Use For Exhortation Of The Saints 4/4

      

         (2.) Often meditate on the holiness of man’s in­nocent state.  It is true now, if a believer, thou hast a principle of holiness planted in thee; but, alas! what is that at present to what thy nature once had?  They who saw the second temple, and remembered not the first, which Solomon built, thought it, no doubt, a glorious fabric; but others, whose eyes had seen the stately work and goodly buildings of the other, could not but rejoice with tears in their eyes.  ‘Many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid,....wept with a loud voice,’ Ezra 3:12.  O! it revived the sad thoughts of the sacking of that glorious structure; and so may this little beginning upon a new foundation of the new covenant, remind thee, with sorrow, to think of the ruins that man, in all his glory, fell into by Satan’s policy!  It is true, in heaven thou shalt have the odds of Adam in paradise, but thou shalt have many a weary step before thou gettest up that hill.  When a man that hath had some thousands a-year hath now but a few pounds per annum allowed him, and the rest sequestered from him for thirty or forty years; it is sad, though comfortable also to think, it shall at last return, and may be, with a great overplus; but at present, he is put to many straits, and fain to make a hard shift to rub through, so as to live anything like his noble descent and family.  Thus it is joyous to the saint to think of heaven when all his means shall come into his hands; but truly his imperfect grace, and the many expenses he is at—from afflictions at God's hands, temptations at Satan’s, mutinies and intestine broils from remaining lusts within doors —do put him into so many sad straits, that the poor soul is fain oft to snap short in his comfort, yea, much ado he hath to keep shop windows open with the little stock he hath.  Hence, the Christian’s getting to heaven is set out as a business of so much difficulty. ‘If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?’ I Peter 4:18.  The wise virgins had no oil to spare.  The Christian shall hold out, and that is even all.  Think of this, and let thy plumes fall.

           (3.) Often meditate on thy own personal mis­carriages,  especially in thy unregenerate state.  This kept Paul so humble.  How oft does his unregenerate wicked conversation rise, though not in his con­science, to darken his comfort, yet in his mind, to qualify the thoughts of his gifts and grace, I Cor. 15:9, 10, where he speaks how he ‘laboured more than  them all.’  O how he waylays his pride that possibly might follow such his glorying too close at his heels! and therefore, before he dare speak a word of his present holiness, he bolts the door upon pride, and first falls upon the story of that black part of his life. O how he batters his pride, and speaks himself all to naught!  No enemy could have drawn his picture with a blacker coal, I Cor. 15:7.  He calls himself one ‘born out of time,’ ver. 9, ‘for I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.’  And now having suf­ficiently besmeared and doused himself in the puddle of his former sins, how humbly doth the holy man speak of his transcendent graces! ver. 10.  ‘By the grace of God I am what I am,....and I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God.’  O this is the way of killing this weed of pride, to break up our own hearts, and turn the inside out­ward—I mean humble and abase ourselves for our former abominations.  Pride will not easily thrive in a soul where this plough often walks.  Pride is a worm that bites and gnaws out the heart of grace.  Now you know they are bitter things that must break the bag of worms that are gathered in the stomach.  All sweet things nourish them; they are bitter that scatter and kill them.  O Christian, take some quantity of this aloes often, and with God's blessing thou shalt find ease of that which, if a Christian, thou art troubled withal.  And do not think that this worm breeds only in children—weak Christians, and young novices.  I confess that it is the most ordinary disease of that age. But aged and stronger Christians are not out of dan­ger.  Old David had this worm of pride crawling out of his mouth when he bade Joab number the people. And dost not thou too, oft take thyself in numbering the duties and good works thou hast done, and the sufferings thou hast endured for thy God, with some secret self-applauding thoughts that tickle thee for them?

Use For Exhortation Of The Saints 1/4

Use Third.  The preceding doctrine may be for exhorta­tion to the saints in several particulars.  I shall only name three, because I have directed myself, in the whole discourse, to them.

1. Bless God that hath furnished thee with this breastplate.  Canst thou do less, when thou seest such multitudes on every hand slain before thy face by the destroyer of souls, for want of this piece to defend their naked breasts against his murdering shot?  Had God made thee rich and great in the world, but not holy, he had but given thee stock to trade with for hell.  These would have made thee a greater booty for Satan, and only procured in the end a deeper dam­nation.  When an enemy comes before a city that hath no walls nor arms to defend it, truly, the richer it is, the worse it fares.  When Satan comes to a man that hath much of the world about him, but nothing of God in his soul to defend him, O what miserable work doth he make with such!  He takes what he pleaseth, and doth what he will; purse, and all the poor wretch hath, is at his command.  Let a lust ask never so unreasonably, he hath not a heart to deny it. Though he knows what the gratifying of it will cost him in another world, yet he will damn his soul rather than displease his lust.  Herod throws half his king­dom at the foot of a wanton wench, if she will ask it; and because that was thought too little by her, he will sacrifice his whole kingdom to his lust—for so much the blood of John Baptist may be judged to have cost him in this life, being, so wakeful was divine provi­dence, shortly after turned out of his throne—besides what he pays in the other.  But when God made thee a holy man or woman, then he gave thee gates and bars to thy city.  Thou art now able, through his grace, to stand on thy defence, and with the continual suc­cours heaven sends thee to withstand all his power. Thou wert once, indeed, a tame slave to him, but now he is a servant to thee.  That day thou becamest holy, God did set thy foot on the serpent’s head.  Thy lusts were once the strongholds with which he kept thee in awe, and out of which he did come and do thee so much hurt; but now these are out of his hand.  O what joy is there in a town when the castle that com­manded it is taken from the enemy.  Now, poor soul, Satan is dislodged and unkennelled.  Never more shall he play rex in thy soul as he hath done.  In a word, when thou wert made a holy righteous person, then did God begin heaven in thy soul.  That day thou wert born again, an heir to heaven was born.  And if such acclamations be at the birth of a young prince, heir to some petty territories, hast not thou more cause, that then hadst heaven’s glory settled on thee, in reversion, especially if thou considerest where all thy inheritance lay a little before, that thou couldst lay claim to?  Paul joins both together to make his doxology full: ‘Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son,’ Col. 1:12, 13.  O blessed change! to step out of the devil’s dark dungeon, where thou wert kept in chains of sin and unrighteousness, prisoner for hell, into the kingdom of Christ’s grace, where thou hast the gold chain of holiness, and righ­teousness put about thy neck as heir-apparent to heaven.  Such honour have all his saints.
2. Look thou keepest thy breastplate on, Chris­tian.  Need we bid the soldier be careful of his ar­mour?  When he goes into the field, can he easily for­get to take that with him, or be persuaded to leave it behind him?  Yet some have done so, and paid dear for their boldness.  Better thou endure the weight of thy plate, though a little cumbersome to the flesh, than receive a wound in thy breast for want of it.  Let this piece fall off, and thou canst keep none of the other on.  If thou allowest thyself in any unholiness, thy sincerity will presently be called into question in thy conscience.  I confess we find that Peter, a little after his sad fall in denying his Master, had the testi­mony of his uprightness, ‘Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee,’ John 21:17.  After Christ had thrice put it to the question, he could confidently vouch his sincerity.  But we must know, (1.) That sin was not a deliberate sin.  The poor man was surprised on a sudden.  And, (2.) There had intervened his bitter sorrow between his sin and this his profession; and the renewing of his repentance so speedily, conduced much to the clear­ing of his sincerity to his conscience.  But David found it harder work who sinned more deliberately, and lay longer soaking in his guilt, as you may per­ceive, Ps. 51:10, where he pleads so earnestly that God would ‘renew a right spirit within him.’