How a Man Should Apply the Word of God to His Own Soul

1

Every Christian contains in himself two natures, flatly contrary the one to the other, the flesh and the spirit: and that he may become a perfect man in Christ Jesus, his earnest endeavor must be, to tame, and subdue the flesh, and to strengthen and confirm the spirit.

2

Answerable to these two natures, are the two parts of God's word. First, the Law, because it is the ministry of death, it fittingly serves for the taming and mastering of the rebellious flesh: and the Gospel, containing the bountiful promises of God in Christ, is as oil, to pour into our wounds, and as the water of life, to quench our thirsty souls: and it fittingly serves for the strengthening of the Spirit.

3

Well then, are you secure? Are you prone to evil? Do you feel that your rebellious flesh carries you captive to sin? Look now only upon the law of God, apply it to yourself, examine your thoughts, your words, your deeds by it: pray to God, that he would give you the Spirit of fear, that the law may in some measure humble and terrify you: for (as Solomon says) blessed is the man that fears always, but cursed is he that hardens his heart.

4

In the Law, these are most effectual meditations to humble and bridle the flesh, which follow. First, meditate on the greatness of your sins, and of their infinite number: and if it may be, gather them into a catalogue, set it before you: and look to it, that you think no sin to be a small sin, no, not the bare thoughts and motions of your heart. Often with diligence consider the strange judgments of God upon men, for their sins, which you shall find, partly in the Scriptures, partly by daily experience. Doubtless, you must think, that every judgment of God, is a sermon of repentance. Think often on the fearful curse of the law due to you, if you should sin never but once in all your life, and that never so little. Remember, that whenever you commit a sin; God is present, and his holy Angels, and that he is an eye witness, that he takes a note of your sin, and registers it in a book. Think daily of your end: and know that God may strike you with sudden death every moment: and that, if then you have not repented before that time, there is no hope of salvation. Think on the sudden coming of our Savior Christ to judgment, let it move you continually to watch and pray. If these will not move you, think on this, that no creature in heaven or in earth, was able to pacify the wrath of God for your sins: but his own Son must come down from heaven, out of his Father's bosom, and must bear the curse of the law, even the full wrath of his Father, for you.

5

When by these means you are made fearful, and your mind is disquieted in respect of God's judgment for your sin: have recourse to the promises of mercy contained in the Old and New Testament. Is your conscience stung with sin? And does the law make you feel it? With all speed run to the brazen Serpent Christ Jesus, look on him with the eye of faith, and presently you shall be healed of your sting or wound.

6

When you do meditate on the promises of the Gospel: diligently consider these benefits, which you enjoy by Christ. Through Adam, you are condemned to hell: by Christ, you are delivered from it. Through Adam, you have transgressed the whole law: in Christ you have fulfilled it. Through Adam, you are before God a vile, and a loathsome sinner, through Christ you do appear glorious in his eyes. By Adam, every little cross is the punishment of your sin, and a token of God's wrath: by Christ, the greatest crosses are easy, profitable, and tokens of God's mercy. By Adam you did lose all things: in Christ all things are restored to you again. By Adam you are dead, by Christ, you are quickened and made alive again. By Adam, you are slave of the Devil, and the child of wrath: but by Christ, you are the child of God. [reconstructed: By] Adam, you are worse than a toad, and more detestable before God: but by Christ, you are above the Angels. For you are joined to him, and made bone of his bone, mystically. Through Adam, sin and Satan have ruled in you, and led you captive: by Christ, the Spirit of God dwells in you plentifully. By Adam, came death to you, and it is an entrance to hell: by Christ, though death remains, yet it is only a passage to life. Lastly, in Adam, you are poor, and blind, and miserable: in Christ, you are rich and glorious, you are the King of heaven and earth, fellow heir with him, and shall as surely be partaker of it, as he is even now. Adam, when he must needs taste of the fruit, which God had forbidden him, has made us all to rue it, even till this day: but here you see the fruits that grow, not in the earthly Paradise, but on the tree of life, which is within the heavenly Jerusalem. Fear no danger, be bold in Christ to eat of the fruit, as God has commanded you: it will quicken you, and revive you being dead: you cannot do Satan a worse displeasure, than to feed on the godly fruit of this tree, and to smell on the sweet leaves, which it bears continually, that give such a refreshing savor.

7

Most men nowadays, are secure and cold in the profession of the Gospel, though they have the plentiful preaching of it. And the reason is, because they feel not in themselves the virtue and mighty operation of God's word, to renew them: and they cannot feel it, because they do not apply the word aright to their own souls. Plasters, except they be applied in order and time, and be laid upon the wound, though they be never so good, yet they cannot heal: and so it is with the word of God, and the parts of it, which except they be used in order and time convenient, will not humble and revive us, as their virtue is.

8

The common Christian everywhere is faulty in this thing. Whereas he loves himself and wishes all good that may be to himself, he does usually apply to his own soul the Gospel alone, never regarding the law, or searching out his sins by it. Tell him what you will, his song is this: God is merciful, God is merciful. By this means it comes to pass that he leads a secure life, and makes no conscience of covetousness, of usury, of deceit in his trade, of lying, of swearing, of fornication, wantonness, intemperance in drinking and quaffing, etc. But he plays the unskillful surgeon; he uses healing plasters before his poisoned and cankered nature has felt the power and pain of a corrosive. And it will never be well with him until he takes a new course.

9

On the contrary part, many good Christians leave off applying the comfort of the Gospel to themselves, and only have regard to their own sins and God's infinite vengeance. And even when Satan accuses them, they will not stick to give ear to Satan and also accuse themselves, and so they are brought into fearful terrors and often draw near to desperation.

10

There is a third sort called sectaries, who devote themselves to the opinion of some man. These commonly never apply the law or the Gospel to themselves, but their whole meditation is chiefly in the opinions of him whom they follow. As they that follow Luther — few of them follow his Christian life, they regard not that — but about consubstantiation and ubiquity, about images and such like trumpery, they infinitely trouble themselves, and all Europe too.

And in England there is a schismatical and indiscreet company that would seem to cry out for discipline; their whole talk is of it, and yet they neither know it, nor will be reformed by it, and yet they are enemies to it. As for the law of God and the promises of the Gospel, they little regard them. They maintain vile sins in refusing to hear the reading or the preaching of the word, and this is great contempt of God's benefits and unthankfulness to him. They are full of pride, thinking themselves to be full when they are empty, to have all knowledge when they are ignorant and in need of being catechized; the poison of asps is under their lips; they refuse not to speak evil of the blessed servants of God. Well, do they above all things seek the kingdom of God? Then let them be sincere seekers of it, which they shall do if in seeking Christ's kingdom they seek the righteousness of it, to which they can never come but by the applying of the threats of the law and the comforts of the Gospel to their own consciences. But whereas they seek the one and not the other, they give all men to understand with what spirit they speak.