truly begins to live when she is offered up to God for as the Soul is the life of the Body so is God the life of the Soul ye◠somewhat in the Soul is slain Lust and Wantonness are slain and then as it were a Goat is offered Wrath and Anger are slain and then as it were a Bull is offered but these are enemies of the Soul by whose death she lives the better And hence from the benefit accrewing to the Soul by this oblation may be taken an incentive to the performance of it perform it we shall the rather if we consider that all the rest we can possibly do in Gods service without this is but meer simulation no more but the acting of a Religious part upon a Stage Could we pray unto God till our Tongues are weary and our Knees cleave to the dust could we fast as long as Moses and Elias could we feed the hungry and cloath the naked of the whole world whatsoever can be imagined to be done there be wanting an humble and religious heart all is to little purpose in Gods esteem 't is not piety but hypocrisy not Religion but ostentation Nor do I mean that the business of Religion is to be dispatcht privately between God and our own Souls only that 's the other extream The Soul indeed hath the first and choicest place both because it hath the greatest share in sin the rest being but instruments of sin and fewell for sin abused by the Soul and so the Soul in point of justice is to bear the greatest pain in the exercise of Humiliation and also because it is the best thing we have and most peecious in Gods account and so in point of gratitude to be chiefly offer'd Now as the Scripture saith of God Having given us his Son how shall he not give us all things so may it be said of us offering up to God our Soul that which is in our Bosome and dearest to us how shall we choose but give him all things else Our Bodies formed into reverent gestures at the performance of Religious exercises and chastned with those too much neglected works of mortification whereby the Soul as it were setting Foot upon the Body raiseth her self higher for Divine contemplation Our Estates too extending them to pious uses works of mercy wherein as God himself to our great comfort is principally exercised so when we resemble him therein he is in us most delighted Thus a broken Body is required and a broken Estate too but above all a broken Soul And here see the goodness of God in requiring that Sacrifice which the poorest Man may offer as freely as the richest Under the Law when a Lamb was wanting God accepted of a pair of turtle Doves Thou poor Soul that hast nothing dost thou ask me Quid retribuam What shall I render what shall I offer unto God Habes in te quod offer as August Hearken I will tell thee how thou mayst be as liberal as the best Give him thy self give him a broken and a contrite Heart If there be any advantage it seems to be on the poor Mans side for there is a certain thing that the Apostle mentions 1 Tim. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pride and high-mindedness usually waits upon rich Men quite contrary to this humbling of our selves and besides dant sua non se because they give unto God somewhat of their Estates they are the more apt to withhold and make the bolder to keep back from him somewhat of themselves but Men of a poor and of a broken Estate are more easily brought to that poorness and brokenness of Spirit which is of so high esteem with God and being able to give little else will give themselves wholly Wholly I say for the Soul and the whole Soul is to be offered God hath employment for every part and faculty of it To the understanding hee is truth to the will goodness it self our fear hath his wonderful judgements to work upon our love cannot but take flame from his loving kindness what greater joy then in his presence what better things can be hoped for then his promises Hee hath enemies of his glory for our anger and indignation to spend themselves upon especially those domestick enemies in our own
Bosom our sins the proper object of our sorrow too this anger and sorrow are the busiest Agents in the work of Humiliation they will not leave till the whole Soul be broken that as the hard and impenitent heart kept out God so the broken heart may give him entrance and as sin hath over-spread the whole so there may be a gracious work wrought upon every part When the Soul is thus whole that is no part with-held from God and thus broken that is truly humbled for her offences then have we our offering ready the former wholeness doth not exclude this breach of contrition So from the matter it self the Heart and Spirit let us with your patience proceed to the qualification or requisite conditions of the matter in the words broken and contrite The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit c. II. Broken and contrite I will not be curious in the termes onely tell you this from a learned hand that they seem to be borrowed from the manner of Sacrificing among the Jews Their Sacrifices were first cut in pieces not mangled but joynted as is observed out of the Jewish Rituals that was their breaking then were they burnt to ashes that was their contrition A breaking and contrition which doth not unfitly represent the breaking and contrition required in true repentance Wherein we must after a sort take asunder every part and faculty of the Soul and examin the particular defects not the greater defects onely but piercing into the closest corruptions in recessus animi searching the most retired Corners of this Labyrinth A necessary piece of work this breaking and contrition but hard and ungratefull to most Men to such as frame to themselves a new pleasing Divinity agreeable to their own lusts ends such as think to gain Heaven and Earth together who not remembring that Christ himself wore a Crown of thorns before that of glory and bore the Cross before the Scepter hope to walk to Heaven on Roses to live in all the delights pleasures of this world and be ne'r the further off from that eternal happiness of the world to come Scrupulous they are in the judgement of these unpolitick that require in a Christian life such mourning in private such breaking of the Heart such contrition of the Spirit Yet they will in the end appear the wiser sort that are content to forgoe the pleasures of this life for the joys of that hereafter And indeed we must all be content unless we can find a smoother way to Heaven then God hath shewed us then Christ and all the Saints have led us we must be content I say notwithstanding the tenderness of the Flesh that prompts every Man with propitius esto tibi to take seriously in hand this work so necessary Let the Flesh reclaim and deterre us from setting upon it or when we are about it let it move us to do it slightly yet for all this we must do it and we must do it throughly Now for the through performance of this work let us take a view of the means It is true there is a Tribunal within us and a witness also within us and an executioner also to torment us sur do verbere but neither is this torment so effectual nor the witness so faithful nor the judge so incorrupt that the business can be compleated without any further help Our natural knowledge of the principles of good and evil is but weak in the application of which principles to our particular actions we are not skilfull The Copy of the Law was written in our Hearts exactly at the first when we had Hearts of Flesh and capeable of a fair Impression but since our hearts became stony the Characters are much defaced and we have need to repair to the authentick Copy thereby to correct our errors and supply our defects I mean the Law written in the Holy Bible of which the Psalmist hath a fit Elogium The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul Psal 19. God that can out of stones raise up Children unto Abraham and draw water out of the hard Rock can as well by the power of his word melt these Rocky Hearts of ours into tears of penitence and of these stones make us new Hearts Vox Domini confringens Cedros Ps 29. The voice of the Lord is mighty in operation and although as it proceeds from the mouth of his weak Minister it be but wind yet this wind accompanyed with the vertue of his Holy Spirit is strong enough not onely to shake the top branches but even to rend up the bottom root of the tallest Cedar The Sword of the Spirit hath a sharp point and a keen edge when it is managed by a Paul or Apollos Men mighty in the Scriptures and such as have boldness equall to their skill it will pierce and cut deep even to the dividing asunder of the Heart and Spirit Besides a powerfull application of the Law unto a sinners conscience it pleaseth God many times to further this gracious work by joyning with it some affliction Affliction sanctified hath a speciall influence to that effect Worldly Crosses drive the Soul inward and put us into a serious meditation of their Original Omnis paena propter culpam All the evill of pain is for the evill of sin the consideration whereof brings a fresh report of Gods anger to the guilty conscience and makes the wound wider And withall it may be noted Men are usually punished in the same kind wherein they have offended The punishment so answers the offence that the one serves to renew the memory of the other and thus is the Book of conscience like unto some secret Letters most plainly read by the fire of tribulation These briefly I take to be the means whereby a hard heart is broken Conscience awaked and informed by the Law soundly applyed the Law backed by Affliction The Sinner being arrested by the terrours of a naturall Conscience the threats of the Law and some present tokens of Gods anger although like a malefactor he be ready to try all shifts before he will fly to the mercy of the Judge cannot hold against so strong impressions to stand out he sees were but to make God redouble his stroaks now at length he understands by his own feeling the malignant quality of sin he melteth into sorrow one while other while he is cut to the Heart with a holy indignation Oh saith he in the detestation of his sins that I should ever so ingratefully forget God and so desperately neglect my own safety that being a Man I should lead a life so brutish that without care so much as of common honesty I should commit acts so shamefull What madness was it to pretend to happiness and venture upon such pernicious enterprizes so greedily to swallow poyson and to hug my own damnation Oh how am I am bashed and confounded that for a trifle a matter of nothing a few ounces of gain
a little breath of applause some minutes of delight I should so and so often by such and such sins offend so presumptuously against so glorious a God so undutifully against so kind a Father so ungratefully against so gracious a Redeemer The case of our penitent whilst he hath one eye fixt on Gods Majesty the other on his own guilt is pittifull beyond expression Da Christianum scit quod dico The entercourse between God and the Soul is truly known onely to the experienced Christian He alone conceives what it is to receive the word with fear and trembling with what affectionate longing and thirsty desires the Soul panteth and gaspeth after mercy choosing rather to hear of mercy then a Kingdom He that hath felt the smart of sin knows what detestation is due unto it and that there is no sorrow like unto that sorrow Ruben principium doloris mei as some read it Gen. 49. 3. Iacob calls Ruben the beginning of his sorrow non quod in nullo c. because all his former griefs were swallowed up in that which the Sin of Ruben brought him If anothers sin were so grievous how much more ones own So heavy is the burden of this sorrow that it presseth down the Soul well nigh to desperation it may be truly said that a penitents way to Heaven lyes near the Gates of Hell and Satan that at first playes the Serpent by fly temptation turns Lyon in our distress and endeavours by open force to draw us in But our comfort is that when we are cast down God hath not cast us off when wee walk through this shady vale he shal lead us forth to the Streams of comfort when our Heart and Spirit is broken and contrite then are we his Sacrifices then he doth not despise us So from the qualification of this Sacrifice in the words broken and contrite we are fallen upon Gods acceptance and esteem of it in the first and last words these are the Sacrifices of God these he will not despise III. The Sacrifices of God Sacrifices in the Plural to signify pro omnibus unum sufficere as Calvin notes that this one Sacrifice of a broken Heart is worth all Sacrifices of God not because he is the giver of what we offer although thats very true for what have we worth a giving which we have not first received but that 's not the meaning here the addition of God to Sacrifices is a mark of speciall excellency Thy righteousness is like the Mountains of God Psal 36. So the Margin hath expressed the Hebrew which the Text Interprets like the great Mountains so here the Sacrifices of God are the greatest and most excellent Sacrifices The latter words Thou shalt not despise are spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a figure very frequent Bethlehem not the least 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which indeed for our Saviours Birth in it was the greatest of all Cities And Saint Paul would have us most highly to esteem prophecying when he bids us not despise it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same word here used by the Seventy by which wee must understand that God is so far from despising or setting at nought the Sacrifice of a contrite Heart that nothing can be more acceptable or precious in his sight God Almighty glorieth not in any Title so much as that of mercifull and gractous a Father of mercies and God of comfort and the Church could not possibly stile him better then a God whose nature and property is ever to have mercy and to forgive This is his proper work but vengeance is called opus non suum Esay 28. a strange work and not his own Behold here the true ground and reason of that Acceptance I speak of 'T is Gods goodness not the dignity of our Contrition that so commends it To talk of merit and satisfaction with the presumptuous Papist is no less unreverent then unsafe Let them beware said judicious Hooker who challenge to themselves a strength which they have not least they loose the cōfortable support of that weakness which indeed they have By the power of Grace say we our hard Hearts are broken and by the gentleness of grace they are so favourably accepted Yea such is Gods goodness that hee would bring us whole and sound to Heaven if it might be for he delighteth not in the death no nor in any pain or trouble of his creature not as it is absolutely considered but in regard of the end thereof so he is much pleased with it As the Physician is glad to see the working of his Physick not that he desires the pain of his Patient but his recovery or as a loving Husband desires his Wifes travel not for the pain she must endure but for the Births sake So is God affected as I may say in the travel of his Spouse the Christian Soul the pangs whereof hee willeth not for their own sake but for the new Births sake that cannot be produc'd nor reviv'd without them Well to return that the contrite Soul is an acceptable Sacrifice to God we cannot doubt My Dove that mournest in the Clifts of the Rock let me see thy Face Cant. 2. Our Face is never so fair in Gods Eye as when 't is washt with the tears of a Penitent Heart these Penitent tears Satan cannot endure nay 't is the conceit of one tolerabilius sustinet flammam suam quà m lacrymam nostram Satan can as little abide this Water of Repentance as the fire of Hell but God so much values and loves our tears that he hath a Bottle on purpose to preserve them in When we are least in our own eyes then are we most precious in his To this Man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite Heart Esay 66. 2. Nor doth he onely cast a favourable look upon that Man but vouchsafeth to make him his dwelling place For thus saith the high and holy one that inhabiteth Eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive the Spirit of the humble and to revive the Heart of the contrite Es 57 15 What comfort what glory is this to an humble Soul that she is chosen out for an habitation of the most high sure where God dwelleth by his gracious presence that place must needs be Heavenly so indeed is the penitent Soul what ere she seems God that dwells there doth not so hide his countenance but that the beams of comfort either mingle with the most bitter complaints of a broken Heart or at least in due time succeed them No better instance then David See him in the first of his Penitentials Psal 6. My Soul is sore vexed ver 3. I am weary with my groaning ver 6. Mine eye is consumed for very grief ver 7. There is sorrow plenty But hath the Lord no pitty in the next verses The Lord saith he hath