Pride of Grace Is To Trust In The Strength Of Our Grace 1/3

Pride of Grace Is To Trust In The STRENGTH Of Our Grace.

           First. A Christian may be proud of his grace, by trusting in the strength of his grace.  To trust in the strength of grace is to be proud of grace.  This is op­posed to that poverty of spirit so commended by our Saviour, Matt. 5, by which a man lives in the continual sense of his spiritual beggary and nothingness, and so hath his recourse to Christ, as the poor to the rich man's door, knowing he hath nothing at home to maintain him.  Such a one was Paul, not able to do anything of himself.  He is not ashamed to let the world know that Christ carries his purse for him.  ‘Our sufficiency is of God;’ yea, after many years trading, this holy man sees nothing he hath got.  ‘I count not myself to have apprehended,’ Php 3:13.  He is still pressing forward.  Ask him how he lives, he will tell you who keeps house for him, ‘I live, yet not I,’ Gal. 2:20.  Ask a beggar where he hath his meat, clothes, &c., he will say, ‘I thank my good master.’  Now Satan chiefly labours to puff the soul up with an overweening conceit of his own ability, as the readiest means to bring him into his snare.  Satan knows it is God's method to give his children into his hands, when once they grow proud and self-confident.  Hezekiah was left to a temptation, ‘to try him,’ II Chr. 32.31.  Why?  God had tried him to purpose a little before in an affliction; what needs this?  O, Heze­kiah’s heart was lift up after his affliction.  It was time for God to let the tempter alone a little to foil him.  Probably now Hezekiah had high thoughts of his grace—O he would never do as he had done before—and God will let him see what a weak crea­ture he is.  Peter makes a whip for his own back in that bravado, ‘Though all should forsake thee, yet will not I.’  Christ now in mere mercy must set Satan on him to lay him on his back, that seeing the weak­ness of his faith, he might be dismounted from the height of his pride.  All that I shall say from this is, to entreat thee, Christian, to have a care of this kind of pride.  You know what Joab said to David, when he perceived his heart lift up with the strength of his kingdom, and therefore would have the people numbered.  ‘Now the Lord thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing?’ II Sam. 24:3.  The Lord add to the strength of thy grace an hundredfold, but why delightest thou in this? why shouldst thou be lift up? is it not grace? shall the groom be proud because he rides on his master’s horse? or the mud-wall because the sun shines on it?  Mayest thou not say of every dram of grace, as the young man of his hatchet, ‘Alas, master, it is bor­rowed?’ nay, not only borrowed, but thou canst not use it without his skill and strength that lends it thee.  O beware of this; let not those vain thoughts lodge in thee, lest thou enter into temptation.  It is a breach a whole troop of sins may enter at, yea, will, except speedily filled up.

1. It will make thee soon grow loose and negli­gent in thy duty.  It is sense of insufficiency [that] keeps a soul at work, to pray and hear—as want in the house and hutch holds up the market; no man comes thither to buy what he hath at home.  ‘Up,’ saith Jacob, ‘go down to Egypt for corn, that we live and not die.’  Thus saith the needy Christian, ‘Up, soul, to thy God; thy faith is weak; thy patience al­most spent; ply thee to the throne of grace; go with thy homer to the ordinances, and get some supplies.’ Now a soul conceited of his store, hath another song, ‘Soul, take thine ease, thou art richly laid in for many days.  Let the doubting soul pray, thy faith is string; let the weak lie at the breast, thou art well grown up.’  Nay, it is well if it goes not further—to a despising of ordinances, except they have some more courtly fare than ordinary.  Such a pass were the Corinthians come to, ‘Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us,’ I Cor. 4:8.  I pray observe how he lays the accent on the particle now—now ye are rich, as if he had said, I knew the time [when] if Paul had come to town, and news spread abroad in the city that Paul was to preach, you would have flocked to hear him, and blessed God for the season; but then you were poor and empty, now ye are full, you have got to a higher attainment—Paul is a plain fellow now, he may carry his cheer to a hungry people if he will; we are well a paid [satisfied].  And when once the heart is come to this, it is easy to judge what will follow.
2. This trusting to the strength of grace will make the soul bold and venturous.  The humble Christian is the wary Christian.  He knows his weak­ness, and this makes him afraid.  ‘I have a weak head,’ saith he, ‘I may soon be disputed into an error and heresy, and therefore I dare not come where such stuff is broached, lest my weak head should be intoxi­cated.’  The confident man will sip of every cup, he fears none, no, he is established in the truth—a whole team of heretics shall not draw him aside.  ‘I have a vain light heart,’ saith the humble soul—‘I dare not come among wicked debauched company, lest I should at last bring the naughty man home with me.’ But one, trusting to the strength of his grace, dares to venture into the devil’s quarters.  Thus Peter [ven­tured] into the route of Christ’s enemies, and how he came off, you know.  There his faith had been slain on the place, had not Christ sounded a retreat, by the seasonable look of love he gave him.  Indeed I have read of some bragging philosophers, who did not think it enough to be temperate, except they had the object of intemperance present, and therefore they would go into taverns and whore-houses, as if they meant to beat the devil on his own ground.  But the Christian knows an enemy nearer than so—which they were ignorant of—and that he need not go over his own threshold to challenge the devil.  He hath lust in his bosom, that will be hard enough for him all his days, without giving it the vantage-ground.  Christian, I know no sin, but thou mayest be left to commit it, except one.  It was a bold speech of him —and yet a good man, as I have heard—‘If Clapham die of the plague, say Clapham had no faith;’ and this made him boldly go among the infected.  If a Chris­tian, thou shalt not die of spiritual plagues—yet such may have the plague-sores of gross sins running on them for a time; and is not his sad enough? therefore walk humbly with thy God.
3. This high conceit of the strength of thy grace will make thee cruel and churlish to thy weak breth­ren in their infirmities—a sin that least becomes a saint.  ‘If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meek­ness,’ Gal. 6:1. But how shall a soul get such a meek spirit?  It follows—‘Considering thyself, lest thou al­so be tempted.’  What makes men hard to the poor? they think they shall never be so themselves.  Why are many so sharp in their censures, but because they trust too much to their grace, as if they could never fall?  O you are in the body, and the body of sin in you, therefore fear.  Bernard used to say, when he heard any scandalous sin of a professor,‘He fell to-day, I may stumble tomorrow.’

Second Kind of Spiritual Pride—Pride of Grace

Second Kind of Spiritual Pride—Pride of Grace

           Second. Another way Satan assaults the Chris­tian is through pride of grace.  It is true, grace cannot be proud, yet it is possible a saint may be proud of his grace.  There is nothing the Christian hath or doth, but this worm of pride will breed in it.  The world we live in is corruptible, and all here is subject to purify, as things kept in a rafty muggish room [are] subject to mould.  It is not the nature of grace, but the salt of covenant, keeps and preserves the purity of it.  In heaven indeed we shall be safe.  But how can a saint be said to be proud of his grace?  Then a soul is proud of his grace, when he trusts in his grace.  Trust and confidence is an incommunicable flower of God’s crown as Sovereign Lord;—even among men it goes along with royalty.  Set up a king, and as such he ex­pects you should give him this, as the undoubted pre­rogative of his place, and therefore to seek protection from any other is, as it were, to set up another king. ‘If indeed you anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust under my shadow,’ Judges 9:15. Therefore when a soul puts his trust in anything be­side God, he sets up a prince, a king, an idol, to which he gives God’s glory away.  Now it doth not make the sin less, that it is the grace of God we crown, than if it were a lust we crowned.  It is idolatry to worship a holy angel as well as a cursed devil, to make our grace a god as well as our belly our god; nay, rather it adds to it, because that is now used to rob him of his glory which should have brought him in the greatest revenue of glory.  Certainly the more treasure you put into your servant’s hands, the greater wrong to you for him to run away with it.  I doubt not but David could have borne it better to have seen a Philistine drive him from his throne than a son—an Absalom.  But how can, or may, a saint be said to trust in his grace?  First. By trusting on the strength of his grace.  Second. By trusting on the worth of his grace, I conceive, cannot stand with grace: but there is an oblique kind of trust, or that which by interpre­tation may savour of it.  Satan is sly in his assaults.

Three Doors Whence This Enemy Comes Forth 2/2

2. Make this sin as black and ugly as thou canst possibly to thy thought, that when it is presented to thee, thou mayest abhor it the more.  Indeed there needs no more than its own face—wouldst thou look wisely on it—to make thee out of love with it.  For,

(1.) This envying of others’ gifts casts great con­tempt upon God, and that more ways than one.

(a) When thou enviest the gifts of thy brethren, thou takest upon thee, to teach God what he shall give and to whom; as if the great God should take counsel, or ask leave of thee, before he dispenseth his gifts.  And darest thou stand to thy own envious thoughts with this interpretation? such a one thou findest Christ himself give, ‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?’ Matt. 20:15, as if Christ had said, What hath any to do with cavil, at my dis­posure of what is not theirs, but mine, to give?

(b) Thou malignest the goodness of God.  It troubles thee, it seems, that God hath a heart to do good to any besides thyself; thine eye is evil, because he is good.  Wouldst not thou have God be good? you might as well say, you would not have him God. He can as soon cease to be God as to be good.

(c) Thou art an enemy to the glory of God, as thou defacest that which should set it forth.  Every gift is a ray of divine excellency; and as all the beams declare the glory of the sun, so all the gifts of God imparts declare the glory of God.  Now envy labours to deface and sully the representations of God; it hath ever something to disparage the excellency of another withal.  God showed Miriam her sin by her punish­ment.  She went to bespatter Moses that shone so eminently with the gifts and graces of God, and God spits in her face, Num. 12, yea, fills her all over with a noisome scab.  Dost thou cordially wish well to the honour of God? why then hangest thou thy head, and dost not rather rejoice to see him glorified by the gifts of others?  Could a heathen take it so well, when himself was passed by, and others chosen to places of honour and government, that he said he was glad his city could find so many more worthy than himself; and shall a Christian repine that any are found fit to honour God besides himself?

(2.) By this envying of others’ gifts, thou wrong­est thy brother, as thou sinnest against the law of love, which obligeth thee to rejoice in his good as thy own, yea, to prefer him in honour before thyself. Thou canst not love and envy the same person.  Envy is as contrary to love, as the hectical feverish fire in the body is to the kindly heat of nature.  ‘Charity envieth not,’ I Cor. 13:4.  How can it, when it lives where it loves?  And when thou ceasest to love thy brother, thou beginnest to beginnest to hate and kill him; and dost not thou tremble to be found a murderer at last?

(3.) By this envying of others’ gifts, thou con­sultest worst of all for thyself.  God is out of thy reach.  What thou spittest against heaven, thou art sure to have fall on thy own face at last; and thy brother whom thou enviest, God stands bound to defend against thy envy, because he is maligned for what he hath of God in him.  Thus did God plead Joseph’s cause against his envious brethren, and David’s against wicked Saul.  Thyself only hast real hurt.

(a) Thou deprivest thyself of what thou mightst reap from the gifts of others.  That old saying is true, ‘What thou hast is mine, and what I have thine, when envy is gone.’ Whereas now, like the leech—which they say draws out the worst blood—thou suckest nothing but what swells thy mind with discontent, and is after vomited out in strife and contention.  O what a sad thing it is, that one should go from a precious sermon, a sweet prayer, and bring nothing away but a grudge against the instrument God used; as we see in the Pharisees and others at Christ preaching!

(b) Thou robbest thyself of the joy of thy life.  “He that is cruel troubleth his own flesh,’ Prov. 11:17. The envious man doth it to purpose; he sticks the honour and esteem of others as thorns in his own heart; he cannot think of them without pain and anguish, and he must needs pine that is ever in pain.

(c) Thou throwest thyself into the mouth of temptation, thou needest give the devil no greater advantage; it is a stalk any sin almost will grow upon. What will not the patriarchs do to rid their hands of Joseph whom they envied?  That very pride which made them disdain the thought of bowing to his sheaf, made them stoop far lower, even to debase themselves as low as hell, and be the devil’s instru­ments to sell their dear brother into slavery, which might have been worse for him—if God had not provided otherwise—than if they had slain him on the place.  What an impotent mind, and cruel, did Saul show against David, when once envy had enven­omed his heart!  From that day [on] which he heard David preferred in the women’s songs above himself, he could never get that sound out of his head, but did ever after devote this innocent man to death in his thoughts, who had done him no other wrong, but in being an instrument to keep the crown on his head, by the hazard of his own life with Goliath.  O it is a bloody sin!  It is the womb wherein a whole litter of other sins are formed, Rom. 1:29, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, maligni­ty, &c.; and therefore, except you be resolved to bid the devil welcome and his whole train, resist him in this, that comes before to take up quarters for the rest.

Three Doors Whence This Enemy Comes Forth 1/2

Three Doors Whence This Enemy Comes Forth

           Question.  But how would you direct us against this?

           Answer.  Arguments you have had before; I shall only therefore point to two or three doors where your enemy comes forth upon you; and surely the very sight thereof, if thou beest loyal to Christ, will stir thee up to fall upon it.

           First Door. This kind of pride discovers itself in dwelling upon the thoughts of our gifts, with a secret kind of content to see our own face, till at last we fall in love with it.  We read of some whose eyes are full of the adulteress, and cannot cease from sin.  A proud heart is full of himself; his own abilities cast their shadow before him.  They are in his eye wherever he goes.  The great subject and theme of his thoughts in what he is, and what he hath above others, ap­plauding himself; as Bernard confesseth, that—when one would think he had little leisure for such thoughts—even in preaching; pride would be whis­pering in his ear, Bene fecisti Bernarde—O well done, Bernard.  Now have a care, Christian, of chat­ting with such company.  Run from such thoughts as from a bear.  If the devil can get thee to stand on this pinnacle, while he presents thee with the glory of thy spiritual attainments and endowments, for thee to gaze on them thy weak head will soon turn round in pride; and therefore labour to keep the sense of thy own infirmities lively in thy soul, to divert the temp­tation.  As those who are subject to some kind of fits carry about them things proper for the disease, that when the fit is coming—which is oft occasioned with a sweet perfume—they may use them for their help; sweet scents are not more dangerous for them, than anything they may applaud thee is to thy soul.  Have a care, therefore, not only of wearing such thoughts in thy bosom, but also of sitting by others that bring the sweet scent of thy perfections to thee by their flattery.

           Second Door. This kind of pride appears in a forwardness to expose itself to view, I Sam. 17:28. David’s brethren were mistaken in him indeed, but oft the pride and naughtiness of the heart breaks out at this door.  Christ’s carnal friends bid Christ show himself; pride loves to climb up, not as Zacchaeus, to see Christ, but to be seen himself.  ‘The fool,’ Solomon tells us, ‘hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself,’ Prov. 18:2.  Pride would be somebody, and therefore comes abroad to court the multitude; whereas humility delights in privacy.  As the leaves do cover and shade the fruits, that some hand may gently lift up them, before they can see the fruit; so should a humility and holy modesty conceal the perfections of the soul, till a hand of providence by some call invites them out. There is a pride in naked gifts, as well as in naked breasts and backs.  Humility is a necessary veil to all other graces, and therefore,  1. Christian, look when­ever thou comest forth to public duty, that thou hast a call.  It is obedience to be ready to answer when God calls thee forth, but it is pride to run before God speaks.  2. When called, earnestly implore divine strength against this enemy.  Shun not a duty for fear of pride—thou mayest show it in the very seeming to escape it—but go in the strength of God against it.  There is more hope of overcoming it by obedience than [by] disobedience.

           Third Door. This kind of pride discovers itself in envying the gifts of others, when they seem to blind our own that they are not so fair a prospect as we desire.  This is a weed may grow too rank in a good soil.  Aaron and Miriam could not bear Moses his honour, Num. 12.1; that was the business, though they pick a quarrel with him about his wife, because an Ethiopian, as appears plainly, ‘Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us?’ ver. 2.  They thought Moses went away with too much of the honour, and did repine that God should use him more than themselves.  And it is observable, that the lusting for flesh broke out among the mixed multitude, and baser sort of people, Num. 11:4,5; but this of pride and envy took fire in the bosoms of the most eminent for place and piety.  O what need then have we, poor creatures, to  watch our hearts when we see such precious servants of God led into temptation?  ‘The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy,’ James 4:5.  Our corrupt nature is ever putting on to this sin.  It is as hard to keep our hearts and this sin asunder, as it is to keep two lovers from meeting together.  Thatch is not more ready to be fired with every flash of lightning, than the heart to be kindled at every shining forth of any excelling gift or grace in another.  It was of the first windows that corrupt nature looked out at—a sin that shed the first blood.  Cain’s envy hatched Abel’s murder.  Now if ever thou meanest to get the mastery of this sin,

1. Call in help from heaven.  No sooner hath the apostle set forth how big and teeming full the heart of man is with envy, but he shows where a fountain of grace is, infinitely exceeding that of lust: ‘The Spirit within us lusteth to envy, but he giveth more grace,’ James 4:5,6.  And therefore sit not down tamely under this sin: it is not unconquerable.  God can give thee more grace than thou hast sin—more humility than thou hast pride.  Be but so humble as cordially to beg this grace, and thou shalt not be so proud as wickedly to envy his gifts or grace in others. 

Use or Application - Spiritual Pride

           Use 1. [To those that have mean gifts.]  Doth Satan thus stir up saints to the spiritual pride of gifts? Here is a word to you that have mean gifts, yet truth of grace—be content with thy condition.  Perhaps when thou hearest others, how enlargedly they pray, how able to discourse of the truths of God, and the like, thou art ready to go into a corner, and mourn to think how weak thy memory, how dull thy apprehen­sion, how straitened thy spirit, hardly able, though in secret, to utter and express thy mind to God in prayer.  O thou art ready to think those the happy men and women, and almost [to] murmur at thy con­dition.  Well, canst thou not say, though I have no words, I hope I have faith?  I cannot dispute for the truth, but I am willing to suffer for it.  I cannot re­member a sermon, but I never hear a word but I hate sin and love Christ more than ever.  Lord, thou knowest I love thee.  Truly, Christian, thou hast the better part; thou little thinkest what a mercy may be wrapt up even in the meanness of thy gifts, or what temptations their gifts expose them to, which God, for aught I know, may in mercy deny thee.  Joseph’s coat made him finer than his brethren, but this caused all his trouble—this set the archers a shooting their arrows into his side.  Thus, great gifts lift a saint up a little higher in the eyes of men, but it occasions many temptations which thou meetest not with that art kept low.  What with envy from their brethren, malice from Satan, and pride in their own hearts, I dare say, none find so hard a work to go to heaven as such, [so] much ado to bear up against those waves and winds—while thou creepest along the shore under the wind to heaven.  It is with such as with some great lord of little estate—a meaner man oft hath money in his purse, when he hath none, and can lend his lordship some at a need.  Great gifts and parts are titles of honour among men, but many such may come and borrow grace and comfort of a mean-gifted brother, possibly, the preacher of his poor neighbour.  O, poor Christians, do not murmur or envy them, but rather pity and pray for them, they need it more than others.  His gifts are thine, thy grace is for thyself.  Thou art like a merchant that hath his factor [who] goes to sea, but he hath his adventure without hazard brought home.  Thou join­est with him in the prayer, hast the help of his gifts, but not the temptation of his pride.           

 Use 2. [To those that have great gifts.]  Doth Satan labour thus to draw to pride of gifts?  This speaks a word to you to whom God hath given more gifts than ordinary.  Beware of pride, that is now your snare.  Satan is at work; if possible he will turn your artillery against yourself.  Thy safety lies in thy humility; if this lock be cut, the legions of hell are on thee.  Remember whom thou wrestlest with—spir­itual wickednesses—and their play is to lift up, that they may give the sorer fall.  Now the more to stir up thy heart against it, I shall add some soul-humbling considerations on this pride of gifts.

1. Consideration.  These spiritual gifts are not thine own; and wilt thou be proud of another’s bounty?  Is not God the founder, and can he not soon be the confounder of thy gifts?  Thou that art proud of thy gourd, what wilt thou be when it is gone?  Surely then thou wilt be peevish and angry, and truly thou takest the course to be stripped of them.  Gifts come on other terms than grace.  God gives grace as a freehold—it hath the promise of this and another world; but gifts come on liking.  Though a father will not cast off his child, yet he may take away his fine coat and ornaments, if proud of them.
2. Consideration.  Gifts are not merely for thyself.  As the light of the sun is ministerial—it shines not for itself—so all thy gifts are for others —gifts for the edifying of the body.  Suppose a man should leave a chest of money in your hands to be distributed to others, what folly is it in this man to put this into his own inventory, and applaud himself that he hath so much money?  Poor soul, thou art but God’s executor, and by that time thou hast paid all the legacies, thou wilt see little left for thee to brag and boast of.
3. Consideration.  Know, Christian, thou shalt be accountable for these talents.  Now, with what face can a proud soul look on God?  Suppose one left an executor to pay legacies, and this man should pay them, not as legacies of another, but [as] gifts of his own.  Christ at his ascension gave gifts that his chil­dren should receive.  Thou hast some in thy hand. Now a proud soul gives out all, not as the legacy of Christ, but as his own; he assumes all to himself.  O how abominable is this, to entitle ourselves to Christ’s honour!
4. Consideration.  Thy gifts commend thee not to God.  Man may be taken with thy expression and notion in prayer; but these are all pared off when thy prayer comes before God.  ‘O woman,’ saith Christ, ‘great is thy faith!’ not, compt and flourishing thy language.  It were good after our duties to sort the ingredients of which they are made up—what grace contributed, and what gifts, and what pride—and when all the heterogeneal stuff is severed, you shall see in what a little compass the actings of grace in our duties will lie.
5. Consideration.  Consider while thou art prid­ing in thy gifts, thou art dwindling and withering in thy grace.  Such are like corn that runs up much into straw, whose ear commonly is but light and thin. Grace is too much neglected where gifts are too highly prized; we are commanded to be clothed with humil­ity.  Our garments cover the shame of our bodies, humility the beauty of the soul.  And as a tender body cannot live without clothes, so neither can grace with­out this clothing of humility.  It kills the spirit of praise; when thou shouldst bless God, thou art ap­plauding thyself.  It destroys Christian love, and stabs our fellowship with the saints to the heart; a proud man hath not room enough to walk in company, be­cause the gifts of others he thinks stand in his way. Pride so distempers the palate, that it can relish nothing that is drawn from another’s vessel.
6. Consideration.  It is the forerunner of some great sin, or some great affliction.  God will not suffer such a weed as pride to grow in his garden without taking some course or other to root it up; may be he will let thee fall into some great sin, and that shall bring thee home with shame.  God useth sometimes a thorn in the flesh, to prick the bladder of pride in the spirit; or at least some great affliction, the very end whereof is to ‘hide pride from man,’ Job 33:17,19. As you do with your hot mettled horses—ride them over ploughed lands to tame them, and then you can sit safely on their back.  If God’s honour be in danger through thy pride, then expect a rod, and most likely the affliction shall be in that which shall be most grievous to thee, in the thing thou art proud of. Hezekiah boasted of his treasure.  God sends the Chaldeans to plunder him.  Jonah [is] fond of his gourd, and that is smitten.  And if thy spirit be blown up with pride of gifts, thou art in danger of having them blasted, at least in the opinion of others whose breath of applause, possibly, was a means to overset thy unballasted spirit.

First Kind of Spiritual Pride—PRIDE OF GIFTS

   

First. By gifts, I mean those supernatural abil­ities, with which the Spirit of God doth enrich and endow the minds of men for edification of the body of Christ; of which gifts the apostle tells us there is great diversity, and all from the same Spirit, I Cor. 12:4. There is not greater variety of colours and qualities of plants and flowers, with which the earth like a carpet of needle-work is variegated for the delight and service of man, than there is of gifts, natural and spir­itual, in the minds of men, to render them useful to one another, both in civil societies and Christian fellowship.  The Christian, as well as man, is in­tended to be a sociable creature, and for the better managing of this spiritual commonwealth among Christians, God doth wisely and graciously provide, and impart, gifts suitable to the place every one stands in [relative] to his brethren, as the vessels are larger or less in the body natural, according to the place therein.  Now Satan labours what he can, to taint these gifts, and fly-blow them with pride in the Christian, that so he may spoil the Christian’s trade and commerce, which is mutually maintained by the gifts and graces of one another.  Pride of gifts hinders the Chris­tian’s trade—at least [its] thriving by their commerce, two ways.  First. Pride of gifts is the cause why we do so little good with them to others.  Second. Pride of gifts is the cause why we receive so little good from the gifts of others.

           First. Pride of gifts is the cause why we do so little good with them to others, and that upon a threefold account.

1. Pride diverts a man from aiming at the end. So far as pride prevails, the man prays, preaches, &c., rather to thought good by others, than to do good to others; rather to enthrone himself, than Christ, in the opinions and hearts of his hearers.  Pride carries the man aloft, to be admired for the height of his parts and notions, and will not suffer him to stoop so low as to speak of plain truths, or if he does, not plainly; he must have some fine lace, though on a plain stuff. Such a one may tickle the ear, but [is] very unlikely to do real good to the soul.  Alas! it is not that he attends.
2. If this painted Jezebel of pride be perceived to look out at the window in any exercise, whether of preaching, prayer, or conference, it doth beget a dis­dain in the spirits of those that hear such a one, both good and bad.  It is a sin very odious to a gracious heart, and oft-times makes the stomach go against the food, though good, through their abhorrency of that pride they see in the instrument.  It is, indeed, their weakness, but woe to them that by their pride lead them into temptation! nay, those that are bad and may be in the same kind, like not that in another which they favour in themselves, and so prejudiced [they] return as bad as they went.
3. Pride of gifts robs us of God’s blessing in the use of them.  The humble man may have Satan at his right hand to oppose him; but be sure the proud man shall find God himself there to resist him, whenever he goes about any duty.  God proclaims so much, and would have the proud man know wherever he meets him [that] he will oppose him.  He ‘resisteth the proud.’  Great gifts are beautiful as Rachel, but pride makes them also barren like her.  Either we must lay self aside, or God will lay us aside.

           Second. Pride of gifts is the cause why we receive so little good from the gifts of others.  Pride fills the soul; and a full soul will take nothing from God, much less from man, to do it good.  Such a one is very dainty; it is not every sermon, though wholesome food, not every prayer, though savoury, [that] will go down.  He must have a choice dish.  He thinks he hath better than this of his own.  And is such a one like to get good?  And truly we may see it, that as the plain ploughman, that can eat of any homely food if wholesome, hath more health, and is able to do more work in a day, than many enjoy or can do in their whole life, that are nice, squeamish, and courtly in their fare; so the humble Christian that can feed on plain truths, and ordinances which have not so much of the art of man to commend them to their palate, enjoy more of God, and can do more for God, than the nicer sort of professors, who are all to be served in a lordly dish of rare gifts.  The church of Corinth was famous for gifts above other churches, I Cor. 1, but not in grace; none [were] so charged for weakness in that, I Cor. 3:2.  He [Paul] calls them carnal babes in Christ, so weak as not able to digest man's meat.  ‘I have fed you,’ saith Paul, ‘with milk, and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.’  Why? what is the matter? the reason lies, ‘Ye are yet carnal: there is among you envying, and strife;’ ver. 3, ‘One saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos,’ ver. 4.  Pride makes them take parts, and make sides, one for this preacher, another for that, as they fancied one to excel another. And this is not the way to thrive.  Pride destroys love, and love wanting edification is lost.  The devil hath made foul work in the church by this engine.  Zanchy tells of one in Geneva, who being desired to go hear Calvin, answered his friend, ‘If Paul were to preach, I would leave Paul himself to hear Calvin.’  And will pride in the gifts of another so far transport, even to the borders of blasphemy, what work will then pride make when the gifts are a man's own?

SECOND SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESS—Spiritual Pride

Second. The second spiritual wickedness which Satan provokes unto, especially the saint, is spiritual pride.  This was the sin made him, of a blessed angel, a cursed devil; and as it was his personal sin, so he chiefly labours to derive it to the sons of man: and he so far prevailed on our first parents, that ever since, this sin hath and doth claim a kind of regency in the heart, making use of both bad and good to draw her chariot.

           First. It maketh use of evil.  Pride enters into the labours of other sins; they do but work to make her brave, as subjects to uphold the state and grandeur of their prince.  Thus you shall see some drudge and droil, cheat, cozen, oppress; and what mean they?  O it is to get an estate to maintain pride.  Others fawn and flatter, lie, dissemble; and for what? to help pride up some mount of honour.

           Second. It maketh use of that which is good.  It can work with God’s own tools, his ordinances, by which the Holy Spirit advanceth his kingdom of grace in the hearts of his saints.  These often are prosti­tuted to pride.  A man may be very zealous in prayer, and painful in preaching, and all the while pride is the master whom he serves, though in God’s livery. It can take sanctuary in the holiest actions, and hide itself under the skirt of virtue itself.  Thus while a man is exercising his charity, pride may be the idol in secret for which he lavisheth out his gold so freely.  It is hard starving this sin, because there is nothing al­most but it can live on—nothing so base that a proud heart will not be lift up with, and nothing so sacred but it will profane; [it will] even dare to drink in the bowls of the sanctuary, nay, rather than starve, it will feed on the carcases of other sins.  ‘That sin is with great difficulty avoided which springs from a victory of our vices.’ This minion pride will stir up the soul to resist, yea, in a manner kill, some sins, that she may boastingly show the head of them, and blow the creature up with the conceit of himself above others. As the Pharisee, who through pride bragged that he was not as the publican—so that pride, if not looked to, will have to do everywhere, and hath a large sphere it moves in.  Nothing indeed (without divine assistance) the creature hath or doth, but will soon become a prey to this devourer.  But I am not to handle it in this latitude.

Pride is either conversant about carnal objects, as pride of beauty, strength, riches, and such like, or about spiritual.  The latter we shall speak a little to.  I confess for the former, possibly a saint may be catched in them—no sin [is] to be slighted—yet not so commonly, for ordinary pride is of those perfec­tions which are suitable, if not proper, to the state and calling we are in.  Thus the musician; he is proud of the skill he hath in his art, by which he excels others of his rank.  The scholar, though he can play perhaps as well, yet is not proud of that, but looks on it as beneath him; no, he is proud of his learning and choice notions: and so of others. 

           Now the life of a Christian, as a Christian, is su­perior to the life of a man as a man; and therefore [he] doth not value himself by these which are be­neath him, but in higher and more raised per­fections, which suit a Christian's calling.  As a natural man is proud of perfections suitable to his natural state, as honour, beauty; so the Christian is prone chiefly to be puffed up with perfections suitable to his life.  I shall name three:  First. Pride of gifts. Second. Pride of grace.  Third. Pride of privileges. These are the things which Satan chiefly labours to entangle him in.

Use or Application

           [A word of exhortation to all.] The application of this shall be only in a word of exhortation to all; especially you who bear the name of Christ by a more eminent profession of him.  O beware of this soul-infection, this leprosy of the head.  I hope you do not think it needless, for it is the disease of the times. This plague is begun, yea, spreads apace.  [There is] not a flock, [not] a congregation hardly, that hath not this scab among them.  Paul was a preacher the best of us all may write after, and he presseth this home upon the saints, yea, in the constant course of his preaching  it made a piece of his sermon.  He sets us preacher also upon this work; ‘Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock;—for I know this, that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter;—also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things,’ Acts 20:28-30; therefore watch.  And then he presents his own example, that he hardly made a sermon for several years, but this was part of it, to warn every one night and day with tears.  We need not prophesy what impostors may come upon the stage when we go off.  There are too many at present above-board of this gang drawing disciples after them.  And if it be our duty to warn you of them, surely it is yours to watch, lest you by any of them be led into temptation in this hour thereof, wherein Satan is let loose in so great a measure to deceive the nation.  May you not as easily be soured with this leaven, as the disciples whom Christ bids beware?  Are you privileged above those famous churches of Galatia and Corinth, many of which were bewitched with false teachers, and in a manner turned to another gospel?  Is Satan grown orthodox, or have his instruments lost their cunning, who hunt for souls?  In a word, is there not a sym­pathy between thy corrupt heart and error?  Hast thou not a disposition, which, like the fomes of the earth, makes it natural for these weeds to grow in thy soil?  Seest thou not many prostrated by this enemy, who sat upon the mountain of their faith, and thought it should never have been removed?  Surely they would have taken it ill to have been told, ‘you are the men and women that will decry Sabbaths, which now ye count holy; you will turn Pelagians, who now defy the name; you will despise prophecy itself, who now seem so much to honour the proph­ets; you will throw family duties out of doors, who dare not now go out of doors till you have prayed there.’  Yet these, and more than these, are come to pass; and doth it not behove thee, Christian, to take heed lest thou fallest also?  And that thou mayest not,

1. Exhortation.  Make it thy chief care to get a thorough change of thy heart.  If once the root of the matter be in thee, and thou beest bottomed by a lively faith on Christ, thou art then safe, I do not say wholly free from all error; but this I am sure, free from engulfing thy soul in damning error.  ‘They went out from us,’ saith St. John, ‘but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us,’ I John 2:19.  As if he had said, They had some outward profes­sion, and common work of the Spirit with us, which they have either lost or carried over to the devil’s quarters, but they never had the unction of the sanctifying Spirit.  By this, ver. 20, he distinguisheth them, and comforts the sincere ones, who possibly might fear their own fall by their departure: ‘But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.’  It is one thing to know a truth, and another thing to know it by unction.  An hypocrite may do the former, the saint only the latter. It is this unction which gives the soul the savour of the knowledge of Christ; those are the fit prey for impostors, who are enlightened, but not enlivened. O, it is good to have the heart established with grace! This, as an anchor, will keep us from being set adrift, and carried about with divers and strange doctrines, as the apostle teacheth us, Heb. 13:9.
2. Exhortation.  Ply the work of mortification.  Crucify the flesh daily.  Heresy, though a spiritual sin, [is] yet by the apostle reckoned among the deeds of the flesh, Gal. 5:20, because it is occasioned by fleshly motives, and nourished by carnal food and fleshly fuel.  Never [have] any turned heretic, but flesh was at the bottom; either they served their belly or a lust of pride—it was the way to court, or secured their estates and saved their lives, as sometimes the reward of truth is fire and fagot.  Some pad or other is in the straw when least seen; and therefore it is no wonder that heresies should end in the flesh, which in a manner sprang from it.  The rheum in the head as­cends in fumes from the stomach, and returns thither, or unto the lungs, which at last fret and ulcerate. Carnal affections first send up their fumes to the un­derstanding, clouding that, yea, bribing it to receive such and such principles for truths; which [when] embraced, fall down into the life, corrupting that with the ulcer of profaneness.  So that, Christian, if once thou canst take off thy engagements to the flesh, and become a free man, so as not to give thy vote to gratify thy carnal fears or hopes, thou wilt then be a sure friend to truth.
3. Exhortation.  Wait conscionably on the minis­try of the word.  Satan commonly stops the ear from hearing sound doctrine, before he opens it to embrace corrupt.  This is the method of souls [in] apostatizing from truth: ‘They shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables,’ II Tim. 4:3,4. Satan, like a cunning thief, draws the soul out of the road into some lane or corner, and there robs him of the truth.  By rejecting of one ordinance, we deprive ourselves of the blessing of all others.  Say not that thou prayest to be led into truth; God will not hear thy prayer if thou turnest thine ear from hearing the law.  He that loves his child, when he sees him play the truant, will whip him to school.  If God loves a soul, he will bring him back to the word with shame and sorrow.
4. Exhortation.  When thou hearest any unusual doctrine, though never so pleasing, make not up the match hastily with it.  Have some better testimony of it, before you open your heart to it.  The apostle indeed bids us entertain strangers, for some have entertained angels unawares Heb. 13:2; but he would not have us carried about with strange doctrine, ver. 9, [though] by this I am sure some have entertained devils.  I confess, it is not enough to reject a doctrine, because strange to us, but ground we have, to wait and inquire.  Paul marvelled that the Galatians were so soon removed from him, who had called them unto the grace of Christ, unto another gospel.  They might sure have stayed till they had acquainted Paul with it, and asked his judgement.  What, no sooner an impostor come into the country, and open his pack, but buy all his ware at first sight!  O friends, were it not more wisdom to pray such new notions over and over again, to search the Word, and our hearts by it, yea, not to trust our own hearts, but [to] call in counsel from others?  If your minister have not such credit with you, get the most holy, humble, and established Christians you can find.  Error is like fish, which must be eaten new or it will stink.  When those dangerous errors sprung up first in New Eng­land, O how unsettled were the churches! what an outcry was made, as if some mine of gold had been discovered!  But in a while, when those error came to their complexion, and it was perceived whither they were bound—to destroy churches, ordinances, and power of godliness—then such as feared God, who had stepped aside, returned back with shame and sorrow.

First Spiritual Wickedness—Error in Principle.

First. Satan labours to corrupt the mind with erroneous principles.  He was at work at the very first plantation of the gospel, sowing his darnel as soon almost as Christ his wheat.  This sprung up in perni­cious errors even in the apostles’ times, which made them take the weeding-hook into their hands, and, in all their epistles, labour to countermine Satan in his design.  Now in this his endeavour to corrupt the minds of men, especially professors, with error, Satan hath a threefold design,

           First Design. He doth this in despite to God, against whom he cannot vent his malice at a higher rate, than by corrupting his truth, which God hath so highly honoured, ‘For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.’ Ps. 138:2.  Every creature bears the name of God, but in his word and truth therein contained it is writ at length, and therefore he is more choice of this than of all his other works; he cares not much what becomes of the world and all in it, so he keeps his word and saves his truth.  Ere long we shall see the world on a light flame; ‘The heavens and earth shall pass away, but the word of the Lord en­dureth for ever.’  When God will, ha can make more such worlds as this is, but he cannot make another truth, and therefore he will not lose one iota thereof. Satan, knowing this, sets all his wits on work to de­face this truth, and disfigure it by unsound doctrine. The word is the glass in which we see God, and seeing him, are changed into his likeness by his Spirit.  If this glass be cracked, then our conceptions we have of God will misrepresent him unto us, whereas the word in its native clearness sets him out in all his glory unto our eye.

           Second Design. He endeavours to draw into this spiritual sin of error, as the most subtle and effectual means to weaken, if not destroy, the power of god­liness in them.  The apostle joins the spirit of power and a sound mind together, II Tim. 1:7.  Indeed the power of holiness in practice depends much on the soundness of judgment.  Godliness is the child of truth, and it must be nursed, if we will have it thrive, with no other milk than of its own mother. Therefore we are exhorted to ‘desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow,’ I Peter 2:2; if this milk be but a little dashed with error, it is not so nutritive. All error, how innocent soever it may seem, like the ivy, draws away the strength of the soul’s love from holiness.  Hosea tells us whoredom and wine take away the heart, now error is spiritual adultery.  Paul speaks of his espousing them to Christ.  When a per­son receives an error, he takes a stranger into Christ’s bed, and it is the nature of adulterous love to take away the wife’s heart from her true husband, that she delights not in his company so much as [in that] of her adulterous lover.  And do we not see it at this day fulfilled?  Do not many show more zeal in contending for one error, than for many truths?  How strangely are the hearts of many taken off from the ways of God, their love cooled to the ordinances and messen­gers of Christ!—and all this occasioned by some cor­rupt principle got into their bosoms, which controls Christ and his truth, as Hagar and her son did Sarah and her child.  Indeed Christ will never enjoy true conjugal love from the soul, till, like Abraham, he turns these out of doors.  Error is not so innocent a thing as many think it; it is as unwholesome food to the body—that poisons the spirits, and surfeits the whole body—which seldom passeth away without breaking out into sores.  As the knowledge of Christ carries a soul above the pollutions of the world, so error entangles and betrays it to those lusts, whose hands it had escaped.

           Third Design. Satan in drawing a soul into this spiritual sin hath a design to disturb the peace of the church, which is rent and shattered when this fire-ship comes among them.  ‘I hear,’ saith Paul, ‘that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it, for there must also be heresies,’ I Cor. 11:18,19 —implying that divisions are the natural issue of heresy.  Error cannot well agree with error, except it be against the truth; then indeed, like Pilate and Herod, they are easily made friends; but when truth seems to be overcome, and the battle is over with that, then they fall out among themselves, and there­fore it is no wonder if it be so troublesome a neigh­bour to truth.  O sirs, what a sweet silence and peace was there among Christians a dozen years ago.  Me­thinks the looking back to those blessed days in this respect—though they had also another way their troubles, yet not so uncomfortable, because that storm united, this scatters the saints' spirits—is joyous, to remember in what unity and love Chris­tians walked.  The persecutors of those times might have said, as their predecessors did of the saints in primitive times, ‘See how they love one another,’ but now, alas, they may jeer and say, See how they that loved so dearly, are ready to pluck one another’s throats out.

Second Sort of Spiritual Sins, So Called From The Object About Which They Are Conversant

Second Sort of Spiritual Sins, So called from the object about which they are conversant.

           Second. Sins may be called spiritual, from the object about which they are conversant; when that is spiritual and not carnal, such as idolatry, error, spir­itual pride, unbelief, &c., both which Paul calls the filthiness of the spirit, and distinguisheth them from filthiness of the flesh, II Cor. 7:1.

           They are such as are not only acted in the spirit, but are conversant about spiritual objects proper to the soul’s nature that is a spirit, and not laid out in carnal passions of fleshly lusts, in which the soul acts as but a pander for the body, and partakes of their delights only by way of sympathy; for as the soul feels the body's pains no other way than by sympathy, so neither doth it share in the pleasures of the flesh by any proper taste it hath of them, but only, from its near neighbourhood with the body, doth sympathize with its joy.  But in spiritual wickednesses that corrupt the mind, the soul moves in its own sphere, with a delight proper to itself, and there are no less of these than the other.  There is hardly a fleshly lust but hath some spiritual sin analogous to it, as they say there is no species of creatures on the land but may be patterned in the sea.  Thus the heart of man can produce spiritual sins answering carnal lusts.  For whoredom and uncleanness of the flesh, there is idolatry, called in Scripture spiritual adultery, from which the seat of Antichrist is called spiritual Sodom; for sensual drunkenness, there is a drunkenness of the mind, intoxicating the judgement with error, a drunkenness of the heart in cares and fears; for carnal pride in beauty, riches, honour, there is a spiritual pride of gifts, graces, &c.  Now Satan in an especial manner assaults the Christian with such as these, [but] it would require a larger discourse than I can allow, to run over the several kinds of them.  I shall, of many, pick out two or three.