Use or Application. A word of reproof to four sorts of persons

We come to the

           Use First. This is a word of reproof to four sorts of persons.

1. Sort. Is a word of reproof to those that are so far from wrestling against Satan for this heavenly prize, that they resist the offer of it.  Instead of taking heaven by force, they keep it off by force.  How long hath the Lord been crying in our streets, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand? how long have gos­pel offers rung in our ears? and yet to this day many devil-deluded souls furiously drive on towards hell, and will not be persuaded back—who refuse to be called the children of God, and choose rather the dev­il’s bondage, than the glorious liberty with which Christ would make them free; esteeming the pleasures of sin for a season greater treasures than the riches of heaven.  It is storied of Cato, who was Cæsar’s bitter enemy, that when he saw Cæsar pre­vail, rather than fall into his hand and stand to his mercy, he laid violent hands on himself, which Cæsar hearing of, passionately broke out into these words, ‘O Cato, why didst thou grudge me the honour of saving thy life?’  And do not many walk as if they grudged Christ the honour of saving their souls?  What other account can ye give, sinners, of rejecting his grace?  Are not heaven and happiness things desir­able, and to be preferred before sin and misery?  Why then do you not embrace them?  Or are they the worse because they come swimming to you in the blood of Christ?  O how ill must Christ take it to be thus used, when he comes on such a gracious embas­sage!  May he not say to thee, as once he did to those officers sent to attach him, ‘Be ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves?’  If he be a thief, it is only in this, that he would steal your sins from you, and leave heaven in the room.  O, for the love of God, think what you do; it is eternal life you put away from you, in doing of which, you judge yourselves unworthy of it, Acts 13:46.
2. Sort. It reproves those who are Satan’s ins­truments to rob souls of what is heavenly.  Among thieves there are some ye call setters, who inquire where a booty is to be had; which, when they have found, and know [that] such a one travels with a charge about him, then they employ some other to rob him, and are themselves not seen in the business. The devil is the grand setter, he observes the Chris­tian how he walks—what place and company he fre­quents, what grace or heavenly treasure he carries in his bosom—which, when he hath done, he hath his instruments for the purpose to execute his design. Thus he considered the admirable graces of Job, and casts about how he might best rob him of his heav­enly treasure.  And who but his wife and friends must do this for him?—well knowing that his tale would receive credit from their mouths.  O friends, ask your consciences whether you have not done the devil some service of this kind in your days.  Possibly you have a child or servant who once looked heavenward, but your brow-beating of them scared them back, and now, may be, they are as carnal as you would have them.  Or possibly thy wife, before acquainted with thee, was full of life in the ways of God, but since she hath been transplanted into thy cold soil, what by thy frothy speeches and unsavoury conversation, at best thy worldliness and formality, she is now both de­cayed in her graces and a loser in her comforts.  O man, what an indictment will be brought against thee for this at God's bar?  You would come off better were it for robbing one of his money and jewels, than of his grace and comforts.
3. Sort. It reproves the woeful negligence [which] most show in labouring for this heavenly prize.  None but would be glad their souls might be saved at last; but where is the man or woman that makes it appear by their vigorous endeavour that they mean in earnest?  What warlike preparation do they make against Satan, who lies between them and home? where are their arms? where their skill to use them, their resolution to stand to them, and unconscionable care to exercise themselves daily in the use of them?  Alas, this is a rarity indeed, not to be found in every house where the profession of religion is hanged out at the door.  If woulding and wishing will bring them to heaven, then they may come thither; but as for this wrestling and fighting, this making religion our business, they are as far from these as at last they are like to be from heaven.  They are of his mind in Tully, who in a summer's day, as he lay lazing himself on the grass, would say, ‘O that this were to work  that I would lie here and do my day labour.  Thus many melt and waste their lives in sloth, and say in their hearts, ‘O that this were the way to heaven!’ but will use no means to furnish themselves with grace for such an enterprise.  I have read of a great prince in Germany, invaded by a more potent enemy than himself, yet from his friends and allies, who flocked in to his help, he soon had a goodly army, but had no money, as he said, to pay them; but the truth is, he was loath to part with it, for which some in discontent went away, others did not vigorously attend his business, and so he was soon beaten out of his kingdom, and his coffers, when his palace was rifled, were found thracke  with treasure.  Thus he was ruined, as some sick men die because unwilling to be at cost to pay the physician.  It will add to the misery of damned souls, when they shall have leisure enough to consider what they have lost in losing God, to remember what means, offers, and talents they once had towards the obtaining of ever­lasting life, but had not a heart to use them.
4. Sort. It reproves those who make a great bustle and noise in religion, who are forward in pro­fession—very busy to meddle with the strictest duties, as if heaven had monopolized their whole hearts; but like the eagle, when they tower highest, their prey is below, where their eye is also.  Such a generation there ever was and will be—that mingle themselves with the saints of God—who pretend heaven, and have their outward garb faced and fringed, as it were, with heavenly speeches and duties, while their hearts are lined with hypocrisy—whereby they deceive others, but most of all themselves.  Such may be the world's saints, but [they are] devils in Christ’s account.  ‘Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil!’  And truly of all devils, none so bad as the professing devil, the preaching, praying devil.  O sirs, be plain-hearted.  Religion is as tender as your eye, it will not be jested with.  Remember the ven­geance which fell on Belshazzar, while he caroused in the bowls of the sanctuary.  Religion and the duties of it are consecrated things, not made for thee to drink thy lusts out of.  God hath remarkably appeared in discovering and confounding such as have prostituted sacred things to worldly ends.  Jezebel fasts and prays, the better to devour Naboth’s vineyard, but was de­voured by it.  Absalom was as sick till he had ravished his father’s crown, as his brother Amnon, till he had done the like to his sister, and to hide his treason he puts on a religious cloak, and therefore begs leave to go and pay his vow in Hebron, when he had another game in chase; and did he not fall by the hand of his hypocrisy?  Of all men their judgement is endorsed with most speed, who silver over worldly or wicked enterprises with heavenly semblances.  Of this gang were those concerning whom the apostle saith, ‘their damnation slumbereth not,’ II Peter 2:3; and those to whom God saith, ‘I the Lord will answer him by my­self, and I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the Lord,’ Eze. 14:7,8.

The prize which believers wrestle for is heavenly 2/2

Within doors.  This I may call his home-trade, which is spent in secret, between God and his own soul.  Here the Christian drives an unknown trade, he is at heaven, and home again richly laden in his thoughts and heavenly meditations before the world knows where he hath been.  Every creature he sees is a text for his heart to raise some spiritual matter and observations from.  Every sermon he hears cuts him out work to make up and enlarge upon when he gets alone.  Every providence is as wind to his sails, and sets his heart a moving in some heavenly action or other suitable to the occasion.  One while he is wrapped up with joy in the consideration of mercy, another while melted into godly sorrow for the sense of his sins; sometimes exalting God in his praises, anon abusing himself before God for his own vileness.  One while he is at the breast of the coven­ant, milking out the consolations of the promises; at another time working his heart into a holy awe, and fear of the threatenings.  Thus the Christian walks aloft, while the base worldling is licking the dust be­low.  One of these heavenly pearls which the Chris­tian trades for, is more worth than the worldling gets with all his sweat and travail in his whole life.  The Christian's feet stand where other men's heads are. He treads on the moon, and is clothed with the sun, he looks down on earthly men—as one from a high hill doth upon those that live in some fen or moor—and sees them buried in a fog of carnal pleasures and profits, while he breathes in a pure heavenly air, but yet not so high as to be free from all storms and tempests.  Many a sad gust he hath from sin and Satan without.  What else mean those sad complaints and groans, which come from the children of God—that their hearts are so dead and dull, their thoughts so roving and unfixed in duty, yea, many times so wicked and filthy, that they dare hardly tell what they are, for fear of staining their own lips, and offending the ears of others by naming them?  Surely, the Christian finds it in his heart to will and desire he could meditate, pray, hear, and live after another sort than this, doth he not? yes, I durst be his surety he doth.  But so long as there is a devil [who] tempts, and we continue within his walk, it will be thus, more or less.  As fast as we labour to clear the spring of our hearts, he will be labouring to royle or stop it again; so that we have two works to do at once, to perform a duty, and watch him that opposeth us—trowel and sword both in our hands.  They had need work hard indeed, who have others continually endeavouring to pull down, as they are labouring to rear up, the building.

1. Abroad.  That part of the Christian’s trade, which lies abroad, is heavenly also.  Take a Christian in his relations, calling, neighbourhood; he is a heav­enly trader in all.  The great business of his life is to be doing or receiving some good.  That company is not for him, that will neither give nor take this. What should a merchant be, where there is no buying or selling?  Every one labours, as his calling is, to seat himself where trade is quickest, and he is likeliest to have most takings.  The Christian, where he may choose, takes such in relations near to himself, hus­band, wife, servants, as may suit with his heavenly trade, and not such as will be a pull-back to him.  He falls in with the holiest persons as his dearest ac­quaintance; if there be a saint in the town where he lives, he will find him out, and this will be the man he will consort with.  And in his conversation with these and all else, his chief work is for heaven, his heavenly principle within inclines him to it.  Now, this alarms hell.  What! not contented to go to heaven himself, but by his holy example, gracious speeches, sweet counsels, seasonable reproofs, will he be trading with others, and labour to carry them along with him also? This brings the lion fell and mad out of his den.  Such to be sure shall find the devil in their way to oppose them.  I would have come, saith Paul, but Satan hindered me.  He that will vouch God, and let it appear by the tenor of his conversation that he trades for him, shall have enemies enough, if the devil can help him to such.

           Third. The Christian’s hopes are all heavenly; he lots not upon anything the world hath to give him.  Indeed he would think himself the most miserable man of all others, if here were all he could make of his religion.  No, it is heaven and eternal life that he expects; and though he be so poor as not to be able to make a will of a groat, yet he counts himself a greater heir, than if he were child to the greatest prince on earth.  This inheritance he sees by faith, and can rejoice in the hope of the glory which it will bring him.  The maskery and cheating glory of the great ones of this world moves him not to envy their fanciful pomp; but when on the dunghill himself, he can forget his own present sorrows, to pity them in all their bravery, knowing that within a few days the cross will be off his back, and the crowns off their heads together—their portion will be spent, when he shall be to receive all his.  These things entertain him with such joy that they will not suffer him to ac­knowledge himself miserable, when others think him, and the devil tells him, he is such.  This, this tor­ments the very soul of the devil, to see the Christian under sail for heaven, filled with the sweet hope of his joyful entertainment when he comes there; and therefore he raiseth what storms and tempests he can, either to hinder his arrival in that blessed port —which he most desires, and doth not wholly despair of—or at least to make it a troublesome winter voyage, such as Paul's was, in which they suffered so much loss.  And this indeed very often he obtains in such a degree, that by his violent impetuous temp­tations, beating long upon the Christian, he makes him throw over much precious lading of his joys and comforts; yea, sometimes he brings the soul through the stress of temptation to think of quitting the ship, while for the present all hope of being saved seems to be taken away.  Thus you see what we wrestle with devils for. 

The prize which believers wrestle for is heavenly

The prize which believers wrestle for is heavenly.

           Doctrine. The chief prize for which we wrestle against Satan is heavenly.  Or thus, Satan’s main de­sign is to spoil and plunder the Christian of all that is heavenly.  Indeed, all the Christian hath, or desires as a Christian, is heavenly.  The world is extrinsical, both to his being and happiness, it is a stranger to the Christian, and intermeddles not with his joy or grief. Heap all the riches and honours of the world upon a man, they will not make him a Christian; heap them on a Christian, they will not make him a better Christian.  Again, take them all away—let every bird have his feather—when stripped and naked, he will still be a Christian, and may be a better Christian.  It was a notable speech of Erasmus, if spoken in ear­nest, and his wit were not too quick for his con­science—he said he desired wealth and honour no more than a feeble horse doth a heavy cloak-bag.  And I think every Christian in his right temper would be of his mind.  Satan should do the saint little hurt, if he did bend his forces only or chiefly against his outward enjoyments.  Alas, the Christian doth not value them, or himself by them; this were as if one should think to hurt a man by beating of his clothes when he hath put them off.  So far as the Spirit of grace prevails in the heart of a saint, he hath put off the world in the desire of it and joy in it, so that these blows are not much felt; and therefore they are his heavenly treasures, which are the booty Satan waits for.

           First. The Christian’s nature is heavenly, born from above.  As Christ is the Lord from heaven, so all his offspring are heavenly and holy.  Now Satan’s design is to debase and deflower this; it is the precious life of this new creature that he hunts for; he hath lost that beauty of holiness which once shone so gloriously on his angelical nature; and now, like a true apostate, he endeavours to ruin that in a Chris­tian which he hath lost himself.  The seeds of this war are sown in the Christian's nature.  You are holy. That he cannot endure.  Miles feri faciem,was Cæsar’s speech, when to fight with the Roman citi­zens, he bade his soldiers ‘strike at their face,’ these citizens, said he, love their beauty; mar that and mar all.  The soul is the face whereon God’s image is stamped, holiness is the beauty of this face, which makes us indeed like God.  This, Satan knows, God loves, and the saint is chary of, and therefore he labours to wound and disfigure this, that he may at once glory in the Christian’s shame, and pour contempt upon God in breaking his image.  And is it not worth engaging limb and life in battle against this enemy, who would rob us of that which makes us like God himself?  Have you forgot the bloody articles of peace that Nahash offered to the men of Jabesh-Gilead? no peace to be had, except they would let him thrust out their right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel.  How was this entertained, read I Sam. 11:6.  The face is not so deformed that hath lost its eye, as the soul is that loseth its holiness, and no peace is to be expected at Satan’s hands, ex­cept he may deprive us of this.  Methinks at the thought of this, the Spirit of the Lord should come upon the Christian, and his anger be kindled much more against this cursed spirit, than Saul’s, and the men of Israel’s was against Nahash.

           Second. The Christian's trade is heavenly, The merchandise he deals for is the growth of that heav­enly country.  ‘Our conversation is in heaven,’ Php. 3:20.  Every man’s conversation is suitable to his calling.  He whose trade lies in the earth minds earthly things, and he whose trade is heavenly follows that close.  Every man minds his own business, the apostle tells us.  You may possibly find a tradesman out of his shop now and then, but he is as a fish out of the water, never in his element till he be in his calling again.  Thus when the Christian is about the world, and the worldling about heavenly matters, both are men out of their way, not right girt, till they get into their employment again.  Now this heavenly trade is that which Satan doth in an especial manner labour to stop.  Could the Christian enjoy but a free trade with heaven a few years without molestation, he would soon grow a rich man, too rich indeed for earth.  But what with losses sustained by the hands of this pirate Satan, and also the wrong he receives by the treachery of some, in his own bosom, that like unfaithful servants hold correspondence with this robber, he is kept but low in this life, and much of his gains are lost.  Now the Christian’s heavenly trade lies either within doors or abroad; he can be free in neither, Satan is at his heels in both.

‘In high places,’ or for heavenly things

‘In high places,’ or for heavenly things.

           These words contain the last branch in the description of our grand enemy, which have in them some ambi­guity—the adjective being only expressed in the original,  that is, [the] heavenlies.  The phrase being defective, our trans­lators read it ‘in high’ or heavenly ‘places,’ as if the apostle intended to set out the advantage of place which this our enemy, by being above us, hath of us. Indeed this way most interpreters go, yet some both ancient and modern read the words, not ‘in heavenly places,’ but ‘in heavenly things,’ inter­preting the apostle’s mind to set out the matter about which, or prize for which, we wrestle with principalities and powers to be heavenly things;  saith Occumenius, is as much as if the apostle had said, ‘We wrestle not for small and trivial things, but for heavenly,’ yea, for heaven itself, and our adop­tion, as he goes on.  The same way Chrysostom car­ries it—in heavenly things, that is, for the heavenly things of God; and, after him, Musculus, and other modern writers.  The reasons which are given for this interpretation are weighty.

           Reason First. The word elsewhere indefinitely set down, is taken for things, not places, Heb. 8:5, nay, one observes this word used almost twenty times in the New Testament, and never for any aerial place, but always for things truly heavenly and spiritual. The word, indeed, properly signifies super-celestial, and if applied to places, would signify that where the devil never came since his fall.

           Reason Second. There seems no great argument to render Satan formidable by his being above us in place.  It is some advantage, indeed, to men, to gain the hill, or be above their enemies in some place of strength, but none at all to spirits.  But now take it of things, and then it adds weight to all the other branches of the description.  We wrestle with princi­palities and powers and spiritual wickedness, and against all these, not for such toys and trifles as the earth affords, which are inconsiderable, whether to keep or lose, but for such as heaven holds forth, such an enemy and such a prize makes it a matter of our greatest care how to manage the combat.  The word thus opened, the note will be this.

Third Kind of Spiritual Pride — PRIDE OF PRIVILEGES 3/3

1. To look that thou measurest not thy grace by thy comfort, lest so thou beest led into a false opinion that thy grace is strong, because thy comforts are so. Satan will be ready to help forward such thought as a fir medium to lift thee up, and slacken thy care in duty for the future.  Such discoveries do indeed bear witness to the truth of thy grace, but not to the degree and measure of it.  The weak child may be, yea, is, oftener in the lap than the strong.
2. Do not so much applaud thyself in thy pres­ent comfort, as labour to improve it, for the glory of God.  ‘Arise and eat,’ saith the angel to the prophet, ‘because the journey is too great for thee.’  The mani­festations of God's love are to fit us for our work.  It is one thing to rejoice in the light of our comfort, and another to go forth in the power of the Spirit com­forting us—as giants refreshed with this wine—to run our race of duty and obedience with more strength and alacrity.  He shows his pride that spends his time in telling his money merely to see how rich he is; but he his wisdom, that lays out his money and trades with it.  The boaster of his comforts will lose what he hath, when he that improves his comforts in a fuller trade of duty shall add more to what he hath.
3. Remember thou dependest on God for the continuance of thy comfort.  They are not the smiles thou hadst yesterday [that] make thee joyous to-day, any more than the bread thou didst then eat can make thee strong without more.  Thou needest new discoveries for new comforts.  Let God hide his face, and thou wilt soon lose the sight, and forget the taste, of what thou even now hadst.  It is beyond our skill or power to preserve those impressions of joy, and comfortable apprehensions of God's favour on our spirits, which sometimes we find; as God's presence brings those, so, when he goes, he carries them away with him, as the setting sun doth the day.  We would laugh heartily at him who, when the sun shines in at his window, should think by shutting that to imprison the sunbeams in his chamber; and dost thou now show as much folly, who thinkest, because thou now hast comfort, thou therefore shalt never be in dark­ness of spirit more?  The believer’s comfort is like Israel’s manna.  It is not like the ordinary bread and provision we buy at market, and lock up in our cup­boards where we can go to it when we will; no, it is rained, as that was, from heaven.  Indeed, God pro­vided for them after this sort to humble them: ‘Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee,’ Deut. 8:16.  It was not because [it was] such mean food, that God is said to humble them, for it was delicious food, therefore called ‘angels' food,’ Ps. 78:25, such as if angels did eat, might serve them; but the manner of the dispensing it—from hand to mouth, every day their portion, and no more.  Thus God kept the key of their cupboard—they stood to his immediate allowance; and thus God communicates our spiritual comforts for the same end, to humble us.  So much for this second sort of spiritual wickedness.

           I had thought to have instanced in some others, as hypocrisy, unbelief, formality; but possibly the sub­ject being general, what I have already said may be thought but a digression, and that too long.  I shall therefore conclude this branch of spiritual wicked­ness, in a word to those who are yet in a natural and unsanctified state—which is to stir them up, from what I have said concerning Satan’s assaulting believers with such temptations, to consider seriously how that Satan’s chief design against them also lies in the same sins.  It is your seared conscience, blind mind, and dedolent impenitent heart, will be your undoing, if you miscarry finally.  Other sins, the devil knows, are preparatory to these, and therefore he draws thee into them to bring thee into these.  Two ways they prepare a way to spiritual sins:  First. As they naturally dispose the sinner to them; it is the nature of sin to blind the mind, stupify the conscience, harden the heart, as is implied, ‘Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin,’ Heb. 3:13.  As the feet of travellers beat the highway hard, so does walking in carnal gross sins the heart. They benumb the conscience, so that in time the sin­ner loses his feeling, and can carry his lusts in his heart, as bedlams their pins in their very flesh, without pain and remorse.  Secondly, As they do provoke God by a judiciary act to give them up to these sins, ‘Give them obstinacy of heart,’ Lam. 3:65, so it is in your margin, ‘thy curse unto them;’ and when the devil hath got sinners at this pass, then he hath them under lock and key.  They are the fore­runners of damnation.  If God leave thy heart hard and unbroken up, it is a sad sign he means not to sow the seed of grace there.  O sinners, pray, as he, Acts 8:24, did request Peter for him, that none of these things may come upon you; which that they may not, take heed thou rejectest not the offers he makes to soften thee.  God’s hardening is a consequent of, and a punishment for, our hardening our own hearts.  It is most true what Prosper saith, ‘A man may lose temporals against his will, but not spirituals.’  God will harden none, damn none, against their will.

Third Kind of Spiritual Pride — PRIDE OF PRIVILEGES 2/3

2. Consider who bears thee up, and carries thee through thy sufferings for Christ.  Is it thy grace, or his, that is sufficient for such a work? thy spirit, or Christ's, by which thou speakest when called to bear witness for the truth?  How comes it to pass [that] thou art a sufferer and not a persecutor? a confessor, and not a denier, yea, betrayer of Christ and his gos­pel?  This thou owest for to God.  He is not behol­den to thee, that thou wilt part with estate, credit, or life itself for his sake—if thou hadst a thousand lives, thou wouldst owe them all to him; but thou art beholden to God exceedingly, that he will call for these in this way, which has such an honour and reward attending it.  He might have suffered thee to live in thy lusts, and at last to suffer the loss of all these for them.  O how many die at the gallows as martyrs in the devil’s cause, for felonies, rapes and murders!  Or, he might withdraw his grace, and leave thee to thy own cowardice and unbelief, and then thou wouldst soon show thyself in thy colours.  The stoutest champions for Christ have been taught how weak they are if Christ steps aside.  Some that have given great testimony of their faith and resolution in Christ's cause—even to come so near dying for his name as to give themselves to be bound to the stake, and [to the] fire to be kindled upon them—yet then their hearts have failed, as that holy man Mr. Ben­bridge, in our English martyrology, who thrust the faggots from him, and cried out, 'I recant, I recant.’  Yet this man, when reinforced in his faith, and en­dued with power from above, was able, within the space of a week after that sad foil, to die at the stake cheerfully.  ‘He that once overcame death for us, is he that always overcomes death in us.’And who should be thy song, but he that is thy strength? ap­plaud not thyself, but bless him.  It is one of God’s names; he is called ‘the glory of his people’s strength,’ Ps. 89:17.  The more thou gloriest in God that gives thee strength to suffer for him, the less thou wilt boast of thyself.  A thankful heart and a proud cannot dwell together in one bosom.

3. Consider what a foul blot pride gives to all thy sufferings; where it is not bewailed and resisted, it alters the case.  The old saying is, that it is not the punishment but the cause [that] makes the martyr.  We may safely say further, ‘It is not barely the cause, but the sincere frame of the heart in suffering for a good cause, that makes a man a martyr in God's sight.’  Though thou shouldst give thy body to be burned, if thou hast not the humble heart of a suf­ferer for Christ, thou turnest merchant for thyself.  Thou deniest but one self, to set up another; runnest the hazard of thy estate and life, to gain some ap­plause may be, and rear up a monument to thy hon­our in the opinions of men.  Thou doest no more, in this case, than a soldier, who for a name of valour will venture into the mouth of death and danger; only thou showest thy pride under a religious disguise; but that helps it not, but makes it the worse.  If thou wilt in thy sufferings be a sacrifice acceptable to God, thou must not only be ready to offer up thy life for his truth, but [to] sacrifice thy pride also, or else thou mayst tumble out of one fire into another—suffer here from man as a seeming champion for the gospel, and in another world from God, for robbing him of his glory in thy sufferings.

           Third Privilege. A third privilege is, when God flows in with more than ordinary manifestations of his love.  Then the Christian is in danger of having his heart secretly lift up in pride.  Indeed, the genuine and natural effect which such discoveries of divine love have on a gracious soul is to humble it.  The sight of mercy increaseth the sense of sin, and that sense dissolves the soul kindly into sorrow, as we see in Magdalene.  The heart which possibly was hard and frozen in the shade, will give and thaw in the sunshine of love, and so long is pride hid from the creature’s eye.  ‘Then,’ saith God, ‘shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight,’ &c., Eze. 36:31.  And when shall this be, but when God would save them from all their uncleannesses? as appears, ver. 25; yet notwithstanding this, there remain such dregs of corruption unpurged out of the best, that Satan finds it not impossible to make the mani­festations of God's love an occasion of pride to the Christian.  And truly God lets us see our proneness to this sin in the short stay he makes, when he comes with any greater discoveries of his love.  The Com­forter, it is true, abides for ever in the saint's bosom; but his joys, they come and are gone again quickly.  They are as exceedings with which he feasts the be­liever, but the cloth is soon drawn; and why so, but because we cannot bear them for our everyday food?  A short interview of heaven, and a vision of love now and then upon the mount of an ordinance, or afflic­tion, cheers the spirits of drooping Christians, who —might they have leave to build their tabernacles there, and dwell under a constant shine of such mani­festations—would be prone to forget themselves, and think they were lords of their own comforts.  If holy Paul was in danger of falling into this distemper of pride from his short rapture—to prevent which, God saw it needful to let him bleed with a thorn in the flesh—would not our blood much more grow too rank, and we too crank and wanton, if we should feed long on such luscious food?  And therefore, if ever, Christian, thou hadst need to watch, then is the time—when comforts abound, and God dandles thee most on the knee of his love—when his face shines with clearest manifestations; lest this sin of pride, as a thief in the candle, should swale out thy joy.  To prevent which, thou shouldst do well,

Third Kind of Spiritual Pride — PRIDE OF PRIVILEGES 1/3

         

  Third. Pride of privileges is the third kind of spiritual pride, with which these wicked spirits labour to blow up the Christian.  To name three [of these privileges]: First. When God calls a person to some eminent place, or useth him to do some special piece of service.  Second. When God honours a saint to suffer for his truth or cause.  Third. When God flows in with more than ordinary manifestations of his love, and fills the soul with joy and comfort.  These are privileges not equally dispensed to all; and therefore, where they are, Satan takes advantage of assaulting such with pride.

           First Privilege. When God calls a person to some eminent place, or useth him to do some special piece of service.  Indeed it requires a great measure of grace to keep the heart low, when the man stands high. The apostle, speaking how a minister of the gospel should be qualified, saith he must not be ‘a novice,’ or a young convert, ‘lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil,’ I Tim 3:6; as if he had said, ‘This calling is honourable, if he be not well balanced with humility, a little gust from Satan will topple him into this sin.’  The seventy that Christ first sent out to preach the gospel, and [who] prevailed so miraculously over Satan—even these, while they trod on the serpent's head, he turned again, and had like to have stung them with pride. This our Saviour perceived, when they returned in triumph, and told what great miracles they had wrought; and therefore he takes them off that glorying, lest it should degenerate into vainglory, and bids them ‘rejoice not that spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven,’ Luke 10:20.  As if he had said, ‘It is not the honour of your calling, and success of your ministry [that] will save you.  There shall be some cast to the devils, who shall then say, “Lord, Lord, in thy name we have cast out devils,” and therefore value not yourselves by that, but rather evidence to your souls, that you are mine elect ones, which will stand you more in stead at the great day than all this.’

           Second Privilege. A second privilege is, when God honours a person to suffer for his truth.  This is a great privilege.  ‘Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake,’ Php. 1:29.  God doth not use to give worthless gifts to his saints, there is some precious­ness in it, which a carnal eye cannot see.  Faith, you will say, is a great gift, but perseverance greater —without which faith would be little worth—and perseverance in suffering is, above both, honourable.  This made John Careless, our English martyr—who, though he died not at the stake, yet [died] in prison for Christ—say, ‘Such an honour it is, as angels are not permitted to have, therefore God forgive me mine unthankfulness.’  Now when Satan cannot scare a soul from prison, yet then he will labour to puff him up in prison; when he cannot make him pity himself, then he will flatter him till he prides in himself.  Affliction from God, exposeth to impatience, afflic­tion for God, to pride; and therefore, Christians, la­bour to fortify yourselves against this temptation of Satan.  How soon you may be called to suffering work you know not—such clouds oft are not long arising. Now to keep thy heart humble when thou art honoured to suffer for the truth, consider,

1. Though thou dost not deserve those suffer­ings at man’s hand, thou canst and mayst, in that regard, glory in thy innocency [that] thou sufferest not as an evildoer; yet thou canst not but confess it is a just affliction from God in regard of sin in thee, and this methinks should keep thee humble.  The same suffering may be martyrdom in regard of man, and yet a fatherly chastening for sin in regard of God.  None suffered without sin but Christ, and therefore none may glory in sufferings but he—Christ in his own, we in his.  ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ Gal. 6:14.  This kept Mr. Bradford humble in his sufferings for the truth. None more rejoiced in them, and blessed God for them, yet none more humble under them, than he. And what kept him in this humble frame?  Read his godly letters, and you shall find almost in all how he bemoans his sins, and the sins of the Protestants under the reign of king Edward, ‘It was time,’ saith he, ‘for God to put his rod into the Papists’ hands.  We were grown so proud, formal, unfruitful, yea, to loathe and despise the means of grace, when we en­joyed the liberty thereof, and therefore God hath brought the wheel of persecution on us.’  As he looked at the honour to make him thankful, so to sin to make him humble.