Consider what the best thing is that we have of inward things, our wis- dom. Wisdom, if it be not spiritual, it is only a thing for the things of this life, and we are ofttimes deceived in it. It makes God to disappoint us ofttimes to make us go out of ourselves. An excellent place for this we have in Isa. 1. the last verse, ' Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, and com- pass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your own fire,' &c. (it is a kind of ironia^), ' and the sparks that you have kindled ; this you shall have of my hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow.' Walk in the light of your own fire, walk according to your own devices and projects ; this ye shall have at my hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow. God catcheth the wise in the imagination of their own hearts ; he disappoints the counsel and the projects of Ahithophel. God takes a glory in it, to shame the policies and projects of those that will be witt}' in a distinct way against God. The best policy is to serve God and to walk uprightly.
' That ive shoidd not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead.' This is the other branch, what we should trust in, in God. All this humbling of the blessed apostle, even to death's door, that ' he received the sentence of death,' it was first to subdue carnal confidence in himself. He was prone to think himself stronger than he was, or that he should be up- held, that something or other should keep him from death. That he might subdue this carnal confidence, and then that he might trust in God, it was all for these two ends, ' that we might not trust in ourselves (or in any means), but in God that raiseth the dead.'
Was St Paul to learn to trust in God, that had been so long a scholar in Christ's school, nay, a master in Israel ? Was he to learn to trust in God?
Yes ; doubtless, he was. It is a lesson that is hardly learned, and it is a lesson that we shall be learning all our life, to go out of ourselves and out of the creature, and to go further into God, to rely more and more upon him. It is a lesson that we can never learn as we ought. Therefore, weak Christians ought not to be discouraged when they find defects and weakness * That is, ' fall.'— G. f That is, ' irouy.'— G.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 9. 139
in their trust. Our hearts are false, and prone to trust outward things ; but do they groan under their corruptions ? Do they complain of them- selves ? l3o they go out of themselves ? Their estate is good. The estate of a Christian, it is a growing, it is a conflicting estate. He conies not to full trust and confidence in God till he have gathered many experiments,* till God have exercised him to the proof throughly ; therefore, let them not be discouraged. A Christian is not alway like himself; he is in a growing estate. There is a weak faith and a strong faith. ' 0, ye of little faith,' Mat. vi. 30. The disciples had a little faith as well as Abraham, ' that was stroiu/ in faith. As long as we are on the complaining hand, and on the striving hand, and gi'owing hand, all is hopeful. Bt Paul himself still strived against self-confidence, and still learned to trust in God more and more.
But mark the order. First, God doth all this, ' that we should not trust in ourselves.' But that is not the thing he doth mainly aim at, but another thing, that we should trust in God who raiseth the dead.' Whence we may observe, that
Doct. God, to make us trust in himself, is fain to cast us out of ourselves.
His proper work is not to drive us out of ourselves, that is a work sub- ordinate to a higher. But the furthest and last work is, that we should ' trust in him,' as the prophet saith. ' God doth a strange work,' Isa. xxviii. 21. He doth a work strange to himself, that he may do his own work. He doth a work that doth not concern him so properly, that he may do his own work, as he is God, that is, to confiiTQ and settle us upon himself. But that he may do this, he must set us out of ourselves by crosses and afflictions. That is not his own proper work, to afflict us, and to bring us low ; for he is the ' Father of mercies.' But that he may do his own work, to bring us to him, and then do good to us, he must take this in his way, and do this first. To make it clear. A carpenter, he pulls down a house, he takes it in pieces. His art is not to pull down houses, but to build them up. But he doth that which doth not belong to him properly, that he may do that which doth belong to him ; for he will not build upon a rotten founda- tion. So neither ' will God build upon a rotten foundation.' He will not build upon carnal confidence, upon carnal trust, upon pride, and covetousness ; but he will demolish that rotten foundation with afflic- tions and crosses. He will use such means that we shall have small joy to trust in sin. He will by crosses and afflictions force us to go from our sins. He will demolish that rotten foundation, that he may raise up an excellent edifice and frame of the new creature, that shall endure to everlasting. The work of a physician is to cure nature, and not to weaken it. It is not his work to make people sick, but to make them sound. If the body be distempered, it must be weakened. He must carry the burden of ill and noisome humours before it be strengthened. To make people sound he must give them strong purgations, that shall afflict them and aftect them as much as the dis^ease for a while. But all is to make them lighter and stronger after, when they are eased of the burden of noisome humours : and so it is in every other trade. So God shews his skill in this great matter in bringing us to heaven this way. He doth that work which doth not properly concern him, to work at last his own blessed good work. He afflicts us to drive us out of ourselves, that we may come at last to trast in him, in whom is all our happiness and good.