Ouranos kai tartaros= heaven and hell epitomized. The true Christian characterized. As also an…

There is a twofold necessity of a deep serious humiliation (for which cause I have been the more large upon it, though indeed I have added very much more than I first intended) in order to the two next directions which I shall prescribe thee.

First, in order to thy hearty acceptation of Jesus Christ. Humiliation is like John Baptist, to prepare the way of Christ before him. Christ will not be a Saviour to them that do not set an high valuation upon him: now an unhumbled sinner is a man (conceitedly) whole, seeing no need of, and therefore setting little price upon the Physician of souls. Till men see that they are cast by the Law of God, and condemned men, they will never heartily desire and value a psalm of mercy. According to a mans sense of misery, such is his estimation of mercy: When Paul saw himself the chiefest of sinners, then that saying, That Christ ⟨p. 164⟩Jesus came into the world to save sinners, was worthy of all acceptation. This sharp sauce of repentance doth commend Christ exceedingly unto the spiritual palate: The more bitter and irksome sin is, the more sweet and welcome Jesus Christ will be to the soul. When the sinner seeth that he is lost in himself, then (and not till then) will he truly request to be found in Christ; the prodigal did not prize the bread in his fathers house, till he was ready to perish for hunger. Ministers preach much of the infinite excellencies that are in Christ, of the unspeakable misery of sinners without Christ, of the absolute necessity that men and women stand in of Christ, and yet preach to little purpose; most prize their shops and their lands, their relations, yea, and their sensual lusts above the Lord Jesus, notwithstanding all their pretences to the contrary; they see no such need of him, nor such worth in him, as the Preachers and Scriptures speak of: What's the reason of it? truly this; They were never sensible of the stings of the fiery serpents; if they had, they would look up to the brazen serpent with an eye of greater respect. They were never pricked to the heart, and therefore ⟨p. 165⟩