Sweet and Soul-Persuading Inducements Leading Unto Christ, Chapter 24
CHAP. XXIIII.
BUt if their life in whom Chriſt lives, be of all lives the moſt honourable and glorious; how cometh it to paſſe that ſuch people as live this life are often in outward appearance of all others the moſt ignominious and diſhonourable.
I anſwer it ſo comes to paſſe. 1.Cauſes of the obſcurity of holy life opened. By reaſon of the ſecrecy and ſpirituality of their life: their life is a hidden life, it is hid with hCol. 3.Chriſt in God, ſaith the Apoſtle, as the life of the branch in the winter is hidden in the root, and hath little appearance in the branch; thus the glory of a Chriſtians life, is hidden in God, the outward ſplendour and beauty thereof, many times appeares not; Beloved (ſaith S. John) now we are the ſonnes of God, we have now a very bleſſed and glorious life with God; but it doth not yet i1 Ioh. 3.1, 2.appeare what we ſhall be, but we know that when he ſhall appeare we ſhall be like him; the flower hath a glorious life ſurpaſſing Salomon in all his royalty, yet in the winter, it is hidden under the Earth, but when the vernall Sun appeares, then the flower appeares in her beauty; thus when Chriſt who is our life ſhall appeare, Mat. 6.then ſhall we appeare with him in glory, though our life be now hidden in obſcurity.
2. This comes to paſſe thorough the ignorance of carnall men; 2. Ignorance.the blind man ſees not the glory of the Sun, the carnall man by reaſon of his ſpirituall blindneſſe, ſees not the glory of a Chriſtians life. Chriſt had meat and drinke which the Diſciples knew not, the true Chriſtian hath a life, and in that life an honour, and a glory which the carnall man diſcernes not; The naturall man (ſaith S. Paul) receiveth k1 Cor. 2.14.not the things of the Spirit of God, they are fooliſhneſſe unto him, neither can he know them, becauſe they are ſpiritually diſcerned: carnall men thorough their ignorance repute that the fouleſt ſhame of man, which is indeed the choyſeſt glory of man; holineſſe the ſpeciall workmanſhip of the Spirit of God upon man, the brighteſt ſtarre ſhining in the firmament of mans ſoule, the richeſt and moſt orient pearle in the Cabinet of mans heart, is looked on, and cenſured by corrupt and carnall man, as the only diſgrace and ſhame of man; speaking l2 Pet. 2.12.evill (as S. Peter ſaith) of the things which they understand not.
3.3. Reproach. It ſo comes to paſſe thorough the diſgrace and reproach which is caſt upon them that live the life of grace: holineſſe hath ever beene cumbred with the fouleſt traducements. Scandalous mouths have ever beene moſt ſhamefully open againſt ſuch as have been moſt holy in their converſation; the beſt men have ever had the worſt report. Chriſt ſurpaſſed all in holineſſe as the Sunne the candle in brightneſſe, and who ever was equall to him in reproaches, they ſaid of him that he was a friend of mMan. 12.Publicans and ſinners, that he had a Divell, was madd, and that by Belzebub the Prince of the Divels he caſt out Divels; and Chriſt f…re-told his Diſciples that men ſhould revile them and perſecute them, and ſay all nMat. 5.manner of evill ſaying againſt them falſly for his ſake: It is not ſome, but all manner of evill ſaying, which is heaped upon Gods children; the wayes and workers of godlineſſe are l…aden with innumerable reproaches, as the ſmoake out of the bottomleſſe pit in the Revelation did darken the oRev. 9.Sunne and the aire; ſo doe the ſmoaky ſcandals of carnall men, whoſe throate is an open Sepulcher, obſcure and darken the names, perſons and lives of Gods ſervants; hee that departs from iniquity making himſelfe a prey, as the Prophet of old ſpake, a prey to the thoughts of men ſecretly to cenſure him, a prey to the hands of men to oppreſſe him, and a prey to the tongues of men to traduce him, and the honour and glory of the lives of Gods children is much obſcured thorough the ſcandals which alwayes are caſt upon them.
4 Corruption remaining.4. This likewiſe comes to paſſe thorough ſome corruption yet remaining in Gods children; thorough ſome failings wherewith they are ſometimes over-taken; though Chriſt live in them, yet they are not ſo full of life, but that there is ſome ſinne, like a diſeaſe, or evill humour in a living body, abiding in them, they have an Eſau as well as a Jaacob in their wombe, ſome tares of ſinne growing with the wheate of grace in the field of their hearts; they carry a p2 Cor. 1….pricke of imbred corruption in their fleſh, and this luſteth againſt the ſpirit, againſt their regenerate part, as the Amalekites fought againſt Joſhuah, and ſometimes it foiles them, as they ſometime prevailed over Joſhuah; and as an inward evill humour ſometimes breakes out into an open ulcer, ſo doth this hidden and remaining corruption, ſometimes vent and ſhew it ſelfe in ſome open fayling, as in Job, David, Jeremy, Peter, and the choyſeſt of Gods ſervants; and as one ulcer doth much obſcure the beauty of the face, ſo one failing doth much ecclipſe and darken the glory of the converſation of Gods children; if a childe of God keepe not himſelfe qIam. 1.26.unſpotted of the world, if hee faile but a little, the world will blot and blaze his name all over, if they eſpye but a little ſpot now and then in him, they will report and proclaime him as one that is leprous all over.
Miſ-judging.5. This alſo commeth thus to paſſe, thorough mens mispriſion and miſ-interpretation of the wayes and workes of Gods children: Their eyes are blood ſhot, they behold the doings of Gods ſervants in a falſe glaſſe, and they appeare unto them in contrary colours, and as Hanuns ſervants miſinterpreted Davids r2 Sam. 10.kindneſſe, and handled his men as ſpies, who were ſent as comforters; thus they miſinterpret the doings of the righteous and cenſure their knowledge as errour, their piety as hypocriſie, their zeale as frenſie, their attendance on Gods ordinances as idleneſſe, their ſacred meetings as confederacies and combinations, their workes of mercy as workes of oſtentation and vain-glory; ſuch as are fartheſt from ſincerity, and the greateſt deceivers, are moſt ready to charge hypocriſie upon others; ſuch as are leaſt induſtrious to examine their owne hearts are uſually the ſevereſt cenſurers of other mens lives, and thus they change the cleare and ſhining day of a godly mans life, into an obſcure and darke night,1 Sam. 17.28. calling evill good, and good evill, putting light for darkeneſſe and darkeneſſe for light, as wee may ſee in David, Paul and others.
6 Baſe out-ſide6. This likewiſe is ſo, by reaſon of the baſe out-ſide of Gods children: They in whom Chriſt lives are for the moſt part of low eſtate and ſlender reputation in the eye of the world, Chriſt at firſt was borne of a Virgin, eſpouſed to a Carpenter, her condition no way conſpicuous and glorious in the eyes of men, and Chriſt is now for the moſt part formed againe in the hearts of men, farre from all externall pomp and glory, God having choſen poore things and baſe things, 1 Cor. 1.and things which are not, to confound the things which are, and the poore (ſaith Chriſt) receive the Goſpell, and bleſſed is hee that is not offended in mee, that doth not ſtumble and take offence at mee, by reaſon of the low and ſlender eſtate of them that receive and imbrace me preached in the Goſpell. And the Prophet hath told us long ſince that Gods people are an afflicted poore people; and this doth much obſcure the honourableneſſe of their life, in the eye of the world, who uſually judge nothing excellent and honourable, but that which is externally pompous and glorious, as wee ſee by experience both in Chriſt and his members, Mat. 13.55. Ioh. 2.1, 2, 3, 4. Ioh. 7.48, 49.
7. Laſtly, thus it likewiſe commeth to paſſe, thorough the manifold afflictions which attend the righteous; they in whom Chriſt lives are hated of the world, perſecuted by the men of the Earth and purſued with many troubles, walking like the Iſraelites thorough the red Sea of many afflictions, deſtitute, afflicted, tormented in Sheepes and Goates-skinnes, in Caves and in Dennes; Killed all the day long, and accounted as Sheepe for the ſlaughter, as the Pſalmiſt ſpeakes, and theſe afflictions are a great darkning of the glory of their life in the eyes of the World, as the cloudes darken the Sunne in the eyes of men, continuing in it ſelfe bright and beautifull.