And if you should have never so much peace and joy, look well whether it come from God or self-conceit! And if it come not in against self, it's ten to one but it comes from self. If your Peace and Comfort be not won from Christ, in a way of self-denial, and as the spoils of the flesh, you have it not in the ordinary way of God. Did you come to your Joy and Peace by humility, and self-denial, and patience, and mortification, and by becoming little Children, and the servants of all, and by learning of Christ to be meek and lowly? If not, take heed lest you nourish a changeling, an Imp of Hell, and a selfish brat, instead of the fruit of the Spirit; the peace and joy of the Holy Ghost. If you feel no great matter at home to trouble you, you are too Righteous to be Justified by Christ. If you groan not under your ignorance and unbelief, you are too wise to be Christ's Disciples. If you mourn not under the load ⟨p. 104⟩and pain of sin, you are too well to be Christ's Patients. If you are readier to justify and excuse your selves, than to condemn your selves, and had rather hear your selves praised, than reproved, admonished, or instructed, and like Diotrephes, love to have the preeminence, you are too high for Christ to take any acquaintance with you; and too full of self to have any room for his Love, and Spirit, and heavenly Consolations. He that gave us the Parable of the importunate widow, Luke 18. 2, 3. would have us understand that bare necessity is not enough to fit us for relief (for then the worst of men should be the fittest:) but it must be Necessity so felt, as to humble us, and drive us to importunity with God. The Prodigal was miserable when he was denied the husks; but he never felt his Fathers embracements till he came to himself by denying himself, and returning to his Father. And this the self-conceited will not be persuaded to. The first that must touch Christ after his Resurrection, is not a King, nor a Lord, no nor a man, but a woman that had been a sinner. When she held him by the feet, Love did begin low in humility, but it tended higher, and ended higher. Christ hath told us that where much is forgiven there will be much love. For there's most of the fruits of God's love, and least of self, and most to abase self.
And if you should have never so much peace and joy, look well whether it come from God or self-conceit! And if it come not in against self, it's ten to one but it comes from self. If your Peace and Comfort be not won from Christ, in a way of self-denial, and as the spoils of the flesh, you have it not in the ordinary way of God. Did you come to your Joy and Peace by humility, and self-denial, and patience, and mortification, and by becoming little Children, and the servants of all, and by learning of Christ to be meek and lowly? If not, take heed lest you nourish a changeling, an Imp of Hell, and a selfish brat, instead of the fruit of the Spirit; the peace and joy of the Holy Ghost. If you feel no great matter at home to trouble you, you are too Righteous to be Justified by Christ. If you groan not under your ignorance and unbelief, you are too wise to be Christ's Disciples. If you mourn not under the load ⟨p. 104⟩and pain of sin, you are too well to be Christ's Patients. If you are readier to justifie and excuse your selves, than to condemn your selves, and had rather hear your selves praised, than reproved, admonished, or instructed, and like Diotrephes, love to have the preheminence, you are too high for Christ to take any acquaintance with you; and too full of self to have any room for his Love, and Spirit, and heavenly Consolations. He that gave us the Parable of the importunate widdow, Luke 18. 2, 3. would have us understand that bare necessity is not enough to fit us for relief (for then the worst of men should be the fittest:) but it must be Necessity so felt, as to humble us, and drive us to importunity with God. The Prodigal was miserable when he was denied the husks; but he never felt his Fathers embracements till he came to himself by denying himself, and returning to his Father. And this the self-conceited will not be perswaded to. The first that must touch Christ after his Resurrection, is not a King, nor a Lord, no nor a man, but a woman that had been a sinner. When she held him by the feet, Love did begin low in humility, but it tended higher, and ended higher. Christ hath told us that where much is forgiven there will be much love. For there's most of the fruits of God's love, and least of self, and most to abase self.
