a third Man A Bird in the hand is best Faith and Hope are beggarly things in the estimate of most Men. A competency of Necessaries in Possession more contents us than a World in Reversion In that modicum we can rejoyce though we do not wallow in those affluent Delights which the sensual Beasts of the Earth batten and rot in A sufficiency of suitable Comforts fills our Appetite Convenience being the essential Property if not Essence of Goodness When every thing hits us lies pat and even and easie upon our Hearts in a pleasing agreeableness we do not envy Crowns and Scepters But if we have all and enough to spare can never see through our Enjoyments be full and abound not only in opinion and with respect to the content of our Minds but in the reality of the thing we then begin to sing a requiem to our Souls and sit down under the shadow of these Gourds with delight And have we not a sufficiency nay a redundancy an infiniteness of all Necessaries and Agreeables in God's Love and Goodness of which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive the fulness the glory the sweetness the amiableness the suitableness the comfortableness Thy Mansion House here is the Bosom of Love replenished with a confluence of all desirable Satisfactions thy Garden the Paradise of God thy Demesne the Celestial Canaan thy Revenues and Incomes the unperishing Treasures of Divine Goodness and Grace and Glory the unsearchable Riches of Christ But be a Man's-Comforts never so sweet if there be an equal mixture of sowre he writes Cabul upon the front of all his Enjoyments And ordinarily a drachm of Gall will spoil an ounce of Honey one Cross embitter a thousand Comforts If now I be secure either that the Evils will be as the morning Cloud and early Dew or that I shall be no loser not be rob'd of the least real satisfaction but gain equivalent if I have a reserve of other better sweeter Joys and Blessings which will countervail my Sufferings or if when the Tempest lies hard upon me I be certain of a safe retiring Place and Refuge where I am out of danger or if I have weathered out the Storm that the worst is past and a prospect is given me of so great an advantage so happy an issue as will compensate the trouble if all along I find by experience that 't is for the best and if I had been to carve for my self and spin the thread of my own Fortune I could not have pitch'd upon any thing so eligible as what is dispens'd to me without my choice by the Wisdom and provident Goodness of Heaven every of these things singly yields me a plentiful harvest of quiet in my Mind and contentedness with my Condition much more joyntly altogether And has not every good Soul the amplest security that it shall be blest with all this and much more in and through the benignity and Love of God Have we not ground to believe that Love will not permit any evil to interrupt our Joys except there be need That Love will cut it short in Righteousness it shall be but for a moment a little moment Love being afflicted in all our Afflictions will not long torment it self What Love promises Power can command In that very small moment of continuance I am secure that Love will not suffer my Miseries and Disquiets to commit a rape upon my best satisfactions in it self and that I shall lose no Metal but only Dross which 't is my happiness to do and even that loss if my gain of Refinement and Purity deserve that Name will be recompenced to the full in those infinitely better things laid up in store for me in the plenitude and all-sufficiency of unboundable Goodness in the Divine Nature and Persons But be the Calamity as great and malignant as is imaginable I have a Rock higher than I where I may be safe above the reach of ruin For having past the pangs of the New Birth the worst is past both in respect of Pain and Danger Sorrow and Fear Though my Vessel the Body may be broken yet shall I certainly land in safety upon the blessed shore of Eternity with all my real Riches and Comforts environing me I am I hope in a sound bottom indeed Christ carries me in his Body his Bowels that 's the Ship wherein I am wafted over the Tempestuous Ocean of Miseries in this World to the fair Havens of everlasting Loves Joys and Rest The foreknowledge whereof together with my present sense of profit in my Soul strength against Sin resolution for God evidence and experience of his Presence Support Influence Grace the affectionate workings of his Heart in Love Care Kindness flowing over all the banks in multitudes of unmerited Blessings in Temporals but especially in Celestials These sweeten all my Sorrows and ease my burthened Spirit that I cannot but acknowledge the Provisions of Infinite Wisdom incomprehensibly more eligible and beneficial than the utmost that could ever enter into my utmost raised Imaginations But if the pinch come yet a little nearer that though accommodated with an affluence of all terrestrial Contentments without yet a dangerous Disease preys upon my Vitals or the Arrows of the Almighty gall wound and smart in my Conscience that I am destitute of the Blessings of a sound Mind in a sound Body the enjoyment whereof would add an Emphasis to all external Comforts a living Lam 3.39 Neh. 2.2 a healthful Man and Mind having no reason to complain and be sad But now Love is Life and Health and all things The breath of thy Nostrils the length of thy Days and Delights but the shortner of thy Pains and Sorrows Dost thou keep thy Tongue from evil Psal 34.12 13 14 15. and thy Lips from speaking guile depart from evil and do good seek Peace and pursue it Then are the Eyes of the Lord upon thee and his Ears open to thy cry thou shalt enjoy desired Life and beloved Days that thou mayst see Good yea the Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living Psal 118.17 thou shalt not die but live and declare the Works of the Lord. How can that Body or Soul be sick that 's embrac'd in the healing Bosom of the great Physician Forgiveness of Sin is a Medicine for every Malady Isa 32.24 If he whom Christ loves be sick 't is not unto Death but for the Glory of God Joh. 11.3 4. Love will loose the Pains of Death Thou hast loved me from the Pit of Corruption for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy Back Isa 38.17 God bears not a grudge against those he loves 'T is Loves property to chastize none of its Office to impute guilt and punish but to cover a multitude of Sins 1 Pet. 4.8 An infallible Cure or Remedy for Distempers of Body and Soul supports a sinking Spirit revives a disconsolate Heart
Pet 2.4 To love thy self into Sobriety or Prudent self Government to cloath thy self with a Robe of Righteousness and Mercy in thy dealings with Men is not enough is not the full and adequate Doctrine and Duty taught by the Grace of God which brings Salvation Titus 2.11 There must be superadded not only a denying Vngodliness so as to crucifie it but a living Godly leading a Religious Life towards God in Love Faith Fear Honour Universal Acknowledgment out of Conscience For what Conscience in dealing well with Men and ill with God that is with the Subjects fairly and not with the Soveraign What Conscience in breaking the first Article betwixt God and Man which is to give him the sole command in his House thy Heart that living Temple which is the sum of the First Commandment What Conscience to dwell in his House and pay him no Rent No external Acknowledgment and Worship in Publick in thy Family in thy Closet the sum of the Second Command What Conscience whilst tender of thy own Name to be regardless of Gods forbid in the Third Command What Conscience in stealing time from God's reserved part when he allows thee so much beside the Fourth Command violated Be never so sober just free kind to Man-ward if thou respect not God O my Soul thou hast no Conscience For where there 's no Godliness there can be no Conscience Oh make it thy first and main business to approve thy self to God Thou canst never be true to thy self or Man if thou be a Traytor to God Thou hast no greater assistance in thy dutifulness to Men than a due regardfulness of God Thou canst have no better evidence of a due regardfulness of God than thy conscientious dutifulness to Men. Thou forfeit'st the reputation of thy Religiousness towards God if thou be not Righteous towards Man and of thy Righteousness if not Religious Like Hippocrates's Twins these are born and act and sicken and die together That 's the 4th ingredient of the Psalmist's Character he upheld universal Innocency and Integrity of Conscience CHAP. VII The Subject of Comfort Publickly Spirited c. True Christianity c. 5. THis Holy Man was of a Publick Spirit living under a Catholick sence of and care for the common concerns of the Church of God Lamenting its Miseries ver 5 6. longing and praying for its redemption from them by the Power and Justice of God ver 1 2 3 4 20. and encouraging his own and its hopes thereof by a serious reflection upon the Divine Attributes ver 1 2 8 9 10 11. Providences ver 12 13. and his own particular experience ver 17 18 19 21. withal by a Prophetick Spirit foretelling it ver 14 15 23. all which are plain in the Psalm and plain demonstrations of a Heart enlarged in its desires and endeavours for Publick Good A good Soul is not well at ease when the Servants of God are ill at ease The Sufferings of the Church are made its own by a sympathizing Spirit which is afflicted in all its Afflictions and cannot enjoy Prosperity or it self in Contentation when God's Children are groaning under the Cross Mourns with Mourning Rejoyces with rejoycing Sion and uses its interest in Heaven to work upon the Bowels of the ever-blessed Son of God that he may demonstrate his tender Commiserations toward his own Members in Misery by turning the course of his Providence And that this is a proper method to Comfort we see Isai 66.10 11. Rejoyce ye with Jerusalem and be glad with her all ye that love her rejoyee for joy with her all ye that mourn for her that ye may suck and be satisfied with the Breasts of her Consolations that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her Glory God had a People a Heritage which though Afflicted and broken in pieces here ver 5. yet he would not cast off nor forsake either in respect of Affection or Communion ver 14. So neither must we For 't is by Vertue of our Union and Communion with that Body and its Head that all those comfortable Spirits and Influences are derived to us which refresh and revive us I confess 't is through our internal and spiritual Confederation and Fellowship but he that values and receives benefit by this cannot despise and vilifie the External Hence our Psalmist here as a Member vitally joined to the Body and partaking of a common Sense does not only comfort himself and it with the consideration of the inviolableness of that Union and Communion which was of a spiritual Nature ver 14. nor only reflects upon those external Ligaments and Bonds which ty'd together so numerous a People into one single Heritage or Church but also was grievously afflicted for those external breakings in pieces rents and disunion of parts though involuntary which were the fruit of the outward Violence and Rage of Persecutors So should we But then Oh what Affliction would have rent his tender Heart in the view of those voluntary tearing in pieces the Seamless Coat of Christ the Divisions and Breaches we make amongst our selves Those Fractions were only some kind of dissolution of their Civil Political Union ours of the Ecclesiastical and Wounds are most dangerous in the most noble Parts State Factions are not more to be dreaded than those of the Church because these have more immediate respect to the Soul and God Lamentable are the Miseries of a Civil War where Thousands Born Bred up Nourished by one common Mother Brethren by Stock Blood Condition Cohabitation Membership of the same Body Politick perhaps of one Name and Kindred and Family of the same Body Mystical the Church Blind and Dumb and Deaf to the Cries and Shreeks and Wounds and Groans and Deaths of their own proper Limbs in a barbarous drunken rage tear off their own Skin Flesh and Bones rive open their very Hearts to let out Spirit Life Strength Soul hurl one another down to Hell under their Sin in a deluge of Blood and worry themselves by piece-meal into eternal Damnation And are the Church Digladiations in the Christian World less deplorable when those whose respite from everlasting Burnings cost no less than the Blood of God who are denominated from that most venerable Name wash'd in the same Laver of Regeneration Members of the same Spiritual Body privileged with the same most excellent Gospel and Covenants of Promise and would every one be ready to tear out his Heart that should dare to tell them that they shall not each possess the blessedness of an unspeakably glorious Heaven where therefore as in a Center they must meet if their hopes fail not When these I say who thus concenter and agree in their Titles Royalties and Expectations are so far from combining in the common profession and practice of Unity Love Peace Goodness Vertue Godliness Brotherly kindness Charity as to grind one another into Atoms bite and devour one anothers Hearts by bloody Animosities Reproaches
form Isa 6.6 Heb. 4.14 Hence may it not be inferr'd that the framing Fire in which Christ appears will be so far from being hurtful painful to his and their glorified Bodies as to be an object of special Sensitive Delectation and cause a pleasurable refreshment wonderfully grateful to those Celestial Natures which shall dwell for ever in and be cloathed with the Eternal Light of Heaven That if it were possible for a glorified Saint to be hurried into the material Fire of Hell 't would not be hurt or for a Damned Wretch to be led through Heaven the Light thereof to him would be tormenting Fire But this I leave in Medio as a Speculation perhaps too curious I question not but that the Almightiness of God which is engaged to promote to the utmost the happiness of the Saints can make those things that now to the Body are most painful to be then most pleasureful that even in its Physical Constitution as well as Moral it shall be delighted with that which is distastful in this Life if it be not sinful And possibly Adam's Body in its Primitive Innocent Estate of Creation might be of the same Constitution invulnerable incombustible c. as far as was requisite to his security from Death For I cannot so much as implicitly impute such Collusion to the Divine Majesty as to imagine that he only threat ned that as a Punishment of his Sin which was the condition and necessity of his Nature Neither will I deny that the Tree of Life was a Sacrament of Immortality But conceive that nor he nor it could be ubiquitary or inseparable nor do I think that the Deity obliged himself to a Providence respecting innocent Mankind which would have been a perpetual series of Miracles since 't was as easie with God to make Impassibility an amissible Condition of this Nature as Immortality But I am not Determinate here neither However the Elevated Sense of that Immortal State above will be abundantly pleasured with Super-natural and Super-sensual Gratifications in the Jucundity Profitableness and Honour of Heaven the vain and empty Shadows whereof engage it in endless Pursuits during this its Degenerate state on Earth The Generosity and Nobleness thereof will be so Transcendent that it cannot but entertain with Indignation Scorn and Horror all imaginable Solicitations to any thing sinfully Delightful Commodious and vain Glorious Every thing to it being as it self Sublimated into a Spiritual and Celestial Nature that it enjoys the sweet of all without the sowr in an unfading Quintessence of most exquisitely delicious Contentments where although there can never be any troubled Thoughts yet may we ever sing Thy Comforts Oh Lord delight my Soul Then Oh my Soul delight thou thy self in and with them alone and not meerly as in the Streams but in the Well-spring it self Own God in every inferiour means but rest no where except in God Oh do not in a pompous Dress of Shadowy delusory Satisfactions cheat thy self into substantial Miseries Secure to thy self something of a solid durable Nature by making the son of God Jesus Christ thy sure and everlasting Foundation that being strongly built upon the Rock when the Rain descends and the Floods come and the Winds blow and beat upon thee thy Comforts may not perish with thee And Phil. 4.7 The Peace of God which transcends or passes all mind or understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall watchfully guard or keep as with a Garrison 2 Cor. 11.32 thy heart and the devices thoughts of thy mind through Christ Jesus Must God be all in that Eternal Heaven after which thou aspirest and is there enough in him to satiate the most raised and sublime Desires of the Spirits of just Men made perfect and even the Angels those more Noble and Capacious Creatures Nay is there an all-sufficiency in him Commensurate to his own infinite Love in all the possibilities of its Perfection And canst not thou Oh my Soul fill thy self to the brim and measure out a Satisfaction more than adaequate to thy Rational Appetite in that unmeasurable fulness which comprehends the eminency and glory of all things If Infiniteness cannot overfill thee a poor Worm a little Atome of that which in comparison of him is less than nothing Isa 40.17 then mayst thou with some Shadow of reason attempt to eek out thy content with the Accumulation of other things But since there is in God all that good Vertually Unitedly and Transcendently as in a common Store-House and Treasury and that without the rebatement and allay of any the least commixtures of Evil Vanity or Imperfection which stain the Glory of all those dispersed Excellencies in the Creation that thy most unboundable desires in all their conceivable Varieties can court or make Suit unto and whatever thy longings reach out after thou mayest enjoy it cheaper and better in God than any where and since beside all this there is an unfathomable Surplusage of proper Excellency and Glory in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Maximus Tyrius calls the Deity Immense Ocean of all Goodness which has been is and will be his own and the whole Superiour Worlds Everlasting Contentation And since he declares his ready willingness to communicate and impart of all this unto thee not only what thine own Rational Consideration but even what his own unmatchable Love and Graciousness can make thee willing to receive thou canst not but be altogether inexcusable if thou goest about to patch up an evanid and delusory Felicity to thy self out of those cast-away Shreds and Rags of the inferiour Creation which are not sufficient for themselves but will be fatally disappointing to thee and frustrate thy most Solicitous Expectations whilst in the mean time thou sottishly and frantickly defraudest thy self of that plenary Satisfaction and Joy which is tendered to thee by and in God both on Earth to raise and quicken thy devout and active Suspirations and in the Heaven of Heavens to terminate and perfect them in an Everlasting Fruition Here then only Oh my Soul build thy Tabernacle Is it not good to be here Where thy Faith it self shall be converted into Sense Sight and Taste in a never ending Possession of what Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath entred into the Heart of Man to conceive Thou art allowed to eye and enjoy God in the Creature obliged to make all sensitive Contents which thou mayest lawfully or sinlessly receive from the Creature as so many steps to mount upon and ascend towards the Spiritual Contents of Heaven necessitated to use every good thing below as a Remembrancer to thee of its Perfection in God that it may blow up thy passionate Aspirations into a more vehement and inextinguishable Flame and Ardour toward him In all things thou mayst taste that the Lord is Gracious and enjoy sweet and comfortable Prelibations of Heaven This is thy privilege But on the other hand thou art prohibited to make a God of this World
a world of crafty Politicks and inventive cunning to devise whatever that unfathomable depth of Malice and Emity can direct against us to ruin us everlastingly together with an unknown and unimaginably great sufficiency of Power and Activity to execute what they contrive and they have no limits of their duration on this side Eternity Oh dreadful Host indeed what may they despair to effect upon impotent and degenerate sinful Man But the dependance of things one upon another I see has made me forget my Scope which was to remember the Fears of Sin and Temptation to it rather than the Tempter I proceed to the 2. Danger wherein the Psalmist did apprehend himself viz. of Death not so much Natural as Violent His Enemies design'd to Murther him by a pretended Law notwithstanding his Righteousness and Innocency and for that end had sentenced and condemned him ver 21.22 Whence he declares ver 17. Vnless the Lord had been my help my Soul had almost or quickly dwelt in silence My Soul that is I my self the better part by a Figure being put for the Person or rather for the worse part the Body dwelt in silence i. e. the Grave as is unanimously agreed by Interpreters according to Psal 115.17 The Dead praise not the Lord nor any that go down into silence Which is not to be understood of the Soul but Body only Psal 49.12 20. Nevertheless or And Man being in Honour abideth not a Night he is like the Beasts that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are silent i. e. Dead Psal 31.17 fully Death indeed is the King of Terrors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Job 18.14 Of all Terribles the most terrible to Nature because it dissolves its most amicable Bands and utterly extinguishes all those hopes which it has for many years been kindling and were it not for the reliefs of Grace it would certainly fill Men with unspeakable Agonies could they view it in all its antecedent and consequent Pomp and Circumstances For 't is only ignorance of this very solemn change that causes the most so fool-hardily and without concern to entertain the thoughts and approaches of it But a violent Death God's Effections are always better milder than his Permissions when a Man lies at the mercy of those whose tender Mercies are Cruelty must needs cause more bitter Reflections than where Nature gently expires under the compassionate tender Hands of the God of Nature who always contends in measure that the Spirit may not fail and the Soul which he hath made To this Head then appertains the trouble arising from Fears of Suffering and Affliction of what kind soever In particular those that accompany and follow Death especially the Terrors of Judgment and Hell which is Eternal Death This the Psalmist sometimes felt the sting and torture of as a preventive Medicine that he might not feel it everlastingly Psal 116.3 The pains of Hell gat hold upon me call'd the Cords of Hell Psal 18.5 marg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence perhaps our English Word Cable it sometimes signifies Corruption Destruction Mic. 2.10 Troops Bands Companies Psal 119.61 either of these may suit well enough But above all Fear of God's Anger and just Displeasure most heavily sits upon the Spirit of a Gracious Man All the Troops of Hell and Triumphs of Cruelty are but Mormo's in comparison Finite Fury cannot plague infinitely therefore our Saviour advises Luke 12.4 5. Be not affraid of them that kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forwarn you whom you shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Filial Fear of God indeed brings no trouble but joy 'T is only a Fear working to Bondage oppressive to Nature a Rebel against Reason stupifying the Spirits enervating the Will damping the Affections over-throwing our Resolution defeating our Counsels confounding our Consciences betraying us into a base and unworthy servitude to our own corrupt Imaginations Errors and Ignorance and every exteriour Agent that has the power or will to abuse them and our Credulity to our Prejudice and Perdition 2. Grieving Thoughts and Impressions The Evils did not lie perdue at a distance but in a close encounter charg'd home and wounded his Heart that it bleeds here in godly Sorrow Indeed whatever causes Fear and Despair does also introduce Grief when it becomes present but his Mind was overwhelmed with such Reflections as had a peculiar influence upon his Sorrow beside those that did produce Fear and Despair As 1. The Sins of others The foul Enormities of Wicked Men whereof several are named 1. Pride Ver. 2. Render a Reward to the Proud a Reward in Vengeance In this Sin the Devil began the Dance and all his Servants wear his Livery and tread in his Steps For this their Loftiness and triumphing Arrogance his Heart groan'd out the double How long ver 3. Words of Lamentation Indeed when men are despis'd they are either anger'd or griev'd anger'd if Proud griev'd if Lowly incens'd if Passionate if Meek troubled 'T is the property of Pride to despise and slight all but bear slighting from none 2. Boasting The inward filth of Pride and Arrogance foaming out at the Mouth ver 4. All the workers of Iniquity speak boast themselves the coherence seems to intimate that the things they boasted of were their own height and power to oppress the Innocent Being got to the top of the Mount of Honour and Worldly Prosperity which puft them up they imagin'd it for their Security and Glory to fall down upon and crush and break in pieces God's Heritage and this they gloried in as becoming their Grandeur Potency Now to be not only trod and trampled upon with the foot of Pride and spurn'd kick'd away like a Dog but also hear the Proud-doers brag of it as a brave and worthy Fact as it heightens the Sin of the Actors so the Sorrow of the Sufferers both as an addition to their own Affliction and also a further aggravation of the Sin 'T is easier to bear a scorn in deeds when a Man has the liberty to suppose that possibly it may not be the issue of design and a malicious Mind or that the Agent may after grieve for and repent of it than to bear their blessing themselves in it praismg themselves for it which is a testimony of their love to it delight in it But if the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be taken in a softer sence shall will or do speak of or speak themselves praedicabunt se The future for the present tense a common Enallage except the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be repeated here again out of the foregoing Verse as our Translaters think it must But then why not also in the Fifth and Sixth Verses where the Verbs are all future yet rendred in the present Interlin i. e. will vaunt praise or extol themselves in Words magnifie
themselves both think and speak highly of themselves and by consequence basely scornfully slightingly of those that are not like themselves in Wickedness and therefore of those qualities that difference both Parties speak well of Wickedness that denominates and delights them but ill of Godliness which they oppose yet both perhaps under the disguise of other Names plausible for their one Wickedness disgraceful for Holyness as the manner and guise of the World alway has been and will be this has not a little of guilt and grief in it Sin is asham'd of its own Name and therefore sights against Goodness under borrowed Colours transferring its own title to that which it opposes and it cannot but be grief to an Innocent to suffer under the notion of a Malefactor to have his Name murdered as well as his Person whilst his Adversaries add Ignominy to Cruelty but especially it afflicts his Soul that God and Religion and Holiness suffer in the repute of the ignorant and sequacious Multitude which is led in its judgment of things by the Hand rather than Head by the power and opinion of its Masters without making any disquisition or inspection into the reality of matters taking all upon trust whether it be true or false good or evil A Beast that with a strong Bridle and sharp Spurs will ride freely Blindfold post hast into Hell but is infinitely malapert and restive in the course toward Heaven its Eyes like those of a Fly consisting of infinite little dim Atoms without a due proportion of Brains of their own to govern them and therefore are as wild and wanton in their motions To this may I join the trouble which the Psalmist seem'd to be affected with through other perverse speeches of those wicked Persons which though not so expresly yet may implicitly seem to relate to Pride because interpos'd between the mention thereof and the effect of it in Boasting ver 4. How long 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall they pour out as a Fountain does Water and speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies things hardned with age yet upon the point to be remov'd and pass away as may be gathered from the use and signification of its root These hard things they spoke I take to refer unto others chiefly as what follows did to themselves 1. Hard things in Enoch's Prophecy recited Jude 15. were spoken against God May not our Psalmist refer to that Prophecy which no doubt came to his knowledge either by Tradition or the Prophetick Spirit If so then may they possibly be those recited ver 7. or such like false Atheistical Blasphemous against God his Providence VVord VVays People 2. Hard things Psal 31.18 were spoke against the Righteous proudly and contemptuously in Reproach ver 11. and Slaunder 13. whence his Eye was consumed and his life spent with grief ver 9 10. To this Head then may we reduce all those troubles which arise from the Persecution of the Tongue Threatnings Aspersings Defamations Detractions Censurings uncharitable rash Judgings Mockings and Deridings and cloathing Goodness and good Men with Reproaches branding them with odious Names contrary to their real Nature speaking all manner of Evil Matth. 5.11 3. Persecution which here was bloody and barbarously cruel ver 5 6. They break in pieces thy People O Lord and afflict thine Heritage they slay the Widow and the Stranger and murther the Fatherless Wherein both their Inhumanity and base Cowardice manifest themselves in that they rage against the weak impotent and friendless that have none to plead for succour relieve and help them alive or revenge them when dead This is justly imputable to Dreg and Saul The former by killing the Priests of the Lord 1 Sam. 22.18 did exceedingly afflict God's Heritage and People and brake them in pieces and made many Fatherless and Widows and afterward murdred them in a savage unparallell'd manner ver 19. and when he had done boasted of it Psal 52.1 as the Wicked here if that was not the same fact Saul also slew the Gibeonites 2 Sam. 21.1 2 5. call'd Strangers 2 Chron. 2.17 These may be here understood as well as Proselytes Here then David lost his Friends and Favourers by a violent Death and hither may we refer the loss of Friends and Relations by a natural Death A cause of Grief as just as common But especially to this Head belongs the troubles for the Miseries and Calamities both of Church and State When the Gates of Sion mourn we are but ill Members thereof if it create not some kind of Sympathy in our Hearts 4. Atheism disbelief of God's Omniscience and Providence Ver. 7. Yet they say the Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it This was indeed the spring of all their other Sins and therefore as Asaph in another like case was affected with it Psal 73.11 They say how doth God know and is there knowledge in the most High c So here is David very much concern'd about it and so much the more because Divine Vengeance seem'd to be concern'd so little ver 1. whence he spends the 4 following Verses to evince and convince them of the infinite unlimitable Knowledge of God whereas he contents himself with a bare mentioning their other Sins without such reasoning against them And indeed any serious Heart that duly ponders its dependance for Life Motion and Being upon God will be tenderly sensible of all Affronts put upon him will not with patience indure that he should fall under Disparagement As a dutiful Child will hear untoucht the Reproaches cast upon a Stranger or any other rather than its Father He who can be content that God should go less than infinite in all Perfections can be well pleas'd that he should not be God and that the World be depriv'd and destitute of his Government and Providence which would be the greatest mischief to it conceivable Better infinitely that the whole Universe should be hurry'd back again into its Primitive Chaos and Confusion than God be lessen'd in any one of his Excellencies If ungodly Souls disavow any Divine Attribute and seek to rob God of the honour of that without which a good Man cannot live or live comfortably 't is a Dagger at the Heart and wounds the very Soul and so ought to do in all that are tender of the Glory of their Creator For our own sakes we have reason to abhor Atheism in every degree and form of it because if there were not a God or if he were not of infinite Understanding we were of all Creatures most miserable not only as depriv'd of our true Felicity and the hopes of it for how should he reward us did he not know or regard us and our Integrity but we should fatally be expos'd to all the vilest Indignities and most deplorable Calamities the Wit and Rage of Men and Devils could devise and inflict upon Earth and since their and our Beings are altogether incorruptible as far as
and with them Sin their Cause never to have a Resurrection Then dawns the Day of everlasting Light and Blessedness and all Darkness Dolours and Shadows flee away Be our Miseries as great as they will or can they cannot outlive Mortality if our guilt do not and it shall not if true Repentance live within us At the day-break of Eternity we enter upon a Life of Contentation and Peace as endless as transcendent The Death of our Bodies is the Death of our Troubles and the Resurrection of those Joys over which Death hath no Power As there will then be no more beginning of Wretchedness so no end of Felicity The worst turn that the Devil and his Instruments can do us will turn to the best advantage and those Souls that die to the Body shall live in Christ they are uncloathed of Dirt and Putrefaction that they may be for ever Cloathed with God and Glory That as the Death of the Body is the easer of all our Pains so the no-No-death or Immortality succeeding is the Introducer and Maintainer of an unboundable Fullness of everlasting Soul-Satisfactions This we owe to the perpetual Duration and Life of God Whence the Psalmist in a sad Prospect of the evanid Nature of present Things doth solace himself with a view of the permanent Being of God Psal 102.11 12. My days are like a shadow that declineth and I am withered like Grass But thou Oh Lord shall endure for ever and thy Remembrance to all Generations I said Oh my God take me not away in the midst of my days thy years are throughout all Generations Of old hast thou laid the Foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the Work of thine Hands They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old as a Garment as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years shall have no end We are possest of many Transitory Comforts but of none Eternal beside God And if any true Content arise from those movable Enjoyments it springs from nothing else in them except that which being eminently in God is in him of an everlasting Nature and Perfection Whatever pleases doth so far refresh and comfort but all that pleasantness is only a little ray of Divinity transmitted through the Cloud of Flesh and Blood or the more clear Heavens of our Rational Powers Amiable Relations are Comforts beyond all things under the Sun but their lovely Qualities are only a dark Shadow of the unparallell'd Amiableness of God To be beloved by thy Friends is a Comfort estimable above Gold but neither the Act nor the Object durable no nor the Motive exciting or inviting that Affection Can any Man Rationally solace himself with a Being lov'd for a moment when he shall be deserted or hated for ever Fading Love on Earth will not do without the never fading Love of Heaven Though all the World for a while adore thee What compensating Pleasure can that bring thee if Hell everlastingly burn thee All thy fore-past Joys on Earth will rather add new Fewel than administer one drop to cool thy flaming Tongue No Love therefore is indeed considerable and comfortable without the Eternal Love of God Nor in the assurance of this is any hatred or rage valuable dejecting formidable As Eternity is the Venom and Sting of the Torments of Hell so 't is the very Triumph Jubile and Heaven of the Joys of Heaven If in the loss of these lauguishing expiring Comforts we can succenturiate or substitute any thing of God we richly gain by the loss as possessing unspeakably more pure substantial heart-reaching durable everliving Comforts in the everliving Spring who can and will give them that relish and sweetness which shall abundantly more than answer what is slip'd away from us as well in its delicious Gratefulness as Eternity Mortality is the great disgrace of all Worldly Enjoyments but it receives a plentiful Compensation in the Immortality of God Thus have I considered the Comforts comprehended in those Attributes of God which offered themselves to the Psalmist's Meditation as I find them either exprest or plainly implied in this Psalm CHAP. XIV Comforts from God COuld I allow my self the liberty I might here instance those Comforts which are administred from the consideration of the Divine Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost and the Relations wherein God stands to us and we mutually to God But I have determined to confine my Discourse chiefly to such Heads of Matter as fall within Cognizance of the Psalm and not make endless Excursions to things which none can imagine ever to enter into the Author's mind in order to the Revival of his disconsolate Heart I pass therefore from the Comforts that God is which was the first general to the 2. The Comforts which God gives That which God is in himself and hath revealed to us is wonderfully refreshing But there 's also something which not being immanent and essentially Constitutive of the Divine Nature but passing from him to us doth singularly relieve our troubled Souls Of this kind Promises Providences Privileges Experiences offer themselves to Consideration What was needful to be observed concerning Promises fell in under Divine Fidelity as included in its very Notion therefore shall all further Disquisition anent them be superseded Providence is the transit of God's Wisdom Power Justice Goodness Faithfulness out of Heaven and himself into the visible World Governing Protecting Caring for Directing and Ordering all for most excellent Ends worthy of God Under the conduct hereof all things prosperous or adverse the greatest the most minute Natural Moral Spiritual necessary or fortuitous are deduced from their immediate proper Causes guided and sustained in their Actings secured from external Violences maintained in a due steady agreeable Station and order to compose the Beauty and Harmony of the Universe and be conducible to advance the Glory of their Maker in both the general and special purposes of his Love and Goodness or Justice and Righteousness And there is not a more reviving consideration to God's afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted Isa 54.11 than this that they are the peculiar care and charge of Heaven which as it is concerned for the Catholique good so in special for those that love God and are the called according to his purpose Rom. 8.28 insomuch that Prosperity cannot be more delectable to their sense than Afflictions of all kinds are made to their Souls useful and profitable 'T is always best for them to be in the worst external Circumstances as never being more dear to God more regarded by him who is most tender of them when the Devil and World are most cruel and when the out-casts off-scouring and refuse of the Earth When here they can expect nothing beside Reviliags and Buffetings the liberal Alms of the Churches Enemies they are likeliest to receive the more bountiful tastes of Divine Goodness possess more of his
intolerable burthen thy daily lamentation Thou darest not assume to thy self any comfort nor be at rest in thy Spirit till thou beest in some good degree safied that God and goodness have as far as Humane Infirmity and this present state will permit the all of thy Heart Mind Soul and Strength or thy most earnest pressing active industrious persevering desires hereof which not to feel is a grief and torment insupportable and drives thee to new exercises of Repentance and Faith in Christ for Pardon and Aid that thy second endeavours may be more upright thy after thoughts more efficacious And do'st thou seek and find ease and rest for thy self in no other method than looking and coming to Jesus with a weary labouring heavy-laden Heart entirely devoted to him and therefore sincerely willing and desirous to learn of him meekness and lowliness of Heart and to take his Yoak upon thee which is easie and his Burthen which is light Matt. 11.29 30. If this be thy frame practice and way and thou canst not wilt not comfort thy self till thy sense and real feeling of these things and a full insight into thy self make thy way very plain as infinitely afraid of being cheated by Satan or choused by thine own deceitful Heart under a shadow of Spiritual Joys into substantial Woes If thy Feet being first guided into the paths of Righteousness be guided also with this caution and wariness into the way of Peace and setled in a quiet and comfortable Repose this ½ doubt not is real Divine Consolation 3. The differences of true and false Comforts which are derived from the Subject or Persons feeling their reviving Influence or rather indeed the adjuncts of those Persons considered in their absolute or relative State are as palpable as any The soundest Joys being only the Possession of a truly Regenerate Godly Soul The unsound lodging in the wicked Hypocritical for the most part as their proper Habitation So that if it can be known to a Mans self whether he be really good or bad it may ordinarily be known whether his Peace be right or wrong But for this I refer to the Characters of the Psalmist in the beginning of this Discourse I only add That where there 's no Life there can be no true Comfort 'T is My God vers 22. Now he is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22.32 'T is no less true in a Spiritual sense than a Natural If My God in natural Relation argue the Life of Nature My God in federal Relation does as strongly infer the Life of Grace For 't is not any where affirmed of Cain Esau Judas c. after their Death that God was then their God as of Abraham c. although they be no less alive in Soul the Immortality whereof is a common Privilege and admits of no degrees in one more than other My God then to Abraham c. is another thing and to be taken in another sense than that wherein it may be applicable to Cain c. since 't is used of the godly after Death in an appropriate incommunicable sense It may truly be apply'd to the very Devils and damned in any sense not importing the Moral Spiritual Life of Purity and Peace but in this 't is the sole Prerogative of the godly that are born again not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God Joh. 1.13 When therefore our Psalmist owns the Divine Majesty under the Relation of My God the meaning is Mine to whom I am confederated united as a principle of new Divine Spiritual Life as the Soul of my Soul in whose all I have a true federal Right in his Being his Perfections his Knowledge Coodness Love Life Peace c. whose Comforts therefore benignly eye me and invite my acceptance because I and all mine are his He himself and all his through not Creation merely but the Covenant of Grace are mine I therefore possess living Comforts because I enjoy a living God as mine own by Vital Vnion Indeed Spiritual Joys only affect Spiritual living Souls Cordials are never administred to disanimated Carkases nor Divine Comforts to the Dead in Sins and Trespasses First Resurrection then Ascension into a Heaven of Rest Natural Animal Life inherits no Spiritual Peace 1 Cor. 15.44 50 51. any more than a natural Body Celestial Pleasures All must be changed ere they can be translated into this Paradise As the corruptible part of us is abolished at the Resurrection of the Body else we cannot enter into Life So the corrupting part must be Crucified at the Resurrection of our Souls or we cannot enter into Peace Isa 57.2 He shall enter into Peace they shall rest upon their Beds walking in uprightness A Scripture something cloudy which the former clause being singular this plural in the Hebrew and both Figurative renders yet more perplex'd But by a Transposition not unusual and taking the last word of the foregoing Verse as a Supplement to this being 't is the Substantive to the Participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may be read thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteous walking in his uprightness shall come goe into Peace they i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sickly Men of Mercy or Holiness shall quietly rest upon their Beds To compleat the sentence and sense understand and insert here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walking in uprightness for although the number disagree yet the matter requires it An exceeding proper allusion to the Signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enosh A Bed for the sick The Bed is either 1. The Grave for the Body a common Metaphor 2 Chron. 16.14 c. as 't is to stile Death a sleep yet this would but be a jejune Interpretation improper to the place for even to the wicked 't is so 2. Therefore the Bed imports the state of everlasting repose and rest for the Soul in Heaven Though righteous and merciful Men of infirm Bodies and Souls be taken away from approaching Evils yet living and dying in uprightness they enter into never ending Rest and Peace That is their Portion after Death and the first Fruits thereof their present Possession That of Solomon Eccles 2.2 is every way verified of the wicked I said of laughter it is mad and of mirth what doth it For what greater frenzy than to laugh in the face of incensed condemning Justice And Oh mirth what dist thou In the midst of the devouring Fire and everlasting Burnings which are already kindled in a cauterized Conscience though for a little while rak'd up and smothered But whether so or no I am sure there 's just reason that even in laughter their hearts should be marvellous sorrowful because the end of that mirth will be doleful heaviness Prov. 14.13 For the wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose Waters cast up mire and dirt There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Isa
love thee into Heaven when thou debasest and hatest and would sin him if it were possible into Hell And yet does not thy Heart relent and smite and gall thee Oh is this thy kindness to thy Friend to thy Redeemer to thy self Oh! What do'st thou deserve for these foul Villanies committed against a Person of thee the best deserving in the World How many Hells How many tormenting Devils are thy just reward for so horrible Affronts Despites Scorns put upon the Majesty and Mercy of Heaven Oh! What canst thou do or think or hope in this lamentable case Wherewithal wilt thou come before the Lord What hast thou to tender as a just Reparation Or canst thou bear up against the fiery tempest of his devouring Indignation Oh woe unto thee that ever thou wast brought out of the Womb of Nothing to behold thy self in Circumstances so deplorable and so little affected afflicted This this is the most miserable scene of all thy Miseries To be ready to be spew'd out of the Mouth of Jesus into the very jaws of the roaring Lion to be tumbled down out of the bosom of God into the everlasting Burnings of the bottomless Pit and yet be senseless secure fearless careless remorseless Oh astonishment Oh horror Awake awake Oh my sense Oh my stupid benummed brawny Heart and melt in the fiery Oven of Wrath or the warm refreshing Sun-shine of Love Oh Grief and Anguish Where do ye inhabit Whither are ye retired Oh come and dwell in a sinful Soul and pour it out in a penitential Deluge Oh Almighty Love shed abroad thy heart-dissolving Influences and make the Floods overflow Oh in what bitterness of woe am I that I have undervalued and trod thee under my profane Feet that I have kick'd at those Bowels and even torn out that Heart that hath yearned over me in the most affectionate degree of Pity and Clemency My Bowels my Bowels I am pained at my very heart for the sordid disingenuousness as well as the bloody barbarousness of my Deportment toward thee Oh beloved and blessed Son of God whom with accursed cruel wicked hands I have crucified and slain Whoever were the Instruments yet 't was I as a principal meritorious Cause by my Sin that was the Judas the betrayer the Jew the Murtherer I drive the Nails I push'd forward the Spear I tore open thy very Heart to let out that blessed Spring of Water and Blood 'T was my guilt that first made my own then thy unpolluted Body passible and mortal 'T was I that armed the more formidable vengeance of thy Father against thy innocent Soul I that set open the flood-gates of Divine Wrath and let in that terrible Inundation of Miseries upon it which overwhelmed it destroyed kill'd it as far as was possible for that which was Immortal and thy Body in its Ruins Oh 't was sinful I that poured out all those scalding Hells into that blessed Soul of the Holy One of God which melted his Body into a showre of Blood that I became as far as possible the Author of the Death of God Bleed Oh my Soul bleed a deluge over those bleeding Wounds that dying Heart that cruciated Soul of the Crucified Son of God Oh grieve and mourn bitterly for thy vexing rebelling against and grieving the Spirit of Grace whom thou hast so often thrust away by quenching his Motions strangling his Convictions resisting his Operations as if 't was thy design to frustrate all the methods of infinite Love for thy Salvation Oh hateful to God and Man Wilt thou not be stung to the Heart with all wherewith thou hast despited all the kindness and goodness and tenderness of Heaven Oh my vileness Oh my baseness 't is unutterable 't is unsufferable where can a Parallel be found throughout the whole Creation Oh what am I What have I made my self An abhorrence to all Flesh to all Spirits and shall I not be so to my self Is there a poisonful Serpent on Earth a squalid Fury in Hell more virulent and abominable The Heart of God Christ the Spirit Angels Blessed Saints rise against me as the viperous-Brood the filthy Vomit of Satan spit out of his Mouth as like him in form or deformity rather and ugliness as Hell to Hell And what now is thy Portion Oh miserable Soul What thy doom See it dread it yet expect it for how canst thou avoid it Ah! the bottom of the bottomless abyss of Woe the hottest Mansion in the raging Furnace of Divine Wrath how canst thou abide it I am tottering upon the very brinks of Hell Down I fall I sink I perish What can save me Who can redeem my Soul from Destruction everlasting I my self cannot no nor all the created Powers of Heaven and Earth And have I not abundant reason to fear that the blessed Trinunity will not Oh woful Soul Whither hast thou suffer'd thy Wickedness to hurry thee What wilt thou do in the day of God's fierce Anger which in a moment may arrest thee and swallow thee up And what Remedy Where wilt thou seek where canst thou find security against that Omnipotent Vengeance that is ready to Arraign thee Oh! What wilt thou do to be saved Is there any possibility Is there no Balm in Gilead Is there no Physician there Oh there there alone is thy Succour wilt thou reject it In this Perplexity wilt thou despise it Wilt thou defer and delay applying thy self to a serious Care to make use of it Oh! Be willing be forward be eager to do nay to suffer any thing but the loss of Holiness and God that thou maist be healed I come Lord now I come a poor Prodigal returning to my wits my self that I may return to thee and with a groaning oppressed pained Heart weary of Sin the Cause sick of self dead to all mine own Righteousness and every thing I thus under the Influence and Conduct of thy Holy Spirit present my self at the lowest step of thy Throne as unfit unworthy to lift up mine Eyes to look thee in the face and being in a grievous Agony of Woe because I have offended thee so hainously so frequently so perseveringly by a Deportment so dishonest vile sordid I loath my self and all my fore-past evil ways of Spiritual and Carnal Wickedness Omissions Commissions Sins of Nature Heart and Life in Word or Deed or Thought they wound me to the very Soul I faint under them I cannot with patience reflect upon my unuttereble Folly in living unto and under them I abhor my self in dust and ashes I utterly and eternally abandon them resolve against promise vow covenant to be an utter and implacable Enemy to them Down all ye Idols of my Heart Lusts of the Eyes Lusts of the Flesh Pride of Life Filthiness of Spirit as well as Flesh In good earnest I now purpose through thy Aid and Grace never to return to any of these Follies more never never more and under the Assistance of thy Power I