inferre a negative conclusion from ouâ— sense Sometimes wee see not the beames of the Sun the interposition of the Moone doth hinder us in an eclypse from beholding its light yea dark clouds we see ordinarily will doe it what shall we therefore conclude that the Sun doth not shine or that the Sunne doth not cast an influence upon the creatures this we should call ridiculous In like manner thou sayest I doe not feele God casting his influence of grace upon my soul strengthening me against my corruptions nor so shining upon me with beames of enlivening quickning grace my heart is not quick in his service it is dead unto duties and dull in them I doe nor feel the heat of the Son of Righteousnesse warming my soule with beames of love c. therefore wilt thou conclude God doth not doe it The Psalmist cryes out for want of feeling Psal 22. v. 1. Psal 22. v. 1. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and art so farre from my health and from tâ—e words of my roaring and so hee goes on v. 2. O my God I cry by day time and thou hearest not and in the night and have no audience Mark Christian holy men may sometimes want feeling did not God think you heare David had he indeed no audience according to his sad thoughts Ah! saith a Christian but there was some comfort though he did not feele peace yet hee did feele strengh he felt God enabling him to pray and cry and seek him but I cannot feele this Heark yet once againe to Asaph Psal 77. v 4. I am so troubled that I cannot speak David Psal 51. v. 10. 11 12. He prayes to God to create a clean heart and renew a right spirit within him and v. 14. to confirm him with a free spirit And yet shall we think that at this time David had not the sweet influences of Gods holy Spirit if so we are confuted from the foregoing verse Cast me not away from thy presence take not thy holy spirit from me By all which it may easily appeare that it is one thing not to feel God strengthening and quickning us and another thing for him not to doe it The working of Gods Spirit within us is very secret according to the nature of the Spirit we doe not feele the starres influence upon us nor yet the actings of our soules within us and yet it is certaine they have an influence upon us and that our soules do subtilly and secretly act in all in every part of our bodies and therefore secondly Consid 2. That the truth of Gods love to thee in his acting in thee is not so easily to bee discerned in the acting and working of God as in the effect of such acts and operations secret acts of spirituall substances are not to be discerned and understood in agendo but in affecto not in the doing but when they are done we cannot feel the soules conveying of its influence and power of working through every part of the body wee cannot understand or see or feele the time when it doth it nor the manner how it doth it c. yet we know it is done and that is enough for us thou canst not see nor feel the acting of the vegetative soule in the plant thou canst not feel how it growes or see when it growes or understand the moment of its shooting out yet thou sayest it doth act the plant is grown and the vegetative soule in it hath questionlesse been the internall principle of its growth You may possibly see a man in some lethargick disease or in a trance that you shall not see or discern that his soule is yet in his body you shall not discerne his pulse to beat nor discern him to breath but all possibly in the room may judge him dead yet his body keepes still warme doth not stiffen or grow cold his eyes are not set nor his chap fallen and possibly by applying a glasse to his mouth you may discern he yet breathes and lives and consequently you may gather the mans soule hath not yet taken its leave of the body for then you know hee would grow stiff and cold and so you conclude that his pulse doth still beat though so obscurely that you cannot feele or discerne it so it may bee with thy soule Christian the invisible worke of God in acting his grace in thee quickning strengthning thee moving thee to spirituall duties if thou lookest to see it and feele it acting as thou mayest feel the beating of thy pulse upon thy wrist thou mayst be deceived it may beat darkly and secretly it is a secret work of a spirituall substance and yet thou mayest be comforted in it if thou wilt but look to the effects if thy soul and body do not grow stiffe and cold stinking with old sins and lusts and base corruptions there is some spirituall life that keeps thy soule warm though thou canst not feele Gods secret and spirituall working in thy soule in the very act of warming and quickning thee and enabling thy soule to love him and desire after him yet speake truth does not thy soule love him doest thou not delight in him doest thou not desire after him come let us put a glasse to the mouth of thy soule here 's a base lust and corruption which if thou actest thou shalt bewray the hatred of thy God to all the World darest thou doe it wilfully and knowingly here is a prophane company that would be glad of thy company and at the same time here 's an Ordinance of God at which if thou wilt be thou mayest possibly suck a great deale of sweetnesse and taste much of thy God where wilt thou be wilt thou baulk thy communion with God rather then with prophane and ungodly men If thou darest so it is something but on the contrary doth no communion no company please thee so as the company of the Saints of God and doth no communion like thee so as the communion thou hast with thy God in his Ordinances If so thou hast some spirituall life in thee for the dead man hath no such judicious pallat and if thou livest a spirituall life it is not thou that livest but Christ that liveth in thee and thou livest by Faith in the Son of God thus thou mayest easily discern that in the effects which thou couldst not in the working of the cause But Alas saith a poore Christian my willing and desiring is nothing for though to will bee present with me yet I have no strength to performe And what will you make a desire to beleeve and pray Faith and Prayer I answer raw desires and wishes are no more beleeving then Esaus weeping for the blessing was the blessing or Balaams wish to dye the death of the righteous was the happy end of such as dye in the Lord. But the sincere desires and good will of justified persons are accepted of the Lord for the deed and when
decipere quia quicquid non intelligit plus miratur I would saith he that thou shouldst so preach in the Church not that the people should be provoked to humming but sighing that the tears of thy hearers may be the praise of thy Sermon The Sermon of a Minister saith he should be seasoned sale Scripturarum with the salt of Scripture he doth not salibus with idle querks And he goes â—n I would not have thee like a declamer in the schools or a brawler or one that should have a great deal of expression without the substance of reason but one that should be skild in the Word and Ordinances of God In short saith he It is the trick of dunces to rumble over words and by their meer expressions make people admire him For there is nothing so easie as to deceive a poor unlearned people with a voluble tongue for they by how much the lesse they understand by so much the more they admire Thus he And yet was not this the designe of our old Cathedrall and University Preachers nay is it not yet of many in this City that have not left making use of the Pulpit to tell us what they have of Greek and Latine Fathers in their common place book A generation of the worst of men Ministers of the Gospel I should lye to call them that go about to convert and heal souls as the Devil heals diseases by charms that the Patient understands not Their whole designe is to make people admire them To this end they preach as if the dayes of Pentecost were still continued The men are Galileans and their hearers too yet if Parthians Medes Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia were there they might hear something of their own language and something possibly that neither the Preacher nor the hearers understand They are admired Verily they have their reward Observe how these men court an humme with their jests and spittings how ambitious they are to smooth up their sentences with an esse posse videatur Such Pulpit-monkies that bring the Ordinance of God into contempt and make the Word of God of none effect They may well be stiled opprobrium Evangelii Thus saith the Lord unto the shepheards Ezra 34. 2 3. Should not the shepheards feed the flock wo be to you shepheards that Feed your selves then that â—at the fat of applause and cloth your selves with the wooll of admiration The diseased have yee not strengthened neither have you healed that which was sick neither have you bound up that which was broken neither have you brought again that which was driven away neither have you sought that which was lost You shall one day without repentance for these Sermons hear your reward in plainer English Mat. 25. 41. While these wretches vend themselves the poor hungry soul starves at meat crying out Death is in the Pett These unnaturall Fathers while poor souls cry for Bread cheat them with Stones and while they call for Fish they beguile them with Scorpions My heart bears me witnesse that in these following leaves I have laboured not to smooth but to settle thy soul which must be by putting thee on to trust in the Lord. Isai 50. 10. If thou mislikest these Sermons for their plainnesse know that I had rather displease thy tast and teach thee to rectifie thy pallate then by studying to please thy childish tooth lose the advantage of speaking to many an others heart Read it thou shalt not leave it without learning something if thou gettest no good in relation to the intended end thou shalt learn yet a lesson of the poor creatures nothingnesse and give glory to God by looking to him and trusting in him for thy souls peace If from any thing in these Sermons thy soul by the blessing of God gets any comfort and settlement Let thy and my God have the glory and his soul the benefit of thy tears and prayers who is and shall be for ever The Worthlesse Ambassadour of Iesus Christ for thy souls good and peace IOH COLLINGS From my study in Chappel-field-house in Norwich August 17 1648. A short Table of those severall Cases of Conscience which in the following Treatise are spoken to more fully or Collaterally the Letter of which are noted with an Asteriske Ser. I. 1. VVHether it be necessary that humiliation should in a soule goe before faith Ser. II. 2. Whether I may refuse to beleeve because I thinke I am not enough humbled Comfort and direction for a soul under that affliction Ser. III. 3. Whether I may refuse to beleeve because I know not whether I am elected or no How to satisfie a Christian under that affliction Ser. IV. 4. Whether I may refuse to beleeve because I am a great sinner and as I thinke too unworthy of mercy How to satisfie a Christian under that affliction Ser. V. 5. Whether I may refuse to beleeve upon a conceit that I have sinned the sin against the Holy-Ghost How to ease a spirit under that burthen Ib. * 6. Whether every sin against knowledge every denying of Christ every hating our brethrens goodnesse be this sin or no Ser. VI. 7. Whether a Christian may conclude he doth not beleeve because he cannot act every act of faith Ser. VII 8. Whether true faith may consist with doubting and how in the same soule Ib. 9. Whether a Christian may conclude he hath not true faith because for the present he is ignorant 1. in circumstantiall points 2. in the history of Scripture 3. in some fundamentals yea 4. in the necessary points of salvation so far as that he cannot make the generals out by particulars nor maintaine them upon dispute Ser. VIII 10. Whether a Christian may conclude his faith is not true because he thinks he doth not assent to the whole Word of God * 11. Whether the true beleever can at any time doubt whether the Scripture be the Word of God or no * 12. Whether a Christian may not be tempted to doubt it and yet not doubt it and how to know such a temptation from our owne corruption * 13. Whether a Christian can have true faith and not assent to every particular truth in the word of God nor to the true meaning of this or that portion of Scripture Ser. IX 14. Whether a Christian may truly relye upon Jesus Christ for salvation and yet doubt whether he doth relye or no and not know he relyes but be strongly conceited he doth not * 15. Whether a Christian may truly relye upon Christ and yet find an abatement sometimes of the strength of his relyance and to his owne thoughts relye sometimes more sometimes lesse * 16. Whether a Christian may truly relye upon Christ and the promises and yet not at all times find an equall reliance upon all the promises but that he can at somtimes as he thinks more adhere to some promises then other and in generall better depend upon Gods spirituall promises for grace and heaven then his
nature of his disease and the vertue of the salve with which the Plaister is spread that is to be applied to the sore hee is not able yet to apply it and lay it on for cure the hand of the Chirurgeon or some other for him must doe this Ro. 8. 16. So it is with the Soule Ro. 8. 16. The Spirit it self must beare witnesse with our spirits that wee are the children of God now unlesse that be witnessed we have nothing to do with the promise the children of the promise must be the children of God and in being his children they become â—â—ires of the promise as the Apostle disputes Gal. 3. It is a sweet and remarkable expression of David to this purpose Psal 119. Psal 119. â—9 v. 49. Remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope It is God and his spirit that must cause us to hope and trust in his word Now in regard that the Saints and Servants of God may though they alwayes have the spirit dwelling in them yet sometimes have the Spirit not so fully and powerfully acting in them the strong and powerfull actings of the Spirit it being the effects of Gods manifestive love which may be more or lesse in a Christian though his elective love admits of no degrees I say in this regard I conceive a Christian may have true saving Faith and yet not for the present at all times bee able to apply the promises with a particular Faith as its owne proper and peculiar portion And now you have heard the reasons which may be reduced shortly thus 1. Because there may be a misunderstanding or a cleare ignorance of the vertue of the promises which must be understood before they can bee particularly applyed 2. Because there may be a misunderstanding of the soules condition it may say there is no hope and judge its wounds incurable 3. Because there may want such a constant powerfull working of the Spirit of God in the soule as must be joyned with the soules peculiar application and yet there may be true faith For the first I conceive the particular applying of the promise with a confidence they are my portion doth argue a sense of faith which may not be in the soule and yet true faith be in it Secondly Because as a man must not be judged to be no man because he wants his power to act reason in a Feaver So the estimate of the truth of faith that is in the soule must not be taken in the distemperature of the soule when under heavy temptations or secondly dark and melancholy apprehensions or thirdly overpressing afflictions or fourthly sad desertions Thirdly Because there is a difference between resting out of a principle of hope which argues onely a relyance and dependance and out of a principle of certainty and perswasion applying The truly beleeving soule when out of desertions For hope which is seen is no hope and from under temptations and not burtheâ—d with afflictions and melancholy doth alwaeys apply the promises with an application of hope it hopes they belong to it Rom. 8. 24. though not alwayes with an application of perswasion now the application of hope and the resting out of a principle of hope But our hope must be lively provided there be an acting accordingly is enough to save Rom. 8. 24. â— Pet. 1. 3. 4 We are saved by hope 1 Cor. 15. 19. 1 Col. 27. But yet this we must not rest in but labour for a full perswasion the full assurance of hope Heb. 6. 11. Thou mayest apply thy selfe to the promse when thou canst not apply the promise to thee But of this more in the next Sermon The Twelfth SERMON LUKE 17. v. 5. Lord increase our faith CHAP. XII Concerning those weaknesses that may accompany the highest act of faith viz. Assurance And how to satisfie the soule that scruples its faith because it cannot be assured at all or weakly and unconstantly MY subject is to discover what doubts and weaknesse may be in relation to the last and highest act of Faith in a gracious soule for there is nothing more ordinary then to heare such complaints as these from a gracious soule Alas never tell me of faith I have no opinion at all that ever I shall be saved never did poor soule live at such incertainties I pray I look upward I desire I faint I groan I swoon and yet not a drop of cordiall water of perswasion that my Christ will afford me to revive my dying spirit or if I do sometimes catch up a perswasion in my soule and come to think that I have an interest in God it is but a bare thought and so weake that it is scarce able to â—â—â—nd a day sometimes indeed for a day or a week or a month together I could blesse my soule in a good condition but then againe I am as full of doubts and feares and is there any certainty in this faith am I not like a wave of the Sea tost about with thousands of winds One while I think I am sure of heaven and glory and am as it were wrapt up into a third heaven and the diademe of glory is fitting on to my head another while I am thrown down to hell and me thinks every Devill is tracing mee I will with the help of my God endeavavor to satisfie thee and shew thee what weaknesse may consist with this act and in relation to this act of Faith in these ensuing Conclusions Conclus 1. Thou wayst have a true and certaine faith and such a one as will richly save thee and yet have no assurance of thy salvation Indeed my severall Sermons that I preacht upon this Subject doe all concurre to the proofe of this truth for if a Christian may have saving Faith and yet so much weaknesse and doubting consist and be contemporaneous with it in the soule it will necessarily follow that Assurance is not the minimum quod sic the least degree of saving Faith But now it lying in my way I shall speak something more distinctly to it There are Opinions on the right hand and on the left concerning this sublime act of our Faith 1. The Papist denies any possibility of Assurance and reviles that pretious Doctrine as licentious and pleads only for a generall faith to believe the history of the Word and the Articles of Faith c. 2. The Antinomians on the other side deny any Faith to be true Faith that is accmpanied with any kind of doubting a full assurance they will make the minimum quod sic the least Faith that can help a man to heaven Some Reverend Writers living neare the time of the reign of that Popish Doctrine denying anything of perswasion to come into the nature of true saving Faith and setting themselves in full opposition to it have not a little though unwillingly contributed to the last opinion defining Faith to be a perswasion of the
not beleeve that is apprehend and apply and rest upon Christ as my Saviour We speak not of Faith as it is an infused habit and the gift of God to us but as it is an inherent grace and operative in us Now then we will 1. Enquire what the causes of such complaints in gratious souls may be 2. We will consider how to satisfie the soul in such troubles and scruples For the first complaint I cannot I dare not rest upon Christ and beleeve in him There are many causes of it which I shall speak to One ordinary cause of it is Scrap 1. The souls to much eying of preparatory qualifications I do not say the souls eyeing but the souls too much eying of them Hence it is that if you ask a poor soul under that trouble what 's the reason thou darest not rest thy self upon Christ Faith is a pretious flower that grows as well in the poorest beggars as the greatest Princes garden The meanest arm may as boldly lean on Christs shoulder as that which is gayed with gold-lace Alas saith such a poor soul Gods justice proceeds according to method First he useth to pull down and then to exalt First to lay the soul low licking the dust then to say to it I am thy salvation Alas I was never enough humbled I never saw hell yet would God rend my heart in pieces I could beleeve he would bind it up would he humble me c. Now in order to the satisfaction of a soul under this trouble it would be first enquired 1. Whether humiliation goeth before Faith or no. 2. If it doth what may comfort a soul under this affliction of spirit and what it ought to do in relation to its peace For the first it is a question variously tossed and determined understood and concluded in these times in which God hath cast our lot some utterly denying any such work some too eagerly contending for measure some limitting Gods dealings others misinterpreting if not wilfully mistaking the terms It will not therefore I trust be a lost labour first to enquire the truth of that question which is ordinarily thus termed Quest Whether Faith goeth before Repentance or Repentance before Faith Now for the fuller determination of it I shall first explane the terms Then conclude the truth and prove it by Scripture and Reason And lastly answer those Objections ordinarily made against it First I will spend a little time to open the terms which when rightly explaned I am confident will put the question out of question to those Christians that have any experience of the Lords dealings for the ambiguity of every term hath onely darkned the clearnesse of this truth First let us understand what is meant by Faith both in the kinde and in the act There are divers kinds and divers acts of Faith There is an historicall Faith which consists onely in the knowledge and assent to the truth of an History There is a Faith of miracles There is a temporary Faith and there is a true justifying Faith The question is onely to be understood of the latter which hath also severall Acts. First 〈◊〉 Secondly Relyance Thirdly Perswasion The question is to be understood of the second Act Whether God gives the soul power comfortably and truely to relye upon Christ and the promises for salvation before he hath wrought repentance in the soul Secondly the term Repentance is subject to ambiguity too Repentance is sometimes taken largely for the whole work of conversion and so Godly sorrow is an effect of it sometimes strictly and when we speak of Repentance in the question we onely understand the first parts of it consisting in conviction contrition and humiliation by which the soul is carried out into a loathing of it self both for its sins and in its righteousness And the question is Whether God doth not work in a soul a sorrow of heart and loathing of it self for sin before the soul hath power to rest upon Christ for salvation and relye upon him as its Saviour Lastly we must safely understand what is also meant by going before First we do not understand by going before a precedency in Gods hidden operation he at once infuseth the habits of grace into the soul But secondly by going before we understand a going before in a gratious Act and in a comfortable apprehension Neither farther is the question to be understood as if we thought Humiliation went before Faith as a work wrought by our own strength We acknowledge Humiliation to be a work of Gods speciall grace in the soul And the question is plainly thus Whether God ordinarily gives a poor soul power to act Faith by relying upon Christ and the promises of life and salvation before in some measure he hath brought the soul to be sensible of its lost and undone condition We say he doth not We will grant to our Brethren that are unsatisfied concerning this truth First That a man must beleeve before he can mourn But how not by any saving act of justifying Faith He must beleeve there is a sin-pardoning Saviour that hath fulnesse and freenesse of mercy and enough in his fulnesse for him and that though he hath sinned yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing Then he puts his mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope Secondly we will easily grant that a man must have saving and justifying Faith before the work of repentance and humiliation will be perfect in his soul As we maintain it to be a precedent work so we denye it not to be a subsequent effect Thirdly we will grant that it is not a work to be done by our own strength it is Gods work onely our dispute is concerning Gods usuall order in working The same spirit that works a power in the soul of dependence upon Christ takes also away the heart of stone and gives an heart of flesh Fourthly we will grant that the habits of these graces are both together in the soul We onely question which God gives the soul power to act first Fiftly We dispute not concerning the measure but concerning the thing We do not question whether the soul must be thus far or thus much or thus long humbled before God will give it power to act Faith by a comfortable reliance on Christ We onely say it must be humbled Sixtly We do not limit the workings of God and say it is so necessary on Gods part that he cannot give the soul power comfortably to apply Christ and the promises but we say it is not his usuall course and ordinary may of dispensing grace to do it Yet his dealings are various he works not alike to all he may and sometimes doth go out of his beaten road The question is not concerning a necessity on Gods part but onely concerning a necessity on our part not concerning his miraculous power but his gracious will nor concerning any extraordinary operation but concerning his ordinary way of dispensations
set upon and fix our running spirits Again saith he the spirits may be sometimes weak ana so wasted that they would not be able to indure so strong a conflict of grief as others that are of fresh and strong and stout spirits And in such a case God hath promised not to fix his wrath upon the soul too heavily Isai 57. 16. For I will not contend for ever neither will I bee alwayes wroth for the spirits should then fail before me and the souls which I have made Be comforted Christian when thou considerest the variety of Gods dispensations though thou doest not finde him acting in such a dispensation to thee as possibly he hath done to others It may be he hath not appointed thee for such an eminent service he intends not perhaps to call thee to martyrdom Possibly thou wert by nature of a dejected melancholly spirit and more indisposed to pride then others Perhaps he had not suffered thee to run into such outragious wickednesses as others did for which they must pay more tears to his bottle Possible thou wert not of so morose and rugged a temper as others that thou didst not need such stubbing and digging not so knotty that thou shouldst need so much cutting and hewing though thou hadst as many bad humours as others by nature yet it may be that they were not so setled and putrified by vitious custome or if they were yet be comforted in this that God acts not with great sinners and perverse natures and proud tempers and eminent vessels alike Who art thou to tract the Almighty to limit the holy one of Israel and if that God acts in such various dispensations know that it is not in the power of man to set a measure Thirdly Consider the end of humiliation and if the end be wrought take no thought for the means The ends of humiliation are chiefly these two First To make sin bitter to the soul to bring the soul into a loathing and detestation of sin Secondly To make the soul in a capacity of acting Faith 1. The first end is to bring the soul into a loathing and leaving of sin That Ephraim may speak two words First What have I done Secondly What have I to do with Idols Consider thou sayest I have not been humbled enough how shall we judge that 1. Hath thy humiliation made thee to loath sin That thou sayest as Iob 42. 6. I abhor my self and repent Mark the end of repentance is self-horring Doest thou say with David Psal 119. 163. I abhor and hate lying and every falseway vers 104. And I hate vain thoughts vers 119. And I hate them that hate thee Psa 139. 21 22. This is enough rest thy thoughts in it Heb. 1. 9. Thou hast loved righteousnesse and hated iniquity therefore thy God eventhy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladnesse above thy fellows That which was there spoken of God concerning Christ is true of all his members hath thy little humiliation which thou thinkest is not enough wrought thus in thee that whereas thou wert a drunkard liar swearer unclean person a vain proud person a companion of fools Now thou canst say and say heartily that thou hatest drunkennesse swearing lying sabbath-breaking vanity formality yea and those that do these things Why now thy humiliation hath wrought its end Why shouldst thou not love righteousnesse rest upon Christ apply the promises c. To say now I cannot think I have ground to beleeve is as much as if one should say when he hath made use of a scaffold to build a great building Alas I cannot beleeve that I may lay the top-stones of my building my scaffold is not high enough or it is not strong enough when it hath proved it self both high enough and strong enough in holding to accomplish the work Sibbs soul conflict P. 379. Doctor Sibbs in answer to this question When is Godly sorrow such as that the soul may stay it self with comfortable thoughts abouts its conditions Giveth these Rules 1. When we finde strength against that sin which we formerly fell into 5. Rules and ability to walk in a contrary way 2. When that which is wanting in grief is made up in fear 3. When after grief we finde inward peace 4. When after it we value the grace and mercy in Christ above all the contentments in the world 5. When it springs from hatred and works true hatred against all sin First Now saith he true hatred is carried against all sin Secondly Especially against those sins which are most near Sorrow for sin proceeds from the affection of the soul Hatred from judgement and we ought rather to rest in our hatred of sin proceeding from our judgement then in our sorrow for sin proceeding from our passions Considering that the fountain of passions is deeper in men of a melancholy and reserved temper then in others of a quick and chearly temper and yet these may hate sin as well as the other 2. The second end of humiliation is to make us in a capacity of receiving Christ Every soul is not in a capacity of receiving Jesus Christ when the soul is willing and desirous to receive Christ then it is in a capacity of receiving him And the soul cannot act Faith by resting upon Christ till it be made willing Some will say doth not Jesus Christ work this willingnesse yes without question It is he that worketh both to will and to do according to his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. But yet he first worketh to will before he worketh to do and before the soul is willing it is not in a capacity of doing Rev. 22. 17. Whosoever willeth let him drink of the water of life freely First will then take then drink and yet it is free They shall indeed be willing in the day of his power Psal 110. 3. God draws the will but he makes us willing first before he gives us power to receive and apply Christ which is the act of Faith Now God useth means to work this willingnesse and that is humiliation Hos 5. 15. I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offences and seek my face In their affliction they will seek me early Now if thy humiliation hath wrought this effect in thy soul that thou art now made willing to receive Christ Jesus O beleeve act thy Faith let thy measure of humiliation never trouble thee it hath wrought its end 3. I might name a third â—nd of humiliation and that is to inhance the price of Iesus Christ to the soul Christ would not be so sweet if sin were not so bitter Doest thou finde this end wrought that now Christ is more precious to thee then thousands of gold and silver more sweet then thousands of lusts and corruptions That thy heart now sayes O that I had Christ though I had nothing in the world That I had the bread of life to eat and the water of life to
them he saves We say no for even the works of Gods spirit of grace acting in us are our works and salvation is not of works but of grace And this Evangelicall lesson is hinted to us even in the Ceremoniall Law The Lord commands a yearly day of atonement Levit. 16. for the sins of the holy Place To prove this I might instance in all those Text of Scripture of which the Epistle to the Romans and Galatians are especially full and so the Epistle to the Ephesians which treat concerning the Doctrine of Justification and clear it not to be of works neither internall nor externall but of grace But I will instance but in one Titus 3. 5 6 7. But after that the kindenesse saith he and the love of God our Saviour toward man appeared Not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration Mark ye by it not for it Gods mercy and free-grace is the ground of the souls acceptation and therefore consider upon what principle thou runnest that concludest I have not yet been enough humbled for to be accepted as if thy humiliation were the reason and ground of Gods acceptation Indeed we ought never to think that we are enough humbled yet we ought alwayes to think that humiliation too much and that sense of our sins too much which hinders Faith for it destroyes its end Therefore why art thou thus troubled Christian with this conceit that your Faith is no Faith because before it you wept not just so many tears It is Faiths work to beleeve and apprehend the souls acceptation before God Now Gods acceptation as you have heard is never for the souls humiliation and therefore what should hinder thy Faiths working in apprehending thy acceptation before God because thou art not accepted for this work any more then any other Nay Secondly Thy humiliation is not a ground of Faith Thou doest not therefore apply Christ because thou art so and so humbled Put case that a great Prince should be willing to bestow his son in marriage upon a poor peasant onely saith he I will make this term or condition that when you come to marrie him you shal come in sackcloth to shew what ye are he shal give you a better garment afterwards wil any one say that this maids coming to the marriage arraied in sackcloth is a ground of her so rich mariage or will any say it is a meritorious condition that she deserveth such a match to come so attired Surely no the ground of all is the Princes delight in her this is the ground of his taking her to wife and yet the King commanded that attire So the Lord saith Poor vild wretch I will give thee my Christ in marriage but thou shalt come weeping to shake hands with him weeping for thy sins he shall afterwards take off thy sackcloth garments Can any say that this is either a meritorious cōdition or a ground of acceptation or Faith Consider Christian wert thou never so much humbled thou couldst not say I will therefore beleeve because I am humbled Humiliation is a necessary antecedent to Faith 〈◊〉 ground of Faith Let 〈◊〉 that therefore be a stumbling block to thee which cannot be a pillar and foundation to thee if thy Faith cannot stand upon it let it never stumble upon it And thus I have done with the second thing I propounded which was to propound such considerations to such souls as were under this temptation as might comfort their hearts and strengthen and stablish them Onely I beseech you remember to whom I have been speaking all this while not to hard-hearted stony souls but to broken and humbled souls not to those that regard not to get their souls humbled at all but to those that are humbled that they can be humbled no more and that groan under the hardnesse of their own hearts not to those that presume to apply their hot boiling lusts and corruptions to the blood and wounds of Jesus Christ flattering themselves with a notion of Faith and conceiting they do beleeve but to those that are humbled though they cannot have a good thought of themselves I would not be misunderstood to have spoken one word to slight the work of humiliation or to cherish that licentious novell Doctrine that there is no need at all of it and a Christian shall not need regard it but what I have spoken hath been not for dead men what should they do with cordialls but for dying fainting swooning Christians not for them that consider their sins too little but for them that so dim their eyes with poring on them that they cannot see the absolute covenant of God and the free-grace of Christ and lay hold upon the promises of life There is an extream on either side the sober Christian avoids either and keeps the mean So I have done with the second thing I propounded viz. to propound some considerations which might comfort the afflicted soul under this affliction and strengthen it to resist this temptation For without question as the Devil hath a designe upon many a soul to run it upon a rack of presumption and carry it on in a blind notion of Faith so he hath a designe upon some souls to wrack them upon the sands and sink them in a pit of despair The Devils devouring voice to souls is either There is no need of humiliation or there is no humiliation enough I come now to the last thing which I propounded which is to give some directions to such souls as are burthened with this affliction and groan under this temptation how to demean themselves and what to do I will reduce all that I shall speak by way of direction to these heads First Eye the nature of the covenant and grace and promises of God more Secondly Eye the nature and cause of humiliation more Thirdly Labour to get thy heart more humbled First of all Eye the nature of God declared in the free dealings out of his grace to thee This I shall enlarge in three instances 1. Eye Gods covenant and the nature of that 2. Eye Christs grace and the nature of that 3. Eye the Promises and the nature of them First Eye the nature of God in his covenant more The cause of this affliction is Christians too much eying and poring upon their sins and themselves the penitent beleever ought to have two eyes one to look downward another to look upward This is that which David comforted himself with when he considered his own unworthinesse and the unworthinesse of his house 2 Sam. 23. 5. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is my salvation and all my desire although he maketh it not to grow David though a man according to Gods own heart yet had a wicked house Absolom had slain his brother rebelled against his Father