CHAPTER II: The ways God useth to purge out corruption out of his children
CHAPTER II
The ways God useth to purge out our corruptions; and means whereby he causeth us to grow therein.
III. Now, in the third place, for the ways whereby God goes on to purge us, there are many and diverse; he blesseth all sorts of means and dealings of his to accomplish it.
1. First, he useth occasional means to do it, and blesseth them; as— (1.) Even falling into sins. Thus it was with David when he fell; thereby God set him anew upon this work, as by his prayer appears,
Ps. 51, 'Oh, purge me, make me clean.'
(2.) Secondly, by casting them into afflictions. So, Dan. 11:35, 'They shall fall, to purge them and make them white.' What the word doth not purge out, nor mercies, that afflictions must. These vines must be cut till they bleed. Summer purgeth out the outward humours that lie in the skin by sweating, but winter concocteth the inward by driving in the heat, and so purgeth away the humours that lie in the inward parts; and so, what by the one, what by the other, the body is kept in health. Thus mercies prevail against some sins, and afflictions against others. Moses neglected to circumcise his child, (as we do our hearts, it is such a bloody work,) till God met him, and would have killed him. And in like manner God sometimes puts us in the fear or danger of losing our lives, casts us into sicknesses, and the like,
making as if he meant to kill us, and all to bring us off to this work of purging, to circumcise our hearts.
2. As these occasional, so also instrumental instituted helps, as his word. So, Eph. 5:26, Christ is said 'to cleanse his church with the washing of water by the word;' by the word spoken, either in preaching or in conference. So in the very next words to my text,
'Now ye are clean through the words I have spoken unto you;' they had then received the sacraments, and had heard a good sermon.
The word at once discovers the sin, and sets the heart against it: 'I was ignorant, till I went into the sanctuary.' There goes a light with it to see sin after another manner, although a man did know it before, and then the word sets out the vileness of a sin; and to hear a sin declaimed against and reproved sets an exasperation upon the mind against it, and so a man goes home, and sets upon it to Kill it and destroy it. Or else by the word meditated upon, as by keeping some truth or other fresh and sweet in the mind, which the mind cheweth on. God fastens the mind upon some new promise, or new discovered sign of a man's estate, and these 'cleanse' him, 2 Cor. 7:1; or upon some attribute of his, and that quickens the inward man, and overcomes the outward. Some consideration or other every day
God doth make familiar to a man's spirit, to 'talk with him,' (as the phrase is, Prov. 6:22,) and to keep him company, and usually some new one; God leading us through varieties of sweet truths to chew upon, one this day, and another to-morrow. And these have an exceeding purging virtue in them; they keep the purging issue open, even as those that have issues made in their arms or legs use to have a pea, or some such small thing, to lie in the orifice of the issue to keep it open; and so doth such a new truth, with spiritual light discovered, still keep the purging issue of sin open, and draws out the filth, and 'keeps the heart.' So says Solomon, Prov. 6:21, 22, 24: observe the coherence there, and it is as if he had said, Keep this command fresh in mind, and it shall keep thee.
3. God useth also the examples of others as means to provoke a man to purge himself.
(1.) Examples of those that have been professors, and fallen away.
They provoke a man to set fresh upon this work, lest that the like sins should prevail against him also, and cause him to fall. Therefore the Apostle, when he heard of Hymenæus and Philetus's fall, 2 Tim. 2:19,
'Let every one,' says he, 'that calls upon the name of the Lord,' make this use of it, to 'depart from iniquity.' And it follows, 'If you purge yourselves from these, ye shall be vessels of honour.' It follows upon that occasion.
(2.) Examples of holy men. To hear very holy men speak what victory over lusts may be attained here doth much provoke another to purge himself, who else would content himself with a lesser degree; so Phil.
3:17.
4. In the last place, there are many inward workings upon the heart, whereby God goes on still to purge us.
(1.) First, by a further discovering of corruptions unto us; either a greater filthiness in the evils we saw before, or to see more of them, and by what one sees to suspect more. God never discovers lusts to his but to carry them away; he stirs the humours to purge them. Thus when David saw his sin, he sets anew upon cleansing himself. In the 19th Psalm, coming new from taking a view of his heart, and having seen such volumes of corruptions, so many errata in all that he did, he cries out, 'Who can understand his errors?' and withal, 'Oh, cleanse me from secret sins.' He then saw secret evils, and suspected more than as yet he saw; and this made him cry out, 'Oh, cleanse me,' and so to use all means, and to go to God to cleanse him. So when, in the 51st Psalm, God let down a light to let him but see the corruption of his nature afresh, that he was 'born in sin,' and had 'no truth' there, more falsehood than he could ever have imagined, 'Oh, purge me,' says he upon it.
(2.) Secondly, he sets the heart on work to make it a business to get one's lusts mortified more and more, and not to rest in the measure attained. Phil. 3:13, Paul 'forgot what was behind;' he did still desire
to have more fellowship with Christ in his death and sufferings, in the death of sin. When a man's heart is set upon the work, as that τὸ ἔργον he came into the world for, as David, who took up a resolution,
'I said I would look to my ways;' so when a man hath said unto himself, I will grow in grace, as they say, 'I will be rich,' 1 Tim. 6:9, and so looks at it as his business, being as much convinced of this, that he should be more holy, as he was at first that he was to be new born; when growth of grace is as much in a man's eye as getting grace at first was, and as great a necessity made of the one as of the other.
This conviction many want, and so take no care to grow more holy and more pure. Phil. 3:15, 'If any be otherwise minded, says the Apostle, that there is no such absolute necessity of going on still to perfection, 'God shall reveal it to him.' God doth reveal and set on this upon every godly man's heart at one time or another, and so goes on to purge them. And this is also expressed to us, 1 Peter 4:1,
'Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, let us arm ourselves with the same mind,' namely, to mortify our lusts; for it follows, 'He that hath suffered in the flesh,' that is, hath mortified his lusts, 'hath ceased from sin.' That same 'arming' there is God's putting into the mind a strong and invincible resolution to go through with this work; when he arms and steels it against all difficulties, all encounters. This is meant by 'arming us with the same mind:' that as Christ looked upon it as his business why he came into the world, even to suffer for us; so for us to look upon it as our business to crucify our lusts. When therefore we intend all our endeavours upon this work, and mind nothing in comparison, pray for nothing more, receive sacraments for this purpose, and hear and perform all other duties with an eye to this, prosecute this business as the main; when God hath put such a resolution into a man, and preserves it, then he goes on to purge him.
(3.) Thirdly, God doth it by drawing the sap and juice of the affections of the heart more and more into holy duties and into obedience. When that intention of mind, as our morning thoughts and the like, which we formerly spent upon vanities, are now drawn into prayer and holy meditations, then lusts do wither; and when our
care is how to please God more, and our hearts are more in the duties of obedience, then doth corruption shale off more and more; and thus by diverting our intentions doth God work out corruptions. And look, as the sun doth draw up the sap out of the root, so doth Christ draw out the heart at some times more than at others to holy duties, and unto communion with himself in the duties. This Killeth sin, and causeth it to wither,—namely, by taking away the sap, that is, that intention of mind which doth usually nourish it. Thus, 1 Pet. 1:22,
'We purify our hearts by obeying the truth.'
(4.) Fourthly, by bringing the heart more and more acquainted with Christ, his Son, which is the Father's work to do, for 'none comes to the Son but whom the Father draws.' Now, how many souls are there who have gone puddering on, as I may so speak, in the use of other means, and though in the use thereof Christ hath communicated some virtue to them, yet because they did not trade with him chiefly in those duties, they have had little in comparison to what afterwards they have had when he hath been discovered to them, as that great ordinance who is appointed by God to get their lusts mortified.
Before this they have washed and washed, but they have washed without soap, until Christ hath been thus revealed to them, and the virtue of his death and rising again, which is compared, Mal. 3:2, unto 'fuller's soap,' &c. In Zech. 13:1, it is said that 'God opens a fountain to the house of David, for sin and for uncleanness,' that is, for the guilt of sin and the power of sin. Now by that opening is not meant the promise of sending his Son into the world to be crucified, but the discovery of him to believers after his being crucified: for, chap. 12:10, he is supposed to be crucified already, for they there 'see him whom they have pierced;' therefore by that opening there is meant the discovery of him to his people, and him to be the great ordinance of cleansing them. Now, the more distinctly a man understands Christ, and how to make use of him, who is already made sanctification to us, the more easily he gets his lusts purged.
Such a one, that trades immediately with Christ, will do more in a day than another in a year; for, seeing that the power of purging us lies immediately in him, and that he is the purging drug which
mingles itself with the word and all means else, and sets them all awork, therefore the more of him we have, and the more immediate application we have of him to us, and of his power, the more recourse our hearts have to him, the more our lusts are purged. As it is in drugs or minerals, if the infusion and steeping of them in liquors will work, how much more if the substance of them be taken down inwardly and immediately? Now this comes to pass, as God doth go on to open our faith to see him, and know him, and to be acquainted with him; for so the Apostle expresseth it, Phil. 3, 'That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection.' The more we look upon all means else in the use of them as ineffectual without him, the more power we shall find from him.
(5.) Fifthly, by assuring the soul of his love, and shedding it abroad in the heart, and by working spiritual joy in the heart, doth God also purge his people. And to work all these is in God's power immediately and solely. 'I am crucified with Christ,' Gal. 2:20. And how? By believing that 'Christ gave himself for me, and loved me.'
This deadens a man to the world, makes a man crucify that which Christ was crucified for; and this makes a man hate sin, the more he loves Christ, or apprehends his love. And it doth this in a double relation or respect, not only because sin so displeaseth him, nor only as it is contrary to his will, but because it did afflict him so much once, and because to 'take sin away' was the intent he came into the world. For so (1 John 3:4) although a believer is said to mortify sin upon this consideration indeed, that it is 'the transgression of the law,' yet much more upon this other, because 'Christ was manifest to take sin away.' And the more assurance I have of another life and a better, and of being like Christ hereafter, the more a man purgeth himself to be fit for that condition. 'He that hath this hope in him purgeth himself, as he is pure;' so in 1 John 3:2. The more joy a man hath in Christ, the more deadened he must needs be to the world; the one eats up the other: for the ground of all sin is but the love of pleasure. Now, if I find it in God and Christ, it deadens me for seeking it in the world; for omnis vita gustu ducitur, all life is maintained by a taste of some sweetness. Now, when the sweetness