There was a gentlewoman, of no ordinary quality or breeding, who, being much troubled in mind, and sadly deserted by God, could not be drawn by her husband, or any other Christian friends, either to hear or read anything that might work for her spiritual advantage ; at last her husband, by much importunity, prevailed so far with her, that she was willing he should read one chapter in the Bible to her ; so he read that Isaiah 57th, and when he came to the loth verse, ' For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.' Oh, says she, is it so, that God dwells with a con- trite and humble spirit ? Then I am sure he dwells with me, for my heart is broken into a thousand pieces. Oh happy text and happy time, that ever I should hear such comfort ! and she was thereupon recovered. The more communion any man hath with God, the more humble and broken his heart will be.
Holy Bradford was a man that had much private communion with God, and he would many times subscribe himself in his letters, * John' the hypocrite, and a very painted sepulchre.'^ Agur was one of the wisest and holiest men on the earth in his days, and he condemned himself for being more brutish than any man, and not having the understanding of a man, Prov. xxx. 2. How sweet is the smell of the lowly violet, that hides his head, above all the gaudy tulips that be in
* Austin being once asked what was tlie first grace, answered, humility ; what the second, humility ; what the third, humility. [See Index, under IlumiUty, for other references to this. — G.]
• Foxe his Acts and Mon. [^Sub nomme.—Ot.']
Mat. YI. 6.] the privy key of heaven. 271
your garden. The lowly Christian is the most amiable and the most lovely Christian. When a man can come out of his closet, and cry out with Augustine, ' I hate that which I am, and love and desire that which I am not. O wretched man that I am, in whom the cross of Christ hath not yet eaten out the poisonous and the bitter taste of the first tree.' Or, as another saith, ' Lord, I see, and yet am blind ; I will, and yet rebel ; I liate, and yet I love ; I follow, and yet I fall; I press for- ward, yet I faint ; I wrestle, yet I halt ;' then he may be confident that he hath had communion with God in his closet. He that comes off from closet-duties in a self-debasing way, and in laying of himself low at the foot of God, he certainly hath had communion with God ; but when men come out of their closets with their hearts swelled and lifted up, as the hearts of the pharisees were, Luke xviii. 11, 12, it is evident that they have had no communion with God. God hath not been near to their souls, who say, stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou, Isa. Ixv. 5. But,
[8.] Eighthly, and lastly, When a man finds such a secret virtue and povjer running through his closet-duties, as wounds and weakens his beloved corruption, as breaks the strength and the power of his special sin, as sets his heart itnore fully, resolutely, and constantly agaivst his darling lust, as stirs up a greater rage, and a more bitter hatred, and a m,ore fierce indignation against the toad in the bosom, then certainly he hath had communion with God in his closet-duties. Consult these scriptures: Isa. ii. 20, 'In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they have made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats.' In the day wherein God should take these poor hearts into communion with himself, their hearts should be filled with such rage and indignation against their most delectable and desirable idols, that they should take not only those made of trees and stones, but even their most precious and costly idols, those that were made of silver and gold, and cast them to the moles and to the bats, to note their horrible hatred and indignation against them. Idolatry was the darling-sin of the Jews ; their hearts were so exceedingly affected and delighted with their idols, that they did not care what they spent upon them : Isa. xlvi. 6, ' They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith, and he maketh it a god : they fall down, yea, they worship.' The word here used for lavish, in the Hebrew, signifies properly to waste, or spend riotously ; they set so light by their treasure, that they cared not what they spent upon their idols. God gave them gold and silver as pledges of his favour and bounty, and they lavish it out upon their idols, as if God had hired them to be wicked. Oh, but when God should come and take these poor wretches into a close and near communion with himself, then you shall find their wrath and rage to rise against their idols, as you may see in that Isa. xxx. 19-21. Their communion with God is more than hinted ; but mark, ver. 22, ' Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold ; thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth ; thou shalt say unto it. Get thee hence.' None defile, deface, detest, and disgrace their idols like those that are taken into communion with God. Fellowship with God will make a man cast away, as a menstruous cloth,
272 THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN. [MaT. VI. 6.
those very idols, in which he hath most delighted, and with which he hath been most pleased and enamoured. Idols were Ephraim's bosom- sin, Hosea iv. 17, ' Ephraim is joined,' or glued, as the Hebrew hath it, ' to idols; let him alone.' Oh ! but when you find Ephraim taken into close communion with God, as you do in that Hosea xiv. 4-7, then you shall find another spirit upon him : ver. 8, ' Ephraim shall say, what have I to do any more with idols? I have had too much to do with them already, I will never have to do with them any more. Oh ! how doth my soul detest and abhor them, and rise up against them. Oh ! how do
1 now more loathe and abominate them, than ever I have formerly loved them, or delighted in them. After the return of the Jews out of Babylon, they so hated and abhorred idols, that in the time of the Romans they chose rather to die, than suffer the eagle, which was the imperial arms, to be set up in their temple.
Though closet-duties are weak in themselves, yet when a man hath communion with God in them, then they prove exceeding powerful to the casting down of strongholds, and vain imaginations, and every high thing and thought, that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,
2 Cor. X. 4, 5. When a man comes out of his closet with a heart more fully and stedfastly set against every known sin, but especially against his bosom-sin, his darling-sin, his Delilah that he played and sported himself most with, and that he hath hugged with pleasure and delight in his bosom, then certainly he hath had private communion with God.