deserve to be burnt to ashes There are none so humble as they that have neerest communion with God Jacob was a man that Gen. 28. 10 18. had much private communion Gen. 32. 24 to 31. with God and a man that was very little in his own eyes Gen. 32. 10. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant or as the Hebrew hath it I am less than Gen. 31. 38 41. all thy mercies When Jacob had to deal with Laban he pleads his merit but when he hath to do with God he debaseth himself below the least of his mercies Moses was a man that had much private communion with God as I have formerly evidenced and a man that was the meekest and humblest person in all the world Numb 12. 3. Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men that were upon the face of the earth Josephus writing of Moses saith if he may be believed that he was so free from passions that he knew no such thing in his own soul he only knew passions by their names and saw them in others but felt them not in himself And so when the glory of God appeared to him he falls upon his face Numb 16. 22. in token of humility and self-abasing David was a man that had much private communion with God as is granted on all hands and how greatly doth he debase himself and vilifie himself 1 Sam. 26. 20. The King of Israel is come out to seek a flea and what more weak and contemptible than a flea So Chap. As Nazianzen said of Athanasius He was high in worth and humble in heart 24. 14. After whom is the King of Israel come out after whom dost thou pursue after a dead dog after a flea As if David had said 'T is not worth the while the labour 't is below the Dignity and Honour of the King of Israel to take such pains and to pursue so violently after such a poor nothing as I am who hath no more strength nor power to bite or hurt than a dead dog or a poor flea hath So Psal 226. But I am a worm and no man Now what is more weak what less regarded what more despicable what more trampled under-foot than a poor worm The Hebrew word Tolagnath that is here rendred worm signifies very little worm such as breed in Scarlet which are so little that a man can scarcely see them or perceive them Thus you see that holy David debaseth himself below a worm yea below the least of worms No man sets so low a value upon himself as he doth who hath most private communion with God The four and twenty Elders cast down their crowns at the feet of Jesus Christ Rev. 4. 10 11. Their Crowns note all their inward and outward dignities excellencies and Anstin being once asked what was the first grace answered humility what the second humility what the third humility glories and the casting down of their Crowns notes their great humility and self-debasement When Christians in their Closets and out of their Closets can cast down their crowns their duties their services their graces their enlargments their enjoyments c. at the feet of Jesus Christ and sit down debasing and lessening of themselves then certainly they have had a very neer and sweet communion with God Chrysostome hath a remarkable saying of Humility Suppose saith he that a man were defiled with all manner of sin and enormity yet humble and another man enriched with gifts graces and duties yet proud the humble sinner were in a safer condition than this proud Saint VVhen a man can come off from Closet-duties and say as Ignatius once said of himself Non sum dignus dici minimus I am not worthy to be called the least then certainly he hath had fellowship with God in them All the Communion that the creature hath with God in his Closet is very soul-humbling and soul-abasing In all a mans communion with God some beams some rayes of the glory and majesty of God will shine forth upon his soul Now all divine manifestations are very humbling and abasing as you may cleerly see in those two great instances of Job and Isaiah Job 42. 5 6. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee Wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes Isa 6. 1 5. In the year that King Vzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the Temple Then said I wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts What sweet communion had Elias with God in the low cave There was a Gentlewoman of no ordinary quality or breeding who being much troubled in mind and sadly deserted by God could not be drawn by her husband or any other Christian friends either to hear or read any thing that might work for her spiritual advantage at last her husband by much importunity prevailed so far with her that she was willing he should read one Chapter in the Bible to her so he read that Isa 57. and when he came to the fifteenth vers For thus saith the high lofty 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 ones O sayes she is it so that God dwells with a contrite and humble spirit then I am sure he dwells with me for my heart is broken into a thousand pieces O happy text and happy time that ever I should hear such comfort and she was thereupon recovered The more communion any man hath with God the more humble and broken his heart will be Holy Bradford was a man that Fox his Acts and Mon. had much private communion with God and he would many times subscribe himself in his letters John the hypocrite and a very painted sepulchre Agur was one of the wisest and holiest men on the earth in his dayes and he condemned Pro. 30. 2. himself for being more brutish than any man and not having the understanding of a man How sweet is the smel of the lowly Violet that hides his head above all the gaudy Tulips that be in your garden The lowly Christian is the most amiable and the most lovely Christian VVhen a man can come out of his Closet and cry out with Augustine I hate that which I am and love and desire that which I am not Oh wretched man that I am in whom the Cross of Christ hath not yet eaten out the poysonous and bitter tast of the first tree Or as another saith Lord I see and yet am
tribulation Rom. 5. 3 4. And not only so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope Grace alwayes thrives most when Saints are under the Rod. When Christians are under the Rod then their graces do not only bud but blossome and bring forth fruit as Aarons Rod did The Mum. 17. 8 snuffing of the Candle makes it burn the brighter God beats and bruises his links to make them burn the brighter he bruises his spices to make them send forth the greater Aromatical savour Bernard compares Afflictictions to the Tezel which though it be starp and scratching it is to make the Cloath more pure and fine The Jews were alwayes best when they were in an afflicted condition Well-waters arising from deep springs are hotter in the winter than they are in the summer Stars shine brightest in the darkest nights Vines grow the better for bleeding and Gold looks the brighter for scowring Juniper smels sweetest when in the fire Cammomile the more you tread it the more you spread it O Sirs this is a real and a rare truth but seldome thought on viz. that God will sometimes more carry on the growth and improvement of grace by a cross by an affliction than by an ordinance James 1. 3 4. James 4. 8 9. Afflictions ripen the Saints graces 2 Cor. 1. 5. First or last God will make every Rod yea every twig in every Rod to be an Ordinance to every afflicted Saint By Afflictions God many times revives quickens and recovers the decayed graces of his People By Afflictions God many times enflames that love that is cold and he strengthens that faith that is failing and he puts life into those hopes that are languishing and new spirits into those joyes and comforts that are withering and dying Musk say some when it hath lost its sweetness if it be put into the sink amongst filth it recovers its sweetnâ—â—â— again So doth smart afflictions recover and revive our decayed graces I have read a story of a Sexton that went into the Church at night to rob a woman who had been buried the day before with a Gold ring upon her finger according to her desire now when he had opened the Grave and Coffin and loosed the sheet he fell a rubbing and chafing her finger to get off the Gold Ring and with rubbing and chafing of it her spirits returned she having been but in a swoon before and she revived and lived many years after Smart Afflictions are but the rubbing and chafing of our graces The smarting Rod abaseth the loveliness of the world that might entice us it abates the Iustiness of the flesh within that might incite us to vanity and folly and it abets the spirit in his quarrel to the two former All which tend much to the recovering and reviving of decayed graces But The Sixth end to which the Rod serves that is to try the child to make a discovery of the spirit of the child Some Parents never see so much of the badness of the spirits of their Children as they do when they bring them under the Rod and other Parents never see so much of the goodnesse of the spirits of their Children as they do when they chastise them with the Rod 'T is so here when God afflicts some O the pride the stoutness the crosness the hardness the peevishness and stubborness of spirit that they Exod. 5. 2. Jer. 44. 15 16 17 18 19. discover Isa 1. 5. Jer. 5. 3. When he afflicts others O the murmuring the roaring the complaining the howling the fretting the vexing and the Amos 4. 6 13. quarrelling spirit that they discover Num. 14. 27 29 36. Deut. 1. 27. Isa 58. 3 4. Isa 59. 11. Hos 7. 14 15. Jon. 4. 1 2 3 4 5 8 9. Sometimes when God afflicts his dearest People O what a spirit of Faith what a spirit of Prayer what a spirit of Love what a spirit of Patience what a spirit of meekness what a spirit of humbleness what a spirit of submissiveness do they discover Job 13. 15. 2 Chron. 1. 2 3 4 5 6 12. Isa 26. 16 17. Hos 5. 14 15. Job 1. 20 21 22. Lev. 10. 1 2 3. 1 Sam. 3. 18. 2 Kings 20. 16 17 18 19. And at other times when God afflicts his poor People O what a spirit of unbelief what a spirit of slavish fear what a spirit of impaciency what a spirit of displeasedness c. do they discover Gen. 15. 2 3. Gen. 12. 13 19. Gen. 20. 2 5. Gen. 26. 7 8 9 10 11. Psal 31. 22. Psal 116 11. 1 Sam. 21. 10 11 12 13 14 15. Job 3. 3 13. Jer. 20. 14 15 16 17 18. By smart Afflictions God tryes the graces of his People and discovers what is in the spirits of his People Deut. 8. 2. Psal 66. 10 11. Rev. 3. 18. 1 Pet 1. 6 7. The fire tryes the Gold as well as the Touch-stone Diseases try the Art of the Physitian and Tempests try the skill of the Pilot. Every smarting Rod is a Touch-stone both to try our graces and to discover our spirits Prudent Fathers will sometimes cross their Children to try to discover the dispositions of their Children Heb. 12. 5 21. And so doth the Father of Spirits deal sometimes with his Children The manner of the Psylli which are a kind of People Plin. lib. 28 of that temper and constitution that no Venom will hurt them is this if they suspect any Child to be none of their own they set an Adder upon it to sting it and if it cry and the flesh swell they cast it away as a spurious issue but if it do not quatch nor cry nor is never the worse for it then they account it for thei own and make very much of it The Application is easie But The seventh and last end of the Rod Is to prepare fit the Isa 48. 10. chastised for greater services favours and mercies Many a Child and many a servant had never been so fit for eminent services as they are had they not been under a smarting Rod. 'T is very usual with God to cast men into very great Afflictions and to lay them under grievous smarting Rods that so he may prepare and fit them for some high and eminent services in this world Joseph had never been so fit to be Governour Gen. 41. 40 41 42 43 44. of Egypt and to preserve the visible Church of God alive in the World if he had not been sold into Egypt if his feet had not been hurt in the Gen. 45. 7 8. stocks and if the Irons had not entred into his soul Nor Moses had never been so fit to be a Leader and a Deliverer of Israel as he was if he had Gen. 50. 20. not been banished Fourty Yeares in the Wilderness before Nor Davids Crown had never sat so well nor so close nor so long on his head as
Jer. 23. 24. Can any man hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord Pro. 15. 3. The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good or contemplating the evil and the good as the Hebrew may be read Now to contemplate is more than simply to behold for contemplation addeth to a simple apprehension a deeper degree of knowledge entring into the very inside of a matter and so indeed doth God discern the very inward intentions of the heart and the most secret motions of the spirit God is an infinite and immense being whose center is every where and whose circumference is no where Now if our God be omnipresent then wheresoever we are our God is present with us if we are in prison alone with Joseph our God is present with us there or if we are in exile alone with David our God is present with us there or if we are alone in our closets our God is present with us there God seeth us in secret and therefore let us seek his face in secret Though Heaven be Gods Pallace yet it is not his prison But Fifteenthly He that willingly neglects private prayer shall certainly be neglected in his publick prayer he that will not call upon God in secret shall find by sad experience that God will neither hear him nor regard him in publick Want of private duties is the great reason why the hearts of many are so dead and dull so formal and carnal so barren and unfruitful under publick Ordinances O that Christians would seriously lay this to heart Certainly that man or womans heart is best in publick who is most frequent in private They make most yearnings in publick Ordinances that are most conscientiously exercised in closet duties No mans graces rises so high nor no mans experiences rises so high nor no mans communion with God rises so high nor no mans divine enjoyments rises so high nor no mans springs of comfort rises so high nor no mans hopes rises so high nor no mans parts and gifts rises so high c. as theirs do who conscientiously wait upon God in their Closets before they wait upon him in the Assembly of his people and who when they return from publick Ordinances retire into their Closets and look up to Heaven for a blessing upon the publick means 'T is certain that private duties fit the soul for publick ordinances He that makes conscience to wait upon God in private shall finde by experience that God will wonderfully blesse publick Mic. 2. 7. Ordinances to him My designe is not to set up one Ordinance of God above another nor to cause one ordinance of God to clash with another the publick wth the private or the private with the publick but that every Ordinance may have its proper place right The desires of my soul being to prize every Ordinance to praise every ordinance and to practise every Ordinance to improve every ordinance to blesse the Lord for every Ordinance But as ever you would see Psal 63. 1 2 3. the beauty and glory of God in his sanctuary as ever you would have publick Ordinances to be lovely and lively to your souls as ever you would have your drooping spirits revived and your languishing souls refreshed and your weak graces strengthned and your strong corruptions weakned under publick Ordinances be more careful conscientious in the performance of Closet duties O how strong in grace O how victorious over sin O how dead to the world O how alive to Christ O how fit to live O how prepared to die might many a Christian have been had they been but more frequent serious and conscientious in the discharge of Closet duties Not but that I think there is a truth in that saying of Bede the word Church being rightly understood viz. That he that comes not willingly to Church shall one day go unwillingly to Hell But Sixteenthly Consider the times wherein we live call aloud for secret prayer Hell seems to be broke loose and men turned into incarnate Devils Land-destroying and Soul-damning wickednesses walk up and down the streets with a Whores fore-head without the least check or controul Jer. 3. 3. Thou had'st a Whores fore-head thou refusest to be ashamed Jer. 6. 15. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination nay they were not at allashamed neither could they blush They had Curtius an heathen could say That he was an undone man that knoweth no shame sinned away shame instead of being ashamed of sin Custom in sin had quite banished all sence of sin and all shame for sin so that they would not suffer nature to draw her vail of blushing before their great abominations They were like to Caligula a wicked Emperor who used to say of himself That he loved nothing better in himself than that he could not be ashamed The same words are repeated in Chap. 8. 12. How applicable these Scriptures are to the present times I will leave the prudent reader to judge But what doth the Prophet do now they were as bold in sin and as shameless as so many harlots that you may see in Jer. 13. 17. But if ye will not hear it my soul shall weep in secret places or secresies for your pride and mine eye shall weep sore Heb. weeping weep or shedding tears shed tears the doubling of the verb notes the bitter and grievous lamentation that he should make for them and run down with tears Now they were grown up to that heighth of sin and wickedness that they were above all shame and blushing now they were grown so proud so hardned so obstinate so rebellious so mad upon mischief that no mercies could melt them or allure them nor no threatnings nor judgements could any wayes terrifie them or stop them the Prophet goes into a corner he retires himself into the most secret places and there he weeps bitterly there he weeps as if he were resolved to drown himself in his own tears When the springs of sorrow rise high a Christian turns his back upon company and retires himself into places of greatest privacy that so he may the more freely and the more fully vent his sorrow and grief before the Lord. Ah England England what pride luxury lasciviousness licentiousness wantonness drunkenness cruelties injustice oppressions fornications adulteries falshoods hypocrisie bribery atheisme horrid blasphemies and hellish impieties are now to be found rampant in the midst of thee Ah England England how are the Lords Sabbaths profaned pure Ordinances despised Scriptures rejected the Spirit resisted and derided the righteous reviled wickedness countenanced and Christ many thousand times in a day by these cursed practises a fresh crucified Ah England England were our forefathers alive how sadly would they blush to see such a horrid degenerate posterity as is to be found in the midst of thee How is our forefathers hospitality converted into riot and luxury their frugallity into