Twenty sermons preached at Oxford before His Majesty, and elsewhere

Before I proceed farther, give me leave to answer an Objection of a troubled soul which may arise hence, O may a soul say, what comfort then may I have of the first work of the Spirit in me? For as yet I have found none of these things; I have not been thus humbled, nor terrified, nor had such experience as you speak of in that state under the spirit of bondage.

Before I proceed farther, give me leave to answer an Objection of a troubled soul which may arise hence, O may a soul say, what comfort then may I have of the first work of the Spirit in me? For as yet I have found none of these things; I have not been thus humbled, nor terrifyed, nor had such experience as you speak of in that state under the spirit of bondage.

I answer, though this be a work of the spirit, yet it is not the principal justifying and saving work of the spirit, yea the children of the Devil may ⟨p. 165⟩come to have a greater measure of this then Gods own dear Children, whom (for the most part) he will not affright nor afflict in that terrible manner as he doth some of them, but the consequence of this is more to be accounted of, then the measure, to see whither that measure I have, (what ever it be) leads me. For if the measure were never so absolutely necessary to salvation, then all Gods. Children should have enough of it. But I make a difference still between humiliation and humility, which is a grace of it self, and leads me along with comfort and Life. Thus therefore I think of humiliation, if I have so much of it as will bring me to see my danger and cause me to run to the medicine, and City of refuge for help, to hate sin for time to come, and to set my self constantly in the ways and practice of holiness, it is enough. And so I say in the case of Repentance, if a man have a sight of sin past, and a heart firmly set against all sin for the time to come, the greater and firmer this were, the lesser measure of sorrow might suffice for sins fore-past. As we see a wise Father would never beat his Child for faults that are past, but for the prevention of that which is to come, for we see in time of Correction, the Child cries out, O I will never do so any more. So God deals with us, because our resolutions and promises are faint and fail, and that without much mourning, humiliation and Stripes, we attain not this hatred of sins past, and strength against them for time to come, therefore it is that our humiliation and sorrow must be proportionable to that work which is to be done, otherwise any measure of it were sufficient which fits us for the time to come.