(1.) For our carriage in the particular worship. There is nothing so dangerous as spiritual pride; It deprived Devils and Men of the presence of God, and will hinder us of the influence of God. If we had had raised and uninterrupted motions in worship, we should be apt to be lifted up; and the Devil stands ready to tempt us to self-confidence. You know how it was with Paul*; His buffetings were occasions to render him more spiritual than his raptures, because more humble. God suffers ⟨p. 167⟩those wanderings, starts and distractions to prevent our spiritual pride, which is as a Worm at the root of spiritual worship, and mind us of the dusty frame of our Spirits, how easily they are blown away: As he sends sickness to put us in mind of the shortness of our breath, and the easiness to lose it. God would make us ashamed of our selves in his presence; that we may own, that what is good in any duty, is merely from his Grace and Spirit, and not from our selves. That with Paul we may cry out, by Grace we are what we are, and by Grace we do what we do: We may be hereby made sensible, that God can alway find something in our exactest worship, as a ground of denying us the successful fruit of it. If we cannot stand upon our duties for Salvation, what can we bottom upon in our selves? If therefore they are occasions to make us out of love with any righteousness of our own, to make us break our hearts for them, because we cannot keep them out; If we mourn for them as our sins, and count them our great afflictions; we have attained that brokenness which is a choice ingredient in a spiritual Sacrifice: Though we have been disturbed by them, yet we are not robbed of the success; we may behold an answer of our worship in our humiliation, in spite of all of them.
(1.) For our carriage in the particular worship. There is nothing so dangerous as spiritual pride; It deprived Devils and Men of the presence of God, and will hinder us of the influence of God. If we had had raised and uninterrupted motions in worship, we should be apt to be lifted up; and the Devil stands ready to tempt us to self-confidence. You know how it was with Paul*; His buffetings were occasions to render him more spiritual than his raptures, because more humble. God suffers ⟨p. 167⟩those wandrings, starts and distractions to prevent our spiritual pride, which is as a Worm at the root of spiritual worship, and mind us of the dusty frame of our Spirits, how easily they are blown away: As he sends sickness to put us in mind of the shortness of our breath, and the easiness to lose it. God would make us ashamed of our selves in his presence; that we may own, that what is good in any duty, is meerly from his Grace and Spirit, and not from our selves. That with Paul we may cry out, by Grace we are what we are, and by Grace we do what we do: We may be hereby made sensible, that God can alway find something in our exactest worship, as a ground of denying us the successful fruit of it. If we cannot stand upon our duties for Salvation, what can we bottom upon in our selves? If therefore they are occasions to make us out of love with any righteousness of our own, to make us break our hearts for them, because we cannot keep them out; If we mourn for them as our sins, and count them our great afflictions; we have attained that brokeness which is a choice ingredient in a spiritual Sacrifice: Though we have been disturbed by them, yet we are not robbed of the success; we may behold an answer of our worship in our humiliation, in spite of all of them.
- *2 Cor. 12. from v. 1. to v. 7.
