Josiah's Reformation

And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard, Because thine heart was tender … (2 Chr 34:26-27)

These words are a part of the message which the prophetess Huldah sent to good King Josiah; for as the inquiry concerned him and his people, so her answer is exact, both for himself and for them. The part that concerned his people is set down in the three foregoing verses; the part that belongs to himself is contained in the words now read to you, “But to the king of Judah …” The preface to her message, we see, is strengthened with authority from God: “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.” These words carry the greater force and power from the majesty of their author. For if words spoken by a king carry authority, how much more the word of the Lord of hosts, the King of kings? Here, therefore, is her wisdom: she lays aside her own authority, and speaks in the name of the Lord.

We see that waters of the same color do not have the same nature and effect, for distilled spirits are the same color as plain ordinary water, yet more potent. So the words of a man coming from a man may seem at first to be the same as others. Yet for all that, the words of God coming from the Spirit of God carry a more wonderful excellency in them, even to the hearts of kings. They bind kings, though kings labor to shake them off. They are arrows to pierce their hearts; if not to save them, yet to damn them. Therefore she speaks to the king, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard …”

Here we read of Josiah that he was a man of an upright heart, and one who did what was right in the sight of the Lord; and we find the Lord dealing with him accordingly. For Josiah, desiring to know the outcome of a fearful judgment threatened against him and his people, sends to Huldah, a prophetess of the Lord, to be assured of it. Thereupon he receives a full and perfect answer of the Lord’s determination, both concerning himself and his people, so that they, being forewarned, might be forearmed, and by their timely conversion to the Lord might bring about the turning away of so heavy a wrath. He in uprightness sends to inquire, and the Lord returns him a full and upright answer. From this we may learn:

Doctrine 1. God graciously fits prophets for persons, and his word to a people who are upright in their hearts. Where there is a true desire to know the will of God, there God will give men sincere prophets who will answer them exactly; not according to their own lusts, but for their good. Josiah was a holy man who, out of a gracious disposition, desiring to be informed by God what should become of him and his people, sends to the prophetess Huldah. It was God’s mercy that he should have a Huldah, a Jeremiah, to send to; and it was God’s mercy that they should deal faithfully with him.

This is God’s mercy to those who are true-hearted. He will give them teachers suitable to their desires; but those who are false-hearted will have suitable teachers too, who will instruct them according to their lusts. If they are like Ahab, they will have four hundred false prophets to teach falsehood, to please their lusts (1 Kgs 22:6); but if they are Davids, they will have Nathans. If they are Josiahs, they will have Huldahs and Jeremiahs. Indeed, Herod may have a John the Baptist; but what will he do with him in the end, when John comes to cross him in his sin? Then off goes his head (Mark 6:27).

Use. This should teach us to labor for sincerity, to have our hearts upright toward God; and then he will send us men of a direct and right spirit, who will teach us according to his own heart. But if we are false-hearted, God will give us teachers who will teach us, not according to his will, but so as to please our own. We will come upon belly-gods and epicures, and will fall into the hands of priests and Jesuits. Where such men are, there the judgments of God are upon the people, because they do not desire to know the will of God in truth.

We see that the people desired to have a stumbling block for their iniquity (Ezek 14:3-4). They were wicked, and would have idols. Therefore they desired stumbling blocks. They would have false prophets, so that they might go to hell with some authority. Well, God says, they shall have stumbling blocks; for thus says the Lord God of Israel, “To every man that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet to inquire; I the Lord will answer him that cometh, according to the multitude of his idols”; according to his own false heart, and not according to good.

What brought the greatest judgment upon the world next to hell itself (I mean antichrist, the most terrible judgment of all, which has drawn so many souls to hell), but the wickedness of the place and people, and his own ambition? The sins of the people gave life to him. They could not endure the word of God or plain dealing; they thought it a simple thing. They must have more sacrifices, more ceremonies, and a more glorious government. They would not be content with the government which Christ left them, but were weary of it. Therefore, Christ having gone to heaven, they must have a pope to go before them and lead them to hell.

Therefore let men never excuse those sins, for certainly God saw a great deal of evil in them, and therefore gave them up to the judgment of antichrist. But let us magnify the mercies of God, who has not so given us up. Thus we see how graciously God deals with a true-hearted king: he sends him a true answer to his message.

“Because thine heart was tender …” (2 Chr 34:27).

Now here comes a comforting message to good Josiah, that he should be taken away and not see the miseries that were to befall his people. The cause of this is set down here: “Because thy heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God.” This cause is double.

1. Inward. 2. Outward.

1. The inward cause is the tenderness of his heart and the humbling of himself.

2. And then the outward expression of it is set down in a double act:

(1) Rending of clothes. (2) Weeping.

“Because thou hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me.” After this comes the promise, “I have also heard thee,” says the Lord; “behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be put in thy grave in peace, and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same.”

I will first remove one doubt, before I come to the tenderness of Josiah’s heart.

Question. “What!” someone may say, “is there anything in man that can cause God to do him good?”

Answer. No. One thing is the cause of another, but all come from the first cause. So tenderness of heart may be some cause of the removal of judgment; but God is the cause of both, for they all come from the first cause, which is God. These words, then, contain an order rather than a cause. For God has set down this order in things, that where there is a broken heart there shall be a freedom from judgment. It is not that tenderness of heart deserves anything at God’s hand, as the papists infer, but that God has decreed it so: where tenderness of heart is, there mercy shall follow. So here there was a tender heart in Josiah, and therefore mercy did follow.

God’s promises are made conditionally. It is not that the condition on our part deserves anything at God’s hand, but when God has given the condition, he gives the thing promised. So this is an order which God has set down, that where there is grace, mercy shall follow. For where God intends to do any good, he first works in people a gracious disposition; after which he looks upon his own work as upon a lovely object, and so gives them other blessings. God crowns grace with grace.

By “heart” is not meant the inward, material, fleshy part of the body, but that spiritual part, the soul and its affections. When it is said to be “tender” or melting, this is a borrowed and metaphorical phrase. Now in a “tender heart” these three properties come together:

1. It is sensitive. 2. It is pliable. 3. It is yielding.

1. A tender heart is always a sensitive heart. It has life, and therefore sense. There is no living creature but has life, and sense to preserve that life. So a tender heart is sensitive to any grievance; for tenderness presupposes life, because nothing that lacks life is tender. Some senses are not altogether necessary for the being of a living creature, such as hearing and seeing; but sensitivity is needful to the being of every living creature. It is a sign of life in a Christian when he is sensitive to what harms him. Therefore God has planted such affections in man as may preserve the life of man, such as fear and love. Fear is what makes a man avoid many dangers. Therefore God has given us fear, to cause us to make our peace with him in time, that we may be freed from harms; yes, from that greatest of harms, hell fire.

2, 3. Again, a tender heart is pliable and yielding. Now that is said to be yielding and pliable which yields to the touch of anything put to it, and does not stand out, as a stone rebounds back when it is thrown against a wall. So that is said to be tender which has life and sense and is pliable, as wax is yielding and pliable to the disposition of him who works it, and is apt to receive any impression applied to it. In a tender heart there is no resistance, but it yields immediately to every truth, and has a pliableness and a fitness to receive any impression and to carry out any performance. This is a fit temper indeed for a heart worked on by the Spirit. God must first make us fit, and then use us to work. As a wheel must first be made round, and then turned round, so the heart must first be altered, and then used in a renewed way. A tender heart, as soon as the word is spoken, yields to it. It quakes at threatenings, obeys precepts, melts at promises, and the promises sweeten the heart. In all duties concerning God, and all offices of love to men, a tender heart is thus qualified.

But hardness of heart is quite the opposite. For, like things dead and insensible, it will not yield to the touch, but returns back whatever is cast upon it. Such a heart may be broken in pieces, but it will not receive any impression; as a stone may be broken, but will not be pliable, but rebounds back again. A hard heart is indeed like wax to the devil, but like a stone to God or goodness. It is not yielding, but resists and repels all that is good; and therefore it is compared in the Scripture to the adamant stone. Sometimes it is called a frozen heart, because it is unpliable to anything. You may break it in pieces, but it cannot be shaped for any service, or for any impression; it will not be worked upon. But on the contrary, a melting and tender heart is sensitive, yielding, and fit for any service both to God and man. Thus we see plainly what a tender heart is. The point from this is:

Doctrine 2. It is a supernatural disposition of a true child of God to have a tender, soft, and melting heart. I say that this disposition of a true child of God, and the frame of soul of such a person, to be tender, perceptive, and serviceable, is a supernatural disposition. And of necessity it must be so, because naturally the heart is of another temper, a stony heart. All by nature have stony hearts with respect to spiritual goodness. There may be a tenderness in regard to natural things; but in regard to grace, the heart is stony, and beats back all that is put to it. Say what you will to a hard heart, it will never yield. A hammer will do no good to a stone. It may break it in pieces, but not draw it to any form. So to a stony heart, all the threatenings in the world will do no good. You may break it in pieces, but never work upon it. It must be the almighty power of God.

There is nothing in the world so hard as the heart of man. The very creatures will yield obedience to God, as flies and lice did, to destroy Pharaoh; but Pharaoh himself was so hard-hearted that after ten plagues he was ten times the more hardened (Exod 10:28). Therefore, if a man does not have a melting heart, he is diverted from his proper object; because God has placed affections in us to be raised immediately upon suitable objects. When any object is offered in the word of God, if our hearts were not corrupted, we would have corresponding affections. At judgments we would tremble, at the word of threatenings quake, at promises we would believe with faith, and at mercies be comforted; at directions we would be pliable and yielding. But by nature our hearts are hard. God may threaten, and promise, and direct, and yet we are insensible all the while. Well, all Josiahs, and all who are gracious, of necessity must have soft hearts. Therefore I will show you:

1. How a tender heart is formed.

2. How it may be preserved and maintained.

3. How it may be distinguished from its opposite.

1. A tender heart is made tender by him who made it. For no creature in the world can soften and turn the heart; only God must alter and change it, for we are all by nature earthly, dead, and hard. Hence it is that God makes that gracious promise, “I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within their bowels; and I will take away the stony hearts out of their bodies, and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezek 11:19); that is, a living, sensitive heart.

Question. But does God make the heart tender and change it directly, without any help by means?

Answer 1. Means do not make the heart tender, but God, through the use of means, softens it by his word. God’s word is a hammer to break, and as fire to melt the hardened heart (Jer 23:29). And it works in this way. First, God shows the heart our cursed state, and opens to it the true dangers of the soul, which it is in by nature and by the custom of sin, and sets before it the terrors of the last day and the present danger of judgment. The Spirit of God, by the word, convinces the soul that it is in a damned state, dead, born under wrath, and an heir of damnation; that by nature God frowns on us, and hell is ready to swallow us up. When the soul is thus convinced, then the heart begins to be astonished, and cries out, “Men and brethren, what shall I do?” (Acts 2:37).

When the word is thus preached with particular application, it does good. For a man may hear the word of God generally, and yet have no broken heart. But when a Peter comes and says, You have crucified the Lord of life; and when a Nathan comes to David and says, “Thou art the man” (2 Sam 12:7), then the heart comes to be broken and confounded.

But it is not enough to have the heart broken; for a pot may be broken in pieces, and yet be good for nothing. So may a heart be, through terrors and the sense of judgment, and yet not be like wax, pliable. Therefore it must be melting. For this reason, when God by his judgments has cast down the heart, then the Spirit of God comes, revealing the comfort of the word. Then the gracious mercy of God in Christ is manifested, that there is mercy with God, that he may be feared (Ps 130:4). When this is laid open to the quick, to a dejected soul, the soul comes to be melted and tender; for the apprehension of judgment is only a preparing work, which breaks the heart and prepares it for tenderness.

Answer 2. Again, tenderness of heart is formed by an apprehension of tenderness and love in Christ. A soft heart is made soft by the blood of Christ. Many say that an adamant cannot be melted with fire, but only by blood. I cannot tell whether this is true or not; but I am sure nothing will melt the hard heart of man but the blood of Christ, the passion of our blessed Savior. When a man considers the love that God has shown him in sending his Son, and doing such great things as he has done, in giving Christ to satisfy his justice, in setting us free from hell, Satan, and death, the consideration of this, with the persuasion that we have a share in it, melts the heart and makes it become tender. And this must be so, because with the preaching of the gospel to broken-hearted sinners who are cast down, there always goes the Spirit of God, who works an application of the gospel.

Christ is the first gift to the Church. When God has given Christ, then the Spirit comes, and works in the heart a gracious acceptance of the mercy offered. The Spirit works an assurance of the love and mercy of God. Now love and mercy, once felt, work upon the tender heart a love reflected back to God again. What! Has the great God of heaven and earth sent Christ into the world for me? Humbled himself to the death of the cross for me? And has he let angels alone, and left many thousands in the world, to choose me? And has he sent his ministers to reveal to me this assurance of the love and mercy of God?

This consideration cannot help but work love to God in return; for love is a kind of fire which melts the heart. So when our souls are persuaded that God loves us from everlasting, then we reflect our love back to him; and then our heart says to God, “Speak, Lord; what wilt thou have me to do?” The soul is pliable for doing, for suffering, for anything God will have of it. Then it says, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth” (1 Sam 3:9).

And when the heart is thus worked upon and made tender by the Spirit, then afterward, in the course of our lives, many things will work tenderness: the works of God, his judgments, the word and sacraments, when they are made effectual by the Spirit of God, work tenderness. The promises of God also make the heart tender, as here: “I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, offer up your souls and bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God” (Rom 12:1). There is no argument like it to persuade men to tenderness of heart, as to set forth the love and mercy of God. And so the fear of any judgment will work tenderness. This made Josiah’s heart melt, but even so this did not work first upon him. For he had a tender heart before, and was sure of God’s love; and when he heard of the judgment that was to come upon his people, out of love to God and to his people his heart melted, not so much for fear of judgment, as to think that God should be provoked by the sins of his people.

And thus we have seen how tenderness of heart is formed. Now I come to show:

2. The means by which we may preserve this tenderness of heart, because it is a disposition of God’s children. How then shall we preserve ourselves in such a perpetual temper? The way to preserve a tender heart is:

(1) To be under the means by which God’s Spirit will work; for it is God who by his Spirit works upon the heart and preserves tenderness in us, and he will work only by his own means. All the devices in the world will not work upon the heart. Therefore let us be under the means that may preserve tenderness, and hear what God’s word says of our state by nature, of the wrath and justice of God, and of the judgment that will shortly come upon all the world. This made Paul cry out, though he knew that he was a child of God, and free from the law. Therefore, he says, knowing the terror of the law, we admonish you.

(2) And then, go into the house of mourning, and set before yourselves the miserable and forlorn state of the church of God abroad. It was this that broke Nehemiah’s heart. When he heard that the Jews were in great affliction and reproach, that the wall of the city was broken down, and its gates burned with fire, he sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven (Neh 1:4). This made this good man Nehemiah mourn, so that all the princes of the court could not comfort him. This also made Moses’s heart melt, when he looked on his brothers’ affliction in Egypt. So we might keep our hearts tender if we would only set before our eyes the pitiful state of God’s church abroad, and that we may come to be in such a state ourselves before long.

(3) And if you would preserve tenderness of heart, labor for a legal and evangelical faith. We must believe that all the threatenings of God’s vengeance against the wicked shall come to pass. Faith makes these things present before our eyes; for it is the nature of faith to set things absent as present before us. What makes the condemned criminal tremble and be cast down, but when he sees that he is ready to die, is going to the place of execution, and sees death look him in the face? So faith, setting the day of judgment before our eyes, will make us tremble. Therefore Paul so often adjures Timothy by the coming of the Lord Jesus to judgment (2 Tim 4:1); and Enoch set the day of judgment before him at the beginning of the world, as we may see in Jude 14. He had a faith that set things to come as present, and made him walk with God. So if we had an evangelical faith to believe the goodness of God, pardon from him, and everlasting life, this would preserve tenderness of heart.

(4) Again, good company will preserve tenderness of heart, when we associate ourselves with those who are tender-hearted. For the soul will reason this way: Does such a person make swearing and profaning the Sabbath a matter of conscience? And does he mourn for the miseries of the church? Then what a hard piece of dead flesh I am, who have nothing in me!

(5) Again, if you would preserve tenderness of heart, by all means take heed of the least sin against conscience, for the least sin of this kind makes way for hardness of heart. Sins committed against conscience darken the understanding, deaden the affection, and take away life, so that one does not have the least strength to withstand the least temptation. And so it comes to pass by God’s judgment; for when men will live in sins against conscience, God takes away his Spirit, and gives up the heart from one degree of hardness to another.

For the heart, being tender at first, will endure nothing, and the least sin will trouble it. Water, when it begins to freeze, will not endure anything, no, not so much as the weight of a pin upon it, but after a while will bear the weight of a cart. Even so at the beginning the heart, being tender, trembles at the least sin, and will not bear with any one; but when it once gives way to sins against conscience, it becomes so frozen that it can endure any sin, and so becomes more and more hard. Men are so obdurate, having once made a breach in their own hearts by sins against conscience, that they can endure to commit any sin; and therefore God gives them up from one degree of hardness to another. What will men not do whom God has given up to hardness of heart?

(6) Again, if you would preserve tenderness of heart, take heed of spiritual drunkenness; that is, do not be drunk with an immoderate use of created things, by setting your love too much upon outward things. For what does the prophet say? Wine and women take away the heart (Hos 4:11); that is, the immoderate use of any earthly thing takes away spiritual sense. For the more sensitive the soul is to outward things, the less it is to spiritual things. For as the outward heat takes away the inward, so the love of one thing abates the love of another. The setting of too much love upon earthly things takes away the sense of better things, and hardens the heart.

When the heart is filled with the pleasures and profits of this life, it does not feel any judgment that hangs over its head; as in the old world, they ate and drank, they married and gave in marriage, they bought and sold, while the flood came upon them and swept all away (Matt 24:37-39). When a man sets his love upon created things, the very strength of his soul is lost. Therefore in the Scripture, God joins prayer and fasting together (Matt 17:21), so that when he would have our hearts raised up to heaven, we should have all use of earthly things taken away. Therefore when we are to go about spiritual duties, we must cut ourselves short in the use of created things. Talk of religion to a carnal man, whose senses are lost through love of earthly things, and he has no ear for it; his sense is quite lost, and he has no relish or taste for anything that is good. Talk to a covetous man, whose soul is set on the things of this life, and he has no relish for anything else. His heart is already so hardened to get honor and wealth, even if it is to the ruin of others, that he does not care how hard it becomes. Therefore we are told to take heed that our hearts are not overcome with drunkenness and the cares of this life (Luke 21:34), for these will make a man insensible of spiritual things.

(7) Again, if you would preserve tenderness of heart, take heed of hypocrisy; for it causes swelling, and pride makes the heart despise others who are not like us. Hypocrites bless themselves that they live in such and such a way, and they think themselves better than anyone else. And if they hear the minister reprove them for sin, they will shift it off and say, “Oh, this does not belong to me, but to such a carnal man, and to such a wicked person.” So it was with the scribes and Pharisees, who were vile hypocrites, and yet they were the cause of all mischief, and more hard-hearted than Pilate, a heathen man; for he would have delivered Christ, but they would not (Luke 23:14 and following). So too, take a Romish hypocrite, who can proudly pay compliments at every word with enticing speech, and yet you will find him more hard-hearted than Turk or Jew; for full of cruelty and blood is the “whore of Babylon.” Therefore, if you would have tenderness of heart, take heed of hypocrisy.

(8) Again, above all things, take heed of great sins, which will harden the heart. For little sins many times do not deaden the heart, but stir up the conscience; but great sins stun and dull a man. A prick of a pin will make a man start, but a heavy blow leaves him as if dead for the moment. Therefore take heed of great sins. So it was with David. He sinned in numbering the people, and for this his heart struck him; but when he came to the great and devouring sin in the matter of Uriah and Bathsheba, this was a great blow that struck him and laid him out for dead, till Nathan came and revived him (2 Sam 12:1). For when men fall into great sins, their hearts are so hardened that they go on from sin to sin.

Let us therefore be watchful over our own hearts, to preserve tenderness. The eye is a tender part and soonest hurt, and how watchful a man is by nature over it, that it may take no hurt! So let us preserve the heart, being a tender thing, by all watchfulness, to keep blows off it. It is a terrible thing to keep the wound of some great sin upon the conscience, for it makes a way for a new breach. When the conscience once begins to be hardened with some great sin, there is no stop, but we run on to commit sin with all greediness.

(9) Lastly, if you would preserve tenderness of heart, consider the miserable condition of hardness of heart. Whoever has a hard heart is next to hell itself, to the condition of a damned spirit, a most terrible condition. A hard heart is neither melted by promises nor broken by threatenings. Such a man has no tender pity toward men and no love toward God. He forgets all judgment for things past, and looks for none to come. When the soul is in this case, it is fit for nothing but for sin and the devil, whereas a tender-hearted man is fit for all good. Let God threaten: he trembles and quakes. Let God promise: his heart melts and rejoices, and makes him even break out into thanksgiving. Let God command: he will perform it all. He is fit for any good thing toward God and man. But when a man’s heart is hardened by hypocrisy, covetousness, or custom in sin, he has no pity, no compassion. Let God command, threaten, or promise, yet the heart is never a bit moved. This is a terrible condition of soul.

Now, to speak a little to young men who are like this holy man Josiah. Surely his tenderness had some advantage from his years. Let those who are young by all means labor to keep tenderness of heart; for if young people are good, there is a sweet communion between God and them, before the heart is pestered with the cares of the world. God delights much in the prayers of young men, because they do not come from a soul so polluted, so hardened with the practices of this world. Let those who are young, therefore, take advantage of it to repent of their sins in time, and let them not put it off to their old age.

While we are young, let us not neglect natural tenderness. Although we cannot bring ourselves within the compass of God’s kingdom by it, yet we shall get our hearts to be tender the sooner. In our youth, therefore, let us not neglect this good opportunity, as good Josiah did not neglect it when he was still young. Therefore let us repent of every sin early, and acquaint ourselves with those who are good; as it is said in Hebrews 3:13, “Let us provoke one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” Let us use all means to keep our hearts tender. Oh, it is a blessed condition! We are fit to live when our hearts are tender; fit to die, fit to receive anything from God, fit for duties of uprightness toward men, and for any service toward God. But when we have lost sense and feeling, it must be the almighty power of God that recovers us again, and not one in a hundred comes to good. Therefore labor to preserve a tender, soft, and melting heart.

Now, before I proceed, allow me to answer some cases of conscience, such as these:

Question 1. Whether the children of God may be subject to this hardness of heart, which is opposed to this tenderness?

Question 2. Whether a Christian may be more sensitive to outward things than to spiritual things, such as the love of God, or his own sin, and the like?

Answer 1. To the first I answer that the child of God may be hard-hearted. He may have some degrees of hardness of heart in him. For a Christian is a compound creature; he has not only body and soul, but flesh and spirit. He is only in part renewed, and therefore, having in him both flesh and spirit, he is subject to hardness of heart. And it is clear that it may be so. Examples show that God’s children are not always equally sensitive to the wrath of God and to his mercy. They do not yield to his commands as they should. But what is the reason that God allows his children to fall into this hardness of heart? There is something in us that makes him give us up to it, for we are soft no longer than he works upon us.

Question. But what moves him to leave us in this disposition?

Answer. I answer, he does it to correct former negligences, for sins of omission, especially when his children neglect some means of grace by which their hearts might be kept tender. It is for lack of stirring up God’s grace in them; for lack of a high esteem of the grace bestowed on them; for lack of care about their company, for not associating with those who are tender-hearted. From this it comes that God allows his children to fall into hardness of heart.

Question. But now from this arises another question: How may a man tell his heart from the heart of a reprobate, seeing that God’s children may have hardness of heart?

Answer. I answer that the heart of a man who is a true reprobate is totally, wholly, and finally hardened, and it is joined with complacency and insensibility; it is joined with obstinacy, and with contempt of the means. But the child of God does not have total and final hardness of heart, but has an awareness of it; he feels and sees it. Total hardness feels nothing, but a Christian who has hardness of heart feels that he has it, as a man who has the stone in his bladder feels and knows that he has a stone. A hard-hearted man feels nothing, but he who has only hardness of heart does feel. For there is a difference between hardness of heart and a hard heart: the child of God may have hardness of heart, but not a hard heart.

Now, I say that a child of God who has hardness of heart is aware of his hardness, and does what a soul that can feel will do. He uses some good means for softening it, for the sense of it is grievous to him above all other crosses. While he is under it, he thinks that all is not with him as it should be. Therefore he complains of it above all other afflictions, which makes him cry to God, as we may see: “Why hast thou hardened our hearts from thy fear?” (Isa 63:17).

Objection. But some may ask how God hardens.

Answer. I answer, the cause is first from our own selves; but he hardens in four ways:

1. Privatively, by withholding and withdrawing his melting and softening power. For as the sun causes darkness by withdrawing its light and warming power, so when God withdraws that melting power by which we should be softened, we cannot help being hardened.

2. Negatively, by denying grace; by taking away from us his graces, which are not natural in us. God does this to those whom he absolutely hardens. He takes away what they have, and so they become worse than they were of themselves by nature. When men walk unworthy of the gospel, God takes away even their life of reason, and gives them up to hardness of heart, so that they run on in such courses as make them their own enemies and bring ruin upon themselves.

3. And as God hardens by privation and negation, so, in the third place, he hardens by handing over: by giving us up to the devil, to be vexed by his troubles, to harden us. It is a fearful judgment. When we take a course to grieve the Spirit of God, the Spirit will take a course to grieve us: he will give us up to Satan, to blind and to harden us. So though God does not work effectually in this hardening as its author, yet he does so as a just judge, by giving us up to Satan and to the natural lusts of our own hearts, which are worse than all the devils in hell.

4. Lastly, he hardens objectively, by setting before us good objects, which, meeting with a wicked heart, make it harder, as it is said, Harden these people’s hearts (Isa 6:10). How? By the preaching of the word. A good object, if it lights upon a bad soul, hardens the heart; for those who are not bettered by religion, under the means, are so much the worse for their use.

So we see that God cannot be charged with the hardening of our hearts, because all the cause is from ourselves. For whether he hardens by privation, negation, handing over, or by setting before us good objects, it is all from ourselves. And likewise we have seen that God’s children may have hardness of heart in some measure, but yet it differs from a reprobate’s, because they see and feel it, grieve for it, and complain of it to God.

Question. The second question is, whether a child of God may be more sensitive to outward joys or crosses than to spiritual things? For this makes many think they do not have tender hearts, because they are more sensitive to outward things than to spiritual.

Answer. I answer, it is not always the same with them; for God’s children are always complaining of something: of their carelessness in good duties, of their lack of strength against corruption. They go mourning when they have made God bring them down upon their knees for their hardness of heart. But there is an interchange, in the children of God, between the flesh and the spirit. They are partly flesh and partly spirit. Therefore many times, for a while, when the flesh prevails, there may be a sudden joy and a sudden sorrow, which may be greater than spiritual joy or spiritual sorrow; but yet it is not continual. But spiritual sorrow, grief for sin, though it is not so vehement for the moment as outward sorrow is, yet is more constant. Grief for sin is continual, whereas outward sorrow comes only on a sudden, though it may seem more violent.

2. And again, in regard to their valuing and prizing of earthly things, there may be a sudden sorrow; for a child of God may, on a sudden, overprize outward things and esteem them at too high a rate. Yet after that, valuing things upon sound deliberation, they prize spiritual things far beyond outward ones; and therefore their sorrow and joy are more for spiritual things, because they are constant.

I say this not to cherish any neglect in any Christian, but for comfort to those who are troubled by it. Therefore let such people know that God will not “break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax” (Isa 42:3). If they have only a desire, and by conscientious use of the means show their desire to be true, they shall have it at last, for Christ continues to make intercession for us. And if there were no weakness in us, what need would Christ have to continue to make peace for us? For peace is made for those who fall out. Therefore, if there were no falling out between God and us, what need would Christ have to continue to make intercession for us? For these reasons, we see that a child of God, for the present, may be more sensitive to outward things than to spiritual.

Question. But here another question may be asked: How shall we know whether we have sensitivity and pliability, or not?

Answer. I answer, easily, by applying the soul to its objects: 1, to God; 2, to his word; 3, to his works; 4, to man.

We may try our tenderness and pliability of heart in these four ways:

1. To God. As the heart is tender from God, so it is tender for God, for the three persons of the Trinity. He who has a tender heart cannot endure to dishonor God himself, or to hear others dishonor him, either by his own sins or by others’ sins. He cannot endure to hear God’s name blasphemed. So those have a tender heart who, when they see Christ wronged in his religion, cannot help being moved by it. So again, a man has a tender heart when he yields to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit moves and he yields, this shows there is a tender heart. But a hard heart beats back everything, and like a stone to the hammer, will not yield to any motion of God’s Spirit.

2. Now, to come downward, a tender heart is sensitive in regard to the word of God. First, at the threatenings a true tender heart will tremble, as in Isaiah 66:2, “To him will I look, even to him that is of a contrite and broken spirit, and trembleth at my words.” A man who has a tender heart will tremble at the signs of the anger of God: Shall the lion roar, and the beasts of the forest not be afraid? (Amos 3:8). Yes, they will stand still and tremble at the roaring of the lion; but much more will a tender heart tremble when God roars and threatens vengeance.

A tender heart will tremble when it hears of the terrors of the Lord at the day of judgment, as Paul did: “Now knowing the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Cor 5:11). It forced him to be faithful in his office. This is the use the apostle Peter would have us make of it: “That seeing all these things must be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be in holy conversation and godliness?” (2 Pet 3:11).

And so for the promises in the word. The heart is tender when the word of God gladdens a man above all things. How can the heart do anything but melt at God’s promises, for they are the sweetest things there can be! Therefore when a tender heart hears God’s promises, it makes a man melt and be moved by them.

Again, a tender heart will be pliable to any direction in the word. To God’s call it will answer, “Here I am”; “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6). So Isaiah, when he once had a tender heart, then said, “Send me, Lord” (Isa 6:8). So David, to God’s command, “Seek ye my face,” answers, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek” (Ps 27:8). There is a gracious echo of the soul to God in whatever he says in his word. And thus a true, tender heart yields to the word of God, and is fit to run on any errand.

3. By applying it to the works of God; for a tender heart quakes when it sees the judgment of God abroad upon others. It hastens to make its peace with God, and to meet him by repentance. So again, a tender heart rejoices at the mercy of God, for it sees something in it better than the thing itself, and that is the love of God, from which it proceeds.

4. A man may know his heart to be tender and sensitive in regard to the condition of others, whether they are good or bad. If they are wicked, he has a tender heart for them; as David: “Mine eyes gush out with rivers of water, because men keep not thy law” (Ps 119:136). So Paul says, “There are many that walk inordinately, of whom I have told you before, and now tell you weeping …” (Phil 3:18). So Christ was moved by the misery of Jerusalem and wept for it (Luke 19:41), and a little while after, shed his own blood for it. Thus he had a tender heart. But when Christ looked to God’s decree, he says, “Father, I thank thee, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and noble, and hast revealed them unto babes” (Matt 11:25).

And so likewise for those who are good, in giving and forgiving. In giving, they give not only the thing, but they give their hearts and affections with it. And so in forgiving, they lay hold of Christ’s love in forgiving them, and therefore they forgive others. So for works: if God will have a tender heart do anything, it will do it. If he will have it mourn, it will mourn; if rejoice, it will rejoice; it is fit for every good work. By these marks we may know whether we have tender hearts or not.

But to apply this: how is this affection of Josiah found in the hearts of men in these days? How many have melting hearts when they hear God blasphemed, and the religion of Christ wronged? How few there are who yield to the promptings of the Spirit! We may raise an astonished complaint of the hardness of men’s hearts in these days, who never tremble at the word of God. Neither his promises, nor threatenings, nor commands will melt their hearts. But this is certain, that those who are not better under religion, by the means of grace, are much the worse.

And how sensitive are we to the church’s miseries? For a tender heart is sensitive to the miseries of the church, as being members of the same body, of which Christ is the head. But men nowadays are so far from melting hearts that they lack natural affection, as Paul foretells of such people in the latter times (2 Tim 3:3). They have less tender pity in them, when they hear how it goes with the church abroad, than even pagans and heathens. This shows they have no tender hearts, that they are not knit to Christ, who is the head, by faith, nor to the church, the body, in love.

How is your heart affected toward men when they commit any sin against God, such as idolaters, swearers, drunkards, liars, and the like? Is it mercy to let these go on in their sins toward hell? No, this is cruelty. Mercy is to be shown to them by restraining men from their wicked courses. Therefore do not think you show them mercy by leaving them alone in sin, but exhort and instruct them. Coldness and deadness are a spiritual disease in these days. But surely those who have the Spirit of God warming their hearts are sensitive to their own good and ill, and to the good and ill of the time. Well, if you would know that you have a tender heart, look to God, look to his word, to his works, to yourselves, and to others, and so you shall know whether you have tender hearts or not.

Question. But here another question may be asked: How shall men recover themselves when they are subject to this hardness, deadness, and insensibility? If after examination a man finds himself to be like this, how shall he recover himself out of this condition?

Answer. I answer:

1. As when things are cold we bring them to the fire to heat and melt, so let us bring our cold hearts to the fire of the love of Christ. Let us consider our sins against Christ, and Christ’s love toward us; let us dwell upon this meditation. Think what great love Christ has shown to us, and how little we have deserved, and this will make our hearts melt and be as pliable as wax before the sun.

2. If you would have this tender and melting heart, then use the means. Be always under the sunshine of the gospel. Be under God’s sunshine, that he may melt your heart; be constant in good means; and help one another. We must provoke one another daily, lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin (Heb 3:13). Physicians do not love to give medicine to themselves. So a man is not always fit to help himself when he is not right, but good company is fit to do it.

“Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us?” said the two disciples, holding communion with each other at Emmaus (Luke 24:32). For then Christ comes and makes a third, joins with them, and so makes their hearts burn within them. So Christ says, Where two or three are met together in his name, he is in the midst of them (Matt 18:20). Now they were under the promise, therefore he gives his presence. Where two hold communion together, there Christ will make a third. Therefore let us use the help of others, seeing that David, though a prophet, could not recover himself, but had to have a Nathan to help him (2 Sam 12:7). Therefore if we would recover ourselves from hard and insensible hearts, let us use the help of one another.

3. We must with boldness and reverence lay claim to the covenant of grace; for this is the covenant that God has made with us, to give us tender hearts, hearts of flesh, as in Ezekiel 11:19, “I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within their bowels; I will take away the stony hearts out of their bodies, and I will give them a heart of flesh.” Now seeing this is a covenant God has made, to give us hearts of flesh and to take away our stony ones, let us hold him to his promise, and go to him by prayer. Entreat him to give you a heart of flesh; go to him, wait for his time, for that is the best time. Therefore wait, though he does not hear at first. These are the means to bring tenderness of heart.

Now, that you may be stirred up to this duty, namely, to get a soft and tender heart, mark here:

1. What an excellent thing a tender heart is. God has promised to dwell in such a heart, and it is an excellent thing to have God dwell in our hearts, as he has promised: “For thus saith he that is high and excellent, he that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is the Holy One: I will dwell in the high and holy place, and with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to give life to them that are of a contrite heart” (Isa 57:15). So too, “To him will I look, even to him that is poor and contrite in spirit, and doth tremble at my words” (Isa 66:2).

Now since God has promised to dwell where there is a soft heart, and no hardness, no rocks to keep him out, can God come into a heart without a blessing? Can he be separated from goodness, who is goodness itself? When the heart therefore is pliable and thus tender, there is an immediate communion between the soul and God; and can that heart be miserable that has communion with God? Surely not.

2. Consider that this fits a man for the end for which he was created. A man is never fit for that end for which he was made, except when he has a tender heart. And what are we redeemed for, but that we should serve God? And who is fit to be put in the service of God but he who has begged a tender heart of God?

3. To stir you up to labor for this, consider that a tender heart is fit for any blessedness. It is capable of any beatitude. What makes a man blessed in anything but a tender heart? This will make a man hear the word, read, and show mercies to others. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” says Christ, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:3). A tender heart is blessed, because it alone hears God’s word and does it; and it is always a merciful heart, and therefore blessed.

4. Again, consider the wretched condition of a heart of the contrary kind, that is not tender and will not yield. Oh, what an astonishing hardness the heart of man would grow to, if we do not follow it with means to soften it! What a fearful thing it was to see what strange things happened at Christ’s death, what darkness there was, what thunders and lightnings. The veil of the temple was torn, the sun was turned into darkness, the graves were opened, and the dead rose; yet none of these would make the hypocritical Pharisees tremble, but they mocked at it, although it made even a heathen man confess it the work of God (Matt 27:45-54). For a ceremonial hypocrite is harder than a Turk, Jew, or pagan. All the judgments of God upon Pharaoh were not so great as hardness of heart. The papists, after they have been at their superstitious devotion, are fittest for powder plots and treasons, because their hearts are so much more hardened.

What fearful things a man may come to, if he gives way to hardness of heart! He may come to a condition like the devil’s, yes, worse than Judas’s, for Judas had some sense of his sin; he confessed he had sinned in betraying the innocent blood. But many of these hypocrites have no sense of it at all, which is a fearful thing. Eli’s children did not listen to the voice of their father, because the Lord had a purpose to destroy them (1 Sam 2:25). So in this case it is a grave sign that God will destroy those who are so insensible that nothing will work upon them.

But these hypocrites shall be made to feel one day, when they shall wish they were as insensible as they were in their lifetime. But it will be an unfruitful repentance to repent in hell; for there a man shall get no benefit by his repentance, seeing that there they cannot shake off the execution of God’s judgment, as they shake off the threatenings of his judgments here. Well, to this fearful end, before long, must everyone who has a hard heart come, unless they repent. Therefore let everyone be persuaded to labor for a tender, pliable, yielding, and feeling heart here; otherwise we shall have it hereafter against our wills, when it will do us no good. For then hypocrites shall be made to feel against their wills, though they would not feel in this life.

And thus I have done with the first inward cause in Josiah that moved God so to regard him, namely, tenderness of heart.

Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me … (2 Chr 34:27)

Of tenderness of heart, the first inward cause in Josiah, which moved God to pity him so that he should not be an eyewitness of the fearful calamities to come upon his land and people, we have spoken at length in the former sermon. There we also showed how it is wrought, preserved, discerned, and recovered when it is lost, and what encouragements we have to seek and labor for it, with some other things which I will not repeat here, but will come directly to what follows: “And thou didst humble thyself before God.”

In these words we have set down the second inward cause in Josiah that moved God to show mercy to him: the humbling of himself. “And thou didst humble thyself before God.” Tenderness of heart and the humbling of oneself go together, for things that are hard will not yield or bow. A great iron bar will not bow; a hard, stony heart will not yield. Now, therefore, humbling ourselves, the making of ourselves as low as the ground itself, is added to tenderness. For the soul, once it is tender and melting, is fit to be humbled; yes, it does not care how low it is abased, so long as mercy may follow.

For the better unfolding of the words, we will consider:

1. The person that humbled himself: “Josiah,” a king, a great man.

2. Humiliation itself, and the qualities of it: “and humbledst thyself before God,” which showed its sincerity.

3. The occasion of it: “when thou heardest the words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof.”

4. The outward expression of it, in weeping and rending his clothes, which we will handle in their place.

1. For the person: “Thou didst humble thyself.” This was Josiah, a king, who was tenderly brought up and highly advanced, a thing which makes the work so much the more commendable. From this we learn:

Doctrine 1. It is a disposition not unbefitting kings to humble themselves before God. For however much they are gods looking downward, to those who are under them, yet if they look upward, what are kings? The greater light hides the lesser. What are all the inhabitants of the earth in his sight, but as a drop of a bucket, as dust upon the balance, of no weight at all (Isa 40:15)! “I have said you are gods, but you shall die like men” (Ps 82:6-7). For however much the saints of God differ from other men in regard of their use, and the inscription God has set upon them, yet they are of the same stuff, dust, as others are. And so kings, though in civil respects they differ from other men, are yet of the same metal, and shall end in death. All their glory must lie in the dust.

Therefore it is not unbefitting kings to humble themselves before God, seeing they have to deal with him who is a “consuming fire” (Heb 12:29), before whom the very angels cover their faces. I say it is no shame for the greatest monarch of the earth to abase himself when he has to do with God. Yes, kings, of all other persons, ought most to humble themselves, to show their thankfulness to God, who has raised them from among their brethren to be heads of his people. And considering the endowments which kings usually have, they are bound to humble themselves, as also in regard of the authority and power which God has put into their hands, saying, “By me kings reign” (Prov 8:15). But usually we see, from the beginning of the world, that kings forget God. Where there is not grace above nature, there kings will not stoop to Christ; but so far as it agrees with their pleasure and will, so far shall Christ be served, and no farther.

Yet God has always raised up some nursing fathers and mothers (as he has done for us, for which we ought to bless God) who have made and do make a matter of conscience of this duty just mentioned. It so well becomes Christian princes, as in various other respects, so also in this: that in it they may be an example to the people. For no doubt Josiah did this also so that his people might not think it a shame to humble themselves before God, when he their king, tender in years and subject to no earthly man, did before them, in his own person, prostrate himself in the humblest manner before the great God of heaven and earth.

As that ointment poured upon Aaron’s head fell from his head to the skirts, and so spread itself to the rest of the parts, even to his feet (Ps 133:2), so a good example in a king descends to the lowest subjects, as the rain runs from the mountains into the valleys. Therefore a king should be the first to humble himself. Kings are called fathers to their subjects, because they should bear a loving and holy affection to their people, so that when anything troubles the subjects, they should be affected by it. Governors are not to have a good distinct from that of their subjects, but the welfare of the subjects should be the glory of their head. Therefore Josiah took the judgments threatened as his own, even though his own condition was nothing compared to theirs.

It is said, moreover, “Thou didst humble thyself.” He was both the one acting and the one acted upon, the worker and the object of his work. It came from him, and it ended in him. Humiliation is a reflected action: Josiah humbled himself. And certainly this is true humiliation, the humbling of ourselves. For it is no credit to a man to be humbled by God, as Pharaoh was, since God can humble and pull down the proudest who oppose his church. By this God gets himself glory. But here is the glory of a Christian, that he has received grace from God to humble himself. This humbling is, from our own judgment and upon discerning good grounds, to bring our affections to stoop to God; it is to humble ourselves. Many are humbled who are not humble; many are cast down who still have proud hearts, as Pharaoh had. It is said, “Thou humbledst thyself.” Then we learn:

Doctrine 2. The actions of grace are reflected actions. They begin from a man’s self, and end in a man’s self. Yet we must not exclude the Spirit of God, for he does not say, You humbled yourself from yourself, but “thou didst humble thyself.” We have grace from God to humble ourselves. So the Spirit of God works upon us as upon fit subjects, in which grace works. Though such works are the works of God, yet they are said to be ours, because God works them in us and by us. We are said to humble ourselves because we are temples in which he works, seeing he uses the parts of our soul, such as the understanding, the will, and the affections, in the work. Therefore it is foolish for the papists to say that good works are our own, as from ourselves. No; good works, we say, are ours as effects of the Spirit in us.

But for the further expression of this humbling of ourselves before God, we will consider:

1. The kinds and degrees of it.

2. Some directions for how we may humble ourselves.

3. The motives to move us to it.

4. The marks by which it may be known.

1. For the nature and kinds of it, we must know that humiliation is either:

(1) Inward, in the mind first of all, and then in the affections; or,

(2) Outward, in expression of words, and likewise in conduct.

(1) To begin with the first: inward humiliation in the mind, in regard of judgment and knowledge, is when our understandings are convinced that we are as we are; when we are not high-minded, but judge meanly and basely of ourselves. We do so both in regard of our beginning and dependence upon God, having all from him, life, motion, and being; and also in regard of our end, what we shall be before long. All glory shall end in the dust, all honor in the grave, and all riches in poverty.

And with this, true humiliation also concerns spiritual things, when we judge rightly how base and vile we are in regard of our natural corruption: that we are by nature not only guilty of Adam’s sin, but that we have, besides that, wrapped ourselves in a thousand more guilts by our sinful course of life, and that we have nothing of our own, no, not power to do the least good thing. When we look upon any vile person, we may see our own image, so that if God had not been gracious to us, we should have been as bad as they. In a word, inward conviction of our natural frailty and misery, in regard of the filthy and foul stain of sin in our nature and actions, and of our many liabilities to spiritual and temporal plagues in this life and in that which is to come, is that inward humiliation in the judgment or understanding.

Again, inward humiliation, besides spiritual conviction, is when there are affections of humiliation. And what are those? Shame, sorrow, fear, and other such penal, afflictive affections. For upon a right conviction of the understanding, the soul comes to be stricken with shame that we are in such a condition as we are, especially when we consider God’s goodness to us and our dealing with him. This will breed shame and abasement, as it did in Daniel. Shame and sorrow always follow sin, sooner or later, as the apostle asks, “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?” (Rom 6:21).

After conviction of judgment there is always shame, and likewise there is sorrow and grief. For God has so made the inward faculties of the soul that upon the apprehension of the understanding, the heart comes to be stricken through with grief, which works upon our souls. Therefore we are said in Scripture to afflict ourselves; that is, when we set ourselves to meditate on what we deserve. Upon this we cannot help being affected inwardly, for these sorrows are so many daggers to pierce through the heart.

The third penal affection is fear and trembling before God’s judgments and his threatenings, a fear of the majesty of God, whom we have offended, who is able to send us to hell if his mercies were not beyond our deserts. But it is his mercy that we are not consumed. A fear of this great God is a part of this inward humiliation.

So we see what inward humiliation is. First, it is a conviction of the judgment, and then it proceeds to inward afflictive affections, such as grief, shame, and fear, which, when they are wrought in us by the Holy Spirit upon good ground and fit objects, are parts of inward humiliation. But as for the wicked, they drown themselves in their profaneness, because they would not be ashamed, or fear, or grieve over these things. But this makes way for terrible shame, sorrow, and fear afterward. For those who will not be ashamed, grieve, and fear here shall be ashamed before God and his angels at the day of judgment, and shall be tormented in hell forever.

(2) Josiah’s outward humiliation is expressed and manifested in words, and in outward behavior and conduct. The words which he used are not set down here, but certainly Josiah spoke words when he humbled himself. It was not a silent show, but was done with his outward expression and his inward affection. This is evident from those words of the text, “I have heard thee also,” says the Lord. Without doubt, therefore, he spoke something. But because true sorrow cannot speak distinctly (for a broken soul can speak only broken words), his words are not set down here; yet God heard them well enough.

And indeed, so it is sometimes, that the grief over the affliction may be stronger than the faculty of speech, so that a man cannot speak for grief. A heathen man, by the light of nature, wept and grieved for his friends, but when his child came to be killed before him, he stood like a stone, because his sorrow was so great that it exceeded all expression. So humiliation may so exceed that it cannot be expressed in words. David himself, when he was told of his sins by Nathan, did not express all his sorrow, but says, “I have sinned”; yet afterward he makes Psalm 51, a composed speech to supply it, a fit pattern for a humble and broken soul. So doubtless there was outward expression of words in Josiah, although they are not set down here.

This speech, which is a part of humiliation, is called a confession of our sins to God. With it should be joined hatred and afflictive grief, as also a plea and desire that God would remove the judgment which we have deserved by our sins, and likewise a justification of God in what he has laid or may lay upon us: Lord, you are righteous and just in all your judgments; shame and confusion belong to me; my sins have deserved that you should pour down your vengeance upon me; it is your great mercy that I am not consumed. The good thief upon the cross justified God, saying, We are here justly for our deserts; but this man suffers wrongfully (Luke 23:41). Justification of God and self-condemnation go with humiliation. This is the outward expression in words.

Now the outward humiliation in respect of his conduct is directly set down here in two acts:

1. Rending of clothes. And 2. Weeping.

But of these I shall speak afterward, when I come to them. Thus we have seen the degrees and kinds of humiliation.

Seeing it is such a necessary qualification (for humiliation is a fundamental grace that gives strength to all other graces), seeing, I say, it is such a necessary temper of a holy, gracious man to be humble, how may we come to humble ourselves as we should? I answer, let us take these directions:

1. Get poor spirits, that is, spirits that see the wants in ourselves and in created things: the emptiness of all earthly things without God’s favor, and the insufficiency of ourselves and of created things at the day of judgment. For what the wise man says of riches may be truly said of all other things under the sun: they avail nothing in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death (Prov 11:4).

Josiah was not poor in respect of the world, for he was a king; but he was “poor in spirit,” because he saw an emptiness in himself. He knew his kingdom could not shield him from God’s judgment, if God were once angry.

(1) Let us consider our origin. Where did we come from? From the earth, from nothing. Where are we going? To the earth, to nothing. And in respect of spiritual things, we have nothing. We are not able to do anything of ourselves, no, not so much as to think a good thought.

(2) Likewise, let us consider the guilt of our sins. What do we deserve? Hell and damnation, to have our portion with hypocrites in that “lake that burneth with fire and brimstone” (Rev 21:8).

(3) Let us have before our eyes the picture of old Adam, our sinful nature: how we are drawn away by every object; how ready we are to be proud of anything; how unable to resist the least sin; how ready to be cast down under every affliction; that we cannot rejoice in any blessing; that we have no strength of ourselves to perform any good or suffer any ill; in a word, that we carry a nature about with us indisposed to good and prone to all evil. This consideration humbled Paul, and made him cry out, when no other afflictions could move him, “O miserable man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24). By this means we come to be poor in spirit.

2. If we would have humble spirits, let us bring ourselves into the presence of the great God. Let us set ourselves in his presence, and consider his attributes, and his works of justice abroad in the world and upon ourselves in particular.

Consider his wisdom, holiness, power, and strength, alongside our own. It will make us abhor ourselves, and repent in dust and ashes. Let us bring ourselves into God’s presence, and place ourselves under the means, under his word, that there we may see ourselves ripped open, and see what we are. So it was with Job, who, when he brought himself into God’s presence, said, “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). Job thought himself somebody before. But when God comes to examine him, and upon examination Job found that he could not give a reason for created things, much less for the Lord’s afflicting his children, then he says, “I abhor myself.”

So Abraham, the more he talked with God, the more he saw himself as nothing but dust and ashes. This is the language of the holy men in Scripture when they have to deal with God or think of him. “I am not worthy,” says John the Baptist (John 1:27). So Paul: “I am not worthy to be called an apostle” (1 Cor 15:9). So the centurion: “I am not worthy thou shouldst come into my house” (Matt 8:8). “I am less than the least of thy blessings,” says Jacob (Gen 32:10).

So let us come into the presence of God, under the means of his word, and then we shall see our own vileness, which will work humiliation. For, as the apostle says, when a poor simple man comes and hears the prophecy, that is, the word of God, with application to himself, laying open his particular sins, doubtless he will say, God is in you (1 Cor 14:24-25).

3. That we may humble ourselves, let us be content to hear of our sins and baseness from others. Let us be content that others should acquaint us with anything that may humble us. Proud men are the devil’s pipes, and flatterers the musicians who blow these pipes. That is why, though men have nothing of their own, they still love to give heed to flatterers, who blow their bladder full and rob them of themselves; whereas a true and wise man will be content to hear of anything that may humble him before God.

4. And along with this, that we may humble ourselves, let us look to the time to come, to what we shall be before long: earth and dust. At the day of judgment we must be stripped of all. What should puff us up in this world? All our glory shall end in shame, all magnificence in confusion, all riches in poverty. It is a strange thing that the devil should raise men to be proud of what they do not have of their own, but of such things as they have borrowed and begged, as when men are proud of themselves on account of their parents. So there are many who think the better of themselves for their clothing, when yet they are clothed with nothing of their own, and so are proud of a mere created thing. But thus the devil has made our nature so stupid as to make us glory in what should abase us, and to think the better of ourselves for what is none of our own.

No, many in the church of God are so far from humbling themselves that they come to display their pride, to show themselves, to see and to be seen. Thus the devil makes fools of many thousands of silly creatures who come in vainglory into the house of God, so that whereas they should humble themselves before him, they are puffed up with a base, empty pride, even before God. Therefore let us take notice of our astonishing proneness to have a conceit of ourselves. For if a man has a new fashion, or some new thing which nobody else knows about but himself, how wonderfully conceited he will be of himself!

Let us take notice, I say, of our proneness to this sin of pride, for the best are prone to it. Consider that it is a wonderfully hateful sin, a sin of sins, which God most hates. It was this sin that made him thrust Adam out of paradise. It was this sin which made him thrust the evil angels out of heaven, who shall never come there again. Yes, it is a sin that God cures with other sins, so far does he hate it. So Paul, being subject to be proud through the abundance of revelations, was cured of it by a prick in the flesh, being exercised with some dangerous, loathsome, and strange cure. Indeed, it is profitable for some men to fall, that by their humiliation for their infirmities they may be cured of this great, this sacrilegious sin.

And why is it called a sacrilegious sin? Because it robs God of his glory. For God has said, “My glory I will not give to another” (Isa 42:8). Are the grace, goodness, and mercy of God not sufficient for us, but we must intrude upon his prerogatives, and exalt ourselves? We are both idols and idol-worshipers when we think highly of ourselves, for we make ourselves idols. Now God hates idolatry; but pride is a sacrilege, therefore God hates pride.

5. If we would humble ourselves, let us set before us the example of our blessed Savior, for we must be conformed to him by whom we hope to be saved. He left heaven, took our base nature, and humbled himself to the death of the cross (Phil 2:5-8), yes, to the washing of his disciples’ feet, and among the rest washed Judas’s feet, and so allowed himself to be killed as a traitor. And all this was to satisfy the wrath of God for us, and that he might be a pattern for us to be like-minded.

Therefore, if we would humble ourselves by pattern, here is a pattern beyond all exception. Let us be transformed into his likeness; yes, the more we think of him, the more we shall be humbled. For it is impossible for a man to dwell upon this meditation of Christ in humility, and with faith to apply it to himself, that Christ is his particular Savior, without this faith abasing his heart and bringing it to be like Christ in all spiritual representation. A heart that believes in Christ will be humbled like Christ. It will be turned from all fleshly conceit of excellence, to be like him.

Is it possible, if a man considers that he is to be saved by an abased and humble Savior, who was pliable to every base service, who did not have a house to hide himself in; I say, is it possible that he who considers this should ever be willingly or willfully proud? Do we hope to be saved by Christ, and will we not be like him? When we were firebrands of hell, he humbled himself to the death of the cross, left heaven and happiness for a while, and took our shame, to be a pattern to us. We know that Christ was brought into the world by a humble virgin. So the heart in which he dwells must be a humble heart. If we have true faith in Christ, it will cast us down, and make us humbled. For it is impossible that a man should have faith to lay claim to any part in Christ unless he is conformed to the image of Christ in humility. Therefore let us take counsel of Christ: “Learn of me, for I am humble and meek; and so you shall find rest to your souls” (Matt 11:29).

6. Lastly, that we may humble ourselves, let us work upon our own souls by reasoning, discoursing, and speaking to our own hearts. For the soul has a faculty to work upon itself. Now since humbling ourselves is a reflected action, it must be done by some inward action; and what is that? To reason thus: If a prince should only frown upon me when I have offended his law, what a condition I should be in! Yet when the great God of heaven threatens, what an atheistic, unbelieving heart I have, that can be moved at the threats of a mortal man, who is but dust and ashes, and yet cannot be moved by the threats of the great God!

Consider also: if a man had been so kind and bountiful to me, and I should repay his kindness with unkindness, I should have been ashamed, and have covered my face with shame. And yet how unkind I have been to God, who has been so kind to me, and yet I am not a whit ashamed! If a friend had come to me, and I had given him no welcome, what a shame that would be! But how often has the Holy Spirit knocked at the door of my heart, and suggested to me many holy motions of mortification, repentance, and newness of life; yet in spite of this I have given him the repulse, opposed the outward means of grace, and thought myself unworthy of it. What a shame this is!

So if we compare our conduct in earthly things with our conduct in heavenly things, this will be a means to work upon our hearts, to humble ourselves inwardly. In this way David was abased. For when Nathan came and told him of a rich man who, having many sheep, spared his own and took away a poor man’s, which was all that he had, and when David considered that he had dealt so with Uriah, he was dejected and ashamed of his own courses. Let us labor to work our hearts to humility, into true sorrow, shame, and true fear, that so we may have God to pity and respect us, who regards only a humble soul. Thus we have seen some directions for how we may come to humble ourselves.

Further, there is an order, method, and agreement in these reflected actions, when we turn the edge of our own souls upon ourselves and examine ourselves; for the way that leads to rest is by the examination of ourselves. We must examine ourselves strictly, and then bring ourselves before God, and judge and condemn ourselves; for humiliation is a kind of execution. Examination leads to all the rest. So, then, this is the order of our actions: there is examination of ourselves strictly before God, then indicting ourselves, and after that comes judging ourselves.

Oh that we could be brought to these inward reflected actions, to examine, indict, judge, and condemn ourselves, that so we might spare God a labor, and so all things might go well with us!

3. Now I come to the third thing I proposed, the motives to move us to get this humiliation.

(1) Let us consider the gracious promises that are made to this disposition of humbling ourselves, as in Isaiah 57:15, “For thus saith he that is holy and excellent, he that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is the Holy One; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of an humble and contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to give life to them that are of a contrite heart.” So there is a promise that God will give grace to the humble.

We have an example of mercy of this kind in Manasseh, who, though a very wicked man, yet because he humbled himself, obtained mercy. Peter humbled himself, and David humbled himself, and both found mercy. And so likewise Josiah. Yes, and in 1 Peter 5:6 we are told to “humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and he will exalt us in due time.” There is the promise. Yes, every branch of humiliation has a promise. Take confession of sins: if we confess and forsake our sins, we shall have mercy and find pardon. So those who judge themselves shall not be judged.

A humble heart is a vessel of all graces. It is a grace itself, and a vessel of grace. It betters the soul and makes it holy, for the soul is never fitter for God than when it is humbled. It is a fundamental grace that gives strength to all other graces. So much humility, so much grace. For according to the measure of humiliation is the measure of other grace, because a humble heart has in it a spiritual emptiness. Humility empties the heart for God to fill it. If the heart is emptied of temporal things, then it must be filled with spiritual things; for nature abhors emptiness, and grace much more. When the heart is made low, there is a spiritual emptiness, and what fills this up but the Spirit of God? In the measure that we empty ourselves, in that measure we are filled with the fullness of God.

When a man is humbled, he is fit for all good; but when he is proud, he is fit for all ill, and beats back all good. God has only two heavens to dwell in: the heaven of heavens, and the heart of a poor humble man. The proud, swelling heart, full of ambition, high conceits, and self-dependence, will not endure to have God enter; but he dwells largely and easily in the heart of a humble man. If we will dwell in heaven hereafter, let us humble ourselves now. The rich in themselves are sent “empty away”; the humble soul is a rich soul, rich in God; and therefore God regards the lowly and resists the proud. As all the water on the hills runs into the valleys, so all grace goes to the humble. The mountains of Gilboa are accursed (2 Sam 1:21). So there is a curse upon pride, because it will not yield to God.

(2) Again, all outward actions benefit other men, but this inward action of humbling oneself makes the soul itself good.

(3) A humble soul is a secure and safe soul, for a man who is not high, but of a low stature, need not fear falling. A humble soul is a safe soul: safe in regard of outward troubles, for when we have humbled ourselves, God does not need to follow us with any other judgment; safe in regard of inward vexation or any trouble from God, for when the soul has brought itself low and laid itself level as the ground, God ceases to afflict it. Will the plowman plow when he has broken up the ground enough? Or does he delight in breaking up the ground? See what Isaiah says to this purpose in Isaiah 28:28. When God sees that a man has abased himself, he will not follow with any other judgment. Such a person may say to God, “Lord, I have already kept court in my own conscience. I have humbled and judged myself, therefore do not judge me. I am ready to do whatever you will, and to suffer whatever you would have me suffer. I have deserved worse a thousand times, but, Lord, remember that I am only dust and ashes.” Thus God spares his labor when the soul has humbled itself.

But if we do not do this ourselves, God will take us in hand, for God will have only one God. Now if we will be gods, exalting ourselves, he must take us in hand to humble us, either first or last. And is it not better for us to humble ourselves than for God to give us up to the merciless rage and fury of men, for them to humble us, or for us to fall into the hands of God, who is a “consuming fire”? For when we accuse and judge ourselves, we prevent much shame and sorrow.

What is the reason God has given us up to shame and crosses in this world, but that we have not humbled ourselves? What is the reason many are damned in hell? It is because God has given them reason, judgment, and affections, but they have not used them for themselves, to examine their ways, whether they were in the state of condemnation or of salvation. They never used their affections and judgment to this end, therefore God was forced to take them in hand. Augustine says well that all men must be humbled one way or another: either we must humble ourselves or God will. If we will do this ourselves, the apostle promises, we will not be judged by the Lord (1 Cor 11:31).

But we do not do these things as we should, because it is a secret action. We love to do things that the world may take notice of, but this inward humiliation can be seen only by God and by our own consciences. Let these motives therefore stir us up to humble ourselves, for humbled we must be, one way or another. How many judgments might be avoided by humbling ourselves! How many scandals might be prevented if we would judge ourselves!

What is the reason so many Christians fall into scandalous sins, by which, provoking God’s anger, they fall into the hands of their enemies, but that they spare themselves, and think this humbling of themselves a troublesome action? Therefore, to spare themselves, they run on. Because they would not work this upon themselves, they grow at last to be in a desperate state. Therefore upon any occasion be humble; let us prepare ourselves to meet the Lord our God. When we hear even the least noise of the judgments of God, we should humble ourselves, as good Josiah did. When he only heard of the threatenings against his land, it made him humble himself.

Question. But here it may be asked, considering that wicked men often humble themselves, being convicted in their consciences and ashamed as a result:

4. How may we know holy humiliation from hypocritical humiliation? This is the last thing I proposed concerning humiliation, namely, the notes and marks by which we may know true humiliation from false, which are these.

Answer. 1. Holy humiliation is voluntary, for it is a reflected action, which comes from a man’s own self. It ends where it begins. Therefore Josiah is said to humble himself. But, on the contrary, the humiliation of other men is against their will. False humiliation is not voluntary, but is extorted from them by force. God is obliged to break, crush, and deal harshly with them, and they grieve and murmur at it.

But the children of God have the Spirit of God, which is a free Spirit that sets their hearts at liberty. For God’s Spirit is a working Spirit that works upon their hearts, and by this they willingly humble themselves, whereas the wicked, lacking this Spirit of God, cannot humble themselves willingly, but are cast down against their wills. For God can pluck down the proudest. He can break the courage of Pharaoh, who, though he was humbled, yet did not humble himself. A man may be humbled, and yet not humble.

But the children of God are to humble themselves. This is not to say that the grace by which we humble ourselves is from ourselves. Rather, we are said to humble ourselves when God rules the parts he has given us, when he sets our wits and understanding to work to see our misery, and then our will and affection to work upon these. Thus we are said to humble ourselves when God works in us.

God may humble a hypocrite and work by him. He may work by graceless persons, but he does not work in them. But God’s children have God’s Spirit in them, not only working his own works by them, as he does by hypocrites and sinful persons, but his Spirit works in them. So here is the main difference between true humiliation and that which is counterfeit. The one is voluntary, being a reflected action, working upon and humbling ourselves; but the other is a forced humiliation.

2. Again, true humiliation is always joined with reformation. “Humble thyself and walk with thy God,” says the prophet: “He hath showed thee, O man, what he doth require of thee, to humble thyself, and walk with thy God” (Mic 6:8). Now the humiliation of wicked men is never joined with reformation. There is no walking with God. Josiah reformed himself and his people to outward obedience, as much as he could, but he did not have their hearts at his command.

3. Again, sin must appear bitter to the soul, or else we will never be truly humbled for it. There is in every renewed soul a secret hatred and loathing of evil, which shows the soundness both of true humiliation and of reformation, and is expressed in three things.

(1) In a serious purpose and resolution not to offend God in the least kind. The drunkard must purpose to leave his drunkenness, and the swearer must resolve between God and his own heart to forsake his base courses, and cry mightily for help from above in this.

(2) There must be a constant endeavor to avoid the occasions and allurements of sin. Thus Job made a covenant with his eyes, that he would not look upon a maid (Job 31:1); and thus every unclean and filthy person should make a covenant with themselves against the sins to which they are most addicted. When they came to serve God, then it was away with idols (Hos 14:8). So must we, when we look heavenward, cast from us all our sins whatsoever.

(3) There must be a hatred and loathing of sin in our confessions. We must confess it with all the circumstances, the time when and the place where. We must set out the full weight of our offenses, as David did: “Against thee have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight” (Ps 51:4); and as the apostle did: “I was a blasphemer, I was a persecutor” (1 Tim 1:13), I was this and that. He did not minimize his sin and say, “The rulers commanded me to do so.” He said, “I persecuted the church,” and that out of the wickedness of his own heart.

A true Christian will not hide his sins, but lay them open, the more to abase himself before God. Setting out the weight of our sins in this way will make them more vile to us, and make us more humble at the sight of them. True reformation of life is always joined with indignation against all sin, such a contrariety is there in the nature of a child of God against all evil. And these are the signs of a true hatred of sin.

[1] We should therefore first hate sin universally: not one sin, but every kind of sin, and most of all that which most rules in us and is most prevalent in our own hearts. A sincere Christian hates sin in himself most. We must not hate in another what we cherish in ourselves.

[2] We should hate sin the more, the nearer it comes to us, in our children and friends, or in any other way. It was David’s fault to let Absalom his son go unreproved in his wicked practices, and Eli’s fault not to correct his sons. We see what came of it, even their utter overthrow.

[3] He who truly hates sin will not resent being admonished and reproved when he errs. A man who has a bad plant in his ground, which will eat out the heart of it, will not hate another who points out such an evil to him. So if anyone reproves you for this or that sin, and you hate him for it, it is a sign that corruption is sweet to you.

Only this caution must be remembered: reproof must not be given with a proud spirit, but in a loving, mild manner, with a desire of doing good. There is a great deal of self-love in some men, who, instead of hating sin in themselves and others, approve and countenance it, especially in great men, flattering them in their base inclinations, and fearing that by telling them the truth they would be counted their enemies.

[4] Our hatred of sin may be discerned by our unwillingness to talk of it. He who hates a snake or a toad will flee from it; so a man who truly abhors sin will not endure to come near the occasions of it. What shall we say then of those who prostitute themselves to all sinful delights? As hatred of sin is in our affection, so it will appear in our actions. Those who love to see sin acted have never yet truly loathed it.

It is a sign that we do not hate sin when we do not take to heart the sins of our land. “Woe is me that I am constrained to dwell in the tents of Kedar” (Ps 120:5), says David; “mine eyes gush out with tears because men keep not thy law” (Ps 119:136). Lot’s soul was vexed at the unclean conduct of the wicked (2 Pet 2:7). But, alas, how we come short of this! The greatest number are so far from mourning for the abominations of the land that they rather set themselves against God in a most disobedient manner, and press others to sin against him.

Are magistrates of David’s mind, laboring to cut off all workers of iniquity from the land? Indeed, for small trifling things they will do a man justice, but where is the tender regard for God’s glory? Where are those who seek to reform idolatry, Sabbath-breaking, and profaneness among us? It is a pity to see how many hold the stirrup for the devil, by giving occasions and encouragements to others to commit evil. Do we hate sin when we are like tinder, ready to receive the least motion toward it, as our fashion-mongers are, who transform themselves into every effeminate, unbecoming guise? Shall we say that these men hate sin, who, when they are reproved for it, labor to defend it or excuse it, counting their pride only comeliness, their miserable covetousness only thrift, and drunkenness only good fellowship?

To strengthen our indignation against sin the better, consider:

(1) The ugliness of it, how opposite and distasteful it is to the Almighty, as appears in Sodom and in the old world. It is that for which God himself hates his own creature, and for which he will say to the wicked at the day of judgment, “Go, ye cursed, into everlasting fire” (Matt 25:41). Sin is the cause of all those diseases and crosses that befall the sons of men. It has its rise from the devil, who is the father of it, and whose lusts we do whenever we offend God.

There is not the least sin but it is committed against an infinite majesty, yes, against a good God, to whom we owe ourselves and all that we have, who waits for you to turn to him and live forever. But if you despise his goodness and still continue to provoke the eyes of his glory, he is a terrible and avenging God, ready every moment to destroy both body and soul in hell.

Sin is the bane of all comfort. That which we love more than our souls undoes us. It embitters every comfort, and makes us unable to perform duties with spiritual life. Our very prayers are abominable to God so long as we live in known sin. What makes the hour of death and the day of judgment terrible but this?

(2) Again, grow in the love of God. The more we delight in him, the more we will hate whatever is contrary to him. In the same proportion that we love God and his truth we will abhor every evil way, for these go together. “Ye that love the Lord, hate the thing that is ill” (Ps 97:10). The nearer we draw to him, the farther we are separated from everything below.

(3) And to strengthen our indignation against sin, we should drive our affections another way, and set them upon the right object. A Christian should consider, “Why did God give me this affection of love? Was it to set it on this or that lust, or on any sinful course? Or has he given me this affection of hatred so that I should envy my brothers and condemn the good way? No, surely. I ought to employ every faculty of my soul to the glory of the giver, by loving what he loves and hating what he hates.” God’s truth, his ways, and his children are objects worthy of our love, and Satan with his deeds of darkness the fittest subjects of our indignation and hatred.

4. True humiliation proceeds from faith, and is in the faithful not only when judgment is upon them, but before the judgment comes, for, foreseeing it by faith, they humble themselves. True humiliation quakes at the threatenings, for the very frowns of a father will terrify a dutiful child. So Josiah, when he only heard of the threatenings against the land, humbled himself in dust and ashes. “He rent his clothes.” So true humiliation quakes at the foresight of judgment, but the wicked never humble themselves except when the judgment is upon them.

Carnal people are like men who, hearing thunderclaps afar off, are not moved in the least; but when it is present over their heads, then they tremble. So hypocrites do not care about judgments afar off; as now, when the church of God is in misery abroad, we bless ourselves and think all is well. It is no credit to a man to be humbled when the judgment is upon him, for so was Pharaoh, who yet, when the judgment was off, went back to his old bias again.

Let us test our humiliation by these signs: whether we can willingly humble ourselves privately before God, and call ourselves to a reckoning; whether we add reformation of life to outward humiliation, when our heart tells us that we live in such and such sins; whether our hearts tremble at the threatenings, when we hear of judgments public or private.

What is the ground on which people may deceive themselves? They say that if any judgment comes upon them, then they will repent and cry to God for mercy, “and why should I deny myself my pleasures of sin before then?” Oh, this is only a forced humiliation, not from love to God, but from love to yourself. It is not free, therefore you may go to hell with it.

Others put off their repentance until it is too late. When they have any sickness upon them they will cry to God for mercy. This is only Ahab’s and Pharaoh’s humiliation. It is not out of any love to God, but merely forced. It is too late to do it when God has seized upon us by some judgment. Do it when he threatens; and now he has already seized upon parts of the church abroad, therefore meet your God now by repentance.

5. A fifth difference between true humiliation and false is that with true humiliation hope is joined, to raise up our souls with some comfort; otherwise it is desperation, not humiliation. The devils chafe, vex, and fret themselves in regard of their desperate estate, because they have no hope. If there is no hope, it is impossible that there should be true and sound humiliation; but true humiliation carries us to God, so that what we have taken out of ourselves by humiliation, we may recover in God.

Therefore humility is such a grace that, though it makes us nothing in ourselves, yet it carries us to God, who is all in all. Humiliation works between God and ourselves, and makes the heart leave itself, to plant and pitch itself upon God, and look for comfort and assurance from him. And where this is not present there is no true humiliation. There is nothing more profitable in the world than humility, because, though it seems to have nothing, yet it carries the soul to him who fills all in all. Hence it is that there is an abasing of ourselves for anything we have done amiss, from love to God and love to his people, but yet it is joined with hope. We know God to be a gracious God to us, and therefore we humble ourselves and are grieved for offending him.

6. A sixth difference between true humiliation and false is this: that hypocrites are sorrowful for the judgment that is upon them, but not for that which is the cause of the judgment, which is sin; but the child of God is humbled for sin, which is the cause of all judgments. So good Josiah, when he heard read out of Deuteronomy the curses threatened for sin, and compared the sins of his people with the sins against which the curses were threatened, humbled himself for his sin and the sins of his people. For God’s children know that if there were no iniquity in them, no adversity would hurt them; and therefore they run to the cause, and are humbled for that. The wicked, by contrast, humble themselves only because of the smart and trouble they endure.

7. The last difference between true humiliation and false is this: that true humiliation is a thorough humiliation. Therefore it is repeated twice in this verse: “thou didst humble thyself before God,” when you heard the words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, “and humbledst thyself before me.” It is afterward expressed by rending of clothes and tears. It was thorough humiliation, for he dwelt upon the humbling of his own soul.

So the children of God thoroughly humble themselves, but the hypocrite, when he does humble himself, does not do it thoroughly. Such people count it a light matter. As soon as the judgment is off, they have forgotten their humiliation, as Pharaoh did. Many will heave a few sighs and hang down their heads like a bulrush for a time; but it is, like Ephraim’s morning dew, quickly gone. They have no sound and thorough humiliation. It is only a mere attempt at humiliation. But the children of God, when they begin, never cease working upon their own hearts with meditation until they have brought their hearts to a blessed temper, as we see in David, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel, how they humbled themselves.

But why do God’s children take pains in humbling themselves?

Partly because it must be done in earnest, or else God will not accept it; and partly because there is a great deal of hardness and pride in the best, and much ado before a man can be brought to humble himself. Therefore we must labor for this. We see what ado there was before Job could be brought to humble himself. Yet Job must be humbled before there comes “one of a thousand” to comfort him (Job 33:23). If a man is once thoroughly and truly humbled, he will soon have comfort. By these marks we may know true humiliation from a counterfeit humiliation.

Question. But here another question may arise: How may we know when we are humbled enough, or when we are grieved enough?

Answer. To this I answer:

1. There is not the same measure of humiliation required in all. For those whom God picked out for some great work, he humbles more than others, as he did Moses and Paul before he accomplished the great work of converting the Gentiles. So David, before he came to be king, was humbled for a long time.

2. Again, there are others who have been greater sinners, and more openly wicked in their courses than others, and in them a greater measure of humiliation is required.

3. Again, there are others who have been more tenderly brought up from childhood, who have often renewed their repentance. These do not need to be humbled as much as others; for humiliation should be proportionate to the sinful estate of the soul, and because this differs in different people, their humiliation ought likewise to differ.

But to answer the question more directly, we are said to be humbled enough,

1. When we have brought our souls to a hearty grief that we have offended God, when we have a perfect and inward hatred of all sin, and when you show the truth of your grief by leaving off your sinful courses. So then, do you hate and leave your sinful course? Then you are sufficiently humbled. Go away with peace and comfort; your sins are forgiven you. Therefore it is not a slight humiliation that will serve the turn, but our hearts must be brought to a perfect hatred and leaving of all sins; for if this is not so, we are not yet sufficiently humbled.

And when we find ourselves hating and leaving sin in some measure, then let us fasten our souls by faith, as much as we may, upon the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. For the soul has two eyes: the one to look upon itself and our vileness, to humble us the more; the other to fasten upon the mercy of God in Christ, to raise up our souls. For if the whole soul were fastened upon its own misery and vileness, then there could not be the humiliation there ought to be, nor could we serve God with such cheerfulness. Therefore we must have our souls raised up to God’s mercy.

Now let us labor for the first, because the devil is so great an enemy to it. For he knows well enough that as far as we are humble and go out of ourselves to God and rest upon him, so far we stand impregnable against his temptations, so that he cannot prevail against us; and as far as we do not trust in God, but in the creature, so far we must lie open to his snares. Therefore all his temptations tend to draw us to trust in the creature, to have a conceit of ourselves, and to draw our hearts from relying upon God. His first plot is always to make us rest in ourselves. Therefore let us labor to go out of ourselves, to see a vanity in ourselves and a happiness in God, so that going out of ourselves, and relying upon God and his mercies, we may stand safe against Satan’s temptations.

Use. This should teach us to take heed of such affections as tend directly contrary to humiliation. For how can it be otherwise than that those should be proud who hold the doctrine of the Church of Rome, as, first, that we have no original sin in us, but it is taken away by baptism, and that we are able to fulfill the law fully in this life? This is presumptuous. Paul, by contrast, cries out after baptism, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death!” (Rom 7:24). Indeed, they claim they can do even more, namely, works of supererogation, by which they merit heaven. How these things blow up the heart of man and make it swell with pride! This must make men very proud, to think that a man can merit by works. With such blasphemous opinions they have infected the world, and led millions of souls captive into hell.

Therefore let this be a rule for discerning true religion: surely that is true religion which makes us go out of ourselves, which takes away all from ourselves and gives all the glory to God, which makes us plead for salvation by the mercy of God through the merits of Christ. But our religion teaches us this. Therefore it is the true religion, and will yield us sound comfort at the last. So much for inward humiliation, the humbling of ourselves, as Josiah did.

But because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord (2 Chr 34:27).

As the waters issuing from the sanctuary, mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel, grew deeper and deeper, first to the ankles, then to the knees, and after that to the loins, until they became an overflowing river, so it has gone with us in handling this text. From tenderness of heart we have waded deeper and deeper through the mysteries of humiliation in the inward man, until at length we have broken out from there into the outward expressions of Josiah’s inward humiliation: his rending of his clothes, and overflowing floods of tears. These tears sprang partly from his apprehension of ruin at hand, about to come upon God’s sanctuary, and partly from sorrow and a sense of sin in himself and the people, as the causes of his fear.

But to come to the text now read in your hearing, “And didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me.” Here we have set down the outward expression of Josiah’s inward humiliation.

For true humiliation shows itself outwardly as well as inwardly. Now, the outward expression of his inward affection is set down in two things:

1. By rending his clothes.

2. By his weeping.

No doubt he expressed his sorrow in words as well as by these gestures, although his words are not set down here with the rest. For he might for the time have been overtaken by so great a measure of sorrow and grief that it could not be expressed at that very instant. Or we may conceive that for the time he was so thoroughly humbled that he could not speak in an orderly way. Therefore God regarded and looked more to his affections and tears than to his words, for he rent his clothes and wept before God.

It is written of the poor publican that he could not say much, and looked down with his eyes, saying, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13). So it was with the poor woman in the gospel who came to Christ weeping and washed his feet with her tears, yet she said nothing (Luke 7:38). And when Christ, at the cock’s third crowing, looked upon Peter, we do not find what Peter said, only that he went out and wept bitterly (Luke 22:61-62). So here we may imagine that Josiah’s affection was too full of sorrow to speak distinctly and composedly. For from a troubled soul nothing can proceed but troubled words; from a broken heart comes broken language. But however that may be, it is likely that Josiah did speak something, for God says, “I have even also heard thee.” But to leave this and come to the outward expressions set down here, let us learn something from his rending of his clothes and his weeping.

Rending of clothes was a thing frequently done in old times, as we see in the Scriptures, and it was a visible representation of the inward sorrow of the heart. Job rent his clothes (Job 1:20). His friends rent their clothes (Job 2:12). Paul and Barnabas rent theirs (Acts 14:14). The high priest rent his clothes when he was to accuse Christ (Mark 14:63). And Hezekiah rent his clothes when he heard the words of Rabshakeh (Isa 37:1).

Indeed, this was a common action, frequently practiced among the heathen also. For they too, upon any disastrous event, were accustomed to rend their clothes, as we read of a heathen king who, when his city was invaded round about by enemies, rent his clothes. So it has been the custom both of God’s church and also of the heathen to rend their clothes.

But what is the ground or reason of this? The reason they rent their clothes was that in their sorrow they thought themselves unworthy to wear any. They forgot all the comforts of this life, as holy Josiah forgets his position, his throne, his royal majesty, and his crown. He looks up to the great God, and duly considers under whom he stood, and the miserable condition of the people over whom he was governor. And thereupon he rends his clothes, showing by this that he was unworthy of those ornaments with which he was covered.

We know that clothes have various uses:

1. For necessity, to cover our nakedness and to protect us from the injuries of the weather.

2. Clothes are given for distinction of sexes and ranks: to tell the great man from the humble one, the woman from the man.

3. And lastly, they serve for ornaments to honor our vile flesh, which is so base that it must fetch its ornaments from base creatures.

Now, so far as they served for ornaments, he rent his clothes, as thinking himself unworthy of any garments. For in his grief he rends his clothes, thinking to himself, “Why should I insist on clothes and outward things to cover me? God is angry. Until he is appeased I will take no pleasure in any earthly thing.” Therefore, apprehending the wrath of God, he rent his clothes.

Well, this is only an outward expression, and therefore it must proceed from inward truth. This rending of clothes was a national ceremony, and since we do not have that practice among us, we must rend our hearts with grief. For the rending of clothes shows that the heart has been rent before, and without that there is no acceptance with God. The rending of the clothes without the rending of the heart is only hypocrisy, as Joel says, “Rend your hearts, and not your garments, ye hypocrites” (Joel 2:13). So outward expressions of sorrow are good only so far as they come from inward grief and affection.

Now, when both of these are joined together it is a comely thing. For what does comeliness consist in, if not that all the parts of our body agree in proportion, and one limb is not bigger than another? So it is an uncomely and a hypocritical thing for a man to have every outward expression and yet to have no inward grief. This is only acting humiliation, when we hang down the head like a bulrush and the heart is not sound. But outward expressions are good when the heart is grieved in earnest, when they proceed from inward humiliation.

Question. And why ought this to be?

Answer. Because both body and soul have a part in the action of sin. Therefore it is necessary that they should be joined in humiliation for sin. There is no sin of the body in which the soul has no part, nor any sin in the soul in which the body has no part. Therefore both body and soul should be humbled together. Labor then to have outward expressions and shows of sorrow come from a truly sorrowful heart. There are two things in the religious actions of men:

1. There is the outward action or expression.

2. There is the inward, which gives life to the other.

The outward is easy, and subject to hypocrisy. It is an easy matter to rend clothes and to force tears, but it is a hard matter to afflict the soul. The heart of man takes the easiest ways and leaves the hardest alone, thinking to please God with that. But God will not be served in that way; he must have the inward affections, or else he abhors the outward actions. Therefore let us labor for humble hearts as well as humble gestures. We must rend our hearts and not our clothes when we come into the presence of God. We must labor not only to show humility but to have humility, so that we may not be like hypocrites, who make a show of a great deal of devotion in their bearing but have none in their hearts, and a great deal of outward humiliation when they have none within.

The papists are wicked and erroneous in all their devotions, especially in the point of justification, and in other points of the worship of God. For is it not a superstitious error to think to please God with outward observances when they do not come from inward truth? Their religion is all an outside, consisting merely of outward performances. But true devotion, as the Scripture teaches, comes from a heart that understands its own case with judgment, considering what a great God it has to deal with, a God full of glory and majesty. Does God love blind sacrifices? No. Devotion must come from the heart, and spread itself from there into the countenance and bearing. For it is true devotion when the outward expression shows the inward disposition.

Use. This reproves the negligence of people in these times. Where is their inward humiliation? No, where is even their outward humiliation? In popery there is an acting of humiliation. They whip their bodies, and they have other such outward follies and gestures in their hypocritical devotions. In this way they do in some sort humble themselves. But how few there are among us who humble themselves in apprehension of their own misery, though if they look to their own persons, they have cause enough! Yes, and how few there are who are humbled for the miseries of the church abroad! Where shall we find a mourning soul?

Well, since it is not a custom among us to rend our clothes, yet let us make it a matter of conscience not to be proud in our apparel. For it is a wicked and a fearful thing when people will regard some wicked and foolish fashion, and set more by it than by God’s favor, threatenings, and judgments abroad. There are many who, instead of rending their clothes, come into God’s house to show off their finery, to see and to be seen. Where they should most of all humble themselves, there they come to show their pride, even before God. They should come to hear the voice of the great God of heaven, and to stand in the presence of him who is a “consuming fire.” Yet before him, before whom the very angels cover their faces and the earth trembles, they on the contrary come to outface and provoke him with their pride.

We see that Josiah, though he was a king, rent his clothes, forgot all his finery, and considers himself not so much a king over the people over whom God had set him as a subject to God. Therefore, though, as I said, the custom of rending clothes is not practiced in our church, yet let us always make it a matter of conscience to rend our hearts, and so to make our peace with God, as this good king did. It follows:

“And weptest before me.”

In these words is set down the second outward expression of Josiah’s inward humiliation, which is weeping. This came nearer to him than rending his clothes, for it touched his body. From this, in a word, observe:

Doctrine 1. The body and soul must join together in the action of humiliation, for the soul and body go together in the acting of sin; therefore they must go together in humiliation. As they were both made by God and redeemed by Christ, so they sin and practice good together. Now I will show three ways in which the soul and body have communion with one another, by which it may appear how reasonable and fitting it is that they should both be humbled together.

1. The soul and body have communion together by way of impression or information. For things perceived by the senses make an impression upon the senses, and so come into the soul, for nothing comes into it except through the senses of the body. Though the soul may imagine golden mountains, and things it never saw, yet the working of the soul depends upon the body, for the body informs it of all outward objects. As the body is indebted to the soul for ruling and guiding it, so the soul is indebted to the body for many things. So now in the very sacrament God helps the soul with the senses. Christ, as it were, enters through the senses in the sacrament more vividly than in the preaching of the word, for there he enters in by the ears, but in the sacrament he is seen, tasted, handled, felt. So the soul and body have communion together by way of information.

2. The soul and body have communion together by way of temptation. For the soul stands in need of many outward things which are pleasing and delightful, and having sympathy with the body, it is led away by the body. Outward objects are pleasing to the senses of carnal men. Now as these pass through the senses into the soul, it is led away, and so they become a dangerous temptation.

3. The soul and the body have communion together, both in sinful and in good actions, by way of subjection or execution. For God has made the body, with its parts, to be the instruments and weapons of the soul. The body is a house in which the soul is kept. It is a workshop for the soul. Now the soul uses the body, with its members, as instruments or weapons either to honor God or to dishonor him. The wicked fight against God with all the members of their body, with their eyes, tongue, feet, hands. Now since the body has a part in sin as well as the soul, it is necessary that the body and soul should join together in humiliation.

Caution. Here we must take heed of a notable trick of the devil in popery. The papists think the body alone is at fault for sin, and therefore they humble and afflict their bodies for it, while they puff up their soul with pride, a conceit of merit and satisfaction. They are falsely humble and truly proud, while they afflict the body and omit the soul. They are falsely humbled, because they humble their body only, but truly proud, because they think that by afflicting and humbling their bodies they merit. But let us take heed of this gross error, and remember to let both soul and body join in the work.

Doctrine 2. The second thing to be noted here is that when God will afflict or humble a man, it is not a kingdom that will save him. Josiah was a monarch (for he was an absolute monarch), yet if God threatens, his kingdom can do him no good. If God will abase men, whether they are his children or his enemies, a kingdom cannot protect them. When God showed Belshazzar the handwriting on the wall, he could take no comfort in anything (Dan 5:5). Yes, as for his dear children, if he shows only tokens of his displeasure against them, though they are kings, as Josiah was, yet he can humble them. If God roars, their greatness cannot keep them. If he does not make them tremble now, yet he will make them tremble hereafter.

Doctrine 3. The third thing we learn here from the example of Josiah, being a king, is that tears and mourning for sin, when they come from inward grief, are a disposition well befitting any man. It is conduct befitting a king. It is not unbecoming to anyone, of whatever sex or rank. It is no womanish or base thing. When a person has to deal with God, he must forget his position and take the best way to meet with God. This is evident from many instances. For David, though a man of war, yet when he had to deal with God, watered his couch with his tears (Ps 6:6). So Hezekiah, though a great king, yet humbled himself (Isa 38:1 and following). Indeed, our blessed Savior himself did it “with strong cries and tears” (Heb 5:7), when he had to deal with God.

Use. This serves for the justification of this holy abasement and humbling of ourselves. When we have to deal with God, then all abasement is little enough. “I will be yet more vile than thus,” says holy David (2 Sam 6:22). So let us say, when we have to deal with God, “I will be yet more vile,” and so cast ourselves down before the Lord. All expression of devotion is little enough, provided it is without hypocrisy.

Yet please give me leave to warn you once again concerning outward actions, for most have a wrong conception of devotion and humiliation. They think that devotion lies only in outward actions, as in the outward act of hearing a little, or reading, conferring, or praying a little. But in truth these outward acts make up only the body of devotion, and without the soul, namely, the inward religious affection looking to God, that body is no better than dead carrion. Our outward expression must come from the apprehension of the goodness, mercy, and justice of God, before whom the very angels veil their faces.

Outward devotion will not serve the turn, as when someone comes to church with this bare notion and forethought: “I will go pray, and kneel, and put on every outward bearing,” in the meantime neglecting to stir up the soul to worship God with these or similar thoughts: “I will go to the place where God is, where his truth is, where his angels are, to hear that word by which I shall be judged at the last day.” Therefore let all holy actions come from within first, and from there to the outward man. Let us work into our hearts a consideration of the goodness, justice, majesty, and mercy of God, and then let there be an expression in the body such as may bring people away from their sins. For otherwise there is a spirit of superstition that will draw people far from God in seeming services, conceiving that God will accept outward and formal expressions alone.

Well, we see that weeping and mourning for sins is conduct not unbecoming a king. Therefore it is a desperate madness not to humble ourselves and be abased, now that we have to deal with God. The desperate atheists of the world will not tremble at threatenings, nor humble themselves, until death comes, which humbles them and makes them tremble. On the contrary, the soul which, feeling the wrath of God, humbles itself in good time and trembles at threatenings, that soul, I say, when the great judgment of death comes, and appearance before God, looks death in the face with comfort. But those desperate atheists who can now scorn God, swear at every word, and blaspheme God to his face: let God only show his displeasure, and they tremble and quake at any noise of fear. Therefore when we have to deal with God, it is wisdom, and the ground of all courage, to humble and abase ourselves with fear, as Josiah did although he was a king.

“And thou didst weep before me.”

His tender heart melted itself into tears. In the first clause of the verse you have his tender heart set down, and here we have the melting of the tender heart. There we have the cloud; here we have the shower. Therefore I will speak something of the origin of tears. We know that tears are strained from the inward parts through the eyes. For the understanding first conceives cause of grief upon the heart, after which the heart sends up matter of grief to the brain, and the brain, being of a cold nature, distills it down into tears. So if the grief is sharp and piercing, tears will follow from most people. But to come to the particulars, we see that the provoking cause of tears from without, in Josiah, was the danger of his kingdom, as he heard the judgment of God threatened against his country and place. From this, for the instruction of magistrates, I will press this point.

Doctrine 4. It concerns magistrates above all others to take to heart any danger whatsoever that is upon their people, for as kings are set above all other people in place, so they should be above them in goodness and grace. They ought, above all others, to take to heart any judgment, whether already upon them or feared. So good Josiah did. He looked not so much to himself and his own good as to the state of which he was king, and the very threatenings of judgment against it made him express his grief with tears.

The bond that knits the king to the people, and the people to the king, requires this, for kings are heads and shepherds over the people. Now the shepherd watches over his flock; the head quickly senses any hurt to the body; all the senses are provident for the body. So it should be with all great persons in authority. They should cherish the good condition of their subjects as their own, for these are committed to their care. And even as the head cares for the body and plans ahead for it, so those who are in authority should plan ahead for any good to the body of the commonwealth.

We have an excellent example of this in holy David, who, when a judgment was coming upon his people, said, Lord, let the judgment come upon me and my father’s house; what have these sheep done? (2 Sam 24:17). And surely such magistrates as are tenderly affected by the condition of those under them shall lose nothing by it, for the people likewise will carry a tender affection toward them in return. So we see that when the people went to fight against Absalom, they would not let David go with them, but they said to him, “Thou art worth ten thousand of us” (2 Sam 18:3); that is, they would rather that ten thousand of them should die in the battle than that David should have any hurt come to him; so he lost nothing for his love and affection toward the people, for they showed the same love to him in his distress. So likewise when Josiah was dead, the people wept abundantly for him (for with him perished all the glory of that flourishing kingdom), as we may read in the story in 2 Chronicles 35:24-25, compared with Zechariah 12:11. They mourned for him with an exceedingly great mourning, in Hadadrimmon, in the valley of Megiddo. So the love between the magistrate and the people is never wasted; for if the magistrate is tenderly affected toward them, the people will likewise weep for him in return, and lament his case in his distress. But now, to come to a more general instruction, we will leave speaking of Josiah as king, and consider him as a holy man, and make him a pattern for us all, whatever our civil condition may be. And so we learn this point:

Doctrine 5. It is the duty of every Christian to take to heart the threatenings of God against the place and people where he lives; to take to heart the afflictions and miseries of the church and commonwealth, the grievances of others as well as his own. The mourning and weeping of Josiah was for the state of the church, when he heard the judgment threatened against the place and its inhabitants. There are tears of compassion for ourselves and for others. Both of them were in Josiah; for no doubt he wept for himself and his own sins, and over and above his own he had special tears of compassion for his people.

So then it is fitting for a Christian who wants the reward of Josiah to humble his heart, as Josiah did, for the state of the church. Good Nehemiah took to heart the grief of his country. The joy of his own promotion did not gladden him as much as the grief for his nation the Jews cast him down. What joy can a true heart have, now that the church of God is in affliction? We are all of one house. When one part of the house is on fire, the other part had better look to itself.

Many things worked upon the heart of Josiah and caused him to weep, and so there are many causes that should move us. The sight of the sins that are committed in the land ought to make us grieve, and to express our grief one way or another. And the love of Christ, if it were in us, would make us mourn, as when we hear God blasphemed and his name dishonored, and when we see the people bent on idolatry. How can this do anything but break even a heart of stone? Indeed, a gracious heart will mourn and weep for the judgment of God upon wicked men, considering them as men, and as the creatures of God.

Thus Christ wept for the wicked Jews in Jerusalem (Luke 19:41), though they were his enemies: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem …” (Matt 23:37). And so good Jeremiah, though he was ill used and exceedingly abused by the people, yet says, “Oh that my head were water, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for them” (Jer 9:1). Though they had wronged him, persecuted him, and counted him a contentious fellow, only because he taught the truth of God, yet such was the affection of tender-hearted Jeremiah that he desired that he might weep day and night for them.

But continual weeping must have a lasting spring that affords continual streams of tears. Jeremiah did not find such a spring in himself (such is the dryness of every man’s heart that it is soon emptied of tears), and so, fearing he would not weep enough, he earnestly desires it. If hearty wishes may obtain it, he would have it supplied with a plentiful measure of tears in his lamentation for the coming calamity of his people: “O that mine head were a well of water, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!”

Question. But why did Jeremiah not rather pray that they might have a fountain of tears to weep for themselves?

Answer. Because he knew the hardness of their hearts, and thought it pointless to plead with them to weep for themselves. Their hearts were harder than the lower millstone. They never desired it, yet he weeps for them. Thus we see how godly men have been affected in former times, and that it is our duty to weep and mourn even for the very wicked.

We have matter enough for lamentation and weeping at this day, if we look abroad; and at home, if we look to judgments felt and feared, we have cause to weep before the decree comes out against us. Therefore we should meet God beforehand. It is no credit to a man to be humbled when the judgment has come upon him; but when we can weep before the judgment has come, it is a sign of faith. Happy would we be if faith could make us do what sense makes wicked men do. If believing in the judgment before it comes would make us seek God, oh, how God would love such a one! This should teach every one of us to mourn; and indeed a Christian soul cannot help but do it, and that for various reasons.

1. Because of that sympathy between the Head and the members. A Christian has the spirit of Christ, who takes to heart the miseries of the church. Now, can that spirit of Christ be in anyone, and he not be affected as Christ in heaven is affected? Surely not.

2. It must also be so because of the communion that exists between the members of the body. We are all part of one mystical body, of which Christ is the head. What member of this body can he be who does not take to heart the miseries of the other members? There is a lack of life where there is no sense of misery.

3. Where there is true grace there will be weeping and mourning for the church, because of the insolence of the church’s enemies and their blasphemous speeches: Where is now their God? Their religion? What has now become of their Reformation? What child can hear the reproach and dishonor of God his Father without his heart being moved with compassion?

4. A gracious man will also weep because of the danger of not mourning; for by not mourning we have a kind of guilt lying upon us, since we make the sins and miseries of the church our own, as Paul tells the Corinthians, reproving them for not mourning (1 Cor 5:2). Therefore, as we are a part of the body, so we must have a part of the shame and grief. Again, God has promised to mark and single out all those who mourn for the sins of the time (Ezek 9:4); therefore, on the contrary, those who do not mourn are in a dangerous state.

5. We must also add reformation to lamentation, or else the whole church and commonwealth is in danger. If Achan is not sought out and punished, the whole state is in danger, and lies open to the wrath of God.

For these reasons we ought to take to heart the sins and miseries of the times; for the Spirit of God is in every Christian, and will not allow him to be otherwise than to weep and mourn for his own sins, and for the sins and miseries of others.

Use 1. If this is so, what will become of those who do not take to heart or mourn for the miseries of the church? Those who do not judge rightly of the poor, but censure the judgment of the afflicted, adding affliction to the afflicted and misery to the miserable? What shall we say to those who are so far from helping God that they help the enemies of God, and are grieved at heart to hear of any cause of comfort on the church’s part? Whose hearts rejoice to hear of any overthrow on the church’s side? Such false hearts there are, and many who are glad of the sins of others, thinking in that way to hide their own wicked courses. These men are far from mourning. Let our souls also be far from entering into their secrets.

Use 2. If this is so, that holy men ought to take to heart and weep for the judgments of the commonwealth, both felt and feared, and also for the judgment of God upon the churches abroad, then we must ask:

Question. How may we get this weeping and mourning for others?

Answer. 1. Remove the impediments that hinder; for example, first, a hard and stony heart, which is opposite to tenderness. Josiah had a melting heart, and therefore it was soon dissolved into tears. Our hearts are worse than brass or stone, for workmen can work upon those; but nothing will work upon the hard heart of man. All the judgments in the world will not work upon it. All the Israelites saw the judgments of God in Egypt, and all his mercies and blessings to them in the wilderness, yet it would not work upon them, because they had hard hearts. Therefore let us get a good spring of tears, that is, a soft and tender heart, and let us beg it of God, for it is his promise to give us tender hearts; and then there will be an easy expression of it in the outward man.

2. Let us beware of the love of earthly things, and get a heart truly loving toward God; for love is compared to fire, and fire, among the many other properties it has, melts gold and makes it pliable. Heat is the organ of the soul, by which it does anything, and the instrument of nature. So spiritual heat, a warm soul, warmed with the love of God and of our Christian brethren, will make the heart pliable, and melt it into tears. Therefore get a loving heart, filled with love to God and to Christian brethren, so that we may put to death self-love, which dries up the soul. There can be no melting in such a self-loving soul.

Let us therefore labor for spiritual love, to cross and subdue carnal self-love. It is this blessed heat that must send forth this heavenly water of tears; it is the spirit of love that must yield this distillation from the broken heart; this works all heavenly affection in us. Therefore Christ gathers up all the commandments under love. And indeed that is all.

3. If we want our souls fit to grieve, let us be content to see with our own eyes, as much as we can, the miseries of others. The best way to weep is to enter the house of mourning, and set before our eyes the afflictions of others. The very sight of misery is a means to make the soul weep. And let us be willing to hear what we cannot see, as Nehemiah was content to hear, indeed to inquire, about the church abroad; and when he heard that it was not well with them, it made him weep. Every man will cry, What news? But where is the man who, when he hears the news from beyond the seas, sends up sighs to God, and prayer that he would take pity on his church? It is a good way to use our senses, to help our souls to grieve.

4. Let us read about the state of God’s church, what it has been from the beginning of the world, and what miseries God’s children have endured in former ages by reason of war and the like, so that we may work grief upon our own hearts. We always have matter for grief while we are in this world; if we look abroad, we shall find matter for mourning. And surely we should labor to mourn if we desire to be blessed. For “blessed are they that mourn: they shall be comforted” (Matt 5:4).

5. That we may get this weeping and mourning, let us work this tender affection upon our own hearts. The soul has a faculty to work upon itself. Therefore let us shame ourselves for our own deadness, dryness, and spiritual barrenness in this respect, that we can yield no sighs, no tears for God, for his church and glory. Let us reason this way with our souls: If I were to lose my wife, or child, or my estate, this wicked heart of mine would weep and be grieved; but now there is greater cause of mourning for myself and the church of God, and yet I cannot grieve. Augustine says he could weep for her who killed herself out of love for him, but he could not weep for his own lack of love for God.

We have many who will weep for the loss of friends, wealth, and such things; but let them lose God’s favor, let them be in such a state that there is only one step between them and hell, and they are never grieved or moved by it. Therefore, since they do not weep for themselves, let us weep for them. Can we weep when we see a man hurt in his body, and ought we not much more to weep for the danger of his soul? Therefore let us work this sorrow upon our hearts.

Now, we are to receive the sacrament, which is a feast, and therefore must be eaten cheerfully. The Passover was a banquet, and therefore to be eaten with joy, but along with that it was customarily eaten with sour herbs. So it must be in this blessed banquet which God has provided for our souls. There must be sorrow as well as joy. It is a mixed action, and therefore it must be eaten with sour herbs, as we set before the eyes of our mind the object of the old Adam, thinking upon the vileness of our nature, we who have such filthy speeches, disobedient actions, and such rebellious thoughts in us. Great need have I of the mercy and favor of God to look upon such a defiled soul as I am.

And also, having Christ crucified in the eyes of our soul, we must look upon Christ, who is crucified in the sacrament, sacramentally. What was it that broke the body of Christ? Was it not sin? That sin which I so often cherish, this pride, this envy, unbelief, and hypocrisy, this covetousness of mind, was what put Christ into such torment. It was not the nails, but my sins.

The sacrament must work upon our hearts so as to work grief in us. We must weep as the people did for Josiah, just as God has promised we should do. It is said in Zechariah 12:10, “They shall look on him whom they have pierced by their sins, and weep and mourn for him as one that mourneth for his only son.” So then, the sacrament is not only a matter of joy and thanks, but a matter of sorrow. Therefore, if we would rejoice in the sacrament, let us first be humbled for sin, and then rejoice in it afterward.

Objection. But here it might be objected: Are we not told to rejoice always, and always to be thankful (1 Thess 5:16)? Then how can these agree? For weeping and mourning are contrary to thanksgiving and joy.

Answer. To this I answer that the state of a Christian in this life is a mixed state, both inward and outward; his outward state and the inward disposition of the soul are mixed. Therefore, having this mixed state, our conduct must correspond to it. Since we always have cause of mourning and rejoicing, both from what is in us and from outside us, a Christian therefore ought to rejoice always, and in some measure to mourn always.

For example, a Christian has cause of mourning within him when he looks upon his sinful nature and the sins he commits daily; yet notwithstanding, at the same time, there is cause of joy and great reason to bless God, when he considers that God has pardoned his sins in Christ. Thus the apostle did: when he looked upon himself and his own vileness, he cries out, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death!” (Rom 7:24). Yet for all this, at the same time he rejoices and blesses God: “I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord, who hath freed me from the law of sin and of death” (Rom 7:25; Rom 8:2). Thus, you see, in respect of ourselves we always have cause both of joy and of mourning, and therefore we must do both.

In the same way we have continual causes both of joy and of sorrow from outside us, if we look to the church of God. Of joy, because there is a God in heaven who has an eye to his church, who pities it and tenderly guards it as the apple of his eye, who takes its afflictions to heart, who will be glorious in the midst of the troubles of his people, by upholding, comforting, and turning all to the best for them. Of sorrow also, because of the miseries under which the church of God groans, of which we are bound to take notice, and so to weep with them that weep (Isa 22:12; Amos 6:6; Rom 12:15).

You see the rare mixture of joy and sorrow in a Christian, by which he is made capable of this great privilege: he is neither swallowed up by grief, because his sorrow proceeds from a heart where there is cause of joy, nor does he lose himself in excessive joy, because he always sees in himself cause of sorrow. Now, as can be seen in other mixtures, there is not at all times an equal quantity or portion of each particular thing to be mingled, but now more of the one and at another time more of the other, as the cause varies. So it is in this mixture of joy and sorrow for ourselves and for others. Sometimes joy must abound with its causes, and sometimes sorrow with its causes superabounds.

It will be worth our inquiry, therefore, to know when to rejoice most and when to weep most. We shall know this by God’s call in outward occasions, and by the spirit of discretion within us, which will guide us. For God has given his children a spirit of discretion that will teach them when to rejoice and when to weep most. As God calls to mourning now in these times when the church of God is in misery, as he calls for sighs for the afflictions of Joseph, so the spirit of discretion within us tells us what to do.

Question. Yet here there may be a question: How shall we know when to cease and leave off mourning? For the soul is a finite thing, and cannot dwell upon one action always, because it has many things to do; and therefore it cannot always mourn nor always rejoice.

Answer. To this I answer that we have mourned enough, and discharged our duty in it sufficiently, when we have overcome our hearts and brought them to a temper of mourning, and have complained before God, spread the ills of the times before him, and entreated pity from him, having poured ourselves out in prayer, though short, yet effectual. When we have done this, then we have discharged our duty in mourning, and may turn to other occasions as God requires of us; for when we have mourned and wept, then we must look upon causes of rejoicing and thanksgiving.

We must always remember to mourn and weep in such a way that, even so, looking upon God’s blessing upon us both in kingdom, state, and our own particular persons, we may be stirred to thankfulness. For we must not always be sullen, looking upon the evil; but casting our eyes upon the good things we do enjoy, we must stir ourselves up to be thankful. Even as men whose eyes are dazzled will look upon some green color to recover their sight, so when we have worked upon our souls and brought them to mourn, then, to help and raise them up, we ought to look upon causes of joy and thankfulness. We have cause of thankfulness when we consider that many churches in France and other places are invaded by enemies, oppressed with cruelty and deprived of liberty, while we still enjoy the liberty and free passage of the gospel, being freed from the destruction of war and pestilence, which devours so many that it makes the land mourn. He continues to give us liberty to hear the word, and gives us many blessings that others do not have. Indeed, we have cause to bless God for freeing us from that most terrible judgment of all judgments, which makes both church and commonwealth mourn, because he does not allow us to fall into the hands of man, but takes us into his own hand to correct us. It is God’s infinite mercy that he does not humble us by our enemies, but takes us into his own hand. Therefore let us not provoke him, lest he give us up to the hands of our merciless enemies, which is a terrible judgment. It would be a hundred times better for us to meet him by repentance and cast ourselves into his hands, for then we have to deal only with a merciful God. But when we have to deal with merciless men who scorn the gospel, then we have both God and them to deal with, which doubles our affliction.

Therefore let us mourn, seeing we have cause, for ourselves and for the condition of others. But still let us be thankful, for if we were more thankful for God’s benefits, we would have them continued longer. For as prayer begs blessings, so thanksgiving continues them. As the best way to obtain good things is prayer and mourning, so the best way to preserve them is thanksgiving and rejoicing. So, then, we have plainly seen that Christians should not always be gloomy and look sour, but must rejoice and be thankful as well as mourn and weep.

Question 1. But here, before I proceed, I must answer some cases of conscience. First, what shall we say to those souls who cannot weep for the sins and miseries of the church, and therefore complain of the lack of tears?

Question 2. What shall we say to the soul who can weep, but more for outward things than for spiritual things?

Answer 1. To the first I answer briefly that we must not speak of tears as the friars do, and never know where they come from. When we speak of weeping, we must always understand that tears are good only so far as they spring from sorrow and love within, that is, when they proceed from inward hatred of sin, and from fear and love toward the church of God. If this is in a man, the tears themselves do not much matter. There may be weeping without true sorrow, as there was in Esau for the blessing (Gen 27:38). So too the Jews could weep and howl upon their beds when there was a famine, yet there was no sound sorrow in them.

And on the contrary, there may be true sorrow without weeping. Indeed, it may be such that there can be no weeping, because the sorrow may be so great that it is more a stunned amazement than a weeping. In a fresh wound in the body, at first not as much pain is felt, nor is the blood seen, because the part is only stunned. In the same way the soul for a time may be in such amazement and grief that there may be no expression of tears. Again, the soul follows the temperament of the body. Some have a constitution that sheds tears more easily than others, so that there may be more grief where there are the fewest tears.

But to come to the question more directly, we ought to think our condition not as good as it should be if we cannot at one time or another weep for the sins and miseries of the church. If we can shed tears for outward things at one time or another, and cannot weep for spiritual things, it is a bad sign. For certainly, at one time or another, God’s children ordinarily express their sorrow for their sins and for the condition of the church by tears. They either have tears for spiritual reasons, or else they mourn that they cannot mourn, grieve that they cannot grieve, and desire that they might mourn and that they could weep. They wish with Jeremiah that their head were a fountain of tears. They wish their bodies might answer the intent of their soul, so that they might largely express outwardly their inward grief. As Jeremiah feared he would not have tears enough, and therefore wished that his head were a fountain of tears, so they desire it: “Oh that I could mourn, and that I could weep!”

Answer 2. But what shall we say to those who can weep for other things? Shall they be condemned as hypocrites?

1. I answer, no. For a torrent may run faster for the moment than a continual current; so on a sudden there may be tears and grief for outward things, and yet grief for sin is greater because of its continuance. For sin is a continual cause of sorrow, whereas sorrow for outward things comes only on a sudden, as it did in David when he cried, “Oh my son Absalom, my son Absalom!” (2 Sam 18:33). What ado is here on a sudden for Absalom! And yet he wept for his sins more, because that was a continual grief. So in a Christian there may be some sudden passion, when he may seem to weep and grieve most for outward things, but still his grief for sin and for the misery of the church is greater, because it is a continual grief.

2. Again, spiritual grief comes from spiritual causes. Tears for sin and for the church of God issue purely from spiritual grounds, whereas in natural grief for outward things, both the Spirit and nature make us grieve. Now when both of these meet together, they carry the soul strongly, as in a stream, so that there must necessarily be more tears and grief for outward things. As when the windows of heaven were opened from above and the foundations below were broken up, a great flood had to follow (Gen 7:11), so when we have the Spirit from above and our nature below, there must of necessity be a great grief for outward things.

Yet in these cases a little spiritual sorrow is better than a great deal of natural sorrow, for spiritual grief fattens the soul. As the river Nile runs through Egypt and fattens the land, so this heavenly water of tears and grief fattens the soul and makes it fit for all holy services. They are both good, but one less than the other. Natural grief is allowable, and a man who does not have it is in a reprobate state of mind; for the apostle reckons this up as a great sin, that in the latter days men should be without natural affection. So then we see that for this reason also there may be a great store of grief and tears for outward things.

3. Again, let those who grieve that they cannot grieve more know and comfort themselves with this: they have the Spirit of God within them, who is an everlasting spring that will in time overcome all carnal and worldly considerations whatever, and bring the heart into a fit temper for weeping and grieving over spiritual things.

Use. Well, if this is so, what shall we think of the jovial people of the world, who are so far from this sorrow? When a man comes and asks them when they wept for their sins, when they ever mourned and sent up sighs to God for their swearing, lying, profaning of God’s Sabbath, for the wrong they have done to others, or for any of their sins, the time has never yet been when they shed a tear for sin, or had a sigh, groan, or mourning for sin. In what condition are we born? All children of wrath and heirs of damnation. But when did you get out of this state? You have always lived in jollity. Therefore you are still as you were born, a child of wrath. Do you think you will reap, and never sow? To reap in joy, and never sow in tears? God puts all his children’s tears in a bottle; but you spare God the labor, because you never weep.

There is a company of people who monopolize all jollity and mirth, as if they had no cause to weep. Yet when anyone hears their language, and observes their ways and their living in gross sins, he may quickly judge that they of all others have the most cause to weep, though no one is freer from mourning, and though they seem to be the only men in the world. But I say to such people, go, weep, howl, and lament for your sins, for your peace is not yet made with God. Therefore never rest until you have gotten an assurance from heaven that your sins are forgiven you. Many people are angry because ministers tell them this, but surely we ministers must be damned if we do not.

Therefore, if anyone would hope for comfort, and to have God wipe away their tears from them in another world, let them work upon their hearts here to shed tears for their own sins first, and then for the sins of the time. For their own first, I say, for a man must first be good in himself before he can be good to others. And then let their grief extend to their brothers and sisters even beyond the seas, to the forlorn condition of the church there.

Now the last thing noted in Josiah’s weeping is its sincerity: “Thou hast wept before me”; that is, sincerely, before God. He sinned before him, and is humbled before him. Nothing is hidden from his sight, not only open sins, but he knows the very thoughts of our hearts. Therefore let us weep before him without hypocrisy. It does not matter whether the world sees it or not; but let us weep before God, as the prophet says: “My soul shall weep in secret for you, and mine eyes shall weep, and drop down tears in the night season” (Jer 13:17). Let us weep in secret before God, for this is without hypocrisy. Now follows the outcome of his weeping and humbling of himself.

“I have even heard thee also,” says the Lord.

In these words is set down God’s gracious acceptance of Josiah’s humiliation, which did not go without his special notice. “For I have even heard thee,” says the Lord. So it seems Josiah did utter some words of grief, because God says, “I have heard it.” And we may the more readily think so, because God’s children usually add words to their tears in their prayers, as David and good Hezekiah did. Even so, though his prayer was not a distinct prayer framed in composed speech, yet it was a prayer, because with these tears he sent up sighs and groans, and uttered broken words from a broken heart. There was such a language in his heart as God understood, for God understands the language of his own Spirit in the hearts of his children. The Spirit knows what we mean (Rom 8:26-27).

God has an ear to hear our desires, our sighs and groans; for tears have the weight of a voice, they speak for us. Where there is true grief, many times composed speech cannot come, for a broken heart expresses itself more in sighs, groans, and tears than in words. Though we do not utter distinct words in a form of prayer, yet he hears our sighs and groans; his ears are open to the cries of his children. So from this we learn, for our comfort against all Satan’s temptations:

Doctrine 6. That God takes particular notice of, and understands, the prayers we make to him: he hears the groans of his children. So David says, “My groaning is not hid from thee” (Ps 38:9). So the prophet says, “He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him; he will also hear their cry, and will save them” (Ps 145:18-19). Indeed, he knows our thoughts long before. This must necessarily be so.

Reason 1. Because he is gracious and merciful; he is a God who hears prayers.

2. Because of the relationship which in his love he has taken upon himself, to be a Father. So when someone, by the Spirit of adoption, calls God Father, there is so much eloquence and rhetoric in this very word, and it so moves the inmost compassions of God, that he cannot help but hear. Even as when a child speaks to his father and calls him by this name, this word “father” so moves him that he cannot but hear. So it is with God; when he hears us call him Father, he cannot but hear us.

3. Because of his nature and love, which is above the love of an earthly father. Though a mother should forget and not hear her child, yet the Lord will hear us.

And this is also his promise: “Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will hear thee, and thou shalt glorify me” (Ps 50:15).

4. Again, God cannot think lightly of our prayers, because they are the motions of his own Spirit. You may say, “Oh, but they are broken prayers.” That is true; but the Spirit understands them and makes intercession for us with sighs and groans that cannot be expressed, and no one can understand them but the Spirit (Rom 8:26-27).

5. Again, God cannot but hear our prayers, because they are offered up in the name of a mediator. They are perfumed with the incense and sacrifice of his Son. Therefore he cannot but hear them.

6. Again, God must necessarily hear our prayers, because they are made according to his will. When we pray for ourselves and for the church of God, it is according to God’s will. So then, if we consider these things, God cannot but hear our prayers.

Objection. But some will object, “God does not hear me. I have prayed a long while, and yet he has not given me an answer.”

Answer 1. I answer that God always hears, though sometimes he seems not to hear, in order to increase our persistence. Christ heard the woman of Canaan at first; but still, to increase her persistence, he gave her the repulse and denial, and along with it, inward strength to wrestle with him.

Answer 2. Again, God seems not to hear because he delights in the music of his children’s prayers. Oh how he loves to hear the voice of his children! As a father loves to hear the language of his child, though it is none of the best, so it is sweet music in God’s ears to hear the prayers of his children. He will have prayers to be cries. Therefore he defers hearing; but in deferring he does not defer, for he increases our strength, as in Jacob’s wrestling, so that we might cry after him, wrestle with him, and offer violence to him again.

Answer 3. And sometimes, indeed, he will not hear us because, it may be, there is some secret Achan in the camp or some Jonah in the ship; some sin, I mean, unrepented of in the heart. For in this case we may come before God again and again, and he will not hear us. This is the reason God does not hear many Christians: they have not made a thorough inquiry into their own condition, found out their sins, and humbled themselves for them. Thus we see for what reasons God defers hearing our prayers.

Use 1. If this is so, that God hears us, let us make this use of it: to be plentiful in prayers, and lay up a great store of them in the bosom of God, for this is what will do us the most good. He hears every one in due time. We never lose a sigh, a tear, or anything good that proceeds from his own Spirit, but he will answer abundantly in his own time. For he who gives a desire, and prepares our heart to pray, and gives us a Mediator by whom to offer our prayers up, will doubtless accept them in his own Son, and will answer them. The time will come when he will accept nothing else, and we will have nothing else to offer up. What a comfort it will be then, that we have called upon God in former times and can call upon him now! The day is coming when goods will do us no good, but prayers will.

What a comfort, then, it is to a Christian that he has a God to go to, who hears his prayers! Let all the world join together against a Christian, take away everything else and cast him into a dungeon, yet they cannot take his God away from him. What a happiness it is to pray! We can never be miserable so long as we have the Spirit of prayer. Though we were in a dungeon with Jeremiah, or in the whale’s belly with Jonah, yes, though in hell, even there we might have cause for comfort.

Let us therefore be ashamed of our barrenness in this duty, and observe whether God hears our prayers, or else how can we be thankful? There are many who pray because their consciences force them to some devotion, and so they hurry carelessly through a few prayers so that their consciences may not strike them, but they never observe the outcome of their prayers, whether God hears them or not. Yet God is a God who hears prayers, and the child of God esteems nothing but what he has from God as a fruit of prayer, and therefore he returns thanks accordingly.

God will have his children beg everything from him. As some fathers will give nothing to their children unless they first ask for it, so God will give us nothing but what we pray for. And though he goes beyond this and gives us more than we ask, yet he expects that we should return thanks in some measure proportionate to the benefit received. Therefore let us observe how God hears our prayers, so that we may be suitably thankful. This will strengthen our faith in evil times, when we can plead with God like this: “Hear, Lord! In the past I came before you, though weakly, yet with a broken heart, and you heard me then. You are still a God who hears prayer; therefore, Lord, look upon my condition now and help me.”

Seeing, then, that God hears our prayers, let us think of this glorious privilege, that we have liberty to go to the throne of grace in all our needs. The whole world is not worth this one privilege. We cannot command the prince’s ear at all times, but we have a God always to go to, who will hear us. What wretched folly it is, therefore, in those who by their sins bring themselves into such a condition that they cannot have God hear them.

Question. But how shall we make such prayers as God will hear?

Answer. I answer first of all: Would we be in such a condition that we may enjoy this blessed privilege, to have God’s ear ready to hear?

1. Then hear him. If we want God to hear us, then let us hear God, as Josiah did. When he heard the word read, his heart melted. For “he that turneth away his ears from hearing the law, even his prayers shall be abominable,” says God (Prov 28:9).

And is it not good reason, do we think, for God not to hear us when we will not hear him? Because I have called, and you have refused; when you are in misery, and shall out of self-love cry to me to be delivered, then I will refuse to hear you, says the Lord (Prov 1:24-25). Therefore let all profane people, who will not hear God, know that a time will come when, though they cry and roar, he will not hear them.

2. If we want God to hear our prayers, they must proceed from a broken heart. Prayers are the sacrifice of a broken spirit. Josiah had a tender and a broken heart, and therefore God could not despise his prayers. So David pleads with God: “The sacrifice of God is a broken and a contrite spirit” (Ps 51:17). So holy Bernard says, “I have led a life unbefitting me; but yet my comfort is, that a broken heart and a contrite spirit, Lord, thou wilt not despise.” God will hear the prayers and tears of relenting hearts.

3. To strengthen our prayers we must add to them the wings of love, faith, hope, and earnestness, as Josiah did here. Out of love for his country his prayers were joined with weeping, and he wrestled with tears. Oh, the prayers that have tears with them cannot go without a blessing!

4. Lastly, if we want God to hear us, let us have such a resolution and purpose of reformation as Josiah had. For his prayers were joined with a purpose of reformation, which he afterward carried out in so strict a manner that there was never such a reformation among all the kings of Judah as he made. To this purpose David says, “If I regard wickedness in my heart, God will not hear my prayer” (Ps 66:18). If we have even a resolution to live in any sinful course, we may make as many prayers as we like; God will not regard them. God regarded good Josiah because he had no purpose to live in any sin against him.

If we come to God with a traitorous mind, with our sins in our arms, we must look for no acceptance from him. When a man comes to a king to present a petition to him, and comes with a dagger in his hand to stab him, will the king accept this man’s petition? So, do we think that God will hear our prayers when we bring a dagger in our hand, to stab him with our sins? If we will not leave swearing, lying, pride, covetousness, and the like, if we have not covenanted with our own hearts but still go on in sin, we shall never go away with a blessing. Josiah reformed himself; therefore God says, “I have also heard thee.” Thus if our prayers issue from a heart rightly disposed, as good Josiah’s was, then we shall fare as he did. For God not only heard his prayer, but see how he rewards him with an excellent blessing: to be taken home to heaven from the troubles of this life, which we shall speak of next.

Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again. (2 Chr 34:28)

It is for the most part the privilege of a Christian that his last days are his best; and “though weeping be in the evening, yet joy comes in the morning” (Ps 30:5). Though he may begin in darkness, yet he ends in light. On the contrary, the wicked begin in jollity and light, but end in darkness; yes, in such a darkness as is “utter darkness” (Matt 8:12), which Peter calls the “blackness of darkness” (2 Pet 2:17). The preparations for it are God’s outward judgments, inflicted in this life on the impenitent and rebellious. In these God many times puts a perceptible, visible difference between the godly and the wicked: as between Lot and the Sodomites; Noah and the adulterous world; Moses and the Israelites with him, and Korah, Dathan, and his company; the Egyptians and the Israelites at the Red Sea; and in this text, between this good king and his people. He must not see all the evil that God was to bring on his wicked and rebellious subjects.

Oh the happiness of holiness, which is sure to fare well in all storms whatever, because on all the glory there is a defense, as Isaiah says (Isa 4:5). “Light is sown for the righteous” (Ps 97:11); and whatever a righteous man’s troubles may be, yet his last end shall be blessed. “Let me die,” says Balaam, “the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his” (Num 23:10). Such honor have all his saints, and such honor had this good King Josiah, being removed from here so that he might not see the evil to come. Though he was taken from earth, yet it was for his good, that he might be gathered into heaven and make a royal exchange.

The words contain a promise of a reward, and great favor to good King Josiah: that he should die and be gathered to his fathers; and what is more, considering the manner of it, that he should “die in peace.” The ground of this is shown to him: “Because thine eyes shall not see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same.”

God’s promises are of three sorts. First, those he made on condition of legal obedience: “Do this and thou shalt live” (Luke 10:28). Second, when we are humbled at the sight of our sins, he then sets forth another way, and promises that if we believe in Jesus Christ our surety, who has made satisfaction for us, then we shall live. This is the grand promise of all, the promise of life everlasting and pardon of sin. Third, there are promises of encouragement to us when we are in the state of grace. As a father who means to make his son an heir gives him many promises of encouragement, so God deals with his children when they are in the covenant of grace.

There are, I say, promises of particular rewards to encourage them, even as they are sure of the main and great reward, namely, everlasting life. Therefore, Josiah being an heir of heaven, God set before him a promise of encouragement, by way of favor, to show that his good works were not unregarded.

Doctrine 1. In general, we may observe here God’s gracious dealing with his children: he takes notice of every good thing they do, and rewards them for it, yes, in this life. There is not a sigh but God hears it, not a tear but he has a bottle for it. Most people spare God a labor in this kind. He promises “to wipe away all tears from our eyes” (Rev 21:4), but they will shed none. Yet the least tear shed and the least word spoken in a good cause does not go without a reward from God; not so much as a cup of cold water but he rewards it. And this must be so.

For God looks on the good things we do, since they are his own works in us, as on lovely objects, with a love for them. For though Josiah had said nothing, yet his deep humiliation itself was, as it were, a prayer, which cried so strongly in the ears of God that he could not but reward it. So then, partly because God looks on us as lovely objects, since he loves the work of his own Spirit, and partly because our good works cry to God, as it were, and pluck down a blessing from heaven, they cannot go unrewarded.

Use. This is matter of comfort, that God will not only reward us with heaven, but will also recompense every good thing we do, even in this world. Yes, such is his bounty that he rewards hypocrites. Because he will not be in their debt for any good thing they do, nor have them die unrewarded, he recompenses them with some outward favors, which is all they desire. Ahab only acted a counterfeit humiliation, and he was rewarded for it (1 Kgs 21:27-29). So the scribes and Pharisees did many good things, and had what they looked for. They did not look for heaven, but for the praise of men. This they had, as Christ tells them: “Verily, I say unto you, you have your reward” (Matt 6:5). God will be in debt to no one; whoever does anything that is good shall have some reward, whether they are good or bad.

If a man’s conscience judged well of him, he might come to God with boldness, not to brag of good works, but saying out of a humble heart, “Remember me, O Lord, as I have dealt with you.” So good Hezekiah did: “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before thee in truth” (Isa 38:3). When we labor in all our actions to please God, we may approach the throne of grace with boldness, and say with Peter: Remember, Lord, “Thou knowest that I love thee” (John 21:15). If there were no other reward but this, that we have the privilege of going to God with boldness, our conscience not accusing us, it would be enough.

What a shame it is, then, that we should be so barren in good works, seeing our labor shall not be unrewarded by the Lord! Oh then let us take counsel from the apostle: “Finally, my brethren, be ye steadfast and unmoveable, abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor 15:58). He has a reward for every cup of cold water, for every tear. Every good deed we do has the force of a prayer to beg a blessing; yes, our very tears speak loud to God, although we say nothing. But to come to particulars.

“Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers ...”

Here we see this word behold, a word serving to stir up attention, set before the promise, as it was earlier set before a threatening: “Behold, I will bring evil upon this place ...” (2 Chr 34:24). Behold is as necessary before promises as before threatenings. For the soul is ready to behold what is evil, and by nature is prone to dejection and to casting itself down. Therefore there needs to be a “behold” put before the promise, to raise up the dejected soul of Josiah or of others, and even all that is barely enough. Christians should have two eyes, one to look on the ill, the other on the good and the grace of God that is in them, so that we may be thankful. But for the most part they look only on the ill that is in them, and so God goes without his glory and we go without our comfort.

“Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace.”

Doctrine 2. Mark here the language of Canaan, how the Spirit of God in common matters raises up the soul to think highly of them.

That is why the Holy Ghost sweetens death with a phrase of “gathering.” Instead of saying, “You shall die,” he says, “Thou shalt be gathered.” How many phrases we have in Scripture that have comfort wrapped in them, as there is in this phrase, “Thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace.” I will not speak of how many ways peace is taken in Scripture. “Thou shalt die in peace”: that is, you shall die quietly, honorably, and peaceably, and you shall not see the misery that I will bring on the state and kingdom. “Thou shalt be gathered to thy fathers”: this means to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to all the faithful patriarchs.

Doctrine 3. Only observe that it is a very sweet word, and conveys to us that death is nothing but a gathering. It presupposes that God’s children are all scattered in this world among wicked men, in a forlorn place, where they are badly treated, as pilgrims usually are in a strange land. Therefore we have need to be gathered, and it is a comfort to be gathered. But from where shall he be gathered? He shall be gathered from a wicked, confused world. And to whom shall he go? To his fathers. His soul shall go to the souls of his fathers, and his body shall be laid in the grave with theirs. It is as if he had said, “You shall leave some company, but go to better; you shall leave a kingly estate, but you shall go to a better kingdom.”

Doctrine 4. The changes of God’s children are for the better. Death to them is but a gathering. This gathering shows the preciousness of the thing gathered, for God does not usually gather things of no value. Josiah was a pearl worth the gathering. He was one of high esteem, very precious. So every Christian is dearly bought, with the blood of Christ. Therefore God will not allow him to perish, but will gather him before the evil days come. As people gather their jewels before fire comes into their houses, or as farmers will be sure to gather their grain before they let the beasts come into the field, so God says to him, I will be sure to gather you before I bring destruction on the land.

We are all by nature lost in Adam and scattered from God; therefore we must be gathered again in Christ. For all gathering that is good is in him, since he is the head of all union that is good. And this is to be brought about by the ordinances of God, by means of the ministry, which is appointed to that end, to gather us, as Christ says to Jerusalem: “How often would I have gathered you together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but you would not” (Matt 23:37). Christ would have gathered them to himself by his word, but they refused.

All the gathering of a Christian in this life is a gathering to Christ by faith, and to the communion of saints by love; and the more he grows in grace, the nearer communion he has with Christ. Then after this gathering by grace, there comes by death a gathering to Christ in glory, for the soul goes forever and ever to be with the Lord. After this comes a higher degree of gathering at the day of judgment, when there shall be a great meeting of all saints, and the soul and body shall be reunited, to remain forever with the Lord (1 Thess 4:17).

Let us then think of this, that whatever befalls us in the world, we shall be sure to be gathered, for death is but a gathering. For from where does Josiah go? From a sinful world, a sinful estate, a wretched people, to his fathers, who are all good; no, to God his Father. We are all here as Daniel in the lion’s den, as sheep among wolves; but at death we shall be gathered to our fathers. It is a gathering to a better place, to heaven; and to better persons, to fathers, where we shall be forever praising the Lord, never offending him, loving and pleasing one another. Here Christians displease one another, and cannot be gathered together in love and affection, but there they shall be gathered in unity of love forever.

Use. This serves, first of all, to comfort us in the departure of friends, and to help us render their souls up with comfort into the hands of God. We know they are not lost, but sent before us. We shall be gathered to them; they cannot come to us. Why then should we grieve? They are gathered in quietness and rest to their fathers.

This should also make us render our own souls to God, as into the hands of a faithful Creator and Redeemer. From where do we go? From a sinful world and a place of tears, to a place of happiness above expression. Why should we be afraid of death? It is but a gathering to our fathers. What a comfort it is to us in this world, that we shall go to a place where all is good, where we shall be perfectly renewed, made in the image of God, and shall have nothing defaced! Let this raise up our dead and drowsy souls. Thus we shall one day be gathered.

The wicked shall be gathered together, but it is a woeful gathering. They shall be gathered like a bundle of tares, to be thrown into hell, there to burn forever. They are dross and chaff, never gathered to Christ by faith, nor to the body of the church by love. Therefore they are as dross and chaff, which the wind scatters here (Ps 1:4), and they shall be forever scattered hereafter. They are, like Cain, vagabonds with regard to the life of grace here; and therefore they shall be forever scattered from the life of glory hereafter.

They shall be gathered to those they delighted in and kept company with while they were in this world. They loved to keep company with the wicked here; therefore they shall be gathered to them in hell hereafter. This is sure: you shall live afterward, in heaven or in hell, with those you lived with here. Do you live delighted only in evil company now? It is a pity you should be separated from them hereafter. If you are gathered to them in love and affection here, you shall be gathered to them in hell and destruction hereafter.

It is a comforting evidence to those who delight in good company that they shall be with them in heaven forever. “Hereby we know that we are translated from death to life, because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14). And on the contrary, those who are brethren in evil here may read in their own wicked courses and manner of life what will become of them hereafter. They are all tares, and shall be gathered together in a bundle, and cast into hell fire forever.

“And thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace.”

Here is a reward, not only to die, but to die in peace. Josiah goes the way of all flesh; he must die though he is a king. This statute binds all. All are liable to death. “And thou shalt be gathered, or put in thy grave in peace.” This declares that he should be buried, the ground of which is out of Genesis 3:19: “Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return.” From earth we came, and to earth we shall return. The earth we carry and the earth we tread on shall both meet together. Since God here promises it to Josiah as a blessing, we may learn from this:

Doctrine 5. That burial is a comely and honorable thing, and that we ought to have respect for it. We ought to, partly because the body of a dead Christian is a precious thing. Such bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost, members of Christ, and therefore ought to have the honor of burial. We ought to, partly because it shows our love and affection for the person buried, for it is the last kindness we can do for them. Again, we ought to have respect for burial to show our hope of the resurrection: that though the body is cast into the earth, yet it shall rise; though it is sown in dishonor, yet it shall rise in honor.

So we see that for these reasons burial is honorable. Therefore it is said of the faithful in Scripture that they were buried, to show how honorable a thing it is. And indeed it is an honor, especially for fathers, to be buried by their friends and children, and carried by them to their graves. For to be buried like a beast is a judgment on wicked men.

Question. But what then shall we say of all those who are not buried this way, whose bodies are given to be torn by wild beasts, or burned to ashes, or flung into rivers, as antichrist commonly deals with many saints?

Answer. In this case faith must raise itself above the difficulty. For though it is a favor and blessing of God to have Christian burial after we are dead, yet Christians must be content to go without this blessing sometimes, when God calls them to the contrary, as when we cannot have it on good terms, with peace of conscience or with God’s love. In this case a burial, compared with God’s favor, is not worth naming. Therefore let all Christians be content to put their bodies, life and all, at hazard; not only to be willing to go without burial when we are dead, but to sacrifice our lives and whatever else for God, as many saints have been martyred and their bodies burned to ashes. Yet God will gather together the ashes of the dead bodies of his children; for “right precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Ps 116:15).

And is it not better to go without this with God’s favor than to have the most honorable burial in the world on evil terms? For what does the Spirit of God say? “Happy and blessed are they which die in the Lord” (Rev 14:13). Not happy are they that die in pomp and are buried in state, but happy are they that die in the Lord. Therefore when we may not have burial, although it is a comely thing, yet if we have God and Christ, we have all that is good. And so it is no matter what becomes of our bodies after we are dead; for though we are flung into the sea or burned to ashes, yet both sea and earth must give up all the dead, as it says in Revelation 20:13. Therefore as for our bodies, let us be willing that God may have them, who gave them; and if he will have us sacrifice our lives for him, let us do it willingly.

“And thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace.”

Objection. How can this be? For we read in the next chapter concerning Josiah that he died a violent death; he was slain by the hands of his enemies. Is this to die in peace?

Answer. The next words explain it. He died in peace, because his eyes should not see the evil that God would bring upon the land afterwards; as if he had said, “You shall not see the ruin of the church and commonwealth.” So, though Josiah was slain by idolaters, by Pharaoh and his chariots, yet he died in peace by comparison with a worse state of life. For though he died a bloody death by the hands of his enemies, yet he died in peace, because death kept him from seeing what was worse than death. For God may reserve a man in this life for worse miseries than death itself.

From this we learn this instruction:

Doctrine 6. That death may be less miserable than the ill which a man may live to see in this life; or, that the miseries of this life may be such that death may be much better than life, and far rather to be chosen. We may fall into such miseries while we live that we may desire death, since they are greater than it. The reason for this is that a sudden death is in some respects better than a lingering one. One death is better than many deaths, for how many deaths did Josiah escape by this one death! It would have been a death to him if he had lived to see the ruin of the commonwealth and the church of God, and his own sons carried into captivity; to have seen them slain, their eyes plucked out, the temple of God plucked down, and idolatry set up.

We ought then to be careful how to avoid a cursed and miserable state after death. All the care of wicked men is to avoid death. But they may fall into such a state in this life that they may wish for death, as a heathen emperor once did, who complained, “I have none who will do me so much favor as to kill me.” All the desire of atheists is that they may live. You base atheist, you may fall into such a state as is worse than death; and if that is so terrible, what will that state be after death? An atheist in this life desires life: “Oh that I might not die!” But in hell you will desire, “Oh that I might die!” The time will come when you shall desire what you cannot bear to hear of now. What desperate folly it is, therefore, to redeem life on base conditions, and not to give it for the gospel when we are called to it. In this case, that base life which we insist on so much will cost us the loss of our soul forever in hell, when we shall desire to die.

“Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be put in thy grave in peace.” The Lord says he “will gather.” So we see:

Doctrine 7. Our times are in God’s hand; as David says, “My time is in thy hand” (Ps 31:15). Our times of coming into the world, continuing in it, and going out of it, are in God’s hand. Therefore he says, “Thou shalt be put in thy grave in peace.” God has power over death. Our going and coming is from God; he is the Lord of life and death.

Use. This is a comfort to us while we live in this world: that while we live we are not in our own hands, and we shall not die in our own time; neither is our time in our enemies’ hands, but in God’s hand. He has appointed a certain time for our being here in this world. This should tie us to obedience, and to die in hope and faith, because when we die we are but gathered to our fathers, to better company and a better place than we leave behind us.

Again, we see here that men may outlive their own happiness, so that at last life may be a judgment to them, because they may see what is worse than death. How many parents live to see the ruin of their own families, the undoing of their children by their own misconduct! We see that God takes Josiah away because he will not have him live, as it were, beyond his happiness. We see how tenderly affected God is toward the good of his children. He pities them when they are in misery, knows what they are able to bear, and will lay no more on them than he gives them strength to endure. God knew that Josiah was tender-hearted and melted at the very threatenings. If he could not endure to hear them against his country, could he ever have endured to see the miseries on his people and country? Surely not. Therefore God will rather gather him to his fathers.

Now this is a wonderful comfort, that many times God will not let us see too great a matter of grief. Let us then imitate God, and deal with one another as God deals with us: the husband with the wife, the wife with the husband, and the like. Let us not acquaint them with such things as may make them grieve more than is fitting, or than they are able to bear. God would not have Josiah see the misery he brought on his country, because he knew that Josiah was tenderly disposed, and that a little grief would soon overcome him. So let us beware of causing anyone to grieve, or of letting them know things they are not able to bear.

Again, seeing that it is a grief to a kind and loving father, yes, worse than death, to see the ruin of his child, this should teach all who are young to take care that they give no occasion of offense to grieve those who are over them, for that will be worse than death to them. It would have been worse than a death to Josiah to have seen the ruin of his children. So with those children who have been cherished by their parents in their childhood: it will be worse than death to the parents in their old age to see their children wicked and come to ruin. By this the children bring the gray head of their father to the grave in sorrow so much the sooner. These offend against the sixth commandment, which says, “Thou shalt not kill.” Let us rather revive and comfort the hearts of those who have been good to us, and not kill them, or do what is worse than death to them.

“Neither shall thy eyes see the misery I will bring upon this people.”

Doctrine 8. Here we learn again that it is the sight of misery which works the deepest impression. It is not the hearing of a thing, but the sight of it, which affects us most deeply; as in the sacrament, the seeing of the bread broken and the wine poured out works a deep impression. And because God knew Josiah’s heart would break at the sight of the misery, he therefore tells him, “Thine eyes shall not see the evil that I will bring upon this place.” Sight is a most powerful sense for making the deepest impression on the soul. What shall be our great joy and happiness in heaven, but that we shall see God forevermore? Sight is a blessing on earth, both the eyes of the body with which we see, and the eyes of the soul (that is, faith), which make us see afar off, until in heaven we shall see him face to face. So sight makes us both happy and miserable.

Use 1. How wretched, then, is the state of those who shall see themselves, with their own wicked eyes, sent to hell, with the creature they delighted in. What the eyes see, the heart feels. There are many atheists whose whole care is to preserve life. They would live, although they live the life of a dog. But the time will come when you will more earnestly desire death than life. Your eyes will see, and your body feel, and your conscience too, that which is worse than a thousand deaths. Then you will die a living death. The worm of your conscience will gnaw you forever, and you will see and feel the tormenting fire that will never be quenched. What the wicked nourish now so that they may follow their own whims, never caring to please God, the day will come when they will desire to avoid; and what they labor most to avoid now, the time will come when they will most desire. Death is the king of fears. It is terrible. But then look beyond death: what is behind it? You will see at its heels hell and eternal damnation.

Use 2. This should also teach us how to understand the promise of long life. It is a promise and a favor of God, to be desired. It is a prayer with a condition, if God sees it good; otherwise God may give us long life to see and feel a world of misery. Therefore such promises are to be desired conditionally: if God sees it good for us.

Doctrine 9. Again, the Holy Spirit says here, “Thy eyes shall not see the evil I will bring upon this place.” From this we learn that those who are dead in the Lord are freed from seeing any evil or misery. The godly will see no misery after death. If this is so, then they do not go into purgatory after death, as the papists hold. The Holy Spirit says that Josiah is taken away from seeing any evil to come. Then surely they do not fall into such misery after death, which is worse than death. True, say the papists, such excellent men as Josiah do go to heaven immediately. Yes, but the Holy Spirit says by Isaiah that “the righteous are taken away from the evil to come” (Isa 57:1). It is spoken of the whole generation of righteous men. Therefore it is a senseless thing for them to hold that any of them will see purgatory, when God says the righteous are taken away from seeing any evil to come.

Doctrine 10. And as this text is against them in that, so here is another conclusion against popery, which takes away their invocation of saints: for the righteous go to heaven, and cannot see or know our wants and miseries; indeed, they are taken away so that they should not see the miserable condition that befalls their posterity. Then if they do not know our wants, how can they hear and help us when we pray, seeing it is a part of their happiness not to understand our miseries? For if Josiah, from heaven, could have seen the desolation and misery that befell his country afterward, it would have worked upon him. But Josiah was taken away so that he should not see it. Therefore, why should people spend that blessed incense and sacrifice of prayer on those who cannot hear?

But suppose they could hear some; can they still hear all who pray to them? A finite creature has only a finite act and limited power. How can one saint give a distinct answer and help to perhaps a thousand prayers, as the Virgin Mary has many thousand prayers offered to her? How can she distinctly know, and give a distinct answer to, every prayer?

“Thou shalt be put in thy grave in peace, neither shall thy eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place.” Let us learn here a mystery of divine providence in his death; for there is a mystery of providence not only in great matters, such as election and predestination, but in the ordering of the common things of the world. How many excellent mysteries are wrapped together here in this death of Josiah! First, it is said that he died in peace, although he died a violent death and was slain by the hands of his enemies.

His death was both a mercy and a correction: a correction for his error in being so hasty in going to war with Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and yet it was a mercy, because it kept him from seeing the evil to come, and so also brought him sooner to heaven. It is a strange thing to see how the wisdom of heaven can mingle crosses and favors, corrections and mercies together; that the same thing should be both a mercy to Josiah in his being taken away, and yet also a correction for his error in going to fight against Necho, king of Egypt, as we see in 2 Chronicles 35:23. We may have mercies and afflictions upon us at the same time, as God, by the same death, corrected Josiah’s folly and rewarded his humility.

Notice here again another mystery, in the conduct of divine providence: how he brings his promises to pass strangely, above the reach of man. Here, since he had promised Josiah that he would die in peace, one would have thought that Josiah would have died in pomp and state. No. You will die in peace, Josiah, although you are slain by the hand of your enemies; you will come to heaven, although it is by a strange way. Thus God brings his children to heaven by strange ways, indeed by contrary ways, by afflictions and persecutions. Paul knew he would come to Rome, although it was by a strange way; though he suffered shipwreck and was in great danger, as we may see in Acts 27:2 and the verses that follow. God has strange ways to bring his counsels to pass, and he does it so strangely that we may see his own hand in it.

Again, here we may see another mystery in divine providence concerning the death of Josiah, in that he was taken away while a young man, only thirty-nine years old, who was the flower of his kingdom, and one upon whom the flourishing condition of such a kingdom depended. Now, for such a gracious prince to be taken away at such a time, and at such an age, when he might have done much good, a man would hardly believe this mystery in divine providence. But our times are in God’s hand (Ps 31:15). His time is better than ours. And therefore he saw the sins of the people to be so great that he could not bear with them any longer. For it was the sins of the people that deprived them of Josiah. It was not the king of Egypt who was the cause of his death, but the sins of the land. Those sins caused God to make this way to take away their gracious king.

Use. Here we may admire the wisdom of God, who does not give us an account of his doings, why he allows some to live and takes others away; why he allows the wicked to live and takes away his own. We can give little reason for it, because it is a mystery; but God knows best the time to reap his own grain.

“Neither shall thy eyes see all the evil I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the land.”

Doctrine 11. Here the Holy Spirit implies to us that while Josiah was alive, God would not bring this judgment upon the land, but that after his death it would come upon them. So here we learn this comforting point of instruction, that the lives of God’s children keep back judgment and evil from the place where they live, and their death is a forerunner of judgment. Their life keeps back evil, and their death pulls down evil. While you are alive, I will bring no evil upon this place, but when you are gone, then I will bring it down, says God. The reasons for this are these:

Reason 1. Because gracious men make the times and the places good where they live. A world of good is done by their example and help. While they live, the times are the better for them.

Reason 2. And again, they keep back evil, because gracious men bind God by their prayers. They force, as it were, a necessity upon God, so that he must let the world alone. They bind his hands, so that he will do nothing while they are in it; as the angel said to Lot in Sodom, “I can do nothing until thou art gone” (Gen 19:22). They stand in the gap, and keep God from pouring down the vials of his wrath. But when they are gone, there is nothing to hinder or stop the current of divine justice, and it must have its course.

As when men have gathered their grain into their barns, they do not care if they then let their beasts, or whatever else, go into the field; and as when the jewels are taken out of a rotten house, though the fire then seizes it, men pay no regard. So when God’s jewels are gathered to himself, then woe to the wicked world, for then God will break forth in wrath upon them. Woe to the old world when Noah goes into the ark, for then follows the flood. Woe to Sodom when Lot goes out of it, for then it is sure to be burned.

Luther prayed that God would not bring war upon the people in Germany in all his time, but when he died, the whole land was overspread with war. So, before the destruction of Jerusalem, God gathered the Christians to a little city called Pella, near Jerusalem; then Titus and Vespasian came and ruined the city of Jerusalem. So there are many gracious parents who die, and after their death some miserable end comes to their wicked children, but not before. God takes the parents out of the world so that they might not see the ruin of their children. So then we see that it is clear that good men keep back judgment from the places where they live.

What should we learn from this?

Use 1. This should teach us to make much of such men as truly fear God, seeing it is for their sakes that God spares us. They carry the blessing of God with them wherever they go. As Laban’s house was blessed for Jacob’s sake (Gen 30:27), and Potiphar’s for Joseph’s sake (Gen 39:5), so the wicked are spared and fare the better for the saints who live among them. But what is the common course of wicked men? To hate such people with a deadly hatred above all others, because their lives and speech expose the wickedness of the wicked, and because they tell them the truth and reprove them.

That is why Ahab could not endure the sight of Micaiah, that holy prophet, who without flattery spoke the downright truth (1 Kgs 22:8 and following). So it is now beyond the seas and elsewhere. They labor to root out all the good men. But what will they get by it? Surely it will be a thousand times worse with them than it is; for if the good were once rooted out, then woe to the land at once.

Use 2. This should also teach us to pray to God to bless those who are good. Is it not good for us to uphold those pillars by which we stand? What madness is it for a man to labor to pull down the pillar by which he is held alive? As Samson, pulling down the pillars of the house, brought death upon himself, so when godly men, the pillars of this tottering world, who uphold the places where they live, are once shaken, the whole state falls. Therefore let us not be enemies to our own good by hating the godly; for it is for their sakes that the Lord shows mercy to us, and refrains from pouring out his judgment upon the wicked world. And when the best gathering of all gatherings comes, when the elect of God will be gathered together, then comes the misery of all miseries to the wicked.

So we see this point is clear, that the godly, while they are alive, keep back evil and bring much good. For does God continue the world for wicked men? Surely not. For what glory and honor does God have from such wicked wretches? Do they not swear, lie, live filthily, and abuse his members? Is it for these that God continues the world? Surely not; but for the sake of the godly judgments are deferred and the world is continued.

Use 3. If this is so, well may we lament the death of those who are good. For when they are gone, our safety is gone. They are the chariots and horsemen of Israel (2 Kgs 2:12). Therefore well may we bewail their loss. Well might Jeremiah lament for the death of Josiah, for together with the breath of Josiah the life of that state breathed out; together with him the flourishing condition of Jerusalem died, and lay buried with him, as it were, in the same grave.

See here again how God corrects too much resting on the arm of flesh. They blessed themselves under Josiah, as if no evil would come near them; as appears in Lamentations 4:20: “The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live.” There is no greater wrong to ourselves, and to others on whom we rest so much, than to feel so complacent in them that we neglect serious turning to God.

“Neither shall thy eyes see all the evil I will bring upon this place.”

This is the ground why he should die in peace, “Because he shall not see all the evil I will bring upon this place.” Here we see that the judgment which God threatened to bring upon the church and commonwealth is expressed by this word “evil.” “Thine eyes shall not see all the evil I will bring upon this place.” But who sends this evil? It is an evil brought by God. You will not see the evil “I will bring …” Properly speaking, it was not God who brought it, but Nebuchadnezzar, who carried his sons into captivity. Nevertheless, God had a hand in it. “For is there any evil in the city and God hath not done it?” says the prophet (Amos 3:6). But we must distinguish between kinds of evil. There is:

1. The evil of sin; and 2. The evil of punishment.

First, the evil of sin; and this God does not bring, for it is hateful to him. Then the evil of punishment, which is twofold:

(1) Either that which comes immediately from God, such as famine, pestilence, or the like; in these punishments we have to deal with God alone.

(2) Or else the evil that comes from God, but by men, whom he uses as instruments to punish us; and this is by war and cruel treatment.

Now in this way Josiah is taken away from this greatest evil we can suffer in this life: to have God correct us by the hands of men. For when we have to deal with God, it is easier work to prevail with him, as David did (2 Sam 24:14). But when we have to deal with merciless men, then we have to deal with the poisoned malice of men, besides God’s anger. Now the evil that comes from God is chiefly this:

The evil that seizes upon the soul after death; or else the evil that seizes upon the whole man, both soul and body, both in this life and after this life.

Thus God is said to bring evil, not the evil of sin, but the evil of punishment.

Doctrine 12. From this we learn that the evils we suffer are from the evil of sin. It is sin that makes God bring evil upon the creature. If we look upward to God, there is no evil in the world, for in that consideration all things are good so far as he has a hand in them. Therefore, whatever the creature suffers comes from the evil that merits it, the evil of sin. It comes from God, but through the evil of sin provoking him.

Question. If anyone asks, How can God, who is good, bring that which is evil?

Answer. I answer, we must know that the evil of punishment is the good of justice. All the evil he does is good, as it comes from him in his justice punishing, because it does good to those who are punished, either to cause them to return, or, if they will not, to show the glory of his justice in condemning them. It is the good of justice, and it is not always in God only permitting or allowing such a thing to be done; rather it is in him as an act, having a hand in it. Therefore God says, “Ashur is the rod of my wrath” (Isa 10:5), so that in all punishments God has a hand, whether it is upon the body or the soul.

Use. This serves as direction to us: to begin where we should begin; in all our afflictions to go to heaven and make our peace with God, and not go to secondary causes. For all evil of punishment comes from him. If we fear evil, let us make our peace with God by repentance and new obedience; and then he will overrule all secondary causes so as to help us. Do not go in this case to the jailer or to the executioner, but go to the judge. Let us make our peace in heaven first, and then there will soon be a command for our ease. Yes, Christ can command the wind and sea to be still, and the devil himself to be quiet, if our peace is made with him.

Therefore let us learn this lesson, and not fret against the instrument by which God is accustomed to correct us. David had learned this much when Shimei railed at him: “It is God that hath bid him, therefore let him alone” (2 Sam 16:11). So holy Job says, It is God that gives, and God that takes away (Job 1:21). He does not only say that God gives, but that God takes away. Oh, but, someone says, it was the Chaldeans who took it away. Yes, but that does not matter; God gave them leave. Therefore let us carry ourselves patiently in all troubles, submitting ourselves under the mighty hand of God, from whom we have all evil of punishment.

Objection. Again, here we have another mystery of divine providence. For it may be objected: What! Will God bring evil upon his own church and people? Upon the temple and place where his name is called upon, and that by idolaters? Where is divine justice now?

Answer. I answer: Hold your peace; do not take the balance out of God’s hand. He knows what is better for us than we ourselves do. We must not call God to our bar, for we will all appear before his. God uses servants and slaves to correct his sons; worse men than his people to correct his people. It is his course to do so when those who are his own sin against him. For evil men many times make evil men good, when they are used as instruments to correct them; as here God uses wicked men to make his children good. So God makes a rod of Assyria, to make his evil children better. He uses slaves to correct his sons, because it is too base a service for the angels or good men to do. Therefore he uses the devil and his instruments to do it.

Therefore let us not call God’s providence into question; for when he will punish his people, he can hiss for a worse people, for Egypt, or Assyria, or the like. So if he will punish England, he can hiss again for the Danes or Normans to punish his own people. Let us not boast that we are God’s people and they idolaters. No; God can hiss for a baser people to punish his own servants. It is the will of God so to dispose, and the will of God is the height of justice. God will have it so. Let us make our peace with him, and not demand why he does this or that.

“And so they brought the king word again.” I will only touch on this in a word, and so make an end.

Here we see that the messengers dealt faithfully with Josiah. They brought the direct message which the prophetess told them to bring, which was good for himself but sorrowful for his state. He was a gracious man, and God gave him gracious servants.

Doctrine 13. For God will give good men faithful servants, who will deal faithfully with them. As for the wicked, God will give them servants who will humor them to their own ruin. If they have a heart not desirous to hear the truth, if they are Ahabs, they will have four hundred false prophets to lead them in a course to their own ruin. But Josiah had an upright heart, desiring to know the truth. Therefore God gave him a faithful prophetess to deal truly with him, and faithful messengers to bring the true answer.

“Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people great and small …”

These words show what good King Josiah did upon receiving this message. As soon as he heard it, he did not let it cool upon him. But when his spirit was stirred up, he did as a gracious king should do: he sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, both great and small, and they went up to the house of the Lord, and there read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord.

Here, first, we see that Josiah gathered, as it were, a parliament and a council; and also, in both Josiah and the people, we may behold an excellent and sweet harmony of state, when all, both king and priests, Levites and people, met amiably together. This was an excellent time, when there was such a harmony between king and people that he no sooner commanded than they obeyed him.

But more particularly we learn:

Doctrine 14. That the care of the commonwealth and of the church is a duty belonging to the king, that the reformation of both church and commonwealth belongs to the prince. There is a generation who think that the king must care only for the commonwealth. But kings also have power to look to religion. We see that Josiah does it; he is the keeper of both. Josiah has a care of religion, and it befits his place. He is a head, and it fits his relation. He is a father, to look not only to the temporal state, but to the church.

The Donatists in Augustine’s time asked what the emperor had to do with the church. But the answer was given that the emperor could not rule the commonwealth unless he governed the church, for the church is a commonwealth. So we see that, as a chief right, the ordering of the matters of religion belongs to the care of the prince.

But there are two things in religion: first, what is intrinsic, within the church, such as to preach, administer the sacraments, and ordain ministers. These he ought not to do. But as for those things that are outside it, these belong to him. If any of those who are placed in church or commonwealth do not do their duty, it is fitting for him to correct them. He ought to set everything going outwardly, and to remove abuses, but not to meddle with the things within the church just mentioned so as to execute them himself, but rather to oversee and govern their execution, and those persons whose proper office it is to execute them.

Observe this against the usurpation of the pope, and see the supremacy of King Josiah, that he is supreme over all; not only over temporal persons, but over persons who hold sacred office. For there was a high priest at that time, and the Levites, but none were above King Josiah.

Question. Yes, but this was under the law, say the papists.

Answer 1. I answer that it is a rule in divinity that the gospel does not take away or dissolve the laws of nature and reason. Therefore if the supremacy belonged to the prince then, surely it does now much more. Therefore one says, “We give respect to the emperor as next to God; to God in the first place, and then to the emperor.” The ministers have power over the prince to direct him and give him counsel, but still they are not above him. A physician gives directions for his patient. Is he therefore above him? So a builder gives direction for the building of the king’s house. Is this any supremacy? So the minister may give direction and counsel to the prince; but does he therefore have any superiority above the prince? Surely not.

Answer 2. In the second place, here we see who it is that called this parliament. It was King Josiah. He was the first mover in calling this council, for he was the head; and would it not have been a strange thing to have seen the foot move before the head? The head must first give direction before any of the members can move. Therefore it lies only in the authority of the king to gather a council, and no one must gather a public assembly without authority from the king.

The calling of assemblies belongs to the prince. If it is a general council, then it must be by the emperor; if it is a national council, then by the king or prince of that nation; if provincial, then first from the king or princes, as its first movers, and so to others. As the heavens and these celestial bodies over the earth move first, and then all others afterward, so kings ought to move first, and then all to follow.

Use 1. If this is so, we see how wrongfully the pope takes to himself this right of calling councils, which properly belongs to the emperor; for we know that for a thousand years after Christ the emperor called councils, if any were called. But in later years the pope, encroaching upon the emperor, has usurped this right of calling them, when, as you see, no assemblies ought to be gathered without the authority of the prince.

Though fasting is an excellent thing, yet public fasting must not be without the consent of the king. Let Christians have as much private fasting as they will, to humble themselves by it, but public fasts must not be without the consent of the king; for great matters are to be done by great motions. Here is a great matter, the gathering of a council. Therefore the head and body and all join together. As when the body is to do some great thing, all the members of the body stir together to do it, so it is with the commonwealth. When great matters are in hand, all must be joined together, as here king, priests, Levites, and all the people, both great and small, joined together to prevent the judgment threatened.

But what must we do if things are amiss? I answer, take the right course; that is, go to God by prayer, and entreat him who has the hearts of kings in his hands to incline and stir up the hearts of princes to reform abuses. Well, but what did the king do when he had gathered all the elders and inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem into the house of the Lord? They went up there to fast, and pray, and read the book of the law.

Reformation makes all outward things fall into a good rule, but such assemblies are to be called only by the authority of the prince, and when a fit time and occasion requires.

The papists brag much of the Council of Trent; but if ever there was a conspiracy against Christ, it was in that council. For the parties that had most offended, and were most accused, and should have been judged, were the judges; and the Holy Spirit, who should have been in the council and should have been their judge, him they excluded, and they received a foul spirit of antichrist sent to them in a small traveling case from Rome, from which they had all their counsel. Was not this a goodly council?

Again, in that Josiah gathered a council in a time of public disorder and public danger, we learn here that it is not only lawful, but many times necessary, to gather assemblies and councils for the reformation of abuses, both in church and commonwealth, which otherwise cannot be abolished. So councils are good to make canons and rules, and to prevent heresy; indeed, much good may be done by gathering them, if they meet to a good end, for the good of the church and the glory of God; for God, who is willing and able to perform the good, will be strongly among them. For if Christ by his Spirit has promised to be in that assembly “where two or three are gathered together” (Matt 18:20) upon good grounds and to good ends, how much more will he be there when two or three hundred are so gathered together? But this must be done by the consent of authority; otherwise it would be an injury to government. So much, briefly, for this text and for this time.