Nay the Soule finds no end in pleading and therefore he reasons thus with himselfe and saith that God cannot doe more against him then he hath deserved but be sure he thinkes that God will not lay more upon him then hee is worthy of Nay it is sure the Soule cannot beare nor suffer so much as he hath deserved and pluckt upon himselfe if God should proceed in rigour with him For the sinner that will deale plainely and discernes his evill exactly it is easie for him to number up all his abhominations and the Soule thus reasons with it selfe and saith I onely deserve eternall condemnation for the wages of all sinne is death being committed against an infinite Majestie and against a Divine Iustice and then what doe all these my sinnes deserve committed and continued in and maintained against the light of Gods Word against all corrections and all checks of conscience and all the Commandements of God hell is too good and ten thousand hels is to little to torment such a wretch as I am In truth I begged mercy but what I mercy I am ashamed to expect it and with what heart can I beg this mercy which I have troden under my feet Shall that blood of Christ purge my heart that blood that I have trampled under my feet and accounted it as an unholy thing and when the Lord hath woed mee and his wounds were bleeding and his sides goared and his hideous cryes comming into mine eares My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee yet this Christ have I slighted and made nothing of his blood and can the blood of Christ doe mee any service indeed I doe crave grace but how doe I thinke to receive any All the pillars of the Church can testifie how often grace and mercy hath beene offered to me but I have refused it therefore how can I begge any grace And as the text saith They shall see their sinne and acknowledge their wayes and Iudge themselves worthy to be condemned So the Soule confesseth that it is worthy of nothing that is good it is not worthy of Gods love nor of Gods preservation nor any other priviledge only he confesseth that he doth loath himselfe and saith Oh this stubbornnesse and villany and this wretchednesse of mine what I mercy no I am not worthy of any it is more then I can expect I am onely worthy to be cast out for ever As the Prophet Ezechiel saith That thou mayest remember Ezech. 16.63 and be confounded and never open thy mouth more because of thy shame that is they shall remember the evill that they have committed and the Lords kindnesse and mercie that they have opposed and they shall be confounded and not open their mouthes any more So now his tongue cleaves to the roofe of his mouth and he saith I remember my evill and am ashamed to expect any mercy I sought for mercy before but now I see I am unworthy of any and worthy of all the judgements that God can poure upon me The Soule confesseth clearely that hee hath deserved more then God will lay upon him for if God should poure all his wrath upon him he must make him infinite to beare his infinite wrath and therefore the Lord onely layes so much upon him as hee is capable of Secondly the Soule acknowledgeth the equalnesse of Gods dealings be they never so harsh in this kind He confesseth that hee is as clay in the hands of the Potter and the Lord may deale with him as he will Yea the Soule is driven to an amazement at the Lords patience that hee hath beene pleased to reprive him so long and that God hath not cast him out of his presence and sent him downe to hell long agoe It is the frame of Spirit that the poore lamenting Church had Lament 3.22 It is the Lords mercy that wee are not confounded because his compassions faile not When a poore drunkard seeth how hee hath roared in the Alehouse against God and his truth and how he hath plotted against the Saints hee wonders that ever God could beare with such a wretch and that the earth hath not swallowed him up quick And when the Lord hath humbled the heart of an adulterer or adulteresse hee begins to think thus with himselfe the Lord saw all the evils that I have committed and all my plottings and all my inveighings and allurings to this sinne and my delight in it then the Soule admires that ever Gods Iustice was able to beare with such a monster and that God did not confound him in his burning lusts and cast him downe to hell Oh saith hee it is because his mercies faile not that my life and all hath not failed long agoe Nay the Soule concludes that the Lord should not save him As Nehemiah saith Howbeit Nehem. 9.33 thou art just in all that is brought upon us for thou hast done right but wee have done wickedly as if hee had said It is righteous that every man should lye under his owne load and therefore thou mayest justly condemne us Nay the Soule saith That God cannot but plague him for ought that hee perceives in Iustice as Daniel saith Dan. 9.14 Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evill and brought it upon us for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doth because we obeyed not his voyce Hee speakes there of the 70. yeares captivity So the Soule saith Because the Lord is just and righteous and doth not onely punish but he cannot but punish and therefore he justifies the Lord in all the plagues that ever can be inflicted upon him And hence it is that the Soule will not maintaine any kinde of murmuring or heart rising against the Lords dealings much lesse doth he hide it in the Lord. But though nature and corruption will be stirring and sometimes the heart will be grudging against the Lord and say Why doth the Lord thus and why are not my prayers answered such a Soule is humbled and such a Soule is comforted and why not I as well as hee yet when any such matter riseth in the heart hee stifles crusheth and chokes these wretched distempers and doth abase it selfe before the Lord saying What if God will not as the Apostle saith speaking of the rejection of some and the receiving of others so the Soule saith What if God will not heare thy prayers and what if God will not pacifie thy conscience nor shew any mercy to thee thou hast thy owne and doth the Lord doe me any wrong vile hell-hound that I am I have my sinne and my shame wrath is my portion and hell is my place I may goe thither when I will it is mercy that God deales thus with me Now the Soule comes to cleare God in all his providence and saith It is just with God that all the prayers which come from this filthy heart of mine should be abhorred and that all my labours in holy duties should
THE SOVLES HVMILIATION Iob 22. vers 29. And he shall save the humble Person LONDON Printed by I. L. for Andrew Crooke at the signe of the Beare in Pauls Church-yard 1637. THE SOVLES HVMILIATION Luke 15. vers 14 15 16 17 18 c. 14. And when he had spent all there arose a mightie famine in that land and he began to be in want 15. And he went and joyned himself to a citizen of that countrey and he sent him into his fields to feed swine 16. And he would faine have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eate and no man gave unto him 17. And when he came to himselfe he said How many hired servants in my fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger 18. I will arise and goe to my father and will say unto him Father I have sinned c. THAT a poore sinner might come and be partaker of the precious merits and death of our Saviour and receive comfort thereby There are two things considerable First a fitting and enabling of the soule for Christ Secondly an inplantation of the Soule into Christ For howsoever it is true there is aboundance of mercy and infinite merit in Christ yet unlesse the Soule be fitted and enabled by the hand of faith to lay hold upon Christ he shall never receive comfort from him be his necessities never so many and his misery never so grievous Therefore Iohn Baptist was sent to prepare the way that all those mountaines of pride might be laid low and all the ditches filled up and all the crooked things might be made strieght and all rough things might be made smooth that there might be a way for Christ The meaning is this The heart of a man is the high way wherein Christ comes Now there are mountaines of pride and untoward stoutnesse of heart and many windings and turnings and devices which the heart hath by reason of many lusts that are in it This fitting and preparing is nothing else but the taking away of that knotty knarlinesse of the heart and that pride and all such cursed corruptions that the doore may be set open and the heart made ready that the King of glory may come in The heart being thus fitted and enabled then followes humiliation for the breaking of the heart is not all that God hath to doe with a poore sinner though the Lord wound the heart of a sinner and run him through yet the heart will be starting aside and will not goe out to Christ Therefore I shall now speake of humiliation of the spirit yet before I come to it give me leave to lay open two passages 1. The necessity of this worke it must needs be 2. The nature of this worke First it is necessary that the soule should be thus humbled for humiliation pares away all selfe-sufficiency from the soule by compunction the Lord breakes the heart and wearies it with sinne and then the soule will be no more drunke nor loose nor vaine no more foolish nor dissembling nor hating of Gods servants nor use no more false weights by humiliation the Lord plucks away the confidence in a mans priviledges and all his good performances and all his duties by which he is ready to shelter himselfe and by which he thinks to get some succour and comfort to his owne soule Now as sinne shall not rule in the heart so the Lord will make the sinner see that whatsoever he hath and doth can never helpe him except the Lord Iesus come downe from heaven by his mightie power For the further opening of these you must know that there are these two maine lets which hinder the comming of faith into the soule and which keepe a man from beleeving in Christ that Christ may have possession of him First 1. Let of Faith when the soule is taken up with a secure course and rests it selfe well apaide in his owne practises and therefore it never seeth any need of a change nor never goes out for a change now while he lives thus and blesseth himselfe in his sinne it is impossible that ever the soule should receive faith or ever by the power of faith repaire to Christ upon these termes for ever where faith comes it works a change all the old things are done away and become new he is new in heart and life now the secure sinner that seeth no need of a change will never see need of faith nor labour for it and if the Ministers of God bid such a man to leave his sinne and to pray in his family and forsake his sinfull practises and to sanctifie the Lords day and take up new courses he thinkes they bid him to his losse now by that time the Lord hath taken away this let and burthened the soule marvellous extreamely and saith is it well that you live in drunkennesse and in covetousnesse in cheating in lying and the like then take your sinnes and get you downe to hell with them thus the Lord is forced to breake the heart then a poore sinner begins to see where he is and now he saith and is this true then I am the most miserable creature under heaven and except I be otherwise it had beene good for mee if I had never beene borne by this time the soule sees need of a change Therefore as they said Men and brethren what shall we doe Acts 2.37 we have beene thus and thus but if we rest here it will be our ruine for ever oh what shall we doe Thus the soule comes to a restlesse dislike of it selfe and saith I must either be otherwise or else I am but a damned man for ever When the soule is thus resolved that it must of necessitie change and there is no dallying with the Lord nor with himselfe and this heart must be altered and this course must be amended When it sees that it must change it begins to improve all meanes to see if he can possibly doe it by his owne strength and by his meanes using as if the soule did say good Lord cannot my wit compasse it and cannot my prayers worke it and though I am a sinfull wretched man yet I will be no more drunke nor uncleane nor the like but by prayer and hearing and fasting I will labour to mend all in this kinde will not these duties doe the deed this very resting in a mans selfe-sufficiency doth marveilously crosse and hinder the worke of Faith for this is the nature of Faith It goes out of it selfe and fetcheth a principle of life grace and power from another The soule apprehends it selfe miserable and it falls upon the arme of Gods mercy and meerely goes out to God for succour Now for a man to fetch all from without and yet to seeke for sufficiency from himselfe these two cannot stand together they are professely crosse one to another and therefore after the Lord hath made the soule see an absolute necessitie of a
the whalls belly and wee shal heare no more newes of quarrelling but of praying and there he abased himselfe as it is with a Phisitian when the Patient hath some vehement fit of a fever or the like that he cannot sleepe they use to give him a litle Opium and that makes him rest a little This humiliation of heart is like Opium there are peevish fits of a proud heart that no word nor commandes will rule a man but he must have what he will or els he will set his mouth against heaven but a little receit of this Opium will quiet all if hee could but come to see his owne emptinesse and wretchednesse and get his heart to be at Gods disposing then his heart would bee wonderfully calmed and meekened whatsoever he endures Humiliation gives quiet to a mans course in three causes First in the fiercest temptations Secondly Three benefits of Humiliation in the heaviest oppositions of men Thirdly in the greatest poverty that can befall a man in this life In the strongest temptations When Sathan begins to besiege the heart of a poore sinner and layes battery against him the Soule is so settled that he cannot be remooved See how the humbled heart tires the divell and runnes him out of breath and out-shoots him in his owne Bow in the very highest of all his malice and indignation Take a poore Soule at the under when hee hath beene throughly burthened with a corruption and laid gasping for a little grace and favour and could not finde any evidence of mercy the Soule cryes continually and begs for mercy earnestly the divell seeth him and having some permission from God so to doe he lets flye at the poore Soule and labours to knocke him off from his course and saith to him in this manner Sathan objects Doest thou thinke to get mercy from the Lord and doest thou dreame of any mercy at the hands of God when thy own conscience dogs thee Nay goe to the place where thou livest and to the chamber where thou lyest and consider thy fearefull abhominations and how thou art foyled by them to this day set thy heart at rest God heares not and respects not the prayers of such vile sinners The Soule answers Now the Soule seeth this easily and confesseth it plainly and the humbled Soule saith it is true I have often denied the Lord when hee hath called upon mee and therefore he may justly deny mee yet seeke to him for mercy I must and if the Lord will cast mee away and reject my prayers I am contented if hee doe cast mee away what then Sathan Sathan what then saith the divell I had thought this would have been enough to make thee despaire Yet this is not all for God will give thee over and leave thee to thy selfe and to thy lusts and corruptions and thy latter end shall be worse than thy beginning and thou shalt call and cry and when thou hast done be overthrowne that loose uncleane and proud heart of thine will overthrow thee for ever God will leave thee to thy selfe and suffer thy corruptions to prevaile against thee and thou shalt fall fearefully to the wounding of thy conscience to the grieving of the hearts of Gods people to the scandall of the Gospel and the reproach of thy owne person The Soule answers Yet the humble Soule replies in this manner and saith if the Lord give mee up to my base lusts which I have given my selfe so much libertie in and if the Lord will leave me to my sinnes because I have left his gracious commands and if I shall fall one day and be disgraced and dishonoured yet let the Lord be honoured and let not God loose the praise of his power and justice and I am contented if God doe leave mee what then Sathan The Devill objects What then saith the divell I had thought this had beene enough to drive thee out of thy wits yet this is not all For when God hath left thee to thy sinnes then the Lord will breake out in vengeance against thee and get praise from that proud heart of thine and make thee an example of his heavy vengeance to all ages to come and therefore it is best for thee to prevent an untimely Iudgement by an untimely death The humble heart is quieted all this while and replyes The Soule answers whatsoever God can or will doe I know not yet so great are my sinnes that he cannot or at least will not doe so much against mee as I have deserved if the Lord doe come in Iudgement against mee I am contented say what thou wilt what then Sathan Thus you may runne the divell out of breath then the divell leaves the humbled Soule The want of this Humiliation of heart it is where by men are brought to desperate stands so that sometimes one man goes to a haltar another runs out of his wits and another drownes himselfe all this is horrible pride of heart Why will you not beare the wrath of the Lord It is true indeed your sinnes are great and Gods wrath is heavie yet God will doe you good by it and therefore be quiet In the time of warre when the great Cannons flye of the onely way to avoyd them is to lye down in a furrow and so the Bullets flye over them whereas they meete with the mountaines and tall Cedars So it is with all the temptations of Sathan which besiege us Lye low and be contented to be at Gods disposing and all the temptations of the divell shall not be able to disquiet or distract thee The second benefit Secondly when Sathan is gone then comes the troubles and oppositions of the world And this Humiliation of heart gives a secret setling to the Soule against all the railings and oppositions of the wicked world For this takes of the unrulinesse of the heart So that when the Soule will not contend with oppositions but is content to beare them it is not troubled with them The humble Soule seeth God dispensing with all oppositions and therefore it is not troubled with them A man is sometimes Sea-sicke not because of the Tempest but because of his full stomacke and therefore when he hath emptied his stomacke hee is well againe So it is with this Humiliation of heart If the heart were emptied truly though a man were in a Sea of oppositions if he have no more trouble in his stomacke and in his proud heart then in the oppositions of the world hee might bee quieted Consider David when he was in the wildernesse 1 Sam. 25.12 13. and sent to Nabal for some reliefe see how he raged extreamely against him because he was denied it The reason was not in the offence but in the pride of his heart Take the same man in the persecution of Absalon and when Shimei cursed him 2 Sam. 15.25 saying Art not thou he that kild such and such and that committed adultery with the wife of Vriah 2
and they had humbled themselves and the Lord had turned from his wrath see how this man fals out with God! Oh saith he Ionah 4.1 2. I thought so much when I was in my owne countrey that thou wouldest save this people and I should be accounted a false Prophet and thus my glory lyes in the dust You thinke God is beholden to you for your prayers and fastings and you say how is it that after all our prayers yet we have not comfort such a man is cheared and such a poore creature is refreshed and yet they have not the parts that we have and they have not prayed as we have done thou hast shewed mercy to them and therefore why not to us too This is horrible pride See how a proud soule justles God out of the place of of his providence and brings the Almightie to his barre and to his judgement and the heart begins to reason inwardly and sometimes vents it outwardly and saith had the Lord given mee that grace and fitted a place for mee I could have done much for God and some good to his Church and I could have ministred much comfort to others this is the English of it As if hee had said had the Lord beene so wise to devise a meanes to effect this glory as I am then great matters might have bene done This is to make a mans wisedome above God and his mercy grace wisedome and all Oh! this is devillish pride Secondly It slights all mercyes received and all that God bestowes from day to day because he cannot have what he would therefore he cares not for it and he regards not what hee hath As Haman said Hester 5.13 all this honor and these riches availe mee nothing so long as I see the Iew Mordecai sitting in the gate This one thing denyed him made him no to regard whatsoever hee had and it was not onely so with Haman but even with good Ionah When God had prepared a goard because he tooke it away againe suddainely Ionah tooke on exceedingly and forgetting all Gods mercyes in the depth he quarrels with heaven Ionah 4.9 and when the Lord said dost thou well to bee angry yes saith he even to the death thus he commends himself The reason is the Soule is like a sullen child who because his coate is not garded as he would have it therefore he is discontented and will havs none at all Therefore the Soule saith as they did of the two litle fishes Iohn 6.9 heere are five barly loaves and two fishes but what are these amongst so many people So the Soule saith oh he hath nothing and he can doe nothing and God frownes upon him c. but hath not God given you a care and conscience to reforme your lives and hath not he done this and that for you oh yes but what 's this to that I might have had and that I would have oh downe with that proud heart Thirdly The discontented Soule will quarrell with his owne condition whatsoever it is though he had a condition of waxe as the Proverb is hee is never pleased nor quietted but hee hath strange Imaginations in his mind and strange liftings up of his owne conceiptes and he saith If God had set mee in such a place answerable to my gifts and parts then such a thing might have beene done but God hath put him as it were under a clod and therefore hee hath no care of himselfe as God hath had no care of him nay let him have that condition which he desires and he falls out with that too Gen. 25.22 Rebecca could not be contented without children and yet when shee had conceived and the children began to strive in her wombe shee said if it be so why am I thus So it is with a proud discontented heart Hee must have this and hee will have that and if there be any weaknesse hee sinks downe in his sorrow Iosh 7.7 It is a strange passage of good Iosuah when the Lord had discomfited the hoast of Israel by the men of Ai see how he complaines saying Alas oh Lord God wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Iordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites would God we had beene content to dwell on the other side Iordan As if hee had not begged Gods blessing and had not seene Gods hand in succouring of him before and yet now because hee had not what he would hee takes all in the worst sence And as Moses said when the Lord had call'd him to goe before Pharaoh send by whom thou should'st send Exod. 4.13 As if God must not dispose of him because he had not that eloquence which hee desired Fourthly as he quarrells with his condition so hee becomes weary of his life and will needs dye in a pet because God answers not and his humour is not fitted therefore hee will away from the world no man shall see him any more neither will he see any man Thus it was with good Eliah when he said 1 King 19.4 Lord take away my life for I am no better then my Fathers So it was with Ionah and with Iob. Iob 3.10 11 12. You women thinke of this It may be your husbands will not speake to you as you would have them and then you wish Oh that you had dyed in such a sicknesse c. Downe with those proud hearts The Lord hath given you life and continues it that you may seeke to God and yet you will needs dye in a sullen fit its mercy that you may live to seeke mercy Fifthly in conclusion when the Soule hath thus quarrelled with God and slighted all mercies and quarrelled with his condition and is grown weary of his life all then the Soul comes to a desperate distraction in himselfe and a wonderfull thought seazeth upon the Soule of a discontented man that his heart is almost driven beyond himselfe and out of this comes a great deale of madnesse in the wicked and it doth much hurt to the good too His thoughts run in a marvellous hurry one upon another and makes the Soule unfit to doe any good to others or to receive any good from others Here is the cause when God hath opened your eyes and the wrath of God first began to pursue you then you could have been content to fall into a river and to make away your selves Now what if God will have you beare his hand and will not give you grace yet why doe you quarrell against God Oh sit downe and humble your selves with meekenesse and calmnesse and wonder that you are not in hell what if you had beene damned long agoe Thus it was with Rachel shee would not be comforted because her children were not So it is with thy Soule thou must have what thou wilt or else thou wilt not be comforted Now there are two objections against the former truth which I must remoove and answer