Twenty sermons preached at Oxford before His Majesty, and elsewhere

3. The last thing is to note the difference between the peace of a carnal and a spiritual man; carnal peace is mixed with a great deal of presumption and pride; but the more spiritual peace thou hast, the more thou art dejected in thy self, the more cast down: see it in Ezekiel, Ezek. 16.60, 61, 62, 63. I will establish with thee an everlasting Covenant; then shalt thou remember thy ways, and be ashamed when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thy elder, and thy younger; and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy Covenant: and I will establish my Covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, that thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee, for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord: When God is pacified, yet they hold down their heads, and are ashamed; when a man knoweth that God hath pardoned his sins, he is ashamed that he hath carried himself so wickedly against God, of whose mercy he hath now such experience: When God is pacified, a man remembers his former sins, and is confounded; as it is, Ezek. 36.31. Then shall you remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good; and shall loath your selves in your own sight fer your iniquities, and for your abominations in that time when I am pacified toward you. That which would work in a carnal man security and pride, (for he never thinks himself better than when there is peace within) will work in the child of God the grace of humiliation. In the last Chapter of Job, God had manifested himself wonderfully to Job; and however before he had very sharp afflictions, his sufferings in soul were next to the sufferings of Christ. I believe never any man suffered so much as Job did, insomuch that the arrows of the Almighty stuck in him, the poison whereof (saith he) drinketh up my spirit, Job 6.4. This was the case of Job, and he stood upon terms of justification; he wished that God would dispute with him, that God would either be the Opponent or the Answerer. If God would answer, he would oppose; or if God would oppose, he ⟨p. 149⟩would answer. God comes as he would have him, and Job is not at that point that he was before; when God draws nigh unto him, he saith, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye seeth thee,