Sin's Antidote and Other Sermons

For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins (Matt 26:28).

I have already noted three things in the text.

1. The name or title that is given here to the sacrament: it is called “the blood of the new testament.” I have shown the reason for it, and how all our good is made over to us by a new covenant which is sealed with the blood of Christ.

2. I have also shown how this testament is confirmed, ratified, and established by the blood of Christ.

3. I have shown the fruits and benefits of this covenant thus established, in the extent of it, which we spoke of last time: “It is shed for many.” There I proved that many will reap benefit from it; and not few, but many; and again, not all, but many; though many, not all.

Now it remains that we come to the main benefit itself, and that is the remission of sins. So that you may better understand it and make use of it, I will first open the phrase clearly, what is meant by this same “remission of sins.” Second, we will answer some doubts about the sense. Third, we will gather the main conclusion, collect the main point intended, make application of it, and so conclude.

First, then, for the phrase that is used here. The great benefit that we have by the covenant, and by the blood of Christ, is remission of sins: “Shed for many for the remission of sins.” The Greek word for “remission” properly means the sending of a thing back again to the place from which it was taken. So in Latin, to remit is to send back, to send a thing back again. Thus old Jacob says in his prayer, “The good Lord be merciful to you, my sons, and give you favor in the sight of the man, that he may send back again that my other son, and Benjamin also” (Gen 43:14). There, to “remit” is to send them back again to the house from which they came.

So likewise Paul sent Onesimus back again to Philemon (Phlm 12), in this sense, when Onesimus had come away; that is the proper sense of the word. And if it should be taken properly, then to remit sin is to send it back again to where it had its first being and beginning. Satan, the devil, tempted man, so it is to send sin back from man to him, from whom it first came. But we need not tie the word so strictly.

I say, therefore, that the word is a metaphor, and so here it only alludes to that same custom of releasing captives, or of releasing servants who were bound, in the year of jubilee and the like; to release them from that yoke, bondage, and subjection to which they were tied. And so in Latin, to remit is as much as to loosen, for so it is used, to release and to free someone from a yoke and bondage. Thus we have obtained remission of sins when we are released from that bondage under which sin held us.

That you may understand this yet more clearly, you must consider what opposition sin has:

1. Against God.

2. Against his law.

1. By discerning these we will know what it is to have sin remitted to a man, although in the thing itself these are only one and the same. No man transgresses the law without sinning against God, and no man sins against God without transgressing the law. Yet for doctrine’s sake, and for your understanding, we will distinguish them, and show you what it is that sin does more directly against the majesty of God, and then what it does against the law of God, and how it is said to be remitted in both these.

Every sin is an injury and wrong offered to God. Now when God remits sin, he passes by the wrong done to himself. In point of his honor and sovereignty, the creature is bound to his Creator, to give all his strength to his service. Now when a man employs any of his strength, either of soul or body, in the service of anything against God, God is so far wronged. And therefore sometimes God takes this as a dishonor to himself, and sometimes he counts it as a rebellion against himself; so that in sin there is an enmity against God, and a dishonor to God.

There is an enmity: so Romans 8:7, “The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God”; and the apostle shows the reason why he calls it enmity against God, “because it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” That is, it does not yield that orderly subjection to God which the creature should yield to the Creator, that subjection to the Lord which children should show to their father. And therefore David, when he comes to confess his sins, says, “Against thee, against thee have I sinned, and done evil in thy sight” (Ps 51:4). He notes two things there in sin that aggravate it and make the sense of it more grievous: that it was before God, and done in his sight; and then, that it was against God, “Against thee have I sinned, and against thee have I done evil.”

So when God remits sin, he does, as it were, forgive that rebellion. He no longer counts a man a rebel against himself. And though the man has rebelled before, and however much he has rebelled, yet now God counts him as a loyal subject, and now counts him a faithful servant and an obedient child, because his rebellion is pardoned. That is the first thing.

Another thing in sin is that God is dishonored. Why? “If I be a father, where is my honor? if I be a master, where is my fear?” says God in Malachi 1:6. He counts obedience his honor, therefore disobedience is dishonorable to him. “He that offers me praise, glorifies me,” he says, “and to him that orders his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of the Lord” (Ps 50:23). Now the ordering of a man’s way of life, which is an actual and real praising of God, is a glorifying of God. When a man orders his conduct amiss, when he disorders his conduct and walks in a sinful course against the rule and against God, he dishonors God. Now when God forgives sin, he overlooks all injuries done to his honor, and counts him now as a man who had never dishonored him at all. And that is the first thing.

2. Consider sin as it is a breach of the law. So it is said of sin, “It is a transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). The law is the bond that binds all men; sin leaves a man in this bond. Now the law wraps a twofold bond around a man:

(1) A bond of duty;

(2) A bond of misery, if he neglects and fails in his duty.

(1) The first is a bond of duty, that is, a bond of obedience. Every man is bound by the law to obedience, to obey God according to that will which he has manifested and revealed in his law. Now when a man fails, the bond is forfeited. He now remains under this bond, to expect all the danger that will follow on the neglect of obedience. And therefore sin is called a debt: “Forgive us our debts” (Matt 6:12).

So when God forgives a man’s sins, he deals with him as a merciful creditor does with his debtor. Though the debtor was indebted to him, yet when he forgives him, he counts it as if he were not in debt, and counts him as if he had paid everything, and no more reckonings remain between them. So God now releases the bond in respect of obedience, in the first sense, that is, in respect of that obedience which should have been performed in time past. As it is in Romans 3:25, “he is our reconciliation through faith in his blood, to declare the righteousness of God in the remission of the sins that are past”; that is, those sins that were committed before are now forgiven, and a man is acquitted even from that obedience which is due to the law for the time past. That is the first thing: whereas he failed in the breach and transgression of the law, his disobedience is not imputed, it is not counted, and he remains as if he had obeyed the law for the time past, though he had not obeyed it all.

(2) But then, there is something in which a man is bound for the time to come; that is, he is now bound to the curse of the law: “Cursed is every one that continues not in all that is written in the law to do it” (Gal 3:10). Now when God remits sin, he frees a man from that curse, from all that should have followed on his neglect or failure in his obedience. “He hath freed us from the curse of the law,” says the apostle, “inasmuch as he was made a curse for us” (Gal 3:13).

So, put all this together, and you now see what it is to have sin remitted. It is for a man to be released and freed from all that guilt under which he was held, by which he was bound over to judgment for dishonor done to the majesty and glory of God, for rebellion against the sovereignty of God, for transgressing the law of God; and from that curse under which he was bound. He is freed from all, so that God now beholds a man as one who had not dishonored him at all, or rebelled against him. God now looks on a man as a man who had not transgressed his law, or been under the curse and censure of the law in any point. So you see there is a perfect and total forgiving and passing by of all sin, and a releasing of a man from the punishment of sin. When a man obtains this favor, to have his sins remitted to him, this is what we call remission of sins.

But now for the sense, there are two questions that must be answered.

Question 1. The first is, whether this remission of sins is all the benefit we have in this new covenant by the blood of Christ? So it seems to be here, as if there were no other benefit but this: “This is the blood of the new testament, shed for many, for the remission of sins.” There he names nothing but remission of sins.

Answer 1. I answer that this is not all the benefit, though this includes all the rest, and therefore it alone is named. You will find that sometimes this is left out: “This shall be the covenant,” says the Lord, “that I will make with them; I will be their God, and I will put my fear in their hearts, and they shall not depart from me” (Jer 32:38-40), and there is no mention of remission of sins there. There sanctification is mentioned without justification. Here, in our text, remission of sins is mentioned without the working of fear in their hearts; here is justification without sanctification, and so also in that place of Acts (Acts 10:43).

Answer 2. We are said to be baptized for the washing away of sins. There the washing away of sins is put for all the rest.

Sometimes again you will find them both mentioned, and so in Jeremiah 31:33-34: “This shall be the covenant that I will make with thee, in those days,” says God: “I will be their God, and they shall be my people; I will forgive their iniquities, and give them a new heart, and I will take away their heart of stone, and give them an heart of flesh.” Here all is now put together: sin remitted, and the new heart given, and all expressed and mentioned in the new covenant.

Question 2. How does it come about, then, that remission of sins is put here for the rest?

Answer 1. I answer, first, because this is the first mercy; and second, this is the chief mercy and the chief benefit in the new covenant, and therefore it is put for all the rest, by a figure usual in the Scriptures.

(1) I say it is what God does first; it is the first mercy he shows. There is no hoping that he will bestow any gift on a man until he receives him into favor. All those other gifts, those gifts of grace, follow the gracious accepting of a man. First God receives the person of a man, accepts him into favor, and then he bestows on him all those gifts that are bequeathed by Christ in this testament. A king first receives a rebel into favor and forgives him his offense, before he bestows any honor, any other privilege on him. Now because this is the first, therefore it is put for the rest; the rest follow it.

(2) Then, because this is the chief, it includes all the rest under it. For if this is once obtained, if this favor is once bestowed on a man, that God has forgiven him his sins, then he gives him everything else. So the apostle says, “If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; much more now, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Rom 5:9-10). If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled by the death of Christ, that is the first thing. And the greatest of all the great works of mercy was to remove and take away the impediments, the obstacles, the blocks that lay in the way. Sin, the conscience of sin: to purge the conscience from that, to forgive all that laid a man open to the wrath of God, this is the greatest work. If this is done, it is an easy matter to obtain all the rest.

And this may be noted all the more for the comfort of weak Christians, who doubt so much about strength of grace to subdue any corruption, and about help and grace to persevere in a holy course. Has God done the first work? Has he forgiven your sins? All the rest are lesser works than this. It is a lesser mercy, after sin is forgiven, to increase grace, to continue grace, to subdue corruption, and the rest. All will follow on this; they are all included under this.

Therefore, I say, let a man first make sure of this for himself, that he has forgiveness of sins, and then from there let him raise arguments to strengthen his faith, and to encourage himself in asking another mercy at the hands of God. And so also in any outward thing, in any outward want, distress, or difficulty: God has done the greater, if he has forgiven your sins. You know the apostle reasons from the giving of Christ: If he have given us his Son, with him he will give us all things (Rom 8:32). Now the first and greatest gift in the Son is this, to have our sins forgiven, and therefore he will certainly give all the rest with it. If a man can make good this one thing to his soul, all the rest will follow on it. So much for the second question.

Question 3. Again, there is another, and that is this: How can it be said here that this blood is shed for the forgiveness of sins? It seems somewhat contradictory, the one opposed to the other. For if sins are forgiven, how does it come about that Christ sheds his blood for them? And if Christ shed his blood for them, how are they said to be forgiven?

Answer 1. The shedding of Christ’s blood presupposes merit. It was by the merit of his death that we obtained this mercy. Now where there is merit, what mercy is there in it? Forgiveness presupposes a free gift, a free grace; but where there was such a merit as was procured by the blood of Christ, what free gift was in it? These two seem to fight against one another, and therefore we must reconcile them; for these two may well stand together, remission of sins, and yet the obtaining of it by the blood of Christ. To this end you must consider in God justice and mercy.

He is exactly just, and exactly merciful. He so shows mercy that it must be done without injury to his justice. Justice must be fully satisfied, so that mercy may be fully and comfortably manifested. Now there is the bloodshedding of Christ to satisfy justice; there is forgiveness of sins to declare mercy. For that is the common speech of people. Ask them how they hope to be saved, and they will answer that they hope to be saved by the mercy of God. This rests on a mistake, for they swallow up justice in mercy, as if God could not remain exactly just in showing mercy. Now tell them again that God is as perfectly just as he is merciful. Yes, but they hope to find better than that; they hope they will find mercy.

And therefore know that no man receives this mercy in the forgiveness of his sins until justice is satisfied, even to the utmost. If the justice of God were not fully satisfied, I say, the infinite justice of God in its exact rigor and in its perfect righteousness, if it had not been satisfied to the utmost, it would have been impossible that any flesh should have been saved.

Answer 2. And therefore, consider another thing, and that is the comparison between Christ and us. Look at Christ, and there justice is fully satisfied; look at us, and there mercy is fully shown. In us there is no merit, nothing but the guilt of sin; so that if God would receive sinful men into favor, you may reckon that it must proceed from the tender heart of his mercy, from the freeness of his love. By Christ we have redemption through his blood, even the remission of our sins, in that same rich grace of his (Eph 1:7-8). It is the tenderness of mercy and the riches of grace, if he looks on us, because there is nothing in us.

Now look at Christ, who has indeed satisfied the wrath of God to the utmost, and therefore he is declared to be a Savior by the resurrection. If Christ had not remained in prison, as he was in the prison of the grave, until he had paid the utmost farthing, God would not have been just. He was indeed our surety, and there was no possibility of our being released from the debt unless our surety had paid the utmost farthing.

But now therefore, when Christ rose out of the grave, and was now released from the bonds of death, and was freed from the prison into which he was cast as our surety, it is evident that the debt is fully discharged, the creditor is fully satisfied, and now our peace is fully made, because Christ has purchased us. And therefore in respect of Christ we are said to be bought: “You are bought with a price, and therefore glorify God in your bodies and spirits” (1 Cor 6:20). And you are redeemed, says the apostle; that is, you are bought, “not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1:18-19).

So there was a price on the blood of Christ, a value, a worth. Consider the person who shed that blood. It was one who had two natures: he was God, able to satisfy the wrath of an infinite, offended majesty, and therefore it is said that God purchased the church with his blood (Acts 20:28); that is, because he who purchased the church with his blood was God as well as man. Now by this it comes to pass that his blood was meritorious, of an infinite value, worth, and price, and so he merited the favor of God. It was merited on Christ’s part, but not on our part.

Every way it is free to us. The gift of Christ is free, for it comes from the free grace of God: “To us a child is born, to us a son is given” (Isa 9:6). It is a gift; Christ was given. And then the application of Christ to us, the acceptance of us through Christ, this is a gift, and a gift of grace, as the apostle calls it in Romans 4:4. It is of free grace that God accepts us; he might have chosen others. We know that angels fell, and fell irrecoverably. Christ did not take on himself the nature of angels, but he took on himself the seed of Abraham, and so he became a Savior, not of angels, but of men (Heb 2:16). The angels who fell are fallen forever, but Christ died that he might save men.

So every way it is free. It was free that God gave his Son to this abasement, it was free that God gave his Son for men, it was free that God should give men faith to lay hold on his Son: “Through faith you are saved by grace, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8). So remission of sins, though it is by the blood of Christ, is an act of free mercy, an act of mercy to which God is in no way bound, but which he did freely, of his own love and his own impulse alone, and of his own good pleasure.

Thus you have the words opened. I have shown you what remission is. I have also shown you how these things stand together, the shedding of Christ’s blood, and yet remission of sins by free grace.

Now let us come to the main point intended, and that is this:

Doctrine. All the benefits that believers have by the new covenant, and so by the death of Christ, are all of them given to them in the remission of their sins. And therefore remission of sins is put here for the whole covenant, for all the privileges of the covenant, because all the rest are given in this and with it. At whatever time God forgives a man’s sins, at that time he gives him all other things, sanctification and whatever else, as we see at large in Ezekiel 36:26. The Lord speaks there of the intention of his goodness to his people. He shows what he will do: he will cleanse them from all their idols, and forgive all their sins, and then he will give them a new heart, he will cause them to walk in his ways. And then he comes with outward mercies too, as far as will be good for them; he promises them deliverance from their enemies, and other good things, in the rest of the chapter. But all other things come in with remission of sins. A man who has his sins forgiven has the other things given with it. This point we are to prove and apply. It is a point of great weight; it is the very key of the gospel, and it requires great attention in the hearer and great care in the speaker. There is much in it, for the mere lack of a distinct and clear understanding of this causes a world of doubts and scruples, and gives Satan advantage for many temptations, as we shall show when we come to open certain cases about this.

1. We must open the point, and make it appear to be a truth, that all other privileges and benefits of the new covenant are given to believers in and with the remission of their sins, so that a man may conclude that he who has his sins remitted and forgiven has, and shall have, all the rest of the promises of the new covenant. And therefore David says, “Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin” (Ps 32:1-2). The apostle in Romans 4, expounding that text on the point of justification, shows in what the blessedness of a man consists: that is, in this, that he may appear before God without his sin, without his filth, without that which makes him abominable to God. And therefore such a man is truly blessed, for with this he has all that can make him blessed.

Whatever a man would have to make up his blessedness, and to prove to his own soul that he is a blessed man, he has all of that here with remission of sins. You know that other things, sanctification and the rest, are part of our blessedness, and therefore they must go along with this remission of sins. And so in another place of Scripture that speech of the apostle speaks for us: “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name we have remission of sins” (Acts 10:43).

Now the prophets gave witness concerning Christ of many other things besides remission of sins. This we have in his name, this we have by him, but all other things come with this. And therefore the apostle would have them chiefly mark that what all the prophets would have the church understand to be the great benefit they have by Christ is the remission of sins. They all join in this, that this is the general benefit, as it were, the great gift of all, which presupposes and includes all the rest in it: that “whosoever believes in him shall have remission of sins.” So too: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their sins” (2 Cor 5:19). God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself: a marvelously great mercy! This consists in this, that their sins were not imputed.

Yes, but there are many other things that a Christian would desire besides this. For what man who truly has his sins forgiven, whose faith works by love, by love to Christ, would not also desire that, as his past sins might be pardoned, so he might walk before God in newness of life? And that is what David prayed for so much: “Oh that my ways were so direct, that I might keep thy statutes” (Ps 119:5). Now we have this thrown into the bargain as well. We have it in the agreement, as it were, in with the rest, that our sins are not imputed.

When this is granted, we have this also with it, that they shall not condemn, as we see: “There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, which walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom 8:1). There is no condemnation to them. This is a great mercy, and this is one mercy that we have by Christ. But this is not all, for, the apostle says, “they walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit,” to show that this walking after the Spirit is a thing that the Spirit of grace works in them, the Spirit that is given to them by Christ. For “the law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ hath freed me from the law of sin and of death” (Rom 8:2).

So now you see plainly that there is something else given when sin is not imputed, and so a man is free from condemnation. All the rest comes in with it: the law of the Spirit of life frees us from the law of sin and of death, and so by degrees perfects holiness and sanctification with it. And so with various other places of Scripture that I might allege for this purpose, but I do not intend to dwell on it. I will make it appear to you by some reasons, and so come to the uses. You see that it is so; you shall see also that it will be so and must be so. When we have remission of sins, when this great mercy is bestowed on a man, that his sins are forgiven, all the rest are given with it.

Reasons.

1. The first reason is taken from the nature of sin. Consider that if sin is once taken away, that which hinders all our good is taken away, as it is said, “The hand of the Lord is not shortened, that it cannot help; nor his ear is not deaf, that he cannot hear: but your sins separate between you and your God, and hide his face and keep good things from you” (Isa 59:1-2). Good things are kept from us when God’s face is hidden from us. What keeps good things from us is sin. The prophet says, “your sins separate between you and your God.” Take that away now; take away the sin that makes the separation. Break down that partition wall, break down this distance between God and us, which keeps us from God, so that we do not have that access to his presence, and keeps God from us, so that there is not this free influence, as it were, of grace upon us.

I say, take that away, and then a man is settled in all the other benefits, whatever comes by communion with God. Therefore this is the first thing, that remission of sins pulls down the wall and brings a man into communion with God. Now by communion with God we have all good; we have all in him, all from him. There is no good denied to a man when God has received him to favor, and God never denies his favor to a man when he has forgiven him his sins. For indeed that is the great act of his love, the great act of his favor and goodness, that he forgives sins to a man. That is the first thing.

2. Again, it will appear yet further if you consider the entireness of Christ, his perfectness. How perfect a Savior he is in every way! He is the head of the church, able to fill all his members, to fill the whole body. And therefore the church is called “the fullness of Christ, that fills all in all, that fills all things” (Eph 1:23). There would be some emptiness in a Christian if Christ did not fill the heart of man, fill the desires of the soul, if he did not also give something else with remission of sin. And therefore the apostle says, “He is made to us of God the Father, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor 1:30).

He is an entire, perfect Savior in every way. He is made redemption to us; besides that, he is made righteousness to us; besides that, he is made sanctification to us; besides that, he is made wisdom to us. Mark this: if a man would have redemption, it is Christ. “By him we have redemption, even forgiveness of sins,” says the text. Now a man who has redemption in Christ, who has forgiveness of sins, has other things with it. He has wisdom by Christ too, righteousness by Christ, and sanctification by Christ too. And so he has everything, because Christ is an entire and perfect Savior. And that is the second reason.

3. There is a third reason, and it is this. It is taken from the chaining and tying of all the privileges of the new covenant together. They are inseparably knit. They may be distinguished, but they are not divided; they are found in the same person. Where God gives one, he gives all. And therefore it is said, “Whom he predestinated, them also he called; and whom he called, them also he justified; and whom he justified, them also he glorified” (Rom 8:30). They go all together. If a man is a justified person, he is effectually called too; if he is effectually called, he was predestinated, and he shall be glorified. So now there are many links in the chain, when all are joined together. If a man pulls on just one part of it, he takes all. They all follow; they are all chained together.

The privileges of the new covenant are coupled together. In the new covenant God does not say, “I will do this or that,” and so speak of them disjunctively, that he will do one or another: “I will give you a new heart, or I will forgive you your sins, or you shall be my people.” He does not do so. But the new covenant delivers them coupled, so that they are linked together: “You shall be my people, and I will forgive you your sins, and I will give you a new heart …” (Ezek 36:26). They are all joined together and coupled together, and may not be divided asunder. If God gives remission of sins, the rest goes with it, for they are coupled together in that grant, in the main grant; that is, in the covenant of grace itself.

Thus, then, the point is opened and proved, and I come to make some use of it. This is a point of great weight; the greatest work is to bring it home to the hearts of Christians.

The first use we will make of it shall be for instruction and exhortation, and we will come afterward to comfort, and to resolve certain cases, if time allows. The cases are many, and they arise from mistaking the covenant.

Use 1. For exhortation and instruction. That shall be to persuade everyone, if they would make themselves happy in the enjoyment of all things that are good, what course they should take for it. Get this, their sins forgiven. Let that be the first thing. If a man would make all comfort sure to himself, let him first make this sure to himself, that his sins are forgiven him. Therefore I beg you, consider this and take it to heart, that we may persuade you to get the knowledge of the remission of your sins. We persuade you to nothing that is impossible or unnecessary. It is a thing that may be had, and it is a thing that is necessary for you to have, if you will have any good. Make this sure to yourself first, that your sin is pardoned.

1. I say that it is possible. It is what the papists deny, what others question, and what natural reason is against. And therefore, because it is a point of faith, the Scripture is fuller on it, and we must be more express in clearing it, to make it appear to you that it is possible for a man to have the knowledge that his sins are forgiven him. He may not only conclude, “Sins are forgiven to some,” or, “It may be, I may hope that my sins shall be forgiven me.” He may conclude resolutely, “My sins are forgiven me,” and that as truly and as certainly, and more certainly, than if an angel from heaven were to tell him so.

A man would think that when an angel comes and tells Cornelius that his prayers and alms were accepted, there could be no more certain knowledge than that. When an angel comes and tells Daniel that he was a man greatly beloved, there could not be more certainty of it by any means. All that Dives asked was that one might arise from the dead, so that his brothers might certainly know the things of another world. But we will make it appear to you that there is a way to make it more certain to us than the voice of anyone who should rise from the dead, or the report of an angel. Men have been deluded by apparitions, and Satan may transform himself into an angel of light. But this way of making it known to a man’s own self that his sins are forgiven cannot deceive him, as we shall now show you. But that there is such a certainty, consider these things.

(1) Otherwise, how is it possible for the servants of God to have peace of conscience, until a man can know that his sins are actually pardoned? To settle a man’s conscience in quiet and in peace there must be an act in the court of heaven, and something must be done in the court of conscience. Christ does something in heaven with God his Father, and something like that he does in the heart of a man. He makes peace with God his Father for us. Now God is reconciled to a man. Then again, by his Spirit he gives a man the knowledge of this reconciliation with God, by clear evidences out of the word. And then a man is at rest, then a man is at peace, and therefore a man may know it.

Suppose a criminal has had a pardon granted in the court. As long as he does not know of it, he is still full of trouble. When it is brought home to his chamber, to his lodging, to the prison, or wherever he is, now he has peace. The soul of a man is not at peace until the pardon is brought home to the consistory, to his chamber, to a man’s own conscience. Now where one of these is evidently shown to him, so that he may read it and take notice of it, then he is at peace. Now it is possible for a man to have peace in this life: “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1). It was not only Paul’s case that he had peace with God, but it was the case of the believing Romans, and therefore he joins the rest with himself: “We being justified by faith, have peace with God.”

(2) Again, it appears by another thing that a man may know that his sins are pardoned. Otherwise, how could a man pray for the pardon of sin? We are bound to pray for it. But what we ask we must ask in faith, and not waver (Jas 1:6); and whatever you ask, believe that it shall be granted, and it shall be done to you (Mark 11:24). A man must pray in faith. In praying for the particular thing, faith applies it to a man’s self, applies it to his own soul, not in a wavering, suspended, doubtful manner, but upon knowledge: “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many” (Isa 53:11). There is a knowledge in faith; that is, such a knowledge as is grounded upon divine revelation, upon the truth of the word, on which faith looks. When a man knows and applies this, now he has peace; by this he knows that his sins are pardoned.

(3) Again, what other use is the sacrament, if it is not to make known to a man the forgiveness of sins? For consider that giving of it to every particular man, with its intent, to remember me, as Christ speaks, to remember what Christ did, as the end of it: that he died for sinners, and died for those particular sinners to whom he offers himself, to whom he is given in the sacrament. All this is only to bring the knowledge and application of this forgiveness of sins to my own self.

(4) Again, other servants of God have known the forgiveness of their sins, that their sins have been forgiven; why may we not also? Does the Spirit of God work differently in the saints? Did he work one way in David and another way in us? Did he work one way in Paul and another way in us? It will appear otherwise. “I said, I will confess against myself my sins,” says David, “and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin” (Ps 32:5). David knew it was forgiven.

Yes, someone may say, but David knew that by some extraordinary revelation.

No, says David: “for this shall every one that is godly seek to thee …” (Ps 32:6). For this shall every man; it is every man’s case as well as mine, and they shall seek it the same way that I have done, that they may obtain the same mercy that I have found. And so the apostle Paul says, “I was a persecutor, and a blasphemer, and an oppressor, but I was received to mercy” (1 Tim 1:13). Paul knew he was received to mercy.

Yes, but Paul might know it by some extraordinary revelation.

No, says the apostle, for the comfort of those who shall believe hereafter to eternal life: “God hath showed on me all long-suffering and patience for the comfort of those that hereafter shall believe to eternal life” (1 Tim 1:16). This mercy shown to Paul was for the comfort of others of God’s servants who should afterward believe to eternal life. So it is not an impossible thing.

2. Again, when we persuade you to the knowledge of the forgiveness of your sins, we persuade you to a thing that is as profitable as possible. As it is possible to be had, so it is profitable, useful, and necessary for us. When a man comes and asks any mercy at God’s hands, how shall he now lay a foundation of hope and faith, that he may succeed with God in obtaining it, except in this first, that his sins are forgiven? And therefore it was David’s very course: whenever he came to beg any great mercy at the hands of God, he began with this confession of sins, to beg pardon for sins. So in Daniel 9:4, when Daniel comes to beg a mercy for the whole church at that time, in those times of sorrow, what course does he take? First he confesses the sins of the church, and he begs forgiveness of the sins of the church, as the great hindrances of mercy to the church.

And therefore here is the thing: if a man would beg any good thing at the hands of God, let him begin here first, and remove that which hinders. Until sin is done away, there will be hindrances of all our prayers. Every prayer is lost; whatever petition a man puts up, he shall never succeed and obtain it until his sins are pardoned. Consider the time of our Savior Christ. Whenever he would bestow any special mercy on men (many came to him in various cases, with various diseases), the first speech of Christ is, “Thy sins are forgiven.” When he healed their bodies and other particulars, or cast out devils, and so on, it still went along with this: “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” And therefore, of all things, it is most necessary, so that we may know how to succeed in prayer, and what right we have to come before God and to make our requests known, that we know that our sins are forgiven and pardoned.

Question. But how may I know that? Now I come to the main question, how a man may know that his sins are forgiven in particular.

Answer. I answer, it is known by the testimony of the Spirit. What they make so much of, which is extraordinary revelation, is not needful for this business. But still a revelation from the Spirit is needful, and therefore he is called “the Spirit of revelation” (Eph 1:17); that is, the Spirit reveals to a man the things that are given him by God. And the apostle proves strongly that any believer may know the rich privileges of the new covenant, because any believer has the Spirit, as in 1 Corinthians 2:9 and what follows: “The things,” says he, “that eye hath not seen, that ear hath not heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man, are they that God hath laid up for those that love him.”

What things are these? They are things that are laid up in heaven; that is not denied. But the chief thing, the meaning there, is the great privileges that we have in the gospel, which God has prepared for those who love him, and which are laid up in the gospel as in a rich treasury. There they lie. And therefore the promises are called “precious promises,” because they contain these jewels and pearls, these spiritual riches of a Christian, in them. It is a rich cabinet that has rich jewels in it; so they are precious promises that have such precious mercies in them. Thus these are such things as “eye hath not seen, nor ear hath heard …”

Objection. But someone will say, “If no man ever saw them, if no man ever knew them, how shall we ever get the knowledge of them?”

Answer. But, says the apostle, “God hath revealed them to us by the Spirit” (1 Cor 2:10). The eye of man, that is, the natural eye of man, can never see them; the natural heart of man can never conceive them. Yet, nevertheless, God has revealed them to us by his Spirit. And so he goes on in 1 Corinthians 2:14: “The natural man knows not the things of God, but the spiritual man discerns all things.” Why so? Because the Spirit of God, who now causes the light of the gospel to shine in his heart, reveals to him those things which without that light can never be discovered or discerned by any man.

Question. But now the great question is, how does the Spirit of God reveal to a man that his sins are pardoned in particular? Every man will doubt of it.

Answer. “The same Spirit bears witness with our spirits, that we are the sons of God” (Rom 8:16). So there is a witness of the Spirit with the spirit of a man, in the heart and conscience of a man, that he is accepted in the sight of God.

Question. Oh, but now how does the Spirit witness this? What is the testimony that the Spirit gives of this, or by what way does he give it?

Answer. I answer briefly, by alluding to that expression that you will find in John 16:7-8: “I will send,” says Christ, “the Holy Ghost. And when he is come he shall reprove the world; he shall convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.” He shall convince the world, but of what shall he convince the world? “Of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they have not believed in me: of righteousness, because I go to the Father: and of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged” (John 16:9-11). I say I allude to that, for there is such a work in this business that we now have in hand, as there is in that convincing of the world concerning Christ. I say, there is such a work of the Spirit convincing a man “of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment,” that he may reveal to him the pardon of his sins. There are certain works of the Spirit that we may express by these.

1. I say, he convicts of sin. The Spirit who testifies to a man that his sins are pardoned does it first by convincing a man of his sins. Now, you know, there is more in conviction than bare discovery. It is a full and thorough discovery of the thing; and not only so, but an effectual discovery, such as works upon the soul. There is not only light in the understanding, but some heat in the affection and in the will. Now, when the Spirit convinces a man of sin, here is the first thing by which he knows that his sins are pardoned. You will see this better in its effects, which are these.

(1) It makes a man see that there is no sweetness in sin; it makes a man find that sin is the greatest burden, the greatest misery, of this life. For what makes a man delight in sin is that it is presented to him in false shapes. But now when the Spirit of God comes to manifest sin, to uncover sin in its own shape in the soul, and makes a man look upon it in its own nature, as it is, then he finds it to be the most unprofitable burden he ever bore in his life. Upon this comes that work upon the heart, which is that oppression of spirit, that a man comes laden and heavy burdened. You know this always goes with forgiveness of sins, as Matthew 11:28 says: “Come unto me, all ye that are laden and heavy burdened, and I will ease you.” This means that if a man would be eased of his sins, he must first be laden and heavy burdened, that is, he must find a need of ease; and when he is laden and heavy burdened, he may be assured that he shall have ease if he comes to Christ. That is the first effect.

(2) There is another thing that goes along with this: when sin has been thus discovered to a man, he comes to seek, above all things in the world, to be rid and to be eased of it. As the apostle says in that same 2 Corinthians 7:11, “Behold, what clearing of yourselves …” He would rather get free from it than keep his life. Now, there is no clearing of a guilty person except by confession; for how can a criminal get cleared before the judge except by confessing his fault? If he pleads for mercy, he may perhaps obtain it; but if he holds out until it is proved against him, he will be condemned. With men this fails many times, but it never fails with God. And therefore David says, “I said, I will confess against myself my sin, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin” (Ps 32:5). So it is said, “He that confesseth his sins, and forsakes them, shall find mercy” (Prov 28:13).

(3) But it is not a bare confession of sin, such as may proceed from common knowledge and illumination; there is more in it than that, and that is, there is a loathing and a detesting of it. It is by this that the Lord describes the repentance of the people of Israel: “They shall defile the rich idols, and their apparel … and shall cast them out, and shall say, Get you hence; they shall cast them out as a filthy thing, as a thing that they cannot endure to look on, and to have in their sight” (Isa 30:22). There is such a loathing of sin in the soul where God intends to forgive that sin.

(4) There is yet a fourth thing in this conviction of sin, and it is this: all a man’s care is how he may free himself from the actual committing of sin, how he may set himself in a right state again, how he may be set right; as it says, “If any be fallen by infirmity, you that are spiritual, set him in joint” (Gal 6:1). He is now like a man whose bones are out of joint, and who is in pain from it. Therefore all his care is how he may be set in joint again, how he may be set back into the condition he was in before. For every time a man commits a sin, the soul is disordered by it, and he is now much out of order. Because of that he is forward to commit other sins and backward to any good.

And now, when God has thus fitted a man by his conviction, by this work of the Spirit convincing him of sin, his greatest care is how to get his sin off, and how to get his soul rid of it. As it says in Isaiah, “Wash you, make you clean,” says God; “take away the evil of your works from before mine eyes; cease to do evil, and learn to do well; and then come and let us reason together: Though your sins were as crimson, they shall be as snow; though they be as scarlet, they shall be as wool” (Isa 1:16, 18). God does not mean that he would not forgive a man’s sins at all until he has gained such a victory over all his sins that he does not commit any sin at all. The meaning is this: there should be in the soul such a contention, such a strife against sin, that it may appear that he endeavors after nothing so much as to be rid of it. All his care is to be washed, to be made clean, and to have the evil of his works taken from the eyes of God. Now, when a man sees the evil of sin, as it is contrary to God’s holiness, and contrary to his word, and to his law, seeing the evil of sin in himself and the effects of it, he hates nothing so much, he strives against nothing so much, he desires to be rid of nothing so much as of sin. That is the first thing.

2. But then there is a conviction of righteousness: “He shall convince the world of righteousness” (John 16:8). That is, a man now, when God has forgiven him his sins, is to look up and seek after righteousness. And this is certain, that God forgives no man his sins except by Christ, and through Christ, and for Christ; and he draws the eye of the soul, and the bent and the inclination of the heart, toward Christ, so that a man now sets a price on him and prizes him above all things. He prizes him in his desire until he can get assurance that Christ is his; and afterward, once he has gained assurance, he prizes him in his esteem, walking in Christ. There, I say, is the first thing, then: he prizes Christ before all things, and he seeks nothing so much.

You see the Lord works this disposition in the church in the Song of Songs. When the church had sinned by neglecting Christ, and he now withdrew himself from her, what does she do? She comes and seeks him by the watchmen, and they strike her. She comes to those who kept the tower, and they mock her. She comes to the daughters of Jerusalem, and they slight her husband, him whom her soul loves. Still she goes on seeking. This is the case of a Christian after a relapse into sin: he is not set again in his peace and comfort until he is made to prize Christ at a higher rate than before.

So likewise the Lord describes the church as thus seeking after Christ: “They shall go weeping as they go; and shall seek the Lord God, and shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherwards” (Jer 50:4). They shall go; their purpose is to find out God, that God who was in covenant with them. They shall go to find out God, and they shall go weeping, with their faces toward Zion. This is the disposition of the soul of that man whose sins shall be forgiven him: he seeks nothing so much as Christ.

Again, having forgiveness, he prizes Christ at so high a rate that he will not part with him. The church says that if she could get Christ, she would keep him in the chamber of her mother who brought her forth. And when she has him, what is her desire? “Set me as a seal upon thy hand: for love is strong as death, and jealousy is cruel as the grave. Much water cannot quench love” (Song 8:6-7). She so loves Christ now that she will never part with him again, but will continue with him forever. So we see in Matthew 13:44, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hid in a field; which when a man hath found, he hides it, and for joy of it he departeth, sells all, and buys it.” When a man has found Christ, and the benefit of the remission of sins by Christ, there is nothing that can match Christ in the esteem of his soul.

Thus faith works by love, love to Christ; as we see in the apostle Paul, who accounts “all things as dung in comparison of Christ, that he might be found in him, not having his own righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ” (Phil 3:8). So then we see that in every way there is a high esteem of Christ, a seeking of him until he is found, and a keeping with him when a man has gotten him, in prizing Christ at a high rate, with nothing in comparison of Christ. Now, this is because he is convinced that there is a righteousness to be had in Christ, and a righteousness that can be had nowhere else but in Christ, and such a righteousness as can make him perfectly righteous. It is the great thing that he desires above all the world, and that is the second thing. The Spirit does this; as the Spirit draws, so the Spirit links a man to Christ.

3. There is a third thing, the conviction of judgment, such judgment as that in which “the prince of this world is judged” (John 16:11). A man now sets about condemning the stirrings of sin in his heart, and condemning himself for his past acts of sin. That you may understand these things clearly:

(1) I say, a man condemns the acts of sin he has committed; he condemns them and himself for them. This disposition is in all those whom Christ receives to forgiveness, whom he forgives these sins. “Thou shalt judge thyself worthy to be cut off,” says God, “when I will be reconciled to thee” (Ezek 36:31). When God will be reconciled to his people, this is one thing: they shall judge themselves worthy to be cut off. And therefore, “if you would judge yourselves,” says the apostle, “you should not be judged of the Lord” (1 Cor 11:31). So this is what now frees a man from the judgment of God: when he begins with his own heart, and judges himself for sin, he shall not be judged. Sin shall be judged once; and if a man will not judge himself, God will judge him; but if a man will judge himself, he shall not be judged by the Lord.

Now, therefore, you have the conviction of judgment when a man is now brought to judge himself, that is, to set himself against himself, as a judge sets himself against a criminal. The judge arraigns him before him and brings in evidence against him; he lays on him the sentence of the law, he condemns him, and he gives orders for execution to be carried out on him. So it is when a man sets himself to judge himself. He arraigns himself; he sets himself to serious consideration before the tribunal of Jesus Christ, who is the judge of the living and the dead, to consider how the matter stands between God and him. And he brings in evidence against himself, the testimony of his own conscience and the witness of the law. The books that shall be opened then are opened now, to forestall that judgment. He looks at the law, and it shows him what he should have done; he looks at his conscience, and that shows him what he has done.

And when he has done this, he comes to confess himself guilty. He now proceeds on this conviction to condemn himself, and to acknowledge that all the curses in the law are due to him. He wonders that God should have borne with such a one as he is, to let him live on the face of the earth this long. He subscribes to the righteous judgment of God, even if God should cast him into hell for his sins, for he judges himself worthy to be cut off. He does not excuse any sin; he does not lessen any sin that he has committed. He desires nothing so much as to feel the weight of it in his heart, that he may indeed see the ugliness of sin more and more, and be brought to be more out of love with it. And he thanks any man who will help him to magnify his sins to himself, and to see the ugliness of them.

When he has done this, he comes to execution, that is, he comes to that revenge on himself. There is an indignation against sin, and a revenge on himself too, because of sin. He judges himself unworthy of those liberties he has abused, and sometimes he ties and limits himself in those particulars, and denies himself those things that, because of his corruption, he cannot tell how to use without sin; or else he takes revenge on himself for particular wrongs. I say, this is how a man judges himself for his past sins. That is one thing.

(2) But now he judges the prince of this world, as well as himself. As he judges himself for his actions, so he judges all the stirrings of sin in his heart. At the present moment, if any stirring is rising from his own corruption, drawing him to a new act of evil, he judges and condemns the sin in his heart. And this is the very origin and root of that conflict in his soul, this work of the Spirit, a conviction of judgment, that has now made a man a judge against himself. And therefore he now sits as a judge does, to prevent sin by all means; he sets himself against the stirrings of sin. This was the case of the apostle Paul: “When I would do good, evil is present with me” (Rom 7:21). But what, does he let this go on? No, he strives against it, so that as the flesh lusts against the spirit, so the spirit lusts against the flesh. There is a seed, there is a work of grace striving to work out the corruption in his heart.

This is in all the servants of God, in all those on whom God bestows this mercy of the forgiveness of sins: they condemn the stirrings of sin, and therefore they set themselves against them. “O wretched man!” says the apostle, “who shall deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24). He calls for help, as it were, against the body of death; he looks about to see if it is possible by any means to get it rooted out. When a man has a thief gotten into his house, he calls for all his neighbors to help him, that he may catch him there. So there is a thief gotten into the soul, for now sin is not in his heart as a lord, but as a thief; and therefore he calls for help, that seeing it has gotten in, he may get it out again.

But this, I say, beloved, is in all the servants of God who shall have remission of sins: there is this conviction of judgment. That is, they are brought to this point, that they now judge themselves and their sin, and condemn it in themselves. Now, on this follows reformation and amendment of life, because they judge the prince of this world; they judge all the works of Satan, and all the stirrings of sin in their hearts. And therefore they now set themselves in a contrary way, to works of obedience and amendment of life. So the promise is made, “If you walk in the light, as he is in the light, the blood of Christ shall cleanse you from all your sins” (1 John 1:7).

Thus you see now how a man may know and prove that his sins are forgiven. Put all this together, and let every man now examine his own heart. I know of no man who would not desire to partake of the comfort of this doctrine; and I told you already that there is great reason why every man should labor after it, to get the knowledge of this, that his sins are forgiven. We are still only on that point, how a man may know that his sins are forgiven. Now for this purpose, I say, consider what has been said. It is a thing that is revealed to a man by the Spirit of God; the Spirit of God manifests in the word those grounds and texts on which a man may gain this assurance for his soul.

Now look at this threefold conviction of the Spirit, by which the Spirit manifests this work: conviction of sin, conviction of righteousness, and conviction of judgment, for they all go together in that heart whose sins are forgiven. I say conviction of sin: first, it makes a man see the loathsomeness of his sin, the ugliness of it. It makes him count it a burden that he would gladly be eased of, and therefore he confesses it; therefore he sets himself against it with all his might, and therefore he loathes and detests it. That is the first thing.

Now test yourselves by that, whether you yet perceive your sins in that manner or not. It is not for a man to say in general terms, “I am a sinner,” and to send out a few sighs, slight and short, to no purpose, in a cursory and formal way, as the way of many is. No, it is another kind of work. And therefore, I beseech you, consider seriously what that inward, secret work of the Spirit on the heart is, and what effects it has on the affections of the soul, that is, upon the discovery of the filthiness of sin, to make a man weary of it, to loathe it, to hate it, to desire to be rid of it, to strive against it, to confess it, and the like.

Where has this consideration sent you? Has it made you set a greater price on Christ, and on the gospel offering Christ to you? Is it such a prizing of him that you let everything go to seek him, that is, that you seek Christ above all things? And if you have indeed gotten him, you will not lose the comfort of him, but will walk in him daily, so that your life is now a living in Christ.

I beseech you, consider this: the walking of a man who has received Christ is called in the Scripture a walking in Christ: “As you have received Christ, so walk in him” (Col 2:6). And the living of believers is said to be a living in Christ: “Now I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal 2:20). That is, in his whole life he lives to express the virtues of Christ. Express Christ in your life. I beseech you, consider this, that the affections are now set wholly on Christ, and that a man now gives himself to Christ, as a servant to his Lord, to be commanded and to be guided by him. So nothing now sways a man, nothing now carries him in his actions as Christ shall. When he knows what is agreeable to the will of Christ, that shall most of all draw him to perform it. When he knows a thing is contrary to Christ, that shall make him set himself most of all against it.

Besides this, when he has done this, there is a conviction of judgment: now you are the sharpest judge of yourself for your past sins, and the most watchful judge of the stirrings of sin at present. This is so in everyone.

I beseech you, take this home with you. Consider it now in the preparation for the sacrament that you are to receive. For the sacrament is a seal, as we shall show you afterward, because it seals, among other things, this: “forgiveness of sins.” Now, that you may seal this comfort to yourselves, consider that the sacrament is a seal to none but those who are sealed with the Spirit: “In whom, after you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph 1:13). The Spirit, the inward seal, gives virtue to the sacrament, and to everything else that serves as a seal of comfort. Nothing can seal comfort to a man but the Spirit within, who makes everything effectual for that purpose. And therefore, if the Spirit does it, the Spirit does it by this means. Consider this, therefore, seriously.

There are in this various cases that should be answered for the further opening of it, and for the settling of weak-hearted Christians in a settled condition, and something too for the casting off of presumptuous persons who are at the height of their pride, that we may give everyone their portion. So the weakest might see, against many particular temptations and doubts, that even his sins are forgiven; and the others should see that they had only a false plea, a false claim all this while to the pardon of sins, when they cannot make it good by the testimony of the Spirit. But the work would be very large, and I have already been larger than I intended.

Whereto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and what are they like? (Luke 7:31-35)

Christ in the former verses had commended St. John’s ministry, and in the verse just before he speaks of the different success it found among the publicans from what it found among the Pharisees, who rejected the counsel of God. Now in the verses that follow he shows what success his own ministry had among them, and this he does by way of comparison or parable. He brings this in by asking a question, which implies wonder and indignation, both showing a deep passion, as it is in Isaiah: “What shall I do for my vineyard?” (Isa 5:4). This shows in general that the refractory disposition of man is a matter of indignation and of wonder, especially if we consider what it despises, and whom.

First, they despise the word of God, the saving word, the counsel and wisdom of God. Indeed, secondly, they despise God clothed in flesh, who was born and died for their sakes, and thereby offers salvation to them, and life everlasting. Yet all this, to the obdurate heart of man, is like lightning that dazzles the eyes and helps the sight not a whit. And therefore in Isaiah 6:10 the prophet is bidden “to make the heart of the people fat.” “Go tell this people, hearing they shall not understand …” And therefore it is no marvel if God bears indignation against such people. “Whereto shall I liken the men of this generation” (Luke 7:31), this generation of vipers, who are worse than any of the generations past, by as much as they have had more means to be better?

“They are like unto children sitting in the market-place, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped to you, and you have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept” (Luke 7:32).

The comparison is to little children who, at marriages and times of feasting, piped and danced, and at funerals and times of mourning mourned and used some fitting ceremony. Now there were some among them who were contrary, and would be content neither with mourning nor with piping and playing. To these Christ compares these great teachers, the scribes and Pharisees, a contrary generation, pleased neither with St. John’s austere course of life nor with Christ’s friendliness and meek bearing. And thus he crosses their proud, contrary disposition. As for the custom itself, because it is only related and not censured at all, I forbear to speak further of it, and come to the application of the comparison.

“For John Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, he hath a devil” (Luke 7:33).

“The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!” (Luke 7:34).

Here observe God’s gracious dealing with man. He uses every kind of means and sends men of various natures, austere John and meek Christ, and they use all means to convince the judgment, all methods to work upon the memory, all reasons to work upon the affections and wills. He turns himself into all shapes to win wretched man to himself.

Second, observe the order God uses: first John, then Christ. John prepares the way, throwing down hills: “O ye generation of vipers” (Matt 3:7). “Oh,” they say, “this man is too harsh. I think he has a devil.” Then Christ comes with blessed: “Blessed are the poor, blessed are you that weep …” (Matt 5:3 and following). So he sent the law first, then the gospel; first he threatens, then promises.

Third, observe that the manner of their teaching is double, by doctrine and life, and these agree. And here observe that it is good for life and doctrine to suit each other. For John’s life was austere and retired, and his doctrine also tended to beat down the proud conceits of man. Christ came to all, and lived among all meekly and lovingly. And the reason God makes use of men of various dispositions is the different natures of men, some of whom can better relish one nature than another. Some love the hot and fiery nature; others delight in the meek spirit. And though there is diversity of gifts, yet they come from the same Spirit. Even as the diverse smells of flowers come from the same influence, and the diverse sounds in the organs come from the same breath, so the Spirit diffuses himself diversely, as he meets with diverse natures. Yet all tends to the perfecting of one work.

We may therefore gather from this that to live among others fruitfully and lovingly is to be preferred before austerity, and is more commendable than it, because it is the way of life of Christ himself. And the papists will never be able to prove their foolish austere vows of a solitary life, and the like, to be preferred before communication and society, unless they will prove John better than Christ. And again, this should teach us to moderate our censures of the diverse natures and bearing of men, knowing that God in wisdom has appointed it for excellent use, and that all agree in the building up of the spiritual temple of the church.

In the next place, observe that where grace does not overpower nature, no means will prevail over the obdurate nature of man. Neither John nor Christ could work anything upon these Pharisees. So it was in the wilderness and in Egypt. What astonishing wonders God worked, yet how unbelieving and stiff-necked they were! And the reason is that God did not give a heart, and in the conversion of a sinner there must be another kind of grace than only offering and exhortation to accept Christ. Indeed, the Spirit himself must do more than exhort. For he may lay open to us many motives, and tell us of God’s goodness, truth, and strength sealed to us. He may tell us of wrath and judgment, and on the other side of kingdoms, everlasting joys, perfection of happiness, and yet all this will not work any remorse in the heart of man if the Spirit leaves him there.

And the reason is that man is dead in sin by nature, and that “strong man,” having gotten possession, cannot be cast out except by the “stronger man,” who must quicken and give power that may change every part of the soul, the understanding, will, and affections. Otherwise all means are to no purpose except to make us inexcusable at the day of judgment. Hence therefore we may see the shallowness of those who conceive of the word of God as if it only persuaded the will. No; it must alter the will and change it completely, or else arguments are to no purpose. And in the second place, it teaches us to come to the ordinances with holy hearts, begging God’s power to soften our hard and stony hearts, and desiring him to join the powerful work of his Holy Spirit with the outward means, and that his word may be like that word at the beginning, which no sooner commanded light but “there was light” (Gen 1:3).

And lastly, it teaches us to conceive of the word, together with its goodness and power, with admiration and wonder.

In the next place, observe from the slander of the scribes that rebellion and opposition against goodness is never without a show of reason; and men will never go to hell without having a reason for it. They will countenance rebellion by defaming and scandalizing the people of God, and to that end they will be sure to take things with a strong hand. Austere John “hath a devil”; sociable Christ “is a wine-bibber.”

And the reason is the pride of man, who will not be thought so foolish as to speak or do anything without reason, and therefore when reason is lacking they will invent one. In every slander they do so, and the slander and scandal here was the greater because it was raised by the scribes and Pharisees, the great teachers and the wise rabbis, whose word must carry such credit with it as alone to condemn Christ: “We would not have brought him to thee were he not worthy of death” (John 18:30), and whose life must be a rule to others: “Doth any of the Pharisees believe in him?” (John 7:48).

For the use of this doctrine, then, let us count it no strange thing if we are slandered, disgraced, and scandalized, for it was Christ’s and John’s lot. Great slanders must be upheld by great men, such as those who sit in Moses’s chair, the Pharisees and scribes. John’s holiness should have procured reverence, and Christ’s sociableness should have been rewarded with love; but it is the lot of them and of all Christians: “The disciple is not above his master” (Matt 10:24). They may do well, but must expect to hear ill. When wicked men learn to think well, they will learn to report well.

Second, let us grieve at their condition, and comfort ourselves in Christ, who will maintain our cause.

Third, be innocent as doves, and be ever doing good, that our lives may give them the lie, and stop others from giving credit to their malicious aspersions.

Fourth, let us see to it that we approve ourselves to God, who will judge us. Stand or fall to him, and do not care for the judgment of man, and of those who will be judged themselves.

Lastly, let us take heed that we do not take a thing in the wrong sense and out of vain prejudice. Men are ingenious at laying stumbling-blocks in their own way to heaven. This preacher is too strict, that one too mild; this one too plain, that one too poor. Like the children Christ speaks of here, nothing will please them. Hence, in the last place, we may learn from the example of Christ that it is not ill to speak ill of ill men, in the case of defending oneself and preventing scandal; for Christ’s example warrants it. But to proceed.

“But wisdom is justified of all her children” (Luke 7:35).

From the connection of these words with the former, by this word “but,” we may observe that it is the lot of God’s truth to have diverse receptions in this world. Some will be children of wisdom, and justify it; others, like the Pharisees, will scandalize it. And the reason comes from the diversity of men’s natures in this world, in which are contrary seeds and contrary servants to contrary kingdoms. Some will flock after Christ; others will say, “he deceiveth the people” (John 7:12). Yet as there is “a generation of vipers,” so there is a generation of children belonging to the kingdom, who swim against the stream, like the stars that have a retrograde motion to the rest.

But as for the meaning of the words, by “wisdom” here is meant the doctrine of the gospel, not only as it is in books, but as it is in the ministry. And briefly, the ways of God laid out in his ordinances, and taught by weak men: all this is understood in this word “wisdom.” And this word “justified” means approved and received; “of her children” means of her followers, those whom wisdom begets to a new life.

In these words let us consider, first, that there is a doctrine which is wisdom, and this teaches what God intends toward us, and what we should return to him. This reason will prove that since God is so good to man, he should have some thanks at man’s hands, and some acknowledgment of duty to him by way of worship, which it is most fitting that God himself should institute. And the rule of this, joined with practice, is the wisdom meant here.

For there are diverse wisdoms. First, as it is in God, and so it is an unsearchable depth. “Man knoweth not the price hereof” (Job 28:13). Second, there is a wisdom communicated to Christ, who has a twofold wisdom, infinite as God and finite as man, and a wisdom as he is God and man joined together; and this is called the wisdom of union. In the next place, there is a wisdom of vision, which the saints and angels have in heaven, and which we shall have hereafter. And there is a wisdom of revelation, which is revealed to us in the Scripture by the Spirit, and this is the wisdom meant in this place, as it is comprehended either in principles laid down in the gospel, or in conclusions necessarily inferred from them, or in our improvement of them to the right and best end, which is God’s glory and our salvation. This is wisdom, and it is called so here by way of emphasis, showing that it is the only excellent wisdom, which will further appear in these respects.

1. It arises from a higher beginning than all other wisdom whatever, for it comes from God’s goodness and mercy.

2. The matter. It is a deep mystery: Christ, God-man; his nature, offices, and benefits.

3. It is more powerful than all other wisdom, for it transforms us. It makes us wise, and changes us from wicked, and makes us good.

4. It is better than the law, which was a killing letter. This gives life.

5. Furthermore, this wisdom is everlasting, and it is the most ancient: intended before the world was. It is also inviolable. God will change the course of nature for his church’s sake, and he will sooner break covenant with the day and night than this covenant, which shall be forever (Ps 19:9).

6. The end of it is to bring us home to God (1 John 1:3).

This wisdom has the same name as Christ, who is the Wisdom of the Father. He gives his power to the word, and whatever reproach is done to it, he counts as done to himself.

Use 1. This serves, therefore, to convince the atheists, who cannot help acknowledging that there is a God, that it is fitting for the creatures to depend upon him and to show it by way of service, and that this service should be prescribed by God rather than by man. Let them know that this is the wisdom and the word of God. No word is like it in the convincing power it has in purity and holiness; none is so powerful to transform us from death to life, from nature to grace.

Use 2. Second, it serves to exhort us all to attend upon the commands of this wisdom. Men are admired for their deep wisdom in statecraft, by which they come to be great. This, without grace, is enmity to God, and the devil dwells in the heads of those who make honors, ambition, or pleasures their sole aim. The wisdom of arts and sciences goes beyond that, yet comes far short of this; for that is only temporary, perishing with the things themselves, but this is everlasting and eternal. And indeed statecraft and civil learning at most only civilize men and make them morally wise; and if nothing else is added to these, the life of such people is only a smooth passage to hell.

Use 3. Lastly, this should teach us to consider, magnify, and wonder at God’s goodness, who has given us such a wisdom as this, to be a lantern to light our way in this dark world, and to be like manna to feed us, so that we do not faint on the way until we attain everlasting life.

The second general thing is that there are children of wisdom, and that the word is fruitful and able to beget; for it has the Spirit of God accompanying it, who is fruitful. We see the sun and the rain beget herbs; trades make men tradesmen, and arts make artists. And shall we not think that this wisdom should make men wise, and this trade make a man fit for work? Yes, truly. No wisdom has this begetting and operative spirit but this one; for the law finds us dead and leaves us dead. Again, this wisdom is the arm of God to salvation. By it we are begotten to be sons of God; by it we are children made like to God, holy, pure, heavenly, begotten to his image. And therefore as children we ought to obey the word in the performance of all duties, of prayer, hearing, and reading.

Furthermore, in that we are students in Christ’s school, which is wisdom itself, we may be said to be “sons of wisdom,” as those who were disciples of the prophets were called the sons of the prophets. Now our teacher is a mighty teacher. The dullness of the student does not matter; this teacher can put wit and capacity where there was none before (Ps 119:12). Moreover, if this were not so, then it would come to pass that there would be a time when there would be no church, and that Christ would be a king without subjects, and likewise a teacher without students.

1. From the doctrine we may observe, therefore, that those who follow the best rule, which is God’s word, and intend the best end, which is their own salvation, these are the most wise, for they provide for the worst times, as the ant does for winter. With the wise steward they provide themselves with friends, and like Joseph they lay up for years of dearth. These are wise who procure shelter for themselves against all dangers, and are fruitful in doing good.

2. And let this persuade us to attend upon wisdom, whoever we may be, a publican, an extortioner, a persecuting Saul. This wisdom will “of stones raise children up unto Abraham” (Matt 3:9).

3. In the next place, observe that the children of wisdom justify it; that is, they receive it, approve it, defend it, maintain it. For it is fitting that children should stand up for their mother, and take to heart any wrong that is done to her. And therefore the child of wisdom privately believes it and loves it; and openly, if the truth or any ordinance of God or holiness of life is spoken against, that child will defend and maintain it, yes, to the death. For wisdom, even with the loss of all things, is rich enough. So Moses esteemed the rebukes of Christ more than the pleasures of a king’s court (Heb 11:25).

Question. But must we maintain it so as to speak for it always, and in all company?

Answer. I answer: no, but when we are called to it. Wisdom dwells with the prudent, and where it is, it will teach when to speak, and what, and in what manner.

And the reasons for this observation are, first, that it is fitting that God’s children should concur in judgment with God, who justifies his wisdom in his children and marvels at his graces in them: “O woman, great is thy faith” (Matt 15:28); as on the contrary he marvels at the stubbornness of the hearts of wicked men. Second, wisdom in itself is justifiable, for it justifies itself, because it carries a justifying spirit with it. It has a power able to change. In all conditions it justifies itself; in trouble and anguish it comforts. Yes, in death, when all other wisdom perishes, this raises up. It is powerful above the power of nature. It pulls down the proud heart of man in prosperity.

Question. But it may be said, if this is so, what need is there for the children of wisdom to justify it?

Answer. I answer: in respect of itself, it does not need our help to justify it; but in regard of others, it is to draw them on to loving and embracing it, and in respect of ourselves, it is to manifest the truth of grace in us.

The church also justifies it by proposing it, and by declaring its goodness in defending it and commending it. Yet the church is not above the Scriptures, any more than we are above the truth of God when we are said to “seal it.” We are children of the truth, and desire to be ruled by it, not to judge it, and all children agree in this, to justify it, as it is said here, “Wisdom is justified of all her children.” Though they are of diverse countries, of diverse nations and natures, yet all agree in commending and embracing this wisdom, and by this they are known to be children of wisdom. For by this we may know what condition we are in, even by how we carry ourselves toward wisdom.

How many, professing to be the children of wisdom, nevertheless condemn it! There are many abroad whom wisdom shall not judge, but who will judge wisdom, and who are indeed the children of human tradition. And among ourselves, are there not many who reject the ordinance of God? “Is not,” they say, “reading good books at home as good as going to church?” Do not such people confess that the rivers of Damascus are as good as Jordan? Whereas, if ever we come from this spiritual Egypt into the land of promise, we must go over this Jordan. We must come to heaven by the foolishness of preaching.

Again, are there not many who, because they see that there are diversities of religions, will be of none, until it is decided which is the truth? And this is the way to die in no religion. These are bastards. They cannot be children of wisdom, for they do not know it; and so likewise are those who justify ignorance, making it the mother of devotion. They profess that they are the children of ignorance and error, and not of wisdom.

There is another sort who in word justify wisdom, saying it is the word of God, but in their life and conduct deny it. Let such people know that whoever lives against the faith will be damned, as well as whoever believes against it. Good food is commended more by eating and good cheer than by talking. If such people truly believed the wisdom of God, it would purify them. Not to believe is madness; but to live as if they did not believe is desperate madness. The sinner denies God’s presence, the covetous man denies God’s providence, the despairing man denies God’s mercy and Christ’s merits, the sinner against conscience denies God’s justice, or else the terror of the Lord would move him. Yet if we see these things in us, and do not allow them, but condemn ourselves for them, God will be merciful and spare us.

This should encourage us, in the next place, to proceed in a resolute course of Christianity. What though the wicked world laughs at us and scorns us? God the Judge justifies us; his children justify us. As for other men, the Scripture calls them fools, for God has given them over to a reprobate judgment in things that concern a godly life. And therefore if we are censured by such people, let us count it our crown.

Moreover, this is a ground of exhortation, to move us to this duty of justifying the ordinances and ways of God in life and conduct. Justify Christ to be our Savior by relying on him, and let the justified soul justify him to the world by resorting to him and depending on him. Justify God to be our Father by resorting to him in all conditions. Justify truth to be the best riches by esteeming all other wisdoms dross and dung in comparison. And let us admire the goodness of wisdom, or else wisdom will not lodge with us. Let it rule in our hearts, and it will abide with us; otherwise it is a stranger, and will not stay. In our days the voice of wisdom is heard. It uses all means. It has sent men of all manner of conduct and gifts. We of all others are inexcusable if we do not entertain it, and justify it in our lives and conduct.

But it will be asked, how shall we justify wisdom?

I answer: let us strive first to empty ourselves and our souls of corruption. As a vessel full of bad liquor must be emptied before good can be put in, so we by nature are full of folly, and must empty ourselves before we can be enabled to justify wisdom. And in whatever proportion this folly is overruled in us, in the same proportion we justify wisdom. For where wisdom is, it must dwell largely and purely, because it is itself pure, and will endure no mixture. And therefore those who justify themselves in any evil course cannot justify wisdom; for when it once comes to cross them in their beloved course, however good their words may be, their folly will reveal itself. “How can you believe, when you seek for glory one of another?” says Christ (John 5:44).

Second, beg God to take away the veil of our hearts, that we may know and love the best things in the best manner, and to open to us the wonders of his law.

Third, labor that all our knowledge may be spiritual, for if it is acquired out of books, and not written in our hearts, in time of temptation we shall never justify wisdom. This is evident from the history of the martyrs. Many illiterate men stood out stiffly for the truth and justified it with their blood, when many great scholars gave up their profession. For when the Spirit teaches, he teaches to obey, to be in want, to abound, and to despise the glory of the world. Spiritual wisdom brings humility; other wisdom puffs men up with pride.

Fourth, therefore, we should pray for the Spirit of God, that he would settle and seal truths into our hearts, and teach us to obey and practice the things he enjoins on us.

Fifth, we should also condemn ourselves, and grow poor in spirit. For what justifying is there like that of those who, being abased by outward afflictions, are likewise inwardly humbled? So, condemning themselves, they justify God’s wisdom. And therefore those who trust either in the intercession of saints or in their merits think in vain ever to come to the performance of this duty.

Sixth, let us attend on wisdom, for what is more excellent than it? And without it all are fools. They may be wise for the world, to get riches, while their end is condemnation and perpetual beggary in hell. Many are wise to get high places here, and ingenious to get a deep place in hell. They study for wisdom in the creatures, and when they die, their wisdom perishes with them, and they lack that true wisdom that should support them in death.

Seventh, let us endeavor to be rooted in it, that we may be able to speak out of the power of it in our souls, and to resist the temptations of Satan with sound resolutions against them. And then when that day of the revelation of all things comes, Christ will own us and justify us, when the children of this world will tremble to hear that truth and wisdom which here they hated and slandered condemn them perpetually.

Lastly, in all our wants and distresses, let us so carry ourselves that we may show we have a Father to provide, a King to defend us in our desertions, that we have a Priest in heaven to make our peace, and in all temptations that we have a Prophet who will direct us in the right way to heaven, in spite of the malice of hell itself.

Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his! (Num 23:10)

The false prophet Balaam goes about to curse where God had blessed. But God reveals his wonders in his saints by delivering them and keeping them from dangers when they never think of them. They never thought they had such an enemy as Balaam. The church of God is a glorious company, and the great God does great things for it. So long as they keep close to him, their state is impregnable, as we may read here. Neither Balak nor Balaam, who was hired to curse them, could prevail, but the curse returns upon their own head.

These words I have read to you are Balaam’s desire, Balaam’s acclamation. Various questions might be raised concerning Balaam, but I will not stop over them. I will come directly to the words, in which these things are to be considered.

First, that righteous men die, and have an end as well as others.

Second, that the state of the soul continues after death. It would have been pointless for him to desire “to die the death of the righteous,” except with regard to the soul’s continued existence.

Third, that the state of righteous men in their end is a blessed state, because here it was the desire of Balaam: “Oh that I might die the death of the righteous!”

Fourth, there is an excellent state of God’s people, and they desire that portion: “Oh let me die the death of the righteous.” These are the four things I will unfold, which reveal Balaam’s intent in these words.

The first I will touch on briefly, and so go on.

Observation 1. The righteous die, and in the same manner outwardly as the wicked do.

For Christ, in his first coming, did not come to redeem our bodies from death, but our souls from damnation. His second coming will be to redeem our bodies from corruption into a “glorious liberty” (Rom 8:21). Therefore wise men die as well as fools. Those whose eyes and hands have been lifted up to God in prayer, and whose feet have carried them to the holy place, as well as those whose eyes are full of adultery and whose hands are full of blood: they all die alike, alike in manner. Often it is the same in the eye of the world.

Death comes upon good and bad, but to the good for their greater glory; for the shell must be broken before they come to the pearl. Death fits them for the blessed life that follows, after the body has lain a while in the grave, the soul being in the hands of God. And death now makes an end of sin, which brought in death; and it makes us conformable to the Son of God, our Elder Brother, who died for us. This point is rich, and full of gracious and serious meditations.

Use 1. It should enforce this excellent duty: considering that we have no long continuance here, we should, while we are here, do that for which we come into the world. Like an agent sent to some place to provide such goods beforehand, let us consider that we are sent here to get into a state of salvation, to get out of the state of nature into the state of grace, to furnish our souls with grace, to fit us for our dissolution to come. Let us not forget the main end of our living here. Considering that we cannot be here long, let us do the work God has put into our hands quickly and faithfully, with all our might.

Use 2. And let it enforce moderation toward all earthly things. “The time is short, therefore let those that use the world be as if they used it not …” (1 Cor 7:29). Those friends that have been joined together will part. Therefore let us so use our bodies and souls that we may present them both comfortably to God. Let us beg God that we may make a right use of this fading condition. But I hasten.

The second point is this:

Observation 2. The state of the soul continues after death.

For here he wishes to die the death of the righteous, not for any excellency in death, but with regard to the existence and continuance of the soul after death.

Scripture and reason and nature enforce this, that the soul has an existence of its own, distinct from the life it communicates to the body. There is a double life: a life proper to the soul, and the life it communicates to the body. Now when the life it communicates to the body has gone to dissolution, the soul itself has a life in heaven. And indeed it is in a manner the whole man; for Abraham was Abraham when he was dead, when his soul was in heaven and his body in the grave. It is the whole man.

Reason 1. And it reveals, indeed, that it has a distinct life and excellency in itself, because it thwarts the desires of the body when it is in the body. Reason, even if there is no grace in the soul, crosses the inclination of the body; grace does so much more.

Reason 2. And we often see that when the outward man is weak, as in sickness and the like, then the understanding, will, and affections, the inward man, is most sublime, and rapt up to heaven, and is most wise. Take a man who has been besotted all his lifetime, who has been drunk with the pleasures of a carnal life, who has been a covetous wretch, an earthworm, who does not enjoy heaven but lives as his wealth and lusts carry him in slavery. Yet at the hour of death, when he considers what he has scraped together, and considers the way his lusts have led him, and that all must leave him, now he begins to be wise and speaks more discreetly. He can speak of the vanity of these things, and how little good they can do. Indeed many, no, most men, are not wise until that time. Therefore the soul has a distinct being of its own, because when the body is lowest, the soul is most refined and strong in its operations.

Reason 3. Likewise it appears by the plans it makes for the time to come. The soul, especially of men of more elevated and refined spirits, plans for the time to come: what will become of the church and commonwealth, what will become of posterity and of reputation and credit in the world. Certainly, unless it had an existence of its own, it would never look so far ahead, and lay the groundwork of the prosperity of the church and commonwealth for the time to come. I will not stay on this any further, but rather make some use of it.

Use. Let us know which is our best part, namely the soul, which has a being after death, so that we do not employ it for base uses, for which it was neither made nor given to us. Do we think that these souls of ours were made and given to us to scrape up wealth? To labor in our affections after base things that are worse than our souls? Are they not capable of supernatural and excellent things? Are they not capable of grace and glory, of communion with God, of the blessed stamp of the image of God? Let us use them, therefore, for the end for which God gave them. And let us not deserve so ill of our souls as to betray them, to cast them in the dirt, to lay our crown in the dust.

This is our excellency. What can keep our bodies from being a deformed, loathsome thing if the soul is taken away? Yet so we abase this excellent part! Often we abase it to serve the base lusts of the body, which is condemned to rottenness. What is the life of most men but a providing and prowling for the body? The lusts of the body set the wit and affections to work to prowl for it. What a base thing this is! Were our souls given to us for this end?

And consider this especially, that our souls are immortal, that they will never die, but will be forever. Let us not altogether spend this precious time that is given to us to save our souls and to get the image of God stamped upon them. I say, let us not spend this precious time on things that will leave us when our souls will still live; let us not carry the matter so that our souls outlive our happiness. All worldlings and base creatures outlive their happiness. For where do they plant it? In the base things of this life. All their life long they are prowling for those things that they must leave when they die, whereas their souls will not die, but will exist everlastingly.

What a misery this is, that these souls of ours will have a being when the things in which we placed our happiness, and for whose gain we abused our souls, will have an end! The souls of men who seek the things of this life will have a being in eternal misery. Indeed, so it is; for whatever degree of excellency these souls of ours have if they are used as they should be, if we do not abase them, they will have the same degree of baseness and misery if we abuse them and make them slaves to earthly things. For as with the devils, the same degree of excellency they had when they were angels, they have the same degree of misery now that they are devils. The more excellent the creature is when it keeps its excellency, the more vile it is when it degenerates. So with these souls of ours, which next to angels are the most excellent creatures of God: the more excellent the soul is if it gets the image of God stamped upon it, and the new creature, and has the life of grace, the more cursed is its state if it exists in everlasting misery.

It would be a happy thing if the souls of such creatures as labor for a happiness in this life were mortal. Oh that we would think of this! Most men in the bosom of the church, which is lamentable to think of, live as if they had no souls. They overturn the order that God has set, for he has given us our bodies to serve our souls. They use all the strength and marrow of their wits, all the excellencies in their souls, for the base satisfaction of the lusts of the body. So much for that point.

The third is this:

Observation 3. There is a wide, broad difference between the death of the godly and of the wicked.

The godly are happy in their death, for here we see it is a thing to be desired. This base man, this wretched man Balaam: Oh, he says, “let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.” Since it is the object of his desire, it is certainly precious, “the death of the righteous.” And indeed so it is. Holy and gracious men are happy in their life. While they live they are the sons of God, the heirs of heaven; they are set at liberty, all things are theirs; they have access to the throne of grace; all things work for their good; they are the care of angels, the temples of the Holy Spirit. Glorious things are spoken of those glorious creatures even while they live.

But they are more happy in their death, and most happy and blessed after death.

In their death they are happy in their disposition, and happy in condition.

(1) Happy in their disposition. What is the disposition of a holy and blessed man at his end? His disposition is by faith to give himself to God, and by this faith he dies in obedience; he carries himself fruitfully and comfortably in his end. And often the nearer he is to happiness, the more he bestirs himself to be fruitful.

(2) Besides his disposition, he is happy in condition; for death is a sweet close. God and he meet; grace and glory meet; he is in heaven, as it were, before his time. What is death to him? The end of all misery, of all sin of body and soul. It is the beginning of all true happiness in both. I might show this at length, but I have spoken somewhat of this point from another text.

They are happy in their death, for “their death is precious in God’s sight” (Ps 116:15). The angels are ready to do their attendance, to carry their souls to the place of happiness. They are happy in their death, because they are “in the Lord.” When death severs soul and body, yet neither soul nor body is severed from Christ. “They die in the Lord” (Rev 14:13); therefore they are still happy. Much might be said to this purpose, and to good purpose, but the point is ordinary, and I hasten to press things that I think will confirm it a little more. They are blessed in death.

(3) And blessed after death especially: for then we know they are in heaven, waiting for the resurrection of the body. There is a blessed change of all; for after death we have a better place, better company, better employment; all is for the better.

There are three degrees of life: the life in the womb, this world, heaven.

The life in the womb is a kind of imprisonment; there the child lives for a time. The life in this world is a kind of enlargement; but, alas! it is as much inferior to the blessed and glorious life in heaven as the life in the womb is narrower and more confined and more base than this life, in which we behold the blessed light and enjoy all the sweet comforts of this life. They are happy after death; then the image of God is perfect in the soul. All graces are perfected, all wants supplied, all corruptions worked out, all enemies subdued, all promises accomplished, while they wait their time for the resurrection of the body. And then body and soul will sit as judges upon the wretches who have judged them on earth, and they will both be together “for ever with the Lord” (1 Thess 4:17). I might enlarge on the point much. It is a comforting meditation; and before I pass it, let us make some use of it.

Use 1. If godly men are blessed and happy, not only before death, in the right and title they have to heaven, but in death, because then they are invested into possession of what makes them happy in every way, then this may teach us who are truly wise. A wise man is one who has a better end than another, and works toward that end. A true Christian man has a better end than any worldling. His end is to be safe in another world, and he works and carries his forces toward that end. “Let my last end be like his,” says Balaam, insinuating that there was a better end, with regard to condition and state, than he had aimed at. A gracious man’s end is not to be happy here; his end is to enjoy everlasting communion with God in the heavens, and he frames all his courses in this world to accomplish that end, and he is never satisfied in the things that lead to that end.

A worldling has no such end. He has a natural desire to be saved, as we will see afterward, but a man may know that this is not his end, for he does not work toward it. He is not satisfied in prowling for this world; he is not weary of getting wealth; he is not satisfied with pleasure. So his end is the things of this life. Therefore, however wise he may be, he is but a fool, for he does not have the true end, nor does he work toward it. Wicked men are utter fools in the manner of their reasoning; for they will grant that there is a happy state of godly men in death, and a better one after death. If that is so, why do they not work and frame their lives toward it? Herein they are fools, because they grant one thing and not another which must necessarily follow. They do believe there is such a happiness for God’s children, and yet they do not seek after it.

Use 2. If there is such a blessed state of God’s children in death and after death, I beg you, let us carry ourselves so that we may be partakers of that happiness. Let us labor to be righteous men, labor to be in Christ, to have the righteousness of Christ be ours, to be out of ourselves, in Christ: in Christ in life, in Christ in death, and at the day of judgment in Christ, “not having our own righteousness,” as the apostle says, “but his righteousness” (Phil 3:9). And then the righteousness of grace and of a good conscience will always go with the other. For this is what makes a righteous man: to be in Christ, and to have his righteousness, and to have his Spirit, and the beginnings of the new creature in us. Let us labor to be such as may live and die happily and blessedly, and be forever happy. So much for that third point.

What I intend mainly to dwell on is the last, and it is this:

Observation 4. Even a wicked man, a wretched worldling, may see this; he may know this happiness of God’s people in death, and forever, and yet may nevertheless continue a cursed wretch.

Balaam here wishes, “Oh that I might die the death of the righteous, and that my last end might be like his.” It was a strange speech from such a man as this, that his soul should be rapt up in this manner; but indeed Balaam was hardly himself, and he hardly understood what he said, any more than the beast that carried him did.

But God will sometimes stir up even the hearts of wicked men to a sight and admiration of the excellent state of God’s children. Why? For various reasons. Among the rest for this, that he may convince them the more of their own rebellion, when they see a more excellent state than they are in, if they will not take the course to partake of it. Therefore at the day of judgment it will justify the sentence of damnation upon such wretches, and they may pronounce self-condemnation upon themselves. Oh what a terror it will be when they think, “I had a better state revealed to me. I heard of it in the ministry of the word, and God’s Spirit revealed an excellent state, and I might have gotten it if I had made good use of the blessed means God made me partaker of, and now I am shut out forever and ever from communion in that state.” To convince wretched men, I say, and to justify the just sentence of damnation upon them, so that their hearts may go with the sentence at the day of judgment, God often enlightens them in this way, so that they see better courses, if they had grace to take them.

What a thing this is, that a wicked man should see such a state and not take it! And what does that knowledge serve for but to damn them the more! This is the state of many men who live in the bosom of the church, and partake of the means of salvation, and yet live in sins against conscience. They get knowledge by the ministry, and by good books and acquaintances, and the like. They have some taste in the use of good things. They have something, some little apprehension of the state of a better life.

Again, for another end God sometimes reveals to them the excellent state of his children: to keep them in better order, to awe them, so that they may not be open enemies to the church, but may do good service. For imagining that there is such a happiness, and that perhaps they may partake of it, they will not carry themselves malignantly against those who are true professors.

There are several degrees of wicked men. Some are well-wishers to good things, though they never come far enough. Some are open, malicious persecutors. Some again are better than that. They have a hatred of goodness, but they do not openly show themselves, such as hypocrites and the like. God reveals these good things to wicked men to keep them in awe. The net draws bad fish as well as good; so the net of the word draws wicked men, and it keeps them from violence and open malice. Besides, even the majesty of the word, and the conviction of that excellent state that belongs to God’s children, keeps them from open malice and persecution. This is another end that God aims at. What may we learn from this?

Use 1. Since this is so, it should teach us that we are not to refuse all that evil men say; they may have good apprehensions and give good counsel. It would have been good for Josiah to have followed the counsel of wicked Pharaoh, a heathen. God often enlightens men who are otherwise reprobates. Do not refuse gold from a dirty hand; do not refuse directions from wicked men. Do not refuse a pardon from a man because he is such and such, a base creature. We ought not, therefore, to have such respect of persons as to refuse excellent things because the person is wicked. But what I intend to press is this.

Use 2. If this is so, that wicked men may have illumination by which they discover an excellency, and likewise may have desires raised up to wish and desire that excellency, then it should stir us up to go beyond wicked men. Shall we not go as far as those go who will never come to heaven? We see here that Balaam pronounces the end of the righteous to be happy. This should therefore stir us up to labor to be in a different state from wicked men. Let us therefore consider a little where the difference of these desires lies, the desires that a Balaam may have and the desires of a sound Christian, and in what the desires of a wicked man are failing.

(1) These desires, first of all, were but flashes: for we never read that he had them long. They were mere flashes, like a sudden light that rather blinds a man than shows him the way. So these enlightenings are not constant. Wicked men often have sudden impulses and flashes and desires: “Oh that I might die the death of the righteous.” Oh, that I were in such a man’s state. But it is only a sudden flash and lightning. They are like a torrent, a strong sudden stream that comes suddenly and makes a noise, but has no spring to feed it. The desires of God’s children are fed by a spring; they are constant; they are streams, and not flashes.

(2) Again, this desire of this wretched man was not from an inward principle, an inward taste that he had of the good state of God’s children, but from a delight and admiration fixed on an object outside him, something that was offered to his mind by the Holy Spirit at this time. It was not from any inward taste or relish in himself that he spoke, but from something outward, as a man who saw and heard excellent things that ravished him with admiration, though he had no personal share in them himself.

(3) Again, this desire of the happiness of the state of God’s children was not working and operative, but an ineffectual desire. It only took satisfaction and pleasure in the thing desired, but there was no desire to work at anything toward that end. This wretch therefore would be at his journey’s end before he had set one step forward on the journey. It was a desire of the end without the means. It was not an operative, effectual desire, but a weak, transient one.

Where true desires are, they are not only constant, and proceed from an inward share in and taste of the thing desired, but they are effectual and operative. They set soul and body, the whole person, to work, partly to use the means of attaining the thing desired, and partly to remove the impediments. For where desire is, there will be a removing of the impediments to the thing desired, just as he who intends a journey will consider what may hinder him and what may help him in it. He who does not set about these things never means it, for a man cannot come to his journey’s end by wishing; we can attain nothing in this life by wishing. There is a working, I say, that tends to remove impediments so far as we may, and tends to use all means to effect the thing and bring it to pass. We see, then, that there is a main difference between the desires of this wretched man Balaam and the desires of the true church of God. To go on and follow the point a little further.

(4) Where desires are in truth, the one who cherishes those desires will be willing to have all help from others to have his desire accomplished. If a man desires to demolish a place, and anyone will come and help him pull it down, or if any man desires to weed his ground, he will thank the one who helps him for his pains. Where there is a true desire, there is a willing welcome of all who offer themselves, so that the thing desired may be brought to pass.

Where there is a desire of the happy state of God’s children, there will be a willing reception of any help. Let someone come to a man who desires grace and glory, and point out his particular sins that hinder him: “You must weed out this, and you must pull down this.” He will thankfully embrace all admonitions, because he truly desires the end; therefore he desires the means that lead to the end. He desires the removing of the hindrances. He will therefore be thankful for any help he may have, and especially that of the ministry, that it may powerfully enter into his soul and rip him open. Why? Because he desires to please God in all things, and he would not cherish an impulse or desire contrary to the Spirit of God. Therefore the more corruption is presented and made odious to him, the more the “inward man” is laid open, the more he blesses God and blesses the blessed instruments; and of all means, these are the ones he is willing to attend upon.

Where there is swelling and rising against the blessed means, either in private admonition or public teaching, let men pretend what they will, there is no true desire of grace and of being in the state of God’s people; for then they would not be contrary to the means. This wretched man Balaam, when the angel stood in his way with his sword drawn to stop his way, still went on notwithstanding. He was so carried by covetousness, and so blinded, that neither the miracle of the beast speaking, nor the angel in his way, nor God in the way, could stop him. Alas! Where was this desire then? No, no! The glory of earthly things outdazzled the glory of the state of God’s people. Therefore we see he goes against all the means that were used to stop him in his journey.

If a man desires to be good, and to leave his sins, he will not stand against the means.

Do we not have many who stand against the ministry of God’s ministers, who are God’s angels? They stand in the way and tell people, “If you live in this course you shall not inherit heaven; if you live in oppression and base lusts, unless you are changed, you shall all perish.” They come to particular reproofs and hold forth the sword of God’s Spirit, yet men break through it all and wreak their malice upon God’s messengers. Is this a true desire, when they are not willing to have the hindrances removed? when there is no respect for the means that should be used?

(5) Again, true desires of grace are growing desires. Though they are little in the beginning, as springs are, yet as the springs grow, so do the waters that come from them. So these desires grow more and more continually. They grow at times in God’s children to the point that they will allow no stop until they come to have their full desire, to have perfect union and communion with God in heaven. The desires of a blessed soul are never satisfied until it comes to heaven.

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,” says the church (Song 1:2). Oh, let me have nearer communion with Christ! The soul desires in the word and sacraments to come nearer and closer to God, and then in death, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly” (Rev 22:20). And when the soul is in heaven there is yet a nearer union, a desire of the body’s resurrection, that both may be forever with the Lord. Until a Christian is perfect in body and soul, there is desire upon desire, until all desires are accomplished. They are growing desires, as St. Peter says: “As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Pet 2:2). It is a desire that is never satisfied, because there is always something to be desired until we are perfectly happy.

(6) And then they are desires that will not be stilled. A child, if it does not have strong desires, will be stilled with an apple; but if the desires are strong, nothing will still it but the breast. So with God’s children: if their desires are strong, it is no bauble they desire; nothing but grace and inward comfort will quiet the inward man. It is a desire that is growing and strong. It will not be stayed with anything in this world, but will break through all impediments; like a strong stream, it will never rest until it has communion with God. And therefore the desires that men think are good and earnest enough, men who go plodding on in a constant course and never labor to grow, are no desires at all, no sanctified desires from a supernatural principle of grace. The desires of a Christian grow, and are never satisfied until he has perfect happiness.

David’s three worthies broke through the host and got the water of Bethlehem for David: Oh that I had of the water of Bethlehem (2 Sam 23:15). So where there are strong desires, they are like David’s worthies: they carry the soul through all impediments, they grow stronger and stronger, and are never satisfied until they come to the water of life. Let us consider these things, whether we have this desire or not. If we have only occasional flashes, inconstant, ineffectual desires, desires that do not grow, that are soon satisfied and are stilled with anything, alas! these are desires the Spirit of God never kindled and bred in the heart; they are ordinary flashes, that shall serve for our deeper damnation. Therefore let us take heed, and not rest in a castaway’s state; let us not rest in Balaam’s state, but labor that the desires of our souls may be as they should.

Desires, I confess, are the best mark by which to know a Christian; for works may be hypocritical, but desires are natural. Therefore we ought to consider our desires, what they are, whether true or not; for the first things that issue from the soul are desires and thoughts. Thoughts stir up desires. This inward, immediate stirring of the soul reveals the truth of the soul better than outward things. Let us therefore often examine our desires. And let me add this one thing to the others: let us examine our desires by this, besides the rest.

(7) Whether we desire holiness, and the restoration of the image of God, the new creature, and to have victory against our corruptions; to be in a state where we may not sin against God, to have the Spirit, to be “new born,” as well as desire happiness and exemption from misery. Balaam desired happiness, but he did not desire the image of God upon his soul; for then he would not have been carried by a covetous devil against all means. No; his desire was only after a glimpse of the glory of God’s children.

A wicked man can never desire to be in heaven as he should; for how should we desire to be in heaven? To be freed from sin, that we may praise God and love God; that there may be no combat between the flesh and the spirit. Can he wish this? No. His happiness is, like a swine, to wallow in the mire, and he desires to enjoy the delights of the senses.

As for spiritual things, especially the image of God and the vision of God, they are not fit objects for him insofar as heaven is a freedom from sin, but only as he has a notion, “Oh, they are goodly things to be seen.” In that way it suits his disposition; but to be free from sin, and from the conflict of the flesh and spirit, and to be set at liberty to serve God always, he cannot desire it so. Tell him of heaven, and he does not love it. There is no gold there; it does not have what he loves. Therefore he does not care for it, he cannot relish it, he is not changed. Therefore it is a notable mark of a true Christian to desire heaven, to be freed from sin, to have communion with God in holiness. Other privileges will follow this.

Let us therefore consider what our desires are, and how they are carried, for desires reveal what the soul is. As a spring is discovered by the vapors that are about it, so this hidden state of the soul is discovered by the breaking out of desires. They are the breath and vapor of the soul. Let us consider what is set highest in our souls, what we desire most of all. Oh, a Christian soul that has tasted of the loving-kindness of the Lord accounts it better than life itself (Ps 63:3). It is not “corn, and wine, and oil” he desires, but, Lord, show me “the light of thy countenance” (Ps 4:6). The desires of his heart are large to serve God and to do good, more than for the things of the world. He desires earthly things, but as instruments for better things, and this is the desire of every sanctified soul in some measure.

Let us from this make an application by way of conviction, to expose the folly of base men who live in the church and yet do not come so far as Balaam, who do not come so far as those who shall go to hell. They reduce all religion to a “Lord, have mercy upon us,” and “Christ died for us,” and “we hope we have souls toward God,” as good as the best, and to a few short, broken things. They shrink religion into compendiums, into a narrow compass, and make the way to it wide and broad, and complain of preachers that they make the way to heaven too narrow.

This is the disposition of worldlings; whereas, alas! there must be a righteousness that must “exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees” (Matt 5:20); there must be a righteousness from an inward principle; there must be a strong, constant desire of righteousness, more than of anything in the world, before we can be assured of our interest and part with God’s people. Let us take heed that we do not delude ourselves in this way.

But to come to an application by way of direction. How may we so carry ourselves that we may have a spring of blessed desires, a spring of holy desires, that may comfort us, that we may have our interest and portion in the state of God’s people?

1. That we may have these desires, let us desire of God the spirit of revelation. Desires follow discovery, for desires are the vent of the soul upon the discovery of some excellency it believes. Therefore let us beg of God the spirit of revelation, to reveal the excellent state of God’s people. And because this is given in the use of means, let us present ourselves with all diligence under such means, where we may have something of the kingdom of God, that the riches of Christ being unfolded, our desires may be carried to such things; for there is never any discovery of holy and good and gracious things to a Christian soul without new desires being stirred up.

Our souls are like a mill that grinds what is put into it; so the soul works upon the things that are put into it. If it has good desires and good thoughts put into it, by good means used and by prayer, it feeds upon them. Let us always, therefore, be under some good means, that good thoughts may be ministered to us, that may stir up gracious desires for the soul to work upon. Let us be in good company. “Saul among the prophets” (1 Sam 10:12): we see he prophesied; and the heart is kindled and inflamed when we are among those who are better than ourselves, especially if their hearts are enlarged to speak of good things. But to come nearer.

2. That we may have holy and gracious and constant desires, let us take notice and make trial continually of the state and frame of our souls, which way for the present they are carried, in what current our desires run. If they run the right way, to heavenly things, it is well; if not, take notice what draws and diverts and turns the streams of our desires the false way. Let us think what the things are, and the condition of those things that draw our desires down and make us earthly and worldly, whether the pleasures or profits or honors of this life. The way to have better desires is to wean ourselves from these things, by a constant holy meditation on the vanity of these things that the soul is carried after. Solomon, to wean his heart from these desires, from placing too much happiness in these things, sets them before him and says they were “vanity and vexation of spirit” (Eccl 1:14).

Let us set them before us as nothing, as they will be before long. “Heaven and earth will pass away” (Matt 24:35); the world will pass away, and the concupiscence and lust of it. Let us consider the baseness, fickleness, and uncertainty of the things that our souls are carried after, and this will be a means to wean them from those things. And the soul, being weaned from earthly things, will run at full speed another way. Let us study, therefore, to mortify our base affections, and study it to real purpose, to cut off the right hand and to pull out the right eye; spare nothing, that God may spare all. That God may have mercy upon us and spare us, let us spare nothing. These lusts they fight against our souls (1 Pet 2:11).

And, as I said before, feed our souls; minister better thoughts to them continually. Those who are governors of the young, season them with good things while they are young; for while the soul is not filled with the world, and while covetousness and evil lusts have not worked themselves into the soul, good things and good desires are easily rooted and planted, and grow up in the soul. Letters carved in the body of a tree grow up with the tree. The fruit of the tree grows up with the tree too, and therefore the twigs do not break under the greatness of its weight, because they grow up together. So plant good things in those who are young; accustom them to know good things and to hate evil ways; plant blessed desires in them, and accustom them to holy exercises and good duties, that good exercises may grow up with them, as the fruit with the tree.

We see what a hard matter it is to convert an old man, to draw the desires of a carnal, worldly man to heaven. When we speak of good things to him, his soul is full of the world. What is in his brain? The world. What is in his heart? The world. So he is dry, and exhausted of all good things, and what is in him is eaten up with the world. It is a great improvidence in those who govern youth that they do not labor that the desires of the young may be strong toward the best things.

And let us all, both young and old, labor for heavenly wisdom, so that when good things are ministered to us from without, or good promptings are stirred up by the Spirit of God, we may accept them, and not quench those promptings and resist the Spirit, but embrace those promptings and cherish them, until they come to resolutions, and purposes, and actions. If we have a prompting stirring us up to repentance, let us ripen it until it comes to perfect repentance, until we repent indeed, and have turned from all our evil ways, and turn to God with full purpose of heart, so that it may be a prompting to real purpose. If it is a prompting to faith, let us never stop cherishing it by the promise until our hearts are rooted in faith. If it is a prompting to any other good thing, let us cherish and follow such promptings to real purpose, and embrace every prompting as an angel sent from heaven from God to a good end, to put us in mind, to invite us to good, and to drive us from evil.

And because desires are fickle and fading of themselves unless there is some art in helping them, therefore let us add to these things a daily course of renewing our covenant with God: “This day, as God shall enable me, I have a constant purpose against all sin; I will regard no iniquity in my heart; I will have respect to all good ways discovered.” Renew our covenants and resolutions of old. David says, “I have sworn and will perform it, that I will keep thy statutes” (Ps 119:106). And as we determine and resolve, so let us sometimes make particular vows against particular hindrances, to abstain from such things.

Question. What need is there for all this ado? says the wicked atheist. Will not less suffice, without these vows, and purposes, and resolutions?

Answer. No; God values us by our resolutions and purposes, and not by ineffectual glances and wishes. Will wishing help us take a journey, or do anything in this world? And if we cannot do anything in this world by wishing, can we for heaven? No; certainly there must be resolutions, and covenants, and purposes, and the like. What is the difference between a Christian and another man? A Christian unlooses his heart from base desires. Nothing shall tie him to the base world. But his conscience tells him that he is free from living in sins against conscience, and as for infirmities, he labors and resolves against them. Therefore he is fit to die and to resign his soul. Whenever God shall take him, he is in a good way, in good purposes and resolutions.

God values us according to our purposes and resolutions. David did not build the temple, Abraham did not offer Isaac, but they resolved upon it, and it was accounted as done. This is our comfort, that God takes the resolution for the deed; and the perfection of a Christian is that God accepts those resolutions when the Christian determines on the best things, until he brings his heart in some measure to that state.

Question. What is the reason that many men at the hour of death will admit no comfort?

Answer. The reason is that their hearts were bad. They regarded some iniquity in their hearts. They were in bad ways, and allowed some reigning sin; and until these are mortified, we can minister no comfort. It is only the resolved Christian who is a fit subject for comfort.

But to answer an ordinary hindrance or two that the devil casts in men’s ways in these things.

Objection. But does not God accept the will for the deed? Suppose I have a good will to do a thing; though I do not do it, God accepts that.

Answer. I answer, God accepts the will for the deed only where the impediments and hindrances are impossible to remove. Suppose, for instance, a poor man would be generous if he had the means: God accepts the will for the deed, because he lacks opportunity. But it never holds when a man can do it. God does not accept the will for the deed when a man has a price in his hand to get wisdom, and yet is a barren plant and not a tree of righteousness. It is a sign of a bad heart.

Objection. Oh, says another, God does not quench the smoking flax (Matt 12:20); therefore, though I have weak desires, all shall be well.

Answer. It is true that God does not quench the smoking flax, but he does not leave it smoking; he blows the spark, so that in time it comes to a flame. Where beginnings of goodness are embraced, it will grow from smoking flax to a flame. They are growing desires, as I said before. Therefore do not flatter yourself that Christ will not quench the smoking flax. It is true, if there is a desire of growth, for then I must speak comfort to a poor Christian who cannot be as good as he would, but desires it, and complains, Oh “that my ways were so direct, that I might keep thy statutes!” (Ps 119:5). With his desires, he complains that he cannot do it, and uses the means to grow. It is a good sign; God will not quench the smoking flax until he has brought corruption into subjection in us.

Let every good soul comfort itself with this: if you have these blessed desires, God meets with you, for he desires your salvation, and Christ desires your reconciliation, and it is the desire of your heart, and you use the means. You will not live in sins against conscience. Be of good comfort. We who are the ministers of God, and I at this time, bring the news of pardon; Christ’s desire and yours meet in one.

Let us enlarge these things in our own deep and serious meditation. Alas! For want of serious meditation in our hearts on such truths as these, men perish and sink suddenly to hell. There is only a step between ordinary profane persons and hell, and yet they never think of renewing their covenants with God and entering into the state of grace, but content themselves with what comes short of thousands who are now in hell, who have had more wishes and desires. Men stake everything upon empty things: “God is merciful.” No; God will not be merciful to such as bless themselves in evil courses; his wrath shall smoke against such, as I said; for in reasoning this way, they make a covenant with hell and death as much as they can. Those who do this forget God and good courses, and God will forget them; they treasure up wrath, and God treasures up wrath against them. Let us take heed of Balaam’s wishing, and labor to have such desires as may be accepted by God and comforting to us.

Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and builds this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation of it in his first-born, and in his youngest son set up the gates thereof (Josh 6:26).

The words are a terrible denunciation of a curse by the man of God Joshua. In them you have the curse set down in general, “Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth to build this city Jericho,” and then a specification in particular of what the curse consists in. The two branches of the curse are these: “He shall lay the foundation of it in his first-born, and in his youngest son set up the gates thereof.” It shall be done with the razing out of his posterity. So the text is nothing else but a terrible denunciation, under a curse, of the destruction of the family of that person who should labor to build Jericho again.

I will not speak much of cursing or blessing, since it is not pertinent to my purpose; I will only give it a touch. In blessing there are three things worth considering that come near one another: there is a blessing, a prayer, and a prophecy. The prayer is for a blessing to come; the prophecy is of the certainty of it, that it shall be; the blessing is an effective application of the thing to the person. I mention these three because the one gives light to the other.

So it is likewise in cursing. There is a prayer that God would pour forth his vengeance upon the enemies of the church, and a prophetic prediction that God will do it; and there is a cursing, when it comes from a qualified person who is led by a better spirit than his own, for not everyone is fit to cast these bolts. Cursing is an effective application of the curse to the person, when a man is, as it were, the declarative instrument by which God works and brings the curse upon the person. So we must account a curse to be a wondrously deep thing.

The persons qualified for cursing or blessing are parents: either political parents, as magistrates; or natural parents, who curse or bless their children, as we see in Noah, Cursed be Ham (Gen 9:25); or else spiritual parents, whose office it is especially to bless or curse. A blessing or a curse is a greater matter than the world takes it for, especially from a spiritual father. The apostles, who were spiritual fathers of the church, began their epistles with blessings, and so did the prophets and patriarchs.

Therefore we should regard the blessing that God gives by his ministers. Some are ready to run out before the blessing, as not esteeming either blessing or curse. Luther, a man of great parts and grace, says of himself, “That if a man of God should speak anything terrible to him, and denounce anything against him, he knew not how to bear it, it would be so terrible.” The Jesuits themselves, and among the rest one De Lapide, say, “The priest cannot sooner come into the pulpit, but if there be a nobleman there, down he falls, and all look for the blessing of the priest.”

The devil is always in extremes: either he drives people to superstition, or else to profaneness and atheism; either to regard the blessing of those they should not regard, or not to regard any blessing at all, not to regard that good men should pray for them or their children. If the devil can bring men to hell by either extreme, he has his will. As for the blessing of Rome, we do not expect it; and as for their curse, we need care no more for it than an armed man needs to care for a headless arrow or a child’s popgun. But those men who come in the name of God, and are qualified by their callings to pray and to bless, their prayers and blessings are highly to be esteemed; and so likewise their curses. I wish it were more esteemed; it would be a means to convey God’s blessing more than it is.

“Cursed be the man before the Lord.”

Take this caution by the way. Though Joshua was a man of God, he was a mixed person; he was both a magistrate and, in some sort, a minister. As we say of kings, they are mixed persons, keepers of both tables. There is more in the supreme magistrate than is common. Not everyone may take it upon himself to curse at every motion of the flesh; for here it is not, as one of the ancients says well, “the wrath of a man in commotion and fury, but the sentence of a man in a peaceable temper, who is the conveyer of God’s curse.” It is passive here as well as active.

In the New Testament we are commanded to bless and not to curse. It is a common fault to fall to cursing at every fit of bad temper, and often it lands, like an arrow shot upward, on the head of the one who curses. We are people of God’s blessing, all true believers, and we should delight in blessing. Having felt the blessing of God ourselves upon our souls, we should be moved to blessing: by way of gratitude to those who are our superiors and have done us good, that God would bless them; by way of amity and friendship to those who are under us or around us; and by way of mercy to our very enemies. We should pray for and bless our very enemies themselves, as our blessed Savior prayed for those who cursed him. This should be our ordinary disposition; we should be all for blessing.

As for curses, we must take care not to direct them against any particular person. We have no such warrant, though the early church pronounced a curse against Julian, a notable enemy, and Saint Paul cursed Alexander the coppersmith (2 Tim 4:14). But for us at this time, the safest way is to pronounce all those curses in the Psalms and elsewhere in Scripture upon the implacable and incorrigible enemies of the church, the whole body of the malignant church, and so we shall not err. I will not dwell longer on this argument. I only thought it good to remind you to regard the blessing of those who have the Spirit of God to bless, especially those who have a calling to do it, and to beware of cursing. But to come to the particulars.

“Cursed be the man before the Lord.”

That is, let him be cursed indeed. What is done before the Lord is truly and solemnly done. This was a solemn curse, a heavy curse, and it did truly light upon him. And let him be cursed before the Lord, however the world may bless him. A man cannot do such a thing as build a city without the world commending him for it; but the world’s commendation is no matter, if a man sets out upon a cursed cause. So much for the phrase, “Cursed be the man before the Lord”; that is, he is truly and solemnly cursed, and cursed before the Lord, though men bless him.

“That riseth and builds this city Jericho.”

That is the cause why he should be cursed: because he would build that city which God would have be a perpetual monument of his justice. Why would God not have Jericho built again?

1. God would not have it built up, partly because he would have it a perpetual remembrance of his goodness and merciful dealing with his people, passing over Jordan, and coming freshly into Canaan; for we are all subject to forget. Therefore it is good to have days set apart for remembrance and something to put us in mind, as they had many things in old times to help memory. If this city had been built again, the memory of it would have been forgotten. But with the city lying all waste and desolate, the passersby would ask the cause (as God speaks of his own people), What is the reason that this city lies like this? And then it would give them occasion to speak of the mercy of God to his people. And likewise it would give occasion to speak of the justice of God against the idolatrous inhabitants, whose sins had grown ripe. God foretold in Genesis that the sins of the Amorites were not yet ripe; but now their sins were ripe, they were idolaters.

2. And likewise it was dedicated to God as the first-fruits. Being one of the chief mother cities of the land, it was dedicated and consecrated to God as a thing set apart; it was to be severed forever from common use. There are two ways of severing things from common use: one by way of destruction, as here the city of Jericho; another by way of dedication, as the gold of Jericho. God would have this city severed from common use, as a perpetual monument and remembrance of his mercy and justice.

3. And likewise he would have it never built up again, for terror to the rest of the inhabitants; for great conquerors usually set up some terrible example of justice to terrify others. Now, since this was one of the first cities after their passing over Jordan, God would have its destruction strike terror, together with this sentence of a curse, upon all who should ever build it again.

4. And then he would have it so in order that this terrible sentence might be a means to draw others to come in to God’s people to join with them, and submit, and prevent their destruction, seeing how terribly God had dealt with Jericho.

Many such reasons may be plausibly alleged; but the main reason of reasons, which must settle our consciences, is that God would have it so. Joshua was only God’s trumpet and God’s instrument to denounce this curse, “Cursed be the man before the Lord that shall build up this city Jericho.” We must rest in that. I will go over the words, and then make application afterward to the occasion.

I come to the specification of the curse, what it consists in: “He shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born.”

If any man will be so venturesome as to build it up again, as one Hiel did in 1 Kings 16:34, if any man will be so audacious, he shall do it at the peril of the life of his first-begotten; and if he will not stop then, he shall finish the gates of it, he shall make an end of it, with the death of his younger son.

It is God’s custom to denounce a threatening of a curse before he executes it. It is a part of God’s mercy and of his blessing that he will curse only in the threatening. For this reason he curses, that he may not execute it; and for this reason he threatens, that he may not strike; and when he strikes, he strikes that he may not destroy; and when he kills the body, it is that he may not destroy the soul; as in 1 Corinthians 11:30-32, “Therefore some of you are weak, and sick, and some sleep, that you might not be condemned with the world.” Thus God is merciful, even until it comes to the last extremity, when men by their rebellions provoke him. God’s mercy strives with the sins of men.

Mark here the degrees of it. First, God threatens the curse, “Cursed be the man”; and then in the particulars, he begins with the eldest son. First there is a threatening; and when the execution comes, he does not take all his sons away at once, but begins with the eldest; and if that will not do, he goes on to the youngest.

This conduct of God, even in his threatenings, should put us in mind of God’s mercy, and likewise it should move us to meet God at once, before any peremptory decree has come forth, as we shall see afterward; for if we do not leave off sinning, God will never leave off punishing. The man might have stopped at the death of his first son; but if that will not be, God will strike him in his youngest son, and sweep away all between. For so we must understand it, that both elder and younger and all should die.

Now for the judgment itself.

“He shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born.”

There is some proportion between the judgment and the sin. The sin was to raise up a building, a cursed city, contrary to God’s will. The punishment is in pulling down a man’s own building; for children, according to the Hebrew word, are the building, the pillars of the house. And since he would raise up a foundation and building contrary to God’s mind, God would pull up his foundation.

Cities are said to have life, and to grow, and to reach their height, and then to die like men; and indeed they do. Allowing only for a proportion of time, they are of longer continuance, but otherwise cities live and grow and die and have their period as men have. Now the man who would give life to a city that God would have buried in its own ruins, God would have his sons die; he would have his sons as it were buried under the ruins of that city which he would build in spite of God, the man who would give life to that city that was cursed. Often we may read our very sins in our punishments; there is some proportion. But to go on to the particulars.

“He shall lay the foundation in his first-born.”

A heavy judgment, because the first-born, as you know Jacob says of Reuben, was his strength; and he was king and priest in the family. The first-born had a double portion, and he was redeemed with a greater price than other sons, as we see in Moses’s law. It was a heavy judgment to have his first-born struck in this fashion, to be taken away.

If any ask why God was so severe, that he did not punish Hiel in himself but took away his children, it may seem against reason.

But we must not dispute with God, for we must know that God has the supreme power of life and death.

Then we must know again that children are part of their parents. God punishes the parents in their children, and in their own esteem it is often a heavier punishment than one upon themselves, for they think to live and continue in their children. Now when they see their children taken away, it is worse than death. Men often live to see things worse than death, as those who see their children killed before them, like Zedekiah and the emperor Mauritius; for indeed it is death many times over. A man dies in every child. This man died in his eldest son, and he died in his youngest son; he died in regard of the apprehension of death. It was sharper in apprehension than when he died himself.

So it is a heavy judgment to be struck in our children. God, when he will punish, often punishes in posterity. As we see, the most terrible judgment of all upon Pharaoh was that in his first-born. God drew them all to let Israel go out when he smote their first-born. It is a heavy judgment for a man to be struck in his first-born, either when they are dissolute and debauched and lawless, for God has judgments for the soul as well as for the body, or else when they are taken out of the world.

But, third, there is very likely another reason that moved God, so that we may justify God in every sentence we give of him: he took them away because they imitated their father in evil. And God has a liberty to strike when he will, when there is cause; and those he will, he will spare for so many generations.

Question. You will say, Why does he light on such a generation? And why not on such a place?

Answer. It is his liberty and prerogative, when all deserve it; and he lights upon one and not upon another. We must not quarrel with God, but leave him to his liberty. It is a part of his prerogative, “Who art thou, O man, that disputest?” (Rom 9:20). Why God, when all are equally sinners, strikes one and not another, why he executes judgments in one age and not in another, there may be reasons given for it; but it is a mystery that must not be disputed. But I cannot dwell on these things.

“He shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born, and in his youngest son set up the gates thereof.”

This terrible sentence we see executed in 1 Kings 16:34. In Ahab’s time, there was one so venturesome as to build Jericho again. Stress is to be laid on that, that it was in Ahab’s time. Hiel was set on building Jericho again; and why should he build it? Hiel no doubt saw it was a wonderfully convenient place to found a city, being near the Jordan. And then he saw and considered that it was accounted a famous thing to be the founder of a city. And then no doubt he thought that Ahab would not only permit him to do it, but that it would gratify him: wicked Ahab, who had sold himself to work wickedness, who was an abominable idolater himself, and countenanced idolatry, and had set up the false worship of Baal.

It was likely enough in his time that Jericho should be built; and therefore, no doubt, Hiel did it partly to ingratiate himself with Ahab, and to show how little he cared for Joshua’s or Jehovah’s threatening. For usually such impudent persons, who have grown up with greatness, who have sold themselves to be wicked, who have put off all humanity and modesty, are the fittest to carry wicked and desperate causes, since these agree with them. So this wicked person was a fit man to do this, and he thought to please Ahab by it.

Man is a strange creature, especially in greatness of riches or place and the like. He is a piece of earth that will be puffed up. If he has flatterers and sycophants about him, and a proud heart as well, he will forget himself, and dare the God of heaven, and trample underfoot all threatenings and menaces whatsoever. So it was with this wicked Hiel. Rather than miss his will, he will break through thick and thin, and buy the fulfilling of his will with the loss of his own soul, and of his children, his first-born, and his last and all. “My mind is my kingdom”: let a man be happy in his will, and he cares nothing for all the world. If he may have his will, let everything go to heaps. This is the nature of man. One would think that this threatening might have scared a man who loved himself or his posterity. But nothing would hold him back; he would venture upon it, as we see in that place, 1 Kings 16:34. Thus we have passed over the words.

Now let us come to handle the words by way of analogy, how they may agree with other things by way of proportion, and in a spiritual, mystical sense.

There are various degrees of men who venture upon curses, and so come to be cursed themselves. Even as this man ventured upon the building of Jericho, so there are many who do the like in a proportionate kind. I shall name a few.

1. God determined that the Jewish ceremonies should terminate and have an end and period. Now, in Saint Paul’s time, there were many who would put life into them and join them with the gospel. Saint Paul tells them, “Christ shall profit you nothing” (Gal 5:2). Those are the ones who build Jericho again, who revive and put life into what God has determined should never revive again. When the Jewish ceremonies had been honorably interred and laid in their graves, these men would raise them out of their graves again, and so venture upon God’s curse and be excluded from Christ.

These are one sort of men who raise Jericho again. And so afterward in the church there were those who would build up Jericho, who would still retain Jewish ceremonies, and heathen ones, in the church, some at first with no evil intent. But then afterward, as Augustine complains, they so pestered the church with Jewish and heathen ceremonies that the Jews’ condition was better than theirs, for these things should have been buried. Gerson, who had many good things in him, though he lived in evil times: “Oh,” he says, “good Augustine, do you complain of those times? What would you have said if you had lived now?”

What is popery but a mass of Jewish and heathen ceremonies, besides some blasphemies they have? I speak of what differs from our ceremonies, which are decent and orderly. What a mass of ceremonies and fooleries they have, to mislead men who are carried away with fancies, to give them a distaste for the truth of God, and to have them respect fancies, outward pomp and gorgeous things, rather than the gospel! These men build up Jericho again, and bury the gospel as much as they can.

2. There is another sort of men who raise up Jericho, who revive all the heresies that were damned to hell by the ancient councils. The heresy of Pelagius was damned to hell by the ancient councils. The African councils, several of them, several synods in which Augustine himself took part, condemned Pelagius’s heresy. Are there not men now abroad who will revive these heresies? And nothing but a curse is to be expected where this prevails; for they are opinions cursed by the church of God, which has been led by the Spirit of God in times past. I mean such opinions as speak meanly of the grace of God, as if it were a weak thing, and advance the strength of free will, and make an idol of that; and so, under the commendation and setting up of nature, are enemies of grace. These are the ones who build up Jericho.

3. There is a company who build up Jericho likewise, persons who will venture upon the curse of founders of colleges, those who have left statutes and testaments and wills, established them and sealed them with a curse, as it were, against those who break them. Yet some make no more bones about breaking these, whether statutes or wills, than Samson did about breaking his cords; as if they would venture upon the curse of former times, and of persons who very likely were led by the Spirit of God and could say amen to their curses, as if these were nothing; like Hiel, who would venture upon the terrible curse of Joshua. Come what might, he would break through all.

4. But the Jericho above all that a world of people go about to build again is popery. How many you have to build up the walls of Jericho again in this way! But to make this a little clearer, because the occasion leads somewhat to this, I will speak at greater length on it.

Question. How did they come to build these walls of Jericho? By what means came this religion that is so opposite to the religion of the Scripture, this religion that was gathered by the Council of Trent into one sea, as it were, so that whoever drinks of it dies, as it is in Revelation 16:3? How does this religion come? How did it creep into the world?

Answer. I could take a long time to show that it came by degrees. While the husbandmen slept, the devil sowed his tares by heretics and the like. It grew by degrees. And then the world was scared and terrified with shows and fancies, as with the succession of Peter, which is a mere fancy; and then they were frightened with excommunications, the terrible sentence of the church. And then again, it is a kingdom of darkness, popery is. Little by little they brought in ignorance, not only of the Scriptures but of other things. They had their prayers in an unknown tongue, forbidding the Scriptures and the like. In the night they might do what they would, when they had put out the candle. When they had buried the knowledge of the word of God, they might bring in any heresy. Many are the ways they came in.

Now the preaching of the gospel is the means to pull down these walls of Jericho; it is the going about the walls of Jericho. By the preaching of Luther and others the walls have fallen, though not utterly; yet even so, in the last hundred years there has been a great ruin of popery.

Question. What means do they have now to build the walls again? How they bestir themselves! There is a new sect of Jesuits, who are the spirit of the devil for knowledge and industry. It is a strange project they have now to build up the walls of Jericho again, and there are three things in their project: to set up the pope again, and a catholic king under him, as he is the catholic head of the church, and to set up the Council of Trent in full vigor. These are the main projects they labor to set up, and so to build Jericho again in this way. And what course do they take?

Answer. The devil has a thousand wiles. I cannot reckon up all the instruments of Satan. Who can tell all his wiles? They go about to build the walls of Jericho again, among other ways, as follows.

By shutting out all light by their terrible inquisition, a most cruel thing. By the tyranny of this inquisition, they shut out all light of God’s truth in all places where popery is established.

Then again they have all Satan’s arts to build up Jericho, by slanders and lies. They labor as much as they can to estrange people’s hearts from the truth of religion, and therefore they raise all the lies and slanders they can. Indeed, they will not allow so much as a Protestant writer to be named; let the name of such a one, they say, be blotted out. Then they have their Index Expurgatorius, to purge all that savors of truth, that favors our cause. And then they have their dispensations. And, to cut off other things (for where should I end?), their policy is indeed almost endless in this kind. They have the quintessence of their own wit and of Satan’s to sharpen them in this kind.

They deal as the magicians of Egypt did. When Moses came to do wonders, they imitated him in all the rest, except in one. So they strengthen themselves much by imitating the Protestants. We labor to build the walls of Jerusalem; they imitate us in building the walls of Jericho. We preach to shake off drowsiness, and they fall to preaching. We print, and they print. We publish books of devotion; they go beyond us. We set out books of martyrology to show their cruelty, and they have lost much by that. On this they do the same, and exaggerate things, and add their own lies. So by imitating our proceedings, in which we have gained ground on them, they do the same, like the Egyptian magicians, and God hardens their hearts, as he did Pharaoh’s, by the magicians.

Again, they build it by laboring, as much as they can, to make divisions between kings and their subjects in those places where their religion has not gained ground. To get themselves a party they cherish division, like the devil; they divide and rule.

It was Julian’s policy to provide that no Christian should bear any office in the wars, to be a captain, and so on. So if the Jesuits and papists may have their will, no man who is opposed to them shall have any place. Those who have the place to manage offices, and such like, shall be those who incline to them. This they bring to pass if they can, and likewise for captains in the wars, and so on. Just as Julian the apostate cared nothing for Judaism, but did what he did out of spite to the Christians, so in most of their plots they work this way, in one form or another. I say there is no end of their plots. Only it is good to know them, for so we may the better prevent them.

Question. How shall the building up of Jericho be stopped, seeing they go about it in this way? And indeed they have built much in recent years, and have raised up their walls very high, and labor as much as they can to stop the building of Jerusalem!

Answer. 1. The way to stop this Jericho, so that it never goes up again, is the judicious knowledge of popery: to know that it is a religion contrary to the blessed truth of God. God has left us his testament, his will, in which he has bequeathed us all the good that we can claim from him. Now this religion is contrary to our Father’s will, and they know it well enough, and therefore they build their courses upon men’s devices, and not upon divine truth. They know that if people come to know the Testament, they would lose, and therefore they labor to suppress knowledge and extinguish it. We should labor to know the controversial truths between us and them, and to have the knowledge of the Scriptures; for knowledge is a notable means to strengthen us. There are none who know popery who will be deceived by it.

2. And then, together with the knowledge of their tenets, we should labor to know their courses, and practices, and policy. In 2 Timothy 3:9, “They shall prevail no longer,” says Saint Paul, “for their madness shall be made manifest.” Why shall they not prevail any longer? Their madness shall be manifest. So the manifesting of the madness of men is the cause why they shall prevail no longer. It would be good to know all their undermining tricks, and all the policy of the Jesuits and papists, who lay their trains of powder far off, so that they may be the less seen. As the spider gets into a corner so that she may not be seen, so they will not appear themselves, but they draw in women, and other licentious persons, and they have greater ones than these too. So they lay their trains far off, that they may have their will. It is good to know their devilish practices, so that their diabolical madness may be manifest, and so that they may prevail no longer. For undoubtedly, if their courses were laid open, there is no man who loves his own safety, and the safety of the kingdom, but would hate them.

3. Another way to stop the building of Jericho is to have young ones instructed. I wish parents would take more care to catechize, and that others in their places would take more care to ground young ones in the grounds of religion. Popery labors to overthrow that. As for the worshiping of images, it is directly against the second commandment, and they are so guilty of it that they take the commandment away in some of their books. The younger sort, who are the hope of the succeeding church, should be well grounded in religion. What is right will expose what is crooked. It would make them impregnable against all popish solicitations.

The neglect of this is the cause why many gentlemen, and many of the nobility, apostatize. The neglect of their education by those who should oversee them has made them fit for Jesuits and priests to work on, since their wits are otherwise ripe. And all because of the atheism of those who have neglected their upbringing, and filled their heads with other vanities. It has been the ruin of many families in this kingdom. Therefore it is good to season younger years with the knowledge of the grounds of religion.

4. And in all the dark corners of the land we should set up lights that may shine, for these owls fly in the dark. They cannot endure the light of the gospel by any means. They see that the breath of God’s mouth is too hot for them, and that they must be consumed at length by that, by the preaching of the gospel. Not with the sword, but with the sword of Christ’s mouth, Antichrist must especially be consumed. And they know this by experience. Therefore they labor underhand. They will not be seen in it, but often others are instruments, more than they are aware, to stop the preaching of the gospel by all the policy they can.

5. Again, as I said before, popery is a kingdom of darkness, and nothing will undo it but light. Therefore we should labor to cherish all good learning. It is a notable means to assist against popery. Julian knew that well enough. Therefore he would not allow parents to send their children to school, but would have them brought up in ignorance. And so papists would like to see neglected the learning that might help in this way.

6. And because they labor to reign in division, let us labor to unite ourselves, and not break upon small matters, but join together with one shoulder, as one man, against that malignant generation, and mark those among us who are the causes of division. As the apostle says, “Mark them, they serve not Christ, but their own bellies” (Rom 16:17-18). They serve their own turns, those who reign in division. If we will join strongly against the enemies of God and his church, let us labor as much as may be to unite our forces together, and not to entertain slight matters of breach with one another.

7. And with these let us join our prayers to God, and our thanksgiving. We are not thankful enough that God has brought us out of the kingdom of darkness, not only out of the darkness of sin and Satan, but from the darkness of popery. We have not been thankful to God for that deliverance in Queen Elizabeth’s time, out of the Egyptian darkness, and for the deliverance in our late king’s time, and for deliverances in later times; we are not thankful enough. And we begin to show it by not making much of religion, and not growing further and further in obedience to it.

Is this our thankfulness to God? What, does religion hurt us? Are we not beholden to God for our religion, and to religion for our peace and deliverance? Has not God witnessed the truth of our religion from heaven by deliverances? Has not God been with us wonderfully in the confusion of the plots of others? And how do we repay it? By growing into a lukewarm temper. A lukewarm temper is odious in the sight of God. “I would thou wert hot or cold,” says Christ (Rev 3:15). The best religion in the world is odious if it is cold. God will not endure us to join the ark and Dagon, Christ and Belial. Certainly, if we do, God will spew us all out. It will be the confusion of the church and state; and yet this is the thankfulness that we give to God for the gospel of peace, for which we have been so much beholden to him.

Therefore it is good to take occasions, as we have one given us this day, to call to mind God’s former dealing with us, in the gunpowder treason and other deliverances, which we have had several occasions on this day to speak of. And, to come nearer to ourselves, let us stir up our hearts to thankfulness, which is the main end of this day, and among the rest for our gracious prince, that God has delivered him as he did the three children in the fiery furnace. They were kept and preserved untouched by the fire; so God has preserved him in the fiery furnace. Not being thankful for these things will be a means for God to lay us open to his enemies and ours. Therefore let us make use of this day especially to stir us up to thankfulness. To go on.

8. As for the building of the walls of Jericho, why should I speak only of popery and the like? We should labor to overthrow that Jericho. All of us have vowed in baptism to fight against the world, and the devil, and the main enemy of all, which is within us, that is, our flesh. We could not be hurt by them; we betray ourselves, as Samson betrayed himself to Delilah. There are those who are baptized, and especially those who have renewed their vows by solemn fasting, and renewed their covenant in taking the communion. Indeed, there is none of us at all who has not vowed against our corruptions and sins in baptism, and renewed those solemn vows in the communion and in public fasting. Well, when we go about to strengthen our corruptions, and the corruptions of the times in the places where we live, what are we going about? To build the walls of Jericho again. What are we going about, but to strengthen what God has cursed?

There is nothing under heaven so cursed as this corruption of ours, which is the cause of all the curses of the creatures, of all the curses that ever were or shall be, even to the last curse: “Go, ye cursed, to eternal destruction” (Matt 25:41). This pride, and sensuality, and secret atheism and infidelity that we cherish, and love more than our own souls, this is what many go about to build. They oppose all the ways that are used to pull down Jericho, and hate nothing so heartily as the motions of God’s Spirit, and the means that God’s Spirit has sanctified to pull down these walls of Jericho.

Must not this be a cursed endeavor, when we go about to build what we ourselves have vowed to pull down? when we go about to raise what we have formerly destroyed by our own vows? As Saint Paul says in Galatians 2:18, “If I again build the things I have destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” Indeed, when we go about to build the things that we have vowed to destroy, we make ourselves transgressors.

Let us take notice of the wondrous poison and rebellion of the corruption of our hearts in this kind. Has not the Lord threatened curse upon curse against many particular sins? “Cursed is the man that calls evil good, and good evil” (Isa 5:20). Have we not many who do so? In Deuteronomy there is curse upon curse to those who mislead others (Deut 27:18, and elsewhere). And in the New Testament there is curse upon curse; Saint Paul threatens that such and such shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven (1 Cor 6:9-10). Yet, notwithstanding the curse, we go about to build Jericho again, to set up what God has pronounced a curse upon.

We cry out against popery, and well we may, when the Scripture directs curses against their particular opinions, as where it says, “If an angel from heaven shall teach other doctrine, let him be accursed” (Gal 1:8). The Council of Trent has cursed those who say that traditions are not of equal authority with the Scriptures, and so they set curse against curse. We wonder at them, that they are not afraid of the curse of God, indeed, that they counter-curse God, as it were: when he curses disobedience, they curse the practice of obedience to him.

And then there is a curse on those who shall add to or take away from the Scripture. Saint John seals the whole Scripture with a curse: Cursed is he that adds, or takes away (Rev 22:18). Now they add to the Scripture what is no Scripture, and they take away what they please, as the second commandment and the cup in the sacrament. I say we wonder at them, that they will run upon the curses, that they will be stricken through with so many curses, more than Absalom with javelins, or Achan with stones: “Cursed is he that worshippeth graven images” (Deut 27:15); besides particular things that are cursed in Scripture.

We wonder at them, that they are so desperately blind as to run on. But are we not as bad? Are there not many curses in the Scripture, and denunciations of being excluded from the kingdom of God, against the courses that are taken by many men? And yet we venture on it. Will a negative religion bring any man to heaven, to say he is no papist, nor any schismatic? No. Certainly, therefore, profane persons who maintain corruptions, and abuses, and abominations, against the light of conscience, and nature, and Scriptures, raise up Jericho again, and they are under a curse.

Now an application concerning the feast of the nativity. Let me ask anyone why Christ came. The apostle says, and they will be ready to say, to dissolve the cursed works of the devil (1 John 3:8). It would seem by many, notwithstanding, especially at these times, that he came to establish the works of the devil; for what good we do in the ministry in three quarters of a year is almost undone in one quarter. At the time when we pretend great honor to Christ, we live as if he came to build up the cursed wall of hell, and to let everything break loose. Whereas he came to destroy the works of the devil: “He came to redeem us out of the hands of our enemies, that we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness, all the days of our life” (Luke 1:75). He came to redeem us from our vain way of life. Instead, many live as if he came to give liberty to every way of life. Is this not to raise Jericho? to raise a fort for Satan to enter into our souls and keep possession in us? to beat out God and his Spirit? to fight against our known salvation, when we rear up courses contrary to Christ’s coming in the flesh, and to the end of Christ’s dying for us, which was to free us from our vain way of life, and to redeem us from the world, so that we should not be led as slaves to the customs of the world?

Therefore let us consider what we do, what our course of life is. If it is a proceeding, and edification, and building up of ourselves more and more toward heaven, a growing in knowledge and in holy obedience to the divine truths we know; if it is a pulling down of sin more and more, a going further and further out of the kingdom of darkness, and a setting of ourselves at a gracious liberty to serve God; oh, it is a happy thing if it is so! If our life is a taking part with Christ, and his Spirit, and his ministry, to grow in grace and piety, oh, what an excellent thing it is when we grow better the longer we live in the world, and when this cursed Jericho, the corruption of nature (which, if we cherish it, will be the cause of an eternal curse afterward), goes down, and we ruin it more and more, and we allow the word to beat down the forts of Satan, those strong imaginations.

But if our life is nothing else but a living according to our lusts, so that as we are dead and cursed by nature, we make ourselves twice dead, a hundred times dead by sin, and bring curse upon curse by our sinful way of life, we are then cursed under God’s broad seal. We are all born accursed, until we get out of the state of nature; to free us from this, Christ became a curse. If we do not get out of this, but go on and feed our vanity and corruption, what will be the end of it but an eternal curse afterward? Therefore let us consider what we do, when we maintain and cherish corruptions and abuses in ourselves and others. We build what God has cursed; we build what we have vowed against ourselves.

And how will God take this at the hour of death? You who are a careless, drowsy hearer of the word of God, and a liver contrary to the word of God, how will God take this from you at the hour of death, when your conscience will tell you that your life has been a practice of sin, a strengthening of corruption? The “old Adam” that you have cherished will stare and look on you with so hideous a look that it will drive you to despair; for conscience will tell you that your life has been a strengthening of pride, of vanity, of covetousness, and of other sins. Your whole life has been such. And now, when you should look for comfort, your corruptions, which you should have subdued, have grown to such a pitch that they will bring you to despair, without the extraordinary mercy of God to awaken your heart by repentance.

Why therefore should we strengthen what is a curse and will make us cursed too, and will make the time to come terrible to us, the hour of death and the day of judgment? How shall men think to hold up their faces and heads at the day of judgment, whose lives have been nothing else but a yielding to their own corruption of nature, and to the corruptions and vanities of the times and places they have lived in? who have never had the courage to plead for God? who have been fierce against God? “Who ever was fierce against God, and prospered?” (Job 9:4). When men make their whole life fierce against God, against the admonitions of his word and Spirit, and their whole life is nothing but a practice of sin, how can they think of death and judgment without terror!

Now, it would be wisdom for us so to carry ourselves in our lives and conduct that the time to come may not be terrible, but comfortable to think of, so that we may lift up our heads with joy when we think of death and judgment. But when we do nothing but build Jericho, when we raise up sin, which we should ruin more and more, what will the end of this be, but despair here and destruction in the world to come?

You may shake off the menaces and threatenings of the ministers, as Hiel shook off Joshua’s. Joshua, Hiel told himself, was an austere, singular man; it was a long time since Jericho was cast down, and God had forgotten. Had he so? Hiel found that God had not forgotten. So there are many who think that words are nothing but the wind of men who are opposed to such and such things. But though our words may be shaken off now, and the word of God now in the preaching may be shaken off, yet it will not be when it comes to execution.

When we set forth the curse of God against sinful courses, you may shake off that curse. But when Christ from heaven shall come to judge the living and the dead, and say, “Go, ye cursed,” you who were born cursed, who have lived cursed, who have maintained a cursed opposition to blessed courses, who have not built up your own salvation, but your corruptions, you who loved cursing, “Go, ye cursed, to hell-fire, with the devil and his angels for ever” (Matt 25:41), will you shake that off? No, no! However our ministerial entreaties may be shaken off, yet when God shall come to judge the living and the dead, that eternal threatening shall not be shaken off. Therefore, I beg you, consider not so much what we say now, but what God will make good then. “What we bind on earth,” out of the warrant of God’s book, “shall be bound in heaven” (Matt 16:19), and God will say Amen to what we say in agreement with his word.

Do not think lightly of what we speak, for God will make good every word. He is Jehovah; he will give being to every word. He is not only mercy but justice. We make an idol of him otherwise. And we must fear him in his justice. He loves to dwell with such as are of a contrite spirit, that tremble at his word (Isa 57:15; Isa 66:2).

It is said of David that when Uzzah was struck, he trembled (2 Sam 6:9). Hiel, and persons of that kind, do not regard the threatenings of God, but go on and treasure up wrath. It is a sign of a wicked man to hear the menaces and threatenings, and not to tremble. To end all with two places of Scripture: Moses says, “He that hears these things, and blesseth himself, my wrath shall smoke against him” (Deut 29:20). God’s wrath shall smoke and burn to hell against such a one as blesses himself, who knows he is cursed under the seal of God, who does evil, and yet blesses himself in doing evil. Therefore take heed of that; do not add that to the rest. God’s wrath will smoke against such a one.

And you know what Saint Paul says in Romans 2:5: “If thou go on and treasure up wrath,” you are building Jericho, which you have vowed to destroy. Every time you take the communion, you treasure up wrath against the day of wrath. For there will be a day of the manifestation of the just wrath of God, and then these things will be laid to your charge.

Let every one of us labor to get out of the state of nature, to break off our wicked lives, and to get into Christ the blessed seed, and then we shall be blessed, we shall be made free, free from the curse of nature and of sin. Let us renew our covenants against all sin, and make it a matter of conscience to be led by the Spirit of Christ, so that we may gather sound evidence every day that we are in Christ, and so out of the curse.

And Barzillai said to the king, How long have I to live, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I am this day fourscore years old… (2 Sam 19:34-38).

I have read, beloved, a large text. In handling it, we will do as the traveler does who is overtaken by the late hour: we will work out how we may hurry by the nearest way to an end. The speech, you see, is very plain. We will not need to spend much time in explaining the terms.

The words are part of a conference, you see, an exchange between King David and Barzillai of Rogelim, in the county of Gilead. This Barzillai had been wonderfully kind to David in the time of his distress. David, now restored from danger, remembers the kindness of his old friend, and by way of repayment offers him this: if he would go with him to the court at Jerusalem, he would be very welcome there, and he would have such entertainment as the court could afford. This invitation of the king comes just before our text.

In the words I read, the old man Barzillai is now giving his answer, and in it he does this:

1. He very modestly and courteously puts off the king’s proposal to him.

2. And then next, he offers and presents a request of his own.

As for the king’s proposal that he should become a courtier, Barzillai puts it off very gracefully, as you may see in the text. He gives several reasons for doing so.

1. The first is, because he was no fit man for the court.

First, he was stricken in age, and so, if he did go up, he could do no more than greet the court; for, he says, “how many are the days of my years?” My years are brought down to days; my days may quickly be numbered. I would die by the time I was warm there, and so what should I do at the court?

Secondly, suppose he did draw breath there a while, that was all; for, he says, “Am I able now to discern between good and evil?” There is nothing that offers itself to my eye, to my ear, to my taste, to any of my senses, that will give me any great contentment, and so there is no great reason why I should be drawn there. This is his first reason, from the unfitness of the thing.

2. Afterward he proceeds to other reasons in the text, and first this much: if he were to live there, it would have to be to do the king some service, or at the least to give him some contentment. But as it was, he was under age’s command, and was able for neither. He was neither fit for work nor fit for play. He found no great contentment in himself, and he could give little to others, and so why should he be a burden to the king’s court?

3. The third reason is this, that what he had done for the king, he had done only in duty. It was his duty to do what he did, and it was only a little. All that he could do for the king was only to bring him a mile or two on his way; and why should the king trouble his thoughts about a repayment for this, he says? Thus he puts off the king’s proposal; he begs leave to forgo the court, and to be excused from it.

4. This done, he comes in the next place, because he would give no offense, to offer a request of his own, and that request is double:

(1) In regard to himself.

(2) And then in regard to his son Chimham.

For himself, he begs leave to go back again to his own dwelling; and here he finely sets his petition beside the king’s proposal.

[1] He asks the king’s leave, that the king would give him leave to go home and die.

[2] And next, that the king would be pleased to favor him so far that he may die in his own dwelling, where his home was.

He would gladly die as the hare does in her own lair, and as other creatures willingly do in their own nests. Then, in the next place, he adds another reason why he would be dismissed: because he would die where his father and his mother were buried. There he was bred, there he was born, there he drew his first breath, and there he would gladly give himself up again, and his breath, and be laid and gathered in mercy to his fathers. This is his request for himself.

On behalf of his son, he offers him to the king’s grace, as if he should say, Your proposal is very gracious, far beyond what I deserve, and such as I would be very happy to enjoy, if age did not hinder me. For proof of this, I leave my son as a pledge and pawn. This staff of my age, this stay of my comfort, I commend to your grace; deal with him as shall seem best in your eyes. And thus Barzillai has commended his request to the king.

Now, this being delivered in this way, it is further enlarged and set forth from the effect that it worked in the king.

1. King David accepts his excuse. He gives him to understand that if he will go, he will be kindly welcome; if he stays behind, no offense will be taken, but further, the king will be ready in any other way to favor him as occasion arises.

2. And next, for his son, the king accepts him, and promises to do for him whatever should seem good in the eyes of his father.

These are the parts of this conference, and the effects of it; so that in sum you see here a dialogue, a conference between David and Barzillai. We are now on Barzillai’s answer, which is set forth:

1. From its parts.

2. From its effects, as we inferred before.

Now from all these general points, several particular instructions might be raised. But I see that the time has outrun me; so we will briefly handle a point or two, and for this time stop there.

1. First of all, we see that Barzillai has no mind for the court; and he draws his argument and his reason from his condition and from his age. “How many,” says the original, “are the days of my years?” The proposal was very gracious on the king’s part, and such as man’s nature is ready enough to welcome. Naturally, we desire honor and advancement; at least an old man might take some contentment in the dainties and delicacies of a court. Further than this, let a man be ever so religious, in David’s court a man might find much contentment, and might take much comfort and solace in the presence and company of such a prince. Yet for all this, says old Barzillai, my days are almost spent, my glass is almost run, and so why should I talk of a court? I will go home and die.

Doctrine 1. In him we learn this much, that no company, no comforts, no proposals on earth should put off thoughts of death when death begins to creep upon us. I say, wherever we live, whatever offers are made to us, whatever the proposal may be, for ease, for profit, for promotion, for any outward contentments, we must not lay down, we must not lay aside the thoughts of our mortality. No dream must put us out of these thoughts while we travel in this main roadway of all flesh. We must never be so busy in talk, in schemes, as to forget our way, to forget which way we are going; but our thoughts must still be homeward.

It is as we do in other journeys here on earth, toward these momentary homes that we have here. Wherever we are, in company that we like wonderfully well, where our entertainment is full of kindness, where our welcome is of the best and every contentment is given, yet for all that, thoughts of home will soon offer themselves: night will come, and it will grow late; I must go home for all this, and leave all this company. So, my brethren, should it be concerning our long homes, that surest dwelling. Wherever we are, however we may be tempted or taken up for the present, still, still our eye must be on home; we must remember our latter end, remember where we are going.

This Barzillai teaches us in his practice. A proposal is made for the court. Tush! Court me no courts, says Barzillai; I am an aged man; I have one foot in the grave; let me go home and die. Here is an offer made to him of comfort and contentment. No; I will go home and lie by my fathers. Death possesses his thoughts; he minds nothing else now but dying.

This Barzillai did, and this is what the apostle would have us do in 1 Corinthians 7:29-30. Our time, he says, is cut short. Our time now is nothing in comparison with what it was in the time of the patriarchs. A great part of our time has already run out, and there is only a little of it left. Our time being so short, says the apostle, “Let him that is married, be as if he were not married; let him that weeps, be as if he wept not; let him that rejoiceth, be as if he did not rejoice; he that is in the world, as if he were not in the world.” Let us so carry ourselves that we may be very indifferent toward all matters in this life. Let us so order things that no occasion of grief, of sorrow, of comfort, of joy, of company, of one thing or another, public or private, may divert our thoughts and turn them aside from thinking about death.

This is what David and others press in several psalms (Ps 49; Ps 82). He calls on rich and poor, on high and low, one and another, in Psalm 49. He calls on judges and magistrates in Psalm 82, who, though in their place they are gods, yet in their nature are men, and must die as men. This is what Solomon presses too. But what need is there for particulars? We will not trouble you with particular instances from Scripture, much less with instances from other histories. Almost every man knows what some heathen princes have done in this way. They had some to call on them in their beds, some at their tables, to remind them that they were mortal, that they must die, to put them in mind of this in the midst of their greatest complacency and in the midst of all their jollity.

And indeed there is great reason why it should be so, why it is good always to hold on to the thoughts of our mortality and of our death, whatever occasion is offered.

1. It is needful for the preventing of evil.

2. And it is useful for the obtaining of good.

Reason 1. These evils will be prevented by it.

(1) The constant thoughts of death and mortality will tie us to our good behavior, so that we will not offer any injustice, any harsh treatment, to any man. But let death once be out of the sight of a man’s thoughts, and he grows wild, he grows unruly, he grows masterless. You see in the parable of the servant, when he thought his master was gone far off, that he would not come for a great while, that his reckoning, his account, would not be soon, that it would not be sudden, he lays about him like a Nimrod, he strikes and beats his fellow servants, he makes no conscience of his dealing with his poor brethren. On the other side, when Job set before himself the thoughts of death and mortality, how there was a Lord and a Judge who would call him to account for everything, he does not dare to lift up his hand, he does not dare to lift up his tongue, against any underling or inferior.

(2) Again, as this will prevent injustice toward men, so it will prevent impenitence toward God. The heart of man makes itself complacent like the harlot in Proverbs 7:10 and the verses that follow. When she imagines that her husband has gone far off and has taken a great journey, she is complacent. So the heart, the impenitent heart of man, when a man puts far from him the thoughts of death, and will not conceive that the Judge stands at the door, then he makes himself obstinate in sinful courses, and does what he can to stiffen himself against all the admonitions and rebukes of God’s mouth.

(3) Further, this is another evil that is prevented: the thoughts of mortality will prevent dotage, as it were, on these worldly things. The world will grow on us and bewitch us if we once allow the thoughts of death to drop. If we do not see death standing at the end of all our earthly profits, of all our worldly pleasures and advantages, we will be almost mad after them, and we will be too, too glad of them when we have them, and surfeit on them too, too much. On the other side, the thought that we must shortly leave them and depart from here will cool our appetite for earthly things; it will make us have them as if we had them not, as you heard from the apostle.

(4) Yes, these thoughts of our mortality, in all estates and conditions, are what will prevent the danger of death. They will take away its sting, they will take away its terror. Death is a most terrible thing in its own nature, you know, and the heathen could say so of it. Death is most terrible, especially to him who does not die daily in his thoughts. But when a man in his meditations daily sets death before himself and looks on it, then death is like the forestalled basilisk; death has lost the sting. It can do us no harm; it proves like the brazen serpent looked upon. The beholding of that death puts an end to all other miseries, to all other maladies, to all other deaths whatever. So there is much good gained, or at the least there is much evil prevented, if we constantly keep within us thoughts of mortality and of death, as Barzillai did.

Reason 2. As this thought of mortality is profitable for us in that respect, in preventing evil, so it is in the second regard proposed, that it even helps us to much goodness. Thoughts of mortality, what will they do?

(1) They will make a man painstaking in his place, so that he dwells on his own calling, on his own business; as Paul says, “Knowing the terror of the Lord,” we exhort and admonish (2 Cor 5:11). Being apostles, we do the duty of apostles. On this ground Barzillai, remembering his mortality, that he must shortly go from here, takes himself home, that death might find him in his own place.

(2) Again, the thoughts of mortality, as they will make a man painstaking in his place, so they will consequently make him profitable to men; as the apostle Peter says in 2 Peter 1:13, he stirs himself up to put the people of God in remembrance of the things they had learned, because he considered that shortly he was to lay down his tabernacle, to make an end of his life.

(3) And further, the thoughts of death and mortality will make a man patient in the midst of all the harsh treatment that is offered to him; in the midst of it all they preserve us, as the apostles say, both James and Paul, so that we will be patient: Let your patience be known unto all men, because the Lord is at hand, because the time is short, because the Judge stands at the door (Phil 4:5; Jas 5:8-9). This is what will make a person quiet in all provocations; this is what will comfort him in all discouragements: I will shortly be sent for, I will be called from here; then I will be righted where I am wronged, I will be cleared where I am accused, I will have rest where I have trouble, all will be well, and so why should I not be quiet?

(4) Yes, this thought of mortality is what will make a person prepare for death. A man who is resolved that he must die goes about setting his house in order, setting his heart in order, setting everything in order, and preparing now for that guest who is approaching so near.

So whether we look to the evils that are prevented, or to the good things that are obtained and acquired, it will be a profitable course for every man to be of Barzillai’s mind, to set aside all proposals and all solicitations, all other considerations, and to take to himself thoughts of death and mortality. We will stand no longer on proving and clearing this plain point to you; we will be as brief as we can in applying it, and that with all plainness.

Use 1. Is this our duty, then? Here we must shame and blame ourselves that we forget our home, and that we remember our latter end no better. This is a matter of humbling for us, that we do not remember what should always be in our thoughts. The end of a man’s days should be at the end of all his thoughts. As the goal is always in the eye of the runner, as the white of the target is in the eye of the archer, so a man’s latter end should always be in his eye while he is running his race and his course here in this world.

A man should always be bound for home, as it were, as you see all creatures are. Let a stone be removed from home, from the center, let it be put out of its place, and it will never be quiet till it is home again. Let a bird be far from the nest as it grows toward night, and she will make for home even on the wings of the wind. Let every poor beast, every creature, have only slender entertainment at home, yet if you let it slip loose it will make for home as fast as it can. Everything tends to its place; there is its safety, there is its rest, there it is preserved, there it is quiet. Now, since it is so with every creature, why should it not be so with us? Why should we not be bound for our home? This, my brethren, is not our home; here is not our rest. That is our home where our chief friends are, where our Father God is, where our husband Christ is, where our chief kindred and acquaintance are, all the prophets and apostles and martyrs of God departed. That is our home, and there we should go.

Again, that is our home where our chief work, where our chief business lies. And where does a Christian’s business chiefly lie but in heaven? His way of life must be there, his affection is there. He himself, while he is on earth, must be out of the earth, and raise himself from earth to heaven every day.

More than this, that is our home where our rest and peace are. Here we have no abiding city; there is our home, as our Savior says, our mansion. We have no abiding place till we come to heaven. While we are here, we are tossed to and fro from place to place; but when we are there, there we rest. We rest from our labors, we rest from sin, we rest from corruption, from all fears, from all tears, from all griefs, from all temptations; that is our home.

Why do we not go home, then, my brethren? Why are we like a silly child, who, when his father sends him out and tells him to hurry home again, is stopped by every flower he meets with in the field, every sign he sees in the street, every companion who meets him on the way, and is hindered from returning to his father? So it is with us for the most part. Every trifle, every profit, every bauble, every matter of pleasure, every delight is enough to divert and turn aside our thoughts from death, from home, from heaven, from our God; and we are taken up, and lose ourselves I know not where. This shows either that we do not conceive of heaven as our home and of earth as a pilgrimage and tabernacle, or else it shows that we are too, too childish, like children in this respect.

Use 2. But here is another word of instruction for us, and it is this much: that every one of us now should labor, after the example of this good man, to remember his latter end, to remember where he is going, to remember his home.

Question. What need is there for this? some will say. How is it possible for a man to forget this point?

Answer 1. Yes, my beloved, it is very possible. It is a very easy matter to speak of death, but it is a hard matter to think of it, and to think of it seriously, for a man to take it home to his own thoughts. It is a very difficult thing for a man to apprehend privations, those things that are so far from entity and being. It is the hardest thing in the world to do this in the greatest privation of all, in the matter of death. A man is utterly unwilling, utterly unable. This argues that he has no mind to see death, and no will to greet it.

Answer 2. Besides, many men, on many occasions, will labor to turn a man’s thoughts aside in this matter. Hence it is that though we say we are mortal, we scarcely believe ourselves to be mortal; instead we carry immortal hopes and immortal notions in mortal breasts. Hence it comes to pass that though we look into the graves of others, we little think that we ourselves shall shortly be closed in the grave. Though we see others fall at our right hand and at our left, we hardly believe that these eyes of ours must shortly be closed up and stopped, and that all our members must be forsaken and left lifeless as a carcass. These things are far from our thoughts, and therefore it is needful for us to press this often and often upon our thoughts, namely, that we are mortal, and that we must depart.

Objection. Why, someone will say, how can a man help thinking so, when he has so many instances of mortality every day before his eyes? He sees rich and poor, young and old, one and another die, and therefore he cannot imagine but that he must die too.

Answer. But all this will still not do, unless a man is assisted by the divine Spirit. Moses intimates this. They fell in the wilderness by hundreds, even by thousands, and yet Moses says, Lord teach us to number our days, and give us wisdom to apply our hearts unto wisdom (Ps 90:12); and to that sense and effect Moses prays.

Moses had instances enough of mortality, and he was an excellent man himself, and had to do with the best people then in the world. Yet he sees reason to pray to God that God would teach them their mortality, that God would make them wise, and that they might know how to number their days and to remember their own condition. If Moses saw reason to put this petition up to God, certainly there is great need for us to do it. We need to pray Moses’s prayer, and we need to practice Moses’s practice too.

(1) Let us labor to take the sum of our life, what it comes to in the gross, as he says in that psalm: Our days are threescore years and ten, it may be one may come to fourscore (Ps 90:10). He may arrive at such a number, or thereabouts; this is the life of man. And then:

(2) In the next place, let us consider how much of this time has run out already, how the fourth part, or the third part, or the half of our days has already expired and run out. Let us do in this case as an apprentice does, who reckons how many years he was bound for, how many he has served already, and what remains. Let us do as a traveler would do: “So many miles I must go this day, so many are measured already, the remainder must be passed before night.” So let us do in this apprenticeship, in this journey of death. Account what it is, how much of it is spent, how the time slides away imperceptibly, how it steals away.

(3) More than that, let us in the third place consider how others fall on every hand before us. Present this to your own thoughts, and say, “There lived such a gentleman the other day; now he is dead. There lived such a woman, such a neighbor, of late; she is now departed. Not long since there lived so many in that family, and there are few now left.” Thus let us reckon. Consider how death seizes upon other men, and then reflect upon yourself. Who knows whose turn may be next?

(4) Yes, let us in the last place consider how death steals on us too by degrees, how it takes possession of us. It is with us as it is with a house. A window falls down, and then a piece of a wall comes down, and then a door, and so on. So it is with a man: death seizes upon his feet, and then upon his hands. Let us take notice how death steals on us, and say, “Death is already in my eye; I begin to be dim-sighted. Death is already in my ear; I begin to be hard of hearing. Death is in my limbs and joints; they begin to be sluggish, and stiff, and cold. I begin to feel the symptoms of death upon me already.” Let us look often upon ourselves to this purpose, and take notice how nature begins to wither and decay. Let the whiteness of our hair, the weakness of our joints, the wrinkles in our faces, be so many witnesses against us, as he speaks in that place in Job 16:8.

This is what we must do, my brethren, to settle it in our thoughts that we are mortal. And when we have once persuaded ourselves of this, then let us make preparation for death. Oh, think of it by yourself alone. Think what it is to die, think what is contained in that short word, think what your preparation for it is, think what business attends it, think what treads on the heels of it when you are gone. “It is appointed to men to die once, and after that comes the judgment” (Heb 9:27). Consider, I say, by yourself, what it is to die; consider it with other folk, with other people. Be ready to speak of it, as Barzillai does, to remind yourself and others of mortality. And more than this, make preparation: set your house in order, set your heart in order.

Preparation for death. For your house, for the persons in it, your goods, or your children, see that you set them in order.

First, for the persons of your house, dispose of your children as Barzillai does here. Dispose of your family, of your kindred; place them in callings; settle them with regard to your dwelling. As Isaac and Jehoshaphat and others in Scripture did, give them good instructions, and leave them precepts that shall stick by them when you are dead and gone.

Second, for your goods, dispose of them. What was gotten by evil, restore. What was well gotten, dispose of to pious and merciful uses, to your family, to those who may claim a right in you. And it is good to set these things in order before death comes.

Oh, my brethren, it is a miserable madness among the sons of men. They defer these weighty and important matters to the last hour. When the powers of nature are shaken, when their wits and memories fail, when their speech and understanding leave them, then, then they go about the most important business of all. Do this in time. Have your will ready at hand, and dispose of your family and your estate while you still have your memory and understanding.

Third, as your house must be disposed of, so much more must your heart be disposed of. Repent of your sins; pluck out the sting of death, which is sin: “the sting of death is sin” (1 Cor 15:56). Death cannot hurt where there is repentance of sin. Sin unrepented of will bring a sting in the time of death. It will fill the heart with sorrow, and the soul with amazement, and the conscience with terror. Pull out the sting, and then you shall triumph over death and over the grave, and say, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor 15:55). O hell, where is your triumph? O Satan, where is your malice and power? Nothing is able to do you harm.

Fourth, in the next place, labor to take possession of heaven now. Make entrance into it while you are here, by getting the life of Christ and the life of faith in you, by getting the saving graces of the Spirit in you. If these things are in you and are not unfruitful, then you shall have entrance, as Peter speaks, into the inheritance and kingdom (2 Pet 1:11).

This then is something of what we should have said more fully, if we had had more time and fitness to speak to the first point; and therefore we will only name to you some other particulars that we should have spoken to.

In the next place, you see his second reason why he would not be a courtier: that now his natural abilities, his outward senses, began to fail. He found his sight decaying, so that he could not discern colors. His taste was wasted, so that he could not distinguish between sweet and sour. His ears were not serviceable, so that now the mirth, and music, and melody of the court were nothing to him. Here then we see, in the next place, how it goes with us.

Doctrine 2. Natural abilities and powers will decay with age. Age will decay and wear out our nature. All parts, and powers, and faculties, whatever they may be, time and age will wear out. The clothing both of the body and of the mind: age wears out the clothing of the body, and the garment of the mind, as it were. The mind and the soul are clothed with flesh. This body of ours, our flesh, is clothed with other raiment. Time wears out the one as well as the other.

Consider the heaven and the earth, which are more durable than man, yes, than a generation of men, as Solomon says: “Man dieth, a generation of men pass away, but the earth stands” (Eccl 1:4), and much more do the heavens continue. Yet the heavens and the earth are as a garment; they grow old and are soon changed, as the Holy Ghost tells us (Isa 51:6). How much more, then, the sons of men! Even water, by drops, wears away the stones, indeed a rock of stones, indeed a mountain of stones, as it is in Job 14:19; and therefore in time it will consume flesh and blood. To stand and prove this is needless. I will give you some instances for the enlightening of the point, and so end.

When Isaac was an old man, when he grew old, his sight was thick and dim, as in Genesis 27:1. As for David in 1 Kings 1, when he was stricken in age, when he had passed on in years, then, the text says, David’s natural heat began to decay, and they were obliged to apply means to help him. So Solomon in Ecclesiastes 12:1, a well-known place, tells us that evil days will come, and cloud will follow upon cloud, and then the keepers of the house, the hands, will grow feeble; the pillars of the house, the legs and thighs, will grow faint and weak; those that look out at the windows, the eyes, will be dark and dusky; then all the daughters of music, the ears, will begin to grow thick too, and heavy, and so of the rest, as we see there. We cannot dwell on particulars.

Objection. If anyone objects and says, “How can this be, since the soul of a man is no material thing, and it is the soul that sees, and the soul that hears, and not the body? Why, then, should the seeing, and hearing, and these senses decay?”

Answer. The answer is very easy. The soul does these things, but it uses the body as an instrument and organ, and so it must work according to the nature of the instrument. Let a man be ever so good a horseman, and ever so skillful in the way, he must travel as his horse will give him leave. So in this case, let the soul be ever so active and full of life, it must perform its actions as the organ and instrument, the members of the body, are disposed. Now the body is frail and mortal in a double respect.

First, in regard of the curse and sentence of God passed upon man: “In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt die the death” (Gen 2:17).

Secondly, in regard of the matter of which man’s body is compounded and made. If you make a house of weak and rotten timber, it will decay; if you make a coat of what is not very sound and durable, it will not last. Man’s body is made of such matter, of such metal, of such timber, of such stuff, that it will not hold out; therefore in time it wastes and rots in pieces.

Use 1. For the use of this, thus much in brief. Since these bodies, the natural faculties and powers, will decay and wear out in time, let us make good use of them while we have them; let us use them, as we do other instruments, while they are fit for use. Memory will decay, therefore let us labor to treasure up good things in our memories, and lay up things worthy to come into a treasury, and not bad things. That is the use Solomon makes of it: “Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth,” he says (Eccl 12:1). Long before the evil days come, and before the decay of your natural powers, employ yourself well, redeem the time.

So I say to you: use memory while it lasts, use wit while it lasts, for the truth: “Do nothing against the truth,” as Paul speaks of himself (2 Cor 13:8). So for your eyes, let them be casements to let in fresh air, and not to let in corruption. Use your ears for wholesome instruction. Use your feet for good purposes, to follow the ways to the house of God. Use your hands, and employ them in profitable business while you can work.

This forethought men have for their outward estate and for the body. When we are young we provide for age; we provide something to keep us when we are old. Let us do something for our spiritual estate. You who have young and fresh wits, fresh memories, and eyes, and ears, and hands, and feet, all the parts of your bodies and powers of your souls ready to do service, make the most of your time, lay hold on the opportunity. Now is the time of reading, now is the time of learning, now is the time of gathering, now is the time of your harvest. Provide for winter; evil days will come, cloud will follow cloud, as Solomon speaks.

Use 2. Secondly, here is another point of instruction: since this is so, that the natural powers and faculties will fail, let us therefore strive to get more than this which is natural. Since this will pass away, let us provide some more durable substance. You know that when an old suit wears out, we think of getting a new suit of clothes; when the old lease has expired, we think where to get another dwelling; we begin to take a new estate and a new lease. As we do this in matters of this life, so we should do it much more in matters of the soul. When we see that the natural life will not hold out, and that it cannot continue long, oh, labor, labor, my brethren, for a better life, for another life, a life that is heavenly, a life that is supernatural. Get the life of God in you, and then you shall never die.

To this end, get the fountain of life, Christ, to be yours. Receive him into your understandings by knowledge, into your hearts by love and affection. Receive him, and clasp him, and take him to yourselves by faith, and he who believes in him shall never die; yes, though he die, he shall live; he shall live in death and shall outlive death, as Christ tells us in that place of the Gospel, John 11:26. And when you have this fountain of life, so that Christ lives in you, so that you do not live your own life, so that you do not live the life of Adam, the life of nature:

First, labor to put this life into action. Life is made up of many actions; so is the life of God too.

Secondly, if we live the life of Christ, and put it into action when he puts life into us, we shall labor to mortify the lusts of the flesh and of the old man. So much corruption, so much death; so far as sin lives, so far the man dies.

Thirdly, labor to exercise and to stir up those graces of the Spirit that Christ has bestowed on us; and as much as faith lives, and patience lives, and love lives, and the graces of God’s Spirit live in us, so much we live, and live that life that shall never be terminated and come to an end. That is another thing, briefly.

Yet we add one thing more.

Use 3. In the third place, this may serve to show who is the wisest man in the world, who makes the wisest choice; for wisdom is most seen in comparative actions. When things are compared together, and a choice is made among things that excel one another, make the comparison. Who is the wisest man? Some men are for outward things; no man is admired by them except for his natural abilities. We look to see who has the finest hand, who has the finest eye, who has the finest wit and the best memory, in natural respects. One man regards another for this, and commends this. One man applauds a child, chooses a wife, respects men for these things, and for these only.

But now spiritual things, heavenly endowments, these are the things that commend a man; they make the man in truth, they are the whole man, as in Ecclesiastes 12:13. You know what Christ says when he comes to settle the question between the two sisters: “Martha, Martha, Mary hath chosen the better part” (Luke 10:42). And why the better part? She has chosen that which “shall not be taken from her.” So he makes the best choice, then, who prefers those things that are most durable, those things that will last, those things that death cannot kill, those things that sickness cannot make sick, those things that weakness cannot weaken, that no outward thing can deprive us of, those supernatural, spiritual, heavenly graces. A wise man prefers these before all natural abilities whatsoever. That is the second thing.

Doctrine 3. There is a third thing that we should have spoken to, and that is this, that not only natural abilities, but natural comforts and delights, wear away.

So Barzillai tells us that he takes no comfort in what he sees, in what he tastes, in what he hears. All matter of delight in nature was taken from him. So natural delights and comforts wear out. As it is said of Sarah, it was not with her after the former manner, so we may say of all natural delights and comforts. In time it will be so with the eye, with the ear, with the taste, and nature will be such, that it will not be with them after the manner of the eye, after the manner of the taste, after the manner of the ear. They shall be as if a man had no eyes, as if he had no taste, as if he had no hearing at all. We might show this in many instances, but this shall suffice, because we would pass on to the grounds; and the reason is clear.

Reason 1. All natural objects from which natural delights and contentments arise fail in time.

Reason 2. The natural senses and means by which men apprehend these things grow dim, and slow, and heavy, and so they perform their actions and their functions with tediousness. Because they do not do it with alacrity, it is not done with delight.

Reason 3. Further, these very things in themselves will in time work a satiety of all natural delights. A man shall be filled with them, not only with the world, but with the lusts of the world. The desire of earthly things will vanish too (1 John 2:16-17). So the eye is never satisfied with seeing, or the ear with hearing. These things cannot quiet the appetite, they cannot fill the mouth of desire, these things cannot give contentment. All natural things are so short and finite that in time they wear out, and a man shall be dulled and tired with them.

Use. The use we should make of this should have been thus much. First of all it serves to teach us this lesson, that therefore we should not rest, we should not lean too much upon natural comforts and delights. Do not trust to natural cheerfulness, to natural courage, as if these would bear us through all perils, and dangers, and fears, and as if these would carry us through all griefs and heartbreaks. No; nature is a little finite thing. It has its latitude and its extent, as a bow has, which, drawn beyond its compass, breaks in pieces; or as an instrument, the string of an instrument: strain it to a higher pitch, and it snaps apart. So it is with nature too: draw it beyond the pitch, and it breaks. You cannot lay much upon the back of nature without crushing it and breaking it, and it falls apart. And therefore do not rest too much in natural abilities, in wit and cheerfulness; all these shall fail in time.

Objection. Yes, but nature is propped up with art.

Answer. It may be so for a time, but that is patchwork. It may be for a time. If natural delights fail, much more will artificial ones; if true fire cannot warm a man and give him relief, painted fire cannot do it. But so it is, that natural and artificial things fail in time. Let a man’s eye be made of glass, in spectacles, or let it be made of flesh, as the natural eye: both the natural and the artificial eyes turn to dust at length. Let a man have a leg that is a crutch of wood, or a leg of flesh, as the natural leg: yet both come to dust and ashes in time. All natural and artificial things decay at the last.

Objection. Yes, but carnal delights will help a man.

Answer. Least of all. If wine will not comfort a man, poison will not. Now all carnal pleasures and delights are poison. Where shall we go then for comfort and delight? Yet above all the creatures there are joys, I confess, to be had, that will drink up all tears, all sorrows. There are comforts to be had that will carry a man over all discouragements and grievances. There are everlasting joys, unutterable comforts, inconceivable hopes, and peace of conscience, that will carry a man through sickness, and through pain, and through poverty and shame, through death and all, and will never abandon him. It is a peace that will be with a man in his bed, that will run with him when he flees before the enemy; a peace that will follow him to his grave, and beyond the grave; a peace that will live with him when he dies, that will follow him to the throne and tribunal of Christ, and will set a crown of glory and grace upon him at the last.

These joys and comforts are to be had. Oh, set out after them, my brethren. Seek the joys that are spiritual, seek the comforts of the Scriptures. Rejoice in this, “that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). Rejoice in this, that God is your Father. Rejoice that Christ dwells in you. Rejoice that heaven is yours, that Christ is yours, that God is yours, that the promises and the covenant are yours. These are the joys that no man can take from you, that nothing can take from you. These will make you rejoice in sorrow; these will make you live in death. As I said before, labor for these, which may carry you over all troubles, and miseries, and terrors whatsoever.

That is another point. There are various others I was thinking of saying something about, for I intended no more than to give you some general heads, some words of instruction in general, out of this large text. But I do not know how the time has slipped past us in speaking this little that we have; and therefore we will go no further at this time.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God (Ps 43:5).

This psalm was written by David, and it shows the passions of his soul; for God’s children know the state of their own souls, for the strengthening of their trust and the bettering of their obedience. Now this is the difference between the Psalms and other places of Scripture. Other scriptures speak mostly from God to us; but in the Psalms this holy man speaks mostly to God and to his own soul. So this psalm is an expostulation of David with his own soul in a troubled state. Banished from the house of God, he reasons the matter out with his soul: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?”

The words contain:

1. David’s perplexed state; and 2. his recovery out of it.

His perplexity is set down in these words: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? …” His recovery out of it comes first by questioning himself: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” and then by a charge laid upon his soul: “Trust in God.” And this trust is amplified from the matter, from what his soul should trust in God for: “I shall yet praise him,” and give him thanks; that is, I shall be delivered, and for that deliverance my heart will be enlarged to give him thanks. Because this is my God, my salvation, and my help, there is the ground of my faith and trust.

1. For the first, which is his perplexity, consider the way, how he comes to be thus perplexed.

(1) He was in great troubles and afflictions. So it is seen that God allows his children to fall into extremities, into many and long and great afflictions and troubles, before deliverance comes. They feel spiritual crosses most keenly, because of the life of grace that is in them; and that is why these crosses cast them down more than all other things. The lack of spiritual means makes them thirst more than any other lack; yes, more than the hart that brays after rivers of water (Ps 42:1). Spiritual wants grieve much, spiritual thirst is strong, and the life of grace must be kept. Now to lack the means that must keep it, this touches him more than all the rest.

A soul that is lively in grace cannot endure to live under small means of salvation, much less to endure blasphemous reproaches. Therefore those who can content themselves with small means or with any means, with small comforts, without laboring and striving after sweeter and nearer communion with God, have cause to fear for their own state. A child, as soon as it is born, if it is not stillborn, cries and seeks for the breast, which puts it beyond all question that there is life in it, however weak that life may be. So the life of grace begun in us is known by our spiritual appetites and our desire after the means of grace.

(2) The second thing that troubled this holy man was the blasphemous words of wicked men. Therefore, if we would test whether our state is good, let us see how we take to heart everything that is done against religion. Can a child be patient when he sees his father abused? When a man sees the gospel of God trodden down, for him to be quiet then shows that his heart is dead. It is better to rage than to be quiet in such a case; for rage shows life, though with much disorder. Whoever makes light of God’s honor, God will make light of that person’s salvation.

The enemy said, “Where is now thy God?” (Ps 42:10). This went to David’s heart. What does the enemy say now, at this day? “Where is your God now? Your reformed religion? Your Christ? Where is your God?” Well, those who are not moved by this are in an evil and a dangerous state, let them think of themselves what they will. God’s children feel such things; they are men and not stones, flesh and not iron. Therefore it is no wonder that they feel our times so keenly and take them to heart as they do, that they forget their wounds and mingle their passion with their afflictions, which so perplexes their minds.

Thus David was troubled, and over-troubled and grieved, and that too much, for he checks himself: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” Indeed, by nature we have no bounds in our affections. If we rejoice, we rejoice too much; if we sorrow, we sorrow too much. Grace alone tempers all our actions and affections, and where there is no grace there is either all joy or all sorrow. When Nabal began to rejoice, he rejoiced too much, and when he began to sorrow, he went to excess in that (1 Sam 25:36-37). A wicked man has nothing to uphold him, and therefore he is over head and ears in all that he does. The child of God is kept upright by what is worked in his heart, by which his sorrow and joy are mixed together.

“Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” The point is this:

Observation 1. It is a sin for a child of God to be too much discouraged and cast down in afflictions. No, I add more: though the cause is good, as it was here, to be banished and to lack the means of comfort, even in this case to be too much cast down and disquieted shows a disordered heart.

Question. But how shall we know when a man is cast down too much? For it is a sinful thing in a man not to feel what lies upon him.

Answer. The soul is cast down too much, to name this one mark for many, when our mourning and sorrow does not bring us to God, but drives us from God. Grief, sorrow, and humility are good; but discouragement is evil. Whatever keeps a man from delighting in God, from trusting in God, whatever hinders a man in his calling, either as he is a Christian or in his particular calling, by this he may know he is in excess. So the children of Israel were in great trouble under Pharaoh, and therefore did not heed what Moses said to them, for anguish of spirit (Exod 6:9). The husband and wife must not live at odds, lest their prayers be interrupted (1 Pet 3:7). No; however good the cause may be, they must not be overly troubled. Therefore, when Christians go to excess in anything, they do it not as Christians, but as men overcome by their passions.

Question. What is the ground on which being cast down and disquieted is a sin?

Answer.

1. Because it turns to the reproach of religion and of God himself, as if there were no strength in the promises of God to uphold a soul in the time of trouble and disquiet.

2. Because such sinking under afflictions never yields any good fruit. Yes, the devil himself in such a case will say, “God is neglecting you,” and so he joins his temptations with your corruptions; and then where are you? And therefore, I beg you, consider. What! Shall a father neglect his own children so much that they should be cast down, when he alone knows what they lack, and has in his own power to give all that is good?

3. Because it hinders us both from and in holy duties. For where the soul is cast down, either we do not perform holy duties at all, or else they are done only weakly; for as the troubled eye cannot see well, so the troubled soul can neither do good nor receive good. It is the quiet soul that both receives and does good as it ought to be done; for quietness is the stay of the soul, either to do or to receive. Holy things are not accepted by God for the stuff of them, but for the willingness and cheerfulness in doing them. Thus, when the soul is too much cast down, God does not so well accept its actions, because they lack life.

Then it plainly appears to be a sin to be cast down in this way. Therefore holy David takes his soul to task and chides himself outright: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou so unquiet within me?” If it is so, that it is a sin to be too much cast down, what shall we say of those who disquiet themselves in and for a vain shadow (Ps 39:6)? They trouble themselves so much about vain things that they are discouraged from doing good. The holy man in this case raises up his soul; for the Spirit of God says, “This is the way, walk in it” (Isa 30:21), and, “This you should have done, but here you fail, and here is what you lack.” Thus I thought it good to enlarge on this point.

Observation 2. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” The word in the original shows that it is the nature of sorrow to bring the soul downward. Sorrow and sin agree in this, for as they both come from below, so they bring the soul downward to the earth. The devil, ever since he was cast down himself, labors to cast all down. His voice is, “Down, down to the ground.” He would have no man stop in going down in afflictions or despair. The new creature created by the Spirit of God is quite the contrary; for that is all upward. Where the hope is, there the soul loves to be in thought and meditation, and all that it does or can do is to go upward.

“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou so disquieted?” Here are two words used: “Why art thou cast down? why art thou so disquieted?”

Question. What is meant by being cast down? And why does he find fault with himself for it?

Answer. Because it breeds disquiet. I say that being cast down, when it is not with humility but with discouragement, breeds disquiet. But when it is joined with humility, it raises the soul to see mercy. In this way, if God casts us down to humble us, it is to raise us up with so much the sweeter consolation; for as much as the soul is cast down by God, so much it is raised up by God. But the soul that is cast down by Satan does not rest in God, but is troubled, as it is said in Psalm 37:1, “Fret not thyself …”

So a man may know, when his soul murmurs and his fretting is against God himself or against the instrument of the sinful discouragement of his soul, that it is too much cast down. Here is no true humiliation, but an abundance of corruption, which brings vexation and disquiet. But I hasten to what I have further to deliver: “Why art thou so cast down, O my soul?” He checks himself because he was thus cast down and disquieted. Here, then, you see:

1. David’s perplexity; and 2. its particular branches, being cast down and being disquieted.

Question. What was the reason why he was thus cast down?

Answer. The reason is in the words, a reason from the contrary. He reproves his soul for being thus cast down; he checks and commands himself to wait and trust in God; he checks his soul; and this shows he had no good reason for being thus cast down. Why should he ask this reason, unless there was no just cause, only sophistical reasoning, which bred this? As in Jonah 4:9 God demands, “Dost thou well to be angry, Jonah?” It is as if he had said, “There is no good cause.” You may see by this manner of asking that the cause was ignorance and false reasoning, false trust and the lack of trusting in God.

There is no discouragement in any affliction or trouble whatsoever but comes from not knowing the ground on which God does it. First, he does it sometimes for the exercise of our graces, as well as for our sins. Again, there is forgetfulness of God’s dealing, as in Hebrews 12:5, “You have forgotten the consolation which speaks unto you …” And sometimes we are troubled in affliction because we do not examine the cause rightly with our own souls. Many go to the highest step of the ladder, to their election, before they come to its fruits. I beg you, let us be wiser. There are some people who trouble themselves by seeking their comfort only in their sanctification, when it should be looked for in their justification (Rom 5:1). And there are others who trouble themselves about the outcome of things in time to come, when we are commanded not to care for tomorrow (Matt 6:34), and who in the meantime neglect their duty in using lawful means and trusting in God.

Again, there is the lack of trusting in God; for when we do not trust in God, then we have false trusts in the creature, or in something else. Then this follows: vanity will bring vexation of spirit.

Thus, when vanity goes before, vexation will come after. Therefore, when men set about doing any good, or suffering for good, in their own strength, and do not trust in God for a constant supply, this moves God to take away his support, and then they fall most shamefully. No, when a man trusts in himself and in his present grace more than in God, he is sure to fall; for we must trust in God for fresh grace in time to come, and pray that God would renew his graces, to strengthen us in every trouble and affliction. The reason God’s children miscarry so in times of trouble is that they trouble themselves, and do not trust in God for a new supply of grace. We cannot perform new duties and undergo new sufferings with old graces.

So now you have some causes why men are thus cast down and disquieted: false trust, or else not trusting in God. It is as if the prophet had said, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” The reason is this: you do not trust in God as you should. That is why our Savior reproved Peter when he feared, saying, “O thou of little faith” (Matt 14:31). It was not the greatness of the waves, but the weakness of his faith, that made him faint.

In truth, the cause of our trouble and disquiet is either the lack of faith or a lack in faith, so that we cannot rely upon God in our troubles and afflictions. For the soul, being weak in itself, needs something to rely upon, as a weak plant needs a support. Now what gives matching strength is our relying upon God. When we omit this, then disquiet and troubles come into our souls. And so I end the point of perplexity, and come to the charge that he lays upon his own soul, saying, “Trust in God.” His remedy is double.

1. A reflecting action upon his soul: “Why art thou disquieted, O my soul?”

2. A command laid upon his soul: “Trust in God.”

Before I come to particulars, observe this point in general:

Doctrine 3. God’s children, in their greatest troubles, recover themselves. For here was the trouble, and his disquiet over the trouble. He was in temptation, afflictions, and discouragements. Here was Satan tempting, and the corruptions boiling, and God withdrawing the sense of his love, leaving David for a while to himself; and yet, notwithstanding, at length he breaks through it all, and reasons the matter out with himself. So God’s children, when they are in troubles, however great, can recover and comfort themselves. And in truth the holy Scripture shows this; for this trusting and relying on God in extremities is a difference between the child of God and a hypocrite. A little cross will not test men’s graces as great ones do. So with Saul: it brings him to great trouble, and then he goes to the witch, and then see what becomes of him (1 Sam 28:7).

But the child of God in his greatest troubles, having the Spirit of God to strengthen him, rests upon God, as is shown in Romans 8:26. In the greatest troubles the Spirit helps our infirmities; and in the lowest depth of trouble, there is the Spirit of comfort. Now this Spirit works faith, which enables us to send out strong prayers and cries, which cry loud in God’s ear. The child of God can mourn, and cry, and chatter, striving against deadness and against his unbelief, and he strives for comfort as for life; so, when he is at the lowest, he can recover himself.

God’s children, at the beginning of trouble, labor to recover themselves immediately: “Why art thou disquieted within me?” He stops himself at the first. Jonah was to blame in this way; he fed and flattered himself, and would not stop to reason with his heart (Jonah 4:9). But David does not do so here, but says, “Why art thou so cast down, O my soul? and why art thou so disquieted?” There is a contrary spirit in those who are not God’s children; for they feed upon mischief, wickedness, and dark notions, and according to these apprehensions they draw their conclusions. But God’s children, knowing their own state, reprove themselves and say, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? why art thou so troubled?”

Doctrine 4. Again, see the excellent state of the soul. It is an atheistic notion that the soul arises out of the temper of the body. That cannot be, because we see the soul cross our nature and cross itself, much more the body. How can this be, if it rises from the body, that it should cross itself, and the very inclinations to evil? For though the soul is ready to run to excess of melancholy and excess of joy, yet there is resistance in the soul, and a striving against these things in some measure; for in every Christian there are three men.

(1) The natural man, the good creature of God, having understanding, will, and affection.

(2) There is nature under the “spirit of bondage,” which we call “the old man.”

(3) There is the “new man,” framed by the “Spirit of God,” which strives against the corruption of his nature; for nature cannot help being troubled in afflictions. This we see in Adam in his innocence; yes, in Christ himself. Grace steadies us in this state; then much more does grace stop nature. In the excellent state of the soul, a man has the Spirit of God in him, by which he is raised up above himself and humbles himself. This is the excellency of the spiritual nature of the soul, and especially the excellency of the Spirit in the soul. The soul can check the body, and the Spirit can check both soul and body. Well, I say this only in a word; for I will not dwell on it, but mention it only to show the nature of the soul.

Question. It may be asked, How shall we know in these things when anything comes from the Spirit, and not from the natural soul? For here are nature, flesh, and the Spirit.

Answer. I answer: when the Spirit is in a man, it crosses the natural constitution of the body, and checks the constitution of his soul when it is in affliction and discouraged in it, so that by this a man recovers himself again.

Afflictions of the soul are the greatest and worst of all, yet in this state a man’s soul carries him upward; and therefore there must be something in him that is better than nature and above nature, which enables him to check and reprove himself. Now this must surely be an excellent thing. Why? Because this is the Spirit of God, which enables us to strive, as Job did: “Though thou kill me, yet will I trust in thee” (Job 13:15). And our blessed Savior in his depths of afflictions cries, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). The sense of his present state caused him to cry out as if God had forsaken him; yet in this the blessed Spirit raises him up, for he cries, “My God.” Thus we see that when there is a crossing of ourselves in the state we are in, this is a sign that it comes from the Spirit of God, and not from nature: “Why art thou so cast down, why art thou so disquieted within me, O my soul?”

Another thing that I observe is this:

Doctrine 5. The prerogative of a Christian in these disquiets, and in all states, is that he has God and himself to speak to, by which he can remove solitariness. Put him into a dungeon, yet he may speak to God there, and speak to himself.

This is an excellent state. He who has laid up a store of grace beforehand can reprove and cross himself, and in his depths cry out to God. Therefore take a Christian in the worst state of all, yet he can make the best use of his state before God, so that even then he has a happy communion with God. This is a comfort to a Christian when he has nothing else to comfort himself with. So David here had neither goods, nor comforts, nor prophets, nor the tabernacle with him, yet he had his good God to go to, who was the only thing he had; and when God speaks comfortably to him, then David speaks as comfortably to his soul: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?”

Let all the tyrants in the world do their worst to a Christian; if God is with him, he is cheerful still. This is plentifully seen in David. He was vexed outwardly, punished, persecuted, and banished from God’s house, yet he goes to God; and though he was vexed in his soul in particular, yet he cries out, “Why art thou so vexed within me, why art thou so unquiet?”

The point from this is as follows:

Doctrine 6. The best way to establish the soul is to deal with our own souls, and to begin with them first, and to proceed in a judicial manner, as this holy prophet of the Lord did. When we are in any troubles and afflictions, do not go to the trouble, but go to the soul; for if the soul is not set in right frame and quieted, we cannot endure anything. But if we can set and frame ourselves to God, all the tyrants in the world and all the devils in hell cannot hurt us. The devil comes to our Savior, but he could do him no harm, because there was nothing within him for the devil to fasten upon (John 14:30). Therefore this is the way: if we are in trouble, let all other things go, and lay the foundation of our quiet in God, and deal with our own souls.

And the way to do this is to summon our souls before ourselves, and so to make ourselves offenders and judges, teachers and pupils, as the prophet does here: “Why art thou so unquiet, O my soul?” God has erected a court in a man, that he may summon and condemn himself. God has set up this court, and given us this liberty, to prevent another examination, and condemnation forever, in the world to come. Therefore it is said in 1 Corinthians 11:31, “If we will judge ourselves, we shall not be judged of the Lord.” The way to do this is to call our own souls to a reckoning. This is to be strongly endeavored for many reasons, which I will not dwell on, but will only name one of them.

Namely, because it is a hard thing. For there is an affection of nature, and an affection of rebellion, and strong motions, that keep the soul in such thralldom that it cannot fully know itself; and for a man to know all things and not to know himself, what a miserable thing that is! What! To look altogether abroad, and never to look at home, that is a misery of all miseries. Well, if ever we would be saved, we must do this.

If we would begin with ourselves, we might put the devil and our tormenting conscience out of office; for the time will come when it will be objected, “This and that have been your sins, and this is the state of your souls,” Satan will say. “Well,” says the soul thus prepared, “I know all this, I have accused myself before God for this, and I have made my peace with God.” But when we go on in sin, and leave all to God, then the devil comes and accuses us, and our consciences take God’s part; and thus we go down to hell forever. Therefore take warning of this in good time, and call your soul to a reckoning.

But I will not spend too much time enforcing this holy action. The way to bring our souls to this is to furnish them with holy thoughts, to sanctify and season our judgments with holy touches, to know what is good, and to bring our souls to love and delight in it. But if we have no court of judgment in us, we can never do this; for we must not go blindly about this work, but must know what evil we have committed, and which is done against this law, and which against that commandment. Thus a Christian must and will examine himself. But an ignorant person goes on and never lays up anything in his soul; and therefore, though he has power in his soul to do this, yet he does not do it, because he is an ignorant and blind man.

Use. Well, let this serve to stir us up to be careful in this holy duty.

Objection. But the hypocrite will say, “Tush, this is hidden, and the world does not see it. For me to take pains to work upon my soul, when the world cannot see it, what profit comes from this course?” But the child of God is most busily and carefully employed about that which carries with it the least applause from the world. This is always a sure sign of a good heart; for the best work of the new creature is within us, where the world cannot see. And therefore, if you would have sound assurance of salvation, then often call into question the state of your own souls, and labor to get this disposition, and ask your souls what the reason is. Do you do well to be angry? What! So angry? At this time, and on this occasion? And what! Do you do well to be merry like this now? If we could do this, what an excellent state of soul we would live in! It would clear religion of many scandals. For where do all these scandalous actions we fall into come from, except that we do not check ourselves in evil things before they break out into our lives? The soul many times rises in rebellious motions and troubles the Spirit of God in us; but what an honor it is for a Christian to be free from scandal in this life, and to suppress evil at the beginning!

There is nothing evil but it is first in thought, then in affection, and then in action. Therefore if, when we are tempted to any evil, we could think, This thing will be a scandal, it will be open in the mouths of wicked men, it will grieve the true-hearted servants of God, oh, how gloriously might the servants of God shine in these woeful, dark, and sinful days! Well, I beg you, only consider, and bring the practice and conduct of most men and women to this rule I have laid down, and what a pitiful state we will find most of them to be in, who would seem to be religious, whose lives declare this before others.

Just ask a covetous man why he is so utterly carried away with the things of this world, and he answers at once: Oh, he has a great many to provide for, and the times are hard. And meanwhile he wholly neglects making sure of his own salvation. Indeed, come to God’s children themselves, who hunt too much after the things of this world, and sometimes you will hear the same answer. I say to them: But what, do you not have a Father to provide for you? And this Father of yours, does he not have all things at his own disposal, having promised that you will lack nothing that is good, even he who is an infinite, loving, and merciful Father? I beg you, consider: what can we lack, if we have faith to rely on God?

And then consider how vile a thing covetousness is. What! For an old man to be worldly now, when one foot is in the grave! So too for a blasphemer to provoke the majesty of God: there is no reason to be given for it. For sin is an unreasonable thing, and it cannot endure this question: What reason is there for this and that? Therefore the Scripture calls all wicked and ungodly men unreasonable men and fools, because they cannot give a good reason for anything they do. And therefore when they are in hell they may well say, We fools thought this and said thus.

I beg you, consider what reason there is for a man to sell God’s favor and the assurance of his salvation for a wicked action, and for his lust, and for a little honor. I say, consider what you will get and what you will lose: even the hope of heaven, for the gaining, at best, of only perishing things, and many times you miss those also.

These things considered, the Spirit of God does well to call us to question ourselves, to give a reason for what we do, and then to censure ourselves, as David did in another place: “How foolish was I, like a beast” (Ps 73:22). And so, I beg you, when you are tempted to any sin, then say, What a base thought this is! What a base thing this is! Is this in keeping with what I profess and with my religion? If we would only examine and question ourselves in this way, accuse and condemn ourselves, oh, how happy and blessed creatures we might be! And so much for the first remedy.

Now we come to the second: “Trust in God, wait on God.” Here is, first, an action; and second, a fit object.

The action is trust; the object is God: “wait on God,” for God is the only prop and rock on which we may rest safe in time of danger. Waiting on God implies his meeting our souls before we can have any comfort from him. Therefore all our care should be to bring God and our souls together. This trusting in God and waiting for God is a special means to uphold us in our greatest troubles.

This is the state of the new covenant; for we have fallen in Adam by our unbelief, and must now have faith to recover ourselves, which is the applying grace that helps us up, and enables us to wait on God and his truth, for they are all one. As a man of credit and his word are all one, so is our trusting in God and his truth and promises. But because I have spoken of this trusting in God from another place of Scripture, I will be brief in it; I will only add something now to help us on in this point, in which our souls will find so much comfort.

Doctrine 7. “Trust in God.” This trusting in God is the way to quiet our souls, and to steady them in every condition. The reason is that God has sanctified this holy grace to this end. This is the grace of the new covenant, the grace of all graces, which steadies the soul in all disquietings whatever.

The first thing that disquiets the soul is sin. Now God by his Spirit and word gives us the pardon of it. Therefore trust in God for this, and for life everlasting, and then trust in God in this life for whatever you lack. Know that the same love of God that brings you to everlasting life will give you daily bread. Therefore trust in God for provision, for protection, and for whatever you lack. For the first thing that a troubled soul looks to is mercy, salvation, and comfort; and therefore in every troubled condition we always have one thing or another from God to comfort us. I say, if we are in trouble, there is corresponding comfort given us by God. Are we sick? He is our health. Are we weak? He is our strength. Are we dead? He is our life. So it is not possible for us to be in any state, however miserable, without there being something in God to comfort us.

Therefore God is called in Scripture a rock, a castle, a shield: a rock to build on, a castle in which we may be safe, a shield to defend us in all times of danger, showing that if such helps sometimes rescue us, how much more can God. I beg you, consider that God is our “exceeding great reward” (Gen 15:1). God is bread to strengthen us, and a Spirit of all comfort; and indeed there is only a beam in the creature, while the strength is in God. And if all these were taken away, yet God is able to do much more, and to raise up the soul. What! Can a castle or a shield keep a man safe in the time of danger? How much more can God! I beg you, consider how safe Noah was when the ark was afloat. And why? Because God shut the door on him (Gen 7:16) and kept him there.

Thus you see there is something in God for every malady, and something in the world for every trouble; then “trust in God.” This is the way to quiet our souls. For as heavy bodies rest when they come to the center of the earth, so the soul, for joy, and for care, for trust, finds rest in God when it comes to him and makes him its support. The compass needle rests when it comes around to the North Pole, and the ark rested when it came to Mount Ararat (Gen 8:4); so the soul rests safe when it comes to God, and until that time it moves about like the ark on the waters. Therefore our blessed Savior says in Matthew, “Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and you shall find rest in your souls” (Matt 11:28-29). This holy man wanted rest, and therefore he says, “O my soul, wait upon God.”

Question. Well, in a word, how will we know whether we have this rest and trust in God or not?

Answer. By what I have said; for if we trust in God, then we will be quiet, for faith has a quieting power. Therefore, if you can steady yourself, and rest on God for provision, for protection, for all that helps you from grace to glory, you are safe. Again, faith has a comforting power. There is a distinction between alchemy gold and true gold; for what is true will comfort the heart, but counterfeit faith, like alchemy gold, will not strengthen the heart. Therefore, if you find your faith strengthening you to cast yourself on God and his mercy in Jesus Christ, then there is true faith.

When the garment of Christ was only touched, power went out of it, so that the woman found strength in it to quench her bloody issue (Matt 9:21; Matt 14:36). And do you not find strength from God to quench the bloody issue of sin in your soul? Then you have cause to doubt the truth of your faith; for precious faith brings power from the root. As the tree draws strength from the earth to feed the body and the boughs, by which it is fruitful, so faith brings power from Christ and his promises, which strengthens the soul.

I beg you to consider: if your soul is strengthened by the promises of God and the nature of God, it is a sign you have true faith. What a shame it is for Christians, when they have an infinite God for their God, who has made abundant promises, and have a rich Savior, and yet they live so unquiet and discontented, and sometimes over earthly trash, as if there were no Father for them in heaven, nor providence on earth! Now, at this time, which is a time of trouble abroad, when our faith should be exercised, how cast down the hearts of many are, as though God had cast away his care over his church! Consider, I beg you, does a husband cast away his care over his wife in time of danger, when she is wronged? No; he is all the more inflamed to avenge her. Much more will God arise to maintain his own cause, but we must wait for the time, knowing that “they that believe make not haste,” as it is in Isaiah 28:16.

Question. But what is the matter for which we are to trust God? “I shall yet praise him.”

Answer. His meaning is that though he is for the present in great afflictions, yet he will be delivered. See here the language of Canaan. The holy people of God, if they receive any deliverance, give God the praise and glory, for this is all that God looks for; if you are in any affliction and God delivers you, then give him all the glory and the praise. So this holy man says to his soul, “God will deliver you”; then the soul says, “I will praise him”; so he gives the delivered soul both the matter and the affection to praise his name.

I beg you, consider here how the soul, when it has nothing in itself to trust in, sustains itself by looking toward God. Christ himself, when he was in his extremities, looks upward to his Father in heaven (Matt 26:39); so this holy man comforts himself that he will be delivered. Thus he lays sound foundations in God, for there are no loose sands there. Therefore the ship of his soul rides safe. He trusts God for the present and for the time to come, as though he should say: Though I am now in great affliction, yet it will be better with me, however it may be now.

Use. Let us raise this comfort for ourselves: trust in God. What if we should live here all the days of our life in this troubled state that we are now in! “Yet wait upon God, O my soul, for I shall yet praise him.” We live here in many troubles and afflictions, and we sit down by the rivers of Babylon. Well! What if we die in this affliction? Yet I will have glory with Christ.

Thus, I beg you, extend this comfort to the whole church of God. Suppose the church is in trouble: what does the church have to do? “To wait on God,” because it will have deliverance, and all the true church will praise God for their deliverance. God will deliver his church, and in the meantime preserve and provide for it. It is as dear to him as the apple of his eye; it is his jewel, his vine which he himself has planted; and therefore let us comfort ourselves with this.

What though we are now cast down and in heaviness for the church of God abroad? Yet God will redeem Israel from all his iniquities (Ps 130:8), and much more out of all his troubles and afflictions. The church must be delivered, and Babylon must fall. No, the Holy Spirit says it is fallen (Rev 18:2), to show the certainty of it, for God will do it. The Red Sea and Jordan must turn back, and the church must sing praises for her deliverance; and so we daily and continually wait on God for the performance of this.

Question. What ground does this holy man have for this waiting?

Answer. He is my present help and my God; he is my salvation and my God. The word is “salvations”: he has more salvations than one. Therefore though we are troubled with poverty, shame, or any other affliction, yet God is salvations and helps. Consider this: if you are in trouble of conscience for sin, or Satan condemns you, then say that “God is salvation”; if you are in trouble, God is deliverance; if you are persecuted by any wicked, malicious enemies, God is a castle, as in Psalm 18:2: “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, and my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.” “Who is a rock, save our God? I will call upon the name of the Lord, so shall I be delivered from all mine enemies” (Ps 18:31, 3).

Thus you see how David, after all his victories, describes God to be his God and his salvation, both for body and soul, for the present and for the time to come, with means, without means, and against all means. What a comfort this is! He can command salvation, he can command the creature to save, and the devil himself to be a means to save us; and if there are no means for you to see, yet he can create means to do it in an instant. Thus God is our help; and what a ground of comfort this is!

Therefore I beg you, do not be discouraged. Mourn we may, like doves, but not roar like beasts in our afflictions; when we have humbled ourselves enough, then we must raise up our souls from our grief to another object. For a Christian must look to different objects: look to the trouble with one eye, and to God with the other, and know him to be his salvation. Then let the trouble be what it will, if God is your deliverer; it is no matter what the disease is, if God is your physician. But many times we betray ourselves into the hands of the devil for want of thinking of these things.

“He is my God.” There is another ground of his comfort. Give me leave a little to unfold this sweet point. Consider in it with me two things.

1. God is the God of his children.

2. He is so constantly.

This is the ground of all comforts: God is my God, and God is our God. First, because he chooses us, and calls us in his due time, and then makes a covenant with us to be our God, and then he knows us, loves us, and preserves us, and so he is our God; because those whom God chooses he knows for his own, and he stirs up corresponding affections, that we may take God and know God to be ours. For there must be an action on God’s part in taking and choosing us, and an action of soul in us to choose God in return. If God says to our souls, I will be your God, then our souls should answer God, “Thou art the strength of my salvation.”

First, God loves us, then knows us, and then we reflect God’s love back on God. Again, he knows us, and we know him in return; he delights in us, and we delight in him. The Scriptures are full of speeches of this kind. There is a reciprocal, natural passage between God and the soul; for in a covenant there must be consent on both sides, and then we make him our God when we choose him before all creatures both in heaven and on earth. Then we have familiarity with him, love him, and trust in him in all our necessities.

Thus we see how God is said to be our God. First, God is ours by election, adoption, by sanctification and redemption. God is our God by dwelling with us; and this ownership, “My God,” is the first of all; for when God says, “Thou art mine,” the soul says, You are mine, and shall be mine. This is an everlasting covenant of salvation: God endures world without end. Our salvation is according to the nature of God, from everlasting to everlasting, from election to glory. Thus God is the God of Abraham from everlasting to everlasting; he is the God of Abraham’s body, now that his soul is in heaven and his body is in the dust (Matt 22:32). Abraham has a being in his love. And so we have an everlasting ownership in that love: God takes us forever, marries us forever (Hos 2:19). Therefore we must trust in God and wait on God, for he is our God and our salvation.

Use 1. I beg you, give me a little leave to press this; for certainly there is more comfort in this word “My God” than in all the words of the world. For what is God to me if he is not my God, and so makes me his? For this same comfort of ownership is more than all the comforts in the world. We value a little patch of ground, or a corner of a house of our own, more than all the city and town where we live. This comforts a man, when he can say, This is mine.

As a man who has a wife, though it may be she is not the best, or the richest, or the fairest, yet she comforts him more, and he takes more contentment in her, than in all the women in the world, because she is his wife; so if a man can say, “O my God,” he need say no more, for it is more than if he could say, All the world is mine. If we have God we have all, and if we had a thousand worlds, all would be nothing to this, if we cannot say, “God is my God.”

Therefore, though the child of God may seem to be a poor man, yet he is the only rich man. Other men have the riches of this world as a kind of usurpers, for they do not have the highest right to them. Worldly men are like bankrupts, who are taken to be rich men because they have a great deal of goods in their possession, but the true right belongs to others, and so they prove in the end to be worth nothing. I beg you, consider what God’s servants have said in times past: “God is my portion” (Lam 3:24). If God is our God, then he will supply all our wants, as it will work for the best to us. This is a great comfort to all Christians, in whatever state they are.

God in dividing things, it may be, has given others honors, beauty, and riches, and natural gifts. Well! God falls to your lot. Let the worldlings, the lascivious and ambitious persons, make themselves merry with their portions in this life; yet let the Christian, in whatever state, glory in his portion, for God is his, and all things else. Though there are many changes in yourself, why should you be discouraged or disquieted in any state whatever? God is yours, to do you good.

Use 2. Again, here is a ground of comfort against all losses whatever. The world and worldly men may strip us of these earthly things, vex our bodies, restrain our liberties, and take away outward things from us; but this is our comfort: they cannot take our God from us, for this is an everlasting portion, my God, my help, my all-sufficiency. In truth, friends, means, and life itself may be taken away, yet God will never fail nor forsake us. We are here today and gone tomorrow, and life is the longest thing we have, for we may outlive our riches and honors. But what then? In Psalm 90:1-2 it is said, “Thou art an everlasting habitation, from everlasting to everlasting,” and we dwell in the fear of God. We had a being in your love, O Lord, before we were ever born, and when we are dead, we are in your love still. What a comfort this is, to cause us to rest in our God, and that forever!

But as for the wicked, it is not so with them; their voice is, “The Philistines are upon me, and God hath forsaken me” (1 Sam 28:15). This is a fearful speech, and it is, or will be, the voice of every wicked man before long. Now they swagger in their prosperity, and no one is so free from care and trouble as they are; but where is their comfort when their consciences are awakened? Then their voice will be, Death and hell and all are upon me, and God has forsaken me; what will become of me and mine? But as for the children of God, let what will come upon them, yet God can command salvation, and he commands comfort to attend his people, for God is my God.

I beg you to enlarge on these things in your own meditations, and do not disquiet yourselves, but believe in God for these things, and for your own happiness in heaven, and cast yourselves on Christ for the pardon of sins in the first place. And then, “trust in God,” and there is nothing in all the world that comes between you and heaven but God will remove it, and bring you safe there. But in this case, many doubts arise:

1. For perseverance.

Objection. I may fall away in time to come.

Answer. I answer that God, who has begun this good work in me, will finish it in his due time (Phil 1:6).

Objection. Yes, but I am changeable.

Answer. It is true, but God is unchangeable. You may be off and on, but God is not so, for the ground of his love is always alike. Therefore fear nothing, for the present or for the time to come.

Objection. Oh, but I have a great many to provide for, and these are hard and evil times.

Answer. God is your God, and the God of your seed; therefore labor to make this sure, that God is your God, and in doing so you provide for yourself and your posterity; and when you are dead and gone, then the living Father will be a God to your posterity and children. Therefore I beg you, trust in God, wait on him, and do not fear the lack of necessities in this life. What foolish children we are, who think God will give us heaven when this life is gone, and yet fear he will not give us such things as will maintain this life, while we are here employed in his service! “The heathen seek after all these things,” says our Savior (Matt 6:32); but “it is your Father’s pleasure to give you a kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

Exhortation. Well, therefore, for provision and protection both in life and death, trust in God for all, and all will be well with us; then wait on God. I beg you, make one thing sure, that is, make God to be our God, by trusting in him and walking worthy of him. And this one care will free you of all other cares. This one study is better than all other studies; for if we can make God our God, then we make all other things ours also.

This requires more than ordinary of a Christian, to walk worthy of the Lord: “Two cannot walk together if they be not agreed,” says Amos (Amos 3:3); therefore this requires great mortification of soul and much holiness, to walk with God. This world does not know what this is, to walk with God in the ways of heaven, where there is nothing but holiness. Therefore we must exercise our communion with God, by praying to him, and by hearing him, and thinking on his word and presence, and abstaining from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. We have a holy God; therefore we must labor for a good measure of holiness, if we will maintain communion with God.

This should compel us to stand for God and his truth, because he is our God. It is strange to see how men do not walk this way. They will part with anything, or do anything, for their lust, but they will not endure to part with anything for God and for the comfort of their souls. Well! Christ stood for us to the death, and gained us life when it could not be had otherwise; and are we too good to stand for a good cause, no, to die for the maintenance of God’s cause? What! Shall we not stand for God? Yes; for he is a “hiding place” to us; and if death comes to us for this cause, he is life to us, and we have a being forever in his love.

But it is good for me to draw near to God (Ps 73:28).

This psalm is a psalm of Asaph, or of David, commended to Asaph, who was a seer and a singer. It represents one in a conflict, afterward recovered, and in a triumphant conclusion. It begins abruptly, as if he had gained this truth: Let the flesh and Satan say what they can, yet of this I am resolved, I find that God is still good to Israel. Then he reveals what the cause of this conflict was. It was his weakness and doubt of God’s promises (Ps 73:13), occasioned by the great prosperity that the wicked enjoyed, described in Psalm 73:2-13. Then he sets down his recovery (Ps 73:17). He went into the sanctuary and saw what God meant to do with them at last. Then follows the accomplishment of the victory (Ps 73:23). I am continually with you. You have held me up. You will guide me now and bring me to glory. Therefore there is no one in heaven but you. Though nature may be surprised, yet God is my help; and as for the wicked, they shall perish; indeed, you have destroyed them. Therefore “it is good for me to draw nigh to God.”

Now from what has been laid open we may observe:

Doctrine 1. God’s dearest children are exercised with sharp conflicts in the faith of first principles, yes, even of God’s providence. This should comfort those whom God permits to cast up the mire and dirt of unbelief. It is the common case of God’s dearest children, yes, of the prophets of God, David, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk, and therefore we ought not to be too much dejected; and all the more because of what we may also note in the second place:

Doctrine 2. God’s children, though they are brought this low, shall still recover, and after recovery comes a triumph. They may begin to slip a little, but God’s hand is still under them, and his goodness is always lower than they can fall. This should teach us to judge our spiritual state rightly, and to expect such conflicts, yet to know that God’s Spirit will still not fail to check and repress such thoughts at the fittest time. By contrast, it is a principle with wicked men to doubt God’s providence, and therefore they allow such temptations to rule in them.

In the next place observe:

Doctrine 3. The way for a Christian to recover his ground in time of temptation is to enter into God’s sanctuary, and not to give his thoughts liberty to range, considering the present state he is in. Instead he should look to former experiences, in himself and in others. He should see the promises and apply them: it shall go well with the righteous, but woe to the wicked, it shall not go well with them. This is to go into the sanctuary; and a happy man are you, and in high favor, whom God admits so near to himself.

The world will tell you of grain, and wine, and oil, and how great and glorious men are here; but the sanctuary will show you that they are set in slippery places. Carnal reason will tell you that God has left the earth; that he does not see, he does not govern, all is out of order. But the sanctuary will show you that all things are beautiful in their time (Eccl 3:11). Mark the end of the righteous (Ps 37:37). See Joseph, once a prisoner, afterward lord of Egypt; Lazarus, once scorned and despised, afterward in Abraham’s bosom; Christ himself, once a rebuke and scorn of all on the cross, but now triumphing on “the right hand of God, far above all principalities and power” (Eph 1:21). All God’s ways are mercy and truth, however much forsaken we may seem for the present.

Again, from David’s observing the state of wicked men (it is said that he saw the prosperity of wicked men), we may gather:

Doctrine 4. Whether it is the eye of faith or the eye of sense, all serves to bring us nearer to God. God sets before the outward view of his children the example of his justice on others, to draw his children nearer home; and it is one main reason why God permits a variety of conditions among men, that his children may gain experience from seeing their behavior and by associating with them.

Last of all, from the connection of this text with the words before it, observe:

Doctrine 5. The course of the children of God is a course contrary to the stream of the world. “They withdraw away from thee, and shall perish,” says the prophet, but “it is good for me to draw near”; as if he had said, Let others take what course they will, it does not much matter; I will look to myself, “it is good for me to draw near to God.” And the reason is:

Reason 1. Because they are guided by the Spirit of God, who is contrary to the world, and the Spirit teaches them to see, not by the opinions of the world, that the world is their best friend, but this: God is my best friend, who will never forsake me. “Many walk that are enemies to the cross of Christ, but our conversation is in heaven” (Phil 3:18-20). And then a Christian has experience of the ways of God, and by it he is every day settled in them. By it he sees what the world works in others, and how God is opposed to them, and in this way he is made more zealous, as in wintertime the body is hotter within than in summer. And those who are well grounded grow stronger by opposition; and however they may sometimes stagger, yet their motion is constant.

Use. If we want to know our spiritual state, let us examine by what rule we lead our life, and what principles we follow. If outward weights, such as the love of the world, self-love, or the like, move us, like clocks that go no longer than the weights hang on them, this shows that we are only actors of the life of a Christian. It shows that we are not naturally moved, that our nature is not changed, and that we are not made “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4); for then our motion would come from above: “My life and flesh may fail, but thou, Lord, wilt never fail” (Ps 73:26). Therefore it is good for me to draw near to you. These words, proceeding from David’s tried experience of the goodness and happiness of this nearness to God, afford us this consideration:

Doctrine 6. God’s Spirit enables his children by experience to justify wisdom. He permits his children to meet with oppositions, that they may see that they stand by an almighty power above their own and above the power of their enemies. “Nothing is so certain as that which is certain after doubt”; and therefore those who have felt the bitterness of their sins know how bitter it is, and those who have been overcome in temptations know that their nature is weak, and those who have felt the inconstancy of the world and its vanity know that it is a bitter thing to be far from God. And therefore they resolve, “I will go to my first husband; for then it was better with me than now” (Hos 2:7); and as the prodigal says, There is meat enough in my father’s house, why then do I perish here with hunger? (Luke 15:17).

And therefore, if we ever think to stand out resolutely in our courses against trials, we must labor for experience, and diligently observe God’s dealings. It is experience that breeds patience and hope. Experience of a truth seals that truth with the words, “It is proved.” And without it, the best and strongest judgments will in time of trial be ready to be jostled out of maintaining that truth, and those who make a great profession will be ashamed of their good courses.

But to come to the particulars. “It is good”; that is, it puts in us a blessed quality and disposition. It makes a man like God himself. And secondly, “it is good,” that is, it is full of comfort; for it is the happiness of the creature to be near the Creator; it is beneficial and helpful.

“To draw near.” How can a man help but be near to God, seeing that he fills heaven and earth? “Whither shall I go from thy presence?” (Ps 139:7). He is always present in power and providence in all places, but graciously present with some by his Spirit, supporting, comforting, and strengthening the heart of a good man. As the soul is said to be “whole in the whole,” and in the several parts by several faculties, so God is present to all, but in different ways. Now we are said to be near to God in various degrees:

1. When our understanding is enlightened, for the understanding is the bride of truth. In this way the young man who spoke discreetly in things concerning God is said not to be far from the kingdom of God (Mark 12:34).

2. In minding, when God is present to our minds, in the way the soul is said to be present to what it minds. By contrast it is said of the wicked that “God is not in all their thoughts” (Ps 10:4).

3. When the will, upon the discovery of the understanding, comes to choose the better part, and is drawn from that choice to cleave to him, as it was said of Jonathan’s heart, “it was knit to David” (1 Sam 18:1).

4. When our whole affections are carried to God, loving him as the chief good. Love is the firstborn affection. That breeds desire of communion with God. From this comes joy in him, so that the soul pants after God, “as the hart after the water springs” (Ps 42:1).

5. And especially, when the soul is touched with the Spirit of God working faith, stirring up dependence, confidence, and trust in God. From this arises sweet communion. The soul is never at rest till it rests on him. Then it is afraid to break with him or to displease him. But it grows zealous and resolute, and hot in love, unbending in good causes, resolute against his enemies. And yet this is not all, for God will also have the outward man, so that the whole man must present itself before God in word and in sacraments. We must speak of him and to him with reverence, and yet with strength of affection, mounting up in prayer as in a fiery chariot. We must hear him speak to us, consulting his oracles, fetching comforts against distresses and directions against maladies.

6. And especially, we draw near to him when we praise him; for this is the work of the souls departed, and of the angels in heaven, who are continually near him.

And thus much for the opening of the words. The prophet here says, “It is good for me.” How did he come to know this? Why, he had found it by experience, and by it he was thoroughly convinced of it. And so:

Doctrine 7. Spiritual conviction is the ground of practice; for naturally the will follows the guidance of the understanding, and when the understanding is convinced of the goodness of this or that thing, the will moves toward it. Now there are four things that go to conviction. First, the understanding must be enlightened to see the truth of the thing, that there is such a thing and that it is no fancy. Second, we must know it to be good, as the gospel is called the good word of God. Third, we must know that it is good for me. And last, upon comparing all these together, we must know that it is the best for me of all, though other things seem to be good in their kind.

A wicked man may be convinced that heaven and grace are good things; but his corrupted affections persuade him that it is better to live in pleasure and lust, and that when death comes he may repent then, for God is merciful. But a good man prefers drawing near to God above all, and therefore we should labor for this conviction of our spirits. For it is not enough to hear, read, discuss, and pray; we must get the Spirit to set his seal to all of it on our hearts. This is what made Moses, in sober weighing of things, choose rather to draw near to God and join with his afflicted brethren than to be in honor in Pharaoh’s court, to be the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, or to enjoy the pleasures of sin, “for he had respect to the reward” (Heb 11:25-26). He was convinced that there was more to be gained with them than among the Egyptians. Thus Abraham came to forsake his country, and the disciples to forsake all and follow Christ.

And undoubtedly the ground of all profaneness is the atheism that is within. Would the swearer trample on the name of God if he believed and were convinced that he would not be guiltless? Would the filthy person come near strange flesh if he were persuaded that God would judge? Would any wicked man exchange an eternal joy for a minute’s pleasure if he believed that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Indeed, even the best have a remainder of this corruption of atheism. David says, “So foolish was I, and a beast” (Ps 73:22). From this come all sins against knowledge and conscience in men, of which David complains: Keep me, that presumptuous sins prevail not over me, or get not dominion over me (Ps 19:13).

And as a remedy against this vile corruption, there is no way but the immediate help of the Holy Spirit. Therefore it is said in John 16:8-9 that the Spirit, when he comes, “shall convince the world of sin”; that is, he shall so manifest sin to be in the whole world, because of the general unbelief, that they shall see no remedy but in Christ. And therefore we should search out beforehand the crafty allurements to sin, that we may be provided with an answer when they set upon us, lest we be suddenly overcome. And we should labor to see the excellency of the things that are freely given us by God, which among other titles are called a feast, “a feast of fat things” (Isa 25:6). Now if we will not feast with him, how do we ever think we will suffer with him, if he should call us to it?

“It is good.” How is it good? Both in quality and condition; for while we are here in this world we are strangers, and in a state of imperfection, as it were. Paul says that while he was present in the body he was absent from the Lord; and the nearer we are to perfection, the nearer we must be to the ground of all perfection, and this is only in God. For:

1. He is goodness itself. He has the beauty of all, the strength of all, the goodness of all, originally in himself. He is the gathering together of all excellency and goodness.

2. He is the universal good. He is good to all. What good anything has comes from him. Of creatures, some have beauty, others riches, others honors, but God has all together.

3. He is the all-sufficient and satisfying good. The goodness of no creature can give full contentment; for the soul of man has capacity for more than all created goodness together can satisfy. It is filled only with God’s likeness, and satisfied only with communion with him. The best thing here to satisfy the soul, as Solomon witnesses, is knowledge; and yet it does not content the heart of man. “Without God all abundance is poverty,” says Bernard. God alone fills every corner of the soul; in him we are swallowed up with “joy unspeakable” and “peace that passeth understanding.” Eye cannot see it, ear cannot hear it, heart of man cannot conceive those things which even in this life are only beams of his brightness (1 Cor 2:9).

4. God is a goodness that is proportioned and fitting to our souls, which are the best part of a man; and what we draw near to must communicate some loveliness, for that is what moves us to draw near to it. Now God is a Spirit fit to converse with our spirits; and he is love, and can answer the love and drawing near of our spirits with love and drawing near to us again. The things of this world cannot love us so as to give us contentment, or to help us in the day of wrath.

5. Nothing can make us happy but drawing near to God. If there were nothing in the world better than man, then man would be content with himself; but by nature it is evident that man sees a better happiness than is in himself, and therefore he seeks it outside himself. And as Solomon tried all things and found no happiness but in the fear of God, so man cannot rest in any outward contentment till he comes to God as the Creator of all happiness, and the wellspring from which the soul had its origin.

And therefore all the gospel is to this end, “that we may have fellowship with the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). And Christ’s sufferings were to this end, “that being dead in flesh, but quickened in the spirit, he might bring us again to God” (1 Pet 3:18); and as Ephesians 1:10, 22 says, “That he might gather all into one head.” By sin we were scattered from God, from angels, and from ourselves; but now by Christ we are made one with one another and with the holy angels, and one with God our chief good.

Use. This should teach us to labor to attain this state of being spiritually convinced of the goodness of God, that we may say by experience, “It is good for me to draw near to God.” For God will not esteem us according to our knowledge, but according to our affections. Therefore he calls the wicked man a worldling, because the world fills him, however great his knowledge may be. And the church in the Revelation is called heaven, because their affections and minds are set that way (Rev 21:1). And again, the more we are convinced of God’s goodness, the better we are; for God’s goodness, tasted and felt by the soul, ennobles it, as a pearl set in a gold ring makes it the more rich and precious.

But to come to the state that is so commended to us, it is described to us as drawing near to God, so that we may take this as a received ground:

Doctrine 8. Man’s happiness is in communion with God. Before the fall of man, there was a familiar fellowship with God; but by the sin of our first parents we lost this great happiness, and now we are strangers, and as contrary to God as light is to darkness, and hell to heaven. He is holy, we are impure; he is full of knowledge, we are stark fools. And instead of delighting in him, we now tremble at his presence, and are afraid of such creatures as approach near to him, trembling at the presence of angels, yes, afraid of a holy man: “What have I to do with thee, thou man of God? art thou come to call my sins to remembrance?” (1 Kgs 17:18). And therefore we flee the company of good men, because their conduct and course of life upbraid us; and this is why, at the least apprehension of God’s displeasure, wicked men quake. The heathen emperor trembled at a thunderclap.

But God, in his infinite mercy and goodness, did not leave us, but entertained a purpose to choose some to draw near to him; and to this end he has found out a way for man and himself to meet, but no way for the angels. The foundation of this union is in Christ, in whom he reconciled the world to himself; for he, being God, became man, so as to draw man back again to God. And thus, like Jacob’s ladder, one end of it is in heaven, the other on earth. The angels ascending and descending show a sweet interchange between God and man, now reconciled together, so that Christ is now “a living way” forever, being “the way, the truth, and the life.”

He is a way far nearer and surer than we had in Adam; for in Adam God was in man, but now man subsists in God, so that our nature is now strengthened by him, who has also enriched and advanced it. And what he has wrought in his own human nature, he will little by little work in all his mystical members. So, being once far off, we are now made near, and this he did principally by his death, for reconciliation is made by his blood (Col 1:20). And thus, by the admirable mystery of his deep wisdom, he has found a means to make the seemingly opposite attributes of justice and mercy kiss each other, so that we are saved, and yet his infinite justice has full contentment. For how could his hatred of sin appear more gloriously than in punishing it on his own only beloved Son? And therefore he is worthily called “our peace”; for he is that great peacemaker, offering himself up, and us in him, “as a sweet-smelling sacrifice, acceptable to God” (Phil 4:18).

Now that we have thus been brought near to God, he has put into us his own Spirit, to keep and maintain this nearness so that nothing may separate us again, so that we are one spirit with Christ; and by that Spirit he works in us and by us. By that Spirit we hear, read, and pray. And as by the soul in us our bodies live, breathe, move, and the like, so he makes his Spirit move in us to a holy conduct and a heavenly life, we being thus made “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4); and this sanctifies us to a holy communion with God. Therefore the apostle prays in 2 Corinthians 13:14, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with them”; that is, for a fuller manifestation of the love of God in sending Christ, the grace of Christ in coming to us, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, because by it we are made to live a holy life and to commune with God. And thus the three persons in the Trinity conspire together in bringing man back again to be nearer to God.

Use 1. Now, for the use of this, it should teach us how to think of God, not as all justice and power, hating sin and sinners, but as a Father, now laying aside terrible things that may scare us from drawing near to him, and as a God stooping down to our human nature, to take both it and our miserable condition on himself. And let us see our nature not only suffering with Christ, but rising, yes, now in heaven united to God; and this will feed the soul with inestimable comfort.

Use 2. Labor to be nearer to him, by a fuller participation of his Spirit. Those who do not have Christ’s Spirit are none of his. By him we in Christ have access to God; and therefore the more spiritual we are, the nearer access we have to the secrets of God. In our first state, we are altogether flesh and have no spirit; in our present state of grace, we are partly flesh and partly spirit; in our third state, in heaven, we shall be all spiritual. Yes, our bodies shall be spiritual (1 Cor 15:44). The body is sown natural, but it shall be raised spiritual, and shall be obedient to our souls in all things, and our souls shall be wholly possessed and led by the Spirit of God, so that then God shall be all in all with us. And as means to this:

1. Labor to be familiar with spiritual means, such as hearing the word and receiving the sacraments. God annexes his Spirit to his own ordinances; and that is why, in communion with God in the ordinances, men’s apprehensions are so enlarged that they are many times spiritually sick, and long after the blessed enjoyment of God’s presence in heaven. But take heed how we come; think what we have to do, and with whom. Do not come without the garment of Christ; and it is no matter how beggarly we are, for this food is not appointed for angels, but for men. And come with a humble heart, as Elizabeth did: Who am I, that (not the mother of my Lord) God himself from heaven should come to me! (Luke 1:43).

2. Keep company with those who draw near to him. God is present where two or three are assembled in his name, warming their hearts with love and affection, as it is said of the two disciples going to Emmaus, Did not our hearts burn within us while we walked in the way, and conferred of the sayings? (Luke 24:32). Oh, it is a notable sign of a spiritual heart to seek spiritual company; for when their hearts join together, they warm one another, and by this are guarded from temptations. Indeed, the wicked themselves will be restrained in God’s company. Saul, a wicked man, will now prophesy among the prophets (1 Sam 10:12). If by good company carnal men themselves in a manner draw near to God, how acceptable this ought to be to us, and how powerful in us!

3. And especially, be much in prayer; for this is not only a main part of this duty of drawing near to God, but a great help toward it. God is near to all who call on him; for those are nearest to God when their understandings, affections, desires, trust, hope, and faith are busied about God. And therefore, as Moses’s face shone from being in the presence of God, so those who are practiced in this duty of prayer have a luster cast on their souls, and their minds are brought into a heavenly temper and made fit for anything that is divine.

I could wish that men would be more in public prayer, and that they would not forget private prayer, if they ever intend the comfort of their souls, not only hereafter, but even during this present life. For every day’s necessities and dangers, in the midst of many enemies (the devil, the flesh, and the world, ill company, and strong corruptions), should invite us to cast ourselves into the protection of an almighty Savior. There is not a minute of time in all our life when we do not have to be near God, or else we are undone.

4. Observe the first motions of sin in our hearts that may “grieve the Spirit of God” in the least manner, and check them at the first. Give no slumber to your eyes, then, nor the reins to your desires: “Thou, O man of God, fly the lusts of youth” (2 Tim 2:22). The best things in us, if they come from nature in us, God abhors. Rebuke, therefore, the first motions, before they come to delight or action. God abhors one who gives liberty to his thoughts more than one who falls into a grievous sin now and then through strength of temptation. And such shall sooner find comfort of the pardon of their sins, for they cannot but see their offenses to be heinous, and so have ground of abasement in themselves. But the others, thinking of the smallness of their sins, or at least that God is not much offended with thoughts, fill themselves with contemplative wickedness, and chase away the Spirit of God, who cannot endure an unclean heart. We must therefore keep ourselves pure and unspotted of this present world, “for the pure in heart shall see God” (Matt 5:8); and “without holiness none shall ever see him” (Heb 12:14).

The least sin in thought, if it is entertained, eats out the strength of the soul, so that it can receive no good from God, nor close with him, and so it performs all duties in a dead and hollow way: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer” (Ps 66:18). And this is why so little good is wrought in the ordinances of God. Men bring their lusts along with them. They neither know the sweetness of the presence of God’s Spirit, nor do they desire it. It is a true rule that every sin has some punishment intrinsically in it. But it is not the punishment that is the proper venom or poison of sin, but this: that it hinders the Spirit of God from us, and keeps us from him, and unfits us for life or for death. But this inward divorce from God’s Spirit is, above all, the most bitter stab that can befall anyone who ever tasted the sweetness of Christian profession.

Now, for the better keeping of our thoughts, we should labor to watch against our outward senses, so that thoughts are not darted into us by them. The wise man says, “The eyes of the fool are in the corners of the world” (Prov 17:24). And therefore, let men profess what they will, when they go to lewd company and filthy places, where corruptions are shot into them by all their senses, they can neither take delight in drawing near to God, nor can God take any delight in drawing near to them. Dinah, who will be straying abroad, comes home with shame. And that soul which either straggles after temptations, or allows temptations to enter into it uncontrolled, in both ways grieves God, and that good Spirit who should lead us to him.

As for such as live in gross sins, such as lying, blaspheming, swearing, drunkenness, adultery, or the like, let them never think of drawing near to God. They must first be civilized before they can appear to be religious. And on the contrary, they proclaim to the whole world that they say to God, “Depart from us, for we will none of thy ways” (Job 21:14), so that God draws away from them, and they draw away from him.

5. Be in God’s walks and ordinances in a course of doing good, in our Christian or civil calling, sanctified by prayer and a holy dependence on God for strength, wisdom, and success. Do not go out of those ways in which he gives his angels charge of our persons and actions, and whatever we do. Labor to do it with perfection, as our Father in heaven is perfect.

6. Observe God’s dealings with the church, both formerly and now in these days, and how he deals and has formerly dealt with ourselves, so that from experience of his faithfulness to us we may gather confidence to approach near him on any occasion. God’s works and words answer one another: “Hath he said, and shall he not do it?” (Num 23:19). He is always good to Israel. Observe therefore how all things work together for your particular drawing near to him; for if all things work together for your good, then it must of necessity be for your drawing near to God, and for drawing you away from this present world. And observe how your soul answers the purpose of God, how your affections are bent, and so how all comes out for your benefit at last. See God in afflictions, embittering ill courses in you; in your success in your affairs, encouraging you; and thus walk with God. But evermore think of him as of a Father in covenant with you.

7. Labor to maintain humility, having evermore a sense of your unworthiness, and wants, and continual dependence on God, and thus humble yourself to walk with him. Hence the saints in God’s presence call themselves “dust and ashes,” as Abraham does (Gen 18:27), and less than the least of God’s mercies, as Jacob does (Gen 32:10). God is “a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29), and will be sanctified in all who come near him. He will give grace to the humble, but beholds the proud from afar off, as they look on others: “Draw near to the Lord, and he will draw near to you” (Jas 4:8). Humble yourselves under “the mighty hand of God” (1 Pet 5:6), and he will lift you up. He who lifts himself up makes himself a god; and God will endure no rivals. On the contrary, he dwells in the heart of the humble (Isa 66:2); and in the Psalms, “An humble and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Ps 51:17). But pride he abhors as an abomination of desolation.

8. Labor for sincerity in all our actions. Whatever we do to God or man, do it with a single eye, resolved to please God. Let men say what they will, “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (Jas 1:8). And what is a double-minded man, but one who has one eye on God, and another on a side-interest? If religion fails him, he will have the favor of men, or wealth; yet he would gladly have both, for credit’s sake. Such are gross time-servers; and in time it will appear of time-servers that their religion serves only as a cloak for their vile hypocrisy. This God loathes, and will “spew them out” (Rev 3:16).

9. Observe the first motions of God’s Spirit, and give diligent heed to them, for by these God knocks for entrance into the heart: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (Rev 3:20). God is near when he knocks, when he puts inclinations into the heart and sharpens them with afflictions. If, then, we stop our ears, we may say the kingdom of God was near unto us; but if he once ceases knocking, our mouths shall forever be stopped. And this is why so many live daily under the means of grace, and yet live in vile courses, as if God had determined their doom. They have resisted the first motions, and close with their lusts, and so God pronounces a curse: “Make this people’s heart fat” (Isa 6:10). On the contrary, as for those who will open to God while he continues knocking, God will come in and make an everlasting tabernacle in them, and sup with them (Rev 3:20).

Lastly, settle daily the controversies that arise in us through the inconstancy of our deceitful hearts. Repentance must be every day’s work, renewing our covenant, especially every morning and evening. Repair breaches by confession; and, considering the contrariness of our hearts, commit them to God by prayer: “Knit my heart to thee, that I may fear thy name” (Ps 86:11).

A third use of this doctrine is for instruction.

1. It teaches us, first, that a Christian who thus draws near to God is the wisest man. He has God’s word, reason, and experience to justify his course. He is the wisest man who is wise for himself. The Christian feels it and knows it, and can justify himself. Paul suffered, and was not ashamed. Why? “I know,” he says, “whom I have believed” (2 Tim 1:12). Let men scorn; I do not care for man’s censure. They shall never scorn me out of my religion. And as for them, Scripture, which can best judge, calls those wicked men fools; for they refuse God, who is the chiefest good, and seek for contentment where none is to be found. On the other hand, if we do set our hearts on honor, or riches, or pleasure, God is so gracious that in religion he gives us abundance of these. In God is all fullness; in Christ are unsearchable riches; in God everlasting strength, and his favor is better than the life itself (Ps 63:3). Ahithophel was wise, but it was to hang himself; Saul a mighty man, but to shed his own blood; Haman’s honor ended in shame.

2. Hence we may learn how to justify zeal in religion. If to be near God is good, then the nearer him the better; if religion is good, then the more the better; if holiness is good, then the more the better. It is best to excel in the best things. Who was the best man but Christ, and why? He was nearest the fountain. And who are next but the angels, and why? Because they are always in God’s presence. And who next but those who are nearest to Christ? If we could get angelic holiness, would it not be commendable? And therefore it should shame us to be backward and cold, and to have so little zeal as to be ashamed of goodness, as most are.

3. This should teach us that a man must not break with God for the sake of any creature whatever. It is good to lose all for God. Why? Because we have riches in him, liberty in him, all in him. A man may be a king on earth, and yet a prisoner in himself; and if we lose anything, though it be our own life, for God, we shall save it. If we are swallowed up by outward misery, the Spirit of God, who “searcheth the deep things of God” (1 Cor 2:10), passes and repasses, and puts into us a relish of the “unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph 3:8). “Taste and see how good God is” (Ps 34:8). “How excellent is thy lovingkindness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee” (Ps 36:7). “How precious are thy thoughts to me, O Lord” (Ps 139:17). Peter said, when he felt but a spark of the divine power, “Thou hast the words of everlasting life, whither then shall I go?” (John 6:68).

A further use of this doctrine shall be a use of trial, to know whether we draw near to God or not.

1. Where this is, then, there will be a further desire for increase of communion with God. The soul will not rest content with a measure. Moses had been welcomed by God on several occasions: he had seen him in “the bush,” and on Mount Sinai, and many other times; but not content with this, he was determined to see God’s face (Exod 33:11 and following). And so too Abraham: he gains upon God still more and more ground in his prayers. “What if fifty, what if forty, what if twenty, what if ten righteous be found there?” he says (Gen 18:24 and following). And Jacob, how often he was blessed! Isaac blessed him when he was to go into Padan-aram, and he was blessed when he was there, at his return; and yet when he comes to wrestle with the angel, he says, “I will not let thee go till thou bless me” (Gen 32:26). And the reason is that as God is a fountain never to be drawn dry, so man is an emptiness never filled, but our desires increase still until we arrive in heaven. And therefore the more we work, and the more we pray, and the more good we do, the more our desires increase in doing good.

2. This will appear in abasing or humbling ourselves, as it was with Abraham. The nearer God is, the more humbly he falls on his face, and confesses he is but “dust and ashes.” The angels, in token of reverence, cover their faces, being in the presence of God. And it is a universal mark that all such as draw near to God are humble and reverent in holy duties; and therefore proud persons have no communion with God at all.

3. The nearer we are to God, the more we admire heavenly things, and count all others “dross and dung,” as St. Paul does (Phil 3:8). When the sun rises, the stars vanish; and those who do not admire the joy, peace, and happiness of a Christian are unacquainted with drawing near to God.

4. When we have a sense and sight of sin, then we may truly be said to “draw near,” and to be near to God; for by his light our eyes are enlightened, and we are quickened by his heat and love. And hence we come to see little sins as great sins, and are afraid of the beginnings of sin: “Lord, purge me from my secret sins; create in me a new heart; oh let the thoughts of my heart be always acceptable in thy sight” (Ps 19:12). And those who make no scruple of worldly affairs on the Lord’s day, of light, small oaths, as they call them, or of corrupt talk, neither are near to God nor can draw near to him.

5. The nearer we draw to God, the more is our rest. “Come unto me, all you that are weary and heavy laden, and you shall find rest unto your souls” (Matt 11:28). “The sorrows of those that worship another god shall be multiplied” (Ps 16:4), and therefore they may well go on doubting. And therefore such people, if they are in their right minds, never end their days in comfort.

6. In all distresses, those who draw near to God will fly to him with confidence; but a guilty conscience is afraid of God, as of a creditor who owes the guilty man punishment, or who intends to cast him into perpetual prison. And as a child will in all his wrongs go and complain to his father, so if we have the spirit of sons we have access to God, and peace with God (Rom 5:2 and following), and can come boldly to the throne of grace, to find help in him at need.

7. He who is near to God is neither afraid of God nor of any creature, for God and he are on good terms. In the midst of thundering and lightning, Moses has heart to go near, when the Israelites fly and stand afar off: “The Lord is the strength of my salvation, of whom shall I be afraid?” (Ps 27:1). “He that feareth the Lord will not be afraid of evil tidings” (Ps 112:7). But, on the contrary, on the wicked there are fears, and snares, and pits. They fear where no cause of fear is; and when God reveals his terror, then indeed “the sinners in Sion are afraid, and the hypocrites that make show of holiness are surprised with fearfulness; who amongst us shall dwell with devouring fire, and who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Isa 33:14).

8. The nearer we are to God, the more in love we will be with spiritual exercises; the nearer to God, the more in love with all means to draw near to him, such as books, sermons, good company. My delight “is in the excellent of the earth” (Ps 16:3); “Oh how I love thy law” (Ps 119:97); “How beautiful are thy dwelling-places, O Lord of hosts” (Ps 84:1).

9. He who is near God is so warmed with love of him that he will stand against opposition, and that out of experience: “He that delivered me out of the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hands of this uncircumcised Philistine” (1 Sam 17:37). And out of his experience he will be encouraged to use the ordinances of God. He will pray, because he has found the sweetness of it. He will be in good company, because he finds it preserves him in a better temper for the service of God. He will hear the word spiritually and plainly laid open to him, because he has found the power of it in renewing and quickening his affections and desires.

And those who do not draw near to God either loathe, or at least are indifferent to, days, companies, exercises. All are alike to them; and they wonder at the fastidiousness of Christians who take so much labor and pains, when a man may go to heaven at a much easier rate. And, on the contrary, Christians wonder just as much at them, that they are so careless, when few are called; and of those who are called, some hear the word, but receive it not. Some receive, and in time of trial fall off (Luke 8:5), so that not even the third part of hearers are saved.

What then now remains but that we should be encouraged to this duty of drawing near to God? We see how Scripture, reason, and experience prove that it is a thing necessary and profitable; and those who are far from God shall perish, and those who go a-whoring from him he will destroy, as it is in the foregoing verse. Those who are of a whorish judgment, or whose affections run after lust or covetousness or the like, God will curse; for all sin is but adultery, or defiling of the soul with the creature. And therefore labor for chaste judgments and affections; love him and fear him above all, and this is the whole duty of man; and use other creatures in their own place, as creatures should be used.

We do not know what troubles and difficulties we shall meet with before long, in which neither friends nor all the world can do us any good. And then happy shall we be if, with a comforted heart, we can go to God with David: “Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help” (Ps 22:11). If God is then far off from us when trouble is near to us, we may go and cry to him; but his answer will be, “You shall eat the fruit of your own way; you have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof” (Prov 1:31). You would not draw near to me; you shall now call and seek to me, but now you shall not draw near to me, you shall not find me.

What, then, can our friends do? What can the whole world then supply to us, when sickness comes as “an armed man,” and death as a mighty giant, against whom there is no resisting, but whether we will or not, away we must be gone? Then to have a God near us, to whom we may go as Peter did in the storm, “O Master, save me, I perish” (Matt 14:30)! Then to have a friend in heaven, who can for the present guide us by his counsel, and instruct us against Satan’s wiles and our deceitful hearts, and be a safeguard to us in the fire and in the water, in the dungeon, and when we are in the greatest depths of misery to outward sense!

Though we are in death, in the shadow of death, and in the valley of the shadow of death, yet he can send us such cheerful remembrances of his love that the cloud shall be scattered, the shadow taken away, and death, an enemy, shall be a friend; indeed, a friendly meeting between God and the soul, so that the soul shall triumph in death, and shall delight to die, and desire it: “Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace, for,” by the eye of faith, I have “waited for thy salvation” (Luke 2:29). I say, then the sweetness of this state of drawing near to God will be made plain to us, and then we shall not repent of any labor or travail spent in our lifetime in attaining such a condition.

But it is good for me to draw near to God (Ps 73:28).

This psalm is a psalm of Asaph, or a psalm of David committed to Asaph the singer, for Asaph was both a seer and a singer. Those psalms that David made were committed to Asaph, and so it is thought to be a psalm of David. And if not of David, then of Asaph, who likewise was a singer in the house of God.

The psalm represents to us a man in a spiritual conflict, by a disclosure of the cause of it and a recovery out of the conflict, with a triumphant conclusion afterward.

1. He begins abruptly, as a man newly come out of a conflict: “Truly God is good to Israel” (Ps 73:1), as if he had gained this truth in conflicting with his corruptions and with Satan, who joins with corruption in opposing. Let the flesh say what it can, let Satan say what he can, let carnal men say what they can, “yet God is good to Israel.”

2. After his conflict he sets down the disclosure, first of his weakness, and then of his doubting of God’s providence, and then the cause of it, the prosperity of the wicked and God’s contrary dealing with the godly. Then he discloses the danger he had come to: “Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency” (Ps 73:13).

3. And then the recovery: “I went into the sanctuary, and there I understood the end of these men” (Ps 73:17). The recovery was by going into the sanctuary; not by looking at the present condition, but at God’s intention, at what should become of such men. And there he had satisfaction.

4. Then his victory and triumph over all: “Nevertheless I am continually with thee” (Ps 73:23). It was a suggestion of the flesh that you had gone far from me, because of the condition of carnal men who flourish in the eye of the world. No: “Thou art continually with me, and thou holdest me by my right hand.” You uphold me; otherwise I would fall. But what, would God do so for the time to come? “He will guide me by his counsel,” while I live here and when I am dead. What will he do for me afterward? “He will receive me to glory” (Ps 73:24). Whereupon he says, “Who have I in heaven but thee? and there is none in earth that I desire besides thee” (Ps 73:25). Therefore, though for the present “my flesh fail,” yes, and “my heart fail,” yet God is the “strength of my heart, and my portion for ever” (Ps 73:26).

We see his victory set down here, and he gives it a luster by God’s contrary dealing with the wicked: “For lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a-whoring from thee” (Ps 73:27). Now, in the words of the text, you have his conclusion upon all this: “Nevertheless it is good for me to draw near to God.”

This is the conclusion upon the former principles. This is, as it were, the verdict upon the objections raised before. The sum of it all comes to this: Let all things be weighed and laid together, and I am sure this is true, “it is good for me to draw near to God.” So he ends where he began, “God is good to Israel.” Therefore, because God is so good to Israel, “it is good to draw near to God.” So you see in what order the words come. They are the words of a man who has gotten out of a conflict, after he had entered into the sanctuary, and after he had considered the end of wicked men, at whose prosperity he was troubled and stumbled.

Before I come to the words, it is not amiss briefly to touch on these points, to make way for what I have to deliver.

1. God’s dearest children are exercised with sharp spiritual conflicts.

God sometimes allows their very faith in first principles to be shaken. What is clearer than God’s providence? Not the noonday. Yet God sometimes allows his own children to be exercised with conflicts of this kind, to doubt principles written in the book of God as it were with a sunbeam, principles that have a luster in themselves. There is nothing clearer than that God has a particular, special providence over his own. Yet God’s ways are so unsearchable and deep that he spiritually exercises his children; he allows them to be exercised, as you see here that this man comes out of a conflict: “but it is good for me to draw near to God.”

I will only touch on it. Therefore I will extend it only to God’s people, so that if, because of the remainders of corruption, God allows their rebellious hearts to cast up mire and dirt, to throw in objections that are odious to the spiritual man, that part which is good, they may not be too much cast down and dejected. It is no different with them than it has been with God’s dear children, as we see in Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and others. It is a clear truth. I only point to it so that we may have it ready to comfort ourselves when such things rise in our souls. It is no different with us than it has been with others of God’s dear children.

2. God’s children, when they are in this conflict, recover themselves.

God allows them to be defeated, but then they recover themselves. First there is a conflict, and then often the defeat. A man is defeated by the worst part in him, and then after a while he recovers; and then, as in other conflicts, there is triumph and victory, as we see here his conflict and recovery.

For God’s children do not go far from him, as it is said, “Lo, they that are far off from thee shall perish” (Ps 73:27). They may have their thoughts unsettled a little concerning God’s providence, but they do not run far off; they do not go a-whoring, as carnal men do. They begin to slip, but God has a blessed hand under them to recover them, so that they do not fall away, so that they do not fall foully. They may slip and fall a little, to stand better and surer afterward, but they do not go far off as wicked men do. They never slip so low that God’s goodness is not lower still to hold them up. He has one hand under them and another hand above them, embracing them, so that they cannot fall dangerously. This is the second point, from what we see here: he recovers out of this conflict.

Use. This may serve to discern our state in grace. If we belong to God, then though such noisome imaginations rise, there is nevertheless a contrary principle of grace always in God’s children that checks them, at least afterward, if not immediately. Such noisome thoughts as these rule and reign in carnal men, for they stumble at God’s government, and they judge, indeed, that the ways of wicked men are happy. They have false principles, and they frame their course of life to such false principles and rules, from cherishing atheistical doubts of God’s providence and the like. It is far otherwise with God’s children. There are conflicts in them, but there is a recovery; they check these things immediately; they have God’s Spirit and the seed of grace in them. That is never extinct.

3. The way of recovery is to enter into God’s sanctuary. For we must not give ourselves liberty to languish in such a course, to look too much at present things, but must look into God’s book, and there we shall find what is threatened to such and such evil courses, and what promises are made to good courses. And then apply God’s truth to the example. See how God has met with wicked men at the height of their prosperity, and advanced his children when they were at the lowest, when they were even at the brink of despair. Examples of this kind are compelling and clear throughout the Scripture. The Lord says, “It shall go well with the righteous, and it shall not go well with the wicked” (Eccl 8:12-13); Let him escape a thousand times. “Doubtless there is a reward for the godly” (Ps 58:11). Let us look in the book of God at the predictions, and see the verifying of those predictions in the examples that act out the rules and bring them into view. Let us see the truths in the examples.

This entering into God’s sanctuary is the way to free us from dangerous stumbling blocks and to overcome dangerous conflicts; for the conclusions of the sanctuary are clean contrary to carnal reason, which goes by the senses. Carnal reason says, Such a one is a happy man; surely he is in great favor; God loves him. Oh, but the sanctuary says, It will never go well with such a man. Carnal reason would say of Dives, Oh, a happy man! But the sanctuary says, He had his good here, and Lazarus had his ill here (Luke 16:25). Carnal reason says, Is there any providence that rules on the earth? Is there a God in heaven, who allows these things to go on so confusedly? Yes, but the word of God, the sanctuary, says there is a providence that rules all things sweetly, and that “all things are beautiful in their time” (Eccl 3:11).

We must not look at things in their confusion, but knit things together. Mark the end, mark the end of the righteous man (Ps 37:37). Look at Joseph in prison. Here is a horrible stumbling block! For where was God’s providence to watch over a poor young man? But see him afterward, the second man in the kingdom. Look at Lazarus at the rich man’s door, and there is a stumbling block; but see him afterward in Abraham’s bosom. If we see Christ arraigned before Pilate and crucified on the cross, here is a stumbling block, that innocence itself should be wronged. But stay awhile! See him at the right hand of God, ruling principalities and powers, subjecting all things under his feet (Eph 1:21).

Thus the sanctuary teaches us to knit one thing to another, and not to look brokenly at things present, according to the dreams of men’s devices; but to look at the final turn and winding up of the tragedy; not to look at the present conflict, but to go to the sanctuary and see the end of all, to see how God directs all things to a sweet end. “All the ways of God to his children are mercy and truth” (Ps 25:10), though they seem ever so full of anger and displeasure. Thus you see that God’s children are often in conflict, and sometimes they are defeated in the conflict; yet by way of recovery they go into the sanctuary, and there they have spiritual eye-salve. They have another manner of judging things than “flesh and blood” has.

4. Again, we see that when he went into the sanctuary, the very sight of faith makes him draw near to God. Sometimes God represents heavenly truths to the eye of sense, in the examples of his justice. We sometimes see wicked men brought on the stage. God blesses such a sight of faith, and such examples, to bring his children nearer to him; as we see immediately before the text, “thou wilt destroy all that go a-whoring from thee” (Ps 73:27), and then it follows, “It is good for me to draw near to God.” So the Spirit of God in us, and our spirits sanctified by the Spirit, take advantage, when we enter into the sanctuary and see the diverse ends of good and bad, to draw us close to God.

Indeed, that is one reason why God allows different conditions of men to be in the world: not so much to show his justice to the wicked, as that his children, seeing his justice and his mercy, and the manifestation and disclosure of his providence in ordering his justice toward wicked men, may by this be made to cleave to his mercy more, and that it may give a luster to his mercy. It is good for me to cleave to the Lord. I see what will become of all others.

5. The next point follows upon this, that God’s children, thus conflicting and going into the sanctuary, and seeing the end of all there, go a contrary course to the world. They swim against the stream. As we say of the stars and planets, they have a motion of their own, contrary to the motion that sweeps them along, by which they are carried and whirled around in twenty-four hours from east to west. They have a creeping motion and period of their own, as the moon has a motion of her own backward from west to east, which she makes every month; and the sun has a separate motion, apart from the sweeping motion he is carried with, by which he goes around in a year.

So God’s children live and keep company, and are carried with the same motion as the world is. They live among men, and keep company as men do; but nevertheless they have a contrary motion of their own, to which they are directed and carried by the Spirit of God, as here the holy prophet says, “It is good for me to draw near to God.” It is as if he should say: As for other men, be they great or small, be they of whatever condition they will, let them take what course they will, and let them see how they can justify their course, and take what benefit they can; let them reap as they sow. It does not matter much what course they take. I will look to myself. As for me, I am sure this is my best course, “to draw near to God.”

So the sanctified spirit of a holy man does not look to the stream of the times, to what the currents are, and the opinions and courses of rising to preferment, of getting riches, of attaining an imaginary present happiness here. He has other thoughts, he has another judgment of things, and therefore he goes contrary to the world’s course. Hear St. Paul, who says, “All men seek their own, (I cannot speak of it without weeping,) whose end is damnation, whose belly is their god, who mind earthly things” (Phil 2:21; Phil 3:18-19). But what does St. Paul do, when other men seek their own and are carried after private ends? Oh, he says, “our conversation is in heaven, from whence we look for the Saviour, who shall change our vile bodies, and make them like his glorious body, according to his mighty power, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself” (Phil 3:20-21).

So you see the blessed apostle, led by the same Spirit as the man of God here. He does not consider what men do; he does not fetch the rules of his life from the example of the great ones of the world or from the multitude. These are false, deceiving rules. But he fetches the rule of his life from the goodness he had found by experience in a course contrary to the world. Let the world take what course they will, “it is good for me to draw near to God.”

6. I might add a little further that the course and corrupt principles of the world are so far from shaking a child of God that they settle him. They stir up his zeal the more. As we say, there is an increasing of contraries by contraries, as we see that in winter the body is warmer because the heat is kept in, and springs are warmer in winter because the heat is kept in. So the Spirit of God, in the hearts of his children, works and boils when it is surrounded by contraries. It gathers strength and breaks out with more zeal, as with David, when he saw that men did not keep God’s law. We see how he complains to God, “It is time, Lord, for thee to work” (Ps 119:126). Indeed, it is the nature of opposition to increase the contrary. Those who have the Spirit and grace of God in truth gather strength by opposition.

Use. Therefore the use we are to make of it is to discern of ourselves what spirit we are of, what principles we lead our lives by. If it is by examples of greatness, or of the multitude, or the like, that is evidence that we are led by the spirit of the world and not by the Spirit of God. God’s children, as they are severed from the world in condition (they are men of another world), so they are severed from the world in disposition, in their course and conduct. Therefore, from these grounds, their course is contrary to the world.

“But it is good for me”: “but” is not in the original. It is, “And it is good for me”; but the other is aimed at. The sense is, “But it is good for me to draw near to God,” and so it is in the latest translation. Thus you see what way we have made to the words. I only touch on these things, and it was necessary to say something of them, because the words are a triumphant conclusion upon the former premises.

7. And in the words, in general, observe this first of all, that God by his Spirit enables his children to justify wisdom by their own experience.

They make it good by their own experience: “It is good for me to draw near to God.” And this is one reason why God allows them to be shaken, and then in conflict to recover, that after recovery they may justify the truth. “Nothing is so certain as that which is certain after doubting.” Nothing is so fixed as that which is fixed after it has been shaken, just as the trees have the strongest roots because they are most shaken with winds and tempests. Now God allows the understanding, that is, the inward man, of the best men to be shaken, and afterward settles them, so that even from experience they may justify all truths; so that they may say, It is wicked, it is a bitter thing to sin. Satan has abused me, and my own lust has abused me and enticed me away from God; but I see no such good thing in sin as nature persuaded me before.

As travelers will tell men, You live poorly here. In such a country you may do wondrously well. There you will have plenty and respect. And when they come there, and are pinched with hunger and disrespect, they come home with shame enough to themselves that they were so beguiled. So it is with God’s children. Sometimes he allows them to be defeated, and lets them have the reins of their lusts awhile, to taste a little of the forbidden tree, so that afterward they may say with experience, It is a bitter thing to forsake God, it is better to go to my “former husband,” as the church says in Hosea, when God took her in hand a little (Hos 2:7). Sin will be bitter at the last. So the prodigal was allowed to range till he was whipped awhile, and then he could confess it was better to be in his “father’s house.” God allows his children to fall into some course of sin, so that afterward, by experience, they may justify good things and be able to say that God is good.

And the judgment of such people is firmer, and does more good, than that of those who have been kept from sinking at all. God, in his wise providence, allows this.

Use. We should labor, therefore, to justify in our own experience all that is good. What is the reason that men are ashamed of good courses so soon? It may be they are persuaded a little to pray, and to sanctify the Lord’s day, to withdraw from vanity and the like. Yes, but if their judgments are not settled out of the book of God, and if they do not have some experience, they will not maintain this; therefore they are driven off.

Now a Christian should be able to justify by his own experience, against all gainsayers, whatever can be said. That to read the book of God, and to hear holy truths opened by men led by the Spirit of God, is a good thing: I find God’s Spirit sanctifying me by it. To sanctify the Lord’s day: I find it good by experience. That where there is the communion of saints and holy conversation: I can justify it, even if there were no Scripture for it. I find by experience that it is a blessed way to bring me to a heavenly temper, to fit me for heaven. So there is no good course for which God’s children should not be able, both by Scripture and likewise by their own experience, to answer all gainsayers. When either their own hearts or others oppose it, a child of God may be able to say with the holy man here, It is no matter what you say, “it is good for me to draw near to God.” So much for the general. To come more particularly to the words.

“It is good for me to draw near to God.”

Here you have the justification of piety, of holy courses, which is set down by “drawing near to God”; and the argument by which it is justified, “It is good.” This gloss put upon anything commends it to man; for naturally, since the fall, there is so much left in man that he draws to what is good. But when he comes to particulars, there is the error: he seeks heaven in the way of hell, he seeks happiness in the way of misery, he seeks light in the way of darkness, and life in the way and path of death. His lusts so hurry him and carry him the contrary way. But yet there is left this general foundation of religion in all men; as the heathen could say, naturally all men, from the principles of nature, draw to what is good.

Here religious courses are justified and commended from that which has the best, the attractive and most magnetic force: “It is good to draw near to God.” “Good” has a drawing force; for the understanding shows and discloses, but the will is the chief guide in man, and in answer to the disclosure of good or evil in the understanding, there is a pursuit or a turning away in the will, which is that part in the soul of man that cleaves to good once it is disclosed. To unfold the words a little.

“It is good” to draw near to God, who is the chief good. It is good in quality, and good in condition and state. It is good in quality and disposition, for it is the good of conformity for the creature that has understanding to draw near to God the Creator, who has fitted the whole inward man to draw near, to conform to him.

And then it is good in condition, for it is the creature’s happiness to do so. The goodness of the creature lies in drawing near to God. The nearer anything is to the source of such a thing, the better it is for it. The nearer to the sun, the more light; the nearer to the fire, the more heat; the nearer to that which is goodness itself, the more good; the nearer to happiness, the more happy. Therefore it must necessarily be the happiness of our condition to draw near to God. So you see what is meant when he says here, “It is good.” It is a pleasing good, conformable to God’s will, for he commands it; and it is for my good likewise, for it advances my condition to draw near to God.

“To draw near.” What is it to draw near to God? We shall see by what it is to go from God. God is everywhere. We are always near to God. “Whither shall I go from thy presence? If I go to hell, thou art there,” says the psalmist (Ps 139:8). God is indeed everywhere in regard of his presence, and power, and disposing providence. But then there is a gracious presence of God in the hearts of his children. And there is an extraordinary presence of God to Christ, the presence of union, which makes the human nature of Christ the happiest creature that ever was, being joined by a hypostatic union to the second person. But we do not speak of that nearness here.

There is a gracious nearness when the Spirit of God, in the spirits of those who belong to God, sweetly enlarges and comforts and supports and strengthens them, working in them what he works in the hearts of no one else. For instance, the soul is in the whole man. It is diffused over all the members. It is in the foot, in the eye, in the heart, and in the brain. But how is it in all these? It is in the foot as it moves it. It is in the heart as the source of life. It is in the brain and understanding, using and exercising its reasoning, understanding power. So although all the soul is in the whole man, yet it is otherwise in the brain than in the rest. In the same way, although God is everywhere, yet he is otherwise in his children than in others. He is in them graciously and comfortably, exercising his graces in them and comforting them. He is not so with the rest of the world.

You see how God is present everywhere, and how he is graciously present with his own. Correspondingly, we are said to be near to God. We are near him in whatever state we are, but then there is a gracious nearness when our whole soul is near to God, in this way:

When our understandings conceive rightly of God; as it is said of the young man in the Gospel, when he began to speak discreetly and judiciously, “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34). When people have a right conception of divine truths, they are not far from the kingdom of God, when there is clearness of judgment to conceive rightly. Those who have corrupt principles are far off. If the understanding is corrupt, all the rest will go astray. There is the first nearness, when the judgment is sanctified by the Spirit to conceive rightly.

Then again, there is a nearness when we not only know things rightly, but mind them; when the things are present to our minds; when God is in our thoughts. David says of the wicked man, “God is not in his thoughts” (Ps 10:4). When we mind and think of God and heavenly things, they are near to us, and we to them. For the soul is a spiritual essence. It goes everywhere, it goes to heaven, and it is present with the things it minds. We are nearer to God and heavenly things when we mind them, and think on them, and feed our thoughts on them.

Again, we are near them when our wills first make choice of the better part with Mary; when, upon the discovery made by the understanding, the will chooses deliberately. Upon consideration follows the determination and choosing of the will, and upon choice, cleaving, which is another act of the will. When it chooses what is spiritually best, every way best for grace and condition, then it cleaves to it. As it is said of Jonathan, His heart did cleave to David (1 Sam 18:1). So the woman cleaves to her husband, as St. Paul says (1 Cor 7:10). When the will chooses and cleaves to what is good, then there is a drawing near.

And likewise, when the affections are carried to God as their object, then there is a drawing near to God; when our love embraces God and heavenly things, for love is an affection of union. It makes the thing loved and the one who loves to be one. It is the primary, the firstborn affection of the soul, from which all other affections are bred. When we love God, we desire still further and further communion with him. And where there is love, if we do not have what we love, then the soul goes forth to God in desire of heavenly things. “The heart pants after God, as the hart doth after the rivers of waters” (Ps 42:1), and after holy things, in which the Spirit of God is effectual. And when we have it in any measure, then the soul shows a sweet enlargement of joy and delight in God. Thus when we judge rightly of heavenly things and mind them, and make choice of them, and cleave to God with all our affections of love and joy and delight, when these are carried to God and heavenly things, then we draw near to him.

And especially when the “inward man” is touched with the Spirit of God. Even as iron touched with the lodestone, though it is heavy of itself, will go up, so it is when the inward man is touched by the Spirit of God with a spirit of faith. Faith is a grace by which we draw near to God with trust, for it is confidence and trust that draws us near to God. It is wrought in the whole inward man, in the understanding, in the mind, in choosing and cleaving. But it is especially in the will, for faith is described as a going to God, a coming to him, which is a moving forward or going forth, and that is an act of the will. So by faith and trust especially we draw near and cleave to God.

Even as at the first we fell from God by distrusting his word. The devil said, “Ye shall not die at all” (Gen 3:4), and we believed a liar more than God himself. Now we are recovered by a way contrary to the way we fell: we must recover and draw near to God again by trusting and relying upon God. You see what is meant by the words, “It is good for me to draw near to God.”

To come to observe some things from them, first this: Spiritual conviction of the judgment is the ground of practice.

It is good, and good for me. For we know in nature that the will follows the final direction of the understanding. What the understanding says is to be done, here and now, what it says is best, all circumstances considered, that the will chooses and that a person does, for the will rules and leads the outward man. Now where there is a heavenly conviction of the understanding about any particular thing, that this, at this time, is good, all things considered and weighed in the balance on the one side and on the other, where this is, there practice comes in, and drawing near to God always. Conviction is when a person is so settled that he cannot contradict it and will not, but falls to practice at once; then a person is convinced of a thing. What stands immediately before practice and leads to practice is conviction.

Now, there are these four things in conviction.

There is first truth. A person must know that such a thing is true. Then it must not only be a truth, but a good truth; as the gospel is said to be “the good word of God” (Heb 6:5), and “it is a true and a faithful saying” (1 Tim 1:15). It is a true saying, “that Christ came to save sinners” (1 Tim 1:15), and it is a faithful, a good saying. If it is not good as well as true, it will not draw us, for truth does not draw to practice as it is truth, but as it is good.

As it must be truth, and a good truth, so it must be good for me, as the holy man says here, “It is good for me.” A thing may be good for another man. The devil knows what is good, and that makes him envy poor Christians so. Wicked men know what is good when they sin against the Holy Spirit, but for themselves they judge it better to keep to the contrary. So we must know that it is a truth, and a good truth, and good for us in particular, that it is best for us to do so.

The fourth is this: though it is true, and good, and good for us, yet before we can come to practice, it must be a good that is comparative, better than other things that are presented, or else no action will follow. A person must be able to say, This is better than that. A weak man who is led by passions and lusts often sees the truth of things, and sees that they are good, and good for him, and wishes that he could take such a course. But such is the strength of his passions at this time that he concludes it is better to do this, better to yield to his lusts; and he trusts that God will be merciful, and that he will recover it afterward.

These four things, therefore, must be in conviction before we can take the best course, and these are all here in this holy man. For he saw it was a truth, a duty, and likewise that it was a good truth; for to be near to God, the fountain of good, must necessarily be good. And then it was good for him to be so; no, more, it was good, all things considered. For it is a conclusion, as it were, brought out of the fire, out of a conflict. No, let the flesh say and let all the world say what it can to the contrary, “It is good for me to draw near to God.” He brings it in as a triumphant conclusion.

Put drawing near to God in one balance, and lay in that balance all the inconveniences that may follow drawing near to God: the displeasure of great ones, the loss of any earthly advantage. And lay in the other balance all the advantages that keep people from drawing near to God: if a man does not keep a good conscience, he may please this or that man, he may get riches, and advance himself, and better his estate. Consider all that there may be, yet notwithstanding, it is better to draw near to God, with all the disadvantages that follow that course, than to take the contrary. Thus you see the truth clearly, that conviction is the way and foundation of practice.

Use. Therefore we should labor by all means to be convinced of the best things. It is not sufficient to have a general notion and to hear slightly of good things. No, we must beg the Spirit of God to seal and set them upon our souls, and to set and seal them there so strongly that when other things are presented to the contrary, with all the advantages, the coloring and the gloss that flesh and blood can set upon them, yet out of the strength of spiritual judgment we may be able to judge of the best things out of a spiritual conviction, and to say it is best to cleave to God.

So said the blessed man of God, Moses. In the one end of the balance there were the pleasures of sin and the honors of a court; there was all that earth could afford, for if it is not to be had in a prince’s court, where is it to be had? His place was more than ordinary, for he was accounted the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Yet lay all that in the balance, and in the other part of the balance lay this: to draw near to God’s people, though the people of God were a base, forlorn, despised, afflicted people at that time; and yet notwithstanding to draw near to the cause of religion, the disgraced cause of religion, “to draw near to God” when he is disgraced in the world. It is easy to draw near to God when there is no opposition. But to draw near to God’s part and side when it is disgraced in the world: this Moses saw to be the best end of the balance, even with the afflictions and disgrace of God’s people put in, or whatever you will.

So it was with Abraham when he followed God, as it were, blindfolded, and left all, his father’s house and the contentments he had there. So it was with our Savior’s disciples. They left all to follow Christ, for they were convinced of this: Surely we shall get more good by the company of Christ than by those things that we leave for him.

Let us labor therefore to be convinced of the excellency of spiritual things, and then spiritual practice will follow. And undoubtedly the reason for the profane conduct of the world, that people make no better choice than they do, that they do not draw near to God, comes from hidden atheism. Let them say what they will, it proceeds from this. I prove it this way. When people are convinced of good things, they will do good, for conviction is the ground of practice; and when people do not take good courses, it is because they are not convinced of the best things. Therefore those who swear and blaspheme, who are carnal, brutish persons, at that time have atheism ruling in their hearts, so that they do not believe these things in the book of God to be true.

Can the swearer believe that “God will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain” (Exod 20:7), that a curse shall follow the swearer? And the whoremonger, “that whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Heb 13:4)? And so the covetous and extortioners, those who raise themselves by evil means, that they “shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven”? Can people believe this, and live in the practice of these sins? If they did indeed believe these things as the word of God sets them down, if they did believe that sin is as bitter and as foul a thing as the word of God makes it, certainly they would not. Therefore it comes from a hidden atheism.

Indeed, there is a bundle of atheism and unbelief in the heart of man, and we cannot bewail it too much. In the best there are some remnants of it; as this holy man said, “So foolish was I, and as a beast before thee” (Ps 73:22), when he thought of his doubting of God’s providence. Therefore, considering that the cause of all evil practice is that we are not spiritually convinced of the contrary, that sin is a wicked and bitter thing, and that we are not sufficiently convinced of the best things, let us labor more and more to be soundly convinced of these things.

Now, nothing will do this but the Holy Spirit, as you have it in John 16:7 and the verses following. Christ promises to send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and he shall convince the world of sin; that is, he shall so set sin before the eyes of people’s souls that they shall know there is no salvation but in Christ. He shall convince them of unbelief, that horrible sin. They shall have it so presented to them that they shall believe at once upon it. This the Holy Spirit must do.

But the Holy Spirit does it in the use of means. Therefore it must be our wisdom to hear and pray and meditate much, that God would graciously give his Spirit to persuade us, to convince our understanding, to convince us of all our false reasonings against good things, so that not one vile imagination may rise in our hearts contrary to divine principles.

“It is good to draw near to God.” Therefore it is good to come to the sacrament, which is one way of drawing near to God. Let us be so convinced of it that it is not only a necessary, but a comforting and sweet duty to have communion with God; for will we suffer for Christ if we will not feast with him? What shall we say, therefore, of those who are so far from drawing near to God, when they have these opportunities, that they turn their backs? They flatly oppose this blessed man here. He says, “It is good for me to draw near to God.” No, they say, it is good for me to have nothing to do with God or with Christ, no, not even when he comes to allure me.

Now, he has come near us indeed, that we might come near him. Because we were strangers to God, and could not draw near to him, simply considered, God became man, Emmanuel, God with us, that he might bring us to God. Christ is that Jacob’s ladder that knits heaven and earth together. Christ, God and man, knits God and man together. This was the end of his incarnation and of his death, to make our peace, to bring near those who were strangers, indeed enemies, before; and of our part and portion in the benefits of his death we are assured in the sacrament. Therefore let us draw near to our comfort with cheerfulness, because of his goodness in giving us these opportunities. Let us draw near to God to have our faith strengthened and our communion with him increased.

Only let us labor to come with clean hearts. “God will be sanctified in all that come near him” (Lev 10:3). Let us know that we have to deal with a holy God and with holy things, and therefore cast aside any purpose of living in sin. Let us not come with defiled hearts, for then, though the things are holy in themselves, they are defiled to us. Let us come with a resolution to renew our covenant, and come rejoicing that God stoops so low as to use these poor helps, which in themselves are weak, yet by his blessing are able greatly to strengthen our faith.

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play upon the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand upon the cockatrice’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain… (Isa 11:6-9)

I have previously, in several sermons on this scripture, declared that by way of prophecy it foretells what the fruits of Christ’s kingdom shall be under the gospel. It shows the miraculous change Christ would make in men, shadowed out in this scripture under the likeness of beasts, such as lions, wolves, bears, leopards, and the like. The sum of it is that God will take from us that fierceness, malignity, and bitterness of nature that is in us, and bring us, in its place, to a loving, sweet, mild, and meek society together.

Many things have already been handled in detail from this text, as:

1. The condition and natural state of men, in which they may be called beasts, lions, serpents, and the like.

2. The change Christ afterward makes in us, which is indeed a miraculous change. This was the first thing handled.

First, that in every soul that shall come to heaven there must be a change.

Secondly, you have heard in what the change must consist: not in the substantial parts of a man’s body, but in the corrupt qualities of the mind, or, if you will have it so, of the soul and all its powers.

Thirdly, I showed on whom this change was made (look at Isaiah 11:9). It is made on the church of God in this world, which in my text is called God’s holy mountain. So also in Hebrews 12:22 the church is called the mountain of God.

The fourth thing considered was by whom this change was made: by the very spring of it all. It comes from the God of grace, and flows to us through Jesus Christ our Lord, who was “God manifested in the flesh” (1 Tim 3:16).

Fifthly, we then inquired by what means this change is worked. This we showed to be by the knowledge of the law. And this is the reason added why there shall be no hurt or destroying in all this holy mountain: because the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. This means that there shall then be an abundant knowledge, a deep knowledge, and a well-seasoned, permanent knowledge, which shall keep everyone within their limits, everyone knowing his duty, and so maintaining a mutual peace in all this holy mountain.

Next, now sixthly and lastly, to finish this text, I am to speak of the marks of this change; or rather, I may call them the effects of this change, its certain and infallible signs. Yet do not expect me to undertake here a full treatment of the common topic and show you all the signs of regeneration. I will only confine myself to this text, content to show you those that this scripture offers, and whoever has these may assure themselves of the rest. In this, before we go further into particulars, let us first set out the general mark: that is, a taming, a subduing, a taking away of the fierceness and cruelty of our corrupt nature. Throughout the text this is the main mark of the change, which will become still more evident by the particulars.

What does this mean, that the lion shall lie down with the calf, that the leopard shall lie down with the kid, when they shall come from their own kind to another strange breed, as it were? What does this mean, that they shall trust one another with their young ones? That the lion shall no more prey on blood, as in times past, but eat straw with the ox? That the serpent shall let the little child play upon the hole of his den? And that all these shall be so tamed that a little child should lead them, take them, and rule them? What does all this mean, but this:

That it is an eminent and infallible mark of regeneration to have the violence and fierceness of our cruel nature taken away.

This is a sure sign. For this, look at Romans 1:29, how naturally the heart is filled with all maliciousness and sinful cruelty; and to have this subdued and tamed is a special grace. So also Galatians 5:19-23 and Ephesians 4:17 and the verses following. There you may see the fruits of the old man to be idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, wrath, strife, sedition, and the like. There you may also read of a change, of a renewing of the new man in love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against whom there is no law. There you may see what a great alteration this change makes, and what the marks of corruption are.

Yet it is worth noticing that here in these places the Holy Spirit calls for works of mercy, for the performing of duties to men, for meekness, temperance, patience, and the like, without mentioning duties directly due to God. Why are these duties toward men so much urged, except to show that our corruption is not so much displayed in the worship of God as in works of mercy to men? That is why all the prophets so call for works of mercy, and why Christ himself so invites us to them: because men may deceive the world with a counterfeit show of outward justice toward God, but in works of mercy there is no means of escape. If the first-born, or ten thousand rivers of oil (Mic 6:7), with a number of similar sacrifices, might please God, all would be given for the sin of the soul; but the Lord calls for works of mercy, meekness, and to walk humbly with God.

Now the reason why men are brought with such difficulty to be merciful to others, and more easily to works of piety in God’s worship, I take to be this: because, as it is in John 8:44, the devil is a liar and a murderer from the beginning. Now since his prime quality is to be a murderer, he so works in the children of disobedience that, like him, they have a murderous disposition, to show no mercy and to relieve no one. This shows that such people are poisoned with the same sort of poison with which he is infected.

Thus you see there must be a general meekness in all who are heavenly wise, far from this murderous disposition. So James says, “Who is a wise man, and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works, with meekness of wisdom” (Jas 3:13). There he speaks of a devilish wisdom, which does not come from above, “which is full of envying and strife; but the wisdom which is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits…” (Jas 3:15-17). Thus he shows by what coat of arms a Christian must be known, and how the sons of God must be discerned.

This is the general mark: if that natural cruelty and bitterness bred in us is taken away, and meekness, gentleness, and the like are put in its place, this in general is a sure sign that the change is made and regeneration is begun. Now I come to speak of these marks and infallible signs of regeneration contained in this text, which must be in some measure in the regenerate person. The first is:

1. Harmlessness. Though this is a thing that runs along the body of my text and is named last, I bring it first here, because it is partly implied in all the rest. For in this, that it is said “the little child shall play upon the hole of the asp,” and take no hurt, what does this imply but a mild and harmless disposition, contrary to our natural fierceness and cruelty? It is written in Proverbs 3:27, “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, though it be in thy power to do it.” As I take it, by good in that place is meant works of mercy; that we must be as like God as we can be in works of charity. He who refuses works of mercy to those in need is a murderer. How can a man say he is renewed, unless in some way he is like God in mercifulness?

We see that with the wicked it is a prime quality to do mischief. They delight in evil; it is meat and drink to them to do wickedly; they are always musing on some cursed deed or other. But it is a property of God’s child to be harmless. Yet for further trial of this grace, let us note two signs of this sign.

(1) If we would not do evil, though we might do it unseen by any creature. So, when a little child shall lay his hand on the cockatrice’s den, the serpent might sting, and yet, unseen by anyone, pull its head in again. This, likewise, is a true sign of harmlessness: when, though a man may do some hurt unseen, yet he will not. Herod was not like this. He abstained for a while from beheading John the Baptist, but it was more for fear of the people than for any other cause. Therefore Christ, in another place, calls him a fox (Luke 13:32), so far was he from this harmlessness we speak of. Thus we see the doctrine of Christ may be preached to many, but its power extends to only a few.

Beloved, I would have all of us consider this. We live, all of us, in the kingdom of Christ; but where is the man who, though he might do evil unseen, yet would not do it? We have a worthy pattern of this grace in Joseph (Gen 39:9), who, though he might have done evil unseen, yet would not. “Oh,” he says, “how shall I do this evil, and sin against God?” and so offend God. Oh, how many there are who hold back the passions of their tongues and the violence of their hands only because they are not able to work mischief! How many men now stroke the hands of God’s people, and say as they say, only because they dare not and cannot do them mischief, who, if the opportunity served, would sting them! This will show that a change has been made and that we are harmless, if, when the opportunity of doing evil is offered, we can still abstain.

A second sign of this sign is, when, though a man has provocation to do evil, yet he will abstain. This is a sound trial. We see it is said that the little child shall play upon the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall lay his hand upon the cockatrice’s den. Is there not provocation here, and yet no hurt done? In this the Holy Spirit would give us a sure sign indeed. Many men are of a mild natural disposition, and so may perhaps forbear mischief when it is in their power. And so many men who are merely natural may bear with religion for some self-interested reasons. But provoke them, and then you will have them all on fire, ready to fly in your face. What religion is there in this? For to do good for good, and evil for evil, this, Christ says, even publicans may do; there is no thanks due for this. But if, when we are provoked, we can forbear to take revenge, this is a blessed thing.

If there is true love in our hearts, the apostle says in 1 Corinthians 13:5 that it is not “provoked.” And it is written of Christ in Isaiah 53:7, “he was afflicted, oppressed, yet opened he not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so opened not he his mouth.” This he did, thus holy men have done, and this, if we would see life, we must do.

Yet we see that, though we should be like sheep, even they will now and then butt at one another. But this is not with much violence, and besides that, it does not last. The apostle tells us to forbear and forgive one another, and so this strife has an end. Therefore, if I cannot forgive in a small matter, but either my tongue must fly out in words or my heart be set on mischief, this is a woeful state. If this is all our goodness, surely it is miserable goodness; here is no harmlessness. Suspect your state. But the true goodness and blessed state is to follow that counsel of our Savior Christ, “Bless them that curse and persecute you…” (Matt 5:44). This, then, is harmlessness: when both secret occasion and provocation to do evil are afforded us, and yet we abstain. So much for the first.

Now I pass to the second, which is:

2. Sociableness. This is set out in the whole body of my text. But with whom is this society kept? Not of lions with lions, or wild beasts with wild beasts; and yet many of these cannot endure one another. For the rhinoceros and the unicorn fight when they meet, and so do the wild horse and the bear. But if at length they agree, this sociableness of theirs is of wicked beasts one with another. But this is more: that the wolf and the lamb, the cow and the bear, the leopard and the kid, the calf and the young lion, shall lie down together, and that the little child shall play upon the hole of the asp. This implies not only a simple society, as among wild beasts, but a sociableness, as it were, among those of another kind.

To apply this to ourselves: there are good bonds of our sociableness with one another, both reason and speech; for naturally all of us have been lions, bears, and wolves, and unsociable haters of goodness in others. Now, then, this sociableness with those who were servants of God before us and have been called is a very sure mark of this change in us. So the apostle speaks in 1 John 3:14: “By this we know we are translated from death to life, because we love the brethren.” And so Christ, our master, speaks: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another” (John 13:35). This nearness implies kinship by blood. It is common in Scripture to call the children of God brethren.

(1) No man can love a saint, as a saint, but a saint. This is a sure sign of this sign. For this reason the apostle, writing to Philemon, rejoices for his faith toward God and love to the brethren (Phlm 5). And so again it was his joy that the brethren were comforted (Phlm 7). The reason for this is that, as there is a natural enmity among us by sin, the children of God must, to show a difference, rejoice in unity.

Further, a true trial of sociableness is, when men will rejoice to associate with those with whom they were formerly most unsociable, and whose company they most loathed. So, first, we see the wolf lie down with the lamb, which is a slow beast; secondly, the leopard with the kid; thirdly, the young lion and the calf, for these fat beasts are for the most part a prey to the lion; fourthly, the cow and the bear, for the cow is a prey to the bear; fifthly, the serpent is especially an enemy to mankind, as God said in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity betwixt thy seed and that of the woman.” This, I confess, is chiefly meant of the devil. Yet its extent reaches this far to us, who naturally loathe serpents: that this sociableness shall be so great that even a little child shall play upon the hole of the asp and receive no harm. Now, when all these are reconciled in this way, where formerly there was special enmity, this is a true trial of sociableness.

For further proof of this, note an idolater when he is converted: none are so dear to him as God’s servants. The pleasure-loving man, having left his lust, loves none so well as Christ’s people. The dissolute man, having left his excess, loves none so well as the sober. The atheistic, profane man, once changed, delights in none so much as the truest worshipers. So we see that, though before conversion men may roar like bears, as in Isaiah 59:11, yet once tamed, it is said in Jeremiah 31:9 that then they shall come weeping, and draw into sociableness with others they formerly hated. When some men come to be of our religion, and yet keep about them such as are not sincere, this is no good sign. But take this for a sure rule: no man is truly turned to God except he who loves the society he formerly hated.

(2) A second sign of this sign is, to love every brother, yes, even if it were to lay down our life for a brother. But how is this implied? The calf and the young lion shall lie down together. If the young lion can endure not to prey on the calf, then it can endure any other of that kind. Beloved, it is a special grace to love all the brethren, without partiality toward persons. So the prophet David says in Psalm 119:63, “I am a companion of all those that fear thee.” Here is implied not loving some one brother, but the brethren.

I confess that for some special cause a man may rejoice and delight more in the company of some than of others; as David says, “But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, all my delight is in them” (Ps 16:3). So that, I say, for some special grace or graces, one may love one person better than another. Thus Christ loved John best, who was called the beloved disciple; and this was not for any special grace in John, but from a kind of sympathy in natures, which many times, from a hidden cause, produces much love.

But if we show partiality toward persons, as it is in James 2:3, we are to blame: if we respect a great rich man with a little grace more than a poor man with a great deal, or if we do not respect a poor man as we do a rich one, when their graces are alike. We see in Acts 8:13 and the verses following that when Philip preached at Samaria, Simon Magus also clung to him; but it seems he did not cling so closely to Philip for his graces as it appears he did for something in his person. Brethren, if we partially admire some for their persons, it is suspicious. It is dangerous to admire fleshly excellence too much, for the sake of the gifts of goodness found in the same person. If I truly love goodness in rich apparel, why do I not also love it in rags? Beloved, if we do not love in this way, we love as the parrot does, and our love is not true. There ought always to be the same love in kind, though not in measure.

Now I come to the third mark, which is:

3. Constancy. How is this implied? By dwelling and lying together. You will see beasts meet together by chance, and yet quickly part again; but when they lie and dwell together in constant abode, this is a sure sign. You will see many companions go with a man to church for fashion’s sake, and yet give up going before long. You will see some men sick, and then, like a serpent frozen in winter, which casts its skin, you will see them cast their skin a little. That is, they send for a preacher or some such man and make confession of their sins, saying, “Oh, if God will spare me, I will become a new man. I will never do as I have done. I will never again haunt such company.” But then, when such a man is well, within a month after, where will you find him? Not with the lambs, but with the bears, and wolves, and lions. So when we can constantly hold on, with an unmoved, constant affection, to the children of God, this is a sure sign.

But I hasten to the next. The fourth is:

4. Inwardness. How is this implied? Their little ones shall lie down together. There is nothing so dear to all creatures as their young ones, over whom they are most jealous. There are no creatures that are not jealous and tender of their young ones, chiefly the bear, which is the most tender of all, sometimes fighting even to the death in defense of her young ones.

But this, that the little ones of the bear and of the cow shall lie together, implies an inwardness together. It is such an inwardness as I think is meant in Acts 4:32, where it is said, these dwelt together, and possessed all things in common use. Yet they did not lose the title they had to those things as their own. And in Acts 4:34 their charity is described, that no man lacked anything which another had, but in necessity all things were common. This, their united charity to help others, was their little ones that lay down together.

And this, too, must be our trial: if whatever is dear and near to us, even our young little ones, are ready to lie down together with the necessities of others, this is inwardness. Think of this also, that this dwelling and lying together is a free thing, in no way constrained. The trial of our sociableness is not when we are tied together in a cage, but when we are at liberty and then dwell together. For many now keep company together, both in dwelling and in lying together, who would fly out if the time served.

We read in the book of Esther that when the Jews had the upper hand, many of their enemies joined with them, not out of love, but because the Jews had the upper hand of their enemies (Esth 8:17). And so, when the people of God came out of Egypt, many of the people joined with them because of their prosperity. And now also, in the time of the gospel, I appeal to the consciences of many among us, whether they do not lie down with us now for fear.

Let no one think badly of me for speaking this way, for such people now join with us who, if they had another day, would show us other strange tricks. And as it is in Jeremiah 18:18, “let us smite him with our tongues”; so many of these who seem to be inward with us are ready to smite us with their tongues now. What would they do if the day were their own? Beloved, such men cannot be of God, who malign the servants of God in this way. You may couple beasts together in a chain, but once loose, they run apart again. So many among us now, like such beasts, are tied with chains for a while, but untie them once, and all is gone. Many of these, once they are loose, keep company with bears and wolves.

But I hasten to the fifth, which is:

5. Tractableness. How is this implied? A little child shall lead them and rule them. It is a true sign of grace when we become easy to rule and to bring within bounds. We read of lions having been tamed to draw chariots; this is tractableness. So when a poor servant of God has nothing but his simplicity to bring us in, it is tractableness when we can be content to be brought in even by men inferior to us, who are simple and of humble gifts. So too when the husband can endure to be brought home by his wife, though he is wiser and of more knowledge than she; when the wife can be content to be brought home by her daughter or her maidservant, like Job, who did not despise the counsel of his own servants (Job 31:13): this is tractableness. To be brief, it is when men can be content to come to their old, ancient food.

6. Simplicity, which is the sixth and last sign of this change. This is a sure trial of regeneration. But how is this implied? In that the lion shall eat straw like the ox. Beasts at the beginning were not as cruel as they have been since the fall of man, but fed on grass and the like. So the Holy Spirit implies that when our state has come back to what it was at the beginning, as near as may be (that is to say, when the lost image of God is so restored in us that a man has come to his former food again, so that as then, so now, he feeds on the contemplation of the wisdom of God, the justice of God, the mercy of God, the greatness and power of God, the abundant goodness and truth of God, and so on), this is a sure sign of regeneration.

Cain was bloody, and fed upon blood. Therefore, when a man has come this far, that he has meat which no one sees (John 4:32), on which he feeds, holy thoughts, holy meditations, and so on; when he can suck the breasts of God’s consolations, on which his children feed, and draw strength from them into himself, this is a sure sign that the man is most happy and born again. In a word, as the apostle speaks, when, striving in this way for the mastery, he becomes temperate in all things (1 Cor 9:25), this is a sure and infallible mark.

Now I come to the uses, which are two: 1, for consolation; 2, for exhortation.

Use 1. The first thing is for the place. But how shall this be brought in? What of the place? I say, a trial by the place, where all shall be: “In my holy mountain.” It shall serve, therefore, as a trial of religion. Where the mountain is, there is the true religion, there is the church. Look where you will, it is still in the mountain. Many nowadays cry out and make a stir to know where the true church is, and I affirm it is in the mountain. So in this I may say of the church what Elijah once said of the true God: “Let him which answereth by fire be the true God” (1 Kgs 18:24). So I say of the church and of true religion: Let that be the true religion that has the most fire in it, that which shows forth the most piety and holiness.

The papists say they are the true church. But look on God’s mountain. Look which religion makes a man most mild and tames his fierce nature, which takes away a man’s dogged disposition. For a dog barks and then he bites, and so the barking and biting of the Romish Church shows them not to be in the mountain; their church allows biting.

Was there ever any doctrine like theirs, which teaches a man to murder his own king, to keep no faith, and so on? Was there ever any religion like theirs, which set poisoning afoot, and which also set princes at variance? That last sacrament of theirs will never be forgotten, when peace was proclaimed between both religions, and then one would have thought all was well and ended; there were ten thousand massacred; at one place in Calabria eighty slain with one sword, with many other of their cruelties. And there was the gunpowder treason, so odious and monstrous that the like has not been heard. I may say the same of Garnet’s part, who must not reveal this treason because it was disclosed in confession.

Oh monstrous times, that confession should be so abused to barbarous, inhuman, matchless cruelty! If you ever find our religion teaching such things, then even if popery should prevail against us, as God forbid, we will claim no more right to the mountain. Never did, and never will, our religion teach taking up arms against our king, or cruelty against superiors and others. On the contrary, our religion teaches a man to suffer with and for Christ. It may be that some cruel men are among us, but we look to what we profess, and we teach that men must suffer with meekness.

All this that I have said greatly concerns us. If God will have no cruelty taught, nor reigning, where he loves, see what a thing it is to be cruel in this way. If we are this fierce and savage, let us not deceive ourselves: we have not yet come to the mountain of God. For, says the prophet, “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain” (Isa 11:9).

Use 2. Now I come to the second use, for exhortation. There is still a little of the lion and the bear remaining in every one of us, which shows that we are not thoroughly renewed. Yet I do not say that those who are angry are not regenerate. But I do say that if this rages and rules in us, all is not safe and well. A good tree may sometimes have some bare or crab-apple stock on one side of it that bears crab apples, and yet the tree is good; but this must not be predominant. The apostle says, “If there be divisions and dissensions among you, are you not carnal?” (1 Cor 3:3). I am not speaking of some little faults (God help us! In all our natures there is much frailty), but of such as rule in us.

It is a wonder to see how uncharitable many men are in censuring others for every little fault, when they themselves swallow down camels, I mean gross sins. If some man refuses riotous excess, then though he is full of excellent gifts, they say, “Such a one is a Puritan.” And again, if an honest man or woman falls by infirmity into some sin, some say, “Oh, look, now his hypocrisy reveals itself.” Shall men be censured in this way, as though perfection were on earth? This is far from covering your brother’s nakedness; this is far from St. Paul’s rule, “to restore such a one with the spirit of meekness” (Gal 6:1).

Beloved, God forbid that I should harden anyone in sin. I speak these things only so that, since a little of the bear and the lion will still be in every one of us as long as we live in this world, we may learn to bear one another’s infirmities. Otherwise, if you continually chafe, censure, brawl, and chide, I can give you no comfort about your state. Can such a one be regenerate? What! Have the bear, and the lion, and the wolf come among us again?

To conclude, as you do abroad, so look to your conduct at home, among your servants and friends. Take care that your authority does not deceive you into thinking you may set your heart to raging and to plotting envy and strife, to being continually angry and chafing. If such raging is at home in your house, I can give you no comfort. As you would look for the deeds to your lands, just as certainly must you look for this mildness, this meekness, and this change in yourself.

Always mark this: when a good man has found out his sins, he is bound to lament them, and he does; when he has offended, he turns the stream of his anger that way. So, I say, if a man is this bitter of tongue, look at what St. James says of such a one: “That man’s religion is in vain that cannot bridle his tongue” (Jas 1:26). “Be not,” he says, “my brethren, many masters; for we have one Master” (Jas 3:1). If these contentions still remain among us, our stock still bears crab apples, and we may suspect ourselves.

But along with this, take this caution with you. Let no one think it cruelty to execute the justice of God upon wrongdoers. But if magistrates do it cruelly, let them look to it; they will pay dearly for it. The prophet David says, “I will sing of mercy and judgment” (Ps 101:1). So also for war, I do not call it cruelty to fight God’s battles. But if anyone without a commission takes up the sword, he shall perish by the sword; so Christ says to Peter (Matt 26:52).

This point needs to be pressed continually, because men cry, “Mercy, mercy!” But I say judgment must be mingled with it. For as there may be a cruel justice, so there may be a cruel mercy, which allows the lions to devour the sheep. We must, like God, temper them together and make justice and mercy go hand in hand, so that the God of mercy may deal with us as we deal with others.

So you see what minds we must have if we look for a dwelling in God’s holy mountain. May God, for his Christ’s sake, grant us this tameness and meekness, this thorough change of our cruel nature, so that we may come to the assurance of being among that number for whom Christ died, seeing that his Spirit has worked such an effectual, thorough change in us.

Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat, and the appointed barley, and the rye, in their place? For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. For the fitches are not thrashed with a thrashing-instrument, neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. Bread-corn is bruised; because he will not ever be thrashing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working (Isa 28:23-29).

The aim of these words is to comfort God’s children in afflictions. And in such smarting crosses, when one is sorrowful, weak, taken up with grief and overpressed by it, we are unfit for instruction and incapable of it, because the anguish of the suffering destroys our attention. He therefore says, doubling it four times, “Give ye ear,” “hear my voice,” “hearken ye,” and “hear my speech.” In this he implies that the matter he is about to deliver requires attention. It is as though he were saying, “You can listen to the world, to carnal reason, to the devil and his instruments, who lead you astray. But if you want sound peace and comfort, you must listen to God’s word, because it is his voice, the voice of one who loves you, cares for your good, and does all things well.”

Then he comes to the consolation, the sum of which is that no one loses by God’s afflictions, but rather they are gainers, and great gainers. He shows this by two comparisons, both taken from a farmer. When a farmer has sown, he will not harrow the ground always, but will give every ground sufficient labor and cultivation; and he will sow seed, every seed and fit seed, in measure, in time, and in fit place. And then he shows that if God gives this discretion to a farmer, how much more does he abound in it himself, who is called a husbandman (John 15:1). Indeed, he is the best farmer of all, who knows times and seasons, when to begin and when to make an end. This is the ground of it: as the wise farmer’s discretion teaches him how, when, and how much to plow his ground, and when and what seed to sow, so God, much more, is the greatest and wisest farmer, who knows when and how much to afflict us, when to begin and when to make an end, when to sow, and how to make fruitful.

The second work of the farmer is taken from the purging of his grain, where he shows that the laborer will take and use fit instruments to cleanse it with. First, cummin: a cartwheel is not turned about upon it. Then, second, the fitches will not be threshed with a threshing instrument. Then the third, as he shows, having the most need, will have the wheel go over it. Yet he shows that the wheel will not always go over it, nor break it so that it takes any hurt by the pressure, for it will lose nothing by this but the chaff.

Now, having declared this much, he then shows that this discretion of wisdom in farming comes from the Lord of hosts, “who is wonderful in counsel,” knowing with the height of deliberation and knowledge how to do all things; and then “excellent in working” (Isa 28:29), to make all things work together to a good, sweet, seasonable, and happy end.

Before I come to the particulars, see in general that he applies both comparisons to one and the same end, to convince us of this great truth. Pharaoh had his vision and dreams of the seven ears and the seven lean cows doubled to him, and the two were only to confirm one thing of which Pharaoh must be assured. So here he deals with us in drawing us the right way to find comfort.

“Give ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech” (Isa 28:23).

Doctrine 1. Hence observe that the only way to quiet one’s heart, and to calm oneself in all distresses, is to listen to what God says. Therefore he goes over and over it, “give ear,” “hearken,” and “hear my voice,” for this will quiet your souls and bring you much quiet and peace of mind. In afflictions we toss, turmoil, and trouble ourselves more than we need to. We cry out, “Oh, no one was ever so vexed and thwarted as we are!” And so we say, “Oh, I will never see the end of this cross! This affliction will make an end of me!” And then God comes to us to talk with us in this slumber, and he has much ado to wake us. He loves us best, and he shows us that this is our best way to find ease: to hear his voice.

Reasons.

1. God’s word will work faith, which purifies the heart, overcomes the world, and quenches the fiery darts of Satan.

2. It will teach a man wisdom: where affliction comes from and why it comes, and that struggling with God is in vain, and that in doing so we will get the worst of it. The greatest hurt of our crosses comes from passion and disorder of soul. For if we put no more into our crosses than God puts in, all would be well. But we put in other things, our own impatience, false fears, fretting, and carnal reason, and this makes the good purging medicine our heavenly Father has provided so bitter and heavy to us. We should strive against this by all means, and make good use of affliction, such use as God desires and intends.

3. It will be a means to work patience in the heart. All the Scriptures are written to work patience in us; for God would have us submit, and our proud hearts can hardly be brought to stoop. This is the end of all.

4. If we listen to God, this will make us go to God and pray, and prayer will bring comfort and ease to the heart before long. But if we listen to the flesh, the further we run this way, the more we plunge ourselves into misery. God, you know, bids us come to him, and says, Wait a while, and all will be well. He will come flying with deliverance when the hour has come. So if a man prays and waits, he will soon be sound of heart. What does the apostle say in this case? “And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ” (Phil 4:7). It is as though he were saying, “You think the cross causes this disquiet, this fretting and worrying; but if you trust, wait, and pray, you will have quietness and ease in the most violent afflictions.”

Use. The use of this is to take no more such unprofitable courses for comfort and ease in afflictions, as we have done in running to broken cisterns that can hold no water. When afflictions are great and pressing down, it is usual for us to complain, “Oh, I have great crosses, none like them ever; they are beyond my strength. God is against me, and this one and that one afflict me.” But the truth is, if we look into it, we may say, “My folly, my pride, my foolishness, distrust, unbelief, and our proud hearts: these are the special causes that disquiet us.” So if we would have a quiet heart in trouble, and a happy end of it, we must listen to God. He loves us as well in trouble as out of trouble, and there is a medicine in the word against all troubles whatsoever.

Then he asks, “Doth the plowman plow all day to sow?” (Isa 28:24).

Doctrine 2. Hence we see that all God’s children must be plowed. All the elect are compared to God’s cultivated land, and all of them must be plowed and humbled. To this the Lord exhorts them: “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground” (Hos 10:12). God has no heath or thicket in his church that is not or will not be plowed. At one time or another they will have deep furrows made in them; they will go where they would not; all must be taken down.

Reason. And there is great reason for it. For by nature all the elect of God are as subject as others to whatever would thwart and keep down the seed. They have thorns and brambles growing, weeds of all sorts, which would quickly ruin them if they were not soundly plowed. For this purpose Job says that “man new born is like an ass’s colt; nay, like a wild ass’s colt” (Job 11:12). A tame donkey might perhaps be ruled, but a wild donkey’s colt, this is worst of all. So is man following his own reason, led by his own affections, passions, desires, and actions. We would run riot and never be tamed, unless the Lord plowed us and made us break up our fallow ground.

Even God’s elect are foolish, worldly, covetous, full of envy, lusts, passions, mistakes, ignorance, and the like. God’s plowing helps all this. It tempers the ground better, digs out and keeps down the weeds, and makes the seed grow, which otherwise would be cut off and destroyed. Thus, however we may think of ourselves, and please ourselves in a thing of nothing, no grain is more apt to have weeds among it than our hearts are, and unmastered they are unfit to bear or bring forth the fruits of grace.

We would think a farmer foolish and mad who would sow grain among grass, where, having no root, it must rot and not grow, because the ground is unplowed. We must hold the same judgment about ourselves, for unless our hearts are tamed, no good seed will grow or take root there. To this effect our Savior speaks: “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (John 15:2). If God is a farmer, we will be plowed and pruned to make us fruitful, lest we grow wild and so be only fuel for condemnation.

The uses are these.

Use 1. First, not to envy those who are not thoroughly plowed with afflictions. For to admire the happiness of such people is no different from a man passing through a barren heath and saying, “This is good ground.” I say no; if it were, it would not lie unplowed. So we may fear for the state of many wicked men. Unless they repent, they are not God’s; if they belonged to his cultivated land, they would be plowed.

Use 2. Second, if we are God’s cultivated land, and would indeed be thought so, then let us not think the fiery trial of our plowing to be a strange new thing, that God should sometimes press so hard upon us and plow us to our cost. If we want an easier way, let us take the prophet’s counsel: “Plough up your fallow ground, and sow no more amongst thorns” (Jer 4:3). “Oh,” some may say, “but I read and pray, and go to sermons.” Yes, but you are sowing among thorns if thorns come up; look to this. The farmer will plow indeed, but he will not sow among thorns.

The church complains, “The ploughers ploughed upon my back, and they made long their furrows” (Ps 129:3). Why did God allow this? They were plowed deep indeed, but took no hurt by it; the plowers only plowed them so as to make them fit and good ground. It was because in her own plowing she plowed short, and left many strips and patches unplowed. Therefore when we do not plow ourselves as we should, it is a mercy of God to send us many plowers. God will plow us rather than let us be overtaken with sins. God will find other means of afflictions to plow us. If, therefore, we plow ourselves soundly, crosses when they come will not do us so much hurt. If we ourselves are not guilty of neglect in this, afflictions when they come will be nothing like so heavy or so lasting.

The First Comparison

It follows: “Doth he open and break the clods of his ground, when he hath made plain the face thereof?” (Isa 28:24-25). The sum is, as if he were saying, “I appeal to your consciences. If you saw a farmer plowing and breaking the clods of his ground, casting out rubbish and the like, would you imagine that he was spoiling the ground, to break it up like this always and to be forever digging in it? Surely not.” From our own confession he would establish that no farmer knows so well how to plow, how to dig, and when to make an end of plowing and afflicting, as God does, whose infinite knowledge and skill is beyond all others’ knowledge, and who therefore will make an end of plowing his children at the best time. From this we learn this much:

Doctrine 3. God will make a sweet and seasonable end of afflicting his children. He corrects us for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness; for, as it says, “The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous put forth his hand unto iniquity” (Ps 125:3). Miseries and afflictions never rest until they meet with wicked men. But on the righteous they come as a sojourner, who comes to stay a while and then is gone; they will not rest on them. And why is this? Because if God did not help us early, we would either murmur or use some evil means to help ourselves. God will therefore make a good and seasonable end of the afflictions of his children.

Objection. “Yes, but when will God make an end of afflicting his servants? How will it be known when he will make an end?”

Answer. Why, it is as with farmers: when the clods lie high, they bring the harrow over them, so that the seed may spring through with more ease. And when the weeds that would ruin everything have been plowed and weeded out, then he will make an end. And affliction will cease when the ground is made smooth and apt to bear and be fruitful in due season. From this we may observe this much:

Doctrine 4. When the Lord has made us level, and has fitted us with hearts to receive good seed, then is the time of rest. If a man would plow in seedtime, we would think this a foolish, unwise action. God’s plowing is seasonable, to cleanse and purge us, so that we may have all fit helps to enable us for his service, as it is written, “By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away his sin” (Isa 27:9).

Use. Therefore, if we want a good and speedy end of our crosses, fears, and afflictions, if we want rest, and want God to make an end of plowing us, we must labor to be level and even ground, to take down the pride of our hearts and wills. All high things, and everything that exalts itself, must be cast down and laid low. Yet many of God’s children are weary and suffering, and cry out, “Oh when, when will there be an end?” In this case, I say, see to what fitness your heart has been brought to attend on the word; look in what measure it is engrafted in your heart. When we can hear the word with joy, and the stream of our endeavors runs that way, then we are near an end of our affliction. When the ground is once made level and fit, then the hour has come.

What remains then? When he has leveled the face of the ground, he will sow seed, and the fittest seed, and do it in measure with wisdom. From this observe:

Doctrine 5. When God has humbled us by his word, then he will furnish and arm us with his word, and enable us with strength in that way. This is a difference between his teaching of godly and of wicked men: the one are the better for it and mend by it; the other grow worse and worse. For the godly, with plowing, he instructs and teaches them and makes them pliable, and it is the contrary with the wicked. Many heaths, you know, meet with streams and floods of water, and yet are nothing the better nor more fruitful. But God’s arable land, the saints, are plowed and instructed, as the psalmist says: “Blessed is the man whom thou correctest, and teachest in thy law” (Ps 94:12).

To have the one without the other is nothing and does no good; but when correction and teaching go together, then one sees all the good of affliction, and why God sent it upon him. It is said in Hebrews that “he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Heb 12:6). He corrects them, and by his word convinces them of that evil, of that sin which brought such and such a misery upon them, and makes them acknowledge God’s justice in it. Conviction is this: when I bring evident, unanswerable reasons to prove what I would bring another to practice and believe. Now, we must acknowledge God’s goodness to us, that he does not give us the one without the other, not correction only, but his word also to instruct and teach us.

By this we know that afflictions come from God’s love: when they make us in love with the word, and make us cleave to it. When we see a farmer plowing in a field, and someone digging in a garden, we hope for good grain, fine herbs and flowers before long. So we may say, “This is what the Lord is doing. Now he is plowing and digging my heart, and it is because he means to sow good seed in it, the seed of eternal life.” Understand this, then, concerning afflictions: when God is the farmer, and afflictions the seed, there must come a good crop from it. God will make it multiply and increase abundantly to our comfort, whatever the difficulties may be that seem to hinder its growth. The reason for this is added in the next place.

“For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him” (Isa 28:26). From this, in brief, learn this much:

Doctrine 6. Skill in farming is the gift of God; wisdom must come from him. “Every good gift, and every perfect gift,” says James, “is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning” (Jas 1:17). So, in other deep things, which we have ability to discuss, know, and practice, let us give God the praise. Usually we are prone to sacrifice to our own nets, to magnify nature in the actions we do wisely; but know this: all is of God. If we believed this, we would never be proud of our skill, and wit, and whatever gifts we have, but would labor rather to use them for God’s glory and the good of others.

The Second Comparison

“For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin” (Isa 28:27). From this, see:

Doctrine 7. All God’s grain needs threshing and plowing; and as they need it, so they shall have it. There is no farmer who does not send his grain to the mill. Wheat, or barley, and all sorts of grain must be purged and winnowed before they are useful and serviceable to us. And whereas he speaks of various grains, some more useful and excellent than others, this shows that some are of a more excellent degree in the church than others. But the sum is this: all the best grain has chaff, and all of it that will ever be of use to God’s service and the good of others shall and must be purged. All God’s third part must be purged and passed through the fire (Zech 13:9).

As the best gold and silver has dross in it, which must be purged and refined, so the best Christians must be melted, in a manner, and tried. But he shows that they shall lose nothing by afflictions except the dross and chaff, which shall be purged out. And during this trial, as he brings them into the fire, so he will be with them in it, and bring them through it in safety.

Again, it is said, “Bread corn is bruised, because he will not ever be threshing it” (Isa 28:28). This shows:

Doctrine 8. The best grain shall have the sorest trial and the hardest pressure. So God proportions crosses to match our strength, and no further. The rest do not receive such treatment. The fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, but are beaten with a staff; nor is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin, but the cummin is beaten with a rod; but the wheat must have the wheel go over it. The meaning is an allusion to the way the ancient Jews trod their wheat, as appears by that precept, “Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox or the ass that treadeth down thy corn” (Deut 25:4), for then the oxen, drawing a wheel over the wheat, bruised it in this way, but did not break it.

So the best Christians and patriarchs have been visited with sore and hard trials. Jacob, even after the blessing: what grievous crosses and afflictions he endured! How he was tossed and tumbled up and down! Alas, says the prophet, speaking of a great calamity, “it is a time of great trouble, there is none like it: it is like the time of Jacob’s trouble; yet he shall be delivered” (Jer 30:7). And Abraham, the friend of God, had many and sore afflictions. The prophets also: you know how they all had their various crosses in life, and many of them in life and death. Jeremiah complains of his persecutors, who were many. Holy David, a man of sorrows all his lifetime: how he was vexed with a variety of crosses, one after another! What shall I say of Job, the mirror of patience, and his many sorrows? And the apostles, were they not the chiefest men next to Christ? And yet all were destined to sore and great afflictions and trials, so that the nearer they were to him, the greater their afflictions were.

Reason. And this is because God thereby humbles us and makes us heavenly-minded, and keeps us low. For if God did not put water among our wine in this way, and now and then give us vinegar and wormwood to drink, we would have been proud, and lifted up above measure. As we read of Paul, he was buffeted, and had a prick in the flesh to keep him under (2 Cor 12:7).

For the main posts and beams of a house are laid out a long time before they are used, and endure many winds, storms, and tempests, lest, being unseasoned, they should warp, bear no weight, and shrink, marring the building. In the same way God’s warriors, the main posts of his spiritual building, if they were not seasoned with the winds and tempests of afflictions, would grow to ease and pomp and abound in vanity. Therefore, so that they may bear weight, and not warp or shrink, but hold out, what shall be told Paul, a chosen vessel? Why, this: “I will tell him what he shall suffer for my name’s sake,” says our Lord (Acts 9:16).

Use. The use of this, briefly, is this much: to reform our judgments, to be comforted, not to be dismayed, nor to condemn ourselves or others because of great afflictions. The afflictions of wicked men make them more proud; but whatever afflictions bring out more prayers and drive us nearer to God, these are happy afflictions. “It is good for me,” says David, “that I have been afflicted, for thereby I have learned thy law” (Ps 119:71). When we have come this far, then we shall be bruised no more. He knows how to deliver his own out of temptation, and how to moderate the cross when they have been humbled, and how to make a speedy and seasonable end even of great crosses.

A wise farmer knows when to stop the wheel of his cart, when the wheat is, and when it is not, bruised enough. As he is careful of the treading and bruising, so he is also careful of rest and ease once the work is done. Much more is the Lord careful in his spiritual husbandry not to overdo it, but to give his children sufficient plowing, in measure and not beyond measure.

Oh, but for all this some cry out, “Oh, I have been afflicted a long time; things are worse and worse; I see no hope of any end. The more I pray, it is all the same; no deliverance comes. I grow more impatient, and am not able to hold out. Surely, if this cross continues on and on like this, it will make an end of me.” Oh, the foolishness of flesh and blood! What is the matter? Do you know in whose hands you are? Look around you at the experience and confession of all the saints. To which of them can you turn who has not been the better for afflictions, and come forth as the gold, as Job assured himself he would before his deliverance (Job 23:10)? Look at them, and see what end the Lord made.

Your complaint is as much as to say that the Lord is a poor farmer: he can indeed tread his grain, but he does not know when it is bruised enough, or else he is careless of it, indifferent whether it is broken or spoiled, or what becomes of it. Oh, take heed. Know that your God, who gives farmers all their discretion, much more knows the best and fittest time for your deliverance. And that is now the next point to speak of.

“Bread corn is bruised, because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheels of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen” (Isa 28:28). The point is this:

Doctrine 9. God almighty knows best, and he appoints what shall be the means, time, and measure of the trials of his children. He knows what is the fittest instrument to purge his grain with. The farmer knows the fittest instruments to purge his grain with: “The fitches are beaten with a staff, and the cummin with a rod” (Isa 28:27), the wheel going over the wheat. Much more will God have the fittest rod, to do all in love and for our good. Thus he corrects all he loves. I note this all the more because in a great cross we are ready to burst out and say, “Oh, if it had been any cross, any trouble but this, I could have borne it; but oh, this, this, I do not know how to bear it.” Why, what is the matter? Know that none was so good or fit for you as this.

If patients could appoint the potion or plaster to be applied and taken, they might very likely perish, or the wound rot. They would endure no corrosive to eat out the proud and dead flesh, nor anything to make them sick and purge out their bad humors. So, if we could have whatever instrument or cross we pleased to appoint, our corruptions would never be mastered and cured. If a child should see his father use the wheel to bruise and fit the wheat for purging and winnowing, and should come and say, “Father, why do you use this instrument? This one would be better,” would we not judge such a one to be a foolish, rash child, and that to be a frivolous, idle question?

Surely the case is the same with us when we cry out, “Oh, if it were any other instrument, or any other cross but this, I could bear it.” No; you deceive yourself. Without him we cannot bear the least, and supported by his strength we shall be able to bear the greatest. Job had many and strong crosses, and many creatures against him (the Sabeans, Chaldeans, wind, and fire from heaven), yet he would not give them the credit of thinking or saying that it was the Sabeans or Chaldeans who destroyed his substance, but said this: “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh, blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).

Use. The use of this is as follows. Since the Lord himself appoints the instrument, time, measure, and ending of our afflictions, therefore never fear; we shall not be overpressed or overborne by them, as in Isaiah 27:8: “In measure he will contend with us, he stayeth his rough wind in the day of his east wind”; and in Job 34:23 it is said, “He will not lay upon man more than right, that he should enter into judgment with God”; and the apostle says in 1 Peter 1:6 that these afflictions are but for a season (if need be), otherwise we should not be in heaviness through manifold temptations. Therefore always think and be persuaded of this, that his instrument is the best. Everyone shall be beaten with the fittest rod, and not too long nor too much. Whoever is able to make a good and holy use of a former affliction, having their ground made plain and fit for good seed, shall have the cross mitigated or removed, with a comforting outcome of all their troubles.

But how shall all this be made good? What assurance may we have of this discreet and seasonable plowing, in time, measure, and continuance, since we have so many enemies without us and corruptions within us? “This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working” (Isa 28:29). From this we observe:

Doctrine 10. God, in the chastisements, trials, and afflictions of his elect, has wonderful wisdom and power beyond our understanding. He knows not only which is the best way to lead us to heaven, but he is also excellent in working, to bring his counsel to pass. See it in examples. As in Joseph, appointed to be the greatest in all Egypt except Pharaoh. First, he is sold as a slave. Secondly, he is falsely accused by his mistress, and so cast into prison, so that for a long time, as it says in Psalm 105:18, the iron entered in his feet, until the Lord’s time was come.

What did God mean by allowing an innocent man to be wronged and disgraced in this way? He was “wonderful in counsel” all this while. One might think at first that counsel was darkened without knowledge; but in fact this affliction was the best means for him, as on stairs, to climb up to his advancement. Besides all this, while he was in the prison, God so tamed him that he bore everything patiently. He could not have come to this honor, nor borne it as became him, unless the Lord had first plowed him in this way.

So David, after he was anointed king, in a state of honor, and all pomp and pleasure, how he was vexed and plowed with many crosses! In all likelihood he lived a much better and quieter life when he was a shepherd. What kind of means was this to raise him, to be so afflicted before he came to it? He was humbled and acquainted with God by these trials, which drove him to prayer, to believe, trust, and wait upon God; and then all these were helps to fit and enable him for his kingdom.

So at Ziklag, his wives and all his goods were taken away. The flesh had its bout; he wept till he could weep no more. Yet then God was excellent in working. Saul was overthrown within a while. And the Amalekites having much goods together, David asked counsel of God, and though he had but four hundred men, he overtook them, overthrew them, and took a great spoil, being able to send presents and rewards to all his men. So that which was at first a strange and unfamiliar thing, a most grievous cross, was turned into a very great blessing. So God was wonderful in counsel, to put all their store into David’s possession; secondly, he was excellent in working, for David’s enemies had no heart to withstand him.

Use. The use, therefore, is to be patient, because in all troubles and afflictions “he is wonderful in counsel”; and all his works are beautiful in time, which we shall see when both ends of the cross meet. And though we do not see which way things will be brought about, yet he is infinite in wisdom. If we will only be quiet, stand still, and see his salvation, we shall see a wonderful outcome, if we wait in patience.

Objection. “Oh, but,” some say, “these troubles come from God, I know; but I cannot bear this cross. I see no fruit of its working upon me.”

Answer. I say, wait a while yet. As it is true that his medicine always works at length, so it is just as true that he is not bound to make it work immediately at all times. Perhaps that would not be good for you; yet know that as he is “wonderful in counsel,” so he is also “excellent in working.” Many times we give counsel and cannot make the person follow it; but God can, for he has power, and wisdom, and will in abundance. He who gives the purge can make it work to good effect; he who applies the plaster can make it cure and heal, and in the best time. Therefore we must be comforted in all our troubles with these considerations.

Lastly, to conclude, where he says, “This also comes forth from the Lord of hosts,” he shows by this:

Doctrine 11. Nothing can stop him from working, so as to hinder our comfort and deliverance in due time. Why? Because “he is Lord of hosts,” and all the creatures are his soldiers at command, and must do what he will. As he most excellently shows in Isaiah 54:16, no weapon shall prosper without him to hurt his people: “For,” he says, “behold I have created the smith that bloweth the coals of the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work, and I have created the waster to destroy.” Therefore he overrules all things to work for our good, so that we shall have a seasonable, happy, and blessed end to all our afflictions.

Oh, if we could believe this, how happy it would be for us! That God is the Lord of hosts; that the devil is chained up, and all the creatures, from hurting us, till he arms them with his power against us; that he is a fiery wall about us, and has hedged us about, and all that we have; that he loves us, pities us, and does not delight in chastising and afflicting us; that he does it not willingly, but is compelled, in a manner, for our good; and that all the while, as the prophet Isaiah speaks, “he waits to have mercy upon us” (Isa 30:18), having a certain appointed time for our deliverance.

This, I say, if believed, would help to carry our heads above water in all the tempestuous waves of our afflictions, so that we may expect and hope for the accomplishment of this divine scripture: that, as the plowman will not plow all the day to sow (Isa 28:24), no more will our all-sufficient, only wise God; but he will make a happy and comfortable end of his spiritual husbandry, in the best and fittest time, to the everlasting comfort and salvation of his children.