More special directions for obedience.
The directions for the nearer exciting of your obedience, and confirming your full subjection, are these:
Direct.I. Keep still the face of your souls upon God, and in the sense of his greatness, and of his continual presence, and of his particular providence.—And this will keep you in an obediential frame. You will easily then perceive, that so great a God cannot be disobeyed, without great iniquity and guilt. And, that a God that is continually with you, must be continually regarded. And, that a God that exactly observeth and mindeth the thoughts and words of every man, should by every man be exactly minded and observed. This will help you to understand the meaning of the tempter, when you perceive that every temptation is an urging of you to offend, for nothing, so great a God, that is just then observing what you do.
Direct.II. Always remember whither you are going; that you are preparing for everlasting rest and joy, and must pass through the righteous judgment of the Lord; and that Christ is your Guide and Governor, but to bring you safely home, as the Captain of your salvation; and that sin is a rejecting of his help, and of your happiness.—Think not that God doth rule you as a tyrant, to your hurt or ruin, to make his own advantage of you; or by needless laws, that have no respect to your good and safety; but think of him, as one that is conducting you to eternal life, and would now guide you by his counsel, and afterwards take you to his glory. Think that he is leading you to the world of light, and life, and love, and joy, where there are rivers of pleasure, and fulness of delight for evermore, that you may see his face, and feel his love, among a world of blessed spirits; and not be weeping and gnashing the teeth, with impious, impenitent souls. And is not such a government as this desirable? It is but like the government of a physician, to save his patient's life. Or like your government of your children, which is necessary to their good, that cannot feed or rule themselves. Or like a pilot's governing the ship, which is conveying you to possess a kingdom: if the mariners obey him, they may safely arrive at the desired port; but if they disobey him, they are all cast away and perish. And should such a government as this is seem grievous to you? or should it not be most acceptable, and accurately obeyed?
Direct.III. Still think, what dangers, difficulties, and enemies you must pass through to this rest, and that all your safety dependeth upon the conduct and assistance of your Guide.—And this will bring over self-love to command your strict obedience. You are to pass through the army of your enemies; and will you here disobey the Captain of your salvation? or would you have him leave you to yourselves? Your disease is mortal, and none but Jesus Christ can cure it; and if he cure it not, you are lost for ever. No pain of gout or stone is comparable to your everlasting pain; and yet will you not be obedient to your Physician? Think, when a temptation comes, If there were a narrow bridge over the deepest gulf or river, and all my friends and happiness lay on the further side, and I must needs go over whether I will or not; if Christ would take me by the hand and lead me over, would I be tempted to refuse his help, or to lose his hand? or if he should offer to lose me, and leave me to myself, should I not tremble, and cry out, as Peter, "Lord, save me," Matt. xiv. 30, or as the disciples, "Save, Master, we perish?" And should I not then hold him fast, and most accurately obey him, when he is leading me to life eternal, that I may escape the gulf of endless misery?
Direct.IV. Remember still, how bad, and blind, and backward, and deceitful, and weak you are yourselves, and therefore what need you have of the greatest watchfulness, lest you should disobey your Pilot, and lose your Guide, before you are aware.—O what a heart have we to watch! A lazy heart, that will be loitering or sitting down, when we should be following our Lord. A foolish heart, that will let him go, while we play with every play-fellow in our way. A cowardly heart, that will steal away, or draw back in danger, when it should follow our General. A treacherous heart, that will give us the slip, and deceive us, when we seemed surest of it. A purblind heart, that even when it followeth Christ, our Guide, is hardly kept from missing the bridge, and falling into the gulf of misery. Think well of these, and you will obey your Governor.
Direct.V. Forget not the fruits of your former obedience and disobedience, if you would be kept in an obedient frame.—Remember that obedience hath been sweetest afterward; and that you never yet found cause to repent or be ashamed of it. Remember that the fruit of sin was bitter, and that when your eyes were opened, and you saw your shame, you would fain have fled from the face of God; and that then it appeared another thing to you, than it seemed in the committing. Remember what groans and heart's grief it hath cost you; and into what fears it brought you of the wrath of God; and how long it was before your broken bones were healed; and what it cost both Christ and you. And this will make the very name and first approach of sin, to cast you into a preventing fear. A beast that hath once fallen into a gulf or quick-sand, will hardly be driven into the same again: a fish that was once stricken and escaped the nook, will fear and fly from it the next time: a bird that hath once escaped the snare, or the talons of the hawk, is afterwards afraid of the sight or noise of such a thing. Remember where you fell, and what it cost you, and what you escaped which it might have cost you, and you will obey more accurately hereafter.
Direct.VI. Remember that this is your day oftrial, and what depends upon your accurate obedience. God will not crown untried servants. Satan is purposely suffered to tempt you, to try whether you will be true to God or not. All the hope that his malice hath of undoing you for ever, consisteth in his hope to make you disobedient to God. Methinks these considerations should awaken you to the most watchful and diligent obedience. If you were told beforehand, that a thief or cut-purse had undertaken to rob you, and would use all his cunning and industry to do it, you would then watch more carefully than at another time. If you were in a race to run for your lives, you would not go then in your ordinary pace. Doth God tell you before, that he will try your obedience by temptation, and as you stand or fall, you shall speed for ever; and will not this keep you watchful and obedient?
Direct.VII. Avoid those tempting and deluding objects, which are still enticing your hearts from your obedience; and avoid that diverting crowd and noise of company or worldly business, which drowns the voice of God's commands.—If God call you into a life of great temptations, he can bring you safely through them all; but if you rush into it wilfully, you may soon find your own disability to resist. It is dangerous to be under strong and importunate temptations, lest the stream should bear us down; but especially to be long under them, lest we be weary of resisting. They that are long solicited, do too often yield at last: it is hard to be always in a clear, and ready, and resolute frame: few men have their wits, much less their graces, always at hand, in a readiness to use. And if the thief come when you are dropped asleep, you may be robbed before you can awake. The constant drawings of temptation, do ofttimes abate the habit of obedience, and diminish our hatred of sin and holy resolutions, by slow, insensible degrees, before we yield to commit the act. And the mind that will be kept in full subjection, must not be so diverted in a crowd of distracting company or business, as to have no time to think on the motives of his obedience. This withdrawing of the fuel may put out the fire.
Direct.VIII. If you are unavoidably cast upon strong temptation, take the alarm; and put on all the armour of God, and call up your souls to watchfulness and resolution, remembering that you are now among your enemies, and must resist as for your lives.—Take every temptation in its naked, proper sense, as coming from the devil, and tending to your damnation by enticing your hearts from your subjection unto God: suppose you saw the devil himself in his instruments offering you the bait of preferment, or honour, or riches, or fleshly lust, or sports, or of delightful meats, or drinks, to tempt you to excess; and suppose you heard him say to you plainly, Take this for thy salvation; sell me for this thy God, and thy soul, and thy everlasting hopes; commit this sin, that thou mayst fall under the judgment of God, and be tormented in hell with me for ever. Do this to please thy flesh, that thou mayst displease thy God, and grieve thy Saviour: I cannot draw thee to hell, but by drawing thee to sin; and I cannot make thee sin against thy will; nor undo thee, but by thy own consent and doing: therefore I pray thee consent and do it thyself, and let me have thy company in torments. This is the naked meaning of every temptation: suppose therefore you saw and heard all this, with what detestation then would you reject it! with what horror would you fly from the most enticing bait! If a robber would entice you out of your way and company, with flattering words, that you might fall into the hands of his companions, if you knew all his meaning and design beforehand, would you be enticed after him? Watch therefore, and resolve when you know beforehand the design of the devil, and what he intendeth in every temptation.
Direct.IX. Be most suspicious, fearful, and watchful about that, which your flesh doth most desire, or finds the greatest pleasure in.—Not that you should deny your bodies all delight in the mercies of God: if the body have none, the mind will have the less: mercy must be differenced from punishment; and must be valued and relished as mercy: mere natural pleasing of the senses is in itself no moral good or evil. A holy improvement of lawful pleasure, is a daily duty: inordinate pleasure is a sin: all is inordinate which tendeth more to corrupt the soul, by enticing it to sin, and turning it from God, than to fit and dispose it for God and his service, and preserve it from sinning. But still remember, it is not sorrow but delight that draweth away the soul from God, and is the flesh's interest which it sets up against him. Many have sinned in sorrows and discontents; but none ever sinned for sorrows and discontents: their discontents and sorrows are not taken up and loved for themselves; but are the effects of their love to some pleasure and content, which is denied them, or taken from them. Therefore, though all your bodily pleasures are not sin, yet, seeing nothing but the pleasures of the flesh and carnal mind is the end of sinners, and the devil's great and chiefest bait, and this only causeth men's perdition, you have great reason to be most afraid of that which is most pleasing to your flesh, and to the mind as it is corrupt and carnal: escape the delusions of fleshly pleasure, and you escape damnation. You have far more cause to be afraid of prosperity, than of adversity; of riches, than of poverty; of honour, than of obscurity and contempt; of men's praises and applause, than of their dispraises, slanders, and reproach; of preferment and greatness, than of a low and mean condition; of a delicious, than of less tempting meats and drinks; of curious, costly, than of mean, and cheap, and plain attire. Let those that have hired out their reason to the service of their fleshly lusts, and have delivered the crown and sceptre to their appetites, think otherwise. No wonder if they that have sold the birthright of their intellects to their senses, for a mess of pottage, for a whore, or a high place, or a domineering power over others, or a belly-full of pleasant meats or liquors, do deride all this, and think it but a melancholy conceit, more suitable to an eremite or anchorite, than to men of society and business in the world. As heaven is the portion of serious believers and mortified saints alone, so it shall be proper to them alone to understand the doctrine and example of their Saviour, and practically to know what it is to deny themselves, and forsake all they have, and take up their cross and follow Christ, and by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body, Luke xiv. 26-29, 33; Rom. viii. 5-7, 13; Col. iii. 1-4. Such know that millions part with God for pleasures, but none for griefs: and that hell will be stored with those that preferred wealth, and honour, and sports, and gluttony, drink and filthy lusts, before the holiness and happiness of believers; but none will be damned for preferring poverty, and disgrace, and abstinence, hunger and thirst, and chastity before them. It must be something that seemeth good, that must entice men from the chiefest good: apparent evil is no fit bait for the devil's hook. Men will not displease God, to be themselves displeased; nor choose present sorrows instead of everlasting joys; but for the pleasures of sin for a season many will despise the endless pleasures.
Direct.X. Meet every motion to disobediencewith an army of holy graces; with wisdom, and fear, and hatred, and resolution, with love to God, with zeal and courage; and quench every spark that falls upon your hearts before it breaks out into a flame.—When sin is little and in its infancy, it is weak and easily resisted; it hath not then turned away the mind from God, nor quenched grace, and disabled it to do its office. But when it is grown strong, then grace grows weak, and we want its help, and want the sense of the presence, and attributes, and truths of God, to rebuke it. O stay not till your hearts are gone out of hearing, and straggled from God beyond the observance of his calls. The habit of obedience will be dangerously abated, if you resist not quickly the acts of sin.
Direct.XI. Labour for the clearest understanding of the will of God, that doubtfulness about your duty do not make you flag in your obedience, and doubtfulness about sin do not weaken your detestation and resistance, and draw you to venture on it.—When a man is sure what is his duty, it is a great help against all temptations that would take him off: and when he is sure that a thing is sinful, it makes it the easier to resist. And, therefore, it is the devil's method to delude the understanding, and make men believe that duty is no duty, and sin is no sin; and then no wonder if duty be neglected, and sin committed: and therefore he raiseth up one false prophet or other to say to Ahab, "Go, and prosper;" or to say, There is no hurt in this; to dispute for sin, and to dispute against duty. And it is almost incredible how much the devil hath got, when he hath once made it a matter of controversy. Then every hypocrite hath a cloak for his sin, and a dose of opium for his conscience, when he can but say, It is a controversy; some are of one mind, and some of another, you are of that opinion, and I am of this: especially if there be wise and learned on both sides; and yet more, if there be religious men on both sides; and more yet, if he have an equal number on his side; and most of all, if he have the major vote (as error and sin have commonly in the world). If Ahab have but four hundred lying, flattering prophets to one Micaiah, he will think he may hate him, reproach him, and persecute him without any scruple of conscience. If it be made a controversy whether bread be bread, and wine be wine, when we see and taste it; some will think they may venture to subscribe or swear that they hold the negative, if their credit, or livings, or lives lie upon it; much more if they can say, It is the judgment of the church. If it be once made a controversy, whether perjury be a sin, or whether a vow materially lawful bind, or whether it be lawful to equivocate, or lie with a mental reservation for the truth, or to do the greatest evil, or speak the falsest thing with a true and good intent and meaning, almost all the hypocrites in the country will be for the sinful part, if their fleshly interest require it; and will think themselves wronged, if they are accounted hypocrites, liars, or perjured, as long as it is but a point of controversy among learned men. If it be once made a controversy, whether an excommunicate king become a private man, and it be lawful to kill him, and whether the pope may absolve the subjects of temporal lords from their allegiance, (notwithstanding all their oaths,) and if such learned men as Suarez, Bellarmine, Perron, &c. are for it, (to say nothing of Santarellus, Mariana, &c.) you shall have a Clement, a Ravilliac, a Faux, yea, too great choice of instruments, that will be satisfied to strike the blow. If many hold it may or must be done, some will be found too ready to do it: especially if an approved general council (Lateran. sub Innoc. III. Can. 3.) be for such papal absolution. We have seen at home how many will be imboldened to pull down government, to sit in judgment on their king, and condemn him, and to destroy their brethren, if they can but say, that such and such men think it lawful. If it were but a controversy once whether drunkenness, whoredom, swearing, stealing, or any villany be a sin or not, it would be committed more commonly, and with much less regret of conscience. Yea, good men will be ready to think that modesty requireth them to be less censorious of those that commit it, because in controverted cases they must suspect their own understandings, and allow something to the judgment of dissenters. And so all the rules of love, and peace, and moderation, which are requisite in controversies that are about small and difficult points, the devil will make use of, and apply them all to the patronage of the most odious sins, if he can but get them once to have some learned, wise, religious offenders. And from our tenderness of the persons we easily slide to an indulgent tenderness in censuring the sin itself: and good men themselves, by these means, are dangerously disabled to resist it, and prepared to commit it.
Direct.XII. Take heed lest the devil do either cast you into the sleep of carnal security, or into such doubts, and fears, and perplexing scruples, as shall make holy obedience seem to you an impossible or a tiresome thing. When you are asleep in carelessness, he can use you as he list; and if obedience be made grievous and ungrateful to you, your heart will go against it, and you will go but like a tired horse, no longer than you feel the spur: you are half conquered already, because you have lost the love and pleasure of obedience; and you are still in danger lest difficulties should quite tire you, and weariness make you yield at last. The means by which the tempter effecteth this, must afterward be spoken of, and therefore I shall omit it here.
By the faithful practice of these directions obedience may become, as it were, your nature, a familiar, easy, and delightful thing; and may be like a cheerful servant or child, that waiteth for your commands, and is glad to be employed by you. Your full subjection of your wills to God, will be as the health, and ease, and quietness of your wills: you will feel that it is never well or easy with you, but when you are obedient and pleasing to your Creator's will. Your "delight will be in the law of the Lord," Psal. i. 2. It will be sweeter than honey to you, and better than thousands of gold and silver; and this not for any by-respect, but as it is the "law of God;" a "light unto your feet," and an infallible guide in all your duty. You will say with David, Psal. cxix. 16, 24, 35, 47, 70, 77, 174, "I will delight myself in thy statutes; I will not forget thy word. Thy testimonies are my delight and my counsellors. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do I delight." And as Psal. xl. 8, "I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart." And, O "blessed is the man that feareth the Lord; that delighteth greatly in his commandments," Psal. cxii. 2.
Learning as disciples of Christ our Teacher.
Grand Direct.VII. Continue as the covenanted scholars of Christ, the Prophet and Teacher of his church, to learn of him by his Spirit, word, and ministers, the farther knowledge of God, and the things that tend to your salvation; and this with an honest, willing mind, in faith, humility, and diligence; in obedience, patience, and peace.
Though I spake before of our coming to God by Jesus Christ, as he is the way to the Father; it ismeet that we distinctly speak of our relation and duty to him, as he is our Teacher, our Captain, and our Master, as well as of our improving him as Mediator immediately unto God. The necessity of believers, and the office and work of Christ himself, doth tell us how much of our religion doth consist in learning of him as his disciples. Acts vii. 37, "A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me, him shall you hear." This was the voice that came out of the cloud in the holy mount, Matt. xvii. 5, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him." Therefore is the title of disciples commonly given to believers. And there is a twofold teaching which Christ hath sent his ministers to perform; both mentioned in their commission, Matt. xxviii. 19, 20. The one is, to "teach the nations;" as to make disciples of them, by persuading them into the school of Christ, which containeth the teaching of faith and repentance, and whatever is necessary to their first admission, and to their subjecting themselves to Christ himself as their stated and infallible Guide. The other is the teaching them further to know more of God, "and to observe all things whatsoever he commandeth them." And this last is it we are now to speak of, and I shall add some sub-directions for your help.
How to learn of Christ.
Direct.I. Remember who it is that is your Teacher: that he is the Son of God, that knoweth his Father's will, and is the most faithful, infallible Pastor of the church.—There is neither ignorance, nor negligence, nor ambition, nor deceit in him, to cause him to conceal the mind of God. There is nothing which we need to know, which he is not both able and willing to acquaint us with.
Direct.II. Remember what it is that he teacheth you, and to what end.—That it is not how to sin and be damned, as the devil, the world, and the flesh would teach you; nor how to satisfy your lusts, or to know, or do, or attain the trifles of the world: but it is how to be renewed to the image of God, and how to do his will and please him, and how to be justified at his bar, and how to escape everlasting fire, and how to attain everlasting joys: consider this well, and you will gladly learn of such a Teacher.
Direct.III. Let the book which he himself hath indited by his Spirit, be the rule and principal matter of your learning.—The holy Scriptures are of divine inspiration: it is them that we must be judged by, and them that we must be ruled by, and therefore them that we must principally learn. Men's books and teachings are but the means for our learning this infallible word.
Direct.IV. Remember that as it is Christ's work to teach, it is yours to hear, and read, and study, and pray, and practise what you hear.—Do your part, then, if you expect the benefit. You come not to the school of Christ to be idle. Knowledge droppeth not into the sleepy dreamer's mouth. Dig for it as for silver, and search for it in the Scriptures as for a hidden treasure: meditate in them day and night. Leave it to miserable fools, to contemn the wisdom of the Most High.
Direct.V. Fix your eye upon himself as your pattern, and study with earnest desire to follow his holy example, and to be made conformable to him.—Not to imitate him in the works which were proper to him as God, or as Mediator; but in his holiness, which he hath proposed to his disciples for their imitation. He knew how effectual a perfect example would be, where a perfect doctrine alone would be less regarded. Example bringeth doctrine nearer to our eye and heart; it maketh it more observable, and telleth us with more powerful application, Such you must be, and thus you must do. The eye maketh an easier and deeper impression on the imagination and mind, than the ear doth; therefore Christ's example should be much preached and studied. It will be a very great help to us, to have still upon our minds the image of the holy life of Christ; that we be affected, as if we always saw him doing the holy actions which once he did. Paul calls the Galatians "foolish," and "bewitched," that "obeyed not the truth, when Christ had been set forth as crucified among them evidently before their eyes," Gal. iii. 1. Papists think that images serve well for this turn: but the records of Scripture, and the living images of Christ whom they persecute and kill, are far more useful. How much example is more operative than doctrine alone, you may perceive by the enemies of Christ, who can bear his holy doctrine, when they cannot bear his holy servants, that practise that doctrine before their eyes. And that which most stirs up their enmity, hath the advantage for exciting the believer's piety.
Let the image of Christ, in all his holy examples, be always lively written upon your minds. 1. Let the great ones of the world remember, that their Lord was not born of such as bore rule, or were in worldly pomp and dignity, but of persons that lived but meanly in the world (however they were of the royal line); how he was not born in a palace, but a stable, and laid in a manger, without the attendance or accommodations of the rich.
2. Remember how he subjected himself unto his reputed father, and his mother, to teach all children subjection and obedience, Luke ii. 51.
3. And how he condescended to labour at a trade, and mean employment in the world; to teach us that our bodies, as well as our minds, must express their obedience, and have their ordinary employment; and to teach men to labour and live in a calling; and to comfort poor labourers, with assurance that God accepteth them in the meanest work, and that Christ himself lived so before them, and chose their kind of life, and not the life of princes and nobles, that live in pomp, and ease, and pleasure.
4. Remember how he refused not to submit to all the ordinances of God, and to fulfil all righteousness, and to be initiated into the solemn administration of his office by the baptism of John, Matt. iii. 15-17, which God approved, by sending down upon him the Holy Ghost: to teach us all to expect his Spirit in the use of his ordinances.
5. Remember how he voluntarily began his work, with an encounter with the tempter in the wilderness, upon his fasting; and suffered the tempter to proceed, till he moved him to the most odious sin, even to worship the devil himself: to teach us that God loveth tried servants, and expecteth that we be not turned from him by temptations; especially those that enter upon a public ministry, must be tried men, that have overcome the tempter: and to comfort tempted christians, who may remember, that their Saviour himself was most blasphemously tempted to as odious sins as ever they were; and that to be greatly tempted, without consenting or yielding to the sin, is so far from being a sin in itself, that it is the greatest honour of our obedience; and that the devil, who molesteth and haunteth us with his temptations, is a conquered enemy, whom our Lord in person hath overcome.
6. Remember how earnestly and constantly he preached; not stories, or jingles, or subtle controversies, but repentance, and faith, and self-denial, and obedience. So great was his love to souls, that,when he had auditors, he preached, not only in the temple and synagogues, but on mountains, and in a ship, and any other convenient place; and no fury of the rulers or Pharisees could silence him, till his hour was come, having his Father's commission. And even to particular persons, he vouchsafed, by conference, to open the mysteries of salvation, John iii. and iv.; to teach us to love and attend to the plain and powerful preaching of the gospel, and not to forbear any necessary means for the honour of God, and the saving of souls, because of the enmity or opposition of malicious men, but to "work while it is day, seeing the night is coming when none can work," John ix. 4.
7. Remember how compassionate he was to men's bodies, as well as to their souls; going up and down with unwearied diligence, doing good; healing the blind, and lame, and deaf, and sick, and possessed: and how all his miracles were done in charity, to do good; and none of them to do hurt; so that he was but living, walking LOVE and MERCY. To teach us to know God, in his love and mercy; and to abound in love and mercy to our brethren; and to hate the spirit of hurtfulness, persecution, and uncharitableness; and to lay out ourselves in doing, good; and to exercise our compassion to the bodies of men, as well as to their souls, according to our power.
8. Remember how his zeal and love endured the reproach, and resisted the opposition of his friends, who went to lay hold on him as if he had been beside himself, Mark iii. 20, 21: and how he bid Peter "Get behind me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things of God, but those of men," when in carnal love and wisdom he rebuked him for resolving to lay down his life, saying, "Be it far from thee, this shall not be unto thee," Matt. xvi. 22, 23. To teach us to expect that carnal love and wisdom in our nearest friends, will rise up against us in the work of God, to discourage us both from duty and from sufferings; and that all are to be shaken off, and counted as the instruments of Satan, that would tempt us to be unfaithful to our trust and duty, and to favour ourselves by a sinful avoiding of the sufferings which God doth call us to undergo.
9. Remember how through all his life he despised the riches of the world, and chose a life of poverty, and was a companion of the meanest, neither possessing nor seeking sumptuous houses, or great attendance, or spacious lands, or a large estate. He lived in a visible contempt of all the wealth, and splendour, and greatness of the world: to teach us how little these little things are to be esteemed; and that they are none of the treasure and portion of a saint; and what a folly it is to be fond of such snares, and diversions, and temptations which make the way to heaven to be to us as a needle's eye.
10. Observe, how little he regardeth the honour and applause of men; Phil. ii. 7-9, how "he made himself of no reputation, but took upon him the form of a servant," refusing to be "made a king," or to have a "kingdom of this world," John vi. 15. Though he told malignant blasphemers how greatly they sinned in dishonouring him, yet did he not seek the honour of the world: to teach us how little the thoughts or words of ignorant men do contribute to our happiness, or are to be accounted of; and to turn our eyes from the impertinent censures of flesh and blood, to the judgment of our Almighty Sovereign, to whom it is that we stand or fall.
11. Remember also how little he made provision for the flesh, and never once tasted of any immoderate, sinful pleasure. How far was he from a life of voluptuousness and sensuality! Though his avoiding the formal fastings of the Pharisees, made them slander him as a "gluttonous person," and "a wine-bibber," Matt. xi. 19, as the sober christians were calledcarnivori, by those that thought it unlawful to eat flesh; yet so far was he from the guilt of any such sin, that never a desire of it was in his heart. You shall never find in the gospel that Christ spent half the morning in dressing him, choosing rather to shorten his time for prayer, than not to appear sufficiently neatified, as our empty, worthless, painted gallants do: nor shall you ever read that he wasted his time in idle visitations, or cards, or dice, or in reading romances, or hearing stage-plays: it was another kind of example that our Lord did leave for his disciples.
12. Mark also, how far Christ was from being guilty of any idle, or lascivious, or foolish kind of talk; and how holy and profitable all his speeches were: to teach us also to speak as the oracles of God, such words as tend to edification, and to administer grace unto the hearers, and to keep our tongues from all profane, lascivious, empty, idle speeches.
13. Remember, that pride, and passion, are condemned by your pattern. Christ bids you "Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls," Matt. xi. 28, 29. Therefore he resolveth that "except" men "be converted and become as little children, they shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven," Matt, xviii. 3. Behold therefore the Lamb of God, and be ashamed of your fierce and ravenous natures.
14. Remember that Christ your Lord and pattern did humble himself to the meanest office of love, even to wash the feet of his disciples: not to teach you to wash a few poor men's feet, as a ceremony once a year, and persecute and murder the servants of Christ the rest of the year, as the Roman Vice-Christ doth; but to teach us, that if he their Lord and Master washed his disciples' feet, we also should stoop as low in any office of love, for one another, John xiii. 14.
15. Remember also that Christ your pattern spent whole nights in prayer to God;[97]so much was he for this holy attendance upon God: to teach us to "pray always and not wax faint," Luke xviii. 1. And not to be like the impious God-haters, that love not any near or serious addresses unto God, nor those that use them, but make them the object of their cruelty or scorn.
16. Remember also that Christ was against the Pharisees' outside, hypocritical, ceremonious worship, consisting in lip-labour, affected repetitions, and much babbling; their "Touch not, taste not, handle not," and worshipping God in vain, according to their traditions, "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." He taught us a serious, spiritual worship: not "to draw nigh to God with our mouth, and honour him with our lips, while our hearts are far from him;" but to "worship God who is a Spirit, in spirit and truth," Matt. xv. 6-9; John iv. 23, 24; Matt. xxiii.
17. Christ was a sharp reprover of hypocritical, blind, ceremonious, malicious Pharisees; and warneth his disciples to take heed of their leaven. When they are offended with him, he saith, "Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up: let them alone, they be blind leaders of the blind," &c. Matt. xv. 12-14. To teach us to take heed of autonomous, supercilious, domineering, formal hypocrites, and false teachers, and to difference between the shepherds and the wolves.
18. Though Christ seems cautelously to avoid the owning of the Romans' usurpation over the Jews, yet rather than offend them he payeth tribute himself, Matt. xvii. 25-27, and biddeth them "render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's," Matt. xxii. 21. The Pharisees bring their controversy to him hypocritically, "Whether it be lawful to give tribute to Cæsar, or not?" (For that Cæsar was a usurper over them, they took to be past controversy.) And Christ would give them no answer that should insnare himself, or encourage usurpation, or countenance their sedition: teaching us much more to pay tribute cheerfully to our lawful governors, and to avoid all sedition and offence.
19. Yet is he accused, condemned, and executed among malefactors, as aspiring to be "King of the Jews," and the judge called, "none of Cæsar's friend," if he let him go: teaching us to expect that the most innocent christians should be accused, as enemies to the rulers of the world, and mistaken governors be provoked and engaged against them, by the malicious calumnies of their adversaries; and that we should, in this unrighteous world, be condemned of those crimes of which we are most innocent, and which we most abhor, and have borne the fullest testimonies against.
20. The furious rout of the enraged people deride him by their words and deeds, with a purple robe, a sceptre of reed, a crown of thorns, and the scornful name of "King of the Jews;" they spit in his face, and buffet him, and then break jests upon him; and in all this "being reviled he reviled not again, but committed all to him that judgeth righteously," 1 Pet. ii. 21-23. Teaching us to expect the rage of the ignorant rabble, as well as of deluded governors; and to be made the scorn of the worst of men; and all this without impatience, reviling, or threatening words; but quieting ourselves in the sure expectation of the righteous judgment, which we and they must shortly find.
21. When Christ is urged at Pilate's bar to speak for himself, he holds his peace: teaching us to expect to be questioned at the judgment-seat of man; and not to be over-careful for the vindicating of our names from their most odious calumnies, because the judgment that will fully justify us is sure and near.
22. When Christ is in his agony, his disciples fail him; when he is judged and crucified, they "forsook him and fled," Matt. xxvi. 56: to teach us not to be too confident in the best of men, nor to expect much from them in a time of trial, but to take up our comfort in God alone, when all our nearest friends shall fail us.
23. Upon the cross he suffereth the torments and ignominy of death for us, praying for his murderers: "leaving us an example that we should follow his steps," 1 Pet. ii. 21; and that we think not life itself too dear to part with, in obedience to God, and for the love of Christ and one another, 1 John iii. 16; and that we forgive and pray for them that persecute us.
24. In all this suffering from men, he feels also so much of the fruit of our sin upon his soul, that he crieth out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" to teach us, if we fall into such calamity of soul, as to think that God himself forsaketh us, to remember for our support, that the Son of God himself before us, cried out, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and that in this also we may expect a trial, to seem of ourselves forsaken of God, when our Saviour underwent the like before us.
I will instance in no more of his example, because I would not be tedious. Hither now let believers cast their eyes: if you love your Lord, you should love to imitate him, and be glad to find yourselves in the way that he hath gone before you. If he lived a worldly or a sensual life, do you do so: if he was an enemy to preaching, and praying, and holy living, be you so: but if he lived in the greatest contempt of all the wealth, and honours, and pleasures of the world, in a life of holy obedience to his Father, wholly preferring the kingdom of heaven, and seeking the salvation of the souls of others, and patiently bearing persecution, derision, calumnies, and death, then take up your cross, and follow him in joyfully to the expected crown.
Direct.VI. If you will learn of Christ, you must learn of his ministers, whom he hath appointed under him to be the teachers of his church.—He purposely enableth them, inclineth them, and sendeth them to instruct you: not to have dominion over your faith, but to be your spiritual fathers, and "the ministers by whom you believe, as God shall give" (ability and success) "to every one" as he pleases; "to plant and water," while "God giveth the increase; to open men's eyes, and turn them from darkness to light;" and to be "labourers together with God, whose husbandry and building you are;" and to be "helpers of your joy." See 2 Cor. ii. 4; Acts xxvi. 17, 18; 1 Cor. iii. 5-9; iv. 15. Seeing therefore Christ hath appointed them, under him, to be the ordinary teachers of his church, he that "heareth them," (speaking his message,) "heareth him," and he "that despiseth them, despiseth him," Luke x. 16. And he that saith, I will hear Christ, but not you, doth say in effect to Christ himself, I will not hear thee, nor learn of thee, unless thou wilt dismiss thy ushers, and teach me immediately thyself.
Direct.VII. Hearken also to the secret teachings of his Spirit, and your consciences, not as making you any new law or duty, or being to you instead of Scriptures or ministers; but as bringing that truth into your hearts and practices, which Scriptures and ministers have first brought to your eyes and ears.—If you understand not this, how the office of Scripture and ministers differ from the office of the Spirit and your consciences, you will be confounded, as the sectaries of these times have been, that separate what God hath joined together, and plead against Scripture or ministers under pretence of extolling the Spirit, or the light within them. As your meat must be taken into the stomach, and pass the first concoction, before the second can be performed, and chylification must be before sanguification; so the Scripture and ministers must bring truth to your eyes and ears, before the Spirit or conscience bring them to your hearts and practice. But they lie dead and uneffectual in your brain or imagination, if you hearken not to the secret teachings of the Spirit and conscience, which would bring them further. As Christ is the principal Teacher without, and ministers are but under him; so the Spirit is the principal teacher within us, and conscience is but under the Spirit, being excited and informed by it. Those that learn only of Scriptures and ministers, (by hearing or reading,) may become men of learning and great ability, though they hearken not to the sanctifying teachings of the Spirit, or to their consciences. But it is only those that hearken first to the Scriptures and ministers, and next to the Spirit of God, and to their consciences, that have an inward, sanctifying, saving knowledge, and are they that are said to be taught of God. Therefore, hearken first with your ears, what Christ hath to say to you from without; and then hearken daily and diligently with your hearts, what the Spirit and conscience say within.For it is their office to preach over all that again to your hearts, which you have received.
Direct.VIII. It being the office of the present ordinary ministry, only to expound and apply the doctrine of Christ already recorded in the Scriptures, believe not any man that contradicteth this recorded doctrine, what reason, authority, or revelation soever he pretend. Isa. viii. 20, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to these, it is because there is no light in them." No reason can be reason indeed that is pretended against the reason of the Creator and God of reason. Authority pretended against the highest authority of God, is no authority: God never gave authority to any against himself; nor to deceive men's souls; nor to dispense with the law of Christ; nor to warrant men to sin against him; nor to make any supplements to his law or doctrine. The apostles had their "power only to edification, but not to destruction," 1 Cor. x. 8; 2 Cor. xiii. 10. There is no revelation from God that is contrary to his own revelation, already delivered as his perfect law and rule unto the church; and therefore none supplemental to it. If an "apostle or an angel from heaven (per possibile vel impossibile) shall evangelize to us besides what is evangelized," and we "have received," he must be held "accursed," Gal. i. 6-8.
Direct.IX. Come not to learn of Christ with self-conceitedness, pride, or confidence in your prejudice and errors; but as little children, with humble, teachable, tractable minds. Christ is no teacher for those that in their own eyes are wise enough already: unless it be first to teach them to "become fools" (in their own esteem, because they are so indeed) "that they may be wise," 1 Cor. iii. 18. They that are prepossessed with false opinions, and resolve that they will never be persuaded of the contrary, are unmeet to be scholars in the school of Christ. "He resisteth the proud, but giveth more grace unto the humble," 1 Pet. v. 5. Men that have a high conceit of their own understandings, and think they can easily know truth from falsehood, as soon as they hear it, and come not to learn, but to censure what they hear or read, as being able presently to judge of all, these are fitter for the school of the prince of pride, and father of lies and error, than for the school of Christ. Except conversion make men as little children, that come not to carp and cavil, but to learn, they are not "meet for the kingdom of Christ," Matt. xviii. 3; John iii. 3, 5. Know how blind and ignorant you are, and how dull of learning, and humbly beg of the heavenly Teacher, that he will accept you, and illuminate you: and give up your understandings absolutely to be informed by him, and your hearts to be the tables in which his Spirit shall write his law; believing his doctrine upon the bare account of his infallible veracity, and resolving to obey it; and this is to be the disciples of Christ indeed, and such as shall be taught of God.
Direct.X. Come to the school of Christ with honest, willing hearts, that love the truth, and fain would know it, that they may obey it; and not with false and biassed hearts, which secretly hinder the understanding from entertaining the truth, because they love it not, as being contrary to their carnal inclinations and interest. The word that was received into honest hearts, was it that was as the seed that brought forth plentifully, Matt. xiii. 23. When the heart saith unfeignedly, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth; teach me to know and do thy will;" God will not leave such a learner in the dark. Most of the damnable ignorance and error of the world, is from a wicked heart, that perceiveth that the truth of God is against their fleshly interest and lusts, and therefore is unwilling to obey it, and unwilling to believe it, lest it torment them, because they disobey it. A will that is secretly poisoned with the love of the world, or of any sinful lusts and pleasures, is the most potent impediment to the believing of the truth.
Direct.XI. Learn with quietness and peace in the school of Christ, and make not divisions, and meddle not with others' lessons and matters, but with your own. Silence, and quietness, and minding your own business, is the way to profit. The turbulent wranglers that are quarrelling with others, and are religious contentiously, in envy and strife, are liker to be corrected or ejected, than to be edified. Read James iii.
Direct.XII. Remember that the school of Christ hath a rod; and therefore learn with fear and reverence, Heb. xii. 28, 29; Phil. ii. 12. Christ will sharply rebuke his own, if they grow negligent and offend: and if he should cast thee out and forsake thee, thou art undone for ever. "See," therefore, "that ye refuse not him that speaketh: for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we, if we refuse him that is from heaven," Heb. xii. 25. "For how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation; which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?" Heb. ii. 3, 4. "Serve the Lord therefore with fear, and rejoice with trembling: kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the kindling of his wrath," Psal. ii. 11, 12.