The souls humiliationThe soules humiliation

Secondly, The Soul that is contented comes to be well apaid with this, that mercy shall take away from him what it will, friends, and means, and ease, and liberty, and credit, and whatsoever it is that the heart hath loved most. It is content that God should strip him naked of all: And hence it is, that we shall observe it in experience, and in practice. A broken battered Soul, that hath been long overwhelmed with the weight of his corruptions, the Lord brings him to a marvellous desperate low ebb: You may see a man, sometimes in the torment of Conscience, that nature and natural parts begin to decay, his understanding grows weak, and his memory fails him, and he grows to be marvellously distracted, and besides himself, so that the party which was (before) a man of great reach and of able parts, and was admired, and wondered at for his wisdom, and government; he is now accounted a silly sot, and a mad man, in regard of the horror of heart that hath possessed him, in so much that the husband saith, Oh my wife is undone, and the father saith, my child is undone, he was a fine witty child before, but now he is a very sot. Yea, the mercy of God will not ⟨p. 118⟩leave a man before he be content to be a despised man, that he may find mercy and be saved, and mercy will pluck away all those parts and gifts from him, and make him glad to have salvation, and all in another: And in conclusion, when God cheers up his heart again, he is more wise than ever, and more able than ever, both for temporal, and spiritual affairs.¹ How can you believe (saith our Saviour) that seek honour one of another. Without this dealing of God, no man would ever come to heaven, though the Lord sometimes abates some measure of it. It may be before this work, the Soul saith, if I may have honours, and ease, and liberty, and credit, so it is; I care not whether ever I have drop of mercy or no: But the text saith, How can you believe which seek honour one of another, and not that honour that comes from God only. Mercy will bring you down upon your knees, and you shall not be content with the honours of the world; No, no, mercy will make you content to be fools, and to take that honour only which is from God, though you be abased, and hated, and persecuted in the world. It is against reason that the Soul can believe, except this be in the heart.

Secondly, The Soule that is contented comes to be well apaid with this, that mercy shall take away from him what it will, friends, and meanes, and ease, and liberty, and credit, and whatsoever it is that the heart hath loved most. It is content that God should strip him naked of all: And hence it is, that we shall observe it in experience, and in practice. A broken battered Soule, that hath beene long overwhelmed with the weight of his corruptions, the Lord brings him to a marveilous desperate low ebbe: You may see a man, sometimes in the torment of Conscience, that nature and naturall parts begin to decay, his understanding growes weake, and his memory failes him, and he growes to be marveilously distracted, and besides himselfe, so that the partie which was (before) a man of great reach and of able parts, and was admired, and wondred at for his wisedome, and government; he is now accounted a silly sot, and a mad man, in regard of the horror of heart that hath possessed him, in so much that the husband saith, Oh my wife is undone, and the father saith, my childe is undone, he was a fine witty childe before, but now hee is a very sot. Yea, the mercy of God will not