3. To keep us humble : 1 Cor. xv. 9, ' For I am the least of the apostles, and am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.' A man may be proud of spiritual enjoyments, so far as he is unholy : 2 Cor. xii. 7, ' And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.' Now, to take us down and to humble us, let us remember the sin and misery we were once in when we knew it not. God will do much to keep gracious souls humble as long as they live. They were once as bad as the worst, and were children of wrath even i\s others. Though God forgets their sins so as to forgive them, yet they cannot forget them, but are humbled in the remembrance of them ; they condemn themselves v/hen God justifieth them : Exek. xx. 34, ' Then «hall ye remember your own ways, and all your doings wherein you have been defiled ; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have committed.' They set those sins befoi'e their faces, which God hath cast behind his back ; not to breed a distrust of God's mercy, but to humble their own souls. Though mercy hath washed, and justified, and sanctified you, yet you were as bad as others ; no poverty, beggary, and reproach in the world will be so humbling to them as this.
4. It maketh us more compassionate to others, we having once as blind a mind and as hard a heart as they • Titus iii. 2, 3, ' To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.' We had as bad natures as any, and lay in the same puddle of corru})tion, were hewn out of the same rock, and digged out of the same pit, and came into the world as naked and destitute of grace as any others. Israel knew the heart of a stranger, therefore they were to pity strangers : Dent. xxiv. 18, 19, ' Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence; therefore I command thee to do this thing. When thou cuttest down thine harvest in the field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it ; it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and the widow ; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hands.'
5. It maketh us more watchful. A man that hath escaped a danger- ous disease or surfeit is very careful from his own experience that he doth not lapse into it again. Alas ! too much corruption still remain- eth with us ; we still have flesh that fighteth against the Spirit, Gal. v. 17. Old lusts soon awaken at the knock of a temptation. Paul groaneth sorely that so much of this carnal nature was left ; to find such rem- nants of that odious sin, which cost us so dear, and had cost us dearer if our Lord Jesus Christ had not paid our ransom. We were darkness;
254 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SeR. VIIL
but alas ! how dark are we still ! how far from heaven ! how little do we know, atid believe, and love ! We know but in part, and love God but in part, and serve God with such constant weakness, and the old working warring principle doth often get the advantage of us, and pro- duce some actual sin ot thought, word, and deed, that we have need to take heed to ourselves lest we be again brought under the captivity and bondage of the law of sin. Shall we drink once more of the bitter waters ? Josh. xxii. 17, ' Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are not cleansed unto this day, though there be a plague in the con- gregation of the Lord ? '
G. It doth quicken us to greater fruitfulness for time to come. Was I so zealous for sin, and shall I not do so much for God ? Kom. vi. 19, ' As ye have yielded your members servants unto uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity ; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness ; ' Acts xxvi. 11, ' Being exceeding mad against them, I pei'secuted them even unto strange cities ; ' compared with 2 Cor. v. 13, ' For whether we be beside ourselves, it is for God ; or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.' Since we set out so late, let us mend our pace : 1 Peter iv. 3, ' For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abomi- nable idolatries.'
7. It maketh our conversion more evident and sensible, and so quickeneth us to thankfulness and praise. When we compare the two extremes, darkness and light, nature and grace, it doth much hurt to believers, in judging of their condition, to forget what they once were, and not to consider what they now are. The comparing of these two, what they were with what they now are, Avould make the change more sensible and evident : 2 Cor. v. 17, * Whosoever is in Christ is a new creature ; old things are passed away, and all things are become new.' Old things are passed away, and are passing away still. Our gradual progress in holiness is more insensible, and therefore we may overlook the mercy ; but the first work is more sensible, we may find a great change in ourselves. All that belong to God may say, as the blind man, John ix. 25, ' One thing i know, that whereas I was born blind, I now see.' By comparing the two extremes they find they are not the same men they were before. Once they had no delight in communion with God, now it is a trouble to keep out of God's company. Nothing was so tedious and burdensome as the duties of religion, now their hearts are more agreeable to them, and they are sweeter to them than their appointed food. Before they were slight and sluggish, now they are hard at work for God. Before, they abandoned themselves to all manner of carnalities, now they are troubled about the first risings and bubbling up of sin ; the conscience which was stupid is made tender ; the stream of their thoughts, desires, and endeavours run in another channel ; their hearts are altered, life altered, speech altered. And by comparing these extremes it is the ready way to interpret our condi- tion. Men forget the estate they once were in, and the great change which the Spirit of God hath wrought in them, and because such altera- tions are not wrought in them continually, live in doubt and fear. Look, as the forgetting our poverty and affliction maketh us undervalue