Philippians 3:3 – Richard Sibbes

[page 90 of volume 5]

For we are the circumcision.

In these words, and those that follow, our apostle describes who are truly circumcised. ‘We are the true Israel, the circumcised sons of Abraham, who are members of Christ.’ The Philippians they were not circumcised outwardly, yet were they truly circumcised, they had the truth of it; even as they that were under the cloud and in the sea were said ‘to be truly baptized in the cloud and in the sea,’ 1 Corinthians 10:2. The sacraments therefore, before and after Christ, were in substance all one. As the church was one and the same, they may be said to be baptized as we, and we circumcised as they. The difference was only in the outward ceremony and show, which the church being then young had need of. It is the same religion clothed diversely. Bellarmine saith that their government was carnal, and the promises to them were carnal, but it is carnally spoken of him, Hebrews 11:2. The fathers before Christ had respect to the recompense of reward; and in verse 35 they ‘accepted not deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.’ Are these carnal promises? The anabaptists they press rebaptizing, not considering that the same covenant was before Christ and after, in substance; so as every true Christian is spiritually circumcised, being once regenerate. Before, indeed, he is uncircumcised, and a spiritual leprosy overspreads all his frame of body and mind, which must be washed, pared, and cut off. We must part with uncircumcised hearts, ears, and lips; that is, such ears as do delight themselves to hear corrupt lewd discourse; such a tongue and lips as delight to utter and let out words savouring of a rotten and uncircumcised heart; such eyes as do delight themselves in the beholding of lustful and sinful objects, whereby the heart is kindled into vain desires. I say, a Christian must circumcise himself, his heart, and those parts that are uncircumcised, before he can over think to go to heaven, whither nothing that is corrupt or unclean entereth. Religion therefore is no easy thing, circumcision is painful and bloody. Mortification is very hard. Corruption it must be cut off though the blood follow, else it will kill thee at length. Wherefore we are also to labour for circumcised hearts to understand God’s truth, his will, and commandments. Cut off all extravagant desires, which by little and little take away comfort and communion with God. It is no mercy therefore to spare them. Circumcise thy eyes; pray with David, ‘Turn away mine eyes from regarding vanity,’ Psalm 119:87. Stop thy ears at the charming of such objects as may infect thy soul. We can never enjoy that beatifical vision hereafter, if we wean not ourselves from the liking of these things. And though we cannot, while we are in this house of clay, come to that perfection we should, yet endeavour to it earnestly, and God will accept our very endeavours, and will further them; yea, we shall get the victory at length. If sin begins to fall it shall surely fall; the house of David in us shall grow stronger, and the house of Saul shall daily be weakened. The means to this duty are,

1. First, Know thy sin, and thy particular sin, by thy checks of conscience and by the checks we receive from our enemies, who shall spy what they can in us thereby to scandalize us. As also observe what thy thoughts work most upon, what is the main thing that generally takes up your cogitations.

2. When thou hast found out thy sin, make it as odious as thou canst. For circumcision implies a thing that is odious and superfluous. Now all sins that be cherished in us may well be odious to us, for that it hinders us from all good and clothes us with all evil, and makes all outward things evil to us; which otherwise are no further ill than as they strengthen our corruptions. It hinders us from all good duties. Pride of heart and corruption do dog us. This made Paul cry, not of temporal bonds, but of the bonds of sin and of death. ‘Who shall deliver me, wretched man that I am?’ saith he, Romans 7:23, 24.

3. Thirdly, Having found out thy sins, and the abominableness of them, complain of them to God, as Hezekiah did of the blasphemous letter that Sennacherib wrote, and challenge the fruit of God’s promise. For he that bids us circumcise, Deuteronomy 10:10, promised that he himself will do it, Deuteronomy 30:6. Faith in the promises is an effectual means to attain to them. Men come with doubtings. They see a great deal of corruption. They think their labour is vain. They cannot be relieved against them. They are deceived. Touch but thou the hem of Christ’s garment. Fly to God in his name, and thou shalt find this ‘issue’ of sin, though not wholly dried up, yet much abated. And here is the excellency of faith that assures us of all the promises concerning sanctification here, as concerning glory hereafter.

Which worship God.

The apostle places circumcision before worship; for unless there be a cutting off’, we cannot bring our corruption to perform duties of God’s worship aright.

The words contain a description of a Christian by his proper act, worship; and by the proper object thereof, God; and by his most proper part, in spirit. And the word ‘worship’ is taken for the inward worship of God, commanded in the first commandment; also comprehending our fear, love of God, and joy in him, issuing from the knowledge of the true God. All our obedience issuing here from is worship of God, including our duties to man, in obedience and relation to God’s commandment. The ground of this obedience and worship is the relation between God and the reasonable creature, being the image of God. Now this image being lost in the fall of our first parents, we must worship him not only as our creator and maker, but as ‘reconciled to us in Christ,’ as he hath made us anew.

Secondly, We are to worship him as the well-spring of all grace, goodness, excellency, and greatness.

Thirdly, As he doth communicate all unto us. He is ours. Christ is ours. All is ours. This should carry our souls to love him, be his as he is ours; especially to be his in spirit, by which is meant the reasonable soul, understanding, will, and affections. And, secondly, with sanctified understanding, sanctified will, and sanctified affections. Thirdly, With all our strength, spirit, life, and cheerful readiness. Wherefore God is the proper object of spiritual worship. Trust on him, love him, joy in him, invoke and pray to him and to him only; not to the Virgin Mary, saints, or images, as the papists do: Mat. iv. 10, ‘Him only shalt thou serve,’ as Christ saith, because our commandment is only from him and extends only to him. The promises are only from him. He only is present in all places; he only supplies our wants; and he only knows what our wants are and how to help. Saints are not present in all places. They cannot hear many at once; nay, they cannot hear our prayers unless they be present. They are finite creatures, they have no infinite properties. Christ he bids us, invites us, to come to him, he hath promised to hear us and to ease us.

And further, God knows the secret wants, which the saints cannot know. We ourselves know them not. And therefore are we to go only to God in all our necessities, because it is most gainful for us to go to him that can help us; nay, we owe him this honour by going to him, to acknowledge his omnipresence, his willingness and ability to do good.

In spirit.

The apostle in these words shows the manner of true worship, by the most proper and fit part of a Christian; to wit, his spirit; that is, a soul truly sanctified, lively, and cheerfully, with a willing and ready mind, fitly disposed, contrary to outward, false, and hypocritical worship.

1. And the reason is, ‘Because God is a Spirit, and therefore must be worshipped in spirit,’ John 4:24.

2. Secondly, It is the best part of a man; and God who challenges all, and that justly, looks especially that he hath the best part.

3. Thirdly, The spirit hath a being of itself, and praiseth, loveth and rejoiceth in God when it is out of the body; and the body is stirred up to this duty only by the spirit, being of itself senseless as a block; and outward worship without inward is but the carcase of worship. The prayer of a wicked man is abominable, because he regards iniquity in his heart, Psalm 66:18. And this spirit of ours, without the Spirit of God, cannot worship him; and therefore every one that is not changed makes God an idol.

Use. This may deprive all such of comfort as care not for this spiritual worship, thinking they have done enough if they have mumbled a few idle words over. God accepts it no more than if they had sacrificed a dog’s head, as he saith, Isa. lxvi. 3. And verily, what other is popery, but a body without a soul, when they worship in blind sacrifices, in a strange language? Is this a spiritual worship, when they neither know what they do nor say? Let us shew that we are not of their number. Come we with love, and with the intension of all our affections; and this will sway the whole man, body and soul; and so shall we worship him in truth, and not in hypocrisy, as many do, that bring their idols with them. Their minds are on their pleasures and riches, though their body be present before God. And it hath ever been an error in the world, this limiting and tying God’s worship to outward worship of the body, with a kind of ceremonious gesture; and it is very much liked for such like reasons as these are.

First, The outward gesture: as holding up hands, bending the knee, casting up the eyes, they are things that may easily be done.

Secondly, They make a glorious show in the eyes of the world. It is a commendable and good quality to be religious, especially if they be observed so to be.

Thirdly, It is beneficial to men, whereas hereby they are known to be no atheists, and therefore not that way incapable of preferment or the like.

Fourthly, Outward worship satisfies conscience a little. Men know they must worship God, and go to church, that these are means to save men, and they think that in doing so they stop the cries of their consciences. Alas! alas! these sleepy, blinded consciences of theirs will at length awake, and will accuse them, for the outward ceremonious hypocritical worship of him that requires the Spirit to worship him with.

Obj. But some men say, How shall we know whether we serve God in spirit or no?

Ans. I answer, Observe these properties.

First, Whether thou lam cutest thy defects in the lest actions thou dost, and are not puffed up with conceit of the sufficiency of thy performances. Paul found this in him; for although he lived, being a Pharisee, as concerning the law unrebukable, yet when he was converted he saw much corruption which before he knew not, and laments and bewails it, Romans 7:23, 2-1.

Secondly, Examine thyself, whether thou makest conscience of private closet duties. Of prayer in thy study when none sees thee. Of thy very thoughts. Dost thou serve God with thy affections and thy very soul? Dost thou weep in secret for sins, yea, for thy secret sins? Dost not thou do good duties to be seen of men, as the Pharisees did? Contrariwise, wilt thou omit no place nor time, but always and in all places thou wilt worship God? This must be done; for God is always and for ever God; and he is in all places, in private as well as public; and therefore a Christian’s heart must be the sanctum sanctorum, where God must remain present continually. And therefore he makes conscience of, and is humbled for, the least sins, yea, those that the world esteems not of, and counts them as niceties; and that in as great a measure as ordinarily men are for the greatest sins they commit.

Thirdly, Const thou endure the search of thyself and thy infirmities by all means? By thyself, by others, by the word, by private friends? Nay, canst thou desire this search, that thou mayest know thy sin more and more, for this end, that thou mayest truly hate it with a more perfect hatred? Canst thou truly appeal to God, as Peter did to Christ, ‘Thou knowest that I love and prefer thee above all’? John 21:15. It is a sure sign of thy sincerity which the world cannot have; and therefore when they see their sins laid open, they spurn at the ordinances, and spite the minister and their true friends, that put them in mind of their faults, accounting them as their only enemies. Surely they shall never be able to endure the search of God hereafter; and the last day when he shall lay them open, they shall be overcome with shame.

A fourth sign is, That at the hour of thy death this spiritual worshipping of God will give thee content, when nothing else can. Thou mayest say with comfort, as Hezekiah did, ‘Lord, remember how I have walked before thee in sincerity,’ Isaiah 38:2, 8. When downright affliction comes, outward verbal profession vanisheth, with all the comforts thereof; then perisheth the hope of the hypocrite. Two things upheld Job in comfort, in his great extremity. He was first assured that his Redeemer lived; and secondly, he knew his innocency in those things that his friends charged him with. And such times will fall on us all, either at the time of death or before, when nothing but innocency and sincerity shall be able to uphold us.

Labour therefore for sincerity and spiritual worship. ‘Worship God in spirit,’ but let it be done outwardly also. Rut first, bring thy heart and intention to what thou dost, and that will stir up the outward man to its duty. And for the performance hereof follow’ these directions.

First, Learn to know God aright. For worship is answerable to knowledge; for how can we reverence God aright, when we know neither his goodness nor his greatness? How can we trust on God when we see not his truth in the performance of his promises, in the Scriptures, and in our own experience? Those that do not these know not God. For as the heart affects according to knowledge, so also it is true in divinity; as we know his justice we shall fear, as we know his mercy we shall love him, as we know his truth we shall trust on him. Psalm 9:10, ‘They that know thy name shall trust in thee;’ and in other places of the said psalm, the Lord is known in the judgment he executeth, ver. 10.

Secondly, Know God to be the first mover and cause of all. Men ordinarily fear the creature, attributing that to it which belongs to the Creator. But God he is the giver of all, and Christians look on the secondary means as to the first author and ground of all the rest. They behold the magistrate as in God, fear them no otherwise but in the Lord. Atheists they will not stick at any sin whatsoever, to get the love of those that may bring them any worldly commodity. A Christian, he pleases and seeks the love of him that can make enemies friends when he lists, and when it is for our good. He knows ‘in him we live, move, and have our being.’

Thirdly, Make much of spiritual means. God he works by means, by his word; attend to it. It works love, fear, joy, and reverence in us; and therefore no marvel if those that neglect those means are not acquainted with these graces of God’s Spirit.

Fourthly, Lift up thy heart to Christ, the quickening Spirit, 1 Corinthians 15:36, seq. Our hearts naturally are dead; Christ is our life. When thou art most especially called to love, to fear, to humility, pray to him to move thee, and yield thyself to him, and then shalt thou pray in spirit; as it is said in Jude 20, ‘Hear in spirit, do all in spirit;’ do outward works of thy calling in spirit; for a true worshipper will out of spiritual grounds do all outward works of his particular calling, as well as the works of his general Christian vocation. Let us therefore do all things from our hearts to God and to our neighbour, else will not God accept of our works. It is the Jew inwardly who shall have praise of God. The want of this sincerity hath extinguished the light of many a glorious professor, and thereby hath brought a great scandal upon the true worshippers of God in spirit.

And rejoice in Christ.

The word ‘rejoice’ implies a boasting or glorying of the heart, manifesting itself in outward countenance and gesture, as also in speech. It also implies a resting on and contenting in the thing we glory in, proceeding from an assurance that we glory in a thing worthy of glory, for they are fools that delight in baubles. Observe hence, therefore,

Doct. 1 That those that will worship Christ aright must glory in him. For the worship of Christ is a thing that requires encouragement, and nothing can work this encouragement like the glorying in Christ. And therefore Paul, in the first part of his epistle to the Romans, having showed that God had elected them freely, and had begun the work of sanctification in their hearts, he comes in the 12th chapter, ver. 1, ‘I beseech you,’ saith he, ‘present yourselves as a holy, living, and acceptable sacrifice to God.’ And in Titus ii. If, ‘The grace of God teacheth,’ by encouraging us ‘to deny ungodliness, and to walk unblameably, soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.’ And therefore, whensoever we grow dull or dead, think of the great benefits that we have by Christ, and it will quicken us and all our performances.

Doct. 2. In the next place observe, That Christ is the matter and subject of true glory and rejoicing, and only Christ, for they well go together, a full and large affection with a full and large object. Boasting is a full affection, the object is every why as full.

Reason 1. First, As he is God and man. He is God full of all things; he is man full of all grace and void of all sin. He is Christ anointed to perform all his offices; he is a prophet all-sufficient in all wisdom. In him are the treasures of wisdom. He teaches us not only how to do, but he teaches the very deed. He is our high priest. He is the sacrifice, the altar, and the priest, and he is our eternal priest in heaven and on earth: on earth as suffering for us, in heaven as mediating for our peace. ‘Who shall condemn us? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us,’ Romans 8:34. He is also our King. He is King of all, King of kings, and Lord of lords; a king for ever and at all times, subduing all rebellions within us, and all enemies without us; and he is all these so as none is like him, and therefore is worthy of our glory.

Reason 2. Secondly, Christ is communicative in all these. He is prophet, priest, king, for us; he is God-man; he is Christ for us. He sought not his own. It was his communicative goodness that drew him from heaven to take our nature.

Reason 3. Thirdly, he is present and ready to do all good for us; he is present with us to the end of the world; nay,

Reason 4. Fourthly, We are his members. He is in us. We are his wife; nay, we are him. ‘Saul, why persecutest thou me?’ Acts 9:4. 1 Corinthians12:12, seq., ‘We are all one body with Christ.’

Reason 5. Fifthly, We are even whiles we are here glorified with Christ. He is our husband. If he be honoured, we his spouse also are advanced. If he be our king, we are his queen. If the head be crowned, the body is honoured; and,

Reason 6. Sixthly, All this is from God, and freely comes from him. Christ is anointed by the Spirit and sent from the Father. 1 Corinthians 1:30, ‘He is made of God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption to us.’ And John 6:44, ‘No man can come to me, except the Father who hath sent me draw him;’ and it is further said that God ‘sealed him,’ John 6:27. So that we may rejoice in Christ, because that thereby we come to joy in God, for he reconciles us to God who called him to this office, which was witnessed at his baptism, whereas the whole Trinity bare witness thereof.

Quest. But it may be questioned, What! may we not joy in any other thing else but in Christ?

Ans. I answer, There, maybe two causes of our joy. One principal, the other less principal. We must only rejoice in Christ as the main and principal cause of our happiness. But we may rejoice in creatures so far forth as they are testimonies of Christ’s love, and in peace of conscience as coming from Christ, and in the word of God as it is the gospel of the revelation of Christ to us.

Use 1. For use. We may observe this doctrine as a, ground of the necessity of particular faith. For none can boast, but the boasting must arise from a particular faith, which only is the true ground of every man’s particular assurance.

Use 2. Secondly, Let it serve as a direction to every Christian that will rejoice; let him go out of himself and rejoice in Christ, his king, his priest, and his prophet. Let him observe what he hath done for him, and what he will do for him, and thereby see himself perfectly happy; and,

Use 3. In the third place, Let us first boast that we have Christ, and then in his benefits and blessings that follow him. First, rejoice that we have the field, then rejoice in the pearl. And therefore the apostle says not rejoice in faith or in obedience, but ‘in Christ,’ who being once mine, how shall I not have all things with him?

Use 4. Those that are burdened with sorrow for their sin, let them consider. Why do they grieve? Do their sins trouble them? Christ he came to die for sin, he is their high priest, he came to save sinners. Doth the devil accuse them? Let them know Christ chose them, he pleads for them. Who can lay anything to their charge? Christ he is dead, risen; nay, he is ascended into heaven. Are they troubled with crosses? That is the best time to rejoice in Christ. ‘We joy in tribulation,’ Romans 5:3. When nothing comforts us, then hath Christ sweetest communion with our hearts. St Stephen, when the stones flew about him, and Paul in the dungeon, had the most sweet consolation and comfortable presence of God’s Spirit that upheld them. Nay, in death we may glory most of all. It lets us into that state, into that sweet society with our Saviour and the saints, the very hope whereof doth now sustain us and cause us to glory here, as in Romans 5:2. And death now is but a drone, the sting is gone, all enemies are conquered.

Use 5. In the fifth place, See wherein the glory of a man, of a nation, of a kingdom consists. It is in Christ, and that which exhibits Christ. What made the Jews rejoice? Mark the prerogatives they had, Romans 9:3, 4: adoption, covenant, promises, and Christ. What made the house of Judah so famous? and Mary so bless herself? ‘All generations shall call me blessed,’ Luke 1:48: Christ, that vouchsafed to proceed out of her loins and from that stock. ‘Abraham rejoiced to see Christ’s day,’ John 8:56, though he saw it afar off by the eye of faith. And what should we glory in above the Jews, above other nations, but in this? The veil is taken away: Christ shines, and we have the gospel in its purity. This the apostle looks for in the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 2:3, ‘Having confidence that my joy is the joy of you all.’ Now, what was Paul’s joy? ‘God forbid,’ saith he, ‘that I should rejoice, but in the cross of Christ,’ Galatians 6:14. Let us not, therefore, rejoice in peace or plenty, fortified places, or the like. No. If we had not Christ to rejoice in, we were no better than Turks. ‘Happy is the people whose God is the Lord,’ Psalm 146:5; for in him shall we have fulness of joy and comfort. Make use of this in time of temptation. When the devil would rob us of our joy, fly to Christ: oppose him against all; oppose the ‘second Adam’ against the first: he came to do whatever the other did undo. Learn to see the subtlety of the devil and thine own heart; and fill thy heart with the Scriptures and with meditations of the promises, and they will cause our love to be so fervent, as all our service of God will seem to be easy to us; its the time that Jacob served seemed nothing, for the love he bare to Rachel, Genesis 29:20.

But how shall we know whether we rejoice in Christ or not?

Ans. I answer, By these signs:

1. First, When we glory, see the ground whence it arises, whether from God reconciled to us or not. If otherwise, remember that of Jeremiah 9:23: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength;’ all such rejoicing is evil; ‘but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord.’

2. Secondly, If we glory in the Lord, it will stir us up to thanks. What we joy in we will praise. If we joy in Christ, we shall, like the spouse in Canticles, ever be setting forth the praises of our beloved. Thus did Paul, Ephesians 1:3, and Peter, 1 Peter 1:3; and therefore, where deadness and dullness is, it shows no true Christian joy.

3. Thirdly, Our glorying will he seen, in duty. Delight ever implies the intention to do any good work, and diligence.

4. Fourthly, If we glory in Christ aright, we shall not endure any addition to Christ; and therefore, we shall abhor that popish tenet which puts so many additions to Christ in the meritorious work of our salvation. A true rejoicer in Christ sees such all-sufficiency in Christ’s merits and work, that he abhors purgatory and such trash; and so much the more, by how much his glorying in Christ is the more fervent and sincere. Christ is our husband, we are his spouse; if we cleave to any other than to Christ, we are adulterers. No; let him kiss us with the kisses of his mouth, and none but he, Song of Songs 1:2.

5. Fifthly, This joy, where it is, it to ill breed content in all estates. Paul could want and abound, and so can a true rejoicer: in Christ he hath all. He cares not for earthly wants, so he wants no heavenly comfort. If he be poor, he is rich in heaven; nay, what he most complains of, are good for him: life or death, all is one with him. Christ is his, and in him all things.

Quest. But it may be said, There are many Christians are not in this happy condition.

Ans. I answer, It is their own fault, to yield to the devil’s policy; and their own weakness, that will not labour to break through these clouds, and challenge the promises.

And have no confidence in the flesh.

These words are in truth included in the former, for he that glories in Christ ‘will have no confidence in the flesh.’ But the apostle notes this as a plain demonstration and evidence of the glorying in Christ. For by the copulative enjoining of them, it is all one as if he had said, What a man trusts to be glories in, and what he glories in he trusts to, and is confident of. If in wit his glorying he, he trusts to it, though it be to his ruin, as it fell out with Ahithophel, 2 Samuel 17:28. If in eloquence of speech, he trusts to it, and it brings shame, as it did to Herod, Acts 12:23. If in honour, he trusts to it, and brings himself to dishonour, as Hainan did, Esther 7:10.

By ‘flesh’ is meant outward things, as prerogatives, privileges, actions of a man’s own doing, and particularly, he aims at circumcision, which he calls ‘outward, and that of the flesh,’ Romans 2:28. So as the observation that we may gather is, that confidence in Christ takes away confidence in outward things. The reason is, if Christ be fully all-sufficient, what need is there of any outward thing to put confidence in? For these are two opposite things, and one overthrows the other.

Doct. The second instruction is, that naturally men have confidence in outward things; for having not hearts, filled with grace, they relish not Christ, but fly to ceremonious outward actions as their refuge. Nay, in the church, till we be converted, we naturally fly to outward fleshly confidence. We have the word taught to us; we come to hear it twice on the Lord’s day. Alas! what is this, if thou be not transformed, and inwardly and outwardly conformed in obedience! Hast thou the sacraments? dost thou uncover thy head, or bow the knee? These are good, and they seem fair; but where is the heart? how is that prepared? hast thou an earnest desire to leave off thy course of sinning, and dost thou resolve hereafter to amend thy life? Oh, here is the hard spiritual work! So, in outward fasting and abstinence, it is an easy matter. The Pharisees did it often. But this is the fast that God hath commanded, to loose the bands of wickedness, to fast from sin, Isaiah 58:6. The suffering of the flesh, if it be separated from spiritual use, and alms, they profit nothing, 1 Corinthians 13:3. All Paul’s prerogatives, which were many, 2 Corinthians 11th and 12th chapters, yet they were in his account but ‘dross and dung,’ in comparison of Christ. Most men are like Ephraim, Hosea 10:11, as heifers, who serve to tread out corn and to plough. Ephraim loved to tread corn, where he might eat his bellyful; for by the law of Moses, the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn was not to be muzzled. Men they are delighted in the performance of slight duties; but to put their neck under the yoke, to plough, it is a hard work; who can bear it?

Obj. But some will say, Oh, what! do you condemn outward duties and use of them?

Ans. I answer, We may consider religions duties two ways. First, as they are outward means to salvation, for so they are. Secondly, as they are expressions of inward truth; and so out of a sincere, entire affection we bear to them, and out of a desire to be wrought upon by’ them, we do them. Thus they are commended that use them. But let them want but an inch of this, all is abominable, all is ‘flesh.’ The Jews they boasted in the name of ‘holy people,’ in their law, ‘in the temple,’ in the ‘Holy Land;’ yet for all these, saith God, you shall go into captivity. Against such Christ preached: ‘Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees! yon tithe mint, but let pass justice and judgment,’ Matthew 23:23. And Paul, ‘Be not high-minded, but fear,’ Romans 11:20. And the reasons why men are taken up with this fleshly confidence are,

Reason 1. First, Outward things are easy, and men cannot bend themselves to perform the hard matters of the law.

Reason 2. Secondly, They are glorious, and men desire to be observed.

Reason 3. Thirdly, Men have a foolish conceit that God is delighted with the outward act, when the inward sincerity is wanting.

Reason 4. Fourthly, Men leant knowledge of themselves, want the inward change, want sense of their own unworthiness and Christ’s worthiness.

Reason 5. Fifthly, God followeth such with prosperity in this world. Thereby they think God is well pleased with them, till the hour of death come, and then they find all but froth.

Quest. How shall we know whether our confidence is fleshly or not?

Ans. ‘answer, Where this fleshly confidence is, there is bitterness of spirit against sincerity. The Pharisees, the doctors of the law, sat in Moses’ chair, yet who more opposed Christ than they? Matthew 23:2. Nay, they wholly and only in their whole course sought to persecute him, and made it their trade.

2. Secondly, Where this fleshly confidence is, there is also a secret blessing of ourselves in our performance of good duties, without humiliation for our defects. Hypocrites think that God is beholden to them, and therefore do bless themselves in the deed done.

In the fourth verse he comes to an argument, taken from himself, against those of the concision.