The Successful Seeker and Other Sermons in Modern English

When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. (Ps 27:8)

In the former verse, David begins a prayer to God: “Hear, O Lord; have mercy upon me, and answer me” (Ps 27:7). This verse is a ground of that prayer. “Seek ye my face,” says God. The heart answers again, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” Therefore, David says, I am encouraged to pray to you. In the words are contained God’s command and David’s obedience.

“Seek my face; thy face, Lord, will I seek.” Here is God’s warrant and David’s answering work, the voice and the echo: the voice, “Seek my face”; the rebound back again of a gracious heart, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

“When thou saidst” is not in the original. It only makes way to the sense. Passionate speeches are usually abrupt: “Seek my face”; “thy face, Lord, will I seek.” The first thing that I will observe from the encouragement is this.

Observation 1. God shows himself to his understanding creature.

God begins, you see: “Seek my face.” He must open his meaning and show himself first. God comes out of that hidden light that he dwells in, and reveals himself and his will to his creature, especially in the word. It is our happiness now that we know the mind and meaning of God.

What is the ground of this? Why does God need to stoop like this?

There is the same ground for it as for the fact that there is a God. These things go together in an undivided knot: God; the reasonable, understanding creature; religion, which ties that creature to God; and a revealing by God of what that religion shall be.

For in the dealings between God and man, man can do nothing unless he has his warrant from God. It is extreme arrogance for man to devise a worship of God. Do we think that God will allow the creature to serve him as the creature pleases? No. That would be to make the creature, which is the servant, the master. It belongs to the master or lord to appoint the service. What master or lord will be served according to the liberty and wisdom and will of his servant? And shall the great God of heaven and earth be worshiped and depended upon as man pleases, or on any encouragement from man himself? Shall he not design his own worship? He that singles out his own work makes himself master in that.

Therefore God begins with this command, “Seek my face,” and then the heart answers, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” God must of necessity first reveal his mind to the creature.

Scriptures might be pressed here to show the duty owed by the creature, man, to God. For the creature must have a ground for what he does. It must not be will-worship. It is a rule that what is done without a cause weakens the respect of obedience. Even if a man does a good deed, the question still stands: What reason, what ground do you have for this? And so that we may do things upon good ground, God must reveal himself; therefore he says, “Seek my face.”

It may be objected that everything proclaims this, to seek God. Even if God had not spoken, nor his word, every creature has a voice to say, “Seek God.” All his benefits have that voice to say, “Seek God.” Where do we have them from? If the creature could speak, it would say, “I serve your turn so that you may serve God, who made you and me.” As the prophet says, the rod and chastisement have a voice: “Hear the rod, and him that smiteth” (Mic 6:9). Everything has a voice.

We know God’s nature somewhat in the creature: that he is a powerful, a wise, a just God. We see it by the works of creation and providence. But if we should know his nature and not his will toward us (his commanding will, what he will have us do, and his promising will, what he will do for us), then unless we have a ground for this from God, the knowledge of his nature is only a confused knowledge. It serves only to make us inexcusable, as is proved at length in Romans 1:19 and following. It is too confused to be the ground of obedience unless the will of God is revealed first; therefore we must know the mind of God.

And that is the excellency of the church of God above all other people and companies of men: we have the mind and will of God, what he requires of us by way of duty to him, and what he will do for us as a liberal and rich God. These two things, which are the main things, are revealed. What we look for from God, and the duty we owe back again to God, are distinctly opened in the word. You see here that God begins with David: “Seek ye my face.”

Indeed, God is a God of order. In this subordination of the creature to God, it is fitting that God should begin. It is God’s part to command, and ours to obey. This point might be enlarged, but it only makes way for what follows, so I will not dwell upon it.

Again, in this first part, God’s command or warrant, “Seek ye my face,” you see here a second observation.

Observation 2. God is willing to be known. He is willing to open and reveal himself; God does not delight to hide himself. God does not stand upon state, as some emperors do who think that their presence diminishes respect. God is no such God, for he may be searched into. As for man, if any weakness comes to light, we can soon search into the depth of his excellency; but with God it is entirely otherwise. The more we know of him, the more we shall admire him. None admire him more than the blessed angels, who see most of him, and the blessed spirits who have communion with him. Therefore he does not hide himself; no, he desires to be known, and all those that have his Spirit desire to make him known. Those who suppress the knowledge of God in his will, what he performs for men and what he requires of them, are enemies of God and of God’s people. They suppress the opening of God, entirely contrary to God’s meaning when he says, “Seek my face.” I desire to be made known, he says, and I lay myself open to you.

Therefore we may observe by the way that when we are in any dark condition, when a Christian does not find the beams of God shining on him, let him not lay the blame upon God, as if God were a God who delighted to hide himself. Oh no; it is not his delight. He does not love to be a stranger to his poor creature. It is no point of policy with him. He is too great to set his love on such poor devices. No; the fault is altogether in us. We do not walk worthy of such a presence; we lack humility and preparation. If there is any darkness in the creature, so that he finds God does not shine on him as in former times, undoubtedly the cause is in himself; for God says, “Seek my face.” He desires to open himself. But this is a point that I will not be long on.

We see from this likewise a third observation.

Observation 3. God’s goodness is an imparting, spreading goodness.

That is peculiar to God and to those who are led by the Spirit of God, who are like him. They have an imparting, outflowing goodness that loves to spread itself. “Seek ye my face.” I am good in myself, God says, but I desire to shine on you, to impart my goodness to you.

If God did not have an imparting, spreading goodness, he would never have created the world. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were happy in themselves, and enjoyed one another before the world was. Had God not delighted to impart and spread his goodness, there would never have been a creation or a redemption. God uses his creatures, not for any defect of power, as though he could do nothing without them, but for the spreading of his goodness; and from this comes all the subordination of one creature to another, and all to him.

Oh that we had hearts to make way for such a goodness as God would cast into us, if we were as we should be! God’s goodness is a spreading, imparting goodness. It is a common distinction: there is the goodness of the fountain and the goodness of the vessel. The goodness of the vessel is our goodness, because we contain something in us that is good. The goodness of the creature is only that of the channel or the cistern; but the goodness of God is another kind of goodness, the goodness of the fountain. The fountain does not beg from the river; the sun does not borrow light from the candle; God does not beg goodness from the creature. Ours is a borrowed goodness, but his is an imparting goodness. “Seek my face,” he says, that I may impart my goodness. The sun delights to spread its beams and its influence on lower things, to make all things fruitful. Such a goodness is in God as is in a fountain, or in the breast that loves to ease itself of milk.

I note this so that we may think rightly of God, who is more willing to bestow good than we are to ask it. He is so willing to bestow it that he becomes a suitor to us: “Seek ye my face.” He seeks us out to seek him. It is strange that heaven should seek to earth, and yet so it is.

Question. Where does this come from in God, this attribute of goodness, the spreading goodness in his nature, that he desires to impart and share himself?

Answer. There is no envy in God. He has no one above him, and therefore he labors to make all good. There is a mystery in it; but if some are not good, the fault is in themselves. As it is a prerogative in him to make some more and some less good, so there is a fault in them. That I am no better is my own fault. The prerogative belongs to God, and we must not search into that. But every man may say, “I might have been better and more enlarged. I did not seek his face, so that he might take occasion to enlarge himself toward me.” Would we be like our heavenly Father? Let us labor to have large affections, to have a spreading goodness.

Two things make us very like God, which much concern this point: to do things freely of ourselves, and to do them far; to impart goodness, and to impart it far, to many. The greater the fire is, the further it burns; the greater the love is, the further it extends and imparts itself. There are none more like God than those who impart what good they have to others, and impart it as far and as remotely as they can, to extend it to many.

Our Savior Christ: you see what a world was beholden to him; heaven and earth were beholden to him. And the nearer a man comes to Christ, the more there is a kind of self-denial, to do good to others. Saint Paul had a great measure of Christ in him. He was content to be spent for the good of the church; the care of all lay upon him (2 Cor 11:28). A public mind is God’s mind; a public mind is a mind that loves to do good freely and largely to others. Therefore God says, “Seek my face,” that I may have better opportunity to empty my goodness out to you.

“Seek my face”; that is, seek my presence. The face is the mirror of the soul, in which we see the mind of a man. “Seek my face”; that is, seek my mind, seek my presence, as we shall see afterward. I will speak no more of that point, God’s warrant or command, but go on.

“My heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

Here is the work and obedience: “My heart said unto thee …” David’s heart was set in a good and sanctified frame by God; it stood between God and his obedience. The heart stands between God and our obedience, like an ambassador. It understands from God what God would have done, and then it lays a command upon the whole man. The heart and conscience of man is partly divine, partly human. It has some divinity in it, especially if the man is a holy man. God speaks, and the heart speaks. God speaks to the heart, and the heart speaks to us. And often when we hear conscience speaking to us, we neglect it; as Saint Augustine said of himself, “God spoke often to me, and I was ignorant of it.”

When there is no command in the word that the heart directly thinks of (as indeed many profane, careless men scarcely have a Bible in their houses), God speaks to them in this way: conscience speaks to them some broken command that they learn against their wills. They do not heed it, but David did not do so. God said, “Seek ye my face”; his heart answers, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

The heart looks upward to God, and then to itself. “My heart said.” It said “to thee,” and then to itself. First, his heart said to God, “Lord, I have encouragement from you. You have commanded that I should seek your face.” So his heart looked to God, and then it speaks to itself: “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” It looks first to God, and then to all things that come from itself.

“My heart said.” It spoke of that point, concerning the thing you said, “Seek my face.”

“My heart said to thee.” David saw God in all his commandments: “Thou saidst to me, Seek my face; my heart said to thee.” I know the command is from you, David says; I have to deal with you in the command and encouragement, and in the warrant. I do not look to the words, but to you; their authority and strength come from you.

“My heart said to thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

Between David’s answer and God’s command and warrant, the heart comes to think seriously upon the command, and then to enjoin the duty. This must be considered, because there is no knitting of these two together except by the heart, the serious consideration of the heart. When God says, “Seek my face,” he answers, “I will seek thy face.” How does this return come about? The soul considers the ground of the return before the return. A man, when he does anything, does it from the principles of a man. A holy man, when he does a thing, does it from the principle of a holy man. And what are the principles and foundation of the practice of a holy man? A sanctified understanding, to tell him what God has said, and what he has promised, and in what God has revealed himself.

Well, once the heart knows that, the heart has enough from heavenward; it has enough from heaven. God has said and promised it. Then the heart, by a work it has of itself, speaks to itself and to the whole man, to seek God. The heart will not stoop without reason, the heart of an understanding man; but when it sees the command first, “Seek my face,” then it answers, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” So this command of God, this encouragement and warrant from God, “Seek ye my face,” was in David’s heart; it was written and set and grafted in his heart. And then, his heart being awed with the command of God (God has said this), the heart goes again to God: You have said this, Lord; “thy face will I seek.”

See the depth of David’s speech when he says, “Lord, thy face will I seek.” It came from his heart root; not only from the heart, but from the heart grounded upon the command and encouragement of God. “Seek my face”: there is the ground. The heart digests this thoroughly: This is God’s command; I understand it, and understand it to be from God; I see the authority from which it comes. Therefore I will stir myself up: “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” I shall have occasion to speak somewhat of this afterward, in the next thing, his obedience. Therefore I go on.

“Thy face, Jehovah, will I seek.”

Here is his return again to God, that he will seek the face of God: I will seek your face in all my necessities. Then I will seek to you; and in all your ordinances I will seek to you, wherever your presence is revealed. Your presence is in all places, especially in your ordinances; your presence is in all times, especially in the time of trouble and need. In all times of need I will seek to you; in every emergency I will seek to you; and in all your ordinances in which I may find you. I know I may meet with you there; you give your people meetings in your ordinances. It is where you walk; therefore “thy face, Lord, will I seek,” where I may be sure to meet you, in your own way and ordinances. So much for the meaning.

“Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

Here is, first of all, an application, and obedience from application. These are words of particular application: “Thy face will I seek.” God had given him a ground: “Seek ye my face.” His heart makes the application, “Thy face I will seek,” applying the general encouragement to himself in particular. So you may observe from this the following.

Observation. The ground of all obedience, of all holy fellowship with God, is a spirit of application.

That is, applying the truths of God, though spoken generally, to ourselves in particular. It is spoken here in the plural number, “Seek ye my face”; but the general implies the particular, as London is in England. “Seek ye my face,” all you who are the people of God. But I am one of them: what if I am not named? That tenet in popery is against sense. When a man is condemned by the law, is his name in the law? The law is against such a deed; he is an offender. And so the particular is included in the general, “Seek ye my face.” David knew that; reason taught him that, and not religion.

1. Now the ground of applying divine truths to ourselves in particular is this: that the truth of God (setting aside some circumstantial things that sometimes arise for particular persons, that sometimes limit the command to one person, or the promise to one person; cut off those distinctions), all comforting truths, belong to God’s people in all ages, as long as there is a church in the world.

All truths are eternal truths, and do not die as men do. David is dead, and Moses is dead; but this truth is not dead, “Seek ye my face.” Paul is gone, and Peter is gone. We are the Davids and the Moseses, and the Peters and the Pauls now. Those truths that were good for them are good for us. Whatever was written before was written for our comfort (Rom 15:4). There is an eternal truth that runs through all ages of the church, that has an everlasting comfort.

God has framed the Scriptures not to be limited to the times in which they were written, as the papists idly say, Bellarmine and others, as if they were occasional things, as if the Scriptures were written by such and such men and concerned only those times. But the Scriptures were written for all times, and it concerns all times to apply all truths to themselves, setting aside those circumstances that are applied to particular men, which are easy to discern.

In Hebrews 13:5 what was said to Joshua (Josh 1:5) the apostle applies to the church in his time, and to all: “Be not afraid; I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.” It is a general truth. “And Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness” (Rom 4:3), so that whoever believes as Abraham did is a son of Abraham. These truths are universal, and concern everyone as well as anyone. And so it is with many other places of Scripture. The promise of the blessed seed: the believing of it runs from the beginning of the world, in all ages, to the coming of Christ. All other promises were only an enlargement of that one; that was the mother promise. That is the ground of application, that the general truths belong to all the churches. The truth of God is the portion of every child of God. He may claim every promise, and ought to follow the direction of every command.

The reason is that all the church of God are heirs alike: heirs of the promise, children of Abraham, heirs of salvation. They have an interest in Christ alike, “in whom all the promises are yea and amen” (2 Cor 1:20), in whom all the promises have their making and their performance. And because there is an impartial equality among all the children of God in regard to the main things, they have an interest alike in all the benefits that come by Christ: in all truths, in all substantial duties to God, and in all favors from God. That is the ground of the equity of application.

2. But if you will have the ground of the necessity of it, nature will show that. For the truths are food. If food is not taken, what good does it do without application? The word of God is a sword: what will a sword do if it hangs up in a man’s chamber, or if it is not used when the enemy approaches? The application of the sword of the Spirit gives it its virtue. It is to no purpose otherwise. Divine truths are medicine. If it is not applied, what use is there in medicine?

There is a necessity, if we will obey God, of a spirit of application. There is nothing that will do good except by application, neither in nature nor in grace. There must be an application in power at least. The heavens work upon the earth. There is no bodily application, for the heavens are too high. But there is an application by their power: light comes in, and influence, to these lower bodies. Therefore we say the sun is in the house, and in the place we are in, though only its influence is there. But there must be application of divine truth to the soul. It must be brought near the soul before the soul can move. A principle of nature itself shows the necessity of application to make it our own.

Now in nature there is a power in the soul to work out of our food what is good for every member. We call it a digestive power and faculty, and it applies and assimilates the food and nourishment we take to every part. There are fibers, sucking veins, that suck out of the food strength for this and that purpose. So it is in the soul of every Christian and holy man. There is a spiritual sucking; there is a drawing, digestive spirit that digests and draws out of the book of God the nourishment that is fit for him, so that he can say, “This is mine, this is for me. I need comfort and strength and direction: here it is. I need light: here it is. I am weak: here is supply for it.”

So there is a digestive power, by the Spirit of God, in every Christian, to suck and to draw out of the word what is fit for all purposes and turns. And he can apply the word on every occasion. If it is a command, he obeys it; if it is a threatening, he trembles at it; if it is comfort, he rests in it; if it is a direction, he likewise follows it. He applies it in a way that answers to the nature of the word, whatever it is. His heart is molded to answer to the word, by reason of the Spirit of application.

3. As there is a ground of the application of the word, and a necessity of it, so there is a principle of application: that is, the Spirit of God in the hearts of the children of God, teaching their spirits to draw out wholesome truths fitting to themselves. And none can do it but the children of God, who have the Spirit of God. Others cannot apply the word of God rightly.

False application of the word of God is sometimes the cause of all mischief: when those who apply the law should apply the gospel, and on the contrary, when those who should apply the law, sinful and complacent persons, apply the gospel. Many times poor distressed people, to whom comfort belongs (“Oh comfort my people,” Isa 40:1), apply the law, which does not belong to them. In that case false application is the ground of mischief. Therefore the Spirit of God is the principle of the application of divine truths, according to the need and condition of God’s people.

Use. Therefore we should be stirred up to beg for the spirit of application, to maintain our communion and fellowship with God, that we may apply everything duly and truly to ourselves and our own souls. All is to no purpose otherwise, if we do not apply it, if it is not brought home to our souls and digested thoroughly in our hearts. We must say, “This is from God, and this belongs to me.” When we hear truths unfolded, we must say of ourselves, “This concerns me.” We must not say, “This is a good portion and a good truth for such a one and such a one,” but let everyone take out his own portion: “This is for me.” God says, “Seek my face,” and the answer comes with a spirit of application: “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

If we do not apply it (and indeed it is the fault of the times to hear the word of God loosely), we care less about hearing the word of God than about hearing the gifts of men. We desire to hear fine things, to increase our notions. We delight in them, and in hearing some empty creature, and in fastening on a story or some phrases along the way. Alas! You come here to hear duties and comforts, if you are good, and sentences against you, if you are wicked. We speak God’s threatenings to you that will wound you to hell, unless you pull them out by repentance. Hearing is a far different matter than it is taken to be. “Take heed how you hear,” says Christ (Luke 8:18). So we had need to, for the word we hear now shall judge us at the last day. For this reason we should labor for a spirit of application, to make the right use of it as we should.

Therefore those humble souls who are cast down in the sight and sense of their sins, such as are contrite in spirit, must apply the sweet and blessed comforts of the gospel: “Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matt 5:3, 6). “Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden …” (Matt 11:28).

Those on the other side, who go on in a course of sin and will not be reclaimed, let them consider what Moses says: If a man go on and bless himself, my wrath shall smoke against such a man, and burn to hell (Deut 29:20). In effect God says: I will not remove my wrath from him until, little by little, I take my good Spirit from him, and let him go with some temporal comforts, and then bring him to hell. I will curse him in his blessings. He shall have blessings, but he shall be cursed in all that he does; and all things shall be in wrath and anger that shall burn to hell. Let such men apply such places to themselves.

There is no comfort at all for men who live in sin wittingly and willingly. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear my prayer” (Ps 66:18). If a man despises the ordinance of God, hearing and good means, “his prayer shall be abominable”: “He that will not hear the law, his prayer is abominable” (Prov 28:9). The applying of these things would make men bethink themselves and turn to God, when a man considers what part of the word belongs to him and makes a right application.

If we do not make a right application of God’s truths, this mischief will come of it.

(1) We dishonor God and his bounty. Has God been so bountiful as to give us so many instructions and such promises, and shall we not make them our own? What is the purpose of the ministry but to spread before us the unsearchable riches of Christ? They are yours, if you will take them. When you do not have a spirit of application, and are not in a condition to take them, they are lost, and God’s bounty is discredited.

(2) The devil rejoices when he sees what excellent things are laid open in the church of God, in the ministry, what sweet promises and comforts, but here is nobody to take them and lay hold on them. It is like a table that is richly furnished, and nobody comes and takes anything from it. It makes sport for the devil; it delights the enemy of mankind when we lose so great an advantage, that we will not apply those blessed truths and make them our own. There is no greater delight to Satan than for us to refuse those dainties that God has provided for us. What can delight an enemy more than to see courtesies refused?

He sees that all the Scripture is for comfort to poor distressed souls. And when they refuse their comforts and set light by them, as they tell Job, “Settest thou light by the consolations of the Almighty?” (Job 15:11), then Satan, the enemy of mankind and especially the enemy of our comfort, since he has lost all comfort and all hope of it himself, rejoices to see us in this comfortless condition. Therefore let us lay claim to the promises by a spirit of application.

(3) Again, we are injurious to ourselves; we rob our own souls. The lack of this makes Christians discouraged and makes them droop as they do. When they are cast down, all comfortable truths belong to them, yet they put them off: “This is not for me and those in my case.” When God says he will come and dwell with a humble heart: “This is not for me.” This spirit of peevishness and contrariness is what keeps them so long from the comfort they might enjoy. What! To be in the midst of comforts and to starve; for a man to be at a feast and to starve, because he does not have a spirit to digest and to take what is fit for him!

We detest, and deservedly, those misers who, in the midst of all their abundance, will not spend sixpence on themselves. What a spirit of baseness this is, in the midst of spiritual contentments and refreshments, when God offers to feed our souls with the fat things of his house, to say, “Oh no! This does not belong to me,” and to cherish a peevish, contrary spirit that puts it all away. Why do we not labor to be in such a condition that we may be cherished, and that we may have satisfaction? Why do we not labor to be truly hungry and poor in spirit, that we may be filled and satisfied, and not go on so stubbornly? There is a proud kind of modesty: “Oh, this does not belong to me; I am unworthy.” If we will listen to our own misgiving hearts in the time of temptation, we shall never answer God and say, “Lord, thy face will I seek.” Therefore let us labor for a spirit of application. I will not press that point further.

Now from this spirit of application, from this general “Seek ye my face,” comes obedience; for it is a speech of obedience.

“Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

I will seek by your strength and grace. For when God utters a general command to his children, there goes with that command a secret power by which they are enabled to seek him. There came a hidden power with this “Seek my face,” when David’s spirit was raised by God to think of it. Together with the thought of this “Seek my face,” there was a power enabling his soul to return back to God and say, “Lord, thy face will I seek.” So though David said, “I will seek thy face,” yet there was a spiritual power that enabled him. God must find us before we can seek him. He must not only give the command to seek his face, but together with the command there goes a work of the Spirit to the children of God that enables them to seek him.

In the covenant of grace, God does his part and ours too. Our part is to seek God, to please him and walk before him. These are all one; I need not be exact about particulars. Now this was not a speech of self-confidence, but a speech of the Spirit of God, who went with the command to him.

This is a great encouragement, by the way, to hear good things and to come to the congregation. We hear many great things, high duties, and we are not able to perform them. That is true, but the gospel is the ministry of the Spirit, and together with the duty there goes the Spirit to enable us for the duty. “Stand up and walk,” says Peter to the poor lame man (Acts 3:6), and an enabling power went with it to raise him. Arise, says Christ to Lazarus (John 11:43), and a divine power went with it to make him rise. And here, “Seek my face,” and a divine power went with it to make him seek. Those who despise the ordinances of God lack this power, because they will not attend upon the ordinances. So much for that.

Now I come to his obedience.

“Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

This obedience arises from application, and his obedience has these qualifications:

1. It was prompt. As soon as he heard God’s will, as soon as his heart thought of the word, he did not put it off. The Spirit of God and the works of the Spirit are not slow in the children of God. When they hear their duty, there is at once a spirit that says, “Thy face will I seek,” before the heart grows cold again.

2. This return and answer, as it was prompt, so likewise it was a pliable obedience: “Thy face will I seek.” It is the speech of a ready, cheerful, pliable heart. Where the Spirit of God works, it makes people not only prompt and quick, but cheerful and pliable. For the Spirit of God is like fire, which softens the hardness of the heart, a heart naturally like iron, and makes it pliable. God’s people are a voluntary people, as it says in Psalm 110:3: a people of devotion, of readiness of will, and of cheerfulness; a free-hearted people, a people set at large. They are led by a royal spirit, a spirit above their own, and that makes easy and pleasant to them what is otherwise difficult and impossible to nature.

When Isaiah’s lips were touched with a coal from the altar (that is, he had something from the Spirit of God to encourage nature), then it was “Here I am, Lord; send me” (Isa 6:8). Before, he had drawn back from the business and put it off as much as he could. The Spirit of God makes people pliable, as we see in the book of Acts. They cared nothing for suffering whips or anything else, because they were made pliable to God’s service; they counted it an honor to suffer anything for God’s sake (Acts 5:41). The obedience that is good is pliable and cheerful.

God would have things in the church done by such people. The very building of the tabernacle was done by such voluntary people, who brought in their gifts as God moved their hearts. Oh, beloved, a Christian knows what it is to have a royal spirit, a free spirit. David knew it. When he had lost it by his sin, he prayed that he might have a free spirit, a cheerful spirit, in the service of God and in his particular calling, for sin darkens and cramps the soul. “Thy face will I seek.” His heart was ready and pliable now, as God would have it.

So our hearts should be, and so they will be if we have the Spirit of God: ready and cheerful. God has none to fight his battles against Satan and the kingdom of darkness but volunteers. All God’s people are volunteers. They are not pressed soldiers; I mean, not against their wills, in that sense. Indeed, they receive their enlistment money in baptism, to fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil; but they are not pressed, they are volunteers. They know they serve a good general who will pay them abundantly; therefore they labor to be voluntary. It is a good saying that there is no virtue in men who do things against their wills. For that is virtue and grace which comes from a man out of his own principles, out of cheerfulness: “God loveth a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7). I might enlarge on this, but I only take it as it may strengthen the point. Our obedience to God must be pliable, and cheerful, and voluntary.

3. Again, obedience, if it is true, is perfect and sincere, looking to God: “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” We must keep our eye on God in it, and on God’s commandment, and not have a double eye. We must not look to our own selves. It must be perfect obedience; that is, the opposite of what is hypocritical. That is the best perfection. For the perfection of degrees is not to be attained here, but this perfection of soundness is to be labored for. As we see here, it was a sound obedience: “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” I will not seek your favors and blessings so much as your face. It was perfect obedience, as perfection is opposed to unsoundness.

4. It was likewise a professed obedience before all the world, in spite of Satan: “Thy face will I seek.” Let the devil and the world do what they can; let others do as they will. But as Joshua says, If you will worship other gods, if you will fall away, do so; “but I and my house will serve the Lord.” What if his house will not serve the Lord? If my house will not serve the Lord, I will. So we should all be of Joshua’s mind, “I and my house will serve the Lord” (Josh 24:15), let the world go whichever way it will.

In blessed Saint Paul’s time, oh, he says, “There are many of whom I have told you often, and now tell you weeping, who are enemies to the cross of Christ, whose end is damnation, who mind earthly things” (Phil 3:18). What does Paul do in the meantime? Oh, but “our conversation is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). We swim the contrary way. We do not mind letting the world know it. Our manner of life runs another way.

So our obedience must not only be prompt, and pliable, and perfect, but a professed obedience: that is, it must break through all the oppositions of the devil and the world, with an invincible resolution to break through all difficulties, and scandals, and examples of great persons, and of this and that, if we will go to God and say truly, “Lord, thy face will I seek.” Let other men seek what they will; let them seek the face and favor of others. “Thy face will I seek.” You shall be in place of all to me, as indeed he is.

5. Again, as it is a professed, so it is a continued, a perpetual obedience. He is resolved for the time to come. “Thy face will I seek”: not only now, and then turn my back on you afterward, but I will seek your face until I see you in heaven. I see your face in your ordinances, in the word, in your people; where two or three are gathered, you are among them (Matt 18:20). I will see your face as I may, until I see it in heaven. So here is a perpetual resolution: “Thy face I will seek.”

6. Lastly, there is one thing more in this obedience and answer to God’s command: his answer to God is an answerable answer; that is, the answer and obedience are suitable to the command. God’s command was, “Seek my face.” His answer is, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” So the point is this:

Observation. Our obedience to God must be proportionate to what is commanded. It must not be this or that devised by men. When the Lord’s eye is on you in this place and gives you a charge to do thus, the obedience must be suitable. When he says, “Seek my face,” we must obey: “Thy face, Lord, will we seek.” Therefore it may, in some poor sense, be compared to an echo. We return obedience in the same kind. The Spirit of God teaches the children of God to do so, to answer God in all the things he does. I know no better evidence of a child of God than this answering spirit.

How shall I know that God loves me? I love him in return; therefore I know he has loved me first. It is an undoubted argument. How shall I know that God has chosen me? I choose him: “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and what is there in earth in comparison of thee?” (Ps 73:25). It is an undoubted argument: shall I be able to single out God, to be in place of all to me, and has he not chosen me first? Can there be anything in the current that is not in the spring before? It is impossible. I know God; I look on him as my father: certainly he has shone on me first. I have said to him, “Thou art my God”; certainly he has said before, “Thou art my servant.” If I say to him, “Thou art my God,” certainly he has said before, “I am thy salvation.” He has begun. For this is the order: God begins. He says, “Seek my face”; then comes, if we have grace to return answerable obedience to God, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” When you bid me, Lord, I will love you, I will choose you and delight in you; you shall be my God. If we have this spirit that returns back again to God, we cannot have a better evidence that God loves us than by answering God’s course.

This is what St. Peter has in 1 Peter 3:21. The thing that does everything in baptism is not “the washing of the filth of the body,” but the “answer,” or the demand, “of a good conscience”; but “answer” is better. The answer of a good conscience cleanses in baptism. What is that?

In baptism, Do you believe, says the minister, in God the Father Almighty? I do believe. That was the answer. Do you believe in God the Son? I do believe. Do you believe the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting? I do believe. Do you renounce the devil and his works? I renounce them. That is the answer of a good conscience. Where that comes from the heart, God has spoken to that heart before, and there is obedience to real purpose. “Thy face will I seek.” It is that which brings comfort, not the washing of the water. It is not the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine and the hearing of the word of God, when the answer of a good conscience is missing: that when we say we believe and that we will do this, we do it indeed. Lord, I will believe; I will go out of the church with a purpose to practice what I hear. Here is the answer of a good conscience, when we mingle what we hear with faith and labor to practice it, or else it will do no good.

Our obedience must be suited and answering to the word, as I said before: if it is a direction, we are to follow it; if it is a command, to obey it; if it is a threatening, to fear it; if it is a comfort, a promise, to rest upon it. Let there be an obedience suited to the word, according to what the word is. Let us have a spiritual desire for these things, to imitate the holy man of God, as we desire to share in his comforts.

I will follow this point, that obedience must answer to God, a little further, and then come to the particular matter of seeking.

First, let our obedience answer in every way. Let the heart think what God says, what God commands and promises; let the heart take the word of God a second time and ruminate on it, and go over it again. Let us look into the word and see what is commanded and what is promised, and then let the heart go over it again. And then, upon that, plead it to God.

(1) Suppose someone is in trouble. Lord, you have commanded, “Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will hear thee” (Ps 50:15). Let the heart think of it and go over that encouragement. It is rather an encouragement than a command. Still, God does indeed lay a command on us to be good to our own souls; it is a duty to love ourselves. Therefore he commands us to go to him, to seek his face, as though we wronged him by disobedience, when we injure ourselves by our perverseness, as indeed we do. God loves us better than we love ourselves.

Let us think of the command and invitation. You have commanded me, Lord, and encouraged me to come; I am now in trouble, experience teaches me. I come to you. You have said, “He that sitteth in darkness, and seeth no light, let him trust in the name of the Lord” (Isa 50:10). I am in darkness and see no light now; I trust in your name. Let the heart think of the promise, and then plead it to God, and come with an obedient answer, and cast itself upon him, and trust in him.

(2) We are in want, perhaps, and see no way out, no supply. Think of God’s gracious promise, “I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb 13:5). I come to you and claim this promise; I am in covenant with you, and so on.

(3) So we should take up the promise. You have said that at whatever time a sinner comes to you with a repentant heart, you will forgive his iniquities; and though his sins were as scarlet, you will make them as snow, and white as wool (Isa 1:18). My soul thinks of that command, and I come to you.

You have bidden all who are weary and heavy laden in soul, who are troubled in conscience with the sense of their sins, to come to you. My heart thinks of your command and invitation, and I come to you; I am weary and heavy laden. First, let us think of the encouragement, which is our warrant, and then yield immediate obedience. And then what will be the outcome? What will spring from it when the heart and obedience join with the command, so that there is a meeting, so that heart and obedience come together at one center? God bids the heart obey. The heart says, I do obey. When these meet, the outcome must be exceedingly comforting. It cannot be otherwise, when the obedient heart meets God in his command, in his promise.

In all perplexity of business, “commit thy way to the Lord, and he shall establish thy thoughts” (Prov 16:3, and other places). Lord, I commit my ways to you; establish my thoughts and designs in agreement with your will, because you have bidden me commit my ways to you.

In the hour of death, let us commend ourselves to God, “as to a gracious and merciful Creator” (1 Pet 4:19). Lord, I commend my soul to you, who are the Creator of my soul and the Redeemer of it. Here is an obedience that answers. What can be the outcome of it but comfort?

Therefore let us learn by the example of this blessed man, who, when he had only a hint from God, “Seek ye my face,” answers, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

Faith will see light at a little crevice. When it once sees an encouragement, a command, it will soon answer; and when it sees a promise, even half a promise, it will welcome it. It is an obedient thing, “the obedience of faith” (Rom 16:26). It believes, and upon believing, it goes to God. As the servants of the king of Syria catch the word at once, “Thy servant Benhadad” (1 Kgs 20:32), so faith catches the word.

To put God in mind is an excellent thing with the prophet, whoever penned the 119th Psalm, whether David or some other: “Remember thy promise, wherein thou hast caused thy servant to trust” (Ps 119:49). As it is in Nehemiah 1:8, “Remember, Lord.” He puts God in mind of his promise; and so it is good often to put God in mind. Lord, you have made such and such promises. I know you cannot deny yourself. If you should deny your word, you must deny yourself. Your word is yourself. “Remember thy promise, wherein thou hast caused thy servant to trust.” If I am deceived, you have deceived me, for you have given me this promise and this command.

This is an excellent way to deal with God, as it were to wrestle with him. “By thy promise thou hast quickened me” (Ps 119:50). When I was dull and dead-hearted, then I thought on such and such a promise. I plead that promise and apply it by a spirit of faith, and that brought me to life.

And indeed, as I said, God has made us fit to answer him, and we should study in all things to return to him by his Spirit. Whatever God does, the heart should return back again: love for love, knowledge for knowledge, seeking for seeking, choosing for choosing. He begins with us; he chooses us, he loves us, he seeks us. And if we ever intend to be friends with God and to maintain a holy communion with him, as all who shall be saved must do, we should labor to have our hearts return to God what we find from God first. “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” To come more particularly to this seeking, which is the particular form of the obedience and of the application:

“Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

Seeking implies that our happiness is outside ourselves. It implies that there is something outside ourselves, in the application to which there must be some happiness. Therefore we go out of ourselves to seek. It is a motion, and it arises from a sense of some want. A man seeks out of some want, or out of some loss, or out of some duty. Either he has suffered loss, and therefore he seeks; or else he is in want, and therefore he seeks; or else he owes respect and duty, and therefore he seeks. It is something outside a man that moves his seeking.

God need not seek the creature; he has all fullness in himself. Indeed, his love makes him seek for our love, that we may be reconciled to him. But the creature, because its happiness is outside itself, in communion with God, the fountain of all good, must seek.

Christians must be seekers.

This is the generation of seekers (Ps 24:6). All mankind, if they will ever come to heaven, must be a generation of seekers. Heaven is a generation of finders, of possessors, of enjoyers of God. But here we are a generation of seekers. We lack something that we must seek. Even when we are at our best, we lack the completion of our happiness. It is a state of seeking here, because it is a state of want; we always lack something.

But to come more particularly to this seeking of the face of God, or the presence of God.

The presence of God, and the face of God, where is it to be sought?

(1) Know this first as a foundation: The presence of God is everywhere. But that is not the thing intended here.

(2) There is a face and presence of God in everything, in every creature. Therefore every creature bears the name of God; sometimes a rock, because God is strong, as a rock is strong. So likewise a shield; as a shield defends, so God defends us. There is some resemblance of God in the creature. Therefore God has the name of the creature. But that is not meant here.

(3) The presence of God meant here is that presence which he shows in the time of need, and in his ordinances. He shows a presence in need and necessity, which is a gracious presence to his children, a gracious face. In want of direction, he shows his presence of light to direct them; in weakness he shows his strength; in trouble and perplexity he will show his gracious and comforting presence to comfort them. In perplexity he shows his presence to set the heart at liberty, answering to the need. So in need God is present with his children, to direct them, to comfort them, to strengthen them, if they need that.

(4) And in the outcome of all business there is a presence of God to give a blessing; for there must be a presence even to the end of things. When we have all we would have, God must still give a blessing. So you see there is a presence of God that answers to the need of man, as it has reference to this place.

“Thy face will I seek,” to direct me by your heavenly light when I do not know what to do, as Jehoshaphat said, “We know not what to do, but our eyes are towards thee” (2 Chr 20:12). And so in weakness, when we have no strength of our own, then go to God, to seek the face of God, that he would be present with us. So when we are comfortless, go to God who comforts the downcast, “the God of all comfort” (2 Cor 1:3); go to him for his presence, for help. And when we are troubled in our hearts about success, what will become of such and such a business, go to God, who gives success and outcome to all. Thus we see a presence of God that answers to every need of man.

(5) There is a gracious presence of God likewise in his ordinances. That is the chief presence, next to heaven, the presence in God’s ordinances; that is, in the unfolding of the word, in the administration of the sacraments, in the communion of saints. Indeed, in the ordinances God is graciously present. “Where two or three are gathered together, I will be in the midst of them” (Matt 18:20). Therefore in Revelation 1:12 and following, it is said that Christ walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; that is, in the midst of the church. There is a gracious presence of Christ in the midst of the candlesticks. He takes his walk there.

Christ has a special presence in his church in the ordinances; and David aims at that here too, not only, I will seek your face in trouble and necessity, when I need anything from you, but, “Thy face will I seek” in all your ordinances, to enable me for the other. For it is in vain for a man to think he will seek God in his necessity and emergency, if he does not seek God in his ordinances and does not joy in them. So you see where the face and presence of God is to be sought: in necessities of all kinds, and in the ordinances.

Now, in our seeking the presence or face of God, there are four or five things of which I will touch only the heads.

[1] First of all, seeking implies observance. “Seek my face”; that is, observe me, respect me as a God. “Thy face I will seek”: I will be a follower of you; as in English an “observer” is a follower, a “creature.” It is a proud word, as if a man could make a man out of nothing. And indeed they are creatures in that sense; they are raised out of nothing. To seek a man is to observe him. There is a notable place for this: “Many seek the ruler’s favour” (Prov 29:26). In the Greek translation, the Septuagint, the word is to observe and respect a man, and it is translated as seeking. “Many observe the ruler; but every man’s judgment cometh from the Lord.”

You see those who think to rise by the favor of such and such a man: they will be his followers, as I said, and observe him. They study men; those who rise by favor that way study not books so much as men, what may delight such a man, what he respects. Surely they will serve him at every turn. A base atheist makes a man his god. That he may rise, he will deny God and the motions of conscience, and honesty, and everything, to observe the face of a great man by whom he hopes to rise. But a true Christian observes the great God. The greatest advancement comes from him. So it signifies to “observe.”

In Psalm 62:11 you will see that the ground of this observance is that power belongs to God. “I have heard once, nay, twice.” He heard it twice by meditating on it, by going over it in his heart again. “I have heard once, nay, twice”; that is, I thought on it again and again; that is, I heard of it often. We may hear a truth a hundred times, that is, by meditating on it. “I have heard once, nay, twice, that power belongs to God”; that is, riches and power to advance a man. Atheistical men think all belongs to the creature, but power belongs to God. That is one thing meant by seeking: diligent observing of God, and respect for him and his will and commandments in all things.

If a person of great place should say, Observe me, and I will advance you, I expect men would be ready enough; they would need no more words. Here is the atheism of our hearts. God says, I will do all good for you. The greatest advancement is to be the child of God here and the heir of heaven afterward. What advancement is there compared with that of Christianity! And he says, Seek my face, observe me, respect me, let the eye of your souls be on me, as it is in the Psalm, “As the eyes of a maid are toward the hand of her mistress” (Ps 123:2). The obedience of a servant is toward the eye of the commander; so the obedience of a Christian is toward the eye of God, to see what God commands. We should be more serviceable to God. It is evidence of the atheism of our hearts to take more encouragement from a mortal man who can raise us and do us a pleasure than from God himself. But to let that go, that is the first branch, “Seek my face,” that is, observe me.

[2] Then, “Seek my face”; that is, depend upon me. To seek God’s face is to depend upon him for everything. It argues dependence. For whomever we observe, we observe him for something. We depend upon him to be our raiser and maker. So seek my face, seek my countenance and favor; depend upon me, and it shall be sufficient for you.

[3] Then, in the third place, “Seek my face”; that is, seek my favor and grace. Favor appears and shines in the face. “Seek my face,” observe me, depend on me; for what? For my favor. What is that? It is everything. If we have the grace of God, we have everything. For the grace of God is in everything that is good to us. If we have the graces leading to salvation, they come from free grace; every good gift is the grace of God. Children are the grace of God. So if we have the grace of God, we have everything for our good. We have everything in the spring of good, which is the grace and favor of God. Men who are graced by a great person do not concern themselves with this or that particular thing. They think, I have his favor, and that favor of his is ready for every emergency. And therefore, by way of compliment, they say, I seek not this or that, but your favor.

The favor of God is a storehouse, and spring, and fountain, better than life itself; as the psalmist says, “The loving-kindness of the Lord is better than life” (Ps 63:3). When life fails, the favor of God never fails. Life will fail, and all earthly comforts; but the favor of God is better than life itself; it is everlasting and eternal.

In Psalm 4:7 you see how worldly, atheistical men rejoice when their corn and wine and oil increase. And “who will show us any good?” Who? It does not matter who. Any good, any hope of advancement, no matter by what way; and no matter what, any good. Let them only show it, they say, and we will work it out; we have cleverness enough. Oh, says the psalmist, but I set no store by your cleverness, nor by your schemes; but, “Lord, let thy face shine upon me, lift up the light of thy countenance,” and that shall stand in place of all honors and advancements.

So in seeking we must observe God and depend upon him; and for what? For his favor especially; for the face and favor of God. Let me have a good look from you, O Lord; let me have your favor and love. As for other things, I leave them to your wisdom; you are wise enough. Only let your face shine on me.

Oh this favor and face of God, what a sweet thing it is, this presence of God! What is heaven but the presence of God there? Let God be present in a dungeon, and it will be a paradise; let God be absent, and paradise is as a hell or dungeon, as it was to Adam; after he had sinned, he ran to hide himself. What is hell but the want of God’s presence? God’s face and favor is not there. What makes hell in the heart of a man? God is not there, but leaves the heart to its own darkness and confusion. Oh, therefore, the face and favor of God, seek that especially!

[4] Again, to seek the face of God is to pray to him, to put this into practice in prayer. Everywhere in Scripture it is all one to pray and to seek God’s face. It is called the spirit of prayer; and because I have spoken of that at large from another scripture, I will now say nothing of it.

[5] Likewise, in the next place, to seek the face of God is to attend upon the presence of God, wherever he reveals himself: to attend upon the word and ordinances is to “seek the face of God.” It is said that Cain went from the face of God when he went from the worship of God in his father’s house; he went out from God (Gen 4:16). Where God is worshiped, there God is present; and when we leave the place where God is worshiped, we leave God’s presence. God is more especially present there, and therefore seeking the face of God is attending upon God’s ordinance: “I will seek thy face”; that is, wherever there is any presence of you, I will seek you.

Christ, when he was lost, was found in the temple. That has a literal sense, but it is true in a spiritual sense. If we lose Christ, and have no comfort from Christ, we will find him in the temple. The sweetest presence of his Spirit is there. His body is in heaven, and his Spirit is his vicar in the world. If we lack comfort and direction from Christ, we will meet him in the temple. There he gives us sweet meetings by his Spirit; there we have the comfort, and direction, and spiritual strength that we lacked before we came. There is the best meeting.

As in the Song of Solomon, Christ goes into the “garden of spices.” He goes among his children, who are like a watered garden, and like so many plants of righteousness and beds of spices. He delights to be there. Christ is in the communion of saints in the ordinances, and therefore “thy face will I seek,” especially in the tabernacle, and afterward the temple; especially in the church and communion of saints, there “thy face will I seek.” Thus we see the unfolding of this promise of a gracious, obedient, heedful heart: “Thy face will I seek.” I will add no more, but come to the use of it.

Use. And in the first place, by way of direction, in order that we may seek the face of God (that is, show him regard, and depend upon him, and enjoy his favor, and meet with him in his ordinances), we must first get the knowledge of God and of ourselves.

1. Get the knowledge of God, for those who know him will seek him. Those who know his riches, his power, his sufficiency, in a word, his all-sufficiency for all things, will seek him. And those who know themselves, who know their wants, their inability to supply those wants, and know the greatness of those wants, and that they must be supplied, will go out of themselves. Those who have nothing at home will seek elsewhere.

This, then, is the knowledge of these two: of the great God, the all-sufficient God, and of ourselves, the insufficiency of ourselves in every way, whether for direction, or for protection, or for comfort in distress, or for strength in duty to go through business, or for a good outcome when we are about anything. Those who know that “the way of man is not in man,” as Jeremiah says (Jer 10:23), would certainly go out of themselves. Therefore let us grow in the knowledge of God and of ourselves, of our own wants and necessities.

And especially know God now in Christ. For there is enmity between the nature of God and the nature of man, of sinful man, except that Christ has now taken our nature and made it lovely to God, and God lovely to us. Christ Immanuel, God and man, “God with us,” has made God and us friends. Therefore we must now go to God in that Immanuel, in Christ, that ladder that joins heaven and earth together. See God’s face shining in Christ, his gracious face, and this will encourage us to go to God, together with our wants. Do not go to the absolute God, a God without a mediator; for then God is “a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29).

2. In the next place, when we go to God and seek God, be sure to seek his favor and grace in the first place. If we lack any particular thing, protection or direction or comfort in distress, let us not go for that in the first place, but let us see on what terms God and we stand; let us be sure that reconciliation and peace are made. For if we seek God in our particular wants, and have not made our peace beforehand, but have sought other gods, men, and our own devices, God may say, “You seek me! Go to the gods you have served, to the great men you have served, to the riches you have trusted in; go to your own devices.” Therefore, first make peace and reconciliation with God before you seek other things. If a man has offended a great person, he does not go and seek particular favors until he has first made peace and settled the quarrel. Let us settle the quarrel between God and us, by repentance and a promise of new obedience; get reconciliation that way, and then seek particular favors afterward.

For suppose God gives you particular favors: if they are not from his grace and favor, what good will they do us? What good will all that a reprobate wretch has do him? What good will his favors, his riches, and honors and promotions do him when he dies, when he must grapple with the anger of God, when he sees hell before him and sees heaven shut? He sees that he has it all from a general providence and as a reward for his care in this world. God answers him with a civil prosperity for his civil obedience, but he has his reward. Heaven he does not have; he did not care for it. What will all of it do without the love of God in Christ? Therefore I beseech you, let us first seek the favor and mercy of God in Christ.

And then for particular things, go to him as the need requires; for in God there is a supply for every occasion, and that is the ground of seeking. For our seeking must be a wise seeking. Now it would not be wise unless there were a supply in God for every want, whatever it is. If the creature could do anything without God, we would have good ground for making that God. If anything could raise us without God, to comfort, I mean, we might seek those things, and make them God with good reason; but what can they do? In anger, God may let a man enjoy favors, as the fruits of his displeasure, but what can they do without him? They can do nothing. Therefore it must be the supreme cause, the highest cause, that we seek, the great wheel that turns every little inferior wheel in the world. They turn with the great wheel of divine providence and goodness; therefore go to him as the first cause.

3. Again, in seeking the favor of God, we must search our consciences, to come with pure and clean hearts to God to seek him. If we regard iniquity in our hearts, God will not hear our prayers (Ps 66:18). Then we come to God with a purpose to offend him. If we do not come with a purpose to leave our sins, why do we come? God will not regard our prayers. We must come to God with pure consciences, as it is excellently set down in Psalm 24:3: “Who shall ascend into thy hill, O Lord? who shall stand in thy holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.” And then he says afterward, “This is the generation of them that seek him,” those who have clean hands and a pure heart.

You have foul hands; you are a briber, a corrupter. You have an impure heart; you are a filthy creature; you have lived in such and such sins. Cleanse your hands and your heart. “This is the generation of them that seek him.” If a man seeks the pure and holy God with an unclean heart and unclean hands, if he is corrupt in his hands and in his heart, which is the fountain, he may seek God long enough before he finds him, and if he does see God, it is in anger.

4. Again, if we would seek the face and favor of God, let us study the word hard. Study the promises, as I said before; bind him with his own word: “You have said this; I plead your own word.” Jacob, when he wrestled with God (Gen 32:24), then saw God; he called the place Peniel, that is, the face of God, because of seeing God. Upon wrestling, when the heart by faith wrestles with God by the promise (“Lord, you have done this; though I feel no comfort, yet I will rest upon you”), that place will be Peniel; the face of God will be there, God will show himself.

And let the extremity be what it will, seek God in extremity; plead the word of God in extremity. What word do you have for extremity? “In the mountain God will be seen” (Gen 22:14). His face will be seen in the mount; that is, when there is no other help whatsoever. “God is a present help in trouble” (Ps 46:1). He is the “God that comforteth the abject” (2 Cor 7:6), those whom no one else can comfort; “and he that is in darkness, and sees no light, let him trust in the name of the Lord” (Isa 50:10). And “though I were in the valley of the shadow of death,” if the Lord is with me, I will trust in him (Ps 23:4). “And though thou kill me, yet will I trust in thee,” says Job (Job 13:15). In extremity seek God then, and find out words and promises then, as the Scriptures are rich in that kind; for then there is most need of seeking God: “Lord, if you do not help now, no one can help.”

And this is the difference between a true child of God and another. In the time of extremity, Saul seeks out the witch; but David seeks God, as here, “Lord, thy face will I seek.” Many things, no question, upbraided David with his sin and the affliction he was in: “You seek God! You have offended him, and now you are enduring some sign of his displeasure.” It is a heavy case, beloved, sometimes, especially in the time of extremity. Then conscience says, “I am in extremity, and on top of that God pursues me with such and such sins.” A guilty conscience meets me in my prayers to God and upbraids me, “You have done this and that”; so that if there is not faith, and a word of God to lay hold on in extremity, what will become of the poor soul? It is swallowed up.

No question David was now in pangs, and many things were at hand to thrust him off, and he might say, “I have many things to discourage me,” yet “thy face, Lord, will I seek,” for deliverance out of trouble and for pardon of sin. Set the promise of God and the pardon of sin above all extremity whatsoever. God is the God of all and above all; he is “the God of comfort.” If comforts are lacking, he can make them anew. In the lack of means, and when means are against us, let us seek God. Jonah was in the whale’s belly, a creature that might have consumed him with heat, and when he was in the belly of hell, he called unto God (Jonah 2:2). If a man is as low as hell, if he has a command to come, and a promise, it will fetch him out of there. Therefore plead the promises and the word.

What a miserable plight they are in who in extremity have no acquaintance with God’s word, with the promises or good examples, who have stored up nothing! Alas! they are naked in the midst of a storm; disarmed in the midst of war and opposition; they lie open to all assaults. Therefore, as you love your own souls, gather grounds of comfort, treasure up promises and holy truths, so that in extremity you may say with David, on good ground, “Lord, you have said this and this; and in this extremity I come to you.” “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” Break through all fears and discouragements whatsoever; plead the command of God, and the promise of God, and the encouragements of God: “My discouraged heart says this, and Satan says this; but, Lord, you say this, ‘Seek my face.’ Shall I not believe and obey God more than the devil or my own lying, false heart?” Therefore, unless we mean to betray our souls to temptations, and betray the comforts that we have, let us seek God in all extremities.

I desire you to remember these directions, and be encouraged to seek God. Join the seeking in extremity with seeking him in his ordinances. If we do not seek him in his ordinances in the time of peace, let us never think he will be so familiar with us in the time of trouble. If we are not acquainted with him in his ordinances in prosperity, in extremity he will be far off. Therefore “seek the face of God” now, in all his ordinances. That is the way to have provision of strength against all other extremities whatsoever. It is a great comfort in extremity to one who has sought God in his ordinances before.

Foolish, atheistical men do not seek the wisdom of God in his ordinances. God cries to them and they do not regard it. But then they cry to God, and God will not answer them, but will “laugh at their destruction” (Prov 1:26). And as it is in Zechariah, you cry, “and I will not hear, because I cried and ye would not hear” (Zech 7:13). When God speaks and we do not regard it, we will cry and he will not regard it. Therefore, as we desire his presence in the evil day, let us labor to hear him now. Let us search out his will, what he requires of us and what he will do for us, and labor to be armed with obedience against the time of distress.

And let us seek him early. Now, at once, seek the favor of God, you who are young. “In the morning early will I seek thee” (Ps 63:1). In the morning of your years, in the morning of the day, it is good to seek God, before the heart is possessed with other business, so that he may bless all our affairs. Seek his face, so that his blessing, and direction, and strength may be upon all. Let us set about things in his wisdom and strength, and hope on his blessing.

And in the morning of your years, early, do not put it off. For here is the mischief. If we do not seek God early, in good time, the heart will be hardened and will grow worse; tomorrow we will be more unfit than today. Then those who seek in their sickness, and at the hour of death, that is self-love. It is grace to seek God for himself, out of old acquaintance and love. But to seek him in sickness only, and to neglect his ordinances, is merely self-love. It is like a criminal who behaves badly in prison, and then seeks the judge’s face at the bar. When God arraigns a man at the bar, then to seek him comes from self-love.

But the obedience we owe to God is to seek him out of a new nature, out of love of God’s goodness and grace. When we seek him in extremity, not out of the love of grace, but to escape the danger of hell and damnation, such seeking seldom proves good. Many make a great show of repentance and turning to God, and many of those prove false. He who is good in affliction only is never good. Therefore do not put off seeking God’s face, by prayer and the use of all good means.

Many men first settle their estates, and then send for a physician, and the minister last of all, when they are sick. Oh, but seek God first, and above all things in the world, or else we have adulterous, idolatrous hearts, making the face of man our idol, or health our idol. We should seek God’s face above all.

The Scripture sets him out sweetly to us. Therefore one way to encourage us to seek God is to present God to our souls under those sweet terms. He is a rock in the midst of the waves; he is a habitation in the midst of a storm: “Thou art our habitation” (Ps 71:3). He is called a hiding place; he has the shadow of his wings to cover us; let us fly under the shadow of his wings. He is presented sweetly to us in Christ. Therefore let us have recourse to him on all occasions; and now, now, so that we may be familiar with him, so that we may be acquainted with him now, in the days of our youth, and he will know us in age and sickness. If we are not acquainted with him now, he will not acquaint himself with us then. Therefore seek his face now, and above all things seek it.

And can we have more encouragement? There was never anyone who sought the face of God that went away sorry. It is said of some good emperors that no man ever went sorry out of their presence; either they had the grant of their suits or good words. God sends no one away sorry. There are none who come into the presence of God but they are the better for it. They go away more cheerful and more satisfied. Their consciences are quieted when they pour out their souls to God. There “the peace of God which passeth understanding” preserves their soul, as it is in Philippians 4:7. In nothing be careful: but let there be thanksgiving for favors received, and let your requests be made known to him; and the peace of God shall preserve your hearts and minds (Phil 4:6). You will not despair and be too much cast down; peace will preserve you.

And if we do not seek the face of God now, when we may enjoy his presence, we will never see his face in glory hereafter. We must be acquainted with him now, or else we will not be when we would like to be. Therefore, as we may enjoy the presence of God in his ordinances, so in all our affairs let us seek his face and blessing. Let us have what we have, and do what we do, in his blessing and assistance, and not in the strength of wit and devices. Let us do what we do by divine strength, and in confidence of his blessing. What we do by his strength we may expect his blessing on; we cannot do so with our devices. Let us accustom ourselves to these ways, and we will find much peace; and by long acquaintance with God we will be able to commit our souls to him; we will be able to look him in the face at the hour of death. He who looks God in the face often in prayer, and in seeking him, may look death in the face. These things may be made effectual if your hearts are prepared, as the Scripture phrase is.

And because I mentioned preparing: that is a word in Scripture that is set before seeking. Rehoboam did not thrive; he did not “prepare his heart to seek God” (2 Chr 12:14). Jehoshaphat was blessed by God: “he prepared his heart to seek the Lord” (2 Chr 19:3). Therefore let us come prepared to seek God; let us prepare our hearts to seek him. Think, “When I go to the congregation, I go to seek God’s face”; therefore come in humility and subjection. And in all the courses of our lives, let all of us prepare, and set our hearts in order to seek God in all things; and let us undertake nothing in which we cannot depend on him for assistance and look to him for a blessing. And when we cannot enjoy his favor and blessing in anything, we would be as well off without it as with it.

This is the way to have our wills in all things. Christ, the truth itself, has left us this one sweet promise, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God” (Matt 6:33). He speaks there of seeking our own good. What is the best thing we should seek? “Seek ye first the kingdom of God,” of grace, and of glory; the favor of God, and the fruit of his favor, grace. Seek those best things in the first place. What then? It is the way to have all things else, as far as they are for our good. But we would have more. We think that if we seek God, and depend upon God’s divine principles and rules, it is a way to beggary and disgrace. Oh no. It is the way to have our own desire in all things, as far as it is for our good.

Let us seek first the kingdom of God, so that God may rule and reign in us, and we will reign in the kingdom of God. As for other things, God will bring it to pass, I do not know how; they will be cast upon us. The man who is full for heaven and happiness, God will make full for the world, and successful, as much as he sees fit to bring him to heaven. If God sees anything that would hinder him, he must leave that to his wisdom.

Therefore let us labor to be able, from truth of heart, to return to the commandment and promise of God this sweet and gracious answer of the holy man David, when God says, generally or particularly, “Seek my face”: “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee (Gen 17:7).

God, having framed man an understanding creature, has made him fit to have communion and dealings with himself; because by his understanding man can discern that there is a better good outside himself, and that happiness consists in communion and fellowship with that good. Other creatures, lacking the understanding to discern a better good outside themselves than within themselves, their life being their good, desire only the continuance of their own being, without society and fellowship with others. But man has the knowledge of God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and especially of God the Redeemer, who provides for him a second being better than his first. He therefore understands that his best and chiefest good lies more in God than in himself. And because his happiness stands in acquaintance and fellowship with this God, who is the chief good, he desires communion with him, that he may partake of his good.

This communion and fellowship of man with God was first founded on a covenant of works made with Adam in paradise. If he obeyed, and did not eat of the forbidden fruit, he would have life both for himself and his posterity. Because God would not have this covenant forgotten, he afterward renewed it in the delivery of the Ten Commandments, requiring from man obedience to them in his own person, exactly, at all times, perpetually: promising life on the obedience, and threatening death and cursing if he did not continue in everything the law required him to do. But this fellowship was placed in man’s own freedom and had so weak a foundation that he lost both himself and it. So now, by the first covenant of works, Adam and all his posterity are under a curse; for we cannot fulfill the law that requires personal obedience, perfect obedience, and exact obedience. He that “continueth not in all is cursed” (Gal 3:10). The law, then, finds us dead and kills us. It finds us dead before, and not only leaves us dead still, but makes us more dead.

Now after this fall, man’s happiness was to recover again his communion and fellowship with God; and therefore we must have a new covenant before we can have life and comfort. God must enter into new conditions with us before we can have any communion with him.

God therefore, loving man, acted after the breach of the first agreement and covenant. When Adam had lost himself by his sin, and was in as miserable a plight as any creature ever was in the world, falling from so great a happiness into wondrous misery, God raised him up and comforted him by establishing a second, a new and better covenant. He laid the foundation of it in the blessed seed of the woman, Christ the Messiah, who is the ground of this new covenant, and so of our communion and fellowship with God, and without whom there can be no dealings between God and us in love. And because this covenant was almost forgotten, God now, in Abraham’s time, renewed it to Abraham in this place: “I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed after thee.”

There are four periods of time in the renewing of this covenant. First, from Adam to Abraham; and in those first times of the world, those who were under the covenant were called the “sons and daughters of God,” “the children of the promise,” and the covenant of grace was called a promise of the blessed seed.

Secondly, from Abraham to Moses; and then it was called a covenant, and they the children of the covenant. “I will establish my covenant.” A covenant is more than a promise, and a more solemn thing, because there are ceremonies.

The third period of renewing the covenant of grace was from Moses to Christ; and then it was clearer, when to the covenant made with Abraham, who was sealed with the sacrament of circumcision, the sacrament of the paschal lamb was added, and all the Levitical sacrifices; and then it was called a testament. That differs a little from a covenant; for a testament is established by blood, it is established by death. So was that; but it was only with the blood and death of cattle sacrificed as a type.

But now, from Christ’s time to the end of the world, the covenant of grace is clearest of all; and it is now usually called the New Testament, being established by the death of Christ himself. And it differs from a covenant in these respects:

First, a testament indeed is a covenant, and something more. It is a covenant sealed by death. The testator must die before it can be in force. So all the good that is conveyed to us by the testament comes by the death of the testator, Christ. God’s covenant with us now is such a covenant as is a testament, sealed with the death of the testator, Christ; for without blood there is no redemption (Heb 9:22). Without the death of Christ there could be no satisfaction, and without satisfaction there could be no peace with God.

Secondly, a testament bequeaths good things purely out of love. It gives gifts freely. A covenant requires something to be done. In a testament, there is nothing but receiving the legacies given. In covenants, the purpose is often the mutual good of both parties, but a testament is purely for the good of those for whom it is made, to whom the legacies are bequeathed; for when the testators are dead, what can they receive from those who inherit? God’s covenant now is such a testament, sealed with the death of Christ, made out of love purely for our good; for what can God receive from us? All is legacies from him. And though he requires conditions, requires faith and obedience, yet he himself fulfills what he asks, gives what he requires, gives it as a legacy, as we shall see afterward.

Thus you see that the communion and fellowship of man with God must be either by a covenant of works or by a covenant of grace. And we must distinguish exactly between these two covenants and the periods of them.

When the covenant of works was annulled by our sins, because we could not fulfill the law exactly and perpetually, God would have a new covenant: if we believe in Christ, we shall have everlasting life. Now, if we stick to the one, we must renounce the other. If it is of faith, it is not of works; and if it is of works, it is not of faith.

This was excellently signified by Joshua and Moses. Joshua brings the people to Canaan, and not Moses. Moses does not bring anyone to heaven. It must be Joshua, the type of the true Jesus, who must bring them through the Jordan to Canaan. This was typified also in the ark. There was the law, the covenant of works, in the ark, but the propitiatory, the mercy seat, was above the ark, above the law, and from there God made all his answers. This signifies to us that we can have nothing to do with the law without the propitiatory. Christ is the propitiatory, the mercy seat. In Christ God hears us. He makes all his answers in the propitiatory, Christ.

Therefore when the question is our salvation, and how we have title to heaven, it is not by the merit of works, for then we reverse the covenant of grace. Our title is solely by God’s mercy in Christ, apprehended by faith. The evidence, indeed, that proves our faith to be a true faith is from works, but the title we have is only by Christ, only by grace. Here we must appeal from Sinai to Zion; from the law to the gospel; from Moses to Christ. We must flee with Joab to the horns of the altar (1 Kgs 2:28). That must be our refuge. Flee to Christ in the covenant of grace, and we shall not be pulled from there, as Joab was from the altar. There let us live and die.

Remember, I say, that the covenant of grace is distinct in its whole kind from the covenant of works. Yet they are both in the church, and both taught, one subordinate to the other. It is like this: the covenant of works is taught to show us our failing, so that, seeing our own inability to perform what the law requires, we may be forced to the new covenant of grace.

And therefore Paul says, “By the law I am dead to the law” (Gal 2:19). It is an excellent saying, “By the law I am dead to the law”; by the covenant of works I am dead to the covenant of works. That is, by the law’s exacting of me exact and perpetual obedience in thought, word, and deed, I come to see that I cannot fulfill it, and therefore am dead to the law; that is, I look for no salvation, for no title to heaven, by that.

And therefore he says, “The law was added for transgression” (Gal 3:19). Why was the law added to the promise of salvation by Christ made here to Abraham? Why was the covenant of works added in the wilderness afterward? It was for transgression, to increase the sense of transgression, so that by the law we might see what we should do, and what we have not done, and that by this we have come under a curse, and so might flee to the promise of grace in Christ. I have stood the longer on clearing this, because it is a main point.

But to come to what I specially intend. The words, as I said before, contain the renewing of this blessed and gracious agreement between God and man to Abraham, the father of the faithful.

“I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be thy God, and the God of thy seed after thee.”

The words, you see, contain a covenant; and here are all things, all the articles and circumstances that belong to any covenant whatsoever.

Here are the parties, both those who make the covenant and those who are covenanted with. Here is the substance of the covenant, and the qualities of the covenant, and the condition of the covenant.

The party making the covenant is God: “I will be thy God.”

God is the party covenanting. God indeed is both the party covenanting and the substance of the covenant: “I will be a God to thee.” The two fall together in one. It is a most sweet sign of God’s great love that he will stoop so low as to make a covenant with us, to be our God, to be himself all in all to us. For only consider these two parties: God and we; the Creator and the creature; the immortal God and mortal man; the glorious God and “dust and ashes”; the holy God and sinful man; the great King of heaven and earth, and rebels and traitors as we are. For him to condescend so low as to make a covenant with us, to enter into terms and articles of agreement with us, is a wondrous sign of his gracious mercy and love. What may we not hope for from so gracious a God? But I shall have occasion to touch on that afterward.

The parties covenanted with are Abraham and his seed, his seed by promise.

The substance of the covenant is, “I will be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee.”

The qualities of the covenant are, first, it is a sure covenant: “I will establish my covenant.”

Secondly, it is an everlasting covenant: “I will establish my covenant for an everlasting covenant.”

Thirdly, it is a special covenant: “I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed”; that is, only between me and you and your seed; not with the refuse of the world, but only with your seed by promise; only believers, whether Jews or Gentiles.

Fourthly, it is a most free covenant. It was made to Abraham, whom God called out of Ur of the Chaldees, out of an idolatrous nation, out of an idolatrous family; even as it was at the first most freely made to Adam in paradise, when he was in a most desperate state. When he was, in a manner of speaking, as low as hell, ready to sink into despair, then the “seed of the woman” was promised. So here it was freely made to good Abraham. First, the love of God was free to him when he called him, being an idolater; and then it was freely renewed afterward, when he was good, as we shall see shortly.

And lastly, it is a covenant consisting mostly of spiritual things. It is a spiritual covenant. I mean especially that it promises spiritual favors, although the other things, as appendages of the main thing, are likewise meant. For after the covenant was made to Abraham and his posterity, they endured many afflictions. After the promise was renewed to Jacob, we know he fled from his brother Esau, to whom the covenant of grace was not made; and yet from Esau there presently came duke so-and-so, and duke so-and-so (Gen 36:15 and following), while poor Jacob had to flee for his life on account of the promise. So, I say, it must be especially of spiritual blessings.

These are the qualities of the covenant. It is a sure, an everlasting, a special, and a most free covenant, aiming especially at spiritual things.

And then, lastly, you have the condition of the covenant; and that, though it is not expressed, is yet implied. “I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed.” Therefore you shall take me for your God, and carry yourself toward me as toward your God, and so on. It is usual in other places of Scripture, where mention is made of this covenant, to imply the condition required on our part.

Sometimes both the covenant and the condition are mentioned together, as in Zechariah 13:9: “I will say,” says God, “It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God.” The one springs from the other. When God is a God to anyone, he makes the heart answer, “You shall be my God, and I will be yours always.” This is the condition on our part that we make with God in this covenant: to take him for our God, to be his people, and those peculiarly his own.

“I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed.”

Though these words, “I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed,” are the last words of the text, yet since they are the substance of the covenant, I think it will be best to speak of that before I speak of the qualities of the covenant or anything else.

“I will be thy God.”

This is the covenant in the Messiah; but first, what is it to be a God?

I answer: to be a God, taking it in general, is to give being to the creature that had no being of itself, and to protect and preserve the creature in its being; in a word, to be a creator, for providence is the perpetuity and continuance of creation. This is to be a God. The office of God, as God, is a most glorious function. To be a king is a great matter, but to be a God, to give being to the creature, to support it when it has a being, to do all that God should do, this is a most glorious work. But this is only creation. This is not especially intended here, for in this way he is the God of all his works. In this way, by creation and preservation, he is the God of all the people in the world outside the church.

What, then, is it to be “thy God”? “I will be thy God.”

I answer: to be a God in a more special manner is to be a God in covenant. That is, it is not only to be a God to preserve and continue this being of ours in civil life, but to be a God in a higher relation to us; to be a God with reference to an eternal, supernatural state in heaven; to be a God here in grace, and hereafter in glory. And in this way God is a God in a gracious covenant only by Jesus Christ, and to those who believe in him.

“I will be thy God”; that is, I will be your God in Christ, to give you a better being than this world can afford; to free you from the cursed state you are in by nature; to deliver you from all ill, spiritually and eternally; especially to bestow on you all good, spiritually and eternally; especially, as we have it in the words of the covenant, “I will be thy shield and thy exceeding great reward” (Gen 15:1): a shield to keep off all ill, and a reward for all good. So in Psalm 84:11, “God will be a sun and a shield”: a sun for all sweet comfort and good, and a shield in regard of defense from ill; a sun and a shield until we come to the possession of eternal happiness.

This is to be a God in a special manner: to give all things necessary for grace and life too, for this life and for a better; to do all things required to bring us to heaven and happiness through Christ, “in whom all the promises are yea and amen” (2 Cor 1:20); to be all in all; to direct the protections and provisions of this life, of our state here, to a supernatural happiness hereafter, to a state beyond nature. For God directs the favors of this life, so that he gives them or takes them away as he sees them to be advantages or hindrances to a better state. So is God a God to those who are in covenant with him.

To do all this, and to do all this in opposition to all enemies whatsoever; to do all this in weakness and in the impotence of the creature; to do all this when all second causes are contrary, as it were; to bring a man to heaven in spite of the devil and of our own corruptions, or all oppositions whatsoever: this is to be a God indeed.

But why does he say only, “I will be thy God”? Why does he not say, I will give you grace and protection, I will give you heaven and life everlasting?

Because all is one, for all things in the world are in this one promise, “I will be thy God.” See the wisdom of heaven, how much he speaks in how little. No more can be spoken than this: “I will be thy God.” For in saying, “I will be thy God,” he implies that whatever he is, or has, or can do, shall be yours too. “I will be thy God”; that is, my wisdom shall be yours, to watch over you, to find out ways to do you good; my power shall be yours, to keep you from danger, to defend and rescue you from all enemies, and to subdue them by degrees under you; my providence shall be yours, to turn all things to your good; my mercy shall be yours, to forgive your sins; my love shall be yours, to bestow on you all necessary comforts.

There is no phrase in the Scripture that has so much in so little as this one here, “I will be thy God,” if we could unfold and lay open this excellent promise. All other particular promises in the covenant of grace are members of this. What is the reason, as Saint Paul says, “all things are yours”? “Because you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Cor 3:23). God is the God of Christ, and our God. We are in covenant with the God of Christ. Christ is the heir of all, and we are members of Christ. God, who is the God of all things, is ours. It is a wondrously comprehensive promise.

“I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed.”

The substance of the covenant, then, is that God will be a God to us. The point to be observed is this, that God graciously, in the blessed seed, the Messiah, Christ Jesus, takes upon himself to be a God to all those who are in covenant with him; that is, to be all-sufficient, to bring us to happiness, all-sufficient in this world and in the world to come, to be our portion, to be all in all.

This is the first and fundamental promise of all others. Indeed, it is the life and soul of all the promises, and it is the life and soul of all comfort whatsoever. For all other relations spoken of God tend to this, that he is “our God.” This comes before being a Father, before being anything. God first is a God, and then a Father, and then all in all to us. So he is first the God of Christ, and then the Father of Christ, as you usually have it in the beginnings of the epistles, “God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”; first the God, and then the Father. To be a God, then, is the fundamental and principal favor. From there comes our election, his choosing of us to eternal salvation before all time, and his protection and preservation of us in time, on to heaven.

I shall not need to speak more of this, having unfolded it before.

But you will say, “How shall we know that this covenant belongs to us, that we are such as may say, God is our God?”

I answer, first, to lay this as a ground, you must know that to be a God is a relation. Whomever God is a God to, he persuades by his Spirit that he is a God to them. The same Spirit that persuades them that there is a God tells them that God is their God, and works a qualification and disposition in them, so that they may know that they are in covenant with such a gracious God. As the Spirit reveals to them the love of God, and that he is theirs, so the Spirit enables them to claim him for their God, to give themselves up to him as to their God.

And the Spirit does this because friends cannot be in covenant and confederate unless there is a likeness or an agreement. There must be more words, then, than one to a covenant. Though God’s grace does all, yet we must give our consent; and therefore the covenant is expressed under the title of marriage. In marriage there must be a consent of both parties. In reconciliation between a king and subjects who have fallen out, when they are rebels, there must be an accepting of the pardon, and a promise of new subjection.

So then, if God is our God, there will be grace given to take him for our God; to give him homage as a king; to give him our consent as to our spouse. “You shall be my God, and I will cleave to you, as to my lord and husband.” Can two walk together, says the prophet, and not be friends? (Amos 3:3). There can be no friendship with God unless something is wrought in us by his Spirit, to make us fit for friendship, that we may look on him as an object of love and delight. If we look on him as an object of hatred, what terms of friendship can there be? Now, that we may look on him as an object of love, fit for fellowship with him, he must make us such by consent and yielding to him, by framing the inward man to his likeness, so that peace may be maintained with him. You see the ground of it: of necessity it must be so.

Well, to come to the tests. But let me first add this to the former: whomever God is a God to, it is known especially by spiritual and eternal favors. A man cannot know certainly that God is his God by the outward and common things that the reprobate may have; for a reprobate may have Ishmael’s blessing and Esau’s portion, blessings of the left hand, common graces. To know undoubtedly, therefore, that God is our God must be by things peculiar to his own; for those whose God God is are a people peculiarly his own, a holy nation, severed from others.

First of all, then, know what the Spirit of God says to your soul; for those who are God’s have his Spirit, to reveal to their spirits the secret and hidden love of God. But if the voice of the Spirit is silent in regard of testimony, go to the work of the Spirit; but go to the special work of the Spirit. For though the Spirit may be silent in regard of his testimony, yet there are some works or other of the Spirit in a man, by which he may know that God is his God. For the Spirit of God works, in some measure, a correspondence in him toward God, and no one can know better what God is to him than by searching his own heart, to see what he is back again to God. For as God says to them by his Spirit, “You are mine,” so they say to God, “You are mine.”

Let us then come to the test of how we carry ourselves toward God. Can we say with David, “Whom have I in heaven but thee?” or “What is there in earth in comparison of thee?” (Ps 73:25). When the conscience can tell us that we make God our treasure and our portion above all earthly things, then we make him our God.

A Christian singles out God above all things in the world for his happiness. “Lord, you are mine! Whatever wealth is mine, or riches mine, or friends mine, I set no store by that, but you are mine.” A rich man runs to his wealth, and makes flesh his arm. He runs to friends, to bear him out in bad causes. But a true Christian, who has God for his God, may know it by this: he singles out God for his portion, and runs to him in all extremities. “Lord, you are mine.” This is a sign that God has said to his soul first, “I am thy salvation” (Ps 35:3). How can the soul claim God as its own? How can he say, as Thomas did, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28), unless the Lord has spoken peace to the soul before, and has said, “I am thy salvation”?

It is a sign we have made God our God when we prize him and value him above all the world; and when, with Saint Paul, we count all things dung and dross, in comparison of Jesus Christ our Lord (Phil 3:8). What we will do most for, that is our god. If we will do most for God, he is our God. If we do most for pleasures, they are our god. If we do most for riches, break our sleep and crack our consciences for them, that is our god. In a word, whatever we value highest, that is our god.

Examine what affections we have toward God, for it is affection that makes a Christian. Let us single out a few in which we offend most. First, as for fear, it may shame us all. Indeed, a Christian at his best resolve is better. But the ordinary conduct of men is this: they fear men more than God; they fear everything more than him whom they should fear above all. For instance, is the way men conduct themselves toward God in private the same as their conduct before the eye of the world? Will they not often do in secret what they will not do openly? In secret they will commit this or that sin, and think, “Who sees?” There are secret abominations in the closet of their hearts. They will not fear to do in the eye of God what they fear to do in the eye of a six-year-old child who has any understanding.

Is this to make God our God, when we fear the eye of a feeble mortal creature more than the eye of God, which is ten thousand times brighter than the sun, and who is our judge? Is God our God all the while? Undoubtedly, when God is made our God, a person stands in awe of the eye of heaven in all places. Therefore this is the condition of the covenant: “Walk before me” (Gen 17:1), or walk as in my sight. How do we walk before God as in his sight, when there is such a great difference between our conduct in secret and our conduct before the eyes of men? How do we, when we labor more to make our conduct acceptable to men than we make it a matter of conscience to keep our spirits right toward God?

This may shame us. Even the best of us, who are in covenant with God and have made God our God, have cause to be abased for this. And surely one of the best ways to make God’s children abased and humbled is to compare the disproportion in their conduct: how they carry themselves toward men whom they respect, and toward outward things in the world, and how they carry themselves toward God. If God is our God, there will be an all-embracing fear and care to please God at all times and in all places, because he is everywhere; darkness and light are all one to him.

Test yourselves therefore by this affection. If we make God our God, we will fear him above all. For since there is such a distance between God and us (he the mighty God, and we creatures whose breath is in our nostrils), there can be a covenant of peace between us in no other way than with much reverence. Therefore all Christians are reverent creatures; they do everything in fear. They pass the whole time of their way of life here in fear (1 Pet 1:17); they “make an end of their salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12); they enjoy their liberties in fear. St. Jude mentions a number of wretched people in his time who ate without fear (Jude 12).

You may know a man who does not have this grace of God in his heart by his irreverent conduct. He never thinks of the presence and all-seeing eye of God. A Christian who has God for his God knows that wherever he is, he is in the eye of heaven. Therefore he is jealous even of his own most secret corruptions. He knows that they are lawless in themselves, and therefore he always sets himself in the presence of God. He is full of reverence, full of fear, even in the enjoyment of his Christian liberties.

So likewise for the affection of love. If God is your God, you have been given grace to love him above all things. To those with whom God is graciously reconciled, he gives his Spirit, so that they may be reconciled back to him. He loves us, and we love him in return; for by nature we are enemies to God, as he is to us. There is no wicked man in the world who can love God. Indeed, insofar as God is a God who promises salvation, the wicked man loves him. He would gladly have that, and therefore would gladly be in God’s favor. But he cannot love God as he is in all respects. Rather, he hates him, and he hates his children. He trifles with his name by oaths and blasphemy and the like. He scorns God. He wishes that there were no God. Can this man say that God is his God, when he does not carry himself back toward him in his affection as toward his God? No such thing. He is God’s enemy, and God is his enemy. So if God is our God, if he has set his love upon us, we cannot but love him in return. If he is reconciled to us, we are reconciled to him. This is a sure sign that God is our God, if we love him above all.

Now, that may be known if we are zealous when God is dishonored in any way; for whatever we make our god, we will not endure to have it touched. If a man makes his lust his god, and that is touched, he is all in a rage. When what a man loves is touched, experience shows it: he is immediately all on fire. And here the best Christians have cause to be abased. Does God have their love, when they can hear him disgraced and his name abused without being greatly moved, and yet all the while they will not endure to have their own reputation touched, but they are, as I said, all on fire? Where there is no zeal, there is no love. Certainly when we can hear God’s children mistreated, and religion endangered, and the profession of it scoffed at, and so on, and yet not be moved, and cannot take God’s cause to heart, this is a great fault in our love.

And so for joy and delight. We make God our God when we rejoice in him above all things in the world; when we make him our boast all the day long, as it is in Psalm 44:8; when we make him our glory, as he is called our glory in Jeremiah 2:11, “They changed their glory.” God is our glory if he is our God. We count it our chief glory that we are his, and that he is ours. Whatever our condition may be, we glory in God, and not in ourselves. When a Christian wants to rejoice and glory, he goes out of himself to God. God is his joy.

But do not men rejoice in created things, and often delight in them more than in God? It is a great shame for us, and something for which even the best of us may be abased, to consider how much delight and comfort we take in created things more than in God. We see Jonah, a good man. God raised up a gourd to be a shelter for him, and a poor, simple defense it was; and yet, when it was taken from him, we see how petulant the good man was. All the comfort he had could not keep him from anger and fretting when the gourd was gone; and yet God was his God. So it is with many men. They should rejoice in God above all things, yet if God takes outward comforts from them, they are as if there were no God in heaven and no comfort there; as if there were no providence to rule the world; as if they had no Father in covenant with them. I say this is a great shame for us.

Again, if God is our God, we will trust in him, rely and depend on him above all things; for whatever we trust in most, that is our god. Now if our conscience tells us that we trust most in God, more than in wealth or friends, and that we will not please any man if it means displeasing God, it is a sign that we have made God our God, because we trust in him. And surely, if we would examine ourselves, the best of us all, it would bring us to our knees and make our faces be confounded to consider how much atheism there is in our hearts (though we are not altogether atheists, yet how much there is) that must be mortified and subdued.

For if an honest man, one we know to be faithful, should say to us, “I will be yours; I will take it upon myself to provide for you, to defend you, to protect you, to stand by you against all adversaries,” we believe and hope that he will do it. But do we do the same with God? Does he have our trust and confidence? Alas, no! I mean, so far as we are not subdued to God. A Christian, indeed, is enabled in some measure to make God his trust and confidence, but an abundance of atheism remains even in the best of us. If God is our God, why do we not trust in him and depend on him for all things? Why do we not depend on him for protection and deliverance from all evil, and especially spiritual evil: from sin, Satan, hell, and wrath? Why do we not depend on him for all good, and especially the good of grace: for the change of our nature and the forgiveness of our sins, for spiritual privileges, adoption and sonship, for the inheritance of heaven, and so on?

It is a sign, I say, that God is our God when we trust in him above all the world, and trust other things only from him and for him. I will trust man, but man may deceive me. Therefore I will not trust him with an absolute confidence. No. That would be to make a god of him. What is the reason that God confounds proud men at last? David shows the reason: “This man he took not the Lord for his God” (Ps 52:7). When men, in contempt of religion, will set up themselves and something else to rely on besides God, God at last brings it about that the world will point them out: “This man trusted in his greatness; he trusted in his scheming, in his wits, in his friends; this man took not the Lord for his God.”

Again, if we make God our God, we may know it by our obedience, especially by the obedience of the inward man. When the inward man is vowed to God, when a man yields inward obedience to God, it is a sign that God is his God. When a man can arraign his thoughts and desires before God, and when lusts rise in his heart contrary to the Spirit, he checks them immediately: “This does not become those who are God’s; it does not befit those who walk after God, who have God’s Spirit for their leader.” Therefore he is immediately ashamed of base temptations.

A Christian can perform the first and last commandments, which are the most spiritual commandments. He can make God his God in his affections. His affections are placed upon him alone, as I have shown before. He can yield up all his inward affections of fear and love and joy, and the like, to God, which is the sum of the first commandment. And he can be content not to have his lusts rage and range; he suppresses his very thoughts and desires, and will not allow anything to rise in his heart unchecked and uncontrolled, which is the sum of the tenth commandment. I mean, he can do it in some measure.

And there is an inward passive obedience too. It is God, as David and other saints said: “It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good in his own eyes” (1 Sam 3:18). “I am God’s, and he shall dispose of me.” The soul that knows God to be its God has an inward obedience of contentment with its condition. “God is my portion, and it is large enough. The earth is his, and the fullness thereof (Ps 24:1). Therefore I will be content to be at his disposal, whether it is more or less.” And if any murmuring against God arises in that heart, over its condition or anything else, it immediately suppresses it, as contrary to the blessed government a Christian is under, who ought to resign his whole soul to God.

Thus by our affections, by the testing of them, we may know whether God is our God: if we give him the affections of the heart, in which religion chiefly stands; when we make the whole inward man stoop and bow and bend to him; when we make him our king and give him the supremacy; when we set the crown upon his head; when he has our fear, our joy and delight, our love, our trust. I mean, when he has the supreme place in all of them, for we may love man, as God conveys good to us through him, and so for the rest.

But God must be supreme. Others must be loved and feared, and so on, in him and for him, but he chiefly. So it is when we depend on him for all deliverance out of evil and for all good, and show our dependence on him by our subjection to him in all his ways, by yielding him obedience that answers to all this; and especially when we show it by performing inward worship to him, when we walk before him perfectly and sincerely, as it is in the beginning of this chapter, “I am God all-sufficient: walk before me and be perfect” (Gen 17:1). By this we may know that God is our God.

I need not enlarge on it. The practice of the first commandment will teach us what our God is. Whatever we give the supremacy of the inward man to, whatever we love most, whatever we trust most, whatever we fear most, whatever we rejoice and delight in most, whatever we obey most, that is our god. “I am the Lord thy God,” in the first commandment. There is the ground. What follows? “Thou shalt have no other gods but me”; that is, you shall love nothing in the world, fear nothing, trust in nothing, rejoice in nothing more than me, no, nor alongside me; but all other things you shall trust and fear, and so on, in me and for me.

Otherwise, what we love is our god, what we trust is our god, what we fear most is our god. If we fear man, and fear him so as to do evil, man is our god. If we love created things, or sin, that is our god. If we crack our consciences for wealth, the covetous man’s wealth is his god. If we crack our consciences for pleasures, or for our bellies, our pleasures and our bellies and our lusts are our god. We do not make God our God unless we give him the supremacy of the inward man.

But to proceed, and to come to a few more familiar signs that will test us (though these may test us too), in the dealings that pass between God and us.

Whoever have God for their God have the Spirit of supplication and prayer, to cry to God, to run to him, especially in extremity. All God’s children have the Spirit of adoption to cry, “Abba, Father!” They have the Spirit to give them boldness toward God. Otherwise their nature, and trouble joining with nature and temptations, would make them run from God; yet the Spirit of God in them makes them bold to go to God in Jesus Christ. God’s children, who are in covenant with him, can pray to God at all times. If they cannot pray, they can “chatter” and sigh to God. There is something they can do. There is a Spirit in them that groans and sighs, as in Romans 8:26, and God hears the voice of his own Spirit. They are cries in his ears. “My groans and sighs are not hid from thee,” says the Psalmist (Ps 38:9).

The Spirit of supplication will show God to be our God, because if he were not ours, we could not be bold to go to him, especially in the time of extremity. You have this sign in Zechariah 13:9, “They shall call upon my name, and I will hear them; they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” Invocation and prayer are a sign that God is our God, when we go to God immediately by prayer in all our wants and necessities. Pharaoh and reprobate spirits say to Moses, “Pray you for me” (Exod 8:28); but as for a spirit of supplication in themselves, they have none. They may speak of prayer, but they cannot pray.

Whoever is God’s can cry to God. We know that a child utters its first voice as soon as it is born: it cries. So God’s newborn children can cry to God. You will find Paul in Acts 9:11 praying as soon as ever he was converted. And certainly those who are not accustomed to pray morning and evening and on all occasions, who do not acquaint themselves with God, do not have God for their God. If he were their God, they would seek him and be acquainted with him. The Spirit will teach them to go to God as to a Father.

Again, we may know that God is our God by this: by our separating from all others, in ourselves and out of ourselves. There is a separation in ourselves, for that is the first separation. To those whose God he is, God gives his Spirit, and the Spirit, like fire, severs the dross and gathers the gold together. And as heat in the body severs good nourishment and separates what does not nourish the body, so where the Spirit of God is, he works a separation between the flesh and the spirit. The Spirit will know what is spiritual, will discern what in us is fleshly, and will join to spiritual things and be one with them, as it were. There will be a sweet agreement in the word, in the sacraments, in good company, in holy meditation and the like, and a separation from the flesh. A Christian knows that he is redeemed from himself, so far as he is wicked. We are redeemed from ourselves and our own base nature, as well as from hell and damnation. Therefore there is first a separation in ourselves from ourselves. It begins there. We have nothing to do with our corruptions. We will not own them.

And where this sweet covenant is, that God is our God, just as there is a separation from ourselves and our corruptions, so there is a separation from all that joins with our corruption; a separation in affection from delighting in all that is not God, and from all such occasions and company as strengthen our corruption. A Christian knows what he has of God’s in him, and what he has of Satan, which he must weaken. Therefore he severs himself from what strengthens the one and weakens the other. This test is expressed in 2 Corinthians 6:17-18, “Come out from amongst them, separate yourselves, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people.” He speaks to give direction especially about our society and acquaintance, for that is what he aims at. How shall we know that God will be our God? We must separate ourselves and touch no unclean thing, nothing that will help rebellion.

Therefore, as for those who are indifferent about what company they keep, and can take their comfort in any society, however corrupt, who carry themselves agreeably toward all and want to be well thought of by all, and so will venture on every occasion, it is a bad sign that they are carnal people. When in the closest league of friendship or amity, or in intimate familiarity, they will join with anyone (all are alike), it is a sign they do not have God for their God. For then they would have common enemies and common friends with God; common enemies with God. Those whom God hated, they would hate.

As God in covenant blesses those who bless us and curses those who curse us, so those who are in covenant and friendship with God will hate with a perfect hatred whatever it is that hates God. They will have nothing to do with such in intimate familiarity, further than their callings press upon them. They will give them their due in humanity and courtesy, but no more. Their love and delight will be in God and in those who are his, who represent him, who have his Spirit and image. How often is this “I am the Lord your God” repeated by Moses as a ground of separation from idolatry! It is expressed almost everywhere. And indeed, if the Lord is our God, there is ground enough for separation from all that is not God. It cannot be otherwise.

Another sign and evidence that God is our God is victory over our base corruptions in some measure. You have this in Revelation 21:7: “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” How shall I know that God is my God, and that I am his son? I know it if by the power of his Spirit I am able to overcome and conquer, in some comforting measure, base temptations and my base corruptions and lusts; when I do not lie under sin like a beast or a carnal man, but God has given me in some measure spiritual strength over sin.

Undoubtedly these and similar works of the Spirit, together with the testimony of the Spirit, will be found wherever God is our God.

In a word, to name no more tests but this, whoever God is a God to, there will be a transforming unto God, a transforming unto Christ, in whom God is our God. For we must know that we are renewed according to the image of the “second Adam.” Our comfort is by God revealed in Christ. If God is our God in Christ, we will be like God; and it will be known that we are like God if we are like God in the flesh, God incarnate. For we are predestined to be like God incarnate. God is first Christ’s God before he is ours; and as Christ carried himself toward God, so, if we are God’s, we must carry ourselves like Christ and be transformed unto him.

How did Christ carry himself toward God? God was his God. “My God, my God,” says Christ upon the cross. Now the gospel shows that he obeyed his Father in all things, in doing and suffering: “Not my will, but thy will be done” (Luke 22:42). You know how full of mercy and compassion he was, and how he sometimes prayed all night. Though he knew God would bestow things on him without prayer, yet he would pray, in keeping with God’s appointment. You know how full of goodness he was, going about continually doing good (Acts 10:38), and that in obedience and conscience toward God’s command. In a word, look how Christ made God his God, and carried himself toward God. So must we, for we are predestined to be transformed to the image of the “second Adam,” Christ.

Especially observe one thing, which I touched on before: whomever we run to and trust in extremity is our god. Christ in extremity, when he felt the anger and endured the wrath of God, being a surety for our sins, yet still said, “My God, my God.” So if we make God our God, chiefly in the greatest extremity, in the time of desertion, as Christ did, it is a good sign. I only touch on these things. The point, you see, is large. I only give you matter for meditation. You may enlarge on them yourselves in your own thoughts. These I think are sufficient tests by which you may know whether God is your God.

Having now unfolded these terms, let us see what we may draw from them for our use and comfort.

1. If, then, by these tests we find that God is not, or has not been, our God, alas! let us never rest till we make it good that God is our God. For what if we have all things, if we do not have God with all things? All other things are only streams; God is the fountain. If we do not have the spring, what will become of us at last?

Ahithophel had much wisdom and shrewdness, but he did not have God for his God. Ahab had power and strength, but he did not have God for his God. Saul had a kingdom, but he did not have God for his God. Herod had eloquence, but he did not have God for his God. Judas was an apostle, a man of great profession, but he did not have God for his God. What became of all these? Wisdom they had, strength they had, honor they had, friends they had, but they did not have God; and therefore they made a miserable end.

What miserable creatures all such people are, when they will say, “Friends have forsaken me, wealth has forsaken me, and health has forsaken me; terrors lay hold on me, the wrath of God has overtaken me,” but they cannot say, “God is my God.” Oh, such people are in a miserable case, in a fearful state indeed. Indeed, suppose they have all these things; suppose they could say they have a world of riches, they have inheritances, they have friends, and so on. Yet if they cannot say, “God is my God,” all is vanity. The whole man is this, to have God to be our God. This is the whole man, to fear God and keep his commandment (Eccl 12:13). If a man has all the world, and does not have God for his God, all is only vanity and vexation of spirit. Therefore never rest till we can prove ourselves to be in the covenant of grace, till we can say, “God is my God.”

2. But when we have found God to be our God, then make this use of it, a use of resolution. Is God my God? Then I will resolve to please him, though all creatures are against me. This was their resolution in Micah 4:5, “Every nation walketh in the name of his god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.” Resolve with Joshua and others to please God, whoever says the contrary; to walk after the commandments of God, whatever others do or say.

In all discouragements from men or devils, let us set this up as a shield: God is my God. Let us arm ourselves with resolution against all the fears and threats of men, of men of terror, against the arm of flesh. They say they will do this and that; yes, but God is my God. All that they do they must do in his strength. Let us arm ourselves with this against the power and gates of hell. Do not fear the devil. If we fear man or devil more than God, if we fear them so as to do anything that displeases God, we make them god. If our conscience rightly tells us that what we are to do is the will and command of God, and that in this I serve God, we need not fear any opposer. Rather, let us set this against them as tested armor against all creatures, against all discouragements whatsoever.

And certainly experience tells us, and proves it to be true, that nothing can dismay a man who does things in conscience toward God and knows that God will carry him through, though not out of danger in this world; and yet for the most part God does that too. Those who are the stoutest men for God are often the safest, and are always freed from inward dejection. Yet God so orders things that he who keeps a good conscience will always be a king and rule over the world; and in this God performs his promise. Whatever discouragements he endures outwardly, no discouragement can cast down the soul that looks to God. In his conscience he knows that he takes God to be his, that he serves him, that it will go well with him at last, and that God will be all-sufficient to him. And this raises him above everything, makes him rule and reign over his enemies, and makes him a terror to those who do him harm.

3. Again, if God is our God, then let this stop all base and covetous desires after earthly things. If God is our portion, why then should we grasp too much after the world? What need have we to crack our consciences and break our peace for the muck of the world? Is not God our portion? Is he not rich enough? Is he not Lord of heaven and earth? Has he not promised that he will not fail us nor forsake us? “I am thy exceeding great reward,” says God to Abraham (Gen 15:1). Is this not enough?

What does Satan do for us when he gets us to crack our consciences by greed after earthly things? He promises, “You shall have this and that, but I will take God from you,” as he did with Adam in paradise. “You shall have an apple, but you shall lose your God.” All his solicitations to base and earthly courses tend to nothing else but to take God from us. Now, when God is our God, and he has promised to be our portion, let that be sufficient for us. Let us not accept any condition from Satan or the world, upon any terms, to the displeasing of God.

4. Again, if we know this for a truth, that God is our God, then let it be a use of exhortation to stir us up to keep, and maintain, and cherish acquaintance and familiarity with him, as it is in Job 22:21, “Acquaint thyself with God.” If we are acquainted with him now, he will be acquainted with us in time of sorrow, in the hour of death; therefore cherish acquaintance with him. Wherever we may meet with God, be there much. Be much in hearing, in receiving the sacrament, in praying to him and making our requests known to him in all our necessities. Be much in the society of saints, for God has promised to be there. Therefore cherish the society of all who are good.

What a friendly course God takes with us! He seeks our acquaintance, and therefore gives us his ordinances, the word and sacraments. He sends his messengers, the good promptings of his Spirit, to our hearts, urging us to leave the world and its vanities, to make us fall out of love with bad courses, and to join with him in friendship and familiarity. Oh, let us make use of these blessed means. Do not check these good promptings, but yield to them and obey them; do not grieve them! The Spirit is sent to make God and us friends, who were enemies. Do not grieve the Spirit; welcome his promptings, that we may be acquainted with God.

But do we do so? Truly no. Indeed, if God will be our God to save us, and let us live in our swearing and lying and deceiving and in other base courses, we would be content with him on these terms. But if he is to be our God in such a way that we must serve him, and love him, and fear him, and joy in him above all, and have nothing in the world without his favor, then let him keep his favor to himself; we will have none of it. Though men do not speak this with their mouths to the world, yet the inward speech of their hearts is to this purpose: “If we must be the people of God on these terms, to renounce our pleasures and profits, let him be a God to whomever he will, for all we care! If he will save us, then welcome his favor, and we will be glad of his acquaintance; otherwise we will have none of it.” What is the speech of the world but this?

These men, when at the day of judgment they claim acquaintance with God and say, “Lord, Lord, open to us,” “we have known thee in the streets,” what will God say? “Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I know you not” (Luke 13:27). “You were indeed acquainted with me outwardly in the ministry of my word, but you did not keep an inward and spiritual familiarity with me in my ordinances. You did not keep the society of the saints, you did not welcome the promptings of my Spirit, which I sent to you, to leave your evil courses. I know you not.” This will be the answer to such wretched persons.

5. Lastly, if by these comforting signs we find God to be our God, then here is a spring of comfort opened to a Christian. If God is mine, then all that he has is mine. He is my Father; he is my husband; he is my rock; his goodness, his wisdom, his providence, his mercy, whatever he has is mine. If we had any man in the world who had all wisdom in him, and all the strength of the world, and all goodness, and all love in him, and all this for us, what an excellent creature this would be! God has all this, and a Christian who has God for his God has all this and much more; for whatever is in the creature is much more in him.

From this come all those titles and sweet names that God has taken upon himself in the Scripture, because he would have us know that all comforts are together in him. God has been pleased to take upon himself the names of all the creatures that are comforting, to show us what a God he is. He is water to refresh us, a sun to comfort us, a shield to keep evil from us, a rock to support us, chambers to cover us in the time of danger, and the like. And in every creature God has left footprints and beams of himself, so that man, being an understanding creature, might find God in them. In water there is a beam of his refreshing power; in the sun, a beam of his cherishing power, and the like.

And when we receive comfort from the creature, which has only a drop, a beam of his goodness, we should consider how good God himself is. If this is so comforting, what is God, who is my God! Here we use the creatures to refresh us, and God usually conveys his goodness to us by them. What will he be to us in heaven, when he will be all in all? And whatever comfort God has, Christ has, because God and Christ join together for our good. For God is in Christ “reconciling the world to himself” (2 Cor 5:19). And if God is ours, Christ is ours; and if God and Christ are ours, all things are ours, because all things are God’s. Angels are ours, cherubim are ours, because God is ours. It is a point of wondrous comfort.

A poor Christian, when he has nothing to trust to, may perhaps say at times that he has no friend in the world and has many enemies. Yes, but he has a God to go to. If he does not have the beam, yet he has the sun; if he does not have the stream, yet he has the fountain; if he does not have particular benefits that others have, yet he has better. Whatever portion he has in the world, he has a rich portion, for God is his portion. “God is my portion,” says the church in Lamentations 3:24, “therefore will I hope in him.”

The poor church had nothing else in the world to comfort it, for it was in captivity, in the midst of enemies, and had no wealth, nor friends, nor anything. Yes, but “God is my portion, saith my soul,” and therefore, God being mine, in him I have friends, and wealth, and pleasure, and everything whatsoever. And so has every Christian soul, and never more than when the creature and its comfort are taken away. He never finds God more his God than when he is deprived of those means that usually convey comfort to him, for then God comes directly to the soul and comforts it. And the disposition of a true Christian at those times is to take advantage by grace to get nearer to God, to cling faster to him, to solace himself more in him as his portion.

What a spring of comfort rises here for a Christian in all conditions! If God is his God, then he may claim him on all occasions and at all times, as the saints in the Scripture have done. David, Jehoshaphat, and all the saints, what do they allege in their prayers to God? “Thou art our God,” “we are thy people,” “the sheep of thy pasture,” “the vine that thy right hand hath planted,” “the Lord is my shepherd.” What made the disciples, when they were about to be drowned, cry out, “Master, save us,” but because they knew that they were servants in covenant, that he was their Master?

We should use this as a plea to God in all the calamities of the church: We are yours, you are ours! Doubtless thou art our God, says the church, though Abraham have forgotten, and Israel be ignorant of us (Isa 63:16). It is a point of spiritual wisdom, when we know we are in covenant with God, to put it to use as an argument to persuade God to help us in any difficulty. “I am thine: Lord, save me,” says David (Ps 119:94). You are my God; Lord, look to me, protect me, direct me, ease me, receive my soul. This is a plea that obtains anything from God in all extremities whatsoever.

“I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee” (Gen 17:7).

I come now to the qualities of this covenant. And before I speak of them in particular, I beg you to observe one thing (which I will only touch on, to make an entrance to what follows) from the manner of setting down the covenant. It is not set down here as it is in other places of Scripture: “I will be thy God, and thou shalt be my people.” Here only the first part, the main part of the covenant of grace, is recited: “I will be thy God.” Why does he not also say, You shall take me for your God? Because where the first is, he always works the second; our part depends on his. All the grace we have to answer the covenant is by reflection from God. He chooses us, and then we choose him. He knows us, and therefore we come to know him. He loves us first, and then we love him. He singles us out to be a people peculiarly his own, and we single him out above all things to be our portion. “Whom have I in heaven but thee?” (Ps 73:25).

It is therefore (to come to the first quality) called a free covenant. It comes from God purely of grace. It is of grace that he would enter into any terms of agreement with us. It is of grace that he would send Christ to die, to be the foundation of the covenant. It is of grace that he gives us hearts to take him for our God, to depend on him, to love him, to serve him, and so on. All is of grace, and all comes from him.

So you see that it is a free covenant. That is the first quality.

Again, secondly, it is a sure, a certain covenant. “I will establish my covenant.” But in whom is it established? How does it come to be sure? It is established in Christ, the mediator of the covenant, in the Messiah; for “in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen 22:18). That is the fundamental promise. All other promises, the promise of the land of Canaan, the promise of multiplying his seed as the stars of heaven, were all only accessory. This is the grand promise: “in thy seed,” in Christ, “shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” So it is a sure covenant, because it is established in the Messiah, Christ, God-man.

And Christ, being God and man, is fit to be the foundation of the covenant between God and man, for he is a friend to both parties. As man he will do all that is helpful for man; and as God, he will do nothing that may detract from God. And so, being God, and being God and man, he brings God and man together comfortably and sweetly, and keeps them together in a sure and firm agreement.

For first of all, he takes away the cause of division that was between God and us, because by his sacrifice and obedience he satisfied God’s wrath; and that being satisfied, God and we are at peace and friendship. For until then, though God is a fountain of goodness, yet he was a fountain sealed. The fountain was stopped by sin; but when satisfaction is made by Christ, and we believe on him, the satisfaction of Christ is made ours. It is a sure covenant, because it is established in Christ the blessed seed.

And as it is a sure covenant, so, thirdly, it is an everlasting covenant. “I will make an everlasting covenant with thee.” So it is set down here.

It is everlasting in these respects. For when we are in Christ, and made one with him by faith, he having satisfied God’s wrath for us and made God peaceable, then God has become our Father, and he is an everlasting Father. His love to us in Christ is like himself, immutable. For even as Christ, when he took our nature upon him, made an everlasting covenant with our nature, married our nature to himself forever, and never lays aside his human nature, so he will never lay aside his mystical body, his church. As Christ is God-man forever, so mystical Christ, the church, is his body forever. As Christ will not lose his natural body, so he will not lose his mystical body. “I will marry thee to myself for ever,” says God in the prophet. So then it is everlasting in respect of God, he being immutable. “I am God,” says he, “and I change not” (Mal 3:6); and Christ, the foundation of the covenant, is everlasting.

And then again it is everlasting in regard of us; because if we do not fail ourselves, we shall continue forevermore, in grace here and in glory forever. The fruits of grace in us, that is, the work of the Spirit, are everlasting. For however much the graces we have are only the first fruits of the Spirit, yet our inward man grows more and more, till grace ends in glory, till the first fruits end in a harvest, till the foundation is completed in the building. God never takes away his hand from his own work.

It is everlasting also in regard of the body of Christians. God makes a covenant with one, and when they are gone, with others. God will always have some in covenant with him. He will have some to be a God to when we are gone, so long as the world continues.

So we see that it is in every respect an everlasting covenant. God is everlasting, Christ is everlasting, the graces of the Spirit are everlasting. When we are dead, he will be a God to us, as it is said, “I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob” (Matt 22:32), their God when they were dead. He is the God of our dust, of our dead bodies. He will raise them up, for they are bodies in covenant with him. God means: I am the God of the whole Abraham, and not of a piece of him; therefore his body shall rise again. It is an everlasting covenant. That is the third quality.

Lastly, it is a special covenant. “I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed.” Not all are the children of Abraham, but those who are of the faith of Abraham. God is in covenant only with those who answer him, who take him for their God, who are a special people. It is not a matter of glorying in the flesh; but something special must be wrought in us before we can be assured that we are of Abraham’s seed and in covenant with God.

And we may know that we are God’s special people by something special that we can do. What special thing can you do? To speak a little of that by the way. You love and you are kind; but, says Christ, what special thing can you do? A heathen may be kind and loving, but can you overcome revenge? Can you spare your enemies and do them good? Can you trust in God when all means fail? What is the power of the Spirit in you? Does it triumph in you over your natural corruption?

Can you do as Abraham did? He left everything at God’s command; can you do that if need should require? Can you leave children, and wife, and life, and all at God’s command? Can you sacrifice Isaac as he did? Can you trust in the promise of God more than in the dearest thing in the world, yes, more than in your own feeling of grace? Whatever is not God, can you be content to be without? Can you rely on God when he appears to be an angry God?

Abraham knew that there was more comfort in the promise than in Isaac. If you have comfort in the promise more than in anything else, then you are one of Abraham’s seed; you have sacrificed your Isaac. Otherwise, never talk of Abraham. Never think that your portion in God is great, be what you will by profession, if there is no special thing in you that is not in a natural man. If you are covetous, as greedy for the world, as much a drudge in your calling, as licentious in your course as carnal men are, you are none of God’s special ones, you are none of Abraham’s seed. God’s people have something special that the world does not have. It is a special covenant.

Thus you see the qualities of this covenant. It is a free covenant; a sure covenant, established in the blessed seed, the Messiah; it is an everlasting covenant; and it is a special covenant.

To make some use of this, in a word.

Here, then, you see another spring of blessed comfort opened to a Christian. If he finds God to be his God in regard of special favors, though his assurance is little, let him remember that it is an everlasting favor. His love is everlasting. The foundation is everlasting; the graces of the Spirit are an everlasting spring, always issuing from Christ our head. Grace is never drawn dry in him. God is our God to death, in death, and forever. All things in the world will fail us: friends will fail us; all comforts will fail us; life will fail us before long; but this is an everlasting covenant, which will not fail.

It is a point of comfort in the loss of friends, and in the loss of estate in this world. If I lose friends, yet I cannot lose God; if he is mine, he is mine forever; a friend now, and a friend forever; my portion now, and my portion forever. Whatever God takes away, he never takes away himself; and in him I have all that is taken away. All the comfort that he still conveys to me through friends, he takes back into himself. It has not perished with the person. He can immediately, by himself, convey whatever comfort was conveyed to me by others.

He is God all-sufficient. That is, suppose all the world were taken away; not only friends, but the sun, the light, the earth, food and clothing, everything, as it shall be at the day of judgment. If all is taken away, yet I have him; yet I have him who made all, who supports all. Can he not do all in a more excellent manner? Is he not all-sufficient, though I lose all things else? It is a point of wondrous comfort. God knew it well enough. Therefore he labors to establish the heart of the father of the faithful, good Abraham, here, with this in place of all: “I am God all-sufficient, and I will be thy God.”

Again, if this is so, that God will be a God to us forever, let us comfort ourselves from this in all the unfaithful dealings of men. They are friends today and enemies tomorrow; but God is my God; and whom he loves he loves to the end (John 13:1). A noble spirit certainly counts it the greatest cross in the world; and if anything will sharpen a man toward heaven, this is one thing: that those whom he trusts will prove false, and at length deceive him. Man is but man; in the balance he is lighter than vanity; but he who is in covenant with God has a God whose promise, and love, and faithfulness never fail.

A Christian, in all the breaches of this world, has this comfort, that he has a sure God to trust in. He who does not have God to trust in, and is dealt with unfaithfully in the world, what a wretched man he is! This was David’s comfort. When he was beset with calamities and miseries, when all had been taken from him and the people were ready to stone him, he trusted in the Lord his God.

I come to the extent of it. “To thee and to thy seed after thee.”

Why does he make the covenant with his seed as well as with himself?

I answer, we often apprehend favors and curses more in our seed than in ourselves. It will humble a man to see calamities on his posterity more than on himself, and a man rejoices more to see the flourishing of his seed than of himself. It is said that Josiah died in peace, though he died a bloody death, because he did not see the ruin of his house and family, which was worse than death. God saw how Abraham apprehended and valued seed, when he said, “What wilt thou give me, since I am childless?” (Gen 15:2). Therefore God, intending a comforting enlargement of the covenant of grace to Abraham, extends it to his seed: “I will be the God of thy seed.” It is a great blessing for God to be the God of our seed. It is alluded to by St. Peter in the New Testament: “The promise is made to you and to your children” (Acts 2:39).

But what if they do not have baptism, the seal of the covenant?

That does not harm their salvation. God has appointed the sacraments to be seals for us, not for himself. He himself keeps his covenant, whether we have the seal or not, so long as we do not neglect it. Therefore we must not think, if a child dies before the sacrament of baptism, that God will not keep his covenant. Such children have the sanctity, the holiness of the covenant. You know what David said of his child, “I shall go to it, but it shall not return to me” (2 Sam 12:23); and yet it died before it was circumcised. You know that they were forty years in the wilderness and were not circumcised. Therefore the sacrament is not of absolute necessity to salvation. So he is the God of our children from their conception and birth.

But how can God be the God of our children, when they are born in corruption, children of wrath? Can they be the children of wrath and the children of God both at one time?

I answer, Yes; both at one time. For even as in civil matters, in our city here, a man may be a freeman of the city and yet be born lame or leprous, or with some contagious disease, and this does not hinder his freedom; so the children of a believing father and mother may be freemen of the city of God, and in the covenant of grace, and yet be tainted with original sin, which spreads over the powers of the soul all the same.

From this we see a ground for baptizing infants, because they are in the covenant. To whom the covenant belongs, the seal of it belongs; but the covenant belongs to infants; therefore the seal of it, baptism, belongs to them. If circumcision belonged to them, then baptism does; but circumcision belonged to them, for on the eighth day they were circumcised; therefore baptism belongs to them.

Anabaptist spirits would not have children baptized if they do not believe. Why then were the children of the Jews circumcised? They were circumcised because they were in covenant; and is not the covenant of grace enlarged? How does the new covenant differ from the old, if not, among many other things, in the enlargement of it? There is now a new people, the Gentiles, in covenant, who were not before; new priests, new sacrifices, new sacraments. All is new in the covenant of grace. If all is enlarged in the covenant, why should we deny the seal of the covenant to those in the new who had it in the old, even children? It is senseless.

The Scripture, to answer such people, applies baptism to them and circumcision to us, to show that in the covenant of grace they are all one in effect: “All they were baptized under the cloud” (1 Cor 10:2); and St. Paul says, “We are circumcised with circumcision without hands” (Col 2:11). We are circumcised, and they were baptized; to show, I say, that all are one in Christ. Christ is all one, “yesterday, today, and the same for ever” (Heb 13:8): “yesterday,” to those who were under the law; “and today,” to us under the gospel; and “for ever” to posterity. And therefore, if children had an interest in Christ then, so they have now. This is clear and undeniable: God is the God of our children.

This should be an encouragement to parents to be good, if not for love of themselves and their own souls, yet for the sake of their children and posterity, that God may do good to their children for them. They cannot deserve worse of their children than by being wicked themselves.

How many examples are there in Scripture of God plaguing and punishing the children for the fathers’ sins! Though in the main matter he will sometimes not do it, because he is gracious and good; he will be good to the children, though their parents are wicked, as Joshua and Caleb came into Canaan, though their parents were rebels and died in the wilderness. Yet it is a discomforting thing. When parents are wicked, they may expect God to punish their sin in their children.

A great deal of care is taken by carnal parents here in the city (and everywhere too, but in the city especially) through covetousness, a reigning sin. They will not make God their God, but the wedge of gold to be their god. They labor to make their children great. If they can leave them rich men, great men in a parish, to bear office, to come to honor, that is their main endeavor; for this they drudge, and neglect heaven and happiness. But alas! what is this? You may leave them many goods, and the vengeance of God with them; you may leave them much wealth, and it may be a snare to them. It would be better if you had left them nothing.

Look into the state of the city. Those who are best off in the city, do they not rise from nothing? And those who have been the greatest laborers for these outward things, that they may call their lands after their own names (Ps 49:11), God has blown upon them, and all has come to nothing in a short time, because they have not made God their portion. Of all things, parents should labor to leave them God for their God, to leave them in covenant with him. Lay up prayers in heaven for them, lay the foundation there; sow prayers there, that they may be effectual for them when you are gone.

And this likewise should be a comfort to poor Christians, who do not have much to leave their children: “I can leave my child nothing, but I shall leave him in covenant with God; for God is my God, and always has been, and ever will be; he will be the God of my seed. I shall leave him God’s blessing.” And a little well-gotten goods that the righteous have is better than a great deal ill-gotten. God adds no sorrow with that. There is no “fearful expectation” another day, as there is with what is ill-gotten, when the father and child shall meet in hell and curse one another; when the son shall say to the father, “You ensnared yourself to make me happy, and that turned to my ruin.” This shall make wicked wretches curse one another one day.

A poor Christian who cannot say he has riches to leave his children can yet say, “God is my God, and I am sure he will be their God; though I have but little else to leave them, I shall leave them God’s blessing.” Good parents may hope for a blessing on their children, because God is their God, and the God of their seed.

A word about the sacrament.

The sacrament is a seal of this covenant, that God is our God in Christ, and we are his people. To his word God adds seals, to help our faith. What a good God this is! How willing he is to have us believe him! One would think that a word from him, a promise, were enough; but to his promise he adds a covenant. One would think a covenant were enough, but to that he adds seals, and to them an oath too: “I have sworn to David my servant” (Ps 89:3). Thus he stoops to all conditions of men; he condescends so far as to use all these means that he may secure us.

You know that a promise secures us, if it is from an honest man. We say that we are sure to have the thing because of his promise; but when we have his covenant, then we are assured more, because something has been drawn up. Now, we have God’s covenant and his seal, the sacrament; and then his oath. If we will take him for our God and renounce our wicked courses, we shall lose nothing by it; we shall part with nothing for God without having it supplied in him. If we lose honor, wealth, or pleasure, we shall have it abundantly in him.

What are we doing here in the sacrament? Do we come only to receive his love to us? No; we make a covenant with God in the sacrament that he shall be our God, and we promise by his grace to lead new lives from now on. We made a covenant with God at first in baptism; now we renew it in taking the sacrament. And it is fitting, for if he often renews his covenant to us in love, to be ours, we should often renew ours with him, to take him to be our God. Seven times in Genesis he renewed his covenant to Abraham, because he would have him trust what he said. Then we should seven times, that is, often, come to the sacrament and renew our covenant with him, to take him for our God; and remember what it is to sin after receiving the sacrament.

Sins against conscience break off a covenant renewed. Sin has an aggravation now. You who intend to receive, if you sin willingly afterward, it would be better if you had not received. What makes adultery worse than fornication? Malachi says, “It was the wife of thy covenant” (Mal 2:14). Adultery breaks the covenant of marriage. It is worse than fornication, where there is no covenant. So you have made a covenant with God in your baptism, and now you come to renew it. If you sin now, it is an aggravation of the sin. It is adultery, it is disloyalty against God.

Remember, therefore, that we not only take God’s kindness here, sealed in the sacrament, but we promise back again to lead new lives. All must resolve by his grace to obey him from now on, and to take him for our God. The way, therefore, will be to put this into the condition of your promise now, and into your prayer afterward:

Lord, I have promised this; but you know that I cannot of myself perform the promise I have made and the condition you require. But in the covenant of grace, you have said that you will make good the condition. You have promised to give the “Spirit to them that ask him” (Luke 11:13); you have promised to “circumcise my heart” (Deut 30:6); you have promised to “teach me” (Ps 32:8); you have promised to delight over me for good; you have promised to “wash me with clean water” (Ezek 36:25); you have promised to “put thy fear in my heart” (Jer 32:40); you have promised “to write thy law in the affections” (Jer 31:33). I would fear you, and love you, and trust in you, and delight in you; you know that I cannot fulfill the conditions. You are able and willing; you are as able to make me do these things as to command me to do them.

Thus we should desire God to give the grace that he requires in the use of the means; for that must not be neglected. We must attend upon the ordinances; use the abilities that are given us; and in that, “to him that hath shall be given” (Matt 13:12). You shall not lack any necessary good to bring you to heaven, if you will claim the promise of the covenant in the use of means. We shall lack degrees, perhaps; but in the covenant of grace, it is not degrees that bring us to heaven, but the truth of grace.

Now, in our renewing the covenant with God, let us not despair of his performing it. Let that not hinder us from coming to the sacrament, but come cheerfully, and know that he who has made the covenant with you to be your God, and to give you all particular grace in the use of all good means, will perform it. He will perform it if we come in sincerity of heart. If we come to “daub” with God, and afterward follow our sinful courses, this is to mock God.

This made David take it so much to heart, that “his familiar friend, that ate at his table, lift up his heel against me” (Ps 41:9). May not God complain of us, that we come to the communion, to his table, with false, Judas hearts, and afterward betray him? He may say, “My familiar friends, they came and ate with me, yet they have lifted up the heel against me; they are rebellious; they will leave no sin that they were enthralled to before.” So, instead of a blessing, we bring a curse upon us, a just reward of our disloyalty. Oh, remember that it is a great aggravation of sin after the sacrament.

I do not say this to discourage anyone, but rather to encourage us. If we come with sincere hearts, and with a resolution to please God, we may look for all the promises from God. All that he has promised he is ready to perform, if in faith we can allege the promise, “Lord, remember thy promise, wherein thou hast caused thy servant to put his trust!” (Ps 119:49).

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. But now, O Lord, thou art our Father: we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we are all the work of thine hands (Isa 64:6-8).

These words are part of a blessed form of prayer prescribed to the church long before they were in captivity. It begins in the chapter before, at Isaiah 63:15: “Look down from heaven; behold from the habitation of thy holiness …” The blessed prophet Isaiah was carried on the wings of a prophetic spirit over many years, and sees the time to come, the time of the captivity; and God by his Spirit directs a prayer for them, and this is part of the form. For God, in mercy to his people, as he foresaw beforehand what would become of them, so he grants them comfort beforehand, and likewise he prescribes a form of prayer beforehand. It is very useful to use forms. Psalm 102 is a form of pouring out the soul to God when any man is in misery, as you see in its preface. But that is by the way. These verses are part of a form prescribed for pouring out an afflicted soul: “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness …”

The words are, first, a humble confession of sin.

And first, a confession of the sins of their nature, of their persons themselves: “We are all as an unclean thing.”

And then, of the sins of their actions: “all our righteousness is as filthy rags.”

And then, in the third place, a confession of the sin of making no progress, of hardness of heart and senselessness, that in spite of the corrections of God they were little the better: “There is none that calleth upon thy name, or that stirs up himself to take hold of thee.”

In the second place, there is a humble complaint of the miserable condition they were in by their sins: “We all fade as a leaf; our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away: thou hast hid thy face from us, and consumed us, because of our iniquities.” The complaint is set forth in these four clauses.

And then there is a humble supplication and plea to God to turn away his wrath, in Isaiah 64:8 and what follows: “Now, Lord, thou art our Father: we are the clay, thou art the potter; we are all the work of thy hands …” These are the parts of this portion of Scripture.

“But we are all as an unclean thing …”

Here is, first, a humble confession. And first, observe in general what afflictions will do, especially afflictions that are sanctified. What all the prophetic sermons could not do, what all the threatenings could not do, affliction now does. Now, when they were in captivity and a low condition, they fall to humbling themselves. So with the prodigal: nothing could humble him but afflictions. “By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept” (Ps 137:1). All the announcements of judgment before they came to the waters of Babylon could not make them weep. One affliction will do more than twenty sermons. When God teaches and chastises too, when together with teaching there is correction, then it is effective. And this is the reason for God’s course, why, when nothing else will do, he humbles his people with afflictions: because he cannot otherwise teach them.

Affliction withdraws what is the fuel of sin. For what does our sinful disposition feed on? On pleasures and vanities, on the honors of this life, and riches, and the like. Now when affliction either takes these things away, or embitters them if we have them, then what sin carried us to, and what we fed our own base earthly lusts with, is gone; and when a man is stripped of these, he begins to know himself, what he is. He was drunk before. I consider a man in prosperity little better than drunk. He knows neither God, nor himself, nor the world. He does not know it to be a vain world. He does not know himself to be vanity, to be an empty creature, unless he stands in God and makes his peace with him. He does not know God to be such a holy God, and such an angry God against sin. But when affliction comes, and withdraws and strips him of those things that made him fierce against God, then he begins to know God, and to tremble at the judgments of God when he begins to smart. He begins to know himself to be a madman, and a fool, and a sot. He did not know himself before, in his jollity. And then he knows the world indeed as a vain world. Blessed be that affliction that makes us know a gracious and good God, and created things to be vain things, and ourselves, out of the favor of God, to be nothing. You see what afflictions will do.

God is accustomed to break men as men break horses. They ride them over hedge and ditch, and over plowed lands and uneven ground, and gall them with the spur and with the bit, and all to make them tractable; and then afterward they ride them gently and meekly, and would rather do so than otherwise. So God has to carry his children over plowed lands. He has to break them in their wickedness, to bring their ways upon their heads. He has to gall them, and humble them in every kind of way, that they may carry him, that he may bring their spirits under him, that he may lead them in the ways that lead to their own comfort.

Use. Let us never murmur, therefore, at God’s hand, but willingly yield at the first. What does a stubborn horse get but the spur and stripes? And what does a man get who holds out when God comes to humble him by affliction, and intends his good? Nothing but more stripes.

To come to the parts.

“We are all as an unclean thing …”

Here, first, you see there is a humble confession. I will not enlarge on the point of humiliation, but only speak a little, because this is the day of humiliation: the occasion calls for humiliation. All this is to bring us low, to humble us, to make us know ourselves. Without humiliation, Christ will never be sweet to us, and the benefit of health, and the like, will never be precious to us. By humiliation I mean when God humbles us and we humble ourselves; when we join with God. When God’s humbling of us and our humbling of ourselves go together, then mercy is sweet, and favor and protection are sweet, when God pours his judgments on others and spares us.

Now humiliation is either real (or inward), or verbal.

Real humiliation proper is our humbling ourselves by fasting, especially when it is joined with reformation of our wicked ways; otherwise it is a mockery of God, as it is in Isaiah 58, to hang down the head for a while, and in the meantime to have a hard heart, to shut up our compassion toward our brethren. But that is a real kind of humiliation when we think ourselves unworthy of created comforts, of food or drink, of any refreshing. For this humiliation of fasting is a kind of profession, though we do not say so in words, that we are unworthy of these things. But all is nothing without inward humiliation of the soul. Verbal humiliation is in words, as we shall see afterward in confession; and it must come from inward humiliation of spirit.

Use. Therefore, since this is here the first disposition of God’s people, let us labor to work upon ourselves those considerations that may make us humble. I will name a few.

1. Let us bring ourselves to the mirror of the law. Let us examine how short we have fallen of every commandment.

2. But especially let us bring ourselves to the gospel. We hope to be saved by Christ; and have we mourned for our sins “as one mourneth for his firstborn” (Zech 12:10)? Our sins have wounded Christ. Have we preferred Christ, in our thoughts, above all the things in the world? Have they all been dung to us? Have we had that blessed esteem of the gracious promises of the gospel, and of the privileges set forth in it, that they have been so precious to us that we have undervalued everything compared with them, as St. Paul did? A base esteem of the gospel is a great sin: “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb 2:3). Suppose we are not enemies to the ministry and to holiness of life, expressed in the gospel, as many cursed creatures are; yet a base esteem and undervaluing in our thoughts is a punishable thing. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?”

Have we walked worthy of the dignity we are called to by the gospel? Have we carried ourselves in spiritual things so as to rule our base lusts? Have we been careful of private prayer, to offer ourselves to God as priests? Are we not pressed in St. Paul’s epistles to carry ourselves worthy of our profession (Eph 4:1)? And have we done so? Let us bring our conduct to the test, and see how it answers to God’s advancing of us in these glorious times of the gospel, and this will bring us to our knees.

We are ashamed of a little unkindness to men. But consider how unkind we have been to God, who did not think his dear Son, and heaven and happiness, too much for us, besides other favors: that he protects and clothes and feeds us every day, and yet we have not answered him in kind. These considerations would humble us, in the same proportion as our conduct toward men does. Can we be ashamed to offer an unkindness to men, and are we not ashamed, can we not be abashed by this, that we have carried ourselves so toward God? It comes from atheism and unbelief of heart, that either we do not believe these things to be good, or else that we have no part and portion in them. Could we ever be so dead and dull-hearted otherwise?

3. Again, that we may be humbled, let us call to mind, now in this day of humiliation, our special sins. We may soon know them. Our consciences and our enemies will upbraid us for them, and we are loath above all to hear of them, either from the ministry or from our friends. We wish, above all, that the preacher would not speak of them, and we fret if he does; and our hearts run upon them above all. So let us search our false hearts, which way they run; and now, in the day of our abasement, let us think what would lie heaviest on our conscience if God should take us now with sickness or sudden death.

Let us think to ourselves: What is the sin that would afflict me most? That would stagger me most? That would shake my faith most? Whether it is filthiness, or profaneness, or swearing, or injustice; and have I made satisfaction or not? Let me examine, if God should strike me with his arrow now, what sin would rob me of my comfort and make me afraid to yield my soul to God. Now think of it. This is the way to be humbled. You may now bring yourselves to consider what at other times you will not give yourselves leisure to consider.

What are days of fasting for, but to give ourselves leisure, that we may not think of food and drink and business? These days should be days of rest, that we may think of what concerns our souls. Take the advantage when you rest from thinking of other business. Think with your own soul what will lie heaviest upon your soul. This is required for humiliation. This real humiliation that is outward is a protestation of the inward; and verbal humiliation is only an expression of what we do inwardly.

There are two things wondrously necessary before the soul can be in the right frame it should be in.

First, the soul must deeply apprehend what distance it has from God, what alienates it from God, before it can be wise; and it must be estranged from that before ever it can come to couple and join with God. When the soul apprehends what separates it from God, and conceives of that as it should, then it will be the readier to apprehend God; and then all duties will come off easily. Therefore let us first of all work upon our own souls to be humbled, and by all the helps that can be had.

4. And to help it, consider now at this time how uncertain our life is. We do not know who may be stricken next. And consider how dangerous the outcome is, if we do not humble ourselves here before God humbles us in our graves. Let us help humiliation by every means possible; for where this is, all will follow easily. A man will go out of himself to God when he is abased in himself, and sees no comfort in heaven or earth but in God; when he sees that there is nothing in the world to be stuck to, but all is vanity, and he may be stripped of life and of all these comforts before long. When a man is abased, faith and obedience will come off easily.

What is the reason that Christ is not relished more, and that many fall off? They were never deeply humbled. According to the depth of humiliation is the growth of holiness of life and the height of faith. All graces rise higher as the soul is more deeply humbled. The more deeply we descend in digging and rending up our hearts, the more the word of God sinks into the “good ground” that allows the plow to rend it up and to cut off the weeds. The more deeply we are humbled, the more the fruits of God’s word appear in our hearts and lives, the more fruitful is our way of life. Indeed, all hangs upon the truth of our humiliation; and when that is not deep and true, all the rest is shallow and counterfeit. Therefore we should work it upon our own hearts.

5. And labor to be humble and low in all the powers of our souls: to have humble judgments, to think of ourselves as God thinks of us. God thinks of us as sinners; God and Christ think of us as those who must deny all that is in us before we are fit for heaven. Let us judge ourselves as he who must be our judge does and will judge us before long. Labor to have low judgments of ourselves, of what we are in ourselves: empty of all good, defiled with all ill.

And this will breed poverty of spirit in our judgments. Then let us labor for humility in our affections, to bring ourselves more to God, to stoop to him in fear and reverence; and for humility in our obedience and behavior toward God and toward men in every way. Let humility spread itself over all the parts and powers of the soul and body, and over our whole lives. I cannot stay any longer on that.

Now, here is verbal humiliation, that is, by confession, expressing our humiliation by our words, as the people of God do here by confession, laying open our sins that God may cover them. What we hide God will never cure. Therefore we should take heed, now that we are to deal with God, that we lay open the bottom of our souls to him. Do not let the iron stay in the wound. You know a surgeon can heal nothing if the iron or poisoned arrow sticks there. If there is corruption in the stomach, it must come up. If it is ill-gotten goods, it will not digest; up it must all come to God.

As for confessing to men, unless there are scruples from which a man cannot free his conscience, there is no necessity, though there is great advantage in it. But between God and your soul, open everything by confession, and do not give up until you have brought pardon to your heart for that sin you have confessed. Not every slight confession is enough; it must be a resolved, downright confession, without guile of spirit, as it is in Psalm 32:2. This is the course David takes there. Until he dealt plainly with his soul, without guile, “his moisture was as the drought of summer” (Ps 32:4). He was in some dangerous disease that could not be cured. And do we look to be preserved from falling into sickness? Or if we are sick, to be cured? We must begin the cure in our souls, and lay open the wound to God: “I said, I will confess my sin, and thou forgavest me” (Ps 32:5). He begins with confession.

So all persons who either fear or are under any judgment, let them begin by laying open their souls to God. When the soul is healed, he will heal the body immediately after, for he lays sickness upon the body for the sake of the soul; and when the wound is healed, the plaster will fall off of itself. Therefore let us lay open our sins by confession, and shame our souls all that we can.

This is the way to give glory to God. Let us join both together, our own ease and glory to God. When we have laid open our souls to God, and laid as much against ourselves as the devil could lay in that way (for let us think what the devil would lay to our charge at the hour of death and the day of judgment; he would lay this and that hard to our charge), let us accuse ourselves as he would, and as he will before long. The more we accuse and judge ourselves, and set up a tribunal in our hearts, certainly there will follow an incredible ease. Jonah was cast into the sea, and there was ease in the ship; Achan was stoned, and the plague was stayed. Out with Jonah, out with Achan, and there will follow ease and quiet in the soul immediately; conscience will receive wonderful ease. It must be so, for when God is honored conscience is purified.

God is honored by confession of sin in every way. It honors his omniscience: that he is all-seeing, that he sees our sins and searches the hearts. Our secrets are not hidden from him. It honors his power. What makes us confess our sins but that we are afraid of his power, lest he should execute it? And what makes us confess our sins but that we know there is “mercy with him that he may be feared” (Ps 130:4), and that there is pardon for sin? We would not confess our sins otherwise. With men it is confess and have execution, but with God confess and have mercy. It is his own protestation. We should never lay open our sins except for mercy. So it honors God; and when he is honored, he honors the soul with inward peace and tranquility. We can never have peace in our souls until we have dealt plainly with our sins and do not favor them a whit; until we have ripened our confession into a thorough confession.

What is the difference between a Christian and another man? Another person slurs over his sins: “God is merciful”; and he thinks if he comes to the congregation and follows the minister, it will serve the turn. But a Christian knows that religion is another manner of matter, another kind of work than that. He must deal thoroughly and seriously, and lay open his sin as the chief enemy in the world, and labor to raise all the hatred he can against it, and make it the object of his bitter displeasure, as that which has done him more hurt than all the world besides; and so he confesses it with all the aggravations of hatred and ill will that he can.

But to come more particularly to the confession here spoken of: “We all are as an unclean thing …”

“We all.”

We see here that holy men themselves confess their sins, and rank themselves among sinners in their confessions. So we learn from this that in our confessions (in our fastings especially) we ought to rank ourselves among the rest of sinners, and not exempt ourselves from other sinners. Perhaps we are not guilty of some sins that they have been guilty of. God has been merciful to us and kept us in obedience in some things. But, alas! there is none of us all but has had a hand in the sins of the times. The best of all conditions are guilty of them. Therefore we have cause to rank ourselves among others, as he says here, “We are all as an unclean thing”; and as Daniel makes a confession of the sins of all, that we are all of us guilty.

How are we all guilty?

(1) We are all guilty in this respect: we receive some taint and soil from the times we live in. Either our zeal is weakened, or we do not grieve so much for the sins of the times; and who is not guilty in this respect? We do not grieve and lament as we should, as St. Paul tells the Corinthians they should have been sorry and humbled (1 Cor 5:2). They were guilty of the sin of the incestuous person, because they were not humbled for it. We are thus far guilty at least, the best of us, that we do not sorrow for the common sins.

Alas! how many sins there are that everybody may see in the times, in all ranks! In pastors, what unfaithfulness; and in governors and in places of justice, what crying of the poor and of men oppressed; and in all ranks of people we see a general complacency; we see filthiness and hear oaths, for which the land mourns, as Jeremiah says (Jer 23:10). These and similar sins provoke God and solicit the vengeance of God, and will take no denial until they have pulled down vengeance. Who has been as humbled for these sins as he ought? Perhaps we ourselves are not personally guilty of them. But are they not our sins, so far as we are not abased for them, and do not oppose them and repress them as we should in our places and positions, whether we are ministers or magistrates? Thus far we are all guilty. Therefore the prophet might well say, “We all are as an unclean thing …”

(2) Then again, there is great sympathy in the hearts of good men. They are full of pity and compassion; and therefore they join themselves with others, partly knowing that they are guilty in some degree with others, and partly because they are members of the same body, political and ecclesiastical. They live in the same church and commonwealth. Therefore all join their confession together: “We all are as an unclean thing …”

Use. Let us make this use of it, every one of us to be humbled. Does not every one of us bring sticks to the common fire? Do we not add something to the common judgment? If there are two criminals who have committed a trespass, and one of them is taken and dealt with according to his kind, and is executed, will it not grieve the other? He will think, “Was it not my case? I was a wretched sinner as well as he.” If there are several traitors, and the king is merciful to one and executes the other, will it not grieve the one who is spared, if he has any feeling of good nature, besides goodness of other kinds? Will he not think, “It was my own case; there was no difference between me and them, only the mercy of the king”? So the best of us may think, “Do I not have a corrupt nature? And as for the sins of the times, am I not soiled with them? Others have been stricken; might not the same arrow have stricken me?” Certainly this consideration, that we bring something to the public sins, will make us humbled for the public, as the church here confesses, “We are all as an unclean thing …”

To come to the particulars of the confession.

“We are all as an unclean thing.”

Here is a confession of their persons. Their persons were tainted. We are all a tainted seed and generation by nature. What the wickedest is wholly, the best are in part. Therefore it is no error that we should say such and such things of ourselves in our confessions, as St. Paul says of himself, “I am sold under sin” (Rom 7:14). One would wonder that he should confess so. Alas, blessed man, he felt in part what others in the state of nature are wholly. So we are all filthy. The best, as far as they are not renewed, are as other men are.

“Unclean.”

It is a comparison taken from leprosy, or some other contagious disease. Those who were tainted with them were separated from the congregation seven days, or some set time. So it is with sin, especially the sins of this people. They had sinned grievously, and were severed from their land, not seven days but seventy years, such was the leprosy and filthiness of their sins and lives.

Indeed, sin, especially the sin of nature, is a leprosy, contagious, pestilential; and as a leprosy it spreads over all the parts and powers of body and soul. Take a man who is not changed: he has a leprous eye, full of adultery; he has a leprous, uncircumcised ear. Ask him how he judges of discourses and sermons. He relishes nothing but what is frothy and vain. Plain, substantial, solid discourses, either in hearing or reading, will not go down with him. He has a leprous judgment. His eyes and ears and tongue are defiled and corrupt. He is vile and abominable in his speech. He is uncircumcised in all. All are unclean. All his powers are defiled by nature.

All the washings in the law signified this, the corruption and defilement of our natures, which needs another washing, the washing that those washings typified: a washing by the blood and Spirit of Christ. “Christ came by water and blood” (1 John 5:6), both in justification and sanctification. There is a fountain opened for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in (Zech 13:1). All those washings showed a spiritual defilement that needed a spiritual washing. This sin is a leprous, contagious sin; therefore by nature we may all cry as the leper did, “Unclean, unclean.” The best of us may take up that complaint, as far as we are not renewed.

A leprous man defiled the things he touched. So it is with sin. Till it is forgiven, we defile everything. A proud man, especially when he is decked out in his finery, thinks himself a fine fellow, a splendid creature. Alas! He is a filthy creature, not only in himself, but in everything he puts his hand to. He taints and defiles everything, even civil actions. He sins in eating and drinking. Not that these are sins in their substance, but he stains everything; for he forgets God in them, he forgets himself exceedingly, and he returns no thanks to God. So it is in moral, civil actions, and much more in religious ones. He defiles himself in everything. He is defiled to all things, and all things are defiled to him. This is our state by nature: “We are all as an unclean thing.”

Use. This should press on us a necessity of cleansing ourselves in the blood of Christ; that is, in the death of Christ, who has satisfied the justice of God. Our natures are so foul, in regard of both guilt and stain, that the blood of God-man, that is, the death of God-man giving satisfaction, was necessary to bring about reconciliation and atonement between God and us. And the blood of Christ, which by the eternal Spirit offered himself, must purge our consciences (Heb 9:14). Our consciences will not otherwise be pacified and cleansed in regard of guilt, but will go on clamoring and crying; much less will God be appeased. Neither God nor conscience will be pacified except by the blood of him who by the eternal Spirit offered up himself. Then conscience will be pacified, in regard of both the guilt and the stain; then God and conscience will both be appeased.

Therefore it says in Zechariah 13:1, there is a fountain opened for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in. And “The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Blood is of a defiling nature; but the blood of Christ cleanses, because it is a blood that gives satisfaction. He died, and was a sacrifice as a public person for us all.

Then again, considering that we are all defiled, besides this cleansing from the guilt of sin, let us get our natures cleansed by the Spirit of Christ more and more. We are all defiled.

Use. And take heed of those who are defiled; take heed of sinners. Who would willingly lie with a leprous person? And yet, in the matter of marriage and intimate society, little conscience is made of it. People keep company with the leprous; they join in the most intimate society with those who are leprous in their judgments. The life of nature we know, and we are careful to avoid what may impair it. But it is a sign we do not have the life of grace begun in us that we do not value it. If we had it, we would be more careful to preserve it, and to take heed of contagious company.

Who would go to the pesthouse, or to someone who has “Lord, have mercy upon us” on the door? None but a madman. A madman might do so. And surely those who join with swearers and drunkards and filthy persons, and go to filthy places and houses (as many do, the more shame for them), think they have no souls and no account to give. They go to these places and infect themselves. It is a sign they have no life of grace; all companies are alike to them. Is this strength of grace? No. They have no life of grace, they have nothing to lose; for if they had the life of grace, they would preserve it better.

Sin is a filthy thing, more filthy than leprosy, indeed, than the plague itself. For the plague or leprosy makes only the body loathsome, but the sin that we cherish and are loath to hear of makes the soul loathsome. The one makes us unfit for the company of men; but the other, sin and corruption and lusts, makes us unfit for the kingdom of God, for heaven, for life or death. Therefore it is worse. The leprosy of the body does not make a man the least bit odious to God; but the leprosy of the soul makes us hateful to him. We may have more intimate communion with God in the plague than out of it, because God supplies the lack of outward comforts; but in sin we can have no comfortable communion and society with God. Therefore this plague of the soul is in many ways worse than the pestilence. But we lack faith. God has not opened our eyes to see what we shall see and know before long, and it is a happy thing if we consider it in time.

To conclude this point concerning the corruption of nature, take David’s course (Ps 51:1 and following). When sinful actions come from us, or unsavory words, or beastly thoughts, or unchaste and foul desires that grieve the Spirit of God, let us go to the fountain, and say: “Alas! My nature is leprous, as far as it is not purged. I was conceived in sin, my mother brought me forth in iniquity.” The more we take occasion every day to see and observe the corruption of our nature, the less it is. And we cannot take better occasion than upon every actual sin to run to the fountain, the filthy puddle from which all comes, and to be more humble for that than for particular sins.

It is a mistake in people. They are ashamed of an action of injustice, and the like; but they should go to their nature and think, “I have a false, unclean nature, by which I am ready to commit a thousand such actions if God should let me alone. I have the spawn of all sin, as far as the Spirit has not subdued it.” It is a defect of judgment to be more humbled for particular sins. Nature is more tainted than any action. That sowing, breeding sin, as the apostle says, is worse than the action; it breeds the rest. So much for that. They confess here, “We are all as an unclean thing” in ourselves.

But what comes from us? That which aggravates a sinful state to the utmost.

“All our righteousness is as filthy rags.”

He does not say we have filthy actions, but that our best actions are stained; and not one, but all. Mark how strong the place is: “we all,” the people of God. He includes all, as Daniel says, “I confess my sins, and the sins of my people” (Dan 9:20). And there is no man in the church but might have this confession in his mouth: “we,” the people of God, and “all we”; in all our actions, “all our righteousness...” So all the actions of all the righteous, the best actions of the best men, and all the best actions of the best men, are defiled and stained. It is as great an aggravation as can be.

Some would have this refer to the righteousness of the law; yet nevertheless it is true of all. And when we now humble ourselves, it is good to think of all. So we may say, “All our righteousness.” Whatever comes from us is stained and defiled. As for their legal performances, there is no question about them; for, alas, they trusted too much in them. In Isaiah 1 and the last chapter of Isaiah, they thought God was indebted to them for them: Away with them, away with your new moons. They were abominable to God as “the cutting off a dog’s neck,” as it is in the last chapter of Isaiah (Isa 66:3). So all their righteousness, their ceremonial performances, were abominable.

But I say we may raise it higher. It is not only true of them, but in greater matters: our best moral performances are all as tainted rags.

Objection. How can this be? It is strange that it should be so. The papists cry out here that we discourage people from good works. If all our righteousness is as filthy rags, they ask, why should we perform good works?

Answer. Suppose a man is sick, and all the food he eats strengthens his sickness. Shall he therefore not eat at all? Of course he shall. He must eat something. There is nature in him to strengthen as well as his disease. Your best performances are stained; will you therefore do none? Of course you will. Though they are stained, yet there is some goodness in them. You may honor God, and do good to others. Besides the ill there is good. There is gold in the ore. There is some good in every good action. Indeed, there is so much good that God pardons the ill and accepts the good. So though our good actions are ill, yet for their kind, and matter, and stuff they are good; they are commanded by God. For their origin and spring, they are wrought by the Spirit of God. For the person, the workman, he is one in the state of grace. And for acceptance, God rewards them.

But it is another thing when we come before God to humble ourselves. Then we must see what stains and sins are in them. There is no good action so good but that there are lacks and weaknesses, and stains and blemishes in it as it comes from us. The Spirit of God indeed is effectual to stir us up to good actions; but we hinder the work of the Holy Ghost, and do not do them as thoroughly as we should. Therefore, besides our lacks and weaknesses, there is a taint on them. Either we have false aims, and they are not so direct, or our resolutions are not so strong. False aims creep in for a while, though we do not allow them; and then there are some coolers of our devotion. Our love is cold, our hatred of sin is not so strong, our prayers are not so fervent, our actions are not carried on so free of interruption, but are hindered by many stray thoughts. Who cannot complain of these things? Who is not brought to his knees for the weakness of his best actions?

Indeed, I say more: a Christian is more humbled for the imperfections and stains of his best actions than a merely moral, carnal person is for his outward enormities. For that person turns over all his outward delinquencies and makes the matter only a trick of youth; while a poor Christian is abased for his dullness, and deadness, and coldness, for false aims that creep into his actions, and for interruptions in his duties. His thoughts will not let him serve God with the intentness he would like, but put him off with motions and suggestions and temptations in his best performances. This abases him more than outward gross sins do a carnal person. When we deal with God, our righteousness it is as menstruous cloths (Isa 30:22).

Know this as a foundation: there is a double principle in a Christian in all the things he does. There is flesh and spirit, and these two issue out in whatever comes from him. In his good words there is flesh as well as spirit; so too in his thoughts and desires; and in his prayer, his prayer itself stands in contraries. So everything that comes from him is tainted with what is contrary to it. The flesh opposes and hinders the work of the Spirit, and so it stains our good works.

Therefore contraries are true of a Christian, which seem strange to another man. A Christian at the same time is deformed and well-favored. He is black and comely. “I am black but yet well-favored,” says the spouse (Song 1:5): black in regard of sin, but well-favored in regard of the Spirit of God and the acceptance of Christ. He is a saint and a sinner: a sinner in that sin has spread over all parts, and a saint in respect of Christ’s acceptance. “My love and my dove.” Christ woos his church as if she had no defilement; but he looks on her better part. He looks on her as she is in his love, and as he means to bring her in the end. But the church, looking upon herself as she is in herself, is much abased. The ground of it is the imperfection of sanctification in this world. The best of our works are “as menstruous cloths.” When we think of the corruption of the best things as they come from us, when we come to humble ourselves before God, we must put down proud titles and Pharisaical thoughts, although there is something that is good. Yet let us think of all the ill that may abase us.

There is a season for everything. When we are tempted to be overcome by Satan, then think of the good, as Job did when he was tempted: I have done this and this; you cannot take away my innocency (Job 33:9). In false temptations from the world and Satan, then stand upon our innocence. But when we humble ourselves before God, saying, “Alas! I am dust and ashes” (Gen 18:27) and “I abhor myself” (Job 42:6), as Abraham and Job said, let us lay all proud apprehensions of ourselves aside. And let us lay aside all good works, especially in one respect, in the matter of justification: all is dung in comparison of Christ (Phil 3:8). All must be sold for the pearl, the righteousness of Christ. No reckoning at all must be made of good works by way of merit in justification and our title to heaven.

What gives us title to heaven and frees us from hell? The death of Christ, the obedience and satisfaction of Christ. By it God has redeemed us perfectly, without anything in ourselves, and accepts us to life everlasting only by the righteousness of Christ. Therefore it is called God’s righteousness, because it was done by Christ; it was wrought by God. Our righteousness is as “a menstruous cloth.” It is spotted and stained and defiled. It will not do the deed. It will not satisfy conscience, much less the exact, piercing judgment of God. God’s righteousness is the righteousness that must stay our souls in life and death, and we must set it against all temptations, as a satisfying thing that will settle conscience into quiet. It must be the righteousness of God-man; nothing else will do it. “All our righteousness is as filthy rags.” That is the confession of their sinful actions.

The next thing he confesses is senselessness. “There is none that calls upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.” There are other words between, concerning the complaint of their miserable estate; but I will handle first those that concern their sins.

“There is none that calls upon thy name.”

In a word, he means that none worshiped him; because prayer is put for the whole worship of God, as indeed it may well be put for the whole, for it exercises all the graces of the Spirit. What one grace is not set to work in prayer? It is put for all the inward worship of God. If it is faith, prayer is the flame of faith. When there is faith in the heart there will be prayer in the mouth. The knowledge of God: prayer is grounded upon a promise, and so it comes from that part of spiritual worship. Hope: hope makes a man pray. No man would pour out his supplications except to one he has hope in. And for love: God’s love and mercy draw us into his presence, and joy and delight in the presence of God draw us to pray. We give God the honor of all his attributes in prayer: of his truth, of his goodness, of his mercy, of his presence everywhere, and so on. So it sets all graces to work and gives God the honor of all. It is the worship of God in every way; for though of itself it is an outward, verbal worship, yet it expresses the inward worship of God. It gives God the honor of all.

Therefore, those who do not pray, what kind of persons are they? Wretched persons. The sickness is now among us. If someone should ask now, “What family is most likely to have the vengeance of God upon it?” (and I do not speak to censure those who have it, but I speak of God’s ordinary course), surely it is those who do not practice the duty of prayer. “Pour out thy wrath upon those that call not upon thy name” (Ps 79:6). Those families that do not call upon God humbly morning and evening, or the person who does not reverently call upon God morning and evening, are fit objects for the vengeance of God, for the plague or the like. “Pour out thy wrath upon the families and persons that call not upon thy name,” implying that the Lord will spare us if we do call upon his name and humble ourselves. “If you must pour out your vengeance, let it be on those who do not have grace humbly to call upon your name.” Let us make conscience of this duty, unless we mean to prove atheists and lie open to all the vengeance of God.

“There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.”

He represents God to us as a great person who would bestow some benefits and is ready to turn away; yet none lays hold of him or desires him to stay. So, he says, there is none who lays hold on God, to keep him from going away. Therefore, when he says, “None calls upon thy name, or stirs up himself to take hold of thee,” he means there are none who pray earnestly. Incense had to be burnt, or else it cast no sweet smell. Our prayers must have fire and zeal in them. Our prayers must be cries that pierce heaven. “Out of the deep have I cried unto thee, Lord” (Ps 130:1). We must stir ourselves up; we must waken ourselves to waken God. Indeed, before we can waken God we must waken ourselves.

“There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.”

This implies that if we would lay hold of God he will be stayed. To speak a little more particularly of this, God is so gracious that he will be stayed even by prayer. The way to stay God in his judgments, and to lay hold of him and keep him among us, is prayer. Let us take notice now of the hand of God upon us. What is the means to stop his hand, so that he does not come among us with his public judgments? It is prayer. The way to stop God, and the angel who has his sword now drawn over our heads, is prayer.

God so condescends that he will be stopped by prayer, as we see in Exodus 32:10. He says to Moses, “Let me alone.” Moses prayed, and alleged arguments to God why he should not confound his people. “Let me alone,” he says, implying that prayer binds God’s hands. So powerful is prayer that it binds the Almighty. It makes the Omnipotent in some sort impotent. He cannot do what he would; he cannot execute his wrath; prayer binds him. When a company of Christians lay hold on him by prayer, he cannot do what he threatens. The only way to lay hold of God is by prayer. In Ezekiel 13:5 there is a complaint that none stood in the gap, implying that if any had stood in the gap when the vengeance of God was coming abroad, they might have prevented the wrath. The way to stand in the gap and to keep God is to pray, and to pray heartily.

Now if God is to be held by our prayers, they must be strong prayers. Not every prayer will hold God. They must be strong prayers that bind such a Samson, who has his strength. Therefore there must be a stirring up of ourselves. He says here, “There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.” So it is the duty of Christians to stir themselves up in these times.

Question. How shall we stir ourselves up?

Answer. 1. By considering the danger we are in. Danger felt or feared will make a man lay hold. When a child feels the smart of the rod, he lays hold on his father’s or his mother’s hand: “Strike no more!” When the children of God feel the smart of his judgments, then they cry, “Oh, no more!” The cry of the child prevails with the mother, though oftentimes it cannot speak. So when in the sense of sin and misery we cry to God, we move his heart with our crying. There is no question but that the serious apprehension of danger felt awakens the soul and stirs it up.

It is so also with danger feared. A danger feared, with belief, will work as if it were present. For a man who has a spirit of faith sees that unless God is appeased by good courses, he will punish, as surely as if the judgment were upon him. Faith makes things present, both good and ill, and it makes a man sensible of things that are not yet upon him. This is the difference between a Christian and another man. Another man puts the evil day far off from him; but a believing Christian, by a spirit of faith, sees God, unless he is turned away by hearty and humble repentance, ready to seize upon him. And so he walks humbly in all his courses. So danger felt or feared by a spirit of faith awakens and stirs up the soul to lay hold on God.

Therefore in spiritual dangers we should especially waken our souls to see in what need we stand of Christ and of the pardoning mercy of God in Christ, that we may waken him and give him no rest till we find peace in our consciences.

2. Then again, what we may stir ourselves up with is meditation on the necessity and excellency of grace, and of the good things we beg. The serious consideration of that will make us stir ourselves up to lay hold on God and give him no rest till we have it, as when a man thinks that the “loving-kindness of God is better than life” (Ps 63:3), and says, “If I do not have that, my life is nothing to me.” It is better not only than corn and wine and oil, but than life itself. Pardon of sin, and a heart to do good, is better than life itself, better than anything in the world.

If someone should offer such a man this, a heart patiently to bear ill and large to do good, and strength against temptations, he would rather have this gracious disposition than anything in the world. He would rather have the pardon of sin, with the sense of God’s favor, than anything in the world. This will stir a man up, as we see in David (Ps 51:1 and following), “Mercy, mercy”; it binds God and lays hold on him, together with pardoning mercy, to have a heart enlarged with spiritual joy. There is nothing spiritual that is not so excellent that, if we had the eyes of our spirits awakened to see it, we would bind God and lay hold of him. He should not go further till he had shined on us.

3. Therefore let us offer violence to God in this way; let us never give him rest till we obtain. You see that when the two disciples were going to Emmaus, Christ made as though he would have gone further, but they compelled him (Luke 24:29). Now there is a semblance as if God threatened war and would take away the gospel. There are dangers at hand. When God makes such a semblance, let us lay hold on him; let him go no further. “Lord, night approaches and affliction approaches. Lord, stay; you shall go no further.” Let us stop God with importunity. The consideration of danger, and of the necessity and excellency of the things we beg, will make us lay hold on God.

There is a hypocrisy among men, among a company of formalists who are the bane of the times, whom God will spew out. They are as ill in his nostrils as a profane person. They think that all devotion lies in prostrating themselves (which is good, and more than profane men will do) and in yielding a dead sacrifice to God. They will come and hear, and yield the outward act in outward humiliation. Is this rousing yourself? Outward things never pass as genuine except when they express outwardly the inward truth.

Therefore take another course, man; God cares nothing for the dead, empty carcass you bring him. Work upon your own heart by meditating on the danger you are in, and on the excellency of the things you are to beg, and meditate on the majesty of God before whom you appear, on his goodness and truth, and so on. Affect your heart deeply with these apprehensions; let these serious thoughts draw out outward expressions of humiliation. And then it is excellent, when the outward expression follows the inward impression; when there is something inward that shows itself outwardly; when we stir ourselves up, and do not think that all devotion consists in a comely outward carriage. That is commendable in itself; but because men usually rest in it, it is harmful to their souls’ good.

We must offer a reasonable sacrifice to God; we must love him in our hearts; we must work upon our hearts, and carry ourselves so in our inward man that we may stir up our whole man and awaken our souls: “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, praise his holy name” (Ps 103:1). We should stir ourselves up by speaking to our own souls, that we may waken and take hold of God.

4. This again will help: a man should never come to pray without having an answer before he is done, either at that time or another. Never give up till you have an answer. This will make us stir ourselves up indeed. How do you tell a prayer from a formal lip-labor? A man who prays conscientiously marks what he does and expects a return, like a man who sows his seed. He who does a thing with hope of a result will do it thoroughly. Therefore never pray just to perform an empty duty to God. But mark what you pray for, whether it is forgiveness of sins, or grace, or protection, and so on, and do it with such earnestness that you may hope for a result to match; and going about it this way will make us do it to purpose. Do we think to serve God with the deed done? God has appointed prayer for our good, and to convey blessings to us. Let us pray in such a way that we may expect a blessing by it. Now the prayer that expects a blessing to be conveyed will be a prayer to purpose. It will make a man stir himself up.

“There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.”

The complaint of this holy man of God may be taken up at this time about many of us now. How few are those who rouse and stir themselves up, instead of putting off God with an empty compliment! Indeed, in these times of danger, do you not have a company of idle persons who will not deign to hear the word, nor to come and humble themselves, but walk and talk offensively, as if they would dare God? Or if they come here, they do not come with a resolution to hear the outcome of their prayers, to rouse themselves to lay hold on God. This is because, as there is a great deal of atheism in regard to God, so there is much dead flesh in regard to men. Who is as full of pity for our brethren around us as he ought to be? We need to stir ourselves up. The danger is present. We are beset on every side, yet who is stirred up to earnest prayer? We lack deep compassion. Those who have compassionate hearts, it is a sign that God intends good to them. But of most of us we may take up this complaint: we are dead-hearted in regard of our sins against God, and in regard of the contagion among us. A man may see it by what men talk about. They ask how the sickness is spreading and how many are dying. But men do not labor with God to make their accounts even with him. Nor are we compassionate to men; for that would be a means to stir and rouse us up to lay hold of God, to stay his hand, out of love and pity and compassion for our brethren who are our flesh, even if the sickness should never seize on us.

I say, I fear this complaint rests too justly on many of us. I beg you, let us labor to amend it, as we care for our own salvation. Perhaps we do not regard that so much. We shall before long, but then… As we care for the health of our bodies, which we prefer above our souls, let us humble ourselves more than ordinarily now.

Some devils are not driven out except by prayer and fasting (Matt 17:21). So some judgments will not go away without prayer and fasting; not only public, but private fasting and prayer. Sometimes there must be more than ordinary humiliation for some sins. For some kinds of temptations there must be prayer and fasting. For some maladies there must be prayer and fasting, and more than ordinary stirring and rousing up of ourselves to lay hold upon God. God will not be held with ordinary humiliation. That will not do it. There must be a resolution against all sin and a hatred of it, and a resolution to please God in all things.

We must do it with extraordinary humiliation now, because the judgment is extraordinary. There is ordinary humiliation and extraordinary. As there are ordinary feasts and extraordinary, so there is ordinary humiliation for daily trespasses; but in extraordinary judgments, extraordinary fasting and humiliation. In the same way there is ordinary washing every day, but there is a washing and scouring at special seasons.

God calls for extraordinary humiliation now; not only prayers, but a stirring and rousing up of ourselves. We should take in the danger as seizing on ourselves. This night it may seize upon us, for all we know. It should affect us and make us stir ourselves up. This is the way to hold God by prayer; and if we hold him, he will hold the destroying angel. He has all creatures at his command. Thus you see how we should confess the sins of our persons, the sins of our good actions, and our lack of calling upon God. “There is none that calls upon thy name, that stirs up himself to take hold of thee.” Thus far proceed the branches of their sinful disposition in those times.

Now the prophet complains likewise of the judgments of God.

“We all fade as a leaf; our iniquities, as the wind, have taken us away. Thou hast hid thy face, and we are consumed because of our iniquities.”

The complaint has these four branches; a little of each.

“We all fade as a leaf.”

Wicked men are “as leaves,” and worse, they are “as chaff.” Godly men, because they have firmness, and are rooted in Christ, and set in good soil, are “trees of righteousness.” But godly men, in the state of their nature and in regard of this life, are as leaves. Wicked men are as leaves in every way, and as “chaff which the wind bloweth away,” as we shall see afterward.

“We all fade as a leaf.”

1. The prophet means this, first, in regard of ceremonial performances that were without the vigor and spirit of true devotion. There was no spirit in their legal performances. They were dead, empty things. Therefore when judgment came they were as leaves. So it is with an idle, careless hearer: when judgment comes, all is as leaves. When conscience nips him, as his atheistic heart will before long, then he is as a leaf, and all fades away. When the Jews were in trouble, all their legal performances faded; they were all as a leaf.

2. So it is true in regard of mortality, the vanity of health and strength. We all fade away as a leaf when God’s judgments come to nip us. Men are as leaves. As the leaves fall now in autumn, and there is a new generation in the spring, and then they fall away and a new generation comes again, so it is with men: some are blown off, and some come on again. “We all fade as a leaf.” Not to dwell long on the point, at this time we are all as leaves. In this city now there is a kind of wind that nips a world of men, many hundreds in the day. It is an autumn wind that nips the leaves. Our autumn wind has come before its time: a kind of autumn wind in the spring, in summer, that nips the leaves and takes away the vigor of health.

3. And so, as I said, for all idle performances that have no foundation in substantial piety, they are all as leaves. When trouble of conscience comes, they are like Adam’s fig leaves. When God comes to search and examine, they all fall off, both in respect of our performances and in respect of our lives. We are all as leaves when God comes in judgment. This is one part of the complaint. “We are all as leaves.” We have the like from Moses, the man of God (Ps 90:6). When God blows upon us with the wind of his displeasure, we fall off as leaves.

Then another expression is,

“Our iniquities, as the wind, have taken us away.”

As chaff, or things that have no solidity in them, are blown away with a puff of wind, so it is with a man if he is not a Christian, set into and gathered to Christ. By the fall we all fell from God and were scattered from him. Sin blew the angels out of heaven. It blew Adam out of paradise. And now Christ, the “second Adam,” gathers us to him again by his word and Spirit, and so we have a solid and eternal being in him. But out of Christ, our iniquities, like a wind, and God’s judgments, blow us all away sooner or later.

Wicked men settle on their dregs a great while. But when God’s judgment comes, it often blows them in this world to this place and that, when it pleases him to exercise his outward judgments. And if he does not blow them away here, he will give them a blast that will send them to hell, their center. Out of Christ there is no solidity, no firmness or being for any man. Therefore, when God’s judgment comes, it blows them away in this world, and at the hour of death sends them to hell. This is the state of all. “Our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” The prophet means here that they were blown out of Judea to Babylon. It was a strong blast that blew them out of their own country.

May we not say, “Our iniquities have blown us away”? What has blown us from our callings and employments? Is it not the pestilence? And what brings that? Is it not our iniquities? So we may all complain of this: “Our iniquities have blown us away.”

We see here that he lays the blame upon their iniquities. Did not the Babylonians carry them away? Alas! They were only God’s instruments. God was displeased by their sins; his wrath blew them away. So you may see here that the child of God in all judgments looks to his sins. He justifies God. He does not grumble and say this and that. No. Rather, “It was my sins.” “We have sinned against the Lord” (Lam 5:16). “I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him” (Mic 7:9). Man suffers for his sins (Lam 3:39). And every one of us may say, “It is our iniquities have taken us away.”

A gracious heart justifies God and condemns itself. The children of God may sometimes complain of God’s hand, but they will never censure God’s hand. They justify God always, though they may complain of the bitterness of his hand. Here they complain of the bitterness of the judgment. They were blown into another country, into captivity. They do not complain of God. God will have us complain; but as he will have us complain, so we must justify him and condemn ourselves: just are your judgments.

A hypocrite thinks God is indebted to him for his outward performances, and when judgments befall him, he frets and censures God. Either he thinks there is no God, or he frets and fumes against God. He is discontented. But a Christian justifies God and condemns himself. “Our iniquities have blown us away.” Our sins keep good things from us.

Use. Therefore, let us now lay the blame where it belongs. Let us search out our sins, personal and particular, and complain of them. They have a hand in this plague. God is no tyrant. He does not delight to confound his creatures; but sin makes him out of love with his creatures, the workmanship of his own hands. It is our sins. Therefore, let us lament the sins of the times. This far we may go without hypocrisy, and we ought to take to heart and mourn for the sins of the times that we hear of from others and see ourselves, and mourn for our own hearts, that we cannot mourn. We must mourn for the sins of the times, as Daniel and Nehemiah and all the blessed men of God have done.

It is not the plague that hurts us. That is only God’s messenger. Sin does us more harm than all the devils in hell and all the plagues in the world. It is not outward evils we need to fear. Let us fear sin, and lay hold on God. He is the Lord of hosts. He has all the creatures at his command. Let us get rid of sin, which does all the mischief. It is sin that stirs up strife between God and us, and then God makes a controversy between us and the creatures. It is our sins.

And that is the reason for the necessity of humiliation for our sins: sin breeds a separation between God and us, and between the creatures and us. When God is offended, the creatures are infected. Let us see our sins. By them we infect the air: by our vain speeches, and oaths, and our filthiness. Our sins infect the air, and that breeds infection in our bodies.

Our sins cry. They have a voice to cry to God, if our prayers do not outcry them. Therefore, let us cry to God to hear the cry of our prayers, and not of our sins. How many voices crying sins have! There is the voice of the people oppressed, the voice of filthiness, and so on. Sins clamor in God’s ears. They clamor for wages due, “and the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). Sin cries, though it says nothing in words. It cries in God’s ears, and it will not rest until he has poured out his vengeance. The filthiness and oaths, and atheism and profaneness, the tolerating of the dishonor of his name: these sins of the times are the ones that pull miseries upon us. “Our iniquities have taken us away as the wind.” So much for that.

“For thou hast hid thy face from us, and we are consumed because of our iniquities.”

Sin makes God hide his face from us, and then “we are consumed, because of our iniquities.” “We melt away in the hands of our iniquities,” as the word is. Indeed, sin is a cruel tyrant. When God leaves us in the hand of our sins, he leaves us in a cruel hand. Christ came to redeem us from our sins. Our sins are the ones that torment us. It is very significant in the original.

“We are melted.” We melt away like wax before the fire, like snow before the sun, “because of our iniquities,” when God gives men up to be handled as their own sins will handle them. Nations melt before the hands of sin, and kings, and kingdoms, and all. Let God give men up to delight in sin, kingdoms or persons, and they melt and molder away in the hand of their sins.

But to speak a little more of the next words.

“Thou hast hid thy face from us.”

That is, you have hidden your comfort from us. God has a double face. He has a face that shines on our souls in peace, and joy, and comfort, when he says to the soul, “I am thy salvation” (Ps 35:3); and he has a face that shines on our outward estate, that keeps misery, and sickness, and danger from us, and bestows good things on us. And God takes away his face from us in regard of the inward man when he gives us no peace, but leaves us to spiritual desertion. In regard of the outward man, God hides his face when he gives us up to pestilence, and war, and sickness, and miseries in this life; when he gives us up to outward desertion.

Sometimes God shines on wicked men in outward things, but hides his face as to peace of conscience. And sometimes God’s children have his face shining on their conscience, but he hides his face in respect of outward things. Sometimes he shines in neither of the two. So at this time he shone on these blessed men neither in outward favors, for they were in captivity, nor in the sense of his love and favor, for they were in desolation, and eclipsed in every way.

The face of God is as the sun to the creatures. When the sun hides his face, what is there but darkness and night? What makes the night, but the absence of the sun? What makes winter, but the absence of the sun, when he grows low and cannot heat the earth? So what makes winter in the soul, deadness and darkness and dullness in God’s service? The absence of the face of God; God does not shine on the soul. What makes night in the soul, when the soul is benighted with ignorance, so that it cannot see itself, nor see the judgments of God? God does not shine. “The Sun of righteousness” does not shine on that soul.

God is the Sun of the creature. He gives life to the creature. What will become of the creature when God shines on it neither outwardly nor inwardly? So it will be at the day of judgment. He will take away outward comforts, and there will be no outward shining; and as for all inward comforts, they will have no hope. He will altogether hide his face. When God, the Fountain of all good, altogether hides his face from the creature, that is hell. The place where God does not shine outwardly with comforts, nor inwardly, and where there will be no hope of either, but a place of horror and despair, that is hell; just as the hell of this life is when God does not shine on our souls.

Now these holy men complain, yet they pray: “Thou hast hid thy face” (Isa 64:7). Here is the conflict of faith, which sees God hide his face and yet will follow God. It sees God ready to turn himself away, and yet it will lay hold of him and have a glance of him. It will wrestle with him, and not let him go without a blessing. So there are degrees of God’s hiding of his face.

God may seem to hide his face and to withdraw outward comforts, and perhaps in some to withdraw his favor from their hearts inwardly. What shall they do? Droop? No. Wrestle with God as Jacob did. See through the cloud that is between God and your soul. Break through by faith, and say with Job, “Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15). Let us stir ourselves up to lay hold on God when he seems to turn away his face, and imitate good Jacob, and never give up seeking the face of God.

How shall we seek the face of God?

1. By prayer; for that brings us to the face of God, though he seems to hide his face. So Jeremiah complains, “Why art thou as a stranger?” (Jer 14:8). And yet he prays. Seek him by prayer.

2. Seek him in his ordinances. Hear the word of God. “Thy face, Lord, will I seek” (Ps 27:8). God invites you to seek his face now by fasting and humiliation. Seek his face in this ordinance. Here is the blessed Trinity, “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” Though outwardly God hides his face in some regards, yet when he offers outward liberties, do not refuse them. He offers his face to us now in Christ. Seek holy communion with him still, by prayer and other means, and never stop seeking until you have gotten a glance of him. And stir yourselves up to lay hold on him, that he would show his loving countenance upon you.

As for those who turn their backs on God’s ordinances, and in rebellion against his commandments live in sins against conscience, can they wonder that he hides his face from them, when they turn their backs on him? Rebellious persons, who will not yield meekly to God’s ordinances and submit to his commandments, do they wonder that God takes good things from them? When we sin we turn our backs upon God and our faces to the devil, and the world, and pleasures. When men turn their faces to sin, to pleasures and vanity, and their backs on God, do they wonder that he allows them to melt and pine away?

Let us do as the flowers do, the marigold and the like. They turn themselves to the sun. Let our souls do so. Let us turn ourselves to God in meditation and prayers, striving and wrestling with him. Look to him, eye him in his ordinances and promises, and have communion with him in all the ways we can. Let our souls open and shut with him. When he hides his face, let us droop, as the flowers do until the sun comes again. When the waters fall, the flowers droop and hold down their heads. When the sun rises the next morning, up they go again, as if there had never been a shower. So when we do not have daily comfort of spirit in peace of conscience, let us never rest from seeking God’s face in his ordinances and by prayer, and that will cheer a drooping soul, as the sunbeams do the flagging flowers.

Then you may know that God’s face shines upon you in some measure, when he gives you means and gives you hearts to use those means, and comfort in your consciences that whether you live or die you are God’s. This is a beam of that sunshine on the soul when God grants joy and comfort. A little of this will banish all fears. If you have one glimpse of his countenance, you will not need to fear the plague, or war, or death. If he shines on you, one glance will take away all fear. When Paul was in the stocks, one beam of God’s countenance made him sing at midnight (Acts 16:25).

“Let thy countenance shine on us, and we shall be safe” (Ps 80:3), let what will become of us outwardly. If God does not shine on us with outward favors, yet if he shines on our souls and releases them from fears and guilt, and speaks peace to them, and says to them, “he is their salvation” (Ps 35:3), and as he says in the gospel, “Thy sins are forgiven thee” (Luke 5:20), all will be well, whatever becomes of us.

“Let us seek the Lord while he may be found” (Isa 55:6). Hold him before he goes; do not let him depart. Attend upon the means. Never miss good means of seeking his face until we have gotten a sweet answer from heaven that he is our God.

Now follows the supplication.

“But now, O Lord, thou art our Father…”

Here is a prayer which is a kind of holding God by the relation of a Father. This is one way of stirring up our souls: to consider the relation of a father. It stirs up a father’s deepest feeling when a child being beaten by him cries, “O stop, Father, spare me!” It works upon his heart. There is a world of rhetoric in this one word “Father.” Why, Lord, you are my Father. Shall I be destroyed? Let us lay hold on God by this relation that he puts upon himself; and he will not lay it aside, though we are unworthy to be sons.

The prophet does not say, You are our Father, and we are your sons, because he thought they were unworthy, as the prodigal says, “I am unworthy to be called thy son” (Luke 15:19). Instead of saying we are your sons, he says, “We are the clay, thou art the potter.” Yet God is a Father continually. And though you cannot call him Father in Christ, yet you may by creation and initiation, being brought up in the church. Go to him with the encouragements you have, and cast yourselves upon him.

There is a bond for you by creation, and there is his command. He bids you call him Father. He is a Father by creation. Do not look upon this or that sin, but go to him and call him Father, as you may call him. Say, You are my Father; you have given me a being in the church. Wrestle with him as you may, though you cannot call him Father as sound Christians can. Be weary of your courses. Are you willing to come under God’s hands, to be sons? You are sons by creation already. Offer yourself to be of his family for the time to come, and God will give a sweet report to your soul. Do not stand off at the staff’s end. “Thou art our Father, Lord.” If you have a purpose to live in sin, the devil is your father, and not God. “You are of your father the devil” (John 8:44). But if we are willing to submit, we may say, “Doubtless thou art our Father” (Isa 63:16).

“We are the clay, thou art the potter.”

Here is a resignation of themselves to God in this term, “thou art the potter, we are the clay.” Indeed, we are only earthen vessels, the best of us, in regard of the bodily life we have, and we are at God’s liberty to dispose of as he pleases. So, before he comes to put forth this prayer to God, he uses this resignation of themselves into the hand of God: we are as clay in your hands, Lord, dispose of us as you will.

Let us remember this when we come to pray to God. Use every means of abasement that can be used. Lay aside all terms other than abasing terms. “We are the clay” (Isa 64:8); and as Job says, “I abhor myself in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). So the saints have done in all times. “I am not worthy to be called thy son” (Luke 15:19); and “I am less than the least of thy mercies” (Gen 32:10).

Let us lay aside proud and lofty terms, and cast down our crowns at the foot of Christ, as the saints do in Revelation 4:10, and cast down all our excellencies. Let us have no thought of outward excellencies, of beauty, or strength, or riches, or high dignity. When we come to God, we must come with low thoughts to the high God. Can the creature be too low in his presence?

And then come with resignation. “We are the clay, thou art the potter.” Do with us as you will. If you dash us in pieces like a potter’s vessel, you may do it. That is the way to escape. That is well committed which is committed into God’s hand. Some men get by on their wits, and will not trust God with their health and strength. They are “double-minded,” as Saint James says (Jas 1:8). They will have two strings to their bow; if lawful means will not serve, unlawful shall.

No. We must commit ourselves to God as to a faithful creator (1 Pet 4:19), and then see what he will do. Then it is consistent with his honor. He will look to the lowly. “I am the clay, thou art the potter.” Here I am; do as you will. As David says, it is a blessed estate thus to resign ourselves into God’s hands. If the devil and reprobates could be brought to this, they would never come where they now are, in terrors of conscience.

Let us labor to practice this duty: Lord, I commit my body and soul to your hands. I cast myself into your bosom; do with me as you will. Some who have stood off at the staff’s end with temptations for many years have gained comfort by this resignation. “We are the clay, thou art the potter.” You may mold and break us as you will.

The way now to escape the plague is not altogether to use tricks of wit and policy (though lawful means must be used), but to labor to get into Christ, and to resign ourselves into God’s hands absolutely, and to say this: “We are the clay.” Lord, you may dash us if you will, as you do many hundreds weekly. You may dash us in that fashion if you will. Only we may have a desire that God would make our lives and health precious to him, that we may serve him as if we were now in heaven, and that we may have grace to make good use of all.

But if God has determined and decreed to take us away, let us resign ourselves into his hands. It is no matter though the body is “sown in dishonour,” they shall be raised in honour (1 Cor 15:43). “We are the clay, he is the potter”; let him do what he will with our carcasses and bodies, so long as he is merciful to our souls. These vessels of clay, when they are turned to earth, will be renewed of better stuff, like the glorious body of Christ. Then our souls and bodies will be glorious by him who took a piece of flesh and clay for us.

Oh the humility of Christ! We wonder that the soul should animate a piece of clay, so excellent a thing as the soul is. Much more may we wonder that the Son of God should take a piece of flesh and clay upon him; that he should take our nature of base earth, to make us eternally glorious as himself. Let it comfort us, though God dashes our clay as a potter does. Yet Christ, who took our clay into the unity of his person, our nature being engrafted into him, will make our bodies eternal and everlasting like his own glorious body. Let us resign ourselves into God’s hands, as the church does here, “Thou art the potter, and we are the clay,” and then we shall never miscarry.

I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle. Yea, the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord (Jer 8:6-7).

Upon the sins of people it has always been God’s course to send his prophets to warn them beforehand, and afterward, upon that, to observe how they profit by that warning; and from there he takes occasion to proceed accordingly. God usually exercises a great deal of patience before he strikes. He made the world in six days, but he is six thousand years in destroying it.

In this verse, after the holy prophet had threatened the judgment of God upon them, there is set down what use they made of it. Alas! “They spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done?” And lest they should object, “How do you know this?” he says here that it is upon inquisition: “I hearkened and heard.” So the words contain God’s inquisition or inquiry, and then God’s evidence upon that inquiry, together with a complaint. His inquiry: “I hearkened and heard.” For we must apply these words to God. There is the same phrase elsewhere: “The Lord hearkened, and heard; and a book of remembrance was written before him” (Mal 3:16); so here, “I hearkened and heard.” Here is the inquiry.

Then, secondly, the evidence upon the inquiry: “they spake not aright.”

And, thirdly, the complaint upon that evidence, which is set down in this way.

1. Positively: they did not repent of their wickedness. This is amplified, (1) from the generality of this impenitence of theirs, “No man repented him”; and (2) from the cause of it, want of consideration. They did not say, “What have I done?” If they had called themselves to account concerning what they had done, they certainly would have repented.

2. Comparatively: they turned to their course, “as the horse rusheth into the battle.”

3. Lastly, superlatively, preferring the skill of the poor storks and cranes, and the turtledove and swallow, before the judgment of his senseless and stupid people: “The stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed time; and the turtle, the crane, and the swallow; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord.”

This is the sum of the words.

1. Of God’s inquiry: “I hearkened and heard.” Before Sodom was destroyed, the Lord came down to see whether there was just cause or not (Gen 18:21). God is most just. He will see cause for his judgments. He has no delight in punishing. When he judges, it is not out of his sovereignty, but out of his justice. He does it not as a sovereign Lord, but as a just judge. Now, a judge must do everything upon inquisition and evidence; therefore he says, “I hearkened and heard.” Here, by the way, the gods of the earth, to whom he has communicated his name, should learn not to be rash in their judgments, but to have sound evidence before they pass sentence. “I hearkened and heard.” To “hearken” is more than to hear: it is to apply oneself with some affection to hear a thing.

God is all ear, as he is all eye. He has an ear everywhere. He has an ear in our hearts. He hears what we think, what we desire. He sees all the secret corners of our hearts. Therefore, when he says here, “I hearkened and heard,” it is by way of condescending to our capacity.

We may learn from this, briefly, that God has an ear and an eye to our conduct and dispositions, to our speeches and courses. If we always had someone at our backs who would inform this man and that man what we say, someone who would write our words in a book and afterward lay them to our charge, it would make us careful of our words. Now, however much alone we may be, there are two who always hear us. God hearkens and hears, and God’s deputy in us, conscience, “hearkens and hears.” God writes it in his book, and conscience writes it in its book. As God has a book in which he wrote us before all worlds, and the book of his providence for our bones and all things that concern us, so he has a book for our works and words: “They that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and the Lord hearkened, and heard it; and a book of remembrance was written before him …” (Mal 3:16). So here, “I hearkened and heard.” God and conscience note and observe everything.

This imposes upon us the duty of careful and reverent walking with God. Would we speak carelessly or ill of any man if he heard us? When we slight a man, we say we would not care if he heard us himself. But shall we slight God in that way? Shall we swear, and lie, and blaspheme, and say we do not care though God hears us, when he will lay everything to our charge, not only words but thoughts? We shall give an account for every idle word (Matt 12:36), and for every idle thought, and shall we not regard it? It comes from the horrible profaneness of the poisonous, rebellious heart of man that men do not consider these things.

“God hearkens and hears.” He is at our studies; he is at our windows; he hears us in our chambers, when we are in company, when we meet together, when we take liberty to censure and detract, when we swear and revile. What if men do not hear! Yet conscience hears, and God hears. And when God lays open the book of conscience, and lays before a man all his evil speeches and wicked works, what will become of him then for not making use of this principle, that “God hearkens and hears”?

God sees now with what minds and affections we come to this business: whether it is formally to put God off, to make it a cover for our sinful courses afterward, as if God were indebted to us for what we do now, and therefore might bear with us all the better, though we make bold with him later on. He not only hears what we say, but sees our minds and purposes; indeed, he knows our thoughts long before they come to be.

This is the reason why godly men have always walked so carefully and circumspectly. They knew that God’s eye and ear were over them. So it is said of Enoch and Noah, in this regard, that they “walked with God” (Gen 5:24; Gen 6:9). And Joseph, when he was tempted: “Shall I do this,” he says, “and sin against God?” (Gen 39:9), and shall not God see if I do this? “Doth not he see my ways and count all my steps,” says Job (Job 31:4).

So again, what makes wicked men so loose? The prophet tells us that they say, “The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it” (Ps 94:7). Or as it is elsewhere: “Is not God in the height of heaven? How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud? Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he sees not; and he walketh in the circuit of the heavens” (Job 22:12-14). Nonsense! they say. He pays no attention; he is walled up and shut in there.

But to such atheists we see what the prophet answers. You brutish, foolish people, shall he who makes others hear not hear himself? “He that planted the ear,” he who is all ear, “shall not he hear?” (Ps 94:8-9). As it makes good men walk holily and reverently to consider this, that God is present, and present as an observer and a judge, so the failure to take this to heart makes wicked and carnal persons do as they do. So much, briefly, for these words, “I hearkened and heard.”

“No man spake aright.”

But what evidence does he give upon this inquisition? “They spake not aright,” which is amplified from the generality of this sin: “No man spake aright.” The meaning is especially that “they spake not aright” concerning the judgments of God threatened. When God had threatened judgments, he hearkened and heard what use they made of them, but “they spake not aright.”

Question. In how many respects do we not speak aright in regard of the judgments of God?

Answer. 1. In regard of God, men do not speak aright when they do not see him in the judgment, but look to the creature, to the second causes. So it is now in the time of the plague: to look to the air and weather, and this and that, which is good and prudent care, and to forget him who is the chief; to kill dogs and cats, and to let sin alone; to cry out, “Oh, what air there is this year! And what weather it is!”; to talk of the second causes altogether, and to forget God. This is to talk amiss of God’s threatened judgments, in regard of God.

2. Again, we talk amiss in regard of others, when we begin to slight them in our thoughts and speeches. “Oh, they were careless people; they ventured into company, and it was the carelessness of the magistrates; they were not well looked after; they were unmerciful persons,” and so on. Is it not God’s hand? Suppose there was some oversight; are you secure from God’s arrow? He who struck them, may he not strike you?

This is to talk amiss of the judgment of God in regard of others, when we think that God has singled them out as sinners above the rest, as the disciples thought of the Galileans, “whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifice” (Luke 13:1). No, no, Christ says; think not they were greater sinners than the rest. Do not add your bitter censure to the judgment of God on them, and make it heavier (there is a woe to such persons as add afflictions to the afflicted, Phil 1:16): “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). Is not the ripest grain cut first? God often takes away those who are fittest for him, and leaves others to the cruelty of men. Therefore by this rash judgment there may be great wrong done to men; and to wrong men in our censures is to talk amiss of God’s judgments in regard of others.

3. Again, we talk amiss of God’s judgments in regard of ourselves.

(1) When we murmur and fret in any way against God, and do not submit ourselves under his mighty hand as we should.

(2) Again, we sin against the judgments of God at large when we take liberty to inquire about the judgments of God at large, and never make use of them. So it is now, when we keep asking what number die of the plague weekly, and our hearts do not tremble at it, and we do not lift up our hearts to God: “God be merciful to us,” “Lord, forgive our sins,” “What will become of us?” We need to make our accounts even. This is to talk amiss of God’s judgments.

It is a vein that men naturally have, to inquire after news of all sorts, be it the sharpest and bitterest that may be; though it is the destruction, and ruin, and death of other men; whatever it is, they desire to hear it, if it is news. In the meantime there is no care to make use of it, which is directly that for which these men here are said to have talked amiss: “No man spake aright.” Why? “No man repented him of his wickedness …,” as we shall see afterward.

We should talk of the judgments of God so as to be bettered by them. We should “learn righteousness” when the judgments of God are at large (Isa 26:9), and the arrows that wound others we should make warning arrows to ourselves. Now when we only inquire about these things in a trifling way, and are not moved ourselves, we talk amiss of God’s judgments.

Use. Let us labor to talk of the judgments of God, when they are at large, as we should. In regard of God, let us raise our hearts above all second causes, to see him in it. It is the hand of God, as the Scripture calls the plague, whatever the second causes are. Whether it is the air, and the devil often mingling himself to corrupt the air, all is by God’s permission and providence. We should look to the first wheel that leads the rest and sets them going. We should see God in all, and therefore speak reverently of him.

And in regard of our brothers and sisters, let us speak charitably of them, and think that it is the goodness of God that he has not stricken us as he has them.

And when we speak of ourselves, when the judgments of God are on us, let us humble ourselves and justify God. We may complain, but it must be of ourselves and of our sins, which have brought judgments upon us, and of our failure to make use of the judgment of God upon others or upon ourselves. Lesser judgments would not serve the purpose; therefore God is obliged to follow us with greater. Let us always justify God and complain of ourselves, and then in regard of ourselves we “speak aright” of the judgments of God.

Let us never speak of the judgments of God except with affections fit for judgments, with affections full of awe. Shall the lion roar, and shall not the beasts of the forest tremble? (Hos 11:10). Shall we hear God roar in his judgments, and hear the trumpet blown, and not be affected?

We see here how God complains that when “he hearkened and heard, they spake not aright.” Let us therefore be conscientious about all our words. We shall, if not now, yet at the day of judgment, give account for every idle word (Matt 12:36), and for every cruel word, as it is in the prophecy of Enoch, cited in the Epistle of Jude. But especially let us take heed of our words when we speak of God’s judgments; for it is the not speaking aright of them that is especially meant here. “I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright.” So much for the evidence. Let us come now to the next clause, God’s complaint upon this evidence.

“No man repented him of his wickedness.”

They did not repent of their wickedness, and the fault was general: “No man repented.” The first yields this instruction:

Doctrine. It is a state that greatly offends God not to repent when his judgments are threatened.

God will not allow it to go long unpunished, to be impenitent when his judgments are at large and threatened, much more when they have already seized upon our brothers and sisters. For that is the end of all his judgments: to draw us near to him, to draw us out of the world, and out of our sinful courses. When therefore we do not answer, God must take another course. What is the plague, and what are other judgments, but so many messengers sent to every one of us to knock? And our answer must be, “Lord, I will repent of my evil ways,” “I will turn from my evil courses and turn to you.” If we give this answer, God will take away his judgments, or sanctify them, and that is better. But when there is no answer, the messenger will not go away; God will add plagues upon plagues until we give our answer, until we repent and turn from our wicked ways.

Now in order to do this, we must be thoroughly convinced that the courses we live in are unprofitable, dangerous, hateful courses, and that the contrary state is better. For repentance is a wisdom that comes afterward, and man, being a reasonable creature, will not turn from his way unless he sees great reason why. Therefore there must be sound conviction that it is a bitter thing to offend God (Jer 2:19). We must indeed be convinced by the Spirit of God; and the Spirit of God usually takes the benefit of affliction, affliction together with instruction. Instruction without affliction will do little good. Stripes and the word must go together, or else we will not give God the hearing as we should.

Therefore, that we may be soundly convinced of our sins, we should ask God, especially in the hour of affliction, to help our souls by his Spirit, that we may be convinced that our courses are evil, that they are courses dishonorable to God and dangerous to ourselves.

We should ask to be convinced that sin defiles our souls; that it hinders our communion with God, which is the sweetest thing in the world; that sin puts a sting into all our troubles; that sin makes us afraid of what should be comfortable to us, of death and judgment, and God’s presence; that sin grieves the good Spirit of God, who would take up his lodging in us; that it quenches the motions of the Spirit, which are sent as sweet messengers to us, to allure and comfort us; that sin grieves the good Spirit of God in others; that it grieves the good angels who are about us; that it gratifies no one but the devil, the enemy of our salvation; that it defiles and stains our souls, in which the image of God should shine; that it does us more harm than all the things in the world besides (indeed, nothing hurts us but sin, because nothing but sin separates us from God); that it shuts heaven and opens hell, and so makes us afraid of death, lest death should open the gate to let us into hell; in a word, that it hinders all good, and is the cause of all ill. Let us consider this, and work it on our hearts.

And let us consider as well our former courses. Let us rip open our lives from our childhood, and consider the sins of our youth together with our present sins, so that we may better stir up and awaken our consciences. Let us consider whether we are now in a state in which we could be content that God should send his judgments upon us. Consider how we have been stumbling blocks to others, how we have drawn others to sin, so that the guilt of other men’s sins will lie upon us. It may be that we have repented, but have they? Consider the repetition of our sins, whether we have not committed them again and again, and other circumstances that may aggravate them.

Let us labor to work these things on our hearts, and ask the Spirit of God to convince our souls of the foulness and dangerousness of sin. When we sin against conscience, what do we but set the devil in the place of God? We make ourselves wiser than God. We leave God’s ways, as if we could find better and more profitable and more gainful courses than his. Sound conviction of this will move us to repentance.

And let us be stirred up to repent at once. Is not God warning you now? Is it not dangerous to live one hour in a state that we would not die in? May not God justly strike us on the sudden? Only purpose to live in sin one quarter of an hour; may we not be taken away in that quarter? Is not repentance the gift of God, and are not gifts given according to the good pleasure of the giver? Wait therefore for the gales of grace, and take them when they are offered. Grace is not like the tide, which ebbs and flows, so that we know when it will come again when we see it go. No. God gives the gales of grace according to his good pleasure; therefore take the advantage of the present motions of the blessed Spirit.

The longer we live in any sin unrepented of, the more our hearts will be hardened; the more Satan takes advantage against us, the harder it is to drive him out of his old possession, and the more just it may be with God to give us up from one sin to another. The understanding will be darker upon every repetition of sin, and conscience will be more dulled and deadened.

Those who are young, therefore, let them take the advantage of the youth, and strength, and freshness of their years to serve God. That which is blasted in the bud, what fruit may we look for from it afterward? Alas! When we see the younger sort given to blaspheming and swearing, to looseness and licentiousness, what old age may we look for there?

Again, what welcome shall we expect when we have sacrificed the best of our strength and the marrow of our years to our lusts, and then bring our old age to God? Can this be anything other than self-love? Such late repentance is seldom sound. It comes, I say, from self-love, and not from any change of heart. It is as with the humility of wretched persons a little before the judge comes: though they have carried themselves as rebels before, yet then they will humble themselves, not out of any hatred of their courses, but out of fear of the judge.

So it may be that now you are arraigned by God’s judgments, and you forsake your sinful courses, not out of hatred of your sins (for if you could, you would sin eternally, and that is the reason sinners are punished eternally, because they would sin everlastingly), but because you see that you are in danger of being pulled away by God’s judgments. It is not out of love for grace, it is not from any change of nature, that you desire to be a new creature, that you admire grace as the best state, but it is to avoid danger. It is not that you care for the face of God, to be reconciled to him, but to avoid the present judgment.

And what a staggering this will be to conscience, when a man defers his repentance until God’s judgments seize upon him! We see that it is false for the most part, because such persons as are humbled then, when they recover, are as bad as or worse than they ever were. Therefore one of the ancients says well, “He that is good only under the cross is never good.” It does not come from any change that God works, but merely from self-love.

Therefore let us at once repent of those ways that God convinces our conscience are evil ways; God may strike us suddenly. As for those who forget God and do not care for him now, it may be just with God to make them forget themselves, to strike them with frenzy, to take away the use of their memories then. And when sickness comes we shall have enough to do to contend with sickness; we shall have enough to do to answer the doubts of conscience. Oh, how conscience would upbraid them! We shall think it a hard matter then to have favor from God, whose worship we have despised, the motions of whose Spirit we have neglected and resisted. Conscience, after long hardening in sin, will hardly admit of comfort. It is a harder matter than it is taken for.

Therefore, even today, at once, you who are young, now in the days of your youth, now in the spring of your years, repent of your sins before old age comes, which indeed, as Solomon describes it, is an ill time to repent in (Eccl 12:1). Alas! Then a man can hardly perform civil duties; as we see in Barzillai, who complains that in his old age he could not take the comfort of the creatures (2 Sam 19:32-37). Therefore do not put off this duty until then.

And all of you, both young and old, now when the judgments of God are at large in the world, take the advantage; return to God, renew your covenants, make your peace now. Now that this danger warms our hearts a little, let us strike the iron now while it is hot; let us take the advantage of the Spirit now awakening us with this danger. Our hearts are so false and so dull that we need to take every advantage of withdrawing ourselves from our sinful courses.

And to encourage us to do it, let us consider that if we do this, and do it in time, we shall have the sweetness of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts.

You will say, “We shall lose the sweetness of sin.” Yes, but:

1. You shall have a most sweet communion with God. One day of a repentant sinner who is reconciled to God is more comfortable than a thousand years of another man who is in continual fear of death and judgment. Oh, the sweet life of a Christian who has made his peace with God! He is fit for all conditions: for life, for death, for everything. Now by this we shall have this grace and favor of God. The Lord will say to us by his Spirit, “I am your salvation” (Ps 35:3). And besides, you shall have his grace renewing and altering and changing you, framing you to a better course of life.

And he will be so far from disliking any for their former sins that he will give them cause to love him the more, as we see: She loved much, because she had much forgiven her (Luke 7:47). Christ, we see, did not upbraid any of his followers with their former sins. He did not regard what they had been formerly: Zacchaeus the extortioner, Mary Magdalene, Matthew the publican, Peter who denied him. We never hear that he upbraided any of them. He not only grants mercy to Peter repenting, but advances him to his former apostolic office. So sweet a God we have to deal with! Let this encourage us.

2. Again, it is the way to prevent God’s judgments, as we see in Nineveh and others. Suppose we do not repent: we cannot go safely in the city or anywhere else, but God may meet with us and strike us with his arrow. The only way to prevent his judgments is to meet him speedily by repentance. This is the way to turn away not only the wrath of God concerning eternal damnation, but outward judgments, as we see in Joel 2:12-14 and many other places.

3. Then again, should we be stricken, if we have made our peace with God, if we have repented, all will be welcome, all will be turned to our good. We know the sting is pulled out. If the sting of death is pulled out, if the malignity and poison of any sickness, be it the plague or anything else, is pulled out, why should we fear it? It comes in love, and it will be turned to our good; and in the meantime God sweetens it. Here is a great difference between the children of God and others. If the judgment of God lights on a repentant person, it comes from favor and love, to correct him for his former sins. It is turned to good, and in the meantime it is sweetened with love, and mixed with comfort, and moderated, as in Isaiah 27:7: “Hath he afflicted thee as I afflicted others?” No. He moderates his judgments toward his children; and he not only moderates them, but sweetens them with comfort. If God does correct a repentant person, that person is no loser by it; no, he is a gainer. “It is good for me that I have been afflicted” (Ps 119:71). Oh, the blessed estate of the person who repents and turns from his evil ways!

But if a man does not repent, but still lives in sin, what a state he is in! God does not care for his prayers. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear my prayers” (Ps 66:18). And what a state a man is in when his prayers, which should beg for blessings, and avert judgments, and obtain deliverance, are not heard, but shall be turned into sin! When God, who is a God hearing prayer, will not regard his prayer, what a case this is! Yet if we regard iniquity in our hearts, if we do not repent of our sins, God will not regard our prayers.

Then, besides that, there is a noise of fear in the unrepentant person’s heart. Wherever he goes, he is afraid of the plague, afraid of sickness, afraid of death, afraid of everybody. He knows he has his heaven here. He does not have the sting of evils pulled out, and therefore he is afraid he will go from the terrors of conscience to the torments of hell. His conscience speaks terrible things to him. What a cursed state this is! How can he look anywhere with comfort? If he looks to heaven, God is ready to pour out the vials of his wrath, to execute his vengeance on him. If he looks to the earth, he does not know how soon he will be laid there, or whether the earth may swallow him up. If he thinks of death, it strikes terror into him. Everything is uncomfortable to an unrepentant sinner.

Let all this stir us up to this duty of repentance. It is the end for which God sends his judgments. First, he warns us by his word. And if we neglect that, he sends judgments, and they seize on us. That is a second warning. And if lesser judgments will not warn us, then he sends greater ones, and all to make us repent. If we repent, we give the judgments their answer, and he will either remove them or sanctify them. So much for that. A word about how general this was.

“No man.”

“No man repented of his evil ways.” We see, then,

Doctrine. That everyone does it is no plea.

“We must not follow a multitude to do evil” (Exod 23:2). We must not follow the stream, doing as the world does. Would anyone reason like this: “So many are dying of the plague every week now. It does not matter where I go. I will go anywhere now, without any regard for the company I keep,” and so on? Will he not reason, on the contrary, “Therefore I will take care, I will carry preservatives with me, and watch my company”? Self-love will teach a man to reason that way: “The infection is great, therefore I will take the more care.” And will not spiritual wisdom teach us that the more spreading and infectious sin is, the more care we are to take?

When all flesh had corrupted their way (Gen 6:12), then came the flood. The generality of sin makes way for sweeping judgments that take everyone away. Therefore we have more reason to tremble when the infection of sin has seized on all, when “no man repents of his wickedness.” A man should resolve, “Surely I will come out of such company,” as we see Lot departed out of Sodom, and as David in his time was as a pelican in the wilderness (Ps 102:6). “I would rather go to heaven alone than go to hell and be damned with a multitude.” A multitude is no plea to a wise man. Shall we think it a means of increasing danger in worldly things? And shall we think it a plea in spiritual things?

It has been the commendation of God’s children that they have striven against the stream and been good in evil times. “Redeem the time, because the days are evil” (Eph 5:16), says the apostle. A carnal Christian says, “Do as the rest do”; but David says, “Mine eyes gush out with rivers of waters, because men keep not thy law” (Ps 119:136).

Do not fear that you will pass unregarded if you are careful to watch yourselves in this way. If there is but one Lot in Sodom, one Noah and his family in the old world, he will be looked after as a jewel among much dross. God will single him out as a man does his jewels when the rubbish is burned. God will take special care to gather his jewels. When a man makes his ways a matter of conscience in evil times and evil company, God regards him the more for witnessing to his truth and for standing for and owning his cause in evil times. It shows sincerity and strength of grace when a man is not tainted with the common corruptions. “No man repented.”

What was the cause of all this, that they were so unrepentant, and that generally “no man said,”

“What have I done?”

They did not say in their hearts and with their tongues, “What have I done?” They were inconsiderate; they did not examine, and search, and try their ways. Here we see,

First, that a man can turn back upon himself. He can search and try his own ways, and summon, and arrest, and arraign himself: “What have I done?” This is a prerogative God has given to the understanding creature. The reasonable soul can reflect upon itself, which is an act of judgment. The brute creatures look forward to present objects; they are carried to present things, and cannot reflect. But man has judgment to know what he has done and said, to sit upon his own doings, to judge his own actions. God has erected a tribunal in every man. He has set up conscience as a registrar, and witness, and judge, and so on. All the parts of a judicial proceeding are there in the soul of man. This shows the dignity of man; and considering that God has set up a throne and seat of judgment in the heart, we should labor to exercise this judgment.

Second, God having given man this excellent prerogative to summon himself and to judge his own courses, when man does not do this, it is the cause of all mischief, of all sin and misery. Alas! The vile heart of man is prone to think, “It may be that God has decreed my damnation, and he could make me better if he wanted to.” But why do you speak like this, O wicked man? The fault is in yourself, because you do not do what you could do. Has not God set up a judgment seat in your heart, to deliberate on your own courses, whether you are doing well or badly? And your own conscience, if you are not an atheist and besotted, tells you that you are doing badly, and accuses you for it.

Take a habitual swearer, who by atheistic acquaintance and poisonous upbringing has grown accustomed to that sin. If he did consider, “What good will I get by this, by provoking God, who has threatened that I will not go guiltless, and that I will give an account for every idle word, much more for every idle oath?” the consideration of this would make him judge and condemn himself, and repent and amend his ways.

Third, the exercising of this judgment makes a man’s life full of light. He knows who he is and where he is going. It makes him able to answer for what he does at the judgment seat of God. It makes him do what he does in confidence; it perfects the soul in every way.

Fourth, again, whatever we do without this consideration is not put on our account for comfort. When we do things on judgment, it is with examination of whether they agree with the rule or not. Our service of God lies especially in our affections, when we rejoice, and fear, and delight rightly. Now how can a man do this without consideration? For the affections, wherever they are rightly ordered and good, are raised up by judgment. They are never good except when they are regular and according to judgment. When judgment raises up the affections, and we see cause why we should delight in God, and love him and fear him more than anything in the world, they are then an effectual part of divine worship; otherwise they are flat, and dead, and dull, if we do not waken them with consideration. The heart follows the judgment. The brain and the heart sympathize when we see cause and reason to love, and fear, and worship God. We must “love God with all our mind,” that is, with our best understanding. We must see the reason why we do so.

Therefore let us labor to use our understanding more in this way. Is our understanding and judgment given to us to plot for the world, to be judicious in the things of this life only? No; but to be wise for the main end, to glorify God, to save our souls, to get out of the corruption of nature, to maintain our communion with God every day more and more. The end of our living in the world is to begin heaven on earth, so to live here that we may live forever in heaven. Whatever is done in order to this end is good; but nothing can be done to this end except on due consideration.

Let us put our judgments to use for that end. They are principally given to us, not for particular ends, to gain this or that man’s favor, to gain wealth, and the like, but so that we may use all things as they may serve the main end. We do not know how short a time we will enjoy these things; and further than they serve the main end, we will have no comfort from them before long. Our projects should be to gain glory for God, and to bring ourselves and others to heaven. This consideration is of excellent use. In this respect it is one main way to repentance. We see here, “No man repenteth,” because “no man said, What have I done?”

Now if we would practice this duty, we must labor to avoid the hindrances. The main hindrances of this consideration are,

(1) The rage of lusts, which will not give the judgment leave to consider a man’s ways. They are impetuous, commanding, and tyrannical, carrying men, as we will see in the next clause, “as the horse rusheth into the battle.” We see many carried to hell who never had possession of themselves, but are always under some base pleasure. When the devil has filled them with one pleasure, they then plan for another, and never take time to say, “What have I done?” Oh, the tyranny of original corruption! If we had before our eyes the vile picture of our nature, which carries us to present things, to profits and pleasures, and gives us neither liberty nor leisure to bethink ourselves, would we do as we do?

Alas! We see some men so haunted by their lusts that they cannot be alone, they cannot sleep; and when they are awake they must have music, as that king, when he massacred a world of men, could not be quiet at all, his conscience raged so. When men follow their pleasures, these rob them of themselves. Therefore they are said in Scripture to be madmen, and fools without wit. They are so taken up with the rage of their lusts that they have no liberty to possess themselves; they have no time for consideration.

(2) And then another hindrance is too much business, when men are distracted with the things of this life. They are overloaded with cares, with Martha’s part, and so they neglect Mary’s part. This makes men toil and drudge for the world, and never consider where they are or where they are going, how it will be with them when they go from here, how the case stands with them before God, whether they have gotten out of the cursed state of nature that we are all born in. They never think of this, but all the marrow and strength of their souls is eaten out with the world. Those who followed their lusts in their youth are taken up with the world when they come to years, and slight religion. Their minds are employed in how to get the favor of this man and that, and so they have no leisure to consider what will become of their souls. Therefore too much distraction with the things of the world is joined with drunkenness: Be not overcome with the cares of this life, with surfeiting and drunkenness (Luke 21:34), says Christ.

(3) Then, it is a secret and hard action, because it is to work upon oneself. It is an easy matter to talk of others, to consider other men’s ways. You will find men’s tongues ready to speak of other men: they do so and so. And thus they feed themselves with talking of other men, and in the meantime neglect the consideration of their own state. And again, it is a thing that wins applause. He who talks of other men’s faults gives an intimation that he is innocent, and he had better be so. It is easy, and it wins applause. Men glory in it. It feeds corrupt nature to talk of other men’s faults, but to come home to oneself, that is a hard thing. It is without ostentation or applause. The world does not applaud a man for speaking of his own faults. Men are not given to private actions. They do not care for them, unless they have sound hearts; and since this is a private action, which has no glory or credit with it, men are loath to come to it.

(4) Then, again, it is not only hard and secret, but this turning back upon oneself presents a man with a spectacle that is unwelcome. If a man considers his own ways, it will present him with a terrible object. Therefore as the elephant troubles the waters, so that he may not see his own face, so men trouble their souls, so that they may not see what they are. They will see so much malice and self-love, and fear and distrust, that they would not have others in the world see it for anything. But it is good to see it; for repentance and consideration is medicine, sharp but wholesome. It is better to have the medicine for a day than to have the sickness and disease all the year. So this consideration and repentance, though it is sharp, yet take it down, for it will prevent God’s eternal judgment; as the apostle says, If we would judge and condemn ourselves, we should not be condemned with the world (1 Cor 11:31).

What an excellent thing this is, that we may hold court sessions in our own souls, and so need not be called to God’s court of assize! Men are called to that because they slur over and neglect this. Men will not hold these sessions in their own hearts, which they could do not only quarterly but daily, and so they make work for God. Is it not better now to unrip our consciences by consideration and repentance than to have everything ripped up then, when the devil will stand by to accuse us, and will say, “This was done at my instigation”; and it is so; and our own consciences will take the devil’s part, and accuse us also?

It will be little for our ease to make God our judge. We might save the labor by putting conscience to its office now, to examine our ways every day, especially now, when God calls for it by his judgments. Repentance is the covenant of the gospel, and repentance depends on this consideration. So much for that. “No man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done?” But did they stop here? No; it follows,

“Every one turns to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.”

Everyone has his course, his way, whether good or evil. The course of a wicked man is a smooth way perhaps, but it is a going from God; it leads away from him. And where does it end? For every way has its end. It is a going from God to hell. There all the courses of wicked men end. Examine, then, where your course begins and where it ends, from what you are walking and to what, where your course is aiming; consider where your speeches and actions are likely to end. What defines our ways and gives them the name of good or evil is especially their end. The wicked take their courses, smooth wide courses, the broad beaten way, where they may have elbow room enough, though it ends in hell and destruction. But the wicked and their ways are both hated by God.

It is otherwise with God’s children. They may sometimes step into evil ways, but they do not have an evil course; and God does not judge a man by a step, but by his course and way. Therefore consider what the tenor of your life is. Is your way good? Oh, it is an excellent thing to be in a good way! For a man every day to repent of his sins, to make his peace with God, to practice the duties of Christianity in his general calling, and in his particular calling to call upon God for a blessing: such a man’s way is good; it has a good end. Perhaps he may step out of his way by the temptations of Satan, but that is not his course.

The best man in the world may step into an evil way in a sudden passion; as David did when he determined to kill Nabal, but it was not David’s way. Therefore we see how soon he was put off it with a little counsel, and how thankful he was: “Blessed be the Lord, and blessed be thou, and blessed be thy counsel…” (1 Sam 25:32). His way and course was another way. And so, on the other side, the wickedest man in the world may set a step in a good way for a time; even a Saul may be among the prophets, and speak excellently and divinely; but all this while he is out of his way. His way is a course of wickedness, to which therefore he will soon betake himself again; as it is said here of these men, “They turned to their own courses.”

“As the horse rusheth into the battle.”

Here it is set down as a comparison. If you would see how the “horse rusheth into the battle,” it is vividly and divinely expressed by God himself in Job 39:19: “Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength; he goeth on to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword. The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield. He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage; neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha! and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.”

There you have an excellent description of this creature’s fierceness (human wit has no such expressions), and of how “he rusheth into the battle.” God, to abase wicked men, compares them here to the horse; not for what is good in him, but for their violence in evil courses. They rush into them “as the horse rusheth into the battle.” Now, the horse rushes into the battle, (1) eagerly, as you see him described in the passage in Job; and (2) desperately, for he will not be pulled away by any means; and then (3) dangerously, for he rushes on the pikes, and often falls down suddenly dead. He does not regard the pikes, or guns, or anything, but rushes on the danger. In this wicked men are like the horse, going on in their course eagerly, desperately, dangerously.

1. They go on eagerly. It is meat and drink to them: they cannot sleep until they have done wickedness. They plot and study it; it is their delight. They are not in their element except when they are talking wickedly and corruptly, or deceiving, or satisfying their desires, the ambition and lusts of their corrupt nature. They can no more live out of these courses than the fish can live out of the water. Therefore they go at them eagerly.

2. And as they go eagerly, so desperately and irreclaimably too. Nothing will restrain them, no thorns or troubles that can lie in their way. Though God hedges in their ways with thorns (Hos 2:6), they break through everything. Even as Balaam would go on though there was a sword drawn before him. He was more brutish and unreasonable than his poor beast; the very sword of the angel could not move that covetous wretch to go back. So it is with every wicked man: he goes on desperately, and nothing will keep him back and reclaim him. God takes many courses to do it, by his ministers, by magistrates, by the motions of his Spirit, by his judgments threatened, by judgments executed on others, and sometimes on themselves; yet they are so eager on their sins that all this will not beat them off. They love their sins better than their souls.

Nor is it only open, riotous persons who rush into sins like this, but outwardly moral, rebellious persons also, who bless themselves in their ways, and who may live as irreligiously as the others. Take a covetous or an ambitious man: he sacrifices everything to get such and such a place, and the like. Such a man mocks Christ, as the Pharisees mocked him, notwithstanding all his good sermons and miracles. He goes on desperately, and nothing will hold him. He breaks through all bars and oppositions. He cracks his conscience, grieves the good motions of the Spirit, despises good counsel, and sometimes will venture on the outward breach of laws rather than be defeated in his designs.

3. And as they go eagerly and desperately, so dangerously too. For is it not dangerous to provoke God? to rush on the pikes? to run against thorns? Do you provoke me to jealousy, says God, and not yourselves to destruction? (1 Cor 10:22). No. They go together. If you provoke me to anger, it will be to your own ruin. In Leviticus 26:23, God will walk stubbornly to them as they have done to him; and he will be froward with the froward (Ps 18:26).

As for those who are rebellious sinners, whom no bonds will hold, no counsel, who break all laws, as the man possessed with the devil broke his chains, the time will come when God executes his wrath and he will be too strong for them. The devil will be too strong for them, hell will be too strong for them, conscience will tear them in pieces, and the judgment of God will seize on them. The way of wicked men is a wretched, a desperate, and a dangerous course. You are stubborn against God, and he is so against you. He will do to you as you do to him. Who are we? “Are we stronger than God?” (1 Cor 10:22). Careless, atheistic persons think they are. “Tush!” they say, “we can wriggle out well enough.” But they will find it otherwise. “Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?” says the apostle. Let us lay this to heart.

We see here again how sin has clean defaced the image of God in man. “Man being in honour,” he would become like God. He was weary of his subordination. He would be absolute; and because he would be like God, God made him like the beast; and it is worse to be like the beast than to be a beast. For the beast in its own condition follows the instinct of nature; but to be like a beast is for a man to unman himself, to degrade himself to a baser condition than God made him in. And when a man does this, he is either in malice like the devil, or in licentiousness as the beast is. He is always like the devil or a beast until he is a new creature.

And that our nature has come to this, we owe to our own yielding to Satan and his counsel. We “rush as the horse into the battle.” Therefore let us beware of this. As David says, “Be ye not as the horse and mule…” (Ps 32:9). Who would not labor to be in a better condition, to be a new creature, to be changed by the powerful ordinances and Spirit of God? So much for that, briefly. Let us come now to the last clause.

“Yea, the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord.”

Here is another expression, comparative, or rather superlative. He compares them to the stork and turtledove, the crane and swallow; and he prefers these poor creatures, in wisdom and foresight, as going before men. “But my people know not the judgment of the Lord.” There is no need of much explanation of the words. Judgment is directive or corrective.

The directive is the law of God, setting down God’s judicial course: “This you shall do, or if you do not do this you shall be punished.” When we do not obey God’s directive course, we meet with his corrective; for judgment is the establishing of judgment. Judgment of correction is the establishing of judgment of direction. God’s laws must be performed. They are not scarecrows. If we avoid the one, we will run into the other. If we do not meet him in the judgment of his directive law, we must be met with in his law corrective, if we are good men, or destructive, if we are bad men.

Now here, I take it, he means especially the judgment of correction, the time of visitation. It was a dangerous time, as it is now among us. They were already under several heavy judgments, such as famine, and others. We see in the next verse, there were no vines, no grapes; everything failed. And besides, a far heavier judgment was ready to come upon them. They were about to be carried into Babylon, “and they knew not the judgment of the Lord.”

“They knew not”; that is, they did not make use of it; for in divinity, things are not known when the affections are not set on them. God knows all things, but when he does not set his affection on us and delight in us, he is said “not to know us.” So we are said not to know when we do not set our affections on things and make use of them. “They know not the judgment of the Lord.” They were not ignorant. He had told them of vengeance; he had told them that they would be carried into captivity; but they did not make the use of it they should have. Therefore they are said not to know it. So it was with the old world. It is said they did not know of the flood. Certainly Noah had told them of it. But when they did not make a right use of it, and went on brutishly, they did not know it. It is all one not to know a thing at all and not to make use of it. Wicked men think they know God, and they think they know religion well enough. Yes, but what use do they make of it in their particular course? That which we do not use we do not know in religion. If evil is discovered and you do not avoid it, you are a brutish, senseless creature. You do not know it, and you shall be dealt with accordingly. “They know not the judgment of the Lord”; that is, they will not know it. It was willful ignorance. The words being thus unfolded, here, first, we see that God confounds the proud dispositions of wicked men by poor, simple creatures: the crane, the turtledove, the swallow, and the like.

What their wisdom is we see by experience. In winter they fly from hard and cold parts to those where there is a spring. They are here in the moderate season, and when the summer is gone, they go to a more moderate air, where they may live better. For life is the chief good of such poor creatures, and since their happiness ends with their life, they labor to keep that. They have an instinct put in them by God to preserve their being by moving from place to place, and to use whatever may keep them alive.

Now, man is made for a better life, and there are dangers concerning the soul in another world. Yet he is not so wise for his soul and his best being as the poor creatures are to preserve their being by the instinct of nature. When sharp weather comes they avoid it, and go where there is a better season and a better temper of the air. But when God’s judgments are threatened and sent on man, and God would have him part with his sinful courses, and is ready to drive him out of them with fire, even then he is not as careful as the creatures. He will rather perish and die, and rot in his sins, and settle upon his dregs, than alter his course. So he is more sottish than the simple creatures.

He will not go into a better estate, to the heat, to the sunbeams to warm him. He will not seek the favor of God, to be cherished with the assurance of his love, as the poor creature goes to the sun to warm itself until it grows too hot for it. Man should know what is good and what is evil. The new creature does so. For with the change of nature a divine wisdom is put into the soul of a Christian, which teaches him what is good and what is evil, so that he may be careful to avoid the evil and may discern things that differ. So he may say, “This is good for my soul, and all the world shall not scoff me out of what I know to be good. With their profane jesting they shall not drive me from what is good, and as for courses that are evil, they shall not draw me with all their allurements. I know what belongs to the good of my soul better than that.” It should be this way with Christians, to be as wise for their spiritual being as the poor creatures, the stork, and the crane, and the turtledove, are to preserve their poor life here with as much comfort as they can.

God takes useful things out of the book of nature to insert them into his divine book, because now no man shall be ashamed to learn from the creatures. Now, since the fall, man must learn from the poor creatures, and such a dunce is man that it is well for him if he can learn from the ant, and crane, and turtledove. And therefore God takes lessons out of the book of nature and puts them into his book, to teach us to furnish ourselves with divine mysteries and instructions from the creatures. And indeed a gracious heart will make use of everything, and have its thoughts raised by them, as the prophet Jeremiah here shames them by the example of the creatures. But this is by the way.

The thing most material, with which I will end, is this:

Doctrine. That God, after long patience, has judgments to come on people; and it should be the part of people to know when the judgment is coming.

There is a season when God will forbear no longer in this world. “They know not the judgment of the Lord.” The meaning is not judgment in hell, though that may come in, for that is implied in all. But “they know not the judgment of the Lord” means that they do not know the judgments that are coming. When judgments are coming, God opens the hearts and understandings of his people to know them, just as there is an instinct in the creatures to know when there will be hard weather.

Question. But how shall we know when a judgment is near at hand?

Answer. 1. By comparing the sins with the judgments. If there are sins for which such judgments are threatened, then as the thread follows the needle, and the shadow the body, so those judgments follow such courses. For God has knit and linked these together. All the power in the world and hell cannot unlink them, sin and judgment; judgment either correcting us to amendment, or confounding us to perdition. God, therefore, has threatened in the Scriptures such judgments for such sins, and if we live in those sins, we may look for those judgments. So a wise man, by laying things together, the sins with the judgments, though he cannot tell the particular, may yet know that some heavy judgment is at hand.

2. Again, there is a nearer way to know a judgment, when it has seized on us in part already. He who is not brutish and sottish, and drunk with cares and sensuality, must surely know a judgment when it is already inflicted, when part of the house is on fire. We see judgment has now seized on the places where we live, and therefore we cannot be ignorant of it.

3. Again, we may know it by the example of others. God keeps his old walks. Therefore it is said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of man comes: they were eating, and drinking, and marrying, and knew not till the flood came and took them away” (Matt 24:37-39). God will be like himself, if sinners are like themselves. He will not change, if they do not change, but will deal with them in his judgments as he has dealt with others. What ground have we to hope for immunity more than others? We may rather expect it less, because we have their examples, and they lacked those examples to teach them, which we have. In Jeremiah 7:12 God says, Consider, look to Shiloh, and see what I did there: so will I do to you. So likewise the judgments on Jerusalem are a fearful spectacle for us. These and other examples may help us to judge our condition in regard to approaching judgments.

4. Again, general complacency is a great sign of some judgment coming. In the days of Noah, there was a general sensual complacency. Although the prophet foretold the deluge to them, they went on eating and the rest, and did not know until the flood came and took them away. So likewise, if we eat, and drink, and marry, and build, and are negligent and careless about making our peace with God, especially when warning is given us, it is a sign that some judgment, either personal on ourselves or general on the place we live in, will come upon us.

There is never more cause for fear than when there is least fear. The reason is that lack of fear springs from unbelief, for faith stirs up fearfulness and care to please God: “By faith Noah, moved with fear” (or reverence) “builded the ark” (Heb 11:7). It proceeds from unbelief not to be afraid when there is cause. Again, where there is no fear, there is no care. So the root of the lack of fear is unbelief, and the spring that comes from it is carelessness, which always goes before destruction. When men do not care what becomes of them, then if God is pleased, so be it; if judgment comes, so be it; there is no more care to take. “When men thus say, Peace, peace, then cometh destruction.” It is a terrible thing for a state or a city, or a particular person, to be careless, for the life of a Christian is a watching as well as a warring condition. He must always be on his guard. Therefore he must not be careless, “and say, Peace, when God speaks no peace.”

5. Again, we may know that some judgment is coming by the universality and generality of sin, when it spreads over all. When there is a general infection of sin, we may well fear the infection of the air. Sin has infected the souls of men, and therefore it is no wonder if God, in the plague, has a hand in infecting their bodies. We see here that before the prophet threatened this destruction, there was a generality of sin. In the tenth verse of this chapter (Jer 8:10), he cries out against the covetousness and false dealing of the priests and prophets, and of men of all ranks. And so also in Jeremiah 5:4, the poor they were naught: they were poor in grace and goodness, as well as in condition. Then he says, I will see if there is any goodness in the great ones: “I will get me to the great men.” And then, “They have known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God; but they have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds” (Jer 5:5).

When poor and rich, great and small, when all are sottish and brutish, “when all flesh had corrupted their ways” (Gen 6:12), as it was before the flood, then judgment must surely come. Surely generality of sin makes way for generality of judgment. As the deluge of sin made way for the deluge of water, so the overflow of sin will make way for a flood of fire. God will one day purge the world with fire.

But now for particular sins, by which we may know when judgment is coming. These are they:

(1) Injustice and formality in religion. When men are generally unjust, destruction is near. And indeed, how can a Christian soul look upon the courses of men abroad in these respects, but he shall “weep in secret” (Jer 13:17)? Is there not a general injustice? Will not men win any cause, so long as they have a good purse? Is not innocence often trodden down?

(2) And so for religion. It is generally neglected. Indifference and formality are the sins of the times. Here is sweet progress! In Queen Elizabeth’s time we began with zeal and earnestness, but now we begin to stagger over whether our religion is the better one. We will join and put together the things between which God has put an eternal difference, light and darkness. Is this our progress after so much teaching, to put God off with formality, and deny the power?

(3) Again, another particular sin foreshadowing judgment is persecution of religion and religious men. When God is worshiped with conscience as he should be, what imputations are laid on it! I need not speak. The world knows well enough. Can God endure this, when conscience in his service goes under the brand of opposition? God is much indebted to the times indeed, when nothing is so heartily hated as that!

There are many loathsome things, such as debauchery and the like. But what is so eagerly and heartily hated as the power of godliness? What men have been known to do for conscience has been a matter of reproach and almost of ruin to many. If a man will not prostitute his conscience to a creature, to make an idol of him and set him highest, if he will not be pliant and crack his conscience for a creature, he is scarcely thought fit to live in the world. Will God suffer this, if these things are not amended? If anything is good in religion, then the more the better, and the more exact a Christian the better. Exactness in other things is best. Is it worthless to be best in the best thing, when to be best in what is not so good carries away the commendations? In 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16, “The wrath of God is come on them to the utmost”; God they hate and they are “contrary to all men.” This spiteful opposing of goodness is a forerunner of destruction. God will not endure it long.

(4) And so when men will go on incorrigibly in sin, as these here, “they rush as the horse into the battle”; when they will not be reclaimed, it is a forerunner of destruction. Alas! The ministers of God strive with men, but they break off the cords (Ps 2:3), and cry, “Tush! They are silly men. Shall we yield to them? We know what is for our gain, and profit, and credit in the world better than that. Let us look to that, and not be hampered in these religious bonds. No, we are wiser than that.” So when men are incorrigible, and account the wisdom of God stark folly, it is a sign of destruction.

There is an excellent place for this in Ezekiel 24:12-14: “She hath wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not out of her: she would not have her filthiness taken from her. In her filthiness is lewdness; because I would have purged thee,” with the word and the preaching of judgments, “and thou wouldst not be purged; therefore thou shalt not be purged till thou die, until I cause my fury to rest upon thee. I the Lord have spoken it: it shall come to pass, I will do it.” When God goes about to purge us by his word, and we will not amend our ways, we will not stoop, but “strengthen an iron sinew, and a whore’s forehead” (Jer 3:3). We will not be purged. No, says God, you shall not be purged until I purge you out of the world to hell, until my fury rests on you. I the Lord have spoken it, it shall come to pass (Isa 46:11).

There is another notable place, Proverbs 29:1: “He that is a man of reproof,” that is, a man who is sermon-proof, who is often reproved and yet carries himself impudently, and hardens his heart, and stiffens his neck, “he shall suddenly be destroyed.” He does not mean that the man had no warning, for he had warning enough. But because after long warning he hardens his neck, he shall suddenly be destroyed, when he is not looking for it, “and that without remedy.”

There is the same phrase in 2 Chronicles 36:16, “There was no remedy,” when they did not regard God’s ministers, who directed them the way to heaven, but would live in rebellion against the means of salvation. Then God says, “there was no remedy.” God sent his messengers early, and had compassion on his people. He would not have had them perish. They trifled with him and mocked his messengers, and accounted them weak men. They despised his word and misused his prophets, and then the Lord’s wrath rose against his people, and “there was no remedy.” So when people are like those here in the text, that “they rush as the horse into the battle,” when they are sermon-proof, when every sermon they hear, like the hammer on the smith’s anvil, makes them harder and harder, as Moses speaking to Pharaoh increased the hardness of his heart, it is a sign of destruction.

Now whether it is so or not, I leave to your particular consciences. We who are ministers tell you of your filthiness, of your profaning the name of God, and of your contempt of God’s word. Have we gained anything upon you or not? Who has left off an oath? Who has left his wicked courses and entered into a nearer communion with God for all our teaching? Blessed is that man. It is a sign God will not destroy him. It is a sign that in the general visitation God will regard that man. But alas! We may almost complain with Jeremiah in his prophecy (Jer 5:1), where he runs up and down to seek a man. Alas! They are very few. They are thick sown but come up thin, those who obey the ordinance of God.

It is some comfort that men will submit to the ordinance, that they will come to hear. Some good may be learned. It is better than keeping out of the compass of God’s law, as those men do who pretend they can read sermons at home, and so will teach God a course to bring men to heaven. There is hope for men when they submit to God’s ordinance. But, I beseech you, how are you affected now for the present? How do you come now into the presence of God, if you will not amend and resolve to enter into a new course? He who is often reproved and will not come in, judgment will come suddenly on him without all remedy. And it is good that it should be without remedy, because it is without excuse. You cannot plead and say that there were no prophets among you.

If the heathen were hardened and given up to destruction (“the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against them,” says Romans 1:18) because they lived in a course of rebellion against the light of nature, shall you, who have the light of nature, and the word of God, and the motions of his Spirit too, think to live in rebellion and not be accountable for it? It shall be easier for those who never heard of the word of God. Where God has magnified his mercy, he will exalt judgment. Those who are lifted up to heaven in privileges shall be cast down to hell. “Woe unto thee, Capernaum…” (Matt 11:21-23). The more in privileges, the more in judgment, if they are abused.

(5) Again, another particular sin by which we may discern a judgment coming is unfruitfulness under the means; as the fig tree, when it was dug around and dunged and yet was unfruitful, was then near a curse. In Hebrews 6:8, the ground that is tilled and manured, and has the rain falling on it, is then “near unto cursing” if it does not bring forth. Perhaps a heathen, a pagan, if he were under the means, would be fruitful, and therefore there might be hope for him. But when those who are under the means, under the sunshine of the gospel, under its influence, with the Spirit working on their hearts, yet live in the sin of unfruitfulness, it makes way for judgment. “The axe is laid to the root” (Matt 3:10). When men are taught, then the instrument of vengeance is laid to the root, and down they go if they do not bring forth good fruit.

Sins of omission, when all has been taught, are sufficient to bring a man to judgment. At the last judgment, “you have not visited me in prison, you have not relieved the poor…” (Matt 25:43) will be evidence enough to cast a man into hell. And the like may be said of the omission of other duties. When a man is called to a place, when he has opportunity to do good, “he hath a price in his hand, and yet hath no heart to lay it out to his power.” God has made him a steward, and yet he is unfruitful, and labors to undermine and ruin the state of others. What can such a man look for but the judgment of God to light on him first or last? If not present judgment on his body, then to be given up to hardness of heart, and so to hell, which is worst of all.

(6) What is more, decay in our first love is a forerunner of judgment, when we do not love God as we once did. In Revelation 2:4-5, “I will take away thy candlestick, because thou hast left thy first love.” Is there not such plenty and depth in good things, especially in those of the gospel, by which our sins are pardoned and grace is given? Is there not such sweetness in them as to gain our love more and more? Is there not a necessity to renew our peace? Why should we decay in our love? The things of the gospel are so excellent and so necessary that when God sees them undervalued, it is a forerunner of judgment. Let us take heed of decay in our affections. When there is no zeal for the truth, it is an evil sign.

It is a good sign for the present that God has some blessing for us, that now in our public meetings there is regard for religion, and that, in the first place, there is some zeal for the cause of God against those who would wrong the cause of religion. We have some cause to hope in respect of that. And let everyone labor to stir up the Spirit of God, and study how he may do and receive good, and be fruitful and warm in his affections, considering what excellent blessings we enjoy in the gospel. What is the glory of the kingdom we live in above popery? The religion that we have, the sunshine of the gospel. Now the riches of Christ are unfolded; we have the key of heaven, heaven opened. What glorious times these are! The glory of the times is the manifestation of the gospel, and shall we grow in the decay of our love?

Is there not cause to grow in love for the gospel, when God has taken it from others and has given it to us? Now idolatry is where true religion was, and the mass is said where God was religiously worshiped in other places and countries. Shall God so deal with us, and shall we not be in love with that truth? Since we have had the truth, what peace and plenty we have had! And if ever we lose it, it will go with other things. If God takes away the truth, away go our peace and prosperity. He will not take it away alone. It did not come alone, and he will not take it away alone. Doubtless it must make way for judgment, when our love for so precious a jewel as the gospel begins to die and decay, when we begin to slight and disregard it. And so for any particular man who has had good things in him. If they now begin to decay, it is an evil sign that God is fitting him for judgment.

Well, but what shall we do when judgments are coming? We see judgments are likely to come; indeed, they have in part come. The plague of pestilence has seized on us already, and then war is threatened, and that by enemies who have been foiled before. Foiled enemies are dangerous enemies, if they are proud. Now we have proud enemies who have been foiled, and idolatrous besides, and what mercy can we look for from them? God fought against them for us from heaven in some measure, and they, being cruel, provoked enemies, are the less likely to show any mercy. God is indeed so merciful to us as yet that he has taken us into his own hands, rather than give us up to the malice and fury of idolatrous enemies. But still, those who can lay things together and consider the times shall see that there is more cause for fear than is taken to heart.

Well, and in this case, what shall we do?

1. In the interim between the threatening and the execution. There are some judgments in the cloud, and the storm seems to hang over us, and the sword of the pestilence is drawn over our heads by the destroying angel, though he has not yet struck us in our particular persons. Now, in the time between the threatening and the execution, oh improve it, make use of this little time; get into covenant with God; hide yourselves in the providence and promises of God; make your peace, defer it no longer.

2. Mourn for the sins of the time, so that when any judgment comes, you may be marked with those who mourn. Take heed of the errors and sins of the times, lest, when a judgment comes, you be swept away in the general judgments. But let us rather have our part with those who mourn, that God may give us our lives for a prey.

3. Be watchful. Practice that duty. We have the plague to put us in mind of it, besides the threatening of dangers by enemies abroad. If we will not watch now and stand upon our guard, when will we? Let us be watchful to do all the good we can, to be fruitful, to be good stewards, to have large hearts. The time may come when we may be stripped of all, and we do not know how soon. Having but a little time, let us do good in it. Let us study all opportunities in these times and rouse up our sluggish souls. Fear is an affection that keeps us awake. Jacob, when his brother Esau was ready to seize on him, he could not sleep that night. We do not know how soon the hand and arrow of God may strike us, besides other judgments.

Let us shake off complacency, and do everything we do sincerely to God. We may come to God to make our account, we do not know how soon. Let us do everything as in his presence, and to him. In our particular callings, let us be conscientious, and careful, and fruitful. Let us do all in our places to God, and not to the world or to our own particular gain, but do it as those who must give account to God before long. Now God threatens us that we must come and give our account. Who can be secure that he shall have life for a week, or for one day? We cannot. Our times are in God’s hands (Ps 31:15). We came into the world in his time, and we must go out in his time. But now we have less cause to hope for long life. This is to make a right use of the judgment of God, to be watchful in this way.

And besides, let us be good managers now in the interim. Between the threatening and the execution of the judgment, let us store up comforts from the promises of God, and store up the comforts of a good life. We shall have more comfort from the means we have bestowed wisely than from what we shall leave behind us. If we do this, come what will, we are prepared. Many holy and heavenly men have been visited with pestilential sickness. Hezekiah was a king, and his was a pestilential sickness; and many holy divines of late, and other Christians, have been swept away by the sickness: Junius, and other rare men of excellent use in the church.

Therefore let us labor to get into the favor of God, and make use of renewing our covenant for the time to come. That is one purpose of fasting now, to renew our covenants, to remake them for the time to come. And then come what will, and welcome, life or death; for there is a blessing hidden in the most loathsome sickness and death. If we come to heaven, it does not matter by what way, though the body “be sown in dishonour.” We may die of a noisome disease, so that we cannot have our friends near us, yet the body shall rise again in honour (1 Cor 15:43). What does it matter, says St. Paul, “if by any means I may come to the resurrection of the dead” (Phil 3:11); by fair death or foul death, it does not matter.

And if it should be that God does not make good his promise of particular protection of our bodies from contagion and the like, it does not matter. We have a general promise that he will be our God. He is “the God of Abraham” (Matt 22:32), the God of the dead as well as of the living. He is a God who is everlasting in the covenant of grace, in life and death, and forever. If we have entered into the covenant of grace, it holds forever. And when all other promises fail, and all things in the world fail, stick to the main promise of forgiveness of sins, “and life everlasting.”

When all things in the world will fail, and we must leave them shortly, wealth and whatever else, what a comfort there is in that grand promise, that God will forgive us our sins and give us life everlasting for Christ’s sake! Therefore, when all things else are gone, let us wrap ourselves in the gracious promises of Christ, and then we shall live and die with comfort.

From the days of John Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force (Matt 11:12).

John the Baptist and our blessed Savior gave mutual testimonies of one another. John witnessed of Christ before Christ came, and our Savior Christ gives witness of John here. You have the occasion of this in the second verse. John, being in prison, sends two of his disciples to Christ, to learn whether he was the Christ or not; not that John doubted, but to confirm his disciples. Christ returns an answer in deeds and an answer in words. “Tell John,” he says, “what ye have seen and heard …”; and then he closes it all up: “Blessed is he that is not offended with me.”

Upon this occasion Christ enters into a commendation of blessed St. John the Baptist, even to a comparative commendation: “Amongst them that were born of women there had not yet risen a greater than John the Baptist.” This is not so much in eminence of grace, though there may be truth in that, as in regard of the dispensation of his ministry, John living in more glorious times. For the excellency of the church comes from Christ. He ennobles and advances times, and places, and persons. Bethlehem was a little city, yet not a little city in regard that Christ was born there. And Christ says, “Happy are the eyes that see that which your eyes see” (Luke 10:23). Everything is advanced by Christ.

So John the Baptist, in regard of his office, being the immediate forerunner of Christ, was greater than all who were before him. Yet Christ says, “The least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he”; not in grace, but in prerogative, in regard of the revelation and manifestation of more things. For John the Baptist died before he saw the death, and resurrection, and ascension of Christ accomplished, before Christ was glorified. Therefore, in regard of these prerogatives, the least in the kingdom of heaven, that is, in the church of the New Testament, is greater than he. It is a rule that the least of the greater is greater than the greatest of the less. John was greater than the greatest of those who were before him, but lesser than the least of those who came after him.

Then Christ commends John from the efficacy of his ministry: “From the days of John Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” So you see how these words depend on the former ones. As for the points we are to consider in them:

First, here you have the state of the church in the New Testament. It is a kingdom, and the kingdom of heaven; together with the quality of the means by which it comes to be a kingdom, the means of grace, the gospel. The gospel and the people who are wrought on by the gospel in the New Testament are both called the “kingdom of heaven.”

Then, secondly, here is set down the affection of those people who seek this kingdom at that time, and so forward to the end of the world. The disposition of the persons is this: they are violent.

The third is the issue or success of this eagerness and violence. Though the manner is violent, yet the success is good. “The violent take it by force.”

The fourth is the date or time when it begins, and how long it continues. Its date runs from the preaching of St. John the Baptist to the end of the world. “Until now”: that is, to the end of the world. As it was said, “till now,” in the evangelist’s time, so posterity may say, “Until now,” from the first coming of Christ until his second coming. While there is a gospel preached, which is the ministry of the Spirit, the Spirit will be working; and there are such glorious things in the gospel that there will be violence offered. So while there is a people to be gathered, and a gospel to be preached to gather them, and a Spirit that works by that gospel, there will be violence in the church offered to the means of salvation.

Doctrine 1. The state of the church, together with the means, the gospel preached, is called the kingdom of heaven.

Besides others, there are three main meanings of these words, “The kingdom of heaven.”

First, the famous, leading, proper meaning is the state and place where God himself and his people are most glorious, “the kingdom of heaven.” All the other meanings end in that.

But, secondly, all who shall come into that glorious kingdom must be kings here first, in the state of the kingdom of grace, which consists “in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom 14:17), in the graces and comforts of the Spirit. Therefore the state of grace comes to have the name too of “the kingdom of heaven.”

And thirdly, grace in this world cannot be attained without an order, and means, and dispensations from God. Because of this, the dispensation of the means by which we come to have grace is also called “the kingdom.” The unfolding of the mysteries of salvation in the gospel is called the kingdom of God. As Christ says, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you” (Matt 21:43); that is, the preaching of the gospel. Therefore “the gospel” is called “the gospel of the kingdom,” and “the word of the kingdom,” because by this word we come to have grace, and by grace, glory.

There is no glory without grace, and no grace without the word. One makes way for another. The preaching of the gospel causes a church, which is the kingdom of Christ, in which he rules by the scepter of his word. By that word Christ and all his riches, and glory, and prerogatives are unfolded; and by it grace is wrought, and grace leads to glory. This connection and subordination is to be observed:

1. For the conviction of those who do not indeed belong to the kingdom of heaven. Everyone is ready to talk of the kingdom of heaven and the glory there. Yes, but there is a subordination of grace, and of the means of grace. How do you stand affected toward the means of salvation, toward the “word of the kingdom,” the “word of life,” the “word of reconciliation”? For it has its name from all the excellencies to which it brings us, to show that as we value life, a kingdom, reconciliation, and all that is good, so we must value this gospel, or else our hope is a presumptuous confidence. If the privileges of grace and glory belong to us, we must come to them by these steps. Those who do not regard the gospel and the means of salvation have nothing to do with grace or glory. They are hereby convicted of arrogant folly.

2. Again, it is a ground to comfort weak Christians who regard the means of salvation, and yet fear their falling away. Be of good comfort, whoever you are. God has knit and linked these together; all the power of earth and hell cannot break one link of this chain. Conscientious attendance on the means, and grace, and glory will go together. Therefore hold on, attend on the means of salvation, and wait with comfort. The gospel of the kingdom will bring you to grace; and grace, though it is only a little measure, will bring you to glory. Where God has begun a good work he will finish it. He will follow one benefit with another: diligent attendance on the means with grace, and grace with glory.

In Scripture, works take their name from what they aim at, as the apostle says, “Ye have crucified the old man” (Rom 6:6), and “ye are crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20), because you are in the midst of doing it, and you shall do it perfectly. So we are saints, because we shall be saints. We are kings now, because we are so in part, and we shall be so fully hereafter. So grace is called the kingdom of heaven, because it is the undoubted way to the kingdom of heaven and glory. God would help our faith by the very title. For we are not elected to the beginnings of glory only, but to the perfection, as it is excellently set down in Ephesians 1:4-6: we are elected to glory by means and beginnings. Therefore we may undoubtedly hope for the accomplishment when we see the beginnings.

Question. Why is the state of grace, and the means of grace, and glory itself called “the kingdom of heaven”?

Answer. Because they are all of and from heaven. The one, the kingdom of glory, is in heaven, and the other, the kingdom of the word, is here; and the truth and grace that come by it are from heaven. The truth we have, and the grace from that truth, come from heaven; yes, and Christ, the author of all, is from heaven, and they all lead to heaven.

This should teach us with what minds to occupy ourselves in hearing and reading these things: with heavenly affections. And it shows likewise why worldlings and base people are no more moved by the things of the gospel: because it is “the kingdom of heaven.” If it were of the world, we would see it sought with eagerness enough, even if it were a smaller matter than a kingdom. But it is a “kingdom of heaven,” remote from flesh and blood. There must be a new Spirit to work a new sight and a new taste, to work a change in the heart of man, and then he shall know the things of “the kingdom of heaven.”

Whoever would see this kingdom must come out of the world, as in Revelation 18:4, “Come out of Babylon.” A man must come out of antichrist’s kingdom to see the baseness of it. He cannot see it in the midst of it. So we must come out of the world if we would see the glorious kingdom of Christ. It is a heavenly kingdom. Therefore the greatest potentates of the world must abase themselves. There is no greatness in the world that can help them to this heavenly kingdom.

Question. But why should the gospel and the state of the church in the New Testament be called the kingdom of heaven, and take its date from now? Was it not the kingdom of heaven before?

Answer. It is the manner of Scripture to give titles to things from the glorious manifestation of them. Things are said to be when they are gloriously manifested. The mystery of Christ is said to be revealed now, in the time of the gospel. It was known before to Adam and Abraham and the rest. But now there was a more apparent, glorious manifestation of it. Therefore now the manifestation of Christ, and the good things by him, are called “a kingdom.”

Before, it was kept enclosed within the fence of the Jewish church; it was veiled under types; it was hidden in promises that were dark and obscure. But when Christ came, all was taken off and Christ was unveiled. It is said in the Gospel, “The Holy Ghost was not given yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39). The Holy Ghost was given before, but not so fully and plentifully. So before the coming of Christ there was a state of heaven, and men were saved; but it was not called “the kingdom of heaven.” It was not a state of liberty and freedom from the bondage of ceremonies, and the like.

And there is reason that there should be violence offered to this state, and means, and the grace wrought by it. It is a kingdom. It is no great wonder that a kingdom should suffer violence, especially such a kingdom as “the kingdom of heaven.” What is in a kingdom?

There is, first of all, freedom from slavery and danger. A kingdom is an independent state. There is none above it. He who is a king is free, independent, and supreme.

Then again, a kingdom is a full state. There is abundance and plenty of people and good things in a kingdom.

Again, in a kingdom there is glory and excellency (where else is it to be had?), all the glory, and sufficiency, and contentment that earth can afford.

Now it is in these respects that the state of the church, by reason of the glorious gospel, is called a kingdom.

First, it is a free state, as indeed the word makes us free from former bondage. In particular, the gospel of Christ frees us from Jewish bondage, and from every kind of spiritual bondage. “If the Son make you free, ye are free indeed” (John 8:36). A Christian is above all. He is over sin, and Satan, and the law. He is free, and supreme, and independent. All are under him. A Christian, as a Christian, is under none but Christ, under no creature. “The spiritual man judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man” (1 Cor 2:15). I am not speaking of civil distinctions; but as a Christian is a member of Christ, and a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, he has a kind of independent state. His conscience is subject only to God and Christ. But all earthly things he commands; they are under him.

And second, the state of a Christian is a full state. God is his, Christ is his, “all things are his” (1 Cor 3:21), as much as shall serve to bring him to heaven. What is truly good is directly his, and indirectly all other things are made his by Christ, who has the authority, and power, and strength of a king to command all things to work together for his good (Rom 8:28). Death, and sin, and all that befalls him are his in this way. And then he has a spirit of contentment in the lack of good, and of patience in the suffering of ill, so that he “can do all things,” as St. Paul says, “through Christ that strengtheneth him” (Phil 4:13). What he lacks in outward things, he can fetch supply for from the promises of the gospel; he can fetch supply from Christ, and from the state to come. And what he lacks in other things he has in grace, which is better.

Third, it is likewise a state of glory and excellency. But it is a spiritual glory, and therefore it stands together with outward baseness and lowliness. It is a glorious state to be the Son of God, to be heirs of heaven, heirs of all things in Christ; by the Spirit of Christ in him he rules over all. How glorious is the Spirit of God in a Christian in the time of temptation and affliction, when he has a Spirit ruling in him that is stronger than the world and all oppositions whatsoever (1 John 4:4)! The state of a Christian is glorious even in this world, in the beginnings of it. What then is the glory that is to be revealed on the sons of God “in the day of revelation” (Rom 2:5)? It cannot enter into our thoughts; it is above our expression; indeed, it is above our imagination and conception.

Thus you see there is great cause why “the kingdom of heaven should suffer violence.” When crowns and kingdoms are laid open to people with hope of getting them, especially such a one as “the kingdom of heaven” is, it is no wonder if there is “violence” offered to get them.

The next thing is the affection of those who seek after this kingdom. It is violent.

“The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence.”

How does the “kingdom of heaven,” the gospel and means of grace, “suffer violence”?

1. Because when these good things were revealed by John the Baptist, and then by Christ, and afterward by the disciples and apostles, many thronged into the church, which is the gate of “the kingdom of heaven.” They all pressed to be of the church, to hear the word of God. They hung, as it were, on the word of Christ, on his mouth. They pressed so that “they trod one upon another” (Luke 12:1); and it is said they all came out to hear John the Baptist: “Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan” (Matt 3:5). So in regard of the multitude there was violence.

2. And then in regard of their affections, their zeal for the good things of the gospel was eager and earnest. To be citizens of a kingdom, to partake of the means of salvation, to come to grace and so to glory, this made them wondrously violent.

3. In regard likewise of the persons, “the kingdom of heaven suffered violence,” the persons being such as might be judged to have no right to it. Alas! For poor wretched sinful men and women, who had been notorious sinners, to come to receive a kingdom, to become kings, this was strange! What had sinners to do with grace? This doctrine was not heard of in the law, that there should be hope for such wretched persons as these. If such might be admitted, surely there must be great violence.

Then again, they were poor and lowly people. “The poor receive the gospel” (Luke 7:22). For beggars to become kings! For poor men to be helped by their outward abasement to come to spiritual poverty!

4. Again, they were Gentiles, “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise” (Eph 2:12), heathen people. The Jews were “the children of the kingdom” (Matt 8:12); the Gentiles were foreigners and strangers. Now for these to come in, and “the children of the kingdom” to be shut out, must suppose violence. Where there is no apparent right, there is force. Now what right had the Gentiles, who were little better than dogs? Could they have anything to do with the kingdom? Yes, says Christ, they take it by violence; and the Jews, and the proud scribes and Pharisees who seem to be the apparent “children of the kingdom,” shall at length be shut out. “They that were first,” in outward prerogatives, “shall be last; and they that were last,” the Gentiles, sinners, lowly people, who take the advantage of their baseness and sinfulness to see their unworthiness and to magnify the grace of God in Christ, “shall be first” (Matt 20:16). In these respects the kingdom of heaven is said to suffer violence. People are determined to reach heaven, whatever comes of it; when these good things are revealed, they will take no refusal. From this we may learn:

Doctrine. It is the disposition of those who are the true members of the church of God to be eager and violent.

Those who intend to enter into the kingdom must throng and strive to enter; and when they are in, they must keep the fort, and keep it with violence.

There is indeed a violence of iniquity and injustice; and in that sense the people of God, of all others, ought not to be a violent people. “Do violence to no man,” says the Baptist to the soldiers (Luke 3:14). Such violence rather bars people from the kingdom of heaven than qualifies them for it. But this is another kind of violence that our Savior speaks of here, necessary for all who desire to enter into the kingdom of heaven; and that for these reasons:

1. Between us and the blessed state we aim at there is much opposition; and therefore there must be violence. The state of the church here, the state of grace and the enjoyment of the means of grace, is a state of opposition. Good persons and good things are opposed in the world. Christ rules in this world “in the midst of his enemies.” He must have enemies, therefore, to rule in the midst of; he must be opposed. And where there is opposition between us and the good things that we must of necessity have, we must break through the opposition, which cannot be done without violence. Now the means and graces of salvation are opposed in every way, within us and without us.

(1) They are opposed from within us; and that is the worst opposition. For Satan has a party within us that keeps up correspondence with him, our own traitorous flesh. In all the degrees of salvation there is violence. So in effectual calling, when we are called out of the kingdom of Satan, he is not willing to let us go; he will keep us there still. And when we come to have our sins forgiven in justification, there is opposition; proud flesh and blood will not yield to the righteousness of the gospel. It will not rest in Christ; it will seek something in itself. In sanctification there is opposition between “the flesh and the Spirit.” Every good work we do is gotten out of the fire, as it were; it is gotten by violence.

In every good action, whether it is to get grace or to give thanks to God, how many carnal reasonings there are! If a man is to give to others, the flesh suggests, “I may be in want myself.” If he is to reform abuses in others, he is ready to think, “Others will have something to say to me; and I shall give offense to such and such men.” And then the love of earthly things chains us to the things below, and self-love prompts a man to keep his skin whole and sleep safe. We love our wealth, and peace, and favor with men. So a man cannot come to the state of grace without breaking through these; and from this comes the necessity of violence, from the opposition within us.

We must offer violence to ourselves, to our own reason, to our own wills and affections. “You have not yet resisted unto blood,” says the apostle (Heb 12:4). We do not resist by killing others; but we ourselves resist to death when, rather than miss heaven and happiness, and rather than fail to stand for the truth, we will suffer death.

(2) Again, there is opposition from the world: on the right hand, by the snares and delights of the world, to quench the delight in the good things of the Spirit; and on the left hand, by fears, and terrors, and scandals, to scare us from doing what we ought to do.

(3) And then there is opposition from Satan, in every good action. He besets us in prayer with distracted thoughts, and in every duty, for he knows they tend to the ruin of him and of his kingdom. There is no good action that is not opposed from within us and from without us. The means of salvation, and attendance on them, are not without slander and disgrace in the world. God will have this violence, therefore, because there is opposition to the means, to the attendance on them, to grace, to every good action, to everything that is spiritually good.

Indeed, sometimes God himself plays the part of an enemy. In spiritual desertions he seems to forsake and leave us; and not only to forsake us, but to be an enemy, “to write bitter things against us” (Job 13:26); and that is a heavy temptation.

2. Again, God will have this violence and striving as a mark of difference, to show who are bastard professors of the faith and who are not: who will pay the price of Christianity, and who will not. If men will go to heaven they must be violent. They must bear the cost and charges, sometimes venturing life itself, and whatever is dear and precious in the world. A man must be so violent that he will go through all, even death itself, though it is a bloody death, to Christ. This discards all lukewarm, carnal professors, who shake off this violence.

In all estates of the church it is almost equally difficult to be a sound Christian; for God requires this violence even in the most peaceable times. Now the truth and religion are countenanced by the laws, yet the power of religion is much opposed by many. Therefore the man now who, in spite of reproach, in spite of slander, will bear the scorns cast on the gospel, who will “go with Christ without the gate, bearing his reproach” (Heb 13:13), such a man may be said to be violent in this way. It is an easy thing to have as much Christianity as will stand with our profit or with pleasure, and the like; but to have as much as will bring us to heaven, I say, is equally hard in all times of the church. It requires violence to carry us through these lesser oppositions.

3. Again, God will have us get these things with violence, that we may set a greater price on them when we have them. When we have things that are gotten by violence, that are gotten with difficulty, oh, we value them much! Heaven is heaven then. Things that are hard to get and hard to keep are highly prized.

4. Again, the excellency of the thing enforces violence. It is fitting that excellent things should have affections that answer to them. Now, since it is a kingdom, and the kingdom of heaven, what affection answers to it but a violent, strong affection?

5. Again, together with the excellency, the necessity requires it; for the kingdom of heaven is a place of refuge as well as a kingdom to enrich us. There were cities of refuge among the Jews. When a man was followed by the avenger of blood, he would run as fast as he could to the city of refuge, and there he was safe. So when a guilty conscience pursues us, when there is a noise of fear in the heart, when God’s judgments awaken us and hell is open, when a man apprehends his condition and is convinced what sort of man he is and what he deserves, of necessity he will fly to the city of refuge. And where is that but in the “kingdom of heaven,” in the church?

Happy is he who can but get in at the gate of this kingdom; there is no doubt of his going in further. But there must be a striving “to enter in at the gate” (Luke 13:24). And then there he shall be hidden in his sanctuary; as the pursued doves get into their nests, and the conies hide themselves in the rock; when they get that over their heads, then they are safe. So a Christian, when he is pursued by conscience and by the temptations of Satan, flees to his sanctuary. Do you wonder that a guilty man should flee to his sanctuary, and the pursued creatures to their hold and refuge? In this respect “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence.”

Here it is compared to some great, rich city that has some great treasure and riches in it. It must be besieged and beleaguered a long time, and those who can enter it are made forever. Or it is like the entrance or gate of a city where there is striving and thronging, and where, besides, there are enemies, so that if men do not strive they are cut, and mangled, and killed. So it is in the state of this kingdom. When a man’s eyes are opened, he sees the devil and hell behind him, and either he must enter or be damned; and once he has entered, it makes him rich and advances him forever.

So he is strongly moved to offer violence on both sides. If he looks behind him, there is the kingdom of Satan, darkness and misery and damnation; for as Pharaoh pursued the Israelites when they had gone out of his kingdom, so the devil pursues a man when he has broken out of his dominion. And then before him there is the kingdom of happiness and glory. The fear of what follows them, and the hope of what is set before them, both make them strive to enter the gate of that city.

Use. What should this teach us?

First, let it be a rule of trial to know and judge our condition, whether we have entered this gate of heaven or not. Our lives are very short, very uncertain; let us consider whether we are in the way to heaven. What striving, what struggling, what violence have we ever offered? There is a company of people who do not regard the means of salvation at all, either in private or in public. Some come to the word and hear, but they do not hear it as the word of God, to be ruled by it, but as a discourse to delight themselves for the time, to have something to speak of and to criticize, not with a spirit of obedience, to be guided by it as the scepter of the kingdom.

What “violence” is this, now and then to hear a sermon, now and then to read a chapter, now and then to utter a yawning prayer between sleeping and waking, perhaps when you do not know what you yourself are saying? How then would you have God regard it? What violence is in the lives of most Christians? What strength to enforce good actions? How do they make use of the means of salvation? Many means are wholly neglected. Some perhaps they use now and then, as may suit their convenience; whereas there must be a universal care of all the means.

Not one can be neglected without the loss of grace, and there must be attendance on them with violence. None of the means can profit us without rousing and stirring up our spirits. We cannot hear or pray without drawing up and raising up our souls. Otherwise the flesh will stop the comforting performance of any action, and Satan will kill such actions at their very birth if he can.

To search a little deeper, only compare your course toward these good things of heaven with your course toward the world. If there is hope of preferment, the doors of great men are sure to suffer violence, and their favorites with them. The courts of justice suffer violence, so that we may have our rights in earthly things. The playhouses and such places are thronged, and suffer violence.

If a man could only look over the courses of men out in the city, he would see one violent for his pleasures, running to the house of the harlot “as a fool to the stocks” (Prov 7:22); another to the exchange, to increase his estate; another to the place of justice, to slander his neighbor or to get his own right, perhaps neglecting his title to heaven in the meantime; another to the court, to get favor to rise to some place of preferment. These places suffer violence. But what violence does the poor gospel endure? Alas! It is slighted; and men will regard it when they can spare the time. It is not regarded according to its worth and value. If we ever look to have good by the gospel, our dispositions must be violent, in some proportion answerable to its excellency.

Alas! We may justly turn the complaint on ourselves, that while we spend our strength in violence about the base and mean things of this life, the kingdom of heaven offers violence to us, and yet we will have none of it. How God beseeches us in the ministry! “We beseech you to be reconciled” (2 Cor 5:20); and “Why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezek 18:31). As if the gospel and grace were commodities that God were weary of, he comes and puts them upon us whether we will or not, and yet we refuse them.

We are so far from offering violence to the gospel and to grace that God offers violence to us, as if we would be doing him a favor to receive the gospel and to do good to our own souls; and yet the vile, proud, base heart of man will not regard and receive these heavenly things. How it will justify God’s sentence at the day of judgment, when he shall allege that there was a discovery of such things to you, and that instead of violence in seeking them, you slighted and neglected them! Indeed, there is a worse sort of men than these: those who oppose the “kingdom of heaven” in its means and in its persons. What kind of men are these, do you think?

Again, we see here that there is a blessed violence that can stand with judgment. A man cannot be violent and wise in the things of this world, because the things are mean, and eagerness is out of proportion to them. A man cannot be violent after honor or riches and be as he should be. These are things that he must leave behind him, and they are worse than himself. Much less can a man be violent and wise after filthy pleasures; a man must become a fool in this respect, as the Scripture says (1 Cor 3:18). But in respect of heavenly things, a man may be violent and wise; for there is such a degree of excellency in these things that no violence can be too much.

Men talk of being too strict and too holy. Can there be too much of that which we can never have enough of in this world? I say this all the more to confound the base judgment that the world has of a holy disposition, which is carried with a sweet, eager violence to these things. Such people are thought to be frantic, to be out of their wits, as they thought St. Paul was; but he answers, “If we be out of our wits, beside ourselves, it is to God” (2 Cor 5:13). Christ himself was sometimes laid hands on, as if he had been out of himself (Mark 3:21). And as Festus told blessed St. Paul that much learning had made him mad (Acts 26:24) when he saw him eager in the cause of Christ, so many, when they see a man earnest in the matters of God, think that surely such men have lost their discretion.

No; it is the highest discretion in the world to be eager and violent for things that are invaluable; and if men are not eager for these, they are fools. They do not know how to prize things. The most judicious men here are the most violent. Only let it be violence that has eyes in its head, violence guided by judgment, coming from the knowledge of the excellency of the good things of the gospel. I speak of such a violence as that.

Away, then, with base reproaches! Let us not be frightened by the ill reports of idle brains and rotten hearts of people who do not know the things that belong to the “kingdom of heaven.” Alas! They do not know what they are saying; they are to be pitied, and not censured. Is there anything that a man should be earnest for, if not for these things? Were our souls made to pursue things that are earthly and base, worse than ourselves? Were our wits made only to plod in our temporal calling, and to neglect our heavenly one? If anything may challenge the best of our endeavors, the marrow of our labors, the utmost of our spirits and wits, certainly it is these: grace and glory, which will stand by us when all things will fail us.

Therefore do not let your own hearts make fools of you, nor the vain speeches of others frighten you. It will be acknowledged by everyone before long that there is nothing worth a man’s eagerness but these things. The worldling is violent and eager; he troubles himself and his house about “a vain shadow” (Eccl 6:12), for pleasures and profit and so on. And what comes of all his violence? He is turned naked into his grave, and from there into hell; and there is an end of all the violence about all other things besides these.

We see then the disposition of those who truly profess the faith: they are violent in respect of heavenly things. Those therefore who are not earnest in the cause of religion, when the state of things requires it, have no religion in them; they are not in the state of grace. We must be earnest, first of all, against our own sins. Violence must begin there, to subdue all to the Spirit of Christ, to allow nothing else to rule there; and after that, violence to maintain the cause of Christ: “To contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3); to contend with both hands; not to allow it to be wrested from us or to be betrayed; and if it is opposed, to vindicate it. We must be violent both to propagate the truth of God and, in case of opposition, to vindicate it.

“He that is not with me,” says Christ, “is against me” (Matt 12:30). If a man is not with Christ, he is against him. It may seem a strange saying, but Christ cannot abide lukewarm neutrals. He cannot abide persons of no faith. He cannot endure cold persons. His stomach cannot bear them. He will cast them up, as he says in Revelation 3:15-16: “I would thou wert hot or cold.” A man had better be nothing in religion than be lukewarm.

The reason is that if a man will have good by any religion, he must be in earnest in it: If Baal be God, stand for him, if you would have good by him: if the Lord be God, stand for him (1 Kgs 18:21). Be earnest in his cause. If popery is good, then stand for that, if you hope for good by it; and if our religion is good, then stand for that, if you hope for good by it. There is no good received by religion if we are not earnest for it. Religion is not a matter to be dallied in.

Therefore they are bitter, sour, profane, scoffing atheists, who trifle with religion, as if it were no great matter what it is. They will be earnest in all things else, earnest to scrape riches, to satisfy their base lusts. But as for religion, to them it is no matter what it is; it is a thing not worth seeking after; the old religion or the new, or both or none. These are persons to be taken heed of, breeding a temper opposed to religion more than any other. Christ can least bear them.

There is great reason for it. Who can bear to have any favor neglected and slighted? Especially for these excellent things to be undervalued and slighted, it cannot be that God can endure it. There will be a faction in the world as long as the world stands: Christ and Antichrist, good and evil, light and darkness. But a man cannot be of both; he must show himself to be of one side or the other in case of opposition.

Therefore the temper of one who truly professes the faith is to be earnest in case of opposition to religion, and in case of opportunity to advance his religion. In civil life, and in dealing with men who are subject to infirmities, he must be gentle and meek: “the Spirit of God descended in the shape of a dove” upon Christ (Matt 3:16), as well as in “fiery tongues” upon the apostles (Acts 2:3). But in the cause of Christ, in the cause of religion, he must be fiery and fervent. No man was milder in his own cause than Moses; he was a meek man. But when occasion called for it, when God was offended, down he threw the tables of stone (Exod 32:19). He forgot himself, though he was otherwise the meekest man in the world in his own matters.

So, I say, the Spirit is both meek and gentle as a dove, and earnest, and zealous, and hot as fire. In Acts 2:2, the Spirit of God comes down as a “mighty wind.” The wind is a powerful thing, if it is in a man’s body. There is no torment like windy sickness, as the complaints of those who feel it witness well enough. And if a little wind is enclosed in the earth, it shakes the whole vast body of the earth. The Spirit is like wind: it makes men bold; it fills them with a great deal of eagerness in the cause of God.

Again, the Spirit appeared to the apostles in the likeness of fire. It inflamed their zeal, and made those fervent who were cold before. We see this in Peter: the voice of a young woman terrified and frightened him (Matt 26:69-70); but when the Spirit came upon him, it so fired him that he counted it his glory to suffer anything for the cause of Christ (Acts 5:41). Therefore, those who hope for anything by religion, let them labor to be for that religion in good earnest. They shall find God in good earnest with them also.

Again, from this we see that religion does not take away the earnestness of the affections. It directs them to better things; it changes them in regard to their object. It takes away nothing in us, but turns the stream another way. Violence requires the height and strength of the affections. Religion does not take them away, but turns them the way they should go. If a stream runs violently one way, and is diverted by skill and cunning another way, it will run as fast that way when it is turned as it did before.

So it is with the heart of man. Religion takes nothing away that is good, but lifts it up; it elevates and advances it to better objects. There are riches, and honors, and pleasures when a man is in Christ, but they are of a higher kind. Therefore they draw affections, and greater affections than other things. But these affections are purified; they run in a better, in a clearer channel. Whereas before they ran at full force to earthly, dirty things below, the same affections of love, of desire, and of zeal still remain. He who was violent before is as violent still; only the stream is turned.

For example, take St. Paul as an instance. He was as earnest when he was a Christian as before. He was never more eager for the shedding of the blood of Christians, and for breathing out slaughter against them, than he was afterward in breathing after the salvation of God’s people and in desiring to enlarge the gospel. Zacchaeus was never so covetous of the world before as he was covetous of heaven when he became a Christian. I say religion takes away nothing; it only turns the stream.

But it is a miracle for the stream to be turned. It was God who turned Jordan. So it is a greater work than man can do to turn the streams of man’s affections, which run at full force to earthly things, and to make them run upward. It is God’s work alone. This is the excellency of religion. It ennobles our nature. What is natural it makes heavenly and spiritual, so that a man shall be as earnest for God and good things as he ever was before after the things of this life. So much for that point.

The third thing is the success.

“The violent take it by force.”

The earnestness of affection and violence is successful. “They take it.” The good things of God are here compared to a fort, or to a well-fenced and well-armed city, strengthened with bulwarks and munitions, that is besieged a long time and at length is taken. For this clause, “The violent take it by force,” shows both the outcome of the violent ones’ striving for the kingdom of heaven, namely, that they do at length take it, and the manner in which it is taken, namely, by force.

Doctrine. The violent, and only the violent, and all the violent, do at length certainly obtain what they strive for, the kingdom of heaven.

Why?

1. Because it is promised to the violent. “Knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matt 7:7). “Be zealous, and repent” (that is the means to cure all former transgressions, “repent”), “and be zealous, and do the former works,” and “To him that overcometh” (that is, he who is earnest, who will never leave off until he has overcome), “to him will I grant to sit with me on the throne” (Rev 3:19, 21); “and to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life” (Rev 2:7). All the promises are to him who overcomes, to him who is zealous and earnest.

2. Then again, the Spirit by which a man is earnest is a victorious Spirit. As Christians have the word and promise to build on, which leads them on and encourages them, so they are led by a mighty Spirit, which has the force of wind and fire, which beats down all before it, which breaks through all oppositions and difficulties. Being led by a divine Spirit, what earthly thing can oppose that which is divine? It brings under and subdues all. Therefore “the violent take it,” the Spirit of God seizing upon and possessing the heart, and carrying it with strength after these things.

3. And then only the violent take it, because God has set it at this rate. “He that heareth and doth,” “he that perseveres to the end,” “he that sells all for the pearl,” for the treasure in the field. There must be nothing retained; all must be parted with; we must be ready for any cost and charge and peril, and all of it little enough. It is offered to us on these terms: of parting with all, of enduring anything, of breaking through all difficulties. Only such, and all such, shall obtain it by force.

4. And again, only the violent, because only they can prize it when they have it. They alone can prize grace and heaven. They know how they came by it. It cost them their pleasures and profits; it cost them labor, and danger, and loss of favor with men; and this pains, and cost, and loss endears the state of grace and glory to them. For God will never bring any man to heaven until he has raised his affections to that pitch, to value grace and glory above all things in the world. Therefore only those shall take it by violence; for only those show that they set a right price on the best things. They weigh them in the balance of the sanctuary (Dan 5:27). They value things as God would have them valued.

Objection. But is not the kingdom of heaven and grace free? Why then is violence needed for a thing that is free, and freely offered?

Answer. I answer: because it is free, therefore it is violently taken. For, alas! if it were offered to us on condition of our exact performance of the law, it might dampen the spirits of men, as indeed such people, if they are not better informed, usually end their days in despair. But since it is freely offered, “the publicans and harlots,” says Christ, “go into the kingdom of God” before the proud Pharisees (Matt 21:31). Because it is free, it is free to sinners who feel the burden of their sins. “Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden …” (Matt 11:28). “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: they shall be satisfied” (Matt 5:3-6). On this account he who has a guilty conscience makes haste, and offers violence, when he hears of free pardon.

What makes the condition of the devils so desperate? There is no hope of free pardon for them. What makes men embrace the gospel so eagerly, notwithstanding their sins? Because it is freely offered. For this reason the Gentiles, who had been sinners and under Satan’s kingdom before, were so glad of it. And this makes miserable persons, who are humbled by afflictions and abasement in the world, glad of it, it being so great a thing, the kingdom of heaven, the favor of God, and freedom from misery, and so freely offered. It is so far from hindering violence because it is free, that for this very reason the humble, afflicted souls who desire grace are all the more eager after it.

The proud Pharisees thought the kingdom of heaven belonged only to them; and therefore they despised Christ and despised the gospel, because it was set forth to sinners, and to such mean persons as they thought were viler than themselves. But now when the lower sort of people, and others who were abased by crosses in the world, saw what kind of gospel it was, what great matters were offered, and that it was offered freely, they justified wisdom (Matt 11:19) and the counsel of God which others despised (Luke 7:29-30), and pressed for it with violence.

It would be little comfort to hear of the excellency and necessity of these heavenly things, if there were not hope of them. Hope stirs up diligence and endeavor in the things of this world. What makes men venture to the Indies, east and west? They hope for a voyage that shall enrich them all their life. Hope in doubtful things stirs up industry. What makes the poor farmer diligent to plow and to sow? The hope that he shall have a harvest; yet this is under a providence that may guide it another way. But spiritual things are more certain. Therefore hope in spiritual things must surely stir up endeavor. We need not call them into question.

And as it stirs us up to diligence, so it stirs us up in the use of the means, not to give up until we see our hopes accomplished. Then, in the third place, hope of success, that we shall not lose our labor, enables and strengthens us to bear the tediousness of the time and the burden of afflictions, and whatever lies between us and the thing we expect. Though we do not have the comfort from God that we would like to have, yet it makes us wait upon God.

Therefore when Christ says, “the violent take it by force,” it is to encourage us. The violent, eager, strong endeavors of a Christian in the ways of God, in the means of salvation, are not endeavors without success.

He labors for what he knows he shall have; his violence is not in vain. He who is violent in good things has a promise. He who wrestles with God shall overcome, and he who overcomes shall have a crown. Here is a promise to build on. Therefore here is encouragement to be earnest and violent: he shall overcome, he shall enter the castle at last, if he continues striving and does not give up. From this a difference is to be observed between the endeavors of a Christian and those of three sorts of other men.

(1) If only those who offer violence to the kingdom of heaven, who set upon it with encouragement, shall get it, and that by force, what a great difference then there is between them and those who in a contrary way offer violence to the kingdom of heaven; that is, those who wrong Christ in his members and hinder the means of salvation. What promise do they have of success? Surely they have no promise and no hope at all. Only their malice carries them headlong in spite. Because the gospel reveals their hollowness and hypocrisy to all men, and forces on them a necessity to be other men than they care to be for the present, they are therefore eager in hating the gospel. There are threatenings enough against those who are violent against the gospel. They are violent in vain, for they “kick against the pricks” (Acts 9:5); they run against a stone wall, and they will dash themselves against it. Those who have ill will toward Zion shall perish. There is one who sits in heaven and laughs all their attempts to scorn (Ps 2:4).

A Christian has comfort in his endeavors. There is hope of good success, though there is opposition both inward and outward. He shall prevail. Those who are enemies have nothing but discouragement. They shall be “as grass on the housetop” (Ps 129:6 and following), which no man blesses, and they are cursed by everyone. No one bestows a good word on them. It is a fruitless endeavor. They are under a curse.

(2) Again, it shows us how to judge of the courses of other men, who are violent in other courses, about the world. A Christian takes his kingdom at last and enjoys it forever. But those who are violent for the world, after pleasures, after things baser than themselves, alas! When they have it, they have only a shadow, and they become shadows in embracing it. Vanity embraces vanity, and how soon they are stripped of everything! If a man scrapes together a great estate by violence, he must soon leave it. Here he found it, and here he must leave it before long, in spite of his heart. And “all is but vanity” in the judgment of him who knew all things best of any man, even Solomon, who had gone through the whole variety of things.

And they often miss what they labor for; “they do not roast that they get in hunting” (Prov 12:27). They hunt after preferment and after riches, but often they do not enjoy them. And if they do, they get the curse of God with them, and before long they are stripped of everything. But here is something that may strengthen our endeavors. “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it.” It is not an endeavor that is lost.

(3) Then again, this shows that the state of true Christians is different from the state of persons who are carried toward good things, but not violently. “The violent take it.” The violent man takes the city by surprise at last. He lays his siege and will not withdraw until death. He will not give up until he has it. He will have it or die in the attempt, and so at last he obtains his desire.

The sluggish, careless man goes a little way. As Agrippa said to Paul, he was almost persuaded to be a Christian (Acts 26:28); so it is with such men. In some things they will be Christians, but there they come to a stand. They will go no farther. “The sluggard desireth and wisheth, but his soul hath nothing” (Prov 13:4). A sluggish, cold, lazy Christian loses all his pains. If a man has ten miles to go, and goes only nine and sits down there, he will never come to his journey’s end. If a man will give only seven or eight shillings for what is worth ten, he will go without it.

Grace and glory are set at this price. Such strength of labor and endeavor and violence is required. Therefore without this a man will never attain it, unless he stretches himself to such a pitch. He will never come to “the end of his faith, to the salvation of his soul” (1 Pet 1:9), to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:14). “The sluggard wisheth and gets nothing.” The reason is that he is a sluggard, that he will not strive. But the striver gets the fort, and has all that is in it, and is a man made forever.

The sluggard thinks himself wiser than many men that can give a reason (Prov 26:16). The sluggish, prudent Christian, I assure you, has reasons for what he does! “It is not good to be too earnest! It will incur the disfavor of this man or that man! I will be called this or that for my pains!” But a wise man sees the excellence of the things, and he knows that his courses and his conscience will justify him at the last, and therefore he goes on, whatever comes of it.

God is not so weary of these precious things, these precious jewels of grace and glory, as to force them on us. Is “the kingdom of heaven” such a slight thing that it should be pressed on us whether we will or not? Shall we think to have it when our hearts tell us we esteem other things more? No. No one ever comes to heaven unless his heart has been brought to such an admiration of grace and glory that he values all things below it. Therefore there is no hope of anyone obtaining it except the one who takes it by violence.

We see that Moses esteemed the basest thing in the church above the greatest excellencies in the world, which men are so violent after. He esteemed the very afflictions of God’s people above the treasures and pleasures of sin for a season, indeed, above the pleasures of a court (Heb 11:25). When men esteem the base things of the world above all the treasures of heaven, above the state of Christianity, they have no hope of coming there. They may plead, “God is merciful, and Christ died.” Yes, but whomever he brings to salvation, he works in them such a sense of misery, and such an apprehension of grace and of the means of grace, that all other things are valued below it.

God will not bring to heaven those who will not glorify him when they come there. And how will they glorify him here or there when they value the world, and these base things that they must leave behind them, more than the things of heaven? This is the reason that few are saved: they content themselves with easy, dull, and drowsy performances, and never consider in what proportion they are carried toward things. When they would rather lose the advantage of what will bring everlasting good to their souls than lose the petty commodities of this world, and yet think themselves good Christians, what a delusion this is! It is the violent only who are successful; “they take it by force.”

Objection. “Yes, but what if the opposition grows more and more?”

Answer. Then the grace of God and courage will grow and increase more and more. As Luther said well, “The more violent the adversaries were, the more free and bold was he.” So the more the enemies rage, the more the Spirit of grace grows in God’s people. It increases by opposition. Noah’s ark is an example: the higher the waters were, the nearer to heaven it was still carried. So we are nearer to God, and nearer to the “kingdom of heaven,” the more opposition swells and rages. True courage grows with opposition.

As the palm tree rises up against the burden that presses it down, so it is with the divine Spirit. It is a heavenly thing, and all the opposition below, from the devil and devilish-minded men, is only earthly. What are they to the divine Spirit, who sets us on and encourages us? They cannot quell it, but the Spirit grows more and more in opposition. The apostles all ran from Christ when he was to be crucified. They had only a small measure of the Spirit. But when the Holy Spirit was shed on them more plentifully, they began to stand courageously for the cause of Christ. When there was more opposition, the Spirit grew more and more, until they sealed the truth with their blood.

Therefore, though the opposition of enemies and their fury and rage grow, let us know whose cause we are managing, and with what assurance of success. The violent at length “shall take it by force.” Let us meditate on this, that success is tied to violence. Therefore when you pray to God, if he seems to deny your request, offer violence, wrestle with him, do not let him go without a blessing. When he seems to be an enemy, as he sometimes does in order to try our strength, we must use a holy violence. When we are dull and unfit to pray, and unfit for holy things, let us stir up the Spirit of God in us and labor to get out of that condition. Let us use violence, and violence will overcome at last.

A man who has the Spirit of God gets the victory over whatever opposes him. If snares are offered by the world, he withstands them. If Satan comes with his temptations, he resists him. He has a promise for it: “Resist the devil, and he will flee” (Jas 4:7). Let us hold out, and we will get the victory, and overcome even God himself. How much more all other things! Therefore when either opposition without or indisposition within sets upon us in the course of religion and piety, let us think, “Here and now is the time and place for violence. I know that if I set myself to it, I will have the victory and the crown.”

A Christian is always in a hopeful state and condition. He has something to encourage him, he has arguments to prevail over the state of opposition. He knows he will win all at last if he goes on, and that makes him courageous in whatever condition he is. Let us not be discouraged to hear of opposition. And let us be encouraged when we hear of good things, when we hear that the kingdom of heaven and grace is offered in the preaching of the gospel. Let us attend upon the posts of Wisdom’s doors (Prov 8:34), and not give up until we come to peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom 14:17). If we hear of comfort in the word of God against distress of conscience, let us never give up until we find it. If we hear that God is a God hearing prayer, let us never leave off knocking at heaven’s gate, never leave off wrestling, until our prayers are heard. When we hear what evil is to be avoided, and what good is offered, let us not cease until we avoid the one and obtain the other. “The violent take it by force.”

The last point is the date from which this kingdom of heaven suffers violence: “From the days of John Baptist until now.”

Question. Was there not a kingdom of heaven that suffered violence before John the Baptist’s time? Did the kingdom of God begin then? Was Christ a king, and was heaven opened, only then?

Answer. I answer, no. But now the things of God were more gloriously revealed. Therefore it is said, “henceforth you shall see heaven opened” (John 1:51). The kingdom of heaven was opened now by the preaching of the gospel more gloriously than before. Therefore the state of the gospel is called the “kingdom of heaven,” partly in regard of the times before and partly in regard of the times after.

The law was full of servile bondage to ceremonies. It was a heavy, dark state. They were laden with a multitude of ceremonies, which were only cold things to the spirit of a man who desires peace. Though they were ceremonies of God’s appointing, yet they were only outward, empty things in comparison: “weak and beggarly elements,” as the apostle says (Gal 4:9). They were costly and painful and cold things, which did not have the efficacy of spirit in them.

And second, it was then settled on the Jews only. Now, since Christ’s time, it is enlarged; and being larger and freer, this blessed estate is called “a kingdom.” John the Baptist now opened Christ clearly, and a better state than the church had yet enjoyed. When people saw an end of the ceremonies and the beginning of the glorious liberty in Christ, this made them set upon these things violently.

Again, John the Baptist made way for Christ, leveling the souls of men by his powerful preaching and his holy life. He taught them how greatly they stood in need of Christ. He was the messenger sent before Christ for that end. He was as the morning star to the sun. He was powerful in his preaching and holy in his life. He told every man his own faults. He told the Pharisees that they were a “generation of vipers.” He showed men their state by nature and told them of a better state, that “the kingdom of heaven was at hand” (Matt 3:2). And although he worked no miracles, yet he himself was a miracle. To teach such holy doctrine, and to live an austere, holy life in those evil days, was no less than a miracle. Therefore this violence to the kingdom of heaven has its date from John the Baptist’s time: from his preaching, not from his birth. Since he was so excellent a preacher, it is no wonder there should be violence.

This shows the reason the gospel in later times was embraced so greedily when Luther began to preach. Alas, people had been in a worse condition than the Jews in respect of ceremonies. Besides, foolish, idle men will set God to school; they will always have some follies that they will make as much of as of the worship of God. And so it had been in the times before Luther. In St. Augustine’s time he was pestered with many vain ceremonies; and, good man, he yielded to the stream and custom in many things, though he could hardly endure the slavery of those things. Now when the times grew better, it is no wonder the world embraced the gospel with violence, as in Luther’s time, when a freedom was proclaimed from those beggarly rudiments and traditions.

Antichrist had hampered the consciences of men with an intolerable mass of foolish, groundless ceremonies, making them equal with the word of God, as we see in the Council of Trent. And this vexed the consciences of people like scorpions, as in Revelation 9:5. They oppressed the people with a multitude of weights and burdens, and when people could not assent to them, it stung their consciences. No wonder, then, if people thronged after Luther when he opened the doctrine of free justification by faith, that the consciences of men were not to be hampered with these things. He taught that God’s people were to have only a few ceremonies for present order. But as for the rest, troubling men’s consciences and making them of equal value with the word of God, he showed that it was an abominable doctrine, and wrote against it learnedly and sweetly. And therefore it is no marvel that the truths he taught were soon and cheerfully embraced by multitudes.

And the reason the gospel now begins to be so little embraced and esteemed is that, because of its long continuance, we are weary of this heavenly manna. So it was with the people in St. John the Baptist’s time. As eager as they were after John’s preaching, it was only for a time that they rejoiced in his light. They grew weary of him. We never felt the burden of those Romish ceremonies, and therefore we now grow weary of our liberty. But in the beginning of Luther’s time, because they were eased from many beggarly and, what is worse, tyrannical ceremonies of Rome, they embraced the truth with much joy and eagerness when it came to be preached among them.

Therefore we are to praise God for the liberty of the church at this time, that we have the word of God to rule our consciences, and that other matters are not pressed on us except as matters of decency and order. Alas, if we were in bondage to those proud popish wretches, our consciences would be enthralled to a world of snares.

Last of all, “From the days of the Baptist,” and so forward, “the kingdom of heaven did suffer violence,” because from that time forward the Spirit began to be more plentifully given. Christ comes with his Spirit, who is the soul of our soul and the life of our life. The Spirit is like a “mighty wind” that moves the ship in the water. The ship is becalmed. It cannot move unless there is a wind. So the soul cannot move toward what is good without the Spirit. Now there is more abundance of the Spirit since the coming of Christ. Christ, who is the king of his church, the Lord of heaven and earth, reserved the abundance of the Spirit until his own coming, and especially until he entered into heaven. Then the Spirit came in abundance. It was poured upon all flesh (Joel 2:28). Before, it was only, as it were, dropped, but then it was “poured out.” Then the Gentiles came in, and the apostles received the Spirit in abundance. Therefore it is no wonder that violence was offered to the kingdom of heaven. From this, then, we may observe:

That the more clearly Christ and the blessed mysteries of Christ are opened, the more effectual the Spirit is, and the more heavenly men are, and more eagerly disposed to spiritual things.

(1) The reason and ground of it is in nature. The affections follow the disclosure of the excellence of things. So first, the necessity of being in Christ is laid open: that there are only two kingdoms, the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the devil, and that a man must either enter into the kingdom of Christ or remain in the devil’s kingdom still.

(2) And then, together with the necessity, the excellence of Christ’s kingdom is disclosed: that it is a state that will make us all kings, a state in which we will at length overcome all opposition of hell, sin, death, and the wrath of God; that whereas earthly kingdoms are opposed and enthralled, and dash one against another, the kingdom of heaven is a state that subdues all that is against it little by little. As Christ overcame death and the wrath of his Father, and now rules in heaven in his person, so all his members will overcome all in time. When the excellence of this kingdom is laid open to the understandings of men, is it a wonder that their affections are set on fire? Will anything do it more than such a kingdom?

(3) Then, in the third place, when it is hopeful too; when, together with its necessity and excellence, assurance is given us that we will obtain it if we strive for it; when it is offered freely, even grace and glory, and we are entreated to receive grace: “Come unto me, ye that are weary …” (Matt 11:28). Indeed, we are threatened if we do not come. And we have the example of the worst sort of people: of Zacchaeus, and the poor woman out of whom the devils were cast; of Peter, who denied Christ; of Paul, who persecuted him; such as had been wretched persons, who have come out of Satan’s kingdom. When these things are set forth, and understood, and grasped, men who are in their right minds, who are not besotted by the devil, who are not in love with damnation and do not hate their own souls, will embrace them.

When they see a state disclosed in Christ in which they are above angels, in some sort, and above death and hell; in which they triumph over all in Christ, because it is as sure that they will be crowned conquerors with Christ in heaven as if they were there already; when it is set forth so hopefully, who would not offer violence to this kingdom? When John the Baptist laid it open to them so clearly, “This is the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29), it made them offer violence to it.

And this is another reason why in the latter, the second spring of the gospel (for there was a winter in the time of popery, it being a kingdom of darkness, keeping people in ignorance), so many nations so suddenly embraced the truth. Luther was a man wondrously exercised and afflicted in conscience. This made him relish the doctrine of justification by grace in Christ, and thereupon lay open the mysteries of Christ and the bondage of popery. And once this was afoot, the people’s minds being prepared by the sense of their former bondage, whole kingdoms came in immediately. As in the springtime, when a fine sunshine day comes, the prisoners are let loose out of the earth after a cold winter, so after the winter of affliction and persecution, inward and outward, came the sunshine of the gospel, and made all come forth and flourish immediately.

Wherever Christ is taught powerfully and plainly, and the excellence and necessity of the state we have by him, and that men may partake of it if they are not false to their own souls, there violence is always offered to these things. For where the riches of Christ are opened, the Spirit goes with it, and goes with violence, so that it carries all before it.

Hence, again, we may see that popish spirits are shrewd in opposing the unfolding of the gospel in the ministry, especially where there is conscience and skill to unfold Christ plainly. They know that when Christ is opened, all their follies and inventions will grow base. The more Christ is unfolded, the more people will grow in hatred of antichrist. The more they see the light, the more they will hate darkness. For this reason they oppose the unfolding of the gospel to the understanding of the people; they would keep people in ignorance so that they may make them dote on them. To be in a bitter temper against the unfolding of the gospel of Christ shows a dangerous disposition, one that will never taste of the good things of God. For we see here that the disclosure of it makes it wondrously effectual. When John the Baptist laid open Christ more clearly than he had been disclosed before, “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence.”

Here we are instructed what way we should take if we would bring ourselves or others into a temper fit for heaven, to an earnest temper after holy things: not to begin with dead outward actions, but to begin as befits the condition of reasonable men, as God deals with man, in keeping with the nature of man. Begin with the understanding. Let us meditate seriously on the truth of Christ’s coming in the flesh, on the end of his coming, “to dissolve the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8), to bring us out of the state of nature to a better condition. Meditate on the excellence of the state of grace, on the eternity and excellence of the state of glory. Let us warm our hearts with these things. When a man once has these things and believes them, let him be cold and dull if he can.

And so, if we would gain others to a fit disposition for heaven, let us labor to instruct them what their state by nature is; what kingdom they are born in; that they are liable to hell and damnation; that they are under the possession of the “strong man,” the devil, if the stronger man does not bring them out and dispossess him. And let them know as well the infinite love and mercy of God in Christ, offering a better state, giving the gospel and promising his Spirit with his truth. And if they belong to God, this will work on them, or else nothing will.

Other courses, such as punishing men in their purse, or imprisoning them, or the like, may subdue them to outward conformity. But if we would bring their souls to heaven, let us endeavor to enlighten their understandings, so that they see the danger they are in and the riches of grace and salvation offered in Christ, and this will “compel them to come in” (Luke 14:23). There will be no need of any other compulsion, no more than there can be need to bid a man escape who sees wild beasts about him, or to bid a guilty person flee to the city of refuge and take hold of the horns of the altar.

Let John the Baptist come before Christ to make way for him, and immediately “the kingdom of heaven suffers violence.” And after Christ’s time, when the Spirit was more abundantly given and the gospel more clearly opened, the world stooped to the gospel. The gospel at length overcame the proud scepter of the Roman empire. They laid their crowns down before Christ’s gospel. The cross of Christ got above the crown in the preaching of the gospel, it was so powerful. Thus, if we would have the number of heaven enlarged, let us desire that God’s truth may be opened plainly and powerfully. John the Baptist was a plain and powerful preacher, a man of holy life. They all reverenced John as a holy man. Because of this his doctrine came to be so effectual.

This is the way by which God will do good to those he delights in. As for others, bitter atheists whom God has appointed to damnation, the gospel hardens them and makes them worse. The Pharisees were the worse for the preaching of Christ. When the gospel is preached, some are made worse by it, and malign it and persecute it as far as they dare. As the apostle says, God is glorified in the damnation of such bitter opposers (Rom 3:8). We are not to expect to gain everyone by preaching. Those who withstand it are sent by it with the more just damnation to hell, but those who do belong to him are gained in this way.

Let us labor, therefore, for a clear manifestation of Christ. In Christ is the treasure of all goodness, whatever is necessary to bring us to heaven. And the more he is disclosed and applied, the more we are enriched with grace and comfort. Times of change may come. And if times of opposition and persecution do not come, yet temptations will come, and the hour of death will come, when we will have occasion to use all the strength and comfort we have. And the more dangerous the times are, the more sound and clear knowledge of Christ we should labor for, and that will breed this holy violence, which shall break through all oppositions whatsoever.

Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but for the meat that endureth to everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give you: for him hath God the Father sealed (John 6:27).

Our blessed Savior was mighty in word and deed. Witness what he did and what he taught, and both in this chapter.

What he did. He fed many with a few loaves. He came over the water without any help.

What he taught. Witness this part of the chapter through to the end.

The words are part of an answer of our blessed Savior to his hypocritical followers, who followed him for the loaves, and not for any confirmation of their faith by his miracles. For upon occasion of those two miracles, mentioned in the former part of the chapter, they followed him; and perceiving that he had come miraculously over the water, they began to ask him, “Rabbi, how camest thou here?” (John 6:25). Our Savior perceives that they meant only to exchange courtesies with him. He sees with what hearts they came after him. Therefore, as best suited the urgent need of their condition, because they were hypocrites, he answers not their question but their persons: “Verily, verily, ye seek me, not because of the miracles, but because ye ate of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat that perisheth …” (John 6:26-27).

The verses together contain a conviction, and an injunction or direction.

A conviction, and that is serious and loving. Serious: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me, not because of the miracles, but because ye ate of the loaves …” He convicts them of their fault, of their hypocrisy, of their wicked and carnal aims in holy business. They come flattering Christ; but as he was too holy to flatter, so he was too wise to be flattered. He deals directly with them, therefore, and thoroughly convicts them of their hypocrisy and corrupt aims in following after him. We are all naturally prone to these carnal ends in holy actions. We must take heed with what minds, with what hearts, we come before God, whose eyes are brighter than the sun, and who regards not so much what we do as with what minds we do it.

As his conviction is serious, so it is loving; for with the conviction or reproof follows the injunction or direction: “Labour not for the meat that perisheth.”

In the injunction there are two things.

First, he shows them what they should not follow. He draws them away from laboring after “the meat that perisheth.”

And then, secondly, he instructs them in what they should follow, what they should seek after: “but labour for the meat that endureth to everlasting life …”

There are arguments in both. In the first there is a dissuasive argument, and it is unfolded: “Labour not for the meat that perisheth,” because it is food that perishes.

In the second there are persuasive arguments, enforcing the duty, and they are three: the necessity, the excellence, and the possibility of attaining it.

The necessity. It is “meat”; and what is so necessary as food?

The excellence; and that is set forth first by its continuance. It is “meat that endures.” Secondly, it is set forth by its fruit or effect. It is “meat that endures to everlasting life.” It is food to life, and it is food that tends to an everlasting, to a glorious life.

The possibility of attaining it. “The Son of man shall give it you: for him hath the Father sealed.”

There are three things that must come together to make a thing attainable and to be had: a willingness in the giver; power and strength to give it; and then authority with that power.

Here are all these. Here is will to bestow it. He will give it. What is freer than a gift? The Son of God became the Son of man on purpose to give it. He will give it, and he will give it freely.

Here is power and strength to give it; for he is the Son of God as well as the Son of man.

And then here is authority joined with that power, for “the Father hath sealed him.” The Father who created heaven and earth, who has all power in his hands, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, “he hath sealed him.” He has given him full commission to be the Savior of all who trust in him. Christ did not come without authority from God the Father. He came out with God’s broad seal as his commission.

So you see the arguments, both dissuasive, “Labour not for the meat that perisheth,” and persuasive, “but for the meat that endureth to everlasting life.” I shall only touch on the former, and shall principally insist upon the latter branch.

To speak a little by way of explaining the words: what is meant here by the “meat that perisheth”?

We must enlarge the sense according to our Savior’s meaning. By “the meat that perisheth” he does not intend only outward food. All outward things whatsoever are the “meat that perisheth.” All earthly and outward things are the food that the soul of a natural man feeds upon. The soul of a covetous man feeds upon his money, applauding himself that he is worth so much and so much. The ambitious man, chameleon-like, feeds upon the air, upon the airy applause of the people. The sensual man feeds upon base and sensual pleasures. In a word, all carnal men, natural men, are condemned to that sentence of the serpent, “to eat dust” (Gen 3:14), to feed upon outward, earthly, perishing things. So everything that is not grace and glory, or the means that lead to it, is a perishing thing.

Indeed, to raise it a little higher, learning and knowledge, if they are only of perishing things, are food that perishes; for as the frame of nature and the civil frame of the world must have an end and perish, so the knowledge of natural and civil things must necessarily be perishing also.

And to say no more, the very knowledge of religious things, the speculative and contemplative knowledge, if we have only the knowledge of the things in us, and are not turned into the things we know, is a perishing thing. The truths of God indeed are the food of the soul. But unless the goodness of those truths is the food of the will and affections, unless we are molded and fashioned into the very form of those truths, unless we are framed to a love and liking of what we know, so that those truths are rooted and planted in us, it is “food that perisheth.”

In a religious discourse, in preaching, all your ornaments, besides what quickens and strengthens the soul to holy duties, are “food that perisheth.” And your hearing, if it is only to hear clever sayings and turns of speech, without regard to the truth itself, is “food that perisheth.” Thus you see what a great breadth this food that perishes has in Christ’s meaning.

Now our blessed Savior draws them away from laboring for this by a strong argument. Would you have a greater argument? “It is food that perisheth.” We do not regard the luster of things, but their continuance. Why do we esteem crystal more than glass? Because it continues. Flowers have a lovely gloss, but we regard them little, because they are fresh in the morning and cast away at evening. And so it is with all excellencies, unless it is grace or glory. All flesh is grass, and the most excellent things of nature, wit and honor and learning and all, though they are not so common as grass, yet are as “the flower of the grass”; they are all fading and withering; but “the word of God endureth for ever” (1 Pet 1:24-25). That is, the grace and comfort that we get by the blessed truths of God, “that endures for ever,” and it makes us endure for ever.

But all other things are food that perishes, and we perish in the use of them. “The world passeth away, and the concupiscence of it” (1 John 2:17). The world, the things lusted after, perish; and in lusting after the world, the lust perishes, and we perish too in the pursuit of them. Indeed, what is worse, the immoderate seeking after these things destroys us: we eternally perish. For by placing our affections on earthly things we turn earthly. Therefore in divinity we take our name from our affections. We are called good or ill, not from our knowledge, but from our affections. The devil knows good, but he is not good. It is loving, and joying, and delighting in good or ill that makes us good or ill. We have our form and being in religion from our affections.

Now our affections are ordained to close with better things, which shall make us happy in another world. By seeking after earthly things and planting our affections on them, we become like the things, earthly; by placing them on the world, we become the world, we become earthly. Therefore these things are not only perishing in themselves, but we perish in the pursuit of them.

It is a strong argument that is used here. All earthly things are “food that perisheth.” For, alas! he who is rich today may be poor tomorrow. He may be as rich as Job in the morning, and as poor as Job at night. He may stand in credit now with Haman, and be in discredit before long. He may be in health now, and sick before long. We do not need Scripture for this. Experience reads us this lecture enough. But we are so desperately set on earthly things that neither faith nor experience, nor the strength of discourse, nor reason, is sufficient to draw us away, till God by his Spirit convinces us thoroughly of this. Therefore Moses prays that God would teach them to number their days (Ps 90:12). So, though the discovery that these earthly things are perishing things is a sufficient argument to enforce a dissuasion, yet we cannot loosen our affections from them, nor know their uncertainty, till God teaches us.

To make some use of this in a word, and so to go on to what I more intend. If all things here below are grass, and as the flower of the grass, perishing and fading things, why then we should take heed that we do not redeem any perishing thing with the loss of what does not perish, with the loss of this soul of ours, which is an eternal spiritual substance, breathed in by God in the creation, and redeemed by Christ; which is capable of immortality, capable of happiness, capable of the blessed impression of the image of God. “What if one should gain the whole world,” says Christ, who knows the price of a soul best, “and should lose his own soul!” (Matt 16:26).

It is a sufficient argument even to a man who is led only by the strength of natural reason, not to labor for what will perish when he has a soul that will not perish. To labor after a thing as his main, chief good, when it is of shorter continuance than himself, is the extremity of folly. Therefore no carnal man who seeks after these perishing things can ever be a wise man, because he has an end inferior to himself. He may be wise for particular ends, to be rich, to have great places, to get his pleasure. This is to be wise for particular ends. But he cannot be wise for the chief, and last, and best end, for his soul, for eternity. He who labors for the “food that perisheth” cannot direct his course that way.

And again, we should not hesitate to neglect any earthly thing, to gain advantage for our souls, because earthly things are perishing things. We should force ourselves to contentment in the loss of earthly things for the gain of spiritual. The loss of things perishing is an easy matter. We lose things that will perish whether we lose them or not. All earthly things perish either in our time or after us. We should not, therefore, be overeager in getting these earthly things. Let us leave things that perish to men that perish. You see, therefore, how strong a reason our Savior Christ alleges here: “Labour not for the meat that perisheth,” because it perishes.

And learn here from our blessed Savior a point of heavenly wisdom. You see that when he would draw us away and dissuade us from the pursuit of earthly things, he takes an argument from their nature. They are perishing things. And therefore, when we look upon the outward luster of earthly things, we should at the same time consider their perishing nature. When we are tempted to too much delight in the creature, we should present to ourselves the perishing and fading nature of outward things.

When we are tempted to sin, either to commit it or to leave what is good, for anything outward, we should consider: What am I doing now? I am staining my soul, I am cracking my conscience, I am contracting guilt and grounds of terror for the time to come, for what is perishing. It is always good to have the nature of earthly things present to our souls and to our imaginations, so that they may be as present as the temptation that Satan urges from them and forces upon the soul. It is good always to remember that they are perishing things, and that as they are perishing in themselves, so they will destroy us, will cause us to perish in the pursuit of them. But my meaning is not to dwell long upon this.

“Labour not for the meat that perisheth.”

What! Does Christ mean that we should not labor at all for earthly things? Does he read a lecture of bad husbandry, and thriftlessness, and negligence?

No. He does as we do. When we would set a crooked thing straight, we bend it as much the contrary way. Our Savior saw that they were desperately addicted to earthly things, that they followed him for their bellies, sought him for the loaves; therefore he bends the stick the contrary way: “Labour not for the meat that perisheth.” That is, labor not for it in comparison with better things; labor not so inordinately, so immoderately; labor not so unseasonably.

It is said of the Israelites that they brought Egypt into the wilderness, because they brought the love of the garlic and onions of Egypt with them (Num 11:5). We have many who come to the church, to these holy exercises, to this holy place, but they bring the world with them. They come with carnal affections. Labor not so unseasonably. It should be our heavenly wisdom to lay aside importunate earthly thoughts of earthly things, to drive them away, as Abraham did the birds from the sacrifice (Gen 15:11). We should leave them as he did the beasts and his servants, at the bottom of the mount, when he went up to sacrifice to God (Gen 22:5). Thus, labor not; labor not immoderately; labor not inordinately; labor not unseasonably.

But how shall we know when our labor after earthly things is immoderate, unseasonable, and inordinate?

I answer, in a word: when they either hinder us from holy things or hinder us in them; when they keep us from holy duties, as from the sanctifying of the Lord’s day or from any other service of God; or when they hinder us in them, when they fill us full of distractions, when they turn the soul from the business in hand, and so on. Thus, when they either hinder us from better things or hinder us in them, we may know we are offending against this dissuasion of Christ: “Labour not for the meat that perisheth.”

But why does our Savior begin first with his dissuasion, “Labour not for the meat that perisheth,” and then enjoin what they should seek after, but “for the meat that endureth to everlasting life”?

Because he saw that their souls were corrupted, and desperately set upon seeking after earthly things; and when the soul is given over to anything, there must first be a removal of that. So in ground, the thorns must first be rooted out before there is any sowing of seed; and in bodily disorders, there must first be a purging of the malignant humor before any cordials are given. So Christ first draws them away from an immoderate and inordinate seeking after the world and earthly things, and then he directs them what they should do, what they should seek after: seek the food that endures to everlasting life.

Here is the prerogative of Christianity. A heathen man, out of the strength of moral discourse and outward experience, can teach the negative part, can tell you that all earthly things are vain and perishing. A Stoic will declaim cleverly and gravely upon these things from moral principles and daily experience: that these earthly things are of themselves all vain and fading, and that it is only our opinion of them that bewitches us to them, that this alone renders them green and fresh to us. But now for the affirmative part, what we should seek after: here paganism is blind. That is to be learned only in the church of Christ. It is proper to Christianity to direct us here, as I shall show you better when I come to speak of the duty enjoined, which is what I especially aim at.

But before I come to enforce the act or duty to which our Savior here exhorts, I must unfold the object of that act: what is meant here by the “meat that endures to everlasting life.”

The “meat that endures to everlasting life” is our blessed Savior Christ Jesus, as he is contained and wrapped up in the means of salvation, with all the blessed liberties, privileges, and prerogatives, graces, and comforts that we have by him and in him. For our blessed Savior never goes alone. He is never embraced naked; but with him go his graces, comforts, prerogatives, and liberties. We do not have him now as we shall see him “face to face” (1 Cor 13:12) hereafter in heaven; but he is to be considered as wrapped up in the word and sacraments. So Christ is the food that lasts to everlasting life. And we must take it in this breadth, or else we mistake and narrow the Holy Spirit.

But why is our blessed Savior so considered, and why are the comforts, and prerogatives, and good things we have by him termed food?

In various respects. To give a few instances. But first you must know that as the soul has a life as well as the body, so it has a taste as well as the body. God, lest the body should pine away, has planted in it an appetite, which is the body’s longing after what refreshes it (for if it were not for appetite, if it were not for hunger and thirst, who would care for food and drink?). So God has planted in the soul, lest it should pine away, a spiritual appetite, an earnest longing and desiring after what is the most necessary good of the soul. For the soul has what the body has, taste and smell and the like, though in a more sublime and divine sense, yet as really and truly, as we shall see afterward.

Now our blessed Savior is this spiritual food of the soul. He is the bread of life that came down from heaven; he is the true manna; he is the true tree of life in paradise, in the church of God, the true paradise. He is the true showbread; he is the true Lamb of God.

He, considered with all the blessed prerogatives, and privileges, and comforts we have by him, is called meat or food in various respects.

First, whatever sweetness, or comfort, or strength there is in food, it is for the comfort, and strength, and good of the body; so whatever is comforting and cherishing in Christ, as indeed all comfort and cherishing is in him, it is for our good. To us he is given, for us he was born: “To us a child is born, to us a Son is given” (Isa 9:6). All is for us, for us men, for us sinners. There is nothing in his natures, nothing in his state and condition, both of abasement and exaltation, nothing in his offices, but it is all for our good.

Consider him in his human nature, and join with his nature his abasement: that he was man, that he took our nature upon him, that he was abased in it, that he humbled himself to death, even to the death of the cross, to be a sacrifice for our sins. How the soul feeds on this, on the wonderful love of God in giving Christ to be incarnate, and then to die for us! How the soul feeds upon the death of Christ, because by that God’s wrath is appeased, and he is reconciled! “Where the dead body is, there the eagles resort” (Matt 24:28). So the soul preys and feeds upon the dead body of Christ. Christ crucified is the special food of the soul.

Consider him in his exaltation, in his glorious resurrection and ascension into heaven. How the soul feeds upon that! Christ our surety has risen again. Therefore our debt is discharged, the justice of God is satisfied to the full. So too with his ascension. When the soul is basely minded on earthly things, it ascends to Christ, who is taken up to heaven for us.

So with his sitting at the right hand of God. The soul feeds on that, because he sits there until he has triumphed over all his enemies, until he has trodden them all under foot.

Consider him in his offices. In ignorance the soul feeds on him as a prophet to instruct it. In the sense of wrath and anger, the soul feeds on him as a priest to make peace and reconciliation. In want of righteousness, the soul feeds on his righteousness: he is our righteousness. In the sense of corruption, the soul feeds on him as a king, who by his Spirit will before long work out all corruption; and as he will tread down all our enemies without, so he will tread down all corruption within. He will never leave the soul until he has made it a glorious house, fit for himself.

So too with the prerogatives we have by him: the soul feeds on them. It feeds on his redemption, knowing that by his redemption we are freed from our enemies and all who hate us, and all that we feared; that we are set at liberty from the law, from sin and from death; and that, notwithstanding all the debasements of this world, we are the sons of God and heirs of heaven.

In a word, whatever is in Christ is for our good. He is all mine; his life is mine; his death is mine; his resurrection is mine; his ascension is mine; all is mine. He is expended and laid open for my good. That is the first.

Again, as in the bodily life there is a stomach, a power to work out of the food what is for strength and nourishment, so in the soul there is faith, the spiritual mouth and stomach of the soul, to work and draw out of Christ whatever is for its comfort and nourishment. As there is comfort in Christ, so the Spirit of God gives a man a hand, a mouth, as it were; he gives a man faith to work out of Christ something for comfort. What would food be if there were no stomach to digest it, to make it a man’s own? So what would Christ be if we had no faith to lay hold on him?

Third, as our life is nourished and maintained with what is dead, with dead things, so the chief dish that maintains and nourishes the life of the soul, as I said before, is “Christ crucified.” “God forbid,” says the apostle, “that I should rejoice in anything but in Christ crucified” (Gal 6:14). When the soul of a poor sinner is pursued with accusations from Satan and from his own conscience, when they take part with God against him, where does it run? To the city of refuge. It runs to Christ, to Christ crucified. There the soul flies when it is pursued with the guilt of sin, “to the horns of the altar,” as Joab did when he was pursued, but with better success than his, for he was pulled from there (1 Kgs 2:28). But the soul that flies to Christ crucified, to the death of Christ, to Christ abased, to his satisfying the wrath of God by his death and making us friends with God, there it holds; there it lives; and there it will continue forever. This keeps the soul alive.

And then again, as with food, before it can nourish us, there must be a union, an assimilation, a turning of it into us, so Christ, unless he is made one with us by faith, unless there is a union between him and us, can never nourish and comfort us savingly.

Again, as we eat often, and after we have received food once we still eat again every day, because there is a decay of strength (and there are always new tasks, new occasions that require new strength), and therefore there is need of a continual repairing of our strength by food, even so there is a perpetual urgency, a continual need in the soul to feed upon Christ, upon the promises of Christ and the prerogatives we have by Christ. For every day we have fresh impediments, fresh assaults, and therefore we need to fetch fresh supplies and refreshment from Christ, to have food from Christ every day, to live on Christ not only at the first but continually. As our corruptions and temptations and infirmities return every day, so every day we are to feed on Christ for the repairing of our spiritual strength.

We are especially to make daily use of the death of Christ. For however transient the death of Christ may be with respect to the act itself, as one of the ancients says, yet its fruit remains for our daily comfort and refreshment. His blood runs every day in the church afresh, like a fountain always poured out, for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in (Zech 13:1). It always runs; that is, with regard to God’s imputation, with regard to the fruit that comes to the soul. And therefore we should make daily use of it for the comfort and strength of our souls on all occasions. “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1-2). He is now an intercessor in heaven; he continually applies the fruit of his death now by his intercession in heaven.

Again, as, after food has been received and eaten, there is strength and comfort gained for the affairs of this life, so likewise, after the soul has digested and relished Christ and the benefits and prerogatives that come by him, after we have made the heavenly truths of Christ our own, the soul is strengthened for holy duties. It is fit to do; it is fit to suffer; it is fit to resist temptations; it is fit to perform all the services of Christianity.

In these and various other respects Christ is the blessed meat mentioned here; not himself alone, but considered with all the blessed good things that we have by him. For Christ, as I said before, is never alone. If we have him, we are sons in him; we are heirs in him; we are free in him; we are redeemed in him; we are kings in him; priests in him; prophets in him; we are everything in him. We have with him all the good things that he has; for as we do not have them without him, so we do not have him without them. Those who have the field have the pearl in the field; and those who have the pearl in the field have the field. Those who have Christ have Christ clothed with all his blessed prerogatives and privileges and comforts.

But where does the difference lie between this meat, this food of the soul, and other food?

In these things. First of all, Christ, as he is from heaven, so all the graces and comforts that we have by him are all from heaven, and they carry us to heaven. All the other things are earthly.

Second, no earthly food gives life; it only maintains life where it is. But Christ is such a food as gives life. He is as much life as food: “I am the life” (John 11:25).

Third, the nourishment we have from this outward food we turn into ourselves; but Christ, this spiritual food, turns us into himself, transforms us into his own likeness. For Christ, offered to us in the gospel and digested by faith, by his Spirit changes us every way into his own likeness.

Lastly, all other foods are consumed in the spending, and a time will come when we shall not be able to relish any worldly thing; our mouths will be out of taste with these outward things. But Christ, the food of the soul, is never consumed, but grows more and more; and when we can relish no other, we may relish this food that endures to everlasting life. It always satisfies the soul. All earthly things are like salt water, which increases the appetite but does not satisfy. Only Christ and grace, and the comforts we have by him, satisfy, and that everlastingly. They are like a spring that never dies. As he himself in his own person endures to everlasting life, so all that we have by him is everlasting. Grace is everlasting. Grace ends in glory. Christ always satisfies, though not wholly here, because there must be a continual recourse to him; yet he will satisfy hereafter. “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matt 5:6).

Thus you see what is meant by the “food that endures to everlasting life,” and the reason for the resemblance and the difference between this and other food.

Here then are arguments enough to press us to labor after this food that endures to everlasting life, that is so agreeable to the best part of us, that is able to make us happy; to labor by faith to make these things our own.

Now the labor required is especially to get a stomach for this food. God requires nothing of us when we come to his delicacies except that we bring a good stomach with us. I will therefore speak a little of that, of what we must do to get an appetite for this spiritual food.

A good stomach, we know, is brought on by sharp things. The paschal lamb was to be eaten with sour herbs (Exod 12:8). If we would have an appetite for Christ, let us labor daily to consider what a cursed condition we are in without Christ. God has left the law, as for other purposes, so for this: that we should feed upon its threatenings, that it should drive us to Christ. A legal faith is the way to an evangelical one. Labor therefore to be thoroughly convinced of the need you have of Christ, and then I need not tell you to labor for the food that endures to everlasting life. That will sharpen your appetite for it.

And beg God for illumination to see the ill that is in you, and the ill that belongs to you. God has left infirmities and corruptions in us on purpose for this end, and likewise we have temptations outside us. We carry not only a hell within us, which, if God did not keep it in, would carry us to despair; but there is a hell outside us too: the temptations of Satan, the accusations of the law, the anger and wrath of God. So we should labor to be convinced of our wretched condition without Christ, and of the danger we are in if God should take us from here suddenly. This will force a fresh appetite and stomach in the soul every day to feed on Christ.

Second, if we would sharpen our appetites for this food, we must purge our stomachs, which naturally surfeit on earthly things. Purge the soul by considering the vanity of all other things that draw us from Christ. The reason we have no better relish of Christ and heavenly things is that we cleave so much in our affections to earthly things. We set up idols in our hearts in place of Christ, and we cleave to them with an adulterous and false affection. Let us set before us arguments of the vanity of all things but Christ; and there can be no better argument than the one set down here: they are all perishing things. The things for which the soul neglects Christ and heaven and happiness, and on which it is so madly set, alas, are all base compared with the soul. The whole world is not worth a soul. They are all perishing things, of shorter continuance than the soul. We should purge our souls by considerations such as these.

Then again, third, exercise gives a stomach. Let us every day spend our spiritual strength in spiritual exercises, in resisting temptations, in withstanding the snares of Satan, in bearing those daily crosses that God lays upon us. Live as Christians should live, and the exercise of a Christian life will compel us to go to Christ, to feed on him, to fetch spiritual strength from him. When in our daily exercise we see the continual need we have of pardon for daily sins, of comfort and strength against daily corruptions and infirmities, this will make us feed on Christ and on the promises made in him. We will feed not only on the promise of forgiveness but on the promise of a supply of necessary grace, on that sweet promise that “he will not quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed” (Matt 12:20). We will feed on him as a King to subdue our corruptions, and so on. The daily exercise of a Christian life will force us to Christ.

Again, to whet our appetite for Christ, consider the necessity we have of spiritual strength and comfort. When a man considers that he has a journey to take, he will eat to enable him for his journey; as Elijah was told to rise up and eat, because he had a journey to go (1 Kgs 19:7). We all have to take a journey as far as heaven, and we have to travel through the wilderness of this world; and besides our inward corruptions, we shall be assaulted daily with various temptations. Therefore we need to fetch strength from Christ every day. And consider that sickness will come, and death will surprise us; and if we do not have Christ, we are wretched creatures without him. And though we have applied Christ to ourselves and made him our own, yet a time of desertion, a time of trial, will come. Thus the necessity of spiritual strength will force us to feed upon Christ.

Again, to get us a stomach for these things, let us keep company with those who are spiritual, with those who are heavenly-minded, that have tasted of heavenly things (Heb 6:4). When we see them delight in reading, delight in hearing; when we see them contemplate heaven and heavenly things, Christ and the benefits we have by Christ, the blessed condition of a better life and of the world to come; when we see these persons who are better than ourselves, who have less cause than we, take such pains for their souls, we will be ashamed of our own neglect. And the soul will at once reason with itself: Surely there is some excellent strength and comfort in these things, some extraordinary sweetness and refreshment that these men find, that they fall to them so. It is a great advantage to keep company with those who are spiritual.

And lastly, to put an edge on our dull appetites for this food, consider that we do not know how soon this table that Christ has spread, these dainties that wisdom has provided for us in the ministry of the word, may be taken from us. Therefore, let us fall to while we have them. We should do as those do who, being at a feast and having neglected eating, at the end, when they see everything about to be taken away, fall to afresh. We do not know how long we may enjoy these blessed opportunities. Therefore now, with Joseph, let us lay up against a time of scarcity. A hard winter will come. Therefore, let us imitate the wisdom of that poor creature the ant, to provide against winter (Prov 6:6).

Now, while the jubilee lasts, let us take out a pardon. There is a time of spending to come; now let us get oil in our lamps (Matt 25:4). Now is the seed time; now the waters are stirred in the pool of Bethesda; now is the acceptable time of grace. We do not know how long it shall continue. Therefore, now let us labor for the food “that endureth to everlasting life.”

I never knew anyone to repent of the pains they had taken for their souls; but I have known many who have lamented and bewailed the precious time they have spent, and that they have not been good stewards for their souls. It is one special point of heavenly wisdom to take advantage of our precious time, to fill it up with holy exercises. Let us often put this consideration to our souls: Why was I sent here into this world? What is the purpose for which I live here? Is it to scrape together perishing things, and so to perish with them? Or am I not rather sent here to get out of the state of corruption in which we all are by nature? To get into Christ, to make him my own, to be turned into him, to feed on him, to get joy and comfort and strength from him? Is this not the purpose for which I live here?

But to go on, and to make a use of trial: have we, as we should, relished and tasted Christ? Have we fed on this food or not? How shall we know that?

I answer, we may easily know it. For, first of all, if we have relished Christ and the good things we have by him, we disrelish all other things; we begin to have a lower esteem of all earthly things. It is with the soul as it is with a balance. When Christ is high in the soul, other things are low; and when other things are high, Christ is low in the soul. Christ was high in Paul’s soul; therefore he esteemed all as “dung” in comparison with the excellent knowledge of Christ (Phil 3:8). The poor woman of Samaria, when she had heard Christ and tasted the sweetness that was in him, down goes her water pot, and she runs to the city and tells them, “I have seen a man that hath told me all things; is not this the Messiah?” (John 4:29). Zacchaeus, when he had tasted of grace and had the pardon of his sins by Christ, says, “half my goods I give to the poor” (Luke 19:8). When grace is planted in the soul, when the soul has once tasted better things, there will be a mean and low esteem of earthly things.

The more the soul feeds on heavenly things, the less regard it has for temporal things. The soul is a finite essence, and it cannot spend itself on all things. The more it runs off into separate things, the shallower it is toward others. It is as with a stream: when it is cut into many channels it runs weakly in each one, whereas it runs strongly in the main channel. So it is with the soul. When it is scattered, as the poor Israelites were about the land of Egypt to gather straw, scattered to gather these perishing earthly things, it is weak toward heavenly things; it has little strength for them. But when its whole course is bent toward heavenly things, there are only weak desires, or none, running to these earthly things.

When once the soul of a Christian has had a true taste and relish of the things of heaven, it looks with a despising eye upon whatever is here below. When once it has tasted of Christ, then especially it loses all relish for poison; then away with popery! away with false doctrine! away with hypocrisy and formality in religion!

Second, we may know that we have tasted Christ and fed on him, and on the good things that are by him, when we are strengthened by our feeding; when we are strengthened for duties, strengthened against temptations and against corruptions. You say you believe on Christ and have made him your own; what comfort and strength do you feel by Christ? Are you able to encounter a temptation? Are you able to resist a lust? Are you able to perform holy services? If there is no strength in you, but every temptation turns you over, and you yield to every base lust, where is Christ? Can you believe Christ to be your King, and yet allow your lusts to bear sway in you? Can you believe that Christ is a priest who died for your sins, and yet cherish and love sin? Can you believe that Christ is in heaven, and that you are in heavenly places with Christ, and yet have no mind for heavenly things, but are carried away with every earthly thing? No. You have not yet tasted how good and gracious the Lord is; you have not relished the heavenly manna.

The soul that feeds on Christ is strengthened for duty by spiritual reasons, supernatural grounds and divine principles drawn from Christ, so that it is enabled even with a holy violence to do anything for Christ’s sake. For the soul reasons thus: Christ gave himself to death for me; I will therefore, if need be, give myself to death for him. Christ thought nothing too dear for me; I will think nothing too dear for him. This pride, this vanity that I am tempted to, these were the spears that were the death of my Savior. Thus the soul fetches reasons from the death of Christ to strengthen it against temptations, to strengthen it for duty.

And so it is in the matter of comfort. After food has been received we are refreshed. If the soul is sweetly refreshed with the comforts that are to be had in Christ and in the word of Christ, it is a sign we have tasted Christ. As for those who have trembling and discouraged hearts and souls, who cannot rest nor receive comfort, it is a sign they have not rightly tasted Christ. “Come unto me,” says Christ, “all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and ye shall find rest to your souls” (Matt 11:28-29). In Christ there is rest; out of Christ there is no rest. And so likewise with those who have corruptions bearing sway in them. It is a sign they have not so much as touched Christ, for if they had but touched Christ, he would stop the issue of their corruptions. As soon as the poor woman in the gospel had touched Christ, her bloody issue was stopped; so, upon the least touch of Christ by faith, there will be an abating of corruption.

Third, in the bodily life, we know, after a good meal the desire and appetite is satisfied; so the soul that tastes of Christ has sweet satisfaction and contentment. Oh, the sweet satisfaction that a Christian soul has above a heathen! A Christian who has Christ need not go outside him for anything. The soul has fullness and satisfaction in him in all conditions, both in life and in death. Do you find Christ and the privileges and prerogatives we have by him, do you find the word of Christ and the promises of the word, fully and sufficiently satisfy you? Then it shows that you have fed on Christ; for Christ, being received by faith into the soul, gives it fullness and contentment.

Lastly, to name no more, as men, if they have the grace of God in their hearts, will give thanks for their bodily food, so it is an evidence that we have fed on Christ when our hearts and tongues are enlarged to praise God for Christ, for the comforts and contentment and satisfaction that we find in him and in religion. Therefore St. Paul begins his epistle to the Ephesians with “Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3). And St. Peter, led by the same blessed Spirit, his heart being full, has his mouth full of thanks: “Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again to an inheritance immortal, that fadeth not away, reserved for you in the heavens” (1 Pet 1:3-4), for you who are reserved by faith to salvation. So, undoubtedly, the soul that tastes the sweet comforts of religion in Christ will be much in sweet enlargements of heart in thanksgiving. It cannot be otherwise. It is a universal reason. The more believing a soul is, the more thankful a soul is. Where there is no praise, there is no faith.

Thus you see how we may try whether we have tasted and relished, whether we have fed upon “the food that endures to everlasting life,” or not.

Taste is the most necessary sense of all, says a wise searcher of the mysteries of nature: our life is maintained by taste. Not every creature sees, not every creature hears, but every creature has taste. You may judge yourselves by your taste and relish; and if you have once tasted and relished Christ, all the world cannot persuade you to fall away from him. If everyone should say there was no sweetness in religion, that it would be better to be a worldling, and the like, you would reject it outright; you would never believe it. There is no disputing against what a person tastes. If everyone should say sugar was sharp, if I had once tasted it I would say otherwise.

“Labour for the meat that endures to everlasting life” (John 6:27).

The arguments that press this act upon us, this laboring for Christ as its object, are that he is food, and food that endures, “and food that endures to everlasting life.”

Let me press home what I have said before from these arguments here in the text, for I will draw no others. I have shown you what this labor is, and given you rules for knowing whether or not you rightly labor for this food. Now to press this act upon you, consider, first, the necessity of what our Savior here enjoins on us: it is food.

It is a strange thing that people should persuade themselves that they are Christians, and yet go from day to day without refreshing themselves with Christ and with meditation on the blessed state they are in by him, both with respect to this world and the one to come; without getting strength from Christ against temptations and against corruptions. Christ is food, and the promises and privileges we have by him are food. We should labor after it every day, feed on it every day.

If someone should ask a man in his calling, “Why do you take such pains, morning and evening, rising early and going to bed late?” he would answer, “It is to get bread; it is to get food to maintain my family.” So it should be our answer to any who wonder why we take such pains for our souls, why we labor so after Christ. Oh, remember, we take pains for life, to get and maintain life; and what is so necessary as life? And if life is so necessary, the food that preserves it must be necessary. We see that the patriarchs left their country for food, and the poor Egyptians sold themselves and their cattle, and all to get food to keep life.

We starve eternally unless we feed on Christ; unless we have so much faith as makes us one with him; unless by faith we digest him and get nourishment and strength from him. It will appear to be so when it is too late. Before long nothing in the world will taste sweet to us; and then, if we do not have Christ and the things of another life to taste sweet to us, what will become of us? I beg you, consider what opinion and judgment we will have before long of these earthly things, and of the better things of another world. At the hour of death, our judgments will be convinced that the things of heaven are the best things; and if it is true that they will be so then, why is it not true that they are so now? Labor to have the same judgment now.

With the necessity our blessed Savior joins the excellence of this food: “It is food that endures to everlasting life.” Christ and the good things we have by him are of equal extent and of equal time with our souls. If we labor for earthly things, we labor after what lasts a shorter time than our souls. We may outlive our happiness, and what a miserable state that is! But if we labor for the food that endures to everlasting life, our happiness lasts as long as our souls, and that alone is true happiness.

If there were such a tree on the earth now as there was in paradise, a tree of life, so that whoever tasted its fruit should live, even if only here on the earth to enjoy his sensual pleasures, oh, what would people not give for a little fruit of that tree, even if it were only to redeem a little time and to lengthen out a fading, base life on earth, but much more to live forever! Here is food “that endures to everlasting life,” to such a life as is heavenly and glorious.

Now, blessed be God that since we are cast out of the first paradise by sin, God is so merciful to us, now in our fallen state, as to provide a far better kind of tree of life. The one in paradise was only a tree that served as a type. The true tree of life is Christ, and whoever feeds on him will not perish, but have everlasting life. Certainly, if we believed this, it could not be otherwise than that it would wondrously set us on to labor after this food, because it is not only food that tends to the preservation of life, but to life everlasting, to a life that endures as long as our souls.

And let us know that if we do not labor for this food that brings us to this life, whatever degree of excellence we have had in the rank of the creatures, we will have the same degree in misery. For as the angels in the degree of excellence were the most excellent creatures, but being fallen are in the same degree of misery as they were in happiness, and are now the most accursed creatures of all, so it is with man. He is a most excellent creature if he feeds on the food that endures to everlasting life. And so, if like Nebuchadnezzar he feeds as a beast on earthly things, and forgets his soul and affections, which are made to join themselves to and feed on Christ and better things, he will have the same degree of misery that he has in happiness, being, next to the devils, the most wretched creature that can be.

What if a man were clothed as Aaron was, in all his high-priestly splendor, in his priestly robes! What if he should feed deliciously every day as Dives did! What if he had the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Samson! What if he had all the kingdoms of the world! If he does not have the “food that endures to everlasting life,” he would be stripped of all these before long. It is only Christ, and the good things that are to be had in him and by him, that continue everlastingly. This should press us to labor after this food in the use of all good means.

And before I leave the point, consider the reality, the truth of these heavenly things, of these things we have by Christ, the second Adam. All other things are shadows. The food that nourishes the body is not food in comparison with that. Earthly kingdoms are not kingdoms compared with that; earthly sonship is not sonship compared with that; earthly riches are nothing, they are vanity in comparison with that. Earthly inheritance is no inheritance in comparison with the inheritance we have by Christ. All other things are only titles of things. They are only empty things.

There is a reality in Christ, a truth in the kingdom of grace. Alas! What are riches, what are pleasures, what are honors, what is sonship, what are all earthly things, in comparison with the soul, which is an immortal, a spiritual, an eternal substance? They are only shadows. Those things that are of equal extent and continuance with the soul, and not only of equal extent, but that raise the soul to have communion with God in heaven, with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: there is the reality, there is the truth, if we will have the truth of things. “I am that bread,” says Christ later in this chapter, “and my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed” (John 6:48, 55), as if other food and other drink did not truly refresh, but were only shadows of things.

Labor therefore for this food; and certainly, if the Spirit of God once convinces your judgments that these things I say are true, both as to the necessity and the excellence of this food, they will be effective to stir you up to labor more after this food that endures to everlasting life. So much for that.

“Which the Son of man shall give you, for him hath God the Father sealed” (John 6:27).

To come now to the possibility of attaining this food, which is the third argument our blessed Savior uses to press upon us this command, to “labour for the food that endures to everlasting life.” Hope stirs up endeavor, as we see in trade. Though when we venture beyond the seas we commit everything to wind and water, as they say, and it is doubtful what the outcome may be, yet we hope, and that sets us to work. So with the poor farmer: if he did not hope to have a comfortable outcome, to have a harvest, he would never set himself to work. Now here is hope, and hope on a far better ground; for he who makes other things successful has given Christ for this purpose; and Christ, you see here, gives himself, “which the Son of man shall give you.”

Here is all that we may ground and found our hope upon. Here is will, here is power, and here is authority to give it.

Here is will: Christ will give it. Why? Because he is the Son of man. What is the purpose of these words in this place? Why does he not say, “which the Son of God shall give you”?

Oh, the Son of God without the Son of man is indeed a fountain of good things, but he is a sealed fountain; alas, of no comfort! Our comfort is in Immanuel, God-man. All our comfort lies in being brought back to God, from whom we fell in paradise, and we must be brought back again to God by God. But unless God had become man, man would never have come back again to God. Therefore all the union and communion we have with God depends on this first union of Christ with our nature, that the Son of God became the Son of man, as St. Augustine says; for now the next union, that we become the sons of God, comes from this, that God became man.

And therefore he says here, “the Son of man shall give it you.” You need not climb up to heaven to fetch this food that endures to everlasting life, for the Son of God has come down from heaven to earth to take the nature of man, and in that nature to die, in that nature to satisfy God’s wrath, and so to become this blessed and everlasting food: the Son of man, the second Adam. As by one man we all come to misery, so by the second Adam, by man, we are restored to a blessed condition again. Therefore he says here “the Son of man,” because all our salvation was worked out in the human nature. Indeed, the worth and efficacy of our salvation come from the divine nature; but it was worked out in man’s nature, and the divine nature could not work it alone. But I will not dwell on this.

“The Son of man shall give it you.” You need not fear it; God has become man on purpose to give it to you. We may now boldly go to a mediator who is made bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. We would have feared and trembled if he had only been God, but now all grace and comfort is hidden in this nature of ours in Christ. If Christ had not taken this poor, wretched nature of ours upon him, it would have been a hateful nature to God. God hated the nature of man; but now, because the Son of God has become the Son of man, our nature has become lovely in the eyes of God; and not only lovely, but it is filled in him with all grace, and of his “fulness we receive grace for grace” (John 1:16). He will give it, therefore, because he is “the Son of man.”

Here is will; yes, but what power and strength does he have to give it?

He is so the Son of man that he is also the Son of God. Therefore we are said to be redeemed with the blood of God (Acts 20:28). Christ by his eternal Spirit, by his Godhead, offered himself a sacrifice for sin. So he can give it because he is God.

But what authority does he have?

He is “sealed” to do it. That is the third point; that is, he has authority, for authority is here expressed by “sealing.” Now, Christ is said to be “sealed,” first, because the impression of God is upon him. Even as the seal imprints in the wax the likeness of what is in it, so God has imprinted in Christ his own likeness. He is the image of God, for Christ as he is God is the exact imprint of his Father; and his human nature is likewise as like God as nature can express. “We saw,” says the apostle, “his glory, the glory as of the only begotten Son of God” (John 1:14). We saw a kind of divinity in him, as much as human nature could receive; the likeness of God sparkled in him; therefore he is said to be “sealed.” But that is not all, nor the principal thing meant here.

Again, secondly, the use of a seal is to set a thing apart as one’s own and to distinguish it from other things. So Christ is sealed; that is, God has set him apart as his own Son, and to be a mediator of his own appointing, and has distinguished him from all others by a blessed anointing and equipping of him above all. He is as Saul among the rest, higher than all. He is as Aaron, anointed with the oil of gladness, but above his fellows, and yet for his fellows. From him distills the blessed ointment of grace. It is poured on his head first, and descends from him down to all the skirts of his garment, to all his members. So here in this sealing are likeness, distinction, and setting apart as his own.

But especially, by sealing is here meant authority: for the purpose of sealing a thing is not only to distinguish it and set it apart for a man’s own use, but also to authorize. As a magistrate who has the king’s broad seal is authorized, so Christ has God’s seal; God has authorized him to be a mediator. And as he was foreordained before all worlds, as the apostle Peter says, to be the head of those who should be saved and to be their mediator (1 Pet 1:20), so when the fullness of time had come, when he came in the flesh, he was authorized by the greatest testimony that ever was, by the blessed Trinity, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, at his baptism. “This is my beloved Son, hear him,” says a voice from heaven (Matt 3:17). There was the Father in the voice, the Son, the Holy Spirit in the dove. There was the whole Trinity. So he was authorized from heaven.

And then he was authorized by his miracles. God gave him power to work those works which none could do but a Mediator. Therefore he says, “If you believe not me, yet believe me for my works’ sake” (John 10:38).

He was authorized also by his resurrection, as the apostle says in Romans 1:4: “He mightily declared himself to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead.” The angels from heaven brought witness of him. He was witnessed to by all kinds of people on earth, yes, by the devils themselves. So he is “sealed” and authorized in every way, by all kinds of witnesses, to be a mediator.

This is set out in other phrases in the Scripture. In Psalm 2:6, “This my Son have I set upon my holy hill of Sion”; and in Romans 3:25, toward the latter end of the chapter, “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation.” God has set him forth as the showbread was set out under the law. And then again in another place, “Whom he hath sent” (1 John 4:9-10); and in 1 Corinthians 1:30, “He is made of God unto us wisdom …” “He is made of God”; that is, he is “sealed,” appointed, authorized by God for that purpose.

So you see why Christ is said to be sealed, especially because he is authorized by God the Father, “made,” “sent,” “set forth,” “whom the Father hath sealed”; that is, the party offended by our sins has himself sealed and authorized Christ to be a mediator.

If this is so, let us learn this use of it: to bless God the Father as well as Christ. “Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and “Blessed be Christ,” for him the Father has “sealed” by the Spirit. The blessed Trinity all have a hand in our salvation.

And then again consider, if we despise Christ, whom we despise. We despise the Father who has “sealed” him. It is a weighty matter. Read Psalm 2, and you will see there what it is to despise Christ, not to “kiss the Son”; that is, when God has anointed and sent forth a Savior, and “sealed him,” and authorized him by all the testimonies that can be, to be a mediator, not to receive him as our king, our priest, and our prophet. It is a rebellion, not against Christ only, but against the Father who has “sealed” him.

And likewise it serves wonderfully to strengthen our faith when we go to God for forgiveness of sins. Offer him his own broad seal; offer him Christ as a mediator authorized by himself. “Lord, I am such and such a sinner, but notwithstanding, you have sent your blessed Son and set him forth to be a Savior for me, and him I offer to you. You cannot deny or refuse your own ‘sealed’ Mediator and Redeemer. If he had been a mediator of my own appointing and of my own sealing, it would be another matter; but I offer your own mediator. Look on the death of him whom you have ‘sealed’ to be my intercessor.” It is a wondrously prevailing argument with God. He cannot deny what he himself devised, him whom he chose before all worlds for this great office.

“But how will I know whether or not he is ‘sealed’ for my good?” says the soul that hears this. “We hear much of an authorized Savior, of an authorized mediator who is all-sufficient, but what is that to me?”

Why? For whom is he “sealed”? Is he “sealed” for angels or for men? And among men, is he “sealed” for holy men or for sinners? He comes not to seek or to save whole men, or men that never were lost (Matt 18:11). No. He came to seek and to save men, but they are lost men, sick men; and it is a faithful saying, and worthy in every way to be embraced, “that Christ came into the world to save sinners,” says blessed Paul (1 Tim 1:15). Therefore he is “sealed” to save you if you are a sinner, to save you if you will receive him; and you are bound to receive him, on pain of the punishment for rebellion.

Is it not rebellion not to receive a magistrate whom the prince has authorized under his broad seal? It is a far weightier matter not to receive Christ. It is a greater sin than to sin against the law; for if a man sins against the law there is the gospel to help him, but if a man sins against the gospel there is not another gospel for him. Now to refuse Christ offered in the gospel is a sin against the gospel. Where then can there be hope of salvation? Salvation itself cannot save the one who will not be saved, who refuses the remedy “sealed” by God the Father, the party offended. Who can heal the one who throws down the medicine brought to heal him, who refuses the physician who comes to cure him? I say he is “sealed” to save you if you will be saved; if you will receive him; receive him not only to be your Savior, but to be your king to rule you, and your prophet to teach and instruct you, as we shall see afterward.

But to clear this a little better, we must know that there are three distinct sealings.

There is God’s sealing of Christ, which I have unfolded to you.

And there is our sealing of God; that is, our sealing of God’s truth.

And then again, there is God’s sealing of us by his Spirit. And these follow one another.

Why has God sealed Christ, if not so that we, on this ground, should be stirred up to believe and to receive Christ, and so by consequence to seal that God is true in sending such a blessed Mediator? As St. John says, “He that believes in the Son hath set to his seal that God is true” (John 3:33). God has sealed him so that we, by receiving him, should seal God’s truth.

Beloved, God comes to us for our testimonials, for our signatures and seals. Oh, how wondrously God condescends to weak man! He has sealed Christ for the office of a mediator, and he offers him to us, and he comes to us likewise so that we would set our seals to it too, that Christ is the Son of God. He does not count it enough that he has sealed him himself; he will have us seal too, and we seal him when we receive him. Whoever receives him has set his seal to this, that God is true. As for the one who does not receive him, “he makes God a liar,” says St. John (1 John 5:10).

And what comes of this, when we receive Christ and set our seal to this, that God is true in the promise of salvation by Christ? Then, since we have honored him, he honors us by his Spirit, as the apostle says: “In whom, after ye believed, ye were sealed” (Eph 1:13). So when we believe and set our seal to this, that God is true, God seals us by his Spirit; “after ye believed you were sealed.”

But what is this seal of the Spirit by which God seals us after we believe?

I answer, God seals us when he sets the stamp of his Spirit upon us, when the work and witness of his Spirit is wrought in us. For as with a seal the wax has everything in it, the whole likeness of the image that is in the seal, so the soul that is sealed by the Spirit has the likeness of the Spirit of Christ stamped on it. God imprints in their spirits the likeness of his Son; that is to say, he makes them loving souls, humble souls, obedient as Christ was in all things, patient, meek, and so on.

You may see in the spirit of a believing man an expression of the spirit of Christ. So if you would see Christ in his excellencies, look at the spirit of a true Christian. There you will see a resemblance of Christ Jesus, not perfectly, but in some comforting measure. You will see the very image of Christ. You will see how full of love he is, how patient in crosses, how humble, how meek, how obedient to God in all things, in both a passive and an active obedience. This is the stamp of the Spirit: when a man believes, God honors him by setting his image on him.

And yet this is not all. Besides this, we are sealed with the witness and comfort of the Spirit as well as with the work of the Spirit, the Spirit of God sweetly witnessing that we are the sons of God. And this sweet witness of the Spirit comes especially after we have honored God by believing in temptation, when we are able to hold out and say as Job said, “Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15). So when, after conflicts of doubting and despair, we can say, “Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him,” and, “I will set my seal to this, that he is true” (well, will you do so?), then, to honor such a soul, God seals him to the day of redemption; that is, he gives to the soul of such a one a sweet evidence and testimony that he is a son of God.

And this seal of the Spirit is twofold. It is not only done inwardly by the witness and work of the Spirit, which I have shown, but the Spirit likewise seals them outwardly, enabling them to make an outward confession of Christ and his truth. And therefore in Revelation 7:3 and following, Christians are said to be “sealed in the forehead.” That is, as they are marked and singled out in evil times as those on whom God has set his special favor, so they are “sealed” with a spirit of boldness, to confess the truth of Christ in evil times willingly and with eagerness.

Now, to apply it to our purpose, would you know whether you are, for the present, such a one as Christ is “sealed” a mediator for? Examine, first of all, whether you have put your seal to this, that God is true, by receiving and believing Christ and the promise of salvation through him. If you have done so, then you will find another seal from God, namely the work of the Spirit in sanctifying you and conforming you to the image and likeness of Christ. And you will find the witness and comforting testimony of the Spirit, telling you that you are a son of God. And with that you will have a spirit of boldness and readiness and eagerness to confess Christ. You will not care for anything the world says, but will, if need be, stand by the profession of religion to the death.

If you can find this in yourself, undoubtedly you are not only such a one as Christ came to seal, but for the present you may be assured that you have a share in this mediator, sealed by God for that purpose.

Thus you see that here is “food that endures to everlasting life,” which is Christ and the benefits we have by him. You see that this blessed food is attainable, because he is willing to give it, for he has become man for that purpose. He is able to give it, for he is God as well as man. And he has authority to give it, for God the Father has sealed him and fitted him for that office. If we receive him, he will seal us with his blessed Spirit. That is, the same Spirit that furnished Christ with grace, that sanctified him in the womb, will sanctify all those who are his members, and will work in them a likeness and conformity to his blessed image; for the same Spirit that was in the natural Son is in all the adopted sons of God. And he will likewise give us the comforting evidence and assurance that we are the sons of God, and furnish us with boldness and resolution to profess Christ in all times.

Let me then, I beseech you, come again to reinforce this exhortation. Take heed that you do not refuse Christ. Consider with what authority he comes. “He is sealed.” It is no presumption, therefore, to receive him, however great sinners you may be. To receive him, I mean, not only as a priest to reconcile you to God, but as a king to rule you, and a prophet to instruct you by his Spirit: to receive him in this manner is no presumption. To receive him as a Savior indeed, but to neglect him as king, to refuse to come under his government, is great presumption. But to receive the whole Christ is obedience and faith, and no presumption. No, if you do not receive him you sin damnably; you commit the greatest sin there can be.

He came to save all who will come under his blessed government, who will kiss the Son. “Whosoever will, let him come and drink of the waters of life” (Rev 22:17). All the good promised by Christ is promised upon our receiving him, upon the obedience of our faith. Nothing is required but a will to embrace him and to be under his government. There is no exception made of sins, or persons, or times. “At what time soever a sinner repent” (1 Kgs 8:30 and following): whatever the sinner, whatever the time, whatever the sins may be, if he repents, Christ is ready to receive him.

If you plead your unworthiness and your lack of excellencies, he takes away that objection. “Come unto me, all that are weary and heavy laden” (Matt 11:28); “Come, buy without money” (Isa 55:1); and here in the text, “The Son of man shall give.” And what is so free as a gift?

If you plead that you have sinned since your calling, that you have sinned against conscience and knowledge, and that therefore you now have no further hope of Christ, remember that Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:20 speaks to the Corinthians who were in the state of grace: “I beseech you to be reconciled to God.” And in Jeremiah 3:6 and following: “Return again, you backsliding Israel, and I will heal your backsliding”; and again, “Will a man receive a wife that hath played the harlot, and broken the band of marriage? Yet return, O house of Israel, and I will receive you.” Therefore do not run away from God. Though you have sinned after coming into the state of grace, come again, I beseech you. Christ is still to be received. The door of grace is always held open, and the golden scepter continually held out, as long as we live in this world.

But still, it is not good to neglect the time of grace. Receive Christ at once. Do not defer coming under his government. And receive him wholly, or else there is no receiving him at all.

And to press this a little further, I beseech you to consider this. If you do not leave your sinful courses and come under the blessed government of Christ, if you do not receive this “sealed” king, this “sealed” priest and prophet, this “sealed” mediator, whom God has “sealed” and sent to you for salvation, there is nothing in the world that will one day torment you more than your refusal of him. Oh, that we should ever live to hear of salvation so freely offered, and of a Savior so authorized, and yet for all that should regard our sins more than our souls! And because we could not have him to be our Savior unless we came under his government and were ruled by him as a king, we refused him wholly, altogether.

Indeed, if we might have had salvation by him and the forgiveness of sins, and with that have remained under the rule and sway of our own lusts and been led by them, we would have been content to have him. But rather than leave our blasphemous, our unclean, injurious, and covetous courses of life, we were content to let Christ go if he would. Oh, that we should reject this “sealed” Savior! Oh, that we should refuse salvation offered on such loving terms, when God was so loving as to seal and authorize his Son, when the Son was so loving as to give himself when he was “sealed”! To refuse this, and to do so for such base motives, will certainly one day, when the conscience is awakened, prove the greatest torment there can be!

See how notably the apostle enforces this in Hebrews 2:3: “If so be they did not escape that despised Moses’ law, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” He does not say, How shall we escape if we oppose Christ, if we rail on him, if we despise his image in his children, as many cursed wretches do? But he says, How shall we escape if we only “neglect so great salvation,” so witnessed and authorized with all the signs, so offered and tendered with all the terms of love there can be?

And therefore, if there are any here who have lived in sinful courses and have a purpose to break them off, who are weary of the government of their lusts and of Satan who rules them by their lusts (for all are under one government or other, either under the “sealed” government of Christ, or under the base government of Satan that tends to damnation), oh, leave it, and come under this governor “sealed” by God the Father, authorized from heaven by the blessed Trinity, by miracles, and by all the arguments there can be. Come under his blessed government and you will do well. God the Father, the party offended by your sins, he has “sealed” him, and he cannot refuse a mediator of his own sealing.

And do not say your sins have been thus and thus. For consider who these people were to whom he offers himself here, to whom he says, “Labour for the meat that endures to everlasting life.” Were they not cursed hypocrites, who followed him for the loaves? And yet he says to them, “Labour for the meat that endures …” Christ’s word to them is this: I am “sealed” even for your salvation, if you will come out of your hypocrisy and be ruled by me. Therefore let no one stand out from coming under the government of Christ, for he offers mercy, you see here, to the worst of men, even to cursed hypocrites.

And to conclude with a word of comfort, if there is any poor distressed soul, frightened in conscience by the sight of his sins and Satan’s temptations, oh, let such a one consider the love of God in Christ. Satan pictures God as a terrible judge; and so he is indeed to men who go on in their sins, “a consuming fire.” But are you weary of your courses? Are you willing to come under a better covenant? Do not let Satan abuse you by setting God before you as a terrible judge, and Christ as one who would not save you. No. Come in, kiss the Son, “for him hath the Father sealed,” “sealed” for you if you are weary of your sins.

Do not force upon your soul the thought of any unwillingness in God. Why does God stoop so low, and labor by all these arguments here, that Christ is the Son of man, that he will give it to you, and that the Father has sealed him for that end? Why is all this, if not to show his willingness to receive you? Why has the Father “sealed” Christ, if not in love to you? Come in, therefore. And then, if you will seal to his truth, if you will believe and cast yourselves on God’s gracious promise, even against doubting and distrust, you will find God sealing you by his Spirit. You will find his Spirit witnessing to your spirits that you are the “sons of God.”

Here then, you see, is sure footing for poor doubting souls to fasten upon. God the Father, the party offended, has “sealed” his Son, has authorized him to save you, if you repent and come in. What are all your sins and unworthiness to Christ, God-man, “sealed” and authorized by the Father, who is the party offended? If you are willing to come in, bring all your sins and set them against Christ, God-man, “sealed” by the Father, and they will vanish like a cloud. But, as I said before, if you will not come in and accept this Savior, if you will not submit yourself to his government, you seal your own damnation.

Thus you see I have unfolded this blessed portion of Scripture. Christ Jesus, and all the prerogatives and benefits that come by him, is the food that endures to everlasting life. You see the arguments our blessed Savior uses to press us to labor after this food. It is “food.” It is food that “endures,” and it is food that “endures to everlasting life”; and he “will give it,” for “him the Father hath sealed” and authorized to do so. He is both the gift and the giver, both the food and the inviter to the food, both the priest and the sacrifice. Labor therefore after this food.

There is an objection, which I will briefly answer, and so end. Someone will say, “Labor after it? Why? Christ will give it. If he will give it, why must we labor after it? And if we must labor for it, how does he give it? How can these two, gift and labor, stand together?”

I answer, very well. Christ will give himself, and forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting, and yet we must labor too. But we must know what we are to labor for. We must not labor for any merit to give us title to heaven and happiness. Christ indeed gives that. But labor in the use of all good means to get knowledge and faith to receive this gift: to get the knowledge of Christ, what he is in his natures and offices, what he has promised, what he has done and what he has suffered, what the intent of the gospel is, what the giver is, and what the authority is that his Father has given him. This requires labor.

It is labor to crack the shell, to understand the letter of Scripture, to know what the gift is and what the giver is. And it is likewise labor to get faith to receive this gift, to get the soul emptied of all self-confidence, of all worth in itself and in created things. For Christ must be received with a beggar’s hand; and it will take much labor for a man to deny himself, for proud flesh will always have something to trust in, either in itself or in created things.

So these two may well stand together, labor and gift. We are taught to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” God will give us our daily bread. We must not therefore stand still and do nothing; but though God will give it, yet he will give it in the use of means, in the use of our lawful callings. So here, God will give us this spiritual food, yet he will give it in labor. It is his ordinance; and whatever he gives, he gives not in idleness, but in obedience to his ordinance. He will have us labor in the use of the means, in reading, hearing, receiving the sacrament, praying, meditating, and the like, to have a part in Christ, this blessed gift.

Indeed, because he will give Christ, therefore labor. The one enforces the other. Joshua gives the Israelites the same reason: “Fight,” he says, “for the Lord hath given them into your hand” (Josh 10:19). They might say, “If our enemies are given into our hand, why should we fight?” Yes, fight all the more; be encouraged to fight, because you will be sure to conquer. So here: “Labour for the meat that endures to everlasting life, for the Son of man will give it.” Therefore labor, because he will give it.

In laboring we will be sure to have it. Do what belongs to you, and you will be sure to have what belongs to God. You will find Christ, and heaven, and glory, and everything in the use of the means. But he gives nothing without labor. No good can be done in earthly things without labor; and do you think to have heaven without labor? No. Spiritual things are against the stream. Heaven is up the hill. There must be labor; there must be striving against corruptions within and against temptations without.

And our labor is a happy labor. It is not a barren labor. “Our labour is not in vain in the Lord,” as the apostle says (1 Cor 15:58). We who labor for the food that endures to everlasting life labor for something. But worldlings, who beat their brains, and tire their spirits, and rack their consciences, and wear out their bodies, do it all for nothing. It is for what is “vanity and vexation of spirit” (Eccl 1:14), for what they must leave behind them. What encourages a true Christian to take all the pains he can is this: he labors for something; it is a hopeful and not a barren labor. And, beloved, blessed are we that we can have this food for our labor, that since the fall we can recover by the “second Adam” a better estate than we had by the first.

And our blessed Savior, so that he might distinguish true Christians from hypocrites, enjoins this duty of laboring all the more. For we have many in the church who think to have Christ and his benefits without labor, as if heaven would drop into their mouths. They can say that God is merciful and that Christ died for us; but in the meantime you will find them careless of reading, of hearing, of praying, of the communion of saints, and so on. They are idle in working out their salvation with fear and trembling, negligent in selling all that they have for the pearl, and will part with nothing for Christ.

I say, to distinguish these hypocrites from true Christians, he therefore says, “Labour.” He does so to show us that only those who labor for Christ in the use of all good means, who labor for the true knowledge of him and for faith to receive him, who sell all for him, who take pains to grow in grace and in union with Christ, who make him their best portion in the world and delight in him, only they have a share in Christ. Only the painstaking Christian is the true Christian.

Therefore, I beseech you, as you would have it discerned that you are not hypocrites in the church, be stirred up to use all sanctified means to know Christ, to believe in him, to know that you are in communion with him, that you belong to him. Do not be discouraged. You will have rest before long. “There is a rest for the people of God,” as the apostle says to the Hebrews (Heb 4:9). Indeed, as long as we are here below, there is labor joined with weariness, for we have great conflicts with corruptions and temptations, with enemies within and enemies without. But be of good comfort: we will at last come to a rest, to a rest perpetual and everlasting.

It is true that in heaven there will be labor, for we will always be praising God; but it will be labor without weariness, labor without conflict. There will be no corruption within, and no devil without. Satan could enter into paradise below, but he will never enter that heavenly paradise. Therefore be encouraged to labor for a while. Though it is tedious because of corruptions and temptations, “yet there is a rest for the people of God,” an eternal rest.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body (1 Cor 11:28-29).

In the former words the apostle had set before the Corinthians the first institution of the Lord’s Supper, declaring the causes why our blessed Savior appointed these ordinances. Their special end was the remembrance of the Lord’s death until he came; and not only a bare remembrance of it, but likewise the communion of the virtues of that death, for the comfort of all Christians, until his coming.

And from this the apostle in the verse before draws his conclusion. This holy supper is instituted by our blessed Savior for such an end as this, so excellent: to be a lively representation of the crucifying of the Son of God, of the breaking of his body, and the pouring out of his blood for our salvation. Therefore he infers that all men should come to it with a reverent regard, not as to a common table.

Seeing the matter stands thus, says the apostle, that this is not an ordinary supper, it behooves us not to come here as to an ordinary feast. We may not make only a small difference between this and our common banquets; but if a man comes unworthily, that is, in a way that does not befit it, such a man as this, instead of comfort, reaps judgment to himself. If we come headlong, without preparation; if we eat in that way, we shall be “guilty of the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor 11:27). It shows that we make no reverent account of it when we will come to it so irreverently, making no difference between this heavenly manna and our ordinary food. And therefore, eating unworthily, coming to partake of the body and blood here set before us without due preparation, we shall be liable to judgment.

Question. But here some will say: How does a man come to the Lord’s table unworthily? Is any man worthy? Seeing that under these veils the body and blood of Christ Jesus are signified, and, more than that, exhibited to us, is any man worthy? It was a great thing that the ancient people of the Jews were fed with manna. “They ate manna in the wilderness, he gave them bread from heaven to eat, and yet they died. But he that eateth the flesh of the Son of man, and drinketh his blood, hath eternal life” (John 6:31, John 6:49, John 6:54).

Now, although it is true that the body of Christ is in heaven and we are on earth, yet here is the conveyance by which we have a title to his body and blood; here is the seal of the great indenture. God gives us not only the great draft of the deed, of which we are in possession; not only his word, that we have a title to his Son; but also, to his deed made over to us in his word, he gives a further right of ownership, even these holy sacraments, on which he claps this broad seal, thus tendered to us.

Answer. I answer, then, that no man is worthy to be a guest; but worthiness is taken here in another sense. A man is not said to be worthy in regard of any worthiness in himself, but in respect of his affection and preparation, and in regard of his fit and seemly receiving. As we are accustomed to say, the king received worthy entertainment in such a gentleman’s house, not because the gentleman was worthy to receive him, but because he omitted no courtesies and service in his power that were fit to entertain him. Even so I say, we are not worthy of Christ, that he should enter our houses, that he should come under our roof. But nevertheless, we are said to be worthy when we do all things in our power that are fit for his entertainment. If we come not in pride and in our rags, but with repentance, joy, comfort, and humility, then we are worthy.

This therefore being the ground of the exhortation, let us come to the words, “Let a man therefore examine himself.” He who eats unworthily brings great harm on himself, therefore examine yourselves; as if he should say, Would you know how to come worthily? Examine your own heart, and see whether all things are well within; whether you may put God’s seal to the grace that you find in yourself.

I will open it as plainly as I can: “Let a man therefore examine himself.” The question here is how a man comes to the Lord’s table worthily. The apostle says he comes worthily if he examines himself. From this, in the first place, we observe this doctrine, that the Lord has appointed the sacrament of the Supper, not like the sacrament of baptism, to be administered once and never after, but he has appointed it to be received often.

The reason is apparent: it is sufficient for a man to be born once. Now baptism is the sacrament of our spiritual regeneration; therefore it is to be administered only once. But it is not sufficient for a man to make one dinner and no more; we must eat daily and get strength. Now this sacrament of the Supper, signifying not our new birth but our proceeding, our strength, and our obedience, is therefore, as a means to increase strength, to be received often. As he who has a weak stomach will eat his food often, and little at a time, so we, having found our great want and weakness, must receive this sacrament often.

Well! As often as we come, the apostle bids us examine ourselves, if we would be good guests. Examine! Why? The apostle says to these Corinthians in another place, “Try yourselves, whether ye be in the faith or not” (2 Cor 13:5). You come to have God’s seal put to the communion you have with him. Well! Then God does not content himself with one examination for all; he calls Christians to this duty often.

This is worthy to be considered. There are many who at the beginning of their conversion can take some pains to sift and ransack their own hearts, to bring them to the sight of sin. They can consider the fearful state of sinners when they go out of the world. It may be also that they find some beginnings of repentance. Now, because this frequent examination goes against their hearts, they would therefore push it all off in this way onto their first conversion: “I have once found the grace of repentance; God is unchangeable; those he loves once he loves forever.”

Now the Lord, knowing it to be dangerous for us to settle on this ground, therefore calls on us to test our title. There are many corners in the heart of man; it is hard to sound; it is full of hypocrisy; and man is wonderfully ready to deceive his own heart. In view of this, seeing it is so deceitful, we must not content ourselves with one humiliation and repentance, nor suppose every light stirring to be God’s Spirit. But we must, as often as we eat of this bread and drink of this wine (and as any occasion is given us), test and examine ourselves, and labor to make our election sure.

And if we consider the flattering of our own hearts, together with the delusion of Satan, this will be found needful. The greatest hypocrite will have a good opinion of himself, and will be ready to say with the proud Pharisee, “I thank God I am not as other men are, an adulterer, extortioner…” (Luke 18:11). Thus he blesses himself in his heart; and if there is then but any light stirring, any common gift of God’s Spirit in his heart, the devil is ready to persuade him that he is in heaven, and that all is well with him. Now for a man to content himself with being once enlightened (with having once had some tokens of God’s favor come toward him) is very dangerous.

Consider this. As for God’s children at the beginning of their conversion, their faith is weak, small as a grain of mustard seed, which, though small, yet in time grows great; it is like the flax that does not always stay smoking. The hypocrite will show a greater measure of profession in the sight of man than a true Christian, so much so that one would think the true Christian could never come to that perfection which those seem to have attained who perish with their holiness. For the hypocrite grows fast and is quickly down again; soon ripe, soon rotten, like the grain that grows on the housetop. The child of God, on the other hand, goes on gently, soft and sure, and constantly proceeds in renewing the work of faith and repentance.

Use. Let this move us to this duty, that we often examine ourselves, because, besides our old debts (those sins we committed before our calling), we multiply new sins, and every day run up a new score. For do we not know that sin is odious to almighty God? Why? Consider that it is worse for you to continue in rebellion against God than for a stranger who does not know him. A man who is dead, what works can be expected from him but dead works? But the Lord, having translated you from that death, looks for new fruit; and for you to bring forth sour grapes should trouble and grieve you exceedingly.

And this is especially to be observed of those who come to the Lord’s table. It becomes them to examine themselves, so that they may be rightly entertained. It is much to be lamented that this sacrament is held in such small account that men come to it they know not how, so unprepared that I am persuaded, if they were to sit at the king’s table, they would come with more preparation.

Haman boasted of the honor Ahasuerus had done him, and what was that? He counted it a great honor that he was called to the banquet of a king (Esth 5:12). And shall we not count it a greater favor that the King of kings invites us to his table? Shall we come here with such unwashed hands? Remember that the ground is holy; take off your shoes when you come to this sacrament.

You shall see therefore how the Lord was angry with his people when they did not respect but disgraced his sacrament (Exod 4:24). Moses was sent to redeem the Israelites. While he was employed in this service, and was great in the favor of God, it came to pass by the way, in the inn, that the Lord met him and would have killed him. One would think that he with whom God was just now so familiar had committed some great offense, that God should kill him. And what was it? Only that he neglected the Lord’s sacrament. Yes, though Zipporah called him a bloody husband because of the circumcision, yet the Lord would have killed him if he had not done it.

And so those who receive unworthily, you may see, are guilty, as in 2 Chronicles 30:3 and the verses following. The sacrament there was not wholly omitted; but because they came to it without due preparation, as the Lord required, he struck the people; for a multitude of Ephraim and Manasseh had not cleansed themselves. Yet they did eat the Passover, but not as it was written. The Lord also, you see, would have killed Moses, because he did not administer circumcision to his son. Many others come to this sacrament, but they do not come according to God’s ordinance.

Well, Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “The good Lord be merciful unto them, who prepare their whole heart to seek the Lord God, the God of their fathers, though they be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary” (2 Chr 30:18-19). So here you have a plain token that God is displeased when a man presumes to come with unwashed hands. Now, when a good man prays for mercy, for whom does he pray? What! For him who never respects God, but will be constant in a wicked course? If all the hands in heaven and earth were lifted up for such a one, they could not possibly do him any good.

When Hezekiah prayed, the Lord, even though his ordinance was broken, was moved to be merciful. For whom? For those who had an upright heart; for those who prepared their hearts to seek him. So here is evidence what a fearful thing it is for a man to come to the sacrament without this preparation.

And to go no further for proof than where my text now is, 1 Corinthians 11:29: “He that eateth unworthily” (he who will come to this table without preparation, not addressing his heart to entertain the Lord), “he eateth judgment to himself.” We see, therefore, what a fearful thing it is. Now that the law, which was prepared and ordained for life, has become death to us, what is the cause of this? The rebellion of your heart has turned the course of the law, so that what was appointed for life has now become death. Yes, but is this not also a heavy thing, that the same is said of the gospel too? That the gospel, which was ordained for life, is now by your negligence proved to be your death? It is so: he who eats unworthily eats destruction, he eats judgment to himself.

Now, we must not take judgment in the terrible sense, that he who comes unworthily shall eat judgment immediately. It is taken otherwise. Will you, his enemy, eat unworthily? He will judge you. If you are a child, he will whip you; if you are a wicked man, he will condemn you forever; if you are his servant, he will inflict other outward judgments on you. So I take it in another sense: if the child of God comes unworthily, the Lord will make him smart; if the wicked man, who reviles him daily, intrudes himself at the Lord’s table, he shall eat damnation. So neither the children of God nor the wicked shall escape judgment: the wicked shall have the sentence of damnation, the children of God the sentence of sharp punishment.

That this is the meaning of the apostle appears by the words that follow: “for this cause,” when he had said many eat judgment, he adds, “many are sick” (1 Cor 11:30), where he sets down in particular that judgment of which he spoke before. God’s children, if they come without preparation, irreverently, eat such judgment to themselves; God will send sickness upon them. For this cause many of you are punished with death itself. And it follows, “But when we are punished, we are chastened of the Lord.” Why? “Because we should not be condemned with the world” (1 Cor 11:32).

You see judgment is opposed to condemnation. God’s children eat judgment to themselves to avoid condemnation. I insist on this because many think that if they come unworthily they shall be damned immediately; as I have known some who have abstained seven years, because they were afraid they would eat unworthily. Oh, then, do not be damned. The apostle says “that we are chastised of the Lord, that we may not be condemned.”

For the necessity of this duty, then, seeing it is necessary for a man to examine himself, as has been shown, it now follows that we consider the particulars in which a man is to examine himself.

In what must he examine himself? I answer, this depends on the knowledge of the institution of the sacrament. Let us then consider for what end it was instituted, and let us see what it is that is done in the sacrament.

The end of a sacrament appears in Romans 4:11, speaking of one sacrament, namely, of circumcision: Abraham received the sign of circumcision, as the seal of the righteousness of that faith which he had when he was uncircumcised. In those words you have a twofold use for a sacrament set down. It is appointed by God, first, to be a sign of the righteousness of faith: a sign to inform the understanding concerning the benefits we have by the communion of Christ. And secondly, it is not only the bare sign, as words are, but it is also a seal, that is, a thing appointed by God to confirm; and there is a difference between these two.

For instance, if a man has the picture of a king, he has a sign of the king; but if he has a deed confirmed with a seal from the king, this shows that he has a title to something which he receives from the king. Well then, the sacrament is a sign to inform the understanding of man concerning the benefits we have by Christ, and a seal to assure us of what is there signified.

The first use of the sacrament is to open the mysteries of the gospel to all who have understanding; the second is to seal the comforts which are there signified in the sacrament. For, as in the former use, it is not to everyone that the gospel gives knowledge, but to those who believe. So, does this sacrament seal to all? No; but to those who besides understanding have grace. So then here is the point: the sacrament is a sign to declare the mysteries of the gospel to all who have understanding; secondly, it is a seal to assure some of the comforts of Christ, not all, but those who have grace.

1. So I must, first, examine myself, whether I have understanding; and secondly, whether I have grace, by which I must make use of it, for I must be knit to it, not by the brain, but by the affection. Otherwise, if I come to it as the Papists do, to a dumb show, not bringing a heart that understands its mysteries, I shall come unworthily.

Now for the first point. The matter to be considered is whether you are an ignorant person, whether you know what is meant by these things. That this is needful may appear by this: this is the Lord’s table, and he invites his friends and acquaintances here. And do you think that you, who know neither Father, Son, nor Holy Spirit, may come? For you to thrust in among his friends and familiars, is this not presumption? Therefore, first you must examine yourselves.

And besides this, those who are ignorant are not only strangers, but also enemies to God; yes, such as the Lord will come against, “in flaming fire, rendering vengeance unto them which know not God, nor obey unto the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess 1:7-8). Here you see the enemies of Christ, against whom he shall stand, are ranked into two kinds: first, those who do not know him; secondly, those who have knowledge and understanding, but do not have grace, “they obey not the gospel of Christ Jesus.”

Examine yourselves, then. Does the ignorance of God make you his enemies? Examine yourself on this; for do you think that God will ever endure that his enemies should come to his table? Let all ignorant persons examine themselves; for however they may come, yet it grieves the Lord that they come. And this shall be a judgment to them at the last, that they were so bold as to come without examination. I do not say this to discourage a man from coming, for you shall pay for it if you do not come. But know this: if you come ignorantly, there stands the angel of the Lord to keep you, as Adam was kept (Gen 3:24), from this sacrament, or from any comfort by it.

2. Another reason why the sacrament was instituted: is it not to strengthen faith? As Romans 4:11 says, it was the seal of faith. Well; and can there be faith without knowledge? No: “By his knowledge” (speaking of his Son) “shall my righteous servant justify many” (Isa 53:11). That is, by faith; and this faith is expressed by knowledge, to show that where there is no knowledge, there is no faith. The sacrament is instituted for this end. And where there is no faith, there is no worthy receiving of the sacrament. As you love your own salvation, then, inform yourself on this point; do not please yourself in your ignorance.

For the informing of our understanding, then, two things are here to be considered. First, we must not have any dumb shows here, but we must understand that all these things are a gospel, preached to our eyes. Now, the things presented to our eyes are two: (1) outward elements; (2) certain actions done by us.

For the outward elements, you see there are bread and wine, set apart for a holy use. The bread is broken, and the wine is poured out. All this is done before we partake. When we come to see these things done, we must bring with us looking hearts and affections, to see what God has done for us. The next thing is, we see not only bread and wine set apart, but they are given to us, taken by us, drunk by us, and they nourish us.

It first shows us that accomplishment of our redemption by the Son of God. Do you see these sanctified to this work? What, then, do you think is meant by the breaking? What by the pouring out of the wine? This is my body broken, this is my blood shed for many. It is the man Jesus Christ who is put before your eyes. When you come here, there is a spectacle of Christ crucified. And it is set apart to show, as it was in the paschal lamb, that there was a lamb to be taken out of the flock, to be separated from the rest, to show that it was set apart for some extraordinary work. I say, what does this show, but that our high priest, Christ Jesus, was separated from sinners?

More: you see the bread broken and the wine poured out. This should stir you up to be in the same state as if you were on Golgotha, at the place where he was crucified, as he cried with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me” (Matt 27:46); as if you saw him sweat water and blood. And our affections should be like those of the blessed virgin, to whom the sight of her son in his anguish could not but be a great vexation and grief.

Consider that this is a property of God’s Spirit: “I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of compassion: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall lament and mourn for him, and be in bitterness” (Zech 12:10). Such should be your affections when you see the bread broken and the wine poured out. You must consider the circumstances of Christ’s breaking, and his soul poured out for sin; that God had broken him, then shall they look upon him whom they have crucified.

It is not sufficient for you to say that “they,” speaking of the Jews, would do this. We are ready to spit in their faces. Yes, but the text says, “they shall look upon him.” It is I who crucified the Lord of glory; it is we who murdered him by our sins. And this should move us to a spiritual compassion, that we have stained our hands in his most innocent blood.

So that this might move the people under the old law, you see there was an innocent beast; but before it was slain, the man who was to offer the sacrifice was first to put his hand on its head (Lev 1:4, and elsewhere), to signify that every one of our sins was the cause of this. This must be our mature consideration. We lay our hands on the immaculate Lamb; we put our hands on his head: we have murdered him. Let us then see whether this affects us.

You should all say: Is sin so deadly and dangerous as this, that it will seize upon the Son of God himself, rather than sin should go unpunished? Is my sin a dart shot up into heaven to pull him down from there? Is my sin such a thing as this? Is it so that it will make the Son of God lie on the ground? And do I have such a hard heart that it will not make me weep? These, and similar godly thoughts, we should have when we see the bread and wine broken and poured out.

And let us go further. Do you make nothing of an oath, of an idle word, or some such sin? This is what caused Christ to be crucified, and therefore it is not to be trifled with. There is the first thing to be considered. When you see the bread broken and the wine poured out, it is a calling to mind of the sufferings of the Son of God.

The second point. What is meant by these actions performed by us? That is, what Christ did for us. But what is that to you? All your comfort stands in laying hold of it for yourself. Christ has prepared a medicine in the apothecaries’ shop, giving no comfort unless we apply it to ourselves. This bread thus broken is given. Here God brings his Son bathed in his blood. The Father sees him in his gore and says, Take him. What a wonderful comfort this is, that he should come and say, “Take and eat.”

If God once moves your heart to receive him, he means it as plainly as the minister does when he says, Take the bread; he offers him plainly and freely. This is his offer, and will this not be a great condemnation to the world? As often as it is administered, so often is condemnation read to a wicked man. Does God offer his Son, and will you not take him?

The apostle in 1 Corinthians 2:4 and the verses following speaks of the ministry of the gospel: we are not to think it a small matter that God sends a minister to make an offer of his Son, but we must think that this is done by God himself. The apostle says in 2 Corinthians 5:20, “Now then are we ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you.”

Oh, some say, if I might hear Christ say this much, or if I might hear only God say so, I would receive him. The case is the same: we are ambassadors for Christ, we pray you in Christ; as if God were present in person, we say, Receive him, God beseeches you to be reconciled. It would be fit for us to beseech him, but he comes to our doors and offers us pardon. And therefore this will be condemnation, that where mercy is brought home to us, we nevertheless reject it.

Well! Besides the offer, there is further the actual delivery of it. Take, eat. They take, eat, and drink. What is represented by this? It represents a further point, that we are not only in Christ, flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone, but that Christ is actually delivered; that we take possession of him. When we see the bread and wine taken, he means that by this we by faith accept Christ, and lay hold of him. Here is the foundation of our comfort, that a Christian man may say of Christ that he can be assured of nothing he possesses for his own so much as he may be of him. The cloak on his back, the house he dwells in, his lands, yes, the blood in his veins, and whatever he has, is not so much his; he cannot be so assured of it as of Christ. Take him. Here is a delivery of Christ and a taking possession of him. As by the ring of a door, we are given a title to heaven, and if he is ours, with him we have all things.

No, I will go further, for the Papists will go this far. They will say that Christ is to be delivered and received. Yes, but how? After a gross Capernaite opinion, eaten really and bodily with the mouth. But Christ is transferred into me, and I into him, by faith. We are made one with him, flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone; as it is said, “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him” (John 6:56). I would not have him for a while, but forever. Well, he is planted into you and dwells in you, so that as food, by the wonderful work of nature, is turned into ourselves, so Christ, by the supernatural work of grace, once he is entertained, is made one with us. We are one body, one flesh. He has a more assured hold of us than we have of him. We know the devil is strong, but he may not pull off a leg or an arm, or any of Christ’s members. Christ is stronger than all. We dwell in him, and he in us, and no man can take us out of his hands.

And then that which comes next: all comforts shall be ours when we have Christ. We cannot have the benefits of Christ unless we have Christ himself. And therefore, in the Lord’s Supper, Christ does not say, “This is justification,” or “This is sanctification,” but “This is my body…” We may not look for the graces of sanctification, justification, or redemption before we have Christ. If we have him, we shall with him have all things else. The apostle says, “We are made partakers of Christ, if we keep sure unto the end, the beginning wherewith we are upholden” (Heb 3:14). The apostle uses the term of being partakers of Christ. We are made partakers of Christ if we constantly hold what we have begun to the end. He does not say only that we are made partakers of the benefits of Christ, but also of Christ himself, which is more than all the others.

Now for the opening of this: will a man be nourished by bread if it is not eaten? No; he must first eat and drink. So faith is like an eagle that flies up to heaven and there seizes on the Son of God. And having thus seized on him, then comes remission of sins, justification, sanctification, and redemption, many blessings, and a floodgate of all graces.

These are the points we are to consider. They are the signs to which God gives a voice for us; as the Lord speaks to Moses, “So shall it come to pass, that if they will not believe thee, neither obey the voice of the first sign, yet shall they believe for the voice of the second sign” (Exod 4:8). You see that a voice is given to the sign. You see that the sacrament, when the bread is broken and the wine poured out, is a voice speaking to you. You must therefore be a man of understanding to discern it.

The next point: the sacrament is not only a sign to signify that all things are to be had in Christ, for a wicked man may know this much. But Abraham received the sign of circumcision as a seal, and it is also a seal. We must therefore examine ourselves in our knowledge, as to whether we have faith and grace; otherwise God seals no comfort to us. But how shall a man know this?

There is a general life. I will touch on it as briefly as I can, and so make an end. The matter to be understood is this: whether we have grace in us, whether we are living and regenerate. No man spreads his table for dead men. We are dead by nature, and if we find that we are dead, this banquet is not for us. We must then be regenerate. I know that many come when they are dead, and therefore they abuse God and their own souls, and they put his seal to a false deed. Well, the apostle’s conclusion is, “He that hath the Son hath life” (1 John 5:12). But the point of this examination is how a man may know whether he is dead or living, which must be the point of trial in the next place.

The matter and examination that concerns the heart and affections.

For knowledge, with examination, is not enough to make a man a right receiver; there must first be understanding, and then grace in the heart. For we must understand this much about the sacrament of the Supper: it never brings grace where it finds none. It confirms the good grace it finds already. So, as I have said, it always presupposes some grace to be in the heart. When we come, we do not come to receive life, but to have our strength increased. For if a man were to deal with the king, and would have him confirm some estate to him, it would be to no purpose if his title and ground were not good. So, if the ground of our estate fails, if we do not have some grace, faith, and the like, the receiving of the sacrament will not give them; it will not make a bad matter good. Therefore we must labor for grace in our hearts if we would have comfort. Upon this we may expect a blessing. I will touch on the heads of this briefly, because it is very large. The points in which a man must examine himself are these:

1. Whether he discerns the necessity of this new life: whether he discerns that without this supply from heaven, without the body of Christ, his estate is most wretched and miserable.

This is the first thing in our examination. It may be thought a needless thing to examine our conscience on, that our estate is miserable without Christ. But it is necessary, and it is the course God takes with his children. He first makes them discern what a miserable estate they are in. And not everyone can discern this, for it must be the work of God’s Spirit to show a man the death of sin, because every man naturally has pride in his heart.

So the apostle Paul confesses (Rom 7:9 and following): before the Lord had shown him his misery by the law, while he was left to natural direction, he thought himself a man of worth, by his own confession, a great man. Now, therefore, before the Lord would discover to him the riches of his grace, he applies the law to him, the law that told him, “Thou shalt not lust.” Then he perceives his misery, as soon as the commandment came, seeing himself to be full of sinful desire. Then, when the commandment came, sin revived and appeared to be sin, says the apostle.

A man must first, therefore, discern that he is in a miserable estate. So in John 16:8 and the verses following, when the works of God’s Spirit are set down, the first is this, “to convince the world”; when the Spirit shall come, he shall convince the world of sin. The ground of our felt comfort in this action stands in the humiliation of our souls: when a man falls out of love with his sin; when, finding the body of sin about him, he can say, “Who shall deliver me from this bondage of corruption?”; when this gives him an edge to come to Christ. For we must not think that we are thus ready to come, unless we are drawn by some scourge or other.

The prodigal son, when he had wasted his goods riotously, if he might have had husks to keep his life and soul together, would never have come home. So we, the sons of Adam, if we might have just fig leaves to cover our nakedness, would never become suitors to God for pardon. Here, then, examine yourself. Do you discern that without the receiving of his body and blood you are like a man kept from food and drink, and that you are dead? If you find this, there is one good step. But if, on the contrary, you stand stoutly and think that you have no need of it, you are an unworthy receiver. These things belong to the matter of grace. The second point in which a man must examine himself is this:

2. Whether, upon the discerning of his wants, upon the discerning of that death which certainly belongs to him, he relies on Christ; whether the Lord works on his heart a true longing for that righteousness outside himself.

When the Lord spreads his table to feast his friends, he does not call those who have no kind of appetite or stomach. And therefore you must examine yourself whether you have a stomach, a hungering after Christ Jesus. This is a special point; if a man does not find it, he may certainly doubt whether he is sound or not. If a man has his food taken from him, he grows hungry and thirsty, and is vexed and discontented. How then does it come to pass that our bodily hunger is so keenly felt, when yet our soul’s hunger is not felt by us? When a man is in this condition, starving, and feels it, is that man not ready to die?

Before we come to the Lord’s table, therefore, let us labor to get an appetite, for, I say, God thinks such precious food as this ill bestowed on those who have no appetite for it. We see worthy patterns in the Scriptures. David says, “As the hart panteth after the rivers of water, so my soul longeth after the living God” (Ps 42:1). And, beloved, blessed is he who finds this thirst; blessed are they, they shall be blessed. Contrary to this, when children play with their food, it is time it should be taken from them. Their estate in this case is woeful for the present. The third point on which a man must examine himself is this:

3. Whether, these two grounds being laid (that first he discerns his misery, his death, that he is a dead man unless he gets Christ; and secondly, that he hungers and thirsts after him), he sets himself about it.

For it is not sufficient for a man to hunger and never go about the work. As a hungry man is eager to feed, nothing should keep him from it. Here is the point: whether our hunger after righteousness so drives us on that we will have it, whatever it costs us. A man who is ready to die of hunger will give all that he has rather than go without food. Even so the soul, when it is once pinched and hunger-bitten and sees bread in heaven, presents itself before God and begs as for life that God would bestow his Son for its cure. So I may truly say, “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence” (Matt 11:12), and nothing shall hold back the violent from taking it, when they come into the presence of God. The fourth point is this:

4. Whether (upon this touch of conscience, upon this earnest hungering and thirsting after righteousness) we can at once set forward without delay, and go to the throne of grace.

We are to consider that our case now is like the case of one who had committed manslaughter among the Jews, for whom a city of refuge was appointed. If he could flee to it before he was apprehended, he saved his life; if he was taken before he came there, he was to die. Without question that man would make great haste there. Examine yourself, then, whether your hungering after righteousness works this effect, that without any delay you will come after Christ Jesus, your refuge and defense. It is not sufficient for you to say, “I know that without Christ I shall die; I will do it tomorrow, when I have done other things; I will purchase his favor.” Well, do not boast of tomorrow. Examine yourself whether your hunger after righteousness is so great that it will not allow you to rest or sleep until you have his favor.

The one who comes in this frame of heart, who will make no delay but will be an earnest suitor to God for his Son, that he may have Christ: though the request is great, yet the necessity is such a matter that we forget all good manners, and so at once do well. And what do we then? We take to ourselves words. Then a man comes before the throne of grace. But does he stand there mute? Certainly not. He who is a partaker of Christ, and has grace in his heart, does he stand there mute? No; he can put up an elegant note in the ears of God, as it is said, “We know not how to pray as we ought; what shall we say then?” (Rom 8:26). Why, says the apostle, “If you are the sons of grace, the Spirit helpeth your infirmities, and maketh request for you with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered.”

There is the point on which we ought to examine our hearts: whether the Spirit of God has made such an intercession in us. That is, whether he has made us able, when we come into the presence of God, upon the consideration of his mercy, to send up a volley of sighs to him; whether we can fill heaven with our groans, and dart them upward. Consider the one who can do this, who presents himself before God (who knows the heart, who knows the meaning of his groans and what he would say), and is accepted by him. He can find in himself the Spirit of prayer, so that he can come before God, unwrap and show his sores, and desire the Lord to pity him, and will never give him over until he has graciously answered and has invited him. The Lord loves such a suitor.

Perhaps he will not give him a ready answer and dispatch at first, but will have him wait. But if, like Israel, he will still solicit him until he has gotten the blessing, if he will take no denial, then the Lord has said, and his word shall stand, Take my Son. This man may have full consolation; this man has grace. And then follows:

5. A setting of the heart on the promises of God.

That is, a man has discerned that God has so surrounded him with favor that he has seen his misery, that he has seen a way to get out, and has found a way to approach the throne of God. He at once comes to God on this ground, and looks whether or not he will hold out the golden scepter to him. He sees that the Lord has made him beg earnestly for Christ, and that he can confess his sins to him. Then at once there comes a setting of the heart on the promises.

“Has not God said, ‘Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they shall be satisfied’ (Matt 5:6)? He has given me only a cold answer; but it is true, has he not said, ‘Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will ease you’ (Matt 11:28)? I find only a little ease, but I know that I am in his favor. He has given me feet, affection, and a heart to come to him, and on this I will set my affections. However he spurns me, yet I know that he is just, and therefore I will not be broken off. I know he is faithful, and therefore he will forgive me.”

And on this the Christian sets himself on a settled resolution. Having considered the promise of God, he is persuaded that neither life nor death, principalities nor powers, things present nor things to come, shall separate him from the love of Christ (Rom 8:35, 38). And that man who is thus persuaded and assured by faith, though not by sense, whom God has carried this far, will reason the matter with himself like this: “Well, I know that he who has begun this good work will finish it (Phil 1:6). And therefore with this conclusion I will come, looking for an increase of grace. Now I see some life, some health, some strength; I will look for an increase of these: more life, more health, and more strength. Therefore I will come to the Lord’s table.” This is a worthy receiver. These concern our justification, in which a man must examine himself.

And take this: he who comes without faith comes without his wedding garment, and the master of the feast (when he comes to take notice of the guests who have come) shall single him out from the rest and say, Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into everlasting torments (Matt 22:13). But a man will say, “May I not read good books at home, the Bible or others?” Yes, but you shall not have such a feast at home. Here he provides a feast, and when the feasters are seated, he comes and sees them. Thus God is present here in these assemblies, and sees what disposition his guests are of. Now when a man comes without his wedding garment, who puts the seal to it but lacks the writing, will this not make God single him out? There is a day when he shall be mute.

Know therefore that this table is provided for God’s friends. And therefore unless you can know by faith that you are friends with God, you can have no comfort. Therefore examine yourself, for until you find your heart settled, until your sins are forgiven, you are not fit.

A man will say, “Alas! I would give all the world for it, if I had it, but alas! all is in vain. I have often sought for it, often groaned and shed many tears for it before God, and yet things do not go as I would have them. And what then? Shall I abstain?” No; if you discern that you are weak, you must come. This table is provided for those who are weak. And if your faith is weak, if you have only the least grain of faith, you must come. As the church in the Song of Solomon, when she began to be sick, desired to be sustained with flagons (Song 2:5), so when our souls are ready to faint, we must desire him to come to us, to comfort us, to sustain us. “The Lord quencheth not the smoking flax, nor breaketh the bruised reed” (Matt 12:20), but will make it grow to a great tree. Only be patient, and wait on the Lord’s leisure.

And this much shall suffice to have spoken of the first point, in which the affections must be examined; that is, on the point of justification. We come now to the next point and matter, which is the grace of sanctification.

We must examine ourselves next in the grace of sanctification.

And to this those who come must especially look. For let us ask the question: Why will God provide a table? Why will he feed them? Is it not that they may do him service? Especially, then, examine your own heart, whether you are minded to serve God yourself, or the devil. Is there a man who says, “I will serve my own turn, by hook or by crook. I will get this”? Is the table of the Lord, do you think, provided for him, to strengthen him to do service against the Lord? You who would come to the table must remember that you are to be one of his family; he will have you sit down with him. And does he not then require that you should do him service? If then you are ready to serve against him, if you run into the camp of the enemy, to join with Satan against your Maker, do you think that you are fit to come?

No, let me speak to those who are profane, who break his Sabbaths and blaspheme his name. I say this of the man who comes thus with a covetous heart, if it is with the resolution, “I will not be broken off from it.” Take what sin you will, if you come with a resolution that you will not part from it: when a man shall say, “I will follow my course,” this is a great sin. And I say that man takes a cup of poison in his hands. I say, he who comes with such a heart proclaims war against him and kills him, as Judas did. The Lord will not be mocked. And know this: shall that man be a partaker of God’s mercy? No; for he who partakes of God’s mercies cannot be profane. And it is just as true that the man who does not have holiness, whose heart is not set to please God, that man shall never see God. The Papists cannot enforce this doctrine as much as we can, because they are ignorant of the power and true life of holiness, springing from its true ground.

A wicked man, I say, shall have no benefit in the body and blood of Christ Jesus. This is a fearful saying, you will think. But it is true that a man intending to live and die in his sin, who will not be broken off, shall have no portion in his body and blood. Was there ever any man who so magnified the free mercy of God without works as the apostle Paul did? Yet he says, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. If to the flesh, of the flesh he shall reap corruption; if to the Spirit, of the Spirit he shall reap life everlasting” (Gal 6:7-8). Mark this, says the apostle, look to this: if there is a man who sows nothing but tares in the seedtime, and yet in the harvest will look for good grain, will we not think him mad? If you have sown good grain, you may then expect good fruit; if otherwise, bad. According as you have sown, you shall reap. And will you deceive yourselves, so that when you have sown to the flesh, you think to reap of the Spirit? Do not deceive yourselves in this way.

And now, says the apostle, “The works of the flesh are manifest, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, wantonness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, debate, emulations, wrath, contentions, seditions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, gluttony” (Gal 5:19 and following), and the like. What a vile crew they make! Well, then, says the apostle, do you think to reap the harvest of God’s children while you sow such fruits? No; I tell you now as before, those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. This shall not be reversed, but shall stand as firm as the law of the Medes and Persians, not to be revoked (Esth 1:19). Such wicked persons, as it is in Revelation 22:15, shall be thrust out among the dogs, “enchanters, whoremongers, murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth or maketh lies.”

So now to come to the point: let him who comes to the Lord’s table examine his heart, whether or not he is given to these vices. Some will say, “I am no Papist, no idolater; no, I hate such; I am not envious.” But the apostle here speaks of all such things as are like them. Yes, he speaks against things that are counted only petty matters, such as envy and drunkenness. “Oh!” they say, “those who cannot swear do not have a gentleman’s qualities.” But the apostle’s words stand firm, that such shall not see God; their gentlemanly qualities shall bring their souls to hell. When they have such malicious and quarrelsome spirits, when they have such proud, contentious spirits, that men cannot live quietly among them, what fruit is this? What does it argue but certainly this, that there is no grace in them, when their hearts are thus set against all men?

But you will say, as in justification, so in this matter of sanctification, “I thank God, I am not given to these gross matters that end at the Tyburn gallows, though my heart tells me that I have a great sink of corruption in me.”

I will then examine you. How do you stand affected toward sin? Have you shaken hands with it and parted? Have you shaken off familiarity with all sin, and not with some only? For so will a hypocrite. But see whether there is not some sin remaining that you will and do set store by. If it is to you as a right eye or a right hand, as our Savior says (Matt 5:30), look to that especially, which is so dear and profitable that it brings in great wealth. See how you stand affected toward that. Are you content, though it is as profitable as your right hand, to have it chopped off? If you find this resolution in you, you are in a good estate; your case is happy. This shows that there is good seed in you. For it is impossible that there should be such a divorce between you and your corruption if grace were not in your heart.

A man, then, who comes to the Lord’s table must consider and say, “I have been lacking in the service of God. I have not been so careful in keeping the Sabbath. I have not had that watchfulness over my corruptions. Well, I will now get myself new strength. I will go to this table that I may be more strengthened in time to come, to fight afresh; so that whereas I was weak and feeble before, I will now get strength.” He who comes with this resolution, if his heart can say, “This I aim at,” it is wonderful to think what profit the Lord will give him. If we say, “We come to get strength to fight against Satan,” and so forth, we shall prevail and obtain it.

Would a man not think his food ill bestowed on one whom it does no good, who eats and drinks and yet is never the better, on whom his food never shows? Even so, he who comes to the Lord’s table and yet does not thrive by that heavenly food eaten there discredits it. It is with him as it was with the ugly cows (Gen 41:1 and following), who, although they ate up seven others, were themselves still so ugly and lean that it could not be seen that they had eaten anything. It is so with many poor Christians, who often feast and yet are never the better, remaining as lean as ever.

We must therefore take care in this case that we do not discredit those heavenly meals, but we must find our strength increased. If before we were able to beat down one sin, we must now be able to beat down three. In the first book of Samuel, when Saul was in pursuit of his enemies and charged that they should taste no food until they had gained the victory, Jonathan said on this, “My father hath troubled the people, because he hath forbidden them to eat, whereby their strength faileth” (1 Sam 14:29). So when God comes to feed us, let us find strength. Let us see, are our eyes not enlightened as Jonathan’s were, being cleared after he had tasted a little honey? Do we not have better hearts than before? Shall we not make a greater slaughter of our enemies than before?

If we find this, what an upper hand we shall get over our enemies! Let us therefore eat, and so eat that we labor to go forty days in the strength of this meat (1 Kgs 19:8), until we come to the full and final possession of Horeb, the mount of God. And so the Lord will take delight to refresh us. We shall get new hearts, new courage, and we shall more and more tread down Satan under our feet; and, as the apostle speaks, the God of peace shall at length tread him finally under our feet (Rom 16:20), when we shall have the blessed enjoyment of our dear Savior, and the eternity of those unspeakable joys, to reign with him forever. Which may God grant, and that for Christ Jesus’ sake! Amen.

For this cause many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged (1 Cor 11:30-31).

I intend at this time especially to stand upon the duty of judging, as being fittest for the occasion. But yet, by God’s assistance, we will take the words in order, because I desire to speak somewhat of the others which follow.

“For this cause many are sick…” After the holy apostle, the seedsman of God, had sown the seed of heavenly doctrine, Satan also by his instruments had sown his weeds of abuses among the Corinthians. Of these, among many, this was one: to come irreverently to the holy communion. Whereupon God was forced to take them into his own hands. And lest they should be ignorant of the cause, the blessed apostle points them here, as it were with the finger, to the cause of the visitation among them, their irreverent and unprepared coming to the Lord’s table: “For this cause…” In the words we will speak of:

1. The cause of the correction among them.

2. And then of the kinds of it: “Many are sick, and weak, and sleep.”

3. And then of the care, which, if it had been used, might have prevented those contagious sicknesses among them: “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.”

But lest God’s children should despair when they are judged and sharply corrected by him, the apostle adds, in the next place, the comfort: however things fall out, our salvation is promoted. “When we are judged,” and chastened of the Lord, “it is that we should not be condemned with the world.”

First, of the cause.

I will speak briefly of the former verse, but dwell most upon the next, on self-judging. “For this cause many are weak and sick, and many sleep.” Observe here in the cause:

Doctrine 1. When there is a cause, God will correct; and where there is this cause, that is, irreverent coming to the communion, he will correct.

Doctrine 2. As there is a cause when God corrects, so usually there is this or that particular cause.

For the first, where there is cause he will correct, and where there is this cause. Where there is no cause he will not correct. “For this cause.” There is always a cause, and a particular cause of God’s judgment.

Question. Why must there always be a cause?

Answer. Because God is the judge of the world, and the judge of the world must needs do that which is right (Gen 18:25). And therefore he will not judge without a cause. We have ill in us before we suffer ill. God is forced to mortify sins by afflictions, because we do not mortify them by the Spirit and in the use of holy means. There is a cause always. God does favors from his own compassion and from his own nature; but he never corrects without a cause from us. Corrections and judgments are always forced. It is a stranger work to him than favors, which come from his own nature as a gracious God, and therefore the cause of his judgment is always in us. But when he is beneficial to us, it comes from himself, as water comes from a fountain.

Instruction. This should teach us in all visitations to justify God, and to take heed of that which our nature is prone to, of swelling and murmuring and rising up against God. You are just, and righteous are your judgments. I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned, as it is said in Micah 7:9. Let us lay our hand upon our mouth, and justify God in all his visitations. There is a cause.

And not only a cause at random, but if we search ourselves, there is this or that particular cause. So it is said in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-11, For this cause God gave them up to strong delusions, because they entertained not the truth in the love of it. There is a “this”; for God does not shoot his judgments as children shoot their arrows, at random, to light where they will; he has his aim.

Question. How shall we find out that “this”?

Answer. 1. Our consciences will upbraid us. If we are well acquainted with our consciences, we shall know it by them, as Joseph’s brothers did. It was because they had treated their brother harshly many years before (Gen 42:21).

2. Again, what the word most confronts when we hear it.

3. And what our friends tell us about most.

4. And what our enemies most upbraid us with.

5. That we may know the cause, we may know the sin by its contrary. God cures contraries with contraries. We may often read the cause in the judgment. Is the judgment shame? Then the cause was pride. Is the judgment want? Then our sin was in abundance. We did not learn to abound as we should when we had it. It is an ordinary rule that contraries are cured with contraries. Usually God meets with men and pays them back in their own coin and kind. Those who have been unmerciful shall meet with those who show them no mercy, and so on. By searching into our own hearts, by considering these things, we may know what the “this” is, the particular cause.

And if we fail in the search, then go to God, that he would teach us as well as correct us, as he usually does with his children: Blessed is the man that you correct and teach (Ps 94:12). Ask God to add teaching to correction, that we may know what the meaning of the rod and of the cross is. Whatever it is, if we join prayer with the other means, we may know the “this,” the particular sin that God aims at. So you see these things clearly: that there is a cause, and usually the “this,” some particular cause.

Doctrine 3. The next point is that where there is a cause, God will correct sooner or later, and where there is this cause mentioned, irreverent coming to the communion, he will do it because he is just. If we do not forestall it by repentance, and so afflict our own souls, surely we must fall into God’s hands. He will lose the glory of none of his attributes. Where there is a cause he will correct. Sin is against his nature, against his truth, against his manner of dealing with us by favors and benefits, and therefore he will correct us.

For even as smoke goes before fire, and as conception goes before birth, and as seedtime goes before harvest, so sin goes before some correction or other universally, unless it is those daily infirmities that God’s children fall into, those sins of daily incursion, as we call them. When we labor to knit our hearts fast and close to God, some infirmities slip from us that God overlooks. He does not take notice of every slip; he bears with our infirmities as a father bears with a son that serves him (Mal 3:17). And yet if we allow ourselves in any infirmity, we shall not go unpunished. Infirmities are one thing, and allowance and defense of them is another. Therefore I beseech you, make this use of it.

Use. Take heed of sinning upon this false notion: “We shall escape, we shall never hear of it again.” No; the debt will come due sooner or later. As we say of those who make bold with their bodies, using them hard, rushing upon this thing and that thing: in their youth they may bear it out, but it will come due afterward, and they shall find it in their bones when they are old. So one may say of those venturesome persons who make no conscience of running into sin: these things will come due another day; they shall hear of them in the time of sickness, or in the hour of death. And therefore never sin upon a vain hope of concealing it; for as there is always a cause, and “this cause,” so where there is a cause, God will correct his own children.

Again, where there is this cause, God will visit with correction. What was this cause? This cause was irreverent, unprofitable coming to the holy table of the Lord. “Why, is this so great a matter as to provoke God’s judgment?” Oh, yes! Favors neglected provoke anger most of all.

Is it not a great favor for the great God to condescend to help our weakness in the sacrament? Is it not a special favor that he will stoop to strengthen our weak faith this way? And shall we, when he condescends to us, rise up in pride against him, and forget our distance, forget with whom we have to deal? No; God will be honored by all who come near him; if not by them, yet in them. Those who do not come to God now in Christ, as a Father, do not know his goodness; and those who come irreverently do not know his greatness and majesty.

Take heed, therefore, when we come before God, that we do not come with strange fire, as Nadab and Abihu did; that we do not come irreverently and unprepared, with carnal affections; but that we engage in holy business with holy affections. Is it not a great pity that those things which God has ordained for the comfort of our souls and the help of our faith, we by our carelessness should turn to our hurt, as we do by an irreverent coming to the holy things of God? We procure our own judgments. And therefore we ought to remedy this irreverent demeanor and conduct of ours in the holy things of God by all means, with the consideration of his majesty and our dependence upon him, and such considerations, which I cannot now enter into, because I am hastening on. So you see these things clearly, the cause, and the particular cause, this cause.

To go on, therefore, to the kinds. The kinds are set down in three degrees:

1. Some are weak.

2. And some sick.

3. And some sleep.

Indeed, “many are sick and weak, and many sleep.” Here are three degrees, like the three degrees of sin among them. Some are more presumptuous than others.

Doctrine 4. And God, who made all in number, weight, and measure, dispenses all in number, weight, and measure. Some are weak, and some are sick, which is greater; and some sleep, that is, die. Even as in the commonwealth those who are discreet governors have degrees of punishment, such as the stocks, the prison, and the gibbet, violent death, and the like, so God, the great Governor of heaven and earth, has different degrees of correction according to the different degrees of sin.

A physician loves all his patients alike, but he does not administer sharp potions alike to all; out of the same love there is a different handling, according to the need of the patient. So it is with the wise God. Some are weak, and some sick, and some sleep.

Doctrine 5. Again, we may observe here that sickness and weakness of the body come from sin, and are a fruit of sin. Some are weak, and some are sick, “for this cause.” I shall not need to be long in the proof of that, for which you have whole chapters, as Deuteronomy 28:27 and the verses following, and many psalms, Psalm 107 and others. It is for the sickness of the soul that God visits with the sickness of the body. He aims at the cure of the soul in the touch of the body.

And therefore in this case, when God visits with sickness, we should think our work is more in heaven with God than with men or medicine. Begin first with the soul. So it was with David (Ps 32:5). Until he dealt frankly with God, without any kind of guile, and confessed his sins, he roared; his moisture was turned into the drought of summer. But when he dealt directly and plainly with God, and confessed his sins, then God forgave him and healed his body too. And therefore the best method, when God visits us in this way, is to think that we are to deal with God. Begin the cure there, with the soul. When he visits the body, it is for the soul’s sake: “Many are weak and sick among you.”

We see what tabernacles of dust we carry about us. If we had no outward enemy, yet God can raise that in our own bodies which shall cast out the greatest giant, weakness and sickness, that we may learn to fear God, in whose hand are both health and sickness. And it should teach us to make precious use of our health while we have it. It would be a thousand times better for many persons to be cast on the bed of sickness, and to be God’s prisoners, than to use the health they have so scandalously and unfruitfully: “many are weak and sick.”

Doctrine 6. The sin was general, and God’s visitation was as general. When sins grow general, corrections grow general. It is an idle and vain excuse that many think to make for themselves: “The world does this; others do this.” Oh! there is the more danger of a spreading and general visitation! Do others do so? Is it a spreading sin? Take heed of a spreading and contagious punishment. We must not follow a multitude to do evil (Exod 23:2). He is not a whit the less tormented who is tormented with company. The plea, therefore, that they make from the many, that the world does this, should rather, if they reasoned wisely, move them to take heed.

“Many are sick and weak, and many sleep,” he says; that is, many even die. God takes away the life of many for the irreverent coming to the holy things of God. So sin brings death itself with it, not only at the last, but it shortens a man’s days. And this kind of sin, irreverent coming to the holy things of God, shortens our days, and puts out our own candle, and pulls our own houses down about our ears. They are felons upon themselves, soul-murderers and body-murderers, who willfully commit sin; yes, if it is this sin in the holy things of God, not only if they commit gross sins, but if they commit this sin, if they are careless and unconscientious in the performance of this holy duty.

If anyone else did us the thousandth part of the harm we do ourselves by a careless life, a loose and lawless kind of course, we would not bear with them. We see here what hurt we do ourselves, what injury, what wrong we do to our own souls and bodies also; for “for this cause many are weak and sick, and many sleep.”

We are the greatest enemies to ourselves. We cry out against Judas and Ahithophel, who made away with themselves, and well we may. Every stubborn man who goes on in a course of sin, and forgets with whom he has to deal, is like Judas and Ahithophel; he is an enemy to himself, and a murderer of himself. Oh! take heed, therefore, of the Devil’s baits; do not meddle with this pitch; do not touch it; hate all shows and appearances of evil.

Doctrine 7. Again, it is not to be forgotten here that he says, “Many of you,” that is, you, believing Corinthians. From this learn that God will correct sin wherever he finds it, even in his dearest children. Indeed, he will correct them more sharply in this world than he will others, because he will save their souls in another world. The careless, brutish world, who are not worthy of correction, God lets go on in smooth ways to hell; but “many of you…” Let no one think to be exempt, and venture boldly on the strength of the grace they have. No. God will look to those of his family who are near him; he will have a special eye on them, he will have his family well ordered: You have I known of all the nations of the world, he says, and therefore I will be sure to punish and to correct you (Amos 3:2).

Let no one, therefore, rely upon their profession: “I do this and that, so many good things, therefore I may be bold.” No, therefore you may be the less bold. Moses cannot so much as murmur at the waters of strife without being kept from coming into Canaan (Num 20:10-12). David cannot have a proud thought of numbering the people without smarting for it (1 Chr 21:2). The Corinthians cannot come irreverently to the communion, “but for this cause many are weak and sick.”

I beseech you, let us take it to heart, and let no profane person take encouragement because God deals in this way with his own. If God deal thus with the green tree, what will he do with the dry? And if judgment begin at the house of God, where shall the sinner and ungodly appear? (1 Pet 4:17-18). If the godly taste of the cup of God’s anger, the wicked must drink off the dregs of his wrath. And therefore let no one take offense that God follows the church with crosses, that the cross follows the poor church in the world. Alas! they carry corruptions about them continually. We see it here: “you, many of you…” Let us therefore labor to carry through our salvation with fear and trembling, the best of us all.

Doctrine 8. One thing more before I leave this; that is, how God in justice remembers mercy. “Many,” he says, not “all,” and “many of you are weak”; he does not take all away with death. It is a mercy, then, that the correction is outward in the body, weak in body, and sick. There was no spiritual giving up to hardness of heart. Beloved! if we consider what kind of judgments spiritual judgments are, to have a seared conscience and a hard and desperate heart, which are forerunners of hell and of eternal judgment and damnation, we would greatly prize mercy in judgment. Oh! it is not so with God’s church. Their visitations are in the outward man; they are weak, and sick, and die, but God is merciful to their souls, as we shall see afterward.

And it should be an art we learn and labor to be expert in, to consider God’s gracious dealing in the midst of his correction, that in the midst of corrections we might have thankful and cheerful and fruitful hearts, which we shall not have unless we have some matter of thankfulness. Consider: does God make me weak? He might have struck me with death, or if he had not taken away my mortal life, he might have given me up to a spiritual death, to a hard heart, to despair, and so on. So let us always search out, in the visitations we are in, some matter of mitigation, and we shall always find that it might have been worse with us than it is. So much shall serve for that verse, that is, the cause and the kinds: “For this cause many are weak and sick, and many sleep.” Now I come to the cure.

“If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.”

If this course had been used by the Corinthians, they might have prevented their weakness, sickness, and untimely death. And so we, if we take the course prescribed by the apostle here, may prevent the like. And perhaps God will not now, in this dispensation that he uses in the latter end of the world, outwardly visit us, for now his dispensation and government is usually more inward. And therefore we should take the more heed to what follows; he may give us up, I say, to blindness, to deadness, to complacency. He does not usually give men up to sickness and to death now for such breaches, but his government is more spiritual. Indeed, then, for the terror of all, his government was more outward in the primitive times of the church.

To come therefore to what I mean to speak of: the cure of all is judging. There is a judge set up in our own hearts. “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged of the Lord.” To open the words a little:

That which is translated here “judging” is rendered by the best expositors, one and another, and according to the nature of the word, “if we would discern ourselves,” “if we would try ourselves,” and have our senses exercised to distinguish what is good and what is ill in us, and then to proceed to judging, trial, and thorough examination. The word signifies primarily “to examine thoroughly” and “to sift,” and then “to censure” upon that; and then after, “to sever ourselves from the ill we censure.” The word implies all these duties.

God has so framed man that he alone of all creatures can work upon himself. He has this reflexive act, as we call it: he can examine, judge, try, and humble himself; other creatures look straight forward. Man, I say, can discern and put a difference. He can discern relations: this and that has relation to such and such a thing. The beast cannot discern relations: the beast goes to the water and to the fodder, but does not know what relation that has to spiritual things. But man, when he sees the sacrament, can think of Christ; when he sees one thing, he can think of its relation to more spiritual things. So he can discern himself, and the things he takes in hand, by a principle that God has put into him, peculiar to himself.

Now God has set up in a man a judgment seat, where things should be judged before they come to this scrutiny and judgment. We ourselves are the parties judged, and we should be the judges; we are the parties who examine and the parties examined; we are the parties who condemn and the parties condemned. This is the power of conscience, which God has made his viceroy and deputy in us. But let me acquaint you with the things I mean to speak of, as time will give leave.

Doctrine 9. [1] Out of these words, which give the cure, I will show that naturally we are very backward to this duty, because the Corinthians here were failing in the duty.

[2] I will show you the necessity, profit, and use of this self-judging.

[3] Then I will speak of the time when we should especially judge: when we are to deal with God in holy things.

[4] And then, what to do after all, when we have judged ourselves; what course to take then.

The unfolding of these things will help us to understand this great point that is so necessary.

[1] Naturally we are wondrously backward to this duty, as we see here in the Corinthians; they hurried carelessly over this duty of examination and self-judging.

Question. What is the reason?

Answer. The reason is, it is an inward act, and naturally we look to outward, glorious things. There is no glory in it before the world; it is in God, and his own soul. And usually the life of careless persons, even of Christians sometimes, is spent outwardly; they never enter into their own souls to see what is there.

Again, naturally we rest in the judgment of others. Others think well of us, and therefore we think well of ourselves. Remember, they are only our fellow prisoners. What can they excuse, if God accuses and condemns us? The things that make us most odious to God cannot be discerned by the eye of man: a proud heart, a revengeful spirit, an earthly disposition, and the like. No man can see these things.

Again, usually we rest in this, that we have wit enough to judge others. The proud nature of man thinks itself somebody when it can get up and judge others, perhaps better than itself. This is a poor contentment. It is an easy thing for a man to spend his censures on others, and it is usually done with some glory. It is sometimes necessary, with those who are under us, to show them what we judge of their ways, but oftentimes, I say, it is done only out of self-love and pride.

Again, we are backward in this duty. This comes from the fact that the heart of man is a proud piece of flesh, and therefore he is unwilling to think of himself as he has cause to. Man would naturally live in a fool’s paradise. He knows that if he enters deeply into himself, something will be presented to the eye of his soul that will be an unwelcome object to him. And therefore, because he will not force on himself any other opinion of himself than he holds at present, he is content never to examine his courses, but to go on still.

As there are some deformed creatures in the world that are unwilling to come to the water, because they will not see their deformity in it, so it is with the nature of man. He is unwilling to see his deformity; he is willing to be deceived. In other things we are unwilling to be mistaken, but in our state between God and us, we are willing to be deceived. We deceive ourselves; we are sophists to ourselves in this great point. Thus we see that it is a duty to which we are very backward, and that it is somewhat hard, because, I say, it reflects on ourselves and requires retiring. For naturally we are slothful and idle; and then sin loves corners, which makes it harder.

Now, what is this sifting and searching of the heart, but a searching of all the corners of the soul by the light of God’s word and Spirit? A searching of all the corners of the heart. This requires much pains. Naturally we are unwilling to take pains with our own souls, though indeed these are preventing pains, to shun a worse misery hereafter. Nothing is gained by favoring ourselves.

What need is there for me to be long on this point? It is clear that naturally we are unwilling to judge ourselves, as we shall see hereafter. Oh, if the worst man had that judgment of himself which he shall have before long, when he shall not be besotted, but be free from the spiritual drunkenness and madness that he is in now, carried along with the course of the world! Then he shall judge truly of himself. Oh, that he could do it in time! But naturally, I say, what with negligence, what with pride, and what with resting in the opinions that others have of us, we neglect so necessary a duty.

Well, then, to go to the second point: as we are prone to neglect it, so we must know the following.

Doctrine 10. It is a necessary and useful duty to judge ourselves, for it is the ground of all repentance. The complaint in Jeremiah 8:6 is that they rushed as a horse into the battle, and no man said, what have I done?

Question. What was the reason they rushed as a horse into the battle?

Answer. No man entered into himself and said, What have I done? I considered my ways, and turned my feet to your testimonies, says David (Ps 119:59). Consideration, therefore, is the ground of repentance and conversion. So in examining our ways, and in the trial of them and of every good work, there must be this judging, this discerning of what is spirit and what is flesh. A man cannot do a good work without using this principle that God has put into him, of judging himself and judging his ways.

And then again, it is a duty that makes a man good in himself. For when we do outward good duties, they are good for others. If a man is bountiful, another has the benefit; if he is merciful, another has the profit. But when a man judges himself, and sets up a court in himself, his own soul is the better for it. He is the more holy man, the more watchful man, the more clear from his sins; he is the better framed for holy duties. It is the better for his own self. And therefore this duty is the spring of all other good duties, and it is most beneficial to a man’s own soul.

Again, this is a duty that settles the judgment, and makes us impregnable in temptation. When we have passed a judgment on ourselves, let this or that judgment be passed, we do not care, for we have judged ourselves as we should by the rule. We know what we have done, we know what we have said, we are able to justify it. It makes us ready and able to give an account to God and to the world for what we do. But why should I go further than the text? Here is a special good use it has: if we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged by the Lord. This judging of ourselves prevents a further judgment.

Question. How is that?

Answer. First of all, because we spare God a labor. When we judge ourselves, he need not take us in hand to judge us. His corrections and his statutes are often called judgments in the Psalms. Now, upon the neglect of his judgments and statutes, we run into his judgments and corrections. Yet if we were careful of our duty, we might prevent the judgments of correction.

Then again, things judged in one court cannot in equity be judged in another. Now, the God of all justice and equity will surely observe equity strictly. Our sins may be judged in an inferior court; in the court of conscience we may have cited and indicted ourselves before ourselves, and given sentence on ourselves before ourselves. Then what is condemned in this lower court of conscience shall never be condemned hereafter. And therefore the necessity of this duty issues from this: “if we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged.”

Question. What is the ground on which men are judged with the judgment of correction?

Answer. We may learn here that we have ourselves to thank, for not returning into our souls: I was careless of setting up a court in my own heart, careless in using those abilities that God has given me to discern and to understand my own ways. I have been careless there, and because I did not judge myself, it is just of God to judge me. We see here the necessity from the text: when we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged; therefore, when we are judged, we have been negligent in this duty of judging ourselves.

Well, to hasten: if this is so, if it is a duty that we are backward in, and yet it is a holy and useful duty, then we come, in the next place, to some directions on how to carry ourselves in it.

(1) In judging ourselves, let us call and cite ourselves before ourselves, and fall to a reckoning, both with our persons and the state in which we stand, and likewise with the actions that come from us: what is good in us and what is ill, what is omitted and what is committed, what corruption is mingled with our best performances, and the like, as we shall see afterward. First, call ourselves to a reckoning, and see whether we can give an account to ourselves or not. And if we cannot give an account to ourselves, much less can we give one to the all-seeing eye and justice of God.

I would gladly have a worldling give an account to himself of why the older he grows, the more worldly he should be. He cannot give an account to himself for it. I would have a profane swearer give an account to himself of why he trifles with the great and terrible majesty of God, as if he were greater than God, when God pronounces “that he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain” (Exod 20:7). I would gladly know from those who spend the prime of their time and years in the service of the devil, and bring their rotten old age to God, what account they can give to their own hearts.

I would have any sinner who lives in a course of sin give an account to his own heart: You wretched man, can you not give an account to yourself? God is greater than your heart; how do you think you will stand before the judgment seat of God before long? The first thing, therefore, is to arraign ourselves at our own bar. I do not exclude others who have a calling to examine others, but especially let us present ourselves.

(2) And when we find anything amiss, then, besides this arraigning of ourselves, we must give sentence against ourselves. That is the second thing in this examination. So David says, “So foolish was I, and as a beast” (Ps 73:22), when he had entertained a thought that God neglected his church and regarded it no more; he had a dishonorable thought of God raised in his heart. Oh, he says, I was ashamed, so foolish, and so like a beast was I.

So you have the prodigal, and Daniel 9:4 and following, and Ezra 9:6 and following, for examples of how to pass a censure on ourselves when we find anything amiss. And labor that those affections that are in us toward what is ill, such as grief and shame and sorrow, may be stirred up in us, by setting ourselves in grief and shame and sorrow as we should, to turn the stream of our affections the right way.

(3) When we find anything amiss in our own hearts, when we have given sentence and judgment on ourselves, then proceed to execution: let them go together, judgment and execution. The apostle calls this a holy revenge (2 Cor 7:11). If we have been proud, let us abase ourselves. If we have been base in the duties of charity and good works to others, let us now, like Zacchaeus, labor for the contrary (Luke 19:8). If we have misspent our precious time, let us labor now to redeem the time, to do the contrary good. This is the course we ought to take.

And as for the things that we ought to sift, and to try, and to judge, they are not only our persons, but whatever comes from us. We are to judge all our actions, not only our ill actions, but our good actions. There is much dross mingled with our gold; let us examine our best actions. Indeed, and not only our outward actions, but go to the very root. When we find a fault in any outward action, follow it to the very corrupt spring. Those who have a plant that bears venomous fruit dig it up at the root. So when any bad fruit comes from us, go to the root and strike at it there. Follow sin to its burrow, its first hatching place, to the very heart.

Thus David does in Psalm 51:5: he goes to his birth sin. Why should I speak, he says, of the sins that I have committed? “In sin was I conceived.” In all actual sins, look to the corrupt root and puddle from which they come, saying, Oh, what is this word that I have spoken? What is this action? I have a corrupt nature that is ready to yield to a hundred such on the like occasion. And then go to the heart and to the soul, and censure that, for that is worse than any particular act whatever.

Take heed of laying the fault on this occasion or that occasion, when we find ourselves faulty. No. Say, It was you, my proud heart! It was you, my angry heart, my base, worldly heart! The occasion only helped; the principal culprit was my own heart. Let us labor, therefore, to be thoroughly acquainted with our heart, which is wondrously unfaithful. There is a mystery of deceit in it.

Question. What is the reason that God’s children sometimes fall into sins that they never thought of, and that they are not naturally prone to?

Answer. Because there is no man who sufficiently knows the depth of the falsehood of his own heart. For Moses to become an angry man, who was the meekest man on earth, was strange, yet at the waters of strife he broke out into passion (Num 20:10). For David, whose heart was touched for cutting off the lap of Saul’s garment (1 Sam 24:5), it was strange to come to murder (2 Sam 11:15 and following). Now, who would have thought that murder had lodged in David’s heart? For Peter, who loved Christ so much, to come to deny and to forswear his Master: who would have thought that forswearing had lurked in the heart of Peter (Matt 26:72)?

Beloved, we do not know what corruption lurks in our hearts. Indeed, we shall sometimes find, if we search our hearts narrowly, corruptions there that at other times we are not prone to, so deceitful is our heart. And therefore, in all outward breaches, in speech or conduct, be sure to run to the heart to condemn sin, and to strike at it there.

Well, thus we see some directions on how to carry ourselves. It is not, beloved, the having of corruption that damns men, but the affections we carry toward our corruptions. The best of us have corruptions, but mark how we carry ourselves toward them. A carnal man pleads for his corruptions and strengthens them. Another man has corruption, but it is harshly used. Corruption is treated differently in the heart of a carnal man and of a gracious man. In the one, in a civil, carnal man, it is fostered, cherished, and pleaded for. In the other man it is indeed present, but it is subdued and mortified; it is judged and condemned.

As we say of a man when judgment is passed on him that he is a dead man, though he is not dead, because the sentence of death is passed on him, and when he comes to be executed he dies little by little until he is perfectly dead, so it is when corruption is judged by us and condemned in our hearts. It is, as it were, dead, because we have passed the sentence on it, we have condemned it, and because we have begun the execution that shall end in death. And therefore, as we would distinguish ourselves from the world, let us labor more and more, though we have corruption, to carry ourselves thus toward it, to make it more hateful by all means.

We cannot make it too hateful to us. It does us all the mischief in the world; it is the ill of ills. All other ills are only the fruits of it. It puts a fiery, venomed sting into all things. It makes comforting things comfortless: such as the hour of death, which should be thought of as our entrance into heaven, and the day of judgment, the consideration of which should be our joy. What makes these things terrible? Oh, it is sin, the sin that we cherish and love better than our souls! It is that which makes the most comforting things comfortless. What a thing that is, which makes us afraid to go to God, to think of a gracious God, which hinders us in our best performances, which makes us backward and dull! Labor by all means, I say, to make sin odious.

In the best commonwealth in the world there will be lurking rebels and base people. What! Does the commonwealth bear the blame? No. The laws are against them, and they are executed when they are found out. So in the best heart there will be rebellious thoughts and evil thoughts, but let it not be laid to the charge of God’s people. There are laws against them; they labor to find them out and to execute them. Here is the comfort of God’s children, that though they groan under many infirmities, yet they look on them as enemies, and as objects of their mortification.

Well, to hasten: again, in judging ourselves, let us labor to judge ourselves for those things that the world takes no notice of, for spiritual and inward things: for stirrings of pride, of worldliness, of revenge, of complacency, of unthankfulness, and the like; for unkindness toward God, and barrenness in good duties, which the world cannot see. Oh, let these humble our hearts! For want of judging ourselves for these, God gives us up to outward breaches, and justly too. When we make no conscience of spiritual sins, God gives us up to open sins that stain and blemish our profession.

Again, let us judge ourselves for the sins in good duties. Take heed in our best performances that we are not deceived in them. Poison is dangerously taken in perfumed gloves and in sweet things, because it is conveyed in sweetness; and so in holy duties there is conveyed pride and resting in them. Take heed, lest corruption mingle some deadly thing with our best performances.

The Corinthians came to the table of the Lord. But because they thought the duty a good duty, and that they could not sin in a good duty, they came to it headlong and carelessly. Oh, but we see how God deals with them! And therefore let us examine, in good duties and performances, with what minds we come, with what preparation, with what aims and ends we perform them. Many thousands, we may fear, are damned even for good duties, for duties that are not ill in themselves, because they think they may be bold there, and put off the power of grace, and rest in common civil things, even in outward performances. When we do not regard the manner, God does not regard the matter of the things we do, but oftentimes punishes for the performance of good duties, as we see here in the Corinthians. But to proceed.

Let us observe some helps to all this that we have spoken of. To help us, let us get a good rule. Let the rule of our judging and discerning be digested into our hearts; let the word of God be engrafted into us. That is the word we must judge by, the word we must be saved or damned by before long. As for false rules, the practice of the world and our own imaginations, away with them! We must not judge by those, but by the truth of God. And therefore be sure of this, so that the rule and our souls may be one, so that we may have the rule as ready as any corruption and any sin is, so that when anything arises in our hearts, the word engrafted in our hearts may be ready to check it immediately.

An unlearned judge may oftentimes mar everything, whatever the cause is, however good it may be. So when the judgment is not instructed, an ignorant person can never manage his own soul. Let us labor for knowledge, that we may be learned in this judicature and judgment of ourselves.

Question. What is the reason that many good souls are ready to bear false witness against themselves, and to condemn themselves for what they should not?

Answer. (1) Sometimes they condemn their state, and think that they are not the children of God, when they are. They lack judgment out of God’s book. Because they have corruption in them, they conclude that they have no grace. Because they have only a little grace, they conclude that they have none at all, as if God’s glory were not to show his strength in the midst of their weakness. And so, for want of judgment out of the Scriptures, they lay a plaster on a sound place, and a true man is condemned for a traitor. Just persons condemn themselves in their courses that are gracious, for want of a sanctified and good judgment. Let us labor to have our judgment rightly instructed out of God’s word, and in the use of all good means to grow in knowledge, that we may be discerning Christians, able to judge between the flesh and the spirit, between good and bad, and to have our senses exercised in this kind.

(2) Let us not only have the law, but know the gospel too. We must know what state Christians should be in under the gospel, and not look altogether to breaches of the law, but to what the gospel requires: not only how short we fall of the law (which we can never attain to), but of what we might attain to in the gospel. Let us bring ourselves to what we might be, and to what others have attained, to the view of others better than ourselves, and this will make us judge ourselves.

But, as I said before, let us labor to know the sins against the gospel. Let us know what condition of life is required under the gospel: a fruitful life and a thankful one. Our whole life under the gospel should be nothing but thankfulness and fruitfulness; we should be inflamed with the love of Christ. Oh, take heed of turning that grace of God into wantonness! Oh, would we have fresh evidence of the love of God in Christ? Take heed of sins against the gospel. Know what the conduct of a Christian should be: to walk worthy of the gospel, worthy of the high calling of a Christian.

The state of the gospel requires that we should deny all ungodliness and worldly lust, and live righteously, and soberly, and godly (Titus 2:12), and that we be earnest and zealous of good works. When we find ourselves otherwise, think, Oh, this is not the life of a Christian under the gospel! The gospel requires a more fruitful, more zealous conduct, more love to Christ. “Anathema maranatha” belongs to him who does not love the Lord Jesus (1 Cor 16:22). And therefore, when we find any coldness toward so gracious a God and so blessed a Savior, let us condemn ourselves.

(3) And take the benefit likewise of the judgment of others, if we would learn to judge ourselves thoroughly. Consider what others say; it is one branch of the communion of saints to regard the judgment of others. Oh, it is a blessed thing to have others tell us of our faults, and as it were to pull us out of the fire with violence, as Jude says (Jude 23): better to pull us out with violence, with sharp rebukes, than that we should perish and be damned in our sins.

If a man is to weed his ground, he sees his need of the benefit of others. If a man is to demolish his house, he will be thankful to others for their help. So he who is to pull down his corruption, that old house, should be thankful to others who will tell him, This is rotten, and this is to blame. If he is not thankful for seasonable reproof, he does not know what self-judging means. If any man were so uncivil, when someone shows him a spot on his garment, as to grow angry, would we not judge him to be an unreasonable man? And so when a man is told, This will hinder your comfort another day, if men were not spiritually besotted, would they swell and be angry against such a man? Therefore take the benefit of the judgment of others among whom you live.

This was David’s disposition when he was told of the danger in going to kill Nabal and his household, when Abigail, a discreet woman, came and diverted him. Oh, he says, “Blessed be God, and blessed be thou, and blessed be thy counsel” (1 Sam 25:32); you have kept me from shedding innocent blood this day. So we should bless God, and bless those who labor by their good counsel and advice to hinder us from any sinful course, whatever it is.

(4) And then again, as a help to awaken your conscience, go to the house of mourning. That will help us by awakening conscience. Consider the judgments of God abroad in the church, and consider our danger at home, and labor to have our hearts awakened. And then we will be ready to judge ourselves, when we keep our souls in a waking temper. Take heed of spiritual complacency above all things.

(5) As for our company, let it not be with the world, for then we will justify ourselves; but keep company with those who are better, and the light of their excellence will abase us and make us judge ourselves. I have reason to be as good as they, to be as forward as they; what a shame it is for me not to do as they do! To bring ourselves to the light of good examples does much good to Christians, and makes them ashamed of their backwardness and dullness.

Those who have false hearts shun the company of those who are better than themselves. Because they would have everyone alike, they besmear and sully others in their reputation, so that those others shall not be thought better than the false-hearted. A base and devilish course! But a Christian labors to keep company with those who are better, because he would grow better than himself. Take heed of a false heart in this kind.

(6) Again, because I cannot follow the argument so fully as I thought I should have done, when all these helps and directions are perhaps not sufficient, join with this a desire that God would help us by his own Spirit to search our hearts and judge ourselves. And complain to him of our corruptions and weaknesses, as with the virgin who was forced: if she made her complaint, she saved her reputation and her life (Deut 22:26). So make your complaint to God: “Lord, I want to serve you, but corruption holds too great a sway in me.” And desire God to help us with heavenly light and strength; so we shall escape eternal death. Corruption is his enemy. It is Christ’s enemy as well as ours, and Christ, if we beg him, will help us against his enemy and ours. This should be our daily course and practice.

Objection. Now some will object, “Here is a troublesome course! What a lot of fuss this is! What kind of life would you make the life of a Christian, to be always sifting and passing sentence like this?”

Answer. It is the trouble of medicine that prevents the trouble of sickness. Is it not better to be troubled with medicine than to be troubled with a long and tedious sickness? Is it not better to be troubled with the pain of a surgeon’s dressing than with the pain of a wound? All this is only prevention; by this course we prevent further trouble. For we must know that God has put conscience into us, and this conscience must and shall have its work, either in this world or in the world to come. And therefore let us discharge that work now by sifting, by examining and condemning ourselves, that conscience may not rise and stand against us when we would have it as our friend.

Oh, carry things so that conscience may be a friend at the day of judgment. Do not put it out of office now. Let it say what it can. Do not stifle it, do not stop it, do not divert it; let it have its full scope to say what it can.

For I beg you, only consider the fearful condition of a man who has neglected self-examination. When he comes to die, and is in any trouble, when he sees death before him, live he cannot, and to die he is unfit. For if he looks back, he looks back on a world of sin not repented of. Forward he sees eternal damnation before him. If he looks to God, God is offended at his rebellious course of life. Where then is the comfort of such a one, who in the glorious light of the gospel does not practice this duty of judging himself?

Sin must be judged either in a repentant heart or else by God, since it is against God’s prerogative, for he has made a law against it. Judged it must be: we must give account of every “idle word,” either in a repentant heart, by afflicting our own souls for it, or at the day of judgment (Matt 12:36). Now what a fearful thing this will be, to have everything to make account for then!

Is it not a great mercy, beloved, that God has pointed out such a course, to set up a court of conscience to prevent shame? Would it not be a shame for us to have our faults written on our foreheads? And yet better that than to have everything to reckon for at the day of judgment. For if all our faults, our corrupt thoughts and vile affections, were laid open here, there would be hope of repentance in this world. But to have them laid open to our shame and confusion in the world to come is a matter of eternal despair. Now God, to prevent both of these, has set up a court of conscience, that we might judge ourselves, and prevent shame here and damnation hereafter.

Question. And how will this torment wretches in hell, when a man will think, “God put conscience in me. If I had not put it off, but had allowed it to do what it would, I might have been thus and thus; but now I have willfully cast myself into this misery”? It will be the hell in hell, which will torment us more than hell, when we think, “I have brought myself carelessly and complacently to that cursed state,” the state such people will then be in.

Therefore, I beg you, consider the misery of a man who neglects the practice of this duty, and consider also how happy and how sweet is the condition of the man who has performed this duty and carefully performs it every day. He is afraid of no bad news. If anything comes, he has made his reckoning and account with God; there is no sin on file unrepented of, and unjudged, and unconfessed to God. If he looks back, he considers his sins, but he has repented of them. If he looks forward, he sees nothing but God reconciled, and he can think of death and judgment with comfort. Oh, the happiness, and the peace, and the inward paradise of such a man, above another, careless man who puts off looking into his condition, because he will not trouble and afflict his own soul and torment himself before his time!

Here is the difference between a careless and a sound Christian: what the one thinks now, the other will think before long. But only the careless one is mad now, and is not his own man, but besotted with ambition and covetousness; the sound one is sober and in his right mind, able to judge and to pass sentence on himself. And therefore let holy persons who are careful not mind one whit the censures of vain persons. They speak against what they do not know, against a strict course of life. Those who gird up the loins of their souls, and are careful of their ways, are the only sound Christians. They are the only Christians with comfort, who can think of all conditions and of all circumstances with comfort. I beg you, take these things to heart, and let us be stirred up to perform this duty I speak of, of daily trying and examining our ways, that daily we may relish Christ.

Question. What is the reason there is no more rejoicing and thankfulness for Christ?

Answer. We do not keep the wound, I mean corruption, open. We see what is unmortified, but we dry it up; and therefore we do not relish Christ. Sweet is Christ to the soul that is exercised in searching its own heart and ways.

Question. But at what times especially are we to examine ourselves?

Answer. At all times, every day, because we must feed on Christ every day. Therefore we ought to have these sour herbs, considering that we sin daily, that Christ may be relished. Christ justifies the ungodly every day. We have use for justification; and therefore we should daily see our corruptions and judge ourselves for them. Then Christ is Christ indeed, and Jesus is Jesus indeed to us. Every day let us do this. We have short memories; and sin, when it is green, is easily rooted out. Therefore:

1. Every day, before sin takes root, let us judge ourselves. The more we do it now, every day, the less we will have to do when we die and when we are on our sickbeds. And therefore keep on doing it, that we may have the less to do when we are weak. Is that a fit time to go over our life and to pass sentence on our courses, when we are in such a state that we cannot think of earthly things? Oh, it is a poor time to get grace when we should be using grace. And therefore, that we may have the less to do when we will have enough to do to struggle with sickness, and have nothing to do when we die but to die and comfortably yield up our souls to God, let us be exact in our accounts every day.

2. But more especially we should do so when we are to deal with God, as now we are to receive the communion, in which we draw near to God. Those who go to great persons will not go in rags, but put on their best clothes, and make everything neat and handsome, that nothing may be offensive. Have we this wisdom when we appear before anyone greater than ourselves? When we are to appear before God and Christ (especially to have so near a communion as we have in the sacrament), let us labor, I say, to come neat and prepared. When the Israelites were to come to the Passover, the lamb was singled out three days beforehand, that they might have time to prepare themselves (Exod 12:6).

But we ought especially to examine and to judge ourselves when we come near to God in holy communion, to feast with God, which is what is intended here, when we come to receive the blessed sacrament. The Corinthians should have prepared and judged themselves. Because they neglected it they were judged by God. And therefore know, you who mean to receive now, that now is the time when we should judge ourselves, the more especial time. Though we should do it every day, yet this is the special time.

Beware of superstition, though, of thrusting all religion into one time, the time of the communion, as many do. They put off all their examination to a little time before the communion, and the taking of the communion to one time of the year, to Easter; and thus they think God will bear with them. Oh, beware! That is superstition. As I said before, keep a daily account. Every week examine how we have kept our daily account, and every month examine how we have kept our weekly account. And when we come to the communion, examine how we have kept our daily account, whether we have slurred over anything before, especially when we come to take the communion.

Question. But what shall we do when we have done all? When we have examined, and judged, and passed a sentence on ourselves, what shall we do when we have done all?

Answer. When we are condemned in one court, go to another, as a man who is condemned in the Common Law appeals to the Chancery. When we are condemned in the court of justice, fly to God’s chancery, fly to mercy. He who has a sentence passed in one court appeals to another: when we have judged ourselves, then appeal to mercy. For this is to do it in faith; and when we judge ourselves in faith, then, upon our judging, we know that God will pardon. You know he has promised, “If we confess our sins, he is merciful to forgive them” (1 John 1:9). Say, “Lord, I confess them; cancel the bond, cancel the debt.” Therefore a Christian’s plea, when he has judged himself, is to fly to God for pardon. Saul, we know, could judge himself, and Judas could pass a sentence on his own act, that he had sinned; but they went no further. They did not fly to God for mercy in Christ.

Therefore let us fly to the throne of grace. We have an excellent pattern of this in Psalm 130:3, where the psalmist says, “If thou be strict to mark what is done amiss, Lord, who shall abide it?” There he is condemned in one court. “If thou be strict to mark what is done amiss, who shall abide it?” There, being condemned in that court, he flies to the throne of grace: “But there is mercy with thee, that thou mightst be feared” (Ps 130:4). “Lord, if you are strict to mark what is done amiss by me in this action and in that action, who shall abide it? But, Lord, there is mercy with you in Jesus Christ, in whom you have established a throne of mercy; there is mercy with you, that you may be feared.”

Take this course, and undoubtedly God will show mercy, because the Son directs us to the Father in the Lord’s Prayer, that we should ask forgiveness, and God the Father directs us to his Son, to believe his Son for forgiveness. “This is his commandment, that we believe in his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 3:23). We cannot honor the Father more, we cannot honor the Son more, than by going to God for mercy, because God in Christ will now be glorified in his mercy.

Let us take out a pardon, as a matter of course, for every sin. “If we confess our sins, he is merciful to forgive our sins” (1 John 1:9). And therefore it is our own fault if we do not find the assurance of their forgiveness, because we do not deal roundly with God, without a spirit of guile. That is the next duty, then, after we have judged ourselves: to go to mercy.

And to show you one example of how peace comes in after this judging of ourselves: in Romans 7:24 the blessed apostle complains of his own corruptions. He had laid it sorely to his own charge that the evil he would not do, he did, and the good he would do, he did not; and he breaks out, “Oh! wretched man that I am.” What did he find immediately upon this? “Thanks be to God” (Rom 7:25), immediately upon it, as if he had found peace immediately upon complaining of his corruptions, “Oh, miserable man…”

So when we honor God by confessing and judging ourselves, he will honor us with inward peace and joy, because faith honors him by trusting and relying on his mercy. If therefore we would find inward peace in the pardon of our sins, let us deal faithfully with our souls in spreading our sins before God, and we will find peace immediately upon it. If not, learn to wait; for undoubtedly God will make good his promise.

Question. But what shall we do next, after we have so opened the case to God, and gone to him for pardon, and forgiveness, and mercy in Christ?

Answer. Then renew our covenant with God for better service in the time to come, and enter on reformation, on the strength of our resolution; for this is a fruit of the former.

Question. How shall we know that we have humbled ourselves and judged ourselves as we should?

Answer. When we relish the mercy of God in the pardon of our sins.

Question. But how shall we know when God has pardoned our sins?

Answer. When he gives us grace to renew our covenants for the time to come, not to offend him, and when he gives us strength to reform our ways. For with pardoning mercy goes healing mercy: “Praise the Lord, O my soul, that forgives all thy sins, and heals all thine infirmities” (Ps 103:1-3). So these must go together: judging and passing sentence on ourselves, then pleading for mercy, and renewing our covenants, with reformation following.

A Christian looks as well to the time to come as to the time past: for the time past he repents; for the time to come he resolves against all sin. A wicked, carnal man could be content to be freed from the guilt of past sins, that his conscience might not pinch him and torment him. But for the time to come he makes it no matter of conscience to entertain any vows and purposes, or any desire that God would assist him against all sin. But a Christian is as careful of the sin he is in danger of committing in the time to come as a wicked man is to have past sin off his conscience.

As therefore we would have an evidence of our certainty, let us see that we renew our covenants and purposes for the time to come. You have an excellent pattern for this in Psalm 19:12, where David prays, “Lord, cleanse me from my secret sins” (for the sins that hung upon him, and his past sins), and what for the time to come? “Lord, keep me that presumptuous sins have not the dominion over me” (Ps 19:13). So we should pray to God, “Lord, cleanse me from my former sins, and keep me by your Holy Spirit, that presumptuous sins may not have dominion over me for the time to come”; and, as it is in the Lord’s Prayer, join both together: “Forgive us our debts,” and, for the time to come, “lead us not into temptation” (Matt 6:12-13). Those who feel assurance of pardon in their souls will entertain purposes against all sin for the time to come. They will as heartily say, “Lord, do not lead me into temptation,” as they will say, “Lord, forgive my sins.”

Use 1. Well, I beg you, let us lay these things to heart, to practice them. Our peace depends on them. Oh, how sweet are peace and rest after we have made our peace with God, when we have dealt thoroughly and soundly with our own souls, and have not merely plastered them over! There may be dangerous times coming. There is a cloud hanging over our heads; we do not know how it may fall; we see all the world is on fire. Who, when troubles come, will be the happy man? Even he who has judged himself, accused himself, who has mortified his corruptions, and, according to the grace God has given him, renewed his covenant and labored to reform his life, and who keeps it in his purpose of heart to do so (as David prays that he may not offend God for the time to come). He is fit for all times; whatever times come, they will find him in good purposes.

What a fearful thing it would be if death, if some terrible judgment, should light on us in an evil course of life! What would become of us then? Happy is the man who is in the good way, in good purposes, in good resolutions, the bent of whose soul is to God and heavenward. And therefore, as we would give evidence to ourselves that our state is good, that we are wise and not fools, I beg you, let us practice this duty, and make it more familiar to us than we have done. And then undoubtedly we will find something in us better than nature. Nature cannot judge itself. Corruption cannot pass a sentence on itself. It is grace, a principle above nature, that passes sentence on corruption; and therefore when we judge ourselves, it is an undoubted evidence that we are in the state of grace. Who would be without such an evidence?

Use 2. Again, when we find a lack of grace, go out of ourselves, go to God and to Christ. Naturally we stick in ourselves. Judas and Saul could not go to God for mercy when their conscience was awakened with the sense of their sin. To go to God for pardon is an argument that something has been wrought above nature in the heart. And therefore, as we would have an evidence to our souls that there is something in us above common men, let us judge ourselves; let us spare no sin, that God may spare all. Be severe with ourselves, that God may be merciful to us; and when we have done this, look to the abundant mercy of God in Christ. “Where sin hath abounded, grace hath more abounded” (Rom 5:20). Oh, mercy is sweet after we have searched into our corruptions! There is a height, and breadth, and depth of mercy, when we have first felt the height, and breadth, and depth of corruption. May the Lord give a blessing to what has been delivered.

Sermon 2

For this cause many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. (1 Cor 11:30-32)

After blessed St. Paul had sown the seed of heavenly doctrine, Satan had sown some tares. Besides some corruption in doctrine, there was also corruption in life among the Corinthians; whereupon God was forced in mercy to visit them with some judgment. And lest they should be ignorant of the cause, the blessed apostle here puts his finger on it: “for this cause.” We have considered these four things in the words: the cause of the judgment; then the kinds; and the remedy for preventing it, if it had been used: “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged”; and the comfort: however that may be, “when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” Of the cause, the kinds, and the remedy we have spoken; and now we proceed to the comfort.

Mark here the text that I have read to you. Though we all neglect this forenamed remedy in part, yet God is wonderfully merciful: “When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” We will unfold the comfort as the text leads us. In the words consider these things especially, these general heads:

1. That there is a world that must be condemned: we shall not be condemned with the world.

2. And then, God’s people shall not be condemned with the world.

3. The third conclusion that arises out of the text is this, that the way God sanctifies to keep his children from damnation is fatherly correction and chastisement; and therefore we are judged, that we should not be condemned with the world. In unfolding this course that God takes, these three things are to be touched on:

(1) That God’s dealings with his children are but chastisements.

(2) And they are his chastisements: “We are chastened of the Lord.”

(3) And that they are blessed for this end, to keep us from damnation.

These things we will speak of in order.

Doctrine 1. There is a world that is to be condemned: God’s children shall not be condemned with the world.

What is the world in this place?

The world in this place is not the frame of heaven and earth; but (to avoid a multiplicity of senses, on which it would be idle to spend time) by world here is meant those Peter speaks of, the ungodly world, the world of the ungodly. As we see in 2 Peter 2:5, they are called the world of the ungodly; so there is a world taken out of the world, the world of the elect. For as in the great world there is the little world, man, so in the great world of mankind there is a little world, the world of God’s people. But here it is the world of the ungodly.

Why are they called the world?

They are called the world, partly because they are great in the world. They swagger in the world as if they were on their own dunghill there, and as if they were the only men in the world, as indeed for the most part they are. God’s people are a concealed, a hidden people here. And then again, they are the world because they are the most of the world. But especially they are the world because the best thing in them is the world. They have their name from what they love. Love is an affection of union. What we love, we are knit to. Now because carnal men are in love with the things of the world, being united to it in their affections, they have their name from what they love.

And indeed, anatomize a carnal man who is not in the state of grace, rip him up in his soul, and what will you find in him but the world? You will find in his brain worldly plots, worldly policy and vanity. You will find little of the word of God there, and scarcely anything that is good, because the best thing in him is the world; therefore he is the world.

But to pass from the meaning of the word to the point: This world must be condemned. Why condemned? Mark these four or five reasons.

[1] Because the world sets itself on things that must be condemned, on present vanities. Why? All things in this world must pass through the fire before long, the frame of heaven and earth and all in it. Now those who love the world especially, and have no better things in their souls, must perish with the world. He who stands on ice, and on slippery things, slips with the thing he stands on. So those who fasten their souls on the world, on slippery and vain things, fall and slip with the things themselves. Now, because the world pitched their happiness in the things of this life, they are as vain as the things themselves. But to go on.

[2] A second reason why the world must be condemned is this, because they serve a damned prince, and it is a pity that the state of the subject and the state of the prince should be severed. Satan they serve; Satan rules in them according to his own lust; Satan bathes himself in their humors, as it were, in their anger, in their pride, in their covetousness, in their melancholy, in their passion. As with Saul, when he was given up to an evil passion, the devil seized on him, so the devil leads them according to the stream of their own humors and of their own lusts; they are led according to the bent of the prince of the world. Now, they are led by the temptations of Satan, who knows where to catch them with any temptation, and who leads them as we lead sheep with a green bough. When he presents anything to them, he knows where to catch them. And since he is a condemned prince and governor, all who are under him are in the same condition.

[3] The third reason why the world shall be damned is this, because the world condemns God. It is only repayment. Carnal people in the world condemn God’s ways and God’s children, and condemn the ways of religion as overly fussy and foolish. The world has its conceited notions of itself. It scorns the sweetness of religion, and counts the word and obedience to be the sign of a weak and poor spirit. Considering that the world passes such censures on God’s ways, and condemns the generation of the righteous, do you wonder if God condemns the world, when the base and slavish world, led by the devil and by their own lusts, will condemn God and his ways?

And certainly, if you could see into the poisonous disposition of the people among whom we live who are still in the world, and how malicious they are toward God’s courses, you would not wonder that God has ordained such people to be set on the left hand, and to have the sentence of eternal condemnation passed upon them. For though the light shows them which way they should walk, yet they abhor all God’s ways and take ways of their own, as if they would teach God wisdom and prescribe what he should do, as if they were wiser than God. All your worldly-wise politicians are like this. They lead their lives as if they would teach God wisdom, and what he should prescribe, as if they were a great deal wiser than he. Do you wonder that he condemns them then?

Objection. But you will say, “The world? What are you talking about? We are baptized. We hear a sermon now and then! Are we the world? The world is pagans, and Turks, and Jews, and such; perhaps papists. People like that are the world.”

Answer. Oh no, beloved. “Babylon is in Jerusalem,” as the church father says. The world is in the city of God; the world is among you. What is more, that part of the world that shall be most deeply damned is here among us. For our damnation shall be deeper than that of the Turks or the Jews. “You have I known of all the nations of the world,” says God, “and therefore I will be sure to visit you” (Amos 3:2). The three bad grounds, beloved, were the world (Matt 13:1 and following). Though all of them heard the word, yet only one was good.

You may be of the world and yet live in the midst of the church, as Paul complains of many: “of whom,” he says, “I have told you often, and now tell you weeping, they are enemies to the cross of Christ” (they were teachers in the church; they were so far from being aliens), “whose end is damnation, whose belly is their god, whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things” (Phil 3:18-19). When the guides and teachers of the church, who should direct other people’s aim at salvation, make “their belly their god, and damnation their end,” shall we assure ourselves that we are in a good estate because we are baptized and because we hear the word, when the “three bad grounds” did as much? To be out of the world and to be in Christ is a very different matter from what the world takes it to be.

Beloved, in holy duties there are two things: there is the outward duty, the shell, and there is the life and soul of the duty. A carnal, worldly man may do the outward thing. He may be baptized and receive communion; he may come to hear the word of God. But there is a life and soul in the duty: to hear as he should; to be molded into the performance of it; to obey what we hear; to come to receive the sacrament with reverence and due preparation; and to increase the assurance of salvation, and our comfort and joy. This is the hard part of the duty; this the world cannot do. Let us value ourselves by the practice of the inward part of the duty, the power of the duty, and not rest in the outward performance.

[4] The next reason to show that the world must necessarily be condemned is this: because even in the church there are a company of people (I beg you, do not let your thoughts go out of your congregations and the places we live in when we speak of the world) who will be damned. It is a strange thing, that they will be damned! Who will be damned? I say, there are a company among whom we live who are resolved to be damned. Why? There are evil courses, and whoever will take them will go to hell; they will end in death, as in the Proverbs (Prov 8:36). He who takes such a course hates his own soul. God says this, who is Wisdom himself. And therefore, if you willfully walk in those courses that lead to hell, it is as much as if you wanted to be damned.

Indeed, there is no one who would not be saved, if they could be saved in the paths of the broad way that lead to damnation. They could be content to go to heaven in a race of vanity. Who would not be saved in that sense? But the world will be damned in this sense, if they resolve to take a course that flatters their own lusts, going their own ways in spite of God, in spite of his truth, in spite of conscience, and to spite the Spirit that awakens them and tells them that there is another way they should walk in, and puts them in mind, “This is the way, walk in it” (Isa 30:21), and this is not the way, avoid it. And yet they will rush on in their courses, as the horse rushes into the battle. Let God say what he will, the world will be damned.

Are there not many who have been told of their pride, of their vanities, of their lusts, of their sins that their conscience tells them they pamper themselves in? And they will not amend for all this. This, in God’s judgment (and conscience will tell them this another day), is because they wanted to go on rebelliously in courses tending to damnation.

What is worse, there is a generation of venomous people who hate the ministers, hate good people, hate the image of God, and hate anything that may present to their hearts a dislike of the courses they are wedded to. Oh, I wish they would hate the devil that way! And do you wonder that these are damned, who hate the image of God and the motions of the Spirit, and raise reproaches against religion, and make it as odious as they can, so that their vileness may appear the less, and be the less disgraced in their wicked ways? And yet this is the course of many thousands in the bosom of the church, and in the best places, who are guilty of this. If someone tells them that this temper and frame of soul is contrary to God, and will yield nothing but despair in the end, they will still not regard what you say. Well, beloved, I must hurry on. There are many other reasons to show that the world must be damned, such as this:

[5] The world is shut out of Christ’s prayer. They have no part in the prayer of Christ, of him who died to redeem us. And the world will not receive the Spirit, because they maintain their own lusts. Scripture heaps many other reasons upon this, that there are a company of people who must and will be damned. But what is the use of this?

Use (1). To pull our friends, our children, out of the world; to get ourselves out of the world as soon as we can. Come out of Sodom, come out of Babylon, make all haste; for, as the angel tells Lot, “I will destroy this place” (Gen 19:13). The world is a place that God will destroy. It is Sodom; it is Babylon; get out of it. There is no staying there, unless you are willing to reap eternal damnation with the world.

(2) Again, pay no attention to the censures of worldly, proud people, who think they are fine Christians, when in truth they are only damned persons. God may recover them, but still they are in damnable ways. Who cares about the sentence of a damned person, until he has gotten his pardon? Such are all profane persons, who do not have the work of grace wrought in their hearts in an effectual manner; they are still in the state of damnation. Why should we pay any attention to their censures?

There are a company of weak persons who reason just as weakly: “If I do this, the world will say this and that.” What is the world? The world is a generation of unregenerate, wretched people who must be damned. Who would regard the censure of a damned person? And indeed, who would follow the ways of damned persons? And yet lately such is the madness of people that they take up the fashions, even though they are condemned fashions. They do not consider the vanity of it, to take up the fashions of damned persons in this way. The world is a condemned generation; therefore do not take up the ways and fashion of the world. The world’s fashion is the worst fashion of all.

I am not speaking of going along with the world in civil actions, in the ordinary dealings of our life. We would have to “come out of the world,” as Paul says, if we would not go along with it in outward things (1 Cor 5:10); and here we should redeem our peace with the world by yielding in lesser matters. But I am speaking of those things that concern our inward comfort and peace, and that concern the practice of holy duties. Let us not stand upon what the world judges or allows, but practice holy duties, though the world censures them, and abstain from wicked courses, though the world applauds them. So we shall have a seal that we are taken out of the world.

Use (2). Let us make another use, of trial, and examine whether we are taken out of the world or not. In brief, therefore, let us ask our aims, our ends. For those who are taken out of the world have aims beyond the world. They frame their courses to supernatural ends, to eternity, and labor so to guide themselves in this world that they may be saved in another world. We should steer and guide our actions to suit our peace hereafter. We should have further ends than the world has. He who is a worldling confines his thoughts within the compass of the world; he has no further aim. Sometimes he has passing thoughts of heaven and happiness. But he does not make it his aim; it is not the mark to which he directs his course.

In the second place, in keeping with our aims, let us examine what our affections are. Our affections will tell us what city we belong to, whether Jerusalem or Babylon, as one of the ancients says well. Ask your love: Which way do you weigh down in your love? Does earthly love, like a weight, press you to things below? Or is it a sanctified love that carries you to Christ and to the things of God? Examine your affections of love, of joy and delight, to see what city you belong to. Mere outward actions are hypocritical; therefore the inward affections best reveal the state of our soul, where our joy and delight lie.

And ask likewise, in the third place, our relish: What do we savor most? Come to a carnal man; put him onto a course of vanity. He has learned the language of the times, all your complimentary phrases. He has them exactly; he can speak all the language of the time. But come to him on matters of religion, and he is out of his subject there; he does not savor those things. Those who are of the world speak of the world. Talk to them of vanity, of this and that, and you put them onto their proper subject. But tell them of other things, and they are complete strangers, and they speak as if they had never learned anything in that field. And so those who are of the world keep company with those who are of the same bent. Doves flock to doves, and delight in those that are like themselves.

We may have many such arguments of trial, but especially think of what I have said before. Look to your aims, to your affections, and to your inward relish and bent of soul, which way your conduct is bent and what it relishes; and these will reveal our state to us, as in Revelation 13:11 and following, and other places. There antichrist is called the beast that rises out of the earth, because the Romish religion is taken out of the earth; that is, it has earthly aims, earthly grounds and principles. It is all for the world. It is a fallacy indeed, popery and not religion; and accordingly the pope is called the beast rising out of the earth. All the considerations that feed popery are out of the earth. Oh, a glorious monarch of the church, to have glory, and in the church to have all that may feed the senses and please the outward man! Everything, I say, is to please the outward man, to get riches, and so on.

They are called Gentiles: “the outward court shall be cast to the Gentiles” (Rev 11:2). He says there that antichrist, with his crew that follows him, should trouble, vex, and persecute the church, and cast it out to the Gentiles. The followers of antichrist are called Gentiles. But I am not speaking of them. We are earth and Gentiles, if our aims, projects, and affections are directed toward the earth, as the Scripture is accustomed to speak.

Therefore, let us examine ourselves by what I have said. I beg you, let us consider that the world must be condemned. And before I leave it, only think what damnation is. I beg you, have no slight thoughts of it. The Scripture says, “We shall not be condemned with the world” (1 Cor 11:32).

What is condemnation?

To be condemned is to be sentenced away from the presence of God, and to be sentenced to eternal torment with the devil and his angels. It would be somewhat unseasonable to enlarge on this point. But I beg you, consider what is wrapped up in this word “condemned,” “condemned with the world,” so that if we hate the end, damnation, we may hate the way that leads to it, the ways of the world. But to go on.

Doctrine 2. The second general point is this, that God’s children shall not be condemned with the world.

Question. Why?

Answer 1. Because they are the firstfruits dedicated to God out of the world, and Christ was condemned for them. How can they be condemned for whom Christ himself was condemned?

Answer 2. And then, a godly man in the state of grace is in heaven already; and who shall pull him from heaven? How can he be condemned who is in heaven already? We sit in heavenly places already. Beloved, to hold that an elect Christian may fall away is to pull Christ himself out of heaven; we are in heaven already in Christ. A Christian, being a member of Christ, cannot be condemned any more than Christ can be condemned, be it spoken with reverence to his majesty.

Answer 3. Again, for whom Christ is a priest, he is a king. He is a king to rule them in this world, and to subdue whatever might oppose their salvation. Those whom he has bought with his blood as a priest, he rules as a king, and he orders all things to help their salvation. Where Christ is a king, for those he is a priest. Can those be condemned, then?

And he grants them a spirit stronger than the world. God’s children have a spirit in them that overcomes the world: “Stronger is he that is in you,” says John, “than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). For the Spirit of God suggests reasons, and arguments, and motives that are stronger to a believing soul than the temptations of the world are. The world bends them one way, and the Spirit of God another way. The children of God have the Spirit of God, especially a spirit of faith; therefore they overcome the world. That spirit presents better things in religion than the world can afford. Now those who have the Spirit of God, and a spirit of faith by which they overcome the world, how can they be condemned with the world? And God takes a safe course with his children.

Note. So that they may not be condemned with the world, he makes the world condemn them. So that they may not love the world, he makes the world hate them. So that they may be crucified to the world, he makes the world be crucified to them. Therefore they meet with crosses, and abuses, and wrongs in the world. Because he will not have them perish with the world, he sends them afflictions in the world and by the world. Thus I might enlarge on the condition of God’s people, of his saints: they shall not be condemned with the wicked world.

Use. The use of it is this, that we should be in love with the state of God’s people. Who would not be in love with this condition? I may boldly say it, my beloved. The lowliest poor soul who has the work of grace upon it, who is taken out of the world, is in a better condition than the greatest worldling. Let a man be as happy as a world can make him; if he is a condemned man, what is his condition? All the time that other people live who are not in the state of grace is only the time between the passing of the sentence and the execution. Now, that is only a little time. The life of a carnal man is only the life of a man condemned at the bar, whose execution is deferred awhile. Another man, who is in the state of grace, is safe. He shall not be condemned with the world; he is in heaven already; he is as sure of it as if he were there.

I beg you, let this make us fall in love with the sincerity of religion, and let us never cease laboring until we have gotten out of this cursed state into this happy estate. There is only a little flock of Christ. We should never give our temples quiet and our souls rest until we prove to them that we are of the little number who are taken out of the world; until we see that we are a firstfruits dedicated to God; until we find the beginnings of grace wrought in our souls. Why should we delay one hour until we have gotten this assurance, considering that our life is so uncertain?

Doctrine 3. The third general point is this: the course that God takes with his children in this world, by which they are preserved from damnation, is corrections and chastisements. We are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. In this, as I showed you, there are these three branches. I will speak especially of the last.

(1) Whatever God’s dealings may be with his children, it is only a fatherly correction and chastisement; and therefore it is in mercy, in discretion. A little punishment is enough from a mother to her child. God has the wisdom of a father, but he has the tender heart of a mother; and therefore God is compassionate and merciful, because he is a Father. There is a wondrously sweet comfort wrapped up in that word Father. The whole world is not worth what is yielded to a Christian from this, that a Christian is the child of God, and that God is his Father.

I might enlarge on the point that all are only fatherly corrections. A father, when he sees his child in an evil way, corrects him; but it is a preventing correction, it is to prevent execution afterward. A child set at liberty makes his mother and his father ashamed; and so, if we were set too much at liberty, if God did not meet us with seasonable correction, we would shame religion and shame Christ. And therefore God in mercy corrects us with fatherly correction.

Oh, it is a wonderful comfort to think that when we are taken into the covenant of grace, all comes from God as a Father from then on! And having taken us from being enemies to be children, will he cast off his children for infirmities? Will a mother cast off her children for offenses, for something that displeases her? No! Rather she will be more merciful and more compassionate. But I will not enlarge on this point. It is a familiar point, and I suppose you hear it often.

But I beg you, only think of it, so that it may be ready in your hearts and in your memories against temptation, to have a good opinion of God. It often overcomes temptation to have a good opinion of God, to present God to our souls as a father, whereas the devil would present him as a judge, as one who hates us. Oh, take heed of that! This is only fatherly correction. God is our Father: “Our Father which art in heaven,” says Christ (Matt 6:9). Let us help our souls by presenting God to us in these colors, as a father in temptation, and all that we suffer as fatherly corrections.

To speak familiarly, we know in the street, when one child is corrected and another is not, that he is the father who corrects. God does not usually correct those who are not his children; he lets them go on still, they are not worth correcting; because they have abused his mercy before, he lets them go on. When God catches us in our sinful course, and confronts us, and hedges our ways with thorns, he shows himself to be a Father. We are bastards, and not sons, if we have no correction, as is sweetly followed out at large, with many arguments for it, in Hebrews 12:7 and the verses following. God shows himself a Father when he corrects us, or else we are bastards, and not sons.

Use 1. Well, let us therefore take all things the better at God’s hands, because they are only corrections; for we need it, the best of us. The best gardens need weeding, and the best metals need purging, and the best linen needs washing. God knows it well enough, and therefore he will purge us. As the Scripture says, as gold and silver are purged, he will purge out the dross, and all in mercy. We lose nothing by any visitations of God but corruption. The fruit of all his dealing with us is to take sin from us.

(2) It is said here in the second place that, as they are corrections, so they are from God. We are chastened of the Lord. I will only touch on it in a word, and that to help our forgetfulness on a main point. In the governing of a Christian life we are carried naturally to second causes. Now all second causes are only rods in God’s hands. Look therefore to the hand that strikes; look to God in all. He chastises us, as David said in the matter of Shimei (2 Sam 16:10); and as Job said, “It is the Lord that hath given, and the Lord hath taken away” (Job 1:21). And so in benefits we should see God in all things, and think that it is with him we have to deal. Our work lies in heaven; therefore in any visitation or cross, I beseech you, think of it. We have to deal with the great Mover of heaven and earth, who has all second causes in his hand, who has the hearts of kings in his hand; and let us make our peace with him.

Question. Why should we go to the court officer? We should make our peace with the judge. Do not make peace with the second causes, but with the principal cause. It is God who chastises; let us make our peace there, and he will take off the second cause. I cannot pursue the point; I beseech you to think of it. We forget it in our practice, and that makes us so atheistic, as if there were no God to govern the world, and we run immediately to second causes.

Let us go on. God’s corrections are only chastenings, and they are from him. And they are sanctified by him, which is the main point, to preserve us from being damned with the world. These corrections are sanctified by God for that end.

Question. And how is that?

Answer 1. Because they embitter sinful courses to us. When we are crossed in our sinful courses, sinful courses are embittered to us; we fall out of love with them.

Answer 2. And then again, these chastisements help us to relish heaven and heavenly things better. Oh! then the word of God is the word of God indeed; then Christ is Christ; then heavenly things are heavenly things; then a messenger, one of a thousand, will be heard (Job 33:23); then the man of God is welcome all that time. When a man cannot relish earthly things, when he cannot take comfort from his friends, then heavenly comforts are welcome.

Chastisements, therefore, help us, so that we are not damned with the world, by making us fall out of love with vanities, so that we shall not care for them. We see they do us good, helping us to relish heavenly things. Blessed are those corrections that are sanctified in that way. We hear with other ears then. When we have been in the fire, and God has dealt with us by crosses, we hear with another manner of attention than at other times. Though I might speak at length on the point, for it is a very large one, let us rather think of it so as to make use of it. But first, to take away all objections, so that I may fasten the comfort upon our souls the better, it may be objected:

Objection 1. Oh! but it is such a correction as takes away my friends from me. I cannot have the use of my friends, as sometimes happens in a foul, contagious disease.

Answer. What if you have no friends but God and his angels to help you to heaven? Whatever comfort God conveys by friends, he still has in himself; and he can convey those direct comforts which are most sweet, when they come from the spring. When outward comforts fail, those are the best comforts. It is a greater grace for a prince to visit a sick person himself than to send a messenger to visit him. So when no one can come to us, God himself comes from heaven, and visits us by the comforts of the Holy Spirit; and what do we lose then?

Objection 2. Oh! but it is a sharp affliction, a sharp cross.

Answer. Oh! but it is a sweet hand it comes from. Shall I not take a cup out of a father’s hand? It is a bitter cup, but it is out of a father’s hand, and therefore out of a loving hand. It is from love, and it is directed to my good, and it is sweetly tempered and mixed and moderated. And therefore, if it comes from love, and is directed to my good, and for the present is mixed and moderated, why should I complain of the correction that is for my good, to keep me from being damned with the world?

Objection 3. But how can death itself be a correction, when it takes away life, so that we have no time to be better?

Answer. I answer that God, before he takes his children out of the world, gives them his Spirit, so that they sharply repent, and put much into a little time; and God requires truth of heart rather than length of time. As we see sick bodies shoot up suddenly that did not grow before, so a sick, afflicted soul shoots up suddenly. God visits it with sharp repentance, though it may be short, perhaps so that they call their ways to account; and though he takes them out of the world, yet he saves their souls.

Objection 4. But perhaps it is only hypocritical repentance before my death (because many recover, and show themselves to be hypocrites afterward); and so if I should die, perhaps I should die a hypocrite.

Answer. Oh! take heed of that. Many do so; as an ancient writer says, “He that is never good but under the cross” (he means only) “is never good.” He that is good under bonds is never good, if he does it from fear and not from hatred of sin. But you will know that it was not in hypocrisy that you have now repented in your sickness, if you desire the grace of God rather than to recover. A soul that is sanctified would rather have pardon of sin, and strength against corruption, than have recovery; and such a person begs God from the soul: “Now, Lord, sanctify this sickness and this cross before you take it away”; for the plaster would fall off if the wound were healed, and the malady would cease if there were not a ground for it.

I beseech you therefore, those who make that objection, let them consider whether they desire rather the removal of the cross, or to have it sanctified before it is removed from them. A true heart desires to have it sanctified; and it would be better for us to be under the cross all the days of our lives, and to have the cross laid more heavily upon us, than to grow worse under it, as many do, and are not the better for it. But you should say, “No, Lord, rather sear me, and burn me, and chastise me; save my soul and do what you will.”

That is the disposition of a Christian; for God takes a great deal of liberty with our carcasses, and in our outward estate. Such things we must leave behind us, we do not know how soon; and therefore he takes liberty to correct us sharply in them; but so long as he saves our souls, all is in mercy. It is a blessed correction that draws us nearer to him, that makes us hate sin more, and love the ways of God more.

Objection 5. But it will be objected again: But I am accessory to my own death, I have been an intemperate man, I have shortened my own days.

Answer. Beloved, that is a heavy temptation at the hour of death! But do not be discouraged. For so blessed Josiah shortened his own days; for he went rashly when he had counsel to the contrary. And so the good prophet shortened his own days when the lion met him and slew him by the way for his disobedience (1 Kgs 13:24); and so the good thief. Therefore do not despair at that, if it should happen that you fall into some course by which you shorten your own days, and are accessory to your own death; as these Corinthians were accessory to their own deaths, and slept before their time. They cut the thread of their own life and put out their own candle. No question but this was heavy upon the conscience: “I brought myself to it.” This is the hell of hells of the damned souls: “I brought myself here.” So when we are guilty of our own punishment and affliction, it is most bitter to us.

But, I say, consider the former examples. God has strange ways to bring his children home to him, and sometimes the furthest way about is the nearest way home, as in Israel’s forty years’ voyage. God allows his children to sin, and by sin to shorten their days, and all to occasion repentance and a sight of their corruption, and a hatred of themselves and of their base courses, and to give themselves to him more thoroughly than before. So infinitely wise and gracious is God to those who belong to him. So that, notwithstanding all objections to the contrary, the position laid down before is true, that God sanctifies corrections to us, so that we should not be damned with the world.

Uses of All. Use 1. Now to make some general use of all that has been spoken, and so to end all. Is this so? Here we might stand upon a point to instruct our judgment, to show that all the corrections of God’s children come not from vindictive justice, but from a fatherly affection, against that doctrine of popery that maintains satisfaction, that judgments are for satisfaction. A proud and damnable point! Can a man with a penny deserve a thousand pounds? Sin deserves eternal damnation. Can we with a little suffering satisfy that? “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23), eternal death. It is a gross position. No! They are corrections, not satisfactions; they come from fatherly affection. This is to rectify our judgment on that point.

Use 2. And then again, to help us against Satan’s temptations. He uses afflictions as temptations to weaken our faith.

Objection. Satan says, “If God loved you, he would never do so and so; God hates you. Why does he follow you with his judgments, unless he hates you and has no delight in you? And why should he single you out more than others?”

Answer. Retort back again: “No! It is because God loves me that he deals with me like this; because he means to save my soul, he will not allow me quietly to run the broad way to destruction.” Therefore it is rather an argument of love, drawn from the very thing by which Satan would shake our faith. Did not Satan set upon Christ with this temptation? He comes with an “if.” “If thou be the Son of God” (Matt 4:3 and following). If you were the child of God, would you be so afflicted? Whereas, in fact, it is because we are the sons of God that we are afflicted. Beat Satan’s weapons back, therefore, into his own bosom.

If God corrected his own Son, that is, the author of our salvation (when yet, under the signs of his greatest displeasure, his Father loved him), let us think that we may be beloved of God in the signs of his greatest displeasure, as Christ was upon the cross: “My God, my God …” (Matt 27:46). He apprehended God’s love in the signs of greatest displeasure, and so should we. Let us answer God’s dealing in kind. His dealing is this. In the worst condition he calls us children, and he is our father, and loves us. Therefore, in the worst condition, let us trust him, and say with Job, “Though thou kill me, yet will I trust in thee” (Job 13:15).

Question. Why?

Answer. Because you may kill me and yet be a father, and may do it in love. I will answer your dealing by my faith in turn; therefore, “though thou kill me, yet will I trust in thee.”

Use 3. Again, this strengthens our judgment on the point of perseverance, that being once in the state of grace, we shall hold out still. For rather than God’s children shall fall away, God will take a course so that they will not be damned with the world; he will correct them. It is most divinely set down in Romans 8:35-39. He says, among other things, “Neither life nor death shall be able to separate us from the love of God”; neither life, nor the vanities of this life.

Question. And what if we give God cause to visit us with death?

Answer. “Yet neither life nor death shall separate us from the love of God,” as here the Corinthians were visited with death; yet neither life nor death shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ. And therefore be established in the truth of that point.

Use 4. Then again, for a further use, it fences the soul against the stumbling block of the cross, and of visitations and sicknesses and crosses that we meet with in the world. For the stumbling block is this: Shall we be in love with the ways of God, in which we meet with these and these corrections? Oh, yes! Do not stumble at what is sanctified by God to be a means to preserve us from being damned with the world. And the child of God, take him at the lowest, take him at the worst, is better than a worldling at the best. Take no offense, therefore, at God’s dispensation with his children. All of it is so that they may not be damned with the world.

Do not only justify God, but magnify God for his corrections, and afterward you will receive fruit by them. And we have reason to magnify God, when we find ourselves more mortified to the world, and have the quiet fruit of righteousness. Has the Spirit sanctified it to you, to make you lead another course of life? Say, “Blessed be God for sending this cross,” for indeed we often have occasion to bless God more for crosses than for comforts. There is a blessing hidden in the worst things to God’s children, as there is a cross in the best things to the wicked. There is a blessing in death; a blessing in sickness; a blessing in the hatred of their enemies; a blessing in their losses, whatever they may be. There is a blessing hidden in the worst things; and therefore let us not only justify God, but glorify and magnify God for his mercy, that rather than let us be condemned with the world, he will take this course with us.

Use 5. And then here again, you have a ground of impregnable comfort in all temptations whatsoever; a wondrous comfort, that God will take a course with his own to bring them to heaven. What a blessed course this is, that we may take the time to come on trust from God, as well as the time past! That now, in the state of grace, rather than condemn us, he will take one course or another to bring us to heaven! Rather than David shall live in his sin, he will send Nathan to him; rather than Peter shall not repent, Christ will look back upon him; rather than God’s children shall go the broad way, God will send the devil himself to annoy them, and to infest them, and to vex them. God will be sure to lose none of his own. What a comfort this is!

And therefore never think that we can be in such a condition that there is true ground for despair. No! We cannot. We are under hope in the most woeful condition in the world. We are under hope still; for there is more mercy in God than there can be sin and evil in us; and he is infinitely wise to rule all to his own ends. What if things seem untoward? They are in his hands; he has a powerful hand to manage the worst things to good. So gloriously wise and powerful is God that he sways the worst things. “All things work for the best for those that love God” (Rom 8:28), even the worst things in this world.

Objection. Oh! but profane spirits will object and say, “If this is so, we may be careless, if our salvation is made sure, so that we shall not be condemned with the world, and God will take care even to bring us to heaven.”

Answer. Oh! but the text takes away that objection of profane spirits who take liberty from this blessed truth of God. For though God does not damn his own with the world, yet he sharply corrects them here. By a careful, sober life they might obtain many blessings, and prevent many judgments, and make their pilgrimage more comfortable. Therefore it argues neither grace nor wit to argue this way: “Because God will save me, therefore I will take liberty.” No! Though God will save you, yet he will take such a course that you will endure such sharpness for your sin that it will be more bitter than the sweetest of it was pleasant. No child of God ever came to heaven but God has made their sinful courses more bitter to them than ever they have had benefit by them, though their souls have been safe.

Suppose a man were sure not to be executed, yet sure to be branded, to be stigmatized, or to be disgraced in the country. Would he, for a paltry thing not worth speaking of, do wrong, because he would not be executed, and has friends to keep him from that? Who would do such a thing as that, to bring himself to shame for a thing of nothing? So suppose you will not be damned, and you are sure of that. Yet you may fall into such a course that God may brand you; and you may bring disgrace on religion; and may weaken the comfort of your own soul; and may make Satan rejoice; and may grieve the angels about you; and may vex the Spirit in you. We may put a sting in the affliction we suffer; we may deprive ourselves of comfort in the midst of comforts for our boldness. Who that has the use of his wits would do this for the pleasures of sin for a season?

Oh! therefore, when you go about to sin, consider what you are going about. “I am going about to grieve God’s Spirit, to provoke my heavenly Father; I am going about to force out of his hand some rod, some correction; I am going about to make Satan rejoice, to grieve the angels that are about me for my keeping, to put a sting in my trouble and embitter it.” This is the ill of ills, when a man is in affliction: “My own wickedness brought me to this.” Let us wisely consider this: though God saves our souls, yet he will take such a course in this world that we shall wish we had not put the matter to the test with God. David gave liberty to his lusts, but he wished (no doubt a thousand times) that he had not bought his pleasure at so dear a rate. Therefore I add this, to fence this truth from the offense that a carnal heart takes at it.

But to come to the proper and native use of it. Consider, I beseech you, how this doctrine is a fence against the rock of despair, and against the rock of presumption.

First, against the rock of presumption. The soul may say, “Shall I be bold to sin? Surely I shall buy the pleasures of sin at a dear rate; God will correct me sharply. And shall I force God’s hand for such a pleasure, and for such a profit? No! I will not buy sin at that rate.” So it fences the soul from presumption.

Again, it fences the soul from despair. “Oh! but I have sinned; my own weakness has thrown me, and Satan joins with my weakness and has overthrown me.” Oh! but do not despair yet, for it is for this very reason that we are corrected, that we should not be condemned with the world. As I said before, a Christian is never so low but mercy triumphs over the ill in him. There is more abundant mercy in God than there can be ill in us. So happy a condition it is to be in Christ that in the covenant of grace God sets himself to triumph over the greatest ills, over sin, and over affliction. There can be no ill so great but it yields to his mercy in Jesus Christ; and therefore do not be discouraged, whatever ill we suffer. And so it keeps us from these two rocks of presumption and despair.

Let us therefore, for a conclusion of all, take this course.

First of all, be sure, beloved, that we get out of the world, get out of Sodom, get out of the condition we are in by nature. Do not trust a formal profession of religion. Do not deceive your souls; it will deceive you. Get out of the world, and get into Christ; get something by attending upon the means, and by prayer, and by crossing your corruptions. Get something in you that may give evidence that you are taken out of the world, and that you are in Christ, being led by a better spirit than your own.

In the next place, when you are in the state of grace, honor that condition. Walk worthy of that glorious condition. Oh! the state of a Christian is a glorious state. It requires much holy wisdom to manage the state of Christianity. If we are Christians, let us carry ourselves worthily, like Christians, if we will have good of our profession. Let us carry ourselves so that we may not go so far in religion as to give God more matter to damn us. What good is it to have so much knowledge and so much profession as shall damn us the more? But if we will be religious, let us be religious in earnest, and let us walk worthy of this glorious state.

Objection. Oh! but in the next place, I have not done it. I have forgotten my condition, forgotten my hopes, forgotten my state, and regarded my base lusts more; I have been surprised and caught.

Answer. Then take this course: judge yourselves, if you have been overtaken. Take the counsel of the apostle, while there is hope, and judge yourselves.

Objection. But I see now that God is ready to take me out of the world, and I have not judged myself as I should. Though I am out of love with my courses, and am in league with no evil course, yet I have been faulty.

Answer. Oh! comfort yourself; do not let Satan swallow you up in despair. Mark what the apostle says: God sends this, that we should not be condemned with the world. And therefore immediately make a covenant with him, renew your purposes immediately, as in Psalm 25:1 and the verses following. All his ways to his children are mercy and truth; his ways of correction and his ways of love, all his ways are mercy. And therefore take heed that we never deny our own mercy, that we never forsake our own mercy; do not let Satan prevail so much.

We have need of all this, beloved, especially to remember it in the time of temptation, in spiritual desolation, when we gasp for comfort. Let us labor to learn this spiritual wisdom, to present to our own souls the promises of the gospel, and the relation that God has put upon himself, to be a father, and his dealings with us, that they are fatherly corrections. Do not let Satan wring these comforts out of our souls. But let us honor God by trusting him in life and death, and say with Job, “Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15). So sweet and powerful is the death of Christ that it turns all things, even the bitterest, to the greatest good.

But this may be sufficient by the blessing of God’s Spirit.

As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say unto me daily, Where is thy God? (Ps 42:10)

The Psalms are, as it were, the anatomy of a holy man; they lay the inside of a true, devout man outward, even to the view of others.

If the Scriptures are compared to a body, the Psalms may well be the heart, they are so full of sweet and holy affections and passions. In other portions of Scripture, God speaks to us; in the Psalms, holy men (especially David, who wrote most of them) speak to God, and in them we have the dealings of a broken, humble soul with God. Among the rest, in this psalm David lays open a variety of passions. His condition at this time was such that he was an exiled man, cut off from his own house and his own friends and, what grieved him worst of all, from the tabernacle, the house of God. It was on the occasion of Saul’s persecution, or of that of Absalom, his son; but I take it rather to be Saul’s, who hunted him as a partridge in the wilderness.

From this you have a discovery of how this holy man of God was affected by this case and condition of his. First he lays open his grief. His grief arises from his desire. Whoever loves most and desires most always grieves most, and all other affections take their measure from love, which is the firstborn affection of the soul. Therefore, before he lays out his grief, he sets out his desire for the house of God, the lack of which grieved him most of all. “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God” (Ps 42:1). As the chased hart pants after water, so the soul thirsts for God, for the living God: “O when shall I come and appear before God?” (Ps 42:2).

Then after his desire, he lays out his grief: “My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?” (Ps 42:3). Grievances never come alone, but like Job’s messengers they come one after another, even to God’s children. When God is disposed to correct them, they are multiplied. Therefore, here is not only a grief of want, in that he was barred from those sweet comforts which he had before in the tabernacle, but here is also a grief from the reproach of his enemies, who took occasion from his disconsolate condition to upbraid him: “Where is thy God?” “My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?” He dissolves the cloud of his grief into the shower of tears: “My tears have been my meat.” They were so plentiful that they fed his soul, as it were.

Then he sets down another ground of his grief, the remembrance of his former happiness. As a rule, that is what makes grief raw and more keenly felt, for he who was happy in former times and now is miserable is most miserable of all, because his former happiness makes him feel it most. Therefore, of all men in hell, the torment of great men is greatest, because they had the most sense of comfort in this world. Mighty men shall be mightily tormented; that is all the privilege they shall have in hell.

Therefore, to make his grief heavier, he says: Oh, when I remember what comfort I once had in the house of God, I pour out my soul. It was not enough that he poured out his tears or his words; he says, I pour out my soul, for in former times, “I went with the multitude to the house of God” (Ps 42:4), and he led a goodly train to the house of God. This is the picture of a good magistrate and a good master of a family: he does not go alone to the house of God, but he leads his train, attended by his servants. David did not go alone into the house of God, but with the multitude, “with the voice of them that kept holiday” (Ps 42:4).

Well, he had grief enough; his heart was full of grief. Now in the next verse he takes his soul to task and reasons with himself: “Why art thou so sad, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance” (Ps 42:5). So you see here that he is not so sunk in his grief that he gives way to it too long, but he even falls to chiding his soul: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? why art thou disquieted within me?”

Oh, but grief will not be stilled like that! Affliction is not quelled at the first, nor grief stilled and stayed at the first. Therefore it gathers upon him again in the next verse: “O my God, my soul is cast down within me, when I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar” (Ps 42:6). When I remember you from these places, he says, my soul is cast down again and my afflictions are multiplied; and this though he had fallen out with his soul before for his impatience. One deep calls to another, deep calls upon deep, “as the noise of the waterspouts” (Ps 42:7). He compares affliction to waterspouts, as it is in Scripture. “All thy waves and billows have gone over me” (Ps 42:7). Even as one deep calls to another, so one affliction calls to another.

Then when he had given a little way again to his grief, and complained to God, he takes his soul to task another time. Yet, he says, “The Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and I will pray to the God of my life” (Ps 42:8). He presents to himself the goodness of God, to comfort his soul. And in the next verse he presents to himself his own resolution: “I will say to God” (for the time to come) “my rock, why hast thou forgotten me? and why go I mourning, for the oppression of the enemy” (Ps 42:9). So here he stays his soul once again; he presents to his soul the lovingkindness of God, while renewing his resolution to seek God. This is an effectual way to stay the soul, by considering God’s love and mercy and by renewing our resolutions and purposes to cleave to God: “I will say to God my rock, why hast thou forgotten me?”

Yes, but here is a third assault of grief again, for there is a spring of corruption in us, and such a principle in us as will yield murmurings and discontent again and again. Therefore in the verse I have read to you, he comes again to complain: “As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say unto me daily, Where is thy God?” (Ps 42:10). He had complained of this once before, but it had a fresh working in his thoughts again: “As with a sword in my bones …”

Upon this, he is forced the third time to reason with his soul and to fall out with it: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted? hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God” (Ps 42:11). He comes to his former remedy. He had stilled his grief once before with the same meditation, upbraiding his own soul and chiding himself; but he comes to it here as to something proved, a tried remedy, and he pulls his soul up very short: “Why art thou so cast down, O my soul? why art thou disquieted within me?”

You see how David’s passions here are interlaced with comforts, and his comforts with passions, till at last he gets the victory over his own heart. Beloved, neither sin nor grief for sin is stilled and quieted at the first. You have some short-spirited Christians: if all is not quiet at the first, all is lost with them. But it is not so with a true Christian soul, with the best soul living. It was not so with David. When he was in disorder of soul, he checks himself; the disorder was not yet stilled, and he checks himself again; then the disorder breaks out again, and then he checks himself again; and all of it little enough to bring his soul to a holy, blessed, quiet temper, to that blessed tranquility and rest that the soul should be in before it can enjoy its own happiness and enjoy sweet communion with God.

As you see in medicine, perhaps one purge will not carry away the corrupt humor, and then a second must be added; perhaps that will not do it, and then there must be a third. So when the soul has been checked once, perhaps that will not do; we must fall to it again, go to God again. And then it may be there will be a breaking out of the grief and malady again; we must go to it again, and never give up. That is the right temper of a Christian.

Before I come to the words, observe in general this, that a living soul, the soul that is alive in grace, that has the life of grace quickening it, feels the lack of spiritual means most keenly of all. As here, the grief of griefs (which he begins with) was that he was banished from the tabernacle.

What shall we think, therefore, of those who excommunicate themselves from God’s assembly, where there is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all the Trinity dispensing their bounty, and where the prayers of God’s people meet together in one, as it were, and bind God? What shall we think of those who prefer their private devotions, as they say, to God’s assemblies? Surely they are not of David’s mind, and it is a damaging argument that they have never yet had the life of grace in them; for where life is, there will be hunger and thirst. It is a true aphorism that those things press hardest upon nature that touch the necessities of nature, rather than those that touch delight. We can do without delights, but the necessities of nature we cannot do without. Therefore hunger and thirst are passions that will not be quiet.

The soul of a hungry man can be content to go without delicacies and novelties, but not without spiritual food for the soul. We see how famine worked upon the patriarchs; it made them go down into Egypt for food. I note it only by the way, so that people may know how to judge themselves when they can be very well content without a blessed supply of holy means. Holy David, when the means were only dark and obscure, when the canon was not enlarged, when all was in types and clouds, still felt such comfort in the tabernacle and in the ordinances of God that he could not endure the lack of them; but as the hart brays after the water brooks, so his soul panted after God.

But to come to the words themselves: “As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me, when they say unto me daily, where is thy God?” (Ps 42:10).

Here are two things to consider in the words.

The carriage and disposition and expression of others toward David.

And David’s affection toward it, how he was disposed toward it, how he bore it.

As for their disposition, they were enemies, mine enemies …

The expression of it: they reproach me.

The particular form of that expression, how they reproached him: they said to him, “Where is thy God?” They reproach him in his religion.

The aggravation of that particular is that they say it openly to his face. They do not go behind my back; they think so slightly of me that they say it to my face. And continually too; they are never weary; they say daily, “Where is thy God?” They are enemies; they reproach; they reproach in this, “Where is thy God?”; and they do it impudently, and daily.

How does David receive this treatment? How does he carry himself all this while? He cannot help but feel it, and therefore he expresses it in most significant words. Oh, he says, these things were as a sword in my bones. There are various readings of the words, but we will take them as they are laid down, since they stand very well: as with a sword in my bones (or as it is in the margin, as killing in my bones), mine enemies reproach me. It was as killing to him; it went to his heart; it cut him to the quick. As a sword is to the body and bones, he says, so are their words to my soul. I cannot endure it; it is death to me. It is a most emphatic manner of expressing the enemies’ disposition and carriage. Thus you have the words unfolded. I will only touch some particulars; those that I think most needful for us to take notice of, I will dwell on more. Mine enemies, he says, reproach me.

Mine enemies. There have been contrary seeds from the beginning of the world, and there will be while Satan is in the world. Till he is cast into the burning lake, and is there in perpetual chains, adjudged to torment, he will always raise up men who will be on his side. And as long as that grand enemy exists, and as long as there are men who will be subject to his government, as there always will be, he will have a great faction in the world. And because he has a party in us, the flesh, he will have the greatest party in the world. Most go the broad way, so that God’s children, even David himself, shall not lack enemies.

Mine enemies. It is strange that he should have enemies, who was so harmless a man that when they were sick and distressed, he prayed for them and put on sackcloth for them, as it is in Psalm 35:13. Yet this compassionate, sweet-natured man, you see, had enemies, and enemies who would show themselves by reproaching him, and that bitterly; in the bitterest manner, they reproach him in his religion. It is a large point, if I should give myself liberty in it. I only touch it, so that we may be armed by this observation against the scandal of opposition, that if we meet with enemies in the world, we should not be much offended at it. Grieve we may, but wonder we need not.

Was there ever anyone who did more good than our Savior Christ? “He went about doing good” (Acts 10:38). He never did a miracle that was harmful (except only that of the swine that were drowned in the sea, and that was their own fault), but he went about doing all the good he could; and yet we see what malicious opponents he had. What is true of the head must be true in the members. Therefore, we should rejoice in our conformity to Christ, if it is in a good cause, that we find enemies and opposition.

One said, “O the emperor has become a Christian.” It was a blessed time. Oh, but the devil has not been made a Christian yet, and he will never be made good, for he is at his fixed end, as we say; he is in his bounds, and his nature cannot be moved. He is in hell as regards his condition, though he is let loose to do mischief. Now, until the devil is good, God’s children shall never lack enemies; and he will never be good. Therefore, though there were good kings and good governors over all the world, yet good men shall never lack enemies as long as the devil is alive, as long as he has anything to do in the world.

Enemies, therefore, we must look for, and such enemies as will not conceal their malice either. It would be something if they would let their malice boil and stew in their own hearts, but that will not be, but “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak” (Matt 12:34). Where there is a bad treasury, there will be a bad outlet; therefore we see here that they reproach him, “mine enemies.”

Reproach me. Reproach is the proper expression of malice, and it is what the nature of man can least endure of all. The nature of man can endure an outward wrong, a loss or a cross, but a reproach, especially if it is a scornful reproach, the nature of man is most impatient of. For there is no man but thinks himself worthy of some respect. Now a reproachful scorn shows disrespect, and when the nature of man sees itself disrespected, it grows impatient. There is not the lowliest man living but thinks himself worthy of some regard. Therefore I cannot blame David, even from the principle of nature, for being affected here when they reproached him and called him vile names: “mine enemies reproach me.” Their tongues were tipped from hell, and they only uttered what was in their hearts. If the tongues of wicked men, as St. James says, are a world of mischief, what is the whole man? What is the heart, and tongue, and life, and all of wicked men?

Now this reproach of wicked men is a grievous persecution, as Ishmael persecuted Isaac in that manner, as it is in Galatians 4, taken out of the story in Genesis. I will not enter into the commonplace of reproach; it is taken only in passing here.

Only by the way, let it be a support to us. If we are reproachfully used in the world, let us not be much cast down. It is no credit for a man to do what the devil and his instruments do, nor is it any discredit for us to suffer what David suffered. Let this satisfy you: there is not the vilest man living but has this weapon to serve the devil with, a reproachful tongue. The one who sits on the alehouse bench, who rakes in the sewer, the basest wretch in the world, has a tongue to serve the devil with in reproaches. It is no credit for them to do what the vilest person in the world can do, and it is no shame for you to suffer what the best man who ever lived suffered. So much for that, mine enemies reproach me.

But what is the particular form of this reproach? To come to that more particularly: They say unto me, Where is thy God?

They touch him in his religion. They saw him persecuted by Saul and scorned by Saul’s courtiers; they saw him driven up and down, as a partridge in the wilderness; they saw him banished from the sanctuary, destitute of friends; they saw him in this disconsolate condition, and they judged by sense and appearance, so that they thought he was a man whom God did not regard at all. Therefore they say, Where is thy God?

God’s children are impatient of reproaches as far as they are men; but so far as they are Christian men, they are impatient of reproaches in religion: Where is now thy God? They were not such desperate atheists as to think there was no God, or to call in question whether there was a God or not, though indeed they were little better. Rather, they reproach and upbraid him with his singularity: Where is thy God? You are one of God’s darlings; you are one who thought nobody served God but you; you are one who will go alone, your God.

So this is an ordinary reproach, an ordinary thing for wicked men to cast at the best people, especially when they are in misery. What has become of your profession now? What has become of your zeal and strictness now? What has become of your much reading and hearing now, and your doing such things now? What has become of your God that you bragged so much of, and thought yourselves so happy in, as if he had been nobody’s God but yours? We may learn from this the disposition of wicked men. It is the mark of a poisonous, cursed disposition to upbraid a man with his religion.

But what is the aim? The aim is worse than the words, Where is thy God? The aim is to shake his faith and his confidence in God; and this is what touched him so nearly while they upbraided him, Where is thy God? Indeed, they had some probability and show of truth, for now God seemed set against him, when he was banished from his house, from that blessed communion with him that he had. Their purpose, therefore, was to shake his faith and trust in God; and in this they showed themselves true children of the devil, whose aim is to shake the faith and trust of God’s people, in all his temptations and by his instruments.

For the devil knows well enough that as long as God and the soul join together, it is in vain to trouble anyone. Therefore he labors to plant suspicions, to accuse God to man and man to God. He knows there is nothing in the world that can stand against God. As long as we make God our confidence, all the devil’s enterprises are in vain. His aim therefore is to shake our trust in God: Where is thy God?

So he dealt with the Head of the church, our blessed Savior himself, when he came to tempt him: “If thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread” (Matt 4:3). He comes with an if; he labored to shake him in his sonship. The devil, since he was divided from God himself eternally, has become a spirit of division. He labors to divide the Son from the Father; he labors to divide even God the Father from his own Son: If thou be the Son of God. So he labors to sever Christians from their head, Christ; subjects from their princes, and princes from their subjects; friends from friends, and one from another. He is a spirit of division: Where is thy God? There was his aim, to breed division, if he could, between David’s heart and God, so that he might make David suspect God, as if God had not regarded him: You have taken a great deal of pains in serving your God; you see how he regards you now: Where is thy God?

We should labor to make this use of it, to counterwork Satan, to strengthen most of all what the devil labors most of all to shake. Shall the devil labor to shake our faith and trust in God above all other things, and shall we not labor to strengthen that? Above all things, let us look to our head, as the serpent winds about and protects his head. Keep faith, and keep all. If faith is safe, all is safe. Let us strengthen that, and we strengthen all; weaken that, and we weaken all.

What does Satan care for the other sins we fall into? He aims at our assurance, that we may doubt the love of God, whom we have been so bold as to sin against. That is what he aims at, to weaken faith by the particular acts of sin we commit. He knows that sin naturally breeds doubts, as flesh breeds worms. Where sin is, even in the smallest degree, he knows it will breed doubts and perplexities, and where they are, he has what he wants. He labors to hinder that sweet communion that should be between the soul and God: Where is now thy God? You see that wicked men are truly the children of the devil in this.

Again, they single out here the matter of religion against him. You see how ready wicked and devilish-minded men are to tread over the hedge where it is lowest, as the proverb says, to add affliction to affliction, especially in what may touch a man most nearly. They could not touch him more nearly than in this, Where is thy God? They knew it well enough: Where is your religion now? This, they thought, would anger him to the heart. Here is a devilish disposition. You have a terrible psalm for it, Psalm 109, about those who add affliction to the afflicted; they are cursed persons. This is the disposition of wicked men: they have no mercy. Malice, we say, is insatiable.

One would think that when our Savior Christ was on the cross, racked there in all his parts, a man exposed to so much misery and scorn as he was, they would have had pity on him; but on the cross they reproached him: Aha, he saved others, himself he cannot save; let him come from the cross, and we will believe in him (Matt 27:42). What a bitter sarcasm this was, that came from hell itself! More than that, when he was dead, one would have thought their malice would have been buried with his body. Malice is ordinarily among living men, not the dead; but when he was dead, This impostor said … (Matt 27:63). They labored to bury his good name, so that nothing tending to his honor might remain of him.

Indeed, it is the nature of malice to wish the thing it hates not to exist, not even its name: Let his name perish from the earth (Ps 41:5). It was the extremity of malice to work upon this disadvantage, when they saw David thus afflicted, to vex him with what he was most affected by: Where is thy God?

Therefore, let those who feel and feed that devilish disposition in themselves, to insult over God’s people, especially to vex them in matters of religion, and when there is a wound already to make the affliction greater, to add affliction to affliction, let them judge what disposition they are of.

They say unto me. You see here another circumstance, they say unto me. They are so impudent that they are not afraid to reproach him to his face; they say unto him, as if they would stand by their reproach. This is one circumstance of aggravation. Indeed, malice is very impudent when it has come to the extremity. I only observe it so that if we meet with such insolence of malice, we will not be discouraged. It has been this way before, and this way it will be to the end of the world.

And then, they are not wearied; their malice is unwearied; they say to me,

Daily. Day by day their malice is fed with a spring, with a malicious heart. A malicious heart and a slanderous tongue always go well together. The devil, who was the first grand slanderer, has communion with a malicious heart, and he foments malice and cherishes that malicious, poisonous disposition; and a malicious disposition never lacks malicious words. As one says of anger and fury, that it supplies weapons, so we may say of malice and hatred, that it always supplies words. A malicious heart will never lack words: they say to me, daily. These are only circumstances, but they are still somewhat worth considering, for they tend to aggravate the disconsolate condition of this holy man, that he should meet with such wretched men, who had no pity on him at all, but say to him daily, Where is now thy God?

You see then from this that God is a God, as the prophet says, often hiding himself (Isa 45:15); that God often veils himself toward his children: not only from the eyes of wicked men, who therefore think godly men deserted by God, but sometimes from the very sense and feeling of God’s children themselves. They are in such desertions that they are compelled to complain that God has hidden himself and is like a stranger to them. This is the condition of God’s children in this world. Though God loves them dearly, as the apple of his eye, and as the signet on his hand (Zech 2:8; Jer 22:24), yet his conduct toward them is often so strange that those who look upon their condition in this world think they are men, as it were, forlorn and destitute of God.

And this condition has to be, because there must of necessity be a conformity between us and our Savior. It was so with our Savior: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). God was never nearer him in all his life than then, and yet he cries out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” And as he spoke, so the rest thought of him, as if he were a man forsaken; and so here they say to this holy man, “Where is thy God?”

Therefore let us lay this up as well, to strengthen our faith in a like case, so that we may not be overly discouraged. If God hides himself, if others think our condition miserable, and we ourselves think so too, it is no strange matter. It was so with David. He was so neglected by God that they thought God had clean forsaken him. “Where is thy God?”

Our life is now hidden with Christ, as the apostle says (Col 3:3). We have a blessed and glorious life, but it is hidden in our Head. Even as in wintertime the trees have a life, but it is hidden in the root, so a Christian has a blessed condition at all times, but his glory and happiness are hidden in his Head, and there is a cloud between him and his happiness.

Therefore let us support ourselves with this at all times. Was God gone from David indeed when they said, “Where is thy God?” Oh no; God was as near David now as he ever was, indeed rather nearer. God was never nearer Moses than when he was sprawling upon the water in that ark they had made for him (Exod 2:3). He was never nearer Daniel than when he was in the lions’ den (Dan 6:19). God came between the lions’ teeth and Daniel. And, as I said, he was never nearer our Savior than when he was on the cross. And he was never nearer to David than when they said, “Where is thy God?” When trouble is near, God is never far off. That is an argument to bring God near: Lord, be not far off, for trouble is near (Ps 22:11). And extremity and danger and trouble are God’s best opportunity to be with his children, even though he often does not help for the present. “Where is thy God?”

David might rather have said to them, “Where are your eyes? Where is your sight? For God is not only in heaven, but in me.” Though David was shut out from the sanctuary, yet David’s soul was a sanctuary for God; for God is not tied to a sanctuary made with hands. God has two sanctuaries, he has two heavens: the heaven of heavens and a broken spirit. God dwelt in David as in his temple. God was with David and in him; and he was never more with him, nor ever more in him, than in his greatest afflictions. They lacked eyes; he did not lack God.

Though sometimes God hides himself, not only from the world but from his own children, yet he is there, even though their sorrow is such that it dims their sight, as we see in Hagar (Gen 21:19), so that they cannot see him for the present. He sometimes looks them in the face, as we see with Mary. She could not see Christ distinctly, but thought him to be the gardener. There is a kind of concealment for a while in heavenly wisdom; yet, notwithstanding, God is with his children always, and they know it by faith, though not always by feeling.

We know what Jacob said, “God was in this place, and I was not aware” (Gen 28:16), when he slept upon the stone and had that heavenly vision. So it is with God’s people in their trouble. God is with his church and children, and wicked men are not aware of it. Christ is in them, and they are not aware of it. Christ was in the saints when Saul persecuted them, and Paul was not aware of it: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” “Who art thou, Lord?” he says (Acts 9:4-5). Alas! He never dreamed of Christ. Whatever wicked men of the world think, God is near his own children in the most disconsolate condition there can be.

When they say, “Where is thy God?” it is as if a man should ask what has become of the moon between the old and the new, when the dark side is toward us, when we see no moon at all for a time, until the new comes. The moon is near, and more enlightened by the sun then than at other times, and is nearer to him. So it is in afflictions. Though the dark side of God’s children is toward the world, so that the world cannot see them, yet their light side is toward God. God shines upon them, and enlightens them more at that time than at other times with solid comfort that keeps them from sinking.

Therefore it was an ignorant question of theirs to ask, “Where is thy God?” It showed they were ignorant of the ways of God’s dealing with his children, as indeed none are greater atheists than your scoffers. “Where is thy God?” they say, as if God were only a God of observation, to be observed outwardly in all his ways toward his children. But, as I said, he is a God who often hides himself, and he shows himself most of all, and most comfortably, in contrary conditions. His work is by contraries. But these carnal men were ignorant of the mysteries of religion, and the mysteries of divine providence toward God’s children. Therefore their question savors of their disposition: “Where is now thy God?” Thus briefly I have gone over their disposition and conduct toward the holy man David: that they were enemies of a hostile nature and disposition, and that they reproached him, and daily, and that in his religion: “Where is thy God?”

I beseech you, let us look to it in time, that it may not be truly said to us, by way of upbraiding, “Where is now thy God?” God may indeed be a stranger to us; let us so conduct ourselves that God may own us in the worst times. If they had said this truly, how grievous it would have been to David! But it was more malice than truth. For David knew God by experience. He might rather have upbraided them, “Where is your God?”

And there is no wicked man whom one may not upbraid in his greatest extremity, and that in truth: “Where is your God? Your riches, honor, and estate? Where is all this that you supported yourself with, and bore yourself so big on, so that you despised all others? What has become of it all now?” A man cannot stand on a thing that does not itself stand. A man cannot build on what has no good foundation. Now all men who are not truly religious have some idol or other that will deceive them. Therefore one may truly say to them what they falsely and maliciously say to God’s people: “Where is your God?”

So much for their disposition and conduct. Now how is David affected by this? That is the second part.

As with a sword in my bones. It was as a sword to his bones. Now what touches the bones is the most exquisite pain. What we call the pain of the teeth, you see what an exquisite pain it is in that little member. When the bones are cut or touched, it is a most exquisite pain. As with a sword in my bones, my enemies reproach me. What was the matter, that this reproach, “Where is thy God?” touched him so to the quick? What was the cause? The causes were various.

First of all, there was the cause concerning God. For when they said to him, “Where is thy God?” it tended, first, to the reproach of God, as if God were so fickle a friend as to desert his best friends in the time of misery. This touched upon God by way of disparagement; therefore it could not help but touch David, who was God’s friend.

Then again, it touched God in another thing, in his manner of providence, as if he were a God of the hills and not of the valleys, as if he were a God for one time and not for another. “Where is now thy God? What has become of him?”

Again, in the third place, it touched upon him in this: as if he had favored them, cursed, formal hypocrites that they were, more than David; as if he had favored their formal, hypocritical, base, dead courses, which were most abominable to God. For these persecutors were Saul’s courtiers, and other enemies. Wicked men, they thought to justify their own ways by this reproach: “You see we are as good as you. God respects us; we do not fall into such miseries; we have recourse to Saul, though he has cast out you and others…” So it tended to God’s reproach in that, as if God had justified their course, as if those who were most abominable had been dearer to him.

And this is to make an idol of God, to make God justify those courses that he most abhors, as it is in the psalm: “Thou thoughtest I was like unto thee” (Ps 50). Because God lets a wicked man alone, you thought that I was a companion for you, and would take you by the hand; whereas God will not do so.

In these three respects especially, God was wronged when they said, “Where is thy God?” as if he were not a true and faithful friend to his children; and besides, as if he had no providence over his children in the worst condition; as if he allowed and liked the base conduct, and condition, and profession of these wretched men as well as David’s. “Where is now thy God?” they say. “You see God respects us as well as you.” But there was no such matter; he respected David more than a thousand of them.

Again, this reproach, “Where is now thy God?” touched upon religion itself. “Where is your goodly profession?” they say, as if it were in vain to serve God, a horrible reproach to religion. It is not altogether in vain to serve the devil; he bestows something upon his servants. This was a base thought, to think that God would do no good to those who serve him. He is the fountain of all good, who does good to his enemies, who allows his sun to shine upon his enemies (Matt 5:45). For him to desert his friends, for a man to be truly religious and get nothing by it, this tended to the reproach of religion. And through David’s sides they strike at God and religion, as if it were in vain to serve God, as they said in Malachi’s time (Mal 3:14).

And indeed, this is in the hearts of men nowadays. If they see a man who makes care and conscience of his ways under a cloud, or not prospering in the world as others do, they begin to have weak thoughts of the profession of religion, as if that were the cause, as if nothing were gained by serving God. “But we,” they think, “may be loose in our profession, and go on in a libertine course, and please God as well as others.” This is a great grief to God’s children. They know well enough that it is not in vain to serve God. God is not a barren wilderness (Jer 2:31) to those who serve him; they are not barren ground who are careful in his service. So you see upon what ground he was thus affected: because God and religion were touched in it.

Take away a godly man’s religion, and his God whom he serves in religion, and you take away his life; touch him in that, and you touch him in his best freehold. Therefore, when these malicious enemies say, “Where is thy God?” they could not touch David more than by this. As for profane men of the world, come and tell them of religion and such things. Alas! They turn it off with scorn, for they would have the world know that they are not very religious; they never speak of God and of religion except in scorn, or as mere talk. But a man who is religious in earnest, who makes it his trade, who makes it that by which he hopes to be saved, takes to heart anything that is spoken against religion. Their words are as a sword in his bones, while they say unto him, “Where is thy God?”

It is better to be thrown out of temper than not to be moved when God and religion are touched. The Holy Spirit, who appeared in the shape of a dove (Matt 3:16), appeared at another time in fiery tongues (Acts 2:3), to show that the meek Spirit of God is at other times zealous in his children. This was another reason he was thus affected.

And thirdly, in this violent reproach of theirs, “Where is now thy God?” there was a damping of the spirits of all good men in those times who might hear of this reproach. Words affect strangely; they have a strange force with men, especially with weak imaginations that are not grounded in judgment and faith. The spies made a shrewd oration, and brought an ill report on the land: “Oh! it is a land that devours the inhabitants” (Num 13:32). It was a discouraging speech, and it worked so that it made them all murmur and be discouraged. It cannot be imagined what mischief comes from speech cunningly handled.

Take this malicious speech: “Where is thy God?” and, “What has become of all your devotion at the tabernacle, which you frequented so, drawing others, a great train, with you? What has become of it all now?” When weak men, who had the beginnings of goodness in them, saw a man reproached for this, no doubt it would damp the beginnings of goodness. Oh, would not this go to the heart of David, to see insolent men quench good things in good men with reproaches! Well, we see what reason the holy man David had to be so sensitive to this reproach, for they said to him daily, “Where is thy God?”

Now, therefore, to make some use of it for ourselves, let us enter into our own souls, and examine with what spirits and feeling we hear God reproached, and religion reproached, and hindered, and disgraced in any way. If we are not sensitive to this, and sensitive to the quick, we may suspect that we are not of the spirit of David, who was a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22). It was a cutting of his bones when they came to disparage his religion and profession, and to touch him in that. Shall a man see men forsake religion, and go backward, and desert the cause of God, and see it oppressed, and not be affected by all this? Certainly he has a dead soul. What has no pain when there is cause of pain is certainly to be accounted but dead flesh. That heart is but dead flesh which is not touched with the sense of religion.

And to come a little nearer to our times, when we hear of the condition of the church abroad, the poor church in the Palatinate, in Bohemia, and those places, you see how superstition has grown up like a canker among them. When we hear of these things and are not affected, and do not send up a sigh to God, it is a sign that we have hollow and dead hearts. No question, if we were there among those malignant spirits that are there, we would find their speeches daily such as these wicked men’s were to David: “What has become of your reformation? What has become of your new religion? Where is that now, I ask? You who upbraid us with idolatry, what has become of your religion?” No question they have these sarcasms and bitter speeches daily; and those who have the Spirit of God are grieved to the heart. If we have the Spirit of God and of Christ in our breasts, and anything of the spirit of David and of holy men, we will grieve at this.

The apostle St. Paul, when Elymas labored to stop one who was to be converted, breaks out, “Thou child of the devil, and enemy of all good, why dost thou not cease to pervert the right ways of God?” (Acts 13:10). A man who is not fired in this case has nothing at all in him. When we see wicked men go about to pervert religion and overturn everything, and we are not stirred by it, it is an ill sign.

Let us, therefore, put ourselves to the test, how we stand affected in the case of religion. He who has no zeal in him has no love. By the working of opposites, the opposition of a contrary increases its contrary; if a man has any goodness, and it is surrounded with opposition, that will intensify the goodness and increase it. Lot showed his goodness in Sodom the more because of the wickedness of the Sodomites. When a man is in vile company, and hears religion disgraced and good persons scoffed at, and will not have a word to justify good causes and good persons, he has no life of religion at all. For if he had, he would then have more religion than ordinary; the contrary would then intensify and increase the contrary.

There was a blessed mixture of many affections in this grief of the holy man David, when he said their words were as a sword in his bones. There was great grief, not only for himself, as a man feeling reproaches, for men are men; and not out of corrupt nature, but out of the principles of nature, they feel reproaches. Here was grief in respect of God, and in respect of himself; and here was the love of God and the love of religion in this grief. Here was zeal in this, and a sweet mixture of blessed affections, a sweet temper in this, when he says, “their words were as a sword in my bones.”

Let us use this to test ourselves, bring ourselves to this pattern, and think that if we come short of this, then we come short of what should be in us. But especially let us consider with what hearts we receive those doleful and sad reports of foreign churches, and with what consideration and view we look upon the present condition of the church, whether we are glad or not. There are many false spirits who either are not affected at all, or else are inwardly glad of it. They are of the same disposition as those cursed Edomites, “Down with it, down with it, even unto the ground” (Ps 137:7). I hope that there are but few such among us here; therefore I will not press that.

But if we are dead-hearted, and are not affected by the cause of the church, let us suspect ourselves, and think that all is not well. The fire from heaven is not kindled in our hearts. Our hearts are not yet the altar where God has kindled that heavenly fire, if we can hear religion disgraced, and see good causes go backward, and not be affected. “Curse ye Meroz.” Why? Because “they went not out to help the Lord” (Judg 5:23).

If those are cursed who do not help, as they can, by their prayers, then surely they are cursed who are dead-hearted, who are not affected at all, who join with the persecutors, who cry, “Down with it even to the ground,” and say, “Aha, so we would have it” (Ps 35:25). If those are cursed who do not help forward the cause of the church, at least by their prayers, and do not strive and contend for “the faith once given” (Jude 3), what shall we think of those who are not affected at all? Indeed, and worst of all, those who hinder good causes, who are scorners of religion and good causes, what shall we think of those wretched spirits? How opposite they are to the spirit of David!

To add one thing more, we may learn from this the extent of the commandments, how to enlarge the commandments. Our Savior Christ, when he came to preach the gospel, began with the enlargement of the commandments, showing the spiritual meaning and extent of the law: “He that calleth his brother Raca, or fool, is in danger of hell fire,” and “He that looks on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt 5:22, 28). You see here that the prophet David, when he speaks of their reproach, speaks of it as if they had a murderous intention; and in the event and issue it is a kind of murder. “As with a sword in my bones, my enemies reproach me…” This sword was but words.

He who wounds another man with his tongue is a murderer in God’s esteem, and so it will prove if he does not repent. For what does the Holy Spirit do here in David? Does he not set out words by swords? Is it not often in the Psalms, “Their words are as swords, the poison of asps is under their lips” (Rom 3:13)? You have an excellent place for this in Proverbs 12:18: “There is that speaks like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise is health.” A good man has a healing tongue, a medicinal, salving tongue; but a wicked man, his words are as swords, and, as he says here, their speaking is as the piercing of a sword.

Therefore let us learn from this not to think ourselves free from murder when we have killed nobody, or free from adultery when we are free from the gross act. This is but a Pharisaical gloss upon the commandments; but if we will understand the commandments of God as they are to be understood, we must enlarge them as the Scripture enlarges them. He who harms the life and comfort of any man is a murderer of him in God’s esteem; and he who labors to cut another man to the heart with sharp, piercing words is a murderer in God’s esteem.

There are those who, though no one among men can find a fault in them, and though they pride themselves as if they were very religious men, are yet men who do not hold back their tongues, men who do not care how bitterly and sharply they speak of others. If they considered this, it would take them down, and make them think a little more meanly of themselves, when indeed, in God’s construction, they are little better than murderers. “As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me, while they say to me daily, Where is thy God?” So much for these words.

For God hath put into their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree to give up their kingdoms to the beast, until the word of God shall be fulfilled. (Rev 17:17)

The occasion of this day’s observance has long been well known, and we have often spoken of it in this place. It would not be unseasonable for the day to set out in its lively colors that monstrously wicked act, which will scarcely be credible to posterity. It is beyond my powers of conception to set it out in the right colors. I have therefore taken a text tending that way, and serving our present purpose.

Our blessed Savior is pleased, out of his love to his church, not only to give directions what to do and what not to do, what to believe and what not to believe, but also to foretell all future calamities. He does this so that the church might be forearmed, and might not be surprised with terror at the sight of some sudden or strange event, especially the flourishing state of antichrist. He therefore foretells all of it: the beginning, the growth, the strength, the proceeding, and at last the destruction of that man of sin.

The church in this world is always under some prophecy. It is always under something that is unfulfilled; for until we come to heaven, not all prophecies are accomplished.

This book sets down prophecies of future events to the end of the world.

This chapter sets out in lively colors the state of the papacy, the state of Rome under the bishop of Rome, the pope, and not the state of Rome under the heathen emperors. It likewise sets down the judgment of God in this life upon this beast, and upon the whore who sits upon the beast.

The description is large in the former part of the chapter. It would take up a great deal of time to unfold that; but because I have various other things to speak of, I will pass it by.

The judgment of God upon the beast and the whore is set down partly in the verse before the text: “The ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast shall hate the whore, and make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put into their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree to give up their kingdoms to the beast …” (Rev 17:16-17).

Here the judgment is set down, what it is and by whom it shall be carried out: by the ten horns, that is, the ten kings. And, secondly, what they shall do; and that is set down in order.

First, these ten horns, these ten kings, western kings, “they shall hate the whore.”

Hatred is the beginning of all hostile actions; for it is the strongest and stiffest of the evil affections, as love is the strongest of the good affections. “They shall hate the whore”; it is not only anger, but hatred.

“They shall make her desolate and naked”: that is the second degree. They shall leave her; they shall strip this strumpet of her ornaments and strength, with which she set herself out.

“They shall eat her flesh”: that is the third. That is, what they had given her before to enrich her with, what made her so sleek and well fed, what commended her, what is her living, the riches of the pope’s clergy, gotten, most of it, by evil means, they shall take from her.

But that is not all; there is a higher degree than all this: “they shall burn the whore with fire.”

So you see that in the foregoing verse is set down what the judgment is, and who shall be the executioners of this judgment.

But why must all this come to pass? He rises to the highest cause: “God hath put into their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree with one consent to give their kingdoms to the beast.” God afterward put it into their minds to hate the beast.

So in this verse are the severity and the mercy of God, his justice and his goodness. His severity is in putting into the hearts of these kings to agree with one consent to give up their kingdoms to the beast. It is a great judgment to besot them so. But here at last is a limitation of that severity: till the time comes, until the word of God shall be fulfilled. That is, until they cease to be deluded in this way by the bishop of Rome; and then they shall begin to hate the whore as much as ever they were deluded by her, “and shall eat her flesh, and consume her with fire.”

To explain these words, since they are somewhat hard, I will spend a little time unfolding them. And first, I must show who this beast is.

“For God hath put into their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree to give up their kingdoms to the beast.”

The beast is mentioned in three places in Revelation. In Revelation 11 there is mention of the beast coming out of the bottomless pit; in Revelation 13, of the beast that rose out of the sea; and here in this seventeenth chapter, of a scarlet-colored beast, “having seven heads and ten horns” (Rev 17:3).

The beast, in a word, is the state of Rome, sometimes under the heathen emperors, sometimes under the papacy. The question is whether the beast spoken of here is the state of Rome under the persecuting Roman emperors, before Christianity had much prevailed, or the state of Rome under the usurpation of the bishop of Rome.

I answer: undoubtedly what is meant here is the state of Rome as it is upheld: the whore, the beast, that beast. For what is meant here is one who seduced by lying miracles, one who was to come in a mystery, one who was to deal in fornication and such practices.

Now heathen Rome overcame men by violence and by force, and not by whorish insinuations, by drawing them on to idolatry. It is said in Revelation 17:5 that upon her forehead was a name written, “Mystery, Babylon the Great, Mother of Harlots.” Babylon in a mystery! And this word “mystery” is a great word among the papists too. There is the mystery of the mass; in everything there is a mystery; all their ceremonies are mysteries. This word “mystery,” therefore, on the forehead of the whore, shows what beast it is that is meant here.

Various writers have observed that on the frontlet of the pope’s diadem this name, “Mystery,” is written, as in the time of Julius II. But afterward, when they smelled out that he was being construed by it to be the very whore, they scraped that out and put in “Julius II.”

“And she sits upon many waters” (Rev 17:1). “She sits.” Mark this: the Spirit of God will not allow us to go wrong. What is the pope’s government called? “Sitting.” Such and such a pope sat for so long. The whore sits, in the very phrase. And what is the seat called? The see of Rome, the see of antichrist. There are various other particular things to show that he means Rome, that is, the state of Rome under the bishop of Rome, to be the beast spoken of here.

This is especially so considering the connection of this chapter with the one following, where the final destruction of this beast is set down. Now we know that heathen Rome ended long ago. Therefore the beast meant here must be the one that follows in the next chapter, and therefore it must be Rome as it is under the bishop, the pope of Rome.

It is said in Revelation 13 that this beast made the former beast speak, and enlivened and quickened the former beast. So indeed this beast, Rome considered under the pope, which succeeds that beast, Rome as it was under the Roman emperors, quickens the former beast; for now everything is as glorious as it ever was in heathen Rome. For after the Goths and Vandals had possessed Rome, the pope put some life into the empire of Rome, and himself became emperor. For indeed the emperor of Germany, though he is entitled King of Rome, holds what is merely a title. The eagle is stripped of her feathers, of her authority; it is only the title he bears. And if any emperor comes to Rome, the pope will make him swear fealty; and the emperor must not stay long in Rome, for the pope cannot endure that.

And it is well said in Revelation that this beast is the image of the former beast, for the pope is altogether like the emperors in almost everything. The emperors were crowned; the pope, so as not to fall short, has three crowns. The emperors had their scarlet; this is a purple-colored whore in scarlet. They spoke the Latin tongue, and forced almost all nations to speak Latin, as a monument of their slavery. So everything in the popish church is in Latin: their prayers in Latin, all in Latin, even for the simple and dull-witted people to use.

Ancient heathen Rome had its grave senators; the pope has his cardinals. The heathen emperors, such as Domitian and others, would be adored as gods; so likewise the pope of Rome is adored. And mark the sleight of it: he has a crucifix on his feet, and kings must kiss that; and so in adoring the cross they adore his person, as they did Heliogabalus, that heathen emperor. Thus in almost everything they agree with ancient Rome, and I might run over their likeness to the former beast in many other things.

Now, to describe this beast a little better, so that we may know what these kings did when they gave up their kingdoms and thrones to the beast, it is said in Revelation 13 that the dragon gave power to the beast. The dragon is the devil; and as he worked effectually in the former beast, in heathen Rome, to make war with the saints, so this beast, pontifical Rome, is stirred up and driven by the devil, the dragon, to persecute the church. So this beast has the power and the spirit of the dragon, the devil himself.

And so that you may see that I do them no wrong, consider how the dragon and this beast, which is moved, led, and driven by the spirit of the dragon, agree in their courses. I will name two or three to you.

The dragon’s course is to make us distrust God. You know how in paradise he taught our first parents to distrust the word of God: “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5). So the force of popery is to dishonor and discredit God’s truth, to put out the people’s eyes, to lead them blindfolded, to make the Scripture a matter of error and heresy, and to bid the people beware of it; as if God meant to deceive them, to outwit them in giving them his word; as though it were not a word of salvation. As the dragon himself said to Christ, “If thou wilt fall down and worship me, all these will I give thee” (Matt 4:9), so the pope takes the dragon’s power upon himself. To those who will be good sons of their church he will give such and such preferments, when he has as much right to them as the devil had to those.

The devil fell from heaven at the preaching of the word, at the preaching of the gospel. The apostles, when they returned from preaching, told our Savior that they saw Satan fall down like lightning. So Antichrist falls by the preaching of the gospel, by the breath of the Lord’s mouth. He is no more able to stand before it than Dagon before the ark. The word preached is as fire to consume him. So he is like the dragon in that.

In disposition he is like the dragon. The devil is a liar and a murderer from the beginning, the father of lies. So likewise the pope is a liar; all popery is nothing but lies. Therefore it is said, they are given over to believe lies (2 Thess 2:11). Popery is a grand lie. It is a lie in the primacy, for that came in by forgery and intrusion. It is a lie in purgatory, which is a mere fancy. It is a lie in their miracles, which they have devised to maintain their false worship. It is a lie in their works of supererogation, that they can fulfill more than the Law requires. So all popery, considered distinctly from our religion (because they have what we have, and some patches of their own), considered by itself, is a mere lie.

Besides that, they maintain the doctrine of equivocation, which is a lie, a justifier of lies, which is worst of all.

And as to murder, this present day and occasion tells us that murders come from them. Their doctrine maintains it. And they make orations in commendation of traitors, as Sixtus V did in praise of the man who killed Henry III, king of France; and the bloody massacre of France is pictured up in the pope’s court. As the devil is a liar and a murderer, so is this son of the devil, who is led by the spirit of the dragon. In disposition they are alike.

In course of life they are alike. The dragon is said to draw the third part of the stars of heaven down to the earth; that is, to draw men who were as the stars of heaven, to make them deny their religion. So this dragon, this pope, the instrument and vassal of Satan, draws the third part of the stars from heaven, and draws men from the love of the truth by preferment and honor. Men who are learned, men who are otherwise of excellent abilities, he draws from heaven to earth; that is, he draws them from the knowledge of the truth and goodness to earth, and lower than earth too if they do not repent, even to hell itself, from where he came.

Thus I might go on to show that this beast is Rome under the papacy, and not Rome under the heathen emperors; likewise that this beast is driven, led, and guided by the spirit of the dragon, by reason of the resemblance it holds parallel with him in these and other things. So much for the explanation of this beast.

But why is the state of Rome called the beast?

Daniel first knew the great empires: the one of Babylon, called a lion; the Persian monarchy, a bear; the Grecian, a leopard. But here in this chapter is a strange beast that has all the cruelty and fierceness of all those monarchies, and is therefore called a beast for her fierceness and cruelty.

God’s church, they are sheep and lambs, Christ himself the Lamb of God; the opposite church of Antichrist is a beast, a cruel beast. If you go to plants, God’s church are lilies; the opposite kingdom are thorns. If you go to birds, God’s church are doves, turtledoves, mild and gentle; the opposite church are eagles and birds of prey.

But I say they are called beasts for their cruelty. The state of Rome under those heathen emperors was a beast; and in those ten persecutions the emperors are rightly called beasts. So likewise papal Rome is a beast. Our religion, true religion embraced, makes men of beasts. The true knowledge of Christ alters their natures, turns lions into lambs, as the prophet says (Isa 11:6). But the popish religion makes beasts of men, makes them worse than themselves. For these gunpowder traitors, many of them, as they were gentlemen by birth, so their dispositions were gentle and mild, several of them not of the worst dispositions; only that bloody religion made them worse than their nature was. So I say papal Rome is a beast, and popish religion makes men beasts.

Well, I will not enlarge upon the uses of this point, because I shall speak of it afterward, if time gives me leave. Only this: have nothing to do with this beast; keep out of her paws, keep out of her claws. A lion or a cruel beast may seem calm for a while, but a lion will, as we say, show a lion’s trick once a year. Do not meddle, therefore, with this beast. It is a beast. So much for that, what the beast is: the state of Rome under the bishop of Rome.

“For God hath put into their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree to give up their kingdoms to the beast.”

Whose? The angel sets it down in the verse before: the ten horns, the ten kings, the ten western kings. Whether it is a definite number standing for an indefinite one, or whether it is a definite number, I will not dispute now, but take it in a way that cannot be disputed against: a definite number standing for an indefinite one. A number of the western kings gave up their kingdoms for a while to the beast, until the word of God should be fulfilled.

But mark the phrase: “God put it into their hearts to give up their kingdoms to the beast.” Will God put it into their hearts to give up their kingdoms to the beast? Why, then, the pope of Rome need not lay claim to Constantine’s donation, that he, three hundred years after Christ, gave them many territories around Rome; they may depend on a higher donation, “God put it into the hearts of the kings to give up their kingdoms to the beast.” Here, on that reading, is a higher title than the donation of Constantine.

But we must know that this is not meant as if God gave him a right by putting it into the hearts of the kings to give up their kingdoms to the beast. Rather, God saw these ten horns, these ten kings, to be in a sinful state, men who deserved to be left by him and to be given up to further delusion. And by withdrawing his grace, and giving them up to the occasions of sin, which this seducing beast and whore was, he put it into their hearts to give up their kingdoms to the beast.

But this must be cleared up a little. Is God the author of sin, someone may ask? “God put it into their hearts.” He did not only rule the events, “but he put it into their hearts.”

I answer: the phrases of Scripture are well enough known in this kind. “God gave them up to a reprobate sense” (Rom 1:28). Of the falling away of the people from Rehoboam it is said, it was of the Lord; and God bade Shimei rail. There are various such phrases in the Scripture. How must these be understood? Thus: not that God allows or commands anything that is evil, much less that he infuses any evil into men. So when it is said that he put these things into their hearts, here is neither an outward command nor an inward infusion.

What is it, then? Here is a finding of them in an evil and sinful state, and God uses that evil, mischief, and wickedness that he finds to his own end and purpose. He infuses no malice or evil, but finding it, he uses it to his own particular end and purpose, and makes way and vent for it on particular occasions. As for these ten kings, he infuses no love of superstition into them. But he found them evil, and not as they should be, subjects of his kingdom, and they disliked his sweet government; so it was just of God to give them up to be slaves to the beast, and by consequence to the devil himself, who spoke and worked by the beast.

So I say God took away the impediments, and opened a way to their evil disposition. He used their evil disposition to this or that particular thing, even as a workman who finds a bad piece of timber does not make the timber bad, but when he finds it bad, uses it to his own good purpose. And as a man (it is Luther’s comparison) who moves a horse that is lame does not put lameness into the horse, but uses him, lame as he is, to his own purpose, so God, finding these men evil in general, directs this evil into particular courses, to work itself this way and not that, in this particular action, not in that. For God, although he is not the author of evil, is yet the orderer of it; and he determines and directs it both to the object and to the end that he pleases.

In a word, consider sin in three distinct times: before the commission, in it, and upon the performance. Before, God does not command it or infuse it, but disallows and forbids it. In the sin, he permits it to be done.

How? By withdrawing his grace, in not working; then by offering occasions that are good in themselves, and third, by handing men over, by giving them up to Satan, as here the beast is given up to Satan and the kings are given up to the beast. So God gives men up by withdrawing his grace and by handing them over; and then he upholds them in the committing of sin, upholding their powers. And when it is done, he applies those powers to this particular thing and not to that one. In the doing of it, he limits it. He sets its bounds, both for its time and also for its measure, as here in the text: thus long shall the ten kings give up their crowns to the beast, and thus far shall they go, until the time comes that the word of God shall be fulfilled. So he limits sin in the committing of it, both for the measure and also for the time. “The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the back of the righteous” (Ps 125:3).

Thus you see the meaning of the words, “God will put into their hearts.” That is, he does it by withdrawing his grace, as they deserved by their sinful courses, and by offering them this man of sin, this beast, who will come with such efficacies of error. His grace being withdrawn, and they being given up to the devil, to Satan and the beast, they will without doubt be deluded and seduced; but with this limitation, until the time comes that the word of God shall be fulfilled.

I might say much on this point, but that is not so suitable to the occasion; only something must be said for the unfolding of the text. So much, therefore, for that.

“God put into their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree to give up their kingdoms to the beast” (Rev 17:17).

They all agree to it, and therefore it was not a thing done by force. Rome and the heathen emperors did compel men, did overcome men by force of arms. These agree. It was a voluntary and a free act in them. It was necessary in regard of God’s judgment, but it was free and voluntary in regard of themselves; for with one consent they gave up their kingdoms to the beast.

Having thus unfolded the meaning, we come to observe some truths and conclusions that arise out of the words. I will not mention all, or even most, of what might be observed, but only some special ones.

“God put into their hearts to give up their kingdoms to the beast.”

Here, first of all, there arises from this God’s special providence in evil. In the greatest evil that can be, his special providence is apparent: “God put into their hearts to give up their kingdoms to the beast.” Observe here many acts of his providence: the withdrawing of his grace; the giving them up to Satan and to evil occasions; the presenting them with good occasions, which, meeting with an evil disposition, make them worse. For good occasions meeting with an evil disposition make it worse, make it rage the more, as the stopping of a torrent makes it rage and swell the more. Observe also the limitation of all this, “until his word shall be fulfilled.”

Thus in this work heaven, and earth, and hell meet in one action. So it was in that great action of the crucifying of our blessed Savior. There is the action of God in giving his Son to be a sweet sacrifice, and the action of Judas, and the devil in him, betraying Christ, and the action of the soldiers in crucifying him. St. Augustine, in unfolding this point of the providence of God in evil, observes how many may concur in one action, God without blame, man without excuse. God is without blame: he finds men evil, and leaves men who deserve to be left; he takes away his grace, and as a judge gives men up to Satan. Man is without excuse, because man works willingly: They with one consent gave up their kingdoms to the beast. That is the first.

The second is this, that the will of man may be swayed by divine governance, and yet notwithstanding work most willingly and freely.

Here God puts into their hearts to do this, and yet they willingly and with one consent gave their crowns to the beast.

God first has his providence in evil, and then that providence is such that it does not rob man of his liberty. For when God finds man in an evil course, he does not force him to this or that particular evil, but only directs him: “The hearts of kings are in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of waters” (Prov 21:1). When a man finds a river of water, he does not make the stream, but only makes a way for it to run this way or that, as it pleases him. So God, finding the hearts of kings, or the hearts of anyone, as the rivers of water, opens a vent so that they should run this way and not that way, so that they should be given to this and not to that. Here is the action of God, and yet the free liberty of man.

But how could this be free, someone may ask, when they could not avoid it?

I answer: they were not privy to God’s directing. They did not work with any consciousness of God’s moving them, but they followed their own lusts and will. Between God’s work and man’s will there is always sin. God never works directly in man’s will; for man’s will is free, but man’s sinful free will is the nearest cause in sin. Although God put it into their hearts, yet he found them sinfully disposed.

And then, the judgment is not bound or tied. The hearts of these kings told them that they might give their crowns to the beast or not give them. Their judgment saw that they had reason to do it, though their judgment was corrupt. So a sinner sees reason to do this or that, and although it is corrupt reason, yet it moves him at that time. His judgment is not bound up, but God lets his judgment be free, though he takes away his heavenly light, and so he judges perversely. That is the second.

The third is, that it is a terrible judgment of God to be given up to a man’s own will, to leave a man to his own consents.

It is spoken here by way of judgment, that “God put it into their hearts to give up their kingdoms to the beast.” And indeed it is a terrible judgment.

There are some objections to be taken away for the clearing of this weighty point.

How, someone asks, is it a judgment or a punishment when it is voluntary? They willingly gave up their kingdoms.

I answer: the more voluntary and free a man is in sin, the more and the greater the judgment is. The more sin is restrained, either inwardly by the Spirit and by the conscience, or outwardly by the laws and terror, the more mercifully God deals with men. So the more freely the current of the disposition runs in evil ways, the more wretched a man is.

Yes, but the heart of some atheistical person will immediately say, “What punishment is it, as long as I have liberty in evil, and meet with no hindrance in my courses, and feel no harm, but rather the contrary? Look at the many who get their riches by evil means, and those great papists, those great usurpers: do we not see what estates they get for themselves?”

I answer: spiritual judgments are so much the greater, the less they are felt, because if they are not felt by us here, they will be felt the more by us hereafter. And those who have their will most here shall suffer most against their will hereafter. It is the greatest judgment in this world for a man to have his will in sinful courses. The man who makes an idol of his will, especially a man in a great place of honor, who makes all ways serve for the accomplishment of his will when he has it, is the most miserable man in the world. For he who has his will most in unjustifiable courses shall suffer most against his will when he comes to a reckoning. Such men, therefore, are the more miserable, because they take themselves to be absolute persons and their ways to be the best ways. Though they have many deterrents from their base courses, yet they will hear no counsel, and are therefore the harder to reclaim. Their liberty in evil does not, therefore, take away from their punishment, but rather aggravates it.

I beg you, let me press this a little: these judgments are great judgments, although we do not feel them, when with a free consent we give ourselves to evil. It is a heavy judgment when God leaves us to our own lusts and takes away the guidance of his Spirit. It would be better for us that God should give us up to the devil for a while to be tormented. It would be better for us to be in hell, if a man might come out at a certain time, than to be given up all our lifetime to do, with our own consent and will, what is pleasing to our own will and lust. For by yielding to our own will we yield to the devil, who rules in a man’s affections and will. A man’s affections, when they are carried to evil, are the chariots of Satan. When the devil sees excessive sinful affections, such as excessive sinful joy and delight in sinful pleasures, he, being about us, is always carried in these affections, and also carries us strongly in the ways that lead to eternal perdition.

When a man suffers some outward punishment, such as being cast into prison or the loss of his sight, we judge, “Oh, he is in a fearful case!” But what is the case of a man blinded by Satan and his own lusts? Of a man who is a slave to his own base affections, and as a consequence to the devil, who rules in his affections, and so consequently to damnation? Of a man who lies under the wrath of God and has no heart to repent? If a man had spiritual eyes to consider the case of that man, he would never pity so much the case of those who suffer outward losses as he would pity those he sees living, and often dying, in evil courses of life.

This should therefore serve as direction to us. Seeing we hear that God rules the hearts of men, that he takes away his Spirit and leaves men to occasions, we should pray to God to rule our hearts himself: Lord, take the rule of our hearts, and govern them yourself. It was a good prayer of the ancient church: “O God, from whom all holy desires and all good counsels do proceed …” Indeed, it is he from whom all good counsels proceed. These ten horns were ten kings. No doubt, as they were men of great place, so they were men of great abilities; but without God’s Spirit, without his light, the greatest and the wisest man is only mad. He is like a man out of his wits, puzzled in darkness, who does not know which way to go. When God gives men over to their own lusts, to their blind affections, these lead men to judgment, and they must necessarily fall into the pit.

Let us desire God to put holy desires and holy purposes into our hearts, for from him all holy desires come. Let us desire him not only to govern our estate and to preserve our bodies from danger, but say: Lord, keep our hearts. We cannot keep our hearts by ourselves. Bend our understandings, bow our affections and our wills, so that they may run in the right way.

And to stir us up to this the more, we must know that we are indebted to God for the evil we do not do, as much as for the good we do. Why do men who have an evil disposition and a corrupt nature not do evil? Because God does not offer occasions of evil. If God should offer occasions, they would commit the evil as well as others. It is God who puts into men’s hearts to hate that evil. If God should take away his Spirit, men would not hate evil when occasions are offered, as these men did not when the occasion was offered: they gave up their kingdoms and thrones to the beast. So we are indebted to God for all the evil that we do not do; it is either his not offering occasions, or else his giving us strength in the occasions.

This we forget. We are apt to say, “This wicked man has done this; this good man has fallen into this; this man has done that.” But where is our devotion at this time? We should rather say, “Lord, it was you, for causes you know best. For if you had left me, especially when occasions were presented and offered, and there was a corresponding corruption in my heart to close with the occasion, I would have fallen into the same sin. It was your keeping, and not my goodness.”

One thing more. The beast is described earlier, in Revelation 13, as being led by the devil. The devil is called by St. Paul the god of this world, and the pope is the subordinate vicar to the devil, and so by consequence he is the devil, for the devil, the dragon, rules him. But although, I say, there is the devil, the god of this world, and the pope in this world, the vicar of that dragon, yet there is only one monarch, one who rules all, both devil and pope, and all the wicked limbs of both, to his own ends. It was God who put it into the hearts of these kings to give up their kingdoms to the beast. He alone is absolute, who grants the liberty of the chain to both men and devils: thus far they shall go, and no further.

It is a good saying of the schoolmen, that there is no evil so evil as there is good that is good. There is not any evil so strong as God is good, but every evil must come under the government of God. Neither the devil himself nor the vile heart of man can go out of his rule, though they may run out of his commandments. But then they run into his justice. They may go against the revealed will of God, but then they run into his secret will. There is no evil evil to the degree that God is good; but every evil is in something, and from something, and for something that is good, as it is overruled by God. The crucifying of Christ, which was the worst action that ever was, yet tended to the greatest good, namely, the salvation of mankind. So this giving of these ten thrones to the beast by these ten kings was a sin and a punishment of their sin; but it was for a good end, as we shall see afterward, if the time will allow.

This should teach us absolute dependence on and subjection to this great God. Those who fear God need fear no creatures. They need fear no devil, nor Turk, nor pope, nor all the limbs of them; for God is the absolute monarch of the world. He can do what he will; and if God is on our side, who can be against us? It is said that he is a wise politician who can make his own ends out of his enemies’ designs. The great governor of heaven and earth can do so. He can put a hook into the nostrils of the leviathans of this world, and can draw them and rule them as he pleases. They may do many things, but it shall all be to accomplish his ends and purposes. They shall do his will. God put it into the hearts of these kings to fulfill his will; he put it into their hearts to agree to give up their kingdoms to the beast, and so they did submit themselves to antichrist for a great while.

In the next place, it is expressed how this came about: “They gave their kingdoms to the beast.” We are to see how far these kings were at fault, and how far the pope, the beast, was at fault, to whom they gave their kingdoms. For it may be objected that these men only obeyed God, for he put it into their hearts; and as for the pope, they offered their kingdoms to him, and who would not receive offered gold? But here is a great deal of devilish deceit. For, first, God gave them over to themselves, and they gave themselves and their kingdoms to the beast. What then was sinful in them? This: to give their kingdoms to the beast.

In this they betrayed their kingdoms. Here is a wrong to God, a wrong to themselves, and a wrong to their subjects. It is a wrong to God, whose deputies they were. Did he give them their kingdoms so that they might give them to his enemy, to the beast, and by consequence to the devil? Does God raise up men to rule so that they should enslave themselves and their kingdoms to the beast, and give them to God’s enemies? No; kings reign by him. The pope says, “By me.” Is their appointment from men? No, kings reign by God; they derive their authority from him: “It is he that hath power over kings” (Dan 2:21). They do not reign if he so wills, and they may rule if he so wills, by his will permitting; otherwise no man can reign. “By me kings reign” (Prov 8:15). If, then, they reign by him, it is treason against God to betray the kingdoms he has given them into the hands of his enemies. It is a wrong to Christ. They should kiss the Son with kisses of subjection, as princes are accustomed to do in the eastern countries, falling down and kissing their sovereigns’ toes; but in this they do the very contrary.

Here is a wrong to themselves. They betray their own authority: when God has made them kings to rule, they will be slaves. And it is a great sin for a man not to maintain his standing, as is well observed by his Majesty, who, if ever a prince did, vindicates himself and claims his regal authority; and it shall continue, and make him live even to the world’s end. It is the greatest sin for a man to betray himself. Every man is to maintain that place and standing in which God has set him. These ten horns wronged themselves and their place. God made them kings over their people, and they became slaves to an antichristian priest.

It was a great wrong to their subjects. Kingdoms, we know, follow their kings; and if Jeroboam makes Israel to sin, all Israel will quickly sin. Diseases come from the head; if the head is diseased, there will soon be a disease in the body. When a greater stone is tumbled down from a hill, it carries lesser stones along with it; so great kings, when they fall themselves, draw their kingdoms after them. Therefore the phrase of the Scripture is, “God put into their hearts to give,” not only themselves, but their kingdoms, to the beast. For commonly the idol of the people is their king, and, being led by sense and not by faith, they fear him more than they fear God, and their own restraint more than they fear hell; and so they come to this damned religion by depending upon him. Therefore it is a wrong to the people, since these kings know that the people are so slavish by nature, and that, lacking faith, they are fearful and led by terror at the present command of their king. Thus it was a wrong in these kings every way.

But the pope, the beast, someone will ask, what was to blame in him? He only took what was offered him: “They gave their kingdoms to the beast.”

I answer: indeed, he took what was offered him, but he abused these kings, he abused the Christian world. He had no title to these kingdoms, but was a fraudulent possessor of them, because he came to them by craft. He raised himself to the popedom by the ruins of the empire. For upon the divisions of the empire, the emperor, having enemies in the east, was obliged to remain in Constantinople; and thereupon Rome, being much neglected, was at last overrun by the Goths and Vandals. And the pope, taking occasion of the absence of the emperor, set himself up, thus raising himself by the ruins of the empire. And then, being established, he set up Pepin, father of Charles the Great, and put down Childeric; Childeric, being a weak prince, he deposed, and set the other up, so that he might gratify him in this way. So he plotted with princes.

And then again, he won respect and authority from the horns by diabolical and vile courses. For, first, he abused their understandings, keeping them from the Scriptures; and then he abused their affections, and drew them this way and that way with trifles. They gave him great matters, and he gave them indulgences and pardons, and consecrated grains, and such things.

Then again, he would often force them to yield by excommunications, and by many false titles of Peter’s successor and Peter’s chair; so by the terror and dread of excommunication he awed them.

Again, he worked by subtlety, joining with one prince against another, setting one against another. And if he joined with any party, he had such craft that he would be sure to make him a slave to the papacy, one way or another, or else he would excommunicate him. And then, before they could be absolved, they must either pay a great sum of money, or else go on such and such a voyage, or set such and such men on such and such an enterprise.

And then again, he gave dispensations to sell souls; and so men might do what they wanted and they should have pardon; otherwise they should have excommunication.

And then again, he had preferments for the sons of the horns: cardinals’ places for their second sons, so that they should be great princes. He had high places for them.

Then again, he laid his foundation on false grounds. He would be universal bishop; and the church could not err; and all of them must fetch and determine their matters from him; and appeal must be made to none but him; and in certain cases none could satisfy the conscience but him. So he greatly raised his authority by these false and cheating means; and all who yielded to him were a deluded company of people, deluded by the false and subtle courses he took. And therefore, although they gave their kingdoms to him, yet he possessed them by a fraudulent title; the means he used were diabolical.

“They gave their kingdoms to the beast, till the word of God should be fulfilled.”

Well! We see here the judgment of God upon the Christian world. It was not only a judgment upon these kings, as they were kings, but God punished the people’s sin in the slavery of these kings to the beast.

See here the judgment of God upon kings and princes for not esteeming, as they should, the glorious gospel of Christ. For they, both princes and people, had it, but they did not esteem it, but delighted in untruths; therefore God gave them up to believe lies.

We are not, therefore, to pity our ancestors too much. Though they deserve pity, yet we excuse them too much in this way; for certainly God is just in his judgment, who, seeing them delight in lies more than in his truth, took away his grace, and gave them up to this beast, so that they should give up their authority, both prince and people, to him. And because they would not be ruled by God’s will, thinking themselves wiser than he, he appointed them to be ruled by one who should be ruled by the devil; for the devil was in the pope, and who would serve the devil if he knew it? But because they would not yield to Christ’s sweet government, he gave them over to a government fit for them, even to be governed by the beast.

I beg you, take notice of this point. When we do not welcome the glorious gospel of Christ, the good word of God, that word that declares salvation to us, and that is an instrument to work grace in us, to fit us for heaven; that word that is the seed and the food of our new birth, the evidence of our inheritance; that good word that is the greatest jewel under heaven; when we do not value that, it is the greatest error there can be. And God is just to give us up to this error and to that error, if not to popery, then to some one error that the devil is in, and that is contrary to the Spirit of God.

Do you think that if a master saw his servant taking bad courses, and the servant would not do according to his appointment and admonition, he would not leave him to take his own course, and so let him do his own will, so that by this he might see his folly in not being ruled by him? So it is just of God, when he sees that we do not make much of his gospel, his soul-saving gospel, that we will not have that alone but must have traditions with it, and that besides Christ we must have other mediators, as if Christ were not rich enough; it is just of God, I say, to give both prince and people up to the beast. Let us, therefore, make much of the gospel.

What moved God to give up the eastern empire, those glorious churches of Saint John’s time, to the Turk? Nothing but this: they did not value the gospel. What moved God to give up those western kings to the Roman antichrist? (For those two, the Turk and the pope, are twins; they had their beginning at the same time, about seven hundred years after Christ.) What moved this but only this? God had dealt graciously with them at the first, and gave them his truth to save their souls, and it is the most comforting thing in the world to have God reveal what he means to do with us, and what he would have us do. When he had revealed his will to them, and saw them leave his will, saw them leave gold and take dross, and prefer the traditions and wisdom of men before the wisdom of God, it was just of him to give them up to believe lies.

“They gave their kingdoms to the beast” (mark the limitation here, “until”) “until the word of God should be fulfilled” (Rev 17:17).

I see that I cannot make an end of the text. A little further, and so I will conclude.

Here is an “until”; here is a stop. The devil and the beast had their time to seduce the kings, and the kings had their time to be seduced and to give up their kingdoms, but God has his time, Christ has his time. Christ gives his enemies time, and then takes time himself, “until the time that the word of God shall be fulfilled.”

We see here, then, a mixture of mercy with justice: after God had given them up justly, not only the eastern empire but also the western kings to the pope, yet notwithstanding here is an “until.” God limits evil not only in its measure, but also in its time. God at length turns the stream of things, so that these kings who were thus abused and made fools of by this man of sin, this beast, at last grow wise, by the prompting of God, and hate the beast as much as they ever loved her.

So, then, this is the point: the same God who by divine providence gave way to these kings to abuse the doctrine of the gospel, and who gave way to these unthankful people to yield themselves in such slavery to the pope, yet notwithstanding, in mercy, at the last put it into the hearts of these kings to withdraw their necks from this yoke, and to put their necks under Christ’s yoke.

This “until” had its beginning many years ago. For we know, to omit other kings of other countries, that King Henry VIII, of famous memory, taken apart from those things in him that we cannot overstate, was a man of great and excellent gifts, as he was a man of great vices. He was an excellent instrument of Christ to unhorse the pope, to shake off his government, to hate the whore, and to eat her flesh; that is, to overthrow the monasteries, those cages of unclean birds, and those Peter’s pence, those exactions. For indeed the pope made England his ass to bear his burdens. It would try any man’s patience to see how pitifully the popes of Rome have abused this island.

So we may now truly say, as Christ says, “If the Son make you free, you are free indeed” (John 8:36). Christ has made us free, the gospel has made us free, and ever since the coming of the gospel we have flourished. King Henry shook off the yoke first, and after him King Edward, and after him Elizabeth of blessed memory, and now our gracious king. So this “until” began long ago, with hating the beast and eating her flesh. One thing is yet undone, “to burn her with fire” (Rev 17:16). If they hate the beast and eat her flesh, this will come too, to burn her with fire; even the ten kings who were subject to her before shall do that.

We see that wickedness shall not thrive always. It shall not always be night, but the sun shall rise at the last. Impostures shall not always abuse the world. Their madness shall be made manifest at length, as Paul says (2 Tim 3:9). This is our comfort, that there is an “until,” a time fixed beforehand by God to expose and lay open all impostures; and now the time has come when most of this should be fulfilled. Some of these words of God are fulfilled. The beast is hated; and now the beast is known to be the beast, to be cruel. Witness the blood of saints, the murder of kings, those horrible acts that are allowed from Rome. The beast, I say, is now exposed and hated.

The affection due to the beast is hatred. If ever we hated anything, we may hate the state of Rome. It is a beast, and the object of hatred, and always was; and if ever, I say, we hated anything that deserved our hatred, it is that. Why? Do we not hate a harlot? Do we not hate an old strumpet, an old painted strumpet? Do we not hate a woman who is a procuress? There was never a procuress, there was never a whore, who did the thousandth part of the harm that this procuress, this beast, this whore of Rome has done, drawing so many thousands of souls to hell.

Of all the judgments since the beginning of the Christian world with which God has visited the pride and wickedness of men, there was none so grievous as to allow this man of sin to rule in the church. The spiritual judgment of the papacy is the greatest judgment of God that was ever inflicted on anyone.

We hate those who misuse us under the pretense of love, who cheat and swindle us, and we delight in their punishment. There was never a cheat, never a swindler like this. And surely God has so fulfilled his word that she is hated even by our children, who know no more than the grounds of religion, to whom Christ has shone by the evidences of his truth, who have the Spirit of God in them. They hate those impostures, those abuses of the Christian religion, with which this beast has deluded the Christian world, which shows that those of Rome have a spirit contrary to the Spirit of God. And indeed so they have; for, besides their own base government, they maintain the corruptions of men, feeding the pride and vanity of men’s natures with outward, formal, empty things. So the very weak ones, even children, now hate the whore, hate her impostures, hate her cruelty, hate her lying, and all.

I see that the time is past. I can go no further, but will draw to an end, adding only a little to stir us up. Shall God then reveal and expose this painted strumpet, this procuress, and shall we labor to conceal her evil? Shall we whitewash her, shall we make her out to be better than she is? Shall we hinder God’s purpose? God’s word is that she shall be revealed; the princes shall hate her, and consume her with fire. Let every one of our purposes help God’s purpose, and providence, and decree in this point. That this shall be is God’s purpose; and whoever stops it, they certainly bring the judgment of God upon themselves. Those who would rebuild Jericho, we know what befell them; and those who rebuild Rome, which now begins to be exposed, bring the judgment of God upon themselves. God will perform this as well as he performed the other. As he put it into the hearts of these kings to betray their kingdoms to the beast, so he will put it into their hearts to hate the whore.

Now, that we may hate her, let everyone labor in his place: ministers in their place to lay open their impostures, their swindling, and all their filthiness, by which they deceive the people; magistrates in their place to support the ministers, and to see the laws executed as far as they may. As for those who are seduced through ignorance and have not been won over by the Jesuits (for there is no hope of those who have), their persons may many times have favor, as a matter of state policy, but not their religion.

Let us all take heed that we grow in knowledge; let us labor to make more of the gospel of Christ. The more Christ appears in glory, the more antichrist will appear in shame. Let us labor by prayer, and not let God go in prayer, that he may plant the love of the truth in our hearts, that we may receive the truth with love and value it according to the respect it deserves at our hands. And let us labor to be molded into that truth, to obey it. Otherwise, though we have it, yet if we do not love it, if we are not transformed into it, then however great our wits and gifts may be, we may be seduced to error. God gave over these kings, men of great place and of great gifts, because they did not love the truth, to believe lies.

My purpose was to have shown the danger if we do not further God’s purpose in exposing this wicked antichrist: a state in which the devil, the dragon, is powerfully at work, and this book wondrously sets down the danger. It is a very different kind of danger now to relapse and to apostatize, after the appearing of the glorious gospel of Christ, than it was a hundred years ago under darkness; and we know it to be so. Of all the judgments in this world, the greatest is for God to give a man up to decay in his love for the truth, and to love this cursed religion on which the sentence of God has passed; and it must be fulfilled, that they shall hate the whore, and burn her with fire, that she shall be left desolate and naked (Rev 17:16).

But you may object, “Alas! How is that likely to be, when we now see what strength the beast has gotten, and how he swaggers in the world at this time, how he triumphs and tramples the poor church under his feet?”

Well, it is only a last show of life before death. Undoubtedly Babylon is fallen; it is “fallen,” says John in his time (Rev 14:8). That is, it is as sure to fall as if it had fallen already. The word of God has said so. The power of man cannot hinder it. He has put it into the heads and hearts of the kings to betray their kingdoms; he shall also put it into their hearts and heads to hate the whore and burn her with fire at the last. It must be so. The angel said it was done, as if it were done already. It is as sure as if it were done.

Therefore let us never be scandalized at the flourishing state of the enemies of the church abroad; let us never dislike our religion for that. Babylon is fallen. The time will come when it shall be done. Heaven has settled it, and earth cannot hinder it; no, nor hell either. God has said it, and shall he not do it? It is the word of him who is Lord of his word, because he is Lord of hosts, and Lord of the creatures. It is the word of him who is Lord of lords, who is Lord of heaven and earth, Lord of all things. He has said that Babylon is fallen; and therefore it must be so, since he is Governor and Lord of all things, and of his word too, and can make all things prove serviceable to his purpose.

Let us comfort ourselves, therefore, as if it were present, and not take offense at the state of the beast and the whore’s flourishing, but present him to ourselves as he is set out in the text. See him growing, see him rising, see him decaying, and at last see him cast into the bottomless pit, to burn in the lake of fire forever. It is, you see, the word of God from heaven, that he is fallen, and cast into the earth as a millstone, and shall never rise again. He shall never come to life again. Heathen Rome was brought to life again by papal Rome: the pope revived the former beast. But there shall never be a beast after this Rome, and therefore he is said in this chapter “to go into destruction”; that is, he and his state, and all without repentance, shall so go into destruction that there shall never be another beast.

And what shall help this destruction forward shall be the course they themselves take. As God has decreed their destruction, so he has appointed that their own plots, which they have devised for their own maintenance, shall turn to their confusion. Do you not think that the ruin of the pope will come by the Jesuits? By pressing themselves forward, by their officious meddling in princes’ affairs, by drawing and assuming all business to themselves, and by striving to bring everyone to their profession, they have grown so hated by the world that even these means, which they themselves take, will be the means of the overthrow and downfall of popery. As the counsel of Ahithophel was the means of making a fool of him, so their own courses will cause their own overthrow.

In the powder treason, they thought they were made forever, but God turned their wickedness upon their own heads. And now in these later times we may see that God takes his cause into his own hands; and you know who said it from observation, Haman’s wife: “If thou begin to fall, thou shalt not prevail, but shalt surely fall before him” (Esth 6:13). So if God takes the matter into his own hands, as he has done already, let them fear. For they shall surely fall and not prevail. Until he has done his work in Zion, until he has thoroughly purged his church, they shall prevail. There is a little time allotted them, but it is nothing.

Let us see by the eye of faith what this book says of them, that they shall be destroyed; and let us look at the courses they themselves take, which will cause their destruction. Was there ever anything that weakened popery so much as this desperate attempt that we now commemorate this day? Indeed, if we go to an ignorant papist, and tell him what doctrine they teach and what upholds their doctrine, if we tell him of the powder treason and ask him about the traitors, he will mince the matter: “Oh, they were unfortunate gentlemen…”

But how did Sixtus V mince the matter when they had success in the massacre in France, when many thousands of people were slain against the law, slain under pretense of a marriage, having been invited to the wedding? He was so far from disallowing the act that he had it pictured in his palace. So if these men had achieved this, they would not have been unfortunate gentlemen; they would have been made, they would have been sainted, as some of them are: Saint Garnet! Saint Devil! If the devil himself will help them and further popery, he shall be sainted; and however base they may be, yet for their rebellion and destruction of kings, they shall be sainted by them. Will this not provoke men to hate the beast and the whore, to make her desolate and naked, and to eat her flesh, and to burn her with fire?

Well, the time is past, and I cannot finish the text as I thought to have done. To speak to the particular occasion I need not; it is still fresh. And why should we speak of the gunpowder treason? The Jesuits and priests, having the devil for their midwife, are pregnant with plots like these. Hell, Rome, and Satan, and the Jesuits, those frogs of the bottomless pit, are full of devising such attempts. But I thought rather to speak against popery, against the beast and her religion at this time, than rhetorically to amplify that act of theirs, when indeed we are ready to have a new one continually, for they are always plotting and devising, I mean those Jesuits.

Our comfort is to look to the Scripture, to look here at what shall be the end of these frogs and of the beast. Before long they shall be cast into the burning lake. Let us bless God that we live under this government, under so gracious a prince, who has weakened the pope more by his learned writings than any prince ever did. So much for this time.