The souls humiliationThe soules humiliation

The broken hearted sinner finds no help; nay, he hath no hope to receive any help from himself in the matter of justification.

The broken hearted sinner finds no help; nay, he hath no hope to receive any help from himselfe in the matter of justification.

You see the ground of the point is clear: The Citizen relieved him not, but he gives himself as as lost, and saith; I cannot help my self, and no man will succour me, and therefore I perish for hunger. This is the picture of a soul that is famished for want of the sense of Gods favour, though he use means; and heareth, and prayeth, and fasteth; yet he finds no good, and no sound comfort in all these: not that a man must not use these means, but he must not rest upon these: a man must not think that his bucket can quench his thirst; but he fetcheth water from the fountain with it: So, these duties are as the bucket, a man may famish for all these ⟨p. 20⟩duties, unless he go to the Fountain of Grace, and pardon, and mercy, and in the use of all these see a need of Christ, and go to God for a Christ by them; these means must be used, but these cannot be saviours of him; these means must be used to bring him to a Christ, yet they cannot save him without a Christ. What was spoken temporally to Ephraim, it is true of the Soul spiritually: When Ephraim saw his wound,¹ and his sickness, he went to Ashur and King Jarib, but they could not help him, nor cure his wound. It is true, this Text mainly aims at a temporal deliverance, but this may draw us to consider the success that a poor Soul finds in his duties, resting upon them. When a poor Soul is broken in the sight of his sin, and weary of it; he sends down to prayer, and hearing, and the like; but these cannot succour him without Christ:² and therefore the Prophet Isaiah saith, Why lay you out your money for that which is not bread, &c. The Lord accounts the pains of his faithful servants good labour, and would not have them lay it out for that which is not bread. All the profits that may enrich a man, and all the honours that may advance a man; nay, all the privileges that a man hath; as Word, Sacraments, and Ordinances; and that a man is baptized, and hath often come to the Lords Table; these come no farther then the very bare husk; if they go no farther, and have not an eye to their Saviour; these are no true bread: the horror of heart cannot be quieted, nor his sins pardoned, barely by these duties doing: the meat of the Soul, is not the bare Word, nor the bare Sacraments;