trouble it is good to divert them to some other matter But every diversion will not become Saints it must be an holy diversion Psal. 94. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul. The case was the same with that of the Text when the Throne of iniquity frameth mischief by a Law as you shall see here when he had many perplexed thoughts about the abuse of power against himself But now where lay his ease in diversion Would every diversion suit his purpose No Thy Comforts of Gods allowance of Gods providing comforts proper to Saints Wicked men in trouble run to their pot and pipe and games and sports and merry company and so defeat the providence rather than improve it but David who was Gods servant must have Gods comforts So elsewhere when his thoughts were troubled about the power of the wicked I went into the sanctuary there I understood their end Psal. 73. 17. He goeth to divert his mind by the use of Gods Ordinances and so came to be setled against the temptation 2. Among all sorts of holy divertisements none is of such use as Gods word There is matter enough to take up our thoughts and allay our cares and fears and to swallow up our sorrows and griefs to direct us in all straits In brief there is comfort there and counsel there 1. Comfort whilst the word teacheth us to look off from men to God from Providence to the Covenant from things temporal to things eternal from men to God as Moses feared not the wrath of the King when he saw him that is invisible Heb. 11. 27. and Eccles. 5. 8. If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perversion of Iudgment and Iustice in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they There is an higher Judg that sitteth in heaven and if he pass sentence for us when they pass sentence against us we need to be the less troubled If he give us the pardon of sins and the testimony of a good conscience it is no matter what men say against us Psal. 40. 4. Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust and respecteth not the proud nor such as turn aside to lyes Is not God able to bear you out in his work From Providence to the Covenant Providence is a very riddle we shall not know what to make of it till we gather principles of faith from the Covenant Heb. 13. 5. He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee God over-rules all for good Rom. 8. 28. We know that all things work together for good to those that love God to those that are the called according to his purpose From things temporal to eternal 2 Cor. 4. 17 18. For our light affliction that is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Rom. 8. 18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us A Feather or a Straw against a Talent a man would be ashamed to compare them together 2. For Counsel A Christian should not be troubled so much about what he should suffer as what he should do that he may do nothing unseemly to his calling and hopes but be kept blameless to the heavenly kingdom Now the word of God will teach him how to carry himself in dangers to pray for persecutors fire is not quenched with fire nor evil overcome with evil how to keep our selves from unlawful shifts and means how to avoid revenge lying flattering yielding against Conscience or waxing weary of well-doing that we may not fight against Satan or his Instruments by their own weapons for so we shall be easily overcome The wicked shall not be so wise to contrive the mischief as a Saint instructed by the word is how to carry himself under it Psal. 119. 98. Through thy commandments thou hast made me wiser than my enemies Malice and Policy shall not teach them to persecute as Gods word to carry your selves in the trouble 3. The word must not be slightly read but our hearts must be exercised in the meditation of it A cursory reading doth not work upon us so much as serious thoughts In all studies Meditation is both the Mother and Nurse of knowledg and so it is of godliness without which we do but know Truths by rote and hearsay and talk one after another like Parrots but when a Truth is chafed into the heart by deep inculcative thoughts then it worketh with us and we feel the power of it Musing maketh the fire burn ponderous thoughts are the bellows that blow it up Eggs come to be quickned by sitting abrood upon them In a sanctifi'd heart the seeds of Comfort by Meditation come to maturity by constant Meditation our affections are quickned this turneth the Promises into marrow Psal. 63. 5 6. My soul shall be filled as with marrow and fatness when I meditate on thee in the night-watches It giveth more than a vanishing taste which hypocrites have USE 1. In all your troubles learn this method to cure them by gracious means Prayer or Meditation By meditation on the word of God that will tell you that we are born to trouble and therefore we should no more think strange to see Gods children molested here than to see a showr of rain fall after a sun-shine or that the night should succeed the day 1 Pet. 4. 12. Beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial as though some strange thing happened unto you It were strange if otherwise as if a man were told that his journey lay through a rough stony Countrey and should pass over a smooth Carpet-way Our way-mark is many tribulations Acts 14. 22. Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of Heaven God had one Son without sin none without the Cross. 2. That afflictions though in themselves they are legal punishments fruits of sin yet by the Grace of God they are medicinal to his people 1 Cor. 11. 32. When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world 3. We never advance more in Christianity than under the Cross Heb. 12. 10. They verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness Psal. 119. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes 4. Rather undergo the greatest calamities than commit the smallest sin Heb. 11. 25. Chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season 5. That all crosses are
less upon the more infirm though alike faulty 5. Another comfort which the Scripture propounds is the help we shall have in affliction to bear it partly from the comforts of his spirit and partly from the supports of his grace 1. By way of Consolation The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost at such a time Rom. 5. 3. Cordials are for those that are fainting In time of trouble we have most sensible experience of Gods love God deals with his children many times as Ioseph did with his brethren he calls them Spies and puts them in prison but at length he could hold no longer but tells them I am your brother Ioseph so God seems to deal roughly with his people and take away their dearest Comforts from them I but before the trouble be over he can hold no longer but saith I am your God your Father and exceeding great reward His bowels yern towards us and he opens his heart to us and sheds abroad his love in our consciences 2. Partly by the supports and influences of his grace Psal. 138. 3. In the day when I cryed thou answeredst me and strengthnest me with strength in my soul. When David was in trouble this was his comfort though he could not get deliverance yet he got support God is many times gone to appearance but he will never forsake us as to inward support and strength Heb. 13. 5. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee 6. From the fruit and final issue of all 2 Cor. 4. 17. This light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory He that can find Christ in his afflictions and can see Heaven beyond it needs not to be troubled All the notions of Heaven are diversified why that they may be suited to those divers trials and many evils we have in the world Sometimes it is exprest by glory and honour to counterbalance the disgrace which Gods children meet with here that the reproach of men may not make us more sad than the eternal glory may make us comfortable Sometimes it is exprest by substance because sometimes Gods children are poor and suffer loss of goods Heb. 10. 34. Sometimes it is call'd our Redemption our Countrey to comfort us in exile and banishment for the name of Christ Heb. 11. 14 15. Sometimes it is called life eternal because we may be called to suffer even to blood Thus the word offereth this comfort against all the evils that befall us that we may counterbalance every particular trouble with what the promises hold forth concerning our blessed hopes USE Well then let us exercise our selves in the word of God and let all his promises be as so many Cordials to us To this end get an interest in these promises for the heirs of promise have strong consolation Heb. 6. 18. There is strong great real and pure comfort but it is to the heirs of promise So Rom. 5. 4. Not only so but we rejoyce in tribulation Who are those those that are justified by faith in Christ v. 1. To others afflictions are the punishments of sin and an occasion of despair not of rejoycing I but when we are interested in reconciliation with God then we take this comfort out of the word of God 2. It informs us of the excellency of Gods testimonies above all outward enjoyments When we have them to the full they cannot give us any solid true peace of conscience nor cure one sad thought Now beg of God that he will comfort you when all things else fail When the labour of the Olive shall fail I 'le comfort my self in the Lord my God Hab. 3. 18. I say when we are under any burden nay when we are under any sorrow for sin when afllictions revive stings of conscience or else the word hath awakened them yet there 's comfort to be had by running to the word of God 3. It shews us what is the property of believers to delight in the testimonies of God when all things go cross to them Temporaries when things run smoothly they have a comfort in the word O but when the afflictions of the Gospel fall upon them they fall a murmuring presently But a true believer can hold up his head and though he hath much affliction yet he can have much joy in the Holy-Ghost and a great deal of comfort from the word of God There follows another benefit Thy testimonies are my Councellors or men of my counsel From thence observe Doct. 2. That one great benefit we have from the word of God is counsel how to direct our affairs according to his will For the clearing of this let me lay down these Propositions 1. That our great interest is to keep in with God or approve our selves to him 2. Whoever would keep in with God needs counsel and direction in all his ways 3. The only good counsel we can have is from God in his word 4. The counsel God hath given us in his word is sufficient and full out for all our necessities Prop. 1. That our great interest is to keep in with God and approve our selves to him in all our actions for God is the scope and end of our lives and actions as the thing prest that we may walkworthy of God in all well-pleasing Col. 1. 10. God being our chiefest good must be our last end therefore in every action there must be an habitual purpose and in all actions of weight and moment there must be an actual purpose to please God Every ordinary affair must be carried forth in the strength of the habitual purpose but in all actions we would make a business of there must be an actual purpose And because his Authority alone can sway the Conscience which is under his dominion therefore it concerns us in all things to exercise our selves that we may have a good conscience void of offence both towards God and man Acts 24. 16. And again we are to approve our ways to God and to keep in with him because to him we are to give an account 2 Cor. 5. 9 10. There will a time come when every action of ours shall be taken into consideration and weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary with all our principles and ends therefore we strive we are ambitious so the word signifies our great ambition should be living or dying to be accepted with God Again Surely it should be our business to approve our selves to God in every action because all the success of our actions depends upon his concurrence and blessing Now we shall find this is often asserted in Scripture When a man's ways are full of hazards likely to be expos'd to great opposition your great work is to keep in with God approve your hearts to him Prov. 16. 7. When a mans ways please the Lord he will make even his enemies to be at peace with him God hath a mighty power over the spirits
Hope in him to be born out in his Work Now if God hath specially excited your Faith it is not a foolish Imagination or vain Expectation like as of them that dream it is God's Word you build upon and it is by a Faith of God's operation he raiseth it in us 2. The Prayer of Faith is the Voice of the Spirit and God heareth the Voice of the Spirit always who maketh requests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the will of God Rom. 8. 27. He that searcheth and trieth the hearts knoweth what is a groan of the spirit and what is a Fancy of our own what is a Confidence raised in us by the operation of his own Spirit For there may be a mistaken Faith seemingly built upon the Promises whenas it is indeed built upon our own Conceits Now God is not bound to make that Faith good But when we can appeal to the Searcher of Hearts that it is a Faith of his own working surely we may have confidence Now how shall we know that it is a Faith of God's raising 1. If the Promise be not mistaken and we do not presume of that absolutely which God onely hath promised conditionally and with the limitations of his own Glory and our good which are joyned to all Promises which concern the present Life In temporal things God exerciseth his Children with great uncertainties because he seeth it meet to prove our submission in these things for our Happiness lieth not in them Those things wherein our Happiness doth consist as Remission of Sins and Eternal Life are sure enough and that is encouragement to a gracious heart 2 Tim. 3. 18. God hath delivered me out of the mouth of the lion and will deliver me from every evil work In the Old Testament when God discovered less of Heaven he promised more of Earth but in the New Testament where Life and Immortality are brought to light we are told of many Tribulations in our passage yea the eminent Saints of the Old Testament that had a clearer view of things to come than others had were more exposed to the Calamities of the present Life because God thought the sight of Happiness to come sufficient to countervail their Troubles and if he would give them Rest in another World they might well endure the Inconveniencies of their Pilgrimage Heb. 11. 16. But now they desire a better countrey that is an heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a city The holy Patriarchs lest their Countrey flitted up and down upon this hope but to us Christians the case is clear Rom. 8. 18. For I râ—…on that the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us 2 Cor. 4. 17. For this light affliction that is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2. When the Qualification of the Person is not clear we must not absolutely promise our selves the Effect Ionah 3. 9. Who can tell whether God will turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not So Ioel 2. 14. Who knoweth if he will return and leave a blessing behind him In this Clause I put Believers who have sinned away their Peace and Assurance 2 Sam. 12. 22. Who can tell if God will be gracious unto me that the child may live He speaketh doubtfully Zeph. 2. 3. It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords fierce anger Amos 5. 15. Hate the evil and love the good it may be the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Ioseph In such cases the Soul is divided between the expectation of Mercy and the sense of their own Deservings and can speak neither the pure Language of Faith nor the pure Language of Unbelief half Canaan half Ashdod There is a Twilight in Grace as well as in Nature God in these cases raiseth no other Confidence to heighten Mercy and try how we can venture upon God and refer our selves to his Will when we have any business for him to do for us Mat. 8. 2. Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean 2 Sam. 15. 25 26. And the king said to Zadok Carry back the ark of God into the city if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both it and his habitation But if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good to him 3. In the Promises of Spiritual and Eternal Mercies when God's Conditions are performed by us we may be confident and must give glory to God in believing and being persuaded that he will fulfil them to us 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day Rom. 8. 38 39. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. I am persuaded there is no doubt The stronger our Confidence the better 2. When God raiseth in our Minds some particular express Hope as in some cases he may do to these things that are of a Temporal nature and are conditionally promised and where our Qualification is clear he will not disappoint us 2 Cor. 1. 12. Though the Promises of Temporal things have the limitation of the Cross implied in them and are to be understood in subordination to our Eternal Interest and God's Glory without which they would not be Mercies but Judgments yet his usual course is to save deliver and supply them here Psal. 9. 10. And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee And when God by his Spirit doth particularly incline his People to hope for Mercy from him he will not fail their Expectations Where the Qualification is uncertain yet the Faith of general Mercy wrastleth against Discouragements as in the case of the Woman of Canaan There is the Plea of a Dog and the Plea of a Child in grievous Temptations to fasten our selves upon God God will make good the Hope raised in them by his Spirit Use is for Direction what to do in all our Distresses Bodily and Spiritual Our Necessities should lead us to the Promise and the Promise to God 1. Be sure of your Qualification for David pleadeth here partly as a Servant of God and partly as a Believer First Remember thy word unto thy servant and then wherein thou hast caused me to hope There is a double Qualification with respect to the Precept of Subjection with respect to the Promise of Dependence The Precept is before the Promise They have right to
in a dark place 2 Pet. 1. 19. The love of the World will misleade us our own Reason will often leave us comfortless the Examples of the best are defective but the Word of God will give comfortable Direction to all that follow the direction of it under all their Crosses Confusions and Difficulties Psal. 119. 105. Thy word is a Light unto my feet and a Lanthorn to my paths Light is comfortable it is no small satisfaction that I am in God's way and have his Word for my Warrant 3. It propoundeth the Examples of their Country-men and sets forth their Heroical Acts and encourageth us to imitate their Fortitude and Self-denyal Heb. 6. 12. Be followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises many things are to be done and suffered before we attain the end Now it is a great Comfort to trace the footsteps of the Saints all along in the Way in which we go Heb. 12. 1. Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of Witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us If God did call us to walk in an untrodden Path it might be cumbersome and solitary now it is very obliging and encouraging to consider in what way they have been brought to Heaven before us 4. It hath many seasonable Cordials against fainting by the way Alas when we are in deep pressures our hearts are apt to sink but the Word assureth us that we shall have all things necessary for us that our Heavenly Father seeth what is best for us and that if we faithfully wait upon him our Afflictions and Rubs in the way shall be a means to bring us to our Journeys end 2 Cor. 4. 17. Our light Affliction that is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory and that for the present our Tryals are not inconsistent with his Love 2. On the Believers part there are Reasons of this Comfort and Rejoycing 1. There needeth a spiritual Frame of heart for a carnal Man's Rejoycings and Relishes are suitable to the Constitution of his Mind Rom. 8. 5. They that are after the Flesh do mind the things of the Flesh and they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit It is an infallible Rule to the worlds End every one cannot say thy Statutes are my Songs no they must have other Solaces and a Man's temper is more discerned by his Solaces than by any thing else they that have not purged their Tast from the dreggs of Sense the trash of the Flesh-pots of Egypt will ever be pleasing to them in the heavenly Pilgrimage and being inveigled with the baits of the Flesh the Promises are like withered Flowers to them or as dry Chips it is the spiritual Heart that is refreshed with spiritual Songs 2. This Word must be received by Faith for it is Faith that enliveneth our Notions of things and maketh them work with us Heb. 11. 13. These all dyed in Faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims upon the Earth our Affections follow Perswasion 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen we love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with Ioy unspeakable and full of Glory Rom. 15. 13. Now the God of Hope fill ye with all Ioy and Peace in believing 3. This Word must be improved by Reading Hearing but especially by Meditation and Singing 1. Meditation when it is sweet and lively stirreth this Joy Delight begets Meditation and Meditation begets Delight There is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in moral as well as natural Things Psal. 1. 2. His delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night And Psal. 119. 97. Oh how love I thy Law it is my Meditation day and night And vers 15 16. I will meditate in thy Precepts and have respect unto thy ways I will delight my self in thy Statutes I will not forget thy words These follow one another Affections are not excited but by deep and pondering thoughts 2. By singing Psalms we draw forth this Delight Col. 3. 16. Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdome teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Eph. 5. 18 19. Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Drunkards when filled with the spirit of Wine sing wanton Songs and those who are filled with the wine of the Spirit will praise God with spiritual Songs This is a Duty of importance a delightfully way of being instructed by our Refreshment God would give us strength but this is neglected or cursorily performed by Christians We will complain of the want of a Spirit in Prayer we should do so in singing coldness in this holy Exercise argueth a deadness of Faith and a coldness in true Religion We should express our Joy this way 4. Above all this Comfort is found in ready Practice and Obedience There is a Comfort I confess in Speculation but not so deep and intimate as in Practice The one is but a Tast inviting to the other which giveth us a fuller draught The bare Contemplation and view of any concerning and weighty Truth is very ravishing to those that bend their minds to Knowledge Prov. 24. 13 14. My Son eate thou honey because it is good and the honey-comb which is sweet to thy tast So shall the knowledge of Wisdome be to thy Soul Every Truth is Objectum Intellectus much more divine Truth but now in Practice the Impression is doubled We get Comfort and joy raised in our Consciences our Lives and Light do not jarre we are at full quiet in our Minds apprehending our selves to be in God's way Psal. 119. 14. I have rejoyced in the way of thy Testimonies as much as in all Riches Use 1. To shew you that the People of God need not envy the Wicked for their Delights and Pleasures they have chaster and sweeter Delights God's Statutes are their Songs Where the Heart is spiritual they can find Delight enough in the Word both as their Charter and their Rule and need not turn aside â—…o vain Mirth a portion in the Promises will yield Pleasure enough vers 111. Thy Testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart 2. To reprove those that reckon these things a Burthen the holy talking of Heaven and Godliness maketh worldly Men ever heavy and out of humour it is not their Delight but it should not be so with the Children of God A Child of
right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me or good eternal 2 Cor. 4. 17. For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Use 1. For Information That God's Righteous Judgments are matter of Praise and Thanksgiving an Angel is brought in speaking Revel 16. 5. Thou art righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because thou hast judged thus Indeed the formal object of Thanksgiving and Praise is some benefit Psalm 135. 3. Praise the Lord for the Lord is good We praise God for his Judgments because they are just and right we praise God for his Mercies not onely because they are just and equal but comfortable and beneficial to us and so a double ground of Thanksgiving Use 2. For Reproof That we make more noise of a little trouble than we do of a thousand Benefits that remain with us We fret and complain and manifest the impatiency of the Flesh like a great Machine or Carriage if one Pin be out of order all stoppeth or one Member hurt though all the rest of the Body be sound or as Haman the favours of a great King pleasures of a luxurious Court all this availeth him nothing as long as Mordecai was in the gate Esther 5. 13. notwithstanding his Riches Honours multitude of Children great Offices this damped all his joy Mal. 1. 2. I have loved you saith the Lord yet ye say wherein hast thou loved us non quod habet numerat c. Oh let us check this complaining Spirit let us consider what is left not what God hath taken away what we may or shall have not what we now want what God is and will be to his People though we see little or nothing in the Creature 3 Doct. That an heart deeply affected with God's Providence will take all occasions to praise and give thanks 1. It is certain that our whole Life should be a real expression of Thankfulness to God The Life of a Christian is a life of Love and Praise an Hymn to God 1 Pet. 2. 9. But ye are a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous Light Christianity is a Confession the visible acting of Godliness is a part of this Confession we are all saved as Confessors or Martyrs Now the Confession is made both in Word and Deed. 2. There are special occasions of Thanksgiving and Praise to God as the Apostle bids Timothy preach 2 Tim. 4. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in season out of season meaning thereby that he should not onely take ordinary occasions but extraordinary he should make an opportunity where he found none So we should press Christians to praise God not onely in solemn Duties when the Saints meet together to praise but extraordinarily redeem time for this blessed Work yea interrupt our lawfull sleep and repose to find frequent vacancies for so necessary a Duty as the lauding and magnifying of God's Mercy 3. As for rising up at Midnight we can neither enforce it as a Duty upon you nor yet can we condemn it 'T was an act of heroical Zeal in David who imployed his time waking to the honour of God which others spent in sleeping and we reade that Paul and Silas sang praises at midnight Acts 16. 25. though then in the Stocks and they had been scourged the day before And it is said Iob 25. 10. None saith where is God my maker who giveth songs in the night that is giveth matter of praise if we wake in the night And David saith elsewhere Psalm 42. 8. The Lord will command his loving kindness in the day time and in the night his song shall be with me day and night he would be filled with a sense of Gods Love and with Songs of Praise Therefore we cannot condemn this but must highly commend it Let men praise God at any time and the more they deny themselves to doe it the more commendable is the Action yet we cannot enforce it upon you as a necessary Duty as the Papists build their nocturnal Devotions upon it That which we disprove in them is that those Hours instituted by men they make necessary that they direct their Prayers to Saints and Angels which should onely be to God that they mingle them with superstitious Ceremonies and Observances that they pray and sing in an unknown Tongue without Devotion appropriating it to a certain sort of men to Clerks for their gain with an opinion of merit The Primitive Christians had their Hymnos antelucanos but in Persecution their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clem. Alex. but what is this to superstitious night services 4. Though we cannot enforce the particular observance upon you yet there are many notable Lessons to be drawn from David's practice 1. The ardency of his Devotion or his earnest desire to praise God at midnight then when sleep doth most invade us then he would rise up His Heart was so set upon the praising of God and the sense of his righteous Providence did so affect him and urge him or excite him to this duty that he would not onely imploy himself in this work in the day time and so shew his love to God but he would rise out of his bed to worship God and celebrate his Praise That which hindreth the sleep of ordinary men is either the cares of this world the impatient resentment of injuries or the sting of an evil Consciencâ—… these keep others waking but David was awaked by a desire to praise God no hour is unseasonable to a gracious heart he is expressing his affection to God when others take their rest Thus we read of our Lord Christ that he spent whole nights in Prayer Luke 16. 12. It is said of the glorified Saints in Heaven that they praise God continually Rev. 7. 15. They are before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them Now holy men though much hindered by their bodily necessities yet they will come as near as present frailty will permit we often times beg in the day with some fervency of Prayer and Praise but we faint ere even 2. His sincerity seen in his secrecy David would profess his faith in God when he had no witness by him at midnight then no hazard of ostentation It was a secret chearfulness and delighting in God when alone he could have no respect to the applause of men but onely to approve himself to God who seeth in secret See Christ's direction Matth. 6. 6. But thou when thou prayest enter into thy closet and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly his own practice Mark 1. 35. Rising early in the morning he
have not always the strength of Faith and therefore faint and are ready to perish I said in my haste I am cut off Psal. 31. 22. 4. Religion itself intendereth the heart a Father's anger is no slight thing to a gracious soul. When we are afflicted and God is angry the trouble is the more grievous and it is hard to steer right between the two Rocks of slighting and fainting well then pity poor creatures under their burden and help them but censure them not 3. His Remedy God's Word there is the Paradise of delights and the onely Requies to allay the bitter sense of all our troubles why First As to the main blessings there is represented to us the true Fountain of all comfort who is God the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort 2 Cor. 1. 13. who distributeth comfort when and where and to whom he pleaseth 2dly There is discovered to us the meritorious and procuring cause who is Jesus Christ Who hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace 2 Thess. 2. 16. 3dly The Spirit who is the applier of all comfort therefore called the Comforter and he giveth us peace and joy in believing Rom. 15. 13. 4thly The true instrument means or condition whereby we receive comfort and that is Faith Iohn 14. 1. 5thly The true matter of comfort and that is pardon and life 1. Pardon and Reconciliation with God Rom. 5. 10. no solid cause of rejoycing till then when reconciled to God then true peace and peace that passeth all understanding which will guard both heart and mind Phil. 4. 7. then all miseries are unstinged Solid pâ—…e of Conscience is your best support and comfort under afflictions the intrinsic evil of afflictions is then taken away Lam. 3. 39. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins While sin remaineth unpardoned the thorn still remaineth in the sore 2. The promise of eternal life Rom. 5. 2. There is the Crown set against the Cross heavenly comforts against earthly afflictions the afflictions of God's children comparatively are light and short 2 Cor. 4. 17. This light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Nothing should be grievous to them that know a world to come where all tears shall be wiped from our eyes and we shall enjoy fulness of joy and pleasure for evermore 6thly It sheweth us who are the Parties capable the renewed or sanctified Ps. 32. 11. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart To all Christ's sincere faithful and obedient servants these promises are matter of abundant joy As to particular comforts concerning afflictions it is endless to instance in all but take a few instances 1. The Word of God teaches us not only how to bear them but how to improve them as it teaches us how to bear them it breedeth quietness and submission but as it teaches us how to improve them it breedeth peace and joy To bear Micah 7. 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me he will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his righteousness To improve them Heb. 12. 11. Righteousness brings peace along with it The fruit is better than the deliverance as we get spiritual advantage by them as they promote Repentance purge out Sin bring us home to God They rid us of the matter of our trouble and bring us to the center of our rest 2. The Word teaches to depend upon God for the moderating of them and deliverance from them 1 Cor. 10. 13. Before he giveth a passage out of our pressures he vouchsafeth present support to us and will not permit his servants to be tempted beyond what they are able to bear 3. His people have most experience of God under the Cross they have a more peculiar allowance from God for sufferings than for ordinary services Paul was most strong when weak 2 Cor. 12. 9 10. The greater pressures the more sensible the divine assistance And when ordinary means fail and they are pressed above their own strength the more visible the proof of God's help When they are most apt to have jealousies of God's love they have had the highest manifestations of it never more liberty than in the house of bondage Most of God's smiles when all things seem to frown upon them In short have had more understanding not only of God's Word but his Love 4. God's governing all things for the benefit of his people Rom 8. 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God sure then afflictions Now they submitting and being exercised under sharp dispensations may find it verified to them many things seem for our hurt intendedly many thought so by our selves but God knoweth how to bring good out of them Cant. 4. 16. 4. David saith my delights They that seek their solace and delight in the Word shall find it there It is an excellent frame of heart to be satisfied with the comforts which the Word offereth every one cannot be thus affected to raise this delight 1. Faith is necessary for the comforts of the Word are received and improved by Faith unless we expect the sure accomplishment of God's promises how can we be supported by them Psal. 27. 13. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living That is without a full assent to the promises which God had made him of his Restauration for he had particular assurance of the Kingdom as we have of the Kingdom of Heaven so for the consent as well as assent to take the happiness contained in the promises as our whole felicity Psal. 119. 111. Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever they are the rejoicing of my heart There is heritage and portion rich enough in God's promises and this breedeth joy in all afflictions 2. Meditation is necessary for thereby the sweetness of the Word is perceived and tasted and the promises laid before us it is the fruit of delight Psal. 1. 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night And it is the cause of it Psal. 104. 34. My meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. They who delight in a thing will often view it and consider it and thereby their delight is increased the most lively truths work not on us for want of serious consideration 3. There must be Mortification and Self-denial or prizing spiritual Favors before temporal Benefits The Cross will not be grievous to a mortified spirit when they compare their gain with their loss 2 Cor. 4. 16. To others we speak in vain whose hearts are set upon worldly advantages but they
little patience will discover it As poysonous Ingredients in a Medicine take them singly and they are destructive but as tempered with other things by the hands of a skilful Physician so they are wholesome and useful Heb. 12. 11. No affliction for the present seemeth joyous but grievous The Rod is a sowre thing for the present but wait a little this bitter root may yield sweet fruit God can so over-rule it in his Providence So Psal. 119. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes Ask a man under the Cross Is it good to feel the lashes of Gods correcting hand No but when he hath been exercised and found lust mortified the world crucified and gotten evidences of Gods favour then it is good that I have been afflicted 4. This good is not to be determined by feeling but by Faith Psal. 73. 1. Yet God is good to Israel and to such as are of a clean heart God is good to his people however he seem to deal hardly with them sence judgeth it ill but faith saith it is good it seeth a great deal of love in pain and smart There is such a difference between faith and sense as there was between Elisha and his Servant 2 King 6. 15 16. the Servant saw the Host of the enemies but he did not see the fiery Chariots and Horsemen that were for his help Elisha saw both so Believers see not only the bitterness that is in Gods chastenings but the sweet fruits in the issue Faith can look at the pride and power of wicked men as a vain thing when they are in the height of their power and greatness Iob 5 3. I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his habitation that is prophetically not passionately foretelling evil not wishing it When they were taking root as themselves and other worldly men thought I judged him unhappy foretold his end and destruction There is much of the spirit of prophecy in faith When others applaud make little gods of them he looketh through all their beauty riches and honour Psal. 92. 7. When the wicked spring as the Grass and all the workers of iniquity do flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever Grass will wither and dry up of its own accord especially when there is a Worm at the root Their very prosperity as it ferments their lusts and hardeneth their hearts is a means to draw on their destruction Psal. 39. 5. Man in his best estate is vanity Then when they seem to have all things under their feet who could harm them So that none dare open the mouth move the wing or peep yet God can easily blast and whip them with an unseen scourge 5. Good is of several sorts temporal spiritual eternal First Temporal Good Cross accidents conduce to that Gen. 50. 20. Ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day and to save much people alive The Egyptians and themselves had wanted a preserver if Ioseph had not been sold and sent into Egypt If a man were to go to Sea in a voyage upon which his heart was much set but the ship is gone before he cometh but after he heareth that all that were in the ship are drowned then he would say This disappointment was for good As Crassus's Rival in the Parthian War was intercepted and cut off by the craft of the Barbarians had no reason to stomach his being refused Many of us have cause to say Periissem nisi periissem we had suffered more if we had suffered less In the Story of Ioseph there is a notable scheme and draught of Providence He is cast into a Pit thence drawn forth and sold to the Ishmaelites by them sold into Egypt and sold again what doth God mean to do with poor Ioseph He is tempted to Adultery refusing the temptation he is falsly accused kept for a long time in ward and duress All this is against him who would have thought that in the issue this should be turned to his good that the prison had been the way to preferment and that by the pit he should come to the Palace of the King of Egypt and exchange his particoloured Coat for a Royal Robe Thus in temporal things we get by our losses and God chuseth better for us than we could have chosen for our selves Let God alone to his undertaking and he will manage our affairs better than we looked for Secondly Good spiritual Heb. 12. 10. For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness What do we call profit The good things of this World and the great Mammon which so many worship No some better thing some spiritual and Divine benefit a participation of Gods holiness Then we profit when we grow in Grace and are more god-like when we are more concerned as a soul than a body It is a good exchange to part with outward Comforts for inward holiness If God take away our peace and give us peace of Conscience we have no cause to complain If our outward wants be recompensed with the abundance of inward Grace 1 Cor. 4. 10. and we have less of the World that we may have the more of God and be kept poor that we may be rich in faith Iam. 2. 5 6. if we have a healthy soul in a sickly body as Gaius had 3 Iohn 2. if an aking head maketh way for a better heart doth not God deal graciously and lovingly with us Thirdly Our eternal Good Heaven will make amends for all that we endure here This mainly is intended in Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good to them that love God And then in the 29 th and 30 th Verses he presently bringeth in the golden Chain Whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called he justified and those whom he justified them he also glorified So 2 Cor. 4. 17. This light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory it shall either hasten or secure our glorious estate A man may lose ground by a temptation his external good may be weakned his soul suffereth loss but this warneth him of his weakness and quickeneth him to stand upon his watch and to look up more to Christ for strength against it Or it may be cut off and perish in the affliction but then his glorious estate cometh in possession 6. That may be good for the Glory of God which doth not conduce to our personal benefit and the Glory of God is our great interest Iohn 11. 27 28. Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this Cause came I unto this hour father to glorifie thy name Then there came a voice from Heaven saying I have both
2. It must not be on forreign Reasons And then it must be Universal otherwise it is but like Herod who heard Iohn gladly and did many things c. Mark 6. 20. It must be deeply rooted otherwise it is but like the seed which fell on the Stony ground which received the Word with joy but dureth but for a while Matth. 13. 20. 1. Use. To shew how far they are from the Temper of Gods Children whose Delight is in Sin or the Pleasures of the Flesh. These have dreggy muddy Souls Their hearts are on sports plays merry-meetings These desires are soon cloyed leave a bitterness in the Soul till we contemn them we are never fit for an Holy Life See Gregory de Valentia 2. Use. Have we this Delight The Sincerity may be discerned 1. By the Extent It is extended to all the parts of the Word delight in the Promises and Precepts To be partial in the Law Hypocrites can well allow Mal. 2. 9. 2. It will be discerned by the Effects of it You will often Consult with it Psal. 119. 24. Thy Testimonies are my delight and my Counsellors 3. It will be a perpetual Delight Iob. 27. 10. Will he delight himself in the Almighty Will he always call upon God You will own it in Affliction as in the Text. Many will delight in Gods Word when Prosperity accompanieth it but not in Trouble and Anguish You will delight in Obedience and in the way of his Testimonies not talk of it but do it The young Man's delight in Dinah made him Circumcise himself Gen. 34. 19. Lastly Compare it with your delight in things Sensible Temporal and Corporeal If it be sincere and cordial it will not onely equal but surmount these Verse 72. The Law of thy Mouth is better to me than thousands of Gold and Silver And Verse 162. I rejoyce in thy Word as one that findeth great Spoil Spiritual good is greater than Corporal our conjunction with it is more intimate greater and firmer The part gratified is more Noble the Soul than the Body it will make these dye that the other may live 3. Use. Let us be exhorted to do what we can for the begetting encreasing and cherishing this delight in our hearts If you love God you cannot but love his word which is so perfect a representation of him If you love Holiness you must needs delight in the Word this is the rule of it If you love Life and Happiness you must needs delight in the Word this is the way that leadeth us to so Blessed and Glorious an Estate If you love Christ you will love the Word which offereth him to you If you love the new Nature you will delight in the Word which is the Seed of it If you would speed in Prayer Ver. 77. Let thy tender Mercies come unto me for thy Law is my Delight If you would be supported in Affliction Verse 92. Unless thy Law had been my Delight I should then have perished in mine Affliction 4. Doctrine In the days of our Trouble and Anguish Gods Word will be a great delight and comfort to us Such a Comfort as will overcome the bitterness of our Affliction So saith David here When all Comforts have spent their Virtue then Gods Word will be a Comfort to us Here I shall shew First What Comfort the Word holds out to us Secondly Why Afflictions do not diminish it First What Comforts it holds forth 1. The Priviledges of the Afflicted Rom. 5. 1 2. We glory in Tribulations knowing that Tribulation worketh Patience Such may rejoyce in Tribulations Miseries are unstinged his Rods are not signs of his Anger They are in the favour of God and his heart is with them however his hand be smart upon them The Habitude and Nature of Afflictions is altered in themselves they are the Punishments of Sin and so their Natural tendency is to Despair and Bondage God seemeth to put the Old Covenant in suit against unbelieving sinners but now they are Tryals Preventions Medicines to Believers that proceed from love and are designed for their good 2. The Word holdeth forth the Blessedness of an other World 2 Cor. 4. 17 18. Our light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Hope is not afrighted by Affliction but worketh Before Corn be ripened it needeth all kind of Weathers The Husbandman is glad of showers as well as sun-shine Rainy Weather is Troublesome but the season requireth it 3. It assureth us of what is acceptable to God Micah 6. 8. He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God So it yieldeth comfort through the Conscience of our Duty and chearfull reflections on afflicted Innocency are not these Gods wayes which we desire to walk in and for which we are troubled 4. The Word hath notable Precepts that ease the Heart Phil. 4. 6. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving let your Requests be made known unto God 1 Peter 5. 7. Casting all your Care upon him for he careth for you Proverbs 16. 3. Commit thy Works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be Established It biddeth us cast all our Cares upon God and commit our selves to the Guidance of his Providence 5. It giveth us many Promises of Gods being with us and strengthning and delivering us and giving us a gracious Issue out of all our Troubles 1 Corinthians 10. 13. God is Faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able But will with the Temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it Now it is a great ease to the Soul to fly to these Promises which are made to his Afflicted Servants 6. It breedeth Faith which fixeth the Heart Psalm 112. 7. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings his Heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. It breedeth Fortitude or cleaving to God under the greatest Trials 2 Samuel 6. 22. And Psalm 44. 17 18. Now this becometh a Testimony and Proof of our Love to God and so bringeth Comfort It breedeth Obedience and the doing of good leaveth a Pleasure behind it After Sin a sting remaineth Romans 2. 14 15. It breedeth Waiting and Patience when all Hope is cut off Micah 7. 7. Therefore I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my Salvation When such Trouble is on us as no end appeareth of it Most mens Comfort holdeth out but whilst there is hope of turning the Stream of things They are not satisfied in their Duty nor comforted with Promises but born up with Hopes of Success Secondly Why Afflictions do rather increase than diminish this 1. They drive us to these Comforts Man liveth by sense more than by Faith when he hath any thing about him but his sorrows drive him to God
satisfieth not And Ioh. 6. 27. Labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that meat which indureth to everlasting life And partly as it ingageth to Constancy in Obedience for it must last as long as our Rule lasteth You are eternally bound to love God and Fear him and Obey him We must not only begin well or serve him now and then in a good Mood but so love God as to love him for ever so cleave to him as never to depart from him For his Law is an eternal obligation you must never cease your work till you receive your wages and that is when you enter into Eternity Yea much of our work is wages Loving Praising God all Duties that do not imply weakness are a part of our Happiness Thus it hath a greater influence upon our Obedience then we were at first aware of 3. Because it conduceth much to our Comfort The Apostle telleth us that the Comfort of Believers is built upon two immutable grounds therefore 't is so strong Heb. 6. 18. Now this Everlasting Righteousness of Gods Testimonies is a comfort to us 1 In all the changes of Mens Affections towards us sometimes they smile and sometimes they frown but the Promises ever remain the same There is yea and nay with men but not with the Promises they are all yea and amen in Christ. 2 Cor. 1. 20. Times alter and change but the tenour of the Covenant is always the same 2 It Comforts us in the changes of Gods dispensations to us God may change his dispensations yet his purposes of Grace stand firm and are carried on unalterably by various and contrary means We must interpret Providence by the Covenant not the Covenant by Providence We know the meaning of his works best by going into his Sanctuary The World misconstrueth his work and dealing to his Children many times if it be rightly interpreted you will find Gods Righteousness is an Everlasting Righteousness Sometimes Gods Providence is dark but always just Psal. 97. 2. Clouds and darkness are round about him Righteousness and Iudgment are the Habitation of his throne Hab. 1. 12. Art not thou from everlasting O Lord my God That was the Prophet's support in those sad times when a Treacherous people were exalted when he was imbrangled and lost about Gods dispensations this was his comfort and support Gods Eternal Immutability in the Covenant He is always the same loveth his People as much as ever as faithful and mindful of his Covenant as ever only a vail of sense covereth our eyes that we cannot see it 3 It Comforts us against the difficulties of Obedience when it groweth Irksome to us The difficulty and trouble is but for a while but we shall everlastingly have the Comfort of it 2 Cor. 4. 17. For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory Then 't will be no grief of heart to us to have watched prayed striven against sin suffered continued with him notwithstanding all Temptations Rom. 2. 7. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality eternal Life 4 'T is a Comfort in Death We change and are changed but God is always the same the Righteousness of Christ will bear weight for ever Dan. 9. 24. to bring in an everlasting Righteousness The fruits of Obedience last for ever Psal. 112. 7. His Righteousness endureth for ever How Comfortable is this to remember that we may appear before God with this Confidence which he hath wrought in us that the Covenant of Grace is an everlasting Charter that shall never be out of Date nor wax old Use. Let it be thus with us let it be so deeply imprinted upon our Minds that it may leave an Everlastingness there upon the frame of our Spirits for then we are transformed by the Word and cast into the Mould of it Now who are they that have an Everlasting Righteous frame of heart 1. Such as Act out of an everlasting Principle or the new Nature which worketh above the World The Word ingrafted is called an Incorruptible seed or the seed of God 1 Pet. 1. 23. that abideth in us 1 Ioh. 3. 9. when there is a Divine Principle in us such a Principle as is the seed and beginning of Eternal Life when the Word hath rooted it self in our hearts 2. Such as by their constant progress towards an Everlasting estate are going from strength to strength serving God and cleaving to him in a uniform constant Course of Holiness not by fits and starts but unchangeably Act. 24. 16. to have always a Conscience void of offence Again when you are in such an estate wherein you can bear the Trial of those everlasting Rules Gal. 6. 8. He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap Corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life Everlasting Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live In short If you have everlasting Ends 2 Cor. 4. 18. While we look not at the things that are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal Not making things Temporal our scope and aim that will not satisfie us when we are deeply possessed with the thoughts of the other World 1 Cor. 2. 12. We have not received the Spirit of the World and look upon all other things by the by and use the World as if we used it not 1 Cor. 7. 29 30. Secondly I come now to the Prayer Give me understanding and I shall live I. Here is the benefit asked Understanding II. The Person asking David Give me III. The Person from whom it is asked from God I. The Benefit asked give me Understanding that is the saving knowledge of Gods Testimonies Doctrine One great request that we have to put up to God should be for the saving knowledge of his Testimonies The Reasons why this should be our great Request to God First The necessity of Understanding that will appear 1. Because of our Ignorance and Folly which is the cause of all our sin Tit. 3. 3. We our selves were sometimes foolish and disobedient Therefore Disobedient because Foolish Every natural man is a Fool blind in spiritual things whatever understanding or quickness of Judgment he hath in other things In all things that relate to God and Heaven Blind and Foolish and cannot see afar off 2 Pet. 1. 9. He that lacketh these things is blind And you shall find that sinners are called Fools Prov. 1. 22. How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity And scorners delight in scorning and Fools hate knowledge Psal. 75. 4. I said unto the Fools deal not foolishly and to the wicked lift not up the Horn. They follow their own Wit and Will to the
light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal He that hopeth for nothing from God will soon fall off from him and yield to fainting discouragements their hearts are turned off and perverted but when we hope we do with Patience submit to the Cross What troubles will not they undergo that expect undoubtedly their speedy ending in everlasting and endless Bliss and Happiness If God hideth his Face that raiseth a storm Psal. 43. 5. Why art thou so disquieted O my Soul still hope in God Casting Anchor upon the Rock as the crying Child falls asleep with the Teat in his mouth or when God delayeth the performance of what is promised Prov. 13. 12. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick Expectation is a tedious thing as smoak to the eyes and vinegar to the teeth an ordinary messenger sent on a trifling Errand Now Rom. 8. 15. If we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it 1 Thes. 1. 3. And patience of hope in our Lord Iesus Christ. Is a Title nothing before Possession 'T is not a matter of debt Or is it the fear of approaching death which is the King of Terrors Prov. 14. 32. The wicked shall be driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death The Wicked being arrested by Death is hurried away into Hell but the Righteous dismisseth his Soul into his Redeemers hands Never more chearful than when our confidence in Gods Mercy is most put to Trial. Secondly Here is the Profession of his Obedience I have done thy Commandments Here is I. The Object thy Commandments II. The Act of Duty done I. The Object thy Commandments quia tua therefore kept them because they are thine things thou hast given in charge Men were ready to perswade or threaten him out of his Duty II. The Act of Duty done thy Commandements The Act of Duty to Do noteth the substance of the Act or Omission The doing things Commanded by eschewing things Fordidden 3. The Manner of doing out of knowledge of Gods Command and Conscience of obeying it to his Glory and our Salvation Now saith David I have done it Implyeth I have not only Care and Conscience but Strength and Ability in some measure to do thy Will But is not this Plea a proud Word for a Creature to say I have done thy Commandments Who can thus say and aver it to the face of God Ans. There is a Twofold keeping or doing of the Commandments Legal and Evangelical 1. Legal When we do them so exactly as is answerable to the Rigor of the Law and the Rule of strict Justice doth require which exactness is when our Obedience is Universal in every Point when every thing Commanded by God is done by us without failing in one point Gal. 3. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them 1. In all things and that 2. Continually in respect of time from the first minute of our birth till our dissoution one failing in thought at any time casteth off our Plea 3. Full and Compleat in respect of the degrees and measure of Obedience with the utmost Intention and Affection of the heart which the Scripture expresseth by all the Heart and all the Soul In this sense never man was able to keep the Law save only the first Adam in innocency and the second Adam Jesus Christ and therefore according to this Rigor there is no hope for us one sin once committed would undo us for ever as it did the Apostate Angels 2. Evangelical according to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and moderation of the Gospel that is when we do the Commandments according to those terms of Grace which God offereth to us in Christ that doth as to Obedience mitigate the Rigor of the Law in two things 1. It granteth a Pardon of Course to some kind of sins 2. Accepteth of Repentance after any the most hainous sin committed 1. It granteth a Pardon of Course to some kind of sins as sins of infirmity either of Ignorance which if we had known we would not have committed or sins of suddain surreption which escape without our observing of them or sins of violent Temptation which by sudden assault sway against the right Rule before we have time to weigh both it and our selves or in cool Bloud to think what we are a-doing Such as do not arise out of any evil purpose of the Mind but out of humane Frailty and from which we shall never be free as long as we live in this Body of Corruption Rom. 7. 24. Paul groaneth under these relicks when what we have done is not out of deliberate consent giving way to the growth and reign of Sin Rom. 6. 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you non dixit non sit sed non regnet inest peccatum cum perpetras regnat cum consenseris saith Austin When we give Obedience to it freely willingly yield up our selves to be Servants of it then Sin Reigns Therefore he doth not say let not Sin be in you or Tempt you or please you but let it not Reign in you 'T is a misery to be Tempted a snare to be delighted and a forfeiture or renouncing the Grace of the Covenant to give up our selves to the full sway of it 2. The Gospel doth herein moderate the Rigor of the Law because it leaveth a Sinner a way and means of Recovery Namely by Repentance and Faith in Jesus Christ and upon Repentance giveth him a Pardon Matth. 9. 13. Remission or Forgiveness is a Priviledge of the New Covenant the Law knoweth no such matter Ezekiel 18. 21. 22. But if the wicked shall turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surâ—…ly â—…ive and not die all his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him Well then this is to be understood in the Gospel sense 't is the Plea of a Man Justified freely by Gods Grace and one that is Sincere and Upright for the Main One that had received Grace to be Faithful though not without his Infirmities and did not make a practice to live in any known sin against Conscience Secondly We now come to shew the Connexion between these two I. None can and do rightly hope for Salvation but they that keep the Commandments II. None do and can keep the Commandments but they that hope for Salvation I. None can and do rightly hope for Salvation but they that keep the Commandments that will appear to you 1. Partly Because God hath by a wise Ordination conjoined Means and End and offered the
be revived and what was cursorily sought at other times should now be sought with some Vehemency and Longings in Prayer Ier. 29. 13 14. When they shall seek me with their whole heart they shall find me and I will give them an expected end We do not stir up our selves to take hold of him Psal. 14. 7. Oh that the salvation of Israel were come cut of Zion There should be a Longing we should not content our selves with a few dead and drowsie Prayers 3. Salvation may be Comfortably expected from God for as necessity enforceth these Longings so Hope quickeneth them Now it may be expected for he is mighty to save Isa. 63. 1. he is willing to save a distressed People Ver. 5. I looked and there was none to help therefore mine own arm brought Salvation to me God strook in for the deliverance and help of his People when all humane help failed he did the work alone himself Once more when he meaneth to save he covereth himself with Frowns and Anger as if he meant to destroy Isa. 45. 15. Verily thou art a God that hidest thy self O God the saviour He seemeth to hide and stand aloof from his People in their Afflictions and carrieth himself so closely and covertly in the passages of his Providence that his People know not what he meaneth to do what is our work then but to keep Longing and Waiting and Looking to Gods hands till he have mercy upon us Doctrine II. That we should delight in the Promise before the Salvation cometh So doth David say here thy law is my delight that is whilst he was Longing for Gods Salvation and by Law is meant Gods Word in the General the Promise is included in it as well as the precept 1. A Believer should not be comfortless in his Troubles Ioh. 14. 1. Let not your hearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me Immoderate sorrow for temporal Evils will not become one that hath an interest in God and Christ whatever falls out in the World God is the same still and the Covenant is the same and our better part and our happiness is above the reach of Trouble there is a Long-suffering with Joyfulness Col. 1. 4. 2. All our delight and solace must not arise from the delights of Sense but out of the Word of God 'T is good to see what is our solace and support in Troubles for the man is as his solace is Psal. 94. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul. How do we ease our selves in our perplexities and griefes is it with Gods Comforts Now Gods Comforts are Gospel Comforts the Comforts we have from the Word they will make us more love the Word and trust more upon Gods Word and the more confidently expect the performance of it 3. The Promises should support us upon a twofold account partly because they are good and partly because they are sure 1. They are good there is a fulness in Gods Allowance that suiteth with all our Cases Psal. 84. 11. For the Lord God is a Sun and a Shield he will give grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold from them that live uprightly So 1 Tim. 4. 8. Godliness hath the promises of the life which now is and of that which is to come Heaven and Earth are laid at the feet of it A Man cannot desire a greater Cordial than necessary provisions for this and the future Life Psal. 119. 111. Thy testimonies I have taken for an herâ—…ge for ever they are the rejoicing of my heart The promises of the World to come should swallow up all our present grief for there is more in heaven than can be taken from us in the Creature 2 Cor. 4. 17. For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory And Heb. 10. 34. And took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that in heaven ye have a better and a more induring substance We have a Treasure and an happiness elsewhere which cannot be infringed by the Afflictions we endure in this World we do not loose much if we get Eternal Salvation in the issue and so we get to Heaven no matter how dark soever our passage be then for the Promises of this Life they suit with all our Troubles Wants Dangers Breaches and Distresses But what confidence can we have of these Temporal Deliverances or Mercies Answ. Either we shall have the Mercies themselves or God will order Providences so as it may be good for us to want them and have something better given in lieu of them Rom. 8. 28. We know he will not leave us wholly destitute Heb. 13. 5. nor bring upon us insupportable difficulties 1 Cor. 10. 13. and this should be enough for us to maintain us in Life and Comfort 2. They are sure as well as good 1. As Promises a Promise is more than a purpose for 't is a purpose not as conceived in the mind of a man but declared to another to invite hope 't is more than a Doctrine a Doctrine giveth notice of Priviledges but a Promise giveth us an Interest in them 'T is more than a Revelation or Prophesie Scripture prophecies will be fulfilled because of Gods Veracity but Scripture promises not only because of Gods Veracity but also his fidelity and justice there is a kind of Righteousness in making good promises because we give another a Right and Claim to the things promised by the promises we make to him A promisory Lye is worse than an aâ—…ertory Lye a promise gives us an holdfast upon God promittendo se fecit debitorem 2. As the Promises of God who cannot Lye and deceive the Creatures Heb. 6. 18. That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to Lye we might have strong Consolation And therefore by acting Faith on these declarations of his Will we may have the Accomplishment of them none that euer depended on Gods Word were disappointed Psal. 18. 30. The word of the Lord is a tryed Word God was never yet found worse than his Word he hath been tender of the Credit of his Word Psal. 138. 2. Thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name Heathens have acknowledged that God hath never so much shewed himself in the World as in these two things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in doing good and keeping Promise Above all that is named and famed of God this is most Conspicuous Use Is to Exhort us all in our Streights Dangers and Troubles to be contented with his Word and to delight in the promise as if it were performed I shall here shew you how we are to carry our selves towards the promises 1. You must rest confident of the Truth of what God hath promised and be assured that in time the performance will come to pass as if you saw it with your Eyes Heb. 11. 13. They were perswaded
Comforts are God's Comforts and so more powerful and authoritative 2. It is a strong Comfort Heb. 6. 18. That the heirs of promise might have strong consolation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Other Comforts are weak and of little force they are not Affliction-proof nor Death-proof nor Judgment-proof they cannot stand before a few serious and sober thoughts of the World to come but this is strong Comfort that can support the Soul not onely in the imagination and supposition of a Trouble when we see it at a distance but when it is actually come upon us how great soever it be If we feel the cold hands of Death ready to pluck out our hearts and are summoned to appear before the Bar of our Judge yet this Comfort is not the more impeached that which supported us in Prosperity can support us in Adversity what supports in Life can support us in death For the Comforts of the Word endure for ever and the Covenant of God will not fail us living or dying 3. It is a full Comfort both for Measure and Matter 1. Sometimes for the Measure the Apostle speaketh of Comforts abounding by Christ 2 Cor. 1. 5. and Acts 13. 52. The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost And the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 7. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am filled with comfort and am exceeding joyful in all your tribulations Paul and Silas could sing Praises in the Prison and in the Stocks after they had been scourged and whipped Acts 16. 30. And our Lord Iesus Christ when he took care for our Comfort he took care that it might be a full Comfort Ioh. 15. 4. These things have I spoken that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full The Joy of Believers is a full Joy needing no other Joy to be added to it 'T is full enough to bear us out under all discouragements If Christians would improve their advantages they might by their full Joy and Chearfulness entice carnal Men who are ensnared by the Baits of the World and the Delights of the Flesh once to come and try what Comforts they might have in the Bosom of Christ and the lively expectation of the promised Glory 2. For the Matter it is full because of the Comprehensiveness of those Comforts which are provided for us There is no sort of Trouble for which the Word of God doth not afford sufficient Consolation no Strait can be so great no Pressure so grievous but we have full Consolation offered us in the Promises against them all We have Promises of the Pardon of all our Sins and Promises of Heaven it self and what can we desire more We have Promises suited to every State Prosperity and Adversity what do we need which we have not a Promise of Prosperity that it shall not be our ruine if we take it thankfully from God and use it for God for to the pure all things are pure Tit. 1. 15. But especially for Adversity when we most need there are Promises either of singular Assistance or gracious Deliverance In short the Word of God assureth us of the gracious Presence of God here in the midst of our Afflictions and the eternal Enjoyment of God hereafter that he will be with us in our Houses of Clay or we shall shortly be with him in his Palace of Glory and so here is matter of full Comfort 1. His Presence with us in our Afflictions Psal. 91. 15. I will be with him in trouble and Isa. 4. 3. When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee and many other places Now if God be with us why should we be afraid Psal. 23. 4. When I walk thorow the valley of the shadow of death I will not be afraid for thou art with me and in many other places We see in the Body if any Member be hurt thither presently runneth the Blood to comfort the wounded part the Man himself Eye Tongue and Hand is altogether employed about that part and wounded Member as if he were forgetful of all the rest So we see in the Family if one of the Children be sick all the care and Kindness of the Mother is about that sick Child she sits by him blandisheth him and tendeth him so that all the rest do as it were envy his Disease and Sickness If Nature doth thus will not God who is the Author of Nature do much more For if an earthly Mother do thus to a sickly and suffering Child will not our heavenly Father who hath an infinite incredible and tender Love to his People Surely he runneth to the Afflicted as the Blood to the hurt Member he looketh after the Afflicted as the Mother to the sick Child This is the difference between God and the World the World runneth after those that flourish and rejoyce and live in Prosperity as the Rivers run to the Sea where there is Water enough already but God comforteth us in all our tribulations 2 Cor. 1. 4. His Name and Style is He comforteth those that are cast down 2 Cor. 7. 6. The World forsaketh those that are in poverty disgrace and want but God doth not withdraw from them but visiteth them most hath communion with them most and vouchsafeth most of his Presence to them even to those that holily meekly and patiently bear the Afflictions which he layeth upon them and one drop of this Honey is enough to sweeten the bitterest Cup that ever they drank of If God be with us if the Power of Christ will rest upon us then we may even glory in Infirmities as Paul did 2. Of our presence with God when our Afflictions are over that is our happiness hereafter we shall be there where he is Iohn 12. 26. There where I am shall my servant be And Iohn 17. 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me When we have had our Trial and Exercise we shall live with him for ever Therefore is our Comfort called everlasting Consolation 2 Thess. 2. 16. Who hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace Nothing more can be added or desired if we have but the patience to tarry for it that we may come to the sight of God and Christ at last Surely this will lighten the heart of that sorrow and fear wherewith it is surcharged here is an everlasting ground of Comfort and if it doth not allay our Fears and Sorrows the fault is not in the Comfort for that is a solid and eternal Good but on the Believers part if he doth not keep his Faith strong and his Evidences clear 4. It is a reviving Comfort which quickneth the Soul Many times we seem to be dead to all Spiritual Operations our Affections are damped and discouraged but the Word of God puts Life into the dead and relieveth us in
command To meditate in the Law is a part of the description of a godly man Psal. 1. 2. His delight is in the law of the Lord and in that law doth he meditate day and night It is commended to us by the practice and example of the Saints in Scripture Isaac Gen. 24. 63. went out to meditate in the field in the even-tide to pray as in the margent the word in the original is indifferent to both senses it properly signifieth muttering or an imperfect or suppressed sound The Septuagint sometimes renders it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sing but others by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to exercise himself The word is used here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak Aquila 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to discourse with God and his own soul. The Original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to mutter or such a speaking as is between thoughts and words He made his duty his refreshment and solace at night So David often in this Psalm Reason enforceth it God that is a Spirit deserveth the most pure and spiritual worship by the mind as well as that which is performed by the body Thoughts are the eldest and noblest off-spring of the soul and it is fit they should be consecrated to converse with God 2. It is a necessary duty not a thing of arbitrary concernment a moral help that may be observed and omitted at our pleasure but of absolute use without which all graces wither Faith is lean unless it be fed with meditation on the promises Psalm 119. 92. I had fainted in my affliction unless thy word had been my delight Hope is not lively unless we contemplate the thing hoped for and with Abraham walk through the Land of Promise Gen. 15. and think often and seriously on the glory of the riches of the inheritance of the Saints Eph. 1. 18. and get upon the Mount of Meditation upon the top of Pisgah to get a view of the Land So for Love the more we study the height and breadth and depth of Gods love in Christ Eph. 3. 18 19. the more is the heart melted and drawn out to God and more quickned to obedience Psal. 26. 3. Thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes And as it helpeth our Graces in their exercise so all other duties as hearing of the word To hear and not to meditate is unfruitful the heart is hard and the memory slippery the thoughts loose and vain and therefore unless we cover the good seed the fowls of the air will catch it away It is like a thing put into a bag with holes lost while it is received James 1. 23 24. Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own souls for if a man be a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass for he beholdeth himself and goeth away and straightways forgetteth what manner of person he was Bare hearing begets but transient thoughts and leaveth but a weak impression in the soul like a flash of Lightning as soon gone as come or the glance of a Sun-beam upon a wave A man never discerneth the scope the beauty the order of the Truths delivered till he cometh to meditate on them and to go over them again and again in his thoughts Psal. 62. 11. God hath spoken once twice have I heard this c. i. e. when we repeat it upon our thoughts inculcate it and meditate upon it this maketh a deeper impression and that which is spoken rebounds again and again it is twice heard David saith Psal. 119. 99. I have more understanding than all my Teachers for thy testimonies are my meditation The Preacher can but lay down general Theorems and deduce practical Inferences but that which fasteneth them upon the heart is our own thoughts and so we come to be wiser to see more clearly and practically as to our own case than he that preacheth we see a farther use than he was aware of So for prayer What we take in by the word we digest by Meditation and let out by prayer These three Duties help one another What is the reason men have such a barren dry and sapless spirit in their Prayers it is for want of exercising themselves in holy thoughts Psal. 45. 1. My heart inditeth a good matter and then my tongue is as the pen of a ready writer It alludeth to the Mincah the Meat-offering the Oyl and Flowr was to be kneaded together and fryed in a pan and so offered to the Lord. When we come with raw dough-baked offerings before we have concocted and prepared our thoughts by mature deliberation we are barren or tumultuary in our prayers to God Prayer is called by the name of Meditation because it is the product and issue of it as Psal. 5. 1. Give ear to my words oh Lord consider my meditation So Psal. 19. 14. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight Implying that prayer is but the vent and expression of what we have deliberated and meditated upon So David findeth his desires more earnest after grace the more he mused and meditated Psal. 143. 5 6. I remember the days of old I meditate on all thy works I muse on the works of thy hands I stretch forth my hands unto thee my soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land Well then it is the life and strength of other Ordinances without which how slight and perfunctory are we I might instance in Conference the stream of good discourse is fed by serious thoughts The Lords Supper a duty which is mainly dispatched by our thoughts there we come to put Reason to the highest use to be the Instrument of Faith and Love of Faith in believing-applications of Love in resolutions of Duty and Thankfulness In that one Ordinance there is an union of mysteries which we take abroad in holy and serious thoughts To have an unfruitful understanding then is a great damp and deadness to the heart Now we shall never inlarge our selves in pertinent and savoury thoughts unless we use to meditate for spiritual dispositions do not come upon us of a sudden and by rapt motions but by progressive and orderly degrees and preparations 3. It is a profitable duty as to Temporals Isaac went out to meditate and of a sudden he espieth the Camels coming upon which Rebecca was brought to him Gen. 24. 63 64. Was this a meer accident think you or a Providence worthy of remark and observation Isaac goes to meet with God and there he gets the first view of his bosome-friend and Spouse This was a mercy cast in to the bargain Godliness hath the promises of this life and that which is to come There is nothing lost by duty and acts of piety Seneca said the Iews were a foolish people because they lost the full seventh part of their lives Septimam
therefore we should not easily take up these slanders Thus it is an usual affliction Secondly 'T is a grievous affliction v. 39. David saith he looked upon it as a great evil In the account of Scripture it is Persecution Ishmael is said to persecute Isaac Gal. 4. 29. How because he mocked him compare it with Gen. 21. 9. Sarah saw the son of the Bond-woman mocking Isaac and in the reddition and interpretation the Holy Ghost calls it a persecution so they are called cruel mockings Heb. 11. 36. There is as much cruelty and as deep a wound made by the tongue of reproach many times as by the fist of wickedness Reproach must needs be grievous to Gods Children upon a natural and upon a spiritual account 1. Upon a natural account because a good name is a great blessing See how it is against nature It is more grievous than ordinary Crosses many would lose their goods cheerfully yet they grieve more for the loss of their name Some constitutions are affected more with shame than with fear and above all their possessions they prize their name and credit To most proud spirits disgraceful punishment is much more dreadful than painful Psal. 22. 7. All they that see me laugh me to scorn they shoot out the lip they shake the head A good name is more precious than life to some Eccles. 7. 1. A good name is better than precious oyntment and the day of death than the day of ones birth The coupling of these two sentences shows men had rather dye than lose their name If a man dye he may leave his name and memory behind him that may live still therefore it is more hateful to have our names and credit mangled than be pierced with a sharp sword 2. Upon a spiritual account it 's a grievous affliction It is not barely for their own sake because their innocency is taxed but for Gods sake whose glory is concerned in the honour of his servants and whose truth is struck at through their sides This is grievous to grace why next to a good conscience there is not a greater blessing than a good name and certainly he that is prodigal of his credit will not be very tender of his conscience and therefore the Children of God upon gracious reasons stand upon their name it is the next thing to Conscience they have to keep Grace values a good name partly because it is Gods gift it is a blessing adopted and taken into the Covenant as well as other blessings It is one of the promises of God He will hide us as in a pavilion from the strife of tongues Psal. 31. 20. This is frequent in the Old Testament where Heaven is but sparingly mentioned a good name is often mentioned partly because it is a shadow of Eternity when a man dies his name lives which is a pledge of our living with God after death As spices when broken and dissolved leave an excellent scent so he leaves his name behind him and partly because it is put above riches Prov. 22. 1. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches It is better more pure and sublime than wealth and more worthy our esteem They are low and dreggy spirits whose hearts run after wealth the greatest spirits run out upon fame and honour so Eccles. 7. 1. A good name is better than precious oyntment Aromatical Oyntments were things of great use and esteem among the Iews and counted the chief part of their treasures now a good name is better than precious oyntment and partly because of the great inconveniencies which follow the loss of name The glory of God is much interessed in the credit of his servants The credit of Religion depends much upon the credit of the persons that profess it When godly men are evil spoken of the way of truth suffers and when we are polluted God is polluted Ezek. 36. 20. They profaned my holy Name when they said to them These are the people of the Lord and are gone forth out of his land that is by their scandals The offences are charged upon us but in effect they prove the disgrace of Christ. Christ that hereafter will be admired of his Saints will now be glorified and honoured in them The shame of those things charged upon us redounds to God and Religion till we be clear And as the honour of God is concerned in it so again their safety lyes in it Observe it Satan is first a liar then a murderer First men are smitten with the tongue of slander and afterwards with the fist of wickedness the showers of slander are but presages and beginnings of grievous storms of persecution wicked men take more liberty when the Children of God are imprisoned as Criminals Therefore it is the usual practice of Satan first to blast the repute of Religious persons then to prosecute them as offenders Possibly this may be the meaning of that Psal. 5. 9. Their throat is an open sepulchre they flatter with their tongue that is the slanders of the wicked are a preparation to death as an open sepulchre is prepared to swallow and take in the dead carcass I expound it thus because we find the phrase used in this sense the force and power of the Babylonian Ier. 5. 16. is called an open sepulchre they are all mighty men that is you can expect nothing but death from the force and puissance of their assaults So here their reproach is not only a burying-place for our names but our persons for first men slander then molest the Children of God When the Arian Emperour raged against the Orthodox Christians and the Bishops and Pastors of the Churches were supprest everywhere they durst not meddle with Polonus out of a reverence of the unspottedness of his fame and therefore a good report is a great security and protection against violence And then they desire a good name to honour God with it A blemished instrument is little worth Who would take meat from a leprous hand It is Satans policy when he cannot discourage Instruments from the work of God then to blemish and blast them Therefore those that have any thing to do for God in the world should be tender of their credit especially those that are called to publick office that they may carry on their work with more success Therefore one of the qualifications of a Minister 1 Tim. 3. 7. He must have a good report of them that are without lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil I suppose it is taken there Appellatively lest he fall into the snare of the slanderer I will not absolutely determine Men set snares for you and they watch for your halting Thus grace presseth a good name because of the consequences of it USE 1. Here 's advice to persons reproached acknowledge God in the affliction though it be great and grievous God hath an aim in all things that befall you The general aim of all afflictions it
David Psa. 77. 1 c. I cryed unto God with my voice even unto God with my voice and he gave ear unto me In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my sore ran in the night and ceased not my soul refused to be comforted I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed Selah Thou holdest mine eyes waking I am so troubled that I cannot speak I have considered the days of old the years of ancient time c. By the sense of Gods wrath he was even wounded to death and the sore running upon him would admit of no plaister Yea the remembrance of God was a trouble to him I remembred God and was troubled What an heavy word was that Soul-troubles are the most pressing-troubles a child of God is as a lost man in such a condition 2. In respect of the heavy weight of outward pressures Thus David fasted and lay all night upon the earth in his childs sickness 2 Sam. 12. 16 17. David therefore besought God for the child and David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth And the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the earth but he would not neither did he eat bread with them And when he was driven from his Palace by Absolom and was in danger of his life every moment which some Interpreters think to be the case intended in the Text when he went up the Mount of Olives bare foot going and weeping 2 Sam. 15. 30. And David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet and wept as he went up and had his head covered and he went bare-foot and all the people that was with him covered every man his head and they went up weeping as they went Now the Reasons of this are these 1. To correct them for past sins This was the cause of David's trouble and this puts a sting into all miseries Gods children smart under their sins here in the world as well as others Prov. 11. 31. Behold the righteous shall be recompenced in the earth much more the wicked and the sinner Recompenced in the earth that is punished for his sins Compare with it 1 Pet. 4. 18. And if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear God punisheth here that he may spare for ever He giveth some remembrance of the evil and corrects his people not to complete their justification or to make more satisfaction for Gods Justice than Christ hath made yet to promote their sanctification that is to make sin bitter to them and to vindicate the glory of God that he is not partial For these reasons they are even brought to the dust by their own folly 2. To humble them and bring them low in the midst of their great enjoyments therefore he casts them down even to the dust because we cannot keep our hearts low therefore God maketh our condition low This was Paul's case 2 Cor. 1. 7 8 9. And our hope of you is stedfast knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings so shall ye be also of the consolation for we would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia that we were pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that we despaired even of life but we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead That is not build too securely on their own sufficiencies 3. To try their graces which are never tryed to the life till we be near the point of death The sincerity of our estate and the strength of faith is not discovered upon the Throne so much as in the dust if we can depend upon God in the hardest condition 4. To awaken the spirit of prayer Out of the depths have I cryed unto thee O Lord Psal. 130. 1. Affliction puts an edge upon our desires They that are flat and careless at other times are oftenest then with God 5. To shew the more of his glory and the riches of his goodness in their recovery Psal. 71. 20 21. Thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth thou shalt encrease my greatness and comfort me on every side By the greater humiliation God prepareth us for the greater blessings As there are multitude of troubles to humble and try the Saints so his mercies do not come alone but with great plenty USE 1. Let us bless God that we are not put to such great trials How gentle is our exercise compared with David's case We are weak and God will not overburden us There is a great deal of the wisdom and love of God seen in the measure of the Cross and in the nature and kind of it We have no cause to say our belly cleaveth to the dust or that we are pressed above measure God giveth us only a gentle remembrance if brought upon our knees we are not brought upon our faces 2. If this should be our case do not count it strange It is an usual exercise of God's people let us therefore not be offended but approve Gods holy and wise dispensation If there be great troubles there have been great sins or there will be great comforts or for the present there are great graces As such a dispensation is a correction there is reason to approve it If you be laid in the dust have not you laid Gods honour in the dust and trampled his Laws under foot As it is a trial you have cause to approve it for it is but meet that when God hath planted grace in the heart he should prove the strength of it Therefore if you be kept so long in your heavy condition that you seem dead yet if you have faith to keep you alive and patience be exercised 't is for your greater good Rom. 5. 3. And not only so but we glory in tribulation knowing that tribulation worketh patience And as affliction is an exercise for your benefit and spiritual improvement The husbandman when he teareth and rendeth the ground up with the plow it is to make it more fruitful the longer the metal is in the fire the more pure it cometh forth nay sometimes you have your outward comforts with advantage after troubles as Job 42. 10 11 12. And the Lord turned the captivity of Iob when he prayed for his friends also the Lord gave Iob twice as much as he had before and the Lord blessed the latter end of Iob more than his beginning O! when we are fitted to enjoy comforts we shall have them plenty enough 2d Point That in such great and heavy troubles we should deal with God for help In the dust David calleth to God for quickning The reasons of this why in great troubles we should go to God for help are 1. From the inconvenience of any other course 1. If
a poor little hearsay Knowledg availeth not They abhor themselves when they have more intimate acquaintance none so confident as a young Professor that knoweth a few Truths but in a weak and imperfect manner the more we know indeed the more sensible we are of our ignorance how liable to this mistake and that that we dare not trust our selves for an hour 4. Because of the profit that cometh by knowledg All grace from first to last cometh in by the understanding God in the work of grace followeth the order which he hath established in Nature Reason and Judgment is to go before the will and therefore when the work of Grace is first begun in us it beginneth in the Understanding Renewed in knowledg Col. 3. 10. So the encrease of grace 2 Pet. 1. 12. Grace be multiplied unto you through the knowledg of God and of Iesus Christ our Lord. As the beginning is by light so is all the gradual progress of the spiritual life strength to bear afflictions strength in conflicts is by powerful reasons yea the perfect change that is made in us in glory is by the vision of God We shall see him as he is and shall be like him If we had more knowledg of God and his ways we should trust him more fear him more love him more Trust him Psal. 9. 10. And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee If God were more known he would be better trusted 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed I dare trust him with my soul. More feared 3 Joh. 11. Beloved follow not that which is evil but that which is good He that doth good is of God he that doth evil hath not seen God Right thoughts of God would not let us sin so freely one Truth or other would fall upon us and give check to the temptation as feared so loved more The more explicite thoughts we have of his excellency the more are our hearts drawn out to him Joh. 4. 10. If thou knewest the gift c. Christ would not lye by as a neglected thing if he were more known in all his worth and excellency USE The first Use is to press you to get Knowledg and look upon it as a singular Grace if the Lord will give you to understand and apply the comfort and direction of his Holy Word Joh. 15. 15. Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you To be taught the mind of God is a greater act of friendship than if God should give a man all the treasures of the world To make himself known so as you may love him fear him trust him When we can apply this for our comfort O then cry for knowledg lift up thy voice for understanding seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures Prov. 2. 3 4. Go to God and be earnest with him Lord make me to understand the way of thy precepts We can walk in the ways of sin without a Teacher but we cannot walk in the ways of God And cry lift up thy voice We are earnest for quickning and enlargement but be earnest also for understanding Now a large prayer without endeavours is nothing worth Dig in the Mines of knowledg search into the Scripture do not gather up a few scattered notions but look into the bowels Silver doth not lye in the surface of the earth but deep in the bottom of it and will cost much labour and digging to come at it If we would have any good stock of knowledg which will prevent vain thoughts carnal discourse abundance of heart-perplexing scruples and doubts and much darkness and uncomfortableness of spirit it will cost us some labour and pains The more knowledg we have the more are we established against error 2 Pet. 3. 17. Ye therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness The more you have of this divine saving knowledg the greater check upon sin Psal. 119. 11. I have hid thy word in my heart that I might not sin against thee One Truth or another will rise up in defiance of the Temptation The greater impulsion to duty the more of the Law of God the more it urgeth the conscience Prov. 6. 22. It maketh us more useful in all our Relations 1 Pet. 3. 7. Husbands Dwell with them according to knowledg c. Parents Eph. 6. 4. Fathers provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Friends Rom. 15. 14. And I my self also am perswaded of you my brethren that ye also are full of goodness filled with all knowledg able also to admonish one another Magistrates that they may discern Christs Interest Psal. 2. 10. Be wise now therefore O Kings be instructed ye Iudges of the earth When Solomon asked Wisdom the thing pleased the Lord. And lastly More comfortable in our selves that they may comfort and build up one another whenever they meet together USE 2. To press you to grow in knowledg None have such confidence and rejoycing in God as those that have a clear sight and understanding of his will revealed in his word Let your knowledg 1. Be more comprehensive At first our thoughts run in a narrow channel There are certain general Truths absolutely necessary to salvation as concerning our misery by sin and the sufficiency of Christ to help us but if we might rest in these why hath God given us so copious a Rule The general sort of Christians content themselves to see with others eyes get the knowledg of a few truths and look no farther why then hath God given so large a Rule Fundamentals are few believe them live well and you shall be saved This is the Religion of most This is as if a man in building should only be careful to lay a good foundation no matter for roof windows walls If a man should untile your house and tell you the foundation standeth the main butteresses are safe you would not like of it A man is bound according to his capacity and opportunity to know all Scripture the consequences of every Truth God may and doth accept of our imperfect knowledg but not when men are negligent and do not use the means To be willingly ignorant of the lesser ways of God is a sin VVe should labour to know all that God hath revealed 2. More distinct why Truths are best known in their frame and dependance as Gods works of Creation when viewed singly and apart every days work was good but when viewed alltogether in their correspondence and mutual proportion to each other were very good Gen. 1. 31. So all Truths of God take them singly are good but
Apostle of our Profession The Christian Religion is a Confession not a thing to be smothered and kept in secret or confined to the Heart but to be openly brought forth and avowed in Word and Deed to the Glory of Christ If a man should content himself to own God in his heart what would become of the Church of God and all his Ordinances and the Assemblies of his People among whom we make this open Confession 1. This Confession is necessary as well as the inward Belief because God hath required it by an express Law which Law is confirmed by a Sanction of great weight and moment the greatest Promises on the one hand and the greatest Penalties and Threatnings on the other That there is an express Law for Confession besides what hath been said already see 1 Pet. 3. 15. Sanctifie the Lord God of Hosts in your Hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every one that asketh you a Reason of the Hope that is in you with meekness and fear where they are required not only to revere God in their Hearts but to be ready to own him with their mouths and to give a Testimony of him when it should be demanded Yea that sanctifying God in their Hearts is required in order to the Testimony given with their Mouths that having due and awful thoughts of God they may not be ashamed to own him before men Now this is backt with the greatest Promises and on the other side with the severest Threatnings God hath promised no less than Salvation to those that confess him Matth. 10. 33. Whosoever will confess me before Men him will I confess also before my Father which is in Heaven Father this is one of mine he will do them more honour than possibly they can do him and Rom. 10. 10. With the Mouth Confession is made to Salvation Salvi esse non possumus saith Austin nisi ad salutem proximorum etiam ore profiteamur Fidem We cannot be Saved unless we profess the Faith that we have On the other side the neglect of Profession either out of Shame or Fear is threatned with the greatest penalties Mark 8. 38. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my Words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with his Glorious Angels Then when all shadows flee away and we would crouch for a little favour that Christ should be ashamed of us these were Christians but cowardly and dastardly ones I cannot own them to be of my Flock and Kingdom Oh how will our faces gather blackness the same is Luke 9. 26. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my Words of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he shall come in his own Glory and in his Fathers and of the holy Angels So for Fear 2 Tim. 2. 11. If we suffer we shall also Reign with him if we deny him he will deny us So that you see it is not a matter of small moment whether we confess or no but a thing expresly enjoyned by God and that upon Terms of Life and Death 2. This Confession is of great use as conducing much to the Glory of God and the good of others 1. The Glory of God which should be the great scope and end of our Lives and Actions is much concerned in our confessing or not confessing what we believe When we boldly avow the truth it is a sign we are not ashamed of our Master Phil. 1. 20. According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my Body whether it be by Life or by Death Ministry or Martyrdom he calls this a magnifying of Christ whereas flinching concealing halfing the Truth denying Confession it is called a being ashamed of Christ Luke 9. 26. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words as if his Name were a thing base unworthy not to be owned 2. The Good of others and their Edification is concerned in our confessing or not confessing No man is born for himself and therefore is not only to work out his own salvation but as much as in him lieth to procure the salvation of others and to bring God and his Truth into request with them therefore not only to believe with the heart that concerneth himself but to confess with the mouth that concerneth the good of others when we own the Truth though it cost us dear that tendeth to the furtherance of the Gospel Phil. 1. 12. 13. For I would ye should understand Brethren that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel so that my Bonds in Christ are manifest in all the Palace and in all other places c. But when we dissemble that is a scandal and a stumbling block to others whom we justifie and harden in a false way as Peter fearing them of the Circumcision dissembled and the Iews dissembled with him insomuch that Barnabas was carried away with their Dissimulation Gal. 2. 12 13. Men of publick Fame and Favour when they are not men of courage and of self-denying Spirits their temporizing may do a great deal of hurt and like a Torrent or Stream carry others with them Oh! let us beware of this Zuinglius saith Ad aras Iovis Veneris adorare sub Antichristo fidem occultare idem est As well worship before the Altars of Jupiter and Venus as hide our Faith under Antichrist Fear and weakness excuseth not the Fearful and Unbelieving are put with Murderers and Sorcerers and Idolaters and sent together to the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone Revel 21. 8. Use 1. To reprove them that think it to be enough to own the Truth in their Hearts without confessing it with their Mouths This Libertinism prevailed at Corinth where they thought they might be present at Idols Feasts as long as in their Consciences they knew that an Idol was nothing The Apostle argueth against them 2 Cor. 6. and concludes his Argument thus 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having therefore these Promises dearly Beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit To pretend to serve God in my heart whosoever thinks so mocketh God and deceiveth himself he that warreth with the Enemies of his Prince and is as forward in Battel as any of the rest can he say I reserve the King my Heart and Affections Or when a woman prostituteth her Body to another will the Husband be content with such an Excuse that she reserveth her Heart for him God is not a God of half of a man he made the whole Body and Soul and will be served with both he bought both 1 Cor. 6. 20. Ye are bought with a price therefore Glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirits which are Gods Therefore you should not only
separate us from the Love of God Rom. 8. 36. Men may separate us from our Houses Countryes Friends Estates but not from God who is our great Delight In our low Estate we have a God to goe to for Comfort and who should be more to us then our sweetest Pleasures 4. The Scripture sheweth us the true Doctrine about Afflictions and discovereth to us the Author Cause and End of all our Afflictions the Author is God the Cause is Sin the End is to humble mortify and correct his Children that they may be more capable of heavenly Glory God is the Author not Fortune or Chance or the will of Man but God who doth all things with the most exact Wisedom and tender Mercy and purest Love The Cause is just Micah 7. 9. I will bear the Indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him The End is our Profit for his Chastisements are purgative Medicines to prevent or cure some spiritual Disease If God should never administer Physick till we see it needfull deire to take it or be willing of it we should perish in our Corruptions or dye in our Sins for want of help in due time 1 Cor. 11. 32. But when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the World Now should we not patiently and comfortably endure those things which come by the will of our Father through our Sins and for our good 3. The Examples of the word which shew us that the dearly beloved of the Lord have suffered harder things then we have done and with greater Patience Christ 1 Pet. 2. 21. who suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps The Servants of the Lord Iames 5. 10. Take my brethren the Prophets of the Lord who have spoken the word of the Lord for an example of suffering Affliction and of Patience We complain of Stone and Gout what did our Lord Iesus Christ endure when the whole weight of his Body hung upon 4 wounds and his Life dropped out by degrees We complain of every painfull disease but how was it with Christ when his Back was scourged and his Flesh mangled with Whips We are troubled at the swellings of the Gout in hands or feet how was it with Him when those sinewy parts were pierced with strong and great Nailes We complain of the want of Spiritual Consolations was not He deserted We mourn when God maketh a breach upon our Relations was not Abraham's Tryal greater when he was to offer his Son with his own hands Heb. 11. 17. By Faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up Isaac and he that had received the promise offered up his onely begotten Son Iob lost all his Children at once by a blast of wind The Virgin Mary near the Cross of Christ Woman behold thy Son John 19. 26. She was affected and afflicted with that sight as if a sword pierced through her heart We complaine of Poverty Christ had not where to lay his head If we lose our Coat to keep our Conscience others of God's Children have been thus tryed before us Heb. 10. 3 4. Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance The Levites left their Inheritance 2 Chron. 11. 14. Thus God doth not call us by any rougher way to Heaven then others have gone before us 4. The Promises of Scripture To instance in all would be endless there are 3 great Promises which comfort us in all our Afflictions the Promises of Pardon of Sins and Eternal Life and the General Promises about our Temporal Estate 1. The Promises of Pardon of Sin We can have no true Cure for our sorrow till we be exempted from the fear of the Wrath of God doe that once and the heart of sorrow and misery is broken others may steale a little Peace when Conscience is laid asleep but not solid Comfort till Sin be pardoned Isai. 40. 1 2. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith your God speake ye comfortably unto Ierusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished that her iniquity is pardoned Matth. 9. 2. Son be of good chear thy sins be forgiven thee Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ. 2. The Promises of Eternal Life Nothing will afford us so much content as one Scripture promise of Eternal Life would doe to a faithfull Soul Heaven in the Promise seen by Faith is enough to revive the most dolefull and afflicted Creature Matt. 5. 12. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven Nothing can be grievous to him that knoweth a World 〈◊〉 come and hath the Assurance of the Eternal God that shortly he shall enjoy the happiness of it Rom. 5. 2. we rejoyce in hope of the glory of God This comforts against Troubles Sicknesses Wants Everlasting Ease everlasting Joy surely will counterballance all that we can endure and suffer for or from God There all our Fears and Sorrows shall be at an end and all tears shall be wiped from our eyes 3. The General Promises concerning our Temporal Estate There are many particular Promises concerning the supply of all our Necessities removing of our Gâ—…vances and Burdens or else that God will allay our Troubles and inable us to bear them mix with them the tast of his goodness and fatherly Love But I shall onely speak of those General Promises that we may be confident that he will never utterly faile his People Heb. 13. 5. he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee that he will not give us over to insupportable Difficulties 1 Cor. 10. 13. There hath no Temptation taken you but what is common to man but God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able but will with the Temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it He will dispose of all things for the best to them that love him Rom. 8. 28. These things are absolutely undertaken and these things should satisfy us 3. From the manner wherein this Comfort is received they are applyed by the Spirit who is a Comforter and received by Faith 1. Applyed by the Spirit which is dispensed in a Concomitancy with this word Rom. 15. 13. Now the God of Hope fill ye with all joy and Peace in believing that ye may abound in Hope through the Power of the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost is purposely given to be our Comforter If we are fit to receive it he will not be wanting to give solid Joy and Delight to the penitent and believing Soul 2. It 's received by Faith the Word of God cannot deceive us â—…ith is contented with a Promise though it hath not possession for Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Sickness with a Promise
fruit of his mercy it is to manifest his special love to us and engage our hearts to himself Isa. 38. 17. Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption or thou hast loved me from the grave otherwise God may give things in anger Consider the means by which he brought them about when unlikely unexpected in themselves weak insufficient The greatest matters of Providence hang many times upon small wires a lye brought Ioseph into prison and a dream fetched him out and he was advanced and Iacobs Family fed Consider the number of his mercies Psal. 139. 17. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me O God how great is the summ of them The many failings pardoned comforts received dangers prevented deliverances vouchsafed How he began with us before all time conducted us in time and hath been preparing for us an happiness which we shall injoy when time shall be no more 2. Satisfie your selves with no praise and thanksgiving but what leaveth the impression of real effects upon the Soul For God is not slattered with empty praises and a little verbal commendation There is a twofold praising of God by expressive declaration or by objective impression now neither expression nor impression must be excluded Some Platonical Divines explode and scoff at the verbal praise more than becometh their Reverence to the word of God Psal. 50. 23. He that offereth praise glorifieth me But then the impression must be looked after too that we be like that God whom we commend and extoll that we depend on him more love him more fervently serve him more chearfully 2 Doct. That God's Providence rightly considered we shall find in the worst times much more cause to give thanks than to complain I observe this because David was now under Affliction he had in the former Verse complained that the bands of the wicked had robbed him yet even then would he give thanks to God 1. Observe here the matter of his Thanksgiving was God's Providence according to his Word seen in executing Threatnings on the Wicked and performing his Promises to the Godly God's Word is one of the chiefest Benefits bestowed on Man and therefore should be a subject of our Praises Now when this is verified in his Providence and we see a faithfull performance of those things in Mercy to his Servants and in Justice to his Enemies and the benefits and advantages of his Law to them that are obedient and the just Punishment of the disobedient and can discern not onely a vein of Righteousness but of Truth in all God's dealings this is a double benefit which must be taken notice of and acknowledged to God's praise Oh Christians how sweet is it to reade his Works by the light of the Sanctuary and to learn the Interpretation of his Providence from his Spirit by his Word Psalm 73. 17. I went into the Sanctuary of God then understood I their end by consulting the Scriptures he saw the end and close of them that walk not according to God's Direction his Word and Works do mutually explain one another The Sanctuary is the place where God's People meet where his Word is taught where we may have satisfaction concerning all his dealings 2. That when any divine Dispensation goeth cross to our Affections yea our Prayers and Expectations yet even then can Faith bring meat out of the eater and find many occasions of Praise and Thanksgiving to God for nothing falleth out so cross but we may see the hand of God in it working for good 1. Though we have not the blessing we seek and pray for yet we give thanks because God hath been sometimes intreated he hath shewed himself a God hearing Prayer and is onely delaying now untill a more fit time wherein he may give us that which is sought Psalm 43. 5. Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God Now we are mourning but he is our God and we are not left without hope of a blessed issue God that hath been gracious will be gracious again He is our gracious Father when we are under his sharpest Corrections a Father when he striketh or frowneth therefore we are not without hope that he will give us opportunities again of glorifying his Name 2. We bless God for continuing so long the Mercies which he hath taken from us Former experiences must not be forgotten Eben-ezer Hitherto the Lord hath helped us if he shall afflict us afterward yet hitherto he hath helped us 1 Sam. 7. 12. If he take away Life it is a mercy that he spared it so long for his own service and glory if Liberty that we had such a time of rest and intermission 3. God is yet worthy of Praise and Thanksgiving for choicer Mercies yet continued notwithstanding all the afflictions laid upon us That we have his Spirit supporting us under our Tryals and inabling us to bear them 1 Pet. 4. 13 14. Rejoyce in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's Sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy For if ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth on you And that we have any Peace of Conscience Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ. That the hope of eternal Life is not diminished but increased by our Afflictions Rom. 5. 4 5. We glory in Tribulation knowing that Tribulation worketh Patience and Patience Experience and Experience Hope and Hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us That many of our natural Comforts are yet left and God will supply us by ways best known to himself 4. That Evils and Afflictions which light upon us for the Gospels sake or Righteousness sake and Christ's Name sake are to be reckoned among our Priviledges and deserve Praise rather then Complaint Phil. 1. 29. To you it is given in the behalf of Christ not onely to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake if it be a gift it is matter of Praise 5. Take these Evils in the worst notion they are less then we have deserved Ezra 9. 13. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass seeing that thou our God hast punished us less then our Inquities deserve Babylon is not Hell and still that should be acknowledged 6. That no Evil hath befallen us but such as God can bring good out of them Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good to them that love God All things that befall a Christian are either good or shall turn to good either to good natural Gen. 50. 20. Ye thought evil but God meant it for good or good spiritual Psal. 119. 75. I know O Lord that thy Iudgments are
that are comfortable though they have things sparingly though they have of the meanest yet they have that which is good for them So Psalm 84. 11. No good thing will he withhold He may keep us low and bare feed us Cibo extemporali as Lactantius but that is good for us If it were good for us to have larger revenues and incomes we should not want them The true and absolute ground of all submission is to think that which God sendeth is good be it prosperity or adversity the having or wanting Children or other comforts 2. The next measure is this that Good is to be determined by its respect to the chief Good or true Happiness Now what is our chief Happiness but the Injoyment of God Our Happiness doth not consist in outward comforts Riches Health Honour civil Liberty or comfortable Relations as Husband Wife Children but in our Relation to and Acceptance with God other things are but additional Appendages to our Happiness Matth. 6. 33. Affliction taketh nothing from our Essential solid Happiness rather helpeth us in the Enjoyment of it as it increaseth Grace and Holiness and so we injoy God more surely That is Good that sets us nearer to God and that is Evil which separateth us from him therefore Sin is Evil because it maketh an estrangement between us and God Isa. 59. 2. But Affliction is good because many times it maketh us the more earnestly to seek after him Hosea 5. 16. In their Afflictions they will seek me right early Therefore every Condition is Good or Evil as it sets farther off or draweth us nearer to God that is Good that tendeth to make us better more like unto God capable of Communion with him conduceth to our everlasting Happiness So It is good that a man â—…ear the Yoke from his Touth Lam. 3. 27. that he be trained up under the Cross in a constant obedience to God and subjection to him and so be fitted to entertain Communion with him In Afflictions conduce to this end they are good for then they help us to â—…joy the chief Good 3. That Good is not always the Good of the flesh or the Good oâ—… outward prosperity and therefore the Good of our condition is not to be determinâ—… by the interest or the Flesh but the welfare of our Souls If God should bestow upon us so much of the Good of the outward and animal life as we desire we could not be said to be in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…tion if he should deny us Good Spiritual We should lose one half of the 〈◊〉 of the Coâ—…nt by doating upon and falling in love with the rest the flesh is importâ—… to be pâ—…sed but God will not serve our carnal turns We are more concerned as a Soul 〈◊〉 a Body Heb. 12. 10. He verily for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness Certain it is God will chasten us for our Profit What do we call Profit the good things of this world the great Mammon which so many worship if we call it so God will not he meaneth to impart to us Spiritual and Divine Benefit which is a participation of his own Holiness And truly the People of God if they be in their right temper value themselves not by their outward Injoyments but their inward by their improvement of Grace not the injoyment of worldly Comforts 2 Cor. 4. 16. For this cause we faint not but though our outward mâ—…n perish our inward man is renewed day by day A discerning Christian puts more value upon Holiness wrought by Affliction than upon all his Comforts So that though Affliction be Evil in it self 't is good as sanctified 4. A particular Good must give way to a general Good and our personall benefit to the advancement of Christ's Kingdome The good of the Church must be preferred before our personal contentment Paul could want the Glory of Heaven for a while if his continuance in the Flesh were needfull for the Saints Phil. 7. 24. To abide in the Flesh is more needfull for you We must not so desire Good to our selves as to hinder the Good of others All Elements will act contrary to their particular for the conservation of the Universe That may be Good for the Glory of God which is not Good for our personal contentment and ease Now the Glory of God is our greatest Interest if it be for the Glory of God that I should be in pain bereft of my comforts my sanctified subjection to the will of God must say 't is Good Iohn 12. 27 28. there you have expressed the innocent inclination of Christ's humane Nature Father save me from this hour and the overrulling sense of his duty or the obligation of his office but for this cause came I to this hour We are often tossed and tumbled between inclination of Nature and conscience of Duty but in a gracious Heart the sense of our duty and the desire of glorifying God should prevail above the desire of our own Comfort Ease and Safety and Welfare Nature would be rid of trouble but grace submits all our interests to God's honour which should be dearer to us than any thing else 5. This Good is not to be determined by present feeling but by the Judgment of Faith Affliction for the present is not pleasant to natural sense nor for the present is the fruit evident to spiritual sense but 't is good because in the issue it turneth to good Rom. 8. 28. All things work together for good While God is striking we feel the grief and the Cross is tedious but when we see the end we acknowledge 't is good to be afflicted Heb. 12. 11. No affliction for the present seemeth joyous but grievous but afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness A good present is the cause of joy and an evil present is the cause of sorrow but there are two terms of abatement the sorrow is from the present sense and the conceit of the sufferer When we are but newly under the Affliction we feel the smart but do not presently find the benefit but within a while especially in the review 't is Good for me 't is matter of Faith under the Affliction 't is matter of sense after it Good Physick must have time to work that which is not good may be good though it be not good in its nature 't is good in its seasonable use and though for the present we see it not we shall see it Therefore Good is not to be determined by seeling but by Faith The Rod is a sore thing for the present but the bitter root will yield sweet fruit If we come to a person under the Cross and ask him what is it good to feel the lashes of God's correcting Hand to be kept poor and sickly exercised with Losses and Reproaches to part with Friends and Relations to lose a beloved Child sense will complain But this poor Creature after he hath been Exercised and Mortified and gotten
another thing to the Saints if they are advanced their Hearts are inlarged to God if afflicted they grow more humble watchfull serious all things work together for the worst to the Wicked if God make Saul a King Iudas an Apostle Balaam a Prophet their Preferment shall be their Ruine Human's Honour Achitophel's Wit and Herod's Applause turned to their hurt If in Prosperity they contemn God if in Adversity they deny and blaspheme him Prov. 1. 32. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them As the salt Sea turneth all into salt water so a man is in the Constitution of his Soul all things are converted to that use Use 3. Is to perswade us to make this acknowledgment that Affliction is good There needs many Graces before we can thus determine 1. Faith 't is not present but it must be believed hoped and waited for 'T is not fit all should be done in a day and as early as we would in the Lord's time the Fruit will appear The Word doth not work by and by so not the Rod. Faith can see good in that in which Sense onely can find smart Phil. 1. 19. I know this shall turn to my Salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Iesus Christ. And we know that all things shall work together for good Rom. 8. 28. Though it doth not appear yet we know 2. Love The Children of God out of their Love to God and present submission to God do count whatsoever he doth to be good Psalm 73. 1. Tet God is good to Israel though he seemeth to deale with his People hardly yet Love pronounceth the Dispensation to be good it can see a great deal of love in pain and smart and chastenings I have read once and again of such a Rabbin that when told of an Affliction would say this is good because it cometh from God 3. Spiritual Wisdome and Choice to esteem things according to their intrinsick worth an high value of Holiness profiting in Sanctification is more than enough to recompence all the trouble we are put to in learning it This will make us yield to be lessened in our worldly Comforts for the increase of spiritual Grace as Paul would cheerfully part with his Health that he might have more Experience of Christ 2 Cor. 12. 10. I will take pleasure in infirmities necessities and distresses for Christ's sake Surely the loss of outward things should trouble us the less and we should be the sooner satisfied in God's Dispensation if he will take away our earthly Comforts and make us more mindfull of that which is heavenly if by an aking Head God will give you a better Heart by the death of Friends promote the life of Grace 4. Diligence and Heedfulness 1. To observe Afflictions 2. To improve 1. To observe what falleth out from what hand it cometh to what issue it tendeth otherwise if we observe it not how can we acknowledge it give God the glory of his Wisdome and Goodness In Heaven when we shall know as we are known 't will be a great part of our lauding of God to look back on his Providence conducting us through troubles as 't is pleasant for Travellers in their Inn to discourse of the deepness and danger of the Ways and now when we rather are known than know Gal. 4. 9. 't is usefull and comfortable to take notice of God's dealing with us Oh what a deal of Wisdome Faithfulness and Truth may we see in the Conduct of his Providence Gen. 32. 10. I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy Servant for with my staff I passed over this Iordan and now I am become two bands Psal. 119. 75. I know O Lord that thy Iudgments are right and that in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me What necessity of his Chastisement to prevent our Pride Security Negligence with what Wisdome was our Cross chosen how did God strike in the right Vein you were running on apace in some neglect of God till he awakened you this observation will help us to love God who is vigilant and carefull of our welfare it will allay all the hard thoughts that we have of the seeming severity of his Dispensations 2. Diligence to improve it for the bringing about of this good We must not be idle Spectatours but active under God we must more stir up our selves and exercise our selves to Godliness The Affliction of it self is a dead thing there must be help Phil. 1. 19. For I know this shall turn to my Salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Iesus Christ 2 Cor. 1. 11. Ye also helping together by prayer for us 'T is not the nature of the Cross nor the power of inherent Grace without the actual influence of the Spirit that makes Troubles profitable We must excite our selves also for the Saints are not onely passive Objects but active Instruments of Providence We are not merely to be passive Heb. 12. 11. It yieldeth the pleasant fruit of Righteousness to them that are exercised thereby God exerciseth us with the Rod and we must exercise our selves under the Rod. We are ingaged to use all holy Means to this end searching praying rowsing up our selves learning our proper Lessons then we will come and make our acknowledgment It is good for me that I have been afflicted SERMON LXXX PSAL. CXIX 72. The Law of thy Mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver THESE words may be conceived as a reason of what was said in the foregoing Verse David hath told us there that it was good for him that he was afflicted because of the Benefit obtained by his Afflictions he had learned God's Statutes knew more of his Duty and had an heart to keep closer to it now this gain was more to him than his loss by Affliction for he doth not value his Happiness by his temporal Interests so much as by his thriving in Godliness all the Wealth in the World was not so much to him as the spiritual Benefit which he got by his sore Troubles For the Law of thy Mouth c. The Text is a profession of his respect to the Word a profession which containeth in it the very spirit of Godliness a speech that becometh onely such a man's mouth as David was one that is sincerely godly Many will be ready to make this profession but other things do not suit the profession of their Mouths is contradicted by the disposition of their Hearts and the course and tenour of their Lives Observe here two things 1. The things compared 2. The value and preference of the one above the other 1. The things compared on the one side there is the Law of God's Mouth on the other thousands of gold and silver 2. The value and preference of the one above the other 't is better to me 't is
is a sure effect of great arrogancy and pride They think they may do what they please They have no changes Therefore they fear not God and put forth their hands against such as be at peace with them Psal. 55. 19 20. whilest they go on prosperously and undisturbedly they cannot abstain from violence and oppression This is certainly Pride for it is a lifting up the heart above God and against God and without God And they do not consider his Providence who alternately lifts up and casts down that Adversity may not be without a Cordial nor Prosperity without a Curb and Bridle But when men sit fast and are well at ease they are apt to be insolent and scornful Riches and worldly greatness maketh men insolent and despisers of others and care not what burdens they impose upon them they are intrenched within a mass of wealth and power and greatness and so think none can call them to an account Solomon speaketh of two sorts of people Prov. 18. 10 11. The Name of the Lord is a strong tower the righteous runneth into it and is safe The rich mans wealth is his strong city and as an high wall in his own conceit Every man is as his trust is For as the Psalmist speaketh of Idols in general They that trust in Idols are like unto them so it is true of spiritual Idols If a man trust in vain things his heart groweth vain proud and insolent promiseth him an uninterrupted course of felicity from poor perishing things that come and go at God's pleasure If a man trust in God then he is kept holy humble carried on with a noble and divine Spirit and findeth more safety than another that hath all the strength and power of the world to support and back him The Name of the Lord is a real Refuge but wealth and honour and worldly greatness is but an imaginary Refuge He that hath nothing but the Name of the Lord to trust in Worldlings think he buildeth Castles in the Air but the Godly knoweth that Worldlings indeed build Castles in the Air while they look big and and think their greatness shall bear them out Alas Wealth is but a Wall and a strong Tower in their own conceit not really so but this puffeth them up and they are quite other men when they are at top than what they were when they were under 3. Because they affect a life of Pomp and Ease and carnal Greatness and so despise the Affliction and Meanness and Simplicity of the People of God The false Church hath usually the advantage of worldly Power and external Glory and the true Church is known by the Divine Power Gifts and Graces and the lustre of Holiness Psal. 45. 13. The kings daughter is glorious within is found out by Faith Love Patience Sobriety Heavenly-mindedness Humility Purity and the like rather than by a splendid appearance And holiness becomes God's house Psal. 93. 5. rather than Gold and Silver and costly Furniture The false Church vaunts it self in costly Temples Officers richly endowed with Temporal Revenues and a pompous attendance And so the simplicity of the Gospel is corrupted and turned into a worldly Domination As for instance The Church of Rome boasts of her Grandeur and Magnificence and upbraids the Reformed with their abject condition Ministris eorum nihil vilius saith Campian They can tell of the pompous Inauguration of their Popes their stately Train of Cardinals Lordly Prelates whereas the poor Ministers of the Gospel live hardly and precariously Whereas indeed the glory of the true Church doth not make a fair shew in the flesh is not external corporeal and visible but internal incorporeal and invisible Cant. 1. 5. And like its Head Jesus Christ who to appearance was humble poor and afflicted but in him were hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge yea the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily External splendor pleaseth the flesh and is not a sign of Virtue so much as Pride Luke 16. 19. What shall become of the Primitive Church for the first 300 years if outward greatness be a mark of it Naz. Orat. Con. Aroc The World is with them but the Faith with us they have pure Gold but we pure Doctrine So â—…ilary against Auxentius Unum moneo cavete Antichristum male enim vos parietum amor cepit male Ecclesiam Dei in tectis artificiisque veneramini male sub iis pacis nomen ingeritis anne ambiguum est in iis Antichristum cessurum Montes mihi Sylvoe Lacus Carceres Voragines sunt tutiores in iis enim Prophetoe aut manentes aut demersi Dei Spiritu prophetabant Well because of their affectation of worldly greatness they are called proud and so it is taken Mal. 3. 15. Ye call the proud happy And because of this they hate and molest the People of God because there is a contrary spirit They hear Christ's voice Mat. 11. 29. Learn of me for I am meek and lowly They hate them because they contemn that Felicity which they affect and so put a scorn on their way 1 Pet. 4. 4. think it strange that you run not with them into the same excess of riot speaking evil of you 4. They are called proud because of their insolent carriage towards the Lord's People partly in their Laws and Injunctions requiring to give them more Honour Respect and Obedience than in Conscience can be afforded them as Haman would have Mordecai to devote himself to him after the manner of the Persians Esther 3. 5. The man though a Favourite was an Amalekite one that came of that stock whose remembrance God would have to be blotted out Exod. 17. 14. And possibly more worship and honour was required than was due to a man God had forbidden to give divine honour to any but himself now according to the custom of Persia these honours did somewhat savor of divine worship vide Brisson pag. 10 11 12 13 14 with the 18th So Ieroboam would have his Calves worshipped 1 Kings 12. 32. And yet all that complied with him therein are charged for walking so willingly after the Commandment Hosea 5. 11. We dare not offend God to please men the good Levites are commended 2 Chron. 11. 14. So it was Pride in Nebuchad-nezzar to command all men to bow before his image Dan. 3. 15 16. God's Prerogative must not be incroached upon there is a superior Sovereign Partly in vexing molesting and oppressing them at their pleasure the formal Christian hateth the spiritual Gal. 4. 29. Now this cometh from their Pride Psal. 10. 2. The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor Would not have their lazy course upbraided and disgraced by the seriousness and strictness of others they malign what they cannot imitate And 't is carried on by their Pride or abuse of Power God counteth it Pride Psal. 12. 5. For the oppression of the poor for the sighing of the needy the Lord will arise to deliver him and
innocency The Flesh is importunate to be pleased and therefore when it meeteth not with desired satisfaction we are apt to question all and to cast off the fear of God and all regard of his service Mal. 3. 14. Ye have said It is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance and walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts When Temptations are sore and Afflictions tedious thoughts of so horrid a complexion may float in our minds These are the distempers which are incident to those who have been long afflicted and are often disappointed in the issue which they expect Thirdly That this should not be David omitted not his duty for all this though his Troubles were long and tedious How great soever our Tryals be they should not weaken our love to God and our respect to his Word God's Precepts must not be forgotten though we are withered and dryed up with sorrows as a Skin-bottle is shrivel'd in the smoke 1. Because then we plunge our selves into a greater Evil if we fall into Sin because of Trouble and Affliction and so make our condition so much the worse Iob's Friends charged this upon him that he had chosen Sin rather than Affliction Iob 36. 22. When he would rather give way to Impatience than patiently bear what God had laid upon him Many are so transported with their pains and grievances that they care not what they say or do as if they were loosed from all bands of duty On the contrary 't is said of Moses Heb. 4. 25. Chusing rather to suffer afflictions c. The least Sin is worse than the greatest Suffering Suffering is an offence done to us Sin is an offence done to God By suffering we lose some worldly comfort but by sinning hazard the favor of God Suffering is only an inconvenience to the bodily or animal life Sinning bringeth a blot and blemish upon the soul. The sinful state is far worse than the afflicted And therefore how calamitous soever our condition be we must take great care it be not sinful Wormwood is bitter but not Poyson 2. A sincere love to God will make us adhere to him when he seemeth to deal most hardly with us Among all his corrections God hath not a Rod smart enough to drive away a gracious and loving soul from himself Psal. 44. 17. All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee nor dealt falsly in thy covenant God is the same and his ways are the same though his dispensations be changed so different a thing it is to love the ways of God upon foreign and upon intrinsic and proper reasons and the intent of such dispensations is to put us upon tryal what be our reasons and motives why we love God and his ways and whether our love be strong enough to encounter with difficulties whether it can overcome Temptations from sense and the world Till all probabilities be spent and our afflictions grow long and tedious we are not tryed to the purpose Our Covenant Vow to God bindeth us to own him in all conditions whatever our portion be in the world 3. By forgetting God's Precepts we put away our own comfort from our selves and make our afflictions the more grievous Take the word Precepts either strictly for his Commandments or Statutes or more largely as it may also include his Promises If any faint and fail in Trouble 't is because they trust not the Promises or keep not the Commandments of God these two mutually strengthen one another If you would not have your Faith broken labour to keep the Commandments In the 166 Verse of this Psalm I have hoped for thy salvation and done thy commandments And if you would keep the Commandments confirm your Faith in the promises of forgiveness of Sin of God's Providence and eternal life For if thou canst believe these no pleasure or pain shall make thee forsake thy obedience Psal. 130. 4. A Child of God dareth not warp and turn away from God in part or in whole nor slacken any part of his diligence in God's service Faith in God's Promises breedeth obedience and obedience confirmeth Faith in God's Promises We apprehend Promises to check that sensitive lure which would entice us from God and our obedience to him A greater benefit is offered to counterbalance the baits and troubles of the Flesh. The more we obey the Precepts the more we believe the Promises for together with our obedience our confidence and sound comfort increaseth so that to forget the Word is to throw away our strength from our selves 4. Afflictions rightly improved are a means to make us remember God's Precepts rather than to forget them Heb. 12. 11. The baits of the flesh are removed that the spirit may be more at liberty 2 Cor. 4. 16. God seeth fit to afflict the bodies of his People sometimes The body being in good plight is a clog to the soul therefore they are withered and wrinkled that the soul may thrive the more Our worldly Portion is blasted that our heavenly Treasure may be increased When we are at full we wax wanton neglectful forget his Precepts now that we may remember them the more God sendeth such afflictions which sit near and close The Moon is never Eclipsed but when 't is at full so many have Eclipsed the glory of the spiritual life when full and at ease therefore in afflictions we should not forget his Word 1. USE Is to reprove us who are so soon discouraged in the ways of God If we suffer but a little Sickness and a little Trouble and Contempt in the world a little loss of Honour and Interest the mocks and scorns of foolish men we cannot bear it but murmur and are impatient David could submit himself to the Lord and find sweetness in the Word though he were like a bottle in the smoke Few now adays suffer any great matter for Christ surely when God's People have endured harder things we should be ashamed of our tenderness Were we only appointed to escape the afflictions and inconveniences of our Pilgrimage And must God make a new way to Heaven for our sakes wherein we shall meet with no difficulty in our passage or rather in defiance of all sense would we abide here for ever and flourish in ease and plenty and never see change No It becometh us betimes to prepare for the Cross None so strong now but they shall wither so ruddy and beautiful but their Beauty shall consume as a Moth nor so happy and flourishing in honour and esteem but they will be laid aside as a dryed withered bottle We must look to have our turn and bear it patiently 2. Let us not for any Afflictions and Troubles whatsoever abate of our zeal and diligence and respect to God's service First 'T is not obedience to God's Precepts or Godliness that is the cause of our Sufferings and Chastenings but our Sin and Folly Micah 2. 7. Are these his doings
nothing but sorrow but in the Word of God joy and comfort 4. The way of Application my delights the word is plural and increaseth the sense in what way soever it be interpreted Now it may be interpreted passively or actively 1. Passively That the Word of God refreshed him and afforded him matter of delight and so renewed his strength David had many sorrows but here he found delights as many comforts as troubles The Word of God yieldeth comfort for every state of life if there be many sorrows there are many delights but with advantage heavenly comforts for earthly afflictions eternal comforts for temporal sorrows 2. Actively He delighted in the Word of God yea counted it his delights it increaseth the sense 1. It was his chief delight Other things might be thankfully accepted and acknowledged but this was the solace and delight of his Soul 2. His continual delight and comfort to which he retreated upon all occasions 3. His whole or onely delight When deprived of all other things this was in stead of all delights to him all which shew his high esteem of the Word DOCT. That the afflicted mans true consolation is in the Word of God I will pursue the Point in the method that I have laid forth in the parts of the Text. 1. A Man after God's own heart such as David was may be afflicted why First Because God hath chosen another way of expressing his love to his people than by outward things for he will govern the spiritual part of the world by Faith and not by Sense therefore none shall know love and hatred by things that are before him Eccles. 9. 1. that is by meer outward events or things obvious to outward sense the significations of his love are more hidden Prov. 3. 31 32. Solomon supposeth that the Oppressor may be in a flourishing condition yet all this while the Lord hates him his secret is with the righteous we know his fatherly love to us not by things without us but things within us Rom. 8. 16. 1 John 3. 4. Hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us Gal. 4. 6. He hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts Outward things would soon be overvalued and we should take them as our whole felicity and portion if besides their sutableness to our present needs and appetites they should come to us as special evidences of God's love 2dly Afflictions are necessary to the best Certain it is God will conduct his people to glory not only by his internal but external Providence Now to humble us to wean us from the world there is need of afflictions 1 Pet. 1. 6. Te are in heaviness for a season if need be We are wanton vain neglectful of God unmindful of heavenly things if God did not put us under the Discipline of the Cross our minds and hearts would be more alienated from God and heavenly things Psal. 119. 67. Before I was afflicted I went astray Now since the best need it God will not be wanting in any part or point of necessary government to them 3dly That they may know the worth and benefit of God's Word and the comfort of it may be seen and felt by experience how able it is to support us and to uphold a sinking heart under any trouble whatsoever Rom. 15. 4. In full prosperity when we seem to live upon the creature we know not the benefit of God's promise nor how to live by Faith as the use of Bladders in swimming is not known while we are upon firm land The Word of God provideth comforts for the obedient not only at the end of the journey but for their support at present while they are in the way These comforts would be useless if never put upon the tryal therefore none of God's children must look to be exâ—…pted 1 Pet. 5. 9. All these afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world Our condition is no harder than the rest of the Saints of God that have passed thorow the world 2. David was ready to sink under his burden and so are other the people of God ready to perish when they look to the bare afflictions This may come First From the grievousness of the affliction which staggereth and amaseth them Psal. 60. 3. Thou hast shewed thy people hard things thou hast made us to drink of the wine of astonishment Their thoughts are confounded as a man that has taken a poysonous Potion They know not to what hand to turn are wholly dispirited and put out of all comfort 2dly It comes from the weakness of the Saints There is some weakness and imbecility in the best more than they are aware of as when David was ready to faint under the Cross before troubles came We are like unto Peter we think we can walk upon the Sea but some boistrous wind or other assaults our confidence and then we cry out Help Master we perish Mat. 14. 30. We reckon only upon the Sea but do not think of the wind and so our weakness is made evident by proof whence cometh this weakness 1. Partly because we look more to the Creature than to God and to our dangers than to the power that is to carry us through them Isa. 51. 12 13. I even I am he that comforteth thee who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall dye and of the son of man that shall be made as grass And forgettest the Lord thy Maker that hath stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor as if he were ready to destroy and where is the fury of the oppressor We that have the immortal and almighty God to be our Protector and Saviour why should we be afraid of a frail mortal man 2. If they look to God yet God doth not seem to look to them If a thin Curtain be drawn between God and us we are presently dismayed as if he were wholly gone and because of our hardships question the love of God Psal. 77. 9. Hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies Isa. 49. 14. Zion hath said the Lord hath forsaken me my God hath forgotten me though our condition be every way consistent with the fatherly love of God Heb. 12. 5. Have you forgotten the Exhortation which speaketh to you as children We are children though under discipline and God is a Father though he frowneth as well as smileth 3. Impatiency of delay if we question not his love yet cannot tarry his leisure Certainly it is very good to wait God's leisure though he seemeth asleep he will awake for our help Faith makes us like people that dig the Pit and wait for the rain to come down and fill it To lay the Cloth though we know not whence the Provision will be sent But the people of God
I am afflicted very sore O Lord quicken me Doct. We must not give over Prayer though our afflictions be never so great and heavy Why because 1. Nothing is too hard for God he hath ways of his own to save and preserve his People when we are at a loss This was the glory of Abraham's Faith that he accounted God was able to raise up Isaac from the dead Heb. 11. 19. difficult cases are fit for God to deal in to shew his Divine Power When means have spent their allowance then is it time to try what God can do Psal. 142. 4 5. I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me no man cared for my soul. I cried unto thee O Lord I said Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living When all things fail God faileth not 2. We must still pray Faith must express something above sense or else living by Faith and living by sense cannot be distinguished In desperate cases then is the glory of Faith seen Iob 13. 15. Though he should kill me yet I will trust in him In defiance of all discouragement we should come and profess our dependance upon God Use. To condemn those that despond and give over all treaty with God as soon as any difficulty doth arise whereas this should sharpen Prayer rather than discourage us This is man's temper when troubles are little and small then to neglect God when great then to distrust God A little head-ach will not send us to the Physician nor the scratch of a Pin to the Chyrurgion So if our troubles be little they do not move us to seek after God but we are secure and careless but when our troubles are smart sore and pressing then we are discouraged and give over all hopes so hard a matter is it to bring Man to God to keep an even frame neither to slight the hand of God nor to faint under it as we have direction to avoid both Extremes Heb. 12. 5. to cherish a due sense of our troubles with a regular confidence in God That he prays you have seen Now what he prays for He doth not say deliver me but quicken me Doct. Strength and Support under Afflictions is a great Blessing to be sought from God and acknowledged as a Favor as well as Deliverance 1. You shall see this is promised as a Favor Isa. 40. 31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength That is shall not faint nor be weary but mount up as it were with wings as Eagles they shall have a new supply of grace enabling them to bear and hold out till the deliverance cometh They that wait upon the Lord do not always see the end of their troubles but are quickned comforted and strengthned in them they shall renew their strength 2. This is accepted by the Saints with thanksgiving and valued by them as a special answer of prayer they value it more than temporal deliverance itself many times as 2 Cor. 12. 9 10. Paul prays for the removal of the thorn in the flesh thrice when God only gives him this answer My grace is sufficient for thee saith Paul then I 'll rejoice in mine infirmities so I might have strength and support in grievous weaknesses reproaches and afflictions whatever they be So Psal. 138. 3. In the day when I cried thou answeredst me and strengthnedst me with strength in my soul. That 's noted as a special answer of Prayer How did he hear him with strength in my soul. Though he did not give him deliverance he gave him support so that was acknowledged as a very great mercy 3. There are many Cases wherein we cannot expect temporal deliverance then we must only go for quickning and support when by a lingring disease we are drawing down to the chambers of death and our outward strength is clean spent and gone then have we support that 's a great mercy Psal. 73. 26. when strength fail and heart fail God is the strengtâ—… of my heart and portion for ever That is to have his heart quickned by God in the languishing of a mortal disease So 2 Cor. 4. 16. Though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day There are many troubles that cannot be avoided and therefore we are then to be earnest with God for spiritual strength Use. Well then you see upon what occasion we should go for grace rather than for temporal deliverance we should pray from the new nature not deliver me but quicken me and if the Lord should suspend deliverance why that will be our strength in time of trouble Psal. 37. 39. The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord he is their strength in the time of trouble But more particularly let us take notice of this Request Quicken me saith he Doct. Quickning Grace must be asked of God 1. What is quickning 2. Why asked of God 1 First What is this quickning Quickning in Scripture is put for two things 1. For Regeneration or the first infusion of the life of grace as Ephes. 2. 5. And you that were dead in trespasses and sins hath he quickned That is infused life or making to live a new life 2. It is put for the renewed excitations of God's grace God's breathing upon his own work God that begins life in our souls carries on this life and actuates it Now this kind of quickning is twofold spoken of in this Psalm there is quickning in duties and quickning in afflictions quickning in duties that 's opposite to deadness of spirit quickning in affliction that 's opposite to faintness 1 Quickning in duties that 's opposite to that deadness of spirit which creeps upon us now and then and is occasioned either by our negligence or by our carnal liberty that deadness of spirit that doth hinder the activity of grace 1. By our negligence and sloathfulness in the spiritual life when we do not stir up our selves Isa. 64. 6. There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee When Men grow careless and neglectful in their souls An Instrument though never so well in tune yet if hang up and laid by soon grows out of order so when our hearts are neglected when they are not under a constant exercise of grace a deadness creeps upon us Wells are the sweeter for the draining Our graces they are more fresh and lively the more they are kept a work otherwise they lose their vitality A Key rusts that is seldom turned in the Lock and therefore negligence is a cause of this deadness 2 Tim. 1. 6. Stir up the gift that is in thee We must blow up the ashes There needs blowing if we would keep in the fire we grow dead and lukewarm and cold in the spiritual life for want of exercise 2. This deadness is occasioned by carnal liberty Psal. 119. 37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou me
in thy way When we have been too busie about the vanities of the world or pleasures of the flesh when we have given contentment to the flesh and been intermedling with worldly cares and delights it brings a brawn and deadness upon the heart Luke 21. 34. Take heed that your hearts be not overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this world c. I say by this the soul is distemper'd and rendred unapt for God Christians this is a disease very incident to the Saints this deadness that creeps upon them We have not such lively stirrings nor a like influence of grace we have not those earnest and lively motions we were wont to have in Prayer Now God he quickneth us how by exciting the operative graces as Faith Love Hope and Fear when these are kept pregnant and lively as we read of lively hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. There is living Faith and lively Faith and living Fear and lively Fear of God and living Hope and lively Hope All graces God makes them lively and vivacious that they may put forth their operations the more readily Well this is quickning in duties 2 There is quickning in afflictions and so it is opposed to fainting that fainting which is occasioned by too deep a sense of present troubles or by unbelief or distrust of God and his promises and the supplies of his grace O when troubles press upon us very sore our hearts are like a Bird dead in the Nest overcome so that we have no spirit life nor aptness for God's service my soul droopeth for very heaviness we have lost our life and our courage for God Well How doth God quicken us By reviving our suffering graces as our hope of eternal life and eternal glory patience and faith and so puts life into us again that we may go on chearfully in our service by infusion of new comforts He revives the spirit of his contrite ones so the Prophet saith Isa. 57. 15. He doth revive our spirits again when they are dead and sunk under our troubles O! it is very necessary for this Psal. 80. 18. Quicken us and we will call upon thy Name Discomfort and discouragement it weakens our hands until the Lord cheers us again we have no life in prayer By two things especially doth God quicken us in affliction by reviving the sense of his love and by reviving the hopes of glory By reviving the sense of his love Rom. 5. 5. The love of God is shed abroad like a fragrant ointment that doth revive us when we are even ready to give up the ghost Psal. 85. 6. Wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee I say when he restores the sense of his love after great and pressing sorrow then he is said to quicken so when he doth renew upon us the hopes of glory Rom. 5. 2 3. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God Well you see what this quickning is 2 Secondly This quickning must be asked of God 1. Because it is his Prerogative to govern the heart of man especially to quicken us God will be owned as the Fountain of all life 1 Tim. 6. 13. I charge thee in the sight of God who quickneth all things It is God that quickneth all things All the life that is in the Creature all the life that is in new Creatures it comes from God it is he that giveth us life at first and he must keep in this life in the soul and restore it The meanest Worm all the life it hath it hath from God When Iohn would prove the Godhead of Christ he brings this argument Iohn 1. 4. In him is life There is not a Gnat but receives this benefit from Christ as God He hath the life of all things and this life is the light of Men much more the noble Creature Man hath this life from God much more the new Creature greater opâ—…ration of spiritual life more depends upon his influence and therefore if we would be quickned and carried out with any life and strength we must go to God for it 2. God as our Judge he must be treated with about it for he smites us with deadness therefore till he takes off his sentence we cannot get rid of this distemper it is one of God's spiritual plagues which must be removed before we can hope for any liveliness and any activity of grace again Under the Law God punished sins more sensibly as unhallowed addresses he punish'd them with death Under the Gospel he punisheth sins with deadness of heart When they seem careless in the worshipping of God they have a blow and breach as he smote Uzza and Nadab and Abihu dead in the place and now he smites with deadness Rev. 3. 7. He hath the Key of David that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth without his permission we can never recover our former lively estate again for there is a judicial sentence passed upon us Use. To press us to be often with God for quickning that we may obtain this benefit I have spoke of it at large upon another Verse if you would have this benefit rouze up your selves Isa. 64. 7. There is none that stirreth up himself And 2 Tim. 1. 6. Stir up the gift that is in thee A Man hath a faculty to work upon his own heart to commune and reason with himself and we are bidden to strengthen the things that are ready to die Rev. 3. 2. When things are dying and fainting in the soul we are to strengthen our selves therefore if we would have God to quicken us thus must we do chide the heart for its deadness in duty we can be lively enough in a way of sin chide the heart for its deadness in affliction Psal. 42. Why art thou cast down O my soul still trust in God And after you have done this then look up and expect this grace from God in and through Christ Jesus It is said Iohn 10. 10. I am come that they may have life and have it more abundantly Jesus Christ he came not only that we might have life enough to keep body and soul together but that we might not only be living but lively full of life strength and chearfulness in the service of God He is come into the world for this end and purpose expect it through Christ who hath purchased it for us And then plead with God about it according to his promise Ah Lord according to thy Word hast thou not said I will quicken a dead heart When thou art broken and tossed with affliction remember it is the high and lofty One that hath said he will revive the heart of the contrite ones Isa. 57. 15. and plead thus with God Ah Lord dost not thou delight in a chearful spirit Wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee Psal. 85. 6. And then humble your selves for the cause of the distemper what 's the
something without to draw you forward Nature thrusteth Occasion inviteth but Grace interposeth and checketh the motion Gal. 5. 17. The spirit lusteth against the flesh 't is against the bent and inclination of the New Nature there is a back Biass Ioseph had a temptation we read of occasion inviting but not of Nature inclining but presently his heart recoiled The heart of man is seldome without these counterbuffs 't is an advantage to have the new Nature as ready to check as the old Nature to urge and solicite 1 Iohn 3. 9. He cannot sin for his seed remaineth in him 2. In putting on the heart upon Duties that are against the hair and bent of corruption Such acts of obedience as are most troublesome and burthensome to the flesh as are laborious costly dangerous Laborious as private Worship wrestling with God in Prayer holding the heart to Meditation and self-Examination sluggish Nature is apt to shrink but love constraineth 2 Cor. 5. 14. Spiritual Worship and such as is altogether without secular encouragement that 's tedious to work truth into the heart to commune with God to ransack Conscience 't is troublesome but thy striving will overcome it So there is costly and chargeable work as Alms Contributions to publick good there must be a striving to bring the heart to it Then for actions dangerous as publick Contests for Gods Glory or keeping a good Conscience though with cost to our selves our great work is to keep the will afoot Nature is slow to what is good a Coachman in his journey is always quickning his Horses and stirring them up so must we quicken a sluggish will do what we can though we cannot do all that we should the will must hold up still A Prisoner escaped would go as far as he can but his Bolts will not suffer to make long Journies but yet he thinketh he can never get far enough so this will is a disposition that puts us upon striving to do our utmost for God 2. The matter resolved on To perform thy Statutes always unto the end Uniform obedience always or all his days As long as life lasteth we must be always ready to observe all Gods Commands which notes the continuity of our obedience sincerity and perpetuity of it We are to engage our hearts by a serious resolution to serve him and that not by fits and starts but always not for a time but to the end Resolve to cleave to him to hold him fast that he may not go to keep our hold fast that we may not go Take notice of the first decays and let us keep our hold fast and bewail often the inconstancy of our hearts that we are so unconstant in that which is good Every hour our hearts are changed in a duty What a Proteus would man be if his thoughts were visible in the best duty that ever he performed Rom. 7. 18. Evil is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not our Devotion comes by pangs and fits now humble anon proud now meek anon passionate not the same men in a duty and act of a duty unstable as water Compare it with Gods constancy his unchangeable nature his love to us that we may be ashamed of our levity from everlasting to everlasting God is where he was the same the same to those that believe in him Secondly This to the end Gods Grace holdeth out to the end so should our obedience He that hath begun a good work will perfect it c. Consider how unreasonable it is to desire God to be ours unto the end if we are not his Psal. 48. 14. He is our God for ever and ever he will be our Guide till death He doth not lay down the conduct of his Providence So Psal. 73. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel and afterwards receive me to Glory We can give nothing to God our obedience is but a profession of homage if God be always in our eye we shall be always in his We receive life breath and motion from him every moment he sustaineth us every day and hour yieldeth new mercy God watcheth over us when we are asleep yet how much of our time passeth away when we do not perform one act of love to God! The Devil is awake when we sleep to do us a mischief but the God of Israel never slumbereth nor sleepeth how can we offend him Let us then take up this serious resolution To perform Gods Statutes always to the end SERMON CXXIV PSAL. CXIX VER 113. I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love THere are in men two great influencing affections Love and Hatred one serves for choice and pursuit the other for flight and aversation The great work of Grace is to fix these upon their proper objects if we could but set our love and hatred right we should do well enough in the spiritual life Man fallen is but the Anagram of man in innocency we have the same affections but they are misplaced we love where we should hate and hate where we should love our affections are like a member out of joint out of its proper place as if the arms should hang backward If men knew how to bestow their love and hatred they would be other manner of persons than now they are In the Text we are taught what to do in both by Davids example see how he bestowed his love and hatred I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love Love was made for God and for all that is of Gods side his Law his Ordinances his Image c. but hatred was made for sin All sin must be hated of what kind and degree soever it be Every drop of water is water and every spark of fire is fire so the least degree of sin is sin Thoughts are but a partial act a tendency towards an action and yet thoughts are sin Of all the operations of the soul the world thinketh a man should be least troubled about his thoughts of all actual breaches of the Law these are most secret therefore we think thoughts are free and subject to no tribunal Most of the Religion that is in the world is but mans observance and therefore we let thoughts go without dislike or remorse because they do not betray us to shame or punishment These are most venial in mans account they are but partial or half acts What! not a thought pass but we must make conscience of it this is intolerable Once more of all thoughts vain thoughts would escape censure A thought that hath apparent wickedness in it a murtherous or an unclean thought a natural Conscience will rise up in armes against it but vain thoughts we think are not to be stood upon Oh but David was sensible that these were contrary to the Law of God transgressions as well as other thoughts and therefore inconsistent with his Love to God I hate vain thoughts Secondly He bestows his love on the Law Naturally
Gold yea fine Gold for mark it is not more than I love Gold but more than any man some have an ardent desire of it however it be mortified in Gods Children I. For the Note of inference together with the Duty inferred Therefore I love thy Commandments Some refer it to Gods taking his time to work as the Judg of the world in punishing the wicked for their disobedience and contempt of his Law as if he had said Lord though thou dost connive and hold thy hands for a time yet I know thou wilt undertake the defence of the righteous and not let the wickedness of the wicked go unpunished it will cost them dear in the issue therefore I love thy Commandments c. This sense I cannot exclude If I thought fit to prosecute it it would yield this Doctrine That a little faith would help us to continue our affection to the word of God notwithstanding the wickedness of those that oppose it For in truth here this wickedness doth soon come to an end Psal. 73. 18. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places thou castedst them down into destruction But I rather referr it to the latter Clause They have made void thy Law therefore I love thy commandments Doctr. The more others despise the ways and laws of God the more should a gracious heart love and esteem them So doth David profess that his love to Gods ways was so far from ceasing that he found it encreased rather Reasons 1. Because the ways of God are still the same they were before if there be any difference they only need to be more owned by us with greater zeal and cheerfulness because they are despised and forsaken by others God is the same still Heaven the same and the Scriptures the same whether we have Company to walk with us in heaven-way yea or no and therefore why should not a Christian be the same he was before Their contempt and hatred of Gods ways doth not make void our obligation to God and the Bonds of our Duty to him If God had only required us to be good when we may be so with safety and ease and would dispense with us at other times when Religion is in disgrace then indeed a Christian might change his course and run with the Cry as others do but God hath required in the worst times we should take Gods part and stand for him in the worst places and keep his Name even there where Satans Throne is Rev. 2. 13. and be Saints though in Nero's Houshold Phil. 4. 22. under the nose of a raging Persecutor And as God is the same so his ways are the same Their contempt and hatred of holiness doth not hinder the loveliness of it to a spiritual eye There is a beauty in Gods despised ways Heb. 11. 25. Chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season He saw more excellency in the Tents of Iacob than in the Courts of Pharaoh When the outward Glory of his wâ—…ys is darkened and they are put under reproach and trouble yet their inward beauty still remaineth and may be seen by a spiritual though not by a carnal eye by those that will not judge according to appearance but judge righteous judgment Iohn 7. 24. The external Glory which is the favour of the World outward prosperity and Countenance is foreign and accidental but this is essential and ever remaineth And as holiness is the same so the Scriptures are the same they do not speak one thing to day and another to morrow and leave us at a latitude to put our selves into all changes and postures 2 Cor. 1. 19. For the son of God Iesus Christ who was preached among you by us was not yea and nay saith the Apostle but in him was yea The Scripture doth not allow saying and unsaying and building again the things which we have destroyed Gal. 2. 18. For if I build again the things which I have destroyed I make my self a transgressor Truth is the same in all Ages not like an Almanack to be changed every Year or calculated peculiarly for one Meridian Nor is it always the same Indeed in some lesser things that serve only for the conveniency of Religion we may upon weighty grounds change practice and do that which is good where best may not be had So Heaven is the same still it not only serveth us as an Antidote in Prosperity but as a Cordial in Adversity and is at all times to be regarded Well then since God and Holiness and Scripture and Heaven are always the same why should not we If there be change it should be in the degree of our love that it be greater than it was before to repair God in point of Honour and to testifie against the defection of others that we are not of their stamp who do not see by their eyes nor walk by their principles nor allow of their warpings 2. God expects more from gracious hearts because of their relation to him and acquaintance with him and therefore if others despise the Laws of God they should esteem them the more Iohn 6. 66 67. From that time many of his Disciples went back and walked no more with him Then said Iesus unto the twelve Will you also go away It goeth nearer to Christs heart that those should forsake him that are trained up in his bosome that the Devil should steal away souls under his own arm Whatever defection others make yet that those who have tasted of his mercy drunk of his Cup feasted with his lâ—…aves have had experinence of his Grace will ye also He stood not upon the multitudes going so much as his Disciples Therefore they should rowze up themselves in evil times 3. The good and the bad do exercise and keep one another in breath and vigour When there are but two factions that stand in opposition to one another one apparently for God the other apparently for Satan it addeth zeal and indignation to both sides and they mutually inflame one another and are as Ieremiah's two Baskets of Figgs the good Figgs very good and the evil Figgs very evil Ier. 24. 3. When others are so very bad it should not quench zeal but inflame it we should be not only good but very good Corruption the more it is opposed the more it stormeth and groweth outragious as a River swelleth by opposing Damms and Banks against it they rage upon restraints now the floods break loose So on the other side should Grace be more earnestly and zealously exercised the more it is opposed as the casting on of water sets the Lime on fire To be sure their malice will put us to a great deal of trouble and trouble is a time to exercise Grace To be much in prayer and faith and patience and mortifying corruptions and watchfulness and wary walking that we may neither take infection our selves nor give occasion to others to stumble at
Psal. 94. 15. Iudgment shall return unto righteousness and all the upright in heart shall follow it Sometimes they are asunder Earthly Judges may refuse the justice of righteousness a Judg may suspend the act of his own judgment but they shall not long be severed God will bring forth his righteous Judgment Zach. 8. 17. These things I hate saith the Lord. And then in regard of his Providence God will not be unmindful of his promise Psal. 9. 7 8 9. He hath prepared his Throne for judgment and he shall judge the world in righteousness he shall minister judgment to his people in uprightness Courts of Justice among men are not always open they have Term-time but God is always ready to hear Paintiffs They make Complaints amongst men and they are delayed so much and so long that they are discouraged But we have a friend that is always ready to hear Psal. 48. 10. Thy right hand is full of righteousness for defending his people and punishing his enemies Use 3. To press us to acknowledge this Justice of God that he governeth all things righteously especially when you are under his mighty hand The Lord takes it ill when you question any of his Providences Ezek. 18. 25. Are not my ways equal He will be clear when he judgeth Psal. 51. 4. God will be justified in all that he hath done or shall do for the punishment of sin and therefore when the hand of God is upon you take heed you do not reproach God When his hand is smart and heavy upon you remember affliction opens the eyes of the worst men Nebuchadnezzar that knew no God but himself no happiness but in pleasing his own humour yet when he was whipped and scourged hear him speak Dan. 4. 37. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven all whose works are truth and his ways judgment and those that walk in pride he is able to abase Pharaoh Exod. 2 27. The Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked These Acknowledgments and Confessions come from wicked men as Water out of a Still forced by the fire But if affliction opens the eyes of wicked men surely when we are under Gods afflicting hand we should give him the glory of his Justice and acknowledge that he is clear in all that he brings upon us He takes it ill when we murmure and tax his Judgment Mic. 7. 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me And Lam. 1. 18. The Lord is righteous for I have rebelled against his Commandment And when we submissively stoop and accept of the punishment of our sin after he hath been provoked then God will plead for us Lev. 26. 41. When we stoop humbly under Gods correcting hand and bear it patiently and say God is just in all this then it will succeed well Observe the Justice of God especially his remarkable Judgments upon others The Church is brought in acknowledging of it Rev. 15. 3. Iust and true are thy ways thou King of Saints And Rev. 19. 3. True and righteous are his Iudgments Not that we should sit Crowners upon other mens souls and judge their spiritual condition and misinterpret Providence I look upon it as a great sin of a faction and perverse humors But clearly when mens sins are so great that the Judgments of God have overtaken them we ought to say Iust and true art thou O Lord and just in all thy Iudgments I might shew here is much to keep the Children of God in awe the Lord is a righteous God though they have found mercy and taken sanctuary at his Grace the Lord is impartial in his Justice God that did not spare the Angels when they sinned nor his Son when he was a Sinner by imputation will not spare you though you are the dearly Beloved of his soul Prov. 11. 31. The sinful courses of Gods Children occasion bitterness enough they never venture upon sin but with great loss If Paul give way to a little pride God will humble him If any give way to sin their Pilgrimage will be made uncomfortable Gods hand may be smart and dismal Eli for negligence and indulgence there 's the Ark of God taken his two Sons slain in battel his Daughter in Law dies he himself breaks his Neck O the wonderful Tragedies that sin works in the houses of the Children of God! And David when he intermedled with forbidden fruit was driven from his Palace his Concubines defiled his own Son slain a great many calamities did light upon him Therefore the Children of God have cause to fear for the Lord is a just God and they will find it so here upon earth he hath reserved liberty to visit their iniquity with Rods and their transgression with Scourges I might press you to imitate Gods righteousness 1 Iohn 2. 29. If ye know that he is righteous ye know that every one that doth righteousness is born of God You have a righteous God and here 's the thing you should copy out SERMON CLV PSAL. CXIX VER 138. Thy Testimonies which thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful IN the former Verse the Prophet had spoken of the righteousness of God now God is essentially righteous and therefore all that proceedeth from him is righteous A Carpenter that hath a Rule without him and a Line to measure his work by may sometimes hit and sometimes miss but if you could suppose a Carpenter the motion of whose hand were his Rule he could never chop amiss So must we conceive of God his Act is his Rule Holiness is his Essence not a superadded quality his righteousness is himself therefore from this righteous God there proceedeth nothing but righteousness and from this faithful God nothing but faith He discovereth his Nature both in the Acts of his Providence and the Institutions of his Word We cannot reason so concerning men that because they are righteous nothing cometh from them but what is righteous because righteousness is not their nature but an adventitious quality therefore good men may make ill Laws for though they be meant for good they may be deceived And sometimes wicked men may make good Laws to ingratiate themselves and for the interest of their affairs but God being essentially necessarily good holy and righteous his Laws are also good holy and true Thy Testimonies which thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful In the Words observe I. That there is a Revelation of Gods Will in his Word Thy Testimonies II. The Authority wherewith his Revelation is backed Which thou hast commanded III. The intrinsick worth and excellency of these Testimonies it is double They are 1. Righteous 2. Very faithful In the Hebrew righteousness and faithfulness that is very right and very faithful the one word is referred to the Agenda in Religion the other to the Credenda they are worthy to be obeyed