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THE

WORKS

ROBERT LEIGHTON, D.D.,

ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW.

OOMPErsiNU

COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER— EXPOSITORY LECTDRES— CHARGES-
LETTERS— SERMONS— THEOLOGICAL LECTURES— MEDITATIONS,
ETC ETC

TO WHICH IS PEEFIXED A

LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, BY JAMES AIKMAN, Ebq.

COittPLETE IN ONE VOLUME.

lton.Uon:
T. NELSON AND SONS, PATEBNOSTER ROW;
AND EDINBURGH.

JIUCCCLIU.

CONTENTS

Page
Life of Auchbishqp Leiohton,
i)Y James Aikman, Esa. i
A Practical Commentary ow the
First Epistle of Peter.
Chap. I   1
Chap. II  65
Chap. Ill  145
Chap. IV  230
Chap. V  279
Expository Lectures on
FSAI,M XXXIX..  »  Sll
Isaiah vi  '.  324
Romans xii  ...331
Charges, &c. to tlie Clergy of the
Diocese of Dunblane  »....338
Letters written by Bishop Leighton
on different Occasions,  «.  345
eighteen sermons.
SERMON L
James iii. 18. But the wisdom that
is from above is first pure, &c  ..351
SERMON IL
Job xVxiv. 31, 32. Surely it is meet
to be said unto God, I have borne
chastisement, I wlH not offend auy
; more, &c  356
SERMON UL
IsAiAir xxviii. 5, 6. In that day shall
the Lord of hosts be for a crown of
glory, &c  361
SERMON IV.
Isaiah lx. I. Arise> shine, for thy
Ught is come, and the glory of the
Lord' is risen upon thee,  'iS'i
SERaiON V.
On-the same Text,  „  370
SERMON VL
Psalm xiii. 8. Yet the Lord will
command his loving-kindness in the
day-time, &c  ,  375
SERMON vn.
Psai.m cxix. 13. Rivers of waters
run down mine eyes, because they
keep not thy law,  381
SERMON VIIL
Cant. i. Si Because of the savour
of thy good ointments, thy name is
as ointment poured forth, therefore
do the virgins love thee,. ...... .™.. ...... 387

Pago
SERMON IX.
Rom. viii. 7- Because the carnal
mind is enmity against God, &c  393
SERMON X.
Rom. xiii. 5 — 8. Wherefore ye must
needs be subject, not only for wrath,
but also for conscience' sake,  39G
SERMON XL
Psalm Ixxvi. 10. Surely the wrath of
man shall praise thee : the remainder
of wrath shalt thou lestrain,.  402
SERMON XIL
Psalm cxii. 7- He shall not be afraid
of evil tidings ; his heart is fixed,
trusting in the Lord,  407
SERMON XIII.
Matt. xiii. 3. Aud he spake many
things unto them in parables, say
ing, Behold a sower went forth to
sow, &c  412
SERMON XIV.
2 Cor. vii. 1. Having therefore these
promises, dearly beloved, &c  415
SERMON XV.
Psalm cxix. 32. I will run the way
of thy commandments, wben thou
shalt enlarge my heart,  418
SERBION XVI.
Rom. viii. 33, 34. Who shall lay
any thing fo the charge of God's
elect ? &c  422
SERMON XVIL
Rom. viii. 35. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? &c  425
SERMON XVIII.
Isaiah lix. l,-2. Behold, the Lord's
hand is not shortened that it cannot
save, &c  420
Exposition of the Creed,.  433
Exposition ofthe Lord's. Prayer,  447
Exposition of the Ten Commandments, 474
Of Precept 1  477
Precept II  4(J0
Precept III  482
Precept IV  ...484
Precept V   ..486
Precept VI  488
Precept VII  „..4S9

CONTENTS.

Page
Of Precept VUI  491
Precept IX  494
Precept X  496
A Discourse on Matthew xxii. 37 — 39..499
A Discourse on Hebrews viii. 10  502
A Short Catechism,  505
TEN sermons, from THE AUTHOR'S
manuscripts. SERMON I.
Rom. xiii. 11 — 14. And that know
ing the time, that now it is high
time to awake out of sleep, &c  507
SERMON II.
Psalm cvii. 43. Whoso is wise, and
will observe these things, &c  511
SERMON IIL
Psalm cxix. 96. I have seen an end
of all perfection ; but thy command
ment is exceeding broad,  516
SERMON IV.
riAB. xii. 17, 18. Although the fig-
tree shall not blossom, &c  ...520
SERMON V.
1 CoR. i. 30. But of him are ye in
Christ Jesus, &c.  .524
SERMON VI.
Jer. a. 23, 24. O Lord, I know that
the way of man is not in himself, &C...530
SERMON VIL
EsA. xxx. 15 — 19. For thus saith the
Lord God, the holy One of Israel,
In returning and rest shall ye be
saved. &c  534

Jer.

SERMON VIIL
xiv. 7 — 9- O Lord, though our

iniquities testify agaiust us, do thou
it for thy name's sake, &c  539
SERMON IX.
Luke xiii. 1 — 10. There were pre
sent at that season some that told
him of the Galileans, whose blood
Pilate had mingled with their sacri
fices, &c  544
SERMON X.
Preached before the Parliament, liih
Nov. 1669.
John xxi. 22. What is that to thee ?
Follow thou me,  547
theological lectures.
I The Introduction,  553
II. Of Happiness, its Name and Nature,
and the Desire of it implanted in
the Human Heart,  555

Lect. ''¦¦«*
III. Of the Happiness of Man, and
that it is really to be found,  557
IV. In which it is proved that Human
Felicity cannot be found either in
the Earth or Earthly Things,  659
V. Ofthe Immortality ofthe Soul,  562
VI. Of the Happiness ofthe Life to come, 565
VIL Ofthe Being of God,  567
VIII. Of the Worship of God, Provi
dence, and the Law given to Man, 572
IX. Of the Pleasures and Utility of
Religion,  574
X. Of the Decrees of God,  575
XI. Of the Creation of the 'World, ...... 577
XII. Ofthe Creation of Man,  581
XIII. Of Divine Providence,  584
XIV. Of Christ the Saviour,  587
XV. Of Regeneration,  589
XVI. Of Regeneration,  593
XVII. Of True Felicity and Eternal
Punishment,  596
XVIII. Of the Christian Religion, and
that it is the true Way to Happi
ness,  599
XIX. That Holiness is the only Way
to Happiness on this Earth,  601
XX. Of our Happiness, particularly
that it is in God, who can direct
us to the true Way of attaining it ;
that this Way he has discovered
in the Sacred Scriptures, the di
vine Authority whereof is asserted
and illustrated,  603
XXL Ofthe Divine Attributes,  608
XXII. How to regulate Life according
to the Rules of Religion,  609
XXIIL Of Purity of.bife,  011
XXIV. Before the Coxomunion,  613
An Exhortation to the Students upon
their return to the University after
the Vacation,  616
Exhortations to the Candidates for the
Degree of Master of Arts in the
University of Edinburgh,  619
Exhortation 1  621
II  623
III  624
IV  G26
V  628
VI  629
VII  631
VIII  633
Valedictory Oration,  635
A Defence of Moderate Episcopacy,  337
Meditations, Critical and Practi
cal, ON Psalms iv. xxxii. and cxxx.
On Psalm iv  643
— Psalm xxxii  652
— Psalm cxxx  658
A Sermon to the Clergy, from 2 Cor. v.
20, not before published in any for
mer Collection,  673
Several Letters on various Subjects, G81-U87

LIFE

OP

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON.

Tn an age when the study of Theology was the imiversal and lead
ing pursuit, and amounted almost to a passion, Robert Leighton
was a pre-eminent Theologian ; not so much from his acquirements in
that species of Literature, in which, however, he was deeply skilled, as
frora the delightful example he exhibited in his life and writings, of a
religion he cordially believed, and as far as his apprehensions extend
ed, faithfully copied. Hewas not free in his conduct from the errors of
humanity, but he was one of the very few, who err on the lovelier side;
his amiability of temper, and purity of principle, led him to carry,
among men of sterner stuff, the proposals of Charity which he professed,
farther than either accorded with the situation he held, the rights that
were in peril, or the temper of the times. It therefore happened to
him, as must happen to all placed in similar circumstances, that his
character was viewed by his contemporaries in extremes ; and as pos
terity do not easily get rid of the feelings of their ancestors, it has
even in our own days bfeen looked at in very different lights.
Men have no right to visit the sins ofthe fathers upon the children,
yet it is no indefensible propensity to esteem the seed of the righteous,
to feel grief for them when they leave the paths of their progenitors,
and if they have descended from persecuted parents, and join their per
secutors, to address them as the prophet did Jehoshaphat, " Shouldst
thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord .-' therefore
there is wrath upon thee from before the Lord : nevertheless there
are good things found about thee."
That such sentiraents should have been entertained, respecting the
subject of this memoir, by many excellent men in Scotland, will not
appear strange when the cruel infliction his father Dr Alexander Leigh
ton underwent is considered ; and however his own mind might have
felt justified in the change, it was not to be expected that Presbyterians,
who were themselves suffering^for the sarae cause, which they were
fully persuaded was for righteousness'' sake, could be easily convinced
of the strength of those reasons, that influenced the son of such a
father, to leave their ranks, and join their opponents.
Dr Alexander Leighton was descended, it is said, of an ancient
family in Forfarshire, whose chief seat was Ulys-haven, or Usen, but
a

n I IFE OF
the fact is as obscure as it is unimportant ; it is certain that he was one
of the numerous host of confessors who bore testiraony against the
enoi-mous abuse of Prelatic power in his day, and suffered severely for it.
As was not uncommon in these tiraes of persecution, although a mi
nister of the Gospel, he had also studied medicine, and afterwards
practised it in London during the reign of James I. and early in that
of Charles I. where he also exercised his ministry, but whether to any
stated congregation does not appear. Warmly attached to Presbj^-
terian principles, he took part in the violent and dangerous contro
versies then agitating England, and published a work entitled, "An
Appeal to the Pailiaraent, or Zion's Plea against the Prelaeie : The
summe whereof js delivered in a Decade of Positions. In the hand
ling whereof the Lord Bishops and their appurtenances are manifestly
proved, both by divine and humane lawes, to be intruders upon the
previledges of Christ, of the King, and of the Comraonweal : and,
therefore upon good evidence given, she hartelie desireth a judgment
and execution — printed in the year and moneth wherein RocheUe was
lost, 1628." The style of the book is in perfect accordance with what
unhappily is the general style of polemics, and such as we have seen exem
plified, even in our own day, when men allow their passions to inter
mingle with their controversies : yet it was not more virulent, if it
was as much so, as many of those which appeared on the opposite side.
For this work he was brought to trial, and the arguments of the
book, which (plainly proved that an overgrown, arabitious, and tyranni
cal prelacy, was not the ministry appointed by Christ in his church,
were it seems aggravated by the imprint, as marking his dissatisfaction
to governraent, — it being the geiijeral belief, that if England had in
terfered in behalf of the French Protestants, Rochelle would have been
saved frora the hands of the Papists ; and by the book being also de
corated, according to the fashion of the day, with two hieroglyphical
cuts explanatory of the subject, the first a burning lamp, supported
by a book and two armed men guarding it ; the legend, not remark
ably elegant, explained the meaning:
Prevailing prelats strive to quench our light,
Except your sacred power quash their might.
The other represented an elder bush growing out of a ruinous tower,
from ¦whose branches a parcel of bishops were tumbling, one of them
with a strong box' in his hand, — the legend.
The tottering prelates with their trumpery all,
, Shall movdder down like elder from a wall.
These, which were grating subjects in the days of Charles to the
merabers of the English Hierarchy, and not over pleasant in the days
of George IV. * will scarcely be deemed any palliation of the conduct
of the Star Chamber, in their treatment of the author, even although
it was under the influence of the Bishops.
" Vide Pearson's Life of Archbishop Leighton, prefixed to the last Ijondon editiiia
of his Works, 1828.

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. HI
Hewas arrested early in 1629, hurried to a wretched cell in Ncm'-
gnte, low, damp, and witliout light, except wliat M'as admitted, along
with the rain, from an aperture iu the roof, overrun with rats iiiid other
\'ermin. Hero he lay from Tuesday night till Thursday at noon, with
out food, and for fourteen days endured solitary confinement in this
miserable hole ; while liis house, in his absence, was rifled, his books
destroyed, and his papers carried off". After sixteen wvaksC capti\ity, ho
was served with an information of the crimes with whicii he M-as charg
ed, but he was sick and unable to attend, and from the nature qf his
disorder, a fitter object of compassion than punishment, for tJie skin
and hair had almost wholly come oft' his body.
Yet though thus aftlicted, this aged, infirm divine, was condemned to
a punishment the stoutest ruffian could hardly liave endured, which
some of the lords of court conceived could ne\'er be inflicted on a dying
man, and was only held out as a terror to others : it was — to be de
graded as a minister, to have his ears cut oft", his nose slit, tobebrand-
jed in the face, to stand in the pillory, to be Avhipped at a post, to pay
t'a fine of L.IOOO, and to sufter imprisonment till it was paid ; the uliich
• Avhen Archbishop Laud heard pronounced, he pulled oft' his hat, and
(holding up his hands, gave thanks to God, who had given thechiu'ch
victory over her enemies !
And it was mercilessly inflicted. On the 29th of November, in a
cold frosty day, he was stripped, and received thirty-six lashes vidth a
trible cord, after which he stood during a snow-storm two hours half-
naked on the pillory at Westminster, was branded on one cheek with
a red-hot iron, had one ear cut off, and one side of his nose slit : On
i^that day sevennight, ere his sores were healed, he was taken to the
pillory in Cheapside, and underwent the remainder of his sen' ence.
He was then carried back to prison, and shut in for upwards of ten
years until the meeting of the Long Parliament : when released from
his miserable confinement, he could hardly walk, see, or hear. The
Parliament reversed all the proceedings against him, and voted him
jix thousand pounds for his great suff'erings and damages, and in
1642 gave him an appointment. He died about 1649-
Dr Leighton had two sons, the eldest Robert, the second Elisha ;
and two daughters, the eldest Sapphira, the other Mrs Rathband, of
whom nothing more is known. Robert was born in the year 1611,
in London, according to the account of the late Rev. G. Jerment, his
first regular biographer, to whose labours succeeding writers ofhis life
have been under great, though rather unacknowledged obligations ;
and Dr Burnet tells us, " he was sent to his father to be bred in Scot
land." The year when he was 'sent, thither., or how his education was
conducted till he became a student in the university of Edinburgh in
I627, forms a blank in his life, which cannot now be filled up. He at
tended the diff'erent classes till 1 631 , when he toolc the degree of Master of
Arts; and it deserves to be noticed, that the professors during that pe
riod were chiefly men who were attached to the mongrel, semi-episco
pal, semi-pres^byterian latitudinarianism, avhich was the court religion
of the time in Scotland. He had early imbibed a decided aversion for

iV LIFE OF
the whole frame of the Church of England — and no wonder ! but the
mixed system of Episcopacy then taught in the Scottish school, which
allowed of a Synod of Presbyters with a permanent' presiding Bishop,
similar to what Mosheim thinks was early introduced into the Chris
tian church, appears to have been the pivot on which his young mind
rested the balance between the opposing systems, for it does not
appear he had then decided. The circurastances of his family not per
mitting him to apply to the ecclesiastical courts for license, he went
abroad. Burnet, to whose brief notices we are chiefly indebted for any ac
count of young Leighton, says, " From Scotland his father sent him to
travel." How his father, who was previously immured in his miser
able habitation, found the means to do so, we are left to conjecture.
He travelled several years in France, and resided some time at Douay,
where he had relatives ; he is here reported or supposed to have fallen
in with some religionists, " whose lives were fraraed on the strictest
model of primitive piety ;" but as in his writings he has repeatedly de
clared his opinion to be, that the Church of Rome is utterly antichris
tian, it is not at all probable, that the practice of the monks there
had much, if any, influence in abating his veneration forthe " presby
terian platform;" at least, he embraced the first opportunity of return
ing to Scotland, and accepting a presbyterian charge.
During his absence on the continent, a series of events had taken.
place in Scotland, that had entirely overturned the Pseudo-prelacy,
which he had left in power, and covenanted Presbyterianism, in the
strictest sense that it ever was professed, was established instead, by
the laws of the land, and in the affections of the people. Leighton
was a man of peace, and when the struggle was at its height, he did
not choose to mingle in the fray, but when the religious communitv
were rejoicing in the acquisition of their freedom, and their favourite
form of church-government, he came home to swell, the triumph,
and enjoy the gale. Accordingly on his return to Scotland, having been
unanimously called by the congregation of Newbottle, a parish in the
presbytery of Dalkeith, after passing through the usual coui-se of trial
for the ministry to the great satisfaction of his judges, he M'as ordained
there on the 16th of December 1641, being then in the thirtieth year
of his age. The parish is delightfully situated on the banks of the
Esk, araong whose romantic scenery Leighton could enjoy the re
tirement he so much loved ; and the residence of the Earl of Lothian
in the Abbey within his bounds, a nobleman attached to the cause of
religion, in whose faraily he might cultivate the advantages of elevat
ed society, would add considerably to -its charms. To the manner
in which he filled the duties of a parochial minister, perhaps the ob
scurity in which this is involved may be considered the highest tes
timony. A person who^fterwards arrived at such distinguished emi
nence in such turbulent times, must have acted with more than or
dinary diligence and circumspection, to have escaped blame, from
such critical scrutinizers as he was exposed to. These duties were
what men of modem times would shrink from, for they were the

ARCHBISHOP LEIOHTON. v
entire business of a minister's life, what the word of God and Ihe
rules of his church ei^oined, what his people expected, and what
his co-presbyters practised themselves, and enforced on their brethren.
Besides the services of the Sabbath, there were usually one or more
lectures or sermons preached during the week ; the parishioners were
regularly visited from house to house, the whole as punctually examin
ed, particularly the young,' the instruction of whom it was an important
part of the ministerial function to superintend ; both by inspecting the
schools, and inquiring into their progress in religious and useful learn
ing, and by their visitations at their homes to w,atch over their moral
training a species of education, the last especially, the fruits of which
were abundantly manifest in the next generation, which was destined
to bear thefiery trial of a twenty-eight years furnace. Leighton, whose
delight was in his work, it may be easily imagined, M'ould not abridge
any of these necessary duties ; and air his biographers concur in stat
ing, that he was most assiduous in discharging the various branches of
his sacred office. " He diligently visited the poor of the flock,
was ever to be found in the chambers of the afflicted, and at the beds
of the sick or the dying. He promoted personal, domestic, social, and
public religion, to the utmost of his power, by precept, example, and
prayer." — One solitary anecdote remains of this interval.
It was, it seems, the practice ofthe Presbytery, to inquire of their
members twice a-year, whether they preached to the times ? that is,
whether they improved the serious and alarming circumstances by which
they were surrounded, and at a peiiod when the pulpit was almost
the only medium through which the people could be informed of the
state of public affairs, — directed in the duty which they were required
to pursue, — whether the ministers acted as faithful watchmen ? Leigh
ton acknowledged the omission, but adroitly apologized for it, by say
ing, " If all the brethren have preached to the times, may not one
poor brother be allowed to preach for eternity V a question M'hich, had
his co-presbyters been the zealots of a party, would have been re
ceived by any thing but approbation. And it is exceedingly doubtful,
in times of dread import, like those in which he lived, or such tor in
stance as the present, [1831,] when the wheels of Providence seem
moving onward with accelerated motion, laden with events to
which the raysterious voice of Prophecy calls our attention, — it seems
more than doubtful whether the ministers of God are not liable to the
rebuke, " Ye can discern the face of the heavens, but can ye not dis
cern the signs of the times .''" when they keep silence, and do not
" preach to the times."
Two very diff'erent testimonies respecting the nature of Leighton's
pulpit oratory have come down to us. " His preaching," says Bui'net,
" had a sublimity both of thought and expression in it. The grace
and gravity of his pronunciation was such, that few heai'd him with^
out a sensible emotion. I am sitre I never did. His style was rather
tQo fine, but there was a majesty and beauty in it, that left so deep an
impression, that I cannot yet forget the sermon I heard him preach
thirty years ago. And yet with this he seemed to look oh himself as
fo ordinary a preacher that while he had a cure, he was ready to em-

vi - LIFE OF
ploy ail others ; and ^vhen he was a Bishop, he chose to preach to small
aiiaitories, and would never give notice befoKehand ; he had indeed
a very low voice, and so could not be heard by a great crowd."
Baillie, in speaking of Andrew Gray, one of the most extraordinary
young ministers that has appeared in the Church of Scotland, whose
memory is yet fresh in the west, and whose sermons, published under
every possible disadvantage, evince that it deserves to be so, thus
obliquely gives the opinion he and his moderate brethren held of Leigh
ton's ministerial instructions : " He has the new guise of preaching,
which Mr Hugh Binning and Mr Robert Leighton began, containing
the ordinary way of expounding and dividing a text, of raising doc
trines and uses ; but runs out a discourse on some common head, in a
high romancing and inscriptural style, tickling the ear for the present,
and moving the aff'ections in some, but leaving little or nought to the
memory and understanding."
That Gray and Binning were amazingly popular, is well attested ;
that Leighton deserved to be equally or more so, will appear evident
from a comparison of the remains they have left behind them ; for
all have left written specimens of their serraons, and respecting the
merit of our author's we shall afterwards speak. But those only
who heard the living preachers could tell us of their eloquence :
They who know — and what clown does not know ? — the power
of the keen language of the eye, the emphasis of countenance, the
varied tone and energy of voice, even the influence , of grave ap
propriate action, can note the diff'erence between the living and
the dead. In the Church of Scotland when in her glory, readin«-
was unknown, and would not have been tolerated : the^ ministers
were too much alive to the importance of their subjects to waste much
time .upon the " conning of nice phrases," and depended more upon
the vigour than the polish of their language ; yet were they not in
elegant or careless, as the posthuraous works of all these eminent
three bear ample evidence : — but their usual method appears to have
been, first they studied their subject fully, then wrote a few notes, in
modern terms made a skeleton of their discourse, and left the filling
up to the fulness of their heart at the time of the delivery. This ap
pears to have been tlie case especially with Andrew Gray, but in some
instances the sermons appear to have been fully written out, although
not slavishly delivered, as in the case of Hugh Binning. And it is a
curious fact, that the whole of Durham's elaborate Commentary on the
Revelations, forming a folio volume, containing many calculations,
and sevfjral profound disquisitions, was delivered without having been
committed to paper, but taken down as he delivered it, was copied
out afterwards, and brought to himself for correction, except a very
few,of the last sheets. Indeed, it appears strange, that the reading of
sermons s'hould ever have found practitioners or advocates, except
among the indolent or imbecile ; and I apprehend with scarcely an
exception it will be found, that either want of capacity or want of dilU
gence is at the root of the practice, and in either case, such a person
ought not to be a public speaker. Where God has withheld the
talents for public speaking from a man, it needs no revelation to teli

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. yii
us that that man M-as never intended for a public speaker. If God have
bestowed the talents, and he refuse to cultivate them, it is as clear that
that man is unworthy of exercising the offlce of a Gospel minister.
If, after a man has been duly called to his office, and if, after having
exercised it faithfully, it has pleased the inscrutable wisdom of Heaven
to deprive him of any of his faculties, it becomes then a question
whether he ought to retire. And if this be impossible or improper,
say that merely memory has failed, and there be no funds for his sup- '
port, and his people be un^villing to dispense with his services ; the
case is altered — let him read. But I believe it will in general be
found in the cases of conversion, that often comparatively weak dis
courses have been blessed, while the most elaborately composed dis
courses, and the most beautifully read, have been merely listened to
as elegant essays, or praised as*the lovely works of art. And it is na
tural that it should be so ; God is the God of means, as M^ell as of grace,
and he has appointed the living voice, the "foolishness oi p7'eaching,"
whereby to save them that believe ; and his approbation, not the ap
plause of elegant or crowded auditories, cught to be the grand end and
aim of a minister. Leighton was an eneray to reading. " I know," he
said, " that weakness of memory is pleaded in excuse for this custom, but
better minds would make better memories. Such an excuse is unworthy
of a man, and much more of a father, who may want vent indeed in
addressing his children, but ought never to want matter : — Like Elihu,
he should be refreshed by speaking."
If the remark hold true of private, as of public affairs, that the years
which afford fewest materials for the historian, are generaUy those
that have been the happiest, the years which Leighton spent at "New
bottle must have been among the most pleasant of his life ; but to
wards their close, the political state of the country invaded even his
' peaceful retirement. It is well known that the troubles of Scotland,
from the Reformation till the final expulsion of the Stuarts, arose
from contests for religious and civil liberty on the part of the people,
and for priestly power and absolute despotism on the part of the
Crown. By treachery ahd deceit, the British Solomon, styled King
craft, James the I. had during a long reign attempted, and nearly
accomplished, the OA^erthrow of the constitution of his native land, —
the task of completing the destraction of his people's rights, he left
as a legacy to his son ; this Charles rashly endeavoured to accomplish,
while his hands were fully occupied with his English subjects, and,
by introducing the litm-gy among a people who detested it, he put
the match to a train that lay ready for explosion, — the consequence
was, that after an idle parade of royal weakness, when opposed to the
universal wish of a people, he was forced to give a free and fair con
stitution, secui-ing' the rights of his subjects from princely or prelatic
invasion. Of tlys constitution the Covenant was the cause, ^d on
every infringement, it was renewed as the guaiantee; in it the
King and People swore to the, performance of their various duties,
and among others, to preserve the religion as then established, and
to resist all innovations tending to re-introduce the prelacy.
A multiplication of oaths to men in public life, besides being one of

LIFE O li

the slenderest of all ties to unprincipled men, is one of the worst in
Chtistian nations, as it uniformly involves them in varied and multi
plied iniquity ; it distresses binds, and debilitates the minds of the
conscientious, while it is frail as Sampson's gi-een withs to the sturdy
politician. But if ever there was a time, when a soleran declaration
of principles^ and an explicit promise or vow to observe them, were
called for, it was just about the period when Leighton entered upon
the pastoral office at Newbottle ; and I think it plain from his own
writings, that he conscientiously viewed the Covenant in this light, and
subscribed it at his ordination without scruple. . Had Charles I been
sincere when he ratified the acts of the Scottish Parliament, he might
have reigned a powerful monarch, and died a better man ; but his du
plicity led to the great civil war, and forced Scotland and England to
join together for mutual preservation fi-om threatened tyranny. They
did so, in an agreement known by the name of the Solemn League
and Covenant, in which they pledged themselves to endeavour uni
formity in religion according to the word of God, and the extirpation
of Prelacy ; and this, in the form of an oath, was forced upon almost
every inhabitant of Scotland. But it deserves especial notice, that the
zealots who were most forward in pressing this oath, were the political
presbyterians, 'men whose exuberance of fire, like that of all violent
partizans, "was exactly in proportion to their lack of principle ; and
they who were then the chief instruments of covenanting oppression,
were the very persons who turned apostates, and were the chief instru
ments of Prelatical persecution.
Leighton, whose aversion to the lordly pomp of the English Hie
rarchy was undoubtedly as sincere as it was well founded, unhesitating
ly subscribed this bond himself, and afterwards administered it to the
students In Edinburgh University. And he thus explains the reason of
his facility : " for it would be noted, that when the Covenant was
framed, there was no Episcopacy at all in being in Scotland, but in
England only, so that the extirpation of that frame only could then
be merely intended." It may be difficult, however, to exculpate him
from the error of having first vowed and then made inquiry ; nor,
when he attempts it himself, is he very successful, — but great allow
ance must be made for the gentleness of his natural disposition, and his
most amiable desire for peace, especially when his whole life evinced
that he was neither actuated by motives of covetousness or ambition ;
and whether we agree with him or not, we must agree, that as his
life was holy, there can be little doubt but his motives were pure.
Let us however hear himself, though in this case he appears to have
lost soraething of his sweetness of temper.
" The truth is, that besides many other evils, the iniquity and un
happiness of such oaths and covenants lie much in this, that, being
comraonly fraraed by persons, that even amongst themselves are not
fully of one mind, but have their different opinions and interests to
serve, — and it was so even in this, — they comraonly patched up so
many several articles and clauses, and these too of so versatile and
ambiguous terms, that they prove most wretched snares, and thickets
of briars and thorns to the consciences of those who are engaged in

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. Jis
them, and matter of endless contentions and disputes amongst them,
about the true sense and intendment, and the ties and obligations of
those doubtful clauses, especially in such alterations and revolutions
of affaii's, as always may, and often do, even within few years, follow
after them, fbr the models and productions of such devices are not
usually long-lived. And whatsoever may be said for their excuse, in
whole or in part, who, in yielding to the power that pressed it, and
the general opinion of this Church at that time, did take that cove
nant in the most moderate and least schismatical sense that the terms
can admit ; yet I know not what can be said to clear them of a very
great sin, that not only framed such an engine, but violently imposed
it upon all ranks of men, not ministers and public persons only, but
the whole body and community of the people, thereby engaging such
droves of poor ignorant persons, to they knew not what ; and, to
speak freely, to such a hodge-podge of things of various concernments,
religious and civil, as church discipline and government, the privileges
of Parliaments, and liberties of subjects, and condign punishment of
malignants, things hard enough for the wisest and learnedest to draw
the just lines of, and to give plain definitions and decisions of Jhem,
and therefore certainly as far oft" from the reach of poor cpuntry peo
ple's understanding, as fi-om the true interest of their souls, and yet
to tie them by a religious oath, either to know all, or to contend for
them blindfold, without knowing of them.*'
' These sentiments are contained in his " modest defence of moderate
Episcopacy," written after he was a bishop, ,and considering the cause
he had to defend, might pass without much observation, although, if
carried their proper length, they would exclude the people frora any
voice in the choice or conduct of their rulers, civil and ecclesiastical, and
lead to the quietude of a settled despotism in the Church and State.
But it is a painful example of how far partiality for a side, or the sup
posed necessity of advocating a bad cause, may carry a good raan,
when we hear him in the next sentence asking, " Where will be in
stanced a greater oppression and, tyranny over consciences than this ?"
and replying, " Certainly Ihey that now govern in this Church, can
not, be charged with anything near or like unto it, for whatsoever
they require of intrants to the ministry, they require neither subscrip
tions nor oaths of ministers already entered, and far less of the whole
body of the people." Yet at this very time, had the whole ministry
been required to acknowledge the royal supremacy in matters ecclesi
astical, and own a power in the church, which they understood to be
subversive of that of, her Head and King : still there is no divine more
clear upon the character of Christ, as the sole lawgiver and ruler of
liis people, than our author.
While Leighton's mind was hurt by the manner in which the So
lemn League and Covenant was pressed, he naturally associated with
those whose sentiments on this subject accorded with his own. Among
them was the father of Dr Gilbert Burnet, of the Episcopalian per
suasion, and particularly attached to the Hamilton faraily, with whose
fortunes Leighton had alraost associated his own. — After the providence
of God had declared against Charles, and he was a captive in the

« . LIFE OF
hands of his opponents, still he might have returned to his throne
Vf'ith honour, could he have submitted to be honest, but he wished to
I e-iscend it uncontrouled, and played a double game, that led him to
the scaffold. Unfortunately the Duke of Hamilton was induced to
second his efforts, by breaking the Solemn League and Covenant
vvith England, and entering unto an Enga.gement with the captive
monarch. This engagement, — which, if successful, would have laid
the kingdoras prostrate at the feet of an Incensed sovereign, who would
give thera no security for all they had been fighting for, except " the
word of a Prince," and that had been forfeited at least a score of
times, — divided Scotland ; part resolving to maintain the Covenant,
and part entering into the engagement. Among those who favoured
the last, were all who had any leaning towards episcopacy, and
Leighton, who had hitherto kept aloof frora the politics of the day,
was most unfortunately induced by his new associates, to declare in
favour of an Engagement, the terms of which were not fully known
at the time, and which we would in charity hope were misrepresented
to him, as they were to others : like every effort in favour of the un
happy Charles, the project failed, and involved himself and his adhe
rents in deeper ruin.
The high character of Leighton, and the friendship of the Earl of
Lothian,, saved him from any very serious consequences of his con
duct, while the dorainant ^arty showed their liberality, by sparing so
conspicuous an opponent frora any other punishment than appointing
hira to rebuke those of his parishioners who had accorapanied the Duke
in his disastrous expedition. There is raore of policy than of godly
simplicity in the manner in which he extricated himiielf frora a dilemma
that could not fail of being extreraely irksorae to an ingenuous mind ;
and when parties run so high, and the times were so perilous, it says
a great deal for the forbearance of the Presbytery, that such an eva
sion of their injunctions was overlooked. When the parties ordered
to make public profession of their repentance came before him, he
told them they had been in an expedition in which he believed they
had neglected their duty to God ; and had been guilty bf injustice
and violence, of drunkenness and other immoralities, aud he charged
them to repent of these very seriously, without meddling with the
quarrel or the ground of that war. This lesson seems to have cured
Leighton of meddling with politics, as we hear no more upon this head
till after the restoration ; but frora the slight notices in Balllie's Letters,
it would appear that he associated with the high-flyers in the Church,
who were evangelical in their preaching, and suspected of favouring
the sectaries, apredllectlon which naturally arose from the inferior weight
he gave to dift'erences upon matters of church-government when put in
competition with*personal piety ; and perhaps his laxness on that point,
might be not a little increased by observing the pertinacity with which
many contended for the form, who cared very little about the power of
godliness, who were more anxious about the cut of their vestments than
the conduct of their lives. The numerous sects, and varieties of opinion,
which sprung up at this tirae, grievously unhinged men's minds on these
subjects, and the bitterness with which the sections of the same party

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. ' xl
often treated each other, made the quiet of the land wish for the wings
oi the dove, that they might fly thenCe and be at rest.
From whatsoever cause. In the year 1652, after the arrival of the
second Charles among the Scots had raised their dissensions to a height,
and brought their affairs to a crisis, and when his defeat had strength
ened the distractions in the church, and spread a wider desolation in
the country, Leighton tendered his resignation to the Presbytery ;
this they declined accepting, and he was persuaded to remain ; but
when there appeared little prospect of settlement among the divided
Presbyterians, and increasing bitterness of spirit between those who
wished and prayed for the restoration of their King, and those who
deprecated such an event from the specimen they had already receiv
ed of his conduct and dlspositioiv, he again renewed his request, and
on the 3d February 1653, was released from his ministerial connec
tion with Newbottle, after having laboured eleven years diligently
among them.
Nothing ti-ies a man's principles better than touching his purse, and
were .we tojudge from the conduct of many who bear the name of CJhrls-
tian, we should be apt to imagine that the injunction, " Love not the
world, nor the things of the world," ought to be inverted ; but wisdom is
justified of her children, and sometimes there do appear men, whose
-actions corresponding to their profession, evince, that setting the af
fections on things that are above, and not on things below, is, though
a rare, yet a real attainment. Leighton was one; and a circumstance
occurred about this tirae, which places his estimate of the uncertain
riches of time, in a striking point of view, and which, although It
possesses an appearance of carelessness, and might possibly mark
him out as a fit prey for pecuniary plunderers^ was not by himself
looked back upon during his life with much pain ; and that he got so
far above the world before he got out of it, will not be now to his
holy spirit any cause of regret.
His father, who had acquired some property after his sufferings,
having died, left him about one thousand pounds : this, which was all
his patrimony, his brother-in-law Mr Lightmaker, had advised him
to come to London, and get placed in proper security. He answered :
" Sir, — I thank you for your letter. That you gave rae notice of, I
desire to consider as becoraes a Christian, and to prepare to wait for
ray own removal. What business follows upon my father's [death,]
may be well enough done without me, as I have writ more at large
to Mr E  , and desired hira to show j^ou the letter when you meet.
Any pittance belonging to me may possibly be useful and needful for
my subsistence, but truly if something else draw me not, I shall never
bestow so long a journey on that I account so mean a business. Re
member ray love to ray sister, your wife, and to ray brother and sister
Rathband, as you have opportunity. I am glad to hear of the wel
fare of you all, and above all things wish for myself and you all, our
daily increase in likeness to Jesus Christ, and growing heavenwards
where he is, who is our treasure. To his grace I recommend you.
Sir, your aft'ectionate brother, R. Leighton." Dated December 31st
1 649. Before a month had elapsed, he had occasion to acknowledge

jtil XilFE OF
the propriety of his brother's advice, for the merchant in whose hands
the money was placed became bankrupt, and he lost all. _ In another
letter to the same gentleman, which is subjoined, his Christian temper
is remarkably evident : he owns his error, and is sensible of his loss,
but as his heart was not with the treasure that had perished, he was
not affected beyond what a Christian ought. " Sir, — Your kind advice
I cannot but thank you for, but I ara not easily taught that lesson.
I confess it is the wiser way to trust nobody : but there is so much
of the fool in my natui-e, as carries me to the other extreme, to trust
everybody. Yet I will endeavour to take the best courses I can in
that little business you write of. It is true there is a lawful, yea, a
needful diligence in such things ; but alas ! how poor are they to the
portion of believing where our treasure Is ! That little that was in
Mr E  ''s hands hath failed me ; but I shall either have no need of
it, or be supplied some other way ; and this is the relief of ray rolling
thoughts, that while I am writing this, this moment is passing away,
and all the hazards of want and sickness shall be at an end. My
mother writes to me and presses my coming up. I know not .yet if
that can be ; but I Intend, God willing, so soon as I can conveniently,
if I come not, to take some course that things be done as if I were
there. I hope you will have patience in the mean time. Remember
my love to my sisters. The Lord be with you, and lead you in his
ways. Your loving brother [signed] R. Leighton, dated Newbottle,
Feb. 4. 1650."
When the Scottish religious parties could not agree among them
selves, aud each were anxious to obtain an ascendancy, the English
Parliament, now paramount, appointed Sequestrators, with an ample
commission to superintend the setting aside, or planting churches or
universities. These uniformly supported what would now be styled
the Evangelical party, then called the Remonstrants, to which Leigh
ton had always adhered, although he had diff'ered on the political
question of the Engagement ; and from among these the Sequestrators
filled up all the vacancies that occurred, — for they were men of superior
talents, and generally reported of superior sanctity. And it is here de
serving especial notice, that the Parliament first, and Cromwell after
wards, filled the public situations in the church and universities of
Scotland, solely with men of acknowledged abilities and good conduct,
and in the civil courts with Judges of strict integrity and worth.
In the search after persons capable of filling eminent stations, Leigh
ton was not overlooked ; he was called to the highly responsible oflSce of
Principal In the University of Edinburgh. William Colville, minister
of the Scottish Church at Utrecht, had been previously elected^ but as
he was a known enemy to the existing government, he was set aside,
and the magistrates of the capital, who have always shown a due
submission to the powers that be, joined in presenting Mr Robert
Leighton, " who was prevailed with to accept of it, because in it he
was wholly separated from all church matters." The ministers were joint
patrcms, but refused to vote, " because, though they were content with
Mr Robert Leighton, they were not clear in the manner of the call."
T'his event took place early in 1653, and in the month of Julv follow-

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. xiii
ing, the General Assembly was conducted by Lieut.-Col. Cotterell, under
a guard of foot-musqueteers and dragoons, a mile beyond Edinburgh,
where they were dismissed and commanded never more to assemble ;
Government conceiving that they assumed a civil power inconsistent
with the peace of the realm. Synods and inferior judicatories were
allowed to meet, but from this time all coercive power was removed
from the church, and she was left to wield her own proper arms. Whe
ther the English Parliament interfered to enforce the Covenant or not, is
uncertain, though shortly after it M'as positively forbidden. Leigh'ton,
howevpr, both took it himself, and enforced it upon others during this
period, so that he cannot be considered as having withdrawn from Pres-
byterlan communion till afterwards, as indeed there M'as no other foi-m
of religion professed publicly, till the Independents gave a. free tolera
tion to all, when several sects sprung up, to none of whu h could he,
as Principal of the University, have joined himself.
His labours in this office were abundant. He delivered a theolo
gical lecture In Latin once a week to the Students, and at stated in
tervals preached to them in the College Church. These prelections,
which form the 6th vol. of Jerment's Edition of his works, attracted
crowds, who were charmed with the elegance of his style, and tbe
animation of his delivery. They were translated by Dr Fall, and
will be found in the present volume. He did not however confine his
attention to his public duties ; in his private conversation with the
young men, he laboured to form their minds to the practice of virtue,
and his instructions were happily enforced by his own example ; in
deed, in public or private, religion was the vital principle of his soul,
the element in which he breathed.
For eight years Scotland enjoyed under the Comraonwealth a de
gree of prosperity and quiet, such as that country had scarcely ever
known; and Kirkton and other contemporary writers bear testimony
to its being a time, in which religion flourished more than almost at
any period upon record ; and so widely diffiised had been the benefits
of common education in the lowlands, particularly the west and the
south, that there was hardly a family which could not read, and which
had not a Bible. For these benefits Scotland had been partly indebt
ed to the establishment of Parish Schools by the Act 1633, but chiefly
to the assiduity of the parochial Clergy, who had always shown the
deepest interest in the education of the peasantry. The unwearied
pains they took, and the good elects which followed, may be judged
of from the caricature which Bishop Burnet draws of a faithful rai
nistry, and a godly people, and making the necessary deductions for
his episcopalian prejudices," it in the most material points confirms the
perhaps too flattering picture of Kirkton: " The former incumbents,"
are his words, " were a grave, solemn sort of people ; their spirits were
eager, and their tempers sour ; but thej had an appearance that creat
ed respect. They were related to the chief families in the country
either by blood or marriage, and had lived in so decent a manner that
the gentry paid great respect to them. They used to visit their parish
es much:, and were so full of the Scriptures, and so ready at extempore
prayer, that from that they grew to nractise extempore sermons ; for

xiv LIFE OF
the custom in Scotland was,' after dinner or supper, to read a chapter
in the Scripture, and where they happened to come, if it was accept
able, they on the sudden expounded the chapter. They had brought
the people to such a degree of knowledge, that cottagers and servants
would have prayed extempore. I have often overheard them at it;
and though there was a large mixture of odd stuff, yet I have been
astonished to hear how copious and ready they were in it. Their
ministers generally brought them about them on the Sunday nights,
when the sermons were talked over; and every one woman, as vvell
as man, were desired to speak their sense and their experience, and by
these means they had a comprehension of matters of religion, greater
than I have seen among people of that sort anywhere." "And as they
[the ministers] lived in great familiarity with their people, and used
to pray, and to talk oft with them in private, so it can hardly be im
agined to what a degree they were loved and reverenced by them. ~
They kept scandalous persons under a severe discipline ; for breach
of Sabbath, for an oath, or the least disorder in drunkenness, persons
were cited before the church-session, that consisted of ten or twelve of
the chief of the parish, who with the minister had this care upon
them, and were solemnly reproved for it." " These things had a grave
appearance, their faults and defects were not so conspicuous." Leigh
ton, who well knew that the preservation of such a. system depended,
humanly speaking, upon the education of the rainisters themselves,
and the providing suitable teachers, set himself to promote both these
objects, and he obtained an annuity of £ 200 from the Protector to
aid his beneficent plans, but the death of that great man caused a
universal stagnation of every praiseworthy project, and the restoration
threw the country half a century back in the progress of improvement.
During the vacations he frequently made excursions to London
and to the Continent. In his visits to the Capital he was an occasional
attendant at Cromwell's court, of whose clergymen Burnet makes
hira give a very conteraptuous character : " they Were men of unquiei
and raeddling tempers : and their discourses and sermons were dry
and unsavoury, full of airy cant, or of bombast swellings." ' Had the
Bishop been kind enough to have given the names of these worthies
that he employs the venerated shade of Leighton to stigmatize, it
might have' been possible to judge of the justice of the charge, at least
to dlscrlrainate, for never did England produce a body of abler divines,
freer from " bombast or swellings," — unless the overflowing of hearts
earnest in the cause of God were such, — than what assembled in the
court and enjoyed the countenance of the Protector ; but as a general
charge can only be met by a general answer, I would refer those who
wish to see a ftiller account of some of these traduced ministers, to
Orme's Life of Owen, a work which contains a great deal of not eora
mon information respecting th^ ecclesiastical literature of " the Secta
ries," among whom were men in whose society Leighton would have
met neither disgust nor degradation.
According to the sarae authority, however, the Principal found himself
more at home araong the Romanists at Douay, and derived much ad
vantage during his frequent visits, to that college, from the pious lives of

ARCHBISHOP LEIOHTON. xV
some of these religionists ; but Leighton himself has declared his own
opinion of the Roman Catholic system, and of its opposition to Chris
tianity in its fundamental articles, distinctly and repeatedly. Now, if
a system be wrong in the foundation, what does it signify how fair
the structure ! if a man build on sand, the raore precious the materials
ofhis house, the more terrible the ruin; and if the Roraan Catholics
have, as Leighton affirms, [vide remarks on 1 Peter, chap. ii. ver. 6.]
despised that stone M'hich God hath made the head of the corner,
would any of the Lord's people wish to take a pattern from their mode
of moulding for-polishing other living stones of their temple ! The
Romish system is designated in scripture, Mystery, Babylon, "the mo
ther of abominations ; and Instead of learning from her children, the
command is, " Come out from araong them, be ye separated frora
them ; come out of her, that ye be not partakers of her plagues." '
AVith regard to monkish seclusion, to which some ofhis friends allege
hewas partial, he thus speaks: " This Is amongst many others a mlscon-
ceit in the Roraish Church, that they seera to raake holiness a kind of
Impropriate good, that the common sort can have little share in almost
all piety, being shut up within cloister walls as Its only fit dwelling.
Yet it hath not liked their lodging it seems, but is flown over
the walls away from them, for there is little of it even there to be
found ; but however, their opinion places it there as having little
to do abroad in the world, whereas the truth is, that all Christians
have this for .their comraon task, though sorae are under more peculiar
obligations, [alluding to rainis|ers] to study this one copy." — Remarks
on 1 Peter iii. 13.
I should not have said so much on a subject in which our author
is so explicit, had it not been that sorae of his former biographers
seemed anxious to exalt the papists at the expense of the Presbyterians
and Independents, by representing the amiable prelate as deriving so
much advantage fi-om his intercourse with them, while he was forced
almost to flee the world, to get rid of the contention and bombast of
the others.
It is not mentioAed to whom the following letter was addressed,
' written while hewas principal, but it throws some lighton the estima
tion in which he held that species of learning so much esteemed among
Roman Catholics : " Meanwhile I think 1 have at a venture given up
with the contemptible desires and designs of this present world, and
raust have something beyond them all, or nothing at all : and though
this /Sog/SSjoo-a Dad, this base clod of earth I carry, still depresses rae,
I ara glad that even because it does so I loath and despise it : and
would say, Major sum et ad majora genitus, quam ut manclpiura sim
vills corpusculi ; I am greater, and born to greater things, than to be
the slave of a vile body. I have sent you two little pieces of history,
wherein it may be you will find small relish, but the hazard is small;
and however, I pray- you do not send them back to me at all, for I
have enow of that kind ; the one is from a good pen, and an acquaint
ance and friend of yours, Paulus Nolanus, and his life of Martin
Tour I think you will relish, and I think it is not in your Yitoe Pa
trum : the other, Valerius Maximus, I conceived would cloy you the

«vi lilFE OF
less, because it is of so much variety of selected examples, and tlie
stages are so short, you may begin and leave oft" where you will with
out wearying. But when all is done, there is one only blessed story
wherein our souls must dwell, and take up their rest : for amongst
all the rest we shall not read, Venite ad, me, omnes lassiet laoorantes,
et ego vobis requiem prestabo : — come unto me, aU ye that labour and
are heavy laden, and I shall give you rest ; and never any yet that
tried hira but found him as good as his word : to whose sweet em
braces I recommend you, and desire to meet you there."
At this tirae in Scotland, as at all times when a form and profession
of religion is fashionable, a number of formalists and hypocrites min
gled in the crowd, and as hollow vessels sound loudest, they were
generally the raost noisy. To such as these Leighton seems to alliide
in the following epistle, supposed to have been written much about
the same tirae.
" Sir, — Oh what a weariness is it to live araong men, and find so
few raen, and araong Christians, and find so few Christians, so much
talk, ana so little action, religion turned alraost to a tune and air
of words ; and amidst all our pretty discourses, pusillanimous and
base, and so easily dragged into the mire, self, and flesh, and pride,
and passion, domineering while we speak of being in Christ and cloth
ed with him, and believe it, because we speak it so often, and so con
fidently. Well I know you are not willing to be thus gulled, and
having some glances of the beauty of holiness, aim no lower than per
fection, which in end we hope to attain, and in the raeanwhile the
sraaUest advances to it are more worth than crowns and sceptres. I
believe it j^ou often think on these words of the blessed champion
Paul, 1 Cor. ix 24, " Know ye not that they which run in a race
run all, but one receiveth the prize .? so run that ye may obtain.
And every raan that striveth for the mastery is tempei-ate in all things :
now, they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, we an incorruptible. I
therefore so run, not as uncertainly : so fight I, not as one that
beateth the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjec
tion, lest that by any raeans, when I have preached to others, I my
self should be a castaway." There is a noble guest within us, O !
let all our business be to entertain hira honoui-ably, and to live in celes-;
tlal love within, that will raake all things without be very contemptible
in our eyes. I should rove on did not I stop myself, it falling out well
too for that, to be hard upon the past hours ere I thought of writing.
Therefore good night is all I add : for whatsoever hour it comes to
your hand, I believe you are as sensible as I, that it is still night, but
the comfort is, it draws nigh towards that bright morning that shall
make amends. — ^Your weary fellow pilgrim, — R. L."
During the troublous period of the civil war, the parties, and sects,
and sections of sects, were probably not so nuraerous as in the present
day, but they were more violent, in as much as religion then was more th e
occupation of a manthan it is now, and the public attention was more
undividedly du-ected towards that subject, as general knowledge was
neither widely spread, nor much cultivated by the community at large.
Good men, however of all parties, deplored the spirit of strife and de-

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. xvii
batewhichin toomany instances was allowed to corrode the vitals of Chris
tianity, anddestroy that spiritof love without which the purest orthodoxy
is of little consequence in promoting the cause of Christ. Among these
Leighton was conspicuous, and incessant in inculcating the doctrine of
peace and charity, and this he did by directing the minds of his hearers
to the more important matters of the law, and not by indift'erence to any
fundamental truth. The manner in which he fulfilled his duty towards
his pupils while Principal of Edinburgh University, he explains in a
beautiful valedictory oration which he delivered to the students before
he retired.
" Though this," says he, " I imagine is the last address I shall ever
have occasion to make to you, I will not detain you long from your
studies, nor endroach on the tirae allowed you for recreation. This
is, to be sure, the first tirae that some of you have heard rae, but I have
a giipat many others to bear witness of the constant design of all my
dissertations in this place. They will testify, that the intention of all
ray discourses, was that the " forra of sonnd woords," that is, the Chris
tian doctrine, and, consequently, the fear and love of God, might not
only be impressed, but also engraven upon your hearts, in lasting and
indelible characters, and that you, might not only admit as a truth,
but also pay the highest regard to, this indisputable maxira, " that
piety and religion is the only real good araong men," Moreover, tbat
your minds raight be the less encumbered in their application to this
grand study of religion, and the more expeditious in their progress
therein, I constantly endeavoured, with all possible warmth,- to divert
you from those barren and thorny questions and disputes, that have
infected the whole of theology ; and this at a time, when the greatest
part of divines and professors, and those of no small reputation, en
gaging furiously in such controversies, have split into parties, and un
happily dhdded the whole world. •
" It was ray constant practice, to establish those great and uncontro-
verted articles of our holy religion, which are but few and clear ;
some part whereof are confirraed by the coraraon consent of nations,
and all the huraan race, and all the rest by the unanimous voice of the
whole Christian world. Ofthe first sort, are those' we have often ad
vanced in treating of the being and perfections of the one Supreme
and Eternal Principle, ahd the production of all things by him, the
continual preservation and government of the world by his provi
dence, the law of God given to raankind, and the rewards and punish
ments annexed to it. This other class of the grand articles of religion,
are indeed peculiar to Christian philosophy, but believed in coraraon
by all the professors of that religion. These are the great foundations
of our faith, and of all our hope ahd joy, with regard to the incarnation
of the Son of God, his death and resurrection for the destruction of
sin, and consequently of death, his ascension into the highest heavens
with that same flesh of ours in which he died, and his exaltation there
above all ranks of angels, dominions, and throngs, whence we expect
he will return in great glory, on that day when he will be glorified in
all his saints, and adraired in those that believe.
"As many therefore as desire to receive him in this his last manife*.-

xviii LIFE OF
tation, with joy and exultation, must of necessity be holy, arid in con
formity to their most perfect and glorious Head, sober, pious, upright,
and live in conterapt of this perishing, transitory world, their own
raortal flesh, and the sordid pleasures of both ; in a word, all the en
joyraents which the raean and servile adraire, they raust trample under
foot and despise. For whoever will strive for the victory, and strive
so as at last to obtain it, the Lord will own hira for his servant, and
the great Master will acknowledge him for his disciple. He will at
tain a likeness to God in this earth, and after a short conflict, will
triumph in the divine presence for ever. These are the doctrines which
It Is our interest to know, and in the observation of which our happi
ness will be secured. To them you will turn your thoughts, young
gentlemen, if you are wise ; nay, to them you ought to give due at
tention that you may be wise ; these phantoms we catch at, fly away;
this shadow of a life we now live, is likewise on the wing. TJiese
things that are without the verge of sense, and above its reach, are
the only solid and lasting enjoyments. " Why are ye fond of these
earthly things,' says St Bernard, ' which are neither true riches, nor
are they yours .^ ' 'If they are yours, ' continues he, ' take them with
you." And Lactantius admirably well observes, ' that whoever pre
fers the life of the soul, raust of necessity contemn that of the body ;
nor can he aspire to the highest good, unless he despise advantages of
an inferior kind. For the all-wise God did not choose that we should
attain to Imraortality in a soft and indolent way, but that we should
gain that inexpressible reward of eternal life, with the highest diffi
culty and severest labour.
"And that you raay not be discouraged, remember the great Redeem
er of your souls, your exalted Captain, hath gone before you, and we
have to do with an enemy already conquered. Let us only tbUow
him with courage and activity, g,nd we have no ground to doubt of
victory ; and indeed it is a victory truly worthy of a Christian, to sub
due the barbarous train of our appetites, and subject them to the empire
of re'ason ahd-religion ; while on the other hand, it is the most shame
ful bondage, to have the more divine part of our composition raeanly
subjected to an Igfioble earthly body. Now this victory can only be
secured by stedfast believing, vigorous opposition to our spiritual
enemies, unwearied watching, and incessant prayer. Let prayer not
only be the key that opens the day, arid the lock that shuts the night;
but let it be also, from raorning to night, our staff and stay in all our
labours, and enable us to go cheerfully up into the raount of God.
Prayer brings consolation to the languishing soul, drives away the
devil, and is the great raediura whereby all grace and peace is cora
municated to us. With regard to your reading, let it be your par
ticular care to be familiarly acquainted with the sacred scriptures
above all other books whatever ; for from thence you will truly derive
light for your direction, and sacred provisions for support on your
journey. In subordination to these, you may also use the writings of
pious men, that are agreeable to them : for these also you may improve
to your advantage, and particularly that little book of a Kempis of t.fie

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. «ix
Ihiitation of thr-ist, — since the sum and substance of religion consists
in imitating that being that is the object of your worship.
" May our dear Redeemer Jesus, impress upon your minds a lively
representation of his own meek and immaculate heart, that, in
that great and last day, he may by this mark know you to be his :
and together with all the rest of his sealed and redeemed ones, admit
you Into the mansions of eternal bliss. Amen."
With this admirable address, which I have not chosen to abridge,
Leighton appears to have closed his University labours ; a new scene
now began to open upon hira, one for which he suffered much in his
reputation and usefulness among his contemporaries, and which his
admirers, even now, find it hard to do more than excuse, — his aban
doning the Presbyterians, and accepting a Bishopric from Charles II.
Had Leighton merely exchanged the Presbyterial form for the Epis
copalian, his conduct would have admitted of an easy justification ;
his earliest sentiments appear to have been in favour of a modified
Episcopacy, unconnected with tempora.1 power, or lordly state ; and
the power of a Presbytery, when tyrannically exerted, he considered
as more oppressive than that of a prelate, — in which opinion he en
tirely coincided with Owen ; — besides, he considered church-govern
ment as a matter of comparativelj'' little moraent, when put in cora
petition with personal holiness, and his meek soul was daily harassed
by angry controversialists who surrounded him, of many of whom he
thought justly, that, while they contended fiercely for the f(M-m, they
felt little of the power of religion. Changing therefore merely from
the one profession to the other, under such circumstances, and holding
such opinions upon these matters, would have been comparatively,
if at all, a venial error. But to join hands with sucha set of men
as those with whom he associated, and lend the sanction of his name
to as foul an usurpation of the supreme Kingship of Christ in his
Church, and as unblushing an Invasion ofthe rights of Christian peo
ple, as ever was attempted, since the day when temporal potentates
first assumed an unholy influence within her pale, was a proceeding
which it is extremely difficult to account for.
. Presbyterian church-government, and civil liberty, had been soleran
ly sanctioned by Charles II. at his coronation at Scoone, and ratified
by the raost sacred oaths, and raost awful engagements known among
men; an iraraense majority of the nation were strongly attached to it;
and he had promised, in a written communication to the ministers at
Edinburgh, after his restoration, to preserve it. But the profligate
advisers by whom he was surrounded, had determined to establish a
civil despotism, to which, from early education, and his residence
abroad, he was mightily Inclined ; and the constitution of the Scottish
Chui-ch being esteemed a barrier, it was resolved that it should be
swept away ; — besides, the king, and several of the leading men, had
found the strictness of Presbyterian discipline, and the decent morality
which it requu-ed, totally inconsistent with the licentiousness they
loved, and the conduct they intended to pursue.
. Sharpe, who should haye defended, allured by the primacy, betray
ed his Church, and a crowd of sycophants, who hastened to Londoa

XX LIFE OF

to secure their private interests, were easily persuaded to jom in the
false representation, that a majority in Scotland detested the covenant,
and desired its overthrow. Episcopacy therefore was resolved upon,
and the hated fabric of prelacy, which had been so triumphantly le-
veiled was once more to be reared. Sydserf, the old Bishop of Gal-
loWay, was the only fragment of the former Hierarchy that remained.
He had been deposed by the Assembly 1638, for erroneous doctrine, ^
but was now nominated tothe Bishopric of Orkney, a much better.
living. The others were named chiefly by Sharpe, and promoted on
account of their subserviency to the cause, rather than from any fit
ness for the office. Wiseheart, formerly chaplain to Montrose, and
accused of a military freedom of manners, had Edinburgh, and Fair.
foul, a person of no good fame, got Glasgow ; nor were any of the rest
men of rauch reputation, either for learning or sanctity. Leighton
alone formed one exception, and Kirkton, who is notvery willing to
liralse whoever accepted the prelatic dignity, thus notices his appoint
ment : " Mr R.obert Leighton, then principal of Edinburgh College,
was made Bishop of Dumblane; thus he cholsed to demonstrate tothe
world, avarice was not his principle, it being the smallest revenue ; a
man of good learning, excellent utterance, and very grave abstract
conversation, but almost altogether destitute of a doctrinal principle,
being almost indifferent, among all the professions that are called by
the name of Christ." We are indebted to Burnet for an account of
the manner in which the Bishopric was offered, and he was induced to
accept of the noraination.
His brother Elisha had devoted himself to the Court, and in order
to serve his ambitious purposes, had changed his religion ; in this he
appears to have succeeded, for he became at once a papist, a knight,
and secretary to the Duke of York ; he was a person of considerable
talents and vivacity, loved to talk of great sublimities in religion, —
yet very iraraoral. Living in terms of close intiraacy with Lord Au
bigny, a brother of the Duke of Richmond, a great favourite at court,
who had also changed his religion, and though a Priest, was likewise
" a very vicious man," he brought Mr Robert Leighton and him to
gether.. Aubigny, who was acquainted with the then secret of the
King's religion, which was popish, and with his design to establish
it if possible, was induced by the representations of Sir Elisha, and
by the mild manners of Leighton himself, to suppose that he might
be rendered subservient to the scheme, and mentioned him to the King
Charles, who had sufficient penetration to perceive that the accession
of such a man to the Scottish prelacy would be of immense importance,
named him himself as one of the number. Leighton was exceedingly
averse at first to the proposal, but the entreaties of royalty, and the
urgency of his brother, who expected to rise still higher through his
means, with some faint expectation that he might be instrumental in
moderating or healing the differences of the truly devout of the two
persuasions, overcarae his reluctance, and he at last accepted, yet not
without a struggle, as the following letter, which is supposed to have
been written while he was deliberating, evinces. It is addressed to the
Rev. Mr Aird [afterwards] minister at Tornay. — " My dear Fi-iend,

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. xxi
I have received from you the kindest letter that ever you wrote me :
and that you ¦ may know I take it so, I return you the free and
friendly advice, never to judge any man before you hear him, nor
any business by one side of it. 'W'ere you here to see the other,
I am confident your thoughts and mine would be the same. You
have both too much knowledge of me, and too much charity to
think, that either such little contemptible scraps of honour or riches,
sought in that part of the world with so much reproach, or any hu
man complacency in the world, will be adraitted to decide so grave a
question, or that I would sell, — to speak no higher, — the very sen
sual pleasure of my retirement, for a rattle, far less deliberately do any
thing that I judge offends God. For the offence of good people, in
cases indifferent in themselves, but not accounted so by them, what
soever you do, or do not, you shall offend some good people, .on the
one side or other. And for those with you, the great fallacy in this
business is, that they have mis-reckoned themselves in taking my silence,
and their zeal, to have been constant and participative, which how
great a mistake it is, few know better or so well as yourself : and the
truth is, I did see approaching an inevitable necessity, to strain with
them in divers practices, in what station soever remaining in Britain,
and to have escaped further off, — which hath been in my thoughts, —
would have been the greatest scandal of all. And what will you say
if there be in this thing somewhat of that you mention, and would
allow of reconciling devout on different sides, and of enlarging these
good souls you meet with from their little fetters, though possibly with
little succfess ; yet the design is comraendable, — pardonable at least.
However, one comfort I have, that in what is pressed on me, there
is the least of my own choice, yea, on the contrary, the strongest aver
sion that ever I had in any thing in all my life ; the difficulty in short
lies, in a necessity of either owning a scruple which I have not, orthe
rudest disobedience to authority that may be. The truth is, I am yet
importuning and struggling for a liberation, and look upward for it,
but whatsoever be the issue, I look beyond it, and this weary weary
wretched life, through which, the hand I have resigned to, I trust, will
lead me in the paths of his own choosing, and so I may please him, I
ara satisfifid. I hope that if ever we meet, you shall find me in the
paths of solitude and a devout life, your unaltered brother and friend,
R. L.
" When I set pen to paper, I intended not to exceed half a dozen
lines, but slid on insensibly thus far ; but though I should fill this
paper on all sides, still the right view of this business would be ne
cessarily suspended till meeting. Meanwhile hope well of me, and
pray for me. This word I will add, that as there hath been nothing
of my choice in the thing, so I undergo it, — if it must be, — as a raor
tification, and that greater than a . cell and hair-cloth; and whether
any will believe this or no, I am not careful."
If this letter was written, as it probably was, after the first parliament
^n which the king's supreraacy W&s established, and by which Argyle
and Guthrie were condemned, itshowshow muchLeightonhad abstract
ed himself from the occurrences of the day, and how little he was ao-

LIFE OS

quainted with the politico-theological state ofthe country, that heshould
entertain even the slightest hope of advancing the Interest either^ of
peace or religion, by accepting a Bishopric in Scotland, and connecting
himself with a band of apostates, who had so iniquitously commenced
their atrocious career. His whole lifeproved, that Leighton was wholly
uninfluenced by sordid or secular motives ; but while we acknowledge
his principles to be pure, and his personal behaviour exemplary, it may-
falrly be questioned, how far in this instance his conduct was justifiable,
in holding fellowship with those who framed mischief by a law, who
gathered themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and con
demned innocent blood ; but as he foresaw, it proved to him a life of suf
fering, and hewas, after years of mental anguish, forced to withdraw
from the scene, and from all participation in raeasures, of which he left
a strong condemnatory sentence in his affirmation to Charles, " that
he would not consent to propagate Christianity itself by such means."
The following letter appears to have been written about this time :
" Dear Friend, I did receive your letter, which I would have known
to be yours, though it had no other sign but the piety and affectionate
kindness expressed in it. I will offer you no apology, nor I hope I need
not, for not writing since that to you. I will confess, that if the surpris
ing and unexpected occasion of the bearer had not drawn it fi-om me,
I should hardly for a long time to come, have done what I am now
doing, and yet still love you more than they do one another, that inter
change letters even of kindness, as often as the gazettes come forth^ and
as long as they are too. And now I have begun, I would end just here ;
for I have nothing to say, nothing of affairs to be sure, private nor
public ; and to strike up to discourses of devotion, alas ! what is there
to be said, but what you sufficiently know, and daily read, and daily .
think, and I am confident, daily endeavour to do ; and I am beaten
back, if I had a great mind to speak of such things, by the sense of
so great deficiency in doing these things, that the raost ignorant among.
Christians cannot choose but know. Instead of all fine notions to fly'
to xusje 'iXHo-tv x^ifrl Ixmov, I think them the great heroes and excel
lent persons of the world, that attain to high degrees of pure contem
plation and divine love ; but next to these, them that, in aspiring to
that, and falling short of it, fall down into deep humiliation and self-
contempt, and a real desire to be despised and • trampled on by all
the world. And I believe, that they that sink lowest into that depth,
stand nearest to advancement to thosp other heights : for the great
King who is the fountain of that honour, hath given us this character
of himself, that he resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble.
Farewell, my dear friend, and be so charitable as sometimes in your
addresses upwards to remember a poor caitiff who no day forgets vou
R. L. 13th Dec. 1676." ' ^ '
Sydserf, the withered twig ofthe old stem, not being sufficient to com
municate the undefinable sacredness of the prelatic character to a new
generation, four of the bishops elect ^were sumraoned to the English
capital, to receive from the fathers of London and Worcester such
gifts as they could bestow by the imposition of their " holy" hands.
Sharpe and Leighton having received Presbyterian ordination, they

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON x»lll
hesitated about being re-ordained, but as it was determined that Pres^
bytery should be destroyedroot and branch, that, was declared invalid,
and after some short disputation, they submitted to receive the orders
of deacon and priest, previously to their consecration as bishops.
Hamilton and Fairfoul had previously to 1638 received the orders
from the abrogated Scottish Hierarchy, which were held good. To
this act, which desecrated the whole of the Scottish ministers, even had
they been inclined to conforra, i^eighton is said to have reconciled
his mind by an evasion, — that the new ceremony was only declaratory
of his admission into another communi5n, but did not destroy the sanc
tity of his former ordination ; a distinction which Presbyterians would
not readily be brought to coraprehend.
Consecrated however they all were at Westrainster on the 12th
Deceraber 1661, with much clerical splendour, and a series of feasting
between the nobles and the bishops followed, which grieved Leighton's
pious soul, and gave plain augury of what kind of church they were
about to establish. It is perfectly clear there was no community of
soul between them ; Sharpe hated and opposed him, and even Sheldon
" did not much like his great strictness, in which he had no mind to
imitate him," though both he and the rest ofthe English clergy greatly
preferred him before his brethren, whom he excelled, not more in the
extent of his learning, than in the uprightness of his \>plk and conver
sation. His trials began almost immediately.
When the revelry had ceased, he endeavoured to prevail upon Sharpe
to settle some plan for their future procedure, and proposed for his
consideration,-^first, his favourite project of attempting to bring about '
an union between the Presbyterians and thera, — next, the best means
for promoting the growth of piety, — and then a method for gradually
assimilating the mode of worship among the two persuasions. But he
was sorely disappointed to find, that the Primate had formed no plan,
and was unwilling to hear of any. He only looked forward to coer
cive measures ; Episcopacy he knew would be established in the next
Parliament, and when once they were legally settled in their dioceses,
tlien he said every Bishop must do the best he could to get the people
and clergy to submit to hJs authority ; which once effected, it would
be sufficient tinie to proceed to regulate other matters. Fairfoul had
always " a merry tale ready at hand to divert him" whenever the sub
ject was started, so that he found it impossible to hold any serious con
versation with him, of which indeed he did not seem capable. " By
these means," adds Burnet, " Leighton quickly lost all heart and hope ;
and said often to rae upon it, that in the whole progress of that aff'air,
there appeared such gross characters of an angry providence, that how
fully soever he was satisfied in his own raind as to Episcopacy itself,
yet it seeraed that God was against them, and that they were not like
to*be the men that should build up his church, so that the struggling
about it seemed to him like a fighting against God. He who had the
greatest hand in it, [Sharpe] proceeded with so much dissimulation ;
arid the rest of the order were so raean and so selfish, and the Earl of
Middleton, with the other secular raen that conducted it, were so openly
impious and vicious, that it did cast a reproach on every thing relating

LIFE OF

to religion, to see it managed by such initruraents." About the middle
of next year they set out for Scotland, but Leighton, understanding
that they meant to make a grand entry into Edinburgh, left them at
Morpeth, and proceeded forward alone ;— the rest were received by
the magistrates in their robes, with sound of trumpet, or, as was sarcas
tically remarked, " with the sound of the comet, flute, harp, sackbut,
psaltery, and dulcimer, and aU kinds of music," at the hearing of which,
the people were to fall down, and worship the prelates whora the king
had made. Leighton proceeded directly to Dunblane, and not only
declined sharing in these pagearitries, but even requested that his friends
would not give him the title of" Lord," a request which, however con
sonant with the injunctions of his heavenly Master, was by no means
agreeable to his earthly brethren.
Episcopacy was set up by proclamation, the meetings of synods and
presbyteries were forbid by the sarae authority, but it required an act
of Parliament to restore the Bishops to their jurisdiction and their seats.
This was done the first of the session 1662, in the most amp.le manner,
and as soon as it was passed, the prelates who were in waiting, were
invited by a deputation from each estate, to resume their places in the
house, which they immediately did araong the Earls on the right hand
of the Coramissioner, Leighton on this occasion also forming the only
solitary exception. He was not however long suffered to enjoy his
retirement, and the occasion which called him fi-om it, is highly ho
nourable to his meraory. Several ministers, Mr John Carstairs, Mr
James Nasmyth, Mr James Veitch, and some others, were accused of
using seditious language in their sermons, but the accusations could not
be substantiated ; as was the custom however in these times, if a charge
was brought against a presbyterian, and could not be proved, instead
of being set fi-ee, the oath of allegiance, in which the King's supremacy
in all affairs civil and ecclesiastical was asserted, was offered them, and
they were required to take it as a mark of loyalty ; — in this case the
ministers were brought before parliament, and had the oath tendered.
They required time to consider it, and after some days serious delibera
tion, gave in an explanation, in which they declared, " they believed
the King was supreme governor over all pei-sons, and in all causes, not
only civil but ecclesiastic ; but that the power of the King is, in its
own nature, only civil and extrinsic as to causes ecclesiastical." This
explanation the Commission refused, upon which a debate arose, whe
ther an act explanatory of the oath should be offered to Parliament or
not. Leightgp strongly urged the propriety ofits being done ; the land,
he said, mourned by reason ofthe multiplicity of oaths, and the words
of the present Were certainly susceptible of a bad sense ; the papists in
England had been allowed this privilege of explaining, and he thought
a like tenderness should be shown to protestants, especially in a case
where thefr scruples appeared to be just, othei-wise it would look like
laying snares for the people, by making men offenders for a word. Sharpe
replied with great bitterness : he said that it was beneath the dignity of
a government, to frarae acts to satisfy the scruples of peevish men, and it
ill became them who had forced their covenant on all ranks, without dis
tinction or explanation, to come forward now, and ask such a licence for

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. xxv
themselves'" — " For that very reason," retorted Leighton, " it ought to
be granted, that the world may perceive the diff'erence between the
present mild government, and their severity; — nor does It become per
sons who complain of that rigour, to resort to similar harshness, lest
thus it might be said, the world goes mad by turns." But his arguments
were of no avail, — the ministers were required to take the oath or un
dergo the penalty, iraprisonment or exile; they refused to subscribe, and
preferred to suffer : and Leighton had only the consolation, of having
attempted in vain to avert their oppression.
.For several yearswe do notmeet with the Bishop's naraein any of the
political transactions of the times, but we find from his charges to his
clergy, and some few letters which have been preserved, that he was
fer raore honourably employed, in fulfilling the spiritual duties of his
office. Of the difliculties with which he liad to contend, some idea
may be formed, from the character of the clergy over whom he was
called to preside ? this we are enabled to give from an episcopalian
writer, and therefore the less liable to objection. At the close of the
year 1662, about two hundred faithful ministers of Christ, rather than
violate their consciences, gave up their livings in the west of Scotland;
and of these a number belonged to the diocese of Dumblane, of which
an imperfect list is given in Wodrow's Appendix. To fill their places,
Burnet says, " There was a sort of an invitation sent over the king
dora, like a hue and cry, to all persons to accept of benefices in the
west ; the livings were generally well endowed, and the parsonage
houses were well built and in good repair, and this drew many very
worthless persons thither, who had little learning, less piety, and no
sort of discretion." " They were the worst preachers I ever heard,
they were ignorant to a reproach, and many of them were openly
vicious, they were a disgrace to their order and the sacred function,
and were Indeed the dregs and refuse of the northern parts. Those
of them who arose above conteiript or scandal, were men of such vio
lent tempers, that they were as much hated as the others were despis
ed. This was the fatal beginning of restoring Episcopacy in Scotland,
of which few of the bishops seemed to have any sense." Only two
non-conformists' names appear in the roll ofthe presbytery of Dumblane,
which formed that part of the diocese more immediately under the
Bishop's eye; whether this was owing tothe influence and persuasion
of Leighton, or whether the list be incomplete, it is irapossible now to
deterraine ; but I should be rather apt to suppose the latter, as
Wodrow affirms, that the clergy of the diocese formed no exception
to the general character of these west country brethren.
No blame, however, can attach to Leighton for this, he has left us his
recorded opinion ofthe manner in which he thought a people shquld be
treated, with regard to spiritual teachers, in a letter he wrote to the
Heritors of Straiton, and which it would be well did the present pa
trons of presbyterian churches iraitate.
" Worthy gentlemen and friends, — Being informed that it is my ^uty
to present a person fit for the charge of the ministry now vacant with
you, I have thought of one whose integrity and piety I am so fully
persuaded of, that I dare confidently recommend him to you as one,

xxvi LIFE OF
who, ifthe hand of God do bind that work upon him amongst you, is
likely, through the blessing of the sarae hand, to be very serviceable
to the building up of your souls heavenwards, but is as far frora suf
fering himself to be obtruded, as I am from obtruding any upon you ;
so that unless you Invite him to preach, and after hearing him declare
your consent and desire towards his embracing of the call, you raay
be secure frora the trouble of hearing any further concerning him, either
from himself or me; and if you please to let me know your mind,
your reasonable satisfaction shall be to my utmost power endeavoured,
by your aff'ectionate friend and humble servant, R. Leighton."
The person here recommended was Mr James Aird, who had beeii
a minister at Ingram in Northumberland, and was then residing in
Edinburgh ; he was afterwards minister at Torrey, so that it -would
appear the Heritors at Straiton had not taken the bishop's advice.
The fbllowing letter to the same gentleman, was probably written upon
this occasion ; it is also without date. " Dear Friend, — I trust you
enjoy that same calra of mind touching your present concernment,
that I do in your behalf. I dare not promise to see you at Edinburgh
at this time, but it is possible I may. I know you will endeavour
to set yourself on as strong a guard as you can, against the assaults
you may meet with there from dlyerse well-meaning persons, but of
weak understandings and strong passions, and will maintain the liberty
of your own raind, both firraly and meekly. Our business is the study of
sincerity and pure Intention, and then, certainly our blessed guide
will not suffer us to lose our way for want of light ; we have his pro
mise, that If in all our ways we acknowledge him, he will direct our
paths. While we are consulting about the turns and riew motions of
life, it is sliding away, but If our great work in it be going on, all is
well, fray for your poor friend, R. L. — Dumblane, Jan. 13th."
We have also, in a beautiful epistle, — unfortunately without date or
address, — his views of the temper and disposition he thought those
should cultivate, whom he wished to introduce into the ministry^.
" Sir, — There is one place indeed in my precinct, and yet undis
posed of, by the voluntary removal of the young man who was in it
to a better benefice ; and this is likewise in my hand, but it is of so
wretchedly mean provision, that I am ashamed to name it, little I
think above five hundred merks by year.* If the many instances
of that kind you have read, have made you In love with volun-,
tary poverty, there you may have it ; but wheresoever you are, or shall
be for the little rest of your time, I hope you are, and still will be
daily advancing in that blessed poverty of spirit, that is the only
true height and greatness of spirit in all the world, entitling to a
crown^ " for theirs Is the kingdom of heaven." Oh ! what are the
scraps that the great ones of this world are scrambling for, com
pared with that pretension ! I pray you, as you find an opportu
nity, though possibly little or no inclination to it, yet bestow one
line ^or two upon your poor friend and servant, R. L."
Part of the diocese of Dumblane in the vicinity gf the Highlands,
• Thirty-six pounds five shillings, if the merk be reckoned at 2''s. 3d.

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTO.V. xxvii'
was at this period among the ruder portions of Scotland, and from
the state of restlessness and contention in which they were kept upby
their neighbours, laboured under the demoralizing influence of border
customs ; the Bishop therefore, in his charge, September 1662, expres
ses his anxious desire, " that all diligence be used for the repressing of
profaneness, and for the advancement of solid piety, and that not only
scandals of unchastity, but drunkenness, swearing, cursing, filthy
speaking, and mocking of religion, and all other gross off'ences be
brought under church-censure, and that scandalous offenders should
not be absolved, till there appeared in thera probable signs of true re
pentance." Although he does not mention the discipline of the Pres
byterians, he urges upon his clergy the exercise of the raost coramend
able parts of their practice, — catechising, visiting, and frequent ex
pounding of the Scriptures. At the Reformation, and before the com
monalty could read for themselves, there were public readers appoint
ed in the church, and the hour between the second and third ringing
of the Kirk bell on Sabbath, was usually eraployed in reading portions
of the Old and New Testaraents to the people; this practice, which had
fallen into disuse as education became more diffused, Leighton wished
to revive, and urged upon his curates the advantage of raaking then-
people well acquainted with .the pure word of God, by carefully re
verting to this good old custora. He also strongly recommended their
taking large portions of Scripture, and lecturing from them, rather than
raising a theme from a single text, for he thought a nuraber of short
practical observations frora a series of verses, preferable to a long dis
sertation from one.
He wished likewise to establish dally public prayer, and reading the
scriptures morning and evening in churches, in as far as these did not
interfere with the private or famUy worship of the people ; which
duties he was extremely anxious to proraote : as he was also of a more
frequent celebration of the Lord's supper ; but, above all, he pro
pounded to the brethren, that it was to be reminded by himself and
them, both to how eminent degrees of purity of heart and life their
holy calling, did engage them, and to how great conterapt of this pre
sent world aSid inflamed affections towards heaven, springing from deep
persuasions within them of those things they 'preached to others ; and
that they should be meek and gentle, and lovers and exh()rters of peace
private and public, amongst all ranks of raen ; endeavouring rather to
quench than to increase, the useless debates and contentions that
abounded in the world, and be always raore studious of pacific, than
polemic divinity.
While this excellent. prelate was assiduously, but calmly endeavour
ing to alleviate the evils by which he was environed, the furious and
insane council, dogged by the unprincipled crew of bishops and
Curates, who were determined to force upon the nation a Hierarchy
they universally detested^ proceeded with the most cruel and incon
siderate rashness, to desolate the church and the country, by measures
to which no conscientious and enlightened people could ever submit.
Oaths opposed to everyprinclple which had been recognized as sacred
for nearly thirty years in Scotland, were proposed to men who feared

xxviii LIFE OF
an

_„ oath, and those who sincerely believed in the divine institution of
presbytery? were required to renounce it, merely because their rulers
deemed it expedient that they should do so, and to join a church whose
form they considered unscriptural ; and whose clergy they viewed,
and (if Burnet's description be true,) justly viewed as children of the
devil. Had the people been like their priests or their rulers, indifferent at
once to the reality and the form of religion, whatever guilt might have
attached to compliance, there would have been little hardship ; but
educated as they had been, and well informed and well grounded
as they were in their principles, numbers chose rather to suffer than
to sin, and counted not their lives dear unto the death, that they might
hold fast their integrity; — the consequence was, that the land, like the
prophet's scroll, from one end to the other, was lamentation, andmourn-
ing, and woe. Leighton, placed in the most trying of all possible
situations, wept over what he could not prevent ; and, after a sickening
struggle of about three years, resolved to withdraw from a situation
as painful as it was unprofitable. In October 1665, after the business
was over, he commimicated his intention to the synod. In a short
address, he told them that all the account he could give of the reasons
moving hira to it, was briefly the sense he had of his own unworthi
ness of so high a station in the church, and his weariness of their con
tentions, which seemed rather to be growing than abating ; and by
their growth, to make so great abatements of that Christian meekness
and rautual charity, that is so rauch raore worth than the whole sum
of all they contended about. He then thanked the brethren for all their
undeserved respect and kindness manifested to himself, and desired
their good construction of the poor endeavours he had used, to serve
and to assist them in promoting the work of the ministry, and the
great designs of the gospel in their bounds ; and if in any thing, in word
or deed, he had offended them, or any of them, he very earnestly and
hurably craved their pardon ; and having recoramended them to con
tinue in the study of peace and holiness, and of ardent love to our
great Lord and Master, and to the souls he hath so dearly bought, he
closed with these words of the apostle : " Finally, brethren, farewell ;
be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, and live in peace, and
the God of peace and love shall be with you."
He was however prevailed upon, first to proceed to court, to give a
faithful representation of the miseries of the country, which he the
more willingly did, as it was then supposed that the king's easy, careless
good nature, imposed upon by Sharpe, would, when undeceived, sym
pathize with the sufferers, and consent to more moderate methods.
But Charles was an accoraplished profligate, and one of the most sel
fish of mortals ; his own enjoyraent was the sole end of his existence,
to that he sacrificed honour, veracity, and friendship, and every thin|
that an honest man would have held estimable ; he had however a
plausibility of manner, that Imposed on the guileless or superficial ob
server. Leighton was imposed upon : — when introduced to the king,
he told him freely that the proceedings in Scotland were so violent,
that he would not concur in planting the Christian relieion itself iri

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. xxiic
such a manner, much less a form of church government; and he there
fore begged leave to quit his bishopric, and retire, for while he retain
ed it, he thought he was in sorae manner accessory to the violence of
the ecclesiastics with whom he was associated ; as it was given out
that all these outrages were intended to establish their order. The
King seemed touched with the statements when he heard them,
and promised that more lenient raeasures should be pursued ; laid the
blame chiefly on Sharpe, and Insisted upon the Bishop's resuming his
labours. According to Biu-net, the consequence of these representations
was an order frora Charles to discontinue the ecclesiastical corarais
sion, and perhaps the King might claim sorae merit with Leighton
for this, but the Scottish historians assert, that that com-t had already
become contemptible with all ranks and parties ; and, no longer able to
carry its own oppressive decrees into execution, was, if not defunct, at
least on the point of expiring.
Leighton however returned with renewed expectations, but it was
only to meet with renewed disappointment, ^harpe at the head of
the council managed all as he chose, — persecution continued to increase,
— and religious men were confined, imprisoned, and banished, because
they would not consent to attend the ministrations of those curates whose
character we have quoted above from an eye witness and an Eplscopji-
lian- Leighton could only sigh, like the prophet, " Oh that I had in
the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring raen, that I might leave
my people, and go from them !" His letters in general want dates,
and of course cannot be accurately arranged, but a fragment quoted
by Jerment may not improperly be placed about this time : " Thorns
grow every where, and from all things below, but to a soul transplant
ed out of itself into the root of Jesse, peace grows every where too,
from him who is called our peace, and whom we still find the more to
be so, the raore entirely we live in him, being dead to this world and
self, and all things beside him. O when shall it be ! Well ! Let all the
world go as it will, let this be our only pursuit and ambition, and to all
other things. Flat voluntas tua, Domine, ' Lord, thy will be done !' "
In the political arrangements respecting the Church, he had never
taken rauch part, but in the meetings of his synod he appears to have
been more interested, though, from a wish not to appear haughty or
domineering, he had suffered irregularities to pass unnoticed, which it
would have required a stronger hand to repress. " I confess," says
he, in his address to them, April 1667, " I confess that my own in
active and unmeddling temper may be too apt to prevail against the
known duty of my station, and may incline me rather to inquire too
little than too much into the deportraent of others ; and rather to be
deficient, than to exceed in admonitions and advices to my brethren
in matters of their duty ; and besides this natural aversion, the sense
of my own great unworthiness and filthiness may give rae check, and
be a very strong curb upon rae, in censuring others for what may be
amiss, or in offering any rules'^for the redress of it : And there is yet
another consideration that bends still further that way, for I ara so de
sirous to keep far off from the reach of that prejudice that abounds in

xxx LIFE OF
these parts against the very name of my sacred function,, as apt to
command and domineer too much, that I may possibly err on the
other hand, and scarce perform the duty of the lowest and most mo
derate kind of moderator, so that I am forced to spur and drive my
self against all these retardments, to suggest any thing, how usefubso-
ever, beyond our road or accustomed way, especially finding how little
any thing of that kind takes and prevails to any real effect."
This humble and raild introduction was prefixed to a charge intend
ed to reraind them of their inattention to former instructions and admo
nitions, and to recoraraend particularly the " privy trials" of minister^
in their presbyteries : — these were exarainations by the presbytery in
to the doctrine their members preached, the raanner in which they
fulfilled the duties of their office, and their moral and Christian conduct
as ministers of the Gospel ; in which he said he had perceived in some
places very much of superficial empty form. He therefore proposeda
series of queries for their consideration, which he thought might be
useful : " For though,^' he remarks, "we can have nothing but every
man's own word concerning himself, yet this does not render it an use
less thing, for besides that divers of the questions will be of things so
obvious to public knowledge, that no man will readily adventure to
give an untrue answer where it may be so easily traced, there is much
to be given to the presuraed ingenuity and veracity of a minister, es
pecially in what is soleranly and punctually enquired of him, — and
whatsoever formerly hath been or hath not been, his former degree of
diligence in the particulars, the very enquiry and asking concerning
them will be apt to awake in every man a more serious reflecthm upon
himself touching each point."
These questions were, — Whether he were assiduous in plain and pro
fitable preaching .? diligent in catechising ? frequent lu celebrating the
communion ? faithful In the exercise of discipline ? attentive in visiting
his flock ? careful ofthe relief of thepoor ? and plain and free in admon
ishing open transgressors ? Then, as the personal conduct ofthe clergy
man was what could alone give weight and efficacy to his reproofs and
instructions, raore pointed queries followed : Whether he watched
exactly over his own conversation, not only giving no offence, buf being
an example to his flock, and preaching by his living ? whether it be the
* great pleasure ofhis life to fulfil the work ofhis ministry ? if he does not
only avoid gross offences, intolerable in a guide of souls, but studies daily
to mortify pride, rash anger, vainglory, covetousness and love of this
world, and sensual pleasures, &c. and finally, whether he be at peace with
his brethren, and be an ardentlover and promoter of it amongthe people'
From his pastoral charges it will be perceived that Leighton prized
highly sorae ofthe characteristic features of Presbytery, and it redounds
greatly to his honour, that he not only did not persecute the profession
he had forsaken, or behave harshly towards his former fellow-labourers
but he retained as much ofthe form as he legally could, and as much of
the practice as was attainable, while he treated the « outed" ministers as
his brethren. Hethought, however, that the mode of conducting public
worship admitted of improvement, especially with regard to reading the

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. xxxi
scriptures when the congregation was assembled, these he recommended
to be read in larger portions, and also that the Lord's Prayer, the ten
Commandments, and the Creed, should be more frequently repeated ;
a practice for which he had the authority of the eariier reformers.
How far Dumblane profited by his unwearied exertions and pious ex
ample, itis Impossible to say, but as he is still held in grateful remem
brance in that quarter, it is reasonable to suppose that his labours were
not altogether in vain.
Among his feHow prelates his conduct had only the effect of deepen
ing the shade of their turpitude by the purity of its lustre. " I observ
ed," says Burnet, " the deportment of our bishops was in all points so
different from what became their function, that I had a more than ordi
nary zeal kindled wi€hin me upon it. , They were not only furious
against all that stood out against them, but were very remiss in all the
parts of their function. Some did not live within their dioceses, and
those who did, seemed to take no care of them. They showed no zeal
against vice ; the most eminently wicked in the country were their
particular confidants, they took no pains to keep their clergy strictly
to rules and to their duty ; on the contrary, there was a levity and a
carnal 'way of living about them, that very much scandalized me."
And he tells us, that in a memorial which he wrote upon this occasion,
he showed how they had departed from the primitive church, by
neglecting their dioceses, meddling so rauch in secular affairs, raising
their families out of the revenues of the church, and above all, by their
violent persecuting of those who differed from them. While Leighton
was pursuing his peaceful and holy avocations, the Primate was re
velling in the blood of the unfortunate covenanters, whom oppression
had driven to resistance, and who had been scattered at Pentland, and
the whole west and south were filled with prelatic vengeance, and legal
and military executions.
Political events (1667) which for a short time terrified Charles from
his despotic projects, transferred ' the raanagement of Scottish ^aff'airs
into the hands of Lord Tweedale, who, together with Lauderdale, by
whom he was supported, was disgusted with the violence of Sharpe
and his associates, and wished to restore his suffering country to some
kind of tranquillity. Ecclesiastical grievances being the chief source of
all'the distractions, he entered into a close communication with the
bishop of Dumblane, who was again prevailed upon to go to London,
where he had two audiences of the King;— in these, he represented
with honest freedom the madness of the former administration of church
affairs, and the necessity of raore moderate councils ; Charles listened,
and promise'd, and did nothing. Leighton returned to his charge,
where he reraained, till in 1669 he was again called upon by Twee
dale to make a riew eff'ort for restoring peace to the church. Ever
anxious to promote this object, the dearest to his heart, he hastened to
lend what assistance he could. He proposed that a treaty of accom
modation should be attempted with the Presbyterians, for the purpose
of setting the differences completely at rest, by each party yielding
somewhat of their alleged rights and mutual demands. His plan Wds_

Kvxii LIFE OF
somewhat similar to that species of Episcopacy under which he had been
traihed, and on which he acted in his own diocese ; he proposed that
the church courts should be retained, and that the bishops and mini
sters shculd act together in thera, the bishops being ex-officio perpe
tual presidents, or moderators, — that the Presbyterians should be al
lowed, when they first sat down in .these judicatories, to declare, that
their sitting under a bishop was subraitted to by them only for peace
sake, with a reservation of their opinion with relation to any such
presidency, — and that no negative vote should be claimed by the bishop :
that bishops should go to the churches, in which such as were to be
ordained were to serve, and hear and discuss any exceptions that were
made to them, and ordain them with the concurrence of thejiresbytery .
that such as were to be ordained, should have leave to declare their
opinion, if they thought the bishop was only the head of the Presby
ters. And he also proposed, that there should be provincial Synods
to sit every third year, or oftener if the King should summon them,
in which complaints of the bishops should be received, and they cen
sured if deserving. — Burnet's expression is arausing, " and they should
be censured accordingly," implying perhaps unintentionally, what was
really the fact, that if their conduct were ever brought before a church
court, censure must be the inevitable consequence. The same writer
alleges, that Leighton, in making' these concessions, acted upon the -
same policy that James VI. did, only let the Bishops, however loosely, be
peaceably acknowledged, and they will gradually and eventually ac
quire a complete power in the church. This, for the sake of Leighton's
character, I am willing to believe a misconception of his views ; — it is
not improbable that the statesmen with whom he associated might
have used such arguments to influence the Episcopalians to comply
with propositions which went to reduce their antichristian domination,
but that Leighton ever held out any such inducements, is not at all
likely, especially as in the above propositions he seems only to have em
bodied his earliest principles. The Earl of Kincardine, one of the
leaders in the council, was not averse to concessions being granted to
the Presbyterians ; but he was of opinion that these concessions ought
to be legalized by an act of parliament, and then it was probable they
would submit to what they could not help, while, if proposed before
hand, they would set theraselves to state objections, and render an
agreement more hopeless than ever. Leighton coincided with him in
opinion, and Burnet was dispatched to sound Mr Hutchison, a cousln-
german of his own, and in high repute among the Presbyterians,
but he was of opinion it would not meet the wishes of either
party. Lauderdale objected, because, being the chief manager of
Scottish affairs, and suspected of favouring the Presbyterians, he
was afraid lest the English bishops should think he was sacrificing the
cause of Episcopacy to their enemies. The idea of an accommodation
between the parties was therefore given up at this time.
Yet the state of the counti-y required that something should be done.
The people would not attend the places where the curates, " a set
of men so Ignorant and so scandalous," officiated, while they flocked

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. sxxlU
to hear the zealous and able Presbyterian, or, as they were then called,
'' outed" ministers, who now were forced to betake theraselves to the
fields, and beneath the wide canopy of heaven, proclaim the truths
of the everlasting gospel. It was in consequence suggested, that a
number of these ministers should be allowed to serve in the vacant
parishes under certain restrictions, a fettered liberty, in opposition to
the standing law ofthe country, which was granted by the King under
thelronlcal name of an "Indulgence,"'' and which was followed by
one of the most oppressive acts that ever was fraraed for burdening the
consciences of men, whose highest crirae was contending for the Head
ship of Christ in his Church.
This was the first of the Parliament 1669, asserting his majesty's
supremacy over all persons, and in all cases ecclesiastical, by virtue
whereof, the ordering and disposal of the external government and
policy of the church, was declared properly to belong to the king, and
his successors, as an inherent right of the crown. This, which was an
ex post facto legallzuvg of the king's stretch of power in granting an
Indulgence,* was not agreeable to Leighton, yet he voted for it, al
though he afterwards expressed his regret at having allowed himsell
to be betrayed into such a compliance. Burnet, archbishop of Glas
gow, arid all " liis sett," who allowed the king every exorbitant prero
gative that he chose to claim, when the object was to crush Presby
tery, now coraplained loudly when the prerogative was exerted to fa
vour it. His raajesty's supremacy asserted by the act, was immediately
applied to chastise such insolence, and his Grace of Glasgow, rather
than dispute the point, took the hint, and retired for the time upon a
pension. No one of the worldly, ambitious, and detested prelates, possessed
either the esteem of the people, or the confidence of the government ;
Leighton in these respects stood alone, and his pre-eminence pointed
him out as the only fit person to fill the Arch-Episcopate Burnet had
been forced to resign. "It was easily found," Sir George Mackenzie
remarks, " that the Bishop of Dumblane was the most proper and fit
person to serve the state in the church-according to the present plat
form of government now resolved upon ; for he was in much esteem
for his piety and moderation araong the people, and as to which the
Presbyterians theraselves could neither reproach nor equal hira. Al
beit they hated him most of all his fraternity, in respect he drew many
into a kindness for Episcopacy by his exemplary life, rather than de- '
bates. His great principle was, that devotion was the. great aft'air
about which churchmen should employ themselves, and that the gain
ing of souls, and not the external government, was their proper task ;
nor did he esteem it fit, and scarce lawful to churchmen to sit in coun
cils and judicatories, these being diversions from the main. And al
beit his judgement did lead hira to believe the church of England the
• Burnet says the words " Ecclesiastical matters" were interpolated after Leighton had
aeen the act ; but this is a very lame justification, — the very title of the Bill implied them,
and the whole Bill, not a very long one, asserts in the most unjualilied manner the Ecclesias
tical supremacy of the King. — Leighton's easiness of temper is thfe only excuse.
¦¦ C

X«civ- LlfE OF
best raodelled of all others, both for doctrine and discipline ; yet did
he easily conform with the practice of the Christians amongst whora he
lived, and therefore lived peaceably under Presbytery till it was abo
lished. And when he under|ookto be a Bishop himself, he opposed all
violent courses, whereby men were forced to comply with the present
worship beyond their persuasions ; and he had granted a latitude^
and indulgence to those of.his own diocese, before the king had allow
ed any by his letter. This made the worid believe that he was author
to his majesty of that pubhc indulgence, and the statesraen who
were unwilling to be authors of an innovation, which sorae there thought
raight prove dangerous, were well satisfied to have it so believed; but
however these principles rendered hira a fit instruraent in their present
undertaking." The Earls of Lauderdale and Tweedale therefore, urg
ed him to accept the see, but he was strongly averse, and for some
time so resolutely declined, that Gilbert Burnet, now Professor of Di
vinity in Glasgow, and all his friends, became exceedingly uneasy, and
it was only the hope of being able to achieve an accommodation that
at length induced him to consent to the proposal; though only to hold
the see in commendam, that is, administer the affairs without being
ordained to the office.
As soon as he had agreed to accept, the king coraraanded his atten
dance at court, and on his way thither he called upon the Professor,
with whora he had a long consultation, but received poor encourage
raent, for Burnet says, he told him that he expected little good, only
he thought an accoraraodation not altogether impracticable. Upon
his arrival in London, he found Lauderdale strangely altered in his
temper, for having triumphed over all his rivals, he was become fierce
and Intractable ; the scherae of accommodation was judged improper,
and toleration by royal authority, was deemed the preferable mode for
conciliating the country, and exalting his majesty's prerogative. Yet
the Archbishop's arguments prevailed with the king, and his plan, cor
rected by Sir George Murray, was tumed into instructions for Lauder
dale, the Lord High Comraissioner, with authority to legalize all the
concessions ; but from what afterwards appeared, there was every
reason to believe, that Charles had, with his usual duplicity, given se
cret directions that the whole should be fi-ustrated.
Being fully occupied with his new charge, the Archbishop found it
impracticable to attend the meeting of Dumblane synod this year, but
he still was careful for their welfare, and sent them a truly pastoral
letter :
" Glasgow, April 6. I67I. — Reverend Beethhen, The super
added burden that I have here, sits so heavy upon me, that I cannot
escape from under it to be with you at this time, but my heart and
designs shall be with you for a blessing from above upon your meet
ing. I have nothing to recomraend to you, but if you please to take
a review of things forraerly agreed upon", and such as you judge most
useful, to renew the appointment of putting them in practice, and to
add whatsoever farther shall occur to your thoughts that may pro
mote the happy discharge of your ministry, and the good of your peo-

AROHBlSttOP LEIGHTON. x^xv
pie's souls. I know I need not remind you, for I am confident you
daily think of It, that the great principle of fidelity and diligence, and
good success in that great work, is love, and the great spring of love
to souls, is love to him that bought them. He knew it well
himself, and gave us to know it, when he said, " Simon, lovest thou
me .? feed my sheep, feed my lambs." Deep impressions of his blessed
name upon our hearts, will not fail to produce lively expressions of it,
not only on our words and discourses in private and public, but will
make the whole tract of our lives, to be a true copy and transcript of
his holy life. And if there be within us any sparks of that divine love,
you know the best way not only to preserve them, but to excite them;
to blow them up into a flarae, is by the breath of prayer. Oh prayer !
the converse of the soul with God, the breath of God in raan return
ing to its Original ; frequent and fervent prayer, the better half of our
whole work, and that which makes the other half lively and effectual ;
as that holy company tells us, when appointing deacons to serve the
tables, they add, " But we will give ourselves continually to prayer
and the ministry of the word." And is it not, brethren, an unspeakable
advantage, beyond all the gainful and honourable employments of this
world, that the whole work of our particular calling is a kind of living
in heaven, and besides its tendency to the saving of the souls of others,
is all along so proper, and adapted to the purifying and saving of
our own ? But you will possibly say. What does he himself that
speaks these things to us ? Alas ! I ara asharaed to tell you. All I
dare say is this, — I think I see the beauty of holiness, and am en
amoured with it, though I attain it not ; and how little soever I at
tain, would rather live and die in the pursuit of it, than in the pursuit,
yea, or in the possession or enjoyment, though unpursued, of all the
advantages that the world affords. And I trust, dear brethren, you
are of the same opinion, and have the same desire and design, and fbl
low it both more diligently, and with better success. But I will stop
here, lest I should forget myself, and possibly run on till I have
wearied you, if I have not done that already ; and yet if it be so,
I shall hope for easy pardon at your hands, as of a fault I have not
been, accustonied to heretofore, nor ara likely hereafter to corarait. To
the all-powerful grace of our great Lord and Master, I comraend you
and your flocks, and your whole works araong thera, and do earnestly
entreat your prayers for your unworthiest, but most affectionate
brother and servant, R. Leighton."
He was not less anxious about the good conduct of the clergy in his
new charge, He found the whole country filled with reports to their
disadvantage, which, as we have seen by Burnet's account, were far
from being ill founded. The Archbishop therefore appointed a com
mittee, consisting, not of the raerabers of his own synod alone, who
were too notorious themselves to be .trusted with any such delicate
task,' but comprising those who. stood fairest in the Episcopal church,*
Mr Charters, Mr Nairn, and Mr Aird, to take cognizance of the com
plaints that might be lodged against them. So soon, however, as the
council were apprised of the measure, under pretext of countenancing

xxxvi LIFE OP
and assisting the committee in discharge of their duty, they nominated
Sir John Cochrane of Ochiltree, Sir Thomas Wallace, Sir John Cun-
ninghame. Sir John Harper, the provosts of Glasgow and Air, to at
tend and act along with them, but in reality to prevent too rigid an
exercise of discipline, for they knew the west country curates could not
bear even the mild inspection of Leighton ; and the consequence ¦was,
that the good Intentions of the Archbishop were rendered almost en
tirely abortive.
The committee met in September, when the parishioners were in
vited to lodge their complaints, but their first acts went to narrow as
much as possible the avenues to redress ; they required, that whoever
did not fully substantiate by legal proof any complaint he brought
forward against a minister, should stand before the congregation cloth
ed in sackcloth as a slanderer. This effectually prevented many, who
were aware of the difficulty of proving what they knew to be true,
from coming forward ; but there were some cases so flagrant, that the
curates rather preferred to take a little money and retire, than stand
trial, with all these advantages ; of the accusations that came before
them the result was, — one deposed, and four removed to other charges ;
what the crimes were that they visited thus heavily, we are not in
formed, but if we may judge from one case which they dismissed
without reproof, they were no trifles.
It is thus recorded by Kirkton, who was no friend to Leighton, and
reflects not more discredit on the unworthiness of the committee, than
honour on the zeal of Leighton. — " One Jeffray, curat of Maybole,
sometime before alleadged he hade been assaulted for his life by his
parishioners, and this he proved by producmg a book, which hade been
contused by a pistoll ball, and this book he alleadged hade saved his
life ; for he said he hade it upon his breast, betwix his uppercoat and
his doublet, but his uppercoat was neither pierced nor contused. How
ever he brought his complaint against his people, before the committee
that sat at Air about that time. This he did in hopes to get his paroch
fyned in lOOlib. English, and the money to himself; but because he
not only failed in his evidence, but by the circumstance of the action
made all Scotland say he hade contused the book with his own pistoll,
no money he got, but the hatred of the people. These thinking they
may now have justice before this goodly purgeing comraittee, accuse
him there, and prove him guilty of many gross scandals, such as swear
ing, strikeing, fighting and drunkenness, notwithstanding all which,
the committee absolved him, which made Leighton so much ashamed,
that out ofthe plenitude ofhis power, he thought fit to forbid him the
exercise of his ministry."
For some time Leighton continued to reside partly at Dumblarie,
and partly at Glasgow, but being consecrated in the month of October,
he took full possession of the Archbishopric, and went to reside in the
jcity of Glasgow. His predecessor had uged every violent method to
force the people to attend the ministrations of the viie, iraraoral, and
iUiterate crew of curates who filled the pulpits in the west, and when
the soldiers left his diocese, lamented that they had carried the Gospel

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. xxxvU
along with them ! He proceeded upqn a very different plan. Soon
after his settlement he held a synod of his clergy. As was to be expect
ed, their cRurcheswere deserted, and themselves despised; and never
considering that their own conduct, and 'want of ministerial talents,
were the true reasons of their being treated with contempt by a well-
informed and a religious people, they had expected that their new
Right Reverend Father would, like the former, collect their scattered
flocks by the aid of military evangelists : — He preached to them, and
in his discourses, both public and private, exhorted them to loot up
more to God, to consider themselves as the ministers of the cross of
Christ, to bear the contempt and ill usage they met with, as a cross
laid on them for the exercise of their faith and patience ; to lay aside
all the appetites of revenge, to humble themselves before God, to have
mariy days for frequent fasting and prayer, and to meet often together,
that they might quicken and assist one another in these holy exercises,
and then they might expect blessings from heaven upon their labours :
" This (adds Burnet,) was. a new strain to the clergy, — they had no
thing to say against it, but it was a comfortless doctrine to them !"
There was no quartering of soldiers, and no levying of fines, — so
they went home as little edified with their new Bishop, as he was
M'ith them.
Grieved at the low state of his Eplsc<)pal clergy, the good man
looked with an eye of longing regard to his former esteemed and pious
co-presbyters, and visited several of the indulged ministers, for the pur
pose of persuading them to listen to propositions of peace, but he found
the truth of Solomon's observation, that "a brother offended is harder
to be won than a strong city, and their contentions are like the bars
of a castle." He told thenj that some of their number would quickly
be sent for to Edinburgh,, where conciliatory terms would be offered
them, — that they would be met in sincerity, and without artifice, and
if they in return would cordially acquiesce, the concessions would be
turned into laws, and allthe vacancies would be filled up -with their bre
thren. The minlsterswho had suffered severely, and were well acquaint
ed with the character of the Scottish rulers, both civil and ecclesias
tical, whose whole conduct towards them had been an uniform system.
of oppression and deceit, received the Archbishop's communications
with great coolness ; they suspected the proffer to be, what we now
know it to have been, upon the part of government, a snare to entrap
and to divide them; and they answered with prudent caution, that it
ivas a matter of gerieral concern to the whole body, in which they as
individuals could do nothing.
Although it might have been anticipated, yet the reception he met
with grieved and discouraged Leighton, who began to lose heart in a
negociation where he had to struggle with so many difficulties, tyranny
and insincerity on the part ofthe government, and well-gi-ounded sus
picion and conscientious scruples on the part of the sufferers. He did
not however give tip his endeavours ; withhim it was a labour of love,
and however much mistaken in his vie\i's, he was without doubt sin
cerely aiming at the blessing pronounced on the peace-makers. At his

xxxviii LIFE OF
request, Lauderdale wrote to some of the raost erainent of the indulged
ministers in his diocese, among whom were Mr Hutchisoiij^ Mr Wed-
derburn, and Mr Baird, requiring them to attend a conference before
himself, Tweedale, and Kincardine, at Edinburgh, August 9. I67O.
Sharpe would not appear, but Patterson (afterwards Archbishop of
Glasgow) was present along with Leighton : — the latter opened the
business by deploring the divisions that prevailed among them, and the
mischief they had done ; that souls were perishing while they were
contending about matters of infinitely less importance, and entreated
them to do each what lay in his power to heal so disastrous a breach :
for his own part he was convinced, that from the days of the apostles,
there always existed an order of bishops superior to presbyters in the
church, and that complete equality among clergymen had never been
heard of till the middle of the last century, when it was introduced
rather by accident than design ; yet in the proposition he had to make,
he would not insist upon this, — by his plan they would not be requir
ed to surrender their opinions on that point, whUe they might unite
in preaching the Gospel, and carrying on all the ends of thefr minis
try. They had moderators among thetti, which was no divine institu
tion, but only a raatter of order, the King therefore might narae them ;
and making them constant, was certainly no such encroachment on
their rights, as should break the peace of the church ; nor did blessing
them with imposition of hands, vi^en they entered upon their office,
imply any invalidity in their former ordination, — they were still mi
nisters. Sorae imagined that a new authority was conferred, but they
would be required to subrait to nothing more, than to their presidency,
and even as to that wonld be allowed to exonerate themselves, by pro
testing as formally and publicly as they chose. — Hutchison replied: — -
he said their opinion respecting a parity among ministers, was well
known, — that the Presidency now proposed, had formerly served to
introduce a lordly dominion in the Church, and however inconsider
able their present pretensions might be, they would serve to pave the
way for future higherdemands, and therefore requested time to consider
and consult with his brethren.
A second meeting was accordingly appointed In November, when the
whole dined together by the Lord High Comraissioner Lauderdale's
invitation. After dinner his Lordship joined them, in hopes that his
presence might awe the parties into mutual concession ; but when he
found that the Presbyterians were not prepared to surrender their
principles, he was with difficulty restrained from bursting out into one
ofhis outrageous fits of passion, by which he had latterly been accustomed
to overawe his political adversaries. Leighton, who knew how vain It
would be, persuaded him to rest quietly, and hear the ministers' objec
tions. They were the same as stated at the former meeting, in which
they had been confirmed by reflection and intercourse with the other
Presbyterians, who all coincided in opinion, that the accommo
dation was merely a scheme to lull their vigilance asleep, and render
them subservient to the triumphant estabhshment of Episcopacy, when
the present supporters of Presbyterianism should be laid In the grava.

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. xxxi\
Thus the conference ended without being productive of any advan
tage to the Archbishop's wished-for conciliation, — but the presbyterians
M'ere not the only enemies to an adjustment, although perhaps the
only conscientious ones. Sharpe was violently against the accomirio-
dation. Episcopacy, he exclairaed, was undermined; and the inferior
clerg)% Burnet tells us, hated the whole thing, " for they thought, if the
Presbyterians were admitted into churches, they would be neglected."
When the conference ended, Leighton did not despair ; he knew the
aversion the people had to come to any terms with the profligate clergy
of a persecuting church, and he also knew the influence which, their
decided opinions in this matter had upon the ministers. He therefore
adopted another -method for attaining his darling object, and endeavour.^
ed to engage thera upon his side ; he could get no assistance from his
own diocese. " The Episcopal clergy in the west could not argue
much for any thing, and would not at all argue in favour of a pro
position they hated ;" but he employed six divines of that persuasion,
of a higher character, and from a different quarter, — Messrs. Burnet,
Charters, Nairn, Aird, Cook, and Paterson, to perambulate the country,
preach in the vacant churches, and explain to their hearers the grounds
of the accommodation. They were tolerably, not numerously attended^
and they had little success in the object of their mission; they had to
do with a people who understood the subject, and who seera to have
astonished the Episcopalians. " We were indeed amazed to see a poor
commonalty," says one of their number, " so capable to argue upon
points of government, and on the bounds to be set to the power of princes
in matters of religion ; upon all these topics they had texts of scripture
at hand, and were ready with their answers to any thing that was said
to them. This measure of knowledge was spread even among the
meanest of them, their cottagers and- their servants. They were in
deed vain of their knowledge, much conceited of themselves, and were
full of a most entangled scrupulosity, so that they found and made dif
ficulties to every thing that could be laid before them."
Another atterapt was yet again made by Leighton for accommoda
tion. But at the very moment when he was holding out proffers of
friendship, the parliament were enacting statutes of blood ! Can it be
at all wonderful in such a case, that the negociations tei-minated un
fortunately.? His opponents knew, that however they might be disposed
to trust him, not the smallest confidence could be placed in his asso
ciates. They notwithstanding met hira, first at Paisley, where twenty-
six or thirty Presbyterian rainisters were present. There some small
ulteration was made in his overtures, but Messrs. Hutchison, Wedder
burn, Baird, and their companions, still perceived the horns ofthe mitre,
and, with the old fathers of Presbytery, refused to accept them, even
when " busket ever sae bonnily."
Two meetings upon the llth and 26th January I67I, at Holyrood,
house, closed the conferences. In one of these Leighton offered to dis-,
pute for Episcopacy against Presbytery ; but this being illegal, and
what might have subjected his opponent to a capital punishment, Mr
Hutchison refiised. On which Burnet, who w^s present, appearing to
triumph, Mr Wedderburn declared he would accept the challenge, if

,j LIFE OF

the Lord Chancellor would authorize him ; but his Lordship declining,
no more was said upon the subject. ,. «. ,
Finding all his endeavours to promote peace and concord ineffectual,
and his plans either thwarted, or at least not seconded by those from
whom he might have expected support, he resolved, as infirmities were
beginning to threaten hira, to retire from a field in which there was
no prospect of usefulness. He was suspected bythe high Episcopalian
party, and had no influence with the Presbyterians ; and in reply to
the arguments of Burnet for his continuing in that station, he said,
" his work seeraed to be at an end; he had no more to do, unless he
had a raind to please himself M'ith the lazy enjoying a good revenue."
A mode of spending the residue of life very different from what he
sontemplated. " Our joint business," said he in a letter to his sister, ap
parently written about this time, " is to die daily to this world and
self, that what littie remains of our life, we may live to him that died
for us. For myself, to what purpose is it to tell you, what the bearer
can, that I grow old and sickly, and though I have here great retire
ment, as great, and probably greater than I could readily find any.
where else, yet I am still panting after a retreat from this place, and
all public charge, and next to rest in the grave. It is the pressingest
desire I have of any thing I have in this world, that I might be with
you or near you. But our heavenly Father, we quietly resigning all
to him, both knows and will do what is best." This letter is dated
from Dumblane, to which place he delighted to resort during the in
tervals of his Archiepiscopal labours, and whence he wrote the follow
ing admirable pastorab letter to his synod. — " Revekend Bketheen,
It is neither a matter of much importance, nor can I yet give you
a particular and satisfying account of the reasons of my absence from
your meeting, which, I trust, with the help of a little time, will clear
itself : But, I can assure you, I am present with you in my most af
fectionate wishes of the gracious presence of that Holy Spirit amonffst
you, and within you all, who alone can make this and all your meet
ings, and the whole work of your ministrj'-, happy and successful, to
the good of souls, and His glory that bought them with his own blood.
And I doubt not that your own great desire, each for yourself, and all
for one another, is the same ; and that your daily and great eraploy
ment is, by incessant and fervent prayer, to draw down from above
large supplies and increases of that bks:;ed Spirit, which our Lord and
Master hath assured us that our heavenly Father will not fail to give
to them that ask it. And how extreme a negligence and folly were It
to want so rich a gift for want" of asking, especially in those devoted
to so high and holy a service, that requires so gi-eat degrees of that
spirit of holiness and divine love to purify their minds, and to raise
them above their senses and this present world ! Oh ! my dear Bre
thren, what are we doing, that suffer our souls to creep and grovel on
this earth, and do so little aspire to the heavenly Hfe of Christians and
more eminently ofthe messengers and ministers of God, as stars,' yea,
as angels, which he hafh made spirits, and his ministers a flame of
fire ! Oh ! where are souls to be found amongst us, that represent their
own original, that are possessed with cure and sublime nnnrphpn^slr,IM

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. ill
ofGod, the Father of Spirits, and are often raised to the astonishing
contemplation of his eternal and blessed being, and his infinite holi
ness, and greatness, and goodness ; and are accordingly burnt up with
ardent love ! And where that holy fire is warftlng, there can be no sa
crifice, whatsoever our invention, or utterance, or gifts may be, and
how blameless soever the externals of- our life may be, and even our
hearts free fi-om gross pollutions ; for it is scarce to be suspected, that
any of us will suffer any of those strange, yea, infernal fires of ambi
tion, or avarice, or malice, or impure lusts and sensualities, to burn
within us, which would render us priests of idols, of airy nothings,
and of dunghill* gods, yea, of the very god of the world, the prince of
darkness. Let men judge us and revile us as they please, that ira-
ports nothing at all ; but God forbid any thing should possess our
hearts but He that loved us, and gave himself for us ; for we know
we cannot be vessels of honour meet for the Master's use, unless we
purge ourselves from all filthiness of Jlesh and spirit, and empty our
hearts of all things beside him, and even of ourselves and our own will,
and have no more any desires nor dehghts, but his will alone, and his
glory, who is our peace, and our life, and our all. And, truly, I think
it were our best and wisest reflection, upon the many difficulties and
discouragements without us, to be driven by them to live more within ;
as they observe of the bees, that when It is foul weather abroad, they
are busy in their hives. If the power of external discipline be ener
vated in our hands, j^et who can hinder us to try, and judge, and cen
sure ourselves ; and to purge the inner temples, our own hearts, with
the more severity and exactness ? And if we be dashed and bespatter
ed with reproaches abroad, to study to be the cleaner at home : And
the less we find of meekness and charity In the world about us, to pre
serve so much the more of that sweet teraper within our own hearts ;
blessing them that curse us, and praying for them that persecute us ;
so shall we most effectually prove ourselves to be the children of our
heavenly Father, even to their conviction, that will scarce allow us,
in any sense, to be called his servants.
" As for the confusions and contentions that still abound and increase
in this Church, and threaten to undo it, I think our wisdom shall be,
to cease from man, and look for no help till we look more upwards,
EBid dispute and discourse less, and fast and pray more; and so draw
down Our relief from the God of order and peace, who made the hea
vens and the earth.
" Concerning myself, I have nothing to say, but humbly to entreat
you to pass by the many failings and weaknesses you may have per
ceived in me during my abode amongst you ; and if in any thing I
have injured or oft'ended you, or any of you, in the management ,of
my public charge, or in private converse, I do sincerely beg your par
don : Though, 1 confess, I cannot make any requital in that kind ;
for I do not know of any thing towards me, -from any of you, that
needs a pardon in the least; having generally paid me more kindness
and respect, than a much better or wiser raan could either have ex
pected or deserved. Nor am I only a suitor for your pardon, but for

xKi LIFE OF
the addition of a fiirther charity, and that so great a one, that I have
nothing to plead for it, but that I need it much— your prayers. And
I ara hopeful as to that, to make you sorae littie, though very dispro
portioned return ; for whatsoever becomes of rae, (through the help of
God), while I live, you shall no one day of ray life be forgotten by.
Your most unworthy, but most affectionate. Brother and Servant,
R. Leighton.
"P. S. Idonotseewhomit canoffend, orhowanyshalldisapproveof
it, if you will appoint a fast throughout yojir bounds, to entreat a bless
ing on the seed coramitted to the ground, and for the other grave causes
that are still the sarae they were the last year, and the urgency of them
no whit abated, but rather increased : but in this I prescribe nothing,
but leave it to your discretion and the direction of God."
He had found Lauderdale extreraely unwilling to accept of his re
signation, as that nobleraan knew well the value of such a character
for supporting the already alraost hopeless hierarchy in Scotland ; he
therefore, in sumraer 1673, repaired to London, and tendered it per
sonally to the King. Charles, too, was averse to his retireraent, but
the Archbishop was resolute, and his Majesty agreed, that if he would
continue another year upon trial, he should then be allowed to resign,
if still of the same mind. He returned rejoicing with the royal engage
ment in writing, and observed to Dr Burnet, " that there was now
but one uneasy stage between hira and rest, and he would wrestle
through it the best he could." His professional duties were perfoi-raed
with his usual zeal and assiduity during the appointed time, at the
close of which he hastened to London, and cheerfully laid down his
high office, which some changes in the aspect of the political affafrs in
Scotland, occasioned to be received without more difficulty.
Various reports were spread at the time respecting this transaction,
but there is no reason to suppose that the causes were other than
those which he has himself left on record. They have been preserved
in MS. in the University of Edinburgh, and are as follow :
"Whatsoever others may judge, they that know what past before my
engaging In the charge, will not, I believe, impute ray retreat from it,
tb levitie or unfixedness of raind, considering how often I declared be
fore-hand, both by word and write, the great suspicion I had that my
continuance in it would be very short, neither is it from any sudden
passion or sullen discontent, that I have now resigned it, nor do I know
any cause imaginable for any such thing, — but the true reasons of my
retiring are plainly and briefly these : lst, The sense I have of the
dreadful weight of whatsoever regards the charge of souls ; and all
kind of spiritual inspection over people, but much more over ministers,
and withal of my own extreme unworthiness, and unfitness for so high
a station in the church ; and there is an Episcopal act that is above
all the rest most forraidable to me, the ordaining of ministers. 2d, The
continuing and deeply increasing divisions and contentions, and many
other disorders of this church, and the little or no dppearance of their *
cure for our time, and the littie hope amidst these contentions and dis
orders, of doing any thing in this station to proraote the great design of

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. xliii
religion In the hearts and lives of men, which were the only worthy rea-.
son of continuing in it, though it were with rauch pains and reluctance.
8d, The earnest desire I have long had of a retired and private life,
which is now much increased by sicklyness and old age drawing on,
and the sufficient experience I have had of the folly and vanity of the
world. <' To add any further discourse, a large apology in this matter were to
nopui^ose, but, instead of removingotherraistakesand misconstructions,
would be apt to expose me to one more ; for it would look like too
much valuing, either of myself or of the world's opinion, both of which
I think I have so rauch reason to despise."
After he had retired from public life, he spent some time in a fare
well visit to the University of Edinburgh, and the subjoined letters
accord with the feelings one loves to Indulge in visiting, " for the last
tirae, scenes in which the most active years of life have passed. The
first is to Mr Lightwater, his sister's husband, on the death of a belov
ed child, — ^the other to a lady labouring under mental distress, but
to whom he was personally unknown.
" I am glad of your health, and the recovery of your little ones ; but**
indeed it was a sharp stroke of a pen that told me your little Johnny
was dead, and I felt it truly more, than to ray reraerabrance I did the
death of any child in ray life-time. Sweet thing, and is he so quickly
laid to sleep ? Happy he ! Though we shall no raore have the plea
sure of his lisping and laughing, he shall haveno morethepain of crying,
nor of being sick, nor of dying, and hath wholly escaped the trouble of
schooling and all the sufferings of boys, and the riper and deeper griefs
of upper years, this poor life being all along, nothing but a linked chain
of many sorrovys and of many deaths. Tellmy dear sister she is now so much
more akin to the other world ; and this will quickly be passed to us all.
John is but gone anhour or two sooner to bed as children used to do, and
we are undressing to follow. And the more we put off the love of the
present world and all things superfluous beforehand, we shall have the^
less to do when we He down. It shall refresh me to hear frora you at your
leisure. — Sir, your affectionate brother, — R. Leighton."
" Madara, — Though I have not the honour to be acquainted with
3rour Ladyship, yet a friend of yours has acquainted me with your
condition, though I confess the unfittest of all men. He could have
imparted such a thing to none of greater secrecy, and withal of greater
sympathy and tender compassion, towards such as are exercised with
those kinds of conflicts ; as having been formerly acquainted with the
like myself, all sorts of sceptical and doubtful thoughts, touching those
great points, having not only past through ray head, but sorae of them
have for some time sat raore fast and painfuHy upon my mind ; but in
the name of the Lord they were at length quite dispelled and scattered.
And Oh ! that I could love and bless Him, who is my deliverer and
st^'ength, my rock and fortress, where I have now found safety from
these incursions ; and 1 am very confident you shall shortly find the
sarae. ''Only wait patiently on the Lord, and hope in him, for you
shall yet piraise hira for the help of his countenance ; and it is that

XiU-Ji UJ?

alone that can enlighten you, and clear your mind of all those fogs and
mists that now possess it, and calm the storms that are raised within it.
You do well to read good books that are proper for your help, but rather
the shortest and plainest, than the more tedious and voluminous, that
sometimes entangle a perplexed raind yet raore, by grasping raany more
questions, and answers, and arguments, than is needful; but, above all,
still cleave to the Incomparable spring of light and divine comfort,, the
Holy Scriptures, even in spite of all doubts concerning them. And when
you "find your thoughts in disorder and at a loss, entertain no dispute wlth_
them by any means at that time, but rather divert from thera to short
prayer, or to other thoughts, and sometimes well chosen company, or
the best you can have where you are ; arid at some other time, when
you find yourself in a calmer and serener temper, and upon the vantage
ground of a little more confidence in God, then you may resume your
reasons against unbelief, yet so as to beware of casting yourself into
new disturbance. For when your mind is in a sober temper, there is
nothing so suitable to its strongest reason, nothing so wise and noble as
religion ; and to believe it Is so rational, that, as now I am framed, I
am afraid that my belief proceeds too much from reason, and Is not so
divine and spiritual as I would have it ; only when I find (as in some
raeasure, through the grace of God, I do) that it hath some real virtue
and influence upon my aft'ections and track of life, I hope there is some
what of a higher tincture in it. But, in point of reason, I am well
assured, that all I have heard frora the wittiest atheists and libertines
in the world, is nothing but bold ravery and madness, and thefr whole
discourse a heap of folly and ridiculous nonsense. For what probable
account can they give of the wonderful frame of the visible world,
without the supposition of an eternal and infinite power, and wisdom,
and goodness, that forraed it, and theraselves, and all things in it .'' And
what can they think of the many thousands of martyrs in the first age
of Christianity, that endured not simple death, but all the inventions
of the raost exquisite tortures, for their belief of that most holy faith,
which, ifthe miracles that confirmed it had not persuaded them so, they
themselves had been thought the most prodigious miracles of madness in
all the world .'' It is not want of reason on the side of religion that makes
fools disbelieve it, but the Interest of their brutish lusts and dissolute lives
makes them wish it were not true : and there is this vast dift'erence be
twixt you and them ; they would gladly believe less than they do, and
you would also gladly believe more than they do : they are sometimes
pained and tormented with apprehensions that the doctrine of religion is
or may be true ; and you are perplexed with suggestions to doubt of it,
which are to you' as unwilling and unwelcome as these apprehensions of
its truth are to them. Believe it. Madam, these dift'erent thoughts of
yours are not yours, but his that inserts them, and throws them as fiery
darts into your mind, and they shall assuredly be laid to his charge,
and not to 3'ours. Think not that infinite goodness is ready to take
advantage of his poor creatures, and to reject and condemn those that,
against all the assaults made upon them, desire to keep their heart for
him, and to acknowledge him and to love him, and hve to him. He

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. xiv
made us, and knows our mould, and as a father pities his children, pities
them that fear him : for he is their father, and the tenderest and kind
est of all fathers ; and as a father pities his child when it is sick, and
in the rage and ravery of a fever, though it - even utter reproachful
words against him.self, shall not our dearest Father both forgive and
pity those thoughts in any child of his, that arise, not from any wilful
hatred of him, but ai'e kindled of hell within thera .? And no tempta
tion hath befallen you in this, but that which has been incident to men,
and to the best of men ; and their heavenly Father hath not only for
given thera, but in due time hath given them an happy issue out of
them ; and so he will assuredly do to you. In the meantime, when
these assaults come thickest and violentest upon you, throw yourself
down at his footstool, and say, " O God, Father of mercies, save me
from this hell within me. I acknowledge, I adore, I bless thee, whose
throne is in heaven, with thy blessed Son and crucified Jesus, and thy
Holy Spirit ; and also, though thou slay me, yet will I trust in thee ;
but I cannot think thou canst hat§ and reject a poor soul that desires
to love thee, and cleave to-thee, so long as I can hold by the skirts of
thy garment until thou violently shake me off'; ¦which I am. confident
thou wouldst not do, because thou 9,rt love and goodness thyself, and
thy mercies endure for ever." Thus, or in what other frame your soul
shall be carried to vent itself into his bosora, be assured your words,
yea, your silent sighs and breathings, shall not be lost; but shall have
a most powerful voice, and ascend into his ear, and shall return to you
with messages of peace and love in due time ; and, in the raeantime,
with secret supports, that you faint not, nor sink In these deeps that
threaten to swallow you up. But I have wearied you, instead of re
freshing you. I will add no more, but that the poor prayers of one
of the unworthiest caitiffs in the world, such as they be, shall not be
wanting on your behalf, and he begs a share in yours ; for neither he,
nor any In the world, need that charity more than he does. Wait on
the Lord, and be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart ;
wait, I say, on the Lord."*
Finally retfred from public life, he removed, after a short stay In
Edinburgh, to Broadhui-st in Sussex, an estate belonging to Mr Light-
water, his sister's husband, and with these dear relations he reraained
till within a short period of his decease. Little is recorded of these
years, and it would be in vain to fill with conjectural speculations, a
space of which we are only told, that it was occupied with deeds of
charity and labours of love ; that he preached frequently in the pulpits
to which he had access, and that here, as in all his other abodes, the
poor and the ignorant were the objects of his peculiar care. The
serene tenor of his course was however once interrupted by an unex
pected call from the king to resume his high functions in Scotland.
The extrerae of persecution having been tried in that country, only pro
duced its usual and natural effects, the people becarae more exasperated
against a church to which they were thus attempted to be dragooned.
• Jerment's Life of Leighton and Worlcs, vol. II. p. 468.

xlvi LIFE OF
And the Duke of Monmouth, who had witnessed the unfeeling tyranny
of«the prelates, and the unmitigated raisery of the people, during his
residence there, influenced both by compassion and political motives,
made an effort to introduce milder measures ; and the consequence was
the following letter from Charles :— " Windsor, July 16. 1679- My
Lobd, — I am resolved to try what clemency can prevail upon such
in Scotland as will not conform to the government of the church there ;
for effecting of which design, I desire that you may go down to Scot
land with your flrst conveniency, and take all possible pains for per
suading all you can, of both opinions, to as much mutual correspon
dence and concord as may be; and send me, from time to time,
characters both of men and things. In order to this design, I shall
send you a precept for two hundred pounds Sterbng upon my exchequer,
till you resolve how to serve me in a stated employment. — Your lov
ing friend, — Charles R. — For the Bishop of Dunblane." _ But
the power of Monmouth deelinlng shortly after, the proposition fell
to the ground, deliverance came to the presbyterians from another
quarter, and the venerable Bishop was left quietly to pursue the raethod
of life that he loved, to raeditate upon eternity, and to prepare for it.
The scriptiu-es were daily the raen ofhis council, and the book of Psalms
was especially a portion which he perused with delight hiraself, and re
comraended to others. The Sabbath was his delight, and no slight hind
rance could detain him frora the house of prayer. Upon one occasidn,
when he was Indisposed, the day being storm)', his friends urged him,
on account of his health, not to venture to church : " Were the weather
fair," was the reply, " I would stay at home, but since it is otherwise,
I must go, lest I be thought to countenance by my example the frrell-
glous practice of allowing trivial hindrances to keep me back from
public worship." But perhaps the highest eulogium that can be passed
on the uniform holiness of his character, is the effect that it had on
his brother-in-law, who upon daily beholding it exclairaed, " If none
shall go to heaven but so holy a raan as this, what will become of me .''"
and became so deeply impressed with a sense of the importance of
pressing forward unto perfection, that he relinquished a profitable busi
ness, lest it should too much entangle him, and devoted his remaining
years to the care of his soul.
In 1684 Leighton was Induced to come to London upon a visit
of mercy. Lord Perth, who had participated in all the atrocities
of the tiraes, arrived in the English capital to be invested with
the office of Lord High Chancellor of Scotland, and whether from
some temporary compunctious feeling or some pretensions to it, had
earnestly requested Burnet to procure hira an interview : " I
thought," says the Bishop,* " that angelic man might have awaken
ed in him some of those good principles which he seemed once to have,
and which were now totally extinguished in him ;" and at his urgent
desire Leighton came to London. " I was amazed to see him," con
tinues Burnet, "at about seventy, look so fresh and well, that age
* History of tis Own Times , Anno 168i.

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. xlvii
seemed as it might stand still with him ; his hair was still black, and
all his motions were lively : he had the same quickness of thought and
strength of memory, but above all, the sarae heat and life of devotion,
that I had ever seen in hira. When I took notice to him upon ray
first seeing him, how well he looked, he told me he was near his end
for all that, and his work and journey both were now almost done.
This at that time made an impression on rae. He was the next day
taken with an oppression, and as it seemed with a cold and with stitches,
which was indeed a pleurisy. The [day after] Leighton sunk so that
both speech and sense went away of a sudden, and he continued pant
ing about twelve houi-s, and then died without pangg or convulgions.
I was by him all the while. Thus I lost hira who for so many years
hadbeen the chief guide of my whole life." He died in the seventy-fourth
year of his age, and was interred at Plorsted Keynes, where his brother
Sir Ellis had been buried only a short time before ; an unosten
tatious inscription raarks the place where his dust rests in hope. — De
positum, Robert Leightounj Archiepiscopi Glasguensis apud Scotos, qui
objt xxv die Junij Anno Draj 1684, Jiltatis suse 74.
Two remarkable circumstances attended his death. He used often
to say, that if he were to choose a place to die in, it should be an inn,
it looking so like a pilgrim's going horae, to whora this world was all
as an Inn. It was his opinion also, that the officious tenderness and
care of friends, was an entanglement to a dying man, and that the un
concerned attendance of those who could be procured in such a place,
would give less disturbance : — this wish was granted, it was at the
Bell Inn, Warwick-lane, where he expired. Another was, that while
Bishop in Scotland, he never harassed his people for his stipend, small
as it was, not above L.130 per annura at Dunblane, and only about
L. 400 at Glasgow, but generally took what they were pleased to pay,
by which means considerable arrears were due when he left, and the
last remittance which he had reason to expect, arrived about six weeks
before his death. His will, which had been written a short time before,
shows however, that although not rich, he yet had something to leave, —
it is subjoined. " At Broadhurst, Feb. 17- 1683. — Being at present
(thanks be to God) in ray accustoraed health of bod)"^, and soundness
of mind and memory, I dp write this with my own hand, to signify,
that when the day I so much wished and longed for is come, that shall
set me fi-ee fi-om this prison of clay wherein I am lodged, what I leave
behind me of money, goods or chattels, or whatsoever of any kind was
called raine, I do devote to charitable uses ; partly such as I have re
coramended particularly to my sister, Mrs Sapphira Lightwater, and
her son. Master Edward Lightwater of Broadhurst, and the remainder
to such other charities as their own discretion shall think fittest. Only,
I desire each of them to accept of a small token of a little grateful ac
knowledgement of the great kindness and trouble they have had with
me for some years that I was their guest, the proportion whereof (to
remove thefr scruple of taking it) I did expressly name to themselves.
Mobile I was with them, before the writing hereof, and likewise after I
have wrote it. But they need not give, any account of it to another

xMll LIFE OF
the whole being left to their disposal. Neither, I hope, will any other
friends or relations of mine take it unkind that I bequeath no legacy to
any of them, designing, as is said, so entirely to charity the whole re
mains. Only, my hooks I leave and bequeath to the Cathedral ot
Dunblane In Scotiand, to remain there for the use of the clergy of _ that
diocese. I think I need no more, but that I appoint my said sister,
Mrs Sapphira Lightwater of Broadhurst, and her son. Master Edward
Lightwater, joint executors of this ray will, — if they be both living at
my decease, as I hope they shall ; or if that one of them shall be sur
viving, that one is to be the sole executor of it. I hope none will
raise any question or doubt about this upon any omission, or any in
formality of expression in it ; being, for prevention thereof, as plainly
expressed as it could be conceived by me. And this I declare to be
the last Will and Testament of — Robert Leighton."
But his liberality was not deferred till he could no longer hold a grasp
of his money. He allotted every penny beyond what was barely neces
sary for his personal expenses, to pious and ben#olent purposes. When
principal of Edinburgh University, he founded a bursary, and for that
purpose gave L. 150 to the city : when at Glasgow he allotted to the
poor of Dumblane, a considerable sura due to him by a gentleman in
that place; he appropriated L. 300 for three bursaries in Glasgow Uni
versity, and as much for maintaining four old men in St. Nicholas
Hospital. During his retirement in Sussex, " he distributed," says
Dr Burnet, " all he had In charities, choosing rather to give it through
other people's hands than his own : for I was his almoner in London."
To enable hira to be charitable, he was abstemious : — his sister, we are
told, once asked hira to eat of some delicate dish ; he declined, saying.
" What is it good for but to please a wanton tastte, — one thing forborne
is better than twenty taken." But, asked his sister, why were these
things bestowed upon us ? To see, he answered, how well we can for
bear them, — and then added, " Shall I eat of this delicacy while a poor
man wants his dinner ?" The same sister, upon another occasion, ima
gining he carried Indifference lo worldly things too far, remarked to him,
" If you had a wife and children, you would not act thus." His reply
was, " I know not how it would be, but I know how it should be, —
Enoch walked with God, and begat sons and daughters." Humility
was one of the most distinguishing features of his character, of which .
many Instances are given in the preceding pages, and so conspicuous
ly did it shine, that, in order to dim Its lustre, his eneraies were con
strained to doubt its reality, and describe It as affected ; but it was too
unostentatious, too general, and too consistent to be false. Indeed,
personal, holiness was the main object of his life, so much so, that when
he heard of any changing their profession of religion, he would ask
when they became holler ?
His natural teraper was singularly gentie and amiable, and en
deared him to all with whom he had any Intercourse, and over
came in many of his opponents the prejudices his dereliction ot
their party Inspired ; though In the latter part of his life, even from
the partial statements of his pupil and friend, he does not seem to

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. xlu
liave been greatly enamoured of the change he had made. " He
lamented oft to me the stupidity that he observed among the commons
of England, who seemed to be much more insensible in matters of re
ligion than the commons of Scotland were. He retained still a pecu
liar inclination to Scotland, and if he had seen any prospect of doing
good there, he would have gone, and lived, and died among them."
" He looked on the state the church of England was in, with very
melancholy reflections, and was very uneasy at an expression then used,
that it was the best constituted church in the world. He thought it
was truly so with relation to the doctrine, the worship, and the main
part of her govemment. But as to the administration, both with re
lation as to the Ecclesiastical courts, and the pastoral care, he looked
on it as one of the most corrupt he had ever seen. He thought we
looked like the fair carcase of a body without a spirit, without that
zeal, that strictness of life, and that laboriousness in the clergj"-, that
became us." His conversation is represented as having been eminent
ly heavenly and spiritual, " and he had brought himself," says the
writer so often referred to, " into so composed a gravity, that I never
saw him laugh, and but seldom smUe, and he kept himself in such a
constant recoUection, that I do not remember that I ever heard him
say one idle word." Most probably the state of the country and the
church, tended greatly to produce this general solemnity of manner,
for he was deeply affected with public events. How he could improve
little incidents is well iUustrated by an answer he made to a remark of
some of his friends, " You have been to hear a sermon." " I met a ser
mon, a sermon de facto, for I met a corpse, and rightly and profit
ably are the funeral rites observed, when the living lay it to heart."
Bishop Leighton's stature was sraall, and his countenance benignant.
That he was slender, we learn frora an exclaraation of his, when told
that a corpulent person had died : " How is it that A  has broke
through these goodly brick walls, while I ara kept in by a bit flirasy
deal ?' He would never sit for his picture, and the engravings we
have of him, were done from one taken by stealth, but which those
who knew him pronounced to be not a bad likeness, though it did not
do fill! justice to the mild expression of the original.
It now only remains to notice his theological works. Their praise is
in all the churches. Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Independents,
have all concurred to express their high admiration of thefr unrivalled ex ¦
cellence ; and without adventuring on the superfluous work of giving
any lengthened opinion of my own, I subjoin the opinions of men well
qualified to judge.
"Perhaps," saysMr Orme, "there isnoexpositorywork in the English
language equal altogether to the exposition of St Peter. It is rich in
evangelical sentiment and exalted devotion. The meaning is seldom
missed, and often admirably illustrated. There is learning with
out its parade; theology divested of systematic stiffness; and elo
quence in a beautiful flow of unaffected language and appropriate ima-
d

I LIFE OF
gery. To say more would be unbecoraing, and less could not be
said with justice." — Orme's Bibliotheca Biblica.
" The modesty of Leighton was the more comely and ornamental,
that it was joined to high intellectual capacity and attainmaits, and
to the graces of elocution. His acquaintance with literatiire was va
rious and profound. Of -a quick and capacious understanding ; of an
elevated genius, and refined taste ; of a vigorous and elegant fancy ;
of a retentive memory,— he drank deep at the springs of knowledge,
by close application, and almost Incessant study. Our author had per
used with care and delight the Roman and the Greek classics.^ His
Latin would do honour to the Augustan age ; and is not inferior in
purity and strength to the style of the learned and polished Buchanan.
The "Hebrew was quite farailiar to him, and he possessed a critical
knowledge of that concise and energetic tongue. He understood French
weU; and could both speak and write the language with correctness
and ease. He knew philosophy in the greater part of its branches ;
and had read with attention and profit, history sacred and profane,
civil and ecclesiastical, ancient and modern. Divinity, however, was
his principal study ; and he was truly a raaster in Israel. Of the
most of these rare and useful endowments his writings afford abundant
and Incontrovertible evidence.
" Leighton used all his learning as an handmaid to religion, and em
ployed it in the service of the sanctuary. He derived Theological
knowledge, not so much from human systeifis, as from the sacred
oracles ; and that knowledge received a mellowness from his own na
tural and gracious placidity. At times, a Boanerges in sentiment ; he
was usually, both in sentiment and style, a son of consolation. The
cotemporary bishops of the North, compared with him, were dwarfs
in mind, and wolves in disposition. There were bright constellations
of divines, both in England and Scotland. But Leighton shone pre
eminent above the majority ; and was a star of the first magnitude.
Among the first preachers of his own day, he has never been surpassed,
taking him all in all, since that period. More sententious than Rey
nolds, more refined than Howe, more eloquent than Baxter; less dift'use
and argumentative, but more practical than Charnock ; less profound,
but clearer and more savoury than Owen ; less ingenious, but sweeter
and more sublime than Hall, — he will not suff'er by comparison with
any divine, in any age." — Jermenfs Life of Leighton.
" He was gifted with a capacious mind, a quick apprehension, a re
tentive memory, a lively fancy, a correct taste, a sound and discrimi
nating judgment. All these excellencies are conspicuous in almost every
page of his writings ; for In Leighton's compositions there is an ex
traordinary evenness. One is not recruited here and there, by a strik
ing thought or a brilliant sentence, from the fatigue of tolling through
many a heavy paragraph, but " one spirit in~them rules;" and while
he occasionally raounts to a surpassing height, he seldom or never sinks
into flatness. The reason is, that he is always master of his subject,

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. li
With a clear conception of his own meaning and purpose, and a perfect
command of all the subsidiary materials ,• and still raore, that his soul
is always teeming with those divine inspirations, which seem vouch
safed only from time to time to ordinary mortals.
" Had the mind of Leighton been less exact and perspicacious, the
rapid and multitudinous flow of his ideas would have rendered him a
writer of more than common obscurity ; for he was impatient of those
rules of art, by which theological compositions are usually confined.
No man, Indeed, was better acquainted ^vith scholastic canons and dia
lectical artifices ; but he towered above thera. At the same time his
argument never limps, although the forra be not syllogistic, — the cor
rectness ofhis mind preventing raaterial deviation frora a lucid and con
secutive order. There is a logical continuity of thought to be traced
in his writings ; and his ideas, perhaps, raay not be unaptly compared
to flowers in a garden, so luxuriantly over-hanging trellises, as to ob
viate the primness and foi-mality of straight lines, without however
straying into a wantonness of confusion, that would perplex the ob
server's eye.
" It is not to be denied, that a more scientific arrangement in Leigh
ton's compositions would have greatly assisted the memory of his read
ers : and let those who corae short of hira in intellectual power, beware
of Imitating his laxity of method. The rules of art, though cramps to
vigour, are crutches to feebleness. My impression is, however, that
the effusions of our author's mind, disposed more artificially, would
have lost in richness what they gained in precision, and the gain would
have been over-balanced by the loss. From the structure and flow of
his discourses, I should conjecture it to have been his custom, when he
had determined to write on any subject, to ruminate on it till his raind
had assumed a corresponding form and tone ; after which he poured
forth his conceptions on paper without pause or effort, like the irre
pressible droppings of the loaded honeycomb. So imbued was his holy
soul with the principles of the gospel, or so completely, I might better
say, was the whole scheme of revelation amalgamated in the menstruum
of his powerfiil intellect, that whatever he wrote on sacred subjects
came forth with an easy flow, clear, serene, and limpid. In all his
compositions there is a delightful consistency ; nothing indigested and
turbid ; no dissonances of thought, no jarring positions ; none of the
fluctuations, the ambiguities, the contradictions which betray a penury
of knowledge, or an imperfect assimilation of it with the understanding.
Equally master of every part of the evangelical system, he never steps
out of his way to avoid what encounters him, or to pick up what is not
obvious : he never betakes himself to the covers of unfairness or igno
rance ; but he unfolds, with the utmost intrepidity and clearness, the
topic that comes before him.
" jMoreover, it not a little enhances the value of his writings, that he
si fully aware how far the legitimate range of human inquiry extends,
and what is the boundary Divine wisdom hath affixed to man's inqui
sitiveness. While the half-learned theologian beats about in the dark,
and vainly atterapts a passage through metaphysical labyrinths, which

Hi LIFE OF LEIGHTON.
it is the part of sober wisdora not to enter, the sagacious Leighton dis
tinctly sees the line, beyond which speculation is folly : ,and in stop
ping at that lirait he displays a proraptness of decision, comraensurate
with his unwavering certainty in proceeding up to it.
*' Such a writer as Leighton was incapable of parade. He was too
intent upon his subject to be choice of words and phrases, and his works
discover a noble carelessness of diction, which in sorae respects enhances
their beauty. Their strength is not wasted by excessive polishing :
their glow is not impaired by reiterated touches. But, though he was
iittle curious in culling words and compounding sentences, his language
is generally apt and significant, sufficient for the grandeur of his con
ceptions, without encumbering them. If not always grammatically
correct, it Is better than mere correctness would make it ; more forcible
and touching ; attracting little notice to itself, but leaving the reader
to the full impulse of those ideas of which it Is the vehicle. Leighton
is great by the magnificence of thought ; by the spontaneous emana
tions of a mind replete with sacred knowledge, and bursting with
seraphic aft'ections ; by that pauseless gush of intellectual splendour,
in which the outward shell, the interraediate letter, is eclipsed and al
most annihilated, that full scope may be given to the mighty effulgence
of the informing spirit." — Pearson's Life of Leighton

PRACTICAL COMMENTARY

UPON THE

FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL

ST. PETER.

Chap. I. vek. I.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers
scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia.
1. HE grace of God In the heart of man, is a
tender plant in a strange unkindly soil ; and
therefore cannot well prosper and grow, with
out much care and pains, and that of a skil-
fid hand, and that hath the !<rt of cherishing
it : For this end, hath God given the con
stant ministry of the word to his Church,
not only for the first work of conversion, but
also for confirming and increasing of his
grace in the hearts pf his children.
And though the extraordinary ministers of
the gospel, the apostles, had principally the
former for their charge, the converting of un
believers, Jews and Gentiles, and so the
planting of churches, to be after kept, and
watered by others, as the apostle intimates,
1 Cor. iii. 6, yet did they not neglect the
other work of strengthening the grace ofGod
begun in the new converts of those times,
both by re.visiting them, and exhorting them
in person, as they could, and by the supply
of their writing to them when absent.
And the benefit of this extends (not by
accident, but by the puipose and good pro
vidence of God) to the Church of God in all
succeeding ages.
This excellent Epistle (fuU of evangelical
doctrine and apostolical authority) is a brief,
and yet very clear, summary, both of the
consolations and instructions needful for the
encouragement and direction of a Christian
in his joumey to heaven, elevating his

thoughts and desires to that happiness, and
strengthening him against all opposition in
the way, both that of corruption within, and
temptations and afflictions from without.
The heads of doctrine contained in it are
many, but the main that are most insisted
on are these three, faith, obedience, and pa
tience ; to establish them in believing, to
direct them in doing, and comfort them in
suffering. And because the first is the
ground-work and support of the other two,
this first chapter is much on that, persuad
ing them of the truth of that mystery they
had received and did believe, viz. their re
demption and salvation by Christ Jesus ;
that inheritance of immortality bought by
his blood for them, and the evidence and
stability of their riglit and title to it.
And then he uses this belief, this assu
rance of the glory to come, as the great per.
suasive to the other two, Ijoth to holy obe
dience and to constant patience, since no
thing can be too much, either to forego or
undergo, either to do or to suffer, for the
attainment of that blessed state.
And as from the consideration of that obj ect,
and matter of the hope of believers, he encou
rages to patience, and exhorteth to holiness
in this chapter in general ; so in the following
chapters he expresses more particularly, both
the universal and special duties of Christians,
both in doing and suffering, often setting be
fore them to whom he wrote, the matchless ex
araple of the Lord Jesus, and the greatness
of their engagement to follow him. ..
In the first two verses, we have the in-
scriptio-ii and salutation, in the usual style
of the apostolic epistles.

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. 1

The inscription hath the author and the
nddress, from whom, and to whom. The
author of this epistle is designed by his
name, Peter, and his calling, an apostle.
We shall not insist upon his name, that
it was imposed by Christ, and what is its
signification ; this the evangelists teach us,
St John, i. 42 ; St Matt. xvi. 18., &c.
By that which is spoken of him in divers
passages of the Gospel, he is very remarkable
amongst the apostles, both for his graces
and his failings ; eminent in zeal and cou
rage ; yet stumbling oft in his forwardness,
and once grossly faUing : And these by the
providence of ~God being recorded in scrip
ture, give a check to the excess of Rome's
conceit concerning this apostle. Their ex
tolling and exalting him above the rest, is
not for his cause, and much less to the ho
nour of his Lord and Master Jesus Christ,
for he is injured and dishonoured by it ; but
it is in favour of themselves, as Alexander
distinguished his two friends, that the one
was a friend of Alexander, the other a
friend of the Mng. That prefemnent they
give this apostle is not in good will to Peter,
but in the desire of Primacy. But whatso
ever he was, they would be much in pain to
prove Rome's right to it by succession. And
if ever it had any such right, we may confi
dently say, it has forfeited it long ago, by
departing from St Peter's footsteps, and from
his faith, and retaining too much those
things wherein he was faulty : namely,
His unwillingness to hear of, and consent
to Christ's sufferings, — his Master, spare
thyself, or Far be it from thee, — in those
they are like him : For thus they would dis
burden and exempt the Church from the
Cross, from the real cross of afflictions, and,
instead of that, have nothing but painted, or
carved, or gilded crosses ; these they are
content to embrace, and worship too, but
cannot endure to hear of the other. Instead
of the cross of affliction, they make the
crown or mitre the badge of their church,
and will have it known by prosperity and
outward pomp, and so tum the church mili
tant into the church triumphant, not consi
dering that it is Babylon's -voice, not the
church's, / sit as a queen, and shall see no
sorrow. Again, they are like him in his saying on
the mount at Christ's transfiguration, when
he knew not what he said, It is good to be
here : So they have little of the true glory
of Christ, but the felse glory of that mo
narchy on their seven hills, It is good to be
hei'e, say the^.
Again, in their undue striking with the
Bword, not the enemies, as he, but the faithfol
friends and servants of Jesus Christ. But
to proceed.We see here Peter's oflice or title, an
.Apostle, not chief Bishop. Some in their

glossing have been so impudent as to add
that beside the text ; though chap. v. 4, he
gives that title to Christ alone, and to him.
self only fellow Elder, and here, not Prince
of the Apostles, but an Apostle, restored
and re-established after his fall, by repen
tance, and by Christ himself after his own
death and resurrection, John xxi. Thus we
have in our apostle a singular instance of hu
man frailty on the one side, and of the sweet
ness of divine grace on the other. Free and
rich grace it is indeed, that forgives and
swallows up multitudes of sins, and of great.
est sins, not only sins before conversion, as
to St Paul, but foul offences committed after
conversion, as to David, and to this apos
tle ; not only once raising them from the
dead, but when they fall, stretching out 'the
same hand, and raising them again, and re
storing them to their station, and comforting
them in it by his free Spirit, as David
prays. Not only to cleanse fiolluted clay,
but to work it into vessels of honour, yea, of
t'ne most defiled shape to make the most re
fined vessels, not vessels of honour of the
lowest sort, but for the highest and most ho
nourable services, vessels to bear his own
precious Name to the nation? ; making the
most unworthy and the most unfit, fit by his
grace to be his messengers.
Of Jesus Ch7-ist.'] Both as the Begin
ning and End ofhis apostleship, as Christ is
called Alpha and Omega, Rev. ii. 11, cho.
sen and called by him, and called to this,
to preach him, and salvation wrought by
him. Apostle of Jesus Christ. ] Sent by him,
and the message no other but his Name, to
make that known. And what' this apostle
ship was then, after some extraordinary way,
befitting these first times of the gospel, that
the ministry of the word in ordinary is now,
and therefore an employment of more diffi
culty and excellency than is usuallji, con
ceived by many, not only of those that look
upon it, but even of those that are exercised
in it, to be ambassadors for the greatest of
Kings, and upon no mean employment, that
great treaty of peace and reconcilement be
twixt Him and mankind, 2 Cor. v. 20.
The Epistle is directed to the elect, who
are described here, by their temporal and by
their spiritual conditions. ~ The one hath
very much dignity and comfort in it ; but
the other hath neither, but rather the con.
trary of both : And therefore the apostle, ih.
tending their comfort, mentions the one but
in passing, to signify to whom particularly
he sent his Epistle. But the other is that
which he would have their thoughts dwell
upon, and therefore he prosecutes it in his
following discourse. And if we look to the
order of the words, their temporal condition
is but interjected ; for it is said, To the
Elect, first, and then To the strangers scat-

TIIK FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

vi;ji. I.i
tered, &c. And he would have this as it
were drowned in the other, according to the
foreknow/edge of God the Father.
That those dispersed strangers that dwelt
in the countries here named, were Jews,
appears, if we look to the foregoing Epistle,
where tlie same word i.s-used, and expressly
appropriated to the Jews, St James i. 1.
And Gal. ii. St Peter is called an apostle of
the circumcision, as exercising his apostle
ship most towards them ; and there is in
some passages of the Epistle somewhat, that,
though belonging to aU Christians, yet hath,
in the strain and way of expression, a parti
cular fitness to the believing Jews, as being
particularly verified in them whicii was spo
ken of their nation, chap. ii. ver. 9, 1 0.
Some argue from the name, strangers,
that the Gentiles are here meant, which
seems not to be ; For proselyte Gentiles were
indeed called strangers in Jerusalem, and by
the Jews. But were not the Jews strangers
in these places, Pontus, Galatia, Cappado
cia, Asia, and Bithynia ? Not strangers
dwelling together in a prosperous flourish
ing condition, as a well planted colony, but
strangers of the dispersion, scattered to and
fro ; and their dispersion was partly, first
by the Assyrian captivity, and after that by
the Babylonish, and by the invasion of the
Romans : And it might be in these very
times increased by the believing Jews flying
from the hatred and persecution that was
raised against them at home.
These places here mentioned, through
which they were dispersed, are all in Asia.
So Asia here is Asia the lesser. Where it
is to be observed, that some of these who
heard St Peter, Acts ii. are said to be of
those regions. And if any of those then con
verted were amongst these dispersed, the com
fort was no doubt the more grateful from the
hand ofthe same apostle by whom they were
first converted ; but this is only conjecture.
Though divine truths are to be received
equally from every minister alike, yet it
must be acknowledged, that there is some
thing (we know, not what to call it) of a
more acceptable reception of those who at
first were the means of bringing men to God,
than of others ; like the opinion some have
of physicians whom they love.
The apostle comforts these strangers of
this dispersion by the spiritual union which
they obtained by effectual calling, and so
calls off their eyes from their outward, dis
persed, and despised condition, to look above
that, as high as the spring of their happi
ness, the free love and election of Go'd.
Scattered in the countries, and yet gathered
in God's election, chosen or picked out ;
strangers to men amongst whom they dwelt,
but knomn ana foreknown to God ; removed
from their own country, to which men have
naturally an unalterable affection, but made

heirs of a better, as follows, ver. ,3, 4. ; and
having within them the evidence both of eter.
nal election, and that expected salvation, the
Spirit of Holiness, ver. 2. At the best a
Christian is but a stranger here, set him
where you will, as our apostle teaches after :
And it is his privilege that he is so ; and
when he thinks not so, he forgets and dis
parages himself, and descends far below his
quality, when he is much taken with any
thing in this place of his exile.
But this is the wisdom of a Christian,
when he can solace himself against the
meanness of his outward condition, and any
kind of discomfort attending it, with the
comfortable assurance of the love of God,
that he hath called him to holiness, given
him some measure of it, and an endeavour
after more ; and by this may lie conclude,
that he hath ordained him unto salvation.
If either he is a stranger where he lives, or
as a stranger deserted of his friends, and
very near stripped of all outward comforts ;
yet he may rejoiee in this, that the etemal
unchangeable love of God, that is from cveiv
lasting to everlasting, is sealed to his soul.
And O ! what will it avail a man to be com.
passed about with the favour of the world,
to sit unmolested in his own home and pos
sessions, and to have them very great and
pleasant, to be well monied, and landed, and
befriended, and yet estranged and severed
from God, not having any token of his spe
cial love ?
To the Elect.'] The apostle here deno-
minates all the Christians to whom he writes,
by the condition of true believers, calling
them elect and sanctified, &c. And the
apostle St Paul writes in the saine style in
his epistles to the churches. Not that aljin
these churches were such indeed, but be
cause they professed to be such, and by that
their profession and calling as Christians,
they were obliged to be such ; and as many
of them as were in any measure true to that
their calling and profession, were really such.
Besides, it would seem not unworthy of con
sideration, that in all probability there would
be fewer false Christians, and the number of
true believers usually greater, in the churches
in those primitive tiines, than now in the
best reformed churches : Because there coiJd
not then be many of them that were ftom
their infancy bred in the Christian feith, but
for the greatest part were such, as, being of
years of discretion, were, by the hearing of
the gospel, converted from Paganism and
Judaism to the Christian religion first, and
made a deliberate choice of it, to which there
were at that time no great outward encou
ragements ; and therefore the less danger of
multitudes of hypocrites, which, as vermin
in summer, breed most in the time of the
church's prosperity. Though no nation or
kingdom had then universally received the

A COMMENTART UPON

[CltAP. *.

faith, but rather hated and persecuted it ;
yet were there even then amongst them, as
the writings of the apostles testify, false bre
thren, and inordinate walkers, and men of
corrupt minds earthly minded, and led with
a spirit of envy and contention and vain
glory. Although the question that is moved con
cerning the necessary qualifications of all the
members of a true visible church, can no
way, as I conceive, be decided from the in
scriptions of the epistles ; yet certainly they
are useful to teach Christians and Christian
churches what they ought to be, and what
their holy profession requires of them, and
sharply to reprove the gross unlikeness and
inconformity that is in the most part of men,
to the description of Christians. As there
may be some that are too strait in their
judgment concerning the being and nature of
the visible church, so certainly the greatest
part of churches are too loose in their prac
tice. From the dissimilitude betwixt our
churches and those, we may make this use
of reproof, that if an apostolical epistle were
to be directed to us, it ought to be inscribed,
_ To the ignorant, profane, malicious, &c. As
he, who at the hearing of the gospel read,
said, " Either this is not the gospel, or we
are not Christians ;" so either these charac
ters, given in the inscription of these epis
tles, are not true characters, or we are not
true Christians.

Ver. 2. Elect according to the foreknowTedge of
God the Father, through sanctification of the
.Spirit, unto obedience andsprinltling of the blood
of .lesus Christ.
In this verse we have their condition, and
the causes of it. Their condition, sanctified
and justified ; the former expressed by obe
dience, the latter by sprinkling of the blood
of Christ. The causes, 1 . Eternal election.
2. The execution of that decree, their effec
tual calling, which I conceive is meant by
election here, the selecting them out of the
world, and joining them to the fellowship of
the children of God ; so John xiv. 19. The
former, election, is particularly ascribed to
God the Father, the latter, to the Holy Spi
rit, and the blood of Jesus Christ the Son
of God is here the cause of their justifica.
tion ; and so the whole Trinity concurring,
dignify them with this their spiritual, and
happy estate.
First, I shall discourse of these separate
ly, and then of their connexion. 1. Of the
state itself ; and first oi Justification, though
named last.
This sprinkling has respect to the rite of
the legal purification by the sprinkling of
blood, and that appo.5itely ; for these rites of
sprinkling and blood, did aU point out this
Wood an 1 tliis sprinkling, and exhibited this !

trse ransom of souls, which was only sha
dowed by them.
As the use and end of sprinkling was pu
rification and expiation, because sin merit
ed death, and the pollutions and stains of
human nature were by sin ; such is the pol
lution, that it can be no manner of way
washed off but by blood, Heb. ix. 22. Nei
ther is there any blood able to purge from
sin, except the most precious blood of Jesus
Christ, which is called the blood of God,
Acts XX. 28.
That the stain of sin can only be washed
off by blood, intimates, that it merits death.
And that no blood, but thatof theSonof God,
can do it, intimates, that this stain merits
eternal death ; and it had been our portion,
except the death of the etemal Lord of Life
had freed us from it.
Filthiness needs sprinkling ; guiltiness,
such as deserves death, needs sprinkling of
blood ; and the death it deserves being ever.
lasting death, the blood must be the blood
of Christ, the eternal Lord of Life dying to
free us from the sentence of death.
The soul (as the body) hath its life, its
health, its purity ; and the contrary of these,
its death, diseases, deformities, and impu
rity, which belong to it as to their first sub
ject, and to the body by participation.
The soul and body of all mankind is stain
ed by the pollution of sin. The impure le.
prosy of the soul is not a spot outwardly,
but wholly inward ; hence, as the corporal
leprosy was purified by the sprinkling of
blood, so is this. Then by reflecting, we see
how all this that the apostle St Peter ex-
presseth, is necessary to justification: 1.
Christ the Mediator betwixt God and man,
is God and man. 2. A mediator not only
interceding, but also satisfying, Eph. ii. 16.
3. This satisfaction doth not reconcile us,
unless it be applied. Therefore there is not
only mention of blood, but the sprinkling of
it. The Spirit by faith sprinkleth the soul,
as with hyssop, wherewith the sprinkling
was roade : This is it of which the prophet
speaks, Isa. Iii. 15. So shall he sprinkle
many nations. And which the Apostle to
the Hebrews prefers above all legal sprink
Ungs, chap. ix. 12, 13, 14, both'as to its du- '
ration, and as to the excellency of its effects.
Men are not easily convinced and per
suaded ofthe deep stain of sin ; and that no
other laver can fetch it out, but the sprink
ling of the blood of Jesus Christ. " Some
that have moral resolutions of amendment,
dislike at least gross sins, and purpose to
avoid them, and it is to them cleanness
enough to reform in those things ; but they
consider not what becomes of the guiltiness
they have contracted already, and how that
shaU be purged, how their natural pollution
shall be taken away. Be not deceived in
this, I is not a transient sigh, or a, light

VEU, 1.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

word, or a wish of God forgive me ; no, nor
the highest current of repentance, nor that
whicii is the truest evidence of repentance,
amendment : it is none of diese that purifies
in the sight of God, and expiates wrath ; they
are all imperfect and stained themselves,
cannot stand and answer for themselves,
much less be of value to counterpoise the for
mer guilt of sin : the very tears of the purest
repentance, unless they be sprinkled with
this blood, are impure ; all our washings
without this -are but washings of the blacka-
more, it is labour in vain, Jer. ii. 22. Job
ix. 30, 31. There is none truly purged by
the blood of Christ, that doth not endeavour
after purity of heart and conversation ; but
yet it is the blood of Christ by which they
are all fair, and there is no spot in them.
Here it is said, elect to obedience ; but be
cause that obedience is not perfect, there
must be sprinkling of the blood too. There
is nothing in religion further out of" nature's
reach, and out of its liking and believing,
tlian the doctrine of redemption by a Sa
viour, and a crucified Saviour, by Christ,
and by his blood, first shed on the cross in
his suffering, and then sprinkled on the soul
by his Spirit. It is easier to make men sen.
sible of the necessity of repentance and a-
mendment of life, (though that is very diffi
cult,) than of this purging by the sprinkling of
this precious blood. Did we see how need
ful Christ is to us, we would esteem and love
him more.
It is not by the hearing of Christ, and of
his blood in the doctrine of the gospel ; it is
not by the sprinkling of water, even that
water that is the sign of this blood, without
the blood itself, and the sprinkling of it.
Many are present where it is sprinkled, and
yet have no portion in it. Look to this,
that this blood be sprinkled on your souls,
that the destroying angel may pass by you.
There is a generation (not some few but a
generation) deceived in this ; they are their
own deceivers, pure in their own eyes, Prov.
xxx. 12. How eamestly did David pray.
Wash me, purge me with hyssop ! Though
bathed in tears, Psal. iv. G, that satisfied not,
wash thou me. This is the honourable con
dition of the saints, that they are purified and
consecrated unto God by this sprinkling ;
yea, have on long white robes washed in the
blood of the Lamb. There is mention in
deed of great tribulation, but there is a
¦double comfort joined with it. 1. They come
out of it, that, tribulation hath an end. And,
2. They pass from that to glory ; for they
have on the robe of candidates, long white
robes washed in the blood of the Lamb,
washed white in blood ; as for this blood,
it is nothing but purity and spotlessness,
being stained with no sin ; and besides, hath
that virtue to take away the stain of sin
where it is sprinkled. My well-beloved is

white and ruddy, saith the spouse, thus in
his death, ruddy by bloodshed, white by in
nocence, and purity of that blood.
ShaU they then that are purged by this
blood return to live among the swine, and
tumble with them in the puddle ? What
gross injury is this to themselves, and to that
blood by which they are cleansed ? They
that are chosen to this sprinkling, are like-
wise chosen to obedience ; this blood puri.
fieth the heart ; yea, this bldbd purgeth ow
consciences from dead works to serve the
living God, Heb. ix. 14.
2. Of their sanctification, elect unto obe
dience. ] It is easily understood to whom ;
when obedience to God is expressed by the
simple absolute name of obedience, it teach.
eth us, that to him alone belongs absolute
and unlimited obedience ; all obedience by
all creatures. It is the shame and misery of
man that he hath departed from this obe
dience, that we are become sons of disobe
dience : But grace renewing the hearts of
believers, changeth their natures, and so
their names, and makes them children of
obedience, as afterwards in this chapter.
As this obedience consists in the receiving
Christ as our Redeemer, so also at the same
time as our Lord and King, an entire ren.
dering up of the whole man to his obedience.
This obedience then of the only-begotten
Jesus Christ, may well be understood not
as his actively, as Beza, but objectively, as
2 Cor. X. 5. I think here it is contained,
yea, chiefly understood to signify that obe
dience, which the apostle to the Romans
calls the obedience of faith, by which the
doctrine of Christ is received, and so Christ
himself, which uniteth the believing soul to
Christ ; he sprinkles it with his blood to the
remission of sin, and is the root and spring
of aU future obedience in the Christian life.
By obedience, sanctification is here inti
mated : It signifies then, both habitual and
active obedience, renovation of heart and
conformity to the divine will ; the mind is
illuminated by the Holy Ghost, to know and
beUeve the divine wiU ; yea, this faith is the
great and chief part of obedience, Rom. i.
8. The truth of the doctrine is first im
pressed on the mind, hence flows out plea
sant obedience, and full of love ; hence aU
the affections, and the whole body, with
its members, leam to give a willing obe
dience, and submit unto God, whereas be
fore they resisted him, being under the stan
dard of Satan.
This obedience, though imperfect, yet
hath a certain, if I may so say, imperfect
perfection. It is universal three manner of
ways: 1. In the subject. 2. In the object.
3. In the duration, the whole man subject
ed to the whole law, and that constantly and
perseveringly. The first universality is the cause of the

COMMENTARY UPON

[CllAV. 1.

Other ; because it is not in the tongue alone,
or in the hand, &c. but has its root in the
heart ; therefore it doth not wither as the
grass, or flower lying on the superfice of the
earth ; but it flourishes, because rooted ;
and therefore it embraces the whole law, be
cause it arises from a reverence it has for
the Law-giver himself. Reverence, I say,
but tempered with love : hence it accounts
no law nor command little, or of smaU va
lue, which is from God, because he is great
and highly esteemed by the pious heart. No
command hard, though contrary to the flesh,
because aU things are easy to love ; there is
the same authority in all, as St James di
vinely argues. And this authority is the
golden chain of all the commandments,
which if broke in any link, aU faUs to pieces.
That this threefold perfection of obedience
is not a picture drawn by fancy, is evident in
David, Psal. cxix. where he subjects him
self to the whole law. His feet, ver. 105 ;
his mouth, ver. 13 ; his heart, ver. 11 ; the
whole tenor of his Ufe, ver. 24. He sub
jects himself to the whole law, ver. 6.
and he professes his constancy therein, in
ver. 16 and 33, Teach me the way of thy
statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end.
'idly. We have the causes of the condi
tion above described.
According to the foreknowledge of God
the Father.] The exactest knowledge of
things is, to know them in their causes ; it
is then an exceUent thing, and worthy of
their endeavours that are most desirous of
knowledge, to know the best things in their
highest causes, and the happiest way of at
taining to this knowledge is to possess those
things, and to know them in experience.
To such the apostle here speaks, and sets
before them the exceUency of their spiri
tual condition, and leads them to the causes
of it.Their estate is, that they are sanctified
and justified : The nearest cause of both
these is Jesus Christ ; he is made unto them
both righteousness and sanctification : the
sprinkling of his blood purifies them from
guiltiness, and quickens them to obedience.
The appropriating or applying cause
comes next under consideration, which is
the holy, and holy making, or sanctifying
Spirit, the author of their selecting from the
world, and effectual calling unto grace.
The source of aU, the appointing or de
creeing cause, is God the Father : for
though they aU work equaUy in all, yet in
order of working, we are taught thus to dis
tinguish, and particularly to ascribe the first
work of etemal election to the first person of
the blessed Trinity.
In or through sanctification."] For to
render it elect to the sanctification is strain
ed r So then I conceive this election is their
effectual calling, which is by the workine of

the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. i. 26, 27, 28, where
vocation and election are uaed in the same
sense : Y'e see your calling, brethren, how
that not many wise men after the flesh, &c.
but God hath chosen ihe foolish thing) of
the world to confound the wise. It is the
first act of the decree of election ) the be
ginning of its perfomiance in those that are
elected ; and it is in itself a real separating
of men from the profane and miserable con
dition of the world, and an appropriating
and consecrating of a man unto God ; and
therefore, both in regard of its relation to
election, and in regard of its own nature, it
weU bears that name, Rom. viii. 28, 30 ;
Acts ii. 47, and xiii. 48 ; John xv. 19.
Sanctification in a narrower sense, as dis
tinguished from justification, signifieth the
inherent hoUness of a Christian, or his being
inclined and enabled to obedience, mention
ed in this verse : But it is here more large,
and is co-extended with the whole work of
renovation, and is the severing and separat
ing of men to God, by his Holy Spirit,
drawing them unto him ; and so it compre
hends justification, as here, and the first
working of faith, by which the soul is justi
fied, through its apprehending, and applying
the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Ofthe Spirit.] The word caUs men ex.
ternaUy, and by that external calUng pre-
vails with many to an external receiving and
professing of reUgion ; but if it be left alone
it goes no further ; it is indeed the means of
sanctification and effectual caUing, John
xvii. 17, Sanctify them through thy truth.
But this it doth when the Spirit that speaks
in the word works in the heart, and causes it
to hear and obey. The spirit or soul of a
man is the chief and first subject of this
work; and it is but sUght false work that be
gins not there : but the Spirit here, is ra-
ther to be taken for the Spirit of God the
efficient, than the Spirit of man the subject
of this sanctification ; and therefore our Sa
viour in that place prays to the Father, that
he would sanctify his own by that truth,
and this he doth by the concurrence of his
Spirit with that word of truth which is the
life and vigour of it, and makes it prove the
power of God unto salvation to them that
believe. It is a fit means in itself, but it is
then a prevaiUng means, when the Spirit of
God brings- it into the heart ; it is a sword,
and sharper than a two-edged sword, fit to
divide, yea even to the dividing of soul and
spirit. But this it doth not, unless it be
in the Spirit's hand, and he appUes it to this
cutting and dividing. The word caUs, but
the Spirit draws, not severed from that word,
but working in it and by it.
It is very difficult work to draw a soul out
of the hands and sbrong chains of Satan, and
out of the pleasing entanglements of the.
world, and out of its own natural perveisc*

VEU, 2,]

TIIE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

ness, to yield up itself unto God, to deny it
self, and live to him ; and in so doing, to
run against the main stream, and the cur
rent of the ungodly world without, and cor
ruption within.
The strongest rhetoric, the most moving
and persuasive way of discourse, is aU too
weak ; the tongue of men and angels cannot
prevail with the soul to free itself, and shake
off aU that detains it. Although it be con
vinced of the truth of those things that are
represented to it, yet sdll it can and wiU
hold out against it, and say, Non persuade-
bis, etiamsi persuaseris.
The hand of man is too weak to pluck
any soul out of the crowd of the world, and
set it in amongst the select number of be
lievers. Only the Father of spirits hath ab
solute command of spirits, viz. the souls of
men, to work on them as he pleaseth, and
where he wiU. This powerful, this sanc
tifying Spirit, knows no resistance, works
sweetly, and yet strongly ; it cau come into
the heart, whereas all other speakers are
forced to stand without. That stiU voice
within persuades more than aU the loud cry
ing without ; as he that is within the house,
though he speak low, is better heard and un
derstood than he that shouts without doors.
When the Lord himself speaks by this
his Spirit to a man, selecting and calUng
him out of the lost world, he can no more
disobey, than Abraham did, when the Lord
spoke to him after an extraordinary manner,"
to depart from his own country and kindred :
Gen. xii. 4, Abraham departed, as the
Lord had spoken to him. There is a secret
but very powerful virtue in a word, a look,
or touch of this Spirit upon the soul, by
which it is forced, not with a harsh but
a pleasing violence, and cannot choose but
follow it, not unUke that of Elijah's mantie
upon EUsha, 1 Kings xix. 19. How easy
did the disciples forsake their calUngs and
dweUings to foUow Christ.
The Spirit of God draws a man out of the
world by a sanctified Ught sent into his
mind, discovering to him, 1. How base and
false the sweetness of sin is that withholds
men and amuses them that they return not,
and how true and sad the bitterness is, that
wUl foUow upon it. 2. Setting before his
eyes the free and happy condition, the glo
rious liberty of the Sons of God, the riches
of their present enjoyment, and their far
larger and assured hopes for hereafter. 3.
Making the beauty of Jesus Christ visible
to the soul ; which straightway takes it so,
that it cannot be stayed from coming to him,
though its most beloved friends, most belov
ed sins, Ue in the way, and hang about it and
cry, WiU you leave us so ? It wiU tiread
upon aU to come within the embraces of
Jesus Christ, and say with St Paul, I was

not disobedient to, or unpersuaded by the '
heavenly vision.
It is no wonder that the godly are by
some called singular and precise ; they are
so, singular, a few selected ones, picked out
by God's own hand for himself, Psal. iv. 3,
Know that the Lord hath set apart him
that is godly for himself : Therefore, saith
our Saviour, ihe world hates you, because I
have chosen you out of the world. For the
world lies in unholiness, and wickedness is
buried in it. And as Uving men c^n have
no pleasure among the dead, neither can
these elected ones among the ungodly ; they
walk in the world as warily as a man or
woman, neatiy appareUed, would do amongst
a multitude that are aU suUied and bemired.
Endeavour to have this sanctifying Spirit
in yourselves ; pray much for it ; for his
promise is passed to us, that he will give
this Holy Spirit to them that ask it. -And
shaU we be such fools as to want it for want of
asking ? When we find heavy fetters on our
souls and much weakness, yea averseness to
foUow the voice of God caUing us to his obe-
dience, then let us pray with the spouse,
draw me. She cannot go nor stir without
that drawing ; and yet with it, not only goes,
but runs : We will run after thee.
Think it not enough that you hear the
word, and use the outward ordinances of
God, and profess his name ; for many are
thus caUed, and yet but a few of them are
chosen. There is but a smaU part of the
world outwardly caUed, in comparison of the
rest that is not so, andyet the number ofthe
true elect is so smaU, that it gains the num.
ber of these that are caUed the name of
many. They that are in the visible church,
and partake of external vocation, are but Uke
a large Ust of names, as in civil elections ia
usual, out of which a smaU number is chosen
to the dignity of true Christians, and invest
ed into their privilege. Some men in nomi
nation to offices or employments, think it a
worse disappointment and disgrace to have
been in the Ust, and yet not chosen, than if
their names had not been mentioned at aU.
Certainly it is a greater' unhappiness to have
been not far from the kingdom of God, as
our Saviour speaks, and miss of it, than stiU
to have remained in the furthest distance ; to
have been at the mouth of the haven, the
fair havens indeed, and yet driven back and
shipwrecked. Your labour is most prepos
terous, you seek to ascertain and make sure
things that cannot be made sure, and that
which is both more worth, and may be made
surer than them aU, you wiU not endeavour
to make sure. Hearken to the apostle's ad
vice, and at length set about this in eamest,
to make your calling and election sure ;
make sure this election, as it is here, for that
is the order, your effectual caUing sure.

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. I

and that wUl bring with it assurance of the
other, the eternal election and love of God
towards you, which foUows to be considered.
According to the foreknowledge of God
the Father.] Known unto God are all his
works from the beginning, saith the apostle
James, Acts xv. 18. He sees aU things
from the beginning of tirae to the end of it,
and beyond to aU eternity, and from aU eter
nity he did foresee them. But this fore
knowledge here is peculiar to the elect,
Verba sensus in sacra scriptura denotant
affectus, as the Rabbins remark ; so in man,
Psal. Ixvi. // / see iniquity ; and in God,
Psahn i. 6, For the Lord knoweth the way
of the righteous, &c. Amos iii. 2, You
only have I known of all the families of ihe
earth, &c. And in that speech of our Sa
viour, relating it as the terrible doom of re
probates at the last day. Depart, &c. /
know you not, I never knew you ; So St
Paul, Rom. vii. 15, For that which I do, I
allow [Gr. know"] not. And Beza observes,
that ymtitKm is, by the Greeks, sometimes
taken for decernere, judicare ; thus some
speak, to cognosce upon a business. So
then, this foreknowledge is no other but that
etemal love of God, or decree of election, by
which some are appointed unto Ufe, and being
foreknown or elected to that -end, they are
predestinate to the way of it, Rom. viii. 29,
For whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the first-bor-n
among many brethren.
It is most vain to imagine a foresight of
faith in men, and that God in the view of
that, as the condition of election itself, as it
is caUed, has chosen them : For, 1 . Nothing
at aU is futurum, or can have that imagined
futurition, but as it is, and because it is
decreed by God to be ; and therefore, (as
says the apostle St James, in the passage
before cited,) Known unto God are all his
works, because his works in time were his
purpose from eternity. 2. It is most absurd
to give any reason of Divine wiU without
himself. 3. This easily solves aU that dif
ficulty that the apostle speaks of; and yet
he never thought of such a solution, but runs
high for an answer, not to satisfy caviUing
reason, but to silence it, and stop its mouth :
for thus the apostle argues, Rom. ix. 19, 20,
Thou wilt then say unto me, Why doth he
yet find fault ; for who hath resisted his
will ? Nay, but, O man, icho ari thou
that repliest against God ? Who can con
ceive whence this should be, that any man
should beUeve unless it be given him of
God ; and if given him, then it was his pur
pose to give it him ; and if so, then it is
evident that he had a purpose to save him ;
and for that end he gives faith, not therefore
¦ purposes to save, because man shaU believe.
4. This seems cross to these scriptures.

where they speak of the sultordination, or
rather co-ordination of these two, as here
foreknown and elect, not beca-use of obe
dience, or sprinkling, or any such thing, but
to obedience and sprinkling, which is by
faith. So he predestinated, not because he
foresaw men would be conformed to Christ,
but that they might be so, as Rom. viii. 29,
For whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate r And the same order. Acts
ii. 47, And the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved. And xiii.
48, And as many as were ordained to eter
nal life believed.
This foreknowledge, then, is his etemal
and unchangeable love ; and that thus he
chooseth some, and rejecteth others, is for
that great end, to manifest and magnify his
mercy and justice : But why he appointed
this man for the one, and the other for the
other, made Peter a vessel for thia mercy,
and Judas of wrath, this is even so, because
it seemed good to him. This, if it be harsh,
yet it is apostolic doctrine. Hath not the
potter, (saith St Paul,) power over the
same lump, io make one vessel unto honour,
and another unto dishonour ? This deep
we must admire, and always in considering
it, close with this, O the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God !
Now the connection of these, we are for
our profit to take notice of, that effectual call.
ing is inseparably tied to this etemal fore
knowledge or election on the one side, and
salvation on the other. These two links of
the chain are up in heaven, in God's own
hand ; but this middle one is let down on
earth, into the hearts of his children, and
they laying hold on it, have sure hold on the
other two, for no power can sever them ; if
therefore they can read the characters ,of
God's image in their own souls, those are
the counter-part of the golden characters of
his love, in which their names are written
in the book of Ufe. Their beUeving writes
their names under the promises of the reveal
ed book of life, the Scriptures ; and so as.
certains them, that the same names are in
the secret book of Ufe that God hath by him.
self from etemity. So, finding the stream
of grace iu their hearts, though they see not
the fountain whence it fiows, nor the ocean
into which it retums, yet they know that it
hath its source, and shaU retum to that ocean
which ariseth from their etemal election, and
shaU empty itself into that eternity of hap-
piness and salvation.
Hence much joy ariseth to the beUever ;
this tie is undissolvablc, as the agents are,
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit ; so are
election, and vocation, and sanctification,
and justification, and glory. Therefore iu
aU conditions believers may, from the sense
of the working of the Spirit in them, look
back to that election, and forward to that

VER. 2.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

salvation : But they that remain unholy
and disobedient, have as yet no evidence of
this love i and therefore cannot, without vain
presumptions and self-delusion, judge thus
of themselves, that they are within the pe.
cuUarlove of God: But in this, let the
righteous be glad, and let them shout for
Joy all that are upright in heart.
It is one main point in happiness, that he
that is happy doth know, and judge himself
to be so ; this being the pecuUar good of a
reasonable creatiu'e, it is to be enjoyed in a
reasonable way ; it is not as the duU resting
of a stone, or any other natural body in its
natural place ; but the knowledge and con
sideration of it, is the fruition of it, the very
reUshing and tasting its sweetiiess.
The perfect blessedness of the saints is
waiting them above : But even their pre
sent condition is truly happy, though incom.
pletely, and but a smaU beginning of that
which they expect ; and this, their present
happiness, is so much the greater, the more
clear knowledge and firm persuasion they
have of it. It is one of the pleasant fruits
of the godlye to know the things that are
freely given them of God, 1 Cor. ii. 12.
Therefore the apostle, to comfort his dispers.
ed brethren, sets before them a description
of that exceUent spiritual condition to which
they are caUed.
If election, effectual caUing, and salva
tion, be inseparably linked together ; then by
any one of them a man may hold upon all
the rest, and may know that his hold is sure,
and this ia that way wherein we may attain,
and ought to seek that comfortable assurance
of the love of God. Therefore, make your
calling aure, and by that your election ; for
that being done, this foUows of itself. We
are not to pry immediately into the decree,
but to read it in the performance. Though
. the mariner sees not the pole-star, yet the
needle of the compass that points to it, tella
him which way he sails : TBus the heart
that is touched with the load-stone of Divine
love, trembUng with godly fear, and yet stiU
looking towards God by fixed beUeving,
points at the love of election, and teUs the
soul that its course is heavenward, towards
the haven of etemal rest. He that loves,
¦may be sure he was loved first ; and he that
chooses God for his deUght and portion, may
conclude confidently, that God hath chosen
him to be one of those who shaU enjoy him,
and be happy in him for ever : For that
our love, and electing of him, is but the re
turn and repercussion of the beams of his j
love shining upon us. i
Find thou but within thee sanctifica
tion by the Spirit, and this argues neces
sarily,' both justification by the Son, and the
election of God the Father : 1 John iv. 13,
Hereby know we that we dwell in him,
and he in us, because he has given us of

his Spirit. It is a most strange demon.
stration, ab effectu reciproco, he caUed thoae
he hath elected ; he elected those he caUed.
¦Where this, sanctifying Spirit is not, there
can be no persuasion of this eternal love of
God ; they that are children of disobedience,
can conclude no otherwise of themselves but
that they are the children of wrath. Al.
though from present unsanctification, a man
cannot infer that he is not elected, for the
decree may for part of a man's life run, as
it were, under ground ; yet this is sure, that
that estate leads to death, and unless it be
broken, wiU prove the black line of reproba
tion. A man hath no portion among the
children of God, nor can read one word of
comfort in aU the promises that belong to
them, while he remains unholy. Men may
please themselves in profane scoffing at the
Holy Spirit of grace ; but let them withal
know this, that that Holy Spirit they mock .
and despise, is that Spirit that seals men to
ihe day of redemption, Eph. iv. 30.
If any pretend they have the Spirit, and so
tum away from the straight rule of the holy
Scriptures, they have a spirit indeed, but it
is a fanatical spirit, the spirit of delusion and
giddiness : But the Spirit of God, that leads
his children in the way of truth, and is for
that purpose sent them from heaven to guide
them thither, squares their thoughts and ways
to that riile, whereof it is author, and that
word, which was inspired by it, and sanctifies
them to obedience : He thai saith, I know
htm, and keepeth not his commandments,
is a liar, and the truth is not in him,
I John ii. 4.
Now this Spirit that sanctifieth, and
sanctifieth to obedience, is within us, the
evidence of our election, and eamest of oui
salvation. And whoso are not sanctified and
led by this Spirit, the apostie teUs what is
their condition, Rom. viii. 9, // any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of his.
Let us not delude ourselves ; this is a
truth, if there be any in reUgion, — they that
are not made saints in the estate of grace,
shaU never be saints in glory.
The stones that are appointed for that
glorious temple above, are hewn, and poUsh
ed, and prepared for it here, as the stones
were wrought and preparedin the mountains
for building the temple of Jerusalem.
This is God's order. Psalm Ixxxiv. 11.
He gives grape and glory : as moraUsts can
teU us, that the way to the temple of ho-
nour is through the temple of virtue. They
that think they are bound for heaven in the
ways of sin, have either found a new way,
untrodden by aU that have gone thither, or
wiU find themselves deceived in the end.
We need not then that poor shift for the
pressing of hoUness and obedience upon men,
to represent it to them as the meriting cause

10

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. I.

of salvation. Tbis is not at aU to the pur
pose, seeing without it the necessity of holi
ness to salvation is pleasing enough ; for ho
liness is no less necessary to salvation, than
if it were the meriting cause of it ; it is as
inseparably tied to it in the purpose of God.
And in the order of performance, godliness
is as certainly before salvation, as if salva
tion did whoUy and altogether depend upon
it, and were in point of j ustice deserved by it.
Seeing then there is no other way to happiness
butbyhoUness, no assurance of thelove of God
without it, take the apostle's advice, study it,
seek it, follow eamestly after holiness, with
out which no man shall see the Lord.
Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied.]
It hath always been a civil custom among
men, to season their intercourse with good
wishes one for another ; this the apostles use
in their epistles, in a spiritual divine 'way,
suitable to their holy writings. It well be
comes the messengers of grace and peace to
wish both, and to make their salutation con
form to the main scope and subject of their
discourse. The Hebrew word of salutation
we have here, peace ; and that which is the
spring both of this and aU good things in
the other word of salutation used by the
Greeks, grace. AU right rejoicing, and
prosperity, and happiness, fiows from this
source, and froiri this alone, and is sought
elsewhere in vain.
In general, this is the character of a
Christian spirit, to have a heart fiUed with
blessing, with this sweet good-wiU and good-
wishing to aU, especiaUy to those that are
their brethren in the same profession of re
ligion. And this charity is a precious balm,
diffusing itself in the wise and seasonable ex
pressions of it upon fit occasions ; and those
expressions must be cordial and sincere, not
like that you caU court holy water, in which
there is nothing else but falsehood, or vani
ty at the best. This manifests men to be
the sona of blessing, and of the ever-blessed
God the Father of aU blessing, when in his
name they bless one another : Yea, our
Saviour's rule goea higher, to bless those that
curse them, and urges it by that relation to
God as their Father, that in this they may
resemble him : That ye may be ihe child
ren of your Father which is in heaven.
But in a more eminent way, it is the duty
of pastors to bless their people, not only by
their public and solemn benediction, but by
daily and instant prayers for them in secret.
And the great Father who seeth in secret
will reward them openly.
They are to be ever both endeavouring
and wishing their increase of knowledge and
aU spiritual grace, in which they have St,
Paul a frequent pattern.
They that are messengers of this grace,
if they have experience of it, it is the oil of
gladness that will dilate their heart, and

make it large in love and spiritual desires
for others, especiaUy their own flocks.
Let us, 1. Consider the matter of the
apostle's desire for them, grace and peace.
2. The measure of it, that it may be multi
plied. \st, The matter of the apostle's desire,
grace. We need not make a noise with the
many school distinctions of grace, and de
scribe in what sense it is here to be taken ;
for no doubt it is all saving grace to those
dispersed brethren, so that in the largest no
tion that it can have that way, we may safe
ly here take it.
What are preventing grace, assisting
grace, working and co-working grace, as we
may admit these differences in a sound sense,
but 4ivers names of the same effectual saving
grace, in relation to our different estate ? as
the aame sea receives different names from
the different parts of the shore it beats upon.
First, it prevents and works ; then, it assists
and prosecutes what he hath wrought : He
worketh in us io will and to do. But the
whole sense of saving grace, I conceive, is
comprehended in these two: 1. Grace in
the fountain, that is, the pecuUar love and
favour of God. 2. In the streams, the fruita
of this love : for it is not an empty, but a
most rich and Uberal love, viz. aU the graces
and spiritual blessings of God, bestowed-upon
them whom' he hath freely chosen. The
love of God in itself can neither diminish
nor increase, but it is multiplied, or abounds
in the manifestation and effects of it ; so
then, to desire grace to be multiplied to them,
is to wish to them the Uving spring of i,t,
that love that cannot be exhausted, but is
ever flowing forth, and instead of abating,
makes each day richer than another.
And this is that which should be the top
and sum of Christian desires, to have, or want '
any other thing indifferendy ; but to be re
solved and resolute in this, to seek a share in
this grace, tlte free love of God, and the sure
evidences of it within you, the fruit of hoU-
riess and the grace of his Spirit. But the
most of us are otherwise taken up : Wo
wiU not be convinced how basely and fool
ishly we are busied, though in the best and
most respected employments of the world, so
long as we neglect our noblest trade of grow
ing rich in grace, and the comfortable en
joyment of the love of God, Our Saviour
teUs us of one thing needful, importing that
aU other things are comparatively unneces
sary, by-works, and mere impertinencies ; and
yet in these we lavish out our short and im-
certain time, we let the other stand by tiU
we find leisure. Men who are altogether
profane, think not on it at all ; some others
possibly deceive themselves thus, and say.
When I have done with such a business in
which I am engaged, then I wiU sit down
seriously to this, and bestow more time ai.d

VEII. 2.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

11

pains on these things that are undeniably
greater and better, and more worthy of it.
But this is a sUglit that is in danger to un
do us : What if we attain not to the end
of that business, but end ourselves before it ?
or if we do not, yet some other business may
step in after that. Oh then, say we, that
must be despatched also. Thus, by auch de
lays, we lose the present opportunity, and in
the end our own souls.
Oh ! be persuaded it deserves your diU
gence, and that witiiout delay, to seek some
what that may be constant enough to abide
with you, and strong enough to uphold you
in aU conditions, and that ia alone this free
grace and love of God. While many say^,
Who will shew us any good ? set you in
witii David in his choice, Lord, lift thou up
the light of thy countenance upon me, and
this shall rejoice my heart more tlian the
abundance qf corn and wine, Psal. iv. 6, 7,
This is that light that can break into the
darkest dungeons, from which aU other Ughts
and comforts are shut out ; and without this,
aU other enjoyments are, what the world
would be without the sun, nothing but dark
ness. Happy they who have this light of
Divine favour and grace shining into their
souls ; for by it they shaU be led to that city,
where the sun and the moon are needless ;
for the glory of God doth lighten it, and
the Lamb is the light thereof. Rev. xxi. 23.
Godliness is profitable for all things,
saith the apostie, having the promises of this
life and ihat which is to come ; aU other
blessings are the attendants of grace, and
follow upon it. Thia blessing that the
apostie here, and also St. Paul in his epis
tles, joins with grace, was with the Jews of
so large a sense, as to comprehend aU that
they could desire ; when they wished peace,
they meant aU kind of good, aU welfare and
prosperity. And thus we may take it here
for aU kind of peace ; yea, and for aU other
blesiiings, but especiaUy that spiritual peace,
which is the proper fruit of grace, and doth
so intrinsicaUy flow from it. ,
We may and ought to wish to the church
of God outward blessings, and particularly
outward peace, as one of the greatest, so one
of the most valuable favours of God ; Thus
prayed the Psalmist, (Psal. cxxii. 7-) Peace
be within thy walls, and prosperity within
thy palaces.
But that Wisdom that doth what he will
by what means he wiU, and works one con
trariety out of another, brings light out of
darkness, good out of evil, can and doth tum
tears and troubles to the advantage of his
church ! but certainly in itaelf, peace is more
suitable to its increase, and, if not abused,
proves so too. As in the apostoUc times, it
is said, The church had peace and increased
exceedingly. Acts ix. 31, we ought also to
wish for ecclesiastical peace to the church.

that she may be free from dissensions and
divisions. These readily arise more or less, as we see
in all times, and haunt reUgion, and the re.
formation of it, as a malus genius. St. Paul
had this to aay to his Corinthians, though he
had given them thia testimony, that they were
enriched in aU utterance and knowledge, and
were wanting in Bo gift, 1 Cor. i. 5, yet pre
sently after, ver. 11, / hear ihat there are
divisions and contentions among you. The
enemy had done this, as our Saviour speaks ;
and this enemy is no fool, for, by Divine
permission, he works to his own end very
wisely : For there is not one thing that doth
on all hands choke the seed of reUgion ao
much, aa thorny debates and differences
about itself. So in succeeding ages, and at
the breaking forth of the light in Gennany
in Luther's time, multitudes of sects arose.
Profane men do not only stumble, but faU
and break their necks upon these divisions.
We see, think they, and some of them pos.
sibly say it out, that they who mind religion
most, cannot agree upon it ; our easiest way
is, not to embroil ourselves, nor at aU to be
troubled with the business. Many are of
GaUio's temper, they will care for noue of
those things. Thus these offences prove a
mischief to the profane world, as our Sa
viour says. Woe to the world because of
offences. Then the erring side, that is taken with
new opinions arid fancies, are altogether
taken up with them, their main thoughts
spent upon them ; and thus the sap is drawn
from that which should nourish and prosper
in their hearts, sanctified useful knowledge,
and saving grace. The other are as weeds,
that divert the nourishment in gardens from
the plants and fiowers : And certainly these
weeds, viz. men's own conceits, cannot but
grow more with them, when they give way
to them, than solid religion doth ; for their
hearts, as one said of the earth, are mother
to those, and but stepmother to this.
It is also a loss even to those that oppose
errors and divisions, that they are forced to
be busied that way: For the wisest and
godliest of them find, and such are sensible
of it, that disputes in religion are no friends
to that which is far sweeter in it ; but hin
ders and abates it, viz. these pious and de
vout thoughts, that are both the more useful,
and truly delightful.
As peace is a choice blessing, so this is
the choicest peace, and is the pecuUar inse
parable effect of this grace with which it is
here jointiy wished, grace and peace ; the
fiower of peace growing upon the root of
grace. This spiritual peace hath two thinga
in it. 1. ReconciUation with God. 2.
TranquiUity of apirit. The quarrel and maU
ter of enmity, you know, betwixt God and
man, is the rebeUion, the sin of man ; and

12

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. I.

he being naturaUy altogether sinful, there
can proceed nothing from him, but what fo
ments and increases the hostiUty. It is
grace alone, the most free grace of God, that
contrives, and offers, and makes the peace,
else it had never been ; we had universaUy
perished without it. Now in this is the
wonder of Divine grace, that the Ahnighty
God seeks agreement, and entreats for it,
with sinful clay, which he could whoUy de
stroy in a moment.
Jesus Christ the Mediator and purchaser
of this peace, bought it with his blood, kiU
ed the enmity by his own death, Eph. ii.
15. And therefore the tenor of it in the
Gospel mns stiU in his name, Rom. v. 1,
We have peace with God through Jesus
Christ our Lord ; and St. Paul expresses it
in his salutations, that are the same with
this, Grace and peace from God ihe Fa
ther, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
As the free love and grace of God ap
pointed this means and way of our peace,
and offered it ; so the same grace appUes
it, and makes it ours, and gives us faith to
apprehend it.
And from our sense of this peace, or re.
concUement with God, arises that which is
our inward peace, a calm and quiet temper
of mind. This peace that we have with
God in Christ, is inviolable : But because
the sense and persuasion of it may be inter
rupted, the soul that is truly at peace with
God, may for a time be disquieted in itself,
through weakness of faith, or the strength
of temptation, or the darkness of desertion,
losing sight of that grace, that love and Ught
of God's countenance, on which its tranquil-
Uty and joy depends : " Thou hidest thy
face," saith David, '' and I was troubled."
But when these eclipses are over, the soul is
revived with new consolation, as the face of
the earth is renewed, and made to smile
with the return of the sun in the spring ;
and this ought always to uphold Christians
in the saddest times, viz. that the grace and
love of God towards them, depends not on
their sense, nor upon any thing in them, but
is StiU in itself incapable of the smaUest al
teration. It is natural to men to desire their own
peace, the quietness and contentment of
their minds : But most men miss the way to
it, and therefore find it not ; for there is no
way to it indeed, but this one, wherein few
seek it, viz. reconcilement and peace with God.
The persuasion of that alone makes the mind
clear and serene, like your fairest summer
days : " My peace I give you," saith Christ,
" not aa the world. Let not your hearts be
troubled." All the peace and favour of the
world cannot calm a troubled heart ; but
where this peace is that Christ gi^es, aU the
trouble and disquiet of the world caimot dis
turb it : " When he giveth quietness, who

then can make trouble ? and whenhe hideth
his face, who then can behold him ? whe.
ther it be done against a nation, or against a
man only." See also for this, Psal. xlvi.
cxxiii. AU outward distress to a mind thus
at peace, is but as the rattUng of the hail
upon the tiles, to him that sits within the
house at a sumptuous feast. A good con.
acience is caUed so, and with an advantage -
that no other feast can have, nor could men
endure it. A few hours of feasting wiU
weary the most professed epicure ; but a
conscience thus at peace is a continual feast,
with continual unwearied delight. What
makes the world take up such a prejudice
..Against reUgion, as a sour unpleasant thing ?
They see the afflictions and griefs of Chris.
tians ; but they do not see their joys, the in.
ward pleasure of mind that they can possess
in a very hard estate. Have you not tried
other ways enough ? Hath not he tried
them that had more ability and skiU for it
than you, and found them nofonly vanity,
but -vexation of spirit ? If you have any
beUef of holy truth, put but this once upon
the trial, seek peace in the way of grace.
This inward peace is too precious a Uquor to
be poured into a filthy vessel. A holy heart,
that gladly entertains grace, shaU find, that
it and peace cannot dweU asunder.
An ungodly man may sleep to death in
the lethargy of carnal presumption and im
penitency ; but a true Uvely solid peace he
cannot have : There is no peace to the wick
ed, saith my God, Isa. Ivii. 21. And if he
say there is none, speak peace who will, if
aU the world with one voice would speak it,
it shaU prove none.
idly. Consider the measure of the apos
tle's desire for his scattered brethren, that
this grace and peace may be multiplied.
This the apostie wishes for therii, knowing
the imperfection of the graces, and peace of
the saints while they are here below ; and
this they themselves, in sense of that imper.
fection, ardently desire. They that have
tasted the sweetness of thia grace and peace
caU incessantly for more. This is a disease
in earthly desires, and a disease incurable by
aU these things desired ; there is no satis
faction attainable by them : But this avarice
of spiritual things is a virtue, and by our
Saviour is caUed blessedness, because it
tends to fulness and satisfaction. Blessed
are they thai hunger and thirst after righ
teousness, for they shall be filled, Matt, v. 6.
Vkr. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord .iesus Christ, who, according to his abun
dant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively
hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead,
Ver. 4. To an inheritance incorruptible, and un
defiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for you.
, It is a cold lifeless thing to speak of spi-

VER. 3. 4.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF, PETER.

l.'l

ritual things upon mere report : but they
that speak of thera, as their own, as having
share and interest in them, and some expe
rience of their sweetness, their discourse of
them ia enlivened with firm belief, and ar
dent affection ; they cannot mention them,
but their hearts are straight taken with such
gladness, jis they are forced to vent in
praises. Thus our apostie here, and St.
Paul, Eph. i, and often elsewhere, when
they considered these things wherewith they
were about to comfort the godly, to whom
they 'wrote, they were suddenly elevated with
the joy of them, and broke forth into thanks
giving ; so teaching us, by their example,
what real joy there is in the consolations of
the Gospel, and what praise is due ftom aU the
saints to the God of those consolations. This
is such, an inlieritance that the very thoughts
and hopes of it are able to sweeten the great
est griefa and afflictions. What then ahaU
the possession of it be, wherein there shaUbe
no mpture, nor the least drop of any grief at
aU ? The main subject of these verses is,
that which is the main comfort that supports
the spirits of the godly in aU conditions.
1st, Their after inlieritance in ver. 4.
2dly, Their present title to it, and assured
hope of it, ver. 3. ^dly. The immediate
cause of both assigned, viz. Jesus Christ.
ithly, AU this derived from thet free mercy
of God, as the first and higheat cauae, and
retumed to his present glory, as the last and
highest end of it.
For the first, the inheritance,] But
because the fourth verse which describes it,
is Unked with the subsequent, we wiU not
go so far off to retum back again, but first
speak to this third verse, and in it.
Consider, 1. Their title to this inheritance,
Begotten again : 2. Their assurance of it,
viz. a holy or lively hope.
The title that the saints have to their
rich inheritance is of the vaUdest and most
unquestionable kind, viz. by birth. Not by
their first natural birth : By it we are all
bom to an inheritance indeed ; but we find
what it is, Eph. ii. 3, Children of wrath,
heirs apparent of etemal fiames. It is an
everlasting inheritance too, but so much the
more fearfiil, being of everlasting misery, or,
so to speak, of immortal death, and we are
made sure to it ; they who remain in that
condition cannot lose their right, although
they gladly would escape it, they shaU be
forced to enter possession. Bnt it is by a
nevr and supernatural birth, that men are
both freed from their engagement to that
woefiil inheritance, and invested into the
rights of this other, here mentioned, as fuU
of happiness as the former- is miserable :
therefore are they said here to be begotten
again to that Uvely hope. God, the Father
of our Lord Jesua Christ, hath begotten us
again. And thua are the regenerate^ the

children of an immortal Father, and ao cn.
titled to an inheritance of immortaUty : Jf
children, then heirs, heirs of God. This
sonship is by adoption in Christy therefore it
ia added, joint heirs with Christ, Rom, viii.
17- We adopted, and he the only -begotten
Son of God, by an eternal ineffable gene.
ration. And yet thia our adoption is not a mere
extrinsical denomination, as is adoption
amongst men ; but accompanied with a real
change in those that are adopted, ;¦ new na
ture and spirit infused into them ; by rea
son of which, as they are adopted to this
their inheritance in Christ, they are likewise
begotten of God, and born again to it, by
the supernatural work of regeneration. They
are Uke their heavenly Father, they have his
image renewed on their souls, and their Fa.
ther's spirit. They have, and are acted,
and led by it. This is that great mystery
of the kingdom of God, and that puzzled
Nicodemus ; it was darkness to him at firat,
tiU he was. instructed in that night, under
the covert whereof he came to Christ.
Nature cannot conceive of any generation
or birth, but that 'R'hich is within its own
compass ; only they that are partakers of thia
rspiritual birth, understand what it means ;
to others it is a riddle, an unsavoury, un.
pleasant subject.
It is sometimes ascribed to the subordi.
nate means, to baptism, called therefore the
laver of regeneration. Tit. iii. 5. To the
word of God, Jam. i. 18. It is that im.
mortal seed, whereby we are bom again, by
the ministry of this Word, and the seals of
it, as 1 Cor. iv. 1.5, " For though you have
ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have
ye not many fathera ; for in Christ Jesua I
have begotten you through the Goapel." Aa
alao. Gal. iv. 19. But all those have their
vigour and efficacy in thia great work from
the Father of spirits, who is their Father in
their first creation and infusion, and in this
their regeneration, which is a new and se
cond creation, 2 Cor. v. 17, " If any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature."
Divines have reason to infer from the na.
ture of conversion thus expressed, that man
doth not bring any thing to this work him
self. It is true he hath a wiU, as his natu.
ral faculty ; but that this wiU emhuaces the
offer of grace, and turns to him that offers
it, is from renewing grace, that sweetly and
yet strongly, strongly and yet sweetly, in
clines it. •
1. Nature cannot raise itself to this, more
than a man can give natural being to hii-p.
self. 2. It is not a superficial change, it is
a new Ufe and being. A moral man, in his
changes and reformations of himself, is stiU
the same man. Though he reform so far,
as men, in their ordinary phrase caU him,
quite another man ; yet in tmth, till he be

14

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. t.

bom again, there is no new nature in him.
" The sluggard turna on his bed as the door
on the hinges," says Solomon. Thus the
natural man tums from one custom and pos.
ture to another, but never tums off: But
the Christian, by virtue of this new birth,
can say indeed. Ego non sum ego, I am
not the same man I was.
You that are nobles, aspire to this ho.
nourable condition, add this nobleness to the
other, for it far surpasses it ; make it the
crown of aU your honours and advantages.
And you that are of mean birth, or if you
have any stain in your birth, the only way
to make up and repair all, and truly to en
noble you, is this, to be the sons of a king,
yea, of the King of kings, and this honour
have all his saints. To as many as re
ceived him, he gave this privilege io be the
sons of God.
Unto a lively hope.] Now are we the
sons of God, saith the apostle, 1 John iii. 2.
But it doth not yet appear what we shall
be. These sons are heirs ; but aU this Ufe
time is their minority ; yet even then, being
partakers of this new birth and sonship, they
have right to it, and in the assurance of that
right, this living hope ; as an heir, when he
is capable of those thoughts, hath not only
right of inheritance, but may rejoice in the
hope he hath of it, and please himself in
thinking of it. But hope is said to be only
of an uncertain good : True, in the world's
phrase it is so ; foi; their hope is conversant
in uncertain things, or Jn things that may be
certain, after an uncertain manner ; aU^heir
worldly hopes are tottering, built upon sand,
and their hopes of heaven are but blind and
groundless conjectures ; but the hope of the
aons of the living God, is » living hope.
That which Alexander said when he dealt
UberaUy about him, that he left hope io
himself, the children of God may more wise
ly and happily say, when they leave the hot
pursuit of the world to others, and despise
it, their portion is hope. The thread of
Alexander's Ufe was cut off in the raidst of
his victories, and so aU his hopes vanished ;
but their hope cannot die, nor disappoint
them. But then it is said to be lively, not only
objectively, but effectively, enlivening and
comforting the children of God in aU dis
tresses, enabUng them to encounter and
surmount aU difficulties in the way. And
then it is formerly so, it cannot fail, dies not
before accomplishment. Worldly hopes often
raock men, and so cause them to be asham-
ed, and men take it as a great blot, and are
most of aU ashamed of those things that dis
cover yeakness of judgment in them. Now
worldly hopes do thus, they put the fool
upon a man ; Wheri he hath judged him.
self sure, and laid so much weight and ex.
pectation on them, then they break, and foil

him ; they are not Uving, but lying hopes,
and dying hopes ; they die often before us,
and we Uve to bury them, and see our own
foUy and irffeUcity in trusting to them ; but
at the utmost, they die ivith us when we die,
and can accompany us no further. But this
hope answers expectation to the fuU, and
much beyond it, and deceives no way, but
in that happy way, of far exceeding it.
A living hope, Uving in death itself.
The world dare say no more for its device,
but dum spiro spero ; but the children of
God can add, by virtue of this Uving hope,
dum exspiro spero. It is a fearful thing
when a man and aU his hopes die together.
Thus saith Solomon of the wicked, Prov.
xi. 7, when he dieth, then die his hopes,
many of them before, but at the utmost then
aU of them ; but the righteous hath hope in
his death, Prov. xiv. 32. Death alone,
that cuts the sinews of aU other hopes, and
turns men out of aU other inheritances, ful
fils this hope, and ends it in fruition ; as a
messenger sent to bring the children of God
home to the possession of their -inheritance.
By the resurrection of Christ from the
dead.] This refers to both begotten again by
his resurrection, and having this living hope
by his resurrection ; and weU suits both, it
being the proper cause of both, in this order.
First then of the birth ; next of the hope.
The image of God is renewed in us by
our union with him, who is ihe express
image of his Father's person, Heb, i. 3.
Therefore this new birth in the conception
is expressed by the " forming of Christ in
the soul," Gal. iv. 19, and resurrection par
ticularly is assigned as the cause of our new
Ufe : This new birth is called our resurrec
tion, and that in conformity to Christ, yea,
by the virtue and influence of his. His resur
rection is caUed a birth, he the first-begotten
from the dead. Rev. i. 5. And that pro
phecy, Psal. ii. 7, " Thou art my Son, this
day have I begotten thee," is applied to his
resurrection as fulfiUed in it. Acts xiii. 33,
" God hath fulfiUed the aame unto us their
children, in that he hafh raised up Jesus
again ; as it is also written in the second
Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I be
gotten thee." Not only is it the exemplar,
but the efficient cause of our new birth.
Thus, Rom. vi. at large, and often elsewhere.
And thus Ukewiae it is the cause of our
living hope, that which indeed inspires and
maintains Ufe in it, because he hath con.
quered death, and is risen agaiu ; and that
is implied which foUoweth, he is " set down
at the right hand of God," hath entered into
possession of that inheritance : This gives
us a living hope, that according to his own
request, " where he is, there we may be
also." Thus this hope is strongly underset,
on the one side by the resurrection of Christ,
on the other by the abundant mercy of God

VER. 3, 4.1

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

Ifl

the Father. Our hope depends not on our
own strength or wisdom, nor on any thing
in us ; for if it did, it would be short-Uved,
would die, and die quickly ; but on hia re-
Burrectioti who can die no more : For, " in
that he died, he died unto sin once ; but in
that he Uveth, he liveth unto G^d," Rom.
vi. 10. This makes this hope not to imply,
in the notion of it, uncertainty, as worldly
hopes do ; but it is a firm, stable, inviolable
hope, an anchor fixed within the vail.
According to his abundant mercy.] Mercy
is the spring of aU this ; yea, great mercy,
and manifold raercy : ' For,' as St Bernard
saith, ' great sins and great miseries need
great mercy, and many sins and miseries
need many mercies.' And is not this great
mercy, to make of Satan's alaves, sona of the
Most High ? WeU may the aposde say,
Behold what manner of love, and how great
love the Father hath shewed us, thai we
should be called the sons of God. The
world knows us not, because it knew not
him. They that have not seen the father of
a child, cairaot know its resembUng him.
Now the world knows not God, and there
fore discerns not his image in his chUdren,
so as to esteem them for it. But whatever
be their opinion, this we must say ourselves.
Behold what manner of love is this, to take
fire-brands of heU, and to appoint them to
be one day brighter than the sun in the fir
mament ; to raise ihe poor out of the dung
hill, and set them icith princes, Psal. cxiu.
7.8. Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus 'Christ. ] Lastly, we see it stirs
up the apostle to praise the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the style
of the Gospel, as formerly under the law, the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the
God that brought thee up out of the land of
Egypt, &c. This now is the order of the
government of grace, that it holds first with
Christ our head, and in him with us ; so he
says, I go to my Father, and your Father,
and my God, and your God. Which, as
St Cyril of Jerusalem in his catechism ob
serves, shews ua not only our communion
with him, that might have been expressed
thua, I go to my God and Father, but the
order of the covenant, first my Father, and my
God, and then yours. Thus ought we, in our
consideration of the mercies of God, stiU to
take in Christ, for in him they are conveyed
(0 us. • Thus, Eph. i. 3, With all spiritual
blessings ^n Christ Jesus.
Blessed.] He blesseth us really, bene
faciendo, benedicit. We bless him, by ac
knowledging his goodness, and this we ought
to do at aU times, Psal. xxxiv. 1. I will bless
ihe Lord ai all times, his praise shall con
tinually be in my mouth. AU this is far
below him and his mercies. What are our
lume praises in comparison of his love .' No-

tiiing, and less than nothing ; but love will
stammer jather than be dumb. They that
are amongst his children, begotten again,
have, in the resurrection of Christ, a lively
hope of glory, as it is. Col. i. 27, Which
is Christ in you, the hope of glory. This
leads them to observe and admire that rich
mercy whence it flows ; and this considera
tion awakes them, and strains them to break
forth into praises.
To an inheritance incorruptible,] As he
that taketh away a garment in cold wea
ther, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he
that singeth songs io a heavy heart, Prov.
xxv. 20.
Worldly mirth is so far from curing spi
ritual grief, that even worldly grief, where it
is great, and takes deep root, is not aUayed
but increased by it. A man that is fuU of
inward heaviness, the more he is compassed
about with mirth, it exasperates and enrages
his grief the more; like ineffectual weak
physic, that removes not the humour, but
stirs it, and makes it more unquiet : But
spiritual joy is seasonable for aU estates ; in
prosperity it is pertinent to crown and sane.
tify aU other enjoyments, with this that ao
far surpasses them j and in distress it is the
only nepenthe, the cordial of fainting spirits :
So, Psal. iv. 7, He hath put joy into my
heart. This mirth makes way for itaelf, which
other mirth cannot do ; theae aonga are sweet.
est in the night of distress. Therefore the
apostle, writing to his scattered afflicted bre.
thren, begins his epistle with this song of
praise. Blessed be the God and Father, Scc.
The matter of it is, the joyful remem
brance of the happiness laid up for them,
under the name of inheritance. Now this
inheritance is described by the singular
qualities of it. They contain, 1. The ex
ceUency of its nature ; 2. The certainty of
its attainmsnt. The former in these three,
incorruptible, undefiled, and thai fadeth
not away ; the latter in the last words of
this verse, and in the foUowing, reserved in
heaven for you, &c.
God is bountiful to all, gives to aU met.
aU that they have, health, riches, honour,
strength, beauty, and wit ; but those things
he scatters, as it were, with an indifferent
hand. Upon others he looks, as weU as on
his beloved children ; but the inheritance is
pecuUarly theirs. Inheritance is convertible
with sonship : For, Gen. xxv. 5. Abraham
gave gifts to Keturah's sons, and dismissed
them ; but the inheritance was for the son of
the promise. M''hen we see a man riaing in
preferment, estate, or admired for exceUent
gifts and endowments of mind, we think
there is a happy man : But we consider not
that none of aU those things are matter of in
heritance ; within a while he is to be tumed
out of aU, and if he have not somewhat be-
yond all those to look to, he is but a miser.

16

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. I,

able man, and so much the more miserable
that once he seemed and was reputed happy.
There ia a certain time wherein heirs come
to possess. Thus it is with this inheritance
too ; there is by the apostie mention made of
a perfect man, unto the measure of the sta
ture of the fulness of Christ, Eph. iv. 13.
And though the inheritance is rich and ho
nourable, yet the heir being young is held
under discipline, and is more strictly dealt
with possibly than theservants, sharply cor
rected for that which is let pass in them : yet
still even then, in regard of that which he is
bom to, his condition is much better than
theirs, and all the correction he suffers preju.
dices him not, but fits him for inheriting. .The
love of our heavenly Father is beyond the
love of mothers in tendemess, and yet beyond
the love of fathers, which are usuaUy said to
love more wisely, in point of wisdom : He
wiU not undo his children, his heirs, with
too much indulgence. It is one of his heavy
judgments upon the fooUsh children of dis
obedience, that ease shall slay ihem, and
iheir prosperity shall prove iheir destruction.
While the children of God are childish
and weak in faith, they are like some great
heirs before they come to years of under
standing ; they consider not their inheri
tance, and what they are to come to, have
not their spirits elevated to thoughts worthy
of their estate, and their behaviour conformed
to it : but as they grow up in years, they
come by little and litde to be sensible of
those thing.s, and the nearer they corae to
posseaaion, the more apprehenaive they are
of their quaUty, and what doth answerably
become them to do : And this ia the duty of
such a» are indeed heirs of glory, to grow in
the understandihg and consideration of that
which is prepared for them, and to suit
themselves as they are able, to those great
hopes. This is that the apostle St. Paul
prays for, for his Ephesians, chap. i. ver. 18,
The eyes of your understanding being en
lightened, that ye may know what is the
hope of his colling, and what ihe riches of
ihe glory of his inheritance in ihe saints.
This would make them holy and heavenly,
to have their conversation in heaven, from
whence they look for a Saviour. That we
may then the better know somewhat of the
aignity and riches of this inheritance, let us
consider the description that is here given us
of it. And first, it is
Incorruptible.] Although this seems to
be much the same with the third quaUty,
that fadeth not away, which is a borrowed
expression for the illustrating of its incor-
niptibleness : yet I conceive there is some
difference, and that in these three qualities
there is a gradation. Thus it is called in-
I'orr-uptible, that is, it perisheth not, cannot
rome to nothing, is an estate that cannot be
spent; but though it were abiding, yet it

might be such, as the continuance of it were
not very desirable ; it would be but a misery
at best to continue always in this Ufe. Plo.
tinns thanked God that his soul was not tied
to an immortal body. Then undefiled, it ia
not stained with the least spot. This signi.
fies the purity and perfection of it, that tlie
perpetuity of it ; it doth not only abide, and
is pure, but those together, it abideth always
in its integrity . And lastly, it fadeth not away;
it doth not fade nor wither at aU, is not some.
times more, sometimes less pleasant, but ever
the same, stUl like itself, and that is the im.
mutability of it.
As it is incorruptible, it carries it away
from aU earthly possessions and inheritances ;
for aU those epithets are intended to signify
its opposition to the things of this world, and
to shew how far it excels them aU. And
thus coraparatively we are to consider it :
For as divines say of the knowledge of God
that we have here, the negative notion makes
up a great part of it, we know rather what
he is not, than what he is, infinite, incom.
prehensible, immutable, &c., so it is of this
happiness, thia inheritance, and indeed it is
no other but God. We cannot teU you what
it ia, but we can say so far what it is not,
as declares it is imspeakably above aU the
most exceUent things of the inferior world,
and this present life. It ia by privatives, by
reraoving imperfections frora it, that we de
scribe it, and we can go no further, viz. in
corruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not
away. AU things that we see being compounded,
raay be dissolved again ; the very visible
heavens, that are the purest piece of the ma-
terial world, notwithstanding the pains the
philosopher takes to exempt them, the Scrip.
tures teach us that they are corruptible,
Psal. cii. 26, They shall perish, but thou
shalt endure ; yea, all of them shall wax
old like a garment ; As a vesture shalt thou
change them, and they shall be changed.
And from whence the apostie to the Hebrews,
(chap. i. 10,) and our apostie in his other
epistle, (chap, iii. II,) use the same expres.
sion. But it is needless to fetch too great
a compass, to evince the corruptibleness of
aU inheritances. Besides what they are in
themselves, it is a shorter way to prove them
cormptible in relation to us, and our possess.
ing them, by our own corruptibleness and
corruption, or perishing out of this Ufe in
which we enjoy them. We are here' inter
peritura perituri; the thinga are paasiug
which we enjoy, and we are passing who en.
joy thera. An earthly inheritance is so
caUed in regard of succession ; but to every
one it is but at the most for term oEUfe. As
one of the kings of Spain answered to one "of
his courtiers, who, thinking to pleaae his
master, wished that kings were immortal ;
' If that had been,' said he, ' I should never

VEK, 3, 4.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER,

17

have been king.' When deatii comes, that
removes a man out of aU his possessions to
give place to another ; therefore are these in.
heritances decaying and dying in relation to
us, because we decay and die ; and when a
man dies, hia inheritances and honours, and
aU things here, are at an end, in respect of
hira : Yea, we may say the world ends to
him. Thus Solomon reasons, that a man's hap.
piness cannot be upon this earth ; because it
must be some durable abiding thing that must
make him happy, abiding, to wit, in his en.
joyment. Now, though the earth abide, yet
because man abides not on the earth to
possess it, but one age drives out another,
one generation passeth, and another cometh,
velut unda impellitur unda'; therefore his
rest and his happiness cannot be here.
Undefiled.] AU posaeasions here are de.
filed and stained with many other defects and
faiUngs, stiU somewhat wanting, some damp
on them, or crack in them ; fair houses, but
sad cares flying about the gilded and ceUed
roofs : stately and soft beds ; afuU table, but
a sickly body and queasy stomach. As the
fairest face has some mole or wart in, it, so
aU possessions are stained with sm, either in
acquiring or in using them, and therefore
caX\Qimammon of unrighteousness, St. Luke
xvi. 9. Iniquity is so involved in the no.
tion of riches, that it can yery hardly be
separated from them. St. Hierom says,
Verum mihi videtur illud, dives aut ini
quus est, aut iniqui hceres. Foul hands
poUute all they touch ; it is our sin that de-
iUes what we poaaeas ; it is sin that burdens
the whole creation, and presses groans out of
the very frame of the world, (Rom. viii, 22,)
For we know ihat -the whole creation groan
eth, aad travaileth in pain together until
now. This our leprosy deflles our houses,
the very waUs and floors, our meat and drink,
and aU we touch, poUuted when alone, and
poUuted in society, our meetinga and conver
sations ¦ together being for the greatest part
nOtiiing but a commerce and interchange of
sin and vanity.
We breathe up and down in an infected
air, and are very receptive of the infection, by
our own corruption within us. We readily
tum the things we poasess here to occasiona
and instrumenta of sin, and think there is no
Uberty nor delight in their use, without abus.
ing them. How few are they that can carry,
as they say, a fuU cup even ? that can have
digestion strong enough for the right uae of
great places and estates ? that can bear pre
ferment without pride, and riches without
covetousness, and, ease without wantonness ?
Then as those earthly inheritances are
stained with sin in their use ; so what_grief,
and strife, and contentions, about obtaining
or retaining them ? Doth not matter of pos-
««sion, this same meum and tunm, divide

many times the affections of those who are
knit together in nature, or other strait ties,
and prove the very apple of strife betwixt
nearest friends ? ,
If we trace great estates to their first ori
ginal, how few wiU be found that owe not
their beginning, either to fraud, or rapine,
or oppression ? and the greatest empires and
kingdoms in the world, have had their foun.
dations laid in blood. Are not those defUed
inheritances ?
That withereth not.] A borrowed speech,
alluding to the decaying of plants and flowers
that bud and flourish at a certain time of thje
year, and then fade and wither, and in winter
are as if they were dead.
And this is the third disadvantage of pos
sessions, and aU thinga worldly, that they
abide not in one eatate, but are in a more un.
certain and irregular inconstancy, than either
the flowers and plants of the field, or the
moon, from which they are caUed sublunary ;
like Nebuchadnezzar's image, degenerating
by degrees into baser metals, and in the end
into a mixture of iron and clay.
The exceUency then of this inheritance is,
that it is free from all those evils, faUs not
under the stroke of time, comes not within
the compass of its scythe, that hath so
large a compass, and cuts down aU other
things. There is nothing in it weighing it to.
wards corruption. It is immortal, everlast.
ing, for it is the fraition of the immortal,
everlasting God, by immortal souls, and the
body rejoined with it, shaU Ukewise be im.
mortal, having put on incorruption, as the
apostle speaks, 1 Cor. xv. 54.
That fadeth not away.] No spot of sin
nor sorrow tiiere, aU poUution wiped away,
and all tears with it ; no envy nor strife,
not as here among men, one supplanting
another, one pleading and fighting against
another, dividing this point of earth with fire
and sword : No, this inheritance is not the
less by division, by being parted amongst so
many brethren, every one hath it aU, each
his crown, and aU agreeing in casting them
down before his throne, from whom they
have received them, and in the harmony of
his praises.
This inheritance is often caUed a king.
dom, and a crowii of glory. This word may
aUude to those garlands of the ancients, and
this is its property, that the flowera in it are
aU amaranthes, as a certain plant is named,
and so it is caUed, (I Pet. v. 4,) a crown of
glory that fadeth not away.
No change at aU there, no winter and
summer, not Uke the poor comforts here, but
a bUss always flourishing. The grief of the
saints here, is not so much for the changes
of outward things, as of their inward com.
forts. Suavis hora, sed brevis mora.
Sweet presences of God they sometimes have f
B

18

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap, iy

but they are short and often interrupted :
But there, no cloud shaU come betwixt them
aild their sun : they shaU behold him in his,
fuU brightness for ever. As there shaU be
no change in their beholding, so no weari
ness nor abatement of their delight in be
holding. They sing a new song, always the
same, and yet always new. The sweetest of
our music, if it were to be heard but for one
whole day, wiU weary them that are most
deUghted with it. What we have here,
doys, but satisfies not ; The joys above
never cloy, and yet always satisfy,
. We should here consider the last property
of this inheritance, namely, the certainty of
it. Reserved in heaven for you.] But that
is connected with the following verse, and so
wiU be fidy joined with it. Now for aome
use of aU this.
If theae thinga were believed, they would
perauade for theraselves ; we needed not add
any entreaties to move you to seek after this
inheritance : Have we not experience enough
of the vanity and misery of things corrupti
ble ? and are not a great part of our days
already spent amongst them ? Ia it not
time to consider whether we be pro'vided of
any thing surer and better than what we
have here, if we have any inheritance to go
home to after our wandering ? or can say
with the apostle, (2 Cor. v. 1,) We know thai
if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
dissolved, we have a building of God, an
house not made with hands, eternal in
the heavens.
If those things gain our assent while we
hear them, yet it dies soon ; scarce any re-
tire themselves after to pursue those thoughts,
and to make a work indeed of them, but
busy their heads rather another way, build
ing castles in the air, and spinning out their
thoughts in vain contrivances, Happy are
they whose hearts the Spirit of God sets and
fixes upon this inheritance ; they may join
in with the apostle, and say as here. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath begotten us again unto
this lively hope, to this inheritance incor
ruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not
away. Ver. 5. Who are itept by the power of God through
faith unto- salvation, ready to be revealed in the
last time.
It is no doubt a great contentment to the
chUdren of God to hear of the exceUencies of
the Ufe to corae ; they do not use to become
weary of that subject ; yet there is one doubt,
that, if it be not removed, may damp their
delight in hearing and considering of aU
the rest. The richer the estate is, it wiU
the more kindle the malice and diligence of
their enemies, to deprive them of it, and to
cut them short of posses.sing it. And this

they know, that those spiritual powers that-
seek to ruin them, do overmatch, them tar,
both in craft and force.
Against the fears of this, the apostle com.
forts the heirs of salvation, assuring them,
that as the eatate they look for is exceUent,
so it is certain and safe, laid up there, where
it is out of the reach of adverse powers^ re
served in heaven for you. _ Besides, that
this is a further evidence of the worth and
exceUency of this inheritance ; it makes it
sure ; it confirms what was said of its excel.
lency ; for it must be a thing of greatest
worth, that is laid up in the highest and
best place of the world, namely, in heaveti
for you, where nothing that is impure once
enters, much less is laid up and kept. Thus
the land where this inheritance Ues, makes
good aU that hath been spoken of the dig
nity and riches of it.
But further, as itis a rich and pleasaiit .
country where it Ueth, it hath this privUege,
to be the ^lone land of rest arid peace, free
from all poaaibiUty of invasion. There is
no spoUing of it, and laying it waste, and
defacing its beauty, by leading armies into
it, and making it the aeat of war ; no noise
of dmms nor trumpets, no inundations of
one people driving out another, and sitting
down in their possessions. In a word, as
there is nothing there subject to decay of it-
self, ao neither is it in danger of fraud or
violence. When our Saviour speaks of this
same happineaa, (St. Matth, vi. 20,) in ahke
term, what ia here caUed an inheritance, is
there caUed a treasure. He expresses the-
permanency of it by these two, that it hath
neither moth nor rust in itself to corrupt ¦
it ; nor cari thieves break through and steal -
it. There ia a worm at the root of all our
enjoymenta here, corrupting causes within
theraaelves ; and besides that, they are ex
posed to injury frora without, that may de
prive us of thera. How raany stately pa
laces, that have been possibly divers years in
building, hath fire upon a very sraaU begio-
ning destroyed in a few hours ! What great
hopes of gain by traffic hath one tempest
mocked and disappointed ! How many that
have thought their possessions very sure, yet
have lost them by some trick of law 1 Aud
others, as in time of war, driven from theni
by the sword ! Nothing free from aU dan
ger, but this inheritance, that is laid up in
the hands of God, and kept in heaven for ua.
The highest stations in the world, namely,
the estate of kings, they are but mountains
of prey, one robbing and spoiUrig another i
But in that holy mountain above, there is
none to hurt nor spoil, nor offer violence.
What the prophet speaks of the church here,
is more perfecdy and eminentiy true of it
above, Isaiah lxv. 25.
This is indeed a necessary condition
of our joy in the thoughts of this happy.

VF.1l. 5.1

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

19.

estate, diat we have some persuasion of our
propriety, that it is ours ; that we do not
apeak and hear of it, as traveUers passing by
8 pleasant place do behold, and discourse of
its fair stmcture, the sweetness of the seat,
the planting, the gardens, and meadows that
are about it, and so pass on, having no, fur
ther interest in it. But when we hear of
this glorious inheritance, this treasure, this
kingdom that is pure, and rich, and lasting ;
we may add, it is mine, it is reserved ih hea
ven, and reserved for me ; I have reaerved
the evidences, and the eamest of it ; and as
it is kept safe for me, so I shaU Ukewise be
preaerved to it, and that is the other part of
the certainty that completes the comforts of
it. See Eph. i. 14.
Tlie salvation that Christ hath purchased
is indeed laid up in heaven, but we that seek
after it, are on earth, compassed about with
dangers and temptations. What avails it
us, that our salvation is in heaven, in the
place of safety and quietness, while we our
selves are tossed upon the stormy aeaa of this

And, 2dly, Their preservation, with the
causes of it, kept by ihe power of God
through faith. The inheritance is kept not
only in safety, but in quietness. The chU.
dren of God for whom it is kept, while they
are here, are kept safe indeed, but not un
molested and unassaulted, they have enemies,
and such as are stifring, and cunning, and
powerful ; but in the midst of thera, they
are guarded and ii4efended ; they perish
not, according to the prayer of our Sa.
viour poured out for them, (John xvu. 15.)
/ pray not ihat thou shouldest take them
oui of ihe world, but that thou shouldest
keep them from the evil.
They have the prince of the power of the
air, and aU his armies, all the forces he can
make, against them. Though his power is
nothing but tyranny and usurpation, yet be.
cause once they were under his yoke, he be.
stirs himself to pursue thera, when they are
led forth from their captivity, as Exod. xiv.
5, 9, Pharoah, with aU his chariots, and
horses, and Jbrsemen, pursues after the

world, amidst rocks and shelves, every hour I IsraeUtes going out of Egypt.

in hazard of shipwreck ? Our inheritance is
in a sure hand indeed, our enemies cannot
come at it : but they raay over-run and de-
stroy us at their pleasure, for we are in the
midst of thera. Thus might we think and
complain, and lose the sweetness of aU our
other thoughts concerning heaven, if there
were not as firm a promise for our own safety in
the midst of our dangers, as there is of the
safety of our inheritance, that is out of danger.
The assurance ia full ; thus, it is kept for
us in heaven, and we kept on earth for it ;
as it is reserved for us, we are no less surely
preserved to it. There is here, 1. The state
itself, salvation, 2. The preservation, or
securing of those that expect it, kept. 3.
The time of fuU possession, in the last tinie.
1. The estate unto salvation.] Before it
is caUed an inheritance ; here we are more
particularly told what is meant by that,
namely, salvation. This is more expressly
s'lre, being a deUverance from misery, and
it imports withal the possession of perfect
happiness. The firat part of our happiness
is to be freed ftom those miseries to which
we are subject by our guiltiness : To be set
free froni the curse of the law, and the wrath
of God, from everlasting death. 2. From
aU kind of mortaUty or decaying. 3. From
aU power and stain of ^in. 4. From aU
temptatloii. 5. From aU the griefs and
affUctions of this life : To have the perfection
of grace, to be fuU of hoUness, and the per.
fection of bUsa, fuU of joy in the continual
vision of God. But how little are we able to
say, of this, our apostfe here ¦ teacheth us,
that it is veiled to us ; only so much shines
through, as we are capable of here : but the
revealed knowledge of it is only in the pos.
session ; it is to be revealed in. the last time.

The word in the original, (p^au^m/itm,
there translated kept, is a, military term,
used for those who are kept as in a fort or
g^ison-town besieged, So Satan is still
raising batteries againat this fort, using aU
waya to take it by strength or stratagem ;
unwearied in his assaults, and very skilful to
know his advantages : and where we are
weakest, there -to set on. And besides all
this, he hath inteUigence with a party within
ua, ready to betray ua to him ; so that it were
impossible for us to hold out, were there not
another watch and guard than our own, and
other walls and bulwarks than any that our
skUl and industry can raise for our own de.
fence. In this then is our safety, that there
ia a power above our own, yea, and above aU
our enemies, that guards us, salvation itself
our walls and bulwarks. We ought to
watch, but when we do in obedience to our
Commander, the Captain of our salvation,
yet it is his own watching, who sleeps npt,
nor so much as slumbers ; it is that pre
serves us, and makes ours not to be in vain,
P^al. cxxi. 1. Isa. xxvii. 3. And there
fore those two are jointiy commanded.
Watch and pray, that ye enter not into
temptation. Watch, there is the necessity
of our diligence : Pray, there is die insuf
ficiency of it, and the necessity ofhis watch.
ing, by whose power we are effectuaUy pre-
served, and that power is our fort, Isa. xxvi.
L Salvation hath God appointed for
ivalls arid bulwarks ; What more safe tha,n ,
to be waUed with salvation itself ? so, Prov.
xviii. 10, The name of the Lord is a
strong tower ; the righteous fly into il,
and are safe.
Now the causes are two : 1. Supreme, tht
power of God ; 2. Subordinate, faith.

EO

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. t.

The supreme power of God, is that on whicii
depends our stability and perseverance.
When we consider how weak we are in our.
selves, yea, the very strongest amongst us,
and how assaulted, we wonder, and juatly
we may, that any can continue one day in
the state of grace : But when we look on the
strength by which we are'guarded, the power
of God ; then we see the reason of stabiUly
to the end : for omnipotency supports us,
and the everlasting arms are ,under us.
Then faith is the second cause of our pre.
servation ; because it applies the first cause,
the power of God. Our faith lays hold
upon his JDOwer, and this power strengthens
faith, and so we are preserved ; it puts us
within those waUs, seta the soul within the
guard of the power of God, which by self-
confidence, and vain presuming in its own
strength, is exposed to aU kind of danger.
Faith is a humble, self-denying grace, makes
the Christian nothing in himself, and aU in
God. The weakest peraons that are within a
strong place, women and children, though
.hey were not able to reaist the enemy, if
they were alone ; yet so long as the place
wherein they are is of sufficient strength,
and weU manned, and every way accommo
date to hold out, they are in safety ; thus the
weakest believer is safe, because by believ-
ing he is within the strongest of aU defences.
Faith is the victory, and Christ sets his
strength againat Satan'a ; and when the
Christian is hard beset with aome tentation,
too strong for himself, then he looks up to
him that is the great conqueror of the powers
of darkness, and calls to him, " Now, Lord,
assist thy servant in this encounter, and put
to thy strength, that the glory may be thine."
Thua faith ia such an engine as draws in
the power of God, and hia Son Jesus, into
the works and conflicts that it hath in hand.
This is our victory, even our faith, I John
V. 4.
It is the property of a good Christian to
magnify the power of God, and to have high
thoughts of it, and therefore it is his privi
lege to find safety in that power. David
cannot satisfy himself with one or two ex-
pressions of it, but deUghts in multiplying
them, (Psal, xviii. 2.) The Lord is my
rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer,
my God, my strength, in whom I will
trust, my buckler, and the horn of my
salvation, and my high tower. Faith looks
above aU, both that which the soul hath, and
that which it wants, and answers aU doubts
and fears with this . almighty power upon
which it rests.
Sdly, The time of fuU possession, ready
to be revealed in the last time.] This
salvation is that great work wherein God in
tended to manifest the glory of his grace,
contrived before timcj and in the several ages

of the world brought forward, after the'de.
creed manner ; and the fuU accompUshment
of it reserved for the end of time.
The souls of the faithful do enter into the-
possession of it, when they remove from
their houses of clay ; yet is not their happi.
ness complete tiU that great day of the ap
pearing of Jesus Christ ; they are naturaUy
iraperfect tiU their bodies be raised, and re
joined to their soula, to partake together of
their bliaa : And they are mysticaUy imper.
feet, tiU aU the rest ofthe membera of Jesus'
Christ be added to them.
But then ahaU their joy be' absolutely fuU
when both their own bodies and the mystical
body of Christ shaU be glorified, when aU
the children of that glorious , family shaU
meet, and sit down to that great marriage
supper at their Father's table. Then shaH
thfe music of that new song be fuU, when
there is not one wanting of those that are
appointed to sing it for etemity. , In that
day shaU our Lord Jesus be glorified in his
saints, and admired in all them that be
lieve, 2 Thess. i, 10.
You see what it is that the gospel offers
you, and you may gather how great both
your foUy and your guiltiness wiU be, if you
neglect and sUght ao great salvation when it
is brought to you, and yon are intreated to
receive it : This is aU that the preaching of
the word aims at, and yet who hearkens to it ? -
How few lay hold on this etemal life, this
inheritance, this crown that is held forth to
aU that hear of it ? ,
t Oh! thatyou could bepersuadedfobesaved,
that you would be wiUing to embrace salvation.
You think you would ; but if it be so, then
I may say, though you would be saved, yet
your custom of sin, your love to sin, and love
to the world, wiU not suffer you : And these
wiU StUl hinder you, unless you put on holy
resolutions to break through thera, and tram.
pie them under foot, ahd take this kingdom
by a hand of violence, that God is so weU
pleased with ; he ia wiUingly overcome by
that force, and gives thia kingdora most wiU
ingly where it is so taken ; it is not attained
by slothfulness, and sitting stiU with folded
handa ; it must be invaded with strength.of
faith, with anuies of prayers and tears ; and
they that set upon it thua are sure to take it.
Consider what we are doing, how we mis
place our diligence on thiiigs lhat abide not,
or we abide not to enjoy them. We have
no abiding city here, (aaith the apostle)
but he adds, tliat which comforts the citi
zena of the new Jerusalem, we look for one
to come, whose builder and maker is God.
Hear not those thinga idly, as if they con
cerned you not, but let them move you to
resolution and actions ; say as they said of
Canaan, It is a good land, let us go up
and possess it. Leam to use what you
have here as traveUers, and let your horae.

VEU. 6,]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PIJTER.

!il

your inheritance, your treasure be on /high,
which is by far the richest and the safest ;
and if it be so with you, then, where your
treasure is, there will your hearts be also.
Vrr, 6. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now
"  i bel ye 

foraseason (if need t
manifold temptations.

e are in heaviness through

The same motives cannot beget contrary
passions in the soul, therefore the apostle re
duces the mixture of sorrowing and rejoicing
that is usual in the heart of a Christian, to
the different causes of both, and shows which
of the two hath the stronger cause, and there
fore is always predominant.
His scope is to stir up and strengthen
spiritual joy in his afflicted brethren ; and
therefore having set the matter of it before
them in the preceding verses, he now applies
it, and expressly oppoaea it to their diatresses.
Some read those words exhortatively. In,
which rejoice ye. It is so intended ; but I
. conceive it serves that end better indicatively,
as we now read it, in which ye rejoice. It
exhorts in a more insinuating and persuasive
manner, that it may be so, to urge it on them
that it is so. Thua St. Paul, (Acts xxvi.
27.) King Agrippa, believest thou ihe pro
phets ? I know ihat thou believest. And
straight he answered, Thou almost persuad
est me io be a Christian. This impUes how
just, and how reasonable it is, that the things
spoken of should make them glad ; theywiU
rejoice in those, yea do rejoice. Certainly if
you know and consider what the causes of
yovirjoyare, ye cannot choose but find it
within you, and in such a raeasure as to
swaUow up aU your temporary sorrows, how
great "and how many soever their causes be.
We are then to consider severaUy those
bitter waters and sweet, this sorrow, and
this joy, I. In their springs ; 2. In their
streams. And first they are ca&eA. temptations and
manifold temptations. The habits of divine
supernatural grace are not acquirable by hu
raan atudy, or induatry, or by exercise, they
are of immediate infusion from heaven ; yet
are they infused to that end, that they may
act and exercise themselves in the several
conditions and occurrences bf a Christian's
- Ufe, and by that they grow stronger. What
soever oppositions or difficulties grace meets
with in its acting, . go under this general name
of temptations. It is not necessary to reckon
up the variety of senses of thia word in its
ftiU latitude,, how God is said to tempt man,
and how it is»said that he tempts hira not ;
how raan tempts God, and how it is said that
God is not tempted ; how Satan tempts men,
and men one another, and a man himself.
AU those are several acceptations of this word.
But the temptations here meant, are the
thingSi by which men are tempted, and par-
ticalarly the saints oif God. And though

there is nothing in the words, that may not
agree to all sorts of teraptations the godly are
subject to, yet I conceive it is particularly
meant of their afflictions and distresses, as the
apostle James likewise uses it, ch. i. ver. 2.
And they are ao called, becauae they give
particular and notable proof of the temper 0!
a Chriatian's spirit, and draw forth evidence '
both of the truth, and the measure of the
grace that is in them. If they fail and are
foiled, as sometimes they are, this convinces
them of that human frailty and weakness that
is in them, and so humbles them, and drives
them out of themselves to depend upon an.
other for more strength and better success iu
after encounters. If they acquit theraselves
Uke Christians indeed, the Lord managing
and asaiating that grace which he hath giveri
them, then aH. their valour, and strength, and
victories, tum to his praise, from whom they
have received aU.
A raan is not only unknown to others, but
to himself, that hath never met with such
difficulties, as require faith and Christian
fortitude and patience to surmount them.
How shall a man know whether his meek-
ness and calmness of spirit be real or not,
while he meets with no provocation, nothing
that contradicts or crosses him ? But when
soraewhat sets upon hira, that is in itself very
unpleasant and grievous to him, and yet if in
that case he retains his moderation of spirit,
and fiies not out into impatience-, neither
against God nor men, this gives experiment
of the tmth and soundness of that grace in
him ; wherfeas standing water that ia clear at
top whUe it ia untouched, yet if it have mud
at the bottom, atir it a Uttle and it rises pre.
sently. It is not altogether unprofitable, yea, it is
much wisdom in Christians, to be amiing
theraselves againat such temptations as may
befal them hereafter, though they have not
as yet met with them ; to labour to overcome
them before.hand, to suppose the hardest
things that may be incident to them, and to
put on the strongest resolutions they can at
tain unto ; yet aU this ia but an imaginary
effort ; and therefore there is no assurance
that the victory is any more than imaginary
too, tiU it come to action, and then they that
have spoken, and thought very confidently,
may prove but (as one said of the Athenians)
fortes in tabula, patient and coui^lgeous in
picture or fancy ; and notwithstanding aU
their arms, and dexterity in handUng thpni
by way of exercise, may be fouUy defeated
when they are to fight in eamest. Tha
children of Ephraim being armed, and carry.
ing bows, says the Psahnist (Psal. Ixxviu.
9,) yet turned back in the day of battle. It
is the battle that tries the soldier, and the
storm the pilot. How would if appear that
Christians can be themselves, not only patient,
but cheerful in poverty, in disgrace, and

22

A COMMENTARY UPON

[cHAri i.

temptations, and persecutions,' if it were not
gften their lot to meet with those ? He that
framed the heart knows it to be but deceitful,
and he that gives grace knows the weakness
and strength of it exactly ; yet he is pleased
to speak thus, that by afflictions and hard
tasks he tries what is in the hearts of his
chUdren, For the word of God speaks to
men, and therefore it speaks the language of
the children of raen : Thus Gen. xxii. 12,
Now I know that thou fearest God, see
ing thou hasi not withheld thy son, thine
only son, from me.
God delights to caU forth his champions
to meet with great temptations, to make thera
bear crosses of more than ordinary weight ;
as comraanders in war put men of moat va-
lour and akiU upon the hardeat aervicea. God
seta aome strong furious trial upon a strong
Christian, made strong by his own grace ;
and by his victory, makes it appear to the
world, that though there is a great deal of
the counterfeit coin of profession in reUgion,
yet some there are that have the power, the
reality of it, and that it is not an invention,
but there ia trath in it ; that the evincible
grace, the very Spirit of God, dweUa in the
hearts of trae beUevers ; that he hath a num.
ber, that do not only speak big, but do in.
deed, and in good earnest,^ despise the world,
and overcorae it, by his strength, Sorae raen
take delight to see some kind of beasts fight
together ; but to see a Christian mind en.
countering some great affUction, and con
quering it ; to see his valour in not sinking
at the hardeat distresses of this life, nor the
mos* affrightful end of it, the crueUest kinds
of death, for his sake ; this, as one said, dig
num Deo spectaculum, this is a combat that
God delights to look upon, and he is not a
raere beholder in it ; for it is the power of his
own grace that enables and supports the
Christian in aU those confiicts and tempta
tions. Through manifold temptations.] This
expresses a multitude of temptations, and
those too of divers kinds, many and mani
fold. It were no hard condition to have a
trial now and then, with long ease arid pro
sperity betwixt ; but to be plied with one
affliction at the heels of another, to have them
come thronging in by multitudes, and of
different kinds, uncouth unaccustomed evils,
such as JL Irian hath not been acquainted with
before, this is that which is often the portion
of those that are the beloved of God, (Psahn
xiii. 7.) Deep calleth unto deep, at ihe
noise of thy waterspouts ; all thy waves
and thy billows are gone over me.
Ye are in heaviness.] This the apostie
blames not, but airas at the moderating of it.
Seek not ^together to dry up this stream,
but toboimd it, and keep it within its banks,
Grace doth not destroy the Ufe of nature, but
p.dds to it a life more exceUent, yea, grace

doth not only permit, but requires some feel
ing of afflictions. There is an affected pride
of spirit in some men, instead of patience ;
suitable to the doctrine of the Stoics, as it is
usuaUy taken, they strive not to feel at aU
the afflictions that are on them : but this ia
to despise the correction of the Lord, which
is aUke forbidden as fainting under it, Heb.
xii. We should not stop our ears, but hear
ihe rod and him ihat hath appointed it, as
the prophet speaks, Mic. vi. 9. 'WTieie there
is no feeUng at aU, there can be no patience.
Consider it as the hand of God, and hence
argue the soul into submission, (Psal. xxxix.
9.) / waS durrib, I opened not my mouth,
because thou didst it. But this heaviness
it mitigated, and set as it were within its
banks, betwixt these two considerations : 1.
The utility ; 2. The brevity of it. The
profitableness, and the ahortneas of it.
. To a worldly raan great gain sweetens the
hardest labour ; and to a Christian, spiritual
profit and advantage raay do much to move
him to take with thoae afflictions weU that
are otherwiae very unpleasant, though they
are not joyous for ihe present ; yet this
allays the sorrow of thera, the fruit that
grows out of thera, ihat peaceable fi-uit of
righteousness, Heb. xii. 11.
A bundle of folly is in the heart of a
child, but ihe rod of correction shall beat it
out, saith Solomoii. Though the children
of God are truly, as our Saviour caUs them,
the children of wisdom ; yet being renewed
only in part, they are not altogether free from
those folUea that caU for this rod to beat
them out, and soraetiraes have such a bun
dle of follies, as require a bundle of rods to
be spent upon it, many and manifold afflic
tions. It is not an easy matter to be drawn from
nor to be beaten from the love of this world,
and this is that which God mainly requires
of his children, that they be not in love with
the world, nor the things of it ; for that is
contrary to the love of God, and so far as
that is entertained, this is wanting. And if
in the midst of afflictions they are aome-
times subject to thia disease, how would it
grow upon them with ease and prosperity ?
When they are beaten from one worldly
foUy or delight, they are ready, through na
ture's corraption, to lay hold upon some
other, being thrast out frora it at one door,
to enter at sorae other : And as children
uriwiUing to be weaned, if one breast be im
bittered, they seek to the other ; and there
fore there must be somewhat^ to drive from
that too. Thus it is clear, there is need,
yea great need, of afflictions, yea of many
afflictions, that the aainta be chastened by
ihe Lord, ihat they may not be condemned
with the world, 1 Cor, xi. 32.
Many resemblances there are for illustra
tion of this tmth, in things both of natiiw

VEU. C]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

93

and of art ; sorae common, and others
choicer ; but these are not needful. The
«xperience of Christiana teUs them, how
easily they grow proud, and secure, and car
nal, with a Uttle ease, and when outward
things go smoothly with thera ; and there
fore what unhappineaa were it for them to be
very happy that way ?
Let us team then, that in regard of our
present fraUty there is need of afflictions,
and so not promise ourselves exemptipn,
how calm soever our seas are for the present ;
and then for the number, and measure, and
weight of them, to resign that wlioUy into
the hands of our wise Father and Physician,
who perfectly knows our mould, and our
maladies, and what kind and quantity of
chastiseraent is needful for our cure.
Though now for a season (if need be)
ye are in 'heaviness.] The other conside
ration that moderates this heaviness is its
shortilfess. Because jve wiUingly forget
etemity, therefore this moraent seems much
in our eyes ; but if we could look upon it
aright, of how Uttle concernment is it, what
be our condition here ! If it were as prospe-
roua aa we could wiah or iraagine, it is but
fpr a little season ; the rich man in the goa
pel talked of many yeara, but Thou fool,
this night shall thy soul be required of thee,
waa the longest period. The raany years
-quickly drawn to a very great abateraent,
and, if fuU of pains and griefs, those do help
to put an end to themaelvea, and hasten to
it. . Then weU might St. Austin say, Hie
ure, cade, modo ibi parcas. Use me here
as pleaseth thee, so aa that hereafter it may
be weU with me.
Wherein.] This word, though it can
not faU araiss, being referred to any particu
lar to whicli interpreters have appropriated
it, yet it is rather to be taken as relative to
the whole complex sense of the preceding
verses, concerning the hope of glory. -In
this thing ye rejoice, that ye are begotten
again, that there is such an inheritance, and
that you are made heirs of it ; that it is kept
for you, and you for it; that nothing can
come betwixt you and it, to disappoint you
of possessing and enjoying it, though there
be many deserts and mountains, and seas in
the way, yet you are ascertained, that you
shall corae safely thither.
This is but one thirig, but the cause of
your grief is temptations and manifold
temptations, yet this one thing weighs down
aU that raultitude ; the heart l)eing grieved
in one thing, naturaUy looks out for its ease
to some other; and tliere is usuaUy some
what that is a man's great comfort, that he
tums his thoughts to, . when he is crossed and
afiUcted in other things : But herein Ues the
foUy of the world, that the things they
choose for their refuge and comfort, are such
us may change themselves, and tum into

discomfort and sorrow ; but the godly man,
that is, the fool in the natural raan's eyes,
goes beyond aU the rest in his wise choice
in this. He rises above aU that is subject
to changej casts his anger within the vaU.
fhat in which he rejoiceth is stiU matter of
joy unmoveable and unalterable, though not
only his estate, but the whole world, were
turned upside down^ yet thia is the same, or
rather in the Psalmist's words. Though the
earth were removed, and the greatest
mou7itains cast into the sea, yet will not
we fear, Psal. xlvi. 2. When we shall
receive that rich and pure, and abiding in
heritance, that salvation that shaU be reveal
ed in the last time, and when time itself
shaU cease to be, then there shaU be no more
reckoning of our joys by days and hours,
but they shaU run paraUel with etemity.
When all our love, that is scattered and
parceUed out upon the vanities araongst
which we are here, shaU be united and ga-
thered into one, and fixed upon God, and the
soul fiUed with the deUght ofhis presence.
The sorrow was Umited and bounded by
these considerations we spoke of: but this
joy, this exultation, and leaping for joy, for
sq it is, ia not bounded, it cannot be too
rauch ; its measure is to know no measure.
The afflictions, the matter of heaviness, are
but a transient touch of pairi ; but that
whereon thia joy ia built is most permanent,
the measure of it cannot exceed, for the
raatter of it is infinite and eternal, beyond
all hyperbole.. There is no expression we
have can reach it, rauch less go beyond it ;
itself is the hyperbole, stiU surpassing all
that can be said of it. Even in the raidst of
heaviness itself, such is this joy that can
maintain itaelf in the depth of aorrow ; this
oil of gladness stiU swima above and cannot
be drowned by aU the floods of affliction, yea,
it is often most sweet in the greatest distress.
Then the soul reUshes spiritual joy best,
when it is not glutted with worldly deUghts,
but flnds thera tumed into bitterness.
For appUcation. In that we profess our
selves Christians, we aU pretend to he the
sons of God, a;nd so heirs of this glory ; and
if each man were particularly asked, he
would say, he hoped to attain it : But if
there were nothing else, this may abundant.
ly convince us, that the greatest part of us
delude ourselves, and are deceived in this ;
for how few are there that do reaUy find this
height of joy, gladness, and exultation, in
their thoughts and hopes of it, that do daily
more refresh and glad themselves with the
consideration of that which is laid up for
them above, than with aU their enjoyments
here below !
. Consider how the newa of some smaU out
ward advantage that is to come to us, raises
our light vain hearts, and makes them leap
within us ; and vet this news of a kingdoiE

u

A. GOMjVIENTARY UPON

[chap. I,

prepared for us. If we be indeed beUevers,
^stirs us not, our hearts are as Uttle affected
With it as if it concemed us not at all : and
this is too clear an evidence against us, that
indeed it concerns us not, our portion as yet
ia riot in it.
In what a fool'a paradise wiU raen'be with
the thoughts of worthless things, and such
things too as they shaU never obtain, nor
ever shaU have any further being than what
they have in their fancy ! And how wUl
men frequently roU over in their minds the
thoughts of any pleasing good they hope
for I And yet we that say, we have hopes
of the glory to come, can pass many days
without one hour spent in the rejoicing
thoughts of the happiness we look for. If
any of a mean condition for the preaent were
made sure to become very rich, and be ad
vanced to great honour within a week, and
after that to Uve to a great age in that high
esfate, enjoying l^ealth and aU imaginable
pleasures ; judge ye, whether in the few
days betwixt the knowledge of those news
arid the enjoying thera, the thoughts of what
he were to attain to, would not be frequent
with him, and be always welcome. There
is no comparison betwixt aU we can imagine
this way, and the hopes we speak of: and
yet how seldora are our thoughts upon those,
and how faint and slender is our rejoicing in
thera ! Can we deny that it is unbelief of
those things that causeth this neglect and
forgetting of them ? The discourse, the
tongue of men and angels, cannot beget di.
vine beUef of the happiness to come ; only
he that gives it, gives faith Ukewise to ap.
prehend it, and lay hold upon it, and upon
our beUeving to be fiUed with joy in the
hopes of it.
Vkr. 7. That the trial of yottr faith, being much
more precious than of gold that perisheth, though
it be tried with fire, might be foUnd Unto praise,
and honour, and glory, at the appearhig of Jesus
Christ.
" The way of the juat," says Solomon,
. " is aa the shining light, that shineth more
and more to the perfect day." StiU mak
ing forward, and ascending towards perfec.
, tion, moving as fast when they are clouded
with affliction as at any time else ; yea,, aU
that aeema to work against them, furthers
them. Those graces that would possibly
grow heavy and unwieldy by too much ease,
are held in breath, and incirease their acti
vity and strengtli by conflict. Divine grace,
even in the heart of weak and sinful man, is
an invincible thing. Drown it in the watera
of adversity, it rises more beautiful, as not
being drowned indeed, but only washed;
throw" it into the fumace of fiery trials, it
comes out purer, and loses nothing but the
dross, which our corrupt nature mixes with
it. Thus here the apostle expounds tlie if
fteed be of the forraSr verse, and so justifies

the joy in afflictions, which there he speaKs
of, by their utility and faith's advantage by
thera ; it is so tried that it shall appear in
its fuU brightness at the revelation of Jesus
Christ. The peculiar treasure of i Christian being
the grace that he receives from heaven, and
particularly that Sovereign grace of faith,
whatsoever he can be assured wiU better him
any way in, this,' he wiU not only bear it pa^
tiently, but gladly erabraoe it, Rom. v. 3.
Therefore the apoade sets this before his
brethren in those words of this verse, where
is, 1, The worth and exceUency of faith ;
2. The lisefulness of temptations in relation
to it. .
1st, The worth and exceUency of faith.
The trial of faith is caUed more precious, a
work of more worth than the trial of gold,
because faith itself is of raore value thaa
gold ! The apostle chooses this comparison,,
as fitting his purpose for both, for th? illus^
tration of the worth of faith, and Ukewise
the use of temptations, representing the one
by gold, and the other by the trying of gold'
in the firi?.
The worth of gold is, 1. Real, the purest
and most precious of aU metals, having many
exceUent properties beyond thera, as they
that write of the nature of gold observe. 2.
Far greater in the esteem and opinion of
men. See how men hurry up and down,
over sea and land, unwearied in their pur.
suit, with hazard of Ufe, and often with the
loss of Uprightness and a good conscience ;
and not only thus eateera it in itself, but
make it the rule of their esteem one bf ano.
ther, valuing men less or more, as they are
more or less furnished with it. And we see
at what a height that is; for things we
would commend much, we borrow its name
to them, viz. golden mediocrity ^ and that,,.
age. which they would caU the best of aU,
thty name it the golden age i And as Se-
neca observes, describing heavenly, things,
as Ovid the sun's palace and chariot, stiU
gold is the -word for all.
And the holy Scriptures, descending to
our reach, do set forth the riches ofthe new
Jerusalera by it. Rev. xxi. and the excel-
lency of Christ, Cant. v. II, 14. And here
the preciousness of faitii, whereof Christ is the
object, is said to be more precious than gold.
IwiU not insist on the paraUel of- faith '
with gold, in the other quaUties of it, as that
it is pure and sdUd as gold, and that it is
most ductile and maUeable as gold ; beyond
aU other metals, it pUes any way with the
will of God. But then faith truly enriches
the soul: And as gold answers aU things, so
faith gives the soul propriety to aU the rich
consolations of the Gospel, to aU the pro.
miaes of life and salvation, to aU needful
blessings ; it draws virtue frora Christ tc
strengthen itself, and aU other graces.

VEII. 7-]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

25

And thus il is not only precious as gold,
but goes fat above the comparison ; it is
more precious, yea, muoh more pfeoious, 1 .
In its original ; the other is digged out of
the bowels of the earth, but the mine of this
gold is above, it coraes ftom heaven. 2. In
its nature, answerable to its original, it is
immaterial, spiritual, and pure. We refine
gold and make it purer, but when we receive
faith pure of itself^ we mix dross with it,
and raake it impure by the alloy of unbe
lief. 3. In its endurance, flowing from the
former, it perisheth not. Gold is a thing
in itself corruptible and perishing, and to
particular owners, it perisheth in their loss
of it, being deprived of it any way.
Other graces are Ukewise tried in the same
fumace ; but faith is naraed as the root of
aU the rest. Sharp afflictions give a Chris
tian a trisd of his love to God, whether it be
single, and for himself or not ; for then it
wiU be the same when he strikes, as when
he embraces, and in the fire of affliction wiU
rather grow the hotter, and be more taken off
frora the world, and set upon hira. Again,
the grace of patience is put particularly upon
rlrid in distresses. But both these spririg
from faitii. For love rises from a right and
strong belief of the goodness of God ; and
patience frorii a perauaaion of the wisdom
and love of God, and the truth of hia pro
mises. He hath said, / will not fail thee,
and that we shall not be tempted above our
strength, and he wiU give the iaaue. Now
the beUef df theae things cauaes patience.
The trial of faith worketh patience^ Jam. i.
S. For therefore doth the Chriatian resign
up hiraself, and aU that concerns him, his
trials, the measure and length of them aU,
unto God's disposal, because he knows that
he is in the hands of a wiae and loving Fa
ther. Thus the trial of these, and other par
ticular graces, doth stiU resolve into this,
and is comj)rised under the trial of faith.
This brings us,
2dly, To the usefulness of temptations in
relation to it.'
This trial, as that of gold, may be for a
two-fold end ; 1, For experiment of the truth
and pureness of a Christian's faith. 2. For
refining it yet more, and to raise it to a
higher pitch or degree of pureness.
1. The fumace of affliction shows upright
real faith to be such indeed, reraaining still
the sarae even inthe flre, the same thatit
was, undiminished, as good gold loses none
of its quantity in the' fire. Doubtless many
are deceived in time of eaae and prosperity
with imaginary faith and fortitude : So that
there may be stiU sorae doubt while a man
ia underset with outward helps, as riches,
friends, esteem, &c, whether he learis upon
those, or upon God, -who is an invisible sup.
port, though stronger tlian aU that, are visible,
and is the peculiar' and alone stay of faith in

aU conditions. But when all these outward
props are plucked away from a man, then it
will be manifest, whether something else up
holds him or not ; for if there be nothing
else, then he falls ; but if his mind stands
firm, and unremoved as before, then it is evi
dent he laid not his weight upon these things
he had then about him ; but was built upon
a foundation,, though not seen, which is able
alone to stay him, although he be not only
fmstrated of aU other supports, but beaten
upon with storms and tempests, as our Sa.
viour aays, the house fell not, because it was
founded on a rock, Matth. vii. 25,
This testified the truth of David's faith,
who found it staying him upon God, when
there was nothing else near that could do it,
/ Aad fainted, unless I had believed, Psal.
xxvii. 13 ; so in his strait, 1 Sam. xxx. 6,
where it is said that David was greatly dis
tressed ; but he encouraged himself in the
Lord his God. Thus Psal. Ixxui. 26, My
flesh and my heart faileth ; but God is the
strength of my heart and portion for ever.
The heart's natural strength of spirit and
resolution riiay bear up under outvard weak
ness, or the failing of the flesh : but when
the heart itself fails, that is, the strength bf
the flesh, what shall strengthen it ? nothing
but God, who is the strength of the heart
and its portion for ever. Thus faith work.
eth alone, when the case suits that of the
Prophet's, Hab. iU, 17, Although the fig- ,
tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be
in the vines j &c, yet, ver. 18, / will rejoice
in ihe Lord, I will joy in the God of my
salvation. In spiritual trials that are the sharpest and
raost fiery of aU, when the furnace is within
a man, when God doth not only shut up his
loving.Jcindness frora its feeling, but seeras to
shut it up in hot displeasure, when he writes
bitter things against it ; yet then to dejSInd
npon hun, and wait for his salvation, this is
not only a tme, but a strong, and very re.
fined faith indeed, and the more he smites,
.he more to cleave to hira. WeU, might he
say, When I am tried, I shall come forth
as goldj who could say that word. Though
he slay me, yet will I trust in him ; though
I saw, as it were, his hand lifted up to de.
stroy rae, yet from that same hand would I
expect salvation.
2. As the fumace shews faith to be what
it is, so also it betters it, and makea it more
precious and purer than it was.
The graces of the Spirit, as they come
from the hand of God that infuses them, are
nothing but pureness : but being put into a
heart where siri dweUs, (which tiU the body
be dissolved and taken to pieces, cannot be
fuUy purged out,) there they are raixed with
corruption and dross. And particularly faith
is (nixed with unbelief, and love of earthly
things, and dept!ridence upon the creature, if

as

A COMMENTARV UPON

[cuap. ft

not more than God, yet together with him :
#.aud for this is the fumace needful, that the
soul may be purified from this dross, and
made more subUme and spiritual in believ
ing. It ia a hard task, and many times
comes but alowly forward, to teach the heart
by discourse and speculatioato aet loose from
the world at all aides, not to cleave to the
best things in it, though we be compassed
about with them, though riches do i-norease,
yet nol to set our hearis on them, Psal. Ixii.
10, not to trust in such uncertain things,
I Tim. vi. 17, as they are, as the apoatle
speaka. Therefore God ia pleased to choose
the more effectual way to teach his own the
right and pure exercise of faith, either by
withholding or withdrawing thoae thinga
from them. He makea them reUah the
sweetness of spiritual comfort, by depriving
thera of those outward comforta whereon they
were in moat danger to have doated to ex.
ceas, and so to have forgotten theraselves and
him ; when they are reduced to necessity,
and experimentaUy trained up, easily to let
go their hold of any thing earthly, and to
stay theraaelves only upon their Rock, thia
is the very refining of their faith, by those
losses and afflictions wherewith they are
exercised. They that leam bodily exercises,
as fencing, &c. are not taught by sitting
StUl, and hearing rules, or seeing others
practise, but they leam by exercising thera.
selves. The way to profit in the art of be.
lieving, or coming to this spiritual activity
of faith, is, to be often put to that work in
the raost difficult way, to make up aU wants
and losses in God, and to sweeten the bitter.
est griefs with his loving kindness.
Might be found unto praise, and ho
nour, and glory.] This is the end that is
intended, and shaU be certainly obtained by
aU these hot trials. Faith shall corae through
thein aU, and shall be found unto praise,
&c. An unsikilful beholder raay think it
strange to see gold thrown into the fire, and
left there for a tirae ; but he that puts it
there would be loth to loae it ; hia purpoae is
to make some costly piece of work of it
Every beUever gives himaelf to Chriat, and
he undertakes to present them blameless to
the Father; not one of them shaU be lost.
nor one drachm of their faith ; they shaU be
found, and their faith shaU be found when
he appears. That faith that is here in the
fumace shaU be then raade up into a crown
of pure gold, it shall be found unto praise,
and honour, and glory.
This praise, and honour, and glory, may
be referred to believers themaelvea, according
to the apostle St. Paul's expression, Rom.
ii. 7, or to Christ that appears : But the
two wUl agree weU together, that it be both
to their praise, and to the praise of Christ ;
for certainly all their praise and glory shall
terrainate in the glory of their head Christ,

who is God blessed for ever ; they have each
their crown, but their honour is, to cast them
aU down before hia throne. He shall be
glorified in his saints, and admired in them
that believe. They shaU be glorious in him ;
and therefore in aU their glory he shaU be
glorified : For as they have derived' their
glory frora hira, it shaU aU retum back to
him again.
At the appearance of Christ Jesus,]
This denotes the time when this shaU come
to pasa ; for Christ is faithful and true ;
he hath promised to come again, and to
judge the world in righteousness, and he will
come, and wiU not tarry ; he shaU judge'
righteously in that day, who was himself un.
righteously judged here on earth. It is call.
ed the revelation ; aU other things shaH be
revealed in that day, the moat hidden things,
' good and evil unveiled ; but it is erainently
' the day of his revelation, it shaU be by his
Ught, by the brightness of his coraing, that
! aU other things shaU be revealed ; but he
hiraself shaU be the worthiest sight of aU :
! AU eyes shaU behold hira. He shaU then
gloriously appear before aU men and angels,
and shall by aU be acknowledged to be the
Son of God, and judge of the world : ~ Some
ahaU with joy know him, and acknowledge
hira to be so, others to their horror and-'
araazement. How beautiful shaU he be to
' those that love him, when he as the glorious
Head shaU appear with his whole body mys-
tical together with him !
Then the glory and praise that aU the
saints shaU be honoured with, shaU recom.
pense fuUy aU the scorns and ignomiiiies,
and distresses they have met with here. And
they shaU shine the brighter for them. Oh !
if we considered often of that solemn day,
how Ught should we set by the opinions of
men, and aU outward hardships that can be.
fal us ! How eaaily should we digest dis-
praise and dishonour here, and pass through
aU cheerfully, provided we may be then
found in him, and so partakers of praise, and
glory, and hono-ur, in that day of his ap-
pearing 1
Ve ft. 8. 'Whom having not seen, ye love ; in whom,
though now ye see him not, yet believing, ^e re
joice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory :
VEB. 9. Receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of your souls.
It is a paradox to the world that the apos-
tie hath asserted, that there is a joy that caii
subsist in the midst of sorrow ; therefore he
insists in the confirmation of it ; and in all
thoae words proves it to the full, yea with
advantage, that the saints have not only
some measure of joy in the griefs that abound
upon them here, but exceUent and erainent
joy, such as makes good aU that can be said
of it, cannot be spoke too much of, for it is
unspeakable^ not too much magnified, ifor it
is glorious.

VEK. 8, 9.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

27

To evidence the truth of this, and to con
firra his brethren in the experienced know
ledge of it,- he expreaaea here more particu.
larly and distincfly the causes of this their
joy, which are,
I, The object or matter of it ; The ap
prehension and appropriation of that object ;
¦which two conjoined, are the entire cause of
aU rejoicing.
1. The abject is Jesus Christ, ver. 8, and
the salvation purchased by hira, ver. 9, for
these two cannot be severed, and theae two
veraea that speak of them, require, aa ia evi.
dent by their connection, to be considered
together. 2. The apprehension of these,
set forth, 1. Negatively, not by bodily sight ;
2. Positively, whereas that raight seem, to
abate the certainty and liveUness of their re
joicing, that it is of things they had not
seen, nor do yet see, that is abundantiy raade
up by three for one, each of them more ex
ceUent than the mere bodUy sight of Christ
in the flesh, which many had, which were
never the better by it ; the three are, those
three prime Christian graces, faith, love, and
hope ; the two former in ver. 8, the tiiird in
ver. 9. Faith in Christ begetting love to
him, and both these giving assured hope of
salvation by him, raaking it as certain totherii,
as if it were ^eady in their hand, and they
in possession of it. And frora aU those together
results this exultation, or leaping for joy, joy
unspeakable and full of glory.
This is that one thing that so much con
cerns us, and therefore we mistake very far,
and forget our own highest interest too much,
when we either speak or hear of it sUghtly,
and apply not our hearts to it. What is it
that aU our thoughts and endeavoura drive
at ? What means aU that we are doling in
the world ? Though we take several waya to
it, and wrong ways for the most part, yea,
such waya as lead' not to it, but set us far
ther off frora it ; yet that which we aU seek
after, by aU our labour under the sun, is
something that may be matter of content
ment and rejoicing to us when we have at
tained it ; Now here it is, and in vain is it
sought for elsewhere. And for this end it is
represented to you, that it may be yours, if
ye wiU entertain it ; not only that you may
know this to be a truth, that in Jesus Christ
is laid up trae consolation and rejoicing, that
he is the magazine and treasury of it, but
that you may know how to bring hira home
into your hearts, and lodge hira there, and
so to have the apring of joy within you.
That which gives fuU joy to the soul raust
be soiuething that is higher and better than
itself. In a word, he that made it, can o ily
make it glad after this manner, with unspeak
able and, glorious joy. But the aoul re.
maining guUty of rebelUon against him, and
unreconciled, cannot behold him but as an
enemy ; any belief that it can have of him

while it ia in that posture, is not such aa can
fetch love and hope, and so rejoicing ; but
such as the faith of devUs produceth, only be
getting terror and trembling. But the light
of his countenance shining in the face of
his Son the Mediator, glads the heart ; and
it is the looking upon him so, that causeth
the soul to believe, and love, and hope, and
rejoice. Therefore the apostle, Eph. ii. 12,
in Ilis description of the estate of the Gen
tiles before Christ waa preached to them,
joins theae together, without Christ, that
was the cause of aU the rest ; therefore, with.
out comfort in the promises, without hope,
and without God in the world ; so he is here
by our apostle expressed as the object. In
all these therefore he is the matter of our joy,
because our faith, and love, and hope of sal
vation, do centre in him.
The aposde writing to the dispersed Jews,
many of whom had not known nor seen Christ
in the flesh, commends their love and faith,
for this reason, that it did not depend upon
bodily sight, but was pure and spiritual,
and made them of the number of those that
our Saviour himself pronounced blessed, who
have not seen, and yet believe. You saw
him not when he dwelt amongat men, and
walking to and fro, preaching and working
miracles. Many of those diat did then hear
and see him, beUeved not ; yea, they scoffed,
and hated, and peraecuted him, and in the
end cmcified him : You that have seen none
of aU those things, yet having heard the gos.
pel that declares him, you have believed.
Thus observe, the working, or not work.
ing of faith, doth not depend upon the dif
ference of the external ministry and gifts of
men : For what greater difference can there
be that way, than betwixt the master and
the servanta, betwixt the great Prophet him
self, and his weak sinful messengers ? and
yet many of those that saw and heard him
in person were not converted, believed not
in him ; and thousands that never saw him,
were converted by his aposties, and, as it
seeras, even some of those that were some
way accessory to his death, yet were brought
to repentance by this same apostie's serraon.
Acts ii.
Leam then to look above the outward mi.
nistry and any difference that in God's dis
pensation can be there, and know, that if
Jesus Christ himself were on earth, and now
preaching amongst us, yet raight his incom
parable words be unprofitable to us, not be
ing mixed with faith in the heiirers. But
where that is, the meaneat and the moat des-
piseable conveyance of his message, received
with humiUty and affection, will work bless
ed effects.
Whom not seeing yet believing.'] Faith
elevates the aoul not only above aense, and
sensible things, but above reason itself. As
lieason corrects the errors that sense might

38 occasion ; so supernatural faith corrects the
errors of natural reason, judging according to
, sense. The sun seeras less than the wheel of a
chariot : but reason teaches the philosopher,
that it is rauch bigger than the whole earth,
and the cause why it seems so little is its
great distance.
The naturaUy wise man, is as far deceived
by this carnal reason in his estimate of Jesus
Christ the sun of righteousness, arid the
cause ia the same, his great distance from
him, as the Psalmist speaks of the wicked,
(Psal. X. 5.) Thy judgments are far above
out of his sight. He accounts Christ and
his glory a amaUer raatter than his own gain,
honour, or pleasure ; for these are near him,
.and he sees their quantity to the fuU, and
counts them bigger, yea far more worth than
they are indeed. But the apostle Paul, and
aU that are enlightened by the sarae spirit,
they know by faith, which is divine reason,
that the excellency of Jesus Christ far sur-
pasaes the worth of the whole earth, and aU
things earthly, Phil. iii. 7, 8.
To give a right assent to the goapel of
Christ is iraposaible without divine and sav
ing faith, infused in the soul, to believe that
the eternal Son of God clothed himself with
human flesh, and dwelt amongst men in a
tabernacle Uke theirs; and suffered death in
the flesh, that he who was Lord of life, hath
freed us from the sentence of etemal death,
that he broke the bars .and chains of death,
and rose again, that he went up into heaven,
and there at the Father's right hand sits in
our fleah, and that glorified above the angels.
This is the great mystery of godliness. And
a part of this raystery is, that he is believed
on in the world, 1 'Tim. iii. 16. This na
tural men may discourse of, and that very
knowingly, and give a kind of natural credit
to it, as to a history that may be true ; but
firmly to believe, that there is divi/ie truth
in 'all these things, and to have a persuasion
of it stronger than of the very things we see
with our eyes ; such an assent as this, is the
pecuUar work of the Spirit of God, and is
certainly aaving faith. '
The aoul that ao believes, cannot choose
but love ; it is coraraonly true, the eye is the
ordinary door by which love entera into the
soul, and it is true in this love : though it is
denied to the eye of sense, yet you see it is
ascribed to the eye of faith, though you have
not seen him you love him, because you be
lieve ; which is to see him spiritually. Faith
indeed is distinguished frora that vision that
is in glory ; but it is the vision of the king
dom of grace, it is the eye of the new crea
ture, that quick-sighted eye, that pierces aU
the visible heavens, and sees above thera,
that looks to things that are not seen, 2 Cor.
iv., 18, and is the evidence of things not
aden, Heb. xi. 1, that sees him that is in-

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap.

visible, ver. 27- It is possible that one may
be much loved upon the report of his worth
and virtues, and ulpon a picture of hira, Uve-
ly drawn, before sight of the party so com.
mended and represented ; but certainly when
he is seen, and found answerable to the for
mer, it raises the affection that it first begun
to a far greater height. We have the re-'
port of the perfections of Jesus Christ in the
gospel ; yea, so clear a description of him,
that it gives a picture of him, and that, to- .
gether with the sacraraents, are the only law.
ful and the only Uvely pictures of our Sa-
viour. Gal. iii, 1. Now faith beUeves this
report, and beholds this picture, and so lets
in die love of Christ to the soul ; but fur.
ther, it gives a particular experimental know
ledge of Christ, and acquaintance with him..
It causes the soul to find.aU that is spokeii,
of hira in the Word, and his beauty thera
represented, to be abundantly true, raakes il ,
reaUy taste of his sweetness, and by that
possesses the heart more strongly with his,
love, persuadingitof the truth of those things,
not by reasons and arguraents, but by an in.
expressible kind of evidence, that they only '
know that have it. Faith perauades a Chris- ¦
tian of these two things, that the philosopher
gives as the cause of aU love, beauty and
propriety, the loveliness of Christ in himself,
and our interest in him.
The former it effectuates, not only by the
first apprehending and believing of those his
excellencies and beauty, but by frequent be
holding of him, and eyeing him in whom aU
perfection dwells, and looks so oft on him,
tiU it sets the very impression of his image,
as it were upon the soul, that it can never be
blotted out aud forgot. The latter it doth by
that particular uniting act, which makes him
our God and our Saviour. We proceed there-
fore to consider,
2dly, The appropriation of the object, ye
love. ] The distinctions that sorae make of
love, need not be taken as of different kinds,
but different actings of the same love, by
which we may try our so much pretended
love of Chriat, which in truth ia so rarely
found. There will then be in thia love, if it
be right, these three quaUties, good-will, dC'
light, and desire.
1st, Good-will, eamest wishing, and as
we can, promoting God's glory, and stirring ,
up others so to do. They that seek more
their own things than the things of Jesus
Christ, raore their own praiae and esteem
than his, are strangers to this divine love !
For it seeks not her own things. This bit.
ter root of self-love is raost hard to pluck
up : This strongest and sweetest love of
Christ alone doth it actuaUy, though gradu
ally. This love raakes the aoul, as the lower
heaven, slow in its own motion, raost swifl
in the motion of that first thatwheelsitaboiit;
so the higher degree of lOve, the raore switla

VER. 8, 9.1

THE FIRST EPISTLE 01' PETER.

29

It loves the. hardest tasks and greateat diffi-
cultiea, where it may perform God service,
eitiier in doing, or in suffering for him. It
is strong as death, and many waters can
not quench ii, Cant. vui. 6, 7- The great- !
er-the taak is, the more real ia the teatiraony
and expression of love, and therefore the more
acceptable to God.
2dly, There is in true love a complacency
ai>d delight in God ; a conformity to his
wiU ; loving what he loves : It is studious
of his wiU, ever seeking to know more dear.
ly what it is that is most pleasing to him,
contracting a Ukeness to God in aU his ac
tions, by conversing with him, frequent con
templating of God, and looking onhisbeauty.
As the eye lets in this affection, so it serves
it constantiy, and readUy looks that way that
love directs it. T-hus the soul that ia pos-
aeased with this love of Jesus Christ, the
aoul which hath its eye rauch upon him, of
ten thinking on his fonner sufferings and
present glory, the more it looks upon Christ,
the more it loves ; and stiU the more it loves,
the more it deUghts to look upon- him.
Zdly, There ia in true love a desire ; for
it is but smaU beginnings and tastes of his
goodness that the aoul hath here, therefore it
is StiU looking out and longing for the- day
of marriage ; the time is sad and w-earisorae,
and aeems much longer than it is while it is
detained here. / desire to be dissolved,
saith St. Paul, and to be with Christ, Phil.
i. 28. God is the sum of all things lovely. Thus
excellently Greg. Nazian. expresseth hiraself,
Orat. 1, " If I have any possessions, health,
credit,, learning, this is all the contentment
I have of them, that I have somewhat I may
despise for Christj who is totus desiderabi-
lis, et totum, desiderabile.^'' And this love
is the sum of aU he requires of us ; it is that
which makes aU our meanest services accep
table, and ivithout which aU we offer to him
is distasteful. God doth not only deserve
our love by his matchless exceUencies and
beauty, but by his matchless love to us, and
that is the strongest loadstone of love. He
hath loved me, said the apostle. Gal, ii. 20.
Hpw appears that ? in no less , than this.
He hath given himself for me. Certainly
then there is no clearer character of our love
than this, to give ourselyes to him,- that hath
so loyed us, and given himself for us.
This affection must be bestowed some-
wnere : There is no, man tmt hath some
' prime choice, soraewhat that is~ the predo
minant delight of his soul ; will it riot then
ibe ouriwisdom to make the -ivortliiest choice ?
aeeing it is offered us, and, is extreme foUy
to reject it. i
Grace doth not pluck up by the rpots, and
whoUy destroy the natural passions of the
mjrid, because they are distempered by sin :
that were an extreme remedy, to cure by kiU-

ing, and heal by cutting oflT : No, but it
corrects the distemper in them ; it dries not
up this main stream of love, but purifies it
from the mud it is fuU of ifl its wrong course,
or calls it to its right channel, by which it
mayrun into happiness, and erapty itself
into the ocean of goodness. The Holy Spirit
turna the love of the aoul towarda God in
Christ, for in that way only can it apprehend
his love : So then Jeaua Christ ia the first
object of this divine love ; he ia medium uni
onis, through whom God conveys the aense
of his love to the soul, and receives back its
love to him.
And if we wiU consider his incomparable
beauty, we may look on it in the holy Scrip
tures, particularly in that divine song of loves,
wherein Solomon borrows all the beauties of
the creatures, dips his pencil in all their se
veral exceUencies, to set him forth unto us,
who is the Chief of ten thousands. There
is an inseparable intermixture of love with
belief, and a pious affection, receiving divine
tnith ; so that, in effect, as we distinguish
them, they are rautuaUy strengthened, the
one by the other, and so though' it seem a
circle, it is a divine one, and faUs not under
censure of the School's pedantry. If you
ask, how shaU I do to love? I answer, be
lieve. If you ask, how shall I believe ? I
answer, love. Although these expressions to
a carnal mind are altogether unsavoury, by
grbaa mistaking thera ; yet to a soul taught
to read and hear them, by any measure of
that same spirit of love wherewith they were
penned, they are fiiU of heavenly and unut-
terable sweetness.
Many directions, and means of begetting
and increasing this love of Christ may be
here offered, and they that delight in num
ber maymultiply them ; but sure this one
will comprehend the greatest and best part,
if not aU oi thera, Believe, and you shall love ;
believe much, and you shall love much ; la
bour for strong and deep persuasions of the
glpripus things that are speken of Christ, and
this wiU cpmmand love. Certainly did raen
indeed believe his wprth, they wpuld accprd-
ingly Ipve hira ; fpr the reaspnable creature
cannpt but affect that nipst which it firmly
beUeves te be wprthy pf affection. O ! this
mischievous unbelief is that which makes the
heart cold and dead towards God. Seek
then to believe Christ's exceUency in himself,
and his love to us, and our interest in him,
agd this wiU kindle subh a fire in the heart
as wiU raake it ascend in a sacrifice of love
tp him.
Many signs likewise pf this Ipve may be
multiplied, accprding tP the many fruits and
wprkings of it : but in them aU, itself is its
own most infaUible evidence.' When thet
aoul finds that aU its obedience ^and endea
vour to keep the commands of Jesus Christ,
which hiraself makes its character, do iioa

30

A COMMENTARY UPON

[ciiAr i.

from love, then it is true and sincere : For
do or suffer what yPu will, withput love all
passes for nothing ; aU are cyphera without
it, they signify nothing, 1 Cpr. xiii.
This is the message ef the Gespel, and
that which the ministry airas at, and there.
fore the miniatera ought to be auitors, not
for themselves, but for Christ, to espouse
souls to him, and to bring in many hearts to
love him. And certainly this is the most
compendious way to persuade to aU other
Christian duties, this is to converse 'with
Jesus Christ ; and therefore where his love
is, no other incentive will be needful : For
love deUghts in- the presence and converse of
the party loved. If we are to persuade to
duties of the second table, the sura of those
is love to our brethren, resulting from the
love of Christ, which diffuseth such a sweet
ness into the soul, that it is aU love, and
meekness, and gentleness, and long suffer
ing. If times be for suffering, love wiU make
the soul npt pnly bear, but welcpme the bit-
tereat afflictipns of Ufe, and the hardest kinds
of death for his sake. In a word, there is
in love a sweet constraint, or tying of the
heart tp aU obedience and duty.
The Ipve pf Gpd ia requisite in ministers,
for their preaching pf the werd ; sp our Sa
viour to St. Peter, Jphn xxi. 15, Peter,
lovest thou me ? then feed my lambs. It
is requisite for the people that they receive
the tmth in the love of it, and that Christ
preached may be entertained in the soul,
and erabraced by faith and love.
You that have made choice pf Chriat for
ypur love, let not your hearta alip out, to re
new your wonted baae faraiUarity with ain ;
for that wiU bring new bitterness to ypur
souls, and at least for soraetiraes wiU de
prive you of the sensible favour of your be
loved Jeaua. DeUght always in God, and
give him your whole heart ; for he deaerves
it aU, and ia a satisfying good to it. The
largest heart is aU of it top strait fpr the
riches pf cpnsolation that he, brings with
him. Seek to increase in this love ; and
though it is at firat weak, , yet labour to find
it daily rise higher, and burn hotter arid
clearer, and cnnsume the dress pf earthly
desires. Receiving the end of your faith.] Al
thpugh the soul that beUeves and loves, is
put in present poasession of God, as far aa it
is capable in its sojourning here ; yet it de
sires a fuU enjo3Tnent, which it cannot at
tain to, without rerapving hence. While
we are present in the body, we are absent
from the Lord, saith the appstie. And be-
cause they are assured of that happy ex.
change, that being united and freed of this
body, they shaU be present with the Lord,
having his own wprd for it, that where he
.ia, tliere they shall be also ; this begets

such an aaaured hope, as bears the name
of possession. Therefpre it is aaid here,
'receiving the end of your faith.
Thia receiving Ukewiae flpws frpm faith.
Faith apprehends the present truth ef the
divine promises, and sp makes the things to
cpme present ; and hppe looks out to their
after accomplishment : Which 'if the pro-
miaea be true, aa faith avera,' then hope hath
good reason firmly to expect. This desire
and hope are the very wheels of the soul that
carry it on, and faith the common axis on
which they rest.
In the words there are twp things : 1.
The gpod hoped for, in Christ sp believed on
and Ipved : 2. The assuredness pf the-hope ¦
itself, yea, it is as sure as if it were already
accomplished. I, As for the gopd hoped for, it cpnsists,
1. In the nature pf it, viz. the salvatioii-of
iheir soul ; 2. Iri a relative property of it,
the end of their faiths
\st, The nature of it is, salvation, and
salvation of the soul ; it imports fuU delive
rance frpm all kinds pf raisery, and the safe
ppsseasipn pf perfect happiness, when the
spul ahaU be put pf the reach pf aU adversa
ries and adverse accidents, np mpre subjeetr
ed tp those evils that are properly its own,
namely, the conscience of sin, and fear of
wrath, and sad defectipns ; npr yet subject ',
tP thpse Pther evils it endured, by. society
with the body, outward distresses and afflic-.
tions, persecutipns, ppverty, diseasea, &c. •
It is caUed salvation of the soul: Not
excluding the bpdy frora the society of that
glory, when it shaU be raised and reunited '
to the soul ; but because the soul is of itself
an iramortal substance, and both the more
noble part of raan, and the prime subject
both of grace and glory, and becauae it ar
rives first at that blessedness, and for a time
leaves the body in the dust to do homage to
ita original, therefore it ia only named here.^
But Jeaua is the Saviour of the body too,
and he ahaU at his coming, change our vile
bodies, and make them like his glorious '
body. . '
2dly, We have the relative property, of
this hope, ih& end of your faith. The en;/
or reward-; for it is both. It is the end,
either at which faith airas, or wherein it
ceaseth. It is the reward, not of their :
wprks, npr pf faith, as a work deserving it,
but as the cpnditipn of the new covenant,
which God, accprding tp the tenpr of that
cpvenant, first wprks in his pwn, and then
rewards as if it were their wprk. And this
salvatipn, or fruition pf Chriat, is the prppec
reward pf faith, which beUeves in him un.
aeen, and an pbtains that happy sight. It
is the prpper wprk of faith to beUeve what
thou seest net, and the reward pf faith tP see
what thpu hast believed.
II. This is the certainty of dieir hope,

via. a, fl'. I

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

tliat it is as if they had already received it.
If the proraise of God, and the merit of
Christ hold good, then they that beUeve in
him, and love him, are made sure of salva.
tion. The proraises of Gpd in Christ are
not yea and nay ; but they are in him yea,
and in him amen. Sppner raay the rivers
run backward, and the cpurse of the heavens
change, and the frame pf nature be dissolv
ed, than any pne aoul that is united to Jeaua
Christ by faith and love can be severed from
him, and so faU short of salvation hoped
for in him ; and this the matter of their
rejoicing. Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable.] The
natural man, says the apostie, receiveth not
the things of God, for they are foolishness
unto him ; and he adds the reason why he
cannot know them', for they are spirii-ually
discerned.. He hath none of that faculty by
which they are discerned. There is h vast
disproportion betwixt thoae things and na-
ture's highest capacity, it cannot work be.
yond its sphere. Speak to the natural man
of the matter of spiritual grief, the sense of
giultiness, and the apprehension of God's
displeasure, or the hidiiig of his favpur and
the Ught pf his cpuntenance frpm the soul ;
these things stir nut in hira, he knows not
what they me?n. Speak to hira again pf
the jieace pf conscience, and sense of God'a
love, and the jpy that arises hence ; he is ne
less a stranger to that. Mourn to him, and
¦ he laments not ; pipe to him, and he dances
¦not, as pur Savipur speaks, Matth. xi. 17.
But, as it there fpUows, there is a wisdom
in those things, thpugh they seera fpUy and
nonsense to the fooUsh world, and this wis-
.dom is justified of her own children, ver. 19.
Having said somewhat already of the
. causes of this spiritual joy which the aposde
here speaks of, it remains that we consider
thoae two things : 1. How joy ariseth from
those causes: 2. The exceUency of tl^is joy,
as it is here expressed. ^
1. There is here a Splid sufficieiit gopd,
and the heart raade sure pf it, being partly
put in presentppssessipn pf it, and in a most
certain hope of aU the rest. - And what
raore can be required to make it joyful ?
Jesus Chriat, the treasure of aU blessings,
received and united tp the spid, by faitii,
and love, and hppe.
Is not Christ the Ught and joy of the na
tions ? such a light as Abraham, at the dis
tance of many ages, of more than two thou
sand years, yet saw by faith, and seeing,
rejoiced. Besides this brightness, that
makes Ught a joyful object, Ught is pften in
scripture put fpr joy. Christ, tjiis light,
brings salvatipn with him, he is the Sun of
righteousness, and there is healing under
Ms wings. I bring you. Said the angel,
good tidings of great joy, that shall be to
ail people. And their song hath in it the

Sl
matter pf that jpy. Glory to God in the
highest, peace on earth, and good-will to
ward men, Luke ii, 10 — 14.
But to the erid we may rejoice in Christ,
we must find him ours, otherwise the more
exceUent he is, the more cause hath th-e
heart to be sad, while it hath no portion in
hira : My spirit hath rejoiced^ saith the
blessed 'Virgin, in God my Saviour, Luke
i. 47. Thus, 1 John i. 4, having spoken of our
communion with Christ, the apostle adds.
These things I write, ihat your joy may
be full. Faith worketh this joy, by uniting
the soul to Christ, and applying his merits ;
and from that application arises the pardon
of sin. And so that load pf misery, which
was the great cause pf sprrpw, is remov
ed ; and so soon as the soul finds itself
Ughtened and unloaded of that burden that
was sinking it to heU, it cannot choose but
leap for joy, in the ease and refreshment it
finds. Therefore that psalm that David be.
gins with the doctrine of the pardon of sin,
he ends with an exhortation tp rejoicing.
Blessed is the man whose transgression is
forgiven, whose sin is covered, Psal. xxxii.
1. Thus he begins ; but he ends, ver. 11,
Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice ye righ
teous, and shout for joy all ye that are up-
right in heart. St. Peter apeaka tn hia
hearers pf the remissipn pf sins. Acts ii. 38,
and ver, 41, itis added, they received his
words gladly : And our Savieur jpins these
twp tpgether. Be of good comfjort, thy sins
are forgiven thee. Thus laa. Ixi. 1, good
tidinga of liberty to captives are proclaimed,
and a notable change there is Of their estate
who mourn in Zion, giving ihem beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, aind the
gar'ment of praise for the spirit of heavi
ness. Think with what joy the long im.
prisoned debtor, drowned in debt, receives a
fuU discharge, and his Uberty ; or a con.
deraned raalefactor the newl of his pardon,
and this wiU somewhat, reaemble it ; but yet
faU far short of the joy that faith brings, by
bringing Christ to the aoul, and ao for
giveness of sins in hira.
But this is notaU. This believing soul
is not only a debtor acquitted and aet free,
but enriched besides with a new and great
estate ; not only a pardoned malefactor, but
withal highly preferred and advanced to ho.
nour, having a right by the proraises to the
unsearchable riches of Christ, as the apoa
de speaks, aind is received into favour with
God, and into the dignity of sonship, taken
from the-dunghill, and set with princes,
Psal. cxiii. 8.
As there is joy from faith, so also from
love. Though it is in itself the raost sweet
and deUghtfiS passion of the aoul, yet aa we
fooUshly mispli-ice it, it proveth often fuB
of bitterness; but being set upon Jesus

A COMMENTARY UPON

32
Christ, the only right and worthy object, it
causeth tliis unspeakable delight and re-
jpicing. 1st, It is matter pf joy to have bestowed
our love so wprthily ; and thpugh our Sa
viour seems to withdraw himself, and some
times sadden the soul that loves him with
absences, in regard of aense ; yet even in
those aad timea, the soul deUghts to love
him, and there is a pleasure in the very pains
it hath in seeking after him. And this it
knows, that his mercies are everlasting, and
that he cannot be long unkind, but wiU re
tum and speak comfortably unto it.
2dly, Our love to Christ gives us assu
rance of his to us : so that we have not only
choaen worthily, but shaU not be frustrate
and disappointed, and it assures ua of his,
not as following, but preceding and cauaing
ours : For our love to Jesua Christ ia no
other but the reflex of his pn us. Wine
maketh glad the heart : but thy love is
better than wine, saith the spouse. And
having this persuasion, that he hath loved
us, and washed us in his blood, and forgets
us not in our conflicts, that though he him-
self is in his glory, yet thathe intercedes for
us there, and wiU bring us thither, what con
dition can befal ns so hard, but we may re
joice in it ? and in them, so far as we are
sure to arrive at that fuU salvation and frui
tion of him' who hath purchased it ?
Then there is the third cause of our re
joicing, viz. our hope. Now hope is our
anchor fixed within the veil, that stays us
against aU the storais that beat upon us in
this troublesome sea that we are tossed upon.
The sold that strongly believes and loves,
may confidently hope to see what it believeth,
and enjoy what it loves, and in that rejoice.
It may say, Whatsoever hazards, whether
putward or inward, whatsoever afflictions and
teraptations I endure, yet this one thing puts
me out of hazard, and in that I wiU rejeice,
the salvatipn pf my apul depends not upon
my own strength, but is in ray Saviour's
hand : My life is hid with Christ in God ;
and when he who is -my life shall appear, I
likewise shall appear with him in glory.
The chUdish world is hunting shadows, and
gaping and hoping after they know npt
what ; but tlie believer can say, I know whom
I have trusted, and ara persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I have committed to
him against that day. Now we have not
only right tp those things, but withal there
must be frequent consideratipn pf them to
work joy. The soul raust often view them,
and so rejoice : My meditation of him shall
be sweet, saith David, / will be glad in the
Lord, Psal. civ. 34. And the godly failing
in this, deprive themselves much of that joy
they raight have ; and they that are most
¦iu these sublime thoughts, have the highest
and tTuest joy.

[CKAK 1,

2. The exceUency cf this joy the aposde
here expresseth by these twP wprds,, unspeak
able 3,t\&. full of glory, '
That it ia unspeakable, np wonder, seeing
the matter of it is inconceivable, it is an in
finite geod. Gpd recpnciled in Jesus Christ,
and testifying and seaUng his love untp the
spul, and giving assured hope of that blessed
viaipn pf eternity, what more unspeakable ;
than thia? And for thei' aame reason it is
glorious, or glprified jpy, having the highest
and rapst glorious object ; fpr it derives all
ita exceUency frpra thence.
Unspeakable,] The best wprldly jeya are
easily apeakable ; they may be expreased to
the utmpst, yea uauaUy mpre -is appken of
them than they are indeed. Their name is
beyond their worth ; they are very seldom
found upon experience equal tp the ppinion
and expectatipn that men have pf them. But
this spiritual joy is above the repert any can
make pf it, say what they can pf it who
are of happiest expreaaion ; yet when a man
cpmes tp know it in his pwn breast,- he
wiU say, a; that Queen said pf Solomon's
wisdom, ihe half was not told me of it.
Again, earthly joya are inglpripus ; many
pf which raen are ashamed of, and those
that seem most plausible, yet are below the
exceUency of the soul, and cannot fiU it :
But the joys that arise from utuon -^with
Christ, as they are raost avowable, a man
needs not blush to own them, so they
are truly contenting and satisfying, and
that is their glory, and the cause why we
may glory in them : My soul shall make her
boast in God, says David, Psal. xxxiv. 2. ^
Fpr application of all this. If these
things were believed, we shpuld hearken
np mpre tp the foolish prejudice that the
world hath taken up against reUgion, and
wherewith Satan endeavours to possess men's
hearts, that they may be scared from the
ways of holiness : They think it a sour
melancholy life, that hath nothing but sad-
ness and mourning in it. But to remove
this prejudice.
Consider, 1. Religion bars not the law
ful delights that are taken in natural things,
but teachea the moderate and regular use
of them, which is far the sVeeter ; for
things lawful in themselves are in their
excess sinful, and so prove bitterness in
the end ; and if in some cases it requires
the forsaking of 'lawful enjoyments, as of
pleasure, or profits, pr hpnour, for Gpd and
fpr hia glory, it ia generpus, and more truly
deUghtful to deny them for thia reason, than
tp enjpy them. Men have dpne much this
way for the love of their country, and by a
principle of moral virtue ; but to lose any
deUght, or to suffer any hardship for that
highest end, the glory of God, and by the
strength of love to him, is far more exceUent .
nnd triily pleMant.

xm. n, !K1

TUE FIRST EPliTLE OF PETER.

.•53

2, The delights and pleasures of sin, re
ligion indeed banishes, but it is to change
diem for this joy that is unspeakably be
yond them : it caUs men from sordid and
base deUghts to those that are pure deUghts
indeed ; it calls to men. Drink ye no longer
of the puddle, here are the crystal streams of
a Uving fountain. There is a delight in the
very despising impure delights ; as he aaid.
How pleasantisit to want these pleasures ? *
But for such a change, to have in their stead
such delights, as in comparison the other
deserve not that name ; to have such spiri
tual joy as shaU end in etemal joy, it is a
wonder we hasten not aU to chpoae this joy,
but it is indeed because we believe it not.
3. It is true, the godly are subject to great
distresses and afflictions ; but their joy is
not extinguished by those, no, nor diminish
ed neither, but often sensibly increased.
When they have least of the world's joy,
they abound most in spiritual consolations,
and then relish them beat. They find them
sweetest when their taate is not depraved
with earthly enjoyraents : We rejoice in tri
bulation, says St. Paul ; and here our apos
tle insists on that, to verify the substance of
diis joy in the midst of tiie greatest afflictions
4. Spiritual grief, that seems most oppo.
site to this spiritual joy, excludeth it not ;
fpr there is a secret- delight and sweetness in
the tears tjf repentance, a balra in thera that
refreshes the spul, and even their saddest
kind of raourning, viz, the dark timea of
diaar on, hath thia in it, that is aorae way
sweet, that thpae mournings after their Be-
Ipved, whp abaenta himaelf, are a mark pf
their Ipve to him, and a true evidence of it ;
and then all those spiritual sorrows, of what
nature soever, are tumed into spiritual joy ;
that is the proper end of thera ; they have a
natural tendency that way.
5. But the natural man still doubts of
this joy we speak of; because he sees and
hears ao littie of it ftom thera that profeas to
have it, and seera to have beat right tp it.
If we consider the wretchedness of this life,
and especiaUy the abundance of sin that is in
the world, what wonder though this their
joy retire much inward, and appear little
abroad, where all things are so contrary to it,
and so few are capable of it, to whora it were
pertinent to vent it. Again, we see here, it
is unspeakable ; it were a poor thing if he
that hath it could not teU it aU out.-|- And
'Hrhen the soul hath most of it, then it remains
mpst within itself, and is an inwardly taken up
v/ith it, that ppssibly it can then least of all
express it. It is with joys as they say of
cares and griefs, Leves loquuntur ingentes
stupeni. The deepest water runs stiUest.
True joy is a solid grave thing,$ dweUs
« Quam suave est istis suavitatibus carere ? Aug.
f- P.iuperis est numerare pecus.
i Tics severa est verum gaudium. ' Skn.

more in the heart than in the countenance ;
whereas, on the contrary, baae and false joys
are but superficial, skin-deep, as we say ;
they are aU in the face.
Think net that it is with the gpdly, as the
Prpphet says pf the v/icked, that there is no
peace to them ; and the Septuagint reads it,
no joy. Certainly it is true ; there is do
true joy to the wicked : They may revel and
make a noise, but they rejoice not ; ihe
laughter of tfye fool is as the crackling of
thorns under the pot, a great noise but lit
tle heat, and soon at an end. There is no
continuing feast, bnt that of a good con
science. Wickedness and real joy cannot
dweU together, as the very moralist Seneca
hath it pften, arid at large : But he that
can say, the righteousness of Jesus Christ is
mine, and in him the favour pf Gpd, and the
hppe pf eternal happiness, hath such a light
as can shine in the darkest dungepn, yea in
the dark valley of the shadow of death it
self. Say npt thpu, if I betake myself to the
way of godliness, I raust bid fareweU to
gladness, never a merry day more ; no, on
the contrary, never a truly joyful day till then,
yea, no days at aU, but night to the soul, till
it entertain Jesus Christ, and hia kingdom,
which consists in those, righteousness, peace,
and joy in the Holy Ghost. Thou doat not
sacrifice Isaac, which signifies laughter, (as
St. Bern.) but a ram ; npt thy joy, bnt filthy
sinful delights that end in sorrow.
Oh ! seek to know in ypur experience what
thpse joys mean, for all describing and com.
mending them to ypu wiU not make you un
derstand them, but taste, and see ihat the
Lord is good : You cannot see and know
this goodness, but by taatirig it ;• and having
tasted it, aU those popr jpys ypu thought
sweet before, wiU then be bitter and distaste
ful to you.
And you that have Christ yours by be
lieving, know your happiness, and rejoice,
and glery in it. WhatSpever is ypur put-
ward cpndition, rejoice always, and again I
say, rejoice, Philip, iv. 4, for light is sown
io the righteous, and gladness for ihe up
right in heart, Psal. xcvii. 11.
Veb. 10. Of which salvation the prophets have en
quired and searched diligently, who prophesied of
the grace that should come unto you ;
Vkr. 11. Searching what, orwhat manner of time,
the Spiiit of Christ which was in thein did signi
fy, when it testified beforehand the suffermgs of
Christ, and the glory that should follow.
Ver. 12. Unto wnom it was revealed, thatnot un
to them.selves, but unto us, they did minister the
things which are now reported unto you by them
that have preached the gospel unto you with tha
Holy Ghost sent down from neaveu ; which tlungf
the angels desire to look into.
It is the ignorance, or at least the incon
sideration pf divine things, that makes earth.
* Lauda mellis dulcedlnem quantum potM, qui not}
gustaverit, ion intelliget. Aus.
c

34

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap, u

ly things, whether gopd pr evil, appear great
in pur eyes : therefpre the appstle's great aim
is, by representing the certainty and excel
lency pf the belief and hppe pf Christians tp
his afflicted brethren, tP strengthen their
minds against aU discpuragements and pppp-
sitipus ; that they may account nothing too
hard to do or suffer, for so high a cause, and
so happy an end. It is the low and mean
thoughts, and the shaUow persuasipn we have
of things that are spiritual, that is the cause
pf all pur remiaaness and cpldness in them.
The doctrine of salvation, raentioned in the
former verse, as the end of our Christian
faith, is iUustrated in these words, frora its
antiquity, dignity, and infallible truth.
It is no modern invention ; for the pro
pheta enquired after it, and foretold it in
forraer agea frora the beginning. Thus the
prejudice of novelty is reraoved, that usually
meets the most ancient truth in ita new dia
coveriea. Again, it ia no mean thing that such raen
aa were of unqueationed erainency in wisdom
and holiness did so much study and search
after ; and having found it put, were careful
net pnly tp pubUsh it in their own times, but
to record it to posterity ; and this not by the
private motion of their own spirits, but by
the acting and guidance of the Spirit of God,
which likewise sets the truth of their testi
mony above aU doubtfulneaa and uncertainty.
But taking those three verses entirely to
gether, we have in them these three things,
testifying how exceUent the doctrine of the
gospel is : 1. We have the principal author
of it ; 2. The matter of it ; 3. The wordi
of those that are exercised about it, viz. the
best of men, the prophets and apostles, in ad
ministering it, and the best of aU the crea
tures, the angela, in admiring it.
L The first author is the abaolutely first,
the Spirit of God in the prophets, ver. 11,
in the apostles, ver. 12. But ver. ll, the
Spirit of Christ there, is the same Spirit that
he sent down on his disciples after his as
cending to glory, and which spoke in his
prophets before hia descending to the earth.
It is the'Spirit of Christ, proceeding jointly
from him with the Father, as he is the Son
of God, and dweUing most richly and fully
in him as the Son of man.
The Holy Ghost is in himaelf holiness,
and the source and worker of holinesa, and
author of this holy doctrine that breathes
nothing but holiness, and urges it most press
ingly upon aU that receive it.
This is the very Ufe of divine faith,
touching the mysteries of salvation, firmly
to believe their revelation by the Spirit of
God. This the word itself testifies, as we
see, and it is reaUy manifest in it ; it carries
the lively stamp pf divine inspiratipn, but
there must be a spiritual eye tp discern it.
He that is bUnd knpws not that the sun

shines at njon, but by the report of others ;
but they t^at see, are assured they see it,
and assured by no Pther thing, but by its
own light. To ask one that is a true be
liever. How know you the scriptures to be
divine ? is the same as to ask him, How know
you light to be light ?
The soul ia nothing but darkneas and
blindness within, tiU that same Spirit that-
ahines witheut in the wurd, shine likewise
within it, and effectually raake it light ; but
that pnce done, then ia the word read with
aome measure of the same spirit by which it
was written, and the soul is ascertained that
it is divine, as in bodily sight there must
be a meeting of inward light, viz. the visual
spirits with the outward object.
The Spirit of God within, brings evidence
with it, and makes itself discernible in the
word ; this aU arguments, aU books and
study, cannpt attain untp. // is given to
believe, PhU. i. 29.
No man knows the things of a man, but
the spirit of man, 1 Cor. ii. 11. But how
holds that here ? For if a raan speak out
the things that are in his spirit, then others
iTjay know them ; but the apostle's aim there
is, to conclude that the things of God, even
auch as were revealed in his word, could notbe
known but by his own Spirit ; so that though
revealed, yet they remain stiU unrevealed,
tiU the Spirit teach within, as weU as with
out ; because they are intelUgible by none,
but by those that are the private scholars
and hearers pf the Holy Ghoat, the author
of them ; and because there are so few of
these, therefore there is so little real be
lieving amongst aU the noise and profession
that we make of it. W-ho is there (if you
wiU believe them) that believes not ? -And
yet truly here is too rauch cauae to continue
the Prophet's regret, Who hath believed our
report? Isa. liii. 1.
Leam then to suspect yourselves, and to
find out your own unbeUef, that you may
desire this Spirit to teach you inwardly those
great mysteries that he outwardly reveals,
and teachea by his word. Make use cf
that promise, and press the Lord with it.
They shall be all taught of God, laa, Uv.
13, and Jphn vi. 45.
But, IL There is here the matter of this
doctrine, which we have in three several ex.
pressions: 1. That which is repeated from
the foregoing verse, it is the doctrine of sal
vation that is the end of it ; 2. The doc
trine of ihe sufferings and glory of Christ,
as the means; and 3. The doctrine of grace,
the spring of both.
1. It is the doctrine oi salvation, the only
true doctrine of trae happiness, which die
wisest of natural men "have groped and
sought after with much eamestness, but
with no success : They had no other than
the dark moon-Kght of nature, and that is

ver. 10 — 12.\

TIIE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

3,5

not sufficient to find it out ; only the Sun
of Rightepusness, shining in the sphere of
the gospel, brings life and immortality io
light, 2 Tim. i. 10. No wonder that na-
tural wisdom, the deepeat of it, is far from
finding out the true raethod and way of cure,
seeing it cannot discover the disease of rai.
serable raankind, viz. the sinful and wretch.
cd condition of nature by the first dis
obedience. Salvation expresses not only that which
is negative, but irapUes Ukewiae poaitive and
perfect happineaa : Thia forgiveness of sins
is put for the whole nature of justification
frequently in scripture. It is mere easy tp
say of this unspeakable happiness what it
is not, than what it is. There is in it a full
and final fteedom from aU annoyance ; aU
tears are wiped away, and their fountain is
dried up ; aU feeUng and fear, or danger of
any the least evil, either of sin or puniah
ment, is banished for ever ; there are no in
vasions of enemies, no robbing or destroying
in aU this holy mountain, no voice of com
plaining in the streets of the New Jerusa
lem. Here it is at the best but interchanges
of mornings of joy, with sad evenings of
weeping : But there, there shall be np Ught,
np need of sun npr rappn, for the glory of
the Lord .shall lighten it, and the Lamb
shall be the light thereof. Rev. xxi. 23.
WeU may the appstie, as he dpth here
throughput this chapter, lay this salvation tP
cpunterbalance aU sorrpws and persecutipns,
and whatsoever hardships can be in the way
to it. The soul that is persuaded of this,
in the midst of storms and tempesta, enjoya
a cahn, triumphs in disgraces, grows richer
by aU its losses, and, by death itself, attains
this immortal life.
Happy are they that have their eyes fixed
upon this salvation, and are longing and
waiting for it, that see so much of that
brightness and glory, as darkens aU the
lustre of aU earthly things to them, and
raakes theni trample upon thpae things which
fprmerly they admired and dpated pn with
the reat of .the fopUsh wprld. Thpse things
we accnunt sp much pf, are but as rptten
wppd pr glpw-wprms, that shine only in the
night pf pur ignprance and vanity : Sp aoon
as the light beam of this salvation enters
intp the spul, it cannot much esteem or af
fect any thing below it; and if those glances
of it that shine in the -word, and in the aoul
of a Christian, be so bright and powerful,
what then shall the fuU sight and real pos-
seasibn of it be ?
The goapel is represented as the doctrine
of the sufferings and glory of Christ, as
the means of salvation. The worker of
this salvation, whom the prophets and
appsdes make the sum pf aU their doctrine,
is Jesus Christ, and the sum of that work of
rMlemj>tipn, as we have it here, is his hu

miliatipn and exaltatipn ; his sufferings, and
the glpry that foUowed thereupon. Now,
though this serve as an encouragement to
Christians in their sufferings, that this is
the way by which their Lord went into his
glory, and is trae also of Christ mystical,
the head with the membera, as the scrip.
tures often teach us ; yet I conceive it is
here mainly intended as a sumraary of the
work of our redemption by Jesus Christ,
relating to the salvation raentioned, ver. 10,
and as the cause for the effect, so is it put
for it here. The prophets enquired, and
prophesied of that salvation. How ? By
searching out and foreteUing the sufferings
and glory of Christ : His suffering then,
and his after glories, are our salvation. His
suffering is the purchase of our aalvation,
and his glory is our assurance of it ; he as our
Head having triuraphed, and being crown
ed, makes us likewise sure of victory, and
triuraph. His having entered on the pos
seaaion of glory, makea our hope certain ;
thia is his prayer. That where he is, there
we may be also, and thia his own aaaertipn,
the glory which thou gavest me, I have
given them, Jphn xvii. 22, 24 ; this is his
prpmise. Because I I'we, ye shall live also,
Jphn xiv. 19. Christ and the believer are
one : this is that great raystery the apostle
apeaka of, Eph. v. 30, 32. Though it ia a
coraraon known trath, the words and out.
aide of it obvipua tp all, yet none can uir-
derstand it but they that indeed partake of
it. By virtue of that union, their sins were
accounted hia, and Christ's sufferings are
accounted theirs, and by consequence, his
glory, the consequent of his sufferings, is
likewise theirs : There is an indissoluble
connexion betwixt the Ufe of Christ, and of
a believer ; our life is hid with Christ in
God ; and therefpre, while we remain there,
eur life is there, thpugh hid, and when he
who is our life shall appear, we likewise
shall appear with him in glory. Col. iu.
3, 4. Seeing the sufferings and glory of
our Redeeraer are the main subject of the
gospel, and the causes pf Pur salvatipn and
pur corafortable persuasion of it, it is a
wonder that they are not raore the matter of
our thoughts. Should we not daily consider
the bitterness of that cup of wrath he druuk
for us, and be wrpught tp repentance and
hati-ed of sin, to have sin embittered to us
by that consideration, and flnd the sweetness
of his Ipve in that he did drink it, and by
that, be deeply ppaseaaed with Ipve to him ?
Theae things we now and then speak of,
but they sink not into our minds, as our
Savipur exhorts, where he is speaking of
thoae aame sufferings. Oh ! that diey were
engraven on our hearts, and that sin were
crucified in us, and the world crucified tn
us, and we unto the world by the cross (ff
Christ, Gal. vi, 1 1.

3G And let us be frequently cpnsidering the
glpry wherein he is, and have eur eye eften
uppn that, and pur hearts solacing and re
freshing themselves frequently with thoughts
of that place and condition wherein Christ
is, and where our hopes are ere long to be
hold him ; both to see his glory, and to be
glprified with him. Is it npt reason, yea it
is neceasary ; it cannot be otherwise, if our
treasure and head be there, that our hearts
be there likewise. Mat. vi. 21 ; Cpl. iii. 1, 2.
The third expreaaion here of the gospel
is. That it is ihe doctrine of grace. The
work of rederaption itself, and the several
parts of it, and the doctrine revealing it, have
aU the name of grace, because they aU flow
from free grace ; that is their spring and
first cause.
And it is this wherein the doctrine of
salvation is mainly corafortable, that it is
free, Ye are saved by grace, Eph. ii. 8.
Itia true God requires faith, it is through
faith ; but he that requires that gives it tpp :
That is not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God, Eph. ii. 8. It is wpnderful grace te
save upon believing ; believe in Jeaua for
salvation, and live accordingly, and it is
done ;' there is no more required to thy par
don, but that thou receive it by faith. But
truly nature cannot do this ; it is as irapos
sible for ua of ourselves to believe, as to do.
This then is that which raakes it aU grace
from beginning to end, that God not only
saves upon believing, but gives believing
itself. Christ is called not only the author
and finisher of our salvation, but even of,
our faith, Heb. xii. 2.
Free grace being rightly apprehended, is
that which stays the heart in aU estates, and
keeps it from fainting, even in its saddest
tiraes : What though there is nothing in
myself, but matter of sorrow and discomfort !
It cannot be otherwise. It is not frora my
self that I look for comfort at any time, but
from my God and his free grace. Here is
¦comfort enough for aU tiraes ; when I ara at
the best I ought not, I dare not rely upon
myself; when I am at the worst, I may, and
should rely upon Christ, and his sufficient
grace. Though I be the vilest sinner that
ever came to him, yet I know he is more gra
cious than I ara sinful ; yea the more my sin
is, the more glory wiU it be to his grace to
pardon it ; it will appear the richer : Doth
not David argue thus, Psal. xxv. 11, For
thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine
iniquity, for it is great .• But it is an empty
fruitless notion of grace, to consider it only
in the general, and in a wandering way.
We are to look upon it particularly, aa ad
dreaaed to us, and it is not enough that it
comes to us, in the message of him that
brings it only to our ear, but that we may
know what it is, it must come into us, then
Jt is ours indeed; but ifit corae to us in the

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CHAP. r.

message only, and we send it away again, if
it shall so depart, we had better never have
heard of it ; it wiU leave a guUtiness behind
it, that shall make aU our ains weigh much
heavier than before.
Inquire whether you have entertained this
grace or not, whether it be come to you, and
into you, or not ; whether the kingdom ef
God is within you, as our Savipur apeaks,
Luke xvii. 21. It is the most woeful con
dition that can be, not to be far from the
kingdora of God, and yet to faU short, and
miss of it. The grace of God revealed in
the gospel, is intreating you daily to receive
it, is wiUing to become yours, if you reject
it not. Were ypur eyes ppen tp behpld the
beauty and exceUency pf thia grace, there
would need no deliberation ; yea, you would
endure none ; Desire your eyea to be open
ed, and enlightened frora above, that you
raay know it, and your hearts opened,^ that
you raay be happy by receiving it.
The apoatle, speaking of Jesus Christ, as
the fpundation of our faith, caUs him the
same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,
Heb. xiii. 8. Yesterday, under the law, to
day, in thpae primitive tiraes, nearest his in-
camatipn, and for ever, in all aucceeding
ages. And the resemblance holds good be
tween the two cherubims over the mercy-seat,
and the two Testaments ; those had their
faces one toward another, and both toward the
raercy-seat ; and these look to one another
in their doctrine, agreeing perfectly ; and
both look to Christ, the true raercy-seat, and
the great subject of the scriptures. This we
see here, the things that the prophets fore-
told to come, and the apostles repprted were
accomplished, were the sarae, and frora the
sarae Spirit ; they were the sufferings of
Christ, and his after glory, and in them our
salvation by free grace. The prophecies
look forward to the times of the gospel ; and
the things then fulfiUed, look back to the
prophecies ; and each confinns the other,
meeting aU in Christ, who ia their trath and
centre. We have spoken already of the author,
and subject of this salvation. Now we come
to say something. III. Concerning the worth
of thoae whp are erapleyed about it, as well ¦
in administering to it, as in adrairing it.
And those are, the prophets an& apostles ;
the firat foretold what was to corae, the
aecond preached them when they came to
pass. In the prophets there are three things here
reraarked: 1. Their dUigence; 2. The
success of it ; 3. The extent of its useful.
ness. I. This their diligence disparages not
their extraordinary visions and revelations,
and that which added, that the Spirit of
Christ was in them, and didforeteU the thing*
to com

VER. 19—12.]

TIIE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

37

It was their constant duty, and they be
ing sensible of their duty, made it their con
stant exerciae, to search into divine raysteries,
by raeditation and prayer ; yea, and by read
ing such holy writers aa were already extant
in their times, as Dan, ix. 3 ; x. 11. For
which cause, some taking the word actively,
conceive Daniel to be caUed there a man of
desires, because of his great desire, and dili
gent search after the knowledge of those
high things. And in this diligent way,
they constantiy waited for these revelations,
which sometimes, when it aeemed good unto
the Spirit of God, were imparted unto them.
" Prophecy resideth not (aay the Hebrejv
doctora) but in a man that is great in wisdora
and virtue, whose affections overcome him
not in any worldly things ; but by his know
ledge he overcometh his affectiona continual
ly ; on such a raan the Holy Spirit cometh
down, and his soul is associated to the angels,
and he is changed to another man." Thus
Maimonides. It waa the way of the prince of darkneas
amongst the idolatrous Gentiles, to apeak
either through aenseless statues, or where he
uttered his oracles, by such profane prophets
as he had, to cause them in a fury to tumble
forth words which they understood not, and
knew not what they said. But the Spirit of
God being light, and the holy prophets in
spired with it, they being diligent attendants
.on its motions, and searchers of the mysteries
of salvation, understood well what their busi
ness was, and to what purpoae thoae thinga
of the kingdom of Christ tended, which they
by inspiration did forcteU ; and therefore
bended their thoughts this way, praying,
searching, and waiting for anawers, studying
to keep the paasage, as it were, , open for the
beams of those divine revelations to come in
at ; not to have their spirita clogged and
stopped with earthly and ainful affections,
endeavouring for that calm and quiet com
posure of apirit, in which the vpice pf God's
Spirit raight be the better heard. Thus
Paal. Ixxxv. 8, and Hab. ii. 1. In both
which piacea follow an exceUerit prophecy
concerning Christ, and that salvation which
he wrought for hia people.
Were the propheta not exempted from the
pains of search and inquiry, that had the
Spirit of God, not only in a high raeaaure,
but after a aingular manner 1 How unaeem-
ing then is slothfulness and idleness in us !
Whether is it, that we judge ourselves ad
vantaged with more of the Spirit than those
holy men ? or that we esteem the doctrine
and mysteries of salvation, on which they
bestowed so rauch pf their labour, unworthy
of ours .' These are both so gross, that we
wiU be loth to own either of them : and yet
our laziness and negUgence in searching after
those things, seems to charge us with some
such thought as one of those.

You will say, this concerns those that
succeed to the work of the prophets and apos.
tlea in ordinary, the ministers of the gospel.
And it doth indeed fall first upon them. It
is their task indeed to be diligent, and as
the apostle exhorts his Timothy, to attend
on reading, 1 Tim. iv. 13, but above all to
atudy to have much experimental knowledge
of God, and his son Jesua Christ ; and for
this end to disentangle and free theraaelves
aa much aa is possible from lower things to
the search of heavenly mysteries, Prov, xviii.
1. As they are called angels, so ought they
to be, as much as they can attain to it, in
a constant nearness unto God, and attend
ance on him, like unto the angels, and look
much into these things, as the angels here
are said tp do ; to endeavour to have their
souls purified from the affections of sin, that
the light of divine truth may shine clear in
thera, and not be fogged and misted with
filthy vapours ; to have the impressions of
God clearly written on their breasts, not
mixed and blurred with earthly characters,
seasoning aU their readings and common way
of studies with much prayer and divine me
ditation. They that converse most with the
King, and are inward with him, know most
of the affairs of state, and even the secrets of
them, that are hid from others : And cer
tainly those of God's raessengers that are
oftenest with himself, cannot but understand
their business best, and know most of his
meaning, and the affairs of his kingdom.
And to that end it is confessed, that singular
diligence is required in them ; but seeing the
Lord hath said without exception, that his
secret is with ihem that fear him, Psal.
xxv. 14, and that he wiU reveal himself and
his saving truths to those that humbly seek
them ; do not any of you yourselves so much
injury, as to bar yourselves from sharing in
your measure of the search of these same
things, that were the study pf the prpphets,
and which by their study and pubUshing
them, are made the mere accessible and easy
to us. Consider that they do concern us uni.
versaUy, if we would be saved ; for it is sal
vation here that they studied. Search the
Scriptures, says our Saviour, and that is the
motive, if there can be any that may be thought
in reason pressing enough, or if we do indeed
think so, for i» ihem ye think to have eter-.
nal life ; and it is there to be found.- Christ
is thia salvation, and that eternal life ; and he
adds furdier, it is they (those scriptures) that
testify of me, John v. 39. These are the
golden raines in which alone the bidding
treasures of etemity are tp be found, and-
therefore wprthy all the digging and pains
we can bestow on thera.
Besides their industry, in this inq^uiry and
search, there is here expresaed their ardent
affection to the thing they prophesied of, and-
their longings and wishes for its accompUsb-

38 ment, viz. die coraing of Jesus Christ, the
promised Messiah, the top of aU their desir^,
the great hope and the Ught of Israel, No
wonder they desired his day, that had so
much joy in the seeing it so far off, as over
the head almost of two thousand years.
Faith overlooking them, and foreseeing it so
in Abraham, his heart danced for joy, John
vui. 36, Abraham saw my day and rejoiced.
And this is conceived te be the meaning
of those expressions in that mystical song,
as they suit those times ofthe Jewish church,
breathing out her longings for the coraing of
her Beloved. His speaking by the prophets,
was his voice as afar off; but his incarnation
was his coming near, and kissing his church
with ihe kisses of his mouth, as Cant. chap.
i. ver. 1 ; and to omit other expressions
throughout the Song, the laat chapter, ver,
1, ia tender and pathetical. Oh ! that thou
wert as my brother, &c. and the laat words
of it. Make haste, my Beloved, and be thou
like a roe, or a young hart, upon the moun
tains of spices. And when this salvation
carae in the fulness of time, we see how joy
fuUy good old Simeon embraces it, and
thought he had seen enpugh, and therefore
upon the sight desired to have his eyes dos.
ed. Now let thy servant depart in peace,,
for my eyes have seen thy salvation, Luke
ii. 20, 30. Therefore our Saviour says to
his aposties. Matt. xiii. 16, Blessed are your
eyes, for they see, for many prophets and
righteous men have desired to see those
things which ye see, and have -not seen them.
This is he whom we disesteem and make
BO smaU account of, being now so clearly re
vealed, that they studied, and sought, and
wished so •much for, so many ages before.
2dly, The success of their search is re
marked : In seeking they found the certainty,
and the time cf his coming ; they sought out
tiU they found, and then they prophesied of
that salvation, and grace ; they searched
what, and what manner of time, and the
Spirit did manifestly foretell it them.
They sought to know what manner of
time it should come to pass, viz. in a time
of great distress, and bad estate of the peo
ple, as aU the prophets testify, and particu.
larly that place. Gen. xUx. 10, gives an ex
press character of the time ; though there be
some diversity of exposition pf the particu
lar words, yet the main sense is agreed on
by aU sound interpreters, and the Chaldee
Paraphrase hath it expressly, that that
Shiloh is the Messiah.
And of his sufferings and after-glories
they prophesied very clearly, as Psal. xxi,
Isa. Uii. &c. And our Saviour hiraself
makes use of their testimony in both these
points, Luke xxiv. 2.5, 26, 27.
idly. There is the benefit of their search
and finding, in the extent of it, in verse 13,
to the believers in the apostles' times, and

A COMMENTARY UPON Ic«ap. i.
to the succeeding Christian church, and so
to us in theae days : but in some peculiar
sense the prophets rainistered to the people
of those times, wherein Christ did suffer, and
enter into glory : for that were the first that
enjoyed the accompUshment pf thpse prophe.
sies, they being fulfiUed in their own days.
The prpphets knew well that the things
diey prophesied, were net tp be fulfiUed in
their ewn times, and therefore in their pro
phesying concerning them, though both them.
selves, and people of God that were contem.
porary with them, did reap the comfort of
that doctrine, and were by faith partakers of
the same salvation, and so it waa to them.
selves aa weU aa of ua, yet in regard of the
accorapUshraent, they knew it waa not to
theraselves, it was not to be brought to.
pasa in their daya ; and therefore, speak.
ing of the glory of Christ's kingdom', they
often foreteU it for the latter days, as their
phrase is. And as we have the things
they prophesied pf, sp we have this pecu
Uar benefit of their prephecies, that their
suiting sn perfectly with the event and per
formance, serves much tP cpufirm pur Chris
tian faith.
There is a fopUsh and miserable way of
verifying this ; raen rainistering the doc
trine of salvation to others and not to them- '
selves, carrying it aU in th.eir heads, and
tongues, and none of it in their hearts ; not
hearing it even while they preach it ; reach
ing the bread of life to pthers, and eating
npne of it themselves. And this the apos
tle says, that he was raost careful to avoid,
and therefore dealt severely with his body,
that it might npt this way endanger his
aoul : / beat down my body, saya he, and
keep it in subjection, lest when I have
preached to others, I myself should be a
cast-away, 1 Cor. ix. 27. It is not in this
sense, that the prophets rainistered to others,
and not to themselves. No, they had joy
and comfort in the very hopes of the Re
deemer to come, and the belief of the things
that any othera had spoke, and that them
selves spoke concerning him. And thus the
true preachers of the gospel, thpugh their
ministerial gifts are for the use of othera, yet
that aalvation they preach, they lay hold on,
and partake of themselves, as ypur bpxes
wherein perfumes are kept fpr garments, and
other uses, are themselves perfuraed by keep
ing thera.
We see lipw the prpphets ministered it,
as the never-failing consolatipn pf the church'
in those days, in aU their distresses ; it is a
wonder, when they are foretelling either
the sprrpws and afflictipna, pr temppral re-
stprement and deUverances, of that peeple pf
the Jews, whafsudden putieaps they wiU
make tp speak pf the kingdpm pf Jesus
Christ, and the days of the gospel, insomuch
that he who considers not the Spirit they

VEIL 10—12.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

were raoved by, would think it were incohe
rence, and impertinency ; but they knew weU
what they raeant, diat those newa were never
unseasonable, nor beside the purpose ; that
tlie sweetness of those thoughts, viz. the con-
sideration of the Mesidah, was able, to such
as believed, to aUay the bitterest distresses,
and that the great deliverance he was to
work, was the top and sum of all deliverances.
Thua their prophecies of him were present
cpmfort to themselves, and other believers
then ; aud further, were to serve for a clear
evidence of the divine truth of those myste
ries in the diiys of the gospel, in and after
their fulfilling.
This sweet streara of their doctrine did,
as the rivers, make its own banks fertile and
pleasant, as it ran by, and flewed stiU for
ward tp after ages, and by the confiuence of
raore auch prophecies, grew greater as it
went, tiU it feU in with the raain current of
the gospel in the New Testament, beth act
ed and preached by the great Prophet hira
self, whom they foretold to come, and re
corded by his aposties and evangeUsts, and
thus united into pne river, clear aa crystal.
Thia doctrine of aalvation in the acriptures,
hath stiU refieshed the city pf Gpd, his
church under the gpspel, and stiU shaU dp
sp, tiU it empty itself intp the pcean pf eter
nity. The first discpvery we have of this streara
nearest its source, the etemal purpose' of di
vine mercy, is in that promise which the Lord
hiraself preached in few words to our first
parents, that had newly made themselves
and their race miserable, The seed of the
woman shall break the head of ihe serpent.
Gen. iii. 15.
The agreement of their predictions with
"the things themselves, and the preaching of
the apostles foUowing the other kind of raen j
employed in this salvation, make up one
organ, pr great instrument, tuned by the
same hand, and anunding by the sarae breath, |
of the Spirit of God, and that is expresaed
here, aa the common authority of the doc
trine in both, and the cause of their har.
mony and agreeraent in it.
AU theae extraordinary gifts of the Holy
Ghost, the calUng of prophets and apostles
and evangelists, and the ordinary miniaters
of the gpspel by pastors and teachers, tend
tp that great design that God hath in build
ing his church, making up tha' great aaaera- '
bly of aU the elect, to enjoy and praise him
for all eternity, Eph. iv. 11. For this end
sent he hia Son out of his bosora^ and for
this end sends he forth his raessengers to
divulge that salvation that his Son hath
wrought, and sends down his Spirit upon
thera, that they may be fitted for ao high a
service. Those cherubiras wonder how guilty
man escapes their fiaming swords, and re-
enters paradise. The angels see that their

39
companions that feU are not restored, but
their room fiUed up with the spirits of just
men, and they envy it not ; which mystery
the angels desire to look into ; and this is
added in the close of these words for the ex
tolling of it.
The angels lopk upon what they have
seen already fulfiUed with delight and ad
miration, and what remains, namely, the full
accompliahment of this great work in the
end of tirae, they look upon, with deaire to
see it finished ; it is not a slight glance
they take of it, but they fix their eye, and
look stedfastly on it, viz. that raystery of
godlineas, God manifested in the flesh ;
and it ia added, seen of angels, 1 Tim: iii.
16. The Word made flesh, draws the eyes of
those glorious apirita, and poaaeases them
with wonder, to aee the almighty Gedhead
jpined with the weakness of a man, yea, of
an infant. He that stretcheth forth the
heavens, bound up in swaddling clothes !
And to pass aU the wonders of his life, this
ia beyond aU adrairation, that tfie Lord of
Life waa subject to death, and that his love
to rebellious mankind moVed him both to
take pn, and lay dpwn that life.
It is no wonder the angels admire those
things, and delight to look upon them ;
but it ia strange that we do not so. They
view them stedfastly, and we neglect them ;
either we consider thera not at aU, or give
them but a transient look, half an eye. That
which was the great business of the prophets
and apostles, both for their own times, and
to convey them to ua, we regard not ; and
tum our eyes to foolish wandering thoughts,
which angels are ashamed at. They are not
so concemed in this great mystery af we are ;
they are but mere beholders in comparison
of us, yea, they aeem rather to be loaers sorae
way, that our nature, in itself inferior to
theirs, is in Jesus Christ exalted above theirs,
Heb. ii. 16. We bow down to the earth, and
study and grovel in it, rake into the very
bowels of it, and content ourselves ,with the
outside of ihe unsearchable riches of Christ,
and look not within it ; but they having no
wiU nor deaire, but for the glory of God,
being pure flames of fire, buming only in
love to him, are no less delighted than amaz
ed with the bottomless wonders of his wis
dora and goodness shining in the work of
our redemption.
It is eur sharae and our folly that we lose
ourselves and Our thoughts in poor childish
things, and trifie away our days we know not
how, and let these rich mysteries Ue unre.
garded. They look up on the Deity in it-
self with continual admiration ; but then they
look down to this mystery as another wonder.
We give them an ear in public, and in a
cold formal way stpp conscience's mouth,
with sorae religious performances in priv%to,

40

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CIIAK I

andnj more : But to have deep and frequent
thoughts, and to be ravished in the medita
tion of our Lord Jesua, once on the croaa and
now in glory, how few of us are acquainted
with this !
We see here exceUent company and ex
amples, not only of the beat of men that have
been, but we have them feUow-servants and
fellow-students ; if that can persuade us, we
may aU atudy the same leaaon with the very.
•angels, and have the sarae thoughts with
thera. This the soul doth that often enter
tains itaelf with the delightful admiration of
Jesus Christ, and the redemption he hath
wrought for us. _
Ver. 1.1. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind,
be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that
is to be brought unto jou at the revelation of
Jesus Christ.
The great error of man's raind, and the
cause of all his errors of life, is the diverting
of the soul frora God, and turning downward
to inferior confidences and comforts ; and
this raischoice is the very root of aU our mi
series : Therefore the main end of the holy
Word of God, is to untie the hearts of men
from the world and reduce them to God, as
their only rest and solid corafort ; and this
is here the apostle's mark, at which aU the
preceding discourse airas ; it all meets and
terminates in this exhortation. Wherefore
gird up the loins of your mind.
In the words are those three things : Is;,
The great stay and comfort of the soul, which
the apostie repeats, and represents to his
afflicted brethren : 2dly, His exciting them
to the right apprehension and confident ex
pectation of it ; idly. The inference of that
exhortation. I. The great matter of their comfort is,
the grace which is brought to ihem at ihe
revelation of Jesus Christ. Some for gruce
lead joy, having, as it seems, for x'S" read
Z-'!'" ; the words are not raore near one to
another than the things they signify, grace
and joy, but it is commonly thus read.
The estate of grace and that of glory are
not only so inseparably connected, but so
like one to the other, yea so essentially the
sarae, that the same expressions in scripture
do often fit both of them, and so fit them, that
it is doubtful for which of the two to under-
¦stand them ; but the hazard is net great, see
ing they are so near, and so one grace being
glpry begun, and glpry grace cpmpleted,
both are often called the kingdom of God.
So grace here brought io ihem is the doc
trine of grace in the gospel, wherein Jesus
Christ is revealed, and tliat grace in him ;
for aU the whole tenor pf the covenant of
grace, and every clause of it, holda in him.
His precious name mns through it aU; it is
the grace of salvation to be fuUy perfected at
the last and clearest revelation pf Jesus
Christ ; and fpr this rather I take it here.

fpr that the apostle's nearest foregoing werds
were concerning that, and it is set up here as
the object of hope, which though often put
for faith, yet in"its proper notion, looks out
to that which is to come.
Thia ia the last act of grace, and yet
StiU it is called by itself, and not turned into
the name of merit, notwithstanding aU the
obedience, and aU the sufferings of the saints
that have gone before it ; yea, even the sal
vation io be revealed to them is caUod grace.
But it is needless to insist on this, for cer.
tainly none that partake of grace wiU be of
another mind, or ever admit the mixture of
the least notion of self-deserving.
Though much dispute hath been bestow.
ed on this, and questions multiplying in the
disputants' hands, as is usual in controver
sies, one growing put pf anpther : yet truly
I think the debate in thia to be but waste';
it ia not only against the voice of the scrip.
tures, and of grace itself in the soul, but even
againat aound reason, to imagine any merit.
ing, properly taken, in any mere creature at
hia Creator'a hands, who hath given him his
being, of which gift all his aervices and obe-
dience faU short ; so that he can never come
to be upon even disengaged terms, much less
to obUge anew, and deserve somewhat fur
ther. Besides, that same grace, by which
any serves and obeys God, is Ukewise his
own gift, as it is said, 1 Chron. xxix. 14,
All things come of thee, and of thine mon
have I given thee. Both the abUity, and
the wiU of giving to him, is frora him ; so
that in these respects, not angels, nor man
in innocency, could properly merit at the
hands of God, much less man lost, redeemed
again, and so coraing under the new obliga
tion of infinite mercy. And this is so evi
dent a truth, that the raost leamed and most
ingenious Jesuits and school-men have in
divers passages pf their writings acknpwledg-
ed it, that there cannot be any compensation,
and rauch less raerit frora the creature to
God, but only ,in relation to his own free
purpose, and the tenor of hia word ^nd co
venant, which is inviolable, because he is
unchangeable, and truth itaelf.
His first grace he gives freely, and no less
freely the increases of it, and with the same
gracious hand, sets the crown of glory ufon
aU the grace that he hath given before. It
is but the foUowing forth of hia own work,
and fulfiUing his own thoughts of free love,
which love hath no cause, but in himself,
and finds none wprthy ; but gives them aU
the wprthiness they have, and accepts pf their
Ipve, not as worthy in itself to be accepted,
but because he himself hath wrought it in
thera ; not only the firat tastes, but the fuU
draught of the waters of life is freely given.
Rev. xxii. 17. Nothing is brought with
them but thirst.
That is to be brought.] Not that U

VTH. 13.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

41

brought, or that shaU be brought ; but if
we wiU render it strictiy, it is, that is a
bringing to you. That blessedness, that
consummation of grace, the saints are has
tening forward to, walking pn in tiieir way
wherespever it lies indifferently, through
honour -and dishonour, through evil report
and good report, 2 Cpr. vi. 8. And as they
are hastening to it, it is hastening tp them
in the cpurse of time, every day brings it
nearer to them than before ; and notwith
standing aU difficulties and dangers in the
way, they that have their eye and hopes
upon it, shaU arrive at it, and it shaU be
brought safe to their hand ; aU the malice
of men and devils shaU not be able to cut
them short of thia grace that is a-bringing
to them against the day of the revelation of
Jesus Christ.
At the revelation of Jesus Christ.] This
ia repeated from the 7th verse, and it ia a
day of revelation, a revelation of the just
judgment of God, Rom. ii. 5. And thua
it would be, to all, were it not that it ia
withal the revelation of Jesus Christ ;
therefore is it a day of grace, aU light and
blessedness to them that are in him, because
they shaU appear in hira ; and if he be glp
ripus, they shall not be inglorious and
asharaed. Indeed, were our secret sina then
to be set before our own eyea, in their raoat
affrightful visage, and to be aet open to the
view of angela' and raen, and to the eye of
divine Justice, and we left alone so reveal
ed, who ia there that cpuld gather any cpm
fort, and would not rather have their thoughts
fiUed with horror, at the remembrance and
expectation of that day ? And thus indeed
aU unbeUeving and ungodly men may look
upon it, and find it terrible ; but to those
that are shadowed under the robe of righ
teous Jesus, yea, that are made one with
liim, and ahall partake of his glory in his
appearing, it is the aweeteat, the raost cora
fortable thpught that their souls can be en
tertained and possessed withal, to reraember
-this glorious revelation of their Redeemer.
It is their gr.eat grief here, net that them
selves are hated and Wlified, but that their
Lord Jesus is so little known, and therefore
so rauch despised in the world ; he is veiled
and hid from the world ; many nations ac
knowledge him not at aU ; and many of
those that do in word confess, yet in deed
deny him ; many that have a form of godli-
- ness, do not only want, but mock and scoff
at the power of it ; and to such Christ is not
known, his exceUencies are hid from their
eyes. Now this glory of their Lord being
tender to them that love hira, they rejoice
much in the consideration of this, that there
is a day at hand, wherein he shaU appear in
his brightness, and fuU of glory to aU na
tipns, and aU shaU be forced tP acknpwledge
him ; it shaU be without doubt, and unques

tioned to all, that here is the Messiah, tha
Redeemer, the Judge of ihe world.
And as it is the day of his revelation, it
is also the revelation of all the adopted sons
of God in him, Rom. viii. 9. They are
now accounted the refuse of the world, ex.
posed to aU kind of contempts; but then
the beams of Christ's glory shaU beautify
them, and they shaU be known for his, 1 John
iii. 2 ; Col. iii. 4.
Next, there is, 2. The exhortation by
which the apostie excites them to the right
apprehension, and confident expectation of
this grace, hope to the end. The difference
of these two graces, faith and hope, ia ao
amaU, that the pne is pften taken for the
other in scripture ; it is but a different
aspect of the same confidence, faith appre
hending the infaUible trath of thoae divine
promiaea, pf which hppe doth assuredly ex
pect the accomplishraent, and that is their
truth ; so that thia iraraediately results frora
the other. This is the anchor fixed within
the veil, that keeps the spul firra against all
the tpssinga pn these awelling seas, and the
winds and tempests that arise uppn them.
The firmest thing in this inferior world is a
beUeving soul.
Faith estabUahes the heart on Jeans
Christ, and hope lifts it up, being on that
rock, over the head of aU intervenient dan.
gera, creases, and teraptations, and sees the
glory and happiness that foUow after them.
"To the end.] Or perfectly; and there.
fore, the Christian seeks most earnestly, and
yet waits most patientiy, - Psal. cxxx. 6.
Indeed thia hope is perfect in continuance ; it
is a hope unto the end, becauae it ia perfect
in ita nature, although imperfect in degree ;
soraetiraes doubtings are intermixed with it
in the Christian aoul, yet ihis is iheir infir
mity, as the Psalmist apeaks, Psal. Ixxvii.
10, not the infirmity and insufficiency of
the object pf 'their hppe. Wprldly hppes
are in their pivn nature imperfect, they dp
imply in their very being dpubtfulneaa and
wavering, because the things whereon they
are built are inconstant and uncertain, and
fuU of deceit and disappointments. How
can, that hope be immoveable, that is built
upon moving sands or quagmire ? That
which ia itaelf unfixed, cannot give stability
to any other thing reating on it ; but because
the truth and goodness of the immutable
God is the foundatipn pf spiritual hppe,
therefore it is assured, and like mount Zion,
that cannot be removed, Psal. cxxv. 1, and
this is its perfection.
We proceed to consider, 3dly, The con.
sequence by which this exhortation is en.
forced. Now the apostle exhorts his brethren
to endeavpur tp have their hearts ppssessed
with as high a measure and degree of this
hope as may be, seeing in itself it is so per.
feet and firm, sc assured an hppe, that they

A COMMENTARY UPON

12
jspire to aU the assurance and perfection of
Lt they can attain.
This hope, as I conceive, is not only to
have the habit of it strong in the soul, but
to act it often, to be often tuming that way,
to view that approaching day of liberty.
Lift up your heads, for the day of your
redemption draweth nigh, Luke xxi. 28.
Where this hope is often acted, it wiU grow
strong, as all habita do ; and where it ia
strong, it will work much, and delight to
act often, and wiU control both the doubt
ings, and the other many impertinent
thoughts of the mind, and force them to
yield the place to it. Certainly they that
long much for that coming of Christ, wiU
look often out to it ; we are usually hoping
after other things, that do but offer thera
selves to draw us after them, and to acorn
us. What are the breasts of most of us,
but so many nests of foolish -hopes and fears
intermixed, that entertain ua day and night,
and steal away our precious hours frora us,
that might be laid out so gainfuUy upon the
wise and sweet thoughts of etemity, and
upon the blessed and aaaured hope of the
coming of our beloved Saviour ?
The other words of exhortation here uaed
are aubservient to this end, that this hope
may be the more perfect and firm ; and a
similar exhortation ia much after the same
manner joined by our Saviour, Luke xii.
35, with the expectance and waiting for his
coming ; and in this posture the Israelites
eating the Passover, were expecting their de
liverance ; so we our full and final freedom.
If you would have much of this, caU off
your affections from other things, that they
may be capable of much of it. The same
eye cannot both look up to heaven, and down
to earth at the same time ; the more your
affectiona are trusaed up, and diaentangled
from the world, the more expedite and active
wiU they be in this hope ; the more sober
they are, the less wiU they fiU themselves
with the coarse delights of earth, the more
room will there be in them, and the more
they shall be fiUed with this hope. It is
great foUy in our spiritual warfare, to charge
ourselves superfluously. AU fulness of one
thing hinders the receiving and admittance
of any other, eapeciaUy of thinga so opposite
as theae fulneasea are. Be not drunk with
wine, wherein is excess, but be ye filled
with the Holy Ghost, aaith the apostle,
Eph. V. 18 ; that is, a brutiah fulneas raakes
a raan no man ; thia divine fulness raakes
hira raore than a man : It were happy to
be so filled with this, as that it might be
caUed a kind of drunkenness, as it was wirii
the apostles. Acts ii.
Be sober. ] Or watch ; the same word
signifies both, and with good reason : for
vou know the unsober cannot watch. Now,
though one raain part of sobriety, and that

[chap, t."

which more properly and particularly bearK
this narae, viz. temperance in meat and
drink, is here intended ; and though against
the opposite to this, (not only the purity and
spirituaUty of religion, but) even moral virtue
inveighs as ita apecial enemy ; yea nature
itself, and they that only naturally cpnsider
the bpdy, and ita intereat pf life and health,
find reaaon enough to cry down this base
intemperance, which is so hateful by its own
deformity, and withal carries its punishment
along with it ; although, I say, tiiia sobriety
ia indeed moat necessary for the preservation
of grace and spiritual temper of the soul,
aud is here intended ; yet I conceive it is
not aU that ia here meant, the word ia more
general, for the moderate and sober use of
all things worldly, as he saya. Gird up the
loins of your mind, so it is to be understood ;
let your minds be sober, aU your affections
inwardly attempered to your spiritual con
dition, not glutting yourselves with fleshly
and perishing delights of any kind ; for ihe
more you take in of these, the less you shaU
have of spiritual comfort arid of this perfect
hope. They that pour out themselves upon
present delights, look not like strangers and
hopeful expectants of another life, aud better
pleasures. And certainly the Captain of our salvation
wiU not own them for his foUowers, that Ue
down to drink of these watera, but only such
as in ])aaaing take of them with their hand.
Aa excessive eating or drinking makes the
body sickly and lazy, fit for nothing but
sleep ; and besDts the mind, as it cloys up
with filthy crudities the way thrpugh which
the spirita shpuld paaa, berairing them, and
making thera move heavily as a coach in a
deep way : Thus doth aU iraraoderate use
of the world, and its delights, wrong the soul
in its spiritual condition, raakes it sickly and
feeble, fuU of spiritual distempers, and in
activity ; benumbs the graces of the Spirit,
and fiUs the soul with sleepy vapours ; makes
it grow secure and heavy in spiritual exercises,
and obstructs the way and raotion of the
Spirit of God in the soul ; therefore, if you
would be spiritual, healthful and vigorous,
and enjoy much of the consplations of hea-
ven, be sparing and sober in those of the
earth, and what you abate of the one shaU
be certainly made up in the other. Health,
and a good constitution of body, is a more
constant remaining pleasure, than that of ex
cess and momentary pleasing of the palate :
Thus the comfort of this hope is a more re.
fined and raore abiding contentraent than any
that is to be found in the passing enjoyraents
of this world ; and it is a foolish bargain, to
exchange a drachm of the one for many
pounds of the other. Consider how press.
ingly the apostle St. Paul reasons, 1 Cor. ix.
25. And take withal our Saviour's exhor.
tation, Be sober and watch, for ye know

VER. 13.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

43

not at what hour your Lord icill come,
Matt. xxv. 18.
The double-minded man, says St James,
ts unstable in all his ways, Jam. i. 8. Al
though the word signifies usually deceitful.
nesa and dissimulation of mind, answering
to the Hebrew phrase of a heart and a heart ;
yet here I conceive it hath another sense,
agreeable to the apostie's present discourse
and scope ; it is doubtfulness, and unsettled
wavering of mind.
It is impossible that the course of life can
be any other but uneven and incomposed, if
the spring of it, the heart, whence are the
issues of life, Prov. iv. 23, be so. A man
that is not agreed within, not of one mind
with himself, although there were nothing
to trouble nor alter him from without, that
inward coraraotion is a sufficient principle
and cause of inconstancy r How much more
then must he waver, when he is assaulted,
and beat upon by outward oppositions ; he
is like the waves of the sea, of himself "ever
fluctuating to and fro, according to the na
tural instability of that element ; and at the
same time exposed to the tossings of all the
waves that arise.
It is therefpre in religipn a main thing to
have the heart established and fixed in the
belief and hope of the great things we look
for ; this wiU beget strength of resolution,
«nd constancy in action, and in suffering tpo.
And this is here our apostle's great intent to
ballast the souls of his brethren with this firm
belief, that they might sail even and steady
in 'those seas of trouble. Wherefore, says
he, if these things we have speken be thus,
if there is indeed truth in them, and ypu be
lieve it so, what remains then, but to resolve
for it upon any terms, to fit for the joumey
whatsoever be the difficulties, and in th«u
all to keep up the soul by that certain hope
that wiU not disappoint us ?
¦Vl''hat he hath said before, is as it were
showing them some fruit, some clusters of
grapes of that promised land ; and t'nis ex.
hortation is answerable to Caleb's word there;
Num. xiii. 30, Seeing it is so good a land,
let us go up and possess it. Though there
be fleshly objects, sons of Anak, giants of
temptations and afflictions, and sins to be
overcome, ere it be ours ; yet it is weU worth
aU our labour, and our God has ascertained
ua of the victory, and given uii, by his own
wprd, undpubted hppe pf possessing it.
That which he principaUy exhorta unto in
this verae, is the right placing and firm con
tinuing of our hope. When we consider how
much of our life is taken up this way, in hop-
ing for things we have not, and that even
they who have most of what others are desir
ing and pursuing, yet are stiU hoping for
somewhat further ; and when men have at-
t.iined pne thing, thpugh it be something
they promiaed themselves to rest contented

withal ; yet, presently upon obtaining it,
hope begins to find out some new matter for
itself; — I say, considering the incessant work.
ing of this passion throughout our life, it is
of very much concernment for ua to give it a
right object, and not stiU to be living in
vanity and uncertainty. Here ia then that
for our hope to apply itself to, after which it
needs npt change, npr can change withput
the greatest Ipss. Hope for the grace that
is coming at the revelation of Jesus Christ ;
beatow all your hope on this, and recall it not.
Hope perfectly, and io the end.
The other part of the exhprtatipn relates
tp thia as the main end, and in the original
runs in this form, Wherefore, girding up
the loins of your mind, being sober, hope-:
And to the end hope may be the more per
fect, and endure to the end, and more like it
self, i. e, heavenly, your minds must be freed
from the earth, that they may set for heaven ;
and this ia expressed in two several words,
but both meaning much the same thing :
That temper of sobriety, and posture of being
girt, are no other but the same removal of
earthly-mindedness, and encumbering cares
and desires of earthly things.
Gird up ihe loins. ] The custom of these
countries was, that wearing long garments,
they trussed them up for work or journey.
Chastity ia indeed a Chriatian grace, and a
great part of the soul's freedora and spiritual-
nesa, and fits it much for divine thinga : yet
I think it is not so particularly and entirely
intended in this expression, as St. Jeroin and
others take it ; for though the girding of the
loins seemed to them to favour that sense, it
is only in allusion to the manner of girding
up that was then used : And beaidea, the
apostle here makes it clear he meant some-
what else ; for he says the loins of your
minds. Gather up your affections, that they
hang not down to hinder ypu in ypur race,
and SP in your hopes of obtaining ; and do
not only gather them up, but tie them up,
that they fall not down again ; or if they do,
be sure to gird them straiter than before.
Thus be stiU as men for your joumey, tend.
ing to another place. This is not our home,
nor the place of our rest ; therefore our loins
raust be still girt up, our affections kept frora
training and dragging down upon the earth.
Men that are altogether earthly and pro.
fane are so far from gilding up the loins of
their mind, that they set them wholly down.
wards. The very highest part of their soul
is glued to the earth, and' they are daily par.
takers of the serpent's curse, they go on their
belly and eat the dust, they mind earthly
things, PhU. iii. 19. Now this dispoaition
is inconsistent with grace ; but they that are
in some measure truly godly, though they
grpvel npt ap, yet may be somewhat guilty of
suffering their affections to faU tPO low, that
is, too much conversant with vanity, and

A COMMENTARY UPON

il
"urlher engaged tiian is meet, to some things
hat are worldly, and- by this means abate of
•heir heavenly hopes, and make them less per
fect, less clear and sensible to their souls.,
And because diey are most subject to take
this liberty in the fair and calm weather of
prosperity, God doth often, and wisely and
mercifully, cause rough blasts of affliction to
arise upon them, to make them gather their
loose garments ne-arer to them, and gird them
closer. Let us then remember our way, and where
we are, and keep our garments girt up, for
we walk amidst thorns and briers, that if we
let them down, will entangle and stop us, and
possibly tear our garments. We walk through
a world where there is much mire of sinful
pollutions, and therefore cannot but defile
them ; and the crowd we are among will be
ready to tread on them, yea our own feet may
be entangled in them, and so make ua atura-
ble, and poasibly fall. Our only safeat way
is to gird up our affections wholly.
This perfect hope is enforced by the whole
strain of it : For well may we fix our hope
on that happiness to which we are appointed
in the eternal election of God, ver. 2, and
born to it by our new birth, ver. 3, 4, and
preserved to it by his almighty power, ver. 5,
and cannot be cut short of it by all the afflic
tions and oppositions in the way, no, nor so
much as deprived by them of our present joy
and comfort in the assurance of it, ver. 6, 7,
8, 9. And then being taught the greatness
and excellency of that blessed salvation, by
the doctrine ofthe propheta and apoatles, and
tho admiration of angels, all these conspire to
confirm our hope, to make it perfect and per
severing to the end.
And we may also leam by the foregoing
doctrine, that this is the place of our trial and
conflict, but the place of our rest is above :
We must here have our loins girt ; but when
v/e come there, we may wear our long white
robes at their full length without disturbance,
for there is nothing there but peace ; and
without danger of defilement, for no unclean
thing is there, yea, the streets to that new
Jerusalem are paved with pure gold. To
Him, then, that hath prepared that city for
ns, let us ever give praise.
Ver. 14. As obedient children, not fashioning your
selves according to the former lusts, in your ig
norance :
Ver. 15. Gut as he which hath called you is holy,
so be ye holy in all manner of conversalion ;
Veh. 16. Because it is written. Be ye holy, for I am
holy.
'i Thy word is a lamp unto my feet," says
David, "and a light unto my path, " Psal
cxix. 105, not only comfortable, as light is
to the eyea, but withal directive, aa a lamp
to his feet. Thus here the apostle doth not
only furnish consplatipn against distress, but
exhorts and directs his brethren in the way

[CHAP, j;

of holiness, without which, t he apprehension
and feeling of thoae comforta cannot aubsist,
Thia ia uo other but a clearer and fuUer
expression, and further pressing of that so.
briety and spiritualness of mind and life, that
he jointly exhorted unto, with that of perfect
hope, ver. 13. as inseparably connected with
it. If you would enjoy this hppe, be not
conformed to the lusta of your forraer igno-
ranee, but be holy.
There ia no doctrine in the world eithet
so pleasant or so pure as that of Christianity :
It is matchless both in sweetness and holinesa.
The faitii and hope of a Christian have in
them an abiding precious balm of comfort ;
but this is never to be so lavished away, as
to be poured into the puddle of an impure
conscience : No, that were to lose it un.
worthily : As many as have ihis hope puri
fy themselves, even as he is pure, 1 John
ii. 3. Here they are commanded to be holy
as he is holy. Faith first purifies the heart.
Acts XV. 9, empties it ofthe love' of sin, and
then fills it with the consolation of Christ,
and the hope of glory.
It is a fooUsh misgrounded fear, and auch
as arguea inexperience of the nature and
workings of divine grace, to imagine that the
assured hope of salvation will beget unholi
ness and presumptuous boldness in sin, and
therefore that the doctrine of that assurance
is a doctrine of licentiousness : Our apostle,
we see, is not so aharp-sighted as these -men
think themselves ; he apprehends no such
matter, but indeed supposes the contrary as
unquestionable : He takes not assured hope
and holiness as enemies, but joins them as
.nearest friends, hope perfectly, and be holy.
They are mutually strengthened and in
creased each by the other. The more as
surance of salvation, the more holiness,' the
more deUght in it, and study of it, as the
only way to that end. And as labour is then
most pleasant, when we arc made surest it
shall not be lost, nothing dpth make the soul
so nimble and active in obedience as this oil
of gladness, this assured hope of glory.
Again, the more holiness is in the spul, the
clearer always is this assurance, as we see
the face pf the heavens best when there are
fewest clouds. The greatest affliction doth
not damp this hope so much aa the smaUest
sin, yea, it may be the more lively and sen
sible to the soul by affliction ; but by sin it
always suffers loss, as the experience of all
Christians does certainly teach them.
The apostle exhorts to obedience, and eu-
forceth it by a most persuasive reason. Hia
exhortation is, 1. Negative, Not fashioning
yourselves. 2. Positive, Be ye holy.
I. For the negative part of the exhorta.
tion. That which he would remove and
separate them from is lu.sts : This is hi
scripture the uaual name of all the irregular
and sinful desires of the heart, both the poi.

vr.R. 14 — 16.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

luted habita of tiiem, and their corrupt
streams, both as they are within, and out
wardly vent themselves in the lives of men.
The aposde St. John, 1 John ii. 17, calls it
the lust nf the world, and ver. 15, love of the
world ,' and then, ver. 16. branches it into
those three that are indeed the baae Anti-
trinity that the world worshipa, the lust of
ihe eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride
of life.
The soul of man unconverted is no other
but a den of impure lusts, wherein dweUs
pride, uncleanness, avarice, malice, &c. just
as Babylon is described, Rev. xviii. 2, or as
laa. xiii. 21. Were a man's eyes opened,
he would aa much abhor to remain with him.
self in that condition, " aa to dweU in a house
fuU of snakes and serpenta," aa St. Auatin
says. And the first part of conversion is
once to rid the soul of these noisome inhabi
tants, for there is none at aU found naturaUy
vacant and free frora thera. This the
aposde here expresses of the believers he
wrote to, that these lusts were theirs before in
their ignorance.
There is a truth in it, that all sin arises
ftom sorae kind of ignorance, or, at least,
from present inadvertence and inconsidera-
tipn, tuming away the mind frpm the Ught ;
v/hich therefpre, for the time, is as if it were
not; and is all one with ignorance in the
effect ; and therefore the works of sin are aU
called works of darkness. For were the
true visage of sin seen at a fuU light, un
dressed and unpainted, it were irapossible,
while it so appeared, that any one soul could
bo in love with it, but would rather fiy it, as
hideous and abominable. But because the
aoul unrenewed is all darkness, therefore it
ia all luat, and love of ain ; no order in it, be.
cause no Ught. Aa at the first iu the world
confusion and darkness went together, and
' darkness was upon the face of Ihe deep.
Gen. i. 2, it is so in the soul, the raore igno
rance, the more abundance of lusts.
That light that frees the soul, and rescues
it from the very kingdora of darkneas, muat be
somewhat beyond that which nature can attain
to. All the light of philosophy, natural and
moral, is not aufficient, yea, the very know
ledge ofthe law, aevered from Chriat, serves
not 80 to enlighten and renew the soul as to
free it from the darkness or ignorance here
spoken of; for our apostie writes to Jews
that knew the law, and were instracted in it
befpre their conversion, yet he caUs those
times wherein Christ was unknown to thera,
the times of iheir ignorance. Though the
stars shine never so bright, and the raoon
with them in its fuU, yet they do npt, altp-
gedier, make it day, stiU it is night tiU the
sun appear. Therefore the Hebrew doctors,
upon "that word of Solomon's, , Vanity of
vanities, all is vanity, say, Vana etiam lex,
donee venerit Messias. Therefore of him

Zacharias says, That the day spring from
on high hath visited us, to give light to them
ihat sit in darkness, and in the shadow of
death, and to guide our feet into the way of
peace, Luke i. 78, 70.
A natural raan may attain to very much
acquired knowledge pf the doctrine of Christ,
and may discourse exceUently of it, and yet
StiU his soul be in the chains of darkness,
fast locked up under the ignorance here men
tioned, and so stiU of a carnal mind, in sub
jection to these lusts of ignorance.
The saving light of faith is a beam of the
Sun of Righteousness himself that he sends
into the soul, by which he makes it discern
his incomparable beauties, and by that sight
alienates it from aU those lusts and desirea
that do then appear to be 'what indeed they
are, vileness and filthiness itself, makes the^
soul wonder at itself, how it cpuld love such
base trash so long, and so fully resolves it
now ofl the choice of Jesus Christ, the chief
among ten thousands. Cant. v. 10, yea, the
fairest of the children of men, Psal. xiv. 2,
for that he is withal the only begotten Son
of God, ihe brightness of his Father's glory,
and the express image of his person,
Heb. i. 3.
The soul once acquainted with him, can
with disdain turn off aU the base solicita
tions and importunities of sin, and command
them away that formerly had command over
it, though they plead former familiarities,
and the interest they once had in the heart
of a Christian, before it was enlightened and
renewed. He can weU tell them after his
sight of Christ, that it is true: While he knew
no better than they were, he thought them
lovely and pleasing, but that one glance of
the face of Jesua Chriat hath tumed them
all into extreme blackness and deformity ;
that ao aoon aa ever Chriat appeared to him,
they straightway Ipst aU their credit and
esteem in his heart, and have lost it for
ever^ they need never look to recover it any
more. And it is frora this that the apostle en-
forceth this dehortation. It is trae the lusts
and vanities that are in request in the world,
were so with you, but it was when you were
blind, they were the lusts of your ignorance ;
but now you know how iU they wiU suit
with the Ught of that gospel which you pro
fess, and that inward light of faith, which
is in the souls of such as be really believers.
Therefpre, seeing ypu have renounced
thera, keep thera stUl at that diatance, never
admit thera raore to lodge within you ; that
aure you cannot do : but do not so rauch as
for custora's sake, and compliance with the
world about you, putwardly ccnform ypur.
selves tp any pf them, pr make semblance
tp partake pf them, as St. Paul says. Have
no more fellowship with the unfruitful
works of darkness, but rather reprove.

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. I

lem, Eph. v. 11 ; reprove them by your
in-iage, and let the Ught of your holy lives
iscover their fulness.
II. We have the positive part of the
postle's exhortation. Be ye holy. This
ncludes the former, the renouncing of the
list and poUutions of the world, both in
leart and Ufe ; and adds farther, fiUing of
heir room, being cast out with the beautify-
ng graces of the Spirit of God, and the
icting of those in their whole ceuversation
n private and abroad, in conversing widi
hemselves, and cpnversing with others whe-
her gpod or bad, in a constant even course,
itiU like theraselves, and Uke him who hath

and persuaded by the tenderest raercies ol
Gpd. Npw though this Hebrew raamier of
speech, sons of obedience or disobedience,
signify no more but obedient or disobedient
persons, yet it doth signify them most em-
phatically, and means a high degree of
obedience or disobedience ; these sons of
disobedience, ver. 2, are likewise sons of
wrath, ver. 3.
Of all chUdren, the chUdren of God are
most obliged to obedience, for he is both the
wisest and the most loving of fathers. And
the sum pf aU his cpramands is that which
is their glpry and happiness, that they en-
! deavpur tp be Uke him, tp resemble their

;aUed them : For it is a mpst unseemly and heavenly Father : Be ye perfect, as your

mpleasant thing tP see » man's life full ef
jps and dpwns, pne step Uke a Christian,
md anether like a wprldling ; it cannct chppse
but bPth pain hiraself, and mar the edifica.
tipn pf pthers.
But as he which hath called you is holy.]
Cpnsider whose you are, and you cannot
deny that it becoraes you to be holy. Con.
sider ypur near relatipns tP the holy God ;
thia is expresaed two ways, naraely, as
children, and as he which hath called you ;
which is aU one as if he had said, hath be.
gotten you again. The very outward voca.
tion of those that profess Christ, presseth
hoUness upon diem, but the inward far more.
You were running to destructien in the way
of sin, and there was ^ voice together with
the gospel preached to ypur ear, that spake
into your heart, and caUed you back from
that path of death to the way of holiness,
which is the only way of life. He hath
severed you frora the mass of the profane
world, and picked you out tp be jewels for
himself; he hath set yPu apart for this end,
that you raay be holy to hira, as the Hebrew
word that signifies holiness, imports setting
apart, or fitting for a peculiar use ; be not
then untrue to his design. He hath not
called you io uncleanness, but unto holi- .
ness, 1 Thess. iv. 7, Therefore be ye holy.
It is sacrilege for you to dispose of your
selves after the impure manner of the world,
and to apply ypurselves tp any prpfane uae,
¦whom God hath consecrated to himself.
As children.] Thia is no doubt relative
to that which he spoke, ver. 3, by way of
thanksgiving; and that Wherefore of the
13th verse draws it down hither by way of
exhortation. Seeing you are by a spiritual
and new birth the children of so great and
good a Father, who coramands you hoU
ness ; be obedient children in being holy ;
and seeing he himaelf is most holy, be like
him as his children. Be ye holy as he is holy.
As obedient children. ] Opposite to that,
Eph. ii. 2, sons of disobedience or unbelief,
as the word may be rendered, and that is
always the spring of disobedience. Sons of
mispersuasibleness, that wiU not be drawn

heavenly Father is perfect, says nur Sa
vipur, Matt. v. 48. And here the apostle
citing out pf the law, Be ye holy, for I am
holy, Lev. xi. 44 ; law and gpspel agree in
this. And as children that resemble their
fathers, as they grpw up in years they grow
the Uker tp them ; thus the children of God
do increase in their resemblance, and are
daily more and more renewed after his
iraage. There is in them an innate Ukeness
by his image impressed on them in their
first renovation, and his Spirit dwelling
within thera ; and there is a continuing in.
cre.ise pf it, by their pipus iraitation and
study of conforraity, which is here exhort
ed to.
The iraitation pf vicipus men, and the
cprrapt wprld, is here forbid ; the imitation
pf raen's indifferent custoras is base and
servile ; the imitation pf the virtues of good
men is commendable : But the imitation
of this highest Pattern, this primitive Good-
ness, the most hply Gpd, is the top of excel
lency. And it is weU said, Summa reli
gionis est imitari quem, colis. AU of us
offer him some kind of worship, but few
seriously study and endeavour (iis blessed
conferral ty.
There is, np questipn, arapng thpse that
prpfeaa theraselves the pepple pf Gpd, a se
lect number, that are indeed his children,
and bear his image both in their hearts and
in their lives ; thia impression of hoUness is
on themselves and their conversation : But
with the raoat, a name and a form of godliness
ia aU they have fpr reUgipn. Alaa I we
apeak pf hplineaa, and we hear pf it, and it
may be we cpmmend it, but we act it not ;
or if we do, it is but acting of it, in that sense
the word is taken for a personated acting,*as
on a stage in the sight of men, npt aa in the
sight pf our lovely God, lodging it iu our
hearts, and from thence diffusing it into all
our actions. A child is then truly Uke his
father, when not only his visage resembles
him, but mpre his raind and inward disppsi
tipn : Thus are the trae children pf God
like their heavenly Father in their wprds and
in their actipns, but raoat pf aU in he.ttt.

TEn. 17. J

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PKTER.

It is no matter though the profane world,
diat so hate God that it cannot endure his
image, do mock and revile : It is thy ho
nour, as David said, 2 Sara. vi. 22, to be
thus more vile, in growing stiU more like un
to him in hoUneas ; and though the civil
man count thy fashion a litde odd, and too
precise, it is becauae he knows nothing above
that model of gopdness he hath set himaelf,
nnd therefore apprpves of nothing beyond it :
He knows not God, and therefore doth not
discern and esteem what is Ukest hira. When
courtiers corae dowii into the country, the
common home-bred people pesiiibly think
thf.ir habit strange ; but they care not for
that, it is the fashion at court. What need
then the godly be so tender foreheaded, as to
be out pf cpuntenance because the world looka
on hoUness as a singularity ; it ia only the
fashion in the higheat court, yea, of the King
of kings himself.
For I am holy.] As it wiU raise our en
deavour high, to Ippk pn the highest Pattern,
SP it wiU lay pur thpughts low concerning
ourselves. Men cpmpare theraselves with
men, and readily with the wprst, and flatter
themselves with that comparative betterness :
Thia is not the way to see spots, to look into
the rr-uddy streams of profane men's lives :
but lopk intp the clear fountain pf the wprd,
and there we may both discern and wash
them ; and consider the inflnite holiness of
God, and this wiU humble us tp the dust.
When Isaiah saw the glpry pf the Lprd, and
heard the Seraphims cry. Holy, holy, holy,
he cried put of his own and the people's un-
holineaa. Woe is me, for I am undone, for
I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in ihe midst- of a people of unclean lips ;
for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts, chap. vi. 3, 4.
Vkr- 17. And if ye call on the Father, Who, with
out respect of persons, judgeth according to every
man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here
in fear.
The teraptationa that meet a Chriatian in
the world to tum him aside frora the straight
way of obedience and hoUness, are either
such as preaent the hope of aorae apparent
good, tp draw him frpm that way ; pr the
fear pf sorae evil, to drive and affright him
frpm it : And therefore the word of God is
much in strengthening the Christian mind
against these two, and it doth it especiaUy,
by possessing it both with hopes and fears of
a higher nature, that do by far weigh down
the other.
The most frequent assaults of temptations
are upon these twp passipns pf the mind,
therefore they are chiefly to. be fortified and
defended, by a hope and fear opposite to
those tha't do assault us, and sufficientiy
strong to resist and repel them.
These two therefore our apostle here urges :
1.. The hope of that glory that the gospel

47

propounds, and so outbids all the prpffers of
the world, both in the greatness and the cer
tainty of its promises. 2. The fear pf Gpd,
the greatest and justest Judge, pnly wprthy
tp be feared and reverenced ; the highest
anger and enmity of aU the world being less
than nothing in comparison of his smallest
displeasure. We have here,
1. Thia fear ; 2. The reason enforcing it ;
3. The term or continuance of it.
1. The fear itself, in fear. But haw suits
thia with the high diacourae that went be-
fore, of perfeci assured hope, of faith, and
love and joy, yea, joy unspeakable and glo-
rioua, arising out of these ? How are all
those exceUencies faUen as it were into a
dungeon, when fear is mentioned after thera ?
Doth not the apostle St. John say, ihat true
love casteth out fear, 1 John iv. 18 ? And
is it not more -clearly opposite to perfect or
assured hope, and to faith and joy ?
If ye understand it aright, this is such a
fear as doth not prejudice, but preserve those
other graces, and the comfort and jpy that
arises frpm thera : And they all agree so
weU with it, that they are naturally helps to
each other.
It were superfluous to insist on the defln.
ing this pasaion of fear, and the manifold dis.
tinctions of it, either v/ith philosophers or
divines. The fear here recomraended ia,
out of queation, a holy aelf-suspicion and fear
of offending God, which may not only con
sist with'assured hope of salvation, and with
faith, and love, and spiritual joy, but ia their
inaeparable corapanion, as aU divine graces
are liidted together, (as the Heathens said of
their three Graces,) and as they dwell to
gether, they grow or decrease together. The
more a Christian believes, and loves, and re
joices in the loye of God, the more unwilling
surely he is to diapleaae him, and if in dan
ger, the more afraid of it ; and on the other
side, this fear being the true principle of a
wary and holy conversation, flying sin and
the pccasipns pf sin, and teraptatipns tp it,
and resisting thera when they make an as
sault, is aa a watch or guard that keeps out
the eneraies and disturbers of the soul, and
ao preserves its inward peace, keeps the as
surance of faith iind hope unraolested, and
that joy which they cause, and the inter
course and societies of love betwixt the soul
and her Beloved uninterrupted ; aU which
are then most in danger when this fear abates
and faUs to slumbering, for then some no
table sin or other is ready to break in and put
aU into disorder, and for a time makes those
graces and the comfort of them, to present
feeUng, aa much to seek as if they were not
there at all.
No wonder, then, if the apostle, having
stirred up his Christian brethren, whatsoe^ver
be their estate in the world, tP seek to be
rich in these jewels of faith, and hope, and

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. 17

love, aud apiritual joy, and then considering
fnat they travel araengst a wprld pf thieves
md robbers ; no wonder, I say, that he adds
;his, advises thera to give those their jewels
m custody, under God, to this trusty and
ivatchful grace of godly fear ; and having
jamestly exhorted them to holiness, he is very
iitly particiilar in this fear, which makes up
io great part of that holiness, that it is often
in scripture named for it all.
Solomon caUs it the begittning or the top
}/ ivisdom, Prov. xv. 33 ; the word signifies
both, and it ia both. The beginningof it ia
;he beginning of wiadom, and the progress
md increase of it, is the increase of wisdom.
That hardy rashness that many account va
lour is the companion of ignorance ; and of
lU rashness, boldness to sin is the most
witless and foolish. There is in this, as in
lU fear, an apprehension of an evil, whereof
we are in danger. The evil is sin, and the
displeasure of God, and punishment foUow
ing upon ain. The godly man judgeth wise
ly, as the truth is, that sin is the greateat of
evila, and the cause of aU other evils ; it is a
transgression of the just law of God, and so
a provocation of his just anger, and the cause
of thoae punishraents, temporal, apiritual, and
eternal, which he inflicts. And then conai.
dering how mighty he ia to punish, bpth the
power and reach of hia hand, that it is both most
heavy and unavoidable ; aU these things may
and should concur to the working of this fear.
There is, no doubt, a great difference be
twixt thoae two kinda pf fear that are usually
differenced by the name nf servile and filial
fear ; but certainly the rapst genuine fear pf
the sons of God, that call him Father, doth
not exclude the consideration of his justice,
and of the puniahraent of sin that his justice
inflicts : We see here it is used as the great
motive of thia fear, that he judgeth every
man according to his works. And David,
in that Paalm wherein he ao much breathea
forth those other aweet affections of love and
hope, and deUght in God and in his word,
yet expreaaeth thia fear even of the justice of
God, My flesh trembleth for fear of thee,
and I am afraid of thy judgments, Psal.
cxix. 120. The fleah is to be awed ' with
divine judgments, though the higher and
surer part of the soul is strongly and freely
tied with the cords of love. Temppral cpr.
rections indeed they fear not so much in
themselves, as that impression of wrath that
may be upon them for their sins, Paal. vi. 1,
&c. That is the raain raatter of their fear,
because their happiness is in hia love, and
the light of his countenance, that is their
life :' They regard not how the world looks
upon them, they care not who frown, so he
smile on them ; and becauae no other enemy,
nor evil in the world, can deprive thera of
this but their own sin, therefore it is that
(hey fear most.

As the evil ia great, ao the Chriatian hatli
great reaaon to fear in regard of hia danger
of it, considering the multitude, strength ami
craft of his enemies, and his own weakness
and unskUfulness to resist th era. And his sad
experience in being often foiled, teacheth him
that it is thus ; he cannot be ignorant of it ;
he finds how often his own resolutions and
purposes deceive him. Certainly a gpdly man
is sometimes driven to wonder at his own
frailty and inconstancy. What strange dif
ferences wiU be betwixt hira and himself ;
how high and how delightful at some times
are his thoughts of God, and the glpry pf the
life to come ; and yet how easily at another
time base temptations will bemire him, or at
the least raolest and vex him ; and this keeps
him in a continual fear, and that fear in con
tinual vigilancy and circuraspectness. When
he looks up to God, and considers the truth
of his promises, and the sufficiency of his
grace and protection, and the alraighty strength
of his Redeeraer, these things fUl his soul
with confidence and assurance : But when
he tums hia eye downward again upon him.
self, and finds so much reraaining corraptioa
within, and so many temptations, and dan.
gers, and adversaries without, this forces him
not only to fear, but to despair of himself;
and it should do so, that his trast in God may
be the purer and more entire : That cpnfidence
in God wiU npt raake him secure and pre.
sumptupus in himself, nor that fear pf him.
self make hira diffldent of God. This fear
is not opposite to faith, but high-mindedness
and presumption are, Rora. xi. 20. To a
natural man it would seem an odd kind of
reasoning that ofthe apostle, Phil. ii. 12, 13,
// is God that worketh in you to will and
io do of his good pleasure. Therefore
would he think, you may save labour, you
may sit stiU, and not work ; or if you work,
you may work fearlessly, being so sure of his
help : but the apostle is of another mind ;
his inference is, therefore,, work out your
own salvation, and work it ivith fear and
trerAbling. But why should he that hath assurance of
salvatipn fear ? If there is truth in his
assurance, npthing can disappoint him : not
sin itself, it is true ; Jmt it iS no less true,
that if he do not fear to sin, there is no trath
in his assurance ; it is not the assurance of
faith, but the mispersuasion of a secure and
profane mind.
2. Suppose it so, that the sins pf a gpdly
man cannot be such aa to cut hira short of
that salvation whereof he is assured ; yet they
may be such as for a time wiU deprive him
of that assurance, and not only remove the
corafort he hath in that, but let in horrors
and anguish of conscience in its stead.
Though a believer is freed frora heU, and we
may pverstrain this assurance in oux doctrine,
beyond what the soberest and devoutest men

7- J

FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

49

in the world can ever find in themselves,
though tiiey will not trouble themselves to
contest and dispute with thera that say they
have it, so that his soul cannot come there ;
yet some sins may bring as it were a piece of
hell into his soul for a time, and this is rea
son enpugh for any Christian in his right
wits to be afraid of sin. No man would wiU
ingly hazard hiraself upon a fall that raay
break his leg, or sorae other bone, though he
could be raade sure that he should not break
his neck, or that his life were not at aU in dan.
ger, and that he should be perfecdy cured ;
yet the pain and trouble of such a hurt would
terrify him, and make him wary and fearful
when he wajks in danger. The broken bones
that David complains of after his faU, may
work fear and wariness in thpse that hear him,
though they were ascertained of a like re.
covery. This fear is not cowardice, it doth not de
bacle, but elevates the mind ; for it drowns
aU lower fears, and begets true fortitude, and
courage to encounter aU dangers, for a good
conscience and the obeying of God, The
righteous is bold as alion, (Proverbs xxviii.
1) ; he dares do any thing but offend God,
and to dare do that is tile greatest foUy, and
baseness, and weakness in the world. From
this fear have sprung aU the generous re
solutions and patient sufferings of the saints
aud martyrs of God, becauae they durst not
sin against him ; therefore they durst be im
prisoned, and impoverished, and tortured,
and die'for him. Thus the prophets set ^car
nal and godly fear as opposite, and the one
expeUing the other, Isa. viii. 12, 13. And
- our Saviour, Luke xii. 4, Fear not ihem
that kill the body : But fear him, which
after he hath killed, hath power to cast into
hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him.
P'ear not, but fear ; and therefore fear, that
you may not fear. This fear is Uke the
trembling that hath been observed in spme
pf great courage before battles, Moses was
bold and fearless in deaUng with a proud
and wicked king ; but when God appeared,
he said, as the apostie informs us, / exceed
ingly fear and quake, Heb. xii. 21.
iL The reason we have here to persuade
this fear, is twofold : 1. Their relation to
God ; 2. Their relation to the world.
First, To God as their Father, as their
Judge. Because you do call hira Father,
and profess yourselves his children begotten
again by hirii, (for this looks back to that,'
it becomes you, aS pbedient children, tp stand
in awe, and fear tp offend hira your Father,
and a Father so full of goodnesa and tender
love ; but as he is the best Father, so con
sider that he is withal the greatest and j,ust.
est Judge, he judges every man according
to his work.
God always sees and discerns raen, and
aU their wpi^k. and judgeth, that is, ac

counteth of thera as they are, and sometimes
in this life declares this his judgment pf
thera tp their pwn cpnsciences, and in some
to the view of others, in visible punishments
and rewards : But the raost solemn judg
ment of aU, is reserved to that great day
whicii he hath apppinted, wherein he will
judge the world in righteousness by his Son
Jesus, Acts xvii. 32.
There is here the spvereignty pf this Judge,
the universality of his judgment, and the
equity of it. AU must answer at his great
Court, he is suprerae Judge pf the wprld ;
he made it, and hath therefore unquestion.
able right to judge it, he judgeth every
man ; and it is a most righteous judgment,
which hath these two in it: 1. An exact
and perfect knowledge of all men's wprks ;
2. Impartial judgment pf them sp knpwn.
This secpnd is expressed negatively, by re
rapving the crooked rule which raan's judg
ment often foUows ; it is without considera.
tion of those personal differences that men eye
so much : And the first is according to the
work itself. Job xxiv. 19, he accepteth not
the person of princes, nor regardeth the
rich more than the poor ; and the reaaon is
added there, for they are all the work of
his hands. He made aU the persona, and he
makes aU those differences himself, as it
pleaseth him ; therefore he doth not admire
them as we do, no, nor at all regard thera :
We find very great odds betwixt stately
palaces and poor cottages, betwixt a prince's
robes and a beggar's cloak ; but to God
they are aU one, aU these petty differences
vanish in comparison of his own greatness.
Men are great and smaU compared one with
another ; but they altogether araount to just
nothing in respect pf him. We find high
mpuntaina and Ipw vaUiea on this earth ; but
compared with the vast compass of the hea.
vens, it is aU but as a point, and hath no
sensible greatness at aU.
Nor regards he any other differences to bias
his judgraent ftpra the wprks pf men to their
persons. You profess the true reUgion, and
caU him Father ; but if you Uve devoid of
his fear, and be disobedient children, he will
not spare you because of that relation, but
rather punish you the more severely, because
you pretended to be his children, and yet
pbeyed him npt ; therefpre you shaU find
hira your Judge, and an impartial Judge of
your works. Remember therefore that your
Father is this Judge, and fear to offend him.
But then indeed a believer may look back to
the other for comfort, that abuses it not to a
sinful security. He reaolvea thia willingly,
i wiU not ain, because my Father is this
just Judge ; but for my ftailties I wiU hope
for mercy, becauae the Judge ia ray Father.
Their works : Comprehend all actions and
iwords, yea, thoughts, and each work entirely,
taken outside and inside together : For ha
B

50

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. I.

sees aU alike, and judgeth accprding tp aU
tpgether ; he Ipoks on the wheels and paces
within, as weU as on the handle without, and
therefpre pught we te fear the least crepked-
ness pf pur intentiona in the best works ; for
if we entertain any such, and study not sin
gleness of heart, this wiU cast aU,. although
we pray, and hear the word, and preach it,
and Uve outwardly unblameably. And in
that great judgraent, aU secret things shaU
be raanifest ; as they are always open to the
eye of this Judge, so he shaU then open them
before men and angels : Therefore let the
remembrance and frequent consideration of
thia aU-aeeing Judge, and of that great judg
ment, waken our hearts, and beget in ua this
fear, 2 Cor. v. 10, 11. If you would have
confidence in that day, and not fear it when
it comes, fear it now, so as to avoid sin ; for
they that now tremble at it, shall then, when
it comes, Uft up their faces with joy : And
they that wiU not fear it now, shaU then be
overwhelmed with fears and terror : they
shall have such a burden of fear then, as that
they shaU account the hiUs and mountains
lighter than it.
The reason' of this fear, so far as it refers
to their relation to the world, may be united
with the next head : As,
III. We have the term or continuance of
the fear commanded : \Pass ihe time of
your sojourning here in fear.] In this I
conceive is implied another persuasion of this
fear. You are sojourners and strangers, as
here the word signifies : and a wary circum
spect carriage becomes strangers, because
they are most exposed to wrongs and hard
accidents. You are encompassed with ene.
mies and snares ; how can you be aecure in
the midst of them ? Thia is not your reat ;
watch, fear becomes this your sojourning.
Perfect peace and security is reserved for you
at horae, and that is the last term of this
fear ; it continues aU the time of this so
journing life, dies not before ua, we and it
ahaU expire together.
Blessed is he that feareth always, says
Solomon, Prov. xxviii. 14. In secret and in
society, in his own house, and in God's, we
must hear the word with fear, and preach it
with fear, aftaid to miscarry in our intentiona
and mannera. Serve ihe Lord with fear,
yea, in times of inward comfort and joy, yet
rejoice with trembling, Psal. ii. 11. Not
only when a man feela most his own weak-
ness, but when he finds hiraself strongest.
None are ao high advanced in grace here be
low, as to be out pf need pf this grace ; but
when their spjouming shall be done, and
they are corae horae to their Father's house
ibove, then no raore fearing. No entry for
danger there, and therefore no fear. A holy
ceverence of the majesty pf Gpd they shall
indeed have then most of all, as the angels thers plead'forVbut remeiJAerTthat iUrtlmt
itiU have, because they ahaU see hira most I very thing from which you are delivered, and

clearly, and the more he ia known, the more
reverenced : But thia feai that relates to
danger sliaU then vanish ; for in that world
there is neither sin, nor sorrow for sin, nor
temptation to sin ; no more conflicts : but
after a fuU and final victory, an etemal peace,
an everlasting triumph. Not only fear, but
faith and hope, do imply sorae imperfection
not consistent with that bleaaed estate : And
therefore aU of them having obtained their
end, shall end, faith in sight, and hope in
possession, and fear in perfect safety ; and
everlasting love and deUght shaU iiU the
whole soul in the vision of Gpd.
Ver. 18. Forasmuch as ye know that ye, were not
redeemed with corruptible thin^,, as silver and
gold, from your vain conversation received by
tradition from your fathers ;
Ver. 19. But with the precious blood of Christ,
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
It is impossible for a Christian to give
himself to conform with the World's ungod
Uness, unless first, he forget who he is, and
by what means he attained to be what he is.
Therefore the appstie, persuading his breth
ren to hoUness, puts them in mind of this, as
the strongest incentive ; not pnly have ycu
the example pf God set before you aa your
Father, to beget in you the love of hoUness,
being your liveUest reserablance of him ; aad
the Justice of God as your Judge, to argue
you into a pious fear of offending him:
But consider this, that he ia your Redeemer,
he hath bought out your Uberty from ain and
the world, to be altogether hia ; and think
on the price laid down in thia ranaom ; and
theae out of queatipn wUl prevail with you.
We have here the evil diaauaded fi-om,
viz. 1. A vain conversation, 2. The dis-
suasipn itself. 1. It is csii^^ii their vain con
versation. 2. Received by tradition from
their fathers. By this I cpnceive is not
pnly understppd the superstitipus and vain
devices in reUgipn that abounded amongst
the Jews by tradition, of which our Saviour
often reproved them while he was conversant
among them, aa we find in the gospel ; and
aU this was meant, v. 14, by the lusts of their
former ignorance ; but generaUy aU the cor
rupt and sinful customs of their Uves : For
it aeema not ao pertinent tp hia purppse when
exhprting tP hplinesa pf Ufe, to apeak of their
auperstitious traditions, as their pther sinful
habitudes which are ne less hereditary, and,
by the pewer pf exaraple, traditipnal ; which
by reaspn pf their cpmrapn rpot in man's
ainful nature, do so eaaily paas frora parents
to children, nature raaking their example
powerful, and the cprruption of nature giving
it moat power in thatwhich is evil. And this
is the rather mentioned to take a'a-ay the force
of it, and cut off that influence which it might
have had in tiieir minds. There is a kind
of conversation that the authority of ypur fa-

VER. 18, 19.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

taUed to a new state and form pf Ufe, and
have a new pattern set befpre ypu, inatead of
that cprrupt example.
It is pne great errpr, not only in religion
and manners, but even in human science, that
men are ready to take thinga upon truat, im-
exaraiued, from those that went before thera,
partiy out pf easiness, and sparing the pains
of trial, partiy put pf a superstitipus pver es
teera pf tiieir authority : But the cliief rea
son why corruptions in reUgion, and in the
practice of preceding ages, take so much with
ppsterity, is that befpre mentioned, the uni-
versal syrapathy and agreement that those
evils have ¦with the corrupt nature of raan.
The Prophet Ezekiel observes this parti.
cularly in the Jews, chap. xx. ver. 24, That
iheir eyes were after iheir fathers' idols,
contrary tp Gpd's express fprewaming, ver.
18. This was the great quarrel of the hea
then against the Christiaii Religion in the
primitive times, that it was new and un
known to their fathers ; and the ancient
writers of those times are frequent in shewing
the vanity of this exception, particularly Lac
tantius, Instit. Lib. ii. cap. 7, 8. The aame
prejudice doth the church of Rorae aing over
continuaUy against the Reformed Religion,
Where was it before Luther ? &c. But thia
is a fooUah and unreasonable diversion frora
die search of truth, because enor is raore at
hand ; or frpm the entertairung it, being
fptmd, because falsehppd is in ppssession.
As in reUgion, ao in the courae and practice
of men's Uves, the streara of sin runs from
one age to another, and every age makes it
greater, adding somewhat tp what it re
ceives, as rivers grpw in their course, by the
accessipn pf brpoks that faU into thera ; and
every man, when he is bom, faUs Uke a drop
into this raain current of cortuption, and so
is carried down it, and this by reason of its
strength, and hia own nature, which wiU
ingly dissolves into it, and mns along with it.
In -this is manifest the power of divine grace
in a man's conversion, that it severs him so
powerfiilly from the profane world, and gives
him strength to run contrary to the great
current of wickedness that is round about
him, in his parents possibly, and in his
kindred and friends, and in the most of men
that he meets withal. The voice of God,
that powerful word of effectual calling that
he speaks into the heart, makes a man break
through aU, and leave aU to foUow God, as
Abraham did, being caUed out from his
kindred and father's house, to journey to
wards the Und that God had promised him.
And this is that which was spoken to the
church, and to each beUeving soul by the
Spirit of God, Forget also thine own people
and thy father's house, so shall ihe King
greatly delight in thy beauty, Psal., xiv. 10,
1 1. Regard npt what pthers think, thpugh
<hy nearest friends, but study pnly to please

r>\
Him, and then thou shalt please him in
deed. Do not deform thy face with looking
out asquint to the custora of the world, but
look straight forward on Hira, and so thou
shalt be beautiful in his eyes. When God
caUs a raan in a reraarkable manner, his
profane friends ar^ aU in a tumult : What
needs this, to be raore precise than we, and
aU your neighbours ? but all this is a confus
ed noise, tiiat works nothing on the heart
that the Lord hath touched ; it must foUow
Hira, though by trampling upon frienda and
kindred if they lie in the way. We aee how
powerfuUy a word frora Chriat drew his
diaciplea to leave aU and foUow him.
Thia exhortation is against all sinful and
unholy conversatien, by what authprity and
example soever recpmmended to us. The
apostie's reasons iu those words are strong
and pressing ; there is one expressed in the
very narae he gives it, it is vain conversation.
The raind of man, the guide and spurce
pf his actions, while it is estranged from
God, is nothing but a forge of vanities ; the
apostle Paul speaks this of the Gentiles,
That they become vain in their imagirm-
tions, and their foolish hearis were da'rken-
ed, Rom. i. 21, their gfeat naturalists and
philosophers not excepted ; and tiie more
they strove to play the i«ise men, the more
they befppled themselves ; thus Ukewise
Eph. iv. 17- And thus the Lord complains
by hia prophet of the extrerae folly of his
people, Isa. xliv. 20, and by Jeremiah, that
iheir hearis are lodges of vain thoughts,
Jer. iv. 14 ; and these are the true causea of
a vain conversation.
The whole course of a man's Ufe put of
Chriat, is npthing but a cpntinual trading in
vanity ; running a circle pf toil and labour,
and reaping no profit at aU. Thia ia the
vanity of every natural raan'a converaation,
that not only others are not benefited by it,
but it is fruitless to himself; there arises to
him no solid good out of it. That ia raost
truly vain that attaina not ita proper end :
Now aU a man's endeavours aiming at his
satisfaction and contentment, that conversa
tion that gives him nothing of that, but re
moves him further from it, is justly caUed vain
conversation. What fruit had ye, says
the apostle, in those things whereof ye are
now ashamed? Rom. vi. 21. Either count
that shame, that at the best grows out of
them, their fruit, or confeaa they have none :
therefore they are caUed the unfruitfu,
works of darkness, Eph. v. 11.
Let the voluptuoua person say it out upon
hia death-bed, what pleaaure or profit doth
then abide with him of aU his former sinful
delights. Let him tell if there reniain any
of them aU, but that which he would gladly
not have to remain, the sting of ifti accusing
conscience, which is as lasting a,i the delight
pf sin was short and vanishing. Let ths

A COMMENTARV UPON

65> covetous and ambitious declare freely, even
those of them that have prospered most in
their pursuit of riches and honour, what ease
all their possessions or tides do then help
them to ; whether their pains are the less,
because their cheats are fuU, or their houses
stately, or a multitude of friends and servants
waiting on them with hat and knee ; and if
aU these things cannot ease the body, how
much leas can they quiet the mind ? And
therefore is it not true, that aU pains in these
things, and the uneven ways into which they
sometiraes step aside to serve those ends,
and generally that aU the ways of sin,
wherein they have wearied themselves, were
vain roUings,' and tosaings up and down, not
tending to a certain haven of peace and
happineaa ? It ia a lamentable thing to be
dehided a whole lifetime with a false dream,
Isa. ii. 8.
You that are going on in the common
road of ain, although many, and poaaibl)'
your own parenta, have trode it before you,
and the greateat part of those ypu now know
are in it with you, and keep you corapany in
it ; yet be persuaded to atop a little, and ask
yourselves, Wh.^t is it you seek or expect in
the end of it ? Would it not grieve any
labouring man to work hard all the day,
and have no wages to look for at night ? It
is a greater loaa to wear out our whole life,
aud ia the evening of our daya to find no
thing but anguish and vexation. Let us
then think this, that ao much of our Ufe aa
i.s spent in the ways of sin, ia aU lost, fruit
less, and vain conversation.
And in so far as the apostle saya here,
i^ou are redeemed from this conversation,
thia imports it to be a aervile alaviah condi
tion, as the other word expresses it to be
fruitlesa. And this ia the madneaa of a
sinner, that he fancies liberty in that which
is the basest thraldom, as those poor frantic
persons that are lying ragged, and bound in
chains, yet imagine that they are kings, that
their irons are chains of gold, their rags
robea, and their filthy lodge a palace  As
it is misery to be Uable to the sentence of
death, so it ia slavery to be subject to the do-
uiinion of sin ; and he that is deUvered frora
the one, ia Ukewise set free frora the other.
There is one redemption for both. He that
is redeemed from destraction by the blood of
Chriat, is likewise redeemed from that vain
and unholy conversation that leada to it. So,
Tit. ii. 14, our Redeeraer waa anointed for
thia purpoae, not to free the captives from
the sentence of death, and yet leave thera
StiU in prison, but to proclaim liberty to
them, and the opening of the prison to ihem
that are -bound, Isa. Ixi. 1.
You easily persuade youraelvea that Christ
hath died for you, and redeemed you from
lieU ; but you consider not, that if it be ao,
he hath likewise redeemed you from ypiu; vain

[chap, l'.

conversation, and hath set you free from the
service of sin. Certainly while you find not
that, you can have no assurance of the other; if
the chains of sin continue still upon you, for
any thing you can know, these chains do
bind you over to the other chains of dark
ness the apostle speaka of, 2 Pet. ii. 4. Let
us not delude ourselves ; if we find the love
of sin, and of the world, work stronger in our
hearta than the love of Chriat, we are not as
yet partakers of hia redemption.
But if we have indeed laid hold upon him
as our Redeeraer, then ¦we are redeemed from
the service of sin, not only from the grossest
profaneness, but even from aU kinda of fruit
less and vain conversation ; and therefore
ought to stand fast in that liberty, and not
to entangle ourselves again to any of our
former vanities. Gal. v. 1.
Not redeemed with corruptible things,]
Frora the high price of our redemption, the
apostle doth raainly enforce our esteem of
it, and urge the preservation of that liberty
ao dearly, bought, and the avoiding aU that
unholineaa, and vain conversation, ftom which
we are freed by that redemption. 1. He
expresseth it negatively, not with corrupti
ble things, (Oh foolish we, that haunt them,
as if they were incorruptible and everlasting
treasures,) no, not the best of them, those
that are in highest account with men, not
with silver and gold, these are not of
any value at aU towards the ransom of souls ;
they cannot buy off the death of the body,
nor purchaae the continuance of temporal
life, much less can they reach to the worth
of spiritual and eternal Ufe. The precious
soul could not be redeemed but by blood,
and by no blood but that of thia apotless
Lamb Jesus Christ, who is God equal with
the Father : And therefore his blood is call
ed. The blood of God, Acts xx. So that
the apoatle may here well caU it precious,
exceeding the whole world and aU things in
it in value. Therefore frastrate not the s'uf-
feringa of Christ ; if he shed his blood to re
deera you from sin, be not false to his end.
As of a Lamb without blemish.] He is
that ,great and everlasting sacrifice that gave
value and virtue to aU the sacrifices under
the law ; their blood was of no worth to the
purging away of sin, but by relation to His
blood ; and the laws conceming the choice
of the paschal larab, or other larabs for sacri.
fice, were but pbscure and iraperfect shadows
of his purity and perfections, who is the un-
defiled Lamb of God that taketh away the
sins of the world, John i. 29. A Lamb in
meekness and silence, he opened not kis
mouth, Isa. liii. 7 ; and in purity here,
without spot or blemish. My well-beloved,
says the Spouse, is white and ruddy. Cant.
y. 10, white in spotiess innocency, and red
in suffering a bloody death.
Forasmuch as ye know,] It is that must

VEU. 20.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

fiH

make aU this effectual, the right knowledge
and due consideration of it : Ye do know it
already, but I would have you know it better,
raore deeply and practicaUy; tum it often over,
be raore in the study and meditation pf it ;
there is wprk enpugh in it stiU fpr the mpst
discerning mind ; it is a raystery sp deep,
that ypu shall never reach the bottom of it,
and withal so useful, that you shall alwaya
find new profit by it : Our foUy ia, we gape
after new things, and yet are in effect igno
rant of the things we think we know best.
That learned apostle that knew so much,
and spoke so many tongues. Yet I deter
mined, says he, to know nothing among
you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified,
1 Cor. u. 2. And again he expresaes this
aa the top of his ambitipn, that I may kruno
him, and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufferings, being
made conformable unto his death, PhU. iii.
10. That conformity is this only know
ledge : He that hath his lusts unmortified,
and a heart unweaned from the world, though
he know all the histpry pf the death and suf
ferings ef Jesus Christ, and can diacpurae
weU pf them, yet indeed he knpws them net.
If ypu wpuld increaae much in holiness,
and be strong against the temptations to sin,
this is the only art of it ; view much, and so
seek to know much, of the death of Jesus
Christ. Consider often at how high a rate
we are redeeraed from sin, and provide this
answer fpr all the enticements of sin and the
world : Except you can offer my soul some
thing beyond that price that was given for it
on the cross, I cannot hearken to you. " Far
be it frora me, (wiU a Christian say that
considers this redemption,) that ever I should
prefer a base lust, or any thing in thia world,
cr it aU, to Him that gave hiraself to death
for rae, and paid ray ransom with his blood :
His raatchless love hath freed rae frora the
raiser.able captivity of sin, and hath for ever
fastened rae to the sweet yoke of his obe
dience. Let hira alone te dweU and rule
within rae, and let hira never gp fprth from
my heart, who for ray sake refused to come
down frora the cross."
Ver. 20. Who verily was fore-ordained before the
foundation of the world ; but was manifest in
these ast times for you.
Of all those considerations, and there are
many, that raay move raen to obedience, there
is none that persuades either raore sweetly or
strongly than the sense of God's goodness
and raercy towards raen ; and amongst aU
the evidences of that, there is none Uke the
sending and giving of his Son for raan's re
deraption : Therefore the appstie having
mentipned that, insists further in it ; and in
these wprds expresses, 1. The purppse; 2.
The perfprmance ; and 3. The appUcatipn
of it.
¦ 1. The purppse pr decree foreknown ; but

it is well rendered fore-ordained, for this
knowing is decreeing, and there is little
either solid truth or profit in the distinguish
ing them.
We say usually, that where there is little
wisdom there ia rauch chance ; and corapa.
ratively among men, some are far more fore-
sighted and of further reach than others ;
yet the wiaeat and moat provident men, both
wanting skill to design aU things aright,
and power to act, as they contrive, meet with
raany unexpected casualties, and frequent
diaappointraenta in their undertakings. But
with God, where both wisdora and power are
infinite, there can be neither any chance, nor
resistance ftom without, nor any imperfection
at aU in the contrivance of things within
hiraself, that can give cause to add, or abate,
or alter any thing in the frame of his pur-
poaea. The model of the whole world, and of
aU the course of tirae, was with him one and
the sarae frora all etemity, and whatspever
is brpught tp pass, ia exactly anawerable tp
that pattern, for with him there is no change
nor shadow of turning. Jam. i. 17. There
ia nothing dark to the Father of Lighta ; he
sees at one view through aU things, and aU
agea, from the beginning of tirae to the end
of it, yea, from eternity to etemity. And
this incomprehensible wisdora ia too wonder
fiil for ua ; we do but childishly stamraer when
we offer to speak of it.
It is no wonder that raen beat their owr.
brains, and knock their heads one againat
another, in the cpntest of their opiniona, to
little purpose, in their several mouldings of
God's decree. Ia not thia to cut and aquare
God'a thoughts to ours, and to examine hia
sovereign purpoaea by the low principles of
huraan wiadom ? How much more leamed
than aU such knowledge is the apostle's ig
norance, when he erica out, O .' the depth
of the riches, both of the wisdom and know
ledge of God ! how unsearchable are his
judgments, and his ways past finding out,
Rom. xi. 33. Why then should any man
debate what place, in the series of God's de-
cree, is to be assigned to this purpoae of send
ing his Son in the fleah ? Let us rather,
seeing it is manifest that it was for the re
demption of lost mankind, admire that same
love of God to mankind, that appears in that
purpose of our recovery by the Word made
flesh ; that before raan had made himself
miserable, yea, before either he or the world
was made, this thought of boundless love
was in the bosom of God, to send his Son
forth from thence, to bring faUen man out o.'
misery, and restore him to happiness ; and
to do this, not only by taking on his natiure,
but the curse ; to shift it off from us that
were sunk under it, and to_ bear it himself,
and by bearing it, to take it away ; he laid
on him the iniquity of us all, and to this he
waa appointed, says the Apostle, Heb. iu, 2

A COMMENTARY UPON

54
Before ihe foundation of the world.]
This we understand by faith, that the world
was framed by the word of God, H ^b. xi.
3. Although' the leamed probably think it
evincible by human reason, yet some of those
that have gloried most in that, and are re
puted generaUy masters of reason, have not
seen it by that li,eht. Therefore, that we
may ha\d a divine beUef of it, we must learn
it from the word of God, and be pursuaded
of its truth by the Spirit of God, that the
whole world, and all thinga in it, were drawn
out of nothing by Hia almighty power, who
is the only eternal and uncreated Being, and
therefore the fountain and aource of being to
all things.
Foundation.] In this word ia plainly in-
timated the reaemblance of the world to a
building, and such a building it is, as doth
evidence the greatness of Him that fraraed
it, so spacious, rich, and coraely ; so firm a
foundation, raised to so high and stately a
roof, arid set with variety of stars, as with
jewels, therefore caUed, as sorae conceive it,
(Paal. viu.) the work of his fingers, to ex
press the curious artifice that appears in
them. Though naturalists have attempted
to give the reason of the earth's stabUity
from its heaviness, which stays it necessarily
in the lowest part of the world, yet that
abates not our admiring the wisdom and
power of God, in laying its foundation ao,
and eatabliahing it ; for it ia His will that
is the first cause of that its nature, and hath
appointed that its property of heaviness, to
fix it there ; and therefore Job aUeges this
amongst the wonderful works of God, and
evidences of his power, that he hanged the
€arth upon nothing. Job xxvi. 7
Before there was time, or place, or any
creature, God, the blessed Trinity, was in
himself, and as the Prophet speaks, Isa. Ivu,
15, inhabiting eternity, completely happy
in himself : , But intending to raanifest and
comraunicate his goodness, he gave being to
the world, and to time with it ; made aU to
Ket forth his goodness, and the most excel
lent of his creatures, to contemplate and en
joy it : But amongst aU the worka he intend.
ed before time, and in time effected, this is
the master-piece that is here said to be fpre.
ordained, the raanifesting of God in the flesh,
for raan's redemption ; and that by his Son
Jesus Christ, as the first-born among many
brethren, Rora. viii. 29 : That those ap
pointed for salvation ahould be reacued from
the comraon miaery, and be raade one raysti
cal body, whereof Christ is the head, and so
entitled to that everlasting glory and happi
ness that he hath purchased for thera.
This, I say, is the great work, wherein all
those glorious attributes shine jointly, the
Wisdom, and Power, and Gpodness, and
Justice, and Mercy of God. As in great
niaps, or pictures, you wiU see the border de-

JCHAP. f.

corated with meadows, and fountains, and
flowera, &c. represented in it ; but in the
raiddle you have the main design : Thus is
this fore-ordained redemption amongst the
works of God ; aU his other works iu the
world, all the beauty of the creatures, and
the auccesaion of ages, and things that come
to paas ill them, are but as the border to this
the main piece. But as a foolish unskilful
beholder, not discerning the exceUency of
the principal piece in such maps or pictures,
gazes only on the fair border, and goes no
further : Thus do the greatest part of us :
our eyes are taken with the goodly show of
the world and appearance of earthly things ;
but as for this great work pf Gpd, Christ
fore-ordained, and in time sent for our re
demption, though it most deserves our at
tentive regard, yet we do not view and con
sider it as we ought.
2. We have the performance of that pur
pose. Was manifested in ihe last times for
you. He was raanifested, both by his in
carnation, according to that word of the apos
tle St. Paul, manifested in the flesh, 1 Tim.
iii. 16, &c. and raanifeated by his marvel
lous worka and doctrine, by hia sufferings
an I death, resurrection and ascension, by the
sending down of the Holy Ghost according
to his promise, and by the preaching of the
Gospel, in the fulness of time that God had
apppinted, wherein aU the prophecies that
foretold his coming, and aU the types and
ceremonies that prefigured liira, had their aq.
corapUshment. The times of the gospel are often caUed
the lasi times by the Prophets ; for that the
Jewish priesthood and ceremonies being
aboUshed, that which succeeded was appoint
ed by God to remain the same to the end of
the world. Besides this, the time pf out
Savipur's incamatipn may be caUed the last
times, because, althpugh it were not near the
end of tirae by raany ages, yet in aU proba
bility it was much nearer the end of time
than the beginning of it. Some resemble
the time of his sufferings in the end of the
world, to the paschal lamb in the evening.
It was doubtless the fit tirae ; but not
withstanding the schoohnen offered apt rea
sons to prove the fitness of it, aa their hu
mour ia to prove aU thinga, none dare I think
conclude, but if God had ao apppinted it, it
might have been either appner or later ; and
our aafeat ia to rest in that, that it was the fit
time, because so it pleased Him, and to seek
no other reason, why having promised the
Meaaiah ao quickly after -man's fall, bede-
ferred his coming about four thousand years,
and a great part of that time shut up the
knowledge of himself, and the true relig' on,
within the narrow compass of that one nation
of which Christ was to be born : Of these
and such like things we can give up other
reason but that which he teacheth us'in a

VKII. 21.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETKR.

like case. Even so, Father, because it seem
eth good unto thee. Mat. xi. 26.
3. The application of this manifestation.
For you.] The apostie represents these
things to those he writes to, particularly for
their use ; therefore he applies it to thera,
but without prejudice of the beUevers that
went before, or of those that were to follow
in after ages. He that is here said to be
fore-appointed before the imndation of the
world, is therefore called, a Lamb slain from
ihe foundation of the world. Rev. xiii. 8.
And as the virtue of hia death looka back
ward to all preceding ages, whose faith and
sacriflces looked forward to it, so the same
death is of force and perpetual value to the
end of the world : After he had offered
one sacrifice for sins, says the apostle to the
Hebrews, chap. x. 12, 14, he sat down for
ever on ihe right hand of God ; for by one
offering he hath perfected for ever them
that are sanctified. The cross on which he
waa extended points in the length of it to
heaven and earth, reconciling them together ;
and in the breadth of it to former and fol
lowing ages, as being equaUy salvation to
both. In this appropriating and pecuUar interest
in Jesua Chriat Uea our happiness, without
which it avails not that he was ordained
frora eternity, and in tirae raanifested. It
is not the general contemplation, but the pe
cuUar possession pf Chriat, that gives both
soUd corafort, and strong persuasion to obe
dience and hoUness, which is here the apos
tle's particular scope.
Ver. 21. Who by him do believe in God that raised
him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that
your faith and hope miglit be ir. God.
Now, because it is faith that gives the spul
this partictilar title to Jesus Christ, the apos
tle adds, (to declare who he meant by YouJ
Who by him do believe in God, S[0.
Where we have, 1. The coraplete object
of faith. 2. The grpund pr warrant pf it 
The pbject, God in Christ. The ground
or warrant. In ihat he raised him up from
the dead, and gave him glory.
1. The complete object of faith. A raan
may have, Uving out of Christ, yea, he
must, he cannot choose but have, a convic
tion within him that there is a God, and fur
ther he may have, even out of Christ, sorae
kind of belief of those things that are sj/oken
spnceming Gpd ; but tp reppse on God, as
his God, and his salvation, which is indeed
to beUeve in hira, this cannot be, but where
Clirist is the medium through which we look
upon Gpd ; for sp Ipng as we Ippk uppn God
through pur pwn guiltiness, we can see np
thing but his wrath, and apprehend hira as
an armed enemy ; and therefore' are so far
frpra resting pn him, as pur happiness, that
the rapre we view it, it puts us upon the

more speed to fiy from him, and to cry out,
Who can dwell icith everlasting burnings,
andabidewitha consuming fire ? Isa. xxxiii.
14. But our Savipur, taking sin put of the
way, puts himself betwixt our sins and God,
and so makes a wonderful change of our ap
prehension of him. When you look thrpugh
a red glass, the whple heavens seem blpody,
but dirough pure uncoloured glass, you re
ceive the clear light, that is so refreshing and
comfortable to behold. When ain unpar.
doned ia betwixt, and we look on God
through that, we cau perceive nothing biit
anger and wrath in his countenance : But
make Christ the medium, our pure Redeemer,
and through him, as through clear tranapa.
rent glass, the beams of God's favourable
countenance shine in upon the aoul ; tha
Father carmot look upon his weU-beloved
Son, but graciously and pleaaingly. God
looks on us out of Chriat, aeea us rebels, and
fit to be condemned ; we look on God as
being just and powerful to punish ua ; but
when Christ is betwixt, God looks on us in
him as justified, and we look on God in
hira as pacified, and see the srailes of hia
favourable countenance : Take Christ ou ,
aU is terrible ; interpose hira, aU is fuU of
peace : Therefore set hira always betwixt,
and by hira we shaU beUeve in God.
2. The warrant and ground of believing
in God by Christ is this, that God raised
him from the dead, and gave him glory,
which evidence the full satisfaction of his
death ; and in aU that work, both in his hu-
miUation and exaltation, standing in our
roora, we may repute it as ours : If aU is
paid that could be exacted of him, and there
fore he set free from death, then are we ac.
quitted, and have nothing to pay ; if he was
raised from the dead, and exalted to glory,
then so shaU we ; he hath taken possession
of that glory for us, and we raay judge our.
aelvea possessed of it already, because he our
Head possesseth it. And thia the last words
of the verse confirm to us, iraplying this to
be the very purpose and end for which God,
having given hira to death, raised him up
and gave him glory ; it is for this end ex.
pressly, that our faith and hope might be in
God ! The last end is, that we niay have
life and glory through him ; the nearer end,
that in the mean while, tiU we attain them,
we raay have firm belief and hope of them,
and rest on Gpd as the giver pf them, and sp
in part enjpy them before-hand, and be up.
held in pur jpy and cpnfiicts by the comfort
of them. And, as St. Stephen in his vision.
Acts vii. 55, faith doth, in a spiritual way,
look through aU the visible heavens, and see
Christ at the Father's right hand, and is
comforted by that in the greatest troubles,
thpijgh it were amidst a shower ef stpues, as
St. Stephen was. The cerafprt is no less
than this, that being by faith made one with

5&

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap, t.

Christ, his present glory wherein he sit.s at
the Father'a ri^'ht hand, is assurance to us,
that where he is we shall be also, John xiv. 3.
Ver. 22. Seeing ye have purified your aouls in
obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto nn-
feignect love of the brethren ; see that ye love
one another wi^h a pure heart fervently.
Jesus Chuist ia raade unto us of God,
wisdom, righteonsness, sanctification, and
redemption, 1 Cor. i. 30. It is a known
truth, and yet very needful to be often re-
preaented to us, that redemption and hoUness
are undivided companions ; yea, that we are
redeemed on purpose for this end, that we
should be holy. The pressing of this, we
see, ia here the apostle's scope ; and hav-
ing by that reason enforced it in the general,
he now takes that aa concluded and confeas-
ed, and ao makes use of it particularly to
exhort to the exerciae of that main Chriatian
grace of brotherly love.
The obedience and hoUness mentioned in
the foregoing verses, compiehend the whole
duties and frarae of a Christian life towards
God and men ; and having urged that in
the general, he specifies this grace of rautual
Christian love, as the great evidence of their
sincerity, and the truth of their love to God :
For men are subject to rauch hypocrisy this
way, and deceive themselves; if they find
theraselves diligent in religious exercises,
they scarce once ask their hearta, how they
stand affected this way, namely, in Ipve tp
their brethren. They can ceme cpnstantly
to the church, and pray ; it may be, at home
too ; and yet cannot find in their hearts to
forgive an injury.
As forgiving injuries argues the truth of
piety, so it is that which makes all converse
both sweet and profitable, and beaidea, it
gxacea and comraenda raen and theii holy pro
fession to such aa are without, and strangers
to it, yea, even to their eneraies.
Therefore it is, that our Saviour doth so
much recommend this to his disciples, and
they to others, as we see in aU their epiatlea.
He gives it thera as the very badge and
livery by which they ahould be known for his
foUowers : By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples, if ye love one another,
.lohn xiii. 35. And St. Paul is frequent in
exhorting to and extolUng this grace, Rora,
xii. 10, and xiii, 8 ; 1 Cor. i. 13 ; Gal. v.
13 ; Eph. iv. 2, and in many other places.
Col. iii. 14, he caUs it the bond of perfect
ness, that grace which unitea and binds all
together. So doth our apoatle here, and of
ten in thia and the other epistle ; and that
beloved disciple St. John, who leaned on our
Saviour's breast, drank deep of that spring of
live that was there, and therefore it streams
l'..rth so abundantly in his writings ; they
c.'.'ntain nothing so much as this divine 5oc-
tiine of love.

We have here, 1. The due qualificiitioiia
of it : 2. A Christian's obligation to it.
1. The qualifications are three ; namely,
sincerity, purity, &nA fervency. The sin
cerity is expresaed in the former clause of the
verse, unfeigned love ; and repeated again in
the latter part, that it be with a pure heart ;
and the purity is included 'in fervency.
1. Love must be unfeigned. It appears
that dissimulation ia a disease that is very
incident in thia particular. The apostle St.
Paul hath the sarae word, Rom. xii. 9, aud
the apostle St. John to the same sense, 1
John iii. 18, that it have that double reality
which is opposed tp double diaaembled love ;
that it be cordial and effectual ; that the pro
fessing of it arise from truth of affection, and,
as much as may be, be seconded with action ;
that both the heart and the hand may be ra-
ther the seal of it than the tongue : Not
court holy-water, an erapty noise of aervice
and affection that fears nothing more than to
be put upon trial. Although thy brother
with whom thou conVersest cannot, it may be,
see through thy false appearances. He that
commands this love, looks chiefly within,
seeks it there, and if he find it not there,
hates them most that most pretend it : So
that the art of dissembling, though never so
weU atudied, cannot pass in this King's court,
to whom aU hearts are open and all desires
known. When, after variances, men are
brought to an agreement, they are much sub
ject to this, rather to cover their remaining
maUce with superficial verbal forgiveness,
than to dislodge them, and free the heart of
them. This is a poor self-deceit ; as the
philosopher said to him, that being ashamed
that he was espied by him ih a tavern in the
outer room, withdrew himself to the inner, —
he caUed after him, " That is not the way
out ; the raore you go that way you wUl be
the further within it." When hatreds upon
admonition ara not thrown not, but retire in
ward to hide themselves, they grow deeper
and stronger than before : and those con
strained serablances of reconcUement are but
a false healing, do but skin the wound over,
and therefore it usuaUy brealis forth worse

How few are there that have tnily malice-
less hearts, and find this entire upright
affection towards their brethren attending
them in their whole conversation, this law of
love deeply irapressed on their hearts, and
frpm thence expresaed in their wprda and
actions ! and that is unfeigned love, ea real
to their brethren aa to themselves.
2. It raust be pure, frora a pure heart ;
thia is not all one with the former, as some
take it. It is tme, doubleness and hypocrisy
is an impurity, and a great one ; but aU im
purity is npt doubleness ; one may reaUy
mean that friendship and affection he expres.i-
es, and yet it may be moat contrary to that.

VT:ii. 22.

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

57

which is here required, becauae impure ; such
a brotherly love as that of Simeon and Levi,
brethren in iniquity, as the expressing them
brethren, Gen. xUx.ia taken to mean. When
hearts are cemented together by impurity it
self, by ungodly conversation and society in
sin, as in uncleanness pr drunkenness, &c.
this is a swinish fraternity and friendship,
that ia cpiitracted, aa it were, by waUowing
in the same mire. CaU it good feUowahip,
or what you wiU, all the frait that in the end
can be expected out of unholy friendliness
and feUowship in sinning together, is to be
tonnented together, and to add each to the
torment of another. The mutual love of
Christians muat be pure, arising frora such
cauaes as are pure and apiritual, from the
sense of our Saviour's coramand and of hia
example ; for he hiraself joins that with it,
A new commandment give I you, saith he,
thai as I have loved you, so you also love
ene another, John xiii. 34. They that are
indeed lovers of God are united ; by that their
hearts raeet in him aa one centre. They
¦cannot but love one another : Where a god
ly man sees his Father's image, he is forced
to love it ; he loves those he perceives godly,
so as to deUght in thera, because that iraage
is in them; and thpse that appear destitute
Of it, he leves thera so, as to wiah them par-
takera of that iraage. And this ia aU for
God ; he loves amicum in Deo, et inimicum
propter Deum : That is, he loves a friend
in God, and ai enemy for God. And as the
Christian's lo/e is pure in its cause, so in its
effects and exercise ; his aociety and converse
with any, tenda raainly to this, that he may
mutually hel.3, and be helped, in the know
ledge and lo/e of God ; he desires most, that
he and his brethren may jointiy raind their
journey hea/enwards, and further one ano
ther in their way to the fuU enjoyraent of God.
And this is truly the love of a pure heart,
that both begins and ends in God.
3. 'We must love fervently, not after a
cjld indifferent raanner. Let the love of your
brethren be as a fire within you, consuraing
that selfialness, that ia ao contrary to it, and
is ao natur.il to raen ; let it set your thoughts
on work to atudy how to do othera good ; let
your love be an active love, intense within
you, and extending itself in doing good to the
sovds and bodies of your brethren, as they
need, and you are ahle ; Aliwm re, alium
consilio, alium gratia, as Sen. de Ben;f. lib.
i. cap. 2.
It is self-love that contracts the heart, and
shuts out all other love, both of God and man,
save only so far as our own interest canies,
and that ia stiU self-love : But the love of
God dilates the heart, purifies love, and ex-'
tends it to all men, but after a special manner
directs it to those that are raore peculiarly be
loved of him ; and that is the particular love
here required

II. The Christian's obligation to this
love, intiraated in the words, love of the bre
thren. In this is iraplied our obligation to
it after a special manner, in loving those of
the household of faith, because they are our
brethren. This concludes not' only, as
Abraham said, that there ought to be no
strife, Gen. xiii. 8, but it binds most strong
ly to this sincere, and pure, and fervent love ;
and therefore the apostle, in the next verse,
repeats expressly the doctrine of the mys
terious new birth, and explains it more fuUy ,
which he hath raentioned in the entrance of
the epistie, and again referred to, v. 14, 17.
There is in this fervent love, sympathy
with the griefs of our brethren, desire and
endeavour fo help them, bearing their infir
mities, and recovering them too, if it may
be ; raising them when they faU, admonish
ing and reproving them as is needful, some
times sharply and yet stiU fn love ; rejoic
ing in their good, in their gifts and gracea ;
so far from envying them, that we be glad
as if they were our own : There is the aarae
blood running in their veins : You have th
same Father, and the sarae Spirit within
you, and the aarae Jesua Chriat, the Head
of that glorioua fraternity, the first-born
among many brethren, Rom. viii. 29 ; of
whom the apoatle saith, Eph. i. 10, that he
hath re-collected into one, all things in
heaven and in earth. The word is, ga
thered them into one head ; and suits very
fitly tp express our union in him. In whom,
saya he in that same epistle, chap. iv. 16,
the whole body is fitly compacted together :
and adds, that which agrees to our purpose,
that this body grows up and, edifies itself
in love. AU the members receive spirits
from the sarae Head, and are useful and
serviceable one to another, and to the whole
body. Thus these brethren, receiving of
the sarae Spirit from their head Christ, are
raost strongly bent to the good one of ano
ther. If there be but a thorn in the foot,
the back boweth, the head stoops down, the
eyes look, the hands reach to it, and endea
vour its help and ease. In a word, aU the
members partake of the good and evil one of
another. Now, by how much this body is
more spiritual and lively, so much the
stronger must the union and love of the parts
of it be each to the other. You are brethren
by the sarae new birth, and born to the aarae
inheritance, and such an one aa shaU not be
an apple of strife amongst you, to beget de
bates and contentions : No, it is enough
for aU, and none ahaU prejudice another;
but you ahaU have joy in the happiness one
of another, seeing you ahaU then be perfect
in love : all harmony, no difference in judg.
ment or affection, aU your harps tuned to
the same new song, which you shaU sing for
ever. Let that love begin here, which shall
never end.

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap, r.

And this same union, I conceive, is Uke
wise expressed in the first words of the verse :
Seeing you are partakers of that work of
sanctification by the sarae word, and the
same Spirit, that works it in aU the faithful,
and by that, are caUed and incorporated intp
that fraternity ; therefore Uve in it, and Uke
it. You are purified to it, therefore love
one another after that same manner purely.
Let the profane world scoff that name of
brethren, you wUl not be so foolish as to be
scorned out of it, being so honourable and
happy ; and the day is at hand wherein those
that scoff you, would give much more than
aU that the best of thera ever possessed in
the world, to be adraitted into your nuraber.
Seeing you have purified your souls in
obeying the iruth through the Spirit.]
Here is, 1. The chief seat or subject of the
work of sanctification, the soul. 2. The
subordinate raeans, truth. 3. The nature
of it, obeying of iruth. 4. The chief worker
of it, the Holy Spirit.
For ^e first. The chief seat of sanctifica-
tion, the soul : It is no doubt a work that
goes through the whole raan, renews and
purifiea aU, Heb. a. 22 ; 2 Cor. vii. 1. But
because it purifiea the spul, therefore it ia
that it does purify aU. 'There impurity be
gins. Mat. XV. 18, not only evil thoughts,
but aU evil actions, come forth from the
heart, which ia there aU one with the soul ;
and therefore this purifying begins there,
makes the tree good, that ihe fruit may be
good. It is not so much external perfor
mances that raake the difference between
raen, as their inward teraper. We raeet
here in the same place, and aU partake of the
sarae word and prayer : But how wide a
difference is there, in God's eye, betwixt an
unwashed profane heart, in the same exer-
cise, and a soul purified in some meaaure in
obeying the truth, and desirous to be fur.
ther purified by further obeying it I
Secondly, That which ia the aubordinate
means of thia purity, ia the iruth, or the
word of God. It ia truth, and pure in itself,
and begets truth and purity in the heart, by
teaching it conceming the holy and pure
nature of God, shewing it hia holy wiU.
which ia to us the rule of purity ; and by
repreaenting Jesus Chriat unto ua as the
fountain of our purity and renovation, frora
whoae fulness we may receive grace for
grace, John i. 16.
Thirdly, The nature of this work ; that
wherein the very being of thia purifying
conaiata, is, the receiving or obeying of this
truth. So Gal. iii. I, where it is put for
right beUeving. The chief point of obe
dience ia beUeving : the proper obedience
to trath ia, to give credit to it ; and thia di.
vine beUef doth neceaaarily bring the whole
soul into obedience and conformity to that
pure truth, which is in the word ; and so

the very purifying and renewing of the soul
is this obedience of faith, as unbelief is its
chief impurity and disobedience ; therefore.
Acts XV. 9, faith is said to purify ihe heart.
Fourthly, The chief worker of this sane.
tification, is, the Holy Spirit of God. They
are here said to purify themselves ; for it
is certain and undeniable, that the soul it.
self doth act in believing or obeying the
trath ; but not of itself, it is not the first
principle of motion. They purify their souls,
but it ia by ihe Spirit. They do it by his
enlivening power, and a purifying virtue re.
ceived from him. Faith or obeying the
trath works thia purity : But the Holy
Ghoat worka that faith ; aa in the forecited
place, God ia aaid to purify their hearis by
faith, he doth that by giving them the Holy
Ghost, ver. 8. The truth ia pure, and pu
rifying, yet can it not of itaelf purify the
aoul;^^but by the obeying or believing it ; and
the soul cannot obey or beUeve, but by the
Spirit, which works in it that faith, and by
that faith purifiea it and works love in it.
The impurity and earthliness of raen's minds
is the great cause of diaunion and diaaffec-
tion araongst thera, and of aU their strifes,
Jamea iv. 1.
Thia Spirit ia that fire that refines and
purifies the seul from the dross of earthly
desires that possess it, and aubUraates it to
the love of God and of hia saints, because
they are his, and are purified by the same
Spirit. It ia the property of fire to draw
together things of the aame kind ; the out-
ward fire of enmitiea and persecutions that 'is
kindled againat the godly by the world, doth
somewhat, and if it were raore considered
by them, would do more, in this kiutting
their hearts closer one to another ; but it is
this inward pure and purifying fire of the
Holy Ghost that doth most powerfuUy unite
them. The true reason why there is so Uttle truth
of this Christian mutual love araongst those
that are called Christians, is, because there
is so Uttle of this purifying obedience to the
truth, whence it flows; faith unfeigned
would beget this love unfeigned : Men may
exhort to them both, but they require the
hand of God to work them in the heart.
Ver. 23. Being born again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which
liveth and abideth for ever.
The two things that make up the apostie's
exhortation, are the very sura of a Christian's
duty ; to walk as obedient chUdren towards
God, and as loving brethren one tpwards
mother : And that it may yet have the
deeper irapression, he here represents to thera
anew, that new birth he raentioned before,
by which they are the children pf Gpd, and
30 brethren.
We shaU first speak of this regeneratipn :

vrn. 23. ]

TUE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

59

And then of the seed. 1st, Of the regene.
r.-.tion itself: This is die great dignity of
licUevers, that they are the sons of God,
John i. 12, and the great evidence of the
love of God, that he hath bestowed this
dignity ou them, 1 John iii. 1. For tiiey
!.re no way needful to him ; he had ft-ora
eternity a Son perfectly Uke himself, the
character of his Person, Heb. i. 3, and
one Spirit proceeding from both ; and there
is no creation, neither the first nor the se
cond, can add any thing to those, and their
happiness ; it is most true of that blessed
Trinity, Satis .amplum alter alten thea
trum sumu^. But the gracious purpose of
God, to impart his goodneaa, appears in this,
that he hath made himself auch a multitude
of aona, not only angela that are so caUed,
but man, a Uttie lower than they in nature,
yet dignified with this name in his creation,
St. Luke iii. 38, Which was the son of
Adam, which was the son of God. He had
not only the impression pf Gpd's footsteps,
as they speak, which aU the creatures have,
but his image ; and most of all in thia is his
rich grace magiufied, that sin having defaced
that image, and so degraded raan frora his
honour, and divested him of that title of
sonship, and stamped our poUuted nature
with the 'marks pf vUeness and bpndage,
yea, with the very image pf Satan, rebeUipu,
and enraity against Ged ; that put pf man
kind thus ruined and degenerated, Gpd
should raise to himself a new race and ge-
neratipn pf spns.
Fpr thia deaign was the Word made flesh,
Jphn i. 12, 13, 14. The Son was made
man, to make men the sons of God ; and it
is by him alone we are restored to this ; they
lhat receive him, receive with him, and in
him, this privilege, ver. 12 : And therefore
it ia a sonship by adoption, and is so caUed
in scripture, in difference from His eternal
I nd ineffable generation, who is and was the
only-begotten Son of God: Yet that we
may know that this divine adoption is not a
IT ere outward relative name, as that of men,
the sonship of the saints is here, and often
elsewhere in scripture, expressed by new ge
neration, and new birth. They are begot
ten of God, John i. 13 ; 1 John ii. 29. A
new being, a spiritual life, is comhiunicated
to them, they have in them of their Father's
Spirit, and this is derived to them through
Christ, and therefore called his Spirit, Gal
iv. 6. They are not only accounted of the
faraily of God by adoption, but by this new
birth they are indeed his children, partakers
of the divine nature, as pur apostle express
eth it.
Now, though it be easy to speak and hear
the words of this doctrine, yet the trath it
self that is in it, is so high and mysterious,
that it is altogether iraposaible, without a
lOrtion of thia new nature, to conceive of it.

Cprrupt nature cannpt understand it. What
wonder that there is nothing of it in the sub-
tileat schools of philosophers, when a very
doctor in Israel raistook it grpssly, John iii.
10. It is indeed a great raystery, and he
that waa the aubUmeat of all the Evangeliata,
and therefore caUed the Divine, the soaring
eagle, as they corapare him, he ia more abun
dant in thia subject than the rest.
And the most prpfitable way of consider
ing this regeneration and sonahip, is cer
tainly to follow the Ught of those holy writ
ings, and not to jangle in disputes about the
order, and manner of it ; of which, though
somewhat may be profitably said, and safely,
namely, so much as the scripture apeaks, yet
much that is spoken of it, and debated by
many, is but an useless expense of time and
pains. What those previous dispositions are,
and how far they go, and where is the mark
or point of difference betwixt them, and the
infusion of spiritual Ufe, I conceive not eaaily
determinable. If naturaliats and physicians cannot agree
upon the order of formation of the parts of
the human body in the womb, how much
less can w'e be peremptory in the other ! If
there be so many wonders, aa indeed there
are, in the natural atracture and frame of
man, how much richer in wonders must this
divine and aupematural generatipn be ! See
hpw David speaks pf the fprmer, Ps. cxxxix.
14. Things spiritual being more refined
than material thinga, their workmanahip rauat
be far more wonderful and curious. But
then it raust be viewed with a spiritual eye.
There is an unspeakable lustre and beauty
of the new creature, but the mixture of all
divine graces, each setting off another, as so
many rich colours in embroidery ; but who
can trace that inviaible hand that works it,
so as to determine pf the order, and to say
which waa firat, which second, and ao on,
whether faith, or repentance, and aU gracea,
&c. ? Thia ia certain, that these and all
graces do inseparably make up the same
work, and are aU in the' new formation of
every soul that is bom again.
If the ways of God's universal providence
be untraceable, then most of aU the workings
of his grace are conducted in a secret unper-
ceivable way in this new birth : He gives
this spiritual being as the dew, which is si.
lendy and insensibly fprified, and this gene.
ration of the sons of God is compared to it
by the Psalmist, Ps. ex. 3. They have this
original from heaven as the dew, John iii. 3,
Except a man be born from above, he can
not enter into the kingdom of God. And
it is the peculiar work of the Spirit of God,
as he himself speaks of the dew to Job,
(Job xxxviii. 28), Hath the rain a father,
or who hath begotten the drops of the dew %
The sharpest wits are to seek in the know.
ledge and discovery of it, as Job speaketh of

A C0M3IENTARY UPON

GO
a way that no fowl knoweth, and which the
vulture's eye hath not seen. Job xxviii. 7-
To contest much, how in this regenera
tion He works upon the will, and renews it,
ia to little purpose, provided this be granted,.
that it ia in his power to regenerate and^ re
new a man at his pleasure : And ho^w is it
possible not to grant thia, unlesa wc will run
into that error to think, that God hath made
a creature too hard for himaelf to rule, or
hath wiUingly exempted it ? And ahaU the
works of the Alraighty, especially thia work,
wherein most of aU othera he gloriea, fail in
hia hand, and reraain imperfect ? Shall there
be any abortive birtha whereof God ia the
Father ? Shall I bring to the b'.rth, saya
he, and not cause to bring forth ? laa. Ixvi.
9. No ; no sinner so dead, but there ia
virtue in Hia hand to revive out of the very
stonea. Though the most impenitent hearts
are as stones within them, yet he can make
of them children to Abraham, Luke iii. 8.
He can dig out the heart of stone, and put

[Ch,^p. I,'

been always acknowledged to belong tp God's
prerpgative, Psalm cxxvii. 3, Lo, children
are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit
of the womb is his reward ; and sp Jacob
answered wisely to hia wife's fooUsh paasipn.
Am I in God's stead ? Gen. xxx. 2. Hew
much mpre is this new birth whoUy depend.
ant on His hand 1
But though this word cannot beget with.
out hira, yet it is by this word that he be
gets, and ordinarily not without it. It is
true that the aubatantial eternal Word ia to
us, aa we said, the spring of this new birth
and life, the head from whom the spirits of
thia aupernatural Ufe flow ; but that by the
word here is meant the Gospel, the apostle
puts out of doubt, ver. 25, And this is the
word which by the Gospel is preached unto
you. Therefore thus is this v/ord really the
seed of this new birth, because it contains
and declares that other Word, the Son of
God, as our life. The word is spoken in
and so is the aarae tp all hearers^;

a heart of flesh (Ezek. xxxvi. 26.) in its but then all hearts being naturaUy abut
place, ptherwiae he would not have made .against it, God doth by hia o^wn hand open
such a promise, John i. 18, Nol o/ .;?es/i, Isome to receive it, and mixes it with faith,
nor of the will of man, but of God. If his and those it renews, and restoreth in them
sovereign will bt not a sufficient principle of ;the iraage of God, draws the traces of it
this regeneration, why then says tbe apostle anew, and makes the'm the sons of God.
St. Jaraes, Of his own will begat he us ? My doctrine shall drop as the dew, says
and he adds the subordinate cause, by the Moses, Deut. xxxii. 2. . The word as a
word of iruth, James i. 18, which is here heavenly dew, not falUng beside, but drop-
called the immortal seed of this new birth, 'ped into the heart by the hand of God's own
Therefore it is that the Lord hath ap- Spirit, makes it aU becorae spiritual and hea-
pointed the continuance of the ministry of venly, and turns it into one of those drops of
this word, to this end, that his Church may dew that the children of God are compared
be still fruitful, bringing forth sons unto him; to, Psal. ex- 3, Thou hast ihe dew of thy
that the assemblies ofhis people may be like youth.
flocks of sheep coming up from the washing, I' The natural eatate ofthe soul is darkness,
none barren amongst them. Cant. iv. 2. jand the word, as a divine light ahining into
Though the ministers of thia word, by it, transfomis the soul into ita own nature;
reaaon of their employraent in dispensing it, 'so that as the word is caUed light, so is the
have by the Scriptures the relation of parents ' aoul that is renewed by it. Ye were darkness,
imparted to them, which is an exceeding but now are ye, not only enUghtened, but
great dignity for them, aa they are called co- light in the Lord, Eph. v. 8. AU the evUs
workers ¦x'll'ii God; and the same apostle of the natural mind are often comprised un.
that writes so, caUs the Galatians his little der the narae of darkness and error, and there-
children, of whom he travailed in birth fore is the whol.e work of conversien likewise
again, till Christ were formed in them ; and i signified by Ught and trath. He begat us by
the ministers of God have often very nmch \the word of truth, Jam. i. 18. So 2 Cor.
pain in th a travail, — yet the privUege of the [iv. 6, aUuding to the first Fiat Lux, or Let
Father of Spirits remains untouched ; which I ttej-e be light, in the creation; the werd
is effectually to beget again theae same spirita brought within the soul by the Spirit, lets it
which he creates, and to make that seed of aee its own neceaaity and Chriat'a sufficiency,
the word fruitful, that way, where, and when

he will. The preacher of the word, be h
never so powerful, can cast this seed only
into the ear, his hand reaches no further ;
and the hearer, by his attention, may convey

convinceth it thoroughly, and causeth it to
cast over itself upon Him for life ; and this
is the very begetting of it again to etemal
life. So that this efficacy of the word to prove

it into his head ; bat it is the Supreme successful seed, doth not hang upon the dif.
Father and Teacher above, that carries it .ferent abiUties of preachers, their having more
:nto the heart, the only spU wherein it proves or less rhetoric or learning. Itis trae,

lively and fruitful. One man cannot reach
the heart of another ; how should he then re
new its fruitfulness ? If natural births have

.elequence hath a great advantage in civil and
meral things, tp persuade, and to draw the
hearers bv the ears, alraost which way it wiU

VEH. 23.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

ei

But in diis spiritual work, to revive a soul,
to beget it anew, the infiuence of Heaven is
the main thing requisite ; there is no way
sp common and plain, being warranted by
God in the delivery of saving truth, but the
Spirit of God can revive the soid by it ; and
the raost skilful and authoritative way, yea,
being withal very spiritual, yet may effect no
thing, because left alone to itself : One word
of Holy Scripture, or of truth conformable to
it, may be the principle of regeneration, to
him that hath heard multitudes of exceUent
sennons, and hath often read the whole Bible,
and hath still continued unchanged. Ifthe
Spirit of God preached that one, or any audi
word to the soul, God so loved the world,
that he gave his only-begotten JSon, ihat
whosoever should believe in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life, Jphn iii.
15 ; it wUl be cast down by the fear of perish.
ing, and driven out of itself by that, and rais
ed up and drawn to Jesus Christ by the hope
of everlasting life ; it wiU beUeve on hira that
it may have life, and be inflamed with the
love of God, and give itself to Hira that so
loved the world, as to give his only -begotten
Son to purchase us that everlasting Ufe.
Thus may that word prove this immortal
seed, which, though very often read and heard
befbre, was but a dead letter. A drop of
those liquors that are caUed spirits, operates
more than large draughts of other waters ;
one word spoken by the Lord to the heart, is
all spirit, and doth that which whole streams
of man's eloquence could never effect.
In hearing of the word, raen look uauaUy
too much upon men, and forget frpm what
spring the word hath its power ; they ob
serve too narrowly the different handa of the
sowers, and top little depend on His hand,
who is great Lord of both aeed-tirae and
harvest ; Be it sown by a .weak hand, or a
stronger, the iraraortal seed is stiU the sarae ;
yea, suppose the worat, that it be a foul hand
that aowa it, that the preacher hiraself be not
so aanctifled, and of so edifying a Ufe as you
would wish, yet the seed itself being good.
contracts no defllement, and raay be effectual
to regeneration in some, and atrengthening
in othera ; although he that ia not renewed
by it himself, cannot have much hope of such
success, nor reap much corafort by it,
and usuaUy doth not seek nor regard it
much ; but aU instruments are aUke in an
Almighty hand.
Hence leam, 1. That trae conversion ia
not so sUght a work aa we comraonly account
it. It is not the outward change of aome bad
customs which gains the name of a reformed
man in the ordinary dialect ; it is a new birth
and being, and elsewhere caUed a new crea
tion. Though it be but a change in quaU
ties, yet it is such a one, and the quaUties so
fax distant frora what they before were, that
it bears the narae of the most substantial pro

ductions ; from children of disobedience,
and that which is linked witb it, heirs of
wrath, to be sons of God and heirs of glory :
They have a new spirit given, a free princely
noble spirit, as the word is, Psal. li. 10, and
this apirit acta in their life and actions.
2. Conaider thia dignity, and be kindled
with an ambition worthy of it. How doth a
Chriatian pity that poor vanity that raen raake
so rauch npiae abput of their kindred and ex.
traction I Thia is worth glorying in indeed,
tp be pf die highest blood-royal, aons of the
King of kings, by this new birth, and in the
nearest relation to Him ; this adds raatch-
leaa honour to that birth which ia ao honour.
able in the esteera of the world.
But we aU pretend to be of this nuraber.
Would we not atudy to cozen ouraelvea, the
discovery whether we are, or not, would not
be so hard.
In raany, their false confidence is tpo evi.
dent ; and there ia no appearance of the Spirit
of God, not a footatep like hia leading, and
of that character. As many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the children of God,
Rom. viii. 14 ; not a lineament of God's
viaage ; aa their Father, // ye know that he
is righteous, aays St. John ii. 29, ye know
then that every one that doth righteousness
is born of him. And ao, on the other hand,
how contrary to the most holy God, the lover
and fountain of holinesa, are they that awin-
iahly love to wallow in the mire of unholi
neaa ! Ia swearing and cursing the accent
of the regenerate, the children of God ? No :
It is the language of heU. Do children de
Ught to indignify and dishonour their father's
narae ? No : Earthly-raindedness is a coun
tersign. ShaU the king's children, they that
were brought up in scarlet, as Jereraiah la
ments, embrace the dunghill ? Lam. iv. 5.
Princes, by their high birth and education,
have usuaUy their hearts fiUed with far high
er thoughts than mean persons ; the children
of the poorer -sort being pinched that way,
their greatest thoughts, as they grow up, are
ordinarily how they shall shift to live, how
they shaU get bread ; but princes think either
of conquest, or of governing of kingdoms.
Are you not born to a better inheritance, if
indeed bom again ? why then do you vilify
youraelvea ? why are you not more in prayer ?
There are no dumb children araong those that
are born of God ; they have aU that spirit of
prayer, by which they not only speak but
cry, Abba, Father.
2dly, 'We come to consider the seed of this
regeneration, the word of God. The most
part of us esteem the preaching of the word,
as a transient discourse, that amuses us for
an hour. We look for no more, and there
fore we find no more. We receive it not as
the iramortal seed of our regeneration, as the
ingrafted word that is able io save our souls.
Jam. i. 21. Oh 1 learn to reverence this

62

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap.

holy and happy ordinance of Gpd, this wprd
of Ufe, and know that they that are not re
generated, and ao saved by it, shall be judg
ed by it.
Not of corruptible seed.] It is a main
cause of the unsuitable and unworthy beha
viour of Christiana, those that profess them
selves such, that a great part of them either
do not know, or at least do not aeriously and
frequently consider, what is indeed the
estate and quality of Christians, how excel
lent and of what descent their new nature is ;
therefore they are often to be remerabered of
this. Our apostle here doth so, and by it
binds on aU his exhortations.
Of this new being we have here these two
things : 1. Ita high original, frora God,
begotten again ofhis word: 2. That which
ao rauch comraends good things, ita dura
tion ; and this foUows of the other ; for if
the principle of this Ufe be incorruptible, it
self must be ao too. The word of God ia
not only a Uving and ever-abiding word in
itaelf; but Ukewiae in reference to thia new
birth, and spiritual life, of a Christian : And
so that which is here spoken of is intended,
and it is therefore called not only an abiding
word, but incorruptible seed, ¦yhich ex
pressly relates to regeneration. And be
cause we are most sensible of the good and
evU of things by coraparison, the everlast
ingness of the word, and that spiritual life
which it begeta, is set off by the frailty and
shortness of natural life, and all the good
that concerns it. This he expresseth in the
words of Isaiah in the next verae.
Ver. 24. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory
of man as the flower of grass. The grass -wither
eth, and the flower thereof falleth away.
In expreaaing the vanity and frailty of the
natural Ufe of man, it agreea very weU with
the aubject to caU him flesh, giving to the
whole man the name of his corruptible part ;
both to raake the ¦wretched and perishing
condition of thia life more aenaible, and man
the raore hurable by it : For though by pro
viding aU for the fleah, and beatowing hia
whole time in the endeavours which are of
the flesh's concernraent, he reraerabers it too
rauch, and forgets his apiritual and immor
tal part ; yet in that over eager care for the
fleah, in some sense, he aeema to forget that he
is flesh, or at least that flesh is perishing ; be
cause flesh extendeth his desires and projects
so far for the flesh aa if it were iramortal,
and ahould alwaya abide to enjoy and uae
theae thinga ; aa the philoaopher aaid of hia
countrymen, upbraiding at once their sur
feitings and exceaa in feasting, and their
sumptuousneaa in buUding, « That they eat
aa if they meant to die to-morrow, and yet
build aa if they were never to die." Thus
in men's immoderate purauita of earth, they
seem both to forget that they are any thing

elae beaide fleah, and in this sense too to for
get that they are flesh, that is, mortal a'nd
perishing; they neither rightly remember
their immortality nor their mortality. If
we consider what it is to be flesh, the nam
ing of that were ' aufficient to the purpose.
All man is flesh. But is plainer thus, Ali
flesh is grass. Thus in the psalra. He re
membered that they were but flesh ; that
speaks their frailty enough, but it is added,
to raake the vanity of their estate the clearer,
a wind that passeth and cometh not again,
Psal. Ixxviii. 39. So Psal. ciii. 15, As for
man, his days are as grass : as a flower of
the field so he flourisheth. For the wind
passeth over it, and it is gone ; and the
place thereof shall know it no more.
This natural Ufe is compared, even by na
tural men, to the vainest things, and scarce
flnd they things light enough to express it
vain ; and as it is here caUed grass, so they
corapare the generations of raen tp the leaves
of trees. But the Ught of scripture doth
raost discover this, and it is a lesson that re
quires the Spirit of God to teach it aright.
Teach us, says Moses, Psal. xc. 12, so to
number our days, that we may apply our
hearts unto wisdom ; and David, Paal.
xxxix. 4, Make me to know my life, flow
frail I am. So Jam. iv. 14; and here it is
caUed grass. So Job xiv. 1, 2. Man that
is born of a woman is of few days, and
fnll of trouble. He cometh forth like a
flower, and is cut down.
Grass hath its roots in the earth, and is
fed by the moisture of it for a while ; but
besides that, it is under the hazard of such
weather aa favours it not, or the scythe that
cuts it down ; give it aU the forbearance
that may be, let it be free from both those, i
yet how quickly wiU it wither of itself ! Set
aside thoae many accidenta, the sraaUest of
which ia able to destroy our natural life, the
diseases of our own bodies, and outward vio
lences and casualties that cut down many
in their greenness, in the flower of their youth,
the utmost terra is not long ; in the course
of nature it wiU wither. Our Ufe is indeed
a lighted torch, either blo'wn out by some
stroke, or some wind ; or if spared, yet with
in a while it burns away, and wiU die out of
itaelf. And all ihe glory of man. ] That ia ele
gantiy added. There ia indeed a great deal
of seeming difference betwixt the outward
condition of life amongst raen : shall the
rich, and honourable, and beautiful, and
healthful, go in together, under the same
name, with the baser and unhappier sort, the
poor wretched sort of the world, that seem lo
be bom for nothing but aufferinga and mi.
aeriea ? At least, hath the wiae uo advan.
tage beyond foola ; is aU grass ? Make you
no distinction ? tfo, aliis grass ; or if you
wiU have some other name, be it so, once-

VEtt. 24.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OP PETER.

63

this is trae, that all flesh is grass : and if
Jiat glory that shines so much in your eyes
must have a difference, then this is all it can
have, it is but the flower of that same grass,
spmewhat abPve the cpmmpn grass in gay
ness, a Uttie cpraelier, and better apparelled
than it, but partaker of its frail and fading
nature ; hath no privilege nor immunity that
way, yea, of the two the less durable, and
usuaUy shorter Uved ; at the best it decays
with it, the grass withereth, and the flower
thereof falleth away.
How easily and quiekly hath the highest
splendpur pf a raan's prpsperity been blasted,
either by raen's ppwer, pr by the iraraediate
hand of God ! The Spirit of the Lord
blows upon it, as Isaiah there says, and by
that, not only withers the grass, but the
flower fades, thpugh never sp fair; when
thou correctest man for iniquity, thou
makest his beauty to consume like a moth,
Psal. xxxix. 11. Hpw many have the ca
sualties pf fire, or war, or shipwreck, in one
day pr night, pr a smaU part pf either, tum-
. ed out of great riches into extrerae poverty !
And the instances are not few, of those that
have on a sudden faUen frora the top of ho
nour into the foulest disgraces, not by de
grees coming down the stair they went up,
but tumbled down headlong. And the raost
vigorous beauty, and strength of body, how
doth a few days' sickness, or if it escape
that, a few years' tirae, blast that flower !
Yea, those higher advantages that have some
what both of truer and more lasting beauty
in them, the endowments of wit, and leam-
ing, and eloquence, yea, and of moral good
neaa and virtue, yet they cannot rise above
this word, they are stiU in aU their glory but
the flower of grass, their root is in the
earth. Natural ornaments are of some use
in this present Ufe, but they reach np fur
ther. When men have wasted their strength,
and endured the tpil of study night and day,
it is but a smaU parcel of knowledge they
can attain to, and they are forced to Ue
down in the dust, in the midst of their pur
suit of it : That head that lodges most
sciences, ahaU within a while be disfumiah.
ed of them aU ; and the tongue that speaks
most language's, silenced.
The great projects of kings and princes.
and they alsp theraselves, cpme ^ur.der this
same nptipn ; aU the vast designs that are
framing in their heads fall tP the ground in
a moment ; they i eiurn to iheir dust, and
in that day all their thoughts perish, Psal.
cxlvi. 4. Archimedes was kiUed in the
midst of his demonstration.
If they themselves did consider this in the
heat of their affairs, it wpuld rauch aUay the
sweUing and Ipftiness pf their minds ; and
if they that Uve uppn their favpur, wpuld
consider it, they would not value itat so high
a rate, and buy it sp dear as often they do.

Men of low degree are vanity, says the
Psalmist, Psal. Ixii. 9 ; but he adds. Men
of high degree are a lie. From base mean
peraons we expect nothing, but the estate of
great persons promises fair, and often keeps
net ; therefpre they are a Ue, althpugh they
can least endure that word.
They are in respect pf raean peraona aa
the flpwer tp the grass ; spmewhat a fairer
lustre they have, but np mpre endurance, nor
exemption from decaying : Thua then it is an
universal and undeniable truth. It begins
with a Sjo^/, and is aa sure a concluaion as
the surest of these in their best demonstrations
which they call Skit/. And as particular
raen, ao whole states and kingdpras are
thus ; they have their budding, flpurishing,
and withering ; and it is in beth as with
flpwers, when they are fuUest spread, then
they are near their decUning and withering :
and thus it is with aU whole generations of
raen upon earth, as Solomon says. One
goeth and another cometh, Eccl. i. 4, but
not a word of abiding at aU. We in our
thoughts shut up death into a very narrow
compas ', namely, in the moraent of our ex
piring ; but the truth is, as the moralist ob
serves, it goes through aU our life ; for we
are stiU losing, and spending it as we enjoy
it, yea, our very enjoying it, is the spending
it ; yesterday's Ufe is dead to-day, and so
sliaU this day's life be to-morrow. 'We spend
our years, says Moses, as a tale, Psal. xc.
8, or as a thought, so swift and vanishing is
it. Each word helps a tale towarda its end,
and while it lasts it is generaUy vanity, and
when it is done it vanishes as a sound in
the air. 'VSHwt is becorae of aU the pom-
-pous soleranities of kings and princes, at
their births and raarriages, coronations and
triumphs ? they are now as a dream ; as
Luke, Acts xxv. 23, caUs aU the pomp of
Agrippa, Bernice, and their train, ^avrairia,
a mere fancy.
Hence leam the foUy aud pride of man, ,
that can glory and pleaae himaelf in the frail
and wretched being he hath here, that dotes
pn thia poor natural Ufe, and cannot be per-
auaded to think on one higher and more
abiding. Although the course of tiraes, and
his daily experience, tell hira this truth,
that all flesh is grass ; yea, the Prophet
prefixes to these words a coraraand of cry.
ing : they muat be ahouted aloud in our ears
ere we wiU hear them, and by the time the
sound of the cry is done, we have forgot it
again. Would we consider thia in the midat
of thoae vanitiea that toss our light rainds to
and fro, it would give us wiser thoughts, and
baUast our hearts ; raake them raore solid
and stedfast in those spiritual endeavours
which concern a durable condition, a being
that abides for ever ; in coraparison of which,
the longest term of natural life is less than a
raoraent, and the hariuiest estate of it but a

A COMMENTARY UPON

04
heap of miaeriea. Were all of us raore con
stantly prosperous than any of us is, yet that
one thing were enough to cry down the price
we put upon this Ufe, — that it continues not.
¦ As 7ie answered to one that had a mind to
flatter hira in the midst of a porapous triuraph,
by saying, "W^hat is wanting here ? Con
tinuance, said he. It was v/isely said at
any tirae, but wisest of aU to have so sober
a .thought in such a soleranity, in which
weak heads cannot escape either to be whoUy
drunk, or soraewhat giddy at least : Sure
we forget this, when we grow vain upon any
human glory or advantage ; the colour of it
pleaseth us, and we forget that it is but a
flower, and foolishly over-eateera it ; this is
that madness upon fiowers, that is some
where in request, where they will give as
much for one fiower as would buy a good
dweUing-house. Is it not a most foolish
bargain to bestow continual pains and diU
gence upon purchasing of great possessions
or honours, if we beUeve this, that the best
of them ia no other but a ahort-lived flower,
and neglect the purchaae of thpse glorioua
manaiona of etemity, a garland of such
flowers as wither not, an unfading crown,
that everlasting Ufe and thoae everlasting
pleasures that are at the right hand of God ?
Now that life which shaU never end must
begin here, it is the new spiritual life,
whereof the wordof God is the iraraortal seed ;
and in opposition to corruptible aeed, and
the corruptible life of flesh, it is here said to
endure for ever. And for this end is the
frailty of natural life raentioned, that our af
fections may be drawn off frora it to this spi
ritual life that is not subject unto death.
Ver. 25. But the word of the Lord endureth for
ever ; and this is the word which by the gospel is
preached unto you.
The word of God is ao Uke hiraaelf, and
cartiea ao plainly the image and irapreaaion
of his power and wisdora, that where these
are spoken of together, it is aometiraea doubt
ful, whether the expreaaions are to be refer
red to himself, or to his word, ao Heb. iv.
12. and so here : But there ia no hazard in
referring them either way, aeeing there ia
truth in both, and pertinency too ; for they
that refer them to God affirm that they are
intended for the extoUing of hia word, being
the aubject in hand, and that we may -know
it to be Uke him : But I rather think that
here the apoatle speaks of the word ; it is
said to be quick or living (^;,) in the fore-
cited text, as well as in the passage before
us : And the phrase abiding for ever, is
expressly repeated of it here, in the Pro
phet's words. And, with respect to those
learned raen that apply thera to God, I re
member not that this abiding for ever is
used to express God's eternity in hiraaelf.
Howsoever, this incorruptible aeed is the Uv.

I CHA.P||' 1

ing and everlasting word of the living and'
everlasting God, and is therefore suoli, be.
cause He, whose it is, is such.
Now, thia is not to betaken in an abstract
aense of the word, only in its own nature,
but as the principle pf regeneratipn, the seed
of this new life ; because the word is en.
livening and liviilg, therefore they v/ith whom
it is effectual, and into whose hearts it is re.
ceived, are begotten again, and made aUve
by it, and because the word is incorraptible, -
and endureth for ever, therefore that Ufe be.;
got by it is such too, cannpt perish npr be
cut down, as the natural life ; no, this spiritual
life of grace ia the certain beginning of that
eternal Ufe of glory, and ahaU issue iu it,
and therefore hath no end.
As the word of God in itself cannot be
abolished, but surpaaaes the endurance of
heaven and earth, as our Saviour teachea ;,
and all the attempts of men againat the di.
vine truth of that word to undo it, are as vain
as if they should consult to pluck the sun
out of the firraaraent ; so likewise in the
heart of a Chriatian, it is immortal and in.
corruptible. Where it is once received by
faith, it cannot be obUterated again ; aU the
powers of darkness cannot deatroy it, al
though they be never ao diUgent in their at-
tempts that way : And this is the comfort
of the saints, that though the Ufe whicii
God by hia word hath breathed into their
aouls have many and strong enemies, such
as they themselves could never hold out
againat, yet for his own glory and his pro
mise sake, he wiU maintain that life, and
bring it to ita perfection : God will perfeei
that which concerneth me, saith the Psal
raist, Psal. cxxxviii. 8. It ia grossly con
trary to the truth of the Scriptures to ima.^
giue, that they that are thus renewed can be
unborn again : This new birth is but once,
of one kind ; though they are subject fo
frailties and weaknesses here, in this spin.
tual life, yet not to death any more, nor to
auch way of sinning as would extinguish this
life; This is that which the apostie John
aays, He that is born of God sinneth not;
and the reaaon he adda, is the same that is
here given, the permanence and incorrupti-
bleneaa of this word, tlie seed of God abid
eth in him, 1 John iii. 9.
This is the word which by the gospel is
preached unto you.] It is not sufficient to
have these thoughts of the word of God in a
general way, and not to know what that word
is ; but we must be persuaded, that that
word which is preached io us, is this very
word of so exceUent virtue, and of which these
high thinga are spoken, that it is incorrup
tible and abideth for ever, and therefore
surpasses all the world, and aU the exceUen
cies and glory of it. Although deUvered by
weak men, the aposties, and by far weaker
than thej in the constant ministry of it, yet

ver. 1, 2. ]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

it Inseth npne pf its pwn virtue ; for that
depends upon the first owner and author of
it, the ever-Uving God, who by it begets his
chosen unto life eternaL
This, therefore, is that which we should
leam dius to hear, and thus to receive, es
teem, and love ; this holy, this living word ;
to despise aU the glistening vanities pf this
perishing life, all putward pomp, yea, all in
ward worth, aU wisdom and natural endpw-
ments ef raind, in cpraparispu of the heaven
ly Ught of the Gospel preached unto us :
Rather to hazard.' all than lose that, and
banish aU other things frora that place that
is due to it ; to lodge it alone in our hearts,
as our only treasure here, and the certain
pledge pf that treasure pf glpry laid up fpr
us in heaven. To which blessed state may
Gpd pf his infinite mercy bring us. Amen.

CHAP. IL
Veb. 1. Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all
guile, and hypocrises, and envies, and all evil-
speakings,
Ver. 2. As new-ljorn babes, desire the sincere milk
of the word, that ye may grow thereby.
The sarae power and goodness of God
that manifests itself in giving being tp his
creatures, appears Ukewise in sustaining
and preaerving thera. Tp give being is the
first, and tp support it, is the continued
effect of that power and goodness. Thus it
is, both in the first creation, and , in the se
cond: In the firat, the creaturca to which
he gave Ufe, he provided with convenient
nourishment to uphold that life. Gen. i. 1 1 :
So here, in the close of the former chapter,
we find the doctrine of the new birth and
life of a Christian ; and in the beginning of
this, the proper food of that Ufe ; and it is
the same word by which we there find it to
be begotten, that is here the nourishment of
it ; and therefore Christians are here ex
horted by the apostle so to esteem, and sp to
use it : arid that is the main scope of the
word. '
Observe in general : The word, the prin
ciple, and the support of our spiritual being,
is both the incorruptible seed and the incor
ruptible food of that new life of grace, which
must therefore be an incorruptible life : And
this may convince us, that the ordinary
thoughts, even of us that hear this word, are
far below the true exceUency and worth of
It. The streara of custom and our profes
sion, bring us hither, and we sit out pur
hpur, under the spund of this word ; but
how few consider and prize it, as the great
ordinance of God, for the salvation of sniJs,
the begiraier and the sustainer pf the divine
life pf grace within us ; and certainly, untU
we have theae theughts pf it, and seek tP
feel it thus purselves, although we hear it

65
mpst frequently and slip nn pccasiou, yea,
hear it with attentipu and spme present de
Ught, yet stiU we raiss the right use pf itj
and tum it frpm its true end, while we take .
it npt as that ingrafted word which is able '
to save our souls j Jam. i. 21.
Thus ought they that preach to speak it,
to endeavour their utraost to accprarapdate it
to this end ; that sinners may be converted,
begotten again, and believers npurished and
strengthened in their spiritual life ; to regard
no lower end, but aim steadily at that mark-
Their hearta and tonguea ought to be aet on
fire with holy zeal for Gpd, and Ipve tp spuls,
kindled by the Holy Ghost, that carae down
on the apostles in the shape of fiery tongues.
And they that hear, should reraember this
as the end of their hearing, that they may
receive spiritual Ufe and strength by the
word : For though it seera a poor despicable
business, that a frail sinful man Uke your.
selves speak a few words in your hearing ;
yet look upon it as the way wherein God
communicates happiness to thera that be
lieve, and works that believing unto happi
ness, alters the whole frarae of the soul, and
makes a new creation, as it begets it again
to the inheritance Of glory ; consider it thus,
which is its true notion, and then what can
be so precious ! Let the wprld disesteem it
as they will, knew ye, that it is the power of
God unto salvation : The preaching of the
cross is to them that perish, foolishness ;
but unto, them that are saved, it is the
power of God, says the apoatle, 1 Cor. i. 18.
And if you would have the experience of
this, if you would have Ufe and growth by
it, you must look above the poor worthless
messenger, and caU in his Almighty help,
who is the Lord of Ufe. As the philosophers
affirm, that if the heavens should stand still,
there would be no generation nor flourish.
ing of any thing here below, it is the moving
and influence of the Spirit that raakea the
Church fruitfid. Happy would it be if yOu
would be persuaded to do this before you
come hither : Preaent the blindneaa of your
minda, and the deadness of your hearts to
God, and say, " Lord, here is"an eppprtu.
nity for thee tp shew the ppwer pf thy wprd.
I would find Ufe and strength in ft ; but
neither can I that hear, nor he that speaks,
make it thus unto rae ; that is thy preroga
tive ; say thou the word, and it shaE be
done." God said, Let there be light, and
it was light. Gen. i. 3.
In this exhortation to the due use of the
word, the apostie continues the reaemblance"
of that hew birth he raentioned, chap. i.
As new horn babes.] Be not aatiafied with
youraelvea till^you find aorae evidence of this
new, thia supernatural life. There be de
lights and comforts in this new Ufe, in its
lowest condition, that would persuade us to
lopk after it if we knew them ; but as the
E

6G

A COMMENTARY. UPON

[chap. II.

raent cannpt be made sensible pf these, con
sider therefore the end of it. Better never to
have been, than not to have been partaker of
this new being : Except a man be born
again, says our Saviour, he cannot enter
into the kingdom of God, John iii. 3.
Surely they that are not bom again, shaU
one day wiah that they had never been bom.
What a pppr wretched thing is the life that
we have here ! a very heap pf fpUies and
miseries : New, if we would share in a
happier being after it, that Ufe that ends
not, it must begin here ; grace and glory is
one and the same life, pnly with this diffe
rence, that the one is the beginning, and
the other the perfection of it ; or if we do
caU them two several Uves, yet the one is
the undoubted pledge of the other. It was
a strange word for a heathen to say, that
the day of death we fear so, teterni natalis
est, is ihe birth-day of eternity. Thus it
ia indeed, to those that are here bom again ;
this new birth pf grace, is the sure earnest
and pledge pf that birth-day pf glory. Why
do we not do then labour to raake that certain
by the forraer ? Is it not a fearful thing to
spend our days in vanity, and then Ue down
in darkness and sortow fpr ever ; tp disre
gard the Ufe of our soul, while we may and
shnuld be prpvident for it, and then, when it
ia going out, cry. Quo nuncjibibis ? Whi
ther art thou going, O ray soul ?
But this new life puts us put of the danger
and fear of that etemal death : We are
passed from death to life, saya St. John,
(1 John iu. 14,) speaking of those that are
bom again ; and being passed, there is no
repassing, np going back frora this Ufe to
death again.
This new birth is the sarae that St. Jphn
caUs theirs* resurrection, and pronounces
them blessed that partake of it : Blessed are
ihey ihat have part in the first resurrection,
the second death shall have no power over
them. Rev. xx. 6.
The weak beginnings pf grace in cpm-
parison of further strength attainable even in
this life, are sometiraes expressed as the in
fancy of it ; and so believera ought not to
continue infants, and if they do, it is re-
prpvable in thera, as we see Eph. iv. 14 ;
1 Cer. ii. 2, xiv. 20, and Heb. v. 12.
Thpugh the aposde writes to new converts,
and so may ppssibly imply the tenderness of
their beginnings of grace, yet I conceive that
infancy is here taken in such a sense as
agrees to a Christian in the whple cpurse and
best estate pf his spiritual life here belpw ;
and SP Ukewise the milk here recpmmended
is answerable tP this sense pf infancy, and
not to the former ; as it ia in aome of those
places cited, where it means the easiest and
first principles of reUgion, and so is oppoaed
to the higher myateries of it, aa to strong
meat ; but here it signifies die whole word

of God, and all ita wholesome and saving
trutha, as the proper nourishment of the
children of God : And so the apostle's words
are a standing exhortation for aU Chris.
tians, of aU degrees.
' And the whole estate and course of their
spiritual life here, is_called their infancy,
not only as opposed to the corruption and
wickedness of the old man, but Ukewise as
signifying the weakness and imperfection of
it, at its best in this Ufe, compared with the
perfection of the life to come ; for the weak
est beginnings of grace are by means so far
below the highest degree of it possible in
this Ufe, as that highest degree faUs short of
the state of glory ; sp that, if pne measure
ef grace be called infancy in respectof - an-
other, rauch raore is aU grace infancy in re
spect of glpry. And sure as fpr duration,
the time pf put present life is far less to
eternity than the time of our natural infancy
is to the rest of our Ufe ; so that we may be
StiU caUed but new or lately born. Our
best pace and strongest walking iu obedience
here, is but as the stepping of chUdren when
they begin to go by hpld, in comparison of
the perfect obedience in glory, when we shall
follow the Lamb wheresoever lie goes. Rev;
xiv. 4. AU our knowledge here is hut as
the ignorance pf infants, and aU pur expres-
aipna pf Gpd, and pf his praises, but as the
first stammerings pf children, in compariaon
of the knowledge we shaU have of them
hereafter, when we shall know as we are
known, 1 Cor. xiii. 12, and of these praises
we shaU then offer him, when that new song
shaU be taught ua. A child hathin it a rea.
aonable soul, and yet by the indiapoaednessof
the body, and abundance of moisture, it is
so bound up, that its difference from the
beasts, and partaking of a rational Ufe, is
not so apparent as afterwards : and thu^
the spiritual life that is from abpve infused
into a Christian, though it doth act and
work in aorae degree, yet it is so clogged
with natural corruption, atiU reraaining in
him, that the exceUency of it is much cloud-
ed and obscured ; but in the Ufe to come, it
shall have nothing at aU incumbering and
indiapoaing it. And this is the apostle
PauPs doctrine, 1 Cor. xiii. 9, 10, 11, 12,
And thia ia the wonder pf divine grace,
that bringa ao sraall a begimiing to that
height of perfection that we are not able to
conceive of; that a litde spark of true grace,
that is not pnly indiscernible tp others, but
often to a Christian himself, yet shpuld be
the beginning pf that cpnditipn wherein he
shaU shine brighter than the sun in the fir.
mament. The difference ia great in Our na
tural Ufe ; in sorae perspns especiaUy, tha
they that in infancy were so feeble, and wrapt
up as others iu swaddling.clothes, yet after
wards carae to excel in wisdom and iri the
knowledge of sciences, or to be commander*

VER, 1, 2.?

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

67

of great armies, or to be kings ; But the
distance is far greater and mere adrairable
betwixt the weakness pf theseneto born babes,
thf! smaU beginnings of grace, and pur after
perfectipn, that fiilness pf knpwlcdge that we
lopk fpr, and that crpwn of immortality that
aU diey are bom to that are born of God.
But as in the faces or actions of some
children, characters and preaagea of their
after greatness have appeared, as a singular
beauty in Moses' face, as they write of him,
and as Cyrus was raade king ampng the shep
herds' children with whpm he was brpught
up, &c. sp alsp certainly in these chUdren of
God, there be some characters and evidences
that they are bom for Heaven by their new
birth. That holiness and meekness, that
patience and faith, that shine in the actions
and sufferings of the saints, are characters of
their Father's image, and show their high
original, and foreteU their glory to come ;
such a glory as doth not only surpass the
world's thoughts, but die thoughts of the
chUdren of God themselves, 1 John iu. 2.
Now, that the children of God raay grow
by the word of God, the apostle requires
these two things of them : 1. The inno
cency pf children ; 2. The appetite of chil
dren. For this, as I conceive, is relative not
only to the desiring the milk of the word,
but to the former verse, ihe putting off malice :
as the apostle Paul exhorta, 1 Cor. xiv. 20.
As concerning malice, be ye children.
1st, The innocency of children ia requir.
ed, -Wherefore laying aside, &c. This
imports that we are naturaUy prepnssessed
with these evils, and therefpre are exhorted
to put them off. Our hearts are by nature
np pther but cages of those unclean birds,
malice, envy, hypocrisy, &c. The apostle
sometimes names some pf these evils, and
spmetimes other pf thera; but theyare in
separable, aU one garraent, and aU compre
hended under that one wordj Eph. iv. 22,
the old man, which the apostle there exhorts
to put off: And here it is pressed as a ne
cessary evidence of their new birth, and fur
therance of their spiritual growth, that these
base habits be thrown away; ragged filthy
habits, unbeseeming the children of God ;
they are the proper marks of an unrenewed
raind, the very characters of the children cf
Satan, fpr they are his image. He hath his
names frora enmity, and envy, and slander-
iug, and he is that grand hypocrite and de
ceiver that can transform himself into an
angel of light, 2, Cor. xi. 14.
So, pn the cpntrary, the Spirit pf Gpd
that dweUs in his children is the Spirit pf
meekness, and Ipve, and trath. That dnve-
Uke Spirit that descended pn otrr Savipur, is
frpm him comraunicated tP beUevers. It is
the grpssest impudence tp pretend tp be
Christians, and yet to entertain hati'cd and
envyings, uppn whatsoever occasipn ; for

there is nothing more recomriiended to thera
by our Saviour's own doctrine, and more im
pressed upon their hearts by his Spirit, than
love. Katx/x may be taken generaUy, but I
conceive it is that which we particularly call
malice. Malice and envy are but two branches
growing out of the same bitter root ; self-love
and evil-speakings are the fruit they bear.
Malice is properly the procuring or wishing
another's evil ; envy, the repining at his
good ; and these vent themaelvea by evil
speaking. This infemal fire within smokes,
and fiashes out by the tongue, which St.
James says is set on fire of hell, iu. 6, and
fires all about it ; censuring the actions of
those they hate or envy, aggravating their
failings, and detracting frora their virtues,
taking aU things by the left ear ; fpr, as
Epictetus says. Every thing hath two han
dles. The art pf taking thinga by the better
side, which charity always dpth, wpuld save
rauch pf thpae janglings and heart-burnings
that SP abpund in the wprld. But fpUy and
perverseness ppssess the hearts pf the most,
and therefore their discourses are usually the
vent of thoae ; for out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth must speak, Matth.
xii. 34. The unsavoury breaths of men
argue their inward corruption. Where shall
a man corae, almost, into societies, but his
ears shall be beaten with the unpleasant noise
(sure it is so to a Christian mind) pf pne de
tracting and disparaging another : And yet
this is extreme baseness, and the practice
only of false counterfeit goodness, to make
up our own esteera out of the ruins of the
good name of others ; real virtue neither
needs nor can endure that dishonest shift :
It can subsist of itself, and therefore in
genuously coraraends and acknowledges what
good is in others, and loves to hear it ac
knowledged ; and neither readily speaks nor
hears evil of any, but rather, where duty and
conscience require net discpvery, casts a veil
uppn men's failings tp hide thera i this is
the true temper pf the children pf Gpd.
These evils pf malice, and envy, and evil-
speakings, and such Uke, are npt tp be dis
sembled by us in purselves, aud ceiiveyed
under better appearances, but tp be cast away ;
npt to be covered, but put off; and therefore
that which is the upper garment and cloak
of aU other evils, the apostle here commands
to cast off that too, naraely, hypocrisy.
What avaUs it to wear this mask ? A
man may indeed in the sight of men act his
part handspmely under it, and pass sp for a
tirae ; but knpw we not that there is an eye
that sees through it ; and a hand, that, if
we wiU npt put pff this mask, wiU puU it pff
tp pur sharae either here in the sight pf men,
or if we should escape aU our life, and go
fair off the stage under it, yet that there is
a day appointed wherein all hypocrites shaU

68
be unveiled, and appear what they are indeed
before men and angels ? It is a poor thing
to be approved and applauded by men, while
God condemns, to whose aentence aU men
must atand or faU. Oh ! seek to be ap
proved and justified by Hira, and then who
shall condemn ? Rora. viii. 34. It ia no
matter who do. How eaaily may we bear
the miatakea and dislikes of aU the world, if
He declare hiraself weU-pleased with us !
It is a small thing for me to be judged of
man, or man's day ; he ihat judgeth me is
ihe Lord, saith the apostle, 1 Cor. iv. 3, 4.
But these evila are here particularly to be
put off, aa contrary to the right and prpfit.
able receiving pf the word of God ; for thia
part of the exhortation [laying aside] looka
to that which foUows [desire], and ia eape
ciaUy ao to be considered.
There is this double task in reUgion.
When a man enters to it, he is not only to
be taught trae wisdora, but he is withal, yea,
first of aU, to be untaught the errors and
wickedness that are deep-rooted in his mind,
which he hath not oidy leamed by the cor-
rapt conversation of the world, but brought
t^e seeds of them into the world with him.
They do indeed improve and grow by the
favour of that exaraple that is round about a
man ; but they are originaUy in our nature
as it is now ; they are connatural to us, be
sides continual custom, which is another
nature. There is none comes to the school
of Christ suiting the philosopher's word, ui
tabula rasa, as blank paper, to receive hia
doctrine ; but on the contrary, aU scribbled
and blurted with such base habita aa theae,
malice, hypocrisy, envy, Scc.
Therefore the firat workia to raze out these,
to cleanse and purify the heart from these
blots, these foul characters, that it raay re
ceive the impression of the iraage of God.
And becauae it is the word of God that both
begins and advances this work, and perfects
the lineaments of that divine image on the
soul; therefore to the receiving this word
aright, and this proper effect by it, the con
forming of the soul to Jesus Christ, which
is the true growth of the spiritual life, this
ia pre-required. That the hearta of them that
hear it be purged of theae, and .such Uke
impurities, malice, hypocrisy, &c.
These are so opposite to the profitable re
ceiving of the word of God, that while they
possess and rale the soul, it cannot all em
brace these divine truths ; while it is fiUed
with such guests, there is no rooin to enter
tain the word.
They cannot dweU together by reason of
their contrary nature, the word wiU not mix
with these. .The saving mixture pf the wprd
of Gpd in the spuI, is that the appstie apeaka
of ; and he givea the want pf it aa the cause
ot unprpfitable hearing the wprd, Heb. iv. 2,
tiVt -mixing it with faith ; fpr by that the wprd

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CHAP., n.

is cpncocted into the nourishment of the life
of grace, united te the spul, and mixed with
it, by being mixed with faith, as the apos.
tie's expressipn impprts : That is the pro.
per mixture it requires, but with these
qualities here mentioned it wiU not mix;
there is a natural antipathy between them,
aa strong aa in those things in nature that
cannot be brought by any means to agree and
mingle tpgether.
Can there be any thing mpre ccntrary than
the good word of God, as the appstie caUs it,
and those evil speakings ? than the word that
is of such excellent sweetness, and the bitter
words of a raalignant tongue ? than the word
of life, and words full of deadly poison ? for
so slanders and defamings of our brethren are.
And is not aU malice and envy mpst oppo
site to the word, that is the raessage of joeacff
and love ? How can the gaU of malice and
this milk of the word agree ? Hypocrisy
and guile stand in direct opposition to the
name of this word that is called the word, of
iruth ; and here the very words shew this
contrariety, sincere milk and a double un
sincere mind.
These two are necessary conditions of good
nourishment : 1st, That the food be good
and wholesome ; 2dly, That the inward con
stitution of thera that use it be so too. -And
if this fail, the other profits not. This sin.
cere railk is the only proper nourishment of
spiritual life, and there is no defect nor un
due quaUty in it ; but the greatest part of
hearers are inwardly unwholesome, diseased
with the evils here -raentioned, and pthers of
the like nature ; and therefore, either have no
kind of appetite at aU, but rather feed upon
such trash as suits with their disteraper, as
sorae kind of diseases incline those that have
them to eat coals or Urae, &c. ; or if they be
anywise desirous to hear the word, and seem
to feed on it, yet the noxious humours that
abound in them, raake it altpgether unprofita
ble, and they are not nourished by it. As
this evil of raalice and envying, so ordinary
araong men, (and which is most strange,
among Christians,) Uke an overflowiiig pf the
gall, posseaaes their whole minda ; so, they
not only fail of being nouriahed by the word
they hear, but are the worae for it, their dis
ease is fed by it, aa an unwholeaome atomach
turns the best raeat it receives into that bad
humour that abpunda in it. Do not they
thus, that observe what the word says, that
they may be the better enabled to discover
the failings of pthers, and speak maliciously
and uncharitably of them, and vent themselves,
as is tpo common, This word met well with
Slich a one's fault, and this with another's?
Is not this to feed theae diseases of malice,
envy, and evil-speakings, with this pitre
milk, and make ihem grow, inatea,d of grow
ing by it ouraelves in grace and holiness ? ¦
Thua likewise the hypocrite turns aU thut

VEH. 1,2.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

fit}

he hears of this word, not to the inward re.
novation of his raind, and redressing what
is amiaa there, but only to the composing of
Ilia putward carriage, and tp enable him tp
act his part better ; to be more cunning in
his own faculty, a more refined and expert
hypocrite ; not to grow more a Chriatian in
deed, but more such in appearance only, and
in the opinion of others.
Therefore it is a very, needful advertise
ment* seeing these evils are so natural to men,
and so contrary to the nature of the word of
God, that -they be purged out, to the end it
may be profitably received. A very Uke ex
hortation to this hath the aposde St. James,
and some of the same words, but in another
metaphor. Jam. i. 21, Wherefore lay apart
all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness,
and receive with meekness the ingrafted
word. He compares the word fo a plant of
exceUent virtue, the very tree of Ufe, the word
that is able to save your souls : But the only
soU wherein it wiU grow is a heart full of
meekness, a heart that is purged of thpse
luxuriant weeds that grew so rank in it by
nature ; they muat be plucked up and thrown
out, to make place for thia word.
And there is such a necessity of this, that
the -moat approved teachers of wisdora, in a.
human way, have required this of their
scholars, that to the end their minds might
be capable of it, they should be purifled frora
vice and wickedness ; , for this reason the
philosopher judges young raen unfit hearers
of moral philosophy, because of the abound
ing and untaraedneaa of their passions, grant
ing, that if those were corappsed and prdered,
they raight be adraitted : And it was Sp-
cratea' custpra, when any asked him a ques
tipn tp be informed by him, before he would
anawer them, he asked thera conceming their
own qualities and course of life.
Now, if men require a calm and purified
dispoaition of mind to make it capable of
their doctrine, how rauch raore ia it auitable
and necessary for learning the doctrine pf God,
and thpae deep rayateriea that his word opens
up 1 It is weU expressed in that apocryphal
Book of Wisdora, " That frpward thpughts
separate frpm God, and wisdom enters not
intp a raaUeipus spul :" No indeed, that is
a very unfit dwelUng for it ; and even a hea-
dien cpuld say, " The mind that is impure is
not capable nf Gpd, and divine thinga,"
(Seneca). Therefpre we see the strain pf that
book of Proverbs that speaks sp much pf this
wisdpm : it requires in the first chapter, that
they that weuld hear it, do retire themselves
from aU ungodly customs and practices.
And indeed, how can that soul apprehend
spiritual things, that is not in sorae measure
refined from the Ipve pf sin, that abuses and
bemires the minds pf men, and makes them
unable tp arise tP heavenly thpughts ? Bless
ed are the pure in heart, for they shall see

God, aays pur Savipur, (Mat. v. 8) ; not pnly
shall they see him perfectly hereafter, but, as
they can receive him, he wiU impart and raake
himself knewn unto them here : so John xiv.
23, // any man love me, he will keep my
words : and my Father will love him, and
we will come unto him, and make our abode
with him. Thia ia that which makea the
word obacure, namely, the filth}- raiata with-
Whereaa, on the contrary, he wiU in just
judgment hide hiraself, and the saving truth
of hia word, from thoae that entertain and
deUght in ain : The very sina wherein they
delight aliaU obacure and darken the light of
the goapel to them, that though it shine clear
as the sun at noon-day, they shaU be as those
that Uve in a dungeon, they shaU not discern
it. And as they receive no benefit by the word
that have these evils here mentipned reign
ing and in fuU strength in them, sp they that
are indeed bom again, the mere they retain
pf these, the less shaU they find the infiuence
and profit of the word ; for this exhortation
concerns them. They may possibly, sorae of
thera, have a great remainder of theae corrup
tions unmortified ; therefore are they exhort.
ed to lay aside entirely these evils, all mflliee,
all hypocrisy, &c. : else, thpugh they hear
the word often, yet they wiU be in a spiritual
atrophy ; they wiU eat much, but grow no.
thing by it, they wUl find no increaae of grace
and spiritual strength.
Would we know the main cause of our
fruitless hearing of the word, here it is ; men
bring not raeek and giuleleas spirita to it,
not rainda emptied and purified to receive it,
but atuffed with malice, and hypocrisy, and
pride, and pther auch evila : And where
should the word enter, ¦when aU is so taken
up ? And if it did enter, how should it
prpsper ampngst so many enemies, or at all
abide amongst them ? Either they wiU tum
it out again, or choke and kiU the power of
it. We think religion and our own lusts,
and secret heart-idols, should agree toge
ther, because we would have it so ; but this
is not possible ; therefore labour to entertain
the word of truth in the loye of it,, and lodge
the mystery of faith in a pure conscience, as
the apostle St. Paul speaks, 1 Tim. iii. 9.
Join those together with David, Psal. cxix.
113, / hate vain thoughts, but thy law do
I love. And as here our apostle. Lay aside
all malice, and hypocrisy, and envy, and
evil-speakings, and so receive the word, or
else look for no benefit by it here, nor for sal
vation by it hereafter ; but be prevailed upon'
tp cast out aU impurity, and give ypur whole
heart to it; so to desire it that you may grow,
and then as you desire you shall grow by it.
2dly, The apostle speaks of the appetite
of children, desire the sincere milk, &c.
Every real beUever hath received a Ufe from
heaven, far more exceUing pui natural life,

7«

A COMMENTARY UPON

\CUAT. If';

tban that excels the life of the beasts. And
'this Ufe hath its own pecuUar desires and
deUghts, that are the proper actings and
the certain characters and evidence of it :
Ampngst others, this is pne, and a main
one, anawerable tp the like desire in natural
Ufe, namely, a desire nf food ; and becauae
it is here stiU imperfect, therefore the natural
end of this, is not only nourishment but
growth, as it is here expressed.
The sincere milk of ihe word,] Thf Ufe
of grace is the proper life of a reaspnable
BPul, and withput it the spul is dead, as the
body is without the soul : So that this raay
be traly rendered, reasonable milk, as some
read it, but certainly that reasonable milk
is the word of God, ihe milk of the word.
It waa before caUed the immortal seed,
and here it is ihe milk, of those that are bom
again : and thus it is very agreeable nourish
ment to that apiritual life, according to their
aaying, lisdem alimur ex quibus constamus.
Aa the mUk that infanta draw frpm the
breast ia most connatural food to them, being
of that same substance that nourished them
in the womb : so when they are brought
forth, that food foUows thera as it were for a
supply, in that way that is provided in na
ture for it ; by certain veins it ascends into
the breasts, and is there fitted for tliera, and
they are by nature jdirected to find it there,
Thus, as a Christian begins to live by the
power of the word, he is by the nature of
that spiritual Ufe directed to that sarae word
aa ita npurishment. To foUow the resera
blance any farther in the qualities of milk,
after the monkish way, that runs itself out of
breath in allegory, I conceive, is neither so
lid nor profitable ; and to speak freely, the
curious searching of the siraiUtude in other
quaUtiea of milk, aeems to wrong the quality
here given it by the apostie, in which it is
so weU resembled by milk, namely, the sira
ple pureness and sincerity of the word ; be
sides, the pressing of comparisons of this
kind too far, proves often so constrained ere
they have done with it, that by too much
drawing, they bring forth blood instead of
milk. Pure and unmixed, as railk drawn im
mediately frora the breast ; the pure word
of God without the mixture not only pf er
ror, but of all other composition of vain un
profitable, aubtiltiea, or affected huraan elo
quence, such aa becorae not the raajesty and
gravity of God'a word. If any man speak,
saya our apoatle, let him speak as the ora
cles of dod, 1 Pet. iv. 11. Light conceits,
and flowers of rhetoric, wrong the word mpre
than they can please the hearers ; the weeds
ampng the cpm raake it look gay, but it
were aU the better they were not ampngst it.
Nor can those mixtures be pleasing to any
but carnal rainda. They that are indeed
ilie children of God (as infants, who Uke

their bteaat-railk best pure) do love the word
beat ao, and wheresoever they find it ao, they
reUsh it well ; whereas natural raen cannot
love spiritual thinga for themselves, desire
not the word for its own sweetness; bnl
wpuld have it sauced with such conceits as
possibly spoil the siraplicity of it : or at the
best Ipve tp h^ar it for the wit and learning,
which, without any wrongful mixture of it,
they find in one delivering it more than
another ; but the natural and genuine ap
petite pf the children pf God, is to the word,
for itself ; and only as railk, sincere milk i
And where they find it so, frora whpmsoever,
or in what way soever delivered unto them,
they feed uppn it with delight : Befpre con
version, wit or eloquence may draw a man to
the word, and possibly prove a happy bait
to catch hira, as St. Augustine reports of
his hearing St. Ambrose ; btit when once he
is born again, then it is the milk itaelf he de
sires, for itself.
Desire the sincere milk,\ Not only hear
it because it is your custora, but desire it
because it is your food : and it is, LA na
tural desire, (as the infant's of milk,) not
upon any external respect or inducement,
but from an inward principle, and bent of
nature ; and because natural, 2. earnest, not
a cold indifferent wilUng, that cares not whe
ther it obtain or np, but a vehement desire,
as the word signifies, and the resemblance
clearly bears : As a child that wijl not be
stiUed tiU it have the breast ; Offer it what
you wiU, silver, gpld, pr jewels, it regards
them not, these answer not its desire, and
that must be answered. Thus David, Psal.
cxix. 20, " My soul breaketh fo'r the long
ing it hath to thy judgments ;" as a child
like to break its heart with crying for want
of the breast. And, again, because it is na.
tural, it is, 3. constant .- the infant is not
cloyed nor wearied with daily feeding on the
breast, but desires it e.very day, as if it had
never had it before ; thus the chUd of God
hath an unchangeable appetite for the word,
it is daily new to hira, he finds stiU ftesh
delight in it ; thus David, as before cited,
" My soul breaketh for the longing it hath .
for thy judgments, at aU time^ :" And
then Psal. i. this law was his meditation day
and night. Whereas, a natural man is
easily surfeited of it, and the very common-
ness and cheapness of it makes it contemp-
tible to him. And this is our case ; that
wherein we shpuld wpnder at God's singular
goodness to us, and therefpre prize his v/ord
the mpre, even that very thing makes us de-
spise it : Whereas othera, our brethren, have
bought this milk with their own blood, we
have it upon the easiest terras that cari be
wished, only fpr the desiring, witheut the
hazard pf bleeding for it, and scarce need we
to be at the pains of sweating for it.
That we may grow thereby,] This is

VEH. I, 2.j

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

71

uot pnly the end fpJ: which Gpd hath provid
ed his children with the wprd, and mpves
them tP desire it ; but which they are to in
tend in their desire and use of it, and, an-
swerable to Gpd's purppse, they are there.
fpre tP deaire it, because it is prpper for this
end, and that by it they may attain this end,
to grow thereby. And herein indeed these
children differ frpm infanta, inthe natural
Ufe, that are directed to their fppd, beaide
their knpwledge, and withput intentipn pf its
end ; but this rational milk is tp be de.
sired by the children of God in a rational
way, knowing and intending its end, having
the use of natural reason renewed, and sane.
tified by supernatural grace.
Now, the end of this desire is growth.
Desire the word, not that you may only hear
it ; that is to faU very far short of its trae
end ; yea, it is to take the beginning jf the
work for the end of it : The ear is indeed
the mputh pf the mind, by which it receives
the word, as Elihu compares it, (Job xxxiv.
2 ;) but meat that goes no further than the
mouth, you know, cannot nourish. Neither
oughtthisdesireof thewprd tp be pnly tp satis
fy a custom; it were an exceeding foUy to raake
so superficial a thing the end of so serious a
ivork. Again, to hear it only to stpp the
mputh Of cpriscience, that it may not cla
mour more for the grosa iriipiety of contemn
ing it ; this is not to hear it out of desire,
but out of fear ; tp desire it pnly fpr sprae
present pleasure and delight that a raan may
find in it, is net the due use and end pf it :
that there is dIUght in it, may help tn cora
mend it to those that find it so, and so be a
mean to advance the end ; but the end it is
not. To seek up mpre but a present delight,
that vanisheth with the spund of the words,
that die in the air, is not to desire the word
as meat, but as music, as God tells the pro-
phet Ezekiel of his people, Ezek. xxxiii.
32, And lo, thou art unto them as a very
lovely song of one that hath a pleasant
voice, and can play well upon an i-nsiru-
ment ; for they hear thy words, but ihey
do ihem not. To desire the word for the
increaae of knpwledge, althpugh this is ne.
cessary and cpmmendable, and being rightly
qualified,, is,a part of spiritual accretion, yet
take it as gping up fiirther, it is npt the true
end pf the werd ; npr the venting of that
knpwledge in apeech and frequent discpurse
pf the word, and the divine trutha that are in
it ; which, where it is govemed with Chria
tian prudence, ia not to be despised, but com.
mended: yet certainly the highest know
ledge, and the mpst frequent and skilful
speaking ^of the word, severed from the
growth here raentioned, raisses the true end
of the word. If any nne's head pr tongue
should grow apace, and aU the rest stand at
a stay, it would certainly make him a rabn-
Stcr ; and they are no otheir, that are knew-

ing and discoursing Christians, and grptv
daily in that, but not at all in holiness of
heart and life, which is the proper growth
of the children of God. Opposite to their
case is Epictetus' comparison of the sheep ;
they return not what they eat in graaa, but
in wopl. David, in that cxixth Paalm, that
ia whpUy spent uppn this subject, the excel
lency and use pf the wprd pf Gpd, expresseth,
ver. 15, 16, 24, his deUght in it, his eamest
desjre to be farther taught, and tp kripw
more of it ; hia readiness to s^ieak of it, ver.
13, 27 : But withal, you know he joiria his
desire and care io keep it, to hide it in
his heart, &c. Psal. cxix. ver. 5, 11 : To
make it the man of his counsel, to be as
the whole asaembly of hia privy counaeUors,
and tp be ruled aud guided by it; and with
him, tp use it sp, is indeed to grow by it.
If we know what this spiritual Ufe is, and
wherein the nature of it consists, we may
easily know what is the growth of it. When
hoUness increases, when the sanctifying
graces of the Spirit grow stronger in the
soul, and consequently act, more strongly in
the Ufe pf a Christian, then he grows spiri
tuaUy. And as the word is the mean pf begetting
this spiritual Ufe, sp likewise pf its increase.
1. If we cpnsider the nature pf the word
in general, that it ia spiritual and divine,
treats of the highest things, and therefpre
hathin it a fitneaa tp elevate men's minds
from the earth, and to assimilate to itself auch
as are often conversant with it, as aU kind
of doctrine readUy doth to those that are
much in it, and apply their minds to study
it. Doubtless such kind of things as are
frequent with men, have an infiuence upon
the dispositions of their souls. The gospel
is caUed light, and the children of God are
Ukewise caUed light, as being transformed
into its nature, and this they are StiU the
more, by more hearing of it, and so they
grow. 2. If we look more particularly into the
strain and tenor of the word, it is most fit
for increfising the graces of the Spirit in a
Christian ; for there be in it particular truths
relative to them, that are apt to excite them,
and set them on work, and so to make them
grow, as all habits do, by acting : it doth
(as the apostle's word haay be translated)
stir up ihe sparks, and blow them into a
greater flarae, make them bum clearer and
hotter. Thia it doth both by particular ex
hortation to the study and exercise of thoae
graces, sometiraes pressing one, and sorae
times another ; and by right representing to
them their objects. The word feeds faith,
by setting before it the free grace of God, his
rich proraises, and hia power and truth to
perform thera aU ; shewing it the strength of
the new covenant, not depending upon it,
but hrildiug in Christ, in Whora aU (lie pro-

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. n.

miaes of God are Yea and Amen ; and
drawing faith atiU to rest more entirely up.
on Hia righteousness. It feeda repentance
by making the vileness and deformity of sin
daily more clear and visible ; stiU as more of
the word hath admiaaion into the soul, the
mere it hatea sin, sin being the rapre dis.
cpvered and the better knpwn in its own na
tive cplour: As the more light is in a
house, the more any thing in it that is un.
cleanly or deformed is seen and disUked. .
Likewise it increaseth love to God, by open.
ingup StiU more and more ofhisinfinite excel.
lency and loveUness : And as it bprrpws the
resemblance pf the vilest things in nature tp
express the foulness and hatefulneas pf sin ;
so aU the beauty and dignities that are in aU
the creatures, are caUed together in the word,
to give ua some amaU scantUng of that un.
created beauty, that alpne deaervea to be
loved. Thua raight inatancea be given in
aU other graces.
But above aU pther considerations, in this
it is observable, that the word is the increaser
of grace, in that it holds forth Jesus Christ
to our view to look upon, not only aa the
perfect pattern, but as the fuU fountain, of
all grace, frora whose fulness we aU receive.
The contemplating of hira aa the perfect
image of God, and then drawing from hira as
having in hiraself a treasure for us, these give
the soul more of that image, which is tmly
spiritual growth. This the apostle ex
presseth exceUently, 2 Cor. iii. ult. speaking
of the ministry of the gospel, reveaUng
Christ, that beholding in him, (as it is chap,
iv. ver. 6, in his face,) ihe glory of the
Lord, vye are changed into the same image,
from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the
Lord. Not pnly that we may take the copy
of his graces, but have a share of them.
There be many thinga raight be said of
this spiritual growth, but I wiU only add a
few. 1 . In the judging of thia growth, aome
conclude too rigidly against themselves, that
they grow not by the word, becauae their
growth ia not sensible to them as they de.
sire. But, 1. This ia known in aU things that
grow, that growth is not discerned in motu,
sed in termino, not in the growing, but when
they are grown. 2. Besides, other things
are to be considered in this ; althovigh odier
graces seem not to advance, yet if thou grow.
est more self-denying andhumble, in the sense
of thy slowness, aU is not lost ; althpugh the
branches shppt npt up sp fast as thou wishest,
yet if the root grow deeper, and fasten more,
it is an useful growth ; he that is stiU leam^
ing to be more in Jesus Christ, and less in
hiraself, to have aU his dependence and com.
fort in Him, is doubtless a growing believer.
2. On the other side, a far greater number
conclude wrong in their own favour, imagin.
ing that they do grow, if they gain in some 1

of those things we mentioned above, r.amely,
more knowledge and more faculty of dis.
coursing ; if they, find often some preserit
stirrings of joy or sonow in hearing of the
word ; if they reform their life, grow more
civil and blameless, &c. Yet all these and
many such things raay be in a natural man,
who notwithstanding grows not, for that is
impossible ; he is not in that state a subject
capable of this growth ; for he is dead, he
hath none pf this new Ufe tp which this
growth relates. Herod heard gladly, a-nd
obeyed many things, Mark vi. 20.
Consider, then, what true deUght we
raight have in this. You find a pleasure,
when you see yonr children grow, when they
begin to stand and walk, &c. ; you love well
to perceive your estate or your honour grow :
but for the soul to be growing Uker God, and
nearer heaven, if we know it, is a pleasure
far beypnd thera all : Tp find pride, eartUi-
ness, and vanity abating, and faith, Ipve, and
spiritual-raindedneaa increasing ; especiaUy
if we reflect, that thia growth ia not aa our
natural life, that ia often cut off before it
attain fuU age, as we caU it ; and if it attain
that, faUs again to move downwards and
decays, as the sun, being at its meridian,
begins to decUne again : But this life shall
grow on in whomspever it is, and come cer
tainly to its fulness ; after which there is no
more need of this word, either for growth or
nourishment; no death, no decay, no old
age ; but perpetual youth, and a perpetual
spring, ver ceternum ; fulness of joy in the
presence of God, and everlas'ling pleasures
at his right hand, Psal. xvi. ult.
Ver. 3. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is
gracious.
Ocn, natural desire of food arises prin.
cipaUy from its necessity for that end
which nature seeks, the growth, or at least
the nourishment, of our bodies; but besides,
there is a present sweetness and pleasantness
in the use of it, that serves to sharpen our
desire, and is placed in nature for that pur-
pose : Thus the children of God, in their
spiritual Ufe, are naturaUy carried to desire
the means of their nourishment, and of their
grpwth, being always here in^ a growing
state; but withal, there is a spiritual de-
light and sweetness in that word, in that,
which it reveals conceming God, and that
adds tp their desire, stirs up their appetite
tpwards it : the fprmer is in the foregping
verse, the latter in this. Nature addresses
the infant tn the breast, but when it hath
pnce tasted pf it, that is a new superadded
attractive, and makes it desire after it the
mpre earnestiy. So here.
The wprd is fuUy reppramended tp us by
these twoj usefulness and pleasantness, like'
milk (as it is compared here,) v/hjch ie «¦
nourishing food, and withal sweet and dc--

VEH. 3.

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

T3

Ughtful to the taste ; by it we grow, and in
it we taate the graciouaness of God. David,
In that Paalm that he dedicates whoUy to
this subject, gives both these as the reason
of his appetite ; his love to it he expresses
pathetically, Paal. cxix. 97, O how love I
thy law ! and then he adda, that by it he
was made wiser than his enemies, than his
teachers, and than the ancients ,• taught to
refrain from every evil way, taught by the
Author of that word, the Lord hiraself:
, Thou hast taught rae to grow wiser and
warier, and hoUer in thy ways ; and then,
ver. 103, he adds this other reason, How
sweet are thy words unto -my taste ; yea,
sweeter than honey io my mouth 1
We shaU speak, 1. Of the goodness or
gracipusness pf the Lprd ; 2. Of this taste ;
and 3. Of the inference from both.
I. We raay consider the goodness of God.
He is said to be gracious, or of a boun-
tifiil, kind disposition. The word, Psal.
xxxiv. 8, whence this is taken, is tob, which
signifies good. The Greek translators there
render it by the word used here by our
aposde. Both the words signify a benig.
nity and kindness of nature ; it is one of
love's attributes, 1 Cor. xiii. 4, ^gtitmuiriti,
it is kind, ever compassipnate, and ready, as
it can, tP be helpful in straits and distresses,
tp forget and pass by evil, and tp dp good ;
and in the largest and most cpraprehensive
sense must we take it here, and yet stiU
speak and think infinitely belnw what His
gpodness is. He is naturaUy good, yea,
goodness is his nature ; he is goodness and
love itself: He that loveth not, knoweth
not God ; for God is love, 1 John iv. 8
Primitively good, aU goodness is derived
frpra hira, and aU that is in the creature
cpraes fprth from no other but that ocean ;
and this graciousness is stiU larger than
them aU.
There is a common bounty of God,
wherein he doth good to aU, and so ihe whole
earth is full of his goodness, Psal. xxxiii.
5. But the gopdness that the Gpspel is fuU
cf, the particular stream that runs in that
channel, is his pecuUar graciousness and Ipve
to his own children ; that by which they are
first enlivened, and then refreshed and sus
tained, iu their spiritual being. It is this
that is here spoken of; he is gracious to
them in freely forgiving dieir sins, and
giving no less than Himself untp them; he
frees them frpra all evils, and fiUs them
with aU gppd, Psal. cui. 3, 4, 5, He satis
fies thy mouth, and sp it foUows with gppd
reason, ver. 8, that he is merciful and
gracious ; and his graciousness is there fur.
ther expressed in his gentleness, and slow
ness to anger, hearing with the frailties of
his pepple, and pitying them as a father
pitieth his children-, ver. 8, 13, 14. I
,Np friend is so kind and friendly as thUl

word signifies,) and none so powerful ; a
present help in trouble, ready to be found ;
whereas others may be far off, He is always
at hand, and his presence is alwi^ys cora
fortable. They that know Gpd, stiU find him a real
useful gppd. Spme things and perspns are
useful at one time, and others at another, but
God at all tiraes. A weU-fumished table
may pleaae a man, while he hath health and
appetite ; bnt offer it to him in the height of
a fever, how unpleaaant it would be then I
Though never sp richly decked, it is then
not only useleaa, but hateful to him : But
the kindneaa and love of God ia then as sea
sonable and refreshing to him as in health,
and possibly more ; he can find sweetness in
that, even on his sick-bed. The bitter
choler abounding in the mouth, in a fever,
doth not disreUsh His sweetness ; it trans
cends and goes above it. Thus aU earthly
enjoyraents have but sorae tirae (as raeats),
when they are in season ; but the gracioua
ness of God is always sweet, the taste of that
is never out of season. See how old age
spoils the reUsh of outward delights, in the
exaraple pf BarziUai, 2 Sam. xix. 35. But
it raakes net this distasteful ; therefpre the
Psalmist prays, that when other coraforts
forsake him, and wear out, when they ebb
frpra him, and leave him on the sand, this
may npt ; that stiU he ma^ feed on the gppd-
ness of God, Psal. Ixxi. 9, Cast me not
off in old age, forsake me not when my
strength faileth. It is the continual influ
ence of his graciousness that makes them
StiU grow like cedars in Lebanon ; Psal.
xcii. 14, 15, To bring forth fruit in old
age, to be still fat and flourishing, to shew
that ihe Lord is upright, as is there added ;
that he is, as the word impprts, still like
himself, and hia gppdness ever the aame.
Full cheats, or large possessions, may
seera sweet to a man, tiU death presents it
self ; but then, as the prophet speaks of
throwing away their idols of silver and
gold to the bats and moles, in ihe day of
calamity, Isa. ii. 20,t hen he is forced
to throw aU he possesses away with dis
dain of it, and his former foUy in doting on
it; then the kindness of friends and wife
and children, can do nothing but increase
his grief and their own : But then indeed is
the love pf God the good and abiding sweet
ness : And it best relisheth when aU other
things are most unsavoury and uncomfprtable.
Gpd is gracipus, but it is Gpd in Christ,
otherwise we cannot find him so ; therefore
this is here spoken in particular of Jesus
Christ (as it appears by that which foUow
eth) through whom aU the pecuUar kindness
and love of God is conveyed to the soul,
and can come no other way ; and the word
here raentioned is the gospel, chap. i. ver.
ult. whereof Christ is the subject. Though

74

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. It.

(Jod is mercy and goodnass in himself, yet
we cannot find nor apprehend- him so to us
''but only looking through that medium, the
Mediator. That' main point of the goodness of Gpd
in the gpspel, that is sp sweet to a humbled
sinner, the forgiveness of sins, we know we
cannot taste of, but in Christ, Eph. i. 7, !-"¦
whom we have redemption. And aU the
favour that shines on us, aU the grace we
receive is of His fulness ; aU our acceptance
with God, taking into grace and kindness
again, ia in bim, ver. 6, He made us ac
cepted in the Beloved. Hia grace appears
in bpth, as it is tnere expreased, but it is aU
in Christ. Let ua therefpre never leave Him
out in our desirea of tasting the graciousness
and love of God : For otherwise, we shaU
but dishonour Hira, and disappoint our
selves. The free grace of God was given to be
tasted in the proraises before the coming of
Christ in the fiesh ; but being accompUshed
in his coraing, then was the sweetness of
grace made more sensible ; then was it more
fuUy broached, and let out to the elect
wprld, when he was pierced pn the cross,
and his blppd poured out for our redemp
tion. Through those holes of his wounds
may we draw, and taste that the Lord is
gracious, says St. Augustine.
2. We may ibnsider the relish of the
gppdness pf the Lord, expressed by the word
taste. There is a tasting of temporary be
lievers spoke of, Heb. vi. 4. Their highest
sense of spiritual things, «(and it will be in
some far higher than we easily think), yet is
but a taste, and is caUed so in compariaon
of the truer, fuUer aenae that true beUevers
have of the grace and goodness of God,
which, compared with teraporary taate, ia
riiore than tasting. The former is tasting,
rather an imaginary taste than real ; but thia
ia a trae feeding on the graciouaneaa of God,
yet caUed but a taste in reapect of the ful
ness to come ; though it is raore than a
taste, as.you diatinguiah it frora the hypo
crite's sense, yet it is no more but a taste,
corapared with the great maraiage-feast we
look for.
Jesus Christ being all in all unto the
soul. Faith apprehending hira, ia aU the
spiritual senaes : it is the eye that beholds
his matchless beauty, and so kindles love in
the soul, and can speak of him as having
seen him, and taken particular notice of

A particular appUcatipn pr attradtipn pf that-
grace tp purselves, which is as the dratimg
those breasts of consolation, Isa. Ixvi.' 11,
naraely, the promises cpntained in the Old
and New Testaraent. 3. There is a sense of
the sweetness of that grace, being appUed or
drawn into the soul, and that is properly this
taste. Np unrenewed raan hath any pf these
in truth, npt the highest kind ef temppraiy
believer ; he cannpt have sp much as a real
lively assent tn the general truth of the pro-
mises ; for had he that, the rest would fol.
low ; but as he cannpt'bave the least of these
in trath, he may have the counterfeit of
thera all, not only of assent but appUcation
yea, and a false spiritual joy arising on it •
and aU tliese so drawn to the life, that they
may resemble much the tmth of them : And
to give clear characters of difference, is not
so easy as most imagine ; but doubtless the
true Uving faith of a Christian hath in it.
self such a particular stamp, as brings with
it its own evidence, when the soul is clear,
and the Ught of God'a face shines upon it :
Indeed, in the dark, we cannot read, nor
distinguish one mark from another; but
when a Christian hath light, to look upon
the work of God in his O'wn soul, although
he cannot make another sensible of that" by
which he knows it, yet he hiraself is ascer
tained, and can say confidently in himself,
This I know, that this faith and taste of
God I have, is trae ; the seal of the Spirit
of God is. upon it ; and this is the reading
of that new name in the white stone, that
no man knows- but he that hath it,. Rev. ii.
1 7- There is in a true believer such a con
stant love to God, for himself, and conti
nual desire after him, simply for his own
excellency and goodness, that no other can
have. On the other side, would an hypo
crite deal traly and irapartiaUy by himself,
he would readily find out aomething that
would diacover him niore or less to himaelf ;
but the trath ia, men are wiUing to deceive
theraaelves, and thence arises the difficulty.
One man cannot make 'another sensible of _
the sweetness of divine grace ; he may speak
to hira of it veiy exceUently, but aU he says
in that kind ia an unknown language to a
natural raan, — he heareth many good words,
but he cannot tell what they mean; _ The
natural man tastes not the things of 'God,
for they are spirituaUy discerned, l.Cor. ii.
14. A spiritual man himself dotii not fuUy

. . n . in T ¦ 1 — "l.*...uaA liiaii ijiiiisicil UUUI nut luiiy
him, Cant. v. 10. It la the ear that dis- conceive this sweetness that he tastes of; it

cems his voice. Cant. ii. 8. It is faith that
smells his name poured forth as ointment,
faith that touches him, and draws virtue
from him, and faith that tastes him. Cant,
u. 3, and here, If ye have tasted, &c.
There raust be, LA firm believing the
trath of the promises, whereia the free grace
of Gpd is expressed and exhibited tp us. 2.

IS an infinite gppdness, and he hath but a
taste ef it : the peace of God is a main fruit
of this his gpodness ; it passeth all under.
stariding, says the apostle, Phil. iv. 7, not
only aU natural understanding, as spme
mpdify it, but aU understanding, even the
supematural understanding pf thpse that en
jpy it ; and as the godly raan cannpt cpn.

VEn, 3, 4. J

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

7&

ceive it all, so th.»t which he conceives he
cannot express it all, and that which he dpth
express, the carnal mind cannpt conceive of
it by his expression.
But he that hath indeed tasted pf his gpod
ness, O how tasteless are those things to
him, that the world caUs sweet : As when
you have tasted somewhat that is very sweet,
it disrelishes other things after it : There.
fore can a Christian so easily either want, or
use with diaregard, the deUght! of this earth.
His heart is not upon fliem : For the delight
that he finds in God, carrieth it unspeakably
away from aU the rest, and makes them in
comparison seem sapless to his taate.
Splpinon tasted of aU the delicacies, the
choicest dishes, that are in such esteem
amongst men, and not only tasted, but ate
largely of them : and yet see how he gp'es
pver them, to let us know what they are, and
passes from one dish to another. This also
is vanity, and of the next. This also is
vanity, and so through aU, and of all in
general, Aliis vanity and vexation of spirit,
or feeding on the wind, as the word may be
rendered. 3. We come, in the third place, to the
inference, If ye have tasted, &c. then lay
aside all malice and guile, and hypocrisies
and envies, and all evil speakings, ver. 1 :
' For it looks back to the whole exhortation ;
sure if you have tasted of that kindness and
sweetness of God in Christ, it wiU compose
your spirits, and conform them to him ; it
wiU diffuse such a sweetness through your
spuls, that there will be no place fpr malice
and guile. There wiU be npthing but love
and meekness, and singleness pf heart :
therefore they that have bitter malicious
spirits, evidence they have not tasted of the
love of God : aa the Lord ia gPod, so they
that taate it are raade Uke him, Eph. iv. 32.
Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted,
forgiving one ariother, even as God for
Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Again, If ye have tasted, and then desire
taore, this is the truest sign of it ; he that ia
in a continual hunger and thirat after this
graciousness of God, has surely tasted of it.
My soul thirsteth for God, (saith David,
Psal. xiii. 2. ;) he had tasted before, ver. 4,
he remembers that he went to the house of
God with the voice of joy.
This is that happy circle wherein the soul
moves : the more they love it, the raore they
S'haU taste of this goodness ; and the raore
they taste, the more they shall stiU love and
desire it.
But observe, if ye have tasted ihat the
Lord is gracious, then desire ihe milk ofthe
word. This is the sweetness pf the word,
that it hath in it the Lprd's graciousness,
gives us the knowledge of his love ; this they
tind in it, that have spiritual life and senses,
•and those senses exercised to discern good

and evil ; and this engages a Christian to
further desire of the wprd.
They are fantastical deluding tastes, that
draw men frpm the written word, and make
them expect other revelatipns. This graci.
pusness is first conveyed tp us by the word ;
there we taste it, and therefore there atiU we
are to seek it, to hang upon those breasts that
cannot be drawn dry ; there the love of God
in Christ streams forth in the several promi
ses ; the heart that cleaves tp the word of
God, and delights in it, cannot but find in
it daily new tastes of his goodness ; there it
reads his love, and by that stirs up its own
tp him, and so grpws, and loves every day
raore than the former, and thus is tending
from tastes to fulness. It is but little we can
receive here, some drops of joy that enter into
us ; but there we ahaU enter into joy, aa ves
sels put into a sea of happiness.
Ver. 4. To whom coming, as unto a living stone,
disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and
precious.
Veil 5, 'Ve also, as lively stones, are built up a
spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up
spiritual sacrifices; acceptable to God by Jesus
Christ.
The apring of all the'dignities of a Chris
tian, and therefore the great motive of aU
his dutiea, ia, hia near relation to Jeaua Christ.
Thence it is that the apoatle makea that the
great subject of his doctrine, both to repre
sent te hia diatreaaed brethren their dignity
in that, and to preas by it the necessary du
ties he exherts unto. Having spoke of their
spiritual life, and growth in Him, under the
resemblance of natural life, he proaecutea it
here, by another comparison very frequent in
the scriptures, and therefore makes use in it
nf spme ef thpse passages pf scripture, that
were prpphetical of Christ and his Church.
Though there are here two different simili-
tudes, yet they have sp near relatipn pne to
anpther, and meet sp weU in the sarae sub.
ject, that he joins them together, and- then
iUustrates thera severally in the foUowing
veraea : a temple and a priesthood, corapar
ing the aainta to both. The former in theae
worda of this verse.
We have in it, 1. The nature of the buUd
ing ; 2. The materials of it ; 3. The strac.
ture or way of building it.
1. The nature ; it is a spiritual building.
Time and place, we know, received their
being from. God, and He was eternaUy before
both, and is therefore styled by the Prophet,
The high and lofty One that inhabiteth
eternity, Isa. Ivii. ] 5 ; but having made the
world, he fiUs it, though not as contained in
it ; and so the whole frame of it is his palace,
or temple ; but after a more special manner,
the higher and statelier part of it, the highest
heaven ; therefore it is caUed his holy place,
and ihe habitation ofhis holiness and glory ;
And on earth, the houses pf his pubUc wor
ship axe caUed his houses ; especially ths

70

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap, h;

Jewish teraple in its time, having in it such
a relative typical holiness, which others have
not. But besides aU these, and beyond them
aU in exceUency, he hath a house wherein he
dweUs more pecidiarly than in any of the rest,
even raore than in heaven, taken for the
place only, and that is this spirifual build
ing. And this is most suitable to the na
ture of Gpd, as our Saviour says of the ne
cessary conformity of his worship to himself,
God is a Spirit, and therefore will be wor
shipped in spirit and in truth, John iv. 24.
So it holds ofhis hpuse, he must have a spi
ritual pne, because he is a Spirit. Sp Gpd's
temple is his pepple. ^
And fer this purppse chiefiy did he raake
the world, the heaven and the earth, — that
in it he might raise this spiritual building
for himself to dwell in for ever, to have a
number of his reasonable creatures to enjoy
lUm, and glorify hira in eternity ; and from
etemity he knew what the dimensions, and
frarae, and materials of it should be. The
continuance of this present world, as it now
is, is but for the service of this work, likeJhe
scaffolding about it ; and therefore, when this
spiritual building shaU be fuUy corapleted,
aU the present frarae of things in the world,
and in the Church itself, shaU be taken away
and appear no more.
This building is, as the particular design-
fug of its materials wiU teach us, the whole
invisible church of God, and each good man
is a stone of this buUding ; but as the na-
ture of it is spiritual, it hath 'this privilege
(aa they speak of the aoul,) that it ia tota in
toto, ei tota in qualibet parte : As the
whole church ia the spouse of Christ, and
each beUeving soul hath the same title and
dignity to be called so ; thus each of these
stones is caUed a whole temple, temples
of ihe Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. vi. 19, though
taking the teraple or building in a cora-
pleter sense, they are but each one a part,
or a stone of it, as here it is expressed.
The whole exceUency of this building is
comprised in this, that it ia caUed spiritual,
distinguishing it from aU other buildings, and
preferring it to them ; and because he speaks
immediately after pf a priesthpod and sacri
fices, it seems to be called a spiritual build
ing, particularly in opposition to that mate.
rial temple wherein the Jews gloried, which
was now nuU, in regard of its forraer use,
and was quickly after entirely destioyed :
But when it stood, and the legal use of it
stood in its fuUest vigour, yet iu this stiU it
was inferior, that it was not a spiritual house
raade up of Uving stones as this, but of a
like matter with pther earthly buildings,
The spiritual hpuse is the palace pf the
Great King, pr his temple. The Hebrew
wprd for palace and temple is one. God's
temple ia a palace, and therefore muat be full
of tiiB richest beauty and raagnificence, but

auch aa agrees with the nature of it, a spiri.
tual beauty. In that psalra that wishes so
raany prosperities, one ia, that their daugh.
ters may be as corner-stones, polished' after
the similitude of a palace, Paal. cxliv. 12.
This is the church that is caUed the King's
daughter, Psal. xiv. 13, but her comeliness
is invisible to the world, she is all gloriofts
within. Through sorrpws and persecutions
she may be smoky and black tp the wprld's
eye, as the tents of Kedar ; but in regard.bf
spiritual beauty, she 'is comely as the cur
tains of Solomon : And in this the Jewish
temple reaemblea it right, which had most
pf its riches and beauty in the inside. Holi
ness is the gpld pf this spiritual hpuse, and
it is inwardly enriched with that.
The glory of the church pf Gpd consists
net in stately buildings of temples, and rich
furniture, and pompous cereraonies; these
agree not with its spiritual nature, m Its true
and genuine beauty is, to grow in spiritua
Uty, and so to be liker itself, and have more
of the preaence of God, and his glory fiUing ,
it as a cloud. And it hath been ohserved,
that the raore the Church grew in outward
riches and state, the less she grew, or rather
the raore sensihly she abated, in spiritual
exceUencies. But the spiritualness '. of this
building wiU better appear in cpnsidering
particularly, 2. The materials pf it, as here expressed.
To whom coming, &c. ye also as lively
stones are built, &c. Now, the whole
building is Christ raystical : Christ, together
with the entire body of the elect ; He as the
foundation, and they as the stones buUt upon
hira ; He the living stone, and they Ukewise,
by union with him, as living stones.; He
having life in himself, as he speaks, John
vi., and thoy deriving it from him ; He
primitively Uving, and they by participation ;
For therefore is he caUed here a living stone,
not only because of his imraortality and glo-
rious resurtection, being a Lamb that was
slain and is alive again for ever ; but be.
cause he is the principle of spiritual and eter.
nal Ufe unto us, a Uving foundation, that
transfuses this Ufe into the whole buUding,
and every stone of it. In whom (aays the
apostle, Eph. u. 21,) all the building is fitly
framed together. It is the Spirit that flows
frora hira which enUvens it, and knits it
together, as a Uving body ; for the same
word irvvaQfAoX,iyau/£tvor is used, Eph. iv. 16,
for the Church, under the simiUtude of a
body. When it ia there said, chap. U. 20,
to be built upon ihe foundation of the Pro
phets and Apostles, it only refers to their
doctrine conceming Chriat ; and therefore it
is added, that He, as being the subject of
their doctrine, is the cliHf corner-stone.
The foundation, then, of the Church Ues not
in Rome, but in heaven, and therefore is out
of the reach pf uU enemies, and abpve the

VEP. 4, O.J

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

ppwer pf the gates of hell. Fear npt, then,
when ypu see the storms arise, and the winds
blow, against this spiritual building, fur it
fihall stand ; it is built upon an invisible,
immpveable Rock ; and that great Babylpn,
Rpme itself, that, under the false tide and
pretence pf supporting this building, is work
ing to overthrow it, shall be utterly overthrown,
and laid equal with the ground, and never
be rebuUt again. But this foundation-stone,
as it is commended by its quaUty, that it is
a living and enUvening stone, having Ufe,
and giving Ufe to thpse that are built pn it,
SP is alsp further described by Gpd's chpos-
ing it, and its own worth, both opposed to
men's disesteem ; and tiierefore said here, to
be chosen of God. God did indeed from
etemity contrive this building, and choose
this same foundatipn, and accprdingly in the
fulness pf time did perform his purpose ; so
the thing being one, we may take it either
for his purpose or performance, or both ; yet
it seems mo.st suitable to the strain of the
words, and the place after aUeged, of laying
him in Sion, and opposing tiie rejection nf
men, that we may take it for God's actual
employing of Jesus Christ in the wprk pf pur
redemptipn : He alpne was fit-fpr that wprk ;
it was utterly irappssible that any other should
bear the weight of that service (and sp pf
this building) but He who was Alraighty ;
therefore the Spouse caUs hira the Select or
Choice often thousand, yet 'rejected of men !
There is an antipathy (if we may so speak)
betwixt the mind of God and corrupt nature :
the things that are highly esteemed with men
Ere an abomination to God ; and thus we
see here, that which is highly esteeraed of
God, is cast and disallowed by men. But
sure there is no coraparison ; the choosing
and esteera of God stands, and by that;, judge
men of Christ as they wiB, He is the foun
dation of this building. And he is in true
value answerable to this esteem : He is pre
cious, which seems to signify a kind of in
ward worth, hidden frora the eyes of men;
bUndunbeUevingmen, butweU known to God,
and to those to whbra he reveals hira. And
this is the very cause of his rejection by the
most, the ignprance of his wprth and excel
lency ; as a ptecipus stone that the skilful
lapidary esteems of great value, an ignorant
beholder makes little or no account of.
These things hpld Ukewise in the other
stones of this building, chosen befpre time ;
aU that should be pf this building are fpre-
prdained in God's purppse, aU written in that
buok beforehand, and then in due time they
are chosen, by actual calUng, according to
that purpose, hewed out and severed by
Gpd's pwn hand from the quarry of cortupt
nature: dead stones in themselves, as the
rest, but made living, by his bringing them
to Christ, and so made truly pr cious, and
accounted precious by .Hini that hath mat'e

them so. AU the stpnes in this building
are caUed God's jewels, Mal. iii. Thpugh
they be viUfled, and scpffed at, and despised
by men ; though they pass for fopls and the
refuse of the wprld ; yet they raay easily di
gest aU that, in the cprafprt pf this, if they
are chpsen pf Gpd, and piecipus in his eyes.
This was the very lot of Christ, and there
fpre by that the mpre welceme that it ccn-
fprras them tP him, and suits these stpnes
tp their foundation.
And if we consider it aright, *hat a poor
despicable thing is the esteem of men ! How
soon is it past ! It is a small thing for me,
says the apostle, io be judged of men, 1 Cor.
iv. 3. Now, that God often chooaea for thia
building such stones as men cast away as
good for nothing, see 1 Cor. i. 26, &c. ; and
where he says, laa. Ivii. 15, that he dwells
in the high and holy place, what is his
pther dwelUng ? His habitatipn in earth.
Is it in great palaces and cpurta ? Np ; but
with him that is pf a contrite and humble
spirit. Npw, these are the basest in men's
accpunt, yet He chppses thera, and prefers '
thera tp aU other palaces and teraples, Isa.
Ixvi. 1, 2. " Thus saith the Lerd, The
heaven ia my thrpue, and the earth is my
fpotstool : where is the house that ye build
unto me ? and where ia the place of my
rest ? For aU those things hath mine hand
made, and aU thoae things haye been, saith
the Lord ; but to this man will I look, even
to him that is poor, and of a contrite spi.
rit, and trembleth at my word." q. d. " You
cannot gratify me with any dwelling, for
I myself have raade all, and a surer house
than any you can make me. The heaven is
my throne, and the earth is my footstool ;
but I, that ara sd high, ara pleased to regard
the lowly."
3. We have the structure, or way of
building. To whom coming.] First coming,
then built up. They that corae unto Christ,
come not only from the world that lieth in
wickedness, but out of themselves. Of a great
many that seem tp come to Christ, it may
be said that tbey are not corae to him, be
cause they have not left themselves. That
is beUeving on him, which is the very resign.
ing the soul to Christ, and Uving byhim.
" Ye wiU not come unto me that ye may
have life," says Christ,. John v. 40. He
complains of it as a wrong done to him ; but
the loss is ours. It is his glory to give us
Ufe that were dead ; but it is our happiness
to receive that life frpra him. Now, these
stpnes cpme untp their feundatipn; which
imports the moving of the soul to Christ,
being mpved by his Spirit, and that the wiU
acts, and willingly ; for it cannpt act pther.
wise, but as being actuated and drawn by
the Father, Jphn vi. 65, " Np' man can
ceme tP me except the Father draw hin\ :"
And the outward mean of drawing, is by

73

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CHAP. Tt

the word ; it is the sound of that harp that
brings the stones of this spiritual building
together, and then, being united to Christ,
they are built up ; that is, as St. Paul ex
presses it, Eph. U. 21, " they grow up unto
a holy teraple in the Lord."
In times of peace the church may'dilate
more, and build as it were into breadth ; but
in ti:ouble, it arises more in height ; it is
then built upwards ; as in cities where men
are straitened, they build usuaUy higher than
in the country. Notwithstanding the Church's
afflictipns, yet stiU the buUding is gping for
ward ; it is built (as.Daniel speaks of Jeru
salem) in troublous times. And it is thia
which the apoatle intenda, aa suiting with
his foregoing exhortation ; and this may be
read exhortatively too ; but taking it rather
aa aaaerting their condition, it is for this end,
that they may remeraber to be Uke it, and
grow up. For this end he expressly caUs
them living stones ; an adjunct not usual
for stones, but here inseparable : and there
fore, though the apostle changes the siraiU-
tude from infants tp stpnes, yet he wiU not
let go this quaUty of living, as making
chiefly for his purpose.
- To teach us the necessity of growth in
believers, they are therefore often corapared
to things that grow, to trees planted in fruit
ful growing places, as by the rivers of water,
to cedars in Lebanon, where they are taUest,
to the morning light, to Infants on the
breast ; and here, where the word seeras to
refuse it, to stones, yet (it must and well
doth admit this unwonted epithet) they are
caUed living and growing stones.
Ii, then, you would have the corafprtable
perauaaipn of this union with Christ, see
whether you find your aouls estabUshed up
cn Jesua Chriat, finding him aa your strong
foundation : nol resting on yourselves, nor
on any other thing, either within you or
withput ypu, but suppprted by Him alpne ;
drawing life frpm Him, by virtue pf that
unipn, as frpm a Uving fpundatipn, sp as to
say with the apoatle, " I live by faith in
the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
himaelf for me." Gal. n. 20.
As these stones are built on Chriat by
faith, ao they are cemented one to another by
love ; and therefore, where that ia not, it is
but a deluaion to think theraaelves parta of
this building. As it is knit tp Him, it is
knit tpgether in its'elf thrpugh him ; and if
dead stpnes in a building suppprt and mu-
tuaUy strengthen pne anpther, hpw rauch
mpre pught living stones in an active lively
way tp dp SP ? The stpnes pf this building
keep their place ; the Ipwer rise net up to
be in the place of the highef. As the apps
tie speaks pf the parts of the bpdy, ap the
stpnes of thia building in humility and love
keep their station and grow up in it, edify.
tiiy in love, (as sait-h the apostle, Eph. iv.

16,) importing, that the want of this much
prejudices ediiicatipn.
These stpnes, because they are living,
therefpre grpw in the Ufe pf grace, and spi.
titualness, being a spiritual bmlding :. So
that if we find npt this, but pur hearts are
StiU carnal, and glued, to the earth, minding
earthly things, wiser in those than in spin. ;
tuals, this evidences strongly against us,
that we are not of this building. How few
of us have that spiritualness that becomes
the temples of the Holy Ghost or the stones
of it ! Base lusts are stiU lodging and ruling
within us, and so our hearts are as cages irf
imclean birds and filthy spirits.
Consider this as your happiness, and the
imsolidness of other comforts and privileges. ¦
If some have called those stones happyj that
were taken for the building of temples cr al.
tars, beypnd, thpse in coraraon houses, how
trae is it here ! Happy indeed the stones
that God chooses to be Uving stones in this
spiritual temple ! though they be hammered
and hewed to be polished for it, by affiictionp,
and the inward work of mortificaticn and re.
pentance. It is worth the enduring aU, to
be fitted for this building. Happy they, be.
yond aU the>Test of men 1 though they be
set in never ao great honours, as prime parts
of poUtic buildings, states and kingdoms, in
the courts of kings, yea, or kings themselves :
For all other buildings, and aU the parts of
thera, shall be demolished and come to no-
thing, from the foundation to the cope-stone j
aU your houses, both cottages and palaces ;
" the elements shaU melt away, and the
earth, with aU the works in it, shaU be con*
sumed," as pur appstie hath it, 2 Pet. iii.
10. But this spiritual building shaU grow
up tp heaven ; and being cpme tp perfectionj
shaU abide fpr ever in perfection of beauty
and glory. In it shaU be found no unclean
thing, nor unclean person, but only they
that are written in the Lamb's book of life.
An holy priesthood.] As the worship
and ceremonies of the Jewish church were
aU shadows of Jesus Christ, and have their
accompUshment in him, not only after a sin
gular manner in his own Person, but iu a
derived way, in his mystical body, his
Church ; the priesthood of the Jaw repre
sented Hira as the Great High Priest, that
offered up himself for our sins, and that is
altogether incomraunicable ; neither is there
any peculiar office pf priesthpod for offering
sacrifice in the Christian Church, but His
alone who is Head pf it. But this dignity
that is herovraentipued ef a spiritual priest
hood, pffering spiritual sacrifice, is eoramon
to aU those that are in Christ ; as they are
living stones built on Him intP a spiritual
temple, sp they are priests pf that same tem
ple, made by him. Rev. i. 6. As he was
after a transcendent manner, Temple, and
Priest, and Sacrifice : sp, in their kind, »r»

VEB. 4,5.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

79

Christians, aU these three through him, ; and
by his Spirit diat is in them, their offerings
thrpugh him are made acceptable.
We have here, 1. The pffice ; 2. The
service of that office; 3. The success uf that
service. 1. The office. The death of Jesus Christ,
as being every way powerful for reconcilement
and unipn, did npt pnly break the partitien-
WaU of guiltiness that stood betwixt God and
man, but the waU pf ceremcnies that stnod
betwixt the Jews and Gentiles ; raade aU
that beUeve, one with God ; and made of
both one, as the aposde speaks, united thera
one to another. The way of salvation was
made known, not to one nation only, but tp
all pepple ; that whereas the knpwledge pf
God was cpnfined tp pne Uttle cprner, it is
npw diffused through the nations ; and
whereas the dignity Of their priesthood stay
ed in few persons, all they that believe are
now thus dignified to be priests unto God
the Father. And this was signified by the
rending of the veil of the temple at his
death, not only that those ceremonies and
sacrifices were to cease, as being aU fulfiUed
iu him'; but that the people of God that
were before by that veil held out in the outer
court, were to be adraitted into the holy
place, as being all of them priests, and fitted
to offer sacrifices.
The priesthood of the law was holy, and
its hoUness was signified by raany outward
things suitable tu their manner, .by anoint
ings, and washings, and vestments ; but in
this spiritual priesthppd pf the gespel, hpU-
ness itself is instead pf aU thpse, aa being
the aubatance of aU. The children pf Gpd
are aU aneinted and purified, and clcthed
with hpUness. But then,
2. There is here the service pf this pffice,
namely, to offer. There is no priesthood
without sacrifice, for these are relative, and
this was the chief emplpyraent pf the legal
prieata ; npw, because the priesthood here
spoken of is altogether spiritual, therefore
the sacrifices "raust be so too, as the apostle
here expresses it.
We are saved the pains and cost of bring.
ing buUocks and rams, and other-such sacri-
fiees ; and these are in their stead ; as the
apostle speaks, Heb, vii. 12. of the High-
priesthood of Christ,- that the priesthood
being changed, there followed of necessity
a change of the law : so in this priesthood
of Christians, there is a change of the kind
of sacrifice frpm the other. AU sacrifice is
not taken away, but it is changed frora the
offering of things formerly in uae, to spiri.
tual sacrifices.
Now, these are every way preferable ; they
are easier and cheaper to us, and yet more
precious and acceptable to God. As it fol.
lows here in the text, even in the time when
the other sacrifices were in reqiiest, yet those

spiritual pfferings had ever the precedence in
Gpd's accPunt, and withput them, he hated
and despised all burnt.pfferings, and the
largest sacrifices, thcugh they were then ac
cording to his own appointipent. How much
more should we abpund in spiritual sacrifice,
that are eased cf the Pther I Hpw rauch
mpre hplds that answer npw, that was given
even in thpse times, Hie. vi. 6, Wherewith
shall I come before the Lord, &c. You
need not aU that trouble and expence : that
is at hand which God requires' most of aU,
namely, to do justly, and to love mercy, and
to walk humbly with thy God. So, Psal.
1. 23, that which is pecuUarly spoke of
Christ, holds in Christians by conformity
with him.
But though the spiritual sacrificing is easier
in its own nature,, yet tp the corrupt nature
of man it is by far the harder. He would
ratiier choose stiU aU the toil and cost of the
former way, if it were in his option. This
was the sin of the Jews^in thpse tiines, that
they leaned the spul uppn the bpdy's service
tcp much, and wpuld have dpne enough of
that to be dispensed from thia spiritual ser.
vice. Hence are "the Lord's frequent re.
proofs and coraplaints of this, Ps. 1. Isa. i.
&c. Hence the wUlingness in Popery for
putward wprk, fpr penances, and satisfactions
of bodies and purses ; ariy thing of that kind,
if it might serve, rather than the inward
work of repentance and mortification, the spi.
ritual service and sacrifices of the soul : But
the answer of aU those from Gpd is that pf
the Prpphet, " Whp hath required these
things at ypur hands ?" Isa. i. 12.
Indeed the sacred writers press werks pf ,
charity, if they be dpne with a right hand, -
and the left hand net ao much as acquainted
with the buaineas ; as our Saviour speaks,
" Let not thy left hand know what thy right
hand doth," Matt. vi. 3. They rauat be
dpne with a aingle intention, and from a
right principle raoving to them, without any
vain opinion pf meriting by them with Ged,
pr any vain desire pf gaining applause with
men ; but merely put pf Ipve tp God, and to
man for his sake. Thus they are one of
these spiritual sacriflces ; and therefore ought
by no means to be neglected by Christian
priests, that is, by any that are Christians.
Another spiritual sacrifice is, the prayers
of ihe saints. Rev. v. 8, Psal. cxli. 2, " Let
ray prayer be set forth before thee as incense,
and the Ufting up of my hands as the even
ing sacrifice." It is not the composure of
prayer, or the eloquence of expreaaion, that
is the sweetness of it in God's account, and
makes it a sacrifice of a pleasing smell or
sweet odour to him ; but the breathing forth
the desire df the heart that makes it a
spiritual sacrifice, ptherwise it is as cimal,
and dead, and wprthless, in Gpd's account,
as the carcases of beasts. Incen.sc can nei-

80ther sraeU, nor ascend, without fire ; no
mpre dpth prayer, unless it arise frora a bent
of spiritual affection ; it is that both makes
it smeU and sends it heavenwards, makes it
never leave raoving upwards till it come be
fore God, and smeU sweet in hia noatrils,
which few, too few, of our prayera do.
Praiae ia also a sacrifice ; to raake respect.
ful and honourable mention of the name of
God, and of his goodness ; to blesa him
humbly and heartily. Heb. xiii. 15 ; Psal.
1. 14, 23, Offer unto God thanksgiving.
Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me. And
thia ia that aacrifice that shaU never end, but
continues in heaven to etemity. Then a
holy course of life is caUed the sacrifice of
righteousness, PaaL iv. 6, Phil. iv. 8, Heb.
xiii. 10, where he ahewa what aacrifices auc
ceed tp thpae that, as he hath taught at large,
are abplished. Christ sacrificed fpr us, and
that alone, was powerful to take away sin ;
but our gratulatory sacrifices, praise and alms,
are as incense burnt to God, ,of which, as
the standers-by find the sweet smeU, so the
hply Ufe pf Christians sraeUs sweet to those
with whom they live : But the wicked
as putrified carcases, are of a noisome
smell to God and raan, Paal. xiv. 4, They
are corrupt ; ihey have done abominable
works. In a word, that aacrifice, that includes aU
these, and without which none of these can
be rightly offered, is ourselves, our whple
selves. Our bodies are to be presented a
living sacrifice, Rpra. xii. I, and they are
npt that withput pur spuls. It is our heart
given that gives aU the^ rest, for that cora
mands aU. My son, give me thy heart, and
then the other wiU foUow, Thine eyes will
delight in my ways. This makea the eyes,
ears, tongue, and handa and aU, to be holy,
as God's peculiar, being once given and con
secrated to him ; and therefore it becoraes
sacrUege to tum thera to an unholy use.
Thia makes a man to deUght to hear and
speak of things that concem God, and to
think on him frequently, to be holy in his
secret thoughts, and aU his ways. In every
thing we bring him, every thanksgiving and
prayer we offer, his eye is upon the heart, he
looks if it be along with our offering ; and if
he miss it, he cares not for aU the rest, and
throws it hack again.
The heart must be offered withal, and the
whole heart, all of it entirely given to him :
Si totum obtulit Christus pro nobis. In
another sense, which croaseS not thia, it muat
not be whole but broken, Paal. U. But if
thou find it unbroken, yet give it him, with
a desire that it may be broken ; and if it, be
broken, and if, when thou hast given it him,
he break it more, yea and melt it too, yet
thou shalt not repent thy gift ; for he breaka
and melts it, that he may refine it, and
make it uo in a new and exceUent frame,

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CHAP. II.

and may impress his own image on it, ami
make it holy, and so Uke tp himself.
Let us then give him purselves, pr no
thing ; and to give purselves tp hirii, is nol
his advantage but our's ; as the phUpsopha
said tp his pppr schplar, whp, when pthers
gave him great gifts, tpld him, he had no
thing but himself to give ; " It is weUj (said
he,) and I wiU endeavpur tp give thee back
tp thyself better than I received thee."
Thus doth Gpd with us, and a Christian
makes himself his daily sacrifice ; he renews
this gift pf himself every day to God, and
receiving it every day bettered again, stiU he
hath the mere delight tP give it, as being
fitter for God, the raore it is sanctified by
forraer sacrificing.
Now that whereby we offer aU other spiri
tual aacrificinga, and even oursdves, is love.
That is the holy fire that bums up aU, sends
up our prayera, and pur hearts, and our
whole selves, a whole burnt-offering to God :
And aa the fire of the altar, it is originaUy
frora heaven, being kindled by God's own
love to ua ; and by this the Church and each
beUever aacends Uke a straight pillar of
smoke, as the werd is. Cant. iii. 6, going
even up to God perfumed with, aloes and all
the .spices, aU the graces of the Spirit re
ceived frora Chriat, but above aU with his
own raerita.
How far frora this is the common mul
titude of us, though prpfessing tp be Chris
tians ! 'W^hp cpnsiders hia hely caUing ?
Aa the peculiar hcUness pf the ministry
should be much in their eye and thoughts
that are caUed to it, as they should atudy tn
be answerably eminent in holiness, ao all
that are Chriatians, consider you are priests
unto God, being caUed a holy priesthood ;
thus you ought to be. But if we speak what
we are indeed, we rauat aay rather, we are
an unholy priesthood, a ahame to that name
and holy profession ; instead of the sacrifices
of a godly life, and the incense of prayer and
praise, in families and alone, what is with
many but the filthy vapours of profane speak
ing and a profane life, as a noisome sineU
ariaing out of a dunghiU !
But you, that have once offered up your
selves unto God, and are stiU doing so, with
all the services you can reach, continue to do
so, and be assured, that how unworthy soever
yourselves and aU your pfferings be, yet they
shaU npt be rejected.
The 3d thirig here observable, is the suc
cess pf that service, acceptable to God hy
Jesus Christ, Heb. xiii. 16. The chUdren
pf God do delight in offering sacrifices to
hira : But if they might not know that they
were weU taken at their hands, this would
discourage them much ; therefore this is
added. How often do the godly find it in
their aweet experience, that when they come
to pray, he welcomes them, and gives diem

VEB. 6,]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

81

such evidences of his love as they would not
exchange for aU worldly pleasures ! And
when this doth not so presentiy appear at
other times, yet they ought to believe it.
He accepts themselves and their ways of
fered in sincerity, though never so mean ;
though they spmetimes have up mpre but a
sigh pr grpan, it is mnst prpperly a spiritual
aacrifice. Stay npt therefpre away, because thou,
and the gifts thpu pfferest, are inferipr to
the offerings pf pthers. Np, npne are ex
cluded for that ; only give what thou hast,
and act with affection, for that he regards
most. Under the law, they that had not
a lamb, were welcome with a pair of pi
geons ; so that the Christian may say,
" What I am. Lord, I offer myself unto
thee, to be tvholly thine ; and had I a
thousand times more of outward or inward
gifts, all should be thine ; had I a greater
estate, or wit, or learning, or power, I would
endeavour to serve thee with all. What
I have I offer thee, and it is most truly
thine, it is but of thy own that I give thee."
Npne needs forbear sacrifice for poverty, for
that which God requires is the heart, and
there is none so poor but that hath a heart
to give hira.
But raeanness is not aU ; there is a guilti
ness in ourselves, and pn aU we pffer ; our
prayers and services are aU poUuted. But
this hinders not neither ; for our acceptance
is not for ourselves, but for One, who hath
no guiltiness at all. Acceptable by Jesus
Christ. In him our persons are clothed
with righteousness, and in his clothing, we
are, as Isaac said of Jacob in his brother's
garments, as the smell of a field that the
Lord hath blessed. Gen. xxvii. 27. And aU
our other sacrifices, pur prayers, and services,
if we pffer them by hira, and put thera into
his hand, to offer to the Father ; then dpubt
not they wiU be accepted in him ; for this,
by Jesus Christ, is relative both to our
offering and acceptance. We ought not to
offer any thing, but by him, Heb. xiii. 15.
And so we are weU pleasing, for he is his
weU-belpved Son, in whom his soul is de
Ughted ; not only deUghted, and pleased
with himself, but in him, with all things
and persons that appear in him, and are pre.
sented by him.
And this alone answers aU our doubts;
for we ourselves, as little as we see that way,
yet may see so much in our best services, so
many wanderings in prayer, so much dead
ness, &c. as would make us still doubtful uf
acceptance ; so that we might say with Job,
Although he had answered me, yet woidd I
not believe that he ha,d hearkened to me,
Job ik. 16, were it not for this, that our
prayers, and aU our sacrifices, pass through
Christ's hartd. He is that Angel ihat hath
much siceet odours to mingle with the

prayers of the saints. Rev. viii. 3, 4. He
purifies them with his own raerits and inter-
cessipn, and so raakea them pleasing unto
the Father. How ought our hearts tp be
knit tP him ! by whom we are brought into
favour with God, and kept in favour with
him, in whom we obtain sdl the good we re.
ceive, and in whom all we offer is accepted !
In hira are aU our supplies of grace, and our
hopes of glory.
Ver. 6. Wherefore, also. It Is contained In ths
Scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner.
stone, elect, precious : And he that believeth on
Him shall not be confounded.
That which is the chief pf the wprks pf
Gpd, is therefore very reasonably the chief
subject of his word ; as both most excellent
in itaelf, and of most concernment for ua to
know. And this is the saving of lost mankind
by his Son. Therefore is his name as pre
cious ointment or perfume diffused through
the whole scriptures. AU these holy leaves
sraeU of it, not only these that were written
after his coming, but those that were written
before. Search the Scriptures, says he
himself, for they testify of me, John v.
39, namely, the scriptures of the Old Tes-
tament, which were only then written.
And to evidence thia, both himself and his
apostles make so frequent use of their testi.
mony, and we find so much of them inserted
intp the New, as being bpth one in sub
stance ; their Unes meeting in the same
Jesus Christ as their centre.
The aposde here having expressed the
happy estate and dignity of Christians under
a double notion, 1. of a spiritual house or
teinple ; 2. of a spiritual priesthood, he
amplifies and confirms both from the writ
ings of the propheta. The former, ver. 6,
7, 8 ; the latter, ver. 2. The places that he
cites, touching thia building, are most per.
tinent, for they have clearly in them, all that
he spoke of it, both conceming the founda
tion and the edifice; as the first in these
words of Isaiah xxvui. 17, Behold I lay in
Sion a chief corner-stone, Scc.
Let this commend the acriptures rauch to
our diUgence and affection, that their great
therae is our Redeeraer, and rederapfion
wrought by him : That they contain the
doctrine of his exceUencies, — are the lively
picture of his matchless beauty. Were we
more in them, we should daily aee more of
him in them, and so pf neceaaity love hira
more. But we must look within them : The
letter is but the caae : the spiritual sense is
what we should desire to see. We usuaUy
huddle them over, and see uo farther than
their outside, and therefore find so Uttlp
sweetness in them ; we read them, but we
search them not, as he requires. Would
we dig into those golden mines, we should

g2 • A COMMENTARY UPON
flnd treasures of corafort that cannot be
spent, but would furnish us in the hardest
times. The prophecy here cited, if we look upon
it in its own place, we shaU find inserted in
the middle of a very sad denunciation of
judgment against the Jews. And this is
-usual with the prophets, particularly with
thia evangeUcal prophet laaiah, to uphold
the apirits of the godly, in the worat timea,
with thia one great consolation, the proraise
of the Messiah ; aa weighing down aU, both
temporal distresses and deliverances. Hence
are those sudden accents, (so frequent in the
prophets), from their preaent subject, to this
great hope of Israel. And if this expecta
tion of a Saviour was so pertinent a corafort
in aU estates, so many ages before the accom
plishment of it, how wrongfully do we un-
dervalue it, being accomplished, if we can
not live upon it, and answer aU with it, and
sweeten all our griefa in thia advantage, that
there is a Foundation-stone laid in Sion,
on which they that are builded shall be sure
not to be ashamed t
In the worda, there are five things : 1.
This foundation-stone ; 2. The laying of it
3. The buUding on it ; 4. The firmness of
this building ; and, 5. or lastly. The great
ness and exceUency of the whole work.
1 . For the Foundation, called here a chief
Cornerstone  Though the prophet's worda
are not precisely rendered, yet the substance
and sense is one : There both the founda
tion and corner-stone ia expresaed, the cor
ner-stone in the foundation being the main
support of the building, and throughout the
comer-stonea uniting and knitting the build
ing together ; and therefore this aarae word
of a corner, ia frequently taken in acripture
for Princes, or Heads of People, Judgea
XX. 2, 1 Sara. xiv. 38, becauae good gover
nors and government are that which upholds
and unites the aocietiea of people in atatea or
kingdoras, as one building. And Jesus
, Christ ia indeed the alone Head and King
of hia Church, who givea it lawa, and rulea
it in wisdom and righteousneaa ; the alone
Rock on which hia Church is built, not
Peter, (if we will beUeve St. Peter himself,
aa here he teacheth ua), much less hia pre
tended aucceaaors ; He is the foundation and
comer-stone that knita tpgether the waUs of
Jewa and Gentilea, having made of both one,
aa St. Paul apeaks, Eph. ii. 14, and unitea
the whole number of beUevera into one ever
lasting temple, and bears the weight of the
whole fabric.
Elected,] or chosen out for the purpose,
and altogether fit fpr it. laaiah hath it, a
Stone of Trial, pr a tried Stone. Aa things
ampngst men are best chosen after trial, so
Jesus Christ was certainly known by the
Father, as raost fit for that work, to which
he chose him before ho tried him, as after

[chap, ir,''

upon trial in hia life, and death, and resur.
rection, he proved fuUy anawerable to his
Father's purpose, in aU that was appointed
hira. All the strength of angels corabined, had
not sufficed for that business ; but the wise
Architect of this building knew both what it
would cost, and what a foundation was need.
ful to bear so great and so lasting a structure
as he intended. Sin having defaced and de.
moUshed the first building of raan in the in.
tegrity of his creation, it was God's deaign,
out of the very ruina of faUen raan, to raise
a raore laating edifice than the former ; one,
that ahould not be aubject to decay ; and
therefpre he fitted for it a fpundatipn that
might be everlaating. The aure founding ia
the main thing requisite, in prder tp a last.
ing building ; therefpre, that it might stand
fer the true honour of his Majesty, (which
Nebuchadnezzar vainly boasted of his Babel,)
he chose his own Spu, made flesh ; he was
Gpd, that he might be a atrpng fpundation ;
he was man, that he might be auitable to the
nature of the atonea whereof the buUding was
to conaiat, that they raight join and cement
together. Precious,] ineatiraably precioua, by aU
the conditions that can give worth to auy, by
rareness, and by inward exceUency, and use.
ful virtues. Rare he is, out of doubt ; there
is not such a person in the world again:
Therefore he is called by the same prophet.
Wonderful, Isa. ix. 6, fuU of wonders ; the
power of God and the ftaUty of man dwell
ing together in his person ; ihe Ancient of
days, Dan. vii. 9, becoming an infant : He,
that stretcheth forth the heavens, was bound
up in swaddling clothea in that his infancy ;
and in hia fuU age, atretched forth on the
cross ; altogether spotless and innocent, and
yet suffering not only the unjust craelties of
raen, but the just wrath of God hia Father ;
the Lord "of life, and yet dying. His ex
ceUency appears in the aarae thinga, in that
He ia the Lord of life, God blessed for ever ;
equal with the Father : The aparkUng
brightness of this precious stone is no less
than this, that he is the brightness of the
Father's glory, Heb. i. 3 ; so bright that
raen could not have beheld hira appearing in
hiraself; therefore, he veiled it with our
fiesh ; and yet through that, it shined and
sparkled so, that the apostle St. John says
of hiraself, and those othera that had eyes
opened, and looked right upon him, He
dwelt amongst us, and he had a tent like
ours, and yet through that, "we saw his
glory, as the glory of the only-begotten Son
of God, fuU of grace and truth," John i. 14,
the Deity fUUng his huraan nature with all
raanner of grace in its highest perfection.
And Christ is not only thus excellent in him
self, but of precious virtue, which he lets
forth and imparts to pthers ; of such virtue,

VIjR. f>. 1

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PKTER.

83

tliat a touch of him is the only cure of spiri-
t.ial diseases. Men tell of strange virtues of
some stones ; but it is certain, that this pre
cious Stone hath net pnly virtue to heal the
sick, but even to raise the dead. Dead
bodies he raised in the days of his abode on
earth, and dead seals he stiU doth raise by
the power of his word. The prophet Mala
chi caUs him the Sun of Righteousness, (iv.
2,) which hath in it tile rareness and excel
lency we speak of : He is singular ; as there
is but one sun in the wprld, so but one Sa
viour, and his lustre such a stone as out-
shines the sun in its fuUest brightness :
And then for his useful virtue, he adds.
That he hath healing under his wings ;
this his worth ia unspeakable, and remains
infinitely beyond aU these resemblances.
2. There ia here the laying of thia foun
dation, and it ia aaid to be laid in Sion ;
that ia, it is laid in the Church of God.
And it was firat laid in Sion UteraUy, being
then the seat of the Church and true reUgion :
He waa laid tiiere, in hia manifeatation in
'he flesh, and suffering, and dying, and ris
ing again, and afterwards being preached
thrpugh the wprld, becarae the foundatipn
pf his Church in all piacea where his name
was received : and sp waa a Stpne grewing
great, tiU it filled the whole earth, aa Daniel
hath it, U. 35.
He saith, / lay ; by which the Lprd ex
preaaeth this his pwn proper work, as the
Fsalraiat speaka of the aame subject. Psalm
cxviii. 23, " This is the Lord's doing'; and
it is marveUoua in our eyes." So Isa. ix.
7, speaking of this proraised Meaaiah,
" The zeal of the Lord of boats wiU perforra
this." And this is not only said, / lay ; because
he had the first thought of this great work,
(as the model of it was in his mind frora
etemity, and the accorapUshraent of it was,
by his Almighty Power, in the morning of
hia Son'a birth, and his Ufe, and death, and
resurrection :) but also to signify the freeness
pf his grace, in giving his Spn tpbe a foun
dation of happiness to man, without the
least motion from man, or motive in man, to
draw him to it. And this seems to be sig.
nified by the unexpected inserting of these
prophetical promises of the Messiah, in the
midst of complaints of pepple's wickedness,
and threatening them with punishment ; tP
intiraate that there is np ccnnectipn betwixt
this wprk, and any thing pn man's part, fit
tp prpcure it. " Althpugh ypu dp thus prp.
voke rae to destroy you, yet of myself I have
other thoughts, there is another purpose in my
head." And Isa. vii. 10 — 13, it is observable
to this, purpose, that that clearest promise of
the virgin's Son is given, not only unrequired,
but being refused by that profane king, Ahaz.
This again, that the Lord himself is the
Liver ef this Comer.stone, teaches us the

firmnesa of it, which ia Ukewise expressed iu
the prophet's worda, very emphatically, by
redoubUng the same word, -musad, musad,
fundamentum, fundamentum.
So Psal. ii. 6, " I have set my king up
on my holy hill pf Zipn ;" Whp then shall
dethrone him ? " I have given him the hea
then for hia inheritance, and the ends of the
'earth for hia possession ;" and who wiU bin
der him to take possession of bis right ? If
any offer to do so, what shaU they be, but a
number of earthen vessels fighting against
an iron sceptre ; and so certainly breaking
themselves in pieces ? Thus here, / lay
this foundation-stone : And if I lay it,
who ahaU remove it ? And what I build
upon it, who shaU be able tp cast dpwn ?
For it ia the glory of thia great Blaater-build-
er, that the whole fabric which is pf hia
building cannot be ruined ; and for that
end, hath he laid an immoveable foundation ;
and for that end, are we taught and remind
ed of its firmness ; that we raay have this
confidence concerning the Church of God
that is built upon it. To the eye of nature,
the Church seeras to have no foundation ;
as Job apeaka of the earth, that is hung
upon nothing, (Job xxvi. 7,) and yet, aa
the earth reraaineth firra, being estabUshed
in its place by the word and power of God,
the church is raost firraly founded upon ihe
word made flesh, Jesus Christ is iis chief
corner-stone. And as aU the winds that
blow cannot reraove the earth out of its place ;
neither can aU the atterapts of men, no, nor
of the gates of hell, prevail against the
Church, Matth. xvi. 18. It may be beaten
with many boisterous storms, but it cannot
fall, because it is founded upon this Rock,
Matth. vii. 25. Thus it is with the whole
house, and thus with every stone in it, as
here it follows. He ihat believeth shall not
be confounded.
3. There is next the building on this
foundation. To be built on Christ, is plain
ly to believe in him. But in this the most
deceive theraselves ; they hear of great pri
vileges and happiness in Chriat, and pre
sently imagine it is aU theirs, without any
more ado ; aa that madraan of Athens, who
wrote up aU the ships that carae into the
haven for his own. We consider not what
this is to beUeve in hira, and what is the ne
cessity of this believing, that we raay be
partakers of the salvation that he hath
wrought. It is not they that have heard of
him, or that have some common knowledge
of him, or are able to discourse of him, and
speak of his person and nature aright; but
they that believe in him. Much of our
knowledge is, as that of a geometrician that
can measure land exactly in aU ita dimen.
siona, but possesseth not a foot thereof; or
of a poor philosopher, who defineth riches
exactly, and diacourseth of their nature, but

A COMMENTARY UPON

84
piasesseth none. And truly it is but a life
less unsavoury knowledge men have of Christ,
by aU books and study, till he reveal hira
self, and persuade the heart to believe in him.
Then indeed it says of aU the reports it
heard when it aees him, and ia made one
with him, — I heard rauch, yet the half was
not told me. There ia in lively faith, when
it ia infuaed into the soul, a clearer knowledge
of Chriat and hia exceUency than before
and with it a recurabency of the soul upon
him, as the foundation of its life and com
fort ; a resolving to rest on him, and not to
depart from him npon any terras. Though
I be beset on aU hands, be accuaed by the
law and mine own conscience, and by Satan,
and have nothing to answer for myself ; yet
here I wiU stay, for I am sure in him there
is aalvation, and nowhere elae. All other
refugea are but Uea, aa it ia in the worda be
fore these in the prophet, poor base shifts
that wiU do no good. God hath laid this
precious Stone in Sion, for this very ptu-
poae, that weary aoula raay reat upon it ; and
why should I not raake use of it, according
to his intention ? He hath not forbid any,
how wretched soever, to beUeve, but com-
raanda it, and hjmaelf works it where he
will, even in the vilest sinners.
Think it not enough, that you know this
Stone is laid, but see whether you are built
on it by faith. The multitude of iraaginary
believers lie round about it, but they are
never the better nor the surer for that, no
more than stones that lie loose in heaps near
onto a foundation, but are not joined to it.
There is no benefit to us by Christ, without
union with hira ; no comfort in his riches,
without interest in them, and title to them,
by that union. Then ia the aoul right,
when it can say. He is altogether lovely,
and as the spouse there, He is mine, my
Well-beloved, Cant. iii. 16. And this union
is the spring of aU spiritual consolations;
and faith, by which we are thua united, ia a
divine work. He that laid thia foundation
in Sion with his o^wn hand, worka likewise
with the same hand, faith in the heart, by
which it is knit to thia comer-atone. It ia
not so easy as we imagine to believe, Eph.
i. 19. Many that think they believe, are
on the contrary like thoae of whom the
prophet there speak.s, hardened in sin, and
camaUy secure, whora he represents as in
covenant with heU and death, walking in
sin, and yet proraiaing themselves impunity.
4. There is the firmness of thia building,
namely. He thai believeth on him shall not
be confounded.] Thia firmneas is answer
able to the nature of, the foundation. Not
only the whole frame, but every stone of it
abideth sure. It is a simple mistake, to
judge the persuasion of perseverance to be
self.presuraption : they that have it are far
from buUding it on themselves, but their

[CHAP. It.

(foundation is that which raakes them sure j
because it doth not only remain firm itseii,
but indissolubly supports all that are once
built on it. In the prophet whence this is
cited, it is, shall not make haste, -but the
sense is one : they that are disappointed and
ashamed in their hopes, ran to and fro, and
seek after some new resource ; this they shall
npt need tp dp that come to Christ. The
beUeving soul makes haste to Chriat, but it
never finda cauae to haatcn from him ; aud
though the comfort it expects and longs for,
be for a time defened, yet it gives not over,
knowing that in due tirae it ahaU rejoice,
and ahaU not have cause to bluah, and think
shame of its confidence in him. David ex.
presseth this distraat, by making haste,
Paal. xxxi. 22. and cxvi. 11, / was too
hasty when I said so. Frustrated hopes,
especiaUy where they have been raised high,
and continued long, do reproach men with
foUy, and ao ahame them. And thua do all
earthly hopea aerve us, when we lean much
upon them. We find theae thinga usually
that have promised us moat content, pay ua
with vexation, and they not only prove broken
reeds, deceiving our trust, but hurtful, run.
ning their broken spUnters into our hand that
leaned on them. Thia aure foundation is
laid for ua, that our aoula may be eatabUshed
on it, and be as mount Sion that cannot be
removed, Ps. cxxv. 1. Such times may
come as wiU shake all other supports, but thia
holds out against aU, Psal. xlvi. 2, " Though
the earth be removed, yet wiU not we fear."
Though the frame of the world were crack.
ing about a man's ears, he may hear it un
affrighted that is built on this foundation :
Why then do we choose to build upon the
sand ? BeUeve it, wheresoever we lay our
confidence and affection beside Christ, it shall
sooner or later repent us and shame us;
either happily in time, while we may yet
change them for him, and have recourse to
hira ; or raiserably, when it is too late. Re.
member that we muat die, and must appear
before ihe judgment seat of God, and that
the things we dote on here have neither
power to stay ua here, nor have we power to
take them along with us, nor if we could,
would tfeey at aU profit us there ; and there
fore when we look back upon them aU at
parting, we shall wonder what fools we are
to make so poor a choice : And in " that
great day wherein aU faces shaU gather black.
neaa," Joel ii. 6, and be fiUed with confu.
aion, that have neglected to raake Chriat their
atay when he waa offered them, then it ahall
appear how happy they are that have trasted
in him ; tliey shall not be confounded, but
shaH lift up iheir faces, and be acquitted in
him. In their present estate they may be
exercised, but then ihey shall not be con>
founded, nor ashamed ; there ia a double
nesation in the original, " by no ineans>

VEK. 6]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF

8*

(they ahalO be mpre than cpnquerpra thrpugh
nim that hath Ipved them, Rpra. viii. 37.
5. The last thing pbservable is the great-
rcaa and exceUency of the work, intimated
in that first word, Behold, which imports
thia work to be very remarkable, and caUa
the eyea to fix upon it.
The Lord is marveUous in the least pf hia
works, but in this he hath raanifeated raore
of hia wiadpra and ppwer, and let put rapre
pf hia Ipve tp raankind, than in aU the reat ;
yet we are fooliah, and childishly gaze abcut
us upon trifles, and let this great wnrk pass
unregiirded, we scarce affprd it half an eye.
Tum ypur wandering eyes this way. Lppk
upon this precious Stone, and behold hira,
not in raere speculation, but so behold him,
aa to lay hold on him : For we aee he ia
therefore here aet forth, that we may believe
on him, and so not be confounded ; that we
may attain thia bleaaed union, that cannot be
diaaolved. AU other unions are dissoluble :
A man may be plucked from his dwelUng
house and lands, or they from hira, though
he have never so good title to them ; may be
removed frora his dearest friends, the husband
from the wife, if not by other accidents in
their life-time, yet sure by death, the great
dissolver of aU those unions, and of that
straiteat one of the soul with the body ; but
it can do nothing against thia union, but on
the contrary perfecta it ; for " I amperauad-
ed, (aays St. Paul), that neither death, nor
Ife, ner angels, nor principaUties, nor powera,
nor things^ preaent, nor thinga to corae, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate ua frora the love of
God, which is in Christ Jeaus our Lord,"
Horn. viu. 38, 39.
There is a twofold raistake conceming
faith. They that are altogether void of it,
abusing and flattering themselves in a vain
opinion that they have it : and on the other
side, they that have it, misjudging their own
condition, and ao depriving theraselves of
much comfort and sweetness that they might
find in their believing.
The former is the worse, and yet the far
commoner evil, and what one says of wisdom
is true of faith, " Many wpuld seek after,
and attain it, if they did net falsely imagine
that they have attained it already."* There
ia nothing more contrary to the lively nature
of faith, than for the soul not to be at all
busied with the thoughts of its own spiritual
condition, and yet this very character of un-
beUef passes with a great many for believing.
They doubt npt, that is indeed they cpnsider
not, what they are ; their minds are not at
all on these things ; are not awaked tP seek
dUigently after Jesus, sp as upt tp rest tiU
they find hira. They are well enpugh with-
out him, it suffices thera tP hear there is such
• Puto multos potuisse ad s<ipientiam pervenire
djsi putassent se jam oervenisse. Sen. de Tranq.

a one ; but they ask for theraselves, Is he
mine, or no ? Sure if that be aU, not to
doubt, the brutes believe as well as they. Ii
were better, out of all question, tp be labpur-
ing under dpubtings ; if it be a rapre hppe-
ful condition, to find a man groaning and
complaining, than speechless, and breathless,
and not stining at aU.
There be in spiritual doubtings two things ;
there is a solicitous care of the soul ccncern-
ing its pwn estate, and diligent inquiry into
it ; and that ia laudable, being a true wprk
pf the Spirit pf God : but the other thing in
them, ia perplexity and distrust, which arises
from darkness and weakness in the soul ; as
where there ia a great deal of amoke, and no
clear flame, it arguea much moisture in the
raatter, yet it witnesseth certainly that ther"<
is flre there ; and therefpre dubipus questipn-
ing pf a man ccnceming himself, is a much
better evidence, than senseless deadness,
that most take for believing. Men that
know nothing in aciencea have no doubts.
He never truly beUeved, that waa not made
firat aensible and convinced of unbelief.
Thia ia the Spirit'a firat errand in the wprld,
to convince it of sin ; and the ain is this,
that they believe not, John xvi. 8, 9. If
the faith that thou hast, grew out of thy
natural heart of itself, be assured it ia but
a weed. The right plant of faith is always
aet by God'a own hand, and it ia watered
and preserved by him, becauae expoaed to
many hazarda ; he watches it night and day,
Isa. xxvii. 3. " I the Lord do keep it, 1
wiU water it every moment ; lest any hurt
it, I wiU keep it night and day."
Again, how impudent ia it in the moat,
to pretend they believe, whUe they waUow
in profaneness. If faith unite the soul unto
Christ, certainly it puts it into participa
tion of his Spirit ; " for if any man have not
the Spirit of Christ, he ia none of his," says
St. Paul. Thia faith in Chriat bringa us
into coramunion with God. Now, God is
light, says St. John, and therefore infers,
" If we aay we have fellowship with God,
and walk in darknesa, we lie and do not the
trath," 1 John i. 6. The lie appears in our
practice, an unsuitableneaa in our carriage ;
as one aaid of him that aigned hia verae
wrong. Fecit solcecismum manu.
But there be imaginary believera that are
a Uttie more refined, that live after a blame
less, yea, and a religious manner, as to their
outward behaviour; and they yet are but
appearances of Christians, have not the Uving
work of faith within, and aU these exercises
are dead works in their hands. Amongst
these sorae inay have such notions within
them as may deceive themselves, whUe their
external deportraent deceives others, somo
transient touches of desire to Christ, upon
the unfolding of his excellencies in the
preaching pf the wprd, and upon sorae con.

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CHAP. If.

viction of their ewn necessity, and may con
ceive some joy upon thoughts of apprehend-
ing hira ; and yet aU this proves but a va
nishing fancy, and erabracing of a shadow.
And because men that are thus deluded meet
not with Christ indeed, nor do reaUy find
his sweetness ; therefore within a while, they
retum to the pleasure of sin, and iheir latter
end proves worse than their beginning, 1
Pet. U. 20. Their hearts could not pos-
aibly be atedfast, because there was nothing
to fix them on, in aU that work wherein
Christ himaelf ¦was wanting.
But the truly believing soul that is brought
unto Jesus Christ, and fastened upon hira
by God's own hand, abides ataid on hira,
and departs not. And in these, the very
beUef of the things that are spoken concem
ing Christ in the gospel, their persuasion of
divine trath, is of a higher nature than the
comraon consent that ia called historical —
another knowledge and evidence of the mys
teries of the kingdom, than natural raen
can have. This ia indeed the ground of all
the very thing that causes a man to rest
upon Christ, when he hath a perauaaion
wrought in his heart by the Spirit of God,
that Chriat is an able Redeemer, a suffi
cient Saviour, able io save all thai come to
him, Heb. vii. 25. Then upon this, the
heart resolves upon that course : Seeing I
am persuaded of this, that whoso believes in
Him shall not perish, but have everlasting
life ; or, as it is here, shall not be confound
ed ; I am to deliberate no longer, this is the
thing I raust do, I must lay my spul uppn
Hira, upon one who is an Almighty Re
deemer ; and it does so. Now, these first
actings of faith have in themselves an evi
dence that distinguishes thera frora aU that
is counterfeit, a Ught of their own, by which
the soul wherein they are may discern them,
and say, " Thia is the right work pf faith,"
especiaUy when God shines upon the soul,
and clears it in the discovery of his own
work within it.
And farther, they may find the influence
of faith upon the affections, purifying them,
as our apostle says of it. Acts xv. 9. Faith
knits the heart to a holy Head, a pure Lord,
the spring of purity; and therefore cannot
choose but make it pure ; it is a beam frora
heaveri that raises the mind to a heavenly
temper. Although there are remains of sin
in a believing soul, yet it is a hated weari
some guest there. It is not there as its de
light, but as its greatest grief, and raalady ;
of that it is still laraenting and coraplaining,
and had rather be rid of it than gain a world.
Thus it is purified frora affecting sin.
So where these are, a spiritual apprehen
sion of the proraises, and a cleaving of the
soul unto Christ, and such a deUght in him,
as makes sin vile and distasteful, so that the
heart is set against it, and, as the needle

touched with the loadstone, is stUl turned
towards Chriat, and looks at him in all
estates : The aoul that is thua diaposed. hath
certainly intereat in him ; and therefore
ought not to affect sn humour of doubting,
bnt to conclude, that how unworthy soever
in itaelf, yet being in hira, it shall not be
ashamed : Not only it ahall never have cause
to think shame of him, but aU its juat cause
of shame in itself shaU be taken away;
it shaU be covered with his righteousness,
and appear so before the Father. Who must
not think, " If my sins were to be set in
order, and appear againat me, how would
my face be fiUed with shame ! Though
there were no raore, if aorae thoughts that I
am guilty of were laid to ray charge, I were
utterly ashamed and undone. Oh I there ia
nothing in myself but raatter of shame ; but
yet in Christ more matter of glorying, who
endured shame, that we might not be asham
ed. We cannot distrust ourselves enough,
nor trust enough in him. Let it be right
faith, and there ia no excess in believing.
Though I have sinned against him, and
abused his goodneaa, yet I wUl not leave
him ; for whither should I go? he, and
none but he, hath the words of eternal life,
John vi. 68. Yea, though he, being so
often offended, ahould threaten to leave me
to the shame of my own foUiea, yet I will
atay by hira, and wait for a better answer,
and I know I shaU obtain it ; this assurance
being given me for ray corafort, that whoso
ever believes in him shall nol be ashamed.

Ver. 7. Unto you, therefore, which believe, heia
precious ; but unto them who be disobedient, the
Stone which the builders disallowed, the same is
made the head of the comer,
Ver. 8. And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of
offence, even to them which stumble at the word:
being disobedient, whereunto also they were ap
pointed.
Besides all the opposition that meets
faith within, in our hearts, it hath this
without, that it rows against the great stream
of the world's opinion ; and therefore hath
need, especiaUy where it is very tender and
weak, to be strengthened against that. The
raultitude of unbeUevers, and the conside
rable quaUty of raany of them in the world,
are continuing cauaea of that very raultitude :
and the fewness of thera that truly believe,
doth much to the keeping of thera atiU few :
And aa this prejudice prevails with them
that believe not, so it may sometimes assault
the mind of a beUever, when he thinks how
many, and raany of them wise raen in the
world, reject Chriat. Whence can thia be ?
Particularly the beUeving Jewa, to whora this
epistle is addreaaed, raight thiuk it atrange
that not only the Gentiles that were atrangera
to true religion, but their own nation, that
was the select people of God, and had the
light of his oracles, kept in amongst diciB

vm. 7, 8.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

87

tnly, shoidd yet so many pf them, yea, and
the chief ef them, be despisers and hatera of
Jeaua Chriat; and that they that were best
versed in the law, and sp aeemed beat able
tP judge of the Mes.siah fpretpld, should
have persecuted Chriat aU hia life, and at
last put him to a shameful death.
That they may know, this makes nothing
against hira, nor ought to invalidate their
fiiith at all, but rather indeed testifies with
Christ, and so serves to confirra thera in be
Ueving, the apostle raakes use of those pro-
pheticid scriptures, that foreteU the unbelief
and conterapt with which the raost would en
tertain Christ : as old Siracon speaks of him,
when he was come agreeably to these former
predictions, That he. ahould be a sign of con
tradiction, Luke ii. 34 ; aa he was the pro
mised sign of salvatipn tp beUevers, so he
should be a very mark of enmities and con
tradictions to the unbeUeving world ; the
places the aposde here useth, suit with his
present discourse, and the words cited from
Isaiah in the former verse, continuing the
reserablance of a cornerstone ; they are
partiy taken frora Ps. cxviii. partiy out of the
eighth chapter of Isaiah.
Unto you, &c. ] Wonder not that others
refuse hira, but believe the more for that, be
cause ypu see the wprd to be true, even in
their not beUeving of it ; it is fulfiUed and
verified by their very rejecting it as false.
And whStsoever are the world's thoughta
concerning Chriat, that impprta not ; for they
know him not : But you that do indeed be
Ueve, I dare appeal to youraelvea, your own
faith that you have of him, whether he is not
precious to you, if you do not really find hira
fuUy anawerable to aU that ia apoken pf him
in the wprd, and tp aU that ypu have accord
ingly beUeved conceming him.
We are here, 1. To conaider the opposi
tion of the persons : And then, 2. Of the
things spoken pf them.
1. Fer the ppppsitipn pf the perspns, they
are npppsed under the name pf beUevers, and
disobedient, or unbeUevers ; for the word is
so near that it may be taken for unbelief, and
itis by some so rendered : And the things
are fully as near, as the words that signify
them, disobedience and unbelief. 1, Unbe
Uef is itself the grand disobedience. For
this is the work of God, that which the gos-
pel mainly comraands, John vi. 29, that ye
believe ; therefore the apostle caUs it the obe
dience, of faith, Rora. i. 5. And there ia
nothing indeed more worthy the narae of obe
dience, than the subjectipn pf the raind to
receive and believe those supematural truths
that the gospel teaches concerning Jesus
Christ. To obey, so aa to have, aa the apos
tle speaks, the impression oi that divine
pattern staraped upon the heart, tp have the
heart deUvered up, as the Wprd there ia, and
laid under it, lo receive it, Rpra. vi, 17-

The wprd here uaed fpr dispbedience, signi*
fies prpperly unpersuasion ; and npthing
can more prpperly expreaa the nature pf un
beUef than that ; and it is the very nature
of our corrupt hearta : We are children of
disobedience, or unpersuasibleness, Eph. ii.
2, altogether incredulous towards God, who is
truth itself, and pUable aa wax in Satan's
hand ; he works in such what he will, as
there the apoade expreaaea. They are raost
easy of beUef to hira that is the very father
of lies, aa our Saviour caUa him, a liar and
a murderer from the beginning, John viii.
44, murdering by liea, as he did in the be
ginning. 2. Unbelief is radicaUy aU other disobe
dience ; for aU fiows frora unbeUef. This
we least of aU suspect ; but it is the bitter
root of aU that ungodUness that abounds
amongst us. A right and lively persuasion
of the heart conceming Jesus Christ, alters
the whole frarae of it, casts down its high
lofty imaginations, and brings not only the
outward actions, but the very thoughts, unto
ihe obedience of Christ, 2 Cor. x. 6.
II. As fpr the things sppken ccnceming
these dispbedient unbeUevers, these twp tes-
timpnies taken tpgether have in thera these
things: I. Their rejectien pf Chriat. 2. Their
fpUy. 3. Their raiaery in ao doing.
I. Their rejection of Chriat ; they did not
receive hira as the Father appointed and de
signed hira, aa the foundation and chief cor
ner-stone, but alighted hira, and threw hira
by aa unfit for the building ; and thia did
not only the ignorant multitude, but tho
builders ; they that profeaaed to have the
skiU, and the pffice or pewer of building, the
dpctprs of the law, the scribes, and pharisees,
and chief priests, who thought to carry the
matter by the weight of their authority, as
over-balancing the beUef of thoae that foUow
ed Chriat : " Have any of the rulers beUeved
in hira ? But this people who know not the
law are cursed," John vii. 48, 49.
We need not wonder then, that not pnly
the ppwers pf the wprld are usuaUy eneraies
to Christ, and that the contrivers of ppUciea,
thpse builders, leave put Christ in their
building, but that the pretended builders p*
the church pf Gpd, thpugh they use the narae
of Chriat, and serve their turn with that, yet
reject hiraaelf, and oppoae the power of his
spiritual kingdora. There raay be wit and
learning, and much knpwledge of the scrip
tures, araongst thoae that are haters of the
Lord Chriat and the power of godUnesa, and
cofrupters pf the worship of God. It is the
spirit of humiUty, and obedience, and saving
faith, that teaches men to esteera Christ and
build upon him.
2. But the vanity and foUy of those build
ers' opinion appears in this, that they are
overpowered by the great Architect of thi;
Church ; his purppse stands ; uptwitiistiui*'

A COMMENTARY UPON

88
ing their rejection of Christ, he is stiU made
the head comer.stone. They cast him away
by their miscensures and reproaches put up
on him, and by giving him up to be cruci
fied, and then cast into the grave, and ap
pointing a stone to be roUed upon this Stone,
which they had so rejected, that it raight
appear no more, and so thought theraselves
sure : But even from thence did he arise,
and became the head of the corner. The
disciples themselves spake, you know, very
doubtfuUy of their former hopes, " 'We be
lieved this had been He that would have de
livered Israel ;" but he corrected their mis
take, first by his word, shewing thera the
trae method of that great work, " Ought not
Christ firat to auffer these things, and ao en.
ter into glory ?" Luke xxiv. 21 — 26. And
then reaUy, by making himaelf known to
thera, aa riaen from the dead. When he
was by theae rejected, ond lay lowest, then
he v/aa nearest his exaltation ; as Joseph in
the prison was nearest his preferment. And
thus is it with the Church of Chriat ; when
it is brought to the Ipwest and moat despe.
rate condition, then is deliverance at hand ;
it proapera and gaina in the event, by aU the
practicea of men againat it. And aa thia
comer-atone was fitted to be so, by the very
rejection, even so is it with the whole build
ing ; it rises the higher the more men seek
to deraolish it.
3. The raisery of them that believe not
is expressed in the other word, " He is to
them a stone of stumbUng and a rock of of
fence ;" because they wiU not be saved by
him, they shaU sturable and fall, and be
broken to pieces on him, as it is in Isaiah,
and in the Evangelists : But how ia thia ?
Ia He that came to save, become a destroyer
of men ? He whose narae ia Salvation,
proves he destruction to any ? He doea not
prove such in hiraaelf; hia priraary and pro-
per uae ia the forraer, to be a foundation for
fioula to build and reat upon : But they that,
instead of building upon hira, wiU stumble
and faU on him, what wonder, being so firm
a stone, though they be broken by their faU !
Thus we see the mischief of unbelief, that as
other aina diaable the law, it diaablea the
very goapel to aave ua, and tuma Ufe itself
jnto death to us. And this is the raisery,
not of a few, but of many in Israel ; many
that hear of Christ, by the preaching of the
gospel, shaU lament that ever they heard that
sound, and shaU wish to have Uved and
died without it ; finding so great an accea-
sion to their misery, by the neglect of sa
great salvation. They are said to stumble
at ihe word, because the things that are
therein testified concerning Christ, they la
bour not to understand and prize aright ; but
either altogether sUght thera, and account
them foolishness, or misconceive and pervert
tlieiu.

[ CHAP. II.

The Jews stumbled at the meanness of
Christ's birth and life, and the ignominy of
his death ; not judging of him according tu
the scriptures ; and we in another way think
we have sorae kind of beUef, that he is the
Saviour of the wprld ; yet not making the
scripture die rule of our thoughts concerning
him, many of us undo ourselves, and stum
ble and break our necks uppn this rock, mis
taking Christ and the way of believing;
lopking pn him as ' a Savio'-ir at large, and
judging that enough, not endeavouring to
make him ours, and to embrace him upon
the arms of that new covenant whereof he
is Mediator. Whereunto also they were appointed.]
This the apostle adds for the further satis
faction of believers in thia point, how it is
that ao many reject Chriat, and stumble at
him ; teUing them plainly, that the secret
purpose of God is accomplished in this, hav
ing deterrained to glorify his justice on im
penitent sinners, as he shews his rich mercy
in thera that bdieve. Here it were easier to
lead you into a deep, than to lead you forth
again. I wiU rather stand on the shore, and
sUently admire it, than enter into it. This
is certain, that the thoughts of God are aU
no less just in themselves than deep and un
soundable by us. His justice appears clear,
in that man's destruction is always the fruit
of his own sin : But to give causes of God's
decrees without himself is neithfr agreeable
with the primitive being of the nature of
God, nor with the doctrine pf the scriptures ;
this is sure, that God is not boimd to give
us further account of these things, and we
are beund npt to ask it. Let these two
words (aa St. Auguatine saya) answer aU,
What art thou, O man ? Rom. ix, 20.
And, O the depth ! Rom. xi. 33.
Our only sure way to know that our names
are not in that black Une, and to be persuad.
ed that he hath chosen us to be saved by
hia Son, ia this, to find that we have chosen
him, and are built on him by faith, which it
the fruit pf His Ipve that first chposeth us :
And that we may read in pur esteem pf him.
He is precious,] or your honour. The
difference is small ; ypu accpunt him your
glory, and your gain ; he is not only predma
to you, but preciousness itself. He is the
thing that you make account of, your jewel,
which if you keep, though yoube robbed of all
besides, you know yourselves toberich enough.
To you that believe.] Faith is absolutely
necessary to make this due estimate of Christ.
1. The most exceUent things, while theii
worth is undiscerned and unknown, affect us
not : Now, faith is the proper seeing fa
culty of the soul, in relation to Christ ; diat
inward Ught must be infused from above, to
make Christ visible to us ; withput it, thpugb
he is beautiful, yet we are bUnd, and there-
f<Me cannot love him for that beauty. But

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

119

&y faitii we are enabled to see Him that is
Jkiirer than the children of men, Paal. xiv.
2, yea, to see in hira the glory ofthe only-be
gotten Son of God, John i. 14, and then it ia
not possible but to account hira precious,
and .to bestow tiie entire affection of our
hearts upon him. And if any say to the
sold, What is thy beloved more than ano
ther ? Cant. iii. 9, it wiUingly lays hold
on the queation, and is glad of an opportu
oity to extol him.
2. Faith, aa it ia that which diacems
Ohriat, so it alone appropriates, er makes
hira pur pwn. These are the twp reaspns pf
esteeming and affecting any thing, its own
worth, and our interest in it ; and faitii be-
gets this esteera of Christ by both : first, it
discovers to us his exceUencies, that we could
not see before ; and then it makes him ours,
gives us posseaaion of whole Christ, aU that
he hath, and is. As it is faith that com.
mends Christ so rauch, and describes his
coraeliness in that Song, that word is the voice
of faith, that expresses propriety, my Well-
beloved is mine, and I am- his. Cant. ii. 16 ;
and these together make him most precious
to the soul. Having once possession of
him, then it looks upon aU his sufferings as
endured particularly for it, and the benefit of
them aU as belonging tp itself. .Sure it wiU
say, " Can I chopse but account Him pre
cious, tiiat suffered sharae that I might not
be ashamed ; and suffered death that I might
not die ; that took that bitter cup of the Fa.
ther's wrath, and drunk it out, that I might
be free from it ?"
Think not that you believe, if your hearts
be not taken up with Christ, if his love do
not possess your soul, so that nothing is pre
cious tp ypu in respect pf him ; if ypu cannot
despise and trample upon aU advantages that
either you have or wpuld have, fpr Christ,
and cpunt them, with the great aposde, loss
and dung in comparison of Mm, Phil. iii.
8. And if you do esteem him, labour for
increase of faith, that ypu may esteem hira
more ; for as faith grows, so wiU he stiU be
raore precious to you. And if you would
have it grow, tum that spiritual eye fre
quently to him that is the proper object of
it ; for even they that are beUevers may pos
sibly abate of their love and esteem of Christ,
by suft'ering faitii tp Ue dead within them,
.and net using it in behplding and applying
pf Christ. And the wprld, pr spme particu
lar vanities, may insensibly creep in, and get
into the heart, and cest them much pains
ere they can be thrast put again. But when
they are daily reviewing thpse exceUencies
that are in Christ, which first persuaded their
hearts tp love him, and discovering BtiU more
and more of them, his love wiU certainly
grow, and wiU chase away those folUes that
the world dotes upon, aa unworthy to be taken
iiotice of by such a soul.

Ver. 9. But ye are a choser generation, a loysi
priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;
that ye should shev/ forth the praises of him wlio
hath called you out of darkness into his marvel
lous light.
It is matter of very much conaolarion and
inatruction to Chriatians to know their own
eatate, what they are, aa they are Christians.
This epistle is much and often upon this
point for both those ends ; that the reflect
ing on their dignities in Chriat, may uphold
thera with cerafprt under auffering for him ;
and also that it raay lead them in doing and
walking as becomes auch a condition. Here
it hath been repreaented to ua by a building,
a apiritual temple, and by a priesthood con
formable to it.
The former is confirmed and iUustrated
by testimonies of Scripture in the preceding
verses ; the latter in this verse, in which,
though it is not expreaaly cited, yet it ia clear
that the apoatle hath reference to Exod. xix.
6, 6, where thia dignity of priesthood, to.
gether with the other titles here expressed, is
ascribed to aU the chosen people of God. It
is there a promise made to the nation of the
Jews, but under the condition of obedience ;'
and therefore ia most fitly here applied by
the apostle to the beUeving Jews, to whom
particularly he writes.
It is true, that the external priesthood of
the law is abolished by the coraing of this
great High-Priest ; Jesus Christ being the
body of aU those shadows : But this pro-
raised dignity of spiritual priesthood, is so
far from being annuUed by Christ, that it is
altogether dependent on him ; and therefore
fails in those that reject Chriat, although
they be of that nation to which thia proraiae
waa made. But it holds good in aU, of aU
nations that beUeve, and particularly, saya
the apostle, it is verified in you. You that
are beUeving Jews, by receiving Christ, do
also receive this dignity.
As the legal priesthood was reraoved by
Christ's fulfilling aU that it prefigured, so he
was rejected by them that were at his coming
in possession of that office ; as the standing
of that their priesthood was inconsistent
with the revealing of Jesus Christ ; ao they
that were then in it, being ungpdly raen,
their carnal minda had a kind of antipathy
against him. Though they pretended them.
selves builders of the Church, and by their
caUing ought to have been so, yet they threw
away the foundation.stone that God had
chosen and designed ; and in rejecting it,
manifested that they theraselves were rejected
of God : But on the contrary, you that have
laid ypur spuls pn Christ by beUeving, have
this ypur chposing him as a certain evi.
dence, that God hath chosen you to be his
peculiar people, yea to be so dignified, as to
be a kingly priesthood, through Christ.
We have here to conaider, 1. The estate
of Christians, in the words that here do-

A CO.'JMENTARY UPON

90
scribe it. 2. The opposition of it to the
itate of unbelievera. 3. The end of it.
1. The state of Christians, a chosen ge-
neration.] Psal. xxiv. The Psalmist there
speaka, first of God'a univeraal sovereignty,
then of hia peculiar choice ; The earth is
ihe Lord's : But there is a select company,
appointed for this holy mountain, described ;
and the description is closed thus, This is
the generation of them that seek him. Thus
Deut. X. 14, 15. So Exod. xix. 5, whence
this is taken ; for all the earth is mine, and
that nation, which is a figure of the elect of
aU nations, God'a peculiar, beyond all othera
in the world. Aa men that have great va
riety of posseaaions, yet have usually their
special delight in sorae one beyond the rest,
and choose to reaide moat in it, and beatow
most expense on it, to make it pleasant :
thus doth the Lord of the whole earth choose
out to himself from the rest of the world.
number that are a chosen generation.
Choosing here, ia the work of effectual caU
ing, or aevering of beUevera from the reat ; for
it aignifiea a difference in their preaent estate,
•aa do Ukewiae the other worda joined with it.
But this election is altogether conformable to
that of God's eternal decree, and is no other
but the execution or performance of it ; God's
framing of this hia building, just according
to the idea of it which was in his mind and
purpose before all tirae ; the drawing forth and
investing of such into this Chriatian, thia
kingly priesthood, whoae naraea were expreaa
ly written up for it in the book of life.
Generation.] Thia importa thera to be
of one race or stock, aa the laraelitea, who
were by outward calling the choaen of God,
were all the seed of Abraham according to
the flesh .- So they that beUeve in the Lord
Jesua, are children of the promise, (Gal.
iv. 28,) and aU of them by their new birth,
one people or generation. They are of one
nation, belonging to the aarae bleaaed land
of promise, aU citizens of the new Jerusalera,
yea, all children of the same family, whereof
Jeaus Christ, the Root of Jesse, is the stock,
who is the great King, and the great High-
Priest. And thus they are a royal priest
hood. There is no devolving of his royalty
or priesthood on any other, as it is in him
self for his proper dignity is supreme and
incommunicable, and there is no succession
in his order, he lives for ever, and is Priest
for ever, Psal. ex. 4, and King for ever too,
Psal. xiv. 6 ; but they tbat are descended
from hini, to derive from him by that new
original thia double dignity, in that way
that they are capable of it, to be likewise
tings and priests as he is both. They are
of the seed-royal, and of the holy aeed of the
priesthood, inaamuch as they partake of a
new Ufe from Chriat : first there is his own
dignity expressed, then his dignifying u.s,
wfois himself the first-begotten among tft^

[chap. ir.

dead, and the Prince of the kings of tHi
earth. Rev. i. 5, and then, as foUows, ver.
6, Aath made us kings and priests unto
G d ihe Father.
A royal priesthood,] That the dignity
of beUevers is expressed by these two toge.
ther, by priesthood and royalty, teaches us
the worth and exceUency of that holy func
tion taken properly ; and so, by analogy;
the dignity of the ministry of the gospel
which God -hath placed in his Church, ini
atead of the prieathopd pf the law ; for there.
fore doth this title of spiritual priesthood
fitly signify a great privUege and honoui
that christians are promoted to, and is join.
ed with that of kings, because the proper of-.
fice of priesthood was so honourable. Be
fore it was established in one family, the
chief, the first-bom of each family had right
to this, as a special honour ; and amongst
the heathens in some places, their princes
and greatest raen, yea, their kings, were their
priests, and universaUy the performing of
their holy things, waa an eraployment of
great honour and eateem amongat them.
Though human ambition hath strained this
consideration too high, to the favouring and
founding pf a mpnarchial prelacy in the
Christian wprld, yet that abuse of it ought
not to prejudge ua of this due and just con
sequence frora it, that the holy functions of
God's house have very much honour and
dignity in them. And the apostle, we see,
2 Cor. iii. prefers the miniatry of the gospd
to the priesthood of the law. So then they
mistake much that think it a disparagement
to men that have sorae advantage of birth or
wit more than ordinary, to bestow them thus,
and judge the raeanest persons and things
good enpugh for this high caUing. Sure this
conceit cannot have place, but in an unholy,
irreligious raind, that hath either very mean
thoughts of God, or none. If diey that are
caUed to thia holy service, would themselves
consider this aright, it would not puff them
up, but humble them ; coraparing their own
worthlessness with this great work, they
would wonder at God's dispensation, . that
should thus have honpured them, as St.
Paul in this cpnnexipn speaks pf himself, as
less than the least of all saints, Eph. ui. 8.
Sp the mpre a man rightly extpls this his
CaUing, the raore he hurables himself under
the weight pf tt, which shpuld raake minis
ters very careful tp walk rapre suitably tP it
in erainency pf hpliness ; for in that consists
the trae dignity of it.
There is no doubt that this kingly priest
hood ia the common dignity of aU beUevers;
ihis honour have all the saints ; they are
kinga, have victory and dominion given
them over the powers of darknesa, and the
lusta of their own hearts, that held them
captive, and domineered over them before.
Base slavish lusts, not born to commandi

V1SB. n.j

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

91'

yet are the hard task-masters of unrenewed
minds-; and there is no trae subduing thera,
but by the power and Spirit of Christ. They
raay be quiet for a while in a natural raan,
but they are then but asleep ; as soon aa
they awake again, they return to huny, and
drive hira with their wonted violence. Now,
this is die benefit of receiving the kingdora
of Christ into a man's heart, that it makea
him a king himself. AU the subjects of
Christ are kings, not only in regard of that
pure crown of glory they hope for, and shaU
certainly attain ; but in the present, they
have a kingdora, that ia the pledge of that
other, overcoming the worid and Satan and
theraselvea, by the power of faith. Mens
bona regnum possidet, it ia true ; but there
is no mind truly good, but that wherein
Christ dweUs. There is not any kind of
spirit in the world so noble as that apirit
-that is in a Chriatian, the very Spirit of
Jeaua Chriat, that great King, the Spirit of
glory, as our apoade caUa it below, chap, iv,
Thia is a sure way to ennoble the basest and
poorest among us ; this royalty takes away
aU att^nders, and leaves nothing of aU that
is past to be laid to our charge, ot to disho
-nour ua.
They are not shut out frora God, as they
were before ; but being in Christ are brought
near unto him, and have free acceaa to the
throne ofhis grace, Heb. x. 21, 22. They
resemble in their spiritual atate the legal
priesthood very clearly, 1. In their consecra
tion : 2. In their service : and 3. In their
lawa of Uving.
1st, In their consecration. The Leviti.
cal priests were washed ; therefore this is
expressed. Rev. i. 5, He hath washed us
in his own blood, and then it foUows, made
SIS kings and priests. There was no coming
near unto God in his holy services aa his
priests, unless we were cleansed frora the
guiltiness and pollution of our sins. This
that pure and purging blood doth, and it
,alone : No other lava can do it ; no water
hut that fountain opened for sin and for
uncleanness, Zech. xiii. 1. No blood, none
of aU that blood of legal sacrifices, Heb. ix.
12, but only the blopd of that spotless Larab
that takes away ihe sins of ihe world, John
i. 29. So with this, 2. We have that other
ceremony of the priest's consecration, which
was by sacrifice, as weU as by washing ; for
Christ at once cffered up himself as our sa
crifice, and let out his blood for our washing,
and with good reason is that prefixed there.
Rev. i. 5, He hath loved us, and then it
foUows, washed us in his blood. That
precious stream of his heart-blood that flow.
ed, for our washing, told clearly that it waa
a heart fuU of unapeakable love that was the
source of it, 3. There is anointing, name
ly, the graces of the Spirit cpnferred upon
beUevers, flowing unto thera from Christ

For it is of his fulness that we all receive
grace for grace, John i. 16 ; and the apostle
St. Paul says, 2 Cor. i. 21, that we are
established and anointed in Christ : It
was poured on him as our Head, and runs
down from him unto us. He is Chriat and
we are Christiana, as partakers of hia anoint
ing. The conaecrating oil of the priests was
made of the richest ointments and spices, to
shew the preciousness of the graces of God'a
Spirit that are bestowed on those ' spiritual
priests; and aa that holy oil waa not for
comraon use, nor for any other peraons to be
anointed withal, save the priests only, ao is
the Spirit of grace a pecuUar gift to be
Uevera. Others raight have costly ointments
araongst the Jews, but none of that same
aort with the consecration oil. Natural raen
may have very great gifts of judgment, and
learning, and eloquence, and moral virtues ;
but they have none of thia precioua oil,
namely,, the Spirit of Chriat communicated
to them : No, aU their endowraenta are but
coraraon and profane. That holy oil aigni-
fied particularly eminency of light and know
ledge in the prieats ; therefore in Christians
there must be light. They that are groaaly
ignorant of apiritual things, are surely not of
this order ; thia anointing is aaid to teach
us all things, 1 John ii. 27. That holy
oil was of a most fragrant aweet sraeU, by
reaaon of its precious composition ; but rauch
more aweet ia the smeU of that Spirit where
with believers are anpinted ; thpse several
odoriferous graces, that are the ingredients
of their anointing oil, that heavenly-minded.
ness, and raeekness, and patience, and hu
raility, and the rest, that diffuse a pleasant
scent into the places and societies where they
come ; their words, actions, and their deport
raent, smeUing sweet of them. 4. Their
garraents wherein they were inaugurated,
and which they were after to wear in their
services, are outshined by that purity and
holiness wherewith aU the saints are adorn
ed ; but raore by that iraputed righteousness
of Chriat, those pure robes that are put upon
them, wherein they appear before the Lord,
and are accepted in his sight. These priests
are indeed clothed with righteousness, ac-
cording to that of the Psalraist, Psal.
cxxxii. 9.
5. They were to have the offerings put
into their handa ; frora thence, filling of ihe
hand, signifies consecrating to the priest
hood. And thua doth Jeaus Christ, that is
the consecrator of these priests, put into their
hands by his Spirit these offerings they are
to present unto God. He fumishes them
with prayers and praises, and aU other obla
tions that are to be offered by thera ; he gives
them themselves, that they are to offer a Uv.
ing sacrifice, rescuing thera frora the usurped
possession of Satan and sin.
2dly, Let us consider their services, which ,

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. J],

vere divers : to name tne chief, 1. They
liad charge of the sanctuary, and the veasela
of it, and the lights, and were to keep the
lampa burning. Thus the heart of every
Christian is made a temple to the Holy
Ghost, and he himaelf, aa a priest, conae
crated unto God, ia to keep it diUgently,
and the furniture of divine grace in it ; to
have the light of spiritual knowledge within
him, and to nourish it by drawing conti
nually new supplies from Jeaua Chriat. 2
They were to bless the people, and truly it
is this spiritual priesthood, the elect, that
procure blessings upon the reat of the world,
and particularly on the piacea where they
live ; they are daily to offer the incenae of
prayer, and other apiritual aacrifices unto
God, as the apostle expresseth it above, ver.
5, not to neglect thoae holy exerciaea, toge.
ther and apart. And as the prieats offered
not only for theraaelves, but for the people ;
thua chriatians are tp extend tbeir.prayers,
and entreat the blessings of God for others,
especiaUy for the pubUc eatate of the church.
Aa the Lord'a priesta, they are to offer uji
thoae praiaea to Gpd, that are hia due from
the other creatures ; which praise him in
deed, yet cannot do it after that manner, ^s
these priesta do. Therefore they are to offer
aa it were their sacrifices for them as the
priests did fpr the pepple, and becauae the
moat of raen neglect to do thia, and cannot
do it indeed because they are unholy, and
not of thia priesthood ; therefore should they
be so much the more careful of it, and dili
gent in it. How few of these, whom the
heavens caU to by their light and revolution
that they enjoy, do offer that aacrifice which
becoraea thera by acknowledging the glory
of God which ihe heavens declare, Psal.
xix. 1. This, therefore, is as it were put
into the handa of these priests, namely the
godly, to do.
Zdly, Let ua conaider their course of life.
We shaU find rules given to the legal priests
stricter than to others, of avoiding legal pol
lutions, &c. And from these this spiritual
priesthood must leam an exact holy conversa
tion, keeping themselves frora the poUutions
of the world, aa here it foUows, a holy na
tion, and that of neceaaity ; if a prieathood,
then holy : Purchased indeed to be a pe
culiar treasure to God, as Exod. xix. 5, ata
very high rate. He spared not hia only Son,
npr did the Spn spare himself: so that these
prieata ought to be the Lord'a peculiar por
tion. All believers are his clergy ; and as
they are his portion, ao he ia theirs. The
priesta had no assigned inheritance among
their brethren, and the reaaon is added, for
the Lord is iheir portion ; and truly so they
needed not envy any of the reat, they had
the choicest of aU, the Lord of aU. What.
so ver a Christian possesses in the world,
yet being of this .spiritual priesthood, he is

as if he possessed it not, 1 Cor. vii. 30, liys
littie account on it : That which his mind
is set on, is, how he raay enjoy God, and
find clear assurance that he hath him for his
portion. It is not so raean a thing to be a Chris.
tian, as we think ; it is a holy, an honoura.
ble, a happy estate : Few of us can esteem
it, or do lahour to find it sp. Np, we know
not these things, our hearts are not on them.
to make this dignity and happiness sure un.
tp our aoula. 'Where is that true greatness
of mind and hoUneas to be found, that be-
coraea those that are kings and priests unto
God ? that conterapt of earthly things, and
minding pf heaven, that shpuld be in such ?
But sure, as many as find themselves indeed
partakers pf these dignities, will study tP Uve
agreeably tp thera, and wiU net fail to love
that Lord Jesus who hath purchased all this
for them, and exalted them to it ; yea, hum
bled hiraself to exalt thera.
2. We prpceed tp the opposition of the
estate of Christians to that pf unbelievers.
We best discern and are moat sensible of the
evil and good of thinga, by compariaon. In
outward cpndition how many be there that
are vexing themselves with causeless mur.
raurings and discontents, that if they would
look upon the many in the world that are in
a far raeaner condition than they, it would
cure that evil, and raake thera not only con.
tent, but cheerful and thankful. But the
difference here expressed is far greater and
more considerable than ariy that can bein out
ward things. Though the estate of a Chris
tian is very exceUent and precious, and, right
ly valued, hath enpugh in itself to commend
it, yet it doth and ought to raise our esteem
of it the higher, when we compare it both
with the misery of our fonner condition, and
the cpntinuing misery pf those that abide
still, and are left to perish in that woeful
estate. We have here both these paraUels.
The happiness and dignity to which they
are chpsen and caUed, is ppppsed to the re-
jection and misery of them that continue un.
believera and rejecters of Christ.
Not oiUy natural men, but even they that
have a spiritual Ufe in them ; yet when they
forget themaelvea, are aubject to look upon
the thinga that are before thera with a natu.
ral eye, and to think hardly, pr at leaat
dpubtfuUy, cpucerniug Gpd'a dispensatipn ;
behplding the flourishing and prosperities of
the ungodly, together with their own suffer.
ings and distresses, thus, Paal. Ixxiii. &c.
But when they tum the other side of the
medal, and view thera with a right eye, and
by a true light, they are no longer abused
with those appearances. When they con.
sider unbelievers as strangers, yea, enemies
to God, and slaves to Satan, held fast in the
chains of their own impenitency and unbe.
lief, and by those bound over to etemal death j

VEB. 9.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

9.1

and then see theraselyea called to the liber-
tiea and dignities of the sons of God, par
takers of the honour of the only-begptten Son
on whom they have believed, raade by him
kings and priests unto God ihe Father,
then sure they have other thoughts. It
makes diem np mpre envy, but pity the un.
godly, and account aU their pomp, and aU
their possessions, what it is indeed, no other
but a glistering mystery, and themselves
happy in aU estates. It raakes them to say
with David, " the Unea have faUen to me in
a pleaaant place, I have a goodly heritage."
It makea them digeat aU their sufferinga and
diagracea with patience, yea with joy, and
think more of praising than coraplaining, of
shewing forth His honour who hath ap ho
noured them ; eapeciaUy considering the free
ness of his grace, that it was that alone raade
the difference, caUing fhem altogether unde
servedly |rom that same darkness and raiaery
in which unbelievera are deservedly left.
Now the third thing here to be spoken to,
is the end oi their caUing, io shew his praise,
Scc, And that we raay the more prize the
reasonableness of that their happy estate to
which God hath exalted them, it is express
ed in other terms, which therefpre we wiU
first cpnsider, and then the end.
To magnify the grace of God the raore,
we have here, 1. Both the tenns of this
motion, or change ftom whence, and to what
it is ; 2. The principle of it, the caUing of
God. I. For the terras of this motion : 1. The
term from whence it is. From darkness.
There is nothing, more usual, not only in
divine but in human writings, than to bor
row outward sensible things to express things
inteUectual ; and amongst such expreaaions
there is none raore frequent than that of light
and darkness, transferred to signify the good
and evil eatate bf man : As aoraetiraes for
hia outward proaperity or adversity, but
especiaUy for things proper to his raind, the
mind is called light, because.the sea:t pf trath,
and truth ia rapat fitly caUed light, being the
chief beauty pf the ratipnal world, as Ught ia
of the visible. And as the light, becauae of
that ita beauty, is a thing very refreshing and
comfortable to them that behold it, as Solo
mon says. It is a pleasant thing to see the
run ; so is truth a mpst deUghtful thing to
the soul that righdy apprehends it.
This raay help us to conceive of the spi
ritual sense in which it is here taken. The
estate of lost mankind, is indeed nothing but
darkness, being destitute of all spiritual truth
and comfort, tending to utter and everlasting
darkness. And it is so, because by sin the soul is se.
parate from God, who is the first and high.
est Ught, that primitive truth, as he is Ught
in himself: As the apostle St. John teUs
lis, God is light, and in him there is no

darkness at all ; expressing t.ie exceUeni'y
and purity of hia nature : sp he is light rela.
tively tp the spul pf raan, Psal. xxvii. Tha
Lord is my light, says David.
And the spul heing raade capable ef divine
Ught, cannot be happy without it : Give it
what Pther Ught you wiU, stiU it is in dark
ness, so Ipng aa it is withput Gpd, being the
peculiar light and life pf the spul. And as
truth ia united with the spul. in apprehend.
ing it, and light with the visive faculty, so
that the soul raay have God aa its light, it
raust of necessity be in union with God.
Now ain hath broke that union, and so cut
off the soul from its light, and plunged it
into spiritual darknesa.
Hence all that confuaion and diaorder in
the aoul which is ever the companion of
darkness, Tohu vahohu, as at first, when
Darkness was upon the face of the deep.
Gen. i. 2. Being ignorant of God, and of
ourselves, it foUows that we love not G-od,
because we know him not : Yea, though we
think it a hard word, we are haters of God ;
for not only doth our darkness import igno.
ranee of hira, but an enmity to hira, because
he ia light, and we are darknesa. And being
ignorant of ourselves, not aeeing our own
vileneaa, because we are in the dark, we are
pleaised with ourselves ; and having left God,
do love ourselves instead of God. Hence
are all the wickednesses of our hearts and
lives, whicii are no other but, instead of obey.
ing and pleasing God, a continual sacrific
ing to those gillulim, those base dunghill.
gpds, our own luata. For thia tbe appstie
gives as the root of aU those evils, 2 Tira. iii.
2, covetous boasters, Scc. Because in the
first place, lovers of themselves, therefore
proud, Scc. and lovers of pleasures more
than of God ; and this self-love cannot sub-
aiat without groaa ignorance, rainds so dark
ened that we cannot withal see what we are :
For if we did, it were not possible but we
would be far of another raind, very far out
of Ipving and liking with purselves. Thus
pur spuls being filled with darkness are like
wise fuU of uncleanness, as that goes along
too with darkness ; they are not only dark as
dungeons, but withal filthy as dungeons use
to be. So Eph. iv. 18, " Understandings
darkened, aUenated from the life of God ;"
and therefore it is added, ver. 19, they "give
themselves over untp lasciviouaneaa, tp wi rk
aU uncleanness with greediness." Again, in
this state they have no light of solid com
fort. Our great comfort here is not in any
thing present, but in hope ; now, being with.
out Christ and without God, we are without
hope," Eph. ii. 12.
And as the estate frora whence we arc
caUed by grace, is worthUy caUed darkness ;
sp, 2dly, that tp which it calls us deserves as
weU the narae of light. As Christ Ukewise,
that came to work our deliverance, is fre«

A COMMENTARY UPON

C4
quently so caUed in scripture, John i. 9, and
elsewhere, not only in regard of his own
nature, being God equal with the Father,
and therefore light as he is God of God, and
therefore Light of light ; but relative to
men, John i. 4, that light was ihe light of
men ; as he is styled ihe Word and Wis
dom ofthe Father, not only in regard ofhis
own knowledge, but as reveaUng hira unto
us, John i. 18 ; 1 Cor. i. 24, compared with
ver. 30 ; and he is styled by Malachi, iv. 2,
the Sun of righteousness. Now, the aun ia
not only a luminous body, but a luminary,
giving Ught unto the world. Gen. i. 15.
He is our light, opposed to all kind of
darkness, to the dark shadows of the cere
raonial law, which possibly are here meant,
as part of that darkness, from which the
apostle writes that these Jews were deUvered
also by the knowledge of Christ : When he
corae, the day broke, and ihe shadows flew
away. He ia Ukewise opposed to the dark
ness of the Gentile superstitions and idola
tries ; ther,efore these two are joined by old
Simeon, Luke ii. 32, " A Ught to lighten the
Gentiles, and the glory of hia people Israel."
And to all of both that believe, he ia light,
oppoaed to the ignorance, slavery and misery
of their natural eatate, teaching thera by hia
Spirit the things ofGod, and le-uniting them
with God, who is the light of the soul. " I
<-ira, (aaya he,) the light of the world, he
that follows rae shaU not walk in darknesa,"
John viii. 12.
And it ia that raysterious union of the aoul
with God in Christ, which a natural man so
little understands, that is the cause of all
that spiritual light of grace that a believer
does enjoy. There is no right knowledge
of God, to man once faUen from it, but in
his Son ; no comfort in beholding God, but
through him ; nothing but just anger and
wrath to be seen in God's looka, but through
him, in whom he is well pleased. The goa
pel ahewa us the light of the knowledge of
God, 2 Cor. iv. 6, but it is in the face of
Jesus Christ ; therefore the kingdom oflight,
opposed to that of darkneas. Col. i. 13, ia
called the kingdom of his dear Son, or the
Son ofhis love.
There ia a spirit ef Ught and knowledge
flpws frora Jesus Christ into the souls of
believers, that acquaints them with ihe my.
sieries uf the kingdom of God, which can.
not otherwise be kno^wn. And thia Spirit of
knowledge is withal a Spirit of holiness ;
for purity and hoUneas is likewise signified
by this light. He reraoved that huge dark
body of sin that was betwixt us and the
Father, and eclipsed him from us ; the light
ofhis countenance sanctifieth by truth: it ia
a Ught that hath heat with it, and hath in
fluence upon the affectiona, wanna them to
wards God and divine things : this darknesa
here is indeed the shadow pf death ; and sp

[CIIAP. It,

they that are withput , Christ, tiU he visit
thera, are aaid to sit in darkness and in the
shadow of death, Luke i. 79. So thia light
ia life, John i. 4, doth enlighten and enliven,
begets new actipns and mptipns in the fo\il.
The right notion that a raan hath of things
aa they are, works upon hira, and stirs him
accordingly ; ao this light discovers a man
to hiraaelf, and lets hira see his own natural
filthiness ; if makes hira loathe hiraaelf, and
fiy from and run out of himself. And the
exceUency he sees in God, and hia Son Jesus
Christ, by thia new light, infiames his heart
with their love, fiUs him with estimation of
the Lord Jesus, and makes the world and all
things in it that he esteemed befiHe, bass
and raean in his eyes.
Then frora this light arises spiritual joy
and comfort ; so light signifies frequently,
as in that of the Psalraist, (the latter clause
expounds the former,) Psal. xcvii. 11, Light
is sown for the righteous, and joy for the
upright in heart. As this kingdom, of
God's dear Son, that is, this kingdom of
light, hath righteousness in it; so it hath
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, Rom.
xiv. 17. It is a falae prejudice the world
hath taken up againat religion, that it is a
sour melancholy thing : There is no tndy
lightsome and comfortable Ufe but it. AU
othera, have they what they wiU, Uve in dark
ness ; and is net that truly sad and cpmfbrt-
less ? Would you think it a pleasant life,
though yon had fine clothes and good diet,
never to see the sun, but stiU to be kept in
a dungeon with them ? Thua are they that
live in worldly hpnpur and plenty, but atill,
without God, they are in continual darkness
with aU their enjoyraents.
It is true, the light of beUevers ia not here
perfect, and therefore their joy ia not perfect
neither ; it is aoraetiraes over-clouded ; but
the comfort is this, that it is an everlasting
light, it shall never gp put in darkness, as is
said in Jub xviii. 5, of the light of the
wicked, and it shaU within a whde be per-
fected. There ia a bright morning without
a cloud that ahaU arise. The saints have
not only light to lead them in their journey
but much purer light at home, an inherit
ance in light. Col. i. 12. The land where
their inheritance lieth is fuU of Ught, and
their inheritance itself is light ; for the vi
sion of God for ever, is that inheritance.
That city hath no need of tiie sun, nor of
the moon, to shine in it, for " the glory of
the Lord doth lighten it, 'and the Lamb is
the Ught thereof," Rev. xxi. 23. As we
said, that increated Ught is the happiness of
the soul, the beginninga of it are our happi
ness begun ; they are beams of it sent from
above, to lead us to the fountain and fulness
of it. " With thee (says David) is the
fountain of Ufe, and in thy Ught shall we
see Ught," Paal. xxxvi. 9,

VEa. tl.J

THE' FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

95

There are two thinga spoken of this light,
to commend it : his marvellous light ;
that it is after a peculiar mamier God's, and
then that it is marvellous. AU light is
frorii him, the Ught of sense, and that of
reason ; therefore he is caUed the Father of
lights, Jam. i. 17. But diis light of grace
is after a -peculiar manner his, being a light
above the reach of nature, infused into the
soul, in a supernatural way, the light of the
elect world, where God speciaUy and graci
ously resides. Natural men may know very
much in natural things, and it may be in
supernatural things, after a natural manner.
They may be fuU of school-divinity, and
able to discourse of God and his Son Christ,
and the mystery of redemption, &c., and yet
they want this pecuUar Ught, by which
Christ is known to beUevers. They raay
speak of him ; but it is in the dark ; they
aee him not, and therefore they love him not.
The light they have, ia aa the Ught of some
thinga that shine only in the night, — a cold
glow-worm Ught, that hath no heat with it
at aU.
Whereas a soul that hath some of his
Ught, God's pecuUar Ught, communicated
^0 it, sees Jesua Chriat, and loves and de.
lights in him, and walks with him. A lit
tie of this Ught ia worth a gi'eat deal, yea,
more worth than aU that other comraon, ape-
culative, and diacoursing knowledge, that
the greatest doctors can attain unto. It is
of a raore exceUent kind and original ; it ia
frora heaven, and ypu know that one beara
of the sun ia more worth than the light of
ten thpuaand torchea together ; it ia a pure
undecaying heavenly light, whereaa the other
is grosa and earthly, (be it never ao great,)
and laata but a while. Let ua not therefore
think it incredible, that a poor unlettered
Chriatian may know more of God in the best
kind of knowledge, than any, the wisest and
most leamed, natural men can do ; for the
one knows God pnly by man's light, the
Pther knpwa hira by his pwn light, and that
is the pnly right knpwledge. As the aun
cannot be seen but by its pwn light," sp nei
ther can Ged be savingly known, but by his
own reveaUng.
Now, this light being so peculiarly God's,
no wonder if it be marvellous. The cpm
rapn Ught pf the wprld is so, though because
of ita commonneas, we think not ao. The
Lord is raarveUous in wisdpm, in power, in
aU his works of creation and providence :
But above all, in the workings of his grace.
Thia light is unknown to the world, and ao
marvellous, in the rareneaa pf beholding it,
that there be but a few that partake of it.
And to them that aee it, it ia marvellous ;
because in it they see so many exceUent
things that they knew not befpre : as if
a man were bom and brought up till he came
(0 the years of understanding in a dungeon.

where he had never seen Ught, and were
brpught forth on a sudden ; or, not to need
that imagination, take the man that was bom
blind, at hia first sight, after Chriat had
cured him, what wonder, think we, woiJd
seize upon hira, to behold on a sudden the
beauty of this visible world, especiaUy of
that sun, and that Ught, that makes it both
visible and beautiful 1 But rauch raore mat
ter of admiration is there in this Ught, to the
soul that is brought newly frora the dark
ness of cortupt nature ; they see as it were a
new world, and in it such wonders of the
rich grace and love of God, such raatchless
worth in Jesua Chriat, the Sun of righteous
ness, that their souls are fiUed with adraira.
tion : And if this light of grace be so mar
vellous, how much more marvellous shall
the light of glory be in which it ends !
Hence, leam, 1. To esteera highly of the
gpspel, in which this light shines untp us ;
the appstie calls it therefore the glorious
Gospel, 2 Cor. iv. 4. Sure we have no
cause to be ashamed of it, but of ourselves,
that we are so unlike it.
2. Think not, you that are grossly igno
rant of God, and his Son Chriat, and the raya
teriea of salvation, that you have any portion
aa yet in hia grace ; for the first character of
hia renewed iraage in the soul is light, as it
was hia firat work in the natural or raaterial
world. What availait ua to live in the noon
day Ught of the gospel, if our hearta be stiU
shut against it, and ao we be nothing but
darkness within ? as a house that is close
shut up, and hath no entry for light, though
it be day without, stiU it is night within.
3. Consider your deUght in the works of
darkneas, and be afraid of that great condeiri.
nation. This is the condemnation of the
world, that light is come into it, and men
love darkness rather than light, John iii. 19.
4. You that are indeed partakers of this
happy change, let your hearts be habitations
of Ught: Eph. v. 11, " Have no feUowship
with the unfruitful worka of darkness, but
rather reprove thera." Study rauch to in. ,
creaae in apiritual light and knowledge, and
withal in hoUneas and obedience. If your
light be this light of God, truly apiritual
light, theae wiU accorapany it. Consider
the rich love of God, and account His light
marvellous, aa in itaelf, so in this, that he
hath bestowed it on you; and seeing you
were once darkness, but now are light in ihe
Lord, I beseech ypu, nay the apoatle, and
in him the Spirit of God doea it. Walk as
children of the light, Eph. v. 8.
But, to proceed to apeak tp the other parts
of this verse, under the second head, the
Pri-nciple of ihis Calling.
It is known and confessed to be a chief
point of wisdom in a man, to consider what
he ia, from whom he hath his being, and to
what end. When a Christian hath thought

f»8

A COMMENTARY UPON

[ CHAP, u;

on thia in his natural being, as he is a man,
he hath the same to consider over again of
nia apiritual being, as he ia a Christian, and
so a new creature. And in this notion, aU
the three are very clearly represented to hira
in these words. 1. What he is. Firat, by
these titles pf dignity in the firat words of
thia verae : And again, by an estate oflight
in the last clause of it. 2. Whence a
Christian hath this exceUent being, is very
clearly expreased here. He hath called.
That God, who ia the Author of aU kind of
being, hath given you this, called you from
darkness into his marvellous light. Ii you
be a chosen generation, it is He that- hath
chosen you, 1 Pet. i. 2. If you be a royal
priesthood, you know that it ia He that hath
anointed you. If a holy nation, he hath
sanctified you, John xvii. 17- Ha pecu
liar or purchased people, it is He that hath
bought you, 1 Cor. vi. 20. AU are in this
calling, and they are aU one thing. 3. To
what end, to shew forth his praises. Of
the firat of theae, in aU the several exprea.
sions of it, we have spoken before ; now are
to be considered the other two.
II. He hath called you.] They that
Uve in the society, and profess the faith of
Christians, are called unto light, the light of
the goapel that ahines in the church of God.
Npw, this is np sraaU favpur and privilege,
while raany pepple are left in darkness and
in the shadow of death, tp have this light
arise upon ua, and to be in the region of it,
the Church, the Goshen of the world ; for
by thia outward light, we are invited to thia
happy atate of aaving inward light, and that
is here to be understood as the means of this.
Theae Jews that were called to the profession
of the Christian faith, to whom our apostle
writes, were even in that caUed unto a light
hid frora the rest of their nation, and from
many other nations in the world : But be.
cause the apostle doth undoubtedly describe
here the lively spiritual state of true be
lievers ; therefore, this calUng doth further
import the efl'ectual work of conversion,
making the day-light of aalvation, not only
without but within thera, the day-star to
arise in their hearts, aa he apeaks, 2 Pet.
i. 19. When the sun is arisen, yet if a raan
be lying fast in a dark prison, and in a deep
sleep too, it is not day to hira ; he is not
called to light, tiU aome open the doors and
awake him, and bring hira forth to it. This
God doth, in the calling here raeant. That
which is here terraed calling, in regard of
the v/ay of God'a working with the soul, ia,
in regard of the power of it, caUed a rescu
ing, and bringing forth of the aoul ; so the
apostle St. Paul speaks of it, Col. i. 13,
Delivered from ihe power of darkness, and
iranslated to the kingdom of his dear Son.
That delivering and translating ia thia call
ing : and it is frora the power of darkness.

a forcible power, that detains the aoul cap*
tive : Aa there are chains of etemal dark
ness, upon daraned apirita, which ahaU never
be taken off, wherein they are said to be re
served io the judgment of ihe great day ;
so there are chaina of apiritual darknesa upon
the unconverted apul, that can be taken off
by no other hand, but the powerful hand of
God. He caUa the ainner to come forth ;
and withal cauaea, by the power of his voice,
the bolts and fetters to fall off, and enables
the soul tp coine forth into the light. It is
an operative word that effecta what it bids,
aa that in the creation. He said. Let there
be light, and it was light. To which the
apoatle hath reference, when he aays, God,
who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness, hath shined into your hearts.
2 Cor. iv. 6. God caUs man, he works with
him indeed, as with a reasonable creature;
but sure he Ukewise works as hiraself, as an
Almighty Creator. He works strongly, and
sweetly, with an alraighty easiness. One
man may caU another to this light; and if
there be no raore, he may call long enough
to no purpose ; as they teU of Mahomet's
rairacle that raiagave, he caUed a mountain
to come to him, but it atined not. But his
caU that shakes and reraovea the raountains,
doth in a way known to hiraaelf, tum and
wind the heart which way he pleaseth. The
voice of the Lord is powerful and full of
majesty, Psal. xxix, 4. If he apeaks once to
the heart, it cannot choose but follow him,
and yet raost willingly chooses that. The
workings of grace (as oil, to which it is often
corapared) do insensibly and silently pene-
trate, and sink into the aoul, and dilate
theraselves through it. That word of his
own calling disentangles the heart from all
its nets (as it did the disciples) to follow
Chriat. That call that brought St. Matthew
presently frora his receipt of custom, puts off
the heart frora all its customs and receipts
too; makea it reject gaina and pleasures,
and all that hinders it to go after Christ.
And it is a caU that touches the soul so, as
the touch of Elijah's mantle, that made
Elisha follow him. Go back, said he, for
what have I done unto thee? yet he had
done so much, as made him forsake aU to go
with him, 1 Kings xix. 20. And this every
beUever is most ready to acknpwledge, that
knows what the rebellipn pf his heart was,
and what his miserable Ipve of darkness was ;
that the gracious, yet mighty caU of God
was that which drew hira out of it, and
therefore he wiUingly assents to that.
Which leads us to the third thing to le
spoken of, namely, the end pf this calling
and state pf Christians, which is to show
forth his praise, who hath so raercifuUy,
and so powerfuUy, caUed them frpm sp ni'i-
serable to so happy an estate.
I For, 1. this is God's end in calling I'S, to

VER. 9.1

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

97

coraraunicate his goodnesa to us, that so the
glory of it may return to hiraaelf. The
highest agent cannot work but for the highest
end ; so that, as the apostle speaks, when Gpd
wo'Jd confirm his covenant by an oath, he
sicare by himself, because he could swear
by no greater ; so in aU things he rauat be
the end of his own actions ; because there is
no greater, nor better end, yea none by in.
finite odds so great or good ; particularly in
the calling and exalting a number of lost
mankind to ao great honour and happiness ;
both in designing that great work and in
performing it, he airas at the opening, and
declaring of his rich grace, for the glory of
it: As the apostle St. Paul teUs us once
and again, Eph. i. 6, 12.
2. As thia is God's end, it ought to be
ours, and therefore purs because it ia his.
And fpr thia very purpose, bpth here and
elsewhere, are we put in raind of it, that we
raay be trae to his end, and intend it With
hinj : This is his purpose in calUng us, and
therefore it is our great duty, being so caU
ed, to declare hia praiaes. AU thinga and
peraons ahaU pay this tribute ; even they
that are most unwiUing : But the happineaa
of his chosen ia, that they are active in it,
others are passive only. "Whereas the rest
have his praise ¦wrested ftom thera, they do
declare it cheerfuUy, ¦ as the glorious angels
do. As the gospel' brings them glad tidings
of peace frora God, and declares to them
that love and mercy that is in him, they
sraother it not, but proclaim it ; they declare
it, and set forth the glory of it with their
utmoat ppwer and skiU.
There be in this twp thinga : 1. Npt only
to speak upon aU occasions to the advantage
of his grace, but tha't the frame of their ac
tions be such as doth tend to the exalting of
God : Arid 2. That .in thpse actipns they
dp intend this end, pr set up this fpr their
aim. I. Their wprds and actipns being cpnfpr.
mable tp that high and hply estate tp which
they are called, do cpmmend and praise their
Lprd, that hath called them tp it. The
virtues that are in thera teU us pf His vir
tues, aa brpoks lead us to their springs.
Then faith glorifies God, when a Christian
can quietly repose and trust on God, in a
matter of very great difficulty, wherein there
is IIP Pther thing tp stay him hut Gpd alpne ;
this declares, that there is strength enpugh
in Gpd that bears him up, that there raust
be in hira that real abundance of gopdness
and truth that the ivprd speaks pf hira,
" Abraham beUeved and gave glpry tp Gpd,"
Rpra. iv. 20. This is that which a believer
can dp; to declare the truth pf Gpd, he
relies on it'. " He that beUeves acta to his
seal that God is trae," John iii. .33. So
also their holiness is for his' praise. Men
hear that diere is a God who is infinitely

holy, but they can neitiier S2e him nor hia
holiness ; but when they pciceive some li
neaments of it in the faces of his children,
which are no others, this raay cpnvince them
that its perfection, which must be some
where, can be nowhere else but in their
heavenly Father. When those that are his
pecuUar plants, bring forth the fruits of ho-
lineaa, which naturally they yielded not, it
teatifiea a supernatural work of His hand
that planted them, and the more they are
fruitful the greater is his praise. Herein
(says our Saviour, John xv. 8,) is your
heavenly Father glorified, that ye bring
forth much fruit. Were it not the con
science of this duty to God, and posaibly
the neceaaity of their station and calling, it
may be, some Christian had rather altoge
ther lock up, and keep within him any grace
he hath, than let it appear at all, considering
some hazarda he and it run in the dis-"
covery ; and, it may be, could take some
pleasure in the world's mistakes, and dis
esteem of him. But, seeing both piety and
charity require the acting of graces in con
verse with men, that which hypocrisy doth
for itself, a real Christian may, and should
do for God.
2. The other thing mentioned as making
up this rule, wiU give the difference ; that
not only what we speak and do, should be
such as agrees with this end, but that in so
speaking and doing, our eye be upon this
end : That all our Christian conversation
be directly intended by us, not to cry up our
ov/n virtues, but to glorify God, and his
virtues, to declare His praises, who hath
called us.
Let your Ught, says our Saviour, Matt.
v. 16, shine, and shine before men too ;
that is not forbidden, yea it is commanded :
But it is thua comraanded. Let your light
so shine before men, that they seeing your
good works, youraelvea as little as raay be,
your works raore than youraelvea (as the sun
gives us its light, and will scarce suffer us to
look upon itself,) may glorify whora ? You ?
Np ; but your Father who is in heaven.
Let your light shine, it is given for that
purpoae, but let it shine always to the glory
of the Father of lights. Men that seek
theraaelves, may share in the same public
kind of actipns with you : but let your secret
intention, which God eyes most, sever you.
This ia the aeal and impression that a sincere
and hurable Christian sets upon aU his actions,
the glory of God : He useth all he hath,
especially aU his graces, to His praise that
gives it ; and is sorry he hath no more for
this use ; and is daily seeking after more,
not tp bring mpre esteem to himself, but more
hpnpur tP Gpd. It is a poor booty to hunt
after that, naraely, an airy vain breath of
The best things in thera, their soUd

est good, is altogether vanity.
G

How much'

£8

A CO.MMENTARY UPON

[chap. 11..

mpre that which is Ughtest and vainest in
them. This is the mind that is in every
¦Christian, in all his ways te deny himself, and
be wiUing te abuse hiraself tp exaU his Mas
ter ; to be of St. Paul's temper, that regard.
ed not himaelf at aU, honour or dishonour,
prison or liberty, life or death, content he- was
with any thing, ao Christ might be magni
fled, PhU. 1. 20.
And aa every godly raind rauat be thus af
fected, eapeciaUy the rainiatera of the gospel,
they that are not only called with othera to
partake of thia raarveUous Ught, but are in a
special raanner to hpld it forth to others, how
do pure affections becorae them, and ardent
deaires to promote His glory who hath sp
caUed them 1 A rush for your praiae or dia-
praise of us ! only receive Jesus Chriat, and
eateera highly of him, and it ia enough.
That is the thing we give to aome of you.
We preach not ourselves, saya the apoatle,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, 2 Cor. iv. 5.
That is our ertand, not to catch, either at
base gain, or vain applause for ourselves, but
to exalt our Lord Jesua in the hearta of men.
And to those that are so minded there is a
reward abiding them, of auch riches, and
honour, as they would be very loath to ex
change for any thing to be had amongat
men. But, in thia atation, thia is the mind pf
every pne that Ipves the Lord Jesus, most
heartily to make a sacrifice of himself, and
aU he is and hath ; means, and esteem, and
Ufe, and aU to His glory, that humbled him-
self so low, tp exalt us tp these dignities, tp
make us kings and priests unto God.
It ia moat just, aeeing we have our crowns
frora hira, and that he hath aet them on our
heads, that we take them in our hands, and
throw them dpwn before his throne. All
pur graces (if we have any) are hia free gift,
and are given aa the rich garments pf this
spiritual priesthpod, only to attire ua auitably
for thia apiritual sacrifice of his praises : As
the costly vesture of the high-priest under
the law, was not appointed to make hira gay
for himaelf, but to decorate him for his holy
service, and to commend as a figure of it the
perfect holinesa wherewith our great High
Priest Jesus Christ waa clothed. What
good thing have we, that ia not from the
hand of our good God ; and receiving all
trora hira, and after a special raanner spiri
tual blesainga, ia it not reasonable that aU
we have, but those spiritual gifts especiaUy,
should declare his praiae, and his only ?
David did not grow big with vain thoughts,
and lift up himself, because God had lift
hira up ; but cries out, Psal. xxx. 1, / will
extol thee, because thou hast lifted me up.
The visible heavens, and aU the beauty and
aU the lights in thera, speak nothing but
His glory that framed them, as the Psalmist
teacheth us, Psal. xix, 1 ; and shall not

thess spiritual lights, his called ones,, whom
he hath made light so peculiarly for that
purpose, theae stars in his right hand, do it
rauch more ? Oh ! let it be thus with us ;
the more he gives, be stiU the more humble,
and let him have the return of mpre glory,,
and let it ge entire tp hira : It is aU his
due, and in doing thus, we shaU stiU grow
richer ; for where he sees the raoat faithful
aervant, that purloina nothing, but imprpvea
aU tP his maater'a advantage, sure him he
wiU trust with raost.
And as it is thus bpth mpst due to God,
and most profitable for ourselves, in all to
seek hia praises ; ao it ia the most exceUent
and generoua intent, to have the aame thought
with God, the aame purpoae that ia his, and
to aim no lower than at hia glory ; whereas
it is a base poor thing for a man to seek
bimself, far below that royal dignity that ia
here put upon Christiana, and that priesthood
joined with it. Under the law, they that
were squint-eyed were incapable of the priest
hood, Levit. xxi. 20 ; truly this squinting
out to our own interest, Ipoking aside to that,
(in God's affaira eapeciaUy,) ao deforms the
face of the soul, that it raakes it altogether
unworthy the hpnour of this spiritual priest
hood. Oh ! thia ia a large task, an infinite
taak. The aeveral creaturea bear their part
in thia ; the aun aaya apraewhat, and moon
and stars, yea, the lowest have some share in
it ; the very plants and herbs of the field
apeak of God, and yet the very higheat and
beat, yea, aU of them together, the whole
consort of heaven and earth, cannot shew
forth all his praise to the full. No, it is ,
but a part, the smaUest part, of that glory
which they can reach.
We all pretend to these dignities, in that
we profeas ourselves Christians ; but if we
have a mind to be resplved pf the trath in
thia, (for many, many are deceived in it,)
we may, by asking purselves seripusly, and
answering truly tp thia : 1st, Whether are
my actipna and the cpurse pf my Ufe such,
as give evidence pf the grace of God, and so
apeak his praise ? If not, sure I am not of
this number that God hath thua called and
dignified : And thia I fear would degrade
many. 2dly, If ray Ufe be aomewhat re-
gular and Chriatian-like, yet whether dp I in
it aU, aingly and conatantiy, without any
aelfiah or ainiater end, desire and seek the
glory of God alone ? Otherwise, I may be
like this chosen generation : but I ara not
of them : And this out of doubt would make
the number yet far less. WeU, think on it,
it is a miserable condition for raen, either to
be grossly staining and dishonouring the
holy religion they profess, or in seeraing to
serve and honour God, to be serving and
seeking themselves ; it is the way to lose
themselves for ever. Oh ! it is a comfortable
thing to have an upright mind, and to love

vi:r. 10.]

TIIE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

God for hiraself, and love seeks not itsowu
tilings, 1 Cor. xiii. 5. They are truly happy
that make this their work ; sincerely, though
weakly, tp advance the praises pf their Gpd
in all things ; and finding the great imper-
fectipn pf their best dUigence in this work
here, are stiU longing to be in that state where
they shaU do it better.
Ver. 10. Which in time past were nota people,
but are now the people of God : 'Which had not
obtained m.rcy, but now have obtained mercy.
The love of God to his chUdren ia the
great aubject both of hia word and of their
thoughta, and therefore is it that his word
(the rule of their thoughts and whole Uvea)
speaks so much of that love ; to that very
end, that they may think much, and eateem
highly of it, and walk answerably to it.
Thia ia the scope of St. Paul's dpctrine to
the Ephesians, and the top ofhis desires for
them, Eph. iii. 17, and this is our apostle's
aim here. As he begari the Epistle with
opposing their election in heaven to their dia-
peraion on earth, the aarae consideration runs
through the whole of it. Here he is repre
senting to thera the great fruit of that love,
that happy and high estate to which they are
called in Chriat ; that the chooaing o( Chriat,
and of beUevera, is as one act, and they as
one entire object of it ; one glorious teraple ;
He the foundation and head corner-stone,
and they the edifice, one honourable frater
nity ; He the King of kings and Great High-
Priest, and they Ukewise through hira raade
kinga and prieats unto God the Father, a
royal priesthood, Scc. He the light of the
world, and they through him children of
light. Now that this their dignity, which
shines so bright in its own innate worth, may
yet appear the raore, the apostie here seta it
off by a double oppoaition.
1. Of the miaery under which others are,
and also that raisery under which they thera
selves were before their calUng. And this
being set on both sides, is as a dark shadow
ing round about their happiness here descri.
bed setting off the lustre of it.
1 . Their forraer miaery, expressed in the
former verse by darkness, ia here more fuUy
and plainly aet before their view in these
worda ; they are boreowed frora the prophet
Hoaea, ii. 23, where (as ia uaual with the
prophets,) he is raised up by the Spirit of
God, frpm the temppral trpubles, and deliver
ances pf the Israelites, tP cpnsider and fore
teU that great restoration wrought by Jesus
Christ, purchasing a new people to himself,
made up bpth pf Jews and Gentiles that be
lieve : And therefpre the prpphecy is fit and
appUcable tp bpth ; sp that the debate is al
together needless, whether it concerns the
Tews or Gentiles. For in its spiritual sense,
as relating to the kingdom of Christ, it fore-
teUs the making- the Gentiles, that were not
before sp, the people of God, and the recp-

very pf the Jews Ukewise, who by their apos
tasies, and the captivities and diapersiona
which came upon them, aa juat punishments
of thoae apostaaiea, were degraded from the
outward dignitiea they had as the people
of God, and withal were spirituaUy misera
ble and captives by nature, and so in both
respects laid equal vtth the Gentilea, and
stood as much in need of this restitution aa
they. St. Paul useth it, concerning the call
ing of the Gentiles, Rora. ix. 25. And
here St. Peter, writing, as is raost proba
ble, particularly to the dispersed Jews, ap
plies it to them, as being, in the very refer
ence it bears to the Jews, truly fulfilled in
those alone that were beUevera, faith making
them a part of the trae larael of God, to
which the promiaea do peculiarly belong, as
the aposde St. Paul arguea at large, Rom.
ix. 2. We have their present happiness ; and
thia we alao have here under a double expres
sion, they were not a people ; destitute of
mercy ; not ihe people of God, says the pro
phet ; not a people, says our apostle ; being
not God's people, so base and raiserable as
not to be worthy of the name of a people at
aU, as it ia taken, Deut. xxxii. 21.
There is a kind of being, a life that a aoul
hath by a peculiar union with God ; and
therefore in that sense the soul without God
is dead, as the body is without the soul, Eph.
ii. I. Yea, as the body separated frora the
soul is not only a Ufeleaa lump, but putrifies
and becomes noisome and aborainable ; thus
the soul separated from God is subject to a
more loathsome and vile putrefaction, Psal.
xiv. 3. So that men that are yet unbeUevers,
are not, aa the Hebrewa> expreased death ;
and multitudea of them are not a people,
but a heap pf filthy carcaaes. Again, take
pur natural raiaery in the nptipn pf a cipti-
vity, which was the judgraent threatened
againat the Jewa te raake thera not a people ;
therefore their captivity ia often apoke of as
a death by the prophets, and their reduction
as their resurrection, Ezek. xxxvii. And aa
a captive pepple is civiUy dead, aa they apeak,
SP a apul captive tp ain, and the prince pf
darkness, is spirituaUy dead, wanting hap
piness and weU-being, which if it never at
tain, it had better, fpr itself, npt be at aU.
There is npthing but disprder and cpnfusipn
in the spul withput Gpd, the affectipns hurry
ing it away turaultupusly, aa in a state of
anarchy. Thus captive sinners are not ; they are
dead ; they want that happy being that fiows
from God to the souls that are united toTiim-
self, and consequently raust want that society
and union with pne another, which results
from the former, results from the sarae union
that beUevers have with God, and the same
being in hira ; which raakes them ftiily
worthy to be called a people, ancl particularly

100

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. II.

the people of God. His people are the only
people in the world worthy to be caUed a
people ; the rest are but refuse and dross,
although in the world's esteem, that judges
by its own rules, and favour of itself, the
people of God be as no body, no people, a
company of siUy creatures ; yea, we are made,
saya the great apostle, 05 the filth of the
world, and the off-scouring of all things,
1 Cor. iv. 13; yet, inhis account who hath
chosen them, (who alone knowa the true
value of things,) his people are the only peo
ple, and aU the rest of the world as nothing
in his eyes. He dignifies and beautifies
them, and loves in thera that beauty which
he hath given thera.
But under that terra is not only coraprised
that new being of believera in each one of
them apart ; but that tie and union that ia
amongat them as one people, being incorpo
rated together, and Uving under the aame
government and lawa, without which a people
are beaata of the field, or the fishes of the
sea, and ihe creeping things that have no
ruler over them, as the prophet, Hab. i. 14,
speaks. That regular living in aociety, and
union in laws and poUcy, makea many men
to be one people ; but the civil union of raen
in atatea and kingdora, ia nothing compara
ble to the myaterious union of the people of
God with him, and one with another. That
commonwealth hath a firmer union than aU
othera. Believera are knit together in Christ
as their head ; not merely a civil or political
head ruling them, but aa a natural head,
enUvening them, giving thera aU one life.
Men in other aocietiea, though weU ordered,
yet are but aa a multitude of treea, regularly
planted indeed, but each hath his own root :
But the faithful are all branches of one root,
their union ia so myaterious, that it ia cora
pared to the very union of Christ with hia
Father, as it is indeed the product of it,
John xvii. 21.
People of God. ] " I will aay to them.
Thou art my people, and they ahaU aay. Thou
art my God," Hoa. ii. 23. That mutual in
tereat and poaseaaion ia the very foundation
of aU our comfort. He ia the first chooser ;
he first saya. My people, calls thera so, and
makes them to be ao ; and then they aay.
My God. It is therefore a relation that
ahaU hold and ahall not break, becauae it is
founded upon his choice who changes not.
The tenor of an extemal covenant with a
people, aa the Jewa particularly found, is
such as may be broken by raan'a unfaithful-
neas, though God reraain faithful and true :
But the new covenant of grace makea all
sure on aU handa, and cannot be broken ;
the Lord not only keeping hia own part, but
Ukewise performing ours, in us, and for us,
and estabUshing us, that as he departs not
from us first, so we shaU not depart from hira.
/ will betrothe thee to me, says he there, for

ever : It ia an indiasoluble marriage, that
is not in danger tp be broke either by di
vorce or death.
My People.] There is treasure of in
atruction and corafort wrapt up in that word,
not pnly raore than the profane v/orld can im
agine, for they indeed know nothing at all
of it, but mpre than they that are pf that
number are able to conceive, a deep unfathom
able. My People. They hia portion, and
he ia theira. He accounta nothing of all the
world beside them, and they of nothing at aU
beside hira ; for them he continues the world.
Many and great are the privUeges of his
people contained in that great charter, the
holy scripturea, and rich ia that land where
their inheritance lies ; but all fiowa from this
reciprocal relation, that he is iheir God.
AU hia power and wiadom ia engaged for ,
their good : how great and many soever are
their eneraies, they may weU oppose this to
aU, he is iheir God. They are sure to be
protected and prospered, and in the end to
have fuU victory. " Happy then is that
people whose God is the Lord," Psal.
xxxiii. 12.
Which had not obtained mercy.] The
mercies of ihe Lord to hia choaen are from
everlasting ; yet so long as his decree of
raercy runs hid, and is not diacovered to
them in the effecta of it, they are said not to
have received or obtained mercy : and when
it begina to act and work in their effectual
caUing, then they find it to be theira. It
waa in a aecret way moving forward towards
them before, aa the sun after midnight is stiU
coraing nearer to us, though we perceive not
ita approach till the dawning of the day.
Mercy.] The fonner word, the people of
God, teachea us how great the change is that
is wrought by the caUing of God ; it makes
those his people who were not a people.
This word, obtained mercy, discovers the
spring ftom whence it flows ; and Ukewise
teaches ua, 1. How free it is ; this is indeed
impUed in the words of the change, of no
people, auch aa have no right to auch a dig
nity at aU, and in themselves no disposition
for it ; to be made his people, can be owing
to nothing but free grace ; such mercy as
supposes nothing, and seeks nothing but
miaejy in ua, and worka uppn that. Aa it
ia expressed te have been very free tp this
pepple of the Jews, in choosing them before
the rest of the world, Deut. vii. 7, 8, ao it
ia to the spiritual larael of God, and to every
one particularly belonging to that company.
Why is it that he chooaeth one of a family,
and leaves another, but because it pleaseth
him ? He blots -out iheir transgressions for
his own name's sake, Isa. xUii. 25. And,
2. As it is free mercy, so it is tender mercy ;
the word in the prophet signifies tenderness,
or bowels of compassion, and such are the
mercies of pur Gpd towards us, Jer. xxxi. 20.

vKu. 9.]

TUE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

101

The bpwels pf a fadier, Psal. ciii. 13, and
if ypu think not that tendemess enough, those
of a mother, yea more than a mother, Isa.
xlix. 15. 3. It is rich mercy, which
delights to glorify itself in the greatest
misery ; and pardons as easily the greatest
as the smaUest of debts. 4. A constant un
alterable mercy, a stream stiU running.
Now in both these the apostle draws the
eyes of Jielievers to reflect on their former
misery, and view it together with their pre
sent state. This is very frequent in the
scriptures, Ezek. xvi. Eph. xxi, 1 Cor. vi.
11, &c. And it is of very great use ; it
werks the spul pf a Christian tp much hu
miUty and love, and thankfulness and obe
dience. It cannot choose but force him to abase
himself and magnify the free grace and love
of God, and this may be one reason why it
pleaseth the Lord to suspend the conver
sion of many, for many years of their life,
yea, to suffer some of jhem to stain thpse
years with grievpus and grpss sins ; that the
riches and glpry pf his grace, and freeness pf
. his chpice, may be the rapre legible bpth tp
themselves and pthers. Likewise those ap
prehensions of wrath due to sin, and sights of
heU as it were, that he bringa some unto,
either at or after their converaion, make for
thia aame end. That glorious description of
the New Jeruaalem, Rev. xxi. 16, &c, is
abundantly deUghtful in itself, and yet the
fiery lake spoke of there, ver. 8, raakea aU
that is sppke pf the pther apund rauch the
sweeter. But, universaUy, aSl the gpdly have this to
consider, that they were strangers and ene
mies to God : and let each of thera think.
Whence was it, that I, a lump of the aame
poUuted clay with those that perish, should
be taken and purified and irioulded by the
Lord's own hand for a vessel of glory ?
Nothing but free grace makes the difference ;
and where can there be love, and praises, and
service found to anawer this ? AU is to be
ascribed to the mercy, gifts, and caUing of
Christ. Andhis ministers (as doth St. Paul,)
ascribe it to his mercy that ihey faint not,
2 Coif. iv. 1.
But, alas ! we neither enjoy the corafort
of thia raercy aa obtained, nor are grieved for
wanting it, and stirred up to seek after it, if
not yet obtained. What dp ypu think ?
seeras it a sraaU thing in ypur eyes tp be
shut put from the presence of God, and to
bear the weight pf his wrath fpr ever, that
you thus slight this raercy, and let it pass
by you unregarded ? or will that iraagined
ohtaining divert you frora the real pursuit of
it ? Will you be wiUingly deceived, and be
your own deceivers in a matter of so great
importance ? You cannot think too highly
pf the riches pf divine raercy ; it is abPve all
ypur thpughts ; but remeraher and cpnsider

this, that there is a peculiar people pf his
own, to whora alpne aU the riches of it do be
long. And therefore, how great soever it is, un.
less you find yourselves of that nuraber,
you cannot lay claira to the sraaUest share of
it. And ypu are net ignorant what is their
character, what a kind of people they are,
that have such a knowledge of God as hira
aelf gives ; they are all taught of God, en
lightened and sanctified by his Spirit, a holy
people, aa he ia a holy God, such as have the
riches cf that hia grace, by which they are
saved, in most precious esteera, and their
hearts by it infiaraed with his love ; and there
fore their thoughts taken up with nothing so
rauch aa studying how they raay obey and
honour hira ; rather choosing to displease
aU the world, than offend him ; and account.
ing nothing too dear, yea, nothing' good
enough to do hira service. If it be thus
with you, then you have indeed obtained
mercy. But if you be such as can wallow in the
same puddle with the profane world, and
ta'Ke a share of their ungodly ways ; or if,
though your outward caniage be somewhat
more smooth, you regard iniqxiity in your
hearts, have your hearta ardent in the love
and pursuit of the world, but frozen to God ;
if you have sorae boaora idol that you hide
and entertain, and cannot find in your heart
to part with aome one beloved ain, whatao-
ever it is, for all the love that God hath
raanifested to man in the Son of his love
Jeaus Christ : In a word, if you can please
and delight yourself in any way displeasing
unto God, (though hia people while they
are here have apota, yet these are not spots
of his people that I ara now speaking of,)
I can give you no assurance that as yet you
have obtained mercy : On the contrary, it is
certain that the wrath of God is still abid
ing on you, and if you continue in this state,
you are in apparent danger pf perishing
under it. Ypu are yet children of spiritual
darkness, and in the way to utter and ever
lasting darkness. Know ye what it is to be
destitute of this mercy ? It is a woeful
state, though you had aU worldly enjoy
ments, and were in the top of outward pros
perity, to be shut out from the mercy and
love of God.
There is nothing doth so kindly work re
pentance, as the right apprehension of the
iftercy and love, of God. The beams of that
love are more powerful to melt the heart than
all the flaraes of raount Sinai, aU the threat
tenings and tenors of the law : Sin is the
root of our misery ; and therefore it is the
proper work of thia mercy to rescue the soul
from it ; both from the guilt, and the power
of it at pnce. Can ypu think there is any
suitableness in it, that the pecuUar pepple of
Gpd shpuld despise his laws, and uractiae

102

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. ir.

npthing but rebeUions ? That thpse in whom
he hath magnified his mercy, should take
pleasure in abusing it ? and that he hath
washed any with the blood of his Son, tp
the end that they raay atill wallow again in
the mire ? Aa if we were redeemed not from
sin but io sin : As if we shpuld say. We
are delivered io do all these abominations,
Jer. vii. 10. Oh ! let us not dare thus to
abuae and affront the free grace of God, if
we raean to be aaved by it : Let aa raany as
would be found among those that obtain
mercy, walk as his people, whose peculiar
inheritance is his raercy. And seeing this
grace of God hath appeared unto us, let ua
erabrace it, and let it effectually teach us io
deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. Tit.
ii. 11, 12.
And if you be perauaded to be eamest
suitors for this mercy, aud to fly in to Jesus,
who is the true mercy-seat, then be assured
it is yours. I^et not the greateat guiltiness
scare you and drive you from it, but rather
drive you the more to it ; for the greater the
weight of that miaery is under which you
lie, the more need you have of this mercy,
and the raore wiU be the glory of it in you.
It ia a atrange kind pf argument used by the
Psalraist, and yet a aure pne, it concludea
well and atrongly, (Paal. xxv. 7,) " Lord
pardon my iniquity, for it ia great." The
soul preaaed with the greatness of its sin
lying heavy upon it, may make that very
pressure an argument to press the forgive
ness of it at the hands of free mercy ; it is
for thy name sake, that makes it strong ;
the force of the inference Ues in that. Thpu
art nothing, and worse than npthing ; true !
but aU that ever obtained this mercy were
once so: They were nothing of aU that
which it hath made thera to be ; they were
not a people, had no interest in God, were
strangers to raercy, yea, heirs of wrath :
Yea,, they had not ao rauch as a deaire after
God, untd thia raercy prevented them, and
shewed itaelf to them, and them to them
selves, and so moved them to desire it, and
caused them to flnd it, caught hold on them
and plucked them out of the dungeon. And
it is unquestionably stiU the same, and fads
not ; ever expending, and yet never aU spent,
yea, not so much as at aU diminished ; flow
ing aa the rivers from one age to another,
serving each age in the present, and yet no
whit the leaa to thoae that come after. He
who exercises it ia The LORD forgiving
iniquity, trariagreaaion, and sin, to aU that
come unto hira, and yet stiU keeping raercy
for thousands that corae after, Exod. xxxiv, 7.
You that have obtained this mercy, and
have the seal of it within you, it wiU certain
ly conform your hearts to its own nature, it
will work you to a merciful compassionate
temper of mind to the souls of others that
have not yet obtained it. You will indeed.

as the Lord doth, hate sin ; but, as he doth
likewise, ypu will pity the sinner. Ypu wiU
be SP far frpm raiscpnstruing and gtumbUng
at the Ipug-suffering pf Gpd, as if ypu would
have the bridge cut because ypu are ever, as
St. Augustine speaks, that, pn the cpntrary,
ypur great desire wiU be te draw pthers' to
partake of the same raercy with you, knew.
ing it tP be rich enpugh : And ypu wiU in
your station use your beat diligence tp bring
in raany tp it, bpth in Ipve tp the aoula of
raen, and to the glory of God.
And withal, you wiU be stiU admiring
and extpUing this mercy as it is manifested
unto you, considering what it ia, and what
you were before it visited yon. The Is
raeUtes cpufeaaed, at the pffering pf the first
fruits, Deut. xxv. 5, tp set pff the bpunty of
God, A Syrian ready to perish was mg
father ,- they confesaed their captivity in
Egypt : but far poorer and baser is our na-
tural condition," and far more precipus is that
land, tn the ppaaeaaion of which this free
mercy bringeth ua.
Do but caU back your thoughts, you that
have indeed escaped it, and look but into
that pit of miaery, whence the hand of the
Lord hath drawn you out, and you cannot
miaa to love hira highly, and still kiss that
gracious hand, even while it is scourging
you with any afHiction whatsoever : because
it hath once done this for you, namely,
plucked you out of everlasting destruction.
As the thoughta of thia change wUl teach us
to praise, Psal. xl. 28, ""He hath brpught
me up out pf an hprrible pit ;" then foUows,'
" He hath put a new song in my mouth,
even praise unto our Gpd ; npt pnly redeem
ed me frpm destraction, but withal crowned
rae with glory and honour," Paal. ciii. 4.
He not only doth forgive all our debta, and
let ua put pf prispn, but enriches us with an
estate that cannpt be apent, and dignifies us
with a crpwn that cannpt wither, made up
pf npthing of oura. These twp. wiU stretch
and tune the heart very high, tp cpnsider
from what a low estate grace brings a man,
and hew high it dpth exalt him ; in what a
beggarly vile condition the Lord finds us,
and yet doth not only free us thence, but
puts auch dignities ou us ; " raises up the
poor put pf the dust, and Ufts the needy out
of the dunghiU, that he may be set with
princes, even with the princes of his people,"
Psal. cxiU. 7, 8. Or as Joshua the priest,
Zech. iii. 3, 4, 5, puts off ihe polluted gar.
ments, and sets on a fair mitre. So those
of this priesthood are dealt withal.
New, that we may be the deeper in die sense
and admiration of this mercy, it ia indeed
our duty to seek eamestly after the evidence
and strong assurance of it ; for things work
on us accprding tp pur notice and apprehen
sions of them, and therefore the more right
assurance of mercv. the more love, nnrl thank-

VEU. 11.

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF P1!TER.

I n.l

fulness, and pbedience springs frpra it :
Therefpre it is, that the apostie here repre
sents this great and happy change pf estate
tp Christians, as a thing that they raay knew
cpnceming theraselves, and pught tp seek the
knowledge of, that 'so they maybe duly affect
ed with it. And it is indeed a happy thing to
have in the soul an extract of that great archive
and act of grace towards it, that hath stood in
heaven ftom etemity. It is sure both a very
comfortable and profitable thing, to find and
read clearly the seal of mercy upon the soul,
which is holiness, that by which a man is
marked by God, as a part of his peculiar pos
session that he hath choaen out of the world :
And when we perceive any thing of thisj let
us look back, aa here die apoatle would have ua
to do, and reflect hpw Gpd has called us
from darkness to his marvellous light.
Vbr. 11. Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers
and pilgrims, abstain from flesluy lusts, which
war against the soul.
The right apiritual knpwledge that a
Christian hath pf Gpd and pf himself, differ-
encedi itself frcra whatspever is likest to it,
by the ppwer and influence it hath uppn the
heart and Ufe. And in thia it hath the lively
irapressipn pf that doctrine of the holy scrip
tures that teachea it ; wherein we stiU find
throughout, that the high mysteries of reli
gion are accompanied with practical traths,
which not 'only agree with thera, but are
drawn out of them, and that not violently
drawn, but naturaUy fiowing from them, aa
pure atreams from a pure apring. Thus in
this epistle we find the apostie intermixing
hia doctrine with the raoat uaeful and prac
tical exhortations, chap. i. ver. 13, 22, and
in the beginning of this chapter again, and
now in these words. '
And upon this model ought both the
ministers of the gospel to form their preach
ing, and the hearers their ear. Minis'ters are
not to instruct only, or" exhort only, but to do
both. To exhort men to hoUness and the
duties of a Christian Ufe, without instructing
men in the doctrine of faith, and bringing
them t(J Jesus Christ, is ¦ to build a house
without a foundation. And on the other
side, to instruct the raind in the knowledge
of divine things, and neglect the. pressing of
that practice and power of godliness, which
is the undivided companion of true faith, is
to forget the building that ought tp be raised
uppn that fpundation once laid, which is Uke
wise a point of very great folly. Or if men
laying that right foundation, do proceed to
the superstructure of vain and empty specula
tions, it is but to build hay and stubble, 1
Cor. iii. 12,, instead of those solid truths that
direct the soul in the way to happiness, which
are of more soUdity and worth than gold and
silver, and precious stones, 1 Tim, iii. 9.
Christ, and the doctrine that reveals him, is

c&UcA the mystery of the faith, and ver. 16,
the mystery of godliness : As Christ is the ob
ject of faith, so he is the spring and fountain
of godliness. The apostle having, we see, in
his foregoing discourse unfolded the exceUency
of Christ, and of Christians in him, proceeds
here to exhort them to that pure and spiri.
tual teraper of mind and course of Ufe, that
becoraes thera as Christians.
These hearers are to blarae, and to preju.
dice theraselves, that are attentive only to
auch worda and diacourae aa atir the affections
for the present, and find up relish in the
dpctrine pf faith, and the unfplding pf those
rayateriea that bear the whole weight of reU
gion, so as to be the ground both of all Chris
tian obedience, and all exhortations and per-
suaaivea to it. Theae temporary sudden
atirtinga of the affectipns, withput a right in
forraed mind, and apme raeasure pf due knpw
lcdge ef Gpd in Chriat, do no good. It is
the wind of a word of exhortation that stirs
them for the time against their lusts, but
the first wind nf teraptatipn that coraes,
carties thera away ; and thus the raind ia but
toased to and fro like a wave of the aea, with
all kind of winda, not being rooted and
grounded in ihe faith of Christ, aa it ia.
Col. ii. 7, and ao in the love of Christ, Eph.
ii. 17, which are the conquering graces that
subdue his lusts and the world unto a Chris
tian, 1 John V. 4, 2 Cor, v. 14, 15. Love
raakes a man dead to Hiraself and the world,
and to live to Christ ihat died for him.
On the other part, they are no less, yea,
more to blarae, that are glad to have their
rainds instructed in the myateries of the
Chriatian faith, and out of a raere natural
desire to know, are curious to hear such
things aa inforra thera ; but when it coraes
to the urging of hoUness and mortifying their
lusts, these are hard sayings, they had ra
ther there were aome way to receive Christ,
and retain their luata too, and to bring them
to agreement. To hear of the merciea of
Gpd, and the dignitiea pf hia pepple in Chriat,
is very pleasing ; ^but tp have this foUpw upon
it, abstain from fleshly lusts, thisia an im
portune troubleaome diacourae : But it muat
be so for aU that, these that will share in
that raercy and happiness raust abstain from
fleshly lusts, Scc.
Dearly beloved, I beseech you.] There
is a faculty of reproving required in the mi
niatry, and sometimes a neceaaity of very
aharp 'rebukes, cutting ones. They that
have rauch of the spirit of meekness, raay
have a rod by them too, to uae upon necea
aity : But sure tiie way of raeekness is that
they use most willingly, aa the apoatle there
impUes. And out of aU queation, with inge
nuous minds the mild way of sweet entreaties
is very forcible ; as oil that penetrates and
sinks insensibly ; or, to use that known re.
semblance, they prevail as the .sun-beams.

104that without any noise, , made the traveUer
cast his cloak, which all the blustering of the
wind could not do; but made him rather
gather it closer, and bind it faster about hira.
We see the apostles are frequent in this
strain of entreaties, / beseech you, Rom. xii.
1. Now this word of entreaty is strength.
ened much by the other, Dearly beloved.
Scarce can the harshest reproofs, much less
gentle reproofs, be throv/n back, that haye
Upon them the starap of love. That which
is known to corae frpm love cannot readily
but be so received too, and it is thus express
ed, for that very purpose, that the request
may be the more welcome. Beloved, is the
advice of .a friend, one that truly loves you,
and airas at nothing in it but your good. It
is because I love you that I entreat you, and
entreat you, as you love yourselves, to ab
stain from fleshly lusts lhat war against
your smtls. And what is our purpose when
we exhort you to believe and repent, but that
you raay be happy in the forgiveness of your
sins ? Why do we desire you to embrace
Christ, but that through him ye raay have
everlaating life ?
Howaoever you take these things, it is our
duty inceaaantly to put you in mind of them ;
and to do it with rauch love and tendemeas
of affection to your aouls ; not only presaing
you hy frequent waminga and exhortings,
but also by frequent prayers and tears for
your salvation.
Abstain.] It was a very wise abridgeraent
that Epictetus made of jihilosophy, into those
two words, bear and forbear. These are
truly the two main duties that our apostle
recommends to his Christian brethren, in this
epistle. It is one and the aame strength of
spirit that raises a man both above the trou
bles and pleasures of the v/orld, and raakes
hira despise and traraple upon both.
We have first briefiy to explain what theae
fleshly lusts mean ; then to consider the ex
hortation of abstaining from them.
Unchaste desirea are particularly caUed by
this name indeed, but to take it for theae
only in this place, ia doubdeaa too nartow.
That which aeeraa to be the true aenae of it
here, takes in all undue desires and use of
earthly things, and aU the corrupt affectiona
of our carnal rainds.
Now in that sense, these fleshly lusts cora
prehend a great part of the body of sin : AU
those three, the world's accursed trinity, 1
John ii. 16, are under this narae here of
fleshly lusts. A crew of base imperious
maatera they are, to which the natural raan
ia a alave ; serving divers lusts, Tit. iii. 3.
Some are more addicted to the service of one
kind of lust, some of another : But all are
in this unhappy, that they are strangers, yea,
enemies to God ; and as the brute Creatures,
servants to their flesh ; either like the beasts
of the field, as the covetous, with their eyes

A COM.-MENTARY UPON

.[cii.Ar. n.

StiU upon the earth ; pt voluptupus, and
swimming in pleasures, aa the fishes dp in die
sea, pr Uke the fpwls pf the air, in vain am.
bitipn. AU the strifes that are raised about
these things, aU malice, and envyings, all
bitterness and evil-speaking, Eph. iv. 31,
which are works of the flesh, and tend to the
satisfying of its wicked desires, we are here
requested to abstain frora.
To abstain from these lusts, is to hate and
fly frpm the very thpughts, and flrst motions
of them ; and if surprised by those, yet to
kiU them there, that they bring not forth ;
and to suspect ourselves even in those things
that are not sinful, and tokeep afar off from aU
inducements to those poUuted ways of ain.
In a word, we are to abstain not only from
the serving of pur fleah in thinga forbidden,
aa unjust gain or unlawful pleasures, &c.but
alsp from immoderate desire of and delight
ing in any earthly thing, although it may be
in itself lawfiiUy, yea, necessarily in some de
gree desired and uaed ; yea, to have any fever-
iah preaaing thirst after gain, even juat gain,
or after earthly delighta, though lawful, is to
be guilty of those fleshly luata, and a thing
very unbeaeeming the dignity of a Christian.
To see them ihat are clothed in scarlet em.
bracing a dunghill. Lament, iv. 4, ia a
strange sight ; therefore the apoatle, having
so cleared that immediately befpre, hath
the better reason to require this of them, that
they abstain from fleshly lusts.
Let their own slaves serve them ; you are
redeemed and deUvered from them ; a free
people, yea kinga, and suits it with royal
dignity to obey vile lust ? You are priests
conaecrated to God, and wiU you tumble
yourselves and your precious garments in the
mire ? It was a high speech of a heathen.
That he was greater and born io greater
things than to he a servant to his body ;
how rauch more ought he that is bom again
to say so ? being born heir to a, crown that
fadeth not away, 1 Pet. v. 4.
Again, as the honour of a Christian's
estate is far above this baseness of serving
hia lusta, so the happineaa and pleasantness
of his estate acta hira above the need of the
pleaaures pf sin. He aaid before, // ye have
tasted that the Lord is gracious, desire the
sincere milk of the word ; desire that word
wherein ye raay taste raore pf his gracipus
ness. And as that fitly urgeth the appetite's
desire nf the wprd, ap it atrongly persuades
to this abstinence from fleshly lusts, yea, to
disdain and loathe them. If ypu have the
least experience of the sweetness cf his love,
if you have but tasted of the crystal river of
hia pleasurea, the rauddy puddle of the plea
sures of sin will be hateful and loathspme tp
ypu ; yea, the very best earthly deUghta will
be disrelished, and wiU seem unsavoury to
your taste. The imbittering the breasts of
the world to the godly by afflictions, doth

VEK. IL]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETHR.

105

somediing indeed to wean them from them ;
but the breasts of consolation, that are given
them in their stead, wean much more effec
tuaUy. The true reaaon why we reraain aervanta
to these lusts, sorae to one, sorae to another,
is, because we are still strangers to the love
of God, and those pure pleasures that are in
him. Though the pleaaures of this earth
be poor and low, and most unworthy our
pursuit, yet ao long as men know no better,
they wiU stick by those they have, such as
they are. The philoaopher givea this as the
reaaon, why men are' ao rauch set upon sen
sual delights, because they know not the
higher pleasures that are proper to the aoul ;
and they must have it aome way. It ia too
often in vain to apeak to men in this atrain,
to follow them with the apostle's entreaty, /
beseech you to abstain from fleshly lusts,
unless they that are spoke to, be such as he
speaks of in the forraer words, such as have
obtained mercy, and have tasted of ihe
graciousness and love of Christ, whose loves
are better than wine. Cant. i. 2. Oh !
that we would seek the knowledge of this
love, for seeking it we should find ii, and
finding it, no force would need to puU the
deUghts of sin out of our handa, we ahould
throw thera away of our own accord.
Thua a carnal raind prejudicea itaelf
against religion, when it hears that it re
quires an abstinence frora fieshly lusts,
bereaves raen of their rairth and delight in
sin : But they know not that it is to raake
way for more refined and precious delighta.
There is nothing of this kind taken from us,
but by a very advantageous exchange it is
made up. In the world ye shall have af
fliction, but in me ye shall have peace. Is
npt want pf the wprld's peace abundantly
paid with peace in Christ ? Thus fleshly
lusts are cast put pf the hearts pf beUevers as
rubbish and trash, tp raake room for apiri
tual coraforts. We are ban'ed fellowship
with the unfruitful works of darkness, to
the end we may have fellowship with God,
and his Son Jesus Christ, 1 John. i. 3, 7-
Thia ia to raake raen eat angels' food in
deed, Paal. Ixxviii. 25, aa waa aaid of the
manna. The aerving of the flesh seta man
below himself, down amongat the beaata,
and the consolations of the Spirit and cpra-
munipii with Gpd raise hira abpve hiraself,
and asspciate him with the angels. But let
us speak tp the apostie's own disauaai^s
from theae luats ; 1. From the condition of
Chriatians. 2. From the condition of those
lusta. 1. From the cpndition of Christians, as
strangers. These dispersed Jews were
strangers scattered in divers countries, as
chap. i. ver. 1 ; but here that is not intend
ed; theyare called strangers in that spiri
tual sense that agrees in common to aU the

saints. Possibly in calling them tiius, he
aUudes to their outward dispersion, but
means their apiritual alienation from the
wprld, and intereat in the new Jerusalem.
And thia he uses aa a very pertinent en-
fercement of his exhortation. Whataoever
othera do, the serving of the fleah, and love
of the world, is most incongruous and un
seemly in you. Consider what you are ; if
you are citizens of thia world, then you
might drive the same trade with them, and
foUowvthe aame lusts ; but aeeing you are
chosen and called out of thia world, and in
vested into a new aociety, made free of ano
ther city, and are therefore here but travel-
lera paasiug through to your own country, it
is very reasonable that there be thia diffe
rence betwixt you and the world, that while
they live aa at home, your carriage be such
aa flts strangers, not glutting ypurselves with
their pleasures, nor surfeiting upon their
delicious fruits, aa some unwary traveUers
do abroad ; but aa wise strangers living
warily and soberly, and stiU minding most
of aU your joumey horaewards, suspecting
dangers and snares in your way, and so
walking with a holy fear, as the. Hebrew
word for a stranger imports.
There is indeed a miserable party even
within a Christian, the remainder of corrup.
tion, that ia no stranger here ; and therefore
keeps friendahip and corteapondence with
the world, and wiU readily betray him if he
watch not the more : So that he ia not only
to fly the pollutions of ihe world that are
round about hira, and to chooae his steps
that he be not ensnared frora without ; but
he is to be upon a continual guard against
the lust and cortuption that are yet within
hiraself, to curb and controul them, and 'give
thera resolute and flat refusals when they
s6Ucit him, and to stop up their eaaaya and
opportunitiea of intercpurse with the world,
and such things as nourish thera, and so to
do what he can to starve them out of the
holds they keep within him, and tp strengthen
that new nature which is in hira ; tp live
and act accprding tp it, thpugh sp he shall
be snre tp Uve as a stranger here, and a
despised, rapcked, and hated stranger.
And it is net, pn the whple, the wprse
that it be sp. If men in foreign countries
be subject to forget their own at any time,
it is sure then, when they are most kindly
used abroad, and are most at their ease ; and
thus a .Christian raay be in some danger
when he is best accommodated, and hath
raost of the smiles and caresaea of the world ;
so that though he can never whoUy forget
his horae that is above, yet his thoughts of
it wiU be less frequent, and his desires of it
less earnest, and it may be he may inaensibly
slide into its customs and habits, as men
wiU do that are weU stated in sorae other
country : But by the troubles and unfriend.

100

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. II,

liness of the world, he gains this, that when
they abound most upon him, he then feels
himself a stranger, and remembers to behave
aa such, and thinks often with much delight
and strong deaires on his own country, and
the rich and sure inheritance that liea there,
aud the ease and rest he shall have when he
comes hither.
And this wiU persuade hira atrongly to
fly aU poUuted ways and luata, as fast as the
world foUows thera. It wiU make him
abhor the pleasures of sin, and uae -the al
lowable enjoymenta of thia earth warily and
moderately, never engaging his heart to them
as worldlings do, but alwaya keeping that
free, free from that earneat deaire in the
pursuit of worldly things, and that deep
delight in the enjoyraent of them, which the
men of the earth bestow upon them. There
is a diligence in his caUing and prudent re
gard of his affaira, not only permitted to a
Christian, but required of him. But yet in
compariaon ofhis great and high calling, as
the apoatle terraa it, he foUows all hia other
busineaaea with a kind pf cpldneaa and in
differency, as net caring very rauch which
way they go, his heart ia elsewhere. The
traveUer provides himaelf as he can of enter
tainraent and lodging where it comes : 'if it
be coraraodious it ia weU ; but if not, it is
no great matter, if he find but necessaries,
he can abate delicacies very well. Fpr where
he finds them in his way, he neither can,
npr if he could, jwould choose to stay there,
though his inn were dressed with the richest
hangings and fumiture ; yet it is not his
home ; he must and would leave it. That
is the character of ungodly men, they mind
earthly things, Philip, iii. 19, they are
drowned in thera pver head and ears, as
we say.
If Christiana wpuld cpnsider how little,
and for how little awhile, they are concerned
in any thing here, they would go through
any state, and any changes of atate, either to
the better or the worse, with very coraposed
equal rainda, alwaya moderate in their ne
ceaaary cares, and never taking any care at
aU for the flesh, io fulfil the lusts of it,
Rom. xiii. 14.
Let thera that have np better horae than
thia world to lay claira to, Uve here aa at
horae, and serve their lusta, they that have
all their portion in this life, no raore good
to look for than what they can catch here ;
let thera take their time of the poor profits
and pleasurea that are here : But you that
have your whole eatate, all your richea and
pleasurea laid up in heaven, and reserved
there for you ; let your hearts be there, and
your conversation there. This ia not the
place of your rest, nor your deUghta, unless
you would be wiUing to change, and to have
your good things here, as some foolish tra
veUers, that spend the estate they should live

on at home, in a little while's braving it
abroad amongst strangers. WiU you, with
" profane Esau, seU your birth-right for a
mess of pottage," Heb. xii. 16, seU eternity
for a raoraent, and such pleasures, as a mo
raent of them is raore worth than an etemity
of the other ?
2. The apostle argues frora the condition
of their lusts. It were quarrel enough against
ileshly lusts, which war against ihe soul,
that they are so far below die soul, that they
cannot content, no, nor at aU reach the soul ;
they are not a suitable, rauch less a satisfy.
ing good to it. Although sin hath unspeak
ably abused the soul of raan, yet its exceUent
nature and original does still cause a vast
diaproportion betwixt it, and all those gross
base thinga ofthe earth that concem the flesh,
and go np further. But this is not aU, these
fleshly lusts are not only no benefit to the
aoul, but they are ita pemicioua enemies ;
they war against it ; and their war against
it is all raade up of stratagem and slight,
for they cannot hurt the soul, but by itself.
They promise it some contentment, and so
gain ita conaent to serve them, and undo it
self; they embrace the soul, that they' may
strangle it. The soul is too much diverted
from its own proper business, by the inevit
able and incessant necessities of the bqdy ;
And therefore it is the height of injustice
and cruelty to make it likewise aerve the ex.
travagant and ainful deairea of the fleah ; so
rauch time for sleep, and ao much for eating
and drinking, and dreaaing and undresaing,
and to many the greatest part of the time
that remains from these, is spent in labour
ing and providing for those. Look on the
eraployraents of raost raen ; all the labour of
the husbandraen in the country, -and trades
men in the city, the raultitude of shops and
caUing, what is the end of them aU, but the
interest and service of the body ? And in
all these the imraortal aoul ia drawn down to
dradge for the raortal body, the house oj
clay wherein it dwells. And in the sense
of this, those aoula that truly know and con
aider theraselves in this condition, do often
groan under the burden and desire of the
day of their deliverance. But the aervice of
the flesh in the inordinate lusts of it, ia a
point of far baser slavery and indignity to
the soul, and doth not only divert it from
spiritual things fot the time, but habitually
indisposes it to every spiritual work, and
makea it earthly and sensual, and so unfits
it for heavenly things : Where these lusts,
or any one of thera, have dominion, the soul
cannot at aU perform any good ; neither pray,
nor hear, nor read the wprd aright : And in
as far aa any pf thera prevail uppn the spul
of a child of Gpd, they do disjoint and dis-
able it for holy thinga.
Although they be npt pf the grpssest kind
pf lusta, but such things as are acarce taken

VEII, 11.1

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

107

notice of in a man, either by others, pr by
bis own conscience, sorae irtegular desires or
entanglements of the heart, yet these little
foxes will destroy the vines, Caut. ii. 15,
they wiU prey upon the graces of a Christian,
and keep them very low : Therefore it con.
cems us much to study our hearts, and be
exact in caUing to account the several affec
tions that are in thera ; otherwiae even auch
aa are called of God, and have obtained
mercy, for such the apostie speaks to, may
have such lusts within them as wiU much
abate the flpurishing pf their graces, and the
.spiritual beauty pf the spul.
The gpdly knpw it weU in their aad ex
perience, tiiat their pwn hearta do often de
ceive diem, harbouring and hiding such
things as deprive them much of that Uveli.
nesa of grace, and those comforta of the Hply
Ghpat, that otherwise they would be very
likely to attain unto.
Thia warring against ihe soul, which ex
preaaea the miachief and hurtfulnesa of thera,
hath this under it, that these lusts, as
breaches of God's law, do subject the soul to
1 is ¦wrath. So that by tiiis the appstie might
veU urge this ppint. Besides, that these
lusts are unwprthy pf ypu : The truth is, if
yi u Christians serve ypur lusts, ypu kiU ypur
sculs. Sp Rpra. viii. 13.
Cpnsider, when men are pn their death
beds, and near their entering intp eternity,
what they theu think pf aU their tpiUng in
the earth, and serving their pwn hearts and
lusts in any kind ; when they see that of all
these ways, npthing remains tp thera, but
the guiltiness of their sin, and the accusa
tions of conscience, and the wrath of God.
Oh i that you would be persuaded to
esteem your precipus souls, and not wound
them aa you do, but war /or them, against
aU thoae lusts that war against them. The
soul of a Chriatian is doubly precious, being,
besides its natural exceUency, ennohled by
grace, and so twice descended of heaven ;
and therefore it deserves better usage than to
be tumed into a scuUion, to serve the fleah.
The aervice of Jeaus Chriat ia that which
only fits it ; it ia only honourable for the
soul to aerve ao high a Lord, and ita service
is only due to hira that bought it at so high
a rate.
Ver. 12. Having your conversation honest among
the Gentiles ; that whereas they speak against
you as evil-doers, they may, by your good works
which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of
visitation.
These two things that a natural man
makes least accpunt of, are of aU things in
highest regard with a Christian, his own
soul, and God's glory : So that there be np
strpnger persuasives to him in any thing than
the interest of these two ; and hy these the
ii{>pstle urgeth his present exhprtatipn to hpli
ness and blamelessness of life : Fpr the sub

stance of his advice or request in this and
the former verse is the same ; a truly honest
conversation is only that which is spiritual,
not defiled with the carnal lusts and pol
lutions ofthe world.
The abstaining frpm thpse lusts dpth in
deed cpraprehend 'npt pnly the rule ef put
ward carriage, but the inward temper of the
mind ; whereas this honest conversation doth
more expreaaly concern our external deport
ment araongat raen, as it is added, honest
amongst ihe Gentiles ; and so tending to
the glory of God. So that these two are in
separably to be regarded, the inward disposi
tion of our hearts, and the outward conversa
tion and course of our Uvea.
I shall speak to the fonner first, aa the
spring of the latter, keep thine heart with
all diligence. For all dependa upon that ;
for from ihence are the issues of life, Prov.
iv. 23. And if ao, then the regulating of
the tongue, and eyea, and feet, and aU wiU
follow, aa there it foUowa, ver. 24, put away
from thee a froward mouth. That the ira-
pure atreama may ceaae from running, the
corrupt apring must be dried up. Men raay
convey them away in a close and concealed
manner, making them run aa it were under
ground, as they do filth under vaults and in
ditchea, sentinas ei cloacas ; but till the
heart be renewed and purged from base lusts,
it wiU still be sending forth, some way or
other, the streams of iniquity. Asa fountain
swelleth out, or casteth forth her waters in
cessantly, so she casteth out her wickedness,
saya the Prophet, Jer. vi. 7, of that very
pepple and city that waa called holy by rea-
apn pf the ordinancea pf Gpd and prpfeaaion
pf the true religipn that waa ampngst them :
And therefpre it is the same Prophet's advice
from the Lord, " Wash thine heart, O Je
rusalem ; how long shaU thy vain thoughts
lodge within thee ?" Jer. iv. 14.
This is the true method, according to our
Saviour's doctrine, " Make the tree good,
and then the fruits wiU be gopd ;" npt till
then : Fpr " whp can gather grapes pf thpms,
or figs pf thistles ?" Matt. vU. 16, 17. Spme
gopd putward actipns avail nothing, the soul
being unrenewed : As you raay stick sorae
figs, or hang sorae clusters of grapes upon a
thom-biish, but they cannot grow upon it.
In this raen deceive themselves, even such
as have some thoughts of araendment : when
they fall into sin, and are reproved for it,
they say and possibly think so too, " I wiU
take heed to myself, I wiU be guilty of this
no raore ;" and becauae they go no deeper,
they are raany of them ensnared in the same
kind again. But however, if they do never
commit that aame ain, tbey do but change it
for some other ; as a current of waters, if you
stop their paaaage one way, they reat not till
they find another. The conversation can
never be uniformly and entirely good, tiU

\ COMMENTARY UPON

108
the frame cf the heart, the affectipns and de
sires that lodge in it, be changed. It is na
turally an evil treasure of impure luats, and
must in some kind vent and spend what it
hath within. It ia to begin with the wrong
end of your work to rectify the outaide first,
to smooth the conversation, and not first of aU
purge the heart. Evil affectiona are the
source of evil speeches and actions, " Whence
are strifes and fightings ? (aays St. James,)
are they not from your luats which war in
your members ?" Jam. iv. 1. Unquiet un
ruly lusta within, are the cause of the un
quietnesses and contentions abroad in the
world. One man will have his cortupt wiU,
and another hia, and thus they ahpck and
justle pne anpther ; and by the cress encoun
ters of their purposes, as flints meeting, they
strike out (^ese sparks that set aU pn fire.
So then, according to the order of the
apostle's exhortation, the only true principle
of all good and Christian conversation in the
world, is the mortifying of aU earthly and
sinful lusts in the heart. While they have
, possession of the heart, they do clog it, and
straiten it towards God and his ways ; it
cannot walk constantly in thera ; but when
the heart is freed from thera, it is enlarged
and so, as David speaks, the man is fitted
not only to walk, but to run the way of God's
commandments, Psal. cxix. 32. And with
out this freeing of the heart, a raan wiU be
at the best very uneven and incongruoua in
his waya : in one atep Uke a Chriatian and
in another like a worldling ; which is an
unpleasant and unprofitable way, not accord
ing to that word, Psal. xviii. 33. Tho-n hast
set my feet as hinds' feet ; set thera even
as the word is, not only swift, but straight
and even : and that is the thing here requir
ed, that the whole course and revplutipn pf
a Christian's Ufe be like himaelf : And that
it raay be ao, the whole body of sin, and aU
the membera of it, all ihe deceitful lusts must
be crucified.
In the woids there are three things. 1.
One point of a Christian's ordinary enter.
,. tainment in the world is to be evil spoken of.
2. Their good use of that evil, to do the
better for it. 3. The good end and certain
effect of their ao doing, the glory of God.
I. One part of a Christian's ordinary treat
ment in tbis world. Whereas they speak
against you as evil-doers. ] This is in gene
ral the disease of man'a corrupt nature, and
argues much the baseness and depravedness
of it : Thia propenaion to evil-apeaking one
of another, either blotting the beat actions
with misconstructions, or taking doubtful
things by the left ear, not choosing the most
favourable, but, on the contrary, the very
harshest sense that can be put upon them.
Snme men take more pleasure in the narrow
eyeing of the true and real faults of men,
and then speak of them with a kind of de-

[CIIAP, ii'.

Ught. AU these kind of evil speakings are
such fruits as spring from that bitter root of
pride and self-love, which is naturaUy dsep
fastened in every man'a heart : But besides
this general bent to evil-speaking, there is a
particular malice in the wprld againat those
that are born of God, which must have vent
in caluranies and reprpaches. If this evil.
speaking be the hissing that is natural tp the
serpent's seed, sure, by reason of their natu.
ral antipathy, it raust be breathed forth most
against the seed of the woman, those that
are one with Jeaus Chriat. If the tongues
of the ungodly be sharp swords even to one
another, they wiU whet them sharper than
ordinary when they are to use thera against
the righteous, to wound their name. The
evU tongue must be always buming that is
set on fire of hell, as St. Jaraea speaks ; but
against the godly it will be aure to be heat
ed aeven timea hotter than it ia for others.
The reasons of this are, 1. Being naturaUy
haters of God, and yet unable to reach him;
what wonder is it if their malice vent itself
against his image in his chUdren, and labour
to blot and atain that, aU they can, with the
foulest calumnies:!' 2. Because they are
neither able nor wiUing themselves to attain
unto the apotless holy Ufe of Chriatians, they
bemire them, and would make them like
themselves, by false aspersions ; they cannot
rise to the estate of the godly, and therefore
they endeavour to draw them down to theirs
by detraction. 3. The reproaches they- cast
upon the professors of pure religion, they
mean mainly against religion itself^ and in
tend by thera to reflect upon it.
Theae evil-speakings of the world against
pious men professing reUgion, are partiy gross
falsehoods invented without the leaat ground
or appearance of trath ; for the world being
ever credulous of evU, eapeciaUy upon so deep
a prejudice as it hath against the godly, the
falsest and most absurd calumnies will al
ways flnd ao much beUef aa to make them
odioua, or very suspected at least, to auch as
know thera not. This is the world's maxim.
Lie confidently, and it will always do some
thing ; as a stone taken out of the mire and
thrown against a white waU, though it stick
not there, but rebound presently back again,
yet it leaves a spot behind it.
And with those kind of evU-speakings
were the primitive Christiana aurcharged,
even with groas and honible falsehoods ; as
aU know that know any thing of the hiatory
of those tiraes ; even auch things were report
ed of them, as tile worat of wicked men would
scarce be guilty of. The devU, as witty aa
he is, makes use again and again of his old
inventions, and raakes them serve in several
ages ; for so were the Waldenaea accuaed of
rahuman banquettings and beastly promiscu
ous uncleanness, and divers things not once
to be named among Christians, much less to

VEU. 12. J

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETi.R,

109

be practised by them : So that it is no new
thing to meet with the impurest vilest slan
ders, as the world's reward of holiness, and
the practice of pure religion.
Then again consider, how much more wiU
the wicked insult upon the least real ble
mishes that they can espy araongst the pro-
fessors of godUness. And in this there is a
direefold injury very ordinary. 1. Strictly
to pry into, and maliciously to object against
.Christians, the sraaUest iraperfections and
frailties of their lives, as if they pretended
and promised absolute perfection. They do
indeed exercise themselves (auch aa are
Christians indeed,) with St. Paul, io keep a
good conscience in all thingg ioioards God
and men. Acta xxiv. 16. They have a re
gard unto all God's commandments, aa
David apeaks, they have .». sincere love to
God, which makes thera study the exactest
obedience they can reach. And this is an
imperfect kind cf perfection, it is evangeUcal,
but not angeUcal. 2. To impute the scan
dalous faUs of some particular persons to the
whole nuraber. It ia a very abort incorape
tent rule, to raake judgment of any one raan
hiraself hy one action, much more to measure
all the reat of the same profession by it ; and
they yet proceed further in this way of mis
judging. 3. That they impute the personal
faiUngs of men to their reUgion, and dispar.
age it because of the faults of those that pro
fess it ; which, as the ancients plead weU,
is the greateat injuatice, and auch as they
would not be guilty of against their own
philosophers. They could weU distinguish
betwixt their doctrine and the manners of
apme of their foUowers, and thus ought they
10 have dealt with Christians too. They
ought to have considered their religion in it
self, and the doctrine that it teacheth, and
had they found it vicious, the blame had
been just ; but if it taught nothing but hoU
ness and righteousness, then the blarae of any
unholiness or unrighteousness found amongst
Christians was to rest upon the persons thera.
selves that were guilty of it, and not to be
stretched to the whole number of profeaaora,
much leaa to the religion that they profeaaed.
And yet diia ia stiU the custom of the world
upon the least failing they can espy in the
godly, or such .is seem to be so ; much more
with open mouth do they revile religion,
upon any gross ain in any of ita profeaaora.
But seeing this ia the very character of a
prpfane raind, and the badge pf the enemiea
of religion, beware of aharing in the leaat
with thera in it. Give not easy entertain.
ment to the reporta pf prpfane pr pf mere evil
men, againat the professors of religion ; they
ai-e undoubtedly partial, and their testSuony
raay be justly auapected. Lend thera not a
ready ear to receive their evil apeakinga,
much leaa your tongue to divulge thera, and
set them frirther going : Yea, take hoed

that you take not pleasure in any the least
kind of scoffs, against the aincerity and power
of religion. And all of you that desire to
walk aa Chriatians, be very wary, that you
wrong not one another, and help not the
wicked againat you, by your mutual miacon.
atructions and iniacensures one of another.
Far be it from you to take pleasure in hear
ing Pthers evil sppken pf, whether unjustly
or though it be aome way deaervedly ; yet
let it be alwaya grievous to you, and i.o way
pleasing to hear such thinga, rauch less to
apeak of thera. It ia the devil's deUght to
be pleased with evil-speakings. The Syrian
calla hira an akal kartza, eater of slanders
or calumnies. They are a dish that pleases
hia palate, and men are naturaUy fond of his
diet. In Paal. xxxv. 6, there ia a word that
ia rendered mockers at feasts, or feasting-
mockers ; that feasted men's eara at their
meetings with apeaking of the faulta of others
scoffingly, and therefore shared with them cf
their cakes, or feaata, as the word is ; but to
a renewed Christian mind, that hath a new
taate, and aU its senses new, there is nothing
more unsavoury, than to heai: the defaming of
othera, eapeci^ly of such as profess religion.
Did ihe law of love possess our hearts, it
would regulate our ear and tongue, and make
thera raoat tender of the name of our brethren ;
it would teach us the faculty of covering their
infirmities, and judging favourably ; taking
alwaya the best side and most charitable
sense of their actions ; it would teach us to
blunt the sharp edge of our censures upon
ourselves, our own hard hearts and rebeUious
wiUs within, that they raight reraain no raore
sharp against others, than is needful for their
good. And this woidd 'cut short those that ara
without, from a great deal of provisions of
evil-speaking against Christians, that they
raany timea are furnished with by themselves
through their uncharitable carriage ene to
wards another. However, this being the
hard measure that they always find in the
world, it is their wisdora to conaider it aright,
and to study that gfiod which, according to
the apostle's advice, may be extracted cut pf
it, and that is the second thing tobe sppken tp.
II. Their geod use pf that evil. Having
your conversation honest among the Gen
tiles.] As the sovereign power of drawing
good out of evil resides in God, and argues
hia primitive goodneaa, so he teacheth his
own children some faculty this, way, that
they may resemble him in it. He teacheth
thera to draw aweetness out of their bitterest
afflictions, and increase of inward peace from
their outward troubles. And as these buf
fetings of the tongue are no small part of
their sufferinga, so they reap no smaU benefit
by them many waya : particularly in this one,
that they order their conversation the better,
and walk the more exactly for it. ~

no

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. II.

And this no doubt iu divine providence is
intended and ordered for their good, as are
all their other trials. The sharp censures
and evil-apeakings that a Christian is encom-
paaaed with in the world, is no other than a
hedge of thoma aet on every side, that he go
not out of hia way, but keep atraight on it
betwixt thera, not decUning to the right hand
nor to the left ; whereaa, if they found no
thing but the favour and good opinipn pf the
wprld, they might, aa in away unhedged, be
subject to expatiate and wander out into the
meadows of carnal pleasures that are about
them, that would caU and aUure them, and
often amuse them from their journey.
And thus it raight faU out that Christiana
would deaerve censure and evU-apeakings the
more, if they did not usually suffer them un
deserved. This then tuma into a great ad
vantage to them, raaking them more anawer
able to those two thinga that our Saviour joins
to watch and pray, Matt. xxvi. 41, to be the
more vigilant over theraaelves, and the more
eamest with God, for his watching over thera,
and conducting of thera ; make my ways
straight, says David, because of mine ene
mies, Psal. V. 8. The word is my observers,
or as these scan my waya, every foot of thera,
that examine them as a verse, or as a song of
rausic ; if there be but a wrong raeasure in
thera, they wiU uot let it sUp, but wiU be
sure to raark it.
And if the enemies of the godly wait fpr
their halting, shall not they scan their own
paths themselves, that they may not halt;
and exaraine them, to order them, as the
v/icked do to censure thera ; stUl depending
whoUy upon the Spirit of God as their guide
to lead them into all iruth, and to teach them
how to order iheir cortversation aright, that
it raay be aU of a piece, holy and blameless,
and StiU like itaelf ?
Honest. ] Fair or beautiful : the aarae
word doth fitly signify goodness and beauty :
For that which is the truest and raost laating
beauty, growa fteaher in old age, aa the Psal
mist speaks of the righteoua, Psal. xcii. as
trees planted in the house of God. Could the
beauty of virtue be aeen, aaid a philosopher,
it would draw aU to love it. A Christian
holy conversation hath auch a beauty, aa when
they that are atrangera to it begin to diacern it
any thing aright, they cannot choose but love
it ; and where it begeta not love, yet it silen
ces calumny, or at least evinces ita falaehood.
The goodneaa or beauty of a Christian'a
converaation conaiating in symraetry and con.
formity to the wprd of God as ita rule, he
ought diligently to study that rale, and to
square his ways by it ; not to walk at random,
but to apply that rule to every step at horae
and abrpad, and tp be aa careful to keep the
beauty pf his ways unspptted as those
women are of their facea and attire, that are
most studious of comeliness

But so far are we that caU ourselves Chris.
tians from this exact regard of our conversa.
tion, that the moat part not only have many
foul spots, but they themselves, and aU their
ways, are nothing but defilement, aU one
spot, as our apostle caUs them, blots are
they and spots, 2 Pet. ii. 13, and even they
that are Christians indeed, yet are not so
watchful and accurate in aU their ways as be
coraea, but stain their holy profession either
with pride or covetousness, pr contentions, or
sorae other such like uncoraeliness.
Let us aU therefore resolve more to study
this good and coraely conversation the aposde
here exhorts to, that it may be such as be
cometh ihe gospel of Christ, as St. Paul de
sires his PhiUppians, i. 27. And if you Uve
amongst profarie persons, that iviU be to you
as the unbelieving Gentiles were to these be
Ueving Jewa that Uved araongat thera, tra'-
ducers of you, and given to speak evil of you,
and of reUgion in you, troubl* not yourselves
with many apologiea and clearings, when
you are evil apoken of, but let the tract of
your life anawer for you, your honest and
blameless conversation : That wUl be the
ahprteat and mpst real and effectual way of
cpnfuting all pblpquiea. Aa when one in the
achpola waa proving by a aophiatical argu
ment, that there could be no motion, the
philoaopher answered fuUy and shortly, by
rising up and walking. If thou wouldat pay
thera horae, this is a kind of revenge not
only aUowed thee, but recoramended to thee ;
be avenged on evil-speakings by weU doing,
sharae thein from it. It was a king 'that
said. It was kingly to do well and be ill
spoke of. WeU may Christians acknow.
ledge it to be true, when they consider, that
it was the lot of their King, Jesus Christ :
and weU may they be content, seeing he
hath made them Ukewise kings, as we heard,
ver. 9, tp be cpufprmable tP hira in this too.
This kingly way pf suffering, to be unjustiy
evil sppken of, and still to go on in doing
the raore good, always airaing in so dping, as
pur Lord did, at the glory of our heavenly
Father, that is the third thing.
III. The good end or certain effect of this
care recoraraended, " That they-may glorify
God in the day of their visitation." He says
not, they shall praise or comraend you, but
shall glorify God. 'What way soever this-
time, thia day of visitation he taken, the,
effect itaelf is this, they shall glorify God.
It is thia the apoatle stUl holds before their
eye, and that upon which a Christian doth
wUlingly set his eye, and keep it fixed on it
in all his ways ; he doth not teach thera to be
sensible of their own eateem aa it concerns
themselves, but only as the glory of tiieir
God ia intereated in it. Were it uot for
thia, a generoua-minded Christian could set
a very Ught rate upon all the thoughts and
speeches of men conceming him, whethei

VEU. 12.J

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PBTER.

Ill

good or bad ; and could easily drown aU
dieir mistakes in the conscience of the favour
and approbation of hia God. " It is a smaU
thing for me to be judged of man, or the
day of man, he that judgeth me is the Lord,"
1 Cor. iv. 3. Man hath a day of judging,
but it, and his judgment witii it, soon passes
•away ; but God hath his day, and it and his
sentence abideth for ever, as the aposde there
adds, as if he should say, / appeal io God.
But considering that the religion he pro-
'fesses, and the God whom he worships in
that religion, are wronged by diose reproaches,
and that the calumnies cast upon Christians,
reflect upon their Lord ; this is the thing
that makes him aenaible he feels on that side
only ; the reproaches of them that reproach
thee are fallen upon me, says the Psalraist :
And this raakea a Christian deairoua, even
to men, to vindicate his religion and hia
. God, without regard to himaelf; becauae
he raay aay, the " reproachea of thera that
reproach only me, have faUen upon thee,"
Paal. Ixix. 9.
Thia ia his intent in the holinesa and inte
grity of his Ufe, that Gpd may be glprified ;
this is the axia abput which aU this good
conversation rapvea and turns cpntinually.
And he that fprgets this, let his cpnver.
satipn be never so plausible and spotless,
knows not what it is to be a Christian ; as
they say of the eagles, who try their young
ones whether they be of the right kind or
not, by holding thera before the sun, and if
they can look- stedfastly upon it, they own
thera, if not they throw thera away. This
ia the true evidence of an upright and real
Chriatian, to have a atedfaat eye on the glory
of God, the Father of lights. In^all Let
God be glorified, aaya the Chriatian, and
that suffices : That is the aura of hia de
sirea ; he ia-far frora glorying in himself,
or seeking to raise himself, for he knows
that of himself he is nothing, but by the
free grace of God he is what he is.
" Whence any glorying to thee, rottenneaa
and duat ?" aays St. Bemard : " Whence ia
it to thee if thou art holy ? Ia it not the
Holy Spirit that hath sanctified thee ? if
thou couldst work miracles, though they
were done by thy hand, yet it were not by
thy power, but by the power of God."
To the end that my glory may sing praise
unto thee, says David, Psal. xxx. 12.
Whether his tongue, or his soul, or both.
'What he caUs his glory he shews us ; and
what use he hath for it, namely to give the
Lprd glpry, tp sing his praises^ and that then
it was truly David's glery when it was sp
employed, in giving glory to him, whose
pecuUar due glory is. What have we to do
in the world as his creatures, once and again
his creatures,^his new creatures, created unto
good works, (Eph. ii. 10) but to exercise pur
selves in thpse, and by thpae tp .idvance his

glory ? that all raay return to him, from
whom aU ia, aa the rivera run back to the
aea ftom whence they came. Of him and
through him, and therefore for him are all
things, aays the apostle, Rora. xi. 30. They
that serve base gods, seek how to advance
and aggrandize thera. The covetous raan
strives tp raake his' Mammon aa great aa he
can ; aU hia thoughta and pains* run upon
that aervice, and ao do the voluptuoua and
ambitioua for theira ; and shaU not they that
profess themselves to be the servants of the
only great and the only true God, have their
hearta much more, at least as much, pos.
aeaaed with desires of honouring and exalt.
ing him ? Should not this be their predomi
nant deaign and thought ? What way anaU
I moat advance the glory of my God ; how
ahaU I, that am engaged raore than they
all, aet in with the heavens and the earth,
and the other creaturea, to declare hia excel
lency, his greatneaa, and his goodneaa ?
In the day of visitation.] The behold
ing of your good works may work thia in
thera, that they may be gained to acknow
ledge and embrace that religion and that
God, which for the preaent they reject ; but
that it raay be thus, they muat be viaited
with that same light and grace from above,
which hath sanctified you. Thia I conceive
ia the aense of thia word, though it may be
and ia taken divera other waya by interpre-
tera. Poasibly in this day of visitation is
implied the clearer preaching of the gospel
amongst thoae Gentilea, where the disperaed
Jewa dweU ; and that when they ahould
corapare the light of that doctrine with the
light of their lives, and find the agreement
betwixt them, that might be helpful to their
effectual calling, and so they might glorify
God : But to the end that they might do
this indeed, along with the word of God,
and the good works of his people, there must
be a particular visiting of their souls by the
Spirit of God. Your good conversation
may be one good raean of their converaion :
Therefore thia may be a raotive to that ; but
to make it an effectual mean, this day of
gracious visitation must dawn upon thera,
the day spring from on high must visit
them, aa it ia Luke i. 78. /
Ver. 13. Submit yourselves unto every ordinance
of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the
king as supreme,
Veb. 14. Or unto governors, as unto them that are
sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and
for the praise of them that do well.
It ia one ofthe falsest, and yet one ofthe
commonest prejudicea that the world bath
alwaya entertained againat true religion, that
it ia an eneray to civil power and govern
ment. The adversariea of the Jewa charg.
ed this fault upon their city, the then seat of
the trae worship of God, Ezra iv. 15. The
Jewa charged it upon the preachers of the

112
Christian religion. Acts xvii. 7, as they
preaented the same quanel against Christ
hiraself. And generaUy the eneraies of the
Christians in the primitive times loaded thera
with the alander of rebeUion and conterapt
of authority : Therefpre pur aposde descend
ing to particular rales of Christian life, by
which it may be blameless, and to silence
calumny, begins with this, not only as a
thing of prime iraportance in itself, but as
particularly fit for those he ¦wrote to, (being
both Jews and Christians) for the clearing
pf themselves and their reUgipn, submit
yourselves, Scc.
There are in the wprds divers particulars
tp be cpnsidered, aU cpncurring to press this
main duty of obedience to magistrates ; not
only as weU consistent with true religion,
but as indeed inseparable frora it. Not to
parcel out the words into raany pieces, they
may, I conceive, be aU not unfitly compris
ed under theae two, 1. The extent of thia
duty. 2. The ground of it.
1, The extent of thia duty to all civil
power, of what kind soever, for the time re
ceived and authorized ; there being no need
of questioning what waa the riae and origi
nal of civil power, either in the nature of it,
or in the peraons of those that are in posses
sion of it. For if you wiU trace them quite
through in the succession of ages, and nar
rowly eye their whole circle, there be few
crowns in the world in which there wiU not
be found some crack or other, more or less.
If you look on those great monarchies in
Daniel's vision, you see one of them built
up upon the ruina of another ; and aU of
them represented by tenible devouring beasts
of monstrous shape. And whether the
Roraan erapire be the fourth there, as many
take it, or not, yet in the things spoken of
that fourth, and the reat, it is inferior to
none of them, enlarging itself by conquests
in aU parts of the world : and under it were
the provinces to which this epistle is address.
ed ; yet the apostle enjoins his brethren
subjection and obedience to ita authority,
Npr is it a question so to be moved, as to
suspend, or at all abate our obedience to
that which possesses in the present where we
live, what fori^ of government is most just and
commodious ?
God hath been more express in the officers
and government ofhis own house, his Church :
But civil societies he hath left at liberty, in
the chooaing and modelling of civil govern
ment, though alwaya indeed over-ruling their
choice and changes in that, by the secret
hand of his wiae and powerful providence.
Yet he hath aet thera no particular rule touch
ing the frame of it, only the comraon rulea
of equity and juatice were to be regarded,
both in the contriving and managing of
govemment ; and yet though it be aome
way defective in both, they that be subject

A COMMENTARY UPOxV

ICllAl'. II.'

to it, are in all things lawful to aiibmit to its ,
authority, whether aupreme or subordinate,
aa we have it here expreaaly, whether io ihe
king as supreme, namely, to the emperor,
or to the governors sent by him, which though
a judicious interpreter refera to God, andwUl
not admit of any other aense, yet it aeems
raoat suitable both to the words aud to the
natm'e of the govemment pf those provinces,
tp take that wprd tP him, as relating to the
king ; for the them ihat are sent, answers to
the other the king as supreme, and so is a
very clear deaignment ofthe inferior governors
of thoae times and places. And whatsoever
was their end that sent thera, and their car.
riage that were aent, that which the apoade
adda, expresses the end for which they shovdd
be sent to govern, and at which they should
aim in governing, as the true end of all
government. And though they were not '
fully true to that end in their deportment,
but possibly did raany things unjustly, yet
as God hath ordained authority for this end,
there is always so much juatice in the most
depraved governraent, as is a pubUc good,
and therefore puta upon inferiors an obli
gation to obedience ; and this leads us to
conaider, 2dly, The ground of thia duty, for the
Lord's sake.] Now the main ground of
submitting to huraan authprity, is the interest
that divine authority hath in it ; having both
appointed civil governraent as a common good
amongst men, and particularly comraanded
his people obedience to it, as a particular
good to thera, and a thing very suitable with
their profession ; it is for the Lord's sake.
This word carties the whole weight of the
duty, and is a counter-balance to the former,
which seeras to be therefore on purpose so
expressed that this may answer it. Although
civil authority, in regard of particular forms
of governmeut, and the choice of particular.
perspns to govern, is but a huraan ordinance,
or man's creature, as the word is ; yet both
the good of government, and the duty of sub-
jection to it, is God's ordinance ; and there
fpre, for his sake submit yourselves.
1st, God hath in general instituted civil
governraent for the good of huraan society,.
and StiU there is good in it. Tyranny is
better than anarchy. 2dly, It is by his pro
vidence that men are advanced to places of
authority, Psal. Ixxv. 6, 7, Dan. iv. 25, John
xix. 11. Sdly, It is his coraraand that obe.
dience be yielded to thera. Tit. in. 1, &c.
And the consideration of thia tiea a Christian
to aU loyalty and due obedience ; which being
StiU for ihe Lord's sake, cannot hold in any
thing that is against the Lprd'S own com.
mand ; for then kings and rulers leave their
station. Now the subjection here is, be sub-
^'ec<tpthem, osroTdynTs, as itwereinyeurrank,
stiU in subordination to God : but if they go
out of that even Une, foUow them not. They

vF.n. 13, 14.]

TUE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER-

113

that obey the unlawful coramands of kings,
do it in regard to iheir god, no question ;
but that their god is iheir belly, or their am.
bition, or their avarice.
But not only ought the exerciae of autho-
rity, and subraission to it, be in things just
and lawful in themselves ; but the very pur
pose of the heart, both in comraand and obe
dience, should be in the Lord, and for his
sake. This is the only straight, and only
safe rale, both for ralers and people to walk
by. Would kings and the other powers of
the world consider the supreraacy and great
ness of that King of whom they hold all their
crowns and dignities, they would be no less
careful of their submission and homage to
him, than they are desirous of their people's
submission to thera.
I wiU not speak at all of their civil obli
gations to their people, and the covenant of
justice that with good reason is betwixt them
in the fundamental conatitutiona of aUweU or
dered kingdoras ; nor meddle with that point
of the dependence that human authority hath
upon the societies pf raen pver whpra it is,
accprding to which it is here caUed man's or
dinance or creature, uv^^eo-zi^n KTiirit. This
is a thing that the greatest and most .ibso
lute of princes cannot deny, that aU their
authority is dependent upon the great God,
both as the author of it in the general, and
the sovereigfu disposer of it to particular men,
giving the kingdoms of ihe earth to whom
he will, Dan. iv. 25. And therefore they
may most justly require obedience and fealty
of them, that they serve the Lord in fear
and if they rejoice in their dignities over
men, yet that they do it with trembling, in
sense of their duty to God, and that they
throw down their crowns at the feet of Chriat,
the Lord's Anointed.
And to this they are the more obUged,
conaidering that reUgion and the gospel of
Chriat doth ao much press the duty of their
people's obedience to them ; so that they
wrong both Christianity and themselves very
far, in raiataking it as an eneray to their au
thority, when it is so far from prejudicing it
that it confirms it, and pleads for it. Sure
they dp mpst ungratefully requite the Lord
and his Christ, when they say, (aa Paal. ii.
3,) Lei us break their bands asunder, and
cast away their cords from us. Whereas the
Lprd binds the cords pf kinga and their authpr
ity fast uppn their people ; not the cords of
t3'ranny indeed, to bind the subjects aa beaats
to be sacrifices to the passion of their rulers,
but the cords of just and due obedience to
their kinga and governors. The Lord doth,
as you see here, bind it upon aU that profess
his name ; and strengthens it by the reapect
his people cany to hims<ilf ; enjoining them,
. that for his sake they woulii obey their
rulers. So that kings need not fear true re.
ligion, that it wiU ever favour any thing that

can justly be called rebelUon, but on the con
trary still urges loyalty and obedience ; so
that as they ought in duty, they may in true
policy and wisdom, befriend true religion,
as a special friend to their authority ; and
hate that religion of Rome, which is indeed
rebelUon, and that Mother of Abominations
that makes the kings of the earth drunk
with her cup, Rev. xvii. 2, and makes thera
dream of increase of authority while they are
truly pn the Ipsing hand. But besides that
they pwe their ppwer tP the advancement ef
Christ's kingdom, by so employing them
aelvea aa to strengthen it, they do themaelvea
good, they confirra their own thrones, when
they erect his ; as it was said of Cassar, that
by setting up Pompey's statue he settled and
fastened his own.
But it is an evil too natural to men, tp fpr-
get the trae end and use pf any gpod the
Lord confers upon them. And thua kings
and rulers too often consider not, for what
they are exalted ; they think it is for them
selves, to honour and pleaae themaelvea, and
not to honour God, and benefit their people,
to encourage and reward the good, aa here
it is, and puniah the wicked : They are set
on high, for the good of thoae that are be
low them, that they may be refreahed with
their Ught and influence ; aa the lights of
heaven are aet there in the higheat parts pf
the wprld for the use and benefit of the very
lowest. God set them in the firmament of
heaven,, but to what end ? to give light upon
the earth. Gen. i. 15. And the mountains
are raised above the rest of the earth, not to
be places of prey and robbery, as sometiraes
they are tumed to be, but to send forth strearas
frora their springs into the vallies, Psal.
civ. 10, and raake thera fertile; thetnoun.
tains and hiUs, greater and lesser rulers, are
to send forth to the people the streams of
righteousness and peace, Psal. lxxii. 3. '
But it is the cortuption and raiaery of
man's nature, that he doth not know, and
can hardly be perauaded to leam, either how
to comraand aright, or how to obey ; and no
doubt raany of those that can see and blarae
the injustice of others in authority, would be
raore guilty that way themselves if (hey had
the same power.
It is the pride and self-love of our nature,
that begets disobedience in inferiors, and
violence and injustice in superiors. That
depraved huraeur that ties to every kind pf
gpvemment a propension to a particular dis-
ease ; that raakes royalty eaaily degenerate
intp tyranny, and the gpvernment of iipbles
into factipn, and popular gpvemment into
cpnfusion. Aa civil authority, and aubjection to it, ia
the inatitution of God ; ao die peaceable cor-
reapondence of thoae two, juat govemmeni,
and due obedience, is the special gift of God's
own hand, and a prime blessing to states and
H

114
lUngdoras : And the troubling and inter
ruption of their course is one of the highest
pubUc judgraents, by which the Lord pun
ishes oftentimes the other sins both of rulers
and people. And whatsoever be the cause,
and on which side soever be the justice of the
cause, it cannot be looked upon, but as a
heavy plague, and the frait pf many and
great provocations, when kings and their peo
ple, that should be a mutual blessing and
honour to each other, are turned into scourges
one to another, or into a devouring fire, as
it is in the parable. Judges ix. 10, " Fire
going forth from Abimelech to devour the
men of Shechem, and fire from Shechem to
devour Abimelech.'
Veb. 15. For so Is the will of God, that with well
doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of fool
ish men.
Vbr- 16. As free, and not using your liberty for a
cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God.
This continues the same reason of the
same Christian duty ; if they wiU obey the
Lord, then they must obey civil powers, for
that is his wiU, and they wiU not deny their
obligation to hira, for they are his servants,
ver. 16. The words indeed are more general
than the forraer, but they relate chiefly in this
place to the particular in hand, so that nei
ther in that kind nor in any other they dis
honour their profession, and abuse their lib
erty, raistaking it as an exemption from those
duties to which it doth more straitly tie
them. So then the point of civil obedience,
and all other good conversation araongst men,
is here recommended to Christians, as agree
able to the wiU of God, and the most effec
tual clearing of their profession, and very
agreeable to their Chriatian Uberty,
The will of God. ] Thia ia the strongest
and raost binding reason that can be used to
a Christian raind, that hath resigned itself
to be govemed by that rule, to have ihe will
of God for its law. Whataoever is required
of it upon that" wartant, it cannot refuse ; al
though it croaa a raan's own huraour, or his
private intereat, yet if hia heart be aubjected
to the will of God, he wiU not atand with
hira in any thing. Thia one word from God,
/ will have it so, silences aU, and carries it
against all oppoaition.
It were a great point if we could be per
suaded to eateem duly of thia. It were in
deed aU ; it would make light and eaay wprk
in thpae thinga that go so hardly on with ua,
though we are daily exhorted to them. Is
it the wiU of God that I ahould live soberly ?
Then though my own conupt wiU and my
companions be against it, yet it muat be ao.
WiUs he that I forbear cursing and oaths,
though it is ray custom to use them ? Yet
I must offer viplence tp ray custcm, and go

A COMMENTARY UPON [chap ii.,
have my charity not oniy liberal in giving
but in forgiving, and real and hearty in both ?
Will he have me bless ihem that curse me,
and do good to ihem thai hate me, and love,
mine enemies ? Though the world counts
it a hard task, and my own cortupt heart
poasibly finds it ao, yet it shaU be done;
and not aa upon unpleaaant neceaaity, but
wiUingly and cheerfuUy, and with the more
delight becauae it ia difficult ; for ao it proves-,
my obedience the more, and my love to him
whose wiU it is. Though raine enemies
deserve not ray love, yet he that bids me
love them, doea ; and if he will have this
the touch-atone to try the uprightneas of my
love to hira, ahaU it fail there ? No, hia will
commands me ao absolutely, and he himself
s so lovely, that there can he nobody .so un
lovely in themselves, or tf> me, but I can love
them upon his coraraand, and for his sake.
But that it may be thus, there muat be a
renewed frame of mind, by which a man
may renounce the world, and the forma of it,
and hiraaelf, and his own sinful heart and
its way, to study and foUow the only good
and acceptable and perfect will of Godj
Rora. xii. 2, to move most in that Une, not
wiUingly declining to any hand, tp have our
whole minds taken up in searching it, and
our whole hearts in embracing it ; " Be ye
not unwise, but flrideratanding what the will
of the Lord is," says the apoatle, Eph. v.
17, being about to exhort tp particular duties,
as our apostle here is doing.
This is the task of a Christian to under
stand his Lord's will, and with a practical
understanding, that he raay walk in aU well-
pleasing unto God. Thua the apostle like
wise exhorts the Thesaaloniana patheticaUy,
1 Epiat. chap. iv. 1, and adda, ver. 3,
" Thia is the wUl of God, even our sanctifi
cation." And then proceeds particularly
against uncleanness and deceit, &c.
Let this then be your endeavour, to have
your wills crucified to whatsoever is sinful,
yea to wiU outward and indifferent things
with a kind of indifferency ; the most things
that men are so stiff in, are not worth an
earnest wiUing. In a word, it were the only
happy and traly spiritual temper to have our
WiU quite rooted out, and the wiU of God
placed in its stead ; to have no other wiU
but hi.s, that it raight constantly, yea so to
speak, identicaUy foUow it in aU things.
This is the wiU of God, therefore it is mine.
That with well-doing ye may put to si
lence the ignorance of foolish men.] Men
void of religion have a higher sense of the
duties of the second table, or of weU-doing
towards men, than of those that have imme-
diate relation to God ; and therefore (as in
other Epistles) the apostle is here particular

against the stream of aU their customs that in these for the vindicating of religion to

are round about me, to obey his wiU, who
wills aU things j.ustiy and hoUly. Will he

them that are without.
is loud and prattling,.

Ignorance usually
making a might}

VEU. 15, 16.)

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

113

noise, and so hadi need of a muzzle to si-
ienee it, as the word (pi/taut imports. They
that were ready to speak evil of religion; are
called witless or foolish men ; there waa per-
veraeness in their ignorance, as the word
aipflvwv intimates. And generaUy all kind
of evil-speakinga, uncharitable cenauringa,
do argue a fooliah worthless mind whence
diey proceed ; and yet they are the usual
divertisement of the greateat part of raan
kind, and take up very rauch of their con
verse and diacourae ; which ia an evidence of
the baaeness and perverseneaa of their minds.
For, whereas thoae that have moat real good
neaa, delight most to observe what is gppd
and cpmraendable in pthers, and to pasa by
their blemishes, it is the. true character of
vile unworthy persons, (as scurvy flies sit
upon sores) to skip over aU the good that ia
in men, and fasten upon their infirmities.
But especiaUy doth it diacover ignorance
¦ and folly, to tum the failinga of raen to the
diaadvantage of reUgion ; none can be such
enemiea tp it but they that know it not, and
see npt the beauty that ia in it. Plowever
the way to ailence them we aee ia by well
doing, that alienees thera more than whole
- volumes of apologies. When a Christian
walks irteproveably, his enemies have up
where te fasten their teeth on him, but are
forced to gnaw their own malignant tonguea.
Aa it aecures the godly thus to stop the lying
mouths of foolish men, so it is as painful to
thera to be so stopt, as rauzzling ia to beasts,
and puniahea their maUce. -
And this is a wise Christian's way, instead
of impatient fretting at the mistakes or wil
ful miscensures of men, to keep stiU on in
his calm temper of mind, and upright course
of Ufe, and silent innocence : This as a rock
breaks the waves into foam that rpar abPut it.
As fr^e. ] This the apostle adda, lest any
should so far mistake the nature of .their
Christian liberty, as to dream of an exerap.
tion frora obedience either to God, or to men
for his sake, and according to his appointment.
Their freedom he grants, but would have
them understand aright what it is. I can
not here insist at large on the spiritual free,
dom of Chriatians, nor ia it here needful,
being n;ientioned only for the clearing of it in
thia point ; but free they are, and ihey only
that are partakera of thia liberty. // the
Son make you free, you shall be free in,
deed, John viii. 36 ; the rest are slaves to
Satan, and the world, and their own lasts ;
as the IsraeUtes in Egypt, working in the
clay, under hard taak-masters.
Much discourse and much ink hath been
spilt upon the debate of free will, but truly
aUtheUberty it hath, till the Son and his Spirit
free it, is that miserable freedom the apostle
speaks of, Rom. vi. 20, " While ye were ser-
yanfa fd sin, ye were free from righteousness.'
, And as we are naturally subject to the

vile drudgery of sin, so we are condemned
to the proper wages of sin ; which the
apostle there tella us, is death according to
the juat aentence of the law. But our Lord
Chriat was anointed for thia purpose, to set
us free, botii to work and to publish liberty,
to ""proclaim liberty to captivea, and the
opening of the prison-dpora tp them that are
bound," Isa. Ixi. 1. Having paid nur cora
plete ransora, he sends hia word as the raes
sage, and his Spirit to perform it, effectual
ly to aet ua free, to let ua know it, and to
bring us out of priaon. He was bound and
acpurged aa a slave pr raalefactor to purchase
ua thia liberty, therefore ought it to be our
special care, first to have part in it, and then
to be like it, and standfast in it in all points.
But that we deceive not ourselves as too
raany do that have no portion in this liberty,
we ought to know that it is not to inordi
nate walking and licentiousrieas, aa our li
berty, that we are caUed ; but from them,
aa our thraldom ; we are not caUed from
obedience, but to it. Therefore beware that
you ahuffle in nothing under this specious'
name of liberty that belongs not to it ; make
it not a cloak of maliciousness, it is too pre
cious a garment for so base an use. Liberty
is indeed Christ's Uvery that he gives to all
his followers : But to live suitably to it, is
not to live in wickedness or disobedience of
any kind, but in obedience and holiness ;
you -are caUed to be the servants of God,
and that ia your dignity and, your liberty.
The apostles of thia goapel of liberty glo
ried in thia title. The servants of Jesus
Christ. David, hefore that Paalm of praise
for his victories and exaltations, being now
settied on his throne, prefixes that as raore
honour than all these, A Psalm of David,
the servant of the Lord, Psal. xviii. 1.
It is the only true happiness both of kings
and their subjects to be his subjects ; it is
the glory of the angels to be his ministering
spirits. The more we attain unto the fa
culty of aerving him cheerfully and diligent
ly, the raore atiU we find of this spiritual li
berty, and have the raore joy in it. As it
is the raost honourable, it is likewise the raost
comfortable and most gainful service, and
they that once know it wiU never change it
for any other in the world. Oh ! that wa
could Uve as his servants, employing all our
industry to dp him service in the cpndition
and place wherein he hath set us, whatsoever
it is ; and as faithful servants, more careful
of hia affaira than of our own, accounting it
our main buaineaa tp seek the advancement
pf hia glpry. "Happy ia the servant whom
the master, when he cometh, shaU find so
doing," Matt, xxiv. 46.
Vbb. 17, Honour all men. Love the brotherboo'!,,
Fear God. Honour the king.
This is a precious cluster of divine pre-.

116

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap, n.

cepts ; the whole face of the heavens is adorn
ed with stars, but they are of different magni
tudes, and in some parts they are thicker set
than in others. Thus ia it likewise in the
holy Scriptures : and these are the two booka
that the Psalmiat sets open before us, Psal.
xix. the heavens as a choice piece of the
works of God instructing us, and the word
of God, more fuU and clear than they. Here
is a constellation of very bright stars near to
gether. These worda have very briefly, and
yet not obscured by briefness, but withal
very plainly, the sum of our duty, towards
God and men ; fn raen both in general,
honour all men, and in special relations, in
Jieir Christian or religious relation, love the
brotherhood ; and a chief civil relatipn,
tonour the king. And pur whole duty to
God comprised under the name of his fear,
is set in the middle betwixt these as the
eoramon apring of aU duty to men, and of
bU due obaervance of it, and the sovereign
rale by which it is tp be regulated.
I ahall apeak pf them as they lie in the
text. We need not labour about the con
nexion ; for in auch variety of brief practical di
rection, it hath not auch place as in doctrinal
discourses. The apoatle having apoke ofone
particular, wherein he would have his bre
thren to clear and commend their Christian
profession, now accumulates these directions
as raost necessary, and after goes on to par
ticular duties of servants, &c. But first
observe in general, how plain and easy, and
how few these thinga are that are the rule of
our life. Here are no dark aentences to
puzzle the understanding, nor large dis
courses and long periods to burden the me
mory ; they are aU plain ; there is nothing
wreathed nor distorted in them, as wisdom
speaks of her instructions, Prov. viii. 8.
And thia givea check to a double folly
amongst men, contrary the one to the other,
but both agreeing in mistaking and wrong
ing the word of God. The one is of those
that despise the word, and that doctrine and
preaching that is conformable to it, for ita
plainn as aud airapUcity ; the other of thoae
that complain of ita difficulty and darkness.
Aa for the firat, they certainly do not take
the trae end for which the word ia deaigned,
that it ia the law of our life ; and it is mainly
requisite in laws, that they be both brief and
clear ; that it is our guide and light to happi
ness ; and if that which ought to be our
Hght, be darkness, how great will thai dark-
nest be ! Matt. vi. 23.
It is true,' (but I am not now to insist on
this point,) that there be dark and deep pas
sages in scripture, for the exerciae, yea, for
the humbUng, yea, for amazing and aatonish.
ing, of the sharpest sighted readers. But
this arguea much the pride and vanity of
ineii'a minda, when they buay themselves only
in thoae, and throw aside altogether tht meet

neceaaary, which are therefore the easiest and
plainest truths in it. As in nature the com-
moditiea that are of the greateat necesaity,
God hath made moat common and easiest to
be had, so in religion, such instmctions as
these now in our hands, that are both the
most necessary and the plainest, are given us
to live and walk by : And by giving up
themselves wholly to the search of things
that are more obscure, and less useful, ipen
evidence that they had ratherbe learned than
holy, and have still more mind to the tree of
knowledge, than the tree of life. And in
hearing of the word, are not they that are
any whit more knowing than ordinary, atiU
gaping after new notions ? Something to
add to the stock of their speculative and dis
coursing knowledge ; loathing thia daily
raanna, these profitable exhortations, and
requiring meat for their lust. There is an
interaperance of the mind as well aa of the
mouth ; you would think it, and may be,
not apare to call it, a poor cold serraon, that
were raade up of such plain precepts as these,
honour all men ; love the brotherhood ;
fear God ; honour the king : And yet this
is the language of God ; 'tia hia way, this
foolish despicable way, by which he guides,
and brings to heaven them that believe.
Again, we have others that are stiUcom.
plaining of the difficulty and darkness at
the word of God and divine truths ; to say
nothing of Rome's doctrine, that talks thus,
to excuse her sacrilege of stealing away the
word from the people of Gpd ; (a senseless
pretext, though it were true, because the word
is dark of itself, should it therefore be made
darker, by locking it up in an unknown
tongue ;) but we speak of the common vulgar
excuse, that the gross ignorance and profane
ness of raany seeks to shroud itself under,
that they are not learned, and cannot reach
the doctrine of the scriptures. There hi
deep mysteries there indeed ; but what say
you to these things, such rules as these,
honour all men, Scc. Are such as these
riddles, that you cannot know their mean-
ing ? rather do not all understand thera, and
all neglect them ? Why set you not on to do
these, and then you should underatand more !
A good understanding have all they that do
his commandments, aaya the Paalmiat, Psal.
cxi. 10 ; and aa one aaid well, " The best
way to understand the mysterious and high
discourse in the beginning of St. Paul's
Epistles, ia to begin at the practice of these
rules and precepts that are in the latter end
of them." The way to attain to know more,
is to receive the truth in the loue of it, and
to obey that you know. The truth ia, auch
t^itha as these will leave you inexcusable,
even the most ignorant of you ; you cannot
but know, you hear often, that you ougnt
to love one another, and fear God, &c.; and
yet JOU never apply yourselves in eamest t«

VEU. 17.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

117

the practice pf these things, as will appear
to your own consciences, if they deal honest
ly with you in the particulars.
Honour all men.] Honour in a nanower
sense is not an universal due to all, but pe
cuUar to some kind of persons. Of this the
apostle speaka, Rom. xiii. 8, Render ho
nour to whom honour is due, and that in
different degreea, to parents, to maatera, and
other superiors. There ia an honour that
hath, as it were, Casar's image and super
scription on it, and ao is particularly due to
him ; as here it foUowa, honour the king.
But there ia something that goea not unfitly
under the name of honour, generally due to
every raan without exception ; and it con
sists, as all honour doth, partly in inward
esteem of them, partly in outward behaviour
to them. Aud the former must be the ground
and cause pf the latter.
We owe not the aarae raeasure of eateem
to all. We may, yea, we ought to take
notice of the different outwiird quality, or
inward graces and gifts of men ; nor is it a
fault to perceive the shallowness and weak.
nesa of men with whora we converse, and to
esteem more highly those on whom God
hath confened more of such thinga aa are
tnJy worthy of esteera : But unto the raean
est we do owe some raeasure of esteem, I
Negatively ; we are not to entertain despis
ing disdainful thoughts of any, how worth
less and mean soever. As the adrairing of
raen, the very best, is a fooliah exceaa on the
one hand, so the total conteraning of any,
the very pooreat, ia againat thia rule on the
other ; for that contemning of vile persons,
the Psalmiat speaka of, Paal. xv. 3, and
comraenda, is the dislike and hatred of their
sin, which is their vileness, and not accpunt.
ing thera for outward reapecta worthy of auch
esteera, aa their wickedneaa doea as it were
strip them of. 2. We are to observe and
respect the sraaUest good that is in any.
Although a Christian be never so base in
his outward cpnditipn, in bpdy pr mind, pf
very raean inteUectuals and*natural endpw-
ments ; yet they that knpw the wprth pf spi
ritual thinga, wiU esteem the grace pf Gpd
that is in hira, in the raidat pf all thpse dia
advantages, as raen eateem a pearl, thpugh
in a, rough shell. Grace carties still its own
worth, though under a deformed body and
ragged garraents ; yea, though they have
but a sm'aU raeaaure of that either ; yea, the
very loweat degree of grace, aa a pearl of the
least size, or a small piece of gold, yet raen
will not throw it away : But, as they aay,
the least shavings of gold are wprth the keep-;
ing. The Jews wpuld npt willingly tread
uppn the smallest piece pf paper in their way.
but topk it up ; for possibly, said they, the
name of God raay be on it. Though there
was a Uttle superstitipn in that, yet truly
there is npthing but gpod reUeion in it, if

we apply it to men. Trample not on any ;
there raay be some work of grace tliere that
thou knowest npt of. The name pf Gpd may
be written uppn that apul thpu treadest pn ;
it raay be a spul that Chriat thpught ao rauch
of, aa to give hia precioua blood for it, there.
fore despise it not. Much ranre, I say, if *
thou ciinat perceive any appearance that it
is auch u one, oughteat thou to eateem it.
Whereaoever thou findest the leaat trait of
Christ's image, if thou loveat him, thou wilt
honour it ; or if there be nothing of thia to
be found in him thou lookest on, yet observe
what common gift of any kind God hath be.
stowed on him, judgment, or memory, or fa
culty in his calling, or any such thing, for
these in their degree are to be eateeraed, and
the person for them. And as there is no
raan so complete as to have the advantage in
every thing, so there is no raan ao low and
unworthy but he hath soraething wherein he
ia preferable even to these that in other re
apecta are rauch raore excellent : or imagine
thou canat find nothing elae in aorae men,
yet honour thy own na'ture, esteera huraanity
in thera, especiaUy since humanity is exalt
ed in Christ to be one with the Deity, ac
count of him as a man. And, along with
this esteem goes, Sdly, that general good-wiU
and affection that is due to men : whereas
there be {hat do not only outwardly express,
but inwardly bear more regard to some dog
or horse that they love, than to pppr distreaa-
ed raen ; and in sp dping, dp refiect dis.
honour upon theraselves, and upon raankind.
The outward behaviour wherein we owe
honour to all, is nothing but a conforraity to
thia inward temper of mind ; for he that in.
wardly deapiseth none, but esteemeth good
that is in the loweat, at leaat esteemeth them
in that they are raen, and loves them aa such,
will accordingly use no outward sign of dia.
dain of any ; he will not have a scornful eye,
nor a reproachful tongue to move at any, not
the meanest of hia aervanta, nor the worat of hia
eneraies ; but on the contrary, wiU acknow.
ledge the good that ia in every raan, and give
unto all that outward respect that is conveni.
ent for thera, and that they are capable of, and
wiU be ready to do thera good as he hath
opportunity and abiUty.
But instead of walking by this rule 01
honouring all men, what is there alraost to
be found amongst men, but a perverse prone.
ness to dishonour one another, and every man
ready tp dishpupur aU men, that he may
honour himself, reckening that what he gives
tp pthers is Ipst tp himself, and taking what
he detracts frora others, as gd'od booty to make
up himself ? Set aside men's own interest,
and that common civiUty that for their own
credit they use one with another, and truly
there wiU be found very Uttle of this real re.
apect to othera, fiowing from obedience to
God, and love to men, litde diapoaition to bs

ns

A COMMENTARY UPON

[ CHAP. II,

tender of their esteem and good name, and
their welfare, as of our own ; for so the rule
is, but we shaU find mutual disesteem and
defaming fiUing alraost all societies.
And the bitter root of this iniquity is, that
wicked accursed self love that dweUa in us.
Every raan ia naturaUy hia own grand idol,
would be eateeraed and honoured by any
means, and to raagnify that idol self, kills
the good name and esteem of others in sacri
fice to it. Hence ia the narrow obaerving
eye, and broad speaking tongue upon any
thing that tends to the dishonour of othera ;
and where other thinga faU, the diadainful
upbraiding of their birth pr caUing, pr any
thing that comea next tP hand, aervea for a
reproach. And hence ariaes a great part of
the jars and strifes amongst raen, the raoat
part being drunk with an over-wecning opi
nion of themselves, and the unworthiest
most ; u, sluggard (says Solomon) is wiser
- in his own conceit than seven -men that can
render a reason, Prov. xxvi. 16, and not
finding others of their mind, this frets and
troubles thera. They take the ready courae
- to deceive theraselves ; for they look with
both eyes on the failings and defeata of othera,
and acarce give their good qualities half an
eye ; on the contrary, in themaelvea, they
atudy to the fuU their own advantagea ; and
their weaknesses and defects, as. one says,
they skip over, as children do the hard words
in their lesson, that are troublesorae to read ;
flnd making this uneven parallel, what won-
der if the result be a gross raistake of them
selves. Men miscount themselves at horae,
they reckon that they ought to be regarded,
and their mind should carry it ; and when
they come abroad, and are crossed in this,
this puts them out of all temper.
But the humble man, as he ia raore con
forraable to thia divine rule, so hehath raore
peace by it ; for he seta so low a rate upon
himaelf in hia own thoughta, that it ia scarce
possible for any to go lower in judging of
him : And therefore, as he pays due re
spect to others to thefuU, and so givea no kind
of quartcl that way, ao he challenges no such
debt to himaelf, and thua avoida the usual
contests that arise in thia. Only by pride
comes contention, aaya Solomon, Prov. xiii.
10. A raan that will walk abroad, throw.
ing out hia arras in a crowded street. Can
not choose but be often juatled ; but he that
contracta hiraself, paaaes through raore easily.
Study therefore this excellent grace of
huraility, not the personated acting of it in
appearance, which raay be a chief agent for
pride, but trae lowliness of mind, to Ijs no
thing in your own eyes, and content to be ao
in the eyea of others. Then wiU you obey
thia word ; you will eateeiu aa is meet of all
men, and not be troubled though aU men
disesteem you. As this humility ia a pre
cioua grace, it is the preserver of all other

graces, and without it (if they could be wiili.
out it) they were but as a hox pf precious
powder cartied in the wind without a cover,
in danger to be scattered and blown away.
If ypu would have honour, there is an ambi.
tion both aUowed you and worthy of you,
whosoever you are, Rom. ii. 7 ! 2 Cor. v.
9, fiXtri/tmuiSit, other honour, though it
have the Hebrew narae from weight, is all
too light, and weighs only with cares and
troubles. Love the brotherhood.] There is a love,
as we said, due to aU, included under thaf
wprd pf honouring all, and a pecuUar Ipve to
our Christian brethren, which the aposde Paul
calls by a like word, the Household of faith,
Gal. vi. 10.
Christian brethren are united by a three-
fpld cprd ; twp pf them are comraon to other
raen, but the third is the strongest, and theirs
pecuUarly ; their bodies are descended of
the sarae man, and their souls of the same
God ; but their new life, by which they are
most entirely brethren, is derived from the
same God-man Jesua Ch-rist : yea in him
theyare aU one body, receiving life from him
their glorious Head, who ia caUed the first
born among many brethren, Rom. viii, 29.
And aa hia unapeakable love waa the source
of thia new being and fraternity, ao doubt-
leaa it cannot but produce indiaaoluble love
among thera that are partakera of it. The
Spirit of love and concord is that precious
ointment thai runs down from the head of
our High Priest, to the skirts of his gar-,
ment. The life of Chriat aud this law of
love is corabined, and cannot be aevered.
Can there be enmity betwixt thoae hearts
that meet in him ? Why do you pretend
youraelvea Christians, and yet remain not only
strangers to this love, but most contrary to
it, biters and devourers one of another, and
wiU not be convinced of the great guiltiness
and uncomeliness of strifes and envyings
among.st you ? Is this the badge that Christ
hath left his brethren, tp wrangle and maUgn
nne anpther ? Do you not know, on the con
trary, that they are to be known by rautual
Ipve ? " By this shaU aU men knew that you
are my disciples, if ye Icve one another."
How often doth that beloved disciple press
this ; he drank deep of that weU-spring of
love that was in the breast on which he leaned;
and (if they relate right) he died, exhorting
thia, love one another. Oh ! that there
were more of this love of Chriat in our hearts,
ariaing frora the sense of his love to us ; and
that would teach this mutual love more effec
tuaUy, which the preaching of it raay set be
fore us ; but without that other teaching, it
cannot work it within us. Why do we atiU
hear these things in vain ? Do we believe
what the love of Chriat did to us, and suf
fered for us ? And will we do nothing for
him, not forgive a shadow, a fancy of injury

VER. 17. I

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER,

1)9

much less a real one, for his sake ? And
love him that wronged us, whoever it is, but
especiaUy being one of our brethren in this
spiritual sense.
Many are the dutiea pf thia peculiar fra
ternal love ; that mutual cpnverae, and ad
monition, and reproofj and comforting, and
other duties which are in neglect, not only
amongat formal, but even amongat real Chris.
tiana. Let ua intreat more of his Spirit who
is Love, and that wiU mend this.
Fear God.] AU the rules of equity and
charity araongat raen, flow from a higher
principle, and depend upon it ; and there ia
no right obaerving of them without due re.
gard to that ; therefore this word that ex.
presaea that principle pf pbedience ia fitly in-
aerted ampngst theae : The firat pbligement
pf man being to the spvereign Majesty pf
Gpd that made hira, and aU their mutual
duties one to another derived frora that. A
man may indeed, frora moral principlea, be
of a mild inoffensive caniage, and do civil
right to all men : But this answers not the
divine rule even in these same things, and
after the way that it requires them. The
spiritual and religious observance of these
duties towards raen, springs ftom a respect
to God, and terminates there too, it begins
and ends in him ; and generally aU obedience
tp his cpramands, both auch as regulate our
behaviour tpwards himaelf immediately, and
such aa relate tp raen, dpth ariae frpra a
hply fear pf his name. Therefpre thia Fear
of God, upon which foUowa necessarily the
keeping of his commandments, is given us
by Solomon as the total sum of raan's business
and duty, Eccl. xii. ult. and so the way to
solid happiness.
It is pronounced by him totum hominis.
the whole of man : After he had made hia
diacoveriea of aU things besides under the
sun, gone the whole circuit, and raade an
exact valuation, he found all besides this tp
ampunt tp npthing but vanity and vexation
of spirit. The account he gives cf all pther
-things was pnly fpr this purppse, to illus
trate and establish this truth the more, and
to make it the more acceptable ; to be a re
pose after so much weariness, and auch a
tedioua joumey, and so, as he speaks there,
ver. 10, a word of delight as weU as a word
of truth, that the mind raight sit down and
quiet itself in this frora the turmoil aud
pursuit of vanity, that keeps it busy, to no
purpoae in aU other thinga. But whereaa
there waa emptineaa and vanity that is just
nothing in all other thinga, there was net only
soraething to be found, but aU in this one,
this fear of God, and that keeping of hit
commandments, which is the proper fruit of
that fear. AU the repeated declaring of
vanity in other things, both severaUy and
altogether in that book, are but so many

there, ver. 11, this word of wisdom, which
is the sum of all, and contains all the rest.
So Jpb, after a large inquest for wisdom,
searching for its vein, as men do for mines
of silver and gold, hath the return uf a non
inventum est, from aU the creatures. The
sea says, it is not in me, Scc. But in the
close finds he it in this, " The' fear of the
Lord, that is wisdom ; and to depart from
evil, that is understanding," Job xxviii. ult.
Under thia fear ia comprehended aU reli
gion, both inward and outward, all the wor
ship and aervice of God, and all the obser
vance of his commandments, which is there,
Eccl. xii, and elsewhere, expreaaly joined
with it ; and therefore ia included in it, when
it ia not expresaed. So Job xxviii, to de
part from evil, thai is understanding, re
peating the former worda by that. So Psal.
cxi. 10, it hath in it all hoUneas and obe
dience, they grow aU out of it. It is the
beginning, and it is the top or consuraraa
tion of wisdora, for the word aignifiea both.
Think it not then a trivial coraraon matter
to speak pr hear pf this subject ; but take It
aa our great lesson and busineaa here on
earth. The best proficients in it have yet
need to leam it better, and it requires our
incessant diligence and study all our days.
This fear hath chiefiy theae things. 1.
A reverent esteem of the Majesty of God,
whi,jhia a main fundamental thing iureligiori,
that moulda the heart moat powerfuUy to the
obedience of hia wiU. 2. A firra belief of
the purity of God, and of hia power and jus
tice, that he Ipves holiness, and hates aU
sin, and can and wiU punish it. 3. A right
apprehension of the bitterness of his wrath,
and the sweetness of his love : that his in-
censed anger is the most tenible and intole.
rabie thing in the world, absolutely the raoat
fearful of all evila ; and on the other side,
his love, pf aU gppd things the best, the rapst
blessed and delightful, yea the only blessed.
ness. Life is the narae of the sweetest good
we know, and yet this loving kindness is
better than life, says David, Psal. Ixiii. 3,
4. It suppoaes Ukewiae spvereign Ipve to
Gpd, fpr hia pwn infinite excellency and gppd-
nesa. 5. Frpm aU these things springs a
most earnest desire to please him in all
things, and an unwillingness tp pffend him
in the least ; and because of our danger
through the multitude and strength of temp.
tations, and our pwn weakness, a cpntinual
self-suspicipn, a hply fear lest we shpuld sin,
and a care and watchfulness that we sin npt,
and deep SPnpw and speedy retuming and
humbUng befpre him when we have sinned.
There is indeed a base kind pf fear, that
the usual distinction they call servile
fear : But to account aU fear of the judg
ments and wrath of God a servile fear, (or
not to stand uppn words) to account such a

sti'okes to drive and fasten this nail, as it is i fear improper to the children of God, I coii

ISO

A CO.M.MENTARY UPON

[CHAP. II,

ceive is a wide mistake. Indeed, to fear die
punishments of sin, without regard to God
and his justice as the inflicter of them, or to
forbear to sin only because of thoae punish
ments, so aa if a man can be aecured frpm
dipae, he hath no other respect to God that
would raake him fear to offend ; this is the
character of a slavish and base mind.
Again, for a man so to apprehend wrath
in relation to himaelf, aa to he atill under
the hortor of it in that notion, and npt to
.apprehend rederaption and deliverance by
Jesus Christ, is to be under that apirit of
bondage which the apoatle apeaks of. Bora.
viu. 15. And though a chUd of God raay
for a tirae be under such fear, yet the lively
actings of faith, and persuasion of God's
Ipve, and the feeUng of refiex love to him in
the soul, doth cast it out, according to that
of the apostle, 1 John iv. 18, true or per
fect love casteth out fear. But tp appre
hend the punishraents the Lnrd threatens
against sin as certain and true, and tp con.
sider the greatness and fearfulneas of them,
especially the tenor of the Lord'a anger and
hot diapleasure, above aU punishraents, and
(though not only, no nor chiefiy for these)
yet in contemplation of these, as very great
and weighty, to be aftaid to offend that God
who hath threatened auch things aa the juat
reward of sin ; thia, I aay, is not inccn-
griipua with the estate pf the sons of God,
yea, it is their duty and their property even
thus to fear.
1st, This is the very end for which God
hath pubUshed these intiraationa of hia jua
tice, and hath threatened to punish raen i_
they transgreaa, to the end they may fear
and not tranagreaa : So that not tp lppk uppn
them thua, and not to be affected with them
answerably to their intendment, were a very
grievoua sin ; a alight and diaregard put
upon the worda of the great God.
2dly, Of all othera, the children of God
have the righteat and cleareat knowledge of
God, and the deepeat beUef of hia word, and
therefore they cannot choose but be afraid,
and more afraid than aU othera, to faU under
the stroke of hia hand. They know more
of the greatneaa, and truth, and justice of
God, than others, and therefore they fear
when he threatens. " My flesh trembleth
for fear of thee, (aaya David,) and I ara
afraid of thy judgraenta," Paal. cxix. 120 ;
yea, they tremble when they hear the sen
tence against others, or see it executed upon
them ; it moves thera when they see public
executions : " Knowing the tenpr pf the
Lprd, we persuade raen," says St. Paul, 2
Cpr. V. 11, and they cry out with Mcses,
Psal. xc. 11, "Who knows the power pf
thine anger ? even accprding tP thy fear so is
thy wrath." It is not an iraagination nor
invention that raakes raen fear more than they
need ; his wrath ia as terrible a* any that

fears it most can comprehend, and beyond
that: So that this doth npt only consist
with the estate of the saints, but is their
very character, to tremble at ihe word oi
their Lord. The rest neglect what he saya
till death and judgment seize on them ; but
the godly know and believe that " it is a
tearful thing to faU into the hands of the
Uving God," Heb. x. 31.
And though they have firm promiaea, and
a kingdom that cannot be shaken, yet they
have StiU this grace by which ihey serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly
fear ; even in this consideration that our
God, even he that is purs by peculiar cove
nant, is a consuming fire, Heb. xii^ 28, 29.
But indeed tpgether with this, yea, more
than with this, they are perauaded to fear
the Lord, by the sense of his great love to
them, and hy the power of that love, that
works in them towards him, and is wrought
in them by hia. " They ahaU fear the
Lord and his goodness in the latter days,"
Hosea iii. 5. In those days his goodness
shaU manifest itself more than before : the
beams of his love shaU break forth more
abundantiy in the days of the gospel, and
shall beat more directly and hotter on the
hearts of raen, and then they shaU fear him
raore, because they shaU love him more.
This fear agreea weU both with faith and
love, yea, they work it. Cpmpare Psal.
xxxi. 23, with Paal. xxxiv. 9, and that
aame Psal. xxxiv. ver. 8, with 9, and Psal.
cxii. ver. 1, with 7- The heart tnuched
with the load-atone of divine love, tremblea
atiU with this godly fear, and yet looks fix
edly by faith to that star of Jacob, Jesus
Christ, who guides it to the haven of hap
piness. The lepking upon God in the face of Jesus
Christ, takes off that terror of his counten
ance that drives men from him ; and, in the
snciles of his love that appear through Christ,
there is auch a power as unites their hearta
to him, but unitea thera ao as to fear his
name, as the Psalmist's prayer is, Psal.
Ixxxvi. 11. He puts such a fear in their
hearts as wiU not cauae them to depart ftom,
yea, cauaea that they shall not depart from
him, Jer. xxxii. 40.
And this ia the purest and highest kind
of godly fear, that springs frora love ; and
though it excludes, not the consideration of
wrath, aa temble in itself, and sorae fear of
it, yet it raay surmount it ; and doubtless
where much of that love poaaeases the heart,
it will spraetiraea drown the other considera
tion, so that it shaU scarcely be perceptible at
all, and wiU constantly set it aside, and per.
suade a man purely for the goodness and love
Uness of God, to fear to offend him, though
there were no intereat at aU in it of a man's
own peraonal misery- or happiness.
But do we thus fear the Lord our Ood ?

VEK. 17.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

121

What raean dien Pur paths, and excesses,
and uncleanness, Pur covetousness, and gene
raUy, our unholy and unchristian conversa
tion ? This fear would raake men tremble,
eo as to shake them out of their profane cus
toms, and to shake their beloved sins out of
their bosoras. The knowledge of the Holy
One causes fear of hira, Prov. ix, 18.
But alas ! we know him uot, and there
fore we fear him not. Knew we but a little
of the great majesty of God, how holy he is,
and how powerful a puniaher ef unhplineas,
we shpuld npt dare tp prpvpke him thua. He
ean kill both body and soul, ' and cast ihem
into hell, as pur Savipur teUa us. Matt. x.
28 ; and he will dp so with both, if we wiU
not fear him, because he can do so ; and it
ia told ua that we may fear, and ao may not
feel this heavy ivratb. A little lively apiri
tual knpwledge wpuld gp far and wprk much,
which a great deal, auch as ours is, dpth not.
Some such word as that" of Joseph would do
much, being engraven on the heart, " ShaU
I do this evil, and sin agaiust God ?" Gen.
xxxix. 9. It would make a man be at no
more Uberty to s-in in secret than in pubUc ;
no, not to dispense with the sin of his
thoughts, more than of the openest words or
actions. If sorae grave wise man did see
our secret behaviour and our thoughts, should
we not look raore nanowly to them, and not
suffer such rpvings and folUes in ourselves ?
Sure, therefore, we forget God's eye, which
we could not, if we thought of it aright, but
should respect it raore than if aU raen did see
within ua.
Nor ia this pnly the main ppint tn be press
ed uppn the ungpdly, but the children pf Gpd
themselves have much need tu be put in raind
of it, and to increase in it. How often do
they abuse the indulgence of so loving a Fa
ther, and have not their thoughts so con
stantiy fi-iU of him, are not in his fear, as
Solomon advises, all the day long, Prov.
xxiii. 17, but many times sUp out of his
directing hand, and wander from him, and
do not so deeply feel hia diapleaaurc, and so
watch over aU their waya, as becomes triera ;
and keep close by him, and wait on his voice
and obey it constantly, and are not so hum
bled and afflicted in their repentings for sin
as this fear requires, but in a slight and su
perficial degree. They offer much lip-la
bour, which is but dead service to the liv
ing God. These are things, ray beloved,
that concern us rauch, and that we ought
seriously to lay to heart : for even they that
are freed frora condemnation, yet if they walk
fearlessly and carelessly at any tirae, he hath
ways enough to raake thera sraart for it :
And if there were no raore, should it not
wound them deeply, to think how they requite
to great, so unspeakable love ?
Honour ihe king.] This was the particu
lar that the apostle preaaed and insisted on

before, and here he repeats it, as a special
duty of the second table, and a vindication
of religion, which is wrongfully blamed in this
point ; but of this before.
This is out of question in the general,
only in the raeasure and rule of it is the dif
ference ; and sure they cannot possibly be
satisfied that are so drunk with power, as to
admit of none at all ; no raeasure nor rate
for it, no-banks nor channels for those rivers,
the hearts and wills of kings, to run in, but
think, that if they like to run over all, they
raay. This is such a wild conceit, as destroys
both aU law of reason in human societies,
and aU religious obligement to the laws of
God. For the qualification and meaaure, I
ahall mention no other but that in the text,
tha^ it be always regulated by this, that here
goes' before it the fear of God ; that wie never
think of any such obedience and honour due
to kinga, as crosseth that fear thaUia due to
God. Let kinga and aubjects, and all know,
that they are absolutely bound to thia. It is
spoke te kings, Paal. ii. 11, Serve the Lord
in fear. And Psal. ix. 6, to aU men, " fear
before hira aU the earth, for he ia great, and
greatly to be" praiaed, he ia to be feared abpve
all gpda." What is man in reapect pf him ?
Shall a worm, whose breath is in his nostrils,
stand in corapetition with the ever-Uving
God ? ShaU an earthen potsherd strive with
his maker ? Let ihe potsherds strive with
the potsherds of ihe earth, Isa. jjlv. 9. Let
them work pne against anpther, and try
which is hardest, and se theyshaU often break
each other ; but woe to him ihat siriveth
with his maker. There is nothing there but
certain perishing. As we conclude in the
question with Rome, of the honour due to
saints and angela ; honour let them have,
and good reaaon, but not divine honour ; not
God'a peculiar : So in thia. Give io Ctesar
the things ihat are Casar's ; but withal
atill. Give to God the things that are God's,
Matt. xxii. 21.
But it ia a miaerable eatate of a kingdom,
when debatea on thia head arise and increase ; '
and their happiness is, when kinga and peo
ple concur to honour God. " For those that
hpnpur him he wiU hpnpur ; and whpspever
despises him shaU be Ughdy esteemed," 1
Sam. ii. 30.

Ver. 18. Servants, be subject to your masters with
all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also
to the froward.
Vkr. 19. For this is thank-worthy, if a man, for
conscience towards God, endure gi-lef, suffering
wrongfully.
Vkr. 20. For what glory is it, if when ye be buf-
fetted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently ?
But if when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it
patientiy, this is acceptable with God.
" Thy word (aaya the Paalmiat) is a light
to my feet, and a lamp to my paths," PsaL
cxix. 105. Not only a Ught to pleaae his eyes.

122by the exceUent tratha and coraforta that are
in it, but withal a larap to direct hia feet in
the precepta and rulea of life that it givea, to
inform and deUght hia mind, tp prder hia
courae. That philosopher waa deaervedly com
mended that drew knowledge moat this way,
and therefore was said to have brought phi
losophy from the clouda to dwell amongat
men, caUing it frora erapty apeculations to a
practical shrain. Thua we are taught in spi
ritual knpwledge by the wprd of God. The
Son, the etemal Word, when he carae to
dweU with men, and so brought life, and
wisdom, and all blessings from the heavens
down unto them, taught them, both by his
dpctrine and perfect example, hpw tp walk ;
and his appstles dp, cpnformably to this pat-
tem, aira at this in their holy writings ; join
ing with the raysteries of faith those rules of
Ufe that show men the straight way to hap-
piness. .And jg.s it is apoken of the largeness of
Solomon's wiadom, that " he spoke of aU
trees, from the cedar in Lebanon, to the
hyssop that grows out of the waU," 1 Kings
iv. 33, so in thia we may aee the perfection
of the Holy Scripturea, that they give those
directions that are needful to aU ranks and
sorts of raen. They apeak not only of the
dutiea of kinga, how they ought to behave
themselvea on their thrones, and the duty of
their subjects to them in that dignity, and
how ministers and others ought to cany in
the house of God ; but they come in to
private houses, and give economic rules for
them ; teaching parents and children, and
masters, yea, and servants, how to acquit
themselves one to another. Thua here, ser
vants, be subject io your masters.
Aa thia is a juat plea for aU the people of
God, that they have right to the uae of thia
book, being ao useful for aU sorts, and that
they ought not to be baned it ; so it ia a
just plea, against a great part of those that
bar theniaelves the use of it, through sloth-
fulneas and earthly-mindedness, seeing it is
so contempered, that there may be many
things, yea, aU the main thinga in it profit
able for aU, fitted to the uae of the loweat
eatate and loweat capacities of men. Yea,
it takes (aa we see) particular notice of their
condition ; stoopa down to take the meaneat
servant by the hand, to lead him in the way
to heaven ; and not only in that part of it,
which ia the general way of Christians, but
even in those ateps of it that lie within the
walk of their particular calUng, aa here, teach
ing not only the duties of a Christian, but of
a Christian servant.
Obs. 1. The scripturea are a depth that
few can wade far into, and none can wade
through, (as those waters, Ezek. xlvii. 5,)
but yet all may corae to the brook and refresh
theraaelvea with drinking of Jhe atrearaa of
ita living water, and go in a Uttle way, ac-

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. II.

cording tP their strength and atature. Now
thia (I aay) may be spoken to your shame,
and I wish it raight sharae you to amende
ment : that so many of ypu either use not
the scriptures at aU, or iu using do not use
them; tum over the leaves, and it maybe
ran through the Unes, and consider not what
they advise you. Masters, leam your part,
and servants too, hearken what they say to
you, for they pass not you by, they vouchl
safe to speak to you too, but you vouch
safe not to hear tliem, and observe their voice;
How can you think that the reading of this
book concerns you not, when you may hear
it address such particular directions unto
you ? Wisdom goes uot only to the gates
of palaces, but to the coraraon gates of the
cities, and to the pubUc highways, and caUs
to the simplest that she may make them wise.
Besides that ypu dishonour God, you pre
judice yourselves ; for does not that neglect
of God and his word, jusdy procure the dis
order and disobedience of your servants to-
'wards you, as a fit punishment from his
righteous hand, although they are unrigh
teous, and are procuring further judgment to
themselves in so doing : and not only thus
is your neglect of the word a cause of youi
trouble by the justice of God, but in regard
of the nature of the word, that if you would
respect it, and raake uae of it in your houaes,
it would teach your servanta to reapect and
obey you, as here you aee it apeaka for you ;
and therefore you wrong both it and your
aelvea, when you ailence it in your famiUes.
Obs. 2. The apostle having spoken of sub.
jection to public authority, adds thia of aub.
jection to private domeatic authority. It ia
a thing of much concernment, the right order
ing of farailiea ; for aU other societies, civil
and religious, are raade up of these. VU
lages, and cities, and churches, and common
wealths, and kingdoms, are but a coUection
of families ; and therefpre such as these are,
for the raost part, auch muat the whole ao
cietiea predominantly be. One particular
houae ia but a very sraall ptirt of a kingdom,
yet the wickedness and lewdneaa of that
houae, be it but the raeanest in it, as of ser
vants one or raore, and though it seem but a
sraaU thing, yet goes in to raake up that
heap of sin that provokes the wrath of God,
and draws on public calamity.
And this particularly, when it decUnes in.
to disorder, proves a public evil ; when ser.
vants grow generally conupt, and disobe.
dient, and unfaithful, though they be the
lowest part, yet the whole body of a com
monwealth cannot but feel very sensibly the
evil of it ; as a raan does when his legs and
feet grow diseased, and begin to fail him.
We have here, 1. Their duty. 2. The
due extent of it. 3. The right principle of it.
1st, Their duty. Be subject. Keep ypur
prder and station under masters, and that

VEH. 18.-20.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PKTKI!.

I2;i

with fear, and inward reverence of mind and
respect to them ; for that is the very life o£
all obedience. Then their obedience hath
in it, diligent doing, and patient suffering ;
both these are in that word, be subject. Do
faithfuUy to your utmost that which is in.
trusted tp you, and pbey aU their just cpra
mands, for at:tipn indeed goes no further ;
but suffer patiently even their unjust rigours
and severities. And thia being the harder
]-art of the two, and yet a part that the ser
vants of thoae tiraes bore, many of thera
being raore hardly and slavishly used than
any with us, (especiaUy thoae that were
Christian servants underunchristian raasters,)
therefore the aposde insiata raoat on thia ;
and this is the extent of the obedience here
required, that it be paid tp all kind pf mas
ters, not to the good only, but also to the
"vil ; not only to obey, but to auffer, and to
suffer patiently, and not only deserved, but
even wrongful and unjuat punishment.
Now, becau.se thia particular concerns ser
vanta, let them reflect upon their own caniage,
and examine it by thia rule : and truly the
greatest part of them will be found very un
conformable to it, being either closely fraudu
lent and deceitful, or grossly stubborn and
disobedient, abusing the lenity and mildness
of their masters, or murmuring at their 'just
reverity : so far are they from the patient
endurance of the least undue word of reproof,
much less of sharper punishment, either
tri\ly, or in their opinion, undeserved. And
truly, if any that profeas religion dispense
with themaelvea in this, they mistake the
matter very rauch : for it ties thera more,
whether children or servants, to be mest sub
missive and Pbedient even tp the wprst kind
pf parenta and raaatera, always in the Lord.
not pbeying any unjust cpraraarid ; thpugh
t'ney may and pught to suffer patiently (as
it is here) their unjust reprpofs or punish.
ments. But on the other side, thia doea not justify,
nor at all excuse, the unmerciful austerities
and unbridled passion of masters ; it is still
a perverseness and cropkedneaa in thera, as
the -wprd is here, irnsXiei!, and /must have
its pwn narae, and shall have its proper re
ward frpm the sovereign Master and Lord
of aU the world. But this is the second
branch. 2d, There is also the due extent of this
duty, namely, to ihe froward. It ia a more
deformed thing to have a distorted crooked
raind, or a froward spirit, than any crooked.
ness of the body. How can he that hath
servants' under hira expect their obedience,
whenhe cannot coraraand his own passion, but
Is a alave tpit ? And unleaa much cpnacience
of duty poasesa serVitnts, mpre than ia cpm-
mpnly tp be found with them, it cannot but
wprk a raaater into much disaffection and
disesteem with them, when he is of a_turbu-

lent spirit, a troubler ofhis own house, em
bittering his affiiirs and cpramands wilh ri-
gidiieaa and paaaiona, and ready to take
thinga by that side that may offend and
trouble him, thinking his servant slights his
call, when he may as well think he heard
him not, and upon every alight occaaion, real
or imagined, flying out into reproachful
peeches or proud threats, contrary to the
apostie St. Paul's rule, which he seta over
against the duty of servants, Eph. vi. 9,
" Forbearing threatening, knowing tbat your
Master also is in heaven, and that there is
no respect of peraons with hira :" Think,
therefore, when you ahall appear before the
judgment-seat of God, that your carriage
ahall be examined and judged, aa theira ;
and think that, though we regard thoae dif
ferences much of masters and servants, they
are nothing with God, they vanish away in
his presence.
Consider who made thee io differ : Might
he not have raade your stations just contrary
with a turn of his hand, and raade thee the
servant, and thy servant the master : But
we wiUingly forget those things that should
compose our minds to humility and meekness,
and blow thera up with such fancies as
please and feed our natural vanity, and make
us somebody in our own account.
However, that Christian servant that falls
into the hands of a froward master, will not
be beaten out of his station and duty of obe.
dience by all the hard and wrongful usage
he meets with, but wiU take that as an op.
portunity of exercising the more pbedience
and patience, and will be the mere cheerfully
patient, because pf his innpcence, as the
apostle here exhorts.
Men do indeed look sometimes upon this
as a just plea for impatience, that they suffer
unjustly, which yet is very ill logic : for,
aa the philoaopher said, " 'Would any raan,
diat frets because he suffers unjustly, wiah
to deserve it, that he might be patient ?"
Now to hear thera, they aeem to apeak ao,
when they exclaim, that the thing which
vexeth them most, ia, that they have not de.
served any such thing as is infl.icted on them :
Truly desert of punishment raay make a raan
moic silent upon it, but innocence, rightly
f-onsidercd, niakes him raore patient. Guilti
ness stops a man's mouth indeed in suffering :
But sure it doth not quiet his raind ; on the
contrary, it is that which raainly diaturba and
grieves him, it is the sting of suffering, as
sin ia aaid to be of death; 1 Cor. xv. 56.
And therefore, when there ia no guilt, the
pain of aufferinga cannot but be much abated ;
yea, the apostle here declares, that to suffer
undeservedly, and withid patiently, is glo
rious to a man,^ and acceptable to God. It
is comraendable indeed to be traly patient
even in deserved siifferiiiga ; but the deser
ving them, tami.shea the lustre of that pa-

A COMMENTARY UPON

124
tience, and makes it look more like constraint,
which is the apostie's meaning, preferring
spptless suffering much before it. And that
IS indeed the true glory of it, that it pleaseth
God ; so that it is rendered in the close of
the 20th verse for the other word of glory in
the beginning of it ; it is a pleasing thing
in God's eyes, and therefore he wiU thank a
man for it, as the word ia, x^i'< -"^f^ ^'^•
Though we owe aU our patience under all
kind of afflictiona aa a duty to hira, and
though that grace ia his own gift ; yet he
hath obliged hiraself by Uis royal word, not
only to accept of it, but tu praise it, and re
ward it in his children. Though they lose
their thanks at the world's hands, and he ra
ther scoffed and taunted in all theirdoings and
sufferings, it is no raatter ; they can expect
no other there ; but their reward is on high,
in the sure and faithful hand of their Lord.
Hov/ often do men work earnestly, and do
and auffer rauch for the uncertain wagea of
glory and thanka amongst raen ! and how
raany of thera faU short of their reckoning ;
either dying before they corae to that state
where they think tp find it, pr npt finding it
where they looked for it, ao do but Uve to
feel the pain of their disappointment. Or if
they do attain their end, such glory and
thanks as men have to give thera, what a-
mounts it to ? Is it any other but a handful
of nothing, the breath of their raoutha, and
themselvea much like it, a vapour dying out
in the air ? The moat real thanka they give,
their aolidest rewards, are but auch as a mail
cannot take home v/ith him ; if they go so
far with him, yet at farthest he rauat leave
thera at the door, when he ia to enter hia
everlasting horae. AU the riches, and pa
laces, and raonuraents of honour that he had,
and that are erected to hira after death, as
if he had then aorae interest in thera, reach
hira not at aU. Enjoy thera who wiU, he
does not, *' he hath no portion of aU that ia
done under the aun :" hia own end ia to him
the end of the world.
But he that would have abiding glory and
thanka, must tum his eye another way for
thera. All raen deaire glory, but raost know
neither what it is, nor how it is to be sought.
He is upon the only right bargain of this
kind, whose praise, according to St. Paul's
v/ord, is not of men but of God, Rora, ii.
29. If men comraend hira not, he accounts
it no loaa, and no gain if they do ; for he ia
bound for a country where that coin goes not,
and whither he cannot carry it ; and there
fore he gath^ra it not. That which he aeeks
in aU, ia, that he raay be approved and ac
cepted of God, 2 Cor. v. 9 ; whoae thanks
is no leaa to the least of thoae he accepta,
than a crown of unfading glory ; not a poor
servant that feara hia name, and ia obedient
and patient for hia aake, but shall be ao re.
V arded.

[chap. II.

There be sorae kind of graces and good
actiona that men (auch aa regard any grace)
take special notice pf, and cpmmend highly,
auch as are pf a magnific and reraarkable
nature, aa raartyrdora, or doing or auffering
for religion in aorae public way. There be
again other obscure graces, that if men de
spise not, yet they esteem not much, as
meekness, gentleness, and patience under
private crosses, known to few or none : and
yet theae are of great account with God, and
therefore ahould be ao with us. Theae are
indeed of more univeraal uae ; whereas the
other are but for high timea, as we aay, for
rare occasions : These are every one's work,
but few are caUed to the acting of the other.
And the least of them ahaU not loae their
reward, in whoae peraon spever, as St. Paul
tella us, apeaking of this sarae subject, Eph.
vi.-8, " Knowing that whatsoever good thing
any man doth, the aarae ahaU he receive of
the Lord, whether he be bond or free."
Thia is the bounty of that great Master
we serve : For what are we, and all we can
do, that there ahould be a narae of a reward
to it ? Yet he keepa aU in reckoning ; not
a poor lame prayer, not a tear, npr a aigh,
ppiired fordi before him, shaU be lost. No*
any cross frora hia own hand iraraediately,
or coming through raen's hands, that ia taken,
what way soever it come, as out of Hia hand,
and canied patiently, yea and welcomed and
embraced for hia aake, but he observes our
so entertaining of it. Not an injury fliat the
meaneat aervant beara christianly, but goes
upon account with him, and he seta them ao,
aa that they bear much value through \his
esteera and way of reckoning them, though
in theraselves they are aU less than nothing;
aa a worthless counter stands for hundreds
or thousands, according to the place you set it
in. Happy they that have to deal with such
a Lord, and, be they servants or masters, are
vowed servants to him. " When he comes,
his reward shall be with him," Rev. xxii. 12.
The Sd thing is, the principle of his
obedience and patience, for conscience to
wards God.
It importa the knowledge of God, and of
his wiU in aorae due raeaaure, and a con-
acientious reapect unto him, and his wiU so
known, taking it for their pnly rale in doing
and auffering. We raay pbaerve here,
1 . That this declares tp us the freeness pf
the grace pf Gpd in regard to raen's outward
quality, that he doth often bestow the riches
of his grace upon persona of raean condition.
It ia auppoaed here, that this conscience of
God, the saving knowledge and fear of his
name, is to be found in aervanta : Therefore
the apoade takes them within the address of
his letter, amongst those that are elect ac.
cording to the foreknowledge of God, chap.
i. ver. 2, and aharera of thoae dignitiea he
mentiona, ver. 9, a chosen generation. The

vzn. 18—20.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

honour of a spiritual royalty raay consist
with the meanneaa of a servant ; and this
grace may be confened upon the aervant,
and denied to the master, as ia here suppos
ed : It may faU out that a perverse crooked-
minded raaster raay have a servant upright
ly minded, being endued with a tender re
spectful conscience towards God ; and dius
the Lord counteracts the pride of man, and
sets off the luatre of his pwn free grace. He
hath all tp choose on, and yet chooses there,
where men would least imagine it, Matthew
xi. 25 ; 1 Cor. i. 27.
2. Grace finda a way to exert itself in
every estate where it is, and regulates the
soul to the particular duties of that estate.
If it find a man high or low, a master or a
servant, it requires not a change of his ata
tion, but works a change on hia heart, and
teaches him how to live in it. The same spi
rit that makes a Christian raaster pious, and
gentie, and prudent in coraraanding, raakes
a Chriatian servant faithful, and obsequious,
and diligent in obeying. A skilful engraver
makea you a statue indifferently of wood, or
stone, or marble, as they are put into his
hand ; and grace forms a man to a christian
way of walking in any estate. There is a
way for hira, in the meanest condition, to
glorify God, and to adom the profession of
religion ; no estate ao low aa to be ahut out
from that ; and a right inforraed, and right
affected conscience towards God, ahewa a
man that way, and cauaes him to walk in
it. As the astrologera aay, that the aame
atars that made Cyrua to be choaen king
araongat the armies of men when he came to
be a man, made him to be choaen king
amongst the shepherds' children when he was
a child. Thus grace wiU have its proper
operation in every estate.
In this men readily deceive themselves ;
they can do any thing weU in imagination,
better than the real taak that is in their
hands. They presume, that they could do
God good service in sorae place of command,
that serve him not as becomes in that which
ia by far the easier, the place of obeying,
wherein he hath aet thera ; they think if they
had the ability and opportunities that some
men have, they would do much more for re
ligion and for God than they do, aud yet do
nothing, but spoil a far lower part than that
which ia their own, and ia given them to
study and act aright in. But our foUy and
self-ignorance abuses us ; it is not our part
to choose what we should be, but to be what
we are, to his glory, that gives us to be such :
Be thy cpnditipn never sp mean, yet thy
censcience tpwards Gpd, if it be within thee,
will find itself wprk in that. Ifit be litde
thatis entrusted to thee, in reward of- thy
outward condition, or any other way, be thou
faithful in thai little, as our Saviour speaks,
and die reward shall not be little ; " he

125
Mat.

shall raake thee ruler over much,"
xxv. 23.
3. As a conupt mind debaaeth the beat
and moat exceUent callings and actiona, ao
the loweat are raised above themaelvea, and
ennobled by a spiritual mind, A magiatrate
or rainiater, though their calling and em-
ploymenta be high, raay have low intentions ;
and draw down their high calling to these
low intentions ; they raay seek theraselves,
and aelfi-enda, and neglect God. And a
aincere Christian raay elevate his low call
ing, by this conscience of God, observing
his will, and intending his glory in it. An
eagle raay fiy high, and yet have its eyes
down upon aome canion on the earth ; even
ao, a man may be atanding on the earth,
and on some low part of it, and yet have hia
eye upon heaven, and be contemplating it.
¦That which one man carfnot aee in another,
ia the very thing that ia raost considerable in
their actions, namely, the principle whence
they flow, and the end to whicii they tend.
This is the form and life of actions, that by
which they are earthly or heavenly. What
soever be the raatter of thera, the spiritual
raind hath that alchyray indeed, of turning
base metals into gold, earthly employraents
into heavenly. I'he handy-work of an ar
tisan or servant that regarda God, and eyea
hira, even in that work, is rauch holier than
the prayer of an hypocrite ; and a servant
enduring the private wrongs and harshness
of a froward master, bearing it patiently for
the conacience of God, ia more acceptable to
God, than the Bufferings of such, as may
endure rauch for a pubUc gootl cause, with
out a good and upright heart.
This habit and posture of the heart to.
wards God, the apoatle St. Paul presses
much upon aervanta, Eph. vi. 8, as being
very needful to allay the hard labour and
harsh usage of many pf them. This is the
way tp make them easy, to undergo them for
God. There is no pill so bitter, but respect
and love to God wiU sweeten it. And this
is a very great refreshment and corafort to a
Christian in the mean estate of a servant, or
other labouring raen, that they raay offer up
their hardship and bodily labour as a sacrifice
to God, and say, " Lord, this is the station
wherein thou hast set rae in the world, and
I desire to serve thee in it. What I do is
for thee, and what I sufier I desire to bear
patientiy and cheerfully fpr thy sake, in sub-
raissipu and obedience tp thy wiU."
For consc'ience,] In this there is, I. A
reverent corapliance with God's disposal, both
in aUotting to thera that condition of life, and
particularly choosing their ' raaster for them ;
though possibly not the mildest and pleasant
est, yet the fittest for their good. There is
rauch in the firm believing of this, and hearty
submitting to it : For we would, naturaUy
rather crave for ourselves, and shape our owa'

126

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CHAP, It.'

estate to our mind, which is a most fooUsh, (than hia maater: The servant may hops
yea, an impious presuraption, as if we were for, aud aim at a kingdom, while the master

wiser than he that hath done it ; and as if
there were not as rauch, and, it maybe,
more possibility of true contentment in a
mean, than in a far higher condition. The
master's mind is often more toiled than the
servant's body. But if our condition be ap
pointed us, at least we would have a voice in
sorae qualifications and circumstances of it :
As In thia, if a man muat serve, he would
wish willingly, that God would allot him a
meek gentle raaster ; and so in other thinga
If we rauat be aick, we would be weU ac-
coraraodated, and not want helps ; but to
have aickneaa, and want means and frienda
for our help, this we cannot think of without
honor. But this aubmiaaion to God ia never
right tiU aU be given up into hia hand that
concema ua, to do with it, and every article
and circumatance of it, aa seeras good in his
eyes. 2. In thia conscience, ia a religious and
observant respect to the rule God hath aet
raen tp walk by in that cpndition ; ap that
their obedience dependa not upon auy exter
nal inducement, faiUng when that fails, but
flowa frora an inward impression of the law
pf Gpd uppn the heart. Thua, a aervant's
obedience and patience wiU net be pinned tp
the gppdness and equity of his raaater, but,
when that fails, wiU aubaiat upon ita own in
ward ground ; and so generally in aU other
estates. This is the thing that raakes sure
and constant walking; makea a man step
even in the ways of God. When a man'a
obedience springs from that unfailing, un
changing reaaon, the command of God, it is
a natural motion ; and therefore keeps on.
and rather growa than abatea : But they
that are moved by thinga outward must often
fail : because these things are not constant
in their moving ; as for instance, when a
people are much actuated by the spirit of
their rulers, as the Jews when they had gppd
kings. 3. In this is a tender care pf the
glory of God, and the adomraent of religion,
which the apoatle preraised before theae par
ticular dutiea, aa a thing to be specially re
garded in thera. The honour of our Lord'
name is that we should set up, as the mark
to aim aU our actiona at : But alas ! either
we think not on it, or our hearta slip out, and
start from their aim, like bows of deceit, as
the word is, Isa. Ixxviii. 57. 4. There ia
the comfortable perauaaion of God'a approba
tion and acceptance, aa it ia expreased in the
foUowing verse, (of which soraewhat before,)
and the hope of that reward he hath proraia-
ed, aa it ia, Col. iU. 24, to servants, Know
ing that of the Lord ye shall receive the in
heritance, for ye serve ihe Lord Christ. No
less than the inheritance, Sd then auch
servanta aa these, arc sons and heirs of God,
co-heirs with Christ, Thus, he that is a
servant raay be in a far more excellent state

is embracing a dunghill. And they that are
thus, think highly of God's free grace ; and
the looking even to that inheritance makes
them gp cheerfuUy thrpugh all pains and
troubles here, as light and momentary, and
not worth the naming in coraparison of ,that
glory that shall be revealed, Rora. viii. 16
— 18. In the mean time, the best and most
easy condition of the aona of God cannot
aatiafy them, nor atay their aigha and groans,
waiting and longing for that day of their
full redemption, ib. ver. 23.
Now, this ia the great rule, not only for
aervants, but for aU the aervanta of God, in
what eatate aoever, to set the Lord always
before ihem, Psal. xvi. 8, and to atudy with
St. Paul, to have a conscience void of of
fence towards God and man. Acta xxiv. 16;
to eye, and to apply constantly to their ac
tions and their inward thoughta, the com
mand of God ; to walk by that rule abroad,
and at home in their houaea, and in the se
veral waya of their calling ; aa an exact work
man is ever and anon applying hia rule to
hia work, and aquaring it ; and from con
science towarda God, to do and auffer hia will
cheerfuUy in every thing, being content that
he choose their condition and their trials for
them : only desirous to be assured, that he
hath chosen them for his own, and given
thera right to the glorious liberty of the sons
of God, Rom. viii. 21, stiU endeavouring to
walk in that way that leads to it ; overlook
ing this moment, and all things in it ; ac.
cpunting it a very indifferent matter what is
their putward state here in this rapraent, pro.
vided they may be happy in eternity. Whe
ther we be high or low here, bond or free, it
imports little, seeing all these differences will
be so quickly at an end, and there shaU not be
so much as any track or footstep of them left
with particular men. It is ap in their graves ;
ypu may distinguish the greater frpm the^less
by their tpmbs, but by their dust you cannot :
And with the whole world it shaU be so in
the end. AU raonuraents and palaces, with
cottages, shall be raade fire, as our apostle
teUs ua : The elements shall melt with
fervent heat, a'nd the earth and all the
works therein shall be burnt up, 2 Pet. iii.
10.

Ver. 21. For even hereunto were ye called; be-
caus3 Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an ex-
a nple, that ye should follow his steps :
Vkr- 22. Who did no sin, neither was guile found
in his mouth :
^RR. 23. 'Who, whenhe w,ib reviled, reviled not
again ; v/hen he suffered, he threatened not : but
committed himself to Him that judgeth righteous
ly-
The rulea that God hath set raen to Uve
by are universally juat, and there ia an uni
veraal obligation upon aU raen to obey thera ;
but aa they are particularly addreased to his

VEII. 21—23.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

127

pwn pepple in his wprd, they are put pf ques
tion particularly bound to yield obedience,
and have raany peculiar perauasivea to it,
tiiat extend not to others, which are there
fpre usuaUy represented tp them, and preaaed
upon them in the holy scriptures. Thus the
preface pf the lawa ruua tP larael ; besides
diat, I am Jehovah, and have supreme ppwer
tp give men laws, is added, / am thy God,
especiaUy thy DeUverer frpm slavery and
bendage, and ae have a peculiar right tp thy
pbedience ; sp Deut. vii. 6. Thua the appa-
tle here urgeth this pwnt in hand, pf iupffen-
siveness and patience, particularly in Chris
tian servants.* But so as it fits every Chris
tian in his atation, for hereunto, says he, ye
are called, '^-''hatsoever othera do, though
they thinlt thia too atrait a rule, yet ypu are
tied tp it by ypur pwn calling and prpfeaaien,
aa ypu are Chriatiana ; and this ia evidently the
higheat and cleareat reason t^at can be, and
of greatest power with a Christian, naraely
the exaraple of Jesus Christ himself; for
Christ also suffered for sis, Scc.
So it is aU but one entire argument, that
they ought thus to behave theraselves, be
cause it is the very thing they are caUed to,
aa their conforraity to Jeaus Christ, whose
they profess to be, yea, with whora, as Chris
tiana, they profeas theraselves to be one.
Hereunto are ye called.] This, in the
general, is a thing that ought to be ever be-
* fore Our eye, to consider the nature and end
of our caUing, and to, endeavour in all things
to suit it ; to think in every occunence, what
doth the calling of a Christian require of me
In this ? But the truth is, the most do not
mind this ; we profeaa ouraelvea to be Chria
tians, and never think what kind of behavi
our thia obligea ua to, and what manner of
peraona it becoraes us to be, in all holy con
versation, but walk disorderly out of our
rank, inordinately. You that are profane,
were you caUed hy the gospel to serve the
world and your lusta, to awearing, andrioting,
and voluptuouaness ? Hear you not the
apostle testifying the contrary, in expreaa
terms. Thai' God hath not called us to un
cleanness, but unto holiness, 1 Thess. iv.
7. You that are of proud contentious spirits,
are you suitable to thia holy calling ? No,
for we are called to peace, 1 Cor. vii. 15,
says the aame apostle. But we study not
this holy caUing, and therefore we \k'alk so in.
congruously, ao unlUce the gospel, we lie,
and do not the truth,- as St. John speaks.
1 John i. 6 ; our actiona belie us.
The particular things that Christians are
here said to be called to, are suffering as
their lot, and patience as their duty, even
under the raost unjust and undeserved suf
ferings. And both these are as large as the sphere
of this caUing. Npt pnly servants, and
others nf mean cpnditipn, whp, lying Ipw, ar-

the rapst subject tp rigours and injuries, but
generaUy all, who are caUed to godUness, are
Ukewiae called to aufferinga, 2 Tim. iii. 12.
All that will foUow Christ, must do it in hia
livery ; they must take up their cross. This ia
a very barah and unpleaaing article of the goa
pel to a carnal mind, but it conceala it not.
Mt'u arc not led blindfold upon sufferinga, and
drawn into a hidden anare by the gosiicl's in
vitations : They are told very often, that
they may not pretend a aurprisal, nor have
any juat pica for starting back again, as our
Savipur tells his disciples, why he was so
express and plain wilh them in this : These
things, s;iyshe, have I told yon, lhat you be
not offended, Juhn xvi. 1. I liave shewed
you the ruggedness of your way, that you
may not sturable at it, taking it to be a plain
smooth pne : But then where this is spoke
of, it is usually aUayed with tne raention of
those comforts that accompany these suffer.
ings, or that glory that foUows them. The
doctrine of the apostles, which was so exact
ly verified in their own jiersona, was this.
Acts xiv. 22, That through much tribula
tion we must enter into the kingdom of God.
An unpleasant way indeed, if you look no
further, but there is a kingdom at the end ol
it, and the kingdom of God will transfuse
pleasure intp the most painful atep in thia
way. It seems a sad condition, that faUs to
the share of godly men in the world, to be
eminent in sonows and troubles. Many we
the affiictions ofthe righteous, Psal. xxxiv.
19 ; but that which foUows weighs them
abundantly down in consplation, that the
Lord himaelf is engaged in their afflictions,
both for tiieir deUverance out of them jn due
time, and, in the raean tirae, f'or their sup.
pert and preaervatipn under thera : The Lord
delivers them out of ihem all. And tiU he
doea that, he keepeth all their bones, Scc.
which waa literally verified in the natural
body of Chriat, as St. John observes, John
xix. 36, and holds spirituaUy true in hia
myatical body. The Lord aupporta the
spirits of believera in their troubles with such
solid conaolationa, aa are the piUara and
strength of their soula, aa the bonea are of
their body, as the Hebrew word for them ira.
ports, so he keepeth all his bones ; and the
desperate condition of wicked men ia oppoaed
tp thia, to iUuatrate it, ver. 21, But evil shall
slay the wicked.
Thua (John, xvi. in the close,) they are
forewarned what to expect at the world's
hands,, as they were divers timea before in
that same sermon : But it is a sweet testu
ment, take it altogether, ye shall have in.
bulation in ihe world, but peace in me ;
and seeing he hath jpintly bequeathed theae
twp tp his fpllpwera, were it not great folly
to renounce such a bargain, and to let go
that peace for fear of this trouble ? The
trouble is but in the world, but tlie peace

128

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CHAP. (I,

Him, who weighs down thousands ofjthe worid, and human iniquity, and to be

worlds. So then, they do exceedingly mistake and
misreckon, that would reconcUe Christ and
the worid, that would have the Church of
Christ, or at leaat themselves for their own
shares, enjoy both kinda of peace together ;
would willingly have peace in Chriat, but
are very loath to part with theworid'a peace ;
they would be Chriatians, but they are very
iU satisfied when they hear of any thing but
eaae ssid prosperity in that eatate, and wUl
ingly forget the tenor of the Gospel in this ;
and so when times of trouble and sufferings
come, their minds are as new and uncouth
to it, as if they had not been told of it before.
hand. They like better St. Peter's carnal
advice to Chri.st, to avpid suffering. Matt.
xvi. 22, dian his appstles' dpctrine to Chris-
tians, teaching thera, that as he suffered, so
they likewise are called to suffering. Men
are ready to think as Peter did, that Christ
ahould favour hiraself raore in hia own body,
hia Church, than tp exppse it to so much
suffering : and most would be of Rome's
mind in thia, at leaat in affection, that the
badge of the Church ahould be pomp and
prosperity, aiid not the cross ; the true cross
of afflictions and sufferings is too heavy
and painful.
But God's thoughts are not ours ; those
whom he calls to a kingdom, he calls to suf
feringa, aa the way to it. He wiU have the
heirs of heaven know, they are not at home
on earth, and that this is not iheir rest.
He wiU not have thera with the abused world,
fancy a happiness here, and seek a happy life
in the-region of death, as St. Augustin says,*
The reproaches and wrongs that encountei
them shall elevate their minda often to that
land of peace and reat, wliere righteousness
dwells, 2 Pet. iii. 13. The hard taakraaaters
shaU raake thera weary of Egypt, (which
ptherwiae ppaaibly they wpuld comply too weU
with,) and dispose thera for deliverance, and
make it welcorae ; which, it raay be, they
might but coldly deaire, if they were better
used. He knows what he doea, who aecretly
serve's hia good ends of men's evil, and, by
the plowers thai make long furrows on the
back of hia church, Psal. cxxix. 3, makes it
a fruitful field to hiraself. Therefore it is
a great folly and unadvisedness, to take up
a prejudice againat hia way, and think it
might be better as we -would model it, and
to cpmplain of the order of thinga ; whereaa
we should complain of disordered minds ;
but we had rather have all altered and changed
for ua, the very courae of providence, than
seek the change of our own perversa hearts :
Whereas the right temper of a Chriatian ia,
to run alwaya croaa to the corrupt atream of
• Beatam vitam quajrere in regione mortis.

willingly carried along with the stream of
divine Providence, and npt at aU tp atir a
hand, no npr a thmight, tp rpw against that
raighty current ; and npt pnly is he canied
with it uppn necessity, becauae there is no
steering against it, but cheerfully and vpltm-
tarily ; not because he raust, but because he
would. And this is the other thing to which they
are jointly called, as tp suffering, sp tp calm
ness of mind, and patience in suffering,
although their suffering be rapst unjust ; yea,
this is truly a part pf that duty they are caU.
ed to, a part pf that integrity and ineffen-
siveness pf life that raay raake their suffer
ings at men's hands always unjust. The
entire duty here is innpcence and patience,
dping -wilfnUy no wrpng to others, and yet
cheerfully suffering it when dene te them
selves. If either pf the twp be wanting, their
suffering dpth npt credit their prpfession,
but dishonours it. If they be patient under
deserved suffering, their guiltiness darkens
their patience : and if their sufferings be un
deserved, yea, and the cause of them honour
able, yet impatience under them stains both
their sufferings and their cause, and seems
in part to justify the very injustice that is
used againat them : But where innocence
and patience raeet together in auffering, there
sufferings are in their perfect lustre. These ,
are they that honour religion, and sharae the
enemies of it. It was the concunence of
these two that was the very triumph of the
martyrs in tiraes of persecution, that torment
ed their tormentors, and made the former
more than conquerors, Rom. viii, 37, even
in sufferings.
Now, that we are called both to suffering,
and to this raanner of suffering, the apostle
puts out of question, by the suprerae example
of our liord Jesus Christ ; for the sum of
our calling is, to follow him. Now, in both
these, in suffering, and in suft'ering innocent
ly and patientlyi the whole history of the
gospel testifies how coraplete a pattern he is.
And the apostle gives us here a summary,
yet a very clear account of it.
The words have in them these two things ;
1. The perfection of this example. 2. Our
obUgation to foUow it.
I. The example he sets off to the fuU,
1. In regard of the greatness of his suffer.
ings. 2. Of his spotlessneas and patience
in suffering.
The first we have in that word he suffer
ed, and after, ver. 24, we have his crucify
ing and his stripes expressly specified.
Now, this is reason enough, and canies it
beyond all pther reaspn, why Christians are
called to a suffering life, aeeing the Lord
and Author of that caUing suffered himself
ao much. The Captain or Leader of our
salvation, as the apostle speaks, was conse-

VEH. 21—23.1

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

129

crated by suffering, Heb. ii. 10, that waa
the way by which he entered into the holy
place, where he is now our everlasting
High-priest, making intercession for us,
1 f he be our leader to salvation, must npt we
foUow him in the way he leada, whatsoever
it is ? if it be (as we see it is) by the way
of sufferings, we must either follow on in
lhat way, or faU short of salvation ; for there
is no other leader, nor other way but that
which he opened : So that there is not only a
congruity in it, that his followers be conform
ed to him in suffering, but a necessity, if they
wiU follow him on tiU they attain to glory.
And the consideration of hoth theae cannot
but argue a Chriatian into a resolutipn fpr
this via regia, this rpyal way pf suffering
that leada te glpry, thrpugh which their
King and Lord himself went to his glory.
It could hardly be beUeved at first that thia
was his way, and we can aa hardly yet be
lieve that it muat be oura, Luke xxiv. 25,
26, " O fppls and slpw pf heart tp beUeve !
pught npt Christ tp have suffered these
things, and sp enter intp his glory ?"
Would you be at glory, and wiU you npt
foUow your leader in the only way to it ?
Must another way be cut out for you by
yourself? O absurd I Shall ihe servant,
(says he) be greater than his master ? John
xiii. 16. Are not you fairly dealt with, if
you have a mind to Christ ? You shall have
fuU as much of the world's good'wiU as he
had : Ifit hate you, he bids you reraember
how it hated him, John xv. 18.
But though there were a way to do other
wiae, would you not rather chooae (if the
love of Christ possessed your hearts) to share
with hira in his lot, and would you not find
delight in the very trouble of it? Is not
thi* conformity td' Jesus the great ambition
of aU his true-hearted foUowers ? " We
carry about in the body the dying of the
Lord Jesus," says the great apostle, 2 Cpr.
iv. 10. Besides the unspeakable advantage
to come that goes Unked with this, that if we
suffer with him, we shall reign with him,
2 Tim. ii. 12. There is a glory, even in
this present resemblance, that we are con
formed to the image of the Son of God in
sufferings. Why should we desire to leave
him ? Are you not one with him ? Can ypu
choose but have the same comraon friends
and enemies ? Would you wiUingly, if it
might be, could you find in your heart to be
friends with that world that hated your Lord
imd Master ? Would you have nothing but
kindness and ease, where he had npthing
but enmity and treuble ? Or, would you not
rather, when you think right of it, refuse
and disdain to be so unlike him ? As that
good Duke said, when they would have
xrowned him King of Jerasalem, No, .said
he, by no means, I willnot wear a crown of
gold where Jesus was crowned uiith thorns.

2, This apodessness and patience in suf.
fering are both of them here set before us ;
the one, ver. 22, the other ver. 23.
Whosoever thou art that makest a noise
about the injustice of what thou sufferest,
and thinkest to justify thy impatience by thine
innocence, let me aak thee. Art thou more
just and innocent than him that is here set
before thee ? Or, art thou able to come near
him in thia point, who did no sin, neither
was guile found in his mouth ? 'Thia ia to
aignify perfect hoUness, according to that.
Jam. Ui. 2. Slaii ia by aome called a little
world ; he is indeed a world of wickedneaa,
and that little part of hira, the tongue, is a
little world of iniquity. All Christ's wprda
and actipna, and aU hia thpughta, flowed
from a pure spring that had not any thing
defiled in it ; and therefore no temptation
either from men or Satan could seize on him.
Other raen raay seem clear as long as they
are unstined ; but raove and trouble them,
and the mud .irises ; whereas he was nothing
but holinesa, a pure fountain, aU purity to
the bottom ; and therefore, stir and trouble
hira aa they would, he was atill alike clear.
" The prince of thia world coraeth, aud hath
nothing in me," John xiv. 39.
This is the main ground pf pur cpnfidence
in hira, that he is a holy, harmless, undefil
ed High-priest ; and such an one became
us, says the apostle, Heb. vii. 26, us that
are so sinful. The more sinful we are, the
more need that our High-priest should bt
sinless ; and being so, we may build upon
his perfection, standing in our stead, yea, we
are invested with him and his righteousness.
Again, thes-e was no guile found in his
mouth. This serves to convince us concem
ing aU the promises that he hath raade us,
that they are nothing but truth. Hath he
said. Him that comes to me, I will in no ,
wise cast out ? John vi. 37 ; — then you need
not fear, how unworthy and vile soever you
may be ; do but come tp hira, and you have
his word that he wiU npt shut the door
against you. And as he hath promised ac
cess, ap hath he further prpmiscd ease, and
spul's rest, tp thpse that come. Mat. xi. 40.
Then be confident to find that in hira too,
for there was never a false nor guileful
word found in his mouth.
But to consider it only in the present ac
tion, this speaks hira the most innocent
sufl'erer that ever was, not only judiciaUy just
in his cause, but entirely juat in his peraon ;
altogether righteous, and yet condemned to
death, and an opprobrious death of malefac
tors, and set betwixt two, as chief of the
three. I am, says he, the rose of Sharon
and the lily of the valley. Cant. ii. 1 . And
the spouse saith of him, My Well-beloved
is white and ruddy. Cant. v. 10. Thus
indeed he was in his death, raddy in his
bloud-ahed, and white in his innocence, ant]
I

130

A CO.MMENTARY UPON

[ CHAP. II,

withal in hia, meekness and patience; the
other thing wherein he is here so exemplary.
¦Ver. 23. Who when he was reviled,
reviled not again.] This spotiesa Lamb of,
God was a Larab both in guiltiessneaa and
silence ; and the prophet laaiah expreasea
the reaerablance, in that he was brought as
a lamb to ihe slaughter, UU. 7- He suffer
ed not only an unjust sentence of death, but
alao unjuat revilinga, ihe contradictions of
sinners. None ever did so little deserve re-
viUnga ; none ever could have aaid ao rauch in
his own juat defence, and to the just reproach
of his enemies ; and yet in both he prefer
red silence. Npne cpuld ever threaten s(
heavy things as he cnuld agiiinst his ene
mies, and have made gppd aU he threaten.
ed, and yet np such thing was heard frora
him. The heaven and earth, aa it were,
sppke their resentment pf His death that
made them : But He was ailent ; pr what
he sppke makes this stiU good, how far he
was from reviUngs and threatenings As
spices pounded, or precious ointment peured
out, give their smell most, thus his name
was an ointment then poured forth. Cant.
i. 3, together with his blood, and filled
heaven and earth with his sweet perfume ;
was a savour of rest and peace in both, ap
peasing the 'wrath of God, and so quieting
the cpnsciences ef men. And even in this
particular was it then rapat fragrant, in that
aU the torraents of the crosa and revilings of
the multitude, aa it were, racked hira for
some answer, yet could draw no other frora
him but this, " Father, forgive thera, for
they know not what they do," Luke xxiii.
34. But for those to whom thia raercy belong.
ed not, the apoatle teUs ua what he did ; in
stead of revilings and threatenings, he com
mitted all to him that judgeth righteously.
And this ia the trae method of Chriatian pa
tience, that which quieta the mind, and keepa
it from the boUing tumultuous thoughts pf
revenge ; to turn the whole raatter into God's
hand, to resign it over to hira, to prosecute
when and as he thinks good. Not as the
raoat, who had rather, if they had ppwei:, dp
for themaelvea, and he their pwn avengera ;
and because they have npt ppwer, dp pffer up
such bitter curses and prayera for revenge
unto God, as are moat hateful to hira, and
are far from this calm and holy way of cpra-
mitting raatters tp hia judgraent. The cpra-
mon way of refening things to God, ia in
deed impipua and diahpnpurable tP hira,
being really np pther but a calUng pf him tp
be a servant, and executipner tp pur passion.
We ordinarily mistake his justice, and judge
of it according to our own precipitant dis
tempered minds. If wicked men be not
crossed in their designs, and their wicked
ness evidently crashed, juat when we would
have it, we are ready to give up the matter I

as desperate, pr at least to abate of thpse con.
fident and reverent thoughts of divine justice
which we owe him. Howsoever things go,
this ought tP be fixed in nur hearts, that he
that sits in heaven judgeth righteously, and
executes that his righteous judgment in the
fittest season. We poor worms, whoae whole
Ufe ia but an hand-breadih in itaelf, and ia
as nothing unto God, think a few montha or
years a great matter ; but to Hira that in.
habita eternity, a thousand years are but at
one day, aa our apostle teaches us, 2 Pet.
ui. 8.
Our Saviour, in that time of his humiUa.
tion and suffering, coramitted himself and
his cause (for that is best expressed, in that
nothing is expressed but he committed) to
him ihat judgeth righteously, and the issue
shaU be, that all his enemies shall become
his foot-stool, and he himself shaU judge
them. But that which is given us here to
learn from his caniage toward them in his
suffering, is, that quietness and modera.
tion of mind, even under unjust suf
ferings, make us like him. Npt tp reply
tp reproach with reproach, as our custom is,
to give an ill word for another, or two for
one, to be sure not to be behind. Men take
a pride in this, and think it ridiculous sim.
plicity to suffer ; and this makes strifes and
contention so rauch to abound. But it is a
great mistake ; you think it greatness ol
apirit to bear nothing, tp put up np wrpng,
whereaa it is indeed great weakness and base-
neaa. It ia true greatness ef spirit tp despise
the meat pf those things which aet you
uaually on fire one against another, especiaUy
being done after a Christian raanner. It
were a part of the spirit of Christ in you, and
is there any spirit greater than that, think
you ? Oh I that there were less of the spirit
of the dragon, and raore of the spirit of the
dove, araongat us.
II. Our obligement to foUow the example
of Chriat, beaidea ita ovra exceUency, ia in
tiraated in theae two thinga contained in the
worda: 1. The intendraent of his behaviour
for this uae, to be as an exaraple to us. 2.
Our intereat in hira, and in those his suffer.
ings, wherein he so canied hiraself.
1. That his behaviour was intended for
an example, leaving us an example, &c.
He left his footsteps as a copy (as the word
tivoy^oifLfjLov imports) to be foUowed by us :
Every step of his, is a letter of this copy,
and particularly in this point of suffering, he
writ us a pure and perfect copy of obe.
dience in clear and great letters, in his own
blood. His whole Ufe is our rule : Not his ml
raculous works ; his fpotsteps walking pn the
sea, and such Uke, they are net for our fol
lowing : But his obedience, hoUness, meek
ness and humility, are our copy, which we
should continually study. The shorter and

VER. 24. j

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

131

more effectual way, they say, of teaching, is
by example : But above aU, this matchless
example is the happiest way of teaching. He
that follows me, aaya he, shall nut walk in
darkness, John viii. 12.
He that airas high, shoots the higher for
it, though he shoots not so high as he airas.
This is lhat which ennobles the spirit of a
Christian, the proppunding of this our high
pattem, the example of Jesus Christ.
The imitation of men in worthleas things
ia low and servile ; the imitation of their vir
tues is commendable, but if we aim no
higher, it is both iraperfect and unsafe. The
apostie St. Paul will have no iraitation, but
with regard to thia supreme pattern. Be ye
followers of me, as I am of Christ, 1 Cor.
xi. 1. One Christian raay take the exaraple
of Christ in raany things in another, but stiU
he ought to examine all by the original pri
mitive copy, the footsteps of Chriat himself,
foUowing nothing but aa it conforms with
that, and looking chiefly on him, both as the
moat perfect and the most effectual example,
Heb. xii. 2. There is a cloud of witnesses
and examples, but look above thera aU to
Him, who is aa high above them aa th« sun
is above the clouda. As the way is better,
a Uvely one indeed, so there is this advan
tage in the cpvenant pf grace, that we are npt
left tp our own akiU for foUowing of it, but
taught by the Spirit : In the deUvery of
the law, God shewed his glory and greatness
by the raanner of it ; but whereas the law
was written only in dead tables, Christ, the
living law, teaches by obeying it, how to
obey it ; and thia ia the advantage of the
gospel, that the law is twice written over
unto beUevers, firat in the example of Chriat,
and then inwardly in their hearta by hia
Spirit. There is, together with that copy
of aU grace in Him, a Spirit derived from
him, enabUng believers to foUow him in their
meaaure. They raay not only see hira as
" the only-begotten Son of God, fuU of grace
and tmth," as it is, John i. 14, but as there
it foUows, ver. 16, they receive of his ful.
ness grace for grace. The love of Chriat
makes the aoul deUght to cpnverae with him
and cpnverae and Ipve tpgether, make it
learn hia behaviour ; as men that live much
together, especially if they do much affect
one another, wUl insensibly contract one
another's habits and custoras.
The other thing obliging us, ia, 2dly,
Our interest in him, and his sufferings ; he
suffered for us ; and to this the apostle re
turns, ver. 24. Observe only from the tie
of theae two, that if we neglect hia exaraple
set before us, we cannot enjoy any right as
surance of his suffering for us ; but if we do
seriously endeavour to foUow hira, theu we
may expect to obtain Ufe thrpugh his death,
and thpse steps of his wherein we walk, will
bring us ere long to be where he is.

Vbr. 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his body
on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live
unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were
healed.
That which is deepest in the heart is
generaUy most in the mouth ; that which
abounds within, runs over most by the tongue
or pen. When men light upon the speaking
of that subject which possesses the affection,
they can hardly be taken pff, pr drawn frpm
it again. Thus the appstles in their writing.s,
when they make mentipn any way pf Christ
suffering for us, they love to dwell on it, as
that which they take' raost delight to speak
of ; such delicacy and sweetness is in it, to
a apiritual taate, that they like to keep it in
their mouth, and are never out of their theme,
when they iuaist on Jesua Chriat, though
they have but naraed hira by occaaion pf
aprae other doctrine ; for He ia the great
subject pf aU they have tp say.
Thus here the apostle had spoke of Christ
in the foregoing words, very fitly to thia pre
aent subject, setting him before Christian
servants, and all suffering Christians, as their
coraplete example, both in point of much
suffering, and pf perfect innpcence and pa
tience in suffering. And he had expressed
their engagement tp study and fpUow that
exaraple ; yet he cannot leave it so, but hav
ing aaid that all those hia aufferinga wherein
he was so exemplary, were for ua, aa a chief
conaideration, for which we should study to
be like him, he returns to that again, and
enlarges upon it in words partly the aame,
partly very near those of that Evangeliat
araong the Prophets, laaiah, chap. liii. 4.
And it auita very weU with his raain scope
to press this point, aa giving both very much
atrength and aweetneas to the exhprtatipn ;
fpr aurely it ia raoat reasonable, that we will-
ingly conforra to hira in suffering who had
never been an exaraple of suffering, nor aub
ject at all tp sufferings, npr in any degree
capable pf thera, but fpr us ; and it is raost
comfortable, in these light sufferings of this
present moment, to .consider, that he ha'd
freed us from the sufferings of eternity, by
himaelf auffering in our stead in the fulness
of time.That Jesus Christ is, in doing and suffer
ing, our supreme and raatchless exaraple,
and that he came to be so, is a truth : But
that he is nothing further, and came for no
other end, is, yeu see, a high ppint pf false
hppd ; for hpw shpuld raen be enabled to
leam and fpUpw that example of obedience,
unless there were more in Christ ; and what
would become of that great reckoning of dis
obedience that raan stands guilty of ? No,
these are too narrow ; he came to bear our
sins in his own body on the tree, and for
this purpose had a body fitted for him, and
given him to bear thia burden ; to dp this
aa the wiU pf his Father ; tP stand for ua in.

133

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. II, •

ttead of all offerings and aacrificea ; and
" by that wiU (says the apoatle,) we are
sanctified through the oftering of the body
of Jeaus Christ once for all," Heb. x. 9.
This was hia buainess, not only to rectify
sinful raan by his example, but to redeem
him by his blood. He was a teacher come
from God. As a Prophet he teachea us the
way of life, and, aa the beat and greateat of
Propheta, ia perfectly like his doctrine ; and
his actiona, (that in all teachers ia the live-
lieat part of doctrine,) hia carriage in life and
death, is our great pattern and instructicn :
But what is said of his forerunner is mere
eminently true of Christ ; he is a Prophet
and more than a Prophet, a Priest satisfy
ing justice for us, and a King conquering
sin and death for ua ; an example indeed, but
more than an example, our sacrifice and our
life, and all in all. It ia our duty to walk
as he walked, to raake him the pattem of our
atepa, 1 .fohn ii. 6 : But our corafort and
salvation lieth in thia, that he is the propi
tiation for our sins, ver. 2. So in the first
chapter of that epistle, ver. 7, " w-e are to
walk in the light, as He is in the Ught :'
But for aU our walking, we have need of that
wliich foUowa, that beara the great Weight,
the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from
all sin. And so still that glory which he pos
sesseth in his own person, is the pledge of
ours ; he is there for us ; he lives to make
intercession for us, says the apostle, Heb,
vii. 25, and / go to prepare a place for you,
says he himself, John xiv. 2.
We have in the words these two great
points, and in the same order, as the worda
lie: 1. The nature and quality of the suf
ferings of Jesus Christ : And, 2. The end
of thera.I. The nature and quality of the suffer
ings of Christ, He himself bare our sins in
his own body on the tree. In this expres
sion ofhis sufferings, we are to consider, 1.
The comrautation of the persons. He himself
for us. 2. The work undertaken and per
forraed. He bare our sins in his own body
oil the tree.
1. The act or sentence of the law against
the breach of it standing in force, and divine
justice expecting satisfaction, death waa the
neceaaary and inseparable consequent of ain.
If you aay the supreme raajesty of God, be
ing accountable to none, raight have forgiven
all without aatiafaction, we are not to conteat
that, nor fooliahly to offer to aound the bot.
tonileas depth of hia abaolute prerogative.
Christ Irapliea in his prayer. Matt. xxvi. 39,
that it waa impossible that he could eacape
that cup : But the impossibility ia resolved
into his Father's will, as the cause of it.
But this we may clearly see, foUowing the
tract of the holy scriptures, (our pnly safe
way,) that this way wherein nur salvatipn
is cpntrived, is most exceUent, and suitable

to the greatness and goodness of God ; so
fuU of wonders of wisdora and love, that the
angels, as our apostle teUa us before, cannot
forbear looking on it, and adrairing it ; for
aU their exact knowledge, yet they still find
it infinitely beyond their knowledge, still in
astonishment and admiration of what they see,
and StiU in search, lopking in tu see more ;
those cherubim still having their eyes fixed
on this raercy-seat.
.luatice might indeed have aeized on re-
boUipua man, and laid the pronounced pu
nishraent on him ; Mercy might have freely
acquitted him, and pardoned aU : But can
we narae any place where Mercy and Justice
as relating to conderaned man, could have
met and shined jointly, in fuU aspect, save
only in Jesus Christ, in whom indeed
" Mercy and Truth met, and Righteousness
and Peace kiaaed each other," Psal. Ixxxv.
10, yea, in whose person the parties cpncern-
ed, that were at ao great a distance, inet so
near, as nearer cannpt be iraagined ?
And npt only was this the only way, for the
consistence of these two. Justice and Mercy,
but take each of thera severally, and they
could not have been in so full luatre, as in
thia. God's just hatred of sin did, out of
doubt, appear more in punishing his own
only-begotten Son for it, than if the whole
race of raankind had suffered for it eternally.
Again, it raises the notion of Mercy tp the
highest, that sin is net only forgiven us, but
for this end God's own co-eternal Son is given
to us, and for us. Consider what he is, and
what we are ; he the Son of his love, and
we eneraies : Therefore it is emphaticaUy
expresaed in the worda, " He himself bate
our sins. God so loved the world," John
iii. 10.; that love amounts to thia much, that
it was so great as to give his Son : But how
great that is, cannot be uttered. In this,
aaya this apostle, Rora. v. 8, God commend
eth his love to us, seta it off to the highest,
gives ua the richeat and strongest evidence
of it.The foundation of this frame, this appear
ing of Christ for na, and undergoing and an-i
awering aU in pur stead, liea in the decree of
Gpd, where it waa plotted and contrived in
the whole way of it from etemity : And the
Father and the Son being one, and their
thoughta and will one, they were perfectly
agreed on it : and thoae likewise for whom
it should hold, were agreed upon, and their
names written down, according to which they
are said to be given unto Christ to redeem^
And juat according to that model did all the
work prpceed, and was accomplished in all
points, perfectly answering to the pattern of
it in the mind of God. As it was precon
cluded there, that the Son should undertake
the business, this matchless piece of service
for his Father, and that by his interposing,
raen should be reconciled and saved ; so thtt

VKB. 24.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

133

he niight be altpgether a fit persen for the
work, it was resolved, that as he was already
fit for it by the Alraightiness ofhis Deity and
Godhead, and the acceptableness of his per
son to the Father, as the Son pf Gpd, sp he
should be further fitted by uniting, wonder
fuUy, weakness to Alraightiness, the frailty
of man to the power of God ; becauae that
suft'ering for raan was a raain point of the
work, so as his being the Sou of God raade
him acceptable to God, his being the Son of
Man made hira suitable to man, in whoae
business he had engaged himself, and suit
able to the business itaelf to be performed.
And not only was there in hira, by his hu
man nature, a conformity with man, (for that
might have been by a new created body,)
but a consanguinity with man, by a body
framed of the aarae piece, (a redeemer, a
kinaman, aa the Hebrew word goel ia,) only
purified for hia uae, aa waa needful, and fram

became needful by the breach of the other,
so the faiUng of that other sets pff and com
mends the firmness of this. The forraer was
with a man in his best condition, and yet he
kept it not, even then he proved vanity, as it
is, Psal. xxxix. 5, Verily, every man in his
best estate is altogether vanity. So that
the second, to be strpnger, is made with a
man indeed, tp supply the fprmer ; but he is
Gpd-man, tp be surer than the fprmer, and
therefore it holds. And this is the difference,
aa the appstie expresses it, that the first Adam
in that first covenant, was laid as a founda
tion ; and though we say not, that the church
in its true notion was built on him, yet the
eatate of the whole race of raankind, the ma.
terials that the church ia built of, lay on him
for that tirae, and it failed. But upon thia
Rock, the second Adara, is the Church ao
firmly built, that the gates of hell cannot
prevail against her. Matt. xvi. 18. The

ed after a pecuUar manner in the womb of a i last Adam waa made a quickening or life-
virgin, as it is expressed, Heb. x. 5, rAoM-j giving Spirit. The first had life, but he
hast fitted a body for me, having no siu it. transfened it npt, yea, he kept it not for him.

self, because ordained to have so much of our
sins, aa it is here, he bare them in his own
body ; which expresses,
2. The work undertaken ; and this looks
back to the priraitive ttan.sactipn and pur
pose, Lo, I come to do thy will, Psal. xl. 7,
says the Sen ; and. Behold my Servant whom
I have chosen, Isa. xliii. 10, says the Fa
ther ; in this master-piece of my works none
in heaven or earth is fit to serve rae, but
mine own Son. And as he came into the
world according to that decree and wiU, so he
goes out of it again in that way ; the Son of
man goeth, as is determined, Iiake xxii. 22,
it was wickedly and maliciously done by men
against hira, hut determined (w^hich is that
he there speaks of) wisely and gracipu-sly by
his Father, with his pwn consent. As in
those twofaced pictures, leok upon the cruci
fying of Christ one way, as coraplotted by
a treacherous disciple and raaUcious priests
and rulers, and nothing more deformed and
hateful than the authora of it ; but viev/ it
again aa determined in God'a counsel, for
the restoring of lost mankind, and so it is
fuU of unapeakable beauty and sweetnesa, in
finite wiadom and love in every track of it. \
Thia refers alao to the peraona for whom!
he engaged, aa their coming unto him re-
flecta upon that first donation, and is repre.
sented aa flowing from that, " AU fhat the
Father hath given me ahaU come unto me,"
John vi. 37.
Now, thia being Gpd's great design, that
he wpuld have men eye and cpnsider mere
than aU the rest pf his wprks, (though it ia
least of all considered by the moat,) the other
covenant made with die firat Adam waa but
to make way, and if we may ao speak, to
make work for this : Fpr he knew that it
wpuld npt hpld : therefpre as this new covenant

self, but drew in and transfened death ; but
the seccnd, by death, conveys life tP all that
are reckpued his seed : He bare their sins.
He bare them on ihe tree. In that out.
side ofhis suft'ering, the visible kind of death
infiicted on him, that it was hanging on the
tree ofthe cross, there was an analogy with
die end and main work, which waa ordered
by the Lord, with regard unto that being a
death declared accursed by the law, aa the
apostle St. Paul observes. Gal. iii. 13, and
so declaring Him that was God blessed for
ever to have been made a curse, that is, ac
counted aa accursed for us, that we niight be
blessed in him, in whom, according to the
promise, all nations of the earth are blessed.
But that wherein lay the strength and
main atrcas of his sufferings, was this invisi
ble weight that none could see that gazed on
him ; but he felt more than aU the rest. In
this there are three things. 1 . The weight
of sin. 2. The transfening of it upon
Christ. 3. His bearing of it.
I. He bare it as a heavy burden ; so the
word of bearing in general, av»:vsy«Ev, and
those two wprds particularly used by the prp
phet, Isaiah liii. 4, tp which these allude,
are the bearing of some great mass or load,
and tbat sin is : Fpr it hath the wrath pf an
pffended Gpd hanging at it, indissolubly tied
tn it ; pf which, whp can bear the leaat ?
and therefpre the leaat sin, being the precu-
ring cause pf it, wUl press a man dpwn for
ever that he shall not be able to rise. Who
can stand before ihee, when once thou art
angry ? says the Psalraist, Paal. Ixxvi. ^,
and the Prophet, Jer. iu. 12, " Return, back
sliding Israel, and I will not cause ray wrath
to fall upon thee ;" to fall as a great weight
or as a niiUstone, and crush the souL
But senseless, we go light under the bur.

134

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. II.

den of sin, and feel it not ; we complain not
of it, and therefore traly aaid to be dead in
it, otherwiae it could not but preaa ua, and
preaa out complainta. " O wretched man that
I am ! who ahaU deliver rae ?" Rom. vii.
24. A profane aecure sinner thinks it no.
thing to break the holy law of God, to please
his flesh pr the wprld ; he acccunts sin a light
matter, and makes a mock pf it, as Soloraon
says, Prov. xiv. 9 ; but a stining cpnacience
ia of another mind ; " Mine iniquitiea are
gone over ray head, aa a heavy burden they
are too heavy for rae," Paal. xxxviii. 4.
Sin ia such a burden as raakes the very
frarae of heaven and earth that is not guilty
of it, yea, the whole creation, to crack and
groan, (it ia the apoatle's doctrine, Rom. viii.
4,) and yet the impenitent heart, whose guil-
tineaa it ia, continuea unmoved, and groaneth
not ; for your accuatomed groaning ia no
such matter.
Yea, to consider in the preaent subject
where we may best read what it is, it was a
heavy load to Jesus Christ, aee Paal. xl. 12,
where the Paalmiat, apeaking in the peraon
of Chriat, complaina heavily. Innumerable
evils have compassed me about. Mine
iniquities, not his, as done by him, but yet
his by hia undertaking to pay for them,
"they have taken hold of me, so that I
ara not able to look up ; they are raore than
the hairs of my head, therefore my heart fail
eth me." And sure, that which pressed him
60 acre who upholds heaven and earth, no
other in heaven or in earth could have sus
tained and surmounted, but would have sunk
and perished under it. Was it, think you,
the pain of that coraraon outside of hia death,
though very painful, that drew auch a word
frora hira. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me ? Or waa it the fear of it be
fore-hand, that preaaed a sweat of blood from
hira ? No, it waa thia burden of ain, the first
of which was coramitted in the garden of
Eden, that then began to be laid upon him
and fastened upon hia shoulders in the garden
uf Gethsemane, ten thousand timea heavier
than the cross which he was caused to bear :
That might be a while tumed over to ano
ther, but this could not. This was the cup
he trembled more at, than that gall and vine
gar after to be offered him by his crucifiers,
or any other part of his external sufferings.
It was the bitter cup of wrath due to sin
that his Father put into his hand, and caused
him to drink, the very same thing that is here
caUed the bearing our sins in his body.
And consider that the very smaUest sins
went in to make up this load, and made it
¦so much the heavier ; and therefore, though
sins be comparatively less and greater, yet
learn thence to account no sin in itself smaU
tliat offends the great God, and lay hea'vy
upon your great Redeeraer in the day pf his

At his apprehending, besides the soldiers,
that invisible crowd of the sins he was to
suffer for carae about hira, for it was they
that laid strongest hold on him ; he could
easily have shaken off aU the rest, as appears.
Matt. xxvi. 33, but our sins laid the anest
on him, being accounted his, as it is in that
forecited place, Psal. xl. 12, Mine iniqui
ties. Now, amongst these were even tliose
sins we call smaU ; they were of the nuraber
that took hira, and they were araongst those
instruments of his bloodshed. If the greater
were as the spear that pierced his aide, the
leaa were aa the naila that pierced hia hands
and hia feet, and the very leaat aa the thorns
that were aet on hia precious head. And
the multitude of them raade up what was
wanting in their magnitude ; though they
were smaU, they were raany.
2. They were transfened upon him by
virtue of that covenant we apoke of. They
became his debt, and he reaponaible for all
they came to. " Seeing you have accepted
of this business according to my will, (may
we conceive the Father saying to his Spu,)
ypu rauat go through with it ; you are en
gaged in it, but it ia no other than what you
understood perfectly before ; you knew what
it would coat you, and yet out of joint love
with me to those I named to be saved by
you, you were as willing as I to the whole
undertaking. Now, therefore, the time is
come that I raus' lay upon you the sins of
aU those persons, and you raust bear them ;
the sins of aU those believers that Uved be
fore, and aU that are to corae after to the
end of the world." The Lord laid on him
the iniquity of us all, says tile prophet
laaiah, Uii. 6, took it off frora ua, and charg
ed it on hira, raade it to meet on him or io fall
in together, aa the word ia : The ains of aU,
in aU ages before and after, that were to be
saved, aU their guiltiness re-encountered,
and raet together on his back upon the cross ;
and whosoever of all that nuraber had least
sin, yet had no smaU burden to cast on him :
and to give accession to the whole weight,
every man hath had his own way of wander
ing, as the prophet there expresseth it, and
he paid for aU ; aU fell on hira. And as in
testimony of his meekness and patience, so
in this regard likewise was he so silent in
his sufferhigs, in regard that though his
enemies dealt most unjustly with him, yet
he stood as convicted before the justice-seat
of his Father, under the imputed guilt of aU
our ains ; and ao eyeing him, and account
ing his business to be chiefly with him, he
did patiently bear the due puniahraent of all
our sina at hia Father'a hand, and auited
that pf the Psalmist, / was as dumb, and
opened not my mouth, because thou didst it,
Psal. xxxix. 9. Therefpre the prophet im
mediately subjoins that of his silent car.
riage, laa. Uii. 7, to that which he had

TKB. 24. J

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

spoken of the confluence of our iniquities
upon him.
And if our sins were thus accpunted his,
then in the same way, and for that very rea.
spn, pf necessity, his sufferings and satisfac.
tipn must be accpunted ours : As he said for
his disciples to the men that came tP take him,
If it be me ye seek, then let them go free,
Jphn xviii. 8 ; sn he said for aU beUevers tp
his Father, his wrath then seizing pn him,
" If on rae you wiU lay hold, then let these
go free." And thus the agreement was, 2
Cpr. v. ult. ; " He was made sin for us whn
knew np sin, that we raight be made the
righteousness of God in hira."
So then, there is an union betwixt be.
lievers and Jeaus Christ, by which this in
terchange is made : He is charged with their
sina, and they are clothed with his satisfac
tion and righteousness ; and that union is
founded, 1st, In God's decree of election
running this way, that they should live in
Christ, and so chooaing the head and the
whole myatical body as one, and reckoning
their deht as his, in his purpose, that he
might receive satisfaction, and they salva
tion, in their head Christ. The execution
of that purppse and unipn began in Christ's
iijcamatien; being fpr them, thpugh the
nature be rapre coraraon, he is said " not to
take the nature of angels, but the seed of
Abranam," Heb. li. 16, the company of be
lievers ; he became raan for their sakes, be-
cause they are raen. That he is of the same
nature with unbelieving men that perish, 'is
but by accident, as it were ; there is no good
in them in that, but the great evil of deeper
condemnation, if they hear of him, and be
Ueve net ; but he was made man tp be Uke,
yea, tp be pne with the elect, and he is not
ashamed to call them brethren, as the
apostle there says, Heb. ii. 11. 2dly, The
union is also founded in the actual intention
of the Son so raade man ; he presenting him
self to the Father in aU he did and suffered,
OS for them, having them, and them only, in
his eye and thoughts in all. For their sakes
do I sanctify myself, John xvii. 19. A-
gain, Sdly, 'The union is appUed and per-
formed in them, when they are converted
and ingrafted into Jesus Christ by faith ;
and this doth actually discharge them of
their own sins, and entitie thera to his righ.
tepusness, and so justifies them in the sight
of God. 4thly, The cpnsummatipn pf this
union is in glory, which is the result and
frait pf aU the former. As it began in
heaven, it is cnmpleted there ; but betwixt
these twp in heaven, the intervention of those
Pther twp degrees of it pn earth was neces.
sary, being intended in the first as tending
to the attainraent of the last. These four
steps of it are aU distinctly expressed in his
own prayer, John xvii. 1st, God's purppse
that the Son shpuld ^ve eternal lif e to (hose

135
that he hath given him, ver. 2. 2dly, The
Spn's undertaking and accpmplishing their
redemptipn, in ver. 4, " I have finished the
WPrk which thpu gavest me to do." Sdly,
The application of this union, and its per.
formance in thera, by their faith, their be
lieving and keeping his word, ver. 6, 8, and
in several of the subsequent verses. And
then, lastly. We have the consummation of
this union, ver. 24, " I will that they whom
thou hast given rae be with me where I
am." There meets the first dpnatinn and
the last.
Npw, to obtain this life for them, he died
in iheir stead, appeared as the High-priest,
being perfectly and traly what the narae was
pn their plate pf gpld. Holiness to the Lord,
Expd. xxviii. 36, and sp bearing their ini
quity, as it is added there pf the priest, ver.
38. But because that priest was npt the
Redeeraer, but an iraperfect figure pf him,
he did npt hiraself suffer fpr the people's
sin, but tumed it over upon the beasts that
he sacrificed ; signifying that translation of
sin, by laying his hand upon the head of the
beast; but Jesus Christ is both the great
High -priest and the great sacrifice in one.
And this seems to be here implied in these
words. Himself bare our sins in his own
body ; w^'ch the legal priest did not : So
he made Ms soul an offering for sin, Isa.
Uii. 10, and Heb. ix. 12. He offered up
himself, his whole self. In the history of
the gospel, it is said, his soul was heavy
and chiefly suffered ; but the bearing in his
body, and offering it, that is oftenest men-
tinned as the visible part of the sacrifice, and
in his way of offering it, not excluding the
other. Thus, Rom. xu. 1, we are exhorted
to give our bodies, in opposition to the
bodies of beasts, and they are therefore
called a living sacrifice, which they are not
without the soul : Thus his bearing in his
body impprts the bearing it in his spul tpp.
3. His bearing, that hints that he was
active and wiUing in his suffering for us ;
upt a cpnstrained pffering. He laid down
his life, as he teUs us, .lohn x. 18, and this
here. He bare, is, he took wiUingly off, lift
ed from us that burden to bear it himself.
It was counted an iU sign araongst the hea
thens, when the beasts went unwillingly to
be sacrificed, and drew back ; and a good
oraen when diey went wiUingly : But never
was sacrifice so wilUng as pur great Sacri
fice ; and we may be assured he hath appeas
ed his Father's wrath, and wrpught atone.
ment for us. Isaac was in this his type ;
we hear pf np reluctance, but quietly sub
mitted tP be bpund when he was to be
offered up. There be two words in laaiah
liii. 4, the one bearing, the other taking
away ; this is also that taking away the
sins of ihe world in St. John i. 29, which
answers to both ; and so he to both the

136

A CO.MMENTARY UPON

[chap, ii.'

goats, the victim (the sin oftering) and the
scape goat. Lev. xvi. He did bear our sins
on his croaa, and from thence to his grave,
and there they are buried ; and they whoae
ains he did so bear, and take away, and
bury, shaU hear no more of them as theira to
bear. Ia he not then worthy to be viewed
in that notion that Jphn, in the fpre-men-
tipned text, took him and designed him by,
" Behold the Larab of God, that beareth
and takes away the sina of the world."
You, then, that are gazing on vanity, be
persuaded to tum your eyes thia way, and
behpld this laating wpnder, this Lprd pf Ufe
dying I But the mpst, alas 1 want a due
eye fpr thia pbject : It is the eye pf faith
alpne that looks aright on him, and is daily
discovering new worlds of excellency and
delight in thia cmcified Saviour ; that can
view hira daily aa hanging on the croaa,
without the childiah gaudy help of a cruci
fix, and grow in the knpwledge pf that love
that passeth knowledge, and rejpice itself in
frequent thinking and apeaking of him, in
stead of theae idle and vain thoughta, at the
beat, and empty diacourses, wherein they
moat deUght, and wear out the day. What
ia aU knowledge but painted foUy in compa
rison of this ? Though thou hadst SpIp-
nion's faculty to discourse of aU plants, and
have not the right knowledge of this root of
Jesse : Ii thou wert singular in the know
ledge of the stara, and courae of the heavens,
and couldat walk through the apheres with a
Jacob's staff, but ignorant of this star ef
Jacob : If thou knewest the histories of aU
tirae, and the life and death pf aU the raost
famous princes, and could rehearse them aU,
but dpst npt spirituaUy know and apply to
thyself the death of Jesus as thy life ; thou
art StiU a wretched fool for thera, and aU thy
knowledge with thee shaU- quickly perish.
On the other side, if thy capacity or breeding
hath denied thee the knowledge of all these
things wherein men glory ao much ; yet do
but leam Christ crucified, and what wouldst
thou have more ? That shaU raake thee
happy for ever ; for " this is Ufe eternal, to
know thee the only true God, and Jesua
Christ whom thou hast sent," John xvii. 3.
Here St. Paul sets up his reat, / deter
mined to know nothing but Jesus Christ
and him crucified, 1 Cor. ii. 2. " What.
soever I knew beaides, I resolved to be aa if
I knew nothing beaidea this, the only know
ledge wherein I wiU rejpice myself, and
which I will labpur tp impart tp pthers. I
have tried and cprapared the rest, and find
them aU unwnrthy pf their rppra beaide thia,
and my whole aoul too Uttle for thia, and
have past this judgment and sentence on aU.
I have adjudged myself to deny all other
knowledge, and confined myself within this
circle, and I am not straitened. No, there
is room enough in it ; it is larger than hea

ven or earth ; Christ and him crucified, ths
most despised and ignorainious part, yet the
sweetest and most corafortable part of all ;
the root, whence aU our hopes of Ufe iind
spiritual joys do spring."
But the raoat part of mankind hear this
aubject aa a story ; some are a litde moved
with the preaent sound of it, but they draw
it not home into their hearts, to make it theirs,
and to find aalvation in it, but atiU cleave to
ain, and love sin better than Him that suf
fered for it.
But you whose hearts the Lord hath deeply
hurabled in the sense of sin, come to this
depth of consolation and try it, that you may
have experience of the sweetness and riches
of it. Study this point thoroughly, and you
will find it answer aU, and quiet your con.
sciences. Apply this bearing of sin by the
Lord Jesus for you, for it is pubUshed and
made known to you for this purpose. This
is the genuine and true use of it, as of the
brazen serpent, not eraptily to gaze on the
fabric of it, but to cure tliose that looked on
it. When aU that can be said is said against
you. It is true, may you say, but it is satis
fied for ; He on whora I rest, made it his,
and did bear it for me. The person of Christ
is of more worth than aU raen, yea, than aU
the creatures, and therefore his life was afuU
ransora for the greatest offender.
And for outward troubles and sufferings,
which were the occasion of this doctrine in
this place, "they are aU raade exceeding light
by the removal pf this great pressure. '^ Let
the Lprd lay pn me what he wiU, seeing he
hath taken pff my sin and laid that pn His
pwn Spn in my stead. I may suffer many
things, but he hath bpme that for me which
alone was able to raake rae miserable."
And you that have this persuasion, how
wiU your hearts be taken up with his love,
" who thus loved you as to give himself for
you !" who interposed himself to bear off
frora you the stroke of everlasting death, and
encountered aU the wrath due to us, and went
through with that great wprk, by reaspn of
his unspeakable Ipve ! Let Him never go
fprth frpm my heart, who for my sake refused
to go down from ths cross.
That we, being dead to sin, should live
unto righteousness.] The Lord doth no-
thing in vain, hath not made the least of his
works to np purpose ; In wisdom hath he
made them all, says the Psalraist, Psal. civ.
24, and that is not only in regard pf their
exceUent frame and order, but of their end,
which is a chief point pf wisdpm ; sp then,
to the right knowledge pf this great work put
into the hands of Jesus Christ, it is of special
cpncern tp understand what is its end.
This is the thing that his wisdpm and
Ipve aimed at in that great undertaking, and
therefpre it wiU be pur traest wisdpm, and
the truest evidence pf pur reflex love, to in-

VKR. 24.}

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

137

tend the same thing ; that, in this, " the
same mind may be in us that was in Christ
Jesus" in his suffering for ris, and for this
very end it ia expressed, " That we, being
dead tp ain, ahpuld live tP rightepuanesis."
In this, there are three thinga tp be cpn
sidered : 1. What this death pr Ufe is. 2.
The intendment pf it in the sufferings and
death of Jesus Christ. 3. The effecting of
it by thera.
1st, What thia death or life is. Now,
whatsoever it is, sure it ia no small change
that beara the narae of the great and last
natural change that we are aubject to ; a
death, and. then another kind of life succeed
ing to it ; and in this the greatest part are
mistaken, that they take any light alteration
in themselves for true conversion.
A world pf people are deluded with super
ficial moral changes in their life, sorae rec
tifying of their outward actions and course
of life, aud soraewhat too in the teraper and
habit of their raind, far from reaching the
bottom of nature's wickedneaa, and laying
ihe axe to the root of the tree, it ia such a
work aa men can make a ahift with by them
selves ; but the renovation that the Spirit of
God worketh is like himselfj it is so deep
and total a work, that it is justly called byi
the name of the raost substantial worka and I
productions, a new birth, and more than;
that, a new creation, and here a death aud
• kind of life foUowing it.
This death to sin, suppoaes a former liv
ing in it, and tp it ; and while a man does
so, he ia aaid indeed to be dead in sin ; and
yet withal this is true, that he lives in sin, as
the apostie joins the expressions, 1 Tim. v.
6, She that lives in pleasure is dead while
she liveth ; so Eph. ii. 1, dead in trespasses
and sins ; and he adds, wherein ye walked,
which imports a Ufe, such an one as it is,
and raore expressly, ver. 3, We had our
conversation in the lusts of our flesh. Now,
thus tp live in sin is caUed tp be dead in it,
becauae in that cpnditipn man is indeed dead,
in respect pf that divine Ufe of the soul, that
happy being which it should have in union
with God, for which it was made, and with
out which it had better not be at aU. For
that life, as it is different from its natural
being, and a kind of Ufe above it, so it is
contrary to that conupt being and life it hath
in sin ; and therefore to live in sin is to be
dead in it, being a deprivement of that di
vine being, that life of the soul in Gpd,
comparispn wherepf, not only the base Ufe
it hath in sin, but the very natural life it hath
in the body, and that the body hath by it,
is not worthy of the narae of life. You see
the body, when the thread of its union with
the soul is cut, becpmes not only straight.
way a motionless lump, but within a little
time a putrified noisome carcase ; and thus
the soul by sin is cut off from God, who is

its life, as is the soul of* the body ; it hath
not pnly np moving faculty in good, but be
coraes fuU of rottenness and vileness, as the
word is, Psal. xiv. 2, They are gone aside
and become filthy. The soul, by tuming
away from God, tuma filthy ; yet, as a raan
thus spirituaUy dead lives naturally so, be
cause he acts, and apenda that natural life,
in the ways of sin, he ia aaid to live in sin.
Yea, there ia soraewhat raore in that expres.
sion than the mere passing of his Ufe iu that
way ; fpr, instead pf that happy life his aoul
should have in God, he pleases hiraaelf in
the raiserable life of ain, that which ia his
death, as if it were the proper Ufe of his
soul : Living in it imports that natural pro.
pensity he hath to sin, and the cpntinual de.
Ught he takes in it, as in his element, and
living to it, as if that were the very end pf
his being. In that estate, neither his body
nor his mind stineth without sin. Setting
aside his manifest breaches of the law, those
actions that are evidently and totaUy sinful,
his natural actions, hia eating and drinking,
his reUgioua actiona, hia praying, and hear
ing, and pleaching, are ain at the bottora.
And, generaUy, hia heart ia no other but a
forge of ain ; every imagination, eyery fic
tion of things framed there, is only evil con
tinually, Gen. vi. 5, or every day, and aU
the day long, it is his very trade and life.
Now, in opposition to thia Ufe of sin, Uv
ing in it, and to it, a Christian is said to die
to sin, to be cut off or separated frora it. In
our miserable jjatural state, there is as close
an union betwixt us aud sin as betwixt our
souls and bodies. It lives in ua, and we in
it ; and the longer we live in that cpnditipn
the more the uriipu grpwa, and the harder it
is tp diaaolve it ; and it is aa old aa the
union of soul and body ; nor can any thing
but the death that is here spoke of part
them : And this death, in this relative
sense, is mutual, in the work of conversion :
sin dies, and the aoul diea to ain, and theae
twp are reaUy one and the aame. The Spirit
of God kiUs both at one blow, sin in the soul,
and the soul to sin ; as the appstie saya pf
himaelf and the world. Gal. vi. 14, each is
crucified tp the pther.
And there are in it chiefly these two things
that make the difference : 1. The solidity ;
and, 2. The universality of this change un
der this notion of death.
Many things may Ue in a man's way be.
twixt him and the acting of divers ains, which
poasibly he affecta most. Sprae reatrainta,
outward or inward, raay be upon hira, the
authority pf pthera, er the fear of ahame or
punishment, or the check pf an enlightened
censcience ; and thpugh, by reason of these,
he corarait not the ain he would, yet he lives
in it, becauae he loves it, because he would
corarait it ; as we say, the soul lives not so
where it aniraates, as where it loves : And,

133

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap, ii;

generally, that kind of metaphorical life, by
which a raan ia said to Uve in any thing,
hath its principal aeat in the affection. That
ia the immediate link of the union in auch a
Ufe ; and the untying and death conaiata
chiefly in the disengagement of the heart,
breaking off the affection from it ; ye that
love the Lord, hate evil, Paal. xcvU. 10.
An unrenewed raind raay have some tem
porary dialikea, even in ita beloved sins, in
cold blood, but it returns to Uke them within
a whUe. A man may not only have times
of cessation frora his wonted way of sinning,
but, by reason of the society wherein he is,
and withdrawing of occasions to sin, and di
vera other cauaea, his very desire after it may
seem to him to be abated, and yet he may
be not dead to sin, but only asleep to it :
And therefore, when a temptation, backed
with opportunity, and other inducing circura
stances, comes, and jogs him, he awakes, and
ariaea and foUowa it.
A man may, for a while, diataste aome
meat he lovea, (possibly upon a surfeit,) but
he regains quickly his liking of it : Every
quanel with sin, every fit of dislike to it, is
not this hatred. Upon the Uvely represent
ing the deforraity of his sin to hia raind, cer
tainly a natural man may faU out with it ;
but theae are but aa the little jara of huaband
and wife, that are far from diaaolving the
maniage ; it is not a fixed hatred, auch as
amongst the Jews infened a divorce ; if
thou hate her put her away ; and that ia to
die to it : Aa by a legal divorce the hua-
band and wife are civiUy dead one to ario
ther, in regard of the tie and use of maniage.
Again, sorae raen's education and custora
and moral principles, may free thera from the
groaseat kind of ains ; yea, a man's teraper
may be averse from them, but they are alive
to their own kind of sins, auch as posaibly
are not so deformed in the comraon account.
covetousness or pride, or hardness of heart,
and either a hatred or disdain of the ways
of holiness, that are too strict fpr them, and
exceed their size. Beaidea, fpr the good of
human aociety, and for the interest of his
own church and people, God restrains raany
natural raen from the height of wickedneaa.
and givea them moral virtuea. There be
very raany and very coraraon sins, that more
refined natures, it may be, are scarce tempted
to ; but as in their diet and apparel, and
other things in their natural life, they have
the aame kind of being with pther perapua,
thpugh they are more neat and elegant ; sp,
in this living to sin, they Uve the same life
with other ungodly men, though with a little
raore delicacy.
They conaider not that the devila are net
in themselves subject tP, npr capable pf, raany
of thoae aina that are accounted grossest
amongst men, and yet are greater rebels and
enemies tn God than men are.

But to be dead to sin goes deeper, and ex
tends further than all these, namely, a raost
inward alienation of heart frora sin, and most
universal from all sin, an antipathy to the
raost beloved sin. Not only dpth a man in
this case forbear sin, but he hates it ; / hate
vain thoughts, Psal. cxix. 113; and not
only doth he hate some sins, but all ; / hate
every false way, verse 128. A stroke at the
heart, a wound given there, pccasipns the
mpst certain and speedy death : Fpr, in this
dying to sin, all the whole raan of necessity
dies to it ; the raind dies tp the device and
study pf siu ; that vein and intention be
comes dead ; the hand dies to the acting of
it ; the ear to the deUghtful hearing of things
profane and sinful ; the tongue of the world's
dialect of oaths and rotten speaking, and
calumny and evil speaking. Thia ia the mosl
coraraon effect of the tongue'a life in sin, the
very natural heat of sin that exerts and vents
itself most that way ; the eye becomes dead
to that intemperate look that Solomon speaks
of when he cautions us against " eyeing the
wine when it is red and weU coloured in the
cup," Prov. xxiii. 31. It ia not taken with
looking on the gUttering skin of that serpent
tiU it bite and sting, as there he adds. It
becomes also dead to that unchaste look that
kindles fire in the heart, to which Job bUnd.
folded and deadened his eyea, by an express
compact and agreeraent with them ; " I made
a covenant with mine eyes," Job xxxi. 1 .
The eye of a godly man is not fixed on
the false sparkling of the world's pomp,
honour and wealth. It is dead to them, being
quite dazzled with a greater beauty. The
grass looks fine in the moming, when it is
set with thpse liquid pearls, the drops of dew
that shine upon it ; but if you can look but
a little while on the body of the sun, ant,
then look down again, the eye is as it were
dead ; it sees not that faint shining on the
earth that it thought so gay oefore : And as
the eye is blinded, and dies to it, so, within
a few hours, that gaiety quite vanquishes and
dies itself.
Men think it strange that the godly are
not fond of their diet, that their appetite is
not stined with desire of their deUghts and
dainties ; they know not that such as be
Christians indeed, are dead to those things ;
and the best dishes that are set before a dead
man give him no stomach. The godly man's
throat is cui io those meats, as Solomon ad
vises, in another subject, Prov. xxiii. 2. But
why may not you be a little more sociable
to foUow the fashion pf the wprld, and take
a share widi ypur neighbpurs, raay spme say,
withput SP precisely and nanowly examin
ing every thing ? It is true, says the Chris.
tian, that the tirae was when I adviaed as
littie with conscience as others, but sought
rayaelf and pleaaed rayaelf aa they do, and
looked no further ; but that waa when / was

VER. 24.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

139

alive in those ways ; but now truly / am
dead to them ; and can you look for activity
and conversation from a dead raan ? the
pleasures pf sin, wherein I lived, are still the
same, but I ara npt the sarae. Are ypu such
a sneak and a fpol, says the natural raan, as
to bear affronts, and swallow them, and say
nothing ? Can you suffer to be abused ao by
such and such a wrong ? Indeed, says the
Christian again, I cpuld pnce have resented
an injury aa you, or another, and had aorae.
what of that ypu caU high-heartedness, when
I was alive after ypur fashion ; but now that
huraour is not oiUy soraetiraes cooled, but it
is kiUed, iu rae. It is cold dead, aa ye aay :
and a greater Spirit, I think, than my own,
hath taught rae another lesson, hath made
me hoth deaf and durab that way, and hath
given me a new vent, and another language,
and another party to apeak to on auch pcca-
sipna. See fpr thia, Paal. xxviii. 12, 13, 14,
15. " They that aeek my hurt, speak mis-
chievpus things, and iraagine deceits aU the
day Inng." What dpth he in this case ?
" But I as a deafman heard npt, and I was
as a durab man that opened net hia mouth ;"
and why ? for " in thee, O Lprd, do I hope."
And for thia deadness diat you despise, I
have leamed it of Him that died for me, who,
when he was reviled, reviled not again.
This is the true character of a Christian :
he is dead to sin : But alaa ! where ia this
Christian to be found ? And yet, thus is
every one that truly partakes of Christ ; he
ia dead to sin really. Hypocrites have an
historical kind of death, like this, as play.
ers in tragedies. Those players have loose
bags of blood that receive the wound : ao the
hypocrite, in aome externals, and, it raay be,
in that which is as near him as any outward
thing, hia purae, he. may auffer aome blood
shed of that fpr Chriat ; but thia death to
sin is not a swopning fit, that pne may reccver
put of again ; the apostle, Rpra. vi. 4, adds,
that he is buried.
But this is an unpleasant subject tp talk
thua pf death and burial ; the very narae pf
death, in the aofteat sense it can have, makes
a sour melancholy discourse. It is so, indeed,
if you take it alone, if there were not, instead
-of the life that waa lost, a far better one im
mediately foUowing ; but so it ia here, living
unto righteousness, succeeds dying io sin.
Thatwhich makeanaturaldeathsoaffright-
ful, the king of terrors, as Job calls it, xviii.
14, is mainly this faint belief and assurance
of the resurrection and glory to come ; and
without some Uvely apprehensions of this, all
iiien'a moral resolutions and discourses are too
weak cordials against this fear. They may
set a gppd face pn it, and speak big, and so
cover the fear they cannot cure ; but certainly
they are a little ridiculous, that would per
suade raen to be content to die, by reaspning
frpm the necessity and unavpidableness pfi

it, which, taken alone, rather may beget a
desperate discontent than a quiet corapliance.
The very weaknesa of that argument ia, that
it ia too strong, durum telum. That of com.
pany is fantastic ; it raay please the iraa.
gination, but satisfies not the judgment:
Nor are the raiseries pf Ufe, thpugh soraewhat
raore proper, a fuU persuasive to raeet death
without reluctance ; the oldest, the raost de
crepit, and raost diseased persons, yet natu
raUy faU not out with life, but could have a
raind to it still ; and the very truth is this,
the worst cottage any dweUa in, they are loath
to go out of tiU they know pf a better. And
the reaapu why that which is sp hideous
to others was so sweet to raartyrs, Heb. xi.
35, and nther gpdly raen that have heartily
embraced death, and welcpraed it, thpugh in
very tenible shapes, was, becauae they had
firra aaaurance pf immprtality beypnd it.
The ugly death's-head, when the Ught of
glury ahines thrpugh the hples pf it, is come
ly and lovely. To look upon death aa eter
nity's birth-day, is that whicii makes it not
only tolerable, but amiable. Hie dies pos
tremus ceterni natalis est, is the word I ad.
mire more than any other that ever dropt
from a heathen.
Thus, here, the strongest inducement to
this death is the true notion and contempla
tion of this Ufe, unto which it sets us over :
it is raost neceaaary to repreaent this, for a
natural man hath as great an aversion, every
whit, from this figurative death, this dying
to sin, aa frora natural death ; and there is
the raore necessity of persuading hira to this
because his cpnsent ia neceasary te it. Np
man diea thia death tp ain unwiUingly, al
thpugh np man ia naturally wilUng tp it ;
much uf thia death conaiata in a raan's con
senting thus to die : and thia ia not only a
lawful but a laudable, yea, a necessary self-
murder. Mortify, therefore, your members
which are upon the earth, aays the apostle.
Col. iii. 5. Now, no ainner will be content
to die io sin, if that were aU ; but if it be
passing to a more exceUent life, then he
gaineth ; and it were a foUy not to seek this
death. It was a strange power of Plato's
Discourse of the Soul's IraraortaUty, that
raoved a young raan uppn reading it, to throw
hiraself into the sea, that he might leap
through it to that immortality : But traly,
were this life of God, this life to righteous
ness, and the exceUency and deUght of it,
known, it would gain many rainds to this
death, whereby we step into it.
1. There is a necessity of a new being to
be the principle of new acting and raotion,
as the apostle says, while ye served sin, ye
teere free from righteousness, Rora. vi. 20.
So it is equaUy true, while ye were alive to
sin, ye were dead to righteousness ; but thire
is a new breath of Ufe from heaven, breathed
on the soul. Then lives the soul indeed,

A. COMMENTARV UPON

140

when it ia one with God, and aeea light m
his light, Paal. xxxvi. 9 ; it hath a apiritual
knowledge of him, and therefore sovereignly
loves him, and delighta in hia will ; and that
ia indeed to live unto righteousness, which,
in a comprehensive sense, takes in aU the
frame of a Chriatian Ufe, and all the dutiea
of it towarda God and towards raen.
By thia new nature the very natural mo
tion of the soul, so taken, is obedience to
God, and walking in the paths of righteous
ness ; it can no raore live in the habit and
ways of sin, than a raan can live under water.
Sin ia not the Christian's eleraent ; it is too
gross for hia renewed aoul, aa the water ia
for hia body. He may fall into it, but he
cannot breathe in it ; cannot take deUght,
and continue to live in it ; but hia delight
is in ihe law of the Lord, Paal. i. 2. That
ia the walk that hia soul refreahea itaelf in ;
he lovea it entirely, and lovea it moat, where
it moat crosses the remainders of conuption
that are in him ; he bends the strength of
his soul tp please Gpd, and aims whpUy at
that. It takes up hia thpughta early and
late ; he hath np other purpose in hia being
and Uving, but only to honour hia Lord,
that is, to live to righteousness. He doth
not make a by work of it, a study fpr his spare
hpurs ; np, it is his raain business, his aU.
" In this law doth he meditate day and
night," Psal. i. 2. This life, like the na
tural one, is seated in the heart, and from
thence diffuses itself to the whole man ; he
loves rightepusness, and receiveth ihe iruth
(as the appstie speaks) in ihe love of it, A
natural man raay dp raany things, that fpr
their sheU and putside are rightcpus : but he
Uves npt to righteousness, because his heart
is not possessed and ruled with the love of
it : Whereas this life raakes the godly man
delight to waUt uprightly and to speak Of
rightepusneaa ; hia language and ways carry
the resemblance pf his heart, Psal. xxxvii,
30, 31. I knpw it is easiest tp act that part
pf religion that is in the tpngue; but the
Christian pught nnt fpr that tp be spirituaUy
durab. Because sprae birds are taught to
speak, raen do not for that give it over, and
leave off to apeak. The mouth of the righ
teous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talk
eth of judgment, and hia feet strive to keep
pace with his tongue, which gives evidence
of its unfeignedness. None of his stepn
shall slide, or he shall not stagger in his
atepa ; but that which ia betwixt these is the
coraraon spring of both. The law of Groa
is in his heart, Psal. xxxvii, 30, 31 ; and
from thence, as Solomon saya, are the issues
ofhis life, Prov. iv. 3. That law in hia heart,
is the principal of thia Uving to righteous
ness. 2. The second thing here is, the design
or intention of Christ, by his sufferings and
death, to produce in us this death and life ;

[chap. II.

he bare sin, and died for it, that we might
die to it.
Out of some conviction of the consequence
of sin, many have a confused desire to be
justified, to have sin pardoned, and they
look no further ; they think not on the im.
portance and necessity of sanctificatipn, the
nature wherepf is expressed by this dying to
sin and living to righteousness.
But here we see that sanctificatipn is ne.
cessary, as inseparably cpnnected with jus.
tificatipn, nnt pnly as its cpmpanipn, but as
its end ; which in sorae kind raises it above
the other ; we see that it was the thing which
God eyed and intended, in taking away the
guiltiness of sin, that we might be renewed
and sanctified. If we compare them in point
of time and look backward, holiness was
always necessary unto happiness ; but sa
tisfying for sin, and the pardon of it, was
raade necessary by sin : or if we look forward,
the estate we are appointed to, and for which
we are deUvered from wrath, is an estate of
perfect hoUness. When we reflect upon that
great work of redemption, we see it aimed
at there, Redeemed io be holy, Eph. v. 25,
26 ; Tit. ii. 14. And if we go yet higher,
to the very spring, the decree of election,
with regard to that it is said, Eph. i. 4,
Chosen before, that we should be holy ; and
the end, it shaU suit the design ; Nothing
shall enter into the new Jerusalem that ts
defiled or unholy ; nothing but perfect purity
is there ; not a spot of sinfiil poUution, not
a wrinkle of the old man. For this end was
that great work undertaken by the Son of
God, that he might frame out of poUuted
raankind a new holy generation to his Father,
that raight compass his throne in the Ufe of
glory, and give hira pure praises, and behold
his face in that eternity. Now, for this end
it was needful, according to the aU-wise pur.
ppse of the Father, that the guiltiness of sin,
and sentence of death, should be once re.
raoved, and thus the burden of that lay upon
Christ's shoulders on the cross ; and that
done, it is further necessary that souls so de.
livered be Ukewise purged and renewed ; for
they are designed to perfection of holiness in
the end, and it must begin here.
Yet it is not possible to persuade men of
this, that Chriat had this in his eye and pur.
pose when he was Ufted up upon the cross,
and Ipoked upon the whole corapany of those
his Father had given him to save, that he
would redeem them to be a nuraber of holy
persons. We would be redeemed, (who is
there would npt ?) but he wpuld have his re.
deemed enes hply; and they that are net
true tP this his end, but cross and ppppse
hira in it, may hear of rederaption Ipng, and
pften, but Uttie tp their corafort. Are you
resolved stiU to abuse and delude ypurselves ?
WeU, whether ypu will believe it pr np, this
is pnce mere tpld ypu ; there is unspeakable

TUl.. 24.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

141

comfiirt in the death of Christ, but it belongs ' so much the better and fitter to testify love,
only 10 those that are dead to sin and o/itie therefore, it wiU have the soul die witii Him
to righteousness. This circle shuts put the that died fpr it, and the very sarae kind pf

irapenitent wprld : There it clpses, and can
npt be brpke thrpugh ; but aU that are peni
tent are, by their effectual caUing, lifted in.
tP it, translated frora that accursed condition
wherein they were : so then if you wiU live
in your sins, you raay ; but, then, resolve
withal to bear thera yourselves ; for Christ,
in his bearing of sin, raeant the benefit of
none, but such as, in due tirae, are thus dead,
and thus alive with him.
3. But then, in the third place, Christ's
sufferings and death effect aU this. [L] Aa
the exemplary cauae, the lively conterapla
tion of Chriat crucified, is the most power
ful of aU thoughts to separate the heart and
sin. But, [2.] besides this working as a
moral cause, Christ is the effective natural
cause of this death and Ufe ; for he is one
with the believer, and there is a real infiuence
of his death and life into their souls. Thia
myaterious union of Christ and the beUever,
is that whereon both their justification and
sanctification, and the whole frame of their
aalvation and happineaa, depends ; and in
this particular view the apostle stiU insists on
it, speaking of Christ and beUevers as one
in his death and resunection, " crucified
with hira, dead with hira, buried with him,
and risen with him," Rom. vi. 4, &c.
Being arisen, he applies his death to those
he died for, and by it kiUs the Ufe of sin in
thera, and so is avenged on it for its being
the cause of his death, accprding tp that pf
the Psalm, xU. 10, " Raise me up, tiiat I
may requite them." He infuses, and then
actuates and stirs up that faith and Ipve in
them, by which they are united tp him ; and
these work powerfuUy in producing thia
change. [3.] Faith looks so stedfastiy on its suf
fering Saviour, that, as they say,* it raakes
the soul like hira, aaaimilates and confprras
it tp his death, as the appstie speaks. That
which Papists fabulously say of sorae of their
saints, that they received the irapression of
the wounds of Christ in their body, is truC;
in a spiritual sense, of the soul of every one
that is indeed a saint and a believer. It
takes the very print of his death, by behpld-
ing him, and dies to sin ; and then takes
, that pf his rising again, and lives to righ
teousness, as it appUes it tp justify, sp to
mortify, drawing virtue from it. Thus said
pne, " Christ aimed at this in all those suf
ferings, that, with so much leve, he went
.through ; and shall I disappoint him, and
not serve his end ?"
[4.] That other powerftil grace of love
jpins in this wprk with faith : for love de
sires nothing more than Ukeness and confor
mity : Though it be a painful resemblance,
• liitcilectns fit Ulud quod intelligit.

death ; / am crucified w'lth Christ, says
the great apostle. Gal. ii. 20. The love of
Christ in the soul takes the very naila that
fastened hira to the cross, and crucifies the
spul tp the wprld and tp sin. Love is strong
as death, particularly in thia : the strpngest
and Uveliest bpdy, when death seizes it,
must yield, and se becomes motionless,
though it was so vigorous before : And the
soul that ia most active and unwearied in
sin, when thia love aeizea it, is kiUed to sin ;
and as death separates a man from hia
deareat friends, and society, this love breaka
aU ita tiea and friendahip with ain. Gene
raUy, aa Plato hath it, love takea away one'a
living in themaelvea, and transfers it into
the party loved ; but the divine love of Christ
doth it in the truest and highest manner.
By whose stripes ye were healed.] The
misery of fallen man, and the mercy of his
deliverance, are both of them such a depth,
that no one expression, yea, no variety of
expressions, added one tp another, can reach
their bottom. Here we have divers very
significant ones : I. The guiltiness of sin,
as an intolerable burden, presaing the soul
and sinking it ; and that transferred and
laid on a stronger back, he bare. Then,
2. The same wretchedness, under the na
tion of a strange disease, by all other meana
incurable, healed by his stripes. And, 3.
Again represented by the forlorn condition
of a sheep wandering, and our salvation to
be found only in the love and wisdom of our
great Shepherd. And aU these are bonowed
from that sweet and clear prophecy, Isa. Uii.
The poUuted nature of man is no other
but a bundle of deaperate diseasea : He is
apiritually dead, aa the Scriptures often teach.
Now, this contradicts not, nor at aU leaaons
the matter; but only because thia miaery,
justly called death, is in a subject aniraated
with a natural life, therefore, so considered,
it raay bear the narae and aense of aickneaa
or wounds : And therefore it ia a gross mis-
priaon, and they are aa ranch out in their ar
guraent as in their conclusion, that would ex
tract out of theae expreaaions any evidence of
remains of spiritual life or good in our conupt-
cd nature. But they are not worthy the con
test, though vain heads think to argue them
selvea into life, and are seeking that life by
logic in miaerable nature, that they should
seek by faith in Jesus Christ, namely, in
these his siripes by which we are healed.
It were a large task to name our spiritual
maladies, how much raore severally to unfold
their natures ; such a multitude of corrupt
false principles in the mind, that as gangrenes
do spread themselves thrpugh the spul, and
defile the whple man ; that tptal grpss bUnd.i
ne.ss and unbeUef in spiritual things, ami

142

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. II,;

that stone of the heart, i.ardness and impeni
tency, lethargies of senselessness and security ;
and then, (for there be such compUcations of
spiritual diseases in us, aa in naturala are al
together impossible) such burning fevers of
inordinate affections, desirea of lust, and ma
Uce, and envy, such racking and tormenting
cares of covetousness, and feeding on earth
and ashes, aa the prophet speaka iu another
case, Isa. xliv. 20, according to the depraved
appetite that accompaniea sorae diseases ;
such turaoura of pride and aelf-conceit that
break forth, aa filthy blotchea, in irien'a worda
and caniage one with another 1 And, in a
word, what a wonderful diaorder raust needs
be in the natural soul, by the frequent inter
changes and fight of contrary passions within
it ! And, besides aU these, how many deadly
wounds dp we receive frora without, by the
temptations of Satan and the world : We
entertain them, and by weapons, with which
they furnish us, we wiUingly wound our
selves, as the appstie says pf them " who wiU
be rich, they faU into divers snares and noi
some luata, and pierce theraaelvea through
with raany sonows," 1 Tim. vi. 9.
Did we see it, no infirmary or hospital was
ever so fuU of loathaome and raiaerable spec
tacles, as in a spiritual sense, our wretched
nature is in any one of us apart : How much
more when multitudes of us are met together?
But our evils are hid frora ua, and we perish
miserably in a dreara of happiness. That
makea up and completes our wretchedneas,
that we feel it not with our other diaeaaes ;
and this raakea it worae atiU. Thia waa the
church'a diaease. Rev. iii. 17, " Thou aay-
eat I am rich, and knowest not that thou art
poor," &c. We are usually fuU of com
plaints of trifling griefs that are of sraaU
moment, and think not on, nor feel, our
dangerous maladies ; as he who shewed a
physician his fore finger, but the physician
told him, he had more need to think on the
cure of a dangerous iraposthurae within hira,
which he perceived by looking to him, though
himself did not feel it.
In dangerous maladies or wounds, there be
these evils, a tendency to death, a fear of it,
and apprehenaion of ita tenors, and the pre
sent distemper of the body by these ; and aU
this is in sin. 1. There is the guUtinesa of
ain binding over the soul to death, the raost
frightful, etemal death. 2. The tenor of
conscience in the apprehension ef that death,
pr wrath, that is the cpnsequent and end of
sin. 3. The raging and prevailing power
of ain, which ia the iU habit and disteraper
of the soul : But Chriat'a siripes, and that
blood that iaaued frora them, are a sound
cure applied to the soul. They take away
the guiltiness of sin, and death deserved, and
free us from our engagement to thpse ever
lasting scourgings and laahea of the wrath of
God ; and they are likewise the only cure ofi

those preaent tenors and pangs of conscience
ariaing frora the sense of that ¦wrath, and
sentence pf death uppn the spul. Our ini
quitiea, that met pn hia back, laid it ppen
tp the rod, which in itaeK was free ; those
hands that never wrought iniquity, and those
feet that never declined from the way ef
righteousness, yet for our works and wander
ings were pierced ; and that tongue dropped
with vinegar and gaU on the cross, that
never spoke a guileful nor a sinful word. The
blood of those stripes are that balm issuing
from that tree of Ufe so pierced, that can cnly
give ease tp the cpnscience, and heal the
wpunds pf it ; and they deliver from the power
of sin, working by their influence a loathing
of sin, that was the cause of them ; they
cleanse out the vicious humours of our corrupt
nature, by opening that issue of repentance,
" They shall look on him, and moum over
hira, whom they have pierced," Zech. xii. 10.
Now, to the end it raay thua cure, it must
be applied ; it ia the only recipe, but it must
be received for heaUng. The moat sovereign
mediciues cure not in another manner, and
therefore stiU their first letter is R, Recipe,
Take such a thing.
This is amongst those wonders of that
great work, that the sovereign Lord of aQ,
that binds and looses at his pleasure the in.
fluences of heaven, and the power and work.
ings of aU the creatures, would himself in
our flesh be thus bpund, the nnly Son bound
as a slave, and scourged as a malefactor I and
his willing obedience raade this an accepta
ble and expiating sacrifice : amongst the rest
ofhis sufferings. He gave his back io the
smiters, Isa. 1. 6.
Now, it cannot be, that any thus heal
ed, reflecting upon this cure, can again take
any constant delight in sin. It is impossible
so far to forget both the grief it bred them
selves, and their Lord, as to make a new a-
greement with it, and take pleaaure to live
in it.
His stripes.] Turn your thoughts every
one of ypu tp cpnaider thia. Ypu that are
upt healed, that ypu may be healed ; and you
that are, apply it still to perfect the cure, in
that part wherein it ia gradual, and not com-
plete ; and for the ease you have found, bless
and love him who endured so much uneasi-
neaa to that end. There ia a sweet mixture
of sonow and joy in contemplating these
stripes ; sonow, sure by sympathy, that they
were his stripes, and joy that they were our
heaUng. Christians are too littie mindftd
and sensible of this, and it raay be, somewhat
guUty of that great fauU mentioned, Hos. xi.
3, They knew not that I healed them.
¦Ver. 25. For ye were as sheep going astrav, but are
now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of
your souls.
In these few words we have a brief and yet

VEII. 25.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

143

clear representation of the ¦wretchedneaa of

our natural condition, and our happineaa in
Christ. The resemblance is bonpwed frpra
the same place in the prophet Isaiah, liii. 0.
Not to press the comparison, and, as it is
too usual in such cpmments as these, tp strain
it beyond the purpose in our lost estate ; this
is aU, or the main circumstance, wherein the
resemblance with sheep holds, our wander
ing, as forlorn, and exposed to destruction, as
a sheep tbat is strayed and wandered from
the fold. So it imports indeed the loss of a
better condition, the loss of the safety and
happiness of the soul, of that good which is
proper to it, aa the auitable good of the brute
creature here naraed, ia aafe and good pasture.
That we raay know there ia none exempt
in nature from the guiltiness and misery of
this wandering, the prophet is express in the
universaUty of it, all we have gone astray :
And thpugh the appstie here appUes it in
particular tp his brethren, yet it faUs net
araiss to any pther, ye were as sheep going
astray : Yea, the prophet there, to the col
lective universal, adds a distributive, every
man to his own way, or a man to his way
They agree in this, that they all wander,
though they differ in their several ways,
There is an inbred propension to stray in
them aU, more than in Sheep that are crea
tures naturaUy wandering, fur each man hath
his pwn way of it.
And this is our foUy, that we flatter our
selves by cpraparispu, and every one is pleas
ed with himself because he is free from some
wanderings of others ; not considering that
he is a wanderer too, though in another way ;
he hath his way, as those he looks on have
theirs. And as men agree in wandering,
though they differ in tbeir way, ao those
ways agree in this, that they lead into mi
sery, and shaU end in that. Thiuk you
there is no way tp heU but the way pf ppen
prpfaneness ? Yea, sure, many a way there
ia that aeems smpoth, and clean in a man's
own eyes, and yet wiU end in conderanation.
Truth ia but one, enor endleaa and interrai-
nable ; as we aay of natural Ufe and death,
ao raay we say of spiritual, the way to Ufe is
one, but there are many out of it ; lethi
mille aditus. Each one hath not opportu
nity nor ability for every sin, or every de
gree of sin, but each sins after his own mode
and power, Isaiah xl. 20
Thy tongue, it raay be, wanders not in
the coraraon path-road of oaths and curses,
yet it wanders in secret caluranies, in dctrac
tion and defaraing of others, though so con.
veyed as it scarce appears : Or, if thou
speak them not, yet thou art pleased to hear
them. It wanders, in trifling away the
precious hours of irrecoverable time, with
vain unprofitable babbUngs in thy converse ;
or if thou art much alone, or in company
much silent, yet is not thy fooUsh mind still

hunting vanity, following this self-pleasing

design or the other, and seldom, and very
slightly, if at all, conversant with God, and
the things of heaven ? which, although they
alone have the truest and the highest plea
sure in them, yet to thy carnal raind are
tasteless and unsavoury. There io scarce
any thing so light and childish that thou
wilt not raore willingly and Uberally bestow
thy retired thoughts on, than upon those
exceUent incoraparable delights. Oh I tlie
fooUah heart of raen, when it may aeem deep
and aerious, how often ia it at Domitian's
exercise in his study, catching flies ?
Men account little of the wandering of
their hearta, and yet, truly, that ia most pf
all tp be cpnsidered ; fpr, from thence are
ilie issues of life, Prpv. iv. 23. It is the
heart that hath fprgptten Ged, and ia rpving
after vanity. This causea all the errprs of
men's wprds and actipna. A wandering heart
makes wandering eyes, feet, and tongue.
It ia the leading wanderer, that mis
leads aU the reat ; and as we are here called
straying sheep, ao within the heart itaelf of
each of ua, there is, as it were, a whole
wandering flock, a raultitude, of fictions.
Gen. viii. 21, ungodly devices; the word
that aignifiea the evil of the thought in He
brew here, rang frora rung, ia frora that
which ia feeding of a flock, and it Ukewiae
aignifiea wandering ; and so these meet in
our thoughts, they are a great flock and a
wandering fiock. This is the natural free
dora of our thoughta ; they are free to wan
der from God and heaven, and cany ua to
perdition : And we are guilty of many pol-
iutiona thia way that we never acted. Men
are leas aenaible of heart-wickedneaa, if it
break not forth ; but it ia far raore active in
ain than any of the senaea, or the whole
body. The raotion of apirita is far .swifter
than of bodies ; it can make a greater pro
greaa in any of theae wanderinga in one
hour, than the body is able to overtake in
many daya.
When the body is tied to attendance in
the exerciaea wherein we are now employed,
yet know you not ? (It ia ao much the werse,
if ypu do not know, and feel it and bewail
it.) Know you not, I say, that the heart
can take its Uberty, and leave you nothing
but » carcase ? Thia the unrenewed heart
doth continuaUy : " They come and sit be
fore rae as ray pepple, but their heart ia after
their cpvetpusness," Ezekiel xxxiii. 31. It
hath another way to gp, anpther God to
wait on.
But are now returned.] Whatsoever
are the several ways of our straying, aU our
wandering is the aversion of the heart ftom
God ; whence of necessity foUows a conti
nual unsettledneaa and disquiet ; the mind is
as a wave ofthe sea, tossed to and fro with
the wind ; it tumbles frora one sin and

144

A COSIMENTARY UPON

[chap. ij.

vanity to another, and finda no rest ; as a
sick person tosses from one aide to another,
and from one part of his bed tp anpther, and
perhaps changes his bed, in hope of ease,
but StiU it is farther pff; thus is the spuI in
all its wanderings : But shift and change as
it wiU, no reat will it find until it corae to
this returning, Jer. ii. 30, " Why gaddeat
thou about ao rauch to change thy way ?
thou ahalt be aaharaed of Egypt as thou wast
of Assyria." Nothing but sonow and ahame
tiU you change aU thoae ways for this pne.
Return, O Israel, says ihe Lord ; if thou
wilt return, return unto me. It is net
changing one of your own ways for another
that will profit you ; but in returning to me
is your salvation.
Seeing we find in our own experience, be
sides the woful end of our wanderings, the
present perplexity and disquiet of thera, why
are we not persuaded to this to give up with
them aU ? Return unto thy rest, O my
soul, says David, Psal. cxvi. 7 ; this were
our wisdom.
But is not that God, in whom we expect
rest, incensed against us for our wandering ;
and is he not, being offended, a consuming
fire ? True, but this is the way to find ac
ceptance and peace, and satisfying comforts
in retumhig. Corae first to this Shepherd
of souls Jesua Chriat, and by hira corae un
to the Father ; no man comes unto the Fa
ther, says he, but by me. This is via regia,
the high and right way of retuming unto God,
John X. 11, I am the good Shepherd, and
ver. 9, " I ara the Door, by rae if any raan
enter in, he shaU be saved :" But if he raiss
this door, he ahall miaa aalvation too. " Ye
are retumed, (says the apostle,) unto the
Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."
There be three things neceaaary to restore
us to our happiness, whence we have depart
ed in OUT wanderinga : 1. To take away
the guiltineaa of thoae former wanderinga.
2. To reduce ua into the way again. 3. To
keep and lead ua in it.
Now, aU these are performable by this
great Shepherd, and by hira only. 1. He
did satisfy for the offence of our wanderings,
and so reraove our guiltiness ; he himself,
the Shepherd, became a sacrifice for his fiock,
a sheep or apotieaa larab, aa laa. liii. 6, We
like sheep have gone astray, and immediate
ly after our atraying ia mentioned, it is add
ed. The Lord laid or made meet on him,
the iniquity of us all, oi aU our strayinga ;
and ver. 7, he that is our Shepherd, the sarae
ia the Lamb for aacrifice : ao our apostle,
chap. i. We are redeemed not by silver and
gold, Scc. but by the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb ivithout blemish, and
without spot ; so John x. He is ihe good
Shepherd that lays down his life for his
sheep. Men think not on this ; many of
tJiem that have some thoughts of returning

and amendment, think npi that there ia a
satisfaction due for past wanderings ; aud
therefore they pass by Christ, and conaider
not the necessity of returning to him, and by
him to the Father.
2. He brings them back Into the way of
life. Ye are returned : But think not it is
by their own knowledge and skiU that they
discover their error, and find out the right
path, and by their own strength that they
retum into it. No, if we woiUd contest
grammaticisma, the wprd here is passive, ye
are returned, reduced, or caused tp return :
But thia trath hangs npt nn ap weak nptions
aa are pften uaed, either for or against it.
In that prophecy, Ezek. xxxiv. 16, / will
seek and bring again, Scc. : autl Psalm
xxiii. 3, He restoreth or returneth my soul.
And that this ia the work of this Shepherd,
the Lprd Jeaua, Gpd-raan, ia clearly and
frequently taught in the gpspel. He came
for this very end ; it waa hia enand and busi.
neaa in the world, io seek and to save that
which was lost. And thus it is represented
in the parable, he goes after ihat which is
lost until he find it, and then having found
it, doth not only shew it the way, and say
to it, retum, and so leave it to come after,
but he lays it on his shoulder, and brings ii
horae ; and notwithstanding aU his pains,
instead of coraplaining against it for wander.
ing, he rejoices in that he hath foirad and
recovered it ; he lays it on his shoulder re
joicing, Luke .XV. 4, 5. And in this there
is as rauch pf the reserablance as in any othel
thing. Lost raan can no raore return un
sought, than a sheep that wandereth, which
is observed of all creatures to have least of
that skiU. Men raay have sorae confused
thoughts of returning ; but they cannot know
the way and corae home, unless they be
sought out. This therefore is David's suit,
Psal. cxix. ult. though acquainted with the
fold, / have gone astray like a lost sheep ;
Lord, .seek thy servant. This did our great
and good Shepherd, through those difficult
ways he was to pass, for finding us ; here-
in he not pnly hazarded, but reaUy laid down
his life ; and those shpulders that did bear
the iniquity pf our wandering by expiation,
upon the aame doth he bear, and bring us
back from it by effectual conversion.
3. He keepa and leada ua on in that way,
into which he hath reduced us ; he leaves
us not again to try our own akiU, if we can
walk to heaven alone, being set into the path
of it ; but he still conducts ua in it by his
own hand, and that ia the cauae of our per-
aiating in it, and attaining the bleaaed end
of it. He returneth my soul, aaya the Psal-
mist : and that is not aU ; he adds, he lead
eth me in the paths of righteousness for his
name's sake ; by thoae paths are the green
pastures meant, and the still waters that he
speaka of, Psal. xxiii. 2, 3. And thus we

TEE. 25.)

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

145

may judge, whether we are ofhis flock. Are
we led in the paths of righteousness ? Do
we delight ourselves in him, and his ways ?
Are tiiey the proper refreshment of our souls ?
Do we find 7ms word sweet unto our taste ?
Are we taken with the green pastures in it,
and the crystal streams of consolations that
glide through it ? Can we discern his voice,
and does it draw our heart, ao that we follow
it ? John X. 27.
The Shepherd and Bishop.y It waa the
style pf kinga tp be caUed shepherds ; and it
is the dignity of the ministers of the gospel,
to have both these names : But this great
Shepherd and Bishop is peculiarly worthy
of these names, as suprerae ; he alone is the
universal Shepherd and Bishop : and none
but an antichrist, that raakes hiraaelf as
Christ, tii.'.t kills and destroys the flock, wiU
assurae thia title, that belongs only to the
Lord, the great owner of his flock. He him
self is -their great Shepherd and Bishop :
All shepherda and biahops that are truly auch,
have their function and place from him, they
hold of him, and follow hia rules and ex
ample, in their inspection of the flock. It
were the happineaa of kingdoraa, if raagi
strates and kings would set Him, his love,
meekness, and equity, before their eyes in
their government. AU those that are pro
perly his bishops, are especially obliged to
study this pattern, to warm their affections
to the flock, and excite a tender care of their
salvation, by looking on this Archbishop
and Arch shepherd, (as our aposde caUs
him,) and in their measure, to follow his
footsteps, spending their life and strength in
seeking the good of his aheep, considering
that they are subordinately shepherds of souls,
that is, in dispensing spiritual thinga ; so far
the title is communicable.
The Lord Jesua ia aupremely and ain-
gularly such : they under hira are shepherds
of souls, because their diligence concerns the
soul, v/hich excluded not the body in spiri
tual respects, as it ia capable of things spiri
tual and etemal by its union with the soul.
But Christ ia sovereign Shepherd of aouls
above aU, and singular, in that he not only
teaches thera the doctrine of salvation, but
purchased salvation for them, and reaches
the soul powerfuUy, which^inisters, by their
own power, cannot do. He lays hSld on it,
and reduces, and leada it, and causes it to
walk in his ways. In this sense it agrees to
him alone, as supreme, in the incorarauni
cable sense.
And frora his conduct, power, and love,
flows aU the comfort of his flock, when they
consider their own folly and weakness. This
alone gives thera confidence, that his hand
guides them, and they believe his strength
is far surpassing that of the roaring lion,
John X, 28, 29, 30. His wisdora in know.
ing their particular state, and their weakness,

and his tender love, pitying them, and apply
ing himself to it. Other shepherds, even
faithful oncs, may mistake, and not know
the way of leading diem in sorae particulars,
and they raay be aometiraea wanting in that
tender affection that they owe, or if they
have that, yet are not able to bear them up,
and support them powerfully : But thia Shep.
herd is perfect in all these, Isaiah xl. 11.
The young and weak Christian, or the elder
at weak timea, when they are big and heavy
with some inward exercise of raind, which
ahaU bring forth advantage and peace after
warda to them ; them he leads gently, and
uses them with the tendernesa that their
weakneaa requirea.
And, in the general, he provides for his
fiock, and heala them when they are any way
hurt, and waahca and makes thera fraitful ;
ao that they are aa that fiock, described Cant.
2 ; they are coraely, but their Shepherd
much more : He is formosi pecoris custos,
formosior ipse. They are given him in the
Father's purpose and choice, and so they that
retum, even v/hile they wander, are sheep
in some other aenae than the rest that perish.
They are, in the aacred leve pf election, of
Chriat'a aheepfold, though not aa yet actually
brought into it : But when hia time comes,
whereaoever they wander, and how far off ao
ever, even thoae that have atrayed most, yet
he reduces them, and rejoicea heaven with
their retum, and leada thera till he bringa
them to partake of the joy that is there.
That is the end ofthe way wherein he guides
them, John x. 27, 28, they hear my voice,
and follow me, and they ahall never repen'
of having done ao. To foUow hira is to fol.
low Ufe ; for he is life, John xiv. 6. And
he is»in that glory which we desire. And
where would we be, if not there where he is,
who, at his parting frora the world, said,
where I am, there they shall be also ? To
this happy meeting and heavenly abode, raay
God, of his inflnite mercy, bring us, through
Jesus Christ o-ar Lord. Amen.

CHAP. IIL
¦Vbr. I. L\l;cwise, ve wives, be in aubjection to
vour own hiisbancts i that, if any obey not the
word, they also, without the word, may be won
by the conversation of the wives.
The tabernacle of the sun ia aet high in
the heavena, but it ia that it may have in
fluence below upon the earth : And the
word of God, that ia apoke of there imme.
diately after, aabeingraany wayslike it, holds
reserablance in this particular : it isa .sublime
heavenly Ught, and yet descends, in its use,
to the lives of men, to the variety of their
stations ; to warm and to enlighten, to re-
euiate their affections and actions, in what.
K

146

A COMMENTARY UPON

spever course of life they are called to. By
a perfect revplutipn or circuit, (aa there it ia
said of the sun), it viaita aU ranka and ea-
tales. Pad. xix. 6. " Its going forth is
frora the end of heaven, and hia circuit untp
the ends ef it, and there is nothing hid frora
the heat of it." This word disdains not to
teach the very servanta, in their low con-
dition and employmenis, how to behave
theraaelvea, and aets before thera no raeaner
example than that of Jesua Chriat, which is
the highest of all examples ; and here the
apostle proceeds to give rules adapted to that
relation, which is the main one in families,
husbands and wives : For the order, it is
indifferent, yet, poasibly, he begina here at
the wivea, because his forraer rulea were given
to inferiors, to subjects and servants ; and
the duty he comraflids particularly here to
them, is subjection ; likewise, ye wives, be
in subjection, ^c.
After men have said aU they can, and
much it may be to little purpose, in running
the parallel between these two states of life,
maniage and celibacy, the result will be
found, I conceive, all things being truly esti
mated, very little odds, even in natural re
spects, in the thinga themaelvea, aaving only
aa the particular condition of peraons, and
the hand of divine Providence tums the
balance the one way or other : And the
writing of aatirea against either, or panegy-
rica on the one in prejudice of the other, is
but a caprice of men'a minda, according to
their own huraour : But in respect of reli
gion, the apostle having scanned the subject
to the full, leaves it indifferent, only requir
ing in those that are so engaged, hearta aa
disengaged aa may be, " that they that marry
oe as if they manied not," &c. 1 Cor. vii. 29.
31. Within a while it will be all one, aa
he adda that grave reaaon for the fashion
['rx.'^.f^-'] cf this world passeth ; it is but a
pageant, a show of an hour long, [rra^ayn,']
goes by, and is no more seen : Thua the
great pompa and aolemnities of marriages of
kings and princes in former times, where are
diey ? Oh ! how unaeemly ia it to have an
immortal aoul drowned in the esteem and
affection of any thing that perishes, and to
be cold and indifferent in seeking after a good
that will last as long as itself Aspire to
that good which is the only match for the
soul, that close union with God which can
not be dissolved ; which he calls an everlaat
ing marriage, Hos. ii. 19, that will raake
you happy, either with the other, or without
it. All the happineaa of the most excellent
persona, and the very top of aU affection and
prosperity meeting in human marriages, are
but a dark and weak repreaentation of the
solid joy that is in that rayterious divine
union with the spirit of man with the Father
of spirits, frpra whpm it isauea. But this
by the way.

The common apring of all mutual duties,
on both aidea, ia to be supposed love : That
peculiar conjugal love, that raakes them one,
will infuse such sweetness into the authority
of the husband, and obedience of the wife,
aa will make their Uvea harmonious ; Uke
the sound pf a well-tuned instrument ;
Whereas without that, having such an uni.
versal conjuncture pf intereat in aU their
affairs, they cannot escape frequent contests
and diacorda ; which ia a aound more un
pleaaant than the jarring of untuned atringa
to an exact ear. And thia ahould be con-
aidered in the choice, that it be not, as it is
tpp pften, (which causeth sp many dpmestic
ills, (cpntracted only as a bargain of outward
advantages, but aa an union of hearta : And
where this is not, and there is something
wanting in this point of affection, there, if
the parties, or either of them, have any sav
ing knowledge of God, and access to him in
prayer, they will be earnest suitors for hia
help in this, that His hand may aet right
what no other can ; that He, who ia love it.
aelf, may infuse that mutual love into their
hearts now, which they should have sought
sooner. And they that aensibly want thia,
and yet aeek it not of Him, what wonder is
it, though they find much bitterneas and dis.
content ; yea, where they agree, if it be only
in natural aff'ection, their observance of the
duties required, is not by far either so com
fortable and pleasing, or so sure and laating,
aa when it ariaeth from a religioua and Chria
tian love in both, that will cover any faiUngs,
and take things by the best side.
Love is the prirae duty in both, the basis
of all ; but because the particular character
of it, as proper to the wife, ia conjugal obe
dience and aubjection, therefore that ia usually
apecified, Eph. ir. 12. Wives, submit your
selves unto your own husbands, as unto the
Lord : so here. Now, if it be such obe.
dience as ought to ariae from a apecial kind
of love, then the wife ahould reraember thia,
that it must not be constrained uneheerful
obedience ; and the husband would remem
ber, that he ought not to require base and
aervile obedience : for both theae are contrary
to that love, whereof this obedience must
cany the true tincture and relish, as flowing
from it ; there it will hold right, where love
commands, and love obeya.
Thia aubjection,asaU other, is qualifled thus,
that it be in the Lord. His authority is primi-
tive, and binds first, and all others have their
patents and privileges frora hira ; therefore he
is supremely and absolutely to be observed in
all. If the husband would draw the wife to
an irreligious courae of life and looseness, he
is not to be followed in this, but in aU things
indifferent, thia obedience must hold ; whicii
forbida not, neither, a modest advice and re
presentation to the husband of that which is
more convenient : But th.it done, a submis-

VEH. 1.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PBTER.

147

sive yielding tp the husband's wiU is the suit
ing pf this ride. Yea, ppaaibly, the husband
niaynot pnly iraprudently, but unlawfully, will
that, which, if npt in its nwn nature a thing
unlawful, the wife, by reason of his will, may
obeylawfuUy, yea, could not lawfully disobey.
Now, though this siibjection waa a funda
mental law of pure nature, and carae frora
that hand that made aU thinga in perfect or
der, yet ain, which hath imbittered aU human
things with a curse, hath disrelished this sub
jection, and made it taste somewhat of a
punishment, Gen. iii. 16, and that aa a suit
able puniahment of the woman's abuse of
that power ahe had with the man, to the
drawing of hira to disobedience againat God.
The bitterness in this aubjection arises
from tiie conuption of nature in both ; -in the
wife, of a perverse desire rather to command,
pr at least a repining discpntent at the pbli-
gation to obey ; and this is increased by the
disorder, aud imprudence, and harshness of
husbands, in the use of their authority.
But in a Christian, the conscience of divine
appointment will cany it, and weigh down
all difficulties ; for the wife considera her
station, that she is aet in it, v7roTa,,riroiU,tvvj,
it ia the rank the Lord'a hand hath placed
her in, and therefore ahe wiU not break it ;
out of reapect and love to him, she can digeat
rauch frowardneas of a huaband, and raake
that, her patient subjection, a aacrifice unto
God, " Lord, I offer this to thee, and for
thy sake I hurably bear it."
The worth and love of a husband may
cause that respect, where this rule moves not :
but the Christian wife, that hath love to God,
though her husband he not so comely, nor so
wise, nor any way so araiable, as many others ;
yet hecause he is her own husband, and be
cauae of the Lerd's command in the general,
and his providence in the particular disposal
of his own, therefpre ahe loves and obeys.
That if any obey not the word.] This
suppoaes a particular case, and applies the
rule to it ; takea it for granted that a beUev
ing wife will cheerfuUy obaerve and reapect
a believing huaband ; but if he ia an unbe
liever, yet that unties not this engagement ;
yea, there is something in this caae which
preases it and binds -it the raore, a singular
good, which probably raay follow upon obey.
ing such ; by thai good conversation, they
may be gained who believe not the word ;
not that they could be fhUy converted with
out the word, but having a prejudice against
the word, that raay be rempved by the car
riage pf a beUeving wife, and they may be
spmewhat mplUfied, and prepared, and indu
ced to hearken to religipn, and take it intp
rpnsideratipn. This gives npt Chriatians wanant tp draw
on this task, and make themselves this wprk,
by chopaing to be joined tP an unbeliever,
either a profane er mere natural husband er

wife ; but teacheth thera, being sp raatched,
what shpuld be their great desire, and their
suitable carriage, in prder tp the attainment
pfit. And in the primitive Christian times
this fell out pften, that, by the gespel preach
ed, the husband tnight be cpnverted frpm
gross infideUty, Judaism or Paganism, and
not the wife ; or the wife, which is the sup
position here, and not the husband ; and
there carae in the use of this consideration.
And in this is the freedom of divine grace,
to pick and chooae where he will, one of a
family, or two of a tribe, aa the prophet hath
it, Jer. iii. 14, and according to our Saviour's
word, two in one bed, ihe one taken and the
other left, Luke xvii. 34. Some aelected
ones in a congregation, and in a house, a
child, poaaibly, or aervant, or wife, and leave
the reat. The apostle aeems to imply parti
cularly, that there were raany instances of
this, wivea converts and husbands unbeliev
ing. We can deterraine nothing of their
conjecture, who think there shall be raore of
that sex here called the weaker vessels, than
of the other, who shall be vessels of honour,
which God seasons with grace here, and here
after will fiU with glory ; but thia ia clear,
that many of thera are converted, while raany
men, and divera of them very wise and leam
ed men, having the sarae, and far greater
means and opportunities, do perish in unbe
lief. Thia, I aay, evidences the liberty and
the power of the Spirit of God, that ivind
that bloweth where it listeth, John xiii. 1 ;
and withal it suits with that word of the a-
postle, that the Lord thia way abases thes3
things that raen account so much of, and
hath chosen the weak things of the world,
to confound ihe mighty, Scc. 1 Cor. i. 26.
Nor doth the pUableness, and tendernesa of
their affectiona, (though grace once wrought
may make good uae of that,) make their con-
veraipn eaaier, but the harder rather ; for
through nature'a conuption, they would by
that yield more to evil than to good ; but
the efficacy of grace appeara much in estab
Ushing their hearts in the love of God, and
raaking thera, once possessed with that, to
be inflexible, and invincible by the terapta
tions of the world, and the strength and
aleights of Satan.
That which ia here aaid of iheir conver
sation, holds of the husband, in the Uke
case, and of friends and kindred, and, gene.
raUy, of all Chriatiana, in reference to them
with whora they converae ; that their spotless
holy carriage aa Christians, and in their
particular stations, as Christian huaband.'*,
or wivea, or frienda, is a very Ukely and hope
ful means of converting others who believe
not. Men who are prejudiced observe actions
a great deal more than worda. In thoae
first timea eapeciaUy, the blameleaa caniage
of Chriatians did much to the increasing of
their number.

A COMMENTARY UPON

143
Strive, ye wives, and others, to adorn and
commend the religipn ypu prpfesa tp pthers,
especially theae neareat ypu, who are a,verse.
Give no just cause of scandal and prejudice
against reUgion. Beware not only of gross
faiUngs and waya of sin, but of such impru
dences as may expoae you and your profes
sion : Study both a holy and wiae carriage,
and pray much for it. Jam. i. 5, " If any of
you lack wiadom, let hira ask of God, that
giveth to aU men liberaUy, and upbraideth
not, and it shall be given hira."
But if wives, and other private Christiana,
be thua obliged, how rauch more the minia.
ters of the word : Oh ! that we could remem
ber our deep engageraent to hoUneaa pf life :
He aaid right, either teach none, or let your
life teach too, Naz. Cohelleth, anima con-
cion,atrix, [the preaching soul,] must the
preacher be, Eccl. i. 1, the word of Ufe spring.
ing from inward affection, and then vita con
cionatrix [the preaching life] will be added
The Sunday's sermon lasts but anhour or two,
but holiness of Ufe is a continued sermon all
tbe week long.
They also without the word may be won.]
The conversion of a soul ia an ineatimable
gain ; it ia a high trading and deaign to go
about. Oh ! the precioua aoul, but under
valued by mpst ! Will we believe Him that
weU knew the price of it, for he paid it, that
the whole visible world is not worth one soul,
the gaining it all cannot countervail that
loss ? Matt. xvi. 26. Thus wives, and hus
bands, and parents, and friends, if them
selves converted, would conaider aeriously,
and apply themaelvea to pray much that their
unconverted relationa, in nature dead, raay
be. enlivened, and they raay receive them
from death ; and eateem of nothing, reat in
no natural content nor gain without that
at least using incessant diligence in seeking
it, and their utraost akill and pains in it.
But above all, thia is the peculiar task of
ministers, aa the apostle often repeats it of
himself, 1 Cor. ix. ; all gains on earth are
baae in compariaon with thia ; a aoul con
verted ia gained to itself, gained to the pas
tor, or friend, or wife, or husband, that sought
it, and gained to .Teaua Christ ; * added to
hia treaaury, who thouglit not hia own pre
cious blood too dear to lay out for this gain.
VEn- 2. While they behold your chaste conversation
coupled with inAt.
As all graces are connected in their own
nature, so it is altogether neceaaary that they
be found so for the end here propounded, the
conversion of those that are atrangera to re.
ligion, and poaaeaaed with false notions of it,
and prejudicea againat it. It ia not tbe re
gularity of aome particular actiona, nor the
obaervance of aome duties, that it wiU aerve ;
* Me mal6 amando, me perdidi ; et te solum qiijE-
rendo et pur&, amando me et te pariter inveni. Tho.

[ciIAP. III.

but it is an even uniforra frame of life that
the apoatle here teaches Christian wivea, par
ticularly in reference to thia end, the gaining
or cpnversipn nf unbelieving huabands :
And this we have bpth in that word, their
conversation, which signifiea the whole course
and tract of their Uvea ; and in the particular
apecifying of the several duties proper to that "
relation and atate of life ; 1. Subjection ;
2. Chastity ; 3. Fe.-ir ; 4. Modesty in out
ward ornaments ; 5. The inward ornaments
of meekness and quietness of spirit.
The combination of these thinga makea up
such a wife, and the exercise of them through
out her life, makea up such a conversation,
as adorns and commends the religion they
profess, and ia a fit, and may be a success
ful, wean of converting the huaband, who as
yet professes it not.
Chaste conversation.] It is thtf proper
character of a Christian to study purity in aU
things, aa the word iyvh' in ita extent sig
nifiea. Ijet the world tum that to a reproach,
call thera aa you wiU, thia ia aure, that none
have leas fancy and presuraption of purity,
than they that have raoat deaire of it. But
the particular purencaa here intended ia, as
it ia rendered, that of chastity, aa the word
ia often taken ; it being a grace that pecu
liarly deaervea that name, as the sins contra
ry to it are usually and deservedly called
uncleanness. It is the pure whiteness of
the soul to be chaste ; to abhor and disdain
the swinish puddle of lust, than which there
is nothing that doth raore debase the excel
lent soul ; nothing that raore evidentiy draws
it down below itself, and makes it truly
bratiah. The three kinda of chaatity, in
virginity, maniage, and widowhood, are all
of them acceptable to God, and auitable to
the profession of a Christian ; therefore, in
general only, whatsoever be our condition of
Ufe, let ua in that way conforra it, follow the
apoatle's rule, posses.sing thoae our earthen
vessels, our bodies, in holiness and honour ;
by which there is expressed this same chas
tity. And this we shall do, if we righdy
remeraber our calling, as Christians, in what
sort of life spever ; as there he tells us, that
God hath not called us to uncleanness, but
unto holiness, 1 Thess. iv. 7-
With fear. ] Either a reverent respect to
their husbands, or the fear of God ; whence
flowa best both that and all other observance,
whether of conjugal, or any other Christian
duties. Be not preaumptuoua (as some) be-
cause you are chaate, but contemper your
converaation that way with a religious fear of
\ God, that you dare not take liberty to offend,
hira in any other thing ; and according to his
institutipn, let it be joined with a reverent
fear of your huabanda, ahunning to offend
them. But poaaibly thia fear doth parti
cularly relate to this other duty, with which
it is joined, chaste conversation with fear ;

VEII. 3, 4.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

149

fearing die least stain of chastity, pr the very
least appearance pf any tiling npt suiting
wilh it. It is a delicate timprpus grace,
afraid pf the least air pr shadpw of any thing
that hath but a resemblance of wronging it,
in caniage, or speech, or apparel, as foUows
in the 3d and 4th verses.
Vkr. 3. ¦Whose adorning, let it not be that outward
adorning of plailing the hair, and of wearing of
gold, or of putting on of apparel ;
Ver. 4. Butlet it be the hidden man of the hejirt,
in that which is not corruptible, even the orna
ment of a meek and quiet spirit, which is, inthe
sight of God, of great price.
That nothing may be wanting to the
quaUfying of a Christian wife, she is taught
how to dress herself: Supposing a general
desire, but especially in that sex, of orna
ment arid comeUness ; the sex, that began
first our engagement to the necessity of clpth.
rag, having stiU a peculiar prppensipn to be
curious in that, and to improve the necessity
to an advantage.
The direction here given conects the mis
placing of this diligence, and addresses it
right, i. e. Lei it not be of ihe outward
iian, in plaiting, Scc.
Our perverse crooked hearts turn all 'we
use into disorder. Those two necessities of
our Ufe, food and raiment, how few know
the right raeasure and bounds of them ! Un.
leaa poverty be our carver, and cut ua abort,
«ho, almoat, is there that is not bent to
something excessive ? Far more are behold
en to the lowliness of their estate, than to
the lowUness of their mind, for sobriety in
these things ; and yet aorae wiU not be so
bounded neither, but wiU profusely lavish
out upon trifles, to the sensible prejudice of
their estate.
It is not my purppse, npr dp I think it
very needful, to debate many particulars of
apparel and ornament ef the bpdy, their law-
fulnesa or unlawfulneaa : Only,
lst, It ia out of doubt, that, though cloth.
ing was firat drawn on hy neceaaity, yet aU
regard pf ccmeliness and pmament in ap.
parel is npt unlawful ; nor doth the appstle's
expression here, rightly considered, fasten
that uppn the adoming he here speaks of.
He doth no raore universaUy condemn the
uae of gold for ornament, than he doth any
other coraely raiment which here he means
by that general word of putting on of ap
parel, for his [not] is coraparative ; not
ihis adorning, but the ornament of a meek
spirit, that rather, and as rauch raore comely
and precipus : as that kupwn expressipn,
Hps. vi. ver. 6, / will have mercy and not
sacnfice. 2dly, Accprding tP the different place and
quality of persons, there may be difference
in this : Thus, the robes of judges and
princes are not only for personal ornament,,
but because there is in thera, especially to
vulgar eyes, that seldom look deeper than

the outside of things, there is, I say, in that
apparel, a representation of authority or
majesty, that befits their place : And besides
this, other persons that are not in public
place, men or woraen, that are here particu.
larly directed, yet may have in this sorae
raark of their rank ; and in persons pther.
wise Uttle distant, sprae allowance may be
made for the habits and breeding of some
beyond others, or the quality of their society,
and those with whom they converse.
Sdly, It is not irapossible that there may
be in aorae an affected pride in the raeanness
of apparel ; and in others, under either neat
or rich attire, a very humble unaffected raind ;
using it upon some of the aforementioned
engagements, or such like, and yet the heart
not at aU upon it.*
ithly. It is as sure as any of these, that
rea! excess and vanity in apparel wiU creep
in, and will always wiUingly convey itself
under the cloak of some of these honest and
lawful consideratipns. This is a prirae piece
pf pur heart's deceit, net pnly tP hpld put
fair pretences tp others, but to put the trick
upon ourselves, to make ourselves beUeve we
are right and single-minded, in those things
wherein we are directly serving our lusts and
feeding our own vanity.
dihty, To a sincere and humble Chris
tian, very little, either dispute or discourse,
conceming thia, will be needful; a tender
conacience, and a heart purged from vanity,
and weaned frora the world, wiU be sure to
regulate this, and all other things of this
nature, after the safest raanner ; and wiU be
wary, 1 . Of lightness and fantastic garb in ap
parel, which is the very bush or sign hang
ing out, that tells a vain mind lodges within.
2. Of excessive costliness, which both ar
gues and feeds the pride of the heart, and
defrauds, if not others of their dues, yet the
poor of thy charity, which, in God's sight, is
a due debt too ; and far more comfort shalt
thou have on thy death-bed, to remeraber
that such a time, instead of putting lace on
my own clothes, I helped a naked back to
clothing, I abated somewhat of my fonner
superfluities, to supply the poor's necessities ,
far sweeter will this be, than to reraember
that I could, needlessly cast out many pounds
to serve my pride, rather than give a penny
to relieve the poor.
As conscientious Christians will not exceed
in the thing itself ; so, in as far as they use
lawful ornament and coraeliness, they will
do it without bestowing much, either diU
gence or delight, in the busineaa.
To have the mind taken and pleased with
such things, is so foolish and childish a
thing, that if most m ight not find in theui-
* Magnus qui fictilibus utitur tanquam argento,
nee ille minor qui argento tanquam 'iictilibua
SM.v.

150

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CHAP. lib

selves, they would wonder at many othera. Cant. i. 10, 11, " Thy neck is coraely with

of years and common wit.* And yet truly it
ia a disease that few escape. It is atrange
upon how poor things raen and woraen wiU
be vain, and think themselvea aomebody ;
not only upon some comeUness in their face
or feature, which, though poor, yet is a part
of themselvea, but of things merely without
them ; that they are weU lodged, or well
mounted, or well appareUed, either richly or
wfcU in fashion. Light erapty rainds are as
bladders blown up with any thing ; and they
that perceive no. thia in theraselves are most
drowned ; but such as have found it out,
and abhor their own foUies, are stiU hunting
and foUowing theae in themaelvea, to beat
them out of their hearts, and to ahame them
from such fopperies. The aoul, faUen frora
God, hath lost its true worth and beauty ;
and therefore it basely descends to theae
raean things, tp serve and dreaa the bpdy,
and take share with it of its unworthy bor
rowed ornaments ; while it hath loat and for
gotten God, and aeeks not after him, knowa
not that He alone is the beauty and orna
ment of the spul, Jer. ii. 32, and hia Spirit,
and the grace of it, ita rich attire, here par
ticularly specified in one exceUent grace ;
and it holds true in the rest.
The apostle doth, indeed, expressly on
purpose check and forbid vanity and excess
in apparel, and excessive deUght in lawful
decorum, but his prime end is to recom.
mend the other omaraent of the soul, The
hidden man of the heart.
It is the thing the best philosophy aimed
at, as some of their chiefeat men dp expreaa
it, to reduce raen, aa much as raay be, frora
their body to their soul ; but this is the
thing that true reUgion alone doth effectually
and thoroughly; from the pampering and
feeding of a morsel for the worms, to the
nourishing of that iramortal being infuaed
into it ; which, therefore, it directa to the
proper nouriahment of souls, the bread thai
came down from heaven, John vi. 27.
So here the apostie puUs off from Chria
tian woraen their vain outside ornaments
But, is not this a wrong to spoil all their
dressing and fineness ? No, he doth this,
only to aend thera to a better wardrobe ; and
there ia much profit in the change.
AU the gold, and other riches of the tem
ple, figured the excellent graces of Chris
tians, of Christ indeed firat, as having aU
fulness in himself, and furnishing them ;
but aecondarily pf Christians, as the Uving
temples pf Gpd. Sp the church is all glo-
rious, but it is within, Psal. xiv. 13, And
the erabrpidery, the variety pf graces, the
lively colours of other graces, shine best on
the dark ground of humiUty. Chriat de
lighta to give rauch oniaraent to his church,
commends what she hath, and adds more,
* Non bis pueri, sed semper 1

chains ; we wiU raake thee borders of gold."
The particular grace he recommends, is
particularly suitable to his subject in hand,
the conjugal duty of wivea ; npthing so
much adorning their whole caniage, aa thia
meekness and quietness of spirit. But it
is, withal, the comeUneas of every Christian
in every state ; it is not a woraan's garment
or omaraent, improper for men. There is
soraewhat, (aa I raay aay,) of «- particular
cut or fashion of it for wives towards their
huabanda, and in their doraeatic affaira ; but
raen, aU men, ought to wear of the aame
stuff; yea, ao if I may apeak, of the aame
piece ; for it is in aU, one and the aame apirit,
and fita the stoutest and greateat command-
era. Moaea waa a great general, and yet
no less great in thia virtue the meekest man
on earth.
Nothing ia more uncomely in a wife than
an uncompoaed turbulent spirit, that is put
out of frame with every trifle, and inventive
of falae causes of disquietness and fretting
to itself. And ao in a husband, and in aU,
an unquiet passionate mind lays itaelf naked,
and discovers its own deforraity to aU. The
greatest part of things that vex us, do so,
not from their own nature or weight, but
from the unsettledneaa of our ' minds. *
How comely ia it to aee a compoaed finn
mind and- carriage, that is not lightly
moved !
I urge not a stoical stupidity ; but, that
in things that deaerve sharp reproof, the-
raind keep in ita own atation and seat atill,
not shaken out of itaelf, aa the moat are ;
that the tongue utter not unaeemly rash
words, nor the hand act any thing that dis
covers the raind hath lost its coramand for
the tirae. But truly, the moat know so iU
how to uae juat anger, upen just cauae, that
it ia easier, and the safer extrerae, not to be
*ugry, but still calra and serene, aa the upper
region ; not the place of continual tempeats
and storraa, aa the moat are ; let it pasa for
a kind of sheepiahneas to be meek, it is a
likeneas to Hira that " was aa a aheep be-
fore the ahearera, not opening hia raouth,"
laa. liii, 7 ; it ia a portion of His spirit.
The apostle coraraends his exchange of
ornaraents frora two thinga : 1. This ia in
corruptible, and therefore fits an incorrupti
ble aoul. Your varieties of jewels and rich
apparel are perishing things ; you shaU one
day aee an heap raade of all, and that aU on
a fiarae ; and in reference to you, they perish
aooner ; when death atrips you of your near
est garraent, your fleah, all the other, which
were but loose upper garraents above it, must
off too. It gets indeed a covering for the
grave, but the soul is left stark naked, if no
other clothing be provided for it, for the
body waa but bonowed: then it is made
? -Multa nos offendunt quae non laidur-t.

VKii, 5, 0, 7. 1

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

151

bare of aU. But spiritual ornaments, and
thia humility and meekness, here, among die
rest, reniain and are inconuptible ; they
neither wear out, nor out of fashion, but are
StiU the better for the wearing, aud ahall laat
to etemity, and ahine there in fuU lustre.
And, 2. Because the ppinipn pf pthers
is much regarded in matter of apparel, and
it is mpstiy in reapect to thia that we uae
omaraent in it, he teUa us of the account pf
this. Men think it poor and raean, nothing
more expoaed to contempt than the spirit of
meekness ; it ia raere folly with men, but
that ia no matter, tiiia overweigha all their
diaeateera, it is with God of great price,
and thinga are indeed aa he valuea thera,
and no otherwiae. Though it be not the
country fashion, yet it is the fasliipn at cpurt,
yea, it is the King's pwn faahion. Matt xi.
29, Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly,
&c. Some that are court-bred wiU aend for
the maatera of faahious, though they live not
in the court ; and though the peaaanta think
thera atrange dreaaea, yet they regard not
that, but uae them as finest and best : Care
not what the world say ; you are not to
stay long with thera. Desire to have both
fashions and stuff frora court, from heaven,
this spirit of meekness, and it shaU be sent
you. It is never right in any thing with us
till we attain to this, to tread on the opinion of
men, and eye nothing but God'a approbation.
¦ Ver. 5. For after this manner, in the old time,
* the holy women also, who trusted in Ood,
adorned thenistlves-
Vhr. 6. Kven as >arah obeyed Abraham, calling
him Lord, whose daughters ye are as long as ye
do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.
The apostle enforcea his doctrine by ex
ample, the raost compendious way of teach
ing ; hence the right way to uae the Scrip
tures, is to regulate our manners by them ;
as by their precepta, ao by examplea. Arid
for thia end it ia that a great part of it is
hiatprical. There ia net in the aainta a
tranamigration of aouls, but there ia, ao to
speak, an oneness of souls, they being in all
ages partakers of the self-same Spirit.
Hence the daughters of Sarah are called
pious and pbedient wives. Such'women are
here designed, 1. As holy. 2. Believing.
3. Firm and resolute, not afraid with any
amazement. Though by nature they are
fearful, yet rendered of undaunted spirits,
by a holy, clean, and pure conspience. Be
lieving wivea who fear God, are not terrified,
their minda are established in a due obedience
to God, and also towarda their husbands.
Ver. 7. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them
according to knowledge, giving honour unto the
wife as im:o the weaker vessel, find as being heirs
together of the grace of lii^e; that your prayers be
not hindered.
Your wives are subject to you, but you
Ukewiae are subject to this word, by which
aU ought, in aU stations, to be directed, and
bv which, however, aU shaU nne day be judg

ed ; and alike subject aa they, [Sficius,-]
parents as children, masters as aervants. and
kings as their subjects ; all held pf a Supe-
ripr ; and it is high treaspn against the Ma
jesty nf Gpd, fpr any, in any place pf cpm
mand, to dream of any unbounded absolute
authority, in opposition to Him.
A spirit of prudence or knowledge particu
larly suitable and relating to this subject, is
required, as the light and rule by which his
whole economy and caniage is to be guided.
It is required that he endeavour after that
civil prudence for the ordering of hia affairs,
that tends tp the gppd pf his faraily, but chief
ly a pipus reUgious prudence, for regulating
his mind and caniage as a Christian husband ;
that he study the rule of Scripture in this par
ticular, which many do not : neither advising
with it, what they shpuld dp, npr laying it
by refiectipn uppn their past actions, examin
ing by it what they have done. Now this
is the great fault in all practical things ;
moat know something of them, but inadver
tency and inconaideration, not ordering our
waya by that Ught, is the thing that apoila aU.
Knowledge is required in the wife, but
more eminently in ihe husband, as the head,
the proper seat of knowledge. It is poasible
that the wife may aometiraea have the advan
tage of knowledge, either natural wit and
judgment, or a great meaaure of underatand-
ing of apiritual thinga ; but thia atiU holds,
that the huaband ia bound to improve the
meaaure both of natural and of spiritual gifts
that he hath, or can attain to, and to apply
thera usefully to the ordering of hia conjugal
caniage, and that he understand hiraself ob.
Uged aomewhat the more, in the very notion
of a huaband, both to aeek after and to use
that prudence that ia peculiarly required for
his due deportraent ; and a Chriatian wife,
who ia raore largely endued, yet will shew all
due respect to the measure of wisdora, thcugn
it be less, that is bestowed upon her husband.
Dwell with them.] This indeed implies
and supposea their abiding with them, so
far as their .calling and lawful affairs permit :
But I conceive, that which it expressly raeans
is all the conversation and duties of that
estate, that they so behave theraselves, in
dwelling with thera, as becoraea menof know
ledge, wise and prudent husbands, which
returns thera usually the gain of that full re.
verence and respect that is due to thera, of
lirhich , they rob and divest themselves, who
are either of a foolish br trifling carriage, or
of too austere and rigid a converaation.
Giving honour unto the wife. ] This, I
conceive, ia not aa aorae take it, convenient
raaintenance, though that is a requisite duty
too, and may be taken in under this word ;
but it aeeraa to be, chiefly, a due conjugal
esteera of them, and respect to thera, the hus
band not vilifying and despising them, whicn
will be apt to grieve and exaaperate them ;

162

A COMME.NTARV UPON

[chap. hi.

not disclosing the weaknesses of the wife to
others, nor observing them too narrowly
hiraself; but hiding them both from othera
and his own eyes, by love ; not seeing them
further than love itself requires, that ia, to
the wiae rectifying of thera by mild advicea
and admonitions, that flow from love. And
to this the reasons indeed auit weU : It
Beeras at firat a little incongruoua, honour
becauae weaker : but the pertinency of it
appears, considering this kind of hpnour ;
not of reverence, aa auperior, for that is their
part, but such an esteem and respect without
which, indeed, love cannpt Gpnsist ; for we
cannot love that which we do not in some
good measure esteem weU of: And care
should be taken that they be not contemned
and sUghted, even because they are weaker ;
f'or, of all inj uries, conterapt is one of the most
smarting and sensible, especially to weak
persona, who feel most exactly the least touch
es of this ;* whereas greater spirits are a
little harder against opinion, and raore in
different for it. Some wives raay be of a
stronger raind and judgraent than the hus
bands, yet these rules respect the general
condition of the sexes, and speak of the fe
males as prdinarily weaker.
Again, Lpve, which is ever to be supposed
one article, and the raain one ; for nothing
indeed can be right where that supposition
proves false : Love, I say, auppoaed, thia
reason is very enforcing, that the weaker the
vessels be, the raore tenderly they ahould be
uaed, and the more a prudent paasiug by of
frailtiea ia needful ; there love will study it,
and beatow it the raore. Yea, thia tie, you
Know, raakea two one ; and that which is a
part of ourselves, the more it needs that, the
more comeliness we put upon it, as the a-
] o.sde St. Paul tells us, 1 Cor. xii. 23. And
this further may be considered, that there ia
a inutual need of thia honouring, that con
siats in not deapising, and in covering of
frailties, as ia even iraplied in this, that the
woman is not caUed siraply weak, but the
weaker ; and the huaband, that ia generaUy,
by nature's advantage, or should be, the
strpnger, yet is weak top ; for both are vessels
of earth, and therefore frail ; both poUuted
with sin, and therefore aubject to a raultitude
of ainful foUiea and frailties : but as that
particular frailty of nature pleads for women
that honour, ao the other reason added is
not from particular disadvantage, but from
their comraon privilege, and advantage of
grace, as Christians, that the Chriatian hua
band and wife are equally co-heirs of the
sarae grace of life.
As being heirs together of the grace of
life,] This is thatwhich raost strongly binds
on aU these duties, on the hearts of husbands
and wivt s ; and most strongly indeed binds
their hearts together, and makes them one.
* Oinne infirmum natura ([uerulum.

If each be recpnciled unto God in Chriat.
and ao heirs of life, and one with God, then
are they truly one in Gpd, each with pther ;
and that is the surest and sweetest unlpu
that can be. Natural lpve hath risen very
high in spme husbands and wives ; but
the highest of it falla very far short of that
which holds in God. Hearts concentring in
him are rapst exceUently one. That love
which is cemented by youth and beauty, when
these mpulder and decay, as soon they do,
it fades too. That is somewhat purer, and
SP more lasting, that hplds in a natural or
raoral harmony of minds, yet these Ukewise
may alter and change by some great accident.
But the most refined, most spiritual, and
most indissoluble, is that which is knit with
the highest and purest Spirit. And the
ignorance or disregard ef this is the true
cauae pf ao rauch bitterness, or ao little true
sweetness in the life of raeat manied perapns,
because Gpd ia left put, because they meet
npt as pne in him.
Heirs together.] Lpath will they be to
despise one another, that are both bought
with the precious blood of one Redeemer ;
and loath to grieve one another ; being in
him brought into peace with God, they wiU
entertain true peace betwixt themselves, and
not suffer any thing to disturb it. ' They
have hopes to meet one day, where is nothing
but perfect concord and peace ; they will
therefore live as heirs of that life here, and
majce their present eatate aa like to heaven '
as they can, and ao a pledge and evidence of
their tide to that inheritance of peace that
ia there laid up for them. And they wiU
not fail to put one another often in mind of
thoae hopea, and that inheritance, and mu
tually to advance and further each other to
wards it : Where this is not rainded, it is
to little purpose to apeak of other rulea ; where
neither party aspirea to this heirship, Uve
they otherwise as they wiU, there ia one cora
raon inheritance abiding thera, one inheri
tance of everlaating flaraes ; and, as they do
increaae the ain and guiltiness of one another
by their ineligipua converaatien, an that
which apme of them do wickedly here, upon
no great cause, they shaU have fiiU causs
for doing there ; cause tp curse the tirae pf
their coraing together ; and that shaU be a
piece pf their exercise fpr ever : But happy
thpse peraons, in any apciety pf raarriage pi
friendahip, diat converae ao together, aa those
that shaU live eternaUy together in glory.
This indeed ia the sura of aU duties.
Life.] A sweet word, but sweetest cf
aU in this sense, that life above is indeed only
worthy the name ; and thia we have here in
coraparison, let it not be called life, but con-
tinual dying ; an incessant journey towards
the grave. If you reckon years, it is but a
short raoment to him that' attains the fuUest
old age : But reckon miseries and sor-'ows,

VEH. 7.J

TilK FIRST EPI.STLK OF PETEU.

LW

it ia long to hira that diea young. Oh !
that this only bleaaed life were more known,
and then it would be more desired.
Grace.] This is the tenor of this heirship,
free grace ; this life a free gift, Rom. vi. ult.
No life so spotiesa either in maniage or vir
ginity as to lay claim to this life upon other
terma. If we conaider but a little what it
ia, and what we are, this wiU be quickly out
of question with us ; and we shall be raost
gladly content to hold it thua, by deed of
gift, and shall adraire and extol that grace
that beatowa it.
That your prayers be not hindered.] He
supposes in Christians, the necessary and fre
quent use of this ; takes it for granted, that
the heirs of Ufe cannot live without prayer.
This ia the proper breathing and language
of these heirs ; none of thera is durab, they
can aU speak. Theae heirs, if they be alone
they pray alone : if heirs together, and living
together, they pray together. Can the huaband
and wife have that love, wiadom and meek
ness, that may raake their life happy, and
that blessing that raay raake their affairs
succeaaful, while they neglect God, the only
giver of these and all good thinga ? You
think these needleaa raotives, but you cannot
think how it would sweeten your converae
if it were used. It ia prayer that sanctifiea,
seaaona and blessea aU ; and it is not enpugh
that they pray when with the faraily, but even
liusband and wife tpgether by themselves,
and with their children ; that they, especiaUy
the mpther, as being meat with them in
tlieir childhood, when they begin to be capa
ble, raay draw thera apart, and offer thera to
God, often praying with thera, and inatruct.
ing thera in their youth ; for they are pliable
while young, aa glass when hot, but after, wiU
sooner break than bend.
But above aU, prayer ia necessary ; aa they
are heira of heaven, they ahould be often
sending up their deaires thither. You that
are not rauch in prayer, appear as if you
looked for no more than what you have here.
If you had an inheritance and treasure above,
would not your hearts delight io be there ?
Luke xii. 34. Thus the heart of a Chris
tian is in the constant ftarae of it ; but after
a special manner, prayer raises the soul above
the world, and sets it in heaven : It is its near
access unto God, and dealing with him, ea.
peciaUy about those affairs that concem that
inheritance. Now in this Ues a great part
ofthe corafort a Christian can have here ; and
the apostle knew this, that he would gain
any thing at their hand, that he pressed by
this arguraent, that otherwise they would be
hindered in their prayers. He knew, that
they who are acquainted with prayer find
such unspeakable sweetness in it, that they
vUl rather do any thing t'nan be prejudiced
in that.
Now, the breach of conjugal love, tbe jars

and contentions of husband and wlte, do out
of doubt BO leaven and imbitter their sjiirita,
that they are exceeding unKt for prayer, which
is the aweet harmony of the soul in God's
ears ; and when the soul is so far out of tune
as those distempers make it, he cannot but
perceive it, whoae ear ia the most exact of aU ;
for he made and tuned the ear, and is the
fountain of harraony. It cuts the sinews
and strength of prayer, raakes breaches and
gaps as wounds, at which the spirits fiy out
as the cutting of a vein, by which, as they
speak, it bleeds to death. When the soul is
calm and coraposed, it may behold the face
of God shining on it ; and they that pray
together, should not only have hearts in tune
within themselves in their own frame, but
tuned together, especiaUy husband and wife.
that are one ; they should have hearts con
sorted and sweetly tuned to each pther fpr
prayer. So the v.'ord is, 'loiv irv/x(p-jjv^iri,jffiv.
Mat. xviii. 19.
And it is true, in the general, that all un
wary walking in Christians, wrongs their
coraraunion with heaven, and casts a damp
upon their prayers, so as to clog the wings
of it. These two mutuaUy help one another,
prayer and holy conversation : the more
exactly we walk, the more fit are we for pray.
er ; and the mere we pray, the rapre are we
enabled tp walk exactly ; and it is a happy
Ufe to find the conespondence of these two,
calling on the Lord and departing from
iniquity, 1 Tim. ii. 29. Therefore, that
you may pray much, live hoUly, and that
you may live holily, be much in prayer :
surely such are the heirs pf glory, and this
is their way to it.
Ver. 8. Finally, be ye all of one mind, having
CO I passion one of another ; love as brethren, be
pitiful, be courteous.
- Here the particular rules the apostle
gives te several relatipns, fall in again tp the
main current of his general exhortation, that
concerns us all as Christians. The retum
of his discourse to this universality is ex.
pressed in that, finally, and the universa
lity of theae duties, all. Itis neither pos.
sible nor convenient to descend to every par.
ticular ; but there is supposed in a Chris
tian an ingenuous and prudent spirit, to
adapt those general rules tp their particular
actions and conversation ; squaring by them
before-hand, and examining by thera after,
and yet herein the most fail : Men hear these
as general discourses, and let them pass so ;
they apply them not, or, if they do, it is
readily to sorae other person : But they are
addressed to aU, that each one may regulate
himself by them ; and so, these divine
truths are like a weU-drawn picture, which
lopks particularly upon every one araongst
the great multitude that lopk uppn it. And
thia one verse hath a cluster pf five Chris-

134

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. III.

tian graces or virtuea. That which is in
the middle, as the stalk or root of the rest,
love, and the other growing put of it, two on
each side ; unanimity and sympathy on the
one side, and pity and courtesy on the
other ; but we ahall take thera aa they Ue.
Of one mind.] Thia doth not only raean
union in judgraent, but it extenda Ukewiae
to affection and action ; eapeciaUy in so far
as they relate to, and depend upon, the
other. And so, I conceive, it comprehends,
in its fuU latitude, an harraony and agree
ment of minds, and affections, and caniage,
in Chriatiana, as making up one body, and
a serious study of preserving and increasing
that agreeraent in aU things, but especiaUy
in spiritual things, in which their coramu
nion doth primely consist. And because in
this, the consent of their judgments, in
matters of religion, ia a prime point, there
fore we will conaider that a little raore
• particularly. And first. What it ia not.
1. It is not a careless indifferency con.
cerning those things ; not to be troubled
about them at all, nor to make any judgraent
concerning thera. Thia ia not a loving
agreeraent, ariaing frora oneneas of spirit,
but a dead atupidity, arguing a total spirit-
leaaneaa ; as the agreeraent of a number of
dead bodies together, which indeed do not
strive and conteat, that ia, they raove not at
all, and that becauae they Uve not : So that
concord in tilings of religipn, which ia a not
considering thera, nor acting of the mind
about thera, is either the fruit and sign of
groaa ignorance, or of ineligion ; they that
are wholly ignorant of spiritual things, are
content you determine and impose upon
them what you will ; aa in the dark, there
ia no difference nor choice of colours, they
are all one : But, 2. which ia worse, in sorae,
this peaceableness about religion is frora an
univeraal unbelief and diaaffection ; and that
sometiraea comes of the much aearch and
knowledge of debatea and controversies in
religion. Men having so many disputes
about religion in their heads, and no life of
religion in their hearts, fall into a cpnceit,
that all ia but juggling, and the easiest way
ia, tp beUeve npthing ; and these agree with
any, nr rather with none. Soraetiraes it is
frora a profane, supercilious diadain of all
these things ; and raany there be of thoae of
Gallio'a teraper, that care for none of these
things, and that account all queations in
religion, as he did, but raatter of ^ords and
names. And by this aU religions raay agree
tpgether : But it were npt a natural union
by the active heat of the Spirit, but a con
fusion rather, by the want of it ; not a knit
ting together, but a freezing together, as cold
congregates all bodies, how heterogeneous
soever, sticks, stones, and water : But heat
makes first a separation of different thinga,

and then unites thoae that are of the aame
nature. And to pne pr pther pf these two is reduci
ble rauch ofthe comraon quietness of people's
minda about reUgion ; aU that implicit
Romish agreeraent that they boast of, what
is it, but a brutish ignprance pf spiritual
things, authprised and recoramended for that
very purpose ? And amongst the learned
of thera, there are as many idle differences
and disputes, as amongst any. Jt is an
easy way indeed to agree, if all wiU put out
their eyea, and foUow the blind guiding of
their judge of controveraiea ; thia is that
,roivffoipov <pi/.^f,iaxov, their great device for
Peace, to let the Pope deterraine aU. If aU
wiU reaolve to be cozened by hira, he wiU
agree thera all ; aa if the conaciencea of men
should only find peace, by being led by the
nose at pne raan's pleasure ; a way the apos
tle Paul clearly renounces, 2 Cor. i. 24,
" Not for that 't/e have dorainion over your
faith, but are helpers of your joy ; for by
faith ye stand."
And though we have escaped this, yet
much of our corampn unipn pf minda, I fear,
ia frpm np other than the aforeraentioned
cauaes, want of knowledge, and want of affec
tion to reUgion. Ypu that bpaat ypu Uve
conforraably to the appointmenta of the
Church, and none hears of your noise, we
raay thank the ignorance of your rainds for
that kind of quietness. But this unanimity,
here required, is anpther thing ; and befpre
I unfpld it, I shall premise thia, that al
though it be very difficult, and it may be
irappaaible, tp deterraine what things are
alpne fundaraental in reUgipn, under the
nptipn pf difference intended by that wprd ;
yet it is undpubted, that there be spme traths
mpre absplutely neceaaary, and therefpre ac
cprdingly mpre clearly revealed, than aome
others ; there are /^lyecXa too \o(j.cv, great
things of ihe law. Matt, xxxiii. 23, ' and ao
of the gospel : And though no p.^rt of divine
truth, once fully cleared, pught to be slight
ed, yet there are things that raay be true, and
yet are but pf less impprtance, and of less
evidence than pthers : And this difference
is wisely tp be conaidered by Chriatians, for
the interest of this agreement of minds here
recommended : and conceming it we raay
safely conclude,
1. That Christians ought tp have a clear
and unanimous belief of the raysteries and
principles of faith, to agree in those without
controversy. 2. They ought to be diligent
in the research of truth in all things that
cpncern faith and religion ; and withal to
use all due raeans for the fuUest consent and
agreeraent in them all that poasibly can be
attained. 3. Perfect and universal consent
in aU, after aU industry bestowed on it, for
any thing we know, is not here attainable,
neither betwixt all churches, nor all persons

vr:n. K.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

1.55

in one and the aame church : And tiierefore,
though church-meetings and aynoda, aa the
fitteat and moat effectual way to this unity,
should endeavour to bring the church to the
fuUest agreement that may be, yet they
should beware, lest the straining it too high
in aU things ratiier break it, and an over-
diligence in appointing uniformities, remove
thera further from it : Leaving a latitude
and indifferency in things capable of it, ia
often a stronger preserver of peace and unity.
But this by the way ; we will rather give
aome few rules that may be of use to every
particular Christian, toward this common
Chriatian good of unity of mind.
l5^. Beware of two extremea, that often
cauae diviaiona, captivity io custom, on the
one hand, and affectation of novelty, on the
other. 2dly, Labour for a staid mind, that will
not be tossed with every wind of doctrine,
Eph. iv. 14, or appearance of reason, as
some, that, Uke weathercocks, are eaaily
blOwii to any side, with mistakes of the
Scriptures, either ariaing in their own rainds,
or suggested By others.
Sdly, In unclear and doubtful things, be
not pertinacious, as the weakest minds are
readiest to be, upon aeeming reaaon, which,
tried, wUl poaaibly faU to nothing ; yet they
«re most aaaured, and cannot auffer a differ
ent thought in any from their own. There
vs naturaUy thia Popeneaa in every raan'a
inind, and raost, I say, in the ahalloweat ;
a kind of fancied infaUibility in tlieraselvea,
which raakes thera contentious, contrary to
the apostle's rule, Phil. ii. 3, " Let no
thing be done through strife and vain glory,"
and aS eamest upon differing in the sraaUest
punctiUo as in a high article of faith.
Stronger spirits are usuaUy rapre patient of
contradiction, and less violent, especiaUy in
doubtful things ; and they that see farthest,
are least peremptory in their deterrainatiena.
The apostle to Tiraothy, 2 Epist. i. 7, hath
a word, the spirit of a sound mind ; it is a
goad sound conatitution of raind not to feel
every blast, either of aeeming reason, to be
taken with it, or of a croaa opinion, to be
offended at it.
ithly. Join that which is there, ihe spirit
of love, in this particular. Not at aU abat
ing affection for every light difference, (and
thia the moat are a Uttle to blame in ;) where
aa the abundance of that should rather fiU
up the gap of these petty disagreements, that
they do not appear, nor be at all sensihly to
be found. No more disaffection ought to
foUow thia, than the difference of our facea
and complexions, or feature of body, which
cannpt be fpund in any two alike in aU things.
And these things would be of easier per
suasion, if we considered, 1. How supple
and flexible a thing human reason is, and
therefore not lightly to be trusted to, and

that especiaUy in divine things i for here we
know but in part, 1 Cor. xiii. 9. 2. The
small importance of sorae things 'that have
bred much noise and dissension in the world,
as the apostle speaks of the tongue. How
little a spark, how great a fire will it kindle,
•Tames iii. 5 ; and a great many of these
debates that cpst men sp ranch pain and
tirae, are as far frora clear decision as when
they began, and possibly of so Uttle raoment,
that, if they were ended, their profit would
not quit the cost. 3. Conaider the atrength
of Chriatian charity, that, if it dwelt much
in our hearta, would preserve thia union pf
mind, amidat very raany different thpughta,
audi as they may be, and wpuld teach ua
that excellent lesson, the apostle gives to
this purppse, Phil. iii. 15, 16, "Let us
therefpre, as raany aa be perfect, be thus
rainded : and if in any thing ye be pther
wise rainded, Ged shall reveal even this un
to you. Nevertheless, whereunto we have
already attained, let ua walk by the aarae
rule, let us raind the same thing." Let us
foUow our Lord unanimously, in what he
hath clearly manifested to us, and given us
with one consent to embrace ; as the spheres,
notwithstanding each one hath ita particular
motion, yet all' are wheeled about together
with the firat.
And that leada ua to conaider the further
extent of thia word, to agree in heart and
converaation, walking by the rule of thoae
undoubted trutha we have received : And
ill thia I ahaU recoraraend these two things
to you :
1. In the defence of the truth, aa the
Lord aliaU caU ua, let ua be of one raind,
and aU as one raan. Satan acta by thaf
maxira, and aU hia foUowers have it. Divide
and conquer ; and therefore let us hold that
counter-maxim, Union invincible.
2. In the practice of that truth agree as
one. Let your conversation be uniform, by
being squared to that one rule, and in all
spiritual exercises join as one, be of one
heart and mind. Would not our public
worship, think you, prove rauch raore both
comfortable and profitable, if our hearts met
in it as one, so that we could say of our
hearing the word, as he. Acts x. 33, We
are all here before God, io hear all things
thai are commanded of God ? And if our
prayers ascended up as one pillar of incense
to the throne of grace ; if they besieged it,
as an army, aU sunounding it together to
obtain favour for ourselves and the Church ?*
This is rauch with God, the consent of
hearts petitioning. -|- So says our Saviour,
Matt, xviii. 20, Where iwo or three are
gathered ; not their bodies within the same
walls only, fpr so they are but so many car
cases tumbled together ; and the promise of
? stipato agmine Deum obsidentes. Tertulj.
-t Fama est junctas fortius ire preces.

156

his being amongst us, ia not raade to that,
" for he ia the God of the living and not of
the dead," Matt. xxii. 32 ; it is the spirit
of darkness that abides in the torabs and
graves : but gathered in my name, pne in
that hply narae, written upon their hearta.
End uniting thera, and so thence expresaed
in their joint aervices and invocations. So
he saya there of them wlio agree upon any
thing ihey shall ask, iruuipcvncrooirty, if all
their hearta preaent and hold it up together,
if they make one cry or aong of it, that har
mony of their hearta shaU be sweet in the
Lord'a eara, and ahaU draw a gracioua
anawer out of hia hand. If ye agree, your
joint petitiona ahall be as it were an anest
or decree that ahaU atand in heaven, it shall
be done for them of my Father which is in
heaven. But alaa ! where is our agreement ?
The greatest part of hearts say nothing, and
othera with such wavering, and auch a jar.
ring harah noise, being out of tune, earthly,
too low set, that they spoil all, and disap.
point the anawers. Were the censer fiUed
with thoae united prayers heaven- „ arda, it
would be filled with fire earth-wards, against
the enemiea of the Church.
And in your private aociety, seek un
aniraously your own, and each othei's apiri
tual good ; not only agreeing in your affaira
and civil converse, but having one heart and
mind, as Chriatians. To eat and drink to
gether, if you do no more, is such aociety
as beaata may have ; to do theae in the
exceaa, to guzzle and drink intemperately
together, is a society worse than that of
beaata, and below them ; to diacourae to
gether of civil buaineas, ia to converae as
raen. But the peculiar converse, of Chris
tians in that notion, as bom again to ira
raortality, an unfading inheritance above.
is to further one another towards that, to
put one another in mind of heaven, and
things that are heavenly. And it is strange
that men that profeas to be Chriatiana, when
they meet, either fiU one another'a ears with
Ues and prpfane speeches, or with vanities
and trifles, or, at the best, with the affairs
of the earth, and not a word of those things
that should raoat ppssess the heart, and where
the raind shpuld be rapat aet, but are ready
to reproach and taunt any auch thing in
others : What I are you asharaed of Christ
and religion ? Why do you profess it then ?
Is there such a thing, think ye, as com
munion of saints ? If not, why do you say
vou believe it ? It is a truth, think of it
as you will ; the public rainistry wiU profit
little any where, where a people, or sorae part
of thera, are not this one, and do not live
together as of one raind, and use diligently
all due means of edifying one another in
their holy faith. How much of the primi
tive Chriatians' praise and profit is involved
in the v.'ord, they were together [ o/:iadufj,a.iev]

A COMaiENTARY UPON

[chap. Ill,

with one accord, with one mind, and so they
grew ; ihe Lord added to the Church,
Scc. Acts. ii. 1, 44, 47.
Consider, 1. How the wicked are one in
their ungodly designs and practices. " The
scales of Leviathan," as Luther expresaes
it, "are linked together; shall not the
Lord's foUowera be one in hira ? They
unite p underraine the peace of the Church ;
shaU LiPt the godly join their prayers to coun-
tennine thera ?"
2. There is in the hearts of aU the saints
ene apirit. How then can they be but one,
since they have the sarae purpose and joumey,
and tend to the same heme ? And why
shaU they not wal's together in that way ?
When they shall anive there, they shall be
fuUy one and of one mind ; not a jar, nor
difference ; all their harps perfectly in tune
to that one new song.
Having compassion.] Thia teatifiea, that
it ia not a bare speculative agreeraent of
opinions that is the badge of Christian unity;
for thia may accidentaUy be where there' is
no further union ; but that they are them-
aelves one, and have one Ufe, in that they
feel how it is one with another. There is a
Uving sympathy amongst them, as making
up one hody, animated with pne spirit ; fpr
that ia the reaspn why the membera of the
body have that mutual feeling, even the
most remote and distant, and the most ex.
ceUent, with the meanest : This the apostle
urges at large, Rom. xii. 4, and 1 Cor. xu.
14, 17.
And this lively sense is in every Uving
member of the body of Christ towards the
whole, and towards each other p.Trticular
part. This makes a Christian rejoice in the
welfare and good of another, as if it were his
own ; and feel their griefs and distresses, as
if hiraaelf were reaUy aharer in thera ; for the
word comprehends aU feeUng together, feel.
ing of joy as well as of grief, Heb. xiii. 3 ;
I Cor. xii. 26. And always where there is
most of grace, and of the Spirit of Jesus
Christ, there is most of this sympathy. The
apoatle St. Paul, aa he waa eminent in aU
grace, had a large portion pf thia, 2 Cpr, xi.
29. And if thia pught tp be in reference to
their outward condition, much raore in api.
ritual things, rejoicing at the increase and
fipurishing of grace in othera. That base
envy that dweUs in the hearta of rptten hy.
pecritea, that wpuld have all engrpaaed tP
themselves, arguea, that they mpve npt fur
ther than the cprapaas pf self; that the
pure lpve pf Gpd, and the sincere Inve pf their
brethren fiowing frora it, is not in them ;
but when the heart can unfeignedly rejoice
in the Lord's bounty to others, and the lustre
of grace in others, far outshining their own ;
truly it is an evidence, that what grace such '
an one hath is upright and good, and thai
the law of love is engraven ia liis heart.

VER. 8.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

I.'i7

And where that is, there will be likewise, on
the other side, a compasionate tender sense
of the infirmities and frailties of their bre.
thren. Whereas aorae account it a sign of
much advancement, and spiritual proficiency,
to be able tp sit in judgment uppn the qua
lifications and actions of othera, and to laviali
out aevere censures round about them ; to
aentence one weak and of poor abilities, and
another proud and lofty, and a third covetous,
&c. ; and thus to go on in a censor -like ma
gisterial strain. But it were truly an evi
dence of more grace, not to get upon the
bench to judge them, but sit down rather
and mourn for thera, when they are mani.
festiy and really faulty ; and for their or
dinary infirmities, tp cpnsider and bear thera.
These are the characters we find, in the
Scripturea, pf strpnger Christians, Rora. xv.
1 ; Gal. vi. 1. This hply and hurable syra
pathy arguea indeed, a atrpng Christian :
And nothing truly (as pne saya,) shews a
spi'ritual man so much, aa ihe dealing with
another man's sins.* Far wiU he be frora
the ordinary way of inaulting and trarapUng
upon the weak, or uaing rigpur .ind bitter
ness, even against sorae grosa falls of a Chria
tian, but will rather vent his compaaaion in
tears, than his passion in fiery railings : wiU
bewail the frailty of man, and our dangerous
condition in this life, amidst ao raany snares
and teraptations, and such strong and subtile
eneraies. 2dly, As this sympathy works ' towards
particular Christians in their several condi
tions, so, by the same reason, it acts, and
that more erainently, towards the Church,
and the pubUc affairs that concem its good.
And thia is it we find hath breathed forth
from the hearts of the saints, in fomper times,
in so many pathetical complaints and pray
ers for Zion. Thus, David, in his saddeat
timea, when he might aeem raost diappaable
tp forget other things, and be whoUy taken
up with laraenting his o^wn faU, Psal. li. yet,
even there, he leaves not out the Church, ver.
17, ^n thy good pleasure do good to Zion.
And thpugh hia heart were brpken all tp
pieces, yet the yery pieces cry np leaa fpr the
building of Jeraaalera'a wall, than for the
binding up and healing of itaelf; and in
that 122d Psalm, that seems to be the ex
preaaion of hif joy, being exalted to the
throne, and aitting peaceably on it ; yet he
atiU thua praya for ihe peace of Jerusa
lem-. And the penman pf that 137th Paalm
makes it an execrable pversight tp forget
Jerusalem, ver. 5, or to remeraber it coldly
or secondarily ; np leaa wiU serve him than
tp prefer it to his chief joy. Whataoever
else ia top or head of his joy, (as the word
is,) Jerusalem's welfare shall be its crown,
shaU be set above it. And the prpphet,
* Nil tam spirit'iakm virum indicat, quam pecc.iti
alieni Lractatio.

wheover it was, that wrpte that 102d Psalm,
and in it ppured put that prayer from an
affiicted soul, coraforts himself in this, that
Zion shall be favoured. My bones are con
sumed, Scc. " But it matters not what be-
comes of me ; let me languish and wither
away, provided Zion flourish ; though I feel
nothing but pains and troubles, yet thou
wilt arise and shew mercy to Zion : I am
content ; that satiafiea me," Paal. cii. 13.
But where ia now thia apirit of high aym
pathy with the Church ? Sure, if there were
of it in ua, it is now a fit time to exert it.
If we be not altogether dead, sure we ahall
be atined with the voice of those late atrokea
of God'a hand, and be driven to more hura
ble and eamest prayer by it. When wiU men
change their poor base grumblings about
their private concerns — Oh I what shaU I
do ? &c. into strong cries for the church of
God, and the pubUc deliverance of aU theae
kingdoraa from the raging aword ? But vile
aelfiahneaa undoes us, few or none looking
further ; if theraaelvea and theira might be
aecured, how raany would regard Uttle what
became of the reat ; as one aaid. When I
am dead, lei the world be fired : But the
Chriatian raind is of a larger sphere, and
looks not only upon raore than itself in pre
sent, but even to after times and agea ; and
can rejoice in the good to come, when itself
ahaU not be here to partake of it : Thua, it
is more dilated, and liker unto God, and to
our Head Jeaua Chriat. The Lord, aays
the prophet laaiah, Ixiii. 9, ira all his people's
affiiction was affiicted himself ; and Jeaua
Chriat accounta the aufferinga of his body, ihe
Church, his own ; Saul, Saul, why perse
cutest tliou me ? Acta ix. 4. The heel was
trode upon pn earth, and the Head crieth
from heaven, as sensible of it : and this, in
all our evila,'especially our apiritual griefs, is
a high point of comfort to ua, that pur Lord
Jesus is net insensible pf them. This em-
bpldens us tp complain ourselves, and to put
in our petitions for help to the throne of
Grace, through hia hand ; knowing that
when he preaenta them, he wiU apealc his
own sense of our condition, and move for us
as it were for himaelf, as we have it sweetly
expressed, Heb. iv. 15,16. Now aa it is our
comfort, so it ia our pattern.
Love as brethren.] Hence apringa this
feeling we speak of : I/ove ia the cause of
union, and union the cause of sympathy,
and of that unanimity mentioned before.
They that have the aame spirit uniting and
animating them, cannot but have the sarae
mind, and the aarae feelinga. And this
apirit is derived from that Head Christ ; s»
whom Chriatiana live, and move, and have
iheir being, their new and excellent being ;
and so living in him, they love hira, and ara
one in him ; They iire brethren, aa here the
word ia : their fraternity holds in him. He

1£8

A COMMENTAR-i' UPON

[CHAP. III.

is head of it : the first-born among many
brethren, Rora. viii. 29. Men are brethren
in two natural reapecta, their bodiea being
made of the aame earth, and their aoula
breathed ftom the same God. But thia
third fraternity, that ia founded in Christ,
ia far more exceUent, and more finn than the
other two ; for, being one in him, they have
there taken in the other two ; for that in hira
ia our whole nature ; he is the man Christ
Jesus ; but to the advantage, and it is an
infinite one, being one in him, we are united
by the Divine nature in him, who is God
blessed for ever, Rom. ix. 5 ; and this is the
highest, certainly, and the strongest union
that can be imagined. Now, this is a great
mystery indeed, aa the apostle aaya, Eph. v.
32, apeaking of this same point, the union
of Christ and hia Church ; whence their
union and communion one with another, that
make up that body, the Church, is derived.
In Christ, every believer is born of God ; is
his aon ; and ao they are not only brethren,
one with another, that are so born, but Christ
hiraaelf owns thera aa hia brethren : ^' Both
he whicii aanctifiea, and they who are sancti.
fied, are aU of pne ; fpr which cause he ia
not ashamed tp caU thera brethren," Heb. ii.
11. Sin brpke aU tp pieces ; raan frpm Gpd,
and nne frpra anpther. Christ's wnrk in the
wprld was union. Tp make up these breaches
he carae dpwn, and begun the unipn, which
was his wprk, in the wonderful uruon made
in his person that was to work it, made God
and man one ; and, as the nature of raan
waa reconciled ao, by what he perfonned,
the persona of men are united to God. Faith
makes them one with Christ, and he makes
them one with the Father ; and ftom these
reaulta this oneneas amongst themselves,
concentring and. meeting in Jeaus Christ ;
and, iu the Father, through hira, they are
made one together. And that this was his
great work, we raay read in hia prayer, John
xvii. where it is the burden and main strain,
the great request, he so reiterates, ihat they
may be one, as we are one, ver. 11 ; a high
compariaon, auch aa man durat not name,
but after him that ao wanants ua : And
again, ver. 21, " that they all raay be one,
as thou Father art in me, and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us ;" and so on.
So that certainly where this is, it is the
ground-work of another kind of friendahip
and love than the wprld ia acquainted with,
pr is able tp judge pf, and hath mpre wprth
in pne drachm ef it than aU the quintessence
cf civil pr natural affectipn can ampunt tp.
The friendships pf the wprld, the best pf
them, are but tied with chains of glass ;
bu'f this fraternal lpve pf Chriatiana ia a
gplden chain, bpth mpre precioua, and mere
strong and laating ; the other are worthless
and brittle.

The Christian owes, and pays, a general
charity and good-wiU to aU ; but peculiar
and intiraate friendship he cannot have, but
with such as cprae within the cpmpasa pf
thia fraternal lpve, which, after a special
raanner, flpws frpra Gpd and returns tp him,
and abides in him, and shaU remain untp
etemity. Where this love is, and abounds, it will
banish far away aU those dissensions and
bitternesses, and those frivolous raistakings,
which are so frequent araongst the most.
It wiU teach wisely and gently to admonish
one another, where it is needful : But, further
than that, it wiU pass by many offences and
faUings ; it will cover a multitude of sins,
(iv. of this Epist. and v. 8,) and wiU very
much sweeten society, and make it tndy
profitable ; therefpre the Psalraist calla it
beth good and pleasant thai brethren dwell
together in unity, it perfumes aU, as the
precipua ointments pf Aarpn refresh all, like
the dew of Herman, Ps. cxxxiii. 2, 3.
But many that are caUed Christiana are
not indeed of thia brotherhood, and there
fore no wonder they know not what thia love
means, but are either pf reatleaa unquiet
apirits, biting and devouring one another,
aa the apoatle apeaka. Gal, v. 15, or, at the
beat, pnly civilly amooth and peaceable in
their caniage, but rather acoraera than par
takers of this apiritual love and fraternity
are atrangera to Chriat, not brought into
acquaintance and union with him, and there
fore void of the Ufe of grace, and the fruits
of it, whereof thia is a chief one. Oh I bow
few ampngst multitudes that throng in, aa
we do here together, are indeed partakera of
the glorious liberty of ihe sons of God,
Rom, viii. 21, or ambitious of that high and
happy eatate 1
Aa for you that knpw theae things, and
have a pprtipn in them, that have your com-
munioti with the Father, andhis Son Jesus
Christ, (1 John i. 3,) I beaeech you adorn
your holy profeaaion, and testify yourselves
the disciples and the brethren of Jesus Christ
by thia mutual love. Seek to underatand
better what it is, and to know it more prac
ticaUy. Consider that source of love, that
"love that the Father hath bestowed upon
ua, in thia, that we ahould be called the aons
of God, 1 John iii. 1, and ao be brethren,
and thence draw more of thia sweet stream
of love. God is love, saya the apoatle, 1
Jphn iv. 8 ; therefpre, aure, where there is
mpst pf Gpd there is most of thia divine
grace, thia hply lpve. Lpok upon, and study
much, that infinite love of God and his Son
Jeaus Christ towards ua. He gave his only
begotten Son : The Son gave himself, he
aweetened hia bitter cup with hia tranacend,ant
love ; and thia he hath recpmmended tp pa,
that even as he loved us, so should we love
one another, John xv. 12. We know we

VEH. 8.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

159

cannot reach this highest pattem, that is
not meant ; but the raore we look on it, the
higher we shaU reach in this love, and shall
learn sorae raeaaure of such love on earth as
is in heaven, and that whicii so begins here
shall be perfected there.
Be pitiful, be courteous.] The roots of
plants are hid under ground, so that thera
aelvea are not aeen, but they appear in their
branches, and fipwera, and fruits, whicii
argue there ia a rppt and Ufe in them ; thus
tne graces pf the Spirit planted in the soul,
though theraselves inviaible, yet diacover
their being and Ufe in the tract of a Chria
tian's life, his words, and actiona, and the
frame of hia carriage. Thus f^ith shows
that it lives, aa the apostle St. James teach
eth at large, Jamea u. 14, &c. ; and thua
love ia a grace of ao active a nature, that it
ia StiU working, and yet never weary ; Your
labour of love, aays the apoatle, Heb. vi. 10.
It labours, but delight raakes the hardest
labour sweet and easy ; and so proper ia
action to it, that all action ia nuU without it,
1 Cor. xui. 1 — 3. Yea, it knits faith and
action together, and is the link that unites
them. Faith worketh, but it is by it, as
the apoatle teachea ua by love. Gal. v. 6 ;
so, then, where this rppt is, these fruits wiU
apring frpra it, and diacpver it, pity and
courtesy. They are pf a larger extent in their full
aphere than the preceding ; for, from a ge
neral love due tp all, they act tpwarda all, tp
raen, pr huraanity, in the general : And this
net frora a bare natural tendernesa, which
aofter coraplexions raay have, nor frora a
prudent raoral consideration of their own
poaaible faUing under the like or greater
calaraitiea, but out of obedience to God, who
requires this mercifulness in aU his children,
and cannot own thera for his, unlesa in thia
they reaerabie hira. And it is indeed an
evidence of a truly Chriatian mind, to have
much of this pity tp the miseries pf all,
being rightly principled, and acting after a
pipus and Chriatian raanner tPwarda the sick
and pppr, pf what cpnditipn spever ; yea,
most pitying the spiritual raisery of ungodly
men, their hardness of heart and unbelief,
and eamesdy wishing their converaion ; not
repining at the long auffering of God, '* aa
if thou wouldst have the bridge cut because
thou art over," as St. Augustin speaks, but
lunging rather to see thai long-suffering
and goodness of God lead them io repent
ance, Rora. ii. 4, being grieved to see men
mining theraselves, and diligently working
out their own destruction, going in any way
of wickedness ; (as Soloraon speaks of one
particularly,) " as an ox to the slaughter,
or a fool to the conection pf the stpcks,"
Prov. vii. 22. Certainly the ungpdly man
is an pbject pf the highest pity.
But there is a special debt of this pity to

these that we love as brethren in die Lord
Jesua ; theae are moat cloaely Unked by a
peculiar fraternal love. Their sufferings
and calaraities will raove the bowels that
have Christian affection within them. Nor
ia it an empty helpleas pity, but canies with
it the real coraraunication of our help to our
utraost power. [ill(r,ii'Xicyx"i.] Not only
bpwels that are moved themselve? with pity,
but that mpve their hand to succpur : For
by this wprd, the natural affectipn pf parents,
and the tenderer pf them, the mothers, are
expresaed ; who do not idly behold and be
moan their children being aick or distressed,
but provide all ppssible help ; their bowels
are npt pnly stirred, but dilated and enlarg
ed tpwards them.
And, if pur feeling bpwela and helping
hand are due tp aU, and particularly to the
godly, and we ought to pay thia debt in out
ward distresses, how much raore in their aoul
afflictiona ; the rather, becauae theae are
raoat heavy in themaelvea, and leaat under-
atood, and therefore least regarded ; yea,
aoraetiraea rendered yet heavier by natural
frienda, poaaibly by their bitter acoffs and
taunts, or by their slighting, or, at best, by
their raisapplying of proper helps and re
medies, which, as Unfit medicines, do rather
exaaperate the diaease : Therefpre, they,
that dp underatand and can be aenaible pf
that kind of wound, ought ao much the more
to be tender and pitiful towarda it, and to
deal mercifully and gently with it. It may
be, very weak things aometiraea trouble a
weak Chriatian ; but there is in the spirit of
the godly a hurable condescension leamed
frora Clirist, who hroke not the bruised
reed, nor quenched ihe smoaking flax.
Mat. xii. 20.
The least diificulties and scruples in a
tender conscience should not be roughly en
countered ; they are as a knpt in a silken
thread, and require a gentle and wary hand
tp Ipose thera.
Now this tendemess of bowels and inclina ,
tion to pity all, especiaUy Christians, and
thera especiaUy in their peculiar pressiirea,
ia not a weakneaa, aa some kind of spirits
take it to be ; this, even naturally, is a ge
nerous pity in the greatest apirita. Chriatian
pity ia not womanish, yea, it is more than
manly, it is divine : There is of natural pity
raoat in the beat and raoat ingenuous natures,
but where it is spiritual, it is a prirae liiiea
raent pf the iraage pf Gpd ; and the more
absolute and disengaged it'ia in regard of
thoae towards whom it acta, the more it is
like unto Gpd ; Ippking upon miaery as a
sufficient incentive of pity and mercy, with
out the ingredient of any other consideration.
It ia merely a vulgar piece of gopdneaa tp be
helpful and bountiful to frienda, or to such
as are within appearance of requital ; it is a
trading kind pf coraraerce that : but pitv and

160

A COM.1IENT.VRY UPON

[CHAP. III.

bounty, which need no inducement, but the
raeeting of a fit object to work on, where it
can expect nothing, save only the privilege
of doing good, (which in itself ia so aweet,)
ia God-like indeed ; like Him whp ia rich
in bounty without any neceaaity, yea, or
poasibility of retum from us ; for we have
neither any thing to confer upon him, nor
hath he need of receiving any thing, who ia
the spring of goodneaa and of being.
And, that we may the better underatand
Hira in thia, he is pleased to express that
his raerciful nature in our nptipn and lan
guage, by bowels of mercy and pity, Isa.
liv. 7, 8 ; and the stirring and sounding
pf them, Hps. xi. 8 ; and, Paal. ciii. 13, by
the pity of a father, and, laa. xlix. 15, by
that of a mother ; aa if nothing could be
tender and aignificant enough to expreaa hia
corapasisions. Hence our redemption, Isa.
Ixiii. 9, hence all our hopes of happiness.
The gracious Lord aaw hia poor creatures
undone by sin, and no power in heaven nor
in earth able to rescue thera but hia own
alone ; therefore hia pity waa raoved, and
his hand anawera hia heart ; his own arm
brought salvation, he aent the Deliverer
out of Zion to turn away iniquity from
Jacob, Rora. xi. 26. And in aU exigencies
of hia children, he is overcorae with their
coraplaints, and cannot hold out against their
moanings ; he may, aa Joseph, aeem strange
for a while, but cannot act that strangeneaa
long ; his heart raoves and sounds to theirs,
givea the echo to their griefa and groans, as
they say of two strings that are perfect uni
sons, touch the one, the other also spunds.
Surely I have heard Ephraim bemoaning
himself, Scc. Is Ephraim a dear Son ?
Scc. ver. xxxi. 19. Oh ! the unspeakable
privilege tp have hira for our Father, who
is the Father of mercies and compassions,
and those not baneri fruitless pityings, for
he is withal the God of all consolations.
Do not think that he can shut out a bleed.
ing soul that comes to him, and refuse to
fake, and to bind up, and heal, a broken
heart, that offers himself to hira, puts itself in
to his hand, and entreats his help. Doth he
require pity of us, and doth he give it to us,
and ia it not infinitely more in himaelf ? All
that ia in angels and raen is but an insensi
ble drop to that ocean.
Let us then consider both that we are
obliged to pity, especially our Chriatian
brethren, and to use all raeans for their help
within our reach ; to have bowels stirred
with the reports of such bloodsheds and
cruelties as come to our ears, and to bestir
ourselves, according to our places and power,
for Ihem ; but aure aU are to move thia one
way, for their help, to run to the throne of
grace : If your howels sound for your bre
thren, let them sound that way for thera, to
represent their eatate to Him that is high

est, both in pity and power ; for he expects
to beremembranced by us ; he put that office
upon his pepple tp be his recerders fpr Zion,
aud they are traitors to it, that neglect the
discharge of that trust.
Courteous,] The former relates to the
afflictions of others, this tp pur whole car
riage with them in any condition : And yet
there is a particular regard of it in communi-
eating gcod, supplying their wants, or com
forting them that are distressed ; that it be
not done, pr rather, I may say, undone in
doing it, with such supercilious roughnest,
venting itaelf either in looks or words, cr
any way that sours it, and destroys the very
being of a benefit, and tums it rather into
an injury. And, generaUy, the whole con
versation of men is made unpleasant by cyni
cal harahneaa and diadain.
This courteousneaa, which the apoatle re-
commenda, is not contrary to that evil only
in the auperfice and outward behaviour : no,
religion doth not prescribe, nor ia aatisfied
with such as goes no deeper than words and
gestures, which sometimes is raost contrary
to that singleness which religion owns.
These are perhaps the upper garments pf
raaUce, saluting him aloud in the morning,
whora they are undermining aU the day.
Or sometimes, though more innocent, yet,
it may be, trpublesome, merely by the vain
affectation and excess of it ; and even this
becomes not a wise raan, much leaa a Chris
tian : An over-study or acting of that is a
token of emptiness, and is below a solid
mind ; though they know auch things, and
could out-do the studiers of it, yet they (as it
indeed deserves) do despise it. Nor is it that
graver and wiser way of external plausible
deportment that answers fully this word ; it
is the outer-half indeed ; but the thing is
[tpiXoip^oirvv/]] a radical sweetness in the
temper of the mind, that spreads itself into
a man's worda and actions : And this not
merely natural, a gentle kind diapoaition,
which is indeed a natural advantage that
some have, but this is spiritual, from a new
nature descended from heaven, and ao in ita
original and nature it far excela the other,
auppliea it where it ia not in nature, and
doth not only increaae it where it is, but ele
vates it above itself, renews it, and sets a
more exceUent atamp upon it. Religion is
in thia raistaken aoraetiraes, in that men
think it imprints an unkindly roughneaa and
auaterity upon the mind and caniage. It
doth indeed bar and banish all vanity and
lightness, and aU compliance and easy par.
taking with sin. Religion strains and quite
breaka that point of false and injurious
courteay, to suffer thy brother's aoul to mn
the hazard of periahing, and tp share of his
guiltiness, by not admonishing hira after
that aeaaonahle, and prudent, and gentie
manner, (for that indeed should be studied,^

VKlt. 9.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

161

which becoraes thee as a Christian, and that
particular respective raanner which becoraes
thy atation. Theae things rightly qualify
ing it, it doth no wrong to good raanners
and the courtesy here enjoined, but is truly
a part of it, by due admonitions and re
proofs, to seek to reclaim the sinner ; for it
were the worst unkindneaa uot to do it.
" Thou ahalt not hate thy brother ; thou
ahalt in any wiae rebuke thy brother, and
not auffer sin upon him," Lev. x'x. 17.
But that which is true lovingneaa of heart
and caniage, religion doth not only no way
jirejudice, but you aee requires it in the rule :
and where it ia not wrought in the heart,
works and causes it there ; fetches out that
crookedneaa and harahness that is otherwiae
invincible in aome humours, * Isa. xi. 6,
Makes ihe wolf dwell with the lamb. This
Christians should study, and belie the pre
judices of the world, that they take- up
against the power of godliness ; should
study to be inwardly so minded, and of such
outward behaviour, as becomes that Spirit
of grace that dwella in them ; to endeavour
to gain thoae thai are without by their kind
obliging converaation.
In some copies it ia [Ta-crti^otp^sjii]
humble : and indeed, as this ia excellent in
itself, and a chief character of a Chriatian,
it agrees well with all those mentioned, and
canies along with it this inward and real,
not acted courteousness. Not to insist on it,
now, it gains at all hands, with God and
with men ; receives much grace from God,
and kiUs envy, and commands respect and
good will from men.
Those showers of grace that slide pff
ftom the lofty mountaina, reat on the vallies,
and raake thera fruitful. He giveth grace
to the lowly, Jara. iv. 6 ; loves to beatow it
where there ia moat room to receive it, and
most return of ingenuous and entire praises
upon the receipt :. And auch ia the humble
heart ; and, truly, aa much humility gaina
rauch grace, ao it growa by it.
It ia one of the world's reproachea againat
thoae that go beyond their aize in religion,
that they are proud and aelf-conceited :
Chriatians, beware there be nothing in you
justifying thia. Sure, they that have raoat
true grace are leaat guilty of it. Comraon
knowledge and gifts may puff up, but grace
doea not.
He whom the Lord loada moat with hia
richeat gifta, atoopa lowest, aa pressed down
with the weight of them ; -|- the free love of
God humbles that heart most to which it ia
moat manifested.
And, towards men, it graces aU grace and
all gifta, and glorifiea God, and teaches
others so tp dp. It is the preserver of
* Emollit mores nee sinit esse feros-
\ Ille est qui siqierbire nescit cui Deus ostendit
iTiis&ricurdijim suam.

graces : ' Sometiniea it seems to wrong
them, Oy hiding them ; but indeed it is
their safety. Hezekiah, by a vain ahewing
of -hia jewela and treasures, forfeited them
all, f 2 Kinga xx. 12.
Ver. 9. Not rendering evil for evil, -or railing for
railing: but contrariwise blessing: kaowing that
ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a
blessing.
Opposition helps grace both to raore
strength and raore luatre. When Chriatian
charity is not encountered with the world's
malignance, it hath an eaaier taak ; but, aa.
aaulted and overcoming, it shines the
brighter, and rises higher : And thus it is
when it renders not evil for evil.
To repay good with evil, is, amongst
raen, the top of iniquity ; yet this is our uni.
versal guiltiness towards God, he raultiply-
ing mercies, and we vieing with multiplied
aina; as the Lord complains of Israel, as
they were increased, so ihey sinned. The
lowest step of mutual good amongst men,
ia, not to be bent to provoke othera with in
juries, and, being unpffended, to offend none.
But thia, not to repay offences, nor render
evil for evil, ia a Christian'a rule ; and yet
further, to return good for evil, and bless
ing for cursing, ia not only counseUed, (as
aome vainly distinguish,) but commanded,
Matth. V. 44.
It ia true, the most have no arabition for
thia degree of goodneaa ; they aapire no
further than to do or sjiy no evil unprovoked^
and think theraselves sufficiently just and
equitable,, though they go no f'urtiier : But
dds is lame ; itia only half the rule. Thou
thinkest injury obliges thee, or if not so,
yet excuses thee to revenge, or at least dis
obliges thee, unties thy engagement of wish
ing and doing good : but these are all gross
practical enors. For,
1st, The second injury done, by way of
revenge, differs from the first that provoked
it, little or nothing, but only in point bf
time ; and certainly no one man's sin can
procure privilege to another to sin in that,
or the like kind. If another hath broken
the bonds of hia allegiance and obedience
to God, and of charity to thee, yet thou art
not the less tied by the same bonds still.
2dly, By revenge of injuries thpu usurp
est upon God'a prerogative, whoia the aveng
er, as the aposde teaches, Rora. xii. 19.
Thia doth not forbid either the magistrate's
aword for juat punishment of offendera, or
the soldier's sword in a ust war : but such
revenge as, without authority, or a lawful
call, the pride and perverseness of men do
multiply one against another : In which is
involved a presumtuoua contempt pf Gpd,
and his suprerae authority, or at least the un.
belief and' neglect of it.
* Conservatrix virtutum.
t I'rodendo perdidit. L

162

A COMi\Ii:NTARY UPON

[chap, hi.

Sdly, It cannot be genuine upright
goodness that hath its dependence upon the
goodneaa of others that are about us. They
say of the vain-glorious raan, his virtue lieth
in the beholder's eye : And, if thy meekness
and charity be such as lieth in the good and
mUd caniage of others towards thee, in their
hands and tongues, thou art not owner of it
iutrinaically : Such quiet and calra, if none
provoke the'e, is but an accidental uncertain
ceaaation of thy turbulent apirit unatined ;
but move it, and it exerta itself according to
its nature, it sends up that mud that lay at
the bottora : Whereaa true grace doth then
most manifest what it is, when those things
that are most contrary sunound and assault it.
It cannot conespond and hold garae-with
injuries and railings ; it hath no faculty for
that, for answering evil with evil. A tongue
inured tp gracipusness, and raild speeches
and blessings, and a heart stpred sp within,
can vent np pther, try and stir it as ypu wiU.
A Christian acts and speaks, npt accprding
tp what others are towards hira, but accord
ing to what he is through the grace and Spi
rit of God in hira. As they say, quicquid re
cipitur, recipitur ad modum reeipientis : the
sarae things are differently received, and work
differently, as the nature and way is of that
ifhich receives thera : A little spark blows
updone of a sulphureous teraper ; and many
coals, greater injuries and reproachea, are
quenched and loae their force, being thrown
at another of a cool spirit, aa the original
expression is, Prov. xvii. 27.
They that have raalice, and bitterness,
and cursings within, though those sleep, it
may be, yet, awake thera with the like, and
the provision coraes forth out of the abun
dance of ihe heart ; give them an iU word,
and they have aiipther, or two for one, in
readiness for you ; where the soul ia furnish
ed with spiritual blessings, there blessings
come forth, even in answer to reproaches and
indignities. The mouth of the wise is a
tree of life, says Soloraon, Prov. x. 11, it
can bear no other fruit, but according to its
kind, and the nature of the root. An honest
spiritual heart, pluck at it who wiU, they can
pull no other fruit but auch fruit. Love and
meekness lodge there : and therefore, who
ever knocks, these raake the answer.
Let the world account it a despicable sira
plicity, seek you stiU raore of that dove-like
spirit, the spirit of meekness and blessing. It
is a poor glory to vie in raiUngs, to contest
in that faculty, or any kind of vindictive re
tums of evil ; the most abject creatures have
abundance of that great spirit, as fooUsh
poor-spirited peraons account it ; " but it ia
the glory of man to, paaa by a transgression,"
Prov. xix. 11; this is the noblest victory,
and, to excite us to aspire after it, we have,
aa we mentioned, the highest example. God
is our pattern in love and corapassions ; we

are well wananted to endeavour to be like
him in this. Men esteem much more of
aorae other virtuea that raake more shew, and
traraple upon these, love, and corapassion,
and raeekness : But though these violets
grow low, and are of a dark colour, yet they
are of a very sweet and diffusive smeU ;
odoriferous graces ; and the Lord propounds
himself our example ia them. " To love
them that hate you, and bless thera that curse
you, it ia to be traly the children of your
Father, your Father which is in heaven, for
he raaketh his sun to rise on the evil and on
the good," &c. Matt. v. 44, 45, and ver.
48 ; it is a kind of perfection, " Be ye there-
fpre perfect, even as ypur Father which is in
heaven ia perfect." Be ypu like it, howao.
ever men behave themselves, keep you your
course, and let your benign influence, aa you
can, do good to all. And Jeaus Chriat aeta
in hiraaelf these thinga before us. Learn of
me, not to heal the sick, or .raise the dead,
but learn, for I am meek ard, lowly iri heart,
Alatt. xi. 29. And if you be his followers,
this is your way ; as the apostle here addeth,
hereunto are you called, and this is the end
of it, agreeable to the way, ihat you may
inherit a blessing.
[EiYcTi; Sri] [Knowing that.] Under
standing aright the nature of your holy caU
ing, and then considering it wisely, and con-
forraing to it.
They that have nothing beyond an exter
nal calling and profession of Chriatianity,
are whoUy blind in thia point, and do not
think what thia iraports, a Christian. Could
they be drawn te thia, it were much, it were
indeed aU, to know to what they are called,
and to anawer to it, tp walk like it : But as
one caUs a certain sort of lawyers, indoctum
doctorum genus, we may caU the moat, an
unchristian kind of Christians.
Yea, even they that are real partakers of this
spiritual and effectual call, yet are much to seek
in this; whereaa they should be often viewing
their rule, and laying it to their life, their
hearts, and words, and actions, and aquaring
aU these by it ; should be pften asking them
aelvea, Suita thia my caUing ? Ia thia like a
Christian ? It ia a main ppint in any civU
atatipn, tp have a auitable cpnvenient car
riage to a man'a atation and condition, that
hia actiona becorae him :* But how many
incongruities and solecisms do we commit,
forgetting ourselves, who we are, and what
we are caUed to ; to what as our duty, and
to what as our portion and inheritance ? And
these, indeed, agree together, we are called
to an undefiled, (chap. i. of this epistie, ver.
4.) a holy inheritance, and therefpre likewise
to be holy in our way to it, -for that contains
aU. We are caUed to a better eatate at home,
and caUed to be fitted for it, while we are
here; to an inheritance oflight. Col. i. 12,
* Caput artis est decere quod facia&

VER. y.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

Ul,'i

and therefore to wa.k as children of light,
Eph. V. 8, and so here to blessing, as our
inheritance, and to blessing, as our duty ;
for this [lis rovro, thereunto] relates to both,
looks back to the one, and forward to the
other, the way and the end, both blessing.
The fulness of this inheritance is reserved
till we come to that land where it lieth ; there
it abideth us : But the earnests pf that ful
ness of bleasing are bestowed on us here,
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in
Christ, Eph. i. 3 ; they descend from those
heavenly places upon the heart, that precious
name pf pur Uord Jesus poured on our
hearts. If we be indeed interested in him,
(as we pretend), and we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesua Chriat, we are
put in ppssessipn pf that blessing pf fprgive-
ness pf sin, and are in terms pf lpve and
amity with the Father ; being recpnciled by
the blood of his Son, and then blessed with
the anointing of the Spirit, the graces infused
from heaven. Now all these do ao cure the
bitter accuraed distempers of our natural
heart, and so perfume it, that it cannot well
breathe any thing but sweetnesa and bleaaing
towarda othera ; being itself thua blessed pf
the Lprd, it echpea bleasing bpth tp God
and men, echoes to his bleaaing of it ; and
ita worda and whole carriage are as a smell
of a field that the Lord hath blessed, aa old
laaac said of his son's garments. Gen. xxvii
27. The Lord having spoken pardon to a
soul, and instead of the curse due to sin
blessed it with a title to glory, it easily and
readily speaks pardon, and not only pardon,
but blessing also even to theae that outrage it
mpst, and deserve wprst of it ; reflecting still
on that, " Oh ! what deserved I at my Lord's
hands ! When so many talents are forgiven
me, shall I stick at forgivirig a few pence?"
And then caUed to inherit a blessing :
So is every beUever an heir of blessing ;
and not only are the spiritual blessings he
hath received, but even his largeness of bless
ing others ia a pledge to him, an evidence of
that heirship. Aa thoae that are bent to
curaing, though provoked, yet may look upon
that aa a sad mark, that they are heira of
a curse, Paal. cix. 17, 18, " Aa he loved
curaing, ao let it come unto him,  into
his bowels like water, and like oil unto his
bonea." And shaU they not that delight
in cursing, have then enough of it, when they
shaU hear that doleful word. Go, ye cursed,
&c. ? And on the other aide, as for the aons
of blessing, that spared not to any, the bless
ing they are heirs to, is blessedness itself, and
they are to be entered into it by that jpyful
speech. Come, ye blessed of my Father, Scc.
Men can but bless pne another in good
vishes, and the liord in praises, and ap
plauding to his bleasedneaa ; but the Lord's
blessing is really making blessed ; an opera.
tive word, which brings the thing with it.

Inherit a blessing, ] Not called to be ex.
erapted-frora troubles and injuries here, and to
be extoUed and favoured by the world ; but,
on the contrary, rather to suffer the utmpst pf
their malice, aud to be the raark of their
anows, of wrongs, and scoffs, and reproach
es. But it matters not, this weighs down
aU, you are called to inherit a blessing,
which all their cursings and hatred cannot
deprive you of. For as this inheriting of
bleaaing binda on the duty of bleasing others
upon a Chriatian, ao it encpuragea to go
through the hardeat contrary meaaure they
receive from the worid. If the world ahould
bless you, and applaud you never so loudly,
yet their blessings cannot be called an in
heritance ; they fly away, and die out in the
air, have no substance at aU, rauch less that
endurance that may make the main inheri
tance.* And more generally, is there any
thing here that deaerves to be so caUed ? The
surest inheritances are not raore than for
term of life to any one raan ; their abiding
is for others that succeed, but he remuves ;^
and when a man is to remove from aU he hath
posaeased and rejoiced inhere, then fool indeed
if nothing be provided for the longer (O !
how much longer) abode he muat make
elaewhere. Will he not then bewail his
raadness, that he was hunting a shadpw
all his life-tirae, and raay be turned nut of
aU hia quiet ppssessipns and easy dwelUng
befpre that ? And in these tiraes we may
the rapre readily think pf this : But at the
utraost, at night, when he should be for
most rest, when that sad night comes after
this day of fairest proaperity, the unbelieving,
unrepenting ainner Uea down in aonow, in a
woeful bed ; then rauat he, whether he will
or no, enter tp the ppaaeaaion of thia inheri-
tance of everlaating buminga. He hath au
inheritance indeed, but he had better want
it, and himself too be turned to nothing.
Do you believe there are treasures, that
neither thief breaks into, nor ia there any
inward moth to corrupt them. Matt., vi. 20;
an inheritance, that, though the whole world
be tumed upaide down, is in no hazard
of a touch pf daraage ; a kingdom, that not
pnly cannpt fall, but cannot be shaken .>
Heb. xii. 28. O ! be wise, and consider
your latter end, and whatspever you do, •
look after thia bleaaed inheritarice. Seek to
have the right to it in Jeaus Chriat, and the
evidencea and seals of it from his Spirit ;
and if it be so with you, your hearts will
be upon it, and your lives wiU be Uke it,
Vbii. 10'. For he that will love life, and aee gmvl
days, let hitn refrain his tongue from evil, and his
lr[)S that they speak no guile.
The rich bounty of God diffuses itself
* Qui thesaurum tuum alieno in ore constltui:,
ignoras quod area ista non clauditur ?
t Si hsec sunt ve-stra, tollite ea vobiscum. S. Be rh

164

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CMAP JII

throughput the world upon all ; yet there i the main outlet of the thoughts of the heart,
ia a aelect nuraber that hath peculiar bless- 'and the mean of aociety amongat men in all
inga of hia right hand, which the reat of , affaira civil and apiritual; by which men
the world ahare not iu ; and even as to com. j give birth to the conceptions of their own
mon blesainga, they are differenced by a pe-^ minda, and seek to beget the like inthe
culiar title to thera, and sweetneaa in thera : rainda of othera. The bit that ia here made
their bleaaings are blessings indeed, and en- j for men's mouths, hath these two halves that
tirely so outside and inside, and more so : make it up : 1 . To refrain from open evil
within than they appear v,fithout ; the Lord speaking ; 2. From double and guileful

hiraself is their portion, and they are his.
This ia their bleaaedneaa, which in a low
estate they can' chaUenge, and so outvie aU
the painted prosperity of the world. Some
kind of bleaaings do abundantly run pver upon
others ; but the cup of blessings belongs
into Ihe godly by a new right from heaven,
graciously confened upon them. Others
are sent away with gifts, (as they apply
that paasage. Gen. xxv. 5, 6,) but the in
heritance is Isaac's ; they are called to be the
sons of God, and are like him, aa hia chil
dren, in goodneaa and bleaainga. The in
heritance of bleaaing ia theirs alone, called,
says the apostle, to inherit a blessing ; and
aU -the promiaea in the great charter of both
Teataraenta run in that appropriating atyle,
they are entailed to thera, aa the only heirs.
Thus, this ia fitly translated, frora the one
Testament to the other, by the apoade for
his present purpoae, He that will love, ^c.
Paal. xxxiv. 13, 14.
Consider, 1. The quaUfication required.
2. The bleasing annexed and ascertained to
it ; the scope being to recoraraend a rule
so exact, and for that purpose to propound a
good so important and desirable, as a auf
ficient attractive to atudy, and conforra to
that rule.
The rale is, all of it, one straight line,
running through the whole track of a godly
man'a life ; yet you aee clearly that it is not
cut asunder intleed, but pnly marked intp
four ; whereof the two latter parcels are some-
what longer, raore generally reaching a man's
ways ; the two forraer particularly regulat
ing the tongue.
In the ten worda of the law that God de
livered in SP singular a manner, both by
word and writ, from hia own mouth and
hand, there be two, that, if not wholly, yet
moat especially and most expreaaly concem
the tongue, as a very considerable, though
a amaU part of raan ; and of theae four worda,
here are two bestowed on it.
The aposde St. Jaraes ia large in thia,
teaching the great concernraent of thia point.
Ft is a little member (aaya he), but hoast
eih great things. Jam. iii. 5, it needa a
strong bridle : And the bridling of it makea
much for the ruling the whole course of a
man's life, as he there applies the reaem
blance; yea, he givea" the skill of this as the
very character cf perfection. And if we con
sider it, it must indeed be of very great con
sequence how we uae the tongue, it being

speaking. From evil.] This is a large field, the evil
of the tongue : But I give it too nanow a
narae ; we have good wanant to give it a
much larger ; a whole universe, a world of
iniquity. Jam. iii. 6 ; a vast bulk of evUs,
and great is the variety of thera, as of coun
triea on the earth, or creaturea in the world ;
and multitudea of auch are venomous, and
full of deadly poison, and not a few, mon.
aters, new prodiictiona of wickedness, sem
per aliquid novi, aa they aay of Africa.
There be in the daily discpuraea of the
greateat part of men many thinga that be.
long to thia world of evil, and yet paas un.
auapected : so that we do not think them tp
be within ita compasa ; not uaing due diU.
gence and exactneas in our diacoveriea of
the several parts of it, although it is aU with.
in ouraelve.s, yea, within a araaUpart of our
aelves, pur tpnguea.
It were too quick a fancy to think to travel
over this world of iniquity, the whole circuit
of it, in an hour, yea, or so much as to aim
exactly at aU the parts that can be taken of
it in the smallest raap : But sorae of the
chief we would particularly take notice of,
in the several four parts of it ; for it will
without constraint hold resemblance in that
division with the other, the habitable world.
1. Profane apeech, that which ia grossly
and manifestly wicked ; and in that part
lie, 1. Impious speeches, that directly reflect
upon the glory and name of God ; blasphe
mies, and oatha and curainga, of which there
ia so great, so laraentable abundance amongst
us ; the whole land overapread and defiled
with it; the cprarapn noiae that meeta a
man, in atreeta and houses, and almoat in all
piacea where he coraea : And to theae join
thoae that are not uucoraraon amongat us
neither, acoffa and raocking at religion, the
power and atrictness of it, not only by the
grosser sort, but by pretenders to sorae kind
of gopdneaa ; for they that have attained to
a aelf-pleaaing pitch of civility, or formal
religion, have usually that point of presump
tion with it, that they raake their own aize
the model and rule to exaraine all by. What
is below it, they conderan indeed aa profane ;
but what is beyond it, they account need
less and affected preciseness : And therefore
are as ready as othera to let fly invectives or
bitter taunta against it, which are the keen
and poisoned shiifts of the tongue, and a per
secution that shall be called Lu a strict ac-

VEH. 10.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETKK.

165

count. 2. Impure or filthy speaking, which
either poUutes or offends the hearers, and
is the noisome breath of a rotten polluted
heart. 2. Consider next, as another grand part
ofthe tongue, uncharitable speeches, tend
ing to the defaming and disgrace of others ;
and these are likewise of two aorta ; 1. Open
railing and reproachea. 2. Secret slander
and detraction. The former is unjust and
cruel, but it is soraewhat the leaa danger
ous, becauae open. It ia a fight in plain
field ; but, truly, it is no piece of a Chris
tian's warfare to encounter it in the aame
kind. The sona of peace are not for thoae
tongue combata ; they are often, no doubt,
set upon so, but they have another abler way
of overcoming it than by the uae of the
same weapon ; for they break and blunt the
point of ill reproachea by meekneas, and
triumph over cursings with more abundant
blessing, as ia enjoined in the former worda,
which are aeconded with these out of Paal.
xxxiv. 13, 14. But they that enter theliata
in this kind, and are provided one for ano
ther with enraged rainds, are uaually not un
provided of wcapona, but lay hold on any
thing that coraes next,* aa your drunkards
in their quarrels, in their cups and pota, if
they have any other a[eat reproach, they lay
about them with tha^aa their sword ; but
if they want that, true or untrue, pertinent
or impertinent, aU ia one, they cast out any
revilinga that corae next to hand. But there
is not only wickedness, but aomething of
baaeneaa, in these kinds of confiicts, that
makes them more abound amongst the baaer
aort, and not ao frequent with such as are
but of a more civil breeding and quality than
the vulgar.
But the other, of detraction, is more uni
versal araongst aU sorts, aa being a far eaaier
way of raiachief in this kind, and of better
conveyance. Railings cry out the raatter
ojietily, but detraction works aU by surprises
and stratageras, and raines under ground,
and therefore is rauch raore pernicious. The
forraer are, as the arrows that fly by day,
but this, as the pestilence that walketh in
darkness, as these two are raentioned to
gether in Paal. xci. 5, 6 ; it spreada and in
fecta aecretly and inaensibly, is not felt but
in the effects of it ; and it works either by
caluranies altogether forged and untrue, of
which raalice is inventive, or by the advan.
tage of real faults, of which it is very dis
cerning, and these are stretched and aggra.
vated tp the otraest. It is npt expresaible
hpw deep a wpiind a tpngue sharpened tp
this work will give, with a very little word
and little noiae, as a razor, aa it is caUed
in Paal. Ui. 2, that with a araall touch cuta
very deep, taking thinga by the worst handle,
wliereaa charity will try about aU wiya for
* Furor arma minlstr-it.

a good acceptation and aenae of things, and
takea all by the beat. Thia pest ia atill kill.
ing aome, alraost in all companies ; it cast.
eth down many wounded, aa it ia aaid of
the strange woman, Prov. vii. 26, and they
convey it under fair prefacing of comraenda.
tion ; ao giving them poiaon and wine, both
that it raay pasa the better and penetrate the
more. Thia is a great sin, that the Lord
ranks with the first, when he sets them in
order against a raan, Psal. 1. 20, Thou sit
test and speakest against thy brother.
3. Vain fruitless speeches are an evil of
the tongue ; not only those that they call
harmless lies, which aorae poor people take
a pleasure in, and trade much in, light buf.
fooneries and foolish jestiiigs, but the great.
est part of those discourses which men ac.
count the blameless entertainment one of
another, come within the compasa of this
evil, frothy, imaavoury atuff, tending to no
purpoae nor good at aU ; effectless words,
[ii^yoi] as our Saviour speaks, Matt. xii.
36, of which we muat render account in
the day of judgment, for that very reason.
They are in thia world of evil, in the
tongue ; if no other way ill, yet iU they are,
aa the Arabian deaerts and barren sands, be.
cause they are fruitless.
5. Doubleness and guile, so great apart,
that it -is here particularly naraed apart,
though the evil of it is leaa known and dis
cerned ; and so there ia in it, as I raay say,
much teri'a incognita : Yet it is of a very
large compass ; we raay confidentiy say, as
large as all the other three together. What
of men's apeech ia not manifestly evil in any
of the other kinda, is the raost of it naught
thia way : speech, good to appearance, plau
sible and fair, but not upright ; not silver,
but silver dross, as Solpmpu calls it, burn
ing lips, Scc. Prov. xxvi. 23 : Each alraost,
some way or other, speaking falsehood and
deceit to his neighbour, and daring to act
this faculty with God in his services, and
our protestations of obedience to hira. Re
ligious speeches are abused by some in hy
pocrisy, as holy vestments, for a mask or dis
guise, doing nothing but compiassing him
about with lies, as he complains of Ephraira,
Hos. xi. 12 ; deceiving indeed ourselves,
while we think to deceive him who cannot
be deceived, and will not be mocked, Psal.
xvii. 1, and Gal. vi. 7- He saw through
the disguises and hypocrisy of his own peo
ple, when they came to inquire at him, and
yet atiU entertained their heart-idols, as he
tells the prophet, Ezek. xiv. 3.
The sina of each of ua, would we enter
into a strict account of ourselves, would be
found to ariae to a great aura in thia kind ;
and they that do put themselvea upon the
work of aelf-trial, find, no doubt, abundant
raatter of deepeat humbling, though they
had no more, even in the sin of their lips,

1C6

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CilAP. irl

and are by it often astonished at the Lord's
patience, considering hia hplinesa ; as Isaiah
cried out, laa. vi. 5, having aeen the Lord in
a glorious vision, this, in particular, falls
upon hia thoughts concerning himaelf and
the people, polluted lips, woe is me, Scc.
.4.nd, indeed, it ia a thing the godly raind
cannot be aatisfied with, to make meriiion
of the Lord, tiU they he touched with a
coal from the heavenly fire of the altar ;
and they especially that are caUed to be the
Lord's raessengers, wiU say as St. Bernard,
" Had the prophet need of a coal to unpollute
hia Upa, then do the ministers require totum
globum igneum, a whole globe of fire." Go
through the land, and see if the sins of this
kind will not take up much of the bill against
us, which the Lord seems now to have taken
into hia handa and to be reading, and about
to take order with it, becauae we wiU not.
Wpuld we aet ouraelvea to read it, he would
let it faU. Ia it not because of oatha that
ihe land mourns, or I ara aure, hath now
high cause to mourn ? fllockinga at the
power of godliness fiy thick in most congre
gations and societies. And, what is there
to be found alraost but rautual detractions
and supplantings of the good name of ano
ther, and tongues taught to speak lies, Jer.
ix, 4, 5, and that /rome, or sew, and weave
iogether deceits, aa it ia in Paal. 1. 19 ?
And even the godly, aa they raay be aubject
to other aina, so may they be under sorae
aegree of this : and too raany are very rauch
subject, by reaaon of their unwatchfulneaa,
and not staying theraaelves in this point,
though not to profane, yet to vain, and, it
may be, to detractive speeches ; sometiraes
poasibly not with maUcioua intention, but
out of an inadvertence of thia evil, readier to
stick on the failings pf raen, and it raay be
pf other Christians, than to consider, and
coraraend, and foUow, what is laudable in
thera, and it raay be in their best discourses,
not endeavouring to have hearta in a becom
ing raanner, purged frora aU guile and aelf-
ends. Oh ! it is a thing needs much diU
gent atudy, and ia worth it aU, to be tho
roughly sincere and unfeigned in aU, and
particularly in those thinga. Our Saviour's
innocence is expresaed ao. In his mouth was
found no guile, chap. ii. of thia Epiat. v. 22.
But, to add something for reraedy of
thoae evil.s, in sorae part discovered ; for to
vanquish the world of evils is a great con
quest :
1. It raust begin at the heart, otherwise
it wiU be but araountebank cure, a false im
agined conquest. The weights and wheels
are there, and the clock strikes according to
their motion. Even he that speaks contrary
to what is within him, guilefully cpntrary tp
hia inward conviction and knowledge, yet
fpeaks conformably to what is within him,
in the temper and frame of his heart, which

ia double, a heart and a heart, as the Paal-
miat hath it, (Paal. xii. 2.) A guileful
heart makea a guileful tongue and Upa. It
is the work-liouae, where is the forge of de-
ceits and slanders, and other evil apeakinga ;
and the tongue is only the outer shop where
they are vended, and the lips the door of it ;
80 then auch ware as is raade within, auch
and no other can be aet out. From evil
thoughts, , evil-apeakings ; from a profane
heart, profane worda ; and from a maUcious
heart, bitter or calumnious words ; and from
a deceitful heart, guileful words, well var
nished, but lined with rottenness. And so
in the general, from the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh, as our Saviour
teaches. Matt. xii. 34. That which the
heart is full of, runs over by the tpngue : If
the heart be fuU of God, the tongue wiU
delight to speak of hira ; rauch pf heavenly
things within will sweetly breathe fprth apme-
thing of their amell by the raouth ; and if
nothing but earth ia there, aU that man'a
diacourae will have an earthly ameU ; if no
thing but wind, vanity, and foUy, the speech
wiU be airy, and vain, and purpoaeleaa. Com
pare Paal. xxxvii. 30, 31, with Psal. xl.
8, 9, Thy law, says David, is in my heart,
or, aa the Hebrew phraae ia, in ihe midst of
my bowels ; and that, as from the centre.
sends forth the lines ^nd rays of suitable
words, and / will not, cannot refroAn, as
there it is added, / have preached righteous
ness : lo, I have not refrained ; so no mote
can the evil heart refrain the tongue from
evil, as is here directed. The tongue of ihe
righteous, says Splpraon, is as fined silver,
but the heart of the wicked is little worth,
Prov. A. 20. It makes the antithesis in the
root : his heart is Uttle worth, and there
fore his tongue has no silver in it : He mav
be worth thousands, (as we speak,) that is
indeed in his chests or landa, and yet him
aelf, his heart, and aU the thoughts of it, not
worth a penny.
If thou art inured to oaths or cursing, in
any kind or fashion of it, taking the great
name of God anywise in vain, do not favour
thyaelf in it as a small offence. To excuse
it by custom, ia to wash thyaelf with ink ;
and to accuae thyaelf deeper, that' thou art
long practised in that ain. But if thou
wouldeat indeed be deUvered frora it, think
not that a aUght diaUke of it, (when reprov
ed) wiU do. Seek for a due knowledge of
the majeaty of God, and thence a deep re.
verence of hira in thy heart ; and that wiU
certainly help that habituated evU of thy
tongue. It wiU quite alter that bias that
the custom thou speakest of hath given it ;
will cast it in a new mould, and teach it a
new language ; wiU tum thy regardless abuse
pf that narae, by vain paths and aaaeveratinna,
intp a holy frequent use of it in prayers anil
praises. Thou wilt npt then dare to di.<.

VER. 10-]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

ICJ

honour that blessed narae, that aaiuts aud
angels bleaa and adore, but wiU aet in with
thera to bleaa it.
None that know the weight of it wiU dally
with it and lightly lift it up, (aa that word
of taking in vain in the command aignifiea :)
they that do cpntinue tp lift ii up in vain,
as it were, to aport themaelvea with it, will
find the weight of it falUng back upon them,
and craahing them to piecea.
In Uke manner, a purified heart will un
teach the tongue all filthy impure apeeches,
and wiU give it a holy atrain ; and the apirit
of charity and humility will banish that raia-
chievous humour, that sits ao deep in the
raoat, of reproaching and diagracing othera
in any kind, either openly pr aecretly. Fpr
it ia wicked aelf-lpve, and pride of heart.
whence those do spring, searching and dis
closing the failings of others, on which love
wiU rather cast a raantle to hide them.
It ia an argument of a candid ingenuous
raind, to delight in the good natrie and coin.
mendation of others ; to pass by their defects,
and take notice of their virtues ; and to
speak and hear of thoae wiUingly, and not
endure either to apeak or hear of the other :
for in thia indeed you may be Uttle leaa guilty
than the evil apeaker, in taking pleasure in
it though you speak it not. And this ia a
piece of men'a natural perveraeneas, to drink
in tales and calumnies ;* and he that doth
thia wiU readily, from the deUght he hath
in hearing, slide inaenaibly into the humour
of evil-apeaking. It ia atrange how the moat
dispense with theraselves in this point, and
that in no societies almost shaU we find a
hatred of thia ill, but rather aorae tokena bf
taking pleasure in it ; and until a Christian
aet hiraself to an inward watchfulneaa over
hia heart, not auffering in it any thought that
ia uncharitable, or vain aelf-esteera, upon the
sight of othera' frailties, he wiU still be sub
ject to somewhat of this, in the tongue, pr
the ear at least. Fpr the evil of guile in the
tpngue, a sincere heart, truth in the inward
parts, powerfuUy redreaaea ; therefore, Psal.
XV. 2, it ia expressed, that speaketh ihe truth
from his heart, and it ia added, backbiteth
not with his tongue, nor taketh up a re
proach against his neighbour ; thence it
flowa. Seek rauch after thia, to apeak nothing
with God, nor raen, but what is the sense
of a aingle unfeigned heart. O sweet truth 1
excellent but rare sincerity ! He that loves
that truth within alone can work it there ;
aeek it of Hira.
2dly, Be cautious in the choice of your
spciety. Sii not with vain persons, Paal.
xxvi. 4, whpae tpngues have npthing else tp
utter but impurity, pr inalice, or foUy. Men
readily learn the dialect and tone ofthe people
araongat whom they live. If you sit down

seat with them, you shall quickly take a share
of their diet with them ; and sitting amongat
thera, take your turn in tirae of speaking with
them in their own language : But frequent
the company of grave and godly peraons, in
whoae hearta and lips, piety, and love, and
wisdom, are aet, and it ia the way to leam it.
Sdly, Use a Uttle pf the bridle in the
quantity pf speech,* incline a Uttle rather tp
sparing than lavishing, fpr in many words
there wants not sin. That flux pf the
tpngue, that prating and babbUng disease, is
very comraon ; and hence so many imperti.
nencies, yea, so many of these worse ills in
their discpurses, whispering about, and in
quiring, and censuring this and that. A
childish delight ! and yet most raen cany it
with them aU along, to speak of persons and
tilings not concerning us.-]- And this draws
men to speak raany things that agree not
with the rules of wisdom, and charity, and
aincerity. He that refraineth his lips is
wise, saith Solomon, Prov. x. 19. A ves
sel without a cover cannot eacape unclean-
neaa ; and rauch might be avoided by a Uttle
refraining of thia ; much of the infection and
ain that ia occasioned by many babbUngs
that are usual ; and were it no worae, ia it
not a aufficient evil, that they waste away
that time, precioua time, that cannot be re
covered, that the raoat just or raoat thankful
raan in the world cannot restore ? He thai
aparea apeech, favours his tongue indeed,
aa the Latin phrase is [favere Unguis,] not
he that looses the r'eina and leta it run. He
may ponder and pre-exaraine what he utters,
whether it be profitable and aeaaonable or
no ; and ao the tongue ofthe just is as fined
silver, Prov. x. 20 ; it is refined in the wise
forethought and pondering of the heart, ao
ia his advice, Bis ad limam priusquam se
mel ad linguam. Even to utter knowledge
and wise things profusely holds not of wis
dora ; and a little usuaUy makes moat noiae,
as the Hebrew proverb is, A penny in an
earthen pot keeps a great sound and tink
ling.:!^ Certainly it is the way to have
much inward peace, to be wary in this point.
Men think to have solace by rauch free un
bounded diacourae with pthera, and when
they have dpne they find it otherwiae, and
aoraetiraea contrary. He ia wise that hath
leamed to apeak little with pthers, and rauch
with hiraself, and with God. How much
might be gained for our soula, if we would
make a right use of this silence ! So David,
durab to raen, found his tongue to God,
Paal. xxxviii. 13, 15. A apirituaUy raind
ed man is quickly weary of other discourse,
but of that which he lovea, and wherewith.

Xeo^ts TO T siVsiV jraXXfll xxi ra. y^ai^ia.
jEschyl.
+ OySsw o'vTui n^u ro7s av^^uvrotf. us t» Aa-

in the chair of the scorners, if you tate a ^^-^ ^^ o^xx^r^ia.
* Obtrectatio et livor primis auribus accipiuntur. | % Stater in lagena bis bis damat.

ISli

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. Ill

his affection ia possessed and taken up :
Grave asstimant quicquid illud non sonat
quod intus amant. And, by experience, a
Christian wiU find it, that when the Lord is
pleased to ahew hira most favpur in prayer,
pr Pther spiritual exercise, how unsavoury it
raakes other diacouraes after it ; as they that
have tasted soraethiiig singularly sweet,
tliinlc other thinga, that are leas aweet, al.
together tasteless and unpleasant.
ithly, In the uae of the tpngue, when
thoa dpat speak, divert it frpm evil and
guile, by a habit of, and delight in, profit
able and gracious discourse ; thus St. Paul
makea the opposition, Eph. iv. 29. Let
there be no rotten communication, (^trav^h
Xoyos') and yet urgea not total ailence nei
ther ; but enjoins auch apeech " as may
edify and administer grace to-the hearera."
Now, in thia we should conaider, to the
end such discouraea may be more fruitful,
both what is the true end of thera, and the
right means suiting it. They are not only,
nor principally, for the learning of sorae new
things, or the canvassing of debated quea
tions, but their chief good is the warning of
the heart ; stirring up in it love to God, and
remembrance of our present and after eatate ;
our m'ortality and iraraortality, and extolling
the waya of holiness, and the promiaea and
coraforta of the goapel, and the excellency of
Jesus Chriat ; and in theae aoraetiraea on;
particular, aoraetiraea another, aa our parti
cular condition requires, or any occasion
raakea thera pertinent. Therefore, in theae
discourses, seek not so rauch either to vent
thy knowledge, or to increase it, as to know
mpre spirituaUy and effectuaUy what thou
dost know. And, in thia way, those mean
despised trutha, that each one thinka they
are sufficiently seen in, will have a new aweet-
neaa and use in them, which thou didst not
so weU perceive before, for these flowera can.
not be aucked dry, and in this humble ain.
cere way, thou shalt grow in grace and in
knowledge too.
There ia no sweeter entertainment than
for traveUers to be remembering their coun
try ; their blessed home, and the happiness
abiding thera there, and refreshing and en
couraging one another in the hopes of it ;
strengthening their hearta against aU the
hard encounters and difficulties in the way ;
often overlooking this moraent, and helping
each other to higher apprehensions of that
vision of God, which we expect.
And are not auch discourses rauch more
jporthy the choosing, than the base trash we
usually fill one another's ears withal ? were
our tonguea given to ua to exchange folly
and ain ? or were they not framed for the
glorifying of God, and therefore are caUed
our glory ? Sorae take it for the soul ; but
t'^ey iiuiat be one in this, and then indeed
are both our tonguea and souls truly our

glory, when they are biiaied in exalting hia ;
and are tuned together to that, " That my
glpry may aing praiae tp thee, and npt be
silent," Pail. xxx. 12. Inatead pf calum-
niea, and liea, and vanitiea, that are the car.
ripn which base rainda, Uke fliea, feed pn,
to deUght in divine thinga, and extoUing of
Ood, ia for a man to eat angels' food. An
excellent taak for the tpngue that David
chooseth, Paal. xxxv. 28, " And my tongue
ahaU apeak of thy righteousness, and of thy
praise, aU the day long." Were the day
ten in one, np vacant rppm fpr any unholy,
or offensive, or feigned speech. And they
lose not, who love to speak praise to him,
for he loves to speak peace to them ; and
inatead of the world'a vain-tongue liberty,
to have auch intercourae and discourse ia no
aad melancholy life, aa the world miatakea it.
Ver. 11. Let him eschew evil, and do good; let
him seek peace, and ensue it.
This ia a fuU and coraplete rale ; but
thia is our raiserable foUy, to mistake ao far,
aa to embrace evil in the notion of good ;
and, not only contrary to the nature of the
thing, but contrary to pur pwn experience,
StiU tp be purauing that which ia atill flying
farther off frpra us, catching at a vanishing
shadpw of deUght, with nothing to fasten
upon but real guiltiness and misery. Childiah
minds ! we have been so often guUed, and
yet never grow wiaer ; atiU bewitched and
deluded with dreama ; a deceived heart (a
mocked or deluded heart) hath turned him
aside, Isa. xliv. 20, &c. When we think
we arc aurest, have that hand that nolda
fasteat, our right hand, upon aom.e good, and
now sure we are aped ; even then it proves a
lie in our right hand, alipa through^ aa a
handful of air, and proves nothing ; promiaea
fair, but doth but mock us, (as the same
word is used by Jacob, Gen. xxxi. 7, ex
pressing the unfaithfulnesa of. hia uncle that
changed hia wagea ao often,) but atill we
fopUahly and madly trust it. When it
makes sp gross a lie, that we might easily, if
we took it to the light, aee thrpugh it, being
a Ue so often diacovered, and of known false
hood ; yet some new dream pr disguise
makes it paaa with us again, and we go
round in that miU, having our eyes put out,
(as Sarason,) and atiU we are where we were,
engaged in perpetual fraitleaa toil. Strange !
that the baae deceitful luata of ain should
StiU keep their credit with us I but the beast
hath a false prophet at his side. Rev. xix.
20, to commend hira, and set him off with
new inventions, aud casises us to err by his
lies, as it is said of the false prophets, Jer.
xxiii. 32. But evil it is still, not only void
of aU good, but the very deformity and de
baseraent of the soul; defacing in it the di
vine iraage of its Maker, and impressing on
it the vUe image of Satan, and then, fur-

vr.r- 11.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

109

.ther, it is attended with shame and sonpw,
even at the very best ; it is a sowing of the
wind, there is nu spUd gppd in it, and with
al a reaping of the whirlwind, vexatipns,
and bprrors, Hos. viii. 7- They that know
it in the sense of thia after- view,, attended
with the wrath of an pffonded Gpd, aak them
what they think pf it : if they wpuld npt in
dipae thpughta rather chppae any trpuble or
pain, though ever ao great, than wiUingly to
adventure on the waya of ain.
•Obedience ia that gppd, that,beauty, that
comeUneas pf the soul, that conformity with
the holy wiU of God that hath peace and
sweetneaa in it; the hardest of. it is truly
delightful even at present, and hereafter it
shaU fully be so. Would we leam to con-
aider it thua, to know .sin to be the greateat
evil, and the holy will of God the higheat
good, it would be eaay to persuade and pre
vail with raen to coraply with this advice, to
eschew the one, and do the otiier.
These do npt pnly reach the actipna, but
require an intrinaical aversion of the heart
from ain, and a propenaion to hoUness and
the love of it.
Eschew.] The very motion and bias of
the soul must be turned frora sin, and car
ried towarda God. And thia is principaUy
to be considered by ua, and inquired after
within us ; an abhorrence of that which is
evil, as the acripture apeaka, Rora. xii. 9 ;
not aimple forbearing, but hating and loath
ing it, and this springing from the love of
God, Ye ihat love the Lord, hate evil, Paal,
xcvii. 10 ; ypu wiU do ao, cannot chooae
but do ao, and ao raay know that love to
Hira to be upright and true.
And where this ia, the avoidance «f ain,
and walking in hoUness, or doing good, will
be, 1. More constant, not wavering with the
variation of outward circumstances of occa
sion, or society, pr secrecy ; but gping pn in
its natural course, as the sun is as far frora
the earth, and goes as fast, under a cloud as
when it ia in our aiglit ; and goea cheerful
ly, because from a natural principle ; re
joiceth as a strong man to run, Psal. xix ;
such is the obedience of a renewed mind.
And, 2. More universal, aa proceeding from
au abhonence of aU sin ; as natural antipa-
thies are against the whole kind of any thing.
3. More exact, keeping afar off frora the
very appearances of sin, and from aU the in
ducements and atepa towarda it ; and thia ia
the true way of eachewing it.
Not a, Uttie time of cpnatrained forbear
ance during a night, pr the day of par
ticipating of the coraraunion, or a Uttle tirae
before, and sorae few days after such ser
vices ; for thus, with the raost, ain ia iiot
dispossessed and cast out, but retires inward
ond lurks in the heart. Being beset with
those ordinances, it knows they last but
a while, aud therefore it gets into its strength, |

and keeps close there, till they be out of
sight and disappear again, and be a good
way off, ao that it thinka itself out of their
danger; perhapa a good many daya past,
and then it coraes forth and returns to exert
itself with liberty, yea, it raay be, with mpre
vigpur, as it were tp regain the time it hath
been fprced to loae and Ue idle within;
They again miss in the right manner of
eschewing that think themselves possibly
some body in it, in that they do avoid the
grosa sins wherein the vulgar sort of sinners
waUow, or do eschew auch evila aa they have
littie pr no incUnation of nature to. But
where the heart atands againat ain, as a
breach of God's law, and an offence against
hia majeaty, aa Joaeph, Shall I do this evil
and sin against God ? Gen. xxxix. 9, there
it will cany a man against all kind of sin,
the most reflned and the most beloved ain,
wherein the trutii of thia aversion is raoat
tried and approved. Aa they that have a
atrong natural dialike of aome kind of meat,
dress it as you wiU, and mingle it with what
they love beat, yet wiU not wiUingly eat of
it ; and if they be surprised and deceived
some way to swallow some pf it, yet they
wUl find it after, and be reatleaa tiU they
have vpmited it up again. Thua is it with
the heart, that hath that inward cpntrariety
tp sin wrpught in it by a new nature ; it will
cpnsent tp np recpncileraent with it, nor with
any kind of it. It is as in those deadly
feuda, that were against whole farailiea and
naraea without exception. The renewed aoul
wiU have no fellowship with ihe unfruitful
works of darkness, aa the apostle apeaks,
Eph. V. 11, For what agreement is there
betwixt light and darkness ? 2 Cor. vi. 14.
And thia hatred of sin works moat against
sin in a man's self, as in things we abhor,
our reluctance riaea most when they are
nearest ua. A godly man hatea ain in
othera, aa hateful, wheresoever it is found ;
but because it is neareat him in himaelf, he
hatea it raoat there. They who, by their
nature and breeding, are aoraewhat delicate,
like not to see any thing uncleanly any
where, but least in their own house, and
upon their pwn clpthes pr skin. This
makes the gpdly raan indeed fly npt pnly
the spciety ef evil raen, but frpm himself:
he gpea put pf hia pld aelf; and till thia be
dpne, a raan does not indeed fly sin,* but
canies it stiU with hira as an evil compa
nion, or an evil guide rather, that mialeads
hira StiU from the paths of life. And there
is much, first in the true discovery, and then
the thorough disunion of the heart from that
sin; which ia most of all a raan's self, that
frora which he can with the greatest difficulty
escape, thai besets him most, si/,^sQiT'tccr,};,
Heb. xii. 1, and lieth in hia way on aU
hands ; hath hira at every turn : To dia-
» Nondum te descruistL

170

A COMMENTARY UPON

engage and get free trora that, lo eschew
that evil, is difficult indeed. And the taak
in this ia the harder, if thia evil be, as often-
tiraes it raay be, not aome. gross one, but
more subtle, that is leaa seen, and therefore
not so easily avoided ; but for this an ira
partial search raust be uaed, if it be amongat
thoae thinga that aeem raoat neceaaary, and
that cannot be wanting ; an idol hid amongst
the stuff, yet thence muat it be drawn forth
and caat out.
The right eschewing of evil ia a wary
avoidance of aU occasions and beginnings of
it. Fly from sin (aays the wise man,) as
from a serpent, Eccl. ii. 2, not to be taraper-
ing with it, and coraing near it, and thinking
to charra it : " For (as one aays) who wUl
not laugh at the chatraer that is bit with a
serpent ?" He that thinks he hath power
and skill to handle it without danger, let him
observe Solomon's advice conceming the
strange woman ; he says not only. Go not
into her house, but. Remove thy way far
from her, and come not near the door of
her house, Prov. v. 8. So teaches he wise
ly for the avoiding that other sin near to it.
Look not on the wine when it is red in the
cup, Prov. xxiii. 31. They that are bold
and adventurous are often wounded : thus
he ihat removeth stones shall be hurt there
by, Eccl. x. 9. If we know our own weak
ness, and the strength of sin, we shaU fear to
expose ourselves to hazards, and be wiUing
even to abridge ourselves of some thinga
lawful when they prove dangeroua : For he
tbat wUl do alwaya aU he lawfuUy raay, ahaU
often do aoraething that lawfuUy he raay not.
, Thus for the other, [doing of good,] the
main thing is to be inwardly principled for
it ; to have a heart staraped with the love of
God and his coraraandments, for conacience
of his will, and love to him, and desire pf
hia glory to do aU. A good action, even the
beat kind of actiona, in an evil hand, and
frora an evil unaanctified heart, passes araongst
evils. DeUght in the Lord and his ways,
David's Oh ! how love I thy law, Psal.
cxix. 96, can teU that he esteeras it abcve
the richest and pleasantest things pn earth
but hpw rauch he esteeras and Ipves it, he
cannpt express.
And iipcn this wiU foUow, as in the for
mer case of hating evil, a constant tract and
course of obedience, moving directly contrary
to the streara of wickedness about a man
and also against the bent of his own conupt
heart within him ; a serious desire and en
deavour to do aU the good that is within our
calUng and reach, but especiaUy that parti
cular good of pur calUng, that which is in
our hand, and is peculiarly required pf us.
Fpr in this some deceive themselvea ; they
look uppn such a cpnditipn as they iraagine
were fit fpr them, or such as is in their eye
when they look upon others, and think if

they were such, and had such a place, and
auch power and oppprtunitiea, they wpuld do
great matters, and, in the mean time, they
neglect that gppd tp which they are caUed,
and which they have in some meaaure power
and place to do. Thia ia the roving sickly
humour of our minds, and apeaka their weak-
ness ; aa sick peraona that would stiU change
their bed, or posture, or place of abode,
thinking to be better : But a staid mind
appUes itaelf to the duties of its own station,
and aeeka to glorify Him that aet it there,
reverencing his wisdom in disposing of it so.
And there ia certainty of a bleaaed approba
tion of this conduct, be thy atation never ao
low ; it is not the high condition, but much
fidelity, secures it ; Thou hasi been faithful
in little, Luke xix. 17. We must care not
only to answer occasiona when they caU, but
to catch at them, and aeek them out : yea,
to frame occasions of doing good, whether in
the Lord's immediate service, delighting in
that, private and public ; or to raen, in asaiat
ing one with our meana, another with our
admonitiona, another with counael or comfort,
as we can ; labouring not only io have some
thing, oi that good that is raoat contrary to
our nature, but even to be eminent in that ;
setting Christian resolution, and both the ex
ample and strength pf pur Lprd, against aU
pppositions, and difficulties, and discourage
ments, " Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith," &c. Heb. xii. 2.
We see our rule, and it is the rule of peace
and happineaa ; what hinders but we apply
our hearta to it ? This is our work, and set
ting aside the advantage that foUows, consi
der the thing itself : 1. The opposition of
sin and obedience, under the narae of evil and
good. 2. The coraposition of our rule, in
these expressions, eschew and do. Consider
it thua evil and good, and it wiU persuade us
to eschew and do.
And, if you are perauaded to it, then de
aire, 1, Light frpra abpve, to diacover to you
what ia evil and offenaive tp Gpd in any
kind, and what pleaseth hira, what is his
wiU ; fer that is the rule and reaapn pf gppd in
pur actions, " that we may prove what is the
good, and holy, and acceptable will of God,"
Rom. xii. 2, and to diacover in ouraelves
what ia moat adverse and repugnant to that
wiU. 2. Seek a renewed raind to hate that
evil, the closest and raost connatural to ypu,
and tp lpve that good, even that which
is most contrary. 3. Strength and skill,
that, by another Spirit than your own, you
may avoid evil and do good, and resist the
incuraiona and soUcitings of evil, the slights
and violences of Satan, who is both a serpent
and a lion ; and ppwer against ypur pwn in
ward cprruptipn, and the fallacies pf your Pwn
heart. And thua ypu ahaU be able fpr every
good work, and be kept iu auch a meaaure as
suits ypur present estate, " blameless in soul

vjeh. 11.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

171

and body, to the coraing of Jeaua Chriat,"
1 Thess. V. 23.
" Oh ! but," will the hurable soul reply,
" I am often entangled and plunged in aoul
evils, and often frastrate in my thoughts
against theae evila, and in my airaa at the
gpod, which ia ray task and duty."
And was not thia Paul's condition ? May
you not coraplain in his language ? And
happy wiU you be, if you do so with some
raeaaure of hia aenae. Happy in crying out
oi wretchedness ! Waa not thia hia raalady,
" When I would do good, evil ia preaent with
me ?" Rom. vii. 21. But know once, that
though thy duty ia thia, to eschew evil and
do good, yet thy aalvation ia more aurely
founded than on thine own good. That per
fection which anawera Juatice and the law,
ia not required of thee : Thou art io walk,
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit : but
in ao walking, whether in a low or high mea
sure, still thy corafort Ueth in this, that
there is no condemnation to ihem that are
in Christ Jesus, as the apoatle begins the
next chapter after hia aad coraplainta. Again,
consider his thoughts in the close of the 7th
chapter, perceiving the work of God in hira,
and differencing that frora the conupt notions
of hiraself : and ao findiug at once raatter pf
heavy cpraplaint, and yet pf cheerful exulta-
tipn, O ! wretched man that I am 1 and yet
with the aame breath, rAanfo to Godihrough
Christ Jesus our Lord.
Sp then meurn with him, and yet rejoice
with him, and go on with courage aa he did,
StiU fighting the good fight of faith, 2 Tira.
iv. 7- When thou faUest in the raire, be
rtshamed and hurabled ; yet return and wash
iu the fountain opened, and return and beg
new strength to vjalk more surely. Learn
to truat thyaelf leaa, and God raore,' and up
and be doing against thine enemies, how
tall and mighty soever be the sons of Anak,
Be of good courage, and the Lord ahaU be
with thee, and shall strengthen thy heart,
and eatablish thy goings, Psal. xxvii. ult.
Do not Ue down to reat upon lazy conclu-
siona, that it ia weU enough with thee, be
cauae thou art out of the comraon puddle of
prpfaneneaa ; but lppk further tp purge from
all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of God, 2 Cpr. vii. 2.
Dp npt think thy little is ennugh, or that
thou haat reaaon to deapair of attaining rapre ;
but presa, press hard toward the mark and
prize of thy high calling, PhlUp. iii. 14,
Dp npt think aU is Ipst, because thou art at
present foiled : The experienced spldier
kupws that he hath pften wen the day after a
fall, or a wound received ; • and be assured,
that after the short corabats of a moment,
follows an eternity of triumph.
Let him seek peace and ensue it.] Orait-
Novit sc saipe vicisse post sanguinem. Sbn.

ting the many acceptations pf the word peace,
here particularly external peace with men, I
conceive, is meiint ; and this ia to be aought,
and not only to be sought, when it ia wilUng
ly found, but we are to pursue and follow it
when it aeema to fly away: But yet ao to
puraue it, aa never to atep out of the way of
bolineas and rightepusness after it, and to
forsake this rule that gpes before it, pf eschew
ing evil and doing good. Yea, mainly in
so doing is peace to be sought and pursued,
and most readily to be found and overtaken
in that way ; for '^ the frait of righteousness
ia peace," Jaraes iii. 18.
1st, Cpnsider that an unpeaceable, turbu
lent disposition, is the badge of a wicked
raind ; " as the raging aea atiU casting up
mire and dirt," laa. Ivii. 20. But thia love
of peace, and in all good ways seeking and
pursuing it, is the true character '^ of the
children of God, who is the God of Peace."
True, the ungodly (to prevent their own just
chaUenge, as Ahab) call the friends of true
religion diatiubera, and the troublers of Is
rael, 1 Kinga xviu. 17 ; and thia will still
be their impudence : But, certainly, they
" that love the welfare of Jerusalem, do seel-
and pray for," and work for peace aU they
can, as a chief bleaaing, and the fruitful
womb of D^ultitudes of blesainga.
2dly, Conaider then, that to be deprived
of peace ia a heavy judgment, and caUs for our
prayers and tears to pursue it, and entreat
ita retum ; to seek it frora his hand that is
the sovereign Dispenser of peace and war ; to
aeek to " be at peace with Hira, and thereby
good, aU good shaU corae unto us," Job
xxii. 21, and particularly this great good of
outward peace in due tirae ; and the very
j udgraent of war shaU, in the event, be turn
ed into a blessing. We may pursue amongst
raen, and not overtake it ; we raay use all
good raeana, and faU short : But, puraue it
up as far as the throne of grace ; seek it by
prayer, and that wUl overtake it, wiU be sure
to find it in God's hand, "who stilleth the
waves of the aea, and the tumults of the
people," Psal. lxv. 7- " If he give quietness,
who then can disturb ?" Job xxxiv. 29.
He ihat will love life.] Thia ia the at
tractive ; " Ufe, long life, and days of-good,"
ia the thing raen raost desire : for if evil days,
then it is so rauch the worse that they be
long ; and the shortest of such seem too long ;
and ijf short, being good, this cuts pff the en.
jpyment of that good : But these two com
plete the good, and suit it to men's wishes,
length and prosperity of Ufe.
It is here supposed that aU would be happy,
that aU desire it, canied to that by nature,
to seek their own good : But he that will
love it, that is here, that wUl wisely love it,
that wiU take the way to it, and be trae to
his desire, "muat refrain his tongue from evil,
and his lips that they speak no guUe ; he

l'/2

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap, hi

must eschew evil and dp gpod, seek peace and
ensue it." You desire to see good days, and
yet hinder them by sinful provocations ; you
desire good clear days, and yet cloud them
by your guiltiness.
'rhua, many deaire gpod here, yea, and
confusedly, the good of the life to come ; be
cause they hear it ia life, and long life, and
that good ia to be fpund in it, yea nething
but gppd : But in thia is our folly, we will
not love it wisely. The face of our desire is
towards it, but in our course we are rowing
frora it down intp the dead sea. You would
all have better tiraes, peace and plenty, and
freedom from the molestation and expense of
your condition : 'Why wiU you not be per.
suaded to seek it in the trae way of it ?
But how is this ? Do not the righteous
often pass their days in distreaa and sonow,
so as to have few and evil days, aa Jacpb
speaks ? Gen. xlix. 7- Yet ia there a truth
in this promise, annexing putward good thinga
to godlineaa, " as having the promises of this
Ufe and that which is to come," 1 Tim. iv.
8 ; and it is so accomplished to thera, when
the Lord sees it convenient, and conducing
to their highest good ; but that he raost airaa
at, and they themaelvea dp rapat desire :
And therefore, if the abatement of outward
good, either aa to the length or sweetness of
this life, aerve hia main end and theira better,
they are agreed upon thia gainful commuta
tion, of good for infinitely better.
The life of a godly man, though abort in
comparison of the utmost of nature's course,
yet may be long in value, in respect of hia
activity, and attainment to much spiritual
good. He may be said to Uve much in a
little time ; whereas they that wear out their
daya in foUy and sin, diu vivunt sed parum,
i. e. they live long, but little ; or, as the aame
writer again apeaka, non diu vixit, diu fuit,
i. e. he Uved not long, but exiated long.
And the good of the gpdly man'a days,
thpugh unseen gpod,-- surpaaaea aU the world's
rairth and prosperity, that makes a noise,
but is hollow within ; as the crackling of
thorns, a great sound, but little heat, and
quickly done ; as St. Augustin saya of Abra
ham, he had dies bonos in Deo, licet malos
in seculo, good days in God, though evil
days in his generation. A believer can
make up an iU day with a good God, and en
joying him, hath solid peace ; but then, that
whicii is abiding, that length of days, and
that dweUing in the house of God in that
length of days, is that which eye hath not
seen, nor ear heai'd, Scc, 1 Cor. ii. 9. They
are good days, or rather one everlaating day,
which haa no need of the sun nor moon, but
immediately flowa .from the firat and un
created light, from ihe Father of Lights ;
hia glory ahines in it, anrj the Lamb is ihe
light thereof. Rev. xxi. 23.

VBft. 12. For the eyes of the Lord are over the
righteous, and his ears are open unto their pray
ers ; but the face of the Lord is against them that
do evil.
The wisest knowledge of things, ia to
know them in their causea : But there is no
knpwledge of cauaea ao happy and uaeful, as
clearly to know, and firmly beUeve, the uni
versal dependance pf aU things uppn the first
and higheat cauae, the cauae of cauaea, the
apring of being and goodneaa, the wise and
just Ruler of the world.
This the Psalmist, Paal. xxxiv. 15, 16,
and here with him the apoatle, Ogives as the
true reaaon of that truth they have averted
in the forraer worda, the cpnnexipn of boli
neas and happiness. If life, and peace, and
aU good, be in God's hand to bestow when
it pleaseth hira, then, aure, the way to it,
ia an obedient and regular walking in ob
aervance of hia wiU ; and the way of sin is
the way to ruin : " For the eyes of the
I^ord are upon the righteoua, &c., and his
face is against thera that do evil."
In the words there is a double ppppsitipn ;
pf persons, and of their portion.
1st, Of paraona, the righteous and evil
doers. These two words are often uaed in
the Scripturea, and particularly in the book
of Psalms, to expreaa the godly and the
wicked ; and ap thia righteouaness ia not ab
solute perfection or sinlessneaa, nor is the
opposed evU every act of sin, or breach oi
God's law : But the righteous be they that
are students of obedience and hoUness, that
desire to walk as in the sight of God, and
to walk with God, as Enoch did ; that are
glad when they can any way serve hira, and
grieved when they offend hira ; that feel and
bewail their unrighteousness, and are ear
nestly breathing and advancing forward ;
have a sincere and unfeigned love to aU the
coraraandments of God, and diUgentiy en
deavour to observe thera ; that veheraentiy
hate what raost pleases their conupt nature,
and love the cpraraand that crosses it raost.
This is an imperfect kind of perfection, PhU.
iii. 12, 15.
On the other side, evil-doers are they that
comrait sin with greediness ; that walk in
it, raake it their way, that Uve in sin as
their eleraent, taking pleasure in unrigh
teousness, aa the apoatle speaks, 2 Thess.
xi. 12 ; their great faculty and their great
delight Ues in sin ; they are skilful and
cheerful evil-doers : Not any one raan in all
kind of sins, that is irapossible ; there is a
concatenation of sin, and pne disposes and
induces to another ; but yet, one ungodly
man is coraraonly more versed in, and de.
lighted with, sorae one kind of sin, another
with sorae other. He forbears none, because
it is evil and hateful to God, but as he can.
not travel over the whole globe pf wicked.
ness, and go the fuU circuit, he walks up

VE!1. 12.]

TIIE FIRST EPIBTLE OF PETER.

153

and down in his accustoraed way of sin.
No one mechanic is good at aU trades, nor
is any raan expert in- aU arts : but he is an
cvil-doei that foUows the particular trade of
the sin he hath chosen, is active and dili
gent in that, and finds it sweet. In a word,
this opposition Ueth raainly in the bent of
the affectipn, or in the way it is set. The
godly man hates the evil he, possibly by
temptation, hath been drawn to do, and loves
the good he is frustrate of, and, having in
tended, hath not attained to do. The siimer
tbat hath his. denomination frpra sin, as his
cpurse, hates the gppd that spraetiraes he is
fprced to do, and loves that sin whicii raany
times he does not : either wanting occasion
and means, and so he cannot do it, or, through
check of an enlightened cpnscience, possibly
dares not do : And though so bound up frora
the aet, as a dog in a chain, yet the habit,
the natural inclination and desire in hira, is
StiU the same ; the strength of his affectipn
is cartied tp sin ; as in the weakest gpdly
man, there is that predpminant sincerity and
desire of holy walking, according to which
be is called a righteous person. The Lord
is pleased to give him that narae, and ac
count hira so, being upright in heart, though
often failing. There is a righteouaness of a
higher atrain upon which hia salvation hangs
that ia not in hira, but upon him ; he is
clothed with it : But this other, of aincerity,
and of true and hearty, though iraperfect
obedience, is the righteousness here raeant,
and oppoaed to evil-doing.
2dly, Their opposite condition or portion
ia expreaaed in the highest notion of it ;
that wherein the very being of happiness and
misery lieth, the favour and anger of God.
As their natures differ raoat, by the habit
of their affection towarda God, aa their main
diatinguishing character, ao the difference
of their eatate con.aiata in the point of his
affection towards them, spoke here, in our
language, by the divers aspects of hia coun
tenance ; because our love and hatied uau
ally looks out, and shews itself that way.
Now, for the other word, expressing his
favour to the righteous, by the openness ofhis
ear, the oppoaition in the other needed not
to be expreaaed ; for, either the wicked pray
not. pr, if they dp, it is indeed ne prayer,
the Lprd dpth not account nor receive it as
such ; and if his face be set against them,
certainly his ear ia shut againat them too,
and so shut that it openeth not to their loud
est prayer : " Though they cry in mine ears
with aloud voice, yet I will not hear thera,"
saya the Lord, Ezek. viii. 18.
And before we pass to the particulars
of their condition, as here we have thera,
this we would conaider a little, and apply
it to our present busineaa, who are the per
aons whom the Lord thua regards, and to
whose prayer he opens hia ear.

This we pretend to be aeeking after, that
the Lord would look favourably upon ua,
and hearken to our suita, for puraelvea, and
thia land, and the whple Church of God
within these kingdoraa. Indeed, " the fer
vent prayer of a faithful man availeth much,"
[yoxii 'nryiii] it is of great strength, a
raighty thing, that can bind and loose the
influences pf heaven (as there is instan
ced, Jara. V. 16, 17) ; and the prayer pf
a rightepus raan, be it but of one righ
teous raan, how rauch more the combined
cries of many of them together. And,
that we judge not the righteousness there
and here raentioned, to be a thing above
huraan estate, Elias, aaya the apostle, '^ was
a raan, and a man subject to like passions
as we are," and yet auch a righteoua person
as the Lord had an eye and gave ear to in
ao great a matter. But, where are those
righteous fastera and prayera in great congre.
gationa ? How few, if any, to be found,
that are but such in the loweat aenae and
meaaure, real lovera and inquirera after ho
Uness ! What are our raeetings here, but
aaaerablies of evil-doers, rebeUious children,
ignorant and profane persona, pr dead fprraal
prpfeaapra, and ap the raore of ua the worae,
incenaing the Lord the more ; and the mul
titude of prayera, though we could and would
continue raany days, all to no purpose, frora
such as we : " Though ye make many pray
ers, when ye multiply prayer, I will not
hear : And when ye spread forth your hands,
I will hide raine eyea from you," Isa. i. 11.
Your hands are so filthy, that if you would
follow me to lay hold on me with them, you
drive rae further off; as one with foul hands,
following a person that is neat, to catch
hold of hira : And if you spread them oui
before me, ray eyea are pure, you will make
me turn away. I cannot endure to look upon
them, / will hide mine eyes from you.
And fasting, added with prayer, wiU not
do it, nor make it pass : When they fast,
I will not hear their cry, Jer. xiv. 12.
It ia the ain of hia people that provokea
him, inatead of looking favourably upon
them, to have his eyes upon them for evil
and not for good, aa he threatens, Amos ix.
4 ; and therefore, without putting away of
that, prayer is lost breath, and doth no good.
They that stiU retain their ains, and wiU
not hearken to' his voice, what can they ex
pect but that justly threatened retaliation,
Prov. i. 26, 28, and that the Lord, in holy
acorn, in the day of their diatreaa, should
send thera for help and comfort to those
things which they have made their goda, and
prefened before him in their trouble ?
" They wiU aay. Arise and save us ; but
where are the goda that thou hast made
thee ? let them arise, if they can save thee
in the tirae of thy trouble," Jer. ii. 28.
And not only do open and gross impieties

171

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CHAP. in.

thus disapppint our prayera, but the lodging
of any ain in our affection. // / regard ini
quity in my heart (aaya the Paalmiat, Paal.
Ixvi. 28,) the Lord will not hear my voice ;
the word is, if I see iniquity, if mine eye
look pleaaandy upon it, hia eye will not look
so upon me, nor ahaU I find hia ear so ready
and open. He aays not, If I do sin, but
If I regard it in my heart. The heart en
tertaining and embracing a sin, though it
be a smaller sin, is more than the simple
faUing into sin. And as the ungodly do,
for this reaaon, loae aU their prayers, a godly
man may auffer thia way, in aorae degree,
upon aome degree of guiltiness ; thia way
the heart aeduced, it raay be, and entangled
for a time by some sinful lust, they are sure
to find a stop in their prayers, that they
neither go nor corae so quickly and so com
fortably as before. Any sinful humour, as
rheuras do our voice, binds up the voice of
prayer, makes it not so clear and shriU as it
was wont : and the accusing guilt pf it as
cending, shuts up the Lprd's ear, that he
dpth not so readily hear and answer as be
fore. And thus that sweet conespondence
ia intenupted, which aU the deUghta of the
world cannot compensate-
If, then, you would have eaay and aweet
accesaea to God in prayer, 1. Seek an holy
heart ; entertain a conatant care and study
of hoUneaa ; admit no parley with sin ; do
not ao rauch aa hearken to it, if you would
be readily heard.
2. Seek a broken heart, the Lord ia ever
at hand to that, as it ia in Paal. xxxiv.
whence the apoatle citea the worda now un
der our conaideration, He is nigh unto ihem
that are of a contrite spirit, ver. 18, &c.
It ia an exceUent way to prevail. The break
ing of the heart raultipUea petitionera, every
piece of it hath a voice ; and a very atrong
and very raoving voice, that entera hia ear,
and atirs the bowela and corapaasions of the
Lprd tpwards it.
3. Seek an hurable heart. That may
present its suits always ; the court is con
stantly there, even within it ; the great King
loves to make his abode and residence in it,
Isa. Ivii. 15. This is the thing that the
Lord so delighta in and requires, he wiU not
fail to accept of it, it is his choice, Mic. vi.
6, 8. " Wherewith shall I corae before the
Lord, &c. He hath shewed thee, O raan,
what is good ; and what doth the Lord re
quire of thee, but to do justly, and love
raercy :" There ia thia righteouaneaa, and
that as a great part making it up, to walk
humbly with thy God ; in the original,
humble to walk with thy God ; he cannot
agree with a proud heart ; he hates and re
sists it, and two cannot walk together unless
they be agreed, as the prophet speaks, Amos
iii. 3. The hurable heart only is corapany
for God, hath liberty to walk and converse

with him. He gives grace to the humble ;
he bows his ear, if thou lift not up thy neck :
Proud beggars he turns away with disdain,
and the humblest suiters always speed best
with him, the rightepus, not such in their
own eyes, but in his, thrpugh his gracious
dignatipn and acceptance. And, is there npt
reaapn tp cpme hurably before hira, base
worms, to the most hply and mpst high God ?
The eyes ofthe Lord.] We see, I. That
both are in his sight, the rightepus and the
wicked ; aU cf them and aU their ways ; his
eye is on the one, and his face on the other,
as the word is, hut ao on theae aa against
them. It is therefore rendered his eye of
knpwledge and pf pbservance, marking them
and their actipna equally uppn bPth. " There
ia UP darkneaa npr shadpw of death where
the workers of iniquity may hide themselves,"
Job xxxiv. 22. FooUshly and wretchedly
done, to do that, or think that, that we
would hide from the Lord, and then to think,
that we can hide it ! The Prophet speaks
woe to auch : " Woe to thera that dig deep
tq hide their counsel frpra the I/prd, anil
their wprka are in the dark, and they say,
whp aeeth ua ; and whp knoweth us ?" Isa.
xxix. 15. And this ia the grand principle
of aU wickedneaa, not, it raay be, expreaslr
stated, but secretly lying in the aoul, and
habitual forgetting of God and hia eye, not
conaidering that he beholda ua ; ye thai for .
get God, saya the Psalmist, I. 22, thence
aU impiety proceeds ; and on the other aide,
the remembrance of hia eye ia a radical
point of jiety and bolineas, in which the
cxxxixth Psalm is large and excellent.
But, as the Lord doth thus equaUy see
both, so as his eye and countenance imports
his raind concerning thera, and toward.s
them, the raanner of beholding them is dif
ferent, yea, contrary. And from the other,
beholding in comraon, knowing their ways,
ariaea thia dift'erent beholding, which (as
usually words pf aense signify alsp the affec-
tion*) is the approving and disUking, the
loving and hating thera, and their waya ;
So he peculiarly knows ihe righteous and
their ways, Paal. i. 6. And knows not,
never knew, the workers of iniquity, even
those that by their profeaaion would plead
most acquaintance, and familiar converse,
eating and drinking in his presence, and
yet / know you not, whence are you ? Luke
xiii. 26. It is npt a breaking pff frpm for
mer acquaintance ; no, he doth not that, he
disavows none that ever were truly acquaint
ed with him. So the other evangelist hatli
it. Matt. vii. 29, of those that thought to
have been in no small account, / never knew
you, depart from me ; and the convincing
reason liea in that, ye workers of iniquity ;
none of hia favouritea and frienda are sucli.
Thua here, hia eye, hia gracious eye tor
* Verba sensus cnnnotaiif affbrtus

VEH 12.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

175

good, is on the rightepus ; and his face, his
angry Ippks, his just wrath against evil- dpers.
In the llth Psalm, we have this expressed
much after the same way. First, what we
spoke of his knowing and beholding in com.
raon, the righteous and wicked, and their
ways, is represented by his sitting on high,
where he may mark and see clearly through.
out all places and aU hearta. His throne is
in heaven, his eyes behold, his eye-lids try,
the children of men, ver. 4. He aita in
heaven, not as in a chair of rest, regardless
of human things, but on a throne, for go
verning and judging ; though with as littie
uneasiness and disturbance, as if there were
nothing tp be done that way. His eyes be
hold, nnt in a fruitless contemplation or
knowledge ; but his eye-lids try, which
signifies an intent inspection, such as men
usuaUy make with a kind of motion pf their
eyelids. Then upon this is added the dif
ferent portion of the righteous and wicked,
in his beholding them and dealing with
them ; he tries the righteous, v. 5. approves
what is good in them, and by trial and afflic--
tion doth purge out what is evil ; and in
both these is love ; but ihe wicked and him
that loveth violence his soul hateth, and
therefere, as here, his face is against them.
His spul and face are all pne ; but these
thinga are expressed after pur manner. He
Ippks upon them with indignation ; and
thence come the storras in the next verse,
snares rained down, ver. 6. The wariest foot
cannpt avpid such snares, they cpme dpwn
uppn them frpm abpve ; fire, and brimstone,
a'nd burning tempest, aUuding te Sodora'a
judgment as an emblem of the puniahment
of aU the wicked ; this is the portion of
iheir cup. There ia a cup for them ; but
his children drink npt with them. They
have anpther cup, the Lord himaelf is the
portion of tlieir cup, Psal. xvi. 6, hia fa
vour, aa the llth Paalra closes, " "The righ
teous Lord loveth righteousness, hia coun
tenance doth behold the upright ;" that ia
another beholding than the forraer ; graci
oua, loving behplding, aa here his eyes are
upon the righteous.
Npw, the persuasipn pf this truth is the
main establishment nf a gpdly mind, araidst
all the present cpnfusipns that appear in
things ; and it is so here intended, and in
the Psalm I have mentioned, and through
out the Scriptures.
To look upon the present flourishing and
prosperity of evil-doers, and on the distresses
and sonows of the godly, is a dark pbscure
matter in itself ; but the way tp be cleared
and cpinfprted, is tp look above them to the
Lprd, " They Ippked untp him and were
lightened," Psalm xxxiv. 5 ; that answers
aU dpubts, tp believe this undpubted pro
vidence and justice, the eye pf Gpd that sees
all, yea, rules all these- things. And, in

the midst pf all the painted happiness of
wicked men, this is enough to make them
miserable, the Lord's face is against ihem ;
and they shall surely flnd it so. He hath
wrath and judgment in stpre, and will bring
it forth to light I will execute ii, in due time ;
he is preparing fpr thera that cup sppke of,
and they shaU drink it. Sp, in the saddest
cpnditipn pf his church and a beUeving spul,
tp knpw this, that the Lprd's eye is even
then uppn thera, and that he is upon thoughts
of peace and love to thera, is that which
setties and coraposes the mind. Thus in
that Psalm before cited, it was such dif
ficulties that did drive David's thoughts to
that for satisfaction, " If the foundations be
destroyed, what can the righteous do ?" Psal.
xi. 2. In the time of such great shakings
and confusions, the righteous man can do
nothing to it, but the righteous Lord can do
enough ; he can do aU : The righteous Lord
ihat loveth righteousness. While all seems
to go upside down, he is on his throne, he
is trying and judging, and wiU appear to
be Judge. This is the thing that faithful
souls should learn to lock tp, and not lose
view and firra beUef of, and should desire
the Lord himself to raise their minda to it
when they are Uke to aink. Natural atrength
and resolution wiU nof serve the turn ;
floods raay come that will arise above that :
aomething above a raan'a own spirit raust
support hira : Therefore say with David,
Psal. Ixi. 7j " When my spirit is overwhelm
ed, lead me to the Rock tbat ia higher than
I." They think soriietimes it is ao hard with
them, he regarda not ; but he aaaures them
ofthe contrary, " I have graven thee upon
the palms of mine hands," Isa. xlix. 16.
I cannot look upon raine own hands, but I
muat remeraber thee : " And thy waUs are
continuaUy before rae." This is that the
spouse seeks for, " Set me as a seal upon
thine arra," Cant. viii. 6.
Now, a little more particularly to conaider
the expreaaiona, and their acope here, hpw
ia that raade gppd which the fprraer wprda
teach, that they that walk in the ways of
wickedneaa can expect no good, but are cer
tainly miserable ? Thua, the face of the
Lord is against them. Proaper they may
in their affaira and eatates, may have richea,
and poaterity, and friends, and the world
careaaing them, and amiling on thera on
aU handa ; but there ia that one thing that
damps aU, the face of the Lord is against
ihem. This they feel not indeed for the
time ; it is an invisible iU, out of sight and
out of mind with them : But there is a time
of the appearing of this face of the Lord
against them, the revelation of his righteous
judgment, as the apoatle apeaka, Rom. ii.
5, soraetiraes precursory days of it here, but
hpwever pne great prefixed day ; a day nf
darkness to thera indeed, wherein they sliaU

170

A COMMENTAIJY UPON

[CHAP. I/I.

know what this is, that now sounds so Ught,
to have ihe face of the Lord against them ;
a look of it is raore terrible than all present
miseries combined together ; what then ahall
the eternity of it be I to be punished (aa the
apostle speaka) " with everlasting destruc
tion frpm the presence of the Lord, and the
glpry pf his power," 2 Thesa. i. 9.
Are we not then impertinent fooUsh crea
tures, that are ao thoughtful how our poor
business here succeed with us, and how we
are accounted of in the wprld, and how the
faces of raen are towards us, and scarce ever
enter into a secret serious inquiry how the
countenance of God is to us, whether favour.
ably shining on ua or still angrily set against
us, as it is against all impenitent sinners ?
The face of the soul being towards God
tumed away frora the world and ain, argues
for it, that hia face is not against ii ; but
that he hath graciously looked upon it, and
by a look of love hath drawii it towarda
himaelf; for we act not firat in that ; non
amatur Deus nisi de Deo. It ia he that
preventa us, and by the beams of his love.
kindles love in our hearts. Now, the soul
that is thus set towards hira, it raay be, doth
not conatantly aee here his face ahining fuU
and clear upon it, but often clouded. Nay,
it raay be, auch a soul hath not yet at aU
aeen it senaibly ; yet thia it may conclude,
seeing my desires are towards him, and
my chief desire ia the aweet light of his
countenance, though as yet I find not hia
face ahining on me, yet I am perauaded it ia
not set against me to deatroy me. Miabe
lief, when the aoul ia ranch under its in
fluence, and diaterapered by it, may auggeat
thia sometimes too ; but yet still there is
some spark of hope that it ia otherwiae, that
the eye of the Lord's pity ia even in that
estate upon us, and wiU in time manifest
itself to be so.
To the other queation. What assurance
have the godly for that seeing of good, these
blessings you speak of? This, the eyes of
the Lord are upon them, and his ears are
open io their prayer, li you think Him
wise enough to know what ia good for them
and rich enough to afford it, they are aure
of one thing, he lovea thera ; they have hia
good will, his heart is tpwards them, and
therefpre hia eye and his ear. Can they then
want any good ? If many days, and out
ward good things, be indeed good for them,
they cannot raiss of these. He hath given
thera already much better things than these,
and hath yet far better in atore for thera ;
and what way aoever the world go wilh thera,
thia itaelf ia happineaa enough, that they are
in his love, whose loving kindness is better
than life, Psal. Ixiii. 3. Sweet daya have
they that live in it. What better days would
courtiers wish, than to be still in the eye
aud favour of the king, Jo be ccrt.Mn of hisi

good-will towards them, and to know of ac
cess, and of a gracious acceptance of aU their
auita ? Npw thua it is with aU the servants
of the great Kiug, without prejudice one to
another ; he is ready to receive their "re-
queata, and able and wiUing tp dp thera aU
good. Happy atate of a believer I He muat
not account himself pppr and deatitute in
any cpnditipn, for he hath favour at court ;
he hath the King'a eye and hia ear ; " the
eyea of the Lord are uppn hira, and hia ears
open to his prayers."
The eyes of the Lord are upon the
righteous.] 'This hath in it, 1. His lpve,
the prppensipn of hia heart tpwards them.
The eye is the servant of the affection ; it
naturaUy tums that way raost where the
heart is. Theirefpre, thua the Lprd ia pleas
ed tp speak pf his lpve tp his pwn. He
views StiU aU the wprld, but he Ippks upon
thera with a pecuUar delight ; his eye is
atiU on thera, aa it were towarda thera from
aU the reat of the world. Though he dotii
npt alwaya let them see theae hia Ippka, for
it ia not aaid they alwaya are in aight of it ;
no, not here ; yet atiU his eye ia indeed upon
them, by the beauty of grace in them, his
own work indeed, the beauty that he him
aelf hath put upon them. And ao the other
of his ear top, he ia wilUng to do for their
what they aak ; he lovea even to hear them
apeak ; finds a sweetneaa in the voice of their
prayers that raakes his ear not only open to
their prayers, but desirous of thera, as aweei
music. Thus he apeaka of both. Cant. ii.
14, " My dove, let me aee thy countenance,
let rae hear thy voice ; for aweet ia thy voice,
and thy countenance ia coraely."
2. The phraae expresses hia good provi
dence and readineaa to do thera good ; to
supply their wants, and order their affaira
for them ; to answer their desirea, and thus
to let thera find the fruita of that love that
ao leada hia eye and ear towarda theiu. His
eye is upon them ; he ia deviaing and think
ing what to do for them ; it ia the thing he
thinka on moat : His eyea are on aU ; but
they are busied, as he is pleased to express
it, they run to and fro through the earth,
to shew himself strong in behalf of them
whose heart is perfect towards him, Scc. 2
Chron. xvi. 9. So Deut. xi. 12, His eyes
are all the year on the land : And no
wonder, then, he answers their suita in what
ia good for thera, when it is stiU in his
thoughta before ; he prevents ihem with
the blessings ofhis goodness, Paal. xxi. 3 ;
they cannot be so raindful of themaelvea, as
he ia of them.
Thiaia an unapeakable cprafprt, when a
pppr believer is in great perplexity of any
kind in his outward or spiritual condition,
" Well, I see no way ; I ara bUnd in this ;
but there are eyes upon me -that see well
what is beat. The Lord is minding me.

VFIl. 12. 1

THH FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER,

17?

and bringing about all to my adVantagL'. /
am poor and needy indeed, but the Lord
thinketh on me, Psal. xl. 17." That turns
the balance. Would not a man, though he
had nothing, think hiraself happy, if sorae
great prince was busUy thinking how to ad
vance and enrich him ? much more, if a
number of kings were upon thia thought,
and deviaing together ? yet these thoughts
might perish, aa the Psalraist speaka, Psal.
cxlvi. 4. How much raore soUd happineaa
is it to have Hira, whose power is greateat,
and whose thoughts fail npt, eyeing thee,
and devising thy gppd, and asking ua, as it
were, " What ahaU be dpne tp the raan
whpm the King will hpnpur ?"
A nd his ears are open unto iheir prayer. ]
What suita thou hast, thou mayeat speak
freely ; he wUl not refuse thee any thing
that is for thy good.
'' Ob ! but I am not righteous, and all
this is for the righteoua only." Yet thou
wouldest be such a one. Wouldest thou in
deed? then in part thou art. As he mo
destly and wisely changed the name of wise
men into philosophers, lovera of wiadom :
Art thou no righteoua ? yet (^iXoSi«aj«j) a
lover of righteousnesa thou art ; then thou
art one of these. If still thine own righ
teousness be Ul thine eye, it may, and ahould
be so, to humble thef ; but if it should
scare thee from coming 'unto God, and offer
ing thy auita with this perauaaion, that his ear
is open, ahpuld it raake thee think that hia
favpurable eye is net tPward thee, yet there
is raercy, creep in under the rebe pf hia Spn.
Thpu art aure he ia Jesus Christ the Righ
teous, and that the Father's eye ia pn him
with delight, and then it ahaU be ap pn
thee, being in him. Put thy petitipns intp
hia hand, whp is the Great Maater of re.
queats ; thou canat not doubt that he hath
access, and that ear open to him, which thou
thinkest shut tp thee.
The exercise cf prayer being ao impor
tant, and bearing ao great a part in the Ufe
and comfort of a Christian, it deserves to be
very seriously considered. We wiU there-
fore subjoin some few considerations concern
ing it.
Prayer is considerable in a threefold no
tion : 1. As a duty we owe to God. As it
is from him' we expect and receive aU, it is
a very reasonable homage and acknowledge
ment thus to testify the dependence of our
being and Ufe on him ; and the dependence
of our soula upon hira for being, and Ufe,
and all good ; that we be daily auitors be
fore hia throne, and go to him for all. 2.
Aa the dignity, and the delight, pf a spiri
tual mind, tp have so near access untn Gpd,
and such liberty tn speak tp him. 3. Aa a
prpper and sure means, by divine apppint-
ment and prpmise, pf phtaining at the hands
of God thpse gppd things that are needful

and douvenieht fpr us. Ani although some
believers, of lower knowledge, do net (it
raay be) so distinctly knpw, and pthers not
so particularly consider, all these in it, yet
there is a latent nptipn pf thera aU in the
heart of every godly person, that stirs them
and puta them on to the conatant uae of
prayer, and to a lpve pf iti
And as they are in these respects inclined
and bent to the exercise of prayer, the Lord'a
ear is in like raanner inclined to hear their
prayer, in these reapecta : 1. He takea it well
at their hands, that they do offer it up as
due worship to hira ; that diey desire thus
as they can to aerve hira. He accepta of
thoae offerings gracioualy, paaaea by the im
perfections in thera, and hath regard to their
sincere intention and desire. 2. It pleases
hira well, that they delight in prayer, as
converse with him ; that they love to be
much with hira, and to speak to hira often,
and still aspire by this way to raore acquain
tance with hira, that they are ambitious of
thia. 3. He wiUingly hears their prayera
as the expressions of their neceaaitiea and
desires, being both rich and bpuntiful ; he
Ipvea to have bleaainga drawn out of hia
handa that way, aa full breaats delight, to be
drawn. The Lord'a treasure is always full,
and therefore, he is always comraunicative.
In the first respect prayer is acceptable to
the Lord as incense and sacrifice, as David
desirea, Paal. cxli. 2 ; the Lord receives it as
divine wprship done to him. In the second,
prayer is as the visits and sweet entertain
ment, and discourse of friends together, and
so is pleasing to the Lord, as the free open
ing of the raind, pouring oui of ihe heart
to him, as it is called in Psal. Ixii. 8 ; and
Psal. V. 1, caUs it his words, and his medi.i
tation ; and the word for that signifies dis
course, or conference. And, in the third
sense, he receives prayer as the suits of pe
titioners that are in favour with hira, and
that he readily accords to. And tbus the
worda for supplication in the original, and
the word here for -prayer, and that for Cry, in
the Psalm, do raean ; and in that sense the
Lord's open ear aud hearkening hath in it
his readiness to answer, as one that doth
hear, and to answer gracipusly and really, as
hearing favpurably.
I shall now add some directions. 1 . For
prayer, that it may be accepted and answer*
ed. 2. For observing the anawers of it.
1. For prayer, the quaUfication of the
heart that offera it. 2. The way of offers
ing it.
1. Aa to the qualification of the heart, it
must be in aome meaaure a holy heart, ac.
cording to that word here, the righteous {
there must he no regarding iniquity, enter.
taining of friendahip with any sin, but a per
manent love and desire of holiness. Thus,
indeed, a man prays within hiraself, as in, a
SI

178

A COMMENTARY UPON

[cMaP. IK,

sanctified place, whither the L'ord's ear in-
cUnes, as of old to the temple ; he need not
run supersti tiously to a church, &c. intra te
ora, sed vide prius an sis templum Dei ;
the sanctified man's body is the temple of
the Holy Spirit, as the apostie speaks, 1
Cor. vi. 19, and hia aoul the prieat in it,
that offera sacrifice : Both holy to the Lord,
consecrated to him. 2dly, It must be a be-
Aleving heart, for there is no praying with.
out this. Faith is the very life of prayer,
whence springs hope and cprafprt with it, tp
uphold the soul, and keep it steady under
storras, with the proraises ; and as Aaron
and Hur to Bloses, keeping it from fainting,
strengthening the hands when they would
begin to fail. Such is the force of that
word, Psal. x. 17 ; ior the preparing of the
heart, which God gives as an assurance and
pledge of his inclining his ear io hear, it
signifies the establishing of the heart, as
that indeed is a main point of its prepared.
ness, and due disposition for prayer. Now
this is done by faith ; without which, the
soul, as the apostle St. Jaraes apeaka, ia a
roUing unquiet thing, as a wave of the sea,
oi itaelf, unatable aa the watera, and then
driven with ihe wind and tossed, Jaraea i.
6, to and fro with every teraptation. See
and feel thine own unworthineaa aa much aa
thou ctfnat, for thou art never bid to believe
in thyself, no, but it is countermanded as
faith's greatest enemy. But what hath thy
unworthiness to aay against free promiaea of
grace, which are the basis of thy faith ? So
then believe, that you may pray ; this is
David's advice, Psal. Ixii. 8, Trust in him
at all times, ye people, and then pour out
your hearts before him. Confide in him as
a most faithful and powerful friend, and then
you will open your hearta to him.
2, For the way of offering up prayer ;
it is a great art, a main part of the aecret
of religion to be skiUed in it, and of great
concern for the corafort and success of it.
Much is here to be considered, but for the
present take these advicea briefly. 1. Offernot
to speak to hira, without the heart in aorae
measure seasoned and preposaeaaed with the
aenae of hia greatness and holiness. And
there is much in this ; considering wisely
to whom we speak, the King, the Lord of
Glory, and setting the soul before him, in
his presence ; and then reflecting pn pur.
selves, and seeing what we are, how wretch.
ed, and base, and fllthy, and unworthy of
such access to such a Great Majesty. The
want of thia preparing of the heart to speak
in the Lprd's ear, by the consideration of
God and ourselves, is that which fiUs the
exercise of prayer with much guiltiness ;
makes the heart careless, and slight, and
ineverent, and ao diapleaaes the Lord, and
disappoints ouraelves of that- comfort in
IJjaycr, and answers of it, that otherwise

we would have raore experience of. M'^e
ruah in before hira with any thing, provided
we can tumble out a few worda ; and do not
weigh these thinga, and corapose our hearts
with seripua thpughta and cpnceptipns of
God. The soul thai studies and endeavours
thia most, hath much tp dp tp attain tp any
right apprehensipns of him ; fpr how little
know we of him ! yet shpuld we at least
set ourselves before hira, as the purest and
greatest Spirit ; a Being infinitely more ex.
ceUent than our minds, or any creature cau
conceive. This would fiU the soul with awe
and reverence, and baUaat it, sp as tp make
it gp mpre even through the exercise ; to
conaider the Lord, aa that prophet saw him,
sitting on his throne, and all ihe host of
heaven standing by him, on hia right hand
and on hia left, 1 Kinga xxii. 19, and thy.
aelf a defiled ainner coming before hira, as
a vile frog creeping out of some pool:*
How would thia fiU thee with holy fear' ? Oh !
hia greatneas and our baaeness, and Oh !
the distance. This is Solomon's advice,
"Be not rash, with thy mouth, and let not
thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before
God, for God ia in heaven, and thou upon
earth, therefore let thy worda be few," Eccl.
V. 2. Thia would keep ua from our ordinary
babblinga, that heart nonsense, which, though
the worda be sense, yet, thrpiigh the inat.
tentipn pf the heart, are but as impertinent
cpnfuaed dreams in the Lprd's ears, as there
fpUows, ver. 3.
2. When thpu addressest thyself tp prayer,
desire and depend upon the assistance and
inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God ; with.
out which thou art not able truly to pray.
It is a supernatural work, and therefore the
principle pf it must be supematural. He
that hath npthing of the Spirit of God can.
not pray at aU. He may howl as a beast in
his necessity or distress ; or may speak words
of prayer, as some birds learn the language
of raen ; but pray he cannot. And they
that have that Spirit ought to seek the mov
ings and actual workings of it in them
in prayer ; the particular help of their
infirmities, Heb. iv. 15, teaching both what
to ask, a thing that of ourselves we know
not, and then enabling them to aak ; breath.
ing forth their deaires in such sighs and
groans, as are the breath, not simply of
their own, but of God's Spirit.
3. Aa theae two precautions are to be
taken before prayer, ao, in the exercise of it,
you should learn to keep a watchful eye over
your own hearts throughout every step ofthe
way, that they start npt put; by the keep.
ing up pf a cpntinual remembrance of that
presence of Gpd, which in the entry pf the
wprk, is to be set before the eye of the soul.
And our endeavour ought to be, to fix it uppn
that view, that it tum npt aside, npr down.
• Velut c palude sua vilis ranuncula. Burn.

VER. 1'2.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PEl'EK.

179

wards, but, from beginning to end, keep
aight of him, who aeea and marka whether
we do so or no. They that are most inspec.
tive and watchful in this, will stiU be faulty
in it ; but certainly the leaa watchful the
more faulty : And tiiia we ought to do, to
be aspiring daily to more atabiUty of mind
in prayer, and driving out apraewhat pf that
rpving and wandering, that is so universal
an evil ; and certainly so grievous, not to
those that have it raost, but that observe and
discover it most, and endeavour most against
it. A strange thing ! that the mind, even
the renewed mind, should be so ready, not
only at other times, but in the exercise of
prayer, wherein we pecuUarly come so near
IP Gpd, yet even to slip out and leave him,
and fpllpw sprae pppr vanity or pther instead
of hira. Surely the gedly man, when he
thinks on this, is exceedingly ashamed of
himself, cannot tell what to think of it :
God, his exceeding joy, whom, in hia right
thoughta, he eateema ao rauch abpve the
werld, and all thinga in it, yet tp use hira
thua, when he ia speaking to him ; tp break
off from that, and hold- discourse, or change
a word, with aome base thought that steps
in, and whispers to him ; or, at the best,
not to be stedfastly minding the Lord to
whora he apeaks, and possessed with the re
gard ofhis presence,, and of his business
and ertand with him.
Thia is no smaU piece of our misery here ;
these wanderings are evidence to us that we
are not at hmoe : But though we should be
hurabled for this, and atUl labouring againat
it, yet should we not be so discouraged aa
to be driven from the work. Satan would
deaire no better than that : it were to help
him to his wish ; and aoraetiraes a Christian
may be driven to think. What ! shaU I do still
thus, abusing my Lord's name, and the pri
vilege he hath given me ? I had better leave
off. Np, not ao by any means ; strive against
tile raiaerable evU in thee, but eaat not away
thy happiness. Be dping stiU. It is a frp.
ward childish humour, when any thing agrees
not to our mind, to throw aU away. ^ Thou
mayest come off as Jacob, with halting frora
thy wrestlings, and yet obtain ihe blessing
for which thou wrestled, Gen. xxxii. 24, &c.
4. Theae graces, which are the due qua
Uties of the heart, disposing it for prayer in
the exercise of it, should be excited and act.
ed : as hoUness, the lpve of it, the desire
of increase and growth of it ; so the hum
bling and melting pf the heart, and chiefly
faith, whicii is mainly set on work in prayer,
to draw forth the sweetnesses and virtues of
the proraises, to deaire earnestly their per-
fonnance te the seul, and tP believe that they
shaU be performed ; to have before our eyes
His goodness and faithfulness, who hath
prpraised, and to rest uppn that. And for
success in prayer, exercising faith in it, it

is altogether necessary to interpose the Me
diator, and look through him, and to apeak
and petition by hira ; who, warns ua of this,
that tliere ia no other way to apeed. No man
cometh to the Father but by me, John xiv.
6. Aa the Jewa, when they prayed, looked
toward the Teraple, where was the raercy-
seat, and the peculiar presence of God
[Schechinah ;] thus pught we, in all pur
praying, to look on Christ, who is our pro
pitiatory, and in whom the fulness of ihe
Godhead dwells bodily. Col. ii. 9. The
forgetting of thia may be the cause of pur
raany disapppintmenta.
5. Fervency ; net to seek coldly, that
presages refusal. There muat be fire in the
aacrifice, otherwiae it ascends not. There is
no sacrifice without incenae, and no incenso
without fire. Our remiss dead hearta are not
likely to do rauch for the Church of God,
nor for ouraelves. Where are thoae strong
cries that should pierce the heavens ? His
ear is open to iheir cry. He hears the faint
est, coldest prayer, but not with that delight
and propenseness to grant it ; his ear ia net
on it, as the word here is, Psal. Iv. 17 ; he
takes no pleasure in hearing it, but cries,
heart-cries. Oh ! thoae take hia ear, and move
his bowela ! for theae are the voice, the cries,
of his own children. A strange word of en
couragement to importunity. Give him no
rest, Isa. Ixii. 7 ; suffer bim not to be in
quiet, tiU he make Jerusalem a praise in
ihe earth. A few such suitors in these times
were worth thousands such as We are. Our
prayers stick in our breasts, scarce come forth,
much less do they go up and ascend with that
piercing force, that would open up the way
for deUverances to come down.
Kut in thia raust be some difference of tem
poral and spiritual thinga. The prayer in
the right atrain, cannot be too fervent in any
thing, but the desire of the thing in tem
porals may be too eamest. A feverish dis
tempered heat diaeasea the soul, therefore, in
these things, a holy indifferency concerning
the particular, may, and should, be joined
with the fervency of prayer. But, in spiri
tual things, there is no danger in vehemency
of desire ; covet these, hunger and thirst
foi tnem, be incessantiy ardent in the suit ;
yet even in those in aorae particulara, aa for
the degree and raeaaure of grace, and aome
peculiar furtherances, they should be pre.
sented so wilh earnestneas, aa that withal it
be with a reference and resignation of it ta
the wisdora and love of our Father.
2. For the other point, the answer of our
prayers, which ia in this openness of the ear,
it is a thing very needful to be considered and
attended to ; if we think tbat prayer is in
deed a thing that God takes notice pf, and
hath regard tp in his dealing with his chiL
dren, it is certainly a point of duty ami
wisdom in them to observe how he takes

A COMMENTARY UPON

180
notice of it, and bends his ear to it, and puts
his hand to help, and ao anawers it. This
both fumiahea raatter of praiae, and atirs up
the heart to render it. Therefore, in the
Psalms, the hearing of prayer ia so often
observed and recorded, and made a part of
the song of praise. And, withal, it endears
both God and prayer unto the aoul, as we
have both together, Psal. cxvi. 1, / love the
Lord, because he hath heard my voice and
my supplications ; the tranapositiou in the
original is pathetical, I love, because the
Lord hath heard my voice. I am in love,
and particularly this causes it, I have found
ao much kindneaa in the Lord, I cannot but
love ; He hath heard my voice. And then
it wina hia esteera and affectipn tp prayer,
seeing I find thia virtue in it, we ahaU never
part again ; / will call upon him as long as
I live. Seeing prayer draweth help and
favoura frpm- heaven, I ahaU npt be tp aeek
for a way in any want or strait that can befal
me. In thia there is need of direction : But
too many rules may as much confuse a raat
ter aa too few, and do raany timea perplex
the raind and raultiply doubta, aa many lawa-
dp multiply pleading. Briefiy then,
1. Slothful rainda do often neglect the
anawera of God, even when they are raost
legible in the grant of the very thing itself
that was desired. It raay be through a total
inadvertence in thia kind, never thinking on
thinga aa anawera of our requests ; or possi.
bly a continual eager pursuit of rapre, turns
away the raind frpra cpnsidering what it hath
uppn request pbtained ; atiU ao bent uppn
what further we would have, that we never
think what ia already dpne fpr us, which ia
one of the moat ordinary cauaea of ingrati
tude. 2. But though it be not in the aame thing
that we deaire, yet when the Lord changea
our petitiona in hia anawers, it is always for the
better ; he regards (according to that known
word of St. Augustin *) our well more than
our will. We beg deliverance, we are not
unanawered if he give patience and aupport ;
be it under a apiritual trial or temptation.
My grace is sufficient for thee. And where
the Lord doth thus, it is certainly better for
the tirae than the other would be. Observe
here, his ears are open to the righteous, but
his eyes are on ihem too : They have not
so his ear as blindly to give thera what they
ask, whether it be fit or no, but his eye is on
them, to see and cpnsider their eatate, and to
know better than theraaelves what ia beat, and
accordingly to anawer. Thia ia no prejudice,
buta great privUege and happineas of hia chil
dren, that they have a Father that knowa what is
fit for them, and withholds no geod from them.
And this commutation and exchange of our
requests a Christian observing, may usuaUy
* Sl non ad voluntatem, ad utilitatem.

[chap, hi.

find out the particular answer of hia prayers ;
and if soraetimes he doth not, then his best
way is npt tp subtUize and muse hiraself much
in that, but rather to keep pn in the exercise,
knowing (as the apostle speaks in another
caae) thia for certain, "that their labour shall
not be in vain in the Lord," 1 Cor. xv. ult.-
and aa the prophet hath it, Isa. xiv. 19, "He
hath not said unto the house of Jacob, Seek
ye me in vain."
3. Only this we should always remember,
not to set bounds and limita to the Lord in
point of time, to aet him a day, that thou
wilt attend ao long and no longer. How pa.
tiently will sorae raen bestow long attendance
on others, where they expect sorae very poor
good or courtesy at their hands ! But we are
very brisk and hasty with him, who never de.
lays ua but for our good, to ripen those mer.
cies for ua, that we, as fooliah children, would
pluck while they are green, and have neither
that aweetneas and goodneas in them which
they shaU have in his tirae. AU his works
are done in their season. Were there no
thing to check our impatience but hia great
neaa, and the greatneaa of thoae thinga we
ask for, and our own unworthiness, theae
might curb them, and perauade us how rea-
aonable it ia that we wait. He ia a King
weU worth waiting on ; and there ia in the
very waiting on him an honour and happiness
far above us : And the things we seek are
great, Forgiveness of sins, evidence of aonahip
and heirship ; heirship of a kingdom ; and
we, conderaned rebels, born heirs of the bet-
toraless pit. And shall such as we be in
auch haate with auch a Lord in ao great re-
queata ! But further, the attendance that
thia peraon enforcea, is aweetened by the con
aideration of hia wiadom and love, that he
hath foreaeen and chosen the very hour for
each raercy fit for ua, and will not slip it a
raoraent. Never any yet repented their
waiting, but found it fiiUy recompensed with
the opportune anawer, in such a tirae as then
they are forced to confess waa the only best.
/ waited patiently, aays the Paalmiat, in
waiting I waited, but it waa all well beatow-
ed. He inclined to me and heard my cry,
brought me up, Scc. Paal. xl. 1 ; and then
he afterwarda falla into admiration of the
Lord'a method, hia wonderful workings and
thoughts to us-ward. " While I was waiting
and aaw nothing, thy thoughts were towards
and for me, and thou didst then work when
thy goodneas waa most remarkable and won
derful." When thou art in great affliction, outward
or inward, thou thinkeat (it raay be) he re
gards thee not ; yea, but he doth. Thou
art his gold, he knowa the tirae of refining
thee, and then taking thee put pf the furnace ;
he is versed and skilful in tiiat wprk. Thou
sayeat, " I have long cried for power against
sir., and for sorae evidence of pardon, and fiiiiJ

VKR. 12.

THE FIRST EPISTLE Ol' PETER.

181

no anawer to either :" yet leave him not,
he never yet caat away any that sought hira,
and stayed by hira, and reaolved, whatsoever
carae on it, to lie at his fpotstppl, and to wait,
were it all their lifetime, for a good word or
a good look from him. And they chooae
weU that make that their great deaire and ex
pectation ; for one of hia good worda or looka
wiU make them up, and make them happy
for ever ; and aa he is truth itself, they are
sure not to miss of it. Blessed are all they
that wait for him. And thou that sayeat,
thou canat not find pardon of ain, and power
againat it ; yet conaider whence are thoae de
sires of both, that thou once didst not care
for. Why doat thou hate that ain thou once
didst love, and art troubled and burthened
with the guilt of it, under which thou went
est so easily, and didst not feel before ? Are
not theae aoraething of hia pwn wprk ? Yea,
aure. And know he wiU not leave it un-
finiahetl, nor forsake ihe work of his hands,
Psal. cxxxviii. 8. His eye may be on thee,
though thou seest him not, and his ear open
to thy cry, though, for the present, he speaks
not to thee as thou desirest. It is not aaid
that hia children alwaya aee and hear him
aenaibly ; but yet when they do npt, he ia be
hplding thein and hearing them gracipualy,
and wiU shew himaelf tp them, and anawer
thera seasonably.
David aaysi, Psal xxii. 2, " I cry in the
day-tirae, and thou hearest not ; and in the
night season, and am not silent ;" yet wiU
he not entertain hard thoughts of God, nor
conclude against him ; on the contrary, ac
knowledges, thou art holy, ver. 3. Where, by
holiness, is meant his faithfulness (I con
ceive) to his own, as foUows, that he inhabits
ihe praises of Israel, to wit, for the favours
he hath showed his people, as ver. 4, Our
fathers trusted in thee.
Let the Lord's open ear persuade us to
make much uae of it. • Be much in this
sweet and fruitful exercise of prayer, together
and apart, in the aenae of these three conai
derationa mentioned above ; the duty, the
dignity, and the utility of prayer.
1. The duty : It ia due to the Lord tobe
worahipped and acknowledged thus, aa the
fountain of good. How will men crouch aud
bow one to another upon small requests ; and
shaU he only be neglected by the most, from
whpm all have life, and breath, and all
things ? as the apostle speaks in hia aermona,
Acia xvii. 25. And then,
2. Conaider the dignity oi this, to be ad
mitted into so near converse with the highest
Majeaty. Were there nothing to follow, no
anawer at all, prayer paya itself in the ex
cellency of ita nature, and the aweetneas that
the aoul finda in it. Poor wretched man, tp

tp the Lprd pf heaven and earth, as his
Friend, as •his Father ! tp empty all his
cpraplaints intp his bosom, to refresh hia
soul in his God, wearied with the follies and
miseries of the world ! Where there is any
thing pf his lpve, this is a privilege pf the
highest sweetneaa ; for they that love find
much delight to discourse together, and
count all hours short, and think the day runs
too fast, that is so spent ; tind they that are
much in this exercise, the Lord doth impart
his secrets rauch to them, Psal. xxv. 14.
And, 3. Consider, again, it is the most profit
able exercise ; no loat tirae, as profane hearts
judge it, but only gained. AU bleaaings
attend thia work ; it ia the richeat traffic in
the world, for it trades with heaven, and
brings horae what is most precious there.
And aa holiness fits to prayer, so prayer be
friends holiness, increaaea it much. No
thing so refinea and purifiea the aoul aa fre
quent prayer. If the often converaing with
wiae men doth ao teach and advance the aoul
in .wiadom, what then will the converae of
God ? Thia raakes the apul to despise the
things of the world and, in a raanner, makes
it divine ; winda up the aoul frpm the earth,
acquainting it with delights that are infinitely
flweeter. The natural heart is full stuffed with pre
judices againat the way pf hplinesa, that dia-
auade and detain it ; and therefore the holy
Scriptures are most fitly rauch in this point,
of aaaerting the true advantage of it to
the spul, and in rerapving thpae miatakea it
has ef that way.
Thus here, and tp press it more home,
ver. 10, &c. the appstie, having used the
Psalmist's wprds, npw fpUows it forth in his
own, and extends what was said concerning
the particular way of raeekness and love, &c.
in the general doctrine, to all the paths of
righteousness. The main conclusion is, that happiness is
the certain consequent and fruit of holiness ;
aU good, even outward good, so far as it
holds good, and ia not inconsistent with a
higher good. If we did beUeve this more,
we ahould feel it more, and so, upon feeling
and experiment, beUeve it more atrongly.
All the heavy judgments we feel or fear, are
they not the fruit of our own ways, of pro
faneness, and pride, and raalice, and abound
ing ungodliness ? All cry out of hard
tiraes, evil days ; and yet, who is taking the
right way to better them ? Yea, who is
not StiU helping to raake thera worae ? Are
we not ourselves the greatest enemies of our
pwn peace ? Who looks either rightly back
ward, reflecting on hia forraer ways, or rightly
forward, to direct his way better that is be-

be adraitted into heaven while he is en earth, i fpre him ? Who either saya. What have I
and there to come and speak his raind freely I 'tone ? Jer. viii. 6, or What ought I to do?
* Ciavis diei et sera noctis. 1 Acts xVi. 30. And indeed, the one of these

183

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CHAI'. IIJ.

depends on the other,* / considered my
ways, (aays David) turned th^ over and
over, (as the wprd is,) and then I turned my
feet unto thy testimonies, Psalra cxix. 59,
Are there any, for all the judgraents faUen
on us, or that threaten ua, returning apace
with regret and hatred of ain ; haatening un-
to God, and mourning and weeping as they
ffo ; bedewing each step with their tears ?
Yea, where ia that newneas of life that the
word has caUed for so Ipng, and now the
word and the rod together are ao loud calling
for ? Whp more refraining his tongue
from evil, and his lips from guile ; chang
ing oatha, and Ues, 'and calumnies, into a
new language, into prayers, and reverent
speaking of God, and joining a auitable con.
sonant caniage ? Who is eschewing evil
and doing good, labouring to be fertile in
holiness, to bring forth much fruit to God?
This were the way to see good days indeed ;
this ia the way to the longeat life, the only
long Ufe and length of days, one etemal day,
as St Augustin on these words. One day
in thy courts is better than a thousand,
Psal. Ixxxix. 10. Millia dierum desiderani
homines, ei multum volunt hic vivere ; con
iemnant millia dierum, desiderent unum,
qui non habet ortum et occasum, cui non
cedit hesternus, quem non urget crastinus.
The reason added is above all exception,
it is supreme. The eyes of ihe Lord, Scc.
Ii he that made tiraes and seasons, and cora
raands and forma thera aa he wiU, if he can
give good days, or make men happy, then
the only way to it, aure, raust be the way of
his obedience ; to be in the constant favour
of the Great King, and atiU in his gracious
thoughts ; to have his eye and ear, if this
will serve the turn, (and if thia do it npt, I
pray ypu what wiU ?) then the rightepua raan
ia the only happy man. For the eyes of ihe
Lord are upon him, Scc. Surer happy daya
may be expected hence, than theira that draw
thera frora the aspect of the atara ; the eyea
of the Father of lighta benignly beholding
thera, the triune aspect of the blessed Tri
nity. The love he carries to thera draws
his eye stiU towards thera ; there is no for
getting of them, nor sUpping pf the fit sea
son to do thera good ; his raind, I raay say,
runs on that ; he sees how it is with thera,
and receives their suits gladly, rejoicing to
put favours upon them. He is their assur
ed Friend, yea, he is their Father : What
then can they want ? Surely they cannot
miss of any good that his love and power
can help them to.
But his face is against them that do
evil.] So our happiness and misery are in
his face, his Ippks. Npthing so comfortable
as his favourable face, nothing so temble
again as his face ; his anger, as the He
brew word ia often taken, that signifies his
* ('onsiliuin futurum ex priBterito venit. §EM.

face : And yet, how many sleep aound
under this raisery I But believe, it is a
dead and a deadly sleep ; the Lord standing
in enmity with thee, and yet thy soul ut
ease 1 Pitiful accursed ease ! I regard
not the differences of your putward estate ;
that ia npt a thing worth the speaking of.
If thou be poor and base, and in the world's
eye but a wretch, and withal under the ha
tred of God, as being an irapenitent harden
ed sinner, those other things are nothing;
this is the tpp, yea, the tptal sum of thy
misery : Or, be thou beautiful, or rich, or
noble, or witty, &c. or aU of these together,
or what thou wilt, but, is the face of the
Lord against thee?* think as thpu wilt,
thy estate ia net tp be envied, but lamented.
I cannpt say. Much gppd dp it thee, with
all thy enjpyraents ; for it is aure they can
do thee no good ; and if thou dpst npt be
Ueve this npw, the day is at hand wherein
thpu shalt be fprced to believe it, finding it
then inevpcably true. If ypu will, you raay
still follow ihe things of the world, walk
after the lusts of your own hearts, neglect
-God, and please yourselves ; but, aa Solo-
mon'a word ia of judgment, Eccl. ix. 2,
Remember ihat the face of the Lord is
against thee, and that in judgraent he ahaU
unveil it, and let thee aee it againat thee.
Oh I the moat tenible of all aights !
The godly often do not aee the Lord'a
favourable looks, while he is eyeing thera ;
and the wicked u.sually do not see nor per
ceive, neither will believe, that his face is
against them : But, beaidea that the day of
fiiU discovery is coraing, the Lord doth
sometimes let both the one and the other
know somewhat how he stands affected to
warda thera. In pecuUar deliverances and
raerciea, he teUs hia own, that he forgets
thera not, but both aeea and beara them,
when they think he doea neither, after that
loving and gracious manner they desire, and
is here meant ; and sometimes he aets forth
glances of hia bright countenance, darts in
a beam upon their souls, that is more worth
than many worlds. And, on the other aide,
he ia pleased aometiraea to raake it known
that hia face is against the wicked, either by
reraarkable outward judgmenta, which to
them are the vent of his juat enraity againat
them, or to some he apeaks it more home, in
honors and affrights of conscience, which to
them are eamests and pledges ef their full
misery, that inheritance of woe reserved, as
the jpys and cpmforta of beUevers are of their
inheritance of glory.
Therefore, if you have any beUef of these
thinga, be persuaded, be entreated, to for.
sake the way of ungodlinesa. Do not fiatter
yourselves, and dream of escaping; when
you hear of outward judgments on your
neighbpurs and brethren, trerable and be
* Splendida miseria.

VER. 13.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

183

humbled. Remember our Saviour's words,
" Think ye that these pn whpm the tpwer of
Siloam feU were greater sinners than others ?
I teU you, nay : but except ye repent, ye
shaU aU likewise perish," Luke xiii. 1 — 5.
This seeming harsh word. He that was wis.
dom and sweetness itself uttered, and even in
it spoke like a Saviour ; he speaks of perish.
ing, that they raight not perish, and presses
repentance by theheavy doom of impenitence.
When you hear of this, there is none of
you would willingly choose it, thai the
Lord's face should be against you, although
upon very high offers made to you of other
things. You think, I know, that the very
sound of it is somewhat fearful ; and, on
the other side, haye posaibly aome confuaed
notion of hia favour, aa a tiling tlesirable ;
and yet do not bestir yourselves, to avoid the
one, and inquire after the other, which is cer
tainly by reason of your unbelief. For if you
think of the love of God, aa hia word speaka
of it, and as you wiU aay you do, whence ia
it, I pray you, that there is no trifle in this
world that wiU not take more deeply with
you, and which you follow not with more
eamestness, than this great business of re
conciliation with God, in order to your find
ing his face, not only not againat you, but
gracioualy towarda you ; His eyes upon
you, and his ears open to your prayer.
Your bleasedness is not, no, (believe it,)
it is not where moat of you aeek it, in things
below ; how can that be ? It must be a
higher gppd rauat make ypu happy. While
you labour and aweat for it in any thing
under the aun, your pains run all to waste ;
you seek a happy life in the region of death.
Here, here it is alone, in the love and favpur
pf God, to have his countenance and friend
ship, and free access and converae ; and thia
ia nowhere to be found but in the ways of
hoUness. Ver. 1.1. And who is he that will harm you, if you
be followers of that which is good ?
This the Apostle adds, aa a further rea
son of the aafety and happineaa of that way
he pointa out, from ita own nature. ' There
is soraething even intrinsical in a meek, and
upright, and holy caniage, that is apt, in
part, to free a man frora many evils and
mischiefs that the ungodly are exposed to,
and do naturally draw upon theraselves.
Your spptleaa and hannleaa deportment will
much bind up the hands even of your ene
mies, and spmetimes, possibly, apraewhat
allay and cppI the raalice pf your hearta,
that they cannot so rage against you as
otherwiiie they raight. It will be somewhat
strange and raonatroua to rage against the
innocent ; Who is he that will harm you ?
&c. Here are two things : 1. The cartiage ;
2. The advantage of it.
I - Their carriage expressed, followers.

Scc. Or, as the word is. Imitators of that
which is good.
There ia an imitation of men that ia im-
pioua and wicked, taking the copy of their
sina ; again, an imitation, that, though not
ao grossly evil, yet is pppr and servile, being
in mean things, yea spmetimes descending
to imitate the very iraperfections -of othera,
aa fancying some coraeliness in them ; as
aorae of Basil's scholars, that imitated his
slow speaking, which he had a little in the
extreme, and could not help : but this is
alwaya laudable, and worthy of the best
minds, to be imitators of thai which is
good, wheresoever they find iti For that
stays not in any raan's person, aa the ulti
mate pattern, but ariaea to the higheat grace,
being raan's nearest likeness to God, his
iraage and reserablance ; and so, foUowing
the exaraple of the saints in holinesa, we
look higher than thera, and conaider thera
aa receivers, but God as the first owner and
dispenser of grace, bearing his stamp and
superscription, and belonging peculiarly tp
hira, in what hand spever it be fpund, aa
canying the mark of no other owner, but
hia only.
Tile Vord of God hath our copy in its
perfection, and very legible and clear ; and
ao the imitation pf good, is the complete rule
of it, ia the regulating of our waya by the
word : But even there we find, beaidea ge.
neral rulea, the particular tracka of life of
divera eminent holy persons, and those on
purpoae aet before ua, that we raay know
hoUneaa not to be an idle imaginary things
but that raen have really been holy : though
not altogether sinleaa, yet holy and apiritual
in sorae gopd measure ; that there have been
thoae who have " ahined as Ughts araidst a
perverse generation," aa greater stars in a
dark night, and yet men, as St. Jamea aaya
of Eliaa, Uke us in nature, ofioio,^ctSii^, and
the frailty of it : subject to like passions
as v>e are, Jamea. v. 17. Why may we
not then aapire to be holy, aa they were, and
attain to it, although we ahould faU short of
the degree ? Yet net stopping at a smaU
measure, but running further, pressing still
forward toward ihe mark, Phil. iii. 14 ;
foUowing them in the way they went, though
at a distance ; not reaching them, and yet
walking, yea, running after thera as fast as
we can : Not judging of hoUness by our
own sloth and natural averseness, taking i
for a singularity fit only for rare extraordi
nary persons, such as Propheta and Apoatles
were, or as the Church of Rorae fancies
those to be, to whora it vouchsafes » room
in the roll of saints. Do you not know that
hpliness is the only via regia, tbis follow
ing of good, that path wherein aU the chil
dren of God raust walk, one foUowing after
another, each striving to equal, and, if they
could, to putstrip even tliose they look on as

A COMMENTARY UPON

184
moat advanced in it ? Thia ia, amongst
raany other, a misconccit in the Roraish
Church, that they aeera to raake holiness a
kind of irapropriate good, that the comraon
aort can have Uttle share in : alraoat aU piety
being shut up within cloister.walla, as its
only fit dweUing. Yet it hath not Uked
their lodging, it seems, but is flown over the
waUs away from thera ; for there is litde of
it even there to be found ; but however,
their opinion of it places it there, as having
Uttie to do abroad in the world.
Whereaa the truth is, that all Christiana
have thia for their comraon taak, though
some are under raore peculiar obligationa to
study this pne copy. Look on the rule of
hoUneaa, and be followera of it, and followera
or imitators one of another, ao far as their
cartiage agrees with that primitive copy, as
writ after it ; Be ye followers of me, fcifi.nTxi,
says the Apostle, even to the meaneat of
chriatians araongat thpae he wrpte (o, but
thus, as I am of Christ, 1 Cor. xi. 1-
Is it thus with us ? Are we zealoua and
cmuloua foUowera of that which is gppd, ex-
citing each pther by our exaraple to a holy
and Chriatian conversation, provoking one
another (ao the Apoatle'a word is) ' <o love
mid to good works ? Heb, x, 24. Or,
Are not the raost, rautual corrupters of each
jther, and of the places and societies where
they live : sorae leading and others foUow
ing, in their ungodlinesa ? Not regarding
the courae of thpae that are rapat deairpus to
walk holily, or, if at aU, doing it with a
corrupt and evil eye ; not to study and fol
low what ia good in them, their way of ho
linesa, but to eapy any the leaat wrong atep,
to take any exact notice of any imperfection,
and aometiraea only charged on them by
malignant falaehood ? and by thia, either to
reproach reUgion, or to hearten or harden
themselvea in their ineligion and ungodU
ness, seeking wanant for their own wiUing
licentiousness in the unwilling faiUngs of
God's children.
And, in their converse with such as thera.
selves, they are foUowing their profane way,
and flattering and blessing one another in it.
" What need we be so precise ? and, if I
should not do as others, they would laugh
at me, I should pass for a fool." WeU,
thou wilt be a fool in the raost wretched
kind, rather than be accounted one by such
as are foola, and know not at all wherein true
wisdom consiata.
Thus are the moat carried with the stream
of thia wicked world, their pwn inward cpr-
ruptipn eaaily agreeing and suiting with it ;
every man, as a drep, faUing into a tonent,
and eaaily raade one, and rumiing along with
it into that dead sea where it empties itaelf.
But thoae, whom the Lord hath a pur
pose to aever and aave, he carriea in a con-
tfary course, ever, tp that violent atream ; and

[CHAP. HI,

these are the students of holineaa, the fol.
lowers of good ; that bend their endeavours
thus, and look on all aidea dUigently, on
what may aniraate and advance them ; on
the example pf the aainta in fprmer timea,
and on the good they eapy in those that Uve
tpgether with them ; and, abpve aU, study.
ing that perfect rule in the Scriptures, and
that highest and first pattem, there sc pften
set before them, even the Author of that rule,
the Lprd hiraaelf ; studying to be holy as
he is holy, io be bountiful and merciful as
their heavenly Father ;* and in aU labeur-
ing to be, aa the Apoatle exhorts, followers
of God fis dear children, Eph. v. 1, 2. As
chUdren that are belovedrof their father, and
do love and reverence him ; who therefore
will be ambitious to be Uke hira ; and par
ticularly aira at the following any virtues oi
exceUency in hira : Now, thus it is most
reasonable in the children of God, their
Father being the highest and best of aU ex
cellency and perfection.
But this exceUent pattem ia drawn down
nearer their view in the Son Jesus Chriat ;
where we have the higheat exaraple made
Ipw, and yet lesing npthing pf its perfection.
So that we may study God in man, and read
aU our leaaon, without any blpt, even in pur
pwn nature. And thia ia traly the pnly way
tp be the beat prpficients in thia fpUpwing
and imitating pf aU gppd. In hira we may
leam aU, even theae lesapna that' raen moat
despise.; God teaching thera, by acting them,
and calUng us to follow ; Learn of me, for
I am meek and lowly in heart. Matt. xi.
29. But this is too large a aubject. Woidd
you advance in aU ' grace ? atudy Chriat
much, and you ahall find not only the pat
tem in him, but atrength and akUl frora him
to foUow it.
2. The advantage ; Who is he that will
harm you 9
The very narae of it saya so much ; a
good, worthy the following for itself : But
there ia thia farther to persuade it, that be.
sides higher benefit, it oftentiraea cuta off the
occaaiona of preaent evila and disturbances,
that Ptherwise are incident to raen. Who is
he ? Men, even evil men, wiU often be over
come by our blameless and hannless be.
haviour, 1. In the life of a godly raan, taken to
gether in the whole body and frame pf it,
there is a grave beauty or comeliness, that
oftentimes forces some kind of reverence and
reapect to it, even in ungodly rainda.
2. Though a natural man cannot love them
spiritually, aa graces of the Spirit of God ;
(for so only the partakers of them are lovers
of them ;) yet he may have, and usuaUy
hath, a natural liking and esteera of some
kind of virtues which are in a Christian, and
* Ti^ot uv^^aiveov ofioiojiri^ &iat, Pyth.

VEK. 1.1.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

185

are not, in their right nature, in any other
to be fouhd ; though a moralist may have
somewhat Ukethem, meekness, andpatience,
and charity, and fidelity, Scc,
3. Theae, and other auch Uke graces, do
make a Christian life so inoffensive and
calm, tiiat, except where the raatter of tlieir
Gpd or religion ia made the crirae, raalice
itaelf can scarce tell where to fasten ita teeth
or lay hold, or hath nothing to puU by,
though it would ; yea. oftentiraes, fpr want
of work or occasions, it wiU faU asleep for
a whUe ; whereaa ungodUneaa and iniquity,
sometimes by breaking out into notorioua
crimes, draws out the sword of civil justice,
and where it rises not so high, yet it involves
men in frequent contentions and quanels,
Prov. xxiii. 29. How often are the lusts,
and pride, and covetousness of men, paid
with dangers, and troubles, and vexations,
that, besides what is abiding them hereafter,
do even in this present life spring out of
them ? Now, theae the godly eacape, by
their juat, and mUd. and humble caniage.
Wlience so many jars and strifes araongat
the greateat part, but from their unchristian
hearts and lives, from iheir lusts ihat war
in their members ? James iv. 1 ; their self-
love and unmortified paaaiona ? One wUl
abate nothing of hia wUl, nor the other of
Ilia. Thua, where pride and pasaion raeet
on both sides, it cannot be but a fire wiU
tie kindled ; when hard flints strike to
gether, the sparks wiU fly about ; but a soft
mild spirit is a great preserver of its pwn
peace, kills the ppwer of conteat ; aa wool
packa, or auch like aoft matter, must deaden
the force of buUeta. A soft answer turns
away wrath, aays Solomon, Prov. xv. 1
beats it off, breaks the bone, as he saya ; the
very atrength of it, aa the bonea are in thebody.
And thus we find it, they that think them.
selves high spirited, and wiU bear least, as
they speak, are often, even by that, forced to
bow moat, or to burat under it ; while hu
miUty and meekneaa escape raany a burden,
and many a blow, always keeping peace with-
in, and pften withput tpp.
Reflection, 1, If thia were duly cpnsi
dered, raight it npt dp spmewhat to induce
your minds to love the way pf religipn, for
that it would so much abate the turbulency
and unquietness that abound in the lives of
raen ; a great part whereof the moat do pro,
cure by the earthUneas and distemper of their
own carnal minds, and the disorder in their
ways that arises thence ?
2. Ypu, whpae hearta are set tpwards Gpd,
and your feet entered into his ways, I hope
will find no reason for a change, but many
reasons to comraend and endear that way to
ypu every day mure than anpther ; and,
ampngst the rest, even this, that in them,
you escape many, even present, mischiefs,
diat you see the waya of the world are ^ull

of. And, if you will be careful to ply your
rule, and study your copy better, ypu shaU
find it more so. The more you follow tliat
which is good, the more ahall you avoid a
number of putward evila, that are prdinarily
drawn nn uppn men by their pwn enprraities
and passipns. Keep as clpse as ypu can to
the genuine, even track pf a Christian walk ;
and labpur fpr a prudent and meek beha.
vipur, adorning your holy profession, and this
shaU adom you, and sometiraes gain those
that are without, 1 Cpr. ix. 21 ; yea, even
ypur eneraies shaU be constrained to ap
prove it.
It is known how much the spotless lives
and patient sufferings of the primitive Chris
tians did sometimes work upon their behold
ers, yea, on their persecutors ; and persuaded
aome that would not ahare with thera in
their reUgion, yet to apeak and write for thera.
Seeing, then, that reaaon and experience
do jointly aver it, that the Uvea of raen, con-
veraant together, have generally a great in
fluence one upon another ; for example ia an
aniraated or living rule, and ia both the
ahorteat and raoat powerful way of teaching ;
let rae graft an exhortation or two on thia
obvioua reraark.
1. Whoaoever are in an exeraplary or lead
ing place in relation to others, be it many or
few, be ye first followers of God. Set be
fore you the rule of holineaa, and withal, the
beat and highest examplea of those that have
walked according to it, and then you wiU be
leading in it ; and those that are under you,
and bent to foUow you in so doing, will fol
low that which is good, 1 Thess. v. 15.
Lead and draw them on, by admonishing.
and counselUng, and exhorting, but espe
cially by walking  Paatora, be [tj^o,] en
samples to the flock, or models, as our Apoa.
tie hath it, 1 Pet. v. 8, that they raay be
staraped aright, taking the irapreaaion of your
Uvea. Sound doctrine alone wiU not aerve ;
though the water you give your flocks be
pure, yet if you lay spotted roda before thera,
it will bring forth apotted Uvea in them ;
either teach not at all, pr teach by the rhe
toric of your Uvea.* — Ye, eldera, be auclMn
grave and pious caniage, whatsoever be your
years ; fpr young men rtiay be so, and pos
sibly, gray hairs may have nothing under
them but gaddishness and folly many years
old, habituated and inveterate ungodliness.
— Parents and masters, let your children and
servants read in ypur lives the life and power
of godliness, ihe practice of piety ; notly.
ing in your windows or corners of your houses,
and confined within the clasp of the book,
bearing that or any auch Uke title, but shin
ing in your lives.
2. You that are easily receptive of the im
pression of example, beware of the stamp of
unholiness, and a carnal, formal course of
* H ^« SiSaj-xliv, TU T^O^M.

186

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CII,

profession, whereof die examples are' mpst
abpunding ; but, though they be fewer that
bear the Uvely iraage of God impressed on
dieir hearta, and expressed in their actiona,
yet atudy theae, and be followers of those,
as ihey are of Christ, 1 Cor. iv. 16,
know you wiU eapy much inegular and un
sanctified caniage in ua that are set up for
the ministry ; and if you look round, ypu
will find the world lying in wickedness
yet, if there be any that have any sparks ef
divine light in them, converse with those and
follow thera.
3. And generaUy, this I say to aU, for
none are so coraplete, but they raay eapy
sorae iraitable and eraulable good, even in
raeaner Chriatiana ; acquaint youraelvea with
the word, the rule of holineaa ; aud then,
with an eye to that, look on one another, and
be zealoua of progreaa in the waya of holineaa.
Chooae to converae with auch aa raay excite
you and advance you, both by their advice
and exaraple. Let not a conupt generation,
in which you live, be the worae by you, nor
you the worae by it. As far as you necessa-
rily engage in some converaation with thpae
that are unhply, let thera not puU you into
the raire, but, if you can, help thera out
and let not any cuatpm pf ain about you, by
famUiar aeeing, gain upon you, ao as to think
it fashionable and comely ; yea, or so as not
to think it deformed and hateful  Know,
that you must row against the atream of
wickedness in the world, unless you would
be canied with it to the dead sea, or lake of
perdition ; take that grave counsel, given
Rora. xii. 2, be not conformed io ihis world,
but be ye transformed by ihe renewing of
your mind, which ia the daily advancement
in renovation, purifying and refining every
day. Now, in thia way you shaU have sweet
inward peace and joy, and some outward
advantage too ; then men, except they are
monstrously cruel and malicious, will not ao
readily Aarm -you. It wiU abate much of
their rage ; but however, if you do not escape
auffering by your holy carriage, yea, if you
suffer even for it, yei in that are ye happy,
aa the Apoatle iraraediately adda.
Veb. 14. But and if ye suifer for righteousness
sake, haijpy are ye : and be not afraid of their
terror, neither be troubled.
I>r thia verae we may obaerve two thinga :
lst. Even in the' moat blaraeleaa way of a
Chriatian's Ufe, his suffering supposed. 2dly,
His happiness, even in suffering, asserted.
1. Suffering is auppoaed notwithatanding
of righteousneaa, yea, for righteousness ;
and that net as a rare unusual accident, but
aa the ftequeut Ipt pf Chriatiana ; aa Luther
caUs persecution, malus genius Evangelii.
And we being forewarned of this, as not only
the possible, but tbe frequent lot ofthe saints,
ought not to hearken to the false prophecies

of our own self-love, that divines what it
would gladly have, and easily persuades us
tp believe it. Think npt that any prudence
will lead you by all oppositions and raaUce
of an ungodly world ; but raany winter blasts
will meet you in the most inoffensive way of
reUgion, if you keep straight to it. Suffer
ing and war with the world is a part of the
godly man's portion here, which seems hard,
but, take it altogether, it ia sweet ; none in
their wita wiU refuae that legacy entire. In
the world ye shall have trouble, but in me
ye shall have peace, John xvi.- ult.
Look about you, and aee if there be any
eatate of man, or courae of Ufe, exempted
from troublea. The greatest are usually
aubject to greateat vexations ; as the largest
bodies have the largest shadows attending
them. We need not tell nobles and rich
raen, that contentraent doth not dwell in
great palaces and titles, nor in full coffera ;
they-feel it, that they are not free of much
anguish and molestation, and that a propor
tionable train of carea, as conatantiy aa of
servants, foUows great place and wealth.
Riches, and trouble, or noise, are signified
by the aame Hebrew word, compare Job
xxxvi. 19, with xxx. 24 ; and kinga find that
their crowns, that are set ao richly with
diampnda withnut, are lined with thprna
within. And, if we speak pf raen that are ser
vants to unrighteousness, besides what is
to corae, are they not forced to suffer araongat
the service of their lusta, the diaterapera that
attend unhealthy intemperance ; and poverty
that dogs luxury at the heels ; and the fit
punishraent of voluptuous peraona in pain
ful diaeases, that either quickly cut the
thread of life, or raake their aged bones full
of the sins of iheir youth. Job xx. 11 ?
So that, on the whole, take what way you
wiU, there is no place nor condition ao fenc
ed and guarded, but public calamities, or
personal grie''a, find a way ti reach ua.
Seeing then we must suffer, whatever
courae we take, thia kind of suffering, to
suffer for righteousness, is far the best.
What Julius Cffisar said, of doing iU," we
may well say of suffering Ul, if it raust be,
it ia beat to be for a kingdom. And thoae
are the terraa on which Chriatiana are caUed
to suffer for righteousness ; if we will reign
with Christ, certain it is we must suffer-^
with him ; and, if we do suffer with him,
it is aa certain we shall reign with him, 2
Tim. ii. 12. And therefore such aufferers
are happy.
But I shaU proaecute thia suffering for
righteousneas, only with relation to the
Apoatle's present reasoning. His conclusion
he establiahea : 1. From the favour and pro
tection of God. 2. Frpra the nature pf the
thing itself. Npw, we wpuld cpnsider the
* Si violandum est jus, regnandi causa violandum.

VEB. 14.]

TIIE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETEK.

lej

consistence pf diis aupppaitipn with thpse
reaspns. 1st, From the favour pr prptectipn pf Gpd.
The eyes of the Lord being on the righteous
fpr their gppd, and his ear open to their
prayer ; hpw is it, that, notwithstanding
all this favour and inspection, they are so
much exposed to suffering ; and, even for
the regard and affection they bear towarda
him, suffering for righteousness ? Theae
seem not to agree weU, yet they do.
It is not said that hia eye ia ao on thera,
as that he wiU never aee them afflicted, nor
have them auffer any thing ; no : But thia
ia their great privilege and comfort in suffer
ing, that his gracioua eye is then upon them,
and sees their trouble, and his ear towards
them ; not ao aa to grant them an exemption
(for that they will not aeek for,) but aeasoii.
able deliverance, and, in the mean while,
strong support, as is evident in that xxxivth
Psalm. If his eye be always on them, he
sees thera suffer often, for their affUctions
are many, ver, 19 ; and if his ear be to
them, he hears raany sighs and cries pressed
out by sufferings : And they are content
this is enough, yea, better than not to suffer
they suffer, and often directiy for hira ; but
he sees it aU, takes perfect notice of it,
therefore it is not lost. And they are forced
to cry, but none of their cries escape his ear
he hears and he manifeata that he aeea and
beara, for he delivers ihem ; and tiU he does
that, he keeps them frora being cruahed under
the weight of die suffering : He keeps all
his bones, not one of ihem is broken, Paal.
xxxiv. 20.
He sees, yea pointa and providea, theae
confiicts for his choicest servanta : he aeta
hia champions to encounter the raalice of
Satan and the world, for his sake, to give
proof of the truth and the strength of their
love to hira for whom they suffer, and to
overcome even in auffering.
He ia aure of his designed advantages out
of the sufferinga of hia church and saints for
his name ; he loses nothing, and they lose
nothing : but their enemies, when they rage
most, and prevail most, are ever the greatest
losers. His own glory grows, the graces of
his people grow, yea, their very nuraber grows,
and that soraetimes most by their greatest
sufferings ; it was evident in the first ages of
the Christian churches ; where were the glory
of so rauch invincible love and patience, if
they had not been so put to it ?
2dly, For the pther, that arguraent frpm
the nature of the thing : It is certain that,
when it is intimated that the said following
of good wpuld preserve frpm harm, it speaks
what it is apt tP dp, and what, in spme
measure, it often dpth ; but then, cpnsi
dering the nature pf the wprld, its enmi
ty against God and reUgipn, that strpng
jioison in the serpent's seed, it is not strange

that it pften prpves ptherwise ; thaf, #ptwith.
standing the righteous carriage of Chriatians,
yea even because of it, they suflfer much.
It is a reaolved case, all that will live god
ly must suffer persecution, 2 Tira. iii. 12.
It raeeta a Chriatian in hia entry to the way
of the kingdora, and goea along all the way.
No aooner canat thou begin to seek the way
to heaven, but the world will seek how to
vex and molest thee, and, make that way
grievous ; if no other ^ay, by scoffs and
taunts, intended aa bitter blasta to deatroy
the tender bloaaora or bud of religion, or,
(as H erod), to kiU Christ newly bom. Ypu
ahaU no sopner begin tp inquire after God,
but, twenty to one, they will begin to inquire
if thou art gone mad. But if thou knowest
who it is whom thou hast trusted, 2 Tim.
i. 12, and whom thou loveat, thia ia a amall
raatter. What though it were deeper and
aharper sufferinga, yet stiU, if you suffer
for righteousness, happy are you :
Which ia the second thing that was pro-
poaed, and more particularly importa, 1.
That a Christian, under the heaviest load
oi sufferings for righteousness, ia yet still
happy, notwithstanding theae sufferinga.
2. That he is happier even by these sufferings.
And, 1st, All the sufferings and distreaaea of
this world are not able to deatroy the happi7
ness of a Christian, nor diminish it ; yea,
they cannot at all touch it, it ia out of their
reach. If it were built on worldly enjoymenta,
then worldly depriveraents and sufferings
might shake it, yea, might undo it ; when
thpse rotten props fail, that which rests on
them raust faU. He that hath set his heart
on his riches, a few hours can make him
miserable ; he that lives on popular applause,
it is almost in anybody's power to rob him of
hia happiness, a little sUght or disgrace un-
doea him ; or, whatsoever the aoul fixea on of
these raoving unfixed thinga, pluck them
frpm it, and it muat cry after them. Ye have
taken away my gods.
But the beUever'a happineas is safe, put
pf the reach pf shpt ; he may be imppverish-
ed, and iraprispned, and tprtured, and kill
ed ; but this pne thing is put pf hazard, he
cannot be miserable ; stiU, in the raidst of
aU these, subsists he a happy raan. If
aU friends be shut out, yet the viaita of the
Coraforter may be frequent, bringing him
glad tidinga from heaven, and comrauning
with him of the love pf Chriat, and aolaclng
him in that. It was a great word for a hea
then to say of his false accusers. Kill me
they may, but they cannot hurt me : How
much more confidently raay the Christian
say so ! Banishraent he fears not, for his
cpuntry ia abpve ; nor death, for that sends
him home into that country.
The believing aoul having hold of Jesus
Christ, can easily despise the best and the

188

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap, in,'

worst o4 the world, and bid defiance to all
that ia in it ; can share with the Apostle in
that of hia, / am persuaded ihat neither
death nor life shall separate mc from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord, Rora. viii. ult. Yea, what though
the frame of the world were diaaolving and
falling to piecea ! Thia happiness holds,
and is not atined by it ; for it is in that
Bock of eternity, that stirs not, nor changes
at aU.
Our main work, truly, if you will believe
it, is this, tp provide this immpveable hap
pineaa, that amidat aU changea, and leases,
and sufferings, may hpld fimi. Ypu may be
free, choose it rather ; npt tp stand to the
courteay of any thing about you, nor of any
man, whether eneray pr friend, fpr the tenure
pf your happiness. Lay it higher and surer,
and, if you be wiae, provide such a peace as
will reraain untouched in the hottest flarae ;
such a light as will shine in the deepest dun
geon, and auch a life aa ia aafe even in death
itself; that life ihat is hid with Christ in
God, Col. iii. 3.
But if in other sufferings, even the worst
and saddest, the beUever be atiU a happy
man, then more eapeciaUy in those that are
the best kind, suffering for righteousnesa :
Not only do they not detract from his hap
pineaa ; but,
2dly, They concur and give aeceasion to
it ; he is happy even so by suffering ; as will
appear frpra the fpUpwing cpnsideratipns :
1 . It is the happiness of a Christian, un
til he attain perfection, to be advancing to
wards it ; to be daily refining frora sin, and
growing richer and stronger in the graces
that raake up a Christian a new creature ; to
attain a higher degree of patience, and raeek-
ness, and humility, to have the heart more
weaned frora the earth, and fixed on heaven :
now, as other afflictions of the saints do help
thera in those their sufferinga for righteoua
neaa, the unrighteouaneaa and injurioua deal-
inga of the world with thera have a particular
fitneaa for thia purpose. Those trials that
come iraraediately frora God's own hand,
seera to bind to a patient and humble com
pUance, with more authority, and, (I raay say)
necessity : There is no plea, no place for so
much as a word, unlesa it be directly and ex
pressly against the Lord's own dealing ; but
unjust suffering at the hands of men, requires
some uncomraon degrees of respect unto God,
without whose hand they cannot move ; ao
that for his sake, and for reverence and love
to him, a Chriatian can go through thoae with
that mild evenneas of spirit, that overcoraes
even in suft'ering.
And there is nothing putward rapre fit tp
persuade a man to give up with the world and
its friendship, than to feel much of its enmity
and maUce '; and that directly venting itself
ag.iinst religion, making diat the very quanel.

which is of aU things dearest to a Christian;
and in highest esteem with him.
If the world should caress thera, and smile
on thera, they might be ready to forget their
home ; or at least to abate in the frequent
thpughts and fervent desires pf it, and to turn
into some familiarity with the world, and fa
vourable thoughts of it, so as to let out some.
what of their hearts after it ; and thus grace
would grow faint by the diversion and caU.
ing forth of the apirita : as in aumraer, in the
hottest and fairest weather, it ia with the body.
It is a confirraed observation, by the ex-
perience of aU ages, that when the Church
flouriahed raoat in outward peace and wealth,
it abated moat of ita apiritual luatre,* which
ia ita genuine and true beauty ; and, when
it aeemed meat raiaerable by persecutions and
sufferings, it was most happy, in aincerity,
and zeal, and vigour of grace. When the
moon shines brightest tpwards the earth, it
ia dark heavenwarda, and, pn the cpntrary,
when it appeara net, ia nearest the sun, and
clear tpwards heaven.
2. Persecuted Christians are happy in act.
ing and evidencing, by thpse suff'erings for
God, their love to him. Lpve deUghts in
difficulties, and grpwa in them : The more
a Chriatian suffers fpr Christ, the more he
loves him, and accounts him the dearer; and
the more he loves him, atUl the raore can he
suffer for him.
3. They are happy, as in testifying love
to Chriat and glorifying him, ao in conformi
ty with him, which ia love'a arabition. It
affecta likeneas and harraony at any rate. A
beUever would readily take it as an affront,
that the world should be kind to him, that
waa so harsh and cruel tO hia beloved Lord
and Master. Canat thou expect, or would
eat thou wish, amooth language from that
world that reviled thy Jesua, that called him
Beelzebub ? Couldat thou own and accept
friendship at hia handa, that buffetted hira,
and abed hia blood ? Or, art thou rather
raoat wiUing to ahare with him, and of St.
Paul's mind, who executed his embassy in
chains, f Eph. vi. 20 ; and yet could boldly
say. Gal. vi. 14, God forbid that I should
gloryin anythingsave in thecross of Christ,
whereby the world is crucified unto me, and
I unto the world.
4. Suffering Chriatiana are happy in the
rich auppliea of spiritual comfort and joy,
that in those timea of auffering are usual : ao
that aa their sufferings for Christ do abound,
their consolations in him abound muchmore,
aa the Apoade teatifiea, 2 Cor. i. 5. God is
apeaking most peace to the soul when the
world speaks meat war and enmity againat it ;
and this cpmpensatea abundantly. When the
Chriatiiin lays the greatest aufferinga men can
infiict in the balance, and the leaat glances
* Opibus major, virtutibus minor.
¦^ Xl^of£tua> iv a/.uo'ti.

VEn, 14.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

189

pf Gpd's countenance in the pther, he saya,
it is wprth aU the enduring pf theae tp enjpy
thia ; says with David, Psal. cix. 28, Let
ihem curse, but bless thou ; let thera frpwn,
but sraile thpu. And thua Gpd usuaUy dpth ;
refreahea audi as are priapuera fpr him with
visits, diat they would buy again with the
hardeat reatraint and debaning of nearest
frienda. The world cannpt but misjudge
the state ef auffering Chriatiana ; it sees, aa
St. Bernard apeaks, tiieir crosses, but not
their anointings. * Was npt Stephen, think
ypu, in a happy posture, even in his enemies'
hands ? Was he afraid of the showers of
stones coming about his eara, that saw the
heavens opened, and Jesus standing on the
Father's right hand ? So little waa he then
troubled with the atoning him, that, aa the
text hath it, in the midst of them he fell
asleep, A eta vii. 55, 60.
If thoae sufferings be so smaU, that they
are weighed down even witn present comforta,
and so the Christian be happy in them in
that regard, how much raore doth the weight
of glory, 2 Cor. iv. 17, aurpaaa, that foUowa
theae sufferings ? They are not worthy to
come in, comparison ; they are as nothing to
that glory that shall be revealed, in the
Aposties' arithmetic. That, his expression,
iraports, [Xoyilo/ixi,] when I have caat up the
aura of the aufFerings of this preaent time,
this instant now, [ri svt] they amount to juat
nothing in respect of that glory, Rom. viii.
18. Now, these sufferings are happy, be
cause they are the way to this happiness, and
pledges of it, and (if any thing do) they
raise the very degree of it : however, it is an
exceeding excellent weight of glory ; the
Hebrew wprd that signifies glory, signifies
weight, yet the glories that are here are aU
too light, ri iXit<^oo'j, except in the weight of
cares and sonows that attend them, but that
hath the weight of complete blessedness ;
speak not of all the sufferings, npr pf all the
prpsperities pf this pppr life, npr pf any thing
in it, as wprthy of a thought, when that glory
is named ; yea, let not ihis life be caUed
life, when we mention that other life, that
our Lord, by bia death, hath purchaaed for
ua. Be not afraid of iheir terror.] No time,
nor place in the wprld, ia ap favpurable tp re
ligipn, that it ia net atiU needful to arra a
christian mind against the outward opposi
tions and discpuragements he aliaU meet with
in hia way tp heaven. Thia ia the Apoatle'a
scope here ; and he doth it, Ist, By an aa-
sertion ; 2dly, By an exhortation. The as-
sertion, that, in suffering for righteousness,
they are happy. The exhortation, agreeable
to the assertion, that ihey fear not. Why
shpuld they fear any thing that are aaaured
* Viilcnt cruces nostras, unctiones non vident. *
isr.BERfi.

of happiness, yea, that are the more happy
by those very things that seem most to be
feared ?
The words are in part bonowed from the
Prophet Isaiah, who relates thera aa the
Lord's words to him, and other godly per
sona with him in that tirae, counterraanding
in them that carnal distruotftil fear, that drove
a profane king and people to seek help, ra.
ther any where than in God, who was their
strength ; fear not their fear, but sanctify
the Lord, and let him be your fear, Scc. laa.
vui. 12, 13.
This the Apoatle extenda as an univeraal
rule for Christians in the raidst of their great
eat troublea and dangers.
The thinga opposed here are, a perplexing
troubUng fear of sufferings, as the soul's
disteraper, and a sanctifying of God in ihe
heart, as the sovereign cure of it, and the
true principle of a healthful sound conatitu.
tion of mind.
Natural fear, though not evil in itaelf, yet,
in the natural man, ia constantly irregulai
and disordered in the actings of it, atiU raiaa.
ing ita due object, or raeaaure, or both : either
running in a wrong channel, or overrunning
the banka. Aa there are no pure eleraents
to be found here in thia lower part of the
world, but only in the philoaopher'a booka,
(they define them indeed aa pure, but they
find them no where,) thus we may speak of
our natural passions aa not sinful in their na
ture, yet in us that are naturally ainful, yea,
full of ain, they cannot eacape the raixture
and alloy of it.
Sin hath put the aoul into such an univer
sal disorder, that it neither loves nor hatea
what it ought, nor as it ought ; hath neither
right joy", nor aonow, nor hope, nor fear ; a
very amall matter stirs and troubles it ; and,
as waters that are stined, Tx^oL^i^n, so the
word signifies, having dregs in the bottom,
becorae muddy and impure ; thus, the soul,
by carnal fear, ia confused, and there ia nei
ther quiet nor clearness in it. A troubled
sea, as it cannot rest, so in its restlessness,
it casts up mire, as the Prophet apeaka, laa.
Ivii. 20. Thua it ia with the unrenewed heart
of man, the least blasta that arise disturb it,
and make it restless, and its pwn impurity
makes it cast up mire ; yea, it is never right
with him ; either he is asleep in carnal cpn
fidence, pr, being shaken put of that, he is
hurried and tumbled to and fro with carnal
fears : either in a lethargy, in a fever, or
trerabUng ague : When troubles are at a
distance, he folds his hands, and takes ease
as long as it raay be ; and then, being sur
prised, when they corae rashing on hira, his
sluggish eaae is paid with a surcharge of per
plexing and affrighting fears. And, is not
thia the cpnditipn pf the meat ?
Npw, because these evils are npt fuUy cur-
in the bcUever but he is subject tp cinial

190

CO-MMENTARY UPON

[chap. ill.

security, as David, / said in my prosperity, I 1st, We have the respect to God, express-
/ shall never be moved, Psal. xxx. 6 ; and | ed by the word sanctify. He is hoyl, most
- - - ¦ - holy, the fountain pf hpliness ; it is he, he
alpne, that ppwerfuUy sanctifies us, and then,
and not tiU then, we sanctify hira. M'hen
he hath raade us holy, we know and confess
him to be holy ; we worship and serve our
holy God ; we glorify him with our whole
souls, and aU our affections; we sanctify
hira, by acknowledging his greatneaa, and
power, and gopdneas ; and, which is here
mere particularly intended, we do this by a
holy fear of hira, and faith in him. These
confess his greatneaa, and power, and good.
neaa, aa the prophet is express, Sanctify
him, and let him be your fear and your
dread, Isai. viii. 13. And then he adds,
if thus you sanctify hira, you shall further
sanctify hira. He shall be your sanctuary :
You shaU account hira sp, in beUeving in
him, and shaU find him sp, in his protect
ing ypu ; ypu shaU reppse on him for safety :
And theae particularly cure the heart of
undue fears.
2dly, We have the seat of this, with re
apect tP Gpd, in your hearts. We are to
be aanctified in pur wprds and actions, but
primely in our hearts, as the ropt and prin.
ciple pf the rest. He sanctifies his ewn
throughout, 1 Thess. v. 23, makes theii
language and their Uves hely, but, first and
must pf aU, their hearts ; and, aa he chiefly
aanctifiea it, it chiefiy aanctifies him. The
heart acknpwledges and wprshipa him pften
when the tpngue and bpdy dp npt, and pos
sibly cannpt weU jpin with it ; it fears, and
Ipvea, and trusts in hira, whicii prpperly the
putward man cannpt do, though it doea fol
low and is acted on by these affections, and
so shares in them according to its capacity.
Beware of an extemal superficial sanctify.
ing of God, for he takes it not so ; nay, he
will interpret that a profaning of him and
his narae. Gal. vi. 7, Be not deceived, God
is not mocked. He looks through aU vi.
sagea and appearancea upon the heart ; aeea
how it entertaina hira, and atanda affected
to hira. If it be possessed with reverence
and love, more than either thy tongue or
caniage can expreaa, he gracioualy approvea :
and if it be not ao, aU thy aeeming worahip
ia but injury, and thy apeaking of him ia
but babbling, be thy diacourae never so ex.
ceUent ; yea, the more thou haat aeemed to
aanctify God, while thy heart hath not been
chief in the buainess, thou shalt not, by auch
aervice, have the leaa, but raore fear and
trouble in the day of trouble, when it coraes
upon thee. No estate ia ao far off from true
conaolation, and ao fiiU of honora, aa that of
the rotten-hearted hypocrite ; hia rotten heart
ia aooner shaken to pieces than any other.
If you would have heart-peace in God, you
must have this heart-sanctifying of him. It
ia the heart that ia vexed and troubled with

fiUed with undue feara and doubts in the ap,
prehensions or feeling of trouble, aa he like
wise, coraplaining, confeaaea the dejection and
diaquietneaa of hia soul ; and again, that he
had almost loat his standing, his feet had
well nigh slipt, Psal. Ixxiii. 2 ; therefore, it
is very needful to caution them often with
such words aa theae. Fear not iheir fear,
neither be ye troubled. It wiU be proper, if
you take it objectively, their fear, be not
afraid of the world'a raalice, or any thing it
can effect ; or it may be taken auhjectively,
as the Prophet raeans, " Do not you fear af
ter the manner of the world ; be not diatrust-
fuUy troubled with any affliction that can be-
fal you." Sure it is pertinent in either sense,
or both together ; Fear not what they can
do, nor fear as they do.
Ii we look on the condition of raen, our
selves and others, are not the rainds of the
greatest part continually tossed, and their lives
worn out betwixt vain hopes and fears,* pro-
liding incessantly new raatter of disquiet to
themaelvea ?
Cjnteraplative naturea have alwaya taken
notice of thia grand malady ill our nature,
and have attempted rauch the cure of it ; they
have beatowed much pains in aeeking our pre-
scriptions and rules for the attainment of a
settled tranquiUity of spirit, free from the
feara and troubles that perplex us ; but they
have proved but mountebanks, that give big
words enow, and do litde or nothing, allphy,
sicians of no value, or of nothing, good for
nothing, as Job apeaka (Job xiii. 4.) Sorae
thinga they have aaid well concerning the
outward causes of this inward evil, and of the
inefficacy of inferior outward things to help
it; but they have not descended to the bot
tom and inward cause of this our wretched
unquiet condition, much less ascended to the
true and only remedy of it. Tn this, divine
light is needful, and here we have it in the
foUowing verse,
Vbr 15. Rut sanctify the Lord God in your hearts:
And be ready always to give an answer to every
man that aslceth you, a reason of the hope that is
in you, with meekness and fear.
Implying the cause of all our fears and
troublea to be thia, our ignorance and diare
gard of God ; and the due knowledge and
acknowledgement of him to be the only eata
blishraent and atrength of the mind.
In the words we raay conaider theae three
thinga : 1. Thia respect of God, as it ia here
expresaed. Sanctify the Lord God. 2. The
seat of it, in your hearis. 3. The fruit pfit,
the ppwer that tills, sanctifying God in the
heart, hath to rid that heart of thoae feara
and troublea to which it is here oppoaed aa
their proper reraedy.
• Uxc inter Juliia vivimus et morimui.

VER. 15.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

191

fears : the diaease ia there, and if the pre
scribed reraedy reach not thither, it will do
np gppd. But let ypur hearta aanctify hira,
and then he shall fortify and establish your
hearty, 1 Theaa. iii. 13.
Sdly, For the fruit pf thia holy affection ;
thia sanctifying pf Gpd in the heart, cpm-
ppaea the heart, and frees it frpm fears.
1. In general, the turning pf the heart to
consider and regard God, takes it off from
those vain, empty, windy thinga, that are
the uaual cauaes and matter of ita fears. It
feeds on wind, and therefore the bowela are
torraented within. The heart is subject to
diaturbance, because it leta out itaelf to such
things, and leta in such thinga intp itaelf aa
are ever in motion, and fuU of instability
and restlessness ; and so it cannot be at
quiet till God corae in and cast out these,
and keep the heart within, that it wander
put nn mpre tp them.
2. The particulars cf this reUgipus fear
and faith work particularly in thia,
1. That fear, aa greateat, overtops and
nullifies all lesser fears. The heart, pos
sessed with this fear, hath no room for the
other ; it resolves the heart, in point of duty,
what it should and must do, that it must
not offend God by any meana ; that, it lays
down as indisputable, and ao eases it of
doubtings and debates iu that kind ; whe
ther shaU I comply with the world, and
abate somewhat of the sincerity and exact
way of reUgion, to please men, or to escape
persecution or reproaches ? No, it is un
questionably best, and only necessary io obey
him, rather than men ; to retain his favour.
be it with displeasing the most respected
and considerable persons we know ; yea, ra
ther to choose the universal and highest dis
pleasure of all the world for ever, than his
smaUest discountenance for a moraent : it
counts that the only indispensable necessity,
to cleave unto God and obey hira. Ii I
pray, I shaU be accuaed, might Daniel
think ; but yet pray I muat, come on it what
wiU. So, if I worship God in ray prayer,
they will raock rae, I sliaU pass for a fool.
No matter for that, it must be done. I
muat call on God, and atrive to walk with
him. Thia aeta the mind at eaae, not to be
halting betwixt two opinions, but reaolved
what to do. We are not careful, aaid they,
io answer ihee, O king ! our God can de
liver us, Dan. iii. 16 ; but, however, thia we
have put out of deliberation, we will siot
worship the image. Aa one aaid, Non
oportet vivere, sed oportet navigare ; it is
not neceaaary to have the favour of the world,
nor to have richea, nor tp Uve ; but it ia ne
ceaaary tp hold fas^ the truth, and to walk
holily, to sanctify the , narae of our Lord,
and honour him, whether in Ufe or death. ^
2. Faith in Gpd clears the mind, and
di-spels cimal fears, sp it is the iiipst sure

help : What time I am afra'id (says David)
/ will trust in thee, Paal. Ivi. 3. It rc-
splves the mind cpnceming the event, and
acattera the multitude pf perplexing thpughts
that arise abput that ; what shaU becpme pf
this and that ? what if such an enemy pre
vail ? what if the place of onr abode grow
dangerous, and we be not provided, as others
are, for a removal ? No matter, says faith,
thpugh aU fail, I knpw of one thing that
wiU not ; I have a refuge, that aU the
strength of nature and of art cannot break
in upon or demolish ; a high defence, my
rock in whom I trust, &c. Psal. Ixii. 5, 6.
The firm belief of, and resting ou his power,
and wisdom, and love, gives a clear satisfy
ing answer to aU doubta and feara. It auf.
fera us not to stand to jangle with each trifling
grumbling objection, but caniea aU before
it ; makea day in the aoul, and ao chases
away those fears that vex us only in the
dark, as affrightful fancies do. This is in
deed to sanctify God, and give hira his own
glpry, tp rest on him. And it is a fruitful
hpraage dpne tp hira, returning us sp rauch
peace and victpry pver fears and rtpubles, it
persuades us that npthing can separate from
his love, and that pnly we feared ; and so
the things that cannot reach that, can be
easily despised.
Seek to have the Lord in your hearts,
and aanctify hira there, he ahall raake theni
atrong, and cany thera through aU dangera ;
Though I ivalk, aaya David, through ihe
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no ill, for thou ari with me, Paal. xxiii, so
Psal. xxvii. 1. What is it that makes the
Church ao flnn and atoiit, though ihe sea
roar, and ihe mountains be cast into the
midst of ihe sea, yet we wiU not fear ? It
ia thia, God is in the midst of her, she shall
not be moved, Psal. xlvi. 2, 3, 5. Np
wonder, he is imraoveable, and therefore
doth establish aU where he resides. If the
world be in the raiddle of the heart, it will
be often shaken ; for aU there is continual
motion and change, but God in it keeps it
stable. Labour, therefpre, tp get God into
your hearta, residing in the raidst of thera,
and then, in the midst of aU conditions,
they shaU not move.
Out condition is universaUy exposed to
fears and trpubles, and no man ia so stupid
but he atudiea and projects for some fence
againat them ; aome bulwark to break the
incuraion of evila, and so bring his mind to
some eaae, ridding it of the fear of thera.
Thus the moat vulgar spirits in their way,
for even the brutes, from whora such do not
much differ in their actinga and course oi
Ufe too, are iuatructed by nature to provide
theraaelves and their young ones of shelters,
the birds their nests, and the beasts their
holes and dens. Thus, raen gape and pant
after gain with a confused Ul-exarained fancy

192

A COMMENTARY UPON

[ciiAf. HI,

of quiet and safety in it, desiring once to '
reach such a day, aa to aay with the rich
fool in the Goapel, Soul, take thine ease,
thou hast much goods laid up for many
years, Scc. Luke xii. 19, though warned by
hia abort ease, and by many watch-words,
yea, by daUy experience, that days may
come, yea, one day wiU, when fear and
trouble shall rush in, and break over the
higheat tpwer pf riches, that there is a day,
called the day of wrath, wherein they profit
not at all, Prpv. xi. 4. Thus men seek
aafety in the greatness pr raultitude, pr sup-
ppsed faithfulness, of friends ; they seek by
any means tp be strongly underset this way,
tp have many, and ppwerful, and cpnstant
friends. But wiser men, perceiving the un
safety and vanity cf these, and ali external
thinga, have caat abput fpr spnie higher
ceurse. They see a necessity of withdraw
ing a raan frpm externals, that do nothing
but raock and deceive thpse mpst that truat
moat to them, but cannot tell whither to
direct him. The best of them bring hira
into himself, and think to quiet hira ao ;
but the truth ia, he finds as Uttle rest and
support there. Nothing truly strong enough
-within hira, to hpld put against the many
sprtpws and fears that stiU frpm withput dp
aaaault him. Sp then, though it ia weU
dpne tp caU pff a man frnm putward things,
as mpving sands, that he build not on them,
yet it is not enough ; for his Pwn spirit is as
unsettled a piece as ia in aU the wprld, and
muat have aome higher atrength than ita own
to fortify and fix it. Thia ia the way that
is here taught. Fear not iheir fear, but
sanctify ihe Lord in your hearts : and if
you can attain this latter, the former wiU
follow of itself.
In the general, God taking the place for
merly possessed hy things fuU of motion and
unquietness, strengthens and establishes the
heart ; but we may more particularly consi
der, 1. Fear of hira; 2. Faith in him.
lst. This fear of God turns other fears
out of doors : there is no ropm for them
where this great fear is, and being greater
than diey aU, yet it diaturba not as they do,
yea, it brings as great quiet aa they brought
trouble. It ia an eaae to have but one thing
for the heart to deal withal, for many timea
the multitude of carnal fears is more trouble
some than their weight, as fiies that vex
most by their number.
Again, this fear is not a tenible appre
hension pf God as an enemy, but a aweet
compoaed reverence of God as our King,
yea, as our Father ; aa very great, but no
less good than great ; so highly esteeming
of hia favpur, as fearing mpst pf aU things
tp offend him in any kind ; especiaUy if the
soul have been formerly either under the
lash of his apprehended displeasure, or, on
the other aide, have had some sensible tastes

of bis love, and haVe .jeen entertained in hij
banqueting house, where his banner over it
was love, Cant. ii. 4- Faith canies the
aoul above all doubta, with assurance that if
aufferinga, or sicknesa, or death come, no.
thing can separate it from him ; this suf.
ficea, yea, what though he raay hide his face
for a time, thpugh that is the hardest pf aU,
yet there is np separatipn. His chUdren'
fear him for his goodness ; ate afraid to
Ipse sight pf that, pr deprive themselves of
any pf its influences. They desire to live
in his favour, and then for pther things they
are not very thoughtful.
2dly, Faith aeta the soul in God, and
where is safety if it be not there ? It rests
on those persuasions it hath conceming him,
and that interest it hath in him. Faith
believes that he sits and rales the affairs of
the world, with an aU-seeing eye, and aU-
raoving hand : The greatest affairs surcharge-
him not, and the very sraaUest escape him
not. He orders the march of aU armies,
and the events of battles, and yet thou and
thy particular condition slips not out of his
view. The very hairs of thy head are
numbered. Matt. x. 30. Are not aU thy
atepa, and the hazards of them, knewn to
him, and all thy desires before him ? Doth
he not number thy wanderings, every wearv
step thpu art driven tp, and pui thy tears in
his bottle ? Psal. Ivii. 8. Thnu mayest
assure thyself, that hpwever thy matters aeem
tp gp, all ia cpntrived tp subserve thy gpod,
eapeciaUy thy chief and higheat good. Theie
ia a regular motion in them, though the
wheela do seem to run croaa. All thos'
things are against me, said old Jacob, Gen
xliii. 36, and yet they were aU for him.
In aU eatatea, I know no heart's ease, but
to beUeve ; to sanctify and honour thy God,
in resting oij his word. If thou art persuad
ed of his love, sure that wiU carry thee above
all distrusting fears. If thou art not clear
in that point, yet depend and resolve to stay
by him, yea, to stay on hira, tiU he shew
hiraself unto thee. Thou hast some fear of
him, thou canst not deny it withput grpss
injury to him and thyself; thou wouldst
wiUingly walk in all well-pleasing untp him :
WeU then, who is among you that feareth
the Lord, though he see no preaent light,
yei let him trust in the name of the Lord,
and stay upon his God, laa. 1. 10. Preaa this
upon thy aoul, for there ia not such another
charm for aU its fears and unquiet ; therefore
repeat it still with David : Sing this atiU,
tiU it be StiUed ; chide thy diatrustful heart
into beUeving, Why ari thou cast down, O
my soul? why art thou disquieted within
tne ? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise
him, Psal. xliii. 5. Though I am aU out
of tune for the present, never a right string
in" my soul, yet he will put to his hand
and redress aU : And I shall yet ones

VEK. 15.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

193'

again praise ; and therefore, even now, I
wiU hope.
f It is true, wiU the humble soul reply,
God is a safe shelter and refuge, but he is
holy, and holy men may find admittance and
protection ; but can so vi^ a ainner aa I look
to be protected and taken in under this safe
guard ? Go try. Knock at liis door, and
(take it not on our word, but on his pwn) it
shall be opened to ihee. Matt. vii. 7, and if
that be nnce dpne, dipu shalt have a happy
life pn it in the wprst times. Faith hath
this privilege, never to be ashamed ; it takea
sanctuary in Gpd, and aita and sings under
ihe shadow of his wings, as David speaks,
Psal. btiii. 7.
Whence the unsettiedness cf men'a rainda
in trpuble, or when it ia near, but becauae
they are far off from God ? The heart is
shaken as the leaves of the tree with the
wind, laa. vii. 2 ; there is no stability of
apirit ; God is not sanctified in it, and ne
wonder, for be ia not knpwn. Strange ! the
ignorance ofGod, andthe precioua promiaea
of hia word !- the raoat living and dying
atrangera to him ! When trouble coraea, they
have not him a known refuge, but are to
begin to aeek after him, and to inquire the
way to hira ; they cannot go tp him as ac
quainted, and engaged by hia pwn cpvenant
with them. Others have erapty knpwledge,
and can discpurse of Scripture, and sermons,
and spiritual coraforts, and yet have none of
that fear and trast that quieta the soul : No
tions of God in their heads, but God not
sanctified in their hearta.
If you will be adviaed, thia. is the way to
have a high and atrong spirit indeed, and to
be above troubles and fears. Seek for a raore
Uvely and divine knowledge of Gpd than
rapat aa yet have, and reat net tiU ypu bring
hira intp ypur hearta, and then ypu ahaU rest
indeed pn him.
Sanctify him by fearing him : Let him
be your fear and your dread, laa. viii. 13 ;
fear net pnly putward grpas pffencea, dp npt
only fear an oath, and the profanation of the
Lord's holy day, but fear aU inegular earth
ly desires : Fear the distempered affecting
any thing, entertaining any thing in the secret
of your hearts that raay give diataste co your
Beloved. Take heed, reapect the great
Peraon you have in your company, who
lodgea within you, the Holy Spirit. Grieve
him not, for it wiU turn to your own grief if
you do ; for aU your cpmfort is in hia hand,
and flpws from hira. If you be but in heart
dallying with ain, it wUl unflt you for suffer
ing outward troubles, and raake your apirit
low and base in the day of trial : Yea, it
wiU flu you with inward trouble, and disturb
that peace which, I ara sure, you that know
it, esteem more than aU the peace and flpu
rishing pf this world. Outward troubles do
npt mplest npr stir inward peace, but an un

hply unsanctified affection doth. AU the
winds without, cause not an earthquake, but
that within ita own bpwela doth. Chriatians
are much their own enemies in unwary walk
ing ; hereby they deprive themselves pf thpse
cprafprts they might have in God ; and so
are often almost as perplexed and fuU of fears,
upon smaU occasions, as worldlings are.
Sanctify him by believing. Study the
raain questipn, your reconcilement with him ;
labour to bring that to some point, and then
in aU other occurrences faith wiU uphold you,
by relying on God as now on yours ; for these
three things make up the soul'a peace : 1st,
To have right apprehenaions of God, looking
on him in Chriat, and according tp that cpve
nant thathelda in him. And, 2dly, A par
ticular apprehenaicn, that ia, laying hpld on
him in that covenant, as gracioua and raerci
ful, as aatisfied and appeased in Christ,
smeUing, in hia aacrifice, (whicii was him
self) a savour of reat, and aetting himaelf
before me, that I rely on him in that nptipn.
Sdly, A perauaaion, that by ao relying on
hira my soul is aa one, yea, ia one with hira.
Yet, while this is wanting, aa to a believer
it raay be, the other ia our duty, to aanctify
the Lord iu beUeving the word of grace,
and believing on him ; reposing on hia word ;
and thia even severed from the other, dpth'
deliver, in a good raeasure, from distracting
feara and troublea, and sets the soul at safety.
Whence ia it, that, in tiraes of peraecution
or trouble, men are troubled within and rack
ed with feara, but becauae, inatead of God,
their hearts are glued to those things that
are in hazard by those troublea without, their,
estates, , or their ease, or their Uves ? The
aoul deatitute of God eateema ao highly of
auch thinga, that it cannot but exceedingly
feel when they are in danger, and fear theii
loss most, gaping after aome imagined good,
and aaying. Oh ! if I had but this, I were
weU. But then, such er such a thing raay
step in and break aU ray projects : And thia
troubles the poor spirit of man that hath no
higher designs, but such as are so easily
blasted, and atill, as any thing in man lifts
up his soul to vanity, it must needs fall
down again into vexation. There is a word
or two in the Hebrew /or idols, that signify
withal troubles,* and terrors,-]' and ao it is
certainly. All our idols prove so to us ;
they fill ua with nothing but anguiah and
troubles, with unprofitable cares and fears,
that are good for nothing, but to be fit
punishraenta of that folly out of which they
ariae. The ardent love or obstinate deaire
of proaperity, er wealth, pr credit in the
wprld, caniea with it, as inseparably tied to
it, a bundle of feara and inward troubles ;
* rTigirim,] Isa. xiv. 16, from [Tszus,] arctavit,
hostiliter egit. .. ^..^ , . -,
t [Miphfetzeth,] 1 Kinm xv. 1,1, from [PhalatJ,]
contremiscere, et [Emim,] Job xv. 25, from [Aim.l
formidabilis, terrificus. N

A COMMENTARY UPON

194
They that will be rich, aaya the Apostie,
1 Tira. vi. 9, fall into a snare, and many
noisome and hurtful lusts, and aa he adda in
the next verse, ihey pierce themselves through
withmany sorrows. He that hath aet his heart
upon an estate, or a commodious dweUing
and lands, or upon a healthful and long life,
cannot but be in continued alarms of renewed
feara concerning thera ; eapeciaUy in trou
blous times, the least rumour of any thing
that threateneth hia deprivement of thoae ad
vantagea atrikes him to the heart ; becauae
hia heart ia in them. I am weU seated,
thinka he, and I am of a sound strong con
stitution, and may have many a good day.
Oh 1 but beaidea the arrpwa pf pestilence
that are flying rpund abput, the swprd of a
cruel eneray ia net far off. Thia wiU affiight
and trouble a heart void of God : but, if
thpu wouldst readily anawer and diapel all
these, and auch Uke feara, sanctify the Lord
God in thy heart. The aoul that eyes God
renounces these things, looks on thera at a
great distance, as things far frpra the heart,
and therefore that cannot easily trouble it,
but it looka on God aa within the heart,
sanctifies him in ii, and reals on hira.
The word of God curea the raany foolish
nopes and feara that we are naturaUy sick of,
by representing to us hopes and fears pf a
far higher nature, which swaUow up and
drown the other : as inundations and land-
flppda do the Uttle ditches in those raeadows
that they overfiow. Fear not, aays our Sa
viour, him that can kill the body, what then ?
Fear muat have aome work, he adds, but
fear Him that can kill both soul and body.
Matt. X. 28. Thua in the paaaage cited
here, Fear not their fear, but sanctify the
Lord, and let him be your fear and your
dread. And ao for the hopes of the world,
care not though you lose them for God ;
there is a hope in you (as it foUows here)
that is far above theni.
Be ready always to give an answer.]
The real Christian is all for Christ, hath
given up aU right of himself to his Lord and
Blaster ; to be aU bis, to do and suffer for
him ; and therefore aure wiU not fail in this
which is leaat, to speak for him upon all
occasiona. If he sanctify hira in hia heart,
the tongue wiU foUow, and be ready [ir^h
ii7ro>oy'iav] io give an answer, a defence or
apology. Of this here are four thinga to
be noted,
1st, T'ne need of it. Men will ask an
account. 2dly, The matter or aubject of it. The
hope in you.
Sdly, The manner. With meekness and
fear. ithly. The faculty for it. Be ready.
1. For the first, the need of a defence or
apology. ReUgion ia always the thing in
the world that hath the greatest caluranies

[cUA*. iir.

and prejudices cast upon it ; and this en-
gages those that love it to endeavour to cleai
and disburden it of them. Thia they do
chiefly by the tract of their Uvea. The saints,
by their blameleaa actiona and patient suffer.
ings, do write most^eal and convincing apo
logies ; yet aometiraea it ia expedient, yea,
neceaaary, to add verbal defencea, and to
vindicate not so much themselves, aa their
Lord and his truth, suffering in the re
proaches cast upon them. Did they rest
in their own persons, a regardless contempt
of thera were usually the fitteat anawer ;*
but where the holy profeaaion of Chriatians
is likely to receive either the raain or the
indirect blow, and a word of defence may do
any thing to ward it pff, there we ought not
to apare to do it.
Chriatian prudence gpea a great way in
the regulating pf this ; fpr holy things are
not to be cast to dogs. Matt. vii. 6. Some
are not capable of rational anawers, especiaUy
in divine things ; they were not only lost
upon them, but reUgion indignified by con
testing. But we are to answer every one
that inquires a reason pr an accpunt ; whic'n
supposea aomething receptive of it. We
ougbt to judge ouraelves engaged to give it,
be it an enemy, if he wiU hear ; if it gain
hira not, it may in part convince and cool
him ; much raore be it one that ingenuously
inquires for satisfaction, and possibly incUnes
to receive the truth, but ia prejudiced against
it by falae miarepreaentationa of it: As
Satan and the profane world are very inven
tive of auch shapea and coloura aa may make
truth moat odioua, drawing monstrous mis-
consequences out of it, and belying the
practices of Christians, making their as
sembUes horrible and vile by false imputa
tions ; and thus are they often necessitated
to declare the true tenpr, bpth of their belief
and Uves, in confessions of faith, and reraon
strances of their carriage and custora.
The very narae of Christians, in the pri
mitive times, was raade hateful by the foul
est asperaiona of atrange wickednesaes cora
mitted in their meetinga ; and they passed
credibly through, with aU that were not par
ticularly acquainted with them. Thus it
also was with the Waldenaea ; and so both
were forced to publish apologiea ; and, as
here, every one was and ia beund, aeaspnably,
tp clear hiraself, and hia brethren and reli
gion. Such ia the expreasion here, be.ye
always ready ; which intimatea it waa not
only always to be done to every one ; but
we being ready to do, are to consider when,
and to whora, and how far.
2. We have the raatter pr subject pf the
apology. AU that they are to give account
of is coraprised here under thia, the hope
that is in you. Faith ia the root of aU
graces, and of aU obedience and hoUness
* Spreta vilescerent.

VEn, 13.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

155

and hppe is ap near in nature tp it, that the
pne ia cpinnipnly named for the other ; Fpr,
the thinga that faith apprehends, and laya
hpld pn, aa preaent in the truth pf divine
prpmisea, hope Ippka put fpr as tp come in
their certain performance. To believe a
proniiae to be true before it be performed,
is no other but to believe that it ahall be per
formed ; and hope expects that.
Many rich and excellent things do the
saints receive, even in this raean despised
cpnditipn they have here ; but their hope is
rather raentioned as a subject they may speak
and give account of with raost advantage ;
both because all they receive at present is
but as nothing, compared to what they hope
for ; and because such as it is, it cannot be
made known at all to a natural man, and is
so clouded with their afflictions and sonpws.
These he sees, but their graces and cpmfprts
he cannpt see ; and therefpre the very grpund
of higher hopea, aomewhat to corae, though
he knowa not what it ia, apeaka more satis
faction. To hear pf anpther life, and happi
ness heped for, any man will cpnfesa it says
aoraething, and deaervea to be considered.
So then the whole sum of religion gpes
under this werd, ihe hope ihat isin you, for
tworeasona: 1. Aa it terminates in hope;
and, 2. aa that ia, by way of eminence, the
hope, the, most npble of all others.
1 . For that it doth indeed all resolve and
terrainate into thinga to corae, and leada and
' carriea on the soul towarda thera by all tbe
gracea in it, and all the exerciae pf them, and
through all services and sufferinga ; atill it
aima at thia, aa its raain scope, tp keep that
life to corae in the believer's eye, till he get
it in his hand ; to entertain the hope of it,
and bring him horae to possess it. And,
2. It is erainently The hope ; therefore
the.Apostle calls faith the substance of things
hoped for, that which raakes them be before
they be, gives a solidity and substance to
them. The name of hope, in other things,
scarce suits with such a raeaning, but sounds
a kind of uncertainty, and is somewhat airy.
For, of all other hopes but this, it ia a very
true word, that hope is the name of an un
certain good ;* but the gospel, heing en
tertained by faith, furnishes a hope that hath
substance and reality in it ; and all its truths
do concentre into this, to give such a hope.
There was in St. Paul's word, besides the
fitness for this stratagera at that time, a truth
suitable to thia, where he assigns hia whole
cauae for which he was in question, by the
narae of his hope of the resurrection. Acta
xxiii. 6.
And, indeed, hppe carriea ita pwn applpgy
in it, for itaelf and fpr religipn. What can
mpre pertinently anawer all exceptipna againat
the way pf gpdliness than this, tP represent

way? If ypu aak. Whither tends all this
ypur precisenesa and singularity ? Why
cannpt you live as your neighbours aud the
rest of the wprld abput ypu ? Truly the
reaspn is this, we have spmewhat further to
look to than our present condition, and far
more considerable than any thing here ; we
have a hope of blessedness after time, a hope
to dwell in the presence of God, where our
Lord Christ ia gone before us : and we know
that as many as have this hope, must purify
themselves even as he is pure, 1 John iii.
3. The city we tend to is holy, and no un
clean thing shall enter into it. Rev. xxi, 17.
The hopes we have cannot subsist in the way
of the ungodly world; they cannot breathe
iu that air, but are choked and stifled with
it ; and therefore we must take ano'ther way,
unless we will forego our hopes, and ruin our
selves for connpany. " But all that bustle
of godliness you make, is but ostentation
and hypocrisy." That may be ypur judg.
raent : but, if it were sp, we had but a pppr
bargain. Matt. vi. They have their reward,
that which they desire {to be seen of men)
is given them, and they can lppk fpr no
mpre ; but we should be loth to have it sp
with us. That which our eye is on, ia lo
corae ; our hopea are the thing which up-
holda ua. We know that we ahall appear
before the Judge of hearta, where shews and
formalities will not pass : And we are per
suaded tbat the hope of the hypocrite shall
perish. Job viii, 13; no man shall be so
much disappointed and ashamed aa he ; but
the hope that we have makes not ashamed,
Rom. v. 5. And while we conaider that,
so far are ,we from the regard of men's eyes,
that, were it not we are bound to profess our
hope, and avow religion, and to walk like it,
even before men, we would be content to pass
through altogether unseen, and deaire to paas
as if it were so ; aa regardleaa either of tbe
approbation, or of the reproaches and mis
takes of men ; as if there were np such thing,
fpr it is indeed nothing.
Yea, the hopes we have raake all things
sweet. Therefore do we go through dis
graces arid sufferinga with patience, yea with
joy, because of that hope of glory and joy
laid up for us. A Christian can take joy
fully the spoiling of his goods, knowing
that he hath in heaven a better and an en-
durin^subsiance, Heb. x. 34.
It is, as we said. The hope. All the
estate of a believer lieth in hope, and it is a
rpyal estate ; fer putward things, the chil.
dren nf Gpd have what he thinks fit tp serve
them, but those are not their portion, and
therefore he givea often raore of the world to
those that shall have no more hereafter ; But
all their flourish and luatre ia but a baae ad.-
vantage, aa a lackey's gaudy clothes, that

what hopea the aaints have that walk in that j usually make raore ahew than hia that is heir
Spes est noraen boni incerti- Sen, J of the estate. H ow often under a mean out-

!')fi

A COMMENTARY UPON

ICHAP. III.

waiJ condition, and very despicable every
way, goes an heir pf glory, born of God, and
sp rpyal ; bpm tp a crown that fadeth not,
an estate ef hppes, but so rich and ao certain
hopea, that the leaat thought of them aur.
paaaea aU the world'a poaaessions. Men
think of aomewhat for preaent, u, bird in
hand, aa ypu aay, the beat pn it : But the
odda is in this, that when aU present things
shall be past and swept away, as if they had
not been, then shaU these hopers be in eter.
nal possession ; ihey only shaU have all for
ever, that aeemed to have Uttle or nothing here.
Oh ! how much happier, to he the mean
est expectant of the glory to come, than the
sole possessor of aU this world. These ex,
pectants are pften held shprt in earthly thinga,
and, had they the greateat abundance of
them, yet they cannot rest in that ; yea, all
the apiritual hleaainga that they do poaaeas
here, are nothing to the hope thai is in ihem,
but aa an earneat-penny to their great inheri
tance. So, indeed, it confiriha their hope,
and assures it unto them of that full estate,
and therefore, be it never ao small, they may
look on it with joy, not so much regarding
it airaply in itaelf, aa in relation tp that
which it seals and ascertains the spul pf. Be
it never sp sraall, yet it is a pledge pf- the
great glpry and happiness which we deaire tp
share in.
It ia the grand comfort of a Christian to
lppk pften beypnd aU that he can ppssess pr
attain here ; and as tp answer pthers, when
he is put to it cpnceming his hppe, sp tp an
swer himself conceming aU his present griefs
and wants : " I have a poor traveller's lot
here, little friendahip, and raany straits, but
yet I may go cheerfuUy homewards : Fpr
thither I shaU cpme, and there I have riches
and hpnour enough ; a palace and a crown
abiding rae : Here nothing but depth call
ing unto depth, one calamity and trouble
(as waves) foUowing another ; but I have a
hope of that Rest ihat remaineth for the
people of God, Heb. iv. 9. I feel the infir.
mities pf a mprtal state, but my hppes of im.
mortaUty content rae under thera. I find
strong and cruel assaults of teraptations
breaking in upon me, but for aU that, I have
assured hope of a full victory, arfd then of
everlaating peace, I find a law in my mem
bers rebelUng against the law of my mind,
Rom. vii. 23, the worst of aU evils ; sg rauch
strength of corruption within rae : Yet there
is withal a hope within me of deliverance,
and I lopk pver aU tp that ; / lift up my
head, because the day of my redemption
draws nigh, Luke xxi. 28. Thia I dare
avow and proclaim to aU, and not be aahara
ed to answer conceming thia blessed hppe."
But then, Sdly, Fpr the raanner ef this, it
is tp be dpne with meekness and fear.
Meekness tnwarda men, and reverent fear tP-
wards God.

I. With meekness. Not therefore blus.
tering and flj'ing out ii.to invectives, because
he hath the better on it, against any man
that questiona hira touching his hppe; as
sprae think themselves certainly authoriaed
to rough speech, because they plead for truth,
and are on its aide. On the contrary, so
much the rather study meekneaa, for the glory
and advantage of the trath. It needa not
the aervice of passion ; yea, nothing so dis
serves it, aa paasion when set to serve it.
The Spirit of truth ia withal the Spirit of
meekness, the Dove that reated pn that great
Charapipn pf Truth, who ia the Trath itself,
and from hira ia derived tp the levers of truth,
and they ought to aeek the participation of
it. Iraprudence makea sorae kind of Chris
tiana lose rauch of their labour, in speaking
for religipn, and they drive thpse further off,
that they would draw into it.
And, 2. This defence is to be raade with
fear. Divine things are never tp be sppke
pf in a light perfunctpry way, but with a re
verent grave temper pf spirit ; and, fpr this
reaspn, apme chpice ia tp be raade both of
tirae and persons. The confidence that is in
this hope makea the beUever not fear men,
to whom he anawera, but atiU he feara his
God, for whora he anawera, and whoae in
tereat ia chief in thoae things he apeaka of.
The aoul that hath the deepeat sense of api
ritual things, and the truest knowledge of
God, is most afraid to raiscany in speaking
of him, most tender and wary how to acquit
itself when engaged to apeak of and for God.
ithly, We have the faculty of thia apolo
gy, be ready. In thia there is irapUed know
ledge, and affection, and courage. For
knowledge is not required of every Christian,
to be able to prosecute subtilties, and encoun
ter the sophistry of adversaries, especially in
obscure points ; but aU are bound to know so
rauch, aa to be able to aver that hope that is
in them, the main doctrine of grace and sal
vation, wherein the mpst pf men are lamenta
bly ignprant.
Affectipn sets aU pn wprk ; whatspever fa-
culty the mind hath, it wiU net suffer it to
be useless, and it hardens it against hazards
in defence of the trath, and produces that
undaunted courage which this readiness ex.
presses. But the only way ap tp knpw and love the
truth, and have courage for it, is that, to have
the Lord sanctified in ihe heart. Men may
diapute atoutly againat popery and enpra, and
yet be atrangers- to God and this hope. But
aure it ia the Uveliest defence, and that which
alone retums comfort within, when it arises
from the peculiar interest of the soul in God,
and in those truths, and that hope, that are
questioned. It ia then pleading for the dear
est friend, and for a man's own rights and
inheritance, and these wiU animate and edge
it when you apologize, not for a hppe viiu

VEK. 10.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

m?

have heard or read of barely, but a hope in
you ; not merely a hope in believers in.gene-
ral, but in you, by a particular sense of that
hope within.
But, althpugh you find it not so strong in
you for your particular interest, yet. Are you
seeking after it, and desiring it mainly ? Is
it ypur chief design tp attain untp it ? Then
fprbear not, if you have occaaipn, tp speak for
it, and comraend it to others, and to raaintain
the sweetness and certainty pf it.
And, tp the end you may be the more es-
tablished in it, and so the strpnger to answer
for it, not only against men, but that great
adversary' that seeks so much to infringe and
overbear it, know the right foundation of it ;
build it never on yourselves, nor any thing
in you.
The work of grace may evidence to you
the truth of your hope ; but the ground it
fastens on is Jesus Christ, in whom aU our
rights and evidences hold good : His death
assuring us of freedora frora conderanation,
and his Ufe and possession of glory being the
foundation of our hope, Heb. vi. 1 9.
If you would have it imraoveable, rest it
there : lay aU this hope on hira, and, when
assaulted, fetch aU your answers for it frora
him. For it is Christ in you thai is your
hope of glory, Coloss. i. 37.
VEn. 16. Having a good conscience, that whereas
they speak evil of you, as of evil-doers, they may
be a-shamed that falsely accuse your good conver
sation in Christ. ,^
1 he prosperity of fools is iheir destruc
tion, says Solomon, Prov. i. 32. But none
of God's chUdren die of this disease, of too
much ease. He knows weU how to breed
them, and fit thera for a kingdora. He keeps
them in exercise, but yet so as they are not
surcharged. He not only directs them how
to overcome, but enables and supports them
in aU their confiicts, and gives them victory.
One main thing, tending to their support
and victory, is this, which is here required
in the aainta, and ia withal wrought and main
tained in them by the Spirit of God, Having
a good conscience, Scc.
I. We have here two parties opposed in
contest, the evil tongues of the ungodly, and
the gppd cpnscience and cpuversatipn pf the
Christian ; they speak evil of you, and false
ly accuse you, but have ypu a gppd con
science. IL The success of their contest : the good
conacience prevaila, and evil-apeakera are
aaharaed. For the first. The partiea engagei^: of the
first, it is said. They speak evil. This is a
general evil in the conupt nature pf raan,
thpugh in sorae it riaea to a greater height
than in othera. Are not tables and charabers,
and almost aU societies and meetinga, fuU of
it ? And even they that have aorae diaUk-
ings of it, yet are too easily canied away with

the atreara, and for company's sake, take a
share, if not in lending in their wprd, yet
in lending their ear. Men willingly hear
the detractipiis of othera ; and, unlesa it be
of their frienda, or auch aa they have interest
in, do insensibly slide intp sprae forced com
placency, and easily receive the impression of
calumnies and defamings. But the raost are
raore active in this evil, can cast in their
penny to make up the shot ; have their taunt
or criticiam uppn apmebpdy in readineaa, tp
warda furnishing out the feast, auch as moat
companies entertain one another withal :
But it ia a vile diet : Satan'a narae, aa the
Syriac calla him, is an eater of calumnies.
This tongue-evil hath ita root in the heart,
in a perverae constitution there. Pride and
self-love, an overweening esteem that men
naturally have of theraselves, raounts them
into that chair, givea them a fancied authori.
ty of judging othera ; and aelf-love a desire
to be esteemed ; and, for that end, they spare
not to depress others, and load thera with dis
graces and injurious censures, seeking, upon
their ruins, to raise theraaelves. •
But thia bent, of the unrenewed heart and
tongue, to evil-apeaking, works and vents
most in the world against thoae that walk
moat contrary tp the courae of the world ;
againat auch this furnace of the tongue,
which is kindled from hell, as St. Jamea
teUa us, James iii. 6, is niade seven times
hotter than ordinary. Aa for sincere Chria
tiana, a corapany of hypocritea, (say they,)
who so godly ? but yet they are false, and
malicious, and proud, &c. and no kind of
caniage in them shaU eacape, but there shaU
be aome device to wrest and misname it. If
they be cheerful in aociety, that ahaU be ac
counted more Uberty that suita with their pro
feaaion ; if of a graver sad temper, that shall
pasa for auUen severity : Thua, John Bap-
tiat and Christ were cenaured. Matt. xi. 18,
19. If they be diligent and wary in their
affairs, then, in the world's construction,
they are aa covetoua and wprldly aa any ; if
careleas and reraiaa in thera, then silly wit-
leaa creaturea, gppd for npthing : StiU aorae
thing atanda croaa.
The enemiea of reUgion have not any
where so quick an eye, as in observing the
ways of such os seek after God ; my remar
kers, David caUs thera, Paal. Ivi. 6, they
that acan ray ways, as the word is, and will
not let the least step pass unexamined. If
nothing be found faulty, then their invention
works, either forges complete falsehoods, or
disguises soraething that lies open to mis
take ; or if they can catch hold on any real
faUing, there ia no end of their triumph and
insultations. 1. They aggravate and raise
it to the higheat. 2. While they wiU not
admit to be judged of themselves by their
* Ex alieni nominis jactura gradum sibi faciunt ad
gloriam. Sallust.

198

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. hi.

constant walk, they scruple not to judge of lying or biting words ?
the condition pf a Christian by any one par
ticular action, wherein he doth, or aeema at
least to niisrany. 3. They reat not there,
but make one failing of one Chriatian the re
proach of aU ; •¦ Take up your devotoa, there
ia never pne of tnem better." 4. Nor reat
they there, but make personal failings, of
those that profeas it, the disgrace of religion
itself. Now, all these are very crooked raleS;
and such as uae them are guilty of groaa in
juatice. 1. There is a great difference betwixt a
thing taken favourably, and the same action
misconstrued. And,
2. A great difference betwixt one particu
lar act and a raan's estate or inward frame,
which they either consider not, or wiUingly
or maliciously neglect.
3. Hpw large ia the difference that there
is betwixt pne and anpther in the measure
of grace, and of their prudence, either in
their naturals, or in grace, or possibly in
bpth ! Spme whp are hpnest in matters pf
religipn, yet, being very weak, may miscarry
in such thinga aa nther Chriatiana come
seldom near the hazard of; and though some
should wholly fprsake the way pf gpdUness,
wherein they seeraed tp walk, yet why shpuld
that reflect upon such as are real and stedr
fast in it ? They went out from, us, says
the Appstie, but were not of us, 1 John ii.
19. Offences of this kind must be, but
the woe rests on hira by whom they come,
not on pther Christians : And if it spread
further than the party offending, the woe ia
to the profane world, that take offence at
religion becauae of hira ; as our Saviour
hath expressed it. Woe to ihe world because
of offences. Matt, xviii. 7- They shall
sturable and fall, and break their necka upon
theae aturabling-blocka or scandals. Thou
that art profane, and aeeat the faUing of a
Miniater or Chriatian, and art hardened by
it,, this ia a judgment to thee, that thou
meeteat with auch a block in thy way. Woe
io ihe world: It ia a judgment on a place,
when God permita religion, in the peraons
of aome, to be acandaloua.
4. ReUgion itself still remaina the sarae,
whatspever be the faiUngs and blpta pf pne
or raore that profess it. It is pure and spot
less ; if it teach not holiness, and meekness,
and humiUty, and all good purely, then ex
cept against it. But, if it be a straight
golden reed by which the temple is measur
ed, then let it have its own esteem, both of
straightness and preciousness, whatsoever un-
evenness be found in those that profess to
receive it.
Suspect and search yourselves, even in
general, for this evU of evil-speaking. Con
sider that we are to give [\oyoi Xoym] an
account of words; and if for idle [ajj^ovltion,
lii/ix] workless words, how much raore ofl >

Learn raore hu
mility and self-cenaure. Blunt that fire-
edge upon your own hard and disordered
hearts, that others raay meet with nothing
but charity and lenity at your handa.
But, particularly, beware of thia, in more
or leaa, earneat or in jest, tp reproach reU.
gion, or those that profeaa it. Know how
particularly the glorioua name of GOD is
intereated in that ; and they that dare to be
affronting him, what ahall they say ? How
shaU they stand when he calls them to ac
count ? If you have not attained to it, yet
do not bark against it, but the rather esteem
highly of reUgion. Love it, and the very
appearance of it, where you find it. Give it
respect and your gppd wprd at least ; and,
from an external apprpbatipn. Oh ! that you
wpuld aapire tp inward acquaintance with it,
and then no more were needful to be aaid in
thia. It would commend itaelf to you suf
ficiently. But in the mean time, be asham
ed, be afraid nf that prpfessed enmity against
Gpd that is ampngst ypu, a malignant
hateful apirit againat thoae that deaire to
walk holily, whetting your tongues against
them. 1. Conaider, What do you raean, thia
reUgion which we aU profeas, is it the way
to heaven, or is it not ? Do you beUeve
thia wprd pr npt ? If ypu do not, what do
you here ? If you do, then you must be
lieve too, that they that walk closest by this
rule are surest in that w*y. They that dare
not ahare with your oatha, and exceaaive cups,
and profane conversation, what can you aay ?
It ia not possible to open your raouth against
thera without renouncing this word and
faith : Therefore, either declare you are no
Christians, and that Christ is not yours : or,
in his narae, I enjoin you, that you dare no
raore speak an iU word of Christianity, and
the power of reUgion, and those that seek
after it. There are not many higher signs
of a reprobate raind, than to have a bitter
viralent apirit againat the children of God.
Seek that tie of affection and fraternity, on
which the beloved Apoatle St. John laya
such stress, when he says, Hereby we know
that we are iranslated from death to life,
because we love the brethren, I John iii.
14. But becauae thoae hisainga are the natu
ral voice of the serpent's aeed, expect them,
you that have a mind to foUow Chriat, and
take thia guard againat thera that you are
here directed. Having a good conscience ;
the aecond party we mentioned above, as
gaged in contest.
It ia a fruitleas verbal debate, whether
conacience be a faculty or habit, or not ; and
aa in other thinga, ao in this, that moat of
aU requirea more solid and useful considera.
the vain mind of man feedeth on the
De Verbo mendaci aut mordaci. Bkbs.

VEn. 10.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETEK.

199

wind, lovea to be busy to no purpoae :* How
much better is it to have this supematural
goodness of conacience, than to dispute about
the nature of it ; to find it duly teaching and
admonishing, reproving and comforting, ra
ther than to define it most exactiy ! +
When all ia exarained, it will be found
to be no other but the mind of man, under
the notion of a particular reverence to
himself and his own actions. And tiiere
is a twofold goodnesa of the conacience, pu
rity and tranquillity, and thia latter fiowa
frora the forraer ; ao that the former is the
thing we ought primely to study, and the
latter wiU follow of itself. For a tirae, in
deed, the conacience that ia in a good raea
sure pure, may be unpeaceable, but atill it
ia the apprehenaion and aenae of preaent or
former impurity that makes it ao ; for, with
out the conaideration of guiltineaa, there is
nothing that can trouble it. It caimot ap
prehend the wrath of God, but with relation
unto sin.
The goodneaa of cpnacience here recpm
mended, ia ihe integrity and holiness of
ihe whole inward man in a Christian ; ap
the ingredienta pf it are, 1. A due light pr
knpwledge pf our rule : That aa the lampa
in the temple muat be atill burning within,
so filthineaa is always the corapanion of
darkness ; therefore, if you would have a
good conacience, you rauat by aU meana
have so rauch light, ao much knowledge of
the wiU of God, aa may regulate you, and
ahew you your way, may teach you how to
do, and speak, and think, as in his presence.
2. A conatant regard, and uaing of thia
light, applying it to aU ; not sleeping, but
working by it ; still seeking a nearer con
formity with the known wiU of our God ;
daUy redreaaing and ordering the affectiona
by it ; not aparing to knock off whatsoever we
find inegular within, that our hearta may be
polished, and brought to a right frarae by
that rule. And this is the daily inward work
ofHhe Christian, hia great buaineaa, to purify
himself as the Lord is pure, 1 John iii. 3.
And, 3. For the advancing of this work,
is needful, a frequent search of our hearts
and of our actiona, not only to conaider what
we are to do, but what we have done. Theae
refiex inquiries, as they are a main part of the
cpnacience'a prcper wprk, they are a chief
meana pf raaking and keeping the cpnacience
good: 1. Acquainting the aoul with ita own
state ; with the raotions and inclinations that
are most natural to it. 2. Stining it up to
work put, and purge away, by repentance, the
ppUutiun it hath contracted by any outward
act or inward motion of sin. 3. This aearch
both excitea and enablea the conacience to
be more watchful; teaches how to avoid
* Magno conatu magnas nugas.
-t Mak) sentire compunctionem, quam scire ejus de
finitionem.

and prevent the like enofs for the time to
come. As natural wise men labour to gain
thus out of their former oversights in their own
affairs, to be the wiser and warier by them,
and to lay up that as bought wit, that they
have paid dear for, and therefore are care
ful to make their best advantage of it ; S9
God raakes the consideration pf their faUs
preservatives tp his children frpm faUing
again ; he raakes a medicine pf this ppison.
Thus, that the conacience raay be good, it
rauat be enlightened ; and it rauat be watch.
fill, both advising before, and after censur
ing, according to that light.
The greater part of mankind littie regard
this ; they walk by guess, having perhaps
ignorant consciences, (and the bUnd, you aay,
awaUow many afly,) yea, how many conscien
ces without aenae, as seared with an hot
iron, 1 Tim. iv. 2, so stupified, that they

feel nothing ! Others rest aatiafied with
civU righteouaneaa, an imagined goodneas of
conacience, because they are free frora groas
criraea. Others that know the rule pf Chris
tianity, yet study not a conscientious respect
to it in aU things. They cast aorae tranaient
looka upon the rale, and their own hearts,
it raay be, but sit not down : they raake it
not their busineaa to corapare thera. They
have time for any thing but that ;* but
ahare not with St. Paul, do not exerciae
theraaelves in thia, to have a conscience void
of offence towards God and men. Acts xxiv.
16. Thoae were hia Asceticks, [incoj] he
breathed hiraaelf, in atriving against what
raight deflle the conscience, or as the word
aigniflea, elaborately wrought and dressed
hia conacience.-|- Think you, that other
things cannot be done without dUigence and
intention, and is thia a work to be done at
randora ? No, it ia the raoat exact and cu.
rious of all works, to have the conacience
right, and keep it so. As watches or pther
such neat pieces pf wprkmanship, except
they be daily wpund up and skilfully han
dled, they will quickly go wrong; yea, besides,
daily inspection, conacience ahould (aa theae)
at sorae tiraes he taken tp pieces, and mere
accurately cleansed; for the best kept wiU
gather soil and dust. Sometimes a Chris
tian should set hiraself to a more soleran ex.
amination of hia own heart, beyond hia daily
search ; and aU little enough to have so pre
cious a good as this, a good conscience.
The.y that are most diUgent and vigilant,
find nothing to abate as superfluous, but atiU
need of raore. The heart ia to be kept with
all diligence, Prov. iv. 23, or above all
keeping. Conuption within is ready to grow
and gain upon it, if it be ever so Uttie ne-.
glected, and from without to invade it, and-'
get in. We breathe in a cortupt infected-
* Non vacant bonce menti.
-)- A/rx'^i^xa'oi ^irmx. Ho.M-

200

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. III'.

air, and have need daily to antidote tbe heart
agaibat it.
You that are atudying to be exceUent in
this art of a good conscience, go on, seek
daily progress iu it ; the atudy of conacience
la a more aweet profitable atudy than of all
science, wherein is much vexation, and, for
the most part, little or no fruit. Read this
bopk dUigently, and conect your errata by
that other book, the Word of God. Labour
to have it pure and right ; pther books aud
works arc -rs^is^yz, curious, and xx^ioyx, by-
works ; ihey shaU soon disappear, but this is
one of the books that shall he opened in that
great day, according io which we must be
judged, Rev. xx. 12.
On this foUows a good conversation, aa
inseparably connected with a good conacience.
Grace is of a lively active nature, and dpth
act like itaelf ; hplineaa in the heart will be
bolineas in the life too ; not some gppd ac
tipns, but a gppd cpnversatipn, an unifprra
even tract pf life, the whole revolution of it
regular : The inequality of sorae Christians'
ways dpth breed much discredit tp religipn,
and discprafort to theraselves.
But observe here, 1. The order of these
two. 2. The principle of both.
1. The conacience good, and then the
converaation ; Make ihe tree good, and the
fruit will be good, aaya our Saviour, Matt.
xii. 33 ; ao, here, a good conscience is the
root of a good conversation. Most raen be
gin at the wrong end of this wprk ; they
wpuld refprra the outward raan first ; that
will dp up good, it will be but dead work.
Do not rest upon external reformations,
they wiU not hold, there is no abiding, nor
no advantage, in such a work ; you think,
when reproved. Oh 1 I wiU mend, and set
about the redreaa of spme putward things ;
but this is aa gppd as to do nothing ;, the mind
and conscience being defiled, as the apostle
speaka. Tit. i. 15, doth defile all the reat ;
it ia a mire in the apring ; although the pipea
are cleansed, they wiU grow quickly foul
again ; so Chriatians, in their progreaa in
grace, would eye thia raoat, that the conacience
b^ growing purer, the heart more spiritual,
the affections raore regular and heavenly,
and their outward caniage will be hoUer ;
whereas, the outward work of perfonning
duties, and being rauch exercised in religion,
may, by the neglect pf this, be labpur in
vain, and araend npthing spundly. To set
the outward actions right, though with an
honest intention, and not so to regard and
find out the inward disorder of the heart,
whence that in the actions flows, is but to
be stiU putting the index of a clock right
with ypur finger, while it is fpiil, pr out of
order within, which is a continual business,
and does no good. Oh ! but a purifled
conscience, a soul renewed and refined in
its temper and affections, wiU make things

go right without, in aU the duties and acts
of our calUngs.
2. The principle of good in bpth is Christ
Y.our good conversation in Christ. The
conversation is not good, unless in him, sc
neither is the conscience.
1. He the perspn, we must be in him,
and then the cpnscience and cenversation
will be gppd in him ; the conscience that is
moraUy good, having some kind of virtuous
habits, yet being out of Chriat, ia nothing
but poUution in the aight of God : it must
be washed in his blood ere it can be clean ;
aU our pains will not cleanse it, floods of
tears wiU not do it ; it is blood, and that
blood alone, thathath the virtue of purging
the conscience from dead works, Heb. ix, 14.
2. In him, the perfect pattern of holi
ness ; the heart and Ufe is to be conformed '
tp him, and sp made traly gppd.
3. He is the Spirit of Grace, whence it
is first derived, and always fed and main
tained, and made active ; a spirit goes forth
frora him that cleanseth our spirits, and so
makes our conversation clean and holy.
If thou wouldat have thy conacience and
heart purified and pacified, and have thy
life certified, go to Christ for aU, make use
of him ; aa of hia blood to wash off thy
guiltiness, so of his Spirit to purify and sanc
tify thee. If thou wouldat have thy heart
reaerved for God, pure aa hia temple ; i^ thou
wouldst have thy lusts caat out that pollute
thee, and findeat no power tp dp it ; go to
him, deaire him to scourge out thy filthy
rabble, that abuse his house, and make it a
den of thieves. Seek this as the only way
to have thy aoul and ways righted, to be in
Christ, and then walk in him. Let thy
conversation be in Christ, study him and fol.
low hira ; look on his way, on his graces, his
obedience, and humility, and raeekness, till
by looking on them, they make the vfery idea
of thee new, as the painter doth of a face he
would draw to the Ufe ; sp behpld his glpry,
that thou raayest be transformed from glory
to glory : But as it is there added, this must
be by ihe Spirit of the Lord, 2 Cor. iii. 18.
Do nnt, therefpre, lppk on him simply as
an exaraple without thee, but as life within
thee, having received him ; walk not only
like him, but in him, as the Apostie St. Paul
i, Colos. ii. 6, and aa the word is
here, have your conversation not only accprding
to Christ, but in Christ ; draw from his ful
ness grace for grace, Jphn i. 16.
2dly, The pther thing in the wprds is the
advantage pf this gpod conscience and con.
versation, its success in this conteat with
eviLspeakers. 1 . Even external tpwards the
malicipus ungpdly world : they shall be
ashamed thai falsely accuse you\ Thus
often it is even most evident to raen ; the
victory pf innccency, silent innpcency, meat
strongly confuting all calumny, making the

v«u. 17-1

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

201

ungpdly falae accusers hide their heads.
Thus, withput stining, the integrity, pf a
Christian cpnquers : as a rock, unremoved,
breaka the watera that are daahing againat
it. And tills is not only a lawful, but laud.
able way of revenge, shaming calumny out
of it, and punishing evil-speakers by weU.
doing ; shewing reaUy how falae their accu.
sera were. Thia ia the moat powerful apolo.
gy and refutation : as hia waa of the aophiater
that would prove there waa no motion, by ris
ing up and walking. And without this good
conscience and conversation, we cut ouraelvea
short of Pther apologies for reUgion, what
soever we say for it. One unchriatian action
wUl diagrace it more than we can repair bythe
largeat and beat framed speeches on its behalf.
Let those, therefere, that have given
their names tp Christ, hpnpur hira, and
their hply prpfeaaien, rapst this way : apeak
for hira aa occaaion requirea ; why ahould we
not, provided it be with meekness and fear,
as our Appstie hath taught ? But let thia be
the main defence pf religipn, Uve like it,
and cpmmend it sp. Thus all shpuld do
that are caUed Chriatiana, should adorn that
holy profession with holy converaation :
But the moat are nothing else but spots and
blemishes, aome wallowing in the mire, and
provoking one another to aU uncleanneaa. Oh
the unchriatian life of Christiana ! an evil to
be rauch lamented, more than all the troublea
we auatain. But these indeed do thus deny
Christ, and declare that they are not his.
So many as have any reaUty of Chriat in you,
be so much the raore holy : The more wick.
ed the reat are, strive to make it up, and to
honour that name which they diagrace. And
if they wiU reproach ypu, becauae ye walk
npt with thera, and caat the' raire of false
reproaches on you, take no notice, but go on
your way ; it wiU dry, and eaaily rub off.
Be not troubled with miajudginga ; sharae
them out of it by your blameless and holy
caniage, for that wiU do raoat to put Uea out
of cpuntenance. However, if they continue
irapudent, the day is at hand, wherein aU
the eneraies of Christ shall be all clothed
over, and covered with shame, and they that
have kept a good conscience, and walked
in Christ,„ shall lift up their faces with joy,
2dly, There ia an intrinaical good in thia
gopdneas of conscience, that sweetens all
sufferings, as follows :
'Vee. 17. For it is better, if the will of God be so,
that ye suffer for well-doing, than for evil-doing.
Theiie is a necessity of suffering in any
way wherein ye can walk ; if ye chooae the
way of wickedness, you ahaU not, by doing
so, eacape suffering : And that auppoaed,
thia ia by far the better, to auffer in well
doing, and for it, than to suffer either for
dping evil, pr simply tP suffer in ihat way,
as the wPrds run, io suffer doing evil, sajs;-
voiovvTXi vraff^itv.

1, The way pf die ungodly is npt exempt
from suffering, even in their present circuin.
atancea, setting aside the judgment and
wrath to come. They often suffer from the
handa of men, whether justly or unjuatly ;
and often from the immediate hand of God,
alwaya juat, both in that and the other, caus
ing the sinner io eat of the fruit of his own
ways, Prov. i. 30. When profane ungodly
men offer violences and wrongs one to ano
ther ; in this God is juat againat both, in
that wherein they themaelvea are both unjuat ;
they are both rebeUioua againat him, and ao,
thpugh they intend npt hia quarrel, he means
it himself ; aets them tp lash one another.
The wicked profesa their combined enmity
againat the children of God, yet they are not
always at peace araongat themaelvea : They
pften revile and defame each other, and ao
enraity is held up on both aidea ; whereas
the godly cannot hold them game in that.
being like their Lord, who, when he was
reviled, reviled not again, 1 Pet. ii. 23.
Beaidea, although the ungodly flouriah at
some timea, yet they' have their daya of auf
fering, are aubject to the common miseries
of the Ufe of man, and the comraon calarai
ties of evU times ; the sword and pestUence,
and sUch like public judgraents : Now, in
what kind soever it be that they suffer, they
are at a great disadvantage, cprapared with
the godly, in their sufferings.
' Here impure consciences may lie sleeping,
while men are at ease theraselves ; but when
any great trouble cpmes and shakes them,
then tbe conscience naturaUy begins to awake,
and bustle, and proves more grievous to thera
than all that coraes on them from without.
When they reraeraber their despising the
ways of God, neglecting him and holy things,
whence they are convinced, how that cpmfort
might be reaped in these days of distress ;
this cuts and gaUs them moat, looking back
at their licentious profane ways ; each of
thera strikes to the heart. As the Apoatle
caUa sin ihe sting of death, 1 Cpr. xv. 56,
SP is it pf aU sqfferinga, and the sting that
strikes deepest intp the very soul : No stripes
are like those that are secretly given by an
accusing conscience.*
A aad condition it is, to have frora thence
the greatest anguish, whence the greateat
comfort ahould be expected ; tp. have thick-
eat darkness, whence they shpuld lppk for the
clearest light. Men that have evil conscien
ces, love not tP be with them ; they are npt
much with themaelvea, as Auguatine com-
parea thera to such as have shrewd wives,
and therefore love not to be rauch at horae.
But yet outward distress sets a man inward,
aa foul weather drives him home ; and there,
where he should flnd cpmfprt, he ia met with
auch accusatipns as are like a continual
dropping, as Splpmpn speaks of a conten-
* Surdo verbere cedit. Juv.

202

A COMMENTARY UPON

[Chap, in,

tious woman, Prov. xix. 3. It is a most
wretched state to live under sufferinga or
afflictions of any kind, and a stranger to
God ; for a man to have God and his con
science against him, that should be his solace
in tiraea of distress, being knocked off from
he coraforta of the world, whereon he rested,
and having no provision of spiritual comfort
within, nor expectation from above. But let
ua now,
2dly, Consider the state of the children
of God in their sufferinga (especially such as
are of God ;) and here, first, They can re
tire themselves inwards, and rejoice in the
testimony of a good conscience, 2 Cor. i. 12;
yea, the possession of Chriat dweUing with
in them. All the trouble that befala them,
ia but as the rattUng pf hail uppn the tiles
of the hpuae to a man that ia sitting within
a warm roora at a rich banquet ; such is a
good conscience, a feast, yea, a continual
feast. The believer looka on his Christ, and
in him reads his deUverance from condem
nation, and that is a strong comfort, a cor.
dial that keeps him frora fainting in the
greateat distreaaea. M''hen the conscience
gives this testiraony that sin is forgiven, it
raises the soul above outward sufferings.
TeU the Christian of loss of goods, or Uberty,
or friends, or life, he answers aU with this,
" Christ is mine, and my ain is pardoned ;
that is enough for me. 'What would I not
have suffered, to have been delivered froin
the wrath of God, if any suffering of raine
in this world could have done that I Now
that is done to my hand. AU other suffer
ings are light : they are light, and but for a
moment. One thought of etemity drowns
the whole tirae of the world'e endurance,
which is but as one instant, or twinkUng of
an eye, betwixt etemity before, and etemity
after. How rauch leaa ia any abort life, aud
a amaU part of that ia spent in sufferings ?
Yea, what is it, though it were aU suffering.s,
without intenuption, which yet it is not ?
When I look forward to the crown, aU va
nishes, and I think it less than nothing."
Now, these things the good conscience
speaks to the Christian in his sufferings ;
therefore, certainly, his choice is best, that
provides it for his companipu against evil
and troublous times : if mpral integrity went
SP far, (as truly it did much in spme men
that had much pf it), that they acomed aU
hard encounters, and eateeraed thia a suf
ficient bulwark, a strength irapregnable, hic
murus aheneus esto, nil conscire sibi, how
much more the Christian's good conscience,
which alone is truly such !
2. As the Christian may thus look inward.

The Christian raind hath stiU one eye to
this, above the hand of raen, and aU inferior
causes, in suffering, whether for the name of
God, or otherwise : it looks on the sovereign
wiU of God, and sweetly corapUes with that
in aU. Neither is there any thing that doth '
more powerfully corapose and quiet the mind
than this. It feels itself invincibly firm and
content, when it bath attained this relf-re.
signation to the will of God ; to agree to
that in every thing. This is the very thing
wherein tranquilUty of spirit lies : It is no
riddle, nor hard to be understood, yet few
attain it. And I pray you, what is gained
by our reluctancies and repinings, but pain
to purselves ? Gpd doth what he will, whe.
ther we cpnsent pr npt ; pur disagreeing dot's
not prevent his purposes, but our own peace.
If we wiU not be led, we are drawn. We
must suffer if he will ; but if we wiU what
he wills, even in suffering, that makes it
sweet and easy ; when our mind goes along
with his, and we willingly move with that
stream of providence, which wiU carry us
with it, though we row against it ; m which
case we stiU have nothing but toU and weari
ness for our pains.
But this hard arguraent, of necessity, is
needless tp the child pf God ; persuaded of
the wisdora and love of his Father, he knows
that to be truly beat for hira that hia hand
reaches. Sufferinga are unpleaaant to the
fieah, and it wiU grumble ; but the voic3 of
the Spirit of God, in hia children, ia that of
that good king. Good is ihe word of ihe
Lord ihat he hath spoken, Isa. xxxix. 8, or
that other, 2 Sam. x. 12, Let him do with
me as seemeth good in his eyes. My foolish
heart would think these things I auffer might
be abated, but my wiae and heavenly Father
thinka otherwise : He hath his design of
honour to hiraself, and gppd tp me in these,
which I would be loth to cross if I might.
I would think, I may do God raore service
by these advantages ; but, doth not he know
best what is fit ? Cannot he advance hia
grace raore by the want of theae things I
desire, than I could do rayaelf by having
thera ? Cannot he make rae a gainer by
sickneaa, and poverty, and disgraces, and, loss
of friends and children, by raaking up aU in
himself, and teaching me'more of his all-suf
ficiency ? 'Yea, even concenving the affairs
of my soul, I ara to give up all to his good
pleasure. Though I desire the light of his
countenance above all things in this world,
yet if he see it fit to hide it sometimes, if
that be his wiU, let rae not murmur ; there'
is nothing lost hy this obedient teraper ; yea,
what way soever he deals with us, there is
much more advantage in it. No aoul ahaU

and rejoices in tribulation ; ao there ia ano,
ther look, upward, thatia here Ukewiae men- j enjpy ap rauch in aU eatatea, as that which
tioned, that allays very rauch aU the auffer- 1 hath divested and renounced itself, and hath
inga of the saints : If the will of God be .so, no will but God'a,
1 Pet. Ui. 17.

VER. 13.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

203

Vbr. 18. For Christ also hath once suil'ered for
sins, the just for the unjust, (that he might bring
us to God,) heing put to death in the flesh, but
quicliened by the Spirit,
The whole life of a Christian is a steady
aiming at cpnfprraity with Christ .; sp that,
in any thing, whether dping pr suffering,
there can be np argument sp apposite and
perauaaive as Hia example ; and no kind or
degree of pbedience, either active pr passive,
SP difficult, but the view and cpnteraplatipn
of that example wiU powerfuUy sweeten it.
The Apoade doth not decUne the frequent
uae of it : here we hdve it thua, for Christ
also suffered.
Though the doctrine of Chriatian auffer
ing ia the occaaion of apeaking of Chriat's
suffering, yet he insists on it beyond the
simple necesaity of that argument, for its
own exceUency and further usefulnesa. So
we ahall cpnsider the dpuble capacity, I. As
an encpurageraent and engagement for Chris
tians to suffer. II. Aa the great point of
their faith, whereon aU their hopes and
happiness depend, being the raeans of their
reduction to God.
I. The due consideration of Chriat'a auf-
ferings dpth rauch temper aU the sufferings
of Christiana, eapeciaUy such as are directly
fur Christ.
L It is spme knpwn ease to the mind, in
any distress, to look upon examples of the
like, or greater distress, in present or former
times.* It diverts the eye from continual
poring on our own suffering ; and, when we
retum to view it again, it lessens it, abates
of the imagined bulk and greatness of it.
Thus pubUc, thus spiritual, troubles are
lightened ; and particularly the suft'erings
and temptations of the godly, by the conai
deration of this as their comraon lot, their
highway, and not new in the person of any,
1 Cor. X. 13. No temptation has befallen
you but what is common to men. If we
trace tbe lives of the most erainent saints,
shaU we not find every notable step that is
recorded marked with a new cross ; one
trouble foUowing on another, as the waves
do,-|- in an inceaaant aucceaaion ? Ia not thia
manifeat in the Ufe of Abrahara, and pf
Jacpb, and the reat of God'a worthies, in the
Scriptures ? And, doth not this make it
an unreasonable, absurd thought, to dream
of an exemption ? Would any one have a
new untrodden way cut out for hira, free of
thorns, and strewed with flowers aU along ?
Would a man meet with no contradictions,
nor hard measure frpm the world ? Or iraa
gine that there raay be such a dexterity ne
cessary, as to keep its good will, and the
friendship of God too ? This will not be ;
and it is an universal conclusion. All that
will live godly in Christ Jesus, must suffer
* Ferre quam sortem patiuntur omnes.
+ Velut unda pellitur unda.

persecution, 2 Tim. iii. 12. Tliia is the
path to the kingdora, that which all the sons
of God, the heira pf it, have gpne in, even
Chriat ; aa that knpwn wprd ia. One Spn
without sin, but none without suffering ;
Christ also suffered.
2. As the example and corapany of die
saints in suffering is very considerable, so
that of Christ is raore than any other, yea,
than all the rest together. Therefore, the
Apostle having represented theformer at large,
ends in this, as the top of all, Heb, xii.
1, 2, There is a race set before us, it is to
be run, and run with patience, and without
fainting : Now, he tella us of a cloud of
witnesses ; a cloud made up of instances of
believers suffering before ua ; and the heat
of the day wherein we run ia somewhat cool
ed, even by that cloud compassing us : But
the main strength of their comfort here, Ues
in looking to Jesus, eyeing of his sufferings,
and their issue. The considering and con
templating of hira wiU be the atrongeat cor
dial, wiU keep you frora wearying and
fainting in the way, ver. 3.
The singular power of this inatance liea
in many particulara conaiderable in it. To
apecify aome chief things briefiy in the steps
of the present words : The exaraple is great
and fit, and the result of the sufferings con
teraplated, of infinite iraportance to the Chris
tian. Consider, 1 st. The greatness of the
exaraple, which wiU appear frora the great
ness of the person, and of the sufferings.-
1. From the greatness ofthe person : Christ,
and that marked to us by the manner of ex
preaaion, [na) X^ifl-To?,] Christ also, beaidea
and beyond all othera, even Christ himself.
There can be no higher exaraple : not
only are the aona of adoption aufferers, but
the begotten, the only begotten Son, the
etemal heir of glory, in whom aU the reat
have their title, their aonship, their heirship,
derived frora, and dependent on hia : Not
only all the aainta, but the King of sainta.
who shaU now repine at suffering ? Shall
the wretched aona of raen refuae to auffer,
after the suffering of the spotless glpripus Spn
of God ? as one speaks of pride, that after
Majeaty, higheat Majeaty, to teach humi
lity, hath so humbled himself, how wicked
and impudent »- thing wiU it be for a wonn
to sweU, to be high conceited ?" So thus
our Lord hath taught us, by suffering in his
own peraon, and hath dignified aufteringa,
ao that we should certainly rather be arabi
tious than afraid of them. Recollect,
2. The greatness and continuance of his
sufferings. That which the Apostle speaks
here of his once suffering, hath its truth,
taking in aU. He suffered once ; his
whole life was one continued line of suffer
ing, from the manger to the cross ; aU that
• Ubi se humiliavit Majestas, -/ermiculus inflet'L
Gt intumescat. Bern.

204

A COSIMENTARY UPON

[chap. iif.

lay betwixt waa suitable. His estate and
entertainraent thrpughput his whple life
agreed weU with ap mean a beginning, and
so reproachful an end of it : Forced upon a
flight, -while he could not go ; and living,
till he appeared in public, in a very mean
deapised condition, as the carpenter's son ;
and, after his best works, paid with envy
and reviUngs, caUed n wine-bibber, and a
caster out of devils by ihe prince of devils ;
hia life often laid in wait, and aought for.
Art thou mean in thy birth and life, despis
ed, misjudged, and revUed on aU handa ?
Look how it waa with Him, tliat had more
right than thpu haat tp better entertainment
in the v/orld. Thou wilt not deny this, for
it waa his own ; it was made by him, and
he was in it, and it knew him not. Are
thy friends harsh to thee ? He came unto
his own, and his own received him not,
John i. 10, 11. Hast thpu a mean cpttage,
pr art thpu drawn from it ? Hast thou no
dwelUng, and art thou every way poor and
ill accomraodated ? He was as poor as thou
canst be, and had no where to lay his head,
Blatt. viii. 20, worse provided than the birds
and foxes. But then, conaider to what a
height hia sufferings rose in the end, that
most reraarkable piece of thera here meant,
by hia once suffering for sins. If thou
ahouldst be cut off by a violent death, or in
the prirae of thy years, raayest thou not look
upon him as going before thee in both these ?
and in so ignominious a way ; scourged,
buffeted, and spit on ; he endured all, he
gave his back to the smiters, laa. i. 6, and
then, as the aame Prophet hath it. He was
numbered amongst ihe transgressors, laa,
liii. ult. When they had uaed him with
aU that shame, they hanged him betwixt
two thieves, and they that pasaed by, wag
ged their heads, and darted taunts at hira,
as at a mark fixed to the crosa ; ihey scoffed,
and said. He saved others, himself he can
not save : But, for the joy set before him,
he endured ihe cross, despising the shame,
as the Apostle says, Heb. xii. 2.
Thus see we the outside of his sufferings.
But the Chriatian ^ia aubject to grievoua
teraptationa, and sad deaertions, that are
heavier by far than the auffeiings which in
deed the Apoatle speaks of here. Yet even
in theae thia aarae argument of his holds.
Fpr pur Savipur ia not unacquainted with,
nor ignorant of, either of thoae, though still
without sin. And, if any of that had been
in any of his sufferings, it had not further
ed, but undone aU our comfort in him. But
tempted he was ; he suffered that way too,
and the temptations were tenible, aa ypu
knppv. And, waa there not aome strong
conflict when he feU dpwn and prayed in

the garden, and sweat drops of blood ?
Was there npt an awful ecUpse, when he | speak ao far frora the purpoae.
cried out on the crpas. My God, my God ! i * Exemplum domesticum.

why hast thou forsaken me ? Sp that, even
in these, we raay apply this comfort, and
stay purselves pr spuls on him, and go to
him as a cprapassipnate High Priest, Heb.
iv. 15, 16, For Christ also suffered.
2. Consider the fitness of -the example:
As the sarae is every way great, yea, greatest,
so it is fit, the fittest to take with a Christian,
tp set before hira so near a pattem, where
hfe hath ao much, interest. Aa the argu.
ment ia strong in itself, ao ia it to the new
man, the Christian raan, particularly strong.
eat ; it binds hira raost ; for it is not far fetch.
ed, but a hgme pattern ;* aa when you per.
auade men to virtue, by the example of those
that they have near relation to. Theyare
his servants, and shall they, or would they,
think to be greater than their Master, to
be exempt from his lot in the wprld ? They
are his soldiers, and wiU they refuse to fol.
low him, and to endure with him ? Suffer
hardship, (says the Apostle to Timothy,)
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, 2 Tim.
ii. 3. WiU not a word from him put a
vigour in them to go after him, whether
upon any march or service, when he calls
thera frienda, Commilitones, an appeUation
uaed by Julius Cieaar, which .wrought so
much on his trained banda : Yea, he is not
ashamed io call ihem brethren, Heb. u;
11 ; and will they be aaharaed to ahare
with hira, and to be known by their auitable
eatate to he hia brethren ?
3. There ia frora theae sufferinga of
Christ, such a reault of aafety and comfort
to a Chriatian, that makea them a moat ef
fectual encouragement to auffering; which
is this, if he suffered once, that was for sin ;
so that now, that heavy intolerable suffer
ing for ain being once taken out of a be
Uever's way, it makes all other sufferings
Ught, exceeding light, as nothing in their
account. He suffered once for sin, so that
to thera that lay hold on him, thia holda
sure, that sin is never to be suffered for in
the way of strict justice again ; as not by
him. So npt by them that are in him ; for he
suffered for sins once, and it was for iheir
sins, every ppor believer's. Sp npw the soul,
finding itself rid of that fear, gpes cheerfuUy
thrpugh aU pther hazards and sufferings.
The spul, perplexed abput that question,
finds no relief in aU other enjoyments ; aU
propositions of Ipwer cprafprts are unaavpury
and trpublespme tp it. TeU it of peace and
prosperity ; say, however the world go, you
shaU have ease and pleasure, and you shall
be honpured and esteeraed by all ; yea,
though you could make a man sure of these,
yet, if his conscience be working and stined
about the matter of his sin, and the wrath of
God, which is tied close to sin, he wiU
wonder at your impertinency, in that you
Say what

VER. 18.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

205

you wiU of these, he still asks, " What do
you raean by this ? those things answer not me.
Do ypu think I can find cprafprt in them,
SP Ipng as my sin is unpardoned, and there
is a sentence pf eternal death standing abpve
my head ? I feel an impress pf spmewhat
pf that hpt indignation ; some flashes of it,
flying and Ughting upon the face of my soul,
and how can I take pleasure in these things
ypu speak* pf ? And thpugh I shpuld be
senseless, and feel nothing of this all ray
life, yet how sopn shaU I have dune with it,
and the delights that reach no further ; and
then to have everlasting burnings, eternity
of wrath to enter to ; how can I be satisfled
with that estate ?" All you offer a man in
this posture is as if you should set dainty fare,
and bring rausic with it, to a man lying almost
pressed to death under great weights, and
you bid him eat and be meny, but Uft not
off his pressure ; you do but raock the man
and add to his raisery : On the other side,
he that hath got but a view of his Christ,
and reads his own pardon in Chriat'a auffer
inga, can rejoice in thia, in the raidat of aU
other aufferinga, and look on death without
apprehenaion, yda, with gladneaa, for the
sting is oui : Chriat hath raade all pleaaant
to hira by this one thing, that he suffered
once for sins. Chriat hath perfumed the
crpaa, and the grave, and raade aU sweet.
The pardened man flnda himself light, akipa
and leapa, and through Christ strengthen
ing him, he can encounter with any trouble.
If you think to ahut up his spirit within
outward aufferinga, he is now, as Sampson
in his strength, able to cany away on his
back the gates with which you would inclpse
him ; yea, can subrait patiently to the
Lord's hand in any conection. " Thou
hast forgiven my sin, therefore, deal with
me as thou wilt, &U ia weU." For the im
proveraent of what haa been aaid,
1. Learn to conaider raore deeply, and
eateera raore highly, of Chriat, and hia auf
fering, to ailence pur grurabUng at pur petty
light crpsaea ; fpr ap they are in cpraparispn
of thia. WiU not the great odda of hia per
fect innocency, and of the nature and mea
aure of his sufferings ; will not the aenae of
the rederaption of our aouls from death by
hia death ; wiU none of theae, nor aU of
them, argue ua into more thankfulness and
love to hira, and patience in our trials ?
Why wiU we then be caUed Christiana ? It
ia impoaaible to be fretful and malcontent
with the Lord's deaUng with ua in any kind,
till first we have forgot hpw he dealt with
his dearest Spn for pur sakes.* But these
tilings are npt weighed by the rapst : we
bear and speak pf them, but our heart? re
ceive not the irapressions of thera ; therefore
we repine against pur Lprd and Father, and
* Enimvero non sentient sua, qui illius vulnera
ijituentur. Bsa.v. in Caut. Serin. 61

drown a hundred great blessings in any
little trouble that befals us.
2. Seek surer interest in Christ and hia
suffering than the raoat either have attained,
or are aspiring to, otherwise aU that ia suf
fered here, wiU afford thee no ease nor cora
fort in any kind of suffering. No, though
thou suffer for a good cause, even for his
cause, StiU this will be an extraneous fo
reign thing to thee ; and to tell thee of hia
sufferinga, wiU work no otherwise with thee
than aome other common atory. And aa in
the day of peace thou rcgardeat it no more,
ao in the day of thy trouble thou ahalt re
ceive no more comfort from it. Other things
which you esteemed ahall have no comfort
to apeak to you ; though you pursue them
with words (aa Solomon saya of the poor
man'a friends) yet they shall be wanting to
you,, Prov. xix. 7- And then you wiU surely
find how happy it were to have thia to tum
you to, that the Lord Jeaus suffered for
sins, and for yours, and therefore hath made
it a light and comfortable business to ypu tp
undergp rapraentary paaaing sufferings.
Days pf trial will corae ; do you not aee
they are on us already ? Be persuaded,
therefore, to turn your eyea and desires more
towards Christ. Thia ia the thing we would
StiU preaa ; the support and happiness of
your aoula Ue on it. But you will not be
Ueve it. Oh, that you knew the coraforta
and sweetness of Christ 1 Oh, that ono
would speak that knew raore of thera ?
Were you once but entered into thia know
ledge of hira, and the virtue of hia auffer
inga, you would account all your days but
lost wherein you have not known hira ; and in
aU tiraes your hearta would find no refreahT
raent like to the reraerabrance of hia love.
Having aoraewhat conaidered theae auffer
inga, aa the Apoatle'a argument for hia pre
aent purpose, we come now,
2dly, Tp take a nearer view of the parti
culara, by which he illustratea them, aa the
main ppint pf . pur faith and cprafprt : Of
them here are two thinga, their cause and
their kind.
1. Their cauae; bpth their raeriting cauae
and their final cauae. What in us prpcured
theae aufferinga untp Chriat ; and what thpse
his aufferinga prpcured untp ua. Our guil
tineaa brpught auffering upon him ; and his
sufferings bring us unto God.
1st, For the meritpripus cause, our guilt
brought sufferings on Christ. 'The evil of
sin hath the evil of puniahraent inseparably
connected with it r We have a natural obli
gation of obedience unto God, and he juatly
urges it ; sp that where the command oi his
law ia brpke, the curse pf it preaently fpUpw-
eth. And thpugh it was aimply in the ppwer
pf the Suprerae Lawgiver to have dispensed
with the infliction, yet having in hia wiadom
puTjiosed to be known a just God in that way.

A COM.MENTARY UPON

206
following forth the tenor of hia law, of neces
sity there rauat be a auffering for ain.
Thus, the angels that kept not their ata-
tion, faUing from it, feU into a dungeon,
where they are under chains of darkness,
reserved to the judgment of the great day,
Jude 6 ; and man feU under the sentence of
death. But in this is the difference betwixt
raan and them ; they were not of one, aa
parent or coraraon root of the rest, buf each
one fell or stood for hiraself alone, so a part
of thera only perished ; but raan feU altoge.
ther ; ao that not one of all the race could
eacape conderanation, unleaa aorae other way
of aatisfaction be found out. And here it ia,
Christ suffered for sins, the just for the
unjust : Father, aaya he, / have glorified
thee on earth, John xvii. 3. In this plot,
indeed, do aU the divine attributes ahine in
their fuU luatre ; infinite mercy and iraraense
juatice, and power and wisdora. Looking
on Christ as ordained for that purpose, / have
found a ransom, says the Father, Job xxxiii.
24 ; one fit to redeera raan, a kinsraan, one
of that very same stock, the Son of raan ;
one able tp redeera raan by satiafying rae,
and fulfiUing all I lay upen him ; my Son,
my only-begotten Son, in whom my soul de
lights : And he ia wiUing, undertakea aU,
saya Lo, I come, Scc. Paal. xl. 7- We are
agreed upon the way of thia redemption ; yea,
upon the peraona to be redeeraed ; it ia not
a roving blind bargain, a price paid for we
know not whom. Hear his own wPrds :
Thou hast given the Son (says the Sen tp
the Father) power over all fiesh, ihat he
should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given him, Jphn xvii. 2 ; and after.
wards, all mine are thine, and thine are
mine, and I am glorified in ihem, ver. 10.
Fpr the sins ef thpse he auffered, standing
in their rppra ; and what he did and auffered
accprding tp the law pf that covenant, waa
done and auffered by thera. AU the aina of
all the elect were raade up into ari huge
bundle, and bound upon his shoulders. So
the Prophet speaks in their narae : Surely
he hath borne our griefs, and carried our
sorrows ; and ihe Lord laid [or made to
meet] on him the iniquity of us all, laa.
liii. 5, where he had spoken of many waya
of ain, and said, we have turned every one
to his own way ; he binds aU up in the word
iniquity as aU one sin, as if it were that one
transgression of the first Adara that brought
on the curse of his seed, borne by the second
Adam, to take it away from all that are his
seed, that are in hira aa their root.
He ia the great High-prieat appearing be
fore God with the naraea of the elect upon
his ahouldera ; and in his heart bearing thera
and aU their burdens, and offering for thera
not any other sacrifice but himself ; charg
ing all their sin on hiraself, as the priest
did the sina pf the pepple pn the head pf the

[eUkt. II,.

sacrifice. He, by the Eternal Spirit, says
the Apostle, offered up himself withmil
spot unto God, spotless and sinless, ^Heb.
ix. 14 ; and ao he pnly ia fit tp take away
pur ain, being a satisfactnry pblatipn for it.
He auffered ; in hira was put ranspm, and
thus it was paid. In the man Christ waji
the Deity, and sp his blppd was, as the
Appstie caUs it, the blood of God, Acts xx.
28; and, being pierced, it cameforfh, and was
told down, aa the rich price of our redemp.
tion ; not silver nor gold, nor corruptible
things, as our Apostle hath it before, but
the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish, 1 Pet.i. 17.
Obs. 1. Shall any man offer to bear the
narae of a Christian, that pleases himself in
the way of ain ? that can delight and sport
hiraaelf with it, when he cpnsiders this, that
Christ suffered for ain ? Do not think it, yon
that atill account ain sweet, which he found
so bitter, and light, which was so heavy to
him, and made his soul heavy to ihe death.
You are yet far off frora him ; if yon were
in hira, and one with him, there would be
some harmpny pf your hearts with his, and
sprae sympathy with theae sufferings, as en
dured by ypur Lord, your head, and for you.
They that, with ^ right view, aee him as
pierced by their aina, that aight pierces them,
and makes them mourn ; bringa forth tears,
beholding the gushing forth of his blood
Thia makea the real Chriatian an avowee!
enemy to ain : shall I ever be friends witb
that, aaya he, which kiUed my Lord ? No,
but I will ever kill it, and do it by applying
hia deathi The true penitent ia sworn to be
the death of ain : He may be aurpriaed by .
it, but there is no poaaibiUty of recpncileraent
betwixt thera.
Thou that livest kindly and familiarlj
with sin, and either openly declarest thyaelf
for it, or hast a secret love for it, where canst
thou reap any cpmfprt ? None can flow from
theae sufferings to thee continuing in that
posture. It is aU one, as if Christ had noi
auffered for aina ; yea, it ia worae than if no
such thing had been, that there is aalvation,
and terma of mercy, unto thee, and yet thou
periaheat : That there ia balm in Gilead,
Jer. iii. 18, and yet thou art not healed.
And if thou hast npt comfort frora Jesus
crucifled, I know not whence thou canst have
any that wiU hold out. Look about thee,
tell rae what thou seest, either in thy poases-
aion or in thy hppea, that thpu esteemest
raost, and layest thy confidence on ; or, to
deal more Uberally with thee, see what estate
thou wouldst choose, hadat thou thy wish.
Stretch thy fancy to devise an earthly happi
neaa. These times are fuU pf unquietness ;
but give thee a time of the calmest peace,
not an air of trouble stining ; put thee where
thou wilt, far off frora fear of sword and pes
tilence, and encorapass thee with children.

VtlK. 18.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

30'7

friends and possessions, and honours, and
cpmfprt, and health tp enjoy aU these ; yet
one thing thou must admit in the raidst of
thera aU, within a while thou raust die ;
and, having no real portipn in Christ, but a
deluding dream pf it, ainkest through that
death into another death far raore tenible.
Of aU thou enjoyeat, nothing goea along with
thee but unpardoned sin, and that delivers
thee up to endleaa sonow. Oh ! that you
were wise and would consider your latter \
end, Deut. xxxii. 29. Do not atiU gaze \
about you upon trifles, but yet be entreated
to take notice of your Saviour, and receive ,
him that he may be yours. Fasten your
belief and your love on him ; give all your ^
heart to him, who stuck not to give himself
an offering for your sins, Eph. v. 2.
2. Tp you that have fled unto hira for
refuge, if sensible of the Church'a distress,
be upheld with this thought, that he that
suffered for it wiU not suffer it to be undone.
AU the rage of enemies, yea, the gates of
hell shall noi prevail against it. Matt, xvi,
18 ; he raay, for a tirae, suffer the church
to be brpught Ipw for the sins of hia people
and other wiae reaaons, but he wiU not utterly
foraake it. Though there is much chaffy
yet he hath a precioua number in theae king
doraa, that he shed hia blood for. Many
God hath caUed, and yet ia to call : He will
not lose any of his flock that he bought so
dear, A cts xx. 28 ; and fer their sake he
will, at ene tirae er another, repair our
breaches, and establish his throne in these
kingdoms. And for youraelvea, what can
affright you while thia ia in your eye ? L^t
othera trerable at the apprehension of sword
or pestilence ; but sure you have for them,
and aU other hazarda, a raoat satisfying
answer in thia, Rora. v. 1, 2, 3, " My Chriat
hath auffered for ain ; I ara not to fear that ;
and that aet aaide, I know the worae is but
death. But I am wrong ; truly death, that
ia the best, to be dissolved ; and to be with
Christ is [,7roXXu fixkKov a^iiirffov] much
more better," Phil. i. 23.
Thia were a happy eatate indeed ; but
what shall they think that have no assurance ?
those that dpubt that Christ is theira, and
that he suffered for their sina ? I know no
way but to believe pn hira, and then ypu
shaU knpw that he is yeurs : Frpra thia ia
the grand miatake of many ; they would first
know that Christ is theirs, and then they would
believe, which cannot be, before he becomes
theira by believing. It ia that which givea
title and propriety to him ; he ia aet before
ainnera as a Saviour ihat hath suffered for
sin, that they may look to him and be aaved ;
that they may lay pver their aoula on him, and
then they maybe aaaured he auffered for thera.
Say then, what is it that scares thee frora
Christ ? This thou seest is a pppr grpund-
Icss exceptipn, fpr he is set before thee as a

Saviour to believe on, that ao he may be thy
Saviour. Why wilt thou not , come unto
him ? why refusest thou to believe ? Art
thpu.npt a ainner ? art thpu unjuat ? Then
he ia fit fer thy case : He suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust. Oh ! but so many
and so great sins ! yea, is that it ? It i.i
true indeed, and good reason thou think so.
But, 1st, Conaider if they be excepted in the
proclamation of Chriat, the pardon that
comes in his name : If not, if he make no
exception, why wilt thou ? 2dly, Conaider
if thou wilt caU thera greater than this sa
crifice, he suffered. Take due notice of
the greatness and worth, first of his person,
and thence of hia aufferinga, and thou wilt
not dare to aay thy ain goes above the value
of his suffering, or that thou art too unjust
for hira to justify thee : Be as unrighteous
as thou canst be, art thou convinced of it ?
then know that Jeaua the juat, ia more
righteous than thy righteousnesa: And after aU
ia aaid that any ainner hath to aay, they are
yet, without exception, blessed that trust in
him, Paal. ii. s^lt.
2. We have the final cause pf hia suffer
ings. That he might bring us to God.] It
is the chief ppint pf wisdpm, to proportion
raeana to their end : Therefore, the all-wise
God, in putting hia only Son to ao hard a
taak, had a high end in thia, and thia waa
it. That he might bring us unto God. Inthis
we have three things : lst, The nature of thia
good, nearness unto God. 2dly, Our de-
priveraent of it, by our own sin. Sdly, Our
restoreraent to it, by Christ's sufferings.
lst. The nature of thia good, siearness
to God. God hath 'auited every creature he
hath made with a convenient good to which
it tenda, and in the obtainment of which it
reats and ia aatiafied. Natural bodiea have
each their own natural place, whither, if not
hindered, they move inceaaantly till they be
in it ; and they declare, by reating there,
that they are (aa I raay say) where they
would be. Sensitive creaturea are canied to
seek a sensitive good, as agreeable to their
rank and being, and, attaining that, aira no
further. Now, in this is the exceUency cf
raan ; he is made capable pf a communion
with hia Maker, and, becauae capable of it,
ia unsatisfied without it ; the soul being cut
put (so to speak) to that largeness, cannpt be
fiUed with less, thpugh he is faUen frpm his
right tp that gppd, and frpm aU right desire of
it, yet not frora a capacity of it, no, nor from a
necessity of it, for the answering and fiUing of
hia capacity.
Though the heart once gone from God,
turna continually farther away frora him, and
moves not towards him tiU it be renewed ;
yet, even in that wandering, it retains that
natural relation to God, as its centre, that it
hath no true rest elsewhere, nor cannot by
any meana find it. It ia raade for him.

¦0)3

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap.

.ind ia therefore stiU reatless till it raeet with
him. It is true, the natural raan takes rauch
pains to quiet his heart by other thinga, and
digeats many vexations with hopea of con
tentment in the end, and accompliahment of
aome deaign he hath ; but still the heart mis-
givea. Rlany timea he attaina not the thing
he aeeka ; but if he do, yet he never attaina
the aatiafaction he aeeka and expects in it ;
but only leama from that tp deaire soraething
further, and stiU hunts on after a fancy,
drivea his own shadow before hira, and never
overtakes it ; and if he did, yet it is but a
shadow. And so, in running frora God,
beaides the sad end, he carries an interwoven
punishraent with his sin, the natural disquiet
and vexation of his spirit, fiuttering to and
fro, and finding no rest for ihe sole of
his foot : The waters of inconstancy and
vanity covering ihe whole face of the earth.
We study to abase our souls, and to make
thera content with less than they are made
for : yea, we strive to make them carnal,
that they raay be pleased with sensible things.
And in this men attain a brutish content for
a time, fprgetting their higher gopd. But
ceriainly, we cannpt think it sufficient, and
that np mpre were tp be desired beypnd ease
and plenty, and pleasures pf sense ; for then,
a beast in good case, and a good pasture,
might contest with us in point of happiness,
and carry it away ; for that sensitive good he
enjoys without sin, and without the vexation
that is mixt with us in all.
These things are too gross and heavy ;
the soul, the immortal soul, descended frora
heaven, must either be more happy or reraain
miserahle. The highest uncreated Spirit is
the proper good : the Father of spirits, that
pure and fuU good, raises the soul above it
self; whereas aU other things draw it down
below itaelf. So, then, it ia never weU with
the soul, but when it ia near unto God, yea,
in ita union with him ; manied to him, and
miamatching itaelf elsewhere, it hath never
any thing but shame and sonow. All that
forsake thee shall be ashamed, says the Pro
phet, Jer. xvii. 13 ; and the Psalmiat, Psal.
Ixxiii. 27, They that are afar off from thee
shall perish. And this is indeed our natural
miserable condition, and it is often exprest
thia way, -by estrangedness and distance
from God, Eph. ii. The Gentiles were far
off by their profession and nation, but both
Jews and Gentiles far off by their natural
foundation ; and both are brought near by
the blood oi the New Covenant ; and that is
the other thing here unpUed, that we are far
off by reason of sin ; otherwise there were no
need of Chriat, especiaUy in thia way of suf
fering for sin to bring us to God. Thia we
propoaed to cpnaider secpndly.
2d, Our deprivement of this great good
pf nearness to God, by out sin, ^"¦" "'"

as the breach pf God'a coramand, broke off
raan and aeperated hira from God, and ever
aince the soul remains naturally reraote ftom
God. 1. Under a sentence of exile, pro.
nounced by the justice of God ; condemned
to banishraent from God, who is the life and
Ught of the soul, as the soul itself ia of the
body. 2. It ia under a flat impossibility of
returning by itaelf ; and that in two reapects :
1. Becauae of the guiltineaa of ain atandinv
betwixt, aa an unpaasable mountain or wafi
of separation. 2. Because of the dominion
of sin keeping the soul captive, yea, still
drawing it further off from God, andincreas.
ing the distance and the enmity every day.
Nor is there in heaven, nor under heaven,
any way tp reraove this enmity, and mike
up this distance, and retum raan to the pos
session of God, but this one, by Christ, and
him suffering for sins ; which we are to con
sider. Sd, Our restoration tp nearness tp God by
Christ's sufferinga. He endured the sen
tence prpnpimced againat man ; yea, even in
thia particular nptipn pf it, aa one main in.
gredient in hia auffering waa his being de
serted of God, as tp any aenaible cpmmuni.
caticn pf comfort frora him ; of that he cried
out. Matt, xxvii. 46, My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me ? And, by
auffering the aentence pronounced, he took
away the guUtineaa of ain. He himaelf being
spotless and undefiled ; for such an High,
priest became us, Heb. vii. 26. The more
defUed we were, the more did we stand in
need of an undefiled Priest and Sacrifice ;
and He waa both. Therefore the Aposde
here very fitly mentipns this qualification of
our Saviour, as neceaaary for reducing us
unto God, the just for ihe unjust ; ao tak
ing on him, and taking away the guilt of '
ain, aetting hia atrong ahoulder to remove
that mountain, he made way or acceaa for
man unto God.
Thia the Apoatle hath excellently expreas
ed, Eph. ii. 16, He hath reconciled us hi/
his cross, having slain the c-nmity ; he kill
ed the quanel betwixt God and us ; kiUed
it by his death. He thua brings the partiea
together, aud hath laid a aure foundation of
agreement in hia own sufferinga ; appeases
hia Father'a wrath by them, and by the same
appeases the sinner's conscience. AU that
God hath to say, in point pf juatice, ia an-
awered there ; all that the ppor .humbled
ainner hath tp aay, ia anawered tpp. He
hath effered up auch an atonement aa satiafies
the Father; ao he is content that sinners
come in and be reconciled : And then Christ
gives notice of this to the soul, to remove all
jealousies : It is fuU of fear ; though it
would, it dare not approach unto God, appre
hending him to be a consuming fire. They
that have done the offence are usually the
Now ain, hardeat to reconcile ; because they are stiU

VKtt. 18.]

'THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

20<J

in dpnbt pf their pardon : But Christ assures
of a fiiU and hearty fprgiveness, quenching
the flame pf Gpd's wrath by his blppd. " No,
says Chriat, upon my wanant cpme in ; you
wUl now find my Father otherwiae than you
imagine : He hath declared himaelf satisfied
at my hands, and ia wUling tp receive ypu,
to be heartily and thoroughly friends ; never
to hear a word rapre pf the quanel that was
betwixt ypu ; he granta a full oblivion."
And if the soul bear back stiU through dis-
trust, he takes it by the hand, and draws it
forward, leads it into his Father as the word
sr^orxyiiyn imports ; presents it to hira, and
leaves not the raatter till a fuU and sure
agreement be raade.
But for this purppse, that the spul raay be
able and wiUing tp cprae untp Gpd, the suf
ferings pf Chriat take away that other ira-
pediraent. As they satisfy the sentence,
and SP rerapve the guiltiness pf sin, sp he
hath by thera purchased a deUverance frpra
the tyrannpus ppwer ef sin, that detains the
spul frpm Gpd, after aU the way made fpr it.
And he hath a ppwer pf applying his suffer.
inga tp the spul's deliverance in that kind
tpp. He opens ihe prison doors io ihem
that are led captive, Isa. Ixi. 1 ; and be.
cauae the great chain ia upon the heart will
ingly enthralled in sin, he, by his sovereign
power, takes pff that ; he frees the heart from
the love of sin, shows what a base slavish
condition it ia in, by representing, in hia
effectual way, the goodneaa of God, hia rea
diness to entertain a returning sinner, the
sweetness and happiness of coraraunion with
hira. Chriat powerfuUy perauadea the heart
to shake off aU, and, without further delay,
ao to retum unto God, aa to be received into
favour and friendahip, and ao tp walk in the
way pf friendahip with God, tp give up itaelf
tp his pbedience, tp disdain the vile service
of sin, and live suitably tp the dignity pf
feUpwship and union with God,
And there is no other but the power of
- Christ alone that ia able to effect this, to per
suade a sinner to return, tp bring hprae a
heart untp God. Coraraon mercies of God,
though they have a leading faculty to repen
tance, Rpra. ii. 4, yet the rebelUpus heart
wiU npt be led by them. The judgmenta
pf Gpd, public or personal, though they
should drive us to God, yet the heart, un
changed, runs the farther -from God. Do
we not see it by purselves and pther sinners
abeut us ? they lepk npt at aU tpwards hira
that smiles, much leaa du they retum ; pr if
any rapre seripus thoughts of retuming arise
upon the surprise of an affliction, how soon
vanish they ? either the stroke abating, or
the heart, by tirae, growing hard and sense
less under it. Indeed, where it is renewed
and brought in by Christ, then all pther

after fuller coramunion, closer walk, and
nearer access to God : But, leave Christ out,
I say, and all pther raeans wprk not this
way ; neither tbe works, nor word of God
sounded daily in his ear. Return, return.
Let the noiae of the rod apeak it too, and
both join together to make the cry the louder,
yet ihe wicked will do wickedly, Dan. xii.
10 ; wiU npt hearken to the voice of God,
wiU not see the hand of God lifted up, laa.
xxvi. 11 ; wiU not be perauaded to go in
and aeek peace and reconcilement with Gpd,
thpugh declaring hiraself prpvpked tp puniah,
and tp behave hiraaelf as an eneray against
his pwn pepple. Hpw many are there, that,
in their pwn particular, have been very sharp
ly lashed with divers scpurges on their bodies
or families, and yet are never a whit the
nearer God for it aU, but their hearts are
proud, and earthly, and vain as ever ; and,
let him lay on ever so much, they wiU still
be the aarae ; a divine virtue, only, going
forth from Chriat lifted up, draws men un
to him ; and being come unto hira, he brings
them unto the Father.
Reflection 1. You that are still strangers
to God, who declare yourselves to be so, by
Uving as strangers far off from him, do not
StiU continue to abuse yourselves so grossly.
Can you think any consolation in the auffer.
inga of Chriat ypura, while it is sp evident
the/ h.we net gained their end uppn ypu,
have npt brpught ypu tp Gpd ? Truly, raoat
of you seera to think, that our Lord Jesus
suffered rather to the end we might neglect
God, and disobey him aecurely, than to re
duce us to him. Hath he purchased you a
liberty to sin ; pr, is npt deliverance frpm
sin, which alpne is true liberty, the thing he
airaed at, and agreed fpr, and laid dpwn his
Ufe for ?
2. Why let we still his blood run in vain
as to us ? He hath by it opened up our
way to God, and yet we refuae to make uae
of it. Oh f how few come in. They that
are brought unto God, and received into
friendahip with him, they entertain that
friendahip, they delight in his cpmpany,
love to be much with him : la it so with
ua ? By being so near, they becpme Uke
him, daily know his will better, and grow
more suitabte to it ; but alas ! in the most,
there is nothing of this.
3. But even they that are brought nnto
God may be faulty, in this, in part, not ap.
plying so sweet a privilege. They can per
haps comply, and be too friendly with the
vain worldj can pass many days without a
Uvely coramunion with God, not aspiring to
the increase of that, as the thing our Lord
hath purchased for us, and that wherein aU-
pur happiness and welfare lie, here and here
after ! ' Ypur hearts cleaving tP folly, and

thinga have a sanctified infiuence, accprding npt deUghting ypurselves in the Lerd ; npt
tp their quaUty tP stir up a Christian tp seek refreshed with this neamess tohim, and union

SIO

A COMBIENTARY UPON

[cHAF. nr;

with hira ; your thoughts not often on it,
nor your study to walk conformable to it :
Certainly it ought to be thus ; and you
should be persuaded to endeavour it raay be
thus with you.
4. Remember this for your comfort, that
aa you are brought unto God by Jeaus Christ,
so you are kept in that union by him. It is
a firmer knot than the firat was ; there is np
ppwer of hell can dissilve it. He suffered
once to bring ua once- unto God, never tp de
part again ; aa he auffered pnce fpr all, ap we
are brought once for aU : We raay he aen
aibly nearer at one time than another, but
yet we can never be aeparate nor cut pff, be
ing ence knit by Christ, as the bond of our
union. Neither principalities, nor powers,
^c. shall be able to separate us from the
hve of God, Rora. viii. 37, 38, because it
holds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Being put to death in the flesh, but quick
ened by the Spirit.] The trae Ufe of a
Christian, ia to eye Christ in every step of
hia life, both as his rule, and as his strength ;
booking to hira as his pattem, both in doing
and auffering, and drawing power frora hira
for gping through both : for the look of faith
doth that, fetchea life from Jeaua to enable
it for all, being without him able for nothing.
Therefore the apoatle did still set thia before
his brethren ; and here, having raentioned
his suffering in general, the condition and
aid of it, he specifies the particular kind of
It, that which was the utraost, put to death
in ihe flesh, and then adds this issue out of
it, quickened by ihe Spirit.
It is at once the strongest engagement, and
the strongest encourageraent. Was He our
Head crowned >vith thorns, and ahaU the body
look for garlanda ? Are we redeemed from
heU and condemnation by hira, and can any
auch .refuae any service he calls thera to ?
They that are washed in ihe Lamb's blood,
will follow him whithersoever he goes, Rev.
xiv. 4, and foUowing hira through, they shall
find their journey's end overpay sdl the trou
bles and sufferings of the way. These are
ihey, said the elder who appeared in vision
to John, Rev. vii. 14, which came out of
great tribulation ; tribulation, and great tri
bulation, yet they canae out of it, and glori
ous too, anayed in long white robes. The
scarlet strumpet, as foUpws in that bppk,
dyed her garments red in the blppd pf the
saints : But this is theirhappineas, that their
garments are washed white in the blood of
the Lamb.
Once take away sin, and all suffering is
Ught ; new, that is dpne by this, his once
suffering for sin ; they that are in him shaU
hear np mpre pf that as cpndemning thera,
binding them pver tp suffer that wrath that
ia due tp sin. Npw, this puts an invincible
ctrengtii into the soul forenduring all other
things, hpw hard spever.

Pui io death. ] This is the utmpst ppint,
and that which men are moat startled at, to
die, and a violent death, put to death ; and
yet he hath led in thia way who is, the Cap
tain of our salvation  In the flesh. Under
thia aecond, hia huraan nature, and divine
nature and power, are differenced. Put to
death in the flesh ia a very fit expreaaion, not
only (as is usual) taking the flesh for the
whole manhood, but becauae death ia moat
properly apoken of that very peraon, or his
fleah : the whole man auffera death, a dis
solution, or taking to piecea, and the soul
suffers a separation or dislodging ; but death,
or the privation of Ufe and aenae, belonga par
ticularly to the flesh or body : But the
Spirit, here opposed to the flesh or body, ia
certainly of a higher nature and power than-
ia the human, aoul, which cannot of itself re
tum to re-inhabit and quicken the body.
Pui to death.] His death was both vo
luntary and violent ; that same power that
restored his Ufe could have kept it exempt
from death ; but the design v/aa for death.
He therefore took our flesh, to put it off
thus, and offered it up as a aacrifice ; which,'
to be acceptable, , must pf neceaaity be free
and vpluntary ; and, in that sense, he is said
tp have died even hy that same Spirit, that
here, in ppppsitipn tp death, is said tp quick
en him, Heb. ix. 14, Through ihe eternal
Spirit, he offered himself without spot unto
God. They accpunted it an iU bpding sign
when the sacrifices carae constrainedly to the
altar, and drew back ; and, on the contrary,
were glad in the hopes of success, when they
carae cheerfuUy forward ; but never sacrifice
carae so wiUingly aU the way, and froin the
first step knew whither he was going. Yet,
because no other sacrifice would serve, he was
raost content : Sacrifices and burnt offerings
thou didst noi desire : Then said I, Lo, I
come, Scc. Psal. xl. 6, 7- He was not only
a wilUng sacrifice, as Isaac, bound peaceably
and laid on the altar, but his own sacrificer.
The beasts, if they carae wilUngly, yet offered
not themselves ; but he offered up himself;
and thus, not only by a willingness far above
aU those sacrifices of bullocks and goats, but
by ihe eternal Spirit, he offered up himself.
Therefore he aays, in this regard, / lay down
myself for my sheep ; it is not puUed from
me, but I lay it down ; and so it is often ex
pressed by [xor'ifxiB] he died ; and yet this
suits with it, [^-xmrahis] pui to death; yea,
it was also expedient to be thus, that his
death shpuld be violent, and so the more
¦penal, so as to cany the more clear expression
of a punishraent, and auch a violent death as
had both ignpminy and a curae tied tp it ;
and thia inflicted in a judicial way, (though
aa from the hands of moat men raoat unjuat
ly,) that he ahpuld atand and be judged, and
cpnderaned to death aa a guilty peracn, cany
ing in that the peraons of so raany that should'

VEli. 18.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

211

otherwiae have faUen uniler condemnation, aa
indeed guilty : He was numbered with
transgressors, (as the Prophet hath it,) bear
ing the sins of niany, Isa. Uii. ult.
Thus, then, there was in his death exter
nal violence joined with intemal wiUingness:
But what is there to be found but complica
tions of wonders in our Lprd Jesus ? Oh !
high inconceivable mystery of godUness !
God manifested in the flesh ! Nothing in
this world so strange, and sweet, as that con
juncture, God man, humanitas Dei I What
a strong foundatipn pf friendship and unipn
betwixt the person of man and God, that
their natures raet in so close embraces in one
peraon ! And then look on, and see so poor
and despised an outward condition through
his life ; yet having hid under it the raajesty
of God, all the brightness of the Father's
glory ; and this the top of aU, that he waa
put to death in the flesh ; the Lord of Ufe
dying, the Lord of glory clothed with sharae.
But it quickly appeared what kind of peraon
it was that died ; by this, he was put to death
indeed in the flesh, but quickened by the
Spirit. Quickened,] He waa indeed top great a
morael for the grave to digest. For aU its
vaat craving raouth, and devpuring appetite,
crying Sheol, Give, give j yet it was forced
tp give hira up again, aa the fish which
swallowed up the Prpphet Jenah, when the
Lord spake, was obliged to vomit him out,
who in that was the figure of Christ, Jonah
i. 17 ; ii- 10. The chains of that priaon are
strpng ; but he was tpo strong a prisoner to
be held by thera ; as our Apostle hath it in
his sermon. Acta ii. 24, that it waa not pos
sible that he should be kepi by them. They
thought aU waa aure, when they had roUed
to the stpne, and sealed it ; that when the
grave had indeed shut her mouth upon him,
it appeared a dpne business tP them, and Ipok
ed as if it were very complete in hia enemies'
eyes, and very desperate to his friends, his
poor disciples and foUowers^ Were they not
near tbe point of giving over, when they said.
This is the third day, &c. And we thought
this had been he thai should have delivered
Israel? Luke xxiv. 21. And yet he was
then with them, who waa indeed the Deli-
sierer and Salvation of Israel. That roU
ing of the stone to the grave, was as if they
had relied it tpwards the east in the night, tp
stpp the rising pf the aun next moming ; much
further above all their watchea and power waa
this Sun of Righteousness in his rising
again. That body that waa entombed, waa
united to the apring of life, the divine Spirit
of the Gpdhead that quickened it.
Reflection 1. Thus the Church, which
is likewise his bcdy, when it seeras undpne,
when it is brpught tp" the Ipwest pesture arid
state, yet by virtue of that mystical union
witii Jesus Christ, (as his natural body, by

perspnal unipn with his Deity,) shall be pre
served frpm destructipn, and shaU be deli
vered and raised in due time : Yea, as he
was nearest his exaltatipn in the Ipwest step
pf his humiliation, ao is it with his Church :
when things are brought to the most hopeless
appearance, then shall light arise out oJ
darkness : Cum duplicantur lateres venit
Moses. Therefpre, aa we pught to seek a rapre
hurable sense of Sion's distreaa, so we ahould
also be solicitous not to let go this hope, that
her mighty Lord wiU, in the end, be glorious
in her deliverance, and that aU her sufferings
and low estate shaU be as dark ground to set
off the lustre of her restoration, when the
Lord shall visit her with salvation. Aa in
the rising of Jesus Christ, his Almighty
Power and Deity were more manifested than
if he had not died : And therefore we may
say confidently, with the Psalmist to his
Lord, Psal. Ixxi. 20, 21, Thou, which hast
shewed me great and sore troubles, shall
quicken me again, and shall bring me up
from the depths of the earth : Thou shalt
increase my greatness, and comfort me oti
every side. Yea, the Church comes more
beautifiJ out of the deepest distreaa ; let it
be overwhelmed with wavea, yet it sirika not
but riaea np as only washed. And in thi?
confidence we ought to rejoice even in thu
midst pf pur sprrpws ; and, though we liv?
not to see them, yet, even in beholding afat
off, to be gladdened with the great thinga the
Lord wiU do for hia Church in the latter
timea. He will certainly make bare his holy
arm in the eyes of the nations, and all the
ends of the earth shall see the salvation of
our God, laa. Ui. 10. His King that he
hath set on his holy hill, shall grew in hia
cpnquests and glpry ; and aU that rise against
hira shall he break with a rod of iron, Psal.
ii. He was humbled nnce, but hia glpry
shaU be for ever^ as many were astonished
at him, his visage being marred more than
any man, they shall be as rauch astonished
at his beauty and glory. So sliall he sprin
kle many nations ; ihe kings shall shut
their mouths at him, laa. Ui. 14, 15. Ac
cording aa here, we find that reraarkable evi
dence pf hia divine power in rising frora the
dead ; put to death in ihe flesh, but quick
ened by ihe Spirit:
2. Thus may a believing aoul at the low
est, when, to its own sense, it is given over
unto death and swaUowed up of it, as it were
in the belly of hell, yet look up to this divine
ppwer : He whose soul was not left there,.
wiU not leave thine there. Yea, when thou
art most sunk in thy sad apprehensions, and
far off to thy thinking, then is he nearest to
raise and comfort- thee ; as sometimes it
grows darkest immediately before day. Reat,
on his power and gppdness, which never fail-
ed any Aat did sp : It is he (as David says).

212

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CHAP. Hi.

that lifts up the soul from the gates of death,
Isa. ix. 13.
3. Would any of you be cured of that
common disease, the 'fear of death, look this
way, and you ahaU find raore than you aeek ;
you shall be taught, not only not to fear,
but to love it. Consider, 1. His death : He
died. By that, thou that receivest him as
thy life, mayest be aure of this, that thou-
art by that hia death, freed from the second
death," and that is the great point. Let
that have the name which was given to the
other, the most terrible of all terrible
things ; and as the second death is reraov
ed, this death that thou art to paas thrpugh
is, I raay say, beautified and sweetened ;
the ugly visage pf it becpraes araiable, when
ve lppk pn it in Christ, and in his death,
that puts such a pleasing comeUness upon
it, that whereas others fly from it with af-
¦frightraent, the believer cannot choose bat
erabrace it. He longs to Ue down in that
bed of rest, since his Lord lay in it, and
hath warraed that cold bed, and purified it
with his fragrant body. 2. But especially
look forward to hia return thence, quicken
ed by the Spirit ; this being to those that
are in him the certain pledge, yea, the ef
fectual cause, of that blessed resunection
Ihat is in their hopes. There is that union
betwixt them, that they shall rise by the
communication and virtue ofhis riaing ; not
siraply by his power, ao the wicked to their
grief ahaU be raised, but they by his life,
as theirs. Therefore is it ao often reiterat
ed, John vi. where he apeaks of hiraself aa
the living and life-giving bread to believers,
he adds again and again, / will raise ihem
up ai the lasi day, ver. 39, 40, 44. This
comfort we have even for ihe house of clay
we lay down ; and for our more considerable
part, our iraraortal soula, this his death and
rising hath provided for thera, at' their dis
lodging, an entrance intp that glpry where
he is. Now, if these things were lively ap
prehended and laid hold on, Christ raade
ours, and the first resunection raanifest in us,
were we quickened by his Spirit to newness
of life, certainly there would not be a more
welcome and refreshing thought nor a sweeter
discourse to ua, than that of death ; and no
matter for the kind of it. Were it a violent
death ; ao waa his. Were it what we ac
count raost judgment-like amongat diseases,
the plague ; was not hia death very painful ?
and waa it not an accuraed death ? and by
that curse endured by hira in his, ia not the
curae taken away to the believer ? Oh how
welcome ahaU that day be, that day of deli
verance ! To be out of this woful priaon,
I regard not at what door I go out, being at
once freed from so many deaths, and let in
to enjoy Him who is my life.
? Descendit hue vita nostra, et tulit mortem nos
tram, et occidit eara de abundantia vit*, &c, Aug.

Ver. 19. By which also he went and preached unto
the spirits in prison :
Ver. 20. 'Which sometime were disobedient, when
once the long-suffering of God waited in the days
of Noe, while the ark was a-preparing, whereia
few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water.
'Ver. 21. The like figure whereunto even bap
tism doth also now save us, (not the putting
"away of the filth ofthe flesh, but the answer of a
good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ.
There is nothing that so rauch concerns
a Christian to know as the exceUency of
Jesus Christ, hia person and works ; so tnat
it is always pertinent to insist much on that
subject. The Apostie having spoken of
this Spirit or divine nature, and the power
of it, raising him from the dead, takes occa
sion to speak of another work of that Spirit,
to wit, the emission and pubUshing of his
divine doctrine ; and that, not as a new
thing foUowing his death and rising, but as
the sarae in substance with that which was
by the sarae Spirit promulgated long before,
even to the first inhabitants pf the world.
Quickened by the Spirit that is in our days,
says the Apostle ; but then, long before
that, by the same Spirit, he went and
preached to the spirits in prison.
This place is somewhat obscure in itaelf,
but as it uaually happens, made raore so by
the various fancies and contests of interpre-,
tera, aiming or pretending to clear it. These
I like never to raake a npiae of. They that
dream of the descent of Christ's soul into
hell, thinks thia place somewhat that way ;
but, being examined, it provea no way suit
able, nor can, by the atrongest wreating, be
drawn to fit their purpose : For, 1. That it
was to preach he went thither, they are
not wiUing to avow ; though the end they
assign is as groundless and iraaginary as
this ia. 2. They would have hia business
to be with the spirits of the faithful deceas
ed before hia coraing, but here we aee it is
with the diaobedient. And, 3. Hia Spirit
here ia the aarae with the aenae of the fore
going worda, which raean not hia soul, but
his etemal deityjf Nor is it the spirits ihat
were in prison, as they, read it, but ihe
spirits in prison, which by the opposition of
their former condition, sometime or former
ly disobedient, doth clearly speak their pre
sent condition, as the just consequent and
fruit of their disobedience.
Other misinterpretations I mention npt,
taking it aa agreeable tp the whole strain of
the Apostle's words,* that Jesus Christ did,
• Thus I then thought, but now apprehend another
sense as probable, if not more, even that so much
rejected liy most interpreters : The mission of the'
Spirit, and preaching of the Gospel by it, after his
resurrection, preaching to sinners, and converting
them, according to the prophecy which he first ful
filled in person, and after more amply in his Apostles,
That prophecy I mean, Isa. ix. 1, The Spirit upon
him; and it was sent from him on his Apostles, to
preach to spirits in pi'ison ; to preach liberty to those
captivea, captive spirits ; and therefore called spirits
in prison, to illustrate the thing the more, by opposi
tion to that Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of liberty.

VEIL 19—21.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

213

boiore his appearing in the flesh, speak by
his Spirit in his servants to those of the
foregoing ages, yea the raost ancient of
thera, declaring to them the way of Ufe,
though rejected by the unbeUef of the raost
part. This is inserted in the raentioning of
Christ's sufferings and exaltatipn after thera.
And, after aU, the Appstie returns tp that
again, and tp the exhprtatipn which he
strengthens by it ; but sp as this discpurse
taken in, is pertinentiy adapted tn the pre-
sent subject. The Appsde's aira in it, we
may conceive to be this, (his main scope
being to encourage his brethren in the faith
pf Christ, and the way of hoUneaa, againat
aU opposition and hardship) so to instract
hia readers in Christ's perpetual influence
into his Church in aU ages, even before his
incamation, as that they might at the sarae
tirae aee the great unbelief of the world, yea
their oppoaing of divine truth, and the amall
number of those that receive it, and so not
be discouraged by the fewness pf their nura
ber, and the hatred uf the wprld ; flndiiig
that salvatipn in Jeaua Christ dead and
risen again, whicii the rest raiss by their
own wilful refusal. And thia very ppint he
inaists on clearly in the foUowing chapter,
ver. 3, 4. And thoae very waya of ungod
Uneaa there specified, which believers re
nounce, were those that the world waa guilty
of in theae daya, and in which they were
surpriaed bythe flood : They ate and drank
till the flood came iipon them.
In the worda of theae three veraea we have
three things : 1. An assertion concerning
the preaching of Chriat, and the peraona he
preached to. 2. The deaignraent and de
scription of the time or age wherein that was,
and the particular way of God's dealing with
them. 3. The adapting or applying of the
exaraple to Christians  First, the assertion
concerning the preaching of Christ, and the
persons he preached to, in theae words, which
I take together. By the which Spirit he
went and preached to the spirits in prison.
which sometime were disobedient.
In these worda we have a preacher and hia
hearers. First, Of the preacher. We ahaU
find here, 1. Hia abiUty. 2. His activity
in the use of it. 1. Hia ability, altogether
aingijlar and matchless ; the very apring of
aU abiUtiea, the Spirit of Wiadom himaelf,
being the co-eternal Sen pf Gpd : That
Spirit he preached by, waa that Spirit by
which he raiaed himaelf frpra the dead ; and
withput this Spirit there is up preaching :
Now he was, as our Aposde calls him, a'
setting them free; and this to shew the greater effi
cacy of Christ's preaching than of Noah's, though he,
a signal preacher of righteousness, yet only himsell
anfhis family, eight persons saved by him, but
multitudes of all nations by the Spirit and preaching
of Christ in tlie Gospel ; and that by the seal of bap
tism, and the resurrection of Christ, represented in
the retum from the water, .and our dying with him
by immersion, and that figure of baptism like their
ark-

preacher of righteousness ; but it waa by
the power of this Spirit ; for in him did thi»
Spirit preach. The Son is the Wisdom of
the Father : his name is the Word ; not
only for diat by hira all things were created,
as John hath it, John i. 4 ; not only as the
Son is that power by which, as by the word
pf his mouth, all things were made; but he
is ihe Word Ukewise as revealing the Fa
ther ; declaring to us the counsel and wiU
of God : therefore he is by tbe same Evan
gelist, in the same place, caUed that Light
that illuminates the world, John i. 9, with
out which raan, called the lesser world, the
inteUectual world, were as the greater wprld
withput the sun. And aU that bring aright
the dpctrine cf aaving wiadpra, derive it ne
ceaaarily frpra him ; aU preachera draw from
tbia Sovereign Preacher, as the fountain of
divine Ught, as aU the planets receive their
light from the sun, and by that diffusing
araongst thera, it is not diminished in the
sun, but only coramunicated to them, re
raaining still fuU and entire iri it, as its
source. Thus doth the Spirit fiow frora
Christ, in a particular degree, unto those he
sends forth in his narae, and it is in thera,
that he preaches by the power and Ught of
his etemal Spirit.
Hither, then, must they aU come that
would be rightly supplied and enabled for
that work. It is impossible to apeak duly
of him in any meaaure, but by hia Spirit.
There raust be particular access, and a re
ceiving of instructiona from him, and a trana-
fuaioh of hia Spirit into ours. Oh I were
it thus with uS, how aweet were it to apeak
of him ! To be much in prayer, rauch de
pendence on him, and drawing from hira,
would do rauch more in thia, than reading
and atudying, seeking after hearts and
tongues, and common knowledge. These,
indeed, are not to be deapiaed nor neglected.
Reading is good, and learning good, but
above all anointing is necessary, that anoint
ing thai teacheth all things.* And you
that are for your own interest, be eamest
with this Lord, this Fountain of Spirit, to
let fprth more of it upon his messengers in
these timea ; you would receive back the
fruit of it, were ye busy this way ; you should
find more life and refreshing sweetness in
the word pf Ufe, hpw weak and wprthless sp
ever they were that brpught it ; it ahpuld
deacend aa sweet shpwers uppu the vaUeys,
and- make thera fruitful.
2. We have the activity of Christ as a
preacher. By this Spirit,, it is said here, he
preached : Not only did he so in the days
of his abode on earth, but in aU tiraes, both
before and after ; he never left bis Church
altogether destitute of saving Ught, which he
dispensed hiraself, and conveyed by the hands
* Utilis lectio, utilis eruditio, sed magis unctio ne
cessaria, quisue ouas sola docet de omnibus. Bsrn.

214

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CHAP. III-

of his servants ; therefore it is said, he preach
ed ; that this mayjie no excuse for tiraes-
after he is ascendedlnto heaven, no, npr fpr
times befpre he descended to the earth in
huraan flesh ; though he preached not then,
nor dpes now. in his flesh, yet by his Spirit
he then preached, and still doth ; so ac
cording to what was chief in him, he waa
still present with his Church, and preaching
in it, and ia so to the end of the world.,
This his infinite Spirit, being every where,
yet it is said here, by it he went and preach
ed, signifying the reraarkable cleameaa of
his adrainatration that way : Aa when he
appears erainently in any work of his own,
or taking notice of our works, God is said
to corae down ; sp to those cities of Babel
and Sodom, Gen. xi. 5, 7, Let us go down ;
and. Gen. xviii. 21, / will go down and see ;
So, JExpd. iii. 8, / am come down to deliver
Israel : Thus here, so clearly did he ad.
raonish them by Noah, coraing as it were
himaelf on purpose to declare his mind to
them. And this word, I conceive, is the
rather used to shew what equality there is in
tills ; He came, indeed, visibly, and dwelt
ampngst men, when he became fiesh ; yet
befpre that, he visited by his Spirit ; he
went by that and preached. And so in after-
times, himself being ascended, and not hav
ing cpme visibly in his fleah tp aU, but tp
the Jewa pnly ; yet in the preaching pf the
Appstles-to the GentUes, as the great Apos-
tie says of him in this expression, Eph. ii.
17, he came and preached io you which
were afar off; and this he continues to do
m the rainistry of his word : And therefore,
saya he. He thai despiseth you, despiseth
me, Luke x. 16»
Were this considered, it could not but
procure far raore respect to the word, and
raofe acceptance of it. Would you think
that in his word Chriat apeaka by hia etemal
Spirit ? yea, he comes, and pireaches, ad
dresses himself particularly to you in it
could you slight him thus, and turn him off
with daily refuaala, or delaya at least ?
Think it is too long you have so unworthily
uaed ao great a Lord, that brings unto you
so great aalvation ; that came once in sp
wpnderful a way tP wprk that salvatipn for
us in his flesh, and is still cpming tp pffer
it untp us by his Spirit ; dpes hiraself preach
tp us, tell ns what he undertppk pn pur be.
half, and hnw he hath perfprmed all ; and
now nothing rests but that we receive bim,
and beUeve on him, and all is ours. But
alas ! frpm the mpst the return is, which we
have here, disobedience. And this is what
we are,
2dly, Tp cpnaider pf hia hearers. Ypu
raay indeed pbaerve twp thinga in theae hear
ers, by which they are characterized : their
jiresent cpnditipn in the tirae the Appstie
was speaking pf them, they are spirits in

prison ; and this former disposition, when
the Spirit pf Christ was preaching to them,
ihey were sometime disobedient! This
latter went first in tirae, and was the cause
of the other. Therefore of it first.
I. The past disppsitipn of the hearers
appken pf ; ihey were sometime disobedient.
If you lppk tp theirvisibleaubprdinatepreach.
er, ypu find he waa a hply man, and an able
and diUgent preacher of righteousness, both
in his dpctrine, and in the track pf his Ufe,
which is the mpst ppwerful preaching; on
bpth which accounts it seems strange that
he prevailed so little. But it appears much
more so, if we look higher, even to this
height, at which the Apo'stle points, that
Almighty Spirit of Christ that preached to
them : and yet ihey were disobedient. The
word is xviiHexri, they were not persuaded ;
and it signifies both unbelief and disobedi.
ence, and that very fitly ; unbeUef being in
itself the grand disobedience, the mmd not
yielding to divine truth, and so the apring
of all disobedience, in affection and action.
And this root of bitterness, this unbelief,
as deep fastened in our natural hearts ; and
without a change in them, a taking them to
pieces, they cannot be good. It is as a tree
firraly rooted, which cannot be plucked up
without loosening the grpund rpund about
it ; and this accursed root brings forth iruB
unto death, because the word is not believed ;
the threats of the law, and promises of the
gospel : Therefore men cleave unto their
sins, and speak peace unto themselves whUe
they are under the curse.
It raay seem very strange that the gospel
is so fruitless amongat ua ; yea, that neither
word npr rod, both preaching aloud to ua the
doctrine of humiUatipn and repentance, per
auade any man to return, or so much as to
tum inward, and question himself to say,
What have I done ? But thus it will be,
tiU the Spirit be poured from on high, to
open and soften hearts. It is to be desired,
as much wanting in the ministry of the word;
but were it there, that would not serve unless
it were by a concunent work within the
heart, meeting the word, and making the
impressipns of it there ; for here we find the
Spirit went and preached, and yet the spirits
of the hearers stiU unbeUeving and disobe
dient. It is therefore a combined work of
this Spirit in the preacher and hearers that
makes it successful, otherwise it is but shout-
ing in a dead man'a ear ; there muat be some
thing within, as one said in a like case.
But, 2dly, We have the present cpndition
of these hearers. To the spirits in prison.
That is now their posture : and because he
apeaks of them as in that ppsture, he caUs
them spirits ; fpr it is theft spirits that are
in that prison ; and Ukewise calls thera spirits
to whom the Spfrit of Christ preached ; be
cause it is indeed that which the preaching

VEII. 19—21.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

2L'i

¦of the word aims at ; it hath to do with the
:spirits pf men. It is net cpntent to be at
their ear with a sound, but works on their
minds and spirits some way, either to believe
and receive, or to be hardened and sealed up
to judgment by it, which is for rebels. If
disobedience foUow on the preaching of that
word, the prison foUows on that disobedience ;
and that wprd, by which they wpuld not be
bound to obedience, binds them over to that
prison, whence they shaU never escape, nor
be released for ever.
Take notice of it, and know that you are
vtamed ; you wiU not receive salvatipn, pffer
ing, presaing itself uppn you. You are every
day in that way of disobedience, hastening to
thia perpetual impriaonment.
Consider you now sit and hear thia word ;
so did those that are here sppken of : they
had their time on earth, and much patience
was used tpwards them ; and thpugh ypu are
net tp be swept away by a flppd pf waters,
yet ypu are daily canied pn by the flpod
of time and mortaUty, Paal. xc. 5. And
how soon you ahaU be on the other side,
and sent into etemity, you know not. I be
seech you, be yet wiae ; hearken tp the pffera
yet made ypu ; fpr in his name I yet pnce
again make a tender cf Jesus Christ and
salvatipn in him, tP all that wiU let gp
their sins, tp lay hpld pn him. Oh I dp
not destroy ypurselves. You are in prispu,
he proclaims unto you liberty, Christ is still
fpUpwing us himself with treaties.* Christ
prpclaims your Uberty, and will you not ac
cept of it ? Think, though you are pleased
with your present thraldora and prison, it re
aervea you (if you come not forth) to thia other
prison, that shaU not please you : theae
chains of spiritual darkneaa, in jvhich you
are, unless you be freed, wUl deUver you up
to the chains of everlasting darkness, where
in these hopeless priaoners are kept to ihe
judgment of ihe great day ; but if you wiU
receive Jeaus Christ presently, upon that,
life, and liberty, and blessedness, are made
yours. Ifthe Son make you free, you shall
be free indeed, John viii. 35.
2dly, We have the designation of the tirae
or age of this preacher considered under the
forraer head : When once the long-suffer
ing of God waited in the days of Noah.]
There are two main cpntinuing wpuders in
the wprld ; the bpunty pf Gpd and disloyalty
df man : And the succesaipn pf times is np
pthe'r but new additipns pf these twp. One
grand example is here set befpre us, ancecu-
menical example as large as the whole world ;
much patience, and yet invincible disobe
dience. Here are two things in the instance ;
1st, The Lord'a general dealing with the
world of the ungodly at that time. 2dly,
His pecuUar way with his own chpsen. Npah
* Clamans dictis, factis, morte, vita, descensu, ascen-
si^-clamans ut redeamus ad eum. Auu.

and his faraily : He waited patiently for aU
the reat ; but he effectually saved thera.
06*. I. The time designed thus, in the
days of Noah. There were many great and
powerful persons in these days, that over.
topped Noah (no dpubt) in putward respects,
as weU as in their stature, the ptpud giants ;
and they begpt children, mighty men of old,
men of renown, aa the text hath it, Gen. vi.
3. Aud yet aa theraaelves periahed in the
flppd, their names are drowned. They had
their big thpughta certainly, that their houaes
and iheir names ahould continue, aa the
Paahnist speaks, Psal. xlix. 11, and yet
they are sunk in perpetual oblivion. And
Noah's name, who walked in humble obe
dience, you see in these most, precious records
of God's own bpok, stiU looks fresh and
smeUs sweet, and hath this honour, tbat tbe
very age of tbe world is marked with this
name, to be known by it : In the days of
Noah. That which profane ambitious per
sons do idplatrpusly seek after, they are pften
remarkably disapppinted of: They would
have their naraes raemorable and famous,
yet they rot ; they are either buried with
them, or reraembered with disgrace ; and rot
ting above ground as carcasea unintened,
and ao are the more noiaome ; aud it is as
Uttle credit tp thera to be raentioned, as fpr
Pilate that his name ia in the Cenfeaaipn pf
Faith. But the narae and reraerabrance pf
the rightepua ia still sweet and deUghtful-
As the narae pf Abraham, the father pf the
faithful, and pf Isaac and Jacpb : Tbeir
names are erabalraed indeed, that they can.
not rot ; embalmed with God's own name,
[Eternal ;] that narae is wrapt about theirs^
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Thus is Noah here raentioned aa prefened
of God : and so in the second epistle, as a
preacher of righteousness ; and Heb. xi.
among those worthiea whose honour is that
they believed. This is only a name, a amall
thi^g not to be mentipned in cpmpariapn pf
their other privUeges, and eapeciaUy of that
venerable Ufe and glory which they are heirs
to. And indeed it ia a thing they regard
very little ; yet this we see, that even this
advantage foUows thein, and flies from the
vain and ungodly that hunt and pursue it.
Obs. 2. The Lord's deaUng with the wick
ed in those tiraea, before he awept them away
by the deluge, is represented in these two
particulars : 1. Long-suffering ; and withal,
2. Clear warning. Lpng. auffering; long
forbearing to be angry, as the Hebrew word
is in his name, Expd. xxxiv. 8 ; which sup-
ppses a great provocation, and the continu.
ance of it, andyet patience continuing. And
in thia appears the goodnesa of God, consi
dering how hateful ain ia to him, and how
powerful he is to punish it; were it, if it
pleased him, in one raoraent to cut off aU the
ungodly, high and low, throughput the whpl^

216

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap, iif.

world : yet he bears, and forbears tP punish.
Oh ! what a world of sin is every day cora
mitted in nations, in cities and viUages, yea
in faraiUea ! and therefore how wonderful is
it that he doth not atrike with present judg.
ments, and not only forbears to puniah, but
multipliea hia common merciea on them ;
Sun and rain, and fruitful seasons ! Acts
xiv. 17.
Yea, there is ap rauch of thia, that it faUs
under a grpss misconstruction ; yet he bears
that too. Because sentence against an evil
work is not speedily executed, therefore the
heart of the sons of men is fully set in them
io do evil, Eccles. viii. 11. Because there
is not so much as a word pf it fpr the time,
(sp the wprd is,) this sweUs and fiUs the
heart of man, and raakes it big io do evil.
And not only is the Lprd's Ipng-suffering
mistaken by the ungpdly, but even by his
own that should understand hira better, and
know the true sense of his ways ; yet sorae
tiraes they are misled in this ppint : Behpld
ing his forbearance pf punishing the workers
of iniquity, instead pf magnifying his pa
tience, they faU very near untp questipning
his justice and prpvidenee, Psal. xiii. Jer.
xii. Job XX. &c. Our nanow hasty spirits,
left to their own meaaurea, take not in theae
larger views that would aatiafy ua in the ways
of God, and forget the iraraense largeness of
nis wise designs, his deep reach from one
age tp anpther, yea, frpm eternity tn etemi
ty. Consider, 1. How easily he can right
himself, in point of justice, when he wiU ;
that none can raake escape from hira,* how
loose soever their guard seera, and how great
Uberty soever appeara in their present con
dition. 2. That as he can raost eaaily, so
he wiU most seasonably, be known in execut
ing judgment ; and that his juatice shaU
shine the hrighter, by aU that patience he
hath uaed, by the aun of proaperity. 3. We
think not how Uttle that time ia to him, that
seema Ipng tp ua, to whom a thousand
years areas one day, Paal. xc. 4. It seem
ed a Ipng tirae of the Church's diatreaa, and
their enemies' triuraph, in thoae aeventy
years of the Babylonish captivity ; and yet
in God's language, it is spokeirof as a mo
ment, a small mement, Isa. Uv. 7, 8. How
ever, in the iaaue, the Lord alwaya cleara
himaelf; he ia indeed long-suffering and
patient ; but the impenitent abusers of his
patience pay intereat for aU the tinie of -their
forbearance, in the weight of judgment when
it comes upon them. But thua we aee the
Lord deala ; thua he dealt with the world in
the beginning, when all flesh had corrupt
ed iheir way ; yet, saith he, iheir days
shall be one hundred and twenty years.
Gen. vi. 3.
Let us learn tP curb and cool our brisk
• iVomo (iMoquit huic crodilori.

humoUrs towards even stubborn sinners ; be
grieved at their sin, for that is our duty ;
but think it not strange, nor fret at it, that
they continue to abuse the long-suffering of
God, and yet that he continuea evej abused
by suffering them. Zeal is good, hut as it
aprings from love, if it be right, so it ia re
quited by love, and caniea the irapressions
of that, of love to God, and so a cpmplacency
in his way, Uking it hecause it is his ; and
pf love tp men, so as to be pleased with that
waiting for them, in ppssibUity, at least, of
their being reclaimed ; knowing that, how.
ever, if they retum not, yet the Lord will
not loae hia own at their handa. Wilt thou,
said these two flery disciples, thai we call
for fire, as Elias? Oh ! but the spirit of
th? dove rested on him that told them, They
knew not what *spirit they were of, Luke
ix. 54, 55. You speak of Elias, and you
think you are of his spirit in this motion :
But you mistake yourselves ; that comes
frora another spirit than you imagine : In.
atead of looking for such sudden juatice with.
out you, look inward, and aee whence that
is ; examine and conect within you.
When you are tempted to take iU that
goodness and patience of God to sinners,
cpnaider, 1. Can this be right, tp differ
from hia mind in any thing ? Ia it not our
only Tfiadom, and ever aafe rule, to think
aa he thinka, and wiU as he wiUs ? And I
pray you, does he not hate sin raore than
you do ? Is not his interest in punishing it
deeper than yours ? And if you be zealous
for hia interest, as you pretend, then be ap
with hira, and in his way ; for starting frpm
that, sure ypu are wrong. 2. Consider, did
he not wait fpr thee ? What had becpme
of thee, if long-suffering had not subserved
his purpose of further raercy, of free pardon
to thee ? And why wilt thou not always
allow that to which thpu art sp rauch pblig.
ed ? Wpuldest thpu have the bridge cut
because thpu art over ? Sure thou wUt not
own so groaa a thpUght. Therefore, eateera
thy God atill the more thou seeat of hia long-
auffering to ainnera ; and leam from him,
and with hira, to bear and wait.
But, 2dly, This was not a durab forbear.
ance, such as may serve for a surprise, but
continual teaching, and warning joined with
it, as before. We aee they wanted not
preaching pf the chpicest kind. He, the
Son of God, by hia etemal Spirit, went
and preached to them. It waa his truth
in Npah's mputh, and with that we have a
centinued real sermon, expressed in this verse,
While the ark wa,s preparing : that sppke
Gpd's mind, and every kneck (as the usual
pbservation is) of the hararaers and tools
used in buUding, preached to them, threat.
ening aloud designed judgment, and exhort
ing to prevent it. And. therefore that word
is added, i^tiixiro, that the long-suffer-

VEH. 19—21.1

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

217

ing of God waited or expected ; expected a
beUeving of his word, and retuming frpm
their wickedness : But we see np such thing
foUpwed ; they took their own course still,
and therefore the Lord took his. They had
polluted the earth with their wickedness ;
now, the Lord wpuld have the cleansing by
repentance ; that being denied, it must be
another way, by a flood : And becauae they
and their sins remained one, they would hot
part with them, therefore waa one wprk
made pf bpth ; they and their ains, as in
separable, must be cleansed away tpgether.
Thus unpenitency, under much Ipng-
suffering, uiakes judgriientfuUand cbraplete.
I appeal tP ypu, hath npt the Lprd used
much forbearance toward us ? Hath he not
patientiy spared us, and clearly warned us,
and waited long for the fruit of aU ? Hath
any thing been wanting ? Have not tera
poral raercies been multipUed on us ?
Have not the spiritual riches of the Gospel
heen opened up to us ?
And each of you, for yourselves, consider
how it is with you after so rauch long.suffer-
ing of God, which none of you can deny he
hath used towards ypu, and sp many gracipus
invltatipns, with that patience, have they:
gained your hearta ? or do you stiU remain
servanta to sin, stUl strangers to him, and!
formal worshippers ? I beseech you think
on it, what wiU be the iaaue of that course ?
ts it a light matter to you to die in your sins,
and to have the wrath of God abiding on
you ? To have refuaed Chriat ao often, and
that after you have been ao often requeated
to receive salvation,; after the Lprd hath fpl-
lowed you with intreatiea, hath caUed to
you so often. Why will ye die ? yet wil
fuUy to perish, and withal to have aU these
intreaties come in and accuse you, and make
your burden heavier ? Wpuld ypu wiUingly
die in this estate ? If npt, then think that
yet he is waiting, if at length you wiU re
turn. Thia one day raore of his waiting
ycu have, and of his speaking to you ; and
sorae that were here with you the laat day
are taken away aince. OA .' ijiat we were
wise, and would consider our latter end,
Deut. xxxii. 29. Though there were neither
aword nor peatilence near you, you rauat die,
, and, for any thing you'know, quickly. Why
wear you out the day of grace and thoae pre
cious seasons stUl, as uncertain of Christ,
yea, as undiUgent after hira, as you were
long ago ? As ypu love your souls, be more
serious_in their business. This waa the un
doing of the ainnera we are speaking of;
they were all fer present things ; they ate
and drank, ihey married, in a cpntinual
cpurae, withput ceasing, and withuut mind
ing their after estate, Luke xvii. 27. They
were drewnedin these things, and thatdrpwn-
ed them in a flppd. Npah did alsp eat and
drink, but his mahi wprk waa in that time

the preparing pf the ark. The necessities pf
thia Ufe the children pf Gpd are tied to, and
forced to bestow some tirae and paina on
them ; but the thing that takea up their
hearta, that which the bent of their aouls is
set on, is their interest in Jesus Christ :
And all your wise designs arc but a pleasing
raadness, tiU this be chief with you. Others
have had aa rauch of God'a patience, and as
fair opportunity, as you, whose souls and
Christ had never met, and now know that
they never shaU. They had their tirae of
worldly projects and enjoyraent, as you now
have, and foUowed thera, aa if they had been
immortaUy to abide with thera ; but they
are pasaed away as a shadow, and we are
posting after them, and within a while
shall Ue down in the dust. Oh ! how happy
they, whose hearta are not here, trading with
vanity, and gathering vexation, but whose
thoughts are on that blessed life above
trouble. Certainly they that pass for fools
in the world, are the only children of wis
dom ; that have renounced their luata and
their own willa, have yielded up theraselves
to Jeaua, taking hira for their King, and
having their minds resting on hira as their
salvation. While the ark was a-preparing."] Ob
serve, The delay of the Lord's deterrained
judgraent on the ungpdly was indeed long-
suffering tPwarda thera ; but here waa rapre
in it tp Npah and hia faraily ; the prpviding
for their preaervation ; and till that was cora
pleted for thera, the rest were spared. Thus,
the very forbearance that the ungodly do en
joy, is usuaUy involved with the interest of
the godly,; something of that usuaUy goes
intp it ; and sp it is in a great part for their
sakes, that the rest are both spared, and are
furnished with comraon mercies. The saints
are usuaUy the scom and contempt of othera ;
yet are, by that love the Lord canies tpwards
them, the very arches, piUars of states and
kingdoras, and famUies, where they are, yea
of the world ;• the frarae whereof is cofiti-
nued mainly in regard to them, Isa. vi. 13.
But they tbat are ungrateful to the great
Maker and upholder of it, and regardless of
hira, what wonder if they take no notice of
the advantage they receive by the concern
ment of his chUdren in the world. Observe,
Here, I. ThcTvork. II. The end of it.
I. In the work, preparing of the ark, observe,
1st, God's appointment ; 2dly, Noah's pbe
dience. 1st, For the appointment of God. The
divine power was not tied to this, yet his
wisdom chose it. He that steered the course
of this' ark safely aU that tirae, could have
preserved those he designed it for without it ;
but thus it pleases the Lord, usuaUy, to raix
his most wonderful deUverances with some

¦• Semen sanctum statumen terras

218

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. ill.

selected means ; exercising that way our obe
dience in their uae, yet ao aa the aingular
power of his hand in them, whereon faith
reata, doth clearly appear, doing by them what,
in a more natural way, they could not poasi
bly effect. •
2dly, For the obedience of Noah, if we
should insist on the difliculties, both in this
work, and in the way of their preservation
by it, it would look the clearer, and be found
very reraarkable. The length of the wprk,
the great pains in prpviding raaterials, espe-
cially considering the opposition that proba.
bly he met with in it frpm the prpfane abput
hira, the mightier of thera at least, the hatred
and continual scoffs of aU sprts, it required
principles pf an invincible resplutipn tp gp
thrpugh with it. What, (wpuld they say,)
means this pld dotard to do ? whither this
monstrpus vpyage ? and fpr that it sppke, as
no doubt he tpld them their rain, and his
safety ; this wpuld incense them sp much the
mere. Ypu lppk far before ypu ; and what,
shaU we aU perish, and ypu alpne escape ?
But thrpugh aU, the spvereign cpmmand and
gracipus promise pf his Gpd carried him
regarding their scoffs and threats as little
in making the ark, as he did afterwards
the noise of the waters about it, when he
was sitting safe within it. This his obe
dience, having indeed so boisterous winds
to encounter, had need of a well fastened
root, that it raight stand and hold out
against thera aU ; and so it had. The apos.
lie St. Paul teUs us what the root uf it was ;
by faith, being warned of God, prepared an
ark, Heb. xi. 7- And there is up living and
lasting obedience but what springs frpm that
root : He beUeved what the Lord spake of
his deterrained judgment on the ungotUy
world ; and from the belief of that arose that
holy fear, which is expressly mentioned as
exciting hira to this work. And he beUev
ed the word of prpmise, that the Lord spake
concerning his preservation by the ark ; and
ihe belief of these two canied hira strongly
on tp the wprk, and through it, against all
cpunter blasts and ppppsitipn ; pvercarae his
pwn dpubtings, and the mpckinga pf the wick
ed, StiU Ippking tp hira that was the master
and contriver of the work.
TUl we attain such a fixed view of our
Gpd, and such firm persuasion of his truth,
and power, and goodneas, it wiU never be
right with us. There will be nothing but
wavering and uiiaettledneaa in our apirits and
in our ways ; every Uttle discouragement from
within, or withput, -that meets us, wiU be
Uke to tum us over. We shaU not walk in
an even couise, but stiU reeUng and stagger
ing, till faith be set whoUy upon its own
basis, the proper foundation of it : not set be
twixt two, uppn pne strpng prpp, and anp-
ther that is rptten, partiy, pn Gpd, and part.
.^y on creature helps and encouragements, or

our own strength ; that is the way tp fall off.
Our only safe and happy way, ia, in humble
obedience, in hia own strength, tp follow his
appointments without standing and question
ing the matter, aad to resign the conduct of
aU to his wiadom and love ; to put the rud.
der of our Ufe into his hand, to steer the
courae of it aa seemeth him good, resting
quiedy on his word of premise for our aafety.
Lord, whither thou wilt, and which way thou
wilt, be thou my guide, and it sufficeth.
This absolute fpUpwing pf Gpd, and trust.
ing him with aU, is marked as the true cha
racter pf faith in Abraham, gping after God
frpm his cpuntry, not knowing nor asking
whither he went, Heb. xi. 8, secure in his
guide. And sp in that pther greater point
of offering his son, he aUenced aU diaputes
about it, by that mighty concluaion of faith,
accounting ihat he was able to raise him
from the dead, Heb. xi. 19. Thus here,
Noah by faith prepared the ark ; did no*
argue and question how ahaU thia be done,
and if it were, how shaU I get aU the kinds
of beasts gathered together to put into it, and
bow shaU it be ended, when we are shut in ?
Np, but beUeved firraly that it sheuld be fi
nished by him, and he saved by it ; and he was
npt disapppinted.
IL The end pf this wprk was the saving
of Noah, and his famUy, frpm the general de
luge, wherein aU the rest perished.
Here it wiU be fit tn cpnsider the point of
the preservation of the gpdly in ordinary and
common calamities, briefly, in these positions.
1. It is certain that the children of God,
as they are not exempted from the common
universal calamities and evils of this Ufe, thai
befal the rest of men, so not from any parti
cular kind of them. As it is appointed for
them, with all others once io die, Heb. ix. 27,
so we find them not privileged from any kind
of disease, or other way pf death ; not from
faUing by sword, or by pestilence, or in the
frenzy, or a fever, or any kind of sudden death :
Yea, when these, or such like, are on a land
by way of public judgment, the godly are
net altpgether exempted frora thera, but raay
fall in them with others ; as we flnd Moses
dying in the wilderness, with those he brought
out of Egypt. Now, though it was for a
particular failing in the wildemess, yet it
evinces, that there is in this no encroachment,
upon their privileges, nothing cpntrary tP the
Ipye of Gpd tpwards them, and his cpvenant
with thera.
2. The prpraises made to the godly, of
preservation frora common judgments, have
their truth, and are made gopd in many of
thera ao preserved ; though they do not hold
absolutely and universaUy: For theyare
ever to be understood in suhordination to their
highest good : But when they are preserved,
they ought to take it as a gracious accoin- ¦
plishment, even of these promises to them,

VKR. 19—21.]

THE PIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

219

Wliich the wicked, many of which do likewise
escape, have no right to, but are preserved
for after.judgment.
' 3. It is certain, that the curse and sting
is taken out of aU thpse evils incident to the
godly with pthers, in Ufe and death, which
makes the raain difference, thnugh tp the eye
of the world invisible. And it may be ob-
•served. That in these common judgments of
sword or pestilence, or other epidemic dis-
uases, a great part of those that are cut off are
pf the wickedest, thpugh the Lprd may send
off those anows to aome few of hia own, to
caU them horae.
The fuU aud clear diatinction of the gpd
ly and wicked, being reaerved fer their after
estate in eternity, it needs npt seera strange,
that in raany things it appeara net here : One
thing abpve aU pthera, mpst grievous to the
child of God, raay take away the wonder of
other things they suffer in coraraon, that is,
the remainders of sin in them while they are
in the flesh : Though there is a spirit in
them above it, and contrary to it, which
makes the difference ; yet sometimes the too
much Ukeness, especiaUy in the prevailings
of conuption, doth confuse the raatter, not
only to othera' eyes, but their own.
4. Though the great distinction .and se
vering be reserved to that great and soleran
day, that shaU clear aU, yet the Lord is pleas
ed, in part, more remarkably at some timea
lo difference hia own frora the ungodly, in
the execution of teraporal judgmenta, and to
give theae aa preludes of that flnal and fuU
judgraent. And thia of Npah waa pne pf
the rapst erainent in that kind, being the
rapst general judgraent that ever befel the
¦wprld, pr that shaU tiU the last, and so the
liveliest flgure of it : This waa by water, aa
the second shaU be by fire, and it was most
congruous that it should resemble in thia, aa
the chief point, the saving of righteous Noah
and his family from it ; prefiguring the eter
nal salvation of beUevers, as pur Appstie teach
eth. Wherein few, thatis, eight persons, were
saved by water.] Thia great poin't of the
fewness of those that are saved in the other
greater salvatipn, as in this, I shaU npt npw
prpsecute : Only,
1. If SP few, then the inquiry intp pur
selves, whether we be pf these few, should be
mpre diUgent, and foUowed more home than
it is yet with the moat of us. We are wary
in pur trifles, and nnly in this eaaily deceived,
yea, our own deceivera in this great point.
Ia not this foUy far beyond what you usuaUy
say of spme. Penny wise and pound fool ;
to be wise for a mpment, and fools for eter-
nify ?
2. You -that are indeed seeking the way
of life, be npt discpuraged by ypur fewness ;
it hath always been so ; you aee here how few
bf the whole world, and is it not better to be

of the few in the ark, than of the raultitude
in the waters ? Let thera fret, as ordinarily
they dp, tp see so few mere diUgent fpr hea-
ven, as np dpubt they did pf Npah ; and this
ia it that gaUs them, that any shpuld have
higher names, and surer hopes this way r
" What ! are none but such as you going to
heaven, think you us aU damned ?" What
can we say, but there is a flppd of wrath
wasting many who say so, and certainly all
that are out of the ark shaU perish in that
flood. 3. This is that main trath that I would
leave with you ; look on Jesus Christ as the
ark, of whora this was a flgure ; and believe
it, out of hira there is riothing but certain de-
struction, a deluge of wrath, aU the world
over, on those out of Christ. Oh 1 it is our
life, our only safety, to be in hira. But these
things are not beUeved. Men think they be
Ueve them, and do not. Were it believed
that we are under the sentence of eternal death
in our natural state, and that there is no
escape, but by removing out of ourselves
untp Christ, Oh ! what thrpnging would
there be tohim ! whereas, now he invites and
caUfi, and how few are persuaded to come to
hira ! Noah believed the Lord's word of
judgment against the world, believed his pro
mise made to hira, and prepared an ark. Is
it not a high sign of unbelief, that there
being an ark of everlasting salvation ready
prepared to our hand, we wiU not so rauch as
come to it ? 1. WiU you, who are not yet
entered, be persuaded certainly that the ark-
door stands open ; his offers are free ; do but
Come and try if he will tum you away ; no,
he wiU not. Him that comes to me, I will
in no ways cast out, John vi. 37. And as
there is such acceptance, and sure preserva
tion in him, there is as sure perishing with
out hira, truat on what you wiU. Be you of
a giant's atature, aa mahy of thera were, to
help you to cUmb up, aa they wpuld sure dp
3vhen the flppd carae pn, to the highest raoun
tains and taUeat trees, yet it ahall overtake
you. Make your beat of your worldly ad
vantagea, or good parta, or civil righteoua.
neaa, all ahaU prove poor ahifts frora the flppd
of wrath, which riaea above aU thoae, and
drowna thera ; only the ark of our aalvation
is safe. Think how gladly they would have
been within the ark, when they found death
without it, and now it waa tPo late ! How
would raany, that now deapiae Chriat, wiah
to honour hira one day ! Men, ao long as
they thought to be safe on the earth, would
never betake tbem to the ark, but rather
would think it a prison ; and could men find
salvation any where else, they would never
come to Christ for it : This is, because they
know him not : But yet, be it necesaity, let
that drive thee in ; and then being in him,
thou ahalt find reaaon to love him for hiraself, '
beaides the salvation thpu hast in hira.

220

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap, in.

2. You that have fled into hira for refuge,
wrong hira not so far as to question your
safety. What though the fioods of thy for.
mer gmltiness riae high, thine ark .shaU atiU
be above them ; and the higher they riae,
the higher he ahall rise, ahaU have the more
glory in freely juatifying and aaving thee.
Though thou find the remaining power of ain
StiU within thee, yet it shaU net sink thine
ark ; there waa in thia ark sin, yet they were
saved ftom the flood. If thou doat beUeve,
that ptts thee in Christ, and he will bring
thee safe through, without splitting or sink.
ing. 3. As thpu art bpund to accpunt thyself
safe in him, sp tp admire that lpve that set
thee there. Npah was a holy man ; but
whence was beth his holiness and preservation
while the world perished, but because he
found favour, or free grace, as the word is,
in the eyes pf the Lprd. And np doubt he
did much contemplate this, being secure with
in, when the cries of the rest, drowning, were
about him. Thua, think you, seeing so few
are saved in' thia bleaaed ark, wherein I am,
in compariaon of the multitude that periah
in the deluge ; whence ia thia ? Why
waa I chosen, and so many about me left ?
why, but because it pleaaed him. But all
ia atraight here. We have neither hearta
nor time for araple thoughta of this love,
tUl we be beypnd time ; then shaU we ad
mire and praise withput ceasing, and withput
wearying. We have npw cpnsidered the great and
remarkable example the Appstie makes use
pf. It ia tirae we prpceed to conaider. Third
ly, The adapting or applying it to the in
struction pf Chriatiana, fpr which it ia indeed
so flt and suitable, which he clears in the
particular reaemblance of it, with the rule of
Chriatianity. Ver. 21. The like figure whereunto even bap
tism doth also now save us (not the putting away
the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good
conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ.
In which words we have, I. The end of
baptism. 2. The proper virtue or efiicacy
of it for that end. And, 3, A reserablance
in both these to Noah's preservation in the
flood. 1st, The end nf baptism, tp save us.
This is the great cprarapn end pf aU the pr-
dinances pf Gpd : that pne high raark they
all aim at. And the great and cpmmon rais
take of them is, that they are npt so under
stood and used. We corae and ait awhile,
and, if we can keep awake, give the word
the hearing ; but how few of us receive it as
ihe ingrafted word that is able to save our
souls ! Jamea i. 21. Were it thua taken,
what aweetneas would be found in it, which
raost that hear and read it are strangers to !
How precious would these Unes be, if we
looked on thera thus, saw them meeting and

cpncentring in salvation as their end. Thus
Ukewise the sacraraents, considered indeed as
seals of this inheritance, annexed to the great
charter of it, seals of salvation, would be high.
ly regarded : This would powerfully beget
a fit appetite for the Lord's Supper, when we
are invited to it, and would beget a due ea
teera of baptisra ; would teach yeu more fte.
quent and fruitful thoughts of your own, and
more pious considerations of it when you re.
quire it for your children. A natural eye
looks upon bread, and wine, and water, and
the outward difference of their use there, that
they are set apart and differenced, as is evi.
dent by extemal circumstances, from their
comraon use ; but the main pf the difference,
where their exceUency Ues, it sees net, as the
eye uf faith abpve that espies salvatipn under
them : And ph, what a different thing are
they tp it, frpm what they are tp a formal
user of them ? We shpuld aspire tp know
the hidden rich thinga pf Gpd, that are wrapt
up in his ordinances. We stick in the shell
and superflcea of thera, and aeek no further ;
that makes them unbeautiful and unsavoury
to ua, and that use pf them turna into an
erapty cuatom. Be more earneat with him
that hath appointed them, and made this
their end, to aave us, that he would clear up
the eye of our souls, to see them thus under'
this relation, and see how they suit to this
their end, and tend to it, and aerioualy seek
aalvation in them frora hia own hand, and we
ahaU find it.
This dpth save us. Sp that thia aalvation
of Noah and hia family from the deluge,
and aU outward deUverances and salvations,
are but dark shadows of this. Let them not
be corapared, theae reprivals and prolong.
ings of this present life, to the deUverance
of the aoul from death, the second death ; th'e
stretching of a moment to the concernment of
eternity. How would any of you welcome
a fuU and aure protection from coraraon dan
gera, if auch were to be had 1 That you
should be aacertained of safety frora sword
or peatilence ; that whatever othera suffered
about you, you and your family ahould be
free ! (and they that have escaped a near
danger pf thia kind are too apt to rest there, aa
if no more were to be feared : whereaa this
coraraon favour raay be shewed to those that
are far off frora God) ; and what though you
be not only thus far safe, but, I say, if you
were secured for the future, which none of
you absolutely are ; yet, when you are put
out of danger of sword and plague, stiU
death remains, and sin and wrath may be
reraaining with it ; and ahall it not be aU
,one to die under theae in a time of public
peace and welfare, aa if it were new ? Yea,
it may be spmething mpre unhappy, by the
increase pf the heap of sin and wrath ;
guiltiness augmented by Ufe' prolonged ; and'
wiU be raore grievous to be puUed away

vtn. 21.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

221

frora the world, in the raidst of peaceable
enjoyment, and to have everlasting darkness
lo succeed to that short sunshine of thy day
of ease. Alas 1 the aad succeaaion ! Hap
pineaa of a short date, and miaery for ever.
What availed it wicked Hara, to outUve the
flppd, to inherit a curse after it ; tp be kept
undrpwned • in the waters, tp see hiraself
and his ppsterity blasted with his father's
curae ? Think aeripualy : what wiU be the
end pf all thy terapprary aafety and preaerva
tipn, if theu share npt in thia aalvatipn, and
find npt thyaelf aealed and raarked fpr it ;
tp flatter thyself with a dreara pf happiness,
undjvalk in ihe light pf a few sparks, Isa.
1. 1 1, that wiU sppn die put, and then lie
down in sorrow ? A aad bed that the rapat
have to go to, after they have wearied thera
selves aU the day, aU their life, in a- chace
of vanity !
2dly, The next thing is, the power and
virtue of this raeans for its end. That bap.
tisra hath a power, , is clear, in that it is so
expressly said, it doth save us : Which
kind of power is as clear in the way of it
here expressed ; not by a natural force of the
element, though adapted and sacramentally
used ; it can only wash away the filth of the
body ; its physical efficacy or power reachea
no further : But it ia in the hand of the
Spirit of God, aa other aacramenta, and aa
the word itself is, to purify the conscience,
and convey grace and salvation to the soul,
by the reference it hath to, and union with,
that 'which it repreaenta. It saves by the
answer of a good conscience unto God,
and it affords that, by ihe resurrection of
Jesus from the dead.
Thus, then, we have a true account of the
power of thia, and so of other sacraraents,
and a discovery of the enor of the two ex
tremes : (1.) Ofthose that ascribe too much
to thera, aa if they wrought by a natural in.
berent virtue, and canied grace in thera in
separably. (2.) Of those that ascribe too
little to them, raaking thera only signs and
badges of our profession. Signs they are,,
but raore than signs, raerely repreaenting :
they are means exhibiting, and seals con
firming, grace to the faithful. But the
working of faith, and the conveying of
Chriat into the soul to be received by faith,
is not a thing put intp thera to do of them
selves, but sfriU in the Suprerae Hand that
appointed thera : And he indeed both causes
the souls of his pwn tp receive these hia
seala with faith, and raakes them effectual
to cpnfirm that faith which receives thera sp.
They are then, in a wprd, neither erapty
signs tp thera that believe, npr effectual
causea pf grace tp thera that believe net.
The miatake pn bpth aides arises from the
want of duly considering the relative nature
of these aeala, and that kind of union that ia
betwixt thera, and the grace they repreaent ;

which ia real, though not natural or physical,
aa they speak. So that though they do not
aave all that partake of thera, yet they do
reaUy and effectuaUy aave beUevera, (for whoae
salvation they are means), as the other ex.
ternal ordinances of God do. Though they
have not that power which is pecuUar to the
Author of them, yet a power they hav%, such
as befits their' nature ; and by reason of
which they are truly aaid to aanctify and jus
tify, and so to aave, aa the Apostle here avers
of baptisra.Now, that which is intended for our help,
our carnal minds are ready to turn into a
hinderance and disadvantage. The Lord
representing invisible things to the eye, and
confirraing hia promiaea even by viaible seals,
we are apt, by the grossness of our unapiri.
tual hearta, inatead of stepping up by that
which ia earthly to the divine apiritual things
repreaented, to stay on the outward eleraent,
and go no further : Therefore the apoatle,
to lead ua into the inaide of this seal of bap.
tisra, is very clear in designing the effect
and fruit of it : Noi (saya he) putting
away the filth of the flesh ; and water, if
you look no further, can do no more. There
ia an inviaible impurity upon our nature,
chiefly on our inviaible part, our soul : Thia
washing raeans the taking away of that ;
and where it reaches ita true effect, it doth
ao purify the conacience, and makes it good,
truly ao in the sight of God, who ia the
Judge of it.
Consider, 1. It ia a pitiful thing to see
the ignorance of the most professing Chria.
tianity, and partaking of the outward aeala
of it, yet not knowing what they mean ;
not apprehending the apiritual dignity and
virtue of them. They are bUnd in the mys
teries of the kingdom, and not ao much aa
aenaible of that blindneas. And being ig
norant of the nature of theae holy thinga,
they cannot have a due eateem of thera,
which arises out of the view of their inward
worth and efficacy. A confused fancy they
have of some good in thera ; and this rising
to the other extrerae, to a superatitioua con
fidence in the airaple performance and par-.
ticipation of thera, aa if that canied aorae
inaeparable virtue with it, which none could
miss of, that are sprinkled with the waters
of baptism, and share in the eleraents of
bread and wine in the Lord's Supper.
And what is the utraost plea of the most
for their title to heaven, that in these rela
tive and extemal things they are Christians,
are baptized, hear tlie word, and are adrait
ted to the Lord's table ; not considering how
raany have gone through aU these, and daily
are going on in the ways of death ; never
coming near Jesus Christ, who is ihe way,
artd tlK iruth, and the life : whom the word
and the seals of it, hold fortii to beUevers,
assuring them that they are washed- in his

A COMMENTARY UPON

222
blood, and quickened withhis life, and made
Uke him, and co-heirs of glory with him. '
2. Even they that have some clearer no
tion of the nature and fruit of, the seals of
grace, yet are in a practical enor, that they
look not with due diligence into themselves ;
inquiring after the efficiency of them in their
hearts ; do not study the life of Christ ; to
know more what it is, and then tp search
intp themselves for the truth, and the grpwth
of that life within them. Is it npt an un
becoming thing for a Christian (when he is
about to appear before the Lord at his table,
and SP Ipoks soraething more nanowly with
in) to find as little faith, as little divine af
fection, a heart as unmortified to the world,
as cold towards Christ, as before his last ad
dress to the same table, after the intervening,
possibly, of raany raonths : in which time,
had he been careful often to reflect inwards
on his heart, and to look back upon that new
sealing in his last participatipn, he might
prpbably have been mpre imprpved ? And,
truly, as there is rauch guUtiness cleaves tp ua
in thia, so generaUy, rauch raore in reference
to this other sacraraent that is here the apos
tle's subject, baptism, which being but once
adrainistered, and that in infancy, is very
seldom, and slightly, considered by raany,
even real Christians. And so we are at a
loaa in that proflt and corafort ; that increase
of both holineaa and faith, that the frequent
recollecting of it, after a apiritual raanner,
would no doubt advance ua tp. And not
only dp we neglect tp put puraelvea uppn the
thpughta of it in private, but, in the frequent
opportunities of such thoughts in pubUc, we
let it pass unregarded, are idle, inconsiderate,
and ao truly guilty beholders. -And the raore
frequently we bave theae oppprtunitiea, the
leaa are we touched with them : they becorae
comraon, and work not ; and the slighting
of them grpws as cprarapn with us as the
thing. Yea, when the engagement is mere
special and perspnal ; when parenta are tp
preaent their infanta to thia ordinance, and
then might, and certainly ought to have a
more particular and fixed eye upen it, and
theraaelves, as being sealed with it, tp ask
within after the frait and ppwer pf it, and to
stir up themselves anew to the actings of
faith, and arabition after newness of life, and
with eamest prayer fpr their children, tp be
suitors for theraselves, for further evidence
of tBfeir interest in Christ : Yet, possibly,
many are not much in these things at such
times, but are mpre busied tp prepare their
hpuse' fpr entertaining their friends, than tp
prepare their hearts for pffering up their in
fant untp God to be sealed ; and withal, te
make a new offer of their own hearts to bim,
to have renewed on Aem the inward seal of
the covenant ofgrace, the outward seal where
of they did receive, as it is now to be con
fened uppn their infant.

[chap. hi.

Did we often look uppii tne face pf pur
spuls,' and pbserve the many sppts with which
we have defiled them after our washing, it
might work us to shame and grief, and would
drive us, by renewed appUcation, to wash
bften in that blood which that water figures,
which alone can fetch out the stain of sin ;
and then it would set us upon renewed pur.
poses of purity, to walk more carefuUy, to
avoid the poUutions of the world we walk in,
and to purge out the poUutions of the hearts
that we carry about with ua, that defile us ,
raore than all the world besides. It would
work an hply disdain nf sin, pften to contem.
plate ourselves as washed in so precious a-.
laver : " ShaU I, would *he Christian say,
conaidering that I am now cleanaed in the
precioua blood of my Lord Jeaua, run again
into that puddle out of which he ao gracious
ly topk me, and made me clean ? Let swine.
waUnw in it ; he hath made me ef hia aheep-
fpld ; he hath made me pf that exceUent crdei
fpr which aU are cpnaecrated by that wash
ing that partake pf it : He hath washed m
in his blood, and made us kings and priests
unto God ihe Father. Am I pf these ?
And ahaU I debase ray-self tp the vile plea.
sures of sin ? No, I wiU think rayself too
good tp serve any sinful lusts ; seeing he
hath looked on' rae, and taken rae up, and
washed and dignified me : I am wholly his,
aU ray atudy and business shaU be to honour
and magnify him."
The answer of a good conscience, &c.]
The taking away of spiritual fUthiness, a?
the true and saving effect of baptism, the
apostle here expresses by that which is the
further result and effect of it. The answer,
of a good conscience unto God. Fpr it is
the washing- pff that filthiness which makes
beth the cpnscience good, and, in raaking it
auch, fits it to make answer unto God. A
gopd cpnscience, in its fuU aenae, ia a pure
cpnacience, and a peaceable cpnacience ; and
it cannpt, indeed, be peaceably good, unleaa
it be purely good. And although, on the
other side, it raay want the present enjoy.
ment of peace, being purified, yet certainly
in a purified conscience there is a title and
right to peace ; it is radically there, even
when it appears not. And, in due tirae, it
shaU appear, shaU spring forth, bud, aiid
fiourish. The purifled and good cpnditipn pf the
whple spul may weU, as here it dpth, • go
under the name of the gppd cpnscience, it
being sp prime a faculty pf it, and as the
glass of the whole soul, wherein the estate of
it is represented. Therefore, Heb. ix. the
efficacy of the blood of Chriat ia expresaed
thua, that it purgeth our , consciences from
dead works ; which expreaaion is the same
thing in effect with that here, ihe answer of
a good conscience unto God.
The answer, iri«iir>!ft.x.] The asking or

VE». 21.]

TIIE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

223

questipning pf cpnscience, which cpmprises
Ukewise its answer, fpr it intends the whple
conespondence of the cpnscience with God,
and with itself, as towards God, or in the
sight of God ; and indeed God's questipning
it, is by itself; it is hia deputy in the aoul ;
he makes it pose itself for hira, and before
him, cpnceming its pwn cpnditipn ; and sp
tile answer it gives itself in that ppature, he
as it were sitting and hearing it in his pre
sence, is an anawer made untp him. Thia
queatipning and anawering, (if such a thing
were at this time, as it was certainly soon
after,) yet means not the questions and an
swers used in the baptism of persons, who,
being of years, professed their faith in an
swering tiie questions rapved ; it ppsaibly
aUudes unto that, but it further, by way of
reaerablance, expreaaea the inward queation-
ing and anawering which ia transacted with
in, betwixt the soul and itaelf, and the aoul and
God; and so^ia aUuaively caUed l^g^iwTjj^af,
a queationing and answering, but diatinc-
rively apecified, ii; esiv ; ao that, whereas the
other was towards raen, thia ia unto God.
1. A good conacience is a waking, speak
ing conscience ; and as the conscience that
questiona itaelf moat ia of aU aorts thebeat,
so that which is durab, or asleep, and is not
active and frequent in self-inquiries, is not a
gppd cpnscience. The wprd is judicial,
'iTtgarit/ixi interrogation, used in law for the
trial and executing of proceaaea ; and thia
ia the great buaineas of conscience, to sit,
and examine, and judge within ; to hold
courts in the soul ; and it is of continual
Uecesaity that it be so. There cau be no
vacation of thia judicature without great
daraage to the eatate of the aoul ; yea, not
a day ought to paas without a seaaiou of con
acience within ; for daily diaordera ariae in
the soul, which, if they paaa on, wiU grow
and gather more, and sobreed more difficulty
in their trial and redress. Yet raen do eaaily
turn frora this work as hard and unpleasant ;
and raake-niany a long vacancy in the year,
and protract it frora one day to another. In
the raorning they muat go about their busi
ness, and at night they are weary aild sleepy ;
and aU the day long one affair steps in after
another ; and if business fail, sorae trifling
company or other ; and ao their daya paaa
on ; the aoul is overgrown with impurities
and disorders.
YoU know what confusions, and disorders,
and evils, wiU abound amongst a rude people,
where there is no kind of court nor judica
ture held. Thus is it with that unraly rab-
ble, the lusts and passions of pur spuls, when
there is up discipline npr judgment within ; pr
where there is but a neglect and intenniasion
of it for a short time. And the most part of
spuls are in the ppature pf ruin ; their vile
affectipns, as a headstrong tumultueua multi
tude, that will npt suffer a deputed judge to

sit ampngst thera, cry down then: consciences,
and make a cpntinual npise, that the vpice
of it raay not be heard ; and ao force it to
deaist and leave thera to their own ways.
But you that take this course, know you
are prpviding the severest judgraent for ypur.
selves by disturbing pf judgraent: as when
a people riae against an inferior judge, the
prince or suprerae magiatrate that aent him,
hearing of it, doth not fail to vindicate his
lienpur and justice in their exemplary pu.
niahraent. Will ypu npt answer unte conscience, but
when it begins to speak, turn to buaineaa or
company, that you raay not hear it ? Know,
that it and you rauat anawer unto God ; and
when he ahaU raake inquiry, it must report,
and report aa the truth is, knowing that there
is no hiding the matter from him. " Lord,
there are to my knowledge a world of enomii-
tiea within the circuit I had to judge, and I
would have judged them, but was forcibly
reaiated and intenupted ; and waa not strong
enough to oppose the tumultuous power that
rose against me. Now the matter coraes in
to thine own hand to judge it thyself.'' What
shaU the soul aay in that, day, when con.
science shall make such an answer unto God,
and it shall come under the severity of hia
justice for aU ? Whereas, if it had given
way to the conscience to find o^t, and judge
and rectify matters, so that it could have an
swered conceming its procedure that way,
Gpd wpuld have accepted thia as the anawer,
pf a gpod cpnscienpe, and what cpnscience
had done, he would not do over again. It
hath judged, then I acquit ; for if we would,
judge ourselves, (aays the Aposde,) we
should noi be judged, 1 Cor. xi. 31.
The queationing or inquiry of conacience,
and 80 ita report or a,nswer unto God, extends
to aU the affairs ofthe soul, aU the affections
and motions of it, and aU the actions and
caniage of the whole raan. The opefl wick
edneaa of the inoat teatifiea against them,
that though sprinkled with water in baptism,
yet they are straugera tp the power and gra
cioua efficacy of it ; not baptized with the
Holy Ghost and wifh fire ; still their dross
and filth remaining in thera, and nothing
else appearing, in their waya ; so that their'
cpnaciencea cannot so much aa make a good
answer for thera unto men, rauch less un-
to God. What ahaU it answer for thera,
being judged, but that they are swearers,
iind cursers, and drunkards, or unclean ; or
that they are slanderers, delighting to pass
their hours in descanting on the actions and
ways of others, and looking through the mis-
coloured glass of their own malice and pride ;
that they are neglecters of God and holy
things ; lovers of themselves, and their own
pleasures, more than lovers ofGod ? 2 Tim.,
iii. 2, 4. And, have auch aa theae impu
dence enough to caU themaelvea Christiana,^-

224

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap, hi;

and tp pretend themselves tp be such as are
washed in the bipod of Christ ? Y'es, they
do this. But be ashamed and confounded
in yourselves, you that remain in this con-
dition. Yea, although thou art blameless
in men's eyes, and poasibly in thy own eyes
too, yet thou raayest be filthy still in the
sight of God. There is such a generation,
n raultitude of them, that is pure in their
own eyes, and yet are not washed from
iheir filthiness, Prov. xxx. 12. There are
many moral evil persons that are most satis,
fied with their own estate, or such as have
further a form of godliness, but their lusts
are notmortified by ihe power of it. Secret
pride, and earthliness of mind, and vain
glory, and carnal wisdom, are still entertain
ed with pleasure within ; these are foul poi.
lutions, filthy, and hateful in the sight of
God : So that where it is thus, that such
guests are in peaceable posaeaaion of the
heart, there the blood and Spirit of Christ
are not yet corae ; neither can there be thia
answer of a good conscience unto God,
This answer of a good conscience unto
God, as Ukewiae its questioning, to enable
itself for that answer, is touching two great
points, that are of chief concem to the soul.
its justification and sanctification ;-for bap
tisra is the seal of both, and purges the con
science in both respects. That water is the
figure both of the blood and water, the jus
tifying blood of Christ, and the pure water
of the sanctifying Spirit of Christ ; he takes
away the cpndemning guiltiness pf sin by
the ene, and the ppUuting filthineaa by the
other. Npw, the conacience of a real believer in
quiring within, upon right diacovery, will
make this answer unto God : *' Lprd, I
have fpund that there ia np atanding befpre
. thee, fpr the apul in itaelf ia overwhelraed
with a world of guiltineaa ; but I find a
blood sprinkled upon it, that hath, I ara
sure, virtue enough to purge it all away, and
to present it pure unto thee. And I know
that wheresoever thou findest that blood
sprinkled, thine anger is quenched and ap.
peaaed iraraediately upon the sight of it.
Thine hand cannot sraite where that blood
is before thine eye." And thia the Lord
doea agree to, and authoriaes the conscience,
upon this account, to return back an answer
of safety and peace to the soul.
So for the other, " Lord, I find a living
work of holiness on thia aoul ; thpugh there
is yet cpnuption there, yet it is as a continual
grief ahd vexation, it is an implacable hatred ;
diere is no peace betwixt thera, but con
tinual enraity and hostUity ; and if I can-
not aay rauch of the high degrees of grace,
nnd faith in Christ, and love to hira, and
heavenUneaa of mind ; yet I may aay, there
is a beginning of theae ; at leaat this I moat
confidentiy aflirm, that there are real and

eamest desires of the spiil after these things.
It would know and conforra to thy wiU, and
be deUvered from itself and its own wiU-
and though it were to the highest displeasure
of aU the world, it would gladly walk in all
well-pleasing unto thee." Now, he that
sees the truth of these things, knowing it to
be thus, pwns it as his pwn wprk, and en.
gages himself tP advance it, and hring it to
perfectipn. This is a taste pf that intercpurse the
purified censcience hath with Gpd, as the
saving fruit pf baptism.
And aU this it dpth, npt pf itself, but by
virtue pf the resurrection of JesUs Chrisl,.
which refers both to the remote effect, sah
vation, and the nearer effect, as a means
and pledge of that, ihe purging of the con
science. By this, his death, and the effusion of his
blood in his sufferings, are not excluded,
but are included in it : His resunection
being the evidence of a]J that work of ex.
piation, both completed and accepted ; fiill
payment being made by our Surety ; and so
he set free, his freedom is the cause and the
assurance of ours. Therefpre the Apostie
St. Paul expresaes it so. That he died for
our sins, and rose for righteousness : and
our Apoatle shows us the worth of our living
hope in this same resunection, chap. i. ver.
3, Blessed be ihe God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his
abundant -mercy, hath begotten us again
unto a lively hope, by ihe resurrection of i
Jesus Christ from the dead.
Now, that baptisra doth apply and seal to
the beUever his interest in the death and re.
sunection of Chriat, the Apoatle St. Paul
teaches to the full; Rora. vi. 4, We are
buried with him, aaya he, by baptism into
his death, thai like as Christ was raised
up from ihe dead by ihe glory ofthe Father,
even so we should also walk in newness of
life. Where the dipping into the watera ia
refened to, aa representing our dying with
Christ ; and the retum thence, as expres.
aive of our riaing with him.
Sdly, The laat thing is, the resemblance
of baptism in these things, with the saving
of Noah in the flood. And it holds in that
we sppke last pf : Fpr he seemed tp have
rather entered intp a grave, aa dead, than
intp a safeguard pf life, in gping intp the
ark ; yet, being buried there, he rpse again,
as it were, in his cnming fprth tp begin a
new werld. The waters pf the flpod drown.
ed the ungodly, and washed them away,
and their sin together, as one inaeparable heap
of filthineaa ; and upon the sarae waters the
ark floating, preserved Noah. Thus the
waters of baptisra are intended as a deluge
to drown sin, and to aave th'e beUever, who
by faith ia separated both frora the world
and from his sin : so it sinks, and he is saved-

VER. 21,]

THE FIRST EIISTLE OF PETEK,.

22a

And there is, further, another tiling speci.
fied by the Appstie, wherein, thpugh it be a
little hard, yet he chiefly intends the parallel ;
the fewness cf these that are saved by both.
For though raany are sprinkled with the de.
mental water of baptisra, yet few, so as to
attain by it the answer of a good conscience
towards God, and to Uve by participation of
the resurrection and life of Christ.
Thou that seest the world perishing in a
deluge of wrath, and art now most thought
ful for this, how thou shalt escape it ; fly in
to Christ as thy safety, and rest secure there.
Thou shalt find life in his death, and that
life further ascertained to thee in hia riaing
again. 1. There is ao full and clear a title
to Ufe in theae two, that thpu canst chaUenge
aU adversaries upon thia very grpund, as un-
cnnquerable, whilst thou standeat on it, and
mayeat speak thy chaUenge^ in the Apostle's
style. It is God that justifieth, who shall
condemn ? But how know you that He
justifies ? It is Christ that died, yea, ra
ther, that is risen, who sitteth at the right
hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us, Rom. viii. 33, 34. It aUudes to
that place, Isa. 1. 8, where Christ speaks of
bimself, hut in the name of aU that adhere
to hira : He is near thai justifies me, who
is he that will contend with me ? So that
what Christ speaka there, the Apoatle, with
good reason, imparts to each believer as in
him. If no raore is to be laid to Christ's
charge, he being now acquitted, as is clear
by his rising again, then neither to thine,
who art clothed with hira, and one with hira.
This is the grand answer of a good con
science ; and, in point of justifying them be
fore God, there can be no answer but thiii.
What have any tp say tp thee ? thy debt is
paid by him that undertook it, and he i^
free. AnsweraUaccusations vrith this, Christ
is risen. .
And then, for the mortifying pf ain, and
strengthening pf thy graces, lppk daily pn
that death and resurrectipu : Study thera,
set thine eye uppn thera, tiU thy heart take
pn the impression of them by much spiritual
and affectionate looking on them ; beholding
the glory of thy Lord Christ, then be trans
formed into it, 2 Cor. iii. 18, It is npt
only a mpral pattem er cppy, but an effec
tu^ cauae pf thy sanctification, having real
influence into thy soul ; dead with him, and
again alive with him. Oh ! happiness and
dignity unspeakable, to have this life known
and cleared to your souls ! If it were, how
would it make you live above the wprld,
and aU the vain hopes and fears of this
wretched Ijfe, and the fears of death itself !
Yea, it _wpuld make that visage pf death,
which tp the wprld ia rapst affrightfiil, mpst
Ipvely tP thee.
It is the Appstle's maxim, that the car,
lal mind is enmity against God ; and as

it is universally true of every carnal mind,
so of aU the motions and thoughts of it, even
where it seems tp agree with Gpd. yet it is
StiU cpntrary ; if it acknpwledge and cpnfprm
tp his prdinance, yet, even in so doing, it is
in direct opposite terras tp him, particularly
in this, that which he esteems mpst in
them, the carnal raind makes least accpuut
pf. He chiefly eyes and values the inside ;
the natural man dweUs and rests in the shell
and superfices of them. God, according to
his spiritual nature, looks moat on the more
spiritual part of hia worahip and worahippera.
The carnal mind is in thia, just Uke itself
altogether, for the aenaible external part,
and unable to look beyond it. Therefore
the Apoatle here, having taken occasion to
speak of baptiam in terms that contain a paral
lel and reserablance between it and the flppd,
is expreaa in cpnecting thia miatake. It ia
net, says he, in putting away ihe filth ofthe
flesh, but the answer of a good conscience.
Were it ppssible to persuade you, I would
recommend one thing to you : leam tp look
on the ordinances of Gpd suitably tp their
natures, spirituaUy, and inquire after the
spiritual effect and wprking of them upon
your consciences. We would wilUngly have
aU religion reduced to externals. This is
our natural choice, and we would pay aU in
this coin, as cheaper and easier by far, and
would compound for the spiritual part, rather
to add and give raore extemal performance
and ceremony. Hence the natural compla
cency of Popery, which is all for this ser
vice of the flesh and body-services ; and
to those preacribed of God, all deal ao liberaUy
with him in that kind, as to add more, and
frame new devicea and ritea ; what you wiU
in thia kind, aprinklinga, and washings, and
anointings, and incense : But whither tends^
aU this ? Is'it not a grpss mistake pf Gpd
tp think hira thus pleased ; pr, is it npt
a direct affrent, knpwing that he is npt
pleased with these, but desires anpther thing,
tP thrust that uppn hira that he cares net fpr^
and refuse hira what he caUs fpr ? that
single hurable heart-wprship and walking
with hira, that purity pf spirit and con
science that he only prizes, and no outward
service, but fpr these : as they tend tp this
end, and dp attain it ? Give rae, says he,
npthing, if ypu give net tills. Oh ! saith
the carnal mind, any thing but this theu
shalt have. As many washings and pffer
ings as thpu wilt, thousands of rams, and
ten thousand rivers of oil ; yea, rather
than fail, lei the fruit of my body go for the
sin of my soul, Micah vi. 6. Thus we ;
wiU the putward uae ef wprd and aacraments
dp it ? Then all ahall be weU ; baptized we
are ; and shaU I hear rauch and cpmmuni-
cate pften, if I can reach it ? ShaU I be
exact in ppint pf family wprship ; shaU I
pray in secret ? all this I do, or at least I
P

226

A COMMENTARY UPON

[cuap, Iif.

now proraise. Ay, but when aU that ia
done, there is yet one thing may be wanting,
and if it be so, all that araounts to nothing.
Is thy conscience purged and made good by
ttU •.hese ; or art thou seeking and airaing
at this, by the use of aU meana ? then cer
tainly thou shalt find Ufe in them. But,
doea thy heart atiU reraain uncleansed frora
the old ways, not purified frora ihe pollutions
of the world ? Do thy beloved sins still
lodge with thee, and keep possession of thy
heart ? then art thou stiU a stranger to
Christ, and an enemy to God. The word
and seals pf life are dead tp thee, and thpu
art still dead in the use pf thera aU. Knpw
ypu npt, that raany have raade shipwreck
uppn the very rpck pf salvatipn ? That
many which were baptized as weU as ypu,
and as cpnatant attendants on aU the wor.
ship and ordinancea of God la you, yet re
raained without Christ, and died in their
sins, and are now past recovery ? Oh !
that you would be warned ! There are still
multitudes running headlong that sarae course
tending to destruction, through the raidst
of all the raeans of salvation ; the saddest
way of aU to it, through word and sacra
raents, and aU heavenly ordinancea, to be
walking heU-wards, Christiana and yet no
Christians ; baptized and yet unbaptized ;
as the prophet takes in the profane multi
tude of God's own people with the natipns,
Jer. ix. 26, Egypt, and Judah, and Edom ;
all these nations are uncircumcised : and
the wprst carae last, and all the house of Is
rael are uncircumcised in the heart. Thua,
are the rapat pf ua unbaptized in the heart ;
and aa thia ia the way pf peraonal deatruction,
ao it ia that, aa the prophet there declares,
that brings upon the Church so raany public
judgraents : And, aa the Apoatle tella the
• Corinthiana, 1 Cor. xi. 30, that for the
abuae of the Lord'a table, many were sick,
and many slept, certainly our abuse of the
holy things of God, and want of their proper
spiritual fruita, are amongat the prime aina
of this land, for which ao many alain have
faUen in tbe fields by the aword, and in the
streets by pestilence ; and more are Ukely
yet to fall, if we thua continue tpprpvpke the
Lord to his face. For, it is the rapst avpwed
direct affrent tp profane his hply things ;
and thua we dp while we anawer npt their
prpper end, and are net inwardly aanctified
by them. We have no other word, nor
other sacraments, to recomraend to you, than
these that you have uaed ao long to no pur
pose ; only we would call you frora the dead
forras to seek the living power of them, that
you perish not.
You think the renouncing of baptism a
honible word, and that we would speak only
so of witches ; yet it is a comraon guiltiness
that cleaves to all, who renounce not the
filthy lusts, and the self-wiU of their own

hearts : for baptisra carries in it a renoun
cing of these ; and ao the cleaving unto
theae ia a renouncing of it. Oh ! we aU
were sealed for God in baptisra ; but who
Uves so ? How few have the irapression of
it on their conscience, and the expression of
it in the walk and fruit of their life I We
do not, aa clean washed persona, abhor aud
fly all poUutions, all fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, Eph. v. 1 1 .
We have been a long time hearers of the
Goapel, whereof baptiam is the seal, and
moat of ua often at the Lord'a table, , What
hath aU this done upon us ? ask within :
Are your hearts changed ? Is there a new
creation there ? Where is that spiritual-
raindedneaa ? Are your hearta dead to the
world and ain, and alive to God ; your con
sciences purged from dead works ?
What mean yon ? Is npt this the ent
pf aU the ordinances, to raake all clean, ano
tp renew and make good the conacience ? to
bring the soul and your Lord into a happy
araity, and a gppd conesppndence, that it
raay not only be in speaking terraa, but often
speak and converse with him ? raay have
liberty both to demand and anawer, aa the
original word irapliea ? That it raay speak
the language of faith and hurable obedience
unto God, and he may speak the language
of peace to it ; and both, the language of
of the Lord each to other ?
That conscience alpne ia gppd, that is
rauch buaied in thia wprk ; in deraanding
and anawering ; that apeaks much with him
self, and with Ged : This ia bpth the aigii
thatit is gppd, and the raeans tp raake it bet
ter. That spul wiU dpubtleaa be very wary
in ita walk, that makes daUy accpunt pf
itaelf, and rendera up that accPunt unto God.
It wiU not Uve by gueas, but naturally ex
amine each step beforehand, because it is re
solved to examine aU after ; wiU consider well
what it' should do, because it raeans to ask
over again what it hath done ; and not only
to answer itself, but to make a faithful re
port of all unto God ; to lay all before him,
continuaUy upon trial made ; to teU him
what is in any raeasure well done as his own
work, and bless him for that, and tell hira
too, aU the slips and miacaniages of the
day, aa our own ; cpmplaining pf purselves
in hia preaence, and atiU entreating free par-
dpn, and rapre wiadpra tp walk mpre hpUly
and exactly ; and gaining, even by pur
faiUnga, rapie huraility and more watch
fulness. If you would have your consciences answer
weU, they muat inquire and queation much
beforehand. Whether ia thia, I purpoae and
go about, agreeable to ray Lord'a wiU ? Will
it please hira ? Ask that more, and regard
that raore, than this that the raost foUow-;
wiU it please or proflt myself ? flts that my
own humour ? And exaraine not only die

VEn. 21.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

227

bulk and substance of thy ways and actipns,
but the manner of them, how thy heart is
set : So think it not enough to go to church,
pr tp pray, but take heed how ye hear ; con
sider how pure He is, and how piercing His
eye, whom thou aervest.
Then, again, reflect afterwards ; think it
not enough I was praying, or hearing, or
reading, it waa a good work, what need I
question it further ? No, but be stiU reflect
ing, and asking how it was done ; how I
have heard, how I have prayed ? Waa my
heart humbled, by the diacoveries of ain,
from the word ? Was it refreshed with the
proraises ofgrace ? Did it Ue level under the
word, to receive the stamp of it ? Waa it
in prayer aet and kept in a holy bent towards
God ? Did it breathe forth real and eamest
desires into his ear, or waa it reraiss, and
roving, and dead in the service ? So, in ray
society wilh others, in such and auch com
pany, what waa spent of ray time, and how
did I employ it ? Did I seek to honour ray
Lord, and to edify ray brethren, by ray car
riage and speeches ; or did the time run out
in trifling vain diacpurae ? when alpne, what
is the carriage and walk pf my heart ? where
it hath meat Uberty to move in ita own pace,
is it delighted in converse-with God ? Are
the thoughts of heavenly things frequent and
sweet to it ; or does it run after the earth and
the delights of it, spinning out itself in im
pertinent vain contrivances ?
The neglect of auch inquiries is that which
entertains and increaaea the impurity of the
soul, ao that men are afraid to look into them
selves, and to look up to God. But oh !
what a foolish course is this, to shift off that
which cannot be avoided ! In the end an
swer muat be made to that all-aeeing Judge
with whom we have to do, and to whom we
owe our accounta.
And, truly, it should be seriously consi
dered, what makes this good conscience, that
makea an acceptable anawer unto Gpd. That
appears by the ppppsitipn, not ihe putting
away the filth of the flesh ; then it is the
putting away of soul-filthiness ; so then it
is the renewing and purifying of the con
science that makea it good, pure and peace
able. In the purifying it raay be troubled,
whicii ia but the stining in cleansing of it,
which makes raore quiet in the end, as phy
sic, or the lancing of a aore ; and after it ia
in sorae raeaaure cleansed, it may have fits of
trouble, which yet stiU add further purity and
further peace : So there is np hazard in that
work ; but all the misery is, a dead security
of the conscience remairung filthy, and yet
unstined ; or, after sorae stining pr pricking,
as a, wpund not thoroughly cured, skin-
lie^ over, which wUl but breed raore vexa
tion in the end ; it wiU fester and grow
more difiicult to be cured ; and if it be cur
ed, it must be by deeper cutting and more

pain, than if at first it had endured a thorough
search. O, my brethren ! take heed of sleeping
unto death in can^al ease. Resolve to take
no rest, tiU you be in the element and place
of soul rest, wliere solid reat indeed ia. Reat
not till ypu be with Christ ; though aU the
world ahould offer their best, turn thera by
with diadain : if they wiU not be turned by,
throw them down, and gp pver them, and
trample uppn thera. " Ypu have no reat to
give rae ; nor wiU I take any at your handa,
nor from any creature. There ia no reat for
me tiU I be under his shadow, who endured
80 much trouble to purchaae my reat ; and
whom having found, I raay ait down quiet
and aatiafied ; and when the raen of the world
make boast of the highest contents, I will
outvie thera all with thia one word. My be
loved is mine, and I am his. Cant. ii. 16.
The answer of a good conscience toward
God. ] The conscience pf raan is never right
at peace jn itaelf, itiU it he rightly persuaded
pf peace with God ; which, while it reraains
filthy, it cannpt be ; for he is holy, and ini
quity cannot dwell with him : What com
munion betwixt light and darkness ? 2 Cor.
vi. 14. So then the conscienceraust be clean
sed ere it can look upon God with assurance
and peace. This cleansing is.aacraraentaUy
performed by baptism, effectuaUy by the
Spirit of Chriat and the blood of Christ ; and
he lives to irapart both : Therefore here is
mentioned his resunection from the dead, as
that by virtue whereof we are assured of thiai
purging and peace. Then can it, in sorae
raeasure, with confidence anawer, " Lord,
though poUuted by former aina, and by ain
atill dweUing in me, yet thou aeeat that my
deairea are to be daily more like my Saviour ;
I would have more love and zeal for thee,
more hatred of ain, that can anawer with St.
Peter, when he waa poaed, Lovest thou me ?
Lord, I appeal to thine own eye, who aeeat
my heart ; Lord, thou knowest that I love
thee, John xxi. 15, at least I desire to love
thee, and to desire thee, and that is love.
WiUingly would I do thee more auitable aer
vice, and honour thy narae raore ; and I do
aincerely desire more grace for this, that thou
mayest have more glory ; and I entreat the
light of thy countenance for this end, that,
by seeing it, my heart may be more weaned
frora the world, and knit unto thyself."
Thus it answers touching its inward frame,
and the work of holiness by the Spirit of
holiness dwelUng in it. But to answer jus
tice, touching the point of guilt, it flies to the
blood of sprinkling, fetches aU its answers
thence, tums over the matter upon it, and
that blood answers for it ; for it doth speak,-
and speaks better things than ihe blood of
Abel, Heb. xi. 24 ; speaka fuU payment of
all that can be exacted from the sinner ; and
that is a sufficient answer.

228

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CHAP. IIJ

The conscience is then, in diis point, raade
speechless at once ; driven to a nonplus in
itself; hath frora itself no answer to raake ;
but then it tums abput tp Christ, and finds
what tp say : " Lord, there is indeed in me
nothing but guiltineaa ; I have deserved
death, but I have fled into the city of refuge,
which thpu hast apppinted ; there I resolve
to abide, to Uve and die there. If juatice
puraue rae, it ahaU find rae there : I take
sanctuary in Jeaua. My aneat lai^ upon
me wUl alight upon him, and he hath where
withal to anawer it. He can straightway de
clare he hath paid aH, and can raake it good ;
hath the acquittance to ahew ; yea, hia own
liberty is a real sign of it. He was in pri
spn, and is let free, which declares that all
is satisfied." Therefore the answer here
rises put pf the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And in this very thing lies pur peace and
way, and all pur happiness : Oh 1 it is
wprth ypur time ahd pains tp try ypur inter
est in this ; it is the pnly thing wprthy ypur
highest diligence. But the must are put of
their wits, running like a number of distract
ed persona, and stiU in a deal of business.
but to what end they know not. Ypu are
unwiUing tp be deceived in these things that
at their beat and aurest dp but deceive ypu
when all ia dpne ; but are cpntent tp be de
ceived in that which ia your great concern
ment. You are your own deceivers in it ;
gladly guUed with shadows of faith and re
pentance, falae touches of sonow, and falae
flashes of joy, and are not careful to have
your souls really unbottoraed from theraaelvea,
and built upon Chriat ; to have hira ypur
treaaure, ypur rightepuaneaa, ypur aU, and tp
have hira ypur anawer untp Gpd ypur Father.
But if ypu wiU yet be adviaed, let gp aU, tp
lay hpld on hira ; lay your souls on him, and
leave hira not ; he ia a tried foundation stone,
and he thai trusts on him shall not be con
founded, Isa. xxviii. 16 ; 1 Pet. U. 6.
Vbr. 22. 'Who is gone Into heaven, and is on the
right hand of God ; angels, and authorities, and
powers, being made subject unto him.
This is added on purpose to shew ua fur-
ther what he ia, how high and gloripua a Sa
vipur we have.
We have here four ppinta pr steps pf the
exaltation of Christ : 1. Reaunection from
the "dead. 2. Ascenaion into heaven. 3.
Sitting at the right hand of God. 4. In that
posture, hia royal authority over the angels.
The particulara are clear in themaelvea. Of
the aitting at the right hand of God, you are
not ignorant that it is a borrowed expression,
drawn from earth to heaven, tP bring dpwn
sorae notion of heaven to us ; tP signify tp
ua in pur language, suitably tu pur cuatpma,
the suprerae dignity pf Jesus Chriat, Gpd
and man, the Mediatpr of the new covenant,
his matchless neamess unto his Father and

the sovereignty given him over heaven and
earth. And that of the subjection of angels,
is but a more particular apecifying of that
hia dignity and power, aa enthroned at the
Father'a right hand, they being the mpst ele.
vated and glpripus creatures ; sp that hia
authprity over all the world is impUed in that
subjectipn pf tlie highest and npblest part of
it : His victory and triuraph over the angels
pf darkness, is an evidence pf hia invincible
pewer and greatness, and matter pf cpmfort
to his saints ; but this which we read of
here is his supremacy over the glorious elect
angels. That there ia araongat thera priority, we
find ; that there is a cpmely prder in their
differences, cannpt be dpubted : But tp mar
shal their degrees and stations above, is a
ppint, npt pnly pf vain fruitleas curioaity, but
of preaumptuoua intrusion, whether these are
names of their different particular dignities,
or only different namea of their general ex.
ceUency and power, aa I think it cannot be
certainly weU deterrained, so it imports us
not to determine ; only this we know,' and
are particularly taught from this place, that
whataoever is their common dignify, both in
names and differences, they are aU subject to
our glpripus Head, Christ.
What confirmation they have in their
estate by him, (though piously asserted by
divines), is not so infaUibly clear frora the
aUeged scriptures, which may bear , another
sense. But this is certain, that he is their
King, and they acknowledge hira to be so,
and dp inceaaantly admire and adpre him.
They rejpice in hia glory, and in the glory
and happineas of raankind through him ;
they yield him raost cheerful obedieiice, and
serve hira readily in the good ofhis Church,
and each particular beUever, as he deputes
and employs them.
Which is the thing here intended, having
in it these two, his dignity above them, and
his authority over them. 1. Hia aupe.
rior dignity ; that even that nature which
he stooped below thera to take on, he hath
carried up and raised above them ; the very
earth, the fleah of man exalted in hia person
abpve aU thpse heavenly spirits, whp are pf
SP exceUent and pure a being in their na
ture, and frora the beginning of the world
have been clothed with so transcendent glory.
The text assures us, that a parcel of clay is
raade so bright, and set so high, as tp out-
shiiie these bright flaming spirits, these stars
of the moming, that flesh being united to
the Fountain of Light, the bleaaed Deity in
the peraon of the Son.
In coming to fetch and put on this gar
ment, he made himself lower than ihe an
gels ; but carrying it with him at his retum
to his etemal throne, and sitting down with
it there,' it is high above them, as the
Appstie teaches exceUently and amply, II cb.

VEU. 22.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OP PETER.

229

i. 2, To which of them said he. Sit on my
right hand.
This they lppk uppn with perpetual won.
dcr, but npt with envy npr repining : Np,
ampngst aU their eyes, up such eye ia to be
found ; yea, they rejoice in the inflnite
wiadom of God in thia design, and his infl
nite love to poor Ipst mankind. It is wpnder.
ful indeed to see him fiUing the room of their
faUen brethren with new gueata from eartii ;
yea, such as are bom heirs of heU ; not only
that sinful man should thus be raised to a
participatipn pf glpry with thera whp are
spptless, sinless spirits, but that their flesh,
in their Redeemer, shpuld be dignified with
a glory so far beyond thera. This is that
mystery they are intent in looking and pry.
ing into, and cannot, nor ever shaU, see the
bottom of it ; for it hath no bottom.
2. Jesus Christ is not pnly exalted abpve
the angels in absplute dignity, but in rela
tive authority pver thera. He is made
Captain ever these heavenly bands ; they
are aU under his cpramand, for all services
wherein it pleases hira tp eraplpy them ; and
the great emplpyraent he hath, is the at
tending pn his Church, and particular elect
cues ; are ihey noi all ministering spirits,
sent forth io minister to ihem thai shall be
heirs of salvation ? Heb. i. uii. They are
the serviints nf Christ, and in hira, and, at
his apppintment, the servants pf every be
liever ; and are many ways serviceable and
useful for their good, which truly we do not
duly consider. There is no danger of over
valuing them, and incUning to worship thera
upon this consideration ; yea, if we take it
right, it wiU rather take off frora that. The
angel judged his argument strong enough to
St. John against that, that he was but his
fellow servant. Rev. xix. 10. But this is
more, that they are servants to us, although
not therefpre inferipr, it being an honorary
service, yet certainly inferior to our Head,
and so to his mystical body, taken in that
notion aa a part of him.
Reflection 1. The height of thia our
Saviour's glory will appear the more, if we
reflect on the descent by whicii he ascended
to it. Oh ! how low did we bring down so
high a Majesty, into the pit wherein we had
fallen, by cUmbing to be higher than he had
set us. Tt was high indeed, as we were
faUen sp Ipw, and yet he, against whpra it
'ivas cpramitted, came dpwn tP help us up
again, and tp take hpld of us, took us on ;
so the word is, \,3rt\xf,t^(inTxi, Heb. ii. 16 :
he took noi hold of ihe angels ; let them
go ; hath left them to die for ever : Bui he
took hold of the seed of Abraham, and took
on him indeed their fleah, dweUing amongst
ua, and in a mean part ; emptied himself,
ixivcio't, Phil. ii. 7, and becarae pf np re
pute ; and further, aftef he deacended tP the
earth, and into pur fleah, in it he became

obedient to death uppn the crpss, ver. 8, and
descended intp the grave ; and by these
steps, was walking, tpwards that glpry where
in he now is ; he abased himself, wherefore,
says the Apostle, God hath highly exalted
him, ver, 9, So he hiraself, Luke xxiv.
26, Ought not Christ first io suffer these
things, and so enter into his glory ? Now
this indeed it is pertinent to conaider, and
the Apoatle ia here upon the point of Christ's
suffering. That is his therae ; and there
fore he is so particular in the ascending of
Christ to his glory. Who, of those that
would corae thither, will refuse tp follow him
in the way where he led ? He is xo^iyos,
the leader of our faith, Heb. xii. 2. And
whp pf those that foUow him, wiU not love
and deUght to foUow him through any way,
the lowest and darkest ; it is exceUent and
safe, and then it enda, you see where.
2. Think not strange of the Lord's rae
thod with .his Church, bringing her to so
low and desperate a piosture many times.
Can she be in a conditipn raore seemingly
deaperate than was her Head ? not only in
ignorainious sufferings, but dead and laid in
the grave, and the stone roUed to it and
sealed, and all made aure ? and yet he arose
and ascended, and now sits in glory, and
shaU sit till all his enemies become his foot
stool. Do not fear for him, that they shaU
overtop, yea, or be able to reach him, who
is exalted higher than the heavens ; neither
be aftaid for hia Church, which is his body,
and if her Head be aafe and aUve, cannot
but partake of aafety and Ufe with him.
Though she were, to aight, dead and laid
in the grave, yet ahaU ahe riae thence, and
be more glorioua than before, Isa. xxvi. 19 ;
and atiU, the deeper her diatrcss be, shall
rise the higher in the day of deliverance.
Thus, in hia dealing with a aoul, obaerve
the Lord's method ; think it not strange
that he brings a soul Ipw, very lew, which
he means to comfort and exalt very high in
grace and glory ; that he leads it by heU-
gates to heaven ; that it be at that point.
My God, my God, why hasi thou forsaken
me? Was not the Head put to use that
word, and so to speak it, as the head speaks
for the body, seasoning it for hia membera,
arid sweetening that bitter cup by his own
drinking of it ? Oh ! what a hard condi
tion may a soul be brought into, and put to
think, Can He love me, and intend mercy
for me, that leaves me to this ? And yet,
in aU, the Lord is preparing it thus for
comfort and blessedness.
3. Turn your thoughts more frequently to
this exceUent subject, the glorious high es
tate of pur great High-priest. The angels
admire this mystery, and we alight it ; they
rejpice in it, and we, whpra it certainly mere
nearly cpncerna, are npt rapved with it ; we
do not draw that comfort and that inatruc.

2;'.o

A CO.'ilMENTARY UPON

[chap, it

tion frpm it, whicii it wpuld plentifully af
ford, if it were snught after : It comforta ua
againat aU troublea and feara. Ia He not
on high who hath undertaken for ua ? doth
any thing befal us, but it ia paat first in
heaven ; and shaU any thing paaa there to
our prejudice or daraage ? He sits there,
and is upon the council of all, who hath
loved us, and given himself for us ; yea,,
who as he descended thence for us, did like-
wi«e ascend thither again for us ; hath raade
pur inheritance there which he purchased
sure to ua, taking poaaeaSion for us, and in
our narae ; aince he is there, not only as the
Son of God, but as our Surety, and as our
Head ; and so the believer raay think him
aelf even already poaaessed of thia right, in
aamuch as his Christ ia there. The aaints
are glprified already in their head. Where
he reigns, there I believe myself to reign,
says Augustine.* And cpnaider in aU thy
straita and trpublea, outward and inward,
they are not hid frora him. ' He knows them,
and feels them, is a compassionate High-
priest, and hath a gracioua sense of thy
frailties and griefs, fears and temptations,
and he wiU not suffer thee to be surcharged ;
but is StiU presenting thy estate to the Fa
ther, and uaing that intereat and power he
hath in hia affection for thy good. And
what wouldat thou more ? Art thou one
whose heart deairea to reat upon hira, and
cleave to hira ? Thou art knit ao to him,
that Ilia reaunection and glory secures thee
thine : His life and thine are not two, but
one life, as that of the head and members ;
and if he cpuld npt be pvercpme pf death,
thpu canst npt neither. Oh ! that aweet
word. Because I live, ye shall live also,
John xiv. 19.
Let thy thoughta and caniage be mpiild-
ed in this contemplation rightly, ever to look
on thy exalted Head. Consider his glory ;
see not only thy nature raised in hira above
the angela, b'ut thy peraon interested by
faith in that hia glory, and then think thy
self too good to serve any base luat. Look
down on sin and the world with a holy dis
dain, being united to him who is so exalted
•and so glorious. And let not thy raind
creep here ; engage not thy heart to any
thing that time and this earth can afford.
Oh ! why are we so little there, where there
is such a spring of delightful and high
thoughta for ua ? If ye be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where
he sits. Col. iii. 1. What mean you ? are
ye auch as will let go your intereat in this
once crucified, and now glprified Jesus ? if
npt, why are ye not more Uke it ? why does
it not possess your hearts more ? ought it
not to be thus ? should not our hearts be,
where our treasure, where our blessed Head,
is ? Oh ! how unreasonable, hpw unfriend-
Ubi Caput meum regnat, ibi me regnare credo. I

ly it is ! hpw much may we be ashamed to
have ropm in our hearts for earnest thoughta
or desirea, or delights, abput any thing be.
aide Him ?
Were this deeply impressed upon the
hearts of thpse that have a 'right in it, would
there be found in thera any engagement to
the poor thinga that are paaaing away ?
Would death be a temble word ? yea,
would it npt be pne pf the aweeteat, most
rejoicing thoughta, to aolace and eaae the
heart under all preasurea, to look forward to
that day of Uberty ? This infectious dis
ease* raay keep possession aU the winter,
and grow hot with the year again. Do not
therefore fiatter yourselves, and think it is
past ; you have yet reraerabering strokes to
keep it in. your eye.' But however, shall we
abide stiU here ? or is there any reason,
when things are duly weighed, why we
should deaire it ? WeU, if you would be un
tied beforehand, and ao feel your aeparation
frora thia world leas, this is the only way.
Look up to hira, who draws up aU hearts
that do indeed behold him. Then, I say,
thy heart shaU be removed beforehand, and
the rest is easy and aweet. When that is
done, all is gained. And consider how he
desires the completing of our union with
him. Shall it be his request, and earnest
desire, and shaU it not he oura too, that
where he is, there we may be also ? John
xvii. 24. Let us expect it with patient
submission, yet striving by desires and
auita, and looking out for our release from
this body of sin and death.

CHAP. IV.
Ver. 1. Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for
us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the
same mind : for he that hath suffered in the fiesh
hath ceased from sin.
The raain of a Christian's duty lies in
these two things, patience in suffaing, and
avoidance of sin, av'i^ov kx) x^ixoo, and they
have a natural influence each upon the other.
Although affliction siraply doth not, yet af
fliction sweetly and humbly carried doth,
purify and disengage the heart frora sin,
wean it frora the world, and the common
ways of it. And again, holy and exact
walking keeps the soul in a sound healthful
temper, and so enables it to patient suffer
ing, to bear things more easily ; as a strong
body endures fatigue, heat, cold, and hard
ship, with ease, a small part whereof would
surcharge a sickly constitution. The con
sciousness of sin, and careless unholy courses,
muat wonderfuUy weaken a soul and dis-
• This probably refers to the Pestilence in 1665.
See the lecture on Chap. iv. 6, Though the Pestilence
doth not affright you so, &c

VEK. 1.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PKTER.

231

teraper it, so thnt it is not able to endure]
much ; but every little thing disturbs it :
Therefore the apoatie hatii reaaon, both to
. insist so rauch on theae two pointa iu thia
epistle, and likewise to interweave the one
so often with the other, pressing jointiy
tiiroughout, the cheerful bearing of all kind
of afflictions, aud the careful forbearing aU
kind of sin ; and out of the one discourse
he slides into the other, as here.
And as the things agree in their nature,
so in their great pattern and principle, Jesus
Christ ; and the apostle stiU draws both
from thence; that of patience, cliap. iii. 18 ;
that of holineaa here. Forasmuch then as
Christ hath suffered for us, &c.
The chief study of a Chriatian, and the
very thing that raakes him to be a Christian,
is cenfpnnity pf Chriat. This is the sum
of religion (aaid that wise heathen,) to be
like htm whom thou worshippest.* But thia
example being in itaelf tpp aublime, ia
brpught dpwn tp pur view in Chriat ; the
brightness pf Gpd is veiled, and veiled in
pur pwn flesh, that we raay be able tp Ipok pn
it. The inaccessible light pf the Deity is
so attempered iu the huraanity pf Christ,
that we raay read pur lessen by it in hira,
and raay direct pur walk by it ; and that
truly ia pur pnly way ; there ia nothing but
wandering and perishing in all other ways ;
nothing but darknesa and miaery out of him ;
but he ihat follows me, aaya he, shalt noi
walk in darkness, John viii. 12. And
therefpre ia he aet before ua in the goapel, in
so clear and lively coloura, that we may
raake this ourwhole endeavour tobe like bira.
Consider here, 1. The high engagement
to this confonnity. 2. The nature of it.
3. The actual improvement of it. 1. The
engagement Ues in this, that he suffered for
us. Of this before ; only in reference to
this, had he cpme down, aa aome have mis-
iraagined it, only to set us this perfect
way of obedience, and give us an example
of it in our own nature ; this had been very
niuch. That the Son of God should descend
to teach wretched man, and the great King
tp deacend intc man, and dwell in a taber
nacle of clay, to set up -a, school in it, for
such ignorant accuraed creaturea I and ahould
in hia own peraon act the hardest lessons,
both in doing and suffering, to lead us in
both. But the raatter goes yet higher than
this. Oh ! how much higher hath he suffer
ed, not simply as our rule, but as our surety,
and in our stead. He suffered for us in
the flesh. We are the raore obliged to make
his suffering our example, because it waa
to ua more than an example, it was our ran
som. This makes the conformity reasonable
in a double respect ; 1. It is due that
we foUow hira, whp led us as the Cap
• Summa religionis imitari quem colis. Pyth.

tain of our Salvation ; that we fpUow in
auSfering, and in doing, aeeing both were
ao for us. It is atrange how aome armies
have addicted themselves to their head, to
be at his caU night and day, in suraraer and
winter ; to refuse no travel or endurance of
hardship for hira ; and all only to please him,
and aerve his incUnation and arabition ; as
Cieaar's trained bands, especially the vete
rans, what hardships did they not endure in
counter -marches, and in traversing different
and distant countries ? But besides that,
our Lord and leader is most great and
exceUent, and so weU deserves foUowing for
his own worth. This lays upon us an obliga
tion beyond all conceiving, that he first suf
fered for us ; that he endured such hatred
of men, and such wrath of God the Father,
and went through death, so vile a death, to
procure our life. What can be too bitter
to endure, or too sweet to forsake, to follow
him ? Were this duly conaidered, would
we cleave to our luats, or to our ease ?
Would we not go through fire and water,
yea, through death itself, and, were it poa
sible, through many deaths, to follow him ?
1. Consider, aa it ia juatly due, ao it is
made easy by that hia suffering for ua.
Our burden, that preased us to heU, being
taken off, ia not all that ia left, to auffer or
do, as npthing ? Our chains, that bpund
us pver tp etemal death, being knpcked pft".
hhaU we npt walk, ahall we npt run, in his
ways ? Oh ! think what that burden and
yoke was he hath eased ua of ; how heavy,
how unaufferable, it was, and then we ahaU
think what he ao truly says, that all he lays
on is sweet ; His yoke easy, and his burden
light. Matt. xi. 30. Oh ! the happy
change to be rescued from the vilest slavery,
and caUed to conforraity and feUowship with
the Son of God.
2. The nature of thia conforraity (to ahew
the neameaa of it) is expresaed in the very
aame terma aa in the pattem ; it is not a re
mote resemblance, but the sarae thing, even
suffering in the flesh. But that xe may
understand rightly what suffering is here
meant, it is plainly this, ceasing frora sin ;
so suffering in the flesh here, is not siraply
the enduring of afflictions, which is a part
of a Christian's conformity with his head
Christ, Rom. viii. 29, but iraplies a more
inward and spiritual suffering. It is the
suffering and the dying of our conuption, the
taking away the life of sin by the death of
Chriat : and that death of his ainleaa flesh,
works in the beUever the death of ainful fleah,
that ia, the conuption of hia nature, which
is so usually in Scripture caUed flesh. Sin
raakes man base, drowns hira in flesh, and
the lusts of it ; makes the very soul become
gross and earthly ; turns it as it were to flesh :
Sp the apostle caUs the very raind that is
unrenewed, a carnal mind, Rora. viii. 7-

232And what doth' the raind of a natural raan
hunt after and run out into, from one day
and year to another ? Is it not on the
thinga pf thia base wprld, and the cnncern-
ment pf his flesh ?• What would he have
but be accomraodated to eat, and drink, and
dreaa, and Uve at eaae ? He minds earth
ly things, aavoura and reliahea them, and
carea for thera : exaraine the most pf ypur
pains and time, and ypur strongest desires,
and raost serious thoughts, if they go not
tbis way, to raise yourselves and yours in your
worldly conditipn. Yea, the highest prpjects
of the greatest natural spirits are but earth
still, in respect pf things fruly spiritual.
All their state designs gp npt beypnd this
pppr life that perishes in the flesh, and is
daily perishing, even ifrhile we are busiest
uphplding it, and providing fpr it. Present
tilings, and this lodge of clay, this flesh
and its intereat, take up moat of our time
and paina ; the most, yea, aU, tiU that
chai.ge be wrought the Appatle speaka pf,
till Christ be put pn, Rpra. xiii. 14, Put
ye on the Lord Jesus Christ ; and then the
Pther will eaaUy fpUow that foUows in the
words. Make no provision for ihe flesh, to
fulfil ihe lusts thereof. Once in Christ, and
then yonr necessary general care for thia
natural Ufe, will be regulated and moderated
by "the Spirit. And for all unlawful and
enormous desirea of the flesh, you shall be
rid of' prpviding fpr theae. Instead pf all
prpvisipn for the Ufe of the flesh in that
sense, there is another guest, and another life,
for you now to wait on and furnish for : In
them that are in Christ, that flesh is dead, they
we freed frora its dradgery ; He thai hath
suffered in the flesh hath restadfrom sin.
Ceased from sin.] He is at rest frora it,
a godly death, as they that die in ihe Lord
rest from iheir labours. Rev. xiv. 13. He
that hath suflSred in the flesh, and is dead
to it, dies indeed in the Lord ; rests from
the base turmoU of sin ; it is no longer his
master. As our siu was the cause of Christ's
death, his death is the death of sin in us ;
and that npt simply as he bore a moral pat
tem of it, but as die real working cause of
it. The death of Christ has in this respect
an effectual influence on the soul, kills it to
sin : / am crucified vnth Christ, says St.
Paul, Gal. xi. 20. Faith ap Ippka on the
death of Christ, tbat it takes the impresaion
of it ; sets it on the heart, kiUs it untp sin ;
Christ and the believer dp npt pnly becpme
one in law, sp as his death stands for theirs,
but are pne in nature, sp as his death for sin
causes theirs to it, Rpm. vi. 3, Baptized
into his death.
This suffering in the flesh being untp
death, and such a death (crucifying) hath
indeed pain in it ; but what then, it must
be SP like his, and the believer like him, in
• Corjioris negotium, '

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap, IV

willingly enduring it- All the pain of hii
suffering in the flesh, his love to us digested '
and went thrpugh it ; ap aU the pain tp pur
nature in severing and pulling ua from oui
beloved sina, and our dying to them, if his
love be planted in our hearts, that wiU sweet
en it, and make us delight in it. Love de.
sires nothing mpre than Ukeness, and shares
willingly in aU with the party Ipved ; and
above all love, this divine love is purest and
highest, and works moat strongly that way ;
takes pleaaure in that pain, and is a volun
tary death, as Plato calls love. It is strong
as death, says Solomon, Cant. viii. 6. As
death raakes the strongest body fall to the
ground, so doth the love of Christ make the
most active and lively sinner dead to his sin ;
And as death severs a man from his dearest
and most famiUar friends, thus doth the love
of Christ, and his death flowing from it,
sever the heart ftom its most beloved sins.
I beseech ypu seek tp have ypur hearts set
against sin, tp hate it, tp wpund it, and be
dying daily tp it. Be npt satisfied, unless
ye feel an abatement pf it, and a life within
ypu. Disdain that base service, and being
hpught at so high a rate, think yourselves
too good to be alaves to any baae lust. You
are caUed to a more exceUent and more ho
nourable service. And of this auffering in the
fleah, we may safely say what the Apostle
speaks of the sufferings with and for Christ,
that the partakers of these sufferings are co
heirs of glory with Christ ; If we suffer thus
with him, we shall also be glorified with
him, Rom. viii. 17. If we die with him, we
shall live with him for ever.
3. We have the actual improvement cf
this conformity ; Arm yourselves with ihe
same mind, or thoughts oi this mortification.
Death, taken naturaUy in its proper sense,
being an entire privation of Ufe, admits not
of degrees : 'But this figurative death, this
raortification of the flesh in a Christian, is
gradual ; in so far as he is renewed, and is
aniraated and acted on by the Spirit of Christ,
he is thoroughly raortified ; (for this death,
and that new life joined with it, and here
added, ver. 2, go together and grow to
gether ;) but because he is not totaUy renew
ed, and there is in hira pf that cpnuption
StiU that is here caUed flesh, therefore it is
his great task to be gaining further upon it,
and pvercoming and raortifying it every day ;
and to this tend the frequent exhortations of
this nature : Mortify your members thai
are on the earth ; So, Rem. vi. likewise
reckon yourselves dead io sin, and let it not
reign in your mortal bodies. Thus here.
Arm yourselves with the same mind, with
this very thpught. Cpnsider and apply that
suft'ering pf Christ in the flesh, tP the end,
that ypu with hira, suffering in the flesh,
raay cease frcra sin. Think it pught to be
thus, and seek that it maybe thus, with you.

VEU. 1.

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER,

233

Arm yourselves.] There is still fighting,
and ain wiU be mplesting ypu; thpugh
wounded to death, yet will it struggle for
Ufe, and seek to wound its enemy ; wiU
aaaault the gracea that are in you. Do not
think, if it be once struck, and you have
given it a stab near to the heart, by the
' sword of the Spirit, that therefpre it wiU
stir no more. No, so long as you live in the
flesh. In these bowels there wiU be reraain-
ders of the Ufe of this flesh, your natural cor
ruption ; therefore ye must he armed against
it. Sin will not give ypu rest, sp Ipng as
there is a drop of blood in its veins, one spark
of Ufe in it ; and that wiU be so long as you
have life here. This old man is stout, and
wiU flght himself to death ; and at the weak
est it wiU rouse up itself, and exert its dying
spirits, aa men wiU do sometiraea more eager
ly than when they were not sp weak, nor so
near death.
Thia the children of God pften flnd tp
their grief, that cormptions which they
thought had been cold dead, stir and rise up
again, and set upon them. A passion or
lust, that, after some great stroke, lay a long
whde as dead, stined not, and therefore they
thought to have heard no more pf it, thpugh
it shaU never recover fuUy again, to be lively
as before, yet will revive in auch a meaaure
as to molest, and poaaibly to foil, them yet
again : Therefore is it continual]^ necessary
that they live in arms, and put thera not off to
their dying day ; tiU they put off the body,
and be altogether free of the flesh. You
may take the Lord's promise for victory in
the end ; that shaU not fail ; but do not pro
mise yourself ease in the way, for that wiU
not hold. If at some times your enemy have
the advantage, give not aU for lost. He
hath often won the day that hath been foUed
and wounded in the flght. But Ukewise
take not aU for won, so as to have np more
conflict, when soraetiraes you have the bitter,
as in particular battles. Be net deaperate
when ypu Ipae, npr secure when ypu gain
thera : When it is wprst with ypu dp npt
thrpw away ypui arras, npr lay them away
when you are at best.
Now, the way to be arraed is this, the
same mind : How would my Lord, Christ,
cany himself in this case ? and what was his
business in aU places and companies ? Was
it not to do the wiU, and advance the glory,
of his Father ? If I be injured aftd reviled,
consider how would he do in this ? Would
he repay one injury with another, one re
proach with another reproach ? No, being
reviled, he reviled not again, I Pet. ii. 23,
Well, thrpugh his strength, this shaU be my
way tpp. Thus pught it to be with the
Christian, framing idl his ways and words,
and very thoughts, upon that model, the
mind of Christ, and tP study in aU things
to walk even as he walked, 1 John ii, 6

studying it much, as the reason and rale of
raprtification, and drawing frpra it, as the
real cause and spring pf mortification.
The pious contemplation of his death wiU
raost powerfuUy kiU the love of sin in the
soul, and kindle an ardent hatred of it. The
beUever, lopking pn his Jesus crucified for
hira, and Uiounded for his transgressions,
and taking in deep thpughts pf his spptless
innpcency that deserved np such thing, ,and
of his matchless love, that yet endured it all
for him, wiU then naturally think, " ShaU
I be a friend to that which was his deadly
enemy ? ShaU sin be sweet to me, that was
so bitter tP him, and that fpr my sake ? ShaU
I ever lend it a good lppk, pr entertain a
favpurable thought pf that which shed my
Lprd's blppd ? Shall I Uve in that fpr which
he died, and died to kiU it in rae ?" Oh !
let it not be.
To the end it raay not be, let such really
apply that death to work this on the soul ;
for this is always to be added, and is the
main thing indeed, by hplding and fastening
that death close to the spul, effectuaUy to kiU i
the effects of sin in it ; to stifie and crash
them dead, by pressing that death on the
heart ; lopking pn it, npt pnly as a most cpm-
plete mpdel, but as having a rapst effectual
virtue, fpr this effect, and desiring hira, en
treating nur Lprd himself, whp cpraraunicates
himself, and the virtue pf his death, tp the
beUever, that he wpuld ppwerfijly cause it to
flpw in uppn us, and let us feel the virtue pfit.
It is then the pnly thriving and growing
Ufe, tP be much in the Uvely cpnteraplatipn
and appUcatipn of Jesus Christ : tP be cpnti-
nuaUy studying him, and cpnversing with
him, and drawing frpm hira ; receiving of
his fulness, grace for grace, John i. 16.
Wpuldst thou have much ppwer against sin,
and much increase of hpliness, let thine eye
be much pn Christ ; set thine heart on him ;
let it dweU in him, and be stiU with him.
When sin is Uke to prevail in any kind, go
tP him, teU him pf the insunectipn of his
enemies, and thy inability tp resist, and de
sire him to suppress them, and tp help thee
against them, that they raay gain npthing by
their stining, but sprae new wpund. If thy
heart begin tp be taken with, and mpve tp
wards, sin, lay it befpre him ; the beams pf
his lpve shall eat put that fire pf these sinful
lusts. Wouldst thpu'have thy pride, and
passipns, and love pf the wprld, and self-lpve,
klUed, go sue for the virtue pf his death, and
that shaU dp it ; seek his Spirit, the Spirit
of meekness, and humiUty, and divine love.
Look on him, and he shall draw thy heart
heavenwards, and unite it to himself, and
make it Uke himself. And is not that-the
thing thou desirest ? '
Veb. 2. That he no longer should live the rest of
his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to
the wiU of God.

234

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. IV;-

Ver. 3. For the time past ot our life may suffice
us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when
we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine,
revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.
The chains of sin are ao strong, and so fas
tened on our nature, that there ia in us no
power to break them off, tiU a mightier and
stronger Spirit than our pwn cpme intn us.
The Spfrit of Christ dropped into the soul,
makea it able to break through a troop, and
leap over a wall, aa David apeaks of himself
furnished with the strength of his God, Psal.
xviii. 29. Men's resolutions faU to nothing :
And as a prisoner that offers to escape, and
does not, is bound faster, thus usuaUy it is
with raen in their self-purposes of forsaking
sin ; they leave out Christ in the work, and
so reraain in their cajitivity, yea, it grows
upon thera ; and while we press them to free
themselves, and show not Christ to thera, we
put thera upon an impossibiUty ; But a look
to hira makes it feasible and easy. Faith iu
him, and that love tp him which faith begets,
breaks thrpugh and siirmpunts aU difficul
ties. It is the ppwerful leve pf Christ that
kiUs the lpve pf sin, and kindles the love pf
hpliness in the soul ; raakes it a wiUing
sharer in his death, and so a happy partaker
of his Ufe : For that always follows, and
must of necessity, as here is added. He thai
hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from
sin, is crucified and dead tp it, but he Ipses
jipthing : Yea, it is hia great gain, tp Ipse
that deadly Ufe pf the flesh fpr a new spiri
tual life ; a Ufe indeed, living unto God.
That is the end why he sp diea, that he may
thus live. That he no longer should live, &c.
and yet Uve far better, live to ihe will of God,
He that is pne with Chriat by beUeving, ia
one throughout in death and Ufe. As Chriat
roae, so he that is dead to sin with hira,
through the power of his death, rises to that
new life with hira, through the power of his
resunection. And these two are our sancti
fication, which, whoaoever do partake of
Christ, and are found iu hira, do certainly
draw fiora hira. Thus are they joined, Rom.
vi. 11, Likewise reckon ye yourselves dead
'indeed io sin, but alive io God, and both
through Christ Jesus our Lord.
AU they that do reaUy come to Jeaus
Christ, as they corae to him as their Saviour
tp be clpthed with him, and made rightepus
by him ; they cprae Ukewise tp him aa their
Sanctifier, tn be made new and hply by him,
to die and live with him, to follow ihe Lamb
wheresoever he goes, through the hardeat
,siifferinga, and death itaelf. And thia api
ritual suffering and dying with hira, ia the
universal way of aU hia foUowers : They
are all martyrs thus in the crucifying of sin
ful flesh, and sp dying for him, and with
him ; and they may weU go cheerfuUy through,
fhough it bear the unpleasant narae of death :
Yet as the other death is (which makes it sp

little tenible, yea, eften tp appear gp very de
sirable tp thera, se ia thia) the way tp a far
raore exceUent and happy life, so that they
raay pasa through it gladly, both for the com.
pany and end of it. It ia with Chriat they
go into his death, as unto life in his Ufe.
Thpugh a beUever might be free upon these
terraa, he would not. No, sure : Could he
be content with that easy life of sin, instead
of the divine Ufe of Christ ? Np,, he wiU do
thus, and not accept of deliverance, that -he
may obtain (as the Appstie speaka of the
martyr, Heb. xi. -'15,) a better resurrection.'
Think on it again, you to whom your sins
are dear atiU, and this life sweet ; you are yet
far from Chriat in his Ufe.
The Apostie, with intent to press thia more
horae, expresses more at large the nature of
the opposite estates and lives that he speaks
of, and so sets before his Christian brethren,
1 . The dignity of that new life : and then,
2. By a particular reflection upon the former
life, he presses the change. The former life
he caUs a living to the lusts of men ; this
new spiritual life, to the will of God.
The lusts of men.] Such as are common
to the conupt nature of man ; such «s every
man may find in himself and perceive in
others. The Apostle in the third verse mote
particularly, for further clearness, specifies
those kinds of men that were most notorious
in these lusts, and those kinds of lusts that
were most notorious in raen. Writing to the
dispersed Jews, he calls sinful lusts the will
of the Gentiles, as having least controul of
contrary light in them ; and yet the Jews
walked in the same, though they had the law
as a light and rule for the avoiding of them f
and impUea, that these lusts were unbeseem.
ing even their former condition aa Jewa ; but
rauch more unsuitable to thera, as now
Christians. Sorae of the grosaest of these
lusts he naraes, raeaning aU the reat, all the
ways of sin, and representing their vUeness
in the raore Uvely raanner ; not aa some take
it, when they hear of such heinous sins, as
if it were to lessen the evil of more civil na.
ture by the coraparison, or intimate freedom
from these to be a blameless cpnditipn, and a
change of it needless. No, the Holy Ghost
raeans it just contrary. That we raay judge
of all sin and of our sinful nature, by our es.
timate pf these sina that are rapst discernible
and abpminable ; aU sin, thpugh npt equal in
degree, yet is pf one nature, and originaUy
springing from-one root, arising from the
same unholy nature of man, and contrary tp
the same holy nature and wiU of God.
Spthen, 1. Thpse that walk in these high.
ways pf irapiety, and yet will have the name
pf Christians, they are the ahame pf Chris
tians, and the professed enemies of Jesns
Chriat, and of.all others the most hateful to
hira : They aeera to have taken on his
name, for no other end but to shame and dis>

VEH. 2, 3.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

2,'H>

grace it ; but he will vindicate himself, and
the blpt shall rest upen these impudent per
spns, that dare held up their faces in the
Church of God as parts of it, and are indeed
nothing but the dishonpur pf it, sppts and
blots ; that dare profeas to worship God as
his people, and reraain unclean, riotous and
profane persons. How suits thy sitting here
before the Lord, and thy sitting with vile
ungpdly corapany on the -ale-bench ? How
agrees the wprd, spunds it well, " There
gpes a drunken Christian, an unclean, a base.
ly epvetpus, an earthly-minded Christian !"
and the naming pf these is npt besides the
text, but agreeable to the very wprds pf it ;
fpr the Appstie wanants us tp take it under
the name nf idolatry ; and iu that name he
reckpns it tp be mprtified by a Christian,
Cpl. iii. 5, Mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth, fornication, un
cleanness, ^inordinate affection, evil con
cupiscence, and covetousness, which is ido
latry. 2. But yet raen, that are sorae way ex.
empted from the blot of these foul impieties,
may stUl remain slaves to sin, alive to it,
and dead to God, living to the lusts of men,
and not to the will of God, pleasing others
and theraselves, displeaaing him. And the
smoothest, best bred, and most rapralized na.
tural man, is in thia baae thraldera : And
the mere miserable, that he dreams pf liberty
in the midst of his chains, thinks himself
clean by looking on those that wallow in
gross profaneness ; takes measure of himself
by the most crooked Uves of ungodly men
about him, and so thinks himself very straight ;
but lays not the straight rule of the will of
Gpd tp his waya and heart, which, if he did,
he wpuld then diacpver much crppkedneas in
his waya, and rauch mpre in hia heart, that
new he aeea npt, but takea it tp be square and
even. Therrfpre I advise and desire ypu tp lppk
mpre nanpwly tp ypurselves in thia, aiid aee
whether ypu be npt still living to ypur own
luats and wiUs inatead of God ; aeeking, in
all your waya, to advance and please your.
aelvea and not him. Is not the bent of your
¦hearts set that way ? Do not your whole de.
oires and endeavours run in that channel,
how ypu and ypurs raay be spraebedy, and
jpu may have wherewithal tp serve the flesh.
End tP be accpunted of and respected ampngst
inen ? And if we trace it hprae, aU a raan's
honpuring and pleasing pf pthers, tends tp,
nnd enda in, pleasing of himself. It resolves
in diat, and is it net sp raeant by him ? He
pleases raen, either that he gain by thera, or
be respected by them, or soraething that is
BtiU pleasing to himself may be the retum of
it. So self is the grand idol, for which all
other heart-idolatries are committed. And,
indeed, in the unrenewed heart there is no
scarcity of them. Oh ! what multitudes,

what heaps, if the wall were digged thrpugh,
and the Ught pf Gpd gping befpre us, and
leading as in tp see them 1 The natural
motion and way of the natural heart is no
other but stUl seeking out new inventions, a
forge of new gpds, stiU either .forming them
tn itself, or worshipping thpse it hath already
framed ; cpinraitting spiritual fpmicatipn
frpra Gpd with the creature, and multiplying
lovers every where, as it is tempted : As
the Lprd cpmplains pf his pepple, upon every
high hill, and under every green tree, Jer.
ii. 20, Ui. 6. .
Ypu wiU npt beUeve sp much ill of your.
selves, wiU not be convinced of this unplea
sant but necessary trath : And this is a part
of our self-pleasing, that we please ourselves
in this, that we wiU not see it ; not in our
callings and ordinary ways, npt in nur reli
gipus exercises, fur in these we naturally aim
at nothing but ourselves ; either our reputa
tion, or at best our own safety and peace ;
either to stpp the cry of conscience for the
present, or escape the wrath that is to come :
But net in a spiritual regard of the will of
God, and put of pure lpve to hiraself for him
self ; yet thus it should be, and that love the
divine fire in aU our sacrifices. The camal
mind is in the dark, and sees not its vileness
in Uving to itself ; wiU not confess it to be
so ; but when God ccmes into the soul, he
lets it see itself, and aU its idols and idola
tries, and forces it to abhor and loathe itself
for aU its abominations ; and having disco-
vered its .filthiness to itaelf, then he purgea
and cleanaes it for himaelf, from all iis filthi
ness, and from all its idols, Ezek. xxxvi.
25, according to his promise, and coraes in
and takespossession of itfor hiraself, enthrones
hiraself in the heart, and it is never right nor
happy tiU that be dpne.
Bui to the will of God.] We readily
take any little slight change fpr true conver
sion, but we raay see here that we raistake
it ; 'it doth not barely knock off some obvipus
apparent enotraities, but casts aU in a new
mould ; alters the whole frarae of the heart
and Ufe ; kiUs -a raan, and makes him alive
again ; and this new life is contrary to the
old : For the change ia raade with" that in
tent, thai he live no longer io the lusts of
men, but io the will of God. ,,
He ia now'indeed a new creature, hav-
ing a new judgment and new thought of
things, and so accordingly, new desires and
affectiona, and answerable to these new ac
tions : Old things are past away and dead,
and all things 'become new, 2 Cor, v. 17*
PoUtic men have observed, that in states,
if alterations muat be, it ia better to alter
many things than a few. And physiciaas
have the sarae remark for one'a habit and cus.
torn for bodUy health, upon the same ground;
because things do so relate one to another,
that except they be adapted and suited to.

23G

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. ly.

gether in the change, it avails not ; yea, it
sometiraea proves the worse in the wheie,
thpugh a few thinga in particular aeera tp be
bettered. Thus, half refprmationa, in a
Christian, tum to hia prejudice ; it is only
best to be thoroughly reforraed, and to give
up with aU idols ; not to Uve one half to hira.
self and the world, and, as it were, another
half to God ; for tiiat is but falsely ao, and,
in reaUty, it cannot be. The only way is to
make a heap of aU, toJiave all sacrificed to.
gether, and to live tP no lust, but altogether,
and only, to Gpd. Thus it must be ; there
is np mpnster in the new creatipn, np half
new creature, either all, or not at all, 0A.05 J?
ikJi oXois. We have tp deal with the Maker
and, the Searcher cf the heart in this turn,
and he wiU have npthing unless he have the
heart, and nnne pf that neither, unless he
have it aU. If thpu pass pver intp his king.
dom, and becpme his subject, thpu rauat have
him for thy pnly Spvereign. . Lpyalty can
admit pf np rivality, * and leaat of aU the
higheat, and best of aU. If Chriat be thy
King, then hia laws and sceptre must rule all
in thee, thou raust now acknowledge no foreign
power ; that will be treason.
And if he be thy husband, thou muat re.
nounce aU othera ; wilt thou provoke him io
jealousy? yea, beware how thou giveat a
thought or a look pf thy affectipn any pther
way, for he wiU spy it, aud wiU net endure
it. The title pf a husband is as strict and
tender, aa the ether pf a king.
It is pnly best tP be thus : it is thy great
advantage and happiness tp be thus entirely
freed frpm so many tyrannpus base lords,
and now subject only to one, and he so great,
and withal so gracious and sweet a King ;
the Prince of Peace. Thou wast hunied
before, and racked with the very raultitude
of them ; thy lusts, so raany cruel task-mas
ters pver thee, they gave thee nprest, and the
wprk they set thee tp w.is base and slavish,
nipre than the burdens, and pnta, and tpiling
in the clay of Egypt ; thou waat held to work
in the earth, to pain, and to soil and foul thy
self with their drudgery.
Now, thou hast but one to serve, and that
is a great ease ; and it is no slavery, but true
honour, to serve so exceUent a Lord, and in
so high services : For he puts thee upon
nothing but what is neat, and what is honour
able. Thou art as a vessel of honour in his
hpuse, fpr his best emplpyments ; npw thpu
art npt in pain hpw tp please this perspn and
the Pther ; npr needest thpu tp vex thyself tp
gain men, tP study their apprpbatipn and
honpur ; npr tu keep tp thine pwn lusts, and
observe their mind. Theu hast npne but
thy Gpd tP please in aU ; and if he be pleas
ed, thpu mayest disregard whp be displeas
ed. His wUl is npt fickle and changing as
men's are, and as thine own hath often been ;
* Omnisque potestas impatlcns consortis I

he hath- told thee what he likes and desires,
and alters not : So now thou knowest whom
thou hast to do withal, and what to do, whom
to please, and what wiU please him, and this
fannot but much settle thy mind, and put
thee at ease : Thou mayest say heartily, as
rejoicing in the change of sn many for one,
and such, fpr such a pne, as the Church says,
Isa. xxvi. 13, O Lord our God, other lords
besides ihee have had dominion over me,
but now by ihee only will I make mention oJ
thy name ; npw npne but thyself, net so much
as the name of them any more ; away with
thera ; through thy grace thou only ahalt be
my God. I cannpt endure that any thing
be named with thee.
Npw that it may be thua, that we may
whpUy Uve io the will of God, we first must
know his will, what it ia. Peraena grossly
ignorant of God, and of his will, cannot Uve
to hira ; we cannot have fellowship with hirn,
and walk in darkness, for he is light, 1
Jphn i. 6, 7- This takes pff a great many
ampngst us, that have not so much as a
cpmmpn nptipn pf the wUl ef God. But be
sides, that knowledge, which is a part, and
(I may say) the first part, of the renewed
image of God, ia not a natural knowledge of
spiritual things, merely attained by human
teaching or industry ; but it is a beam of
God's own, issiung from hiraself, both en
Ughtening and enUvening the whole soul. It
gains the affection and stirs to action ; and
so indeed, it acts and increases by acting ;
for the more we walk according to what we
know of the wiU of God, the more we shall
be advanced to know more. That is the
real proving what is his good, and holy, and
acceptable will, Rora. xii. 2. So says ,
Christ, If any will do the will of my Father,
he shall know ofthe doctrine, John vii. 17.
Our lying off frpra die Uvely use of known
truth, keeps us low in the knowledge of God,
and ccmrauniun with hira.
2. Sp then upon that knowledge of God's
will, where it is spiritual, and from himseUj
foUows the suiting of ihe heart with ii, the
affections taking the stamp of it, and
agreeing with it ; receiving the truth in the
love qf it, sp that the heart may be trans-
formed intp it, and now not driven tp obe.
dience viplently, but sweetly mpving to it,
by love within the heart framed to the love
of God, and so of his wiU.
3. As Divine knowledge begets this af.
fection, so this affection will bring forth
action, real obedience. For these three are
inseparably linked, and each dependent on,
and the product of, one another. The af.
fection is not blind, but flowing frnm knpw-
ledge, npr actual pbedience consfrained, but
flowing from affection ; and the affectipn is
not idle, seeing it brings forth obedience :
npT the knowledge dead, seeing it begets
affectipn.

vr.n. 2, 3.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

237

Thus the renewed, the living Christian,
is all for God ; h sacrifice entirely pffered
up tp Gpd, and ^ living sacrifice, which
lives to God. Ho takes np rapre nptice pf
his pwn carnal will ; hath reupunced that tp
embrace the holy wiU of God ; and, there.
fore, though there is a contrary law and wiU
in him, yet he does not acknpwledge it, but
only the law of Christ, as now estabUshed in
him ; that law pf lpve, by which he is sWeet.
ly and wilUngly led tp real pbedience. Sp
that he consults not now in his ways with
flesh and blood, » what wiU please them, but
only inquires what wiU pleaae hia God : and
knowing his mind, resolves to demur no
more, nor to ask conaent of any other. That
he will do ; and it ia reaaon enough tP him,
ray Lord wiUa it ; therefore in hia atrength,
I wiU do it ; for now I live to hia wiU, it ia
my life to atudy and obey it.
Now, we know what ia the true .character
of the redeemed of Christ, that they are
freed ftom the service of theraselves and of
the world, yea, dead to it, and havd no life
but for God, and aU his.
Let this, then, be our study and ambi.
tion, to attain thia, and to grow in it ; to be
daily further freed from aU other waya and
desirea, and more whoUy addicted to the
wiU of pur Gpd ; displeaaed when we find
any thing else atir or move within ua, but
that, — that, the apring of our motion in
every work.
1. Becauae we know that hia sovereign
wiU is (tod ia moat juady) the glory of hia
name, therefore are we not to rest till thia
be set up in our view, as our end in all, and
to count aU our plausible doings as hateful,
(as indeed they are) that are not aimed at
this end ; yea, endeavouring to have it as
frequently, and as expreaaly, before ua aa we
can, stiU keeping our eye on the mark ;
throwing away, yea undoing, our own inte
reat, not aeeking ourselves in any thing, but
him in all.
2. Aa living to his will is the great and
ultimate end we should propose in aU our
Intentions and actions, so in aU and every
step towards their execution or accomplish
ment : Fpr we cannpt attain his end but in
his way, npr can we intend it withput a re-
signatipn pf the way tp his prescriptipn :
taking all pur directions from him, how we
shaU hpnour him in aU. The soul that
Uvea to him hath enough, not only to make
any thing wanantable but amiable ; it is his
care to aeek his wUl ; and, having found it,
he npt pnly dpes it, but delights to do it ;
that is, to Uve to him, to find it onr Ufe ; as
we speak of a work wherein raen do raost,
and witji most deUght eraploy themselves.
" That such a luat be crucified, is it thy
will, Lord ? then nn more adviaing, no more
delay. How dear spever that waa when I
Uved to it, it is npw as hateful, seeing I Uve

to thee who hatest it. Wilt thou have me
forget an injury, though a great one, and
love the perspn that hath wronged rae ?
While I lived to myself and my passions,
this had been hard. But now how sweet is
it I seeing 1 Uve to thee, and am glad tp be
put upon things raost opposite to my conupt
heart ; glad to trample upon my own wiU,
to follow thine ; and this I dally /aspire to
and aim at, to have no wiU of my own, but
that thine he in me, that I may live to thee,
as one with thee; and tbou my rule and
deUght. Yea, not to use the very natural
comforts of my life but for thee ; to eat, and
drink, and sleep for thee ; and not to please
myself, but to be enabled to servo and please
tbee ; to make one offering of rayaelf and aU
my actions to thee, ray Lord."
Oh ! it is the only sweet life to be Uving
thus, and daily learning to Uve more fuUy
thus. It is heaven this, a little scantUng of
it here, and a pledge of whole heaven :
This is, indeed, the life of Christ ; not only
like his, but one with his ; it is his Spirit,
his life derived intp the spul ; and, therefpre,
bpth the most exceUent and certainly most
permanent, for he dieth no more, and there
fore thia hia life cannot be extinguiahed.
Hence is the perseverance of the saints ; be
cause they have one life with Christ, and so
are alive untp Gpd, once for all, for ever.
It is true, the former custom of sin would
plead old possession with grace ; and this
the Apostle iraplies here, that because for
merly we lived to our lusts, they wiU urge
that ; but he teaches us to beat it directly
back on thera, and tum the edge of it as a
most strong reason against them. " True
you had so Ipng tirae pf us, the rapre is pur
sprrpw and sharae, and the rapre reaspn that
it be nn Ipnger sp."
The rest of his time in the flesh.']
That is, in this bpdy, npt tp be spent as the
foregoing, in living to the flesh, that is, the
corrupt lusts of it, and the coraraon ways of
the world : But as often as the Christian
looks back on that, to find it as a spur in his
side, tp be the mere earnest, and rapre wholly
busied in Uving much to God, having Uved
so long contrary to him, in Uving to the flesh.
The past may suffice ; there is a figure in
that,* meaning much more than the words
express : It is enough ! Oh I too much, to
have Uved so long, sp miserable a Ufe.
Npw, says the Christian, " Oh 1 cpnupt
lusts and deluding wprld ! lppk for np more,
I have served you too long. The rest,
whatsoever it is, raust be to ray Lprd ; to
live tp him by whpm I Uve ; and ashamed
and grieved I am, I was so long in begin
ning. So much past, it raay be, the raoat,
of my short race past, before I took notice
ofGod, or looked towards hira. Oh I how
have I loat, and worsethan lost, all my by-
* CaUed in the Schools, hyptuies.

238

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. it.

paat days ! Now, had I the advantages and
ObiUties pf raany raen, and were I tn live
many ages, aU ahojld be tP live to ray Gpd,
and hpnpur hira. And what strength I have,
and what tirae I shaU have, thrpugh his
grace, shaU be whoUy hia." And when
any Chriatian hath thua resolved, his intend.
ed life being ao imperfect, and the time so
short, the poorness of the offer would break
his heart, were there not an eternity before
him, wherein he shaU live to his God, and
in hira, without blemish and without end.
Spiritual things being once discerned by
a spiritual light, the whple apul ia carried
after thera ; and the ways of hoUneaa are
never truly sweet till they be thoroughly era
braced with a fuU renunciation of all that ia
contrary to them.
All hia former waya of wandering from
God are very hateful to a Chriatian, who ia
indeed returned and brpught hprae ; and
thpse rapst pf aU hateful, wherein he hath
must wandered and rapst delighted. A sight
pf Christ gains the heart, raakes it break
frnm all entanglements pf its pwn luata, and
pf tho profane world about it. And theae
are the two thinga the Apoatle here aima at,
exhorting Christians to the study of new.
nesa of life, and ahewing the neceaaity of it.
He intimatea that they cannot be Chriatiana
without it ; he opppaea their new eatate and
engagement, tp the pld cuatoma of their
fprraer cpnditipn, and tp the cpntinuing cua
tom and conceit of the ungodly world ; that
againat both they raaintain that rank and
dignity to which now they are caUed, and,
in a holy diadain of both, walk as the re
deeraed of the Lord. Their own former
custom he speaks to, ver. 2, 3, and to the
cuatom and opinion of the world, ver. 4, and
both theae will set atrong upon a man, ea
peciaUy while he ia yet weak, and newly
entered into that new eatate.
1. His old acquaintance, hia wonted
luata, will not fail to beatir themaelvea to
accoat him in their most obliging familiar
way, and represent their long continued
friendahip. But the Christian, foUowing
the principles of hia new being, will not
entertain any long discourse with them, but
cut thera short ; teU thera that the change
he hath made he avows, and finda it ap
happy, that these fonner deUghta raay put
off hopea of regaining him. No, though
.they dress themaelvea in their best anay,
and put on aU their ornaments, and say, as
that known word of that courtesan, I am ihe
same I was, the Christian will answer aa he'
did, / am not the same I was. And not
only thua wiU he turn off the plea of former
acquaintance that ain makea, but tum back
upon it, aa, in his preaent thoughta, raaking
much againat it. " The longer I was ao
deluded, the more reaaon now that I be
wiser ; the more time -so mispent, the more

preaaing neceaaity of redeeming it. Oh ! I
have too long lived in that vile alavery. All
was but huska I fed oi! ; / was laying out
my money for that which was no bread, ani
my labour for that which satisfied not, Isa-
Iv. 2. Now I am on the purauit of a good
that I am sure wiU aatiafy, wiU fiU the larg.
est deaires of my aoul ; and ahaU I be sparing
and alack, or shaU any thing caU me off from
it ? Let it not be. I that took ao much pains
early and laje, to serve and sacrifice to so bass
a god ; shaU I not now live more to my new
Lord, the living God, and sacrifice my time
and strength, and my whole self, to him ?"
And this ia atiU the regret of the sensible
Christian, that he cannot attain to that un
wearied diligence, and that strong bent of
affection, iii seeking coraraunion with God,
and living to hira, that sometimes he had
for the service of sin ; he wonders that it
should be thua with him, not to equal that
which it were so reasonable that he ahould
ao far exceed.
It ia, beyond expreaaipn, a thing to be
laraented, that so sraaU a number of men
regard God, the author of their being, that
so few live to Him in whom they live ; re-
tuming that being and Ufe they have, and
aU their enjoyments, as due to him ftom
whom they all flow. And then how pitiful
is it, that the smaU number that is thus
rainded, rainds it so remissly and coldly,
and is so far outstripped by the children of
ihis world, that they foUow painted foUie?
and lies with more eagerness and industry
than the children of wisdom do that certain
and solid blessedness that they seek after."
Strange ! that raen should do .so much vio
lence one to another and to themselves in-
body and mind, for trifles and chaff ! and
that there is so Uttle to be found pf that al-
Ipwed and cpmmanded violence, for a king
dom, and such a kingdom thai cannot be
moved, Heb. xii. 2'8 ; a wprd top high fpr
aU the mpnarchies under the sun.
And, should not our diligence and vio
lence in this so worthy a design be so rauch
the greater, the later we begin to pursue it ?
They tell it of Caesar, that when he paased
intp Spain, raeeting there with Alexander's
statue, it occasioned him to weep, consider
ing that he waa up ao much raore early, hav
ing performed so many conqueata in those
years, wherein he thought he himself bad
done nothing,' and was but yet beginning.
Truly it will be a sad thought, to a really
renewed mind, to look back on the flower
of youth and strength as lost in vanity ; if
not in gross profaneness, yet in self-serving
and self-pleasing, and in ignorance and ne
glect of God. And perceiving their few
years ao far spent ere they set out, they will
account daya precioua, "and make the more
haste, and desire with holy David, enlarged
* Plus illi ad vanitatem, ouam nos ad veritatem.

VEn. 2, 3.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

239

hearts to run the way of God's command
ments, Psal. cxix. 32. Xhey will study to
live much in a littie time ; and, having lived
aU the paat time to no purpose, wiU be sen
sible they have none now to spare upon the
luata and ways of the fleah, and vain societies
and visits : Yea, they wiU be redeeming aU
they can even from dieir necessary affairs,
for that which is raore necessary than aU other
necesaitiea, that one thing needful, to learn
the wiU of our God, and live tp it ; this ia
our buainess, our high calling, the raain and
raost exceUent of aU our eraployraents.
Not that we are to cast pff our particular
caUings, pr prait due diligence in them ; fpr
that will prpve a snare, and invplve a peraen
in thinga rapre epppsite tp gpdliness. But
certainly this living to God requires, 1, A
flt raeasuring pf thy pwn ability for affairs,
and, as far aa thou canat chooae, fitting thy
load to thy shouldera, not aurcharging thy
self with it. An excessive burden of busi.
nesses, either by the greatness or raultitude
of thera, will not fail to entangle thee, and
depress thy raind ; and wiU hold it so dpwn,
-that thpu shalt npt find it ppssible tp walk
upright and lpok upwards, with that freedora
and frequency that becomes heirs of heaven.
2, The measure of thy affairs being adapt
ed, look to thy affection in thera, that it be
regulated too. Thy heart may be engaged
in thy little business as much, if tbou watch
it not, as in many and great affairs. A man
may drown in a little brook or pool, as weU
as in a great river, if he be down and plunge
himself into it, and put his head under water.
Some care thou must have, that thoa mayest
not care ; these things are thoms indeed ;
thou must make a hedge of thSm to keep
out thoae teraptationa that accompany sloth,
and extreme want that waits on it: But let
thera be the hedge ; suffer thera not to grow
within the garden : Though they increase,
set noi thy hearten them, nor aet thera in thy
heart. That place ia due to another, is made
to be the garden of thy beloved Lord ; made
for the best plants and fiowers ; and there
they ought to grow, the love of God, and
faith, and raeekness, and the other fragrant
graces of the Spirit. And know that this^is
no common nor easy matter to keep the heart
disengaged in the raidat of affairs, that stiU
it be reserved for Hira whose right it is.
3. Not pnly labpur to keep thy raind apiri
tual in itaelf, but by it put a spiritual stamp
even uppn thy temppral eraplpyraents ; and
SP tlipu shalt Uve tp Gpd, npt pnly withput
prejudice pf thy caUing, but even in it, and
shalt converse with him in thy shpp, pr in the
field, or in thy journey, dping aU in obedience
lo hira, and offering aU, and thyself withal,
as a sacrifice to hira : Thou still with him,
and he still with thee in aU. Thia ia to live
tp the will pf God indeed, to follow his di
rection, and intend his glory in all. Thus

the wife, in the very oversight of her houae,
and the husband, in his affairs abroad, may
be Uving tn Gpd, raising their lew eraploy.
ments to a high quality this way, " Lord,
even this mean work I do for thee, coraply-
ing with thy wiU, who haat put rae in this
station, and given rae this task ; thy will be
done. Lord, I offer up even thia woris to
thee, accept of me, and pf my 3eaire tp obey
thee in aU." And aa in their work, ao in
their refreabmenta and reat, such Christiana
puraue aU for hira, whether they eat or
drink, doing all for thia reaaon, because it
ia hia wiU ; and for thia end, that he may
have glory ; bending the uae of all their
atrength, and aU his merciea, that way ; aet
ting this raark on all their deaigna and waya,
this for ihe glory of my God, and this fur
ther for his glory, 1 Cor. x. 31, so from one
thing tp anpther throughout their whole life.
Thia ia the art of keeping the heart spiritual
in aU affairs, yea, of spiritualizing the affairs
themselves in their use, that in themselves
are earthly. This is the elixir that tums
lower metal into gold, the mean actipns of
thia life, in a Chriatian'a handa, into pbe
dience and hply offerings unto God.
And were we acquainted with the way of
intermixing holy thoughta, ejaculatory eye
ings of God, in our ordinary waya, it would
keep the heart in a sweet teraper all the day
long, and have an exceUept influence intp
aU pur ordinary actions and holy perform
ances, at thoae timea when we apply our
aelvea aolemnly to thera. Our hearts would
be near thera, uot ao far pff to aeek, and caM
in, aa uaually they are through the neglect
of thia. Thia were to walk with God in.
deed ; to go aU the day long aa in our Fa
ther's hand ; whereaa, without this, our pray
ing morning and evening looks but as a for
mal visit, not delighting in that constant con
verse which yet ia our happiness and honour,
and makes all estates sweet. This would re
fresh ua in the hardest labour ; aa they that
cany the apices from Arabia are refreshed
with the smeU of them in their journey ; and
aome obaerve, that it keepa their atrength,
and feeea them from fainting.
If you would then live to God indeed, be
not satisfled without the constant regard pf
hira ; and whatsoever hath attained raost of
it, study it yet more to set ihe Lord always
before you, as David professeth, Psal. xvi.
8, and then shaU you have that comfort that
he adds. He shall be still at your right hand,
thai you shall not be moved.
And you that are yet to begin to this,
think what his patience is, that, after you
have sUghted so' many calls, you may yet be
gin to seek him, and live to hire ; and then
consider, if you stiU despise aU this goodnesa,
how soon it raay be otherwiae ; you may be
paat the reach of this caU, and may not begin,
but be cut off for ever from the hopes of 'it

A COMMENTARY UPON

240
Oh, how sad an estate ! and the raore, by
the remerabrance of these sUghted offers and
invitations ! WiU you then yet return, you
that would share in Christ ? Let go those
lusts to which you have hidierto Uved, and
erabrace him, and in him there is spirit and
Ufe for you. He shall enable you to Uve
this heavenly Ufe to the wiU of God, his
God and your God, and his Father and
your Father, John xx. 17. Oh ! delay no
longer this happy change ; how soon may
that puff pf breath that is in thy npstrils,
whp hearest this, be extinguished I and art
thou wiUing to die in thy sins, rather than
that they die before thee ? Thinkest thou it
a pain to Uve to the will of God ? Sure it
wiU be more pain to Ue under his etemal
wrath. Oh ! thou knowest not how sweet
they find it that have tried it 1 Or thinkest
thou, I will afterwards ? Who can make
thee sure either of that afterwards, or of that
wiU, if but afterwards ? Why not now pre
sently, without further debate ? Hast thou
not served sin long enough ? raay not the
tirae past in that service sufiice, yea, is it not
tpp rauch ? Wuuldst thpu pnly live untp
Gpd as little tirae as may be, and think the
dregs pf thy life gppd enpugh fpr hira ?
What ingratitude and gross foUy is this !
Yea, though thou wert sure of coraing 'into
him, and being accepted, yet, if thou know
est him in any raeasure, thou wouldst not
think it a privilege to defer it, but willingly
choose to be free from the world and thy
lusts, to be immediately his, and wouldst,
with David, make haste and not delay io
keep his righteous judgments : all the time
tiiou Uvest without hira, what a filthy wretch
ed life is it, if that can be called life that is
without-him ? To Uve to sin, is tb live still
in a dungeon ; but tp Uve tp the wiU of God,
is to walk in liberty and light ; to walk by
light unto light, by the beginnings of it to
the fulness of it, that is, in his presence.

[chap, it.

Ve R. 4. 'Wherein they think.it strange that you run
not wUh them to the .-,-. ,-
ing evil of you ;

he same excess of riot, speak-

"Vkb. fl. Who shall give account to hhn that is ready
to judge the quick and the dead.
GitACE, until it reach its horae, and end
in glory, is stiU in conflict, with a restless
party within and without, yea, the whole
world against it. It is a stranger here, and
is accounted and used so ; they think it
strange thai you run not with ihem, and
they speak evil of you. These wondering
thoughts they vent in reproaching words.
In these two verses we have theae three
thinga : 1. The Christian's opposite course
to the world. 2. The opposite thoughts and
speeches of this course. 3. The supreme and
final judgment of both.
1. The opppsite cpurse, in that they" run
to excesses of riot. 2. You run not with
ihem. They run tp excesses, xnoirmc, af riot

pr luxury. Thpugh aU natural men are not,
in the grpssest kind, guilty of this, yet they
are aU pf thera spme way traly riotous or
luxurious, lavishing away themselves, and
their days, npon the poor perishing dehghts
of sin, each according to his own palate and
humour. As aU persons that are riotous,
in the common sense of it, gluttons ot drunk
ards, 3o not love the same kind pf meats or
drink, but have several relishes or appetites,
yet they agree in the nature of the sin ; so
the notion enlarged after that aame manner,
to the different cuatora of cprrapt nature,
takea in aU the waya pf ain ; sprae gluttmg
in, and cpntinually drunk with pleasures and
camal enjpyraents, Pthers with the cares of
this life, which pur Savipur reckons with
surfeiting and drunkenness, as being a kind
pf it, and surcharging the heart as they do,
as there he expresses it, Luke xxi. 34, Take
heed to yourselves, lest at any time your
hearis be overcharged with surfeiting and
drunkenness, and cares of this life, What
spever it is that draws away the heart from
Gpd, that, SP plausible spever, doth debauch
and destroy us. We spend and undo our.
selves upon it, as the word irainx signifies,
making havoc of all. And the other word,
xvdxoiri;, profusion and dissolute lavishing,
pouring out die affection uppn vanity. , If is
scattered and deflled as water spilt upon thi
ground, that cannpt be cleansed nor gathered
up again. And the representatipn is indeed
very just ; it passes aUpur skiU and strength
tp reccver and recpUect cur hearts fpr God ;
he only can do it for hiraself ; he that made
it can gather it, and cleanse it, and make
it new, and unite it tp himself. Oh ! what
a scattered,' brpken, unstable thing is , the
carnal heart tiU it be changed, falUng in love
with every gay foUy it meets withal, and
running out to rest profusely upon things
like ita vain self, that auit and agree with it,
and serve its lusta. It cau dream and rause
upon these long enough, any thing that feeds
the earthUnesa or pride of it ; can be prodigal
of hours, and let out floods of thoughts, where
a Uttle is too much, but is boimded and strait.
ened where aU are too littie ; hath not pne
fixed thpugnt in a whole day to spare for God.
And truly this running oui oi the heart
is a continual drankenness and madness : it
is not capable cf reaspn, and wiU npt be step.
ped in its cunent by any persuasipn ; it is
mad upon its idols, as the Prpphet apeaks,
Jer. 1. 38. Ypu may as weU speak tp a
river in its cpurse, and bid it stay, as speak
tp an impenitent sinner in the cpurae pf his
niquity ; and all the pther means ypu can
use, ia but as the putting cf ypur finger tp a
apid streara tp stay it. Bnt there is a hand
can Dpth stpp aiid tum the rapst irapetuous
torrent of the heart, Prov. xxi. 1, be it even
pf a King, that will least endure any Pthci
controlraent.

VER. 4, 5.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

241

Now, as the ungodly wprld naturaUy mpves
tp this profusion with a strong and swift mo
tion, runs io it, so jt runs together to it,
and that makes the cunent both the strpnger
and swifter ; as, a number pf brooks faUing
into one main channel make a mighty stream.
And every man naturaUy is, in his birth, and
in the cPurse of his Ufe, just as a brook, that
of itself is canied to that stream of sin that
is in the world, and then falUng into it, is
canied rapidly along with it. And if every
.sinner, taken apart, be so inconvertible by
all created power, how much raore hard a
task is a public refonnation, and tuming a
land frpm its course of wickedness ; aU that
is set to dam up their way, doth at the best
but stay thera a Uttie, and they sweU, and
rise, and run over with more noise and vio
lence tban if they had not been stopped.
Thus we find outward restraints prpve, and
thus the very pubUc judgments pf Gpd pn
us. They may have -made a little intenup.
tion, but upon the abatement of them, the
course of sin, in aU kinds, seeras to -be now
raore fie*ce, as it were to regain the time lost
in that constrained forbearance : So that we
aee the need of rauch prayer to entreat hia
powerful hand, that can turn the courae of
Jordan, that he would work, not a terapo
rary, but an abiding change of the courae of
Ihia land, and cause raany aoula to look
upon Jeaua Christ, and fiow into hira, as
die word is, in P.sal. xxxiv. 5.
This is their course, but you run riot
with them. The godly are a small and weak
corapany, and yet run counter to the grand
tonent pf the wprld, just againat them. And
there ia a Spirit within thera, whence that
their cpntrary mptipu flpwa ; a Spirit atrpng
enpugh tp raaintain it in them, against all
the crowd and ccrabined course of the un
godly, I John iv. 4, Greater is he that is
in you, than he that is in ihe world. As Lot
in Sodora, his righteous aoul waa not carried
with thera, but vexed with their ungodly
doings. There is to a believer the example
of Christ, to set against the exaraple of the
world, and the Spirit pf Christ against the
spirit pf the world ; and these are by far
the raore excellent and stronger. Faith,
looking to hira, and drawing virtue frora hira,
raakes the soul aurrapunt all discpuragements
and oppositions; so Hebrews xii. 2, Look.
ing lo Jesus : And not only as an example
worthy to oppose to the world's examples ;
the saints were so, Chap. xi. and Chap, xii ;
but he more than they aU : But further, he
is ihe Author and finisher of our faith ;
and so we eye him, as having endured the
cross, and despised the shame, and as sat
down ai the right hand of the throne pf
God. Not only that in doing so, we may
tbUow him in that way, unto that end as pur
pattem, but as pur Head, frpm whpm we
bpnpw pur strength to fpUpwsp, ihe Author

and Finisher of our faith. And so, 1 John
V. 4, This is our victory, whereby we over
come the world, even our faith.
The Spirit of God shews the beUever
clearly both the baseness of the ways pf sin,
and the wretched measure of their end.
That divine light discovers the fading and
false bluah of the pleasures of sin, that there
is nothing under them but true deforraity
and rottenness, which the deluded gross wprld
dpes net see, but takes the first appearance
pf it for true iind soUd beauty, and so is en
araoured with a painted atruiupet. And as
he aeea the vileneaa of that love of sin, he
aees the final unhappineaa of it, that her
ways lead down to the chambers of death.
Methinka a believer is as one standing upon
a high tower, that sees the way wherein the
wprld runs, in a valley, as an nnavpidable
precipice, a ateep edge, hanging pver the
bottoraless pit, where aU that are not reclaira
ed faU pver befpre they be aware ; this they,
in their lew way, perceive npt, aud therefore
walk and run on in the smooth pleasures and
ease pf it towards their perdition ; but he
that sees the end will not run with them.
And aa he hath by that light of the
Spirit this clear reason of thinking pn, and
taking anpther cpurse, ap by that Spirit he
hath a very natural bent tp a cpntrary motion,
that he cannot be one with thera. That
Spirit rapves hira upwarda, whence it camb.,
and makes that, in so far as he ia renewed,
hia natural motion, though he hath a clog of
flesh that cleaves to him, and ao breeds him,
spme difficulty ; yet in the atrength pf that
new nature he overcomes it, and goes on till
he attain his end, where all the difficulty in
the way presently is over-rewarded and for
gotten ; that jnakes amenda for every weary
atep, that every one of thoae that walk in
that way does appear in Zion befare God,
Psal. Ixxxiv. 6.
2. We have tbeir oppoaite thoughts and
speeches of each other ; they think it strange,
speaking evil of you. The Christian and
the camal man are most wonderful to each
other. The one wonders tp see the pther
walk SP strictiy, and deny himself tn thess
camal liberties that the mpst take, and take
fpr ap neceaaary, tbat they think they cpuld
npt live withput them. And the Chriatian
thinka it strange that men should be ao
bewitched, and atiU reraain chUdren in the
vanity of their turmoil, wearying and humour
ing theraselves frora raorning to night, run
ning after stories and fancies, ever busy dping
npthing ; wpnders that the deUghts of earth
and sin can so long entertain and please men,
and persuade them to give Jesua Christ ao
many refusals ; to turn from their Ufe and
happiness, and choose to be miserable ; yea,
and take much pains to make themselves
miserable. He knowa the depravedness and
blindness pf nature in this ; knows it by him-

242

A C03IMENTARY UPON

I chap. IV ¦'

self that once he was ao, and therefore wondera
not ao much at them as they do at him ; yet
the unreasonableness and frenzy of that courae
now appears to him in so atrong a light,
that he cannot but wonder at these woeful
miatakea. But the ungodly wonder far more
at him, not knowing the inward cauae of his
different choice and way. The beUever, as
we aaid, is upon the liiU ; he is going up,
looks back on thera in the vaUey, and sees
their, way tending to, and ending in death,
and calls them to retire frora it as loud as he
can ; tells them the danger : but either they
hear not, nor understand this language, or
wiU not beUeve hira ; finding present ease
and deUght in their way, they wiU not con
sider and suspect the end of it ; but they
judge him the fool that wiU not share with
them, and take that way where such raulti
tudes go, and with such ease ; and sorae of
thera with their train, and horaea, and
coachea, and all their porap : And he, and
a few StraggUng poor creatures Uke him,
climbling up a craggy steep hiU, and wiU by
no meana cprae pff frpm that way, and par
take pf theirs ; net knpwing, pr npt believ
ing, that at the tpp pf that hiU he cUmbs,
is that happy glprious city, the new Jeru
salem, whereof he ia a citizen, and whither
he is tending ; not believing that he knowa
the end both of their way and his own ; and
therefore would reclaim them if he could, but
will by no means return unto them, Jer. xv.
19, as tbe Lord comraanded the Prophet.
The world thinks strange that a Chriatian
•can apend so much tirae in aecret prayer,
not knowing or being able to conceive the
sweetneaa of coraraunion with God, which
he attaina that way ; yea, while he feela it not,
how sweet it is beyond the world's enjoy
ments, to be but aeeking after it, and wait
ing for it. Oh ! the deUght that ia in the
bittereat exercise of repentance ! The very
tears, ra-ich raore the aucceeding harvest pf
jpy 1 It is strange untP a camal raan tp see
the child of God disdain the pleasurea pf sin,
not knowing the higher and purer deUghta
and pleasures that he is caUed to,* and of
which he hath, it may be, some part at
preaent ; but however the fulness of them in
assured hppe.
The steangeness pf the wprid's way tp the
Christian, and his tp it, thpugti that is aorae
what unnatural, yet affecta them very different
ly. He Ippka on the deluded sinners with pity,
they on him with bate. Their part, which
is here expressed, of wondering, breaks out
in reviUng ; they speak evil of you ; and
what is their voipe ? " What mean these
precise fppls ?" will they readily say.
'' What cpurse ia this they take, cpntrary tp
all the wprld ? WUl they make a new re
ligipn, and cpndemn aU their hpnest civil
Dcighbpura that are npt like them ? Ay,
? IncontinentM veras voluptatia ignarl. Aaisr,

forsooth, do aU go to hell, think you, except
you, and those that follow ypur way ? We
are for no raore than good-feUowship and
Uberty ; and as for so much reading and
praying, these are but brain-sick melancholy
conceits ; a man may go to heaven like his
neighbour, withput aU this ado," Thus
they let fly at their pleasure : But this
trpubles npt the cpmppsed Christian's mind
at aU ; while curs snarl and bark abput hhn,
the sober traveUer goes on his way, and re.
gards them not. He that is acquainted with
the way of hoUness, can endure more than
the counter.blasts and airs of scoffs and re.
vilings ; he accounts them his glory and his
riches : So Moses esteemed the reproach
of Christ greater riches than the treasures
in Egypt. And besides many other things
to animate, we have this that is here ex
pressed, Sdly, A s the supreme and final judgment j
and oh ! how full is it ; they shall give ac
count to him that is ready io judge the quick
and ihe dead. And he hath this in readi.
ness, rai iToifLois 'i^ovri, hath the day set ;
and it shaU surely cpme, though ypu think
it far pff.
Thpugh the wicked themselves forget
their scoffs against the godly, and though
the Christian slights them, and leta them
pass, tbey pass not so ; they are aU register.
ed ; and the great court-day shaU caU them
to account for aU theae riots and exceaaea,
and withal for all their reproachea of the
godly, that would not ran with them in these
ways. Tremble, then, ye despisers and
mockers of hpUness, thpugh ypu cpme not
near it. What wUl ypu dp when these you
reviled shaU appear glorious in your sight,
and their King, the King of saints here,
much more glorious, and his glory their
joy, arid aU tenor tp you ? Oh ! then, all
faces that could look out disdainfully upon
religion, and the professors of it, shall gather
blackness, and be bathed with sharae ; and the
despised saints of God shall shout so much
the more for joy.
You that would rejoice, then, in the ap.
pearance of that holy Lord and judge of the
world, let your way be now in holiness;
avoid and hate the common ways of the
wicked world : They live in their foolish
opinion, and that shaU quickly end ; but
the sentence of that day shaU stand for ever.
Vbr. 6. For, for this cause was the gospel preach
ed also to them that are dead, that they might be
judged according to men in the flesh, but hve ac
cording to God m the spirit.
It is a thing pf prime cpncernraent fpr a
Christian to be rightly infnrmed, and fre-
quently put in mind, what is the true estate
and nature pf a Christian ; for this the mul.
titude of those that bear that name, eithei
know npt, or commonly forget, and so ara
carried away, with the vain fancies and mis-

VER. 6-]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

24.1

takea of the world. The Appstie hath cha
racterised Christianity very clearly tp us in
this place, by that which is the very nature
pfit, conformity with Christ, and that which
is necessarily consequent upon that, discon
formity with the world. And as the nature
and natural properties of things hpld univer
saUy ; thua it ia in thpae that, in all ages, are
SP effectuaUy caUed by the gespel, aa to be
moulded and framed thua by it. Thua it
was, saya the Apostle, with your brethren
that are now at reat, aa many aa received the
gospel ; and for this end was it preached to
them, that they might be judged according
to men in the flesh, but live according io
God in the spirit.
We have here, 1. the preaching of the
gospel as the suitable raeans to a certain end.
2. The express nature of that end.
1 . The preaching of the gospel as a suita
ble raeana to a certain end ; for this cause.
There ia a particular cud, and that very im
portant, for which the preaching of the gos
pel ia intended ; thia end many conaider not,
hearingitaaitwere tonoend, ornot propound
ing a fixed determined end in their hearing.
This therefore is to be considered by those that
preach this gospel, that they aim right in it at
thia end, and no other. There rauatbe no self-
end. The legal prieats were not to be squint-
eyed. Lev. xxi. 20, nor muat evangelical mi
niaters be thus squinting to base gain, pr vain
applause : And also it is necessarily'incura
bent upon them, that they raake it their atudy
to find in theraaelvea thia work, ihis living
to God, otherwiae, they cannot skilfuUy nor
faithfully apply their gifts to work thia effect
on their hearera ; and therefore acquaintance
with God is raoat necessary.
How sounds it to many of us, at the least,
but as a weU-contrived story, whose uae ia to
amuae ua, and possibly delight ua a little,
and there ia an end ; and indeed no end, for
thia turns the moat aerious and moat glorioua
of all nieaaages into an empty sound. If we
keep awake, and give it a hearing, it is much ;
but for any thing further, how few deeply be-
fore.hand consider, " I have a dead heart ;
therefore wiU I go unto the word of life, that
it may be quickened : ¦ It is frozen, I will
go and lay it before the warra beams of that
Sun that shines in tbe gospel ; my cormp
tions are mighty and strong, and grace, if
there be any in ray heart, is exceeding weak
but there is in the gospel a power to weaken
and kiU sin, and to strengthen grace : and
this being the intent of my wise God in ap
pointing it, it shaU be my desire and pur
pose, in resorting to it, to find it to me ac
cording to his gracious intendment ; to have
faith in ray Christ, the fountain of , my life,
inore strengthened, and raade raore active in
drawing from him ; to have my heart more
refined and apiritualized, and to have the sluice
of repentance opened, and my affections to

divine things enlarged ; more hatred of sin,
and mpre lpve pf Gpd and cpmraunipn with
him." Ask yourselves conceming forraer tiraes ;
and to take yourselves even now, inquire witii.
Why carae I hither this day ? what
had I in raine eye and desires 'this moming
ere I carae forth, and in my way as I waa
coming ? Did I seriously propound an end
or no, and what was my end ? Nor doth the
raere custora of mentioning this in prayer
aatiafy the queation ; for thia, aa other auch
thinga usuaUy do in our hand, may tum to
be a lifeleaa fonn, and have no heat of apiri
tual affection ; none of David'a panting and
breathing after God in hia ordinancea ; such
desires as will not be stiUed without a mea
aure of attainraent, as a child's deaire of the
breaat ; aa our Apoatle reserables it, chap.
U. 2.
And then again, being retumed home, re.
fieet on your hearts, "Much hath been heard,
but ia there any thing done by it ? Have I
gained my point ? It waa not aimply to paas
a little time that-I went, or to paaa it with de
light in hearing ; rejoicing in that light, as
the> did in St. John Baptiat'a; John v. 35,
for a season, [,t^os u^xy,] as long aa the
hpur lasts ! It waa npt tp have my ear pleaa.
ed, but ray heart changed ; not to leam aorae
new iiotiona, and cany them cold in my head.
but to be quickened, and purified, and re
newed in the spirit of my mind. Ia this
done ? Think I now with greater esteera ol
Chriat, and the life of faith, and the happi
ness of a Christian ? And are such thoughts
solid and abiding with rae ? What sin have
I left behind ? What grace of the Spirit
have I brought home ; or what new degree,
or at least new desire of it, a living desire,
that will foUow its point ?" Oh ! this were
good repetition.
It is a strange folly in multitudes of us to
set ourselves no mark, to propound no end in
the hearing of the gospel. The merchant
sails not only that he may sail, but for traffic,
and traffics that he may be rich. The hus
bandman ploughs not only to keep himself
busy with no further end, but ploughs tbat
he may sow, and sows that he may reap with
advantage : And shall we do the most ex
cellent and fruitful work fruitiessly ? hear
only to hear, and look no further ? This is
indeed a great vanity, and a great raisery, *o
lose that labour, and gainnothingby it, which,
duly used, would be of aU pthers rapat advan-
tageeua and gainful ; and yet aU raeetings
are fuU pf thia.
Npw, when yuu cprae, this is net siraply
tp hear a discpurse, and relish or dialike it in
hearing ; but a matter pf life and death, of
eternal death and eternal life ; and the api
ritual life, begot and nourished by the word,
is the beginning of that eternal life. Which
leada Ua to cpnaider.

244

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. IV,

2. The express nature of the end, that they

might live to God in the Spirit : But first
observe, it was to them that are dead. By
which, I conceive, he intends such as had
heard and believed the go^el, when it came
to them, and now were dead. And this, I
think, he doth to strengthen these brethren
to whom he writes, to commend the gospel
to this intent, that they raight npt think the
condition and end of it hard ; as our Saviour
moUified the raatter of outward sufferings
thus. So persecuted they the Prophets that
were before you. Matt. v. 12. And the
Apostle afterwards in this chapter uses the
same reason in that sarae subject : So here,
that they might not judge the point of raor
tification he presses so grievous, as naturaUy
men wiU dp, he teUs thera, it is the constant
end of the gospel ; and they that have been
saved by it, went that aame way he pointa
out to thera. They that are dead before you,
died this way that I preas on you, before they
died ; and the gpapel-was preached to them
for that very end
Men paas away and pthers succeed, but
the gpspel is stiU the same, hath the same
tenpr and substance, and the sarae ends. As
Salpmpn speaks pf the heavens aud earth, that
-reraain the same, while one generation
passes, and another cometh, Eccl. i. 4 ; the
gpspel surpasses beth in its stability, as pur
Saviour testifies, Matt. v. 18, they shall pass
away, but not one jot of this word. And
indeed they wear and wax old, aa the Apoa
tie teaches us ; but the goapel ia from one
age to anpther, pf mpst unalterable integrity,
hath StiU the same vigpur and ppwerful in
fluence aa at the firat.
They that fprmerly received the gpspel, re
ceived it uppn these terraa ; therefpre, think
it net hard : And they are now dead ; all
the difficulty of that work of dying to sin is
now over with thera ; if they had not died
to their sins by the gospel, they had died in
them, after a while, and so died etemaUy.
It is therefore a wise prevention, to have sin
judged and put to death in us before we die ;
if we wiU not part with sin, if we die in it,
and with it, we and our sin perish together ;
but if it die first before us, then we Uve for
ever. And what thinkest thou of thy carnal will,
and aU the deUghts of sin ? What is the
Ipngest term pf its Ufe ? Uncertain it is,
but must certainly very short : Thou and
these pleasures must be severed and parted
within a Uttle time ; however, thou must die,
and then they die, and you never meet again.
Now, were it not the wisest course to part a
little sooner with them, and let them die be
fore thee, that thou mayest inherit eternal
life, and eternal delights in it, pleasures for
evermore ? It is the only wise and prpfita
ble bargain, let us therefpre delay it no longer.
This is our scaspn pf cnjpying the sweel

ness pf the gpspel ; others heard it before us
in these places that new we fill, and npw they
are rempved and we must rempve shprtly, and
leave pur places tp others, tp speak and hear
in. It is high time we were cpnsidering
what we do here ; tp what end we speak and
hear ; high tirae, withput further delay, to
lay hpld pn that salvatipn that is held fertii
unto us ; and that we may held pn it, we
must immediately let gp Pur hpld pf sin, and
those perishing things that we hold so firm
and cleave so fast to. Do they that are dead,
whp heard and pbeyed the gpspel, now repent
their repentance and raortifying the flesh !
Or, do they not think ten thousand times
more pains, were it for many ages, aU too
Uttle for a moment of that which now they
enjoy, and shall enjoy to etemity ? And
ihey that are dead, whp heard the gpspel
and slighted it, if such a thing might be,
what wnuld they give for one of these oppor
tunities that now we daUy have, and daily
lose, and have no fruit or esteem of them !
You have lately seen, many of you, and you
that shifted the sight, have heard of numbers
cut off in a Uttie tirae ; whole farailies swept
away by the late stroke of God's hand, •
raany of which did think np pther but that
they might have stUl been with ypu here in
this place and exercise, at this time, and
many years after this. And yet, whp hath
laid tp heart the lengthening put pf his day,
and cpnsidered it mpre as an opportunity of
securing that higher and happier Ufe, than
as a little protracting of this wretched life,
which is hastening to an end ? Oh I there
fore, be entreated io-day, while it is called
To-day, not to harden your hearts, Psal.
xcv. 7, 8 ; Heb. Ui. 7 ; iv. 7. Though the
pestUence doth not now affright you so, yet
that standing mortality, and the decay of
theae earthen lodgea, tell us that shortly we
shall cease to preach and hear this gospel.
Did we consider, it woiUd excite us to a more
eamest search after our evidences of that eter
nal life that ia set before ua in the goapel ;
and we should seek them in the characters
of that spiritual Ufe, which is the beginning
of eternal life within ua, and ia wrought by
the goapel in aU the heirs of salvation.
Think therefore wisely of these twp things,
pf the prpper end pf the gpspel, and of the
approaching end of thy days, and let thy cer
tainty of this latter drive thee tP seek mpre
certainty pf the pther, that thou mayest par
take pf it ; and then this again wiU make the
thpughta pf the pther sweet tp thee. That
visage of death, that is so tenible to unchang
ed sinners, shall be amiable to thine eye ;
having found a Ufe in the goapel as happy
and laating as this is miserable and vanish
ing, and seeing the perfection of that life on
the other side of death, thou wilt long for
the passage. • J08S.

VEll, 6.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

243

Be more serious in this raatter, of daily
hearing the gospel : cpnsider why it is sent
tp thee, and what it brings, and tiiink it is
tpp Ipng I have slighted its measage, and
many that have dpne sp are cut pff, and aliaU
hear it np mpre : I have it pnce more invit
ing me, and it may be this may be the laat
invitation I shall receive : and in these
thoughts, ere you corae, bow ypur knee to the
Father of spirits, that this one thing raay be
granted you, that your souls may flnd at
length the lively and mighty power of his
Spirit upon yours, in the hearing of this gos
pel, that you may be judged according to
men in the flesh, but live according to God
in ihe spirit.
Thus is the particular nature of that end
expressed. And, not to stun and perplex
you with the noiae of various senses, the
Apostie intends, I conceive, nothing else but
the dying to the World and sin, and Uving
unto God ; which is his main aubject and
scope in the foregoing discourse. That death
was before called a suffering in the flesh,
which is in effect the sarae ; and therefore,
though the words may be drawn another
way, yet it is strange that interpreters have
been so far wide of this their genuine and
agreeable sense, and that they have been by
alraost aU of them taken in spme ether intend
ment. To be judged in the flesh, in the present
sense, is tp die tP sin, pr that sin die in us ;
and it is thus expressed : 1. Suitably to the
nature of it, it is to the flesh a violent death,
and it is according to a sentence judiciaUy
pronounced against it. That guUty and
miserable Ufe of sin is in the gospel ad
judged to death ; there that anest and sen
tence is clear and fuU, Rom. vi. 6, &c. viii.
13. That sin must die that the soul raay
live ; It must be crucified in us, and we to
it, that we may partake of the Ufe of Christ
and happiness in him : And this ia caUed
to be judged in the flesh, tp have thia aen
tence executed. 2. The thing is the rather
sppke here under the terra pf being judged,
in counter-balance of that judgment mention
ed immediately before, ver. 5, the last judg
raent of quick and' dead; wherein they that
wpuld npt be thus judged, but mncked and
despised those that were, sliaU faU under a far
a raore tenible judgment, and the sentence of
a heavy death indeed, even everlasting death ;
th(jugh they think they shaU escape and en.
joy Uberty in Uving in sin. And that, to be
.judged according to men, is, I conceive,
added, to signify the connaturalness of the
life of sin to a man's now corrupt nature ;
that men do judge it a death indeed to be
severed and puUed from their sins, and that
a crael death ; and the sentence of it in the
gospel a heavy sentence, u, hard saying, to
a camal heart, that he must give up aU his
sinful delights, must die indeed in self.de-

nial, must be separated from hiraself, which
is to die, if he wiU be joined with Christ,
aud Uve in hira. Thus men judge that they
are adjudged to a painful death by the sen
tence of the gospel ; although it is that they
may traly anifhappily Uve, yet they under
stand it not so. They see the death, the
parting with sin and aU its pleasures ; but
the life they see not, npr can any knpw it
tiU they partake pf it. It is knpwn tp Him
in whom it is ; It is hid with Christ in
God, Col. iii. 3 ; and therefpre the ppppsi^,
tipn here is very fitly thus represented, that
the death is according io men in the flesh,
but the Ufe is according to God in the spirit.
As the Christian is adjudged tp this death
in the flesh by the gpspel, so he is Ippked
pn and accpunted, by camal men, as dead ;
for that he enjpys nnt with theu;i what they
esteem their life, and think they could not
Uye without it. One that cannot carouse
and swear with profane men, is a siUy dead
creature, good for nothing ; and he tbat can
bear wrongs, and love hira that injured him,
is a pppr spiritless fppl, hath no mettle noi
life in him, in the world's account. Thus
is he judged according to men in ihe flesh,
he is as a dead man, but lives according to
God in ihe spirit ; dead to raen, and aliv»
tp Gpd, as ver. 2.
Now, if this Ufe be in thee, it wiU act :
All Ufe is in raptipn, and is called an act
but mpst active of aU is this meat exceUent,
and, as I may caU it, rapst lively, life. It
wiU be rapving tpwards Gpd ; pften seeking
tp him, making stUl tpwards him as its
principle and fountain, exerting itself in hply
and affectipnate thpughts pf him ; spmetimes
pn pne pf his sweet attributes, spmetimes pn
another; as the bee amongst the flowers.
And as it wiU thus act within, so it wiU be
outwardly laying hold pn all pccasipns, yea,
seeking put ways and pppprtunities tp be
serviceable tp thy Lprd ; emplpying aU for
hira, coramending and extolling his gopd
ness, dping and suffering cheerfuUy fpr him,
laying nut the strength nf desires, and parts,
and raeans, in thy statipn, tp gain him
glpry. If thpu be alpne, then npt alone,
but with hira ; seeking tp knpw mpre of
him, and be made mpre like him. If in
cpmpany, then casting abput hpw tp bring
his name in esteem, and to draw others tp a
love pf religion and holiness by speeches, as
it may be flt, and most by the true beha
viour of thy caniage. Tender over the souls
of others, to do thera good to thy utmost ;
thinking each day and hour Ipst when thou
art npt busy for the honour and advantage
of him to whom thbu npw livest. Thinking
inthe morning, " New, what may I do this
day fpr my God ? How may I most please
and glorify him, and use my strength and
wit, and my whole self, as not mine but
his ?" And then in the evening, reflecting,

240

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. IV

" O Lord, have I seconded these thoughts
in reality ? What glory hath he had by me
this day ? Whither went my thoughts and
endeavours ? What busied thera raost ?
Have I been rauch with God ? Have I
adomed the gospel in my Ijonverae with
othera ?" And if thou flndeat any thing
done thia way, thia life will engage thee to
bleaa and acknowledge hira, the apring and
-worker of it. If any atep haa been taken
aaide, were it but to an appearance of
evil, pr if any fit seaspn of good hath escap-
ed thee unprofitably, it will lead thee to
check thyaelf, and to be grieved for thy aloth
and coldneaa, and aee if more love would
npt beget mpre diligence.
Try it by aympathy and antipathy, which
fpUpw the nature pf thinga ; aa we see in
sprae planta, and creaturea, that cannpt
grpw, cannpt agree tpgether, and pthera that
dp favpur one another, and profit rautuaUy.
If thy soul hath an aversion and reluctancy
against whatever ia contrary to holiness, this
is an evidence of this new nature and life.
If thpu hast this principle within, thy heart
rises againat wicked waya and apeechea, patha
and cursings, and rptten cpraraunicatipn ;
yea, thou canst not endure unworthy dis
courses, wherein raost spend their tirae :
findest no reUah in the unaavoury aocietiea
of auch as know not God ; canst not sii
with vain persons,, but findeat a delight in
ihose that have the image of God upon
them ; such as partake of that divine Ufe,
and cany the evidences of it in their car
riage. David did not disdain the feUow
ship of the saints; and that it was no dis
paragement to hira, is implied in the name
he givea them, Psal. xvi. 2, ihe excellent
enes, the magnific or noble, adiri ; and that
word is taken from one that signifies a robe
or noble gamient, adereth, toga magnifica ;
BP he thought thera nobles or kings as well
as he ; they had robes royal, and therefore
were fit corapanions of kings. A spiritual
eye looks upon apiritual dignity, and esteems
and loves them that are born of God, how
low soever be their natural birth and breed
ing. The sons of Gpd have pf his Spirit in
them, and are bpm to the same inheritance,
where aU shall have enough ; and they are
tending homewards by the conduct of the
same Spirit that is in them, so that there
must be araongst them a real complacency
and deUght in each other.
And then consider the temper of thy
heart towards spiritual things, the word and
ordinances of God, whether thou dost es
teera highly of them and delight in them ?
Whether there be compliance of thy heart
with divine truths ? something in thee that
suits and sides with them against thy conup-
tions ? In thy aflSiction dost thou not seek
to the puddles of earthly comforts, but hast
(hou recourse to the sweet crystal streams pf

the divine premises, and dpst thou find re.
freshment in thera ? It may be, at some
tiraes, in a spiritual distemper, holy exer
cises and ordinances wiU not have that pre
sent sensible sweetness to a Christian, that
he desires ; and some wUl for a long time
lie under dryness and deadness thia way :
yet there ia here an evidence of thia spiritual
life, that thou stayest by thy Lord and re-
liest on him ; and wilt npt leave these holy
raeans, hpw sapless spever tP thy sense for
the preaent. Thou findeat for a long time
little sweetneaa in prayer, yet thou prayest
atiU ; and when thou canat say nothing, yet
offerest at it, and lookest towarda Chriat thy
life. Thou doat not turn away from these
things to seek consolation elaewhere, but as
thou knowest that life is in Christ, thou wUt
stay till he refresh thee with new and lively
influence. It ia not any where but in him, as
St. Peter aaid. Lord, whither should we go 1
thou hast the words of eternal life, Johi
vi. 68.
Conaider with thyaelf, if thou haat any
knowledge of the growth or deficiencies of
thia apiritual Ufe ? for it ia here but begun,
and breathea in an air contrary to it, and
lodges in an houae that often amokea and
darkens it. Canat thou go on in formal
perforraancea from one year to another, and
make no advancement in the inward exer
ciaea pf grace, and reateat thpu cpntent with
that ? it ia np gppd aign. But art thou
either gaining victories over sin, and further
strength of faith and love, and other graces,
or, at least, art thou earneatly seeking theae,
and bewaiUng thy wanta and diaappoint-
ments of thia kind ? Then thpu Uvest. At
the wprst wpuldat thou rather grow this
way, be further off frora sin, and nearer
God, than grow in thy estate, or credit, or
honoura ? Esteemeat thou raore of grace
than of the whole world ? There ia life at
the root ; although thou findest not that
flourishing thou desirest, yet the desire of it
is life in thee : And, if growing this way,
art thou content, whatsoever is thy outward
estate ? Canst thou solace thyself in the
love and goodness of thy God, though the
world frown on thee ? Art thou not able to
take comfort in the smUes of the world when
his face is hid ? This tells thee thou Uvest,
and he is thy life.
Although many Christians have not so
much sensible joy, yet they account spiri
tual joy, and the light of God's countenance,
the only trae joy, and aU other without it
madness ; and they cry, and sigh, and at.
tend for it. Meanwhile, not only duty, and
the hopes of attaining a better state in reli.
gion, but even love to God, makes them to
be SP, tp serve, and please, and glprify him
tp their utmpst. And thia ia npt a dead
resting withput Gpd, but it is a atable com.
pliance with hia wiU in the highest point ;

VER. 7]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

247

waiting for him, and Uving by faith, whicii
ia moat acceptable to him. In a word,
whether in aensible comfort or withput it,
StiU this is the fixed thought of a believing
soul, it is good for me to draw nigh io God,
Paal. Ixxiii. 28, pnly gppd ; and it wiU npt
Uve in a wiUing eatrangedness frpm him,
what way spever he be pleaaed tp deal with it.
Npw for the entertaining and strengthen
ing this life, whicii is the great business and
care pf aU that have it, 1. Beware pf orait
ting and intenupting those spiritual raeans
that do provide it and nourish it. Little
neglects of that kind wiU draw on greater,
and great neglects wiU make great abate
ments of vigour and liveUness. Take heed
of using holy things coldly and lazily, with
out affection ; that wiU raake thera fraitless,
and our Ufe wiU npt be advantaged by thera,
unless they be used in a lively way. Be
active in all gppd within thy reach ; as this
is a sign of the spiritual Ufe, sp it is a helper
and friend tp it. A slpthful unstining life,
wiU raake a sickly unhealthful Ufe. Mptipn
purifies and sharpens the spirits, and niakes
men robust and vigprpus.
2. Beware ef admitting a cpnespendence
with any sin : yea, do not so much as dis
course familiarly with it, or look kindly toward
it; for that wiU undoubtedly cast a damp upon
thy spirit, and dirainish thy graces at least,
and wiU obstruct thy cpmmunipn with God.
Thou knowest (thou who hast any know
ledge of this life) that thou canst not go to
him with that sweet freedom thou wert wont,
after thou haat been but tampering or parly-
ing with any of thy old lovea. Oh I do not
make so foolish a bargain, as to prejudice
the leaat of thy spiritual comfort for the
greatest and longeat continued enjoymenta
of sin, which are base and but for a season.
But wouldat thou grow upwards in this
Ufe ? 3. Have rauch recourse to Jeaus
Christ thy Head, the spring frora whom flow
the animal spirits that quicken thy soul.
Wouldst thou know raore of God ? He it
is that reveals the Father, and reveals hira
aa his Father ; and in him thy Father, and
that ia the aweet notion of God. Wouldat
thou overcome thy luata further ? Our vic
tory is in him, apply his conquest ; We are
more than conquerors through hi-m thai
loved us, Rom. viii. 37. Wouldst thou be
more replenished with graces, and spiritual
affections ? His fulness is, for that use, open
to us ; Ufe, and more life, in him, and for
us ; this was his business here ; he came,
, that we might have life, and might have it
more abundantly, John x. 10.
Veh. 7. But the end of all things is at hand ; he ye,
thbrtfore, sober, and watch unto prayer.
The heart of » real Christian is reaUy
taken off from the world and set heavenwards.;
yet there is stUl in this flesh, so much of -the

flesh hanging tp it, as will readily ppise all
dpwnwards, unless it be pften wpund up and
put in remembrance pf these things, that
wiU raise it stiU tp further spirituality. This
the Apostle doth in this epistle, and parti
cularly in these words.
In which are three things to be considered,
I. A threefold duty recommended. II. Their
mutual relation, that binds them to one an.
other. III. The reason here used to bind
thera upon a Christian.,
I. A threefold duty recoraraended, so
briety, watchfulness, and prayer ; ahd of the
three the last is evidently the chief, and is
here so raeant, the other being recoraraend
ed as auitable and subservient to it : There
fore^ I shall speak flrst of it.
1. Prayer. And truly, to speak, and
to hear of it often, were our hearts truly and
entirely acquainted with it, would have still
new sweetness and u.sefulneaa in it. Oh I
how great were the advantage of that lively
knowledge of it, beyond the exactest defini
tion of it, and knowledge that can diacourae
most copiously and accurately on the heads
of doctrine that concem it.
Prayer is not a amooth expreasion, or a
well contrived form of worda ; not the pro
duct pf a ready memory, nor rich invention,
exerting itaelf in the performance. Theae
may draw a neat picture of it, but stiU thf
Ufe ia wanting. The raotion of the heart
Godwarda, holy and divine affection, raakes
prayer' real and Uvely, and acceptable to the
living God, to- whora it is preaented; the
pouring out of thy heart to hira that made
it, and therefore lieara it, and underatanda
what it apeaks, and hpw it is mpved and
affected in caUing on him. It ia npt the
gilded paper, and gppd writing pf a petitipn,
that prevails with a king, but the moving
sense of it ; and to the King that discerns
the heart, heart sense is the sense of aU, and
that which he alone regards ; he Ustens to
hear what that speaks, and takes aU as no-
thing where that is silent. All other excellence
in prayer is but the outside and fashion of it ;
that is the Ufe of it.
Though prayer, precisely taken, is only
petition, yet, in its fuUer and usual sense,
it comprehends the venting our humble sense
of vileness and sin, in sincere confession, and
the extoUing and praising the holy name of
our God, his exceUency and goodness, with
thankful acknowledgment of received mercies.
Of these sweet ingredient perfumes is the
incense of .prayer compoaed, and by the
divine fire of love It aacenda unto God ; the
heart, afid aU with it : And when the hearts
of the sainta unite in joint prayer, the pillar
of aweet smoke goea np the greater and fuller.
Thua says that song .of the spouse, going up
from the wilderness, as pillars , of smoke
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
and all the powders of the merchant. Cant.

248

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap, iv,

iii. 6. The wprd there * aignifies straight ^bare them, and carried ihem all the days of
pillars, Uke the taUeat, straighteat kind, pf old. And ao, reating on hia love, power, and
treea ; and, indeed, the sincerity and un
feignedness of prayer makes it go up aa a
straight piUar, when there ia no crookedneaa
in it, but it is tending straight towards hea
ven, and bowing to no side by the way.
Oh ! the single and fixed viewing of God,
as it, in other ways, ia the thing makes aU
holy and aweet, so particularly does it in this
divine work of prayer.
It is -true we have to deal with a God,
who pf himself needs npt this our pains either
to inform or excite hira ; he fuUy knows pur
thpughts before we express them, and pur
wanta befpre we feel them, pr think of them.
Npr dpth his affectipn, and gracipus bent tp
do his children good, wax remiss, or admit
the least abatement and forgetfulness pf them.
But instead pf necessity pn Gpd's part,
which cannpt be iraagined, we shaU find that
equity, and that singular dignity and utiUty
of it, pn pur part, which cannot be denied,
I. Equity. That thus the creature signify
his homage to, and dependence on, his
Creator, for his being, and well-being ; that
he takes aU the good he enjpys, or expects,
ftpra that spvereign gppd, declaring hiraself
unwprthy, waiting for all uppn the terms pf
free goodness, and acknowledging aU to fiow
from that spring.
2. Dignity. Man was made for commu.
nion with God his maker ; it is the excellency'
of his nature to be capable of this end, the
happiness of it to be raised to enjoy it. Now,
in nothing more, in this life, is this cora
raunion actuaUy and highly enjoyed, than in
the exercise of prayer. That he may freely
irapart his affaira, and eatate, and wants, to
Gpd, ^a the rapst faithful and ppwerful

gracious prpraises, the spul quiets itself iu
Gpd, upun this assurance, that it is not vain
to seek him, and that he despiseth not the
sighing of the poor, Psal. xii. 5.
[2.] The soul is more spirituaUy aftected
with its own condition, by laying it open be
fpre the Lprd ; mpre deeply sensible pf sin,
ahd asharaed in his sight, in cpnfessing it
befpre hira ; mpre dilated and enlarged to
receive the mercies sued for ; as the opening
wide of ihe mouth oi the spul that it may be
filled, Psal. lxxxi. 10 ; rapre disppsed fo
pbaerve the Lprd in anawering ; and to bless
him, and trust on him, uppn the renewed
experiences pf his regard tp his distresses
and desires.
[3.] AU the graces of the Spirit, in prayer,
are stined and exercised ; and by exerdse
strengthened and increased. Faith, in ap-
plying the divine promises, which are the
very grpund that, the sPul gpes uppn tP God ;
and Hppe Ippking put to their performance ;
and Love particularly expressing itself, in
that sweet converse, and deUghting in it, as
love dpth in the ccrapany pf the perspn Ipved ;
thinks aU hpurs tPO short in speaking with
him : Oh ! how the soul is refreshed with
freedom of speech with its beloved Lord !
And aa it delights in that, so it is.continually
advanced, and grows by each raeeting and
conference ; beholding the exceUency ofGod,
and reUshing the pure and aubUme pleasurea
that are in near communion with him. 1.
Ijooking upon the Father in the face of
Christ, and using him as a mediator in
prayer, as stiU it must, it is drawn to further
admiration of that bottomleaa love, which
found that way of agreement, that new and
Friend, the richeat and moat loving Father ;\living way of our acceaa, when all waa shut

may uae the liberty of a child, teUing hia
" father what he standa in need of and deairea ;
and coramuning with him with humble cott-
fidence, while admitted ao frequently into the
preaence of so great a King.
3.*The utility oi it. [!.] Eaaing the
soul in times of difficulty, when it is pressed
with griefs and feara, by giving them vent,
and that in ao advantageoua a way ; empty
ing them into the boSom of God. The very
vent, were it but into the air, gives eaae : pr
speak it tp a statue rather than smpther it ;
much mere ease then is found, when it ia
poured into the lap of a cpnfident and sym-
pathizing fiiend, thpugh unable tp help ; yet
much mere pf pne that can help. And, pf
all friends, our Gpd is beypnd aU cpmparispn
the surest, and mest affectionate, afid most
powerful. So, Isa. Ixiu. 9, both compassion
and effectual salvatipn are expressed. In all
Iheir affiiction he was affiicted, and the
angel of his presence saved them : in his
love andin his pity he redeemed them ; and he
• Timeroth, from Temer, a palm-tree.

up, and we to have been shut out for ever.
And then the affectionate expressions of that
reflex love, finding that vent in prayer, do
kindle higher ; and being as it were fanned
and blown up, rise to a greater, and higher,
and purer flame, and sp tend Upwards the
mere strpngly. David, as he dpth prpfesa
his Ipve to God in prayer in his Psalras, so
no doubt it grew in the expressing, / will
love thee, O Lord my strength, Psal. xviii.
1, and Psal. cxvi. I, dpth raise an incentive
of love put pf this very cpnsideratipn of the
cpnesppndence pf prayers ; / love the Lord
because he hath heard, and resplves, there
after, upen persistance in that cpurae ; there
fore will I call upon him as long as I live.
And aa the graces pf the Spirit are advanced
in prayer by then: actings ; so for this further
reason, because prayer sets the soul parti
cularly near unto God in Jesus Christ. It
is then in his presence, and being much with
God in this way, it is .powerfuUy assimilated
to him py ccnverse with hira ; as we readily
cpntract their habits with whom we have

VER. 7- J

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

249

much intercourse, especially if they be such
as we singularly love and respect. Thus the
soul is moulded further to the Ukeness of
God, is staraped with brighter characters of
him, by being much with him ; becomes
Uker God, raore holy and spiritual, and, like
Moses, brings back a right shining from the
mount, Expd. xxxiv. 29, 30.
[4.] And npt pnly thus, by a natural in
fluence, dpth prayer wprk this advantage,
but even by a federal efiicacy, suing for, and
uppn suit phtaining, supplies pf grace, as
the chief good ; and besides aU other need
ful mercies, it is a real meana of receiving ;
Whatsoever you shall ask, that will I do,
says our Saviour, John xiv. 13; God hav
ing established this intercourse, and engaged
his trath and goodness iu it, that if they caU
on him, they shaU be heard and answered.
If they prepare the heart io call, he will in
cline his ear to hear ; and our Saviour hath
assured us, that we may build upon his
goodness and the affection of a Father in
him ; that he will give good things to ihem
thatask, sayS one EvangeUst, Matth. vii. 11 ;
and the Holy Spirit to them that ask it,
says another, Luke xi. 13, as being the good
indeed, the higheat of gifts, and the sum of aU
good things, and that fpr which hia children
are meat earaeat suppUcants. Prayer for
grace doth, as it were, set the mouth of the
ioul to the spring, draws frora Jesua^ Chriat,
and is replenished out of his fulness, thirst
ing after it, and drawing from it that way.
And for this reason it is, that our Saviour,
and frora him, and accprding tp his example,
the Appstles, rccpmmend prayer so much ;
Watch and pray, says our Saviour, Matt,
xxvi. 41 ; and St. Paul, Pray continually,
1 Thess. V. 17. And our Apoatle here par
ticularly specifies this, as the grand mean of
attaining that conformity with Christ which
he presses ; this is the highway to it. Be
sober, and watch unto prayer. He that is
much in prayer, shall grow rich in grace.
He shall thrive and increase most that is
busiest in this, which is our very traffic with
heaven, and fetches the most precious cora-
raodities thence. He that sets oftenest out
these ships of desire, that raakes the most
voyages to that land of spices and pearls,
sliaU be sure to iraprove his stock most, and
have raost of heaven upon earth.
But the true art of this trading is very
rare. Every trade hath something wherein
the skiU of it lies ; but this is deep and
supernatural, is npt reached by human in
dustry. Industry is to be used in it, but we
must know the faculty of it comes from above ;
that Spirit of prayer, withput which, learn
ing, and wit, and religious breeding, can -dp
npthirig : Therefpre, this is to be our prayer
often, our great suit for the Spirit of prayer,
that we may speak tha language of the sons
of God by the Spirit -of Gpd, which alpne

teaches the heart tp prpnounce aright those
things, that die tongue of many hyppcrites
can articulate weU tp man's ear ; and nnly
the children in that right strain that takes
him, eaU Gpd their Father, and cry unto
him as their Father. And therefpre many
pppr unlettered Christians far putstrip ypur
schppl-rabbies in this faculty, because it is
not effectually taught in these lower acade
mies ; they must be in God's own school,
chUdren of his house, that speak this lan
guage. Men may give spiritual rules and
directions in this, and such as raay be useful,
drawn from the word, that furnishes us with
aU needful precepts ; but you are stiU tp
bring theae intp the seat pf this faculty of
prayer, the heart ; and stamp thera upon it,
and so teach it tp pray, withput which there
ia np prayer ; thia ia the prerpgative rpyal
pf Him that framed the heart pf man within
him. But, for advancing in this, and grpw-
ing more skilful in it, prayer is, with con
tinual dependence on the Spirit, to be much
uaed. Praying much, thou ahalt be blest
with much faculty for it. So then askest
thou, what shall I do that I may learn to
pray ? There be things here to be conaider
ed, that are expressed as serving this end ;
but for present this, and chiefly this, " by
praying thou shalt learn to pray." Thou
shalt both obtain raore of the Spirit, and find
raore the cheerful working of it in prayer,
when thou puttest it often to that work for
which it is received, and wherein it is delight
ed ; and as both advantaging aU graces,
and the grace of prayer itself, this frequency
and abounding in prayer ia here very clearly
intended, in that the Apoatle makes it as
the main of our work, and would have ua to
keep our hearts in a constant aptness for it :
Be sober and watch ; to what end ? — unto
prayer. 2. Sobriety is recommended ; Be sober.
They that have no better, must make the
best they can of camal deUghts. It is no
wpnder they take as large a share pf them as
they can bear, and spmetimes mere. But
the Christian is caUed tp a mpre exceUent
state, and higher pleasures ; sp that he may
behold men glutting theraselves with these
base things, and be as little moved to share
with thera, as men are taken with the
pleasure a swine hath in ioalloioing in the
mire, 2 Pet. ii. 22.
It becomes the heirs of heaven to be far
above the love of the earth ; and in the neces.
sary use of any earthly things, still tu keep
within the due measure pf their use, and to
kpep their heart whoUy disengaged from an
excessive affectipn to them. This is the so-
bHety tp which we are here exhprted.
It is trae, that, in the rapst cprampn sense
of the word. It is very commendable, and it
is fit to be so considered bv a Christian, tlut

E50

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. IV

ne 'fiy grPSS intemperance, as a thing most'
contrary to his conditipn, and hply calling,
andwhpUyincpnsistent with the spiritual tem.
per pf a renewed mind, and those exerciaes
to which it ia called, and ita progreas in ita
way homewarda. It is a raost unseemly
sight to behold one, simply by outward pro.
fession a Christian, overtaken with surfeit
ing and drunkenness, rauch raore to be given
to the vile custora cf it : AU sensual delights,
even tbe filthy lusts of uncleanness, gp under
the cprarapn name nf inspbriety, interape.
ranee, axoXxria, and they aU degrade and
deatrpy the npble aoul ; are unworthy of man,
much more of a Chriatian ; and the contempt
of them preserves the soul and elevates it.
But the sobriety here recoraraended,
thpugh it takes in that tPO, yet reaches fur
ther than temperance in meat and drink. It
is the spiritual temperance of a Christian
mind in aU earthly things, aa our Saviour
joina theae together, Luke xxi. 34, surfeit
ing and drunkenness, and cares of this
life ; And imder the cares are comprehend-
all the exceaaive desires and' delights of this
life ; which cannpt be fpUpwed and attend
ed withput diaterapered carefulneaa.
Many that are aober raen, and of tempe
rate diet, yet are apirituaUy intemperate,
drunk with pride, or covetousness, or pasaion;
drunk with self-love, and love of their plea
sures and ease, with love of ihe world, and
ihe things of it, which cannot consist with
the love of God, as St. John tells ua, 1
John ii. 15 ; drunk with the inordinate un
lawful love even pf their lawful caUing, and
the lawful gain tbey puraue by it. Their
hearts are stiU gping after it, and ap reeling
to and fro, never fixed on God and heavenly
thinga, but either hunied up and down with
incessant busineaa, or, if aometimes at eaae,
it ia as the eaae pf a-drunken man, npt cpm-
ppaed tp better and wiaer thpughta, but fall
ing intp a dead sleep, contrary to the watch
ing here joined with aobriety.
3. We are to consider the reraaining duty
of watchfulneaa ; Watch. There is a Chris
tian rule to be observed in the very mode
rating of bodily sleep, and that particularly
fpr the interest of prayer ; but watching, aa
sobriety here, ia chiefly the apiritual circura
spectness and vigilancy of the raind, in a wary
walking posture, that it be not surprised
by the asaaidts or gleighta of Satan, by the
world, or its neareat and moat deceiving ene
my, the conuption that dwells within, which
being ap near, dpth rapat readily watch un
perceived advantages, and easily circum
vents ua, Heb. xn. 1. The soul of a Chris
tian, being sunounded with enemies, both of
so great power and wrath, and so watchful
to undn it, shpuld it npt he watchful fpr its
pwn safgty, and Uve in a miUtary vigilan
cy cpntinually, keeping cunstant watch and
sentinel, and suffering npthing tP pass that

may carry the least suspicien pf danger ?
Shpuld he net be distrustful and jealpiis of
aU the raptipns of his own heart, and the
sraUings of the world ? And in relation to
these, it wiU be a wise course to take that
word as a good caveat. Be watchful, and re
member io mistrust.* Under the garment
of some harmless pleasure, or some lawful
liberties, may be conveyed into thy spul some
thief or traitor, that will either betray thee
to the eneray, or at least pUfer and steal of
the most precious things thou hast. Do we
not by experience flnd how easily pur fool
ish hearts are seduced and deceived, and
hpw apt they are even tp deceive themselves ?
and by things that seera tp have np evil in
them, yet are drawn frpm the height of affec
tion to the highest good, and from comnm.
nion with God, and study to please him ;
which should not be intermitted, for then it
will abate, whereas it ought stiU to be growing.
II. We proposed to consider the mutual
relation of these duties : Now, this relation
is clear ; they are each of them assistant and
helpful to the other, and, in their nature, in
separably linked together, as they are here
in the words of the Apostle. Sobriety is the
friend of watchfulness, and prayer ol both.
Intemperance doth of necessity draw on sleep ;
excessive eating or drinking, sending up too
raany, and so gross, vapours, surcharge the
brain ; and when the body is thus deadened,
how unflt i^ it for any active employment ?
Thus the raind, by a surcharge of deUghts
or desires, or cares of earth, is made so heavy
and duU, that it cannpt awake ; hath not the
spiritual activity and clearness that spiritual
exercises, particularly prayer, dp require.
Yea, as bedily insobriety, full feeding and
drinking, not only for the time indisposes to
action, but, by custom of it, brings the body
to so gross and heavy a teraper, that the very
natural spirits cannot stir lo and fro in it with
freedom, but are clogged, and stick as the
wheels of a coach in a deep miry way ; thus
it is with the soul glutted with earthly
things ; the affections bemired with them,
make it sluggish and inactive in those that
are spiritual, and render the motions of the
spirit Ufeless ; and, obstructed thus, grows
carnaUy secure and sleepy, and prayer comes
heavily off. But when the affections are so.
berly acted, and care is taken that, even in
lawful things, they have not fuU Uberty, with
the reins laid on their necks, to foUow the
world, and camal projects, and-delight, to
the utraost, when the unavoidable affairs of
this Ufe are done with a spiritual mind, a
heart kept free and disengaged ; then is the
siul raore nimble for spiritual things, for
divine raeditation and prayer. It can watch
and cpntinue in these things, and spend itself
in that excellent way with mpre alacrity.
* Nw^E tcai fii/Avriffi uvirrtiv.

VEU. 7. J

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

,231

Again, as this aobriety, and the watchful
temper attending it, -enahlea for prayer, so
prayer preservea theae. It winda up the
spul frpra the earth, raises it abpve thpse
things which interaperance feeds on, ac
quaints it with the transcending sweetneaa of
divine coraforta, the love and lovelineaa of
Jeaus Christ ; and theae moat powerfuUy
wean the aoul from thoae low creeping plea-
aurea which the world gapea after, and awal-
lowa with auch greedineaa. He that ia ad
mitted to neareat intimacy with the king, and
is called daily to his presence, not only in
the view and company of others, but likewise
in aecret, will he be so mad as to sit down
and drink with the kitchen-boys, or the com
raon guards, so far below what he raay enjoy ?
Surely not.
Prayer being our near coramunion with
the great God, certainly it sublimates the
soul, and makes it look down upon the base
ways of the world with disdain, and despise
the truly besetting pleasurea of it. Yea, the
Lord doth sometimes flU those souls, that
cpnverae much with him, with such beatific
deUghts, such inebriating sweetneaa, aa I may
caU it, that it ia, in a happy manner, drunk
with thpae : And the mpre it enjoya of thia,
the rapre ia the apul above baae interaperance
in the uae of the delights of the world. .
coraraon drunkenness makes a raan leaa than
% man, thia makea him more ; that ainka him
t>elow himaelf, and makea hira a beaat ; thia
raises hira above bimself, and makes him an
angel. Would you, as sure you ought, have rauch
faculty for prayer, and be frequent in it, and
find rauch the pure sweetness of it ? Then,
1st, Deny yourselves raore the rauddy plea
sures and sweetness of the world. If you
would pray rauch, and with rauch advantage,
then be sober, and watch unto prayer,
Suffer not your hearts to long so after ease
and wealth, and esteera in the world. These
wiU make your hearts, if they mix with them,
becorae Uke thera, and take their quality ;
will raake thera gross and earthly, and un
able to mount up ; will clog the wings of
prayer; and you shaU find the loss, when
your soul is heavy and drowsy, and faUs off
from deUghting in God, and your (prarau-
nipn with hira. Will such things as those
you follow be able to countervail ypur da
mage ? Can they speak ypu peace, and up
hold you in a day of darkness and distress ?
or may it riot be such now, as wiU make them
aU a burden and vexation tp ypu ? Bflt, pn
the other hand, the mpre ypu abate and let gp
of these, and cpme empty and hungry tp Gpd
in prayer, the mere rppra shall ypu have fpr
his cpnsplatipns, and therefpre the rapre
plentifuUy wiU he ppur in pf thera, and enrich
ypur spul with them the mpre, the leas ypu
take in nf the pther.
2dly, Wpuld you have ypurselves raised to.

and cpntinued and advanced in, a spiritual
heavenly temper, free from the aurfeita of earth,
and awake, and active for heaven p Be in
ceaaant in prayer.
But, thou wilt say, I find nothing but
heavy indiaposedneaa in it ; nothing but rov
ing and vanitypf heart : And sp, though I
have used it sometime, it ia still unprofitable
and uncorafortable to rae. Although it be
ao, yet bold on, give it not pver. Or, need
I aay this tp thee, thpugh it were refened tp
thyaelf, wpuldat thpu foraake it and leave off?
then, what wpuldat thou do next ? for if
there be no corafort in it, far less any for thee
in any other way. If teraptation should so
far prevail with thee as to try interraission,
either thou wouldat be fprced tp return te it
presently, or certainly wouldst. faU into a
raore grievous condition ; and, after honors
and lashings, must, at length, come back to
it again, or perish for ever : Therefore, how
ever it go, continue praying. Strive' to be
lieve that love thou canat not aee. For where
sight ia abridged, there it is proper for faith
to work. If thou canat do no raore, lie be
fore thy Lord, and look to hira. " Lord,
here I ara, thou mayest quicken and revive
me, if thou wilt : and I trust thou wilt ; but
if I must do it, I wiU die at thy feet ; my
Ufe is in thy hand, and thou art goodneas
and mercy ; while I have breath I wiU cry ;
or if I cannot cry, yet wiU I wait on, and
look to thee."
One thing forget not, that the ready way
to riae out of thia sad, yet safe state, ia to be
much in viewing the Mediator, and inter-
poaing him betwixt the Father's view and
thy soul. Sorae who do orthodoxly beUeve
this to be right, yet (as often befala ua in
other things of thia kind) they do not so con
sider and uae it, in their necessity, as be
coraes them, and therefore fall short of com
fort. He hath declared it. No man comc's
to the Father but by me. How vile soever
thou art, put thyself under hia robe, and into
hia hand, and he wiU lead thee in to the
Father, and present thee acceptable and
blameless : the Father shaU receive thee, and
declare himself weU pleased with thee in his
weU-beloved Son, who hath covered thee with
his righteousness, and brought thee so clothed,
and set thee before him.
III. The third thing we are to consider
is, the reason binding on these duties of so
briety, watchfulnesa and prayer. The end of
all things is at hand.
It ia neceaaary often to remember this ;
for even beUevera too readily forget it ; and
it ia very suitable to the Apoatle'a foregoing
diacpurae pf judgment, and tp hia preaent
exhprtatipn tp apbriety and watchfulness
unto prayer, even the general end of all is
at hand ; though, since the Apostle wrote
thia, many agea are paat. For, . 1. The
Appstles usually speak of the 'whole time

A COMMENTARY UPON

2.')2after the coming of Jesua Christ in the fiesh,
aa the last time ; for that two double chi-
Uada of years past before it, the on^ before,
the Pther under the law : and in this third,
it is cpnceived, shaU be the end cif aU things.
And the Apeatles seem, by divers expres-
aiona, to have apprehended it in their days
not far off. So St. Paul, 1 Thess. iv. 17,
We which are alive, and remain, shall be
caught up together vnth them in ihe clouds.
As not irapossible, that it might come in
their time, which put him upon some ex
pUcation of that conection of their raistakes,
in his next epistle to them, wherein, not
withstanding he seema not tp assert any
great tract of tirae tp intervene, but in that
time great things were first tp cpme. 2.
However, this might always have been said
in respect of succeeding etemity. The
whole duration pf the world is not consider
able, and to the etemal Lord that made it,
and hath appointed its period, a thousand
years are but as one day. We think a
thousand years a great matter, in reapect of
our abort Ufe, and more through our short
sightedness, that look npt through this to
eternal Ufe ; But what is the utmoat length
of time, were it milUons of yeara, to a thought
of etemity I We find much rcpra in this
earth, but to the vast heavens it is but as a
point. Thus, that which is but small to
us, a field or little inclosure, a fly, had it
skUl, would divide it into provinces in pro
portion to itself. 3. Tp each man the end
of all things is, even after pur measure, at
hand ; fpr when he dies, the werld ends for
hira. Now, this consideration fits the sub
ject, and presses it strongly ; seeing aU
things shall be quickly at an end, even the
frame of heaven and earth, why should we,
knowing this, and having higher hopes, lay
out so much of our desires and endeavours
upon these things that are posting to ruin ?
It is no hard notion to be sober and watch
ful tp prayer, tp be trading that way, and
seeking higher things, and to be very raode
rate in these, which are of so short a date.
And as, in themselves, and their utraost
term, they are of short duration ; so more
evidently to each of us particularly, whp are
so soon cui off, and flee away. Why shpuld
our hearts cleave to those things frora which
we shall so quickly part, and from \vhich, if
we wiU not freely part, and let thera go, we
shaU be pulled away, and puUed with the
more pain, the closer we cleave, and faster
we are glued to them ?
This the Apostle St. Paul casts in sea
sonably, though many think it npt seaspn-
able at such times, when he is discpursing
of a great point of our Ufe, maniage, to work
Christian minds to a hply freedpm bpth
ways, whether they use it or no ; not to view
it, nor any thing here, with the world's
spectacles, which make it look so big, and

[chap. IVi

so fixed, but to see it in tne stream pf time
as passing by, and hp such great matter.
The fashion of ihis world passeth away,
vx^yii, 1 Cpr. vii. 31, as a pageant or
show in a street, going through and quickly
out of sight. What became of aU the mar.
riage solemnities of kings and princes of
former ages, which they were so taken up
with in their time ? When we read of them
described in history, they are as a night-
dream, or a day.fancy, which passes through
the mind and vanishes !
Oh 1 fppUsh man, that hunteth such poor
things, and wiU npt be caUed pff tiU death
benight hira, and finds his great work not
done, yea, not begun ; no, npr seripusly
thpught uf. Ypur buildings, ypur trading,
your lands, your matches, and friendships,
and projects, when they take with you, and
your hearta are after them, aay. But for how
Ipng aU theae ? Their end is at 'hand ;
therefore be sober, and watch unto prayer.
Leam tp divide better ; set apart more
hpurs for it, and fewer for them : Yeui
whple heart for it, and npne of it for them.
Seeing they wiU fail you so quickly, prevent
them. Becorae free ; lean not on theni tiU
they break, and you faU into the pit.
It is repprted pf pne, that, hearing the
5th nf Genesis read, so long lived, and yet
the burden stiU, they died, Enoch lived '
905, and he died, Seth 912, and he died,
Methuselah 969, and he died, he took so
deep the thought of death and eternity, that
it changed his whole frame, and set him
from a voluptuous to a raost strict and pious
course of life. How smaU a word wiU do
much, when Qod sets it intp the heart !
But sure this pne thing wpuld make the soul
raore calm and sober in the pursuit of present
things, if their term were truly coraputed
and conaidered. How aoon ahaU youth, and
health, and carnal deUghta, be at an end ?
Hpw sppn ahaU atate-craft, and king-craft,
and aU the great projects ef the higheat wits
and apirita, be laid in the dust ? This casta
a darap npon aU those fine things. But to
a soul acquainted with God, and, in affec
tion, rempved hence already, np thpught sp
sweet as this ; it helps much to carry it
cheerfully through wrestUngs and difficulties,
through better and worse ; they see land
near, and ahaU quickly be at heme ; that is
the way. The end of all things is at hand ;
An end pf a few pppr deUghts, and the
many vexatipns of this wretched life ; an
end of temptatipns and sins, the wprst pf all
evils ; yea, an end pf the imperfect fashipn
pf pur best things here, an end pf prayer
itself, tp which succeeds that new song of
endless praises.
Ve R. 8. And, above all things, have fervent charity
among yourselves: for charity shall cover the
multituue of sins.
The graces of the Spirit are an entirs

VER. 8,]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER,

253

frame, making up the new creature, and none
of them can be wanting ; therefore the doc
trine and exhortation pf the Aposties speak
of diem usually not only as inseparable, but
as one. But there is amongst them all
none more comprehensive than this of love,
insomuch that St. Paul caUs it the fulfilling
of the law, Rora. xiii. 10. Love to God is
the sum of aU relative to hira, and so like
wise is it towards our brethren. Love to
God is that which makes us live to him,
and be whoUy his ; that which raost power
fuUy weans us from this world, and causeth
us to deUght in coramunion with him, in holy
meditation and prayer. Now, the Apostle
adding here the duty of Christians to one
another, gives this as the prime, yea, the,
sum of all; Above all, have fervent love.
Concerning this, cpnsider, I. The nature
of it. II. The eminent degree of it. And,
IIL The exceUent fruit of it.
I. The nature ef this lpve. 1. It is an
unipn, therefpre caUed a bond pr chain, that
Unks things tpgether. 2. It is net a mere
extemal unipn, that hplds in custpms, pr
wprds, or outward caniage, but an union of
hearts. 3. It ia here not a natural, but a
spiritual supematural unipn ; it is that mu
tual love pf Christians as brethren. There
is a cprampn benevplence and gppd wiU due
tp all ; but a mpre particular uniting affec
tipn amongst Christians, which raakes them
interchangeably pne.
The devil being an apostate spirit, i*volt
ed and separated from God, doth naturaUy
project and work division. This was his
first exploit, and stiU his grand design and
business in the world. He first divided
man from God ; put them at an enraity by
the first sin of our first parents ; and the
next we read of in their first child, was en.
mity against his brother. So Satan is caU
ed by our Saviour, justly, a liar and a
murderer from ihe beginning, John viii
44 ; he murdered man by lying, and made
him a raurderer.
And as the devU's work is division.
Christ's wprk is unipn ; Jie came to dissolve
the works of the devil,' hxXirri, 1 John iii.
8, by a contrary work. He came to make
all friends ; tp re-cpUect and re-unite aU
men tp Gpd, and man to man ; and both
those unions hold in him by virtue of that
marvellous union of natures in his person,
and that mysterious union of the persons of
believers with him as their Head. So the
word, avxxt^aXuteuifair^xt, Eph. 1. 10, To
unite all in one Head.
This was his great project in all : this he
died and suffered for, and this he prayed
for, Jphn xvii. ; and this is strpng abpve all
ties, natural pr civil, unipn in Christ. This
they have that are indeed Christians ; diis
they pretend tn have, if they understpod it,
whp prpfess themselves Christians If Na

tural friendship be .capable uf that expres
sipn, one spirit in two bodies, Christian
urdpn hath it much mpre reaUy and prpper
ly : Fpr there is, indeed, pne Spirit, "mpre
extensive in aU the faithful ; yea, so one
spirit, that it makes them up into one body
more extensive : They ate not sp much aa
divers bpdies, only divers members of one
body. Npw, this lpve pf pur brethren is not an
pther frpm the lpve pf Gpd, it is but die
streaming fprth of it, pr the refiectipn pf it.
Jesus Christ sending in his Spirit into the
heart, unites it to God in himself by lpve,
which is indeed all, that loving of God su-
preraely and entirely, with all ihe mind and
soul, all the combined strength of the
heart I And then that same love, first
whpUy canied tp hira, is npt divided er im
paired by the lpve pf pur brethren, but is
dilated, as derived frpra the other. Gpd
allpws, yea, cpraraands, yea causes, that it
streara forth, and act itself toward thera ;
reraaining stiU in him, as in its source arid
centre ; beginning at him, and retuming to
hira, as the beams that diffuse themselves
from the sun, and the Ught and heat, yet
are not divided or cut off frpm it, but re
main in it, and, by emanatipn, issue frpm
it. Lpving pur brethren in Gpd, and for
hira ; not only because he commands us to
love them ; and so the law of love to him
ties us to it, as his will ; but because that
lpve of God doth naturally extend itself
thus, and acts thus ; in loving our brethren
after a spiritual Christian manner, we do
even in that love our God. '
Loving of Gpd makes us pne with Ged,
and SP gives us an irapressipn of his divine
bpunty in his Spirit ; and his love, the pro
per work of his Spirit, dweUing in the heart,
enlarges and dilates it, "as self-love contracts
and straitens it : So that as self-love is th&
perfect oppoaite to the lpve pf Gpd, it is
Ukewise sp to brptherly love ; it shuts out
and undoes both : And where the love of
God is rekindled and enters the heart, it
destroys and burns up self-love, and so car
riea the affection up to himaelf, and in him
fprth tp pur brethren.
This is that bitter rPPt pf aU enmity in
man against Ged, and ampngst men against
pne anpther, self, man's heart tumed frpm
Gpd tpwards hiraself ; arid the very wprk of
renewing grace is, to annul and destroy self,
to replace God in his right, that the heart,
and aU its affections and raotions, may be at
his disposal. So that, instead of self-will
and self-love that raled before, now the wiU
of God and the love of God comraand aU.
And where it is thus, there this ipiXa^Afm,
this love pf pur brethren, wiU be sincere.
Whence is it that wars, and cpnteata, and mu
tual disgracings and deapisinga, dp ao much
abpund, but that raen lpve themselves, .ind no-

A COMMENTARY UPON

254
thing but themselves, or in relatipn tp them
selves, as it pleases, or ia advantageous to
thera ? That is the standard and rale ; all is
canied by interest, ap thence are strifes and de
famings, and bittemess against one another ;
but the Spirit of Christ coming in, undoes aU
selfishness. And now, according to God,
what he wills and loves, that is law, and a
powerful law ; the law of love is so written
on the heart, that it obeys not unpleasantly,
but with delight, and knows no constraint,
but the sweet constraint of love. Tp fprgive
a wrong, to love even thine eneray for hira,
ia not only eaay now but delectable, although
a little while ago thou thoughteat it waa
quite impoaaible.
That Spirit of Chriat, which ia aU sweet
neaa and love, so calms and coraposes the
heart, that peace with God, and that un
speakably bleaaed correapondence of love with
him, doth so fiU the soul with lovingness and
sweetneaa, that it can breathe nothing elae
It hates npthing but sin, pities the sinner,
and canies tp the worst that love of good
wiU, desiring their retum and salvation. But
as for thoae, in whom appears the image of
their Father, their heart cleaves to thera as
brethren indeed. No natural advantages,
np birth, np beauty, npr wit, draws a Chris-
tian's lpve sp much, as the reserablance of
Christ ; wherever that is found, it is comely,
and lovely tp a soul that loves hira.
Much communion with God sweetens and
calms the mind, cures the distempers of pas
sion and pride, that are the avowed enemies
of love ; particularly prayer and love suit
weU. (1.) Prayer disposes tp tbis lpve ; he
that loveth not, knoweth not God, saith the
helpved Apostle, for God is love, John iv,
8. He that is raost conversant with love,
the spring of it, where it ia purest and fuU.
est, cannot but have the fullest raeaaure oi
it, flowing in frora thence into his heart, and
flowing forth frora thence unto hia brethren.
If they that use the society'of mild and good
men, are insensibly assirailated to thera, grow
lilfe them, and contract somewhat of their
temper ; much more doth famiUar walking
with God powerfuUy transform the soul into
his Ukeness ; makes it merciful and loving,
and ready to forgive, as he is. On the other
hand, (2.^ This love disposes to prayer, to pray to.
gether. Hearts must be consorted and tuned
together; otherwise, how can they sound the
same suits harraoniously ? How unpleasant,
in the exquisite ear ofGod, that made the ear,
are thejaningdisunited hearts, that often seem
to join in the sarae prayer, and yet are not
aet together in love. And while thpu pray
est alpne, while thy heart ia erabittered and
disaffected tp thy brother, although upon an
offence done tP thee, it is aa a miatuned in
straraent ; the strings are not accorded, are
not in tune amongst theraselves, and so the

[cuap, IV,

sound is harsh and offensive. Try^it well
thyself, and thou wUt perceive it ; how much
more he, to whom thou prayest, when thou
art stined, and in passion against thy bro-'^
ther, or not, on the contrary, lovingly affect
ed towards him ; what broken, disordered,
unfastened stuff are thy requests ! Therefore
the Lprd wiU have this dpne flrst, the heart
tuned ; Go thy way (says he), leave thy gift
and be reconciled to thy brother, then come
and offer thy gift, Matt. v. 23, 24.
Why is this sp much recpmmended by
Christ, and sp Uttle regarded by Christians ?
It is given by him as the characteristic and
badge pf his fpUowers, and of thera that pre.
tend to be so, how few wear it ! Oh ! a little
real Christianity were more worth than all
that empty profession and discourse, that we
think so much of. Hearts receiving die
mould and starap of this rule, these were hv.
ing copies ofthe gospel; ye are our epistle,
says the Apostie, 2 Cpr. iii. 2. We come
tpgether, and hear, and speak, sometimes of
one grace, and sometimes of another; and
the most never seek to have their hearts en-
riched with the possession of any of them.
We search not to the bpttom the perverseness
of our nature, and the guiltiness that is upon
us in these things ; or we shift off the con
viction, and flnd a way to forget it when the
hour is done.
That accursed rppt, self-lpve, that maker
raan an enemy tp Gpd, and men enemies anA
devourers one of another, whp sets to the
discovery and the displanting of it ? Who
bends the force of holy endeavours and pray^
er, suppUcating the hand of God for tha
plucking of it up ? Some natures are quieter
and make less noise, but tUl the heart be
possessed with the love of God, it shaU never
traly love either raen^ in that way due to aU,
or the children pf God in their peculiar re
lation. Among -yourselves. See] That is here
the point, the peculiar love of the aaints as
thy brethren, glorying and rejoicing in the
sarae Father ; as the sons of Gpd^ begotten.
again tp that lively hope pf glpry. Now
these, as they owe a bountiful dispoaition to
all, are rautuaUy to lpve pne anpther as bre-
thren. Thpu, that hatest and reprpachest the
gpdly, and the rapre they study tp walk as
the children pf their holy Father, hatest them
the raore, and art glad to flnd a spot on them
to ppint at, or wilt dash mire on them where
thou findest none ; know that thou art in this
the enemy of God ; know that the indignity
done to them, Jesus Christ wiU take as done
to himaelf ; truly we ¦ know that we have
passed from death unto life, because we love
the brethren : He that loveth not his bro
ther abideth in death, 1 John iii. 14. So
then renounce thia word, or else believe that
thou art yet far frora the Ufe of Chiist, that

VEH. 8.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

2.55

so hatest it in others. Oh 1 but Uiey are a' ther ; therefore caUed, Col. iii. 14, the bond

number of hypocrites, wilt thou aay. If they
oe so, this declares so much the raore thy
extrerae hatred of hoUness, that canat not
endure ao rauch aa the picture of it ; canat
not aee any thing like it, but thpu must let
fly at it. And tbis argues thy deep hatred
pf Gpd. Hpliness, in a. Christian, is the
image pf Gpd, and the hyppcrite, in the re
semblance of it, is the image of a Christian ;
so thou hatest the very image of the image of
God ; for, deceive not thyself, it is npt the
latent evil in hyppcrisy, but the apparent
gppd in it, that thou hatest. The profane
man thinks himself a great zealot against hy
pocrisy, he is StiU exclaiming against it ;
but it is only this he is angry at, that all
should not be ungodly ; wicked eneraies of
religion, as he is ; either dissolute, or raerely
civil; and the civil man is frequentiy the
bitterest enemy of aU strictness beyond his
own size, as condemning him, and therefore
he cries it down, as aU of it ialae and coun
terfeit warea.
Let rae entreat you, if you wpuld npt be
iownd fighters against God, let np revilinga
be heard amongat you, againat any who are,
or aeem to be, followers bf holiness. If ye
wiU not reverence it youraelvea, yet reverence
it in others, at least do not reproach it. It
should be your ambition, else why are you
wiUing to be caUed Chriatians ? But if you
will not pursue holiness, yet persecute it
not : If you wiU not have fervent love to
the saints, yet burn not with infemal heat of
fervent hatred against thera ; for, truly, that
is one of the most likely pledges of these
flames, and aociety with daraned apirits; as
love to the children of God is, of that in
heritance and society with them in glory.
You that are brethren, and united by that
purest and strongeat tie, aa you are one in
your Head, in your life derived frora hira,
in your hopea of glory with hira ; Seek to be
more one in heart ; in fervent love one to an
pther in hira. Cpnsider the cpinbinations
and concunences of the wicked against hira
and his little flock ; and let this provoke you
to raore united aft'ections. ShaU the scales
nf Leviathan, Job xli. 15, (as one aUudes,)
stick so close together, and shaU not the
merabers of Christ be raore one, and undi
vided : You that can resent it, stir up your
selves, to bewiiil the present divisions and
fears of raore ; entreat eaniesdy fpr that one
Spirit to act and wprk mpre ppwerfuUy in
the hearts pf his pepple,
II. We may pbserve the eminent degree pf
this lpve. 1. Its erainency arapngst the
graces, above all. 2. The high measure pf
itrequired, fervent lpve, [sxT£»i,] a high bent
pr strain pf it ; that which acts strpngly,, and
carries far,
•2. It is erainent, that which indeed ampng
Christians preserves aU, , and knits aU tpge-

of perfection, tP signify, that aU is bound
up by it. How can they pray together,
advance the name of their God, keep in and
stir up aU grace in one another, unless they
be united in love ? How can they have ac
cess to God, or feUowship with Hira who is
love, as St. John speaks, if_ instead of this
sweet temper there be rancour aud bitterness
araong thera ? So then, uncharitableness and
divisions araongst Christians, do not only
hinder their civil gppd, but their spiritual
rauch mpre ; and that pnly lucro cessante,
(as they speak,) intenupting the ways ot
rautual profiting, but damno emergenle, it
doth reaUy daraage then, and brings thera to
losses ; preys upon their graces, as hot wi
thering winds on herbs and plants. Where
the heart entertains either bitter malice, or
but uncharitable prejudices, there wiU be a
certain decay of spirituaUty in the whple soul.
2. Again, for the degree pi this love re
quired, it is not a cold indifferency, a nega
tive love, as I raay caU it, or not wilUng of
evil, nor a lukewarra wishing of good, but
fervent and active love ; for, if fervent, it wiU
be active, a fire that wiU not be smothered,
but wiU find a way tp extend itself.
III. The fraits pf this love follow. 1 .
Covering of evil, in this verse. 2. Doing
of good, verse 9, &c.
For the firat of theae, it ia aaid. Charity
shall cover the multitude of sins. The ex
pression is taken frora Solomon ; and as co
vering sina is represented as a main act of love,
ao love is commended by it, this being a
most uaeful and laudable act of it, that it
covers sins, and a multitude of sins.
Soloraon aaith, Prov. x. 12, aa the oppoai
tion cleara the aenae. Hatred stirs strife,
aggravates and raakea the worat of aU, but
love covers a multitude of sins ; it deUghts
not in undue diacloaing of brethren's failings,
doth not eye them rigidly, nor expoae them
wilUngly to the eyes of othera.
Now, thia recoraraends charity, in regard
of its continual usefulness and necesaity this
way, considering human frailty ; and ihat
in many things (as St. James speaks) we
all offend, James iii. 2 ; so that this is stiU
needful on all hands. What do they think
that are stiU picking at every appearing in
firmity of their brethren ; know they not that
the frailties lhat cleave to the saints of God
while they- are here, do stand in need of, and
caU for this mutual office of love, to cover
and pass them by ? Who ia there that atands
not in need of this ? If none, why are there
any that deny it to pthers ? There can be
no society npr entertaining of Chriatian con
verae without it ; giving (aa we apeak) al
lowance ; reckpiiing tp raeet with defects and
weaknesses pn aU hands ; cpvering the faiUngs
of one another, seeing it is needful from each
to another

256

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. IV.

Again, as the necessity of this commends
it, and the love whence it fiows, so there is
that laudable ingenuity in it, that should
draw us to the Uking of it. It is the bent
of the basest and most worthleas spirits to
be busy in the search and diacovery of others'
faiUngs, passing by aU that is commendable
and imitable ; as base fiies readily sitting
on any little sore they can find, rather than
upon the aound parta. But the raore excel
lent mind of a real Chriatian loves npt un-
neceaaarily tp tpuch, np, npr to look upon
thera, rather turns away ; such never uncover
their brother's sores, but to cure them ; and
np mpre than is necessary fer that end ; they
wpuld willingly have them hid, that neither
they npr pthers might see them.
This bars npt the judicial trial pf scanda-
Ipus offences, nor the delation of them, and
bringing them under due censure. The for
bearing of this is not charity, but both ini
quity and craelty ; and this cleaves too much
to many of us. They that cannot pass the
least touch of a wrong dpne te themselves, can
digest twenty high injuries done to God by
profane peraons about them, and reaent it
not ; and auch may be aaaured, that they are
yet deatitute of love to God, and pf Chris
tian lpve' tp their brethren, which springs
frpm it.
The uncovering of sin, necessary to the
curing of jt, is not only no breach of cha
rity, but is indeed a main point of it, and
the neglect of it the highest kind of cruelty.
But further than that goes, certainly this
rule teaches us the veiling of our brethren's
infirmities frpra the eyes pf others, and even
frpra Piir pwn, that we look npt pn them with
rigPur ; np, npr withput cprapassion.
1. Love is witty in finding out the fair
est construction of things doubtful, and this
is a great point. Take rae the best action
that can be naraed, pride and malice shaU
find a way to disgrace it, and put a hard vis
age upon it. Again, what is not unde-
luably evil, love wiU turn tp aU the ways ef
viewing it, tiU it find the best and mpst
favourable. 2. Where the thing is so plainly a sin,
that thia way of covering it can have no place,
yet then will love cpnsider what may lesaen
it rapst ; whether a surprise, pr strength of
teraptatipn, pr ignprance, aa pur Savipur,
Father, forgive ihem, for they know not
what they do, Luke xxiii. 34, pr natural
cpraplexipn ; pr at leaat wiU still take in
huraan frailty, tP turn aU the bitterness pf
paasipn intp sweet cprapassipn.
3. AU private repropfs, and where ecu-
science requires pubUc delation and censure,
even these )viU be sweetened in that cora
passion that flows from love. If it be such
a sore as must not be let Uecovered up, lest
it prove deadly, so that it must be uncovered
to be lanced and cut, that it may be cured,

StiU this is to be done as loving the soul of
the brother. Where the rule of conscience
urges it not, then thou must bury it, and be
so far from delighting te divulge such things,
that, as far as withput partaking in it thou
mayeat, thou must veil it from aU eyes, and
try the way of private admonition ; and if
the party appear to be hurable and wiUing to
be reclaimed, then forget it, cast it quite
out of thy thpughts, that, as much as may
be, thpu mayest learn tp forget mere. But
this, I say, is tp be dpne with the tenderest
bpwels pf pity, feeling the cuts thpu art forced
tp give in that necessary incisicn, and using
mildness and patience. Thus the Apostle
instracts his Timpthy, Reprove, rebuke,
exhort, but dp it with longsuffering, with
all long-suffering, 2 Tim. iv. 2. And even
them ihat oppose, instruct, says he, with
meekness ; if God peradventure will give
them repentance io ihe acknowledging of
the truth, chap. ii. ver. 25.
4. If thpu be interested in the offence,
even by unfeigned free forgiveness, so far as
thy concem goes, let it be as if it had not
been. And though thou meet with many of
these> charity wiU gain and grew by such
pccaaipna : And the mere it hath cevered,
the mpre it can cover, cover a multitude,
aaya pur Appatle ; covers all sins, says
Splpmpn ; yea, thpugh thpu be pften put U>
it by the sarae party, what raade thee fprgive
pnce, weU imprpved, wiU stretch our Savipur's
rule tp seventy times seven times in one day.
Matt, xviii. 21, 22.
And, traly, in this raen mistake grossly
that think it is greatness pf spirit tp resenf
wrongs, and baseness to forgive them; on
the contrary, it is the pnly exceUent spirit
scarce to feel a wrong, or, feeling, straight
to forgive it._ It is the greatest and best of
Spirits that enables to this, the Spirit of God,
that dove-like Spirit that rested pn our Lord
Jesua, and frora hira is derived to all that
are in him. I pray you think, ia it not a
token of a tender sickly body, to be altered
with every touch, from every blast it meets
i?ith ? And thus it is a sign pf a pppr weak
sickly apirit, tp endure npthing, tp be dia
terapered at the leaat air pf an injury ; yea,
Vith the very fancy pf it, where there is
reaUy npne.
Inf. 1. Leam theu to beware ef these
evUs, that are cpntearjr to this charity. Do
npt dispute with ypurselves in rigid remarks
and censures, when the matter wiU bear any
better sense.
2. Dp npt delight in tearing a wpund
wider, and stretching a real faiUng te the
utmust. 3. In handling pf it, study gendeness,
piety, and meekness. These will advance the
cure, whereas thy flying out into passion
against thy faUen brother, wiU prove nothing,
but as the putting of thy nail into the sore,

\Elt. 8.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

2i')7

that wiU readily rankle it, and make it wprse.
Even sin may be sinfully reprpved ; and hpw
thinkest thpu, that sin shall redreaa sin, and
reduce the sinner ?
There is a great deal cf spiritual art and
skiU in deaUng with another's sin : and it
requires much spirituality pf mind, and much
prudence, and much lpve, especiaUy a raind
clear frpm paaaipn, for that blinds the eye,
and makes the hand rough ; so that a man
neither rightly aeea nor handles the sore he
goes about to cure. And raany are lost
through the ignorance and neglect of that
due temper to be brought to this work. Men
think otherwiae, that their rigours are rauch
spirituality; but they mistake it. Gal. vi. 1,
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault,
ye which are spiritual, restore such an one
in the spirit of meekness, considering thy
self, lest thou also be tempted,
4. For thyself, as an offence touches thee,
leam to deUght as much in that divine way
of forgiveness, as carnal minds do in that
base inhuman way of revenge. It is not as
they judge, a glory to bluster and swagger
for every thing, but the glory of a man to
pass by a transgression, Prov. xix. 11.
This makes him God-Uke. And consider
thou pften that lpve that cpvers all thine,
that blood thatwas shed to wash off thy guilt ;
needs any more be said to gain aU in this
that can be required of thee ?
Npw, the pther fruit ef lpve, which is
doing good, is, 1. Expressed in pne parti
cular, ver. 9. Then dUated to a general
rule, ver. 10, wliich wiU be considered below.
Ver. 9. Use hospitality one to another without
grudgmg.
HospiTALiTT, or kindness to strangers,
is mentioned here as an important fruit of
love ; it being in those times and plapes, in
much use in travel, and particularly then
needful to be often exercised araong Chris
tians one tp anpther, by reaspn pf hpt and
general persecutions. But under this name
I conceive aU other supply of the wants of
our brethren iu outward things tp be here
cpmprehended. Npw, fpr this, the way and raeasure, in
deed, must receive its prppprtipu frpm the
estate and abiUty pf perspns. But certain
ly the great straitening pf hands in these
things, is mnre frpra the straitness pf hearts
than pf raeans. A large heart, with a little
estate, will dp much with cheerfulness and
Uttle npise, while hearts glued tp the poor
riches they possess, or rather are possessed
by, can scarce part with any thing, tiU they
bepuUed from aU.
Now, for supply of pur brethren's necessi
ties, pne gppd help ia, the retrenching pf
our pwn auperfluities. Turn the stream intp
that channel where it will refresh thy bre
thren, and enrich thyself, and let it npt run

intp the dead sea. Thy vain excessive enter
tainments, thy gaudy variety pf dresses,
these thpu dpst npt challenge, thinking it is
nf thine pwn ; but knpw, as fpUpws, thou art
but steward of it, and this is not faithfully
laying out ; thou canst not answer for it ;
yea, it is robbery; thpu rpbbest thy pppr
brethren that want necessaries, whilst thou
lavishest thus on unneceaaariea. Such a
feaat, auch a suit of apparel, is direct rob
bery in the Lord's eye, and the poor may
cry. That is raine that you cast away so
vainly, by which both I and you might be
proflted, Prov. iii. 27, 28, Withhold nol
good from him, therefore, io whom it is
due, &c.
Without grudging.] Some look to the
actipns, but few to the intention and posture
of raind in thera ; and yet that is the main ;
it is indeed aU, even with men, so far aa
they can perceive it ; much raore with thy
Lord, who always perceives it to the fuU.
He delights in the gppd he dpea his crea
tures : He would have them so affected to
one another, especiaUy would see his chil
dren to have tbis frace of his likeness. See,
then, when thou givest alms, or entertainest
a stranger, that there be nothing either of
under grumbling, or crooked self-seeking in
it. Let the left hand have no hand in it,
not so rauch as know of it, as our Saviour
directs. Matt. vi. 3 ; not to please raen, or
to please thyself, or simply out of a natural
pity or conaideration of thy own possible in
cidency into the like caae, which many think'
very weU, if they be so moved : But if there
be here a higher principle moving thee, love
to God, and to thy brother, in, and fpr him,
this will make it cheerful and pleasant to
thyself, and weU pleasing to him fpr whpm
thpu' dpst it. We Ipse much in actions, of
themselves good, both of piety and charity,
through disregard of our hearts in them ; and
nothing will prevail with ua, to be more in
tent this way, to look rapre pn our hearts, but
this, to look raore on him that Ippks on them,
and judges and accepts aU according to them.
Though aU the sins of former ages gather,
and faU into the latter tiraes, this is point
ed put as the grand evil, uncharitableness.
The Appstie St. Paul, 2 Tira. iU. 2, teUs ua.
That in the last day, men shall be covetous,
slanderers, lovers of pleasures more than
lovers of God : But hpw, frpm whence all
this cpnfluence pf evils ? The spring pf all
is set first, and that is the direct ppppsite
pf Christian lpve ; they shall be [(fiXxvroi]
lovers of themselves. This is it, that kills
the lpve pf Gpd, and the leve pf pur bre
thren, and kindles that infemal fire of love
to please themselves ; so that riches make
men voluptuous and covetous, &e. Traly,
whatsoever becorae of raen's curious compu
tation of times, this wretched selfishness and
decay of lpve may save us the labpur pf
R

253

A CO.'^IMENTARY UPON

[chap. IV,

much cJironological debate in this, and lead
us frpm this certain character pf them, tp
conclude these to be the latter times, in a
very strict sense. AU other sins are come
down along, and run corabined now ; but
truly uncharitableness ia the raain pne. As
old age is a rendezvous or raeeting place of
maladies, but especially subject to cold dis
eases : Thus is it in the old age of the
world, raany sins abound, but especiaUy
coldness of iPve, aa our Saviour fpretella it,
that in the lasi days the love of many
shall wax cold. Matt. xxiv. 12. Aa the
diaease of the youth of the world, waa the
abounding of lust. Gen. vi, ao of ita age,
decay of love : And as that heat called for
a total deluge of waters ; ap this cpldness for
fire, to the kindling an universal fire, that shaU
make an end of it and the world together.*
But they alone ate the happy raen, and
have the advantage of aU the world, in whora
the world ia burnt up beforehand hy another
fire ; that divine fire of the love of God
kindled in their hearta, by which they aa-
cend up to hira, and are reflected from him
upon their brethren, with a benign heat and
influence for their good. Oh ! be unaatis-
fled with yourselves, and restless tiU you
find it thus, tiU you find your hearts poa-
seased with thia excellent grace of love, that
you may have it, and uae it, and it may grow
by uaing and acting. I could, methinka,
heartily atudy on this, and weary you with
reiterated pressing this one thing, if there
were hopea in ao wearying you, to weary you
put pf theae evila that are cpntrary tp it ; and
in pressing thia grace, to raake any real ira
preasien pf it uppn ypur hearts : Besides aU
the further good that follows it, there is in
this love itself, so much peace and sweetnesa,
aa abundantly paya itaelf, ; and aU the labour
of it ; whereas pride and malice do fiU the
heart with continual vexationa and diaquiet,
and eat out the very bowela wherein they
breed. Aspire to this, to be wholly bent,
not only to procure or desire hurt to none,
but to wish and seek the good of all ; and,
for those that are in Chriat, aure that will
unite thy heart to thera, and stir thee up,
according to thy opportunitiea and power,
to do thein good, aa parta of Chriat, and of
the aarae body with thyself.
Vbb. 10- As every man hath received the gift,
even so minister the same one to another, as good
stewards of the manifold grace of God.
This is the rule conceming the gifts and
graces beatowed on men ; and we have here,
1. Their difference in their kind and mea
sure. 2. Their concordance in their source
and use.
1. Their difference in their kind and raea
sure, which is expreaaed in the firat clauae,
as every one hath received. Then again in

the laat clause, [,roi«i>,.ii :^x^is] various or
manifold grace, where x'^V't grace, is aB
one with the forraer, ^x^urinx, gift, and is
taken at large for aU kind of endowments
and furniture by which raen are enabled to
mutual good. One man hath richea, an
other authority and command, another wit
or eloquence, or learning ; and aome, though
erainent in aorae one, yet have a fuUer con
juncture of divers of these. We find not
rapre difference in viaages and atatures of
body, than in quaUfications and abilitiea of
the raind, which are the viaage and stature
of it ; yea, the odds ia far greater betwixt
raan and raan in thia than it can be in the
other. Now, thia difference accords weU, 2dly,
With the accprdance here expressed in their
cprarapn spring and cpmraon use ; for the
variety of these many gifts suits well with
the singular riches and wiadpra pf their one
Giver, and with the common advantage and
benefit of the many receivers. And in the
uaefulnesa of that variety tp the receivers
shines fprth the bpunty and wisdom of the
Giver, in so ordering aU that diversity to
one excellent end ; so this manifold grace
-jToiKiXTi x^V^ here, commends that foXv-
rroiKiXos cniptx, manifold wisdom, that the
Apostle speaka of, Eph. iii. 10.
There ia auch an admirable beauty in this
variety, such a symraetry and conteraperaturs
of different, yea, of contrary qualities, as
speaks his richea, that ao divera gifts are
frora the same Spirit. A kind of embroi
dering,* of many colours happily mixed, as
the word trom/XXsiv signifies ; as it is in the
frarae of the natural body of raan as the
lesser world, and in the composure of the
greater world ; thua in the Church pf Gpd,
the myatical body of Jeaua Chriat, exceeding
both the forraer in exceUency and beauty.
And aa there is such art in thia contri
vance, and auch coraeliness in the resulting
frarae, so it is no less useful ; and that
chiefly comraends the thing itself, and the
suprerae wisdom ordering it, that aa, in the
body, each part hath not pnly ita place for
proportion and order, but each its use ; and
as, in the world, each part is beneficial to
another ; so here, every raan'a gift relates,
and is fitted, to some uae for the good of
othera. Inf. 1. The firat thing which meeta us
here is very useful to know, that aU is re
ceived, and received of g'lft, of most free
gift ; ao the worda do carry. Now,, this
should moat reaaonably check aU murmur
ing in those that receive least ; and insult
ing in those that receive most ; whatever it
is, do riot repine, but praise, hpw littie
spever it is, for it is a free gift. Again,
hpw much spever it is, be not high-minded,

• Aqua propter ardorem libidinia, ignis propter • The Psahnist's word for the body, Psal. cxxxi;(.
(£[iorem charitatis. IS, is, curiously wrought

VEU. 10.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

250

but fear; bpaat npt thyself, but humbly
bless thy Lprd ; for if thou hast received it,
how canst thou boast? 1 Cpr. iv, 7-
2, Every man hath received spme gift, np
man aU gifts ; and this, rightly cpnsidered,
wpuld keep aU in a mpre even temper ; as,
in nature, npthing is altpgether useless, sp
npthing is self-sufiBcient : This duly cpn
sidered, wpuld keep the meanest frpra repin
ing and discpntent, even hira that hath the
Ipwest rank in mpst respects ; yet spraething
he hath received, that is npt pnly a gppd tP
himself, but, righdy iraprpved, raay be so to
others Ukewise, And this wiU curb the
Ipftiness pf the moat advanced, and teach
them, not only to see sprae deficiencies in
themselves, and sprae gifts in far meaner
perspns, whicii they want : But, besides the
simple discpvery pf this, it wiU put thera
uppn the use pf what is in Ipwer perspns, not
only to stoop to the acknowledgraent, hut
even, withal, to the participation and benefit
of it ; not to traraple uppn aU that is below
thera, but to take up, and use things useful,
though lying at their feet. Sorae flowers and
herbs that grow very low, are of a very fra
grant sraeU, and healthful use.
Thou that earnest it so high, losest much
by it. Many poor Christians whora thou
despisest to raake use of, raay have that in
them which might be very useful fpr thee,
thpugh thpu pverlookest it, and treadest on it.
St. Paul acknowledgeth he was comforted by
the coming of Titus, thpugh far inferior to
him. Sometiraes a very mean illiterate Chris
tian may speak more profitably and comfort
ably, even to a knowing learned raan, than
multitudes of his pwn beat thpughta can dp,
eapeciaUy in a time pf weakneaa and darkneaa.
3. Aa aU ia received, and with that differ
ence, SP the third thing is, that aU is receiv
ed, io minister io each other ; and rautual
benefit is the true use pf aU, suiting the mind
of him that dispenses aU, and the way pf his
diapenaatlon. Thou art not proprietary lord
of any thing thpu hast, but oixovof£o;, a ste
ward ; and therefore pughtest gladly to be
a good steward, that ia, both faithful and
prudent in thy intruated gifta, uaing all thou
haat to the geod of the houaehold, and ao to
the advantage pf thy Lprd and maater. Hast
thpu abUitiea of estate, pr bpdy, pr mind ?
let all be thus eraplpyed. Thinkest thou
that thy wealth, or power, or wit, is thine,
to do with thera as thpu wilt, tp engrpaa to
thyaelf either to retain useleaa, pr tp uae ; tp
hpard and wrap up, pr tp laviah put, accprd
ing aa thy hurapur leada thee ? Np, aU ia
given, as tp a steward, wisely and faithfuUy
to lay up and lay out. Not only thy outward
and coraraon gifta of mind, but even saving
grace, which seema raoat intereated and ap
propriated for thy private good, yet ia not
wholly for that ; even thy graces are for the
gppd pf thy brethren.

Oh ! that we wpuld cpnsider this in all,
and lppk back and mourn on the fruitleasneas
of aU that hath been in our hand aU our life
hitherto. If it have not been whoUy fruit
lesa, yet, how far abort of that fruit we niight
have brpught fprth ! any litde thing dpne by
us Ippks big in pur eye ; we view it thrpugh
a magnifying glass ; but who may not com
plain that their means, and health, and op
portunitiea, of several kinds, of doing for
God, and fpr pur brethren, have lain dead
uppn their hands in a great part '? Aa Chris
tians are defective in pther-duties pf lpve, so
most in that most important duty, of ad
vancing the spiritual good of each other.
Even they that have grace, do not duly use
it ' to mutual edification. I desire none to
leap pver the bpunds pf-their calUng, pr rules
ef Christian prudence in their cpnverse ; yea,
this were much tp be blamed ; but I fear lest
unwary hands, throwing on water to quench
that evil, have let some of it faU by upon
those sparks, that should rather have been
atined and blown up.
Neither ahpuld the diaprppprtipn of gifta
and gracea hinder Chriatians to rainister one
to another, nor raove tlie weaker to envy the
stronger, nor the stronger to deapiae the weak
er ;^ but each ia, in his place, to be service
able to another ; aa the Apostle exceUentlj
presses by that most fit reserablance of the
parts of the body, 1 Cor. xii. 15, 21, As ihe
foot says not, why am I noi the eye, or the
head ; the head cannot say of the foot, I
have no need of ihee. There ia oo envy,
no deapising, in the natural body. Oh !
what pity is it there ahould be so much in
the mystical ! Were we more apiritual, this
would leaa be found. In the mean tirae.
Oh ! that we were more agreeable to that
happy estate we look for, in our preaent as
pect and caniage one to another. Though
aU graces are, in some measure, where there
is one, yet aU not in a like measure. One
Christian is more eminent in meekness, an
other in huraUity, a third in zeal, &c. ,Npw
by their spiritual converse, one with another,
each may be a gainer ; and raany ways raay
a private Christian promote the good of
Pthers, with whpm he Uves, by seaspnable
adraonitions, and advice, and reproof, sweet
ened with raeekness : bal: raost by holy ex
ample, which is the raost lively, and most
effeqtual speech.
Thou that hast greater gifts, hast more
entrusted in thy baud, and therefore the
raore engageraent in fidelity and diligence.
Men in great place and public services, ought
to stir theraselves up by this thought to sin
gular watchfulnesa and zeal ; and, in private
converae one with another, to be doing and
receiving spiritual good. Are we not stran
gers here ; and is it not strange that we so
often meet and part, without a word of our
home, ¦ pr the way to it, or our advancauent

A COMMENTARY UPON

250 *
tpwards it ? Christians should be trading ]
pne with anpther in spiritual things ; and ,
he, sure, that faithfuUy useth mpat, receives 1
most. That is comprehended under that
word, Blatth. xxv. 29, To him that Hath
(i. e. poaaeases actively and usefully), shall
be given ; and from him that hath not {i. tr.
uses not), shall be taken away even that
which he hath. Merchants can feel in their
trading a dead time, and coraplain aerioualy
of it ; but Chriatians in theirs, either can
suffer it, and not aee it, or aee it, and not
coraplain ; or, posaibly, complain, and yet
not be deeply aensible of it.
Certainly it cannot be sufficiently regretted,
that we are sp fruatlesa in the Lprd'a work
in this kind, that when we are alone we atudy
it not more, nor aeek it raore by prayer, to
know the true uae of all we receive, and do
not in society endeavour it accordingly ; but
we trifle out pur time ; and instead of the
commerce of grace, to our rautual enriching,
we trade in vanity, and aa it were children
exchanging shells and toya together.
Thia surely will lie heavy upon the con
science when we reflect on it, and ahaU come
near the brink of time, looking forwarda on
eternity ; and the looking back to our daya,
ao vainly wasted, and worn out to ao little
purpose. Oh ! let us awake, awake ourselves
anti one another, to more fruitlessness and
faithfulneaa, whatsoever be pur received raea
aure, less or raore.
Be not discouraged ; to have little in the
account shall be no prejudice. The appro
bation runs not. Thou hadst much ; but, on
the contrary, Thou hast been faithful in
little : Great faithfulness in the uae of amaU
gifts hath great acceptance, and a great and
sure reward. Great receipts engage to great
er retums, and therefore require the greater
diligence ; and that not only for the increase
of grace within, but the assistance of it in
others. Retired contemplation may be more
Jileasing ; but due activity for God and his
Church is more profitable. Rachel was
fair, but she was banen ; Leah, blear-eyed,
but fruitful.
Vkr. 11. If any man speak, let him speak as the
oracles of God : If any man minister, let him do
it as of rhe ability which God giveth ; that God
in all things may be glorified tlirough Jesus
Christ: to whom he pniise and dominion for
ever and ever. Amen.
Every part of the body of Christ, as it
partakes life with the rest, imparts service
tothe rest ; but there be aome raore erainent,
and, aa I may aay, organic parta of this body,
and these are raore erainently useful to the
whole. Therefore the Apoatle, having en
larged hiraaelf into a general precept, adda a
word in special to these apecial parta, the
preachers ofthe word, and (which here I con
ceive ia meant by deacona or miniaters) the
other assistant officers pf the church of Gpd.

[chap, ir.

These are cp-prdained by Jesus Christ, as
Lprd pf his pwn hpuse, tp be serviceable to
hira in it. He flts and sanctifies for this
great wprk aU whp are caUed untp it by him
self, and they are directed fer the acquitting,
pf their great wprk : (1.) By a clear rale pf
the due manner. (2.) By a view of the
main end pf its apppintment.
Particular rules fpr the preaching pf the
wprd may be raany, but this is a rapst cpra
prehensive one which the Apostle gives ; //
any man speak, let Mm speak as' the ora
cles of God. It is clear frora the rule what
apeaking is regulated, and for brevity once
expreased. If any speak the oracles of God,
let him speak them Uke theraaelves, as the
oracles of God.
It ia a chief thing in all serioua actiona to
take the nature of thera aright, for thia chief
ly regulatea them, and directa them in their,
performance. And this especially should be
regarded in thoae thinga, that are of highest
worth and greatest weight, in apiritual em-
ploymenta, wherein it is most dangerous, and
yet wi th us most ordinary, to miatake and mis
carry. Were prayer considered aa preaence
and apeech with the great God, the King of
glory. Oh ! how would thia mould the mind !
What a watchful, holy, and humble deport
ment would it teach ! So that traly aU
directiona for prayer raight be summed up
after this same model in thia one, if any man
pray, let hira apeak as speaking with God ;.
just as here for preaching, if any man speak
in that way, let hira do it as speaking from,
God, that ia, as the oracles of God. Under
thia, all the due qualificationa of this holy
work are comprised : I shaU name but these
three which are prime, and others may be
easily reduced to these : 1. Faithfully. 2.
Holily. 3. Wisely.
In the firat. Fidelity, it is supposed that a
man have competent insight and knowledge
in theae divine oraclea, that firat he learn be
fore he teach. Which many of ua do not,
though we paaa through the achoola and clasa-
ea, and through the books too, wherein these
thinga are taught, and bring with us sorae
provision, auch aa raay be had there. He
diat would faithfuUy teach of God rauat be
taught of God, be I'.o^i^xktos, God-learn-
ed ; and thia wiU help to all the reat ; this
wiU effectuaUy engage hira to be faithful in
delivering the raessage as he receives it, not
detracting or adding, nor altering ; and as in
setting fprth that in general truths, so in the
particular setting them home, declaring to.
his people iheir sins, and God's judg
ments fpUowing sin, especiaUy in his own
people. 2. A minister should speak holily : With
the highest esteem and reverence of the great
Majesty whose message he caniea, and the
di.vinity pf the raeaaage itaelf: these deep
myateries that np created spirits are able to

VEK, 11.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

2fil

fatlipm. Oh 1 this wpuld raake us trerable
in the dispensing of these oracles, consider.
ing our impurities, and weaknesses, and un
speakable disproportion to sp high a task.
He had reaspn that said, " I am seized with
amazement and liprrpr as pften as I begin tp
speak of God," And with this liumhle re
verence is to be joined ardent love to our
Lord, to his truth, to his glory, and his peo
ple's souls. These holy affections stand op
posite to pur bUnd bpldness in rushing pn
thia aubUme exercise, as a cprarapn wprk :
Our dead cpldneaa in speaking thinga which
pur hearts are net warraed with ; and sp np
wpnder thpugh what we say aeldpra reachea
further than the ear, or, at furtheat, than the
understanding aud raemory, of our hearers.
There ia a correspondence : it is the heart
speaks to the heart, and the underatanding
and raemory the same ; and the tongue
speaks but to the ear. Further, this holy
temper ahuta out aU private paaaion in deU
vering divine trutha. It ia high profaning
of' hia name and holy thinga to make them
speak our private pleas and quanels ; yea, tp
reprove sin after this manner is a heinous
sin ; to fiy out into invectives, that, though
not expressed so, yet are aimed as blows of
self-revenge for injuries done to us, or fancied
by us. This ia to wind and draw the holy
word of God to serve our unhply diaterapera,
and make it apeak net His raeaning, but pur
own. Sure this is not to speak as the oracles
of God, but basely to abuse the word, aa ira-
postora in religion of old did their iraages
speaking behind thera and through them
what might make for their advantage. It is
indeed very trae, that the word is to be par
ticularly appUed, to reprove most the parti
cular sina which most abpund araongst a peo
pie : but thia is to be done, not in anger, but
in love. Which leads to add,
' 3. That the word is to be spoken wisely.
By thia I mean, in the way of deUvering it,
that it be done gravely and decently ; that
light expreaaiona, and affected fiourishes, and
unseemly gestures, be avoided ; and that
there be a aweet contemperature of authority
and raildness : But who is sufficient for
these things ? 2 Cor. ii. 10.
Now, you that hear would certainly meet
and suit in this too. If any hear, let him
hear as ihe oracles of God : Not as a weU-
tuned sound, to help you to sleep an hour :
Not as a huraan speech or oration, to diapleaae
or please you an hour, according to the suit-
;rg of its strain and vour palate : Not as a
school lesson, to add spmewhat to a stock of
knowledge ; to teU you soraewhat ypu knew
not befpre, pr as a feast pf new nptipns. Thus
the rapst relish a preacher, while they try
hia gift, and it is new with them, whereaa a
little time disgusts them. But hear as ihe
'oracles of God, the discpvery Pf sin, and
death lying pn us, and the dis'cOvery of

Saviour, that takes theae off: The aweet
word of reconcUiation, God wooing man ;
the Great King entreating for peace with a
corapany of rebela ; not that they are too
strong for him ; Oh 1 no, but on the con
trary, he could utterly destroy them in one
moment. These are the thinga brought ypu
ia tlni.tvprd ; therefore come to it with auita
ble reveipnce, with ardent deairea, and hearta
open to receive it with meekness, as the in
grafted word ihat is able to save your souls,
James i. 21. It were well worth one day's
pains of speaking and hearing, that we could
learn apraewhat, atleast hpw tp apeak and hear
henceforward ; tp speak and hear as ihe ora
cles 6f God.
Ih the Pther, pf ministering as of ihe
ability ihat God giveth, we may observe,
I. Ability, and that received frpm Gpd ; for
other there ia none for any good work, and
leaat of aU for the peculiar miniatration of
hia spiritual affairs in his house. 2. The
uaing of this abiUty received from him for
them. And this truly is a chief thing for minis-
tera, and for each Christian, still to depend
on the influence and strength of God ; to do
all his works in that strength ; the humblest
Christian, how weak soever, is the strongest.
There ia a natural wretched independency
in us, that we would be the authora of oui
own wprks, and dp all without Hira, with
out whom indeed we can do npthing. I/et
us learn to go more out of ourselves, and we
shall find more strength for our duties, and
against our temptations. Faith's great work
ia, to renounce aelf-power, and to bring in
the power of God to be oura. Happy they
that are weakeat in themselvea, moat aenaibly
so. That word of the Apostle is theirs ;
they know what it raeans, though a riddle to
the world ; When I am weak, then am I
strong, 2 Cor. xii. 10. Now,
2. The end of aU this appointraent is,
that in all God may be glorified through
Jesus Christ ! All meet in this, if they
move in their straight Une, here they concen
tre : Not pnly these twp sorts specified in
this verse, but aU sorts of peraona that use
aright any gift of God, as they are generally
comprehended in the former verae ; for this
end relates to aU, aa it ia expreaaed univer
sally. That in all, in aU perspns, and all
things ; the wprd bears bpth, and the thing
itself extenda tp both.
Here we have, Uke that of the heavens, a
circular raotion of aU sanctified good ; il
comes forth from God, through Chriat, unto
Christians ; and, raoving in them to the
mutual good of each pther, retums thrpugh
Christ untp Gpd again, and takes them alpng
with it, in whpm it was and had its mptipn.
All perspns and things shaU pay this tit.
bute, even they that raost wickedly seek to
withhold it ; but this is the happiness cf

282

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. iv._

ihe saints, that they move wilUngly thua,
are sweetiy drawn, not forced or driven.
They are gained to aeek and desire this, to
set in with God in the intention of the aarae
end ; to have the aame purpose with hira,
his glory in aU, and to prosecute his end by
his direction, the means and ways he appoints
thera. This is his due, as God ; and the declin
ing from this, squinting frora thia view to
self-enda, eapeciaUy in God'a own pecuUar
work, is high treason ; yet the base heart
of man leads naturaUy thia way, to intend
hiraaelf in all, to raise his own esteem or ad
vantage in some way.
And in thia the heart ia so subtle, that it
wiU deceive the noat discerning, if they be
not constant in suspecting and watching it.
This is the great task to overcorae in this
point. To have self under our feet, and God
only in our eye and purpose in all.
It is raost reasbnable, his due as God, the
Author of aU, not only of aU supervenient
good, but even of being itself, seeing aU is
from him, that aU be for him, Rpra. xi.
sdi. For of him, and through him, and to
him, are all things : To whom be glory for
ever. Amen.
As it ia meat just, sp it is alsp mpst
sweet, tp aira at aU this, that God be glori
fied: It is the alpne worthy and happy de-
iiign that fiUs the heart with heavenliness, and
with a heavenly calraness ; sets it above
the clouds and atprma pf those passions that
disquiet low self-seeking minds. He is
a raiserable unsetded wretch, that cleaves
.to himself and forgets God; is perplexed
about his credit, and gain, and baae enda,
which are often breke ; and which when he
attains, yet they and he must shprtly periah
tpgether- When hia eatate nr deaigna.
or any coraforta fail, how can he look to Hira
whora he looked so little at before ? May
not the Lord aay. Go io ihe gods whom thou
hast served, and let them deliver and com
fort thee $ Seek corafort frora thyaelf, aa
thou didst all for thyself. What an appal
ment wiU this be ? But he that hath re
signed hiraself, aiid is aU for God, may aay
confidently, that the Lord is his portion.
This is the Chriatian's aim, to have no
thing in himaelf, nor in any thing, but in
thia tenure ; aU for the glory of my God,
my estate, faraily, abilitiea, my whole aelf,
aU I have and ara. And aa the love of God
grows in the heart, this purpoae growa ; the
higher the fiame riaea, the purer it is ; the
eye is daUy more uppn it ; it is pftener in
the raind in aU actions than before. In
coraraon thinga, the very worka of our call-
inga, our very refreabmenta, to eat, and drink,
and sleep, are all for this end ; and with a
particular aira at it as rauch aa may be ; even
the thought of it often renewed throughout
the day, and at timea, generally applied to

aU pur waya and employments. It ia that
eUxir that turna thy ordinary wprks into gold,
intp aacrificea, by touch pf it.
Throsigh Jesus Christ.] The Chriatian
in cpvenant with Gpd, receives aU this way,
and retums all this way : and Christ ppssess.
es and hath equal right with the Father tn
this glory, as he is equaUy the spring of it
with hira as God.' But it is conveyed
through him as Mediator, that obtains aU the
grace we receive ; and aU the glory we return,
and aU our praise, as our spiritual sacriflce,
is put into his handa, aa our high-prieat, to
pffer up fpr us, that they may be accepted.
Npw the holy ardour of the Apostle's
affections, taken with the mention of this
glory of God, canies him to a doxology, as
we term it, a rendering ef glpry in the middle
pf hia diacpurae. Thua often we fiud in St.
Paul Ukewiae. Poor and short-lived ia the
glory and grandeur of men ; Uke themaelvea,
it is a ahadow, and nothing ; but this is sohd
and lasting, it is supreme, and abideth /or
ever. And the Appstles, full ef divine
affectipns, and adrairing nething but God, do
deljght in this, and cannot refrain frpm this
at any time in their disceurse ; it ia alwaya
sweet and seaannable, and they find it ao.
And thua are apiritual rainds ; a word of this
nature falla on thera as a spark on aome
matter that readUy takea fire ; they are
atraight inflamed with it. But alas ! to us
how much is it otherwise ! The mention
of the praises and glory of our God, is to
our hearts aa a apark faUing either intp
a puddle pf water, and foul water tep, pr
at least aa uppn green tiraber, that rauch
fire wiU not kindle : So much rapisture of
our humours and corruptions, that all dies
out with us, and we remain cold and dead.
But were not this a high and blessed con
dition, to be in all eatatea in aorae wUling
readineaa to bear a part in thia song, to ac
knpwledge the greatneaa and gopdneaa pf our
God, .-md to wish him glory in all ?
What are the angels doing ? This is theii
buaineaa without end. And seeing we hope
to partake with them, we should even here,
though in a lower key, and not so tunably
neither, yet as we raay begin it : And upon
aU occasions, our hearts should be often fel-
Ipwing in this sweet note, pr pffering at it,"
To him be glory and dominion for ever.
'Ver. 13. Beloved, think it not strange conceming
the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some
strange thing happened unto you :
Ver. 13. But rejoice, inasmuch as you are parta
kers of Christ's sufl'erings i that when his glory
shall he revealed, ye may be glad also with ex
ceeding joy.
This fighting life, surely, when we con
sider it aright, we need npt be dissuaded
frpra Ipving it, but have rather need tp be
atrengthened with patience to go thrpugh,
and to fight on with courage and aaaurance
of victpry; stiU cpmbating in a higher

VEU. 12, 13.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

2G3

strength than put own, against ain within,
and troubles without. This ia the great
scope of this epiade, and the Apoatle often
interchanges hia advicea and coraforts in re
ference to theae two. Against sin he in
structs us in the beginning of this chapter,
and here again, against suffering, and both
in a like way ; and urges us to be arraed,
armed with the same mind that waa in Chriat.
After the aarae manner in the raortifying of
sin, we suffer with him, as there he teachea,
ver. 1. of thia chapter; and in the encounter
ing pf afflictipn we suffer with him, aa here
we have it ; and sp the same mind in the
same sufferings, will bring us te the same
issue. Beloved, think it noi strange con
cerning ihe fiery trial which is to try you.
See. But rejjoice, inasmuch as ye are par
takers of Christ's sufferings ; that when
his glory shall be revealed, ye likewise may
be glad with exceeding joy.
The wprds to the end of the chapter con
tain grounds of encourageraent and consola
tion for the children cf Gpd in sufferings,
'e.speciaUy in suffering fpr Gpd.
These two veraea have theae two thinga :
1. The cloae conjunction of aufferinga
with the eatate of a Chriatian. 2. The due
cpmposure of a Christian toward suffering.
1. The connexion of sufferinga with the
eatate of a Chriatian ; it ia no new, and there
fore no' atrange thing, that sufferings, hot
sufferinga, fiery ones, be the corapanions of
religion ; besides the coraraon miseries of hu
man life, there ia an acceaaion of trpublea
and hatreda fer that hpliness of Ufe tp which
the children pf Gpd are called.
It was the Ipt of the Church from her
wicked neighbours, and in the Church, the
moat holy and peculiar aervants of God from
,the profane raultitude. Woe is me, my
mother, (says Jeremiah,) thou hasi born
me a man of contentions, Jer. xv. 10.
And of all the Prophets, says not our Saviour,
handUng this same argument in his sermon,
So persecuted they the Prophets ihat were
before you ? Matt. v. 12. And afterwards
tells thera what they raight look for. Be
hold, says he, / send you forth as sheep
in the midst of wolves. Matt. x. 16. And,
in general, there is no following of Christ,
but with his badge and burden. Soraething
is to be left, we purselves are tp be left ;
whosoever will be my disciple, let him deny
himself ; and soraewhat to take ; take up
my cross and follow me. Matt. xv. 24.
And doth not the Apoade give hia scholars
this universal lesson, aa an infallible truth,
all ihat will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution ? Lppk in the clpse
of that roll of beUevers conquering in auffer.
ing, what a cluster of aufferinga and torture
you have, Heb. vi. 30, 37, &c. Thus in
the priraitive timea, the trial, and fiery trial,
even literally so, continued long ; these

wicked emperors hated the very innocency of
Christians : and the people, though they
knew their blameleaa caniage, yet when any
evU came, would pick thia quanel, and stiU
cry, Christianos ad leones.
Now this, if we look to inferior causes,
is not strange, the maUgnant ungodly world
hating holinesa, hating the light, yea,, the
very ahadow of it ; and the mpre the children
pf Gpd walk like their Father, and their
heme, the mpre unlike must they of necesaity
becorae to the world about them ; and there
fore become the very mark of all their enrai.
tiea and raalice.
And thua indeed the godly, though the
sons of peace, are the improper causes, the
occasion of much noise and disturbance in
the world, as their Lord, the Prince of
Peace, avows it openly of himself in that
sense, / came not to send peace, but a
sword, to set a man ai variance with his
father, and the daughter against the mo
ther, Scc. Matth. X. 34. If a son in a fa
mily begin to inquire after God, and with
draw from their profane or dead way, Oh !
what a claraour rises presently : Oh I ray
son, or daughter, or wife, is becorae a plain
fool, &c. And then ia all dpne that may be,
to quell and vex thera, and raake their life
grievous to them.
The exact holy walking of a Christian _
really condemns the world about him ; shews
the disorder and foulness of their ^profane
ways ; and the life of religion set by the
side of dead forraaUty, discovers it to be a
carcase and lifeless appearance ; and, for
thia, neither groaaly wicked, civil, nor for
mal peraons can well digeat it. There ia in
the life of a Chriatian a convincing light,
that shews the deforraity of the works of
darkness, and a piercing heat, that scorches
the ungodly, which stirs and troubles their
consciences : This they cannot endure, and
hence rises in thera a contrary fire of wicked
hatred ; and hence the trials, the fiery trials
of the ungodly. If they could get thoae
preciae peraona removed out of their way,
think they, then they raight have more
room, and live at raore liberty, as it is. Rev.
xi. 10, a carousing, [^xoolriv]. What a
dance there was about the dead bodies of
the two witneaaes ; ihe people and nations
rejoiced and made merry, and sent gifts
one io another, because these two Prophets
tormented ihem thai dwelt on the earth.
And from the aame hearth, I mean the same
wi-ckedness of heart in the world, are the
fires of persecution kindled, againat the
saints in the wprld ; and the bonfires of joy
when they are rid of them.
And as this is an infernal fire pf enmity
against Gpd, it ia blpwn by that spirit
whpse eleraent it is. Satan stirs up and
blews the cpal, and raises the hatred of the
ungodly aaainst Christians.

A COMMENTARY UPON

2C4
But while he and they, in whora he
powerfuUy works, are thua working for their
vile ends in the persecution of the sainta.
He that aovereignly orders aU, ia working
in the sarae his wise and gracious ends;
and attaina them, and makea the malice of
hia enemiea aerve hia ends, and undo their
own. It ia true, that by the heat of perse
cution, many are acared from embracing re
ligion ; auch as love themselves, and their
present ease, and others that seemed to have
embraced it, are driven to let it go and faU
frora it ; but yet, when aU is weU computed,
it ia atill upon the gaining hand. Thoae
that reject it, or revolt from it, are such as
have no trae knpwledge pf it, npr share in it,
npr in that happiness in which it ends ; but
they that are indeed united to Jesus Christ, do
cleave the closer to him, and seek to have their
hearts raore fastened to hira,. because of these
trials, that they are, or Ukely may be, put to.
And in their victorioua patience appeara the
invincible power of religion where it hath once
gained the heart that it cannot be beaten nor
bumt out ; itaelf is a fire more mighty than
aU the firea kindled againat it. The love of
Chriat conquera and triurapha in the hardeat
sufferinga of life, and in death itself.
And this hath been the means of kindling
It in other hearta which were strangers to it,
.-ft'hen they beheld the victorioua patience of
the sainta who conquered dying, as their
Head did ; who wearied their tormentora,
and triumphed over their cruelty by a con
stancy far above it.
Thua, these fiery trials raake the lustre of
faith appear rapst, as gpld ahines brightest
in the fumace : and if any dreaa be mixed
with it, it ia refined and purged frora it by
theae trials, and sp it remains by the fire
purer than before. And both these are in
the resemblance here intended ; that the fire
of sufferings is the advantage of believers,
both trying the exceUency of faith, giving
evidence of it, what it is, and also- purifying
it frora earth and drossy raixtures, and mak
ing it raore exceUently what it is ; raising
it to a higher pitch of refinedness and worth.
In these fires, as faith ia tried, the word on
which faith reliea ia tried, and is found all
gold, most precious, no refuse in it. The
truth and sweetneaa of the promiaea are much
confirraed in the Chriatian's heart, upon his
experiment of" them in his aufferinga ; hia
God ia found to be aa good aa hia word, he-
'inQwith him when he goes through the fire,
laa. xliii. 2 ; preaerving Mm, that he loaeth
nothing except dross, which is a gainful less,
leaving only ofhis cprruptipn behind hira.
Oh ! hpw much wprth is it, and hpw dpth
it endear the heart tp Gpd, tp have fpund
him sensibly present in the times pf trpuble,
to have found him refreshing the soul with
dews of spiritual comfort, in the midat of
tlie flames of fiery trial !

[chap. IV

One special advantage of these fires is the
purging pf a Chriatian's heart ftpra the Ipve
pf the wprld and pf present things ; it is
true, the wprld at beat is base and despi.
cable, in respect pf the high estate and hopes
of a beUever, yet stiU there is seraewhat
within hira, which wpuld bend him dpwn
wards, and draw him tp tpp much cprapla.
cency in putward things, if they were much
tp his mind : Tpp kind usage might seme-
times make him forget himaelf, and think
himaelf at heme, at leaat ap much, as net to
entertain these Ipngings after hprae, and
that ardent progreaa homewards, that become
hira : It is good for us certainly to find
hardship, enmitiea, and contempts here, and
tp find them frequent that we may npt think
thera strange, but puraelves atrangera, and
think it were atrange for us to be otherwiae
entertained. Thia keeps the affections more
clear and disengaged, seta them upward.
Thua the Lord makea the world displeasing
to his own, that they may tum in to him,
and seek aU their consolations in himself:
Oh ! unapeakable advantage.
2. The composure of a Christian in re
ference to sufferings, is preacribed in these
two following, resolving, and rejoicing: 1.
Resolving to endure them, reckoning that
he ahall meet with thera, think it not
strange, fih hvi^irh ; 2. Rejoicing in them,
;i^ai^iTs, be glad inasmuch, Scc.
Be not strangers in it.] Which yet
naturaUy we would be : We are willing to
hear of peace and eaae, and would gladly
beUeve what we extremely desire. It is a
thing of prime concem to take at first a
right nptipn pf Chriatianity, which raany do
npt, and ap either faU pff quickly, pr walk
pn alpwly and heavily ; dp npt reckpn right
the cost, take not into the account the du-
ties of doing and suffering; but think to
perforra aorae dutiea, if they may with ease,
and have no other foreaight ; they do not
conaider that aelf-denial, that fightingagainst
a man's self, and vehementiy with the world,
these trials, fiery trials, which a Christian
must encounter with. As they observe of
other pointa. Popery ia thia, ia very com
pliant with nature, which is a very bad sign
in religion ; we would be content it were
true that the true Church of Christ had ra
ther prpsperity and ppmp fpr her badge than
the Creaa, rauch ease and riches, and few or
no crosses, except they were painted and
gilded crosses, auch aa that church hath
choaen, inatead of real ones.
Most raen would give reUgion a fair
countenance, if it gave them fair weather ;
and they that do indeed acknowledge Chriat
to be the Son of God, as St. Peter did.
Matt. xvi. 22, 23, yet are naturally as un
wUling as he waa to hear the hard news of
auffering ; and if their advice might have
place, would readily be of his mind. Be it

vtn. 12, 13.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

2(35

fur from the Lord, tiis good confession!
waa not, but this kind advice was, from
flesh and blood, and from an evil apirit, as
the aharp answer teUs, Get thee behind me,
Satan, thou art an offence unto me.
You know what kind of a Messiah the
Jews generally dreamed of, and therefore
took offence at the meanneaa and sufferings
of Christ, expecting an earthly king, and
an outward fiourishing state ; and the dis
ciples themselves, after they had been long
with him, were stiU in that same dream,
when they were contesting about iraaginary
places ; yea, they were scarce well out of it,
even after his suffering and death ; all the
noiae and trouble of that had not weU awak
ed them, Luke xxiv. 21, We trusted it had
been He which should have restored Israel.
And, after aU that we have read and
heard of ancient times, and of Jesua Chriat
himself, hia aufferinga in the fleah, and of
Ilis Apoatles and saints, from one age tp
anpther, yet atill we have pur inclinations to
(his, of driving troubles far off from our
thoughts, tiU they come uppn pur backs,
and fancy npthing but rest and ease, tiU we
be shaken rudely out of it.
How have we of late flattered ouraelvea,
many of ua one year after another, upon
slight appearances ? Oh I now it wiU be
ueace, and, behold, stiU trouble hath increaa
ed, and theae thoughta have proved the ly-
jvig visions of our pwn hearta, while the Lord
hath not spoken it, Ezek. xiii. 7, And
thua pf late, have we thpught it at hand,
and taken ways of our own to hasten it :
Tbat, I fear, wiU prove fool's haste, aa
you aay.
You that knpw the Lprd, seek tp him
earnestly for the averting pf further trpublea
and cpmbustiona ; which, if ypu lpok aright,
ypu will see dp threaten us as much as ever:
And withal, seek hearts, prepared and fixed
fpr days pf trial, fiery trial; yea., thpugh
we did pbtain some breathing of our outward
peace, yet shaU not the foUowers of Christ
want their trials from the hatred of the un
godly world. If it persecuted me, (says he),
it will also persecute you, John xv. 20.
Acquaint therefore your thpughts and
hearts with sufferings, that when they ceme,
ypu and they, npt being atrangers, raay agree
and cpmply the better. Dp nnt afflict your
selves with vain fears before-hand, of trou-
bles to corae, and so make uncertain evils a
certain vexation by anticipation ; but rather
forethink the hardeat trial you raay probably
be put to, for the narae and cauae of Christ,
and labour for a holy stability of mind, for
encountering it, if it should come upon you :
Things certainly faU the Ughter on us, when
they fall first upon our thoughts. In this
way, indeed, of an imagined suffering, the
conquest beforehand may be but imaginary,
and thou mayeat fail in the trial : Therefpre

be still bumble, and depend pn the strength
pf Christ, and seek to be previously furnished
with much distrust of thyself, and much
truat in him, with much denial of thyaelf,
and much love to him ; and thia preparing
and training of the heart may prove uaeful,
and make it mere dexterous, when brought
to a real conflict : In aU, both beforehand,
and in time of the trial, make thy Lprd Jesus
aU thy strength ; that is pur pnly way in all
tp be cpnquerprs, to be more than conquerors,
through him that loved us, Rpra. viii. 3.
Think it not strange, for it ia not ; auit
ypur thpughta tp the experience and verdict
pf aU timea, and tp the wamings that the
Spirit pf God in the Scripturea, and our Sa.
viour himaelf hath given us from his own
raouth, and in the example which he shewed
in hia own peraon. But the point goea higher.
Rejoice ; though we think not the auffer.
inga strange, yet may we not weU think that
rule somewhat strange, to rejoice in them ?
No, it wiU be found as reasonable aa the
other, being duly conaidered : And it resta
upon the aame ground, which ia well able to
bear both. Inasmuch as you are partakers
of the sufferings of Christ.
If the children of God cpnaider npt their
trials in their natural bittemess, but in the
sweet lpve frpra whence they spring, and the
aweet fruita that spring frpra them ; that we
are our Lord's gold, and he tries ua in the fur
nace to purify us, (as in the former verae,)
thia may beget not only patience, but glad
neaa even in the sufferings. But add we
thia, and truly it completes the reaaon of this
way in our aaddeat aufferinga, that in ihem
we are partakers ofthe sufferings of Christ.
So then, I. Consider thia twofold connect
ed participation of the aufferinga of Christ,
and of the iifter-glory. 2. The preaent joy
even in aufferinga springing from that .par
ticipation. I need not teU you, that thia coraraunion
in sufferinga ia not in point of expiation, or
aatiafaction to divine justice, which was the
peculiar end of the sufferings of Christ per
sonal, not of the coraraon sufferings of Christ
mystical : he bare our sins in his own body
on ihe tree, 1 Pet. ii. 24, and in bearing
them, took them away ; we bfear his suffer
ings as bis body united to him by his Spirit.
Thoae sufferings that were his personal bur
den, we partake the aweet fruits of ; they are
accounted ours, and we acquitted by them ;
but the endurance of thera waa his high and
incommunicable taak, in which npne at aU
were with hira ; pur ccraraunipn in these,
as fully cprapleted by himself in his natural
bedy, ia the grpund of our cprafprt and jpy
in these aufferinga that are completed in his
myatical body, the Church.
Thia ia indeed our jpy, that we have sp
light a burden, so sweet an exchange, the
weight of sin quite taken off our backs, and

2fj8

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. IV,

all bound on his cross only, and our crosses,
the badges of our confonnity to hira, laid in
deed on our ahouldera, but the great weight
of them likewise held up by his hand, that
they overpress ua uot. These fires of our
trial may be conective, and purgative of the
remaining power of ain, and they are so in
tended ; but Jesua Chriat alone in the auf
feringa of hia own croaa, waa the burnt-offer
ing, the propitiation for our sins.
Now, although he hath perfecdy aatisfied
for ua, and aaved ua by hia aufferinga ; yet
thia confonnity with hira in the way of aus-
fering ia raost reasonable. Aa our hoUneaa
doth not atand in point of law, nor corae in
at aU in the raatter of justifying us, yet we
are called and appointed to bolineas in Christ,
as assimilating us to hira our glorious Head ;
and we do really receive it from him, that
we may be like him ; so these our sufferings
bear a very congruous likeneaa with him,
though not as an accession to his in expiation,
yet as a part of hia image ; and therefore the
Apostle says, even in this reapect, that we
are predestinate to be conformed to the
fmage of his Son, Rom. viii. 29. Ia it fit
that we ahould not follow, where our Captain
led, and went first, but that he ahould lead
through ragged thorny ways, and we pasa
about to get away through flowery meadowa ?
As hia natural body ahared with hia head
in hia aufferinga, so ought his mystical to
share with hira, as its Head. Consider the
buffetings and spittings on hia face, and
thorny crown on hia head, a pierced aide,
nailed handa and feet ; and if we be parta
of him, can we think that a body finding no
thing but eaae, and bathing in deUghts, can
be truly united to a Head ao tormented ? I
remember what that pioua Duke ia aaid to
have declared at Jerusalem, when they of
fered tp crown him king there ; " I will have
no crown of gold where Christ Jesus was
crowned with thorns."*
This is the way we raust foUow, or else
resolve to leave hira ; the way of the croaa
ia the royal way to the crown. He aaid it,
and put thera in mind of it again, that they
raight take the deep irapression of it : Re
member what I said unto you, the servant is
-11,01 greater than ihe Lord : If they have
persecuted me, they will also persecute you :
If they have kept my saying, they will keep
yours also, John xv. 20. And particularly
in point of reproaches, If they called the
Master Beelzebub, how much more shall
they call them of his household ? Matt. x.
24. A bitter scoff, an evil name, reproaches
for Christ, why do these fret thee ? they were
a part of thy Lord's entertainraent while he
was here, thou art even in this a partaker
of his sufferings ; and in this way is he
bringing thee forward to the partaking of his
glory : That is the Pther thiug. j
* Nolo auroam, ubi Christus spineam. '

When his glory shall be rMxealed.] Now
he is hid, little pf his glpry is aeen ; it was
hid while he waa on earth, and now it ia hid
in heaven, where he is, and for his body here,
hia Church, it hath no pompous dreaa, nor
outward splendour ; and the particular parts
of it, the sainta, are poor deapiaed creaturea,
the very refuae of men in outward reapects
and comraon eateem ; so he himself is not
seen, and his foUowers, the more they are
aeen and looked on ,by the wprld'a eye, the
more raeanness appears : As in the days of
his hurailiation, sorae rays were breaking
forth through the veil of his fleah, and cloud
of hia Ipw deapicable condition ; thua is it
with his followers, sometiraes a glance of hia
iraage atrikea the very eye of the world, and
forces aorae acknowledgraent and a kind of
reverence in the ungodly : But coramonly
Chriat and hia foUowers are cqvered with all
the diagracea and ignorainies the wprld can
put pn thera. But there is a day wherein he
will appear, and it ia at hand ; and then he
shall be glorious, even in his despised saints,
and admired in them that believe, 2 Thess.
i, 10, hew much raore in the raatchless
brightness of hia own gloripua peraon !
In the raean time he is hid, and they are
hid in him ; our life is hid with Christ in
God, Coloa. iii. 3. The world aees nothing
of his glory and beauty, and even his own
se^ not much here, they have 'but a litde
gUmraering of hira, and their own happiness
in him ; know little of their own high con
dition, and what they are bom to. But in
that bright day he ahaU ahine forth in his
royal dignity, and every eye shall see him.
Rev. i. 7, and be overcome with his splen
dour ; tenible ahaU it be to those that for
merly despised hira and his saints ; but to
them the gladdest day that ever aroae upon
thera, a day that shall , never set or be be
nighted ; the day they so rauch longed
and looked out for, the fuU accompliahment
of aU their hopes and desirea. Oh ! how
dark were all our daya without the hope of
thia day !
Then, aaya the Apoatle, ye shall rejoice
with exceeding joy ; and to the end you may
not fall abort of that joy in the participation
of glory, fall not back from a cheerful pro
gress in the coramunion of theae aufferings
that are so closely linked with it, and wiU so
surely lead unto it, and end in it ; for in thia
the Apostle's expressipn, this glpry" and joy
is set before them, as the great raatter of
their desires and hopes, and the certain end
of their present sufferings.
Now upon these grounda the adraonition
will appear reaaonable, and not too great a
demand, to rejoice even in ihe sufferings.
It ia true, that paaaage in the Epiatle to
the Heb. xii. 11, oppoaea preaent affliction
to joy. But, 1. If you mark, it ia but in
the appearance or outward viaage, it seemeth

VEB. 12, 13.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

2C7

not to be matter of joy but of grief. To
look to it, it hath not a srailing countenance,
yet joy may be under it. And, 2. Thpugh
to the flesh it is, what it seems, grief, and
not joy, yet there raay be under it spiritual
joy ; yea, the affliction itself raay help and
advance that joy. 3. Through the natural
sense of it, there wiU be sorae alloy or 'raix
ture of grief, so that the joy cannot be
pure and complete, but yet there raay be joy
even in it. This the Apostle here clearly
grants, rejoice now in suffering, that you may
rejoice exceedingly after it, ayxXXiai/zsvoi,
leaping for joy ; Doubtless this joy, at pre
sent, ia but a little parcel, a drop of that aea
of joy. Now it is joy, but more reaerved ;
then they shall leap for joy, Luke vi. 23.
Yet, even at present, rejoice in trial, yea,
in fiery trial. This is poaaible; the chil
dren of God are not called to ao bad a life
aa the world imaginea ; beaidea what is laid
up for_them in heaven, they have, even here,
their rejoicings and songs in their distreaaea,
as thoae priaoners had their psalms, even at
midnight, after their stripes, and in their
chaina. Acts xvi. 25, before they knew of a
sudden deUverance : True, there may be rf
darkneaa within, clouding all the matter of
their joy ; but even that darkneas ia the aeed-
time of after joy, and light is sown in that
darkness, and ahall spring up ; and not only
,haU they have a rich crop at fuU harvest,
but even some first fruits of it here, in pledge
of the harvest.
And this they pught to expect, and seek
after with minds humble and subraissive, aa
to- the raeasure and tirae of it, that they may
be partakera of spiritual joy, and may by it
be enabled to gp patiently, yea, cheerfuUy,
thrpugh the tribulations and temptations that
be in their way horaeward ; and for this end
0|Ught they to endeavour after a more clear
discerning of their interest in Christ, that
they may know they partake of hira, and so
in suffering, are partakers of his sufferinga,
and ahaU be partakera pf his glpry.
Many afflictipna wiU not cloud and obatruct
thia so rauch as one sin ; therefore, if ye
would walk cheerfuUy, be raoat careful to
walk holily. AU tbe winds about the earth
make not an earthquake, but that within ita
bowels. Now this joy is grounded on this com
munion ; 1. In sufferinga ; then, 2. In
glory, 1. Even in sufferinga themaelvea :
It ia a sweet joyful thing to be a sharer with
Christ in any thing ; all enjoyments wherein
he is not, are bitter tP a spul that Ipves him,
and all sufferings with him sweet. The
wprst things, of Christ are more truly delight
ful than the best things of the world ; his
afflictiona aweeter than their pleaaurea ; hia
reproaches raore glorious than their honours,
and raore rich than their treasures, as Moaea
accounted them, Heb. xi. 26. Love delighta

in lilteness and communipn, npt pnly in
things Ptherwise pleaaant, but in the hardest
and harshest things, which have net any thing
in them deairable, but only that likeness :
So that this thought is very sweet to a heart
poaaeaaed with thia love. What doea the
world by ita hatred and peraecutiona, and
revilinga for Chriat, but raake rae mpre like
him, give me a greater ahare witji him, in
that which he did sp wiUingly undergp fpr
me ? When he was sought to be made a
king, he escaped : but when he was sought
to the cross, he freely yielded himself, Bem.
And shall I shrink and creep back frpm what
he caUs nie tp suffer fpr his sake ; yea, even
all my other troublea and sufferings, I will
deaire to have stamped thus, with this con
formity to the sufferinga of Chriat, in the
hurable, obedient, cheerful endurance of them,
and the giving up my will to ray father's.
The following of Chriat raakea any way
pleasant ; his faithful followers refuse no
march after him, be it through deaerta, and
mountaina, and atorma, and hazarda, that
wiU affright aelf pleasing easy apirita : tiearts
kindled and actuated with the Spiritof Chriat,
wiU follow him wheresoever he goeth.
Aa he apeaks it, for waming his disciples.
If they persecuted me, they will persecute
you ; ao he apeaka it for comforting thera,
and sufficient comfort it is, // they hate you,
they hated me before you, John xv. 18, 20.
2. Then add the other ; see whither it
tends. He shall be revealed in his glory,
arid ye shall even overflow with joy in the
partaking of that glory. Therefore rejoice
now in the raidat of aU your sufferings ; stand
upon the advanced ground of the proraises
and Covenant of Grace, and by faith look
beyond this raoraent, and aU that ia in it, to
that day wherein everlasting joy shall be
upon your heads, a crown oi it, and sorrow
and mourning shall fiy away, laa. li. 11.
Believe thia day, and the victory ia won.
Oh 1 that bleaaed hope, well affixed and ex-
erciaed, would give other raanner of apirits :
What zeal for Gpd wpuld it not inapire ?
What invincible courage againat all encoan-
tera ? How acon wiU this pageant of the
world vanish, that men are gazing on, theae
picturea and fanciea of pleasures and ho
nours, falsely so called, and give place to the
real glory of the sona of God, when this
bleaaed Son, who is God, ahall be aeen ap
pearing in full majeaty, and all hia brethren
in glory with him, aU clothed in their robes ?
And if you ask. Who are they ? Why,
these are they thai came out of great tribu
lation, and washed their robes in the blood
of the Lamb, Rev. vii. 14.
Ver. 14. Tf ye be reproached forthe name of Christ,
-happy are ye ; for the -pirit of glory and of God
resteth upon you : On their part he is evil spoken
of, but on your part he is glorified.
Ver. 15. But let none of vou sufi'er as a murderer.

268

A COM?,IENTARY UPO.'-f

[chap.

or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, or as a busy-body
in other men's matters.
Ver. 16. "Vet if any man suB'er as a Christian, let
him not be ashamed ; but let him glorify God on
this behalf.
The Word ia the Chriatian's magazine,
both of instructiona and encouragementa, for
doing or suffering, and thia epistle is rich in
both. Here, what the Apoatle had aaid con
cerning suffering in general, he specifies in
the particular caae of suffering reproaches ;
but this expressipri aeems net tp cpme up tp
the height ef that which he hath uaed befpre ;
he appke of fiery trial, but this of reproach
seems rather fit to be called an airy trial,
the blaat of vanishing worda. Yet, upon
trial, it wUl be fpund tp be, (aa here it ia ac
cpunted,) a very sharp, a fiery trial.
First, then, let ua take a view of this par
ticular kind of suffering. And, 2dly, Of the
comfort and advice furnished against it.
If we conaider both the nature of the thing
and the strain of the Scripturea, we will find
that reproachea are araongat the aharpeat aort
of aufferinga, and are indeed fiery trials.
The tongue is a fire, saya St. Jamea iii. 6,
and reproachea are the flaahea pf that fire ;
they are a subtle kind of flame, Uke that
lightning which, aa naturalista say, crusheth
the bones, and yet breaks not the flesh ; they
wound not the body, as do tortures and whips,
but, through a whple skin, they reach the
spirit pf a man, and cut it. So Ps.alm xUi.
10, As with a sword in my bones mine ene
mies reproach me. The flre of reproaches
preys upon and dries up the precious oint
ment, to whicii Solomon compares a good
name, Eccles. vii. 1, A good name is in
itaelf a good, a prirae outward good ; and,
take us according to our natural teraper and
apprehenaiona, (according to which we feel
thinga,) moat men are, and aome more ex
cessively, too tender and delicate in it. Al-
though, truly, I take it rather to be a weak
ness than true greatneaa of spfrit, as many
fancy it, to depend much on the opinion of
others, and feel it deep, yet, I say, consider
ing that it is comraonly thus with men, and
that the remains of this, as of other frailties,
are to be found in the children of God, it
cannot weU be but reproaches will ordinarily
much afl[Uct men, and to some kind of spirita,
poasibly, wiU be mpre grieveus than great
bpdily pain pr suffering.
And as they are thus, the Scripture ac-
cpunts them sp, and very usuaUy reckpns
them ampngst sufferings, and names them
rather mere than any pther kind pf suffering,
and that with gpod reaspn, npt pnly fpr their
piercing nature, (aa we have said,) but with
al fpr their frequency and multitude ; and
seme things we suffer dp (as flies) mere trpu
ble by their number than by their weight.
Npw, there is np pne kind pf suffering,
of such cpnstancy, and coramonnesa, and |

peraecutiona cease, yet those continue ; when '
all Pther firea pf martyrdom are put put, these
burn StiU. In all times and places, the malig.
nant world is ready to revile religion ; not only
avowed enemies of it do so, but the greatest
part even of those that make a vulgar prpfes-
sion pf it : They that putwardly receive the
form oi religipn, yet are many pf them in.
wardly haters pf the power of it, 2 Tim. iii.
5 ; and Chriatiana, whp are such only in
name, wiU acorn and- reproach those that are
Christiana indeed.
And thia ia done with such ease by every
one, that these anows fiy thick ; every ene
that hath a tongue can shoot tiiem, even base
objects, Psal. xxxv. 15 ; and the drunkards
make songs, as Jeremiah complains ; the
meanest sort can reach thia ppint pf peraecu.
tipn, and be active in it against the children
ofGod: They that cannot, or dare not,
offer them any other injury, wiU not fear, nor
spare, to let fly a taunt or bitter word ; so
that whereas other sufferings are rarer, these
meet thera daily, Paal. xiii. 10, While they
say daily unto me, Where is thy God ?
We see how juatly reproachea are often
mentioned amongat, and beypnd pther trials,
and accounted peraecuticn. Matt. v. 10, 11,
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you,
and persecute you, and shall say all man
ner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
In the hiatpry pf the caating put Hagar and
her apn. Gen. xxi. 9, aU we find laid tp Ish.
raael's charge was, Sarah saw him mocking.
And aa he thai was born after the ftesh dij
then in this raanner persecute him that was
born after the Spirit, Gal. iv. 29, even ap it
ia now. And thus are reproaches mentioned
amongst the sufferings of Clirist in the gospel,
and not as the least ; the raiUnga and raock.
ings that were darted at hira, and fixed to
the crosa, are raentioned more than the very
nails that fixed hira. And, Heb. xii. 2, the
shame oi the croaa, though he was above it,
and deapiaed it, yet that aharae added rauch
to the burden of it ; ao ver. 3. He endured
the contradiction of sinners.
Now, the other thing ia, that this is the
lot of Chriatiana, aa it waa with Chriat ; and
why should they look for more kindneaa and
better usage, and think to find acclamationa
and applauses from the world, that so vUified
their Lord ? Oh, no ! The vain heart must
be weaned from these to foUow Christ, if we
will indeed fpUpw him ; it must be tamed to
share with him in this point of suffering, not
only raistakes and raisconstructions, but bit
ter scoffings and reproaches. Why should
not our minds ply and fold to this uppn that
very reaspn, which he sp reaspnably presses
again and again on his disciples. The ser
vant is not greater than his master : (and
when giving them express warning to lay
their account with reproaches,) If they called

abundance, aa reproachea are. When other I the Master Beel::cbub, how much more w'llt

V£H. 14—10.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE UF PETER.

Vi'.)

ihey speak so of the servants ? Matt. x.
24, 25.
Infer. 1. Seeing it ia thua, I ahall firat
preaa upon the foUowers of Chriat, the Apo
stie's rule here, to keep their auft'eringa spot
less, that it may not be corafortless ; resolve
to endure it, but resolve, likewise, that it
shaU be on your part innocent suffering ; suf
fer not as evil-doers, ver. 15. Besides that,
the ways of wickedness are most unsuitable
to your holy caUing : look to the enmity about
you, and gain, even put pf that evil, this
great gppd, of mpre circumspect and hply
walking : recpUect whp ypu are, and where
ypu are, ypur own weakneaa and the world'a
wickedneas. This our Saviour represents,
and upon it gives that suitable rule. Behold
I send you forth as sheep in ' the midst of
wolves ; be ye therefore wise as serpents,
and harmless as doves,* Matt, x. 10. Know
you not what exact eyea of others are upon
you ? WiU you not thence leam, exactly to
eye yourselves, and all your ways, and seek
of God, with David, to be led in righteous
ness, because of your enemies, your observ
ers? Psal. xxvu. 11.
Thia ia the rule here, ver. 16, suffer as
Christians, holily and hlaraelessly, that the
enemy may not know where to faaten hia
, hold : Aa the wreatlera anointed their bodies,
that the hands of their antagonists might not
fasten upon thera ; thus, truly, they that
walk and suffer as Christians anointed with
the Spirit of Chriat, their enemies cannot well
faaten their hold upon them.
Tp ypu, therefore, that love the Lord
Jesus, I recoraraend thia especiaUy, to b(
careful, that all your reproachea raay be in
deed fpr Christ, and nnt for any thing in you
unlike to Christ, that there be nothing aave
the matter of your rod ; keep the quanel as
clean and unmixed aa you can, and thia will
advantage you much, both within and with
out, in the peace and firmness of your minds.
and in the refutation of your enemies. Thia
wiU make you as a braxen wall, aa the Lord
apeaks to the Prophet, they shall fight
against you, but shall nqt prevail, Jer.
XV. 20.
Keep far off from all impure unholy
waya ; suffer not as evil doers, no, nor aa
busy-bodies ; he much at home, aetting
things at rights within your own breaat,
where there ia ao rauch work, and auch
daily need of diligence, and then you will
find no leiaure for unnecessary idle pry
ings info the ways and affairs of others ; and
further than your calling, and the rules rf
Chriatian charity, engage you, you will not
interpose in any matters without you, nor be
found proud and censorious, as the world is
ready tp caU ypu.
2. Shun the appearance of evil ; walk
warily and prudently in all things ; be not
* Prudens slmplicitav

heedy, nor self-willed, no, not in the be-st
thing ; walk npt upon the utter brink and
hedge pf ypur liberty, fpr then you ahall be
in danger of over-paaaing it ; things that nre
lawful may be Inexpedient, and in case there
is- fear of scandal, ought either tp be whplly
fprbprne, pr used with much prudence and
circumspe^en. Oh ! study in aU things
tp adorn ^R gpspel, and under a sense of
ypur own unskilfulness and foUy, beg wis
dora frora above, that anoint'mg, that will
teach you all things, rauch of that holy
Spirit, that will lead you in the way of all
truth, John. xvi. 13, and then in that way,
whatsoever may befal you, suffer it, and
however you may be vilified and reproached.
happy are you, for ihe Spirit of glory and
of God resteth upon you.
Infer. 2. But if such as are thus re.
preached be happy, then, certainly, their
reprpachers are np less unhappy ; if pn
thpae reateth the Spirit of glory and of
God, what spirit is in these but the apirit pf
Satan, and pf shame and vileness ? Who
is the basest and most contemptible kind of
person in the wcrid ? truly, I think an
avpwed contemner and mocker of holiness.
Shall any auch be found amongat us ?
I charge you all in this name of Christ,
that you do not entertain godleaa prejudices
againat the people of God. Let not your
eara be open to, npr your hearta cloae with,
the calumniea and Uea, that may be flying
abroad of them and their practicea, much
leas open your mouths against them, or let
any diagraceful word be heartl from you ;
And when you meet with undeniable real
frailtiea, know the law of love, and practiae
it : Think, " this is blame-worthy, yet let
me not tum it to the reproach of those per.
sens, whp, nptwithstanding, may be aincere,
much leaa to the reproach of other persons
professing religion, and then cast it upon
religion itself."
My brethren, beware of sharing with the
ungodly in this tongue-persecution of Chris
tians. There is a day at hand wherein the
Lord wiU make inquiry after those things ;
if we shaU be made accountable for idle
words (as we are warned Matt. xii. 36,) hnw
much more for bitter maUcioua worda uttered
againat any, eapeciaUy against the aaints of
Gpd, whpm, hpwever the wprld may reckpn,
he esteems his precipus pnes, his treasure.
Ypu that npw can Icpk pn thera with a
scpmful eye, which way shaU ycu lppk wben
they shaU be beautifid and glpripua, and all
the ungpdly clothed with shame ? Oh ! da
not reproach them, but rather corae in and
ahare with them in the way of holineaa, and
in aU the aufferings and reproaches whicli
foUow it : For if you partake pf their dis
graces, ypu shaU ahare in glpry with theui,
in the day pf their Lprd's appearifig.
The words have twp things, The evil iA

270

A CO.MMENTARY UPON

[CHAI". IV

these reproaches supposed, and the good ex
presaed. The evil supppaed is, that they
are hrials, and hpt trials : Of this I have
sppken already. Let us new,
2dly, Cpnsider the good expressed : Ye are
happy, even at present, in the very raidst pf
thera ; they dp not trouble your happy es,
tate, yea, they advance it. ^
So very solid indeed is the Happiness of
the saints, that, in the lowest condition, it
remains the same : Cast them where you
wUl, into diagracea, or caves, intp priapna
and chaina, atiU they are happy : A dia-
mpnd in the raire, suUied and trarapled pn,
yet atiU retaina its pwn wnrth.
But thia ia rapre, that the very thinga
that aeem tp make them miaerable, do not
pnly npt dp that, but, on the contrary, dp
make thera the mpre happy ; they are
gainers by their Ipsaea, and attain more li
berty by their thraldoma, and more honour
by their disgraces, and raore peace by their
troubles : The world, and aU their eneraies.
are exceedingly befooled in striving against
thera ; not orily can they not undo thera,
but by aU their enraity and practices, they
do thera pleasure, and raise them higher ;
with what weapons shaU they flght ? How
shaU a Christian's epemy aet upon him ?
Where ahaU they hit him, seeing aU the
wrongs they do hira, do indeed enrich and
ennoble him ; and the more he is depressed,
he flourishes the raore ; certainly the bless
edness of a Chriatian is matchless and in
vincible. But how hplda thia, that a Chriatian is
happy in reproaches and by them ? It is
nnt thrpugh their nature and virtue, fpr they
are evil, se Matt. v. 12 ; but (1.) By rea
son of the cause. (2.) Of the accompanying
and aubaequent comfort.
First, the cause. We have it negatively,
ver. 15, not as an evil-doer, that stains thy
holy profeaaion, damps thy comfort, clouds
thy happineaa, diaproflta thee, and diahonoura
thy Lord. We have it alao poaitively, ver.
14, 16, for the name of Christ ; and what
ia there ao rough, which that will not make
pleaaant, to auffer with Chriat and for
Chriat, who suffered ao rauch and ao wil
lingly for thee ? Hadi he not gone through
all before thee, and raade aU eaay and love
ly ? Hath he not sweetened poverty, and
persecution, and hatred, and diagracea, and
death itaelf, perfumed the grave, and tumed
it from a pit of honor into a aweet reating
bed ? And thua the love of Christ judgeth,
it thinks aU Ipvely which is endured for
hira, is glad to meet with difficulties, and
ambitioua of suffering for. him : Scorn and
conterapt is a thing of hard digestion ; but
much inward heat of love digests it easily ;
reproaches are bitter, but the reproaches of
chriat are sweet. Take their true value,
Heb. xi. 26, The reproaches of Christ are

greater riches than the treasures of Egypt,
his very worst things are better than ihe
best of the world. A tpuch pf Christ turns
aU intp gpld ; his reproaches are riches, as
there, and honour, aa here : Not only .shaU
ye be happy afterwards, but happy are ye at
preaent, and that not only in apprehension
of' that after happiness, as sure and as al
ready present, faith realizing it ; but even
for that they poaaess the preaence and com
forts of the Spirit.
For the Spirit of glory.] Thia accom
paniea diagraces for him ; his Spirit, the Spi
rit of glory and of God ; with your suffer
inga gpea the name of Chriat, and the Spirit
of Chriat : Take them thus, when reproaches
are caat upon you for his name, do you bear
thera by his Spirit ? And surely his Spuit
is raost fit to support you under them, yea,
to raise you above thera ; they are ignomi
nious and inglorious, he is the Spirit of
glory ; they are huraan reproaches, he the
divine Spirit, the Spirit of glory and of
God, that ia, the glorioua Spirit of God.
And thia ia the advantage, the leaa the
Chriatian finds esteera and acceptance in th3
world, the raore he tuma hia eye inward, to
see what is there, and there he finds ths
world'a contempt counterpoiaed by a weight
of exceUency and glory, even in this prese.it
condition, as the pledge of the glory before
hira. The reproaches be fiery; but ths.
Spirit of glory resteth upon you, doth not
give you a passing visit, but stays within
you, and ia indeed youra. And in this the
Christian can take corafort, and let the foul
weather blow over, let all the acoffa, and
contempts abroad, paas aa they come, hav
ing a gloripua Spirit within, auch a guest
hpnpuring him with his presence, abode,
and sweet feUowahip, and indeed one with
him. So that rich miser at Athens could
aay, when they acomed him in the streets,
he went home to hia bags, and hugs himaelf
there at that aight, aay what they would.*
How much raore reasonably raay-the Chris
tian say, " Let them revile and bark, I have
riches and honour enough that they aee not."
And thia it ia that raakea the world, as they
are a maUcioua party, ao to be an incorape-
tent judge of the Chriatian's estate. They
see the rugged unpleasant outside only, the
right inaide their eye cannpt reach. We
were miaerable indeed, were pur cpmfprts
auch as they cpuld see.
And as this is the cpnstant estate pf a
Christian, it is usuaUy mpat raanifeated tp
hira in the tirae pf his greateat sufferings.
Then (as we said) he naturaUy turns inward
and sees it rapat, and accprdingly finds it
rapat. Gpd making this happy supplement
and compensation, that when they have
least of the world, they have most of him-

*  Populus me sibilat; at mihi pLiudo
Iqse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in area.

VER. 14—10.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

271

self; when they are mpst cpvered with the
world's disfavour, his favour ahinea brighteat
to them. As Moses, when he was in the
cloud, had nearest access and speech with
God ; so when the Christian is most cloud.
ed with distreaaea and disgraces, then doth
the Lord pften shew hiraself mest clearly
tP him.If ypu be indeed Christians, ypu wiU npt
be SP much thinking at any time, hpw ypu
mtiy be free ftpra aU sufferings and despis
ings ; but rather hpw ypu raay gp strpngly
and cheerfuUy through thera. Lo, here ia
the way, seek a real and firra interest in
Christ, and the participatipn of Christ's
' Spirit, and then a look to him wiU make aU
easy and delightful. Thou wilt be asharaed
within thyself, to start back, or yield one
foot, at the encounter of a taunt or reproach
for hira. Thou wilt think, " for whora is
it, is it not for him, who for my sake hid
not his face from shame and spitting ? and
further, he died ; now, how would I meet
¦death for hira, if I shrink at the blast of a
«comful word ?"
If you would know whether this hia Spi
rit ia and reateth in you, it cannot be better
known, than, 1. By that very love, ardent
love, to hira, and high eateera of him ; and
from thence a wiUingness, yea, a gladneaa,
to auffer any thing fpr him. 2. Thia Spirit
of Glory seta the heart pn glory. True
glory makea heavenly thinga exceUent in
our thoughta, and seta the world, the better
and worae, the honour and diahonour of it,
at a low rate.
The apirit of the world ia a base ignoble
spirit, even the higheat pitch of it. Thoae
that are projecting for kingdoms, forra but
popr designs, corapared to those of the
Chriatian, who ascenda above aU things
under the aun, and above the aun itself, and
therefore he is not shaken with the threats
pf the world, nor taken with its offers. Ex
ceUent ia that answer St. Basil gives, in the
person of those martyrs, to that eraperpr,
¦whp raade thera (as he thought) great prof
fers to draw thera off: " Why," say they,
" dost thou bid us so low as pieces of the
world ? we have leamed to despise it aU."
-This is not stupidity, nor an affected stout
ness of spirit, but a humble subUmity,
which the natural spirit of a man cannot
reach untp.
But wilt thpu StiU say, " This stpps me,
I dp npt find this Spirit in me ; if I did,
then I think I cpuld be wiUing tp suffer any
thing." Tp this, for the present, I say
only. Dost thou desire that Chriat may be
glorified, and couldat thou be content, though
it were hy thy auffer ng in any kind, thou
mayest be called tc «indergo for him ? ¦ Art
thou wilUng to give up thy own intereat, to
study and foUow Christ'a, and sacrifice thine
ewn credit and nam.e, to advanje his ? Art

thpu unwiUing tP do any thing tha* raay
dishonpur him ? Art thpu wiUing tp suffer
any thing that may hpnour him, or desirest
thou to be thus ? Then diapute not, but
up and walk pn in hia atrength.
Npw, if any aay, " but his name is dis-
hpnpured by these reprpaches ;" true, saya
the Appatle, on their part it is so, but
not on yours. They that reprpach ypu dp
their best tp refiect pn Chriat and his cause,
but thia it ia pnly on their pari : Ypu are
aufferera for hia name, and so you glorify
it : Your faith, and patience, and victory
by theae, do declare the power of divine
grace, and the efficacy of the gospel. They
have raade torturera asharaed, and induced
some beholders to ahare with thoae ¦who were
tortured. Thua, though the profane world
intenda, aa far as it can, to fix dishonour
upon the profession of Christ, yet it sticks
not, but on the contrary, he is glorified by
your constancy
And as the ignorainy fastens not, but the
glory frora the endurance, so Christians are
obliged, and certainly are ready, according
to the Apostle's zeal, ver. 16, to glorify
God on ihis behalf; that aa he ia glorified
in thera, so they may glorify and bleaa him
who hath dignified "us ao ; that whereaa we
raight have been left to a sad sinking taak,
to have auffered for varioua guilta, our Gpd
hath changed the tenpr and nature pf our
sufferings, and raakes thera to be for the
name of Christ.
Thus a spiritual mind doth not sweU oit
a conceit of constancy and courage, which i*
the readiest way of self-undoing, but acknow-
ledgea aU to be gift, even auffering. To you
it is given noi only to believe, but io suffer,
and 80 io bless him, on that behalf, Phil.
i. 29. Oh ! thia love grows in suft'ering ;
ao Acta v. 41, They went away, rejoicing
thai they were counted worthy to suffer
shame for his name.
Consider, it ia but a short while, and the
wicked and their acoffa shall vanish ;~ they
shall not be. This shame is of short date,
and wiU presently be over ; but the glory,
and Spirit of Glory, are eternal. What
though thou shouldest be poor, and defam.
ed, and deapised, and be the common raark
of scom and all injuries ; yet the end of thera
aU is at hand. This is now thy part, the
acene shaU be changed. Kings here, real
ones, are in the deepest reaUty but stage
kings ; but when thpu cpraest tp alter the per
spn thpu npw -bearest, here is the pdds, thpu
wast a fppl in appearance, and for a raoment,
but thou shalt be truly a king for ever.
Vbr. 17. For the time is come, that judgment must
begin at the house of God ; and if it first begin at
us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the
gospel of God ?
Theee is not only perfect equity, but
also a comely proportion and beauty in all

272

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CIlAl'. IV-

the ways of God, had we eyes sufficiently
open to discern, particularly in this point of
die sufferings and afflictions of the Church.
The Aposde here sets it before his brethren.
For the time is come, Scc.
Where ia, 1st, A parallel of the Lord's
dealing with hia own and with the wicked,
ver. 17, 18. 2. A perauaaion of due cora
pliance and confidence in his pwn uppn that
conaideration. The paraUel ia in the order, and the
measure of puniahing ; and it ia ao, that,
for the order, it begins at the house of
God, ends upon the ungodly ; and that car
ries in it this great dffference in the mea
sure, that it paaaea frora the one on
whora if begins, and reata on the other on
whom it enda, and on whom the full weight
of it liea for ever. It ia ao expreaaed, What
shall be the end, &c. which importa not
only that judgment ahaU overtake them in
the end, but that it shaU be their end ; they
shaU end in it, and shaU be endleaa upon
them. The time is.] Indeed the whole time of
thia present Ufe is sp ; it is the tirae pf suf
fering and purging fpr the Church, cpra-
passed with eneraies whp wiU afflict her,
and subject tp theae irapurities which need
afflictipn. The children pf Gpd are in their
under-age here ; all their time they are chil
dren, and have their frailtiea and chUdiah
foUiea : And therefore, though they are not
alwaya under the atroke of the rod, for that
they were not able to endure, yet they are
under the diacipline and use pf the rod aU
their tirae. And whereas the wicked es
cape, tiU the day of fuU payraent, the
children of God are in this life chastised
with frequent afflictions, and so ihe time
¦ [0 Kxisoi] may be here taken according as
the Apostle St, Paul uses the aarae word,
Rora. viii. 10, ^a0^f,caTX rou vwv xipov. The
sufferings of this present time.
But withal it ia true, and appeara to be
here implied, that there are particular aet
tiraea, which the Lord chooaea for conecting
of his Church. He hath the daya prefixed
and written in hia ephemeris, hath his days
of correcting, wherein he goes round frora
one church to another ; we thought it would
never corae to ua, but we have now found
the sraart of it.
And here the Apostle raay probably mean
the times of these hot persecutions that were
begun and continued, though with some in
tervals, for two or three agea. Thua Apo-
cal. vi, after the white horse, iraraediately
foUpwa at hia heels the red, and the black,
and the pale horse. And aa it waa uppn
the firat publishing pf the gpapel, ap usually,
upon the reatoring of it, or upon reraarkable
leforraationa ofthe Church, and revivings of
rjigion, follow sharp and searching trials.
As tile lower cause of this is the rage and I

maUce of Satan, and the ungodly world,
acted and stined by him against the purity
and prevalency of religipn, sp it is frpm a
higher hand for better ends. The Lprd
wiU diacpver the multitudea pf hyppcrites,
and empty prpfessprs, that wiU at such a
tirae rea:dily abpund, when religipn ia uppn
an advancing way, and the atrearaa pfit run
atrpng. Now, hy the counter cunent of
troublea, such faU back and are canied
away. And the truth of grace in the hearts
of believers, receives advantage frora these
hazards and aufferinga ; they are put to faaten
their hold the better on Chriat, to. aeek more
experience of the real and sweet cpnaplations
of the goapel, which may uphold theni
against the counter blasts of suffering. Thus
is religion made a more real and splid thing
in the hearts of true believers ; they are en
tered to that way of receiving Christ and his
cross tpgether, that they raay see their bar
gain, and npt think it a surprise.
J-udgment.] Thpugh all sufferings are
npt such, yet, cprarapnly, there 'is that un
suitable and unwary walking ampng Chris
tians, that even their sufferings for the cause
pf Gpd, thpugh unjust frpra men, yet are
frem Gpd just punishraents pf their raiacar-
riagea tewards hira, in their fprraer waya ;
their self-pleaaing and earthUneas, having
tpo high a relish for the delighta of this
world, forgetting their inheritance and home,
and conforming theraselves to the world,
walking too like it.
Must begin.] The Church of God is
puniahed, while the wicked are free and
flouriah in the world, ppssibly all their days ;
or if judgment reach them here, yet it is
later; it begins ai the house of God. 1.
This holds in thera who profess his name,
and are of the visible Church, compared
with thera who are without the pale of it,
and are its avowed eneraies. 2. Those who
profess a desire of a more religious and holy
course of life v/ithin the Church, compared
with the profane multitude. 3. They who
are indeed more spiritual and holy, and come
nearer unto God, corapared with others who
faU shprt pf that raeasure ; in all these re
spects it holds, that the Lord doth raore
readily exercise thera with affiictions, and
conect their wanderings, than any other.
And this truly is raost reasonahle, and the
reason lies in the very narae given the Church,
The House of God.
I. There is equity in such a proceeding.
The sins of the Church have their peculiar
aggravations, which fall not upon others ;
that which is siraply a sin in strangers to
Gpd, is, in his pepple, the breach pf a knpwn
and received law, and a law daily unfplded
and set befpre thera ; yea, it is against their
oath of aUegiance ; it is perfldy and breach
of covenant,, committed both against the
clearest Ught, and strictest bonds, and high-

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

VEn. 17.]

est mercies ; and the mere particular prpfes-
sipn pf his narae, and testiraonies ofhis love,
which raake sin the mpre sinful, and the
punishraent pf it the rapre reaspnable. The
S'ns pf the Church are aU twice dipt, Di
bapha, Isa. i. 18, have a double dye : they
are both breaches of the law, and they are
besides ungrateful and disloyal breaches of
prpmise. 2. As there is unqUestienable equity, sp
there is an evident congruity in if. Gpd is
raler pf all the wprld, but particularly pf his
Church, therefore here caUed his House,
wherein he hath a special residence and pre
sence. And therefore it is moat suitable tbat
there he be speciaUy observed and obeyed,
and if disobeyed, that he take notice of it
and punish it ; that he suffer not hiraself to
b? dishpnpured tp his face by thpse pf his
pwn hpUse. And therefpre, whpspever eacape,
hia ewn ahaU npt ; You only have I known
of all ihe families of the earth : Therefore
will I punish you for all your iniquities,
Ampsiu. 2. He that rightepusly judges
and rules aU natipna, it ia fit he raake his
justice raost evident and exemplary in his
own hpuae, where it raay beat be remarked,
aud where it wiU beat appear hpw impartial
he is in punishing ain. Sp a kiug, aa the
Psalmiat, Paal. ci. 2, that he may rule the
land weU, raakea his own house exemplary.
It is, ypu knpw, pne special quaUficatipn pf
a bishop and pastor, 1 Tira. iu. 4, 5, To be
one that ruleth 'Well his own house, hav'm^
his children in subjection ; for if a man
knoiv noi how to rule his own house, how
shall he take care of ihe Church of God ?
Now thia, therefore, more eminentiy appeara
in the auprerae Lord of the Church ; he,
rulea it aa hia own houae .- and therefore,
when he finda diaobedience there, he will
first punish that. So he clears hiraseU';
and the wicked world being afterwards pu
nished, their mouths are stopped with the pre
ceding punishraent of the Church : Will he
not spare his own ; yea, shaU they be first
scourged ; What then shall be the end of
ihem ihat obey not ihe gospel ?
And indeed the purity of his Uature, if it
be every where contrary to aU sinful impurity,
carmot but most appear in his pecuUar dwell .
ing-house ; that he wiU be aure to have neat
and clean. If he hate sin all the wprld over,
he hates it most, and testifies hia hatred of
it most, where it is nearest tp him. He will
npt endure it in hia preaence ; as cleanly neat
perspns cannct weU lpok upon any thing that
is nasty, rauch less wiU they suffer it to cprae
near thera pr tPuch them, and to continue in
their pifesence in the hpuse where tbey dweU.
The Lprd that is of purer eyes than to be
hold iniquity, Heb. i. 13, wiU not abide it
within his own dopra ; and the nearer any
comea to him, the less can he endure any un
holiness, or sinful poUution, in them ; he

273

will be sanctified in att that come nigh him.
Lev. X. 3. Sn in his miniaters : Oh ! how
pure eught they to be, and how provoking
and hateful to him are their impurities !
Therefore, iu that commiaaipn to the deatrpy-
ers, Ezek. ix, 6, tp which place the Apcstii;
here raay have spme eye. Go, saya he, slay
ihe old and young ; and begin at my sanc
tuary. They were they whp had polluted
his worship, and there the firat stroke lighted.
And, in a spfritual sense, because aU his peo
ple are his elect priesthood, and ahould be
holiness io the Lord, and when they are nol
reaUy so, and do not sanctify him in their
walking, he sanctifies himself, and declares
his holinesa in hia judgments on them.
3. There is mercy in this dispensation too;
even under the habit of judgraent, love walks
secretly and worka : ao Ipving and sp wise a
Father wiU npt undp his children by sparing
the rod, but because he loves, rebukes, and
chastens, Heb. xii. 6, Prov. iii. 12, Apoc.
iii. 19. His Church ia hia houae ; therefore,
that he may deUght in it, and take pleaaure
to dweU in it, and make it happy with his
preaence, he will have it often waahed and
made clean, and the filth and rubbiah scour
ed and purged out of it : This argues his
gracious purpose of abiding in it.
And as he dpth it, that he may delight in
hia pepple, ao, that they may delight in him,
and in him alone, he erabitters the breast oi
the world to wean them ; makes the world
hate thera, that they may the more easily
hate it ; suffers them not to settle upon it,
and faU into a complacency with it ; buf
raakes it unpleasant to thera by many and
sharp afflictions, that they raay, with the raore
willingness, come off, and be untied from it,
and that they may reraeraber horae the mpre,
and seek their cpmfprts abpve, that finding
SP Uttle belpw, they may turn in tn him, and
delight theraselves in ccraraunipn with him.
That the sweet incense pf their prayers may
ascend the mere thick, he kindles theae firea
cf trial tp thera ; fer thpugh it ahpuld npt be
SP, yet SP it ia, that, in tiraea pf ease, they
weuld easily grew remisa and fprraal that way.
He is gracipus and wise, knpwa what he
dpes with tbem, and the thoughts he thinks
towards them, Jer. xxix. 11. All ia for their
advantage, purging their iniquitiea, laa,
xxvii ; purges our impatience, and earthU
ness, aud self-will, and carnal security ; and
thus refines them for vessels of honour. We
see in a jeweUer's shop, that as there are
pearls and diamonds, and other precioua
stones, there are files, cutting instraraents,
and' raany sharp tools for their polishing:
And while they are in the work-house, they
are continual neighbours to them, aiid come
often under thera. The church is God's
jewelry, his work-house, where his jewels are
polishing for his palace and house ; and
those lie especially esteems and meana ta
S

274

A COMMENTARY UPON

[eiiAP. IT,

make most reaplendent, he hath ofteneat his
toola upon thera.
Thua obaerve it, as in the Church to other
societies, so ia it in a congregation or faraily
belonging to it, if there be one more diU
gently aeeking after God than the reat, he
shall probably raeet with mere trials, and be
pftener under afflictipn than any of the com
pany ; either under contempt and scorn, or
poverty and sickness, or some one pressure
or other, outward or inward ; and those in
ward trials are the nearest and sharpest which
the world sees least, and yet the soul feels
most : And yet all these, hoth outward and
inward, have love, unspeakable love in thera
aU. to purge and polish thera ; and, by in
creasing pf grace, dp fit thera for glory.
Inf. 1. Let us not be so fooUsh as to pro-
mise ourselves impunity on account of our re
lation to God, aa hia Church and covenant
with him. If once we thought so, sure our
experience hath undeceived us. And let not
what we have suffered harden us, as if the
worst were past. We raay rather fear its
being a pledge, and beginning of aharper
judgment. Why do we not conaider our
unhumbled and unpurged condition, and
tremble before the Lord ? Would we aave
hira a labour, he would take it weU. Let
us purge our aoula, that he may not be ,put
to further purging by new judgmenta. Were
we buay reading our preaent condition, we
would aee very legible fore-aigna of further
judgmenta; as for instance, 1. The Lord
.taking away hia eminent and worthy aervants
who are as the very piUars of the public peace
and welfare ; and taking away counsel and
courage, and union frpm the rest : forsaking
ua in our raeetings, and leaving us in the
~ dark to grope and ruah one upon another.
2. The diasenaions and janinga in the atate
¦and church are Ukely frora ftnagination
to bring it to a reality. Theae unnatural
buminga threaten new firea of public judg
menta to be kindled araongat us. 3. That
general despising of the gpspel, and abpund
ing pf profaneness thrpughput the land, not
, yet purged, but as our great sin reraaining
in us, caUs for more fire and more boiUng.
4. The general coldness and deadness of
spirit, want of that zeal for God, that com
munion of saints, that mutual stirring up one
-another to holiness, and, whicii is the source
of all, the ceasing of prayer, that frozen be-
numbness in that so necessary work, in that
preventer of judgments, that binder of the
hands of God from punishments, and opener
pf thera untp us, for the pouring forth of
mercies. Oh I this ia a sad condition in
itself, though it portended no further judg
ment, the Lord hiding himself, and the apirit
of zeal and prayer withdrawn, and acarce any
lamenting it, pr sp much as perceiving it.
Where are bur days either of solemn prayer
«r praises, as if there were cause of neither.

and yet there is clear cause of bpth, Traly,
my hrethren, we have need, if ever, tp bestir
ourselves ; are not these kingdoms, at this
present, brought to the'extreme point of their
highest hazard ? and yet who lays it tc
heart ?
Inf. 2. Learn to put a right construction
on all God's deaUngs with his Church, and
with thy soul. For his Church, there may,
be a tirae wherein thou shalt see it not only
tossed, but to thy thinking, covered and
swaUowed up with tears ; but wait a litde,
it shaU arrive safe. This is a common
sturabling stone, but walk by the Ught of
the word, and the eye of faith looking on it,
and thou shalt pass by and not stumble at
it. The Church mourns, and Babylon sings,
sits as a queen, Rev. xviii. 7, but for how
long ? She shaU eome down and sit in the
dust, Isa. xlvi. 1 ; and Sinn shaU be glo
rious, and put on her beautiful garments,
Isa. Iii. 1, while Babylon shadl not look for
another Revelation,* to raise her again ; no,.
she shaU never rise. The angel took np a
stone Uke a great miUstone, and cast it into
the sea, saying. Thus, with violence, shati-
the great city Babylon be thrown down, and
shall be found no more at all. Rev. xviu, 20 ,
21. Be not sudden, take God's work together,
and do not judge pf it by parcels. It is in
deed aU wisdpm and righteousness : but we
shall best discern the beauty of it when we
look on it in the frarae, and when it shaU be
full)' corapleted and finished, and our eyes en -
lightened to take a fuller and clearer view of
it than we can have here. Oh ! what won,
der ! what endless wondering wiU it ther.
coraraand 1
We read of Joseph hated, and aold, and
irapriaoned, and all raost unjustly ; but be
cause, within a leaf or two, we find him freed
and exalted, and hia brethren coraing auppU-
canta to hira, we are satisfied. But wher
we look on things which are for the present
cloudy and dark, our impatient hasty spirits
cannot leam to wait a little till we see the
other side, and what end ihe Lord makes.
We see judgment beginning at the house of
God, and this perplexes us, while we consi
der not the rest. What shall be the end oj
them ihat obey not the gospel ? God be
gins the judgraent on his Church for a litde
tirae, that it may end and reat upon hia ene
miea for ever. And indeed he leaves the
wicked last in the punishment ; and defers
it, that he may raake use of thera for the pu
nishing of hia Church. They are his rod,
Isa. X. 5. But then, when he hath done that
work with them, they are broken and burnt,
ver. 16, and that when they are at the height
of their insolence and boasting ; not know,
* Perhaps the original, reading might be revolutiot] ;
but as Revelation or Apocalypse will give some, thouah
a less perspicuous sense, the Editor would not take tA9
liberty to change it.

VEU. 17-]

THE FIHST EPISTLE OF PETEK.

275

ing what hand raoves them, and sraitea hia
people with thera for a while, till the day of
their consuming comes, ver. 24, 25. Let
the vile enemy that hath shed our blood, and
insulted over us, rejoice in their present spar
ing, and in men's procuring of it, and plead
ing for it.* There is another hand whence
we raay look for justice ; and though it raay
be the judgment begun at us, is not yet end
ed, and that we may yet further (and that
juatly) find them our scourge, yet certainly
we may and pught tp lppk beypnd that unto
the end of the Lord'a work : which ahall be
the ruin of hia enemiea, and the peace of hia
people, and the glory of hia name.
But we now come to consider God dealing
with the wicked. The end of them ihat obey
noi the gospel. The erid of all the ungodly
•is tertible ; but especiaUy of auch aa heard
the gospel, and have not, received and obey
ed it.
The word itrsrfoiJiiTio!/ hath in it both unbe
lief and diaobedience, and these are insepar
able. Unbelief is the grand point of disobe
dience in itaelf, and the spring of all other
disobedience : And pity it is that raen will
not beUeve it to be thus.
They think it an easy and a coraraon thing
io believe. Who doth not believe ? Oh !
but rather, who does ? Who hath believed
our report? Isa. liii. 1. Were our own
misery and the happiness that ia in Christ
believed, were the riches of Christ and the
love of Christ believed, would not thia per
suade raen to foraake their sin*s and the world,
to erabrace him ?
But raen run away with an extraordinary.
fancy of beUeving, and do not deeply consi
der what news the gospel brings, and how
much if concerns them. Sometiraea, it raay
be, they have a audden thought of it, and
they think, I will think on it better at sorae
Other time. But when comes that time ?
One business ateps in after another, and
ahufflea it out. Men ate not al leisure to be
aaVed. '
Obaerve the phuase, The gospel of God.
It ia his embassy of peace to raen, the riches
of his raercy and free love opened and set
forth ; not aimply to be looked on, but laid
hold pn. The glprioua holy God declaring
hia mind of agreement with man in hia own
Son ; hia blood strearaed forth in it to wash
away uncleanueas, and yet this gospel is not
obeyed. Sure the conditions of it rauat be
very hard, and the comraanda muat be into
lerably grievoua, that they are not hearkened
to. 'Why, judge you if they be. The great
Command ia that, to receive that salvation ;
and the other is thia," to love that Saviour ;
and there is no raore. Perfect obedience ia
* I am ready to believe this refers to the escape of
•many who had deserved the severest punishments, for
their part in the grand Irish rebellion, but were screen
ed by the favour of some great raen, in tlie reign
of King Cliarles II.

not now the thing. And the obedience
which is required, that love makes sweet and
eaay tP ua, and acceptable tn him. Thia ia
prpclaimed tp all that hear the gpapel, and
the greateat part refuae it ; they lpve them
selves, and tlieir lusts, and thia present *orld,
and will not change, and ao they perish.
They perish. What is that ? What is
their end ? I will answer that but as the
Apostle doth, and that is even asking the
queation bver again. What shall be their
end? There ia no speaking of it : a curtain is
drawn ; ailent wonder expreaaea it beat, teUi-
ing it cannot be expressed. How then shall
it be endured ? It is trae, that there be re-i
semblancea uaed in Scripture, giving ua aome
glance of it ; we hear of a biirning lake, a
fire thai is not quenehed, and a worm that
dies noi, Isa. Ixvi. 24, Mark ix. 44, Rev.
xxi. 8 ; but theae are but ahadowa to the real
miaery of thera that obey not the gospel.
Oh ! to be fiUed with tile wi-ath of God, tbe
ever living God, for ever ! What words or
thoughts can reach it ! Oh ! eternity, eter
nity ! Oh ! that we did believe it.
Thia same paraUel of the Lord's dealing
with the righteoua and the wicked, is con
tinued in the following verse in other terma
for the clearer expreaaion, and deeper impres
sion of it.
Ver. 18. .^ndif the righteous scarcely be savfcly
where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ?
It ia true, then, that they are scarce sav
ed, even they that endeavour to walk upright-^
ly in the ways of God, that is, ihe righteous ;
they are scarcely saved. That imports not
any uncertainty or hazard in the thing itaelf
to the end, in reapect of the purpoae and per
forraance of God, but only the great difficul-
tiea, and hard encounters iri the way ; that
they go through so many temptations and
tribulations, so many fightings without, and
fears within ; the Christian being ao airaple
and weak, and hia enemies so crafty and
powerful i and the oppoaitiona of the wicked
world being ao many and great, their hatreds,
and scorns, and raoleatationa, the aleights-
and violence of Satan, and the worat of all,
the strength of their own conuptions. Alas,
there is, by reaaon of abounding corruption,
auch frequent, almoat .continual, need of
purging by afflictiona and trials ; to be still
under physic ; to be of necessity at some
tiraes drained, and brought so low, that
there is scarce strength or Ufe remaining in
them. And,, truly, all outward difficulties would-
be but matter of ease, would be aa nothing,
were ii; not the incumbrance of luats and
conuptions within. Were a raan to raeet
disgraces and sufferings for Christ, how
easily would he go through them, yea, and;
rejoice in them,, were he rid of the ftettinjj

278

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. IV.

impatiente, the pride, and self-love, of his
Own carnal heart. These clog and trouble
him worst, and he cannot shake them off,
nor prevail against them without much
paina, many prayers and tears ; and raany
times after much ¦wreatiing, he acarce finds
that he hath gained any ground : Yea, some.
limes he is foiled and cast down by thera.
And so in aU other duties, such a fight-
tug and continual corabat with a revolting
backsliding heart, the flesh pulling, and
dragging downwards ; when he would mount
up, he finds himself as a bird with a stpne
tied tp its foot ; hath wings that flutter to be
upwards, but is pressed down with the
Weight fastened to him. What straggUng
with wanderings and deadness in hearing,
and reading, and prayer ! and that which is
most grievous is, th^t, by their unwary walk.
ing, and the prevailing of some corruption.
they grieve the Spirit of God, and prpvpke
hira tp hide his face, and withdraw his cpra
fprts ! Hpw much pain tp attain any thing,
any particular grace of humiUty, of meek
neaa, or aelf-denial ; and if any thing be at
tained, how hard to keep and maintain it
againat the cohtrary party ! How often are
they driven back to their pld ppint ! If they
dp but ceaae ftpra atriving a Uttle, they are
canied back by the atream : And what re
tums pf dpubtings and misbelief, after they
thought they were got soraewhat above thera !
insomuch that sometimes they are at the
point of giving over, and thinking it wiU
never do for thera. And yet through all
these they are brought safa hoiiie. There is
anpther strength which bears thera up, and
brings them thrpugh ; -but these thinga, and
raany raore of thia nafure, argue the diffi
culty of their courae, and that it ia not ao
easy a thing to come to heaven as most
imagine it.
Inf. Thou that flndest ao little atop and
conflict in it, goest thy round of extemal du
tiea, and all ia weU, art no more troubled ;
thou hast need to inquire, after a long time
spent in tbat way, Ara I right ? Am I not
yet to begiu ? Sure thia looks not Uke the
way to heaven, aa it ia described in the
Scripture ; it is top sUiPOth and easy tp be
right. And if the way pf the rightepus be sp
hard, then hpw hard Shall be the end pf the
lingedly, and sinner that walks in sin with
delig-ht. It were strange if they shpuld be
at such pains, and with great difficulty at
tain their end: And he should corae in
araongst thera in the end. They were
fools indeed ; triie, if it were so ; but
what if it be not so ? Then the wicked is
tile fool, andshaU find he is: When he
shall not be able to stdnd in judgment,
where shall he appear ? Psal. i. 5. When
to the erid he might not appear, he would

the hiUs and raountains, if they could shelter
hira frpra appearing ?
And what is the aim of aU this which we
have sppken, pr caiTspeak, pn this subject,
but that ye raay be moved to take into
deeper thoughts the concernment of your
iraraortal souls; Oh ! that you would be
persuaded. Oh that you woidd raake in to
Jesus Christ, and seek salvation in him.
Seek to be covered with his righteouaness,
and to be led by his Spirit in the ways of
righteouaness. That will seal to you the
happy certainty cf the end, and pvercpme for
you aU the difficulties of the way. What
is the gospel of Christ preached for ? What
was the blppd pf Christ shed for ? Was it
not, that by receiving him, we raight escape
condemnation ? Nay, this drew him ftom
heaven ; for he came that we might have
life, and might have ii more abundahtly,
Jphn X. 4.
Vbb. 19. Wherefore, let them that suffer according
to the will of God, commit the keeping of their
souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faitliful
Creator.

Nothing dpth sp establish the mind
amidst the rpUings and turbulency cf present
things, aa both a look above them, and a
look beyond them ; above them, to the
steady and good hand by which they are
ruled ; and beyond thern, tp the sweet and
beautiful end, tp which, by that hand, they
shaU be brought. Thia the Apoatle lays
here as the foundation of that patience and
peace in troubles, wherewith he would have
his brethren furnished. And thus he closes
this chapter in these words : Wherefore,
lei ihem thai suffer according to the will of
God, commit the keeping of iheir souls to
him in well-doing, as unto a faithful
Creator, The words contain the true principle of
Christian'patience and tranquiUity of mind
in the sufferings of this life, expressing both
wherein it consists, and what are the
grounda of it.
1. Wherein it conaiata : it Uea in this,
committing the soul unto God ; the word
iv xya^o^oi'i'x added, is a true qualification
of this, that it be in well-doing, according
to the preceding doctrine, which the Apostle
givea clearly and largely, ver. 15, 16. If
men would have inward peace amidst out
ward trouble, they must walk by the rule of
peace, and keep strictly to it. If you would
commit your soul to the keeping of God,
know he is a holy God ; and an unholy soul
that walks in any way of wickedness, known
or secret, is no fit commodity to put into his '
pure hand to keep : Therefore, aa you would
have this confidence to give your holy God the
keeping of your soul, and that he wiU accept
of it, and take it off your hand, beware of
wilful pollutions and unholy ways. Walk

be glad to' be sniothered under the weight of, so as you may not discredit your Protector,

VER. 19.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

277

and rapve him to be asharaed of you, and
disclaim you. ShaU it be said that you live
under his shelter, and yet walk inordinately ?
As this cannot weU be, you cannot well be
lieve it to be. lippse ways wiU Ippsen ypur
hold of him, and confidence in him. You
wiU be driven to question your interest, and to
think, " Sure, I do but delude myself; can
I be under his safe-guard, and yet follow
the course pf the wprld,- and my cpnupt
heart ?" Certainly, let whp will he so, he
will not be a guardian and patron of wicked
ness : No, he is not a God that hath plea
sure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell
with him, Psal. v. 4. If thou give thy aoul
to him to keep uppn terma pf liberty to sin,
he wiU tum it out of his doors, and remit it
back to tbee to look to as thou wilt thyself.
Yea, in tbe ways of sin, thpu dost, indeed,
steal it back, and caniest it out from him.
Thou puttest thyself put of the corapass of
his defence, goest without the -trenches, and
art, at thine own hazard, exposed to annies
of raischiefs and raiseries.
Inf. 1. This, then, is principaUy to be
looked to ; you that would have safety in God
in evil tiraes, beware of evil ways ; for in
these it cannot be. If you wiU be safe in
him, you raust stay with hira, and in aU
your ways keep within him 05 your for
tress ; now, in the ways of sin you run out
from hira.
Hence it is we have so little established
confidence in God in ,tiraes of trial. We
take ways of our own, and w,ill be gadding,
and so we are surprised and taken, as they
that are often venturing out into the eneray's
reach, and cannot stay within the waUs. It
is no idle repetition, Psal. xci. 1, He thai
dweUeth in the secret place of ihe Most
High, shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. He that wanders not, but stays
there, shaU find himself there hid ftom dan
ger ; they that rove out from Gpd in their
ways, are disquieted and tpssed with fears ;
this is the fruit of their own ways ; but the
spul that is indeed given tP him to keep,
keeps near hira.
Study pure and holy walking, if you
would have your confidence firra, and have
boldness and joy in God. You wiU find
. that a little sin wiU shake your trust, and
disturb your peace more than the greatest
sufferings ; yea, in the greatest extremity of
sufferings, your assurance and joy in God
wiU grow and abound most, if ain be kept
out. That is the trouble-feast diat disquiets
the cpnscience, which, while it cpntinues
gppd, is a continual feast. So much sin
as gets in, sp rauch peace wiU gp put; afflic-
tipijs cannpt break in uppn it tp break it,
but sin dpth. All the winds which blew
abput the earth frpra all ppints stir il not,
only that within the bowels of it makes the
earthquake.

I do not mean that for infirmities a Chris
tian ought to be discouraged ; but take heed
of walking in any way pf sin ; fpr that wiU
unsettie thy cpnfidence. Innocency and
holy walking makes the soul pf a sound con
stitution, that the counter-blasts of affliction
wear-not put, npr alter it. Sin makes it sick
ly and crazy, that it can endure nothing ;
therefore study to keep your consciences
pure, and theyshaU be peaceable, yea, in
the worst tiraea coraraonly raoat peaceable,
and beat furnished with spiritual confidence
and corafort.
Let such commit the keeping of their
souls io God. The Lord ia an entire pro
tector, he keepa the bodiea, yea, aU that
belongs to the believer, and aa rauch aa is
gppd for hira, makes all safe, keeps all hia
bones, not one of them is broken, Paal.
xxxiv. 20 ; yea, aays our Saviour, The very
hairs of your head are numbered, Matt. x.
30. But that which, as in the believer's
account, and in God's account, so is certain
ly in itself most precious, is principaUy com
mitted and received into keeping, their souls.
They would most gladly be aecured in
that here, and that shaU be safe in the raidst
of all hazards ; their concern is, that what
soever be loat, that raay not; that is the
jewel ; therefore the prirae care of that, if it
be safe, all is well, it is riches enough. What
shall it profit a man though he gain the
whole world, says our Saviour, and lose his
own soul ? Mark viii. 36 ; and so, what
shall it disprofit a raan, though he lose tho
whole world, if he gain his soul ? Nothing
at aU.
When tiraes of frial corae. Oh ! what a
busde to hide this and that, to fly, and cany
away, and make safe, that which is but trash
and rubbish to the 1 precious soul ; but how
few thoughts of tbat ! Were we in our wits,
that wpuld be at aU times, not pnly in trpuble,
but in days pf peace ; Oh I hpw shall I
make sure abput my soul ? Let aU go as it
may, can I be secured and persuaded in that
point ? I desire no raore.
Now, the way is this, commit them to
Gad : this many say, but few dp, give them
intp his hand, lay them up there ; sp the
wprd is, and they are safe, and itiay be quiet
aud cpmposed.
In patience possess your souls, says our
Saviour, Luke xxi. 19; impatient fretting
s,pula are put pf theinse^vea, tbeir ownera do
ijot possess them. Now, the way tp possess
them ourselves in patience, is thus, to com
mit them to him in cpnfidence ; then we
pnly ppssess them, when he keeps thera.
They are easily disquieted and shaken in
pieces while they are in 'pur hands ; but in
his hand, they are abpve the reach of dan
gers and fears.
Inf. 2. Learn frora hence, what is tne
proper act of faith ; it rolls the soiU over on

878

A COM.MENTARY UPO.V

[CHAP. IV";

God, venturea it in hia hand, and reats aa- Creator ; if he was able to give ihcnibeingj
tisfied cpnceming it, being there. And sure he is able to keep them from perish.
there ia nn way but thia, to be quiet within, ' ing. This relation of a Greater implies
IP be impregnable and immoveable in all aa- Ukewiae a benign propension and good-wUl
saulta, and fixed in aU changea, beUeving on to the wprka pf hia hands. If he gave them

free lpve ; therefore be persuaded to reaolve
in that, not doubting, and diaputing, whe
ther shall I beUeve or not ? Shall I think
he wUl auffer me to lay ray soul upon hini to
keep ? ao unworthy, ao guilty a apul, were
it npt preauraptipn ? Oh ! what sayeat thpu ?
why dost thou thus dishonpur him, and dis
quiet thyself? if theu hast a purpose to walk
in any way of wickedness, indeed thou art
npt fpr him ; yea, thou ccmest net near him
tp give him thy spul. But wouldest thou
have it deUyered from sin, rather than frora
trouble, yea, rather than frora heU ; is that
the chief safety thpu aeekeat, te be kept frpm
iniquity, from thine iniquity, thy belpved
sins ? Dpat thpu deaire tp dweU in him,
and walk with him ? then, whataeever ia thy
guiltineaa and unwerthiness, come forward,
and give hira thy aoul to keep. If he ahould
seem to refuae it, press it on hira ; if he
stretch not forth his h.ind, lay it down at his
foot, and leave it there, and resolve not to
take it back ; aay, " Lord, thou haat made
ua those soiila ; thou caUeat for them again
to be coramitted to thee : Here is one. It
is unworthy ; but what soul is not sp ? Is
rapat unworthy ; but therein will the richea
*>i thy grace appear most in receiving it.
And thus leave it with hira, and know he
IviU make thee a good account of it. Now,
«pae gpods, or credit, or frienda, or Ufe it
self, it imports not ; the main concern ia
sure, if so be thy aoul be out of hazard ; /
suffer these things for ihe gospel, aays the
Apoatle, 2 Tim. i. 1 2, nevertheless I am
noi ashamed; why, for I know whom I
have trusted, arid am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I have committed
io him against ihfit day,
2dly, We now proceed to cpnsider the
ground oi thia confidence ; which ia in theae
fwo things in him whom we trust, ability
^nd fidelity. There is rauch in persuasion
of the power of God ; though few think they
queation that ; there ia in ua secret undis
covered unbelief, even in' that point ; therefore
the Lord so often raakes raentipn pf it in the
Prpphet, Isa. 1. 3, &c. And in this ppint,
the Appstie particularly expreaaea, I am per.,
suaded that he is able to keep, Scc. Sp this
Appatle, chap. i. 5, Kept by ihe power of
' Cjrod through faith unto salvation, ready io
be revealed in ihe lasi time. This ia very
needful tp be cpnsidered in regard pf the
piany and great opppsitipns and dangers, and
ppwerful enemies that seek after pur souls,
fie is able to keep them, for he is strong
er than all, and none can pluck ihem out
pf his hand, aays our Saviour, John x, 29.
'9'his the Aposrte )\eye h?th in that word,

us at first, when once they were not, forming
them of nothing, will he not give us them
again, being put into hia hand for safety ?
And aa he ia ppwerfiil, he ia no leas faith
ful, a faithful Creator, truth itself. Them
that heUeve on him he never deceivea nor
diaappoints. Well raight St. Paul aay, /
know whom I have trusted, 2 Tim. i. 12.
Oh 1 the advantage of faith. It engages
the truth and power of God, hia royal word
and honpur liea uppn it, tp preaerve the soul
that faith givea him in keeping. If he re
main able and faithful to perforra his word,
that soul shaU not perish.
There be in the words other two grounds
of quietness pf spirit in sufferings : 1. It is
according to the will of God. The believing
soul, subjected and leveUed to that wiU, com.
plying with his gppd pleaaure in aU, cannot
have a raore ppwerful perauaaive than this,
that all ia prdered by his wiU. This aettled
in the heart, would settie it rauch, and make
it even in all things, not only to know, bui
wisely and deeply to consider, that it is thus
That aU is measured in heaven, every drachm
of thy troubles weighed by that skilful hand.
that doth aU in weight, number, and raeasure
And then, conaider him as thy God and
Father, who hath taken special charge o*
thee, and thy soul ; thou hast given it to him,
and he hath received it.
And, upon this consideration, study to
foUow his wiU in aU, to have no wiU but his.
This is thy duty and thy wisdom. Nothing
is gained by spuming and struggling, but to
hurt and vex thyself; but by complying, all
is gained, sweet peace ; it ia the very secret,
the mystery of solid peace within, to resign
tp his wiU, tp be disppsed at his pleasure,
withput the least cpntrary thpught. And
thus, as twp faced pictures, these sufferings
and trpubles, and whatsoever elae, (while
beheld on the pne side, aa painful tP the
fleah,) hath an unpleasant viaage, yet go
abput a Uttle, and lppk uppn it as thy Fa
ther's wUl, and then it is smiUng, beautiful
and Ipvely. Thia I wpuld recpmmend <o
you not only for temporals, as easier there,
but in spiritual things, your coraforts and
sensible enlargements, to love all he does.
It is th'e sura of Christianity, to have thy
wiU crucified, and the will of thy Lord thy
only desire ; joy or sprrpw, sickness pr health,
Uke pr death, in ail, in all, thy will be done.
The other grpund is in the first wprd, re
flecting pn the foregping discpurse, wherer
fore ; what ? seeing ypur reprpaches and
sufferings are net endless, yea, they are shprt,
they shall end, quickly end, and end in
g;lpry, be npt trpuhled about them, overlopk

TEtt. 1.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

279

(hem, the eye of faith wiU do it ; it sees
them to be but for a moment. 'What are
they ? This is the great cause of our dis-
quietneaa in present troublea and griefa, we
forget their end. We are affected with our
condition in this preaent Ufe, aaif it were
all, and it ia nothing. Oh I how quickly
shaU aU the enjoyments, and all the suffer
ings, of thia Ufe paaa away, smd it be as if
it had not been.

CHAP. V.
Veb. 1. The elders which are among you I exhort,
who am also an elder, and a witness of the suffer
ings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory
tliat shall be revealed.
The Church of Christ being one body, is
interested in the condition and caniage of
each particular Christian aa a part of it : but
more eminently in thoae who are more emi
nent and organic parta of it. Therefore the
Apostle, after many excellent directions given
to aH hia Chriatian brethren to whom he
writes, doth moat reaaonably and fitly add
thia expreaa exhortation to thoae who had
oversight and charge of the rest. The elders
which are among you. See.
The words have, 1. A particular defini
tion of the persons exhorted and exhorting.
2. The tenor of the exhortation itaelf.
The former of theae we have in the firat
verae. And, 1 . The persons exhorted, The elders
among you.
Elders here, as often in other places, is a
name not of age, but of office ; yet the
office is named by that age, which is pr pught
tp be most suitably quaUfied for it ; and that
appeUation imports, that men, though not
aged, yet if caUed to that office, should be
noted for such wisdora and gravity of raind
and caniage as raay give that authority, and
comraand that respect, which is requisite for
peraena in their calUng : Net novices, aa
St. Paul speaks ; net aa a light bladder,
being eaaily blown up, as young unstable
minds are, but such as young Timothy was
in humility and diligence, as the Apoatle
testifies of him, Phil, ii. 20, / have none
like minded who will naturally care for
your state ; and such as the Apostle Paul fur
ther exhorts hira tobe, 1 Tira. iv. 12, Let no
man despise thy youth ; bui be an example
of believers in word, in conversation, in
charity, in faith, in purity.
The narae of elders indifferendy signifies
either their age or their caUing'; and the
name of ruling elders soraetiraes denotes
civil rulers,- sometiraea paatprs pf the church ;
aa, ampngst the Jews, beth offices often meet
in the same person. Here it appears that
pastors are meant, as the exhortation oi feed

ing the flock evidencea; which, though it
sometimes signifies ruling, and here may
compriae it, yet it is chiefly by doctrine : and
then the title given to Christ in the encou
ragement added, further cpnfirms the inter-
pretatipn, The Chief Shepherd.
A due frame pf apirit and caniage in the
eldera, particularly the Appatleapf the Church,
is a thing cf prime cpncern fpr the gppd pf it.
It is pne pf the heaviest threatenings, when
the Lprd declares, that he will give a rebel
Upus pepple such teachera and prpphets as
they deserved, and indeed desired : If there
be a man to prophesy of wine and strong
drink, such a one shall be a prophet, says
he tp that people, Micah ii, II. And on
the other side, araongst the sweetest promises
of mercy, this is not the least, to be furnish
ed with plenty of faithful teachers. Thoi%h
profane men raake no reckoning of it, yet,
were it in the hardeat tiraea, they who know
the Lord wiU account of it aa he doth, a
aweet aUay of all aufferinga and hardahip.
Though the Lord give you the bread of
adversity and ihe water of affliction, yei
shall not thy teachers be removed into a
corner, but thine eyes shall see thy teach
ers, Isa. xxx. 20. Oh ! how rich a pro
raiae ia that, Jer. iii, 15, / will give you
pastors according to my own lieart.
Thia promiae ia to be preaaed and sued for
by eamest prayer. Were people rauch in
this duty, pastors would find it, and so peo-i
pie themselves receive back their prayers,
with much gain, into their own bosom ; they
would have the retumed benefit of it, as the
vapours that go up from below faU down
upon the earth again in sweet showers, and
raake it fruitful. Thus went there many
prayers up for pastors, their doctrine would
drop as rain, and distil as dew, Deut. xxxii.
2. And the sweet influence of it would
make fruitful the valleys, humble bearts re
ceiving it. And at this time, it is very need
ful that the Lord be much importuned for
the continuance and increase of his favour in
this his Church : As they who have power
should be more careful of those due means,
which in schools of learning, or ptherwise.
are needful fpr qualifying men fpr this ser.
vice ; ae aU in general, bpth pepple and paa
tora, and auch as are offering themselves to
that aervice, should chiefly beg frora the high
er acaderay, that teaching abundance of that
Spirit to those eraployed in that work, that
.might raake them able ministers of ihe New
Testament. Oh ! it is an inestimable blessing to have
the aaving light of the goapel shining clear in
the faithful and powerful miniatry of it :
They thought ao who aaid of their worthy
teacher, " They had rather for them the sun
should not shine, than he should npt teach."*
• Satius solem non lucere, quam Chrysostomum not\
docere.

soo

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. v.

2. The person exhorting : /, a co-presby,
ter or fellow elder with you. The duty of
mutual exhorting Ues on each Christian to
another, though it be little kno^wn amongst
the greateat part ; but, truly, pastors should
be, as in other duties, so particularly in this,
eminent and exemplary in their intercourses
and conver.se, saying often one to another,
" Oh ! let us reraember to what we are caU
ed ; to how high and heavy a charge ! to
what holiness and diUgence I How great is
(he hazard of our miscarriage, and how great
Ihe reward of pur fldelity !" They shpuld be
often whetting and sharpening one another
by those weighty and holy considerations.
And a witness ofthe sufferings of Christ,
He did indeed give witness to Christ, by
suffering for hira the hatred and persecutions
of- the world in the publishing of the goapel,
and ap waa a witness and martyr befpre the
time that he was put tp death. And this
I exclude not ; but that which is mere par
ticularly here intended is, his certain knpw
ledge pf the sufferings of Christ, in his own
perspn ; as an eye-witnesa pf thera, and uppn
that knpwledge a publiaher of them, Luke
xxiv. 48. And thus these two auit with the
two motives urged, to bear horae the exhor
tation. The one couched in that, ihe flock
of God, ver. 2, which he purchased with
thoae hia aufferinga, whereof I waa an eye-
/vitneaa. And the other of a crown, ver.
4. I may speak the raore confidently of that,
for I ara oue of those who have real interest
in it, and fimi belief of it, a partaker of the
glory that shall be revealed.
And these indeed are the things which
give weight to a man's wnrds, make them
ppwerful and presaing, a witness of ihe suf
ferings of Christ. The Appstles had a
singular advantage in this, that were ayrosTTa/,
eye-witnesses ; and St. Paul, whp wanted
that, had it supplied by a visipn pf Christ,
in hia cpnveraien. But, certainly, a spiri
tual view pf Christ crucified is generaUy
(I will npt Bay abaplutely) necessary to make
a minister of Chriat, but certainly very re-
quiaite for the due witneaaing of him, and
diaplaying the exceUency and virtue pf hia
sufferinga ; ao to preadi the goapel that
there needa no other crucifix,* after ao clear
and Uvely a way as that ; it raay in sorae
raeasure suit the Apoatle's word. Gal. iii. 1,
Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been
evidently set forth crucified among you. ,
Men coramonly read and hear, and raay
poasibly preach, of the sufferings of Christ
as a coraraon story, and that way it raay a
little move a man, and wring fears frora his
eyes ; but faith hath another kind of sight
of them, and so wprks pther kind of affec
tions, and without that, the very eye-sight
of them avaUed the A posties nothing : For
* Alluding to the custom of many Popish preachers,
to cniTY a iittle crucifix into the pulpit with tliem.

how raany saw hira suffer as they dixi, who
reviled, or at least despised hira ? But by
the eye of faith to see the only-begotten Son
of God, us stricken and smitten ofGod,
bearing ojir sorrows, and wounded for our
transgression, Jesus Christ the righteous,
reckoried araongst the unrighteous and male
factors; ro see hira stripped naked, and
scourged, and buffetted, and nailed,' and
dying, and aU for ua ; this is the thing that
wiU bind upon ua most strongly all the du
ties of Christianity, and of our particular calb
ings, and best enable us, according to our
calUngs, to bind them upon others. But
our slender view of these things makes light
sense, and that, cold incitements to answer
able duty ; certainly deep irapression would
cause lively expression.
Would we wiUingly stir up our own hearta,
and one another, to holy diUgence in our
station, study Chriat as suffering and dying
more dioroughly : That is the very Ufe ^
the gospel and of our souls ; it is all we have
to learn, and aU we have to teach and press
on ypu, / determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and him' cru
cified, 1 Cpr. ii. 2. To raake Christ's cress
the aura pf aU my learning.
The Pther mptive ia, that he was a par
taker of ihe glorj/ io be revealed. Aa a
witness of those sufferings, so a partaker of
the glory purchased by these sufferings ; and
therefore, as one insighted and interested in
what he apeaka, the Apoatle might fitly apeak
of that peculiar duty, which theae sufferings
and glory dp peculiarly persuade. This is
the only way of speaking of those things,
not as a discourser or contemplative studeut,
but a partaker. There is another force of a
pastor's exhortation either to his people or
his brethren, who brings his raessage ¦written
upon his own heart ; speaks of the guilt of
sin, and sufferings of Christ for it, as parti
cularly feeling his own guilt, and looking on
these sufferings as taking it away ; speaks of
free grace, aa pne whp either hath drunken
pf the refreahing strearaa pf it, pr at leaat is
eamestly thirsting after it ; pf the lpve pf
Chriat, frpra a heart kindled with it ; pf the
glory to corae, aa one who looka to be a aharer
in it, and longa earneatly for it, aa one who
hath all his joy and content laid up in the
hopes of it.
And thus with respect to Chriatians cpn-
veraing with each pther in their mutual ex-
hprtinga and cpmfprtings, aU ia cpld and dead
that flpwa npt from aorae inward persuasion
and experimental knowledge of divine things ;
but that gives an edge and a sweetness to
Christian conference. To be speaking of
Jesus Christ, not only as a King and as a
Redeemer, but their King and their Redeemr
er, in David's atyle. My King and my Gqd,
Paal. Ixviii. 24 ; and of his sufferings as
theirs, applied by faith, and acquitting thepif

veb. I.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

281

in St. Paul's style. Gal. ii. 20, Who loved
me, and gave himself for me. Tp speak pf
the glpry to corae as their inheritance, pf
which they are partakers, their hprae, as
atrangers raeeting tpgether abrpad, in aome
foreign couptry, delighting to speak of their
own laid,* and their parentage, their frienda,
and their rich patrimony, there abiding thera :
And this ought to be the entertainraent pf
Christians when they meet. Away with
trifling vain discpurses, cause all tp give place
to these refreshing remembrances of our home.
Were our hearts much on that rich inheri
tance above, it would be impossible to refraiji
our tongues, and to pass on so silent cpncem
ing it, tp find matter pf empty pratings, and
be pleased with them, and tp have np reUsh
of this. Whither gp your hearts ? They
are out of their way, and abase theraselves,
that turn so rauch downwards, and are not
more above the sun ; eyeing atiU that bleas-
^ed land y^here pur purchased inheritance
Ues. Oh ! seek after inore clear knpwledge of
this glory, and of your interest in it, that
your hearts may rejoice in the reraerahrance
of it, that it be not to you as the description
of a pleasant land, which raen read of in his
tory, and have no portion in. They Uke it
weU, and are pleased with it while they read,
be it but some imagined country or comraoii-
wealth finely fancied. But know the coun
try of yours to be real, and no device ; and
seek to kn,oy ypurselves to be partakers of it.
This confidence depends not upon a sin
gular revelation, but on the power of faith,
and the light of the Spirit pf Gpd, which
clears tp his children the things thai he hath
freely given them, ihpugh sprae pf thera, at
some times, yea some, it may be, all or raost
of their tirae, do want it : God so disposing
it, they scarce clearly see their right, tiU they
be in posaeaaion ; aee not their heaven and
home, tiU they arrive at it, or are hard uppn
it. Yet truly, this we may and pught tp
seek after in humility and submisaipn, that
we may have the pledge and earnest of our
inheritance, Eph. i. 14 ; not ao much for
the cpmfprt within ua, thpugh that ia allpw-
ed, aa that it may wean pur hearta from things
below ; may riae ua to higher and cloaer cora
raunion with God, and enable us niore for
hia service, and ,excite us more to hia praiaea,
even here. What were a Chriatian without
the hope of thia glory, aa one aaid, Tolle reli-
gio-fiem, et nulfus eris. Take a-way religion,
and you take away ihe man. And, having
thia hope, what are aU thinga here to him ?
how pppr and despicable the better and wprse
of this Ufe, and this life itself! hpw glad is
,he that it will quickly end! and what were
the length pf it to him, but a long con
tinuance of his banishment, a long detain-
• Peregrinis in terris nulla est jucundior recordatio
quam suae civitati-s. Aug. in PsaL cxlv.

mint frora his home ! and hon sweet is
the raessage that is sent for him to corae
hprae !
Juatly it is caUed, The glory ihat is to
be revealed. It is hid for tbe present,
whplly unkupwn tp the children of this
wprld, and even but litde knnwn tp the chil
dren pf Gpd, who are heirs of it. Yea, they
whp knpw tlieraselvea pariafeers of it, yet
knpw npt much what it is ; pnly this, that it
is abpve aU they knew pr can iraagine.
They raay see things whicii make a great
ahew here ; they may hear pf mpre than they
aee ; they may think pr iraagine mere than
either they hear pr see, pr can distinctly cpn-
ceiye pf ; but stiU they must think pf thia
glpry aa beypnd it aU. Dp I aee porapous
ahowa, pr read er hear pf them ? yet this I
a^y of thera, Theae are not as my inheri
tance : Oh ! it is far beyond them. Yea,
does my mind imagine things far beyond
them, golden raountains and marble palaces ?
Yet these faU short of ray inheritance, for it
is such as eye hath noi seen, nor ear heard,
nor hath entered into ihe heart of man io
conceive, 1 Cor. ii. 9. Oh ! the brightness
pf that glpry when it shall be revealed !
Hpw shall they be astonished who shaU see
it, and not partalce of it ! How shaU they be
fiUed with everlasting joy, who are heirs of
it ! Were the heart much upon the thoughts
of that glory, what thing is there in this
perishing world, which coiild either lift it up
or caat it down ?
Ver. 2. Feed the flock of God which is among you,
taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but
willingly ; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.
Ver. 3. Neither as heing lords over God's heritage,
but being ensamples to the flock.
'Ver. 4. And when the Chief Shepherd shall ap
pear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth
not away.
In these words we have, 1 . The duty en
joined. Feed the flock of God, which is
among you, taking ihe oversight of ii. 2.
The due qualifications of their duty nega
tively, noi by constraint, for filthy lucre, as
lording it over God's heritage, but willing
ly, of a ready mind, and as being ensam
ples to the flock. 3. The high advantage
to be expected, an unfading crown of glory,
when ihe Chief Shepherd shall appear.
1. The duty . enjoined, Feed the flock of
God ; every step of the way of our salvation
hath on it the print of infinite majesty, wis
dom, and -goodnesa ; and .this apiongat the
rest, that raen, sinful weak men, are made
Subservient in that' great work of bringing
Christ and soula to meet ; that by the fool
ishness of preaching, (or what appears so to
carnal wisdom,) the chosen of God are caU
ed, and come unto Jesus, and are made wise
unto salvation ; and that the Ufe which is
conveyed ^ them by the word of life in the
hands of poor raen, is by the aame means
preserved and advanced. And this is the

2152

A CO-'ilMENTARY UPON

[chap, v;

standing work of die ministry, and this the
thing here bound upon thera that are era
ployed in it, tofeed the flock of God that is
among them. Jesus Christ descended to
purchaae a Church, and aacended to provide
end furnish it, to send down his Spirit : He
ascended arid gave gifts, particularly for
the work of ihe ministry ; and the great
use of them is this, to feed ihe flock of God.
Not to say any raore of this usual resem
blance of a fiock, imperiling the weakness
and tenderness of the Church, the continual
need she stands in of inspection, and guid
ance, and defence, and the tender care of the
Chief Shepherd for these thinga ; the phraae
enforces the present duty of aubordinate paa
tora ; their care and diligence in feeding of
that flock. The due rule of diacipUne not
excluded, the raain part of feeding ia by
doctrine, leading them into the wholesome
and green pastures oi saving traths reveal.
ed in the gospel, accommodating the way of
teaching to their condition and capacity ; to
be, as much aa may be, particularly ac
quainted with it, and auit diligently and
prudently their doctrine to it ; to feed ihe
sheep, those more advanced ; to feed ihe
lambs, the younger and weaker ; to have
special care of the infirra ; to learn of their
Maater the great Shepherd, to bind up thai
which is broken, and strengthen ihat which
is sick, Ezek. xxxiv. 16, those that are
broken in spirit, that are exercised with
teraptations, and gently to lead those thai are
with young, Isa. xl. 11, in whom the inward
work of grace is as in the conception, and
they heavy and weak with the weight of it,
and the many difficulties and doubtings
which are frequent companions and symp
toms of that work. Oh I what dexterity
and skilfulness, what diligence, and above
all, what affection, and bowels of cprapas
sipn, are needful for the task ! Who is suf
ficient for these things ? 2 Cer. ii. 16 ; who
would not faint and give over in it, were not
our Lord the Chief Shepherd ; were not aU
our sufficiency laid up in hia rich fulneaa,
and aU our insufficiency covered in his gra
cious acceptance ?
Inf. 1. This is the thing we have to eye
and study, to set Him before us, and to
apply ouraelvea in hia' atrength to hia work.
'Not to aeek to please, but to feed ; not to
deUght the ears, but to feed the souls, of hia
people ; to aee that the food be according to
hia appointment; not empty or aubtle no-
tiona, not light-affected expreaaions, but
wholesome truths, splid fppd, apiritual thinga,
spirituaUy cpnceived and uttered, with holy
understanding and affection.
And to cpnaider this, wherein Ues a very
preaaing mptive, it ia the fiock of God, not
our own, to uae aa we please, bullepmmitted
tp pur custpdy by him, whp Ipves highly, j
and prizes his fipck, and wiU require an ac- 1

count pf us cpnceming it. It ia his bpught,
his purchaaed flpck, and at ac dear a rate, aa
the Appatle St. Paul uses this same consi.
deration, in the sarae argument. Acts xx.
28. The flock of God thai he hath bought
with his own blood. How reasonable is it
that we bestow our strength and Ufe on that
fiock, which our Lord laid down his life for •
that we be most ready to draw out our spirits
for them, for whora he let out his blood f
Had I, says that holy man,* some of that
blood poured forth on ihe cross, how care
fully would I carry it ; and, ought I nol
to be as careful of those souls that it was
shed for ? Oh I that price which was paid
for aoids, which he who waa no foplish mer.
chant, but wiadom itaelf, gave for them!
Were tbat price more in our eyes, and -more
in yours, nothing would so much take either
you or us, as the matter of our souls. In
this would our desires aud endeavours meet,
we to use, and you to improve, the means o»
saving ypur precipus spuls.
Inf, 2. This mainly concerns us indeed,
who have charge of many, especially findmg
the right cure of one soul withiu us so hard :
But you are concerned in it each for one :
At least remember thia is the -end of the
rainiatry, that you raay be brought unto
Chriat, that you raay be led to the sweet
paaturea and pleaaant strearaa pf the gospel;
that ypu may be spiritually fed, and may
grpw in that heavenly life, which ia here
begun in aU these in whpm it shaU here.
after be perfected.
And as we pught in preaching, sp ypu in
hearing, to propound this end to yourselves,
that you may be spirituaUy refreshed, and
walk in the strength of that divine nourish.
raent. Ia thia your purpose when you come
hither ? Inquire of your hearta, and see what
you seek, and what you find, in the pubUc
ordinances of God'a house. Certainly the
raost do npt sp rauch as think pn the due
intendraent pf them, aim at np end, and
therefpre can attain npne ; seek nothing, but
sit out their hour, asleep or awake, aa it may
happen ; or poaaibly aorae aeek to be delight
ed for the time, aa the Lprd teUa the pro.
phet, to hear, as it were, a pleasant song,
Ezek. xxxiii. 32 ; if the gifta and atrain of
the apeaker be any thing pleaaing. Or, it
may be, they want to gain sorae new np.
tipns, tp add spraewhat to their stpck of
knowledge, either that, they may be enabled
for discourse, or simply that they may know.
Sorae, it maybe, go a Uttle further; they
Uke tp be stined and rapved fpr the time,
and tp have some touch of good affection
kindled in them ; but this lasts but for a
while, tiU their other thoughts and affairs*
get in, and sraother and quench it ; they are
not careful to blow it up and improve it.
How many, when they have been a litde
* Bern, Advent. Senn. 3.

VER. 2—4.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

283

affected with die word, go out and fall intp
other discourses and thoughts, and either
take in their affairs secretiy, as it were under
their cloak, and their hearts keep a confe.
rence with thera ; or if they forbear this, yet,
as soon as they go out, plunge theraselves
over head and ears in the world, and lose aU
which raight have any way advantaged their
ispiritual condition. It may be, one wiU say.
It was a good sermon ; is that to the pur.
pose ? But what think you it hath for your
praise or dispraise ? Instead of saying,
*' Oh ! how weU was that spoken 1" you
should say, " Oh { how hard is repen-
timce ! how sweet a thing is faith 1 how
exceUent the love of Jesus Christ !" That
were your best Jnd raost real coraraenda
tion of the sermon, with true benefit to
yourselves. If sorae of ypu be careful pf repeating, yet
reat net pn that ; if ypu be able to speak pf
it afterwards uppn pccaaipn, there ia aprae
what requisite beside and beypnd this, to
evidence that you are indeed fed by the
wprd, as the flock of God. As when
sheep, you know, or other creatures, are
-nourished by their pasture, the food they
have eaten appears not in the sarae fashion
upon thera ; not in grass, but in growth of
flesh and fleece : thua the word would truly
appear to feed you, not by the bare discours
ing of the word over again, but by the tera-
'per of your spirits and actions ; if in thera
¦^you really grow raore spiritual ; if huraility,
self-denial, charity, and hoUness, are in-
¦ creased in you by it. Otherwiae, whatao
ever literal knowledge you attain, it avails
you nothing, though you heard raany ser-
rapns every day, and attained further Ught
by them, and canied a plausible prpfeaaien
pf reUgipn ; yet, unless by the gpapel ypu be
tranafprraed intp the likenesa pf Christ, and
grace be indeed grpwing in ypu, ypu are but,
as pne aays ef the cypress trees, fair and taU,
but fruitless.*
Are ypu not grieved and afraid, or may
npt many pf ypu be sp, whp have Uved many
¦years under a fruitful ministry, and yet are
as earthly and selfish, as unacquainted with
Gpd, and his ways, as at the first ? Con
sider this, that aa the neglect of aouls wiU
Ue heavy on unholy or negUgent miniatera,
so a great raany spuls are ruining themselves
under sorae raeasure of fit means ; and sp
tile sUghting pf those means wiU make their
condition tai heavier than that of many
others; remeraber our Saviour's word, Matt.
xi. Woe io thee, Chorazin! Woe nnto
thee, Bethsaida ! It shall be more tole
rable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of
.judgment than for you.
II. The discharge of this high task we
have here duly quaUfied ; the Apostle ex-
* KaXtfJ xx't ll^ptiXai xxi 'ku^tov ovx 'l;i^ovo'i.

presses the upright way of it, both negative.
iy and ppsitively.
1. Negatively. There be three evils the
Appstie wpuld rerapve frpm this wprk, con-
strainedness, covetousness, and ambition ;
and the ppsitive qualificatipns ppppsed tP
them, which I shall cpnsider with thera, are
willingness, u ready mind, and an exem
plary temper and behavipur. 1. We are cau-
tipned against constrainedness, /iti ivxy^xr-
rois, either driven tp the wprk by necessity,
indigence, and want pf pther raeans pf suh-
sistence ; as it is with too raany, making a
trade ef it to live by, and aetting to it as to
any other caUing for that end ; yea, raaking
it the refuge and forlorn resource ef their
insufficiency for other caUings. And as
raen are not to undertake the work, driven to
it by that hard weapon ef necessity, so,
being engaged in it, they are not to dis
charge the duties of it merely upon necessity,
becauae of fines binding to it, and for fear of
censure ; thia ia a violent forced motion, and
cannot but be both very unpleaaant and un
profitable, as to the proper end and profiting
of thia wprk. And as the principle pf tbe
mptipn in thia aervice ahpuld npt be a com
peUing neceaaity of any kind, but true wil-
lingjiess of heart,
So, 2dly, Thia wiUingness should not
ariae from any other but pure affection to
the work, not for filthy gain, but purely
frora the inward bent of the mind. Aa it
should not be a compulsive or violent mo
tion by necessity frora without, so it should
net be ari artificial motion by weights o.
avarice, and love of gain, hung on within.
The forraer motive, necessity, raakes the
raind like a wheel, that is driven or drawn
forcibly ; the latter, avarice, makes it Uke
a clock, which is kept going by art, and by
weights hung to it. But there sheuld be a
natural motion, as that of the heavens in
their courae ; a willing obedience to the
Spirit of Ged within, moving a raan in every
part of this holy work : that ia, vqoSu/aus,
hia raind carried to it as the thing he de
lighta in, and in which he leves to be exer
cised.* There raay be in a faithful pastor
very great reluctancies in engaging and ad
hering to the work upen a sense of the ex
ceUency of it, and his unfitness, and the
deep apprehensipn nf thpse high interests,
the glpry pf Gpd, and the salvatipn pf spuls ;
and yet he enters intp it, and cpntinues in it,
with this readiness of mind tPO, that is,
with mest single and eamest desires of doing
all he can for God, and the flock of God:
only grieved that there is in him so Uttle
suitableness of heart, so Uttle hoUness and
acquaintance with God, for enabUng him fo
it. But finding that, he is satisfied, and, in
attendance uppn that, gpes pn, and waits,
» Timothy careth yy,vriui, not artiflcially, but_na-
turally, Phil. ii. 20.

284 and is doing accprding tp hia little akiU and
strength, and cannpt leave it. He is con
strained indeed, but aU the cpnstraint is
that ef love to Jesus, 2 Cer. v. 14 ; and fpr
his sake to the souls he hath bought; and
all the gain sought is to gain souls to Christ,
which is far different from the constraint and
gain here prohibited ; yea, is indeed that
very wiUingness and readiness of mind which
is opposed to that other constraint; that_is
without, this is within ; that other gain is
base filthy gairi, xi^^oxt^'Sos, this npble and
divine. Inf. 1. Far be it frpm us, that necessity
and constraint should be the thing that
moves us in so holy a work. The Lord
whom we serve sees into the heart ; and if
he find not that primely meting, accounts
all our diUgence nothing. And let not base
earth within be the cause of eur wiUing.
ness, but a, mind touched witii heaven. It
is true, the temptations of earth with us, in
raatter of gain, are not great; but yet the
heart may cleave to thera, as rauch as if they
were much greater ; and if it do cleave
to them, they shaU ruin us, as weU a
poor stipend and glebe, if the affection be
upon thera, as a great deanery or bishopric.
If a raan fall into it, he raay drown in a
small brook, being under water, aa weU as
in the great ocean. Oh ! the little time
that remains, let us join our desires and en
deavours in this work, bend our united
strength to serve hira, that we may have joy
in that day of reckoning.
And, indeed, there is nothing moves us
aright, nor shall we ever find comfort in this
service, unless it be from a cheerful inward
readiness of mind, and that frem the love
of Christ. Thus said he to his Apostle,
Lovest thou me ? then feed my sheep, and
feed my lambs, John xxi. Love to Christ
begets love to his people's souls, that are so
precious to him, and a caro of feeding them :
He devolves the working of love tpwards
hira uppn his flpck fer their good; puts
them in his room, to receive the beneflt of
our services, which cannot reach him consi
dered in himself: he can receive no other
profit frora it. Love, rauch love, gives much
unwearied care, and much skiU in this
charge. How sweet is it to him that loves
to bestow himself, io spend and be spent,
upon hia service whom he loves. Jaccb, in
the sarae kind pf service, endured aU that
was imposed on him, and found it light by
reason of leve, the cold of the nights, and
heat pf the days ; seven years he served fpr hia
Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few
days, because he loved her, Gen. xxix. 20.
Lpve is the great en-lpwment pf a shep
herd pf Chriat's flpck. He says net to Peter,
Art theu wise, er learned, or eloquent ; but
Lovest thou me ? Then feed my sheep.
The third evi) is ambition, and that is

A COMMENTARV UPON

[chap, v.

either in the affecting pf undue authority ;
er the overstrained and tyrannical exercise of
due authority ; or tp seek those dignities
that suit not with this charge, which is not
dominium^ but ministerium. This temper,
therefpre, is forbidden in Luke xxii. 25, 26,
The kings of the Gentiles exercise lord.
ship over them, but ye shall not be so.
There is a rainisterial authprity tp be used
in discipUne, and mere sharpness with some
than pthers ; but still lowliness and modera,.
tipn raust be predorainant, and npt domi.
neering with rigour ; rather being examples
to thera in aU hoUness, and especiaUy in
humiUty and meekness, wherein our Lord
Jesus particularly propounds his own ex-
araple. Learn of me, for I am meek and
lowly of heart.
Being ensamples, rvxoi.] Such a pat
tern as they raay stamp and print their spi.
rits and caniage by ; and be followers oj
you, as you are of Christ. And without
this, there is little or no fraitful teaching.
WeU, says Nazianzen, Either teach not, or
teach by living. Sn the Appstie exhorteth
Timothy tp be an example in word, but
withal in conversation, 1 Tim. iv. 12, that
is, Tuyof, the best printed cppy.
But this pares pff, wUl spme think, all
encouragements of leamirig. No advantage,
no respect, nor authority. Oh 1 no, it re.
moves poor worthless encouragements out
of the way, to make place for one great one,
that is sufficient, which all the other toge.
ther are not. That is,
III. The high advantage to be expected :
A crown qf glory which fadeth not away,
to be received when the chief Shepherd
shall appear. Thou shalt loae nothing by
all that restraint from base gain, and vain
glory, and worldly power. No matter, let
them aU gp for a crown, that weighs them
aU down, that shaU abide for ever. Oh !
how far more exceUent ! A crown of glory,
pure unmixed glory, without any ingrediency
of pride or sinful vanity, or any danger of it.
And a crpwn that fadeth not, xuat^avrivov,
pf such a flpwer as withers net ; npt a tem.
pprary garland pf fading flowers, such as all
here are. Woe io the crown of pride, Isa.
xxviii. I. Though it be made pf flpwers
grpwing in a fat valley, yet their gleripus
beauty is a fading flpwer ; but this wiU re
main fresh and in perfect lustre tp aU eter
nity. May tljey npt weU tj:ample pn base
gain, and vain applause, jvhp have this crpwn
tp look to ? They that jviU be content with
these, let thera be doing; but ihey have
their reward, and it is done and gone, when
faithful followers are te receive theirs. Joys
of royal porap, raaniages anij feasts, how
soon do they vanish as a dreara ! That of
Ahasueras lasted about half a year, but
then ended ; and how many since that are
gone and forgot ! But this day begins a

VER. 5.]

THE FIRST EPISTLB OF PETER.

285

triumph and a feast, that shall never either
end pr weary, affprding still fresh, ever new
delights. Au things here, the choicest
pleasures, dpy, but satisfy npt. Thoae
above shaU always satisfy and never cloy.
When the chief Shepherd shall appear,
and that shall shortly be, diis moraent w^ll
shortiy be out.
what is to be refuaed in the way to this
crown ? AU labour is sweet fpr it. And
what is there here tp be desired tp stay ypur
hearts, that we shpuld npt rapst wiUingly let
gp, tP rest from our labours, and receive our
crown ? Was ever any king sad tp think
that the day pf his cprpnatipn drew nigh ?
There will be np envy, npr jealpuaiea, but aU
kinga, each with his crpwn, and each rejpic-
ing in the glpry pf anpther ;' and aU in his,
whp that day shaU be all in all,
Vbr. 6. Likewise ye younger, submit yourselves
imto the elder ; yea, all ot you be subject one to
another, and be clothed with humility ; for God
resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the
humble.
Sin hath disprdered aU ; sp that npthing is
to be found but distemper and crookedness
in the condition and ways of men towards
God, and towards one ariother, tiU a new
Spirit come in and rectify all : and very
much of that redress lies in thia particular
grace of h-Umility, here recommended by the
Apoatie, That regulates the carriage, 1. Of the
younger towarda the elder. 1. Of aU men
one to another. 3. Towarda God.
1st. He enjeina the younger io be sub.
ieci to the elder.- Which I take so' te refer
to difference of yeara, that it hath some aa
pect likewise to the relation of those that are
under the discipline and government of the
elders, v^sMti^oi ; whp thpugh npt alwaya
such in years, pught hpwever tp suit that
name in exemplary gravity and wiadpni. It
is np seignrery, but a ministry ; yet there is
a sacred authprity in it, when righdy canied,
which bpth duly chaUenges, and effectually
cpmmands, that respect and obedience which
is flt for the right order and govemment of
the house of God.
The Spirit of Christ in his ministers is
the thing that makes them truly elders, and
truly worthy of double honour ,¦ and with
out that, men raay hunt respect and credit
by other parts ; and the more they foUew it,
the faster it flies from thera ; or if they catch
any thing of it, they only grasp a shadow.
Infer. Leam you, my brethren, that obe
dience which is due to the discipUne of God's
hpuse. This is all we plead fpr in this ppint.
And know, if you refuse it, and despise the
prdinance Pf Gpd, he wiU resent the indig
nity as done te him. And Oh f that aU
whe have that charge of his hpuse uppn theiri
would raind his interest whpUy, and npt rise
in conceit of their ppwer, but whpUy employ

and imprpve it for their Lord and Master,
and lppk on no respect to themselves, as for
its own sake desirable, but only so far as is
needful for the profitable discharge and ad. •
vancement ofhis work in their hands ! What
are human differences and regards, how empty
a vapour I And whatsoever it is, nothing is
lost by single and entire love of pur Lprd's
glpry, and tptal airaing at that : Them that
honour him, he will honour ; and those that
despise him, shall be despised, 1 Sara. ii. 30-
I5ut though' this C likewise J iraplies, I
conceive, somewhat relative to the former sub
ject, yet certainly its fuU scope is more ex
tensive, and directs us, touching the differ
ence of years, to yield the subjection, that is,
the respect and reverence, which is due from
younger to elder persons.
The presumption and unbridledness of
youth requires the presaing and binding on
of thia rule : and it ia of undeniable equity,
even written in nature, due to aged peraona.
But, doiibtleaa, these reap this due fruit in
that a'eaaen the moat, who have ripened it
mpat by the influence of their grave and holy
carriage. The hoary head ia indeed a
crown ; but when ? when found in the way
of righteousness, Prov. xvi. 31. There it
ahinea, and hath a kind of royalty oyer youth :
otherwiae, a graceleaa old age ia a moat dea
picable and lamentable aight. What gains
an unholy roan or woman, by their scores ef
years, but the more scores of guiltiness and
misery ? And their white hairs speak no
thing but ripeness for wrath. Oh ! io be as
a tree planted in the house of tho Lord,
bringing forth- fruit in old age, Paal. xcii.
12, 13. Much experience in the ways of
God, and much diadain of the world, and
m-iich desire of the lovo of God, a heavenly
temper of mind and frame of life ; this ia the
advantage of m.iny years. But to have seen
and felt the mere misery, aud heaped up the
more sin, the greateat bundle of it, against
the dap of wrath, a woefid treasure of it,
threeacore, or threescore and ten years ,a-
gathering, and with se much increase every
day ; no vacancy, no dead years, ne, not a
day wherein it waa net grpwing ! Hpw de-
plprable a caae ! ,
A sad reflectie'n tp leok back, ivhat have I
dune for God ? and to' find nothing, but such
a world of sin committed against him . Hew
much better he that gets home betiraes in
his youth, if once delivered frora sin and
death, at one with God, and sorae way ser
viceable to him, or desiring te be so, and
h'ath a quick voyage, having lived much in
a Uttie time.
' 2. The precejit alao regulates the carriage
of aUmen to each other : All of you be sub
ject one to another. This.yet farther dilates
the duty, makes it universaUy mutual, one
subject to another. This directly tums about
the vairi contest of men, that arises from (he

280

A COMMENTARY UPON

[cfljtP. V.

natural mischief of self-love ; every one would
cany it, and be best and highest. The very,
corapany of Christ, and his exeraplary lowli
ness, and the raeanneaa ef himself and those |
his followers, aU these did not bar out this
frothy fooliah queation. Who should be
greatest ? and it was ao far diaputed, that it
occaaioned heat about it, a strife amongst
them, Luke xxii. 24. Now, this rule ia juat
oppoaite, each strives to be lowest, subject
one to another.
This does not annul either civU or church
govemment, nor those differences that are
grounded upon the law of nature, or of civil
society ; for we see immediately before, that
such differences are aUowed, and the parti
cular duties ef thera recoramended ; but it
only requirea that aU due reapect, according
to their atation, be given by each Christian
to another ; and though there cannot be such
a aubjection of raaatera or parenta to their aer
vants and children, as is due to them frora
these, yet a lowly raeek carrying of their au
thority, a tender respect of their youth, receiv
ing of an admonition from thera duly quali
fied, is thatwhich suits with the rule. And,
in general, not delighting in the trampling
on, or abusing of any, but rather seeking the
credit and good esteera of all as our ewn,
taking notice of that good in them, wherein
they are beyond us ; for aU hath sorae ad
vantage, and none hath aU. And, in a word,
and it is that of St. Paul, like thia of our
Apoatle here, Rom. xu. 10, In honour pre
ferring one another, q. d. Let thia be all
the strife, who shaU put most respect each on
another, according te the capacity and station
of each one : in giving honour, go each one
before another.*
Now, that such caniage may be aincere,
ne empty compliment, or court holy water,
jjaa they .speak,) but a part of the aolid holi
neaa of a Chriatian, the Apoatle requires the
true principle of such deportment, the grace
of humility. That a Chriatian put on thai,
net the appearance ef it, to act in aa a atage-
garraent, but the truth of it, aa their conatant
habit. Be ye clothed with humility. It
muat appear in your outward caniage ; so
the resemblance of clothing imports ; but let
it appear, as really it is, so tbe very name
of it imports. It is not T^nrsiuoipavia, but
rx,fftivo'^^ocrmvi, not a shew of humility, but
heart lowliuess, humility of. mind.
As it ia the bent of humility to hide other
graces, so far as piety to God and our bre
thren will permit, so it would wiUingly hide
itself ; lovea not tp appear but as necessity
urges : appear it rauat, and dpth apraewhat
rapre appear than raany Pther graces dp,
though it aeeka npt tp appear. It is seen as
a raodest man or woman's apparel, whith
they wear not for that end that it may be
* T^ ri/x^ akX^Xovf or^etiyov^lvei.

seen, and do not gaudily fiaiint and delight
in dressing ; though there is a decency as
well as necessity, which they dp and may
have respect to, yet that in so neat and un.
affected a way, that they are a good example
even in that point. Thus humility in car^
riage and words ia as the decorum of this
clothing, but the raain is the real usefulnesa .
of it.
And therefore, a truly humble man desires
much not to appear humble ; yea, were it
net for disiedifying his brethren, he would
rather disguise and hide npt pnly pther things
by humility, but even humility itself ; and ,
¦wnuld be content, upon raistake of some
words or gestures, tp pass fpr prpud and vain,
being hurable within, rather than tp be big
in his pwn eyea, under a aerablance pf put
ward hoUnesa : yea, were it not that charity
and piety do both forbid it, he would ¦ not
care te de aome things on purpose that might
aeera anogant, to carry huraihty unaeen, tiiat
doth so naturaUy delight in covering of all
graces, and is sony that it cannot do so with.
out being seen itself, as that garraent that
covers the rest raust of necessity be aeen it
aelf. But aeeing it raust be so, it ia with
the least shew that may be, aa a dark veU''
cast abeut rich attire hides their ahew, and
makes very little itaelf.
This therefore ia mainly to be studied,-
that the seat of huraiUty be ihe heart. ~A1-.
though it wUl be seen in the caniage, yet as
Uttle as it can ; as few worda aa raay be con
cerning itself : and those it doth speak must
be the real thoughts ofthe mind, and not an
aft'ected voice ef it, differing from tbe inwardi
aense ; otherwise humble speech and carriage
only put on without, and not fastened in the
inaide, is the most refined and subtle, and
indeed the moat dangeroua kind of pride.-
And this I would recommend as a safe way 'w
ever let thy thoughts concerning thyaelf be
below what thou utterest: and what thou
.seest needful or fitting to .say to thy own
abaseraent, be not only content (which most
are not) to be taken at thy word, and believ.< ,
ed to be such by them that hear thee, but ba-
desirous of it : and let that be the end of thy ,
speech, to persuade them, and gain it of them,
that they really take thee for as werthless^
and mean as thou dest express thyself.
Inf. 1. But how Uttle are we acquainted
with the real frame of Christianity ; the most
Uving witheut a rale, net laying it to their
words and ways at all, nor yielding so much
as a seeming obedience to the gospel ; others
take up a kind of professing, and think aU
cpnsiata in apme religipus performances, audi
dp npt study the inward reserve of thei,:
heart>evils, npr labour to have that teraple,
purged ; for the heart , should be a temple,
and it stands in much need ef sweeping out
the filthiness, and putting out idols. Some
there be, who are much busied ahout the.

VKK. 5.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

287

raatter of their assurance, still upen that
point, which is lawful indeed, and laudable,
to inquire after, yet not so as tp neglect pther
things more needful. It were certainly better
for meny, when they find no issue that way,
to turn aoraewhat of their diligence te the
atudy of Chriatian gracea and duties in their
station, and to task themselves for a time,
were it to the more special seeking, first ef
some pne grace and then pf anpther, as meek-
ness .and patience, and thia particularly of
huraility. To be truly heart.hurable, raany
raen deapiae it in others, but sorae that will
commend it in tbe general, or in aome of theae
in whom they behold it ; yet aeek not to put
it on themaelvea : They love to be more gay,
and to aeera to be aomebody, and wiU not
abaae themselves. It ia the way, say they,
to be undone : tbia clothing ia too poor a
stuff, and of too sad a colour for them. Oh !
ray hrethren, you know not the exceUency of
it, ye look out at a diatance, and judge ac
cording to your Ught, vain minda : but wiU
you see it by the light pf the wprd, and then
ypu shall perceive much hidden richness and
cpraelineaa in it : and dp npt only apprpve it
and call it cpmely on othera, ' but put it on,
and so it is raoat comely. And aa it ia with
respect to all graces, so particularly this
clothing, of humility, though it raakea leaat
show, yet come near, and yeu will see it both
rich and coraely ; and though it hidea other
graces, yet when they de appear under it, as
aoraetiraes they will, a little glance of them
so, makes them rauch raore esteemed. Re
becca's beauty and her jewela were covered
with a veil ; but when they did appear, the
veil set them off, and comraended them,
though at a distance it hid thera.
2. In idl, ao particularly in thia grace, take
heed of a disguise or' counterfeit of it. Oh I
Sincerity is all in aU, and particularly in thia,
only be lew in thine ewn eyes, and wiUing
to be ao in the eyes of others ; that ia the
very upright nature of thia heart-humiUty.
I. Not deluded with falae conceit of ad
vantages thou hast not. 2. Not sweUed with
a vain conceit of those thou reaUy hast. 3,
Not affecting to be esteemed By others, either
upen their iraagining thee to have sorae good
that is not in thee, or discerning that whicii
is. Is not the d.iy at hand, when men wiU
be taken off the false heights they stand on,
and set on their own feet ; and when all the
eateera of othera shaU vanish and pass away
like .sraoke, and thou shalt be just what God
finds and accounts thee, and neither raere
nor less ? Oh ! the reraembrance of that
day, when a true estimate will be made of
aU ; this would make raen hang less upon
the unstable conceits and opinions of one an.
other, knowing eur judgment and day sliaU
shortiy end. Be it little or much theu hast,
the lower and clpser theu caniest it under
this cloak, the safer shall it and thou be, the

more shaU it inereasc ; and thou shalt be the-
liker Him in whora all fulness dwella ; in
this he hath most expressly set himaelf before
us aa eur pattem ; and one says well, " Sure
man raight now be constrained to be proud,-
for whora God hiraself became hurable."
Now, to work the heart to a hurable pes-
true, 1. Look mio thyself 'm earnest ; and,
truly, whosoever thou be that hast thehigh.'^
est conceit of thyself, and the highest causes
of it, a real sight of thyaelf will lay thy creat.
Men look on any good, or fancy ef it, in
theraselves, with beth eyes, and skip over,
as unpleaaant, their real defects and deforrai-
ties. Every man is naturally his own flat^
terer ; otherwise flatteries, and false cryings
up frora others, would make little impres
sion ; but hence their auccess, they raeet the
same conceit within. But wiU any man see
his ignorance, and lay what he knowa notj
ever against what he knows ; the disordera
in hia heart and affections, over againat any
right motion in them ; his aecret foUiea and
aina, againat his outwardly blaraeleaa car
riage ; and thia raan shall not readily love
and embrace hiraself; yea, it shall be ira
posaible for him not to abase and abhorhim-
elf. 2. Look on the good in others, and
the evil in thyself. Make that the paraUel,
and then thou wilt walk humbly. Most
men do just the contrary, and that foolish
and unjust comparison puffs thera up. 3*
Thou art not required to be ignorant ef that
good, whicii reaUy ia ao indeed : but beware
ef imagining that to be good which ia not ;
yea, rather let aomething , that is truly good
pass thy view, and see it within rather than
beyond ita true size. And then, whatsoever
it be, aee it not aa thine own, but God'a, hia
free gift ; and ae the more theu haat, looking
on it in that view, thou wilt certainly be the
more hurable, aa having the more obliga
tiona : the weight of them wiU preaa thee
dpwn, and lay thee atiU lower ; aa you aee it
in Ahraham, the clear viaions and proraises
he had, raade him faU down flat to the
ground. Gen. xv. 12. 4. Pray much for the
spirit of humiUty, the Spirit of Christ : fer
that is it ; otherwise all thy vileneaa will not
hunible thee. When men hear of this or
other gracea, and how reaaonable they are,
they think preaently to have thera, and do
not conaider the natural enmity and rebellion
of their own hearta, and the necessity of re
ceiving them from Heaven : and therefore in
the use rf aU ether means, be most depend
ent on that influence, and most in that mean,
which opens the heart raost to that influence,
and draws it down uppn the heart, and that
is prayer. Of aU the evils of put cpnupt nature,
there is npne more connatural and univeraal
than pride ; the grand wickedness, self-exalt
ing in eur ewn and others' opinion. Though
I will not contest what was the flist step ire

288

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CIIAP. V.

that coraplicated first sin, yet certainly this
of pride was ene, and a main ingredient in
it ; that which the unbeUef conceived going
before, and the disobedience foUowing after,
were both servants to ; and ever since it sticks
stiU deep in eur nature. So that St. Au.
gustine says truly, " That, which first over
came man, is the last thing he overcomes."
Some sins, coraparatively, may die before us,
but this hath life in it, sensihly, as long aa
ve. It is as the heart ef aU, the first living,
and the laat dying ; and hath this advantage,
that, whereaa other sins are fomented by one
uiother, thia feeda even pn virtues aud graces,
bS a mpth that breeds in them, and cpn-
siimes them ; even in the finest of them, if
it be not carefuUy Ippked te. This bydra^
as one head ef it is cut off, another rises up :
it wiU secredy cleave to the best actions, and
prey upon them : and therefore is there se
much need, that we continuaUy watch and
fight, and pray against it ; and be restless in
the purauit ef real and deep bumiUation,
daUy advancing further in it ; to be nething,
and deaire to be nothing ; not only to bear,
but to leve our pwn abaaement, and the thinga
that prpcure and help it ; tp take pleaaure in
them, SP far as may be withput sin ; yea,
even pf pur sinful failings, when they are dis -
cevered, to love the bringing low of oursielves
by thera, while we hate, and grieve for the
sin of them.
And, above aU, it is necessary to watch
ourselves in our best things, that self get net
in : or, if it break in, or steal in at any time,
that it be presently found out and cast out
again ; to have that established within us,
to do all for God ; to intend him and hia
glory in aU, and te be wilUng te advance his
glpry, were it by pur own disgrace ; not to
make raising or pleasing thyself the rule of
exercising thy parta and gracea, when thou
art caUed to uae and bring them forth ; but
the good of thy brethren, and in that the
glory of thy Lord. Now tbis is indeed to
be severed from self, and united to hiraj to
have self-love turned into the love of God.
And this is his own work ; it is above aU
other hands ; therefore the main corabat
against pride, and the conquest ef it, and
gaining of humiUty, ia certainly by prayer.
God beatowa hiraself mest te them that are
raost abundant in prayer ; and they, to whom
he shows hiraself most, are certainly die
most humble.
Now, to stir us up to diligence in the
atudy and exercise ef this grace, take briefly
a consideration or two.
1. Leek on that above pointed at, the
high example of lowliness set before us ;
Jesus Christ requiring our particular care to
take this lesson from him. And is it not
most reasonable ? He, the most fair, the
most exceUent and Complete of all men, and
yet the most humble : He. raore than a raan.

and yet wiUingly became, in sorae sort, less
than a raan, ai it is expressed, a worm and
no man, Paal. xxii. 6 ; and when majesty
itself ernptied itself, and descended so low,
shaU a wonn sweU and be high-cenceite3 ?
Then, cpnsider it was fpr us he humbled
hiraself, tp expiate pur pride ; and therefore
it is evidently the mere just that we foUow
a pattem which is both so great in itself, and
doth so nearly concem us. " O humiUty !
the virtue of Christ, (that which he so pecu.
liarly espoused,) how dost thou confound tbe
vanity of our pride ?"
2. Consider the safety of grace under this
clothing. It is that which keeps it unex.
posed to a thousand hazards. Humility
doth grace no prejudice in covering it^ but
indeed shelters it frem violence and wrong ;
therefore they do justiy caU it, conservatrix
virtutum, the preserver of grace ; and one
says weU, " That he who canies other graces
withput humUity, canies a precipus powder
in the wind withput a cpver."
3. Cpnsider the increase pf grace byit,
and that is here expressed ; the perfect en.
mity ef God against pride, and his boiinty
tPwards humility ; He resisteth the proud,
and giveth grace to ihe humble.
1. The enmity pf Ged against the proud,
he resisteth them, avrirxanrai ; he singles
it out for his grand enemy, and sets himself
in battle-array against it, so the word is,
It breaks the ranks" of raen in which he hath
set them, when they are net aubject, ti^o.
TX'^fff-ioivoi, aa tbe word is before ; yea, it not
only breaks rank, but rises up in rebeUion
against God, and doth what it can to de
throne hira and usurp his place; therefore
he orders his forces against it ; and to be
sure, if Ged be able to make his party good,
pride shall not escape hira. He will break
it, and bring it low ; for he is set upon that
purpose, and wUl not be diverted.
2. The bounty ef God to the hurable ;
But he giveth grace. Pours it out plenti
fully upon hurable hearts. His sweet dews
and showers ofgrace slide off the mpuntaina
of pride, ahd faU on the low vaUies of
humble hearta, and makes them pleasant and
fertile. The sweUing heart, puffed up with
a fancy of fulness, hath- no roora for grace.
It is lifted up, is net hoUowed and fitted to
receive and contain the graces tbat descend
from above. - And again, as the humble
heart is raost capacious, and, as being erap.
tied and hoUpwed, can hold moat, so it is
most thankful, acknowledges all as receiv
ed ; but the proud cries, aU is his own.
The retum of glory that is due ftom grace,
comes raost freely and plentifully from an
humble heart ; God delights to enrich it widi
grace, and it delights te return him glory.
The more he bestows on it, the raore it de-
sires to honour him with all ; and the moi'e it
doth so, the more leadilv he bestows stiU

VEll. 6.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

2«9

more upon it ; and this is the sweet inter
course betwixt God and the hurable soul.
This is the noble ambition of huraility, in
respect whereof, aU the aspirings of pride are
low and base. When aU is reckoned, the
lowliest raind is truly the highest ; and these
two agree so well, that the raore lowly it is,
it ia thua the higher ; and the higher thus,
it is StiU the more lowly.
Oh ! my brethren, want of this ia a great
cause of all pur wanta. Why ahould our
God beatow pn ua what we wpuld bestpw pn
pur idpl-self ; or if not tP idpUze thyself, yet
to idolize the thing, the gift that grace
bestowed, to fetch thy beUeving and com
forts from that, which is to put it in his
place that gave, and to make Baal of it, aa
seine would render Hpsea ii. 8.* Npw he
wiU net furnish thee thus tP his pwn preju
dice therein ; seek therefpre tp have thine
heart pn a high deaign, aeeking grace stUl,
net tp rest in any gift, npr tp grpw vain and
regardless ef' him upon it. If we had but
this flxed with us ; " What gift or grace I
seek, what comfort I seek, it shaU be no
sooner mine, but it shaU be aU thine again,
and myself with it. I desire nothing frora
thee but that it may come back to thee, and
draw me with it unto thee. This is aU ray
end, and all my desire :" The request thus
/presented would net ' come back so often
unanswered. This is the only way to grow quickly rich ;
come still poor to him that hath enough ever
to enrich thee, and desire of his riches, not
for thyself, but for him. Mind entirely his
glory in all thou hast and seekest to have.
What thou hast, use se, and what thou
wantest, vow that theu wilt use it so ; let it
be his in thy purpose, even before it be thine
in possession, as Hannah did in her suit for
a son, 1 Sam. i. 11, and thou shalt obtain
as she did ; and then, as she was, be thou
faithful in the performance ; Him whom I
received (says she, ver, 27, 28,) by peti
tion, I have returned to ihe Lord.
It is undoubtedly the secret pride and
selfishness of our hearts that obstructs much
of the bounty of God's hand in the measure
of our graces, and the sweet erabraces of his
love, which we should otherwise find. The
more that we let ge of puraelvea, atiU the
mere ahould we receive ef himaelf. Oh, fool-
ish we, that refuse so bleaaed an exchange !
To this humility, as in these words it is
taken in the notion of eur inward thoughts
touching ourselves, and our carriage in rela
tipn te pthers, the Appstie jpins the pther
humiUty, in relation to God ; being indeed
the differeUt actings of one and the same
grace, and inseparably connected each with
the Pther, which we are next tp cpnsider.
* The words Gnasu Lebagnal, which we render,
which they prepared for Baal, may, as the margin
notes, be translated, wherewith they made Baal,

Ver. G. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the
mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in
due time.
This is pressed by reason, both of equity
and necessity, in that werd, the mighty
hand of God, He is the Sovereign Lerd of
aU, and aU things do obeisance to him ;
therefore it is just that yeu, his people, pro-
fessing loyalty and obedience to him, be mest
submissive and humble in your subjection to
him in aU things. Again, the necessity,
his mighty hand : There ia no atriving ; it
ia a vain tiling to flinch and atruggle, for he
doth what he will ; and his hand ia so
raighty, that the greateat pewer of the crea
ture is nothing to it. Yea, it is aU indeed
derived from him, and therefore cannot do
any whit against him ; and if thou wilt not
yield, theu must yield ; if thou wilt not be
led, thou shalt be puUed and drawn ; there
fore submission is your only ceurse.
The tliird reason, by which humility is
preaaed, is that of utiUty or certain advan
tage, as there is nething to be gained, yea,
rather as you are certainly ruined by reluc
tance, so this hurable submission is the only
way to gain, if gain be the point yeu aim at.
What would you have under any affliction,
but be delivered, and raised up ; thus alone
yeu attain that, humble yourselves, and he
shall raise you up in due time.
This is the end why he humbles you, laya
weights upen you, that you raay be depress,
ed. Now, when it ia gained, that you are
wilUngly so, then the weights are taken ofl',
and you are lifted up by his gracioua hand.
Otherwiae, it is not enough, that he hath
hurabled you by his hand, unless you
humble yourselves under his hand. Many
have had great and many pressures, one af
fliction after another, and been hurabled,
and yet net raade humble, as they coramon
ly express the difference : humbled by force
in regard of their outward condition, but not
humbled in their inward teraper ; and there
fore, as seen as the weight is off, like heaps
of wool, they rise up again, and grow as big
as they were.
If we would conaider this in our particular
trials, and aira at thia deportment, it were
our wiadom. Are they not mad, that,
irader any stroke, quanel or stmggle againat
God ? What gain vour children thua at
your hands, but more blows ? Nor is this
only an unseemly and unhappy way, openly
to resist and strive, but even secretly to fret
and grumble : for- he hears the least whis
pering of the heart, aud looka moat' how that
behavea itself under his hand. Oh 1 hurable
acceptance ef his chastisement ia our duty
and our peace ; that which gaina moat on
the heart ef eur Father, and makes the rod
fall soonest out of his hand.
And not only sheuld we learn this, in our
outward thinga, but in our spiritual condi.

2G0

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap, V

tion, aa the thing the Lord is much pleased
with in hia children. There ia a atubborn-
nesa and fretting ef heart conceming our
aoula, that ariaea frora pride and the untara
edneaa' ef our nature ; and yet aorae take a
pleaaure in it, touching the raatter ef com
fort and assurance, if it be withheld ; er
which they take more liberty in, if it be
sanctification and victory over ain they seek ;
and yet find little or no success. But the
Lord holding thera under in these, they then
vex themselves, and wax raore discontented,
and nething pleases thera ; aa peeviah chil
dren, upon the refuaal of aoraewhat they
would have, take diapleaaure, and raake no
account of the daily provision raade for
them, and all the ether benefita they have
by the care and love of their parenta. Thia
ia a foUy very unbeaeeraing the children that
are the children of wisdom, and ahould walk
as such ; and till they learn more humble
respect for their Father'a will, they are still
the farther off frora their purpose. Were
they once brought to subrait the matter, and
give hira heartily his will, he would readily
give thera theira, as far aa were for their
good ; as you aay to your children of any
thing they are too stiff and earnest in, and
make a noiae for, " Cry not for it, and you
ahaU have it."
And this ia the thing we observe not, that
the Ijord eften by hia delaya ia airaing at
thia ; and were thia done, we cannot think
bow gracioualy he would deal with ua. Hia
gracioua design is to raake rauch roora for
grace by rauch hurabling ; especially in
aorae spirits that need much trying, or when
he meana much to enable for aome aingular
service ; and thus the tirae is not lost, as we
are apt to iraagine, but it furthers our end,
while we think the contrary. It ia necea
aary tirae and paina that ia given to the un-
ballaating of a ahip, caating out the earth
and aand, when it ia to be leaden with
apicea. We raust be eraptied more, if we
would have of that fulness and riches whicii
we are longing for.
So long as we foam and chaae againat his
way, though it be in eur best suits, we are
not in a posture for a favourable anawer.
Would we wring things out of hia hand by
fretfulneaa ? that ia not the way ; no, but
present humble submissive suits : " Lord,
thia ia my desire, but thou art wise and gra
cious ; I refer the matter to thy will for the
thing, and for the measure, aud tirae, and
aU." Were we rapulded tp thia composure,
then were mercy near. When he had gain
ed this, broke our will and tamed eur stout-
neaa, then he relenta and pities. See Jer.
xxx. 17, 18, Because they called thee an
outcast, Scc, thus saith the Lord, Behold,
I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's
tents, Scc.
This I would recomraend in any estate,

the hurable folding under the Lerd's hanrl,
kiaaing the rod, and faUing lew before him.
And this is the way io be raised. But one,
perhaps, raay think he hath tried thia awhile,
and ia stiU at the sarae point, hath gained
nothing, and he may therefore be ready to '
faU back to his old repinings : Let such a
one know his humbUng and compliance was
not upright. It was a fit of false conatrain.
ed submission, and therefere lasts not ; it
was hut a tempting of Ged, instead ef sub
raitting to hira. ^' Oh ! will he have a sub-
raisaion ? I will try it, but with thia re-
aerve, that if after auch a tirae I gain not
what I seek, I ahaU think it is lest, and that
I have reaaon to retum to ray.diacontent."
Though the man aaya not thua, yet this
temper is aecretly under it. But wouldst
thou have it right, it muat-be without condi.
tion, without reserve ; no time, nor any thing,
preacribed ; and then he wiU make hia word
good. He will raise ihee up.
And that in due time. Not thy fancied
tirae, but hia own wisely appointed time.
Thou thinkest, now I ara sinking,- if he help
riot now, it will be too late ; yet he sees it
otherwise ; he can let thee sink yet lower,
and yet bring thee up again ; he doth but
stay till the raost fit tirae. Thou canst not
see it yet, but thou shalt see it, that his
chosen tirae is absolutely best; God waiteth
to be gracious, Isa. xxx. 18. Doth he wait,
and wilt not thou ? Oh ! the firm beUef of
his wisdom, power tind goodness, what diffi
culty wiU it not surmount ? So then be
humble under hia hand ; aubrait not only
thy gooda, thy health, thy Ufe, but thy soul.
Seek and wait for thy pardon as a condemn
ed rebel, with thy rope about thy neck.
Lay thyaelf low before him, stoop at hia
feet, and crave leave to look up, and apeak,
and aay, " Lord, I am juatly under the aen
tence of death. If I faU under it, thou art
righteoua, and I do here acknowledge it ;
but there ia deUverance in Christ, thither I
would have recourse ; yet if I be beateii
back, and held out, and faith withheld frora
rae, and I perish, as it were, in view of aal
vation, if I aee the rock, and yet cannot
come at it, but drown ; what have I to aay ?
In this Ukewise thou art righteous. Only, if
it seera good unto thee to aave the vilest, most
wretched of sinners, and ahew great raercy
in pardoning ao great debta, the higher wiU
be the glory of that mercy. However, here
I am resolved te wait, tiU-either thou gra
ciously receive rae, er absolutely reject me.
If thou do thia, I have net a word to say
against it ; but hecauae thou art gracioua, I
hope, I hope, thou wilt yet have mercy on
me :" I dare aay that the promiae in the text
belonga te auch a soul, and it shall be rais
ed up in due time.
And what though most or all of our life
iheuld paaa witheut much sensible taste even

VEU. 7-J

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

291

of spiritual comforta , a poor all it is. Let
ua not over eateem this moment, and so
think toe much of our better or worse condi
tion in it, eitiier in temporals,, yea, or in
spirituals, such aa are more arbitrary and
acceaaory to the name of our spiritutd life.
Provided we can humbly wait for free grace,
and depend on the word of promise, we are
safe. If the Lord will clearly shine en us,
and refresh us, thia is much to be desired
and prized ; but if he so think fit, what if
we should be aU our days held at a distance,
¦ind under a cloud of wrath ? It is but a
moment in his anger, Psal. xxx. 5. Then
follows a Ufetime in his favour, an endless
lifetime. It ia but weeping, as it there
foUows, for a night, and joy comes in the
morning, that clearer morning of etemity, to
which no evening succeeds.
\^KR. 7. Casting all your care upon him, for he
careth for you.
Amongst other spiritual secrets, this is
oue, and a prirae one, the corabination of
lowUness and boldness, humble confidence :
This is the true temper of a child ef God
towarda hia great and good Father : nor can
any other have it, 'but they that are indeed
his children, and have within them that
spirit of adoption, which he sends into
their hearts. Gal. iv. G.
And these two the Apoatie here joins toge
ther. Humble yourselves under the hand of
God, and yet cast your care on him : upon
that same hand uuder which yeu ought tp
huirable ypurselves, must you withal cast
over your care, all your care, for he careth
for you.
Consider, 1. The nature of thia confidence,
casting all your care on him. 2. The
ground or wanant pf it, for he careth for
you. 1. Fpr the nature ef it, every man hath
some desirea and purpoaea that are predomi
nant with hira, beaide thoae that relate to
the daily exigenciea of Ufe with which he ia
corapaaaed ; and in both according to their
importance er hia eateem, and the difficultiea
occurring in thera, he ia naturaUy canied to
be proportionaUy thoughtful and careful in
thera. New the exceaa and diatemper of this
care ia one of the great diseases and raiseries
of raan's life. Meral raen, perceiving and
resenting it, have been tarapering at the Pure,
and prescrihing after their fashion, but with
little success. Sorae present abatement and
aUay ofthe paroxysm or extremity, their rules
may reach ; but they never gp near the bot,
tora, the cause pf the evil ; and therefpre
cannot work a thorough sound cure of it.
Something they have speken, somewhat
fitiy, of the surpassing nature's rule and
size in the purauit of superfluous, needless
things ; but for the unavoidable care of thinga
needful, they know no redress, but refer men

entirely to their own industry nnd diligence.
They can tell how little will aerve him, that
seeks ne more than what will serve ; but how
to be provided of the little, or to be assured
of it, and freed frora troubling care, they can
not teU.
Now, traly, it were a great point to be
weU instructed in the former ; and it is ne
cessary for the due practice of this rale here
given, touching necessary cares, first to cut
off cares unnecessary, to retrench all extra
vagant superfluous desires. For, certainly,
a great part of the troubling cares of raen
relate merely tp things that are auch aa have
np Pther necessity in them, but what pur
disprdered desires create, nor truly any real
good in them, but what eur fancy puts upon
thera. Sprae are indeed forced to labour
hard for their daily bread ; but undoubted
ly, a great deal of the sweat and toil ef the
greatest part of raen is about unnecessaries".
Such an estate, so much by the year, auch a
place, ae much honour and eateem, and rank
in the werld : these are the things that make
some alavea to the huraours of ethers whom
they court, and place their dependance on,
for these ends : and these, possibly, to whom
they are so enthralled, are themselvea at as
little Uberty, but captivated to the humours
ef seme others, either above them, or that
being below them, may give accession and
furtherance to their ends of enrichment, ad
vancement, er popularity. Men set on these
things forget necessities to themaelvea, and
raake vain things as necessary as food and
raiment, resolving that tbey will have thera,
or faU in the chase, being wilfuUy and un
avoidably bent on thera. They that will be
rich, saya the Apoatle, I Tim. vi. 9, that are
reaolved en it upon any terma, meet with
tenna hard enough; they fall into tempta
tion, and a snare, and into many foolish
and hurtful lusts, which drown men in de
struction and perdition. There is no re
covering, but StiU they are plunged deeper
and deeper, and these are foolish lusts too,
unreaaona.ble, childiah deairea : after ene bar
gain, such another ; and after one sin, an
other to raake even ; and somewhat then to
keep that whole ; and so on without end.
If their bearts are set upon purchase and
land, atiU aome house or neighbour fleld,
some Naboth's vineyard is in his eyes, and
aU the rest ia nothing without that, which
discovers the madness of this huraour, this
dropsy-thirst. And this is the flrst thing indeed to be
Ippked tp, that pur deaires and cares be
brpught tP a due cprapass ; aud what wpuld
we have ? Do we think contentraent liea in
SP much, and np less ? Alaa ! when that is
attained, it ahall appear aa far off as before.
When children are at the foot of a high hill,
they think it reaches the heavens ; and yet
* Ad supervacua sudatuj.

292

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. V,

if they were there, they flnd theraselves as far
off as before, at least not sensibly nearer.
Men think, Oh ! had I thia, I were weU ;
and when it ia reached, it ia but an advanced
standing to look higher, and spy out for some
other thing.
We are indeed children in this, to think
the good of our estate is in the greatness, and
not in the fitness of it for us. He were a
fool that would have his clothes so ; and
think the bigger and longer they were, they
would please him the better. And certainly
as in apparel, ao in place and eatate, and all
outward thinga, their geod liea not in their
greatneaa, but in their fitneaa for us : as our
Saviour tells us expressly, ihat man's life
consisteth not in the abundance of the things
he possesseth, Luke xii. 13. Think you
great and rich persons Uve more content ; be
lieve it not. If they wiU deal freely, they
can teU you the cpntrary ; that there is no
thing but a shew in thera ; and that great
eatates and places have great grief and cares
attending thera, as shadows are proportioned
to tlieir bodies.
And if they have no real crosses, luxury
frames troubles to itself; variety of diahea
corrapting the atomach, and cauaing variety
of diaeases : and for need, fantastic vain dis
contents that wiU trouble men aa much ai
greater, be it but this hawk flies not weU, or
that dog runs not weU, to raen whoae hearts
are in those games.
So then, I say, this is first to be regulat
ed : aU childish, vain, needleaa carea are to
be diacharged, and, as being unfit to cast on
thy God, are to be quite cast out of thy heart.
Entertain ne cares at all but such as thou
mayest put into God'a handa, and make hia
on thy behalf : such as he wiU take off thy
hand, and undertake for thee.
All needfid, lawful care, and that only,
wiU he receive ; so then rid thyaelf quite of
all that thou canst not take this course with,
and then, without scruple, take confidently
this course with aU the reat. Seek a weU-
regulated sober apirit. In the things of thia
life, be content with food and raiment, not
deUcatea, but food, not omament, but rai
ment, rpotpriv ou rpuiphv, (rxi^xfffixTx ob y.oc-
livifixrx : and conclude, that what thy Fa
ther carvea to thee is best for thee ; the
fittest measure, for he knowa it, and lovea
thee wiaely. Thia courae our Savipur would
have thee take. Matt. vi. 31, first, tp cut pff
Buperfiupua care, then tp turn pver en thy
God the care of what ia neceaaary : he will look
to that, thou haat hira engaged, and he can
and WiU give thee beyond that, if he see it
fit- Only thia ia required ef thee, to refer the
matter to his diacretion whoUy. Now, in
thy thua weU-regulated affairs and deairea, I
there ia a diligent care and study ef thy duty. |
Thia he lays on thee : there is a care of sup- 1

port in the work; and the aucceaa ef it ; this
thou oughteat to lay on him, and so indeed
aU the care ia turned off from thee upon him,
even that ef duty, which frora hira lies on us.
We offer our aervice, but fer akiU anil
strength to diacharge it, that care we 1 ay on him.
and he aUpws us : and then fpr the event and
auccess, with that we truat hira entirely. And
thia ia the way tp walk contentedly and cheer.
fuUy horaewarda, leaning and reating aU the
way en him, who is both our guide and
our strength, who hath us and aU our good
in his gracious hand. Much zeal for him,
and deaire of hia glory, minding eur duty in
relation to that, is the thing he requirea, and
we bending our whole care to that, he under.
takea the care ef ua and our condition. As
that king said to hia favourite, when perauad-
ing liim to fidelity and diUgence in his state
trust, " Do my affaira, and I will do yours."
Such a word directiy hath St. Chrysoatom,
2y [j.ipif/,\Yi(fo\ rx tau 0£cy, xxi xvroi fAlpifivtjffti
TO cot. " If thou have a concern for the things
that are God'a, he wiU alao be careful of
thee and thine."
The care of duty thus canied is sweet and
light, doth net cut and divide the raind, it is
united aud gathered in Go'd, and rests there,
and walks in his hand all the way. He
bears the weight ef aU our works, works them
in us, and for us, and therein lies our peace
that he ordains for us, Isa. xxvi, 12. If
theu wouldst shake off the yoke of obedience,
theu art Ukewiae te be shaken off thyself;
but if in hurable diUgence in the ways of
God, thou walk on in his strength, there is
nothing concema thee and thy work, but he
wiU take the charge and care ef it, thyaelf
and aU thine intereata. Art thou troubled
with fear, eneraiea, and anarea ? untrouble
thyself of that, for he is with thee. He hath
proraised to lead thee in a straight and safe ,
path, Psal. xxvii. 11 ; and to rebuke aU
thine enemies, to subdue thine iniquities
for thee, Micah vii. 19, and to fight against
ihose ihat fight against thee, Paal. jcxxv. 1.
No weapon formed against ihee shall pro
sper, laa. Uv. 17; yea, when thou passest
through the water and through the fire, he
will be with thee, laa. xliii. 2. Dpth thine
pwn weakneaa diacpurage thee ? hath he not
apoke of strengthening ihe weak hands and
feeble knees, and that the lame shall leap
as an hari ? Isa. xxxv. 3, 6 ; and though
there ia nothing in thyaelf but unrighteous.
neaa and weakneas, yet there ia in him for
thee righteousness and strength, Isa. xiv. 24.
Righteousness,, te express the abundance of
righteousneaa. When thou art ready to
faint, a look to him wiU revive, a beUeving
look draws in of hia atrength to thy aoul, and
renewa it, Isa. xl. 29, And know, the mere
tender and weak thou art, the more tender he
is over thee, and tbe more strong wiU he be
in thee. He feeds his fleck like a shepherd.

ER. 7.T

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER,

293

and the weakest he is the most careful of:
they are carried in his arms and bosom,
Isa. xl. 11, and it ia easy for the feebleat to
go se.
And as for the issue and success pf thy
way, let not that trouble thee at all ; that is
the care he would have thee whoUy disburden
thyself of, and lay it entirely upon him. Do
net vex thyself with thinking, how wUl this
and that be ? what if this and the other faU
out ? This ia hia part whoUy ; and if thou
meddle with it, thou at once diapleasest hira,
and disquietest thyself. This sin canies the
puniahraent of it close tied to it. If thou
wilt be atruggUng with that whicii belonga
not to thee, and poiaing at that burden that
ia not thine, what wonder, yea, I raay say,
what pity if theu fall under it ? Art thou
not weU aerved ? Ia it not juat, that if theu
wilt do for thyaelf, and bear for thyaelf what
thy Lord caUa for to bear for thee, thou feel
the weight ef it to thy coat ?
But what ia the way of thia devolving of
ray burden ? There is a faculty in it that
every one hath not, thpugh they wpuld do
thus with it, they cannot. It lies on thera,
and they arc not able to caat it on God. The
way is doubtless by praying and believin^
those are the hands by which the aoul can
turn over tp Gpd what itaelf cannpt bear, , all
cares ; the whole bundle is most dexterously
translated thus, Phil. iv. 6, Be careful in
nothing ; a great word. Oh ! but hew shaU
it be ? why thua, says he. In all things
make your requests known unto God, and
in a confident cheerful way, supplication
raixt with thanksgiving. It wiU be the
more lively and active to carry forth, and
cany up thy cares, and discharge ihee oi
thera, and lay thera on God. Whatsoever
it is that preaaea thee, go tell thy Father.
Put over the raatter into his hand, and ap
thpu ahalt be freed frpra lii^i/iva, that divid
ing, perplexing care, that the werld ia fuU of.
No more, but when thou art either to do
or auffer any thing, when thou art about any
purpoae or business, go tell Ged ef it, and
acquaint him with it ; yea burden hira ¦with
it, and thou hast done f'or raatter of caring :
no raore care, but quiet sweet diUgence in
thy duty, and dependence on him for the
caniage of thy matters. And in this prayer,
faith acts : it is a beUeving requeating ; ask
in faith, not doubting ; so thou roUest over
all on hira, that is the very proper working
of faith. The canying the soul and aU its
desires out of itself unto God, is so express
ed, Psal. xxxvii. 5, Roll over on God;
make one bundle ef aU ; roll thy cares and
thyself with thera as one burden, all en thy
God. New, faith to do this stays itself on the
proraise. It cannot raove but en firra ground,
and the promises are its ground ; and for
thia end ia thia added. He careth for thee.

Thia must be established in die heart. I.
The firm beUef of the divine Providence,
that all things are managed and ruled by it,
and that iri highest power and wisdom ; that
there is no breaking of his purposes, nor re
sisting ef hispower, Psal. xxxiii. 11, The
counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, and
ihe thoughts of his heart to all generations,
2, The beUef of his gracious Providence to
his own people, that he orders all for their
true advantage, and raakes all dift'erent Unes
and ways concentre in their highest good ;
aU to meet in that, how opposite soever in
appearance, Rora. viii. 28. 3. A particular
confidence of his good will towards thee, and
undertaking for thee. Now, if this be the
question, the proraise resolves thee ; truat
hira, and he takes on the trast, and there is
ne other. Cast on hira thy care, and he
takes it on, he cares for thee. His royal woril
is engaged not tp give thee the slip, if thpu
do really lay it upon hira, Paal. 1-v. 22. Cast
thy burden upon the Lord. Hand it over,
heave it upon him, and he shall sustain
th^e, shall bear beth, if thou truat him with
beth ; both thee and thy burden : He shall
never suffer the righteous io be moved.
Inf. 1. The children of God have the
only sweet life : the world thinks not so,
rather looks en them aa poor, discontented,
lowring creaturea ; but they see not what an
uncaring, traly secure Ufe they are called to.
While others are turmoiUng and wreatiing
each with hia projecta and burdena for hira
self, and at length crushed and sinking under
thera, (for that is the end of aU that do for
themselves,) the child of God goes free from
the pressure ef aU that concerns him ; for it
is laid over on his God. If he uae hia ad.
vantage, he ia not racked with musinga. Oh !
what will becorae ef thia and that ; but goes
on in the atrength of God aa he may ; oflers
up poor, but aincere endeavours to God, and
is sure of one thing, all shall be well. He
lays his affairs and himaelf on Ged, and ao
hath no pressing care : no care but the care
ef love how te please, how to honour, hia
Lord ; and in this he depends on him, too,
both for akiU and strength : and, touching
the success of things, leaves that as none of
his, te be burdened with ; casts it on God,
and he careth for it. They need not both
care, his care alone ia aufficient ; hence peace,
inconceivable peace, Phil. iv. 6, 7, Be care
ful for nothing ; but in every thing, by
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiv
ing, let your requests be made known unto
God. And ihe peace of God, which pass
eth all understanding, shall keep your
hearts and minds, through Jesus Christ.
Inf. 2. But, truly, the godly are much in
the wrong to theraselves, by not iraprovlng
this their privUege. They too eften forget
this their sweet way, and fret themaelvea to
no purpose ; ¦KTestie with their burdena them-

294

A COMMENTARY UPON

[Chap, v.

selves, and do not entirely and freely roll
them over on God. They are surcharged
with them, and he calls for them, and -yet
they v/iU not give them him. They think
to spare hira, but indeed in thia they diaobey,
and dishonour, and ao grieve him ; and they
find the grief return on thera, and yet cannot
learn te be wise.
Why deal we thus with our God, and
with our souls, grieving both at once ? Let
it never be, that for any outward thing thou
perplex thyaelf, and entangle thy thpughts,
aa in thicketa, with the carea pf this Ufe.
Oh ! hew unsuitable are theae to a child of
God, for whom a life so far more exceUent
is provided ! Hath he prepared a kingdom
for thee, and will he not beatow thy chargea
in the way to it ? Think it net : He knows
you have need of these things. Matt. vi.
32. Seek not vaiii things, nor great things,
in the expreaaion these things ; for theae, it
ia likely, are not fit for thee ; but what ia
needful and convenient, in his judgment, he
wiU give ; and refer thyself cheerfuUy to that
judgraent. Then, for thy apiritual estate, lay ever
upon God the care of that top : Be npt ap
much in thorny queationinga, doubting and
diaputing each atep. Oh ! ia thia accepted
and that, and so rauch deadness, &c. ; but
apply more thyaelf aimply to thy duty ;
lamely as it may be, halt on, and believe
that he is gi'acious, and pities thee, and lay
the care pf bringing thee thrpugh upon him.
Lie net coraplaining and arguing, but up
and be doing, and the Lord shall be with
ihee, 1 Chron. xxii. 16. I ara persuaded
many a seul, that hath some truth of grace,
falla rauch hehind in the progreaa, by this
accustoraed way of endless questionings.
Men con scarce be brought to examine and
suspect their own condition, being camaUy
secure, and satisfied that aU is well ; but
then, when once they awaken and set to this,
they are ready to entangle themselves in it,
and neglect their way, by poring on their
condition. They will not set cheerfuUy to
any thing, becauae they want assurances and
height of joy ; and this course they take ia
the way to want it atill. Walking hurably
and aincerely, and offering at thy duty, and
waiting on the Lord, ia certainly the better
way, and nearer that very purpoae of thine :
for he meeteth hhn that rejoiceth and
worketh righteousness, those that remem
ber him in his ways, laa. Ixiv. 5. One thing
the Chriatian should endeavour to obtain,
firra belief for the Church ; aU the care of
that rauat be caat on God, that he will
beautify Zion, and perform all his word to
her : and then think. Do I truat him for the
wbole Church, and the great affairs concern
ing it, and ahaU I doubt hira for rayaelf, or
any thing that concema me ? Do I confide
in him for the steering and guidance of the

whple ship, and shall be peevishly deubt.
ing and distrusting about my pack in it ?
Again, when to the present and past,
theu caUest in after evila by advance, and
art still revolving the dangers before, and
thy weakneaa ; it is good, indeed, to enter.
tain by theae, holy fear and self-distrust;
but by that be driven in to trust on thy un.
dertaker, on him in whom thy strength lies ;
and be aa aure and confident in him, as thou
art, and justly art, distrustful of thyself.
Further, leam to prescribe nothing ; atudy
entire reaignation, for that ia thy great duty
and thy peace, that gives up aU into the
hand of thy Lord ; and, can It be in a
better hand ? Firat, refer the carving of out.
ward things to hira, heartily and fuUy;
then stay not there, hut go higher : If we
have renounced the coraforts of this world
for God, let us add this, renounce even spi
ritual comforta for hira too. Put all in his
wiU : " If I be in Ught, bleaaed be thou ;
and if in darkneas, even there, bleaaed be
thou too." Aa he saith of these. Gold is
'mine, and silver is mine ; and this may
aatiafy a Christian in those too, to desire no
raore of thera than his Father aeea fit to
give ; knowing, that he, having all tiie
minea and treaaurea of the world at his
coraraand, weuld not pinch and hold short
his children, if it were good for them to have
raore : Even thus it is in respect to the
other, the true riches, " Is not the Spirit
(may he say) and all his coraforts mine ? I.
have them, and enough of them." And
ought net thia to allay thy afflicting care,
and to quiet thy repinings, and eatabUsh thy
heart, in refening it to hia diapoaal, as
touching thy comforta and suppUea ? The
whole golden minea of all apiritual comfort
and good are hia, the Spirit itaelf. Then,
wiU he not furnish what is fit for thee, if
thou hurably attend on hira, and lay the
care of providing for thee upon hia wisdom
and leve ? Thia were the sure way to ho
nour him with what we have, and to obtain
much of what we have net ; for certainly he
deals best with those that do most absolutely
refer aU to him.
Ver. 8. Be soh^r, be vigilant ; because your adver
sary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour.
Ver. 9. Whom resist stedfast in the faith, know
ing that the same afflictiors are accomplished in
your brethren that are in tlie world.
The children of Ged, if they rightly take
their Father's raind, are alwaya diaburdened
of perplexing carefulneaa, but never exempt
ed frora diUgent watchfulneaa. Thua we
find here they are allowed, yea, enjoined, to
caat aU their care upon their wiae and loving
Father, and are aecured by his care. He
takes it weU that they lay all ever on bim,
yea, he takes it not well when they forbear
him and burden themselves. He hath pro-

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETKR.

v-tn. 8, 9.]
vided a sweet quiet life fpr thera, cpuld they
imprpve and use it ; a cahn and firra cpndi.
tipn in all the storras and troubles that are
about them. However things ge, to find
content, and be careful for nothing.
Now, upon this, a carmd heart would
iraagine straight, according to its sense and
incUnation, as it desires to have it, so weuld
it dream that it is ; that then a man, de
volving his care on God, may give up all
watch and ward, and need not apply himself
to any kind of duty. But this is the igno
rance and perverse mistake, the groundless
reasoning ef the flesh. You see these are
here joined, not only as agreeable, but indeed
inseparable. Cast all your care on him,
for he careth for you ; and withal, be sober,
be vig'ilant.
And this is the Scripture logic. It is he
that worketh in you to will and io do,
Phil. ii. 13. Then would you possibly
think, I need not work at aU, or if I do, it
may be very easily and securely. No,
Therefore, aays the Apostle, becauae he
worketh in you to wiU and te do, work out
your salvation, yea, and do it with fear and
trembling ; work you, in humble obedience
te hia comraand, and in dependence on hira
that worketh all in you.
' Thus, here. Cast your care on him ; not
that you may be the raore free to take your
own pleaaure and slothful ease, but, on the
contjary, that you raay be the more active
and apt to watch : Being fre^d frora the
burden of vexful carefulness, which would
preaa and incuraber you, yeu are the raore
nimble, aa one eaaed of a load, to walk and
work, and watch as becomes a Chriatian.
And for that purpoae ia that burden taken
off frora you, that you raay be mere able and
diapoaed fer every duty which is laid upen
you. Obaerve those two connected, and thence
gather. First, There is no right beUeving
without diligence and watchfulneaa joined
with it. That slothful reUance of moat
aoula on bUnd thoughts of mercy wiU undo
them. Their faith is a dead faith, and a
deadly faith ; they are perishing, and wiU
net consider it, do net duly cast their care
on God for their souls, for indeed they have
no such care. Secondly, , Tbe otber thing
is, that there ia no right diligence without
believing. There ia, aa in ether affaira, ae even in
spiriiual thinga, an anxious perplexing care,
whicii ia a diatemper and diaturbance to the
soul ; aeema to have a heat ef zeal and affec
tipn in it ; but ia indeed net the natural
right heat that is healthful, and enables for
actipii, but a diaeaaed feverish heat, that
puts all put pf frame, and unfits for duty.
It seeras to stir and further, but indeed it
hindera ; and doea not haaten ua, but ao aa
to make ua stumble ; as if there was one

295

behind a man, driving and tiirusting him
forward, and not suffering him tp set in
prder his ateps in his cpurse ; this were the
ready way, instead pf advancing him, tp
weary hira, and ppssibly give hira a faU.
Such is the distrustful care that raany
have in their apiritual courae : A hundred
queatipna abput the way of their perfor
raancea, and their acceptance, and their
eatate, and the iaaue of their endeavoura.
Indeed, we ahould endeavour to do all by
eur rule, and to walk exactly, and examine
pur waya, eapeciaUy in hely things ; to aeek
sorae insight and faculty in their perfor
mance auiting their nature and end, and hia
greatneaa and purity whom we worship.
This should be minded diligently, and yet
calmly and composedly ; for diffident doubt
ings do retard and diaorder aU ; but quiet
atayednesa ef heart on God, dependence on
hira and his strength for perforraance, and
hia free love in Chriat for acceptance, this
makea the work go kindly and sweetly on,
raakes it pleasing to God, and refreshing to
thy aoul.
Inf. Certainly thou art a vexation to thy.
aelf, and displeasest thy Lord, when thou
art questioning whether thou ahalt go on or
not ; finding in thy aervice ae rauch dead-
neaa and hardneaa ; thinking, therefore, that
it were aa good to do nething; that thou
dost but dishonour hira in all. Now, thou
conaidereat not, that in these very thoughta
thou dost more wrong and diahonour him,
than in thy worst aervicea, for thou caUest in
queation hia lenity and goodneas, takest him
for a rigorous exactor, yea, repreaeuteat to thy
self hira as a hard master, who is the most
gentle and gracioua of all maatera; Do not
use hira so : indeed theu oughtest to take heed
io thy foot ; see how thy heart is affected in
his worahip, keep and watch it aa thou canat ;
but doing ao, or endeavouring to do, hew.
ever thou find it, do not think he wUl uae
rigoura with thee ; but the more thou eb.
servest thine own miscaniagea towarda hira,
the leaa Severely will he obaerve thera ; and
to think otherwiae, and fret and repine, that
thy heart is not to his mind, nor indeed to
thine own, to go on in a diacontented irapa-
tience, thia ia certainly net thia commanded
watchfulnesa, by that forbidden carefulness.
Be sober.] This we have formerly apoke
p^ the. Appatle having fprmerly exhprted it
pnce and again in this epistle. It were easy
tp entertain men's minds with new discourse,
if our taak were rather to please than to pro
fit ; fer there be many things which with
Uttle labour might be brought forth as new
and sfrange to ordinary hearers. But there
be a few thinga which chiefly concem ua to
know and practise, and these are to be more
frequentiy represented and preaaed. This
Apoatle, and other divine writera, drew from
too full a apring to be ebb ef matter; but

29G

A COMMENTARY UPON

[CIMP, V,

they rather choose profitable iteratiena, than
unprofitable variety ; and ao ought we.
Thia aobriety is not only temperance in
meat and drink, but in all things that con
cern the fiesh ; even that of diet is, though
not all, yet a very considerable part ef it ;
and that not only hath in it, that one exceed
net in the quantity pr quality, but even re
quires a regulating ouraelvea in the manner
of uaing our repaat : aa that we make not care
ful and studious provision, do net take up
our thoughta how to please our palate ; so
even in the use of sober mean diet, we raust
endeavour the raortifying of our flesh, not to
eat and drink raerely to please ouraelvea, or
to satisfy our natural desire, but for God ;
even to propound this in our sitting down to
it, in obedience to him ; to uae theae helpa
of life, and the life itself, to be spent in his
obedience, and endeavour of advancing his
glory. It ia a raoat aharaeful idol, a dunghiU-
god indeed, to aerve the beUy, and to de
light in feastings, or in our ordinary repast,
laying the reins loose on our appetite to take
ita ewn career. And yet in thia they moat
commonly offend, even peraona that are not
notably intemperate, neither gluttonous nor
drunken, and yet, I say, have not that holy,
retained, bridled way of uaing their repast,
with an eye upon an higher end.
But this sobrietv, in its araple sense,
binds not only that senae of luat, but aU the
reat, in the uae of their aeveral delighta, yea,'
and in the whole man ; aU the affectiona of
the aoul, in relation to thia world, and the
tilings of it, to be in it as weaned frora it,
and raised above it in the bent of our minds ;
to use it as if we useditnoi, 1 Cor- vii. 31.
This we speak and hear of, but do not
apply ourselves reaUy to this rule. Each
hath some trifle or earthly vanity, ene er
mere, but especially aome choice one, that
they cannot be taken off frora, aa children
readily have aome toy that they aet more by
tban the rest. We have childish hearts
cleaving to vanity ; one hankering after seme
preferraent, another after sorae estate, lands,
or houses, or raoney, and we are drunk in the
pursuit of these ; so that when our hearts
should be fixed on divine exercises they
cannot atand, but reel te and fro, or aturable
down and faU asleep, roving after thoae
thoughts of that which we affect, staggering
ever and anon, or else so plunged in thera
aU the tirae, that we are aa aaleep in thera.
Therefore theae two are here, and ordina
rily, joined. Be sober and watchful. Glut
ting ouraelves either with the deUghts, or
with the desires and cares ef earth, raakes
us sleepy ; the furaes that arise frora them
surcharge us, and caat ua into a deep sleep ;
a secure unminding of God, and of our
selves, the interest ef eur iramortal souls.
The pleasures of sense are toe gross for

the divine soul ; divine I caU it, for so by
original it is ; but we abase it, and make it
flesh by those gross earthly things, and make
it unfit to riae heavenwards. As insobriety
interaperance in diet, prejudices the very na-
tiiral spirits, raakes thera duU, clogs their
passage, and raakes them move as a coach
in a miry way ; thus doth aU inordinate use
and leve of inferior things; it makes the
soul of a low, heavy conatitution, that it
cannot move freely in any thing that ia api.
ritual. Yea, where there ia some truth of
grace, yet it is obstructed and duUed by
taking in tpp much pf the wprld, and feed
ing nn it, which is np rapre prpper to the '
finest part of the man, fer the soul, than the
coarse ploughman's diet is for delicate tender
bodies ef higher breeding-; yea, the dispro.
portion is far greater.
If there you would have free spirits for
spiritual things, keep them at a spare diet in
all things temporal. Let not out your hearts
te any thing here below. Leam to delight
in God, and seek to taste ef his transcendent
.sweetness, that wiU perfectly disrelish aU
lower delighta ; so your aobriety in abstain
ing from thera shaU be stiU further recom-
pcnaed with raore enjoyraent of Ged ; and
you shall not lose pleasure by denying the
pleasures of earth, but ahaU change thera for
thoae that are unapeakably better and purer
in their stead : he ahall coraraunicate him.
aelf unto yeu, the light of whose counte
nance feeda and satisfies the glorified spirits
that are about bia throne.
Be vigilant.] Thia watchfulneaa, joined
with aobriety, extenda -to aU the eatatea and
ways of a Christian, being sunounded with
hazards and anarea. He that despiseth his
way shall die, says Solomon, Prov. xix.
16 ; the most do thua walk at random, give
attendance on public worahip, and have aome
cuatoraary way of private prayer ; but fur
ther de not regard how they walk, what ia
their caniage aU the day Ipng, what they
apeak, hpw they are in ccrapany, and hpw
alone, which way their hearts go early and
late, what it ia that ateala away raoat of their
affection frora Ged.
Oh ! my beloved, did we knew our con
tinual danger, it would shake us out of this
miserable dead security that possesses us.
We think not on it, but there are anarea laid
for ua aU the way, in each path we walk in,
and each atep of it ; in pur meat and drink ;
in eur calUng and labour ; in eur house at
home ; in eur journeying abrpad ; yea, even
in Gpd's hpuae, and in pur spiritual exer
ciaea, bpth there and in private. Knew we, pr,
at leaat, cpnaidered we thia, we wpuld chpoae
eur steps raore exactiy, and lppk tp pur ways,
tp pur wprds, pur thpughta, which truly,
whatapever npise we make, we reaUy de not.
Ponder the path of thy feet, saya Solomon ;
and before that, Let thine eyes look right

,8,9.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

2!!7

on, and let thine eye-lids look straight be
fore thee, Prov. iv. 25, 20. And further,
Pui away a froward mots(7j, and perverse
lips put far from thee. But firat of all, as
the main reaaon and apring of all, Keep thy
heart with all diligence, or above all keep
ing, for out of it are the issues of life.
Because your adversary ihe devil.] An
alarm te watchfulneaa is here given, from
the watchfulness of our grand adversary.
There be other two usually ranked withhim,
as the leading eneinies of our aouls, the werld
and eur ewn flesh ; but here he ia expresaly
named, whe comraanda in chief, and ordera
and raanagea the war, uses the service of the
other two againat us, as prime officers, under
which most of the forces ef particular terapta
tiona are ranked. Some othera there be
which he immediately commanda and leada
on himself, aregiment ofhis own, some spiri
tual teraptations.
And we have need to be put in raind of
the hostility and practices of Satan against
ua ; fer if the moat were put te it, they weuld
be fprced tp cpnfeaa that they very aeldpra
think pn their apiritual danger frpra this
hand ; as we keep Ippse guard against the
allureraents pf the wprld, and pf our pwn cpr
ruptipn, we watch not against the devices of
Satan, but go on by guess, and suspect no
thing, and se are easily a prey to aU.
The least eneray, being deapiaed and ne
glected, aa raen obaerve, provea often too
great ; the araaUeat appearancea of evil, the
least things that raay prejudice eur apiritual
good, while we raake no reckoning of them,
may do ua great miachief. Our not consi
dering thera raakea thera becorae considerable,
eapeciaUy being under tbe coraraand of a
vigUant and akilful leader, that knows how
to iraprove advantages : therefore, in things
which we raany times account petty, and not
worthy our notice, aa having any evil in them,
we ahould leam to auapect the address of thia
adversary, who uaually hides himself, and
couches under sorae covert, tiU he raay appear ir
resistible, seizeonus, and then indeedheroars.
And this seeking the destraction ef souls
is, you see, raarked aa aU hia work. The
prey he hunts is souls, that they raay be as
miserable aa himaelf : therefore he is justly
caUed our adversary ; the enemy of holineaa,
and of our aoula, tempting to ain, and then
accusing for sin, as his narae here iraports ;
appearing against ua upon the advantages he
hath gained. He studies our nature, aud
fita his teraptations to it ; knows the pre-
valency ef lust, or earthliness, er that great
and raost genend evil of pride, so like him
self, and that is his throne in the heart.
Sorae'tiraes he boweth down, as it is said of
the Uon, Psal. x. 9, 10. He waits his op
portunity craftily, and then assaults fiercely ;
and the children of God find soraetiraes se
much violence of his teraptations, th.it they

surprise thera ; and the meat honid thoughts
are caat in, as poisoned arrows, or fiery darts,
aa the Apostle speaka, Eph. vi. 16. And
this his enmity, though, it is against man in
general, yet is most enraged against the chil
dren ef God ; he goes abeut and spies where
we are weakeat, and araongst thera raost
againat thoae that are raost advanced in holi
nesa, and nearest unto God.
They were once under his power, and now
being eacaped from him, he puraues them,
aa Pharaoh did the Israelites, with all his
forces, raging and roaring after them, aa a
prey that waa once in hia den, and under hia
paw, and now is rescued.
The resemblance hath in it, his strength,
hia diligence, and his cruelty. His strength,
a lion ; hia diligence, going about and seek
ing ; hia cruelty, roaring and seeking to
devour. Inf. Ia it not moat reasonable hence te
preaa watchfulneaa ? and te keep continual
watch, to aee what comes in, and what goes
out ; to try what ia under every offer of the
world, every raotion of our own natural hearta,
whether there be net some treachery, aome
aecret inteUigence or not ? especially after a
time ef sorae special seasons of grace, and
aome special new supplies of grace received
in auch aeaaons ; as after the holy sacrament,
then wiU he set on most eagerly, when he
knows of the richest booty. I'he pirates,
that let the ships pass as they ge by empty,
watch them well when tbey return richly
laden : ao doth thia great pirate. Did he
not assault eur Saviour atraight after hia
baptiam ? o ,7rti^x'C,b}t.
And, that we may watch, it concema ua
to be sober. The instruction is miUtary,
and a drunk soldier is not fit to be on the
watch. This most of us are with our several
fancies and vanities, and so exposed to this
adversary ; yea, when we have gained some
advantage iii a confiict, or when the eneray
seems to. retire and be gone, yet even then
are we to be watchful, yea, then especially.
How many, presuming en false safeties that
way, and sitting down te carouse, er lying
down te sleep, have been re-assaulted and
cut off I* Oh ! beware when you think your
selves most safe ; that very thought raakes '
you least safe. Keep always your spirita free
of surcharges, and laviah prpfusion upon the
world, applying your hearta to any thing in
it, sitting <}pwn tp it. Oh ! no. Be like
Gideon's army. Judges vii. 5, fit to follow
Ged, and be victorious in him, not lying
down te drink, but taking of it only, as for
necessity, in passing. Take our Saviour's
own word. Take heed lest at any time your
hearis be surcharged with surfeiting and
drunkenness, and the cares of ihis life,
Luke xxi. 34. Those wiU overcharge yeu,
and raake you drunk, and cast you aaleep.
* Invadunt urbem somno vinoque sepult.-im

£98

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. V,

Oh ! mind your work and your warfare
alwaya, more than your ease and pleasure.
Seek it not here, your reat ia not here. Oh !
poor abort reat if it were : but foUow the
Lord Jesus through confiicts and suft'erings,
a little while, and you shaU have certain
victory, and after it everlasting triumph ;
rest and pleasure, and a feast that shaU not
end, where there is neither danger ef surfeit
ing nor wearying, but pure and perpetual
delight. In this persuasion, you should be
abstinent and watchful, and endure hard
ship, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, as
the -Apostle speaka, not entangling yourselves
with the affairs of this life, 2 Tim. xi. 4,
and thua be ready for encounters : atand
watching, and if you be asaaulted, reaiat.
Whom resist stedfast in the faith. ] To
watchfulness, courage ahould be joined. He,
that watchea and yields, seema rather to
watch te receive than te reaiat the eneray.
And thia reaiatance ahould be continued
even againat multipUed aasaulta ; for thou
haat to deal with an enemy that will not
easily give over, but wiU try several ways,
and wiU redouble his onsets ;* aoraetiraea
very thick, to weary thee out, aometimes after
a little forbearance interposed, to catch thee
unawares, when he is not expected ; but in
all faint not, but be atedfast in thy resistance.
Thia ia easily said, but how may it be ?
how shaU I be able se to do ? Thus :
Stedfast in the faith.] The most of
men are under the power of one of these two
evils, security or distrust, and out of the one
we readily faU into the other : therefore the
Apostle frames his exhortationa, and the
arguraents of it, in oppoaition to both theae.
First, against aecurity in the former verae,
Be sober and watch, and presses that by the
jiroper arguraent of great and continuing
danger. Here against diatruat ; Whom re
sist, stedfast in the faith ; fud adda an
encouraging consideration of the coraraon
condition ef the children ef God in the world.
Stedfast, or soUd, by faith. This is
absolutely necessary for resistance ; a man
cannot fight upon a quagmire ; there is no
standing out without a standing, aorae firm
ground to tread upon ; and this, faith alone
furnishes. It Ufts the aoul up to the firm
advanced ground of the proraiaes, and faatena
it there, and there it ia sure, even as Mount
Zion, ihat cannot be removed. He aaya
not, stedfast by your own resolutions and
purposes, but stedfast by faith. The
power of God by faith becomea oura, for that
is contained and engaged in the Word of
Proraise ; faith lays hold there, and there
finds Alraighty atrength ; and this is our
victory, saya the Apostle St. John, whereby
we overcome the world, even our faith, 1
John V. 4 : so is our victory, whereby we

* Oy .^i^utrtv BCvitTUS '
Plaijt. in vita Marcel.

ivSs vixSv, cuSi vi!ioifj,ivet.

overcome the prince of the world, whom re.
sist stedfast in the faith. And, univer.
saUy, all difficultiea, and aU enemiea, are
overcpme by faith. Faith aets the strpnger
Lion of the tribe of Judah against this roar.
ing lion ofthe bottomless pit ; that deliver
ing lien against this devouring lion.
When the spul is sunpunded with enemies
pn aU hands, so that there is no way of escape,
faith flies above them, and canies up the soul
te take refuge in Christ, where it ia safe.
That is the power of faith : it aeta a aoul in
Chriat, and there it looka down upen all,^
teraptationa, aa at the bottora of the rock,
breaking theraselves into foam. When the
floods of temptations rise and gather, so great
and many, that the soul is even ready to be
swaUowed up, then, by faith, it says, " Lord
Jesus, thou art my strength, I look to thee
for deliverance ; new appear for my help ',"
And thus it overcomes the guilt of sin ; that
ia anawered by his blood, and the power of
sin is conquered by his Spirit : and affiictions
that arise are nething to these. His leve and
gracious presence makea them sweet and easy.
We miatake if we think to do any thing,
or be any thing, witheut him ; and we mis
take again, if we think any thing too hard
to be done or auffered with hira : Without
me you can do nothing, aaya he, John xv. 5 :
And / am able io do all things, or can all
things, Tatrx Ir^ioi, (ao the Apestle'a word
is), through Christ that strengthens me,
PhU. iv. 13. AU thinga. Oh 1 thatis abig
word, yet it is a true word, and thua made
good through Christ empowering me ; that
freea it beth frora falsehood and vanity. An
hurable confidence ; fer it ia not in himself,
but in Christ, and this boaating ia good. My
soul shall make her boast in God, says
David, Paal. xxxiv. 2. Oh ! they have
only wanant to boast, and to triumph even
before the victory, that do it in this style ;
such may give a chaUenge to all the world,
and to all adverse powers of earth and hell,
as the Apostle doth in his own and every
beUever's name, Rora. viii. 35, 38. Whn
shall separate us from the love of Christ ?
Scc. See the victory recorded in this same
way, Apocal. xii. 11, and they overcame
him. But how ? by the blood of ihe Lamb,
and ihe word of iheir testimony. That
blood, and the word of their testimoriy, believ
ing that werd concerning that blood : these
are the' strength and victory ef a Christian.
Inf. Although, then, thou seeat thyaelf
the raoat witleas and weak, and findeat thy
aelf nething but a prey to the ppwers ef dark-
ness ; yet know, that, by believing, the wis
dom and strength of Christ is thine. Thou
art and oughtest te find thyaelf aU weakneas,
but he ia aU atrength, Almightineaa itself.
Learn to apply hia victory, and ao it ia thine.
Be strong, hew ? In him, and the power of
his might. But thou wilt say, I am often

VEB. 8, 9.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

29.T

foiled, yea, I cannot find that I prevail at aU
againat raine eneraiea, but they stiU againat
me : yet rely on him, he can turn the chaae
in ou instant ; atill cleave to hira, when the
whole powers of thy spul arc, as it were,
scattered and routed. RaUy them by believ
ing. Draw thpu but unto the standard of
Jeaua Christ, and the day ahaU be thine :
for victory foUows that standard, and carmot
be aevered from it. Yea, though thou find
the smart of divers strokes, yet thiuk that
often a wounded soldier hath won the day ;
believe, and it shaU be so with thee..
And reraember that tiiy foils, through the
wisdom and love ef thy God, raay be ordered
to advance thee victory : to put courage and
holy anger into thee against t'nine enemies ;
to hurable thee, and drive thee frora thine
own iraagined atrength, to make use of hia
real atrength. And be not hasty ; think not
at the very first to conquer : many a hard
conflict raust thou resolve upon, and often be
brought very low, almoat to a desperate point,
that to thy sense it is past recovery : then it
is his time te step in, even in the raidst of their
prevailing. Let God but arise and his ene
mies shall be scattered, Ps.-il. Ixviii. 1. Thus
the Church hath found it in ber greatest extre
mities, and thus likewise the beUeving soul.
The Apoatle adda in the close of the verae,
Knowing ihat ihe same affiictions are ac
complished in your brethren that are in the
world. There ia one thing that much trou
blea the patience, and we ikena the faith of
some Christians : tbey are ready to think
there ia none, yea, there was never any be
loved of God, in such a condition as theira.
Thua aoraetiraea they aweU, even their out
ward trials, in imagination, but oftener their
inward, which are raoat heavy and pressing
te themaelvea, and the paraUel of thera leaat
diacemible by them in othera. Therefore
the Apoatle St. Paul breaks this conceit, 1
Cor. X. 13, No temptation hath taken you,
but such as is common to men, : and here
is the aarae truth. The same affiictions are
accomplished in your brethren.
But alaa ! we had rather hear of eaae, and
rannot, after aU that ia said, bring eur hearts
10 coraply with this, that teraptations and
troubles are the saint's portion here, and that
'¦ is the royal way to the kingdom. Our king
led in it, and aU his foUowers go the aame
way : and besidea the happy end of it, ia it
not sweet even fer this airaply, becauae he
went in it ? Yet thia is the truth, and taken
altogether, is a moat comfortable truth : the
whole brotherhood, all our brethren, go in
it, and our Eldest Brother went flrst.
Vbr. 10. But the God of all grace, who hath called
us into his eternal joy by Christ Jesus, after that
ye have sulfered a while, make you perfect, sta

blish, strengthen, settie you.
His divine doctrine and exhertations the
Apostle closes with praiyer, as we follow this

rule in public after the word preached : ao
St. Paul frequently did, and so Christ him
self, John xvii. after that aerraon in the pre ¦
ceding chaptera. It were well if both minis.
ters and people would fpUpw the same way
mpre in private, each fpr themselves, and each
fpr the ether ; fer the want ef this is mainly
the thing that raakes eur preaching and hear
ing so banen and fruitless. The ministeis
ofthe gospel should indeed be as the angels
ef God, going betwixt him and hia people ;
not pnly bringing dpwn uaeful instructiona
frora God to them, but putting up eameat
supplications to God for them. In the. I Oth
of St. Luke, the disciples are sent forth and
appointed to preach ; and in the llth we
have thera desiring te be taught to pray ;
Lord, teach us to pray. And without this
there can be Uttle anawer er succeaa in the
ether : little apringing up of thia seed, though
rainiatera sow it plentifully in preaching, un
less they aecretly water it with .their prayers
and teara.
And people, truly, should keep aorae cor
reapondence in thia duty ; and that, if other
engagement wiU net perauade, even for their
own advantage, for it returna unte them with
abundant intereat. If much ofthe Spirit be
poured forth on miniatera, are they not the
raore able te unfold the apiritual rayateriea of
the goapel, and build up their people in the
knowledge of thera ? Oh ! that both of ua
were raore abundant in this rich and sweet
exercise. The prayer is addressed to the God of all
grace, who hath called us to eternal glory
by Christ Jesus ; wherein it suita the
apoatle St. Paul'a word in hia direction to
the Philippiana, chap. iv. 6, it ia supplica
tion with thanksgiving, prayer with praiae.
In the prayer or petition, consider the raatter
and the atyle. The raatter or thing request
ed is expresaed in divera brief worda. Make
you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you ;
which, though they be rauch of the sarae
sense, yet are not superflupusly raultipUed :
fpr they beth carry the great importance of
the thing, and the earnest desire in asking
it. And though it be a little light and un-
aolid to frame a different aenae to each of
thera ; nor are any of the ways that such
kind of interpreters have taken in it verv sa
tisfactory to any discerning judgment ; yet
I conceive they are not altogether without
some profitable difference. Aa the first.
Perfect, implies, more clearly than the rest,
their advanceraent in victory over their re
raaining corruptions, and infirraities, and
their progreaa towarda perfection. Stablish,
bath raore expreaa reference te both the in
ward Ughtneaa and inconatancy that is na.
tural to ua, the counter-blasts of peraecutiona
and teraptations, and to outward oppositions ;
and imports the curing of the one, and sup
port against the otiier. Strengthen the

300

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. V,

growth of their gracea, eapeciaUy gaining of
further raeaaures of those graces wherein
they axe weakest and lowest. And settle,
though it seeras the same, and in substance
is the same with the other word stablish, yet
it adda somewhat to it very considerable ;
for it aignifies to found or fix upon a aure
foundation, aud ao indeed may have an as
pect to Him who is the foundation and
strength of believers, en whom they buUd
by faith, even Jesus Christ, in whom we
have aU, both victory over ain, and increaae
ofgrace, eatablishraent of spirit, and power to
persevere againat all difficultiea and aaaaulta :
He is that corner foundation-stone laid
in Zion, ihat ihey that build upon him -may
not be ashamed, laa. xxviii. 16. That
rock that upholda the house founded on it
in the midst of all winds and storms. Matt,
vii. ult.
Frora hence we may observe, 1st, That
these expreaaions have in them that which is
se earnestly and principaUy to be sought after
by every Christian, perseverance and pro
gress in grace. These two are here inter
woven : for there be two words importing the
one, and two the other, and they are inter
changeably placed. This is often urged on
Christians as their duty, and accordingly
ought they to apply theraselves to it, and
use their highest diligence in it : not to take
the beginning ef Christianity for the end of
it ; ts think it enough, if they are entered
into the way of it, and sit down upon the
entry : but te walk on, to go from strength to
strength, Paal. Ixxxiv. 7, and even through
the greateat difficulties and disccuragementa,
tp paaa forward with unraeved stabUity and
fixedness of mind. They ought to be aim
ing at perfection ; it is true, we shaU still
fall exceedingly short of it : but the more
we study it, the nearer shaU we corae to it :
the higher we aim, the higher shaU we sheet,
though we shoot not so high as we aim.
It is an exceUent life, and is the proper
life of a Christian, to be daUy outstripping
himself, to be spirituaUy wiser, holier, more
heavenly-minded to-day tban yesterday,
and to-morrow (if it be added to his life)
than to-day.* Every day loving the world
less, and Christ raore, than the forraer, and
gaining every day spme further victpry pver
his secret cenuptipns, having his passipns
mpte subdued and mprtified, his desires, in
all temppral things, rapre cool and indiffe
rent, and in spiritual things more ardent :
that miserable lightness of spirit cured, and
his heart rendered more soUd and fixed upen
God, aspiring te raore near coraraunion
with him, labouring that particular graces
may be raade raore lively and strong, by
often exercising and stining them up ; faith
raore confirraed and stayed, love more in
flamed, composed meekness producing raore
• Suavissima vita est indies sentire si fieri meliorem. |

deep huraility. Oh ! thia were a worthy
ambition indeed ! you would have your es-
tates growing, and your credit growing;
how rauch rather should you seek to have
your gracea growing ; and not be content wifli
any thing you have attained to ? But,
2dly, AU our endeavours and dUigence in
this will be vain, unless we leok for our
perfecting and establishing frora that right
hand, without which we do nothing; thi
ther the Apostle moves his desires for hia
brethren, and so teaches them the same ad
dreas for themaelvea, the God of all grace
make you perfect.
This prayer is grounded (aa aU prayer of
faith must be) on the proraise and covenant
of God. He is our rock, and his work is
perfect, Deut. xxxii. 4. He doth not be.
gin a building, and then leave it off; none
of hia deaigna break in the middle, or fall
abort of their end. He will perfect that
good work which he hath begun, to the day
of Jesus Christ, Phil. i. 6. And, how
often ia he caUed the strength of those that
trust on him, Paal. xviii. 30 ; iheir buck
ler, and his way perfect.
Hence ia the stability of grace, and per.
severance ef the saints ; it is founded upon
hia unchangeableneaa. Not that they are
se, though truly sanctified, if they and their
graces were left to their own management ;
it is he who not only givea that rich por
tion to thoae he adepta to be hia children,
but keepa it for them, and them in the pos-
aeaaion of it ; He maintains the lot of our
inheritance, Paal. xvi. 5. And to build
that perauaaipn pf peraeverance upon hia
truth and ppwer engaged in it ia np pre
auraptipn, yea, it ia high diahpnnur tp hira
tp queation it.
But when nature is set to judge pf grace,
it raust apeak accprding to itaelf; and,
therefore, very unauitably te that which it
apeaka of. Natural wita apprehend not the
spiritual tenor of the Covenant ef Grace, but
model it to their ewn principlea, and quite
uise it; aud they think ef nothing but
their resolves and moral purposes : or they
take up with a confused notion of grace ;
they imagine it put into their own hands, to
keep or lose it, and wiU not steep to a con
tinual dependence on the strength of an
other ; rather choosing that garae of hazard,
though it is certain loss and undoing, to do
fer theraaelvea.
But the hurable believer is otherwiae
taught ; he hath not so learned Christ. He
seea hiraself beset with eneraies without, and
buckled te a treacherous heart within, that
wiU betray him to thera ; and he dare no
raore trust hiraaelf, to hiraaelf, than to hia
raost professed enemies. Thus it ought to
be, and the mere the heart is brought tp this
hurable petitipning for that abiUty, and
strengthening, and perfecting, from God, the

VER. 10.]

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.

301

more ahall it find beth atabiUty and peace,
from the aaaurance of that stability.
And certainly, the raere the Christian ia
acquainted with himaelf, the raore wiU he go
out of himaelf for hia perfecting and eata-
bUshing. He finds, that when he thinks to
go fprward, he ia driven backward, and ain
geta hpld pf him, pftentimes, when he
thpught tp have smitten it. He finds that
miserable incpustancy pf his heart in spiri
tual things, the vanishing of his purposes
and breaking off of hia thoughts, that they
usuaUy die ere they be brought forth : so
that when he hath thought, " I will pray
mere reverentiy, and set myself to beheld
God when I speak to him, and watch more
over my heart, that it fiy not out and leave
rae :" possibly the first time he sets to it,
thinking to be master of his intention, he
finds himself more scattered, and disordered,
and dead, than at any ettior time. vVhen
he hath conceived thoughts ef humility and
self-abasement, and thinks, " Now I am
down, and laid low within myself, to rise
and look big no more ;" yet some vain fancy
creeps in anon, and encourages hira, and
raises hira up to hia old eatate ; se that iu
thia pUght, had he net higher atrength to
look at, he weuld sit down and give ever all,
ad utterly hopeless of ever attaining to his
journey's end.
But when he cpnsiders whose work that is
within hira, even these small beginnings ef
desires, he ia encouraged by the greatness of
the work, not to despise and despair of the
sraaU appearance of it in its beginning ; not
to despise the day of small things, Zech.
iv. 10 ; and knowing that it is not by any
power 'nor 'might, but by his Spirit, that it
shall be accoraplished, he laya hold on that
word. Job viii. 7, Though thy beginning
be small, yet thy latter end shall greatly
increase. The well instructed Christian looks to
Jesus, xtpo^oivTts, Heb. xii, 2, looks off
from all oppositions and difficulties ; looka
above thera to Jesus the Author and Fi
nisher of our faith: Author and therefore
Finisher. Thua that royal dignity ia inte
rested in the raaintenance and coraplefing of
what he hath wrought ; notwithstanding aU
thy imperfectiona, and the strength of sin,
he can and wiU subdue it ; though thy con
dition should be so light and loose, that it
were easy fer any wind of teraptatipn to blpw
thee away, yet he shaU hpld thee in his right
hand, and there thpu shalt be firm as the
earth, that is, so settled by his hand, that
thpugh it hangs on nothing, yet npthing
can rempve it. Though thou art weak, he is
strong ; and it is he that strengthens ihee,
and renews thy strength, Isa, xl. 28 ; when
it seeras to be gone and quite spent, he
makes it fresh, and greater than ever before.
The word Jeheliphu, which we render re

new, signifies change ; they ahall have for
their ewn, hia strength ; a weak believer,
and his strong Saviour, wiU be too hard for
aU that can rise against thera : it is here fit
hominem cum basi metiri, as in statues, to
measure the man with the basis pn which he
standa ; and there is no ts,king the right
measure of a Christian but that way.
Thou art new, indeed, exposed to great
storms and tempests, yet he builds thee en
hiraaelf, raakea thee, by believing, to found
on him ; and ao, though ihe winds blow and
the rain fall, yet thou standeat, being built
on him thy rock, Matt. vii. 25. And tbia,
indeed, is our safety, the more we cleave to
our reck and faaten on hira. Thia is the
only thing that eatabliahea ua, and perfects
and strengthens ua ; therefore, weU is that
werd added h/xzXitkurxt, found you er settle
you, on your foundation. Thia is the firra-
ness of the Church against the gates of
hell ; he is a atrong foundation for eata-
bliahraent, and a Uving foundation ; having
infiuence into the building for perfecting it ;
fer it ia a Uving houae, and the foundation
ia a root sending life to the stones, that they
grow up, as this Apoatle speaka, 1 Epist.
U. 4, 5.
It ia the want of thia activity of faith on
Jeaua, that keeps us so imperfect, and wrest
Ung StiU with our conuptions without any ad.
vancement. We wrestle in our ewn strength
too often, and se are justly, yea, necessarily ,-
foiled ; for it cannot be otherwise, tiU we
raake hira our strength. This we are stiU
forgetting, and we had need to be put in
mind of it, and frequently to recoUect it.
We would he doing for ourselves, and insen
sibly fall into this foUy, even after much smart
ing for it, if we be not watchful against it ;
there is this -wretched natural independency
in ua, that ia ao hard to beat out. AU our
projectinga are but casties in the air, iraa
ginary buUdings without a fopndation, tiU
once laid on Christ. But never shall we
find heart peace, sweet peace, and progress
in holiness, till we be driven frora it, to
raake him aU our strength ; tiU we be
brought tp dp npthing, tp attempt npthing,
tQ hppe pr expect nothing, but in him ; and
then shaU we indeed find his fubiess and
aU-sufficiency, and be more than conque
rors through him who hath loved us, Rom.
viii. 37.
But the God of all grace.] By reason of
our many wants and great weakness, we bad
need to have a very fuU hand and a very
strong hand to ge tp, fpr supplies and sup
pprt. And such we have indeed ; pur Fa-
ther is the God of all grace, a spring that
cannpt be drawn dry, np, npr sp much as any
whit diminished.
He is ihe God of all grace : The God of
imputed grace, of infused and increased
grace of furnished and assisting grace. The

302

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. V,

wprk pf aalvatipn ia all grace frpra begin.
ning te end. Free grace in the plot ef it,
laid in the counael of God, and performed by
bia ewn hand aU pf it. His Son sent in the
fleah, and his Spirit sent into the hearts of
his chosen, te apply Chriat. All grace ia
in him, the living apring of it, and flows
frora hira ; aU the various actinga, and all
the aeveral degreea of grace ; he is the God
of pardoning grace, that blots out the
transgressions of hia own children, for his
own name's sake, laa. xliii. 25 ; that takes
up aU quanels, and makes one act of obli
vion serve for aU reckonings betwixt him
and them. And, aa the God of pardoning
grace, ao he ia alao the God of sanctifying
grace, who refinea and puriflea all thoae he
meana to make up into veaaels of glory, and
hath in his hand aU the flt means and ways
of doing thia ; purgea thera by afflictions
and outward trials, by the reproaches and
hatreda of the wprld. The profane world
little know how aerviceable they are te the
increaae of the gracea and comforta of a
Chriatian, when they indignify and perae
cute him ; yea, littie doth a Christian hira,
aelf aoraetiraes think hew great his advan
tage ia by thoae things, tiU he flnd it, and
wonders at hia Father'a w'adom and leve.
But raost powerfully are tbe children of Ged
sanctified by the Spirit within them, with
out which, indeed, no other thing could be
advantage to them in this. That divine fire
kindled within them is daily refining and
sublimating thera ; that Spirit of Christ is
conquering ain, and by the mighty fiame of
his love, conauraing the earth and dress that
is in thera; raaking their affections more
spiritual and disengaged frpra all created
delights : and thua aa they receive the be
ginnings pf grace freely, sp aU the advances
and increases pf it. Life from their Lerd
atiU flowing and causing thera to grow, abat
ing the pewer of ain, atrengthening a faint
ing faith, quickening a languiahing love,
teaching the soul the ways ef wounding
atrong conuptiona, and fortifying ita weak
graces : yea, in wonderful ways advancing
the good of his children by things not only
harsh te thera, as affiictions and terapta
tions, but by that which is directiy opposite
in its nature, ain itself, raiaing thera by their
faUa, and strengthening them by their very
trouhlea ; working thera up te huraility and
vigUance, and sending them to Christ for
strength by the experience of their weak-
ncaaea and faiUnga.
And aa he is the God of pardoning grace,
nnd sanctifying grace in the beginning and
growth of it, so also the Ged of supporting
grace ; that supervenient influence, withput
which the gracea placed within us wpuld lie
dead, and fail us in the time pf greateat need.
This ia the immediate asaiating pewer that
Xi'iiXi up the spul imder the hardest services,

and backs it in die sharpest conflicts, com.
municating fresh auxiUary strength, when
we, and aU the grace we have within, dwell.
ing in ua, is surcharged. Then he steps in,
and opposes his strength to a prevailing and
confldent eneray, that is at the point of in.
sulti.ng and triumph. When temptations
have ii.Hde a breach, and enter with full
force and violence, he lets in so much pre.
sent help on a sudden, aa makea them give
back, and beats them out. When the enemv
comes in as a fiood, ihe Spirit of the Lord
lifts up a standard aga'b^-si him, laa. lix.
II; and no siege can be ap clo.se as tp keep
put thia aid, for it coraes frora above.
And by this a Christian learns, that his
atrength ia in God ; whereas, if hia received
grace were alwaya party enough, and able
to raake itself good against all incursions,
though we know we have received it, yet
being within us, we ahould poaaibly som'e
times forget the receipt of it, and look on it
more as ours than hia ; more aa being with
in us than as flowing frora him. But when
aU the forces we have, the standing ganison,
is by far overmatched, and yet we find the
assailants beaten back ; then we must ac
knowledge hira that sends such seasonable
reUef te be, aa the Paalmiat apeaka, a very
present help in trouble, Paal. xlvi. 1.
AU St. Paul'a constant atrength bf grace,
inherent in him, could not fence him ao wel'
as tp ward off the piercing point of tbat aharp
temptation, whatsoever it waa, which he re-
corda, 2 Cor. xii. 7- The redoubled buf-
fetinga that he felt came ao thick upon him,
that he waa driven to hia kneea by it, to cry
for help to be sent down, witheut which he'
found he could not hold out, and he had an
answer aaauring him pf help ; a secret sup.
pert, that ahpuld raaintain hira. My grace
is sufficient for thee, ver. 8, thpugh thine
own he not ; that ia, that which I have al
ready given thee : yet mine ia, that is, that
grace which ia in rae, and which I wiU put
forth for thy aaaiatance.
And this is eur great advantage and com-
fort, that we have a Protector who is Al
mighty, and ia always at hand : who can and
wiU hear us whensoever we are beset and
straitened. That captain had reaaon, who,
being required to keep Milan fer the king of
France, went up to the higheat tunet, and
cried three timea. King of France, and re-
•fused the service, because the king heard
him net, ner nobody answered for him; mean.
ing the great distance, and so the difficidty
of sending aid, when need ahould require.
But we may be confident of our suppUes in
the most sudden aurprisea. Our King can
and wiU hear ua vi;hen we call, and wUl send
relief in due aeason. We may be in appar-
ent hazards, but we shaU not be whoUy van.
quished ; it ia but crying to hira in our great.
eat straits, and help appeara. Possibly we

Ti-n. 10.]

THU FIRST EPISTLE OF PETEK.

303

see the float of the enemiea firat, and that
so greatj that there is ne UkeUhood ef es.
caping ; but then praying, we espy die fiery
chariots and horaemen, and may aay. There
are more with us than with them, 2 Kinga
vi. 16.
The Apostie St. Paul caUs our God, the
God of all Consolation, Rora. xv. 5, aa here
he is styled, the God of all Grace : And
thia ia eur rejoicing, that in his hand ia all
good ; our aanctification and consolation, as
aiatance and aaaurance, grace and glory.
And this style suits moat fitly with the pre
sent petition, that for our perfecting and
stablishing, a'nd sti^engikining in grace, we
have recourse to ihe God qf all Grace, whose
former gifta do not discourage us frpm seek
ing rapre, but indeed bpth eiiccurage us, and
engage him for the perfecting of it. It ia
hia will that we have c instant recourse to him
for all we want. He ia se rich, and withal
and draw much from him ; and it ia by
believing and praying that we do draw
from hira. Were theae pUed, we weuld
so Uberal, that he delights that we seek
soon glow richer ; but reraeraber, aU this
grace, that we would receive from the God of
aU Gliace, muat be frora God in Christ.
There it flowa for ua, thither we are directed.
fi vias the Father's good pleasure, that in
him should all fulness dwell. Col. i. 19, and
that for us, that we niight know whither to
go, and where te apply for it.
Now for the future opening up of hia riches,
expreaaed in this title, the God of all grace,
is added one great act of grace, which doth
indeed include aU the rest ; for we have in it
the beginning and end of the work Unked to
gether. The first effect of grace upon us, in
effectual calling, and the last accoraplish
ment of it, in eternal glory. Who hath call
ed us io his eternal glory.
For that calUng, I conceive, doth not
siraply mean the design of the Gospel in ita
general publication, wherein the outward call
liea. that it holds forth and sets before us
etemal glory as the result of grace. But the
calling, here spoken of, ia the real bringing
of a Chriatian to, and uniting hira with,
Christ, and se giving him a real and firm
tide to glory. Such a call is here intended,
as powerfully works grace in the seul, and
secures glory to the soul ; gives it right to
that inheritance, and fits it for it ; and some
tiraes gives it even the evident and aweet aa
aurance of it. This assuK-Bce, indeed, aU
the heirs ef glory have net Prdinarily within
them, and scarce any at aU times equaUy
clear. Sorae travel on in a covert cloudy
day, and get horae by it : having so rauch
light aa to know their way, and yet do not
at aU clearly see the bright and fuU sunshine
of aasuriiuce ; others have it breaking forth
at seme times, and anon under a clpiid, and
some more constantlv. But as aU raeet in

the end, so all agree in thia in the beginning,
that is, the reality of the thing ; they are
raade unalterably aure heira of it, in their
effectual calling.
And by thia the Apoatle advancea hia pe
tition for their support, and establiahment,
and advanceraent, in the way ef grace.- The
way of eur calling to so high and happy an
estate, did we apply our thoughta more to it,
would work on us, and persuade us to a more
suitable temper pf mind, and cpurse pf life ;
wpuld give us mpre npble subUme thoughts
and ways above the world : and the strong
er were our persuasion of it, the raere strong
ly should we be thus perauaded by it. Anti
aa it weuld thua prevail with ua, so might
we use it to prevail with Ged for all needful
grace. AU you that hear the gospel are in the
general called to thia glory. It is told yeu
where and how you raay lay hold on it. You
are told, that if you will let go your ajna and
erabrace Jeaua Christ, this glory shall be
yours. It ia bis purchase, and the right of
it Ues in hira, and not elsewhere ; and right
to hira is the receiving him for a Saviour, and
at the aarae time fer Lord and King ; to be
come hia aubjects, and ao be raade kinga.
Thia ia our raessage te yeu, but you will not
receive it. You give it a hearing, it may
be, but do not indeed hearken te the rao
tion : and thia must, of neceaaity, proceed
frem unbelief. Were you indeed perauaded,
that in coming unto Chriat, you were pre-
aentiy not only aet free from a aentence of
death, wliich is stiU standing over your head
while you are out of hira, but withal entitled
to a crown, raade heira ef a kingdom, an
eternal kingdom ; I say, if this were believed,
were it possible to aUght hira aa the most do,
and turn back the bargain, and bestow their
raoney elsewhere upon trifies of no value,
children's commodities, rattles and painted
toys ? Such are your greatest projects, were
it even for earthly kingdoms, in reapect of
Chriat, and thia gloryprovided in him. What
a wonder ia it, that where this happiness is
daily proclaimed, and you are not only in
formed of it, but entreated to receive it, where
it is not only pffered ypu, but pressed and
urged upon you, and you aay, you beUeve the
matter ; yet stiU the false glory and other
vanitiea of thia werld amuae and entangle yeu,
that you cloae not with this rich offer of eter
nal glory !
But where any do close with it, it is in
deed by a caU that goea deeper than the ear ;
a word apoken horae to within, a touch of
the Spirit of God upen the heart, which haih
a magnetic virtue to draw it, so that it cannot
choose but feUow : and yet chooses it most
freely and sweetiy ; doth most gladly open to
let in Jesus Christ, aud his sweet govern.
ment upon his own terms, takes him and aU
the reproachea and troubles that can cpm«:

304

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap.

with hira. And well it may, seeing beyond
a Uttle passing trouble, abiding etemal glory.
The state to which a Christian is caUed is
not a poor and sad eatate, aa the world
judges; it is to np leaa than eternal glory.
The werld thirik strange to see the beUever
abridge hiraself in the deUghts of sin, their
commen pursuits and eager graspings after
gains or honours, or pleasurea ef aenae ; but
ihey know not the infinite gain that he hath
made, in that he hath exchanged thia dross
for down-weight of pure gold. The werld
sees what the Christian leaves, but they se-
iiot what he comes to ; what his new pur.
chaae is, in anether place : they aee what he
Euffera, but not what he expecta, and ahaU at
tain as the end of these sufferinga, which
shaU shortly end. But he knowing weU
upon what conditiena all theae thirigs run,
raay weU say, " How amaU ia what I for
sake, how great that which I foUow after."*
It ia glery, eternal glory, his etemal glory.
Glory, true real glory. AU, that is here so
naraed, is no mere but a name, a shadow of
glory, cannot endure the balance, but is
found too light : as was said ef a great mo,
narch, Dan. v. and so many principaUties
and provinces put into the scale one after an
other, still added ne weight ; yea, possibly,
ea a late poUtic writer wittily obaervea of a
certain monarch, '' The more kingdoraa you
caat in, the scale is stUl the Ughter." Men
are naturaUy deairous of glery, and gape
after it ; but they are naturaUy ignorant of
the true nature and place of it ; they seek it
where it is not, and, as Solomon says of riches,
set Iheir hearts on ihat which is noi, Prov.
xxiii. , 5, hath no subsistence nor reaUty.
But the glory above is trae teal glery, and
beara weight ; and ao bears aright the narae
of glery, which in the Hebrew, Kebud, sig
nifiea weight ; and the Apoatle'a expression
seems to aUude to that sense ; speaking of
this same glory to come, he caUs it a far
more excellent weight of glory, 2 Cor. iv.
17- It weighs down aU labour and suffer
ings in the way, so far that they are not once
worth the speaking ef in respect of it. It ia
the hyperbole, xaff v^e^^oXhv ti? iiTto^oXm,
other glory is overspoke, but this glory, ever-
glorious to be duly spoke, it exceeds and rises
above aU that can bespoke of it.
Eternal,] Oh ! that adds much 1 Men
would have seme more reason so to affect and
pursue the glory of the present world, such
aa it is, if it were laating, if it stayed with
thera when they have caught it, and they
stayed with it to enjoy it. But how sjon do
ihey part ! they pass away, and the glory
passes away, both as smoke, as a vapour. Our
Ufe, and all the pomp and magnificence of'
those that have the greatest outward glory,
and raake the fairest shew, it is but a shew,
• Non ma^iia relinquo, magna sequor.

a pageant, rrxxyn, which goes through the
street, and ia aeen no more. But this hath
length of daya with it, eternal glory.. Oh !
a thought of that swallows up aU the gran
deur of the world, and the noise ef reckoning
years and ages. Had one man continued
frora the creation to the end Of the wprld, in
the tpp of earthly dignity and glory, admired
by aU ; yet, at the end, everlaating oblivion
being the cloae, what nething were it te eter
nal glory ? But alas ! we cannot be brought
te believe, and deeply take the impreasion of
eternity ; and that ia our undoing.
By Jesus Christ,'] Your portion out of
hira waa eternal sharae and misery : but by
hira, it ia even aU glery. And this hath
likewise an evidence ofthe greatness of this
glory ; it can be no smaU eatate, which the
blood ef the Son of God was let out to pur-
chase. His glory.] It is that which he gives, and
givea aa his choice of all, to hia choaen, his
children : and if there be any thing here that
hath deUght or worth in the things which he
gives in common even te his enemies ; if
there be such a world and variety of good
thinga for them that hate him, oh ! how ex.
ceUent must thoae things be he hath reserv
ed for his friends, for thoae he loves, and
causea to lpve hira !
Aa it ia hia gift, it is indeed himaelf; the
behplding and enjoying of himself. This
we cannot now conceive. But oh ! that
blessed day, when the soul shaU be fuU of
God, shaU he satisfied and ravished with full
vision ! should we not adraire that such a
condition is provided for man, wretched sin-,
ful man : Lord, what is man, ihat thou ari
mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou
visitest him ? Psal. viii. 3. "And it is
provided for me, as wretched as any that are
left, and faUen short ef this glory ! a base
worra taken out of the mire, and washed in
the blood of Christ, and within a while set to
shine in glory without sin !" Oh I the won
der of this I how should it excite us to praise,
when we think of such an one there, wbo
wiU bring us up in the way tp his crown :
how will this hope sweeten tbe short suffer
ings of this Ufe I and death itself, which is
otherwiae the bittereat in itself, is most of aU
sweetened by thia, aa being neareat it, and
aetting ua into it. What though thou art
poor,"! diseased, and deapised here ? Oh I
consider what is there, how worthy the affec
tion, worthy the eamest eye and fixed look
of an heir of thia glery ! What can he eithci
desire or fear, whoae heart is thus deeply
fixed ? Who would refuae thia other clauae,
to suffer a while, a Uttle while, any thmg
outward or inward he thinks fit ? how soon
ahaU aU this be overpaatj and then overpaid
in the very entry, at the beginning of this
glory that shaU never end !

VEtt. U.)

THE FIRST EPISTLB OF PETER.

305

Ver. 11. Tohim be glory and dominion forever
and ever. Amen.
They know Utde pf their pwn wanta and
emptiness, that are npt much in prayer ; and
they know litde of the greatness and gppd
ness of God, that are not much in praises.
The nurable Christian hath a heart in sorae
measure ftaraed to both. He b.^th within
hira the best schoolmaster, that teaches him
how to pray, and how te praise, and maltes
him delight in the exercise of them both.
The Apostie having added prayer to his
doctrine, adds here, yeu see, praise te his
prayer. To him be glory and dominion for
ever. The living praises of God spring from
much holy affection, and that affection springs
frora a divine light in the understanding.
Se says the Psalmist, Sing ye praises with
understanding, er you ihat have understand
ing, Psal. xlvii. 7.
It is a spiritual knowledge of God that sets
the soiil in tune for his praises ; and there
fere the raost can bear ne part in this song :
they raistune it quite, through their ignorance
of God, and unacquaintance with him.
Praise is unseemly in the mouth of fools ;
they spoil and raistune it.
Obs. 1. The thing described. 2. The
term er endurance of it. 1. The forraer is
expressed in two words, glory and power.
Glory, when ascribed to God, iraports the
ahining forth of his dignity, the knowledge
and acknowledgment of it by his creaturea ;
that his exceUency may be confessed and
praised, his name exalted, that service and
homage may be done te him ; which aU
adds nothing to him ; for hew can that be ?
But as it is the duty of such creatures as he
hath fitted for it, te render praises te him, ao
it ia tbeir happineaa. All the creatures, in
deed, declare and apeak his glory ; the hea
vens sound it forth, and the earth and sea
resound and echo it back. But his' reaaon
able creatures hath he peculiarly fraraed,
both to take notice of glpry iu all the reat,
and tp return it frpra and for aU the reat, in
a more expreaa and lively way.
And in this lower world, it ia raan alone
that is raade capable of observing the glory
of God, and offering him praises. He ex
presses it weU, that caUs man the world's
high priest ; all the creatures bring their
oblations of praise to him, te offer up for
them and for hiraself, for whose uae and
corafort they'are raade. The Ught and mo
tion of the heavena, and aU the variety of
creatures below them, speak this to man :
" He that made us and you, and made us
for you, is great and wise, and worthy tp be
praised ; and yeu are better able te say this
than we ; therefore praise him en eur behalf
ahd your own. Oh ! he is great and mighty,
be is the Lerd our Maker."
Power is also ascribed tP Gpd, whicb here

expresses npt only abUity, but authority and
rpyal spvereignty ; that as he can dp aU
things, he rules and gpvems aU things, is
King pf all the wprld, Lprd Parampunt ; sp
that aU hpld their crowns of hira, and ilie
shields of the earth belong unto God, he is
greatly to be exalted, Psal. xlvii. 9 ; dispos
eth of states and kingdoms at his pleasure,
establisheth pr changeth, turns and pvertucns,
as seems him good, and hath net only might,
but right to do so. He is ihe Most High,
ruling in the kingdoms of ihe children of
men, and giving them to whomsoever he
will, Dan. iv. 32, and seldom fails to pour
ccntempt uppn princes wben they cpiitemn
his ppwer.
2. The term, pr endurance ef tbis glory,
is also worthy of eur reraark, for ever.
Even in the short Ufe of man, men that ate
raised very high iri place and popular esteenn,
may, and often do outlive their own glory ;
but the glory ofGod lasteth aa long aa him-
aelf, fpr he is unchangeable, hia throne is
for ever, and his wrath fpr ever, and his
mercy for ever ; and therefore his glpry fpr
ever. Reflection I. Is it net tp be laraented,
that he is is se little glorified and praised ?
that the earth, being so full of his goodness,
is so erapty pf his praiae frem thera that en
joy arid live upou it.
How far are the greatest part frora raaking
this their great work, to exalt God, and as-
cribe power and glory te his name ? so far,
that all their ways are his dishonour ; they
seek to advance and raise themselves, to
aerve their own luats and pleasurea, whUe
they are altogether mindleas of his glory !
yea, the Apostie's complaint holds good
against us aU, we are seeking our own things,
and none the things of ihe Lord Jesus
Christ, Phil. ii. 21. It is true, some there
are, but aa hia meaning ia, they are so few,
that they are, as it were, drowned and smo
thered in the crowd of self-aeekera, ao that
they appear not. After aU the judgments of
God upon us, hew doth stiU. luxury and ex
ceaa, uncleanneaa, and aU kind of profane
ness, outdare the very Ught of the goapel,
and the rule of hoUneas shining in it ! scarce
any thing is a raatter of coraraon aharae and
acom, but the power of godliness ; turning
indeed our true glory into shame, and glory
ing in that which is indeed trur shame : yet
holiness is net pnly pur truest glury, hut
that wherein the ever-glorious God doth es
peciaUy glory, and hath made known hira
self particularly by that narae, The holy
God. And the express style of his glorious
praises uttered by seraphims, Isa. vi. 3, ia.
Holy, holy, holy is ihe Lord of Hosts, the
whole earth is full of his glory.
Inatead of aanctifying and glorifying his
holy narae, how doth tbe language of heU,
oaths and curses, abound in our streets and
U

306

A COMMENTARY UPON

[chap. y'.

houses ! Hpw is that blessed name, that
angela are bleaaing and praising, abused by
base wprms ! Again, nptwithstanding aU
the raercies raultipUed upen us iu this land,
where are our praises, our songs of deliver,
ance, our ascribing glory and power to our
God, who hath prevented us with loving kind
ness, and tender merciea ; hath removed the
strokes of his hand, and raade cities and vil
lages populous again, that were left desolate
without inhabitants ?
Oh 1 why do we not stir up our hearts,
and one another, to extol the narae of our
God, and say. Give unto ihe Lord glory
and strength ; give unto ihe Lord ihe glory
due unto his name, Ps. xxix. 1, 2. Have
we not seen the pride and glory of all flesh
stained and abased ! Were there ever affairs
ahd tiraes that raore discovered the felly and
weakness of men, and the wisdora and power
of God ! Oh 1 that our hearts were set to
magnify hira, according to that werd, so eften
repeated in Psalm cvii. Oh ! that men would
praise the Lord for his goodness, and his
wonderful works io ihe children of men.
Reflection II. But what wonder ia it that
the Lerd loaea the revenue of his praises at
the hands of the comraon ungodly world,
when even his ewn people faU so far behind
in it, aa usually they do ! The dead cannot
praise him, Psal. cxv. 17- But that they,
whom he hath quickened by his Spirit,
should yet be so surpriaed with deadneaa and
dulneaa aa te thia exerciae of exalting God ;
thia ia very strange. For help ef this, take
*he three following directions.
Direct. I. We should seek after a fit tera
per, and labour to have our hearta brought
to a due disppsitipn fpr his praises. And
in this view, 1. See that they be spiritual.
All spiritual .services require that, but this
mest, as being indeed the most spiritual of
aU. Affections to the things of this earth
draw down the soul, and raake it so low set,
that it cannot riae to the height of a song of
praise : and thtia, if we ebaerved ouraelves,
we should find, that when wc let eur hearts
fall, and entangle theraselves in any inferior
desires and deUghts, as they are unfitted ge
nerally for holy things, se, especiaUy, for the
praises ef eur holy God. Creature-loves
abase the soul, and turn it to earth, and
praise is altogether heavenly. 2. Seek a
heart purifled frora self-love, and possessed
with the love of God. The heart, which is
ruled by its own interest, is scarce ever con
tent, StiU subject to new disquiet. Self is a
vexing thing, for aU thinga de net readily
suit our humeura and wiUs : and the leaat
touch that ia wrong to a selfish raind dis
tempers it, and disreUahea all the geod thinga
about it. A childiah condition it is, if croaa-
cd but in a toy, to throw away all. Whence
are our frequent frettinga and grumbling,s,
and wliy is it that we can drown a hundred

high favpurs in one Uttle displeasure ; so
that StiU our finger ia upon that atring ; and
there ia raere malcontent and repining for
one Uttle cross, than praiaes for all the mer.
cies we have received ? Is net this evident
ly the self-love that abounds in us ? Where.
as, were the love of God predominant in us,
we sheuld love hia doings and diapoaals, and
bless his narae in all ; whatsoever were his'
wiU, would, in that view, be amiable and
sweet te us, however in itaelf harah and un.
pleaaant. Thus would we aay in aU, " This
is the will and the hand of my Father, who
doth all wisely and well ; blessed be his
narae." The soul thua fraraed, would praiae in the
deeps of troublea ; not only in outward
afflictions, but in the saddest inward condi.
tion, would be still extolUng Ged, and say
ing, " However he deal with rae, he is worthy
to be loved and praised. He is great and
holy, he ia good and gracioua ; and whatso
ever be his way and thpughts towards me, I
wish him glory. If he wiU be pleased to
give me light and refreshraent, hlessed be
he ; and if he wiU bave me to be in darkness
again, blessed be he, glpry tp his name ! yea,
what thpugh he shpuld utterly reject me, ia
he net for that to be accounted infinitely
merciful in the saving of others ? must he
ceaae to be praiaeworthy for' my sake ? If he
condemn, yet he ia to be praiaed, beingmerci-
ful to so many others ; yea, even in ao deal
ing with me, he ia to be praiaed, for in that
he ia juat."
Thua would pure love reaaon for him, and
render praiae to bira ; but our ordinary way
is meat untoward and unbeaeeraing hia crea
turea, the best of thera, rauch more such
worms aa we are ; that things muat rather
be to our mind than his ; and we must either
have aU our wiU, or else, for our part, he
shaU have none of^ his praisea.
3. Labour for that which, on theae two,
wiU foUow, a fixed heart. If it be refined
frora creature-love and aelf-love, spirituality
and love ef God wiU fix it, and then ahall
it be fit te praiae, which an unatable, un-
corapeaed heart can never be, any more than
an instrument can be harraonieua and fit to
play on, that hath leese pina, stiU sUpping
and letting down the strings, pins that never
fasten. And thua are the raost ; they can
not fix to divine thougbta, to consider God,
to behold and admire his exceUency and
goodness, and his free love. Oh ! that
happy word of David, worthy to be twice
repeated, when shall we say it ? O God,
my heart is fixed ; well might he add, /
will sing and give praise, Psal. Ivii. 7-
Oh I that we would pray rauch, tbat he
would fix our hearts ; and theu he having
fixed thera, we would praise him much.
Direct. II. If any due disposition be
once attained for praises, then must the

VEB. 12—14.]

THE FIRST EPISTLK OF PETER.

307

heart, se disppsed, be set tp study the mat-
ter pf praises.
And that, 1. The infinite excellency cf
Gpd in himself; which thpugh we know
little of, yet thia we know, and should con
sider it, that it is far beypnd what all the
creatures and all his wprka are able te tea-
tify of him ; that he tranacends all we can
speak, or hear, or know of hira. 2. Look
on him in hia worka. Can we beheld the
vaat heavena above, or the firm earth be
neath us, er all the variety of his worka in
beth, without holy wonder atined in ua, and
that atining us up to sing praises ? Oh !
his greatness, and might, and wisdom shin
ing in these ! Lord, how -manifold are thy
works, in wisdom hast thou made them all,
Psal. civ. 24. But above all, that work,
that marvel of his werks, the sending of his
Son forth of bis bosom. This is the rays.
tery which the Apostles do so much magnify
in their writings, this is the chief incentive
whereby our Apostle waa induced to cloae
this epistle with praiae, ascribing glory to
him. Thia praiae looks particularly back to
the style in the prayer. The God of all
grace, who hath called us to his eternal
glory by Jesus Christ, So many other
mercies are not to be forgotten, but chiefly
is he to be praised for that choice ef mercies,
to his glory, who hath called us to his
glory. Then look through the work of sav
ing his chosen, ao redeemed by the blood of
hia Sen, his maintaining his own work in
thera, againat aU aunounding eneraies and
oppositions ; the advancing it in the midst
of them, and even by those oppositions, and
bringing them safe to glory ; that perfect
ing and establishment, as in the foregoing
words ; it is that which so affecta the Apostle
in the very entry of this epistle, that there
he must break forth into praise, chap. i. ver.
3, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his
abundant mercy, hath begotten us again
unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead. He begins
there in praise, and here ends in it, and so
incloaea aU within that divine circle. And
aa we sheuld consider these thinga in gene
ral, ao should we alao reflect on hia parti
cular dealing with us his good providence
in spirituals and temporals. Would we
search, oh ! what a surcharge of innurae
rable merciea should each of us find ! and
were we better acquainted with the holy
Scriptures, had we more our delight in them,
they would acquaint ua better with aU these
things, and give us light to see them, and
warm our hearts, and excite them to His
] raises, who is the God of all our mercies.
Direct. III. The heart being somewhat
disposed to praise, and then studying the
matter of it, sheuld be applied actuaUy to
lender praise ; and in order tp this we raust

be careful, 1. Tp aira at Gpd hi all, which
is cpntinued praise, tP eye his glpry in every
thing, and chiefly tp desire that as the great
end pf all, that his narae may be exalted.
This is the exceUent way indeed ; whereas
mest are either wholly fer their self-enda, or
often squinting out to them. That soul is
must npble that singly and flxedly airas at
exalting Ged, and seeks this stamp on aU it
speaks, and does, and desires ; all to the
greater glory of ray Gpd. 2. Tp abpund iu
the express and splerari return ef praiae this
way. To him be glory, not a cuatoraary dead
saying ef it over, aa ia uaual with ua, but
the heart offering it up. What is so pure
and high aa thia exercise, the praiaea of the
ever-glerioua Deity ? What ia heaven but
theae ? and were it riot best, aa we can, to
begin it here, and long to be there, where
it ahall never end ? To him be glory and
dominion for ever and ever. Araen.
- Ver. 12. By Sylvanus, a faithful brother unto you,
(as I suijpose,) I have written briefly, exhorting,
and testifying that this is the true giace of God
wherein ye stand.
Ver. 13. The Church that is at Babylon, elected
together with you, salutelh you ; and so doth
Marcus my son.
Ver. 14. Greet ye one another with a kiss of cha
rity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ
Jesus. -Amen.
This is a kind ef postscript, and ccn-
tains its testirapny pf the bearer, and the
Apostolic form of saluting. Withal, he ex
presses the measure of hia writing, that it
waa brief, and the end of it, ihat it was io
testify the true grace of God. And thia ia,
indeed, the end of our preaching ; and we
ought each to seek it by the word, and by
rautual exhortationa ; and sometimes a few
words may avail rauch to this purpose, to
our hearty establishraent in the faith ; and
not only are we to beUeve, but te remember
that we have the best of it ; that there is
truth in our hopes, and they shall not de
ceive us. They are no fancy, as the world
thinks, bui the true grace of God; yea,
when aU things else shaU vanish, their truth
shaU most appear in their fuU accompUsh
ment. The entertainment aud increase of Chris
tian lpve, pf due esteem pf pne another, aud
affection one to another, is no raatter ef
erapty corapUraent, but is the very stamp
and badge of Jesus Christ upen his foUow
ers : it is, therefore, most carefuUy to be
preserved entire, and unhappy are they that
do by any means wiUingly break it. Oh !
let us beware of doing se, and follow peace,
even .when it seems to fly frpm us.
This peace, that is the pprtipn pf thpse
in Christ, is indeed within them, and with
Gpd ; but through Him it is Ukewise one
with another, and in that notion to be de
sired and wished jointly with the pther.
They that are in Christ are the pnly chil
dren and heirs pf true peace. Other? may

303

A COMMENTARY', &c.

[cuap. V

dream of it, and have a false peace for a
tirae, and wi.;ked men may wish it te them
selves and one another ; but it is a mest vain
and insignificant hope : but to wish it te
:bem that are in Christ, hath good grpund ;

fpr aU spUd peace is fpunded in bim, and
flews from him. Now the peace of God,
which passeth all understanding, keep
your hearts and minds through Jcsut
Christ. Amen.

END OF THE COMMEN'fARY ON FIRST PETER.

EXrOSITOUY
LECTURES

ON

PSALM XXXIX ; ON ISAJAil VI.; AND ON RO.MA.NS XIL

EXPOSITORY LECTURES

PSALM XXXIX.

LECTURE I.

Vkr. I. I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I
sin not with my tongue : I will keep my mouth
with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.
Certainly it is a high dignity that is
conferred upon man, that he may, as freely
aud frequently as he will, converse with Hira
that raade hira, the great King ef Heaven
and Earth. It is indeed a wonder that God
sho'ild honour poor creatures sp rauch ; but
it is indeed np less strange that raen having
so great privileges, the most part of them do
use thera so little. Seldora de we come to
him in tiraes of ease. And when we are
spuned te it by afflictiona and paina, poin-
raonly we try all other raeans rather than
this, that ia tho alone trae and unfailing
corafort. But audi as have thia way of lay
ing their pained head and heart in his bo
som, they are truly happy, though in the
world's language they be never so miserable,
This Is the resource of this holy man in
the time- of his afldictioii, whatever it waa,
prayer and teara, bemoaning himself before
hia God and Father, and that the more fer
vently, in that he finda hia apeaking to men
so unprofitable ; and therefore he refrains
frora it.
The Paalm conaists of two parts ; his
silence to men, and hia speech te Ged ; and
both of thera are set witli such sweet notea
of rauaic, though they be aad, that they
deserve weU to be coraraitted to the Chief
Musician. I said, I will take heed to my ways.] It
was te himself that he said it ; and it is im
possible for any other to prove a good or a
wise man, witheut rauch of this kind ef
speech to himself. It is ene of the mest ex
cellent and distinguishing faculties of a rea
sonable creature, much beyond vocal speech,
for in that sorae birds may imitate us ; but
neither bird nor beast have any thing of (his

kind of language, of reflecting or discoursing
with itself. It is « wonderful brutality in
the greatest part of men, who are so littie con
versant in this kind of apeech, being framed
and diaposed for it, and which ia not only
of itself excellent, but of continual use and
advantage ; but it ia a common evil araong
raen, to go abroad, and out of theraaelves,
which ia a niadneas and true diatraction.
It ia true a man hath need of a well aet mind,
when he speaka te himself; for otherwise he
may be werse company to himself than if he
were with others ; but he ought to endea
vour to have a betterwitii him, to caU in
God te his heart to dwell with him. If thus
we did, we sheuld flnd how sweet this were
te speak to ourselves, by new and then inter
mixing our speech with discourses unto God.
For want of thia, the most part not only loae
their time in vanity, and their converse
abroad with others, hut do carry in heaps of
that vanity to the stock which is in their own
hearts, and do converse with that in secret,
which ia the greateat and the deepeat folly in
the world.
Other aolitary employments, aa reading
the diaputes and controversies that are among
raen, are things not unuseful, yet aU tums
to waste, if we read not our own heart, and
atudy that : thia ia the study of every holy
man, and between this and the consideration
of God, he spends his hours and endeavoura.
Some have recommended the reading of men
more than booka : but what ia in the one,
or both of them, er aU tbe world beside,
without this ? a man shaU find himself out
of his proper business, if he acquaint not
hiraself with this, to apeak much with God
Snd with himaelf, concerning the ordering of
his own ways.
It is true, it is necessary for sorae men, in
seme particular charges and stations, to re.

312

EXPOSITORY LECTURES

[I.ECT. I.

gard tiie ways of others ; and besides, some
thing also there may be of a wiae observing
others, to iraprove the good aud evil we see
in them, to our own advantage, and better
ing our own ways, looking on thera to make
the repercussion the stronger on ouraelvea :
but except it be out of charity and wiadom,
it fiows either frora uncharitable maUce or
else a curious and vain apirit, to leok much
and narrowly into the ways of others, and to
know the manner of Uving of persons abeut
us, and se to knew every thing but ourselves ;
like traveUers that are weU seen in foreign
and reraote parts, but atrangers in the affairs
of their own country at horae. The check
that Chriat gave to Peter ia due to auch.
What is ihat io thee ? follow thou me,
John xxi. 22, " Look thou tp thine pwn
feet, that they be aet in the right way." It
ia a strange thing that men ahpuld lay put
their diligence abrpad to their less, when
their paina raight be beatowed to their advan
tage nearer at hand, at home within them
selvea. .Thia, that the Paalmiat speaks here of,
taking heed to his ways, as it iraports hia
present diligence, se also it hath in it a re
flection on hia waya paat, and theae two do
rautuaUy assist one another ; for be shall
never regulate his own ways before hira,
that has not wiaely conaidered his ways paat ;
for there is wisdora gathered frora the obser
vation of what is gone to the choosing where
to walk in time to corae, to see where he is
weakest, and liea expoaed to the greatest
hazard, and there to guard. Thus David
expresses it in another Psalm, I thought on
my ways, and turned my feet unto thy tes
timonies, Paal. cxix. 59. And tbia would
net be dene only in the great change of one's
first conversion from sin, but tbia double ob
servance still continued every day, looking
to his rule, and laying that rule te his way,
and observing where the balk and nonconfor
mity to the rule ia, and renewing hia repen
tance for that, and araending it the next
day, that atill the present day may be the
better for yeaterday's enor.
And aurely there is much need of thia, if
we consider how we are encompassed about
with hazards and snares, and avariety of temp
tations, and how Uttle we have, either of
strength to overcome, or wisdora tp avpid
them, eapeciaUy they being secretly aet and
unaeen (which raakes them the raore dan
gerous) everywhere in the way in which ive
must walk, and even in thpse ways where we
least think. Everywhere decs the eneray pf
our souls lay traps and snares for us ; in our
table, in our bed, in our cpmpany and alone.
If the heart be earthly and camsil, there is
the snare of riches and gains, or pleaaurea,
preaent, te think upon ; and if they delight
in spiritual thinga, that walk ia not exempted
neither ; there are snares of doubtings, pre

sumption, and pride ; and in converse of one
Christian with another, where spiritual aifec-
tion hath been stined, it turns often to car.
rial passions, as the Apostle says ef the Ga
latians, They begin in the Spirit, and end
in the flesh. Gal. iii. 3.
This observing and watching, as it is need.
ful, so it is a very delightful thing, though
it will be hard and painful to the unexperien.
eed, to have a raan's actions and words
continuaUy curbed ; so that he cannqt apeak
or do what he would : theae are fettera and
bonda, yet to those that know it, it is a
pleaaure to gain experience, and to be more
skiUed in preventing the surpriaes of our ene.
raiea, and upen that to have aorriething added
to our own art, and to be raore able to resist
upon new occasions, and to find ourselves
every day outstripping ouraelvea ; that ia the
aweeteat life in the world ; the soul to be
dreaaing itaelf for the espouaala of the Great
King, putting on raore of the ornamcnta and
beautiea of holineaa ; that ia our glory, tobe
made conformable io the image of God and
of Jesus Christ. If an image had sense, it
would desire nething ao much aa te look on
the original whence it received its name, and
to becorae more and more Uke it : so it is
the pleasure ef renewed souls te be looking
on hira, and so growing daUy raore like him,
whose living image they are, and to be fitting
theraselves for that day of glory, wherein
they shaU be like him in the perfection they
are capable of; and this makes death more
pleaaant than life to the believer : that,
which seema ae bitter to the most of men, is
aweetened to thera raoat wonderfully ; the
continual obaervance of a man's ways, keep.
ing a watch continuaUy over them, thia
casts a Ught upen the dark passage of death,
which ia at the end of that walk, and con.
veya him through to the fulneas of lif..- : ao
that raan, who obaervea hiraaelf and hia waya
through hia Ufe, hath little to do in exarain.
ing them when he coraes to die. .That ia a
piece of strange feUy, that we defer the whole,
or a great part of our day's work to the twi
light of the evening, and are se cruel to our.
selves, aa to keep the great load of our life
fer a few houra er daya, and for a pained
sickly body. He whe makes it hia daily
work to obaerve hia ways, is not asteniahed
when that day comea, which long before was
familiar to hira every day.
That I sin noi with my tongue.] It is
the wiae raan's advice, keep thy heart with
all diligence, or above aU keeping, and he
gives the satisfying reason ef it, for out of
ii are the issues of Ufe, Prov. iv. 23. Such
aa the apring ia, ao wiU the strearas be ;
the heart is the spring frora whence aU the
natural life and-vital spirits flow thrpugh the
body, and, in the Scripture sense, it is the
spring of aU our actions and cenversation ;
for it aenda out emiasaries through all, through

ON PSALM XXXIX.

SIS

jne eye, hand, and all the senses and organs
of the body, but through none more con
stantly and abundantiy than the tongue :
and therefore Solomon, after these words,
immediately adds, P'ui away from thee a
froward mouth, and perverse lips put far
from thee. , The great current of the heart
runs in that channel : for it ia the organ
of societiea, and ia commonly employed in
aU the converse of men ; and we can stiU,
when aU the other raembers are useless, use
our tonguea in regretting their unfitneas for
their officea ; so aick and old peraona : thua
David here, aa it seeras under some bodily
sickness, labours to refrain his tongue ; and,
lest it shoi-ild prove too strong for him, he
puta a curb upon it ; though it did not free
him frora inward frettinga of his lie^t, yet
he lays a reatraint upon his tongue, to stay
the progress of sin, that grows in vigour by
going out, and produces and begets sin of
the sarae kind in the hearts and moutha of
othera, when it paaaea frora the heart te the
tongue. The Apoatle Jaraea does amply and
exceUently teach tiie great importance of
ordering the tongue in all a Christian'a
life ; but we are ever learning and never
taught. We hear hew exceUent a guard
thia is to our Uves, to keep a watch over
«ur tongue ; but I fear few of ns gain the
real advantage of this rule, and are far from
the aerious thoughts that a religious person
.'.ad of this Scripture, who, when he heard
it read, retired himself for raany years to the
Study of this precept, and made very good
proficiency in it.
In all the disorders of the world, the
tongue hath a great share ; to let paaa thoae
irruptiona ef infernal furiea, blaaphemies, and
curaing, lying and uncharitable apeeches ;
how much have we to account for unprofit-
able talking ! It is a laraentable thiug,
that there is nothing, for the moat part, in
common entertainments and societies of men
together, but, refuse and trash, as if their
tonguea were giveri thera for no other end
but te be their sharae, by discovering their
folly and weakneaa. A a likewiae that of im
patient apeech in trouble and affliction, which
certainly springs from an unmortified spirit,
that hath learned nothing of that great lesson
of submission to the wiU of God ; but for
aU the disorders of the tongue, the remedy
must begin at the heart ; purge the fountain,
and then the strearas wiU be clean ; keep thy
heart, and then it wiU be easy to keep thy
tongue. It is a great help in the quality of
speech, to abate in the quantity; net to speak
rashly, but to ponder what we are going to
say. Set a watch before the door of thy lips,
Ps.al. cxU. 3. He bids us net build it up
like a stone wall, tiiat nothing go in or corae
out : but he apeaks of a door, which raay
be sometimes open, oft-times shut, but
withal to have a watch standing before it con-

tinually. A Christian must labour to have
his speech as contracted as can be, in the
things of this earth ; and even in divine things
eur words should be few and wary. In
speakirig of the greatest thirigs, it is a great
point of wisdpm npt tp speak much ; that
is David's resplutipn, fe keep silince, espe
cially before the wicked, who came tp viait
him, probably, when he waa sick ; while
they were there, he held a wMch before his
lips, to speak nothing of God's hand on
him, lest they should have mistaken him ;
and a man may have some thoughts ef divine
things, that were very irapertinent te apeak
out indifferently to aU sorts, even of good
persona. This ia a talkative age, and people
contract a faculty to apeak rauch in raattera
of religion, though their words for the most-
part be only the productions of their own
brain, little of these things in their hearta.
Surely theae kind of apeeches are aa bad aa
any, when holy thinga are apoken ef with a
national freedom, where there ia nothing but
erapty words They who take theraselves
to solitude, chooae the best and easiest part,
if they have a wanant so to do : for this world
is a tempeatuoua sea, in which there are
many rocks, and^a great difficulty it is to
steer tiiis little helm aright araidst them :
however, the Apostle Jaraes raakes it a great
character of a Christian's perfection. If any
man offend not in word, ihe same is a per
feci man, chap. iii. ver. 2. But where is
that raan ? Seeing we find raen generally,
and moat of all ourselves, so far from this,
it cannot chopae but wprk thia, to atir up
ardent deairea in uSy to be removed to that
bleaaed society, where there shaU be never
a word amiss, nor a word too rauch.

LECTURE II.
Ver. 2. I was dumb with silence ; I hpld my peace
even from good ; and my sorrow was stirred.
VeR. 3. My heart was hot within me; while I
was musing the fire bumed ; then spake 1 with
my tongue.
It is a very uaeful and profitable thing to
observe the raotions and depprtraents pf the
spirits of wise and holy men, in all the va
rious postures and conditions they are in ;
it is for that purpose they are drawn out to
us in the Scriptures. There are seme graces
that are more proper, and ceme more in ac
tion in times ef ease and prosperity, auch as
temperance, moderation of mind, humiUty,
and compaaaion. Othera are more proper
fer times of distress, as faith, fortitude,
patience, and resignation. It is very ex
pedient, if not necessary, that affliction have
its turns, and frequently in the Uvea of the
children of God : it is theje^npest that gives
evidence of the pilot's skiU; and as the

.•514

EXPOSITORY LECTURES

[i.ECT,

I./ord delighteth in all his works, looks on
the frame and conduct in aU things with
pleaaure, so he is delighted to leok on thia
part, on thia low aea of troublea, to aee his
champions meet with hard and presaing trials,
such as sometimes do not only make thera
feel them, but do often make the -conflict
dubious to thera, that they seera to be alraost
foiled ; jet do they acquit theraselves and
come off with honour. It is not the excel
lency of grace te be insensible in trouble, (as
some philoaophera weuld have their wiae
raen,) but to overcome and be victorioua.
Among the reat of this holy man's troubles,
this was one, that the wicked did reproach
hira : this ia a aharp anow, that fliea thick
in the world. It ia ene ef tbe aharpest atings
of poverty, that as it is pinched with wants
at heme, se it is met with scorn abroad. It
ia reckoned araong the sharp sufferings of
holy raen, Heb, xi. that they suffered bitter
mockings. Now, raen coraraonly retum
these in the sarae kind, that is, by the tongue,
whereof David is here aware ; he refrains
li?mself even from good, not only frora hia
just defence, but even from good and pious
discourses. We de so eaaily exceed in our
werds, that it is better soraetiraes to be whoUy
silent, than te speak that which is good ; for
our good borders ap near uppn evil, and sp
easy ia the tranaitipn frora the ene to the
other, that though we begin to apeak of God
and good things, with a good intention, yet
how quicklyrun we into another channel ; pas
sion and self having stolen in, tum ua quite
frora the first deaign of our speech ; and this
chiefiy in disputes and debatea about religion,
wherein, though we begin with zeal for God,
yet oft-timea in the end, we testify nothing
but our ewn passion, and aometiraea we de
lie one againat another in defence of what we
call the truth.
It cannot be denied, that to an holy heart,
it ia a great violence to be shut up altogether
frora the speech of God. It burns within,
especiaUy in the tirae of affliction, as was the
case of Jereraiah : Then I said, I will noi
snake mention of him, nor speak any -more
in his name : but his word was in my heart
as a burning fire shut up in my bones ; and
I was weary with forbearing, and could
not stay, J,er. xx. 9 ; so it is here with
David ; therefore he breaka out : the fire
Burna upward, and he speaka to God.
Let tliia be eur way, when we cannot find
ease araong raen, to seek it in God ; he
knows the language ofhis children, and will
not raistake it ; yea, where there raay be
somewhat of weakneas and distemper, he will
bear with it. In all your distresses, in aU
your meanings, go to him, pour out your
tears to him ; not only fire, but even water,
where it wants a vent, wiU break upward ;
these tears drop net in our own lap, but they
faU on hia, and he hath a bittie to put them

in; if ye empty them there, they shall return
in wine of atrong conaolation.
'Yer. 4. Now David's request is. Lord,
make me io know mine end, and the mea
sure of my days, what it is ; that I may
know how frail I am. ] In which he does
not deaire a reaponae from God, about the
day of hia death, but instruction concerning
the frailty and ahortnesa of 'bia life ;-but did
not David know thia ? Yes, he knew it,
and yet he desires te know it. It is very fit
we ask of God that he weuld make us to
know the thinga that we know, I raean, tbat
what we know emptily and barely, we raay
know apiritually and fruitfully, if there be
any measure of this knowledge, that it may
increase and grow mere. We knew that we
are sinners, but that knowledge commonly
produces nothing but cold, dry, andaenaelesa
confuaion ; but the right knowledge of sin
would prick our hearts, and cauae ua te poui
thera out before the Lord. We knew that
Jeaus ia the Savieur ef sinners ; it were fit
to pray, that we knew more of hira, so much
pf hira as might make us aliape and faahion
our hearta to hia likeneas. We know we
raust die, and that it is ne long courae to
the utraeat period of life, yet eur hearta are
Uttle instructed by this knowledge ; how
great need have we to pray this prayer with
David here, or that with Moaea, Teach us
to number our days, thai we may apply our
hearts unto wisdom, Psal. xc. 12. Did we
indeed know and consider how quickly we
shall paaa from hence, it were net poaaible for
ua to cleave ao faat to the thinga of thia Ufe ;
and, as foolish children, te wade in ditches,
and fiU our laps with mire and dirt ; to pre-
/er baae earth and flesh to iraraortality and
glory. That I may know how frail I am.] Most
part of men are foolish, inconsiderate crea.
turea, like unto the very beasts thai perish,
Paal. xlix. 12, only they are capable of
greater vanity and miaery : but, in aa ina-
tional a way, they toil on and huny them
aelvea in a multitude of buainess, by multi
tudes of desires, fears, and hopes, and know
not whither aU tends ; but one well adviaed
thought of thia one thing would temper thera
in their hotteat purauita, if they would but
think how frail they are, hew vain a paaaing
thing, net only theae thefr particular desires
and projecta are, but they themaelvea, and
their whole Ufe. David praya that he may
know his end : and hia prayer ia anawered.
Behold thou hast made my days as an handm
breadth, ver, 5. If we were more in requests
ef thia kind, we should receive more speedy
and certain answers. If this be our request,
to knew ouraelvea, our frailties and vanity,
we should know that our days are few and
evil, both the brevity and vanity of thera.
Ver. 5. Thou hast measured oui my days
as arthand-breadth,] That isone ofthe ahprt.

VER. 5.]

ON PSALM XXXIX.

.115

est measures ; we need not long lines tp
raeaaure pur lives by, each one canies a mea
aure about with hira, hia own hand, that is
the longest and fullest raeaaure. It ia not
BO much aa a apan : that might possibly have
been the raeasure of old age in the infancy of
the world, but now it ia contracted to an
hand-breadth, and that is the Ipngeat ; but
hpw raany fall shprt pf that ? Many attain
npt tP a finger-breadth ; multitvrtea pass frora
the womb te the grave ; and how many end
their ceurse witiiin the compasa of childhood I
Whether we take this hand.breadth for
the fourscore years, that is ordinarily the "ut.
raoat extent ef man's Ufe in our days, er for
the four times of old age, in which we use
to distinguish it, childhood, youth, manhood,
and old age ; there are great numbers we see
take up their lodging ere they come near the
last of any ef these, and few attain te the ut
most border of thera. AU ef us are but a
hand-breadth frora death, and not so rauch :
for many ef us have paaaed a great part of
that hand-breadth already, and we know net
hew litde of it is behind. We use commonly
to divide our Uves by years, months, weeks,
end days, but it is aU but one day ; there is
the morning, neon, aftemoon, and evening :
Man is as the grass ihat springs in ihe
morning, Psal. xc. 6 : as for aU the days
that are past of our life, death hath thera
Mther than we, and they are already in its
possession ; when we look back on them,
they appear but as a ahadow or dreara, and
if they be so to us, how rauch raore short are
tbey in the sight of God ! So says David
here, when I look on thee and thy etemity,
mine age is as nothing before thee ; what
.s our life, being compared to Ged, before
whom a thousand years are bui as one day,
and less, Uke yesterday, when it is past, and
that ia but a thought 1 The whole duration
of the world is but a point in respect of eter
nity, and how amall a point ia the life of
man, even in compariaon with that !
The brevity of our life ia a very uaeful
consideration ; from it we may leam patience
under aU our crosaea and troubles ; they may
be shorter than life, but they can be no long
er. There are few that an affliction hath
lain on all the days of their Ufe ; but though
that were the case, yet a Uttle tirae, and how
quickly is it done ! While thou art aaleep,
there ia a ceaaation of thy trouble ; and when
awake, bemoaning and weeping fer it, and
for the sin that is the cause of- it, in tbe
mean time it is sliding away. In aU the
bitter blasts that blew on thy face, thou, who
art a Christian indeed, mayest comfort thy
self in the thought of the good lodging that
is before thee. To others it were the great
eat comfort, that their afflictions in this life
were lengthened out to etemity.
Likewiae, thia raay teach us temperance
in those thinga tiiat are caUed the good things

of this world. Though a man bad a lease
of all thoae fine thinga the world can afford
for his whole life, (which yet never any raan
that I know of had,) what is it ? a feigned
dream ef an hour long. None of theae
thinga, that now it takea ao rauch deUght in,
will accorapany the cold lump of clay te the
grave. Within a littie while, these thai are
married and rejoice, shall be as if they re
joiced not, 1 Cer. xii, 29, nor ever had done
it ; and if tbey shajl be se quickly, a wiae
raan raakea Utile difference, in theae thinga,
betwixt their preaence and absence.
This thought sbould alao teach ua dili
gence in our buainess. We have a short
day, and rauch to do ; it were flt to be up
early, to remember thy Creator in ihe days
of thy youth ; and ye that are corae to riper
yeara, be advised te lay hold on what re
mains, yc know not how Uttle it is.
The inore you flU youraelvea with the
things of this life, the leas deairea you will
have after those rivers of pleasures, that
are at God's right hand ; theae ahaU never
run dry, but aU theae other thinga ahall
be dried up within a little apace ; at the
furtheat, when old age and death come, ii
not sooner. And on the other side, th«
raore we deny ourselves the sensual enjoy
ments of a present world, we grow the liker
to that divine estate, and are made the surer
of it ; and I ara sure aU wiU grant that this
is a very gainful exchange.
Verily, every man at his best estate is
altogether vanity.] It is no wonder that
the generality of men are strangers to God,
for they are strangers to themselves. The
cure of both these evils is from the sarae
hand. He alone can teach us what he ia,
and what we are ouraelvea. All know and
aee that their life ia short, and theraaelvea
vanity. But thia holy raan thought it need
ful to aak 'the true notion of it frem above,
and he receives the raeaaure of hia life, even
an hand-breadth. There is a coraraon ira-
posture among people, to read their fortunes
by their handa ; but thia ia true palmiatry
indeed, te read the ahortneaa of our life npon
the palraa of our handa.
Our daya are not only few, but we our
selves are vanity. Every man, even a godly
raan, as he is a partaker ef this life, ia net
exempted from vanity, nay, he knowa it
better than any other : but thia thought cora
forta hira, tiiat he hath begun tbat life tiiat
ia above, and beyond all vanity. The worda
are weighty and fuU. It is not a problera,
or a doubtfiil thing ; but surely every rnqn
is vanity. I raay call it a definition, and
ao it is proven, Psal. cxliv. 2, 3, What is
man ? He is like io vanity, arid his days
are as u shadow that passes away. His
days dp not only aoon decline and pass away
as a shadov/, but also they are like vanity.
While he .ippears to be something, he is rio.

31C

EXPOSITORY LECTURES

[lect. Itt.

tiling but the figure and picture of vanity.
lie is like it, not the copy of it, but rather
the original and idea of it ; for he hath de
rived vanity to the whole creation ; he hath
subjected the creatures to it, and hath
thrown such a lead of it upon them, that they
groan under it ; and so vanity agrees to him
properly, constantiy, and universaUy. Every
man, and that ai his best estate, as the
word is, in his settled and fixed state ; set
hira as sure and high as you will, yet he is
not above that, he canies it abeut with him
as he does his nature.
This ia a very profitable truth to think
on, though sorae kind of hearera, even of the
better aort, weuld judge it more profitable to
hear ef cases of conscience ; but this is a
great case of conacience, to conaider it weU,
and carry the impression of it horae with
you en your hearts. The extrerae vanity of
ourselves, that we are nothing but vanity ;
and the note that is added here, Selah, ifit
import any thing to the aense and confirma
tion of what it is added te, it agreea weU to
thia : but ifit be only a musical note, to di
rect, as sorae think, the elevation, or, ac
cording tp Pthera, the falling pf the vpice,, it
fita the aense very well. Fpr ypu have raan
here lifted up and caat dpwn again ; lifted
up, man ai his best estate, and frpra that
thrpwri dpwn tp nothing, even in that eatate
he is altogether vanity. What ia that ? It
ia, as the word signifies, an earthly vapour,
and it is generaUy used to signify things of
the least and raeanest luse, the moat empty
airy thinga. So idols are oft caUed by that
name ; 'they are nothing, in reapect of what
ia attributed te them by the children of men ;
and auch a thing ia man, he aeems to be
soraething, and is indeed nething, as it is,
Psal. Ixii. 9, Men of low degree are va
nity ; possibly that raay be granted for a
truth, and they paaa for such ; and he adds.
Men of high degree are a lie ; they pro
mise something, and look- bigger like, but
theyare nothing more, except this, 'o lie,
and the greater they are, the louder Ue.
This it is, then, that we sheuld acquaint
ouraelvea with, that man, in this present life,
in all the high advantages ef it, is an erapty,
feeble, fading thing. If we look to the
frarae of raan's bedy, what is he but a
muddy waU, an house of clay, whose foun
dation is in the dust ? If we look within,
there is nothing there but a sink, an heap of
filth. The body of raan is not only subject
to fevers, hectics, &c. that make the wall to
moulder down ; buf, take him in his health
and strength, wbat is he but a bag ef rotten
neaa ; and why should he take deUght in his
beauty ? which is but the appearance of a
thing, v/hich a fit of sickness wiU so easUy
deface, or the running of a few yeara apeil
the fashion of; a great heat or a cold puts
tiiat frame into disorder ; a fev/ daya' aick

neas lays him in the duat, or much blood
gathered within gathera fevera and pleurisies,
and so destroys that life it sheuld maintain ;
or a fly or a crumb ef bread may stop his
breath, and so end his days.
If we consider men in societies, in cities
and towns, often hath the overflowing acourge
ef famine and peatilence laid them waste,
and frora those they cannot secure them.
selves in their greatest plenty and health,
but they corae in a sudden, and unlooked
for. If we could see aU the parts and per.
sons in a great city at once, how raany woes
and miseries should .we behold there ! how
many either want bread, er scarcely have it
by hard labour ! then, to hear the groans of
dying persons, and the sighs and weepings
of those about them ; hew many ef these
things are within the waUs ef great cities al
aU times ! Great palaces cannot hold oat
death, but it breaks through and enters there,
and thither oft-times the raost painful and
sharaeful diseases that are incident to tiie
sons of raen resort. Death, by vermin, hath
seized on some of the greateat kings that
have ever been in the werld. li we look on
generala, who have commanded the greatest
arraies, they cany about with them poor
frail bodies, aa well aa others ; they may be
kiUed with one small wound, as weU as tho
meanest aoldier ; and a few days' intempe
rance hath taken aome of the moat gallant
and courageoua of them away iri the midst
ef their succeaa. Arid, aure I ara, he who
believes and considers the life tp cpme, and
Ippks pn this, and sees what it is, makes
little account of those thinga that have aa
big a sound in the werld, the revoUitions of
states, crowns, kingdoras, cities, towns ; how
poor inconsiderable things are they, being
corapared with eternity ! And he that looka
not on thera as such is a fool.

LECTURE IIL
Veb. 6. Surely every man walks in a vain show:
surely they are disquieted in vain : he heapeth up
riches, and knoweth not who .b-all gather them.
There is a part ef our hand-breadth past
since we last left this place, and, as we are
saying this, we are wearing out sorae por
tion of the rest ef it ; it were well, if we con
sidered this so as to raake a better iraprove-
raent ef what remains, than, I beUeve, we
shaU find, upon examining ef our ways, of
what is past. Let us see if we can gain the
space of an hour, that we raay be excited to
a better raanagement of tlie latter part of our
time than we have raade of the former.
We are aU, I think, convinced of the
vanity of raan, as to hia outside, that he is -
a feeble, weak, popr creature ; hut we may

VEU. G.]

ON PSAL.M XXXIX.

317

have hope of apraewhat better, in that which
ia the man indeed, his raind and intellectual
part. It ia true, that that was eriginally
excellent, and that there is aoraewhat of a
radical exceUency atiU in the aoul of man ;
yet it is ao deaperately degenerate, lhat, na
turally, man, even in that conaideration, is
altogether vanity, in all the piecea of him ;
his mind is but a heap of vanity, nothing
there but ignorance, foUy, and disorder ;
and if we think not so, we are the more
foeUsh and ignorant. That which passes
with great pomp, under the title oi learning
and science, it is commonly nething else but
a rhapsody of words and empty terms, which
have nothing in them to make known the
internal nature of thinga.
But even thoae whp have the improveraent
of learning and education, whe understand
the raodel and governraent of affaira, that see
their defects, aud entertain theraaelvea with
varioua ahapes of araending and reforraing
thera, even in theae we shaU find nothing
but a sadder and raore aerious vanity. It is
a tormenting and vexing thing for men to
proraise to themselves great reformations
and bettering of things ; that thought usual
ly deludes the wiaeat of men ; they muat at
length corae to that of Soloraon, after much
labour to little purpose, that crooked things
cannot be made straight, Ecclea. i. 15, yea,
many things grow worse, by labouring to
rectify tbem ; therefore he adda, but he thai
increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
As for knowledge in reUgion, we aee the
greatest part of the world lying in groaa
darkneaa : and even araongat Chriatiana,
how much ignorance of theae thinga : which
appeara in this, that there are auch swarraa
and productiona of debates and contentions,
that they are grown paat nuraber, and each
party confidant that trath ia en hia aide, and
ordinarily, the meat ignorant and enoneoua,
the moat confident and most imperious in
their deterrainatiena ; aurely it were a great
part of pur wiadpra tP free Pur spirita frora
these erapty fraitleaa jangUnga, that abound
in the Chriatian werld.
It were an endleaa toil to go through aU
degrees, professions,- and employraents of
raen in the werld ; we may go through na
tiona, countriea, crafta, schopla, cpUeges,
cpurxs, camps, cpuncils pf stdte, and parlia-
ments, and find nething in all these, but stiU
mere of this trouble and vexation, in a more
fine dreas and fashion, altogether vanity.
Every man walks in a vain show.] Hia
walk is nothing but a going en in continual
vanity, adding a new stock ef "vanity, of hia
own coining, to what he has already within,
and \»exation of spirit woven aU along in
with it. He was in an image, as the word
is, converses with things of no reaUty, and
which have no solidity in thera, and he him
self as Uttle. He himself is a walking

image, in the midat of these images. Tney
that are taken with the conceit of images and
pictures, that is an emblem ef their own Ufe,
and ef all other raeans also. Every man's
fancy is te himself a gaUery of pictures, and
there he walks up and down, and considers
net how vain these are, and how vain a
thing he hiraaelf ia.
My brethren, they are happy persons,
(but few are they in number,) that are truly
weaned frem aU those images and fanciea the
world doata ae much upen. If raany ef the
children of raen would turn dieir own tiioughta
backwards in the evening but ofone day, what
would they find for the raost part, but that they
have been walking araong these pictures, and
paaaing frora one vanity to another, and
back again to and fro ; tp as Uttle purppse
aa the running up and dpwn pf children at
their play 1 He, whp runs after honour,
pleasure, popular esteem, what do yeu think ?
does not that man walk in an image, pursu
ing after that, that bath ne other being but
what the opinion and fancy of men give to it,
especiaUy the last, which is a thing ao fluc
tuating, uncertain, and inconstant, that while
he hath it, he hath nothing ? The other
iraage, that man foUows and worships, is
that in tbe text, that wretched madness of
heaping up riches : this is the great foolish
ness and disease, especially of old age, that
the less way a raan has to go, he raakes the
greater provision for it ; when the hands are
stiff, and for no other labour, tbey are fitted
and coraposed for scraping together. But
for what end doat thou take all this pains ?
If for thyaelf, a little aober care wiU do thy
tum, if thy desires be sober ; and if net so,
thy diligence were better bestowed in ira-
pairing and dirainishing of theae, and that is
the easier way a great deal. And if it be
fer othera, why doat thou take a certain un-
eaae to thyaelf for the uncertain eaae ef others ?
And who these are, thou dest not know ;
may be, such aa thou never intended them
for, - It were good we uaed mere eaay and
undiatracting dUigence, for increaaing of
theae treaaurea, which we cannot deny are
far better, and whosoever hath them, may
abound therein with increase ; he knows well
for whpm he gathers them ; he hiraself shall
ppssess them thrpugh aU etemity.
If there were net a hppe beyond this life,
there were reasons for that passionate word in
Psal. Ixxxix. 47, Why hast thou made all
men in vain ? To what purpoae were it for
poor wetched man, to have been aU hia days
toased upen the waves of vanity, and then
to lie down iu the grave and be no mere heard
of? Butitia net ao : heia raade capable
of a noble and bleaaed life beyond this ; and
our fprge'tfulnesa of this is tiie cause of aU
our misery and vanity here.
It is a great folly to complain of the short-
ness of our Ufe, and yet to lavish it out so

318 EXPOSITORY
prodigaUy on trifles and ahadowa : if it were
weU raanaged, it would be aufficient for aU
we have to do. The only way to live, indeed,
ia to be doing service to God, and geod te
raen: this is te live rauch in a' little time.
But when we play the fools in miapending
our tirae, itmay be indeed a sad thpught to us,
when we find it gpne, and we are benighted
in the dark se far from our hprae. But these
that have their souls untied from thia werld
and knit to Ged, they need not complain of
the shortness of it, having laid hold on eter
nal Ufe ; fer this Ufe is flying away, there
is no laying hold en it ; it is no matter how
soon it go away, the sooner the better, for to
such persons it seems rather to go too slow.

LECTURES

[lect. IV.

LECTURE IV.
Ver. 7. And now, Zjord, what wait I for? my
hope is in thee.
To entertain the rainds of men with
thoughts of their own vanity, and discouraea
of their own misery, seeras to be aad and
unpleasant ; but certainly it is not unprofit
able, unlesa it be eur own choice Ito make
it 80 ; and that were the greatest vanity and
raiaery of aU. Indeed, if there were no help
for thia sore evil, then the comraon shift were
not to be blaraed, yea, it were to be chosen as
the only help in such a desperate case, net te
think on it, to forget eur raisery, and te divert
our thoughts frpra it, by all ppaaible raeans, ra
ther than tp increase it, and tprment purselves,
by inaiating and pnring en it ; and in that
case, shaUow rainds would have the advan
tage, that could not converse with these sad
thoughts : for to increase this knowledge
were but io increase sorrow. But far be it
from us thus to deterraine ; there ia a hope
which ia a help te thia evil, and thia is it that
this holy man fixea on. Arid now. Lord, Scc.
otherwiae it were atrange, that the meat ex
ceUent piece of tbe viaible creation ahould be
made aubject to the most incurable unhappi
ness, te feel miaery which he cannot shun,
and tobe tormented with deairea that cannot be
satisfied. But there is sorae better expecta
tion for the souls of raen, and it ia no other
but himself whe made them.
The wiaeat natural raen have discoursed
pf raan's vanity, and passipnately berapaned
it, but in this they have faUen ahnrt, hpw
to remedy it. They have aimed at it and
eome near it, but were not able to work it ;
they atill lahoured to be satisfied in them
selves ; they speak somewhat of reason, but
that will net do it, for raan being fallen
under the curse of God, there is nothing but
darkness and folly in hiraself. The only
way to blessedness is by going out of our
selves unto God.

All eur discourses of our ewn vanity will
but further disquiet ua, if they do not termi
nate here, if they do not fix on hia etemal
happiness, goodness, and verity.
I am perauaded, if many would ask this
question at themaelvea, What wait I for ?
they weuld puzzle theraaelves and not find
an answer : there are a great many thinga
that men desire and are gaping aftef, but
few after, one thing chiefly and stayedly:
they float up and down, and are canied about
witheut any certain raotion, but by fancy,
and by guess ; and no wind can be fait for
auch peraons, that aim at no certain haven.
If we put thia question to ourselves. What
would" I have ? It were easy for many to
answer, I would have an easy, quiet, peace
able life in this world ; so would an ox
or a horse : and is that aU ? may be you
would have a greater height of pleasure and
honour ; but think on tbis one thing, tbat
there is this one crack. and vanity that apoils
aU these things,' that they wiU not bear
you up when yeu lean to thera in ti'mes of
distreaa ; and hesides, when you have them,
they raay be puUed frora you, and if not,
you rauat be plucked away frora them with
in a Uttle while ; there ia much seeming
content in the pursuit of these things, buv
they are lost with greater discontent. It is
God'a goodness to raen, to blast aU things
in the world to them, and to break theii,
fairest hopes, that they may be constrained
to look about te Himaelf; he beats thea
from aU shores, that he may bring them In
the Rock thai is higher than they, Ps, Ixi, 2.
O 1 that God would ence touch some of
your hearts, that are under the chains of
darkness, that ye might once bethink where
to rest your heads in the midat of aU our
confuaiona ; and here is the resting-place,
hope in Ged, Now, Lord, what wait I for ?
my hope is in ihee. Blessed soul that can
say, " Lord, thou aeeat I deaire nothing but
thyaelf, (aa Peter said. Lord, thou knowest
I love ihee,) aU the corners of my heart
stand open in thy sight ; thou seeat if there
be any other deaire or expectation but to
please thee, and if there be any auch thing
in rae, (for I see it net,) I pray thee diacover
it to rae, and through thy grace it ahall
ledge no longer. My heart is thine alone,
it is conaecrated te thee ; and if any thing
would profane thy temple, if it wiU not go -
forth by fair warning, let it be scourged out
by thy rod, yea, any rod whatsoever it
pieaaeth thee to chooae."
My hope is in thee.] Thia holy man, see-*
ing the vanity of all other expectationa and
purauita ef men, at length tuna te thia ; And
now. Lord, what wait Ifor ? my hope is
in thee : he flnda nething but moving sand
every where else ; but he flnds this eternal
Reck te be a strong foundation, as the He
brew word, by which he is styled, dpth sig-

VSR. 7.]

ON PSALM XXXIX.

319

nify. It ia true, tiie union of the heart with
God is made up by faith and love, but yet
both these, in this our present condition ef
eur absence and distance ftom God, do act
themaelvea rauch by the third grace, which
is joined with theni, and that is hope. For
faith is conversant about things that are not
seen, and in a great part that are not yet,
but' are to come : and the apirit of faith,
choosing tilings that are to ccrae, is caUed
nope. It is true, that they are not so whoUy
defened, as that they possess nothing, but
yet the utraost they posaeas is but a pledge
and earneat-penny, a sraaU thing in reapect
of that etemal inheritance they look for.
What they have here is of the sarae kind with
what they expect ; but it is but a little por
tion of it, tbe srailes and glances ef their
Father's face, foretaatea of Heaven, which
their souls are refreshed with ; but these are
but rare, and for a short tirae.
Hope is the great stock ef believers, it is
lhat which upholda thera under all tbe faint-
inga and aonowa of this Ufe, and in their
going through the valley and shadow of
death. It ia the helmet of iheir salvation.
which, while they are looking ever te eternity.
beyond thia preaent tirae, covers and keepa
¦ their head aafe araidat all the darts that fly
round about thera. In the preaent discom
fort and darkness of mind, and the saddeat
hours they meet with in thia life, hope is
that which keeps up the soul, and ia that
whicii David cheered up his soul with, Paal.
xiii. 6, Why ari thou cast down, 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. And
even in thia point the children of the world
have no great advantage of the children of
God, aa tp the things pf this Ufe ; fpr much
pf their aatiafactipn, auch aa it ia, doea hang,
for the most part, on their hope ; the happi
est and richest of them do still piece it out
with aome further expectation, aomething
they look for beyond what they have, and
the expectation ef that pleaaea them mere
than aU their preaent poaaessions. But this
great disadvantage they have, aU their hopes
are but heaps of delusions and Ues, and either
they die and obtain thera not, er if they ob
tain thera, yet they obtain them not, they
are so far abort of what they fancied and
iraagined of thera beforehand. But the hope
of the children pf Gpd, aa it is witheut fail
sure, so it is inconceivably fuU and satisfy-.
ing, far beyond what the largest apprehen
sion of any raan is able to reach. Hope in
God ! what is wanting there ?
This hope lodges only in the pure heart ;
it is a precious Uquor that can orJy be kept in
a clean vessel, and that which is not se, can.
not receive it : but what it.seeras to receive,
it conupts and destioys. It ia a confidence
arising frora peace, agreement, aud friend.

ship, which cannot be betwixt the God of
purity, and thpse whe aUow unholiness in
themselves. It is a strange impudence for
men to talk of their ii'usi and hope in God,
who are in perfect hoatility againat hira ;
bold fellowa go through dangera here, but it
will not be so hereafter, Jer. ii. 27, They
turn to me the back and not the face ; yet
in their trouble they say. Arise and save
us ; they do it aa confidently aa if they never
had deapiaed God ; but they raistake the
raatter, it is not ao. Go and- cry, aays he,
to the gods whom ye have chosen. Judges x.
14. 'When raen corae to die, then they catch
hold ef the mercy of God ; but from that
their filthy hands are beat off, there is np
help fer thera tliere, and se they faU down
to the pit. An holy fear of God, and a
happy hope in hira, are coramonly Unked to
gether : Behold the eye of the Lord is upon
ihem thai fear him, upon them that hope
in his mercy, Psal. xxxiii. 18.
And even in those who are raore purified
frora sin, yet too large draughts of lawful
pleasures do clog the spirits, and make thia
hope grew exceeding weak ; surely tbe mere
we fiU ourselves with these things, we leave
the leas appetite for the consolations of this
blessed hope. They cannot know the ex
ceUency ef this hope, who labour not to keep
it unmixed : it is beat aloncj aa the richeat
wines and oUs, which are the worst of mix
tures. Be sober and hope, 1 Pet. i. 13 ;
keep your raind sober, and your hope shaU
be pure. Any thing or person that leana on
two supporters, whereof the one is whole and
sound, and the other broken or crooked, that
which ia unsound breaka, though the ether
remain whole, and they fall ; whereaa the one
that, was whole had been sufficient : thus it
when we divide our hopes betwixt God
and this present- world, or any other good ;
those that place their whole hopes on God,
they gather in all their deaires to him ; the
strearas of their affectiona die not scattered
and left in the muddy ditches of the world,
they do not faU into sinking pools, but being
gathered into one main torrent, they run on
in that channel to the sea of his eternal good
ness. My hope is in ihee-.] We cannot choose
but aU ef us think that Ged ia immenaely
geod in himaelf ; but that which ia nearer,
whereon our hearts raost rise, is a relative
goodneaa, that he ia good to us, and that he
ia ae perfectly and corapletely good, that hav
ing raade choice of hira, and obtained union
withhim, we need ne raore. Were once the
hearta of the chUdren of raen persuaded of
this, all their deliberations were at an end,
they would not only choose no other, but de
fer ne longer to fix ori hira. Arid what can
treuble the soul that is thus estabUshed ? No
change or overturning of outward things :
thdugh the frarae of the world itself were

320

EXPOSITORY LECTURES

[lect. v.

ahaken to pieces, yet still the bottora of this
hope ia Him that changeth not : and what
ever thy preasurea be, poverty, Sickneaa, or
disquiet of mind, thpu mayeat draw abun
dant consolation from hira in whom thou hast
placed thy hope. There is only ene thing
that crueUy aaaaulta it by the way, and that
ia the guilt of ain. AU afflictions and trou-
bl«a we meet with are not able to mar thia
hope or quench it ; for where it ia strong, it
either breaka through them, er flies above
them ; tbey cannot overcorae it, for there ia
np afflictipn incnnsistent with the leve ef
God, yea, the sharpest affliction raay some
tiraes have the clearest characters of his love
upon it ; but it is sin that presents him as
angry to the view of the soul. When he
looks through that cloud, he seeras to be an
eneray ; and when we apprehend him in that
aspect, we are affrig-hted, and presently ap
prehend a storra ; but even in this caae, thia
hope apprehenda hia mercy. And thus David
here.

LECTURE V.
"Ver. 8. Deliver me from all my transgressions;
make me not the reproach of the foolish.
This is indeed the baaia and foundation
pf all pur Pther hppea, the free pardon ef our
ains ; but none must entertain theae sins, if
tbey desire to be pardoned. Repentance
and remission of sins are atiU linked to
gether in the Scripturea ; and he that would
have sin pardoned, and yet Uve in it, or re
tain the loVe of it, would have God and sin
reconciled together, and that can never be.
David flnda hia sins presaing .him down ; he
aeea them aa an array of raen set in battle
anay about hira : and whither flies he for a
deliverance ? even to Hira whora he had of
fended. Ver. 10, 11. Remove thy stroke away
from me : I am consumed by ihe blow of
thine hand. When thou with rebukes dost
correct mari for iniquity, thou makest his
beauiy-to consume away like a moth : sure
ly every man is vanity. Selah. We are
naturally very partial judges ef ourselves ;
and aa if we were not aufficiently able by na
ture, we study and devise "by art to deceive
ourselves. We are ready to reckon any good
that is in us te the full, nay, to raultiply it
beyond what it is ; and yet to help this, we
use comraonly to look on thoae, who have
less goodneas in them, who are weaker, more
foolish and worse than ourselves ; and so we
magnify the aenae ef our own worth and
goodneas by that compariaon. And as in
the gopdness we have, pr imagine we have, so
likewise in the evils we suffer, we use te ex
tol thera very much in cpnceit. We accpunt

our Ughtest afflictions very great ; and to
heighten our thoughts of them, we do readily
take a view of those who are raere at ease
and less afflicted • than ourselves ; and by
these devices we nourish in ourselves pride,
by the overweening conceit of our gopdness ;
and impatience, by the pver-feeling senae of
our evila. But if we would help ouraelves
by compariaon, we ahould do weU to view
these personswho are, or have been, eminent
fer holiness, recorded in holy writ, or whom
we know in our own tiraea, or have heard of
in former; and by this meana we should
lesaen the great opinion we have of eur own
worth ; and ao likewiae ahould we conaider
the raany inatancea of great calaraities and
sonows, which would tend to quiet our minds,
and enable ua to possess our souls in pa
tience, under the Uttle burden of triala that
Uea upon us : and, eapeciaUy, we shall find
thoae inatancea to fall in together, that as
peraena have been very eminent in holiness,
they have alao been erainent in auffering very
aore atrokea and aharp acourges frem the
hand of God. If we would think on their
conauming blows and broken bones, their
bones burnt as an hearth, and their flesh
withered as grass, certainly we should en.
tertain eur thoughts sometimes with wondei
of God's indulgence to us, that we are so
Uttle afflicted, when so many of the children
of raen, and so raany ef the children of God,
suffer so raany and so hard things ; and this
would very rauch add to the stock of ouf
praises. We should not think that we are
more innocent in not deserving these thinga
that are inflicted on othera, but rather, that
He who thua raeaaures out to thera and to
us, knows our aize, and aeea how weak we
are in compariaon of thera ; and thai there.
fore he is indulgent to ua, not becauae we are
better, but becauae we are weaker, and are
not able te bear ao rauch aa he lays on the
stronger shouldera. Even in the sharpest ol
these rods there is mercy. It is a privilege
te the sheep that is ready to wander, to be
beaten into a right way. When theu art
conected, think that thereby thy sins are tp
be purged put, thy passions and lusts to be
crucified by these pains ; and certainly he
that finds any cure of the evils of his spirit
by the hardest sufferings of his flesh, gets a
very gainful bargain. If thou account sin
thy greatest unhappiness and mischief, thou
wilt be glad te have it removed on any
terras. There is at least in the tirae of af
fliction a cessation frora some sins : the raging
lust of arabition and pride do cease, when a
man is laid upon his back ; and theae very
ceaaations are some advantages. But there
is one great benefit of affliction, which fol.
lows in the text, that it gives him the frue
measure of himself.
When with rebukes thou dost correct
man, thou makest his beauty to consume

VEll. 12.1

ON PSALM XXXIX.

.321

away like a moth ; surely every man is
vanity. Selah.] Men at his best estate
is altogether vanity : but at his lowest estate
it appears best unto hira, how much vanity
he is, and hpw much vanity he was at his
best estate, seeing he was then capable ot
such a change, tp faU so low from such a
height. As that great man, who was seek
ing new conquests, when he feU upon the
sand, and saw the print ef his ewn body,
" Why," says he, " so sraaU a parcel of
earth will serve rae, who ara seeking sifter
new kingdoras." Thus it is, when a raan
is brought down, then he hath the right mea
sure of himself, when he aeea how vain a thing
he ia.
Thua the Paalmiat repreaenta it here, beth
aa an argument to move God to corapaasion,
and to inatruct hiraaelf and other men. So
-Job xiii. 25, Wilt thou break a leaf driven
io and fro with ihe wind ^ and wilt thou
pursue dry stubble ? Paal. ciii. 14, For
he knoweth our frame ; he remembereth
that we are dust. And hia beauty, which
seemed to be his perfection, yet, when the
hand ef God is on hira, it is blasted as a
raoth-eaten garraent; this sheuld teach ua
. huraiUty, and to beware of sin, which pro
vokea God to peur out hia heavy judgraenta
uppn us. If any be prpud pf hpnpur, let
hira reraeraber Nebuchadnezzar and Herpd ;
pr pf riches, pr pf wit and endpwmenta pf
•mind, let him think hew aoon God can make
aU these to wither and raelt away. Surely
every man is vanity.
'Ver. 12. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and
give ear unto my cry ; hold noi thy peace
at my tears : for I am a stranger with thee,
and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.]
What is this Ufe we cleave so fast to, and
are ao uneasy to hear of parting with ; what
is it but a trance, and a succeaaion of aonowa,
a weary tossing and tottering upon the wavea
of vanity and misery 1 Ne eatate or course
of life is exerapted frora the cauaea ef thia
complaint ; the poorer and raeaner sort are
troubled with wanta, and the richer with the
care of what they have, and aoraetiraea with
the loas of it, and the middle sort betwixt the
two, they partake, in common, of the vexa
tions of both, for their life is spent, in care for
keeping what they have, and in turmoil for
purchasing more. Besides a world of mise
ries and evils, that are incident equaUy to aU
sorts of men, such as sickness and pain of
body, which is both a sharp affliction, and
sits close to a raan, and which he is least
able, either by stirength of mind, or by any
art or rule, to bear ; and this guest does aa
oft haunt palacea aa peer cottages ; as raany
groans of sick and diseased hodies within
silken curtains as in the raeanest lodging.
Neither does godUness exempt the best of
nien frora the sufferings of this Ufe. David,
whe was both a great man and a good man,

did share deeply ir. these ; so that his con»
elusion still holds true, no instance can be
found to infringe it ; Surely every man is
altogether vanity.
It reraains only to inquire, what raanner
of men they are who are furnished with the
best helps, and with the moat comfortable
mitigations of their treuble, and with the
atrongeat additiona ef support and strength
to bear thera up under it ? And it will cer-
taiitlybe found that godUneaa alone hath this
advantage. And araong the many conaola
tiona godly men have under their trouble, thia
ia one, and the chief one, their recourse unto
prayer. Se here, and Psab cxiii. 4, 5. laa.
xxxviii. 2, Hezekiah turned his face to
wards the wall ; he tums his back on aU
worldly councils and vain helps, and betakes
hiraself to prayer ; and prayer brings ease and
support, and seasonable deliverance to the
godly man ; but their sorrows shall be mul-
tiplied that hasten after other gods, Paal.
xvi. 4 : and this all ungodly men do when
they are aflSicted : they run to other iraagin
ary helpa of their own, and they prove but the
raultipliera of sonows, and add te their tor
ment : they are miserable or troublesome
comforters ; Uke unskilful physicians, that
add to the patient's pain by nauaeoua, ill
choaen, and it may be, pemicioua drugs.
Now, in thia prayer ef David, we find
three thinga, which are the chief qualifica
tions of all acceptable prayers : the first is,
humility. He humbly confesses his sins,
and his ewn weakness and worthlessness.
We are not to put on a stoical, flinty kind of
apirit Under our afflictipns, that so we may
seem to shun womanish repinings, and cora
plainta, leat we run into tbe other evil, of
despising ihe hand of God, but we are to
humble our proud hearta, and break our un
ruly paaaiona. There ia something of this
ill the nature of affliction itaelf; as in the
day-tirae raen are abroad, but the night draws
them hprae, so in the day ef proaperity men
run out after vanitiea and pleaaurea, and when
the dark night of affliction comea, then men
ahould come horae, and wiaely lay the mat
ter to heart. It is raeet we humble ourselves
under the mighty hand of God. It is raeet
te say unto hira, as Job xxxiv. 31, / have
been chastised, or have borne chastisement,
and I will not offend any more : that ia a
kind of language, that raakes tbe red faU out
of his hand ; that prayer ascenda highest
that comes frpm the Ipwest depth pf an hura
bled heart. ISut Gpd resists the proud, he
prpclairas himaelf an enemy tp pride and
atiffness pf apirit, but hia grace aeeka the
humble heart, as water dpes the low ground.
If an holy heart be the temple of God
and therefore an house of prayer, certainly
when it ia framed and builded for such,
the foundation of that teraple ia laid in deep
humiUty, otherwiae no prayera tiiat are offered
X

322

EXPOSITORS LECTURES

[lect. VI.

up ill it have the smeU of pleaaing incense to
hira. The second qualification of this prayer is,
fervency and importunity, which appears in
the elegant gradation ef the words, hear my
prayer, ray words ; if not that, yet, give ear
to my cry, which is louder ; and if that pre
vail not, yet, hold not thy peace at my
tears, which is the lojidest of aU : so David,
elsewhere, caUs it the voice of his weeping.
Though tills gift of -tears doth often flew
from the natural temper, yet where that tem
per becomes spiritual and religious, it proves
a singular inatrument of repentance and
prayer. But yet there may be a very great
height of piety and godly affections where
tears are wanting ; yea, thia defect may pro
ceed frora a singular subliraity of religion in
their soula, being acted raore in the upper
region of the inteUectual raind, and ao net
communicating much with the lower affec
tiena, or theae expreaaipns pf thera. We are
npt tp judge of our apiritual proflciency by
the gift of prayer, for the heart raay be very
spiritually affected, where there is no readi
ness or volubUity of worda : the aure raea
sure of our growth is te be had frora our holi
neaa, which stands in this, to see how our
hearta are crucified to the world, and how we
are poaaeaaed with the love of God, and with
ardent longinga after union with him, and
dweUing in hia preaence hereafter, and in
being conformed to hia wiU here.
It ia the greateat folly imaginable in aome
to .shed teara for their sins, and within a little
whUe to return to them again ; they think
there is some kind ef abaelution in thia way
of eaay venting themselves by tears in "prayer,
and when a new temptation retums, they
easily yield to it. This ia lightneaa and
foolishneaa, like the inconatancy of a woraan,
who entertaina new lovera in her mourning
apparel, having expreased much sonow and
grief for her forraer huaband.
Now, fervency in prayer hath in it, 1st, At-
tentiveneaa of raind. If the raind be not pre
sent, it is iraposaible that much of the heart
and affectiona can be there. How ahaU we
think that God shall hear theae prayera which
we dp npt .bear ouraelvea ? And ahaU we
think them worthy ef hia acceptance, that
are net worthy of our thoughts ? Yet we
ahould net leave off prayer because of the
wanderings of our hearts in it, for that is the
very deaign of the devil, but atill we rauat
continue in it, and araend thia fault as much
as we can ; hy remembering in the entry,
with whora we have to do, by freeing eur
minds as much as may be, from the entangle
ments and multiplicity of buaineaa, and by
labouring to have eur thoughta often in Hea-
vi'n ; for where the heart ia rauch, it wiU be
ever and anon turning thitherward, without
any difficulty.
2dly, Fervency of pravor hath in it an in-'

tenae bent of the affections, te have eur de.
sires as ardent as can be for the pardon of
ain, for the raortifying our hiata and passions,
for the delivering us frora the love of our.
selves and thia -preaent world ; and for such
apiritual things to pray often, and to foUow
it with importunity, that ia, te pray fervent.
ly, never te reat till an answer come.
The third qualification ia, Heb. xi. 6,
He who comes io God must believe that he
is, and that he is a rewarder of all that
diligently seek him. And certainly, as he
that coraea to God muat believe this, so he
that believes thia cannot but ceme to God ;
and if he be not preaently anawered, he that
believea makes ne haste, he resolves patientiy
to wait for the Lord, and te go to 'no other.
Surely there is much te be had in prayer :
all good may be obtained, and all evil avert,
ed by it ; yea, it is a reward to itself. It is
the greatest dignity of the creature to be ad.
mitted to converse with God ; and certainly
the seul that is rauch in prayer, grows in
purity, and is raised by prayer to the despis.
ing of all those things that the world ad-
raires, and ia in love with, and by a wonder
ful way ia confomied te the likeneaa of God.
For I am a stranger with thee, and a
sojourner, as all my fathers were.] In the
law, God recoraraended atrangera to the care
and compassion of his people ; now David
returns the arguraent to hira ; for I am a
stranger with thee, that ia, before thee,
" in this werld wherein thou hast appointed
rae te aojoum a few daya, and I betake my.
aelf te thy protection in this strange country ;
I seek shelter under the shadow of thy
winga, therefore have compaaaion upen me."
He that looka en himaelf aa a atranger, and
ia aensible of tbe darkness both round about
hira in this wildemess, and alao with him,
he will often put up that request with Da
vid, Psal.' cxix. 19, I am a stranger on this
earth ; hide not thy commandments from
me : do not let rae lose ray way. And aa
we ahpuld use this arguraent tp persuade
Gpd tp lppk dpwn uppn us, sp likewise tp
persuade purselves tp send up pur hearts and
deairea te hira. What ia the jpy pf pur life,
but the thpughta pf tbat other life, our home
before ua ? And, certainly, he that lives
much in these thoughts, set him where you
wiU here, he is not much pleased nor dis-
pleased : but if his Father caU hira home,
that werd gives hira his heart's desire.

LECTURE VL
Vrr. ,3. Ospareme, th,it I may recover strength,
before I go hence, and be uo more.
Why is it that we de not extremely hale
that which we sp desperately lpve, ain ? Fol

ON PSALM XXXIX.

VER. 13.]
the defonnity of itaelf is unspeakable ; and
besides, it is the cause of all our wees ; sin
hath opened the sluices, and lets in all tiie
deluges of sorrows, which make the Ufe ef
poor man nething else but vanity and mi
sery ; so that the meanest orator in the world
raay be eloquent enpugh pn that subject.
what is cur Ufe, but a cpntinual successipn
pf many deaths ? Thpugh we shpuld say
upthing pf all the bitterness and vexatipns
that are hatched under the sweetest pleasures
in the wprld, this pne thing is enpugh, the
multitudes pf diseases and pains, the variety
pf distempers, that these houaes we are lodged
in are exposed tp. Peer creatures are oft-
times tossed betwixt two, the fear of death
and the tedipuaneaa pf Ufe ; and under these
feats they cannet teU which tp choose. Holy
raen are not exempted from sorae apprehen
sions of Gpd's displeasure becauae of their
ains ; and that may make them cry out with
David, O spare me, that I may recover
strength, before I go hence, and be no
more. Or, perhapa, this may be a deaire,
net SP much simply fpr the prolonging of
Ufe, as for the intermitting of his pain ; to
have eaae from the preaent smart ; the ex
treme torment of some sickness may draw
the raost fixed and confident spirits to cry
out very eamestly for a little breathing ; or
rather, if it be the desire of a recovery, and
the spinning out of the thread of his Ufe a
little longer, surely he intended to employ it
for God and his service ; but long life was
suitable to the proraises of that time ; so
Hezekiah, Isa. xxxviii. There is no doubt
these holy raen, under the -law, knew sorae
what of the state of iraraortality, Heb. xi.
they calling themselves strangers on earth,
argued tbat they were no strangers to these
thoughts ; but it cannet be denied, that that
doctrine was but darkly laid out in these
times ; it is Christ Jesus that hath brought
life and immortality to light, who did iUu
minate Ufe and iramertaUty, that before stood
in the dark.
Surely the desire of Ufe is, for the most
part, aenaual and baae, when raen deaire that
they raay atiU enjoy tlieir animal pleaaure'a,
and are loath te be parted frora them. They
are pleaaed to term it, a deaire to Uve and
repent : and yet few do it when they are
apared : like evil debtors, who deaire for
bearance from one term te another, but with
no deaign at all to pay. But there is a na
tural desire of life, something of abhonence
of nature against the dissolution of these
taberaaclea. We are loath to go forth, like
chUdren who are afraid to walk in the dark,
not knowing what raay be there. In some,
auch a deaire of Ufe raay be very, reaaonable ;
being surpriaed by sickneaa, and apjirehen-
aions of death, and sin unpardoned, they
may desire a little time before they enter
into eternity ; for that change ir not a thing

323

te be hazarded upon a few days or houra
preparation : I will not say tbat death-bed
repentance ia altogether deaperate, but cer
tainly it ia very dangeroua, and to be sus.
pected ; and therefore, the desire of a little
time longer, in such a caae, may be very
aUowable. I will not deny but it is pessibie, even for
a beUever, tp be taken in such a posture,
that it may be very uncpmfortable to him to
be canied off so, through the affrightmenta of
death, and hia darkneaa aa tp his after-state.
On the Pther hand, it is an arguraent of a
good meaaure of spirituaUty and height ef
the love of God, to desire to depart, and be
dissolved, in tbe midst of health, and the
affluence of worldly comforts : but for men
to desire and wish to be dead, 'when they are
troubled and vexed with any thing, is but a
childiah foUy, flowing from a diacontented
mind, which being over, they deaire nothing
less than to die. It is trae there may be a
natural desire of death, which at aorae tiraea
bath shined in the spirita ef sorae natural
raen : and there ia much reaaon for it, not
only te be :ieed from the evila and troubles
ef thia Ufe. but even frem thoae thinga whicii
raany of this foolish world account their hap.
pineaa, sensual pleasurea, to eat and druik,
and be hungry agam ; and atill to round the
aarae course, which, to souls that are raiaed
above aensual thinga, are burdensorae and
grievous. But there ia a apiritual desire of death,
which is very becoraing a Chriatian ; for
Jeaua Chriat hath not only opened very clear-
ly tbe doctrine of etemal Ufe, but he hiraaelf
hath paased through death, and lain down
in the grave ; he hath perfuraed that paa.
aage, and warraed that bed for ua ; ao that
it is sweet and amiable for a Christian to
pass through and foUow him, and te be
where he ia. It is a strange thing, that tho
aoula of Christiana have not a continual de
aire to go to that corapany which is above,
(flnding ao rauch discord and diaagreeraent
araong the beat of raen that are here,) to
go to the spirits of just men made perfect,
where there ia Ught and love, and nothing
else, to go to the company of angels, an
higher rank of bleaaed apirita, but raost of
all, to go to God, and to Jesus ihe Me
diator of the. New Testament. Aad, to
aay nothing positively of that glery, (for the
truth is, we can say nothing of it,) the very
evils, that death delivers the trae Christian
frora, mivy make him long for it ; for sucb
an one may say, " I shaU die, and go to a
more exceUent country, where I shall be
happy fer ever, that is, I shaU die no more^
I shaU sonow no mere, I shaU be sick no
raere ; and, which is yet raore considerable,
I shall doubt no more, and shaU be tempted
no more ; and, which is the chiefest of all,
I sliaU siu no rapre."

EXPOSITORY LECTURES

ISAIAH VI.

LECTtTRE I. ON Ver. 1—5.

The division of this chapter (were that
to any great purpose) raay be stated thua :
1. The-prophet's vision, from ver. 1. tp
the 3d, In the year ihat king Uxz'iah died,
I saw also ihe Lord sitting upon a throne,
high and lifted up, and his train filled ihe
temple. 2. Above it stood the seraphims :
each had six wings ; with twain he cover
ed his face, and with twain he covered his
feet, and with twain he did fiy. 3. And
one cried unto another, and said, Holy,
holy, holy is ihe Lord of hosts ; the whole
earth is full of his glory.
II. The effecta pf it uppn hira, relating
tp hia calling, from ver. 4 — 13, And ihe
posts of ihe door moved at ihe voice of him
that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke, Scc.
In the vision, beaidea tbe circuraatancea
of tirae and place apecified, ver. 1, we have
a glorious representation of the majesty of
Ged, ver. 2. A suitable acclamation, a
vpice ef praiae being joined with it, ver. 3, 4.
The effects of it on the prophet towards hia
calling are three, viz. I. Hia preparation ;
II. His miaaion ; III. Hia raeaaage. I.
The preparation, in these two particulars :
1 . HuraiUation ; 2. Purification, ver. 6, 7 ;
a deep conviction, and then effectual removal
of poUution.
IL In his mis.sion we have three things :
1. God's inquiry fpr a messenger, ver. 8,
fprmer part. 2. The prophet's offer of him.
self, the latter part of verse 8. 3. God's
acceptance, ver. 9, fprmer part.
III. His message, a heavy cpmmination,
ver, 9  12, yet aUayed with a gracious mi
tigation, ver, 13. The judgment very last
ing and wasting, yet a reranant reserved.
V 6B. 1. In the year that king Dzziah died, I saw
also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and
lifted up, and the Uain filled the temple.

I saw.] Observe the freedora of God in
his choice of men to be near him and know
him ; and in the raeasuring out the degrees
of discovery unto those men differently, some
had extraordinary revelations ; and though
prophetic visions now cease, yet there are
certainly higher and clearer coruscations of
God upon sorae souls than many others, that
yet are chUdren of light, and partake 'of a
measure of that Ught shining within them ;
thus we are not carvers and choosers, and
therefore are not peremptorily to desire any
thing in kind er raeasure that is singular,
that were pride and foUy ; but above all
things we are to esteera, and submissively
desire stiU mere and mere knowledge of God,
and hurably to wait and keep open the pas
sage of light, not to close the windows, nor
to he indulgent to any known sin, or impure
affection, that wiU aoon obatruct it : into a
filthy soul wiadom will not enter.
In the year thai king Uzziah died, I saw
the Lord on his throne.] There ia another
king named here, to denote the time by,
but he was diaeaaed and a dying king, who
l?ved sorae yeara a leper, and then died.
Men may apeak in a court style ef vain
wiahea, O King, live for ever : but this
King, here en the throne, ia indeed the King
immortal, the ever living God.
God raeaaures and proportiona aU his
raeans to thefr end. When he caUa men to
high services, he furaishes them with auitable
preparationa and Enablements : thua here
with the prophet, he waa to denounce heavy
thinga againat his own nation, a proud
stubborn people, tp deal bpldly and freely
with the highest, yea, with the king hiraself,
chap. vii. and he is prepared by a vision
of God. What can a raan fear afler that ?
AU regal maje-aty and pcmp Ippks petty and
peor after that sight. Two kings together on

VEH. 2, 3.]

ISAIAH VI.

325

their thrones in robes royal, (1 Kings xxii.)
did no whit asteniah him that had seen a
greater ; / saw (says Micajah) the Lord
sitting on his throne, and all the hosts of
heaven standing by. Much like this is the
viaion ef Isaiah, here before ua.
Eyea dazzled with the sun, aee not the
gUttering pf drppa pf dew pn the eartii ; and
these are quickly gene with all their faint
and fading glery, te a soul taken with the
eontemplation of God. How meanly do
they spend their days, that beatpw thera pn
counting money, or courting little earthen
idola, in ambition or leve. From hpw high
a atand doth he leek down pn thpse, that
looka en God, and adrairea his greatness,
wonders at what he sees, aud stiU seeks after
mere ; these two are therefore joined together.
Beholding ihe beauty of the Lord, and in
quiring in his temple. Paal. xxvii. 4,
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that
will I seek after ; thai I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold ihe beauty of the Lord, and to in
quire in his temple.
Ver. 2. Above it stood the seraphims: each one
had six wings ; with twain he covered his face,
and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain
he did fly.
These glorioua courtiers, flaming spirits,
are light and love, whoae very feet are too
bright fer us, as hia face is too bright for
them, and they cry. Holy, holy, holy, thrice
holy, moat holy three, ene God, Lord of
hosts, ihe whole earth is full of his glory.
This they cry one to anpther, echping it
and retuming it incea'aantiy ; they that praiae
him most, come neareat their life. When
we are to pray, or offer any worahip to the great
God thus on his throne above, and tbe diffusion
of his glory there, in the sanctuary, especial
ly in solemn worship there, let us think of
his train fflUng the upper temple, and to
stoop low and faU down before him, (Holy,
holy, holy.) Thia ia the raain thing where-
in he ia glorious, and we are to knew and
adore him in thia view, and abhor puraelvea
aa in hia aight.
'VEn. 3. And one cried unto another, and said,
Holv, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole
earth is full ofhis glory.
The whole earth.] So many creaturea
and various worka and affafra, fruits, and
plants, and rich comraedities, and ao raany
calamities and raiseries, that kingdoras and
people are afflicted with, aa by turns, and so
many disorders, and such wickedness pf men
in pubUc and private matters ; and yet, in
all these varieties and cpntrarieties pf things,
this pne is the sum ef aU, and all taken up
in it, ihe whole earth, is full of his glory,
in framing and upholding, in ruling and
ordering all, what a depth of pewer and
wisdom 1

VsR. 4. The posts of the door moved at the voice
of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke.
How true must that be, that at his voice
the earth quakes, and' the mountains trem
ble, when, at the vpice pf an angel, crying
er proclaiming his name, the very threshold
of the teraple (the then hpliest part of the
earth) mpves : this in the viaien was intend
ed tp represent the dreadfulness of his great
name, that vile raen dare baffle in vain oaths,
and can speak thereof without sense : but
hearts that are indeed his living temples^
will find this resentraent, when his narae is
proclairaed, er when they mention or think '
of it, the post will be moved with an awful
trembling. And the house was filled with smoke.]
This was here a symbol uf the presence and
raajesty of Ged, (Psal. xcvii. 2, Clouds and
darkness are roundabout him, righteousness
and judgment ,are the habitations of his
throne,) not a signal of displeasure, as some
take it. He dwells in light that is inacces
sible, and round about is thick darkness,
shutting out the weak eyea of men, that
were net able to abide the brightneas of hia
glory : much ef our knowledge here liea in
this, to know that we know him not ; and
rauch of our praise, to confess that we cannot
praise hira ; silentium tibi laus, aa they read
Paal. biv. 1.
Vkh. 5. Then said 1, Wo is me ! for I am undone ;
because I am a man of unclean lips, and 1 dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips ; for mino
eyes h.ive seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
Then said I, Wo is me.] He is net
lifted up with the dignation,' that he should
be honoured with auch a viaion of God ;
but, on the contrary, struck with humble
holy fear. Oh ! / am undone ! Tbis is
much of the exerciae ef aoula admitted near
eat to God, even this aatoniahraent and ad
miration, tbat auch aa they ahould be regard
ed and raiaed to that height, and holy fear
in B sense of their unhoUness. When tbe
blessed virgin heard a voice very much te her
own advantage, (Luke i. 28, 29, And^ the
angel came in unto her, and said. Hail,
thou ari highly favoured, the Lord is with
thee : blessed art thou among women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled
at his saying, and cast in her mind what
manner of salutation ihis should be,) instead
of rising in her own conceit upon it, she
was troubled, and marveUed what raanner
of salutation this should be, and waa atruck
with fear ; so that the angel found it needful
to say, fear not.
lUusiona and deceits of apirit of tiiis kind
cannot be better differenced from trae inani-
featations ef God, than by this, that they
raay breed pride and presuraption in the
heart, make it Vain and haughty ; but trae
senses, and joys, and discoveiies of love, in

336

EXPOSITORY Lectures

[lect. II.

what kind aoever, de most powerfuUy hurable.
Is est, q'iii superbire non potest, cui Deus
ostendit misericordiam suam. Aug.
Then said I, Wo is me ! for I am un
done ; because I am a man of unclean
lips.] The mother and nurse of pride is
ignorance of God. A amaU glance of hira
wiU make the best of raen abhor themselves,
and atUl the nearer aight pf him, the Ipwer
conceit wiU there be of aelf, and the deeper
sense of impurity and vileness ; this teUs us,
though we hear and speak of God, alas ! we
know hira not.
/ am a man of polluted lips,] He raen
tions this the rather, because he heard that
song which he would have joined, but durst
not, becauae oi polluted lips : thua we rauat
confeaa we are poUuted all over ; but rauch
of our pollution breaks out by the Upa, yet
cprarapnly we think net pn it.
/ am undone.] We cpuld npt indeed bear
much, not aee God and Uve ; therefore he
v^ils hiraself; but sure we raight see rauch
raore than we do, and Uve the better for it,
the raore humbly and holily. Our pollu
tions hinder and unfit us, as he impUes, when
he says, a man of polluted lips : but oh !
that we aaw so much ef him aa to see thia
pollution, that makea us so unworthy, and
BO unfit to aee him.
He first cries, / am a man of polluted
lips, and then adds, / dwell in the midst of
a people of unclean lips,] Thia is the true
method ; there can be no right sense of pol
lutions about us, but that which begins with
a sense of thpse withiri us. Few men refiect
much on themselves, or if they do, they view
theraselves by a false light.
Polluted lips.] This he says in regard of
the voice he heard; and with regard to the rauch
Ineverence with which we mention God, both
ministers and people, as also much of all our
heart poUutions, have their vent this way ; ao
the promiae of sanctifying his people runs
much on thia, Zeph. iii, 8, and 12. They
of a p'ure lip shaU offer ; all are of the hely
order, a royal priesthood, and through aanc
tified Upa, as the censer, still they offer
incenae of prayer and praiae. He is a per
feci man that offends noi in word, Jamea
iii. 2.
Coraraonly by rauch speaking there is
rauch poUution ; in many words there wants
not sin, Prov. x. 19 ; therefore, lei your
speech be always seasoned with salt. Col.
iv. 6. Now, many speeches need much salt,
otherwiae aome part wiU be rotten, at least
unsavoury ; much of the sin of the land con
sists in this ; there are few companies where
God is npt dishtmoured and provoked by their
communication ; and tiU this be laid to heart,
judgraent wiU multiply, and grow instead ef
decreasing. Few, even of these that fear
Ihe Lord, speak often one id another, in a
strain that God delights, not only to heark

en to, but to write down, and register fbr
their good.
And dwell amidst a people of unclean
lips.] We infect each other when we meet;
little,converse that a man retums the bettei
by, yea, by the most is the worse ; he bringa
back often more poUution, raore folly and
vanity, by raost corapanies and discourses ;
but we see here, that impurity humbly ac-
knowledged is graciously rempved.

LECTURE IL

On Ver. 6—8.
Ver. 6. Then flew one of the Seraphims unto me,
having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with the tongs from off the altar.

Impukity well discpvered to a man is '
half cured ; whenscever Gpd gracipualy shows
a man hia pwn unaanctifiedneas, there he
gpea pn tp cleanae and sanctify him; the
light that discpvers is fpUpwed with a burn
ing coal that purgea away.
The Hely Spirit ia that purifying fire, a
tpuch cf it cleanseth the hearta and Upa, and
aU, and kindlea that affection in the soul that
camiot die out, that not many, that no waters
can quench again. It doth this to aU that
are sanctified, but erainently it doth it, (or
at least they deaire it raay) to theae that are
to be the instruraenta of erdightening, purg
ing, and kindling others : so in the resem
blance of fiery tongues, came down thia
Spfrit on the Apoatlea, and thence they them-
aelvea were aa burning coal acattered through
the nationa, bleat incendiaries of the world,
aetting it on fire with the leve of Chriat, tan
quam ligna ardentia dispersa. Aug.
Ver. 7. And he laid it upon my mouth, and said,
Lo, this hath touched tny lips, and thine iniquity
is taken away, and thy sin is purged.
Thine iniquity is taken away.] How im-
pure aoever before. This free grace ia won
derful, to make aome that have been notori-
eualy unclean, by the change wrought by
thia fire, the touch of a coal, to become emi
nently gracious, and mesaengera of grace tP
Pthera, carrying thia and apreading it. They,
thcugh priginaUy pf dark clay, are by this
fire made tranaparent glass, through which
the light ofthe goapel ahines into the Church.
This coal taken from the altar, may de.
note the deriving ef the Spirit from Jesus
Christ, cur Priest, Altar, Sacrifice, and aU,
by which we are purged and raade fit fot his
service ; he is the fountain ef light, and Ufe
and purity, and all grace to his raessengers
and aU his followers. His grace ia indeed a
live coal, where heavenly heat ia mixed with
earth, the fulness of the Godhead with our

VEH. 7.]

ON ISAIAH VT.

Si: 7

nature in human fiesh : thence we draw near,
and especiaUy they that bear his name to
men, in a senae of their own impurity, in
treat his touch, as devout Bernard, and in
A holy hyperbole, " Had the Prophet need
of a CO j ? Oh then grant for rae a whple
glebe of fire, tp purge away my filthineaa,
and make me a fit meaaenger tp thia pepple 1"
Thy sin is purged. ] The children pf Gpd
are a wpnder te theraaelvea, when that Spirit
comes in that conquers and purges ao aud-
denly and easily what they before groan
under, and wrestie with very long to little or
ne purpose. It is a change of the right
hand of ihe Most High, aa the Latin feada
that word in Paal. Ixxvii. 10, / said. This
is my infirmity, but I will remember the
years of the right hand of the Most High ;
mutatio dextris Excelsi : a touch of that
will cleanae and heal ; the all purifying
virtue ef hia Spirit, whereof thia baptiam of
the Prophet'a Upa waa a aymbol, takea away
the dross, which by ether means than that
fire cannot be purged : ao in metala rauch
pains raay be taken, and atrength of hand
used with Uttle effect, at moat that doea but
scratch the auperficea, makes tiie outaide a
litde bright and ahining, but aevera not the
droas from withiri ; that cannot be done with
eut fire. Have we not found how vainly we
attempt, while God withholda his hands ?
yea, while a man fancies self-pureness, he ia
the more impure, as Job ix. 30, 31, // /
wash myself with snow water, and make
myself ever so clean, yei shalt thou plunge
me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall
abhor me : therefore prayer is the great re-
.source of a soul under a sense ef uncleanness,
begging a new creation ; se it is indeed ;
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and
renew a right spirit within me, Paalra li.
10 ; foUowing God with this suit, and re
solving to foUow hira tiU he grant it ; for we
well know he is able, and raay aay. Lord, if
thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
This fire hath two effecta ; it worka purity
and activity, it takea away sin, and puts in
spirit and life for obedience ; and so here
thy sin is purged ; and then, says he. Here
I am ; send me : and tbe forraer is effec
tual towards the latter ; the raore the soul is
cleanaed, the raore alive and able it ia made
for aervice. The purging out of thoae aickly
huraours raakes it raore vigorous and able,
whereas they abounding, clog the spirits, and
raake the vital operations heavy and weak.
A soul well cleimsed frora the love pf sin,
and the wprld, and self, is a healthful tem
per, and gpes nimbly tP any wprk ; putward
discpuragements and difficulties are tben np
thing : a feverish distemper within, hinders
and raaltes pne lazy and unwieldy, unwiUing
and unable to labpur ; but that weU purged
and cured, he cares less for the hot weather
without ; strength of nature endures that

raore easily. Oh ! how sweet to uc thua
acted by Ipve ! pure intentipn and desire of
dping Gpd service, and bringing him in
glpry ! Other mptives, pr the mixtures pf
them, are base ; and thpugh Gpd may make
use spmetimes pf such, yet he sees within,
and knpws what spr.ng raakes the wheels gp,
and he gives them their reward here,^ sprae
what ppaaibly pf that tbey seek, (succesa, and
credit, and a narae,) but the after reward pf
faithful aervanta they need npt lppk fer in that
work ; fer they receive their reward, and can
they expect more ? Many an Here am I,
comea from other incentivea than an altar
coal : and ao they may burn and ahine a
while, but they aeon conaume and die out in
a anuff; the heavenly altar fire alone keeps
in, and returna to heaven where it waa kin
dled. There ia raany a hot furioua raareh under
the aerablance and narae of zeal for Ged, that
lovea to be seen, as Jehu, 2 Kings x. 1 (i,
Come with me, a'nd see my zeal for the Lord.
Such persons may fiatter themaelvea into that
conceit in the heat ef action, to think it is
fer God, while he aeea through it, and judges
it as it ia, zeal for aelf and their own interest ;
and he gives them accordingly aome hireling
joumeyman'a wages, and then turns thera
off. But Oh ! where the heart is purely
acted by a desire of this glory, and seeks no
thing else ; for auch reraains that bleascd
werd. Well done, good and faithful servant,
enter into thy Master's joy.
This, then, is to be sought for by rainis
ters and erainent servants in public aft'airs,
yea, by all that offer any aervice to God, a
readineaa from love ; aoraething of thia there
ia in all that are truly hia, though held down
in raany, and almost smothered, with rub
bish ; and in these there is some raixture of
fleah drawing back. The Spirit is ready,
bui ihe flesh is weak, and a load to it, hin.
dering ita working ; and thia strife is often
found as a horse te an unskilful rider, at
once pricked with the spur, and checked with
the bridle : but where thia apirit of leve ia,
it doth prevail, and waatea that oppoaition
daily, and groweth in strength, mere quick
and ready, raore freed frora self, and acted
by the wiU of God; attaining aoraewhat
further in that conforraity with heaven, where
ahaU be no wiU atriving but His alone, where
those glorious bright spirits stand ready for
aU commands, thai excel in strength, and
employ it aU to do his commandments, Psal.
ciii. 20 ; and the more like them we be here,
the mpre Uvely hppe have we to be shortiy
with them; and to be whoUy aa they are.
VsR. 8. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying,
Whom shall I send, and who will go for us ? I'hei
said I, Here am I ; send me.
This inquiry iraports net a doubtful de.
liberation in God, but a purpose to send.

3?8

EXPOSITORY LECTURES

[lect. hi.

He is represented as a king, advising with
hiraself or council ; and thia ia by aerae con-
i-eived as an intimation of the mystery of the
Trinity, as Gen. i. 26 ; And God said, I^i
us make man in our own image. Whom
ehall I send, and who will go for us ? But
v/ere there net ready railUons of these wing
ed ineaaengera ; what need then such a werd ?
True, angels were ready, but a man was
sought ; God, vouchsaflng to send an em
bassy to men, wiU send ene that raight speak
their language te them, and raight stay and
treat with them in a famiUar friendly way,
(an ambassador in ordinary to Us stiU and
treat with them ;) and in this condescension
rauch wisdora and leve appears ; he wiU take
men subject to the like inflrraities and pol
lutions with the peeple, aa the Prophet here
acknowledges, but one purged from theae
poUutions, made holy, though not perfectly,
yet eminentiy holy. This ia very auitable,
were not men invincibly obstinate, more auit
able than that God ahould aend by angela,
that ene of themaelvea sheuld come and deal
with raen for God, and bear witneaa of thia
graciouaneaa and readineaa to forgive, ao as
to give himself for an instance of it, and say,
" I bave found hira so." And they being
changed and sanctified, show really that the
thing raay be done ; that it ia feasible to
sanctify a sinner ; and so sinful men appear
to be fitter for this service than embodied
angels. / said. Here dm I ; send me.] What
a bleaaed change on Paul caat to the ground !
hia own wiU waa broke aU to piecea, and now
he ia only for Hia aervice, whose name he so
hated, and peraecuted hia servanta ; Lord,
what wilt thou have me to do ? Acta ix.
fi ; these are the very worda and characters
of a true convert, and thus the soul tumed
to Christ may in some caaea doubt what ia
hia wiU, but that once resolved, there ia ne
deliberation whatever to do it or not. He
aaya not, if the service be honourable or pro
fitable, that ia, canying worldly credit or
profit in it, then will I do it; ne, but what
ever it is, if it be thine, and tbou appoint
me to it, here am I ; and thia makea the
meaneat work ef this station exceUent.
Then said I, here am I.] A strange
change in the Prophet, even now an undone
snan, and here preaently a ready meaaenger,
and so turned an angel. Soraething of this
most find that are truly caUed te this high
work of delivering raessages from God ;
soraetiraes a senae of poUution benuraba and
strikea thera dead, and anon again they feel the
flarae of love kindled with that coal, quicken
ing thera to auch a readineaa, and such free
ofl'era of theraaelvea to aervice, aa tP thpse
that understand nnt the reaaon of it, would
seem preauraptuoua forwardneas ; and there
may be in seme minds, at one and the same
time, a strange mixture and counterworking

of these two together ; a sense of unfitness
and unworthiness drawing back, and yet the
strength of love driving fprward, thinking
thus, " How can I, who am so filthy, so vUe,
speak of God ? yet he hath shown me mercy
how then can, I be ailent ?"
Se-nd me. ] Moses' reluctance, this same
Prophet weuld have vented too before the
touch of the coal, while he said. Wo is me,
I am undone, or strack down, as the word
may signify, cannot speak with auch unholy
Upa of 80 holy a God. laaiah criea out
of polluted lips, as Mesea complained of
stammering lips ; and this ia fit to precede,
first a senae of extreme inabUity and indig
nity, and then upon a change and call,
ready obedience. A man once undone and
dead, and then recovered, ia the only fit mes
senger for God ; in such an one love over-
cpraes all difficultiea without and within, and
in thia work np cenatraint ia he feeUng but
that of lpve, and where that ia, ne other will
be needed ; the aweet all-powerful conatraint
of love wUl aend thee aU-cheerful, though it
were through the fire or water : no water
can quench it, nor fire outbura it ; it burns
hotter than any other kindled agaihat it;
after the touch of that coal, np fprbearing,
(Jer. XX. 9, But ihis word was in my heart
as a burning fire, shut up in mybones,
and I was weary with forbearing, I could
noi stay. 1 Pet. v. 2, Feed ihe flock oJ
God which is among you, taking the over
sight thereof, net by conatraint, but willing
ly ; 710/ for filthy lucre, but of a ready
mind.) Yet he aaya, send me ; though he
had ao ardent a deaire and readiness to go,
yet he wiU not gp unsent, but humbly pffera
himself, and waita bpth fpr his ccmraiaaion
and instructiona ; and how awful are they !

LECTURE III.
Ver. 3. And he said. Go and tell this people, Hrar
ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed ,
but perceive not
Ver. 10. Make the heart of this people fat, and
make iheir ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lesl
they see with their eyes, and hear with then: ears,
and understand with their heart, and convert, and
be healed.
His message you see is most sad, and so
he is put to it, put tp the trial pf his pbe
dience, as men uaually are accprding tp the
degree pf their fitneaa. Npthing is more
aweet to a messenger, than te have geod
news to cany. Oh ! it is a blessed sweel
thing te convert souls ! But, how heavy to
harden thera by preaching 1 Yet thus it is
to raany, at sorae times, and almost general
ly to all; certainly before this much had
been heard and despised ; they had been
hardening their own hearts, and now they
shall have enough of it ; their very sin shall

VEB. 9, 10.]

ON ISAIAH VL

329

be their plague, a plague ef all othera the
moat tenible ; yet, as was said above, there
are tiraes of the height of this plague, as ef
ethers, and this was one of thoae times of
ita raging mprtality. The Prpphet did np
thing but preach, andyet they were atupified
by it ; and' indeed wherever the wprd doea
not soften and quicken, it hardens and kills ;
and the raore lively the rainistry of the word
is where it works this effect, the mere deep
ly doth it work it.
This was verified on the Jews ; though
then God's ewn people, yet it was verified-
on thera to tbe utmost ; iind this context is
often cited against thera in the New Teata-
ment, no place ao often. Se exceUent !
preacher as Isaiah, and ao weU reputed
araongat hia people, yet was sent to preach
thera bUnd, and deaf, and dead ; and tbis
same doea the goapel to moat ef many a
congregation in Scotland : and the more of
Chriat that ia apoken, the raore are unbe
lievera hardened. Isaiah, the moat evange
lical of all the Prophets, was yet brought to
that. Who hath believed our report ? Yea,
thia waa fulfiUed in the preaching of Chriat
himself; as the hotter the sun, the raere is
the clay hardened.
Go tell ihis people.] Observe the mighty
power of the word, to whatsoever it is sent ;
as it is wonderfuUy efficacious for aoftening,
melting, reducing to God ; so, if it be sent
to harden, to seal to judgment, te bring in
and hasten it; and therefore spoke of, as
effecting the things it speaks ; aa in Jer.
10, " See, I have thia day aet thee over the
nationa, and ever the kingdoras, to root out,
and to pull down, and to destroy, and to
threw down, to build and te plant :" Ezek,
xliii. 3, " And it waa according to the ap
pearance of the vision, which I aaw when I
came to deatroy the city :" Hoaea vi. 5,
" Therefore have I hewed them by the pro
pheta ; I have alain them by the worda ef my
mouth." Therefore despise it not, spiritual
judgments are the heaviest of aU ; though
least felt for a time, yet they stick closest,
and prove saddeat in the end : the not feeUng
is a great part of the plague ; in this is the
nature and malignity of the disease, that it
takes away the sight and aenae of other
thinga, and of itaelf. The plague ia a dia-
eaae aeizing on the apirita, and therefore ia
BO dangerous ; but tbis only seizes en the
spirit ef the raind ; and is any thing
dreadful ? Oh ! any plague but that ef the
heart. People think it a good thing not to
feel the word, not to be troubled : well, aa
they love thia, they are filled with it, arid
shall have enough of it : so in self-love, sui
amator sibi dat. Ged is righteous and pure
in this : there are raany vain cavils about hia
weiking on the heart te harden, which arise
from an ignorant, low conceit of God, as of

account. We ought rather to tremble be
fore hira ; he doth no iniquity ; and we
shall be forced to confess it. Many ways
of his are obscure, but none are unjust.
Find we not this people sit under the sound,
and are many ef them as if absent, as if they
had never beard auch thinga spoke of? so
grossly ignorant ef aU these ; hearing hear,
but understand not : others are yet worae ;
they get a kind of knowledge, but it ia dead,
and works nothing : these see, and yet per
ceive not, and know not even what they
know ; most are of thia aort, and tbey are of
all others the worst to convince. When they
are told of Christ, and forgiveneaa of sins,
and are entreated to believe the.se mysteries,
they cry out, Oh ! we de, we know them,
and can anawer, if you aak ua, what these
doctrines are. But the heart ia not changed,
no ain is forsaken, ne atudy of holineaa, ne
flame ef love. Thia net perceiving ia the
great j udgraent of thia land, thia tbe great
cause ef lamentation, tbat Christ ia ao much
known, and yet ao little : people do net think
whither it tenda, and what the iraportance or
thia raeaaage is ; they hear it as a passing
tale, or, at the beat, as for the present, a
pleaaing sound, a lovely song, Ezek. xxxiii.
32 ; and if by an able rainister, sung by a good
voice, but no irapreaaion ia raade, it diea out
in the air, it entera net into their hearta to
quicken thera, and so their evil is the raore
deadly ! Oh ! bemoan this, beg the removal
of it above all judgraents, and the sending
forth of that Spirit, that causes the mountains
to flow down, Isa. Ixiv. 1. Many of you, ray
brethren, may be under aoraewhat of thia, aa
there are divera degreea of it, ere it come to
be incurable : Oh 1 pray to be delivered,
leat it grow ao far that it be in vain to bid
yeu do so. Better to be caat into extrerae
tenora for a tirae, than to continue thua ;
better to fall into a fever than into this le
thargy, which makes you sleep te death.
Convert, and be healed.] Theae two go
together ; aU raiseries are healed, and grace
and favour flow forth, when ence the soul is
stined up to aeek after God, and turn in to
hira ; other couraea of healing pubUc or pri
vate evils, are but mountebank cures, tbat
vex and torment, aa unapt phyaic doea, and
do no good, yea, make thinga worse than be
fore ; Hosea v. 13, When Ephraim saw
his sickness, and Judah his wound ; then
went Ephraim io the Assyrian, and 'sent
to King Jareb, yet could he not heal you,
nor cure you of your wound ; compared with
chap. vi. ver. 1, Come and let us return
unto the Lord, for he haih torn, and he
will heal us ; he hath smitten, and he will
bind us up.
There is much in a custom of fruitless
hearing to stupify and raake hard ; to make
men sennon-proof ; and the hearing of the

E dependent being, er tied to laws, or te give | most exceUent, hardens most, both agaiust

330

EXPOSITORY LECTURES

[lect. in.

tiiem, and against all pthera that are their in-
feriprs ; fpr, being accuatomed to hear the
moat moving atrains, unmoved, makea thera
acorn, and eaaily beat back, that which ia leaa
preaaing. A largely endued, and very apiritual
rainiater, ia either pne ofthe higheat blessings,
or heaviest curses, that can ceme upon a peeple.
Hearing hear,] This even the minis
ters themselves may faU under : speakers may
have no eara ; aa the Italiana aay ef preach
era, they de not hear their own voice : they
may grew hard, by custora of speaking of
divine things, without divine affection ; so
that nothing themselves, or othera, say, can
work on thera : hence it'is that ao few formal,
dead miniatera are converted, that one said,
s'aro vidi clericum pcenitentem ; se hardened
are they against the raeans of conviction, in
which they have been se long conversant, and
not converted by them. They have been
Bpeaking ao often of Heaven and HeU, and of
Jesus Christ, and feeling nothing of thera,
that the words have lost their power, and they
are grpwn hard as the skin pf leviathan, es
teeming iron as straw, and brass as rotten
wood. And this, by tbe way, beside that
God's dispensation is so fixed, raay be a rea
son why that sin, raentioned in the sixth of
the Hebrews, is unpardonable : it is, in the
nature of things, and witheut sucb a rairacle
as God will not exert, impossible, that they,
who have stood out such things in vain,
should be renewed: this sheuld raake us,
that are rainisters especiaUy, te trerable at
an unholy life, or at the thought of decUning
frora those ways of religion, of which we have
known so rauch, and for which we have so
many means of improveraent.
Ver. 11. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he
answered, Until the cities be wasted without in
habitants, and the houses without man, and the
land be utterly desolate :
Vbr, 12. And the Lord hath removed men far
away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst
ofthe land.
New this judgraent, fastening, was sure to
draw en aU other judgraents ; therefore the
Prophet, touched with compassion, inquires,
How long ? and receives a very sad answer.
Until the cities be wasted. God is sove
reignly free in this ; but usuaUy he keeps
that course, that long centinued and spared
sinning raakes long centinued calamities when
they come : judgmenta, as the ancients
thought comets tp be, are as lasting aa the
matter is they are kindled with ; and, truly,
upon this account, we may justly apprehend
that our troubles are but just beginning, ra
ther than near their end ; yet repentance
might prevail for the shortening them ; these
sweet showers soonest lay the stormy winda.
And this consideration raay have sorae
thing hopeful in it, that in these latter tiraes,
things move something mere apeedily, as na
tural motions do towards their end ; for a
short work will God mike upon the earth.

as the Apoatle'a word ia ; and we see, in onr
particular straita that were greatest, that the
Lord hath made them short even beyond eur
expectation ; and what remains is in hia
hand. I trust he wUl hasten the defeat of
the plots, and power of his enemies ; and
doubt net all the late and present commo
tions of theae poor kingdoras, are the birth
pangs of a happy deliverance and peace ; and,
when they grew thickest, it is nearest the birth.
'How long ?] Observe the compassion of
the messengers ef Ged, net desiring the evil
day, but raourning for it, pitying those they
denounce judgraent against, and melting for
those they harden.
Till the cities be wasted.] This inti
mates there would be no relenting under aU
these judgraents, but that these, aa weU af
the word, and together with it, would har
den thera raere, tiU they were almoat quite
consumed ; and this usual ; men think it
would be otherwise ; but it ia found, times of
great plagues and judgments are no times
of great conversion ; but men are more har.
dened beth against word and rod ; their
spirits grew stiff and obdured in a kind of
desperation ; but mercy, coming as the
spring sunshine, moUifiea and diaaolvea, and
raakes fruitful : therefore, auch a day is to be
longed for. I suspect we shaU not aee much
done by the gospel tiU then : and before that,
we may auffer yet more diamal things, and be
waated with peatilence, aword, and faraine ;
yet there ia comfort in this, the Lord wiU
not make a fuU end of ua ; a tenth shaU be
left ; and if not we, yet at least our poaterity,
ahall reap the aweet fruits of our bitter cala.
mities, that are the juat fruita of eur iniquities.
Ver. 13. But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it
shall return, aud shall be eaten ; as a teil-tree, and
as an oak, whose substance is in them when they
cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the sub
stance thereof.
There is stiU a remnant holy to God, the
preservers of a land frora utter ruin. Pro
fane persons despise the children of God, and
knew not that they are beholden to them for
the subsistence of the land, and of the world ;
they are aa thoae oaks whose roots did bear,
up the earth ef that highway, that went be
tween the king's houae and tlie temple, aa the
reaemblance ia taken by aorae.
In judgments, the Lord reraerabers that ;
Destroy it not, there is a blessing in it.
As for the personal condition of beUevers,
there raay be a great decay ; a winter visage
may be upon it ; but yet the holy seed abid.
eth in them, and is their stabUity ; and
atill that word ia true that is bonowed hence,
semen sanctum, statumen terrce ; '^ the
holy seed, the subaiatence or estabUahment
of the earth." When their number is com
pleted, tirae shaU end, and this viaible world
ahall he set on fire ; and this day ia hastening
forward, though raost of us think but little,
if at all. of it.

EXPOSITORY LECTURE

ROMANS XII. 3—] 2.

Ver. 3. For I say, through the grace given.unto
me, to every nian that is among you, not to
think of himself more highly than he ought to
think ; but to think soberly, according as God
hath dealt to every man the measure of faith-
Besides the coraraon word of edification
implying it, we find often, in the Scriptures,
teaching corapared to building ; and, a-
mongst ether thinga, the reserablance holds
in this, that in both, of necessity, there is a
foundation first to be laid, and then the
structure to be raised upon it. He that gives
rules of life, without n. ; fixing principles of
faith, offers preposterously at building a
house without laying a foundation ; and he
that instructs what to believe, and directa
not withal a beUever how to live, doth in
vain lay a foundation, without foUowing out
the building ; but tbe Apostles were not so
foolish builders, as te sever these .wo in
ilieir labours in the church. In this epistie
we find our Apostle exceUendy acquitting
hiraaelf in both theae. He firat largely and
firraly lays the ground-work, in the foregoing
part of the epiatle, now he adda exhortationa
and directiona touching the particular dutiea
of Chriatiana.
The firat thing, certainly, to be done with
a aoul is to convince it of ain and death, then
tp addresa and lead it into Chriat, our
righteouaneaa and life : thia done, it ahould
' be taught to fellow hira : thia ia Chriatianity,
io live in Christ, and to live to Christ ; to
live in him by faith, and to Uve- to him in
hoUneas ; these our Apostie joined iu his
doctrine, chap. viii. 1, There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after ihe Spirit.
The exhertation, that begins this chap.
t£t, bath in it the whole sum of Christian

obedience, fitly expresaed, and strongly urg.
ed ; and in that are aU particular rulea com.
prised. But because of pur ignprance and pur
slpth, we do not always readily draw forth
particulara from theae comprcliensive general
ralea wherein they lie : we need therefore to
be aaaiated in thia ; and to thia the Scriptures
deacend, particularly the Aposties, in their
episties, and that uauaUy in the latter part
of thera ; and this is a main part of our duty
in preaching the word, often to represent
these rules to you, not ao much that you may
understand them better, though aomewhat
of this likewiae raay be needful aa that you
may remeraber them, and eye them more,
and walk accprding tp thera ; and there is np
rapre in theae thinga truly knpwn, than what
ia knewn after tbis raanner. I have endea.
veured, in the courae of my teaching, to -
reach this end ; my design, and I hope yours
Ukewise, hath been, net to paaa se much tirae,
ner to pass it with empty deUght, which in
other things might be done at an easy rate,
but that yeu be reaUy built up heavenwards,
and increaae with the increaae ofGod; that the
trath and pewer ef Christianity may possess
ourhearts, and grow there, and maybe evident
in our lives, to the glory of our Lord Jesus.
We shall endeavour tp lay befpre ypu the
particular graces that are the cmaments of
Christians ; and this, npt that ypu raay lppk
pn them simply, and couimend thera, but
may pursue them, and be clothed with thera,
and then they will be much more coraely and
coramendable; as a robe ef rich apparel, if if
seem fine while it hangs er Ues by, it appear
far better when it is put on.
The rules the Apoade is to give, he pre.
I faces thua. For I tay, through the grace

332

EXPOSITORY LECTURES

[VEH. 3.

given to me, I speak aa the Meaaenger or
Apoatle of Chriat, according to that knpw
ledge and experience that he hath given rae
of theae thinga ; and ao take it, as from one
that hath sorae interest in, and ahare ef, these
graces I recoraraend to you : and this, indeed,
raakes recommendationa cany horae. Oh 1
that we could truly aay this. Alaa ! it is an
uncorafortable, and coraraonly an unprofita-
ble thing te apeak of Christ, and the gracea
of hia Spirit, only as having heard pf them,
pr read ef them, aa raen that travel, in their
atudiea, de ef foreign countriea.
Aix ns x'^S'-^'i- '-fUe Apoatle represents
this, to add the more authority, and gain
the more acceptance, to what he had te say :
and for this end, aome care ia te be had ef
the good opinion of people, ao far as their
interest is concemed, that the message we
bring be net prejudged ; otherwise, this
truly set aside, it were Uttle matter how we
were mistaken or despised : yea, it were a
thing aerae way desirable : only provided
nething be done on purpose, that may juat
ly, yea, or that may probably, procure it : for
that both piety and charity forbid.
To every man.] This is more presaing
than if he had aaid aimply, to you, or gene
raUy, io you all ; fer in men's talking of
things it proves often too true, quod omnibus,
nemini : but to every one, that each one
auppoae it spoke to hira', as an ingenious
picture, lopking tp each in the room. Thus
we ought to speak, and thus we ought to
hear. We to speak, not as telUng aome
unconcerning atories, but as having buaineas
with you ; and yeu to hear, net each for an-
other, as yeu eften do, " Oh ! such a pas-
sige touched such an one," but each for
ourselves. The firat particular the Apoatle recom-
raends is, that gracing grace of huraiUty, the
omaraent and the safety of aU ether graces.
and what is so pecuUarly Christian. Sorae
what philosophers speak of teraperance, jua
tice, and other like virtues, but these rather
to blow up and sweU the raind with big con
ceit and confidence of itself, than to dweU
together with aelf-abaaeraent and humUity :
but in the a'chopl cf Chriat, the firat leaapn
pf all ia, self-denial and humility ; yea, it
ia written ahove the door, as the rule ef entry
er adraission, Learn of me, for I am meek
and lowly of heart, Matth. xi. 29. And
out ef all question, that is truly the hurablest
heart that hath raost ef Christ in it.
Not to think highly.] Not aspfring and
intending in thinga too high : and a great
point of humility is aubjection to Ged in
the point of knowledge : in this waa our firat
cUmbirig that proved our faU : and yet still,
araidat aU our ignorance and darkneaa, we
are catching and gaping after the deadly fruit
of unaUowed knowledge.
Tliis, withal, bath in it the atterapering

of our thoughta and practices to our raeaaure
and station ; to know ourselves truly and
thoroughly ; for that will certainly beget a
very low esteera of ourselveSj to judge our
selves the unworthiest and meaneat. of aU.
And having truly this estimate ef our
selves, we shall not vainly atterapt any thing
above our reach, nor disdainfuUy neglect any
thing that is within the corapass of our caU.
ing and duty, which are the two evUs so com.
men among men, yea, even araongst Chris.
tians, and in the Church of God, and are
the cause of raost ef the enerraities and dis.
orders th.at faU out in it ; it is a strange
blindness, that they that do gros6ly;mi6carry
inthe duties of their own station, yet so readily
fancy themselves capable of spmewhat high.
er, and think theraselves wrpnged if it be
refused thera.
The self-knewing Chriatian wpuld rather
descend, and find hiraself very dispropor.
tioned to the present station, be it never so -
mean ; he can say with David, Lord, my
heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty ;
neither do I exercise myself in great
matters, or in things too high for me, Psal.
cxxxi. 1. But vain minds would stiU be
tarapering with the greatest affafrs, and dwell
not with themselves. Oh ! ray brethren, be
entreated to study your hearts better, be less
abroad in things that concern you not ; there
is work enough within you ; heaps of base
lusts, and Self-deceits, and follies that you
see npt yet ; and raany advantages ef good
things you seera to see in yourselves, that
indeed are net there : self-love is a fiattering
glass, which represents us to ourselves much
fairer than we are ; therefore, turn from it,
if you deaire a true account of yourselves,
and leok into the pure and faithful mirror of
God'a law. Oh ! what deformitiea will that
diacover, tbat you never saw nor thought of
before, and wiU make you the loweat of aU
peraona in your ewn eyea.
The low self-esteem doth not whoUy take
away the aimple knowledge of what gifta and
gracea Gpd hath beatpwed pn a man ; fpr
that were tp make hira bpth unthankful and
unuaeful. He that dpth npt knpw what
Gpd hath freely given him, cannot retum
praise to God, ner raake use of himaelf for
God in his station ;• yea, the Apoatie'a
caution intimates a sober, humble reflection
on the measure God hath given a raan, which
he not only aUows but requires : and him
self gives exaraple of it in his own present
expression, declaring, that he speaks these
things through ihe grace that is given to
hira. But this knowledge of a raan's own gifts
and graces, that it raay not prejudge him of
more, but help hira te more, in the humble
acknowledgraent and uae of what he hath,
wpuld have theae twp qualificationa : 1. That
• Qui se nescit, nescit se ut!.

VEtt. 3.]

ON ROMANS XIL

333

he beware of over-weening, rather that he
take his measure rauch below, than any whit
beyond, what he truly hath. 2. That what
soever it is, tbat he always look on it r.p^as
his pwn, but as God's, having bis superscrip.
tion pn it, and all the glpry of it being his
pecuUar tribute ; nothing of tiiat to be inter
rupted or retained : Nol unto us, Lord ;
not unto us, but unto thy name give glory,
Psal. cxv. I, still all the glery entirely aent
up to hira ; thus, here, the Apostle sets aU
grace in that view, as God hath dispensed
the measure ; and so speaks of his pwn
through the grace -given to me ; stiU sp to
be looked on, not aa that we have, but that
he hath given ; that is the gospelatyle ; grace,
free gifts, x^^'^t ^x^ifffixra ; whereas philo
sophy spealts of all as habits, er havings, or
poaaessiona. Now, in that relative,' dependent netipn
pf freely given, a raan shaU never be puffed
up by any endpwraents, though he see and
know thera ; yea,' the raore he knows them
thua, will be the more humble atiU, aa being
the raore obliged. The more he hath re
ceived, the greater they are ; the lower he
'jowa, preaaed down under the weight of his
engagements to God ; aa Abraham, Gen.
xvii. 3, fell on his face, when God talked
with him, and made ao rich promises to
him. See David's strain, 1 Chron. xxix,
14, But who am I, and what is my people,
ihat we should be able io offer so willingly
after ihis sort ? for all things come of ihee,
and of thine own have we given ihee. Thus,
the Apostle gives, as the aovereign preven
tive againat the awelling poiaon ef aelf-con
ceit, What hast thou that thou didst not
receive ? 1 Cor. iv. 7.
He that is thus regulated in his ewn es
teem, wUl by this certainly be moderated in
his desire of eateem from othera, and cannot
weU meet with any thing that way, that
will either puff hira up, er caat him down ;
if over-prized by others, he takea that aa
their miatake ; if undervalued, he rejoicea
in that, having set himself so low in hiraaelf,
tiiat others caimot weU set him lower ; so
when men account meanly of him, they are
reaUy pf his ewn opinion ; and you know
that.offenda none, but pleasea them rather,
to have othera agree with their opinions, and
be of their mind.
They that are buay after reputation, and
would be eateeraed, are but begging voices ;
weuld have others think with thera, and con
firra the conclusion they have abeady resolv
ed on, in favpur pf themselves ; and this is
a most fooUsh thing, fer disapppinted in
this, men are discpntented, and sp their
peace hangs pn others' fanciea ; and if satis
fied with it, they surfeit and undp themselves
with the delight pf it. Bees spraetiraes kiU
tliemselves with their pwn hpney ; and there
is such a word to this purpose. Prov. xxv. I

27, It is not good to eat much honey ; so for
men to search their own glory, is not glory.
Ver. 4, 5. For as we have many members in one
body, and all members have not the samo office ;
so we, being many, are but one body in Christ,
and every one members one of another.
In this consideration we have God's wis
dora raanifested, and are instructed what is
our wiadora. He, in the great world, made
aU in weight, number, and measure ; ao in
the lesser worid, man, and in the new world
his Church, he proportions all to the use he
hath designed them for. He could give
more to thera that bave least, than the very
greatest have, but he thought this unfit ; it
niight be sorae advantage to them, yet to the
whole body not so ; and therefore not truly so
to them neither, being parts of it, and having
their good involved in the good of the body.
This resemblance is often used in Scrip
ture, and holds exceUently well, but is Uttie
leamed. Our temper and caniage conespond
not to it. Who is there almost that finds it,
the Spirit ef Chriat in them, knitting them
to hira aa the coraraon head, and one to an
other, aa one in hira, each busy to advance
him, and to aeek hia glory, and to promote
the good of one another ? But alaa ! rather
each for aelf, accursed self, as of an indepen
dent divided substance ; yea, worae, hating
and tearing orie another ; a raonatroua sight,
as if ene limb of the sarae bedy should be
pulUng another te pieces. It signifies littie
to tell raen what mutual tendemess is in
nature ; that for a thom in the fopt the back
bpws, the head steeps, the eyes look, the
hands feel, and seek it, and puU it out.'
Christians are still so rigid, so unchristian to
each other, they drive one another with the
thom sticking in, forcing their brethren to
ways against the persuasions of their con
sciences. In the following verses, viz. 6, 7, 8, we
have a specification pf divers pffices, and the
duties of them ; the due observance of which
is the peace and growth of the Church, makes
aU go on sweetly and fruitftJly : but men
are either presumptuously pr preppsterously
busy out of their own station, or slothfuUy
negligent in it ; and both these, inatead of
edifying, are discomposing imd destroying
things. '
Not to insist on the distinction of officea,
it is evident, in aU enumerations ef this kind,
the same werd sometimes means divers things,
and divers words the sarae thing, as ministry
raay comprise aU, though spraetiraes pecuUar
tp deaccns, spiriethnes taken fpr teachers pr
pastprs : here it is general, and the particulars
following distribute it ; some are to teach,
which is doctorial ; sorae to exhort, which
is more pastoral ; some are to give, which is
proper to deacons ; some have their whole
* Spuiam calcat pes, die Avo,

334

EXPOSITORY LECTURE

[ver. 9.

charge to rule, as elders : sorae are particu
larly for attendance on the sick.
But in all, fideUty and sedulity are requi
site : how high soever raen are placed, if
they are unfaithful, the higher judgraent
awaits them ; how lew aoever, if thpu be
sincere and atudipua pf thy duty, thpu ahalt
sustain no loss by thy low station, but rather
thy faithfulness wiU be the more set off by
it ; he ihat is faithful in little shall be made
ruler over muoh. Oh ! that we were more
eat up with zeal of eur Lord's House, and
winning of souls, when he deputes to that.
Oh ! that they that rale, would study more
rule of thefr own housea, that shaU go before,
and your own hearts, that should be first of
all. Alas ! how shaU raen, whose passions
and lusts rule them, well rule the house of
God ? Be afraid and wise, ye that are caUed
to that, and know at length what is so gener
ally either unknown or unconsidered, the ex
emplary holiness required in your peraena,
and the diligent watchfulneaa over the flock of
God, There are many debatea, and teooblea,
and pains, about these our Uberties, but Uttle
diligence in the use of them ; congregations
- are atiU as fuU of impiety and profaneness as
ever. Oh I take heed, lest we thua forfeit
thera after aU they have coat, and provoke
God to bereave ua of thera. Men are buay
that we know are not frienda to the Church
of God ; but oh ! that we were raore careful
CO be in good terma with hira : If he befor
us, who can be against us ? It ia no raatter
who be, he ia toe wiae and too atrong for
them aU.
Ver. 9. Let love he without dissimulation. Abhor
that which is evil, cleave to that which is good.
The whole aura of the law is love ; love
to God, and love te man, these two contain
aU, and the forraer of the two contains the
latter : love to God is the only true principle
and spring of aU due leve to man ; and aU
love that begins there, retums thither like
wise, and enda there.
The engaging the whole raind and soul
to the love of God, does not engross it ao,
that there ahould be no kind of love cera-
raunicable to raan ; on the contrary, it is to
refine it, that it raay flow forth the purer and
better. AU love should be once called in to
God, to be subUraated and purified there,
and then aet in ita right channel and raotion,
so aa raan be loved in hira and for hira ; not
to irapafr our love to hira, but indeed to ex
tend and act it aa he aUowa ; and ao to love
man is to love God, that love taking its rise
frora hira, and terrainating in him ; and in
this circle is the proper motion of celestial
divine love.
The duty, then, here meant and coraraand
ed, is this, that we love one another ; and
our love must be thua qualified, it must be
uiiliypocritical and sincere ; such aa, though I

it may conaist with, yet doth not whoUy con
sist in, civilities of expression and beh.iviour,
but a real benevolence ef soul, and good will
to^U ; a love, disposing readily to forgive
evil, and dp gppd uppn aU pccasiens.
Yet this is not such a tendemess of com.
placency, as to partake with any in any evil
ways ; Oh ! ne ; abhorring ihat which is
e'vil, flying frem it with indignation, with a
kind of antipathy. And thus it will be ftom
the new nature in a Chriatian, the holy apirit
of Chriat, which cannot endure the unholi.
neaa or impurity of the wprld, but is chased
away, as dpves with npisprae smeUs, pr bees
with srap^e ; this delicacy pf spirit prpfane
raen laugh at, as a weak, fpplish meanness ;
but, fpels as they are, they knew not that it
ariaes from that higheat wisdom which is
from above, which indeed is peaceable, but
first is pure, and can admit of no peace nor
agreeraent with any peraena or things that
are impure ; thia is to be Uke tbe dl.wise
God, with whom wickedness cannot dwell ;
his pure eyes cannot pleasantly behold anji
iniquity. Oh 1 much ef the leve^of God would work
raore hatred of sin ; but if thy hatred of evil
be right, know, it wiU begin at home, as we
feel aversions and abhenences most when the
thinga are nearest us. It is not the upright
nature of h61iness to hate sin in others, and
to hug it, or spare it in thyself, either the
aarae kind of sin, or any pther ; fpr if tbii
abhpnence be right, it is against aU sin, the
whple, as natural cpntrarieties are, and it is
most against it, when nearest in thyaelf; it
is the true divine fire of zeal, kindled by the
love of God, that bums up sin, but first that
which is nearest it, as a fire in the hearth
does, and so reaches what is further off. But
if thy zeal fly most abroad upen others, it is
an unruly, disordered wild.fire, cracking and
aquibbing up and down, good for nothing but
to aet housea and tpwna on flre.
Cleave to ihat which is good.] Thia ex
preaaea a vehement and inaeparable affection ;
loving and jejeicing in all the gppd thou
seeat in ethers ; deairing and aeeking after
all the good thou canat attain unto thyself ;
and raore pleased with the society ef godly
persons than any other ; such aa wiU put
thee and keep thee moat in mind of thy home,
and the way thither, and admonish and reduce
thee frem any declining steps ; their reproofs
are more sweet to thee, and the laughter and
flattery of profane men, aa one said to his
raaster, " Thou shalt find no staff hard
enough te beat rae frora thee." • Though
they seem harah to thee, yet wilt thou say.
Let ihe righteous smite me, it shall be a
kindness, Paal. cxli. 5 ; and ne opposition
will drive thee from the trath of God, and
his waya, whicii are only good, if thy heart
be once glued by love and faatened to them ;
* 'OtiK TO lv\ov lii^^ff-iie, &C.

VEH, 10.]

ON ROMANS XII.

335

yea, thou wilt cleave the cloaer to it, the raere
tbou art peraecuted for the truth ; and the
more thou auffereat for it, wilt love it the
better : the word that is uaed in raaniage.
of the huaband cleaving tP the wife, holda
true in the soul once raanied to that which
is good ; aU violence will be too weak tp
sever thee. Leam tp know what this is that
is truly good, te know the exceUency and
sweetness of holineaa, and it will be impea
aible to part thy affection frora it ; but thia
is the reason why men are so soon shaken,
and the slender hold they have reraoved, the
superfices ef the soul only is tied to the out
side of religion, by seme external relations
and engagements, and those are a running
knot, that easily slip's. Few receive the
truth in ihe love of it, and have their hearts
united to Jeaua Christ, who ia indeed aU that
good we have te seek after, and to cleave te.
Ver. 10. Be kindly affectioned one to another with
brotherly love ; in honour prefen-ing one another.
Now, in this way of holy spiritual affec
tion, seeking the true good one of another,
be kind in brotherly love, net upon design
or particular interest, but^ by a natural pro-
pension ; auch aa in creatures to their young ;
such a tendemess aa ia araongat men of near
eat relations, parents, and children, and bre
thren ; and knew that yeu are indeed brethren
of the highest birth and parentage ; and so,
beyond aU brethren, Chriatiana are obliged
to love one another : alas I .that in them,
likewise, it should prove so unhappily true,
that the love of brethren is rare • ; that they
shpuld be ap hardly drawn tp acts ef love,
and so easily stirred to fits of anger and bit
terness, one tewards another. &ly beloved,
are we Chriatiana ? Oh ! where is the spirit
of Christ ? Where tbat great law of hia,
that badge of hia foUowers, Love one an
other ! that by which the Christiana of the
first times astonished the Pagans about them ?
Yea, thefr very enemiea and peraecutors were
amazed at it. It were well, and would be
ene considerable gain by our enemiea, if their
combinations and raaUce against the godly
raight drive them close together, and unite
them raore~to one another in love.
In honour preferring one another. Y
Putting all possible respect on one another ;
this is not in cereraony or corapUraent,
though these civiUties, tbat are due, and
done witheut feignedness or affectipn, are npt
disaUpwed, yea, are, I cpnceive, included ;
but in matter of real esteera, each preferring
one another : fer though a man raay see the
weakness of those he converses with, yet
passing, and what he can, covering these, he
ought to take notice of what is good. All
have soraething commendable, and none hath
aU ; so the meanest raay in soraething be
preferable to the highest ; and Christiaii hu-
• Fratrum quoque gratia rara est.

mility and charity wiU seek out for, and eapy
that, and fpr it put aU respect uppn them,
that their quaUty and statipn is able tp bear ;
and in this, pne shpuld prevent anether, and
strive who shaU do mpst in this kind, as a
good and happy contention.
And the source of this is love to God, that
so mortifies the heart te aU outward advan
tages, that, further than a man is tied by
place and calling, he would net receive,
rauch less desire, any kind of respect from
any, but had rather be slighted and disre
garded; What cares a soul, enarapured with
the glpry tp cprae, for the vain passing air of
preference and honour here ? That it can
eaaily bate to any, and, so far as a raan has
any power of it, woidd put it upon others,
far rather than own it hiraself; such an one
can sweetly please hiraself in being the
meanest in all cpmpanies where he cpraes,
and passing for such ; and he is glad of respect
done to othera, stiU looking horaeward, where
there ia ne prejudging one another at aU,
but perfect unenvying, and unenvied glory.
Glory here ia to be shunned rather than pur
sued : and, if it wiU foUow, yet it ia leaa to
be regarded than thy ahadow. Oh ! how
light and vaniahing ia it, and even things
raere solid than it ; ihe fashion of this
world passeth away, 1 Cor. vii. 31.
Ver. 11. Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit,
serving tlie Lord.
Not slothful in business.] These con
densed rules have rauch in thera ; and this
is very needful, for often a listless indisposed
weariness overtakes even good men ; , seeing
se Uttle te be dene te any purpose, they are
alraoat ready to give ever aU; yetthey ought
to bestir theraselves, and apply to diligence
in their place, not unduly atickling and buay
in things improper, but inclosing thy dili
gence within thy aphere. Suffer it not to
stand, but keep it there in raotion ; as to
thy worldly affaira, be so diUgent aa to give
them good diapateh, when thou art about
thera, but have thy heart aa little in thera,
as rauch disengaged, as raay be : yet so ac
quitting thera wiaely, tiiey shaU trouble thee
the less, when thou art in higher and better
eraployraents. As to thyself, be often ex
amining thy heart and ways, striving con
stantiy against sin ; though little sensible
advantage be gained, yet if thpu yield, it
wiU be werse. If it prevail sp rauch amidst
all thy ppppsitipn, what wpuld it de if theu
ahpuldst sit stUl ! Use all hply means, hpv/
fruitless spever they seem for the present,
and wait on God. We have toiled all
night, said Simon, and taken nothing,
Luke V. 5, and yet at his' coramand, essay..
ing again, they took more at once, than
if, after their ordinary way, they had been
taking aU night. So as to ethers, give not
up because theu seest no present success.

336

EXPOSITORY LECTURES

[VEtt. 12.

but, in thy place, admonish, exhort, and
rebuke, with all meekness and patience.
Doth God wait on sinners, and wilt not thou
wait a Uttle fer others ?
Fervent in spirit.] Beware of a fretful
impatience ; that ia a fretful distempered
heat, as that of a fever, that makes a man
unfit for work ; and raen commonly in this
break away from their business : but much
healthful natural heat makes a man strong,
and able to endure labour, and continue in
it. This ia the thing here recoraraended.
Te be ao hot and fervent in spirit is a great
advantage : it ia the very strength ef the
aoul in all eraployraenta : much love to God,
and deaire of hia glory ; thia ia the heat that
will not weary, wiU cheerfuUy go through
' aU diacourageraenta ; many waters will not
quench ii. Thia fervour of spirit, wrought
by the Spirit of God, doth clearly difference
itself frora that inordinate heat of our spirita,
which may sometiraes either act alone, or
mingle itself with the other in the beat cauaea
and affairs. That holy fervour ia compoaed
and regular in working, runs net headily to
imadviaed or diaorderly waya ; it is a sweet
deUghtful heat, not painful and vexing as
the other ; it carriea en to duty, and is net
disturbed abeut events.
Serving the Lord.] Some copies have
it, serving the time ; which though it may
bear a fair construction, of taking present
occaaiona of geod, and being uaeful in eur
generation, and accommodating ouraelves in
aU lawful things to tiraes and peraona, for
their good, aa pur Apostle became all things
to all, to win some : yet this kind of exprea
aion not being found elaewhere in Scripture,
and the moat copiea having it aa we read it,
and sorae miatake of letters in transcribers
seeming to have occasioned it, it ia much
rather to be taken as in eur version.
But, out of aU question, some do foUow
that mistaken reading in ita worat aenae ;
inatead of serving the Lord, serving the
times : and this sorae, even in evil wavs ;
others, in waya that are good ; yet foUowrag
upon truat, and coraplying, though unwiU
ingly, becauae the times cany thinga ao ;
but where tiraea change to the worae, theae
men are discovered ; for atiU they serve their
master, the timea, and their own advantage
in them ; which way soever that goea th ey
foUow ; ae that their foUowing the better
side, in better timea, ia but accidental.
But this serving the Lord is more even
and lasting ; aerving him atiU in aU timea,
doing aU for him, having no aira but his
glory ; such a heart cannot be diverted frora
ita course, by any counter-blast of tiraes.
Would yen be stedfast in tiraes of ap
proaching trial, seek hearts acquainted with
God, and fixed on hira ; for others will be
shaken ; but such will follow hira through all
hazards, and fear no ill while he is with tJ.cm.

Veu. 12. Rejoicing in hope,] Oh I thia
we seldom do. When are pur hearts aa
tranaported with the bleaaed hope of our
inheritance? Thia weuld make ua what
foUowa -
Patient in tribulation.] Peeple wpulj
hear rauch pf thia, pf preparing for Buffer
ing ; there raay be a diateraper iji deafring
to hear and apeak ao rauch of that. What
though nials be coraing, aa it ia likely they
are, we should account too rauch of our
selves, and this present world, to dwell ex
pressly on that subject. We see the Apostles
do not so, though they lived and wrote in
times of ether sort ef persecution than we
have yet seen ; and they, to whom the
Apostle here writes, lived where it was raost
violent and potent, and yet they spend not
aU en this ; sorae brief words of it, inter.
spersed with the discpurse, thrpwn as it were
intp a parenthesis : but stiU the raain is, the
doctrine pf faith and rules ef hoUness ; and
these are indeed the great fumiture for all
sufferings ; I knew no other. To see rauch
the exceUency and worth of Jesus Christ,
the riches of onr hope in hira, te have these
in our view, much in our hearts and in our.
mouths ; these drown aU the Uttle fears of
present things. See how, in paaaing, our
Apoatle apeaks, aa it were in a slighting
way, ef all aufferings for hira : I have caat it
up, aaya he ; and / reckon ihat the suffer
ings of this present time (of ihis now) are
not worthy to be compared to ihe glory
which shall be revealed in us.
Again, the ether thing ia the riJea of ho-
Unesa : theae powerfuUy enable for suffering
any thing, rather than unholiness ; the aick.
neaa of the soul, these cpnupt hurapura of
sin, make it crazy, ao that it can endure no
bla,sta ef afr ; but wben it ia purged and free
from theae, and in coraraunion with God in
his ways, tben it is healthful and strong ;
and so is able to endure any thing. The raor
tifying of our affections to the werld, that is
it that enablea for suffering. Whither
reaches the cruelty ef man, but to thy goods,
er body ? and what makes any faint, but an
over-eateem of theae, by which they are fill
ed with desires to preserve, and fears to lose
them ? New, when the heart is disengaged
from these, and hath taken up in God, is
rich and content in hira, it stands not so
much to the courtesy of any ; let them take
the rest ; it suffers with joy the spoiling of
goods, having in Heaven a more enduring'
substance, Heb. a. 34. And for the ut
most, killing them, they look on it as the
highest favour ; it is to them but the mak-
ing a hole for thera in their prison-waU to
get out at. Therefere, I say, there is no
thing doth so fit for all encounters, as to be
rauch instructed in that which is the sub-
stance pf Chriatianity, hearts purified, am!
lives hplily and spiritually regulated. In a

VKU. 12. J

ON ROMANS xn.

337

wprd, much study pf Christ, and rauch study
of thyself, fpr aught I knpw, are the wisest
tnd strprigest preparatives for aU possible
sufferings. How sweetiy can the soul retire irito him,
and repose in hira, in the greatest storms !
I know nething that can much dismay him
that can beUeve and pray*. That you see is
added. Continuing instant in prayer.] If
afraid of iaintihg, yea, if at the point of
fainting, this revives the soul, draws in no
* Nempe tenens quod amo, nihil, ilium amplexiu.
tlinebo.

less than tlie strength of God to support it :
and what then can surcharge it ?
Thy access to him aU the enemies in the
wprld cannet hinder ; the closest prison shuts
not out thy God ; yea, rather, it shuts out
other things and companies, that thou mayst
have the more leisure for hira, and the
sweeter converse with him. Oh I acquaint
ypurselves with this exercise of prayer, and
by it with Gpd, that if days pf trpuble cpme,
ypu may knpw whither to go, and what way ;
and if you know this way, whatever befals
yoU} you are not much tp be bemoaned.

CHARGES, &c

TO THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESAN SYNOD OF DUNBLANE, BY
BISHOP LEIGHTON.

I. Bishop Leighton's , Charge io his
Clergy, September 1662.
FOR DISCIPLINE.
First. That all diligence be uaed for the
repressing of profaneness, and for the advance
ment of aolid piety and holiness.
Secondly. That not only scandals of un-
chaatity, but drunkennesa, swearing, Curaing,
filthy speaking, and mocking of religion,
and all other grosa offences, be brought under
church-censure. Thirdly. That scandalous offenders be
not absolved, till there appear in them very
probable signs of true repentance.
Fourthly. That inquiry be made by the
minister, net only into the knowledge, but
the practice and track of life, of those who
are to be adraitted to the holy communion ;
and aU profane, and evidently irapenitent
persona, be secluded, tiU their better conver
sation and obedience te the gospel be raore
apparent. Fifthly. Tbat faraily prayer be inquired
after; and they that can, be exhorted to
join with it reading of the Scriptures.
FOR WORSHIP.
First. That instead of lecturing and
preaching both at ene meeting, larger por
tions of the Holy Scripturea, one whole
chapter atleast of eachTeataraent, and Paalma
withal, be constantly read : and this not aa a
bye-work, while they are convening, but
after the people are well convened, and the
worahip soleranly begun with confession ef
aina and prayer, either by the minister or
some fit person by him appointed.

Secondly. That the Lerd's prayer be re- verse or sentence,

stored to more frequent use ; Ukewise tbe
doxology and the creed.
Thirdly. That daily public prayer, in
churches, morning and evening, with read.
ing ef the Scriptures, be used where it can
be had conveniently, and the people be ex-
horted te frequent them ; not se as to think
that this should excuse thera frora daily pri
vate prayer, in their farailies and in secret,
but rather aa a help te enable thera, and dis
pose thera the more for both these ; and Iqt
the constant use of secret prayer be recom
raended to all persons, as the great instru
raent ef sanctifying the soul, and of enter
taining aud encrcaaing in it the love of
God. Fourthly. That the younger aort, and the
ignorant, be diUgently catechised at fit times,
all the year through ; and that work net
wholly laid over on sorae days or weeks be
fore the celebration of the coraraunion, but
tbat the inquiry, at that time, be rather of
their good conversation, and due disposition
for partaking of that holy ordinance, as was
aaid before in an article touching diacipline.
Fifthly. That miniaters use some short
forra of catechisra, such as they raay require
account of, till a common form be agreed on.
Sixthly. That preaching be plain, and
useful for aU capacities ; not entangled with
useless questions and disputes, nor continued
to a wearisome length. The great and meat
necessary principles of reUgion raoat frequent
ly treated upon ; and oftentime larger por
tions of Scripture explained, and suitable
instructions and exhortations thence deduced
and let that be the sermon at that tirae
which will doubtless be as truly preaching
and useful, if not raore so, than insisting,
for a whole sermon or mere, upon one short

CHARGES TO THE CLERGY.

33a

The Bishop propounded to the brethren,
that it was to be reminded, by himaelf and
thera both, how erainent degrees of purity of
heart and life tiieir holy calling doth engage
ibcra ; to how great contempt of thia present
world, and inflaraed affections toward heaven,
springing from deep persuasioha within theni
of those_ thinga they preach te others, and
frora the daily raeditation ef them, arid
ferverit prayer : and that we consider how
ill it becomes us to be much in tbe trivial
converaation of the world : but when our
duty or neceaaity involvea ua in company,
that our speech and deportment be exempla
rily holy, ministering grape te those with
whom we converse ; and, (to add but thia
one thing, se auitable to miniatera of the
gospel of peace,) that we be meek and gentle,
and lovers and exhortera of peace, -private
and pubUc, araongat all ranks of raen ; en
deavouring rather to quench, than to increase
tbe useleaa debatea and contentiena that
abound in the world ; and be alwaya raore
atudioua of pacific than poleraic divinity ;
that certainly being rauch diviner than this,
for the students of it are caUed the sona of
God.

II. The Bishop's Address after ihe busi
ness was over, October 1665.
After the affairs of the Synod were ended,
the Bishop shewed the brethren he had
aoraewhat to impart-to them that concerned
hiraself, which, though it imported little or
nothing, either to them or the church, yet
be judged it his duty to acquaint thera with
and it was, the resolution he had taken of
retiring frora this pubUc charge ; and that all
the account he could give of the reasons mov
ing hini toil, was briefly this ; the aenae he
had of hia ownunwortbineaaofao high a station
ill the church, and his wearinesa ofthe conten
tions of the church, which seeraed rather to be
.growing than abating ; and, by their growth,
did, raake so great abateraenta of that Chria
tian raeekneaa and rautual charity, that is so
much raere worth (han the whole sum of aU
that we contend about. He thanked the
brethren fer aU their undeserved respect and
kindness manifested to hiraaelf aU along ;
and deafred their good construction of the
poor endeavours he had used tp aerve them,
and to assist them in promoting tbe work of
tbe rainistry, and the great designs of the
' gespel in their bounds ; and if in any thing.
in word or deed, he oft'ended them, or any
of thera, he very earnestly and hurably cra
ved their pardpn; and having recpmmended
tp them tp cpntinue in the study pf peace and
hpliness, and of ardent love to our great
Lord and Master, and to the souls he hath
sp dearly bought, he closed with theae worda
of the Apostle ; " FinaUy, brethren, fare

well t Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of
one mind, and live in peace ; and the God
of peace and love shaU be with you."

III. The Bishop's Charge, October 1006.
1. It was enacted, TbafS-U the ministers
do endeavour to bring their people to a high
esteem of the Holy Scriptures, and of the
reading of them in public ; and to give ev^
dence thereof by reverent and attentive hear.
ing,- none being permitted to stand about
the doors, or Ue in the kirk-yard, during
the time of reading ; and if after waming
given them pf thia, any shall be found to
continue in the -aame disorder, they are, by
due rebukes and cenaurea, tobe brought to
obedience. 2. That the rainiatera be careful to direct
the readera what parta of the Scriptures are
raost frequently to be read ; as the histories
of the gospel, and the epiatlea ; and of the
Old Teataraent, the raoat intelligible and
practical parta, particularly, large portions
of the Psalma at all timea, being both ao
exceUently inatructive, and withal so divine
forms of prayers and praises, and therefore
have been ao much uaed by the Christian
Churches in all- agea, and always raade so
great a part pf their public aervice.
3. That no readera be pennitted, but
such aa are tried and approved by the Prea-
bytery. 4. That, beaidea the reading betwixt the
second and third beU, which is but as in the.
interval for these that are corae, tiU the
rest do convene, aorae parta ofthe Scriptures
be read after the laat bell is rung out, and
the congregation more fuUy raet, and the
rainister is corae in ; either by hiraaelf, , or
by the reader at hia appointraent ; one chap
ter at leaat, together with aorae of the Paalma,
one er mere, aa they are ef length, and of
which some part afterwarda may be sung, and
so the people ahaU the better understand whst
they sing. Thus shaU this so useful ordi
nance of public reading of the Scriptures be
perforraed with raore solemnity, and brought
into greater respect and veneration, and the
pepple be more universaUy and plentifully
edified by it. But, together with this, the
reciting of the ten eoraniandraents, and the
beUef, according to the acts of former Synods,
is ne Lord's-day to be emitted ; ner is thia
only or mainly meant as 'a help to the people's
learning the words pf thera, and sp being
able tp repeat thera, but as a solemn pub
Ucation of the law of Ged, as the rule of
our Ufe, and a solemn profession of our believ
ing the articles ef our Chriatian faith, and
for the quickening ef our affections towards
both. And as to that exercise of rc-ading the
Scriptures, it cannpt be imagined that any weU.

340

CHARGES TO THE CLERGY.

instracted and soUd-minded Christian can
questipn the great expediency and usefulness
pf it fpr aU ranks pf pepple : fpr, besides
that raany pf pur ccraraona cannot read, and
se cannot use the Scripturea in private, and
too many that can, yet do neglect it, even
they that uae them most in private, wiU not
only no whit the less, but so rauch the
more, be weU satisfied and edified with hear
ing them read in public, and wUl more re
verently and reUgiously attend to them, and
with the blessing of God upon thera ao doing,
not fail to find (what others can aay they
have often found) divera paaaagea and sen
tences faUing frequently in upon their hearts
in public reading, with particular warrath
and divine force, nothing below, if not
sometimes beyond, what they usually find in
private. If the minister think fit to make his ser
mon fer the time, upon some part of what,
by himaelf, or hy hia appointment, hath
been read, it may do weU ; and poaaibly ao
rauch the better, the longer the text be, and
the abetter the sennon be ; for, it is greatly
to be suspected, that our usual way of very
short texts, and very long sermona, is apt
to weary people raore, and profit them leas.
But, whatsoever they do in this, they
would beware of retuming to their long ex-
poaitiona, beaides their aerraon, at one and
the same raeeting ; which, beaides the tedi-
ousness aud other inconveniences, is apt te
foment in people's rainda, the fooliah preju
dice and proud diadain they have taken
againat the Scripturea read witheut a super
added diacourae, in which conceit, for aU
their zeal againat Popery, they seera to be
tPO much ef the Romish opinion, aa account
ing the Holy Scriptures so obscure in them
selves, that it is aeraeway dangerous, or at
leaat altpgether unprofitable, to intrust the
coraraon people either with reading or hear
ing any part of them at any tirae, utUesa they
be backed with continual expoaitiona.
5. That miniatera do endeavour to reduce
the peeple from the ineverent deportment
they have generaUy contracted in the public
worship ; particularly, frora their most in
decent sitting at prayer ; to kneel or stand,
aa convenientiy they may, that we may wor
ahip beth with our bodiea and with our aoula,
Hira that made beth, and made thera for
that very end. Oh ! how needful ia that'
invitatory to be often ruii^ in our eara, that
seera whoUy to have forgot it, " Oh ! corae
and let ua worahip and bow down, and kneel
before the Lord our Maker."
6. That pepple be frequently and earneat
ly exhprted tp mprning and evening prayer
in tbeir farailiea, especiaUy the prime families
in parishea, as mpst exemplary.
7. That the way pf catechising be mpre
adapted tP the capacity pf pur mde and ig
norant people ; tbat our sermpns, particularly

thpae pf the aftemppn, may be mpre frequent
ly beatpwed pn the mpst plain and intelUgible
way pf explaining apme ppint pf catechetical
dpcfrine. 8. It was recpmmended. That cpnvenient
utensils be prpvided in every kirk, for the ad
ministration of the hely aacramenta.
9. That according to our great and stand
ing duty, we be still mere and raore zealous
and careful, by doctrine and discipline, to
purge out all profaneneaa ; particslarly, the
raeat common and crying aina, as drunken.
¦ness, curaing, swearing, railing, and bitter
apeaking, and rotten filthy speaking, ae usual
amongst the common aort, in their house or
field labour together, particularly in harveat ;
and that it be by aU miuiatera recomraended
to the ownera of the crops, and overaeers of
the reapers, to range them ao to thefr work,
and in such diviaiona, as may give least oc.
casion to any thing of that kind.
10. That, as we ourselves weuld be ex
emplary in hoUness, we would endeavour
that our seniores plebis, er elders of the
peeple, be so too ; and for that end rather
to have them well chosen, though fewer,
than a great number of such as too often
they are.
11. That the Presbyteries de inquire ef
each one of their nuraber concerning the cele.
bration of the communion, that at leaat our
uaual returna of it be neglected by none ;
for it is one of the great defects and reproach
es of our church, that that great ordinance,
being so useful for the increase of holiness,
sheuld be so seldom administered, as with
us it is even where it is oftenest. For the
way of examination in order to it, somewhat
is set down in our first Synod, which may be
looked at, if possibly it may prove tp be pf
any use.

IV. Paper given in by ihe Bishop io ihe
Synod, April 1, 1667.
I confess that my own inactive and un.
meddEng temper may be too apt to prevail
against the known duty of ray station, and
may incline me rather te inqufre too Uttle
than too rauch into the deportment ef others ;
and rather te be deficient, than to exceed in
adraonitions and advices to my brethren, in
¦matters of their duty ; and, besides this
natural aversion, the sense ef my own great
unworthiness and fUthineas, may give me
check, and be a very strong curb upon me
in censuring othera for what may be amiss-,
or in offering any rules for the redress ef it ;
and there is yet another conaideration, that
bends still further that way ; for, I am so
desirous to keep far pff frpm the reach cf that
prejudice, that abpunds in these parts,
against the very name pf my sacred function.
as apt tp cpmmand and dpmineer tpa much,

CHARGES TO THE CLERGY.

341

that I may ppssibly err pn the other hand,
and scarce perform the duty ef the lowest
and most moderate kind of moderator; so
that I am forced to spur and drive up ray.
self against aU these retardments, to suggest
any thing, hpw useful spever, beypnd pur
rpad pr accustpmed way, especially, finding
bow little any thing of that kind takes, and
prevails tp any real effect.
However, when any appear* tp me pf evi
dent reason and usefulnesa, and that eaaily
joins in, and paceth with, our atanding cua
toma, I judge it my duty te offer it to you ;
and I hope, if that ye ahall find it of any use,
ye wiU net reject it, but rather improve it te
soraewhat better, that by occaaion of it raay
arise in your ewn thoughta.
Sometiiing of thia kind I have fprmerly
mpved, cpnceming the way pf dealing with
perapna faUen into acandaloua ain : frequent
speaking with thera in private, to the con
vincing and awakening their conaciences to
a Uvely aenae ef ain, and directing thera in
the exercises of repentance, and exhorting
thera to set apart sorae tirae for a soleran
hurabling of their souls in fasting and prayer ;
and not to admit thera te public confession
until they have, to our best discerning, sorae
real heart-sense of sin, and reraorse for it,
and aerioua purposes of newness ef life.
Likewiae, I auggeated aoraewhat touching
the way of examining of aU peraona, toward
their admiaaion tp the hply cpmmuninn, be-
sides the prdinary way of catechising the
younger and more ignorant sort : and sorae
other particulars, much Uke these, that nev,'
I wiU not repeat.
That which I would recommend at this
time, relates to the business of Privy trials
(as they are caUed) of ministers in their
Presbyteries, toward the time of the Synod ;
in which I have perceived, in some places.
(if I may be pardoned that free word,) very
rauch of superficial erapty forra ; for the help
of which, beaidea other waya, which may be
thought on, that which occurs to rae at pre
sent is thia : That some certain questions
be aaked of every minister before he with
draws : and these be much the aame with
those that uauaUy are, er fitly raay be, pro
pounded to the eldera and people conceming
their rainiater at the viaitatien of particular
kirks. For though, in the caae we now speak
of, we can have nothing but every man's own
word conceming hiraself, yet tbis dpes net
render it an useless thing ; for, besides tbat
divers of the questions wiU be of things, so
obvious to public knpwledge, that np man
will readily adventure tp give an unirue an
swer, where it may be sp easily traced, there
ismuch to be given to the presumed ingenuity
and veracity of a rainiater, especially in what
is spleranly and punctuaUy inquired ef him ;
and whatsoever, formerly, hath been, or hath
not been, his former degree of diligence in

the particulars, the very inquiry and asking
conceming them, wiU be apt to awake in
every man a raore serious reflection upen
himself touching each point ; and the draw
ing forth such an express answer to each be
fore his brethren, w'll probably excite and
engage him to higher exactness in aU cf tbem
,for the tirae to come
The particulars ) couceive may be these,
and such othera, Uke them, as may be fur
ther thought flt.
1. Whether he be constantly assiduous in
plain and profitable preaching, instructing,
and exhorting, and reproving, meat expressly
and frequently, these sins that abound most
among his people ; and in all things, to his
best skiU, fitting his doctrine to the capaci
ties, necessities, and edification of aU sorts
within hia charge ?
2. Whether he be diligent in catechiaing,
employing throughout the year auch seasons
and tiraes for it, as may be easiest and fittest
for the peeple to attend it, and not wheUy cast
ing it over upon some few days or weeka near
the time of the coraraunion ?¦
3. How often in the year he celebrates the
holy coraraunion ? for I ara aaharaed to aay,
whether, at leaat, once every year ?
4, Whether he does faithfully and im
partially exercise discipline, and bring all
known scandals to due censure ; and decs
speak privately, and that oftener than once,
with the peraona convicted, and admita them
not to public acknowledgment, tiU he sees
in them aorae probable signs of frue repent
ance. 5, Whether he be diligent, by hiraself
and hia eldera in all convenient waya, to know
the deportraent of the several faraiUes and
persona of his flock ; and do frequently viait
the farailies, and not only ask, but do his
best certainly teinferra himself, whether they
constantly use morning and evening prayer,
together with reading ef the Scriptures, if
they have any that, can do it ; and whether
this point of family exercise be speciaUy pro
vided for in the choice famiUes in the pariah.
6. Whether he be careful of the relief of
the poor, and of viaiting the aick, whenaoever
he knows of any, even though they neglect
to send fpr hira ; and fer this end raake in
quiry, and the rather prevent their sending,
becauae they commonly defer that, tiU it can
be of little or np uae to thera.
7. Whether he dpes in private plainly and
freely adrapniah thpse he knpws, pr hath
cause to suspect, to be given to uncleanness,
or drunkenneaa, or swearing, or any kind of
inordinate walking, especially if they be of
that quaUty that engages hira frequentiy to
converse with them ;' and if they cpntinue
such, leaves pff that converse ; and if their
miscarriage be pubUc, brings thera to public
censure. 8, Whether he watches exactly over hij

CHARGES TO THE CLERGY.

own conversation in aU thinga, that he not
only give ne offence, but b= an example to
the fiock, and preach by Uving.
9. Whether he spend tiie greatest portiona
of hia tirae in private, in reading, and prayer.
and meditation, — » thing ao neceaaary teen-
able him for aU the other parta of thia duty.
10. Whether he raakes it the great busi
ness, and withal the great pleasure of his life,
to fulfil the work of his ministry, in the
several parts and duties ef it, out of love to
God, and to the soula of hia peeple.
11. If he doea not only avoid gross of
fences, (which in a guide of seiUa were in
tolerable,) but studies daily to mortify pride,
and rash anger, and vain glory, and covetous
ness, and love of this v/orld and of sensual
pleaaurea, and self-love, and aU inordinate
passions and affections, even in those instances
wherein they are aubtilest and leaat discern
ible by others, and commonly too little dis
cerned by ouraelvea.
12. If he not only Uvea in peace with hia
brethren and flock, and with aU as much as
poaaible, but is an ardent lover and promoter
of it, reconciling differences, and preserving
good agreement, aU he can, ainongst his
people.

ther of these reclaira hira, then foUows of
neceaaity to tell the church : but thatia like
wise to be done with great singleness of heart,
and charity, and compassion ; and the whole
procedure of the whole company, witb the
person se delated, is te be mariaged with the
sarae teraper, accordirig to the exceUerit advice
of the Apostle, Gal. vi. 2, " My brethren,
if any raan be overtaken in a fault, ye which
are spiritual restore such a pne in the spiiit
pf raeekness, cpnsidering thyself, lest thoa
alsp be tempted."

It hath npt escaped ray thpughts, that spme
of these questions, being of thinga more in
ward, may aeera leaa fit te be pubUcly pro
pounded to any ; and that the best observers
of thera will, both out of raodesty and real
huraiUty, and aevere judging of themaelvea,
be aptest to charge themaelvea with deficiency
in them, and will only own, at raeat, sincere
desires and endeavour, which, Ukewise, they
that practiae and mind them leaat, may, in
general, profess : neither is there any more
particular and punctual account tp be expect
ed ef such thinga frora any raan in public :
but the main intent in theae, (as was said
before,) is aerioua reflection, and that each of
us raay be stined up, to ask ourselves over
again theae and raore of the Uke questions,
in our raost private trials, and our secret scru
tinies of our ewn hearts and lives, and raay
redouble our diligence in purging ouraelvea ;
that we may be in the house of God veaaela
pf honour, sanctified and raeet for the Master's
use, and prepared to every good work : and,
for thoae other thinga mere exposed to the
knpwledge pf others, if any brother hears of
any faultiness in any of the number, he shaU
not do weU to think rudely to vent it in the
meeting, tiU first he have made aU due in
quiry after the truth ef it ; yea, though he
hath, it upon inquiry to be true, yet ought he
not, even then, to make his first essay of rec
tifying his brother, by a declaration to the
full meeting, without having formerly ad
monished him, first alone, and then (accord
ing to our Saviour's rule) in the presence of ,
oue or two more ; but having done ao, if nci-

V. Paper given in by the Bishop to the
.'iynod, October 1667, containing Pro
posals touching ihe following things :
1. Soleran reading ef the Scripturea.
2. Reducing of the peeple to a reverent
gesture in p..iyer.
3. Plain and practical, and catechetical
preaching. 4. A weekly day for catechising, and tbe
reading ofthe Scriptures joined with it.
5. A short and plain form of catechism.
6. A raore exact and apiritual way of deal
ing with public penitenta.
7. Aa likewise of preparing people for the
coramunion ; raore frequent celebration where
of ia so rauch to be wished, but so Uttie, or
scarce at aU, to be hoped irr thia Church.
8. That, in preaching, the raost abound
ing and crying ains be more aharply and fre
quently reproved, particularly cursing and
swearing ; and the worship of God in famiUes
more urged.
9. The due educating and moulding the
rainds of young students in preabyteries.
10. More frequent and raore exact viaita
tien of cburchea ; and the viaiting ef families
by each minister in his ewn charge.
The worda of the Paper were aa foUow :
1. That the reading ofthe Holy Scripturea
in our pubUc raeetinga, when they are aolemn-
est and fullest, be constantly uaed, and that
we endeavour to bring our people to a rever
ent and affectionate eateera ef that ordinance,
and attention to it.
2. That, both by eur own example, and
by frequent inatruction and exhortation, we
study to reform that extrerae ineverence and
indecency that hath generaUy prevailed in
people's deportraent in tirae of public wor
ship, and particularly of prayer : and that
they be reduced to such a gesture, as may
signify that we are acknowledging and ador
ing the great Majesty of God.
3. That we endeavour to adapt our way of
preaching, with all evidence and plainness,
to the informing ef the people's minds, and
quickening their affections, and raising in
thera renewed purposes ef a Christian Ufe ;
and that some part of our sermona be design-

CHARGES TO Till; CLERGY.

343

'ed for the plajn and practical explication of
• file great principles of reUgion.
4. That we fix some certain tiraes, at least
one day. in tiie week, throughput the year,
fpr catechising, and that, withal, there be
reading cf the Scripturea, and prayer at the
sarae tirae ; te which, beaidea that part of the
people that are for each time particularly
warned to be preaent, thoae others that are
near the church, and at leisure, raay rcaort ;
for the work of the rainiatry is a, husban
dry of raore continual labour and attendance
than tiiat of our country people that labour
the ground, aud therefore cannot weU be
duly diacharged if it be wholly cast over upon
the Lord's day, without ever meeting with
thera, or bringing any conaiderable part ef
thera together, aU'tlie week long.
5. It seeraa absolutely neceasary that each
rainiater would reaolve en aorae short and
plain forra ef catechiara, for the use of hia
people ; for it ia not, I think, to be imagin
ed, that ever peeple would have any fixed
knowledge of the artidea pf religipn, by lax
and continuaUy varied discourses and forma,
or by catechiams too long and too hard fer
them : and would sorae "draw up aeveral abort
forras, they raight be revised at the next
Synod, and possibly one framed out ef them,
which, by consent, raight be appointed for
the use ef thia diocese for the interim, till
one ahaU be published for the whple church.
6. That, which hath been fprmerly prp-
ppsed, wpuld be reminded, pf a rapre exact
and spfritual way pf dealing with public of-
¦ fenders, that their reception might be both
more apt to recover the penitents themselves,
and to edify the church.
7. For more frequent coraraunion, (if it
could be had,) or, however, for the better
improving it when we have it, seldom as it is,
what hath been formerly suggested, touching
the way of examining ond preparing people
to it, and other particulars relating thereto,
need not be repeated, but need very much to
be reaUy practised, if they can be ef any use.
8. Likewise, enough hath been formerly
said, (it were well if^ any thing might ence
appear to be done,) touching the, worship of
God in farailies, especiaUy the prime ones
, within our bounda : as likewise tpuching the
exercise pf discipline, fpr the repreaaing pf
swearing and drunkenness, and aU prpfaneness,
ao much abounding everywhere ; and that
our doctrine be Ukewise raore particularly,
and frequently, applied to that purpose.
9. Soraething hath likewise been said
concerning the training up of such young raen
amongst ua as intend tlie ministry, net only
'as to tbeir strain of preaching, but the
meulding pf their minds to mere inward
thoughts, and the study ef a devout life, and
more acquaintance with the exercises of mor
tification, and purging of their own hearts
by thoae divine truths which they are te preach

to ethers, for the aame purpoae ; for hpw
shall they teach what they have not learned ?
10. That churches bo raere frequently and
exactly visited, and by each minister the
farailiea ef hia congregation.
Thia paper being publicly read, and con-
aentcd to, and approved by the unanimous
vote pf the Syned, cpnfprm tP it was framed
the fpUpwing act :
The Bishop and Synod having seriously
considered the height of profaneness, and
groaa aina abounding araong their people,
particularly drunkennesa and uncleanness,
and raost universaUy the heinoua siu of
cursing and awearing, and, that 'which fe-
menta and increaaea tliose, and all aina, the
great conterapt of the Lord's holy day and
ordinances ; and the groas and almost incre
dible ignorance ef the common aort, under
80 much aaaiduoua preaching and catechiaing:
fer the more effectual redress of all these evils,
have agreed and resolve, through the Lord's
help, each one, within himself, to atir the
grace and zeal ef God that ia within hira,
to renewed vigour and fervour, and more
eamest endeavoura in the use of aU due mean-s
for that effect ; and particulariy,
1. The applying of their sermons and
doctrines more expressly and requently to
the reproof of those wickednesses, especially of
that honible ain, which almost all ranks of
raen do more eaaily and frequently -coramit
than they can posaibly do other gress sins,
and that with less sense and remorse, — curs
ing and swearing : and that thoy wiU, by
God's assistance, not only uae abort and fre-
,quent repreofa of thia and other aina, but at
sometiraes raore largely insist in repreaenting
the exceeding aiufulnesa and vileneas of such
a particular sin, and the great danger of the
Lord's wrath and heaviest judgraents upon
those that persist in it.
2. That with this they wiU join -constant
private inspection over the Uves of thefr peo-~
pie, and, by aU due means, particularly in
quire into thera ; and when they find any one
guUty ef any gress sin, privately to adraoiiish
hira, meekly and .iffectionately, but yet with
all freedom and plainness ; and if upon that
they mend not, to proceed in the regular way
ef discipline and censure within their own
charge ; and i'f they be not by th^t reclaimed,
but prove obstinate, then to delate them to
the higher judicature, in the usual prder of
this church.
3, To use more frequent catechiaing, and
that in ao plain a method and way, aa may
be moat apt, both te inform the minda of the
moat ignorant, and, through the bleaaing of
God, tp raake more deep impressions upon
I their hearta.
I 4. That, aa much as is competent for
. rainisters, they wiU endeavour to procure the
I executing of these penal laws raade against
cursing and swearing, and ether scandalous

344

CHARGES TO THE CLERGY.

offencea, iri auch a way as may be moat con
venient and feasible in each of their respec
tive pariahea.
.5. That they will endeavour, both by ex
hortation, and, where need ia, by use of
diacipline, tP bring their people to more care
ful and conatant attendance on aU the ordi
nances of God, at all tiraes ef the accustomed
piibUc meetings, and to a raore religious
and reverend deportment in them throughout
the whole, but particularly in time of prayer.
6. That they be particularly careful te in
quire after the daily perforraance of the wor
ship ef God in farailies, and, where they
find it wanting, to enjoin it, and raake in
quiry again after it ; and this would be es
pecially provided for, in the choice and most
eminent families in the several congregations,
as exemplary to aU the rest.

VI. Concluding Paragraph, April 1688.
The Bishpp, having cpramended the Bre
thren for their unity and concord, and good
conversation, exhorted them to continue
therein, and to be more and raore exemplary
in holiness, and in raodesty and gravity, even
in the externals of their air and habit, and
their whole deportraent ; and te the regulat
ing of their children, and their whole famiUea,
to be pattema of religion and sobriety to aU
abput thera ; and that they theraselves aspire
daily tp greater abstractipn frpra the werld,
and contempt of things below ; giving them.-
selves whoUy to their great work of watching
over souls, for which they muat give account ;
and to reading and raeditation ; and to prayer,
tiiat drawa continual fresh supplies from hea
ven, te enable them for aU these duties.

VII. Paragraph respecting Baptismal
Vows, October 1668.
That which had been sometimes apoke of
before, the Biahop now again recoraraended
to tbe Brethren, that at their set times of

catechiaing and examining their people, they
would take particular notice of young peraons,
towards their first adraission to the hely com
munion ; and, having before taken account
of their knpwledge pf the grpunds pf reli
gipn, wpuld then cause them, each nne par
ticularly and expressly, tp declare their be
lief pf the Christian faith, intp which, in their
infancy, they were baptized ; and, reminding
them pf that their baptismal vpw, and the
great engagements it lays uppn them tp a
hply and Chriatian life, wpuld require pf them
an expUcit pwning pf that vpw and engage
ment, and their spleran prpraiae accordingly,
to endeavour the obaerving and perfomiance
of it, in the whole courae of their fpUpwing
life : and thea, in their prayer with which
they uae tp cpnclude thpae raeetings, wpuld
recpmmend the said ypung perspns, npw thus
engaged, tn the effectual blessing pf Gpd, be
seeching him tP pwn them fpr his, and tp
bestpw pn them the sanctifying and sfrength-
ening grace pf his Hply Spirit, as his signa-
ture uppn thera, sealing them tp the day pf
redemptipn. And this practice, as it hath npthing in it
that can pffend any, even the rapst scrupulpus
minds, sp it may he a very fit suppletery of
that defect in infant baptism, which the ene.
rales of it do mainly object against it, and
raay, through the blessing of God, make a
lasting irapression of religion upon the hearts
pf those young persons towards whora it is
uaed, and effectuaUy engage them to a Chria.
tian life ; and if '^ihey awerve from it, make
them the raore inexcuaable, and clearly con-
vincible of their unfaithfulneaa, and breach
of that great promiae, and sacred vow, they
have ' so renewed to God before his people.
And for authority ef divines, if we regard it,
it hath the general approbation of the moat
famoua reformera, and of the raeat pioua and
leamed that have followed thera since their
tirae : and, being perforraed in that evan
gelical simplicity, as it is here propounde'd,
they do not only allow it aa lawful, but deaire
it, and adviae it aa laudable and profitable, and
of very good use, in all Chriatian churches.

LETTERS,

WntTTKJT BT BISHOP LEIGHTON OH DIPFEKENT OCCASIOIfS ; THE EIIIST, TAKEW
TROM AN AUTHENTIC COPY ; THE REST, FROM THE AUTHOR'S
ORIGINALS. [Edit. 1748.]

Letter to the Synod of Glasgow, convened
April 1073.
Reverend Brethren,
It is neither a matter of much importance,
nor can I yet give you a particular and sa
tisfying account ef the reaaons of my absence
frora your meeting, which I truat, with the
help of a Uttle tiipe, wiU clear itaelf : but I
can assure yeu, I .am present with you in my
most affectionate wiahea of the gracioua pre
sence of that Holy Spirit amongst you, and
within yeu aU, who alone can make this and
air your raeetings,^ and the whole work of
your rainiatry, happy and aucceaaful, to the
good of aoula, and Hia glory that bought
them with his own blood. And I doubt not,
that your own great deaire, each for youraelf,
and aU for one another, is the sarae ; and
that your daily and great eraployraent ia, by
inceaaant and fervent prayer, to draw down
frora above large supplies and increaaea of
that bleaaed Spirit, which our Lord and
Maater hath aaaured ua that our heavenly
Father will not fail io give to them ihat ask
ii. And hew extreme a negUgence and
folly were it to want ao rich a gift fer want
of aaking, especiaUy in those devoted to so
high and holy a service, that requires so great
degrees of that spirit of hoUnesa and divine
love to purify their minda, and te raise thera
abpve their senaea and this present wprld 1
Oh ! my dear Brethren, what are we dping,
that suffer pur apuls tp creep and grpvel pn
this earth, and dp sp little aspire to the hea
venly Ufe pf Christians, and mpre eminentiy
of the messengers and ministers ef God, as
stars, yea, as angels, which he hath made
spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire !
Oh 1 where are spuls te be found araongst us,
that represent their own priginal, that are
ppaseaaed with pure and sublirae apprehen
sipns pf Gpd, the Father pf spfrits, and are
often raised to the astonishing conterapla.
tion of his etemal and blessed being, and

his infinite holiness, and greatness, and
goodness ; and are accordingly burnt up with
ardent leve ! And where that holy fire is
wanting, there cari bene sacrifice, whatsoever
our invention, or utterance, or gifta may be,
and how blameleaa aoever the externals of eur
life may be, and even eur hearts free from
gross poUutiona ; for it is scarce to be sus
pected, that any ef us wiU suffer any ef
those atrange, yet infernal firea of ambition
or avarice, er maUce, or irapure luats and
sensualities, to bum within us, which weuld
render us prieata of idola, of airy nothings,
and of dunghill gods, yea, of the very god
of ihis world, the prince of darkness. Let
men judge ua, and revile ua, as they please,
that imports nothing at all ; but God forbid
any thing should posaeaa eur hearta but He
that loved ua, and gave himaelf for ua ; fer
we know we cannot be vessels of honour
meet for ihe Master's use, unless we purge
ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and
spirit, and empty eur hearts of aU things
beside hira, and even of ourselves and own
will, and have no raore any desires nor de
lights, but his wiU alone, and his glory,
who is our peace, and our life, and our all.
And, traly, I think it were our best and
wisest reflection, upon the raany difficulties
and discourageraents witheut us, to be
driven by them tp Uve mpre within ; as they
pbserve pf the bees, that when it is fpul
weather abrpad, they are busy in their hives.
If the ppwer pf extemal discipline be ener
vated in our hands, yet, who can hinder us
to try, and judge, and censure ourselves ;
and to purge the inner temples, our own
hearts, with the more severity and exactneaa ?
And if we be daahed and bespattered with
reproaches abroad, to study to be the cleaner
at home ; and the less we flnd of meekness
and charity in the world about us, te preserve
so much the more that sweet temper within
our pwn hearts ; blessing them that curse ut,
a-nd praying for them that persecute us
so shaU we raeit effectuaUy prpve "urselve

346

LETTERS, See

to be ihe children of our heavenly Father,
even to their conviction, that wiU acarce
aUew ua, in any aenae, to be caUed his ser
vants. Aa for the confuaiona and contentions that
still abound and increase in this Church, and
threaten to undo it, I think our wisdom shall
be, to cease from man, and look for ne help
tiU we look more upwards, and dispute and
discourse less, and fast and pray more ; and
so draw down our relief from the God of
order and peace, who made the heavens and
the earth.
Conceming myself, I have nothing to say,
but humbly to entteat you to pasa by the
many faiUnga and weaknesses you may have
perceived in rae during ray abode ampngst
you ; and if in any thing I have injured pr
pffended ypu, pr any of yeu, in the raanage
ment of my public charge, er in private con
verse, I do sincerely beg your parden :
though, I confess, I cannot make anyrequi
tal in that kind ; for I do not knew ef any
thing towards me, from any of you, that needs
a pardon in the leaat ; having generaUy paid
Die more kindneaa and respect, than a much
bett,er er wiser raan could either have expect
ed or deserved. Nor ara I only a auitor
for your pardon, but for the addition of a
further charity, and that so great a one, that
I have nothing fo plead for it, but that I
need it much, — your prayera. And I ara
hopeful aa te that, to raake you aorae little
though very diaproportioned return : for
whataoever becomea of me, (through the help
of God,) while I live, you shall be no one
day ef ray life fprgptten, by
Vour most unworthy, bui most affectionate.
Brother and Servant,
R. Leighton.
P. S, I dp not aee whora it can offend,
or how any shall diaapprove of it, if you will
appoint a faat throughout your bounda, to en
treat a bleaaing on the aeed coramitted te the
ground, and for the other grave cauaea that
are still the sarae they were the last year,
and the urgency of thera no whit abated,
but rather increased ; but in thia I preacribe
nothing, but leave it to your discretion, and
the dfrection ef God.

The two following Letters were written io
Persons under Trouble of Mind.
Christian Friejjd,
Though I had very Uttle vacant tirae for
it, yet I would have aeen you, if I could
have presuraed it might have been any way
useful for the quieting of your mind ; however,
since I heard of your condition, I cease not
daily, aa I can, to preaent it to Hira, who alone
can effectuaUy speak peace to your heart, and I
am confident, in due tipae, will do so. It is
he that stilleth the raging of ihe sea ; and,

by a werd, can tum the violentest storm into
a great calm. What the particular thoughta
or temptationa that diaquiet yeu, I know not
but whataoever they are, look above them,
and labour to fix your eye on that "infinite
goodness, which never faileth thera, that, by
naked faith, de absolutely rely and reat upon
it, and patiently wait upon Him, who hath
pronounced thera all, without exception,
bleaaed that do so. Say often within your
ewn heart. Though he slay me, yet will I
trust in him ; and if, after some intervals,
your troubled thoughts do retum, check
thera StiU with the holy Psalraist's words,
Why art thou cust down, O my soul ? Scc.
If you can thoroughly sink youraelf down
through your own nothirigneaa, into Him
who is aU, and entirely renouncing your own
wiU, embrace that blest and holy wiU in aU
thinga, there, I am aure, you shaU find that
rest, which all your own distempers, and aU
the powera of darkness, sliaU net be able to
bereave you of. I incline net ,to multiply
werds ; and indeed other advice than this I
have none te give you. The Lord of peace,
by the aprinkUng ef the blood of hia Son
Jeaus, and the aweet breathinga of the great
Comforter, his own Holy Spirit, give you
peace in himself. Amen.
Madam,
Though I have net the honour to be ac
quainted with your Ladyship, yet a. friend
of yours haa acquainted rae with your .con
dition, though I confeaa the unfittest of aU
raen to miniater any thing of spiritual relief
to any peraon, either by prayer or advice to
you ; but he could have imparted such a
thing to iione ef greater secrecy, and withal
of greater sympathy and tender compaaaion
towards such as are exercised with those
kinda of confiicts ; as having been formerly
acquainted with the like rayself, all sorts of
sceptical and doubtful thoughts, touching
thoae great points, having not only paat
through ray head, but sorae of thera have
for some time sat more fast and painfuUy upon
my raind ; but in the name of tlie Lerd, they
were at length quite dispeUed and acattered.
And Oh 1 that I could love and bleaa Him,
who ia ray deliverer and strength, my rock
and fortreaa, where I have now found aafety
frorii these incursions ; and I am very con
fident you shall very shortly find the aarae ;
only wait patiently on the Lord, and hope
in him, for you ahall yet praise hira forthe help
of his countenance ; and it ia that alone that
can enlighten you, and clear your mind of
all thoae foga and iniats that now possess it,
and calra tire storms that are raiaed within
it. You do well tp read gpod bppka that are
proper for your help, but rather the shortest
and plaineat, than the raore tedious and vo
luminous, that sometiraea entangle a perplex.
ed raind yet - more, by grasping raany raore

LETTERS, &c.

S47

, questions, and answers, and arguments, til an
is needful ; but, above aU, atill cleave to the
incomparable spring of light and divine com
fort, the Hely Scripturea, even in despite of
ali doubta concerning them ; and when you
find your thoughta in disorder, and at a loss,
entertain no dispute with thera, by any raeans,
at that tirae, but rather divert ftoiu thera to
short prayer, or tp pther thoughts, and spme
times to weU chosen company, er the best you
can have where you are ; and at aome other
time, when yeu find youraelf in a cabiier and
serener teraper, and upon tbe varitage ground
of a little raore confidence in God, then you
may resurae your reasons against unbelief,
yet ao aa to beware of casting youraelf into
new diaturbance ; 'for v/hen your mind ia in
a aober temper, there ia nothing so suitable
to its strongeat reaaon, nothing ao wiae and
noble, as reUgion ; and believe it is so ra
tional, that, as now I am fraraed, I am afraid
that ray belief proceeds too rauch from reason,
and ia not so ^ivine and apiritual as I would
have it ; only when I find (aa in aome raea
aure through the grace ef Ged I do,) that it
hath sorae real virtue and influence upon my
affectiona and track of life, I liope there ia
soraewhat of a higher tincture in it ; but, in
point ef reaaon, I am weU assured, that aU
I have heard from the wittiest atheists and
libertines in the world, ia nething but bold
reverie and raadneaa, and their whole dia
courae a heap of folly and ridiculoua non
sense : for, what probable, account can they
give of the wonderful frarae of the viaible
world, without the auppoaitien of an eternal
and inflnite power, and wiadora, and good
neas, that forraed it and theraselves, and aU
things in it ? And what can they think of
the many thousanda ef raartyrs in the flrst
age ef Chriatianity, that endured net airaple
death, but all the inventions of the most ex
quisite tortures, for their belief of that most
holy faith ; which, if the miracles that con
firmed it had not persuaded thera to, they
theraselves had been thought the most pro
digious miracles of raadness in aU the world ?
It is not want of reason on t)ie side of re
ligion that raakea foola disheUeve it, but
the interest of their brutish lusts and disso
lute lives raakes thera wish it were net true :
and there is the vaat dift'erence betwixt you
and them ; they would gladly beheve leas
tban they de, and you would aJ-so gladly
believe mere than they do : they are sorae
times pained and torraented with appre
hensions, that the doctrine of religion is or
m.ay be true ; and you are perplexed witii
suggestions to doubt of it, avhich are to you
as unwilling and unwelcerae, as these appre
hensions of its truth are to thera. Believe
it, Madam, these different thoughts of yours,
are not yours, but his that inserts them, and
throws them, as fiery darts, into your mind ;
and they shaU assuredly be laid to his chargPj

and not to yours. Think yeu, that infiniti!
goodneas is ready to take advantage of bis
peer creaturea, and to reject and condemn
those, that, against aU tbe assaults made upon
them, desire to keep their heart for him, and
to acknowledge him, and te love him, and
live to him. He made us, and knowa our
mould, and, aa a father pities his children,
he pities them that fear him ; for he ia their
fatiier, and the tenderest and kindeat of aU
fathera ; and, as a father pitiea bis child when
it is sick, and in the rage and reveije of a
fever, though it even utter reproachful words
against himself, shall not our dearest Father
both forgive and pity thoae thoughts in any
child of his, ^hat arise not from any wilful
hatred of hira, but are kindled in hell within
thera ? And no temptation hath befallen
yeu in thia, but that whicii has been incident
to raen, and to the beat of men ; and their
heavenly Father hath not only forgiven them,
but in due tirae hath given thera an happy
issue out of thera, and ao he will assuredly
do te you ; in the mean time, when theae
assaults come thickest and violentest upon
you, throw youraelf down at hia footstool,
and aay, " O God, father of mercies, save
me frora this heU within me. I acknowledge,
I adore, I bless thee, whose throne is in
heaven,' with thy blessed Sen and crucified
Jesus, and thy Holy Spirit, and also, though ,
thou slay me, yet wUl I trust in thee : but
I cannot think theu canst hate and reject a
poor soul that desires to love thee, and cleave
to thee, so long as I can hold by the skirts
of thy garraents, until theu violently shake
me off, which I am confident thou would not
dp, because thou art love and goodness
itself, and thy mercies endure for ever."
Thus, er in what ether frame your soul
shall be carried to vent itself into hia bosom,
be sure your words, yea, your silent sighs
and breathings shall not be lost, but shaU
have a moat powerful voice, and aacend into
his ear, and shaU return to you with mes
sages of peace and love in due time, and,
in the mean time, with secret supports,
that you faint not, nor sink in those deeps
that threaten to swaUow yeu up. But I
have wearied you, instead of refreshing
you. I wiU add no more, but that the
poor prayers of one ef the raost unworthy
caitiff's in the, world, such aa thev be, shall
not be wanting on your behalf, and he begs
a share in yours ; for neither you, nor any
in the world, needs that charity more than
he does. Wait on the Lord, and be of
good courage, a/nd he shall strengthen your
heart : wait, I say, on the Lord.
Letter to the Heritors of tlie Pa/rish of
Straton.
Worthy Gentlemen Axn Friends,
Being informed that it is my duty to pre-

^4« LETTERS, &c.
sent a person St for the charge of the miniatry '
now vacant with you, I have thought of one
whoae integrity and piety I ara ao fully per
suaded of, that I dare confidently recoraraend
hira to you as one who, if the hand of God
do bind that work upon hira amongst you,
is Ukely, through the blessing ef the same
hand, to be very serviceable to the building
up of your souls heavenwards, but is as far
frora suffering hiraself to be obtruded, as I
ara for obtruding any upon you : so that
unless you invite hira to preach, and after
hearing of hira, declare your consent and
desire towarda hia erabracing of tbe call, you
may be secure from the trouble of 'hearing
any further concerning hira, either from him
self or me ; and if you please let me knpw.

ypur mind, ypur reaspnable satisfactipn shal!
be tp my utmpst ppwer endeavoured, by
Your affectipnate Friend, and
humble Servant,
R. Leighton.
The person's name is Mr. James Aird ;
he was minister at Ingrara in Northumber-
land, and is lately removed frora thence, and
is new at Edinburgh. If you write to him,
direct it to be delivered to Hugh Paterson,
writer in Edinburgh, near the cross, on the
north side of the street.
This, if you please, raay be coramunicated
to such of the inhabitants of the parish as
you shall think fit.

SERMONS.

SERMONS.

SERMON I.

Many and great are the evils that lodge
within the heart of man, and they come forth
abundantly both by the tongue and by the
hand, yet the heart ia not emptied of them ;
yea, the raore it veut them putwardly, the
mere they increaae within. WeU raight he
that knew the heart ao weU, call it an evil
treasure. We find the prophet Ezekiel in
his 8th chap, led by the Lord iri visipn tp
Jerusalem, tp view the aina pf the Jewa that
remained in time of the Captivity ; when he
had allowed him one aboraination, he -caused
hira te dig through the wall, te enter and dis
cover mere, and so directed him aeveral tiraea.
frora one place to another, and still aaid, I
will show ihee yet greater abominations.
Thus is it with theae whora the Lerd leads
into an exaraination ef their own hearta (for
men are uaually strangers to theraaelves) ; by
the light of hia word and Spirit going before-
thera, he leta thera aee heapa of abominations
in every room, and the vilest in the raoat re-
¦ tired and darkest corners ; and truly, should
he leave thera there, they would despair of
reraedy. Ne, he makes this discovery en
purpoae that they ahould aue to him for help.
Do ao, then, aa raany aa have taken any
notice of the evils of your own hearta : tell
the Lerd they are hia own worka. He form
ed ihe heart of man within him, and they are
his own choice too : My son, give me thy
heart. Entreathim to redresa all thoae abus
es wherewith Satan and sin have fiUed it.
and then, te take peaaession of it himaelf, for
therein conaiata ita happineas. Thia is,
should be, a main end of our resortings to
hia houae and aervice. W rong not youraelvea
80 far aa to turn these seripus exerciaea ef re-
Ugien into an idle divertiseraent. What a
happineaa were it, if every tirae you come to
his solemn worship, seme of your strongest
sins did receive a new wcund, and spme of
your weakest graces a new strength I

James iu. I7.
But the Wisdom that is from above, is first
pure, then peaceable, gentle, and ea.sy to
be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,
without partiality, and without hypocrisy,
Gon doth know, that in ihe day ihat ye
shall cat thereof, your eyes shall be opened,
and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil. Gen. iii. 5, was the first hissing pf that
old serpent by whicii he poisoned mankind
in the root. Man, not contented with the im
pression of God'a image in which he was
created, lost it by catching at a ahadow ;
cUmbing higher than hia station, he fell far
below it : aeeking to be more than man, to
become as God, he made hiraself leaa than
man. He lodged not a night in honour,
but became as the beasts that perish, Paalra
xlix. 12. Ever since, nature's beat wisdom
is full of impurity, turhulency, anddistemper ;
nor can any thing rectify it, but a wiadom
frem above, tbat both cleanseth and coir.pos-
eth the soul : ii is first pure, and then peace
able. This epistle, as some that foUew, is called
general, both by reaspn pf the dispersion cf
the parties te whom it is addreaaed, and th.^
univeraality of the aubject which it treats :
containing a great number (if net all) ef the
necessary directions and comforts ef a Chria
tian's life, beth -from the active and paaaive
part of it. It ia evident that the apoatle's
raain design ia, to arra the disperaed Jews
against all kinda ef teraptations, both these
of affliction, in chapter i. 2, and sinful temp
tations, verae 13. And having discoursed
of two special raeana pf atrengthening them
againat bpth, apeaking te God in prayer, and
hearing God apeak in hia word, in the two
last veraea of that 1st chap, he recoraraends,
as chief duties of religion, and sure evidences
of integrity in Religion, first, meekness and
moderation chiefly in their speechea, and
then charity and purity in their actions ;
insisting largely upon the latter, in the 2d
chapter, and upon the forraer, the ruUng of
the tpngne, in his 3d chapter ; and here to
wards the end of it, he shows the true eppo-
site spring of raiacaniage in apeech and ac-

3,-;2

SERMON I.

tion, and pf right prdering and regulating nf
Dpth. Evil cpnversatipn, strifes, and envy
ings, are the fraits of a base wiadom that ia
earthly, sensual, and devilish, ver. 15 ; but
purity, meekness, and mercy, are the proper
effects and certain signs of heavenly wiadom.
The wisdom that is from above, is first
pure ; its gendeness can agree witb any
thing except impurity: then'nis peaceable ;
it offends nobody, except purity offend them :
it is not raging and boisterous. It ia net only
pure, being void of that mfre and dirt which
.he wicked are aaid to cast out like the aea,
laa. IvU. 20, but peaceable likewiae ; not
swelling and restiess Uke the sea, as is there
said of the wicked. Nor is it only peaceable
negativel- ,noi offending,hut as the word bears,
u^nvixv, pacific, disposed te make and seek
peace ; and as it readUy offends none, so is it
not easUy offended. It ia gentle and moderate,
sviii-An; ; and if pffended, nj^rndns, easily
intreated tp fprgive : and as it easily pass
eth by men's pffences, sp it dpth net pass-
by, but looks upon thefr distreaaea and
wants, as fuU of corapassion, as it is free frora
unruly and disterapered passions. Noriests it
in an affecting sympathy ; its mercy is helpfij,
fuU of mercy and good fruits : and it both
forgives and pities and gives : without par
tiality, and without hypocrisy [xlixx^iro; koi
avwox^iros.] The word a^ixn^iros may as
weU bear another sense, no less suiting both
with his wisdom and these its ether quaU
ties ; that is, not taking upon it a censorious
discerning and judging of others. They
that have raost of this wisdom are least rigid
to those who have leas of it. I know no
better evidence of sfrength in grace, than to
bear much with those that are weak in it.
And, lastly, aa it spares the infirraities of
othera, ap it raakes net false and vain shews
of its ewn exceUencies ; it ia without hypo
crisy. This deiues two things, both dissi
mulation and oatentatiori. The art of dissem-
bUng or hypocrite craft is no part of this wia
dom ; and for the other, ostentation, surely
the air of applause is too ligb^ a purchaae
for soUd wisdom. The works ef this wisdom
may be seen, yea they sheuld be seen, and
may posaibly be now and then recoraraended ;
but they should not be done for that low end,
either to be aeen or to be cpraraended.
Surely, np, being pf so noble extraction;
this having deacended frora heaven, wUl be
Uttle careful fer the eatiraation of those that
are of the earth, and are but too often of the
earth, earthly.
The due order ef handUng these particu
lars more ffidly cannot weU be missed : doubt
less the subject, wisdom from above, requires
our first consideration ; next, the exceUent
quaUties that are atfributed to it ; and lastly,
thefr prder is tp be cpnsidered, the rather be-
cauae se clearly expressed — first pure,
peaceable, Scc.

Wisdom from above. There be two things
in that : there is the general term ef wisdom
common tp divers sprts pf wisdpm, thpugh
mpst eminentiy and truly belpnging tp this
best wisdpra. Then there is tbe birth or
priginal pf this wisdpm, serving as its differ.
ence tp specify and distinguish it frpm aU the
rest — wisdpm from above. Wisdom in the
general is a very plauaible word among
men. Whp ia there that wpuld npt wiUing.
ly pass for wise ? Yea often those that are
least of aU such, are most deairoua to be ac-
counted auch ; and where thia faUa them,
they uauaUy make up that want in thefr own
conceit, and steong opinion. Nor do men
only thus love the reputation of wisdom,
but they naturaUy desfre to be wise, as they
do to be happy ; yet through conupt nature's
bUndness, they do as naturaUy mistake and
faU short both of the one and the ether ; and
being pnce wrpng, the mere prpgress they
make, they are further put pf the way : and
pretending tp wisdpm in a false way, they
StiU befpol themselves, as the aposde speaks,
Rora. i. 22 : tpxirxoVTSs Sivxi irofei tfiM^xvSyiirxy,
prpfessing themselves tp be wiae, tbey became
fools. Our apoatie, ver. 15, apeaking of that wick
ed wiadora that ia fruitful of wronga, atrifea,
and debates, and that is only abusively to
be caUed wiadom, shews what kind of wis.
dom it iSj by three notable characters, earth
ly, natural, and deviUsh ; which though
they be here jointiy attributed te one and the
same subject, yet we may make use of them
to signify some differences of false wisdom.
There is an 'infemal, or deviUsh wisdom,
properfor contriving cruelties and oppressions,
or subtUe shifts and deceits, that make
atheism a raain basis and piUar of state poU.
cy ; such are those that devise mischief upon
thefr beds, &c. Mic. U. 1. This is serpen. -
tine wisdora, not joined with, but most op.
posite to the dove-Uke simpUcity. There is
an earthly wisdom that draws not so deep in
impiety as that other, yet is sufficient to keep
a man out pf aU acquaintance with Ged and
divine matters, and is drawing his eye per.
petuaUy dpwnwards ; emplpying hira in the
pursuit pf such things as cannpt fiU the spul
except it be with anguish and vexatien, Ezek.
xxviii. 4, 5. That dexterity pf gathering
riches, when it is npt attended with the Chris.
tian art of right using them, abases men's
souls, and indisppses them wheUy for this
wisdom that is from above. There is a
natural wisdom far more plausible than the
other two, more harmless than that helUsh
wisdppi, and mpre refined than that earthly
wisdpm, yet ne more able to make man hply
and happy than they ; natural ^ox"": : it is
the wprd tbe appsde St. Paul useth, 1 Cpr.
ii. 14, avd^oiTfos •^v^ix.os, naraing the natural
then I raan by his better part, his spul ; intiraating
that the spul, even in the highest faculty of it,

SERMON 1.

353

the understanding, and tbat in the highest
pitch efexceUency to which nature can raise
it, is blind in spiritual objects : things that
are above it, cannot-be known but by a wis
dom from above. Nature neither affords thia
wisdora, rior can it of itself acquire it. This
ia to advertise ua, that we mistake not mora
lity and comraon knowledge, even of divine
thinga, for ihe wisdom thai is from above.
Thia may raiae a man high above the vulgar,
aa the tops of the highest mountains leave
the vaUeys below them ; yet is it still aa far
short of true supernatural wisdora, as tbe
higheat earth ia ofthe higheat aphere. There
ia one main point of the method ef this wia
dom that ia of raost hard digestion to a natu
ral man, and the more natural wise he be,
the worse he likes it — If any man would be
ivise, let him become a fool, that he may
become wise, 1 Cor. iii. 18. There is
nothing gives nature a greater prejudice
against reUgion than this initial point of
self-denial : when men of erainent learning
or the atrong politiciana hear, that if they
wiU come te Christ, they raust renounce
their own wisdora to be fit for his, raany of
thera go away aa aonowful as the young man,
when he heard of selUng aU hia goods and
giving them to the poor.
Jeaus Christ is that etemal and substan
tial wisdom that came frora above, to deUver
raen frora perishing in their affected folly, as
you find it at large, Prov. viii-r , St. Paul in
the 1st chap, ofhis first epiatle to the Corin
thiana caUs him the wisdom of God, ver. 24 ;
that shews his excellency in hiraself; and
ver. 30, he teUs us that he is made of God
our wisdom ; that shews hia uaefulneaa to ua ;
and by bim alone is thia infuaed wiadom from
above conveyed To ua — In him are hid ihe
treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Col.
ii. 3. And from his fulness (if at all) we
all receive grace for grace ; and of aU graces,
first some meaaurea of thia wiadora, without
which no raan can know hiraaelf, much leaa
can he know God. Now thia supematural
wisdom bath in it; both speculation and pru
dence. It is contemplative and practical.
These two must net be separated, / wisdom
dwell with prudence, Prov. viii, 12. This
wisdom in its contemplative part reads Christ
much, and discovers in him a new world of
hidden exceUencies unknown to this old
world. There are treasures of wisdom in
him. Col. ii. 3, but they are hid, and no
eye seea them but that which ia enlightened
with thia wiadora : no, it ia irapoaaible, aa
one says,* rx ^ux yvuvxi x^werovros &sov, to
know divine things while God concealeth
thera But when the renewed understanding
of a Christian is once initiated into this study,
it both grows daily more and raore apprehen
sive, and Christ becoraes mere coraraunica-
fcivc of himself^ and raakes the soul acquaint-
• Sophocles.

ed with the amiable countenance of his
Father in him reconciled. No man hath
seen God at any time ; the only-begotten
Son which is in the bosom of ihe Father,
he hath declared him, St. John i, 18.
What wonder if the unlettered and despised
Chriatian know more of the raysteries of
heaven than the naturalist, though both
wiae and learned ? Chriat admits the believ
er into his bosom, and he is in the bosom
of the Father. But withal know, that all
this knpwlcdge, thpugh speculatively high,
yet descends to practice ; aa it leama what
God is, se it thence teacheth man what he
ahould be : this wisdom flpws frpm heaven,
and a heavenly conversation flows frora it,
as we find it there charactered by theae prac
tical gracea ef purity, peace, raeekneaa, &c.
Thia wiadom represents to ua, the purity
of God'a nature, 1 John iii, 3. It gives
the aoul an eye to see the coraeliness and
beauty of purity ; aa the philoaopher aaid ef
virtue, to the end it might be- loved, he
would wiah no raore but that it cculd be
aeen. And as it thus morally perauadea. So
by an inaenaible virtue it aaaimilates the SDul
to Christ, by frequent conteraplation. It
also produces all the raotives to hoUness and
obedience ; it begeta these precioua qualities
in the aoul ; it giveth a Christian a view of
the matchless virtues that are in Christ, and
stirs him up to a diligent, though imperfect
iraitation of them ; it acta before ua Chriat's
apotless purity, in whose mouth there was nu
guile, and so invites us to purity ; it repre
aenta the perpetual calmneaa of his spirit,
that no terapest could reach to disturb it ;
in his mouth there was no contentious noise,
his voice was not heard in the streets, and
thia recoramenda peaceableness and gsnile-
ness, and se in the rest here mentioned.
Hence I conceive may be fitly leamed for
our uae, aeeing here ia a due wiadora and
knowledge neceaaary for guidance, and direct
ing in the waya of purity and* peace ; it is
evident that gross ignorance cannot consist
with the truth ef religion, much less can it
be a help and advantage te it. I shaU ne
ver deny that a false superstitious religion
stands in need of it ; " not too much Scrip
ture-wisdom for the people." The pomp of
that vain religion, like court raasks, shews
best by candle-light ; fend nature likes it
weU ; the day of spiritual wisdom would
discover its imposture too clearly. But to
let their foul devotion paaa, (for auch it must
needs be that is born ef so black a mother as
ignorance,) let this wisdom at leaat be jua-
tified of thoae that pretend to be her chUdren.
It is laraentable that amongst us, where
knowledge is not withheld, raen should
through sloth and love of darkness, deprive
theraaelvea of it. What abundance of alraost
brutiah ignorance is araongst the coramons :
and thence uncleanness, and all raanner -of
Z

S.'i4

SERMON I.

wickedneas ; a darkneas that both hidea and
increaaeth irapurity ! What ia the reaaon
of 80 rauch irapiety and iniquity in aU piacea,
but the want of the knowledge of Gpd ?
Hosea iv. 1, 2, and 2 Thesa. i. 8, not know
ing Jesus Christ, and not obeying his gos
pel, are joined togetiier. It wiU be found
true, that where there is ne obedience there
ia no right knowledge of Chriat : but out of
all queation, where there is not a cerapetency
of knowledge, there can be ne obedience ;
and aa theae two lodge together, ao obaerve
what attends thera both, ibid. : He shall
come in flaming fire, to render vengeance on
them that know not God, and that obey not
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And if there be any that think to shroud
unpunished amongst the thickets of igno
rance, especially araidsftbe raeans of know
ledge, take notice of this, though it raay hide
the defonnity of sin frora your own sight for
a tirae, it caimot paUiate it frora the piercing
eye, ner cover it frora the revenging hand of
divine justice. As you would escape then
that wrath to ceme, come te wisdom's school ;
and how aimple soever ye be as to tbia world,
if you weuld net periah with the werld, leam
to be wiae unte aalvation.
And truly it is raainly important for this
effect, that the ministeraof thegoapel be active
and dexterous in iraparting this wisdom to
their peeple. If they would have their con
versation te be holy, and peaceable, and fruit
ful, &c., the most expedient way is once to
. principle thera well in the fundamentals of
religion, for therein is their greaf defect.
Hew can they walk evenly and regularly so
ling as they are in the dark ? One main thing
is to be often pointing at the way te Christ,
the fountain of this wiadora. Witheut this,
you bid thera to be clothed, and clothe thera
not. How needful then ia it that paatora them
selves be aeera indeed, aa the propheta were
called ef eld ; net only faithful but wiae dia-
penaers, as our Savieur apeaka, St. Luke xii.
42. That they be ^i^xktik-i, able, and apt
to teach, 1 Tira. iii. 2. Laudahle ia the
prudence that triea much the cburchea' atore-
housea, the aerainariea of learning ; but with
al, it ia not to be forgot, that as a due fumi-
ture of learning is vefy requiaite for thia era
ployraent, 80 it ia npt sufficient. When pne
ia duly enriched that way, there ia yet pne
thing wanting that growa not in achools ; ex
cept thia infuaed wisdom frem above seaaon
and satisfy aU other endowraenta, they remain
.xoiv, comraon and unholy, and therefore un-
.fit fer the aanctuary. Amongat other weak
pretencea to Chriat'a favour in the last day,
this is one  We have preached in thy name ;
yet aaya Christ, I never knew you ; surely
then the^ knew not him, and yet they preach
ed hira. Cold and Ufeless (though never ao
nne and well contrived) must those diacourses

be, that are of an unknown Chriat. Pastors
are called angela, and therefore, though they
use tbe secondary helpa of knpwledge, they
are mainly tp bring their raessage from above,
frora the fountain, the head ef this pure wis.
dora. Pure, Ii it corae frora above it must needs
be pure eriginally, yea it ia femiaUy pure too,
being a main trait of God'a renewed image
in the aoul. By thia wiadom the underatand.
ing is both refined and strengthened to en.
tertain right conceptiona ef God in hia nature
and worka And thia ia priraarUy neceaaary,
that the mind be not infected with false
opinions in religion : if the apring-bead be
•poUuted, the atreama cannot be pure ; it ia
more iraportant than men uaually think for
a good life. But that which I suppose is
here chiefly intended, ia, that it ia effectively
and practically pure, it purifies the heart.
Acts XV, 9, (aaid of faith, which in aome
aenae and acceptation differa not much from
thia wiadora,) and conaequently the words
and actiona that flow frora the heart.
Thia purity aorae render chaatity. The
wiadora from above ia chaate, xyvTi. The
word ia indeed eften ao taken, and includea
that here, but it ia too nanow a aense to re
strict it to that only. It ia here an universal
detestation of aU impurity, beth of fleah and
apirit, as the apostle speaka, 2 Cor. vii. I.
Pride, self-love, profaneneaa of apirit and ir-
religion, though tbey de npt ap properly pel.
lute the body aa carnal uncleanneaa ; yet they
do no leaa defile the aoul, and' make it abo
rainable in the sight ef God. Thoae apoa-
tate angels called unclean apirita, are inca
pable of bodily defilement ; (though indeed
they tempt and inveigle raen to it ;) their own
inherent poUutiona rauat needs be spiritual,
fer they are spirits. Idolatry in scripture
goes ,often under the narae of fornication and
adultery, and indeed theae aina may mutually
bortow and* lend their naraes the one te tbe
other ; idolatry may well be caUed apiritual
unchaatity ; and unchaate love, carnal ido
latry. Earthly raindedneaa Ukewiae ia an im
purity of the soul : in the apoatle'a phraae,
cevetousneaa is idolatty, and ae a apiritual
poUution ; yet it may well share with ido
latry in ita bonowed name, and be caUed
adultery toe ; for it raiabeatows the soul's
prirae affection upon the creature, which by
right is God's peculiar.
Thia purity that true wisdom worka ia
contrary to aU poUution. We knew then in
aorae raeaaure what it ia ; it reata to inquire
where it is, and there is the difficulty ; it is
far eaaier to design it in itself, than te find
it among men. Who can say, I have made
my heart clean ? Prov. xx. 9. Look upon
the greatest part of marikind, and you may
know at first sight, that purity ia net to be
looked for ampng them ; they suffer it net tp
corae near them, much less to dwell with

SERMON I.

356

them and within them ; they hate tiie very
semblance pf it in pthers, and themselves de
Ught in intemperance and all manner of li-
centiouaneasi, like fooliah children atriving
whp ahaU gp furtheat intp the mire; theae
cannpt aay, they have made clean their hearta,
for all their words and actiona will belie them.
If you come to die mere moralist, theworid'a
honest man, and aak him, it may be he wiU
tell you, he hath cleanaed hia heart ; but
beUeve hira not. It will appear he ia not
yet cleansed, because he says he has done it
hiraSelf, for (you know) there Uiust be some
other, beaides man, at this work. Again he
rising no higher than nature, hath npne pf
this heavenly wisdpm in hira, and therefpre
is withput this purity tup. But if ypu chance
tp take Kotice of aome well-skilled hypocrite,
every thing you raeet with raakes you alraoat
confident, that there ia purity ; yet if he be
strictly put to it, he may raake aome good
account ef the pains he hath taken to refine
bis tongue and hia pubUc actions, but he
dare not aay be hath raade clean hia heart ;
it troubles his peace to be asked the queation.
He never intended to baniali sin, but to re
tire it to hia innermoat ~ and beat room, that
ao it raight dweU unaeen within him ; and
where then ahould it lodge but in hia heart ?
Yet possibly becauae wha?t ia outward ia ao
fair, and man cannot look deeper to contra
dict him, he raay embolden bimself to say,
he is inwardly suitable to his appearance ;
but there is a day at hand that shall, to his
endless sharae, at once discover both hia ae
cret impurity and hia impudence in denying
it. After theae, there foUow a few des-iaed
and melancholy peraena (at leaat as to out
ward' appearance) wbo are almost alwaya
hanging down their heada, and complaining
of abundant ainfulness. And sure, purity
cannot be expected in theae who are se far
from it by their own confession ; yet the trath
ia, that auch purity aa ia here below, will
either be found te lodge araong these, or no
where. Be not deceived ; think not that
they who loathe, and (aa they can) fly from
the unholineaa of the world, are therefore
taken with the conceit of their own holineaa ;
but aa their perfect purity ef justification is
hy Christ's imputed righteousneaa, ao likewise
they will know, and do always acknpwledge,
that their inherent hpUnesa is frora above too,
from the same fountain, Jesus Christ. The
wiadom from above ia pure, thia ia their en
gagement to huraUity, fer it excludes vaunt
ing and boaating ; and beaides that, it is ira
perfect, troubled and stained with sin, which
is enough to keep them humble. Thefr
daily sad experience wiU net suft'er them to
be so mistaken ; tiieir raany faults of infirrai
ty, cannot but Iteep thera frora this presu^-
tuous fault. There is a generation indeed
liiat is pure in their own eyes, fProv. xxx.

12,) but they are such as are not washed
from their filthiness. They that are wash
ed, are still bewailing, that they again con
tract ao much defilement. The moat puri
fied Chriatiana are they that are mest sensible
of tbeir impurity. Therefore I called not
thia an universal freedom frora pollution, but
an univeraal deteatation of It : they that are
tiius pure are dally defiled with many sins,
but they cannet be in love with any ain at
aU, nor do they willingly diapenae with the
smaUest sina, which a natural raan either sees
not to be sin, (though hia dira raoon-Ught
diacovera grosser evils,) or if he does see
thera, yet he judges it too rauch niceness to
choose a great inconvenience rather than a
little sin. Again they differ in another par
ticular ; a natural raan may be so far in love
with virtue after hia manner, aa to dialike his
own faulta and reaolve to araend thera, but
yet he would think it a great weakneaa to ait
down and mourn for -sin, and to afflict his
soul, as the Scripture speaka. The Chris
tian's repentance goea not ao Ughtly ; there
ia il great deal more work in it, 2 Cor. vii.
1 1 . There is uot only indignation againat
impurity, but it proceeds to revenge. The
saints we read of in Scripture were asharaed
of their impurity, but never of their teara for
it. Let the world enjoy their ewn thoughta,
and account it foUy ; yet sure the Christian
that deUghts in purity, seeing he cannot be
free from daily sin, when he retires hiraaelf
at night, is then beat contented when his
eyes serve hira raost plentifully to weep out
the stains of the by-past day ; yet he knows
withal, that it is only his Redeeraer's blood
that takes away the guilt of thera. Thia is
the condition of thoae tbat are truly, though
not yet fully cleansed frora tbe poUutiona of
the werld, by the apirit of wisdora and purity.
WhaJt raean they then, that would argue
themaelvea out of this number, becauae tbey
find yet much drosa left, and that they are
not se defecated and refined as they weuld
wish to be ? On the contrary, this hatred of
ppllution testifies strpngly that the ccntrary
pf it, purity, is there ; and, though ita be
ginnings be araall, deubt not, it shall in the
end be victorious ; the sraoking of this flax
shews indeed that there is gross raatter there,
but it witnesseth Ukewise tbat there is fire in
it too ; and though it be little, we have
Christ's own word for it, that it shaU not be
quenched ; and if he favour it, no ether
pewer shall be able to quench it. You find
not indeed absolute' holiness in your persons,
ner in your beat perforraancea ; yet if ypu
breathe and fqUow' after it, if the pulae of the
Aeart beats thus, if the raain current of your
affection be towards purity, if sin be in you
as your disease and greatest grief, and not as
your delight, then take courage, you are as
pure aa travellera can be ; and notwithatand
ing that imi-ure apirit, Satan, and the im-

.?56

SERMON II.

purity of your own apirits, vex you daily with
teraptations, and often foUyou, yet in despite
of thera aU, you ahall arrive safe at horae,
where perfection dweUs.
Wisdom from above is pure. Be aahara
ed then of your extreme foUy, you that t,ike
pleaaure in any kind ef uncleanneaa, eapecial-
ly aeeing God hath reforraed and purged hia
house araongat us : you that are, or ahpuld
be his living temples, remain net unrefpmied;
if you do, church-reformation wiU be se far
from profiting you, that, aa a clearer light, it
will but aerve to make your impurity both
more viaible and raore inexcusable. If you
raean that the Hely Ghoat should dwell with
you, entertain him, avoiding both spiritual
and fleshly pollutions. The word here uaed
doth raore particularly signify chaatity ; and
certainly wherever this wiadora frora above is,
this coraely grace ia one of her attendaiita.
Whatever any have been in tiraes past, let
all be perauaded henceforth to raortify all
luatful and carnal affectiona ; know that there
is raore true and lasting pleasure in the con
terapt of unlawful pleasurea, than in the en
joyraent of thera. Grieve net, then, the good
Spirit of God with actions or speeches, yea,
or with thoughts that are impure. The un
holy aoul, like the myatical Babylon, Apoc.
xiii., raakes itself a cage of unclean birds
and an habitation of filthy spirits ; and if it
continues to be such, it raust, when it dis
lodges, take up its . habitation with cursed
spirits for ever in utter darkness. But as for
those that ate sincerely and affectionately pure,
that is, pure in heart, our Saviour hath pro
nounced their begun happiness — Blessed are
- they ihat are pure in heart ; and assured
thera of full happiness, for ihey shall see
God. Thia wiadora ia aent from heaven on
purpoae to guide the elect thither by the way
of purity. And mark how weU their reward
ia auited to their labour ; their frequent con
templating and beholding of God'a purity aa
they could, while they were on their journey,
and their labouring te be like him, shall
bring thera to sit down in glory, and te be
fer ever the pure beholders of that purest ob
ject : They shall see God. What thia ia we
cannot teU you, nor can you conceive it ;
but walk heavenwarda in purity, and long to
be there, where you ahaU knew what it meana ;
for you shall see him as he is.
Now to that blessed Trinity be praise for
ever.

SERMON IL

/ will return to my-place, (saith the Lord
by his prophet,) till they acknowledge their
cffence, and sfek my face In their affiic

tion they will seek me early, Hos. v. 15.
The Father of raerciea hides hiraself from hij
children, net tp lose them, but that they may
seek him, and may learn, having found him,
to keep cloaer by him than formerly. He
threatens them, to keep them from punish
ment ; if hia threatening work aubmission,
it ia weU ; if not, he puniahea them gently,
to save them from destruction. He aeeks no
raore, but that they acknowledge their offence, '
and aeek hia face. Wonderful clemency 1
for who can forbear te confeaa multitudea of
offencea, that know themaelvea ? And who
can chooae but aeek thy face, . that ever aaw'
thy face, and that know thee ? . In iheir af
fiiction they will seek me early. He that
praya not tiU affliction comea and forces him
to it, is very slothful ; but he that praya not
in affliction, ia altogether aenaeless. Certain
ly they that at thia time are not more than
ordinarily fervent in prayer, or do not at leaat
deaire and atrive to be ao, cannot well think
that there ia any apiritual Ufe within them.
Sure it is high time to stir up ouraelvea to
prayera and tears. All raay bear arras in
that kind of service. Weak woraen raay be
strong in prayer; and those teara, wherein
they uauaUy abound upon other occaaiona,
cannot be so weU apent aa this way. Let
them not run out in hewlinga and impatience,
but bring them, by bewailing aina, private aa
weU aa public, te quench this public fire.
And ye men, yea, ye men of courage, account
it no disparagement thua to weep. We read
often of David'a teara, which was no stain
to hia valour. That cloud that hanga over
ua, which the frequent vapours of our sins
have raade, except it dissolve and faU down
again in these sweet showers of godly tears,
is certainly reserved to be the matter of a
dreadful storm. Be instant every one in
secret for the averting of this wrath, and let
us now again unite the criea of our hearta fer
thia purpoae to our compassionate Ged, in
the narae and mediation nf hia Spn, the Lprd
Jeaua Chriat.

Job xxxiv. 31, 32.
Surely it is meet io be said unto God, I
have borne chastisement, I will not of
fend any more. That which I see not,
teach thou me : if I have done iniquity,
I will do no more.
The great sin, and the great misery of
raan ia, the fprgetting ef God ; and the great
end and uae of his works and of his word is,
to teach us the right remembrance and con
sideratipn pf him in all estates. These wprds
d^articularly instruct us in the application
pf.pur thpughts tpwards him in the time of
afflictipn. The shprtness and the various

SERMON IL

357

signification pf the words used in the origi
nal, gives occasion te some other readings and
another sense of them. But thia we have in
our translation, being net only very profita
ble, but very congruous both to the words of
the primitive text, and to the contexture of
the discourse ; I shaU keep to it, without di
viding your thoughts by the mentioning of
any other. Neither will I lead you ap far
about as to speak of the great dispute of this
book, and the question about which it is
held. He that speaks here, though the
voungest of the ccrapany, yet, as a wise and
calra-spinied raan, clpses all with a discpurae
of exceUent teraper, and full of grave, use
ful instructions, araongst which this is one : —
Surely it is meet to be said, or spoke, io
God. This speaking to God, though it raay
be vocal, yet it is not necessarily nor chiefly
so, but is always raainly, and raay often be,
only raental ; without thia, the worda of the
mouth, hew weU chosen and well expressed
aoever they be, are to God of no account or
signification at all. But if the heart apeak,
even when there ia net a word in the mouth,
it is that he hearkens to, and regarda that
speech, though made by a voice that none
beara but he, and ia a language that none
underatands hut he.
But it ia a rare, unfrequented thing, this-
communing.of the heart with God, speaking
ita thoughts to hira conceming itself, and con
cerning hira and his deaUng with it, and the
purposes and intentions it hath towards hira ;
which is tbe speech here recoraraended, and
is that divine exercise of raeditation, and
aoUloquy of the soul with itself, and with
God, hearkening what the Lord God apeaka
to ua, within ua, and our hearta echoing and
reaounding hia worda, aa Paalra xxviL 8, 9,
and opening te hira our thoughts of thera,
and of ourselves. Though they stand open,
and he sees them all, even when we teU him
not of them, yet because he lovea us, he lovea
to hear them of eur own speaking ; let me
hear thy voice, for it is sweet ; aa a father
deUghta in the littie stararaering, lisping lan
guage of his beloved child. And if the re
flex affection ef children be in us,, we will
love also to speak with our Father, and to
teU hira all our mind (^'rapptja-ix), and to
be eften with him in the entertainmeij^a of
our aecret thougbta.
But the mest of raen are little within ;
either they wear out their hours in vairi dis
course with others, or possibly valuer dia
couraes with theraaelves ; even these that are
not of tbe worat sort, and possibly that have
their times of secret prayer, yet dp not so de
Ught to think of God and to speak with him,
aa they do to be converaant in other affairs
and companies, and discourses, in which
there is a great deal of froth and eraptiness.
Men think, by talking of many things,^ to
be refreshed, and yet when they have done,

find that It is nothing ; and tiiat they had
much better have been alone, or have said
nothing. Our thoughts and speeches in most
things run to wasttfj yea are defiled, as water
spilt on the ground, is both lest, cannot be
gathered up again, and it is polluted, min
gled with dust. But ne word spoken to God,
from the serioua aenae of a holy heart, is lost ;
he receives it, and returna it into our bosora
with advantage : a soul that delighta to apeak
to him, will find that he alao delighta te apeak
to it. And this coraraunication certainly is
the aweete8t and happiest choice, to apeak
little with men, and much with Ged. One
abort word, auch aa thia here, apoken to God,
in a darted thought, eases the heart more
when it ia afflicted, than the largeat dia
couraes and complainings to the greatest and
most powerful of men, or the kindest and
most friendly. It gives not only ease but joy
te say to God, / have sinned, yet I am
thine ; or as here, / have borne chastise
ment, I will no more offend. The time of
affliction is peculiarly a time of apeaking to
God, . and such speech as this ia peculiarly
befitting such a time. And this is one great
recoramendation of affliction, that it is a time
of wiaer and more sober thoughts ; a tirae of
the retuming ef the raind inwards and up
wards. A high place, fulness and pleasure
draw the mind more outwards ; great light
and white colours disgregate the sight of the
eye, and the very thoughts of the raind too.
And men find that the night ia a fitter aeaaon
for dedp thoughta. It is better, aaya Solo
mon, to go to the house of mourning, than
to the house of feasting : those blacks raade
the raind raore serious. It ia a rare thing to
find much retirement unto God, much hu
raility and brokeniieaa of apirit, true purity
and spiritualneas of heart, in the affluence*
and great prosperities of the werld. It is nc
easy tiling to cany a very full cup even, and
to digest weU the fatnesa ef a great estate and
great place. They are not te be envied that
have them ; even though they be of the bet
ter sort of raen, it is a thousand to one but
that they ahall be losers by the gains and ad
vancements of this werld ; suffering propor
tionably great abateraent of their best advan
tages by their prosperity. The generality of
men, while they are at ease, do aecurely ne
glect God, and Uttle mind either to apeak to
him, or to hear him speak to thera. God
complains thus of his pwn pepple, / spoke to
them in their prosperity, and they would
not hear. The npisea ef coach-wheela, of
their pleasurea, and of their great affairs, so
fill their ears, that the still voice, wherein
Gpd is, cannpt be heard ; / will bring her
into ihe wilderness, and there I will speah
to her heart, says Gpd pf hia church. There
the heart ia mere at quiet te hear God, and to
speak to him, and is diapoaed to apeak in the
style here prescribed, humbly and repentingly.

3:;8

SERMON IL

/ have borne chastisement. The apea'
ing thua unto God under affliction aignifiea,
that our affliction ia from his hand, and to
the acknowledgement of this truth, the very
natural consciences of men do incline them
'i'hough trouble be the general let of raan
kind, yet it doth not corae on bira by an ira-
providential fataUty. Though man _is born
to trouble as the sparks fly upwards, (Job
v- 7,) yet it comes not out of ihe dust. It
is no leaa true, and in itaelf no less clear,
that all the good we enjoy, and all the evil
we suffer, coraes from the same hand ; but
we are naturally more aensible of evil than of
good, and therefore do more readily reflect
upon tbe original and causes ef it. Our
xlistressea lead ua unte the notice of the
righteous God inflicting thera, and our un
righteous waya procuring thera, and provok
ing hira so to do, and therefore it ia raeet
to apeak in this auhmiaaive, humble language
to him. It is by all means neceaaary to speak
to him ; he is the party we bave to deal with
al, or to speak to, even in those afflictiona
whereof men are the intervenient, visible
causea. They are, indeed, but inatrumental
cauaes, the rod and staff (Heb. xii. 6,) in
hia hand that amite us ; therefore eur husi-
ness is with hira, in whpse suprerae hand
alone the raitigations and increases, the con
tinuance, and the ending of eur troubles Ue,
Who gave Jacob to the spoil, and Israel to
the robbers ? Did not the Lord, against
whom we liave sinned 9 So Lara. i. 14
The yoke of my transgression is bound en by
his hand. Therefore it is altogether necessary
in aU afflictiona to apeak to hira, it ia meet to
speak thua tohim : Ihave borne chastisement,
I -will no more offend. Theae words have in
thera the ttue composition of real repentance,
hurable subraission, and hely resolution. /
have borne chastisement ; that ia, '^ I have
juatly borne it, and do heartily subrait to it :
I bear it jusdy, and take it well: Lord, I ac-
<iuit thee, and accuse myself" This lan
guage becoraes the raost innocent persons in
the world in their suffering. Job knew it
well, and did eften acknowledge it in his
preceding speeches. Though soraetiraes in
the heat of dispute, and oppesure te the un
charitable and unjust iraputations of his
-friends, he seems to overstrain the assertion
of his ewn integrity, (which EUhu here cor
rects,) you know he criea out, " I have
sinned against thee, what shall I do unto
ihee, O thou preserver of raen ?" Job vii
20 ; and chap. ix. 30, 31 : " If I wash ray
aelf with snow-water, and raake my hands ever
sp clean, yet ahalt theu plunge me in the
ditch, and mine own clothea shall abhor me,"
'Vain fooliah persons fret and foam at the
miscaniage of a cause they apprehend to be
righteous ; but thia ia a great vanity and in
considerate temerityin not observing the great
and apparent unrighteousness in the persons

managing it. But though both the cause-,
and tbe persons were just to the greatest
height imaginable amongst men, yet still
were it meet to speak thus unte Ged, in the
loweat acknowledgements and confesaions —
" that righteousness belongs unto hira, and
unto us shame and confusion ef face ;" so
saya the church, Lam. i. 18, " The Lord ia
righteoua, for I /have rebelled againat hia
comraandraenta." Though affliction is not
always designedly intended aa the chaatise-
ment of aorae particular ain, yet where ain is
(and that ia tbe case of all the aona of Adam,)
affliction coming in, raay safely be conaider
ed in its natural cognation and aUiance with
sin, and so preaa forth hurable confeaaiona of
ain, and reaolutiona against it. And thua,
in Lev. xxvi. 41, " They ahall accept ef the
punishment ef their iniquity," shall take
it humbly and'penitently, and kiss the rod.
Oh I that there were auch a heart in ua 1
that, inatead ef empty wprda that scatter them
selves in the wind, pur many vain diacpurses
we hpld ene with another concerning our
paat and preaent aufferinga, and further feara
and diaputing ef many fruitleas and endless
questions, we were raore abundantly tuming
our apeech thia way, in unto God, and say
ing, " We deaire to give thee glory, and take
aharae to ouraelvea, and to bear our chaatise-
raent, and to offend no mere, to return each-
from his evil way, and to gain this by the
furnace, the purging away of our droas, our
raany and great iniquitiea, our oatha, and
curainga, and lying, eur deceit and oppres-
aiena, and pride, and covetousneas, our baae
love ef ouraelve,^, and hating one another ;
that we may be deUvered from tbe tyranny
of our own luats and passions ; and in other
thinga, Let theLord do with ua as aeeraa good
in hia eyea. Speaking to Ged in Ephraira's
worda, Jer. xxxi. 18 — 20 ; words not unlike
theae weuld atir his boweks, as there ; as it
ia said, that one atring perfectly tuned to
anpther being touched, the ether atirs of it
self. When a stubborn child leaves strag
gUng under the rod, and turns to intreating,
the father then leaves striking ; nothing pver-
cpraea hira but that. When a raan aays
unto God, " Father, I have preveked thee
to this ; hut pardon, and, through thy graee,
I wiJl de so no more," then the rodia thrown
aaide, and the Father of merciea, and bia
humble child, fall to mutual tenderneaa and
embraces. What I see noi, teach thou me, Scc.
The great article of converaion ia the dis
engagement of the heart frora the love of ain.
In that poiture, as it actuaUy forsakes what
soever it perceives to be amiss, ao it Standa
in an abaolute readiness to retum to every
duty that yet lies hidden, upon the first dis
covery ; that is here the genuine voice of a
repentant sinner : What I see not, teach
thou mes Scc.

SER.MON II.

359

This is a very necessary suit, even for the
most discerning and clearest.sighted penitent,
both 111 reference to the coraraandment and
rule for discovering the general nature and
several kinds of sin ; and withal, for applica
tion of this general light to the exaraen of a
man's own heart and ways, that ao he raay
have a raore exact and particular account uf
hia pwn sins.
¦ The fprmer is the knowledge of the laws
of God, and rule by which a man is te try
and to judge himself. The most knowing
are net above the need of thia request, yea, I
am persuaded, the moat knowing know beat
how rauch they need it, and are raoat hum
bled in themselves in the conscience ef their
ignorance and darkneaa in divine thinga, and
are raoat earneat and preaaing in thia daily
.supplication fer increaae of light and apiritual
knowledge frora hira who is the fountain of
i t ; What I see not, teach thou me. On the
other side, the leaat knowing are often the
most confident that they know all, and sweUed
with a conceited sufficiency of their medel
and determination of aU thinga, both dograa
tical and practical ; and therefore are the
inoat iraperioua and raagiaterial in their con-
tluaiona, and tbe raoat impatient of contra
diction, er even of the meat modeat dissent.
The wiaeat and holieat persons speak al
ways in the humblest and raost depressing
style of their own knowledge, and that not
with an affectation of raodeaty, but in the
real aenae of the thing aa it ia, and the ain
cere account they give of it, and that cora
monly when they are declaring themaelvea
most solemnly, aa in the aight ef God, er
speaking in anpplication to hira with whom
they dare leaat of aU diaaemble. Whoao
ever he waa that apake theae worda, Prov.
xxx. 2, 3, sure he waa a man of erainent
wiadora and piety, and yet begina thus :
Surely I am more brutish than any man,
and have not the understanding of a man.
I liave neither learned wisdom, nor have I
the knowledge of the holy. And though
he waa ao diligent a atudent, and ao great a
proficient in the law of God, yet how ira
portunate a petitioner ia he, for the under
standing of it, as if he knew nothing at all !
Besides the like expreaaiona in other paalma,
in thia one paalra, (Pa. cxix,,) that being of
such length, hath nothing but the breath
ing forth of hia affection to the word and
law of God, how eften doth he in it reite
rate that, " Teach rae thy atatutea" 1 ao
often, that a carnal mind is tempted to grow
weary of it, as a nauseating tautology ; but
he made it stUl new, with the freshness and
vehemency of his affection. " Make me to
understand the way of thy precepta ; give
me understanding, and I shall keep thy law ;
aud open thou mine eyes, that I may see
the wonders of thy law ; unseal raine eyes,"
as if StiU veiled in dark. . These are the

eamest and nobly ambitious desires that
daily solicit holy hearts, and stir them to
soUcit the teacher of hearts, te be admitted
raore into the secrets and recesses of divine
knowledge, not those abysses that God in
tends should be secret still, and frora which
he hath baned out our curioaity, aa tbe
forbidden tree of knowledge — thoae aecrets
that belong to hiraaelf alone, and concern us
not to inquire after ; and certainly to be
wading in these deeps, is the way tp be
drowned in thera. The searcher of raajesty
shall be oppreased with glory ; yet, there ia
in man a perverae, prepoateroua desire, to
.pore upon such things as are on purpoae
hidden that we ahould not inquire after
thera, and to seek after useleaa, erapty ape
culations of thera, which is a luxury and in
temperance of the underatanding, like unto
that, arid spririgiiig frora that, which at firat
undid ua in the root. These are times full
of thoae erapty, airy queationa, and notions
in which there is no cleameaa nor certainty
to be attained, and if it were, yet would
aerve to little or no purpoae, not making the
raan that thinka he hath found them out,
one jot the better or holier man than he waa
before. What availa it, says that devout
author, to diapute and diacourae high con--
cerning the Trinity, and want huraility, and
80 displease that Trinity ? The light of
knowledge, suited according to the intend
ment of this copy, is of another nature, such
as purifies the heart and rectifies tbe Ufe.
" What I aee not, teach thou me," that is,
of auch thinga aa may serve this end ; " that
if I bave done iniquity I may do it no more."
This is sound and solid knowledge, auch a
light aa inflaraea the heart with the love ef
God, and of tbe beautiea of holineaa ; and
StiU, as it grows, makes these te grow
likewise. Such are atill, we see, David's
multiplied supplications in that psalra ; not
to know reaerved and unuseful things, but
Hide net thy coramandraents from me.
" Thy hands have made rae and fashioned
rae." ** Now, what is that thy creature and
workmanahip hega of thee ? Wbat ia that
which will complete ni,y being, and raake
rae do honour to ray Maker ? This is it ;
give rae underatanding, that I raay leam thy
coraraandraenta." You that would be auc-~
ceaaful auppUcants in this request, wean
your hearts from thia vanity of deaire : such
knowledge is as the cypreaa-trees, fair and
tall, but fraitleaa and aapleaa. Apply all
you know to the purging out ef ain, and in
tend all the further knowledge you deaire to
that aame end. Seek te be acquainted with
higher rules ef mortification and aelf-denial
and charity, than yet you have either prac
tised, or, poaaibly, so much as thought on ;
that by these, your affections and actions
may be advanced to greater degrees of pu
rity, and conformity with the holiness of

3fiO

3ER.M0N II.

God. And for diis end, beg of hira to the ministry of raen, yet the great teacher of
teach you what you see not in the exactness the true knowledge of his law, and of him.
pf the law and rule; and withal, which is self, and ef ourselves, is God. Men may
the other thing in this world, that what ypu , speak tp the ear, but his chair is in heaven
see npt in the application of it and aearch of that teachea hearts ; cathedram habet in

yourself, ' he would Ukewiae shew you ; for
in that, we are coraraonly as undiscerning
and dim-aighted aa in the other, even where
men have some notion of the rule and their
duty ; yet they perceive not their own, even
their gross recessions and declinings from it.
Iiove is a blinding thing, and above all
love, aelf-love ; and every man ia naturaUy
bia own flatterer ; he deala not faithfuUy and
sincerely with hiraaelf in the aearch ef hia
own evila. Now, this we are to entreat ef
God, to be led into ourselves, arid be ap
plied to the work ef self-aearching, by hia
own hand, not only to have a right appre
henaion of the law given ua, but a true
sight of ourselves. O ! hew raany hidden,
undiscerned, yea, unsuspected impurities
and foUies are there in the hearts ef these
that are most diligent in this inquiry, much
more- in the greater part, even of -such aa
cannot absplutely be denied the name of
good men ! Some honeat intentiona and
good desirea there are in thera ; but they are
alotbful, and unwiUing to go to thia painful
business of trying and judging themaelvea ;
and when they set to it, raany aecret corners,
and in those raany latent inordinacies, do
escape their search. " Cleanae me frora ae
cret faulta," aaya David ; that ia, not only
thoae hidden frora men, but even from my
self, as ia clearly his meaning, by the words
preceding — " 'Who knows the errors of his
life ?" Therefore it is necessary that we
desire light of God. '' The spirit of a man is
the candle of the Lord," aaya Solomon,
" aearching the innermost parta of the
belly;" but it is a candle unlighted when he
doea not illuminate it fer that aearch. Oh !
what a deal of vanity and love of this world
envy and aecret pride, lurka in many of our
hearts, that we do not at all perceive, till God
causeth ua to see it, leading us in, as he did
the prophet in the vision, to aee the idolatry
of the Jewa in hia very teraple, by which
they had provoked him to foraake it, and go
far from his aanctuary ; and having disco
vered ene parcel, leads hira in further, and
makea him enter through, the v/aU, and adda
often, " Son of man, hast thou aeen theae ?
I will cause thee to aee yet more aberaina-
tiona." Thua ia it within many of us that
should be hia templea ; but we have a raul.
titude of iraagea ef j^aleu8y, one lying hid
behind anether, tiU he thua discover them
to us. Oh ! what need have we to entreat
him thus : " What I see net, teach thou
me" !
Now, in both theae, both in the know
ledge of our rule and of ouraelvea, though
there may be some useful subserviency of

coslo. Matchless teacher ! that teacheth raore
in one hour than raen can do in a whole
age 1 tiiat can cure the invincible unteach.
ableness of the duUest heart, give under
standing to the simple, and open th^eyes of
the bUnd. So, then, would we be made
wise, wise for etemity, learned in real living
divinity, let ua ait down at bia feet, and
make this eur continual request — " What I
aee not, teach thou me."
And if I have done, Scc. That is, " any
iniquity that I yet know net of, any hidden
sin, let rae but once aee it, and I hope thou
shalt see it no raere within rae ; not wiUing
ly lodged and entertained." This speaks
an entire, total giving up all sin, and pro
claiming utter deflance and enmity against
it ; caating out wbat is already found out
without delay, and resolving that, atiU in
further search, aa ft ahall be more diacovered,
it ahaU be forthwith dialodged, without a
thought of aparing or partial indulgence to
any thing that ia sin, or Uke it, or may any
way befriend it, or be an incentive of it.
Thia is that absolute renouncing of sin, and
aunender of the whole aoul and our whole
selves to God, which, whoaoever do net
heartily consent to and resolve on, their reU
gion is in vain, and (which is here the
point) their affliction is in vain : whatsoever
they have suffered, they have gained nothing
by aU their sufferings, if their hearta reraain
StiU self-wiUed, atubbom, untamed, and un-
pliable to God. And this makes their mi
aeriea put pf meaaure raiserable, and their
sins out of measure sinful ; whereas, were it
thus qualified, and had it any operation thia
way tewards the subjecting ef their hearts
unto God, affliction were not to be caUed
misery, but weuld go under the title of a
bleaaedneaa : " Bleaaed ia the man whora
thou correcteat, and teacheat hira out of thy
law." That suiting with thia, here desired,
" I have bpme chaatiaement : what I aee
npt, teach thou rae ; and if I have done ini
quity, I will de it no raore." Oh ! were it
thua with ua, my brethren, how might we
rejoice, and inaert into our praises all that
Ja come upen ua, if it had wrought or ad
vanced any thing ef this kind within us, this
blessed compliance with the will of God, not
entertaining any thing knowingly that dis
pleases him ; finding a pleasure in the de
nial and deatruction ef our own moat beloved
pleaaurea at his appointment and for his
aake, whataoever is in ua, and deareat to us,
that would offend us, that weuld draw ua to
offend him ; were it the right hand, let it
be cut off, or the right eye, let it be plucked
or, te make shorter work, let the whole

SERMON in.

3fil

rr.an die at once, crucified with Jesus, " That
we may be henceforth dead to siy, dead to
the world, dead to ourselves, and' alive only
to God."

SERMON IIL

There is no exercise so delightful to
thoae that are truly godly as the solemn
worahip of God, if they find his powerful
and aenaible presence in it ; and indeed there
is nothing on earth raore like to heaven than
that is. But when he withdraws hiraself,
and withholds the influence and breathings
of his Spirit in his service, then good soula
find nothing more lifeleaa and uncomfort
able; but there ia thia difference, even at
such a tirae, betwixt thera and those that
have no spiritual Ufe in them at all, that
they find, and are sensible of this difference ;
whereas the other know not what it raeans.
And for the raoat part, the greateat number of
thoae that meet together with a profeaaion to
worahip God, yet are auch aa do not under
stand thia difference.. Cuatora and forma
lity draws many to the ordinary places of
piibUc worship, and fills too rauch ef the
roora ; and aometiraea novelty and curioaity,
to piacea not ordinary, haa a large ahare :
but hew few are there that come on purpoae
te raeet with God in hia worship, and to find
hia ppwer in atrengthening their weak faith,
and weakening their atrpng cpnuptipna ; af
fording thera proviaion of apiritual atrength
and corafort againat timea of trial ; and, in
a word, advancing thera sorae atepa forward
in their journey towarda heaven, where hap
pineas and perfection dwell ! Certainly these
sweet effects are to be found in these ordi
nances, if we would look after thera. Let
it grieve us then, that we have so often leat
our labour in th'e worship ef God. through
our ewn neglect, and intreat the Lord, that
at this tirae he would not aend us away
erapty ; fer how weak aoever the raeans be,
if he puta his strength, the work shall be
done, in sorae meaaure, to his glory and our
edification. Now, that he may be pleased
to de so, to leave a bleasing behind him, let
us pray, &c.

Isaiah xxviii. 5, 6
l7i that day shall the Lord of hosts be for |
a crown of glory, and for a diadem of\
beauty, unto the residue of his people ; \

and for a spirit of judgment to him that
sitteth in judgment, and for strength to
them ihat turn the battle to the gate.
Ali. the worka of Divine Providence are
fuU of wiadom and juatice, even every one
aeverally conaidered ; yet we observe them
best to be auch, when we take notice of their
order and rautual aspect one to another, whe
ther in the succession ef times, or such pas
sages as are conteraporary, and fall in toge
ther at one and the aarae tirae. As, when
the Lord bringa notable judgmenta upon the
proud workers of iniquity, and, at the sarae
tirae, confera apecial mercies on hia own
people ; who ia there that raay not perceive
juatice and mercy iUustrating and beautify
ing one anether ? It is true, the full reward
and perfect rest ef the godly ia not here be
low ; they would be aorry if it were : nor ia
thia the place of plenary puniahraent for the
ungodly. Men may look for a judgment
tpo, yet the Lord ia pleaaed at aome tiraes to
give aorae reaerablancea and pledgea, aa it
were, of that great and laat judgraent in re
markable paaaagea ef justice and mercy, at
ene and the same time ; and such a time it
is that the prophet foretels in this his ser
mon, which concems the two sister king
doras of Israel and Judah. Having de
nounced a heavy calaraity to corae upon Is
rael, under the narae of Ephraira, he cora
forta thoae of Judah, under the narae of the
residue of his people. They not being so
grossly, conupted as the other were, he stays
thera with this promiae : In thai day, saith
he, when the other shall be overwhelmed,
,as with a deluge, the Lord of hosts shall be
for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of
beauty, unto the residue of his peeple.
The proraise is made up ef three benefits,
yet the three are but one ; or rather, one is
all the three to them. The Lord of hosts ;
it is He that shall h6 their honour, wisdom,
and atrength. He shall be a crown, Scc.
But firat, a word of the circumstance of
time, /» that day.
That aovereign Lord who at firat aet up
the lighta of heaven to distinguish times and
seasons, by their constant motion, and like
wise, by hia auprerae providence ruling the
world, hath fixed the period of atatea and
kingdoms, and decreed their revolutions,
their rising, aacending, and their heigbt,
with tbeir decline and setting, hath, by a
special providejice, deterrained those changes
and vicissitudes that befal his church. That
which the Psalraist speaks, in his own par
ticular. Pa. xxxi. 14, 15, holda of each be
liever, and pf the church, which they maka
up in aU agea and piacea : " I said, Thpu
art my Gpd ; ray tiraea are in thy band ;" a
sure and steady hand indeed, and therefor*
he builds hia confidence upon it Ver. 13,
14. They took counsel against me, but I

302

SERMON III.

trusted in thee. And upen thia, he prays
in faith, that the face of God may ahine
upen hira, and the wicked raay be aaharaed.
Thua, then, aa raany aa are looking after
a day of mercy to the church of God, pray
and believe upon this ground, that the tirae
of it ia neither in the frail handa of those
lhat favour and seek it, ner in the hands ef
those that oppose it, how atrong arid subtile
soever they be, but in that Almighty hand
that doth in heaven and earth what pleaseth
Ilim, If he have said. Now, and here, will
I give a day of refreshment to ray people that
have long groaned for it, a day of the purity
and power of religion ; if, I say, this be his
purpose, they raust have soraewhat more
than omnipotence that can hinder it. M^hen
Ilia appointed time coraes, to make a day of
deliverance dawn upen his church, after thefr
long night, either of affliction or ef defection,
or both ; they that contrive againat that day-
spring, are as vain as if they would sit down
to plot how to hinder the aun frem riaing in
the morning. And they that let go their
hopes of it, because of great apparent diffi
culties that interpeae betwixt their eye and
tile accomplishraent of that work, they are
as weak aa if they ahould iraagine, when
raiata and thick vapoura appear about the
horizon iu the morning, that these could
hinder the rising of the aun, which ia so far
itut of their reach, and comes forth as a
bridegroom, and rejoices as a mighty man
lo run his race, aaya David. Those mists
may, indeed, hinder hia clear appearance,
and keep it from the eye fbr a time ; but
reaaon teUa us, even then, that they cannot
stop his courae. And faith assures us no
less in the other, that no difficulties can hold
back God's day and work of mercy to his
people. But you will say, " All the diffi
culty ia tb know whether the appointed time
be near or not." It ia true we have no par
ticular propheciea to asaure ua ; but certain
ly when God awakea hia children and makea
thera riae, this ia a probable aign that it is
near day. I raean, when he stirs thera up
to mere tban usual hopes, and prayers, and
endeavours, it is very likely that he intends
them some special good ; but yet more,
when he himself is arisen, (as it pleaseth
bim to speak,) that is, when he ia begun to
appear, in a more than ordinary manner ef
working by aingular and wonderful footateps
of Providence. Thia ia, no doubt, a aign that
he will go on te ahew reraarkable mercy to
Zion, and that the time to favour her, yea,
tlie set time is come, Paalra cii. 13.
Howsoever, then, let the wonderful work
ings ef the Lord move thoae of yeu tbat have
any pewer and opportunity, to be now (if ever)
active, for the greatest good, both of the pre
sent age and of poaterity. And you that
can be no other way uaeful, yet you shall be
no sraaU helpers if you be much in prayer ;

let both your hopea and your fears serve to
sharpen your prayers. Be not too rauch de
jected with any diaceurageraent, neither be'
ye camaUy lifted up with outward appear.'
ancea ; for the heart of him that is lifted
up is noi upright in him, Hab. ii. 4 ; but
live, as the just do, by your faith ; and if
the deferring of your hopea ahould sicken
your hearts,- aa Soloraon speaka, yet atay
and corafort - thera with the cordial of the'
proraises. This you are aure of, you have
God's own word engaged for it, that in
those latter daya Babylon ahall be brought
to the duat, and the true church of Christ
ahall flouriah and increa8e : And this vision
is for an appointed time (aa Habakkuk'
aaya ef hia) ; at the end it shall speak, and
noi lie: though it tarry, wait for it; it
will surely come, it will siot tarry. Hah,
U. 3.
In that day. In the day of Ephraim's
or larael'a calamity, denounced in the former
veraes, which, as moat do conceive, waa when
the Aasyrian pppreaaed thera, and in the end
led thera captive, in the reign of Hoaea, as
you have the hiatory of it, 2 Kinga xvn. ;
at which time Hezekiah was King of Judah,
as you find in the foUowing chapter ; and in
that notable reformation wrought by hini,
with thoae bleaaings that foUowed upon it,
ia found the ac,coraplishment of this promiae
te Judah, In that day, Scc. The paraUel
of God's different dealing with theae two
kingdoms, at the time there apecified, (In
that day,) does afford divers lessons, which
might be here not impertinently taken notice
of. . Only this,
Though Judah also had ita own conup
tiona wheri Hezekiah came to the crown, yet
it pleased the Lord to spare thera, and work
a peaceable reformation, making Israel's pu
nishment tbeir waming. Truly that nation,
with whom the Ijord deals thus graciously,
ia vilely ingrate if they obaerve it not with
much huraiUty and thankfulneaa, and with
profit too. If the Lord should anawer your
deaires and hopes with a reforraation in a
peaceable way, and should yet lengthen out
your long-continued peace, and ahould make
this little past shaking ef it cause it to take
root the faster ; if he ahould, I say, do this,
where weuld ye find fit praises for such a
wpnder pf raercy ; especially cpnsidering, that
in the meanwhile he hath made pther referm-
ed churches fields pf blppd, and raade, as it
were, the spund of their stripes preach repen
tance to ua ? But certainly, if the hearing
fhe voice of the rod prevail net, we shaU feel
the sraart of it, as thia people of Judah did
afterwards, becauae they were not so wise as
to become wiaer and better by Israel's folly
and calamity. We are expecting great things
at our Lord's hands, and our provocations and
ains againat bira are great ; yet there is none
of tliera all puts us in so much danger of dis-

SERMON in.

3C»

Rppeintmftit aa impenitence. Were there
raore repentance and peraonal reforraation
araongat ua, we might take it aa a hopeful
forerunner ef tbat public reformation which
ap many aeera npw tp desire.
The Lord of hosts. This atyle pf hia,
you know, is frequently in the prophets, in
their predictions of mercy and judgraent ;
intiraating beth his greS-tnesa and raajeaty,
and his auprerae power for accoraplishing bis
word. No created power can resist bira ;
yea, aU muat aerve him. The raoat exceUent
creatures can have no 'greater honour ; the
greatest are net exerapted, nor the raeaneat
excluded from aerving him. In Acta xii.
23, you find one of the nebleat creatures, and
a number ef the vUest, made uae of at tbe
same time in the aame service. Because
Herod did accept ef the sacrilege of the peo
ple, and gave not back te this Lord of boats
Ilia own glory, the angel of the Lord smote
him, and the vermin devoured him. And
in Egypt, yen know the employing of the
deatreying angel, and what variety of hosts
tbia Lord of hoata did employ to plague thera
What raadneaa, then, ia it to oppose and en
counter this great general ; even in doubtful
cases, to ran en blindly, witheut exaraining,
leat peradventure a raan ahould be found a
fighter againat God ! And on the other side,
it is a great weakness to admit ariy fear urider
his baimer. If a mari could say, when he
waa told of the midtitude of the ahipa the
eueray had, Against how many do ye reckon
me ? How much raore juatly raay we reckon
thia Lord of hosts, againat raultitudea of
eneraiea, hew great soever ! They are to
him as the drop of a bucket, and the small
est dust of the balance. It is ignorance and
mean thoughts ef this mighty Lord that
make his enemies so confident ; and it is the
sarae evil, in some dergee, or, at the best,
forgetfulness of his power, that causeth diffi
dence in his followers, Isa. li.' 12, 13. Now.
the sarae Lord of hosts, you know, is like-
wise caUed the God of peace ; he is indeed,
et pace et bello insignis, splerulid both in
peace and war. The blessing of peace and
tne ^success ol war are both frora' hira ; and
to him alone ia due tho praiae of both.
Shall be a crown, Scc, He ahaU dignify
and adorn them by hia apecial preaence ; to-
wit, in the purity of his ordinances and re
ligion amongst thera ; the profession and
flourishing ef that shall be their special glory
and beauty ; for as the other two beneflts
concern their civil good, justice flourishing
withir, and wealth and opulency from with
out, sp doubtieaa this first, thia glpry and
beauty, ia religion, aa the chiefeat ofthe three,
and the other two are its attendants. In
Psalm xxvi. 8, the sanctuary, the place of
their solemn worship, is called ihe place
where God's honmfl- dweUeth, er the taber.
n-icle of his honour ; and Psalm xcvi. 9,

" the glorious sanctutiry," or " the heauty of
holineaa." And die arlt ef God, you know,
waa called the glory. The glory is departed
from Israel, (said the wife of Phineaa,)
for the ark of God is taken. Pure religipn,
and a pure worahip, ia the glory of God
araongat hia people, and conaequently, their
lory. Now, refening thia prophecy to HezeJ
kiali'a tirae, the accompliahment of it is evi
dent in that work of reforraation, whereof you
have the fuU history, 2 Chron. xxix. 30, 31,
&c. If it be thus, that the purity of religion
and worship ia tbe crown and glory of a peo
ple ; and therefore, on the other side, that
their deepeat atain ef dishonour and vileness,
is the vitiating of religion with huraan devi
ces ; then, to contend for the preservation or
the reforraation of it, is noble and worthy of
a Christian. It is fer a crown of Jeaus
Christ, which is Ukewise a crown of glory and
diadera of beauty to thera, he being their
head. It is, indeed, the true glory both of
kings and their kingdoms. Labour, then,
for constancy in thia work ; let no raan take
your crown frora you. You know how buay
the emiasaries ef the Church of Rome have
been to take it from ua, or, at leaat, to pick
the diaraonda out of it, and put in false, coun
terfeit ones in their places ; I raean, they
stele away the power of religion, and filled up'
the room with shadows and fopperies of their
own devising. It is the vanity of that church
to think they adom the worship of God when
they dress it up with splendour in her ser.
vice, which, though aome magnify ae rauch,
yet raay most truly be caUed a gliatering
slavery and captivity. Then ia she truly free
and wears her crown, when the ordinancea of
God are conforraable to hia own appointment.
It ia vanity in meri, I say, when they dreas
it up with a multitude ef gaudy cereraonies,
and make it the sraaUest part ef itaelf, where
as, indeed, its true glory consiats net in
porap, but iri purity arid aimplicity. Apoc.
xii,, we find the church under the name of
a woraan, richly attired indeed, but her or-
naraenta be aU heavenly, the sun her cloth
ing, and her crown of twelve stars ; needs
ahe then bonow sublunary glery ? No, she
treads upon it ; the moon is under her feet.
There is anether woraan, indeed, iu that sarae
book, anayed in purple and scarlet, decked
with gold and precious stones, and having a
golden cup in her hand, but that golden cup
is full of abominations and filthiness, and she
herself the mother ef aborainations. Appc.
xvii. 4. The natural man judges accprding
tp his reach, but tp a apiritual eye there is a
must genuine beauty in the service pf Gpd
and gpvernraent ef hia houae ; and when they
are neareat te the rule, the word of God, then
is it, that the Lerd himself is the crown and
diadera ofhis church.
A crown, Scc, Again we consider tins

3b4

SERMON IIL

perspnaUy, as belpnging in particular tP every
believer. They are all made kings and
priests unto God the Father, Rev. i. 6.
They are a chosen generation, a
priesthood, 1 Pet. U. 9, hew despicable sp
ever te the world. This is their dignity
The Lord is their crown and diadem : he
subdues their lust, and makes thera kings
ever their own affections, and more than con
querors over all troubles and persecutions ;
whereas camal men are continuaUy hurried
like alavea, unto ba8e eraployraenta, atiU kept
toiling in the ignoble aervice of their own
lusts. They think, indeed, it ia their liber
ty, but that ia a baseness of spirit that com
plies se well with ae vile and servile a con
dition ; and whereas they judge the godly tp
be the refuse and drosa of the earth, and the
proper objecta of cpnterapt, thia is because
their crpwn, thpugh rapst glpripus, is invisi
ble te the eye of nature. The Lord is
crown : ii they knew what thia ia, they
would see enough in it to countervail thefr
outward raeanneaa, and the reproachea tiie
world casts on thera, aa the apoatle St. Peter
hath it, 1 Ep. iv. 14 . ' If ye be reproach-
ed for the narae of Christ, happy are ye, for
the spirit of glory and of Gpd reateth on yeu :"
he ia their crown.
And obaerve, how this crown is opposed to
that blasted glory and fading crown of pride,
spoken of in the fonner verses.
Who is there that sees not, in daily expe
rience, the vanity and inconstancy of worldly
glory ? And yet, how few are there that
wean theraselves frora it, and leam to disdain
it I Still meri dote upou that which is not,
uppn a shadow, a nothing. Bu'c weuld you
have a glory that fadeth not, a garland that
cannot wither, make the Lord your crown and
your glory ; and if he be so, glory in hira
and in nothing else : Let not ihe wise man
•glory, Scc. but let, See. Jer. ix. 23.
You that are nobic aapire to this crown, as
being so far above your perishing honours
and bounded powers ; and you that are out
wardly raeaner and lower, see how Uttle cause
you have to coraplain of your condition, see
ing you are not deeaned frora this best and
greatest honour. And that you may discern
it aright what it is, Know that it conaists in
the renovation ef God's image within yeu,
which is in holineaa and righteousness : ae
the Lord becoraea vour crown in the kingdora
of grace ; and bv tnis you may discover,
whether or no you have attained it. If you
can" yet delight to waUow in the puddle and
pleasures of sin, vou are far frora this royal
condition ; but if vou find your soul possess
ed with the love ef holiness, and that you are
irarapling upon profane delights, thia may
perauade yeu that Gpd hath enabled you, and
crowned you with hia grace, and will crown
you with glory. Again, try it by thia; if
tJie Lord is become your crown, and vour

glory, yeu will glory in him, and in nothing
else. Though yeu be wise, you will not
glory in your wisdora, nor in atrength, nor in
riche8, nor honoura, though you had them
aU ; but if you glory, you will glory in the
Lord. And withal, your highest joy wiU
be to aee the advanceraent of his glory ; and
if you can, to be any way serviceable to the
advancing of it.
And a spirit of judgment, See- Both to
those that sit in judgment, and to the people ;
for justice is the strongest base and estabUsh.
ment ef authority. And withal, the influ.
ence of it is raost sweet and comfortable to
thoae that are under authority ; and where it is
wanting, that order and relation of superiors
and inferiors, which Ged hath appointed in
the societies of men, for. their good, tends ex.
eeedingly tp the daraage pf bPth ; and, there.
fpre, where Gpd intendeth tp cpntinue the
peace and welfare pf a pepple, he ia liberal
in ppuring put much ef thia spirit ef judg.
ment on thoae that sit in judgment. On the
contrary, it is for a heavy punishment, when
he withdrawa his spirit from rulers, and leaves
thera wholly to the conuption and vanity of
their own spirits.
Thai sii in judgment. To all that are in
places of authority and judicature, ftom the
supreme to the loweat magiatrate : for this
concerna them all, fer they be all raiaed in
their aubordination, and aeveral places, above
the people, for the benefit and geod of the
people, as the stars that be set so high, yet
are placed there to be useful and benericial
tp the inferipr wprld.
New, this spirit ef judgment comprehends
in it both due wisdom and prudence, for tbe
(rial and right judging of affairs, and for the
discerning betwixt sound and perverae coun
ael ; and withal, a judgment practically good,
that cannot be hiaaaed frora the straight line
of equity and justice by any ainiater reapect.
Now, aeeing the spirit ef judgraent is from
the Lord, (yea, he is thia spirit,) it ought to
perauade those that sit in judgraent, tp en.
treat and pray fpr this, and to depend upon
it, and beware ef self-confidence. Trust in
the Lord, saith Soloraon, and lean not to
thine own understanding ; if you de, it wiU
prove but a broken reed. And as they that
sit in judgment should entreat his apirit by
prayer, so generally, aU muat ahare with them
in this duty, and raake supplication for aU
that are in authority over thera, especiaUy in
extraordinary tiraes. Truly we have raatter
of thankfulness, that the Lord hath in some
measure inclined the royal heart of our So
vereign te the desires ef his peeple, and ought
StiU to pray that the Lord weuld give the
king his judgments ; and then, as the Psal
mist adds. The mouritains shall bring peace
to the people, and ihe little hills by righ-
teosuness. Psalm lxxii.* 3. And for this
end, let all that wish the public,^yea, their

SERMON IV

365

own good, pray much for abundance nf this
spirit pf judgraent tp-Je ccnfened on them ;
your eyes and expectations are upon thera.
If yeu would enjoy the lamp, ypu must ppur
iu pu. This spirit, indeed, ypu cannpt ppi^r
uppu them, but if ypu ppur put many prayers,
ypu may draw it frpm abpve ; he will give it,
who here proraises to be a spirit of judgment.
. And strength. Observe tbe way to' be
powerful and successful again.st foreign ene
mies ia, to have religion and juatice flouriah-
ing at home. And truly, if it pleaae our
" God to an.swer the deaires of his people at
tbis time, it may ao unite the affection and
afrength of the two kingdoms, (the Lord pf
hpsts being their strength,) as to make them
a tenor to their enemies, whereas they were
becorae a scom and derision to thera. For
your particular, labour to raake the Lord
your glory, to have Chriat raade unto you,
aa the apostie speaks, both wisdom, and righ
teousnesa, and sanctification, which are the
glory and beauty of the aoul, and redemption
frora your apiritual eneraies. Draw strength
frora him to fight and prevail against them,
tiU after the abort combat of this life, you ob
tain the crown, and dwell in hia preaence,
where you ahall fear no more aaaaulta, neither
of ain nor affliction, but ahaU be fpr ever
happy in the blesaed visipn pf his face. To
him be glory. Amen.

SERMON IV.

External wprship dpth ppenly acknpw
ledge a Deity ; but want of inward aense in
worahip secretiy denieth it : The fool hath
said in his heart, there is no God. - It is
strange tp hear so rauch noiae ef reUgion in
die world, and to find ao little piety. To
preaent the living God with a carcaae of life
leaa worship, is to pay him witb abeUa of ser
vices, and so to raock hira ; and it is a raore
admirable long-suffering in him tp defer the
puniahraent pf auch devotion, than all the
other aina in the werld. The Egyptian tera
ples were rich and atately fabrics. A strang
er, wbo had looked upon thera without, would
have imagined seme great deity within ; but
if they entered, (as Lucian saya, laughing
at thera,) nothing was to be seen, but only
sorae ape, or cat, or pied buU, or some other
fine god like theae. To behold our fair sera
blance of reUgion that frequent thia house.
It would appear that we were aU tbe teraples
of the Hely Ghost. But whoso could look
within us, would find in many ef our hearta,
lust, pride, avarice, or aorae auch like secret
vice, adored as a God ; and these are they
that, while. our bodies sit here, do aUenate
our souls fron} the aervice of the eternal God. '

So that we are either altpgether senseless and
dead before liirti, or, if any fit ef spiritual
motion rise within us, we find it here, and
here we leave it, as if it were sacrilege to take
it horae with us. But did once that spiiit of
grace breathe savingly upon our aoula, we
should straight renounce and abhor those base
idols, and then aU the cunent of our aft'ec.
tion weuld ran more in this channel ; our
services would then be apiritual, aud it weuld
be our heaven upon earth to view God in his
sanctuary ; and the obtaining of the change
is, and sheuld be, one main end of this our
meetirig ; arid that it may be the happy effect
of it, our recourae raust be to the throue of
grace by humble prayer, in the name of our
mediator, Jesus Christ ihe righteous.

Isaiah lx. 1.
Arise, shine ; for thy Ught is come, and ihe
glory of ihe Lord is risen npon thee,
Abmirable is the worth and depth of
Divine Providence ! This either we know
not, or, at least, seldom reraeraber. While
we forget the wonders ef Providence, we
direct our thoughts te baser objects, and
think not on it ; and while we forget 4he
deptb of Providence, (if at any time we look
towards it,) we judge rashly and think amiss
ef it. If this be true of that general provi
dence whereby God rules the world, it is raore
true of his apecial providence towarda hia
church. Thia ra beth the rae8t excellent
piece of it, and therefore beat worth the
reading, and alao the hardeat piece, and
therefore it requirea aobriety in 'udging ;
above all other , thinga, he thai suddenly
judgeain thia, raakea haate to err. To have
aright view of it, it rauat be taken altogether,
and not by parcels : piecea of rareat artifice,
while they are a-making, seem Uttle worth,
eapeciaUy to an unskilful eye, which, being
completed, comraand adrairation. P, Martyr
aays well, De Operibus Dei, antequam ac
tum, non est judicandum. There is a tirae
wben the daughters of Sion erabrace the
dunghill, and sit desolate in the streets, as
Jereraiah hath it in his Laraentations, iv. 5,
and at that same time the voice of Babylon
is, / sit as a queen, and shall see no sorrow,
Isa. xlvii. AUis out of order here. But if
we stay a while, we ahaU aee Sion and Baby-
Ion appointed to change seats, by the great
Master of the world : Come down, (says he,)
daughter of Babylon, and sii in the dust,
laa. xlvii. 1. And here to Sion : Arise,
shine ; for thy light is come, and the glory
of the Lord is risen upon ihee. It is ai
entire cataafrophe ; both parties fiftd a not
able alteration together ; that same hand that
exalts the one ruins tbe other. 'When the
sun rises upon the church, her antipodes

366

SERMON IV.

muat needa be covered with darkneaa. As
we find it in the next verse to tiie text :
Darkness shall cover ihe earth, and gross
darkness the people ; but the Lord shall
arise upon ihee, and his glory shall be seen
vpon thee.
The prophet, elevated by the Spirit of Gpd
to a view of after agea, as clear aa if preaent,
aeema here to find hia people sitting under
the dark mantle of a aad and tedioua ni^ht,
and having long expected the aun'a return in
vain, before ita time, they give over expecta.
lion wheri it is near them, arid deaperately
seU themaelvea to lie perpetually in the dark.
New, the prophet, aa it were, standing awake
upon aorae raountain, perceivea the day ap.
proaching, and the golden chariota of the
morning of deliverance baating forward, arid
seema to corae apeedily with these glad newa
to a captive peeple, and aounda this trumpet
in their ears. Arise, shine ; for thy lit
come, Scc, The very raanner of expression
ia audden and rouaing, witheut a copulative,
not, arise and shine ; but, arise, shine, Scc.
The worda have in thera a clear atarap of
relation to a low poature and obacure condi
tion ; 'they auppoae a people lying or aitting
without Ught. Deep diatre8a ia that dark
foil that beat sets off the luatre of raarveUous
deliverances ; and araong many other reasons
of the church'a viciaaitudea, why may not this
be one ? The Lord ia more illustrioua in
the world by that deep wisdom and great
power that sliinea when lie raises and restores
her from deSperate afflictiona, than if he had
StiU preaerved her in conatant ease. He seeraa
soraetiraes careless of her conditipn, and re
gardless of her groans ; but even then is he
waiting the raost fit time to be gracious, as
our prophet apeaks. And when it ia time,
out ef the baaeat eatate he bringa her forth
more freah, strong, and beautiful than before.
Though you have lien among ihe pots, ye
shall be as the wings of a dove covered with
silver, and her feathers with yellow gold,
Psalra Ixviii. 13. Do with the church what
you wiU, ahe ahall corae t'nrough, and that
ivith advantage ; mergas profunda, pulchrior
exilet, aa one saya of Rorae. Keep the church
seventy years captive, yet after that, she shall
arise and shine more glorious than ever.
But surely the strain ef this evangelic pro
phecy riaea higher than any teraporal deliver
ance. Therefpre we muat rise tp some more
spiritual sense of it, not excluding the former;
and that whicii seme call divers senaea of the
same scripture, are, indeed, but divers parts
of ene fuU senae. This prophecy is, out of
question, a most rich description of the king
dora of Christ under the goapel ; and in this
sense, this invitation to arise and shine is
mainly addreased te myatical Jerusalem, yet
net v/itheut aome privilege to literal Jeruaalem
beyond other peeple. They are firat invited to
arise and shine, because this sun arose first

in their horizon. Christ carae of the Jens,
and came first te thera. The Redeemer
shall come io Zion, saya our prophet, in the
forraer chapter, but miserable Jerusalem
knew not the day of her visitation, nor the
things that concerned her peace, and there
fore are they now hid from her eyes. She
delighted to deceive heraelf with fancies of
(I know net what) iraaginary grandeur and
outward glory, te which the proraised Mes.
aiah ahould exalt her, and did, in that kind,
particularly abuse thia very prophecy ; so
doting upon a aenae groaaly Uteral, ahe for.
felted the enjpyraent pf those spiritual bless.
ings that are here decribed. But undoubt
edly, tbat people of the Jews shaU once more
be coraraanded to ariae and shine, and their
retum shall be the richea of the Gentiles;
and that shaU be a raore glorious iime than
ever the church of God did yet behold. Nor
ia there any inconvenience, if we thiuk that
the high expressions of thia prophecy have
some apiritual reference to that time, aince
the great doctor of the- Gentilea appliea some
worda of the former chapter to that purpose.
Rom. xi. 29. They forget a main pdint of
the church's glory, that pray net daily for
the Jews' converaion.
But to pass that, and insist on the spiri
tual senae of theae words, aa directed to the
whole church of Chriat. They contain a
powerful incitement to a twofold act enforced
r^s T conceive) by one reason, under a two
fold expreasion, neither pf them auperflupus,
but each giving Ught tp the pther, and suit-
ingvery aptly with the two words of coraraand ;
" Ariae, for the glory of the Lord is riaen ;
and shine, for thy light is Come."
I wiU not now subdivide these parts again,
and cut thera aniaUer, but wUl rather unite
thera againintp this pueprpppsitipn : the eom.
ingand.presence ef Christ engages aU to whom.
he comea, to ariae and shine. In thia pro
position may be conaidered the nature of the
dutiea, the univeraality of the subject, and
the force of the reason. First, the nature
of the dutiea, what it is to arise and shine,
Ariaing hath either reference to a faU, or
to aoine contrary poature of sitting or lying ;
or to one of theae two conditiena, that are so
like one another, aleep or death ; and to all
these spiritually understood, raay it here be re
fened. Thia is the voice of the gespel to the
sons of Adara, Arise, for in him they all fell.
The first sin of that flrst raan was the great
faU of raankind ; it could net but undo us,
it was frora so high a station. Our daily
sins are our faUs, and they are the fruits of
that great one. " Theu hast fallen by thine
iniquity," said the Lord to his people, Hos.
xiv. 1 . As fer these postures of sitting and
lying, the Scriptures make use of them both
to signify the state ef ain. Says net St.
Jehu, " The world lies in wickedness?" 1
John V. 19. Are not the people said to sit

SER.MON IV,

3(17.

Ip darknesa, mentioned Matt, iv. 16, which
is directiy opposite to arise and shine ? In
tu darknesa pf Egypt, it ia aaid, the peeple
aat atiU ; npne aroae from their places. In
the groaa raiat of conupt nature, raan cannot
Destir hiraself to any apiritual action, but
when thia Ught is corae, then he raay, and
should arise.
New for sleep and death, sin is raost fre
quently represented in holy writ under their
black vizors. Tp fprbear places where tbey
are severally sp used, we ahaU flnd them
jpintly in one : Eph. v. 14, " Arise, thou
that sleepest, and stand up from the dead ;"
which place seeras to have special aUusion to
thia very text.
The irapenitent ainner ia aa one buried in
sleep ; his aoul is in darkneas, fit for sleep,
and loves to be so. That he raay sleep tlie
sounder, he shuts all the passages of light,
as eneraies to his rest ; and ao, by close win
dows and curtain's, makea an artificial night
to hiraself within : not a beara appears there,
though without the clear day of the goapel
shines round about hira. The senaes of hia
aoul, aa we may caU them, are all bound up
and are net exerciaed te discern good and evil,
aa the apoatle apeaka, Heb. v. 14. And hia
leading faculty, his understanding, is sur
charged with sleepy vapours, that arise incea-
snntly from the inferior part of hia soul, bis
perverae affectiona. Nor hath hia raind any
other exercise, in this sleepy condition, but
the vain business of dreaming. His moat
refined and wisest thoughts are but mere ex
travagancies from raan's due end, and his
greatest contentraents nothing but golden
drearas : yet he is serioua in thera, and no
wonder, fpr whp can di8Cem the fplly ef hia
f. wn direara till he ia awake ? He tbat dreama
tie eateth, when he awakes, finds his soul
empty, and not tiU then. laa. xxix. 8.
Now while he thua sleeps, his great buaineaa
liea by, yet spends he his hand-breadth of
time as faat, while he is fast asleep, as if
he were in continual employment ; judge,
then, if it be not needful to bid thia man
arise, . Laatly, Thia voice may import, that man
ia apirituaUy dead. God ia the life of the aoul
^s he is of the body ; while he dweUa there,
it ia both coraely and active, but once desti
tute of his presence, becoraea a carcaae, where,.
beaidea privation of life and motion, there ia
a poaitive fUthineaa, a putrefaction in the
spul, unspeakably worse than that of dead
bodies : corruptio optimi pessima. And as
dead bodies are removed frora the sight of
raen, dead souls are caat put frpra the favour
able aight of God, till Chriat'a aaying ^n'se,
revive thera. ¦ The rainiaters of the word are
appoirited te cry. Arise, iridifferently to aU
that hear thera ; and Chriat hath reaerved
this privilege and liberty, te join hia effective
vaioe, when and to whom he pleaaes. A

carnal man may ahew his teeth at this, but
whp 18 he that can, by any splid reaaon,
charge abaurdity upon thia way of diapensing.
outward and inward vocation ? I will not
here mention tiieir idle cavils ; the Scripture
is undeniably clear in this, that man is na
turally dead in sin. The gospel bids hini
arise, and it is Christ that is his Ufe, and that
raises him. Thus we see, in sorae measure,
what it is for raen te arise. Now being risen
they must shine, and that two ways, jointly
and pubUcly, as they raake up visible
churches ; and Ukewise personaUy, in their
particular converaation. First then. What
is the shining of the true church ? Doth
not a church then shine, when church ser
vice is raised from a decent and priraitive
simpUcity, and decorated with porapous cere
monies, with rich furniture, and gaudy vest
ments ? Is not the church then beautiful ?
Yea, indeed; but aU the question is, whethei
this be the proper, genuine beauty or no ;
whether this be not strange fire, as the fire
that Aaron's sona uaed, which became vain,
and was taken as strange fire ? Methinks it
cannot be better decided, than to refer it to
St. John in his book of the Revelations. We
find there the description of two aeveral
women, the one riding in state, arrayed in
purple, decked with gold, and precious
stones, and pearls, Rev. xvii. 3, 4 ; the
other in rich attire too, but of another
kind, (chapfer xii. 1,) clothed with the sun,
and a crown of twelve stara on her head. The
other'a decoration waa aU earthly ; thia wo
raan's ia all celestial. What need she bonow
Ught and beauty from precious atonea, that
is clothed with the sun, and crowned with
atars ? She weara ne sublunary omaments ;
but, which is more noble, she treads upon
thera — the moon is under her feet. Now if
you know (as you do aU without doubt) which
of these two is the spouse of Christ, you can
easily resolve the question. The truth is,
those things seem to deck religion, but they
undo it. Observe where they are mest used,
and we shaU find litde or ne substance of
devotion under them ;- as we see in that apos
tate church at Rome. Thia painting ia dis
honourable for Christ'a spouse, and beaidea,
it apoila her natural complexion. The auper-
atitious use ef torches and Ughts in the
church by day, is a kind of shining, bui
surely not commanded here. No ; it is an
affront done both to the sun in the heaven,
and tetheSun of Righteousness in the church.
What ia meant then, when the church is
coraraanded to shine er be enlightened ?
These two readings give the entire senae o?
the word ; for, firat, having no light ef her
self, she must receive light, and then shew
it ; be enUghtened, and then shine. She is
enUghtened by Chriat the Sun of Righteou8-
neas, ahining in the aphere of the goapel.
This is that light tiiat comes to her, and.

368

SERMON IV.

the glery of the Lord that arises upon her. engages to arise and shine, wherein it is sup.
Hence ahe receives her lawa and form uf go- ' .i.-. r,i.„:^. j.., ..j _¦__
vemment, and her shining is briefiy the pure
exercise of those, and conforraity to thera.
And the personal ahining of the aeveral
merabera of a church, is a comely congruity
with pure worahip and discipline, and it is
that which now ia raoat needful to be urged.
Every Chriatian aoul is personally engaged,
firat to be enlightened, and then to shine,
aud we rauat draw our light for ourselves frora
that sarae source that fumishes the church
with her public light. There is a word in
the civil law. Uxor fulgei radiis mariti —
the wife shines by the raya ef her husband's
light. Now every faithful seul is espoused
to Christ, and therefore raay weU shine,
seeing the Sun himaelf ia their huaband.
He adorns them with a double beauty of jua
tification and sanctification. By that, they
shine raore especiaUy to God ; by this to men-
And raay not these two be signified by a
dpuble character given tp thesppuae in Cant.
vi. 20 : She is fair as the moon, and clear
OS the sun ? The leaser Ught is that pf
sanctificatipn, fair as the moon ; that oi
justificatipn the greater, by which she is as
clear as the sun. The sun ia perfectly lu
minous, but the moon ia but half enlightened :
ao the believer ia perfectly justified, but sanc
tified only in part ; hia one half, hia fleah, is
dark ; and as the partial iUumination is the
reason of ao many changea in tbe moon, to
wbich changea the sun is not subject at all,
80 the imperfection of a Chriatian'a holineaa
ia the cauae ef ao many waxings and waninga,
and great inequality in hia perforraancea,
whereaa in the meanwhile his juatification re
maina conatantly like itself: this ia imputed,
that inherent. The Ught of aanctificatirtn
.Tiust begin in the underatanding, and from
thence be transfused te the affectipns, the in
ferior parta of the aoul, and from thence break
forth and ahine into action. This ia then the
nature of tbe dutiea, Arise and shine.
The univeraality of the aubject, which was
the aecond head, ia this, that every raan that
knows Christ, is here engaged to ahine too.
Neither grandeur exempta frora the duty of
shining, nor doth raeanness exclude frora the
privilege ef shining. Men of low condition
In this world need not despair pf it, for it is
a spiritual act ; great men need not despise
it, fpr it is a npble act tP shine by Christ's
light. In the 3d verse pf this chapter it is
said tp the church. Kings shall come to the
brightness of thy rising. Tp what end, but
;p partake pf her light, and shine with her ?
And indeed the regal attire of Christ's righ-
'eousness, and' the white robes of holiness,
viU exceedingly well become kings and prin-
L-ea. Give the king thy judgments, O Lord,
Ind thy righteousness to the king's son.
The third and last thing propounded waa.

the force of the rcisor.stllat Christ's presence! awakening.

posed that Christ declared in the gospel, is
the Ught which is said here to come, and the
glory of the Lord which ia aaid to be risen ;
so that now it ahould be raore amply clear.
ed, how Chriat ia light, and the glory of the
Lord, and what bis coming and rising is ; but
ef these afterwarda. I ahaU close now with
a word of exhortation.
Arise, then, for the glory ofthe Lard is
risen. The day of the gespel ia too precious
that any of it ahould be spent in aleep or iiUe.
neaa, or worthleaa business. Worthless busi
ness detains many of us ; arise, immortal
souls, from moiling in the dust, and working
in the clay like Egyptian captivea. Address
youraelvea to more noble work ; there is a
Redeemer ceme that wiU pay your ransom,
and rescue yeu frora such vile aervice, for
more exceUent employment. It is strange
how the 8eul'a of Chriatiana can ao much for.
get their first original from heaven, and their
new hopes of returning thither, and the rich
price of their rederaption, and forgetting all
these, dweU so low, and dote so rauch upon
trifles ; bow is it that they hear net theu
weU-beloved's voice crying. Arise, my love,
my fair one, and come away ? Though
the eyes of true believers arc so enUghtened,
that they shall not sleep unto death, yet theii
spirits' are eften aeized with a kind of drow-
ainesa and aluraber, and aometiraea e.ven then,
when they ahould be of most activity. The
time of Chriat'a check te hia three diaciplea
raade it vety sharp, though the words are
raild : What ! Could ye noi watch with
me one hour ? Shake off, believing souls,
that heavy humour. A-rise, and satiate the
eye ef faith, with the conteraplation of Christ's
beauty, and follow after hira tiU ypu .ittain
the place nf fuU enjpyraent. And you others
that never yet saw him, arise, and admire
his matchleaa exceUency. The things you
esteem great, are but so through ignorance of
hia greatneaa ; hia brightness, if yeu saw it,
would obacure to you the greateat splendour
of the world, as all these stara that never po
down upen ua, yet they are 8waUowed up in
the aurpassing light of the aun when it arises.
" Stand up from the dead, and he shaU give
you Ught. Arise, and work while it ia day ;
for the night ahall come wherein none can
work," aays eur Saviour hiraself. Happy
are they that arise early in the raoming of
their youth ; fer the day ef Ufe is very short,
and the art of Chriatianity long and difficult.
Ia it not a grievoua thing, that raen never
consider why they carae into the world, tiU
they be upon the point of going out again,
nor think how to live, till they be summoned
to die ? But most of all unhappy, he that
never wakens out of that pleasing dream of
false happiriesa, tiU he faU into etemal mi
aery : arise then, betimes, and prevent this sad

SERMON IV.

.309

And being risen, put on your beautiful
garments, Isa. Ui. 1. Draw towards you,
with the hand of faith, the rich mantle of
Christ's rightepusness. It is time tp awake,
saya the appstie, Rom. xiii. 11, 'and present
ly after. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ-
And it ia a wonder hew a sinner can reat,
while he is out of this garraent ; for there is
no other in heaven nor earth can make hira
shine to God, and so shelter hira frora the
atroke ef juatice. Put him on then, and 80
shine ; being thua clothed, thou shalt shine
in justification, and likewise' in aanctity.
What a privilege ia it to be like Ged ! A
aanctified censcience, what can be said
against it ? And, firat, have an enlightened
underatanding, for that is the propei: seat of
light ; that ignorant zeal that Rome com-
mends, expoaea religion te scorn and con.
tempt : heat without light is the character ef
the fire ef heU. I know aU are net tied to a
like degree of knowledge, but certainly all are
obliged tp have a cerapetency, and diligence
for increaae. Aapire then to be inteUigent
Chriatiana, and to know weU what you be
lieve ; let your minda be filled witb know
ledge, aa tbe apoatle apeaka. But let it not atop
there, it must have influence into the will,
Lux est vehiculum caloris — true Ught con-
vf^ra heat. AU the knowledge that the na
tural man hath of Chriat, not warraing his
affection to Christ, ia but ignis fatuus, a vain
Ught, it 'ahall never- lead hira te happineaa.
Saiing light produces love, and by that act8.
Faith worka by love, aays the apostle. That
breaks forth and shines in the Ufe, in god
liness, righteousness, and aobriety. Shine
tiien in all theae, flrst in piety towards
Ged, for this is the reflection of these rays
of light back toward their source, and this
will coramand the ether two. No man that
shines in gpdUneaa will wallpw in injustice
and intemperance. Guile and wrong-cannot
endure the light ; they that are unjust cannot
ahine. And let them never offer to shine
among Chriatians that are not aober, but
stained with riot and uncleanneaa ; theae foul
enormitiea lay waste the conscience, and put
out the light. How can any seeds of grace
aubsist undrowned, that are exposed to a daily
deluge of cups ? How can that pure Spirit,
that chose the Ukeness of a chaste dove, dwell
and give Ught in that soul that is a nest of
impure and filthy lusta ? No ; there can be
no feUowship betwixt this celestial light,
whereby we should shine, and those infernal
worka of darkness. Let profane men hold it
a chief strain of wit te scoff at purity, but
you that pretend heavenward in good eamest,
and raean to shine in glory, shine here in
holiness ; for without holiness no man shall
see God. And do it with these qualifica
tions : Constantiy in every estate ; let net
this divine light go out, neither by day in
prosperity, nor by night in adversity, in

every place do not shine clear, and be dark in
your chamber ; they that do thus have their
reward. That ia a aad word, if rightly under-
atood : -beware ef hypocriay. Again, shine
progreaaively, gaining atiU more and more
victory over darkness, till you attain unraix-
ed and perfect light. The way ef ¦the just,
says Splpraon, is like the shining light, thai
hineth more and more unto the perfeci
day, Prpv. iv. 18. Lastly, shine humbly to
his glery, whpae Ught ypu bprrpw ; upt tp
ahew forth your own excellenciea, but his
who hath called yon from darkness io his
marvellous light, 1 Peter ii. 9. If we be
children of light, our brightness rauat praise
the Father of lighta : Let your light so shine
beforemen, ihat they, seeing your good works,
(not youraelvea if you can be hid, aa the aun
afferdsits Ught and will scarce suffer us to looV.
upon itself, ) may glorify (not you, but) your
heavenly Father, Matt. v. 6 To conclude :
The pure light of tbe church is revived.
Find the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
and upon thia glory there ahall be a defence
If God be your glory in the midat of you, he
will be likewiae a waU of fire round about
yeu. All the danger ia, if we fall abort in the
duty of ahining ; but as you desire that thia
glory ahould abide and dweU araongst ypu,
let aU estates ef men provoke one another to
shine bright in holiness. You who, either by
birth or office, are in eminent statipn, know
that you were set there te be eminent and
exemplary in shining, as stars of more nota
ble magnitude. ' You who are ministers of
this light, know that yeu are the light of the
world ; and if tbe very light become dark
ness, how great wiU that darkness be ! You
that are of a lower order, know that you mui.t
ahine toe ; for it ia a corampn duty. There is
a certain corapany of sraaU stars in the firma
ment, which, though they cannot be each oiie se
veraUy seen, yetbeingraany, their united light
raalies a conspicuous brightness in the heaven,
which ia caUed the milky way : ao, though the
ahining of every private Christian is not ao
much aeverally remarkable, yet the concourse
and raeeting of their light together, wiU raake
a bright path of hoUness shine in the church.
Npw tp the end we may each ene shine in
our raeaaure, we muat learn to turn ourselves
often towards hira frora whom our light is
derived. ' Converaing with hira will make us
raore and more like him. There ia a secrei,
unknown virtue for this purpose in secret
prayer and meditation ; were we more in the
mount with God, pur faces wpuld shine mere
witb men. Let us then rescue frem tbe world
aU the tirae we can, to resort frequently
thither, till such time as the soul, which
is now eften puUed down again by the
flesh, shaU let that raantle faU, and come
dpwn np mpre, but shine there without spot ,
and be for ever satisfied with her Maker'n
image.
2A

370

SERMON V.

SERMON V.

Art imitates nature, and the nearer it
comea to nature in ita effect.s, it is the raore
-excellent. Grace ia the new nature of a
Chriatian, and hypocriay that art that coun.
terfeits it ; and the more exquisite it is in
imitation, it is the raore plausible to raen, but
the mere aborainable to God. It raay frarae
a spiritual raan in iraage so to the life, that
not only others, but even the hypocrite hira.
self, may adraire it, and favouring his own
artifice, may be deceived so far as to say and
to think it lives, and faU in love with it ;
but he is no less abhorred by the Searcher of
hearts,. than pleasing to himself. Surely this
miachief of hypocriay can never be enough
inveighed against. When religion ia in re.
queat, it ia the chief malady of the church,
and nurabers die of it ; though, becauae it ia
a subtile and inward evil, it be little perceiv
ed. It is to be feared there are many sick of
it, that leok weU and coraely in God's out
ward worship, and they raay pass well in good
weather, in tiraea of peace ; but daya of ad
versity are days of trial. The prosperous
state ef the church raakes hypocritea, and her
diatreaa diacovera thera ; but if they escape
such trial, there is one inevitable day coming,
wherein aU secret things shall be made mani
fest. Men shall be turned inside out ; and
araongst aU ainnera that shall then be brought
before that judgment-seat, the most defenned
sight ahall be an unmasked hypocrite, and
the heaviest sentence shall be his portion.
Oh ! that the consideration of this would
.scare ua out of that falae disguise in time, and
set us all upon the atudy of sincerity. Pre
cious is that grace in God's esteem ; a little
of it will weigh down mountains ef formal re
Ugion, in the balance of tbe aanctuary.
Which pf us have npt brpught hypocrisy,
more or less, into thia houae of God ? Oh !
that it were not with intention to nouriah it,
but with deaire to be here cured of it ; fer
he alone that hatea it so much, can cure it ;
he alone can confer upen ua that aincerity
wherein he raainly delights. If we have a
mind, indeed, to he endued with it, it ia no
where elae to be had, we rauat intreat it of
God by hurable prayer, in the nam^ of hia
well-beloved Son, by the assistance of hia
Holy Spirit.
SECOND SERMON.
Isaiah lx. 1.
Arise, .shine ; for thy light is come, and ihe
glory of the Lord is risen upon ihee.
Truly light is sweet, and it is a pleasing
thing to behold the sun, saya the preacher,

Eccl. xl 7 : but the interchange of nigh*,
with day adds to ita beauty, and the longest
night makea day the welcomeat ; aa that peo.
pie weU knew, whoae aituation in the world
givea thera a five er aix montha' night aU of
one piece. It ia reported of some of them,
that when they conceive their night draws to
wards an end, they put on their richest ap.
parel, and clirab up to the highest raountains,
with eraulation, whe shaU firat diacover the
returning light ; which, aa aeon a8 it appears,
they salute with acclaraatieria of joy, and wel.
ceme it with aolemn feaating, and all other
teatiraoniea ef exceeding gladness. But auch
ia the lethargy of ainful raan, that he atirs
not to meet hia apiritual light ; and, which is
worae, when it coraes upen hira, it finds him
in leve with darkneaa. Inatead of hia shouts
of joy for this light, raany a cry must be
sounded in his ears, to awaken hira ; and is
is well too, if at length he hear arid ohey this
voice — Arise, shine ; for thy light is come,
Scc. It is clear that tbe words contain a
coraraand, and the reaaon of it ; the command
to a twofold act ; the reason under two ex.
presaiona, proportionately different. Good
reason the church sheuld arise, when the
Lord's glory is risen upon her ; and it ia .
very congruous, alle should be enlightened
and shine when her light ia come. Of thoje
two acta or dutiea, soraewhat waa formerly
spoken ; and the reason likewise waa made
uae of ao far as relative to those duties, and .
tending to their enforceraent. But the raean
ing of the phrases, in which the reason is ex-
pressed, was rather, at that time, supposed,
than either duly proved pr iUustrated ; ao
that it will be now expedient to conaider,
aimply in themaelvea, these latter worda. Thy
light is come, Scc.
So far as thia prophecy hath reapect to
the reduction of the Jewa from the Babylo.
nish Captivity, that teraporal deliverance,
and ensuing peace and proaperity, waa their
light, and that divine pewer by which it was
effected, waa thia glory of the Lord. And
indeed, both theae expreaaions are frequentiy
uaed in such a aenae in holy writ : When I
waited for light, there came darkness, aaya
Job, in chap. xxx. 26, (se Isaiah Iviii. 8,
and raany ether places) ; and the glory of
the Lord, for a singular effect of his power,
John XI. 40; Isa. lx. 18, and elaewhere.
But this Uteral aense is but a step to elevate
the prophet tp a sight of Christ's apiritual
kingdom, which is usual with bim ; as our
Saviour hiraself testifies of another of his
prophecies. These things said Esaias, when
he saw his glory, and spake of him, John
xn. 41. It was a sight of that aame glory that
makea him say. Thai light was true, Scc,
In theae words, there are three tiilnga, con
cerning Chriat, represented te the church's
view. First, hia beauty and excellency, in
that he is called light, and the glory of tke

SERMON V.

371

Lord. Secondly, Tbe church'a propriety and I raultiply citations of the Prophets and tlvan.

intereat en him — thy light, and riaen upon
thee, which hath a restrictive emphaaia, aa
the very next verse doth clearly manifest.
As he is originaUy the glory of the Lord,
aud the light of the Lord, lumen de lumine,
so he ia corara unicatively the church's light
and her glory too, as it is expressed in the
19th verse of the aame chapter — " Thy God
thy glory :" thus hath she both his worth,
and her own right in him, to consider.
Thirdly, His presence, or her actual posaea
aion— -A« is come, and is risen. And in
theae the church, and each faithful soul,
may find a double spring of affection, the
one of love, the other of joy. The tran
scendent beauty of Christ raakes him the
choicest object of love, and her property in
hira or title te him, together with posaes-
sion, is the proper cauae of aolid joy.
Firat, then, thia excellency is expressed
by these two characters — light, and the glory
of the Lord, Concerning which, it wiU be
fit both to demonatrate that they are the
prpper titlea pf Chriat, and here tp be taken
for him ; as also, to shew what they signify
in hira.
Indeed, the apostle, in bis second epistle
to the Corinthians, 3d chapter, inaiata much
in extoUing both the light and the glery of
the gospel, and in the 4th verae of the next
chapter, speaks of the Ught of the glerioust
gospel ; but he iraraediately intimates whence
it hath tbis light arid glory ; tbe glorious
gospel of Christ, says he, who is the image
of God. So that it is raost unnecessary to
inquire whether the Meaaiah, or the word
tbat reveala hira, be rather here couched
under theae terras of light and the glory of
the Lord. These two agree so well toge
ther, and theae worda agree ae weU to them
both, that it were an injury to attempt to
aever. thera. All the difference will be tbia :
Christ ia that incomplex and aubatantial
light, the goapel that complex light wherein
he appeara. But (not to be guilty of dark
terms, eapeciaUy iri a diacourse of Ught) I
take it in thia resemblance : Christ ia the
aun, arid the goapel his proper sphere or
heaven, wherein he gives light to bis church.
He ia primarily the glory pf the Lord, and
the goapel by participation, becauae it de.
clarea hira : so that rauch of that which shall
be speken here of Christ, wiU be secondarily
to be understood of the gospel of Christ.
That Christ is light, tbe Scripture speaks
abundantiy. Hia own voice, conceming
hiraself, (notwithstanding the cavil of the
Pharisees,) is above aU exception, fer he ia
truth itself: / am ihe light of ihe world.
saith he ; he ihat follows me shall not walk
in darkness, John viii. 12. The Father
that sent hira gives him the same title : /
will give thee for a light of ihe Gen,iiles,
isaiah xiii. 6, and xlix. 6. And not to

gelista, who with one conaent aU magnify
thia light, take the true teatiraony of a false
prophet (and indeed, the favourable witness
of an adveraary is strongest). It ia that of
Balaara, who 8aw that Chriat waa light,
though because he saw him afar off (as he
says himself) arid had not bis eye fortified,
like tbe true propheta, he diacemed him but
aa a atar. There shall come a star oui of
Jacob, Scc, Numb. xxiv. 17- But what
need we go ao far, to be certified what this
light and glery ef the Lord ia, the I;ord of
glory himaelf, aeeing the very next verae to
the text aaaures us of it ? Upon ihee shall
the Lord arise. And in the 19th verse,
The Lord shall be thy everlasting light,
and thy God thy glory.
By this time, I hope it is clear, that the
eternal Son ef Ged, co-esaential witb his
Father, was he that gave accoraplishraent to
this prophecy, by appearing to the world
wrapped up in the darkness of huraan na
ture. He ia that day-spring from on high
that haih visited ^s, as old Zacharias
apeaka, Luke i, 73.
Araong all created excellencies, none can
be bonowed raore fitly representing Christ
than that of light. And is it not Christ
that decks his church with aupematural
beauty, and raakea it indeed xo,r/io;, a
coraely wprld, called put pf the world ? But
the manifold agreement of light with Christ,
doth require more particular conaideration.
Light ia (as they caU it) primum visibile,
the first object of sight ; and Jeaua Chriat,
whora the apostle styles God over all, bless
ed for ever, is, primum inielligibile, the
prirae object of the understanding. "VVhat
is then becorae of tbat divine sparkle, that
understanding soul, that the Father of spi
rits breathes into theae bodies, that aU our
thoughts creep here below, and leave tbeir
chief and noblest object unconaidered ?
Which of ua may not complain, (thougb
few of ua do,) that our aouls have either
ne winga to elevate themaelvea to the con
templation of him, frora whora they iaaued ;
er if they make offers at it, our affections,
engaged to the world, make us, Uke a bird
tied by the foot, fall presently down again
into the raire ? It is high time to leave
hunting shadows, and to tum our internal
eye tp the behplding pf thia uncreated light.
In this elementary wnrld, light being (aa
we hear) the firat viaible, aU things are aeen
by it, and it by itself. Thus is Christ,
ampng spfritual things, in the elect world
of his church ; all things are made mani
fest by ihe light, says the apoatle, Eph.
v. 13, speaking ef Christ, as the follow
ing verse doth evidently testify. It is in
hia word that he ahinea, and makea it a di
recting and convincing light, to diacover all
thinga that concern his church and himtellj

372

SERMON V.

to be known by its own brightness. How
impertinent then is. that question so rauch
tossed by tbe Romish church : How know
you the Scriptures (say they) to be the word
of God, without the testimony of the church ?
I weuld ask one of thera again, how they
can know that it ia day-light, except aprae
light a candle to let thera see it ? 'I'hey are
little versed in holy acripture tbat know not
that it is frequently called light ; and they
are aenaelesa that know not that light ia aeen
and known by itaelf. If our goapel be hid,
says the apoatle, it is hid to thera that pe^
rish ; the ged of this world having blinded
their minds against tbe light of the glorious
gospel, &c., no wonder if such stand in need
of a testimony. A bUnd man knows not
that it is light at noon-day, but by report
but to those tbat have eyes, light is seen by
itaelf. Again, it makea aU ether thinga that are
in themaelvea to becorae actuaUy viaible (aa
they speak) ; ao by the werd of thia aubstan.
tial Word, Jesus Christ, all thinga in reli
gion are tried and diacovered. The very au
thority of the church which they obtrude ao
confidently, rauat be atopped and exarained
by these Scripturea, which they would make
stand to ita courteay. Doctrinea and wor
ahip must be tried hy thia light ; and what
will net endure this trial, muat net be en
(lured in the house of Gq^. To ihe law
and io ihe testimony (aays the prophet) : if
they speak not according to this word, it is
because there is no light in them, Isa. viii.
20. Tbe rays of Christ'a light are diaplayed
through both hia Testaraenta, and in them
we see hira.
But oh ! how 8ublime ia the knowledge
of him ! None is ignorant that there ia light,
yet what light is., few know ; the beat wita
are troubled to define it : ao all that bear the
name ef Chriatiana acknowledge that Christ
is, but to know what be is, is of marveUoua
difficulty. In a apeculative way, unfound-
able ia the depth of hia nature and prepertiea,
and his generation who can declare ? says
our prophet. I define not, whether bis eternal
generation, or his incarnation in tirae. These
are mysteries that shaU hold the very angels
buay in admiration for ever ; and for experi
mental knowledge by faith, how sraall is the
number ef thoae that are truly acquainted
with it I
Again, light fitly reaemblea Christ in pu
rity : it visits many impure places and lights
upon the basest parts of the earth, and yet
remains rapst pure and undefiled. Christ
sees and takes notice of aU the enerraities
and sinful poUutiona in the world, as David
says of the sun, (Psalm xix. 6,) there is no
thing hid from his beams ; yea, many of theae
foul evila he curea, and purgeth away the8e
poUutions, and yet is never stained by them
in the least degree. He ia a phyaician nnt

capable ef infection, and therefore, while he
dwelt araong men, he shunned not publicans
and sinners, but aought thera rather ; for
with such was hia buaineaa and eraployraent.
Indeed, for a frail raan to be too bpld in fre.
quenting prpfane and pbatinate peraens,
thpugh with intentipn tp reclaira thera, is not
alwaya ao aafe. Metus est ne attrahant:
they may puU bim in that would help them
forth, and pollute hira that weuld cleanse
them. But our Saviour, the Ught of the
world, runs no auch hazard ; he ia 8trenge(
than the mest perverae ainner, yea, than the
prince of darkneas hiraself, over whom his
banners are alwaya victorioua, and purer than
to be in danger of poUution. Hia precious
blood is a fountain opened for sin aud un.
cleanness ; sinners are purified by it, and it
is net defiled by them. Thousanda have
washed in it, yet it shaU abide, and always
ahall be raere perfectly pure : And such a
high-priest was needful for us, afn-vros, un
defiled ; and though conversant with sinners,
to ccramunicate to them his goodneaa, yet
aeparate frora ainners in immunity from their
evil, Heb. vii. 26.
To this agreea well tbat title the prophet
Malachi gives him, chap. iv. 2, whenhecaUa
hira the Sun of righteouaness, fuU of purity
and righteousness, (as the sun is ef light,)
all luminous, witheut apet, aubject to no
ecUpse in hiraself, hia light being bia own,
though our ains interposing raay hide him
8ometimea from us, a8 those real eclipses in
the aun, are rather oura, for we are dmjrived
oflight, but not the sun. Chriat ia mariy
waya raeat fitly called the sun; for since all
created light faUa infinitely abort ofhis worth,
the prince and chief of thera, the sun cannot
but suit best, ao far aa raay be, to aet forth
his excellency.
The light of the aun ia neither parted nor
diminiahed, by being imparted to raany
several people and nations that behold it at
one time ; nor is the righteousness of this
Sun ef righteousness either lesiened to him
aelf, or to aeveral believera, by many partak
ing of it at once ; it ia wholly confened upon
each one of thera, andreraaina whple in him
aelf. Hence it ia, that npt only Chriat in-
vitea so UberaUy ainnera te corae to hira, but
even juatified peraona would se gladly draw
aU others to lay hold on thia righteouaness of
their Redeeraer ; knowing well, that if all
the world were enriched by it, they them
aelvea weuld be no whit the poorer.
Again, the aun hath a vivifying power,
not only of planta and vegetables, but, if
phUosophera be right, Sol et homo generant
homir„em ; it hath a special influence in the
generation of man ; but it ia both rapre cer
tainly and rapre eminently true pf thia Sun
we speak of, in man's regeneration, that he
is the proper and principal efficient of it.
The EvangeUst caUs hira at once, The light

SKRMON V.

373

and the life of men, Juhn i. 4. To say no-
tiiing ef him aa a treaaure, he is the sPurce
pf pur apiritual Ufe and mptipn.
When the aun takea ita ceurse tpwards us
in the aeason of the year, it drives away the
sharp froata and the heavy foga of winter, it
cleara the heavena, decka the earth with va
riety of plants and flowers, and awakes the
birds to tbe pleasant strains of tbeir natural
rausic. When C'nriat, afterakiiidof winter-
abaence, returna te visit a declining church,
adrairable ia the change that he produces ;
all begins te flouriah by hia aweet influence ;
hia houae, his worship, hia peeple, are aU
clothed with a new beauty, but it ia apiritual ;
and therefore none but apiritual eyea can dia
cern it. When be will thus return, aU the
power and policy pf raan cau no mere hinder
him, than it could stay the course ef the sun
in its circle. In like manner, a deserted, for-
saken soul, that can do nothing but languish
and droop wliile Christ withifraws bimself,
what inexpressible vigour and alacrity finda
it at bia returning 1 Then thoae gracea that,
while they lurked, seemed to have been lost
and quite extinguished, bud forth anew with
pleaaant colour aud fragrant araeU. It is the
light of his countenance that banishetb their
false feara, that strengthens their faith, and
cures their spiritual iufirmities.' This Sun
ia indeed the aovereign physician : Unto you
that fear my name, shall the Sun of righ
teousness arise with healing under hi.
wings, Mal. iv. 2.
Finally, aU darkneaa fliea away before hira :
it was hia arising in the world that made the
day break and the shadows fly away. The
types and shadows of the law were then abp
lished. It was his Ught that dispeUed the
raiata pf ignprance and idelafry, and he alpne
delivera the apul from tbe night ef sin, and
miaery procured by it : aU the stara, and the
moon with them, cannot make it day in the
' world ; this ia the aun's peculiar : nor can
nature'a higheat light, the moat refined
acience and moraUty, make it day in the
soul ; for this ia Chriat'a.
The comraon light of reasdti, every man
that comes into the world hath frora hira as
his Creator, but the special light of grace
they alone thatt are born again, have from
him as their Saviour. Grosa i8 the dark
neaa of every natural raind, till Chriat en
lighten it. It can neither discern nor re
ceive the thinga of Ged, ou "hix^rxi. Ye were
darkness, (aays the apostle,) but now are
you light in the Lord. It ia nothing elae

they please. Now, te dlsaipate this dajknesa
and reraedy thia confusion, Chriat shines ex
temaUy in his word : but toe much daily
experience teatifiea, that thia is not aufficient ;
therefore to those whom he wUl make chil.
dren of tbe light, to meet with this outward
light of his word, he givea anether internal,
by the Spirit. The aun can make dark
thinga clear, but it cannot make a blind raan
see them : but herein is the excellency of
tbia aun, that he iUuminatea not only the
object, but the faculty ; doth not only reveal
the rayateriea of hia kingdora, but opena
bUnd eyea to behold them. And the firat
lineament of the renewed image of Ged in
man, ia that light in the uiideratai.ding, re
moving npt pnly that aimple ignprance of
divine things, but thoae miaconceita likewise,
and falae principlea, and that wicked perti-
nacy, whereof raan's mind is naturally fuU.
He that " at first commanded light te shin.:
out pf darkness," infuseth saving knpwledga
and light intp the dark soul of man. Aiui
this light (as was aaid) kindlea love. It is
vehiculum caloris, hath a powerful influence,
begetting heat in the affections. Nor can
tbia divine light be ever again fully extin
guished, but conducts the soul that hath re
ceived it, till it be received to the land of
light and perfect happiness. Thus in our
Redeemer is the fountain of Ufe, as the
Psalraist apeaks : And in his light do we
see light, Psalra xxxvi. ».
He is likewise here styled. The glory of
ihe Lord. In 1 Sam. iv. 21, the ark of God
ia called the glory, but itenjoyeth that narae
as a type of Chriat, in whora that now which
the ark contained was fulfilled. The taber
nacle is called the dwelling of God's glory,
Paalra xxvi. 8, likewiae typifying hira in the
tabernacle, in whoae human nature that glory
dwella far raore excellently, John i. 14 :
E(r»>j»(ai7sw £» rifil , " He dwelt in a taber
nacle araong ua, and we aaw his glory as
the glory of the only-begotten Son of God,
full of grace and truth." The author ef the
epistle to the Hebrewa caUs hira x,iruuyxiT //,«.,
" the brightne88 of hia Father'a glory, and
the character of bis person," Heb. i. 3. And
under these expressions lies that reraarkable
mystery of the Sen's eternal relation to the
Father, which is rather humbly to be adored
than boldly te be explained, either by God's
perfect understanding ofhis own essence, or
by any other notion- It is trae, he is called
the wisdom of the Father, but this wisdo'm
is toe wonderfiil for as. He ia called the

but a raaas of darkneaa ; and the corapanion. Word, but what tiiis word means, I think.

of darkness is confusion, as it was in the
raass of the world before light waa created.
And what is there under heaven raore con
fused than a camal raind ? — the affectipns
quite put pf prder, and theugh all naught.

we shall npt weU knew till we see him face
te face, and conteraplate him in the Ught ef
glory. Meanwhile we raay see him to be
the glory ef the Lerd in a safer way, and
sufficient . measure to guide us on to that

yet sometimes fighting one with another, and clear vision reserved above for us. We saw
continually hurrying the judgment whither his glory, aaya that sublime evangelist. But

374

SERMON V.

bow, could thia excellent glory be seen by
sinful men, and not astonish and strike dead
the beholders ? He was made flesh, and dwelt
among us, (says .he,) and ao we saw his
glory. That raajesty that we cpuld never
have looked upon, he veiled with huraan
flesh, that we raight not die, yea live, by
seeing hira. There he stood behind the
wall, aud shewed hiraself through the trellis
In him dvielt the fulness of the Godhead,
Col. ii. 9, but it waa (roii/,xTiK,m;, bodily :-for
who could have endured the splendour of the
Godhead's fulness, if that cloud of his body
had not been drawn betwixt ? And through
it did shine that grace and trath, that wis.
dora and pewer in the work ef our rederap
tion, whereby he was clearly manifested to be
the glory of the Lord.
Surely we need not now ask the church,
or a believing seul. What is her beloved
more than another ? Or, if we do, well may
ahe answer, " He is the chiefeat among ten
thousand, and altogether lovely :" fer he ia
the light of the world, and the glory of the
Lord. Let not the numeroua ti tlea of earthly
potentates be once admitted into compariaon
with theae. If we believe David, in hia 62d
Paalm, 9th verae, the stateliest things and
persons in the world being balanced With
vanity itself, are found lighter than it : and
ahall we offer to weigh tbem with Chriat ?
If we knew hira rightly, we weuld not seU
the least glance er beara of this Ught of his
countenance for the higheat favour ef raortal
men, thnugh it were cpnatant and unchange
able, which it is npt. It is ignorance of
Christ that maintaina the credit of thoae vani
ties we admire. The Christian that is truly
acquainted with him, enamoured with the
brightness of his beauty, can generoualy
trample upon the smilings of the world with
the ene foot, and her frowninga with the
other. If he be rich or honourable, or beth,
yet he glories not in that, but Christ, whe ia
the glory of the Lord, ia even then hia chief
eat glory ; and the light of Chriat obscures
that worldly splendour in his estimation.
.¦\nd aa the enjoyment of Christ overtops aU
his other joya, ao it overcomea hia .griefs.
As that great light drowna the light of pro
sperity, it shines bright in the darkness, of
affliction. No dungeon 80 cloae that can
keep out the raya of Christ's love from hia
beloved priaoners. The world can no more
take away tbia light, than it can give it.
Vnto ihe just ariseth light in darkness,
aaith the Psalmiat. And, When I sit in
darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me,
aays the church, in the 7th of Micah, Sth
verse. And aa thia light ia a comfort, ao it
ia Ukewiae a defence, that Buffers no more of
distreaa to ceme near the godly tiian ia profit
able for thera. Therefore we find very fre
quently in Scripture, where thia light and
glory is mentioned, protection and aafeiy

jointly spoken'of : The Lord is my light, ami
withal my salv fiion, whom shall I fear?
says David, Psalm xxvii. 1. The Lord it
a sun, and he is a shield too, Ps, Ixxxiv
1 1 ; and truly I think hira sheUpropf that
hath the aun fpr hia buckler. And fpr glory ;
Upon all the glory shall be a defence, aays
our prophet in his 4th chap. 5th ver.; and
the Prophet Zechariah, where he calla the
Lord the church's glory in ihe midst of her,
he caUs him likewise a wall of fire round
about her, Zech. ii. 5. The only way then
te be safe, is to keep thia light and thia glory
entire. To part with any part of this glory,
is tp raake a breach in that wall pf fire ; and
if that be a raeans pf aafety, let all men judge,
Np, keep it whole, and then they raust come
through the fire that wiU aaaault you. Nor
is thi8 light only defenaive of the church that
embraceth it, but likewise deatructive of all
adverae powera. See a clear teatimony for
thia in laa. x. 17, 18 : " And the Ught of
larael ahall be for a fire, and hia Holy One
for a fiarae," (apeaking there of the Assy-
riana,) " and it ahall burn and devour hia
thoms and briers in one day, and shaU con.
surae the glory of his forest, and of his fruit
ful field, both aoul and body ; and they ahaU
be aa when a atandard-bearer fainteth," &c.
Let ever, then, the church ef God entirely
obaerve this light and glory of the Lord;
and ahe shaU-undoubtedly be preaerved by it.
But, to cloae in a word, firat to thoae that
know thia light, and then to theae that are
yet atrangera te it.
You who know Chriat, glory in him per
petuaUy. Well raay he be your glory, when
he ia the glory of the Lerd. There are aotae
that pretend lpve te Chriat, and yet a taunt.
ing word of sorae profane raiacreant will al
raost raake thera asharaed of him ; hew would
ihey die for Christ that are ap tender aa net
te endure a acoff for hira ? Where ia that
apirit of Moaea, that accounted the very re-
proachea of Chriat greater richea than the
treaaurea of Egypt ? O, learn to glory in
Christ, think highly of him, and apeak ao
top. Methinlcs it is the disceurse in the world
becoraes Christiana beat, to be apeaking
one to another honourably of Jesus Christ ;
and of aU men, the preachers of his gospel
sheuld be most frequent on thia aubject,
Thia ahould be their great theme, to extol
and comraend the Lerd Je8u8, that they may
inflarae many hearts with his love : and best
can they de thia, who are moat atrongly taken
with thia love theraaelvea. Such will moat
gladly abaae themaelvea, tbat Christ may be
magnified; and whatsoever be'tbeir excellen
ciea, they still account Christ tbeir glory:
and tbey are richly repaid, for he accounts
them his glory. This would seem a strange
word, if it were not the apostle's, " They are
the meaaengers of the churches, and the glory
of Christ," 2 Cor. viii, 23. Delight who

SERJION VL

;t7:.

will either in sloth and ignorance on tbe one
band, or in vain speculation and straina of
frothy wit on the ether ; aurely thoae preach
ers shall only be apprpved in the great day ,
whp have constantly endeavoured in their mea
sure to apeak the beat and fittest they could
for their Maater'a advantage. And happy
theae Chriatians, of what estate aoever, that
in all estates make Christ their glory, and in
aU actions have their eye fixed upon his glory,
who ia their light and the glory ofthe Lord !
New to theae that are straugera to him,
(would to God none that are to be spoken te
were such 1) to thera, I say, notice should
be given both of the exceUency and neceaaity
of Chriat. Though it were poasible to grope
the way to happiness in the dark, yet none
ivill deny but to be conducted thither by a
constant Ught, 'is both raore safe and more
delightful. But were diere any pesaiblUty
to attain that end witheut this light, the
neglect were not altogether so strange. The
wonder ef aU is thia, that Chriat alone being
both that Ufe and the way te it, and the
truth er Ught that guidea in that way, yet
Chriatiana (ao caUed) ahould eateem and
look after hira as little as if he were wholly
needleaa. What raearie8t tbou, O beaotted
.sinner ? Is it so light a thing to die in thy
sins, and eternaUy for them, that thou wilt
not ao much aa open and admit the Ught of
aalvation ? What shalt thou pretend in that
terrible day ? Theugh aU other kind of peo
ple should offer aome excuae, theu who haat
heard the gospel shalt be speechless. For
not only shaU the rigour of justice condemn
thee, but raercy itaelf shall plead againat
thee ; for thou haat despised it. That light
did corae and was not embraced, shall be the
main condemnation. How many thousands
that make no doubt of heaven, yet ahaU then
fall abort of it ! It is not a superficial pro
feaaion tbat will then paaa cunent. It is not
aome public 8igha and groana from an un
aanctified heart, which either corae from cua
tom, or aorae present touch of tbe word ;
nor yet ia it some audden risings of inward
affection towarda Chriat, upon the report of
bis wortb, that ahall then aerve the turn.
The intellective knowledge of Chriat, tbe
diatlnct underatanding, yea, the orthodox
preaching of hia goapel, the raaintaining of
hia public cauae, and suffering for it, shaU
not then be found sufficient. Only that pe.
culiar apprehension of Christ, these constant
fiaraes of spiritual leve, that even course of
holy walking in his light, shall be thosi
characters whereby Christ shall own his chil
dren, and adrait thera into the inheritance
of perfect Ught. One of the speakers in the
book of Job, discoursing of the prosperity of
the ungodly, calla it but hia candle, and teUa
how long it can last : H'ls candle (aays be)
ahull be pui oui with him ; and that is the
longest terra of it : if it last his Ufe-tirae, it

shall convey him no furdier ; he goes into
eternity in the dark ; and, therefore, as St.
John says, he knows not whither he goeth.
Quo nunc abibis ? said that eraperor to his
soul. Is it not a sad thing, when the soul
that knows ne other but worldly Ught, must
take leave of it, and enter into eternal dark
ness, tliere to be incessantly tormented with
present anguish, and the frightful expecta
tion of the last judgment, where it rauat take
again that body which was the accoraplice of
its wickedness, to be partaker of its punish
ment : where it shall have a double raisery
to behold crowns ef iraraortality distributed to
the godly, after the abort corabats of this
life, and itaelf thruat out among the devila ?
Then ahaU aU men be some way aenaible,
whatia theworth pf thia npw cputemricd light,
the Lord Jesus Christ ; tbe greatest number
tee late, for they shaU be banished from it
for ever. But the righteous shall then most
perfectly know, and for ever enjoy, this Ught
arid glory of the Lord. " To whora, with
the Father of Ughts and Spirit of grace, be
eternity of praiae and beneur."

SERMON VL
Preface.
What shall it profit a man, if he gain
the whole world, and lose his own soul?
said our Saviour, who was tp lay down a
ransora for it, and knew well that it would
cost infinitely more than the world was
worth. Yet the most of raen value their
own soula at a far lower rate than the whole
world, loaing them for broken moraela of
it ; yea, raany tiraes for vain hopes that
are never accoraplished. And as these raen
raake a miaerable bargain, se, by the con
trary, they that loae the world, er any thing
worldly, yea, thougb it were the whole, to
aave their aoula, make a profitable loss of it.
Nature teaches raen to hazard and lose aU for
the life of the body, rather than loae it, (al
though it prove many times very uncomfort
able by tbe loss of these outward things,)
and yet tbe raost part of men pasa their whole
Ufetime without one aerious thought of the
excellency and importance ef their souls,
whose life and happiness is ef a higher nature,
and neither consists in nor dependa upon any
thing here below. Hence it ia, that wb'le
they use the helps of this present life, and
the defences of- it when it is in danger, and
uae them with so much diligence and atten
tion ; the means of that better Ufe, of their
better part, their aoula, they either uae not at
all, or so slightly and coldly, that the . never
find aalvation in thera. 'You may find it
some way in youraelvea, the threatenings and

SIG

SERMON VI.

preparations of men against yeu bave awaken
ed and roused you raore to think upon raeans
of your temporal safety ; but how few are sen
sible aud afraid of the wrath of God, who,
as our Saviour teUs us, can kill both body
and aoul, and caat thera into hell I You
want not frequent advertiaeraent from the
word of God, so plentifuUy preached, tbat
many are periahing ; one part in grosa igno
rance of God, another in profane and licen-
tioua living, and the greatest part in a for
mal and lifeleaa profeasion of religion, with
out the power ef it : and yet where are they
that lay it te heart, and beatir theraaelves to
. rescue their aouls frora destruction ? Cer
tainly, whatsoever raen profess, it is unbe
lief that ia the cauae of irapenitence. Men
are not convinced ef the purity of God'a
nature, nor aenaible of the irapurity of their
own, therefere they apply not themaelvea
in gppd earneat to the work of repentance
and refprmatipn, the livelieat part pf it. La
bpur, then, for a raore active .ind practical
knpwledge of God and divine truths, such
as raay hurable and renew your aouls; net
only that yeu raay be delivered from out
ward troubles that threaten yeu, but rauch
more that you raay escape the wrath te corae.
And because neither the word preached, nor
judgraents, ner raercies, that are set before
you, are aufficient to quicken a dead soul, or
soften a hard heart, without the rffectual
concourae of the Spirit of God, let ua have
recourse to the throne of grace, by humble
and eamest prayer, in the name and media
tion of Jeaua Chriat. Psalm xiii. 8.
Vet the Lord will command his loving-
kindness in the day-time, and in the
night his song shall be with me, and my
prayer unto the God of my life.
Man is born to trouble, as ihe sparks
fly upwards, saith Eliphaz, Job f. 7, and
as it is the conuption and sinfulness of his
. birth and nature that bas exposed hira te
. trouble, so nature usuaUy sets hira at work,
' te leok out for such things as raay preserve
and deliver hira from trouble, er, at least,
mitigate and temper the bitterneaa of it.
And becauae there ia not any one worldly
thing that bath either certainty or aufficiency
enough te aerve at aU tiraea, therefore world
ly and natural men are forced to make uae of
variety, and are but badly aerved with them
all. '-The believing aoul hath but one com
fort whereon he reliea, but it is a great
one, whicii alone weigha down aU the rest.
Bread strengthens, and wine makes glad
the heart of man, (Psalra civ. 15:) Bui

gladness of it too. Thou hast put gladness
in my heart, more than they have when
their corn and wine increaseth, Paalm iv.
7. And, therefore, while the rest are seek.
ing after sorae scattered cruraba of goodness
in the creatures, wbo will shew ua any good,
he fixes hia choice upon this one thing  the
light of -God'a countenance. And it is the
conatant aasurance of this that upholda him.
" Waves beat upon bim, yea, and go over
him, yet the Lerd will comraand his loving.
kindness to shine upon him."
In this Psalra we raay perceive the Psal.
mist fuU of perplexed thought, and that be
twixt strong desires and griefs ; and yet, in
the raidst of thera, now and then, spme ad- '
vantage, and intermixing strains of hope,
with his sad complaints : for, immediately
before, we heard nething but the impetuous
noise of many waters, deep calling unto
deep, in the former verse. We have here,
as it were, a touch of the sweet sound ot
David's harp, " Yet the Lord wiU command
his loving-kindness in the day-time," &c.
In these words we have David's eonli.
dence and David's purpose ; the one suiting
very weU with the other. His confidence in
God's loving-kindness — *' Yet the Lord will
command bis loying-kindneaa ;" and his
purpoae — " And in the night his aong shall
be with' rae." ,
It is true, those words (in the night his
song shall be with rae) may be taken aa a
part of the expreaaion of hia confidence,
taking his song for the raatter or subject of
the song, the goodnesa^ of God ; aa if he
ahould aay, " Both in the day anJ in the
night, I ahall find the aweet fruits of God's
favour and loving-kindneaa." But not ex
cluding that, I rather take it intended aa hia
reaolution, that it ahould be his cuatom, in
the quiet aeaaon of the night, to look back
upon God's goodness raanifeated to him in
the actiona and occunencea of the day ; and
tbus entertaining' his soul with that aecret
diacourae, he would atir it up te the praiaes
of hia God, and withal, would join prayer
for the continuance and further raanifesta
tion ef it. David (aa is hinted before) in-
termixea atraina ef hope, not that faint and
coraraon hope of poasibility or probabiUty,
that after atorray daya it raay be better with
hira, but a certain hope that ahaU never
raake asharaed ; auch a hope as aprings from
faith, yea, in effect, ia one with it. Faith
reats upon the goodness and truth of him
that hath proraised ; and ,hope, raising itself
upon faith so established, stands up and
looks smt to the future accpmplisbraent pf
the prpraise. Therefore the apostle, Heb.
1, caUs faitb ihe substance of things
hoped for, v,!roffrxtfi?, and ihe evidence
of things not seeri ; oi all ether, wavering

God is the strength of my heart, says the 1 hope is here, tiiey say, true. Spes est no-
tiie rsidiuist, (Psalm Ixxni. 26,) and thelmen boni incerti; but this can say, the

SERMON VL

377

Lora will command his lomng-kiiidness,
Scc, The Lord witt command. What a sud
den change is here ! Would you think thia
were tbe sarae man that was even now al
most overwhelmed ? Thua faith alwaya
conquera, though aeldora or never without
hard conflict, not only aaaaulted by troublea
without, but, which is worse, by incredulity
within : nor assaulted only, but many tiraes
brought under, yet does it not succumb and
j.-ive over, knowing, that even after many
foils, yet in the end it shall overcome.
llia,,confidenceyou raay consider, first, pp-
pDsitely, and then poaitively, or aimply in it
aelf. Oppositely both to his preaent trpuble,
and to his cpmplaiiita, wherein hia trpuble is
expresaed, and tbat is fitly impUed, theugh
it be not in the original.
Though the multitude and weight of
.fob's afflictiona did force out of him aome
bitter worda, and raade hira look back upon
the day of hia birth, and curae it ; yet faith
recpvera hira frpra hia diateraper, and raakea
hira lppk fprward with jpy, even as far as to
the blessed day of hia reaurrection. Job xix.
25, 26 : " I know that ray Redeemer liveth,
and that he ahaU atand at tbe latter day
upon the earth : and though after my skin,
worms deatroy thia body, yet in my flesh
ahall I aee God."
The former words of impatience he spake
indeed, but he adheres to these, and wishes
that they were *' written witii an iron pen,
and engraven to abide for ever." Therefore
we hear of him again in Scripture, aa a
righteous and patient raan, but of theae
worda .of hia irapatience not a word. In the
77th Paalra, what aad expoatulations are
theae the Paalmiat uses ! " Will be be fa
vourable no more ? Is hia mercy clean
gone for ever ? Doth his promiae fail for
evermore ? Hath God forgotten to be gra
cioua ? Hath he in anger shut up hia ten
der merciea ?" Biit aee how he correcta
them, ver. 10 : Then I said, ihis is my in
firmity, but I will remember the years of
the right hand of the Most High. Thua Jo
nah, chap, ii.ver. 3, 4, much like thia ; but
there, literally true. And here, deep calls
unto deep, yet in the midst Of those deepa,
faith ia not drowned ; you aee it lifta up ita
head above water — Yet the Lord will com
mand, Scc. Yea, though it takea particular
notice of God'a hand in the affliction, yet it
goea not to another hand for comfort. Thy
wavea and thy biUowa ; yet that aame God,
whoae waves are Uke to destroy me, wiU ere
long coraraand " hia loving-kindneaa to
shine upon rae." " Theugh he alay rae,
yet will I truat in hira," Job xiii. 15,
A wonderful expreaaion ef faith ! - He aays
not, '' Though he afflict rae aore," but,
¦'-Though be slay rae;" not, " Though evil
men Pr Satan ahould do it," bu', " Though

he slay rae, yet will I trust in hini." ^Vliat
troubled raind can iraagine any thing harder
againat itaelf than thia ?
1. Learn then to check theae exceaaive
doubts and fears by seme such resolute word
as this. Turn the proraise, firat upon thy
aelf, and then upon God. Cpnsider that he
hath proraiaed life eternal te believers, and
then aay, " Though I aaw hia hand, as it
were, lift up to destroy rae, yet from that
very hand wiU I expect aalvation ; for I
have hia word engaged for it, that if I be
lieve, I shall be saved." I do not say, that
a soul under teraptation can assure itaelf
tbat God ia already reconciled to it, (and
herein possibly lies oftentiraes the mistake,)
for this reflex act of aaaurance, though it be
our duty to seek after it, itself ia rather a
gift and reward than a duty. But the di
rect and proper act of faith ia of perpetual
use and necessity, and then most when there
is leaat sense ef assurance. And it is no
other but a recumbency or a reliance, rolling!;
over the soul upon free mercy. That which
breeds us much perplexity is, that we would
invert God's order. " If I knew (say some)
that the proraise belonged to rae, and Christ
were a Saviour to me, I could believe ;"
tbat is to say, would first see, and then bt .
lieve. But the true method ia just contrary :
/ had fainted, says David, unless I had
believed io see the goodness of ihe Lord.
He believed at firat, and saw it afterwards.
And in this aarae Psalm, labouring to still
hia diaquieted aoul, by elevating it above hia
troublea, to look upon hia God ; he says to
it, " Hope in hini new, and ere it be long,
thou ahalt praise hira for the help of his
countenance," even while his countenance is
withheld. And thus faith ought to triumph
over apiritual feara and difficulties.
2. How incongruous is it, that outward
dangers or triala ahould overmatch it ! Will
yeu truat God, upon hia word, for aalvation
and eternal happineaa, and be diffident for
the aafety and needful blesainga of this tem
poral life, which life, in comparison, ia but
a moraent, and the beat thinga of it but
dreaa ? Conaider that you diahonour faith
exceedingly, and degenerate from the be
Ueving aainta of former agea. Indeed, the
proraises of this Ufe, and that which con
cerna it, though godUnesa hath them, yet
they are not ao abaolute, ner are they ao ab
aolutely needful for you. But, conaidering
the wisdom and love ef your heavenly Fa
ther, leam to corappae ypur rainda by it.
/ will noi be afraid, though te-i thou
sands of the people set themselves against
me round about, says David, Paalm iii. 6.
And, leat yeu think hira singular, in the
46th Paalra, it ia the joint voice of the
whole church of God — " We wiU not fear,
theugh the earth be removed, and the moun
taina be caat into the midst of the sea -

378

SERMON VI.

thougb tbe watera thereof roar and be troubled ;
though the mountaina shake with the sweU
ing thereof. There is a river, the atrearaa
whereof raake glad the city of God : the holy
place of the tabeniacle of the moat high God
is in the midst ef her ; she shaU not be raov
ed." That ia the way to be imraoveable in
the midat of troubles, as a rock amidst the
wavea. When God ia in the raidst of a
kingdom or city, he makes it firra as Mount
Sion, that cannot be reraoved. When he is
in the midst of the soul, though calamitiea
throng about it on aU hands, and roar like
the biUowa of tbe aea, yet there ia a constant
calm within, auch a peace as the world can
neither give nor take away. On the other
side, what is it but want of lodging God in
the aoul, and that, in hia atead, the werld is
in the midst ef men's hearts, that makes thera
shake like the leaves ef trees at every blaat
of danger ? What a aharae ia it, seeing
natural men, by the strength of nature and
help of moral precepts, have attained such
undaunted resolution and courage against
outward changes, yet they that would pass
for Christiana, are so aoft and fainting, and
so aenaible of the araaUeat alterations ! The
advantage that we have in this regard is in
finite : what is the best ground-work of a
philosopher's constancy, but as raoving sands
in compariaon of the rock that we raay build
upen ? But the trath ia, that either we
raake no provision of faith for times ef trial,
or if any we have, we neither know the worth
nor the use of it, but lay it by, as a dead,
unprpfitable thing, when we shpuld rapat use
and exercise it. Notwithstanding all eur
frequenting ef God's house, and our plau-
,sible profeaaion, is it not too true, that the
most pf us either dp not at aU furnish our
aelvea with theae spiritual arms, that are so
needful in the railitant life of a Christian, or
we learn not how to handle thera, and are
not in readiness for service ? As was the
case of that improvident soldier, whora his
commander found mending some piece of
his arraour, when they were to give battle.
It were net amiss, before afflictiona overtake
us, to try and train the mind somewhat by
supposing the very worst and hardest of thera.
To say, " What if the waves and biUows
of adversity were swelled and fiowing in
upen rae, could I then believe ? God hath
said, / will not fail thee, nor forsake thee,
with a heap of negociations ; in no wise I
will not. He hath said. When thou pass
est through the fire and through the water,
I will be with ihee. These I know, and
can diacourae of them. But could I repoae
and rest upen them in the day of trial ?"
Put your apuls to it : ia there any thing or
peraon that vou esteem and love exceeding
ly ; aay, What if I ahould lose this ? Is
there some evil that ia naturally more con
trary and terrible to you than many othera ? !

Spare not te present that to the imagination
too, and labour to make faith of it before.
hand in caae it should befal you, and if the
firat thought- of it acare yeu, look upon it the
oftener, tiU the viaage ef it becorae familiar
to yeu, that ydu start and scare no raore at it.
Nor is there any danger in these thoughta.
Troublea cannet be the nearer by thua think.
irig en thera : but you raay be both safer
and stronger by breathing and exercising of
your faith in supposed caaea. But if you be
ao tender-apirited, that you cannot look upon
calaraitiea ao much aa in thought or fancy,
how would you be able for a real encounter ?
No, sure. But the soul tbat hath made
God his atay, can do both ; aee it in that
notable reaolution of the prophet, Hab. iii,
17 — 19 : " Although the fig-tree ahall not
bloasem, neither ahaU fruit be in tbe vines,
the labour ofthe olive ahaUfail, and the fields
ahaU yield no meat, the flock ahaU be cut off
from the fold, and there ahall be no herd in
the StaUs : yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I wiU
joy in the God of ray salvation. The Lord
God is my strength." And in David, Paalm
xxiii. 4 : " Yea," (aays he,) " though I
walk through the vaUey of the aliadow of death,
I wiU fear no evU, fpr thou art with me ; thy
rod and thy staff, they comfort me." You
aee how faith ia aa cork to his soul, keeping
it from sinking in the deeps of afflictions.
Yea, that big word which one says of his
mpraUy just raan ia true pf the believei, ai
fractus illabatur orbis ; though the very
fabric of the world were faUing about him, yet
would he stand upright and undaunted in the
raidst of its ruins.
In thia confidence, considered in itself, we
raay observe, 1. The object of it — Th'e lov
ing-kindness of the Lord. 2. The raanner
or way by which he expecta to enjoy it — The
Lord will command it. 3. The time — in
ihe day.
His loving-kindness. He says not, '' Re
turn to the house of God, for deUverance
from the heavy oppression and sharp reproach-
es of the eneray," which weuld have answer
ed more particularly and expreaaly to hia pre
aent griefs ; but his loving-kindness. And ,
the reaaon of thua expreaaing himself, I con
ceive to be twofold. 1. In the assurance of'
thia is neceaaarily compriaed the certainty of
aU other geod thinga. Thia special favoui
and benignity of the Lerd, doth engage hia
power and wiadora (both which you know
are infinite) to the procureraent of every thing
truly geod, for those whom he so favours.
Therefore it is, that David chooaea rather to
name the streams pf particular mercies in
this their Uving source and fountain, than to
specify them aeveraUy. Nor ia it only thus.
more compendious, hut fuUer too, which are
the two great advantages of speech, and this
I take to be the other reaaon. 2. A man
may enjoy great deliverances and raany posi-

SERMON VL

.379

tive benefita from tbe hand of God, and yet
nave no ahare in his loving-kindness. How
frequently doth God heap richea, and honour,
and health, on those he hatea, and the com
men gifta of the mind too, wiadom and learn
ing, yea, the common gifta of hia own Spirit,
and givea a fair and long day of external pro
aperity to those on whom he never vouch
safed the least glance of his favourable coun
tenance, yea, on the contrary, gives all thoae
specious gifts te thera with a secret curse !
Aa here he gave a king in wrath to bia people,
so he often gives kingdoms in hia wrath to
kings. Therefore David looks higher than
the very kingdora which Ged proraised hira,
and gave him, when he speaka oihis loving-
kindness-. In a word, be resolves to aolace
hiraaelf with the aaaurance of thia, th ough he
waa atripped of all other comforta, and to quiet
hia aoul herein, tiU deUverance corae ; and
when it shaU come, and whatsoever raercies
with it, to receive thera as fruits and effecta
of this loving-kindness : net prizing them
so much for themselves, as for the impreaaiona
of that love which ia upen thera. And it is
that iraage and anperacriptipii that bpth en
gages and mpves him rapst to pay bis tribute
of praise. And truly thia is every where
David'a temper ; hia frequent diatreaaea and
wanta never excite hira ao much to desire
any particular corafort in the creature, aa to
entreat the preaence and favour of God him
self. Hia aaddeat timea are, when, to his
senae, this favour ia eclipaed. In my pro
sperity I said, I shall not be moved. And
what was hia adversity, that made him of ano
ther mind ? Thou hiddesi thy face, and I
was troubled. Thia verifiea hia poaition in
that aame Paalm — In thy favour is life.
Thua, in the 63d Paalra, at the beginning,
" My aoul thirateth for thee in a dry land,
where there is no water," not for water where
there is none, but /or ihee where there is no
water. Therefore he adds, in verse 3, Thy
loving-kindness is- better than life : and all
that be truly wiae, and ef thia mind, will
subscribe to his choice. Let them enjoy this
loving-kindness and prize it, that vdiatever
befals them, their happiness and joy ia above
the reach of all calamitiea. Let them be -de
rided and reproached abroad, yet atill thia in-
Wiird persuasion makes them glad and con.
tented : aa a rich man aaid, " Though tbe
people hated and taunted him, yet, when he
carae horae and looked upon' hia cheata,
Egomet mihi plaudo domi." With how
rauch better reaaon do believera bear out ex
temal injuriea I What inward contentraent,
when they conaider themaelvea truly enriched
with~the favour of God ! And aa thia makea
thera ' contemn ^he contempta that the world
puts upen thera, so likewiae it breeda in them
a neglect and disdain pf thpse pppr trifles that
tbe wprld admires. The sura pf their desire
is, (aa that Cvnic's was of the aun-ahine,)

that tbe rays of the love of God may shine .
conatantiy upon them. The favouiahle aa
pect and large proffera of kinga and princes
would be unwelcome to them, if tbey ahould
atand betwixt thera and the aight of that aun ;
and traly they have reaaon. What are the
highest thinga the world afforda ? What
are great honoura and great eatates, but great
carea and griefa well dreaaed and coloured
over with a allow of pleaaure, that proraise
contentment, and perform nothing but vexa
tion ? That they are not* aatisfying, ia evi
dent ; for the obtaining of rauch of thera doth
but stretch the appetite, and teach men to de
sire mere. They are not solid neither. WiU
not the paina of a gout, of a atranguary, or
aorae auch malady, (to aay npthing pf the
werst, the pains of a guilty conscience,) blast
aU these delights ? 'VVhat relish finds a man
in large revenues and. stately buildings, in
high preferments and honourable titles, when
either his body or.mind is in anguish ? And
besidea the emptineaa of all theae thinga, you
know they want one main point, continuance.
But the loving-kindness ef God hath all re-
quiaitea to make the soul happy. O satisfy
us early with thy goodness, (or raercy,) says
Moaea, that we may rejoice and be glad alt
our days, Paalm xc. 14. There ia fulness
in that for the vastest deairea ef the aoul —
satisfy us ; there ia solid contentment that
begeta true joy and gladneaa ; and there is
permanency all eur daya. It ia the only cora
fort of thia life, and assurance ef a better.
Thia were a large aubject to inaist on, but
certainly the naming of his loving-kindness
ahould tieget in each heart an high esteem of
it, an ardent desire after it. And if it de so
with you, then know that it is only to be
found in the way of holinesa. He is a holy
God, and can love nothing that is altogether
unlike himself. There must always be sorae
similitude and conforraity ef nature te ground
kindneaa and friendahip, and to maintain it.
That aaying ia true. Idem velle et idem
nolle — .firma amicitia, Wbat grosa aelf-
fiattery is it to think that God'a loving-kind
ness can be towards you, while you are in leve
with sin, which he ao perfectly hatea ! How
can the profane swearer or voluptuous peraen,
or tbe oppressor and covetous, or the close
hypocrite, (worse than any of them,) rest
npon the loving-kindness of the Lord in the
day of troubles ? Np, sure. But the tenor
of his wrath shall be added to aU their other
calaraities ; and they shall find it heavier than
all the rest. God will not pour thia precious
oil of gladneaa, thia perauaaion of his love,
into filthy veaaela. Even hia own children,
when they grieve and sadden his holy Spirit
by unholiness, ahall be aadly puniahed by the
withdrawing of theae coraforting and aenaible
expreaaions of hia love.
Labour, then, you that aa yet never tasted
of this love, to know what it raeana. Forsake

380

SERMON VL

and hate that which hitherto has made you
strangers to it ; for if you obtain this, it ahall
comfort you when these thinga cannot, but
would rather prove your greateat torment.
And you that have received any testiraonies
of it, entertain it carefuUy ; for it is your best
corafort both in your best daya, and in your
worst daya too.
You would all gladly be delivered frora
these raany evila that threaten you ; for raany
they be indeed, and peace is a great blessing.
But suppose ypu were secured frora aU these
fears, and he ahould coraraand a sudden
calra, (which truly he can do,) wpuld ypu
then think yourselves happy ? That Ufe ef
yours which you so fear to lose by fire or
sword, though yeu bad peace, would ere long
fall into the hands ef aome ague, or fever, or
conaumption, and periah by them, or at the
longeat, a few yeara wiU end it ; it is a light
ed candle, that, though nobody blow out,
will quickly bum out of itself. I5ut this lov
ing-kindness is not so short-lived, it shall
laat as long as your soula ; and so long as it
laata, they ahaU be happy. Those goods that
you fear sliaU be pillaged and apoUed in war ;
liow many hazarda are they subject to even in
peace J Solomon tells you, thai riches often-
t'lmes (though nobody take thera away) make
themselves wings and fly away. And truly,
many times the undue aparing of them ia but
the letting of their wings grow, which makea
ihem readier to fly away ; and the contribut
ing a part of them te do good only cUpa their
winga a little, and raakes them stay the longer
with their owner : but thia by the way. How
soever, in the day of death, and in the day
of wrath, as Solomon says, they profit nothing
at aU, Prov. xi. 4. So, then, though you
may deaire that God would command deli
verance for you, yet if you would be truly
happy, your greater and raore earneat suit
would be, that he coramand his loving-kind
ness to appear to your souls. And having
once obtained thia, you raay poasibly be per-
secuted, and endure hard trials, but one thing
ia made aure, you cannot be miaerable ; nor
shaU you want temporal raerciea and preaer
vation too, se far as they are good for you.
The inward aaaurance of thia love ahaU carry
you atrangely and aweetly through aU outward
viciaaitudea ; and when the day shaU corae,
tbat all other coraforts ahaU look pale upon
you, then ahall you find the worth and hap
pineaa of thia more than ever before.
Command, Make it appear te me. Some
times God is said to shut up and hide his
love from his children, and that is a mourn
ful time with them. But we read not that
hi; shuts out love, and ceaseth altogether to
have affection to thoae whom ence he lov
ed; and, therefore, when he shews hira
self again in the gracious raanifestations of
ilia mercy, he is net aaid te begin anew
in love them but only to command his

love, wbich ere while he had countermanded
to appear.
In the day. If you have a raind to take
the day and night figuratively,- for proaperous
and adverse timea, it would lead you, in that
aenae, to observe David's constancy ib God's
praiaes, that not only in the day of deliver.
ance, but even in the night of distress, ht
resolved a song for God. And, traly, many
times God gives hia children in an affficted
condition, mere sweetness of spirit and apfi.
tude, not only tp pray, but tp praise, and
mpre spiritual deUght in himaelf, than in
timea _pf putward peace and prpsperity. He
giveth songs in ihe-night, aaid Jpb ; and you
knew the aound of rauaic ia meat deUghtful
in the night. But te take it properly, he is
confident that in the aeveral actiona and oc
cunencea of the day, he should find the good-
neaa and favourable assistance of the Lord ;
and then he resolves, which leada tp the other
part pf the text,
'' In the night-time tp meditate on that
goodneaa, and frame a song of praise to the
author of it."
And, indeed, what is the whole thread of
our Ufe but a chequered twist, black and
white, of deUghta and dangers interwoven ?
And the happiest passing of it is, constantly
to enjoy and to obaerve the experiences of
God's goodness, and to praise hira for them.
David was a wise king, and withal, a v,fihant
soldier, and yet we see he thought not this ex-
perience inconsonant with either of these two
conditions. This precious book of Psalms,
(a great part thereof being hia,) teatifiea dear
ly, that prayer and praiaea were his great em
ployment. A religious disposition of mind
raay not only consist with fortitude and mag
nanimity, but ia indeed the best principle and
cause of both, contrary to the wicked and
fobUsh opinion of profane persons. Whether
of the two, do you think, raight welcorae a
day of battle with raost courage and resolu
tion, he that had past the preceding night in
reveUing and carousing, or he that bad spent
it in prayer, anil Cbtained sorae assurance of
a better life ? Truly if they went on with
equal forwardnesa, there ia ne man, except he
were an Atheiat, but weuld judge the one to
be brutiah fury and precipitation, and the
other true valour.
His song. In the worse estate there is
ever some matter ef praise to be mixed with
request ; and truly we may jusdy suspect that
our neglect of praiaea makea our prajfera un
acceptable. And my prayer. In the beat eatate here
below, praiae mua^be accompanied witb prayer.
Our wanta, and neceaaitiea, and straita, re-
turn daily upon ua, and require new aupplies
of mercy ; and prayer, if we know how to uae
it right, is the way te obtain tnem aU.
To the God of my life ; or, ihe God that
i.s my Ufe. Thia word is added, as die rea-

SERMON VII.

3«1

son of all tbat went befpre. If ypu ask
David, Why he reppseth sp much upon the
loving.kindness of God ; what he raeans to
spend so much pains in praises and prayer te
God ? He answers, " Because he is my
Ufe. He is the author and preserver of ray
temporal Ufe ; and aU the passages and acci.
dents ef it are in his hand alone ; he hath
also given me, and he maintains in me, a spi.
ritual Ufe, yea, he is the life of my soul ; it
lives by union with hira, as ray body does by
union with it, and he hath laid up life eternal
for rae." Would Christians think thus in
deed, the light of this consideration would
dispel their distrustful fears. Certainly there
is Atheism at tbe bottom of thera ; if not a
denial er a misconceit ef God, at least a for
getfulness of God. See Isaiah U. 12, 13 :
" I, even I, am he that coraforteth you :
who art theu, that thou shouldest be afraid
of a man that shaU die, and of tbe aon ef raan,
which shaU be raade aa graaa, and fergetteat
the Lord thy Maker, that hath sfretched forth
tiie heavena, and laid the foundationa ef the
earth," &c. ? Conaider, then, that men have
no power of our present life, but by tbe ap-
1 ointment of God. And beside that, we
have anether life, which ia infinitely more
precioua than thia, a life apiritual, and which
ia the beginning of etemal Ufe ; and thia is
altogether out of their danger. Col. iii. 3,
•' Our Ufe ia hid with Chriat in God." It
ia hid, and wicked raen cannot se much as.
see it : how, then, sbould they take it from
us, seeing it ia hid, and that uot meanly, it
ia hid with Christ in God ? What then
shall become ef it ? Read the next verae, and
read it to your comfort, for there ia abun
dance in it, if you look right upon it :
" When Chriat, who is eur life, shaU appear,
we Ukewise shall appear with hira in glory."
They that are in God, being united to him
¦ through Christ, can never by any pewer be
separated frpra hira. It is an indiaaoluble
union : death itaelf, that is the great dissolver
ef aU other unions, civU and natural, ia ao
far from untying this, that it consumraates
it ; it conveys the soul into the nearest and
fuUest enjoyment of God, who is its life,
where it shall npt need tp desire that Gpd
wpuld command or send his loving-kindness,
as it weie at a distance ; it ahaU be then at
the spring-head, and shall be satisfied witii
his love fpr ever, &c. «»;

SERMON VIL
preeace.
Wherefore do you spend money for thai
which is nol bread, and your labour for that
which satisfies not ? says the Prpphet, Isa.
ly. 2. AU men agree in this, that they

would wiUingly raeet with some satisfying
good ; and yet, if you look right upon the
projecta and labeura ef tbe greateat part, you
ahaU find them flying from it, and taking
rauch pains te be raiserable. And, truly,
considering the darkness that is uppn the
aoul of raan, it ia up great wpnder tp see
thpae raias their way and cpntinue wan
dering, that hear net tiie voice ef . the gespel
to recall thera, and aee net its light tp di
rect thera. But this is spmewbat strange,
that where true happiness, and the true way
tP it, is prppounded and set before raen, so
few should follow it in good earneat. If the
excellency pf that gppd did npt aUure them,
yet ene weuld think that their many diaap
pointraenta in aU other thinga ahould drive
them hoine to it. How often de we run our.
selvea out of breath after shadows 1 And when
we think we have overtaken them, and would
lay hold on them, we flnd nothing. And
yet, StiU we love to befool ourselves, even
against our own experierice, which, we - aay,
uses to raake fools wiser. StiU we cheese
rather to shift from one vanity to another,
than to retum te that sovereign good that
alone can fiU fhe vastest desirea of our aouls ;
rather te run from one broken cistern to an
other, aa the prophet calla thera, yea, and
to take paina to hew thera put, tban have re-
ccurse to that Fountain of living waters.
One raain thing tjiat raakes men thus rove
and wander, is, that they do not reflect upon
their own course nor themselves, what is the
main end they aim at, and then see whether
their way be suitable to that end. If they
would be happy, (as who would not ?) then,
sure, things that are erapty and uncertain,
and certainly perishing, will net serve their
tum. And, truly, aa this thought weuld be
seasonable at any time, so especiaUy to ua in
these tinies, wherein, besides the coraraon
uncertainty of outward thinga, there ia an
apparent viaible hazard tbat raen's Uves and
fortunea are Ukely to be put to. WiU you
make advantage and gain of your trouble ?
Thua the loaer, you find other thinga tied to
ypu, and aa it were upon a runniug knot ;
secure that one thing, and your portion in it,
which is worth aU the rest, yea, far above
them aU, and that alone which can be secur
ed and raade certain. Wanting this, what
theugh you had peace and health, and aU
iraaginable prosperity, you weuld still be
raiserable, being liahle te the wrath of God
and etemal destruction. But if once united
to Christ, and in hira reconciled to God, and
entitled to heaven, what can faU araiss te you ?
You shaU have joy in the raidst of sonow and
affliction, and peace in the midat of war, yea,
and life in death. But think not to attain
this assurance while you continue profane and
godless, net seeking it in the way of holi
neaa ; for there alone it ia to be found, and,
withal; beg it ef God b humble prayer.

332

SERMON VIL

Psalm cxix. 136.

Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, be
cause ihey keep not thy law.
Love is the leading pasaion of the aoul ;
all the rest foUow the measure and motion ef
it, as the lower heavena are said to be wheel
ed about with the first.
We have here a clear inatance of it in the
Paalmiat, teatifying hia love to God, by hia
eateera and leve ef the law Pr the wprd ef
God. What ia each of the several veraea of
thia Paalm, but a aeveral breathing and vent
of thia love, either in itself, or in the causea,
or in the effecta ef it ? Where he aets forth
the excellenciea and utilitiea of God'a law,
there you have the cauaes ef hia love ; hia
obaerving and studying it, his deaire to knpw
it mpre, and pbaerve it better, these are the
effects ef his affection to it. The love itself
be often expresseth, ver. 27, 28, 113, 140:
" Thy word is pure, therefore thy servant
loveth it." And ver. 127 ; " I love thy
coramandraents abeve gpld, yea, abpve fine
geld." But as scarce accounting that love
which can be uttered new rauch it is, ver.
97, he expresseth it raost, by intiraating
that he cannot expreaa it — O how I love thy
law ! Hence are hia deairea (which are
lost in pursuit) so eaniest after it. Amongat
many that ia pathetical, ver. 20 : " My apul
brealteth fpr the Ipnging that it hath untp thy
judgments at all tiraea." Hence likewiae
hia joy and deUght, (which are love in pea
aession,) ver. 14, " I have rejoiced in the
way of thy teatiraonies, aa in all richea ;" and
ver. 16, "I wUl delight rayaelf in thj sta
tutes ; I wiU not forget thy word." We
have his hatred of thinga oppoaite, whicii is
love'a antipathy, ver. 113, " I hate vain
thoughta ; but thy law do I love." And ver.'
163, "I hate and abhor lying ; but thy law
de I love." And in ver. 139, you ShaU find
his zeal, (which is no other but the fire ef
love stined up or blpwn intp a flame,) " My
zeal hath consumed rae, becauae raine eneinies
have forgotten thy worda." And (to orait the
reat) in ver. 158, hia leve to the law ahews
ita sympathy in sonow, for the violation of
the law : " I beheld the transgresaora, and
waa grieved, becauae they kept not thy word.
And here you find this grief sweUing to auch
a height, that it runa over into abundant
teara. " Rivera of watera ran down mine
eyes, becauae they keep not thy law."
The worda have briefly theae rivera in their
channel and courae — They run down mine
eyes ; in their spring and cause, to-wit, his
sympadiy with God's law broken by raen, in
the latter clause of the verse — Because ihey
keep not thy law. But both together clearly
teach ua, " That godly men are affected with
deep sorrow for the sins of the ungodly."

More particularly consider, (1.) The ob
ject of this affection. (2.) The nature of il.
(3.) The degree or raeasure ef it. (4.) Its
aubject. I. The object ia, the tranagreaaion ef the
law, or to take it (as in the text) in concrete,
men, transgresaora of the law. They keep
not thy law. It la true, the whole creation
groaneth under the burden of ain in effects
of it, aa the apoatle apeaks ; but sin itself
is man's eneray, he being that reasonable
creature to whom the law was given. Now
in the general, it ia matter of grief to a god
ly mind, te conaider the univeraal depraved-
neaa of raan'a nature ; that he ia a *^ trans-
gresaor frora the worab ;" that '' the carnal
mind ia enraity against God, not subject to
hia law, 'neither," while it reraains such,
" can it be," Rom. viii. 7- And this
grief will ge the deeper, by remembering
from whence he is faUen. When he waa new
come forth ef the handa'ef hia Maker, that
image ef God that he staraped upon him,
shined bright in hia soul : tbe whole frame
of it waa regular and coraely, the inferior
facultiea obeying the higher, and all of them
subject unto Ged. But how seen was hi
aeduced, and then what a great change en-
aued ! Quantum mutatus ab illo ! There
is ever since such a tumult and confuaion in
the soul, that it cannot hear the voice of God's
law, much leaa obey and keep it.
Hence is that coraplaint of the Psalmist
oftener than once, " They are aU gone out of
the way, and become ahominable ; there ia
none that doth good, no, not one." Mundus
iramundua ev xhmx xutxi lies buried in it,
as the word ia used in the inscription of
tombs, iv^aSe zurxi. Look abroad in the world,
and what shall ye see, but a sea of wicked
neas ever the face of the whple, which draws
frpm a gpdly, discerning eye that behplds
it, these rivers pf tears ? The greatest part
net knpwing the frue Gpd, nor the true reU
gion, and the true way ofhis worship. And
for those that do, yet how unlike are they
to it in their Uves ! The reformed churches
this way, how unreferraed in a great part !
But more particularly, to branch thia out
a little in several sorts of men ; this godly
grief ia a very large aphere, it wiU extend to
reraote people, reraote every way, not only in
place, but in raanners and religipn, even tp
heatJjEua and grpaa idplatera. Yea, the very
aina pf eneraiea, and pf auch as are prpfessed
enemies tp Gpd, yet rapvea the tender-heart.
ed Chriatian te sonow and compassion ;
" Of whom I new teU you weeping, that
they- are enemies to the croaa of Christ,"
PhUip. iii. 18. Eneraies, and yet he speaks
of thera weeping ! What he writes concern.
ing them he would have written in tears, if
that had been legible. Thus you see the
extenaion of this grief. But yet, out ef all
question, it wiU be more intensive in particu-

SERMON vn.

383

lirj of nearer cpncernraent. It is the burden
of the pipus raan's heart, that hia law whp
raade the wprld, and givea being tp all things,
should be ao littie regarded, and ao rauch
broken through aU the world ; but yet raore
eapeciaUy, that in hia own church, amongst
his own peeple, transgression should abound.
Sins within the church are raost properly

with marking the sin of others, as thePhar-
riaee did in the gospel. (3.) Not the deri
aion and mocking the folly of men, with dia;
laughing philosopher ; it comea near to the
temper of the other, . that wept alwaya for it.
It ia not a bitter, bilious anger, hreaking
forth into railings and reproaches, nor an
upbraiding inaultatien. Ner ia it a vindic-

scandala; God manifests hiraaelf (ao to speak) live deaire of puniahraent, venting itself in
most sensible of theae, and therefore the god- curaea and imprecationa, which ia the raah
ly raan is so top. Whether they be the cpn. ' temper pf raany, but e.speciaUy pf the vulgar
tinual enormitiea of licentious and profane I sort. The diaciplea' raotion to Christ waa far
persona, which are by external profeasion in ' different frora that way, and yet he aaya to
tlie face of tbe viaible church, though indeed ' tbem, Ye know noi of what spirit ye are.
they be in it, but as apota and blemiahea, aa They thought they had been of EUaa's apirit,
the apostle speaks: er whether it be the but he told thera they were raistaken, and did
apostacy of hypocrites, or (which soraetimes not knew of what a spirit they were in that
faUs out the gress falla of true converts, j motion. Thua heady zeal often miatakea and
All theae are the great grief of the godly
The relationa of raen, either natural or civ 11.

will add aoraething too. This sorrow will
be greater than ordinary in a Christian ; he
KiO melt in a particiJar tenderness for the
sins of his kindred, parents or children, hus
band or wife ; and mpst pf all, ministers for
their people. How patheticaUy does this
appear in St. Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 21 : " And
lest, when I corae again, ray Ged wiU hura
ble ine among you, and that I shall bewail
many which have sinned already, and have
not repented of the uncleaimess, and fpmica
tipn, and lascivipusn^ss, whicii they have
coraraitted" I A man cannot but be raore
particularly touched with the sins of tha'
nation, and of that city and congregation and
faraily whereof "he ia a raember. 2 Pet. ii.
8 : " For that righteoua man dwelling amoiipj
them, in aeeing and hearing, vexed hisright-
teous soul, frpra day tp day, with their tin
lawful deeds." The sins of more eminent
peraona, either in church or commonwealth,
wiU moat affect a prudent Christian, because
their inclinations and actipns impprt the
public raucb."^ Therefpre the appatle, when
he bad exhprted tp supplicatipna arid prayera
for aU raen, he particularly mentions kinga,
and such as are in authority. And truly
when they are abuaed by miaadvice and cor
rupt counael, aorae of theae teara were very
well spent, if peured forth before God in
their behalf; form his hand (aa that wiae
king confesseth) are their hearts, compared
to rivers of waters. Let their raotion be
ever so irapetuous, yet he turns them whi
ther he pleaseth. And who knows but
these rivers of waters, these tears, raay pre
vaU with the Lord to reduce the violent cur-
lent of thft river (a king's heart) frora the
Arong channel ?,
II. But to proceed. The aecond thing
fo be conaidered in this affection, is, the na-

flattera itself. We find not here a deaire of
fire to corae down frora heaven upon tbe break-
era of the law, but auch a grief aa would ra
ther bring watera to quench it, if it were
falUng on them. Rivers of waters, Scc.
III. The degree of thia aonow ; it ia ve-
hement, net a light, transient dislike, but a
deep resentment, auch aa cauaeth net some
few aigha, or some drops of tears, but ri
vers. * It is true, the nieasure and degree of
sorrow for sin, whether their own er others',
are different in divers persons, that are yet
true raoumers; and they are also different
in the sarae persons, at divers tiraes, not
only upon the difference of the cause, but
even where the cause is equal, upen the dif
ferent influence and werking pf the Spirit pf
Gpd. Sometiraes it pleaseth him to warm
and melt the heart more abundantly, and ss
he raises theae rivera, in these eyes, to a
higher tide than ordinary. Sometiraea tbey
reraove again, but yet thia godly sorrow is
alwaya serious and aincere ; and that is the
other quality here reraarkable in it. It is
not a hiatrionical weeping, only in pubUc ;
fer the speech is here directed to God, as a
more frequent witness of theae teara than any
ether, who ia alwaya the witneas of the since
rity of tbem, even when they cannot be hid
from the eyes of raen, (for I deny not but
they raay and should have vent in publk:, es
peciaUy at such tiraes as are set apart for
soleran raourning and humiliation). Yet,
even then, uauaUy theae streams run deepest,
where they are stillest and moat quietly con*
veyed. But, howaoever, sure they woulu
uot be fewer, and leaa frequent alone than in
corapany, for that is a little aubject to sus
picion. Jer. ix. 1, Oh ihat my head were
waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears,
that I may weep day and night for the
slain of my people ! And xiii. 17, But
if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep

ture of it. (1.) It is npt a ^toicaX a^a^^y,, in secret places for your pride ; and mine
¦ and affected carelessness, rauch less a de- ! i<ye shall-weep sore, and run down with
Ughtful partaking with sinful practices. (2.)
Not a proud setting eff their pwn goodnes* * VcUgi muijim. Pelaxai aqu-.rum

384

SBRMON VII.

tears, because the Lard's flock is carried
away captive.
IV. The subject of this affection ia, not
the ungodly theraaelves, that are profeaaed
transgresaora of thia law ; they rather make
a aport of ain, as Solomon speaks ; they
play and make themselvea meny with it, aa
the PhUistines did with Samson, tiU it bring
the houae down about their ears. But the
godly are they that are affected with thia
aorrow, such as are careful observers of the
law theraselves, and mourn first for their
own breaches ; for theae are the only fit
mourners for the fransgressiens of others.
Now to inquire a little into the cause ef
this, why the breaking ef God'a law ahould
cause such sorrow in the godly, as here
breaketh forth into abundance of tears ; we
ahaU find it very reaaonable if we . conaider,
1. The nature of sin, which is the trans.
gression or breach of the law, as the apostle
defines it. 2. Tbe nature of this sonow and
these tears. 3. The nature of the godly.
1. Sin is tbe greatest evil in the world ;
yea, truly, in comparison, it alone is worth
the narae pf evil, and therefore raay juatly
ch'allenge aorrow, and the greatest sorrow.
The greatest of evils it is ; both forraaUy,
in that it alone ia the defileraent and defor
mity of the aoul ; and, cauaaUy, being the
root frora whence all other evila apring ; the
fruitful worab that conceives and brings
forth all those raiseries that either raan
feels, er hath cause to fear. Whence are
all thoae personal evila incident to raen in
their eatatea, or in their bodies, or nCiinds,
outward turmoils and diseases, and inward
discontents, and death itself, in all the kindi
of it; are they not aU the fruits of that
bitter root ? ' 'W'hence arise these public rai-
aeriea of nationa and kingdoras, but frora
the epideraic national sitis of the people, as
the deserving and procuring cause at God's
hand ? And withal, oftentiraes frora the
arabitious and wicked practices of some par
ticular men, aa the werking and effecting
cauaea : so that every way, if we follow
these evila home to their priginal, we ahall
find it te be ain, pr the breaking ef God'a law.
Ungodly men, though they raeddle not with
public affaira at all, yea, though they be
faithful and honeat in meddling with them,
yet by reason of their impious Uvea, are trai
tora to their nation ; they are truly the in
cendiariea of atatea and kingdoms. And
these raoumers, though they can do ne raore,
are the most Ipyal an'd serviceable subjects,
bringing tears tp quench the fire pf wrath —
Rivers of waters. And therefere serrow and
tears are not pnly mpst due tp sin, as tbe
greatest of evUa, but they are beat bestowed
upon it, if they can do any thing to its re
dress ; becauae that ia beth the aureat and
most compendious way to remedy alLthe rest,
siu being the source and spring of them aU.

This is the reason why Jeremiab, ix. 1,
when he would weep for the slain of his
people, is straightway led from that to be
wail the sin ef his people, ver. 2, 3, &c.
And in his book of tears and lamentations,
he often reduces aU these sad evils to sin as
causing them, particularly chap. v. 16 : The
crown is fallen from our head ; woe unto
us ihat we have ^sinned. He turneth the
complaint mere to the sin than to the af
fliction. 2. Consider the nature of these tears
Tears spent fpr wprldly cresses are all lest ;
they run aU te waste ; they are lachryma
inanes, erapty; fruitless things ; but tears
shed for the breach of God'a law. are
the means te quench God's wrath. The
prayera and tears ef some few, raay avert the
punishraent ef raany, yea, of a whole land ;
and if not so, yet are they not lost; the
raoumers theraaelvea have alwaya benefit by
thera, aa you have it in that known place,
Ezek. IX. 4. Tbey that mpumed fpr the
cpmmpn abeminationa were raarked, and the
coraraon deaolation took not hold on thera.
Thia rapurning fpr pther raen'a wickedneas,
bpth testifies and preservea the gpdly man'a
imipcence. I say, it preserves it, aa weU
as teatifiea it ; keepa thera frora the conta
gion ef that bad air they Uve in, for with
out thia, ain weuld aoon grew faraiUar. It
ia geod for raen te keep up and raaintain in
their souls a dialike ef sin ; for when once
it ceaseth to be displeasing to a raan, it
wiU before long begin to be pleaaing tp
him. 3. If w£ cpnaider the nature pf the gpdly,
we shall see thia rapurning suit with it ex
ceedingly, both in regard of his relation to
God, and te man. God is his Father, and
therefore it cannot but grieve hira much to
see him offended and dishonoured. Love
to God, and consequently to hia law, and
love to men, and desire of their good, is the
spring of these rivers. A godly man is
tender of God's glory and ef his law ; every
stroke that it receives, striketh his heart:
and he hath bowels of coir^passion to riien,
and' would be glad if they were converted
and saved. He considera every man aa his
brother, and therefore is sorrowful to aee him
run the hazard of periahing in ain. The
forraer aympathy, whereby the godly man
tendera tiie glory of Ged, ia frora hia piety :
thia latter, whereby he pities the misery ef
raan, is frora his charity ; and frora these
flow the rivers thai run down his eyes.
To be too sensible ef worldly crosses, and
prodigal of tears, upon such slight occasiona,
ia Uttle better than childiah and womanish ;
but thoae tears that flow frora leve to God,
and grief for ain, have neither uncomeUneas
nor exceaa in thera. Abundance of thera wiU
beseem any raan that is a Christian. I;et
profane men judge it a weakness to neep for

SERMON Vll.

385

sin, yet we see David do it. Men of arraa
and valour need not fear disparagement by
weeping thua ; it is the teuest magnanimity
to be aenaible of the point pf Gpd's hpnpur,
which is injured by ain.
Again : the ccnaideratipn nf this truth
wiU discpver the wprld guilty pf very much
ingratitude tp gpdly men. It hath alwaya
been the custpra pf profane persons to aeek
to brand religion and godlineas with dia-
loyalty and turbulency, and to raake it paas
for an enemy to tbe peace and prosperity of
atatea and kingdoms. You aee clearly with
what affection reUgiori farniahes men towards
tiie public, causing them te mourn fer com
mon sins, and so to prevent, as far as in
thera lies, common calamities. And this is
of no little consequence ; fer truly it is not
foreign power, so much as sin at heme, that
ruina kingdoms. AU the winds that blow
without the earth, be they never ao violent.
atir it not, only that which ia withir -ta own
bowels raakes an earthquake. It waa a
grave anawer of Eparainpndaa, being aaked.
what he was doing aolitary and penaive in
the time of aplemn mirth and feaating,-^-
" While my countrymen, (aays he,) are ao
peaceably feaating, I am thinking en the
heat meana te preaerve that peace to tbem,
lhat it may continue ;" which, a little alter
ed, ia appUcable te the gedly. They are
oftentiraea raourning for the aina, and pray
ing for the peace of the places where they
live ; when, in the raean time, the greatest
part are multiplying sin, and so forfeiting
their peace.
Rivers of waters. " This is a mournful,
•melancholy Ufe that these precisians lead,"
says the worldling. Yes, truly, if there
were ne more in it than what he cau per
ceive and judge of. But besides tbe fuU
joy laid up for thera, and the beginninga of
it here, there ia even in thia mouming an
unknown Sweetnesa and delight. The phi.
losopher says, even of coraraon teara, that
there ia sorae kind of pleasure in thera, aa
sorae thinga please the taste by their very
tartness. But of these tears, tbey that know
thera, know it to be eminently true, that
they are pleaaant. But be this exercise aa
aad aa the profane call it, yet why obaerve
they not, that they theraaelvea are much tbe
cauae ef it, aa they raay read here, Because
they keep not God's law ?
But to pass by divers inferences that the
words afford, let ua take notice of the duty
here practised, and how much we are all pb-
liged te the present practice ef it. Who'
wiU deny that we have too much raatter and
occasions of it? Besides the sonow of Sion,
and particularly the blood-shedding and dis
treaa of our bretliren, and our own danger,
what corner of the land, what rarik pr cpn
ditipn pf pepple is there, that abpunds not
.in gross and heinous violation of God's law ? I

They keep nnt thy law. Magistrate*
and judges turning judgraent into gall and
wormwood : ministers remisa in that great
care, the care of souls : people wallowing in
ungodliness and uncleanness, swearing, &c.
The greater oppressing the less, and the
less defrauding and wronging the greater.
No aensible and notable work ef conversion
alraost to be seen or heard of amongat us ;
the Lord absenting himself fronf his ordi
nances. O that he would dwell in his
house, and fill it with a cloud of his glory 1
what vile uncleanness and wantonness !
What shameful drunkenness and excess !
And some se far frem mourning for others'
guiltineaa of thia sin, that they glory in
raaking ethers guilty of it, and ceunt it a
paatirae to make othera drunk. And thia is
a far greater sin tban drunkenness itself;
for these raen, while they raake beaata pf
their cprapaniona, they raalce devila ef them-
"selvea, becoraing tempters and provokers to
sin. If any such be here, either tremble at
the woe that the prophet Habakkuk, ii. 15,
1 6, denounceth, or confess that you believe
not the Scriptures : " Woe to hira that gives
hia neighbour drink, and puta the bottle to
hira to make him drunken  The cup of the
Lord's right hand shaU be turned to thee ;
it is full of heavy vengeance." There is a
cup, if you Uke it, to pay you home the cups
ypu give te ethers.
Again : how is the land filled witb oatha
and cursings ! How are our streets, and
alraost all corapanies where a raan can come,
defiled, partly with tearing the precious narae
ofGod, partiy with callingonthedevil! There
would be ne end of reckoriing up all particu
lars : Sabbath-breaking, fraud and covet
ousness, pride and raalice, and envyings one
pf anpther, and the rest. But the sum ia
this : an universal want pf the fear pf Gpd
and his law.
And the cause of this is, in a great part,
ignorance of God and ofhis law ; and truly it
is wonderful, under so much Ught and such
plentiful preaching, to find so much dark
ness, not only in the skirts and remote
places, but even in the prime parts of tbia
land : multitudea that are atrangera to tbe
very principlea and fundamentala of that reli
gion which they profeas ; and they that have
knowledge, abusing it and sinning against
it, cpntinuing in prpfaneness. And witheut
friis true religion, it ia as impossible te have
renewed hearts and Uvea, aa to have a house
without a foundation, or, aa we aay, a caatle
in the air. And this atheiara and ignprani-e
ampngst pepple, is in a great part to be im
puted to the corraption and sloth of minia
tera : and weuld to God, there were not many
congregations, not only altogether destituf e.
but such as are freezing under ii cold aiid
lifeless rainistry !
You see then, we want not causes rf ra'orn-
2 B

38C

SERMON VI.

ing and huraUiation on aU handa ; but our
want is inward, of that due disposition fui
it, softneas of heart, and that love to God
which shpuld melt and raoUify the heart.
Let ua then atir up ouraelvea, and one an
other, to thia godly aorrow for the sina of
the land. There ia need of rivers of tears
for theae heaps of sin ; aa they tell of
Herculea, letting in a river to tbat n«)n
strous stable of Augeas, that could not pther
wise have been cleanaed in the tirae allptted
him. And truly, aa the duty liea uppn all the
faithful, tbe rainiatera pf tbe wprd pught to
be raost eminent in it, the chief raournera,
the precentora, te take up the tune of theae
theraea, Joel ii. 17. And all that wish the
good of church and kingdom eught to beara
part in them, according to their meaaure.
Have we not rauch need to intreat reconcile
ment with God, that he prove net eur eneray ?
Yea, aurely ; and were we reconciled with
him, we should have little need to fear the
ppwer pf raan.
Npw, theythat wpuld be prpfitable raoum
ers fer others' sins, by all mean , must
have these two conditions I mentioned ; to
be careful obaervera of tbe law themaelvea,
and to raourn for their ewn failing and breaking
of it. Now, (1.) to the obaerving ef the
law, it is abaolutely needful to know and un
deratand it, and that not only in the letter
and auperfice, but according to the apiritual
sense and raeaning ef it : for without this
knowledge, a raan may light upen seme duty
by guesa, as it were in the dark ; but obaerve
the law he cannot. They are not only re-
provable that glory in their own sins, and
raake sport of the aina of othera ; but they
miatake it rauch, that think it enough to con
sider their own with griefj and judge the
sina of othera an irapertinency for them to
think on. They moum not right for othera
that begin not at theraselves, ao they raourn
never aright for theraaelvea that end in them
aelvea. He that here thua weepa for othera,
made hia bed to awim with these rivers for
his own sin. Psalm vi. 6. (2.) As a raan
raust know this law, ao be rauat be inward..
ly convinced aud perauaded of the divinity of
it, that it ia God's law. (3.) He must
have a deep apprehensipn pf the majesty and
authority ef tbe lawgiver to work reverence,
and of hia goodneaa to beget love ; and the
due raixture ef theae two, will both atrongly
coraraand and aweeten obedience to his cora
raandraenta. And thia obedience, though
it be not an abaolute and perfect fulfilling of
any one ef the commandmenta, yet it haa a
reapect to them all, as this Fsalm hath it,
which is (so to speak) an iraperfect kind of
perfection. And frem this reapect to the law,
which is the observing ef it, will flow that
other cpndition, of grieving when we break it.
And besides aU other things tbat should

make a Chriatian's own ain grevioua to hiin,
there ia one thing cannot but raove hira rauch,
the consideration of th'e aonow and sufferings
of Christ. Tb view the bleedings of our
Lord Jesua, cannot chooae but pierce a be
lieving seul, and make it aay, " Did ray Re
deeraer shed his blood for my sins, and shaU
net I rayaelf abed tears fpr them ?" I knew
the natural conatitutipn pf apme deniea them
teara ; but if it dp ap tp any, make up that
want with aense ef inward grief, and it is
well enough. The eye of Ged can discern
that aa well aa the other. But truly, where
men have teara for lighter cauaea, (for all
other causes are lighter,) and none fer this,
they feel not yet the weight of ain, except
that want will be through the deepneas of
aorrow, which aoraetiraea wiU stop the cur
rent of tears, though it uaed to run at other
tiraes ; as they say. Cures leves loquuntur,
ingentes stupent. But thisia a rare and
happy irapediment.
And to answer another doubt : if you fin!
aometimes worldly griefa atir you raore vio.
lently, yet let thia gedly aorrow affect you
more conatantly, tbat it may have the advan
tage in continuance, if it fall short in tha
degree. But as this grief must begin at home, as
they say ef charity, it muat not be ao self-
iah aa to reat there. And truly where it
coraes in tbat order, it raay be sorae way a
alronger evidence of aincerity, te moum for
othera' ains than for our own ; fer there aeems
to be mete of God in it, becauae there ia less
in it of ouraelvea, and of our own particular
intereat. New you wiU possibly think it but an un.
pleasant dutyi that you have heard urged aU
this while ; but look forward, and consider
the issue of it. That wbich Chriat apeaks
in particular to hia diaciplea, is generally
true in aU Christiana. John xvi. 20, " Ye
shall weep and laraent, (says he,) but the
worid shaU rejoice ; ye shaU be sonowful,
but your sonow shall be turned (or made)
into joy." The water of those teara shall
be turned into wine of consolation. The
traffic of these rivers is gainful, they export
grief, and iraport joy. Vl''hen these tears
are called seed, the harvest-crop ia caUed joy,
'' They that aow in teara shaU reap injoy."
They are here called rivers, and they are
answered with a river, Psalm Ixxxvi. 8, for
which they ahaU in the end be perfectly ex- ,
changed : " Tbou ahalt make them drink of
the river of thy pleasures." And Rev. vii. 17,
" The Lamb shaU feed them, and lead thera
linto living fountains ef watera." Here they
run down the eyea and water the cheeka, and
there you read tbat Ged shall wipe them
away frem their eyes. Who would not be
content to weep, to bave Ged wipe away their
tears with hia own hand ? Be ambitious,
then, to be found amongst the mourners in

SERMON VIIL

3,17

SIpn ; and when ye rempve from this vaUey
of tears, God shall at once fully wipe away
all the atain pf sin frpm your souls, and all
tears tor it from your eyes. And as he shall
wipe away the tears with the one hand, he
will set the crown upen your heads with the
other.

SERMON VIIL
Preface
Blessed are ihey that dwell in thy house,
saith the Psalraist ; and he adds this reason.
They will be still praising thee. There is,
indeed, always in God's houae, bdlh fit op
portunity and plentiful raatter ef his praisea.
But tbe greatest number ef thoae that fre-
quent his house do not dweU in it ; tbeir
deUght and affection are not there. There
fore they cannot praiae hira ; they come in
strangers, and have no skiU of the aonga of
praiae. Yea, and the yery children of the fa
raily that worships in spirit and in truth, find
their instruraents (their hearts) very often
quite out of tune for praiaes, and sometiraea
raeat of aU when praises are requiaite. They
find still sucb abundant cause of complaint
iu themselves, weighing down their spirita,
that they can hardly at all wind thera up te
magnify that God of our mercy, wbich is
far rapre abundant. If we weuld take a re
flex view, and look- back upon our caniage
tbia day in tbe presence of onr God, who is
araong us that would not flnd much work for
sad thoughts ? Would net ene find .that be
had a hard and stpny heart ? Anpther, alight,
incpnstant, wandering heart to complain of ?
A third, an unbeUeving heart ? And some,
all of these ? And they (if such there be)
that have both deeply sonowed and been
largely comforted, will possibly for aU that,
upon former sad experience, be fiiU of fears
and jealousies, that this sweet temper will
not be of long continuance ; tbat before long
the world er some lust, wiU find, er raake a
way to creep in, and banish thpse heavenly
thoughts, and trouble that peace and joy
which accorapanies thera. Yet notwith
standing aU these causes of grief or fear, our
causes of praise are both more and greater.
And it is no reason, that the sense of eur
own evil should prejudge that acknowledge
ment of God's goodness, yea, rather it should
stir us up to extol it so rauch the more.
Cease not to bemoan the evils ef your own
hearts ; but withal ff-rget not to raagnify the
riches of his grace, who hath given himself
for you, and to you. These twp wiU npt
hinder nne another, but the due intermixture
of them will make a very gppd harrao,ny.
And th« fruit of them will be ibis — you shaU

still have mere cause to praise and less to
complain. When the Lord shall find you
humble acknowledgers of his grace, be will
delight to bestpw mpre grace upen you, and
will subdue tllpse iniquities for you, which
you cannot. And though he is pleased to
do it but graduaUy by little and little, yet in
die end, the conquest shaU be fuU ; and then
he who is the author arid finisher of your
faith, though it is hia own work, yet be
cauae it ia done in you, he shall accouot die
victory yours, as obtained by yen, and give
yeu, as conquerors, the crown of glory.
" Te hira that overcoraeth (saith he) will I
give to sit with rae in my throne," &c.
There is nothing here, but from free grace.
The courage and strength to fight in this
spiritual warfare, the victory by fighting, and
the crown by victory, flow all from that foun
tain. In all these things we are more than
conquerors (saith the apostle) ; but how ?
Through him that loved us. Therefore, if
we deaire te be auch, let ua hurable our
selves before tbe throne ef grace, intreating
both fer grace and glory in the name 'of
Christ pur Mediatpr. Cant. i. 3.
Because ofthe savour of thy good ointments,
thy name is as ointment poured forth,
therefore do the virgins love thee.
The natural wprkings' and desires of
things are agreeable to their being. The
beasts, accprding tp their sensitive life, seek
these things that tend tp the gppd and pre
servation- of that life, and affect nothing
higher than those, and they are satisfled.
Man, (except such as are in the loweat stage,
and border upon the beaats,) finds nature,
even corrupt nature, raising hira to highei
deairea and deaigna. And yet of the beat of
thera, the apoatle'a raaxira holda true. They
that are after ihe flesh, mind the things of
the flesh ; and yet he aubjoina the exceUency
of sorae raen heyend the best naturalist,
They thai are after ihe spirit, the things
of the spirit. Bora. viii. 5. They must be
confined te things natural, but are strpngly
moved towards spiritual blessings, and Christ
the sura of them. And having ence tasted
of his sweetness can say. Because of ihe sa
vour of thy good ointments, Scc. '.Tbey tbat
are elevated te a supematural being, can ad
mit nothing into cpnipetitipn with his lpve,
and this it is that liea under theae words.
Because of the savour of thy good oint
ments, Scc.
Numbers have proiniscupusly. been hia
guests at this time, and tbe greatest nuraber
think they carae tP good purpoae. But know
that you are ab far frora partaking of Christ
in the aacrament tbat you have not so much

388

SERMON VIII.

as smelt his perfuraea, if you be not atrong
ly taken with hia love. Great are the
praiaes, and many the duties, you owe him
for so rich favours : and therefore shew your
good will, and endeavour some payment
But knew that none of them are cunent, ex
cept they be stamped with love. If you leve
not, you do nothing ; all your labours and
services without it, are aa so many cyphers,
they amount to juat nothing ; and with it,
the meaneat of them wiU find acceptance.
Yeu have briefly in the werds, Christ's
loveliness, and ihe Christian's love ; the
forraer the cause of the latter, both couched
under borrowed terms, according to the whole
strain of this allegorical song, to which the
true experimental knowledge of this divine
love is the best comraentary.
In all love, three things are necessary,
(1.) Sorae gppdness inthe object, either true
and real, er apparent and seeraing to be ao ;
for the seul, be it ever so evil, can afi'ect no
thing but what it takes sorae way to be good.
(2.) There must be a knowledge of that
goodness ; for the most exceUent things, if
altogether unknown, affectnot. (3.) There
must be a auitablcnesa or agreement of that
good thing with the nature of those which
should affect it ; otherwise indeed, how good
soever it is, it is not geod to thera.
Now, all these we have clearly in this leve.
(1.) The goodness, the exceUency of Christ,
expressed by precious ointments. (2.) The
manifestation and raaking of it known, sig
nified by the pouring forth of his name.
(3.) His fitness and congruity with thera
here raentioned, under this denoraination —
virgina ; such as have the senses ef their
souls net stepped with the poUutions of the
world, but pure and active, and therefore (as
the apostle speaks, Heb. v. 14) exercised io
discern good and evil. Theae three requi-
aitea thus happily met, must needa produce
love, therefore the virgins love ihee.
Because of ihe savour of thy good oint
ments. How true is the apoatle's word, when
he calla Chriat the believer'a All things !
And that radical grace of faith, becauae it
apprehends Christ, hath a kind of univer.
sality ; and it is reasonable too, it alone
being to the soul, what all the five senses are
to the body.' It is the eye and the mouth :
a wonderful eye ; it sees him that is invisi
ble, Heb. iv. 27. The raouth, ii tastes thai
the Lord is gracious, 1 Peter ii. 3. Yea,
take these two both together in one place, Ps.
xxxiv. 8, " O taste and see that the Lord
is good." It -is the soul'a ear ; for what elae
ia meant, when it ia aaid, " He that bath an
ear to hear, let him hear ?" And waa it not
that touch which Christ tool: special notice
of, and witb good reason distinguished it
from the commen touch of the multitude that
w;is crowding about him? That touch
alone draws virtue from him — " Some have

touched rae, for there ia a virtue gone out of
me." And, laatly, aa it ia aU thpse pther
senaea, and Chriat ita object in reference to
them aU, ao here in ita ameUing, it finda the
savour of his fragrant graces, and by that
works leve : Because of ihe savour, &c.
What strange odds is there betwixt the
opinion of Christ's spouae and the world that
knowa hira not I They wonder what she
sees in hira deairable ; ahe wondera that they
are not aU ravished with his excellencies.
They prefer the basest vanities in the world
before hira ; ahe finda the choiceat and rich-
cat thinga in the world toe raean to resemble
the smallest part ef hia worth. See in this
song how buaily and skilfuUy she goes te all
the creaturea, and crops the rareat piecea in
nature and art to set forth her weU-beleved,
aud seems to find them all too poor for her
purpose. One while she extols hira shove
all thinga beautiful and pleaaant to the eye ;
another while, above thinga delectable te the
taate, as in the former verae. Thy loves are
better than wine ; and here prefers the per
fumes of hia graces to the mest precious oint
ments. When a natural eye looka upon the aacra
ment, te wit, of the Lord'a supper, it finda
it a bare and raean kind of cereraony. Take
heed there be not raany that ceme to it, and
partake of it with othera that prize it Uttie,
have but low cenceita of it, and do indeed
find as little in it aa they look for. But oh !
what precipua cpnaplatipn and grace dpth a
believer meet with at thia banquet 1 How
richly ia the table furnished to his eye !
What plentiful varieties employ his hand
and taste ! What abundance of rare dain
ties ! Yet there is nothing but one here ;
but that one is aU things to the believing
soul ; it finds his love is sweeter than the
richest wine to the taate, or beat odours to
the smeU ; and that delightfid word uf bis,
Thy sins are forgiven ihee, is the only music
to a distressed conscience.
Thy good ointments. The holy ointment
of the aanctuary under the law waa composed
according to God'a pwn prescription, Exo(^.
xxx. 25. And they were straitly forbid to
iraitate it, or make any like it, te signify the
singular holiness, the matchless worth ofthe
anointing oil of gladness, - wherewith our
High Prieat, the Lord Jeaua, waa ariointed
above his fellows. And in this he ia incom
parable, that his ointment he hath not from
without. It was his own divine nature that
perfumed hia manhood with theae precious
pintments. Gpd and the Spirit pf the Lprd
are said tp have anpinted hira. Pa. xiv. 7,
" Thpu Ipveat rightepuaneaa, and hatest
wickedness : therefere God, thy God, hadi
aneinted thee with the oil of gladness above
thy feUows ;" and laaiah Ixi. 1, " The Spi
rit of the. Lerd God ia upon'rae, becauae the
Lord bath anointed me to preach good tid-

SERMON VIIL

389

Ings unte the meek," &c. But knew that
that Spirit and the Father are one in essence
with the etemal Sen. In that myatical aong
much Uke to thia, in the 45th Paalm, at the
8th verae, it ia said, Kis garments smell of
mynh, and aloea, and cassia, as he comes
forth of his ivory palaces. When be carae
down frora his glorious court above to dwell
among men, he apparelled himself like them ;
he was clothed with human flesh. But yet
that vesture was so transcendently enriched
widi aU graces, as with costly perfumes, that
men might easily know there was more under
them than a mere raan. Yea, even in that
low eatate did such bearas of bis glory shine
through, that all whose eyes were open, did
clearly behold thera, and knew him to be no
less than the pnly-begptten Spn pf Gpd, by
this, that he was so full ofgrace and iruth,
John i. 14. And these are, in a word, these
precioua ointmenta, whose delightful smell is
here commended.
Npw, to enumerate and describe these
graces, what tongue of men, yea, or of angels,
were sufficient ? What other is the main
subject of the whole Scriptures ? What
mean aU the figures and ceremonies ef the
law ; the costly furniture and omaraenta of
the teraple ; the rich vestments ef the high
priest ; that fine Unen, that silk and geld,
these geras and precious stones ? Were any
uf thera, were they all, any other but ahadowa
and dim reaerablancea ef the raatchless per
fections of Jesus Christ ? It is strange, tbat
Chriatiana have so lew conceita ef the Re
deeraer 1 What is the gespel, but a rapre
clear and plentiful puiiring fprth pf thpae
pintnienta ? What waa the great labpur and
buainess pf the hply appstles, but the diffus
ing pf Chriat'a graces thrpugh tbe wprld ?
/ determined to know nothing among you
save Chi'ist, -and him crucified, aays St.
Paul to his Cerinthiana. What was that
other sacraraent and this, but cpyerts under
which Christ cpuveys hiraself and his graces
tp the beUeving snul, while the profane and
-slight-hearted receivers are sent away with
erapty elements ? Thus you see hew ample
a subject -these graces are iu the general.
And, fruly, the consideration of any ene par
ticular of them raight be the eraployraent of
many hours. Would ypu hear the wisdpra
-of Christ, lppk what the appstie says pf it,
Cpl. ii. 3 : "In hira are hid aU the treasures
of wisdom and knpwledge." Net sprae
drops of wisdora, no, nor streams, but a foun
tain ; a treasure, not ene treasure, but trea
sures ; many, yea, aU the treasures ef wis
dom and knowledge; yet not obvious to
every eye, but, as treasures, are hid. The
children of wisdom, which are the world's
fbols, have some knowledge of this his
wisdpm, and draw frpm it fpr their pwn
use ; but tp spund the depth of it, whp can j
be able ? i

Np less admirable is liis lipUneas ; he is
bptb the immaculate lamb, and the unde
filed aacrifice. Such a high priest became
us : Becarae ua ! Yes, holy, harmless, and
undefiled, Heb. vii. 26. The mere we
were defiled with sin, the rapre stood we in
need of an undefiled and apotieaa high prieat.
It waa as expedient tbat he should be unlike
us in that, as that he sheuld be like us in all
ether things. Therefore, as for the legal
priestiiood, there was a holy consecrating
oil ; thia immortal high priest was anointed
witb mest entire and coni])lete holiness ; and
tills perfect holiness of his ia aet forth aa
myrrh, the beat ointraenta and spices ; raynli,
whicii is of a virtue preservative frora corrup
tion. He was npt pnly pf excellent smeU,
while he lived ampng raen, but thia rayrrli
did likewiae preaerve and exempt him from
contracting any conuption or poUution, by
the bad air of ainful company ; ao that he
converaed with sinners, that he might con
vert them, without any danger of infection.
And as he was thus extraordinarily anoint
ed with the apirit of wiadom and hpUness.
SP likewiae with the spirit pf meekness.
therefere called, " The Lamb of Ged. thai
taketh away the sins of the world :" his
voice waa not " heard in the streets." And
take in that other grace, which he hiraself
mentions, together with hia meekness, as be
ing near in nature to it, humility: "' Learn
of rae, fpr I am meek and Ipwly in heart,"
Matt. xi. 29. Indeed, humility ia an pdo.
riferous grace, it is a gracing, decorating
grace, and it adds a kind of sweetness and
lustre to aU other graces ; yea, it serves sin.
gularly as a character for the trial ef the
truth of aU ether graces : as balsam, which
is the chief of precious ointraents, used to
be tried,* that is the truest aud best ; th:U
put into any liquor, gpes tp the bpttpra, that
but slight which swiras above ; se those
graces are raost upright, that are accempa-
nied with most humility. Aud that this
raay be out of doubt, you know tbat Jeaus
Chriat, (pf whora we new apeak,) as he had
most grace-, so he was most exemplary in
humility. And certainly, the sweet snieU
of this gpod ointment did fiU the whole
house, when he washed his disciples' feet,
John xiii., aa is said of the ointment that
Mary poured upen his feet, in the foregoing
chapter, John xii.
Amongst many other of his gracious qua
lities that might be racritioned, there is one
we cannot but take particular notice of— his
love ; the rather, hecause the fragrant sraell of
his graces ia here said te beget love. Now
you'know that one of the strongest attractives
of love, is love : Magnes amoris amor, igoj;
t^ura TixTii. What made him erapty him
self pf his glpry, aa the apoatle speaks, but
because he was full of love ? What made
• To Bdat Stiemin.

390

SERMON VIIL

hira take on the form of a servarit, suffer
beat, and cold, and hunger, and poverty,
but love ? What otber was it made him
digest the peraecutiona, reviUnga, and the
contradiction ef ainnera, but love ? But the
great wonder of his leve ia thia — he died to
become our life ; who hath loved me, and
given himself for me, aaya the great apoatle
St. Paul. And hereby perceive we ihe
love of God, because he laid down his life
for us, aaya the beloved apoatle St. John,
Was it the naila that held him faat to the
crpas, when they tauntingly bid him ceme
down ? No, it was hia lpve, that was strpnger
than death. But aU this was nething te
the angry countenance of his Father, nor
would he ever have ventured upon that, if
infinite love had npt persuaded him. Np
wpnder if the appstie call it a lpve that
passeth knpwledge ; " That ypu may knpw,"
saith he, " the Ipve pf Christ, which passeth
knowledge," Eph. iii. 19. Knew it we
may, and should, but we must know withal,
that we cannot knew it fuUy. And this is
our comfort, that it is greater than we can
comprehend, for if it were not so,- it would
be less than we stand in need ef. So much
of his love we may understand, as may
abundantly inflarae our hearts with love to
hira ; fpr this purpose hath he revealed it,
and raade his name like ail ointment pour
ed out. And that is the second thing.
His name. That is, the repert and ma
nifeatation of his excellencies. And if yeu
will take it properly of his name Jeaua,, and
Christ, or the Messiah, it is true of them,
for they are significative of theae exceUen-
ciea. Aak an afflicted conscience, if Jeaus,
that ia, a Saviour, be not a precioua word,
that hath a aovereign value, both a refresh
ing smeU and a healing virtue ? Tbe ham
mer of the law may break a stony heart in
piecea, but it ia only the blood of Jeaus that
cari soften it. And where it is effectuaUy
peured, either upon a .wounded soul, it heals
it, or upon a hard heart, it mollifies it. For
that other name, Christ, weU raay it be call
ed an ointment poured out, fer it signifies
hia anointing. And tbat the sweet savour
of this narae raay affect, read but that one
passage, Isaiah Ixi. 1 : " The Spirit of the
Lord God is upen me, because tbe Lord
hath appointed me te preach good tidinga,"
&c. What inestimable riches of cenapla-
tipn is there in each cf these effects, tP
which Christ was anpinted I And yet we
find npt a werd among thera aU fer a proud,
stiff-necked sinner. Here are good tidings,
but it is te the meek; corafortable binding
up, but it is for the broken-hearted; li
berty, but it is for captives and prisoners,
groaning under their chains, and deairoua to
be delivered ; not for such as delight in
their bondage. There is oil of joy and
gai ments of praise, but thej- are provided

for mourning, dejected spirits, that need
theni ; not to the impenitent. On the con.
trary, there is a tenible word interjected in
the midat of these preraises — The day of
vengeance of our God ; and that is the por
tion of Christ's eneraies, and such are aU
inconigible sinners.
Thus it is, at the same banquet from
which you come, one raay be filled with
spiritual joy, and the very person that sits
next, be filled with a secret curae, and re
turn more raiaerable than he came. But let
the disconsolate, lamenting sinner, lift up
his head, and beheld Christ, the Son of
God, aneinted a Prophet to preach salvation
and liberty to auch, a Prieat to purchase it,
and a King to give it.
Now the pouring oui oi this name is di.
vers. Before the coming of the Messiah
his narae was poured out in prophecies and
promises, in types and legal ceremonies, but
raere fully when the word was made flesh.
Then angels and holy raen, yea, and women,
spake clearly of bim. VThat was his Fa
ther's voice at his baptism ? Tbe Holy
Ghost's descending ? What was his own
preaching, and rairacles, and conversation,
but all the pouring forth of his precioua
narae ? , And in hia sufferings and death,
what think you ? Was not his name then
peured forth, yea, his blood with it ? Yes,
truly, being extended on the cross, and his
body pierced in divers places, hia precious
ointments were shed abroad towarda aU the
quartera of the werld. Their amell both
reached heaven and the viaible earth. God
the Father (aa he waa aaid to do in Noah's
aacrifice) did rauch raore ameU in hia aacri
fice a aavour of rest, appeasing his wrath ;
and all believera a savour ef peace, a quiet.
ing of their consciences. And as aromatic
spices, when they are pounded out and
beaten, send forth their sweet smeUs most
UberaUy, se in theae his sufferings, did the
obedience, patience, and leve, and aU the
graces, and the narae of our Saviour, most
clearly manifest theraselves to the world.
After he was dead they erabalraed his bedy,
but they knew not tbat his own virtue would
do more than aU the ointments and apicea in
the world could de, not only by preaerving
hia body frpm cprruptipn, biit by raiaing it
the third day. And truly, after his resur.
rectipn, his pwn disciples knew his name
better than ever befpre, and yet mere fully
after his ascenaion, when the Holy Ghost
came down upon them, which was ppured
frpin heaven pn them fpr this very end — that
they might ppur fprth Christ's name tp the
ends pf the earth. Acts U. 8. And they did
SP, canying this precipus treasure in earthen
vessels, as that elect vesael St. Paul speaks.
And ever since, Gpd hath cpntinued the
ppuring fprth of this name, by the ministry
and preaching ef the gospel. It is true,

SERMON VIIL

391

there are toe raany of thoae tiiat are eraploy.
ed in thia work, that seek theraaelves, aud
their ewn ends, rather than his glory whora
they preach. And they that are more up
right, the very best of thera are ainful men.
But how mean and unworthy aoever they be,
deapiae not the gospel. Let the aweet name
which they pour forth, prevail for itaelf, that
80 yeu raay reverence and leve it, if you
would have salvation by it ; and there is no
other name under heaven by which that can
be obtained-
Aa thia narae is poured forth in the
goapel preached, ao in the aacraraents annex.
ed to it ; and particularly in thia, when the
bread is broken, and the wine poured out.
And was not this the earnest deaire of the
receivera of it thia day ? It ahould have
been to have our share in it, for the refresh
ment and curing ef our soula. Nor shaU
any that carae thus be diaappointed. And if
not presently, yet most certainly, and that in
due tirae, they ahaU find the aweet fruits ef it.
You have heard raany waya hew the narae
of Christ is poured out, yet there ia one
more, without which aU the reat are ineffec
tual ; it ia thia : the secret and powerful
working of the Spirit ef God in the soul.
The ordinances and raeans of aalvation do
indeed peur forth the narae of Christ round
about a raan, but till the Spirit concur with
thera, not orie drop falla within the aoul.
And i8 he net go rauch tbe more raiaerable,
that hears rauch of Christ, and partakes no
thing of him ? Yes, surely, a man raay
have much coramori knowledge of Christ,
and raay underatand well, yea, raay preach
well, conceming hia 'worth and gracea, and
yet not love hira. But there ia a particular
knowledge ef hira by the infuaion ef the
Spirit ; and where the araaUeat measure of
tbia is, it preaently wiris the affectipn.
There ia Ta shedding abroad of ihe love of
God in our hearts, that the appstie apeaka
of, Rem. V. 5, aud thia draws us after hira ;
for our love to Ged ia nothing elae but the
reflection of hia love to ua. So then, though
raany .bear of Christ, yet because there are
but few that have this apecial knowledge of
hira, therefere it ia, that 80 few do truly es
teera him and love him ; and they are such
as are here caUed virgins : and that ia the
third thing.
The virgins. Similitude and conforraity
of natures begets friendship ; pure affections
delight in a pure object, and raakea thera
sucb. Fer the truth is, Christ doth not
find raen naturaUy suitable to hiraself; but
aa he took en our nature, ao he washeth
away the sinfulneaa of our nature, which he
took not en, and raakea ua that way con
forraable te hia nature. And they that -are
so changed, thoiigh they were forraerly lovera
of ain, yet by converaion, which ia called
regeneration, they are born again, and so

becorae not only chaste, but even virgins,
apirituaUy : for hy virgins here are not meant
auch as Romiah votariea fiiucy thera to be ;
no, thia virginity may well consist with any
lawful atate of life.
Theae virgina are auch as be truly holy,
and pure in heart and life, who, though they
are not parfectly free from all sin, yet have
their affection to no ain. Theae are aingular.,
ly deUghted with the araeU of Chriat's name
and gracea, while the voluptuoua peraen,
and the profane worldling, dislikea and de-
apiaes it.* The virgina, they beatow their
affection whole and entire upon Chriat.
How groaaly do you delude youraelvep,
that make your hearta dena ef pride, filthy
lust, raalice and envy, and thousands of
vanities, and yet think to find a corner in
them to lodge Christ too ! Truly, you would
both straiten him in room, and give him
very bad neighboura. No, they that think
not a whole heart toe . little for him, shall
never enjoy hira.
The virgins love ihee. Grace destrpva
npt the natural pasaiona of the aoul, but cor
recta them only, by destroying their corrup
tion, and ao they becorae not only not con.
trary to grace, but are raade the aubject and
seat of grace. This ef love, wbich is the
chief of thera, we see it abolisheth not, but
rectifies it, recaUing it to its due object, and
turning it into the right channel, by wbich it
raay erapty itself into the ocean of goodness.
Aud this love may weU conaiat with the
purity ef virgina ; yea, it ia this love that
purifies and makea them auch. The virgins
love, but whom ? Thee. And it is as
reasonable a love as it is pure ; therefore
they love ihee, becauae theu hast made thera
in sorae raeaaure apprehenaive of thy worth,
which comraanda the love ef all that know
it ; net a cold and indifferent affection, but
a superlative, ardent love, far overtopping
»U their other deaires. And good reason,
since Christ doth infinitely, and beyond all
coraparison, aurpaaa all ether thinga desir.
able. Ask your own hearta if you love
Christ thus ; for if not thus, you love hira
net at all. The apostie St. Paul's love waa of
thia 8ize ; Phil. iii. 7, 8, " But what things
were gain tp rae, these I counted loaa for
Christ ; yea, doubtieaa, and I cpunt all
thinga but loss, fpr the excellency pf the
knpwledge pf Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whora I have auffered the loss ef all things,
and do count them but dung, that I may
win Christ." Thus love wiU not only un
dergo difficulties and aufferinga for Chriat,
without either repining Or fainting, but it
wiU even be glad to raeet with them, aa op
portunity is, to exercise and testify itaelf.
Hard thinga will 8eem raoat eaay fer his
aake, and bitter things exceeding aweet.
In a word, te hira that lovea, scarce any
* Bals tic itiibus, aie mate nardut olent.

392

SERMOxV VIII.

thing is impossible. Love is the leading
passion of the soul ; aU the rest conform
themselvea to it, desire and hope and fear,
joy and sonow. If then, you love Christ,
the desires and breathings of your seul after
him are strong and earnest, if he withdraw
himself or appear angry. If either you see
liim not, or see him look discontented,
your grief wiU be so deep that it cannot be
allayed by any worldly eraployraenta ; yet,
vpon some former tokens of his love, which
is known to be unchangeable, hope will up
hold the aoul till the beams of his grace
scatter the cloud and break through. Though
our Joaeph aeem atrange, and apeak roughly
f'or a while, he cannot long refrain diacover-
ing hia affection. Again, love yeu him,
unapeakable will be your joy when he arailea
upon you ; aa great will be your delight in
poaaeaaion aa your deaire is in pursuit ; and
while you bave his presence, it wiU be too
hard a taak for any (affliction to diamay you.
Have you, indeed, heard Christ speak cora
fortably to ypu thia day at his hply table ?
How wiU this enable the aoul, arid arra it
againat dangera, and distracting, diatruatful
fears ! Perfeci love casteth out fear, aaith
St. John ; that ia, all base and aervile fear :
but there is one fear that is in no heart but
where love begets it — fear to offend. You
know how wary and loath raeri are naturally
to displease those Jihey love ; therefore it is,
tbat love to Christ, and a careful observing
of hia comraandraenta, are inseparable cora
panions : yea, love itself is the fulfiUing ef
the law, for it givea up the heart to God,
and, conaequently, the whole man. Then
there ia no return of duty whicii your receiv
ing of Chriat calls f'or, (and what doth it not
call for ?) tliere ia none, I say, but is com
prised under tbis one of love. Do you owe
him praises ? Yea, aurely : then love him,
that wiU atir you up te praiae him. You
never knew, but where much love was in the
heart, it made the tongue ready and active
upon aU occasions to praise the party loved.
Love will entertain smaU courtesies with
great thanks, rauch raere where the benefit
se far exceeds all possible thankfulness.
Ought you to aerve and obey him ? Doubt
less he hath, for that purpose, redeemed you
with his precious blood. And, truly, there
is no obedience nor aervice so fuU and so
cheerful aa that which flows from love.
Should yeu study conformity to Chriat, and
labpur tp be like him ? Yes, for this is to
walk worthy of Chriat ; then there ia nothing
assimilates so much as love. Men delight
in their society whpm they leve, and by
their society they do insensibly contract their
customs, and become like thera. These
virgins that love Christ fbr his graces, they
love to converse with hira ; and by convers
ing with hira, they receive of his graces,
and have a smell of his perfumes. Npt only

do they, by the sraell ef his g<arment5, or
such imposed rites, obtain the blessing, but
likewiae araeU Uke him by the participation
of aanctifying grace, of hia wisdom and ho-
lineas in a pure and godly converaation,
(abataining from the impure luats andpoUu.
tions of the world,) of his meekness and
huraility. Never think that ene and the
aarae soul can have much pride and much
of Chriat ; ever the raore grace a man hath,
the more aense hath he Ukewise of hia own
unworthineaa, and God's free mercy, and,
consequently, the more humility. If you
leve Christ, yeu cannot choose but be Uke
him in love to your brethren. This is ex.
preaaly compared by the Psalmiat, te the
precious'ointraent poured upon Aaron's head,
that ran down to the skirts of hia garments.
Our head and high-prieat, the Lord Jeaus,
hath incomparably teatifled his love to be
lievers, whom he ia pleaaed te call his bre
thren. Theyarefarfromequallinghira, either
in love to hira or ene to another ; but they
do iraitate hira in both. This is his great
coramandraent, thai- we love one another,
even as he loved us, which ia expreased
both as a strong raotive and a high exaraple.
It is not possible that a spirit of malice and
iraplacable hatred can consist with the love
of Christ. Finally, Sheuld yeu be ready to
suffer for Christ ? Yes : then love is that
which will enable you ; and if you were in
flaraed with this fire, then, though burned
for him, that fire weuld only consume your
dross, and be soon extinguished, but this
would endure for ever.
By these and the like evidences, try whe
ther you indeed love tbe Lerd Jesus Christ ;
ahd hy these fruits, you that profesa to love
him, testify tbe sincerity ef your love ; and
be assured, that if you be now found amongst
these virgins that love bira, yoii shall one
day be of the nuraber ef those virgina tbat
are apoken of, (Rev. xiv. 3, 4,) that aing a
new aong before the throne of God.
If you hate the defileraenta of the world,
and be net poUuted with inordinate affection
to the creature, it ahall never repent you to
have made choice of Chriat ; he ahaU fiU
your hearta with peace and joy in beUeving.
When you corae to his house and table, he
shaU aend yeu home with joy and sweet
conaolation, such as yeu weuld not exchange
with crowns and aceptrea ; and after sorae
few of these running banquets here below,
you shall enter into the great raaniage sup
per of tha Larab, where faitii shaU end in
sight, and hope in peaaession, and love
continue in perpetual and fuU enjoyment,
where you ahaU be never weary, but for ever
happy in behplding the face pf the blessed
Trinity, tr whom be glpry. Amen.

SER.MON IX.

393

SERMON IX.

How true is that werd ef our Savieur,
who is truth itself. Without me ye can
do nothing, severed frora me, as tiiat branch
that is not in me 1 They ^hat are altogether
out of Christ in spiritual exercises, dp np
thing at all. It is true, they may pray and
hear the wprd, yea, and preach it tPO, and
yet, in so doing, they do nothing, nothing
in eft'ect. They have the matter of good
actions; but it is the internal fonn gives
being to things. They are but a nuraber
of empty words and a dead service to a living
Ged ; for aU our outward performances and
worship ef the bedy is nething but the body
of worship, and therefore nothing but a car-
ease, except the Lord Jesus, by his Spirit,
breathe upon it the breath of life. Yea,
the worshipper hiraaelf ia spirituaUy dead,
till he receive Ufe from Jesus, and be quick
ened by his Spirit. If thia be true, then
it wiU feUow neceaaarUy, that where num
bera are met together, (aa here,) preteuding
to aerve arid worahip God, yet he hath very
few tbat do ao indeed, the greatest part
being out of Chriat ; and auch being witb
out bira, thev cau dp npthing in hia aervice.
Rojians viii. 7.
Because ihe carnal.jcaind is enmity against
God ; for it is not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be.

The prdinary wprkings and actipns pf
creatures are suitable to their nature, as the
ascending of Ught things, and the raoving
of heavy things downwards ; so the vital and
aenaitive actions of thinga, that have Ufe
and aenae. The reaaonable creature, it ia
true, nath raere liberty in its actions, freely
cheesing one thing arid rejecting another ;
yet it cannot be denied, that in acting of that
Uberty, their choice and refuaal foUow the
away of their nature and condition. As the
angels and glorified soula, (their nature be-
ing perfectly holy, and unalterably such,)
they cannot siri, they can delight in nothing
but in obeying and praising-that God, in the
enjoyment of whom their happiness consist.
eth ; StiU ravished in beholding his face.
The saints, again, that have not yet reached
that horae, and are but on their joumey, they
are not fuUy defecated and refined frora the
dross of sin : there are in thera two parties,
natural conuption and supematural grace,
and these keep a struggliug within them ;
but the younger shaU supplant the elder.
Grace shaU in the end overcome, and in tbe
'lean while, though it be not free from mix

ture, yet it is predominant. The main bent
of a reriewed man is obedience and holiness,
and any action of that kind he rejoices in ;
but the sin tbat escapes' him be cannot look
upon but with regret and discontent. But,
alas ! they that be ap rainded are very thin
spwn in the world, even in God's peculiar
fields, where the labourage of the gpspel ia,
and the outward profession ef true religion
unanimously received. Yet the nuraber of
true converts, spiritual-rainded persons, is
very sraaU, the greatest part acting sin with
delight, and taking pleaaure in unrighteoua
neaa, living in disobedience to God, aa in
their proper eleraent ; and the reason is, the
contrariety of their nature to pur hply Lord.
The carnal mind is enmity against God.
Tlie mind, <p^ov7i[jix. Sorae render it,
the prudence or wisdora of the fleah. Here
you have it, the carnal raind ; but tbe werd
aignifiea, indeed, an act of the mind, rather
thpn either the faculty itaelf or the habit of
prudence in it, so as it discovers what ia the
frame of both those. Tbe minding, aa it ia '
uaed, ver. 5, conforraa to that of Moaea,
Gen. vi. 5 : " Every iraagination of tbe
thoughta of man'a heart is only evil conti
nuaUy." The word, indeed, signifies the wise
thoughts. So, then, take the full latitude of
it thua : " The carnal mind, in its best
and wiaeat thoughts, is direct enmity against
God." Carnal, ms rx^no;. Whjit is meant by
tbe flesh here ? It is the wbole conupt
nature of man ; and that we raiiy knew by
its opposition to the Spirit, not tp tbe spirit
pr spul pf a man, fpr sp it hath up thpughts
er minding, these being proper te the seul,
but opposed to the Spirit of God.
Now, the conuption ef nature is called
the flesh, - net without very good reason, net
only to signify the baseness of it, the flesh
being the raere ignoble and raeaner part of
a raan ; but because the greatest part of tbe
sins of men's Uvea are about sensitive ob
jecta, and thinga that concern the fleah or the
body. It leta in temptation of sin to tbe
soul by the doors ef the senses, and it gives
the last perfection or accomplishraent to sin
by external acting of it. The very first sin
that brought in death and misery with it
upen marikind, the pleasure of the eye and
of the taste, were sharers in the guiltiness
of it. The camal mind. Man, in regard of
his composure, is, as it were, the tie and band
of heaven and earth ; they meet and are
married in him. A hody he has taken out
of the dust, but a spul breathed from hea
ven, frora the Father of spirits ; a bouse ol
clay, but a guest of mest noble extraction.
But tbe pity is, it bath forgot its original,
and is so drowned in flesh that it deserves no
other but to go under the name of flesh. It
is become the slave and Jjudge of the bpdy

394

SERMON IX.

and, as the laraelitea in Egypt, made perpe
tuaUy to mod in clay. What is aU your
merchandise, your trades and manufactures,
your tiUage and husbandry, but aU for the
body, in its behalf, for feod and ^airaent ?
In aU these the raind muat be careful and
thoughtful, and yet properly they reach it not,
for itself hath no interest in thera. It is
true, the necessity of the body requires rauch
of these things, and superfluous custora far
raore ; but it ia laraentable that men force
their aoul to forget itself and its proper
busineaa, te attend these thinga only, and be
busy in thera. They spend aU their tirae
and their choiceat paina upon periahing
thinga, aud, which ia worae, engage their
affectiona to thera. They mind earthly
things, whose end is destruction, PhiUp. iii,
19. Tbe same werd that is here, ^^oyti/ix rns
cx^Ko;, Scc,
Will you consider aerioualy, that your
souls mn the hazard of perishing, because
you consider not their spiritual nature ?
When that earthly taberriacle of yours shaU
fall to the ground, (and ere long it must,)
your soula muat then enter eternity, and
though you had as large a share of earthly
things as your earthly hearts now would
wish, tbey aU loae their use in that moraent.
They are not a proper good for the soul at
any time, and least at that time. If yeu
keep it all your life long, busy about the in-
.terest and benefit of the flesh, the body, how
poor wiU it be when they part, having pro
vided nothing at all for itself, hut the guilti
neas of a sinful life, which will aink it into
that bottpmlesa pit ! Be forewarned then :
for to be carnally minded is death, verse 6,
preceding the text.
The carnal mind. Npw as sin hath
abaaed and degenerated the apul of raan,
raaking it camal, ao the Son of God, by tak
ing on our nature, hath aubliraated it again,
and raade it spiritual. The souls that re
ceived hira are apirituaUzed ; yea, aa sin
raade the soul carnal, grace raakea the very
body te becorae apiritual, raaking it partaker
and co-worker in spiritual thinga, together
with the aoul, in doing arid auffering, and
participant of the hopea tee of an everlasting
reward. This ia the raain Chriatian charac.
ter our apostle givea here, that they are api.
ritually-raiiided, and tbat their actions suit
their minda ; they walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. Whereas before, with
the rest of tbe world, they were eager in the
'pursuit of honours, and profits, and worldly
pleasures ; the atream of their desirea now
ruria in another channel : they aeek after
honour, and are very ambitioua of it ; but it
is such honour aa the apoatle apeaka of in
this epiatle, Rom. ii. 7, Ey patient continu.
ance in well-doing, they seek for glory, and
honour, and immortality : their mind is
upen profit and gain, but it is with the same

apostle, Philip, iii. 8, that they may win
Chriat, and they account all ether thiijgs loss
in comparison ; and their desires are after
pleasure too, but net carnal pleasures, these
are beth base and of short continuance, but
the pleasures they aim at, are thoae that are
at God's right hand, and for evermore,
Psalra xvi- 11- And tbat path of Ufe he
there apeaks of, that way of holiness that
leads thither, is their delight. Spiritual ex-
ercises they go to, not as tbeir task only, but
raore as their joy and refreshraent. And thia
change tbe Spirit of God worka in the seul,
raaking it (yea, and the body wherein it
dwella) of carnal te becorae apiritual, aa the
fire, to which the Holy Ghoat is compared,
refines aand and aahes, and raakes of them
the purest glass, which is so neat and trans
parent. Enmity against God. Sin hath not only
raade us unlike God, by defacing bia beau
tiful iraage iu ua ; net only strangers, by
raaking us wander far off frora him, but
enemies ; ner enemies only, but enraity in
the abstract ; for that is eraphatical — The
carnal mind is enmity, nothing elae but
enraity. Now this enmity ia deacribed in the latter
clauae of the text, by an antipathy, ao to caU
it, or net corapliance with the law of God ;
ii is noi subject to thi law of God, neither
can it be, to wit, while it remaina such.
There ia an abaolute itnpoaaibility in it to
suit with the law of Ged, and conaequently
with God himself- The reason lies in their
opposite qualities : Ged is apiritual and
holy, and so is the law, as eur apostle hath
it in the preceding chapter ;, and the opposi
tion he there makea, betwixt hia unregene
rate part and the law, ia whoUy true of tbe un
regenerate man- The law is holy, saya he,
verae 12 ; and, verse 14, It is spiritual ; to
which he oppoaea, Bui I am carnal, sold
under sin.
Wbere are new thoae that so vilify grace
and magnify nature ?. Or, ahall I rather aay,
nuUify grace and deify nature ? Here ia the
beat eulogy the apoatle will beatow upon the
best ef natures — enmity against God. Nay,
aU the aparklea ef virtue and raoral goodneaa
ill civil raeri arid ancient heathena, ia no
better ; beaides raany other thinga to be said
to the virtues of those philoaophera, aa igno
rance ef Chriat, by whora alone this enmity
ia reraoved. I should eaaily confeas, nor (I think) can
any deny it, but that there ia in the very
ruina of our nature, some character left of a
tendency te Ged, aa our chief and only sa
tiafying good, which we may call a kind of
leve, and when we hear them apoken of
find it fiutter and atir ; and hence raen ao
abhor the iraputation of hating Ged and
being eneraies. Yet thia is se smothered
under sensuality and flesh, that until we be

SERMON IX.

395

made spiritual, nothing appears butpracti-'
cal, and, as they caU it, interpretative enmity.
There is une thing stains them enpugh —
tbey were all, as that father speaks, anima-]
{ia gloria ; they aimed npt in their study of
virtue at God'a glory, but at tbeir ewn; and
ia net tbat quanel enough, and raatter of
enraity ? Saya not he. My glory I will noi
give unto another ?
But that is raost uaeful for yeu, to cou-
virice you of that too good conceit men have
of their natural condition. Yeu would take
it hardly, tbe moat profane of you all, if
any ahould corae to you, in particular, and
tell yeu, you are an enemy to Ged ; but I
anawer, there is fione of yeu, if yeu be-
lieve the Scripturea, but will coufeas that all
raen are naturaUy auch ; and therefore, ex
cept we find in ouraelvea a notable alteration
from the condition of nature, we muat take
with it that we are eneraiea, yea, enraity te
God : of atrangera to becorae acquainted
witb bun, yea, which ia more, of enemiea to
become friends, is a greater and more re
markable change than to be incident to a
raan without any evidence and sign ef it,
I know there is a very great variety in the
way and manner of conversion ; and to sorae,
especiaUy if it be in their tender years, grace
may be instilled, and dropped in aa it were
insensibly. But this I may confidently say,
that whataoever be the way of werking it,
there will be a wide and apparent diffe
rence betwixt friendahip with God and the
conditipn pf nature, which is enmity againat
him. Do not fiatter youraelves ; so long as
your minda reraain carnal, ardent in love to
the world, and cold in love te God, lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God, (as the
apoatle apeaka,) you are hia eneraies ; for
with hira there is no neutrality. That which
they say, taxing it as a weakness in the sex,
Aut amat, aut odit mulier, nihil est ter
tium, is, in this case, necessarily true of aU.
And this is God's peculiar, that he can
judge infallibly ef the inside. These sha
dows of friendahip raen uae one with an
other, will not pasa with hira. Deceived be
cannot be ; but men may eaaily, and, alas '
too many do deceive theraselves in this raatter
to their own rain.
We raay learn, hence, hew deep sin goea
in our nature, and, conaequently, that the
cure and reraedy of it rauat ge as deep ; that
all the parts of our bodiea and powera of our
souls are poUuted originally, our very mind
and conscience, as the apostle apeaks ; for it
ia iraraeraed in flesh, and enalaved to fleah
naturally, and therefore goes under ita narae ;
we are become aU fleah ; that ia the apring
of our mischiefs ; we have lost our Ukeneaa
with our Father, the Father of spirits, and
the purest and "mest spiritual Spirit, till re.
newed by participation pf his Spirit on pur
fleah.

And it ia die error, npt only pf natural
men, but spmewhat pf the gpdly tpp, that in
aelf-refprmatipn they set themaelvea againat
actual sin, but they lay net the axe tp the
root of the tree, tbia root ef bitterneas, this
our inbred and natural enmity againat God ;
and tiU thia be done, the lopping eff of aerae
branchea will do no good ; while the root ia
in vigour theae wiU grow again, and, poa
sibly, faster than before. Bewail every
known act of sin, as much aa you can, for
the leaat of thera deaervea it : but withal,
let the conaideration of them lead you into
thoughts of this seed of rebellion, the wick
edneaa of our nature, that takes lifb with us
iri tbe worab, arid aprings and grows up with
us, and this wiU hurable us exceedingly,
and raise eur godly sorrow to a higher tide.
We find David taketh this course, Psalra
li. 5, where he is laraenting hia particular
ain of adultery and raurder : it leada bira te
tbe ainfulness of his nature — I was shapen
in iniquity, and in sin did my mother con
ceive me, or, warm rae ; which he raentions,
net to extenuate and dftiinish hia sin ; no,
he is there very far frem that strain, but
adds it as a main aggravation. Indeed, the
power of original siri, iri the regeneratej is
laid very low, yet not altogether extinct,
which they find often to their grief, and
raakes thera cry out witb oui apostle, in the
forraer chapter, O wretched man that I am,
who shall deliver me from this body of
death ? The converted are already delivered
(as he add-^) from the dominion of it, but
net from the molestation and trouble of it.
Though it is not a quiet and uncontrouled
master, aa it was before, yet it ia in the
houae atill as an unruly servant or slave,
ever vexing and annoying thera : and this
body ef death they shall have atill cause to
bewail, till death releaae them. Thia le-
rirosy bath taken so deep in tbe walls of this
leuae, that it cannot perfectly be cleansed
till it be taken down ; and it is this, raore
than any ether sorrows or afflictions of life,
hat raakes the godly raan not only content
0 die, but deairoua ; longing with our
apostle, to be dissolved, and be with Christ,
which is far better.
As tbis teaches us the raisery of raan s
nature, so it seta off and commends exceed
ingly the riches of Gold's grace. Are raen
naturally his enemies ? "Why then, admire
his patience and bounty a little, and then
we will speak of his saving grace. Could
not he very easily ease himself of his adver
saries ? as he says by the prophet. Wants
he pewer in his right hand to find out and
cut oft' aU his enemies ? Surely, no ; not
only he hath pewer to destroy them all in a
moraent, but the very withdrawing of his
hand that upholds their being, (theugh they
consider it not,) would make thera faU to
npthing Yet is he pleased not only to

396

SERMON T...

spare transgressors, but to give thera raany
outward blessings — rain and fruitful sea
sons, as the apostle speaks. Acts xiv. 17 ;
and the earth that is ao fuU ef raan'a rebel
lion, ia yet raore fuU of hia goodneas : The
earth is full of thy goodness. It is re.
markable, that that aarae reason which i:
given (Gen. vi. 5,) of the justice of God in
drowning the world, is, (viii. 21,) rendered
as the reaaon of God'a reaolved patience ever
since. Then,
His grace, in finding a way of recencUe-
inerit,, arid riot aparing hia own Sen, hia
only-begotten Sen, te accorapliab it. Nor
did he spare himaelf. O, raatchleaa love !
to lay down hia Ufe, not for frienda but for
strangers ! Not only so, but eueraies, for
unrighteous and ungodly persons, such as
be at enmity against hira. Rem. v. 7, 8.
Scc. And having dene this, he sends his
word, the measage ef reconciliation, to re
bela, and senda hia Spirit into the hearts of
thoae whom he hath appointed to aalvation,
to change their apirita, that they periah npt
ill diapbedience ; he*hringa them near thai
were afar off, having slain this enmity by
the death pf hia Spn.
As raany pf you, then, as have hitherto
heard this raessage of reconcilement in vain,
be persuaded at laat to give ear to it. This
is all that God'a ambassadors require, ac
cording, to their insfructiona frora himaelf,
•' That men would lay down that enmity
againat hira, and not be so fooliah aa wil
fully to periah in it." 2 Cor. v. 20.
Conaider that thia enmity is, \st, unjuat ;
2dly, unhappy. Unjust it ia, being againat
Him who is the chief object ef love, wbo ia
altogether goodness, both in himself and
towarda hia creaturea. It is too much not
to love hira with meat ardent and superlative
affectiori ; but to entertain enraity against
hira, is raadness : as he aaid to one who
asked. Why are the beautiful loved ? It is
a blind man's question. Certainly we are
blind, if we see. net cause enough not only
to deaiat frora enraity, but te be inflamed
with hia love. One glance ef his araiable
countenance ia aufficient to cauae the raoat
rebeUioua heart to yield, and lay down arraa,
and for ever devote theraselves to his service.
No, we knew hira npt, and therefpre it is we
held out against hira- Is he net the living
apring of all eur comforts ? Have we not
frem him life, and breath, and aU things ?
And is he not ready te forgive iniquity,
transgression, and sin ? Let raercy melt
our hearts to him, these sweet rays of love-
Let his loving-kindneaa overcorae theae stub-
bora hearts or spirits of oura. Araong ene
miea, the weaker uaually seek firat fer peace,
but here the mighty ; Alraighty God coraea
to intreat agreement with sinful clay.
But if this prevaU not, then think how
uuliappv this enmity ia. You that are se

afraid of men, and these weak men, ot men
like youraelvea, whoae breath is in thefr nos.
trils, wiU ye not tremble at his power, and
be afraid to continue in terms ef hostiUty
against him who is the Lord of hosts, who
hath power of the seul and bedy both, to
kiU both and cast them into hell ? What is
the atouteat of men, but as stubble to the
flarae ef his wrath ? Our God is a con.
suming fire. The sinners in Zion are
afraid (says the Prophet). Who shall
dwell, say they, with devouring fire a'nd
everlasting burnings ? Then if you would
not perish, when his -wrath ia kindled, take
that word of Eliphaz, Job xxii. 21 : " Ac.
quaint now thyaelf with him, and be at
peace ; thereby good shaU come unto thee."
And to you, so many as he hath taken
into friendship with himself, leok backward
to the gulph yeu have escaped, and forward
to the happiness yeu are appointed to,' and
let the joint consideration of both awaken
your hearts and tongues te praises. How
can your hearta contain such a wonder of
love as he hath manifested te you, and not
run over in songs and praise ?
And as you owe him praises, so study,
being made bis friends, te becorae raore lilie
hira : that sarae idem velle et idem nolle,
te leve and hate the sarae things with him,
will be a sure teatiraony of friendahip. And
becauae carnality, or fleably and earthly.
raindedneaa, is here raade the character of
enmity, raortify these affections, nail them
te that crosa ef Chriat, whereby the enmity
waa taken away. And further, being once
admitted into friendship, labour for a fur
ther degree ef intimacy with hira, and for-.
bear every tiling that may hinder that : use
frequent converse with him, for that both
entertaina and increaaea friendahip. If any
thing fdl en your part, (aa it tpp often doea,)
that may occaaion any strangeness betwixt
you and your God, rest not tiU it be remov.
ed. And if you walk in this way, it shall
undoubtedly, at length, bring you where you
shall abide in his presence for ever, and shaU
no more fear any breach or interruption oi
enjoying bim. To him be praise. Amen.

SERMON X.
Romans xiii. 5 — 8,
Wherefore ye must needs be subject, nol
only for wrath, but also for conscience'
sake, &c. Owe no man any thing, but
to love one another, Scc.
The wiadora and goodnesa of God tbat
ahines in the natural order and dependence
of things in the frarae of the great world,

SERMON X.

397

appears likewise, and comn-.eiids itself tp us,
in the civil prder he hath instituted in the
societi.gs cf men, the lesser wprld. As put
of the same raass he raade the heaven and
the earth, and the other eleraents betwixt
them, one higher than another, and gave
them different stations and qualities, yet se
different as to be Unked and concatenated
together, concordiS, discordia, and all for
the concem and benefit ef the whole : Thus,
for the good ef men, hath the Lerd assigned
theae different atations ef rule and subjec
tion, though all of one race. Acta xvii, 26,
raiaing from among raen seme above the
reat ; and clothed thera with such authority,
as hath sorae representinent of hiraself, and
accordingly coraraunicating to thera bis own
narae — / have said, you are gods. And
the very power that is in magistracy to curb
and -puniah thoae that de.spiae it, the apoatie
iiaetli a atrong and hard cord to bind ori the
duty of obedieuce — a cord of rieceaaity. But
he adds another of a higher neceaaity, tbat
binda more atrongly and yet mere sweetly,
that of ceiiscierice : Wherefore ye must
needs be subject, noi only for wrath, but
also for conscience' sake.
Observe, 1. Tbis is the mairi corisidera-
tiori tiiat closes the discourse, the great cord
that binds on and fastens aU the rest ; all
the arguraents foregoing, therefore, are raain
ly here to be pressed. " Have a reverent
and cpnscientipus respect tp the prdinance cf
Gpd in the institutipn pf gpvernraent, and te
the providence of God in his choice ef thoae
particular peraons whom he caUa to it. Con
tain thyaelf in thy own statipn, and submit
tp thpae aet higher by the Lprd, in pbedience
to him." Thia indeed is the only true
spring of aU obedience, both to God and to
raen, for hira, and according to hia ordinance.
To regulate the outward carriage, without
the living principle ef an enlightened aiid
sanctified conscience within, ia to build with
out a foundation- Thia ia tbe thing God
eyea raoat : he looks through tbe surface of
men's actions to the bottora, foUews thera
into their source, examines from wliat per
suasives and reasona they fiow ; he seea not
only the handle of the dial, but aU the wheela
and weights of the clock that are the cause
of ita raotion, and accordingly he judgea
both raen and their actions to be good and
evil, aa the inward frame and secret motions
of the heart are in his own worship. The
outside of it may have the same visage and
plausible appearance in a multitude conven
ed to it and concurring in it, and no human
eye can trace a differerice, and yet, oh, what
vast differerice doth God's eye discover
ampngat them ! He sees the multitude pf
thpse tbat are driven tP his hpuae by the
ppwer pf civil and church lawa, pr canied tp
it pnly with the streara pf corapany and cua
tom ; and these I fancy take up the must

room in our churches. But he sees here and
there, where such are in any corner that wor.
ship hira in singleness ef heart, out of con.
science to his holy coramand, and of their
many obligations, that dare not let pass any
opportunity they can reach of doing service
to their Lord, and that dare not slight his
word ; and thus coming for conscience' sake,
they do present their spuls tp receive his
wprd, give their hearta up tp receive the im-
preaaipii ef it, put theraaelves under it, to be
stamped by it according to that. Rem. vi. 17-
" But ye have obeyed frora the heart that
forra of doctrine which waa delivered yeu."
Se likewiae he aeea those that bear bia name
te hia people, the ministers ofhis word. If
they preach constantly and live blamelessly,
and are diligent and irreprovable in aU ih-
extemal parts of their walking, this laat sa
tisfies men's questions in their inspection and
visitings : but God'a inquiry and viaiting
aear6hea deeper ; he aaka from what heart all
this coraes, if frora a holy conscience of the
weight and high iraportance of their holy
caUing, and a faithful reapect to-the intereat
of their Master's glory and his people's soula.
And thus he, its suprerae judge, aita and con-
aiders the proceedings of judges and magia-
tratea, not only whether they do that which
ia juat ; for often they camiot easily or safely
de otherwise ; but whether they do it with
regard te him er not ; that is, whether they
judge righteously, for conscience' sake, or
not ; whether they de consider hira, as sit
ting above thera, when they sit down upen
the bench or aeat of juatice, and do indeed
truly speak righteousness, Paalm Iviii- 1.
Or if in heart they work wickedneas, if they
have any corrupt end, er hearta that are not
straight, he sits on their heart and judges it-
Or if this be done either for base gairi, or
vain glory, or by con^pulaion, or outward
neceaaity, or danger of cenaure ; er if it be
this Utter, an inward necessity of censcience,
which raakes a true wiUingnesa-
Thua peeple, if they obey for wrath, which
ia, for fear of the raagiatratea* aword, raore
than for conscience of the Lord's coraraand,
God accounts not this obedience, but in his
judg-raent it goes for no better tban rebelUon.
It is te be feared, too raany raagistrates, and
others, have in this nation erabraced the re
forraation, not at all for conscience' aake,
but only for wrath, fear of laws and autho
rity. But although we are not able to foUow
forth this search to the full, that being the
Lord's own prerogative ; yet, truly, where it
ia evident to ua,,that there is nething of con
science, though in civil things it raay pass,
yet in things that are peculiarly matters ol"
conscience in religion, raen ought to be some
what wary, according to the utmost ef due
discerning, and are possibly somewhat to
blame in proraiscuously admitting of such
whose carriage, yea, wlipse profession and re-

3<)8 SERBION ^.
ligion speaks aloud, that their compliance
was whplly cpnstrained pbedience, pnly fpr
wrath and npt fpr cpnscience.
If civil authprity ia to be obeyed mest for
conacience, then church-authority, that is
more symbolical with conscience, and hath
nearer reference to it, pught tp aim rapat at
that. Cpnviction and converaion ia our
work, and not cenatraint ; to bring people
both by the word, and by a way of disci
pline, suiting and backing it, to a sense of
sin, aud spiritual thoughts of God and his
holy law, that tbey raay be subject raere for
conscience than for wrath.
And ye people, labour more te find the
actings of that holy fear of God, and con
science ef his will, in aU your ways ; study
to bave an inward Ught, a practical, aanctify
ing Ught, directing you ; and be not raerely
held in aj, beaata, by tbe authority and lawa
of men ;"^ut leam to know, and be sensible
ef the sovereign authority of the moat high
God and hia law, and to have respect unto
all his comraandraents. If this were once
done, hew regular a motion weuld it keep
amongat all superiors and inferiors ef all
sorts, in farailiea and atatea,* the one com
manding, the ether obeying in God 1 It
would be as sweet rausic in tbe celestial choir
of tbeir lives and affairs. Right informing,
and right moving cpnsciences, wpuld be as
cpntinual teachers within, directing all in
obedierice, arid wpuld make it both more cori-
ataiit, sweet arid pleaaant, aa natural raotion ;
whereas it is grieveus and violent that is
frora wrath or outward power, and therefore
lasts net : as the Israelites worahipped God
aright while their good judges lived, and ran
after idola when they were reraoved.
Again : Thia aarae obedience, for con
science ennobles and sublimates men's ac
tiona, even in civil thinga, makea thera have
soraewhat divine, tuma all into sacrifice te
God, when aU is dene for God ; even ser
vanta and children obeying masters and
parenta ; subjects raagistrates, for hia com
mand's sake : and atiU thinking, in the
whole courae of their regular, due caniage,
in their very callinga, " This I do for Ged ;
my ordinary labour and works, and my just
obedience to men, I offer up tohim-" This
is the philosopher's stone, that turns actions
of lower metal into gold ; / set the Lord al
ways before me, Paalra xvi. 8.
Obs. 2. Kings, and other powers of the
werld, who are the eneraies, and spraetiraes
the enraged persecutpra pf pur holy religion,
miatake their quanel, and are very wrong
fully misprejudiced against it, and upon that
false supposition do hate and oppoae it, sus
pecting it as an eneray to their dignity and
.luthority ; whereas there is nething tbat
doth so much assert their just power as re
ligion doth. Civil laws may tie the hands
and tongue to their obedienea but relision

binds all due subjection to them upon t?nJ
very consciences of their people. Therefore
they are both ingrate and unwise, in using
their power against religion, which it stt
much strengthens. Their power should
strengthen it, both by way of due return, to
conespond with it in that, and even for its
own interest, receiving a new establishment
to itself by establishing religion. Even that
master of irreligious policy confesses, * that
the professor of religion is a friend to autho
rity ; but if the shadpw ef it do any thing
that way, we see, contrary to his profane sup
position, the suhstanee and truth pf it doth
it much raore.
Obs. 3- If for conscience' sake, subjec.
tion ; then, sure, in nothing against the true
rule of conscience, and prirae object of con.
acience, the authority and law ef God. That
is the firat and higheat, and the perpetual,
unalterable engageraent to bim, biriding
kings and subjects, high and low ; and if
tbey leave their atation, we ought to keep
oura atiU in a atraight Subjection to God ;
for the extent of friendahip, and aU other
relationa, and of all aubjection and obedi.
ence, ia te be ruled and bounded, usque ad
aras. Give to Caeaar the things that are
Cassar'a, but nething of God's ; neither ours
to give ner hia to receive.
For, for this cause pay you tribute also.
Tbia the apostle gives as a aign of that con.
feaaed right that magistrates have to the
aubjection and obedience of the people, that
in all nationa thia homage and acknowledge.
ment is due to them, tribute paid ; which,
it may be, he the rather mentions, because
sorae question raight be, what might Chris
tians do concerning thia. However, thia,
according te tbe constitution of aeveral places,
he takea aa granted, to be not only lawfiil,
but due to be rendered. Here we are net to
insiat on the acanning of this ; but, certain.
ly, as the power of a magistrate is not in
thia, nor in any other thing, abaolute and
unbounded, so tbe legal and just paying of
tribute and other revenues by the people,
argues their engagement to those set ever
thera, and is not as wagea to a mercenary
servant, but an honorary due te their place
and calling, who are the ministers of God
in civil government. So alao, convenient,
yet liberal mairitenance to tbe rainisters oi
Gpd's own house is their right, yet not to
enrich thera : nor yet eught it to be given
them grudgingly, as undue ; or supercilious.
ly, as to servants ; but with the cheerfulness
and respect agreeable to the Lord's servants,
watching for their souls.
All tribute and obedience stil. relates to
tbis, and is grounded on it — the Lord's in
stitution ef pewer and government, for the
good of men. Theugh it sometimes proves
Ptherwise in the exercise of it, yet the or.
* MachiaveL

SERMON X.

399

dinance i.* pure, and most wisely suited to
its end, from which the sin and conuption
of men turns it but too often ; so that ene mari
rules over ariother to his hurt, to the hurt of
both the ruler himself and of the raled- Ec
cles- vui. 9, " There is a time wherein one man
ruleth ever anether to his own hurt ;" each
proving a scourge te the other, in tbe just
judgraent of God on both for their iniquitiea,
raaking a ffre from Abimelech to devour the
men of Shechem, and the men ef Shechem
deal treacheroualy with Abimelech, Judgea
ix. 20. Yet, atill the thing itaelf remaina
geod. Many skilful physicians may kiU
inatead ef curing ; yet it ia but a caprice to
decry aU remediea, and the uae of things
medicinal, that the Ged of nature hath
furnished for that use. Men raay, and,
alas 1 raost do prejudice their own health by
either interaperate or aorae way inegular
diet ; yet tbia makes nothing againat the
continual necessity and use of food, nor can
disauade any frora uaing it. Thus, the
abuses of authority infringe not this, tbat
raagistrates are a pubUc good, yea, the un
just better than none, tyranny better than
anarchy ; there is sorae justice .done in the
moat unjuat government.
But thus they that are exalted to rule
ought te conaider who raised them, and for
what they are raised, and so faithfully to de
justice. They are raised high, as the stars
are set in their orbs for infiuence and tbe
good of the inferior world, and aa the moun
tains which rise above the valleys, not to
be piacea of prey and ruin, but by the streams
they send out te refresh them : so, frora
magistrates judgment ought to run down as
water, and justice as a mighty^ stream.
They eught to consider theraaelvea aa minia
ters, though caUed magistrates with relation
to the people.; yet, ministers in relation to
God, \iiTou^yoi 0OUI, and the people's in him,
aa the word Xiirov^yoi importa, being conatant
labourers for tbeir good ; even aa the aun is
a minister, God'a rainister of heat and light
to the earth. Would they look up thus to
God, it would raake them look down on
their inferiors, net with the ill aapect ef
pride and cruelty, but the benign looka of
good-will, fidelity, and vigilancy, for their
welfare, knowing tbat they are appointed
for this very use in the world ; net refening
to that which is nearest here, and nearest
theraselves, ihe receiving of tribute, but
the remoteat good, whicb ia the chief for
which their tribute and tiiemaelvea are ap
pointed — tbe punishing of the wicked and
encouragement of the good.
Render, therefore, io all iheir dues,
tribute io whom tribute, &c. The apostle
enlarges his exhprtatipn to the general rule
nf equity. The humble, upright mind wiU
willingly suit with this, and pay respect to
men in obedience to Ged, and therefore

primarily te him, whicii the raost neglect.
Honour and fear are due to hira as tp pur
fatber and raaater, and yet where ia it to be
fpund ?" If I be a father, where is mine
hpnour ? And if I be a maater, where is my
fear?" &c. Mal. i. 6. Tbe tribute of
praiae and glory in all theae ia due, and
ought not to be purloined, nor any part de
tained ; but how few are faithful in thia !
Much uncustomed goods pass among eur
hands in the course of eur Uvea, many things
wherein we are not mindful to give glory,
entire glory to God ; but he cannot be de
ceived ;-. if we ge en, he will take us in our
quietest conveyance, and aU will be forfeit.
ed. We shall ceitainly loae aU if all glory
return not to him- All that we have and
are, should we daily and heartily offer up to
hira, frora whora we have life, and breath,
and aU thinga-
Owe no man any thing, but to love one
another, Scc. That which the apoatle aet
before himaelf, as his own study and exer
cise. Acts xxiv. 16, he doth in the latter
part pf thia epistle set forth at large, as the
duty of every Christian, to keep a conscience
void of offence towards God and men. And
having in the former part ef it treated amply
and excellently of the doctrine of Christians'
faith and aalvatipn, and ascended tp its
highest cause,- he descenda frpm thence to
give tbe rulea of a Christian life ; and he
reduces thera to theae two : 1. To give the
Lord his due, ^which is, ourselves entire ;
eur bodies ought te be a living sacrifice,
(xii. 1,) and that they are not without the
aoul : and it is love in the soul that offers
up thia whole bumt-offering to God — tbe
fire tbat raakea it aacend. 2. Towarda men
likewise, love ia all ; of which in m.iny
aeveral acta ef it, he apake likewiae in the
former chapter, ver. 9, &c. And having
inaerted an exhortation to aubjection to hu
man authority as a divine inatitution, he
now returna to that main, comprehenaive, and
univeraal duty of love, and passes fitly from
the mention of other particular dues to su-
periora ; to thia, as the general due, or
atanding debt, all men owe one to amther-
So, I conceive, tiiia ia net intended for the
further preaaing of that particular duty ef
subjection, by reducing it (seeming hard in
itself) to the sweet and pleasant rule, or law
ef love ; but that be paaaea wlioUy from tbat
particular to this coraraon duty, so as that
is not excluded, but coraprehended here
with the rest, theugh net especiaUy aimed
at ; but a little rivulet running a while in
its pwn channel, in the fpregoing discourse,
faUs here in again to the main cunent of
the doctrine of love, begun in the former
chapter. And here he chopsea, adapting it
tp the strain of the discourses iraraediately
fpregping it, tp express this under the np
tipn pf a deht — Owe nothing but love.

400

SERMON X.

I. Let other debt be removed : Owe no
thing. That is, " be not wiUing to con
tinue debtors of any thing to any, by undue
retaining ef such things, which being paid
are not owing."
2- " Tbis is a constarit debt that yeu
must still pay, and yet stiU owe — love ;"
and the reaaon added ia most enforcirig, that
we be wilUng, and coritiriue both payers
and yet debtors of it. The dueness of
it appears in this, that the law requires it ;
and the completeness of it, that it is all the
law requires- Love is ihe fulfilling of ihe
law, which is araplified in the two subse
quent verses-
This is raeat fuUy true ; take love fuUy
aa it looks on its fuU object — God and
raan ; and so it is tbe fulfiUing of the whole
law that relates te those two in its two tables-
Take it particulariy as acting towards men,
(as here it is,) and ao it fulfila that part of
the law, that whole table that reapecta man.
The meat ef thoae comraandraenta are ex
preaaly here aet down, and the oraissibn of
one is fully supplied by that additaraent, if
there be any other. Then, again, it is
cleared by the common aim and result of
them all, to keep our neighbour undamaged,
and that, love doth raost surely and fully ;
therefere fulfils all. That negative. Work
no ill, anawera tbe strain of all the command
ments, which ia to defend our neighbours
froin our iU, being raoat of thera auch, and
aU of them auch that are here apecified ;
yet, both they and thia aura of them, invol
ving the contrary working ef aU possible
good to our neighbour, in which stiU leve
suits it, nothing being beth more averse
from .wrong, and mere active in-good, than
leve, as the same apostle hath it, 1 Cor-
xiii. Beaides that, it cannet do, no, net
se much as think evil, it ia naturaUy canied
to bounty and kindneaa, and cannot ceaae
from doing good — a plant that is fruitful aU
the year long-
The apostie hath very good authority for
thia abridgraent ef the law — our Saviour
hiraself. Matt. xxii. 40; and he takea it
out of the books of the law theraselves, and
certifies us, that it ia the aubstance and sura
beth of law and prophets. Were this love
absolutely perfect, the fulfiUing of the law
weuld be so too ; and where it is sincere, aa
the apostle requirea it, there ia a aincere and
evarigelical obedience, or fulfiUing ofthe law.
In the text conaider, (l.))The largeneaaof
its object. (2.) The largeneaa of its acting.
(3.) The height of ita true original.
1. So far aa theu canat acquit thyaelf,
owe nothing else to any but love ; ewe that
to all ; not a Uke famiUar converae neces
sary to aU, nor a Uke raeasure of beneficence,
nor a like degree of love, but yet leve alike
sincere and real to all : not either a false,
or an empty, fair carriage, but holy Cliiis-

tian love, love ropted in thy heart, and-
spririging up in thy actipna, even tpwarda
aU men, aa thy ppportunity and abiUty serves
thee, and their condition requires ef thee :
not hating nor despising any for their pover
ty in eatate, or deformity of body, or defect*
of mind ; nor for that which worka most on
men, injuriea done to thyaelf; all they can
dp cannot give thee an acquittance, or free
thee of this debt of love, fer tbou art bound
to another. Tbis is the rule of Jeaua Chriat
and the badge of Christians — te love their
very enemiea ; but thia, oh ! hpw rare i
Hpw few attain it ! Yea, hew few endea.
vour it ! On the contrary, it is by many
given ever as a desperate, impossible busi
ness, they judging of it not according to
tbat spirit of Christ that is his, but accord.
ing to the conupt rancour and bittemess of
their own riatural perverse spirits ; yea, and
too raany disdain it as a poorness and sheep.
ishness of spirit to suffer and forgive. Be
it so ; yet is it such a sheepisbneaa as makes
a man like Jesus Christ, " who, aa a aheep
before the shearers is durab, so he opened
not bis raouth," when his heart within was
compassionate tewards tbem, as appeared
when he opened it conceming them — " Fa.
ther, forgive thera, for they know not what
they do." This ia the true greatneaa of
apirit te partake of his, that ia, the highest
and best of apirita, and is the apirit of meek.
nesa and love- How rauch is thia above the
eoramon spirit ef the world ! Truly, base
and poor is that which is discerappsed and
put put pf frame with every tPuch,- whereas
this is mighty, and triumphs, indeed, ever
aU prpvpcatipns and injuries-
2- Let us cpnsider the largeness ef its
acting; it gees through tbe law, fulfils it
aU. That coraraand that is first in the se
cond table, that is net here expressed, ia it
not love tbat makea aU concemed in it to
fulfil it ; that produceth mildneas and mo
deration in superiors, and faithfu''.iesa and
wilUng obedience in inferiera ; makea' both
authority and aubjection sweet and eaay,
where love commands and love obeys ? And
fpr the next. Thou shalt noi kill, dpth npt
lpve (as the sun-beams) put put the fire by
its divine heat, eat out the earthly, yea, the
infemal fire of mixed maUce or rash anger,
tbat burna naturaUy in the hearts of men ?
Such anger is caUed brutish, Ezek. xxi. 31,
" burning pr brutish," (and, pn the ccn
trary, Prov- xvii. -27, the ambiguity ia happy
of an exceUent, or pf a cppI apirit, fpr the
cpol spirit is so : cool frem base passion, but
buming truly with this love,) and then
is by very smaU and, many times, merely
imaginary causes, so easily blown up, that
it flames forth into gross murders, or, at
least, such injuriea and violences, br conten.
tions and revilinga, aa go in God'a account,
and are writ down"in his book, fer murders.

SERMON X,

401

And ho doth not misjudge ner misname
things, but they are reaUy what he accounts
tbem. Love can generally paaa over thoae
thinga, about which folly and pride make
such a noiae. Oh ! can I bear this and
ihat ? And thou wouldeat, by ao saying,
speak thy steut-heartednesa. Fool 1 is tbis
stoutness and strength ? Is it not rather the
greatest weakness to be able to bear nothing ?
Have not the weakest persons much of that
kind of stoutness and strength, who are tbe
soonest moved and diaquieted — woraen and
children, and aick or aged persona ? But
love, Chriaftian love te thy hrother, raakea
the raind truly strong and coraposed, net
eaaily atined against him for every trifle ;
^.ay, nor for greater raattera. Love can en
dure much, yea, all things, aaya the apoatle,
1 Cer. xiii. 7 ; hath atrength to stand under
them, and stand firra ; whereas base rainds,
void of leve, break all te pieces under a very
small weight : Bears all, as the supporters
'of a strong and firm building ; or rather, as
a houae cevera all, for ao it aignifies ; doth
not blaze abroad tbe failinga of raen ; yea,
it hidea rauch, covers a raultitude of ains,
not only frora the eyes of ethers, but even
frora a raan's own eyes ; makes him net be
hold and look on those thinga that might
provoke hira. Yea, it ia ingenious and in
ventive of the fairest conatructiona of thinga
to take thera by the beat aide, in the raoat
favourable sense ; and so long as there ia
any agreeable way to interpret any thing fa
vourably, will not have a hard thought of it,
thinka no ill, aa there it is : Not only bath
not active evil thoughts of revenge, or re
tuming evil, but willingly doth net judge iU
of what is done by others, and that might
be se looked on as to provoke ; ov XoytC^rxi,
doth not reckon wrong so high as want of
charity moves the rapat tp do ; aeta them
lew, and, as a healthful cpnstitntion, ia sweet
itaelf, and reliahea aU things right. There
ia raore true pleaaure and content of mind iri
forgiving, than ever any raan found in re
venge. That ia but a feverish delight that
raalice arid anger hath wrought, working
perhaps greedily ; but ia indeed a diateraper-
Thia love is the very root of peace arid con
cord, a hurable grace, that is not Ufted up
and irisolerit, as the word there is, and so
doth not breed jars about punctiUes ; es
teems so well of others, and se meanly of it
self, that it cannot well be croaaed by any
in that matter of undervaluing. But vain
spirits are puffed up with a Uttle approba
tion, and as easily kindled up with any af
front, or apprehended disgrace. Love is not
lightly put out of teraper, as sickly constitu
tions, a fit of a fever or ague, with any blast
or wrong touch of diet ; it ia of a atrpnger
digeatipn and firmer health.
Then fpr that, noi commit adultery ; all
things of that land though they spring.from

a kind of love, yet not frora this love from
abeve, but (as the Apostle James diatin-
guiahea wisdom) from the leve that ia aen
sual and dsviliah. Love is net the true
narae of it — but base and brutish luat : an d
generally aU profane societies and sortings of
raeri, one with another, are most contrary to
this pure love. The drunkards that are cup
friends, as they are full of jars, and have no
constancy, but are .unatable aa that wherein
their friendahip liea, their liquor, are a vile,
deapicable aociety, not worthy ef men, much
less of Christiana- Thia sin hath affinity
with uncleanness, and is usually ranked
there. Right love to a tippler is net to sit
down ancl guzzle with bim, but to reprove
and labour to reclaira hira ; and where that
cannet be done, to avoid hira. To wicked
persons we owe not a complacency or de
light, which is most contrary to this love ;
but, hating their ain, we owe them love, and
the deairing and (aa far as love can) the
procuring tbeir conversion and salvation-
Wicked converse cannot conaist with this
love, which is the fulfilling of the law, and
a combination for the breaking of it, and
the joining their strength together for that
end. Love rejoiceth net in iniquity, but in
the truth ; makea net men rejoice togethej
in ain ; ao .foul, unclean affections, and a
aociety in order to the gratifying, thera, is
mest contrary to it. True love is most
tender te the chastity of others, and cannot
abide an impure thought in itself-
So in not stealing. Love would be loath
te enrich or advantage itself upon fhe da
mage of othera in any kind ; it doth most
faithfully and aingly aeek the profit and
proaperity of our -neighbour, even aa our
own : and if this took place, ef how much
use were it in the world ! But, oh 1 it is
rare. Thia meum and tuum is the grand
cau.se ef the ill underatanding and discords
tbat are araongat men, when it ia not ma
naged by thia leve, but by aelf-love.
And the tendering and preserving of the
good name of our brethren, ia a proper and
very remarkable fruit of thia love, which ia
so far frora forging falae, defaraing atories,
that it will rather excuse, if it raay be done,
or if not, will pity the real faiUngs of raen
that tend to their reproach ; and, en the
contrary, will teach raen to rejoice in the
good carriage and good eateera of their bre-
thren aa of their own.
In the end, love works such a coraplacency
in the good of others, and auch a contenta
tion with our own estate, tbat it moat power
fully baniahea that unruly humour of covet
ing, which looka on the condition ef others
with envy, and on our own with grudging ¦
and discontent.
Thia law ef love written within, doth nol
only rectify and order the handa and tongue,
but the jealousies, the very stinings of the
ZC

402

SERMON XL

heart ; it conects the uaual diaorder of ita
motion, and bara thoae uncharitable, inordi
nate thoughta that dp sp abound and swarra
in carnal minda-
3. The original of thia love ia that ether
love which corresponda to the other part, the
firat and chief point of the law — our duty
towarda God- Love to hira is (he sura and
source of aU obedience ; when the whole
aoul and mind ia possessed witii that, then
all is acceptable and sweet that he com-
mands ; first, what he comraands as irarae.
diately refenable to himaelf, and then, what
is the rule of our caniage to men as being
prescribed and coraraanded by hira ; for so,
and no otherwiae, is this leve the fulfilling
of the law, when it flows frora that first love
— ^love to God, whose law it is that cora.
raanda this other love to raen. Sorae may
have aomething like it, by a raildness and
ingenuity of nature, being inoffensive and
well- willing towards all ; but tben only doth
it fulfil the law, when out ef regard te the
law of God it obeya, and obeys out of love
to hira whoae law it ia. Se, then, the love
of God in the heart ia the apring of right
and holy love to our neighbour ; both, (1.)
becauae in obedience to him whom we love
sovereignly, we will love others aincerely,
becauae he wiU have it ao- That ia reason
enough te the aoul peaaeased and taken up
with his love- It loves nothing, how lovely
soever, but in him, and fer him, in order
and subordination to hia leve, and in reapect
to his will ; and it loves any thing, how
unlovely soever, taking it in that contempla
tion- It loves not the dearest friend but in
God, and can love tbe moat hateful enemy
for him, Amicum in Deo, et inimicum
propter Deum, Aug- Hia love can beautify
the most unamiable object, and raake it love
ly- He aaith ef a worthleaa, undeaerving
man, or thy raost undeserving eneray, " Leve
him fpr my sake, becauae it pleaaea me ;"
that ia reaapn enough to one that leves him.
(2.) There is that dUating, sweetening vir
tue in love to God, that it can act no ether
way to men but as becoraes love. Base
self-love coritracta the heart, and is the very
rppt of aU sin, the chief wickedneaa in our
conupt nature ; but the love of God aaaimi-
latea the aoul to hira, makea it divine ; and
therefore bountiful, full of love to all- So
theae two contradict not — Love the Lord
with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as
thyself. " Ii ail our love must go to Ged,
what remaina for our neighbour ?" Indeed
aU raust ge upwarda, and all be placed on
him, and from thence it ia reaounded and
regulated downwarda to raeri according to
• hia wiU. But aelf-love brings forth pride,
and cruelty, and covetousness, and unclean
ness, and disdain, of ethers, and all such
kind of raonsters ; se it ia the main break
ing of the law. I

AU that can be aaid will not persuade mer
to thia, till the Lord by his leve teach it and
impress it on tbe heart. Know that this is
the badge of Chriat'a followera, and his great
rule and law given to thera ; and if you will
follow hira, that yeu may ceme te be where.
he ia, then atudy thia, that, aa eur Lord
Chriat loved us, so also we ought to leve one
another.

SERMON XL

Great and various are the evila that lodge
within the heart of man. Hence proceed
evil thoughts, adulteries, murders, and many
other miachiefa, as our Saviour specifies there;
they corae forth apace, and yet the heait
ia not emptied of them. But was thia heart
thua at firat, wben it carae newly forth of
the banda of its Maker ? Surely, no :
Man was made upright, but he found out
many inventions. Soon did the heart find
the way to conupt itself; but to renew itself,
is aa impoaaible aa to have been the author
of ita own creation. Easily could it deface
the precious characters of God's image, but
it passes the art of raen and angels to restore
thera. Only the Son ef God, whe for that
purpose took on him our nature, can make
us, according to the apoatle'a phraae, par
takers of ihe divine nature. It ia he alone
that can baniah these unclean apirits, and
keep posaeaaion that they return no more.
Have net they made a happy change of
gueata that have those infemal troops turned
out of doors, and tbe King of Glory fixing
his abode within them ? This is the voice
of the gospel — " Lift up your heada, ye
gatea, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting
doors, that the King of Glory raay enter in,"
Psalra xxiv. 7- But smaU is the nuraber of
those that open where thia voice is daily
sounded- Yea, some there are that grew
worae under the frequent preaching of the
word, aa if sin were emulous, and, as is said
of virtue, would grow by oppoaition. The
truth ia, too many ef na tum theae aerioua
exerciaea of religion into an idle divertiae.
ment. Take heed that forraaUty, and cua
tora, and novelty, do not often help te fiU
up many rooma in eur church. It were in-
deed a breach of charity to entertain the ful.
ness ef your aaaerabliea witb ill cenatruction ;
no, it ia te be comraended. But would to
God we were raere careful te ahew our reli
gion in our lives, to study te know better the
deceits and irapostures of eur own hearts, and
to gain daily raore victory ever our secret and
beat-beloved aina. Let our intentiona, then,
be to raeet with Christ here, and to admit
hira gladly tp dwell and mle within ua. If

SEE MON XI.

403

he conquev our inward enemies, these witii
out ahall not be able to hurt ua. If he deli.
vcr ua from eur ainful lusts, he will still oui
own distrustful feara. And that such may
be the fruita of our meeting, let ua turn our-
, selvea towarda the throne of grace, with bum
ble prayer, in the name ef Jeaus Chriat the
righteoua. PsALM Ixxvi. 1 0.
Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee :
ihe remainder of wrath shalt thou re
strain. What -man is this, (aaid the paaaengers
in the ahip,) that even the winds and ihe
sea obey him 9 Cliriat auddenly tuma a
great terapest into a greater calm. Matt, viii,,
27. Surely those are no ordinary words ef
coramand, ' that sweUing waves and boiater-
oua winda, in the midst ef their rage, are
, forced to hear, and taught to understand and
obey thera- Therefore the holding ef the
aeaa in the hollow of hia hand, the bridling
of tbe wind, and riding upon the wings ef it,
we find peculiarly attributeif te the Alraighty.
But ue less, if not more wonderful, is another
of his prerogatives, to-wit, his sovereignty
over all mankind, over the divers and strange
raotiona of the heart of man. Admirable ia
it to govern theae, both in reapect of their
multitude and inegularity. Conaider we
what miUiena of raen dweU at pnce upon the
face of the earth ; and again, what troopa ef
several imaginationa wUl pasa through the
fancy of any one raan, within the compaas of
oue day. It ia much te keep eye upon them,
and to behold them all at orice, but far more
te comraand and controul thera all ; yet if
they were all loyal and wiUingly obedient,
were they tractable and eaaily curbed, it
were more easy for ua te conceive how they
might be governed- But to bound and over
rule the unruly hearts of men, the moat of
whom continually are either plotting or act-
irig rebeUion against their Lord, to make
thera aU concur and raeet at last in one end,
cannot be done but by a power and a wiadpra
that are beth infinite- That God whoae
name we often raention, but aeldom think en
hia exceUency, is alone the absolute monarch
of men's hearts, and the ruler ef aU their mo
tions- He hath thera liraited while they
seem raoat free, and worka hia own glery out
of their atterapta, while they strive mest to
diahonour him- Surely ihe wrath of man
shall praise thee, Scc.
The Psalm ia made up ef these two dif.
ferent aorta of thoughts, the one arising put
of particular experience, and the other outof
a general doctrine. These drawn frora ex
perience are set down in the verses preceding
the text, and in it. With those that follow

is tho doctrine, with a duty annexed to it ;
which two are faith'a main supporters- By-
paat particulara verify the doctrine, and the
generality of the doctrine aervea to explain
the particular experiences te all wise obaer
vera. There ia not a treasure of the merits
pf sainta in the church, (aa aome dreara,)
but there ia a treasure of the precious expe
riences of the saints, which every believer
hath right to raake uae of; and tbeae we
should be veraed in, that we may have them
in readiness at band, in time of need, aud
knew bow tp use tbem, both to draw corafort
frora thera to ourselves, and arguments to use
with Gpd.
The wprds cpntain clearly two proposi
tions, both of them concerning the wrath of
man. The former hath the event of it,
Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee :
the latter, the liraitatien of it. The remain
der of wrath thou wilt restrain.
That the virtuea and graces ef men do
praise the Lerd, all men easily understand,
for they flow frpm him, hia image and auper-
scriptipn ia upon thera, and therefore no won
der if ef thera he baa frora them, a tribute of
glory. Who knows not that faith praiaes
him ? Abraham believed, and gave glory to
God. Good worka, the fruita of faith, praiaa
him too. Herein is your heavenly Father
glorified, (aays eur Saviour,) that ye bring
forth muoh fruit. But that the inordinate
wrath of man ahall praiae hira, raay aeem
soraewhat strange. Were it God's own
wrath, (aa wrath ia attributed to him in
Scripture,) that might praiae him, for it is
always raost just ; or were it a due and raode
rate anger of raan, upon juat cauae, tiiat were
fit for praising hira toe, in despite ef the
Stoics. But that wicked and disordered
wrath, (whicii is undoubtedly here meant,)
that the wrath of raen that is both uncoraely
and dishonourable for theraselves, (though
they think otherwiae,) that even auch a wrath
sheuld honour God, and praise hira, argues
weU that he hath good right to praises, when
every thing, even things that seem contrary
to his nature, as weU as to his law, do pay
thera te him : and, that he hath great power
and wisdora who ohtaius what is due te him,
even frora those persoris and things that of
themselves are most unwilling and unfit to
pay it. This is the excellent akiU of his
wisdora, ie draw that which ahall go into the
making up of the precious cerapoaitien of
hia praiae out of thia poiaon, fer ao the wprd,
here uaed for wrathful heat, doth aometimes
aignify. And thia wrath often provea ao, a
deadly poison both to those it is incensed
againat, and to the very breast tbat breeds it,
and wherein it ia kindled-
But for the clearer underatanding of this,
I coi^ive it wiU be requisite to consider.
raore^stinctly, (I.) Wbat this wrath of
man is. (2.) How it can praise Gud,.

404

SERMON XL

And lastly. The infaUibiUty of thia event :
Surely the wrath of man shall praise ihee.
In the 148lh Paalm, wbere David sum
mons the creatures to meet in "that songjaf
praise, to keep that fuU concert, he caUs
not only the heavena, and the inhabitanta
of it, angels and lights, but theae of the
lower world, to bear their part in it ; and npt
only men, beaata, cattle, creeping thinga, and

hew then can it accompUsh h1% praises ?
And this is the second thing propounded.
Are grapes gathered of thorns, or figs
of thistles ? Surely no ; therefore I caUed
this praise, npt the fruit or proper effect of
man'a wrath, but the event or cpnaequent of
it, by the efficacy cf divine providence- The
wrath of man shall praise thee, " The
uae which thou wilt make of it shall tend

the fiying fowl, but these creatures iha dci to thy praise. Thou wilt produce such ef-;

raost reaerabie thia wrath here spoken of,
fire, atemiy terapeat, and dragons, &c.
The tenor of the psalm doth shew, that by
the wrath of man is te be understood " the
undue rage ef evil and ungodly men against
these whom Ged owns for his people."
Tbe werd here used signifies a hot or in
flaming wrath ; and indeed such is the
feverish, disterapered anger of the church's
enemiea. And aa too rauch beat is an ene
my to solid reason, tbis hot wrath of theirs
raakes thera incapable of wise deliberation
Ul theraselves, and inflexible to the good
advice of othera. It ia true, they take coun
sel how te execute their wrath, aa we ahall
bear anon, but they take no counael that
may cool it. Anger deacribed by its raa
terial cause, is called a boiling of the blood
about the heart ; but tbia ariaeth frora the
apprehension of something offensive, kind
ling a deaire of revenge- Npw it is a wpn
der what the ppwera of the world find in
Christ and his harmleaa flock that can in
cense them- St. James says ef the tongue,
that it is set on fire of hell,. The same ia
the original of thia wrath- Why doth the
heathen rage ? aaith the Psalmiat. That
is, not pnly Tp what purpose ? intimating
that it ia a fruitless rage, and void of auccess,
in regard of God'a power. But why ? that
ia, Upon what occasion ? Checking the
rage as groundleaa and without cauae, in
regard of Christ and hia church'a innocency.
The cauae is only within theraaelvea, to-wit,
that unhappy antipathy of the aerpent'a aeed
againat the aeed of the woraan. Thus thia
wrath of raan is the causelesa, malicious en
mity of the wicked against the church of
God. And under the name of thia paaaion
I take to be here comprised likewise aU the
attendants of it, all their crafty complot-
nienta and devicea for the acting of tbeir
wrath. Aa there ia mention of the nationa'
rage against Christ, in the 2d Paalra, ao
likewiae of the cenflultationa of thoae that
are of quality fit for it ; The rulers take
counsel together. Further, thia wrath ia
not barely their inward fire, but the vent
of it flames into cruel and outrageous prac
tices, including likewise all the instrumenta
they raake use of. And of all tiiese it is true
that God shall gain glory by them ; surely
the wrath of man shall praise thee. % |
The wrath of man (aaya the apostie) ac- 1
eomplisheth not the righteousness of Gad I

fecta frora it, both in the church and upon
thine enemiea, when thou auffereat thy wrath
to break forth, aa ahall furniah more matter
ef thy praiaea than if thou hadat altogether
restrained it " Te instance thia in aome
few pai ticulars.
It is tbe fury of the church's enemies
that has raade known to the werld the in
vincible courage and patience of the saints.
These ages that have been most monstrous
in persecution, have most of all graced Chris
tianity. Had there been no persecuting
emperora, who ahould have heard of thosa
primitive martyrs that triumphed over the
cruelty of their torraents ? Were there no
peraecution, nor peril, nor sword, against
believers, we aho^d not have heard the apos
tle aay immediately after the mention of
thoae. In all these we are more than con
querors. They could not have been so
much as conquerors, had there been no con
flict. Again, aa the wrath of man praisea God
in the invincible patience of the saints, so
likewise in the immovable stability of the
church. Is it not wonderful how ao small
and weak a company, as the church hath
often been reduced to, yea, hath always
been, in reapect of the wprld, could escape
the moutha of ao many liona, ao, raany en
raged enemiea that -were ready to devour it ?
And, that we may aee that thia tenda solely
to the praise of her great Protector, look at
the church'a song, penned by the royal pro
phet, it is the 124th Paalm, " If it had not
been the Lord that waa on our side, wben
men roae up againat us, then they had awal-
lewed us up quick." The great monarchies
and kingdoms ef the world that have risen
with se rauch splendour, have had their
periods, and been buried in the dust. That
golden-beaded and silver-bodied iraage de
generated into werse metal as it went lower,
and the brittle feet waa the cauae ef the fall
and breaking of all the reat. But the king
dom of Jesua Christ, though deapicable in
the world, and expoaed to the wrath of the
world in all ages, stands firm, and cannet be
removed. There is a cpmmpn emblem ef
the winds blowing ftpra all quartera ; and
upon tbe glebe of the earth, being in the
middle of thera, ia written Immobilis.
Thia fitly reaemblea the church. Why ?
It aeems te be the sport of all the winds, but
is indeed so established, that aU of them,

SERMON XL

40&

yen, the very gates of hell cannot prevail
against it. Now the more the church's
enemies labour and moil themselves to undo
her, the more do their weakness and the
power of her Lord appear ; so that thus the
wrath of man doth^raise him.
When was the church free ftom ,the
world'a wrath ? Tp aay nothing of the
church of the Jewa, did not thoae wicked
eraperors of Rome think to have made the
Christian Church short-lived, to have drown
ed her, newly-bom, in floods of her own
blood ? And in later ages, who knows net
the cruelties that have been practised by the
Turk in the east, and the proud prelate of
Reme iu the weat ? By whicb ahe hath
sometimes been brought to ao obacure aud
low a point, that if you can follow her in
hiatory, it ia by the tract ef her bleed ; and
if you would aee her, it ia by the light ofthose
fires iri which her martyrs have been burnt.
Yet hath she still corae through, and survi
ved aU that wrath, and still ahaU, tiU ahe
be raade perfectly triuraphant.
Further : Man's wrath tenda to God'a
praiae in thia, " That God, giving way te
it, doea ao manage it by his aublirae pro
vidence, that it often directly croaaea their
own enda, and conducea raanifeatly to hia."
Pharaoh thought that his dealing raore
cruelly with the Jews in their taska and
burdens was wiadora : Let us vjork wisely,
aaya be. But whereas their ordinary servi
lity waa become famiUar to them, and they
-were tamed to it, that same acceaaion of new
tyranny did prepare and dispose the Israelites
for a deaire of departure, and their departure
made way for Pharaoh'a deatruction. Un-
digestible inaolency and rage, hastening to
De great, raakes kingdoraa caat them eff,
which weuld bave been far longer troubled
with their wickedness, had it been more
mederate. Surely, then, tiie wrath of man
comraends the wisdora of God, when he
makes him by that contrive and afford the
means of his downfal. Job xviii. 7, " The
steps of hia atrength ahall be s^raitened, and
hia own counael ahall caat him down," aaya
Bildad. And that ia a aad fall ; aa tbat
eagle that waa shot with an anow triraraed
with her own feathers.
But to close tbia point. It ia out ef all
queation, that the deaerved puniahraent of
man'a unjuat wrath, doth always glorify the
justice of God, and the raore he gives way
te their wrath, the more notable shall be
beth their" punishment and tbe justice of it.
And though' God seeras neglective of his
peeple and ef his praisij, whUe raan's wrath
prevails, yet the truth is, he never comes too
late to vindicate his care of both ; and when
he defers longest, ,the enemy pays dear inte
rest for the tirae of forbearance. - In his
eternal decree, he resolved to perrait the
course of man's wrath for his own glpry.

and when the peripd which he hatii fixed is
cpme, he stpps man's wrath, and givea cpurse
untp the justice pf his pwn. Nor ia there
then any possibility of escaping ; he will
right hiraself, and be knewn by executing
judgment. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee. And that is the third thing
propounded, the infallibility ofthe event.
The Author ef nature governs aU his
creaturea, each in a suitable way to tbe na
ture he hath given thera. He raaintains in
some thinga a natural neceaaity of working,
contingency in othera, and in othera liberty.
But aU of them are aubject to thia necessity
of effecting inevitably hia eternal purpoaea ;
and this neceaaity ia no way repugnant to
the due liberty ef man'a will- Some enter
tain aiiid maintain the truth ; aorae plot,
others act and execute againat it ; aome
pleaae theraaelves in a wise neutrality, and
wiU appear ao indifi'erent, that it would
seera they might be accepted of all sides for
judges of controversies- And aU these find
no leas Uberty to wind and turn themaelvea
whither they pleaae, than if no higher hand
had the winding of thera- Shall not only
the zeal of tbe godly, but even the wrath of
the enemy, and the cold diacretion of the
neutral, aU tend to his praise whose supreiiie
will bath a secret, but a sure and infallible
sway in aU their actions ? Whilst aorae
paaaengers sit, seme walk one way, some
another, sorae have their facea towards their
journey's end, sorae their back turned upon
it, this wise pilot does raost skilfully guide
the ahip to anive witb thera all, at hia own
glory. Happy they that propound and in
tend his glory aa be himaelf doea ; for in
them ahaU the riches of his mercy be glori
fied- They that oppose him leae this hap
piness, but he ia sure net to loae hia glory
for all that ; to wit, the glory of hia justice.
Hia right band shall find out all hia enemies ;
surely ihe wrath of man shall praise thee.
The conaideration ef tbia truth, thua in
aome raeaaure unfolded, raay serve to jus
tify the truly wise diapenaatlon of God
againat our imaginary wiadora. Were the
raatter referred to our modeUing, we wpuld
assign the church cpnstant peace and pros
perity for her portion, and not craisent that
tbe least air of trouble sheuld come near her.
We would bave no enemiea lo moleat her,
nor atir againat her, or if they did atir, we
would have thera to be presently repressed,
and theae, in our judgraent, would be the
fairest and most glorious tokens of Hia love
and power, whoae spouse she is. But this
carnal wiadom is enmity againat God, and
to the glory of Ged, which riaea ao pften put
pf the wrath pf his enemiea- Had Gpd
cauaed Pharaoh to yield at the very firat to
the releaae of hia peojile, where had been
the farae of thoae miraculoua judgraents in
Egypt, and merciea on the laraelitea* the.

4(16

SERMON XI.

one setting out and iUustrating the other ? but stay tiU the real answer corae, and not'
Where had been that name and honour that pnly shall that wrath praise hira, but that'
God says he would gain to bimself, and that very sarae tpngue, thpugh inured tp bias-
he did gain put pf Pharaoh's final destruc- phemy, shaU be taught to bear a raain part
tion, making that stony-hearted king, and in the confession of theae praiaes. Let that

his troopa, sink like a stone in the waters,
, aa Moaes singa ? Obaerve hia proud boaat-
iiigs iraraediately foregoing his ruin : " I
will pursue," aays he ; "I wiU overtake ; I
will divide the spoil ; ray lust shall be sa
tisfied on thera ; I will draw my sword, and
my hand aliaU deatroy thera ;" aoon after,
the aea quenches all thia heat. Coramonly,
big threatenings are unhappy presages of
very ill succesa. That hiatorian says well
of God,* God suffers no other io think
highly of himself, bui himself alone. And,
indeed, aa he ahhers these boaatinga, so he
delights in the abasing of the lofty heart
whence they flew, and it is his prerogative
to gain praise to hiraself out ef their wrath.
" Hast thou an arra Uke God ? (says the
Lord to Job,) then lppk uppn the prpud and
bring thera low," Job xl. 9, 12. When
Sennacherib carae up against Jerusalera, his
blaapheraies and beaatinga were np less vast
and raonstrous than the nuraber of his men
and chariots : good Hezekiah turned over
the matter unto God, spreading the letter of
blasphemies before him : God undertook the
war, and aaaured Hezekiah that tbe Aaay
rian ahould net ao much aa shoot an arrow
againat the city, " but return the aarae way
he carae," 2 Kings xix. 33. And ' the de-
liverance there p-remised and effected, ia
conceived to have been the occasion of pen
ning thia very Psalm. Surely when an
angel did in one night slay 185,000
their caraps, that wrath and thoae threats
tended exceedingly to the praiae of tiie God
of larael. The hook that he put in Senna-
cherib'a noatrila, (aa the hiatory apeaka,) to
pull hira back again, waa more remarkable
than the fetters would have been, if he had
tied him at home, or hindered his march
with his army-
Who is he, then, tbat wiU be impatient
because ef God's patience, and judge him
slack in judgraent, while the rage of the
wicked prevails a while ? Know that he is
more careful of his own glory than we can
be, and the greater height man's wrath
arises to, the mere- honour shall arise te him
out ef it. Did not his omnipotency shine
brighter in the flaraea of that fumace into
which the children were caat, than if the
king'a wrath had been at first cooled ? Cer
tainly, the mere both it and the furnace had
their heat augraented, the more was God
glorified. Who is ihat God, (saith he,
blaspheraously and proudly,) that can de
liver you out of my hands ? A question
indeed highly dishonouring the Alraighty ;
* DeuJt n^minem nl'uim, tjxtam seipsum, sinit de oe
mo^iijwti neiiiiie. liEnoco-iui.

apostate eraperor* go tauhting the head and
tormenting the members of that myatical
body, his closing with Ewino-as, -CxXiXxn,
Thou hast overcome, O Galilean, (mean
ing Christ,) shaU help to verify that.
Whether itS ceurse be shorter or longer,
raan's wrath enda alwaya in God'a praise.
In like manner, the closing of the Uon's
raouths spake louder to his praise that stop.
ped thera, than if he had stopped Daniel's
enemiea in the beginning of their wicked
deaigna. Se hot was their rage, that the
king'aVavpurable incUnatipn tp Daniel, (of
which, in pther caaea, cpurtiera used to be
ao devout obaervera,) yea, his contesting and
pleading for him, did profit him nothing ;
but they hurried their king to the execution
ef their unjust raaUce, though themselves
were Convinced that nothing could be found
against him, but only concerning the law of
his Ged. Dan. vi. 14, it ia aaid, " He act
his heart upon hira te deliver him, and la
boured to do it till the going down ef the
aun," and then thoae couuaeUors and coun-
aela of darkneas overcarae him. But upon
thia black night of their prevailing wrath,
followed immediately a bright moming of
praisea to Daniel's God ; when the lions
that were so quiet company all night to
Daniel, made ao quick a breakfast of those
accursed courtiers that had raalicioualy ac
cuaed him- Even so let thine enemies pe
rish, O Lord, and lei ihose that love thee,
be as ihe sun when he goes forth in his
might. The other proposition concerna the limit
ing of thia wrath : The remainder of wrath
thou wilt restrain.
To take no notice, for the present, of di.
vera other readinga of theae words, the sense
of thera, aa they are here very well rendered,
may be briefly thia ; tbat whereaa tbe wrath
of man te which God givea way, abaU praiae
him, the rest shall be curbed and bound up,
as the word ia ; ne mere of it shaU break
forth than shall contribute to his glpry.
Here should be conaidered divera waya and
raeana, by which God uaeth to atop the
heady course of raan'a wrath, and hinder its
preceeding any further. But only,
Let ua tsike out of it thia leaaon : " That
tbe most cemperidious way to .be safe from
the violence of raen, ia to be in terma of
friendship with God.*' Is it not an incom.
parable privilege to be in the favour and
under the protection of one whoae power is
so franacendent, that ne enemy can se much
as stir witheut hia leave ? Be perauaded,
then, Christians, in these dangers tiiat are
* Julian.

SERMON XII.

407

now ao near us, every one to draw near te
him ; remove wliat may provoke hira ; let no
reigning sin be found either in your citiea
or in your viUages, for he is a holy God.
Is it a tirae to raultiply provocations now,
or is it not rather high tirae to be hurabled
for the forraer^ What sharaeless irapiety is
it, to be now licentious or intemperate ! To
be proud, to eppreaa, er extort ! Te profane
God's day and blaapherae hia narae ! All
theae aina, and raany others, abound arapngst
ua, and that avpwedly. Withput abundance
of repentance, fpr theae we ahall araart, and
the wrath of our enemiea, though unjuat in
thera, shaU praise God in eur just puniah
ment ; though, doubtless, he will own hia
church, and be praised Ukewise in the flnal
puniahment of their wrath that riae againat
it. There ia a reraarkable expreaaion in
Paalm xcix. 8, of God'a dealing with his
people : He was favourable to them, though
he took vengeance on their inventions. A
good cause and a covenant with Ged, will
not shelter an impenitent people frora sharper
conection. It is a sad word Ged speaks by
his prophet to his own pebple — / myself,
(says he,) will fight against you. A
dreadful enemy ! And npne indeed truly
dreadful but he. O prevent his anger, and
yeu are safe eneug-h. If perverse sinners
-will net hear, yet let these that are indeed
Christians mourn in secret, not only for
their own sin, but let them bestow some
tears likewiae upon the aina of othera. La
bour to appeaae the wrath of God, and he
wiU either appeaae raan'a wrath, or, howao-
ever, wiU turn it jointly te his benefit and
hia ewn glory. Let the fear of the raoat
high God, who hath no leaa power ever the
strongeat ofhis eneraiea tban over the raean
est of hia aervants ; let hia fear, I aay, possess
aU our hearts, and it wiU certainly expel that
ignoble and base fear of the wrath of man.
See how the prophet oppoaea them in Isaiah
viii. 12, 13, " Fear not their fear, (says he,)
nor be afraid ; but sanctify tbe Lord, and let
him be ypur fear, and let him be your dread ;"
fear not, but fear. This holy fear begets
the best courage ; the breast that ia raoat
fiUed witb it, abounda raoat in true magna
niraity. Fear thus, that you may be confi
dent, not in yourselves, though your policy
and strength were great, (cursed is man
thai trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his
arm,) but confident in tbat God who is too
wise and vigUant to be aurpriaed, too mighty
to be foiled, and toe rich te be out-spent in
proviaion ; who can suffer his enemy tp cpme
Ip the highest ppint pf apparent advantage,
withput any inconvenience, yea, with mere
renown in hia conquest. And so a Chria
tian who is raade ence aure ef this, (aa
easily he raay,) is little careful about tbe
rest; his love to- God prevailing over all his
affections, makea him very indifferent what

becoraes of hiraaelf or his dearest friends, so
God may be glorified. Wbat theugh many
fall in the quarrel, (which God avert 1 ) yet
it is sufficient tbat truth in the end shall be
victorious. Have not the sainta in all ages
been content to convey pure religion to pes.
terity, in streams of their own bleed, not of
others ? Well, hold fast by this concluaion,
that God can limit and bind up the most
violent wrath of man, that, though it sweU,
it will not break forth. The stiffest heart,
as the current of the most impetuous river,
is in his hand, to appoint its channels, and
turn it as he pleaseth. Yea, it ia he that
hath ahut up the very aea with bara and
doora, and aaid, " Hitherto shalt thou come,
and no further : here ahall thy proud waves
be stayed," Job xxxviii. 10, 11. To aee
the aurges of a rough sea corae in towards
the shore, a raan weuld think that tbey were
haatening te swallow up the land ; but they
know their liraita, and are beaten back into
foara. Theugh the waves thereof tosa thera
aelvea as angry at their restraint, yet the
small sand is a check to tbe great sea ;
" yet can they not prevail ; though they
rear, yet can they not paas over it," saya
Jeremiah, v. 22.
The aura is this ; what God permita hii
church's enemiea to do, is for hia own further
glory ; and reaerving this, there ia net any
wrath ef man ae great, hut he will either
sweetly calm it, er strongly retain it. To
him be praise, Scc.

SERMON XIL

PSALM cxii. 7-
He shall not be afraid of evil tidings ; his
heart is fixed, trust'ing in tlie Lord.
All the special designs of men agree iu
thia — they aeek aatisfaction and quietness of
mind, that ia happineaa. Thia, then, is the
great question — who is the happy man ? It
is here resolved, ver. 1, " Blessed is the
raan that feareth the Lord, that delighteth
in bis comraandraents."
The blessedness is unfolded as a rich
landscape, that we may view the well-mixed
colours, the story and tissue of it, through
the whole Alphabet, in capital letteis ; and
take aU and set thera together, it is a raost
full, complete blessedneaa, not a letter want
ing to it.* Araongat the reat that we have
in these words, ia of a greater magnitude
* This Psalm in the Hebrew consists of 22 short
verses, each of which begins with the letters of the
Alphabet, in their order, till they are all ended. . No
one letter is here omitted, as is the case in the 25th
Psalm, where the same order is observed.

-40S

BERMON XII
¦He

and brightness than many of the rest-
shall not be afraid of evil tidings.
Well may it begin with a- hallelujah, a
uote of praise to liim in -ivlioni his blessed
ness Ues. O what a -wretched creature were
man, if not provided to such a portion,
without which is notiiing but disappoint
ment ; and thence the racking tprment aud
vexation of a disquieted mind, still purauing
somewhat that he never evertakea !
The firat worda are the inscription. The
blessedness of that man, &c. Se the par
ticulars feUow ; where outward blessings are
so aet, as that they look and lead higher,
pointing at their end, the infinite goodness
whence they flew, and whither they return
and carry along with them this happy man-
Anil theae proraiaes ef outward thinga are
often evidently accomplished to the righte
oua, and their seed after them, and that
comraonly after they have been brought
very low. But when it is otherwise with
thera they Icfie nothing. Itis good for raany,
vea, it is good for all the godly that have
less of theae lower thinga, te raiae their eye
lo look after higher, the eye of aU, beth
of these that are held soraewhat short, and
for those that have abundance iu the world.
These temporal proraisea were raere a-
bouuding and raore frequently fulfilled, in
their very kind, in the tiraea of the law ;
yet StiU the right is constant, and all ages
de give clear examples of the truth of this
word. Where it ia thua, it ia
created by ita aapect to this promise, and
se differa frora the prosperity ef ungodly
men ; and where it ia otherwiae with the
righteoua and their aeed, it ia no ahift, but
a raost aolid corafort, to tum their eyes to a
higher corapenaation
But howsoever it go, thia stiU holds — He
shall not be afraid of evil tidings. Net-
withstanding the hardest news that can corae
to his ears, ef any thing that concerns him
self or his children, er the rest ef God'a
children in bis charge in the world, his heart
is fixed, trusting in the Lord.
First, let us take a little of the charac
ter of thia bleaaed raan. Who is it that is
thua undaunted ? The man ihat feareth
God. All the paaaiona are but several ebbings
and flowings of the soul, and their raotions
are the signs of its teraper. Whicb way it
ia canied, that is raainly to be remarked by
the beating of its pulse. If our desires,
and hopes, and fears, be in the things of
this world, and the intereat of fleah, thia is
their teraper and disorder, the soul is in a
cpntinual fever : but if they move Godwards,
then is it composed and calra, in a good
temper and healthful point, fearing and
loving him, desiring him, and nothing

and in a due aspect to God, all the rest are
sp too ; for they are radically one, and he
is the life of that soul that is united to him ;
and so iu him it moves in a, peculiar spiri
tual raanner, as all do naturally in the de
pendence pf their natural life pn him that is
the fpuutain of life.
Thus we have here this fear of God, as
eften elsewhere, set out as the very aubstance
of holiness and evidence of happiness. And
that we may knew there is nothing either
baae or grievous in thia fear, we have join.
ed with it, delight and trust ; delighteth
greatly in his commandments ; which is
that badge of love to hira, to ehserve them,
and that with deUght, and with exceeding
great deUght. So, then, the fear is not that
which love casts out, hut that which love
brings in. This fear foUews and flowa frora
love, -A fear to offend, whereof nothing so
tender aa leve ; and tliat, in reapect of the
. greatness ef God, hath in it withal a hum
ble reverence. There is in aU love a kind
of reverence, a cautious and respective wari
ness tewards the party loved ; but especially
in this, where net only we st&d in a lower
relation, aa children te our Father, but the
goodnesa that drawa our leve doth infinitely
tranacend eur meaaurea and reach, therefore
there is a " rejoicing with trerabUng, and
an awful love, the fearing of the Lerd and
his goodneas," Hosea iii. 5. This both fear
and trast, the heart touched by the Spirit
of God, as the needle touched with the load
stone, looks straight and speedily to God,
yet StiU with trembUng, being fiUed with
this holy fear.
That delighteth. Oh ! this is not only
to do thera, but to do them with deUght;
somewhat within is connatural and symbo.
Ileal ; yea, this very law itself is writ within,
net atanding aa a hard task-raaster over our
bead, but irapressed within as a aweet prin.
ciple in our hearts, and working from thence
naturaUy. Thia makes a soul find pleasure
in purging out of sensual pleasures, and ease
in doing violence to corrapt self, even un.
doing it for Ged, having ne wiU but his ;
the remainders of sin and self in our flesh
wiU be pften rising up, but this predpminant
lpve dispels thera. Sp this fear wprks with
delight. And further, that we raay knew how
serene and sweet a thing it is, it is here
Ukewise jpined with cpnfidence, trusting ; a
quickening confidence always accompanying
it; and so, undoubtedly, it ia a bleaaed
thing. Blessed is he thai feareth. Fear
sounds rather quite contrary, hath an air of
raiaery ; but add, whom ? He that feareth
the Lord : that touch turns it into gold.
He that ao fears, fears not : He shall not
be afraid ; all petty fears are swallowed up

but him, waiting for hira, and trusting in in thia great fear^ as a spirit inured with
him. And wben any one affection is right, I great tlungs is not stined nor affected at all

SERMON XIL.

409

witii small raattera. And this great fear
is as sweet and pleasing aa dieae litde fears
are anxioua and vexing. Secure ef other
thinga, he can aay, " If ray God be pleas
ed, no raatter who is displeased ; no raatter
who despise me, if he account me his ;
though all foraake rae, my dearest friends
grow estranged, and look another way, if
he reject me not, that is my only fear ; and
for that I am not perplexed, I know he will
not-<' As they answered Alexander, when
he sent to inquire what they mest feared,
thinlting possibly they would have said,
Lest he should invade us ; their anawer
was. We fear nothing but . lest heaven
should fall upon us ; which they did not
fear neither- A believer hath no fear but
of 'the diapleaaure of heaven, the anger of
God te faU upon him, he fears that ; that is,
accounts that only tenibla; but yet be doth
not fear, dPth not apprehend it wiU faU on
him, ia better persuaded uf the gppdneaa pf
his Ged. So thia fear is still jpined with
trust, aa here, ae eften elsewhere, Psalm
xxxiii. 18. xl. 3. and cxlvii. 11.
There is no turbulency in this fear ; it is
calm and sweet ; even that most tenible evil,
that whicb this fear properly apprehends and
flies, sin, yet the fear of that goes not to a
diatraction. Though there ia little atrength,
and many and great eneraies, mighty Ana-
xima of teraptations frem without, and cor.
ruption within, and ao good reaaon for a
noly, humble fear and aelf-distrust, yet
thia ahould not beat ua off; yea, ia most fit
to put us on to trust on hira who is eur
strength. Courage 1 the day ahaU be oura,
thougb we may be often foiled and down,
and aoraetiraes almost at a hopeless point,
yet our Head is on high, he hath conquered
for us, and shall conquer in us ; therefore,
upon this confidence, to fear is not to fear ;
" Why should I fear in the days of evU,
when the iniquity of ray heels sbaU corapaas
rae about ?" Pa, xlix. 5, (which I take is
sorae grievous affliction, and that with a
visage for puniahment ef sin ; guiltiness is
be read in it, yet not fear). " If I trust
in wealth, and boast myself in the multi-tude
of richea, then that being in hazard, I raust
fear ; leaning on that, it faiUng, I might
fall. But this ia my confldence, ver. 15 —
God will redeem my soul from the power of
the grave ; for he shall receive rae ; -wealth
cannot, but he can. It buys not a raan out
frora his hand, but he buys frora the hand
ofthe grave." So the word is ; for the visi
ble heavens, even their fall, and the disso
lution of nature, would net affright a be
liever, Psalm xli. 1. Si fractus illabatur
orbis, Scc.
Alas ! mest persons have dull or dira ap
prehensions and shaUow impresaiona ef God,
therefore they have little either of this fear
or this trast. God is not in aU their thoughts,

but how to compass this oi that design ; and
if they miss ene, then to another ; tbey are
caat from one wave upon another ; and if at
any time they attain their purpose, flnd it
but wind, a handful of nothing, far from
what they fancied it.
Oh 1 ray brethren, ray desire ia, that the
faces ef your souls were but once turned about,
that they were towards him, looking to him,
continuaUy fearing him, delighting, trusting
in him, making him your all. Can any
thing so elevate and ennoble the spirit of a,
raan, as te conteraplate and converae with
the pure, ever-blessed spring and Father of
spirits ? Beg that you raay know him, that
he would reveal hiraself to you ; for otherwise^
no teaching can raake hira known. It is to
light candles to seek the sun, to think to at
tain to this knpwledge withnut bis pwn re
veaUng it. If he hide his face, who then
may beheld him ? Pray for thia quickening
knowledge, such a knowledge as wiU effec-
tuaUy work this happy fear and trust.
You that have attained any thing of it,
desire and foUow on te knew the Lord, par.
ticularly so as your hearts may repose on hira;
so fear, as yeu raay not fear. He weuld
have your spirits calm and quiet, for wben
they are in a huny and confusion, they are
then fit for nothing ; all within makes a jar.
ring, unpleasant noise, as of an inatrument
quite out of tune.
Thia fear of Ged ia not, you see , a per
plexing doubting, and distrust of his leve.
Many- that have sorae trath of grace are,
through weakness, fiUed with disquieting
feara ; ae, possibly, theugh they perceive it
not, it raay be in sorae point of wilfulness,
a little latent, undiscerned . affectation , of
scrupling and doubting, placing rauch ef
reUgion in it. True, where the seul ia really
aoUcitous abeut ita intereat in God, that
arguea sorae grace ; but being vexingly
anxious about it, it argues tbat grace is low
and weak : a sparkle there is even discover
ed by that smoke ; but the great sraoke stiU
continuing, and nothing seen but it, arguea
there ia little fire, Uttle faith, little leve.
And thia, aa it ia unpleaaant to thyaelf,' ao
te Ged, aa sraoke te the eyea. What if
one should be always questioning with his
friend, whether he loved hira er no, and
upon every little occasion were ready to think
he doth not, how would thia diarelish their
spciety tpgether, thpugh truly loving each
other ! The far more excellent way, and
more pleasing beth te ouraelvea and to God,
were to reaolve on hurable trust, reverence
and confidence, raoat afraid to offend, de
lighting tp walk in hia waya, Ipving him
and his wiU in all, and then resting per-*
suaded pf his lpve, thpugh he chastise ua ;
and even, thpugh we pffend hira, and see
our offences .in our chaatiaeraents, yet h?
is good, plenteeua in redemption, ready to

413

SERMON XII.

forgive. Therefore let larael trust and hope ;
let ray aoul roU itself on him, and adventure
there aU ita weight ; he beara greater mattera,
upholding the frarae of heaven and- earth,
and ia not troubled nor burdened with it.
The heart of a man ia not ' aufficient for
aelf-aupport, therefore naturaUy it seeka put
sorae other thing to lean and rest itself on-
The unhappineaa is, for the moat part, that
it aeeka to thinga below itaelf: theae being
both ao raean and ao uncertain, cannot be a
firm and certain stay to it. These things
are not fixed theraselves, hew can they then
fix the heart ? Can a man have firm foot
ing en a quagmire, or moving sands '
Therefpre men are fprced in these thinga
still to shift their seat, and aeek abput from
one to another, atill rolling and unsettled.
The believer only hath this advantage ; he
hath a rest higli enough and sure enough,
out ef the reach ef aU hazards — His heart
is fixed, trusting in the Lord.
The basis of this happineaa is. He trust
eth on the Lord. So the heart is fixed ; and
so fixed, it fears no ill-tidings.
The trust ia grounded on tbe word of God,
revealing the power and all-aufficiency of
God, and withal, hia goodness, his offer of
liimselt te be the atay of aeula, coraraanding
ua to reat en him. People wait on I know
not what perauasions and aaaurances ; but I
knowne other to build faith en but the word
of promise, the truth and faithfulneaa ef
God opened up, his wiadom, and power, and
goodness, as the stay of- aU thgae, that, re
nouncing all other preps, wiU venture on it
and lay aU upon hira- He that believea,
seta to hia aeal that Ged is true ; and so he
is sealed for God, his portion and interest
secured- Isa- vii. 9, " If ye will not be
lieve, surely ye ahall net be eatabliahed."
Thia ia the way to have peace and assur
ance, which many look for first, " Theu
wilt keep hira in perfect peace whose mind
is stayed on thee, becauae he truateth in
thee," laa. xxvi. 3. So, here, the heart ia
fixed by trusting.
Seek then clearer apprehenaiona of the
faithfulneaa and goodneaa of God, hearta
more enlarged in the notion ef free grace,
and the abaolute trust due to it ; thus shall
they be raore established -and fixed in all the
rollinga and changea of the werld.
Heart fixed : or prepared, ready, preaaed
and in arras for all services ; reaolved not to
give back, able to meet all adventurea, and
stand its ground. God ia unchangeable ;
and, therefore, faith ia invincible, that aeta
the heart on him ; faatena it tiiere on the
rock of eternity ; then let winda blow and
storraa ariae, it cares not-
The firra and close cleaving unte God
hath in it of the affection, which ia inaepar
able from this trust — love with faith ; and
so a hatred of aU ways cud thpughts that

alienate and eatrarige ftpra Gpd, that remove
and unsettle the heart- The holieat, wa.
rieat heart, is aurely the moat beUeving and
fixed heart : if a believer will adventure on
any pne way pf ain, he ahaU find that wifl
unfix him, and ahake his cpnfidence, mpre
than ten thousand hazarda and aaaaulta
frora without- Theae are ao far from mov
ing, that they settle and fix the heart com.
monly raore, cause it to cleave closet
and nearer unto God ; but sinful liberty
breeda inquiet, and disturbs aU. 'Habere
sin ia, there will be a atorra ; the wind
within the bowela of the eartii raakes the earth.
quake- Would you be quiet and have peace within
in troublous tiraes, keep near unto Ged, be
ware of any thing that may interpose betwixt
yeu and your confidence. It is good for me
(says the Psalraist) to be siear God ; not
only to draw near, but to keep near, te cleave
te hira, and dwell in hira : so the word.
Oh, the sweet calra of such a soul araidst all
atorras ; thua once truating and fixed, then
no more fear, not afraid of evil tidings, nor
of. any iU-h earing ! Whataeever aound is
tenible in the eara of raen, the noiae of war,
newa ef death, even the aound of the trumpet
in the laat judgment, he hears aU this undis-
quieted. Nothing ia unexpected, being once fixed
en God ; tben the heart raay put caaea to it.
aelf, and auppese aU thinga iraaginable, the
raost terrible, and leok for thera ; not troubled
before treuble with dark and dismal appre
hensions, but satisfied in a quiet, unmoved
expectation of the hardest things. What- '
soever it is, theugh particularly not thought
on before, yet the heart is not afraid of
the news of it, because fixed, trusting on
ihe Lord; nothing can shake that founda
tion, nor diaaolve that union, therefore no
fear. Yea, thia assurance stays the heart in
aU things, how strange and unforeseen aoever
to it — *' AU foreaeen te my God, en whom I
trust, yea, fore-contrived and ordered by
hira." Thia ia the irapregnable fort of a
aoul — " All ia at the diapoaal and coramand
ef my God ; my Father rulea aU, what need
I fear ?"
Every one truata te aoraewhat : aa for
honour, and esteera, and popularity, they are
airy, vain thinga ; but richea aeera a raore
aolid work and fence, yet they are but a
tower in conceit, not really. Prov. xviii.
11. "The rich raan'a wealth ia hia atrong
city, and aa a high waU in his own conceit ;"
bnt " tbe narae of the Lerd is a atrong tower
indeed," ver- 1 0. This is the thing all aeek — .
aome fence and fixing. Here it ia we call
you net to vexation and turmoil, but from it ;
and aa St. Paul aaid, Acta xvii, 2.3, " Whom
ye ignorantly worship, hira declare I unto
you." Ye hlindly and fruiileaaly aeek after
the ahow. The frue aiming at this ftxedi

SER.MON XIL

411

M'j^s ef mind will raake that ; though tiiey
fall short, yet by the way they wiU light on
very pretty thinga that have sprae virtue in
them, as they that seek the philpsppher's
stpne : but the beUever hath the thing, the
secret itaelf pf tranquiUity and joy, and thia
turna aU into gold, their iron chaina into a
crown of gold, 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18.
Thia ia the blessed and aafe .eatate of be
lievera- Wbo can think they have a aad,
heavy Ufe ? Oh ! it ia the only lightsome,
aweet, cheerful condition in the world- The
reat of raen are peor, roUing, unstayed thinga,
every report .shaking them, as the leaves of
the trees are ahaken with the wind, Isa. vii.
2 ; yea, lighter than so, as the chaff' that the
wind drives tp and frp at its pleasure. Psalm
i. 4. Wpuld men but refiect and look in
upon their own hearta, it is a wonder what
\-ain, childish things the most would find
there. Glad and Sony at things as light aa
die toys of children, at which they laugh and
cry in a breath. How easily puffed up with
a thing er word that pleaseth ua ! Bladder-
like, aweUed with a little air, and it ahrinka
in again in discouragements and fear upon
the touch of a needle's point, which givea
that air some vent.
What is the life of the greatest part but a
continual teasing betwixt vain hopes and
fears — aU their days spent in theae ? Oh !
bow vain a thing ia a man even in hia beat
eatate, while he is nothing but himself !
His heart not united and fixed on God, dis
quieted in vain, how amall a thing will do
It I He need no other but his own heart, it
may prove disquietment enough to itself ; his
thoughta are hia torraentora.
I know aorae raen are, by a atronger un
deratanding and raoral principle, aoraewhat
raised above the vulgar, and speak big of a
constancy of raind ; but these are but fleu
rishes, an acted bravery. Spmewhat there
may be tbat will held put in sprae trials, but
far ahprt pf this fixedness ef faith. Troubles
may se multiply, as to drive thera at length
frora tbeir posture, and come on so thick,
with such violent blows, aa wiU amite them
out of their artificial guard, disorder aU their
Seneca aud Epictetus, and all their o-wn calm
thoughts and high resolves : the approach
of death, tboughthey make a good mien, and
set the best face on it ; or if not, yet sorae
kind of tenor may seize en their spirits,
which they are not able te shift off. But
the aoul trnating on God ia prepared for all,
not only for the calamitiea of war, peatilence,
femine, poverty, or death, but in the saddest
apprehenaipns ef seul ; above hppe, believes
under hppe, even in the darkest night, casts
anchpr in Gpd, reppaea pn hira when he sees
no Ught, Isa. 1. 10. " Yea, thpugh he alay
me, (aaya Jpb ) yet will I truat in hira ;" npt
only thpugh I die, but theugh he alay me ;
when I see his hand Uft up to destroy me,

yet from that sarae hand will I look for sal
vation. My brethren, my desire is to stir in your
hearts an ambition after this blest estate of
the godly that fear the Lord, and trust on
him, and ao fear no other thing. The com
raon revolutions and changes of the world,
and thoae that in tbeae late timea we oui
selves have seen, and the UkeUhood of more
and greater coraing on, seem dreadful to weak
rainda. But let theae persuade ua the raore
to prize and aeek this fixed, unaffrighted sta
tion ; no fixing but here, where we raake a
virtue of a neceaaity.
Oh ! tbat you would be perauaded to
break off frora the vile waya ef sin, that em-
base the soul and fiU it fuU of tenors, and
disengage them frora the vanities of this
world to take up in God, to live in him
whoUy, te cleave to, and depend on him, to
esteem nothing besides hira. ExceUent was
the answer of that holy raan to the eraperor,
first esaaying him with large proffera of
honour and richea, te draw hira frora Christ.
Offer these things (aaya he) io children, I
regard ihem not. Then, after he tried to
tenify him with threatening, — Threaten
(aaya he) your effeminate courtiers ; I fear
none of these things.
Seek to have your hearta established on
hira by the faith of etemal Ufe, and then it
wiU be asharaed to distrust bira in any other
thing. Yea, truly, you wUl not rauch re
gard, nor be careful for otber things how they
be- It will be all one, tbe better and worse
of this raoment ; the things of it, even the
f,reatest, being both in themselves so little
and worthleaa, and of se short continuance-
Well, choose you ; but all reckoned and
examined, 1 had rather be the poorest believer
than the greateatking on earth- How amall
a comraotien, amall in ita beginning, may
prove the overturning of the greatest kingdora !
But the believer ia heir to a kingdora that
cannet be ahaken- The raightiest and raoat
victorioua prince, that hath not only loat no
thing, but bath been gaining new conqueats
all bis daya, is stopped by a small diatemper
in the middle of hia courae : he returns to
his dust, then his vast designs fall tenothing ;
in ihat very day his thoughts perish. But
the believer, in that very day, ia aent to the
poasession of his crown ; that ia hia corona
tion-day ; all his thoughts are accomplished-
How can you affright him ? Bring him
werd hia estate ia ruined ; Yet my inheri
tance is safe, aaya he- Your wife, or child,
or dear friend, ia dead ; Yet my Father
lives. You youraelf muat die ; Well then,
I go home to my Father, and io my inheri
tance. Fer the pubUc teoubles of the church,
doubtless it ia both a raoat pious and gene
rous temper, to be raere deeply affected for
theae than foi all our privr.te ones ; and to

412

SERMON XIIL

reaent common calaraities of any people, but
especiaUy of God's own people, hath been
the character of men near unto him. Ob
serve the pathetical strains of the prophets'
bewaiUng, when they foreteU the deaolation
even of foreign kingdoms, much raore for the
Lord's chosen people, atill raindful of Sion,
and raoumful for her diatreaaea, Jer. ix. 1,
and the whole book of Lamentatiena- Paalra
cxxxvii- 5. // I forget thee, O Jerusalem.
Pioua spirita are always pubUc, as even brave
Heathena for the coraraonwealth- So he, in
that of Horace, * Little regarding himself,
but much solicitous for the public. Yet
even in thia, with much corapaasion, there is
a calra in a believer's raind ; (how these
agree, none can teU but they that feel it ;) be
finds araidst aU hard news, yet stiU a fixed
heart, trusting, satisfied in this, that deliver.
ance sliaU ceme in due time, (Psalm cii.
13,) and that in these judgmenta that are in
flicted, man shaU be hurabled and God ex
alted, laa. ii. II, and v. 15, 16; and that
in aU turaults and changes, and subversion
of states, StiU his throne is fixed, and witb
that the believer'a heart likewise, Psalra
xciii. 2. So Psalra xxix. 10. " The Lord
sitteth upon the flood : yea, the Lord aitteth
King forever." Or, sat in the flood, poaai
bly referring to the general deluge ; yet that
then God iat quiet, and still sitteth King for
ever. He steered the ark, and still guidea
the church thrqugh aU- So Psalm xlvi.,
ihroughout that whole psalra. In all cora
raotions the kingdora of Christ aliaU be
spreading and growing, and the cloae of all
shall be fuU victory on bia aide, and that ia
sufficient. Of this, a singular example ia in Job, who
waa not daunted with so raany ill-hearings
but stood as an unmoved reck amidat the
winda and wavea. -f-
In this coriditiori there is so rauch sweet-
nes.s, that, if known, a raan raight suspect
hiraaelf rather selfishly taken with than pure.
ly loving God. Such joy in beUeving, or
at least, such peace, such a serene calranesa,
is in no other thing in thia world. Nothing
without or within a man to be named to tbia
of truating on hia goodneas ; he is God, and
on hia faithfulneaa, giving hia promiae for
thy wanant. He coraraands thee te roll thy
self on hira. The holy soul stiU trusts in
the darkeat apprehenaiona. If it is suggest
ed, thou art a reprobate, yet wiU the soul
say, " I will see the utraost, and hang by
the hold I have, till I feel myself really cast
off, and will not wiUingly faU off. If I muat
be aeparated from bim, be shall dp it hira
aelf; he ahaU ahake rae eff while I would
cleave to him. Yea, to the utraost I wiU
* Invenit tnsomni volventem publica cura
Fata virum, casuaque urbis, cunetisque timeniem,
ISeeurumque sui.
t Ille velut rupes immota manebat.

look for mercy, and will hope better ; thougb
I found hira ahaking rae pff, yet wiU I think
he will net de it." It ia good to aeek after
aU poaaible aaaurance, but not to fret at the
want of it ; for even without theae aaaurances,
which aorae Chriatians hang too rauch upon,
there is in simple trust and reUance en God,
and in a desire to walk in his ways, such a
fort of peace, as all the aaaaulta in the world
are net able to raake a breach in ; and to thia
add that unapeakable delight in walking in
hia fear, joined with this trust. The noble
ambition of pleasing bim raakes one careless
of pleasing or displeasing all the world. Be
sides, the delight in his coraraandments, so
pure, 80 just a law, holineaa, victory over luats,
and temperance, hath a aweetness in it that
preaentiy paya itaelf, because his wiU-
It is the godly man alone, who, by thia
fixed conaideration in God, looka the grim
viaage of death in the face with an unappall
ed mind ; it dampa all tbe joys, and defeats
aU tbe hopes of the most prosperous, proud
est, and wisest worldling. As Archimedes
said, when shot, Avocasti ab opfima demon-
stratione. It spoUs aU their figures and fine
devices. But io the righteous there is hope
in his death : he gees through it without fear,
without Caligula's Quo vadis ? Though
riches, honours, and aU the glories of this
werld, are witb a raan, yet he fears, yea, hi
fears the more for these, because here they
must end. But the good man leeks death
out of countenance, in the words ef David,
Though I walk through the valley and sha.
dow of death, yet will I fear no evil, for
thou ari with me.

SERMON XIIL
Matt. xiu. 3.
And he spake many things unto them in
parables, saying, Behold, a sower went
forth lo sow, Scc.
The rich bounty of God hath furnished
our natural life, not barely for strict neceaaity,
but with great abundance ; many kinda of
beaata, and fowla, and fishes, and herbs, and
fruits, has he provided for the use ef man-
Thus our spiritual life likewise is supported
with a variety ; the word, the food of it, ba:h
net only aU necessary traths once simply aet
down, hut a great variety of doctrine, for our
raore abundant inatruction and conaolation-
Amongat the reat, thia way of aimilitiides
hath a notable commixture of profit and de
light- Parables, net unfolded and underatopd,
are a veil (aa here) tp the multitude, and in
that are a great judgraent, as laa- vi. 9, cited

SERMON XIII.

413

here ; but when cleared and made trans
parent, then they are a glass tp behpld divine
things in, mere cpmrapdipusly nnd suitably
tp eur way. All things are big with such
resemblances!, but they require the dexterous
hand of an active spirit to bring thera forth.
This way, besides other advantages, is much
graced and commended by our Saviour's fre
quent uae of it.
That here is fitted to the occasion ; mul
titudea coming to hear bira, and raany net a
whit the better. He inatructs ua in'thia point
— the great difference between the different
hearts of men ; so that the same word hath
yery different success in them.
Ll this parable we shaU consider these three
things : (1.) The nature of the world in it
self. (2.) The sameness and ceramenness of
the dispensation. (3.) The difference of the
operation and production-
The werd seed hath in it a productive vir
tue te bring fordi frait according to its kind,
that ia, the fruit of a new life ; not only a
new habitude and faahion ef Ufe wi.thout, hut
a new nature, a new kind of life within, new
thougbta, a new eatimate ef thinga, new de
lighta and actions- When the word reveala
God, hia greatneaa and holinesa, then it be
geta pious fear and reverence, and study
of conformity to hira ; when it reveals his
goodneaa and raercy, it worka love and con
fidence ; when it holda up in our view Chriat
crucified, it crucififea the aoul to the world,
and the world to it ; when it repreaenta theae
rich things laid up fer us, that bleat inherit
ance ef tbe aainta, then it raakea aU the lua
tre ef this world vanish, shews how poor it is,
weans and caUs eff the heart frora thera, rais
ing it to these higher hopes, and sets it on tbe
project of a crown ; and se isa seed of noble
thoughts, and ef a suitable behaviour in a
Chriatian, aa in the expoaition ef thia parable,
it ia caUed the word of the kingdora-
Seed, animmortal aeed, aa St. Peter calls
it, springing up to no less than an eternal life-
This teachea ua, 1. Highly to esteera the
great goodneaa of God to thoae piacea and
times that were most blessed with it, Psalra
cxlvii- 19, 20- '' He aheweth his word unto
Jacob, his statutes and his judgraents unto
Israel ; he hath not dealt ao with any nation,
andaa for hia judgments, they have not known
them-" 2. That the same dispensation is to be
preached indifferently to all where it coraes,
as far as the aound can reach : and thus it
was very much extended in the first preraul-
gating ef the gospel ; their sound went out
through all ihe earth, aa the apoatle aUuaive-
ly applies that of the Paalmiat.
3. Thia teachea also ministers liberally to
sow this seed at all tiraes, according te that,
Ecclea. xi. 6, " In the moming aow thy
seed, and in the evening- withheld not thine
Hand," &c,, flrayiiig earnestiy to him that is

the Lord not only of the harvest, but of the
seed-tirae, aud of this seed te make it fruit
ful ; this ia hia peculiar work. So the apoa
tle acknowledges, 1 Cer. iii. 6, " I have
planted, ApoUea watered, but Ged gave the
increase-" 4- Hence we also leam the succeaa to be
very different. Thia ia raoat evident in raen :
one caat into the raould and faahion of the
word, and ao moulded and fashioned by it ;
another no whit changed ; orie heart melting
before it, another still hardened under it.
So, then, thia is not all, te have the word
and hear it, as if that would serve turn and
save us, as we coraraonly fancy — the temple
of the Lord, the temple of the Lerd- Mul
titudes under the continual sound ofthe werd,
yet remain lifeless and fruitless, and die in
their sins ; therefere we must inqufre and
examine strictly, what becomes of it, hew it
werks, what it brings forth ; and for this
very end this parable declares se many are
fruitless. We need not press them ; they
are three to one here ; yea, that were too nar
row, the odds is far greater, for theae are the
kinda of unfruitful grounds, and under each
of these .huge multitudea of individuals, ao
that there may be a hundred to one, and it
is to be feared, in raany congregationa, it is
raere than ao.
Whence is then the difference ? Not from
the seed, that is tbe sarae to aU ; net from
the sower neither, for though these be divers,
and of different abilities, yet it hangs little
or nething on that. Indeed, be is the fittest
to preach, that is hiraself moat like hia raea
aage, and comea forth not only with a hand.
ful of thia aeed in his hand, but with store
of it in his heart, the werd dweUing richly
in him ; yet, howaoever, the aeed he aows,
being this word of Ufe, depends not on his
qualifications in any kind, either of comraon
gifts, pr apecial grace. Pepple miatake this
rauch, and it ia a carnal cpnceit to hang on
the advantagea of the miniater, or to eye that
much. The sure way is to look up to God,
and to leok into thine own heart. An un
changed, unaoftened heart, aa an evil aoil,
disappoints the frait. What thougb sown by
a weak band, yea, poaaibly a foul one, yet if
received in a clean and honeat heart, it will
fructify much. There ia in tbe world a need
leaa and prejudicial differencing of raen, out
of which people wiU not corae for aU we can
say. The firat bad ground is a highway. Now
we have a comraentary here, whence we may
not, ner wiU not depart ; it ia authentic and
full. 'Ver. 19 : they that underatand not.
Gross, brutiah apirits, that perceive not
wbat is a.Tid, are as if they were not there,
sit like blocks, ene log of weed upon an
pther, as he said. * This is pur bratisb
multitude. What pity is it te see so many,
* Lapis super lapidem i»i theatrft;

414

SERMON XIIL

such as have not so much as a natural ap
prehension ef spiritual trutha. — The com.
mon road of all paaaengera, of all kind of
fooUsh, brutiah -thoughta, aeeking nothing
but how to live, and yet knew not to what
end, have no design ; trivial, highway hearta,
all teraptationa pass at their pleaaure, pro
fane aa Esau, whicb some critica draw from
a word aignifying the threshold, the outer
step that every foul foot treads on.
These retain riothing, there ia no hazard
of that ; and yet the eneray of aeula, te
make all aure, leat peradventure aome word
might take root unawarea, some grain ef this
seed, he is busy te pick it away ; tp take
them pff frpra all reflection, aU serious
thoughts, or the remembrance of any thing
spoken te thera. And if any coraraon word
is reraerabered, yet it doth np gppd, for that
is trodden down as the rest, though the
raeat is picked up, because it Ues on the
read. So expressed by St. Blark, iv. 4.
The second ia atony-ground. Hard hearta,
npt softened and made penetrable, to receive
in deeply this ingrafted word with meek
ness, with hurable yieldance and subrais
aion tb it — the rocka. Yet in theae there ia
often aerae receiving of it, and a little alen-
der raoisture abeve thera, which the warra
air may make spring up a Uttle ; they re
ceive with joy, have a little present delight
in it, are raoved and taken witb the sennon,
possibly to the shedding of aorae teara ; but
the misery is, there is a want of depth of
earth — it sinks net.
No wonder if there is some present de-
light in theae ; therefore the word of the
kingdora, eapeciaUy if akilfuUy and Senaibly
delivered by sorae raore able apeaker, pleaaes
Let it be but a fancy, yet it is a fine, plea
sant one : such a love as the Son of God te
die for ainnera ; auch a rich purchase raade
as a kingdora ; such glory and sweetneaa !
Therefere the description of the new Jeru
salem, Apoc. xxi., suppose it but a dreara,
or one of the visiona of the night, yet it ia
passing fine ; it raust needs pleaae a mind
tbat heeda what is said of it. There ia a
natural delight in spiritual thinga, and thua
the werd of the prophet, as the Lord tella
him, was aa a rainatrel'a voice, a fine aong
se long as it lasts, but diea out in tbe air ;
it raay be, the reliah and air of it wiU re
main a while in the iraagination, but not
long; even that wears out, and is forgot.
So here it js heard with joy, and some is
springing up presently : tbey coramend it,
and it raay be, repeat sorae paaaagea, yea,
poaaibly deaire te be Uke'it, te have such
and auch gracea aa are recoraraended, and
upon that think they have them, are pre.
sently good Chriatians in their own conceit,
and tp appeararice sorae change is wrought,
and it appears to be aU that it is. But.it is
not deep enough, they talk ppssibly too

much, raore than those whpse hearts receive
it raere deeply ; there it lies hid longer, and
little is heard of it. Others may think it is
lost, and poasibly themaelvea do not perceive
that it is tb ere ; they are exercised and
humbled at it, and find no good in their
own hearts ; yet there it ia hid, as David
says. Thy word have I hid in my heart ;
and as seed in a manner dies in a silent,
smethering way, yet is in order to the frue.
tifying and te the reviving.ef it, it wiU spring
up in time, and be fruitful in ita aeason,
with patience, aa St. Luke hath it of the
good ground; net so suddenly, but much
more surely and solidly.
But the raost are present, rauahrooni
Christians — seen ripe, seen rotten : the seed
grows never deep ; it apringa up indeed, but
any thing blaata and withers it. Little root
in sorae, if triala ariae, either the heat of
peraecution withouf, or a teraptation within ;
thia audden apring-Seed can stand before
neither. Oh, rocky hearta ! Hew ahallew, ahallow,
are the irapressions of divine things upon
you I ReUgion goes never farther than the
upper surface of your hearta ; few deep
thoughts of God, and of Jesus Christ, and
the things of the world to corae ; aU are but
aUgbt and transient glances.
The third is thomy ground. This re-
lates te the cares, pleasures, and aU the in.
terests ef thia life, see St. Mark iv. 1, and
St. Luke viii. 5. All theae together art
thoms, and these grow in hearta that de
raore deeply receive the aeed, and aend it
forth, and apring up more hopefuUy than
either ef the other two, and yet choak it.
Oh ! the pity.
Many are thus almost in heaven, so much
desire of renovation, and aome endeavours
after it, and yet the thpms prevail. ' Mise-
rabie thprns 1 The base things of a perish.
ing Ufe drawing away the strength of affec
tion, sucking the sap of the aoul. Our other
aeed and harvest, our corn and hay, our
ahppa and ahipa, pur tradings and bargains,
eur suits and pretensipns for places and em.
ployments of gain or credit ; husband, and
wife, and children, and house, and train ;
our feastings and entertainments, and other
pleaaurea ef aenae, our civititiea and compli.
raents ; and a world ef thoae in aU the werld
are these thoma, and they overapread all.
" The lust of the eye, the luat of the flesh,
and tbe pride of life."
And for how long is aU the advantage and
delight of these ? Alas ! that so poor things
sheuld prejudice us of the rich and blessed
increaae ef thia divine aeed.
The last is good ground, a good and ho-nest
heart ; not much flneneaa here, net many
queations and disputes, but honest siraplicity,
sweet aincerity, that is all ; a hurable aingle
deaire to eye and to do the will of God, and

SERMON XIIL

415

this frora leve te himaelf. This makes the
soul abound in the fruits of holiness, receiv
ing the word as the ground of it : different
degrees there are indeed, some thirty, aerae
sixty, and aome a hundred fold, yet the low
eat aiming at the higheat, not reating aatia
fied ; yet growing more fruitful — if thirty last
year, deairing to bring fortli sixty this.
This is the great point, we eught to ex
amine it; fer rauch is sown and little brought
forth. Our God hath done rauch for us,
(what more could be done ?) yet when grapes
were expected, wild grapes are produced.
What becoraes of aU ? Who grow to be
more spiritual, raore hurable and meek, more
like Christ, more self-denying, fuller of love
to God, and one te another ? Some ; but.
alas, few. All the land is sown, and that
plentifully, with the good seed : but what
cornea for the raost part ? Cockle and no
grain. Infelix lol'ium.
We would do all other thinga to purpoae,
and net wiUingly loae our end ; not trade
and gain nothing ; buy and aell and live by
the loas ; not plough and aow, and reap
nothing. How senaibly do we feel one ill
year ! And shall tbia alone be loat labour,
that, well improved, were wortb all the reat ?
Oh ! how much raore worth than all! Shall
we only do the greateat business te the least
purppse ? Bethink youraelvea, what de we
here ? Why come we here ? That word.
Thou fool, this night shall they fetch away
-thy soul, how tenible will it be 1
We think we are wiae in not loaing our
labour in other things. Why, it is all loat,
even wbere most vexation of spirit is the total
aum. And in all our projecting and buat
ling, what do we but sow the wind, and reap
the whirlwind ; sew vanity, and reap vex
ation ?
Thia aeed alone being fruitful, raakes rich
and happy, springs up to eternal life- Oh
that we were wise, and that we would at
-length learn to hear every sermon as on th
utmoat edge ef tirae, at ths very brink of
eternity ! For any thing we know for our
aelvea, of any of ua it may be reaUy ao ;
however, it ia wise and safe to de as if it
were ao- Will you be persuaded ef this ?
It were a happy aermou if it could prevail,
.for the more fruitful hearing of aU the rest
henceforward- We have lost too rauch of
our Uttle time ; and thua, with the apoatle,
/ beseech you, I beseech you, receive not
the grace of God in vain.
Npw, that ypu raay be fruitful, examine
well ypur pwn hearta, pluck up, weed put,
for there are atill thorna- Seme will grow ;
1 ut he is tbe happiest man that hath the
sharpest eye and the buaieat hand, apying
them out, and plucking them up. Take
heed how you hear ; think it not se easy a
matter. " Plough up, and sow not among
thorns," Jer. iv. 3.

And abeve aU, pray, pray before, after,
and in hearing. Dart up desfres te God,
he is the Lord of the harvest, whose influence
doth all. The difference ef the aoil makes
indeed the difference of aucceas, but the
I/ord hadi tbe privilege of bettering the soil.
He that framed the heart, changes it when
and how he wUl. There is a curse en all
grounds naturally, tbat fell en the earth for
raan'a aake, but fell raore 6n the ground
of raan'a own heart within him : Thorns
and briars shalt thou bring forth. Now,
it is he that denounced that curae, that alone
hath pewer to remove it ; he ia both the
aovereign owner of the seed, and changer of
the soil, turns a wildemess into Carrael by
his Spirit ; and ne ground, ne heart, can bo
good till he change it.
And being changed, rauch care raust be
had StiU of manuring, fer atill that is in it,
that will bring fortli raany weeds, is a rao
ther to them, and but a atep-mother to this
;d. Therefore,
Consider it, if you think tbis concerna
you : he that hath an ear to hear, as our
Saviour closes, let him hear. Tbe Lord ap
ply your hearts to th'ia work : and though
discouragements arise without, or within,
and little preaent fruit appear, but conuption
ia rather atronger and greater, yet watch and
pray ; wait on, it ahall be better ; tbis fruit
is to be brought forth with patience, as St.
Luke hath it. And thia aeed, thia word,
the Lord caUa by that very name, the very
word of his patience. Keep it, hide it iu
thy heart, and in due time 4t shall apring
up. And thia patience ahaU be put to it but
for a little while ; the day of harvest ia at
hand, when all in any meaaure fruitfid in
grace ahaU be gathered into glory.

SERMON XIV.
2 Cor. vii. 1.
Having therefore these promises, ("dearly
beloved,) let us cleanse ourselves from alt
filthiness of the fiesh and spirit, perfeci.
ing holiness in ihe fear of God.
It ia a thing both of unapeakable sweet
ness and usefulness for a Christian, often to
consider the exceUency of that eatate to which
he is called. It cannot fail to put him upon
very high resolutiona, and carry him en in
the divine ambition of behaving daily raore
suitably to his high caUing and hopes. There
fere these are eften set before Christiana in the
scripture, and are pressed here by the apostle
upen a particular occasion of the avoidance
of near corabinementa with unbelievers. He
mentions seme choice promises that Gu.d

41C

SERMON XI^

makes to hia own peeple, and of thefr narjear and trembl'mg, i. e.^in the moie ham
relation to, and coramunion with himaelf,
and upon theae he enlarges, and raises the
exhortation to the universal endeavour of all
holiness, and that aa aiming at the very top
and high degree of "it.
In the words are, 1. The thing to which
he would perauade. 2. The motive. The
thing — hoUness in its full extension and
intension ; " piirging ouraelves from aU fil
thineaa of the fleah and apirit, aud perfecting
holinesa in the fear of God."
The purging out ef filthineaa, and perfecU
ing holineaa, expreaa those two parts of re
newing grace, raortification and vivification,
as usually they are distinguished. But I
conceive they are not so traly different parts,
as a different notion ef the same thing ; the
decrease ef sin and increase of grace being
truly one thing, aa the diapeUing of darkneas
and augraenting of Ught. So here the one
is rendered, as tbe neceaaary reault, yea.
the equivalent of the other ; the aame thing
indeed ; purging from filthiness, and in ao
doing perfecting holiness ; perfecting holi
ness, and in so doing purging from filthi
ness ; that perfection, by which ia meant a
growing, pregreaaive advance towarda per
fection- The words, without straining, give ua aa
it were the aeveral dimenaiona of bolineas ;
the breadth, purging allfilthinesa ; the length,
paraUel to man'a composure, running all
along through hia aoul and body, — purging
filthineaa of the fleah and apirit ; tbe height,
perfecting holineaa ; the depth, that which
ia the bottom whence it riaea up,^ — a deep
impreaa of thefearof God. Perfecting holi
ness in ihe fear of God.
Cleanse ourselves. It ia the Lord that
ia the sanctifier of hia people, hepi,trges away
iheir dross and tin, he pours clean water,
according to hia promises, yet doth he call
ua to cleanse ouraelves ; even having auch
promiaea, let us cleanse ourselves. He puta
a new life into ua, and causea ua to act, and
excites us te excite it, and call it up to act
in the progreaa of sanctification. Men are
steangely inclined to a perverae construction
of things : tell thera that we are te act and
work, and give diligence, then they weuld
fancy a doing in their own strength, and be
their own saviours. Again, teU thera that
God works aU eur works in us, and for ua,
tben they would take the ease of doing
nothing ; if they cannot bave the praiae of
doing all, they wiU ait atiU with folded handa,
and use no diUgence at aU. But thia ia the
conupt logic of the fleah, its base sophistry.
The apostle reasona juat contrary, Phil ii.
13. " It is God that worketh in us, both to
wiU and to de." Therefore, weuld a car
nal heart say, we need not work, er at leaat,
may work very careleasly. But he infers,
Therefore let us work out our salvation with

ble obedience to God, and dependence on him,
not obatructirig the influences of hia grace,
and, by aloth and negligence, provoking him
to withdraw or abate it. Certainly many in
whora there is truth of grace, are kept low .
in the growth of it, by their own slothfulness,
aitting atill, and not bestining themselves,
and exercising the proper actions of that spi.
ritual Ufe, by whicli it is entertained and ad-
vanced- From all filthiness. AU kind of sinful
poUutions. Not as raen coramonly do re
form sorae things, and take te themselves
dispensation in others, at least in some one
peculiar sin — their misfress and their Hero
dias, their Delilah : no parting with that; yea,
they rather forego many other things, as a
kind of composition for the retaining of that.
Of flesh and spirit. The whole man
raust be purified and conaecrated to God ;
not only refined from the gross outward acts
of airi, but frem the inward affection to it,
and motiona of it, that ap the heart go not
after it, (Paalm cxxxi.,) which, under re
atrainta ef putward cpmraitting sin, it may
de, and very often doea. Aa the Israelites
lusted after the flesh pots, their hearta re
mained in Egypt atill, though their bodies
were brought out- This ia then to be done,
viz- affection te ain to be purged out. That
is, to cleanse the ground ; not only to lop off
the branchea, but te dig about, and loosen
and pluck up the root : though still fibres of
it will stick, yet we ought atill to be finding
tbem out, and plucking them up.
Further, Theae not only of the inner pan
of aU sins, but of ."ome sins that are most c,
wholly inward, that hang not so much on the
body, nor are acted by it, thoae filthinesses
of the apirit that are less discerned than
those of the flesh ; and as more hardly dis
cerned, se when discerned, more hardly purg
ed out — pride, self-love, unbelief, curiosity,
Scc. which, theugh more retired and refined
sina, yet are pt)Uutiona and defilementa, yea
of the worat aort, aa being more apiritual, we
filthineaa ef the apirit- Fleshly poUutions are
thinga of which the devila are not capable in
theraaelvea, though they excite men to them,
and so theyare called unclean apirita. But the
higheat rank of aina, are thoae that are prpper
ly apiritual wickednesses. These in men are
the chief atrengtha cf Satan, the inner worki
of theae forta and strong holds, 2 Cor. x. i.
Many that are not much tempted to the
coraraon- gross sensualities, have possibly
(theugh an inclination to thera, yet) a kind
of diadain ; and, through education, and
raorality, and atrength of ieason, with some
what of natural censcience, are canied abovs
thera ; who yet have many of these heights,
theae lofty imaginations that riae agaiust
Ged, and the obedience of Christ, aU which
muct be demoUshed.

SERMON XIV.

«I7

Perfecting holiness. Not content with
pw meaaurea, ap much aa keeps frera heU,
but aspiring tpwards perfectipn ; airaing high
at self-victpry, self-denial, arid the leve ef
Gpd, purer and liptter, aa a fire grpwing and
flaraing up, and consuraing the earth.
Though raen foU short of their aim, yet it
is good to aira high ; they shaU shoot se
much the higher, though not full so high as
they aim. Thus we eught to be setting the
state of perfection in our eye, resolving not
to reat content below tbat, and to ceme aa
near it aa we can, even before we come at it,
Phil. Ui. 11, 12. Thia ia to act as one that
hath such hope, such a state in view, and is
still advancing towards it.
In the fear of God. No working but on
-firm ground, no soUd endeavours in holiness
where it ia not founded in a deep heart, a
reverence of God, a desire to please him and
to be like him, which springs frora love.
This most raen are either strangers te whol
ly, or but sUght and ahaUow in it, and there
fore make ao Uttle true progreaa in holiness.
Then there is the motive — having these
promises ; being called to so fair an estate,
so exceUent a condition, to be the people,
yea, the sons and daughters ef Ged. There
fore tbey are called to the coming forth from
Babel, and the separating theraselves frora
ain, and purging it out. Holineaa ia hia
image in hia childr.'n ; the more of it, the
more suitable to that blessed relation and
dignity, and the firmer are the hopes of the
inheritance pf glpry-
Cpnsider ain aa a filthineaS, hate it- Oh,
liPw ugly and vile is luat, how deformed is
swelling pride ! And aU ain ia an aversion
from God, a casting the noble aoul into the
mire, the defacing aU ita beauty. Tuming
to preaent thinga,- it pollutea itaelf with thera,
that he who waa clad in scarlet embraces
the dunghill, aa Jereraiah in anether aenae
laraents. Purity ef things is an unmixtuie and
aimplicity conesponding with their ownbeing;
and ao is tbe aoul when elevated above the
earth and aense, and united unto God, con
templating him, and delighting in hira : all
inordinate bent to tbe creatures, or to itself,
(which is the first and main disorder,) doth
defile and debase it ; and the mere it is sub
limed and freed from itaelf, the purer and
more heavenly it growa, and partakes the
more ef God, and reserables hira the raore.
This, then, should be our main study,
first to aearch out our iniquities, the particu
lar defilements of eur nature ; not only gross
filthiness, drunkenness, lasciviousness, &c.,
but our love of thia earth, or of air or vanity
pf mind, pur self-will and self-seeking.
Moat, even of Chriatiana, are short-sighted
in their own aecret evils, the filthineaa ef
apirit especially, and use littie diligence in
this inquiry. They do not seek light frora

God to go in before him, and to lead them
into themselves, aa the prophet had in the
discovery of idolatries at Jerusalem. Ob !
that we cpiild once see what heaps of abomi
nations lies hid in us, one^behind another.
Tben having searched out, we muat follow
on te purge out ; not te pass over, nor apare
any, but to delight moat in caating out the
best-beloved sin, the choicest idol, that hath
had mpst of eur services and aacrifices, to
make room for Jeaua Chriat.
And never ceaae in thia work, for StUl
there is need ef raere purging : one day's
work in this diapoaes for and engagea to a
further, te the next ; fer, as sin is purged
out, light comes in, and more clear diaco
veriea are raade of reraaining poUutiona.
Se, then, still there must be progress, less
of the world and more of God in the heart
every day. Oh ! this is a sweet course of
life — what gain, what preferment to be com
pared to it ?
And in this it is good to have our ambi
tion growing ; the higher we ariae, te aapire
atiU the higher, looking farther than before,
even toward the perfection of holineaa. It
ia net much we can here attain to, but aure
it is comraonly far less than we raight ;
we iraprove not our condition arid advanta
ges as we niight do. The world is busy
driving forward tbeir deaigna. Men of apirit
are aniraated, both by better and woras
success : if any thing raiscarry, it aets them
en the more eagerly tp make it up, in the
right raanageraent pf apme other deaign ; and
when tbey proaper in ene thing, that enablea
and encourages thera te attempt further.
ShaU aU things seem worth our pains ? Are
only grace and glory so cheap in our account.
that the leaat diligence of all goes that way ?
Oh, strange deluaion 1
New, our cleanaing ia te be managed by
aU holy raeana : word and sacrament raore
wisely and spirituaUy uaed than coraraonly
with ua ; and private prayer, that purifiea
and elevates the soul, takes it up into the
raount, and raakes it shine ; and particularly
supplicating for the spirit of holiness, and
victory over sin, is not in vain, it pbtains
its desires pf Gpd, the spul becpraing that
which it is fixedly set uppn. Hply resplutipn :
Christians rauch wanting in this, faint and
Ipse in their purppses ; tbe consideration of
divine truths, the mysteries pf the kingdpm,
the hope of Christians, yea, rich and great
promises, that is particularly here the raotive.
These are aU the means, holy means they
are, as their end is the perfection of holiness.
Having these promises. New conaider
whether it ia belter to be the alavea of Satan
er the sona of God ; meaauie delight in God
with the low, baae pleaapres of sense. Bless
ed are ihe pure in heart, for (hey shall see
God ; theae gradually go on together, and
are uerfected together, 2 D

4ia

SERMON XV.

Why then is tnere such an invincible level
of sin in the hearts pf men ? At least, why
EP little Ipve pf hpliness, and endeaveur]
after it, so mean thoughts of it, as a thing
either indecent or unpleasant, when it is the
only noble and tbe only deUghtful thing in
the world ? The seul by other things is
drawn below itself, but by holiness it ia
raised above itself, and raade divine. Plea
aurea of ain for a aeaaon, the pleaaure of a
raoraent, exchanged for thoae of eternity !
But even in the raean tirae, in tbis season,
the aoul is fed witb coraraunion with God,
one hour ef which is raere worth than the
longest life of the highest of the world'i
delights.

SERMON XV.
Psai.m cxix. 32.
/ will run the way of thy commandments,
when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
To desire eaae and happineaa, under a
general repreaentation of it, ia a thing of
raore eaay and general perauaaion ; there is
soraewhat in nature te help the arguraent ;
but to find beauty in, and be taken with the
very way of holineaa that leads to it, is raore
rare, and dependa on a higher principle.
Self-love inclinea a raan te desire the rest ef
love ; bui to love and desire the labour of
love, IS love of a higher and purer strain.
To delight and be cheerful in obedience,
argues rauch love as the springof it. That
is the thing the hely Psalraist doth so plen
tifully express in this Psahn, and he is stiU
deairing more of that sweet and Uvely affec.
tion that might raake hira yet raore abun
dant in action. Thua, here, / will run,
Scc. He preaenta hia desire and purpose
together : " The raore of this grace thou
beatoweat on me, the raore aervice ahaU I be
able to do thee."
Thia ia the top of hia arabition, while
others are seeking to erJarge their bams,
tbeir landa, or estates, or titles ; kinga to
enlarge their tenitories er authority, te en
croach on neighbouring kingdoraa, er be
more abaolute in their own ; inatead of aU
such enlargementa, this ia David's great
desire, an enlarged heart, to run ihe way
of God's commandments.
And these other (bow big soever they
sound) are poor, narrow desires ; this one is
larger and higher than them aU, and gives
evidence of a heart already large : but aa it ia
miaerable in those, it ia happy in thia —
Much would still have more.
Let others seek more nipney or more

honour, Oh ! the bleaaed choice of that sonI
that ia atill seeking rapre lpve to Gpd, more
affectipn, and rapre ability tp dp him aervice ;
that cpunts aU days and hours for lost that
are net employed te this improvement ; that
hears the word in public, andreads it in private
for this purpoae, to kindle thia love, or to
blow the aparkle, if any there be in the heart,
to raiae it lo a clear flame, and from a Uttle
flame te make it burn yet hotter and purer,
and riae higher ; but, above aU meana, is
often preaenting thia in prayer te Him on
whoae influence aU dependa, in whose hand
our hearta are, much more than in our own.
It followa him with tbia deaire, and works
on hira by hia own iritereat. Though there
can be reaUy no acceaaion ef gain to him by
eur services, yet he ia pleased so to account
witb ua aa if there were. Therefore we may
urge thia : " Lord, give more, and receive
more ; I wiU ran the way of thy comraand
raenta, when tbou ahalt enlarge my heart."
We bave here in the worda a required dis.
position, and a suitable resolution. The
diapoaition relates to the resolution, as the
raeans of fulfiUing it, and the resolution re.
lates to the diapoaition, both aa tbe end of
deairing it, and aa the motive of obtaining
it. The reaolution occura first in the words.
/ will run, Scc. The way resolved on is
that ef God's commandments, not tbe road
ef the poUuted world, not the crooked way
of his pwn heart, but the highway, the
rpyal way, the straight way pf the kingdom,
and that in the notion of subjection and obe
dience — the way of thy commandments.
This man naturally atrugglea againat and
repinea at. To be limited and bounded by
law ia a reatraint, and a vain man could
poaaibly find in bia heart to do many of the
aame thinga that are commanded ; but he
would net be tied, would have hia liberty,
and do it of hia own choice. Thia ia the
enmity of the carnal mind againat God,
aa the apoatle expreaaea it — " it ia not aub
ject to the law of God, neither can it
be ;" it breaka theae bonda, and caata away
the corda of his authority. This is ain, the
transgression ef a law, and this made the
firat ain so great, theugh in .1 matter one
would think sraall — the eating of the fruit
ef a tree ; it was rebellion againat the ma
jesty of God, casting off his law and autho
rity, and aspiring to an imagined self-deity.
And this is stiU the treasonahle pride, or in- ,
dependency, and wickedness of eur nature,
rising up against God that fenned ua of
nothing. And this is .the pewer and substance of
reUgion, the new impress of God- upon the
heart, and obedience and resignraent te hira,
to be given up to bim as entirely his, to be
moulded and ordered as he will, to he aub
ject tobia laws and appointments in aU things,
to have every action, and every word, undei

SERMON XV.

41.9

a rule and law, and the penalty to be so high,
eternal death 1 AU this to a carnal or haughty
mind is hard ; not only every action and word,
but even every thonght too, must be subject ;
not so much as thought-free, (2 Cor. x. 5,)
" Every thought is brought into captivity,"
(as the apostle speaks, and so the licentious
mind accounta it,) — net only the affections
and desires, but the very reasoning and ima
ginations are brought under thia law.
Now, te yield this as reasonable and due
to God, to own his sovereignty, and to ac
knowledge the law to be holy, just, and good ;
to approve, yea, to love it, even there where
it most contradicts and contrela our own
corrupt will, and the law of ain in eur fleah,
this ia frue spiritual obedience; to study and
inquire after the will of God in all eur ways,
what will please him, and having found it,
to follow that which is here called the way
ofhis commandments; to raake this our way
and our busineaa in the world, and all other
things but accesaories and by-werka ; even
thoae lawful things that may be taken in,
and used as helps in our way: aa the dis
ciples passing through the corn plucked the
eara, and did eat in paasiug, as a by-work,
but their buainess was te fpUow their master.
And whatsoever would hinder us in thia way
must be watched and guarded against. To
effect that, we must either remove and thrust
it aaide, or if we cannot de that, yet we must
go over it, aud trample it under foot, were it
the thiug er the person that is dearest to ua
in the werld. Till the heart be brought
to this state and purpose, it is either whoUy
void of,*or very low and weak in the trutii pf
religion- 'We place reUgion much in our accustomed
perforraancea, in coraing to church, hearing
and repeating of Bermons, and praying' at
home, keeping a' road of such and auch
duties. The way of God's commandments is
more in doing than in discourse. In many,
religion evaporates itself too muoh out by
the tongue, while it appears tee little in their
ways. Oh 1 but thia is the main ; ene act
of charity, meekness, er humility, speaks
more than a day's discourae. All the meana
we uae in reUgion are intended for a further
end, wbich, if they attain not, they are no
thing. This end is to mortify and purify
the heart, to mould it to the way of God's
commandments in the whole tract of our lives ;
in our private converse one with anether, and
our retired secret converse with ourselves ; te
have God stiU before us, and his law our rule
in all we de ; that be raay be our meditation
day and night, and that bis law may be our
counsellor, aa this Psalm hath it, to regulate
all our •iesigns, and the works of our callings
by it. To walk soberly, and godly, and righte-
ously in this present world; to curb and
cross our ow^n wills where they cross God's ;

to deny ourselves our own humour and pride,
our paasiona and pleasures, to have all thoae
subdued and brought under by the power of
the law of love within ns. Thia, and nothing
below thia, ia the end of religion. Alaa !
amongst multitudes that are called Christiana,
some there may be tbat speak and appear like
it, yet how few are there that make tbia thoir
business and aspire te thia — The way of God's
commandments I
His intended course in this way he ex
presaes by running ; it is good to be in this
way even in the slowest motions ; love will
creep where it cannot go. But if thou art
ao indeed, then thou wilt long for a swifter
motion ; if thou do but creep, be doing, creep
en, yet desfre to be enabled to ge ; if tbou
goest, but yet halting and lamely, desire to
be strengthened to walk straight ; and if thou
walkest, let not that satiafy thee, deafre to
run- So here, David did walk in this way ;
but he eamestly wishes to mend his pace ;
he would willingly ran, and for that end ha
deaires au enlarged heart.
Some dispute and descant too muoh whe
ther they go or no, and cbildiahly tell their
steps, and would know at every pace whether
they advance or no, and how much they ad
vance, and thus amuse themselves, and spend
the time of doing and going in questioning and
doubting. Thus it is with many Chriatiana ;
but it were a more wiae and comfortable way
to be endeavouring onwards, and if tbou
make little progreaa, at leaat to be desiring
to make more ; to be praying and walking,
and praying that thou mayeat walk faster,
and that in the end thou mayest run; not
aatiafied with anything attained, but yet by
that unaatiafiedness not to be ao dejected as
to sit down, or stand atill, but rather excited
to gp on. So it was with St. Paul, PhU. iii.
13 ; " Forgetting these things which are be
hind, and reaching forth unto those things
whjich are before, I press forward." If any
one thinks that he hath done well and run
far, and will take a pause, the great apostle is
of another mind — Not as jf I had attained.
Oh, no 1 far frem that | he still sets forward
as if nothing were done, as a runner, not
still looking back how much he hath run, but
forward to what he is to run, stretching forth
to that, inflamed with frequent looks at tbe
mark and end. Some are retarded by looking
on what is past, as not satisfied ; they have
done nothing, as they think, and so stand still
discontented"; but even in that way, it is not
good to look toe muoh to things behind ; we
must forget them rather, .and preaa onwards.
Some, if they have gone on well, and pos
sibly run awhile, yet if thej fall, then they
are ready, in a deaperate mal-oontent, to lie
still and think all is lost ; and in this peevish
fretting at their falls, some men please thera
selves aud take it for repentance, whereas,'

420

SERMON XV.

indeed, it is net that, but rather pride and
humour; repentance ia a raore auhmiaaive,
hurable thing. But diia ia that which
troublea aome men at their new falla,(eapeciaUy
if after a long time of even walking er run
ning,) they think their project ia now appli
ed ; their thoughta are broken off, they wpuld
have had aomewhat to haverejoi'ced in, if they
had atill gone on to the end, but being diaap
pointed of that, they thirik they had aa good
let alone, and give over. Oh ! but the
bumble Christian is better taught ; his faUa
teach hira indeed to abhor hiraself, they dia
cover hia own weakneaa te hira, and erapty
him ef aelf-trust, but they do net dismay
Slim to get up and go en, net boldly and
carelessly forgetting his fall, but in the hum
ble senae of it walking the more warily, but
net the leaa awiftly ; yea, the mere awiftly
too, making the more ha^te to regain the
tirae loat by the fall. So, then, if you would
run in thia way, depend on the afrength of
God, and en hia Spirit leading thee, that
ao thou mayeat not fall, and yet if thou doat
faU, ariae ; and if thou art plunged in the
mire, go to the fountain opened for sin and
uncleanneaa, and wash there ; bemoan thyaelf
before thy Lord ; and if hurt, and bleeding
by thy fall, yet look on him, deaire Jesua
to pity thee, and bind up and cure thy
wound, washing eff thy blood and pouring
in ef hia own.
' However it is with thee, give not over,
faint not, run en ; and that thou mayest ran
the more eaaily and expeditely, make thy
self as light aa may be ; " lay aside every
weight," Heb. xii. I, 2. Clog not thyself
with unnecessary burdens of earth, and espe
cially lay. aside that, that of all other thinga
weigha the heavieat, and cleavea the cleaeat,
the sin thai so easily besets us, and is so
hardly put off ua, that folda ao cennaturally
to us, and we therefore think wiU not hinder
ua rauch. And net only the aina that are
more outward, but the inner, close-cleaving
(.ins, the sin that most of aU sits eaaily to
ua, not only .our cloak, but our inner coat,
away with that too, aa our Saviour aaya in
another case, and run ihe race set before us,
our appointed stage, and that with patience,
under all oppoaitiona and diacourageraenta
from the world without and ain within. And
to encourage thee in thia, look to such a
cloud ef witneaaea that corapaaaeth us about'
to further us : as troublea, temptationa, and
sin, do to hinder ua. They encountered the
like sufferings, and were encountered with
the Uke sins, and yet they run on and got
home. Alexander weuld have run in the
Olympic Games if he had had kings to run
with ; npw, in this race, kings and prpphets
and rightepus perspns run ; yea, aU are in
deed a kingly generatipn, each pne heir tp a
crown as the prize of this race.
And if these encourage thee but littiei

then look beyond thera, above that cloud -
of witnesses, to the Sun, the Sun of righte.
ousness ; lookinji; off frora all things here,
that would either entangle thee or discourage
thee, taking thine eye eff from them, and
looking to hira that wiU powerfully draw
thee and animate thee. Look to Jesua, not
aa thy forerunner in thia race, but also as
thy undertaker in it ; the author and finish
er cf our faith. His attaining the end of
the race ia the pledge of thy attaining, if
thou follow hira cheerfully on the same en
couragements that he. looked to ; " who, for
the joy that was aet before bim, endured the
croas and despised the shame, and is now
set down at the right hand of God."
When thou shall enlarge my heart. In
aU beings the heart is the principle ef motion,
and according as it is raore or less perfect
in its kind, those motions that flow fiom it
are more or less vigorous- Therefore halh
the Psalmist good reason, to the end his
spiritual course may be the stedfaster, and
the faster, te desire that the principle of it,
the heart, raay be raore enabled and dis-
poai'd, which here he expresses by its being
enlarged- What this enlargement of the heart is, a
man's own inward senae ahould easilyexplain
to him. Sure it would, did men reflect on
it, and were they acquainted with their own
hearts ; but the raoat are not. They would
find the camal, natural heart, a nanow, con
tracted, harapered thing, bound with cords
and chaina of ita own twiating and forging,
and ao incapable of walking, much less of
running in this way ef God's cemmandments,
tiU it be freed and enlarged-
The heart is taken generally in scripture,
for the whple spul, the understanding and
will, in its several affectiona and motions ;
and the apeech being here of an enlarged
heart, it aeema very congruoua to take it in
trie most enlarged aenae.
It ia aaid of Solomon, that he hath a large
heart, (the aame word that ia here,) as the
sand of the sea shore ; that is, a vast, com
prehensive spirit, that could fathera rauch of
nature, both its greater and leaaer thinga,
'' He apoke ef trees, frora the cedar in Le
banon tp the hysspp in the wall, and pf great
beaats, and sraaU creeping things."
Thua, I cpnceive, the enlargement ef the
heart corapriaeth the enlightening cf the un
derstanding. There arises a clearer Ught
there to discern apiritual thinga in a more
apiritual raanner ; to aee the vast difference
betwixt tbe vain thinga the wprld goea after,
and the true, aolid delight that ia in the way
of God's commwndments ; to know the false
bluah ofthe pleasurea of sin, and what de
forraity is under that painted mask, and not
be allured by it ; to have enlarged apprehen.
sions ef God, his excellency, and greatness,
and goodness ; hew worthy he is to be obey.

SERJION XV,

421

ed and served. . This is the great dignity
and happiness of tiie soul ; all other preten
sions are low and poor in respect of this-
Here then is enlargement te aee the purity
and beauty of hia law, how juat and reaaon
able, yea, how pleasant and araiable it ia ;
that his coraraandments are not grievoua,
that they are beds of apicea ; tbe more we
walk in them, atiU the raore of their fragrant
smeU and sweetness we find-
And then, conaequently, upon the larger
and clearer knowledge of theae things, the
heart dilates itself in affection ; the mere it
knows of Ged, still the more it loves him,
and the leaa it lovea tbis present world ; leve
ia the great enlarger of the heart to all obe
dience. Then nething is hard, yea, the
harder thinga becorae, the raore deligbtfuL
All leve of other things doth pinch and
contract the heart, for they are all nanower
than itself- It ia fraraed te that wideneaa
at ita firat creation, capable of enjoying God,
theugh not of a fuU comprehending hira-
Therefore all other thinga gather It in, and
straiten it frora its natural size, only the
love of God stretches and dilates it. He is
large enough for it, yea, it, in its fullest
enlargera?nt, ia infinitely top nanow for him.
Do not all find it, if they will ask them
selves, that in all ether lovea and purauita
in this werld, there is still aomewhat that
piricbes ? The soul is not at its full size,
but as a foot in a strait shoe, is somewhere
bound and pained, and cannot go freely,
rauch less run ; though another that looks
on cannot tell, where, yet each one feels it.
But when the soul is set free frora these
nanow things, and is raised to the love of
God, then it ia at eaae, and at large, and
hath roora enough ; it ia both elevated and
dilated. And this werd signifies a high-
raised soul, and is sometiraes taken for
proud and lofty ; but there is a greatness
and height of spirit in the love of God and
union with hira, that doth not vainly swell
arid Uft it up, but with the deepest huraility
joiris the highest arid truest magnaniraity.
It sets the soul above the snares that lie here
below, in which most men creep and are en
tangled, in that way of life ihat is on high
to the just, as Soloraon speaks.
Good reaaon hath David to join theae
together, and to desire the ene aa the apring
and cauae ef the other : an enlarged heart,
that he raight run ihe way of God's com
mandments. Sensible joys and corisolatioos in God de
encourage and enlarge the heart ; but these
are not so general tp all, ner se constant to
any. Love is tbe abounding, fixed apring
pf ready obedience, and will make the heart
cheerful in aerving God, even without thoae
felt comforts, when he ia pleaaed te deny er
withdraw them.
In that course or race ia underatood Con

stancy, Activity, and Alacrity, and all theae
fiow from the eidargenient ef the heart.
1. Constancy: A narrow, entiiralled heart,
fettered with the love of lower tilings, and
cleaving to some particular ains, or but spme
one, and that secret, may keep foot a while in
tbe way of God's commandments, in some
steps of tbem ; but it raust give up quickly- is
riot able to run on te tbe end, to tbe goal. But
a heart that hath laid aside every weight, and
the most close-cleaving and besetting ain, (as
it ia in that jilace to the Hebrews,) hath atrip.
ped itaelf of all tbat may falter or entangle it;
it runa, and runs on, witheut fainting or
wearying ; it is at large, hath nothing that
paina it in the race.
2. Activity : Not only holding on, but
running, which is a awift, nimble race. It
atanda net bargaining and diaputing, but
ence knowing God'a mind, there is no more
question or demur. I made haste and de
led not, aa in this Paalm the word ia ;
did not atay upon why and wherefore; he atood
not to reaaon the matter, but run on. And
thia love, enlarging the heart, makes it
abundant in the work of the Lord, quick
and active, dispatching rauch in a little tirae.
3. Alacrity ,' AU done witb cheerfulness,
so no other constraint is needful, where this
overpowering, sweet constraint ef love ia.
/ will run, net be hauled, and drawn, as
by force, but skip and leap, as the evangelic
proraise is, that the " lame shall leap as an
hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing :
For in the wildemess shall waters break out,
and streams in the desert," laa. xxxv. 6.
The spouse desires her beloved " to hasten
as a roe and hind on the mountains of spices,"
and ahe doth ao, and each faithful soul runs
towards him, to raeet him in his way.
It is a aad, heavy thing to do by any
thing aa in obedience to God, while the heart
ia atraitened, not enlarged towards him by
hia divine love ; but tbat once taking pos
aeaaion, arid enlarging tbe heart, that inwari'.
principle of obedience makea the outward
obedience aweet; it ia then a natural raotion.
Indeed, the soul runa in the" waya of God,
as the aun in hia course, which finds ne diffi
culty, being naturally fitted and carried to
that raotion ; he ** goes forth as a bride
groora, and rejoiceth as a strong man te run
a race."
^ Thia ia the great point that our souls
should be studious of, — ta attain more even
ness, and nimbleness, and cheerfulness, in
the waya of God, and for thia end we ought
to aeek above all things thia enlarged heart ;
it is want of this makes ua bog, and drive
heavily, and ran long upon little ground.
Oh I my beloved, how shallow and nanow
are our thoughta of God i Moat even qf
tbeae that are truly godly, yet are led by a
kind of inatiuGt, and canied they acarce know
howj to ^ive some attendance on God's wor-

SERMON XV-

»hip, and to the avoidance of grosa ain, and
go 011 in a blameleaa ceurse- It ia better
thua, than to run to excess of riot and open
wickedness, with the ungodly world- But,
alas ! this is but a dull, heavy, and languid
motion, where the heart is not enlarged by
the daily growing love of God- Few, few
are acquainted with that delightful contem
plation of God, tbat ventilates and raiaea this
fiame of love- Petty things bind and con
tract our apirita, ao tbat they feel little joy
in God, little ardent, active deaire to do hira
aervice, te crucify ain, te break and undo
self-love within ua, to root up our own wiUs
to make roora for his, that hia alone raay be
oura, that we raay have no wiU ef our own,
that our daily work may be to grow raore
like him in the beauty of holineaa- You
think it a hard aaying te part with your car
nal lusta and delighta, and the coraraon waya
of the world, and te be tied to a atrict, ex
act converaation all your days- But Oh !
the reason of this ia, hecause the heart is yet
straitened and enthraUed by the baae love of
theae raean thinga, and tbat ia from the ig
norance of thinga higher and better- One
glance ef Ged, a touch of his love, wiU free
and enlarge the heart, so that it can deny
all, and raake an entire renouncing ef aU,
to fpllow Him. It sees enough in Hira, and
in Hira alone, and therefore can neither
quietly rest on, ner earnestly desire any thing
beaidea Him.
Oh ! that yeu would apply your hearta to
conaider the excellency ef thia way of God'a
comraandraenta. Our wretched hearta are
prejudiced ; they think it raelancholy and
sad. Oh I there is no way truly joyous but
thia : They shall sing in ihe ways of the
Lord, aays the prpphet. Do not raen, when
their eyes are opened, see a beauty in meek
ness, and temperance, and huraiUty, a
preaent deligbtfulneaa and quietness in them ?
Whereaa in pride, and passion, and intem
perance, there is nothing but vexation and
disquiet. And then consider the end of
this way, and this race in it — rest and peace
for ever ; it is the way of peace, both in its
own nature, and in respect ofits end. Did
yeu believe that joy and glery tbat ia aet before
you iu thia way, you would not any of yeu
defer a day longer, but forthwith you weuld
break from aU that holda you back, and
enter into tbia way, and run on in- it. The
perauaaion of theae great thinga above,
would enlarge and greaten the heart, and
make the greateat things here very Uttle in
your eyes.
But would you attain to this enlarged
heart for this race, and as you ought to ap
ply your thoughts te these divine things, and
atretch them on tbe premises raade in the
word, above all, take David's course, seek
this enlargement of heart from God's own
hand, for it is here j ropounded and laid be

fore God by way ef request : " See what is
ray desire ; I would gladly serve thee bettei,
and advance more in the way of thy com
mandments. Now thia I cannot do till my
heart be more enlarged, and that cannot be
but by thy hand — When thou shalt enlarge
my heart." Preaent this auit often ; it is
in hia pewer to do it for thee ; he can atretch
and expand thy atraitened heart, can apread
and hoist tbe sails within tbee, and then
cany thee on awiftly ; filling them not with
the vain air of raan'a applauae, which readily
runa a soul upon rocks and aplita it, but
with the aweet breathings and aoft gales of
his own spirit, that cany it atraight to the
desired haven.
Findeat thou sin cleaving to thee and
clogging thee ? cry to him, " Help, Lord,
aet me free from my nanow heart  I strive
but in vain witheut thee, atill it continues
80. — I know little bf thee, my affections are
dead and cold towarda thee. — Lord, I desire
to love tbee ; here ia my heart, and lest it
fly out, lay bold on it, and take thine own
way with it ; though it ahould be in a painful
way, yet draw it forth, yea draw it that it
may run after thee." AU ia his own work
ing, and all hia motive is his own free grace.
Let who wiU fancy themselves masters nf
their ewn hearts, and think to enlarge them
by the streugth of their own stretches of
apeculatioH ; they alone, they alone are in
the aure and happy way of attaining it, that
humbly suit and wait for thia enlargement of
heart from Hia hand that made it.

SERMON XVI.
Romans viii. 33, 34.
Who shall lap any thing to the charge of
God's elect ? It is God that justifieth, Scc.
Other men may fancy and beast as they
pleaae, but there are none in the world but
the godly alone tbat are fumiahed with auffi
ciently jtrong aupporta and coraforts against
all poasible hazards, arid of these doth the apo8-<
tie freat mest freely, sweetly, and plentifuUy
in this chapter. He secures believers in their
Christ, touching theae two great evils, after-
condemnation and present affliction, that the
one cannot befal diem, and the othfr cannot
hurt them. ,
For their immunity frora the forraer, they
have the clear word of tbe gospel, and the
seal of the Spirit : and tbat forraer privilege
raade sure, as tbe far greater doth secure
the other aa the leaser.
They are freed from condemnation, and
not only ao, but entitled and inaured to a
kingdom. And what hurt then can affile

SERMON XVI

i2S

tion do ? Yea, it dotii good ; yea, not only
it cannot rob thera ef their crown, but it
carriea thera on towarda it, ia their high-way
to it : " If we suffer with hira, we shaU also
be glorified together." Yea, aU thinga to the
children of God do prove advantageoua ;
severaUy taken, in their present senae, tbey
may aeem evil, but taken jointly in their
after issue, their workings together are all
for good- In their siraple nature poaaibly
they are poiaon, yet contempered and prepar
(d,-tbey shall prove medicinal- All these
things are against me, said old Jacob, and
yet he lived te see even all these were for
him. The children of God are indeed se
bappy, tbat the harshest things in their way
change their nature, and becorae aweet and
profitable. Thia much is effected by their
prayers, that have a divine incantation in
ihem. They breathe forth the expressions
of tbat tbeir love to God, by wbich they are
charactered, them lhat love God ; and that
is put on their hearts, the impression of his
love to them, to which they are here led,
by the apostle, as te the spring-head of all.
All their comforts and privileges fiow thence,
yea, aU their love, and their faith, appro
priating thoae comforta and privilegea- Yea.
the very treaaury of all together, Jesus Christ
himaelf, ia the free gift of thia free love ; be,
aa the greateat, aacertains all thinga besidea
as unspeakably leaa, ver. 32.
Theae two are audi raighty arguraenta,
that ne difficulty nor grief can atand before
thera. The love of God ; he is with us,
who tben against ua ? -AU the world it may
be ; but that ia all nothing. Once it was
nothing ; it was that God that is our Ged,
that leves us and is for us, tbat raade it
soraething, and if he will, it may again be
nothing. And as it ia at ita beat, it ia no
thing, being compared with another gift
that he hath beatowed on us ; and having
bestowed that, sure if there be any thing in
this world can do us any good, we shall not
want it. " He that spared not his own Son.
but gave him to the death for us, will he not
with him give us all things ?"
And to cloae all, he makes these two great
iraraunities good to us in Christ. He fixea
there ; there we are freed frora aU fear of
condemnation, or of being hurt by affliction.
No accuaation nor guiltineaa can annul the
righteouaness of Christ, and that ia raade
oura ; no distress nor suffering can cut us
off from the love pf Gpd : and if it cannpt
dp that, we need net fear it ; aU other hazards
are no hazard, that being sure.
And in confidence of this, the apostle,
gives tbe defiance, casts a challenge te angela,
to raen, to all the world, upon theae two
pointa, Who ahall accuae ? Who ahall ae
parate ; accuse to God, er aeparate from him ?
AVbataoever timea may ceme, the hardest
that any can apprehend or foretel, if these

two be not sufficient furniture against them,
I know not what is.
Men are commonly busied about other
events coriceming them arid theirs, what
shall becorae of this or the other, arid wbat
if thia or that fall out ; but the ceuacicrice
once raiaed te this inquiry, the soul being
awake to discern the hazard of eternal death,
all other fears and questions are drowned
and lost in thia great queation, " Am I
condemned or not ? Ia my ain pardoned
or no ?"
And tben a satisfying anawer received
conceming this, aU ia quiet, the aoul repoaes
sweetly on God, and puts all ita ether cen-
cemmenta into hia hands. " Let hira raake
rae poor and despised, let him smite and
chastise me — ^he hath forgiven ray sin ;
aU is well." Tbat burden taken off, the
soul can go light, yea, can leap and dance
under all other burdens. Oh ! how it feela it
self nimble, aa a man eaaed of a load that he
waa even fainting under. Oh ! bleaaed the
raan whose sin is taken eff, lifted from hie
shoulders, (that ia the word, Paalra xxxii.
1,) laid over upon Chriat, who could bear
tbe whole load, and take it away, take it out
of aight, which we could never have done ;
no, they weuld have sunk us for ever. That
one wordaijs/, John i. 29, signifles botii, aod
answers to the two, Isa. liii. 4. " He hath
borne our grief, and tanied our aonow ;"
Ufted thera away. Oh I how aweet a bur
den, inatead of this, is that engagement of
obedience and love to hira aa our Redeeraer,
and that ia all he laya on ua. If we follow
hira, and bear his cross, he ia our atrength,
and bears both it and ua. So then thia is
the great point, the heart's eaae, to be de
Uyered from the conderaning weight of sin.
And certainly, whUe raen do not think
tbus, their hearts have very slight irapres
sions ef the truth of these thinga. I fear
the raoat of us acarce believe this conderana
tion to corae, at leaat very ahallowly, and
ao they cannot rauch conaider the deliver
ance frora it provided to us in Jeaua Christ.
1 cannet aee hew it ia possible for a heart
persuaded of theae, to be very careful about
any thing besides. You that eat and drink,
and labour and trade, and bestow all your
tirae, either in the pains or the pleasures ef
this earth, what think you of eternity ? Is
it a Ught thing for you to perish for ever ?
After a few days vainly spent, to faU under
the wrath of God for ever? Oh ! that
you would be persuaded to think on these
things. And you that have an interest in this free
and blessed estate, why are your spirits so
cold, so unfrequent in the thoughts of it ?
Why are you net rejoicing in the Lord ;
gladdening yourselves in secret when you re
member this : " Go the werld as it wiU,
my sin is forgiven rae ; mistake me, accuse

4?4

SERMON XVI

me whoao will, my God hath acquitted me
In his Chriat, and he lovea me, and Uves to
intercede for me."
Methinks I hear some aay, " Aye, they
tiiat could aay that, raight be raeny indeed ;
but, alas ! I have ne auch assurance. Who
can lay any thing to the charge of God'a
elect ? That ia true ; but here is tbe great
point of ao hard a reaolution, ara I one ef
tbeae ?"
That the apoatle doth thus specify the
owners of this ceusolatien, by tbis high and
hidden character of their election, is not te
render it doubtful and dark ; for his raain
aim, Ori the coritrary, is both te extend it aa
far aa it can go, and to make it as clear as
may be to all that have interest in it : but he
designs them by the primitive act of love
fixing on them, se aa it is now manifested
to thera in the subsequent effects that flow
frora the elect, called and sanctified, and
conformed to Jesua Chriat, both by his
Spirit within thera, and the sufferings that
without arise againat thera in tbe werld ;
such as, being " the sons ef God, are led by
the Spirit ef God, and walk not after the
fleah, but after the Spirit."
Arid theae thinga indeed conaidered aa
their charactera, the starap ef God on thera,
the irapressions ef their election te life,
do check the vain confidence of aU camal,
ungodly profesaors of the name of Chriat,
and tell them that their pretended title to
hira ia a mere delusion ; certainly, whpsp
ever lies in the lpve ef sin, and takes the
flesh for his guide, that accursed blind guide
is leading him into the pit. What groaa foUy
and impudence is it fer any man, waUting in
the lusts of his own heart, to fancy and aver
himself to be a partner of tbat rederaption,
whereof se great a part is to deUver us from
the power of our iniquities, to renew our
hearta and re-unite them to God, aud possess
them with his love !
The great evidence ef thy election is love.
Thy love to him gives certain testimony of
his preceding eternal love to thee ; se are
tbey here designed, they that leve God ;
thy choosing hira ia the effect and evidence
of his choosing thee. Now this ia not la-
borioua, that needa te be diaputed, amidat
all thy frailtiea ; feel the pulae of thine
affection, which way beats it, and ask thy
heart whether thou love him or not ; in this
theu hast the character of thy election.
Know you net, that the redeeraed of Christ
and he are one, they live one life, Chriat
Uvea in tbem ; and if " any man bath net
tbe Spirit of Christ, he ia none pf his,'" as
the apostle declares ni this chapter ? So
then, this we are plainly to teU you, and
conai,der it, yeu that wiU not let go your

when aouls are once set upon thia aearch, they
commonly wind the notion too high, and aub.
tilize too much in the dispute, and so entangle
and perplex themselves, and drive themselves
further off from that comfort that they are
seeking after ; such raeasures and marks of
grace, they aet to themaelvea for their rule
and atandard ; and unleaa they find those
without all controversy in theraselves, they
wiU net believe that they have an interest in
Christ, and this bleaaed and aafe eatate in him.
Te auch I would only say. Are you in a
willing league with any known sin ? Yea,
would you willingly, if you raight be saved
in that way, give up youraelf to voluptuous.
neaa and ungodUneaa, and not at aU desire to
follow Jesus Cl«riat in the way of holiness ?
Then truly, I have not any tiling as yet to
say for your cpmfort, only there ia a aalvation
provided, and the doer is yet open, and your
heart may be changed- But, on the other
aide, are the desires of tiiy soul after Christ,
wbole Christ, to be righteousneaa, and withal
aanctification to thee ? Wouldst thou wiU-
irigly give up thyself to be ruled by him, and
have him thy King ? Hadst thou rather
cheese te suffer the greatest affliction for his
sake, to honour him, than te corarait the least
sin to displease hira ? Doth thy heart go out
after hira, when thou hearest him spoke of?
Dost thou account hira thy treasure, so that
all the world sounds but as an . empty shell
to thee, when he is named ? Says thy soul
within thee, Oh ! that he were mine ? and,
oh ! that I were his, that I could please him
and live to bira ? Then do not tosa thy spirit,
and jangle and spin out thy thoughts in fruit
lesa, endless doubtings, but close with thia aa
thy portion, and be ef geod comfort ; thy ains
are, or will be, forgiven thee-
I add yet further, if thou sayeat yet, that
thou findeat none of aU tbia, yet I aay, there
ia wanant for thee to believe and lay hold on
thia righteousneaa here held forth, to the end
that theu mayeat then find thoae thinga in
thee, and find comfort in thera. Thou art
convinced ef ungodliness, then beUeve on him
that justifies the ungodly ; thou art condemn
ed, yet Christ is dead and risen ; fiy to bim
as such, as the Larab slain, he ihat was dead
and is alive, and then say. Who is he that
condemneth ? It is Christ that died, or
rather thai is risen. Who shall accuse ?
It is true, they raay clamour and make a
noise, beth Satan and thy conacience, buf
how can they faaten any accuaation on tbee ?
Ii they dare accuae, yet they cannot condemn
when the Judge hath acquitted thee, andde-
clared thee free, who ia greater than aU, and
hath the absolute pewer of the sentence ; all
charges and libels come tpp late after he ha_th
pnce prpnpunced a apul rightepus. And wiio

sins to lay hold en Christ, have aa yet no shall condemn, it is Christ tlmt died, if the
ahare in it. . I sentence ef the law be brought forth ? Yet
But, on the other side, the truth is, tbat I here is the answer, it ought net to be twice

SERMON XVII.

423

satisfied ; now once it is in Christ, be hath
died, and that standa for the believer. Who
soever fiies to hira, and lays hold on him for
life, he cannot die again ; nor canat thou die,
f.ir whom he died ence, er rather is risen ;
ihat raises the assurance higher, and aeta it
firmer ; for thia , evidencea that in hia death
all was paid, wben be being the aurety and
seized on for the debt, and once death'a pri-
Koner, yet waa aet free. Tbia cleara the mat
ter, that there ia no more to be aaid ; and yet
further, in aign that all ia done, he ia raiaed
to the height of honour abeve aU principa-
iitiea arid powers, is set at the right hand of
tbe Father, and there he aits and Uvea to make
intercession, to sue out the fulfilling of aU
for believera, the bringing of thera horae —
Uvea to aee aU raade good that he died and
covenanted for ; ao now his righteousnesa ia
thine that believeat ; any challenge mustmeet
with Chriat firat, and if it aeize not on him,
it cannot light on thee, for thou art in bim,
raanied to hira. And the aarae triuraph that
ITe apeaka, laa, 1. 8, whence theae worda are
bonowed, that is raade thine, and thou raay
est now apeak it in hira- I know not what
can caat bim down that hath thia werd to
rest upon, and to corafort himaelf in-

SERMON XVIL

Rom- viii- 35, &c.
Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ ? ShaU tribulaiion, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or
peril, or sword, ^c. ?
Ia this he that ao lately cried out, O wretch
ed man ihat I am ! who shall deliver me ?
tbat now triumphs, O happy man ! Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ ?
Yes, it is the same- Pained tiien with
the thoughta of that raiaerable conjunction
with a body of death, and so crying out,
Whe will deliver ? AVho will aeparate rae
from that now ? Now he hath found a de-
liverer to do that for hira, to whora he ia for
ever united, and he gloriea now in his inse
parable union, and unalterable love, that none
can divide hira frera ; yea, it is through him,
that presently after that word of coraplaint
he praisea God, and now in bira be triurapha.
So vast a difference is there betwixt a Chris.
tian, taken in bimself, and in Christ ; when
he views himself in himself, then he is no
thing but a poor, miserable, poUuted, perish
ing wretch ; but then be looks again, and
sees hiraself in Chriat, and there he is rich,
and safe, and happy ; he triuraphs, and he
glories in it abeve all the painted proaperitiea,
and against all the horrid adversities of the

wrrld ; be Uves in his Chriat content and
happy, and laughs at all eneraies.
And he extends hia triuraph, he makes a
cpmrapn gppd pf it to all believers, speaks it
in their narae — who shall separate us ?
And wpuld have them partake pf the aame
cpnfidence, and apeak in the aame style with
him. It is vain that raen fancy these te be
expressions of revelations, or aorae singular
ly privileged aaaurances ; then they would
net auit their end, which ia clearly and -uu.
doubtedly the eucouragemerit of all the chil
dren of God, upon grounda that are peculiar
to thera frora all the rest of the world, but
comraon to thera all, in all agea, and all va-
rietiea ef condition.
It ia true aU of them have net a like clear
and firm apprehenaion of their happy and
aure eatate, and acarce any of thera are alike
at all tiraes ; yet they have all and alwaya
the same right to this estate, and to the com
fort of it ; and when they atand in a right
light to view it, they do see it so, and rejeice
in it.
There be indeed some kind of assurances
that are more rare and extraordinary, sorae
iraraediate glances, or coruacatiena ofthe love
of God upon the soul of a believer ; a amile
ef his countenance, and thia doth exceeding
ly refresh, yea, raviah the seul, and enablea
it mightily for dutiea and aufferinga. -These
he diapenaea arbitrarily and freely wbere and
when he wiU ; aorae weaker Christians aorae
tiraea have thera, when atronger are atrangera
to thera, the Lord training thera to live raore
contentedly by faith till the day ef vision corae.
And that ia the other, the leas*ecatatical,
but the more conatant and fixed kind of aa
surance, the proper assurance of faith. The
soul by believing cleaves unto God in Chriat
aa he offera himself in the gospel, and thence
is possessed with a sweet and calra persua
sion ef hia love, tbat being the proper work,
to appropriate hira, to make Chriat, and in
him etemal life, oura : so it is the proper re
sult and frait of that its acting, especiaUy
when it acts any thing strongly to quiet the
soul in hira ; then being justified by faith,
we have peace with God, through our Lord
Jesus Christ, and frora that peace, joy : yea,
even glorying in tribulation, as there foUows.
And these springing net frera an extraordi
nary sense or view, but from the very innate
virtue of faith working kindly, and according
to its own nature.
Therefore many Christians do prejudice
their own corafort, and darken their spirits,
by not giving freedora to faith to act accord
ing to its nature and proper principles ; they
wiU not beUeve till they find some evidence
or assurance, whicb is quite to invert the
order of the thing, and to look for fruit with.
out setting a root for it to grew frem.
Would you take Christ upon the absolute
word of proraiae tendering him to you, and

J2G

SERMON xvn.

reat on hnn, sp thia would engraft you into
life itself, for that he ia, and ao tiioae fruita
of the Holy Ghost would bud and flourish
in your hearts ; frora that very believing en
him, would arise this persuasion, yea, even
to a glorying, and an bumble boasting in
hia love  Who shall accuse ; who shalt con
demn ; who shall separate ?
The undivided corapanion, and undoubt
ed helper and preaerver ef this confldence ef
faith, ia an active love to Chriat, a conatant
study ef holineaa, and atrife againat ain, which
ia the grand eneray of faith, tbat obatructs
the very vital apirita ef faith, that makes it
sickly and heavy in ita actinga, and causea
the palsy in the hand ef faitb, tbat it cannet
lay so fast hold. Therefere this yeu would
be careful of, yea, know that of necesaity it
attenda faith, and as faith grows, holiness
will grow, and holiness growing wiU mutu
ally strengthen and establish faith. The
comforts of the Holy Ghost are holy, purify
ing comforta ; and the more the aoul ia pu-
rifled, and made hely, the more it ia cleared
and enlarged, to receive much ef tbeae cora
forta. Blessed are ihe pure in heart, for
they shall see God ; unholineaa ia aa damps
and filthy raists in the aoul, it darkens all.
Hence it is evident, in what way Chris-
tians may and ought to aspire to thia assur-
ance ; it is their portion, and in thia way
tbey are to aapire to it, and shall find it ; if
not preaently, yet let them wait and go on in
tbia way — they ahall net miscany-
Again it appeara, that thia aasurance is ne
eneray to holy diligence, nor friend of camal
security ; en the contrary, it ia the only thing
that doth eminently ennoble and embolden
the soul for aU adventures and aervicea-
Baae fears and doubtinga, wherein some place
much of reUgion, and raany weak Christiana
seera to be in tbat miatake, to think it a kind
of holy, apiritual temper to be questioning
and doubting. I say these base fears can
never produce auy thirig truly generoua, no
height of obedience ; they de nothing but en
tangle and disable the soul for every good
work ; perfect love caata out thia fear, and
works a sweet, unperplexing fear, a holy wa
riness not to offend, which fears nothing else.
And this confidence of love is the great aecret
of corafort, and of ability to do good aervice.
Nothing raakea ao atrong and healthful a
constitution of soul as pure love ; it dare sub
mit to God, and resign itaelf to him ; it dare
venture itaelf in hia band, and trust his werd,
and seek no more but how te please hira.
A heart thus cpmppsed, gpes readily and
cheerfuUy untp aU aervicea, to do, to auffer,
to live, to die, at hia pleaaure ; and firraly
stands to this, that nething can aeparate it
from that which ia sufficient to it, which ia
aU ita happineaa — the love of God in Chriat
Jesus. That is indeed his love to us, but so as it

includea inaeparably tbe inaeparab'eness of
our leve to him ; fer observe the thinga spe
cified aa moat likely, if any thing, to separate
us ; shaU tribulation, distress, Scc. Now
these especially, being endured for hia sake,
cannot immediately have any likely visage
of altering hia leve to us, but rather confirm
us in it ; but these shaU not aeparate ua nei
ther by altering our leve to him, by driving
ua frpra hira, and canying ua intp any way
pf defection, or den.al of his name, and ao
cut us off frera eur union witb him, and in-
tereat in his love ; and that is the way wherein
the weak Chriatian will moat apprehend the
hazard of aeparation. New tbe apoatle apeak?
hia own aenae, and would raiae in his bie-
tbren the aarae confidence, aa to that danger.
No fear ; net one ef theae things sbaU be
able te cany us away : these mighty waves
ahall not unaettle our faith, nor quench the
flarae of our love ; we shaU be victors and
more, in all ; but hew ? Through him that
hath loved us.
Thia hia love makea sure oura ; he hath
auch hold of our hearta as he wiU not let go,
nor suffer us to let go our hold : aU is fast by
his strength. He will not loae us, nor shall
any be able to pluck us out of his hand.
Jesus Christ is the raedium ef this love,
the raiddle link .hat keeps all aafe together
betwixt God and raan, ao cloae united in his
peraonal nature, and the peraona of men in
and by hira, to the Father. So here it is
firat called the love of Christ, and then in
the close, the love of God in Christ ; the
soul first carried to hira as nearest, but so
canied by hira into that priraitive love o.
God that flowa in Christ, and that gave even
Chriat te ua aa before. And thia is the bot-
tora-truth, the firra ground ofthe saint's per
severance, which men not taking aright, must
needs queation the matter, yea, may put it
out of queation upen their suppositions ; for if
eur pwn purposes and strength were all we had
to rely on, alaa ! how soon were we sh-aken 1
Se the leve ef God in Christ ia net only
here mentioned aa the point ef happineaa,
frora which we cannot be reraoved, but aa
the principle of firraness that raakes itself
sure of ua, and us of it, and wiU not part
with ua.
Now it ia no pride in a Christian, but the
truest huraiUty, to triuraph and glory in thia.
This ia it that raakea all sure : this is tbe
great corafort, and the victory of the sainta.
He that loved us, and bought us so dear,
wiU not lightly slip frora ua, yea, upon no
tenna wiUhe let us ge, unleaa aorae stronger
than he has met with hira, and by force be
reave bira ef ua ; which we know is impos
sible. ¦ He and h\& Father, who are one in
theraselves, and in their sfrength, and one
in this love, are greater and stronger tban
all ; and he that once overcame for us, al
ways pvercomes in ua.

SERMON xvn.

¦(Z?

Tl us he lets temptationa and tribulations
assault us, and this neither unargues his love,
nor endangers his right tp ua ; yea, it dpth
but give prpof and evidence of the invincible
tinnneaa of both. He auffera othera to lie
aoft, arid ait warm, aridTpamper their fieah
at leisure, but he bath nobler business for
hia charapiona, hia worthiea, and moat of all
for the atouteat of thera ; he caUs thera forth
to honourable aervicea, to the hardeat encoun
ters; he sets them on, one to fight with sick.
ness, another witb poverty, another with re
proaches and persecutions, with priaona and
irons, and witii death itself : and aU thia
while, loves he them leaa, or they hira ? Oh !
no ; he looka on, and rejoices to aee thera do
valiantly ; it is the joy ef his heart — no sight
on earth so sweet to bira : and it is all the
while by his subduing, and in hia atrength,
that tiiey bold out in the conflict, and ob
tain the conqiieat.
And thus they are raore endeared to him
by these services, and these adventures of
love for him, and he stiU likewise is the
more endeared to them. Certainly the raere
any one suffers for Chriat, the raore he lovea
Chriat, aa love doth grow and engage itself
by all it dees and suffers, and burna hotter
by what it encountera and overcomes, as by
fuel added to it : as to Jesus Christ, hy what
be auffered for ua, we are the dearer tp bim,
CO he ia to ua by all we auffer for his sake.
Love growa raoat by oppoaition frora othera
whomsoever, wben it ia aure of acceptance,
and tbe correspondence ef mutual love in tbe
party loved. Above all, tbia heavenly di
vine love is strong as death, a veheraent
flame, a flame of , God indeed, aa the word
is, and many waters cannot quench ii, not
all theae that here feUow one another, tribu
lation, distress, persecution, famine, naked
ness, peril, sword ; yea, in the raidat of
theae, I aay, it growa ; the soul cleaves
cloaer to Chriat, the more atterapta are raade
to remove it frora hira, though killed all the
day long. (This paaaage from the Psalm
is raoat fit, both to testify that peraecution
ia not unuaually the lot of the aaints, and to
give inatance of their firm adherence te God
in all troublea, aa the church there profeas-
eth ; and if the saints in that diapenaatlon
could reckon in auch a manner, much more
Ought Chriatiana, upon a clearer diacovery
of the covenant ef grace, and their union
with God and Chriat.) The sainta are as
in a comraon butchery in the world, yet not
oidy as aheep for the slaughter, but some
tiraes as sheep fer the altar, men thinking
it as sacrifice. They that kill you (says eur
Saviour,) shall think ihey do God service ;
yet even this puUs not from him : they part
with life ; aye, why not ? This Ufe is but
a death, and is his life for whom we lose it,
All those de but increase tbe victories and
triumphs of love, and make it more glorious :

as tiiey tell ef her multiplying labours to
that charapipn, they are not only conque
rors, by raultipUed victoriea, and tbey gain
in them all both more honour and more
atrength ; they are the fitter for new adven
turea, and ae more than aimple conquerors.
We overcome, and are sure net te loae for.
mer conqueata, but to add raore and conquer
on to the end ; which otiier conquerors are
not aure of ; oftentiraea they endive their
ewn auccesaea and renown, and lese on a
sudden what they have been gaining a whole
lifetiiiie. Not ao here : we are aecured in
tbe author ef our victories ; it is through him
that hath loved ua, and he cannot grow leaa,
yea, ahall atill grow greater, tiU aU hia ene
raies be raade bis footatopl.
Having given tbe challenge, and finding
none to answer, and that all, the raost appa
rent, are in a raoat rhetorical accuraulatiun
silenced, tribulation, distress, persecution,
famine, nakedness, peril, sword, See, he
gpes pn cpnfidently in the tiiumph, and avera
bia aaaurance pf full and final victory against
aU iraaginable power of all tbe creatures ;
neither death nor life, not the fear of the
raoat terrible death, nor the hope or love of
tbe moat desirable life ; and in tbe height of
this courage and confidence, be supposes im
poaaible enemies, angels, principalities, See,
unleaa jjau take it of the angela of darkneaa
only ; but if it cpuld be ppaaible that tiie
Pther ahould offer at such a thing, they
would be too weak for it. No aenae of any
preaent thinga, or apprehensions ef things to
corae, not any thing within the vast circle of
the werld above or below, nor any creature,
can do it. Here sin ia not apecified, because
he is speakirig ef outward oppositioris and
difficulties expressly, and becauae that ia re
raoved by the former challenge. Who shall
accuse? That aaaerting a free and final
acquittance of all ain, a parden of the curse,
which yet will never encourage any of these
to sin that Uve in the aaaurance of thia love.
Oh ! no ; and theae general words do in
clude it too, nothing present nor io come,
Scc. So it is cartied clear, and ia tbe satiafy
ing comfort of aU that Jesus Christ hath
drawn after him, and united in his love.
It is enough ; whatsoever they may be se
parated from, the thinga, or peraona, deareat
in this world ; it is no matter, the jewel is
safe, none can take my Christ frem me ; and
I safe in hira, as bis purchase, none can take
rae from him. And being stiU in his love,
and through him in the Father's love, that
is sufficient. What can I fear ? What can
I want ? AU other hazards signify nothing ;
hew little value are they of ! And for how
little a while am I in danger of them ! Me
thinks all ahould look on a beUever witb an
emulous eye, and wish his estate more tban
a king's. Alaa ! pppr creatures, rich raen, great men

SERMON XVIIL

428
princes and king.«, what vain things are they
tbat you embrace and cleave to ! Whatso
ever they be, aoon raust you part ; can you
say ef any of thera. Who shall separate us ?
Storraa may arise, and scatter ships that sail
fairly together in fair weather : thpu mayest
be removed, by public coraraotions and ca
laraities, from thy sweet dweUings, and so
cieties, and estates, &c. You may even live
to see, and seek your parting. At last you
must part, for you muat die : then farewell
parks and palaces, gardens and honours, and
even crowns themaelvea ; then deareat friends,
children and wife, muat be parted with.*
And what haat thou left, peer aoul, that haat
not Christ, but thatwhich thou wouldest glad
ly part with, and canst net ? the conderaning
guilt of all thy ains.
But the soul tbat is in Chriat, wheri ether
things are pulled away, he feels little or no
thing ; he cleaves te Chriat, and these repa
rations pain hira net. Yea, when that great
separatist, death, coraes, that breaks all
other uniena, even that of the soul and body,
yet ao far ia it frora separating tbe believer'a
seul frora ita beloved Lord Jesua, that, on
thecontrary, it caniea it into the neareat union
with hira, and fulleat enjoyraent of hira for

SERMON XVIIL

Isaiah lix. 1, 2.
Behold, ihe Lord's hand is not shortened
that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy
ihat it cannot hear. Bui your iniqui
ties have separated between you and your
God, and yonr sins have hid his face
from you, ihat he will not hear.
Ol'R vain rainds are naturaUy ftuitful in
nothing raore than in mistakes of God ; fpr
the rapat part we think npt pn him, and
when we dp it, we fancy him accprding tp
our pwn affections, which are w-hoUy perverse
and crooked.
Men commonly judge it a vain thing to
spend much pains and tirae in worshipping
hira ; and if they are convinced in this, and
tied tp it by the profeasion of his narae, then
they think all religion ia a shell pf external
diligences, and observances, and cpunt it
strange if this be net accepted. In tbe for
mer chapter we find thia, in tiie prophet'a
conteat with the people abeut their faating,
and thefr opinion of it ; he cuts up their aa
crificea, and leta them see what was within :
the skiri was sound and looked well, but
being opcried, the entrails were found rotten,
And here he entera into anether contest.
• Lingttenda tulius et domus et placens uxor, &c. .

againat the latent atheism ef their hearts ;
who after their manner of aeeking God, not
finding him, and not being delivered, are
ready to think that he either cannot, or wifl
not help, and rather reat on that grosa mis-
take, than inquire into theraselves for the
true cauae of their continuing calamities ;
they incline rather to think it is seme in.
dispoaition in God te help, than what it
truly ia, a want of reforraation in them.
selvea that hindera it. It ia not likely that
they weuld say thua, nor apeak it out in plain
terraa, ne, nor possibly not speak it formaUy
and distinctly within, not ae much as in
their thoughts, and yet they might have a
confused, dark conceit of this. And much
ef the atheism of man's heart is of this fa
shion ; not forraed into resolved propositions,
but latent, * in confused notions of it, acarce
discemible by himaelf ; at leaat, not searched
out and discerned in his own breast ; there
they are, and he sees tbem not : not written
assertions, but flying fumes, filling the soul,
and hindering it tp read the characters of
Gpd that are writ uppn the cpnscience.
Impenitency of men, in any condition, and
particularly under diatreaa, is from the want
of clear apprehenaiona and deep perauasions
ef Ged, of his just anger provoked by their
sin, and of hia aweetneaa and readiness to
forgive and embrace a returning sinner ; his
sovereign power, able to rid them out of the
greateat trouble ; hia ear quick enough to
hear the criea, yea, the leaat whiapering of a
humbled heart in the lowest deep of hia aor
row, and his arm long enough te reach them,
and strong enough to draw them forth. He
that comes unto God must believe thai he is^
aays the apo.stle. So certainly he that be
lieves tbat, must corae ; it will sweetly con
strain hira ; he cannot but corae that ia so
perauaded. Were men'a hearta much im
pressed with that belief in all their troublea,
they would eye men leaa and Ged raore, and
without delay they would fasten upon the
church's resolution, Hos. vi- I- " Cpme
and let us return unte the Lord ; for be hath
tom, and he wUl heal us ; he hath sraitten,
and he will bind us up," Scc. And this is
the very thing that the prophet would here
persuade to by tbis present doctrine ; and
having irapleaded thera guilty, he sets them
a copy of humble confession, verse 12, &c.
Hence the frequent complaints in the Psalm,
Why hidest thou thyself? So Psalm xxii.
2, / cry, but no hearing.
Ill the worda of theae two veraea, theae two
things appear, A sad condition, and the true
cause of it.
The condition, I think I have reason te call
aad ; it ia Ged hiding hia face that he will not
hear. This raay be the peraonal estate of
his children, or the pubUc estate ofhis church.
Frem a soul he hides his face, net ao much
• E^k. viii. Behind the wall.

SERMON XVIII.

429

in the withdrawing ef sensible comforts and
sweet tastes of joy, which to many are acarce
knewn, and to auch aa de know thera, cora
monly do net continue very long ; but it ia
a auapenaipn of that lively influence of hia
divine power, for raising the mind to the
contemplation of him, and coraraunion with
him in prayer and meditation, which yet
raay be where these relishes and aeiiaes of
joy are not ; and the returns ef it appear in
beating down the pewer ef sin, or abating
and subduing it, raaking the heart raore
pure and heavenly, more to live by faitii in
Christ, to be often at the throne of grace,
and to receive gracious anawers, supplies of
wanta, and aaaiatances against teraptations.
Now, when there ia a ceasation and obatruc-
tion ef theae, and auch like workings, the
face ef God is hid, the soul is at a loaa,
aeeks stiU, and cannet find hira whora he
loveth. And in tbis condition it cannot
take corafort in other things ; they are too
low. It is a higher and nobler desire than
to be satisfled or diverted with the childish
things tbat even raen delight iri that know
not God ; it is a love sickneaa, which no
thing can cure but the presence and love of
the party loved. Yea, nothing can so rauch
aa allay the pain, and give an interval of eaae,
or recover a fainting fit, but aorae good word
or look, or at leaat aome kind raeaaage frem
him. Set thee in a palace, and aU delighta
ttbout thee, and a crown on thy head, yet if
hia love has ceased Ori thy heart, theae are
aU notliirig without him. It waa after David

iii. 43, 44, •' Thou haat covered with anger,
and persecuted us ; thou hast alain, theu hast
net pitied ; thou haat covered thyaelf with
a cloud, that our prayer ahould not paaa
through." Still, while tbat door stands Upen,
there ia hope and remedy for other evila ; but
that being ahut, what can a people, or a aoul
expect, but growing troublea, one aorrow up
on the back of another? Yea, that ia the
great treuble, the hiding of hia face, and re
fusing to hear. Observe Job xxxiv- 29 :
" When he giveth peace, whe then can make
trouble ?" Now, the other in the aarae terras
weuld have been, " When he raakes trouble,
who can give peace ? But instead it is,
" When he hidea his face, who then can be
hold hira ?" No peace but in beholding him,
arid nothing but trouble ; that ia tbe grand
trouble when he hidea his face, ^nd itia ex
pressed in both cases, whether it be peraonal
or national, whether against a nation er n.
man only-
Thia ia the thing wherein the atrength of
other troublea liea, that gives thera weight,
when they irapart and signify thua rauch,
that the face of God ia hid from a aoul or a
peeple. 'We ought to inquire if this be net our
condition at thia time ; hath he not hid his
face frera ua ? Are we not left in the dark,
that we know not which way te turn us ?
Either we raust sit atiU and de nothing, fer
if we atir we do but ruah one upen another,
aa in darkneaa, conteating each to have the
way, and yet when we have it given us, we

was advanced to his kingdom, and ia in the 1 knew not weU which way to go ; and we

Paahii of the dedication of his royal house.
lhat be said, " Thou didst hide thy face,
and I was troubled," Ps. xxx. 7- " All
ia dark, all the shining raarble, and the
geld and azure, lo.se their luatre, when thou
art not here dwelling with rae."
And thua for the church, God is a proper
Ught, tbe teauty, the life of it. Deck it
with all this world's aplendour, with aU the
dreaaea of pompous worahip ; theae are not
ita genuine beauty. And th-v prpvpke him,
whp ia its pmament, (aa ia Jer. ii. 32,) tp
depart. But give it the native purity and
beauty pf hply rainiaters, and prdinances well
regulated, yet even that is but ' dead cprae-
liness, prpportion, and feature, ithout Ufe,
when Ged is absent.
And for matter of deliverances and work
ing for her, which is here the thing in hand,
none can do any thing in tbat, not the wis.
est nor the best of men, with all their com.
bined wit and sfrength, when he retires and
coraes not forth, doth not shew hiraself on
the behalf of hia peeple, and work their works
for them.
These have, it may be, some kind of prayer
possibly, they offer at exfraordinaries, and
yet obtain nething, are not heard ; the sad
dest note in all the song of Lamentatiena,

think te be cleared, but it faila ua, as in this
chapter, ver, 9, " We wait for Ught, but be
hold obacurity ; for brightness, but we walk
in darkneaa ; we grope for the waU aa blind,
and sturable at noon-day aa in the night ;"
eur counsels atrangely darkened, and no right
underatanding one ef anether. By aU de
batea little or .no clearing of thinga attained,
but eur paaaiona are mpre inflaraed, and par
tiea are farther off, the light of aound judg
ment gone, and with it the heat of love, in
atead of which that miaerable, infemal heat,
heat without light, mutual hatreda and re
vilings, both sides (verbally at least) agreeing
in the general terms both ef their desires and
designs, and yet faUing out about raodes and
faahiona of thera. - And to aay no more ef
parties, the eneraies of reUgion on both hands,
right and left, in action and in pewer, and
only thoae that love that, we conceive ia the
way of truth, standing as a naked prey to
whether of the two shall prevail. Desires
and prayers we have presented, and see aa
yet no appearance of an iaaue, but farther con-
fuaiens, even faating to strife and debate.
Aud where are there any that look like per
aona to stand in the gap, lifting up hely hands,
witheut wrath or deirbting ? Hearts are still
unhuiiiLled, and lives as unreformed as

430

SERBION XVIII-

ever ; new intestine troublea are raost likely
to arise, few or none laying it to heart, and
with calra, lowly apirita raourning before God
for it ; Ephraira againat Manaaaeh, and
Manaaseh against Ephraira, "and they both
againat Judah ; and for all thia hia anger is
not turned away, but his hand ia stretched
out StiU."
But gerieraUy raen eught to be leaa in dea-
canting one en another, and raore in aearch
ing and inquiring each into hiraaelf, even
where it may seem zeal, yet nature and pas
sion may mere eaaily let in the other ; but
tbia aelf-aearch and aelf-cenaure, ia an uneaay
task, the most unpleaaant of aU thinga to our
carnal aelf-loving hearta ; but the heavy hand
of God ahall never tum from ua, nor his gra
cioua face tum towards us, till there is mere
of this amongat us.
Moat aay their prayera, and as they are
little worth, they look Uttle after them, in
quire not what becoraea of them. But, my
brethren, would we continue to call, and find
favourable anawers, we muat be more within ;
the heart raade a teraple to God, wherein aa
crificea de aacend ; but that they raay be ac
cepted, it rauat be purged of idola, nothing
left in any corner, though never ao secret, to
atir the jealouay ef our Ged, who aeea through
all. Ob, happy that heart that ia, aa Jacob'a
houae, purged, in which no raore idola are to
be found, but the holy God dweUing there
alone as in hia holy teraple.
Behold, ihe Lord's hand is noi shorten
ed, Scc. Much ef all knowledge lies in the
knpwledge of causes, and in practical things
rauch of the right ordering thera depends on
it ; the frue cause ef a disease found out is
half the cure. Here we have the raiseries of
an afflicted people reduced to their real cauae ;
that which ia not the cauae is firat removed-
B ehold, the Lord's hand is noi shortened, Scc.
We are not only to be untaught tbia enor
that we think net ao, but to be taught to be
lieve and think on that truth, that God ia
StiU the aame in power and goodneaa, to keep
up the notion ef it in our hearta, ao we may
caU in paat experiencea, and relationa of God's
former workings for hia people, and that with
much use and corafort. He tbat brought
forth his people out of Egypt with an out
stretched arra, as still they are reminded of
tbat deliverarice by the prophets, and called
te leok on it, aa the great inatance and pledge
of their reatorement by the same band, can
again deliver his peeple when at the lowest ;
Isa. 1- 2, where the like words to these.
And In tbis belief we shaU net faint in the
tirae of deep distress, our ewn or the church'a ;
knowing the unalterable, invincible, infinite
power of our God, that all the strength ef
all enemies is nothing, and less than no
thing to hia, their devicea knota of atraw.
What ia it that ia to be done for bia church,
if her and his glory be inteiestcd in it ?

There remains no question in point of diffi.;
culty, that hath no place with him. The
raore difficulty, yea, irapossible for us or
any human strength, the more fit for him ;
" because it is hard for you, ahall it also be
hard for rae ?" saith the Lord in the prophet.
And where Jereraiah uses that argument in
prayer, he hath his answer returned in the
aarae words, as the echo te the prayer, re.
sounding from heaven, Jer. xxxii. 17, 27,
and that in relation to the great reduction ot
the Jews froni Babylon, as ia expreaaly pro.
raised, ver 36, 37, &c. And there the prophet
givea that firat great example of divine
pewer, the forraing of the world, ver. 17,
" Behold, theu haat raade the heaven and
the earth,by thy great power."
Men think it an easy, coraraon belief,
and that none doubt of the eranipotency of
God. But Oh ! the undaunted confidence
it weuld give to the heart, being indeed
firraly beUeved, and wisely uaed aud appUed
to particular exigencies. Men either doubt,
or which, upen the raatter, for the use of
it is all one, they forget who tbe Lord is,
when their bearts misgive thera, because of
the church's weakness and the enemies"
power. What is that upon the raatter ?
Reraeraber whose is the church, God's, and
what his power is, and then see if thou canst
find any cause of fear. Isa. xli. 14. " Fear
not, thoa worm, Jacob," and ye men few,
er " weak men ef Israel, (so the word is,)
I will help tbee, saith the Lerd, and thy Re.:
deemer, tbe Holy One of Israel." So Isa. U.
12. " I, even I, am he that coraforteth
yeu ; (there is the sfrength of it ;) who art
thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a man
that shall die, and ef the son of man, which
shall be made as graaa ? And forgettest
(ver. 13.) the Lord thy Maker that stretched
forth the heavens, and laid the foundations
of the earth," &c. De but think aright on
him, and then see if it be ppsaS-ble fer thee
to fear. All thy Uttie doubta and deapon-
dencies of mind wiU fly and vanish away
before one clear thought of thy God. Though
the world were tuming upside down, it shall
go well with thera that fear him.
And aa thia apprehenaion of God atrength.
ens faith, se it quickens prayer, it atira tbe;
up to seek to him for help, wben thou know
est and remembereat that there it ia- Thers
is help in him, power enough, and no want
of readiness and good-wiU neither- If w
apply ourselves to seek him aright, his hand
is aa atrong to save, and his ear as quick t.)
hear aa ever. And in this that his ear is
not heavy, ia both signified his speedy and
certain knowledge of all requests sent np to
him, and'his gracious inclination to receive
them. Now these persuasions do undoubt
edly draw up the heart towards him.
Again, as tliey strengthen faidi and quick
en prayer tbey teach us repentance, direct

SERJION XVIIL

431

ua inward te self-examination, to the aearch
ing, and finding out and purging out of sin
when deUverance is delayed ; for we are sure
it stops not upon either of these en God's
part, either shortness of his hand or dulneaa
of his ear. 'Whence ia it then ? Certainly
it muat be aomewhat en our aide that worka
againat ua and prejutlices our deaires. So
here, thus you aee the clear aira of it, " Be
hold the Lord's hand ia not shortened that
it cannot save, nor his ear heavy that it
cannot hear." What is it then that hinders ?
Oh ! it ia this, out of aU deubt, Your ini
quities separate.
Old ains unrepented ef, and new aina
atiU added, aa aU unrepentant ainnera de ;
now thia separates between yeu and God,
for he is a holy God, a juat God, hatea ini
quity ; and between yeu and your God that
pleada no connivance at your aina, but rather
nearer inapection and sharper puniahment —
he wiU be aanctified in those that ar^ near
hira, in them especiaUy ; their sin is great-
ened much by that relation, your God, tp
sin againat him ae groaaly, se continuedly,
with so high a hand, and ae impenitent
hearta, not reclaimed by aU his raercies, by
the reraembrance of hia covenant made with
you, and mercies beatowed on you, nor by
the fear of hia judgraenta threatened, nor by
the feeling of them infiicted ; np returning
nur relenting, net ef his pwn people te their
God. Sure, youraust be yet raore puniahed.
" You only have I knewn of all the farailiea
of tbe earth, therefpre wiU I punish you for
aU your iniquitiea." " I let others escape
with many things that I cannet paas in you
you fast and pray, it may be, you howl
arid keep a noise, hut you araend nothing ;
foraake net one sin, for aU your sufferings,
and fer all your raoanings and cries ; you
wpuld be delivered, but do not part with
one of your lusts, or wicked custoras, even
for a deliverance, and so the quanel reraains
StiU- It is that that aeparatea, ia a huge
waU betwixt ua, betwixt me and your prayers,
and betwixt you and my helping hand, and
though I do hear and could help, yet I will
not, till this wall be down ; yeu shall not
aee me, nor find by'.any gracioua sign that I
hear you." This hides his face that he wiU
not hear.
This way God hath established in his or
dinary raethods with his peeple ; though
aoraetiraea he uaes his own privilege, ye\
usually he Unks sin aud calamity together,
and repentance and deliverance together.
Sin separates and hides his face, net only
from a people that professes his narae, but
even from a soul that really bears hia name
staraped upon it. Though it cannot fully
and for ever cut off auch a aoul, yet in part,
and fer u time it may, yea, lo be aure, it
will separate, and hide the face ef Godl
from them. Their daily inevitable frailtiea I

de not thia, but either a courae of careleas
walking, and many little unlawful libertiea
taken to theraaelves, that will riae and
gather as a cloud, and hide the face of Gpd
er aorae one groas ain, eapeciaUy if often
reiterated, wUl prove as a firra stone-wall,
or rather as a brazen-wall, built up by their
own hands betwixt tbem and heaven, and
will not be so easily dissolved or broke down ;
and yet, till that be, the light ef his coun
tenance, who is the life of the soul, will be
eclipsed and withheld from it.
And thia considered, (besidea that law of
love tbat will forbid ao foul ingratitude, yet,
I say, thia considered, even our own interest,)
wiU raake ua wary to sin ; thpugh we were
aure not to be altogether aeparated from the
love of God by it ; yet, tbou that haat any
perauaaion of that love, dareat theu venture
upen any knewn ain ? Theu art not hazard-
leas and free frora all daraage by it, if theu
haat need ef tbat argument to reatrain thee ;
then, before tbou run uppn it, sit dpwn and
reckpn the expense, see what it wiU cost
thee if thou do commit it- Theu knowest
that once it cost the heart blood of thy Re
deeraer to expiate it, and is it a light raatter
te thee ? And though that paid all that
score, nothing tbou canat suffer being able
te do any thing tbat way, yet as unavoida
ble present fruit of it, it will draw on this
daraage, " thou shalt be sure for a time,
it may be fer a long time, posaibly meat of
thy time, near all thy days it raay darken
rauch that love of God to thee," which if
thou doeat but esteera of, think on it, it
changes not in hira, but a sad change will
sin bring en thee, as to thy sight and appri-
henaion of it ; many a aweet hour of ble.st
coraraunion with thy God shalt thou raiss,
and either be dead and stupid in that want,
and meum after him, and yet find thyaelf,
and sighs, and tears hold out, the door shut,
yea, a dead waU raised betwixt thee and hini,
and at best rauch straitening and pains to
take it down again ; contrary to ether walls
and buildings that are far raore easily pulled
down than built up ; but this a great deal
easier built up than pulled down. True, thy
God could cast it down with a werd, and it
is his free grace tbat must do it, otherwivSe
thou couldst never reraove it ; yet wiU he
have thee feel thy own handy-work, and
knew thy folly. '.Thou raust be at pains to
dig at it, and raay be coat thee broken bones
in taking it down, pieces ef it falling heavy
and sad upon thy conscience, and crushing
thee, aa David cried out at that work, Paalm
U. 8, for a healing word from God, " Make
me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones
which tbou hast broken raay rejoice." It
will force thee te say, " O fool that I was ;
what meant I ? Oh I it ia good keeping
near God, and raiaing no diviaiona. What
are sins ? Falae delighta but make ado, and

432 have ado, a man to provide hia o-wn vexa
tion." Now thia diatance from God, and aU
thia turraoiling, and breaking, and crying ere

SKRMON XVIIL

and despising the base, rauddy delights that
the world adrairea ; hoping for that new
Jerusalera, where none of these walla ef sin,
he appear agaTi), consider, if any pleaaure of nor any one atone of thera are, and for that
" '¦ '   "¦•' — bright day wherein there is no cloud noi
raiat to hide our aun frera ua !
Now for the condition of the church, know
sin to be the great obatructer of ita peace,
making hira to withdraw bis hand, and hide
his face, and to turn away bis ear from our
prayers, and loath our faata. Isa. i, 15,
Jer. xiv. 12. The quanel atands ; ain not
repented and reraoved, the wall ia still stand
ing ; oaths and Sabbath-breaking, and,pride,
and oppression, and heart-burning, still re.
maining. Oh ! what a noise of religion and
refprraatipn ; aU sides are fpr the name of it,
and how little of the -thing ! Tbe gospel
itself is despised, grown stale, as trivial
doctrine. Oh ! my beloved, if I could
speak many hours without intermission, all
my cry would be, " Repent and pray. I;et
us search and ny our ways, and tum unto
the Lord our God." Oh ! what waUs of
every one's sin are set to it ! Dig diUgently
te bring down thine own ; and for these huge
walls of public, national guiltiness, if thou
canst de nothing to them more, compass
them about as Jericho, and look up to
heaven for their downfall. Cry, " Lord, these
we ourselves have reared, but without thee
who can bririg tbem dowii? Lord, throw them
down for lis ; a touch of thy hand, a word of
thy mouth, will make thera fall." Were we
less busied in irapertinencies, and more in
this most needful work, it might do sorae
good ; who knows but tbe liord might make
bis own- way clear, and retum and visit us,
and make his face to shine that we might be
saved ?

sin can countervail this damage ; sure, wben
thou art not out of thy wits, tbou wUt never
make auch a bargain for all the pleasure thou
raust raake out of any sin, te hreed thyaelf
all thia paina, and aU thia grief ; at once,
to diapleaae thy God, and diaplease thyaelf,
and make a partition between him and thee-
Oh ! aweet and aafe waya of holiness, walk.
ing with God in hia company and favour ;
he that orders his conversation aright, he
sees the loving-kindness of ihe Lord ; it
is shewn to him ; he Uves in the sight of it-
But if any such separation is made, yet,
ia it thy great desire to have it removed ?
Why, then, there is hope. See to it, labour
to break down, and pray te him to help thee,
and he wiU put te his hand, and then it
must fall ; and in aU thy sense ef separation,
look to him that brake down ihe middle wall,
Eph. ii. 14. There it is spoken of, as be
twixt men, Jews and Gentiles, but so as it
was also between the Gentiles and God, se
parated frora his peeple, and frora himself;
ver. 16, " To reconcile beth to God in one
body ;" and ver- 18, " Through him we
have access by one spirit te the Father ;" and
then he adds, that they were no more stran
gers and foreigners, dweUing on the other
side ef the wall, cra^o/xoi, as the word is, but
fellow-citixens, Scc.
Oh ! that we knew more what it were to
live in this sweet society, in undivided feUow-
ship with God. Alas ! how little is under.
stood this living in hira, separated frora sin
and this world, which otherwise do separate
from hira ; solacing our hearts in his love,

AN EXPOSITION

OF

THE CREED.

1 Tim. iu. 9.
Holding the mystery of faith in a pure
conscience.
A HAT whicii was the apostie's practice, as
he expresses it, 1 Cer. ix. 22, is the standing
duty of all the ministers of the sarae gospel :
" To the weak to become as weak, to gain
tbe weak ; and aU things to aU men, that if
by any means they may save some." And
truly one raain , part ef observance of tbat
rule, is in descending to the instruction ofthe
moat ignorant in the principles ofthe Christian
religion. That I aim at, at thia tirae, is a very
brief and plain expoaition of the articlea of our
faith, aa we have them in that aummary con-
feaaien. Not ataying you at aU on the anti--
quity and authority of it, both which are,
confeaaed ; whether it waa penned by the
apostiea, or by othera in their time, or soon
after it, it doth very clearly and briefly con.
tain the main of their divine doctrine.
But though it be altogether conaonant
with the Scripturea, yet not being a part of
the canon of tbem, I chooae theae words aa
pertinent to our intended explication of it :
they are indeed here aa they atand in the con
text, a rule for deacons ; but without quea
tion, taken in general, they express the great
duty ef all tiiat are Chriatians, to keep ihe
mystery of faith, Scc.
You see clearly in them a rich jewel, and
a precious cabinet flt for it ; the myatery of
faith laid up, and kept in a pure censcience.
And theae two are i^ot only suitable, but in
separable, as we see in the first chapter ef this
epistle, ver, 10. ; they are preserved and loat
together ; they suffer the sarae shipwreck :
the casting away of the one is the shipwreck
of the other ; if the one perish, the other can
not escape. Every believer is the temple of
God ; and as the tables of the law were kept
in the ark, this pure conscience is the ark
that holds the mystery of faith. 'You think
you are believers, you do not question that,
and would take it iU that others ahould ; it
2E

is very hard to convince men of unbelief, di -
rectly and in itaelf : but if you do believe
this truth, tbat the only receptacle of aaving
faith is a purified conscience, then I beaeech
you, question youraelvea concerning that $
being truly auawered iri it, it wiU resolve you
touching your faitb, wbich you are ae loath
to queation in itself. Are your consciences
pure ? Have you a Uving hatred and anti
pathy against all impurity ? Then sure
faith is there ; for it is the peculiar virtue of
faith to purify the heart. Acta xv. 9, and the
heart se purified is the proper residence of
faith, where it dwells and rests as in it snatu-
ral place. But have you consciences that can
lodge pride, and lust, and malice, and cove
tousness, and such like pollutions ? Then
be no more ao impudent aa to aay you beUeve,
nor deceive yourselves ao far aa to think you
do.. The blood ef Chriat never apeaka peace
te any conacience, but the aarae that it puri
fies " frora dead worka to aerve the living
God," Heb. ix. 13, 14. As that blood ia a
aacrifice to appease God'a wrath, so it ia a
laver to wash our aeula, and to serve beth
enda ; it ia aa was the blood of legal sacrifices,
bpth effered up to God and sprinkled upun
us, as both are expressed in the apostle's
words there. Do not think that Ged will
throw this jewel of faith into a sty er kemiel,,
a conscience full of defileraent and unclean
ness. Therefere, if you have any mind to
those coraforts and peace that faith brings
along with it, be careful to lodge it where it
deUghts to dwell, in a pure conscience. Not
withstanding the unbelieving world mocks
the name of purity ; yet study you above all,
tbat purity and holinesa tbat may make your
aouls a fit abode for faith, and that peace
which it worketh, and that Holy Spirit tbat
works both in you.
Faith is either the doctrine wbich we he
heve, or that grace by which we believe thaf
doctrine : here I conceive it is both met and
united in the" soul, as tbey say of the under
standing in the schools, Intelligendo fit illud
quod intelligit ; so faith apprehending its

434

AN EXPOSITION

proper object, ia made one with it. Faith is tion, for that wiU undo you : and labour to

kept in a pure conacience ; that is, beth that
pare doctrine of the goapel which faith re-
ceivea, and that faith which receives 'it, are
tpgether fitly placed and preaerved, when
they are laid up in a pure cpnacience. Thi
dpctrine pf faith cannct be received into nor
laid up in the aoul, but by that faith that be
Ueves it, and that faith hath no being with-
out believing that doetrine ; and beth are
fitly called, the mystery ef faith. The doc
trine is mysterioua, and it ia a myaterioua
work to beget faith in the heart to receive it :
for the thinga we muat believe are very high
and heavenly, and eur hearta are earthly and
base tiU the Spirit renew them. In our con
feasion ef faith we have both expreaaed ; thi
first word ia a profeasion of faith, which re
ceives the doctrine as true — I believe, and
the articles themselves contain the aura of
the doctrine relieved : and if we that profeaa
tbia faitii have within ua pure consciences,
wherein the mystery of faith, the doctrine of
faith beUeved, and tbe grace of faith believ
ing it, both together aa one, may reaide,
dwell, and be preaerved ; then is the text
completely anawered in the present subject.
Reraeraber, then, aince we profeaa thia
faith, which ia the proper seat of faith. Not
our books, our tongues ouly, or meraeriea,
or judgraent, but eur conacience; and not
our natural conscience defiled and stuffed
with sin, but renewed and sanctified by grace,
holding the mystery of faith in a pure con
science. . I believe in God ihe Father.
Not to insist here on the nature of faith,
taking it as comprehensively as we can, it is
no other but a aupematural belief of God, and
confidence in hira. Whether we caU God
or the word of God, tbe object of faith, there
is no material dift'erence, for it is God in the
word, as revealed by the word, that is that
object. God is that Veritas incomplexa (as
they speak) that faith erabraces ; and the
word, the Veritas complexa, that contains
what we are to conceive of God, and believe
conceming hira. As, in the gespel, the pe
culiar object of that faith that saves fallen
irian it ia all one, whether we aay it is Chriat,
or tne promises : for it is Christ revealed and
held forth in the promises that faith lays
hold on ; " In him, are all the promiaea of
God yea, and in him araen." So that it is
aU ene act of faith that lays bold en Chriat,
and en the proraises, fer they are all one, he
is in them ; and therefore faith rests on
tbem, because they include Christ who is our
rest and our peace, as a man at dnce receives
a ring and the precious stone tbat is aet in. it.
This once rightly understood, any further
diapute about placing faith in the understand
ing er the wUl, is posaibly in itself not at all
heedful ; aure I ara it ia ne way usefid for
Jiou. , Take he.ed of camal, profane presump^

be sure ef such a faith as dwells in a pure
conscience, and it wiU be sure not to deceive
you. That confidence which this expression
bears, believing in God, auppoaes certainly
(as all agree) a right belief concerning God,
both that he is, and what he is, according as
the word reveals hira, especially what he is
relating to us ; these three we have together,
Heb. xi. 6. " He that coraeth te God, raust
believe that God is, and that he is a reward.
er of thera that diUgently seek hira. I. That
he is. ; 2. To trust his word, believing that
he is true to hia proraiaes, a rewarder of them
that seek hira. 3. Upon these followa com.
ing te hira, ~wbicb ia tbis, beUeving in that
God that the Paalm apeaka of, that reliance
and reating of the soul apjn hira that reaulta
frora that right belief concerning him, and
truating the teatimony of his werd, as it' re.
veala hira.
We have dfaceursed of the attributes o.
God elsewhere, aa alao ef the Trinity, wbich
ia here expreased in these words : / beUeve
in God the Father, ihe Son, and the Holy
Ghost. That sublime ray-stery ia to be cau
tioualy treated of, and rather humbly to be
admired than curieualy dived into. The day
wiU corae (tmly a day, for here we are beset
with the gloomy nightly shades of ignorance)
wherein v/e ahaU aee bira aa he is. In the
raean time, let us devputly wprship him, as
he has revealed himaelf to ua ; fer thia is the
true way to tbat heavenly country, where we
shaU aee hira face to face. And it is pur in
tereat here to believe the teinity of persona iu
the unity ofthe Godhead, and to trust in them
aa such, for thia ia the apring of all our hope,
that the middle ef the three became our
Mediator, and the Holy Spirit our guide and
teacher, and the Father reconcilea ua to him
aelf by the Son, and renewa ua by hia Spirit.
Father. Firat, the Father of his only-
begotten Son Chriat, and through him our
Father by the grace of adoption. And a i
Chriat doea clearly inainuate tbe order of out
filiation—/' ascend to my Father a-nd
your Father, my God and your God. He
not te eur Father, but te my Father
and your Father, firat raine, and then youra
through me.
Almighty. Thia alao belonga te the at-
tributea of God, ao we shaU be but short on
it here. Almighty, able in himaelf to de all things,
and the source of aU power in others, all
the power in the creature being derived from
bim ; ao that it cannot altogether equal his,
ner reaiat him, no, nor at all be withobt him.
Whoaover they be that beaat most in their
own strength in any kind, and aweU highest
in conceit of it, are yet but aa a brittle glides
iri the hand ef Ged ; he can net only break
it to piece's by the strength .of his hand, but

OF THE CREED.

436

If he do but withdraw his hand frora support
ing it, it lyill fall and break of itself.
Maker of heaven and earth. The Son
and the Spirit were, with the Father, au-
tbora of the creation ; but it ia ascribed to
tlie Father particularly, in regard of the order
arid manner of their working. Whether
natural reason raay evince the creation of the
world, we wiU not diapute ; we know that
he that had very rauch of that, and ia the
great maater of it in the schools, could not
see it by that light ; yet there is enough in
reason to answer all the falae cavila pf prp
fane men, and very rauch tp juatify the truth
uf thia we believe- Hpwever, we rauat endea
vour to believe it by divine faith, according
to that ofthe apostle, '' By faith we beUeve
that the worlda we\re ftaraed by tbe word ef
God-" And this is the first article we raeet
withal in the Scriptures, and our faith is
put te it in a very high point in tbe very en-
trarice. In the beginning God made ihe heaven
' and the earth, speaking' Uke -hiraaelf ; itis
not proved by deraonstrationa nor any kind
of arguraents, but asserted hy the authority
of Ged : and with that which begins the
books of the law, John begins bis gospel ;
that, upon His word tbat by hia word' made
the world, we may beUeve that he did so.
This is fitly added to the title of Alraighty
as a work .of Alraighty pewer, and therefere
a clear testiraony of it, and both together will
suit with our profeaaion of beUeving in bira ;
for this ia a raain aupport of our faith, te be
perauaded ef his power on whora we truat.
Our God is able to deliver us (said they) ;
and Abrahara, the apostie says, he offered
up his son,, accounting, or reasoning with
himself, or laying his reckoning, that God
was able ib raise him from the dead.
We make more bold to speak out our ewn
questioning the love and goed-wiU of God,
because we think we have some reason in
that frera our own unworthineaa, but if we
weuld aound our own hearts, we should often
find in our diatrusta aerae aecret doubting of
God'a power- Can God prepare a table in
the wilderness ? aaid they ; though accus-
tomed to miracles, yet still unbelieving. We
think we are strongly enough persuaded of
thia, but our hearts deceive ua, qute scimus
cum necesse non est, ea in necessitate nesci-
mus, S. Bem. The heart ia deceitful. Gen.
xvii. 9, where he ia speaking of truatmg-
It is not for nething that Ged by his pro
phets so often inculcates this doctrine of his
power, and this great instance of it, the cre
ation, when he proraises great deliverances
to his church, ahd the destruction of their
enemies, Isa- xiv- 12, and li- 12- What
can be too hard for bim, that fpund it npt
IPO hard to make a world of nothing ? If
thou look on the public, the eneraies of the
church are strpng ; if Pri thyself, thpu hast

indeed strpng corruptions witliin, and strong
teraptations without ; yet none of these are
almighty, as thy God is. What is it thou
would have done, that he cannot do if he
think flt ? And if he think it not fit, if thou
art one of hia children, thou wilt think with
hira, thou wilt reverence his wisdora, and
reat aatisfied with hia wiU. This is be-
lieving indeed ; the reUing aU our desfres
and burdens over upon an Alraighty God ;
and where this Is, it cannot choose but esta
blish the heart in the raidst of troubles, and
give it a calra within in the midst of the
greateat storms.
And try what other confidences you will,
they shall prove vain and lying in the day
of trouble ; be that thinks te quiet hia mind,
and find rest 'by worldly corafort, ia, as SoJ
lemon compares his drunkard, as one ihat
lies doum in the midst of the ses, tbat sleep-
eth on the top of a mast ; he can but bave
unsettied reat and repoae that liea there, "but
he that truateth in the Lord, is as Mount
Sion, that cannet be removed." When we
lean upon other props besides God, they
prove broken reeds that not only fail, bur
pierce the hand that leans on tbem, Jer.
xvii. 7-
There is yet another thing in this arti
cle, that serves farther to uphold our faith —
that of necessity ; he that made the world
by his power, doth Ukewise rule it by his'
providence. It is so great a fabric, as can-
net be upheld and governed by any less^
ppwer, than that which raade it. He dia
npt frarae tbis wprld as the carpenter his sbip,-
tp put it intp Pther handa and look no mpre
after it ; but aa he raade it, he is tbe continual
pilot of it, aita still at the heira and guidea
it, yea, he coraraanda the winds and aeaa, aud
they phey him- And thia aervea rauch fpr
tbe cpmfort of the godly, but I cannot here
inaiat on it.
And in Jesus Christ.
The two great works of God by which he
is known to us, are creation and redemp
tion ; which is a new or second creation.
The Son of Ged, as God, was with the Fa
ther aa the worker ef the forraer, but aa God-
man, he is the author of the latter. St.
Jphn begins his gpspel with the firat, and
from that passes on to the second : " In
the beginning was the Word," &c. ver. 1 ;
" By hira were all things made." But ver.
14, the other is expresaed, ' The Word waa
raade flesh, and he dwelt araong us," had a
tent Uke ours, and made of the sarae materials.
He adds, " He was fuU of grace and truth,"
and for that 'end, as there foUows, " that wo
raight aU receive of his fulneaa, grace for
grace.," And thia ia that great work of new
creation ; therefore the prophet Isaiah, U. 16,
foretelling thia great work from the Lerd's own
mouth, speaka of it in theae terms : " That
I may plant -the heavena, and lay the fou: da-

4JS

AN EXPOSITION

tion of the earth, and aay unto Sion, Thou
art ray people." That making of a new
people te himaelf in Chriat, ia aa the fram-
ing of heaven and earth. Now thia reatore
ment by Jeaus Christ, suppoaes the ruin and
misery of raan by his fall, that sin and death
under which be is bom. Thia we aU aeera
to knew and acknowledge, and weU we raay,
for we daily feel the woeful fruits ef that
bitter root ; but the truth is, the greatest part
of ua are not fuUy convinced, and therefore
do not consider of thia gulph of wretchedness
into which we are faUen. If we were, there
would be raere cries amongst us for help to
be drawn out and deUvered frora it ; this
great deUverer, this Saviour, would be of
raore use, and ef more esteem with us. But
I cannot new insist on that point.
Only consider that this makes the neces
sity of a Mediator. The disunion and dis
tance, that sin hath raade betwixt God and
man, cannot be raade up but by a Mediator,
one to corae betwixt ; so that there is now
no believing in God the Father, but by this
believing in Jesus his Son, no appearing
without honor, yea withput perditipn, before
50 just a Judge highly offended, but by the
intervention of ao powerful a Reconciler, able
to satiafy and appease him ; and he teUa it us
plainly and gracioualy, that we miatake not
our way ; " No man coraes unto the Father
but by me."
Few are our thoughta conceming God, and
retuming to hira ; but if we have auy, this
is our unhappineaa, that naturally we are
subject to leave out Christ in them.
We think there is something to be done ;
we talk ef repentances, and prayers, and
amendments, thougb we have not these nei
ther; but if we bad these, there is yet one
thing .necessary above all these, that we for
get — there is absolute need of a Mediator to
raake our peace, and reduce us into favour
with God, one that rauat for that end do and
suffer for ua, what we can neither do nor
auffer ; though we conld shed rivers of tears,
they cannot wash out the atain of any one
sin ; yea, there is aome pollution in our very
teara, ao tbat they themselves have need to
be washed in the bleed ef Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ. Our aneinted Saviour,
anointed to be eur King, our great High
Priest, and our Prophet, and in all those our
Savieur ; our Prophet, to teach us the way
of salvation ; our Priest, to purchase it for
us ; and our King, to lead and protect us in
the way, and to bring us safe to tbe end of
it. Thus is his name full of sweetness and
comfort, mei 'in ore, in aure melos, in corde
medicina, as Bernard speaks. It is a rich
ointment, and in the preaching of the gospel
an. ointment poured forth, diffusing its fra
grant sraell, for which the virgins, the chast©
purified souls of believers love him ; such as
have thefr senses exercised, as the apostle

speaks, their spiritual sraeUing net-obstruct
ed with the pollutions of the world, but quick
and open to receive and be refreshed with
the sraeU of this precious name of Jesus
Christ. His only Son. Other sons he haith, an
gels and meri by creatiori arid adoption ; but
this his oidy-begetten Son as God, by eter
nal arid ineffable generation, and as man pe.
cuUarly the Son of God, both in regard of
his singular, unexampled conception by tho
-Holy Ghost, and by that personal union with
the Deity which accompanied that coucep.
tion, and by that fulness of aU {^race which
flowed frora that union. The unfolding of
these would require a long time, and after
aU, mpre wpuld reraain unsaid and uncon-
ceived by ua ; fpr " hia generatipn whp can
declare ?"
Let ua remember this, that eur aonahip ia
the product of hia : John i. 14, " He ia the
only-begotten Son ofGod ;" and yet, ver. 12,
" To aa many as received hira he gave thfs
privilege, te he the aona of God."
Our Lord. Both by qnr loyal subjection
te him, and our peculiar interest in him ;
these go together ; willing subjection and
obedience to hia laws is an inaeparable com
panion, and therefore a certain evidence, of
our intereat in hia grace.
Conceived by the Holy Ghost.
" Thia ia tbat great myatery o^ godliness,
God raanifeated in the fleah ;" the King of
Glory after a manner dive-sting himaelf of
hia royal robea, and truly putting on the form
of a aervant, the Holy Ghoat framing him a
body in the Virgin's worab ; not tbat it was
impoaaible to have made hia huraan nature
ainleas in the ordinary way, (though tbe
achools usuaUy give that reaaon), but that,
by that miraculous and peculiar manner of
birth, he might be declared more than raan,
as being a wajf mere congraous both to the
greatness of hia person, and the purity of his
human nature.
Born of the Virgin Mary.
He was not only ef the same nature with
man, wbich he might have been by a new.
created humanity, but of the sarae stock,
and so a fit Saviour, a near kinsman, as the
word that in Hebrew ia a Redeemer, doth
aignify bone of eur bene, and flesh of our
flesh. We see, then, the persen ef our Me.
diator very flt for that his office, having both
the natures of the parties at 'variance which
he was te reconcile. And this happy raeet»
ing of God and mafi in the peraon of Gh,ri5t^
to look no further, was a very great step to
the agreeraent, and a strong pledge of its ac.
corapUshraent. Te see the nature of man
that was an enemy, received into so close
embraces with the Deity, as within the com.
pasa of one person, proraised infalUbly a re.
cencileraent of the persons of raen unto
God. There the treaty of peace began, and

OF THE CREED.

437

was exceedingly jjromoted by that very be
ginning, se that in it there was a sure pre
sage of the succeas ; it was indeed as tbey
say of a good beginning, Dimidiuni facit.
Had God and man treated any where but in
tbe persen of Chriat, a peace had never been
concluded, yea, it bad broke up at firat; but
befrig in him, it could not fail, fer iu him
they were already one, one peraon, ao there
they could not but agree ; " God waa in
Christ reconciling the world to himself."
2- Conaidering the work to be dene in tbis
agreeraent, aa well aa the peraona lobe agreed,
it was altogether needful that the undertaker
should be God and man ;• tbe mediation was
not a bare matter of word, but there was such
a wrong done asrequired'a sati.sfaction ahould
be made ; (we speak net what God might
absolutely have none, but what was to be
done suitable to God's end, that was for the
joint glery of justice and mercy, " Thatmercy
and truth might meet, and righteousness and
peace kiss each other ;") and because the
party offending was not able fer it, he that
would eft'ectuaUy suit for him, must likewise
satiafy for hira- And thia Jeaua Chriat did,
as here follows. Now, that he might do this,
it waa necessary tiiat he ahould be Ged able
to aave, and man fit te save raan ; raan that
he raight auffer, and Ged that hia auffering
might be satisfying ; man thiit he might die,
and God that iiia death raight bave value to
purchase life to us.
The Son was fit to be incarnate for hia
work ; the middle peraen in tiie Godhead te
be man's mediator with Ged- What we had
lost was the dignity of the aons of God, and
therefore hia only Son, only fit to reatore ua
to it : the beauty defaced in us was tbe image
of God ; therefore the repairing and re-impart
ing, a fit work for his purest and perfecteat
image, his Son, the character ofhis Person,
Now thia incarnation ofthe Word, the Sen
of God, ia the foundation of all our hopea ;
the aenae ef that great premise, " The seed
ofthe woman shaU bruise the serpent's head;"
and many others ofthe same substance in the
prophets ; the great salvation so often fore
told, and se long expected by the Jews.
When this was fulfilled, that a virgin did
conceive by tbe Holy Ghost, " Then did the
heavens drop down righteouaness frem above,
and the eaith bring fbrth aalvation," laa. xiv.
8. This aeeraa to be that which tbe church
did ao earnestly wish, " Oh that theu wert
aa my brother," Cant. viii.
Suffered under .Pontius Pilate.
Though all his life waa one continued act
of auffering, ftom his living in the cratch to
his hanging on the cross ; yet because ef the
briefness of tbia confession, as Ukewise be
cause this last act was the greatest and most
remarkable of his sufferings, and the Scrip
ture itself doth (as such) mention it most fre-
• Humana divinitas et diviiia humanitas.

quently, therefore it is here immediately sub
joined to the article of his birth.
It is npt fpr npthing that we have the name
pf the Rpman judge here expressed, under
whom he suffered ; though it is nothing to
his credit, yet it is to the credit of Divine
Wiadom. .Even this, consideririg tbe nature
and end of Christ's death, being to satisfy
a pronounced sentence ef justice ; though, for
othera, it waa a very agreeable circumstance
that he ahould not be auddenly or tumultua-
rily raurdered, but be judiciaUy, though un
justly condemned.
flrucified. Beaidea, it made hia suffering
raore public and aolemn ; and the Divine
Providence ordered thia, that he ahould suffer
under a Roraan judge, and so faU uuder this
Roman kind ef puniahment, being in itaelf
a very aharaeful and painful kind of death,
and hy tbe aentence of the law accuraed, that
we might have the raore evidence of our de
liverance from tbat aharae, and pain, and
curse, that waa due to us. " The chastise
ment of our peace was upen him," (saya the
prophet,) " and by bis atripea we arehealed."
Suffered. That he died, and what kind of
death, yeu aee is expreased : but as many
particular sufferings of his bedy are not here
mentioned, so none ofthose ofhis soul, but
aU coraprehended in this general word. He
suffered. Those were too great to be duly
expresaed in ao abort a form, and therefore
are better expresaed by aupposing thera, and
iricluding them only in this, lie suffered.
As he that drew the father ampng pthera, be
hplding the aacrifioing of hia own daughter,
aignified the grief of the reat in their gestures,
and viaages, and tears, but drew the father
veiled ; se here the crucifying and death of
our Saviour are expressed, but the unspeak
able conflicts of his soul are veiled under tbe
general term of suffering. But sure that in
visible cup that carae frora his Father's band,
was far more bitter than the gaU and vinegar
from the hand ef his enemies ; the piercing
of his soul far sharper than . the nails and
thorns : he could answer these sweetly with,
" Father, forgive them, fer diey knew not
what they do ;" but these otiier pangs drew
frora him another kind of word, " My God 1
my Ged ! why hast thou forsalcen me ?"
Died. Ne less would serve, and therefore
he was obedient even unto the death, as the
sentence against us did. bear, and the sacri
fices of the law did prefigure. When the
sacrifices drew back and went unwillingly to
the place, the Heathens accounted it an iU
presage : never sacrifice more wiUing than
Christ — " I lay down my life for my sheep,
(said he,) and no man taketh it from me.
As a sheep before the shearers is dumb, so
heopenednothismoiith," IsaiahUii. 7- "He
gave his back to the smiters," &c. "For this
hour carae I into the world," says he.' And
this his death is our Mie, though by it we are

438

AN EXPOSITION

not freed from this temporal death; yet,
which ia infinitely more, we are delivered
from eternal death, and, wbich ia yet mere,
entitied to eternal life ; and therefore de no
more auffer thia temporal death aa a curse,
but enjoy it as a bleaaing, and may look upon
it now, (auch aa are in Chriat, none other,)
not only aa a day of deliverance, but ef co
ronation : the exchange ef our -present rags
for long white robea, and a croivn that fadeth
not away.
Buried. For the further aaaurance of hia
death, and glery of hia reaunection, aa like.
wiae to coraraend the grave to ua, aa now a
very sweet reating place, he bath warraed tbe
cold bed ef the grave te a Chriatian, that he
need not fear to lie down in it, nor deubt
that he shaU riae again, aa we know, and are
afl^r to hear, that be did.
Descended into hell. The more noiae hath
been about thia clause, I shaU make the less.
The conceit of tbe descent ef Christ's soul
into the place of the daraned, to say no raore
nor harder of it, can never he raade the ne
cessary aense of these worda ; ner ia there any
other ground in Scripture, er any due end ef
such a descent, either agreed on, or at aU al-
legeable, to persuade the choosing it as the
best sense ef thera. Not te contest other in
terpretations, I conceive, witb subraission,
lhat it differs not rauch (possibly nothing)
from the plain word of his burial. Not that
tbe author or authors of this so brief a con-
feaaion, would express one thing by divers
words, but that it may be, in the raost an
cient copies, only the one of thera bath been
In the text ; and in after copies, in tranacrib-
crs' hands, the other hath crept into it, out
«>f the margin. But retaining it by all means
aa it ia, it raay signify the abode and con-
'.inuanc! of Chriat'a body in the grave ; in
wbich tirae he aeeraed to have been awallow-
cd up of death, and that the pit had ahut her
mouth en hira : but it appeared quickly other.
wise ; for. The third day he arose from the
dead. These are great things indeed that are
spoken concerning Jesus Christ, his birth
and sufferings ; but the greater ourunhappi-
neaa, if we have no portion in thera. Te hear
of thera only, and to enjoy nething of them,
ia moat miaerable ; and thua it ia through our
unbelief. Were it as common to believe in
him, aa to repeat these words, or to corae to
church and hear thia gaspel preached, then
' you would aU raake a pretty good plea on it ;
but believe it, it ia another kind of thirig to
believe tban aU that, er than any thirig that
tbe most of ua yet know. My brethren, do
not deceive youraelves ; that comraon high
way faith will net serve ; you are for all that
StiU unbelievers in Christ's account ; and if
so, for aU the riches ef corafort that are in
him, you can receive none frora hira. It is a
v\A word that he says, Because ye believe

not in 'me, ye shall die in your sins i
" Thougb I died for sina not raine own, but
others', yet you reraaining in ungodliness
and unbelief, tbat shall de yeu no good ; ye
shaU die in your aina fer all tbat." It ia such
a faith aa endeara Chriat to tbe aoul, unitea
it to him, makea Chriat and it one, that
makea all that ia hia te become oura ; then
we shaU conclude aright, Chriat hath auffer.
ed, therefore I ahall not. A a he said to thera
that carae to take hira, 7s it I you seek $
then let these go free ; so to the law and
justice of Ged, " Seeing ypu have aought
and laid held on rae, and raade me suffer,
let these go free that lay bold en me by faith :
if you have any thing te say to them, I am to
answer fer thera, yea I have dene it already."
> 2. You that believe and Uve by this death,
be often in reviewing it, and raeditating on
it, that your soula raay be ravished with the
admiration ef auch love, and warmed with a
reflex love te him *. Other wonders, aa you
aay, laat for a while, but this is a laating,
wonder ; not to tbe ignorant, (the cause of
wonder at pther things ia ignprance indeed,)
but thia ia an everlaating wonder to these that
know it beat, viz. to the very angels. Let
that loved Jesua be fixed in your hearta, who
waa for yeu nailed to the croaa f. St. Bernard .
wondera that men ahould think on any thing
elae ; Quantce insanice post tanti Regis ad-
ventum aliis negotiis, See- Sure it ia great
foUy te think and eateera ranch of any thing
here, after his appearing; the aun ariaing,
drowna all tbe atara. And withal, be daily
crocifying ain in youraelvea ; be av,enged
on it for hia sake, and kiU it because it kill
ed him.
3. WiU ypu think any thing tP dp 'or
suffer for him that undertook, and performed
te the full, so rauch for you f? If you had
rather be your own than Christ's, rauch good
do it you witb yourselves ; but know, tbat
if you are not Christ'a, but your own, you
muat look for aa Uttle of hira to be youra
If ye be your own, you muat bear aU your
own aina, and aU the wrath tbat ia due to
them. But if yeu like net that, and resolve
to be no more your own, but Chriat'a, then
what have you to do but cheerfuUy to em.
brace, yea, eameatly to seek all epportunilies
to de hira service ?
4. Theae are the steps ef Christ'a humilia.
tion ; look en thera then, ae aa to study tobe
like him, particularly in that ; surely the aoul
that hath most of Chriat, hath moat humilii-
ty. It is the lessen he peculiarly recom-
mends tp us frpm his pwn exaraple, which
is the shortest and raost effectual way of teach-
ing- " Leam of me, fer I am raeek and
lowly of heart." He says well, " Let man
* Mira Dei dignitas, mira indignitas nostra.
t Donee totus fixus in corde,' qui totus fixus in
cruce. 4:, Irtolcrabilis est impudentia, ut ubi se exinnnivit
maestas, vermiculus iufleturel inLumesLat.

OF XHE CREED.

438

be ashamed to be any longer proud, for whora
God made himaelf ae low," • He became
bumble to expiate eur jwide, and yet we will
not baniah that pride that undid ua, and fol
low that way of aalvatipn, which ia humility.
Jeaus Christ is indeed the Uly of tbe valley,
he grows ne where but in the humble heart.
Rose again ihe third day.
M'hen humbled to tbe loweat, then near
est his exaltation, as Joseph in the priaon.
He ,ceuld die, fer be waa a man, and a mari
for that purpose, that he might die ; but he
could not be overcome by death, for he was
Ged ; yea, by dying he overcame deatii, and
so shewed himaelf truly the Lord of life.
He atrangled that lion in hia own den. The
whale swallowed Jonah, but it could not digeat
him ; it was forced to cast him up again at
the appointed tirae, the sarae with the tirae
here apecified, wherein the prophet waa a
figure of thia great Prophet, Jesus Christ.
The grave hath a terrible appetite, devours
all, and stiU cries, G'loc, give, and never
hafh enough, as Agur saya ; yet fer all ita
appetite, Chriat was too great a morse] for it
to digest, too strong a prisoner for all its bara
and iron gates to keep him in. It was im.
possible he should be holden of it, saya St.
Petcr, Acta ii. 24.
He hath m.ade a breach through death,
opened up a paaaage on the other aide of it
into life, though otherwise indeed, vestigia
nulla retrorsum. They that believe, that
lay hold en hira by faitb, they ceine through
with him, feUow him out at die aame
breach, pass through death into heaven ;
but the rest find not the paaaage out ; it is
aa the Bed Sea, paaaable only te the Israel
ites, therefore they must ef necesaity sink
quite downwards through the grave into hell,
through the first death into the second ; and
that is the terriblest of all : that deatli is
indeed what pne called the ether, " The
mest tenible of all terribles, the king of ter
rors," as it is in Job.
Now the only assurance of that happy
second resunection te the Ufe of glery here
after, ia the first reaunection here to the life
of grace ; " Blessed are they that are par
takera of the first resurrection, fer on such
the second death hath ne pewer." For tbe
resunection of Jeaus Christ is to the believer
the evidence of his redemption corapleted,
that aU was paid by Chriat aa our aurety,
and ao he ia set at liberty; which the apoatle
teaches us, when he aaya, " He aroae for
righteousnesa ;" and again, " It ia Ged.
that justifies, who shall condemn ? It is
Christ that died, or rather, that is risen
again." Nor is it only the pattern and pledge
of a beUever's reaunection, but it is the effi
cient both pf that last resurrectipu pf his

* Krubescat homo superbus esse, propter quem
hu-milis factus est Deus.

bpdy to glory, and of the first, of his soul
to grace.
The life of a believer ia derived, and flows
fortli frpra Christ as his bead, and ia mysti
cally one life with hia, and therefore so, as
hunself expreaaeth it, " Becauae I live, ye
shall live alao, John xiv. 19. Therefpre is
he called the " firat-bcgetten frpm the dead,
and tbe beginning," Ev ,rxiriv v^uiriuotv. Col.
i. 18. He ia first in all, and fiora him spring
all theae atreams that make glad the city of
God. Therefore tbe apoatle, in his thanks
giving for our new life and Uvely hopes,
leavea not out that, " Blesaed be God, tbe
Father of our Lord Jesua Chriat ;" that is
the conduit of all. And he expresses it in
the aarae place, that we are begotten again
io a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus
from the dead. But, alas ! we prejudge
ourselves bf aU that rich corafort that ia wrapt
up in thia, by living to ouraelves and our
lusts, and te the werld, having not our con
aciences purified from dead werks. How
few of us are there that aet that arabition of
Paul before us, '' desiring above all things
to know hira, and the pewer of his resurrec
tion !" " To be raade coraforraable," that is
tffe knowledge, as he expresses it, a lively
experienced knowledge of that power.
2. This, rightly cpnsidered, will answei
,ill pur doubta and feara in the church's
hardeat tiraea ; when in its deliverance there
appears nothing but irapossibilitiea ; ao low
that its eneraies are perauaded to conclude
that it shall never rise again, and its friends
are oppressed with fearing so rauch : yet he
tbat brought up his own son Jesus from the
dead, can aud wiU restore his church, for
which he gave that hia only-begotten Son to
the death. Son of man, aays he, can
these dry bones live ? (thus often leeks the
church's deliverance, wbich is there the pro.
per sense.) The prophet answered moat
wisely, Lord, thou knowest. " It is a work
only for thee te know and to do ;" ahd by
hia Spirit they were revived. And aa here
it looked hopeleaa, aa the diaciplea thought
they were at giving it over, and blaming
alraoat their fonner credulity, " We thought
thia sheuld have been he that should have
delivered larael ; and besides all this, to-day is
the third day." True the third day was corae,
but it was not yet ended ; yea, he rose in
the beginrung of it, though they knew it not,
nor him present to whom they spake : but
towards the end of it, they likewise knew
that he was risen, wben he was pleased to
diacover himaelf to thera. Thus, though
the enemies of the church prevail so far
againat it, tbat it seema buried, arid a storie
laid to the grave's -mouth, yet it shall riae
again, and at the very fitteat, the appointed
time, as Christ the third day. Thus the
church expreaaea her confidence, Hos. vi. 1,
2, " In the third day he wiU raise us up,'*

440

AN EXPOSITION

Whatsoever it suffers, it sb.aU gain by it,
and be raore beautiful and glorious in its
restoreraent.* He ascended into heaven. He rose again,
not to remain on earth as before, but to re
turn to his throne of majesty, from whence
his love drew hira, according to his prayer,
John xvii., which was a certain prediction
of it. He had now accoraplished the great
work he carae for, and was therefore, by the
covenant and transaction betwixt his Father
and him, to be exalted to his former glory ;
the same person as before, but with the
surcease of another nature, which he had net
before, and ef a new relative dignity, being
te sit as King of his church, which he had
purchased with his bloods
And to express this, it is added, that he
-sits ai the right hand of God^ Ps. ex. 1, &c.
Eph. i. 20, 21, &c. By which, according
to its allusive sense, ia expressed not only
hia matchleaa glory, but his dominion and
rule as Prince of Peace, the alone King of
his church, her supreme lawgiver and mighty
prelector, and conqueror ef aU his enemies,
ruling his holy hill of Zion with his golden
sceptre ofhis word, and breaking his enemies,
tbe strongest of thera, in pieces, witb the
iron rod oi his justice ; as v)e have it in the
"2d Psalm. They atterapt in vain to unsettle
his throne ; it is very far out of their reach, as
high as the right hand of God : For ever,
O God, thy throne is established in heaven.
M'^hat way is there for the wonns of this
earth to do any thing against it ?
Aa in these is the glory oi Chriat, so ihey
contain much comfort of a Chriatian- In
that very elevation of our nature te such
dignity, is indeed, as the ancients speak,
miradignatio, that our flesh is exalted above
all the glorious spirits, the angels ; and they
adore the nature of man, in the persen of
man's glprified Saviour, the Son of God.
Tbis exaltation of Jesus Christ doth se re
flect a dignity on the nature of mankind ;
but the right and possession of it is not uni
versal, but is contracted and appropriate to
them that believe on him. He took not en
hira the nature of angels, says the apostie,
but the nature of " tbe seed of Abraham."
He saya, net the nature of man, though it
is so, but of the seed of Abraham ; not so
much because of his descent from that parti
cular stock after the fiesh, as in the spiritual
sense of Abraham's seed, as it ia at large
,*kared, Rom. ix. The rest of mankind
forfeits aU that dignity and benefit that
arises to their nature in Christ, by their dis
tance and disunion from hira through un
belief. But the believer hath not only na
turally one kind of being with the humanity
of Christ; but is mysticaUy one witb the
person of Christ, with whole Christ, God-
man ; and by virtue of that mysterious union
• Mergas profuudo, pulchrior ex-ilet.

they that partake of it, partake of the very
present happiness and glory of Christ ; they
have a real interest in whatsoever he is and
bath, in aU his dignities and power ; and
in tbat sense they that are justified are glo
rified ; in that Christ is exalted, they are so
toe in him. Where a part, and the chief
part of themselves is, and is in honour, there
they may account themselves tp be.* A
man is said tp be crowned when the crown
is set upon his head ; now our head, Christ,
is already crowned. In sum, believers have
in this ascending and enthroning ef Christ,
unspeakable comfort through their interest
in Chriat, both in conaideration of his pre-
sent affSctiun to' them, and his effectual in
tercession for them ; and in the assured
hope this gives them of their own after-hap.
piness and glory with hira.
I. In all his glery he forgets them nbt,
he puts not off his bowels with his low con
dition here, but hath canied it along to his
throne ; hia majesty and love suit very well,
and both in their highest degree ; "I- as all
the waters of his sufferings did not quench
his love. Nor left he it behind him buried
in the grave, but it arose with hira, being
stronger than death ; so he let it not fall to
the earth when he ascended en high, but it
ascended with him, and he still retains it in
his glory. And that our fleah, which he
took on earth, he took up into heaven, as a
tpken pf indiaspluble leve, betwixt him and
theae whom he redeemed, and aends down
frem thence, aa the rich token of his love, his
Spirit into their hearta, ao that theae are mu.
tual remembrancea. Can he forget his own
en earth, having their fleah so cloaely united
to him ? You see he doea not, he feela what
they suffer : " Saul, Saul, why persecutest
theu me ?" And can they forget him whose
Spirit dweUa in them, and recorda Uvely tu
their hearta the paaaagea of hia love, and brings
all thoae things to thefr remembrance, (as
himself tella us that Spirit weuld de), and
se indeed proves the comforter by represent
ing unto us tnat his love, the spring of our
comforts ? And when we send up our re
quests, we know of a friend before us there,
a raost true and a-niost faithful friend, that
fails not to speak fbr us what we say, and
rauch raore ; he liveth, says the apostle, to
make intercession for us. This is the ground
ef a Christian's boldness at the throne df
grace : yea, therefore is the Father's throne
the throne of grace to us, because the throne
of our Mediator leaus Christ is beside it.
He sits at his right hand, otherwise it would
be nothing to us but a throne of justicp, and
so in regard of our guiltiness, a throne ef
terror and affrightment, which we would ra
ther fly from, than draw near unto.
* Ubi portio mea regnat. ibi me regnare credo.
I f Bene conveniunt, et in una sede moraDtur, ma-
I jestas et amor.

OF THE CREED.

-i41

Lastly, as we have the comfort of such a
friend, to prepare access to eur prayers there,
lhat are the messengers ef our soula ; se of
this, that our souls themselvea, when they
remove from theae houses of clay, shaU find
admission there throngh hira. And this he
teUs hia disciples again and again, and in
them all his own, that their interest was se
much in his ascending to bia glory  " I ge
to prepare a place for you, that where I ara,
there ye may be also."
It wiU not be hard to perauade thera that
believe these things, and are portioners in
diem, to aet their hearta on thera, and for
that end te take thera off frem aU other thinga
as unworthy ef them ; yea, it will be impea-
sible for thera to live without the frequent and
tweet thoughta of that place where thefr Lord
Jeaus is. Yet it is eften needful to remem
ber them that this cannot be enougii done,
and by representing tbeae things to thera, to
draw them raere upwarda ; and it is best dene
in the apostle's words, " If ye be risen with
Christ, raind those things that are above,
where he sits," &c. If ye be risen witb
him, follow hira on, let your hearts be
where he is ; they that are one witb him, the
blessed seed of the woman, do find that unity
drawing them heavenwards : but, alas ! the
most of us are Uker the accursed seed of
;he serpent, basely groveUing on this earth,
and licking the duat ; the converaation of the
believer is in heaven, - where he hath a. Sa
viour, and from whence he looks for bim.
Truly there is Uttle of a true Christian here
(and that argues that there is Uttle of the
truth of Christianity araong us, who are al
together here) ; bis head in heaven, and his
heart there, and these are the two principles
of Ufe. Let us, then, suit the apostle's ad
vice, and so enjoy the corafort he subjoins,
that by our affections above, we raay know,
" that our life is hid with Chriat in God,
and therefere, tbat when be who is our life
shall appear, we Ukewise shall appear with
him in glory.'
From thence he shall come tojudge, Scc.
We have in this to consider, 1- That there
is an universal jud^jment. 2. That Christ
is the Judge. 3. Soraething to be added
of the quality of the judgraent ; aU the three
we have together. Acts xvii. 31
That it is, is, we know, the frequent doc-
trSie of tbe Scriptures, and hath been ever
tbe beUef of the godly from the beginning,
as we may perceive by that ancient prophecy
of Enoch, recorded by St. Jude, and we are
so to believe it aa a divine truth : and yet
there is se 'much just reaaon for it, that na
tural men, by the few sparkles of Ught in
their consciences, have had some dark notiona
and conjectures of it, as is evident in P'a e
and the i'latonics, and not only the philos

merings of light concerning this, bonowed
from the Jews, and traditipnaUy passed ftpra
hand te hand among the Heathen, and there
fpre disguised and altered after their fa
shipn. If we be persuaded tbat there is a Suprerae
Ruler pf the wprld, whp is rapst wise, and
just, and gPod, this will persuade us not only
that there is sorae pther estate and being,
tban that we see here, apppinted for man,
the most excellent, the reasoriable part pf this
visible world ; but that there shaU be a so
leran judicial proceeding, in entering and
stating him in that after.being. The many
miseries of this present life, arid that the
best pf raeri are usuaUy deepest aharers in
thera, thpugh it hath a little ataggered, npt
only wiae Heathens, but aometiraea aome of
the prime aaints ef God, yet it hath never
prevailed with any but brutal and debauched
spiritSj to conclude againat Divine Provi
dence, but rather to reaolve upon this, tbat
of necessity there must be another kind
of issue, a final catastrophe, reducing all tbe
present confusions into ordei:, and making
aU odda even, aa yeu say. • It ia true tbat
soraetimes here the Lord's right hand finds
out his eneraies, and is known by the judg.
raent which he executes on them ; and, on
the other side, gives seme^instances of his
gracioua providence te his church, and to
particular godly raen, even before the sona-
of raen : but theae are sem,e few preludes and
pledges ef that great Judgraent ; sorae he
gives, that we forget net his justice and
goodness, but rauch is reserved, that we ex
pect not all ner the raost here, but hereafter.
And it is certainly raost congruous, that tbis
be done, not only in each particular apart,
but most ceiiapicuouSly in all together, that
the juatice and mercy of God may not only
be accomplished, but acknowledged and
magnified, and that not only aeveraUy, in
the several petsons of men and angels, but
jniveraally, jointly, and raanifestly in the
view of all, as upen one theatre ; angela and
men being at once, some of them the objects
of that justice, others ef raercy, but all of
thera spectators ef both. Each ungodly man
shaU not only rea'd, whether he wdl er no,
the justice of God in himself, and his own
coudemnatien, which raost of them shall do
before that tirae in their soul's particular
judgment ; but they shaU then see the same
justice in aU the rest of the conderaned werld,
and the reat in them ; and, to tbe great in
crease ef their anguish, they shaU see like
wiae the glory of that mercy that ahall then
shine so bright in all the elect of God, from
which they themaelvea are juatly shut out,
and deUvered up te eternal miaery.
And, on the other side, the godly shaU
with unspeakable joy behold not only a part

phers, but the poets : it raay be too that they aa before, but the whole sphere both of the
have been helped by some scattered glim-i * Cum res hominum tanta caligine volvi  Cladd.

442

AN EXPOSITION

justice and raercy of their Ged, and ahall
with one voice admire and applaud hira in
both, 2. Beaidea, the proceaa ef many
men'a actions cannot be full at the end of
thefr life, as it shaU be at that day ; many
¦have very large after-reckonings te come upon
thera for these sins of othera to which they are
acceaaary, though coraraitted after their
death, as the sina of iU-educated children te
be laid to the charge of their parents, the sina
of auch as any have corrapted, either by their
counsels, or opinions, or evil examples, &c.
2. He, the Lord Jesus, shall be Judge
in that great day ; the Father, and Spirit,
and his authority, are aU one, for tbey are
aU one God and one Judge ; hut it shall be
particularly exercised and pronounced by our
Saviour God-man, Jesua Christ. That eternal
Word by whora all things were raade, by hira
all shall be judged, and so he ahall he the
Word in that laat act of tirae, as in the firat
he shall judicially pronounce that great and
final sentence, that ahall atand unalterable in
eternity ; and riot orily as the eternal Son ef
God, but withal the Sen of man, and so sit
as King, and invested with all power in hea
ven and earth. " By that Man whom he hath
appointed te judge the quick and the dead,"
Acts xvii, 31 '; and Acta i. 11. This same
Jesus shall so come, in Uke manner as ye
have seen him go into heaven. The powera
of the world and of hell are combined a^'aiust
hia throne, therefore they ahall be hia foot
stool sitting on that throne, and tho crown
whicii he hath purchased fer believers, he
shall aet it on their heada with his own hand.
Thia shaU be exceeding joy and comfort to
aU that have believed on hira, that their
Redeeraer shall be their judge ; he that was
judged for them, shall judge them, and pass
sentence according te that covenant of grace
that holds in hira, pronouncing them free
frora the wrath which he himself endured
for thera, and heira ef that life that he bought
with his dearest blood.
And that gives ne less accession to the
_ misery of the wicked, that that same Jesus
whom they opposed and despised, so many
of them as heard any thing of him, he shall
sit upon their final judgment, and pronounce
sentence against thera, net partiaUy aveng.
ing his own quanel on thera, ne word ef
that, bnt most justly retuming thera the re.
ward of their ungodlinesa and unbelief; that
great ahepherd ahall thua make that great
separation of his aheep frora tbe goats.
3. Of the raanner, we have thus rauch
here, that he' shall corae frora heaven, as the
Scriptures teach ua. Matt. xxiv. 30 : he
sliaU visibly appear in the air, he ahaU come
in the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory, attended with innumerable com.
panies of glorious angels, that shall serve
him, both in the congregating hia elect, and
segregating thera from the reprobate; butl

hiraaelf in the brightiiesa of hia ewn majesty,
infinitely surpassing them all, 2,^ Theas, i.
7- His first coming was me-jn and obscure,
suiting his errand, for then he came to be
judged ; but that last coming shall be glo.
rious, for he comes te judge, and his judg.
raent ahall be in righteouaneaa, Acta xvii.
31- • There ahall be no raisallegihg, or
raiaproving, or miajudging there ; aU the
judgraertta of raen, whether private or jiidi.
cial, shall be rejudged there according to
truth ; such a judge before whom all things
are naked ; and not only shall he know and
judge all aright, biit^U they that are judged
ahall theraaelves be convinced that it is so ;
then all will aee that none are condemned
but raoat deservedly, and that the Lord's
juatice ia pure and apetleas in them that pe
riah, as his grace, without prejudice to his
juatice, it being aatiafied in Christ for them
that are aaved- The hooka shall be opened,
thoae that raen se willingly, the mest of them,
ke'ep shut and clasped up, and are ao unwiU
ing to leek into — their ewn accusing con.
sciences. The Lerd will proceed formally
against the wicked, according to the books ;
no wrong ahaU be dene them, they shaU
have fair justice, and they shall see what
they weuld not look upon before, wben by
seeing, that might have been blotted out,
and a free acquittance written in ita atead.
And that the believer abaU read in hia con.
acience at that day, which, through the dim-
neaa of faith, ahd dark, troubled eatate oi
his aoul, he many tiraea could not read here
below. We are gaping atUl after new notiona, but
a few thinga wiaely and practically known,
drawn down frora the head into tbe heart,
are better than all that variety ef knowing
that raen are ao taken up with ; Paucis
literis opus est ad mentem bonam. This and
auch Uke comraon trutha we think we both
know and believe weU enough ; but, truly,
if thia great point touching the great and laat
judgraent were indeed known and believed
by us, it would draw our minds to mere fre-
quent and more deep thoughts of it ; and were
we eften and serioua in thoae thoughta, they
would have auch influence into aU our other
thoughta, and the whole ceurse of our lives,
as would much alter the frame ef them from
what they are. Did we think ef thia gospel
whicb we preach and hear, that we m»st
then be judged by it, we should be now
more ruled by it ; but the truth is, we are
willingly forgetful of these things ; they are
melancholy, penaive thoughta, and we are
content that the noiae of affaira er any vani.
tiea fiU the ear of our rainda, that we hear
thera not. If we be forced at aome timea to
hear of this laat judgment to come, it pos.
aibly casts our censcience into some litde
trembling fit for the tirae, aa it did Felix ;
iudicablt qui injuste judicatus est Auo.

OF THE CREED.

4»'J

but I e was not, nor are we, so happy as
to be shakeri out of the cuatom and love
of sin by it ; we promiae it fair, as he
did, sorae other time ; but if that time never
come, this day will corae, and they that
shun to hear or think of it, shall then see
it, and the sight ef it will be as terrible and
amazing as the timely thoughts of it would
have been profitable. It is, no doubt, an
unpleasing subject to all ungodly, earthly
minds ; but sure it were our wisdom to be
of that mind new, that then we shall be
fbrced to be of ; we shaU then read, by the
light of tbat fire that shall bum the world,
the vanity of those things whereon we new
dote so foolishly. Let us, therefore, be per
suaded to think se now, and disengage our
hearts, and fix thera on him who ahaU then
iudge ua ; Kiss the Sen, Scc. They are
only happy that truat in hira ; that which
ia ' the aft'rightment of others, ia their great
joy and deaire ; they love and long for
that day, beth for tbeir Saviour'a glery in
(t and their ewn fuU happiness, and that
tbeir love to his appearing ia to tbem a cer-
tain pledge ofthe crown they are to receive
at hia appearing. 2 Tim. iv. 8- At thai day,
aays the apostle ; this day he esteems more
of than aU his days, therefore he namea it no
otherwiae than ihat day. Hew may we
know what day it waa he meant ? His coro
nation day- But of aU m,en, sure the hy
pocrite likes least the mention and reraera
brance of that day ; there is no room for dis
guises there ; all maski raust off, and all
things appear just as they are, and that is the
worat newa te hira that can be.
/ believe in the Holy Ghoat. Ged is
both a Spirit and hely ; but this name, per
sonally taken, is peculiarly that ef the third
person, proceeding frora the Father and the
Son, by a way that can neither be expresaed
nor coriceived ; holy in hiraself, and the
author and cauae of all holineaa in ua.
It ia neither useful nor safe for us tp en
tangle eur thoughts in diaputes concerning
this mystery, hut it ia neceaaary that we
know, and acknowledge, and believe in thia
Holy Spirit ; it ia he in whom and by whora
we beUeve : we cannot know God, ner the
thinga ef Ged, but by the Spirit of God, (1
Cor. ii. 11,) nor aay that Jeaua ia God, but
by the sarae Spirit, 1 Cor. xiii. 3. We know
thit this Holy Trinity co-operates in the
Work of our aalvation ; the Father bath
given ua hia Son, and the Son hath aent us
hia Spirit, and the Spirit givea us faith,
which unites us to the Sen, and through hira
to the Father : tbe Father ordained our re
deraption, the Son wrought it, the Holy
Spirit reveals and applies it-
The remaining articles have the frait of
that great work, the sending of the Son of
God in the flesh, his suft'ering and dying,
&.C.', what it ia, and to whom it belonga ;

the reault ef Christ's incamation and death,
oui et cujus gratia. Yea, the great design
of God in the ether great work, that of the
first creation, was thia second ; he made the
world, that out of it he raight make this
elect world that is called his church : the
Son feU on sleep, ori a dead sleep indeed,
the sleep of death on the cross, tbat out of
bis side might be framed his spouse, which
ia bia church. The Holy S|)irit moving
upon the aouls of raen in tbeir conversion,
airaa at thia aarae end, the gathering and~
completing of hia church ; be ia the breath
of life that breathed on theae new creatures
tbat make up thia society. So, then, tbis
ia as much as to aay, . I verily believe that
God had auch a purpoae in making .the world
and in sending bia Son into it, and tbey
both in sending the Spirit, and the Spirit in
his werking to make a holy church, a nunj-
ber that should serve God here, and enjoy
hira in eternity : and I believe that God
cannot fall short of his end ; that blessed
Trinity doth not project and work in vain :
I believe, therefore, there is auch a company,
there ia a holy, universal church ; (univer
aal) diffuaed through the several agea, and
piacea, and nations of the world ; (hely)
washed in the blood of Chriat, and aanctified
by hia Spirit ; tbat it ia, that it bath in all
agea centinued frera the beginning, and ahall
continue to the end of the world, increaaing
atill and growing to ita .appointed perfection,
araidst all the enmities and oppoaitiona that
it encountera in the world. / send you forth,
says Christ, as sheep among wolves. The
presiervation of the church is a continuing
rairacle ; it resembles Daniel's aafety ,imong
tbe hungry Uona, but prolonged fiora one
age te anether. The ahip, wherein Chriat
is, raay be weather-beaten, but it ahaU not
periah. So, then, you aee that this confes
sion is altogether no ether but your acknow
ledgment ef Ged in hiraself, three in one,
and ene in three, and his works ef the crea
tion of the werld, and the redemption of raan
by bis Son, made raan for that purpose, and
appropriate tp thera for whora it waa deaigned
by hia Holy Spirit ; and, witb thia acknow
ledgraent, our reUance on this Ged as the
author of our being and weU-being.
The communion of Saints. This springs
immediately from the former ; if they make
one church, then they have a very near com
munion together ; they are ene "body united
te that glorioua head that is above ; they
have aU one apiritual life flowing from hira :
and this communion holds not only on earth
and in heaven apart, but even betwixt heaven
and earth ; the aaints on earth make up the
sarae body with thoae already in glory ; they
are born to the aarae inheritance by new birth,
though the othera are entered in peaaession
before them. This, their coraraon title to
apiritual blessings and -eternal blessedness.

411

AN EXPOSITION

prejudges none ef them ; their inheritance is
such IS ia not leasoned by the multitude of
heirs, it is entire to each one ; and that grace
and salvation that fiows frem Christ, the
Sun of righteousness, is as the light of the
sun where it shines, none hath the less be
cause of others partaking of it- The happi
ness of the aaints ia called an inheritance
in Ught, which all men enjoy without abate
ment te any : they have each one their crown
they need net, they de not envy one another,
nor, Ottoman-like, one brother to kill an
other to reign alone ; yea, they rejoice in
the happiness and aalvation of one another,
they are glad at the gracea that God bestows
on tbeir brethren, for they knew tbat they
all belong to the sarae first owner, and re
tum to his glory ; and that whataoever diver
sity ia in thera, they all agree and concentre
in that aervice and good of the church ; and
se what each ene hath of gifts and graces, be
longs to all by virtue of this communion.
Thus ought each of tbem to think, and
every one of them hurably and charitably so
to use what he hath hiraself, and ingenuously
to rejoice in that which othera have, as the
apoatle reasons at large, 1 Cor. xii.
/ believe a holy Catholic Church, and
ihe communion of Saints.
We raay see the worth and the necessity
of holiness, how much it ia regarded in the
whole work ; for this very thing did Christ
give hiraself for his church, that he might
sanctify it. See, Eph- v- 26 ; so the end ef
eur rederaption : and if we look as far for
ward aa salvation, there pejfect bolineas ; ne-
hing unclean shall enter that holy city, and
without holiness rw man shall see God : and
look again as far back as our election, Eph.
i. 4, and those that are net partakera ef thia,
do but delude theraaelvea, in drearaing of in
terest iri the rest : no washing in the blood
of Christ to reraission, but withal by the
Spirit to sanctification ; ne corafort to the un
holy in their reaunection, becauae no hope of
that to foUow on it, that followa here — eter
nal life : no, without ahall be doga. In the
baae and foolish opinion "^f the world, holi
ness is a reproach, or at the best but a raean
poor commendation, aa you apeak of it d ia
rf ainfuUy, a good, silly, holy body ; and meo
-are more pleased witb any ether tide : they
had a great deal rather be called learned, or
wiae, or stout, or comely, than holy-" But
God esteems otherwise of it, whose esteera is
the true rule of worth. That forecited place,
a glorious church : How ? Holy and with
out blemish ; tbat is indeed the true beauty
of the soul, raakes it like God, and that is
its comeliness. We see the Lprd himself
delights to be known rauch by this style,
and glorified by 'it— Holy, holy, holy ; so
Exod. XV. 11, Glorious in holiness, and the
? Maiumus audire O virum doctum, quam O virum
bonum. Sen.

Spirit of God StiU called the Holy Spirit,
How raiich then are tbey raistaken concern
ing heaven, that think te find the way to it
out of the path of holineaa, which is indeed
via regni, the only way that leads unto it !
Reprove yeu of unholineaa, you aay yeu are
net aaiiita. Ne 1 So much the worae, for they
that mean to share iri the pardon of sin, and
etemal life, raust be such. If you be content
atiU net lo be aaints, go on ; but know, that
they that are not in aorae raeasure saints in
grace here, shaU never be saints in glory
hereafter. Forgiveness of Sins. Notwithstanding
forgiveness of ains, there is a necesaity of ho.
lineaa, theugh not as raeriting it, as leading
unto happiness- But, on the other side, not
withstanding the highest point of hoUness we
can attain, there ia neceasity bf this forgive.
neaa of aina. Though believera make up a
holy church and company of sainta, yet thfere
is a debt upon thera that their hoUnesa pays
not ; yea, they are ao far frem having super.
plua for a atanding treaaure after aU paid,
that aU the hoUneas of the aainta together,
will not pay the least farthing pf that debt
they pwe. As for me, I will walk in mine
integrity, aaya David, Psalra xxvi. 1 1. How
then ? adds he, " thia shaU justify me sufB.
ciently"? Np, but redeem thou me, and be
merciful to me ; sp 1 Jphn i. 6, 8, If we say,
we have no sin, we are liars. See, andwalk
in darkness, Scc. And yet, in the 7th verse,
thpugh we dp walk in the light, yet is there
need pf tbe blood of Jesus Christ, to cleanse
us from all sin ; and sp thrimghput the Scrip.
tures- All the integrity pf the gpdly under
the law did net exempt them frera offering
sacrifice, which was the expiation of sin in
the figure, looking forward to that great and
spotless sacrifice, that was to be slain fer the
sins of the world : and those that believe the
gospel, the application of tbat juatifying blood
that atreams forth in the doctrine of the gos.
pel, is not only needful to wash in for their
cleansing in their firat converaion, but to be
re-appUed to the aoul, for taking off the daily
contracted guiltiness of new sins. It ia a foun
tain opened and standing open for sin and
uncleanness, as that aea ef braaa before the
aanctuary, &c. They tbat are clean have still
need of waahing, at least, their feet, as Christ
apeaka to St. Peter.
The consideration ef that precious blood
shed for our sins, is the strongest persuasive
to holiness,^ and te the avoiding and hating
of .-in. So far is the doctrine of justification
(rightly underatood) from aniraating men to
sin- But because pf tbe wpeful cpntinuance
of sin in the godly, while they continue in
this region of sin and death, therefore is there
a continual necessity of new recourse to this
great expiation. Thus St. John joins thess
two, 1 Jobn ii. 1, 2.
You think it an easjy matter, and a tiling

OF THE CREED.

44.^

that for your own ease you wiUingly beUeve,
the forgiveness of sins. It is easy indeed,
after our faahion, eaay to imagine that we be
lieve auch a thing when we hear it, becauae
we let it paaa and question it net ; we think
it raay be true, and think no further on it,
while we neither know truly what sin is, nor
feel the weight ef our own sins : but where
a seul is convinced of the nature of sin, and
.ts own guiltiness, there to believe forgive-
less, is not so easy a task.
In believing this forgiveness of sins, and
IP the other privileges that attend it, there
be these ihiee things gradually leading one
to the other. 1 . To believe that there is such
a thing, and that it is purchased by tbe death
, of Christ, and se attainable by coming unto
him fer it. 2. By this the soul, finding itaelf
ready to aink under the burden of ita own
sins, is persuaded to ge to him, arid lay ever
that load on him, and itself withal resolves
to rest en him for this forgiveness : this is
to believe in him.who is the Lord our righ
teousness. 3. Upon this believing on hira
for forgiveness, foUows a reflex believing of
that forgiveness ; not continuaUy and inse
parably, especiaUy if we take the degree of
assurance somewhat high, but yet in itself it
is apt to foUow, and often in God's gracious
dispensation doth foUew upon tbat forraer
act of beUeving, through the clearness and
strength of faith in the seul, and sometiraes
withal, is backed with an express, peculiar
testiraony of God's own Spirit. Te believe,
and te grew stronger in believing, and to as
pire te the assurance ef faitii, is our constant
duty ; but tbat iraraediate testiraony ef the
Spirit ia an arbitrary beara that Gpd reserves
in his own hand, yet such a gift aa we raay
not only lawfuUy aeek, but de feoUahly pre
iudge ouraelvea and alight it, if we neglect
to seek it, and want ao rich a bleaaing fer
want of aaking, and withal, labouring to keep
our bearts in a due dispose and frame fer en
tertaining it. Tbe keeping our conaciences
pure, aa much aa may be, doth net only keep
the comfortable evidence of pardon cleareat
and leaat interrupted within us, but is the
UkeUeat to receive thoae pure joys that flow
immediately into the soul frora tiie Spirit of
God. The testiraony ef our conacience ia
(if we damp it net ouraelvea) our continual
feast, but that testiraony of tbe Spirit ia a
superadded taste of higher corafort out of
God's own hand, as it were a piece ef hea
ven in the soul, which he aoraetiraea cheera
it withal : where he hath firat given much
love and ardent deairea after himaelf, they
axe abort of that light in the fulneaa whereof
we hope to d^vell hereafter. But beaides
that, God is raoat free in that particular,
and knows what ia fitteat for it ; the great
est part even of true Christians yet do not so
walk, nor altaiu to tbat spiritualness that is
capable of sucli visits-

The resurrection of the body. The com
fort of theae privileges, oppoaed to thoae
grand evils tlpat we feel er fear — sanctification
to the power ef sin, justification er forgive
neaa to the guilt of sin, the resunection to
temporal death, and life eternal to the second
or eternal death.
This ia the raiaing of the self-same body
that is laid in tbe duat ; otherwise, the giv
ing of a body to the soul again, must have
seme other name, for resurrection it cannet
be caUed.
That God can do thia, notwithstanding
all iraaginable difficulties in it, have we not
proof enough in what he hath done ? Sure
that which he did in the beginning of time,
the framing the whole world of nothing, is
more than a sufflcient pledge ef this that is
to be done in the end of time.
That he wiU do it, we have his own word
for it, and the pledge of it in raising his Son
Jeaua, therefore caUed ihe first-begotten from
ihe dead ; thia aa relating to believera, whe
are one with hira. The resunection of the
dead in general ia an act of power ; but to
the godly an act of grace, to tbe wicked of
justice ; both ahaU riae by the power of
Chriat, but to the one as a judge, and a judge
that ahaU condemn thera ; te the other aa
their Head, and their Saviour. Joseph's
two feUow-prisoners were both taken out of
the prison, and at the sarae time, but the one
to the court, the other to the gaUows ; so in
the reaunection, John v. 29.
The confession of faith being of such
things as belong te beUevers, and are their
happineas, therefore their resurrection is par
ticularly here, intended, as we see eternal life
and glory ia subjoined to it.
Our bodiea are raiaed, that were corapa
nions and partakers ef our good and evU in
our abode upon earth, that they raay in eter
nity be companions and partakera of our re
ward ; thoae ef the ungodly, te suit their
'conderaned so'uls, ahaU be filled with shame,
and vileneaa, and raisery ; and those that
were in their lower estate here teraples of the
Hely Ghost, ahall be filled with that fulneas
of joy, that ahaU ran over from the soul unto
thera ; they shaU be conform to the happy
and glorious aoula to wliich they ahall be
united, yea, to the glorious body of our Lord
Jeaua Chriat. There shaU then be nothing
but beauty, and glory, and immortality iu
them that are now frail and mortal, and be
ing dead, do pufrify and turn to dust. He
ahaU change our vile bodiea, and make them
Uke unto hia moat glorioua body ; but, as
St. Bernard says well, Tf we w-.mld be sure
of this, that our bodies shall be conformed
to his, in the glory io come, see our souls bo
here conformed to his, in that humUity
which he so mmch numifested whilst he
dwelt among men; if we would that then
our vile body be made like his glorious body.

AN EXPOSITION, &c.

44G 1ft eur proud heart now be made like hia hum- .
ble heart. |
Life eternal. Our confesaion of faith ends
in that which ia the end of our faith — our
everlasting salvation, or etemal life; of whicii
all that we can say is but stammering, and
all our knowledge and conceiting ef it but
ignorance, in regard of what , it is ; yet so
much we know, or may know of it, as, if we
knew aright, would certainly draw us more
into the deairea and pursuit ef it. The very
narae of life ia sweet, but then especiaUy as
it is here raeant, in the purest and sweetest
sense.* For a Ufe full of misery is scarce
worth the name ef life, and the longer' it
were, the worse; therefore the miserable
estate of damned souls, theugh immortal in
it, is caUed death. So, then, by this Ufe,
true and full blessedneaa being raeant, and
then tha* added, that it is eternal life, what
can be imagined more to make it desirable ?
So happy, that there shaU net be the
sraaUest drop of any evU or bittemess in it
pure, unmixed blisa ; nothing preaent in it
that is displeaaing, nor nothing wanting tbat
ia delightful ; and everlaating, that when
milUona of yeara (if there were any such
reckoning there) are rolled abeut, it shaU
be as far from ending aa at the firat.
A very little knowledge of this blessed
life would make us clean out of love with
the Ufe that now we make such account of.
.What can it be that ties us here ? The
known shortness of this life, were it more
happy than it is te any, might make it of
less, esteem with us ; but then withal, being
.80 full of miseries and sins, se stuffed with
sonows round about us, and within ourselves,
that if the longest of it can be caUed long,
* Non eit vivere, sed valere vita.

it is only the multitude ef miseries in it cari
challenge that name fer it, Sucha world of
bodily diseases ; here one's head paining him,
another his stomach ;• some complaining
of this part, some of that, and the same party
sometimes of ene malady, sometimes of an.
other ; what disappointments and disgraces,
and cross encounters of affaira I What per
aonal and what public calamitiea ! And
then sin the worat of all ; and yet aU cannot
wean us. We cannet endure to hear nor
think of removing ; and the true reason is,
unbeUef ef thia eternal life, and the neglect
ef thoae waya that lead to it. Be persuaded
at length to call in your heart from the fool.
iah chaae of vanity, and consider this glori-
ous life that is aet before yeu. Do you think
the proviaion you raake for thia wretched
preaent Ufe worth ao raany houra* daily pains,
and give eternal life scarce half a thought in
many hours, poasibly not a fixed, serious
thought in raany daya ? Sure, if you be
lieve there is such a thing, yeu cannot but
be convinced, that it ia a raoat prepoaterous,
unwiae courae you take, in the expense of
your time and pains, upon any thing else
more than on life eternal. Think what a
aad thing it will be, think you, when you»
aoul rauat reraove out of that Utde cottage
wherein it now dwella, not te be bettered by
the removal, but thruat out into utter dark.
neaa ; whereaa, if ye would give up with sin;
and erabrace Jeaus Chriat aa your joy and
your life, in hira yeu would preaently be put
into a sure, unfailing right to this eternal
life ; it is a pure life, and purity of Ufe here
ia the only way to it. Blessed are the pure
J in heart, for they shall see God.
I * Quam male nobis convenit, nunc de ventre, niinfi
I de capite, &c., hoc contingere solet in alieno hahitlKi'
I tibus. Sen

AN EXPOSITION

OF

THE LORDS PRAYER.

Matth. vi. 9.,
After ihis manner, therefore, pray ye.
J. HE malice and sleight of batan, in refer
ence to good actions, works first in attempt
ing whoUy to divert us frora thera ; but if
that take net, the next is, to pervert their
use, ,ind cortupt them so in doing, that they
loae their acceptance with God, and we con
aequently loae the fruit and corafort of thera.
And aa there is no religioua exerciae that he
hath raere quanel at, and owea greater en
mity to, than prayer, , being the raeat con
stant croaaer of hia designs, there ia none
from which he more endeavours to estrange
men, either wholly te lay it down, or te fre
quent cessations; or, if that cannot be, but
that the light of conacience atill caUa for
somewhat at least that may pass with a man
for prayer, yet if Satan can get it turned to
hypocrisy and formality, he knows he needs
net fear it, for so it wanta the life of prayer,
and remaina nothing but a dead carcaae, and
therefore can neither pleaae the Uving God,
nor hurt him who ia ita eneray.
Therefere our Saviour here warns his dis
ciples to avoid, in praying, these two evils —
the vain ostentation of hypocrites, verae 5,
and ihe vain repelition of the Heathen,
verae 7 ; not to think it prayer tq turable out
a raultitude ef empty worda ; and upon that
takes occasion to aet this matchleaa copy of
prayer — the way of exaraple being the abort.
est and livelieat way of teaching. Theae
worda that are but tbe entry, are net to be
passed : there is in thera, L the duty of
prayer supposed ; 2- the prescribing of this
form- 1- Pray ; 2. After, ihis manner.
The use and necessity of prayer is taken
for confessed, as before, ver. 6, 7, When
ye pray, and when thou prayest. And the
consideratipn pf this exercise, and cf this

pattern pf it, is with gpod reason accounted
among the mest necessary principles of reli
gion ; without it, indeed, all religion withers
and languishes- The law of God is so pure
and exact a rule, that we cannet come near
the perfection of it, and therefore fall under
its curse. Wben we understand it se, that
drives ua to tbe goapel, to seek salvation
there ; and the articles of the goapel, ef our
Christian faith, are se high and mysterious,
that nature cannot aright understand or be-
lieve thera ; and therefore both law and gos
pel drive us to prayer, to aeek of God renew
ing grace to conforra our hearts in some
raeasure to the hely law of Ged, and faith
to lay held en Jeaus Christ, and aalvation
in hira held forth te ua in the gospel. Prayer
ia net taken in ita atrict, grtoiraatical aenae,
in which the worda uaed for it aignify only
petition or requeat ; but as comprehending,
together with petition, confeasion and thanks.
giving, may be caUed chiefiy and plainly, a
pious invocation of God ; and not speaking
abatractiy ef prayer, but according to the
eatate ef fallen man, it ia very fit to add the
expreaa mention of the Mediatpr, that ia, an
invpcatipn pf Gpd in the name pf Chriat ; for
it never aacends tp Gpd aa pleaaing incenae,
but when it passeth through tbat golden cen-
aer, and ia perfuraed with the sweet odours
of his merits and intercession. His entrance
into heaven hath opened up the way f'or our
prayers te ceme in, and there is ne acceaa to
the throne ef grace, but by thai new and
Uving way, aa the apostle speaks. But bow
much better ia the frequent practice, than
much diacourae and business in defining
it ! Whataoever ia aaid aright in this, is -
fer the other aa ita end, aa Gcrson hath it
out of an ancient philoaopher, Inquirimus
quid sii virtus, non ut sciamus, sed ut boni
efficiamur. We inquire what virtues are,
not to know them, but to have them. And
indeed to do otherwise is but answerable

448

AN EXPOSITION OF

employraent to study the nature of riches,
and talk of thpm, and reraain peor, possess
ing none.
It ia not needful to stay upon distinguish
ing prayer, by the different matter of peti
tions, or things te be requested, which pos
sibly sorae of the different naraes of prayer
in scripture do signify. This raay suffice,
that it be of such things as are conformed to
the wiU and promises of God, and desfred
with a suitable disposition of mind, and
therefore I call it a pious invocation. It is
the highest impudence te present God with
unjust or frivolous desirea, et qute scire ho
mines noluni Deo narrant. Sen. We ought
to reverence the majesty of God, and regard
that in our requests. There is a difference
betwixt spleran prayer and sudden cjacula
tipns, but it is npt a difference in, their na
ture, but pnly in continuance ; the forraer is
here meant, therefore of it, &c. Only this
of the other : it is to be wished that it were
raere known, and more in use with Chria
tiana, for it ia, no doubt, a very happy meana
of preserving the heart in holy temper, and
conatant regard ef God in aU a man'a actiona,'
.ind is a main point of answering the apos
tle's word, pray continually ; when in com
pany, arid apart, a mari useth aecret .short
motions of the soul to God, that raay be very
frequent in tbe day and night, whereas men's
caUings, and natural neceaaitiea, and era
ployraenta, aUow thera but aerae certain par
cel of beth for aolemn prayer ; and theae fre^
quent looka of the heart to heaven exceed
ingly sweeten and sanctify our other employ
ments, and diffuse aoraewhat of heaven
through all our actiona. Solemn prayer at
fit times ia a viaiting of Ged, but this were
a constant walking with him aU the daylong,
lodging with him in the night : When I
awake, says David, / am still with thee.
And theae audden dartinga of the aoul hea.
venwarda, may sometimes have mere swift
ness and force than larger supplications,
having much spirit, as it were, contracted
in them ; and they would, no doubt, if uaed,
be anawered with frequent beama of God's
countenance retumed to the soul, as it were
in exchange ; for though whole Ufetimes of
prayer are not worthy the least of those, yet
it pleases God thua to keep intercourae with
thoae souls that love hira, and for the eja
culations of tbeir deaire? to him, looks back
on fhem, and ao they interchange, aa it were,
su-iden glances of lpve that anawer one
another. The Lord ia pleaaed to apeak thus
hiraself, and the souls that know thia love,
understand it — Thou hasl ravished my
heart, my sister, my spouse, with one of
thine eyes. But though such looks in eja
culation wiU refresh a soul inflaraed with the
love pf Gpd, yet it suffices net ; they raust
htive times pf larger and mpre secret cpnverse
with their beloved, and particularly in the ex- 1

ercise ef solemn, cpntinued prayer, and if cut
shprt pf it at any tirae, will raiaa it as much
as an healthful bpdy its accustpmed repaat.
But it wpuld seem, that thpngh there may
be spme reaspn fpr cpnfessipn and thanks.
giving, yet that which hath mest pecuUarly
the name of prayer — ^petition, is superfluous
he that kneifs eur wanta better than our.
selves, acd what, h fittest tp beatpw upon us,
and forgets not i.* all; what need we put him
in mind, and follow him with ao many suits ?
Thia indeed is a strong reaaon against vahi
babblings in prayer, and imagining to be
heard merely for long continuance and mul.
titude of worda ; and our Saviour himself
doth here uae it ao, ver. 8 ; i mt withal, he
ahews us clearly, tbat it r„akes nothing
against the exerciae ef prayer, in that he adds
immediately upon theae worda. After this
manner, therefore, pray ye.
Although tbe Lprd knowa weU our wanta,
and doth "according to his own good pleasure,
yet there ia for prayer, 1. Duty ; 2. Digni.
iy ; S. Utility.
I. Duty. We owe this homage to God,
not only to worship bira, but particularly to
offer up our supplications, and to acknow
ledge hira our King, and Ruler ofthe whole
world, and to testify our dependence upon
him, as the giver bf every good gift ; it is
net because he is unwiUing and loath te give,
for he gives liberally, and upbraids none ;
yet aays the apostle there. If any man laik
wisdom, let him ask it. So, of all wants,
that which thanksgiving doth acknowledge
after receipt, aupplication doth beforehand ;
his power, and truth, and goodneaa, &c. ;
thia is his still, the God that heareth prayer,
and therefere this homage is due to him —
To him shall all flesh come.
2. Dignity. Tbis is the honour of the
saints, tbat they are admitted tp sp near and
frequent converse with the great God, that
they dp npt onlyjg^pect frora him,, but may
so freely speak to him of their desirea and
wanta, arid may pour out thefr complainta
into hia bosom. Abraham is sensible of the
greatness of this privilege, by reflecting upon
the greatness of his distance ; it is an un.
speakable honour for dust and ashes to ba
received into auch faraiUarity with the Lord
ef heaven and earth.
3. Utility. It quieta and eaaes the heart
when it is troubled, ta vent itself te God, as
there is seme natural eaae in aighs and teara ;
(fpr Ptherwiae nature shpu'd npt have been
furniahed with theifi,. nor teach us tp uae
thera) ; they diacharge aome part of grief,
though addressed no whither, but only let
out more when it ia in the presence of some
entire friend ; so that they must be most of
aU eaaing when they are directed to God iu
prayer. * Mine eye poureth forth tears
* Cor aerenat et .purgat oratio, capaclusque efficit
ad excipienda divina munera. S. Aoo.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

449

tinto God, aaya Job ; and David, My sigh
ing is not hid from thee. Cast thy biirden
on the Lord, says the Paalmiat. Tbe Lord
calls for our burdena, would not have us
wrestle with them ourselves, but roll them
over en him. J'o'v the desires that are
breathed forth in prayer are, as it were, the
very unloading of the heart ; each request
that goes forth, carries out soinewbat of the
burden with it, and lays it on God. Be
careful in nothing, says tbe apostie : that
were a pleaaant life indeed, if it might be ;
but hew shall that be attained ? Why, this
is the only way, says he. In all things make
your requests known unto God : teU him
what are your desires, and leave them there
with him, and so yon are sure to be rid of
further disquieting care of thera ; try as many
ways as you will, there is no other wiU free
yeu in difficulties of .all perplexing thoughts
but this, and this will do ic.
2. In it the graces of the Spirit are exnr-
cised, and they gain by that, as all habits do.
They are strengthened and increased by act
ing faith, in beUeving the prpraises : and
that is the Very basis pf prayer ; it cannpt
subsist without the suppprt of faith. And
hppe is raised up and set pn ti\>-toe,xiroKx'Soxiiy;
tp leok out for accpraplishment, and lpve
it, is that which delights it ; tp impart iis
raind to hira pn whpm it is set, and thus tn
entertain converse and conference with him ;
and aU hpurs seem shprt to it that are thus
spent ; and by this it still rises tp a higher
fiame, it is blown and stined by prayer. The
raore the aoul converses with Gpd, doubtless
the more it loves him.
And this speaking your desires to God in
prayer, makea the heart still more holy, in
vites it to entertain new desirea, but such as
it raay confidently acquaint Ged witiial.
In relation to the particular things desired,
it not only fits and disposes^he heart fpr re
ceiving them as blessings, ^t withal it is a
real raeans pf obtainment, by reaaon of God's
own appointraent, and of his proraise. He
hath bound himself by his proraiaes, not tp
disregard the prayers pf his pepple : His ear
is open to their cry, saya the Paalra iat ; and
the many inatancea iu acripture, and experi
ence pf the church in aU ages, bear witness
tp the truth pf these promises. Imminent
judgments averted, great arraies conquered,
and the very course of nature countermanded,
the sun anested, by the pi' wer of prayer.
Moses' hands only neld up to heaven, routed
the Amalekites mere than .lU tbe swords that
were drawn against them.*
The goodness of God is expressed in his
promises ; and these preraises encourage
prayer, and prayer is answered with perfor
mance, and thanksgiving returns tbe perfor
mance in praise to God, Psalm ]. 13. So
• » In Aurelius's time the legion of the Christians is
railed KtvdffiXof. „ --

all ends where it began, In him who is the
Alpha arid Omega, the beginning and end
of aU things.
If you weuld be rich in all grace, be much
in prayer. Conversing with God assimilates
the soul to him, beautifies it with the beams
ofhis holiness, as Aloses' face shined when
he returned from the mount. It is prayer
that brings all our suppUes from heaven, (as
that woman, Prov. xxxi. 14,) draws more
grace out of God'a hand, and subdues sin
and the powers of darkness ; it entertains and
Siugments our friendship with God, raiaeth
the soul frora earth, arid purifies it wonder
fully. Their experience that have any of
this kind, teaches them, that as they abate
in prayer, all their graces do senaibly weak
en ; therefore when the appstie hath auited a
Christian with hia whole armour, he adds
tills to all, pray continually ; for this arms
man and his arraour both with tbe strength
and protection of God, armatura armaturce
oratio. After this manner.
They that know any thing of their ewn
wants and -poverty, and of the bounty and
fulness of God, cannot doubt ef tbe continual
usefulness of prayer ; and they tbat are sen
sible of their own unskilfulness, wiU acknow
ledge, that as prayer is necessary, so tiiere
is necessity of a direction how to perform it.
The disciples found this in themselvea, when
they said. Lord, teach us io pray, as St.
Luke haih it, where he records tbia prayer.
And OUT Saviour here marks the enors of
hypocriay and babbling in prayer, that are ao
incident to men, and teacheth hia diaciplea.
After this manner therefore pray ye.
As for prescribing forma of prayer in ge
neral, tp be beund to tbeir continual uae in
private or pubUc, is no where practiaed.
Npr is there, I cpnceive, pn the other side,
any thing in the word of God, or any solid
reason drawn from the word, to condemn
tbeir use.
There is indeed that inconvenience observ
able in their much use, and leaning on thera,
that they easUy turn to coldness arid formali
ty ; and yet, te speak the truth of this, it is
rather imputable to our dulness, and want
of affection in spiritual things, than to the
forms of prayer tJiat are used. Fer, whereas
seme may account it much spiritualness to
deapiae what they have heard before, and to
desire continual variety in prayer, it seems
rather to be want of spiritualness that makes
that needful, for that we find not eur affec
tions Uvely in that holy exercise, unless tbey
be awaked and stined up by new expreaaions ;
whereas the soul that is earnest on tbe thing
itself for itself, panting after the grace of
God, and the pardon of sin, regarda not in
what terma it ,be uttered, whether new or
old ; yea, though it be in theSe words it
h.ith heard and uttered a hundred times, yet

4-50

AN EXPOSITION OF

StiU it is new to a apiritual mind. And aure
the desirea that do move in that constarit
way, have more evidence of sincerity and true
vigour in thera, than these tbat depend
upon new notions and worda to raove thera,
cannot stir without thera. It may be it ia
ne other but a falae fiash of temporary devo
tion that arises in a man's heart, which
comea by the power ef seme moving strain
of prayer tbat is new. But when confes
sions ef ain, and requeats of parden, theugh
in never so low and accustomed terras, carry
his heart along with thera heavenwarda, it ia
then more aure that the Spirit of God dweU
ing io him, and the senae of the thinga
theraselves, the esteera of the blood of Christ,
and the favour of Ged, do raove the heart,
when there ia ne novelty of worda te help it.
So, then, though the Lord beatowa rich gifta
upen aorae ef his servants, for his glory and
the good ef his church ; yet we sheuld be-
ware, that iu fancying continual variety in
prayer, there be not more of the flesh than
of the Spirit, and the head working raore
than the heart. It is reraarkable that (as
they that search those things observe) the
words of this prayer are divers of thera such
as corae near the words of such petitions aa
were usual araong the Jews, thougb be, in
whora was all fulness and wisdora, was not
scarce of matter and words ; so little was no
velty and variety considerable in prayer in hLs
esteera. Mistake it net, the Spirit of prayer
hath npt bis seat in the inventipn, but in the
affectipn. In this raany deceive themselves, in
that they think the work of this Spirit of pray
er to be mainly in furnishing new suppUes of
thoughts and werds ; no, it is mainly in excit
ing the heart anew at tiraes of prayer te break
forth itself in ardent desfreatoGod, whataoever
the wprda be, whether new pr old,' yea pos
sibly without werds ; and then mest power
ful when it worda it leaat, but vents in sighs
and groans that cannot be expressed. Our
Lord underatanda the language of these per
fecdy, and likes it best ; he knows and ap
provea tbe meaning of hia own Spfrit, looka
not to the outward appearance, the abell ef
words, as raen do.
But to speak particularly of tbis forra that
is above all exception, it is given us as the
pattem and raodel ef all our prayers, and the
closer they keep te it, the nearer they reaera
bie, they are the raore approvable. It is a
wonder then, how any can scruple the use
of this prayer itself : for if ether prayers are
to be squared by it, what forbida to uae that
which is the square, and therefore perfectest ?
If they be geod by conforraity to it, itself
must be better. The raurabUng it over
without understanding and affection is indeed
no otiier but a gress abuse of it, and taking
of the name of God in vain, as aU other
lifeleaa prayer is. '.^nd this is net only the
Ponish abuse of it,- "but toe much our own ;

for when we do not both understand and at.
tentively mind what we say, it is aU one to
us, though in our own tongue, as if with
them we said it in an unknown language.
It is a fooUsh, superstitious conceit, to im.
agiue that the rattling over these words is
sufficient for prayer ; but it is, on the other
side, a weak, groundless scruple, to doubt
that the uae pf it, with spiritual affection, ij
both lawful and coramendable.
OiiTois. It is a particle both for the matter
and raanner of prayer.
1. The matter.
This may be our rule, that whatsoever
we cannet reduce to some part of thia pray.
er, as contained under it, should be no part
of ours. If we take net heed to this, we may
abuse the throne of God with undue and un.
worthy suits, and ask those things that it
were a punishment te give us : therefore
Plato chose weU that werd, Give us what
is good for us, whether we ask it or noi ;
and what is evil give us not, though we
should desire ii. Net te speak new particu.
larly, we see in the matter of this prayer in
general, that spiritual things are to he the
main of aU our prayers ; and in things tem.
poral, net to lodge auperfiueua, inordinate
deairea, but in a raoderate uae to aeek things
neceaaary. 2. For ihe manner: Obaerve, I, The
order of thia prayer, that the aoul put itself
in the aight ef Ged, and him in ita own
aight, beginning, aa here, with due thoughts
of the raajesty of God te whora we pray ;
arid this is of very great conaequence : but
more of thia hereafter. 2. Tbat the glory
of God is whoUy prefened to aU our own
contentment, of what kind soever ; that is
to be the first-born and. strength of aU our
desires, and aU that we seek for ourselves
must be in relation to that his glory, directed
te it as our highest scope. And because we
are naturaUy inWoi self-love, and our hearts
are carried by it towards eur own interest,
and therefore wiU be ready to start aaide
Uke deceitful bows, and slip us in eur aira.
ing at that mark, therefore there be three
several petitions, all of that strain, to make
them steady and fixed tewards it, to desfre
in all things, and above all things, that our
God raay be glorified.
3; Brevity, opposed to tbat babbling which
our Saviour reproves and particularly conecta
by this form ; that fault he lays on the
Heathen, not upon the Jewa, for they blamed
it too, and their doctors spake againat it, al.
legirig that place that is very pertinent, Eccles.
V. 2, where he argues from our exceeding dis
tant, and the greatness ef God, because
men use not to entertain great persons with
long empty diacpurses. Knpw, then, befpre
whpm thpu art in prayer, and have sp much
respect tP the majesty of Ged, as uot to mul
tiply idle repetitions, such as wise men cau-

THE LORD'S PR.\YER.

4A1

npt weU endure, hpw much leas the all-wise
Gpd ! BxTToXoyia and woXuXiyiae are here put
as pne, because the pne ia the cpnsequent of
the other ; where there is rauc'h apeaking, there
wiU be vain apeaking and empty repetitions. •
In multitude of words there wanteth itnt
sin, says Soloraon ; and we aee it, that they
that lay a neceaaity upen theraaelvea of a
long continuance and raany words in prayer,
aa if it were otherwiae no prayer at all, they
fall into thi^jncenvenience of idle repeating ;
and thia is raost unbeseeming our accesa to
tbe majeaty of God, aa if there were some
defect either in his knowledge, or in his at
tention or affection to these that seek him,
Therefore, though this was the common
fault of the Heathen, yet aome even of thera
had ao rauch diacerning aa to condemn this
folly, and inveigh againat it,-(- acknowledg
ing both the wiadom of God, arid hia
love to raankind, and that he underatands
far better what is fit for us than we ouraelvea,
and therefore waa not to be dishonoured with
idle tediousness in prayer.
But is then all length and rauch continu
ance in prayer, and aU redoubUng ef the
aarae requeat, reprovable ? Surely ne. Were
there nothing elae to perauade ua of thia, eur
Saviour'a own practice were aufficient, who
preacribed thia rale, and yet is found to have
apent whole nighta in prayer, and to have
iterated the aame requeat ; and doubtieaa
(which can be aaid of ne other) his example
is as perfect a rule as hia doctrine.
Tbia, then, briefiy ia the fault here, when
the long coritiriuarice arid much repetitiori
in prayer ia affected aa a thingof itaelf avail
able, when heaping on worda, and beating
eften over the aame worda, though the heart
bear thera not company, is judged to be
¦prayer ; and generally whenaoever the tongue
outruna the affection, then ia prayer turned
into babbling. Yea, thouah a man uae thia
very abort form here preacribed, yet he may
corarait thia very fault againat which it was
provided, he raay babble in saying it ; and it
is to be feared the greatest part do se. Men
judge (and that rightly) a speech to be long
or short, not sp much by the quantity of
words, as by the sense ; se that a very short
speech that is empty of sense may be called
long, and a long one tbat is full, and hath
nothing irapertinent, is truly short : $ thus
as men judge by the sense of speech, God
judgeth by the affection ef prayer ; that ia
the true aense ef it, ae the quality ia the rule
of the quantity with him. There is no
prayer too long to him, provided it be aU
enUvened with affection ; no idle repetition
* Xat'le TO, r' llwuv ToWx, xxi TO, xxl^lot. Soph.
tEdip. aS. Col. 842.
t Paucis verbis rem divinam facito. Pl.
i .'Vbsit ut multiloquium deputem, quando neces
saria dicuntur, ^quantalibet sermonum multitudine
ac prolixitate di'cantur I3reviLis est etiam in lijugis-
aima'oratlone, cui nCiil mest alieni.

where the heart saya every word over again,
as eften and more often than the tongue.
Therefere_those repetitions in the Psalms,
" Lord hear, Lord incline thine ear. Lord
attend," &c., were net idle on this account ;
God's ewn Spirit did dictate them, there
was not one of them empty, but came frem
tbe heart ef the hely penraen, fuU fraught
with the vehemency of their affections. Arid
it is reported of St, Augustin, that he pray
ed ever for a wbole night, Noverim te, Do
mine, noverim me : because hia heart still
followed the auit, aU of it waa prayer. So
tbat in truth, where the matter ia new, and
the worda atill diverse, and very rich i»
aenae, yet with God it may be idle multiply
ing of worda, because the heart stays be-
hind ; and where the aarae worda are repeat
ed, that a raan aeeraa poor and mean in the
gift of prayer te ethers, yet if it be not defect
of affection, but abundance ef it (as it raay
be)- that raoves often the sarae request, it is
not erapty, but full of that sense tbat the
searcher of hearts alone can read. I had
rather share with that publican in his own
worda, and say it eften over, aa if I had no
thing else to say, God, be merciful to me
a sinner, aaying it with auch a heart, tiian
the moat excellent prayer where the outaide
ia the better half.
So, then, thia ia the mistake of men, ki
think to make worda pasa for prayer with
God, and to make up what is wanting in
wardly, with multitude of words and long
continuance ; a foolish compensation, that
wiU ne way satisfy him that aaya, above all.
My son, give me thy heart ; and np length
nor worda can aupjily the want of that with
him. Yet many do thua ; tbey give large
raeasure of tbat which is altogether worth
nothing ; as the pratpr said pf those tbat
made a poor speech pass for spmething, with
crying it put with a loud voice, '^ that tbey
were Uke to these cripples that got on horse
back to hide their haltirig." It is thus here,
and the Church of Rome hath it fer their
common ahift ; they have shut out the heart
out of this employihent, where it hath raoat
interest, by praying in an unknown tongue :
and this defect they make up with long con
tinuance, and repetition of pater nosters,
with a devptipn as cpld and dead as the beads
they drpp. And sp they with their brevia
ries, notwithstanding of their narae, fall di
rectly into this foolish, heathenish vanity of
idle length and repetitions.
Thus dp we tpp, thpugh we speak piu: pwri
knpwn language, when either in secret or in
public we suffer bur hearts to rove in prayer,
and hear not ourselves what we are praying
— ^how then can we expect that Ged should
hear us ?
Ifthe affection can bf bmnrht to cpntinu»
in it, prayer in secret cannot be too long f
but let U5 not think it virtue erough that it

4.52

AN EXPOSITION OF

is long, let it rather be brief with strong
bent of mind, than long without it ;• as a
smaU bodj, strong and fuU ef spirits, is
much better than the greatest bulk that is
duU and spiritless. And when we pray in
company, because men cannot know the
temper of other nieri's hearta, usuaUy a con
venient midst, betwixt extremes, viz. brief-
ness and length, seeras raost suitable.
But, alas ! hew few be there that keep
constant watch over thefr affections in prayer,
and endeavour to keep the heart bent to it
throughout ! Oh I how much sin is com
mitted by us this way that we observe not !
This is a great lesson, and requires stiU
our diligence, even aU our lifetime, to learn
it better and better — how to pray.
We have here indeed a complete . copy,
but we cannot foUow it ; he that set it us
must put his Spirit within us, to lead our
hand and heart that we may foUow it, as he
here shews how we should pray. We are
hot bom with this art, fimus oratores, and
I may add the other word, true of us, in re
gard of our vanity of mind, and the devices
that arise in it, nascimur poei<e. Omnis
Actio cordis, Scc. Gen. vi. 5 ; Eccles. vii.
29. We must have that spirit ef his, the
Spirit of Prayer, to teach us effectuaUy, and
make us leam thia divine art of prayer, ac
cording to his rulea. Although we are thua
externally taught by our Saviour'a doctrine,
yet unleas we be taught within by the Spirit,
we are never tbe nearer, we know neither
what to aak, nor how to ask ; but that ia a
happy supply, and they may rejoice in it
that have it, the Spirit of God " helping
their infirmities, and raaking interceaaion
for them." How ahould they speed in their
suita with God, tbat have both hia own
Spirit interceding, by framing and inditing
thefr petitiona, and his own Son interceding
at his right hand by his merits !
Our Father.
He ihat follows me (says our Saviour)
shall not walk in darkness. It is safest in
all o^lr ways to be led by him, particularly
in our acceaa to the Father by prayer; he leada
us in by his intercesaion, through him we have
iirxyaym, access, or rather adduction, takes
us by the hand te bring us to tbe throne of
grace, gives us his Spirit to frame our rainds,
and teach us with what disposition to pray.
Here he leads us, by putting werds in our
mouths, and furnishing us what to say.
1. The preface or cempeUation.
2. The petitions,
3. The conclusion.
1. By the preface we are in general taught
this (ere we consider particularly the words
of it) : 1. To endeavpur te have right
thoughts and apprehensions of God, en whom
* Non est (ut quidam putant) orare in multiloquio,
sl diutius oretur, aliud est sermo multus, aliud diu-
tiinius atfectus. Abiit multa loquutio, sed nondesit
multa precatio, Ave.

we call. 2. At our entry or beginning to
pray, to set ourselvea before him, and him
before our own sight, to have the eye pf our
mind set on that Deity we worship. This
would do rauch to the curing that common
disease of our prayers, the wandering and
roving ef our minds ; an evil that they can.
net but be sensible ef, and eften bewail, they
that take any notice of their ewn inward
caniage with God, that trace their own hearts
and aak account of their behaviour in prayer.'
Oh ! light, inconstant hearta ! (may they
aay) as the Latin reads that, Pa. xl. 12,
Cor meum dereliquii me. How many regard
them not at aU ! But they that do, find it
their ordinary trick te give them the slip.
And this ia one great cause of our wanderings,
that we do not, at our entrance to prayer,
corapose ourselves to due thoughts pf God,
and tp set purselves in his presence ; this
wpuld dp much tpawe us, and ballast our
minds, that they tumble not to and fro, as
is their custom. There be not many that
do, but it would prove, no doubt, much
help, would we taak ourselvea to thia, never
to open our raouths to God, tiU the eye of
our soul were fixed upon him, and taken up
with considering of bis presence. But of
this more when we come to these werds. Who
art in heaven.
Our Father which art in heaven. Our
Father ; the mercy of Ged is in -this, to
beget in ua the confidence of faith ; in the
other, which art in heaven, the majesty of
God to work ua te reverence ; though there
is somewhat in the word Father Ukewise to
persuade reverence, and something in the
other that confirma faith ; but mere pf this
hereafter ; yet if we take that which appears
mpst, and is predpminant, the fprmer
rnainly suppprts faith, and the latter begets
humility. The ftarae pf it is extensive; riPt My
Father, but ChS Father, and sp thrpugh.
out ; besides that it was a pattem beth for
public and private prayer, and so it waa fittest
to ran in the larger and public atyle. It
dpth, np dpubt, (as aU have taken it,) teach
the charitable extension of our prayera, where
they are mest private, to take in with our
own, the good of others, and when we are
busiest and most particularly deaUng for our.
selves, yet net to ahut out pur brethren. Let
the place and perfprmance pf aecret prayei
be as private aa raay be, but the strain and
suits pubUc, as weU as perspnal. The mpat
private prayer pf the gedly is a public geod,
and he loses nothing by tbat ; fer, besides
that his particular is net hindered by taking
in others, he hath tbis gain, that by the
sarae reason he Ukewise hath a share in aU
the prayers of others. And this (tiiough
little considered by the most) is ene point,
and not a smaU orie, but a very prpfitable and
• Nihil est in nobis corde fug,-icius, Gbisb-

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

453

comfortable point of tiiat article of eur faitb,
ihe communion of saints, that every be
liever hath a share in all the prayers of all
the rest ; he is partner in every ship of that
kind that sets to sea, and hath a portion of
all their gainfiil voyages.
But he that in prayer minds none but
himself, doubtiess he is not right in minding
himself; howsoever, this he may be sure ef,
that in keeping out others from his prayera,
he bara himself from the benefit of all othera'
prayers likewise. Si pro te solo oras, pra
te solus oras, St. Ambrose. So that self-
love itself may here plead for love to our
brethren. Forget not the church of God,
and to seek the good of Zion ; it is aot only
your duty, but your benefit. Are yeu net
all concerned in it, if indeed yeu be parts ef
that mystical body? And it hinders not at
aU, but rather advances your personal suits
at God's hands, whea he sees your love to
your brethren, and desire for the church'a
good. Let not therefore any eatate, no pri
vate perplexity or diatress, nor very aonow
for sin, take you so up, as to be all for your-
selvea ; let others, but eapeciaUy the public
condition of the church of God, find room
with you. We find it thus with David, when
he waa laraenting hia ewn caae, Psalra li.,
and Paalm xxv. 22, and elaewhere ; yet he
fo^eta not the church : In thy good pleasure
do good io Zion, and build up ihe walls of
Jerusalem. So then let this be the constant
tenor of your prayers, even in aecret : wheri
thou prayest alone, shut thy door, saya our
Saviour here ; shut out as miu,h as thou canst
the sight and notice of othera, but ahut net
out the intereat and good of othera ; say.
Our Father, aa the Heathen caU thefr God,
Ziu ITaTflf, &C-
Faiher. He is indeed our Father,* as the
author of our being, beyond all the visible
creatures ; he breathed upen man the breath
of life. But the privilege of this our natural
relation, the sin of our nature hath made
fruitless and comfortless tons, till we be restor
ed by grace, and made partakera of a new aon
ship : we are indeed the workmanship ofGod,
but being defaced by sin, and considered in
that estate,OMr tme name is children of wratlu
But the sonship that emboldens us to draw
near unto God as our Father, is derived from
his only-begotten Son. He became the Son
of Man, to raake us anew the sens of
God. Being thus restored, we may in
deed look back upon our creation, and
draw out of it to use in prayer with God,
that we are his creatures, the workmanship
of his hands, and he in that sense our Fa
ther. But by reason of our rebeUion, this
argument is not strong enough alone, but
must be supported with this ether, as the
main ground of our comfort, that wherein
the strength of our confidence lies, that h;
• T« >K. Kxi a-(v« iT^iv. Acts xvii. 28,

is our Father in his Son Christ ; (hat hy
faith we are invested into a new sonship, and
by virtue ef that may call him Father, and
move hira by that name to help and answer
ua, Jphn 1. 12. " Tp as many as received
him, he gave ppwer tp beccrae the sens pf
Gpd." Our adpptipn holda iu Jesus Christ
as the head of tbis fraternity ; therefore he
says, / go to my Father, and your Father,
to my God, and your God. He says not, to
eur Father and eur Ged, but severally, mine
and yeurs ; teaching us the order of the new
covenant, that tile Sonship of Jesus Christ is
riot only inore eminent in nature, but in order,
is the spring and cauae of ours, aa St- Cyril
weU obaervea-* So then he that here puta
thia word in our mouths, to call God Fa
ther, he it is by whom we have this dignity
and comfort that we call hira so.
But thia adoption is accompanied (that
we think it not a naked extemal name) widi
a real charige, and so great a change, that it
bears tbe narae of that which is the real
ground ef sonahip ; it is caUed regeneration.
And theae are inaeparable ; there be no aons
of God by adoption, but such as are withal
hia sons by regeneration and new birth : there
is a new Ufe breathed into them from Ged ;
he is net only the Father of Spirits, by thefr
first infusion into the body, and enlivening
it by them, but by this new infusion of grace
into tbe souls of raen, (as it seeras to sigri fy
there, Heb. xii., where he is speaking of
spiritual sons,) and enlivening thera by it,
which were dead without it, as the body is
without thera ; and the Spirit of God renew
ing them, is the Spirit of adoption iy which
they cry, Abba, Father. He gives thera a
supernatural life by this Spirit sent into their
hearts, and the Spirit, by that regeneration
wbich he worka, aacertains thera pf that adop
tion which is in Christ Jesus, andin the persua-
sionof both they call upon God as thefr Father-
So then you that would have this confi
dence in approaching to God to caUbim Fa
ther, lay hold on Jesus Christ as the foun
tain of sonship ; offer not to come unto Ged,
but through hira, and rest not satisfied with
yourselves, nor your prayers, till you find
some evidence that you are in bim. Arid
know that there is no evidence of your portion
in the Sen, but by the Spirit, therefore call
ed the " Spirit of the Son, by which we call
God, Father," Gal. iv. 6. See whether the
Spirit of God dwells and rulea in your hearta ;
for ihey ihat have not ihe Spirit of God are
none of his, says the apoatle ; but in the
same chapter he assures you, that as many
as are led by ihe Spirit of God, ihey are
undoubtedly the sons of God.
Ii you, then, caU on the name of Gpd, and
particularly by thia narae, ypur Father, de
part frem iniquity ; be ashamed to pretend
to be his sons, and yet be so unlike him,
* Cyril- Hieros. L'atecb.

454

AN EXPOSITION OF

wallowing in ain. It cannot be that the aons
of so holy a Ged, can be altogether unholy,
and delight to be so ; no, though they can-
not be perfectly free from irapurity, yet they
lhat are indeed hia children, do '-c^rt^nly
hate impurity, because he hates it. "'SN
Do you draw near unte God in hia Son
Christ? Do you give youraelves up to be
led by his Spirit ? Tben you raay account,
and caU hira your Father ; and if you may
use this word, there is abundance of sweet
nesa in it ; it is a apring of comfort that can
not run dry, and it hath influence into all
the petitions ; as likewise the other word,
which art in heaven ; " thou that art so
great and se geod." Whose name and whose
kingdom should we desire to be advanced so
much as our own Father's, our heavenly Fa
ther's ; and his wiU to be obeyed en earth,
as it is in heaven ? Ofwhom should we seek
our daily bread, but of our Father, and es
pecially so rich a Father, possessor of heaven
and earth ; and forgiveness of our gracious
Father, and conduct and protection ? In the
hardest condition that can befal yeu, ye raay
come to your Father ; all the world cannot
bar your accesa ; and there is no child raay
go to his father witb any suit with raore con
fidence, than you raay to your Father. And
If there be mercy and power enough in God,
theu cannot miaa of help ; he hath the bowela
of a Father, Paalm ciu. 13, yea, aaya our
Saviour, *' Can you that are evil give your
children geod thuiga ? Hew much raore wiU
your heavenly Father !" &c- The love of pa
renta to their children they bave frora him ;
he hath given it to nature, ao it is but a drop
to the ocean of fatherly love that is in him
self.* Let not then unworthineaa scare his
children ; parenta love tlieir children, and do
them good ; not because tbey aee they are
more worthy than othera, for it may be far
otherwise, but becauae tbey are their own.
Yea, though we have ran aatray from hira,
and forgot very far the duty of children, yet
he cannet forget the love ef a Father ; and
our best is to return to him, it cannot be well
witb us se long as we go any whither else.
The prodigal found it se, and therefore,
tiiough he was convinced of that, that be was
unworthy to be called bis son, yet heresolves
to retum — / will go io my Father. Yea,
though te thy sense he should seera te reject
thee, yet let not go this hold, if thou hast
but a desire te believe in hira and love him,
though thou canst find no raore ; and even
while thou doubtest whether he is thy Father
or no, yet press hira with the narae, caU hira
Father, apeak te hira as thy Father ; Jesus
his Son, in whora he is weU pleased, doth
warrant thee. " Though he slay me, yet
will I trust in him," says Job. So resolve

thou, though thou sawest hia hand, as il
were, ready to throw tbee into hell, yet ay
to him still, and use this very narae. Father,
reject me not ; never any perished with such
a purpose. Who ari in heaven.
Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice
with trembling. This compellation taken
together, and rightly understood, werks thai
due temper of prayer, the raixture of theae
two, joy and fear, confidence and reverence.
There was some such thing apoke ef Angus-
tua, but it ia meat true of the Divine Majesty,
that tbey that dare apeak raahly to him,
knew net his greatness ; and thej that dare
net apeak te him, (provided it be with due
reverence and respect,) knew net his good
ness. That we all invecate one Father, teaches
that new law of love one te another, which
our Saviour, the author of thia prayer, se often
recommends, and makes the very hadge of
his disciples. It serves to comfort the mean.
eat, and to abate the loftiness ef the greatest
that pray thus, as St. Augustine well ob
aervea, that they aU raeet and agree in this ;
the greatest kinga, and their meanest sub
jects, all must speak to Go'd as thefr Father,
not only all alilce having their beirig fioin
him as the Father ef the spirits of all flesh,
but the same adoption belonging unto all,
high and low, tbat are believers. All the
pomp and coramand and pleasures ef princes,
cannot raake them happy witheut this grace
of adoption, and no outward baseness pre
judges any, but they may be happy by pat.
taking of it. In thia liliewiae is very clear
our lesson of leve to God, because our Fa.
ther; for though (as they say,) love doth
descend much more than it ascends, and is
here rapst of aU verified, yet it doth ascend
frora the children te their parents by way of
reflection, especially frem tbe aona of God to
him aa a Father, who is love itself And as
this name draws the soul to the throne of
grace with assured expectation of mercy, so
it coramands withal (as we said) honour and
reverence ; especiaUy being accompanied with
this other word, that mainly enforces that
(a iv rois ov^avais,") in the- heavens, answering
the Hebrew word, which is plural, and signi.
fying that the glorious God ia ahove aU the
viaible heavena ; and thus tbe profane authora
speak ofGod Ukewiae, vots^txtx %o)(/.ditx vxmv.
We know, although weare guilty of much
forgetting it, tbat tbe Lord ia every where
present, neither excluded not included any
where ; that he fUla all places, not aa con.
tained in them, but containing them, and up
holding tbem, and aU things in them. But

he is in heaven after a special raanner, in
the brightest manifestation of himself, and
the purest service performed to him there.
• Ante petitionera magnam accepimu^j,utpossimus They cannot contain him, as Solomon ex-
dicere, I'ater, quid enim jam non det flh is petentibus ^ . ... «„ i - .1,
(later, qui jam hoc ipium dedit ut essent filii ? S. Aug. I iiressea it, 1 Kings viil. 27 ; yet his throne

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

¦Itii

i» there, there he dwells, as in his principal
palace, in greatest raajesty, aa David teach.
es us, Paalm xi- 4, and often elaewhere. But
that he is net shut up there, and regardless
of things below, we learn in tbat same place ;
for he adds. His eyes behold, and his eye
lids try, ihe children of men.
This ia added, 1. For distinction ; aathe
apoatle, dift'erencing-him from the fathers of
our fleah, calla bira Father of Spirits : so
here, from earthly fathera, our heavenly Fa
ther. Observe, We cannet here know God ac
cording to what he ia in himself, and there
fore he is described to our capacity, and to
our profit, se as we are able, and as it moat
concerns us to know him here, by bis gra
cious relation te us as our Father, and by
the excellency of his dweUing, as a sign ef
his greatness, tbat he is in heaven ; both
which are extrinsical to bis essence. But
thus we may leam thua rauch to worship and
love hira as the beat and greateat, irifinitely
exceeding all that we can conceive of hira.
2. Aa it ia for diatinction, ao it is such a
word of difference aa is of excellent use,
1. To raake the seul humble and reverent
in approaching to God in prayer ; if we con-
aider it, shall we not be wary how we behave
ouraelves in the presence of so great a King ?
It is very strange that our souls sheuld not
be possessed with the deepest lowliness and
self-abasement in the sight of Ged ; worms
in the duat, before the raajeaty tbat dwella
in heaven 1 This Soloraon expresses, *•- He
is in heaven, and thou on earth, therefore
let thy werds be few." What is this we
find in ourselves that makes us so drunk
with self-conceit, not only in converse one
with another, but with God ? Surely we
know him not, at least we consider net who
he is, and where he dweUs, and who we are,
and where we dwell. Surely it weuld lay us
low, if^ when we come before God, we nould
consider him as the most glorious King sit-
ting on his throne, and compassed with glo
rious spirits, that offer him spotless praises,
and we ourselves coraing before hira, as
base frogs creeping out of our pond, where
we dwell araidat tbe mire of ainful poUu.
tions. Thus indeed his highness should humble
us in coming, but it should net affright ua
from coming before hira ; for though he is
in heaven, and we on earth, yet he is our
Father : thus ought we te joiu these two, and
behold them jointly, that we may have that
right pesture of mind by them that suits with
prayer — humble boldness.
There may be undue diatruat, but there
cannot be too rauch huraility of apirit in
prayer. The more humble, the fitter to come
to God ; and he the more willing to come
into the soul, and dwell in it ; for that is tbe
other house that he hath chosen. They seera

very ill suited together ; if the highest hea
vens be the Lord's one dwelling, it would
seera fit that the other should be the richest
palaces on earth, or stately built teraples.
No, tbe other is such a ene as we most despise,
buJ-Gpd prefers befpre pther, even the rapst
suraptuous building : Isa. Ivii. 15, " Thus
saith tbe high and lofty One that inhabitetb
eternity, whose narae is Holy ; I dwell in
the high and holy place, with hira also (a
strange also) that is of a broken and humble
spirit," &c. The highest heavens are the
habitation of hia glory, and the humble heart
hath the next honour, te be the habitation
of bis grace-
2- As the word humbles the soul in God's
sight, so it elevates it to heaven where God
dweUs, and fixes it there in prayer ; and thia
elevation is not contrary to humility : the
soul that ia laid loweat in itaelf, ia raoat
aublirae in converae with God.* And thua
ought our hearta te ascend in prayer, which,
alaa ! we usually auffer te lag and draw tbe
wing heavily on the earth. " Unte thee, O
Ijord," a.iya the Paalmiat, Pa. xxv. 1, " do
I lift up ray aoul ;" that is tbe right and na
tural motion of prayer. But there is anpther
lifting up, that pur spuls are better acquaint
ed with, wbich is speken ef in the Psalm
immediately foregoing, that lifting up of
the soul unto vanity ; and the more so lift
up, the further off from God. O the vain
ness of our hearts 1 and how hard is it to
establish them en him that dwells on high I
Even while we are speaking te him, we suf
fer thera to break loose and rove, and to en
tertain foolish thoughts ; we should npt use
a king pr great person so, ner any raan whom
we respect, when we are speaking to him ae
rioualy, te intermix impertinenciea and forgei
what we are saying : but we dare offer groas
nonsense te the aU-wise God ; though the
.words go on in geod aense, yet the prayer is
ao-to him, when the heart intermixea vain
thoughts. Polum terra miscei, confuses and
spoils sell. And this is the great task, (as
we have said,) to bring the heart before God;
to aet it on hia holy raountain in heaven,
while we pray, (it ahould be ap certainly,)
and leave aervile earthly thpughta at the fppt
pf the mount.
3. It givea confidence. 1 . Of the power
of God, his rich ability to grant aU our re
quests : he, that Lord ef all, and as greatest
possessor, hath hia throne in the highest
heavens, and doth what pieaaeth hira in
heaven and in earth ; thia, with the other,
completes our comfort, good-wiU and power,
our Father, in heaven. And thia we may
apply to aU our wanta for aaaurance of sup
ply, and to all our eneraies, and the church's
enemies, that our prayer shall be heard for
their foil and disappointment. " He sits in
heaven and laughs," Psalm ii. 4. " They
* Sublimiter humilis et humiliter fublimis. S. Cypk

4, Ml

AN EXPOSITION OF

rage, and tumult, and consult," &c. A
great bustle and noise they keep, and he sits
and laughs at thera ; he scorns aU their proud
attempts : for that with ease he can scatter
them iu a raoment ; one werd of his mouth
overtums them and aU their contrivances.
2. It is a confirraation of our portion in
heaven : if he who is in heaven be our Fa
ther, then our inheritance Ues there, in that
land of peace where it cannet be lest or im
paired, and he wiU bring hia children to the
possession of it. To be the sons of God, is
not a atyle without an eatate, ah erapty title ;
no, he that makea ua aons, raakea ua heirs
likewise ; Sons we are in Christ, and co
heirs with Christ. He carae down to earth
fer this purpose, to make a new purchase of
heaven for us, and he is retumed thither to
prepare it for us. " I go to prepare a place
for you, that where I ara, ye may be also."
Hallowed be thy name.
The sense of many wants and necessities
drives a Christian daily to God in. prayer,
yet, certainly, that wbich draws him most
strongly to it is of a higher nature, — the
sense ofhis duty to Ged, and the deUght he
hath to do that homage and honour to him ;
and therefore in prayer the main current ef
his heart runs that way, and so agrees with
this pattem given us by our Saviour ; wherein
we see clearly, that our prirae desires are to
be bestowed on the glory of God, and that
net only placed first, as to be prefened before
all other siuts, but to be regarded still in aU
tbe rest, and they all referred to it. And to
make the irapression of this desire the'Seeper
on our hearts, and to give the fuller vent ef
it in expression to them that have it, there
are, you see, three of these six petitions spent
on it ; tbis is tbe ffrst ef them. Hallowed be
thy name. This suits well with the style
here given to God, Our Father. If I be a
Father, where is my honour ? says the Lord
by his prophet. And here his children are
taught to join these two together, thou art
our Father, and so glorious a Father dweU
ing in heaven ; therefore our deaire is, that
thou mayest bave honour, that thy narae raay
be haUowed, and thy kingdom come. We
will inquire, -
1. 'W'hat is meant by this name. 2.
What is the hallowing or sanctifying it.
3. What the petition itaelf is.
Briefly, his name is himself, as he is made
known te us, and conceivable by us, and
differenced from all other beings, as men are
by their names one from another ; for to this
purpose are all these several naraes and at
tributes given him that we find in scripture,
that we may so conceive of hipiself as here
we are capahle.
2. To sanctify his name (we know) can
not be to infuse holiness irito it, or effec
tuaUy to make it holy ; for neither can we so
make anv thing holy, nor can the narae of

God be so made holy, fbr It is most haly of
itselfj yea he is hpliness itself, and the foun-
tain of aU hoUness ; but according to the
double sense of the word blessing, as mutual
betwixt God and man, so is tbis of sanctify.
ing. " Blessed be the God (says the apos.
tie, Eph. i. 3.) and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with aU spiri.
tual blessings." His benedicere is bene-
facere ; he blesSeth us reaUy, as the giver
of aU blessings, and of blessedness itself ; and
our blessing bira is no other but the acknow
ledging of this, that it is he that blesseth us,
and praising hira for it. Thus he sanctifiei
us, raakes us hely, purifies us by his Spirit
from our natural unholiness and filthiness,
according ts his promise, Ezek. xxxvi. 25,
and according to our Saviour's pi^ayer, John
xvii. 17 ; and we sanctify the Lord and hii
narae, (as here, and Isa. viii. 13,) when we
know and acknowledge tbat he is holy, and
use his narae holily ; and thus they only
sanctify, who affectionately pray thus, that
his name may be sanctified, whose hearts he
hath first sanctified, and raade them holy.
More particularly and distinctly, tbe sanc^
tifying of God's name hath in it these things:
1, To have right thoughts of the holinesi
and majeaty of God. 2. That upen so con.
ceiving of him, our heartS be reverently af.
fected towarda hira. 3. Net only to have tiiat
due apprehenaion and reverence ef his boh.
neas in the habit, and so let it lie dead with
in ua, but often to stir up ourselves to tbe re
raerabrance and consideration of it, to caU in
our thoughts to act about it ; so this wiU in
crease our knowledge and reverence, (as aU
habits grew by acting,) and wiU excite the
soul to praise him, as tbe Psalmiat apeaka —
Give thanks at the remembrance ofhis holi
ness, i. The declaring and extoUing of his
holiness, speaking upon aU aeaaonable occa
sions honourably of his narae. 5. The hura
ble sense and acknowledgement of our own
unholiness in his presence ; and, therefore,
all those lowly confessions of sins, and of
their own unworthiness, that we find in the
prayers of the prophets, are so many hallow-
iiigs of the narae of God, giving the glory of
holineaa to him alone, and taking with the
shame ef tbeir own poUutions, thus Dan. ix.,
laa. Ixiv. 7, &c.; as sorae of the Americans
have a cuatom when they appear before tbeir
king to put on their worst apparel, that all
tbe magnificence may reat upon hiui alone,
and appear the better. Thua, though the
majeaty of God, in itself being infinite, needs
nothing else to commend it, yet, to our ap-
prehension of it, it may be thus ; an 1 the
saints, in desire ofhis glory, may intend this
te set off the lustre ef his purity and excel
lency in the humble confessions ef their' own
vileness ; To thee, O Lord, belongeth righ
teousness, but to us confusion efface. 6.
The hallowing of God's name is an earnest

THE LORD'S PltAVER-

457

endeavpur of confpnnity with him in hpli
ness ; first in heart, that raust be the prin- !
cipal aeat of it, and then holiness in all ouri
werds and actions, and the whole course of
our Uvea- This is that which the Lord per
petually presaea upen his people. Be ye holy,
for I am holy ; and this is the mest effec
tual sanctifying of his name by way of de
claring it holy, when hia peeple walk in holi
ness. Though you teU the world that he
is holy, they know hira not, they can neither
see hira nor his hoUnesa ; hut when they see
that there are men taken out of the sarae
lump of ppUuted nature with theraselves, and
yet so renewed and changed, that they hate
the defilements ef the world, and do indeed
live hoUly in the midst of a perverse genera
tion, this may convince thera that there ia a
brighter apring of holineaa where it is in ful
ness, from whence these drops are that they
perceive in men ; for seeing it is riOt in na
ture, there must be anether principle of it,
and that can be no other but this holy Ged ;
thus is his narae haUpwed, and he known to
be holy by the holiness of bis people. So,
then, the petition takes in aU, and in it we
desire the sanctifying and magnifying ef
God's name in every possible way : 1. By
ourselves, that we may raind his glory, and
ky his grace sanctify his name. 2. By othera,
that our Lord may be more known and ho
noured in the world ; they would gladly have
many hearts and raany tongues brought iri to
confess tbe Lord, and his hoUness and great
ness. Thus the Psalmist stirs up the angels
to hless the Lord, (Psalm ciu. 20,) not that
they need exciting, but to shew bis own af
fection to God's praises- 3. And because
there is stiU aome alloy and mixture of un
holineaa in aU the haUowing of his name here
below, aU our services stained ; therefore, as
the godly do, iu this request, wish aU the
exalting and sanctifying ef God's name
araong raen that is attainable here, so, I con
ceive, they do as it were applaud to those
purer services and praises tbat are given him
above ; ahd, sensible how far they faU short
theraselves, they are glad to think that there
be such multitudes of angels, and glprified
spirits, hallpwing and praising his narae
better and mpre constantly, not ceasing day
nor night to cry, Holy, holy, holy. Lord God
Almighty. And here they foUow aa they
can, and give their acclaraation, though in
a lower key, yet as loud aa they are able,"
Even so, Lord, hallowed be thy name. Now
the cause and source ef this their great deaire
of exalting arid hallowing the name of God,
is their love to hira, which the aight that he
hath given thera of his exceUency hath kin
dled in their hearts.
After that, thefr chief delight is to think
<jf him, and speak of his narae ; gladly would
tbey bave him highly esteemed by aU, and
this is their grief, that they can find so few

fo bear them cpmpany, and help them in
thia, in hallowing and extolling his name,
which is so deep engraven on their hearts.
See bow patheticaUy the Psalmist repeats
that again and again. Psalm cvii., O that
men would praise the Lordffor his goodness,
and his wonderful works io the children of
men. And when they jiear or see any thing
tending to the dishonour of his name, this
wounds them, and pierces them through as a
sword, as the Psalmist speaks. Tbey are
far from envy or evil eye, yea, they rejoice
in the gifts and graces that God bestows up
on others, although it be beyond what they
bave theraselves ; for stUl it serves their de
sires, and answers what they are most eamest
in ; it tenda to the haUewing and glorifying
of the name of God. And what they have
themselvea, they are net in danger to grow
vain upon it ; rather they wonder at the free
grace of Gpd, and extol that, and think witb
theraaelvea, " What am I, that he ahould
bave had corapasaion pn rae, and plucked rae
out of the crowd ef the lest world, and given
me any deaire to baUow bia name, while
others are blaapheming it, and delighting to
dishonour it ?" But ever the more they re
ceive from God they are the raere humble,
the raore desirous of his praise, and regard
less of their own. Any holiness that is in
thera they know well is from him, and there
fore aU the glory of holiness must return
thither, frora whence hoUness eriginally
coraes ; and the very end for whicb they de
sire increase of hoUness in theraselves, is to
the end, that they may the more hallow .his
name, from whora they have it ; and by the
increaae of tbeir atock, there may be an in
creaae of the tribute of praiae to God.
But, alaa, how far are we frem thia mind !
What hypocriay is it, for the sarae raouth to
utter this requeat, that dare profane the name
of God by vain awearing 1 That which is
holy, aa the Hebrew word imports, is aeparat
ed from coraraon use, (although it was not
holy before,) and ou^bt not to be profaned ;
leaat of aU this narae, that ia not raade holy
by such a aeparation, but ia primitively holy
in itaelf; and they that use it rashly and un-
bolily, are deeply guilty of deapiaing the
majeaty ofGod. It is not possible that any
that is truly seuaible of hia greatness and
holinesa, can cuatomarily abuse his narae,
that blessed narae that he hopes to bless for
ever. You say, it is your cuatora : it ia a
wonder to hear men apeak thua aa an excuse;
it is the deepest accusation. Are not men
known by their cuatoma ! Do not these dia
cover what they are ? It is your custom !
What gain you by that ? You must confess
it is sucb a one as is the custom of the chil
dren of Satan, the professed enemy of God's
name, as the delight and custom of haUow
ing his name is the badge of his ehildren.
2. It is your cuatora ; then, know ft is his

4,'i8

AN EXPOSITION OF

custora not to acquit them, but make them
feel the weight of hia punishing hand, that
dare make it a custom te dialionour his name.
Again, they that profane hia hely day, they
that aanctify not his narae by calUng on it
daily in private, and generally all that by an
unsanctified life do blot the profeasion of
Christians, what do they mean to lie se
grossly, not unto men but unto God, te his
face, in praying thus ; as if they desired the
hallowing of his name by aU, arid yet de rio-
- thing but unhaUew it themselves ? Think it
net sufficient to the hallowing of his name,
that his house and worship is purged of
abuses ; though they be holy, yet, unless we
ourselves be holy too, we pollute all in our
use of thera, the worship, and sabbaths, and
naihe of Ged, our filthy hands defile aU- Let
us not thus provoke God, lest in just wrath
and punishments, he sanctify his own name
upon us, which we profane, as he threatens
against the Jews by his prophets.
Be not satisfied to think slightly and su-
perficiaUy of God ; take tirae te consider
him, and know who he is ; and then yeu wiU
reverence him, in your thoughts. It deserves
and,requires all the whole heart to be taken
up with it ; and, alaa ! what ia a heart, a
narrow thing, though the largeat of hearts,
as Selomoii'a, large as the sand of the sea,
to an infinite God I We can find tirae for
our earthly thoughts, and for vain, fooUsh
thoughts, that are good for nething ; and
shaU we shut out God, or think any sudden,
paaaing look enough for him ? 2. Behave
youraelvea with regard ef hira in his worahip ;
let hely thinga be dene holily. 3. Honour
it in your Uvea ; eapeciaUy auch aa do knew
hia narae, grow daily raore reapective and
tender of it, and be raore circumspect in your
actions ; and as he who haih called youis holy ,
so be ye holy in all 'manner of conversation.
Thy kingdom come. He that is the be
ginning of aU things, raust likewiae of necea
sity be the end of them all ; and then are our
intentions rightest and purest, when we are
raost poaaessed with the deaire of that
higheat end, the glory of God, and look
atraightest into it ; and if thia purpoae ought
to diffuse through aU our actions, certainly
in prayer it should be most lively and active,
because prayer is se direct and express a
tuming of tbe face of the aoul unte God,
and aetting of ita eye upon him. Therefore,
this petition foUews forth the aame desire
with the former, wishing honour to God.
He is a raost holy God, and the former re
quest waa fer bis glory in that, in the aancti
fying of his narae ; he is a King, a great
King, the greatest of aU, and this wiahea hia
glory in that senae, that hia kingdom may
be advanced. Thy kingdom come. 1. We
»haU inquire what his kingdom is ; 2. what
is the coraing of it ; and, 3. shaU speak of
the petition itself.

This kingdom is not his universal supre-,
macy ejer all the world, and all the creatures
in it, as being their Maker and their Pre
server, and se having the highest and justest
title, and the most absolute kind of dominion
over aU thinga ; but hia pecuUar royalty over
bis church. By the former he is called King
of nations, Jer. x. 7, , and by the latter, his
atyle ia ICing of saints, Rev. xv. 3, Of
the forraer tbe Paalmiat apeaka, Paalm xxiv.
1 ; but that which he adds, ver. 3, concerns
the latter, and so on in the Paalm, and vcr,
7, " Lift up your heada, O ye gatea, that
the King of glery may corae in."
Thia kingdora is gathered and aelected
out of the other, and though the less in
quantity, yet in God's account the far more
precioua than all the rest ; the church is the
Jewel in the ring ef the world, in it he hath
his pecuUar residence and chief delight ; as
kings cheese ene ef their palaces, and (if
they have more) one ef their kingdoms to
dweU in more than another. Those things
that are hid frera the reat of the world con
cerning thia King, are made known to his
subjects ef this his select kingdom, and it
is in it tbat he opens up, displays after a
apecial manner more than all the world be
aidea, both the glory of hia raajeaty, and the
richea ef bia bounty, here in part, and fuUy
hereafter, and according to that difference it
is diatinguiahed into the kingdora ef grace
and that of glory. *
The kingdom of grace is tu be conaidered,
1. In tbe external raeana and adminiatration
of it- 2- In its inward being and pewer. In
tbe former aense, it is ef a larger extent ; but
in the latter, of a mpre unifprra nature ii
itaelf, and raore conform to its head. Th3
former, the kingdom of grace in its eutwarJ
administration, is plainly the whole visible
church ; but the inward power of the king
dora of grace, is only in the hearta of thoae
that are truly sanctified, and merabera of tbe
invisible church.
Jesus Christ is ordained and anointed the
King and Head of both, poUtical ; but of
the ene, natural, and therefere altogether in
diaaoluble, not only in regard of the whole,
but ef each "part and raember ef it.
Tbe viaible church is but a little parcel,
kingdom chosen out of the world ; but
the truly godly, tbat are alone the aubjects
of the inward kingdom of grace, are but a
small part of that part, a choice part of tbe
viaible church, aa it is a choice part of tbe
visible world.
Now these three, the kingdom of glory,
and those two kinds of the kingdom of grace,
stand in Ibis aubordination ; the inward king
dom of grace, is tbe way and preparation for
that of glory,and the outward kingdom of grace
in the viaible church, is the meana and way of
producing, and eatabliahing, and increaaing
tbe inward s ae tbat both of them look for-

THE LORD'S PRAYER-

400

ward to tiie kingdom of glory, as their ut-
mnst end, and shaU terminate and end in it.
The first ef theae, the extemal er political
kingdom of Chriat in the viaible church, con
siata in bis absolute and supreme authority,
to appoint the laws of his church, and rulera
by tbeae lawa. And the uae of tbe werd,
and sacraments, and discipline, according to
hia ewn appointment, ia the acknpwledge-
uient pf him as King pf hia church.
The ether, the inward kingdora ef grace,
is then received in the heart, when the Spirit
of God niovea it te a wilUng subjection to
Jesus Christ, and the whole soul subraits it
self to be governed by him ; he enters indeed
by conquest, and yet is raoat gladly received ;
it is both a lawful and a favourable conqueat,
becauae he freea the aoul, which ia hia by ao
many righta, from the tyranny of a raoat cruel
uaurper, the prince of darkneas, and brings
in a kingdom fuU ef sweetness and happi
ness : there is no worse in it than these,
" righteouaneaa, and peace, aud joy in the
Hely Ghoat."
This ia the foUy of an unbelieving raind,
that it entertains rapst false prejudicea againat
the kingdpm pf Chriat, thinks that if it let
liim in, it shall be controUed and curbed,
and therefore reaolvea againat it, and studiea
how to hpld hira put, conaiilta (aa it ia in
the 2d Paalm) against the Lord and his
anointed. But thia is a laraentable raadness,
to dream of liberty in the raidat of chaina,
and to be afraid of a deliverer ; there ia no
aoul that opena to tbis King of glory, but
can testify tbat it never knew what trae Uberty
was, till it admitted this kingdom ef God,
till there was a throne for Christ erected with-
in it.The third, the kingdom of glory, would
you hear wherein that consists ? It ia auch
aa we cannot hear, ner apeak of as it ia. And
thia indeed says more of it than aU we can
aay, that the exceUency of it ia unspeakable,
yea, unconceivable : this we are sure of, to
speak coraparatively of it, (which is our help
in things we understand not in themselves,)
that aU the kingdoraa of the world, unite all
their glory together, are base and poor in
reapect of it, but splendida in serico, and
that all the delighta we have here, not only
of nature, but even of grace, are leas to it than
the araaUeat aparkle ia to the aun in ita bright
neaa. All that ia done here by our King
Chriat, in the ruling of hia church, and
power of hia ordinances, and bestowing of
graces on his own, are but preludes and pre
parations fer that, and when tbat cometh,
this way of ruling his church and people ahaU
ceaae, aa having attained ita end. Christ
shaU deUver up the kingdom to the Father ;
word and sacranients and discipline shaU be
at an end, and then God shaJll be all in all.
2. The coming of the kingdom of God
in the former two, is the extending and

spreading of them to those places and persons
tbat have not yet received tbem, the increase
of their power where they are entertained ;
fur they cpme graduaUy, and that kingdom
of glory, as it is concemed in the other, coraes
forward in them, so far, and hastens towarda
its perfection ; but in itself as their consura
raation, it shall ceme at ence altogether iu
the end ef tirae-
3- So then in the petition all these are in.
eluded, and in their largest extent ; for it is
to take it too narrow and too low, to restrain
it only te our own intereat in this kingdom,
either of grace or glory, er beth. Thus
David excites all to praise ihe Lord, Ps.
ciii., but most hia own aoul begins with that,
and ends witb it. Although aU they thai
deaire it aright, do desire that they may par
take ef it, (fer if they deaire that God may
be glorified, they cannot but, even out of love
to that glory, beaide their own happineaa,
desire that they themselves raay. be araong
those that may honour God aa the aubjecta
of hia kingdom,) yet they atay not there, but
dilate thefr hearta to wiah the advancement
and accompliahment of hia kingdora in the
elect, and in aU these ways that tend te it ;
and their love raay rise to that high atrain,
as witheut considering their ewn interest at
aU, yea, supposing that they were to be shut
out of his kingdom themselvesi yet stiU to
wish. Thy kingdom come. " Let othera en
joy and bleaa thee, Lerd, for ever, even
though I ahould be excluded : let thine elect
be gathered, though I were none of them :
be theu great, O Lord, whataoever become
of rae."
1- Conaidering what a height of glory will
ariae to God out of the final subduing ofhis
eneraiea, and fuU deliverance ef hia church,
and the bringing horae all hia children after
aU their aufferings and sorrows, to ait down
together to that great raarriage-aupper of tbe
Larab ; tbey cannot but thua breathe forth
their longinga and wiahea, that tbat tirae
raay be haatened, and the fulnesa of their
Lord's kingdora accomplished, where it shall
abide for aU eternity.
2. Both in relation te that end, and like
wise in reapect of the very preaent glery that
redounda te God in it, they earneatly deaire
the advancement and enlargement of Christ's
kingdora here on earth. For beaidea that
thua it ia riaing to its perfection, it ia no
amaU present glory to our King Chriat, aa a
teatimony of his invincible power, that he
rules in the very midst of his eneraiea, and
in deapite of thera aU, Ps- ex. 2- ; not only
sits sure and keepa hia own, thruat at him
who will, but when he pleaaea, gains upon
them, and enlargea his tenitories, and growa
greater by their resiatancea and oppositions.
He is here, as David, often assaiilted, and
put to defend his kingdora often in war,
but always a conqueror ; but, after ths mi-

4C0

AN EXPOSITION OF

Utant kmgdom he shall be as Solomon, who
Ukewise typified him, reigning in perfect
peace. Now, because the eneraies ef his kingdora
are not yet, aa they ahaU be, aU under hia
feet, but rpund abeut bim, and incessantly
plotting and working against him, and Satan
hath his kingdom and his throne in the
werld opposite to Christ; therefore this is
one chief point of this request, tbat all ad
verse power raay be brought low, that aU his
eneraies raay lick the dust, and melt before
liim aa wax before the fire : and for ua, ea
peciaUy in theae times, that that kingdom of
antichrist, the son of perdition, may, answer
ably to that his name, be brought to perdi
tion ; that God would remeraber his promise ;
(for the faithful are caUed his remembrancers,
though he forgets not, and hath his set time
for judgment, yet he loves to be stined up
by the cries of his children ;) that he would
iToake good at length those werds he hath
spoken of Babel's ruin, and tbe flourishing
estate of his church in these latter tiraes ;
that the power of the word, and purity of re
Ugion, maugre aU the policy aud power of
men opposing it, may spread and extend it
self, and make inesistible progreaa, aa the
sun in his courae ; that Jesus Christ may
be daily taking further possession of the na
tions, even te the ends of the earth, accord
ing to the patent of his Father's donation.
And the certainty of its endurance and growth
till it be complete, should not abate, but in.
creaae the vigour of our prayers for it ; and
tbe nearer things are their accomplishraent,
the more usuaUy the Lord excites the hopes
and prayers of his people about thera,- and
they pray the more earnestly, Dan. ix., mov
ing naturally in it, and therefore fastest when
nearest their place.
Again, we pray in this, that where Christ
doth reign in his outward ordinances, there
he would bring in his apiritual kingdora into
the aoula of raen, that sinners may be con
verted unto him : the love of the glory of
Jesus Christ wiU desire this earnestly, that
many hearts raay be brought in to submit to
him ; for the glory of a king is in the mul.
titude of his subjects. Further, that they
who are his people may grew more conform
to his laws ; that his dominion may be more
powerful in their hearts and Uves ; and par
ticularly, that we ourselvea may find it se.
Yeu that will not receive the kingdom of
God within yourselves, to what purpose do
you speak this, as if you desired it te be en.
Urged, and flourish abroad ? You can have
no comfort in it, remaining slaves to sin,
and so enemies indeed to it; neither the
kingdom of Christ in the government of the
church, on the ene side, ner, en the other,
tbe coming ofhis kingdom of glory, can do
TOU any benefit, wh'le the tiiird is wanting,
ihe inwaird kingdom of his grace, which is

the true end of the former, and means to pari
take of the happiness of the latter. 'Why
wish you the day of the Lord ? As the pro.
phet says of that day he there speaks of,
Mistake it not, though that day ef his king.
dom shaU be aU glory in Itself, it shall be
to you, reraaining still impenitent, darkness
and net light, fuU of honor and amazement.
2. As you can have ne comfort in his king.
dom, so you cannot really wish its advance.
ment ; you wish it well elsewhere, as if you
were -content it should be any where, rathei
than within yourselves. But would you in.
deed have this kingdpm tp be embraced
and advanced, then dp, fpr pne, let him be
thy King ; ifrst give him thine own heart,
and then wish hira many more, for then thou
wilt wish it heartUy and truly. You that
have received this kingdom, yet bave need
StiU, even in that sense, to wish the coming
of it in further degrees and fuUer efficacy,
find you not many rebels yet unsubdued ?
No doubt they that aearch and know their
own hearta, will, and often do cpmplain of
them tp their King. " O siicb awarma of
hiats, and unruly, inegular desires ! When
ahaU they aU be brought into aubjection ?"
And so they Uft up their wish, frpm this to
the other, the full and glorious kingdom,
and say again. Thy kingdom come. This is
the noble desfre that takes up the hearta of
the godly,' while others are desiring and pUr.
suing low, baae things ; their minds, and
their endeavour to their power, are chiefly
set upon this, the advanceraent of tbe king.
dora of God. They seek not themselves,
and their ewn things, with the world, to the
prejudice of this kingdom ; no, they deaire
to loae any thing, to suffer contempts and
abasements theraaelves, so this kingdom may
flourish. St. Paul carea not what he be ac.
counted, mode magnificetur Christus, PhU.
i. 20, as the faitbful ministers of state, (and
wise princes chooae such,) that are not mak
ing up theraselves to their raaster's disad-
varitage, but always perfening hia honour
to their private beneflt, feeling hia losses and
gains mere than their own ; aa waa aaid of
St. Auguatine, Dominicis semper lucris
gaudens, ei damnis mterens. Thia ia the
right temper of the servanta and miniaters of
Jeaus Chriat, to be aU for thefr master, wiU
ing that thefr name, and estates, and lives,
and aU, may make a part of his footstool to
step up to bis throne ; net forced, as his
enemies, to be so, but wilUngly layiug them-
selves low for his glory. Arid this corafort
they have, that when his kingdom shaU
come in its fulness, and aU his eneraies shall
be trodden down for ever, then tbey shall be
glorifled with bim, and shall see his glory
with exceeding joy. Therefore do they so
often desire his coraing, and are so weary of
aU they see here : and when he says himself,
fer their assurance and corafort, Surely I

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

4H1

come quickly, their earnest desire makes
them echo. Even so, come. Lord Jesus.
There is some loss to the flesh, if we will
hear it in this desire in each kind ; the
erecting of Christ's kingdom in purity in bis
church, thrusts out the outward pomp and
magnificence that naturally we like so well.
His kingdom ofgrace cannot be in the soul,
without the forsaking of aU our accustomed
and pleasing ways of sin ; but they tbat
know the excellency ef his kingdom, are weU
content to forego all that suita not with it.
Thua, that his kingdom of glory may corae.
tbe werld muat be bumt up, &c., and that
we particularly may come to it, we muat
paaa through death ; but it ia wortb all.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in
heaven. I will direct my prayer to ihee, aaya
David, Paalra v. 3. The-word ia, I wUl set
it in order, or orderly addreaa it, which ia
not the curious contriving either ofthe words,
or method, (fortfeere may be moat of that,
where there ia least of tbis right directing it
to God,) but the due ordering of the frame
and desires of the heart ; and certainly one
main ppint pf that ia taught ua, aa we have
aaid, in the prder pf thia prayer, in this par
ticular, that it npt only prefers the horiour ef
God to all our ewn intereat, setting the heart
first upen tbat, but keeps it to it, causes it
to dwell upon that in three several petitions,
varying the expression of that one desire, as
eften as there be several requests foUowing
of our own concernment ; teaching us that
that doth, in ita own worth, and therefore
should likewise in our affection, itself alone
being but one, weigh down aU the different
things besides that we can desire ; and thus
withal it is accoramodate to our dulness, f'or
that our hearts would not readily witb pne
word be either duly stined up, or stretched
forth in the heavenly deaire ; so that beth to
excite and dUate thera the more, it is thus
iterated witheut vain tautology. This
short and coraplete a forra given us by so
wiae a Maater, is far from that, yea, it was
particularly intended in oppoaition to that
. abuse. Arid not only doth the dignity of the
thing itself, and our indiaposednesa, require
thia adding of pne request tp anpther con
cerning it, but there is in the petitions them
selves a very profitable difference, though
their scope is one ; they are as se raany se
veral anows aimed at the sarae raark.
The ffrst, in general, wishes aU raanner
of honour to the name of God ; and because
his name is especiaUy honoured in the ad
vanceraent, and in the completing of his
spiritual kingdom, the second is particular
in that, and because, until that kingdom be
corapleted and brought aU tegethel, it Ues
in two several countries : there is ono part
of it already above, which is the appointed
place for the perfection arid perpetuity ef this

kingdom ; another part here below, but
tending, thither. And this third petition
particularly concerns those of this lower re
gion arid condition ; desiring this, that in
obedience to their King, they may be as con.
form as it ia poaaible to theae above : Thy
will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Thy will. God ia moat perfectly one,
and his wUl one, yea, his wiU is hiraself, be
ia purus actus ; yet in respect ef its several
objects or circumstances tbat concern thera,
it is diversely distinguished in schools,
sometimes needlessly, yea enoueously, but
some of thera are sound and useful. But
here we shall not need thera rauch. His
will is taken according te a very useful
figure for that which he wiUs, and we desire
here, that we ouraelves and othera raay be
obedient to hia will in every thing, even here
en earth, that he may be acknowledged .and
aerved, not only in beaven, but here Ukewiae.
For this (no question) means not the
equality of our obedience to theirs, but the
quality ef it, that though it faU very far short
of ao perfect a pattem, yet it raay bear aorae
reaerablance to it ; aa a acbolar'a writing,
though it be nothing ae geod aa his copy,
yet raay bave ao rauch likewiae aa to ahew
he follows it. It doth no wrongj but helps
a raan much in any thing, the raore perfect
example he hath before hira ; althpugh he- be
not able te match it, yet the looking on it
raakes hira do the bettet : though an archer
shoot not so high as he airas, yet tha
higher he takes his aira, the higher he
ahoets. And that we may not think it strange
that we have here the citizens of heaven set
before ua as a raodel for obedience, we have
our heavenly Father himself propounded by
our Savieur in the forraer chapter, as our ex
araple fer perfection : Be ye perfeci, as your
heavenly Father is perfect.
The obedience in heaven ia, 1. Universal,
without chooaing and excepting ; and this
is, because the will and comraand of God
is the very reason of it. Psalm ciii. 20,
the angels are said to do his commandments,
and to hearken to the voice of his word ;
tbey wait but for a word frem him, and that
is enough. And in this should we desirs
to be like thera. Though we cannot fully
keep any ene coraraandment, yet should we
exclude none ef thera frem our endeavoui: ;
yea the rather, because we want that perfec
tion in the degree, should we study this
Pther, which is a kind pf perfection in tbe
design and purppse, io have respect to all
the commandments, as David si^s ; tp have
Pur eye uppn thera all, as the wprd there is.
Se Psalra xvi. 8, / have set ihe Lord
always before me, [lequaliter posui,] in an
even, constant regard of his wiU. And the
want of this discovers, that much of our
obedience hath not the right starap on it, no
way heavcrily.

402

AN EXPOSITION OF

A man raay thirik he approves and dees
the will ef Ged in aorae thinga, where it is
but by accident, because the letter of the
comraandraent ia coincident with his ewn
wiU ; and so it is not the will of Ged, but
his own, that raovea him : therefore in doing
that which God comraanda, he does net
God's wiU, but his own ; and therefore when
they meet net, but are contrary, there it ap
pears, fer he leaves God's wiU then, and
follows hia own. A covetous father con
demns the prodigality ef his laviah aon, and
the aon again cries out againat the avarice of
Ilia niggardly father ; and thua both seera
to conderan sin : but the truth is, neither
do it ; it is but two extrerae sins fighting
together, neither of thera regarding the
rule that God hath set ; it is but their two
idola choaking each other, aa the Heathena
aet their goda together by the eara. But
they that therefore hate ain because ef God'a
counterraand, and leve his wiU for itaelf,
their obedience ia more even, and regards
the whole will of God, and at all tiraes ; fer
there is that universality too in their obe
dience, conforra to that of heaven : So shall
I keep thy law (says David) continually,
for ever and ever.
See a raan's carriage when tempted or pro.
voked to seme aifi ; for when the occaaion is
out of reach, and out of aight, what won
der then he forbeara ? But when it offers
itself, as by company, interaperance, or cura.
ing er awearing by paaaion, it appeara, if a
man yield tben, that ain waa not out before,
but only lay close and quiet within till it waa
stirred, aa raud in the bottora of water,
natura vexata prodit seipsam. So a raan
may for hia own gain, or hia own glery, do
God's will. Jehu could aay to Jonadab,
Come and see my zeal for the Lord.
It is cheerful. It is the very natural rao
tion of glorified spirita to be acted and raoved
by the will of God. They excel in strength,
says the Psalmiat in that Paalm ciii. 20, and
do his commandments. They have no other
uae fer aU their strength ; that is the proper
eraployment of it. Thua the godly man,
in ao far as he is renewed, (fer in so far he
suits witb heaven,') deUghts hiraself in the
way of God'a commandraentaj^ takea raere
pleasure in keeping thera, than jirofane raen
do in all thefr pleaaures of sin, by wbich
they break thera. He is never weU but when
he is in the way of obedience, and the ways
of sin are painful and grievous to hira ; then
hath he raost inward gladneaa and content
ment, wben he keepeth cleaeat to hia rule.
And the reason why he finds the law of God
thus pleasant, is, because it is net te hira
as to the ungodly one without, driving him
violentiy, but it is within him, arid therefore
raoves him sweetly. / delight to do thy will,
O God, Paalra xl. 8; and he aAds,. Thy
law is within my heart, or in the midst of

my bowelsj Paalra Ixxxiv. 5, In whose
heart are thy ways ; not only their feet ui
the way?, but the ways are in their hearts.
¦3. They do the wiU of God in heaven
unanimously and harmonioualy ; there is
neither an evil eye of envy among them, nor
a lefty eye ef pride, whataeever degreea there
be among thera in their stationa and eraploy
raenta. Not to be curioua in tbat, nor obtrude
ourselves into things we h'ave not seen, yei
sure the lesser de not envy the greater, nor
the greater deapiae tbe less ; and the reason
is, becauae they are all ao wholly taken up,
and se strongly united in thia joint desire of
doing the will of God. Thus eught his
servants here, each one in his place, and ac
cording te that which Ged hath dispensed
to hira, the greatest hurably, and the mean
est contentedly, mind thia, and nothing but
thia, to do hia will.
Answerably to the aenae of this petition
de godly men in prayer, 1. vent their regret
and grief unto God, that t'fiere is so little
regard and obedience to his will amongst
men, that they see the greatest part taking
pleasure in unrighteousness, as the apostie
speaks. Thus David : Rivers of wafer run
down mine eyes, because men keep not thy
law. And as they bewail ungodliness with
out them, so especiaUy the afrength ef cor.
ruption within theraaelvea : they begin ihere,
and expreas their grief in the preaence of
Ged, that they are ao clogged and hampered
with sin cleaving fast to them, and crossing
their purposes of obedience ; aaying with th«
apoade, / find a law in my members war
ring against the law of my mind^ 2, Thei
declare their deaire of redreaa, beth in thein.
selves and othera ; that their great deaire is,
that more obedience were given unto God,
and particularly that they had more faculty
and strength to aerve bira, Paalra cxix. 4,
5. 3. They pray in this, for the effecting
ef thia their deaire, that God weuld incline
raen'a hearta, and particularly their own, to
the obedience ef hia wiU, (whataeever vain
will-werahippera aay, they are indeed in that
aenae, ceiXoSitio-noi, raake a Deity of the
wiU,) not doubting that it ia in his hand tc
do so, and that he hath raore pewer of our
hearta than we ouraelvea have ; otherwiae it
were in vain te put theae supplicationa into
his hand, if he have -no power to anawer
thera, to give them the real anawer of per
formance : Incline my heart unto thy law,
Scc, Turn us, O Lord, Scc. 4, They
do in this reapect offer up their own hearta
to God, to be faahiened and moulded to his
will : and every godly raan, if he had the
hearts of all the raen in the world in his dis-
posal, he weuld dispoSe them the aame way,
lodge them with his own, and make one
aacrifice of aU ; his own he givea whoUy, re-
aigns it up to hia Lord, to be as a piece of
wax in God's hand, pliable te what form he

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

403

will, tp de with it what he will, to turn out
and banish whatsoever displeases hira, and
to raake it to his own raind. In a werd,
tbis is the desire of a Christian, that his
own will may be annihilated, and the wiU
of Gpd placed in ita room ; that he may have
no will but God'a ; thathe may be altogether
aubject to, God'a coraraanding, and bis work.
ing wiU, te do what he commands, and te
be heartily content with what he does ; fer
both these are in it.*
Where he comraands any thing, though
our ewn corrupt wiU grurable at it, and think
it bard, we muat tread upen it to obey his
wiU, making tbat the rule of aU we de. To
thia end we must endeavour te be acquainted
with hia wiU, and know what it is, other
wiae we cannot do it ; but once knowing it,
this is the end of knowing, to do, otherwiae
(you know) that knowledge will make ua
the worae for it, the more guilty.
It is a safe and corafortable thing to walk
every step by his direction ; the constant re
gard of that, is that (we see) which con
forms us to heaven. It was observable how
this wiU prevailed with Abraham ; he waa
a loving father, it appeara, and upen Sarah's
private motion, while there waa no more,
he could not find in hia heart to put lahmael
out of doora, that was but ihe son of the
^ond woman ; but upon God's command,
iie was ready to put Isaac to death, that was
'Ihe son of the promise. And he that taught
us to pray thus, gives ua his own example
in thia, and he did the will of hia Father in
deed, aa it ia done in heaven, and he carae
to the earth for that purpose ; then aaid he,
Lo, I come to do thy, will, O my God !
and in that great and raoat painful part of
hia work. Not my will, but thine be done.
For our actiona, then, let hia word be our
guide ; and for tbe eveiita ef things, and all
that concerns ua, let his good pleasure and
wise disposing be our will.^ let us give up
the rudder of our life into his band, to be
steered by him.
For our actions, is it not better te observe
his wiU, than to be subject to our own cor
rupt wiUs, and to Satan's, led captive at
his will ? And as it is eur best te de what
pleaseth hira, se in all his dealing with us,
to be pleased with what he does ; net to
think it were better for us to be richer or
greater in the world than we are, or to raur
raur and struggle under affliction. There
is nething te be gained by this. Who hath
resisted his will at any tirae ? In aU things
he doth what he wiU, whether it Uke us er
not ; our repining hinders not his werking
at all, but it hinders our ewn comfort ; our
wrestiingand fretting doth butpain ourselves,
If we be his, (as we profeaa,) then we may
be aaaured he loves ua ; and if we believe
* it is love that makes this union of will.s, Idem
velle et ideiu nolle.

that, and withal beUeve that he ia wiser than
we, then we must confess, that whatsoever
he doth with us is better than our own cboos-
ing for ourselves could be. .
This is the only way of constant quietness
and contentment ef raind- Who is there
outwardly so prepereus, but raeets with many
things that cress his wiU ? Now he that hath
renounced his own will, and is fixed upon a
continual complacency with the good pleasure
and providence of Ged, to will wbat he wills,
and nething else ; every thing that befaUs
him, he looka upon tbat aide of it as God's
will, and so is aatiafied. " Doth God think
tbia good, and shaU I think it evil ?"
There is difference of estates, but all com
ing from the same hand, which ia Job'a con
sideration ; to embrace and kisa the worst
that can corae, ia our duty. It is the Lord,
(said David,) let him do with me what
seems good in his eyes, 2 Sam- xv- 26. Thus,
" Wilt thou have me poor or rich, healthful
or sick, esteemed or deapised ? W^ilt thou
that I live, or tbat I die ? I am thine, thy
will be done."
Give us this day our daily bread. Man
is made up ef two different principles, a soul
derived frora heaven, and a body at first
moulded out ef earth, as Nazianzen expreaaea
it, ious XXI xou!, the breath of Ged, and the
duat of the earth ;* and according to hia
compoaure, ao is thia prayer compoaed ; being
raade for hia uae, it is wisely fitted to his
conditiori. The greatest part of it is taken up with
such desires as are spiritual, and so most
suitable to his worthier part, his soul, such
as do immediately coricem God, and such as
properly concern itself. Yet tbe body is not
wholly shut out, though the meaner part';
yet being a part of raan, and the workraan
ship ef God, this one petition is bestowed
upon its cencemraent.
Observe in it briefly, 1- The raatter or
object ef the request- 2. The qualification
of it. The matter under the narae of bread,
net only bread for aU feod, as the Hebrews
do ; but food, se named, for all ether neces
saries. By bread, as the chief support and
staff ef raan's life, is raeant aU needful tera
poral blessings — food, and raiinent, and
health, and peace, &c., a blessing on the
works of our calUng, and the seasons ef the
year, and aU our' lawful teraporal affairs.
Though a godly raan looks upen the ne
cessities of this life as a piece ef his preaent
captivity, and ia often looking beyond it to
that purer life he hopes for ; yet iu the raean
while he doth, in obedience te Ged, use
theae thinga, and in dependence upon God,
he seeks them at God's own hand.
In the request, together with ita object,
as here (ve have it, there is, 1- Piety; 2.
Moderation — godliness and sobemeas.
* Ex Uueo spiritu. et terrene corpcie

404

AN EXPOSITION OF

1. Piety, asking our bread of Ged ; ask- liahes a man's daily bread, tiiough it be of
ing it in the frue notion by way of gift. ^ the richeat kind. 3. Having bread and a

There is a natural cry or voice ef our neces
sity, and tbat not only ungodly men, but
unreasonable creaturea have, tbe very beaats
and fowla, aa the Paalm hath it. The ravens
ask iheir meat from God : bot thia spiritual
cry of prayer is the peculiar voice of God's
own children
Now to ask bread, or needful temporal
things, at the hand ef God, ia not only ne way
incongruous to the piety and spiritual-mind
ednesa ef a Christian, ner no wrong te the
raajesty of God ; but, on the contrary, it
were irapiety in man, and an injury to God,
net te do ao. We have here the wanant of
hia own command, pray thus, and is it not
moat reaaonable ?
1 . Seeing theae thinga are necessary for
us te receive, and in the hand ef God to
bestow, why ought we net to seek them there ?
Although in his wisdom he knows what
we need, aitd is in bounty -most ready to fur
nish us, yet this is the homage we owe to
God, te present ourselves and eur necessities
before hira, and seek our supplies by prayer.
In it there is a clear acknewledgferaent ef
the Divine Providence and goodness, and of
our faith and reliance on it ; and faith is noi
only signified in prayer in these things, but
is acted and excited, and by that raeans is
increased and strengthened. 2. GodUnesa
hath beth kinda of proraises, those of the life
to ceme, and thoae of thia life ; and aa god
lineas hath right to them both, so it teach
eth to use them both, and particularly thia
way, by turning the promiaea into prayera,
aa a means appointed by God, both to fit us
for obtainraent, and to obtain tbe perfor
mance of thera. 3. Theugh a raan hath hia
provision by hira, not only of a day, but of
many years, yet hath he ueed atiU daily to
ask it ef God, for it is stiU in God's hand
to give it him, or not te give,, though
it ia in a man's ewn hand iri preserit pos
seaaion. 1, It is in God'a diapoaal, to
continue it to him, pr auddenly tp pluck it
frora him, out of bia'band, er even out of
his mouth, ui bolu.s erepius e faucibus.
How raany have been thus en a sudden tum
ed out of great estates into exteerae poverty,
either by the hands of men, which are moved
by God, or by sorae iraraediate accident frora
his own hand, and other^ by little and little,
.heir estates consuming and melting as snow-
baUs ! In the forraer, the judgment of God
is as a lion, and in the latter as a moth, as
the prophet speaks. Again, 2. If Ged do
continue a man in his possessions, yet there
is-further needful for his cheerful use of daily
bread, that calmness and content of mind and
healthfulness of body, thit are God's pecu
liar gifts, without which all is unsavoury.
Is the mind in bitterneaa or distemper, or
the body tied to its sick-bed ? This dh^re-

dispoaition to use it, yet there is further an
influence of blessing frem God needful to
make it serve its proper end ; and without
this, that staff of life is but as a broken staff
in a raan's hand that cannot support him.
4- Besides that ordinary blessing, there is
yet soraething further that a godly man de.
sires, and desires it most of aU — a secret
character and starap ofthe peculiar favour of
God even upon his bread, his teraporal en
joyraents. And this is a proper frait of
prayer, as there is (as is afready said) a pe
cuUar voice of God's own children in this
request, so Ged knows it particularly, and
distinguishes it frora tbe coraraon voice of
natural raen, and other creatures that caU for
supply ; and therefore he gives that peculiar
voice of their suit a peculiar answer, together
with the daUy bread which he gives te others,
and a comraon blessing on it ; tbey have '
something that is not given te others. Thia
is that which particularly sweetens their
bread, that they receive it after a apecial
manner out of their Father'a own hand, hav-
ing hurably asked it by a prayer as his
gift. That is the other thing observable in the
word of the request — give.
We are not by thia forbidden, no, nor
diapenaed with from labour and honeat in-
duatry for it ; but after all our labour, we
are still to acknowledge all as a free gift,
both the bread we obtain by labour, and the
strength by which we labour. Just as we
find it of the other bread, the bread ef life,
John vi. 27, " Labour for it, which the Son
of Man wiU give;" laboured for, and yet
giveri. The fruit of our labours may be a
just reward frora men, but it is alwaya free
frem Ged, even these lowest benefita to the
best and holiest raen > / am less (aaya Jacob)
than the least of thy mercies. We have
no motive for tne leaat mercy but his own
goodness, as Qur Father ; ao that it suits with
this as with all the other requests here, thougb
we deserve nething, yet he is our Father .-
it is proper for children to ask bread of tbeir
faliher ; aa our Savieur teachea ua in the next
chapter, therefpre he teachea us here tp aay,
Father, give us bread.
2. The rapderatipn pf the deaire appears,
in compariaon of the number of the other
petitiona ; all the reat for thinga spiritual,
and but one for temporals ; those that regard
the glory of God as the chief, are three to
one with it, and those that concern our own
spiritual good, two for ene.
Thus for the number, and the order and
place, whicb so many have taken quite con.
trary, it suits very weU with this, as the
least of our requests, and so to be accounted
by us. It is sfrange that this right place
of it shpuld have scared men frpm its right

THE LORD'S PRA VER.

4G<')

meaning, and persuaded them tn take it fpr
pur spiritual feed, pr the bread pf life, be
cause it is the firat pf the three. But tak-
ing it aa itis, fpr this life's necessaries, there
is nn need pf such reaspns as seme give for
its standing in this order, tbat are a little
light and unsolid. But to omit even these
tbat are more pertinent, whicii justify thia
order, though thia petition be less than the
two following, it seeraa traly the only fit
place for it, for that very reaaon, because it
is the leaat. It is known to be the Ordinary
course of skilful orators to place the meanest
part of their speech in the middle ; and in
this let the ear of any understanding mind
be judge, whether it sounds not much better,
and this request pass in the middle, tban if
the prayer should have ended with it, whereas
now it begins spirituaUy and closes se. And
this petition, which is de impedimentis mil-
iiiB nostrce, (for the, things of this life prove
ao too often,) is cast in the middle.
Now, how few are there that foUow Christ's
estimate in thia, that have the very atrength
of their deairea, and raoat ef their thoughta,
en things that are spiritual, and do but in
passing lend a werd to the things of thia
life ! * Thia proportion few wiU adrait ; it
makea not for their purpose. The apoatle
gives thia character ef those that periah, that
ihey mind earthly thjngs.
-But to conaider the worda, each werd de.
signing the matter of this requeatdoth clearly
teach us moderation in it. Give us our
daily bread. Having food and raiment,
(aays the apostie, 1 Tira. vi- 8,) let us be
content. How few be there of ua, if any,
that want these, and yet how few that have
contentraent- It is the enormity and bound
lessness of our desires that causeth this.
There is no necessity ef curious food and
raiment, but such feod aa nourishes, and
such raiment as covera-
Our daily bread, in the original, t^iouoiev.
Not at all to diapute the word, ita genuine
sense is, such as is fit for our daily susien-
tation, therefere rendered daily bread ; aud
answers weU to the word in that petitien of
Agur, Prov- xxx. 8, convenient er propor
tionable food, and se agrees with that we
said of bread ; proportionable, net to our
lust, but our necessity. This was the sin
of the Jews, and a meat impertinent ain in
the wilderneaa, they asked meat for their
lust ; they were not content of bread for
themselves, but must have raeat for their
lust too ; must have that fed Ukewise- We
are not to be carvers of the proportion our
selves, but leave that to Ged, who knows
best what is convenient for us ; therefore the
word is there, of my set or ordained portion.
ordained by thee.
Our bread, i/ioir. Not seeking any other
* Quamprimum a corpore ad animam redeund n.

but thatwhich is our own, by our just in.
dustry and God's free gift. What is it but
the base, iraraoderate desire of having, tha'
stretches a man beyond tbis ? When a
man lays down that conclusion with hiraself,
that he raust have se much, then it follows,
tbat any way tending te that he muat uae,
if he can, by right ; but if not, any way
rather than raisa ; by violence and oppres-
aion, or by deceit, through all ways, fair and
foul : * when a raan is ence upon that jour
ney, there is no stopping. Until either Ged
recal hira, or he plunge hiraself in the pit
of destruction. They ihat will be rich,
(says the apoatle,) that are resolved upon
that, " they faU into teraptation, and divera
snares, that drown men," &c. that is the
isaue- This day. It is true that this condemns
net a due providence in raen for themselves
and their farailiea, in a just and moderate
v/ay ; but men deceive theraselves in this ;
few stay there, but under that name harbour
grosa avarice and earthUneas. But in thia
word we have the true teraper of a Chriatian
raind, that whataoever ia hia own lawful pro
vidence, and whataoever ia the success of it,
what he lives and reUes on, is the providence
of God, not his ewn ; he lives upon that
frora one day to another, aa a child in his
father's house ; and for proviaion for after
warda, thinka it is aa good in God'a hand
aa if it were in hia own, and therefore
asks not se much stock, er so much
yearly rent, but biead for io-day. If
he have much land or great revenues, yet
truats no more in tbat tban if he had no
thing ; and if he' have to-day, and nothing
for to-raonow, (as the Israelites had manna,)
yet trusts no less in Ged than if he bad
thousands ; he reaolvea thus, " Whether I
have much or Uttle, I ara at God's provid
ing, and live upon that frora day to day ;
" the Lord is ray ahepherd, I shall not
want," Paalra xxiii. 1.
Theae two go together, aa we bave observ
ed tbem here together — godlineaa and rao
deration, godlineas in this particular, of cast-
ting over our care of teraporal things ou God,
by prayer, Phil, iv- 5. Lei your modera
tion be known, &c- But how shall we have
it ? Make your requests known unto God,
and that in all things ; that wiU ease you,
and not treuble hira. But when we ledge
such desires as are not fit indeed to be ira
parted te hira, this is our sharae, and proves
our vexation. It ia a wonder what men
meari ; but it ia a folly so rooted io men's
hearts that no discourse will pluck it up ;
they imagine that there is happiness in hav.
irig much, arid wiU neither beUeve religion,
nor reason, ner experience, though aU teach
the contrary. They carinot be persuaded to
• Si possis recte, si non, quorunque modo reuu
OR. 2 G

406

AN EXPOSITION OF

raake tbis the rule of their desirea, daily
bread, and for to-day, but are stiU project.
ing for long time to come, though they are
net aure of a day. Men are atiU beginning
te Uve, even when their years teU thera they
should be thinking how to die ; are upon
new contrivances for the world, when they
muat shortly leave it : and thia ia one point
of thia our diaease, that it growa stiU, and ia
strongeat in old age, when there ia least
reaaon for it- *
What ia thia that riches can do ? Our
Savieur teUs us, if we will believe hira, that
man's life doth not consist in the abundance
of the things he possesseth ;-f there is sorae
thing neceaaary, we aee, and truly that ia not
much, and what ia more than aervea, raany
tiraea provea but raore incumbrance ; one
staff wiU help a man in hia way, but a bundle
of atavea would burden and weary bim.
Weuld men but atop a little and aak them.
selves, ' What is this I do ? What do I
aira at in all my turmoil ?' it might posai.
bly recal them, weuld they but hear Solo-
mon'a question, and tell him what good the
rich have of possessing more than they use,
but only of beholding them with their eyes :
if there be any thing more, it ia raore care
and troublea.J He that hath a hundred
rooms bath but one body, be can lodge but
in one at once ; he tbat might have sea and
land ransacked for delicates for his table,
hath hiraself but one appetite te serve with
tbem all-
Then consider, that beyond the bounds of
this petition, if a man once pasa, there be no
bounda after ; he knowa not where to stay
one thouaand weuld have soraething mere to
aave it unapent, and when that growa a little.
it ia best even to make another thouaand, and
save that too, arid fall a acrapirig fer more.
And if thia ia alwaya a frenzy, most of aU
ill these times. " Behold," aays God to
Baruch, " I wiU break down that which I
have built, and that which I have planted
wiU 1 pluck up, even this whole land ; and
aeekeat thou great thinga for thyaelf ?" Jer.
xiv. 4, 5. " But ia it not wisdora to be pro.
vident, and see far before a raan ? and te
look no further but to the preaent, ia the cha
racter of a fool." True it ia indeed, and
therefore the truly wiae raan deapises this
providence for a baae, uncertain life, and ia
content, if alive, but frora one day to ano
ther ; but there ia a higher deaign in hia
head, a providence of a further reach, tbat
aees afar off indeed, to raake bimself an
estate for etemity — tbat takes up his thoughts
and pains ; the other is the groaaeat , ahprt-
sightedneas, tn lppk np further than a rae-
ment ; it ia indeed fiinu^x^ut,, aa St. Peter
speaks. But that life the Christian'a eye ia
* Quo minus viae restat, eo plus viatici comparare.
t Ad supervacua sudatur.
t Et cui-as circum laqueata tecta Tolantus.
b Depingc ubi eistum.

upon, ia of anpther nature, where none of
theae poor thinga aliaU have place, JVo
marrying, nor giving in marriage, as our
Saviour says ; ao no eating nor drinking, no
need ef bread, ner of thia prayer fer it, but
we shaU be as tbe angels of God.
And forgive us our debts, Scc. Thy lov
ing-kindness, says David, is better than
life. Therefere thia requeat riaea above the
former : in it we aought bread for the pre
aent life ; in thia we entreat hia favour, not
corn, nor wine, nor oil, but that that glads
the heart more tban them all, the light of
his countenance, that the thick cloud of our
aina be diapelled by a free pardon, aa he pro-
miaea, Isa. xliv. 2-
In this petition we have, 1 . the requeat ;
2- the clauae added- That which ia here
caUed debta, St- Luke bath ains ; and here,
in the observation our Saviour adds, they are
caUed (^ra^a^TTw^arfl:) offences. Now sin, aa
it ia called a debt, is taken for the guiltineaa
ef ain, which ia no other but peenas debere,
to ewe the auffering of puniahraent, or an
ebUgement to the curee whicb the law bath
pronounced againat ain ; and becauae thia
resulta immediately from sin, therefore ain
ia ,eften put for the engageraent te puniah.
raent ; ao the apoatle'a phrase, 1 Cor. xv.
56, raay be taken. So, then, the debt of
ain being the tie to punishraent, which fol.
lows upen it, the forgiving of sin can be no
other than the acquitting of a raan from that
curae, aetting him free frora hia debt, his
engageraent te auffer ; and therefore to ima.
gine a forgiveneaa ef ain with retaining of
the punishment, ia dfrect nonaenae and a
contradictiim. To paas the words of this requeat through
our raouths (as tbe rest) is an easy and com.
raon thing, but altogether fruitless ; but to
offer it as a apiritual aupplication of the
heart unto God, is a thing dene but by a
few, and to aa raany aa do offer it so, it
never returna in vain, but ia certainly grant.
ed. Now, to ofl'er it ae, aa a Uvely, spiri.
tual suit unte God, there are necessarily
supposed iu the aoul tbat preaenta it, theae
thinga :
1. A clear conviction and deep sense of
the guiltineaa ef sin ; both in general what
thia guiltineaa ia, wbat ia that debt that ara
engages .us in, that raiaery to which it binda
ua over, 1. aa the deprivement of happineas,
the loss of God and hia favour for ever. 2.
The endleaa endurance of bis wrath, and
hotteat indignation, and aU tbe anguiah that
that ia able to fiU the soul with to all etemity.
Unsufferable, inconceivable torment ! de.
scribed to us by such things aa we, can un
deratand, but going infinitely beyond thera,
A gnawing worm that dies not, and afire
that cannot be quenched ; this is the por
tion of the sinner frora God, and the heri
tage appointed to hira, aa Zophar speaks..

THE LORD'S PRA^'KR.

467

Then in particular there rauat be a aeeing man him that is in health ; their own want
cur pwn guiltiness ; a raan raust knpw hira- 1 raakea thera think ae. Now this forgiveness
' self to be nething else but a raass of sin, and of airi ia happirieaa indeed, yet a man muat

so fuel for that fire ; muat see himself a trana-
greaser of the whole law ef God, and there
fore abundantly liable to that sentence of
death, 2. Upen thia apprehenaion wiU foUow a
very earneat deaire te be free, and auch a
word aa that, O wretched man that I am !
who shall deliver me ? And seeing no way
either to satisfy or escape without a free par
don, the soul then looks upon that as ita only
happineaa; with David, Blessedis ihe man,
O, the blessedness of that man ! whose ini
quity is forgiven, and whose sin is covered.
3. In this requeat there ia a taking of it
aa a thing attainable, for it ia implied tbat
there ia no impossibUity in it ; and this
arises from the proraisea of God, and the
tenor of the covenant ef grace, and the Me
diator of that covenant revealed in tbe word,
apprehended only in their general tenor.
4. It importa a humble confeaaion of guilti
ness before the Lord, as foUows there, Psalra
xxxii- 5, / acknowledge my sin. See., and
hide not mine iniquity. The way to find
God biding and covering it, he perceived,
was for himaelf not to hide it ; the way to
le acquitted at God'a hand, ia for the aoul
with humiUty and grief te accuse itself be
fore him-
5- Where there is this sensible knowledge
and humble acknowledgraent of ain and
miaery, and earneat deaire of pardon, then
doth a raan truly offer thia auit unto God
with atrong affection : Lord, this is my re
quest, that my sin may be forgiven ; and
praya it in faitb, which ia a raore particular
laying held on the proraiaes, beUeving that
• he wiU forgive, and therefere waits for an
anawer, to hear that voice of joy and glad
ness, aa David apeaka ; te hear the word of
hia pardon frora God apoke into hia aoul.
And for thia cause (besidea the need of daily
parden for daily aina) the moat godly men
have need to renew thia auit, that, together
with pardon, they raay obtain the corafort
able perauaaion and aaaurance of it; and
theugh they have sorae aaaurance, yet there
be further degreea of it poaaible and desir
able, clearer evidences of reconcileraent and
acceptance with God.
Forgiveneaa itaelf is indeed the raain, und
is often granted, where tbe other, tbe aasur
ance of it, is withheld for a tirae ; but there
js no question that we may, yea, that we
ought to desfre it, and seek after it. He is
blessed that ia pardoned, theugh as yet he
know it net ; yet doubtieaa it abatea rauch of
his happineaa for the tirae, that be doea not
I now it.*
A a the philoaopner says. The poor man

firat feel the want pf it, befpre he judge ao :
but here ia the difference ; when he hath ob
tained it, he ahall think ao atUl ; whereas
the others being tried, are found to fall abort,
and do not raalce any man happy.
Seeing thia is the request of so great mo
ment, may we not wonder at ouraelvea, that
are ao cold and indifferent in it ? But the
true reaaon of thia is, because so few are truly
sensible of this heavy debt, of the weight of
ain unpardoned. A man that feela it not
praya thua, not much troubling his thoughts
whether it be granted or ne ; but he that ia
indeed preaaed with tbe burden of ain, cries
in earneat. Lord, forgive. David knew
what he aaid, when he called him blessed
whose sin is forgiven ; the word ia, that ia
unloaded of his sin. He was a king, and a
great captain, but he saya not, He is a bless
ed raan that weara a crown, or that ia suc
cessful in war, but be whose ain is taken off
his shoulders ; whatsoever he is otherwiae, he
ia a happy raan ; it ia in vain to offer a con
science groaning under ain any thing else,
until it be eaaed of that. If you ahould see
a man lying grovelling under aome weight
that is ready to preaa him to death, and ahould
bring sweet rauaic to him, and cover a table
with deUcates before him, but let him lie atil!
under bia burden, could he (think you) take
any pleaaure in those things ? Were it not
rather to mock hira to uae hira so ?
And theugh be feel it riot-aa troubled con
aciences do, yet we are truly raiserable in all
enjoyments, until thia forgiveneaa be obtain
ed. To what purpoae daily bread, yea,
wbat ia the greateat abundance of all out.
ward thinga, but a gliatering raiaery, if tbia
be wanting ? But he that ia once forgiven,
and received into favour with God, wbat can
befal him amiaa ? Though he hath no more
of the world but daily bread, and of the
coarseat aort, he bath a continual feaat within,
as he that aaid. Brown bread and the gos
pel is good fare. Now the goapel ia the
decfrine ef thia forgiveneaa of ain, and ia
therefore ae sweet to an humbled sinner ;
yea, though a man have not only a .small
portion of earthly coraforts, but be under
divera afiUctiona and chaatiaeraents, yet this
raakea hira cheerful in aU, aa Luther aaid,
Feri Domine, See, use rae aa thou wilt ;
aeeing thou haat forgiven ray ain, all ia weU.
Lastly, As there must be earneat deaire
in the request, so withal firra beUef ; ask in
faith. If once theu art becorae a hurable
suiter for raercy, and that is the great deaire
ef thy heart, that God would take away thy
ain, and be reconciled to thee ; tben know,
that he will not caat back thy petition in dia-

thinks him happy that is rich, and ihe sick pleasure ; now be ia gracioua, and whatao-
.» Non est beatus, esse qui sc nonpuiet. ., 'e>'er thpu haat been, cpnsider what he is.

468

AN EXPOSITION OF

Doth he receive any for any thing in them
selves ? What is the cauae he pardons any ;
is it net for his own name's sake ? Isa. xliii.
25. And will not that reaaon aerve for tbee
as much aa othera ? WiU it not avail for
many aina, as well as for few ? Haat theu
multipUed sin often, abused hia mercy, but
now raoumeat before him for it ? Then he
will multiply to pardon, laa. Iv. 7 ; Jer.
iii- 1- Thou hast rebelled much, but he is
thy Father, and bath the bowela of a father
to a repentant child : and this style we give
him in this prayer, as . fitly urging aU our
suita. Father, forgive us our sins ; there
fore forgive, because thou art our Father.
And then conaider, that he that puts this
petition amongst tbe rest in eur mouths,
hath satisfied for believers, paid all their
scores, and answered justice to the full, and
in hira we are fprgiven : it is a free fprgiveness
to us, though he bath paid for it ; and he
himselfwas freely given to ua, to undertake and
satisfy for us. 'Yet let net any thus erabolden
theraselves to ain ; thia were the groaaeat ira-
pudence, te ceme to crave pardon of ain while
we delight in it, and te deaire it to be for
given while we have no raind to part with it
and forsake it ; for thia privilege belonga only
to repenting and retuming ainnera.
As we forgive our debtors. Thia is add
ed, both aa a fit raotive for us to uae with
God, and a suitable duty thai he requires
of us : the forraer we raay perceive in the
manner that St. Luke hath it, For we also,
saya he, &c. " Thou, Lord, requireat ef
us te forgive othera, and thou workest it in
some of ua to do ao ; bow much mere then
may we hope that thou wilt forgive ua ? If
lUere be any such goooneaa in us, it ia frora
thee, and therefore is infinitely more in thy
self, as the ocean of goodness-"
Again, this ia likewiae a very profitable
arguraent to raove ua to thia duty, aa we aee
clearly by our Saviour's retuming to speak
ef it after the prayer ; it is not only bound
upon'us by his precept, but by eur prayer.
This (as), just as before in the third pe
tition, meana net equality in the degree, but
conformity in the thing.
New the requeat running thus, they that
do net forgive their brethren, turn it into a
moat heavy curae to- themaelvea, and in effect
pray daily. Lord, nei^er forgive me my sin:
and whether they say thus or no, he wiU do
thus, if we be auch foola as not to accept of
such an agreement. He hath infinite debt
upon our heads, that we ahaU never be able
te pay ; new, though there is no proportion,
yet he is graciously pleased without further
reckoning te forgive ua aU, and diacharge ua
fully, if we accept (as it were) of this his
letter of exchange, and fw his sake forgive
our brethren the few pence tbat at the mpat
they can be owing us, in lieu of the thouaand
of talents diat he acquita te us. And bv

thia, as our certain evidence, we may be aa.
sured of pur pardpn, and rejpice in it, as pur
Saviour after clearly affirms ; and therefpre
the cpntrary (which he likewise teUs us) may
weU take pur debates, and hafreds, and de.
sires nf revenge, as a cpuntersign, testifying
tp us, that we are not forgiven at God's hands.
And think not to satisfy hira with super
ficial forgivenesses and reconcileraents : would
we be content of such pardon from God, to
have only a present forbearance of revenge,
or that he ahould not quanel with ua, but no
further friendship with him ; that he should
either use strangeness with us, and not speak
te us, or only for fashion's sake ? And yet such
are many of our reconcilements with our breth
ren. God's way of forgiving is thorough and
hearty, both to forgive and to forget, Jer.
xxxi. 34, and if thine be net se, thou hast
ne portion in his.
'VThat a base miserable humour is this
sarae deaire 'pf revenge, thia apirit pf mafic;
tbat ppaaeaaea men, and think themaelvea
brave in it, that they forgive no injuriea, can
put up no affronta, aa they apeak ! Solomon
was of another mind, and he waa a king, and
a wiae king, and knew weU enough what
honour raeant ; It is ihe glory of a man to
jjass by a transgression, aaid he. And we
aee inferior raagiatratea and officers may ,
punish, but it ia a part of the prerogative of
kings to pardon ; it is royal te forgive, yea it
is divine, it ia to be Uke God, Matt. v. 48 ;
Be you perfect, as your heavenly Father
is perfect ; and the perfection ia, da good
to ihem thai persecute you, See. as he caus
eth the sun to shine on the just and unjust.
There is raore true pleasure in forgiving,
than ever any man found in revenge. Fa
ther Desales said, " That whereas raen thinl*
it ao hard a thing te forgive a wrong, h ;
found it se aweet, that if the contrary were
coraraanded hiin, he would have rauch ado
to obey it." Were 'the law pf lpve written
in eur hearta, it weuld be thua with us ; it
weuld teach us effectually to forgive others,
if we knew and found in our experience tbe
boundless love of Ged in forgiving us.
And lead us not into temptation. See. As
the doctrine of divine mercy, mistaken and
abused by carnal minds, emholdens them to
sin ; so, being rightly apprehended and ap
plied, there is nething more powerful te
possess the heart with indignation against
sin, and love of holiness : se that this requeat
agrees most fitiy with the former ; where that
is presented aright, the heart will be no less
sincere and earnest in this other. The guilti
ness ef sin, and the prevailing power of it,
are the two evils that the godly feel more
than all other pressures in the world ; dell.
verance from beth is jointly promised in tbe
new covenant, Jer, xxxi. 31 — 33, and here
jointly intreated in these two petitions- W'e
ahall expla n.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

409

1. What this temptation and evil is.
2. What is raeant by stot lead into it, and
to deliver. Temptation. In the original, ¦vu^xir/.i.os,
a trial, that which gives proof of a raam's
strength and of bis disposition — draws forth
what is within him. And thua in moat thinga
we raeet withal in the world, there is aome
terapting faculty to try us what we are, on
the using of thera ; but especially such things
as are raore eminent in thefr nature, that have
much pewer with us. As erainent place .and
pubUc charge try both tbe ability and inte
grity ef raen, afflictions try the feith and
stabiUty of men'a minds. Injuriea try
whether they are truly raeek and patient or
no ; they stir tbe water that waa possibly
clear at top, and ao try whether it be not
rauddy at the bottom.*
But by temptations here are meant, occa
sions and provocations to sin. So likewise
tbe werd (evil) in, the ether clause, is not
to be taken for afflictions and crosses, but
for the evil ef sin, er fer that evil one, as
he is caUed, 1 John ii- 13, and that parti
cularly in relation to the evU ef sin, wherein
he hath so frequent and so great a hand-
There be outward things that are not in
themselves evil, and yet prove temptations
to us, because they raeet with a depraved,
conupt heart in us ; as riches, and honour,
and beauty, &c, and to interaperance, dainty
raeats, or the wine when it is red in ihe
ctsp, as Soloinen speaks; and upon these,
men sometimes turn over the blame of thefr
disorders, but most foolishly.
Other temptations and tempters there be
without us, that are themselves evil, and by
tempting, partake of our sin ; the profane
exaraple and customs of tbe world, ungodly
raen by thefr practices, and counsels, and
enticements, drawing others to ain, putting
othera into the sarae mire wherein they are
wallowing. But the moat effectual temper of ^1, is
that which the apoatle St. James gives up
as the chief, and without which indeed none
other could prevail, Every man is tempted
of his own concupiscence ; whosoever it is
that begets it, that is, the worab wherein all
sin is conceived, and that brings it forth,
as he there adds ; yea, this were ahle of
itself to be ftuitful in sin, though there
were not a devil to terapt it to it, and doth
no doubt often terapt us witheut his help.
Yet, because he is so continually busied
in this work, is so constant a stickler in the
greatest part of sins in the world, therefore
it is not unlikely that this is particularly
meant of hira.
Howsoever, he is out of doubt the great
est of aU outward tempters, (and therefore it
is pertinent to consider his share in them,)
ihe raost skilful, tbe most active arid diU-
* Natura vexata prodit seijisam.

gent, and he that manages all otiier kind of
temptations against ua, both such as are
withput us in the werld, and such as are
within us ; he works upon our pwn conup
tion, stining and blowing it up by his sug
gestions, and sometimes throwing in baUs
of his ewn infernal fire, that are grievous
and abominable to the seul into which he
casts them. It is his name and profession,
0 orci^xZii', that great pirate, that robs
upon all seas, that is every where catching
the souls of raen. And he is well seen in
his trade, a knowing spirit, that raanifested
his skill shrewdly in his first esaay against
man ; that serpent's first poison killed the
whole race of raankind; and now he is perfect
ed by long experience and practice, hath his
methoda, as arts after a due tirae are drawn
into method. He hath his topics, his several
sorts of temptationa for aeveral terapers, and
hath great insight into the subject be is to
work upon, and so fita tbe one to the other.
The profane, tha^ wiU be eaaily drawn to
the groaaeat sins, he is not at the pains to
find put other ways for thera, but hunies
them along in that high way to destruction,
using his advantage either of their gross ig
norance or hardneaa of heart, &c. . Others
that are reaolved to live outwardly blarae
leaa, he endeavoura to take and hold fast to
himself by pride, and self-love, and malice,
and cevetousneaa ; by formality in reUgion,
uribelief — wbich are thinga, theugh sraaller
wrought tban some ethers, yet tbat are as
strong, and hold raen as fast to be led captive
at his will.
And the godly, because tbey are escaped
and set free frera bis tyranny, and he is des
perate, of reducing thera, yet because he can
do no raore, he is sure to he a perpetual vex
ation and trouble to thera, so far as he is let
loose ; he is raoat unwearied in his assaults,
gives tiiem no respite, neither when he gains
upon them, nor when he is foiled aud re
pulsed. Let us next consider,
2. What the request is, — not to be led
into teraptation, — and, to be delivered.
Lead us not. Not that God doth soUcit
a man to sin, for tbat is most contrary to his
most pure nature, aa St. Jamea teUs us plain
ly, He is neither so tempted, nor tempts
he any : but thia leading into temptation
is briefly, 1. To permit a man to be tempt
ed. 2. To withdraw his grace, and so de
liver up a man into the hand or power of
the temptation. Now tbis is what we pray,
that the Lord be pleased either to bear off
assaults frora us, and suffer us not to be
tempted ; or if he let teraptation loose upon
us, yet to give us the better, to order it so
that it overcoraes us not. That wbich is
here raeant by leading, or carrying us into
temptation, is the prevaiUng ef it, or leading
us unto a foil ; and this we pray that he
would not do, that if he do bring us into the

470

AN EXPOSITION OF

conflict pf teraptatipn, he wpuld npt leave us
there, but bring us fair pff again : and thus
the whple petitien runa, lead us not, but de
liver us. And in thia it ia, that be wpuld
fumiah us with his pwn grace, the hply habita
of grace to be within ua, aa a constant gar
riaon. And then, that either he counter
raand our eneray frera aaaaulting, or that
they be such as overraalcb not the strength
he hath given us, but raay be below it ; or
that he send us the auxiliary strength of
supervenient assisting grace to that we have,
that, howsoever, the forces that corae against
ua raay be tumed backward, and we may
have the comfort and he the glory of our
victoriea. Se then iu this we are taught, 1. To know
the danger wherein we are ; that we live
the midst ef enemies, and such aa are atrong
arid aubtle, that we have the prince ef dark.
nesa plotting against us, and the treacher
ous conuption ef our own hearts ready to
kgep conespondence with him, and be
tray us to him- That he hath gina and
snarea laid for ua in aU our waya, La-
queos ubique, laqueos in cibo ei potu, S[C
Aug. Med. ; in our aolitude and in our
converae, in our eating and drinking, yea,
anarea in eur apiritual exercise, our hear
ing, preaching, prayer, &c-, and therefore as
he here teaches ua to pray against them, we
raust join that, to watch against them- 2.
To be sensible ef eur own weakness and in
sufficiency, either for avoiding or overcoming
these dangers. 3. To know the all-suffi
cient strength of Ged, hia aovereign power
over all adverae powers, that they are all un
der his command, so tbat -be can keep them
off ua, er aubdue thera under ua, aa he pieaa
eth, and ao to have our recourae to thia, and
rest in it. The firat of theae considerationa,
if it take w.th us, will stfr us up to w.,tch
fulness, and the other two wiU persuade to
prayer ; and these are the two great perserva-
tives against teraptation that our Saviour
prescribea, Watch and pray, lest you enter
into temptation. Watch — hew can we aleep
secure, and ao many enemiea that sleep not ?
If we pray and watch not, we tempt Ged,
and we lead ouraelvea into teraptation. It
is our duty (raock the word who will) to
walk exactly or precisely, xx^iSois, to look to
every atep, to beware of the leaat aina : fer
they, 1. By raultitude make up a great
weight. 2. They prove uaually introduc
tions to greater sina ; admit but aome inordi
nate deaire into your heart that yeu account
a small matter, and it ia a hundred to one
but it ahaU prove a Uttle thief got in, to open
the deor to a number of greater ; aa tbe
Rabbins speak, a leaa evil brings a man into
the bands of a greater. •
2. Avoid riot Orily aina, but the incentives

serves weU that of our Savieur, When they
shall say, here is Christ and there is
Christ, he says uot. Believe them not, but
Go noi forth to see ; aud Soloraori's inatruc
tion fer avoiding the allureraents of the
atrange woraan, aaya net only " Go not in,
but, Corae not near the door of her houae."
The way ef sin is down hiU ; * a man can.
not stop where be would, and he that will be
tampering with dangerous occasions, in con.
fidence of his resolution, sbaU find himaelf
often carried beyond hia purpose. If you
pray, then watch too : but aa tbat word com.
mands our diligence, ao thia iraporta our
weakness in ouraelvea, and eur atrength to
be in another ; that aa we watch we must
pray, and without thia we shall watch in
vain, and be a prey to our enemy. Traly
had we no pewer beyond our own, we might
give over, and be hopeless of coming through
to salvation — so raany eneraies and hazards
in the way. Alas ! might a Chriatian say,
looking upon the multitude ef temptations
without, and conuptions within himself, and
the weakneaa of tbe grace he hath, " How
can thia be ? Shall I ever attain ray joumey's
end ?" But again, when he looks upward,
and Ufts his eyes above his difficulties, be
holds the atrength of God engaged for him,
directa hia prayera to him fer help, and is as
sured to find it ; this upholds hira and an
swers all. There is a roaring lion that aeeks
to devour, but there ia a atrong reacuing lion,
the lion of the tribe of Judah, that wiU de
liver. The God of peace, aays the apostle,
will bruise Satan under your feet shortly.
He says not, we shall bruiae hira under our
feet, but God ahall do it ; yet he says not,
he shaU bruiae him under his own feet, but
under yours ; the victory shall be oura, though
wrought by him ; and he ahaU do it ahortly ;
wait a while and it shaU be done ; and. the
God of peace, because he is the God of peace,
he ahall subdue that grand diaturber of your
peace, and ahaU give you a perfect victory,
and after it endleaa peace ; he ahall free you
of hia trouble and moleatatiori. Grace is a
stranger here, and therefore hardly used, and
hated by raany fees ; but there ia a promiae
of a new heaven and a new earth, where
dwells righteouanesa ; there it ahall be at
horae, and quiet, no speiliug ner robbery in
aU that holy raountain.
For thine is the kingdom, and ihe power,
and the glory, for ever and ever. Araen.
Thia pattern (we knew) ia the line under
which aU our prayera ought to raove, all eur
requests to be conforra to it ; and are certain
ly out of their way, when they decline and
wander frora it. And if we observed it, we
may clearly perceive it is a circular line ; ai
indeed the exercise of prayer ia a heavenly
motion, circular aa that of the heavens ; be-

and occasions te sin ; aa St. Chryaoatom ob- glna and enda in the aarae point, the glory
* Levius malum inducit inanus graviorls. Dims. I * Motui in procli\i.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

471

of that God to whora we pray, and who is|

the God that heareth prayer. In that point
this prayer begina, and here ends in it, ao
that our requeats that concern ouraelves are
caat in die raiddle, that allour desires raay
move within thia circle ; thougb the things
we pray for concern ouraelvea, yet are not to
terrainate iu ouraelvea, but in hira wbo ia
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end
of aU thinga ; to deaire not only the bleaa
ings of tbia life, but the bleaaedness ef the
Ufe to come, mere for his glery than for our
own good.
This is genuine and pure love of God, in
the pardon ef our sins and salvation — to re
joice more in tbe glory of divine mercy than
in our own personal happiness ; thus it shaU
be witb us, when we shaU be put in posses
sion of it, and we ought to aspire to that
measure of the sarae raind that, can be at
tained here, whUe we are in the desire and
hopes of it.
For thine is the kingdom. Though this
clau.se is left out in divers translations, and
wanting in sorae Greek copies, yet it is so
agreeable to the nature of prayer, and the
perfection of this prayer, that we ought net
to let it pass unconsidered.
There is in it an enforceraent of our
prayer, but especially it is a retum ef praiae ;
" Good reaaon we deaire eameatly the sanc
tifying of thy narae, and coming of thy king
dom, and obedience to thy will, seeing these
are so peculiarly due to thee, namely, king. I
dora, and power, and glory ; and seeing!
thou art so great and rich a King, raay we
not crave with confidence, at thy hands, all
needful good things to be bestowed on us,
and that all evil raay be averted from us,
that we raay find thee gracious to us, both
in giving and forgiving ; and as in forgiv
ing us the guiltiness of sin, so in freeing us
frora the power of sin, and preserving us
frora the power of our spiritual enemies that
weuld draw us into sin ? We are under thy
royal protection, we are thy subjects, yea thy
children ; thou art our King and Father, so
that thy honour is engaged for our defence.
Whatsoever sum our debts amount to, they
are net too great for such a Kiug to forgive,
they cannot rise above thy royal goodneaa ;
and whataoever be our enemies, all their
force is net above thy sceptre ; though they
be strong, too strong for ua, yet theu art
much more too strong for them, for power is
thine ; and this we know, that aU the good
thou dost us will bring back glory to thy
name, and it ia that we moat desire, and
that which is thy due ; the glory is thine."
Thus we see all our places of arguments
iox our requests are in God, none of them in
ourselves ; as we find this in the prayers of
the prophets, for thine own glory, and /or
ihine own name's sake ; nothing in our-

raisery', and that raoves not but by reaaon of

his bounty ; so, still, the cauae of his hear
ing, and the arguraent of eur entreating, is
in himself alone. Were it not thus, how
could we hope to prevail with him ? Yea,
how durat we offer to come unto hira ? It is
weU for us there is enough in himaelf both to
encourage us te corae, and to fumish us with
motives to persuade him by, that we ceme
not in vain. Moaea had not a werd to say
for the pepple in themselvea ; such was their
caniage, his mputh was stppped that way ;
yet he dpth not let go this, " M'^bat wilt
thou do with thy mighty name ? It ia true
they have trespaaaed, yet if thou destroy
thera, thy name wiU suffer. Lord, conaider
and regard tbat, and we know the succeaa of
it." Thua a Christian for himself: " Lord,
1 ara most unworthy of aU these things
I request of thee, but whatsoever I am, thou
art a liberal and mighty King, and it is thy
glery to do good freely, therefore it ia that '
corae unto thee ; my neceasities drive me to
thee, and thy goodneaa drawa me, and the
more peor and' wretched I ara, tbe greater
will be thy glory in helping me."
But it is withal an extoUing and praiaing
tbe greatneas of God, and so we are te con
sider it.
Thine is the kingdom. " Other kings
and kingdoraa there be, but tbey are aa no
thing, they deaerve net tbe naraing in com
parison of thine ; they are but kings of little
niole-biUa, te the bounda of thy dominion ;
I tbe greatest kingdoms of tbe world are but
smaU parcels ef this globe of earth ; and it
self altogether, te the vast circuraference of
tbe heavens, is aa nothing, loaea aU sensible
greatness. This point that raen are so busy
dividing among them with fire and sword,
what if ene man h?d tbe sovereignty of it all ?
H e and kingdora both were nothing to tiiine ;
for sea and land, earth and heaveri, arid all
the creatures in thera all, the whole, all is
thine ; thou art Lord of beaven and earth,
and therefere the kingdora is thine. As all
other kingdoras are leaa than thine, so they
held of thine ; thine ia suprerae ; aU the
crowns and sceptres of the earth hang at thy
footstool." All kinga owe their horaage to
this great King, and he disposeth of their
crowns absolutely and uncontroUed as he will;
he enthronea and dethronea at hia pleaaure,
throws down one and sets up another ; as we
have a great monarch confessing it at length,
upon bis own experience, being brought
down from his throne en purpose te learn this
lesson, and was seven years in learning of it,
Dan. iv- 34.
The power. The creatures have among
thera several degrees and several kinds of
power, but none of them, nor aU of them
together, have all power ; this is God's. He
is all-powerful iu hiraself, primitively power-

selves to raove God by, but abundance ofi ful, and aU the power of the creature* is

47'2

AN EXPOSITION OF

derived from him : he is the fountain of
power ; so that whatsoever power he hath given
unto men, or any other creature, he hath
npt given away frem himaelf; it is still in
himself raore than in thera, and at hispleaaure
be can call it back, and withdraw the influ-
erice of it, and then tbey reraain weak and
powerless. And when he gives thera power,
he useth and dispoaeth of beth them and
thefr pewer aa seeras hira good ; therefere
bis style is, the Lord of hosts.-^ He can
command raore arraies than all the kings and
princes of the earth, from the most exceUent
to the meanest of the creatures ; all are his
trained banda, from the host of glorioua
apirita, to the very grasahoppera and fliea ;
and you know, that as an angel was em
ployed against the Egyptians, so Ukewise
these conteraptible creatures were upon ser
vice there too, and being armed with cora
raission, and with pewer frera God, did per
form the service upon which they were sent
so effectually, that the wisest of Heathens
were forced to confess, this is ihe finger of
God. This is the Lord to whora we address our
prayers, that cannot fail in any thing for
want of power, for he doth what he will in
heaven and in earth.
Glory. In these two consists mainly the
eminency of kings, in their power and their
majesty ; but they exceed not the meanest of
their subjects so far as this King surpasseth
the greatest of them in both. Psalm xciii.
1. Clothed with both majesty and strength.
They are eften resisted, and cut short of
their designs for want of sufficient power,
and are the best ef them eften driven to
straits ; sometimes men, sometiraes money
or munition, or sorae other necessary help ia
wanting, and ao their enterpriaes faU behind ;
but this King can chaUenge and defy all op
positions ; I work, (says he,) and who shall
let it ?
And as thefr power, so their majesty and
glory is inflnitely short of his ; he is ihe
King of glory, as the Psahnist styles him ;
alone truly glorious, both in the exceUency of
his own nature, and the extrinsical glory that
ariaes to hira out of hia werks. Of tbe
forraer we can but know little here, for
that Ught wherein he dwells is to us iuacces-
aible ; but this we know, tbat he ia inflnitely
above all the praiaes even of these that do be
hold hira. Likewise, how unspeakable is that
glory that shines in his works ; in the
framing of the whole werld, and in the
upholding and ruUng of it frera the begin
ning ! in which appear the two forraer that
are here ascribed to him, his kingdora and
his power, and so this third, his glory,
springs out of both. Then, if we consi
der the glorious attendance that is con
tinuaUy about his throne, as the Scrip
tures describe it to us, it drowns all the

porap of earthly thrones and courts in their
highest degree. See Rev. iv.
For ever. This kingdora, and power and
glory of God, besides their transcendent
greatness, have this advantage beyond all
other kingdoms, and power, and glory, that
his are for ever and ever ; aU other are pe.
rishing, nothing but pageants and shews that
appear fer a whUe, and pass along and vanish.
It was a wise word of a king, (especially at
auch a time,) when he waajriding in a stately
triumph, and asked by one of his courtiers,
thinking to please him. What is wanting
here ? he anawered. Continuance, Where
are aU the magniflc kinga that have reigned
in fonner ages ? Where is their power and
their porap ? Is it not past like a dream ?
And not only are the kings gone, but the
kingdoms theraselves, the greatest in the
world faUen to nothing ; they had their time
of rising, and again ef decUning, and are
buried in the dust : tbat golden-headed
iraage had brittle feet, and that wa's the rain
and break of it aU. But this kingdom of
the Most High is an everlasting kingdom,
and his glory and power abide for ever. Not
only things on earth decay, but the very
heavens wax old as a garment, (says the
Psalraist,) but thou, O Lord, ari still the
same, and thy years have no end.
1. It is a thing of very great iraportance
for us to have eur hearts estabUshed in the
beUef of these thinga, and to be frequent in
remembering and conaidering them ; te knew
that the^ kingdom is the Lord's, that he so
vereignly rules the world, and all things in
it, and particularly the great affairs of his
church ; that he is the mighty Ged, and
therefore, that there is no pewer, er wis
dom, or counsel of men, able to prevail
against hira ; and that in these things
wherein glory seeras to suffer for the pre
sent, it shaU gain and be advanced in the
closure. *"
2. Let us always, and in aU things, re
tum this to hira as his pecuUar due : " Thine
is the glory, it belongs to thee, and to none
other," Deo quce Dei sunt.
3. Let us think raost reverently of God.
Oh, that we could attain to esteeming
thoughts of hira, to think raore ef his great
ness and exceUency beyond aU the world !
It is our great folly te adraire any thing but
God ; this is becauae we are ignorant of him ;
certainly he knows not God, that thinks any
thing great beside him.
Amen. In this word concentre aU the
requeats, and are put up together ; so be it.
And there is in it withal (as all observe) a
profesaion of confidence that it shaU be ao.
It is from one root with these words that
aignify believing and truth, the truth of God'a
proraiaes persuades beUef, and it persuades to
hope for a gracious answer of prayer. And
this is the excellent advantage ofthe prayer of

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

473

faith, tiiat it qmets and establishes the heart
in God. Whatsoever be its estate and desire,
when once he hath put his petition into God's
hand, he rests content in holy security and as.
surance concerning tbe answer, refers it to tbe
wisdora and love of God, how and when he

wiU answer; not doubting that whatsoever it
be, and whensoever, it shall both be gracious
and seasonable. But the reason why so few
of us find that sweetness and comfort that is
in prayer, is, because the true nature and use
of it is se little known.

AN EXPOSITION

OF THE

TEN COMMANDMENTS.

EXODUS XX. 1.
And God spake all these words, saying.
1 T is the character of the blessed mari, and
the way of blessedness, to delight in the law
of God, Psalm i. 2. And because the eye
is often upen that Whereon the affection and
delight of the heart, is aet, the sign of that
delight in the law, ia te have tbe eye of the
mind rauch upon it, to meditate on it day
and night. And that we raay know this ia
not, aa the study of raany thinga are, erapty
apeculation, and fruitleas, barreu delight, we
are further taught tbe seul (as fixed in thia
delight and meditation) ia a tree well plant
ed, and anawerably fruitful. The raind that
ia aet upen tbia law is fitly set for bear
ing fruit, Planted by the rivers of waters :
and is reaUy fruitful, Bringeth forth its fruit
in his season,
If'this holds true of the law in the largest
sense taken fer the whole wiU of Ged reveal
ed in his word, it is no doubt particularly
verified in that wbich raore particularly bears
the name of the law ; tbis sarae sumraary ef
the rule of raan's life, delivered by the Lerd
hiraaelf, after ao singular a manner, both by
word and writ.
So, then, the explication ef it being need
ful for the ignorant, it wiU be likewise pro
fitably delightful for these that be moat know
ing and beat acquainted with it ; it ia a rich
mine, that we cari never dig te the bottora
of. He ia called the bleaaed raan, that is
atiU digging and seeking further into the
riches of it, Meditating on it day and night ;
hia working going forward in the night, when
othera ceaae frora working.
We have in the creed, the object of faith ;
in the law, tbe exercise and trial of leve :
For love is the fulfilling of the law ; and,

// ye love me, keep my commandments,
saith our Saviour. And prayer is the breath.
irig of hope, er, as they caU it, Inierpreta-
tio spei. Thus iu these three summaries
are the matter of these three prime theologi.
cal virtues, faith, hope, and charity.
The law rightly underatood, addreaaes us
te the articlea of our faith : for aeeing the
diaproportion of our best obedience to the ex
actneas ofthe. law, thia drives us to seek sal
vation in the gespel by beUeving ; and our
natural inability te believe, drives us to pray
er, tbat we may obtain faith and perseverance
in it, at his handa who ia both the firat au
thor and finiaher of our faith.
The preparation enjoined the peeple,
teacheth the bolineas ef thia law ; the fire,
and thunder, and lightning, and upen these,
the fear of the people, testify tbe greatneas
and raajeaty of the Lawgiver, and withal his
power to puniah tbe trangreaaora of it, and
juatice tbat will puniah ; that, aa he ahewed
his presence by fire, aeen in delivering this
law, so he is (aa the apoatle teacheth us,
aUuding to thia) a consuming fire to them
lhat neglect and diaobey. The limits set
abeut the mount, that they might not ap
proach it, even after aU their endeavour of
sanctifying and preparing, read humility to
us, teaching us eur great diatance from the
holinesa of our God, even when we are most
holy and exactest in our preparations. Next,
Sobriety, ^^ovuv us to o'm^^ovsiv, not to pry
into hidden things,* to hear what is revealed
to us, and commanded us, and te exercise
ourselves in tbat. Hidden things belong
unto God, Scc. And, lastly, That the law
of itself ia tbe miniatration of death, and hath
nothing but tenor in it, till the Messiah
the Mediator appear, and the soul by his
perfect obedience be accounted obedient to
the law : but we must net insist on this now.
* Scrutator Majestatis opprimetur a gloria.

THE TEN COMM.i-NDMENT.^.

475

God spake. The preface ia twofold. 1.
That of Moses. 2. Of God hiraaelf.
These words. Ten woids, Exod. xxxiv.
28, and Deut. v. 22. He added no more.
Hence we raay learn, 1. The perfection of thia
law, that no raore waa needful to be added.
2- The exceUency ef it, being ao short arid
yet so perfect- For as it is the excellcricy of
aU speecli, aa of coin, (as Plutarch haa it,)
to contairi rauch in little, raeat value in sraaU
est quantity ; so especially of lawSj that they
be brief and full.
That we may the better conceive of the
perfection of this law, we must not forget
those rulea that divines give for the under
standing ef it in its due latitude. 1. That
the prohibitions ef sin contain the comraands
of the contrary good, otherwise the nuraber
of precepts weuld have been too great. And,
on the coutrary, 2. Under the name of any
one sin, aU homogeneous, or sins of that
kind, are forbidden. 3- AU the induce
raents and occasions of sin, things that corae
near a breach, to be avoided ; that which the
Rabbins caU the hedge of the law, not to be
broken. They that do always, tbat tbey law
fuUy may, sometimes do raore. 4. It is
spiritual, hath that prerogative abeve all hu
man laws, reaches tlie heart, and all the
raotions of it as weU as words and actions.
Thia auprerae Lawgiver alone can see tbe
behaviour of tbe heart, and alone ia able to
punish aU that offend, se rauch as in thought.
It were a vain -thing fer raen to give laws to
any, more than that they can require account
of and conect, wbich is only the superfice and
outside of human actions. But he that made
the heart, doth not only give his law to it, but
to it principaUy, and examines aU actions
there in their source and beginning, and
therefore oftentimes that which raen applaud
and reward, and de well in se doing, he just
ly bates and punishes.
God spake, AU that was apoken by his
mesaengera, the Propheta, wilh wanant from
hirii, waa hia word, they but the trumpeta
which the breath of his raouth, bis Spirit,
made to sound as it pleased hira ; but thia
hia moral law he privileged with his own im
mediate deUvery. fllen may give seme few
rules for society and civU life, by the dark
light that reraains in natural consciences ; but
sucb a rule as may direct a man te answer
his natural end, and lead him to Ged, must
ceftie frem himself. AU the purest and
wisest laws that men have compiled cannot
reach that ; they can go no higher in their
¦course, than they are in their spring : That
which is from the earth is earthly, saith our
Saviour. He added to this speaking, the writing of
them likewiae himself on tables of stone, that
they raight abide, and be conveyed to after
ages. At first tbey were written in the heart of
man by God's ewn hand; but as the first tables

of stone feU and were broken, so waa it with
raan's heart ; by his fall his heart was broken,
and scattered araongst tbe earthly perishing
things, tbat was before whole and entire to
his maker ; and so the characters of that law
written in it, were so shivered and scattered
that they could not be perfectly and distinctly
read in it ; therefore it pleased God to renew
that law after tbis raanner, by a raost solemn
delivery with audible voice, and tben by
writing it on tables of stone. A nd this is not
aU, but this sarae law he doth write anew in
the hearta of hia children.
Why it pleaaed hira to defer thia soleran
proraulgation ef the law to this time, and at
this time to give it to a aelect people only,
these are arcana imperii indeed, which we
are net to search into, but to magnify his
goodness to us, that he hath ahewed ua the
path ef life, revealing to ua both the precepts
of thia law, and the grace and proraises of the
goapel. It waa the all-wiae God that apake all these
worda, therefore be knew weU hia own aira
and purpoae in them, and doth certainly at
tain it.
It was not indeed that thia law might be
the adequate and complete raeans of raan's
happineas, that by perfect obedience to it he
raight be aaved ; for the law is weak for this,
net in itaelf, but through the fieah, Rora.
viii, 3 ; altogether iippoasible for it alone to
aave ua, because irapoaaible for us to fulfil it.
But it doth profit us much if we look
aright uppn it- 1. It discovers us to ourselves,
and ao humblea ua, freea ua from the pride
that ia ao natural to ua in the midst of our
great poverty and wretchedness ; for when we
see hew pure tbe law is, and we, corapared
with it, to be aU filthineaa and defileraent.
Our best righteousness, (aa laaiah says) as
filthy rags ; this cauaeth us to abhor our
selvea : whereaa naturaUy we are abuaed with
self-love and aelf-flattery arising frora it. Ths
point of the law (as they in the Acts were
said to be pricked in their hearts) pricks tha
heart that is swelled and puffed up with pride,
and raakes it fall low in aenae of vileness,
2. As this discovery hurables us in our
selves, it drives us out of ourselves. Tbis
glaaa shewing ua our pollution, aenda us to
the fountain opened ; when we perceive that
by the sentence of the law, there ia nothing
for ua but death, this raakes us hearken dili
gently to the news ef redemption and par
don proclairaed in the gospel, and hastens
us to the Mediator of the new covenant. As
the spouse was then singularly rejoiced to
find her beloved, when she had been beaten
and hardly Used by reproaching ; the soul is
then gladdest te raeet with Christ, when it
is hardestbuffettedwith the tenors and threat.
ening of the law. ^
His promise of ease and refreshment sounds
sweet after the thunderings and Ughtnings^of

470

AN EXPOSITION OF

Mount Sinai. A raan will never go te Chriat
so long aa he ia not convinced of raisery with
out hira, of irapetency in hiraself, and in all
others te help him.
3. It resfrains the wickedness even of un
godly men ; tbe brightness ef it makea them
aometimes aaharaed ef those works of dark
ness, which otherwise they would commit
without check ; and the tenors of it affright
them aoraetiraea frera that which they would
otherwiae corarait without sharae.
4. But chiefiy it aervea for a rule and
square of Ufe to the godly, A light io the'ir
feet, (as David saya,) and a lantern to
iheir paths. Either they have no rule of
life, which is impious and unreasonable tp
think, pr this is it. Christ came net tp dis-
splve it, but tp accpraplish and establish
it ; and he did carefuUy free it frera the in
jurious glosaes ef the Pharisees, and taught
the right sense and force of it. Matt. v.
He obeyed it both in doing and suffering,
both perforraing what it requires, and in our
stead undergoing what it pronounces against
those that perform it not. It is a proraise
primely intended for the days of the gespel,
as the apostle appUes, / will write my law
in iheir hearis. It is a weak conceit arising
upon the raistake of the Scriptures, to make
Christ arid Moses as oppoaitea ; ne, Moaea
waa the aervant in the bouse, and Chriat the
Son ; and being a faithful aervant, he ia not
contrary to the Son, but aubordinate to him.
The very abolishraent of the ceremonial law
waa not as of a thing contrary, but aa a thing
accempliahed in Chriat, and se was an ho
nourable abolishraent. And the reraoving
of the curse and rigour ef the raoral law
frem us, waa without wrong to it, being aa
tiafied in a better for ua, our surety Jesus
Chriat. They are happy that leok so on the law of
Ged, aa to be made sensible of misery by it,
and by that raade earneat in their deairea of
Chriat, and that judge theraaelvea ; the raore
evidence they have of freedom from the curae
of the law, to be net the leaa, but ao much
the more obUged to obey the law ; that are
StiU making progreaa and going en in that way
of obedience, though it be with continual halt
ing, and often aturabUng, and aoraetiraea
falling ; yet they shaU certainly attain their
journey's end, that perfection whereof they
are ao desirous.
Thia were the way to lowlineaa, not to
compare ourselves with others, in which too
many are often partial judges, but with this
holy law. We uae net to fry the evenneaa
of things with our crooked atick, but by the
straighteat rule that we can find. Thua St.
Paul, The law is spiritual, I am carnal.
He looks not how much he waa more spiri
tual than otber men, but how much less spiri
tual tban the law.
I am the Lord. This is the traeat and

most cpnstant pbedience, whicn news jpindy
frera reverence and love. Theae two are the
very wheela upon which obedience moves.
And these first words of the law are mest fit
and powerful to work theae two ; Jehovah,
sovereign Lord, to be feared and reverenced ;
Thy God ; and then, that hath wrought
such a deliverance for thee ; therefore in beth
these respects most worthy of the higheat
love. This preface cannot stand fer a comraand
raent, as sorae would have it : for expresaly
it coraraands nothing, tiiough by inference
it enforcea aU the coramandraenta, and ia in
deed se intended. Though it may be conceived
to have a particular tie with tbe first com
mandraent which foUows it iraraediately, yet
certainly it ia withal a raoat fit preface te
them all, and hath a persuaaive influence
into them aU ; commanding attention and
obedience, net In the low way ef human
rhetoric, hut stilo imperatorio, in a kingly
phraae, becoming the majesty of ihe King of
kings ; I am Jehovah.
Here we bave three motives te obedience :
1. His universal sovereignty, Jehovah. 2,
His particular relation te his own people,
Thy God. 3. The late singular mercy be
stowed on thera, That brought thee out of
the land of Egypt. Each of them sufficient,
and therefore aU together most strongly
concluding for obe'dience to his coramand
raents. 1. Jehovah. Not tP insist pn the ample
corisideratiori of this narae of Ged, ef which
divines, both Jewish and Christian, have said
so rauch, sorae raere cabaUsticaUy and cu.
riously, others mere soberly and soUdly ;
this they agree in, that it is the incommuni
cable narae ef the Divine Majesty, and sig
nifles the priraitiveness ef his being, and his
etemity : that bis being ia not derived, but
ia in and from bimself; and that aU other
being is frem him ; that he is from everlast
ing to everlasting in himaelf, without any
difference of time ; but ao etemity ia expreas
ed to our conceiving. He who is, and who
was, and who is to come, Alpha and
Omega. New it is most reasonable, that seeing aU
things, raankind, and aU the creatures that
serve for his good, receive thefr being from
him, we likewise receive laws frem him.
2. Hia raajeaty is alone absolute and inde
pendent ; and all the powers of the woild,
the greatest princes and kings, hold their
crowns of him, are his vassals, and owe
obedience to his laws, as much as thefr mean.
est subjects ; that I say not more, in regard
ef the particular obligation that their honour
and erainency given thera by hira, doth lay
upen them.
3. Jehovah. M'^bat are the numerous
styles wherein princes delight and glory so
ranch, but a vain noise ef nothing in compa*

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

477

risen of his narae, / am ? And in all tbeir
grandeur, they are low, petty majestiea, when
mention is raade ef this Jehovah, who
stretched forth the heavens, and laid the
.foundations of ihe earth, and formed ihe
spirit of man within him, Zech. xii. 1.
What gives a man, when he givea aU the
obedience he can, and gives himaelf in obe
dience to Ged ? What givea he him, but
what he hath ffrat received frora him, and
therefere owea it all aa aoon aa he begins to
be? This authority ef the Lawgiver is the very

tude of sin, and the prince ef darkness ;
frera these we are delivered, not to licentious
ness and Ubertiniain, but te true liberty. //
the Son make you free, you shall be free
indeed. Delivered, Luke i. 74, from the
power of our enemies. To wbat end ? To
serve him without fear, that tenor which we
would be subject to, if we were not delivered ;
and te serve him all the days of our lives :
and that aU, if raany hundred times longer
than it ia, yet toe little for him. It ia not
such a servitude aa that of Egypt, frera which
we are delivered, that ended to each pne with

lifepf thelaw ; it ia that we ap readily fprget, his life ; but the misery frpm wbich weare
and that is tbe cause pf all dispbedience, and ' '  , ., . „ ,.
therefore the Lerd inculcates it often, Lev.
xix. 36, 37. / am the Lord, ver. 31, and
again repeated, ver. 37-
Thia ia tbe apoatie St. James's arguraent,
by which he strongly proves hia concluaion,
Thai he that transgresseth in one, is guilty
of all. He urges not the concatenation of
virtues in" theraselves, though there is truth
and force in that — he that hath one hath all ;
and so, he that wants any one bath none :
but the aaraeneaa ef the authority ia hia me
dium. For he ihat said. Thou shalt not
commit adultery, said also. Thou shall not
kill, Jaraes ii. 11. The authority is the
sarae, and equal in all. The golden thread
pn whicii these pearls are stringed, if it be
broken in any ene part, it scatters them aU.
This name ef God signifying his authority,
keeps the whole frame ef flie law together,
and if that be stined, it falls aU asunder.
Thy God. Necessity is a strong but a
bard argument, if itgo alone. The sovereign
ty of God ties aU, either to obey his law, or
undergo the punishraent. But love is both
atrong and aweet ; where there aounda love
in the coramand, and the relation ef the com
raander, there it ia received and cheerfully
obeyed by love. Thus then, " Thy God,
in covenant witb thee," cannot but move
thee. We aee, theft, the goapel interwoven with
the law, thy God often repeated, which la
by the new covenant, and that by a Mediator.
God expects obedience frora his peculiar
people ; it is their glory and happiness that
they are his. It adds nothing to hira, but
rauch every way to thera ; he is pleased to
take it as glory dene te hira, te take him te
be our God, and doth really exalt and hononr
these that do so, with the title and privileges
of bis people, Deut. ii. 17, 18. If his ewii
children break his law, he cannot but take
that worse.
Who brought thee out of ihe land of
Egypt. By the reraembrance of their late
great deUverance, he mollifies their hearts to
receive the impression of tbis law.
Herein was the peculiar obligement ef thii
peeple ; but oura, typified by this, is net lesa,
but unspeakably greater from the cruel servi

redeemed, begins but in the fulness of it
when life ends, and endures for ever.
The gospel sets net men free to profane
neaa ; no, it ia a doctrine of holiness. We
are not called to uncleanness, but io holi
ness, (saya the apoatle) ; he hath indeed taken
off the hardness, the iron yoke, and now his
comraandraents are not grieveus. His yoke
is easy, and his burden Ught ; and they that
are moat sensible, and have most assurance
ef their deUverance, are ever the mest active
and fruitful in obedience ; they feel them
selves light and nimble, having the heavy
chains and fetters taken off, Psal. cxvi. 16,
Lord, I am thy servant, thou hast loosed my
bonds : dnd the comfortable perauaaion of
their redemption, is that oil of gladness that
auppliea and diaposea them to run the way of
God's coramandraents.

PRECEPT L
Thou shalt have no other Gods but me.
The first thing in religion is tp state the
object of it right, and to acknowledge and
receive it for auch. Tbia, I confeaa, ia the
intent of thia firat precept of the law, which
ia therefore the basia and foundation tbat
bears the weight of all thereat ; and there
fore (as we aaid before) though the preface
looks to thera all, yet it looka firat to tbis
that is nearest it, and is knit with it, and
through it to all the rest. The preface as
serted hia authority as the strength of his
law, and this firat precept comraanda the ac
knowledgment and embracing of that his
authority, and hia alone aa God. And thia
is the spring of our obedience toaU biscom-
mandraents. But before a particular explication ef this,
a word, 1. Of the division of this law. 2.
The style of it.
1. Division. That they were divided,
1. Into two tables. 2. Into ten words er
commandments, none can question. Me
have the Lawgiver's ewn testiraony clear fot
that ; but about the particular way of di
viding thera into ten, and . the matching of
these two divisions together, there hath been,

478

AN EXPOSITION OF

and atill ia, aorae difference ; but thia I wUl I of divine worahip. And this is that which
not insist on. Though Joaephua and Philo he calla cultus naturalis, natural- worship,

the Jew would (te make the number equal)
have five precepta in each table ; yet th
matter of thera is raere to be regarded, and
perauadea the contrary, that thoae that
cencerr piety, our duty te God, be in
tbe firat table ; and those together in the
second that concem equity, or our duty to
raan ; and the suraraary that our Saviour
gives of the two tables ia evidentiy for thia.
And that thoae precepts of piety, thoae of
tbe first table are four, and they of the se
cond six- And ao that first and aecond, aa
we have thera, are different and make two,
and the tenth but one, hath the voice both
of antiquity and reaaon, aa many divinea on
tbe Decalogue do uauaUy evince at large ;
which therefore were as easy, as it is need
leaa to do over again.
The creed of the Roraish church te the
contrary, ia plainly irapudent preauraption
and partiality, choosing rather to blot out
the law, than reforra their raanifest breach
of it.
2. That I would say of the style ef the
coraraandraent, is but in this one particular,
briefly : we see the greatest part ef thera are
prohibitive, or (as we uaually call thera,
though aoraewhat improperly) negative. Thou
shalt not, Scc. Thia, aa ia ebaerved by
Calvin and othera, intimates our natural bent
and inclineraent to sin, that it suffices net to
shew us wbat eught to be done, but we are
te be held and bridled by counterra ands
from the practicea of ungodUneaa and unrigh-
teouaness. Thou shalt not have, Scc. Thia order
here, and ao in tbe reat, 1. The scepe- 2,
The sense of the words- 3. What it forbids.
4. What it coramands : and theae foUow
each upon other; for out of the acope the
aenae ia beat gathered, and frora that the
breach and obaervation.
Aa the second coramandraerit coricerns the
solemn form of divine worahip, tbat it be not
such as we devise, but as himself appointa-
The third, the quaUflcation or manner of it,
not vainly ner profanely, but with holy re
verence. The fourth, the solemn tirae set
apart fer it, the Sabbath. So, this first pre
cept aima at aoraewhat whicb ia previous to
all these.
Many distinguish this and the aecond,
per cultum internum et externum, by the
internal and external worship : and a grave,
modem divine, espying sorae defect in that,
doth it, per cultum naturalem et institu-
luni, by natural and instituted. But I con
fess, both orait, at least they expreaa not (it
raay be they take it as iraplied) tbat which
is mainly intended, the ohject of worship ;
lhat tbat Jehovah, that gave and hiraself
apake tbis law, be received and acknowledged
for the only trae God, and so the only object

that priraitive worahip, the religioua habi
tude of man to God, giving hiraaelf entire,
outward and inward, to hia aervice and obe- .
dience ; fer thia is no other but to ewn him,
and him only, fer that Deity, lo whom all
love and worahip and praiae ia due.
It is sure not so convenient to restrain this
precept to inward worship only, for each pre
cept binds the whole man to obedience ; and
therefore I would not give the first motions
of concupiacence in general, for the aenae ef
the tenth commandment, aa we ahall shew
when we ceme to apeak of that. Certainly
even outward worship given to a falae god,
breaks this first comraandraent.
The scope then is briefiy, that the only
true God be alone acknowledged for what he
ia, and, (aa we are able with all eur powers
and parta inwardly and outwardly,) thaf he
be anawerably adored ; that we neither change
him for any other, nor join any other with
him, nor be neglective and alack in honour
ing and obeying hira : ao that aa we are par
ticularly by each aeveral precept instructed
in, and obliged to tbe particular dutiea of it,
by this we are generaUy tied to give obe
dience to thera all. It is no way inconveni
ent, but most fit in this general notion, thai
thia firat corair^andraent import the observ
ance of itself, and of all the rest.
IL The senae ofthe words, Nonhabebis
Heb. Non erunt tibi, Scc.
1, Erit tibi Deus, Thou shall have a
God. Know and believe that there is i
Deity. 2. Seek to know which is the true
God, that then mayest acknowledge him. 3.
" Know rae as I have revealed myself in-mj
werd ; know and beUeve that I, Jehovah,
the author and deUverer ef this law, that 1
ara God, and there is none elae," laaiah xliv.
8. 4. " Offer not therefore either to foraaks
rae, or to join any ether with me ; aUenate
no part of my due from rae, for my glory 1
will net give unto another." 5. '' Take me
f'or thy God ; and give service arid honour,
and thyaelf unte me."
Before my face. "Set thera not up in
my sight, for I cannot suffer them, nor their
worahippera ; if they corae in ray aight, they
will provoke me to anger." The werd here
for face, aoraetiraes signifies anger in scrip
ture ; and it seeras to aUude to his clear mani
featation of himself te his people in the de
livery ef the law ; and further, to clear the
doctrine of pure and true reUgion shining in
the law, which ia aa it were the Ught of the
face of God ; in which regard, tbe nations
that knew him not, may be aaid not to have
tbeir goda before hia face ; fer though he see
thera, they saw not hira. Again, before mi)
face. , " If thine idolatry be never ao aecret,
though it were but in heart, remeraber that
it «iU be in my ai^ht ; thou canst net steal

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

47!>

away any of ray glory to bestow any where
else, ao cunningly and aecretly, but I ahall
eapy thee. If thou canat bave any other
gods that I cannot know of, and aee net, thou
raayest ; but if thou canst have none but I
ahall see thera, then beware ; for if I see it,
I wiU punish it."
III. Breaches or aina against this cora
mandraent. We cannot particularly name all, but aorae
main onea.
1. That inbred enraity, tbat habitual re
beUion tbat ia in our naturea against God ;
ffuf^^vrii ix^i^j *^*' connatural enemy that
takes life witb us aa soon as ourselves in the
womb. To p^ovv]//,xrr]; iruoKQs, Theminding of
the flesh, Rom. viii. 6, and the evidence of that,
ow« u'TToTximT'xt, It cunnot be ordered, is ever
breaking rank. Some even of those that be
atow mouming upon sin, yet do not often
enough consider tiie bitter fountain, and be
wail it. The wiseat way to know tliinga, is
following thera horae to tbeir causes. Thus
David, Psalra li. 5, " Behold, I was ahapen
in wickedneas, and in ain hath my raother
conceived rae."
2- Atheism. Though there ia in the con-
sciencea of all raen an indelible conviction ef
a Deity, so tbat there have been few of those
monsters found, profeaaed atheiats ; yet there
ia in ua aU naturaUy this of atheiara, that by
nature we would wiUingly be rid of lhat
light, and quench that aparkle if we could :
and aU ungodly men de Uve contrary to it.
and fight againat it-
3. The .groaa idolatry of tbe Heathena ;
their *o^u9-iOTns,making gods efbeasts, almost
of every thing, and beaata of themaelvea —
Nullus enim terminus in false. The writ
ers ef the priraitive church have mightily and
learnedly confuted them : but we will not
stir thia dunghill. The acripture caUa idols
so — HiUulim.
4. Witchcraft, necromancy, and magical
arts, that raake a god ef the devil.
5. Rorae's invocation of aainta and angela.
Tho'dgb tbey take never ao much painajo
clear it, they do but waah the blot raere.
Thua in the aarae raatter, Jer. ii. 22 :
" Though thou take thee nitre and rauch
soap, yet thine iniquity is raarked before rae,
saith the Lord." All their apologies take
it net away, let thera refine it never so rauch
with pamphlets and distinctions ; aU they
attain by spinning it so fine, is but to make
it a part ef tbe mystery ef iniquity.
6. Eneneous opinions concerning Ged,
and generally heresies in religion.
7. Practical or interpretative atheism, or
idolatry, whether of the two yeu wiU call it ;
fot it is both in the Uves of the raoat : and
the world is full of this, being auch aa de-
clarea they have no God, or that this God is
but aorae baae idol in hia stead ; particularly
amongst ourselvea, 1. Groaa ignorance of

Ood, and ne endeavour ta attain the know.
ledge of him, though in the midst of the
Ught arid meana of knowing. 2. Universal
profaneness flowing from this ignorance,
Hosea iv. 1 — 3. 'Phe hearts of men, that
sheuld be the teraples of God, are fuU of
idols ; though we hide them in the closest
corners, they are before his face ; he sees
thera — lust and pride and covetouaneaa, Ezek.
viii. . Consider, that which yeu beatow moat
thoughta and aervice on, tbat which you are
moat affectionate and eameat in, ia not that
your God ? And is there not something be
side the trae God that ia thua deep in the
hearta of the mest of ua ? Take paina to
raake the comparison, look upon the teraper
of your rainds ; (to say nothing of rauch
more time spent upon otber thinga than on
bira ;) how ardent you are in other affaira
tbat you think concern yeu near, and how
cold in serving and honouring hira 1 But
though, in particular uiider-geda, in wbat
serves their honour, they differ, all men
naturaUy agree in the great idol, himself.
Every man ia by conupt nature hia own god.
Was net this the firat wickedneaa that cor
rupted eur nature ? Ye shall be as gods ;
and it aticks to it stiU. Men would please
themselves, and have themselves aomebody,
esteemed and honoured ; and would have all
aerve to this end. Is not this God's right
and due they give themaelvea, tp be the end
ef all their own actiona, and sacrifice aU to
tbeir own glory ?
TV. What ii commands.
Now by these we raay easily gather the
contrary, what is the obedience ef thia cora
mandment. (Though the graces are duties
properly belonging to this coramandraent,
sorae divinea think fit to expatiate into the
several coraraon-places of them, in explaining
this comraandraent : yet with aU respect to
thera, I think it not so fit to dwell upon each
of these herein ; their full handling rather
belonging te that place of divinity that treats
of the head of aanctification, and thoae in
fuaed habita of which it conaiata.) It ia ao to
know the true God, this Jehovah, as te be
perauaded aovereignly to love, and fear, and
truat in hira, to aerve and adpre him.
He ia tp be feared, fpr he ia great : Who
would not fear thee, thou King of nations ?
To be loved, fer he ia good ; and becauae
both great and good, only fit to be whoUy
relied on and hoped in.
But love ia all ; it givea up the heart, and
by that all tbe rest to the party loved ; it is
no more its ewn- Oh that we could leve
hira 1 Did we aee hira, we ahould- It is
hia uncreated beauty that holda glorified
spirits still beholding and still deUghted ; but
we, because we know hira not ; if we have
any thoughts ef hira, how short are they !
Presently down again we fall to the earth and
into the mire ere we are' aware. Therefore,

iSo

AN EXPOSITION OF

Set youraelves to know, and love, and wor
ship thia God ; labour tbat there may be leas
of the world, and less of yourselves, and more
of God in your hearts ; raore setded and fixed
thoughts of him, and deUght in hira. Think
net that this is only for the leamed, or only
fer sorae retired, centeraplative spirits that
have nothing elae to do; he ia the Moat High,
and service and honour are due to him ftom
aU his creatures ; and from his reasonable
creatures, reasonable service : and what this
is, hear from the apostle, and let his exhor
tation, or his enfreaty, persuade you to it :
" I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that yeu present your bodies
a Uving sacrifice, (and tbey are net living
without the soul) holy, acceptable uuto God,
which is your reasonable service," Rom. xii.
I, and your traest obedience to this com
mandment.

PRECEPT IL
Thou shalt nol make unto thee any graven
image.
The first commandment binds us te ac
knowledge and worship the true God ; this,
to the frue worahip of that God.
As God is net known but by his own
teaching and revealing himself, so he cannot
be rightly worahijiped but by his own pre
scription and appointment.
This is the aim of this second coraraand
ment, to bind up man's hands, and hia
working fancy that aets hia handa at *ork,
and to teach him to depend upon divine di
rection fer tbe rule of divine worahip, and to
offer hira nothing in hia service, but what
he hath received from him in coramand-
The prohibition is general ; Non facies tibi,
thou shalt not devise any thing to thyself in
the worship ef Ged : and under that gross
device of iraages, and worshipping them, ex
preaaly named, are coraprehended aU other
inventions and wiU-iworship.
There are in the words, 1. The precept ;
2. The enforceraent ef it.
Precept 1 . Thou shalt noi make. Theu
shalt not imagine, nor invent, nor iraitate
the invention of othera : Thou shalt not
make, nor cause to raake : in a word, thou
ahalt be no way acceaaory to the conupting
of divine worship, with any reaemblance, or
image, or human device at all.
The former » particular word, signifying
the then most usual kind of imagery ; but
the other of a most large and general sense,
for aU kind of simiUtude and representation.
So that the dispute the Churoh of Rome
drives us into for her interest in this raatter,
about liiuXov and uxuv, is not only a raere lo
gomachy, a debate abeut werds, but altogether
irapertinent and extrav.igant, having no

ground at aU in the words of the conimand-
raent ; the former whereof is more particular
than either of these two, and the latter more
general and coiuprehensive than either they
or any one werd we have to render it by.
Of the things which are in heaven, Scc.
Because the vain raind of man had wandered
up and down tbe world, and gene through
aU these places te find ohjects of idolatry : in
heaven the sun, and moon, and stars ; on the
earth not only men, but beasts and creeping
things, and fishes in the waters, and made
images of them to worship ; the Lerd ia there
fore particular in his countermand.
2. Tbe second part of the precept ia con
cerning their worship, — Thou shall not bow
down to ihem, nor serve ihem.
The former word is more particular, speci
fying one usual sign of worship, tbe incUning
or bowing of the bedy. The other, general :
Thou shalt noi serve ihem ; that is, give
them no kind ner part of reUgious worship at
aU, on whatsoever pretence.
Here again the Popish writers make a npiae
with that distinctipn, under which they think
to shift the cenaure of idolatry. Call it
what they wiU, Xur^iusiv or ^ouXevtm, sure it
comea under the word in tbe original, which
aignifiea reUgioua aervice or worahip. Neither
can they ever find in aU the Scripturea, that
any thing of that kind ahould be bestowed
lower than npon the majesty of God himself
This is then the tenor of the command
raent. I. That no image or representation
of God be made at all, as is expressed ii!
many other scriptures, as giving the sense of
this precept. 2. Nor that any resemblance
of any creature be made for a religious uae. 3,
That neither to any creature, nor to any re.
semblance or image, be given any part of
divine worship, although it were with a pre
tence, yea, and intention of worshipping the
trae God in and by them ; whicii if it were
a sufficient excuse, as the Church of Rome
drearas it is, certainly tbe IsraeUtea' golden
calf, and many other the groaseat idols that
h^ve been in the world, might come and find
roora to shelter under it.
For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous
God. This follows the other part, the bind
ing on, or enforcing of the precept by threat
ening and proraise annexed. Particularly,
there be these five things, by which God des
cribes hiraself here, to. persuade obedience to
this command. 1. Uis relation to his peeple
— Thy God. 2. His power both to puniah
and reward — El, The strong God. 3. The
exact regard he hath to hia own glory,
and zeal or jealousy for it — A jealous God.
4- The certainty and severity of his justice,
punishing the transgressors of this his law,
on themselves and their posterity — Visiting,
Scc. 5. The plenty and riches of his good
ness to the obedient— Showing mercy. See.
This comiuandraent) arid the fourth, ore

THE TEN COMMANDJIENTS.

481

longer than the rest, and mpre backed with
argument, becauae the light pf nature die-
cema less in theae than in the real. The
outwa'd manner pf the wprship of God, and
God's exactneaa in that, tobe aerved not aa we
will, but aa he himself aees fit, and concerning
the time of it.
Of the ffrst argument frera God's relation
to his people before in the preface, here it is
repeated, because it suits with the word that
follows, jealous. 1 . Thy God ; thy husband
by particular covenant, and therefore jealous
of thy leve and fidelity te me in ray worship-
2. El, able to right myself upon the mighti
est and proudest offender. Do we provoke
the Lord to jealousy ? (says the apoade)
Are we stronger than he? 1 Cor. x. 22.
There joining theae two together (aa here
they are) his strength and hia jealousy. 3.
Jealous. He is the Lord and huaband of
hia people, and idolatry ia therefore apiritual
adultery ; as they are often reproached with
it under that name by the propheta, Jer. iii.-
1, &c. So that by that ain particularly his
anger is stined up againat thera. The very
contract of thia marriage with his people we
have, Exod. xx. 4, 5. Visiting : Aa judgea
and raagiatratea uae to viait those piacea that
are urider their jurisdiction, to make inquiry
after abuses coraraitted in tirae of their ab
sence, and to puniah thera, 1 Sara. vii. 16.
Thua he that is always every wbere alike
present, yet because he doth net speedily
punish every sin at the first, therefore when
he doth execute judgraent iri his appointed
time, then is he said to visit, and search, and
find out that iniquity, whicb, in his time ef
forbearance, he seeraed to tbe ungodly either
not te see, er not to regard.
Of ihe fathers. It is true, the prpphet,
correcting the perverse speech of the people
of his tinxe, afifrma. That the son shall not
bear ihe iniquity of the father, Scc. Ezek.
xviii. 20 ; to wit, he repenting aud retuming,
and being ne way capable of the like iniquity,
which the people then falaely preaumed of
theraaelves. But neither is it here said, that
tbe godly children ahaU auffer for the ain of
their ungodly parents or anceftors ; but be
cause thia sin of idolatry or falae worahip in
any kind, doth aa comraonly and readily
deacend to poaterity, as any other ; and there
is scarce any plea for false religion that takes
raore than. It was the religion of our fore
fathers ; this kind of threatening raay pos
aibly for that cauae be here particularly auit-
able. But aure that ia not aU that ia here intend.
ed, that, if the children do continue in tbe
ain of the parents, they sh.all be punished ;
but that, for so high a traiisgreaaion aa thia,
he may be juatly, and often doth in judgment
give the children ever to the ains of their
parents. Hia grace being free, and so not
bein;? bound to his creatures tP furnish grace, 2 11

but where he will, tiiey gp on 'n tlie sin of
their fathers, and brinjj upon theraselve.-i
further punishment, not only teraporal, but
spiritual and eternal- It is not necessary
for its verifying, tbat it be always so : for
Ged, we know, bath converted many children
of ungodly, yea, particularly ef idolatrous
parenta, and shewed them mercy : but in
that he justly raay do thua, it ia a just threat
ening ; and in that he often doth thus, it is
a true tlireatening, although in raercy he
deal otherwiae where it pieaaeth hira-
Thal hate me. What ! thia is ao harah a
word, that nobody will own it ; not the raost
diaaolute and wicked, net the groaaeat idola.
tera- Yet generally the love of sin witnesses
against men possessed with it, that they are
B'loo'ruyiis, haters of God ; and particularly
the love of idols and falae worship alienates
the soul from Ged, and turns it te enraity
againat hira. Men aeem poaaibly to thera.
aelvea in falae worahip bumble and devout,
Col- ii. 18 ; but it ia to hate and diahonour
the divine majesty, to bring te hira and force
upon him, as it were, in his own presence, in
his immediate service, that wbich is moa'
hateful to him. ^
Shewing mercy to thousands. " Blesaing
them and their posterity, being their God,
and the God of their seed."
That love and keep, Scc. " That there
fore obey me, becauae they love me, and tes
tify they love rae by obeying me. Thia ia a
general trutii in regard of all the command.
raents, though raore particularly to be applied
to this, to which it is annexed. It forbids,
1. Making any image or resemblance of
Ged at all. Deut. iv. 15, Ye saw no man
ner of similitude, Scc. To whom will ye
liken me ? Isa- xl. 25, &c
2- The giving any Irind ef reUgioua ho
nour and worahip to any creature or created
reaemblance. Job xxx. 27 ; Pa. cxv. 4 — 8.
The reason why men are so prone to both
these, is, becauae they are so much addicted
to sense, and their minds are so blinded, that
they cannot conceive of tbe spiritual nature
of God- Therefore being driven by conscience
to aorae kind of worahip and religion, they
incUne to have aome viaible object of it ; tbe
aoul having loat ita sight, leana upon tbe
body, would make it up and aupply it by the
eye of senae-
3. AU auperatition and will-worahip, all
self-pleasing cereraonies and inventions in t!ie
service of God, how pompous and plauaible
and devout apever they aeera tp be, instead
pf decpring, they do indeed deface the native
beauty pf divine wprship ; and, aa Pppiah
picturea pn glass windows, they raay aeera
rich and gay, but they darken the house ;
they keep out tbe light of aaving truth, and
obacure the spiritual part ef the service ef
God. 4. All gross, material conceits and ap.

4U2

AN EXPOSITION OF

prehensiona of God- Other particulars raay
be reduced to this coraraand ; for this and
the reat name but the main offences and
dutiea- Then it comraanda,
1- Teleam, and carefullyand punctually to
obaerve the preacription of God in every part ef
hia owriworahip, and diligently tobe exercised
in it, aa in bearing, prayer, aacramenta, .&c
2. In worahipping him, to haye tbe purest
spiritual notion of his majeaty that we are
able to attain to. Ged deals by both, by re
presenting his juatice and hia raercy, to per.
auade hia people to obedience, to drive thera
by fear of the one, and draw thera by the sweet
neaa of the other. Thua pastors are to set
both before their people ; but as he delights
most in the pressing of his raercy, and per
suading by that ; ao certainly it is tbat which
prevaila moat with hia o-wn children, and
doth raost kindly raelt and raould their
hearts to his obedience.
Visit iniquity io thirds and fourths, bui
shew mercy io thousands that keep my com
mandments. Although it be not perfect,
yet it is auch a keeping as fiows from love,
and therefore love makes up what is wanting
in it ; and that is net perfect neither in us
here, and therefore mercy makea up what ia
wanting in both. It ia net auch leve and
obedience aa can plead for reward upon merit,
but auch aa atanda in need of raercy, and it
ia free grace and raercy that rewards it-
Love and keep. These two are insepar.
able- Ne keeping tbe commandmenta with
put love ; no love without keeping them-
Try, then, the one by tbe other ; the ainceri
ty of your obedience by exaraining the apring
of it, if it ariae frora love ; and try tbe real
ity of your love, if it be active and fruitful
in obedience. You knew hew atudipua leve ia te pleaae,
how obaervant of their will whom it affects,
prefening it to their own will, and deairous
to have no wiU but the aarae ; raakes bard
things easy, and cannot endure to have any
thing caUed difficult to it : much love to Ged
would do this, it weuld tum all duty into
deUght. Did we once know wbat this were,
we sheuld aay, with St- Austin, What needs
threatening and punishment io those that
love thee not ; is it not punishment enough
noi to love ihee ? If yeu weuld have aU
your obedience aweet and easy te youraelvea,
and acceptable te God, aeek above aU things
hearts infiaraed with hia love-
PRECEPT III.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord
thy God in vain, S[0.
The Psalmiat, atining up hiraaelf te the
praisea of God, Paalm Ivii. 8, caUa up his
glory to it : Awake, my glory. By glory
ihc Hebrew interpreters underatand the soul ;

the Septuagint and others, the tongue : so
the apostle, foUowing the Septuagint, render*
it, from Psalm xv. 3, Acts n. 26.
It suits weU with both : the soul, being
the better part of man, far exceUing the
body ; and amongst the parts ef the body,
the tongue having tbis exceUency, to be the
organ of speech, and so the interpreter of the
raind : and this diflference from the beasts,
as the seul is, may weU partake ofits honour.
able name, and be called man's glory.
But that whicb gives thera both beat title
te that narae, ia that exerciae to which he
caUa thera, the praiaing and glorifying of
their Lord and Maker. Then they are in.
deed our glory, when they are ao taken up
and employed, when the ene conceivea, and
the other uttera hia glory.
And aa it becomea tbem alwaya te be one,
aa tbey have one narae, the aoul and the
tongue to agree, ae eapeciaUy ahould this
ene name given them be anawered by their
harraony and agreement in his own work, for
which chiefly they have that name, in giving
glery tp Gpd ; and it is that which thia cpm-
raandraent requirea : forbidding thatwhich is
the ignorainy of man, both of hia aoul and of
hia tpngue, and degradea them, turnathemout
ef the name of glory, to be eaUed ahame and
diahonour, that ia, ineverence, and dishoD.
ouring the glorious name of God : and there.
fore, on the contrary, commanding the reve
rent and holy uae of hia name and aervice ;
and that we alwaya endeavour so to speak
and think of hira, and so to walk before him, '
as thoae that aeek, beyond all thinga, that
hia name raay be glorified in ua and by ua.
For though false swearing and vain awear
ing are raain breachea of this coramand
raent, (as we ahall ahew afterwards,) being
priraely forbidden by it, yet it extends gene
rally to all our apeeches concerning God.
Neither is it to be restrained there, and kept
within that compaas, as if it gave only law
to tbe tongue ; although, indeed, the tongue
hath a very great share in it, both in the
breaking and keeping ef it, yet certainly the
precept in its fuU sense goes deeper into tile
soul, and givft a rule te the apeech ef tiie
mind, our thoughts concerning Ged ; and
larger, stretches itaelf forth to our actions and
life, that hath as leud a voice to these with
whom we converae, aa our tonguea, and ia
the more considerable of the two, giving a
truer character of raen, what they are indeed,
than their words can do.
The firat coramandraent teachea and
enjoina whom we shall worahip. The se
cond, what worship we shall give hira. This
third ahewa us with.what disposition and in
tention, and answerably with what manner
of expresaion we ahall worahip him and use
hia name, that it be net vainly, and after
a common, trivial manner, but in holinesa
of humility, and desire of his glory.

THE TEN COM.MANDMENTS.

483

So, then, tbis comraandraent concema par
ticularly tbat which is the great end of all
the worlfa of God, The glory of his name.
He made all tilings for himaelf, Prov. xvi.
4; his worka of creation for thia end, Lsa.
xUii. 7 i of redemptieu and new creation of
the elect world, Eph. i. 12, all to his praise
ard glory : and for thia end caUa he us frora
darkness to light, to shew forth hia praisea
or virtues, 1 Pet. ii. 9. Thia we are to in-.
tend with hira, and tbat thia precept requirea
of ua, that which he airaed at in all hia
worka, the aarae we raay intend in all oura ;
and this is an exceUerit thing, the holiest and
happiest condition, to raake God'a purpoae
ours, and have the same end with bim. Here
it is particularly tme, Summa religionis est
imitari quem colis : The main of religion
is io imitate him whom you worship. Thua
are we to live, and particularly so to worship
him, and raake mention of his narae, that we
be ever aenaible ef ita worth aud greatneaa, and
so beware tbat we indignify it not, but alwaya
seek te advance the honour and glory of it; and
that is the very acope ef this commandment.
There are in it, 1 . The precept itaelf ; 2.
The annexed coramination.
In the precept, 1. What bia name is. 2.
To take it- 3- To take it in vain.
The name. 1. -The naraea that are given
hira in Scripture, Jehovah, Elohim, &c.
I twas a fooliah and profane shift ef the Jewa,
who thought theraaelves free, if they abuaed
not the narae Jehovah : and ao they became
superatitioua in the forbearing that, and li-
centicua in the abuse ef the rest ; and swear.
ing by other things in beaven and earth, &c.
Wbich, therefore, our Saviour reproves, giv
ing the true aenae of thia coraraandment.
Matt. V. 34, &c. And thia is the nature ofl
superstition, to raake frivolous, undue re
straints, by way of compensation of that pro
fane Uherty and looaeneas in the command
ments of Ged, which is its usual companion.
2. AU the attributes ef Ged, by whicii the
Hely Scriptures set hira forth to us. 3.
Generally any thing whataoever by which
God ia raade known unto us, and distinguiah-
ea frera aU pthera, and by w^ch we raake
raention of him, v/hich are the uaea of a
narae. In a wprd, that pf St. Paul express- 1
eth it fully and fitly, To yvcjo'Tov rou @i,,u, \
Thou shalt not take, 'That is, Thpu ahalt |
npt take, pr lift up, pr bear. 1. Npt uae it,
secretly by thyself, pr within thyself, in thine |
own thoughts, without reverence ; not take it ,
in vain. So, 2. Not raake raention of it, or[
express it to others vainly ; net lift it up in
vain. 3. Not bear, not be called by it, er
have it caUed upen thee, not profeaa it in vain.
In vain. 1. Falaely and disaimulately.
2. Profanely. 3. Unprofitably, to no pur
pose. 4. Lightiy and inconsiderately, with
out due regard, and holy fear.
2. The annexed commination.

He will not hold h'lm guiltless, " lie
will not clear hira. The aovereign Judge,
from whose hand no oft'ender caiT eacape, ex
cept he willingly aet him free and abaolve
him, he will not abaolve thera tbat abuae his
narae." And it raeans further, he wiU not
clear bira, that is, he will certainly puniah
hini, and do judgraent on hira aa guilty.
And this ia the rather particularly here ex
presaed, becauae men are subject foolishly
to promise themselvea impunity in this ain,
think either there reraaina no guiltineas be
hind it, but it paaaea aa the worda do ; or if
there be any, yet being but araatter of worda,
wherein the moat uaual and known breach
ef thia command consiats, that tbe guilti
ness ef thera ia ae small, that any little ex
cuse may wipe it off; that it is but inadver
tence, or a bad custom, or sorae such thing.
" No, (says the Lord, the lawgiver himaelf,)
delude not youraelvea ; think not the honour
and diahonour of ray .name a light raatter ;
or if yeu will, yet I will net think it so, nor
you shaU not find it ao ; though yeu eaaily
forgive and clear youraelves, I will not clear
you, but wiU vindicate the glory of ray name
in your juat punishraent, which your sin of
taking it in vain did abuse and dishonour ;
and you shall feel in that puniahraent that
you are not guiltleaa, aa yeu iraagined."
The narae ef God ia great and weighty and
honourable, (as the sarae Hebrew werd sig
nifiea both,) and therefore, qui assumunl
vel attollunt, as the word here is ; tbey that
offer to lift up thia weighty name lightly and
regardleaaly, it shall fall upon them, and
tbey ahall be crushed under the weight
ef it.
There are many queationa relating to thia
commandment handled and discusaed by
divines, as of an oath, a vow. See, which,
for our purposed brevity, we will pasa by ;
and only, according to our uaual method,
add aome chief heada of tbe violation and
obaervance of thia corara.^Ildnlent.
I. AU falae swearing or perjury, which is
to take his name after the grossest manner,
in vain, or in mendacium, as the werd like
wise signifiea ; to call Truth itself, the First
Verity, to partake of a lie- But he is not
mocked ; fer as the nature of an oath imports
invocating hira as the higheat both witneas
and judge of truth, and puniaher of falae
hood, he alwaya in hia own due tirae makes
it good on thoae that dare adventure upon
that guiltiness in so high a kind-
2- Papal dispensation of oaths, which is a
most heinoua ain, and becomea hira that is
erainently caUed the man of sin. It ia raore
than perjury, for it is a professed, avowed
patronage ef perjury, together with an im
pudent conceit of a privilege and right to
do so.
3. Equivocatory oaths, by wluch, if it were
lawful, the grossest perjury raight be defend.

iUi

AN EXPOSITION OF

ed ; for there is nothing se false, but some
mental reservation may raake it triie.
4. Abusing the narae and word of God
tp charras and spells.
5. Execration and cursing by the name
of Satan, which is no other but invocating
him. 6. Swearing by any creature.
7. Abusing and vilifying the glorious and
holy name of God, by pasaionate er by vain
and common cuatemary awearing.
8. Swearing fer enda of controveray, and
in weighty raattera where an oath ia lawful
yea, necessary, yet doing it without due re
verence, and consideration ef the greatness
of God, and the nature of an oath.
9. Abusing of tbe word of God, either
wresting it to defence ef enor, or raaking
sport and jesting with it.
10. Scoffing and taunting at holiness, and
the exerciaes of reUgion.
11- Diahonpuring the religiori which we
profeaa by unworthy and ufiauitable caniage
of life- 12. Performing prayer, or any other reli
gious exercise, only out of custom, without
affection and delight, and holy regard ef the
preaence and raajeaty of God in his worahip.
More might be added, which for brevity we
omit. Ia it net the higheat shame of Christiana
to take pleasure to vilify and abuse that holy
narae of God, that aainta and angels are
bleaaing above, and which we hppe, (aa we
pretend,) to bleaa with thera for ever ? If
any dare offer te excuse it, by provpcatipn
or passion, that otherwise uae it not ; consi
der what a madnesa thia ia, becauae man
hatVinjured thee, thou wilt injure God, and
be avenged upon hia name for it. And ypu
that plead cuatora, accuae youraelvea more
deeply ; that tells you are guilty of long
cpntinuarice in, and frequent comraiaaion of,
thia honible ain. Were the fear of God in
men'a hearta, it would prevail beth above
their paaaion and their cuatora. Did they
believe this, that the Lord wiU not clear in
his great day, it would fright them out of
their custom. Were there a law made, that
whosoever were heard swear, ahould be put
to death, you weuld find a way to break your
cuatom : God threatena etemal death, and
you fear net, because indeed yeu believe
not. GeneraUy, the reverent and holy uae of the
name of God : and particularly, 1. In caae
of necessity, by adviaed and religioua swear
ing by his name, and bia alone, in judgment,
truth, and righteousness. 2. Consider his
name often, to take it into our thoughts, to
meditate en his glorious attributea, and on
his werd and works : in both which thoae at
tributea ahine forth unto ua, 3. To deUght
to make mention ofhis name upen all fit ac.
casions, and to apeak tP his glpry. 4. Tp adprn

our holy prpfeaaien ef reUgion with a holy
life, with wiae and circumspect walking, that
it raay not be evil spoken of by our means.
o. That our heart and affection be in the
aervice of Ged which we perform, otherwiae
(how plausible aoever the appearance and
outside of it ia) it ia nething but guiltiness
within, a taking of his name in vain, who
wiU not hold thera guiltless that do so. 6.
Above all exercises, to delight in the praisea
of God, which ia moat properly the exalting
and magnifying of hia name, the Ufting it
up on high. The Psalmist abounds in com.
mending it ; it is good, fr is comely, it is
pleasant. Oh ! that we could resolve with
him, Psal- xxxiv. 1, 2, " I wiU bless the
Lerd at all times ; his praise shall be in my
mouth continually. My soul shall make her
beast in the Lord," &c. This is, aa we can,
te bear a part here with glorified apirita ;
and a certain privilege to ua, that after a few
daya we shaU be admitted into their num
ber.

PRECEPT IY.
Remember to keep holy ihe Sabbath.
day, Scc.
Amongst aU the viaible creatures, it is
man'a peculiar excellency, that he is capable
of conaidering and worahipping hia Maker,
and waa made for that purppae ; yet, being
composed ef the diist of the earth, and the
breath of God, a body and a aoul, tbe necea
aitiea of that meaner part, while we are in
this life, employ aa much, and take up a
great part of our litde tirae. And in thia
regard God hath wiaely aud gracioualy set a-
part a day for us, one of each seven, to be
appropriate te that our highest employment,
the contemplating and solemn worshipping
of his majesty. Thia ia the scepe of this
precept :
1- The precept itaelf. 2- The reason of it,
and motive to its obedience- The precept it.
self ia first briefly expresaed. 3. Further ex
plained andife-ged-
Remember. Thia word used. Lit seems
to refiect upon by-past omission and forget-
fulneaa ; for though it was instituted in para
dise, and was not now a new, unheard-of
thing te thia people, aa appeara by Exod.
xvi. 23 ; yet it is likely tbey were rauch worn
out of the observation and practice of it, es
pecially during the time ef their captivity in
Egypt- So then it ia renewed thus : " Keep
holy this day which you know was ao long
ago appointed to be ao ; be not new any mere
unmindful and regardleaa of it-" 2. Such
a way ef enjoining aeema more particularly
needful in thia than in the reat, because it ia
not so written in nature aa the rest, but de-
ponds whoDy - upon particular institution.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

4JJ

which may alsn be the cauae why it is so
large, and the firm of it alone amongst all
he ten, both negative and positive — Thou
shalt do no work, and Remember to keep it
holy. 3. But tbe raain reason of tbia re
member ia the raain thing or aira in thia
precept, aa beth the badge, and the pre
server, and increaaer of all piety and reli
gion. Aud therefore is it, that it ia ao often
preaaed in the books of the law, and aermona
of the propheta, to the people of God, and
so often called a aign of God'a covenant with
thera, and their raark of diatinction frora all
other people.*
The sabbath-day. It ia caUed a day ef
reat, from the beginoing and original of ita
inatitution, God's reat ; and frem the end ef
ita inatitution, man's rest ; beth which foUew
in the words of the coraraand : the ene ia
the exaraple and enforcing reaaon of the
other- That thou keep holy. God aanctioned
it by inatituting it, and raan aanctifies it by
obaefving it according to that inatitution-
Thia sanctifying is, 1 . In cessatiori from
earthly labours. 2. In their stead te be
whoUy posseaaed and taken up with apiritual
exerciae, both in private and in public The
former ia neceaaary for the being of the latter,
that ceasation for this work ; and the latter
is necessary for the due being of the former ;
we cannot be vacant and entire for apiritual
service, unleaa we cease from bodily labour ;
and tbia ceasation er resting frora bodily la
bour; cannot be a sanctifying of this day unto
God, unleaa it be accprapanied with apiritual
exerciae. In the foUowing words, that part is only
expressed, the rest or abstinency frora work ;
but the other is supposed as the end of thia,
that they shall npt dp their pwn wprka, that
they raay attend uppn Gpd'a — hia spleran
worship. And that is iraplied in that word,
It is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, both
ef hia ewn appointing, and for thia end thia
work, that he raay be raore aoleranly wor
shipped. And likewise the antithesis that
seems to be in that word, In six days thou
shalt do all thy work, iraporta^ that on the
seventh thou shalt do God's : not so caUed,
that any benefit arises to hira by pur service ;
np, our goodness reaches him not at all.
That way, that wprship that is far abPve ours,
that of the angels, can add nothing to hira ;
for he ia infinite- Even thia work, sabbath's
work, and aU our prayers and prahses offered te
hira, and all performances of his worship,
they are our works in respect ef the gain
and advantage of t'nein ; it comea all back to
us. But his worship is his work objective-
' ly ; he is the object of it, and directively
by particular prescription frora hiraself;
and, if you will add, eft'ectively too — never
* F.x(,d. x.'ciii. 12, and xxxi. l.-i, 14 ; Lew. xix. 30,
xxv. :;, ire. ; Jf.r, xvii. -1, 'ii ; Imi. iviii- la, 1-i, &i:.

done aright but by his own grace and assist
ance. Six days shalt thou labour, Scc. The
coraraand of due labour and diligence in our
particular callinga, is not of this place ; it
belongs properly to the eighth precept, and
aorae way to the aevenlh ; here it is only
raentioned preraissively, and for iUustration
of this duty here enjoined. And further,
there is under it a raotive frora abundant
equity : aeeing God hath made the propor
tion thua, not pinched to ua, but dealt very
liberaBy in the time granted for our own
work, what grosa, net impiety only, but ini
quity and ingratitude will it be, to encroach
upen that sraall part he hath norainated and
aet apart for hia service ! Thia waa a great
aggravation of our firat parenta' sin, that
having the free use ef all the trees in the
garden beaides, they would not abate that
one that waa forbidden thera, in horaage and
obedience to hira that had given thera all
the reat, and given them theraaelves, whp a
little before were nothing.
Thou shalt labour. Not ao as in them to
forget and take no nptice pf God, npt at all
tp call uppn him and worahip hira, and think
to acquit all by aome kind of attendance on
hira on the sabbath. They that de so, are
raoat unaanctified theraaelvea, and therefore
cannet aanctify the sabbath to God. Such
profane persons de profane and pollute all
they touch with their foul hands, for such be
all profane hands lift up te God in prayer.
The Ufe of the gedly is not a visiting of God
only in his house on this day, but a daily
and constant walking with God in our own
houses, and in all our ways ; raaking both
our houses and our hearts, his houaes, hia
templea, where he raay dwell with us, and
we raay offer hira our daily sacrifices.
Only the peculiar of this day is, that we
raay not divide it betwixt heaven and earth,
that it shall be whoUy for the service of Ged,
and np work at all to have place in it that
may hinder that, and suits net with the aanc
tifying ef it ; for ao we are to understand the
werd, No manner of work.
Neither thou nor thy servant, Scc. As
each one is obliged personaUy, so they that
bave comm.and ef others, are beund to bind
them to observance, and the cattle to rest,
becauae their labour is for raan's use, and
therefore hia reating infera theirs ; as likewiae
their reat is fdr a paaaive conformity, that
man may see nothing round about him, but
what may incite to the observance of this
day ; which was the reaaon, in aolemn fasta,
of the beaats faating likewiae, for man's fur.
ther humiliation. The stranger, if convert.
ed and professing their religion, the sarae
reaaon for him, as for all others within a
man's house ; and if a stranger to their re.
ligion too, yet they might and ought, as here
commanded, oblige him to this part of put-

4^

AN EXPOSITION OF

ward conformity, cessation frem work, which
otherwise would be an offensive and scanda
lous sight ; and withal, if they did any work
for those v;lth whom they dwelt, their ahare
would be deeper in the ain, thai of such a
stranger, not professing their religion.
For in six days. It is not pertinent here
to speak of the reason of thia, why God raade
six daya' work ef that which he could have
done in one inatant. Here it is only urged
exemplarily, as the reason why God did aanc
tify this day, and why we should sanctify it.
Hia reat, you know, ia not of wearineaa, or at
all from ceaaing frpra mation : For he faints
noi, neither is wearied, aa he tella us by the
Prophet ; yea, he raovea not at all in work
ing, Omnia movet ipse immotus. But this
rest is this, that thia waa the day that irarae
diately followed the perfecting ofthe creation,
und therefore God blessed it with thia privi
lege, (that is the blessing ef it,) that it
should be to raen holy, for tbe contemplation
of God and of his worka, and for solemn wer.
<hip to be perforraed to hira.
Au the other precepts of tbis law remain
ing in full force in their proper aenae, it can
not but be an injury done to thia command,
either flatly to refuae it that privilege, or,
which ia little better, to evaporate it into
allegories. Nor was the day abolished aa a
typical cereraony, but that aeventh only
changed to a aeventh still, and the very next
to it ; he that is Lord of the sabbath, either
hiraaelf iraraediately, or by his authority in
hia apoatles, appointing that day of his re-
Eunectieu for our sabbath ; adding to the
reraerabrance of the first creation, the merao
rial of accoraplishing the new creation, the
work of. our rederaption, which appeared then
raanifeatly to be perfected, when our Re
deeraer broke the chaina of death, and
arose from the grave ; he that is the
light of the new world, shining forth anew
the aame day that light waa made in the
forraer creation- This day waa St- John in
the apirit taken up with those extraordinary
revelatioria, Rev- i- 10. They were extra
ordinary indeed ; and certainly every Chris
tian ought to be in the Spirit, in holy medi
tations and exercises en this day more than
the rest, winding up his soul, which the
body poises downwards, to a higher degree
of heavenliness ; to be particularly careful to
bring a hurable heart to apeak te Ged in
prayer, and hear hira in hia word ; a heart
breathing after bira, longing to raeet with
himself in his ordinances. And certainly it
is safer and sweeter to be thus affected to
wards the Lord'a day, tban to be much busied
about the debate of tiie change.
The very life of religion doth much depend
upon the aolemn observation of this day :
lonaider but, if we should intermit tbe keep
ing of it for one year, to what a height pro
faneness would rise in tliose that fear not

God, which yet are restrained (diough not
converted) by the preaching of the word, and
their outward partaking of public worahip;
yea, those that are moat apiritual, v;oiild find
themselves losers by the intennission !
1- Bodily labour en this day, where ne
cessity unavoidable, or piety, commands not.
2. Sperlings and pastimes-* This is not to
raake it a sabbath to God, but te our lusta,
and to Satan ; and bath a stronger antipathy
with the worship ef God, and that temper of
mind they intend in it, than the hardest
labpur. 3- Resting frpm these, but withal,
reating from the proper work of this day,
neglecting the' worship of God in the assem.
blies of his peojile ; the beaata can keep it
thus, as wc see in the precept. 4, Resorting
te the public worship of God, but in a custo.
mary, cold way, without affection and apiri.
tual deUght in it.' 5. Spending the remain
der of the day incongruously, in vain visits
and diacouraes, &c-
1. By pious reraembrance of it, and pre
paration, sequester'ng net only the body from
the labour, but our aoula frora the carea and
ether vain thoughts of the world- 2. Attend
ing upon the public worahip of God wiUingly
and heartily, aa the joy, and refreshment of
our aoula, laa. Iviii- 13, 14; Paah cxxii,
3. Spending the remainder of it in private,
holily, aa rauch aa may be, in meditation of
the word preached, .and conference; in prayer,
reading and raeditating on the great worka
of God, of creation, redemption, &c.
Thia is the lovelieat, brightest day in aU
the week to a spiritual mind ; these rests
refresh the soul in God, that finds nothing
but turmoil in tiie creature- Should net tills
day be welcome to the soul, that sels it free
to mind its own business, whicii is on otber
days to attend the busineaa of ita aervant,
the body ? And theae are a certain pledge to
it ef that expected freedora, when it ahall
eriter on an eternal aabbath, and reat in Him
for ever, who ia tbe only reat of the aoul.
PRECEPT V-
Hononr thy father and thy mother, that
thy days may be long in the land which
the Lord thy God giveth thee.
The renewed iraage ef God in man, or
the new raan, is made up of holineaa and
righteouaness, Eph- iv, 24. These two arc
that of which the whole law df God is the
rule : the first table, the rule of holiness or
piety towards God : the second, of righte
ousness or equity tpwards meri. Arid pf tho
cpmmandnients that concem this, t'ne first
aims at the preserving of that order which
God hath appointed in the several relationa
of superiors and inferiors ; lhat is the scops
of this fifih commandment. * 3abU vituli aurd-

THE TEN COMMAND.MENTS.

487

Daily experience teaches us hew needful
this is, that God give a particular precept
concerning this ; in that we see bow few
there are that know aright, either how to com
mand and bear rule as superiors, or as infe
riors to obey and be subject; and there is ene
evil very natural to raen that misleads them
in beth, pride and self-opinion, whicb often
make superiors affect exceaa in commanding,
and inferiors defective in due obedience.
It hath the first place in tbe second table.
1. As being the rule of order and society
amongst men, which ia needful for the better
pbaerving pf aU the rest ; and in all authori
ty there is a particular reaemblance of God,
and therefore fitly placed next lo thoae pre
cepta that cpritairi pur duty te hiraaelf. He
ia pleaaed te use that interchange of naraes
with superiors that testifies thia reaerablaniSe,
not only to take theira to himaelf, to be call
ed a father, a master, or king, Scc, but te
communicate hia own narae to thera, and
call thera goda. And where the apostle
apeaks of God aa the Father of spirits, he
draws a reason frora tbat obedience we owe
to tbe fathers ef eur flesh, as the subordinate
causes of our being.
1. The precept, 2. Promise. And it
ia called by the apostle, the first command
ment with promise. For the laat clause of
the second commandraent, though it imply a
promiae, yet (as is uauaUy ebaerved) it ia
general to the keepirig ef aU the comraarid-
raenta ; whereaa thia is appropriate. But,
again, it ia a proraiae of a raercy in general ;
this of one particular blessing- 3- It is not
forraaUy a promise, though it implies one
indeed, and is intended so ; but it ia aet
down by way of deacription ofGod, frora his
mercy and bounty to those that keep his
precepts ; as tbe clause forjsgoing it, express
es his justice in punishing the rebellious-
Honour, Under this is coraprehended
whatsoever is due te superiors, by virtue of
that their station and relation te us ; inward
respectful thougbta and eateem of them, and
outward expreaaiona and aignifying of it by
tbe usual aigna of honour, and by obedience
and gratitude, &c-
Thy father, Scc, 1. This relation ia nara
ed fer all the reat, as being the flrat and raoat
naturd- 2- The aweeteat and raoat affection
ate superiority ; and therefore the fittest to
regulate the comraand of superiors, and to
perauade inferiera te obedience. Magiatratea
are fathera for men''a ci\il good, in their ao
cietiea, and dwelling together ; miniater-s,
fathera for their spiritual good and society aa
Chriatians. That thy days may be long, Scc. That
it is said, which the Lord thy God shall
give thee, is peculiar to that people to whora
thia law waa firat deUvered ; but the substance
of the proraise being coraraon, extends to all
with the precept

This blessing of length of days ia particu
larly fit fpr the duty ; that they wlip-honour
their parenta, who are the aecond causea of
their life, ahall be bleaaed with long life.
This, as all other promiaea ef temporal
thinga, ia ever to be taken with that condi
tion, without which -they might change their
quality, and .prove rather puniahments ; but
God always beatowa them on his own, and
therefore ought to be understood so to pro
mise thera, in so far as they are fit for thera,
and raay be truly good in their particular
enjoyraent, and as they conduce to a greater
good- 1. All disobedience in inferiors to the just
coramands ef these that Ged hath placed in
authority abeve thera ; stubbomneaa and re
bellion in children against thefr parents, er
despising and diaeateera of them for their
meaririess iri body, or raind, or estate- The
precept is not, " Honour thy parents for
.their riches, or wisdom, or coraeliness ;" but
" Honour tbem as thy parents, and because
tbey are so-" Against this command is all
other disobedience or refractorineaa of those
that ewe obedience ; wives to their husbands,
servants to their mastera, peeple to their
paatora, &c.
2. S-uperiora break it when they abuse their
authority to serve thefr pride. Their screw
ing it too high is very unpleasant, a particu
lar diahonour to God, and defacea the re
aemblance they have ef hira ; apoila their
harraony, as a atring toe high wound up ;
and beaidea that, it is very dangeroua, being
the ready way to break it. As in magistracy
and pubUc government tyranny is raoat ob-
aervable, there is petty tyranny in maatera
and parenta, cStc, in extreme harahneaa aud
bitterricas, Scc, ; ,«« -Trixt^aiviri, saya the apoa
tle, &c. Again, when auperiora walk unwor
thily, and 80 diveat themaelvea of that honour
which belongs to them.
Firat, That children give due reapect and
obedience to their parents ; and all that are
aubject to the autbority of others, though
they have not suitable deserving, give it to
their atation, in obedience to God wbo com
raanda ; for though they, personally consi
dered, do not, yet certainly God deserves our
obedience ; and it is se much the purer to
hira, wben other inciteraentj felling, yet we
observe that whicb fails not at all. All obe
dience to raen is liraited tbus, that it be in
the Lerd, and with regard to bis supreraacy ;
and therefore no authority can oblige te tbe
obedience of any command tbat crosaea his.
Authority .ia primitively and eriginally in
God, and he gives net his glory to another ;
he gives not away any of his peculiar authori
ty to man, but substitutes him; and eur
first tie is te Ged, as his creatures, and this
is universal ; the greatest kings are his vas
sals, and owe him homage, and no authority
derived from him can free us from that which

43B

AN EXPOSITION OF

we owe to himself. Tliere ia a straight line
of subordination, and if auperiora leave thia,
we are to adhere te it, looking directly to
God, keeping our atation. Some of the
achoplmen think that the inferior angels
therefore feU with the chief in the apostacy,
because they looked ae much upen bim, that
they considered him net in aubordination to
God, and so left their station, aa the apoatle
f-peaks. Secondly, The duty of aU auperiora ia, 1.
To consider that their higher station ia not
for themselvea, and for- their own advantage,
but for those that are in subjection te them ;
aa the stars are set in the highest place, but
are for the benefit of the inferior world, by
their light, and heat, and influence. Let them
befor Ughts in the firmament of heaveri, to
give light upon the earth. Gen. i. 15. 2. Let
them always reraeraber te coramand in Ged,
and for him ; to prefer hia honour te their
own, aeeing be givea command concerning
theirs, that they raake it aerviceable for the
advancing of hia ; for to thia purpoae hath he
iriven thera autbority, and given coraraand
lhat they be honoured : and hia promiae is
to honour those that honour him, bnt they
ihat despise him shall be despised, Thia
many auperiora have felt becauae they weuld
not believe it, and take notice ef it-
Would parents teach their children te
know Ged, and honour and obey him, this
were the aureat and moat effectual way to
raake thera obedient children to them : if
they teach them to obey Ged, you see he cora
raanda tbem to obey their parenta ; and there
fore in obedience to him they will do so.

PRECEPT VI-
Thou shalt noi kill : or. Thou shalt do no
murder.
The world was at first perfect harraony,
but ain raade the breach at which diacord
entered ; enmity betwixt God and man, and
betwixt man and raan- As the sin that hath
poisoned man'a nature makea him a rebel to
God, 80 it raakea them tigers and wolves one
to another : and that aame serpent that at
Srat envenomed our nature, doth atill bias on
wretched raen, both to disobedience againat
God, and enraity and cruelty against one
another- We see hew soon this evil foUow
ed upon the forraer ; the ffrst parenta dia-
obeyed Ged, and the firat children, the one
killed the other. In opposition to thia evil,
God hath given thia te be one of hia ten pre
cepta. Thou shalt noi kill.
Having given a rule touching the particu
lar relations of raen, the following command.
merits of the second table concern the general
duties of aU men one to another ; and this
sixth regardeth his being or Ufe.

Not kill. This ties not up the sword of
justice, which ia in the magiatrate's hand,
from punishing offenders, even with death,
these tbat deserve it ; but rather caUa for the
use of it, not being to be carried in vOin, aa
the apostle aaya ; not a gilt sword only for
show, Mut to be drawn and wielded for the
execution ef juatice ; both that, in the juat
puniahraent of ain, {xoXxai;,) the ainner
raay eat of the fruit of hia owi waya, and ao
God, the aupreme judge and fountain of jua
tice, maybe honoured, (-r.-fnajia,) and that,
by tha tcxample, (,rx(xt'-iy/ix,) othera may
be terrified frora the like offencea. And thus,
juat killing by the aword of the magistrate,
ia a main meana ef the observing this com
mandment amongst men. Thou shall not
kill. By the like reaaon ia juat war likewiae
freed frora the breach of thia coraraandment.
But, The acope of the precept being the pre-
aervation and aafety of the life of man, and
guarding it from violence, it ia evident that
all injury to our neighbeur'a life, our own not
excluded, is forbidden. And not only the
heinous fault ef murder, whicb human laws
do puniah, but aU the seeds and beginninga
of this ain in the heart, to which principally,
aa the fountain ef our actiona, the spiritual
law ef God is giveri, aa the authentic inter.
pretation of our Saviour teacheth. Matt, v.,
and particularly touching this commandment,
ver. 21, &c.
1. AU fixed hatred ef pur brethren is fpr-
bidden, aa the higheat degree pf heart murder.
Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy
heart. Lev. xix. 17. And 1 John iii. 15 :
Whosoever hateth his brother, is a mur.
derer ; and he adda, that ye know thai no
murderer hath life eternal abiding in him.
So, then, he ia in 'a woeful, deadly coridition,
in whoae heart thia hatred dwells.
Tbis is an infernal kind of fire, Uke your
fires under ground, that cannot be quenched ;
so far is it from tbe temper of any spiritual
and heavenly raind to be subject te it. There
is not any thing raore contrary te the Spirit
of God, and the work of his grace, than the
spirit of malice, although it never break forth
to revenge ; yet ifthe heart rejeice when evil
befals those it disUkes, although it come
frora another hand, yet Ged accounts it, as
if he, that is glad at it, had infiicted it, and
been ^he worker of it. Therefore Job pre-
tests thus : " That he rejoiced net at the de
structipn ef hira that hated him, nor Ufted up
his soUl when evil found him," Job xxxi- 29-
2- Rash anger, either that which is
altogether without just cause, or upon some
just cause arises to an undue measure. And
is not this the ordinary disease of the
greatest part, and habitual bitterness of
spirit, that is put out of its aeat and trou.
bled with eveiy trifihig cauae, peeviahlv

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

489

stilled up with tiie shadow and imagination
of a wrong, where none is done ?
3. The vent ef these pasaiona of envy and
-hatred, or sudden, raah anger, by raiUnga
and strife, and bitter speaking, by scoffs and
taunta, by whisperings and detraction, wbich
nre the comraon exerciae of base arid uriwerthy
spirits. This comraandraent requires, that, to the
avoiding and forbeamnce ef all injury to the
life efour neighboiP, we add a charitable
dispo-^ition and deaire of preaerving it, and
do accordingly act that charity to our utraost
power to the good aud corafort of his life ;
using towards hira raeekness and patience,
clemency and beneficence, doing hira good,
supplying bis wants as we are able ; for it ia
cruelty te tbe Ufe of eur poor brethren to be
strait-handed towards them in the day of
tbeir necessity and our abundance, at least,
of our comparatively better eatate. 1 John
iii. 17.
But we think we do much thia way, when
upon right trial we ahould find ouraelves ex
ceedingly defective ; we look upon our few
and petty acts of charity with a multiplying
glasa, and see one as it were ten. Who al
moat are there, that wiU draw aoraewhat frora
their exceasea, to tiirri into this channel ;
that will abate a lace from their garment, er
a dish from their table, te bestow upon the
neceaaitiea ef the poor ? In a word, we ought
not only to be free frora hurting, but be a
tree of life io our neighbour.
Let ua then be convinced of our guiltiness
in breach ef this precept. Men think it
much if they can forgive, upon acknowledg
ment and submission of those tbat have in
jured tbem ; but they aspire not to this, cor
dially to forgive thoae that stiU continue to
wrong and provoke them, te compassionate
tbem, and pray for them, and repay aU their
evil with meekness and good-will.
We conaider not how aublirae the rule of
Christianity is, and hew low our spirits are,
and hew far off from it. Be not overcome
of evil, (aaya the apostle,) but overcome evil
with good, Rom. xii. 21. It ia eaay to over
come a man that reaiata net, but yields ; to
parden injury when it ceaseth, and entreats
parden : but when it holda out, and is so
ateut aa atill to fight against that goodness
and meekness that it raeets.withal, yet the
Christian ought to persist in theae, and over
come it with good. And see our Saviour's
rule to thera that will be his diaciplea, Matt.
V. 44, against hatred and wrath. Labour
for hurable apirita. Pride ia the apring of
malice, and deaire of revenge, and ef raah
anger and contention. This makea men
easily swell against any thing that croaaea
them, because they have laid down this with
themaelvea, that they deserve to be observed
and respected, and not creased at all ; and
when they find it otherwise, il kindlea them

to anger; and it ia not the degree of provo.
cation, but the different temjier of men's
spirits, makes thera more or less subject to
anger. It matters not how great the fire be,
but wbere it falls.
Consider, first, that these turbulent pas
sions cany their punishment along with
them ; tbey rankle and fester tbe seul,
and fill it full of pain and disturbance ;
whereas the apirit of meekneas makes the
aoul of a Chriatian like the highest region of
the air, constantly calm and serene : tbe apoa
tle, speaking of this coramandraent of love,
says. Thai ihe commandments of God are
not grievous. Certainly there is such a frue
pleaaure in raeekneaa, forgiving of injuries,
and loving our very eneraiea, that did men
knew it, they would choose it for the very de.
Ught and sweetness of it, though there were
no comraand to enforce it.
2. Consider, particularly againat rash
anger, how weak and foolish a thing it ia :
Anger resteth in the bosom of fools, aaith
Solomon. A fool's breast is the very natural
place of anger, where it dwells. But, as be
saya elsewhere, A man of understanding is
of an excellent spirit, Prov. xvii. 9 : the
werd ia, a cool spirit. What a aenaeless
miatake ia it for men to think it atrength
and greatneaa of apirit te bear nething, to be
sensible of every touch, and stand upon their
punctilios ! Is it not evident weakness to be
able to suft'er nothing ? We aee the weak
est peraons raost subject to anger ; woraen,
children, and the sick, and aged persons ;
old age being both a continued sickness, and
a childishneaa, as they call it, and as the
dregs ef raan'a Ufe tumed into vinegar. It
ia the weakneaa of all theae that makes thera
fretful.* In a word, it is the glory of a
man to pass by a transgression ; every ene
can be angry, and raoat are they tbat are
weakeat ; hut to be above it, and have it
under coraraand, is the advantage of those
that are truly wise, and therefore worthy of
our study to attain it.
3. That which should raost prevail with
Chriatiana to atudy love and raeekneaa of
spirit, and a propenaion to de good to all, ia
the conforraity that is in this teraper to our
Head and Redeemer, Jesua Chriat, to par
take ef hia dove-Uke apirit. Learn of me
(aaya he,)/o»- / am meek and lowly in heart.
Matt. xi. 29. And thia he hath given aa the
comraiaaion and badge of his diaciplea, that
as he loved thera, so they love one another.
PRECEPT VII.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
As the perverseness of nature hath found
out crooked ways, and sinful abuses of things
* Omne infirmum natura querulum-

400

AN EXPOSITION OF

that we enjoy and uae ; the holy law of God cannot but have fildiy hearts ; their noisome
aima at the rectifying these abiiaes, and breath arguea rottenness within,
bounding and Umiting our ways by a

straight rule.
And this precept particularly bara ua from
bU sinful uncleanneaa, under the name ofone
kind of it. That, answerably to our condi
tion or estate of life, whatsoever it isJ single
or raarried, we ought te endeavour that clean-
neaa, and purity ef soul and body, that be
coraea the teraplea of the Holy Ghoat.
I purpoae not te reckon up particularly the
several aorts and degreea ef siu of thia kirid
for chastity is a deUcate, terider grace, and
can scarcely endure the much naraing of it
self, far less of those things that are so con
trary to it ; though in the law of Ged given
to the people of the Jews, there is express
mention of the gross abominations of this
kind, because practised by the Gentiles, and
to be forbidden thera. And though the apos
tle, writing te the Gentiles newly converted
from those aborainations, of necessity raen
tions particulars of thera ; yet, further than
that necesaity of reproving thera, wbere they
are in cuatora, requirea, he hatea the very
naming of thera, Eph. v- 3 — 12- As thi
old Roraan sati-ista, while tbey aeem to re
prove vice, rather teach it by their impudent
deacriptions of it ; the new Roman caauiats,
some of thera, are as foul that way-
It raay suffice to regulate us in this, if we
believe this truth, that whatsoever in this
kind, beaidea tbe lawful uae of raaniage, ia
a breach of this holy law of God, whether it
be in action or in words, or so much aa in
thought. And if thia he true, (aa it ia, if
we believe Truth itself, our Saviour'a inter
pretation,) that an unchaate look, er thought,
raakea a raan guilty, then aure whataoever ia
beyond theae, ia more groaaly sinful.
What a shameful thing is it, that our holy
profeasion of religion sheuld be ao dishonour
ed by the abounding ef uncleanness amongst
us 1 In many it breaka forth acandalously ;
and if there be any tbat live in that way of
wickedness undiscovered, and walk secretly
in it ; yet the pure Lord, whe perfectly sees
and hates it, wiU call thera to account, and
judge thera, according to the apoatle'a werd,
Heb. xiii. 4. Conaider thia likewiae, any of
you that have not lamented your former ira
pure converaation, but being reforraed out
wardly by your yeara, or condition ef Ufe,
yet never have inwardly repented and been
deeply hurabled for the aina of your youth.
True conversion ia not ae light a work.
David, Ps. xxv. 7, remembera hia forraer
sins, and prays eamestly that Ged weuld not
reraember them against hira : and, en the
contrary, you that think not on thera, may
justly fear that Ged will reraeraber thera, be
cause you yourselves have forgot thera.
They that give their tongues the Uberty

of BcunUoua jesting, and impure speeches, ] dwelling within yow

Yea, tiiey that prpceed up further in un.
cleanness, tban to entertain and lodge the
fancies er thoughts of it, roUing them in
their beds, and delighting in them, even such
are exceeding guilty and abominable in the
aight of God, who doth not only aee into the
heart, but mOat of aU eyes and regards it.
Keep thy heart above dll keeping, aaya So
lomon ; for from ihemk are ihe issues of
life. Certainly, they that can diapensp with
themaelvea in theae inward heart uncleanneasea,
and find no remorae, cannot think the Spirit
ef God dweUa within them ; for if he were
there, he would be ahewing his discontent
and anger againat that unholiness, which is
so contrary to hifti.
And this they that have any truth ofgrace
wiU find, that if they be not either free from
the assaults, or at least those- filthy birds,
such impure thoughts be not perfectly beaten
away, when they light on the soul, if they
stay hut any time with them, although they
afterwarda do chaae them out with indigna
tion ; yet they do leave such a atain, as
grievea and saddens the Holy Spirit in them,
and for a tirae they find it not act in prayer,
and in spiritual comfort, se cheerfully aa be
fore. Let no corrupt (er rotten) communi
cation proceed out of your mouth, saya the
apoatle ; artd grieve noi the Holy Spirit :
rotten apeech grievea the Hely Spirit, and ao
do auch thoughts too, which are a man'a
apeech with hiraaelf; and therefore being
meat farailiar and frequent with hira, ought
to be raeat regarded and watched over.
There ia not any thing wiU more readily dry
up the aweetness and spiritual moisture ofthe
aoul, and cause tbe gracea in it to wither,
than the impure fire of luat ; therefore you
that bave any beginninga of grace, and would
have it flourish, beware ef this, and quench
it in its first sparkles ; if you do not, it may
in a little time riae above your pewer, and
atill prove very dangeroua.
If you would be freed from the danger and
importunity of thia evil, raake uae of theae
uaual and very useful rulea. 1 . To be sober
and temperate in diet ; withdraw fuel. 2. Be
raodest and cfrcumspect in your carriage ;
guard your ears and eyes, and watch over
all your deportraent ; beware of undue and
dangeroua farailiaritiea with any, upon what
pretence aoever. 3- Be choice in your society,
for there is rauch in that- 4- In general, fly
all occasions and incentives to uncleanneaa ;
but truly the aolid care raust begin within,
otherwiae aU theae outward reraediea will prove
but empiric raedicinea, aa they call thera.
1. Firat, then, lean not upen raoral reaolvea
and particular purpoaea againat uncleanneaa,
but aeek a total, entire change of the heart,
and te find the Rtmctifying Spirit ef grace

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

401

2. L-ibour to have the heart ppaaessed with
a deep apprehension of the holinesa and purity
rf God, and then of hia presence and eye up
on aU thy actioos, yeathyraost aecret thoughta.
Hia eye is raore piercing than tbat any wicked
neaa can be hid from him, and raore pure
than to behold it without indignation. The
darknesa ia aa nOon-day to hira. I cannot
steal a thought put pf hia aight, thpugh itbe
never ap sudden and shprt. Then think, '' If
I pretend tp cpmraunion and converse with
ray Gpd, he ia all bolineas, therefore unclean
ness can never attain that to which I aspire.
Wbat coraraunion bath light with darkness,
or Chriat with Belial ? And shaU I lese or
hazard tbe sweetnesa of hia presence for so
base a delight ? How can I offer that heart
to hira in prayer, that hath been wallowing
in the raire of unclean practice or imagina
tion ?" Resolve to drive out the assaults that
you are incident to ; " How shaU I do, or
think thua ? My holy God ia looking on
me." Tbia waa Joseph's preservation. Shall
I do ihis evil, and sin against God ?
3. Acquaint yourselves with spiritual de-
lights, and this wiU make a happy diversion
frem those that are sensual and earthly.
Somewhat a man muat have te delight in. It
is the philoaopher'a remark, that they that
know not the true pleaaure ef the mind, tum
te the base pleaaurea of tbe bedy.
Seme raoral raen aeeking higher delight
of the raind, in their way have persuaded
theraaelves to a generous diadain of their
bodies- How much raore powerfully may
supernatural delights of the soul — righteous
neas, and peace, and joy in the Hely Ghost
— wean it frem thoae grosa, aensual pleasures,
that the beasts have in coraraon with us, at
least from the immoderate deaire, and all un
lawful purauit of them 1 — Nothing indigni-
fiea the aoul raore than luat. When David
had sinned this way, it had ao raade havoc
of grace within hira, that he criea not only
fer cleanaing, but for a new creation, as if all
were undone ; Create in me a clean heart,
Scc. Psal. li. 10 ; and found it so slavish and
ignoble a sin, that he praya to be re-establish
ed by God with a free or noble spirit.
4. Increase in the love of Chriat ; for aa
that grows, there ia a decrease of the leve ef
sin, yea, of the immoderate love of all inferior
thinga : aa the sunbeams eat out the fire, this
divine and heavenly love consuraes tbe other.
All eur love ia tee acarce or poor for hira,
when it ia collected and drawn all together
to run only towarda hira ; and therefore there
la none to spare upon the fiesh, and the lusts
of it, nor upon any creature, but as he allows
and appoints. The sense of his love takes
op the whole aoul, and he lodging in it, ia
that true Agnus castas that raakea it chaate,
lhat bundle ef raynh that hath a virtue to
preaerve the Chriatian frora the corruptiona
di lust.

That love of Jeaus Christ ia strong as
death, kills all opposite affections ; and, in
deed, it alone ia worthy ofthe aoul, the noble,
imraortal seul. Oh I hew ia it abaaed when
it ia drawn down to aenauality, and se raade
a slave to its servant, the fle-sh ! Major sum,
ei ad majora genitus, (could a Roman phi
losopher say,) quam ut sim mancipium mei
corporis : I am greater, and born to greater
things, than io be a slave to my body. H ow
unworthy is it, that being capable ef the
highest good, the fruition of God, we should
forget ourselves se far as to serve vile lust,
and forfeit the happiness and pleaaurea of
eternity 1 Far be it from us. God bath
caUed us to hoUnesa, and not to uncleanness,
says the apoatle.
Fly all unlawful and forbidden delights ;
and thoae that are lawful, de not engage your
hearta te them, love thera not iraraoderately :
and they can acarce be loved without exceaa,
if loved at all. Shall I aay, then, if you use
thera, yet love thera not, reserve tbat for
purer enjoyments ? Says not the apostie
this. Let ihem that rejoice, be as if they
rejoiced not : and particularly, They that
marry, as if ihey mairied noi ! And hia
reaaon is weighty — For the fashion of this
-world passeth away, Scc
Reraember to what a pure and excellent
condition we are caUed as Christiana, and
with what a price we are bought to be holy ;
and let it be our firm purpoae and ' atudy to
glorify God in our soula and bodies, fer they
are his.

PRECEPT VIIL
Thou shall noi steal.
Ged is the God of order, and not of con
fuaion : it ia he that hath authorized and ap-C
pointed propriety of poaaesaiena uuto men,
and withal that aociety and coraraerce araongst
them that serves for their rautual good ; and
property reserved makes one man in what he
possesses useful and helpful to another ; and
hath given this precept of his law, to regulate
them in these things, te be the rale of tbat
which wc call contentation or justice, equity
tewards our neighbour, in matter ofhis goods
or proper posseaaions.
Tbis, tben, being the scope of the com
raandraent, whatsoever breaks thia hedge, is,
aa coraprehended under the name of theft,
here forbidden. All raanner of injuatice and
wrong done to our neighbour in hia eatate,
whether by violence, or by aleight of hand,
by force er fraud, yea, if it be but ap much
as in affection or desire : fer (as we have often
aaid) the law is spiritual, and binds not pnly
the hands but the heart.
Sp tben, npt pnly grpss rpbberies and thefts
arc here forbidden, but all pppressipn ani

402

AN EXPOSITION OF

e'xtprtion in superiors, all purlpining .-md un
faithfulneaa in inferipra ; tpp atrict exactipn in
masters, and slothfulness in servants, or
whataoever else raay tend to their raaatera'
daraage ; all bribery and receiving of gifts, te
tbe perverting of juatice ; all deceit and over
reaching in comraerce, or trading er bargain
ing ; taking advantage in buying or aelling,
or any contract, upon the ignorance or aira
pUcity of those we deal withal ; all deaire
and seeking of our neighbeur'a loaa to our
gain ; all the degreea ef sacrilege and simony ;
all idleness and neglect in men'a particular
callings, by which they either impoverish
themselves, and are worse than infidels, not
providing for their faraiUea ; pr, if they have
certain prpvisipn by their callings, in ne
glecting the duties cf thera, they wrpng thpse
frem whom, or for whose sakes, they are so
provided ; aa raagistrates and rainisters, who
have or ahould have honourable maintenance
for the public service, the one in the com
mon-wealth, the other in tbe church. As
it ia a great sin te curtail or detain what is
due that way, se it is no less wickedness in
them, if they be reraiss and carelesa of thoae
dutiea to whicii they are obliged for the pub-
lie good. In a word, whoaoever can digeat
any kind of undue gain to theraselves, or do
any prejudice to their neighbour in the leaat,
are guilty ; yea, they ain against thia precept
tbat do n»t with all their power further the
advantage and good ef their neighbour in
hia outward condition, that de not help and
relieve thoae they aee in want, ao far aa their
ability reaches.
There ia a kind of right that the poor have
to aupply ; it ia not raerely arbitrary to yeu.
Thnugh they have net such a right aa to
take it at their o'wn hand, or to seek it at the
housea of huraan juatice, yet they have auch
a right aa that your hand ought not to detain
it. " Withhold not good frora thera to whora
it ia due," Prov. iii. 27 ; whicb ia evidently
meant (and interpretera take it ao) of all
kind ef doing good, even that of charity and
beneficence te the needy, as appears by the
following clause. When it is in ihe power
of thine hand to do ii ; and the Septuagint,
iv^oiiiv TOV ivSty,. It is due, they have a right
to it ; though not such aa they can iraplead"
for before raen'a courta or judicaturea, yet in
the court ef conacience, and in the aight of
God, it ia duly theirs ; the word is frora him
that is Lord ef it. It is bread for ihe hungry
that moulds by thee, and the drink of ihe
thirsty ihat sours by thee.* Although thou
art in possession, hast auperfluity by thee,
what he wanta is his by right, he is Lerd ef
it ; fer the Lord of all hath tumed over his
right te thy peor brother. The Lprd him
self needs it net ; thy gppdness cannet reach
hira ; he hath fumiahed thee with such aa
¦ Esuiientiura panis est qui apud te mucescit, et
siUQntium potu3 qui ajjud te acescit. AniBROsE.

need it, and raay be hia receivers, and have
wanant frpra him tp take it up in his atead :
and be sure he will a'cknpwledge the receipt
cf it ; thpu hast hia pwn wprd and writ fpr
it, a bill pf exchange under his own hand,
that what you give to the poor be put upon
hia accounts- He that giveth to the poor,
lendeth to the Lord, andjie will repay it.
And again, In that you did it unto one of
these, says our Saviour, ye did it unto me.
It is the surest and most lasting part of a
man'a estate that ia put into their hand, if
God be solvendo, if he be a aufficient debtor.*
It is treaaure laid up in heaven.
So then tbia precept requires uprightness
and equity in all our dealings, a deaire te
right and advantage our brethren aa ouraelves,
wiUing their gain and proaperity aa eur own ;
diligence and induatry in our calUnga, and
giving to all others their due. Though men
are net obliged te a aottiah sim.plicity, but
ought to endeaveur ao to underatand their af
faira, that they raay avoid circumvention by
othera' craft ; yet a prudent aimplicity ia tbe
right atarap ef a Christian raind ; to be single
and ingenuous, and rather to auffer loaa from
othera, than cause tbem any. In a word,
tbe apoatle's rule ia expreaa and full, 1
Theaa. iv. 16, That no man over-reach or
defraud his brother in any matter ; and he
adda a very forcible reason, because the Lord
is the avenger of all such ; as we have also,
(aays he,) forewarned you and testified.
Men are ready te find out poor ahifta to de
ceive themaelvea, when they bave aorae way
deceived their brother ; and to atop the mouth
of their ewn conacience with sorae quibble,
and some slight excuse, a'nd force themselves
at length to beUeve they have done no wrong :
therefore the apostle, to fright them out of their
ahifta, sets before them an exacter judge,
that cannot be deceived nor mocked, that
shaU one day unveil the conscience, and
blew away theae vain aelf-excuaea aa smoke;
and that juat Lord will puniah all injuatice :
He is the avenger of all such.
At the firat view, a man would think the
breach of thia comraandraent concerna but
few persona, some thieves and robbera, and
aerae profeaaed deceivers, or if you add aome
cozening tradeamen and merchants ; but the
truth is, there is acarce any of the command
ments se universally and frequently broken,
and whereof the breach is so little observed,
and therefore so seldom repented of by the
greatest part. As the apostle Jaraes says.
He is a perfect man that offends not in his
words ; truly he ia a rare raan that offenda
not, and that remarkably, if men would re
mark themaelvea, againat thia coraraandraent,
Thou shalt not steal.
Te aay nothing ef the oppression and hard
exactions ef auch aa are auperiora of landa,
grinding the faces ef tlie poor, and squeezing
* Quas tlcderia solas semper lialx^bis o i[;3.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS-

493

them till the blood come; and so putting in
the aarae blood of the poor amongst their
eatatea, that many timea provea a canker to
aU the reat ; and the thieviahneaa of servants,
and of the poorer sort, making ne censcience
at aU of whatsoever they can filch from their
masters, or those that are richer than they,
counting aU they can snatch good booty and
lawful prize : to pass by likewise tbe particu
lar deceits that are usual in several callings,
and are incorporate with thera through long
cuatora, and becorae a part of the myatery ef
thoae callinga, and therefere men dispense
with themselves in them, as the inseparable
sin pf their caUing, and have no remorse for
them : not te insist on theae and such like,
conaider how frequently this sneum ei tuum,
mine and thine, provea the apple of atrife
betwist the nearest frienda, and divides their
affectiona, arid begeta debatea amongat them ;
parenta, and children, and brethren, &c-
Arid certairily there ia always some .unjust
desire on one side in those cententiona, and
aometiraea en both aides- Hew few are there
that have hearts so weaned from the world,
as in all things to prefer the sraaUest point ef
equity to the greatest teraptation of gain ;
that in their affairs, and aU that concems
them, are universally careful to deal with an
even hand and an even heart ; and to keep
cloae to that golden rule drawn in nature, but
alraost lost and smothered in the rubbiah and
corruption of nature, but drawn anew by our
i'laviour's hand, not only inhis gospel, but in
the hearts of hia real foUowers — " That which
thou wouldeat have others do te thee, do thou
unte them :" that when they have any thing to
transact, wherein ia their brother'a intereat and
their own, do in their thoughta change piacea
with him, set hira in theirown room, and them.
aelvea in hia, and deal with him after that
raanner ; that think, " What I should be
willing to have done to rae were I he, that
sarae wiU I do to hira 1 'Were I in that
poor man'a condition that begs an alms.
should I net rather have seme relief, than a
churlish, or atleast, an empty answer? Were
I he that buys, should I not, and might I
not justly and reasonably wiU to have it so,
that no more be exacted of me than the right
and due price ? Then ao wiU I uae him."
How few that walk (I say) by this rale ?
And yet aU that do net thus, are breakers ef
thia commandment in the sight ef God-
How few that are inviolable observers of
equity, and are truly liberal and bountiful,
answerably to their pewer ; that wUl some
tiraes en purpose bate a dish frora their table,
or a lace from their garraent, not te make
their stock greater, but to -bestow on the
poor ; that are traly desirous of tbe good
and prosperity ef other!!, and further it all
they can !
It is to be like God ; thia ia the particu
lar. Mutt- V, 46, wherein likenesa to our

heavenly Father ia preased ; and thia ia meant
by Homo homini Deus. Certainly, were we
acquainted with it, it is raore true delight to
be not only just but liberal, than to possess
mucli ; it is not to possess, but to be pos.
sessed by it, to have heaps, and no heart noi
pewer te use thera. He that is thus, doth nol
only defraud others but himself, steals* from
his own necessities to sacrifice to his god,
his chest or bag- M''lien a raan hath such a
sum, and though he hath use for it, dares nol
break it, what is it better than if it were still
under ground in the mine ? It is no raore
at hia aervice ; yea, so rauch the worse that
he is racked betwixt plenty and want, betwixt
having and not having it,
Beth the covetous and the prodigal ain
against thia comraandraent ; the covetoua by
unjust waya of gaining, and unjust keeping
what he hath gained, keeping it up both from
others and himaelf; and the prodigal by
profuaeneaa, making fooliah wanta to hirnaelf,
that drive him upen unjuat waya of supply-*f
Thus he that ia prodigal muat be covetous
toe ; and though raen think not so, theae two
vicea diat seem ao opposite, net only may,
but do often dweU together, and covetous
ness is prodigaUty'a purveyor, being fire for
it to feed it ; fer otherwise it would" not sub-
aiat, but weuld atarve within a while. Here,
then, both avarice and prodigality are con
demned ; only true equity, and frugal and
wise liberality, are obedience te it.
The raain cauaea of aU unjust and iliberal
dealing are these two : 1- diffidence er dis
trust of the Divine providence and goodnesa ;
2- and that ttxiovi^ix, that sarae amor sce-
leratus habendi, — the fond desire of having
much. 1. AVhen a raan doth not fuUy trust God
with providing for hira, and blesaing hira in
juat and lawful waya, but apprehends want
unleaa he take some Uberty and elbow-room ;
tbis raakes hira step new and tben out of the
way, te catch at undue gain by fraud and
over-reaching, or sorae such way ; but this
is a most foolish course ; this ia to break
loose out of Gotl's fatherly hand, and ao to
forego aU that we can lppk for frpra him, ^nd
tp take waya pf pur ewn ; to chooae rather to
go a-ahifting fer ouraelvea in tbe crooked and
accuraed waya of unrighteeusnesa, than to be
at his providing. Labour, therefore, foi
fixed belief ef his wisdom and goodness and
aU-sufficiency, and then the greatest straits
and wants will not drive you to any indirect
waya, wherein you run from him, but wiU
StUl draw you nearer to himself, and there
you wUl stay and wait upon bis hand till he
supply you.
2. Desire ef having rauch, or covetous.
ness, whether it be to hoard up or lavish out.
But tbis is a madness ; this desire of having
• Quicquid omnibus abstulit, sibi negat
*- Turpiter amlttenb ouod turpius reparet. Ssn set.

494

AN EXPOSITION OF

much is never cured by having rauch ; it is
an unaatiable,* dog-hunger.
That known determination of the raoraUat
waa the raost true, that to be truly rich, is
not to have much, but to desire little ; labour
then, net to deaire much, or rather deaire
much — deaire to bave the Lord for your
portion ;+ and if you indeed desire him, you
shall have him, and if you have him, you
cannot but be satisfied, for he is all : to hira
therefore be aU praise, honour, and glery, for
ever. Amen.

PRECEPT IX.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against
thy neighbour.
The apostle St. Jaraes, in that sharp but
raost true cenaure of the tongue, raight weU
call it an unruly evil. There are but ten
precepta er worda of the law of Ged, and
you aee two ef thera, se far aa concerns the
outward organ and vent of the sina there
forbidden, are bestowed on it, tending, if
not only, yet mainly, to keep it in order ;
one in the first table, and this other in the
second, as being ready to fly out both against
God and man, if not thua bridled.
The end ef tbe commandment is to guard
the good name ef men frora injury, as the
forraer doth his goods ; thia poaaeaaion being
no less, yea, rauch mere precious than the
other ; and, becauae the great robber and
murderer ef a good narae, ia the raiachieveua
detracting tongue, acted by a raalignant heart,
it requires in the heart a charitable tender.
neas ef tbe good name of eur brethren, and
that will certainly prove truth and charitable
speech in the tongue- t
Though divines here usually speak of
lying, in the general notion and extent of it,
and not amiss, being raost of aU exercised in
tbe kind here raentioned ; yet there be such
lies as may be raore fltly reputed a breach of
seme other coraraandraent ; and poaaibly,
the ain ef lying in general, aa it ia a lie, a
diacrepance of the speech from the raind, and
so a subverting of the divine ordinance set in
nature, raaking that which he bath raade the
interpreter of the raind, to be the disguiaer
of it,, and withal, diaregarding God as
the searcher of the heart, and sovereign
witness of truth, and avenger of falsehood ; I
say, thus it raay possibly be raere proper to
refer it to anether coraraandment, particularly
to the third : but it imports not rauch te be
very punctual in this ; it is seldom er never
that one commandraent is broken alone ;
most ains are complicate disobedience, and
in some sins, the breach of many at once is
very apparent- As to inatance in peijury, if
* Boul,ifAiu, vel canifia fiimes.
t Nod est illud desiderium. v>.ion£t* seel ^eiyi£ja.

it be to testify a falsehood againat our bre.
thren, both the third coraraandment and thi.t
ninth are violated at once ; and if it be in
such a thing as toucheth his life, tiie sixth
likewise suffers with them.
Thia perjury of falae testimony in a public
judiciary way, is, we see, by the express word.s
and letter of the command, forbidden as the
highest and raeat heinoua wrong of thia kind;*
but under the narae of tbia (as it is in the
ether comraandraents) all the other kinds
and degreea of offence againat our neighbour's
good narae are corapriaed. I. AU private
ways of calumny and falae imputation. 2.
All ungrounded and falae surmises or auapi-
ciona, all uncharitable construction of ethers'
actions and caniage. 3- Strict remarking
of the faults of ethers, without any caUing so
te de, er honest intention of their good ;
which appears, if having observed any thing
that of truth is reprovable, we seek not to
reclaira them by aecret and friendly admoni.
tipn, but, passing by themselves, divulge it
abroad to othera ; for thia ia a fooliah, aelf-
deceit to think, that becauae it ia not forged,
but true, that theu apeakeat, thia keepa thee
free of the comraandraent : ne, thy false in
tention and raalice-|- raakes it calurany and
falaehood in thee, although for the raatter pf
it, what thpu sayest be rapat true ; all tbpii
gaineat by it ia, that thou dost hurable and
beraire thyself in the sin of another, and
makest it poaaibly more thine, than it ia his
own that committed it ; fpr he, raay be, hath
aprae teuch of reraorae fer it ; whereaa it is
evident thou delightest in it; and tiiough
thou preface it with a whining, feigned re
gret and serablance of pitying him, and add
withal aome word ef commending hira in
aoraewhat else ; thia ia but the gilding and
augaring' tbe pill to make men swaUow it
the more easily, and thy bitter maUce pass
unperceived- They that by their caUing
ought to watch over the lives of others, muat
do it faithfuUy and diligently, adraoniahing
and rebuking privately ; and where that pre
vaila not, they raay, yea, they eught te do
it more publicly, hut aU in love, aeeking
nothing but the glery of God and the salva
tion of soula- 4- Eaay hearing and enter
taining of raiareporta and detraction when
othera speak them, (Exod- xxiii. 1,) this is
that which maintaina and givea auhaistence
te calumny, otherwiae it would starve aud
die of itself, if nobody took it in and gave
it ledging. When raalice pours it out, if
our ears be ahut against it, and there be no
vessel to receive it, it weuld fall like water
upon the ground, and conld no more be ga
thered up ; but there is that same busy hu
mour that men have, (it is very busiy, and
yet the most bave of it more er less,) a kind
* Ut testis falsi aut testimonium falsi non dices aijt
respoudcbis. t A/.KSitjovTte IV xyv.T^, Eph. iv. 15: vve must not
onlv siieak the truth, but in love.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

49A

of delight er cententraent to bear evil of others,
unless it be of such as they affect ; te hear
others slighted and disestegraed, that tbey
reatUly drink in, not without aorae pleaaure,
whatsoever is spoken of this kind. The ear
trieth the words, (as he says in Job,) as the
mouth tasteth meats ; but certainly the raoat
ears are perverse and disterapered in their
taste, as sorae kind of palates are ; can find
sweetness in sour calurany. But, because
men understand one another'a diet in thia,
that the moat are ao ; thia ia the very thing
that keeps up the trade, raakes backbiting
and detractions abound so in the world, and
verifies that observation in the raost, that the
slanderer wounda three at once, hiraaelf, him
he ape-aks of, and hira that hears ; for thia
thirfl, traly it ia in hia option to be none ef the
number ; if he will, he may ahift his part of
the blow, by net bdieving the slander ; -yea,
may beat it back again with eaae upon the
slanderer hiraself by a check or frown, and
add that stroke ef a repulse to the wpund pf
guiltiness he givea hiraself. 5- They pffend
that seek in any kind, at the expense pf the
gppd name and esteem pf othera, to increaae
their own ; out ef othera' ruina to make up
theraaelves ;* and therefore puU down as
- much as they can, and are glad te have
others to help them to detract frora the repute
of their brethren, particularly any that are in
UkeUhood to surpass and obscure thera ; and
fer thia reason, incline alwaya rather to hear
and apeak of the iraperfectiona arid diapraiae
of othera than to their advantage, and would
willingly (Otteraan-like) kill the good narae
of their brethren that theira raay reign alone- -j-
This is a vile disease, and such as cannot be
incident te any mind that ia truly virtuoua
and gracioua ; no, auch need not thia base,
dishonest way to raise theraselves, but are
glad to see virtue, and whatsoever is praise
worthy, to fiourish in whoraaoevcr ; theae
are lovera of Ged indeed, and his glory, and
not their own ; and therefore, as all he be
stows on themselves, they venture back the
honour of it to him, ao they are glad to aee
many enriched with hia beat gifts ; for see
ing all good that all have belonga to Ged, aa
the sovereign owner and dispenser, tbis con
tents and rejoices his children when they see
many partake ef his bounty, for the more is
his glory ; and as in love to their brethren,
they are always willing to take notice of what
is comraendable in thera, and te coramend
it, so they do tbis the more wiUingly, be
cause they know that all praise of goodness
at last terminates and ends in Ged, as Sole-
mon says ef the rivers. Unto the place from
* Ex alieni nominis jactura gradum sibi faciunt ad
gloriam. Sallust,
t The Rabbins frequently condemn this. Hammith
Cabbed, &c. Qui honorat se ex ignominia socii sui,
non habet partem in seculo venturo. 'Beres. Kab.
Item, qui per contemptuni aliorum laudem suam qua-
rit, miserrimus est omnium. Quis est houorellignus ?
Qui boncrat alios homines, Aboth. C. iv.

whence they come, thither they return again.
ii. They sin against this commandraent, who,
although they no way wrong their neighheurs'
good narae, yet are not careful to do their
utraost to right it when it suffers, te remove
asperaiona from them, and te clear them all
that may be.
Fer thia ia here required — to deaire and
delight in, and furtbei the good name of
pthers, even as pur pwn ; tp lpok most will
ingly on the fairest aide of their actiona, and
take them in the best sense, and be as in-
ventive of favourable conatructions (yet with
out favouring vice) as raaUce is witty to mis.
interpret te the worst ; to observe the com
raendable virtuea of our brethren, and paas
by tlieir failinga ; aa many, Uke scurvy fliea,
slcip over what is sound in raen, and love to
sit upori their sores.
It is laraentable to conaider how much
thia evil of mutual detraction, and aupplant-
ing tbe good name one of another, ia rooted
in raan'a corrapt nature, and how it apreads
and grows in their converse, as the apostle
St. Paul cites it out of the Paalmiat, aa the
description ef our nature. Their threat is an
open sepulchre; they have deceitful tongues,
and the poison of asps is under their lips,
Rom. iii. 13- 'Their throat is an open se
pulchre, full of the bones as it were of others'
good namea that they have devoured ; and,
Rora. i. 30, araongat other their endowraenta,
they are whiaperera, backbiters, despiteful.
Bnt it is strange that Christians should re
tain so much of theae evila, that profess them
selves renewed, and sanctified, and guided
by the Spirit of God- Consider in your
visits and discourses, if aomething ef this
kind doth net entertain yon often, and lavish
away that time you might spend in rautual
edifications, abusing it te descant upon the
actions and life ef others, in such a way as
neither concema nor profita us, taking an ira.
pertinent, fooUsh delight in inquiring and
knowing how this party Uves, and the other-*
This is a very coraraon disease, as Nazianzen
observes ; and thus men are most strangers
at horae ; have net leiaure to study and know
and censure themaelvea, they are ao buaied
about others- It raay be there ia not always
a height of malice in their discourses, but
yet, by much babbUng to no purpose, they
slide into idle detraction and censure of
othera beaide their intention ; for, in multi
tude of words there wants noi sin.
And the greatest part are so accustoraed
to this way, that if the^beput out ef it, they
muat ait dumb and aay nothing. There is,
I confess, a prudent observation of the ac
tions of others, a reading of m.en, as they
call it, and it raay be by a Chriatian done
with Chriatian prudence and benefit ; and
• Curiosum genus ad cognoscendam vitam alienam.
desidiosum ad corrigcndam suam. Aug. Conf. L. x.
C iii. OcSiv oilTOlf r,iu TOU ctv9^ti;T6At 0)t to XkXeiv tm
tikXoTiix. Orat. i.

40ii

AN EXPOSITION OF

there may be too an uaeful way ef men'a im
parting thefr obaervation of this kind one to
another conceming the good and evil, the
abiUties mere or lesa that they remark in the
world ; but truly it ia hard te find such aa
can do thia aright, and know they agree in
their purpoae with honeat, harmless minda,
intending evil to none, but geod to them.
aelvea, and admitting of nothing but what
suits with this. Araongat a throng of ac-
quaintance a raan shall, it raay be, find very
few by whose conversation he raay be really
bettered, and that return him seme benefit
for the expenae of his tira». in their society
Howsoever, beware of such as delight in
vanity and lying, and defamingof ethers.
arid withdraw yourselves frem them, and set
a watch before your own lips ; leam to know
the fit aeaaon of ailence and speech, for that
is a very great point of wiadom, and will
help very much to the obaerving thia precept,
te give your tongue to be governed by wia
dom and piety ; let it not be aa a thorny buab,
pricking and hurting thoae that are abeut
you, not altogether a banen tree, yielding
nothing, but a fruitful tree, a tree of Ufe to
your neighbour, as Solomon caUs the tongue
of the righteoua.
And let your hearts be possessed with
those two excellent graces, humility and
cbarity,'tlien will your tongue not be in dan
ger of hurting your neighbour ; for it ia pride
and self-love makes men delight in that.
Those are the idola to which men raake sa
crifice ef the good narae and reputation of
othera. The hurable raan delighta in aelf-
diaeateera, and is glad to see hia brethren'a
narae flourish. It ia pleaaing rauaic te hira
to hear of the virtuea of othera acknowledged
and ceraraended, and a harah discord te his
lowly thoughta to hear any thing ef hia own.
And the other, charity, thinka no evil, ia
ao far from caating falae aaperaiena en any,
that it rather caata a veil upon true failings
and blemishes: Love covers a multitude
of sins ; it is like God's love that begeta
it, which covers aU the sina of hia own chil-
dren.

PRECEPT X.
Thou shalt not covet, Scc.
It ia a known truth, that there ia no aound_
cure of diseases without the removal of their
inward cause ; therefere thia second table of
the law, containing the rule of equity fer the
redresa ef unrighteouaneaa in raen'a dealing
one with another, doth in tJiis last precept
of it strike at the very rpot of that unrighte
ouaneaa, the conupt desires and evil con
cupiscence of the heart : Thou shalt not
covet, Sec.

The Romish division of thia into two, J3
30 grossly absurd, and ao contrary both to
the vpice pf antiquity and reaapn, that it
needs net atay ua rauch to shew it such.
The thing forhidden is one. Thou shalt not
covet ; and if the several thinga nut to be
coveted divide it, it will be five or six, as
well aa two- Though it be Peter'a pretend
ed sword makea the division, yet certainly
it is net Paul'a o^hroy-nv, not a dividing of
tbe word aright, but cutting it, aa it were,
beaide the joint- The truth is, <kiey weu'id
never have miatook se far aa to have oifered
at this division, were they not driven upon it
by an evil neceaaity of their p-wn making ;
becauae tbey have quite cut put the aecend,
they are fprced, fpr making up the number,
te cut thia in two. This is but te aalve a
firat wrong with a aecend, it is vitii'um primie
concoctionis quod non corrigitur in secunda,
as they speak ; having smothered one com
mandment, they would have this divided, as
tbe harlot the living child. The subject of
this coramandraent, that which it forbida,
is not, I confeas, original sin in ita nature
and whole latitude ; no, nor aU kind of ain
ful raotions iraraediately arising from it, but
such, aa concem human things, belonging
-to tbia aecond table as their rule ; aa ia clea'
in aU the particulars naraed in the command.
raent, and the general word that closea it in.
eluding the rest, and aU other things ef tha*
kind — Nor any thing that is thy neigh
bour's : Nor is it needful (with others) for
the distinguishing this precept frem the rest,
to call this concupiscence here forbidden,
only the first risings ef it in the heart, widi.
out consent, whereas the other coramand.
ments forbids the consent of the wiU. I con
ceive there ia no danger to aay, that both
are forbidden, both in thia and the rest, but
in thia more expreaaly.
For what great neceaaity ia there of audi
aubtle diatinguiahing ? May not thia bs
aufficient, that what is included in the other
coraraandments duly understood, it pleased
the Divine Wiadom to deliver in thia last
raore expreaaly, that none might pretend ig
norance, and so to provide for the more ex
act observance of justice and equity ainongst
raen in their actiona, by a particular law
given to the heart, the fountain of them, re
gulating it in ita di-spoaition and motiona,
even the very atirringa of it, which do most
diacover its dispoaition ?
And that this ia no tautology, nor a su
perfluous labour, unauiting the exquiaite bre
vity of this law, we shall easily'confesa, if
we conaider that natural hypocriay and self-
indulgence that is in men, that makea tiiem
still less' regard the temper and actings of
their hearts, than their outward caniage,
notwithatanding thia express coraraandraent
concerning it. How rauch mere weuld
they have thought their thoughts, at least

TUE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

497

such as proceed not to full cpnaents, ex
empted frpm the law, if there had been
nething apoken of tbem, but they only in
cluded in the other precepts. We know how
the doctors of Rorae extenuate the matter,
and how favourable thefr opinion ia in thia
point, notwithatanding this clear voice of the
law of God condemning aU concupiscence.
The apostie St. Paul confeaaea ingenuously
hia own short-aightedneaa, though a Phari
aee inatructcd in thelaw, that unleas the
law had said. Thou shalt not lust, Rom
vii. 7, he had not found it out in the other
commandmenta, nor known the ainfulness
of it. This all-wiae Lawgiver knew both the
blindneaa of man'a mind, and the hypocriay
and deceitfulneaa of his heart, and therefore
takes away all pretext, and turns him out of
all excuse, giving this last commandment
expreaaly conceming the heart, and ao teach
ing him the exact and spiritual nature of aU
the rest.
Thia coramandraent puraues the iniquity
of raan into its beginning and source. Our
Saviour caUs tbe evil heart, an evil treasure :
it is an inexhaustible treasure of evil, j'ea it
diminisheth not at all, but increaseth rather
by spending ; the acting of sin, confirming
and augmenting the corrupt habit ef it in
the heart. " Out ef tbis evil treaaure iaaue
fo'rtb theae pollutions that defile the whple
man — evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,'"
&c. Mart, XV- 19.
It is not prpper here to speak at large of
die first metierjs of ain in general, and of
the way te diatinguiah (if any auch can be
- given as certain") the injections ef Satan ; evil
thoughts darted in by him, and such as
spring immediately from that corruption that
concern the subject : only this we ought to
observe, as pertinent and useful, that if we
did consider the purity of the law of Ged,
and the irapurity of our own hearts, the con
tinual rising of ainful cencupiacencea withiri
ua, that stain us and all our actioris, tbis
would lay ua a great deal lower in our ewn
opinion than uauaUy we are : " The law is
spiritual, but I am camal, seld under sin,"
says the Apostle-
Men think it is well with thera, and they
please themselves to think ao, and glery in
it, that their whole Ufe hath been outwardly
unblameable, and, poasibly, free frera the
secret coramiasion of groaa aina : but they that
are thua moat apotless should look a little
deeper inward uppn the incessant workings
of vain, sinful thoughts, that at least touch
upon the affection, and stir it somewhat,
and conaider their hearta naturally like
boiUng pots, still sending up of tiua scum
of evil concupiscence, and as a fountain
'casteth fbrth her waters, as Jereraiah apeaka,
this bitter poison-spring still sfrearaing forth,
and even in the best not fuUy dried up.

There are three trausgressiens, «u Jio
Talinudiats, from which a man can ne
day ever in this life be free ; the thoughts
of sin, wanderings in prayer, and an evil
tongue. Certainly the due sight ef these would
abate much of those gay thoughts that any
can have of themselves, and frem the best
and mest sensible would draw out the apoa
tle's werd, O wretched man ihat I am !
Who shall deUver me ? Sec. Rom. vii. 24.
There ia nothing that doth more certainly
beth humble arid grieve the godly man, than
tbe senae of this ; and because till then- it
wiU net cease to vex him, nething raakes
hira raere long for the day of hia full deliver
ance, and raakes him cry, Usquequo? Do
mine, usqueqno ? O how long ? O Lord,
how long ?
2. We axe taught by this coraraandment
that great point of apiritual prudence, to ob
serve the beginninga and conception of sin
within ua, and to cruah it then when it is
weakest, before it pass pn in its usual grada
tion, as the apoatle St Jaraea makea it, Jaraes
i. 14, 15. If it draw us away but to hear
it, it will entice ua, take ua with delight,
and then it will by that work ua to con
sent, and having so conceived, it will bring
forth sin, and sin finished wiU bring forth
death. 3. Becauae (aa we aee) the very concupia
cence itself, though it proceed no further,
pollutes and leavea a stain behind it : this
calla for our diligence, to aeek that renova
tion and habitual purity of heart infuaed from
above, and the daily increaae ef it, being
begun, that may free ua raore and raore from
that depraved concupiscence and the defile
ments of it. Think it not enough to cleanse
the tongue and the handa, but, above all,
endeavour fiir cleanneaa of heart, and that
wiU keep all the reat clean. Jaraea iv. 8 ;
Jer. iv. 14.
The concupiacence particularly here for
bidden, we aee, ia an inordinate deaire, or
the leaat beginning ef such a desire of thoae
outward things that belong not te us — Thy
neighbour's house. Sec. ; for all breach of the -
other coraraandraenta of thia aecond. table
have their rise and beginning frora such de
sire ; therefore tbis is set laat, aa the hedge
to guard all the reat frora violation : for cer
tainly be that fliea the leaat raotion of a
wrongful thought, wiU never proceed to any
injurioua word or action. So, then, this
coraraandment ia broken by the leaat envioua
look upon any good of othera, er tbe least
bendinga of mind after it for ouraelvea, arid
by that common miachief of aelf-love, as the

* Tres sunt transgressiones, a quibus homo nullo
die, inquiunt Talmudici, nunquam iu.hac vita libe-
rabitur : cogital tones neccati, atlentio orationis ; (i. e.
quod nunqutim satis attento per omrem attention-
em orare po.-f if.) et lingua mala. Bava, BobfA, t
iS42. 2 I

498 very thing that gives life to all auch undue
deairea, and by that common folly of diacon-
tent at our own eatate, which begeta a wish.
ing fer that of others ; and thia, theugh it
be net joined with an expreaa deaire of their
loaa er hurt, yet becauae it ia the aeed and
principle of injuatice, therefore it ia ainful,
and here forbidden.
And, on the contrary, rauch of the observ
ance of this precept lies in that xurx^xtix,
that contentedness and satisfaction of raind
with our own estate, -irtiich will surely keep
us free frora this disordered coveting- There
fore primely labour to have that wise arid
sweet contentation dweUing within you, and
banish all contrary thoughts, by these and
other such-Uke considerations.
I. If you do indeed believe that it is the
sovereign hand ef God that divides io the
nations their inheritance, as Moses speaks,
Deut. xxxii. 8, and so likewise to particular
men, tbat he carves te every one their condi
tion and place in the world, you cannot but
think he hath done it more wisely than men
could do for theraselves. They could never
agree upon it ; every man would think it
best for himself te be in the beat and highest
condition, and that is not possible ; but it is
best for the making up of the universe, that
there be those dift'erences God hath made,
and from the higheat te the lowest he hath
set each one in that station he thought good.
There is not a common soldier in an array
but would wish to be a coraraander, and so
if each raight have his will, aU would cora
mand and none obey. The like holds in
raaatera and aervanta, and in aU such other
differences. Se, then, aeeing these differ
ences are iri the world, and seeing it wholly
belongs to Hira that rulea the world to dia-
peae of thera, our part is ne more but con
tentedly to accept of his disposal, arid
to aerve him in the station where be bath
set us.
2- If you be auch aa have evidence you
are the children of Ged, then yeu know he
doth not only allot your condition wiaely, but
withal in peculiar love and favour ; he per
fectly knowa what outward eatate ia particu-
larly fitteat fer yeu, and will conduce moat
to your higheat good, and will not raisa to
give you tbat and no other. And certainly

AN EXPOSITION, &c.

it is true in matter of estate, as of our gar.
menta, not tbat which is largest, but that
which fits us best, is best for us.
3. Consider that no outward condition
hath contentment in it of itself; tbis must
arise from soraewhat within. Men see the
great attendance and train of servants that
wait upen princes and other great peraens,
but they aee not the train of carea and per
plexing thougbta that raany tiraea go along
too, and are more inseparable attendants than
any of tbe rest : they see their fine clothes
and stately-buildings, but they see not the
aecret raalcontenta and vexations that dwell
with thera, and are the very lininga ef their
rich apparel. Light things often diacontent
them : look but on their very paatimea and
recreationa ; they are aometimes aa rauch
troubled with diaappointment in these, as the
peer man ia wearied witb hia labour. It waa
net a much greater crosa that vexed Haman ;
aU hia advancement availed not witheut Mor-
decai's courtesy : a strange diaeaae, tbat he
felt raore the pain of another raan'a atiff knee,
than the contentment of aU hia honoura. But
whoao knew thefr deeper vexationa would ad
mire them leaa, when croaaed in their ambi-:
tion or frifends, or the husband and wife not ,
finding that harmony of dispoaitiona and af
fectiona : few or none but have aomething
that a raan would willingly leave out, if he
were, for hia wiah, te be in their condition.
The shorter and surer way, then, te content
raent ia, to be contentedly wbat he is.
4. Consider those that are below you, and
in a far raeaner condition, and by that argue
yourself not only to contentraent, but lo
thankfulneaa. We pervert aU : when we look
below us, it raiaea our pride ; and when above
ua, it caata ua into diacontent : raight we not
aa weU centrariwiae draw huraiUty out ef the
one, and contentraent out of the other ?
5. Seek to be aaaured that God ia yours ;
then whataoever othera poaaeaa, you wiU be
aure net to covet it, nor envy thera. Thoae
that have raost, you will pity, if tbey want
hira ; and those that have hira, you will have
no envy at thera for sharing with you, but
love thera the more : for that Infinite Good
is enough fer aU that choose him, and none
de so but those whora he hath ffrst chosen in
eternal leve.

DISCOURSE

ON

Matthew xxii. 37 — 39.

Jesus said unto him. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind ; and thy neighbour as thyself.

1 HE wisdom and meekneaa of our Saviour
is the raore remarkable, and ahines the
brighter, by the raalice ef his adversaries ;
and their cavils and terapting questiona oc
caaion our benefit and instruction : Thua
here. We aee the worda are the aura of the whole
law, and they are taken out of the- book of
thelaw : they are called two commandrnents ;
the former is the sura of the first, the latter
of the second table. Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God, Scc. That is, saya our Sa
viour, ihe first and great commandment.
Our firat obligement ia to God, and, through
him and for his sake, to men : The second
like io it,
Seema it net rather contrary than like to
the former ? Whereas in the former, the whole
atream of love is directed in one undivided
current towards Ged, this other coramand
raent seeras te cut up a new channel for it,
and to turn a great part of it to raen — Thy
neighbour as thyself. No, they are not con
trary, if we take them right ; yea, they do
not only agree, but are inseparable ; they do
not divide our love, but they set it in its right
courae ; firat wholly to Ged, aa the aovereign
good, and only for himaelf worthy to be loved,
and then back frem liira it ia, according te
his own wUl, derived downwards to our neigh
bour ; for then only we love both ouraelvea
and others aright, when we make our love
to him the reaaon and the rale of both.* So,
then, our love i3*to be immediately divided
betwixt him and our neighbour, or any crea-
tare, but is first aU te be beatowed on him,
and then he diffusea, by way of refiection, ao
much of it upon othera as he thinks fit ; being
• Mhms enim te ainat, qui aliquid prseter te amat,
ct non propter le. Inciiiiat home amare Deuin, et
non amabit in bomine nisi neuni. Augi-stine.

aU in his hands, it is at his disposal, and that
which be dispoaea elaewhere aa here, (Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,) it ia
not taken off frora hira, but abiding atill in
hira, aa in ita natural place : aa light doth in
the sun, flowa forth frora bim by sucb an
emanation as divides it not ; as bearas flow
fbrth frora the sun and enligbteri the air, and
yet are not cut eff from it.
So, then, the second is like unto the firat,
becauae it springa from it, and dependa on
it ; it coraraanda the aame affection : love in
the former placed on God, and in thia ex
tended frora him to our neighbour. Aud
like in thia toe, that as the forraer ia the aum
of the first table, and ao the firat and great
coramandraent ; ao thia ia the aura ef the
second table, and therefore next unto it in
greatness and iraportance.
All the precepts that can be found in the
law arid prophets are reducible to these, and'
all obedience, depends upen this love. 1 .
Consider this, how those are the sura of tbis
law. 2. Particularly in themselvea.
Not only because it is love facilitates aU
obedience, and is the true principle ef it, that
makes it both ea-sy to us, and acceptable to
God ; but besides this, that love dispoaea the
aoul for all kind of obedience, this very act
of love ia in effect aU that ia coraraanded in
the law. For the first laid to the firat table,
it is so much one with the firat command
ment, that it expreaaea moat fitly the poaitive
of it, oppoaite to that which ia there forbidden
— " Thou shalt have no other Gods before
me, but thou shalt have me alone fer thy
Ged, or bestow aU divine affection, and all
worship that ia the aign and expreaaion of it,
upen me only : Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, &c. And if
thou levest me alone, thou wilt not decline

600

A Discourse Ois

to any kind ef false worahip, that' were to
vitiate thy affection, and to break that con
jugal love and fidelity to which tbou art
bound by covenant, being my people as by a
apiritual maniage." Therefore is idolatry
ao ftequently called, in the phrase of the
prophets, Adultery and uncleanness : and in
the letter of that coraraandment, the Lord
uaea that word, which in its uaual sense is
conjugal, and relates to raaniage, / am a
jealous God; and inthe close of that pre
cept expresseth particularly this affectipn of
love, aa particularly interested in it, theugh
extended to all the rest — / shew mercy io
thousands of them that love me.
Is it not a genuine property of love te ho
nour and respect the narae of those whora
we love ? and therefpre itis altogether incon-
aiatent with tbe love of God to vilify and
abuae hia narae.
They that underatand the true uae of
that holy rest of the sabbath-day, to know
that it frees the aoul, and makes it vacant
from earthly things for thia purpoae, that it
may fuUy ajiply itaelf to the worship and
conteraplation of God, and converse with hira
at greater length. Then certainly, where
there is this entire love te Ged, tbia will not
weigh heavy, wiU be no grievous task to' it ;
it will erabrace and gladly obey this com-"
raandraent, not only as ita duty, but aa its
great delight ; for there is nothing that love
rejoices in more than in the converae and
society of thoae on whora it ia placed, weuld
willingly beatow meat of its time that way,
and thinks all hours too short that are spent
in that society. There,fore net only they tbat
profanely break, but they that keep it heavily
and wearily, that find it rather a burden than
a delight, raay justly suspect that the love of
Ood ia not in them ; but he that keepa Hia
day cheerfully, and lovea it, because on it he
may more liberaUy solace and refresh himself
in God, may safely take it aa an evidence ef
hia love to God.
Now, that after the same raanner the love
of our neighbour ia the sura of the aecond
table, the apostle St- Paul provea for us clear
ly and briefly, Rom- xui. 9, 10- ' AU the
comraandraenta touching eur neighbour are
for guiding hira frora evil and injury. Now,
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour, there
fore it is the fulfilling of the law. . He tbat
traly lovea hia neighbour aa hiraself, will' be
as loth to wrong hira as tp wrpng hiraself,
oither in that honour and reapect that ia due
to hira, er in his Ufe or chastity, or goods or
good name, or te lodge so rauch as an unjust
deaire and thought, because that is the begin
ning and conception of real injury- In a
werd, the great diaorder and crookedneaa of
the corrupt heart ef raan, consists in self-love;
it ia the very root of aU ain both against God
and raan ; fer no raan coniraits any offence,
but it ia aorae way to profit or please himaelf.

It waa an high enormity of self-lpve diat
brpught fprth tbe very firat ain nf mankind ;
that waa the bait that tppji mpre than either
the cplpur pr taate pf the apple, that it was
desireable fpr knpwledge ; it was in that the
main strength pf the teraptatipn lay, Ye shall
be as gods knowing good and evil, Aud
was it npt deep self-lpve tp affect diat ? And
it is atill thus, thpugh we feel the miaer
able fruita pf that tree : the aame aelf-lpve
ppsaeaaea us stiU, that tp please pur pwn hu
rapur and lusts, eur pride or cevetpusnesa, pr
voluptuouaneas, we break the law of God,
the law of piety, and of equity and charity
to men- Therefore tbe apoatle, foretelling
the iniquitiea and irapietiea ef the last .times,
that men shaU be " covetous, boasters, &c.,
and lovers of pleaauiea more than lovera of
God," sets that on tbe front, aa tbe chief,
leading evil, and the aource of all the rest —
lovers of their ownselves : lovera ef theraselves,
therefore covetous ; and lovers of themselves
more than lovers of God, because lovers of
iheir ownselves, 2 Tira. iii. 2. Therefore
thia ia the aura of that which God requirea in
bis holy law, the reforraing of our love, which
is the commanding passion of the soul, and
wheela aU the reat about with it in good or
evil. And ita reformation ia in thia, recaUing it
from ouraelves unto Ged, and refiecting it
froni God to our brethren ; loving ourselves
aovereignly by corrupt nature, we are ene
raiea te God, and hatera ef him, and cannot
love our neighbours but only in reference to
ourselves, and so far aa it profits or pleaseth
us te do ao, and not in order and reapect
unte God : the higheat and true redreas of
thia diaorder, ia that which we bave here in
two precepta as the substance ef all ; first,
that all our love ascend to God, and then
what is due to men descend from thence,
and so paaaing that way, it ia purified and
refined, aud is subordinate and conforraed to
our love of hira abeve all, which is the first
and great commandraent.
Here w'e have the suprerae object of leve,
to whom it is due, ihe Lord thy God, and
the measure of it, which is indeed te know
ne measure,* withall thy heart, all thy soul,
and all thy mind ; for which in Deut- vi- 5,
thy strength ; Luke hath both : the difference
ia none, for all raean that the aoul, and all the
powers of it, unite and combine themselves
in their most intenae and higheat strength to
the love pf Gpd, and that aU the wprkings
pf the seul, and actions of tbe whole man, ba
no other but the acting and exercise ef this
love- He accounta nor accepta of nothing we
can offer him, if we give not the heart with
it ; and he will have none ef that neither,
unleaa he have it all ; and it ia a peor all when
* Modus est nescire modum, subtilius ista distin-
guere facile est mafiis quam soiidum.

MATTHEW XXII-

£01

we have given it, for the great God to accept
of. If oue ef us had the affection of a hun
dred, yea, ef all the raen in the werld, yet
could he not love God anawerably to his
full worth and goodness; all the glorified
spirita, angels and raen, that are er shall
be in their perfections, loving him with the
utraost extent of their aouls, do not altogether
make up ao rauch leve aa he deaervea ; yet
he ia pleaaed to require our heart, and the
love we have te beatow on him ; and though
it ia infinitely due of debt, yet he will take it
as a gift — My son, give me thy heart.
Therefore the aoul tbat begins to offer it
self tohim, although overwhelraed with the
sense of its own unworthiness and tbe raean--
neaa of ita love, yet may aay, " Lord, I am
aahamed of thia gift I bring thee ; yet, be
cause thou caUeat for it, such as it is, here it
is ; the heart and aU the love I have, I offer
unte thee ; and had I ten thousand times
more, it sbould aU be thine ; as much aa I
can I love thee, and I deaire to be able to
leve thee more ; although I ara unworthy to
be admitted te love, yet thou art moat worthy
te be loved by rae, and, besides, tbou doat
allow, yea comraandest rae to leve thee ; ray
loving of thee adda nothing to tbee, but it
raakes me happy ; and though it be frue,
the love and heart I offer thee, is infinitely
too littie for thee, yet there is nothing besidea
thee enough for it."
The Lord, or Jehovah, thy God. There
lie tbe two great reasons of love, ro xyxx-Arov,
and ro ihiov, Jehovah, the spring of being
and goodness, infinitely lovely. AU the
beauty and excellenciea of tbe creatures are
but a drop of that ocean. And thy God, to
all ef us the author of eur life, and of aU
that we enjoy, that spread forth those heaveris
that roU about us, and comfort us with their
light and motions and iufiueuces, arid esta
blished this earth that suataina ua ; that fur-
niaheth ua with food and raiment, and, in a
word, (and it is the apoatle'a,) that givea
us, 'C.tariv Kxi vrvom XXI Tfls -rxvrx — Life,
and breath, and all things ; and to the be
liever, his God in a nearer propriety, by re.
demption and pecuUar covenant. But our
raisery is, the raost of us do not study and
consider hira, what he is in himself and to

us, and therefere de not lovc him, because we
know him not.
And thy neighbour as thyself. If we will
not confeaa nor auapect ouraelves, how much
we are wanting in the fonner, yet our mani
fest defect in this will discover it ; therefore
the apostle, Rom. xiii. 10, aud Gal. v. 14,
speaks of this as all, because, though inferior
to the other, yet connected with it, and the
surest sign ef it ; for these live and die to
gether. The apostle St- John ia expreas in
it, and gives these hypocritea the lie plainly.
// any man say, I love God, and hateth
his brother, he is a liar, Scc. We have no
real way of expreaaing our leve to God, but
in our converae witb raen, and in the werks
of love towarda them.
Certainly that sweet affection of leve to
God cannot conaiat with malice and bitter
neaa of spirit againat our brethren. No, it
sweetens and calms the soul, aud raakes it all
love every way.
As thyself. As truly both wishing, and,
to thy power, procuring his geod, as thy own.
Consider how much unwiUing tiiou art to be
injured or defamed, and have the same
thoughts for thy brother ; be as tender for
him. But how few of us aapire to this de
gree of charity !
Thy very eneraies are not here excluded.
If self-love be atill predominant in thee, in
stead of the love of God, then thou wilt make
thine own interest the rule of thy leve ; so
when theu art, or conceivest thou art wrong
ed by any, the reason of thy love ceaseth ;
but if thou leve fer Ged, that reaaon abides
still :• " God hath coraraanded me to love
my eriemies, and he gives me his example ;
he does good to the wicked that offend him."
And this is indeed a trial of our love to
God : one hath marred thee ; that gives
thee to think that thou hast no cauae to love
hira for thyself : be it so ; self-love forbids
thee, but tiie love of God coraraands thee to
love him. God says, " If thou levest me,
love him for my sake." And if thy leve to
God be sincere, thou wilt be glad of the oc
casion to give so good a teatimony of it, and
find a pleaaure in that which others account
so difficult and painfuL
* Amicus diligendus in Deo, et inimlcus propter
Deum, AuousTiNB.

DISCOURSE

Hebrews viii. 10.

fnr this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
ihe Lord ; I w'lll put my laws into their mind, and write them 'm the'ir hearts ; and I
will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a peojple.

X. HE two great evils that perple.x sensible
mintls, are tbe guiltiness ef sin and tbe power
of it ; therefore this new covenant hath in it
two proraises opposite to these two evils, free
parden te remove the guilt of ain, and the
subduing of its pewer by the law of God
written in the heart. Of this latter only for
the present. Having apoke soraewhat of tbe
sense ef the law in ten comraandraents, and
of the sura ef it in two, thia reraaina to be
tonsidered as altogether neceaaary for obe
dience, and without which all hearing and
apeaking, and aU the knowledge ef it, wiU
be fruitleas ; theugh it be raade very clear
and legible without, we shall only read it,
and not at all keep it, unless it be likewiae
written within.'
Observe, 1. The agreeraent of the law
with the gospel : the gospel bears tbe cora
plete fulfilUng of the law, and satiafying its
highest exactness in our surety Jeaua Chriat,
50 tbat way nothing ia abated ; but, besides
in reference to us ourselves, theugh it take
off the- rigour of it from us, becauae anawered
by another for ua, yet it doth not abolish the
rule of the law, but eatabliaheth it. It ia ao
far from tearing or blotting out the outward
copies ef it, that it writea it anew, where it
was not before, even within ; sets it ujion the
heart in sure and deep characters. We see
this kind of writing of the law is a promise
fer the days of the gespel, cited out ef the
prophet Jeremiah, xxxi. 33.
There is indeed no auch writing of the law
in ua, or keeping of it by ua, aa wiU hold
good for our juatification in the aight of God ;
therefore that other promise runs combined
mith it, the free forgiveness of iniquity. But
again, there is no such forgiveness as sets a
man free to licentiousness and contempt ofl
God's law ; but, on the contrary, binds hira I

more strongly to obedience ; therefore to
that sweet proraise of the pardon of sin,
is inseparably joined tbis other of inward
writing of the law. The heart is not wash
ed frora the guiltiness of sin in the blood of
Christ, that it raay wallow and defile itaelf
again in the sarae puddle, but it ia therefore
washed tbat the tables or leaves of it may be
clean, for receiving the pure charactera of
that law ef God which is te be written en it-
Concerning this writing there are three
thinga you may m^k : 1- what it is; 2-
what its neceaaity : 3- who ia ita writer-
The writing of the law in the heart ia briefly
no otber but the renewing and sanctifying of
the heart by the infuaion of grace, which ia
a heavenly light that givea tbe aoul te know
God aright : and that is added here as tbe
sarae with the writing of the law in the heart,
and an iUustration of it — They shall all
know me, from the least of ihem to the great
est. Arid this light bririgeth beat with it- •
That right kriowledge of God being in the
soul, begets in it love to him ; and love is
tbe same with the fulfilUng ef the whole law":
it takes up the wbole soul—/ will put it in
their mind, and write ii in their hearts. It
we will distinguish these, then it is, they
shall beth know it and love it ; it shaU net
be written anew in their heads, and go no
deeper, but written in thefr hearts ; but wa
may weU take both for the whole soid, for
this kind of knowledge and love are insepar
able ; and where the one is, the other can
not be wanting.
So, then, a supematural, sanctified know
ledge of God, ia the law of God written In
the heart ; when it comea and entertains him
aa holy within it, then it hath not a dead
letter of the law written in it, but vo/iot
* I.ux f«t vehiculum caloris.

HEBREWS VIII. 10.

5ri3

ili^ui^ot, the lawgiver himself; his narae
and wiU is engraven on it throughout, on
every part of it ; all that they knew of God
shall not be by raere report, and by the
voice of others, but they shaU inwardly read
and know him within themselves ; which
(by tbe bye) makes not the pubUc teaching
and work of tbe minisfry superfluous to any,
even to those that know most of God, but
signifies only this, that all they that do iu
deed receive and heUeve the gospel, are in
wardly enlightened by the Spirit of God to
underatand tbe thinga ef God, and have not
their knowledge on bare trust of others that
instract them, without any particular persua
sion and Ught within ; but ;vhat they hear of
spfritual things, they shall understand and
know after a spiritual manner : and the uni
versality of the proraise signifies, that this
kind ef knowledge sbould be more frequently
and mere largely bestowed in the days ofthe
gospel, than it was before.
2. The necessity of writing the law on the
heart. Although there be in the natural cen
science of man some dim characters ef the
law, convincing hira of grosser wickedness.
and leaving bim inexcusable, of which the
apostle speaks, Rora. ii- 15 ; yet he is so far
naturaUy frora the right knowledge of God,
and the love of his whole law, that, instead
of tbat knowledge, bis mind ia fuU of dark
neaa, Eph. iv. 18 ; and, contrary to that love,
his heart is poaaeaaed with a natural enmity
and antipathy against the law of God, Rom.
viii. 7- There is a law within him directly
oppoaite, which the apoatle caUs the law of
sin, Roni. vii. 23 ; sin ruling and command
ing the heart and whole raan, making laws
at his pleasure,* arid obtaining fuU obedience.
Therefore of necessity, before a raan can be
broughtteobey theholy law ofGod, the inward
frame ofhis heart rauat be changed, the cor
rupt law of sin must be abrogated. Rem. vi-,
and the seul renounce obedience to it, and
give itself up whoUy, usT-uyrov, te receive the
stamp and impression of the law of God ;
and then having it written within upon his
heart, his actions wiU bear the reserablance,
arid he conformable to it.
In this promise tbat God makes te his
peeple, he hath regard to the nature of tbat
obedience which he requires : because he wiU
have it sincere and cordial, therefore he puts
a Uving principle of it within, writes liis law
in the heart, and then it is in the words and
actions derived ftom thence, and is more in
the heart than in thera : the first copy is in
the heart, and all the other powers and parts
of a raan follow that, and so by that means,
as it is sincere, so it is universal. The heart
is that which commands all the rest ; and as
the vital spirits flow from it to the whole
body, thus the law of Ged, being written in
it, is diffused through the whole man. It
• Tolerabis iniquas interius leges- Claud.

raight be in the memory or in tiie tongue,
and net in the reat ; but put it in tho heart,
and then it ia undoubtedly in all.
Being written in the heart, raakea the obe
dience likewise universal in the object, (as
they speak,) to the whole law ef God. When
it is written only without a man, he may read
one part and pass over another, may poasibly
chooae to conform te some part of the law,
and leave the reat ; but when the fuU ijopy
of it is written in hia heart, then it is aL one
law. And as in itaelf it ia inaeparable,
aa St. Jamea teacheth ua, ao it ia Ukewiae in
hia eateera and affectiori, arid endeaveur of
obedierice ; he hath regard unto all the com
mandmenta aa one. Becauae of hia love to
the law of God, he hatea net only aome, but
every falae way, as David speaks. He that
looks on the law without him, will possibly
forbear to break it while othera leok upon
bira ; hia obedience lies rauch iu the behold
er's eye ; but he that hath the law written
within, cannot chooae but regard it as much
in secret as in public. Although bis sin
raight be hid from the knowledge and censure
of men, yet stiU it-were violence done to that
pure law that is within his breast, and there
fore he hates it alike, as if it were pubUc-
This is the constant enemy of all sin, this
law within hira- I have hid thy lavi in my
lieart, aays David, that I might not sin
against thee. It raakes a raan abate nothing
of hia course of obedience and bolineas be
cause unseen, but like the aun, which keeps
on ita motion when it ia clouded ftora our
eyea, aa well as when we aee it.
In a word, thia writing of the law in the
heart makea obedience a natural motion, I
raean by a new nature ; it aprings hot from
outward constraints and respects, but ftom an
inward principle, and therefore not only is it
universal and constant, but cheerful and easy.
The law only written in tables of stone is
hard and grievoua ; but make once tbe heart
the table of it, and tben there is nothing
more pleaaing, Thia law of God raakes aer
vice delightful, even the painfuUest of it,
Psalra xl- 8. The aun that raovea with auch '
wonderful awiftuesa, that to the ignorant it
would seera incredible to hear hew raany
thousands of miles it goes each hour ; yet
because it is naturally fitted for that course,
it comea, aa the Paalmiat apeaka, like a bride
groom forth of his chamber, and rejoices as
a strong man to run a race. If the natural
man be convinced of the goodneaa and equity
of the law of God, yet becarae it ia not writ
ten within, but only commanda without, it is a
violent raotion to hira to obey it, and therefore
he finds it a painful yoke- But bear David, in
whose heart it was, speak of it ; how often
doth he call it his delight and his joy ! *
If any profane persons object to a godlv
bian his exact life, that it is toe precise, as if
!he writ each action before he did it ; he may

604
answer, as Demosthenes to mm tbat objected
he wrote his orations before he spake them,
that he was net at aU ashamed of that, al
though they were not only written, but en
graven before-hand- Certainly the godly
man Uves by this law that is written arid
engraven on his heart, e."d needs not to be
ashamed of it-
It ia true, the renewed man, even he that
hath this law deepest written in his heart,
yet while he lives here, is atiU moleated with
that inbred Antinomiari, that law ef aio that
yet dweUa in his flesh : though the force and
power of it is brokeu, and ita laws repealed in
Ills conversion, and thia new, pure law placed
in its stead ; yet becauae that part ^ich is
flesh in him atiU entertaina and harBours it,
it creates and breeda a Christian daily vexa
tion. Becauae ain hath loat dominion, it ia
still practiaing rebellion againat that spiritual
kingdora and law that ia eatabliahed in the
regenerate raind ; aa a man that hath once
been in possession of rule, theugh usurped,
yet being subdued, he is still werking in that
kingdom to turbulent practices. But though
by this (as the apostle was, Rom. vii. 4,) every
godly raan ia often driven to aad perplexitie aanc
complaints, yet in thia ia hia comfort; that law
ofhis Ged written there hath hia heart and af
fection. Sin ia dethroned and thrast out ofhis
heart, and hath only an usurped abode with
in hira againat his will- He sides with the
law of God, and fights with all his power for
it against the other : that holy law is his
delight, and this law of sin his greatest grief.
3- Iviillwrite. The Lord premises him.
self to do this, and it is indeed his preroga
tive. He wrote it at first on tables of stone,
and this apiritual engraving it on the heart is
much raore his pecuUar. Other raen might
afterwards engrave it on storie> but no raan

A DISCOURSE, Scc.

can at aU write it ori the heart ; ribt upon his
own, rauch less upon anotiier's. Upen his
own he cannot, for it is naturaUy taken up
and possessed with tbat contrary law ef sin
(aa we aaid before,) and ia willingly aubject
to it ; lovea that law, and therefore in that
posture it neither can nor wUl work this
change upon itself, to disposaesa that law which
it loves. No raan can write this law en the
heart of another, for it is inaccessible ; his
hand cannet reach it, he cannot come at it ;
how then should he write any thing pn it ?
Men in the ministry pf the wprd can but
-Stand and caU withput : they cannpt apeak
tp within, far less write any thing within.
Thpugh tbey speak never sp exceUendy and,
spirituaUy, and express ne ether but what is
written en their own hearts^ (and certainly
tbat is the raost powerful way of speaking,
and the UkeUest for making impression on
ihe heart of another,) yet unless the hand of
God's own Spfrit cany it into the hearer's
heart, and set on the stamp of it Ihere, it wiU
perish as a sound in the air, and effect no
thing. Sonus verborum nostrorum aures
percutit, magister intus. Nolite putare
quenquam hominem aliquid discere ab alio
homine ; admonere possumus per sirepitum
vocis nostris, si non est inlus qui doceat,
inanis sirepitus est noster.' Let this ever
be acknowledged to his glery ; the voice of
men may beat the ear, but pnly he that made
the heart can wprk uppn it, and change and
mpuld it as it pleaseth him : this is his pwn
prpmise, and he alpne makes it gpod. He
writes his law pn the hearts pf his children,
and by this work of his grace, prepares them
tor glory : they tbat have this law written in
tbeir hearts, their names are certainly written
in the book of life.
* Au^stine in 1 Jo. Tr- 3.

SHORT CATECHISM.

Question. What is naturally man's chief
deaire ?
Answer. To be happy.
Q. Which is the way to true happiness ?
A. True religipn.
Q. What is trae religipn ?
A. The true and lively knpwledge pf the
pnly true Gpd, and pf him whpm he hath
sent, Jesus Christ.
Q. Whence is this knpwledge to be learn
ed ?
A. AU the works of Ged declare his
being, and his glory ; but clesJrer knowledge
of himself, and his Son Jesus Chriat, is to
be leamed ftom his own word, contained in
tbe Holy Scriptures of the Old and- New Tes-
lament, Q. What do these Scriptures teach us
concerning God ?
A. That he is one infinite, eternal Spirit,
meat wise, and holy, and just, and raerciful,
and the all-powerfid Maker and Ruler of the
world. Q. What do they further teach us cori
ceming him ?
A. That he ia Three iri One, and One in
Three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost. Q. What wiU that lively knowledge of
God effectuaUy work in us ?
A. It wiU cause ua to believe in him, and
to love him abeve all thinga, even above our
aelvea ; to adore and worship him, to pray to
him, and to praise bim and exalt him with
all our might, and to yield up ouraelves to
the obedience ofhis commandments, as hav
ing both made us, and made himaelf known
to ua fer that very end.
Rehearae then the articles ef our belief.
I believe in God the Father, &c-
Rehearae the ten comraandm.ent8 ef the
law, which are the rule of our obedience, and
ao the trial of our love.
A. Ged spake these words, I am the Lerd
thy God, &c.
Q. Wbat is the summary our Saviour
hath given us of this law ?
A. Thou shalt love the Lerd thy God
with aU thy heart, and with aU thy soul, and
with aU thy. mind, and thy neighbour as thy
self.

Q. What is the effectual raeans of obtain
ing increase of faith and pewer to obey, and
generally all graces and blessings at the hand
of Ged ?
A. Prayer.
Rehearse that raost excellent and perfect
prayer that our Saviour hath taught us.
A. Our Father which art in heaven, &c.
Q. In what estate was raan created ?
A. After the iraage ofGod, in holiness and
righteousness. Q. Did he continue iri that estate ?
A. Ne, but by breakiug the command
ment which his Maker gave him, eating ef
the fruit of that tree which was forbidden
him, be made himself and his whole poste
rity subject to sin and death.
Q. Hath God left man in this misery,
without aU means and hopes ef recovery ?
A, Ne. For " he so loved the world,, that
he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoso
ever believeth on him should net perish, but
have everlasting life."
Q. What then is the great doctrine ef the
gospel ?
A. That same coraing of the Son of God
in the flesh, and giving himself to tbe deatli
of the cross te take away the sin ef tbe world,
and his rising again from the dead, and aa
cending into glory.
Q. What doth that gespel mainly teach
and really persuade all the followers of it to
do? A. It teacheth tiiem tp deny " ungodli
ness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly,
righteously, and gedly in this present world."
Q. How hath our Lord Jesus himself ex
pressed the great and neceaaary duty of all
his disciples ?
A. That they deny themselves, and take
up their crosa and follow him.
Q. Rehearse then some of the chief points
wherein we are to follow our Lord Jesus
Chriat. A. I. To sunender ourselves wholly to
our heavenly Father, and his good pleasure
in aU things, even in the sharpest afiiictions
and sufferings ; arid net at aU te de our own
will, or design our own praise or advantage,
but in all things to do his will, and intend
his glory.

606

A SHORT CATECHISM.

2. To be spotless, and chaste, and holy,
in eur whole conversation.
3- To be meek and lowly, not to slander
or reproach, to raock or despise any ; and if
my do so to us, to bear it patiently, yea to
rejoice in it-
4. Unfeignedly to love our Christian bre
thren, and to be charitably and kindly affect
ed toward all raen, even to our enemies, for
giving them, yea and praying for thera, and
returning thera good for evil ; to comfort the
afflicted, and reUeve the poor, and to do good
to all aa we are able.
Q. Is it necessary that all Chriatiaus Uve
rtccerding to theae rulea ?
A. So abaolutely neceaaary, that they that
do not in aome good raeaaure, whataoever
tbey profeas, do not reaUy beUeve in Jesua
Chriat, nor have any portion in bim.
Q. What viaible seala hath our Saviour
annexed to that goapel, te confirm our faith,
and to convey tbe grace of it to us ?
A. The two aacramenta of tbe New Testa
ment, baptism and tbe Lord's supper.
Q. What doth baptism signify and seal ?
A. Our waahing frem sin, and our new
birth in Jesua Chriat.
Q. Wbat doth the Lord's supper signify
and seal ?
A. Our spiritual neurishmerit and growth
in bim, and transforming us more and more
into his likeneaa, by commemorating his
death, and feeding on hia body and blppd,
under the figurea ef bread and wine.
Q. What ia required to make fit and wor
thy coraraunicanta of the Lord'a aupper ?
A. Faith in our Lord Jeaua Chriat, and

repentance towards Gpd, and charity towards
all men.
Q. What ia faith in our Lord Jeaua ?
A. It ia the grace by which we both be
lieve his wbole doctrine, and trust in him as
the Redeemer and Saviour of the world, and
entirely deliver up ourselves to him, to be
taught and ruled by him, as our Prophet,
Prieat, and King.
Q. What ia repentance ?
A. It is a godly sonow for sin, and a
hearty and real turning frora all bin unto God.
Q. What is the final portion of unbeUev
ing and unrepentant sinners ?
A. The everlasting tbrraent ef devils.
Q. What is the final portion of tbem that
truly repent and believe, and obey the gospel ?
A. The blessed life of angels, in the vision
of Ged for ever.
A Question for young Persons before their
first Admission to the Lord's Supper.
Q. Whereaa you were in your infancy bap
tized into the name of Jeaua Christ, do you
now, upon distinct knowledge, and witb finn
belief and pioua affection, own that Chriatian
faith of whicb you have given an account,
and withal your baptiaraal vow of renouncing
tbe service of Satan, and tl)e world, and the
luata of the flesh, and of devoting youraelf to
Ged in all hoUnesa of life ?
A. I do aincerely and heartily declare my
belief of that faith, and own my engagement
te that holy vew, and reaolve, by the asaia
tance of God'a grace, to continue in the cam-
ful obaervance of it aU my days.

TEN SERMONS,
FROM THE AUTHOR'S MANUSCRIPTS.

SERMON L
RoMAjfs xiii. 11 — 14.
And that, knowing the time, ihat now it is
high time to awake out of sleep ; for now
is our salvation nearer than when we be
lieved. The night is far spent, ihe-diiy is at
hand; let us therefore cast off ihe works of
darkness, and let us put on the armour
of Ught. Lei us walk honestly as in the
day ; not in, rioting asid drunkenness,
net in chambering and wantonness, nol
in strife and envying. But put ye on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not
provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts
thereof.
1 HE higheat beauty ef the soul, the very
Image of God upon it, ia holineaa : he that
is aspiring to it himaelf, is upon a most ex
cellent design ; and if he can do any thing
to excite, and call up othera to it, performa a
work ofthe greateat charity.
Thia, Paul doth frequently and pressingly
in his writings. This epiatle, aa it doth
admirably clear the doctrine of justiflcation,
it doth no less eamestly urge tfie doctrine of
aanctification. That one sentence about the
middle thereof dees excellently unite them,
and so is tbe suraraary of aU that gees before,
and all that foUowa — There is therefore now
ao condemnation, Scc. chap. viii. 1.
The present werds are aa an alarra, or
morning-watch beU, of aingular uae, net only
awaking a Christian to his day's work, but
withal reminding hira what it is ; and these
two shall be aU our division of thera.
I. Our awaking sounded. 2. Our walk-
ing-dfrected. The former, vers. 11, 12, teUs
us it is tirae to riae, and caUs us up to put
on pur clpthes, and, being soldiers, eur arras;
The latter, ver. 13, directeth our behaviour
and employraent throughout the day. The
last verse doth shortly, and that fully and
clearly, fold up beth together. We shaU
take the words just as they lie.
And that knowing the time. This im

ports much in aU actions, and here it is
the apostle's great argument. Now it is
unfit to sleep, knowing the time ; however
it raight have been before, now it is very un
seasonable and unsuitable, that you lie snor.
ing as at raidnight. De you .know what
o'clock it is ? It is tirao terise ; it ia moif:
ing, tbe day begina to appear.
Observation. AU the days of ainful nature
are dark night, in which there ia no right
diacerning of apiritual thinga : some light
there is of reason, to direct natural and civil
actions, but no day-light. Till the sun
rise, it is night atiU, for all the stars, and the
moon to help thera. Notwithatanding na
tural apeculationa, that are raore reraote, and
all prudence and policy for affaira, tbat come
somewhat nearer to action, yet we are still in
the night, and you do think that a sad life :
but, the truth ia, we aleep on in it, and oui
heada are stiU full ef new dreama that keep
ua aleeping. We are constantiy drunk with
cares er deairea ef aenae, and ao our aleep
continuea. Sometiraea it ia caUed death,
dead in sins, Scc. Now, aleep is brother
to death ; and so by it not unfitly is the
sarae state reserabled. No spiritual life
we have at all, and therefore in that sense
are truly dead. But because there ia in ua
a natural life, and in that a capacity ef apiri
tual life, therefore we are said to be asleep.
As in a dead aleep, eur soul is bound up
and drowned in flesh ; a surcharge of the va
pours ef groaa aenaible thinga that we glut
ouraelves withal, and the condition of our
wisest thoughts, in relation te our higheat
good, are nothing but drearas and reveries.
Your projecting, and bargainings, and build
ings, these be a better sort of dreama ; but
your envyings, and mutual despisings and
discontents, yoiir detracting and evil-speak
ing, theae are more irapertirient, and to your
selves more perplexing : and your sweetest
enjoyments in this Ufe, that you think moat
real, are but ahadows ef delight, a more plea
sant aort ef drearas. AU poraps and royal
soleranities, the scripture calls tpxvrxnae, Acts
xxv- 28- A man will not readily think ao.

508

SERMON L

while he is in them- Somnium narrare vigi-
lantis est. We do not perceive the . vanity
of our drearas, and know that they are so,
and declare them to be so, till we be awaked.
Sometiraes in a dreara a raan wiU have such
a thought that it is but a dreara, yet doth he
not thoroughly see the felly thereof, but gees
on in it. Tbe natural raan raay have aome-
times a glance ef auch thoughts, that all these
thinga he ia either turraoiling or delighting
in are vanity, and nothing to the purpoae ;
yet he awakea not, but raves on stiU in them ;
lie shifts a little, tums on his bed as a door
on ita hingea, but tums not off, doea not
riae. But the apiritual-minded Chriatian, that
ia indeed awake, and looks back on his for
raer thoughts and ways, O how does he dis
dain hiraself, and aU bis forraer high fanciea
that he was most pleased witb, flnding them
dreams ! O wbat a fool, what a wretch was
I, while ray head was fuU ef such stuff,
building castles in the air, imagining and
catching at such gains, and such preferments,
and pleasurea, and either they atill running
before rae, and I could not overt.ake thera ; er
if I thought I did, what have I now, when I
aee what it ia, and flnd that I have erabraced
a shadow, falae hopea and fears and joya ?
He thinks he hath eaten, and his soul is
empty, laa. xxix. 8. And you that wiU
aleep on, raay;. but ^ aure I ara, when you
corae to your death-bed, if pessi'oly you awake
then, then shall you look back, with aad
rea:ret, upon whatsoever you most esteemed
and gloried in under the sun. While they
are coming towarda yeu, they have aome
show ; but, aa a dreara that is past, when
these gay things are flown by, then we see
hew vain they are : as that luxurious king
caused to be painted on hia tomb two fingera,
aa sounding one upon another with theae
words. All is not worth so much, Non tanti
est. I know not how men raalce a ahift to
satiafy theraaelves ; but take a sober aud
awakened Christian, and aet him in the midat
of the beat of all thinga that are here, hia
heart would burat with deapair ef aatiafaction,
were it not for a hope tbat he hath, beyond
all that thia poor world either attaina, er hia
seeking after ; and that hope is, indeed, the
dawning of the day that is here speken ef.
// is time to awake, saya he : salvation
is nearer than when ye believed. That
bright day you look for is hastening forward ;
it is nearer than when you began to believe ;
the night is far spent, tbe gross darkness is
already past, some day-light it is, and ia
every moment grewing, and the perfect, full
moming-Ught of it ia very iiear-
Obs. Grace, and the, goapel that works it,
compared with the dark night of nature, ia
he day, and it ia eften ao caUed : the apoatle
here calla it ao — Let us walk honestly as in
ihe day. But yet that aame Ught of the

gospel shining fo us in the word, and within
us by the Spirit, is but tbe appearance or
approaching of the day, a certain pledge ef
it, yea, a kipd of beginning of it, teUing ua
that it is hard at hand. It is ene and tbe
same light, and where it enters into any soul,
it makes sure that eternal fuU day to it,
which it shaU net be disappointed of, more
than the day can go back, and the sun fail
to rise when the dawning is begun : and thia
begun, light is stiU growing clearer, and
tending to the perfect day, Prov. iv. 18.
And at the first peep or appearance of it, so
rauch it ia, that the aoul ia caUed to awake
and ariae, and put on day-clothes, and apply
itaelf to the actiona of the day ; and that ia
the thing the apostle here presses by it-
O the blessed goapel, revealing God in
Chriat, and caUing up sinners te communion
with hira ; dispelUng that black night of ig
norance and accursed darkneaa that other
wise had never ended, but pasaed on to an
endless night of etemal misery ! Says not
Zacharias with good reason in his aong,
Luke i. 78, that it waa through the tender
mercy of God that this day-spring from on
high did visit us?
Now, aaya the apoatie, this day appearing,
ii is time to awalce ; and the longer aince it
began to appear, and the clearer the lighj
growa, the more high time ia it te awake and
rise, and cast off night-clothes and night-
werka, werks of darkness, and to put pn
garraents, yea, arraour ef light. He that is
a soldier, hia garraenta are not on tiU his
arras be on, and his sword about him, then
he is ready ; especially in a tirae and posture
ef war, and the eneray lying nigh, even round
about him ; and tbis is every Christian's
atate while ne is nere. An arraour of light,
net only atrong and uaeful, but comely and-
graceful, fit to walk abroad in ; bright, ahin
ing armour ; aa your old poeta deacribe their
charapiona, dazzling their eneraiea' eyea.
And thua apparelled, to behave ouraelvea
auitably, to walk honestly as in the day,
not in rioting and drunkenness : that ia a
night-work, aa tbe apoatle hath it, 1 Theas.
V. 7- To stagger and reel in the streets in
day-Ught, to be drunk in the morning, ia
most aharaeful : so is that spirit of drunken
ness as unbeaeeraing a Chriatian ; to see
thera hunying and justling one anether, as
drunk with love of earthly things, and their
spirits by that besotted, and unfitted for spi
ritual things, that they find ne pleasure in
them- Chambering and wantonness. All irapure,
lascivious conversation, how vile are these,
and unfit for the Ught I Even nature is
asharaed to be seen in these things, in the
natural Ught of the day ; rauch raere will
grace in the spiritual light of the gospel.
Strife and envy. As shuffles and hot
quanels are most of aU unseemly iu the

SERMON I.

fiOf)

Efreets in day-Ught, ao the quarrela and jar-
rings of Christians are very shameful before
the light wherein they walk. The gospel
of Christ, the grand doctrine thereof, is meek -
ness and love. But, O where are they, these
graces that so abound in the doctrine of
Christianity, and yet are so scarce in the lives
of Christians ? Where are they that look
gladly on the good of others, and bear evils
and injuries frora their neighbours patiently,
and repay evU with good ? Thua it pught te
be ; but, on the contrary, how ready are the
most to part on the least occaaiona, to bite
aud anarl at each other ! More atiU of the
spirit of the dragon tiian of the dove. My
brethren, reraeraber and consider that the
gospel ' light shines araongst us, and that
more clearly than in forraer times, and more
clearly than to meat people in the worldin theae
times, aiyl do not outface and affront the blea
aed Ught with the accuraed works ef darkness ;
you might have been prpfane in fprraer tiuies,
pr in seme ether place, at a cheaper rate.
Knew, that if this glorious light do not
break off your ceurse of sin, it wiU increase
your load ef judgraent : the heavieat ef aU
cenderanationa, ia to live in darkneas, and to
live and die in it, in the raidat of light.
Araongat aU your desperate, accursed wishes,
this shall be one, and a chief ene, that either
the Son of God had never ceme into the
werld, or that you had never heard of bira.
Much of tbat we aira at were gained, if
Christiana could be brought to conaider who
they are, and walk like themselves : it would
raise them above the base pleasures of sin,
and snares ef the werld. The way of life
h on high to the just .- there is a holy lofti
ness, a disdain of aU impure, sordid ways.
It is said of Jehoshaphat, that his~ heart
was lift up in the ways of the Lord, 2
Chron. xvii. 5. As a vain, self-conceited
Ufting up of the heart is the great eneray of
our welfare, as it is written ef another, even
of a geod king,, (Hezekiah,) that his heart
was lift up, therefore was wrath upon him ;
so there is a bappy exaltation ef the heart,
where it is raised in Ged, to despise all cora
munion with the unholy, and the unholy
v/ays of the werld. Thia, ray brethren, ia
what I weuld were wrought in yeu by the
consideration of our holy calling. We are
caUed to holiness, and net tp uncleanneaa.
Ye are ihe children of the light and of ihe
day : base night ways, such as cannpt endure
the light, do not become you. O that come
Uness that the saints sheuld study, that de
corum they should keep in all their ways,
luo'x^/.ioveos, one action like another, and all
Uke Christ, living as in the light. They
tbat converse with the best company, such
persons are obUged to more decency in ap
parel. We live in the Ught, in the com
pany of angels, of Ged, and Jesus Chriat ;
and therefore should not act any thing that

ia low er mean, unbeseeming the rank we
keep, and the presence ef those we frequent.
When the king pasaea through the country
in progress, they that aee him aeldom, being
either to attend him in hia way, er te receive
him into their houses, will labour to have all
things in the best order they can fer the
time ; but they that live at court, and ar'S
daily in the king's presence, are conatantly
court-like in their habit and carriage, and ail
abeut them. O Followers of the Lamb,
let your garraenta be alwaya white, yea, let
him be your garraent ; clothe yourselves with
hiraaelf; have your robea raade of hia spot
less fleece.
Ver. 11. Put on the Lord Jesus. No
reserablance ia more uaual .than that of peo
ple's cuatoma to their clothes, their habitudes
to their habits. This the apostle used in the
foregoing words, Put on the (fumiture, or)
armour oflight, having cast off the works'as
clothes of darkneaa, night-clothes ; and tbe
word, walking decently, has aomething of
the sarae reaerablance contained in it ; and
here we have the proper beauty and omaraent
ef Christians, even the Lord Jesus, recom
raended to thera under the same notion. Put
on, Scc. Him we put on by faith, and are
clothed with hira as eur righteousness. We
corae unte our Father, in our elder brother's
perfuraed garraenta, and se obtain the blesa
ing of which he in a manner waa atripped fer
our sakea, did undergo the curae, and waa
made a curae for eur aakea ; se the apoatle
apeaka of hira ; we put him on, aa the Lord
our righteousness, and are raade the righte
ousness of God in him. Thia investiture
is flrst, when eur persona are raade accepta
ble, and we corae into court. But there ia
another putting of him on, in the conforraity
of holiness, which always accorapanies the
forraer, and that ia it which is here meant.
And thia I declare unto you, that whoaoever
doea net thua pui him on, ahall find thera
aelvea deceived in the other, if they iraagine
it belongs te them.
They that are the sons of Ged, and have
the hope ef inheriting with hira, de reaUy
oecorae like hira, even heirs in sorae degree ;
(1 John iii. 3 ;) and that bleaaed expecta
tion we have, ia to be fully Uke him. When
he appears, we shall be like him, saith the
apostle ; and in the mean while are endea
vouring to be ap, and aomewhat attaining it,
aa he adda. Every one ihat hath this hope
purifieth himself, as he is pure. He ia the
only-begotten Son ; and we are ae restored
in him to the dignity ef aona, that withal we
are really changed into his likeneaa. He
is the Image of the Father that is reriewed
upon us.
It is the substance of reUgion to be like
hira whom we worship.* Blan's end and per
fection is likeness io God. But, ehj the
* Summa religionis imitari quem colis.

fclO

SERMON L

distance, the unlikeness, yea, the contrariety,
that is faUen upon our nature ! The carnal
mind is enmity to God ; the ajul, aa it were,
became fleah, and ao meat unauitable to the
Father of apirita ; it ia becorae Uke the beast
that periahes- Now, to repafr. and raiae ua,
this was the course taken : we could not rise
up to God ; he came down to us, yea, unto
us, to raise and draw us up again te hira.
He becarae Uke us, that we raight become Uke
hira- God first put on man, that man might
put on God- Putting on tbe Lord Jeaua,
we put on raan ; but that raan ia God ; and
ao, in putting on raan, we put on God- Thus,
putting on Christ, we put on aU grace : this,
not only by studying hira as our copy and
example, but by real participation of bis spirit;
and that ao as tbat daily the Ukeneaa ia grow
ing, while we are canied by that apirit to
atudy hia exaraple, and enabled in aorae
meaaure to conform to it ; ao that these two
go together, growing in grace, and in the
knowledge of our Lerd and Saviour Jeaua
Chriat- He ia the armour of light before
spoken ef ; all eur omaraent and aafety ia in
him- Sorae picturea ef great peraens you
have aeen, with arras and robea on at once,
yea, both in one, for he is both. So tbis
ia the great atudy of a. Christian, to eye
and read Christ much, and by looking on
him, to become more and raore like him,
making the impression deeper by each day's
meditation and beholding of hira ; his Spirit
in us, and that love his Spiritworks, making
the work easy, as sympathiea de ; and atiU
the mpre the change ia wrpught, it becpmea
atill the raore eaay to work it ; thia ia excel
lently described by this apostle, 2 Cer. iii- 18-
Now we see our buaineaa : O that we had
hearta to do it 1 It is high, it ia aweet, to be
growing raore and raore Chriat-like every
day- What is the purchase or conquest of
kingdoraa to thia ? O ! what are we doing,
that mind not thia more, even they whose
proper work it is ? How reraiaa are they in
it, and what sraall progreaa do they raake !
Are we leaa for the world and ouraelvea, and
more for God thia year than tbe forraer ; raore
meek and geritle, able to bear wroriga, and do
good for thera ; more holy and apiritual in
our thougbta and waya, more abundapt and
fervent in prayer ? I know there will be tiraes
of deadneas and winter aeaaons, even in the
souls of living Chriatiana ; but it ia not al
ways ao ; it wUl come about yet ; ao that,
take the whole course of a Christian together,
he ia advancing, putting on still more of
Christ, and living in him. There is a closer
union betwixt the soul and this ita apiritual
clothing, than betwixt the body and ita gar.
raents ; which iraports a tranaforraation into
Chriat, put on aa a new life, or new aelf-
'f he Chriatian by faith doth tbia ; he puts
off himaelf, old carnal aelf, and instead there-
of |)uts on Jesua Christ ; and thenceforward

hath no more regard of that eld self, than of
eld cast clothes, but is aU for Christ ; joya
in nothing else. This is a mystery tbat
cannot be understood but by partaking of it.
My brethren, learn te have these, thoughts
frequent and occunent with yeu on aU occa.
siojs. Think, when about any thing, how
wpuld Christ hebave himself in this : even
so let me endeavour.
You wiU possibly say, They tbat apeak
thus, and advise us,' do not do thus. O !
that tbat were not too true ; yet there be
some that are real in It, and although it be
but Uttle tbat is attained, yet the very aim
is exceUent, and somewhat there is that is
done by it. It is better to have such thoughts
and desires than altogether to give tbem up ;
and tbe very desire, being serious and sin
cere, does so rauch change the habitude and
usage of tbe soul and life, that it is not to be
despised. Now feUows, And make no provision for
the flesh. See, and it will foUew necessarily.
We hear rauch to little purpose. O ! to have
the heart touched by the Spirit with such a
word as is here : it would untie it from all
these things. These are the worda, the very
reading of which wrought so with Augustine,
that, of a licentioua young raan, he turned a
holy, faithful servant ef Jesus Christ. While
yeu were witheut Chriat, you had no bigheJ
ner other busineaa to do, but to attend and
aerve the fieah ; but once having put bim oi.
yeu are other men, and other raanners de
become you : Alia mias alios mores postulat
Tbia forbids not eating and drinking and
clothing, and providing fer these, nor decency
and coraelineaa in them. The putting on of
Christ doea not bar the aober use of thera ;
yea, the raoderate providing for the neceaaitiea
ef the fleah, while then art tied to dwell in
it, that raay be done in such a way aa aha'i
be a part of thy obedience and .service to God ;
but te lay in provision for ihe lusts of it,
ia to victual and furniah hia eneray and thine
own ; for the lusts of the flesh do atrive againat
God'a Spirit, and war againat thy aoul. Gal.
V. 17; I Peter ii. 11.
This waa the quarrel betwixt God and his
own people in the wilderneaa : bread for
their neceasities he gave thera, but tbey re.
quired bread for tbeir lusts, (which ahould
rather have been atarved to death than fed,)
and many of them fell in tbe quarrel. He
gave them their deaire, but gave thera a
plague with it, and they died with the meat
between their teeth. Many that seera to
follow God, and te bave put on Chriat, yet
continuing in league with their luata, and
providing for thera, they are permitted a
while 80 to do, and are net withheld from their
deaire, and seem to proaper in tbe buaineas ;
but theugh not so sudden and aenaible ai
that of the laraelitea, there ia no less certain
a curse join'jd with all they purchase and

SERMON II.

fill

provide fpr that unhallpv.-ed uae. It ia cer
tainly the poature and employment of most
of na, even that are called Christiana, to be
purveyors for tbe fleah, evcri for the lusts of
il :* tbeae lusts compreheuding all sensual,
and all wprldly, flesh-pleasing prejects ; even
some things that seera a littie more deccrit
and reflned, corae under this account. What
are men comraonly doing, but projecting and
labouring beyond necesaity, for fuller and
finer proviaion for back and belly, and to
feed their pride, and raise themselves and
theira aomewhat above the condition of others
about tbem ? And where raen's interests raeet
in the teelh, and crosa each other, there ariae
beart-buminga and debatea, and an evil eye
.one againat another, even on a fancied pre
judice, where there is nothing but crossing
an humour : se the grand idol is tbeir ewn
wiU, that must be provided for, and served
in all thingSj which takes them up early and
late, how they may be at eaae, and pleased
and esteeraed and honoured. Thia ia the
provision for the flesh and its lusls ; and
frora thia are all they caUed that have put on
Christ, not to a hard, raean, unpleaaant Ufe,
inatead of that ether ; but to a far more
high and raore truly pleaaant Ufe, that dia.
gracea all thoae their former purauita that
they thought ao gay, while they knew no
better. "There ia a transcendent sweetness
in Christ that puta the flesh out of credit,
Put on Christ, thy robe royal, and make
no provision, See., and sure tbou wilt not
then go and turmoil in the kitchen. A soul
clothed with Christ, stooping to any sinful
delight, or an ardent pursuit of any thing
earthly, theugh lawful, doth wonderfuUy in.
dignify itaelf : methinka it ia a king'a sen
in his princely apparel, playing the scuUion,
aitting down to tum the apita- A soul livinj^
in Christ indeed hath ne vacancy for the
superflupus, luxuripua demands ef fleah, yea,
suppUes the very necessities ef it with a Idnd
of regret. A necessitatibue meis libera me,
Domine, said one.
Oh ! raise up your spfrits, yeu that pre-
tend to any thing in Chriat ; delight in hira,
and let hia love aatisfy you at aU times. What
need yeu go a begging elsewhere ? AU you
would add makes you the poorer, abates ao
much of your enjoyment of him ; and what
can compenaate that ? Put on ihe Lard
Jesus, and then view youraelvea, and see if
you be fi.t te be slavea te flesh and earth.
These two. Put on ihe Lord Jesus, and
make no provision, aie directly the repreaen
tation of the church. Rev. xii. A woraan
clothed with the sun, and the moon uuder
her feet, needed bonow no beauty frem it,
or any thing under it. She left the scarlet,
and the purple and gold, to the harlot after
spoken of, for her dressing.
The service of the flesh is a work the
• Ad supervacuum sudare.

Christian cannot fold to, till he forgot what
clothes he has on. This is all, my brethren.
O ! that we could be persuaded once to put
on Christ, and then resolve and remember
to do npthing unbeseeming that attire

SERMON IL
Psalm cvii. 43.
Whoso is wise, and will observe these thingi,
even they shall understand ihe loving-
kindness of the Lord.
Most raen Uve a brutal, sensitive life ;
live npt SP rauch as the life pf reaspn ; but
far fewer the divine life pf faith, which is
further abPve coraraon huraan reason than
that is above sense- The spiritual light of
grace is that whicb raakes day in the soul ;
aU other wisdom is but night-light : " Then
I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as
Ught exceUeth darkneaa," Eccl- ii- 13- This
higher sort ef knowledge is that the prophet
speaks of-
Having diacouraed exceUently through the
Psalm, of the wisdora, power, and goodness
ef God, so legible in his providence towarda
men, and often called up the duU rainds uf
raen te consider these his works, and blesa
hira fer them, he deaes with thia applaud-
raent of their happineaa that traly do ao.
Whoso is wise, Scc.
They that apake it, knew not hpw true
their apeech is, that have called the werld a
nest of fools. It ia true, there ia very Uttle
even ef natural clearness of judgment araongst
men, but sure far lesa of thia true spiritual
wisdom ; so that, if we read this as a ques •
tion. Whoso is wise ? Oh ! how few !
And yet most iraagine tbey are ; few are con
vinced they are fbols, and that ia tbe height
ef their folly. That word ia raoat true. Job
xi. 12, Vain man would be wise, though
he be born as the wild ass's colt. In youth
he runs wild, unbroken and unuseful, and in
fuller age hath bnt a brutish, slavish Ufe,
yokes in with his beasts, in the same kind
of labour, or in Uttie better ; turmoiUng and
dradging to serve his base lusts, his gain,
his pleasure, and forgets quite wbat high
condition the soul that sparkles within hira
is bom to, and made capable of ; in a wprd,
knpws npt Gpd. That is both his folly and
misery. How much of life passes, ere we
consider what we live fer ; and though aU
applied, how incapable are a great many to
know any thing !* To this purpose there
is a notable word. Job xi. 8, 9.
Now, to stir up your desires and endea-
* Inter homines quid homine rarlus I

-M2

SERMON IL

vours after this wiadora, consider, diat it ia calla thera, to -inbetool them, to recover them,
' and teach them tbe way of life.
2dty, Being convinced and aensible ofthe
want of it, te uae tbe right way te attain it,
to give aU diligent attendance on the word
and ordinances of God, to desiic it of him.
Desire is aU : if yeu desire much, you shall

the true elevation of huraan nature, to be
wise ; and tbey that are not sucb, or knew
somewhat of their own defect, yet weuld
wiUingly pass for such, and had rather be
accounted uncomely, yea, even dishonest,
than unwise ; (caU a man any thing rather

than a fool ;) but yet, if they could, jvould , have much. Vent thy desire this way heaven-

rather have the thing than the reputation of
it, and desire really to be wiae, if it were in
their power.
Now, it were good to work on thia design
within us, and to have it drawn into the
right channel. Would you be wiae ? then
seek true wisdom. The moat that men seek
and adraire in theraaelvea and othera, are but
false ahadowa and appearances ef wiadora :
knowledge either of base, low things, as to
scrape and gather together, or else of vain,
unprofitable thinga, and that knowledge
that ia for the moat part but imaginary :
for raoat thinga in state-affaira take ano
ther biaa and course — are net so rauch
raodeUed by wit, as raoat raen iraagine ; and
for the aecreta of nature, we have little certain
knowledge of them. How abort is eur life
to attain any knowledge ! (That is an excel
lent word, Job viii- 9-) But the knowledge
here aet before ua, ia the best kind of knpw
ledge, pf tbe higheat things, divine things :
i say, tbe best kind ef knowledge of thera ;
for there are notions, even of these thinga,
that bave Uttle in them ; either curioua, fruit
lesa diaputatiens of auch pointa as are moat
removed both from our notice and our uae,
or an uaeless knowledge of useful things.
But this is a well-regulated and sure-footed
knowledge of divine thinga, aa God bimself
hath revealed them.
1 This wisdom deacenda frora above ; there
fore, for the attainraent of it, two thinga are
nccesaary: 1st, Toknow thatweknowit, aen
sibly and feelingly tp knpw thia, thatwe knew
nothing of the thinga of God. Mulii ad sa
pientiam pervenireni, nisi sejamjam perve
nisse arbitrarentur : Many men would have
attained to wisdom, if they had not fancied
or imagined ihat ihey had already attained
lo ii. I apeak not now of the loweat sort,
the groaaly, the brutiahly ignorant even of
the letter of divine truths, but such as can
give theraaelvea or othera, if put to it, a good
account ofthe principlea of faith and holiness,
bave read and beard much, and possibly
learned and retained not a little that way,
yet still are but ignorants, atrangera to thia
Iieavenly wiadom- Therefore men muat flrat
know this, that they may go new to achool
again, and become aa little children, 1 Cor-
iii. 19. Wiadom invitea no other, Prov. ix.
4- The strange woman, and ao all the en-
ticeraenta to ain, they invite the aarae per
sona, (ver- 16,) but to a directly oppoaite end;
she caUs the foola to befool them, to drown

wards, whence tbia wiadora descenda. This
light springs from en high : man cannot
raise hiraaelf to it without another : // any
man lack wisdom, il he ia hat once aensible
of that, why then the sweetest, eaaieat way
to attain it that can be deafred, ia pointed
out ; lei him ask it of God, who gives liber.
ally, and upbraideth not; does neither harsh
ly refuse, nor upbraidingly give it, deUghts
te give it to thera that aak it, even hia own
Holy Spirit, tbe apring of thia wiadom, aa he
hath promiaed.
We are aU toe little in thia humble aeeking
and beggriig of thia divine knowledge, and
that ia the cauae we are ao shallow and smaU
proficients- If thou cry and Uft up thy voice
for underatanding, (Prov- u. 3, &c-,) aearch
for it as for hid treaaurea ; ait down upon thy
kneea and dig for it : that ia the best pos.
ture, to faU aright upen the golden veiu, and
go deepest to know the mind of God, in
searching tbe Scriptures, to be directed and
regulated in his waya, to be raade skilful in
ways ef honouring hira, and doing hira aer.
vice ; tbia, raen nor angela cannet teach him,
but God alone.
Of this wiadora we have here the charac
ter and privilege. 1st, The character — Whose
observes these things. That looks back tn
the doctrine of the Paalmiat, which ia very '
divinely aweet, extoUing the goodneaa oi
God in general in hia dealinga with men,
and inatancing in divera occunent and re
markable particulara the fitneas and mildnesa
ef hia chastisements,the seasenableneaa and
sweetness of his deliverances, conecting ua
for our greater good, and relieving ua in our
greateat need, when we are neareat deapairing
of relief. This is exemplified in travellers
and prisoners, in sick men and seamen, and
in the various diapoaal of the atate of all
aorts of persons, the higheat and the raean.
eat; and the repeated aweet burden of the,
song is, O thai men would praise ihe Lord
for his goodness. Sec. And in the end, the
result of all, ver- 42,' the joy of the godly,
the aharae and ailencing of the wicked, that
uauaUy either miatake, or alight, or deapiae
the providence ef Ged in tbe rule of huraan
affaira, readily apeak big their own thoughts,
wbich are vain, promising themselves con
tinual aucceas. In tbe end he ahall clear
hiraaelf, and glad the aoula of his people,
and clothe bis enemies with shame. Wait
a while, and thus it shaU be ; they shall
change places. " He pours contempt upon

them in fully and wretchedness; but wisdom 'princes, and sets the pppr pn high from af-

SERMON II-

613

fliction," and so righta himaelf, and them
that wait on him. Then the righteous shall
see ii and rejoice, and all iniquity shall
stop her mouth ; and it ia a great point
of true wisdom, rightly to obaerve theae
things. This observing hath in it, first, a believ
ing notice ef theae things, to take such in
stances aright, when they meet our eye, te
know these things to be indeed tbe Lord's
doirigs ; and ae, when we are in any preaent
strait, to beUeve accordingly tbe same in-
spectiori ofhis eye, and secret conduct of hia
hand, to be in all. Now, it ia a great point
to have tbe heart eatablished in these per
suasions. We are generally much defective
in this, and they mpat that least suspect
themaelvea pfit. But withal, the observing
or keeping of,jhese things, (ao the word ia,)
this firm believing hath in it theae two, fol
lowing on it and flowing ftom il — serioua
contemplation, and suitable action.
1st, Often to turn eur eye te the view of
tbeae thinga, and to keep it en thera, so as
to have our hearts warraed witb them, to be
deeply taken with wonder and love. But,
alas ! our souls are drowned in flesh, drag
ged down from things tbat become them,
and are worthy of thera, to drudge and weary
theraselves in the mire and clay. How few
are there that raake it a great part of their
daily business, to behold God in hia worka
and ways with themselves and othera ! Some,
in reapect of othera, are called great apirita :
out oh, what are they ? What a poor great
ness is it, te project for a great eatate, or
great piacea and titlea, or te conceive great
revengea of little wronga 1 There ia aome
thing even in nature, of greatneaa ef apirit,
very far beyond the bastard, false character
that meat take of it, that is above most
thinga othera imagine great, and despises
them ; but true greatneaa ia tbia, to have a
mind much taken up with the greatneas of
God, admiring and adoring him, and ex
citing others to do ao ; grieved, and holily
angry, that raen regard him so littie ; breath
ing forth auch wiahea as these of tiie Paalm
iat, both to expreas their ewn thoughts, and
to awake sleeping, beaotted raen, about
them — O that men would praise the Lord
for his goodness, Scc. Tbey could wish a
voice that could reach many thouaands ; and
if they had one audible to all the world,
would uae it no otherwiae than to be pre
centora of the praises of God, fo call up
and begin the song, O that men would
praise. See.
Consider yourselves, my brethren, and
trace yourselves into your own hearts, whether
often in tbe day your thoughts run thia way,
finding the meditation of God aweet to you,
or if they do not run out much more to vain
thinga, and are seldom here ; either hunied
and busied in a surcharge of affairs ; pr, ifl

vacant, yet spinning tiiemaelvea put in frpthy,
foolish fanciea, that you would be aahamed
to look back upon. You might entertain
divine and heavenly thoughta, even while
abeut your earthly employments and refresh
ments ; but this is little known, and little
sought after. M^ke it your buaineaa to leam
mere of this wiadom: call in your hearta, com
mune often with yourselves and with God; be
leas abroad, and more within, and more above;
it is by far the sweetest life- Beg of God
te wind up your hearta, when you find them
heavy and diiU, that they follow yeu slowly
in thia, and need rauch pulling and haling
frora your hand : a touch from hia hand will
make thera mount up eaaily and nimbly-
Oh ! aeek hia drawing : Draw me, I will
run after ihee And when you meet to
gether, let thia hi your buaineas, to apeak
of Him that alone is te be exalted, tbat doth
and diaposeth all aa he pleaaea- Say to
frienda, and kindred, and neighboura, O !
how great and how gracioua a God have we !
Oh ! tbat we could bleaa hira 1
2dly, To keep these thinga, ia to walk
according to the firm belief and frequent
thoughta of them, to fear him, and to wall;
humbly and warily, becauae our foUiea draw
on hia roda, and to atudy te pleaae him, and
no raatter who be diapleaaed ; and when he
correcta, to faU down humbly under hia hanu
who hath our aickness and health, our life
and death, and all that concema ua, in his
abaolute power- If any thing advance or
advantage ua before ethers, endeavour to be
the more lowly and aerviceable te him :
if in a lew condition, te bleaa and reverence
bim ; for hia presence will turn the meanest
cottage, yea, the darkest dungeon, into a
palace. The chief delight pf the saints is to offer
praises to Ged, to gather them fn from all
his werks, to send up to bim : and his chief
delight in aU his wprka is tp receive these
praises pf them frpm their handa ; they arti
culate thera, raake a reaapnable sacrifice pf
them. Psalm cxlv. 10, All thy works shall
praise thee, and thy saints shall bless thee.
We are called tp this high wprk, yet lie be
hind, and, mpst unwprthily and fppliahly,
abaae purselves in-uther things.
But they that are wiae, if there be any,
wiU raind thia, wiU net let the Lerd's raar
vellous and gracious doings pass without
notice. It ia a high proof ef his leve to us,
that he lovea to be aeen work by us, and
stoops to take our acclamations and approve
ments, halb such regard to them, and re
wards thera ao richly ; even thua : Whoso is
wise, and will observe these things, ihey
shall understand ihe loving-kindness of ihe
Lord. Obs. They ihat ate wise, and ob.
serve, shall understand further ; io him
thai haih shall be given ; to hira that use.
fuUy hatii ; that is to have, and so there

614

SERMON IL

meant ; to hira that iraproves it to his ad.
vantage that gave it. The greatest difficulty
is to begin ; as one said of his grewing rich,
" That he carae hardly by a little riches, and
eaaily by great riches." Having Orice got a
atock, he grew rich apace ; ao once taking,
be it but the firat leasona ef this wiadora,
learning theae well ahall facilitate thy know
ledge exceedingly : The wise increaseth
learning, Prov. i. 5. Wouldst thou but re
ceive and hearken to the easiest thinga re
preaented by Ged, these would enlighten
and enlarge thy aoul to receive raore ; eape
ciaUy walking by the light thou haat, be it
never se little, that invites and draws in
raore. Be diligent in tbe practice of tbat
you know ; if you would know raore, believe
it, that is the way to grow. Whoso observes,
[keepa theae thinga, acta according te the
knowledge of thera,] he ahall underatand,
(John vii. 17,) shall understand it by find
ing it, shall understand it in theraselves ;
(the werd ia in the reciprocal raood, Hith-
palipl ; ) it ahall be particularly and effec
tually shewn unto bira ; they ahall experi
ence it, and ao underatand it, and that ia the
only lively underatanding of it. Men may
hear, yea deliver large diacouraea ef it, and
yet net underatand the thing : happy are
they te whom thia is given. Solus docet
qui dat, et discit qui recipit : He alone
teachea who gives, and he who receives,
, leama. Loving.kindness. Heb- Graciousness ;
aU aorta ef kindneaaea, even outward and
eoramon merciea, in thoae ahall he under
atand his goodneas ; in recoveries and de
liveries frem dangers, and bleaainga, be their
portion in thera less or raore ; theugh the
things be coraraon, yet they corae tobe hia own
by a particular atarap of love, that to othera
they have not. And tbe children of God
know it ; they can flnd it out, and can read
it, though the world that looka on it, can
not : and, indeed, to them the lowest thinga
are disposed of, in order to the highest ; their
daily bread given thera by that sarae love
that givea thera Christ ; aU ia given in hira :
80 tbe curae ia taken away, and all ia aweet
ened by a bleasing- " A little that a right
eous raan hath, is better than the abundance
of tbe wicked-"
But the things they chiefly prize and de
sire, as indeed they deserve so te be, are of
another sort : in their very being and nature,
are love-tokens, effects of that peculiar free
grace which chose thera to live ; and this is
caUed the '* light of God's countenance.
his everlasting love-" " New, they that are
wise, and observe theae thinga, they shall
underatand thia loving-kindneaa :" not that
they firat are thua wiae, before they partake
of this loving-kindneaa : no, by it this wis
dom was given them ; but this proraiae ia
made to tneir improveraent of that gift, and

walking in these waya ef wisdom- Not
drily are they loved of God, but they shall
uriderstand it ; he wiU manifest hiraself to
thera, and tell thera he lovea thera ; and the
more they walk in tbeae ways, the more
clearly shaU they perceive and powerfuUy
find his love manifested to them.
This ia the higheat inducement that can be
to auch aa have any interest in it. When
this love hath but once touched them, theugh
as yet they knew it not certainly, yet it
works that esteem and affection, that no
thing can be adraitted intp cpraparispu with
it. While camal raen wallpw in the puddle,
theae are the cryatal strearas a renewed soul
deairea to bathe in, even the love of God.
Oh ! let rae find that : ne matter what I
have, or what I want : in poverty, or any
diatreaaed, forsaken condition, one good word
er leok frem him raakea me up- I can sit
down content and cheerful, and rejoice in
that : though all the world frown on me, and
all thinga look dark and cemfortleaa about
me, that ia a piece of heaven within the
aoul- Now, of thia experiraental, underatand
ing knowledge of thia love, there are different
degreea ; a great latitude in thia : to seme
are afforded, at timea, light glimpaes and in
lets of it, in a more iraraediate way ; (but
these stay not, suavis hora, sed brevis
mora ;) others are upheld in the belief of it,
and live on it by faith ; thougb it shine not
ao clear, yet a light they have to walk by ;
though the aun shines not bright out te thera
aU their life, yet they are led horae, and un.
derstand so rauch in their way, as ahaU bring
thera to the fulness ef it in the end. Others,
having paat raoat ef the day, bave a fair
gUrapae in the very evening or cloae of it ;
but, howsoever, they that walk in this way
by thia light, whataoever raeaaure they have
of it, are led by it to the land of light;
The connexion here made you aee — They
that wisely observe these things, shall un
derstand ihis loving-kindness, A wiae ob
serving of God's waya, and ordering eur own
to hia raind, is the certain way to attain
rauch experienced knowledge of his love.
This love is raoat free, and frora the be
ginning to the end worka of itaelf; but, in
the raethod of it, hehath thua Unked thinga
together, raade ene portion ofgrace, in the use
of it, draw on another ; and this his children
should prudently consider. There ia auch a
like speech, Paalra 1. 23, " Wiioae offereth
praiae, glorifietb me ; and to him that order-
eth hia conversation a1:ight, will I shew the
aalvation of flSod."
The conteraplation of God in hia worka,
aeta the aoul open to receive the influences of
love ; by looking towards him, it drawa his
eye towarda it, aa ene look of love drawa on
another. Certainly, many that have aome
desire ofthe light of God's countenance, and
evidences of his love, yet, in net applying

SERMON IL

515

their souls te consider him, dp much injure
(fleraselvfs- Heavenly thpughts do refine the soul, as
nre works itself higher, and to a purer flarae,
by stining. To be blessing God for his
goodneaa, giving him praiae in view of hia
wprka in the wprld, and fpr his church, and
particularly for na ; this both dispoaea the
heart to a more auitable temper for receiving
divine comforta, and invites hira to let them
flow into it. For if he have such acknow-
ledgraenta for general goodness and common
mercies, how much larger retums ahall he
have upon the diacoveriea of apecial love ! It
is a sight of Ged as reconciled thou would
est have : now, praise sets a man amongst
the angels, and they behold his face-
-A4;ain, action, walking in his ways hurably
and carefuUy, and so waiting, never wants a
auccesaful return of rauch leve. How can
he, who ia goodneaa itself, hide and reserve
himself ftom a soul that yields up itself to
him, hath no delight but to please hira,
hatea and avoids wbat may offend bira ?
This, aure, ia the way, if any under heaven
to enjoy coraraunion with hira.
They that forget hira, and disregard their
ways, and are no way careful to order thera
te hia likiug, de but delude theraaelves with
raistakeri faricies ef raercy. I beaeech yeu
be warned ; there cannot be aolid peace in
the waya of ain : No peace to ihe wicked,
says my God. Outward, common favoura,
yeu may ahare for a tirae ; but theae have a
curae with thera te yeu, and you shaU quickly
be at an end of these receipts ; and then you
would look towarda thera for aorae peraua-
aiona of bia loving-kindness, but are likely
to flnd nething but frowna and diapleaaure-
Oh, consider, this, ye ihat forget God, (that
is tlie greateat disease,) lest he tear you -in
pieces, and there be none to deliver you.
Even they that have sorae title to this
love ef Ged, and are desiring evidence of it,
yet do often ait exceedingly in their own
light, and work againat their end, atill bent
on that aaaurance they would bave, and yet
neglect the way to it, which certainly is in a
'raanner to neglect it- Were tbey raore bu
aied in horiouring God, deirig hira what ser
vice they cari in their station, striving againat
ain, acknowledging his goodness to the world,
and even to theraselves, tbat they are yet in
the region of hope, iior cut eff in their ini
quities, thus offering praise and ordering
their converaation aright, aubraitting uuto
hira, and giving him glery, their aaaurancea
and coraforta, in the raeaaure he thinka flt,
would corae in due tirae, and aooner in this
way than in any ether tbey could take.
Observe these things ; beware of ain, and
ye shall understand the loving-kindness of
the Lord. It ia true, this leve of God changes
not, nor hangs on thy cartiage, nor any thing
without itself; yea, all our good hangs on I

it: but know, as to the knowledge and ap
prehension of it, it depends rauch on the
holy frame of thy heart, and exact regulation
of thy ways. Sin obstructs and darkens all r
these are the clouds and mists ; and where
any beUever is adventurous" on the ways of
ain, he ahall araart for it. Where sin is,
there will be a storm, as Chryaoatom's word
ia of Joshua.* The experience of aU witness
eth tbia : ne atrength ef faith will keep out
flooda of doubting and troublous thoughta,
where any novel ain hath opened a -gap for
them te rush in by. See David, Ps. li. ex
preaaing himaelf aa if all were te begin again,
hia joy taken away, and hia bones broken,
and to sense aU undone ; nothing wiU aerve
but a new creature. " Create in rae a clean
heart, O God, and renew a right spirit with
in me."
There is a congruity in the thing itself,
and God hath ao ordered it, that vexation
and anguiah atill attend ain, and the ways of
holineaa be waya of peace. Say meri what
they will, great falla leave wounds and smart
behind thera, and they rauat be washed with
sharper liquor before balra and oil be poured
into thera. And not only will raore noto
rioua breachea diaturb thy peace, but a tract
of careleas and fruitlesa walking. If thou
abate ef thy attendance en God, and thy fear
cool towarda him, lagging and falling down.
wards to something you are caring for and
taken with, you shall flnd an estrangement,
it may be inaenaible at first and for a while, -
becauae of thy aloth, that thou doat not ob-'
aerve diUgently how it ia with thee ; but,
after a time, it ahall be more eaaily known,
but raore hardly raended : and there ia none
of ua but might find much more of God in
thia our way homeward, if tbe fooliabness
and wanderinga of our hearts did not prevent
ua. Be perauaded, then, you whose hearta he
hath wrought fer himaelf, to attend better ou
him, and the advantage ahaU be yours ; doubt
it not : and though fer a tirae you find it
not, yet wait on, and go on in that way ; it
shall not diaappoint you. The raore you let
go of the falae, vain coraforts of the world for
his sake, the more richly you shall be furnish.
ed with his. Oh ! we make not room for
them ; that is the great hinderance. Con
sider him, beheld hia worka, bless him, con
feaa him alwaya worthy oi praise for his good
ness, and his wonderful works to the chil
dren of men, however he deal with thee in
p articular ; and aaauredly he ahall deal gra
cioualy with thee : and ere long thou ahalt
find, and be forced to acknowledge it. Though
it may be thou want thoae bright ahinings pf
cpmfprts thpu wpuldeat have, yet, lookhig
to him, and walking befpre him, pbaerving
these things, thou shalt have of bia light
to lead thee en, and a calra within ; aweit

516

SERMON in.

Iieace, though not that height of joy thou de-
sireat. There be often calm, fair daya witiiout
storras, though it be not se clear sun-shine,
and in such days a raan raay travel comfort
ably. I would bave Chriatiana called offj
from a perplexed over-preaaing of tiiia point of
their particular aaaurance. If we were raore
studious to pleaae him, forgetting ourselves,
we ahould find hira reraeraber ua the more ;
yet not for this neither, but airaply for hira
self. In a word, thia is thy wiadora ; mind
thy duty, and refer te hira thy comfort.

SERMON III.
Psalm cxix. 96.
/ home seen an end of all perfection; bui
thy commandment is exceeding broad.
Geace ia a divine light in the aoul, and
shews the true colours of things. The apos
tle overahoota not, when he aaya. The spiri
tual man fudgeth all things. He hath un
deniably the advantage : he may judge of
natural things, but the natural raan cannot
judge of apiritual thinga ; yea, the truest judg
ment of natural thinga, in reapect to our
chiefest end, springa particularly ftom apiri
mal wiadom : that makea the tiue paraUel of
thinga, and gives a just account of their dif
ferences, as here.
/ have seen an erid. See. All that have
any raeasure of spiritual light are ef thia
mind, but certainly they that are more emi
nentiy bleaaed with it, have a iriore high and
clearer view ef beth parts, David, who is
generaUy, and with greatest likelihood, sup
posed to be. tbe author ef this Psalra, was
singularly advantaged te raake this judgment
ef things : he had, ne doubt, a large raea
sure of the knowledge ef God and of his law,
which here he declares te be so large ; and
being both a wise and a great raan, might
know raore than raost othera, even of all other
perfectiona, trace thera to their utmoat, and
aee their end, aa he expreaaes it. Thia aame
verdict we have frora his aon Soloraon, after
rauch experience in all thinga ; who, having
tbe advantage ef peace and riches, did par-
ticularly aet hiraaelf to thia work, to a raoat
exact inquiry after aU thinga ef this earth
He set nature en the rack,- to confeaa ita ut
moat strength, fer the delighting and satia
fying of raan ; with much paina and art ex
tracted the very apirita of all, and after aU
gives the aame judgment we have here ; his
book writ on that subject being a paraphrase
pu this sentence, dilating the sense, and con-

firming the truth of it. It carries its owr.
sum in tbeae two worda, wbich begin and end
it, that Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity ;
and the otber, Fear God and keep his com
mandments, that ia the whole duty ef man :
and theae here are juat the equivalent of these
two ; the forraer of that beginning word, /
have seen an end of all perfection ; and the
latter ef that. But thy commandment is ex
ceeding broad. And when raean men apeak
of'thia world'a greatneaa, and poor men cry
down richea, it paaaea but for a querulous,
peeviah humour, to diacredit thinga they
cannot reach, or elae an ignorant contempt
of thinga they do not underatand ; or, tail.
ing it a little further, but a aelf-pleaaing
shift, willingly underprizing theae thinga of
purpose, to allay tbe displeasure of the "want
of thera ; or at the beat, if aoraething of truth .
and goodneas be in the opinion, yet that the
assent of auch peraons is (as the temperance
of sickly bodies) rather a virtue made of ne.
cessity, than embraced of free choice. But
to hear a wise man, in the heigbt of theae ad.
vantages, proclaim their vanity, yea, kings
from thefr very thrones whereon tbey sit, in
their royal robes, to give forth this sentence
upon all the glories and delights about them,
is certainly above aU exception. Here are
two, the father and the sori ; the orie raised
frora a raean condition to the crown ; instead
of a shepherd's staff, to wield a sceptre, and
that after many afflictions and dangers in the
way to it, which to some palates gives a high.
er relish and sweetness to honour, than if it
had slid on tbem ere they could feel it, in the
cheap, eaay way of undoubted aucceaaion : or
if any think David's best daya a Uttle cloudy
by the reraaina of inaunectieiia and oppoai.
tions, in tbat caae uaual, aa tbe jurabUng of
tbe water net fully quieted fer a while after
the aame ia over ; then take the son, aucceed
ing to as fair a day as heart Can wish, both a
complete calra of peace and bright sun.shine
of riches and regal pomp ; (and he able to
iraprove these te the highest ;) and yet boUi
theae are perfectly of the aarae mind in this
great point. The sen, having peace and
time for it, though a king, would raake his
throne a pulpit, and be a preacher of this ene
doctrine, te which the father'a aentence ia the
fitteat text I have seen.
The words give an account of a dbuble
prospect ; the latter, aa it were, the diacovery
of a new worid after the traveUing over the
old, expressed in the former cfause — / have
seen an end of all perfection, i. e. taken an
exact view of all other things, and aeen their
end ; but Thy^ coramandraent ia of exceed
ing extent and perfection, and I aee but a
part, and there ia no end ef it.
, / have seen an end. I have tried and
raade experiraent of much of what thia world
afforda, and the reat I see to the utterraoat of
it, how far it reachea. Tbe Psalmist, .as

SERMON III.

617

standing on a vantage ground, sees clearly
rouud about him the fartliest horizon of earth.
ly excellencies and advantages, and finds
them net to be infinite or unmeaaurable ;
aeea that they are bounded, yea, what their
bounds are, hew far they go at their very
farthest, an end of all, even perfection ; and
this is in effect wbat I find, that their end drops
short of aatiafaction. A man may think and
deaire beyond them, yea, not only may, but
must ; he cannot be terminated by their
bounda, will still bave a stretch further, and
feela ihem leave him, and then finda a void.
All which he says raost ppnderpualy in these
shprt wprds ; giving the wprld the slight
thus : '' It is net ao great a raatter as raen
iraagine it ; the best of it I have exarained,
and considered it to the full, taken the whole
dimenaion- All the profits and pleasurea
under the sun, their utraost goes but a short
way ; the soul ia vaater than all, can look
and go much farther."
I will not atterapt the particulars, to
reckon aU, or be large in any ; the preacher
Solomon hath done this matchlessly, and
who is he that can come after the king ?
If any be sick of that poor disease, esteem of
riches, he can tell yeu the utmost of these,
that when they increase, they are increased
that eat them, and what good is to the
owners thereof, save ihe beholding of ihem
with their eyes ? Yea, locking them up, and
not using thera, and stiU gathering, and all
*c no use ; thia ia a raadneas, it is all one as
if they were still in the mines under the
ground, and the difference none, but in tur.
moiling pama iri gathering, ami torraenting
care in keepirig- But take the beat view of
them, supposing tbat they be used, i. e. spent
on family and retinue; why, then, what
hath the owner but the sight of thera for
hiraself? Of all his dishes, be fills but ene
beUy ; of all his fair houaea, and ricbly-fur-
niahed rooms, he lodges but in one at once :
and if hia great rent be needful for hia great
train, or any other waya of expenae, is it an
advantage te need much ? Or ia he uot ra
ther peorei that needs five er six thousand
pounda a year, tban he that needs but one
hundred ?
Of all the festivities of tbe world, and de
lights of senge, the result is, laughter is raad;
and mirth, and orchards, and rauaic, theae
thinga paas away as a dreara, and as still to
begin ; and so groaa and earthly are they,
that for the beasts they raay be a fit good ;
for the divine iramortal soul they cannot.
.4. horse lying at ease in a fat pasture may
be compared with thoae tiiat take delight in
them. Honour and esteem are yet vainer than
thoae pleasures and riches that furnish thera.
Though they be nothing but wind, corapared
to solid seul-deligbts ; yet as to nature, there
is in thera somewhat more real tban in tho

fame of honour, which is no more indeed
than an airy, iraaginary thing, and hangs
raere on others than any thing elae, and net
only on persons above thera, but even thoae
below ; especially that kind, that the vanity
of man is much taken with, all popular opi
nion, than which there is nething more light
and poor, and that is more despised by the
elevated aort of natural spirits ;, a thing aa
unworthy as it is inconsistent. No alavery
like the affectingof vulgar eatecrii ; it enthrals
the raind to all aorta ; ofteu the worthiest
share leaat in it, Eccles. ix. 11 — 15. True
wortb is but aorastiraea honoured, but always
envied, Ecclea. iv. 4. And with whomso
ever it ia thou aeekeat to be eateeraed, be it
with tbe raultitude, or more chiefly with the
wiaer and better aort, what a nanow thing is
it af largest ! How raany nations know
neither thee, nor those that know thee !
Beypnd all theae thinga ia inward wprth,
and even that natural wiadpra, such as aome
miiida have, to a far raore refined height than
others ; a man by it sees round abeut hira,
yea, and within himself. That Solomon
grants to be an excellent thing, (iv. 13,) yet
presently finds the end of that perfection (ver.
16). That guards net frem diaasters and
vexations ; yea, there ia in it an innate grief,
araidat se raany foUiea (vii. 18). Yea,
give a man the confluence of aU theae,* whicii
is so rare, make bim at once rich and honour
able and healthful, and encompassed with aU
the dgelihts of nature and art, and wise, to
raake the best improveraent ef aU they can well
afford, and there is much in that ; yet, there
is an end of all these perfections : for there
ia quickly an end of himaelf that bath them ;
he dies, and that spoils all ; death breaks tbe
strings, and that ends the music. And th
highest of natural wiadora, which ia tbe aoul
of all nature'a advantages, that enda tben, if
practical or political. In that day are all
state projecta and high thoughta laid low, if
apeculative ; for in apite of aU sciences and
knowledge of nature, a raan goea out in the
dark ; and if thou art learned in many lan-
guagea, one death silences all thy tongues at
once. So Solomon, Eccles. ii. 16. Yea,
suppose a man were not broke off, but conti-
jiued StiU in tbe top of aU these perfections ;
yea, imagine rauch mere, the chiefeat delights
of sense that have ever been found out, more
solid andcertain knowledge of nature's secrets,
all moral composure of spirit, the highest do
rainion, not only ever raen, but a deputed
cemraarid over nature's frame, the courae of
all the heavena, the affairs ef aU the earth,
and tbat he waa to abide in thia estate ; yet
would he see an end of this perfection^ that
is, it would come short of making hira happy.
It is an union with a higher good by that love
that subjects all things te hira, that alone ia
the endless perfection : Thy commandment if
exceeding broad.

18

SERMON III.

You raay think thia a beaten aubject, and
possibly aome other caaes or queationa fitter
for Chriatians. I wiah it were more needless.
But oh, the deceitfulness of our hearts I Even
auch as have shut out the vanitiea of thia
- world at the fore-gate, let thera in again, or
aorae part of them at leaat, at the peatern.
Few hearta clearly come off untied frera all,
atill lagging after soraewhat ; arid thence so
littie delight in God, in prayer, and hely
things. And though there be ne fixed ea
teera of other things, yet that indiaposedneaa
to holy waya, argues sorae sickly humour
latent in the aoul, and therefore this is almoat
generally needful, that men be called to con-
lider what they aeek after. Amidat all thy
^ursuita, atep and ask thy aoul, For wbat end
ia aU this ? At what de I aira ? For, aure
by raen's heat in these lower things, and their
cold indifference for heaven, it would aeem
we take our portion to be here : but, oh !
miaerable portion at the beat. Oh, ahort-
lived happineaa ! Look en them, and learn
to aee tbis the endof all perfections ; and bave
an eye beyond thera, till your hearta be well
weaned from all thinga under the aun. Oh,
tliere is Uttle acquaintance with the things
tiiat are abeve it, little leve of them ; still
eome pretenaiona, sorae hopes that flatter us —
I will attain this or that ; and then — Then
what ? What if this night, thou fool, thy
soul shall be required of thee ?
But thy commandment. The forraer part
of tbis sentence hath within every man's breaat
soraewhat to suit with it and own it. Readi
ly each man according to his experience, and
the capacity of his soul, bath hia sense (if
awake) of the unaatiafactorineaa of all thia
world ; give hira what thou wilt, yet still
there is erapty room within, and a pain in
that emptineaa, and ao vexation ; a torment
ing windineas in all. And men ef more con
templative rainda have higher and clearer
thoughta of thia argument and raatter, and
may riae to a very high moral conterapt of
the world, and aerae ef thera have dene se.
But this other part ia raore sublirae, and pe
culiar to a divine illumination ; that which
we find not without, we would bave within,
and work out of ouraelvea, which cannet be
extracted from thinga abeut ua. Philoaophy
ia rauch en this, but it is upon a falae scent,
and still deluded : no, .it is without ua ; not
within ua, but above ua ; that fulneaa ia in
God, and no coraraunion with hira, or enjoy
ment of hira, butin the way ef hia coraraand
raent ; therefore thia ia the discovery that
anawera and satisfies — Thy commandment
is exceeding broad. Commandment : he
speaka of aU aa one, I conceive, for that
tie and connexion of them aU, — hethat breaka
one, is guilty of all. A rule they are, and
so are one, as a rule muat be : one autbority
through all ; that ia the golden thread they
are strung on ; break tbat any where, and all

the pearls drop off. Then shall I not le
ashamed, when I have respect to all thy
commandments ; otherwise one piece shames
another, like uneven and incongruous ways •
the legs of the larae, net being even, make an
unseemly going. And as it ia here, so a
plural word is joined with the singular, ver.
137, and Psalra cxxxii- : Deum tradunt
Hebriei, una voce, eloquio uno, hoc est, uno
spiritu et halitu, sine ulla interspiratione,
mora, pausa, vel distinctione, ita ui omnia
verba, tanquam verbum iinum, et vox una,
fuerant, elocutum. Atque hinc volunt
duplicem illam acccntuum raiionem in De-
calogo ortam, ut altera una, ilia Dei conti-
nuata elocutio, altera hominum tarda et
disiincia, judicetur.
And it ia fitly here spoken of as one, op.
poaed to all varietiea and raultitudea of things
beaidea- Thy commandment, each linked
to one another ; and that one chain reaches
beyond aU the incoherent perfectiona in the
world, if one were added to ariother, and
drawn to a length. This commandment is
exceeding broad ; the very breadth immense,.
and therefore the length must be much more
so ; no end of it. That geod to which it
leads and joina the aoul, ia enough for it ;
complete and fuU in ita nature, and endleaa
in ita continuance : ae that there ia no mea-
auring, no end of it any way ; but all other
perfectiona have their bounds of being and
period of duration : so each way an end is to
he found of thera. .Now, in this the opposi
tion is the more admirable, that he spea''.a
not expreaaly of the enjoyment of God, but
of the coraraandraent of God : he extols that
abeve aU the perfectiona of the world ; which
is rauch to be reraarked, as having in it a
clear character of the purest and highest love.
It had been raore obvioua te all, had be aaid,
" I have aeen the utmost of all beaidea thee ;
but thou, O Ged, tbe light of thy countenance,
tbe blessed viaion of thy face, tbat alone is
boundleaa and endleaa happineas :" or to
have taken it below the full, perfect enjoy
ment of glory, but sorae glances let into tiie
aoul here, a comfortable word frem God, a
leok of love, oh, how far surpassing all the
continued caresses and delighta of the world !
He apeaks not of that neither, but thy com
mandment is exceeding b-foad. Aa the apostle
saya. The foolishness of God is wiser than
men's wisdom, 1 Cor- i. 25. So here, that
ef God, wbich aeema loweat and hardeat, ia
infinitely beyond whatsoever is highest arid
aweeteat in the world ; the obeying of bia
coraraanda, his very aervice, ia raore profita
ble than the world's rewards ; his cortimanda
raore excellent than the perfection of the
world's enjoyments : to be aubject te hira is
truer happineaa than to command the whole
world. Pure leve reckons thua : " Though
no further reward were to follow, obedience
to God (the perfection of his creature, and

SERMON IIL

519

Its vdry happineaa) canies its full recompence
in its own boaora." Yea, lovc delights raoat in
the hardest services. It is self-love to love
the erabraces and rest of love, but it is leve
to hira indeed to leve the labour of love, and
the aervice ef it ; and that net so much be-
cause it leada to rest and ends in it, but be-
cauae it is aervice te him whom we love. Yea,
that labour ia in itaelf a reat ; it ia ao natural
and aweet te a soul that lovea. As the revo
lution of tbe heavens, which is a motion in
reat, and rest in motion, changes not place,
though running stiU ; se the motion of love
is truly heavenly, and circular stiU in God ;
beginning in him, and ending in him, and
so net ending, but still moving without wea
riness. . Let us see what the commandment is, and
that will clear it ; for it is nothing but love :
all is in that ene. Love ihe Lord, See. So the
command tbat is here called ao broad, ia love ;
. there ia no measuring that, for its object ia
imraeaaurable. We readily exceed in the
love of any other thing ; but iii the love of
God, there ia no danger ef exceeding; its true
meaaure ia te know no raeaaure.
According aa the leve is, so is the soul ; it
ia made like to, yea, t is raade one with that
wbich it lovea. By loving groas, base things,
it becoraes gross, and tums to flesh or earth ;
and ao, by the love of God, ia raade divine,
ia one with hira.* So this ia the excellency of
the coramand enjoining leve. God hath a
geod-wiU to all hia creaturea ; but that he
should raake a creature capable of loving him,
and appoint thia for hia coramand, oh, herein
hia goodneas shines brightest. Now, though
fallen frera this, we are agairi invited to it ;
though degenerated and accuraed iu our sin
ful nature, yet we are renewed in Christ, and
this comraand is renewed in him, and a new
way ef fulfiUirig it ia pointed out.
Thia command is broad; there ia room
enough for the aoul in God, that ia hampered
and pinched in all otber things. Here, love
with all thy soul, with all thy mind. See,
stretch it te the utmost ; there is enough for it
here ; it must contract and draw itself to ether
things- / will walk at liberty, says David,
for I seek thy precepts : that which perverse
nature judges thraldom, once truly known, is
only freedom ; this is because tbe law is leve,
and auch a love aa brings full content to the
soul. Man hath not an object of love be
sides God ; too many that can torment and
trouule him, but not one that by being loved
of hira, satiafiea and quiets hira. Whether
he leves things without hira, or hiraself,
still he is pained and restleaa. All other
thinga he loves naturally, in reference te hira
self; but hiraself is not a sufficient ebjfPt for
hira ; " must be soraething that adds to, and
perfects his nature, to which he must be united
» SI terram amas, terra es ; si Deum amss, quid
Vis ut dkam, Deus es ? .\i-uiis-riNii.

in love ; somewhat higher than himself, vea,
the highest of aU, the Father of spirits i thai
alone completes a spirit and blesses it, to love
him, the spring of ^spirits.
Now, this leve, as obedience to his cora
raands, is a thing in itself due, and expressly
coraraanded too. This is the thing that
surpasses all pursuits and all enjoyments
under heaveri, riot only to be loved of God,
but to love him ; yea, could they be severed,
thia rather would be the defotmitv and raiaery
ef the creature, to hate him. This ia the
heUofhell. And to leve him, net only with compla
cency, a desire to enjoy hira, but, moreover,
wishing him glory, doing hira se vice, desir
ing he raay be honoured by all hia creaturea,
and endeavouring ourselvea to honour him,
that ia our work ; applauding the praiaes of
angtla and all creaturea, and adding oura,
Psalm ciii. 22, aweet, willing, entire subrai»
sion to his will, ready to do, to auffer anj
tiling for hira. Oh I away all base, muddy
pleaaures, aU false iiigbt-ahowa ef earthly glo
riea, all high atterapta and heroic virtuea ;
theae have their measure and their cloae,
and prove in the end but lies. This cora.
raand, this love alone, ia the endless perfec
tion and deUght of aoula, that begins here,
and is completed above. Tbe happineas of
glory ia the perfection of holineaa ; that ia the
fuU beauty and loveliness of the spouse, the
Larab's wife.
Oh, how much are the multitudes ef men
te be pitied, that are hunting they know not
what, StiU pursuing content, and it stiU fly
ing before, and they at as great a distance
as when they promiaed theraaelves to lay hold
on it ! It ia atrange .what men are doing.
Ephraim feedeth on the wind. Tbe moat
aerioua deaigna of raen are raore fooliah than
the playa of children ; all the difference is,
that these are sourer and raore sad triflea.*
Oh I tbat ye would tum thia way, and not
atill lay out your money for that which is
not bread, Scc. You would find the aaddeat
part of a spiritual course of life hath under it
more true sweetness tban aU your empty
mirths, that sound much, and are nothing,
like the crackling of thorns under the pot.
There is mere joy in enduring a cross for
Gpd, than in the smiles pf the wprld ; in a
private, despised aflUction, withou' the name
uf suffering for his cause, or any thing in it
like martyrdom, but only aa coming ftom his
hand, kiaaing it, and hearing it patiently,
yea gladly, for hia aake, out of love to him,
because it is his wiU so to try thee- What
can come amiss te a soul thua compoaed ?
I wish that even tbey who have renoune .
the vain world, and have the faces of tne
hearts turned God-wards, would learn mora
this happy Ufe, and enjoy it raere, not to
bang so rauch upon aenaible coraforts, as (o
* Tristes inepti*.

1520

SERMON IV.

delight in obedience, and to wait for those at
hia pleasure, whether he givea much or little,
any or none. Learn to be atill finding the
sweetneaa of hie coraraanda, which no out
ward or iriward change can diarelish ; rejoic
ing in the actinga of that divine leve within
thee. Continue thy confiicts with ain, and
though thou raayest at tiraes be foiled, yet
, cry to hira fer help ; and, getting up, re
double thy hatred of it, and attempts against
it. StiU stir this flame of Ged ; that will
overcera.e : Many waters cannot quench it.
It is a renewed pleasure to be offering up
thyself every day to God. Oh ! the sweet
est life in the world, to be crossing thyaelf,
to pleaae him ; trampling on thy own will,
te foUow his.

SERMON IV.
Habakkuk iii. 17, 18.
Although the fig-tree shall not blossom,
neither shall fruit be in ihe vines ; ihe
labour ofthe olive shall fail, and the fields
shall yield no meat ; the flock shall be cui
off from the fold, and there shall be no
herd in the stalls : yei I will rejoice in
the Lord, I will joy in ihe God of my
salvation. ''
Most men's industriea and employments
are raost without thera, but certainly our
raain and worthiest business lies within ua ;
nor ia ever a man fit for the varietiea and
viciaaitudea of time and affaira witheut, till
he have taken aome paina te aerae good pur
poae within himaelf. A diaterapered, dia-
compoaed raind, iaa limb out of joint, which
ia fit for no action, and raovea both deforra-
edly and painfuUy. That which we have to
do, ray brethren, for whicb theae our raeet
ings are comraanded of God, and should be
attended by us, and that we should foUow
out when we are gone from hence, is this —
the reducing of our spuls to God. Their
disunion from him ia their disjointing, and
tbey are never right till they fix on him ; and
being there, they are so right tbat nething
can ceme wrong to them. As they are not
readUy enanared with ease and plenty, ao
neither lightly aatonisbed witb want and
ttouble ; but, in the ebb of aU ether com-
forts, can hold the prophet'a purpose — to joy
in the Lord, and rejoice in the God of their
salvation. This we may hear and speak of, but truly
few attain it. I fear many of ua are not so
much as aeeking after it, and aapiring to it.
A soul reaUy conversant with God is taken
up with him ; all its affections work and

raove tewards him, as the prophet's here;
hia fear, his joy, his truat, vers. 16  19.
Tbis ia a prayer, aa it ia entitled, but it is
both a prophetical and an unuaual one ; a
prophecy and a song (as the word added
importa) of Habakkuk tbe prophet, en Ne
ginoth. The strain ef it is high, and full
of sudden raptures and changea, aa that word
aignifiea ; aa here, having expreased much
fear in the foregoing words, a shivering,
trembUng honor, yet adda auch a height of
an invincible kind of joy ; like the needle of
the corapaas, fixedly looking tewards him,
yet not without a trerabUng motion. Thus,
we have the tbmper of the Psalmist, rejoice
with trembling ; which suits weU te so aub
lime an object ; joying in Ged, because he
is good, yet joy still mixed with holy awe,
because he is great : and this especially in
tirae ef great judgments, or in the lively ap
prehenaiona er repreaentations of thera, whe
ther before or after their infliction ; whether
they be on the people of God for their ini
quities, or en the enemiea ef God for their
pppreaaipns and cmelties to bia people, while
he made them inatruments for their conec
tion. In both, God is formidable, and great
ly to be feared, even by those that are near
est to him. This we find in tbe prophets'
seeing judgraent afar off, long before their
day, which they had coramisaion to denounce:
ao tbia prophet here, not only discovers great
awe and fear at what he saw and foretold
concerning God'a own peeple, the Jewa, but
at the after-reckoning with the Chaldeans,
hia and their enemies. When God comes
to do judgment on the wicked, this wiU
make them that atand by, and suffer not
with them, yet te tremble ; yea, sucb as are
advantaged by it, as usually the people of
God are, their enemies' rain proving their
deliverance. The raajeaty and greatneas
of God, and tenibleneaa of hia raareh to
wards thera, and aeizing on thera, aa it ia nere
highly set forth, this works an awful fear in
the hearts of his ewn children. They can
not aee their Father angry but it makes them
quake, though it be not against thera, but
on their behalf. And thia were our right
teraper, when we see er hear of the hand
of God againat wicked men, that run
their own couraea against all warning —
not to entertain these things with camal re
joicings and lightnesa of raind, or with boast
ing insultations ; to applaud indeed the
righteouaneaa of God, and to give him his
glery ; but withal, to fear before him,
theugh they were straugera, arid no way a
part of ouraelves, and to have a humble senae
of the Lord's dealing in it, (so Psalra Iii.
6,) and to learn te reverence God ; in all
our ways io acknowledge him ; to be sure
to take bira along witb us, and to undertake
nething without him.
And this fear of judgments in ot'ners is

SERMON IV.

&21

the way not to feel thera ourselves. When
God sees that tbe sound of the rod on other's
backa wiU hurable a seul or a people, he
wiU spare the atroke of it. They that have
moat of this holy fear of God's anger, fall
least under the dint of it. Blessed is he
that feareth always ; but he that hardens
kis heart, shall full into mischief. He
that feara it not, shall fall into it ; he that
fears and trerables at it, shall eacape : so the

ing them than by having thera, and take
raore notice of that hand that hath pewer of
them, when he withdrawa, than when he
beatowa tbem.
Beaidea all other provecationa and parti
cular abuses ef these things in interaperance
and luxury, were it no raore but the very
disacknowledging of God, the inobaervance
of hia goodneaa, thia calla for a famine, to
diet ua into wiser thoughts, and remind us

prophet here trusts fer himself, / tremble in oi our own and all other creatures' depend-

myself, that I might rest in the day of
trouble, ver. 16 ; and, upon hia confidence,
riaea to thia high resolution — Yet I will re
joice. See.
The words, to make no other division of
them, are a conjecture of a sad supposition,
and a cheerful position or purpose.
Although the fig-tree, Scc. This is a
thing that may come, and, possibly, which
the prophet did foresee would corae, amongst
other judgments ; and it is of all ether out

ence on tbat God whom we se forget, as to
serve eur idola and base luats upon hia boun
ty- Thia waa the caae of Judah and Israel,
Hoa. ii. 8 — 13 ; but when more sparingly
fed, and better taught in the wildemess, these
were realored (vera. 14, 15,) then all ac
knowledge the dowry of that bleased mar
riage with hiraself, (ver. 16,) which is so
far beyond all acco-unt.
Hew wretched ingratitude is it, net to re
gard and love him in the use ef all his raer-

ward scourges the sorest, most smarting, | cies ! but it is horrid atupidity, not to

and mpat sweeping ; cuta pff rapat people,
and can least be suffered and shifted. It
Ueth ainongst tbe rest in the stere-houae of
divine judgraenta. He tbat fumiahed tbe
earth, and gave being by the word of hia
mouth to all theae thinga, hath still the sole,
absolute power of thera ; tbey obey hia word
»f comraand ; and, rightly looked upon, in
our use of thera, and the aweetneas we find
in them, lead us to bim, aa the apring
of being and goodneas. He is invisible
in hia nature ; in his works most visible
and legible : not only the spacious hea
vens and glorious lights in them, but the
meaneat things on eartii — every plant and
flower, in their being and growing, yea, every
blade of grass, declare Ged to us.
And it is supematural dqlight in natural
things, to aee and taate him in thera. It ia
more pleaaant than their natural reliah : it ia
the chief inner aweetneas, the kernel and mar
row of aU ; and tbey that take not the pains-
and have not the skill to draw it fprth, lose
the far better half of their enjoyraents, even
of the thinga of thia earth- To think how
wisebe ia that devised such a frarae, how
powerful that made all theae thinga, how
rich muat he be tbat atiU continuea te fur
nish the earth with theae varieties of provi
sions, how sweet muat he be, whence aU
tbeae things draw their sweetness 1 But,
alas ! we are brutish, and in our use of theae
things we differ little or nothing fr.,m the
beaats- We are called to a higher life, but
we live it not- Man is in honour, Sitt he
understands ii not ; he is as ihe beast thai
perishes. New, because we acknowledge
God so little in the use of these things,
tiierefore he ia put to it (ae te speak) to teach
us eur lesson in the want and deprivation of
them, which our dulness is more sensible of.
We know things a great deal better bv want-

consider and seek to hira in their with-
drawraent, or the threatening of it. Few have
a right aenae of hia hand in any thing : they
grumble and cry out, but not to him. As
of oppression, Job xxxv. 9, 10, ao of this
very judgment of famine, Hos. vii. 14,
Ephraim howled, and cried not to me, did
not hurably and repentingly seek to rae by
prayer ; but a natural brutiah sense of thei'
wanta preaaed out coraplaints. 'i'hey howled,
aa a hungry dog would do fer bread : thia
ia aU the most de, in years of dearth, of
harveat threatening it. No beast in the
mountain or wilderness is so untamed as the
heart of man, whicb, when catched in God's
judgments, lies and cries as a wild bull in a
net. It ia true, tbey are aomewhat nearer
aober thoughta in diatreaa and grief; theugh
natural, yet nearer apiritual grief, than their
rairth and laughter; but it rauat bave a touch
of that apirit above, to make it spiritual, tc
raake it change te geld, to lum it to godly
serrow. No scourge carries a power of
changing the heart with it ; that is a super
added work. Many people, and particular
peraons, have been beat as in a raortar with
variety of afflictions, one coming thick upon
another, and yet are never the wiaer, and yet
have noi returned unto me, saith theLord.
Therefere, if you be afflicted, join prayer
with your correction ; and beg by it, that
God would join his Spirit with it : seek this
in earneat, else yeu shaU be not a whit the
better, but shall still endure the smart, and
net reap the f?uit thereof ; yea, I believe,
seme are the worse, even by falaely imagin
ing they are better, partly preauming it muat
be so, and partly, may be, feeling aome pre
sent motions and meltings in the lime of
afflictions, which evanish and presentiy cool
when they are off the fire. Ay, but theae
two together raake a happy raan : Blessed

592

SERMON IV.

ts he whom Ihou corrrectcst, and leachest
cat of thy law.
Although the fig-tree shall not blossom.
This aoraetiraea dpea, and at any tirae raay
befal a land ; but, however, it ia very uaeful
to put auch caaea. It ia true, there are great
odda betwixt real and iraagined distreaaea ;
yet, certainly, the frequent viewing pf ita
picture, though it is no more in thy imagi
nation, hath 80 much likeness, as somewhat
abates the strangenesa and frightfulneaa of
ita true viaage, when it comes.
There is a foolish pr5-apprehension of pos
sible evila, that, whether they corae or no,
doea no geod, hut raakea evil to corae per-
plexingly bef-^'C-hand, and antedates their
raiaery, and adda the pain of raany others
that will never ceine- Theae are the fumes
nf a dark, diatempering huraour, vain feara
that vex and treuble aorae rainda at pre
aent, and do net waste any thing of any grief
to corae after. But calmly and corapoaedly
to ait down and conaider evil days coraing,
any kind of trials that probably, yea, or poasi
bly, may anive, so as to be ready to entertain
them without aatoniahment ; this is a wise
and useful exercise of thy raind, and takes
off rauch of the weight of such things, breaks
them in faUing en ua, that they come not ao
sad down, when they Ught first upon the ap
prehension. Thus, it ia true, nothing coraea
unawarea to a wiae raan : he bath auppoaed
all, or aa bad aa any thing that can corae,
hath acquainted bis raind with tbe honideat
ahapea, and therefore, when such things ap
pear, wiU not so readily start at thera.
This I would advise to be done, not only
in things we can raere easily suft'er, but those
we think weuld prove hardeat and raoat indi
gestible, te inure thy heart te thera ; not to
be, as some, so tender-fancied, that they dare
not se rauch as think of sorae thinga — the
death of a dear friend, or huaband, or wife,
or child. Tbat ia oftener to be viewed
rather than any other event. Bring thy
raind to it, as a atarting horae to that where
at it doea moat startle  What if I ahould be
bereft of auch a peraon, auch a thing ? Thia
would raake it rauch raore tolerable when
thou art put to it- What if the place where
I live were viaited with all at once in aorae
degree — pestilence, and sword, and famine ?
How should I leok on them ? Could my
mind keep ita own place and atand, fixed on
God in such a case ? What if I were turned
out of ray good fumiture and warra house,
and stript net only of acceaaory but neceaaary
thinga ; (aa here he supposea, net only the
failing of delicaciea, the fig-treea, wine and
olivea, but ef common neceaaary food, the
fielda not yielding meat, and the flocka cut
off;) my little onea crying for bread, and I
hid none for them ? You little knew what
the tenderest and delicatest among yeu raay
be put to- These tiraes have given raany

real instances, within tiiese kingdoms of
strange changes in the condition of ranks of
peraons. Or think, if thou abhonest that
What ifl were smitten with blotches or loath!
sorae sores en my flesh ; or if by any accident
I should loae an ann, or an eye, or both eyes ?
What if extreme poverty, and aickneaa, and
forsaking of friends, come aU at once ?
Could I welcome these, a-..d make up aU in
God, find riches, and friends, and fulness in
hira ? Meat raen, if they would speak truly
te such caaea, rauat declare them insufferable.
I were undone, if auch a thing befel me, or
auch a comfort were taken from me, most
would cry out; as Micah did, Judg. xvin. 24
They have taken away my gods, Scc. ; for
so are these things ; eur hearta cleave to, and
principaUy joy in- them. He that worahips
mammon, his purse ia the raoat aenaible piece
of hira : he is broke, if fire, or other ravage
of war, throw hira out of his nest, arid empty
it. He that makea his belly his God, (such '
they are the apostle apeaka of,) how could he
endure thia caae the prophet puta here, the
failing of vinea, of flocka and herda ?
It were good to ada to the aupposition of
want somewhat of the reaUty of it ; some.
tiraea te abridge thyaelf of thinga thou de.
aireat and loveat ; to inure thy appetite to a
refuaal ef what it caUs for ; to practise sorae
what of poverty ; to learn te need few thinga,
&c. It is strange men should be so fooUsh as
to tie themselvea to theae things, that have
neither aatiafying con tent in thera, nor certain
abode. And why abouldest thou aet thy
heart on things which are not, (says Solo
raon,) a non-ens, a fancy ? How soon may
you be parted ! He that is the true God,
Ged alone, how aoon can he pull these false
gods frora you, or you from them ; as in that
werd, Job xxvii. 8, What is the hope of the
hypocrite ihat he hath gained, wlien God
takes away his soul ? Like that case in the
parable, Luke xii. 19, Soul, take thy rest:
a atrange inference frora full bams ! That
was .sufficient provision for a horse, a fit hap
piness for him : but for a soul, though it
were to atay, how groaa and base a portion I
But it cannet stay neither — This night thy
soul shall be required of thee, Sec.
The only firra poaition ia this of fhe pro-
phet. Yet will I rejoice in the Lord. And
anch tiraea indeed are fit to give proof of this ;
te tell thee, whether it be so indeed, where
thy heart is built. While thy honour, and
wealth, and friends, are about thee, it is had
te know whether these props bear thee up, cr
another invisible supporter ; but wben these
are plucked away, and thou art destitute
round about, then it wiU appear if thy strength
be in God, if these other thinga wete but
flouriahea about thee, and thou laidat no
weight on tbem at all : he that leana on these
rauat fall when theae faU, and bis hope « I'nl

SERMON IV.

623

ojif, and hia trust as a spider's web. He
shall lean sipon his house, bui ii shall not
sland, Scc. Job viii. 14, 15. They that
clasp their hearts abeut their houses or es
tates, within a while they are either sadly
palled asunder, or swept away together.
But O ! the bleased, tbe high condition of
a aoul aet on God, untied, independent from
all thinga beaidea bira ; ita whole dependence
and rest placed on hira alone, aitting looae to
aU the world, and ae net atirred witii altera
tions I Yea, the turairigs upside down ef
human tilings, if the frarae ofthe heaven and
earth were faUen to pieces,' the heart found-
cd en him that raade it, abidea unmoved ;
the everlasting arms are under "t, and bear
it up. Do you believe, my brethren, that there ia
such a thing, that it is no fancy ? Yea, aU
is but fancy beaidea it. Do you believe ?
Why then ia one day after another put off,
and tiiia not attained, nor the aoul ao much
as entered or engaged to a aerious endeavour
after it, looking on aU things else, corapared
to this noble design, as vanity ? How often
and eaaily are thefr joya daraped, who rejoice
in ether thinga, their hopea broken ! What
they expected moat, aeen proves a lie, aa the
word spoken of the olive here aignifies, as if
the labour of it should lie ;•[- a fair vintage
or harvest proraised, and either withered with
drought or drpwned with rain :_ indeed it Ues
at the best- But the soul tbat places its joy
in God, ia still freah and green, when all are
withered about it, Jer. xvii. 7, 8- Acquaint
thyself with him betiraea iri eaae. It is a
Slid caae, to have to raake acquaintance with
him, when .tbou ahouldeat raoat raake use of
friendship, and find corafort in his love-
Now this joy in Ged cannet reraain in an
impure, unholy seul, no more than heaven
and hell can mix together- An impure, un
holy soul, I call not that which ia atained with
siu, for no other are under the sun ; aU rauat
then quit aU pretensions to that estate ; but
such an ene aa willingly entertaina and de
lighta in any ainful lust or way of wicked
ness : that deUght and this are directly op
poaite. And certainly the raore the aoul ia
refined frora all delighta of sin, yea, even
from ainleaa delighta ef senae and of tbia
preaent world, it hath the raore capacity, the
fitter and the larger room for this pure heaven
ly delight.
No language can make a natural man
understand what this thing is — to rejeice in
God. Oh ! it ia a mystery. Mest mind
poor, childish things, laughing and crying
at a breath at frifles, easily puffed up, and
aa eaaily caat down ; but even the children
of God are too Uttle acquainted with tbis
their portion. Which ef you find this power
in the remembrance of Ged, that it doth over
flow and drown all other things, both your
* Si fiactus Illabatuf orbis. j Spem mentita seges.

worldly joys and worldly sonows, tiiat you
find them uot ? Arid thus it would be if wc
knew him. Is he tben oar Fatiier, and yet
we know him not ?
Although aU fail, yet rejoice in him that
fails not, that alters not ; he is still the same
in himaelf, and te the aenae of the soul that
ia knit te him ; then sweeteat, when the
world ia bittereat. When other coraforta are
withdrawn, the loss ef them brings thia great
gain — se rauch the mere of Ged, and ,his
love imparted, to raake all up. They that
ever found thia, could alraoat wish for thinga
that othera are afraid of. If we knew how
te iraprove thera, his sharpest viaita would
be Ilia aweeteat ; thou wouldeat be glad to
catch a kiaa ef his hand, while he is beating
thee, er pulling away something frora thee
&hat theu lovest, and blesa hira while he is
doing so.
Rejoice in God, although the fig-tree
blossom not, &c. Yea, rejpice in theae hard
eat tilings, as his dninga. A heart rejpicing
in him, delighta in all hia will, and ia aurely
prpviding fpr the meat firm joy in aU eatates ;
fer if nothing can corae to pass beaides or
againat hia will, then cannot tbat seul be
vexed that delights in him, and hath no will
but bis, but follows him in all tiraes, in all
eatates ; net only when he shines bright on
thera, but when they are clouded. That
flower that follows tbe sun, doth ao even
in cloudy days ; when it doth not shine
forth, yet it follows the hidden courae and
raotion ef it : so the aoul that raovea after
God, keeps that course when he hides hia
face, ia content, yea, ia glad at Ids will in all
eatatea, or conditions, or events. And theugh
not only all be withered and blasted witheut,
but the face of the soul little better within to
aenae, ho flouriahing of gracea fer the preaent,
yet it rejoicea in him, and in that everlaating
covenant that still holds, ordered in all things
and sure, as the sweet ainger of larael aweet
ly expreaaea it, 2 Sam. xxv. 5. For ihis,
aaya he, is all my salvation, and all py
desire, although he make it not to grow.
That ia a strange although, and yet he is
satisfied even in that.
This joy in Ged, as my God, the God of
my salvation, eught to exerciae the aoul in the
darkeat and worat times, and ought to atick
to it, not to let go thia confidence ; atill ex
pecting aalvation frora him, arid reating on
him for it, though not having thoae aenaea
and assurances that thou deaireat. Tbis,
weak believera are eaaily beaten frora by
teraptation ; but we are to atand te our right
in hira, even when we aee it net : and when
it ia said to thee, aa Paalra iii. 2, that ihere
is no help for thee in God, tell aU that say
80, they lie ; He is my God, my glory, and
the lifter up of my head, aa he here apeaks.
Rejeice in him still as thy God ; and,
however, rejoice in hira as God. I wiU re-

SERMON V.

joice in Jehovah, glad that he is God, that
bis eneraies cannot unsettle nor reach his
throne ; that he rules, and ia glorioua in all
tilings ; tbat he is self-blesaed, and needa
nothing : thia ia tbe pureat and highest kind
of rejoicing in him, and ia certainly raeat dia
tant and raoat free from alteration, a-'d hath
indeed moat of heaven in it.

SERMON V.
1 Cor. i- 30.
Bnt of him are ye in Christ JeSus, who of
God is made unto us wisdom, righteous
ness, sanctification and redemption.
The great deaign of the gospel ia to bring
men to Jesus Chriat ; and, next te that, to
instruct those that are brought to him in the
cleareat knowledge, and to keep thera in the
freah reraembrance of the privilegea and hap
pineaa they have in him. Thia the aposties,
writing to new converts, are much on, and
Paul raost abundantly ; but no where more
excellently and fuUy than in these words.
As that ia a great and much-ceraraended
oracle, yvoi^i otxurov, (know thyself,) ao also
there can be nothing raere corafortable and
profitable for a Christian than thia point, te
underatand bis new being, to know hiraself
as out of hiraself in Christ, to atudy what he
ia there. Oh ! what joy, what huraiUty,
what hoUneaa would it work, were we well
aeen and rauch converaant in thia aubject,
viewing ouraelves in thia light aa here the
apoatie repreaenta a believer to himaelf. Of
hiw are ye in Christ Jesus, Scc.
M we leok back a Uttle, we aee hia aim is
to vindicate the doctrine of Chriat frora con
tempt in that chief point which ia the great
est comfort and glory, yet lies epeneat to the
world'a contempt, the doctrine ef tbe croas,
Chriat crucified- Him we preach, aays he,
let men take it as they pleaae ; be he a stumb
ling-block to the Jews, and fooliahneaa to tbe
Gentilea, yet, to thera that beUeve, araong
both, he ia the power of Ged, and wiadom of
God- As in the- peraon ef Chriat, glory was
wrapped up in meanness ; so in hia suffer
ings and death : and the doctrine of it,
and in the way of preaching it, they are not
dressed witb human wiadora, er exceUency
of apeech. This would be as incongruous as
that rich gaudy attire they cover the iraage
of the virgin with, and her chUd lying in a
stable- And that all raight be suitable, so
is it in the persons of those that beUeve on

and God's purpose in this is, thatnofledi
should glory before him.
Thia ia the grand diaease pf flesh,tp swell
in cpnceit cf any little advantages, real or
imagined, forgetting itself and him from
whom it receives all, receives its very self
the being it hath, and all superadded good-
New, God is pleased, injustice on acme, and
great mercy to othera, ao to order most'things
in the world as to aUay thia tumour ; often
bringing down high things, and raising lo v ;
and so attempering and leveUing disparities,
as to take raen off frera self-glorying. Proud
undertakings, we see, are commonly roost
disgracefuUy broken. Nor is there any surer
presage of the apeedy ruin of any affiiirs or
peraona, than preaumptuous boasting. Vliis is
God's work araongst men, as even natural men
have observed, to abase high thh gs, to exalt
Ipw things ; he gpes from one thing to an
other, pulling down the crest, and blasting the
glory of aU huraari exceUericy, breaking the
likeliest projects, arid effectirig what is least to
be expected, withdrawing raan from his pur
poae to hide pride from his eyes, as EUhu
speaks. Job xxxiii. 17- To this purpose, set
Job X- 11, 12; 1 Sam, ii, 4, 5; and the virgin
in her aong, liuke i, 51, 52- Whataoever
men bear themaelvea big upon, and begin to
glory in, they call the hand ef Ged to crush
it, raising an idol of jealouay in hia sight.
All high things have their day ; the day of
tbe Lord on all the cedara of Lebanon, ana
he alone exalted. If ever this waa the case
in any tirae, we raay aee it ia legible in our-s,
in great lettera- 'I' hia is the very result of
his ways, staining the pride of all' glory, de
feating witty counsels, raaking counseUors
raad, throwing down all plumes and tramp
ling thera in the raire, that no party or per
aona in the kingdora can set out fer any
triumph ef courage, or wit, or anj' other ex-
ceUency, but aomewhat ahaU be clearly seen
te meet and dash it in pieces, that no flesh
may glory before him ; and this, to souls
that leve God, is the main happinesa ef tbe
tiraea, and that wherein they wiU chiefly re.
joice- The particular here apoken ef is eminently
auited to thia end, the choice and caUing of
peraena to tbe dignity of Chriatiana- Not
many wise. See, but ihe mean things. Sec,
and the moat insignificant, things ihat are
not, non-entia, very nothings, to annul things
that aeem raeat to be something. Thus it-
was in the firat timea'; and though after
warda, by meana of theae meaner peraons,
greater were caught and drawn into Chriat,
philosophers and kings', &c., yet atill it re-
maina true in aU timea, that predeminandy,
the choice is of the meaner aort ; God teaii.
fying hew little he eateema those things that
men accpunt great. Those endowments of
wit and eloquence that men admire in some,

him. Brethren, you see your calling, Scc. ; I alaa I how coor are they te him ! H

SERMON V.

52S

specteth net any who are wiae in heart ; they
are nothing, and less than nothing in his
eyes : he is the author of aU these. Job
xxxiv. 19. Even wise meri admire hew
little it is tiiat meri know, how small a piatter
lies under the aound ef theae popular wonders
a learned man, a great scholar, a great atatea-
man ; how much raore doth the all-wise God
meanly account of these ! He often discovers,
even to the world, their raeannes'a ; he befools
them. So valour, or birth, pr wprldly great
neas, these he givea, and givea as thinga he
makes no great reckoning of, to such as shaU
never see hia face ; and caUa to the inheritance
of glory, poor, deapiaed creatures, that are
looked on as the offscourings and refuse of
, the world ; these are raised from the dung
hill and set with princes, made the sons and
daughters of God, entitled each of them te
a crown thai fades noi. Oh, the wonder !
Now, they are net puffed up with this •
but the mere assurance they have, and the
clearer their view is of the state they are
called to, the raore humble they are ; atUl
laying the8e together. What waa I in rayaelf?
and. What ara I in Christ ? And, in corapa
ring theae, they are awaUowed up with araaze
ment at that love that made this change ;
and for thia very end doth the apostle express
ihus their estate, Ye are of him in Christ
Jesus, Scc.
Thia is a new being, a creation ; for in
relation to this being we are nothing ii^ our
natural state ; and then, conaidering tbat in
relation te othera, the meanest are often
choaen and made partakera of thia being,
that having nothing naturally great ef nobili
ty or morality, er high intellectuals, the most
insignificant are often chosen, and made par
takers of tbis being, te illustrate the power
of^Hira that raakes tbem exist. In kings,
somewhat raay be observed of this in their
choice of favourites, and raising men that are
not of highest deserving, as affecting to shew
their freedom in choice, and their power in
making out of nething, and so they love tp
have them caUed their creatures ; but theae are
but shadpws : bpth are ppor creaturea, bpth
are eaaily thrpwn dpwn. But God doth indeed
ahew in hia choice, hia freedom and power in hia
new creature ; he draws thera out of the low
est bottora of nothing, and raises thera to the
mesr excellent kind of being that creatures
are capable of, to be " the sona of Ged, and-
heira, and joint heira with Chriat Jeaua,"
&c. Ye are of him in Christ Jesus. This
muat be taken in an eminent aense. AH the
creatures are ef God ; but man, even in his
first creation, for the dignity of hia being and
alow way of forraing, was accounted to be of
God, in a peculiar manner, formed te hia own
likeneaa, and therefore called the son of God ;
Acta xvii. 28, called his offspring. But in
tiiia new being rauch more are we se ; we

are of him aa his children, partakera of the
Divine nature, and that so faatened, that it
abideth : and the medium of this excellent
and permanent being ia primarily to be con.
aidered ; for in him it becomea ao. It is
both high and firm, being in the natural Son,
as the foundation of it ; therefore here ex
preaaed, aa bearing the whole weight of thia
happy fabric.
Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, Scc. The
life which believers derive ftom God is
through him ; he ia that eternal word, by
which all thinga were made, in their first
creation, and do stiU subsist, Heb. i. 2,
John i. 3 ; and he is raade the basis of the
second creation, in a wonderful way, becom
ing himseU' a creature ; and ao the root of
the riew progeny ia from heaven, ihe sons of
God; so it followa in beth these cited scrip
tures, John i. 12 — 14, The word was made
flesh ; arid ao they that receive him are made
the soris ofGod. ^nd ao, Heb. U. 10, II,
&c., amply and excellently i8 that myatery
unfolded. The firat frame ef man, at leaat
the exceUency and beauty ef it, ' was broken
by his fall ; therefore a new model is fraraed
of a selected number, to be a new werld, more
firm than the former, united unto God so
close, as never to be severed again. Man,
though he waa raade holy and god-like, con
tinued net in that honour. New, Ged hun
self becoraes a raan, to make aU sure; tha-
is the foundation ef an indissoluble union
Man is knit te God in the person of Christ
so close, that there is no poasibility of divid
ing them any more ; and thia union of our
nature in hia peraon ia made the ground of
the union ef eur peraons with God- We find
our own flesh i- Chris catch hold ef a man,
and in that man ma flnd God, and are made
one with him by faith in Chriat ; and this
all the powers of he-U cannot dissolve. Our
life none can cut off from hia, more than a
raan can cut a beara frora off the aun. We
are and aubaiat of God in Chriat. This is
an unknown mystery, but, were it known,
would prove a depth of rich, inexhaustible
consolation. The world doth not know what
Christians are. This is no wonder ; for traly
they kriow not themselves, or but very Uttle.
How would it elevate their spirits t but net
in pride. Oh ! nothing is more humbling
than tbis, as tbe apostle here irapUes ; bu:
it wonld raise tbem above the world, and suit
their desires and their actions to their cou-
dition, having all under foot, tbat the world
accounts great ; walking as heira of heaven ;
led and moved by the Spirit of Christ in
tbem ; thinking, when solicited to any base
way. How doth this become tbe aons of God ?
Shall one that lives in Christ - indignify hint -
so much as to bonow comfort er pleasure
from any sin, for the kiUing and destruqtiof!
whereof he laid down his precious life ?
Oh ! my brethren, that this divine awni-

26

SERMON V.

tion were kindled in your breaata, to partake
of diis high and happy being, and leave all
your pursuits to follow tbis, reatieaa tiU you be
in Christ : for solid, abiding rest, aure I ara,
out of bira there ia rione ; and then being
in hira, -remember where you are, and what
you are. Walk in Chriat, and live like him,
as ene with hira indeed ; let his thougbta
and deaiTes be youra. What was his work ;
yea, what waa his refreshment, his meat and
drink ? To do his Father's will. Oh I when
shaU we flnd ourselvea ao minded, aa the a-
poatle's werd ia, the same mind in us thai
was in Christ ?
Who of God is made unto Us wisdom, Scc.
Known unto God are all his works from
the beginning. It waa not an accidental,
after-device in God, (for in him there can be
no auch thing,) but waa his great fere-
thought project, out of the ruins of man's flrst
estate, to raise a fairer and flrmer fabric,
new from the very foundation. And in the new
foundation lies the model, and exceUency,
and stability ef the whole structure. This
is the choiceat of aU bis works, wherein he
chiefly glories, his master-piece, which great
angela admire ; and thia ia it. Who of God is
made unto us wisdom. See., and that ia one
letter of his name. He is caUed Wonderful
who is here spoken of ; so all is wonderful
in this work- Wonderful, first, that he
ahould be made any thing ; the Maker of all
thinga himaelf raade apraething that befpre he
waa not ; tben made to us^that he should
be raade any thing te our intereat and advan
tage, whe are a corapany of traitora ; and
made to us of God, the God againat whora
we rebelled, and continued naturally eneraiea.
The purpoae was bred in the Father's own
breast, to give out his Son frora thence to re
cover us, and bring ua back. O ! astoniah-
ing depth of love ! Then made unto us.
What ! What net ? We raade up in hira,
for ever rich and happy. He raade aU unte
ua, aU we need, er can deaire ; wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemp
tion. Without hira we are undone, forlorn
caitiffa, raaaaea of raiaery, aa you aay, having
nething neither in us nor on sjs ; nothing
but poverty and wretchedneaa, blindness and
iiakedneaa, altogether ignorant ef the way to
happineaa, yea, ignorant of our very raiaery ;
a nest of foola, natural foola, children of folly,
(as they that are renewed by and provided
with thia wiadom, are caUed children ofwis-
dow,) guilty, filthy, condemned slaves.
Thia is the goodly poature we are in, out
of Chriat ; yet who reaenta it ? How few
can be brought to aerioua thoughta about
it I Nay, are not the raeat in the midat of
thia miaery, yet fuU of high conceit of their
worth, wit, freedora, &C-? A a frantic bedla-
mitea, lying naked and filthy in their chaina,
yet dreaming they are great and wise per
sons, coraraanding and ordering all ahout

them; fancying, posaibly, that they ar?
kinga, a atick in their handa, a aceptre, and
their iron, chaina of gold. Thia ia a-pleas-
irig raadness fer the time ; yet who does not
pity it tbat leeks on ?
Methinks I see one of this sort, when I
see one evidently destitute of Chriat, bearing
himself big upori the fancy of his parts, aud
birth, and riches, or stoutness, and, upon
any croaa word, awelling against others,
threatening high, and pretesting they wiU be
slaves to norie ; not knowing that, even while
they apeak thus, they are wretched, caitiff's
under the hardeat and baaest kind of alavery.
Inquire, ray biethren, if ever yeu had a right
and clear view ef your natural miaery ; other
wiae you are, itia likely, atiU in it ; and though
you profess to believe in Christ, are not yet gone
out of yourselves fo him ; and, not knowing
your great need of him, do certainly.make
little esteera and little use ef him. 'Vou are
full, and reign without hira : all is weU and
in quiet ; but it is the strong man yet pos
sessing the house, and keeping you captives
aa quiet aa he can, that you look not out, or
cry fer a deliverer. He ia afraid of him, to
be diapoaaeaaed and tumed out by him that
ia afronger, the mighty Redeemer that came
out of Zion. Oh ! that many amongst you
were crying to hira, and waiting for him, te
corae unte you for your rescue.
Made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. To suppl;
and help all, he ia eur magazine, whither to
have recourae to : for this end replenishel
with all the fulness of God, the very fulness
ef the Godhead dwelling in him ; the Spirit
not given unto him by meaaure. He is fit
to be made eur wisdom ; the wiadom of the
Father, as-here in thia place the apostle late
ly called him, the wisdom of God. , In him
are hid all ihe treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. They that find him, and come
unte bira, find it ae ; but the most look but
on the superfice ; they hear bis name, and
know not wbat is under it.
Righteousness. By fulfilling the whole
law, and all righteousness. Matt, iii- 15, and
yet suffering the rigour of it, aa if he had
tranagreaaed it. Ne guile, ne spot waa found
oitt him ; he was holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sin-ners, (white and ruddy,)
and yet the greatest sinner by imputation ;
The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.
And Psalm xl. 12, which ia propheaied of
hini : Mine iniquities have taken hold on
me. He owna them aa his, thougb not his ;
and endured aU that justice could require.
entered and paid the debt, and is acquitted
and set free again, and exalted at the right
hand of Ged. So it is evident that he is
righteous, even in that representative and
aponaional person he put on.
Sanctification. Chriat ia a living apring
ef lhat ; anointed above h's fellows. In him

SERMON V.

527

is no mixture of any iniquity. The Holy
Ghpst descended pn the appstles in the shape
of fire : there was somewhat to be purged in
them ; they were to be quickened and en
abled by it for their calling". But in hira,
as a dove, there was ne need of cleansing er
purging out any thing ; that was a symbol
of the spotless purity of his nature, and of
the fulness of the Spirit dwelling in him.
And redemption. Christ is mighty to
save, and having a right to aave — a kinamari,
a brother ; and as he hath bought freedom
for ainnera, will put thera in poaaeaaion of it,
wiU effect aud coraplete it. All that are in
him are reaUy delivered from the power of
sin and death, and ahall, ere long, be per
fectly and fully so ; they shaU be lifted up
above them, no longer to be raolested with
any reraaindera of either, or with fear ef thera,
or ao much aa any grief fer thera. And that
day is caUed the day of redemption, to which
we are before-hand raade sure, and sealed by
the Spirit.
We cannot then doubt of his fitness and
fulness to be these, and these for ua ; but
withal, we muat know that he ia deaigned ao
to be made unto ua, and came, and did,* aud
suffered all for this purpoae ; and having
done, retumed, and now Uvea, to be theae to
us. It is his place and oflice, and so his de
light ; be loves te be put upon the perfor
raance of this, te be their wisdom and righ
teousness, made of God to us. It ia
agreed betwixt the Father and him that he
be so : he is the wisdora of God, and raade
of Ged our wisdom. Wonderful ! that the
same that is his own wisdom, and no leaa,
he would make ours- And nOw, in a aenae
ef aU our igriorancea and follies, it becoraea
us to go to hira, to apply ourselves to hira,
and apply hira to us- He is caUed eur head,
and ao meat fitiy, for it ia the place of all our
wiadora ; that lies in our head ; and all the
rest, righteousness, sanctification, and re
demption. If he he righteouaneaa in him
self, and holy, and victor over his enemies,
and set free from wrath and death, then are
we so too in him ; fer he ia ours, and se
ours, that we become what he is, are inrigbt-
ed te aU he hath, and eridowed with all hia
gooda ; theugh poor arid baae in ourselves,
yet raanied to him : that is the title- We
are made rich, and noble, and. free; weare
righteous and holy, because be is. The wife
shines with the rays of her husband.* All
debts and pleas are taken off, he standa be
twixt us and all hazard, and in hira we stand
acquitted and justified before God.
That which makes up the raatch, and ties
the knot Of thia unipn, ia faith. He is made
of God unto us wisdom, righteousness. See;
lendered and held put aa all theae, in. the
promiae of the goapel ; not only declared- to
be reaUy furnished and fit so to be, but offer-
* U-/-or fulget radiis mariti-

ed te be so, and we warranted, yea, invited
and intreated te receive hira as such. But
he is effectuaUy raade-to be this to us, tome,
by believing, breught home and applied of
God, and faith wrought in the heart to enter
tain and unite to hira ; • it closea the bar
gain, and makea hira ours. New, in that
he is made unto ua, not of ourselvea, but
God, fer that ia hia gift and work : we can
not believe any raere than we can fulfil the
whole law ; and though men think it a com-
iiieu and eaay thing to accept of ao aweet an
offer at ao cheap a rate, nothing being re
quired but to receive hira, yet thia is a thing
that naturaUy all refuae. No man comes,
(aays he,) except the Father draw hirn.
Theugh raen be beseeched to ceme, yet the
raoat will not come unto me, that they may
have life. To as many as received him, he
gave ihe privilege to become the sons of
God ; and yet, for aU that, raany did not
receive him ; yea, aa there it is expreaaed,
He came to his own, but his own received
him not. They that were neareat to him in
natural relation and interest, yet refused hira,
for the raost part, and attained not this
bleased, spiritual interest in hira unto life.
It ahould be considered, ray brethren,
Christ ia daily held out, and none are excluded
or excepted ; all are invited, be they what tbey
will, that have need of hira, and uae fer hira ;
and yet, who ia perauaded ? Ob ! Who hath
believed our report ? One hath hia farra,
another hia oxen, each aome engageraent or
another. Men are not at leiaure for Chriat.
Why, yeu think, raay be, yeu have received
bira. If it be ao, you are happy. Be not
deluded. Have you received him ? Do you
find him then Uving and ruling within yeu ?
Are your eyes upon him ? Do you wait on
hira, early and late, to aee what hia will ia ?
Is your aoul glad in him ? Can yeu, in
diatreaa, aickneaa, or poverty, claap hira,
and find him sweet, and aUay all with tbia
thought, " However things go with me, yet
Chriat is in rae ?" Doth your heart cleave
to hira ? Certainly, if he he in you, it will
be thus ; ,or, at least, your raoat eameat de
aire will be, that it raay be thua.
Men wiU net beUeve how hard araatter it
ia to believe the fulneas and aufficiency of
Jesus Chriat, till they be put to it in eameat
to raake use of him, and then they find it :
when sin and death are aet before their view,
and discovered in their native herridness unto
the seul, wheri a raan ia driven to that. What
shall I do to be saved? then, then is the
time to know what notion he hath of Christ.
And as the difficulty Ues in this, in the firat
awakening of tbe conscience frora sin, so, in
after-times of temptation and apprehension
of wrath, when upon aome newly-added guil
tineaa, or a new sight ofthe eld, in a fright
ful manner, sin revives, and the soul dies,
* 'H XlffTIt tffosoiu.

528

SERMON V.

it is struck dead with the tenors of the law ;
then, to keep thy hold, and find another Ufe
in Christ, the law and justice satisfied, and
ao the conacience quieted in him, this is in-
deed to believe.
It is a thing of huge difficulty to bring
men to i aense of tbeir natural misery, te see
that they have need of a Saviour, and to look
out fer one ; but then, being brought to that,
it ia no leas, if not raore difficult, to persuade
them that Christ is he ; tbat, as they have
need of hira, ao they need no raore, he being
able and aiiificient for thera. All the waver-
inga and feara of miabelieving minds de
spring frem dark and narrow apprehenaiona
of Jesua Chriat. All the doubt is not of
their interest, as they iraagine ; they whe
say se, and think it is so, do not perceive
the bottora and root of their own malady.
They say, they do no whit doubt but that
he is able enough, and his righteousneas
large enough ; but aU the doubt i-a," if he
belong to me. Now, I aay, thia doubt ariaes
from a defect and doubt of the forraer,
wherein you suspect it net. Why doubtest
tliou tbat he belongs to thee ? Doat thou fly
to hira, as lest arid undone in thyself ? Doat
thou renounce all that cari be called thine,
and aeek thy life in bira ? Then he ia thine.
He came to seek and to save that which was
lost. Oh ! but I find ao much, not only
former, but still daily renewed and increas
ing guiltiness. Why, is he a sufficient Sa
viour, er, is he not ? If tbou dost say, he is
not, then it is raanifest that here lies the
defect ^nd raistake. If tbou sayest, he is.
then hast thou answered all thy objections of
that kind; much guiltiness, much or little,
old or new, neither helps nor hinders, as te
thy interest in hira, and salvation by hira.
And fer dispelling these mists, nothing can
be raore effectual than the letting in of these
goapel beama, the clear expresaiona of hia
riches and fulneas in the Scripturea, and erai
nently tbia, made ofGod, wisdom, righteous
ness, sanctificatiak, Scc.
Wisdom. Both objectively and effective
ly. Objectively, I mean all our wisdom te
be in the right knowledge and apprehension
of him ; and this suits to the apostle's pre
sent diacourae. The Jewa would have a sign,
and the Gentiles ivisdom; but we preach
Christ : so chap. ii. 2. / determined to
know nothing, save Christ crucified. He
was learnedly hred, and knew many things
besidea ; much of nature, and much of the
law ; but aU thia was to him out-of-date,
useless stufl'; it was as if he never had heard
of, nor known any thing else but Jesus Christ.
We may know other things ; but this, and
this alone, is our wisdom, to know him, and
him crucified ; particularly we may bave
knowledge ef the law, and by it the know
ledge of sin ; but in relation to our standing
before God^ arid so our happiness, which

\s the greatest point pf wiadpra, Jesua
Christ is alpne, and is all. And the more
firraly a spul eyes Chiist, and Ipses all ether
knowledge, and itself in contemplating him,
the raore truly wise and heavenly it is.
And effectively he ia eur wiadom. AU
eur right knowledge ef hira and belief in him
fiowa frora himaelf, is derived frem him, and
aent into our souls.- His Spirit is conveyed
into ours ; a beam ef hiraself, aa of the ami.
Thia Sun ef righteousnesa ia not seen but by
his o,wn Ught ; ao tbat every aoul that ia made
wiae unto salvation, that ia breught to appre.
bend Chriat, to cleave to hira, and repose on
hira, it is by an eraission of divine light
from hiraself, which shews him, and leads
unte him. And se we know Ged in him.
There is no right knowledge of the Father
but in the Son ; God dwelUng in the raan
Christ, wiU be found or known ne where
else ; and they which consider and worship
God out of Chriat, do not knew or worship
tbe trae God, but a false uotiori and fancy of
their own.
The Shechinah, the habitation of the Ma
jesty, is Jeaua Chriat ; there he dwells as
between the cherubira over the mercy.seat.
To apprehend God so, is to love him, and
trust in hira all our life, to hope to find favoui
and bUss with him ; thia is the pnly wise
knpwledge pf him : npw this alpne ia in
Chriat, and frpm him. He cpntaina this re.
preaentatien of God, and givea hia own light
to aee it ; ao that a Chriatian's desire would
be, in relation te Jesus Christ, that ef David
to the teraple, as a figure of him, '^ One
thing have I desired of him, and that will I
seek after, that I may dwell in the houae of
the Lord ;" that I may get in tu Chriat, to
know God there, " io behold the beauty of
ihe Lord." There we see beauty indeed|
the Father's glory, and so, as our Father,
reconciled to ua, we aee him merciful and
gracious. And aa te behold, so still to in.
quire in hia teraple, to advance in the know-
ledge of Ged, studying him in Christ ; to
adraire what we see, and seek still to see
mere : and to know that this knowledge of
God, as we have it in Christ, is from him.
He reveals the Father; he came from his
besom for that purpose. We cannpt beUeve
pn him, cannpt cprae near Gpd thrpugh him,
but as he lets forth of his light, te conduct
and lead us in, yea, powerfuUy to draw in,
for his Ught dees so. Now, knowing and
apprehending him by his own light, his
Spirit, the apostie clears it, that this is our
wisdora, by those rich titles added ; accord.
ing to which we find hira to us, when we re
ceive frora him that wiadora, by which we
apprehend him aright, and lay hold en him,
then made unto us righteousness, sanctifica
tion, and redemption.
Righteousness. This doubtless is raeant
of the righteonsness by which we are justified

SERMON r.

f.29

before God. And he ia made this io us :
applied by faith, his righteousness becomes
mira. That exchange raade, our sins are
laid over upen hini, and hia obedience put
upon ua. Thia the great glad-tidings, tliat
we are made righteous by Christ It ia not
a righteouaness wrought by us, but given te
ua, and put upon ua. This carnal reason
cannot apprehend, and being proud, therefere
rejects and argues against it ; says, How can
ihis thing be ? But faith closea with it, and
without either doing or auffering, the sinner is
acquitted and justified, and stands aa guiltless
of breach, yea, as having fulfiUed the whole
law. And happy they that thus faaten upon
thia righteouaneaa : they may lift up their
facea with gladneaa and holdneaa before God ;
whereas the moat induatrioua, aeU'-saving
justiciary, though in other raen'a eyea and
Ilia own, possibly for the present, he raakes
a glistering allow, yet according to the law,
he ahaU be covered with ahame, and con
founded in hia folly and guiltineaa. But
fiiith triumphs ever aelf-worthineaa, and ain,
and death, and the law, shrouding the aoul
under the mantle of Jeaus Chriat ; arid there
it ia safe. AU accusations faU off, having
no where te fasten, unleas sorae blemish could
be found in that righteousness in whicb faith
hath wrapt itself. This is the very spring
of solid peace, and filia the seul with peace
and joy. But stiU men would have sorae
thing within theraselves to raake out the
matter, as if this robe needed any such piec
ing ; and not finding what they desire, thence
disquiet and unsettleraent of raind arises.
Trae it is, that this faith purifies the heart,
and works holiness, and all graces flow frora
it : but in this work ef justifying the ainner
it. is alone, and cannot admit any mixture.
As Luther's reserablance ia, " Faith is as
the bride with Chriat in the bed-chamber
alone ; but when ahe coraeth forth, hath the
attendance and train of other gracea with
her." Thia weU underatood, the aoul that
-believea en Jesua Chriat, wUl net let g<}, for
all deficieucy in itself ; and yet so resting en
hira, will not be alothful nor regardleaa of
any duty of hoUneas : yea, thia ia the way te
abound in aU the fruita of the Spirit, flrst,
to have tbat wisdora from hira, rightiy to
apprehend and apply him as our righteoua
ness, and then sliaU we find aU fumiture of
grace in him ; be wiU likewise be sanctifica
tion. Say not, ¦' Unless I find aome mea
aure of aanctification, what right have I to
apply him aa ray righteouaneaa ?" This
inverts the order, and prejudges thee ef beth.
Thou must firat, without finding, yea, er
aeeking any thing in thyself but misery
and guiltiriesa, lay hold en him aa thy righ-
teouaness ; or else thou ahalt never find aanc
tification by any other endeavour or pui auit.
Heitisthat ia made aanctification to us,
und out of him we seek it in vain. Now,

firat, he must be thy righteousness, before
thou find him thy aanctification. Simply,
aa a guilty sinner thou raust fly to hira for
shelter ; and then, being come in, thou shalt
be fumiahed, out ef bis fulneaa, with grace
for grace. Aa a peor man pursued by the
jiisticery, flying to a strong castie for safety,
and being in it, finds it a rich palace, and
all hia wants aupplied there.
Thia misunderstanding ef tbat ujothod is
the cauae of much of that darkneaa and dia-
cemfort, andwithalof tbat deadneas and. de
fect ef gracea, that many peraens go drooping
under, who wiU net take thia way, the only
straight and sure way of life and comfort.
Now, Sanctification. He is to us not only as
a perfect pattern, but as a powerful principle.
It ia really the Spirit of Christ in a believer,
tbat crucifies the world, and purgea out sin,
and forms the soul to his likenesa. It ia im
poaaible te be holy, not being in him ; and
being truly in hira, it ia aa irapoaaible not to
be holy. Our pothering and turraoiling with
out him, makes us leae our labour ; and in
thia point, indeed, little wit makes much
labour. Redemption. Sin is eften prevailing, even
in believera ; and therewithal diacomforta
and doubta arising, as it cannot otherwise
choose- Oh how do they groan and sigh as
captivea still to the law of sin and death !
Well, there is in our Lord Jesus help for
that too ; he is rederaption, that is, the cora
plement and fulness of deliverance, the price
he paid once for aU ; now he goes on to work
that deliverance by conquest that he bought
by ranaom- It ia going on, even when we
feel it not ; and within a little while it ahaU
be perfected, and we ahall see aU the host of
our eneraiea that puraued ua, aa Israel saw
the Egyptians, lie dead upon the abore.
Courage ! that day is coming- And all thia,
that he that glories, may glory in ihe Lord,
is it not reaaonable ? No aelf-glorying ; tbe
more faith, the 'leaa stiU of that. A believer
is nothing in hiraaelf: aUia Chriat's ; Christ
ia hia all. That treaaurer who, being called
to an account, because that out ef nothing
he had enriched himself auddenly, many
thought he would have been puzzled with it ;
but he, without being much moved, next
morning came before the king in an old auit
that he were before he got that office, and
said, " Sir, this suit on ray back is raine,
but aU the rest is thine." Se our old suit is
ours, all the rest Christ's, and he allows it
well. And in the full and pure glory that
ascends te God in thia work, are we to re
joice, more than in the work itaelf, aa our
salvation. There ia an humble kind ef boast-
ing that becomea a Chriatian : My soul shall
glory, er make her boast in God, saya David,
all ihe day Jong. What waa I before I raet
with Chriat, thiuka a beUever, and : ow what
2L

.^30

SERMON VL

am I ? And, upen that thought, wonders
and lovea. But most ef the wonder is yet
to corae ; fer he conceives but Uttle what we
shall be.

SERMON VI.
Jeremiah x. 23, 24.
O Lord, I know ihat the way of man is not
in himself ; it is not in man ihat walk
eth to direct his steps. O Lord, correct
me, but with judgment ; not in ihine
anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.
It cannet be expressed what an advantage
a heart acquainted with God hath, in all tbe
revolutions and changes of the world, when
it turns unto Hira, and gives vent to its
griefs and desires into his besom, .and so finds
ease. Tbis the prophet dees here : after the
denouncing of a heavy judgment, be turns
towards Hira from whora he brought that
message, to entreat for them to whom he
brought it. After a very sad close of his
serraon, he adds this short but very sweet
prayer ; presents hiraself and speaks in that
style, as representing the whole people. Cor
-ect me, O Lord ; raakes their calaraity, as
it were, all his ewn ; bears their person, and
presents his petition for them in his own
name. The prophets, thougb tbey could
not but applaud and approve the justice of
God that sent thein, in the haraheat newa
they brought ; yet withal could not be in-
.senaible of the miaeriea of hia people : and
sowe find them mixing pathetical coraplaints
and prayers for them, with the predictions
of judgment againat thera.
Obs. And thua are all his faithful minis
ters affected towards his church. The Lerd
himself is pleased to express a kind of regret,
sometimes in the punishing of them ; aa the
tender-hearted father feela tbe lashes he laya
on, though highly deserved by the stubborn
ness of his children. Hos. xi. 8. " How shall
I give thee up, Ephraira ? How shall I de
liver thee, Israel ? How ahall I raake thee
as Adraah ? Hew shall I set thee as Ze
boim ? Mine heart is tumed within me, my
repentings are kindled together." So it well
becoraes his servants to be thus affected,
when they deliver sad news to his people, to
return praying for thera : thus going, as
angels betwixt heaven and earth, beseeching
the people to retum unto God, and beseech
ing God to return to his people, and spare
them. Tlie prophet, in this prayer, first premises
a poaition suiting hia purpose ; and then.

upon that, presents his supplication. The
position he lays, to make a double benefit of
it in order to his petition. It ia both a sure
ground fer himaelf te atand en, and a fit
argument to move God by. Thua it is, and
thus be intenda and uses it, at once to sup.
pprt his pwn faith, and work on the goodnesa
of God by it. Beaides the fitness of the
truth itself for both these enda, we find some
print of both, in the very way of expreaaing
it, O Lord, I know that the way of man is
not in himself. See. ao expressing both his
own persuasion of tbe truth of it, / know,
and representing it to God, as a fit truth to
urge his auit by, O Lord, I know.
Observe. A great part of the strength
and art of prayer lies in this, first te have
the mind furniahed with fit conceptions of
Ged, and established in the firm persuasions
of them ; in that is rauch of the strength of
pnayer : then fitly te call up, and use these
conceptions and persuasions, fer our own
supporting and prevailing with God ; in that
Uea the art of it.
We poasibly de think that we do auffici.
ently believe both the goodness and power of
God, especially his power, none suspecting
himself of the least doubt of it ; yet our per.
plexing doubts and fears, eur feehle stagger.
inga in faith and prayer, upen particular
pressing difficultiea, diacover evidently a de.
feet here, though still we wiU not ewn it.
And, alas ! how litde faculty bave we in the
raoat needful tiraea, to rest en his strength,
and te stir up ourselves, to stir him up by
prayer, to do for us ; holding firm to that
great point of his absolute sovereignty and
power over all things, and holding it up to
hira, entreating hira by it to appear and
work fer us : " Lord, it is in thy harid ; that
I kriow, arid that is eriough for rae : thy
good-will I dare trust" (fer there ia impUed a
aecret corifidence, of that). " This contents
rae, that theu hast full pewer of the busi
ness." That is the thing here the prophet
fixes on — " O Lord, I know that the way of
man is not in hiraself."
" As there ia in ua no power to tum off the
judgraent deterrained, all our wit and atrength
can do nothing to that ; ao we are auie there
is no pewer in our enemies te do any thing,
either beyond or beside thy appointraent, iu
the execution of it ; and upon this. Lord,
we come to suppUcate thee for mitigation.
With raen it eften falls out, either in just
punishments, or unjust oppressions, tiiat tlic
ministers and under officers do exceed their
coraraission, and overdo their business ; yea,
soraetimes add little leaa of their own, tiian
all that comea to which is appointed to tiicni ;
but with thee, O Lord, it js not so. Aa our
eneraiea cannot stir of tlieraselvea witiiout
order frora thee ; and as thy coramissions
arc .ilwaya all juat, so thou seest to the per.
formance art present at it, whicii often nicu

SERMON VI.

531

cannot be : and ae nothing ia or cau be
done beside thy notice and aUowance."
His position is this. The way of man is
not in himself; and repeated more plainly,
it is not in man that walketh io direct his
steps. Thus, by a, double negation, put
ting it altogether out of his power. And
imder this the positive truth ia couched, that
the absolute dispoaal of aU the ways of men
is whoUy in the supreme harid ef God ;
according to that, Prov. xx. 24, Man's
goings are of the Lord. How can a raan
then understand his way ? He does net
certainly know any thing of his own doings.
Even he that seems to know most, te advise
and deliberate upen all be does, yet hath ne
power of his contriveraents, knows not which
way they wiU tum, till the event doth clear
it ; and even theu, looking back, is often
amazed at the strange course of things, so
far different from, and possibly contrary to,
aU his witty projectings and models : often
doea net attain liis own, but never faila tu
accorapliab God's purpoae, even when bis
intentions are least for it, yea, when they are
moat againat it. Let us build a tower, aaid
they, (Gen. xi.,) lest we be scattered abroad :
and that waa the very thing which cauaed
thefr scattering. Joseph was sold by his
brethren, that they raight not bow before
him, aa he bad dreamed ; and this brought
it to pasa. Pharaoh saya. Let us deal wisely ;
and that way of oppreaaing thera, leat they
should go away, both stined up God to
deliver them, and dispoaed them to depart.
And, npt tp multiply inatancea, generaUy in
aU the waya pf raen, tbey have their deaigna
meat tiraes eccentric to God's ; but hia holda
always, and theira ne further than they are
his. Have we not ourselves aeen instances
of thia ?
Man conaults and determines freely ; yet
even these inward actings of the raind and
wiU, are ordered and fraraed by the hand of
God, and it cannot otherwiae be. It is a
moat vain fancy, to iraagine that any thing
in this is inconaiatent with the natural liberty
of his wiU, or that any such liberty can be
in any creature, aa conaiata net with hia-
But becauae in these inward actings, raan
finds hiraaelf more at his choice, though aU
ia secretly over-ruled, and in tbe event of
things, God's aovereign diapoaal is more
legible ; therefere these two are expressed
witb aome kind of difference, Prov- xvi. 9.
A man's heart deviseth his way, but the
Lord directs his steps : that ia, when he
hath deviaed, that does net carry it ; he raay
devise and fancy things twenty waya, and
think he is taking freely his own courae, but
he ahall find in the issue another hand than
his own. It is noi in man ihat walks, as
the word is here : he walketh, and yet the
direction of his atepa ia in another hand.
But in the deviaings too, the Lord so acts

on raan, that he is tumed which way it
pieaaeth him. Even the heart, and tbat nf
the raoat uncontrouled, the moat impetuous
torrent, the king's heart, is in his hand, is
turned as the rivers of waters. When
raen either determine theraaelves, or follow
unallowed ways fer deterraination, as theae,
Ezek. xxi. 21, yet are they ordered ofGod.
This he does infalUbly and uncontrollably,
yet in such a way as there is nothing distorted
or violented. * AU ia se dene. Things are
in tbeir ewn course, and raen are iu tbeir
voluntary choices, yet all subserving the
great Lord, and his enda, and his glery, that
raade thera aU for hiraself ; as the lower orba
have each their motion, but are aU wheeled
about with the firat. Men know not what
he ia doing by thera, and what in the end
he will do with thera, laaiah x. 15, 16,
With ihe rod of Assyria he scourgea his
children, and then throws the rod in the fire-
The horseleech drawa the blood to fiU itaelf,
but the physician intends the patient's health-
Men are drawn on by teraporal proaperiiigs
and auccesaes to drive' proudly and furioualy,
tiU they drive theraaelvea over the edge of
tbe precipice appointed for their ruin ; and
aU hia exalting thera for a season, is, in the
end, to exalt hiraself in thefr greater and
raore remarkable deatruction- / will get me
a name upon Pharaoh and all his host. Men
are buay, conaulting or acting with or against
one another, and he aits and laugba at theii
wiaeat plots ; he alone ia in all affaira, doing
all hia own wiU in heaven and in earth.
Oh ! the foUy and blindneaa of men, that
think to cany all te their rainda, and walk
aa masters of their own deaigna, and never
have any serioua thought of him, in who.se
banda both tbey, and aU their buaineaa, and
aU the affaira of atatea and kingdoms of this
werld, are as a piece of wax, to frame their.
to what he pleaaea. He that " deatroys the
counaela of the wise, and raakes the diviners
mad, that pours contempt upon princes, leads
counseUora away spoiled, and maketh the
judgea foola ;" He hath aet limits to all
things, to the raging of the sea — ^inakes
the smaU sand give check to the great ocean ;
when it brake out of the womb, he had '*
cradle provided for it, and swaddling banda.
Job xxxviii. 8, 9, and there, though it rolls
to and fro, yet cannet get out. Oh ! it is
ignorance of Ged raakea men ruah en, and
not inquire whether he be witb tbem or not.
Moaea waa wiae and ateut, and leader of a
numerous people, yet he would not stir on
other temis ; " If thou go not with us, let ua
not go up hence." Well, if men wiU on
their peril, be it ; let ua reverence God ;
for even thia ia frora him, and he will gain
hia glory out of it — The way of man is not
in himself. If we aee their foUy, let ua leam
to be wiaer, to keep clpse to him, and detiti:
• Fortiter et suaviter.

532

SERMON VI.

his gracious direction of our ways ; for it is
not in our handa, even when we intend beat.
And for public affaira, let us reat satisfled in
his part. Araidat aU disorders, he ia order
ing all wiaely and justiy, and to thera that
love hira, graciously ; therefore we ought not
to be disraayed. Let us calra our thoughts
with this, reraember who it is that rales all,
and dispoaea of peace and war, and all affairs,
and we cannot wiah thera in a better hand.
I ara nersuaded, that in aU the coraraotions
of the world, when a believer thinks on this,
it cannot but calm and corapose his apirit
exceedingly. My Father rules all. Let thia
ao quiet our fears, aa that withal it quicken
our prayera, and atir ua up to the work of thia
day, repentant, humble seeking unto Ged ;
aeeing aU ia in hia handa, our peace, our
liberties, and our eneraiea that threaten to
bereave us of both. Oh ! that the effect ef
all our troublea and dangers were te drive ua
more to God, to make ua throng more about
the throne of grace, to draw forth our King
for our help. Oh ! our irapenitence and
unreformedness ! That turns him to be our
eneray, arid that only. Men are nothing.
And now in so great straits, yet se little
caUing en hira ! Oh ! ray brethren, what
are we doing ? Oh ! Pray, pray ; it is eur
God that commanda aU ; and we raay aay it,
upon his own wanant, It is prayer ihat
commands him.
Correct me. Sec. When the hand of God
ia atretched out againat a people or a peraon,
certainly there is no running from hira : the
only wiae and safe course is, to run unto
hira. Tbia the prophet doea in behalf of hia
peeple, and by hia exaraple teaches them so
to do. As the prophet utters his own aenae
and deaires in this prayer, se he sets it aa a
copy to tbe people of God, in time of judg
raent, to pray by ; ahews thera the way,
which ia, not vainly te offer to fiy from him,
or proudly te atand out againat hira, to their
undoing, but to humble theraaelves under
his raighty band, supplicating hira, yielding
theraselves, and begging quarter. " Conect
rae, O Lord, with judgraent, not in anger, leat
thou bring me to nothing." That I suffer
for my rebellion, good reason ; yet. Lord,
do not utterly deatroy me ; which will be, if
the weiglit of thine anger fall uppn rae : and
for tbat, though indeed we have deaerved it,
yet there is another vent for it, and pardon
us to say so, fitter matter for it. Pour out
thy wrath upon the Heathen ; let it ge out
that way. So we see the supplication hath
these two particulara in it, an aversion and
a diversion : an aversion oi the anger ef
God from hia ewn peeple under conection ;
and a diversion oi it upen bis and tbeir ene.
rales : Lord, turn from us, and pour it
out ihere. The aversion ia presented, qua
lified with a hurable aubmiasion, declaring
expressly they decline not that correction of

God, but only deprecate his consuming an.
ger. Correct me, O Lord, but with judgment,
that ia, with raeaaure ; auch aa the discretion
and love of a father resolves on towards his
child ; thus much wiU I conect him for his
good, and ne further.
Not in thine anger. Ged is pleased to
express his displeasure against ain, by -wrath
and anger, even towards hia own children :
but the anger here the prophet entreats ex.
ception frora fer tbe church, is anger oppoi
sed to judgment, unbounded deatreying an
ger, that knows no limits nor stop, but the
devouring of those against whom it is kin
dled- Thia is spoken in eur language, but is
te be underatood in a way suiting the purity
of God. In hira truly is ne pasaion at aU,
rauch leas any that ia not ordered by wisdom
and judgraent. He ia net canied in heat
beyond his purpoaed measure, but knows
well hew- far he intends to go with any, and
goes no further. But aa his anger means
his juat punishing of sin, so hia unlimited
anger signifiea no other but his juat proceed
ing in puniahment, to the utter deatruction
of inflexible ainnera : and to tbis ia opposed
here his correcting with judgment ; that is,
in a fatherly, gracious moderation, such as
does not utterly ruin and cut off, but indeed
reclaims and converts sinners unte him.
This subraission and yieldance to a mea
sured conection, is a thing raoat reasonable';
they that know any thing aright of themselves
and God, wiU not refuse it.
First, reflecting on their ewn sinfulness,
which, when truly diacovered, even where
there ia leaat, yet ia there enough of it to
juatify even utter destruction : therefore have
we good reason, unrepiningly te receive auch
raoderate conection frora the hand of God
as he thinks flt, and to wonder that it is no
more. It ia one trae character of repentance
under the rod, to accept the punishment of
our iniquity, to have our untamed apirits
brought low, to atppp tp Gpd, tp acknow
ledge our punishraent to be far leaa than our
iniquity, and that it ia of hia goodness that
we are not consumed, aa the church con-
feasea. Though we feel it heavy and the
raeasure hard, yet aelf-knowledge and con.
scipuaneaa pf ain wiU lay the aoul lew, and
raake it quiet, will say nothing ; er if any
thing, it wiU be confession of its ewn guilti
neaa, and the righteousness ci God : still
clearing him in all, as it is Psahn U. 4, and
using that other Psalra, cxix. 1 37, whatsoever
is so inflicted. Righteous art thou, 0 Lord,
just are thy judgments : which words a good
king used, being put in prison, and hardly
dealt with. So tbe Psalraist, Ps., xxxviu.
3, (" There is ne aoundneaa in ray fleah be
cause ef thine auger, neither is there any
rest in ray bones because of my siri,") justi-
fiea God'a anger, by hi» own sin. Thus

SERMON VI.

f>ZZ

Daniel makea confession for this people,
under the very captivity here threatened, wben
it had lasted out the full term, Dan. ix.
And knowing our sin, ought we not to
allow God the clearing of hia own justice,
his purity and hatred of sin, in punishing it ?
And possibly raoat exeraplarily here, in theae
that are nearest him, his own people and
children, in whom he can least endure it.
This especiaUy when^we consider his sove
reignty and greatness, that he is tied to no
account ef his actings ; and though we did
net aee so clear reason for our sufferinga iu
•our deservinga, there ia reaaon enough in
his wiU. And this, weU conaidered, would
bring us te much hurable submission in all.
/ was dumb, says David, / opened not my
mouth, because thou didst it. The bishop
of Troyes meeting Attila marching towards
the city, asked who he was. / am, said he,
the scourge of God. Upon this he set open
the gates to hira ; but God raarvellously re-
atrained the aoldiers in that city.
But yet further, aa our own guiltiness,
and God's righteouaneaa and greatneaa, plead
for thia cpmpUauce with hia chaatiaementa ;
SP even his gppdness, and eur own proflt in
tbem. There is in his chastising of his own
people very much mercy, that they may not
be condemned with the world- Their affUc
tions have a secret stamp of leve en them ;
By this is the iniquity of Jacob purged,
Sec. He purifles a people in his furnace,
that they -may be holy unte bira, gives his
own many sweet experiences of secret support
and corafort in afHiction, and seasonable de
Uvery out of it, and bringa thera forth with
advantage, The peaceable fruits of righ
teousness, Heb. xii. 11. He hurablea and
purgea a people or peraen, by hia rods, and
prepares them fur greater merciea, to enjoy
them both raore sweetly and uaefuUy ; re
news his covenant, and the rautual endear
ments of love betwixt hiraself and his people,
according to the gracious proraisea made to
hia people, in relation to this very judgment
here threatened, and afterwarda inflicted on
them, Isa. liv. Ezek. xxxvi.
We, possibly, think it strange tbat our
pressures and froubles atill continue, and
rather grew upen ua than abate ; but we
judge not wisely concerning this ; the moat
part curaing and repining, othera faUing into
a dead, hopeleaa stupidneaa, not caring what
becomes of things. But our best course
were, to turn to him that amites ua, to ac
knowledge our rebelUons and his justice, te
eye men less and Ged more, in our sufferings,
and confess thai our provocations exceed aU
that is come upon ua ; to fall down humbly
before God, and take submissively his chas
tisements. Correct me, O Lord, but with
judgment, Scc, ; and with the church, /
will bear the indignation of the Lord, be
cauae I have sinned against him, Mic. vU.

9. Thus likewise in private peraonal conect-
ings, let us learn te behave ourselves raeekly
and humbly, aa the children ef ao great and
geod a Father ; whatsoever he inflicts, not
to murmur, nor entertain a fretful thought of
it. Besides the undutifulness and unseem
liness of it, how vain is it ! What gain we
by struggling, and caating up our hand, to
cast off tbe rod, but the raore laahea ? Our
only way is to kneel, and fold under his
hands, and kiss his reds, and, even while he
is smiting ua, to be blessing him, sending up
confessions ef his righteouaness, and good
ness, and faithfulness, only entreating for the
turning away of his wrath, theugh it should
be with the continuing eur affliction. That is
here the style of the prophet's prayer. Cor
rect me, O Lord, but not in anger :
and according to this suit, even where
troubles are chastisements fer ain, yet a child
ef God"raay find rauch sweetnesa ; reading
much of God's leve in ao dealing with hira ;
not auffering him to grow wanton, and forget
Him ; as in much ease, even hia own chil
dren soraetiraes do. -And as they raay find
much of God's love to them in sharp cor
rections, tbey may raiae and act rauch of
their love to bim in often-repeated reaign-
raenta and submiaaions ef theraaelvea, and
readily consenting te, yea, rejoicing in his
geod pleasure, even in thoae things that to
their fleah and sense are raost unpleasant.
Now, to the petition, the averting of his
anger. That ia the great requeat of them
that know and fear him ; and there ia high
reaaon for it : the heavieat sufferings are
light without it ; but the leaat ingredient of
that adda iuexpreasible weight to the amallest
afiSiction. Thia it waa, it is likely, whicii
made the visage of death so aad to holy men
in Scripture, David, Hexekiah, See, that
at theae tiraes it had some character of God's
anger against thera upen it, carae to thera
aa a meaaenger of displeasure ; so a thing
sraall in itself raay be a great curse. To be
cast out unburied is ne great matter ; natu
ral men slight it.;* there is Uttle difference,
to lie eaten ef beasts above ground, er of
worms beneath ; yet when foretold to a raan
as a judgraent denounced from God, as
against that king, (Jer. xxii. 19,) it hath
its own weight, carrying some stamp ef God's
despising hira ; and though a man feela it
not when it is done, yet he feels it, looking
on it beforehand, especiaUy as threatened ef
God ; sees hiraaelf, as it were, dragged abeut
and tern.
Now if any Uttle particular cross, marked
with God's present anger, becorae ao heavy,
how much raore ia his abiding, prolonged
wrath ! The thing here spoken ef, anger,
to which no bounda ia aet, that (says he, in
the narae pf hia pepple) would bring me to
nought ; there ia ne standing befpre it, it
* Ciclo tegitur, qui non habet umain.

634

SERMON vn.

will raake the stoutest and proudest to shake,
yea, shakes them te pieces. If the wrath
of a king he to raeaner men as the roaring
of a lion, how ranch more tenible, even te
kings themselves, is the -wrath of God !
Thia great King, whose voice shakes the
mountains, and raakea the earth to tremble,
arraies of terrors and deaths are nething to a
look of bia angry countenanoe. " If he with
drawa not his anger, (Job ix. 13,) the
proud helpers stoop under hira ;' ' the helpers
of pride, the great A-tlasses of the world,
that are thought to bear up all, those that
for their wit and power are thought tbe sup
porters of the kingdora, how sppn are they
cruahed tp piecea by a touch of thia anger of
God, and perish at the rebuke of his cpunte
nance I " O Lprd," aaya that hply raan,
(considering the fraUty ef poor man, and the
power of God,) " who knows the power of
thine anger ? Even according to thy fear ao
is thy wrath ;" Paalra xc. 11 ; full aa rauch
yea, far raore terrible than any can appre
hend it.
They that dare go en in waya wherein it
raay be but auapected that he is againat thera,
oh, they know him not. Let ua conaider,
and fear before him ; and, for the land, stiU
entreat the turning away of his wr,ath rather
than deliverances from any preaaures. " Lord,
whUe thou thinkest good further to afflict us,
BO aa to draw ua nearer te thee, we are con
tent ; yea, we ahall bless thee : but whatso
ever thou do with us, suffer not thy hot dis-
pleaaure to arise against ua, for then we are
undone." So this ia all a aoul under hia
hand, in affliction, ought to aay, " Conect
me, but not in wrath, leat thou bring me te
nothing. Thou knowest I cannot atand be
fore that." He ia pleased te look to this,
and to expreaa it, aa that which moderatea
hia anger, even when justly incensed : Isa.
IvU. 16. "I will not contend for ever,
neither wiU I be always wroth ; fer the apirit
sheuld fail before rae,- and the souls which I
have raade :" — to lay this before him ;
" Lord, if thou wilt, how quickly and how
easily couldat thou break into piecea, or aink
into nothing, not only rae, a Uttle atora of
it, but the entire frarae of this whole werld ;
and therefore strive not with me." This
Job often repreaenta, and God is pleased to
move hiraself, to restrain his wrath, and draw
forth hia mercy by it. Ps. Ixxv. 38, 39,
and Ps. ciii. 14. His great corapasaion laya
bold on audi conaiderationa ; and thia raay
furnhsh great confidence to souls under a
sense of wrath, that do but fall down and
entreat fer raercy. He that so often prevents
us, when we seek it no', will he caat any
away that aeeks and sues for it ?
The diversion, briefly, ia to the Heathen,
tbe profeaaed and obdurate eneraies of God
and hia church : " Thy wrath, O Lord,
n ay have its course, and yet apare thy peo.

pie : there is raatter enough for it round
about, good fpr nothing elae, and good reason
for it, beaides aU ether wickedness, their
spite and cruelty against thy people, for they
have eaten up Jacob,
Next, the character of the ungodly, that
are flt fuel for this flre, ihat know noi and
call not on thy name, that profess not, pre-
tend not te be thine. Trerable you tbat are
too like tbeae, though of repute amongat the
peeple of God. Seek the knowledge of God,
and worahip him, famiUea and persona, lest
thia curse come upori you.
Now, this ia a prophetical foreteUing of
the utter deatructiori of the church's enemies,
whereas the church is corrected in measure,
and not deatroyed. She ia firat punished ;
but they that corae laat, the enemies, the
heaviest wrath falls down there and amethers
them ; enda on them, and raakea an end of
thera, Jer- xxx. 11. The belief of thia
may uphold the faithful in the church's
greateat diatresses. When at the lowest,
then the wrath is neareat changing place,-
and removing to her enemiea.
And thia ia to be ao deaired. and prayed
fer, in reference to tbe implacable enemies
of Ged, that we beware we raix nothing of
our own intereat er passion with. it. As
wrath in God is without any diaturbance ;•
80 aoraewhat Uke is the desire ef it in the
godly — calra, undiatempered love of the name
of God. And ao ahaU the aaints rejoice in
the final victory and triumph of Chriat over
all his enemies, and thefr final rain in that
day, when they shaU be made his footstool ;
then they shall have a pure coraplacency and
delight in hia justice ; (that ahall make all
even ;) and why are we diaquieted, if we
hope for that day ?

SERMON VIL

Isaiah xxx. 15 — 18.
For thus saith ihe Lord God, the Holy
One of Israel: In returning and rest
shadl ye be saved, in quietness and in
confidence shall be your strength ; and
ye would not. But ye said, No ; for
we will flee upon horses ; therefore
shall ye flee : and. We will ride upon
ihe swift ; therefore shall they that pur
sue you be swift. One thousand shall
flee ai ihe rebuke of one ; at the rebuke
of five shall ye flee: iill ye be left as a
beacon upon ihe top of a mountain, and
as an ensign on an hill. And therefore
will the Lord wait, that he may be gra-
* JEstuus et tranquillus es.

SERMON VU.

y.vs

metis unfo yon, and therefore will be
exalted, that he may have mercy upon
you : for the Lord is a God of judg
ment ; blessed are all they thai wait for
him.

Ik the aentence of that greatest and big-
gest judgment that' ever yet came on the
world, the univeraal deluge, aa we have it.
Gen. vi., that word doth meat livelily expreaa
the reaaon of it. My spirit shall not always
strive with man. For thua it ia, while he
spares even bia own people, he ia at a conti
nual atrife with thera, by gracious entreaties
and mercies, by advices and waminga and
threatenings, atill conteating ; that is the way
he uaes in the conteat, en his part, against
refuses and revolts, and rebellions en their
part. Thus here.
The question betwixt hira and his people
here ia about tbe help ef Egypt. Thia,
God eften declares to be whoUy against his
mind and their own good ; yet they ori all
occasions had so strong a mind to it, tbat
they could not be diverted. The prophet
here hath his message concerning this point,
to preach it, and to write it, to reraain ad
perpetuam rei memoriam, aa they speak,
vers. 7, 8 ; ahews tbem plainly that thia
course was whoUy without the counsel and
consent of God, yea, directly against it, and
that it should succeed accordingly : Th
strength of Pharaoh shall be iheir shame,
and iheir trust in the shadow of Egypt
their confusion. It shall prove to you accord.
irig to its name, a land of distress (ver. 6,)
and trouble, instead of help. And if you
would know what would suit that other name
of Egypt better, that were humble yieldance
to God, and confidence in him, (ver. 7,) —
your Rahab, your best Egypt, your truest
strength were to sit stiU. This is here again
represented to thera, se gladly would he re
claira them.
For thus saith the Lord, The werds
have, lst, God's express advice to his peeple ;
2dly, their pereraptory refusal of it ; Sdly, his
just sentence paased upon their obstinacy.
The advice ia prefaced with the uaual worda
of the propheta. Thus saith the Lord ; for in
that Ues the dignity and authority ef the
raessage. His advices, doubtless, are the
choicest and the safest ; y?a, hia counsela are
all commands, requiring duly the moat abso
lute obedience.
The Lord Jehovah, Were but his word
known to be his, and taken so, bow would
our souls melt, and yield to the impressions
of it, when we read or hear ! Oh, leam to
hear him, to take every word of his as from
hia own mouth, every time the law is read,
as if thou heard it from Mount Sinai. So
think, " Now God commands me te fear
him," as if you heard bim apeaking from
heaven ; that would level more our opinion

of men, and make less difference of hia mes —
sengers. Another word of his atyle ia here added,
the Holy One of Israel, This is much to
be considered by hia people, the holineaa of
hia nature, and withal, the nearness of his
relation to thera ; and se the reverence and
obedience we owe him, eur deep engagement
to holiness, aa hia peeple, hia children- This
ia his image in ua, if we are truly auch. All
hia aona and daughtera are like bira, holy as
he is holy. Tbe blind, base world thinks it
a word of disgrace, but the great God owns
it as a chief point of bis glery, a diaraend ef
his crown, and frequently expresses it as one
of the titles he raost delights te be known by
— Holy, Holy, Holy. And as this is beheld,
the heart cannot but be fiUed with reverence
and holy fear, and self-abaseraerit ; as this
prophet here, in seeing the vision, chap, xvi.,
and hearing that voice, Then said 1, woe is
me, for I am undone, ,
This is here uaed fitly to acare his people
from rebeUion, the unholy way, on which they
were so bent ; and the rather, becauae they
were grown weary ef it, and - deaired net to
hear this word, ver- 1 1, therefore the more
repeated, ver- 12, " Because you despise this
word, you shall hear it the raore-" The
prophet will neither be raocked nor threaten
ed out of it, wiU both deliver his me.ssage,
and give the King that aent hira, his own
title ; and, oh, that we knew hira, according
to it ; underatood what this means, the Holy
One of Israel 1 He was a holy man, and
knew aoraething, yet confeaaes his own igno
rance in that point. There rauat be sorae
knowledge of it to discover ignorance of it :
Prov- xxx- 3, " I neither leamed wisdom,
nor have the knowledge ofthe Holy."
In returning and rest. See, In leaving
off the paina ye take in meaaagea and journeys
to Egypt ; in hurably and quietly composing
yourselves to wait on rae, and trust in rae ;
submitting to ray hand, in what I bring upon
yeu, and frera the same hand, mine alone,
expecting deUverance in due time. This
does not bar the use ef all lawful means ;
but as it shuts out perplexing cares and tur-
raoU, even in those good means, so it ex
pressly forbids aU intermeddling with all un-
wananted ways, sucb as God doth net direct
us te, but rather dissuade us frem.
And if this be the safest way, sure it is
the 8weeteat, eaaieat way. There cannot be
any thing eaaier than to be quiet and Bit still,
to rest and trust, and so be safe and strong.
And aa it ia in this particular, so generally
it is in all the ways of God ; they are the
only easy, peaceable, aweet waya, the least
pains, and aureat advantage. And the waya
of diaobedience, beaides wbat comea after,
are, even' for the preaent, more turbulent,
laborious, perplexed waya. What a hurry
and pother are men put in to aerve their luats.

636

SERMON VII.

(,i tlieir ambition ; which, if they attain, does
not quit the cost and the pains ! Besidea
that, their hopea often mock thera ; and after
long pursuit, tbey erabrace a ahadow. Thus
raen woo their own vexatien, and take a
great deal more pains to be miserable than
they would be put to, te make them happy.
What a pity to pay so dear for nothing, to
give their richea and treaaurea, and to be at
pains too, to carry thera to a people that
ahall not profit them ;* both their expenae
and travel laid out te no purpoae ! The vo
luptuoua, or covetoua, er ambitioua, how do
they project and drudge, and serve their
wretched luata — that when they have done
one piece of service, are stiU to begin an
other ! Aud what is the prpfit of all, but
shame and sonow at last ? The humble,
sober-minded Christian saves aU that paina,
and hath hia heart's deaire in quietness and
confidence- ¦(¦ His great desire and deUght
ia God ; by desiring and delighting, he hath
him : Paalra xxxvii. 4, '^ Delight thou in
the Lord, and he ahall give thee thy heart's
desire hiraaelf;" and then, aure, thou shalt
have all : any other thing, ^' corarait to hira,
and he ahall bring it to paaa."}
Strange ! Rien might have God at an eaaier
rate than the pooreat vanities they are hunt
ing after, and yet they will not : a full foun
tain of living waters ready provided, yet they
wiU be at paina to hew out scurvy ciaterna,
that, after all their pains, are but " broken
cisterns, and can hold no water."
I know not what men are doing, atill at

Jereraiah long after, in this very point Jer,
xiii. 2. And so they ge on to take their own
courae : No, but we will flee upon horses.
And thia ia the nature ef carnal hearts,
generally inclined to rebel, and take a. way of
tbeir own, casting the counsels ef God as
not suiting with tbe atate, wit, er points of
honour- They find mere feeling and real
substance in sensual things than in the pro-
mises of God ; theae aeem airy, unaure things
to thera, therefore they would atiU aee ap.
parent means, and where these fail, think it
but a fancy te rest on God, dare not trust
him so but as withal to do for themselves,
although nothing can be done but what he
forbids, which, therefere, cannot be done,
without giving up with hira, and departing
frora their trust on hira. AU this cleaves
te ua, and much cauae have we to auapect
ourselves, when it ia but doubtful that tliere
appears little or no evidence of God's counsel
or good-will to a busineaa, but rather clear
characters ef his dialike, and much of our
own wiU, a stout uncontroulable bent to it ;
conacious to ourselvea ef this, that either we
have not asked advice of Ged at all, er very
slightly, net being much upon our knees with
it ; or, possibly, in asking hia advice, have
brought our anawer with us, in our own
breaats, the lying oracle, that making an.
swer, and we consenting to delude ourselves,
not hearkening to any thing that does not
cUnk ¦¦md sound to our purpoae.
Our hearta are exceedingly deceitful, aud
particularly in thia point of withdrawing our

work, and might better sit stiU ; troubling trust from Ged, and foUowing him in his
theraselves, and all abeut them, and cannot ways, to trust en the arm of fleah, on poUcy
weU tell for what. Oh I the sweet peace ef
believing and obeying God ! They truly con
quer sitting still :§ in all times they are safe
under the shadow of the Almighty, and
"strong in the Lord, andin the power ofhis
might." And ye would not, but said. No. Thus
men sometimes flally reject hia counsela ;
and when tbey are not ae grosa aa plainly te
apeak it out, yet say so, in doing ao, and for
geod mannera' aake, wiU blanch it with re
proaching the meaaengers ; will not bave it
to be God's mind, but men'a own fancy, a
fal.<e viaion ; will own nething for truth but
what auita their huraour and designs- Firat,
they resolve en their ceurse without acquaint
ing God, ask not his advice : then when he
is pleased to give it by bis measengera, they
reject it, net under that narae, as God's
advice, but wUl not bave it paaa for tbis, be-
causeitcroaea their already-determined course;
if it favoured that, then no queation, wel
corae criough as hia werd. That ia meant
by these words, ver. 10. And ao they uaei!
• Et oleum et operam. t Vacat teniperantia. .Se.-».
.f Sed nun habebunt re,-iuiem, qui bestiam adorani.
I(iir. 5 Varro de Romanij consilio cuncta agentibm
iKOsndo vmeeOafit

and atrength, and self-resolved uridertakinga,
rather than en hira witheut theae. Evil men
think thoae tbat adviae thera to truat on God,
are aiUy fellows who know not what belongs
to policy and reaaons of state : a fancied wis
dora it is, tbat raen are enaraoured with, and
look not to a higher wisdom, conaider not
God, that he also is wise, laa. xxxi, 2.
There is, I think, in that werd, a tart scorn
of the folly of their aeeming wisdom. Be it
yeu are wits, yet you will not deny aome wia
dora to God ; yet he also is wise. So they
think not on his pewer neither ; therefore he
puta thera in mind that the Egyptians are
men, Scc. ver. 3.
Well, if yeu be reaolved on that course,
aaya God, then know mine too, that I am re.
aolved upon : therefore ye shall flee, shall
have fleeing enough ; and if you be swift,
they ihat pursue you shall be swifter, and
one shall serve to chase a thousand ; tbe re.
buke, the very terror of ene. Thia is the
condition of the mightiest peeple and beat ap
pointed armies, when forsaken of God.
There is no sfrength nor courage, nor any
thing of worth in any of the creatures, but as
it is derived frora God ; it is dependent on
him in the continuance and use of it. Why

SERMON VII.

537.

Bt-e tbe vaUant raen swept away ? Jer. xlvi.
1 5, They stood not, because ihe Lord did
drive them. We have seen this, and the
(uin of it cn both sides, how raen becorae a
prey te any party, when the tenor from God
is upon them.
Therefpre leam we te fear hira, to beware
of all ways, wherein we may justiy appre.
hend him to be against us ; cleave to bim
and to bia truth, when it is lowest, and when
no human means of help appear ; then think
you hear him aaying to you. Stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord.
Ver. 18, Therefore will the Lord wait,
&i;. There ia no language of men nor angela
fit to expreaa the graciouaneaa of God's pu.
nisbments, and the threatenings of them, as
if it were violently drawn and forced from
him ; bjut mercy, and the aweet promiaea
thereof, naturally flowing from him. Thua,
here he ia forced to " give up hia people to
their own counaela," because they will net
follow his advices ; and entreats but to be
quiet, and let hira do for thera : but seeing
they will not sit still, and be Siife at his di
rection, they must tun their own course, and
fall in it- But it cannot paaa so ; tbey must
not be quite given ever ; tbe Lord hath an
interest in them that he wiU net loae- They
must indeed for a time eat the fruit of their
Awn waya, and that ia not a seaaon to ahew
them favour; but the Lord will wait abetter
hour, he ia reaolved to shew thera mercy, and
will find his own tirae for it ; therefore wiU
he wait that he -may be gracious.
And ihis is he raoved to, according to his
gracious nature, by tbe greatness ef tbeir dis
tress and deaolation, though procured by
themaelvea, their great, their inflexible atub-
bormiess ; yet he pities to see thera se left
as a beacon on ihe top of a mountain, Scc.
Therefore, See, Tbus we have the proper
arguings of free raercy, which otherwise, to
our nanow thoughts, raay seem strange, and
aomewhat incpuaequent ; auch a therefore as
this, SP unexpectedly changing the atrain,
dpth genuinely and aweetly fpUpw upon the
premiaes, when free love ia the medium ;
lhat intervening in the midat, makea the
f weet tum, " Your iniquitiea prevail to bring
you low, and lengthen out your calamities ;
therefore I will let that have its course, and
wiU stay till ray flt time corae to do you
good. JM can while I will lie hid, and be as
sitting still ; but when that tirae coraea, I
wiU get up and ahew rayaelf." He will be
exalted, that he raay have raercy on you ;
for the Lord ia a God of judgraent, he is
wiae, and juat, and good, and knows hia
measures of afHicting his people, hia tiraes
and ways of deUvering thera, and bringing
destructipn en his eneraiea, and wiU net letj
slip thia season ; and it being so, this cer-
tiinly foUows, tbat they are blessed that wait,
on him. '

Observe, 1. The strong inclination of
God to shew mercy. He would willingly
have his people to find nething but eaae ;
he delights in the prosperity ef his servants ;
would have them conatantly have a sweet,
peaceful, yea, cheerful Ufe, by constant walk
ing in hia waya ; but they are often the ene
miea of their own peace, grieve bia Spirit,
and turn him te be their eneray. But he
cannet peraint in that to his own ; he longs
to be at his way ef mercy and loving-kind
ness again ; he retains not hia anger for ever,
becauae mercy pleases hira ; he inflicts
judgment for sin, but that he deUghta in is
raercy : therefore says the prophet. Lam.
iii. 32, 33, " Though he cause grief,
yet he wiU bave corapassion, according
to the raultitude of hia mercies ; for he dotli
not wiUingly afflict, nor grieve the children
of men." Though he doth grieve them,
yet not wiUingly ; they theraaelvea procure
and draw on that, by grieving hia Spirit ;
but he willingly shewa raercy, for tbat
abounds. There is auch a raultitude and
plenty of it, that, aa to fuU breasts, it is a
pleasure to him te Jet it forth. The two
words, gracious and merciful, that stand
firat in the name of Ged, Exod, xxxiv- 6,
the one signifiea free grace, -the other tender
bowels of mercy. This ia no eraboldiiient
to continue in ain ; yea, it ia of all thinga the
moat fit encouragement and inducement to a
ainner to return frora hia ain ; and so it ia
uaed and urged throughout the Scripturea,
laa- xxxi- 5, 6, and Iv. 7 ; Jer. iii- 12- In
public calaraitiea, where a people charging
the cause thereof upon theraselves, searching
their hearts and thefr ways, and tiirning unto
God, hurably acknowledging their iniquity
and entreating pardon — Oh ! this is the
thing he would net despise ; yea, it is that
he looks and longs fpr, and upen that would
readily forget all paat disloyalties, Jer- iii.
1. Yea, at the sound of their repentings,
his bowela would resound with compassion
by a secret aympathy and harmony, aa one
atring well tuned te another, atira when it is
touched. Thua, Jer. xxxi, 18 — 20.
Thia a sinner ahall fiud in his retuming
unto God, more than we express or promiae
in hia narae. Oh, He waits to be gracious,
meets thee graciously, yea, hath first touch
ed thine heart secretly, first drawn it tewards
himaelf, before it stined, or had a thought
that way. Now, no more upbraidings, or
remerabrance of aU thy wanderings ; an act
of perfect oblivipn ia past, Jer. xxxi. 34.
Is thy heart any Utde softened, and relents
it towards hira ? Then the controversy ia
ended, and hia thougbta are now, hew to
comfort thee. Art thou buay indicating
accusations against thyself ? Then makes
he it his part, to wipe away and blot put.
Cpmest theu horae with a heart fuU of holy
sha:rae and grief, and thy raouth full of hum-

638

SERMON VII.

ble confeasiens of thy disobedience ? Then
know it is thy terider-hearted Father raeets
thee, mest ready to forgive thee ; yea, to in-
tenupt thy confesaiena in tbe middle with
embracea and kiaaes of love.
But, alaa ! we preclude ouraelves frora the
aweet experiences ef these tender-raercies, by
the hardness of our hearts, and by the light
ness and vanity of them. Oh that indignity I
Our Ged stiU waiting to be gracious, to
heap up raere of his love en us ; but we are
busied in ether things, and not at leisure to
wait on them ! Oh, what are they, these
things that take ua up ? Great matters ? Alas!
sorry trifles, all day long. And when we
are at leisure, yet are not at leisure ; fer then
we raust take our ease, must go te sleep ;
and so still he is put off and forced te retire
after he has stayed tiU " his head be fllled
with dew, and his locks with the drops of the
night." Obser. 2. The Lord doth mest exactiy
and wisely raeaaure both the degree and tbe
time pf bis people's afflictions, though they
bave brought thera upen theraaelvea ; and
justly he might leave thera 80. Thia he
will not do ; he 18 a God of judgraent. Thia
ia largely and aweetly expreaaed, in a reaera
blance of huabandry, Isa- xxviii. 24 — 29
He knowa hew rauch and bow Ipng putward
or inward trouble ia fit for every one ; and,
where the leaa will aerve, will not uae the
more ; knows what need some spirits have
fo be bruised and broken beyond others,
either under disgrace and poverty, or the
proper preasurea of the Spirit within, appre-
henaiona of wrath, or withdrawmenta at
least of coraforta, and bath aet his daya for
deUverance of hia church, and of every be
liever under affliction. So the style of the
prophet. In that day, speaking as ef a cer
tain prefixed day, and which no power or wit
of raan can diaappoint. And it ia ao choaen
as it ahall be evident to be the fitteat, that it
could not ao well either have been aooner or
later : aU things concuning to make it moat
seasonable to his people, and honourable to
hia own narae. *' The viaion for the appoint
ed time, (Hab. ii. 3,) theugh it tarry, wait
for it, it ahall come, and ahaU net tarry.'
That ia atrange, though it tarry, it shall
r.ot tarry. But in the original there are two
worda, the one importing an undue 8lewnes8,
or constrained retardment, that cannot be ao.
" It ahall not tany, theugh it tany," that
ia, though it stay itaelf, and come not tiU
the appointed time : so the ether werd sig
nifies. Thus Ps. cii. 13. " He wiU arise,
and have mercy upon Zion ; for the set time
is ceme." Now, for this tbe Lord waits :
it is not want of love, but abundance ef wis
dom, that he delivers not sooner : hath
chosen the fittest tirae, in his all-discerning
wisdom ; yet there is in his love an earnest
ttinu uf longing that the time were coine. I

Thus here, "He waits to be gracious," and
will be exalted, wiU cheerfully and gUdly
raise up himself, and appear to shew mercy
to his people, and bring his enemies low ;
coraing forth, as it were, te judgment, and
sitting down en bis throne, in which posture
he was not seen while they prevailed and
triuraphed, and his church was under thefr
oppression ; but when the tirae ef their re
storing and consolation coraes, he tben is to sit
on his throne, and so is exalted to shew them.
raercy- Hence the Paalraiat so often desires,
that the Lord would arise, (Ps.- Ixxvi, 10,
xiv. 22,) and utters predictions, aaauring
that he will ariae ; and exciting bia people
te rejoice in that, Ps. ix. 7, 8, arid Ps.
xcvi., xcvii., xcviii-
Thus the church in her aaddeat condition
ought hopefully to reraember and rest on it,
tbat the day is determined and cannot faU-
Our salvation is in Ged ; he laughs at his
eneraies, when they are at the top of prospe
rity and pride — sees that their day is coming.
New certainly the firm persuasion of this
would much stay our rainda ; but either we
do not beUeve, or do not iraprove, and use
these fruths, and draw tbat comfort from
thera, that abounda in them. Our Gpd loses
no time ; " He is waiting, tiU his appointed
time ;" and if he wait, it becomes us so to
do ; thatis our duty here, io wait on him; this
faith doea, and ao makes not haste, neither
goea out to any undue meana, nor freta impn-
tientiy within, at the defening of deliverance,
but quietiy reata pn Gpd, and waits fpr him.
Thia, as it is pur duty, ap pur happiness,
and ao it ia here expressed. Upon conaider
ation, that ihe Lord waits io be gracious,
and wUl be exalted te shew mercy, the pro
phet is canied to that acclaraation, te the
happiness of believers : O .' blessed they
ihat wait for him ! Their thoughts faU in,
and raeet with his : for he is waiting for
the aarae day they wait for ; and if he be
not diaappointed, they shall not. We are
naturally inegular in our affections and
notions ; and the only ordering of them,
ia by reducing thera to a conforraity with
the waya aud thoughta of God, tbat keep an
unalterable, fixed courae, aa the heavens.
The way, I aay, to rectify eur thoughta ia,
to aet them by his ; as clocks and watches,
that se readily go wrong, too alow or too
faat, are ordered by the aun, that keeps its
course. Oh I tbat we were more careful to
set and keep our hearts in attendance on God,
winding thera up in meditation of him, and
conforming tbem in their motions and de
sires te his disposal in all ; fer all that con
cerns us, and for the times of aU, being
quiet, yea, glad in tbis, that the Psalmist
makes his joy. My times are in thy hands,
O Lord ; and sure that is the best. Were
I to choose, they should be in no other hands,
neither rairie own, nor ariy others'. Alas I

SERMON VIIL

539

wlint silly poor creatures are we ! How
littie do we knew what is fit fer us in any
kind ; and still less what tirae is fit fer any
mercy to be bestowed upon ua ! When he
withholda merciea or comforts for a aeason,
it is but the due aeaaon ; it ia but to ripen
them for us, which we in childish haste
would pluck green, when they would neither
be so sweet nor so wholesome. Therefore it
ia eur wiadora and our peace te reaign all
things into his handa, to have no will nor
deairea, but only of tbia, that we may still
wait for him ; all shaU be weU enough, if
we be but rid of the vain hopes and expecta
tions of this world. None who indulge thera
are so weU, but they are atill waiting for
somewhat further. Now, araidat all that,
our soul may aay with David, and speak it
to God, as known te him, that it is so in
deed : " And now, Lord, what wait I for ?
My hope is in thee." My expectation, or
waiting, the aame werd that is here, is alt
placedupon ihee. Ia it ae, raybretbren ? Are
our hearts gathered in frora other things, to
this attendance, while the most about ua are
gaping for the wind ? Have we laid all up in
God, to desire and wait for him, and pretend
to nothing besides him ?
I would de .so (may a soul think) ; but
can I hope tbat he wiU look on me, and be
stow himself on such a one as I am ? To
that I say nothing but, leok on bis word :
if thou thinkest that warrant good enough,
here it is fer thee, that they are certainly
blessed who wait for him. This is assurance
enough. Never was any that waited for
him miserable with disappointment. Who
soever thou art that dost indeed desire him,
and desirest to wait for him, sure thou resel-
vest te de it in hia ways, wherein he ia to
be found, and wilt not willingly depart from
these ; that were fooliahly to deceive thyself,
and not be true to thine own end ; therefore
look to that ; do not keep company with any
sin ; it may aurprise tbee sometiraes as an
enemy, but let it not lodge with thee as a
ftiend. And mind this other thing — ^prescribe
nething te Ged. If thou haat begun to
wait, faint not, give not up, wait on still.
It were good reaaon, were it but upon little
hope, at length te find bim ; but aince it ia
upon unfailing assurance, that in the end
theu .shalt obtain, what folly were it, te loae
all, for want of w.iiting a little longer I See
Pa. xl. 1. "In waiting, I waited, waited
and better waited," but aU waa overpaid ;
he did hear me : so Ps. cxxx. : " I wait
and wait, until tbe raorning." These two
joined are all, and raay weU go together-
earnest desire, and patient attendance.
These words, aa othera of the prophet's
we call consolationa, I conceive, look beyond
the deliverances from outwiird troubles, to
the great promiae of the Measlas- Sure I

am, the strain of something following Is to«i
high for that, and cannot but have an aapect
to the daya of the goapel, aa that, ver, 20,
Now, the Lord hath aet hia time, that ful
ness of time for the coraing of the bleased
Son in the flesh, and till that time corae,
the Lord was waiting io be gracious, to
open up his treasures raore fuUy than ever
before ; which when he did, then waa he ex
alted to shew mercy, and exalted in shewing
raercy. Chriat himself was lifted up upon
tbe croaa, there to ahew that rich mercy tbat
is for ever to be admired ; lifted up, to ahew
hia bowela, as the word ia here. Did he
not let us aee into his heart, there to read
that love whicii can no otherwise be uttered ?
Andin that the Lord was most eminently raa-
nifeated a God of judgraent; wisdora, andjus-
tice, and raercy, aU shining brightest in that
contrivance- There He waa lifted up, and then
after that lifted up into glory, who ia tbe
desire of the nations, the aalvation and joy
of all ages, both before and after- Before
he came, they were ftom one age to another
waiting, and raore particularly at the tirae
ofhis coraing; God atined up the expecta
tion of believera to welcome him ; being so
near- Imke ii. 25, 38. And in all tiraea,
before and after that, he is the happiness of
souls, and they only are blesaed that wait for
hira. Whether you de or do not believe it -
new, the day is coraing, when aU the werld
shall knew it to be so.

SERMON VIII.
Jekemiaii xiv. 7 — 9.
O Lord, though our iniquities testify
against us, do thou ii for thy name's
sake ; for our backsUdings are many,
we have sinned against thee. O the
hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in
time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as
a stranger in ihe lartd, and as a way
faring man, ihat turneth aside io tarry
for a night ? Why shouldest ihou be as
a man astonished, as a mighty man that
cannot save ? Yet ihou, O Lord, art in
the midst of us, and we are called by thy
name ; leave us not.
If we look backwards and forwards in
this chapter, we find the three great execu-
tionera of God'a anger in the werld foretold,
aa having received comraiaaion against ihis
peeple. In all troublea felt er feared, thia is atill
the great recourae of them that are acquainted
with it, and can use it, PRAYER. And

10

SERMON VIIL

tbeir labour in it is not altogether lost, even
where the judgraent ia determined and un
alterable, as here it was ; for seme mitigationa
of time and meaaure are deairable, and by
prayer attainable : and whataoever there is
of that kind, the prayers that have beeri raade
long before, have had a concunence and in
fluence in it, and always at the leaat, prayer
caniea tbe peraonal good ef thera that present
it ; if it return unto their bosora, aa David
speaks, without effect for others, it returns
not thither erapty, brings peace and aafety
thither with it : they aave their own aoula.
The raoumers, if they turn net away the
deatroyera' weapona from the city, yet they
procure one aent along with thera, with an
inkhorn for their own marking and sparing.
And were there nothing in thia, ner any
foUowing effect, prayer hath within itaelf ita
o ,vn reward : did we know it, we sheuld
think so. Tiie very dignity and delight of
so near access to God, to speak with him so
freely, this in itself is the raost blessed arid
horiourable privilege that the creature ia ca.
pable of; it ia a pledge ef heaveri, seraethirig
of it befereharid, a standing in pretension to
the life ef angela* (te be but a little lower,
as the word is. Pa. viii. 5). Many practise
a forra : few know the vital sweetnesa of it.
Oh, my brethren, be aspiring te more
heavenliness, and a higher bent of the soul
in it than yet you know, and uae it raore that
way ; uae it for yourselves and others, thia
whole land, these kingdoraa, the church ef
God through the whole earth. We have
seen nn timea wherein it hath been raere need.
ful, and none wherein leaa plentiful ; there ia
none that stirs up himself to lay hold on
God. Some, no doubt, there are in these
times ; yet ao few, ao general a decay and
negligence in the zeal and frequency of prayer,
that, to apeak of, there ia none. And ia it
not so now witb ua ? Many discourse one to
another, and yet, mest to Uttle or ne purpoae :
but little ia spoken where nothing would be
leat in humble aupplication to Ged : and thia
ia the saddeat sign of that long-lasting trouble.
Oh ! pity the kingdom arid yourselves, and
leam to pray.
This prayer of the prophet is made up of
the two usual ingredients, confesaion and
petition. O Lord, .lehovah. A chief point of prayer
ia, the presenting ef the soul before God.
reraerabering to whora we apeak, that it ia te
the great King, the hely God ; which thia
expreaaea, where it ia indeed, when we aay,
O LORD, or sheuld remind us of, when we
forget it, to have auch apprehensions as we
can reach, of hia glorious Majesty. Conaider,
if we find our bearts fiUed with Hira when
we are before hira. Oh, hew seldora think
we that He is God, even while we apeak to
liim, and hew quickly do we forget it, and
• Aagelorum candidati. Tertull.

let slip that thought ! When we have r.nv
thing ef it, how soon are we out of it, and
multiplying vain worda ; for ao are aU those
we utter to Hira without thia. Oh ! pray to
be taught thia point of prayer, and watch
over your hearta in prayer^ te set them thus,
when yeu enter te him, and te call them in
when they wander, and pluck them up when
they sluraber, to think where they are, and
what they are doing.
Our iniquities testify against us. Con
fession fitly begins. AU the difference be
twixt God and us, lies in tbis, our iniquities.
Now, humble confesaion ia one great article of
pacification ; it ia a thing judgraent certainly
airas at, Hosea v. 15, a thing raercy is mainly
moved with, Psalra xxxii. 5, Jer. xxxi. 18.
When we are to encounter any enemy or
diificulty, it is sin weakens us. Now, con.
fession weakens it, takes away the power of
accuaatipus, anticipates the great accuser,
leaves him npthing tp say, takes eff the atroke
of aina teatifying against ua — aaya, " You
need not, I confeas aU, and mere than you
can aay."
For tbia, a right knowledge of God'a law
ia requiaite, and then a diligent uae of it ;
laying it to our waya, aa a straight rule to
shew our unevenness, whicb, witheut it, we
discern not. Set that glaaa before you ; but,
withal, beg light ftom heaven to aee by,
otherwise our applications te this work of
searching our hearts, and comparing them
with the law, is but poring in the dark, where
nothing is to be seen of our spots, theugh we
aet the glass before us, and open the leaves
of it. '* The spirit ef a man is the candle of
the Lord ;" but it is so when he lights it,
arid directs a mari by it irito hiraself, to aee
the secret comers and poUutions that Ue hid
within him. Sin discovered by thia light,
appeara in ita native vileneaa, and that makea
lively reaentraenta and confesaiena.
Their confeaaion ef sin ia varied here in
three several expreaaions, none of thera erapty ;
the adding ene te another, teatifying a deep
senae, and each of thera having much under
it, when issuing from an awakened, sensible
raind. Our iniquities testify against us. Tbis
expresses a deep and clear conviction. Our
iniquities are undeniable ; they stand up and
give in witness against us, and we cannet
except against thera, nor deny the charge
they lay.
And thus it shaU be with aU transgressors
in their day, and with each of us. It is not
far eff ; our particular day, it is coming, when
the raost ignorant shall be forced to know,
and the most obstinate and impudent shall
be forced to acknowledge, their iniquities.
Such as now will not be warned and con-
vinced, tbat hide their sin as men, as Adam,
that ahew themaelvea in thai his chUdren,
they (as he) shaU be called for, ani forced

SERMON VIII.

041

to come put of the thickets, and convicted
of tbeir disobedience. This, men find some.
times in a day of distress, when some out..
ward or inward pressure seizes on them, lays
ou the anest, and brings them to atand and
hear what theae witriesses have te say againat
tbem. However, tiiere ia a day coming fer
thia at the long-run, a day of particular judg
ment for each one, and that great solemn day
fbr aU together ; the Ught of tbat fiery day
shall let thera aee te read tbe biU they would
not lpok on aooner.
If raen would conaider thia, when ain ia
speaking thera fair, and enticing them, in
how different a style it will afterwarda speak;
it would spoil the charm of it, as Solomon
speaks ef the strange woman, Prov. v. 4.
Se are ail the ways ef sin. These same sina
that looked ao pleaaing and friendly, and en
treated tbee, ahaU appear again in another
tune, and witb other language, to witness
against thee, and cry for vengeance. Men
think sin evanishes as it is acted, and forget
it as if they were to hear no more of it, and
knew not that it shall all be forthcoming
again, even thoughts, werds, and actions.
All is kept for a court day ; " Iniquities
aealed up in a bag," as Job speaks ; as writs
te be produced in the process against thee.
Oh ! how little know you, what the amaze
ment is of a man's sins sunounding him,
and testifying against him, that he is a rebel
against God, and to be condemned ; and no
scarcity, such multitudes of them, one com
pany succeeding another, as that word. Job
X. 17, " Thou renewest thy witneaaea againat
rae ;" not by twoa or threes, but thousands,
armies of thera. This is raere affrightful
than to be encompassed with drawn awerda.
or to aee a whole array raareh upon a raan ;
it were nething to these bands mustered up.
Pa. 1. 21-
There is no way to escape but by preven
tion, taking a day before-hand to judge thy
aelf, and call theae witneaaea, and hear thera,
and paaa aentence : this would save the
labour. God is desirous to have the raatter
thua anticipated, and turna it over t« thee,
to judge thyaelf, that he raay net judge.
why defer we ? is it not worth the while
and the pains ? And then for that day, when
it would aeera so tenible te have theae wit.
neaaea atand up, thy aafety ia, having judged
and condemned thyaelf, to take aanctuary in
Christ, and make hira thy advocate, to an
swer all for thee. He can and wiU do it to
the full ; yea, he hath already answered aU
that thy sina, were they raany more, can aay.
Oh, happy the raan that takea this ceurse,
Sin not upen this account ; none sure wiU do
that. " These things I write unto you, that
ye sin not :" but theu if ariy raan not so
minded do sin, here is that corafort, " We
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous."

Our backsUdings are many. This is the
double dye of his people's sins ; tbey are
net siraple transgressions, but treacheries,
revolts, breaches of premiaes, of covenant
and vow, turnings back, going out frora God,
adultery, prostituting their hearts to idols, to
base luats ; a heart professed to be manied
te its Maker, running a-gadding after strange
vanities. And who of us hath net this sadly
to say against himself? " How often have
I vowed myself thine, and with sorae kind of
hopes and purpose to have been true to it ;
but how soon hath all evanished I" Oh !
tbe unspeakable unfaithfulnesa, net only of
commen forraal professors, but ef real believ
era ! And these provoke God highly, go
raoat to hia heart — to be alighted by his own,
to whom he hath so particularly shewn hira
self, and imparted of bis love.
And we hdve sinned against Thee. Thia
that coraes last, seeras te sound least ; but I
take it as meaning most ; as if they would
have airaed at particular confession ; and
then seeing such a huge multitude, and no
end, were forced to retire, and shut up all in
this general word — " We might and weuld
speak of many things, but they are too raany
— we are overwhelraed. What shaU we say ?
We have sinned against Thee ;" Thus
Job, / have sinned against thee, what shall
I do unto thee ? As iu David's confession,
Ps. li- 4. Thee, the great, the holy Ged,
our God. This were our business, instead
of rauch discourae and debate ef things, to
fall down and confeaa unto God ; begin at
ourselvea, our ewn breachea and backalidings,
and then add the public national guiltineaa-
Oh 1 we are a sinful peeple, and few lay it
to heart- AU ranks are highly guilty ; and
where are they that retire and raourn for their
aborainations ? Those, continued and raulti
pUed, are the centinuers and multipUera ef
our plaguea, aword and peatilence, and threat
enings ef famine- If you have a raind to do
any thing for the land, and for youraelves,
your farailiea and Uttie ones, oh ! apply te thia
work, to confeas and bewail our iniquitiea ;
it may be, yea, I dare say, it shaU be, the ,
Lord will return and have mercy on us.
O Lord, though our iniquities testify
against ue. In all our approaches unte Ged,
it is a prime thing to take hira up according
to his narae ; this is the very ground of tbe
access and confidence of ainnera, and there is
ne coraing near hira without it- We have
heard it, that He is the Lord, merciful and
gracious, Scc. Not so much as confessions
can be made without this, much less petitions
presented ; instead ef coraing to fall down
before him, to acknowledge sin, the soul
would run quite away, and though that were
in vain, would seek to bide itself, that it
might not at all appear. But apprehending
his goodness and readineaa to forgive, thi*
draws the heart to him ; and being drawn in,

642

SERMON VIIL

this makes it melt before him. In this some
Christians miatake rauch, when they hold
off frem the apprehenaiona of God's gracioua
neaa, to the end that they may be the more
humble and deeply affected with their ains.
No, no ; tbis is that which warms, and sof
tens, and makes the soul pliable, fit to re
ceive any form frora bis hand. Therefere
the people of Ged, and tbe prophets in their
name, stiU lay bold on tbat, and interweave
it both with their confesaions and petitions,
aa the raain ground of their confidence in pre.
senting both.
The petition ia in these two worda, that
begin and cloae, Do for us : leave us not.
The reat is arguraent, backing and pressing
the petition with familiar and pathetical ex
postulations ; and in thera the whole strength
ofthe arguraent Ues in a rautual interest,
thai ihey are his people, and he is their
God, But take the words as they lie.
Do thou for thy name's sake. It is net
expressed what er hew, and it is best sp ;
that is referred to him that knows whac is
best, which we do net. It ia in general an
act of grace that is sued fpr ; but, fpr tbe
way and time, aU ia put in hia hand. True
it ia, that aoraetiraea prayer ia and rauat be
spraewhat raore particular, upou particular
warrant, er upen account of the common li.
berty that God gives his children, to present
freely the particular thoughts and desires of
their hearts te hira ; but it is good always to
close thus, or that it be understood so, when
not expresaed, that we reaign that raatter te
hira, to make hia ewn choice ef thinga, and
uae hia ewn way. Only we entreat hia fa
vour, and pwning of ua, and our condition,
that he be for us, and do for us ; and thia
ia safe and aweet, to let him chooae. We
often perplex ouraelvea abeut that which liea
net in our way, and ia not our part to be
buaied in — what thinga shall be done. Thia
he undertakea for, and will be careful of. Be
not afraid. Ps. xxxvii. 5, Commit thy way,
roll thy way upon the Lord, trust on the
Lord, and he wiU do it. There is no raore.
In the Hebrew, it ia, " Turn it over to him,
and be quiet, and let hira alone, he will do
weU enough." Beaides, that ia all reaaon :
if raen knew what peace of spirit there is in
thia resignraent, they would choose it before
any way that can be thought on, and it never
yet repented any that chose it-
For thy name's sake. Thia ia the unfail
ing argument that abides always the aarae,
and hath always the aarae force, when no
thing ia to be said for ourselvea but guilti.
neaa ; yet thia narae we raay plead by :
" Though our iniquitiea teatify againat ua,"
aa the Hebrew word ia, " Thougli they re
tum us harah answera, aa frora thee, speaking
nothing but juat refusals efour auita, and re
jecting of ouraelvea ; yet, Lord, remeraber
thy own narae ; and from thence we leok for

a better answer. Do according to that,, and
for thy name's sake, in regard of atrangera
and enemies, that will reproach thy name,
in the ruin of thy people ; and thy name's
sake, in regard of thy people's knowledge of
it -and confidence in it, that in all their straits
do expect their help from thee, thy promises
made to thera, and covenant made with them.
In these is thy narae, and they de cast theni-
selves, and rely on it. Now see, wbether'it
may be for thy glery to cast them eff. What
soever we are, look to thine own interest,
and do for that ; do for thy name's sake."
In the next clause, and more particularly,
a part of his name is expressed, the hope of
Israeli that is a piece ofhis rpyal style, by
which he is knewn iu tbe world. And in
thia appeareth the wonderful condescension
and bounty of God te his creatures, to choose
a nuraber of persons, that he will pass hia
word to engage hiraself to be theirs. Not
only to forgive us whe are his debtors by out
sins, but tp becprae himself a debtor te ua by
hia premises ; and he loves to be challenged
on thera, and preaaed with them. It ia a
raaxira of court-flattery, that raean persons
ought not to urge a king upen hia word ; but
tbis greatest King takes nething better from
the raeanest of his subjects. " Lord, thou
hast undertaken the protection ef us thy peo.
pie, and new it lies upon thee, in point of
honour and truth, to save us."
The hope of Israel. All people, and everj
man, have something they rely on and make
their hope, and they often choose the mosr
broken, rotten hopes, which fail while the)
lean upon thera, and not only fail, but hurl
thera, aa Egypt proved to larael- There
fore it proved as a broken reed, that not only
flew in pieces in their hand, but the spUntei
ran up into their hand and hurt them. How
often have we found it tbus, been diaappoint
ed, yea wounded by eur vain hopea, " pierc-
ed through with raany aonowa !" aa the apos
tle speaka of thoae tbat love and truat in
richea- Therefore Job diaclairas thia, that
he never raade geld his God : If I made
gold my hope, chap- xxxi- 24. There is a
word of one of his friends speaking, chap.
xxii. 25, " Tbe Alraighty shaU be thy de
fence ;" the word ia, " The Almighty ahaH
be thy gold." Te them that account and
make hira ao, he is both ; for they are rich
enough in hira, in the greatest scarcity, and
safe enough in hira, in the greateat danger-
But would you leok to it, inquire weU
what is thy hope, what thy heart readiest
turns to, and cleaves to, to corafort itaelf in
any diatreaa, yea, in the timea of the greatest
eaae. What are thy thoughta moat biaased
and turned to, with ofteneat and deepest
delight ? Canat thou say, it is to God ? That
thy heart hath got that retreat, and ia inured
to that ; is frequently there throughout ths
day ; tuma by, or paases over husband- pr

SERMON VIIL

61?

wife, or children, or richea, er delights, or
auy thing which stands in thy way, and ataya
not, till it be at him, and there rejoicea in
his leve ; sits down under hia shadow content
and happy, willing that othera ahould rule
and share the world as they pleaae ; that theu
dost not envy them, yea, canat even pity
them, with all their gay hopea and great
projecta ? Yea, though theu de net flnd at
aU tiines, yea, poasibly, scarce at any time,
tbat aenaihle preaence of God, and shining ef
his clear diacovered love upon tbee, yet still
he is thy hope ; thou art at a point with all
the world, hast given up all te wait on hira,
and hope for hira ; dost account thyself richer
in thy aimple hope, than the richest man on
earth ia in his posaeaaion ? Then art theu
truly ae ; for tbe hope of God is heaven be
gun, and heaven complete is the possessing
of bim. The Saviour, net exempting frera trouble,
but saving in time of trouble. Tbe reason
for larael'a trouble lay in in their own ain
and aecurity, and abuse of eaae and peace ;
but yet they were not left to periah in trouble,
but had a Saviour in time of trouble, who
waa then raeat eyed and considered, and found
to be so. In the fumace, both the faith ofhis
peeple and the truth ef his preraises are fried,
The children ef God were rauch beholden
to their troubles, for clear experiences of
themselves and of God ; and in this indeed
is the virtue of faith, to apprehend God as a
Saviour in time of trouble, before he come
forth and manifest hiraself to be so-
Wicked men have tbeir times of trouble
too, . even here, but have no title to this
Saviour. * If themselves, or friends, or means
can help them, it is well ; but they can go
no further. But the church, the Israel of
God, when all help fails en all bands, bave
one great recourse that cannot fail, the strong
God, her Hope and Saviour in time of
trouble, er straitness. Wben there is no
way out, he can cut out a way through the sea,
can divide their enemies, or whatsoever is
(heir greatest difficulty, and raake a way
through the raiddle of it. WeU raight he
say, Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like
unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the
shield of thy help ? Sec. Men are under-
,-aviours in outward deliverances, ao it is aaid.
He raised fhem up saviours. But , he ia
The Saviour. AU others have their cora-
raisaiens from him. All their atrength and
all their aucceaa is frora hira. Witheut him,
no strength, nor wit, ner courage, avails : all
falls te pieces when he withdraws bis hand.
Give us help from trouble ; for (aays the
church) vain is the help of man. We have
found thia, if any people ever did, and have
had real lectures, to teach us to cease from
man ; for wherein is he to be accounted of ?
Vet still we are ready to look to multitudes,
• Sua; fortuna: fabrl.

or to the quaUty of men who undertake for
us : but if we do so, yet shall that prove our
sbame aud diaappointment ; and it ahall never
go well with us, till our dependence and cen.
fldence come clear off frem ^11 creatures, and
flx theraaelves entirely upon hira who is our
shield and our strength.
Thua ahould a aoul in particular distress,
especiaUy inward, wherein the help Ues raoat
incoramunicably and iraraediately in God's
own hand, learn to trust hira. And though
thou art not clear in thy intereat as a believer,
yet, plead thy interest as a sinner, whicii
theu art sure ef. God in our fleah hath en
larged the nation ef larael ; all that will but
look to hira, he is tlieir Saviour. Look unlo
me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth.
Now, he hath atyled himaelf tbe Saviour ef
ainnera ; preaa him by that : " Lerd, I do
look fer thee ; do for ine, O Saviour ; help,
I am in trouble." So, in any particular
teraptation, either to sin or te diatruat because
of sin, say, " New, Lord, here is an oppor
tunity for thy power and thy grace to glorify
itself." And theugh thou find thyself sink
ing, yet believe, and theu shalt not drown.
Why shouldest thou be as a stranger, &c.
The main thing desired was his constant
abode with them. Some passing deliver
ances he had wrought ; but that was not
enough- He carae as a stranger, io stay a
night, refreshed them with a transient visit,
and away again. Thus, we may say, he
hath still done for ua. Wben we were in
desperate straits, he came and helped ; but
then we were left to such counsels as bred
us new troubles. He hath not se evidently
yet taken up his residence, though he hath
built hira a house araongst ua, we trust,
with that intention, to dwell with us. This
we are te aue and entreat for. Why art ihou
as one astonished ? — ^looking on our miaeries
aa an amazed stranger, aa not concerned in
our affairs or condition, and net caring what
becomes of us ; as a traveller, but passing
through and having no further interest ner re
gard ; or a mighty man that cannot save, as
Samson after bis hair was cut, either as wea
ried or beund, or somewhat hindered, though
strong enough ?
" New, Lord, leok not on. Own our
sufferings, and bestir thyself. Make it ap
pear that thou faintest not, neither art
weary, nor that any thing can stand before
thee and be thy hinderance. Break through
our aina, the greateat hinderance of all ; let
not theae stop thy way, ner bind thy hands.
For thou art in the raidat of ua, though we
see thee not ao in thy work aa we deaire,
yet, here we know thou art in thy special
good-will and power, aa thou art in our pro
fession and horaage done to thee aa our King
amongat ua : that teatifiea thy presence.
Theu canat not ao hide thyself, but there are
still aerae characters of thy preaence. And

bii

SERMON IX.

we are called by thy name, thy people. Ii
we periah, thy narae being upon ua, what
becomea then of it ? Therefore leave us not.
Though thou strike us, yet stay with ua,
and we shaU Uve in hope ef favour and deli
verance ; if thou ge net away, our cries
and prayers, at least our miaeriea, wiU raoVe
thee." Theae things make up our plea. We are
a most unworthy people, yet, caUed by hia
narae, in covenant with hira ; so hia glory ia
intereated. We raust not let go tbis. And
what advantage so great, as to have our in
terest wrapt up in his ? His glory and our
safety in one bottom, to sink and swim to
gether ; then, there is no hazard. Therefere
keep close te hia intereat and his covenant,
and beg his ataying with us, and arising for
ua, and lay hold on him for this end. It
ia a pleaaant violence ; and were there many
to use it towarda him, our deliverance were
not far off.

SERMON IX-
LUKE xiii. 1 — 10.
There were present at ihat season some
ihat told him of the Galileans, whose
blood Pilate had mingled with their sa
crifices. And Jesus answering said unto
ihem, Suppose ye thai these Galileans
were sinners above all ihe Galileans, be
cause they suffered such things ? I tell
you, nay ; bui except ye repent, ye shall
all likewise perish. Or those eighteen,
upon whom ihe tower in Siloam fell, and
slew fhem, think ye ihat ihey were sin
ners above all men that dwelt in Jerusa
lem ? I tell you, nay ; but except ye re
pent, ye shall all likewise perish. He
spake also ihis parable : A certain man
had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard,
and he came and sought fruit thereon,
and found none. Then said he unto ihe
dresser of his vineyard. Behold these
three years I come seeking fruit on this
fig-tree, and find none ; cut it down, why
cumbereth it the ground ? And he an
swering, said unto him. Lord, let it
alone this year alsa, till I shall dig about
and dung ii ; and if it bear fruit, well ;
and if not, then after that ihou shalt cut
it down.
It is no easy or common thing, to give
God'a waya a right cenatruction. Fer tbe
most part, we either let thera pass unobser
ved, or unframe our observations, looking
through those principles and paasiona of pur

pwn, which give things anpthef shape pr cd-
Ipur than what ia truly theira- Thia was
here the case- This aad accident ahpuld
have been observed by them who heard it,
and might have been speken pf them tp very
gppd purppae ; but our Saviour knew weU
wbat tbey meant by reporting the story, and
what thoughta they had of it, and of them
aelvea ; and by his answer, it would aeem,
aU waa not right with thera-
The fact here related, we have not any
further account of in sacred history, nor any
thing tbat we can clearly and certainly call
it in any huraan writer- It ia coramonly
conceived to have been done at Jerasalem,
where PUate abode, and that his power was
exercised and done upon the foUowers of that
Judas ef Galilee, spoken of Acts v. 37, being
auch as denied it to be lawful to give obe
dience to the Roman empfre, or to off'er
sacrifice for the interest and good of it.
When they, it is Ukely, were coming to
gether to offer at Jerusalem, and to maintain
and to spread their opinion, Pilate comes
upen tbem, and, while they were at the so
lemnity, makea a sacrifice of thera to that
authority they refuaed to aacrifice for : whe
ther juatly er no, we cannot detennine ; eur
Saviour dees net : but if it was just, sure it
was very tragical and severe, suitable to that
character Philo gives of his disposition who
acted it-* The straining of justice, com*
raonly breaks it ; a little of the other aide iSi
of tbe two, doubtieaa, the safer extreme-
However, this atroke, and all others, as
they corae frora the Suprerae Hand, are righ.
teous- Whatsoever be the tem.per or intent
of the lower actor, and whatsoever be the
nature ef the action, as frora him, the aeve.
reign hand of God ia in them, and chief in
thera. No evil in the city but the Lord
does ii. And yet all evila, aa he doth thein,
are both geod and weU done- Actiona,
whether voluntary er casual, as these two
here, yet do ppwerfuUy iaaue frpra the firat
being and wprker ; and, aa frora bim, are
both unalterably certain and unqueationably
juat. Thua they who here report it, seem
to have judged of thia pasaage, that it waa a
just puniahraent of ain. And eur Saviour
conteata not about that, but rather seeraa to
agree to thera ao far, and draws that warning
out of it ; he only conects the raisconceit it
seeras they were in, in thrusting it too far eff
from themaelvea, and throwing it too heavy
upen thoae that aacrificed.
Think ye thai ihey were sinners. Sec. ?
Though it were an enor to think that all
temporal evUa are intended of God aa puniah.
menta of sorae particular guiltiness, and so
be taken, as infallibly concluding againat
either peraona or cauaes as evil ; yet certairily
the harid of God upon ouraelves or others, is
wiaely to be conaidered, and it wiU very
* AfJMilxVt.

SERMON IX.

545

ofien be found a punishment painting to the
sin ; and it is certainly an argument of very
great stiffness and pride of heart, net to ob
serve and acknowledge it, and a sure presage
either of utter ruin, or, at least, of a heavier
stroke. Any one that is set against the
Lord, and wiU net be humbled, whether by
what he sees on others, or what he feels en
bimself, (Isa. xxvi. II,) shaU find he hath
an overmatch to deal with, that will either
"bow him pr break him.
Think ye that they were sinners above
all men thai dwelt in Jerusalem ? Our
Saviour goes not to search into the quanel,
and te condemn or justify either the one
party or the otiier ; that was not to his pur
pose ; hia aim was to rectify the mistake of
those he spoke to, and to draw forth from
thefr own relation what was most proper for
their use. Much of our hearing and teUing
of news hath Uttie of this in it ; and with
most persons it doth not reUsh, to wind
things that way. Some, even good persons,
do accustom themselves, and take too much
liberty,, to an empty, fruitless way of enter
tainment in this kind ; and if we make any
remark, it commonly keeps abroad, comes
not home to ourselves. Be it any judgment,
be the persons great sinners in a sinful course,
yet they are not always the greatest of aU,
because fhey suffer and others escape, as we
reidily think, and they here concluded con
ceming those GaUleans.
Ged is to be adored and reverenced, wbo
useth his own freedora in this^does injust
tice to none, yet chooses them on whom he
will do exemplary justice, and whora he wiU
let paas, and.' gives not account of this to
any. Some less wicked have been ensamples
to them that were much more wicked than
tbey. Do not flatter yourselves in the conceit of
exemption fi^ra some stroke which others in
the same way with you have fallen under, or
even from some course which others have run
and smarted in, and bear yourselves big upon
the name of God's people. But tremble be
fore the Lord, and search your own hearts ;
and let us think, though we may not be
guilty of such pubUc, scandalous evils, as
others fall into, and are punished for, yet
how fuU are we of secret raalice, pride and
lust, &c., and wonder at the patience Of God
to ouraelves, while multitudes have been
swept away round about us ! Think you
that they who have died by sword or pesti
lence of late, were greater sinners than
we that are hehind ? Oh, no ! but except
we repent, we shall all likewise perish,
Enough of these anows are still in God's
arsenal ; and though he use not these to us,
yet remember, death. and judgment and eter
nity are before us, and tbey call for wise and
speedy consideration and repentance.
Oh ! you thnt go on in your transgres.

sions, after all that is corae upon us, who
were drunkards and swearers, &c., and are
so yet, what think you, because the heat of
public judgments is abated, is there no more
fear ? Have you made a covenant with hell
and death, and gained quarter of them, that
they wiU not seize on you ? Oh, that will
never hpld ; they wiU net, npr cannct keep
tp you. And if you hold on your course,
when the day pf visitatipn shaU cpme, hpw
much heavier shall it be by aU this forbear
ance 1 You shaU wish you had been cut off
with the first. Tbe day is at hand, when it
shall be easier fpr them than fpr ypu ; only
the advantage is, that there ia an exception
yet sounding in your ears. Except ye repent,
ye shall all likewise perish.
I beseech you, my brethren, enter info
your own hearts, and be not always out of
yourselves, and so out of your wits ; consider
the Lord's way and your own, and wonder
at his goodness ; why am not I made an ex
ample to others, as well as so many have
been made exaraples to me ? Now, let rae
faU down at his feet and beg of him, that as
he hath not made me an example of justice
aU this while, he may now make me an ex.
araple of mercy and free grace to aU tbat
shaU look on me.
Our Savieur, to their reported instance,
adds anether himself, that was no doubt late
and recent with them, to the same purpose,
and iri the same sfrain. Think ye that they
were sinners above all men ihat dwelt in
Jerusalem? I tell you, nay; bui except
ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Not
just after the same particular manrier, but
the Ukeness is in perishing, " yeu shaU as
certainly perish as they are perished ;" and
this to many impenitent sinners is verified in
their cutting off, even by some temporal
judgment, after long abused forbearance ;
and often very like, those they have seen
instances of, and would not be warned by ;
thus, to many of the Jews,, in the death of
many thousands of them, and the destruction
of their city by the Romans, in which there
was much likeness with the two explanatory
judgments here mentioned. But the univer.
sal and far raore dismal perishing of unre.
penting sinners is, that death that Ues un.
seen on the other side of that death we see,
and are so afraid to look on. Oh I saw we
the other, this would appear nothing; it
would be the only terrible of aU terribles
indeed. And how terrible soever, it is the
unfailing attendant on impenitence. These
God hath Unked together, and np creature
can sever them — cpntinuance in ain and
peHahing; repentance and Ufe. It is faith
indeed that laya hpld on our pardon arid life
iri.Ghriat, and by that we are justified and
saved : yet so as this is still trae, so thai
the.ether nowise crosses it, tbat there is no
life without repentarice. And thia wrongs
2 M

SERMON IX.

not the gospel at all, to preach and prpfeaa
repentarice, yea, it is a prirae point ef preach
ing the gospel ; and here we find the great
preacher of the gospel, who is himself the
aubstance and subject ef the gospel, this is
hia doctrine, Except ye repent, ye shall all
likewise perish. There ia no right preach
ing of the goapel, but the doctrine ef repen
tance raust be in it ; the drawing and turn
ing of the soul to God, frora whora it is gone
out by sin : thia the goapel airaa at ; and
there ia no preaching ef repentance without
the gospel. The law indeed discovers ain,
but that ia not enough te work repentance ;
for there muat be a door ef hope opened te a
sinner, at which he raay corae in, hoping to
be pardoned and accepted, upon returning
and aubinitting ; thia the goapel only does.
And whensoever tbe prophets preached re
pentance, there was soraewhat that always
expressed er imported the notion of the gos
pel ; God declaring himself reconcileable,
ready to forgive and receive the penitent.
New, not speaking of the nature of repen
tance, which here were pertinent, I shall only
deaire you to seek to know the nature of it
by feeling the power of it within yeu.* Oh,
happy they that do ! Were tbe aweetneaa of
it known, we might perauade raeat by that ;
but that cannot be known, tiU we be perauad
ed and brought to repentance. The delight
in thoae teara, the pleaaure in crucifying sin,
even the most pleaaant sins ; the soul then
in it's light raotiori, wheri turning towards
God, finds itaelf moved aweetly ; but it ia
thrown, and distorted, aud disappointed, in
turning from hira and foUowing sinful luata.
But here, neceaaity ia the arguraent, the
highest neceaaity ; if it raay be neceaaary
for you not to periah, then it ia neceaaary for
you to repent. Had any ef yeu an ulcer,
though painful to be lanced, yet if told it
rauat be, else you would die, it weuld make
you caU for it, and entreat it. Lord, what
ia the madness of the minds of men ! Do
we beUeve tbat there is auch a thing after all
tbat is here, as perishing and aaving, etemal
death and etemal life ; arid can we think on
any thing elae so aa to forget theae, te be
alight and unreaolved concerning them, and
yet eat, and pleaae the fleah, and aeek to
make otber thinga aure, and leave theae to
their hazard ? The God who raade your
hearts perauade them ; for who elae can ?
The parable whicii followa, teaches the
Same doctrine of repentance, and -that upon
the motive of patience and forbearance.
Particulars ahould not be overatrained and
squeezed fer moraUty ; the raain is, God's
dispensation,- and his expectation in his
orchard the church.
Our Saviour is much in this way of teach
ing, caUs in natural things to serve apiritual
• Male sentire compunctionem, quam scire ^us
Ccfinitioncm. Thomas a Kbmpib

ends, and so all are fit to do, had we tho
faculty to extract it. A spiritual mind draw,i
that which is symboUcal with it out of all :
such may fruitfuUy walk in the gardens and
orchards, and feed on the beat, though thev
stir nothing. The great Lord is himaelf the
planter of his vineyard ; hia ewn hand sets
each tree, and the soil ia fruitful ; there are
sap and raoisture. This is to be understood
of his viaible church and ordinances ; for the
planting here is that. Christians are often
corapared to things Uving, grewing, and
fruitful ; as te the vine and fig tree ; there is
high engageraent to be so, (Isa. v.) and
real Christians are truly ao.
And he sought fruit thereon. Good
reaaon had he ao to do, having ao plant
ed it. Thoae treea that are left wild in the
banen wilderness, no fruit ia to be expected
on thera, at leaat no garden fruit, such as
grows in the garden of Ged. Some natures
bave some kinds of fruita, and some sweeter
than ethers, but they are but wUd figs. God's
delight ia to ceme into bia garden, and there
eat his pleasant fruita. Natural men may,
after their faahion, be temperate, and patient,
and charitable ; hut to believe on God, and
love hira above theraaelves, and from such
principlea to do aU tbey do, this is not to be
expected. Now, all that are planted in the church of
God, are iu narae such trees as sheuld bave
their sap. in tbem, (that is, faith and love,)
and bear answerable fraits : they are caUed
" trees ef righteousness, the planting of the
Lord, that he raay be glorified," laa. Ixi.
3. He hiraaelf knows who are indeed such,
and knows that the rest can beat no such
ftiiit ; yet in regard of outward dispensations
and thefr own profession. He speaks after
the raanner of raen ; he coraes and aeeks
fruif. Men that think they raay live in the
face of the church, and make uae of his or
dinances, and yet be aa excuaably banen of
aU the fruita of hoUneaa aa if tbey grew upon
a comraon heath, it ia atrange they ahould
not conceive their ewn foUy, and know that
God reckona otherwise, and according to the
ground he hath aet them in, and the manur
ing. he beatowa on tbem, looka for some suit
able frait.
But the most are thus ; they consider nol
what they are, think it a Itind of impertinent
importunity to press them to hoUness, to
meekness, te bearing wronga, to heavenly-
raindedneaa, to spiritual activity, and use.
fulneaa to othera. Why, it ia strange !
What think ye, my brethren, are we Chria.
tiana, or are we not ? We have a name
that we are active, and are dead ; congrega.
tiena are fiUed witb auch ; and when the
Lord comea and seeka frait, in the greatest
part, he finds none. If Uea, oaths, cursings,
&c., were the fruits; enough of theae ; but
zeal for God, leye to our brethren, self.denial.

SERMON IX.

il7

hiitriility, if these be Ihey, alas ! where arc
they ? So much preaching, sabbaths, fasts
and covenants ; and where is fruit, the fruit
of the Spirit ? Gal. v. Oh, empty leaves,
and sorae promising greenness, but the most
beUe the hope they give. And we of this
land, wbo are engaged se high, what could
have been done more ? Theugh lying far
north, yet have we much of the gospel sun
shine, and are bourid by our pwn prpmise,
and cpvenant, and spleran path tp Gpd, tp
be mere fruitful ; yet this ia stiU broke. Who
that had seen eur first meltiugs into tears,
or fair buds of stining zeal, could have ima-
gined we sbould have been so barren ?
New, the conference with the vine-dresser
about it, though thatis rauch fer the fulness
of the - parable, yet may imply God's im
parting of his thoughts concerning bis church
to his faithful -ministers. Such are included
under that name here ; for he blames him
not as neglective, but complains ef the bar
renness of tbe tree. In the cutting down
may be sorae pointing at church censure ;
but, I cpnceive, it is rather tp express God's
purpose concerning the barren tree, than to
give order or coraraand about it. Doubtless,
tbe Lord would bave his vine-dresser sensible
of the fruidesaness of hia trees, though it be
not by any notable neglect on their part.
These three years. This expreaaes the
great patience ef God, that aparea ao long,
speaks not of cutting down at the very first-
_Thua of long time hath he waited on many of
us many more years than to the strict nuraber
here naraed ; on how many of us a great part
of our Ufetime ? Whence is it that we are not
aftaid of this word, as it were here sounding
in eur ears, Cui it down ; why troubles it
the ground ? It takes up room and does
no good, yea, it hinders and prejudices ethers,
as all ungodly, fruitless persons in the
church ef God do.
The vine-dreaaer entreata and obtaina a
year more. Tbis the faithful labourers of
God will not faU to do ; te preaching to bis
people, they will join much prayer for thera,
that they raay be made fraitful, and raean
time raay be spared, and not perish in their
unfruitfulness— wiU double their endeavours
in the sense of that danger ; to aU ether pains
will add this, the watering thera jvith tears-
God is gracioua, and eaay to be entreated,
and forbeara yet, and waits. Oh ! it ia net
yet too late. Any of yeu that at length are
stirred te any real desirea of fruitfulness to
him, I dare give you wanant to be confident
of his not only forbearing upon sucb a deaire,
but of his favourably accepting of it, as a
good sign, yea, as already a beginning of
fruit. Indeed, in case of people remaining
banen after all, the end wiU be to cut down ;
and to every fruitless and godless person
amongst you, it is not long to that day — it
wUl be upon you ere you are aware. As

John preached, " The axe is laid unto the
root of the trees ; therefore every tree which
bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down
and cast into the fire," Matt. iii. 10. God
ia taking hia axe, aa it were, and fetching
hia stroke at yeu, and you know not how
seen it may light, and yeu be cut down, and
cut off frora all hopes for ever, never to see a
day of grace raore, nor hear a serraon raore ;
cut down and cast into the fire to burn, and
that never to end. Oh ! fer aorae soul te
be rescued, were it even now. Oh 1 To-day,
" To-day if you will hear his voice, harden
net your hearts."
Real Christians, though net altogether
barten (that is impossible), yet are net se
plentifully fruitful, littie of the increases ot
God, sucb as he may be invited to his gar
den for, such as the vine-dressers raay rejoice
in, yea the Master hiraself. The Lord raak
eth a kind of boast of us, as men wiU de of
trees in tbeir gardens, tbat they have much
fruit, though possibly having a meaner ap-
pearance and show than most of the reat.
Oh ! what a joy and glory were it to our
Ged, to have unobserved, obacure Chriatiana
abounding in aweet apiritual fruita. Laden with
fruit, and hanging the head ; stooping tho
lower, atiU the more bumble for it, referring
aU to himaelf, living te hira, doing all for
hira. But, alas ! we are erapty vines, bring.
ing forth fruit te ouraelves, aerving our owa
wills and humours, and barreri to hira. But
fer this end are we planted in the house oi
God, and ingrafted into the Son ofGod, that
blessed living root, to be fruitful to his praise.
It ia his credit; " Herein is your heavenly
Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit."
Now for this are requiaite, 1st, Much
prayer ; for though here he apeaks aa an or
dinary maater, yet it ia bia secret influence
does all, From me is thy fruit found ; and
prayer draws down that. 2d, Much faith in
Christ, living to bim, and drawing aap from
him. Such as do aU in hia atrength, and
are much in application and attraction, ahaU
be found the moat abundant in aU choice
and sweet fruits ; they that abide in him,
that is, in the very actings of faitb, are more
in him than many others that are yet iri him :
but, alas ! this ia a thing we speak much,
and know Uttle of.

SERMON X.
PREACHED BErORE MY LORD COMMIfc-
EIONER AND THE PARLIAMEUT,
NOVEMBEIl 14. 1669.
John xxi. 22.
 What is that to ihee ? Follow thou me.
Of aU that ever Uved upon earth, die

548

SERMON X,

most blessed was this handful and smaU
company our Lord chose for his constant at
tendants, to see his divine miraclea, enjoy his
aweeteat company, and to hear his divine doc
trines. What a holy flame of love muat have
bumed in their hearts, who were always so near
the Sun of righteousness ! Itwas indeed a sad
hour wherein that was ecUsped, and the Lord
of life lay dead in the grave. And what a
deluge ef joy waa in their hearts when he rose
again ; and what a transport was it when
they saw hira aacend, and a ahining cloud
kiaaing his feet, and parting hira ftom them !
In the interval, as he had riaen himaelf, so
he is raising them ftom their unbelief. St.
Peter, not cpntent with a bare fprsaking his
Lord, had also denied hira ; but he falls net
a-quaneUing, but speaks of love to hira,
and blows up these sparkles of love with this
threefold question. St. Peter answers fervent.
ly, but raost raodeatly ; whereupon bia Lerd
gives him a aervice auitable te his love,
Feed my sheep ; for which none are quail.
fied but they that love him : but wben he
growa bold to ask a queation, he gets a grave
check and a holy comraand. What is that
io ihee ? Follow thou me. This was a
transient stumble in one who, but lately re
covered of a great disease, did net walk
firmly. But it is the coraraon track of most,
to wear out their days with impertinent in
quiries. There ia a natural deaire in raen to
know the thinga ef othera, and to neglect their
own, and to be more concerned about the
thinga te ceme, than about thinga present.
And thia is the great aubject ef converaation i
even the weakeat minda must deacant upen
aU thinga ; aa if the weakest capacities
could judge ef the greatest mattera, by a
strange leveUing of understandinga, raere ab.
aurd and inational than that of fortunes.
Moat raen are beaide theraaelvea, never at
home, but always roving. It ia true a man
raay live in aolitude to little purpoae, aa Do
mitian catching flies in his cloaet. Many
noiaome thoughts break in upon one when
alone ; ae that when one converaeth with him
aelf, it had need be aaid. Vide ut sit cum
bono viro. A man alone ahaU be in worae
company than are in all the world, if he
bring not into hira better corapany than
hiraaelf or all the world, which ia the
feUowship of God and the Holy Spirit.
Yet the matters of the church aeera to con
cern aU, and ae indeed they do ; but every
sober man rauat say, all trutha are net alike
clear, aUke neceaaary, nor ef Uke concern-
ra.ent to every one. Christians should keep
within their line. If it be the wiU of our
great Master, that the eider that hath been
so long in the church continue in it, er net.
What is thai io thee ? It is certainly a great
enor to let our zeal run out frora the excel
lent tilings of religion to raatters whicii have
little or no connexion with thera. And

man, though he en, if he do it calmly and
raeekly, raay be a better man than he whe is
stormy and furiously orthodox. Our busi
ness is to follow Jesus, and to trace hia life
upon earth, and to wait his retum in the
clouda. Had I a strong voice, as it ia the
weakest aUve, yea, could I lift it up as a
trampet, I weuld sound a refreat frem our
unnatural contentions and ineligious striv
ings for religion. Oh, what are the tilings
we flght for, compared to the great things of
God ? There must be a great abatement of
the inwards of religion, when it rans wholly
to a scurf. God forbid any to think, that
except aU be according to eur mind, we must
break the bond of peace. If we have no
kindness to our brethren, yet let us have pity
on our mother, and not tear her bowels.
And, indeed, next to the grave and silent
shades of death, a cottage in some wilderness
is to be wished for, to moum for the pride
and passion ef mankind. Hew do the pro.
fane wretches take advantage ftom our breach.
es ! But if ihere be such here, because of
the weakness, foUy, and passions of some
raen, ia it foUy to foUow Jeaua ? Are some
ridiculous, and for that wiU you turn religion
into ridicule ? If yeu do, it wiU at laat tum
to a Sardonic laughter. Because we contend
fpr a litde, is the whple an inventipn ? Will
the piUars be brangled, because ofthe swamis
of flies that are abeut them ?
There ia an Eternal Mind that made.aU
thinga, that stretched out the heavens, and
formed the spirit of man within him ; let us
fremble before Him, and love the Lord Jesua.
Our aouls have indelible charactera pf their
pwn excellency in them, and deep apprehen.
aipna of another state, wherein we shaU re.
ceive according to what we haye done upon
earth. Was not Jesus, the Son of God, de.
clared te be such by his miracles, but chiefly
by his resunection from the dead ? Have nol
these been received and transmitted to us,
through all ages, many martyrs following
him through racks and fires, and their own
blood, to his glory ? And shaU we throw
off aU these ? Better be the poorest, weak.
est, and mest disterapered peraon upon earth,
with the true fear of God, than the greatest
wit and highest mind in the world, if pro.
fane ; or though not such, if void of any just
or deep sense of the fear of God ; for a liv
ing dog is better than a dead lion. Some
religious persons are perhaps weak persons,
yet, in all ages, there have been greater
nobles, and more generous souls truly reli
gious, than ever were in the whole tribe of
atheists and libertines.
Let us therefore follow the holy Jesus.
Our oivn concemments concern us not, com.
pared to this. What is that to thee ? may
be said of all things besides this. All tbe
world ia one great impertinency te him who
contemplates Godj and his Son Jesus. Great

SERMON X.

549

things, coaches, furniture, or houses, concern
the outward pomp or state of the world, but
not the neceaaitiea ef life ; neither can they
give ease to him that is pinched widi any
one trouble. He tbat bath twenty houses,
lies but in one at once ; he tbat bath twenty
dishes on bis table, hath but one beUy to
fiU ; so, ad supervacua sudatur. AU are
uncertain ; sudden storms faU on, and riches
fly away as a bird to heaven, and leave those
who look after them, sinking toheUinaonow.
A Chriatian is soUcitous abeut nething.
If he be raised higher, it is what he desires
not ; if he faU down again, he is wbere he
was. A well fixed mind, though the world
sheuld crack about him, shaU be in quiet :
but when we come to be stretched on our
death-bed, things wiU have another visage ;
it wiU pull the rich from his treasure, strip
the great of his robes and glery, and snatch
the amorous gaUant from his fair, beloved
mistress, and from aU we either bave or grasp
at. Only siri will stick fast and foUew us :
these black troops wiU clap fatal anests on
us, and deUver us over to the gaoler. Are
these cpnttivances, pr the dark dreams pf
melanchply ? All the sublimities ef hpliness
may be arrived at by the deep and prpfpund
belief of these thinga. Let us therefere aak.
Have we walked thus, and dreased eur souls
* by this pattem ? But this hath a nearer as
pect to pastors, who should be copies of the
fair original, and second patterns, who fol
low nearer Christ ; they should be iraitating
him in huraiUty, meekness, and conterapt ef
the world, and particularly in affection to
souls, feeding the flock of God. Should we
spare labour, when he spared net his own
blood ? How precious raust the sheep be,
who were bought at so high a rate as the
blood of Ged ! Oh, for more of this divine
and evangeUc heat, instead of our distemper
ed heat. This is the substance of reUgion
— ^to imitate him whom we worship. Can
there be a higher or nobler design in the
world than to be God-like, and like .Tesus

Christ ? He became like us, tbat we might
be tbe more like bim. He took our natura
upon him, that he raight transfuse his to us.
His life waa a track of doing good and suf-
fering ill. He spent the days in preaching
and healing, and eften the nights in prayer.
He was " holy, harmless, and undefiled, and
separate ftom sinners." How then can heirs
of wrath feUew " the Larab of God, that
taketh away the sins of the world"? Humi
Uty, meekness, and charity, were the dar-
Ung virtues of Christ. He came to expiate
and extirpate our pride ; and when that
Majesty did so hurahle hiraself, shall a worra
swell ? Ne grace can be where the raind is
so swelled with tbis aiiy turaour. He was
meek, and reviled not again ; ner did he vent
his anger, though he met with the greatest
injuries. The rack of hia croas could make
hira confess no anger againat thoae who were
draining hira of his life and blood ; all he
did waa, to pray for thera. Charity waa so
dear to hira, that he recoraraended it as the"
characteristic by which all might know his
disciples, if they loved one another. But,
.lias ! by thia may aU knew we are net his
disciples, because we hate one anether. But
tbat we may imitate him in his life, we muat
run the back-trade, and begin with his death,
and muat die with bira. Love is a death.
He that loves is gone, and lost in God, and
can esteem or take pleasure in nothing be
sides bim. When the bitter cup of the Fa
ther's wrath was presented to our Lord, one
drop of this elixir of leve and union to the
Father's wiU, sweetened it so, that he drank
it off without more complaining. This death
of Jesus, mysticaUy acted in us, must strike
down all things else, and he must become our
all. Oh, that we could resolve to live to
him that died, and to be only his, and humbly
feUew the crucified Jesus 1 All else will be
quickly gene. How soon will the shadows
that now amuse us, and please our eyes, fly
away ?

THEOLOGICAL LECTURES.

THEOLOGICAL LECTURES.

LECTURE I.

INTBODUCTIOX,

With little sfrength I undertake a great
work ; or rather, with the least abiUties, I
venture upon a task which is of aU others
the greatest and mest important. Among
the various undertakings of raen, can an
instance be given of one raere sublime, than
an intention to form the human mind anew,
after the Divine image ? Yet it will, I
doubt not, be universaUy acknowledged, that
this is the trae end and design, not only of
ministers in their several congregations, but
also of professors of divinity in schools. And
thougb, in most respects, the ministerial
office is evidently superior to that of profes
sors of theology in coUeges ; in one respect
the other seeras to have the preference, as it
is, at least for the most part, the business of
the former to instract the eoramon sort of
men, the ignorant and iUiterate ; whUe it Is
the work of the latter, to season with heaven
ly doctrine the rainds of select societies of
yputh, who have had a learned education,
and are devoted to a studious Ufe ; many of
whom, it is to be hoped, will, by the Divine
blessing, become preachers of the aame aalu-
tary doctrine themaelvea. And surely this
ougbt to be a powerful motive with aU those
whe, by the Divine dispensation, are employ
ed in such a work, to exert themselves with
the greater life and spirit in the discharge of
their duty; especiaUy when they consider,
that these Christian instructions, and seeds
of true piety, they instU into the tender
minds of their pupils, wiU by them be spread
far and wide ; and, in due time, conveyed,
aa it were, by se many canals and aqueducts,
to many parts of the Lerd's vineyard. Piu-
tarch employs an argument of this kind to
prevail with tbe philosophers to exert them
selves in the instruction of princes and great

men, rather than with a haughty suLennesa
to avoid their company ; " for thus," says
he, " you wiU find a abort way to be uaeful
to many." And, to be aure, he that conveys
the principles of virtue and wisdom into the
minds of the lower claases of men, or the
ilUterate, whatever progress his diaciplea may
make, eraploys his time and talents only for
the advantage ofhis pupila ; but he tbat forras
the minda of magistrates and great men, ot
such as are intended for high and exalted sta.
tions, by improving one single person, becomes
a benefactor to large and nuraerous societies.
Every physician of generous principles, as
Plutarch expresses it,* would have an un.
coraraon arabition te cure an eye intended to
watch over many persons, and te convey the
sense of seeing to nurabers ; and a musical
instrument.maker would, with uncomraon
pleasure, exert his skill in perfecting a harp,
if he knew that it was to be erapleyed by the
hands of Araphion, and by the force of its
music, to draw stones together for buUding
the waUs ef Thebes. A learned and inge
nious author, alluding to this fable, and ap
plying it to our present purpose, calls pro
fessors of theology in schools, raakera of
harps, for building the waUs of a far more
famed and beautiful city, meaning, the
heavenly Jerusalem, in such manner, that
the stones ef this building being fruly, and
without a fable, living, and charmed by the
pleasant harmony of the goapel, corae of
their own accord to take their places in the
wall. I am not se Uttie acquainted with myself,
as to entertain the least hope of success in so
great a work by my own strength and abUi
ties ; but, whUe I humbly depend upon the
Divine goodness and favour, I have no
reasori to despair : for in the hand of Om.
nipotence all instruments are alike. Nor
can it be questioned, that he who made all
* 4>jA0«ctAef.

654

INTRODUCTION.

thirigs out ef nothing, can produce any
change he pleases in hia creatures that are
already made ; he who gives life, and breath,
and all things,* cari eaaily atrerigthen the
weak, and give riches in abundance to the
poor and needy. Our eraptiness only serves
to lay us open to, and attract the fulness of
Him " who fills all thinga, and is ever all ;
who gives wiadom to the mind, and preventa
its inegular aaUie3."+
Under his auspices, therefore, young gen
tleraen, we are to aspire to true and saving
wisdora, and to try to raise ourselvea above
this sublunary world. For it ia not ray in
tention to perplex you with curious questions,
and lead you through the thomy paths of
disputation : but, if I had any share of that
exceUent art, it would be ray delight to di-
rect your way through the easy and pleaaant
paths of righteousness, to a life of endless
feUcity, arid be myself your compauion in
that blessed pursuit. I ahould take pleaaure
to kindle in your aouls the raost ardent de.
sires, and fervent love of heavenly things ;
and, to use the expression of a great divine,
add " wings to your souls, to snatch them
away from this world, and restore thera to
God."$ For, if I may be aUowed to speak
with freedom, most part of the notions that
are treated of in theological schools, that are
taught with great pomp and ostentation, and
disputed with vast bustle and noise, may
poaaibly have the aharpneaa of thoms ; but
they have alao thefr banenneaa : they raay
prick and tear, but they can afford no solid
nouriahment to the minda of men, " No
man ever gathered grapes of thoms, nor figs
of *hiatlea." " To what purpoae," aaith a
Kempis, " doat thou reason profoundly
conceming the Trinity, if thou art without
humility, and thereby displeasest that Tri.
nity ?"§ And St. Augustine, upon the
words of Isaiah, " I ara the Lord that
teacheth thee to profit," observes with great
propriety, that the prophet here mentions
utility in opposition to subtiUty.|l Such
are the principles I would wish to corarauni-
'cate to you ; and it is my eamest desire and
fervent prayer, that while I, according to
my raeasure ef strength, propose them to
your underatanding. He who sits in heaven,
yet condescenda to inatract tbe hearts of men
ou this earth, may effectuaUy impreaa them
npon your minda.
But that you may be capable of this su
pernatural light and heavenly instruction, it
ia, first ef aU, absolutely necessary, that your
rainds be caUed off ftom foreign objects, and
tumed in upon themselves ; for as long as
* Zfti,,,, XXI xvimv, xeu xxvTX,
t 'Of aavTX trX,j.ot, xvoi rxvTOt fUvW
'Os vaov co^i^n, voou ,piuyii fioXxlf.
X VlTi'vyeAv Txt 4'cyae, xpTxrav xoffAOv, iovvxi &t^-
§ Quorsum alta ae Trinitate disputare, si careas
humllitate, et sic Trinitate displiceas ?
II Utilia non subtilia.

your thoughts are dispersed and scattered in
purauit of vanity and insignificant trifles, he
that weuld lay before them the principles
and precepta of this spiritual wisdom, would
commit thera, like the Sybil's prophecies,
that were written on loose leaves of treea, to
tbe mercy ofthe inconstant winda, and there
by render thera entirely uacleaa. It is cer.
tainly a matter of great diificulty, and re- '
quirea uncommon art, te fix the thoughts of
men, eapeciaUy of young men and boys, and
tum them in upon theraselves. We read in
the parable ef the Gospel conceming the pro
digal aon, that, firat of all, he came to him
self, and then returned to his father. It is
certainly a very considerable step towards
cpnversipn tp Ged, to have the mind fixed
upen itaelf, and diapoaed to think seripualy
pf its own iraraediate concema ; which tbe
pipua St. Bernard exceUently expresses in
thia prayer, " May I," aaya he, " return frora
external ohjecta te my own inward concems,
andfrom inferiorobjectariae to those ef a aupe
rior nature."* I sbould look upon it as no
sraaU happinesa, if out of thia whole society
I could but gain one ; but wish earnestiy I
could prevail with, many, and atill more
ardently that I could aend yeu all away,
fuUy determined te entertain more aerious
and secret thoughts tban ever you had before,
witb regard to your iramortal atate and eter.
nal concerna. But hew vain are the thoughts
of raen I What a darkness everclouda their
minda I-j- It ia the great coraplaint of God
conceming his peeple, that they have nota
heart to understand,^ It is at once the
great disgrace and tbe miaery of mankind,
tbat they live witheut forethought. § That
brutiah theughtleasness, || pardon the expres.
sion, or, te speak mere inteUigibly, want of
consideration, is the death and ruin of souls ;
and the ancients observe, with great truth
and justice, " that a thoughtful mind is the
spring and source of every good thing."^
It is the advice of the Psalmist, that we
should converse much with ourselves : an
advice, indeed, which is regarded by few ;
fer the greatest part ef mankind are no where
greater strangers than at home. But it is
ray eamest request to you, that you would
be intimately acquainted with yourselves,
and, as becomes persons devoted to a studious
life, be rauch at home, much in your own
corapany, and very often engaged in serious
conversation with youraelvea. Think gravely,
To what purpoae do I live ? Whither am I
going ? Aak thyself, haat thou any fixed and
determined purpose ; any end thou purauest
with stedfastness ?*• The principles I bave
• Ab exterloribus ad interiora redeam, et ab inferi-
oribUB. ad superiora ascendam-
t O vanasnominum mentes ! O pectora cseca !
I Non habent cor ad cogitandum.
§ AtrgtfvotjTaif. n AbduAift.
If Inteliectus cof^itabundus prlncipium oimni^ b nl.
** Est alir|uid qua tendis, el in quid dirtgis arcumf

OF HAPPINESS.

&r,ri

embraced under the name of the Christian
leligien, the things I have so often beard
about a future state, and life, and death
eternal, are they true or falae ? If tbey are
true, as we all absolutely profess to believe
they are, tben, to be sure, the greatest and
moat important raatters of this werld are
Vain, and even lesa than vanity itself ; all
our knowledge is but ignorance, eur riches
poverty, our pleaaurea bitterneaa, and our
honours vile and dishonourable. How little
di) those raen know, who are arabitious of
glory, wbat it really is, and how to be at.
tained ! Nay, tbey eagerly catch at the
empty shadow of it, While they avoid and
turn their backs upon that glory whicb is
real, substantial, and everlasting. Tbe
happiness ef good men, in the life to come,
is not only infinitely abeve all our expres
sions, but even beyond our moat enlarged
thoughts. By comparing, however, great
things with small, we attain sorae faint no
tion of these exalted and invisible blessings,
from the earthly and visible enjoyments of
this werld. In this respect even the Hely
Scriptures descend te the weakness of eur ca
pacities, and, as the Hebrews express it,
" the law of God speaks tbe language of the
children of men."* They speak of this
telestial life, under the representations of an
heritage, of riches, of a kingdom and a crown,
but with uncomraon epithets, and such as
are by no means applicable to any earthly
glery, or opulence, however great. It is an
inheritance, but one that is unconupted,
undefiled, and that fadeth not away : a king
dom, but one that can never be shaken, much
less ruined : which can never be said of the
thrones of this sublunary world, as evidentiy
appears from the histories of aU nations, and
our own recent experience. Here, ye sons
of Adam, a covetous and ambitious race,
here is roora for a laudable avarice ; here
are motives to excite your arabition, and, at
the same time, the raeans of satisfying it to
the full. But it raust be acknowledged,
that tbe belief of these things is far from
being common. What a rare attainment is
faith ! Seeing among the prodigious crowds
of those who profeaa to believe, ih this world
one might juatly cry out, where is a true be-
liever to be found ? That man shall never
persuade me, that he believes the truth and
certainty of heavenly enjoyments, who cleaves
to this earth, nay, wbo does not scom and
despise it, with all its baits and allurements,
and employ aU his powers, as weU as his
utmost industry, to obtain these immense and
etemal blessings.
Nor is there any thing in the way te these
enjoyments that can deter you from it, unless
holiness in heart and life appear to be a
heavy and troublesome task to you : where
as, on the contrary, nothing surely can be
• Lex Dei loquitur linguam filiorum hominum.

named, that is either mere suited te the
dignity of human nature, more beautif,il and
becoming, or attended with greater pleaaure.
I therefore beseech and entreat you, by tbe
bowela of divine mercy, and by your own
raoat precious aoula, that you would serious-
ly consider these things, and make them your
principal study. Try an experiment, attend
ed with no danger or expenae ; raake a trial
of the ways of thia wisdom, and I doubt net
but you will be ao charmed with the pleaaant -
neas thereof, that you will never thencefor
ward depart frera them. For this purpose,
I earnestly recoraraend to you, to be conatant
and aaaiduoua in prayer ; nay, it ia St.
Paul's exhortation, that you pray without
ceasing,* Se that prayer may be not only,
according to the old saying, " the key that
opens the day, and the lock that ahuta up
the night ;-|- but alao, ao to speak, a ataff for
support in the day-time, and a bed for rest
and comfort in the night ; two conveniences
which are coramonly expreaaed by ene aingle
Hebrew word. And be aaaured, that the
more frequently you pray, with so much the
greater eaae and pleaaure wiU your prayers
be attended, not only from tbe coraraon and
neceaaary connexion between acts and habita,
but also from tbe nature of this duty ; for
prayer, being a kind of conversation witb
God, gradually purifies the aoul, and makea
it continually more and more Uke unto hira.
Our love to Ged is also very much improved
by thia frequent intercourae with him ; and
by this love, on the ether hand, the seul is
effectuaUy disposed to fervency, as weU as
frequency in prayer, and can, by no means,
subsist without it.

LECTURE IL
Of Happiness, its Name and Nature,
and the Desire of it implanted in the
Human Heart.
How deep and dark is that abyss of misery,
into which man is precipitated by bis de
plorable fall, aince he haa thereby lost not
only the possession, but also the knowledge
of his chief or principal good 1 He has -uo
distinct notion of what it is, of the raeans of
recovering it, or tbe way he has to fake in
pursuit of it. Yet the human mind, however
stunned and weakened by so dreadful a faU,
StiU retains some faint idea, sorae confused
and obscure notions of the good it has lost,
and sorae remaining seeds ef its heavenly
original.J It has also still remaining a kind
of languid sense of its misery and indigence,
• 1 These. V. 17. -f Ciavis diei, et sera noctis-
i Cognati stmina ccsli.

556

OF HAPFINKSg.

LECT. II.

vrith affections suitable to those obscure no
tions. From this iraperfect sense of its
poverty, and these feeble affections, arise
sorae motions and efforts of the mind, like
those of one groping in the dark, and seek-
• ing rest every where, but meeting with it no
where. This, at least, is beyond all deubt,
and indisputable, that aU men wish well te
themselves, nay, that they aU catch at, and
desire to attain the enjoyment of the mest
absolute and perfect good : even the worst of
men have net lost regard for themselves, nor
can they possibly divest tbemselves*'of it.
And thougb, alas ! it is but too true, that,
as we are naturaUy blind, we run ourselves
upon raisery under the disguise of happiness,
and not only embrace, according to the com.
mon saying, " a cloud instead of Juno,"* but
death itself instead of life ; yet, even from
this most fatal enor, it is evident that we
naturaUy pursue either real happiuess, er
what, to our mistaken judgment, appears to
be such. Ner can the mind of man divest
itself of this propensity, without divesting
itself of its being. This is what the school
men raean, when, in thefr raanner of expreS'
sion, tbey say, " That the will is carried
towards happiness, not simply as wiU, but
as nature." •[
It is true, indeed, the generality of man-
kind are not well acquainted with the mo.
tions of their own rainds, not at pains to
observe thera, but, like brutes, by a kind of
secret impulse, are violently carried towards
auch enjoyments as faU in their way : they
do but very little, or not at aU, enter into
themselves, and review the slate and opera.
tions of their own rainds ; yet in aU their
actions, all thefr wishes arid desires, (thougb
tbey are uot always aware of it themselves,)
this thirst after immortaUty exerts and dis.
covers itaelf. Conaider the buay part of
mankind, hurrying to and fro in the exercise
of thefr several professions— physicians, law
yers, merchants, mechanics, farmers, and
even soldiers themselves ; they aU teil and
labour, iri order to obtain reat, if succeaa
attend their endeavours, and any fortunate
event answer their expectations. Enceurag
ed by these fond hopes, they eat their bread
with the sweat of their brew : but their toil,
after aU, is endleaa, constantly retuming in
a circle ; and the days of men pass away in
suffering real evils, and entertaining fend
hopes of apparent good, which they seldora
or never attain : " Every man walks in a
vain show ; he torments himaelf in vain." J
He purauea rest and ease, like bis shadow,
and never overtakes them ; but, for the most
part, ceases to Uve before he begins to pur
poae. However, after aU this confused and
fluctuating appetite, which determines us to
• Nuljem pro Junone.
t In heatitudinem fertur volunbu, noo ut voluntas,
sed ut natura.
;: Psalm xxxix. 6.

the pursuit of good, eithet real or apparent,
as it is congenial with us, and deeply rooted
in the human heart, so it is the greaf handle
by which divine grace lays hold, as it were,
upon our nature, draws us to itself, and
extricates us out of the profound abyss of
misery into which we are fallen.
From this it evidently fellows, that the
design of sacred Theology is the very same
with that of human nature, and " he that
rejects it hates his own sold;" for sp the
wise King of Israel emphaticaUy expresses
it. He is the raost ineconcileable enemy to
his own happiness, and absolutely at variance
with hiraself; according to that of St. Ber.
nard, " After I was set in opposition to
thee, I becarae also contrary to myself." *
These considerations have determined me
to begin these inatractions, such as they are,
which, with Divine aaaiatance, I intend to
give you concerning the principles of the
Christian reUgion, with a short disquisition
conceming the chief or ultiraate end ef man.
And here it is to be, flrst of aU, observed,
that the tranacendent and supreme end of
aU is the glory of God ; aU things return.
ing, in a moat beautiful circle, to this, as
the original aource from wbich they at first
took their riae ; but the end of true religion,
as far aa it regards us, which is immediately
connected with the former, and serves in a
mest glorious raanner te proraote it, is the
salvation and happiness of mankind.
Though I should not teU you what is to
be understood by tbe term happiness or fe
licity in general, I cannot iraagine any of you
would be at a loss about it ; yet I shaU give
a brief explication of it, that you may have
the raere distinct ideas of the thing itself,
and the juster notions of what is to be fur.
ther advanced on the subject. Nor is there,
indeed, any controversy on this head; fot
aU are agreed, that by the terms commonly
used in Hebrew, Greek, or Latin, •!• to ex.
press happiness or feUcity, we are to under
stand that perfect and complete good, which
ie suited and adapted to intelligent nature :
I say, to intelligent nature, because the
brute creatures cannot be said to be happy,
but iri a very improper sense. Happiness
cannot be ascribed to horses or oxen, let
them be ever so weU fed, and left in the fuU
possession of Uberty and ease. And as good
in general is peculiar to intelUgent beings,
so, raore especiaUy, that perfect good which
constitutes felicity in its fuU and most ex.
tensive acceptation. It is trae, indeed, in
common conversation, men are very prodigal
of this term, and, with extravagant levity,
misapply it to every coraraon enjoyment of
life, or apparent good they meet with, espe.
ciaUy such as is mest suited to their preseut
* Postquam posuisti me contrarium tibi, factus sum
contrarius mihi.
t Mheri in Hebrew. fLxxx^isTvit *t ivixifMviu in
Otaik, fiKcUas et baatUudo in Latin.

OF HAPINESS.

557

exigencies ; and thus, as Aristotle, in his
Etiiics, expresses it, " The sick person con.
«idera health, and the poor man riches, as
the chief geod." • It is also true, that leam.
cd men, and even the Sacred Scriptures, give
the name of feUcity to seme symptoms, and
small beginnings of future happiness ; but,
as we have already observed, this terra, in
its true and complete sense, cempreberids in
it that abaolute and fuU perfection of geod,
which entirely excludes aU uneasiness, and
oringa with it every thing that can contribute
to satisfaction and deUghl. Consequently
that good, whatever it be, that most perfect
ly auppUes aU the wants and satiafies the
cravings of our rational appetites, is objec
tive felicity, as the schools express it ; and
actual, or formal felicity, is the full posses
sion and enjoyment of that complete and
chief good. It consiats in a perfect tranquil
lity of the mind, and not a duU and stupid
indolence, like the calm tbat reigns in the
Dead Sea ; but such a peace ef mind as is
lively, active, and constantly attended with
the purest joy : not a mere absence of un-
eaaineas and pain ; but such a perfect ease
as is constantly accompanied with the mest
perfect satisfaction and supreme delight ; and
if the. term had not been degraded by the
raean uses te wbich it bas been prostituted,
I sbould not scruple to call it pleasure. -j-
And, indeed, we may stiU call it by this
name, provided we purify the terra, and
guard it by the following limitations ; so as
to understand by felicity such a pleasure as
is perfect, constant, pure, spiritual, and di
vine ; for never, since I ventured to think
upon such subjects, could I be satisfied with
the opinion of Aristotle and the schoolmen,
who distinguish between the fruition of the
chief good, which constitutes true felicity,
and the delight and satisfaction attending
that fruition ^ because, at this rate, tbat good
would not be the ultiraate end and comple
tion ef our desires, nor desired on its own
account ; for whatever good we wish to pea.
seas, the end of our wishing is, that we may
enjoy it with , tranquilUty and deUght : and
this uninterrupted deUght or satisfaction,
which adraits of no aUoy, is love in possession
of the beloved object, and at the height of
its ambition.

LECTURE III.
Of /Ae HAPPINESS of MAN, ond that it is
really io be found.
You will not, I imagine, be offended, nor
think I intend to insult yeu, because I have
once and again, with great earnestness and
sincerity, wished vou and rayselfa sound and
serious teraper ef raind ; for, if we raay re-
* 'O voaaitie iyiiixv, i trcvof^tves irKoVTOV,
t'H tuicn/,c,iviat ^5b»,, xftlTxCkttTOs,

present things as they really nre, very few
raen are possessed of so valuable a blessing.
Tbe far greater part of them are intoxicated
either with the pleasures or cares of this
world ; they stagger about with a tottering
and unstable pace ; and, aa Solomon expreas
ea it, " The labour of the fooliah wearieth
every ene of thera ; because he knoweth not
how te go to tbe city ;"* — the heavenly city,
and the viaion of peace, which very few have
a juat riotiori of, or are at pairis to seek after.
Nay, they know net what it is they are seek
ing. They flutter from one object to an
other, and Uve at hazard ; they have no cer
tain harbour in view, nor direct their course
by any fixed star. But to him that knoweth
not the port to which he is beund, no wind
can be favourable ; neither can he who has
not yet determined at what mark he is to
sheet, direct his arrow aright. Tbat this
may not be our case, but that we may have
a proper object to aim at, I propose te speak
of the chief end of our being.
And te begin at the Father of spirits, or
pure intelligences. God, blessed for ever,
corapletely happy inhiraself from aU etemity,
is his own happiness. His self-sufficiency, -j-
that eternal and infinite satisfaction arid cora
placency he haa in himself, is 'he peculiar
and most complete feUcity of thai Suprerae
Being, who derives his existence ftom him
self, arid has given beirig to every thirig else ;
which Chrysostom haa weU expressed by say
ing, " That it is God's peculiar property to
stand in need of nothing. "J And Claudius
Victor beautifully describes hira, " as vested
with all tbe raajesty of creative power, com
prehending in his infinite mind all the crea
tures to be afterwards produced, having all
the revqjutions of time constantly present to
his all-aeeirig eye, and being an iraraenae and
raoat glorious kingdom te himself." ||
Yet, all we can say of this primary, un
created Majesty and Felicity, is but raere
talking to little er no sprt pf purpose ; for
here not only words fail ua, but even thought
is at a stand, and quite overpowered, when
we survey the suprerae, self-existent Being, §
perfectiy happy and glorious in the sole en
joyment ef his own infinite perfections,
throughout numberless ages; without angels,
men, or any other ^reature. So that the poet
had reason to say, '* What eye is so atrong,
that the matchleaa brightneaa of thy glory
will not dazzle it, and make it close ?"5f
» Eccles X. 15.
t AvTU^XtlX,
t &tOV fAX-KllTTa tiiov Tfl xvEvitu,
i Regnabatquepotens in majestate creandi,
Et facienda videns, gignendaque mente capaci,
Secula despiciens, et quicqliid tempora volvunt
Presens semper habens : immensum moie beata
Regnum er.it ipse sibi.
§ AvQllXffTCV TOV OVTX.
*If Tivflf o,w/Aa o-aipcv
Txit rxK ffT'.ioiratt
AvXX6VT0fJ.lH>¥ QO ¦MTtiu.oo-u I -Syncs. Hym. Terl.

55P

OF HAPPINESS.

LECT. in.

Let us, therefore, deacend into ouraelvea,
but with a view to retum to hira again, and
net only so, but in such a manner, that the
end and design of our descending te inquire
into eur ewn aituation, be, that we raay, with
greater advantage, return and re-ascend to
God. For, if we inquire into our own ul
tiraate end, this disquisition muat rise above
aU other beings, and at last terrainate in hira ;
becauae he hiraaelf ia that very end, and out
of hira there ia neither beginning nor end.
The felicity of angela, which is an interme
diate degree of happineaa, we ahaU not insiat
on, not only becauae it is foreign to our pur
poae, but alao becauae our felicity and theira
wiU be found, upon the raatter, to be pre-
ciaely the aarae.
With regard to eur own happineaa, we
shall firat shew, thai such a happiness really
exists ; and, next, inquire what it is, and
wherein it conaiata- We aaaert then, that
there ia such a thing aa huraan felicity : and
thia eught rather to be taken for granted as
a matter unqueationable, than atricdy prov
ed- But when I apeak of huraan felicity, I
ara well aatiafied you wiU not iraagine I mean
such a happineaa aa may be had from huraan
thinga ; but that I take the terra auhjective
ly, and underatand by it the happineaa of
man. Now, he who would deny, that thia
ia not only among the number of poaaiblea,
but actually attained by aome part, at leaat,
of the human race, would not only render
himaelf unworthy of auch happineaa, but even
of huraan nature itself; because he would
thereby de all in his power to deprive it of
its higheat expectationa, and ita greateat
honour : but whoever allowa that aU thinga
were produced by the hand of an infinitely
wiae Creator, cannet possibly doubt that man,
the head and ornament ef aU hia viaible
works, waa made capable of a proper and
suitable end- The principal beauty of the
creation consists in this, that aU things in it
are dispoaed in the moat excellent order, and
every particular intended fer aome noble and
suitable end ; and if this could net be said
ef raan, who is the glory ofthe visible world,
what a great deformity muat itbe, how great
a gap in nature !* And this gap must be
the greater, in that, as we have already ob
served, man is naturally endued witb strong
and vigorous desires towards such an end.
Yet, on this absurd supposition, '' all auch
deaires and expectationa would be vain, and
to ne purpose ;"-]• and so something raight
be said in defence of that peevish and ira-
patient expression, which escaped the Psal
mist in a fit of excessive sonow, and he might
have an excuae for saying, " Why haat thou
made.aU men in vain ?"$ Tbis would not

T 'SloTl Kivr,, tivBci xeti t^xTxixv T«* etifiiv
t I'salm Ixxxix. 47.

only have been a frightful gap in nature, bu''
if I ara aUowed se to speak, at this rate tht
whole human race must have been created Iri
misery, and exposed te unavoidable torments,
from which they could never have been re-
lieved, had they been fenned, not only capa
ble of a good, quite unattainable and altoge
ther without their reach, but also with strong
and restless desirea towards that impossible
good. Now, as tbis ia by no means to be
admitted, there rauat neceaaarUy be aome
fuU, permanent, and satisfying good, that
may be attained by man, and in the posses.
sion ef which he must be truly happy.
Whenwerevelve these things in our minda,
do we riot feel frora within a powerful im.
pulse exciting us to set aside aU other carea,
that we raay diacover the one chief good, and
attain to the enjoyment ef it ? WhUe we in.
habit theae bodiea, I own we lie under a
necessity of using corporeal and fading'things;
but there is ' no necesaity that we ahould be
alaves to our belUea and the lusts of the fleah,
er have our affectiona glued to thia earth :
nay, that it ahould be ao, ia the higheat and
moat intolerable indignity. Can itbe thought,
tbat raan was bom raerely to crara himaelf
with victuals and drink, er gratify tbe other
appetites of a bedy wbich he has in common
with the brutes ; — te anuff up the wind, to
entertain deluaive and vain hopes aU the days
of hia life, and, when that abort scene of mad
ness is over, to be laid in tbe grave, and
reduced to his original duat ? Far be il
frora ua te draw such concluaions : there ig
certainly soraething beyond this, something
se great and lasting, that, in respect of
it, the short point of time we live here,
witb aU ita bustle of buaineaa and plea
aurea, is raore erapty and vanishing than
sraoke. " I ara raore considerable," aaya
one, " and born to greater mattera, than to
become the alave of my diminutive body."*
With hpw much greater truth might we apeak
thua, were we regenerated frpra heaven I Let
us be ashamed tp live with pur heads bowed
down, like grovelling beaata gazing upon the
earth, or even to catch at the vain and airy
ahadowa of acience ; while, in the mean time,
we know not, or do not consider, whence we
took our rise, and whither we aoon are to re
tum, what place is to receive eur aouls, when
they are aet at Uber-ty from theae bodily pri
sons. If it ia the principal desire of your
souls to understand the nature of this feU
city, and the way that leads to it, search the
Scripturea ; for, from thera alone we all think,
or profeaa to think, we can have etemal Ufe.
'I exhort and beaeech yeu, never to suffer so
much aa one day to paaa, either through lazy
negligence, or too much eagerneaa in inferior
studiea, without reading aome part of the
* Major sum, et ad majora genitus, quam ut sim
manciphim mei corpusculi.

OF HAPPINESS,

859

Sacred Records, with a pious and attentive
disposition of mind ; still joining with your
reading fervent prayer, that you may thereby
draw down that divine light, without which
spiritual things cannot be read and under
stood. But with tbis Ught shining upen
them, it is not possible to express how much
aweeter you will find these inspired writings,
than Cicero, Demosthenes, Homer, Aristo
tle, and aU the other orators, poeta, and phi-
loaophers. Tbey reaaon about an iraaginary
feUcity, and every one in his own way ad
vances seme precarious and uricertaiu thoughts
upori it ; but tbis book alone shews clearly,
and with absolute certainty, what it is, and
points out the way that leads to the attain
ment ef it. This is tbat which prevailed with
St. Augustine te study the Scriptures, and
engaged his affection to them. " In Cicero,
and Plato, and other such writers," says he,
" I meet with many things wittily said, and
things that have a moderate tendency to
move the passions ; but in none of thera do
I find these words, Ceme unto me, all ye
tiiat labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest."*

LECTURE IV.

In which it is proved, that Human Feli
city cannot be found either in tlie Earth,
or earthly Things.
We are aU in quest of one thing, but al
most all ef ua out of tbe right road ; there
fore, to be sure, the longer and the raore
swiftly we move in a wrong path, the farther
we depart from tbe object of our deairea : and
if it ia ae, we can apeak or think ef nothing
mere proper and aeaaonable, than ef inquir
ing about the only right way, whereby we
may all come to aee the bright fountain of
goodness.f I know you wiU reraember, that,
on the last occasion, we propoaed the meat
important of all queations, viz. that concem
ing our ultimate end, or the way te discover
true happiness ; to whicb, we asserted, that
aU mankind do aspire with a natural, and
therefore a constant and uniform ardour;:}:
or rather, we supposed, that all are aufii-
cientiy acquainted with this happiness, nay,
really de, or at least may, feel it within
them, if they thoroughly knew themselves.
For this is the end of the labours of men,
to this tend aU tbeir toUs ; this is tbe gene-
* Apud Ciceronem et Platonem, aliosque ejusmodi
scriptores, multa sunt acut6 dicta, et leniter calentia,
sed in iis omnibus hoc non invenio, Venite ad me, &c,
M.VTT. xii. 28.
t Boni fontem visere lucidum.
t AhlXTfOtTOI o^nj,.

ral aim of all, not only the sharp-sighted,
but the blear-eyed and short-sighted,* nay,
even of thoae that are quite blind ; who,
though they cannot see the mark they pro
pose to themselves, yet are in hopes ef reach
ing it at last : that ia to aay, though tbeir ideas
ef it are very confused and imperfect, tbey
all deaire happineaa in tbe obvious senae of
tbe word. We have alao observed, tbat this
term, in its general acceptation, imports that
full arid perfect good which is suited to in
telUgent nature.-^ It is not to be doubted,
but the feUcity of the Deity, as well as his
being, isin hiraaelf, and frera himaelf ; bu t
eur inquiry is conceming our own happiness.
We alao positively determined, that there is
some blessed end auited and adapted to our
nature, and that thia can by no raeana be
denied. For since all parts of the universe
have proper enda auited and adapted to their
natures, that the raoat noble and excellent
creature of the whole aublunary world,
ahould, in this, be defective, and therefore
created in vain, would be ao great a solecism,
such a deforraity in the whole fabric, and ao
unworthy of the aupreme and all-wiae Crea
tor, that it can by no meana be admitted,
nor even ao much as iraagined. This point
being aettled, naraely, that there is sorae de
terminate good, in the possession whereof
the raind of raan may be fully satisfied, and
at perfect rest, we now proceed to inquire
what tbia good is, and where it may be found.
The firat thing, and at the aame time a
very conaiderable step towards tbis diacovery,
will be, to shew where and in what thinga
thia perfect good ia not to be found ; not only
becauae, this point being settled, it will be
eaaier to deterraine wherein it actually con
aiata, (nay, the latter wiU naturaUy fiow from
the former,) but alao because, as haa been
ohaerved, we ahall find the far greater part of
mankind pursuing vain ahadows and phan
toms of happineaa, andthroughout their whole
Uvea wandering in a great variety of by-paths,
seeking the way to make a proper impreve-
raerit ef Ufe, alraost always huriting for that
chief geod where it is not to be found- They
must first be recalled from this rambling and
fruitiess course, before they can possibly be
directed into the right road. I shall not
spin out this negative preposition, by divid
ing the subject ef it into several branches,
and insisting separately upen every one of
thera ; but conaider . all theae enora and
raistakes, both vulgar and practical, specu
lative and philosophical, however nuraerous
they raay be, as coraprehended under one
general head, and fuUy obviate thera aU by
one single proposition, which, with Divine
assistance, I shaU explain to yeu in tbis Lec
ture, and that very briefly.
Tbe preposition is. That huraan feUcity,
1 IlgaiTfl* Tt, txxrov ti, xxi filyiffrov xu\e»

5ff0

OF HAPPINESS.

or that fuU arid complete good which is
suited to the nature of man, is -not to be
found in the earth, ner in earthly things.
Now, what if, instead of further proof or
Ulusteation, I sheuld only say, if this per.
feet feUcity is te be found within this visible
world, or tbe verge of this earthly Ufa, let
hira, I pray, who hath found it put, stand
forth : let hira teU who can — what star, of
whatever raagnitude, what consteUation or
corabination of stars, has so favourable an
aspect and se benign ari influence, or what
is that singular good, or asserablage of good
things in this earth, that can confer upon
mankind a happy life ? All things that,
Uke bright stars, have hitherto attracted the
eyes of men, vanishing in a few days, have
proved themselves to be comets, net only of
no benign, but even of pernicious influence :
according to the saying, *' There is no
comet but what brings sorae mischief along
with it."* AU that have ever lived during
so many ages that the world has hitherto
lasted, noble and ignoble, leamed and un-
leamed, fools and wise men, have gone in
search of happiness. Has ever any of them
aU, in times past, er is there any at this
day, that has said, " I have found it ?"-f-
Different raen have given different defini
tions and descriptions of it, and, according
te their various turns of mind, have painted
it in a great variety of shapes ; but since
tbe creation of the world, there has not been
so much as one tbat ever pretended te say.
Here it is, I have it, and have attained the
full posaeaaion ef it. Even those from whom
moat waa to be expected, men of the utmoat
penetration, and meat properly qualified fer
such reaearchea, after aU their labour and
industry, have acknowledged their disap
pointment, and that they had net found it.
But it would be wonderful indeed that there
should be any good suited to human nature, j:
and to which mankind were born, and yet
that it never feU to the share of any one in-
dividual ef tbe sons of raen ; unless it be
said, that the things of life, in this respect,
reaerabie the speculations of the schools ;
and that, as they talk about objects of know
ledge tbat were never known, so there was
sorae good attainable by men, which was
never actuaUy attained.
But to look a little more nanowly into
this matter, and take a transient view of the
several periods of Ufe. Infants are so far
from attaining to happiness, that they have
not yet arrived at huraan life ; yet, if they
are compared with those of riper years, they
are, in a lew and iraproper sense, with regard
to two things, innocence and ignorance, hap
pier than raen : for there is nothing that
years add to infancy so invariably, and in so
great abundance, as guilt and pollution ; and
* Quill! yxg xofjiviTioe, iffTis eu xxxov ftfii.
i Zui'/,,XX, i XutUfVYii,

the experience and knowledge of the world
which they give us, do not so much improve
the head, as they vex and distress the heart.
So that the great man represented in the
tragedy embracing his infant, who knew no.
thing of his own misery, seems to have had
some reason to say^ " that those wbo know
nothing, enjoy the happiest life."* And,
to be sure, what we gain by our progress
frem infancy to youtb, is, that we thereby
becoine raore exposed to the miaeriea pf Ufe,
and, as we improve in the knowledge of
things, our pains and torments are also in.
creased ; for either chUdren are put tp ser.
vile emplpyments, or mechanic arts ; or, if
they happen tp have a mere genteel and li.
beral educatipn, this very thmg tums to a
punishment, as they are thereby subjected to
rods, chastisemeuts, and the pewer ef pa.
rents and instructors, wliich is often a kind
of petty tyranny ; and when the yokeis Ught
ened with the greatest prudence, it stiU seems
hard to be home, as it is above the capacity
of their young minds, thwarts their wishes
and inclinations, and encroaches upon thefr
beloved liberty.
Youth, put uifuU possession of this Uberty,
for tbe most part ceases to be master of it
self ; nor can it be so traly aaid to be de.
livered from ita former misery, as to exchange
it for a worse, even that very liberty. It
leaves the harhour, to sail through quick.
sands and Syrens ; and, when both these are
passed, launches out into tbe deep sea
Alaa ! te what varioua fates ia it there ex.
poaed ! How many contrary winds does it
meet with 1 How many atorma threatening
it with shipwreck ! Hew many shocks has
it to bear from avarice, ambition, and envy,
either in consequence of tbe violent stinings
of those passions within itself, or the fierce
attacks of them frera without ! And amidst
aU these tempests, the ship is either early
overwhelmed, or broken by storms ; and
worn out by old age, at last faUs to pieces.
Nor dees it much signify wbat state of
life one enters into, or what rank he holds in
human society ; for all forms of buaineas and
conditions of life, however various you may
suppose them to be, are exposed to a much
greater variety of troubles and distresses,
some to pressures more numerous and more
grieveus tban others, but aU to a great many,
and every one te some pecuUar to itself. If
you devote yourselves to ease and retirement,
you cannot avoid the reproach and uneasiness
that constantly attend an indolent, an use.
less and lazy Ufe. If you engage in business,
whatever it be, whether you commence mer.
chant, soldier, farraer, or lawyer, you always
meet with toU and hazard, and often with
heavy misfortunes and losses. Celibacy
exposes to solitude ; maniage, to soUcitude
and cares. Witheut learning, yeu appeal
* To Yvuptiti ;j,^iiv iffTiv fiiiffTOt 0iae,

OF HAPPINESS.

^01

plain and unpoliahed ; but, on the other
liand, the atudy of letters is a raatter of ira.
mense labour, and, for tbe moat part, brings
in but very little, either with regard to the
knowledge ypu acquire by it, or the conveni-
cncies ef life it procures. But I will enlarge
no farther ; you find the Greek and Latin
poets lamenting the calaraitiea of life, in
many parta ef their worka, and at length :
nor do they exaggerate in the leaat ; they
even faU short of the truth, and only enu
merate a few evila out ef many.
The Greek epigram aacribed by aome to
Posidipua, by othera to Crates the Cynic
phUosopher, begins thus : " What atate of
life ought one to chooae?"* and having
enumerated thera all, concludea in thia raan
ner : " There are then only two thinga eligi
ble, eitiier never to have been born, or to die
as soon aa one raakea his appearance in the
werld. "-f*
But now, leaving the varioua perieda and
conditiona of life, let us, with great brevity,
ran over those things which are looked upeii
to be the greateat blesainga iri it, and see
whether any ef thera can make it completely
happy. Can this be expected frem a beauti
ful outside ? No ; thia has rendered many
miserable, but never raade one happy ; for
, suppose it to be sometiraes attended with
innocence, it is surely of a fading and perish
ing nature, " the aport ef time er diaeaae." J
Can it be expected from riches r Surely no ;
for how Uttie of them does tbe o-wner poaaeas,
even supposing hia wealth to be ever ao
great ! What a small part of them does he
uae or enjoy hiraaelf ! And what haa he ef
the reat but the pleasure of aeeing them with
hia eyes ? Let hia table be loaded with the
greateat variety of delicious dishes, he fills
his belly out of one ; and if he bas a bun.
dred beds, he lies but in one of them. Can
the kingdoms, thrones, and sceiJtres of this
world confer happiness ? No ; we learn
from the histories of all agea, that net a few
have been tumbled down from these by
sudden and unexpected revolutions, and
those not such as were void of conduct or
courage, but raen of great and extraordinary
abilities. And, that these who raet witb no
auch misfortunes, were stiU far enough from
happiness, ia very plain frora the aituation of
their affairs, and in raany cases from their
own confession. The saying of Augustine
is well known : " I wish I had never been
married, and had died childless :"§ and the
expression of Severus at his death : " I be
came aU things, and yet it dees not profit
nie."|| But the most noted saying of all,
and that which beat deaerves to be known,
* IlsfrV TOI ^lOTOIC TXfLBt; T^lZoV J
t Err «g4j Toiv iueiv l»o? ai^lris r, TO ysvtTUxl ^lot-
XOT t) S-elvtlv etUTIxx TIXTOf/,«lvov,
I X..aveu VI votrou^xiyviov,
§ Atlj a^l.ov ffyufjisi t* i/Alvxi xyevot t' xxoXlirxi,
II llxvTX iytvcAt,*iV XXI ou Aus-iTfAli,

is that ofthe wisest and raost flourishing king,
aa well aa the greatest preacher, who, having
exactly computed all tbe advantages of bis
exalted dignity and royal opulence, found
this to be tbe aum total ef all, and left it on
record for the inapection ef poaterity and
future ages — " Vanity - ef vanities, all is
vanity." All thia may possibly be true with regard
to the extemal advantages ef men ; but raay
not happiness be found in the Internal goods
of the raind, such aa wisdom and virtue ?
Suppose this granted ; atill, that they may
confer perfect felicity, they muat, ef neces.
.sity, be perfect theraselves. Now, shew me
the raan, whe, even in hia ewn judgment,
has attained to perfection in wiadora and
virtue. Even thoae who, are accounted the
wiaeat, and actuaUy were se, acknowledged
tbey knew nothing ; nor was there one
araongst the raost approved philosophers,
whose virtues were not alloyed with raany
bleraishea. The aarae muat be aaid ef piety
and true reUgion, which, though it ia the
beginning ef felicity, and tends directly to
perfection ; yet, aa in thia earth it ia net full
and complete in itself, it cannet raake its
poaaesaora perfectly happy. The knowledge
of the raeat exalted rainda is very obscure,
and alraost quite dark, and their practice of
virtue lame and imperfect. And indeed,
who can have the boldness to boast of per.
fection in thia reapect, when he hears the
great Apoatle complaining of the law ef the
fleah, and patheticaUy exclairaing, " Who
ahaU deliver rae frora thia body of death,
iScc. ?"* Beaides, thoug'n wisdora and vir
tue, or piety, were perfect, ao long aa we
have bodiea, we muat, at the aame time,
have all bodily advantagea, in order to per
fect felicity. Theiefore the S.atiriat smartly
ridiculea the wise raan of the Stoics. " He
is," says he, "free, honoured, beautiful, a
king of kings, and particularly happy, ex
cept when he is troubled with phlegm, "-f-
Since these things are so, we raust raiae
our rainds higher, and net live with eur
heads bowed down like tbe eoramon sort of
mankind ; whe, aa St. Auguatine expreaaes
it, " look for a happy Ufe in the region of
death.":): To set our hearts upon the pe.
rishing goods ef this Ufe, and ita muddy
pleasures, is not the happinesa of raen, but
of hogs ; and if pleaaure ia dirt, other things
are but amoke. Were this the only good
proposed to the desires and hopes of raen, it
weuld not have been so great a privilege to
be born. Be therefore advised, young
gentlemen, and beware of this poisonous
cup, lest your minda thereby become brutiah,
and fall into a fatal oblivion of your original,

* Rom. vii. 24.

- Dives,

Liber, honoratus, pulcher, rex denique rcguni,
PrjBcipue felix, nisi cum pituita molesta est.
1 Beatam vitam auierunt in regione mortis.
* 2N

5G2

OF THE IMMORTALITY

and your end. Turn that part of your com
position which ia divine, to Ged, ita creator
and father, without whom we can neither be
happy, nor indeed be at aU.

LECTURE V.

Of the Immortality of the Soul,
There are raany thinga that keep raan
kind employed, particularly buainess, or ra
ther triflea ; for ao the affaira which are iri
thia world conaidered as raost iraportant,
ought to be caUed, wben corapared with that
of minding our own valuable concems, know.
ing ourselves, and truly consulting our high
eat intereata. But how few are there that
raake thia their atudy ! Tbe definition yeu
coraraonly give of raan is, that he ia a rational
creature ; though, to be aure, it is not appli
cable te the generality of mankind, unlesa
you understand, that they are such, not ac
tually, but in power only, and that very re-
raoie. They are, for the most part at least,
raore silly and foeUsh than children, and,
like thera, feud of toys and rattles : they
fatigue theraaelvea running about and aaun-
•ering from place to place, but do nothing
to purpoae.What a wonder it ia, that aouls ef a
heavenly origin bave so far forgot their na
tive country, and are ao iraraersed in dirt
and mud, that there are few raen who fre-
quently converae wilh theraaelvea abeut their
own atate, thinking gravely of their original
and their end, aeriously laying to heart, that,
aa the poet expreaaea it, " Good and evil are
aet before raankind ;"* and who, after ma
ture consideration, not only think it the raoat
wiae and reasonable courae, but are alao fully
reaelved te exert theraaelves te the utraeat,
in order to anive at a aovereign conterapt of
earthly thinga, and aapire to theae enjoy
raents that are divine and eternal ! For our
parta, I am fully perauaded we shall be of
this mind, if we seriously refiect on what has
been aaid. For if there is, of necesaity, a
complete, permanent, and satiafying good
intended for raan, and no auch good ia te be
found in tbe earth, or earthly things, we
muat proceed farther, and look for it aerae-
where elae ; and, in conaequence of thia,
conclude, that raan ia not quite extinguiahed
by death, but reraovea te another place, and
that the human aoul ia by all raeans imraortal.
Many raen have added a great variety ef
different arguments to aupport thia conclii-
sion, some ef thera strong and aolid, and
oihers, to apeak freely, too metaphysical,
" "nrJ Ten xvO^UTOi; xakov t uyxQo, ti ri-ivxTini.

and of Uttle sfrength, especially as they are
as obscure, aa eaaily denied, and as hard to
be proved, as that very conclusion in aupport
of which they are adduced.
They who reason frpm the immaterial na-
ture pf the apul, and ftpra ita being infused
intp the bedy, as also frem ita method of
operation, which ia confined to none of the
bodily organa, may eaaily prevaU with those
who believe theae principles, to admit the
truth of the concluaion they want to draw
from thera ; but if they meet with any who
obstinately deny tbe premiaea, er even doubt
tbe truth ef them, it wiU be a matter ef diflS-
culty to aupport. such hypotheaea with clear
and conclusive arguraents. If the aoul of
raan was well acquainted with itself, and
fuUy understood its own nature ; if it could
investigate the nature pf its unipn with the
bpdy, and the methpd pf its pperatipn there
in, we dpubt nnt but frpm thence it might
draw these and pther such arguments pf its
immprtality ; but since, shut up in the prison
of a dark body, it is so little known, and so
incomprehensihle to itself; and since, in ao
great obacurity, it can scarce, if at all, dia
cover the least of ita ewn featurea and com
plexion, it would be a very difficult matter
fer it te aay rauch concerning its internal
nature, or nicely determine the methods of
ita operation. But it would be surprising
if any one ahould deny, that the very opera
tiona it performs, especiaUy these of the more
noble and exalted aort, are atrong marks and
conapicueua charactera of ita excellence and
iraraortality. Nothing is raore evident than that, be
sides life and sense and aniraal spirits, which
he has in coraraon with tbe brutes, there is
in man soraething raere exalted, more pure,
and what more nearly approaches to divinity.
God baa given to the former a aenaitive soul,
but to us a raind also ; and, to speak dia-
tirictiy, that spirit which is peculiar to mari,
and whereby he is raised above aU other
aniraals, eught to be called mind rather than
seul. * Be this as it may, it is hardly poa
aible to aay, how vaatly tbe human mind
excela the other with regard te its wonderful
powers, arid, riext to them, with respect to
its works, devicea, arid inventions. For it
performa auch great arid wonderful things,
that the brutea, even thoae of the greatest
aagacity, can neither imitate, nor at all
underatand, much lesa invent : nay man,
theugh he ia rauch leaa iri bulk, and infe-
rior in atrength te the greateat part ef them,
yet, aa lord and king of them all, be can,
by aurpriaing raeana, bend and apply the
atrength and induatry of all the other crea.
turea, the virtuea ef all herbs and plants,
and, in a werd, all the parts and powers oi-
thia viaible world, to the convenience and ac-
comraodation ef hia ewn life. He alao builds
* .\ninms potius dicendus est quam anima.

OF THE SOUL.

563

cities, erects coraiiienwealths, raakes laws,
condiicta arraiea, fita out lleeta, meaaurea not
only the eartii, but the heavena alao, and
investigates the raotions ef the stara. He
foretells ecUpsea many years before they
happen ; and, with very little diificulty,
sends his thoughts te a great diatance, bida
them visit the remotest cities and countries,
mount above the aun and the atars, and even
the heavens themaelvea.
But all tbeae things are inconsiderable, and
eontribute but little to our present purpoae,
in respect of that one incoraparable dignity
that resulta to the human mind ftom ita
being capable of religion, and having inde
lible charactera thereof naturaUy ataraped
upon it. It acknowledges a Ged, and wor-
ahipa him ; it builda teraplea to hia honour ;
it celebratea bia never-enough exalted Ma-
jesty witb aacrifices, prayers, and praisea,
dependa upon hia bounty, iraplorea hia aid,
and 80 carriea on a conaLint corteapondence
with heaven ; and, which is t very strong
proof of its being originaUy frora heaven, it
hopea at laat te return to it- And, truly, iri
my judgment, thia previous impression arid
hope of immortality, and theae eamest de
sires after it, are a very atrong evidence of
that immortality- Theae impreaaiona, though
in most men they lie overpowered, and al
most qiiite extinguiahed by the weight of
their bodiea, and an extravagant love to pre
aent enjoymenta ; yet, now and then, in
time of adversity, break forth and exert
themselves, especially tinder the pressure of
aevere diaterapera, and at the approachea of
death. But thoae whose minds are puri
fied, and thefr thoughts habituated te divine
things, with what conatant aiid ardent wiahea
do they breathe after that blessed imraorta.
lity ! How often de thefr souls coraplain
within them, that they have dwelt ao long
in these earthly taberaaclea ! Like exilea,
.they eameatiy wiah, make intereat, and
atruggle bard, to regain their native country.
Moreover, doea not that noble neglect of
the body and ita aenaea, and that contempt
of all the pleaaurea of the flesh, which theae
heavenly souls have attained, evidently ahew,
tbat, in a abort time, they will be taken from
hence, and that the body and soul are of a
very different, and alraoat contrary nature to
one anether? And therefore the duration
pf the one depends net upen the ether, but
ia quite of another kind ; and the aoul, aet
at liberty frora the body, ia not only exempt.
cd from death, but, in sorae aenae, then be-
gina to live, and tiien flrst aees the light.
Had we net thia hope to aupport us, what
ground ahould we have to laraent our first
nativity, which placed ua in a life se abort,
so deatitute of good, and ao crowded with rai.
series ; a life which we pass entirely in grasp.
ing phantoms of felicity, and suffering real
calamities I So that, if there were not, be..

yond thia, a life and happiness that more
truly deaerved theae namea, whe can help
aeeing, that of all creatures, man would be
the most miserable, and, of all men, the
beat the raost unhappy ?
For although every wise man lopks uppn
the belief of the iraraortality of the soul as
oue of the great and principal supports of
religion, there may possibly be seme rare,
exalted, and truly divine rainds, who would
choose the pure and noble path ef virtue for
its own sake, weuld constantly walk in it,
and, out of love to it, would not decline the
severest hardships, if they should happen to
be exposed to thera on its account ; yet it
cannot be denied, that the coraraon sort of
Chriatiana, though they are reaUy and at
heart aound believera and true Christians,
fall very abort pf this attainment, and wpuld
acarcely, if at all, embrace virtue and reli
gion, if yeu take away the rewards ; which,
I think, the apoatle Paul hinta at in thia
expresaion, " If in thia life only we bave
hope, we are of all men the moat miaerable."*
The apoatle, indeed, doea net intend these
words as a direct proof ef the iraraortality ef
tbe aoul in a aeparate atate, but aa an argu
ment to prove the reaunection of the body ;
which ia a doctrine near akin, and closely
connected with the forraer. For that great
restoration is added as an instance of the
superabundance and immenaity of the Divine
goodness, whoae pleaaure it ia, tbat not only
the better and more divine part of man,
which, upen ita return to its original source,
is, without the body, capable of enjoying a
perfectly happy and eternal life, ahould have
a glorioua iraraortality, but also, that thia
earthly tabernacle, aa being the faithful at
tendant and conatant companion of the soul,
through all its toils and labours in this
world, be alao adraitted to a share and par
ticipation of its heavenly and eternal felicity ;
tbat so, according to our Lord's expression,
every faithful soul may have returned into
ita boaora, " good raeasure, pressed down,
shaken together, and running over."-f-
Let our belief of this iraraortality be
founded entirely on divine revelation, and
then, like a city fortified with a rampart of
earth drawn round it, let it be outwardly
guarded and defended by reason ; which, in
thia caae, suggeata arguraenta aa atrong and
convincing as the aubject will adrait of. If
auy one, in the present caae, preraiaea de-
raonatration, " his undertaking is certainly
too rauch ;"J if he deairea or expecta it from
another, " he requirea too niuch."§ Thera
are indeed very few demonatrations in phi
loaophy, if you except the mathematical
sciences, that can be truly and strictly ao
called ; and, if we inquire narrowly into the
matter, perhapa we ahall find none at all

* 1 Cor. XV. 19.

t Luke vi. 30.
§ M.j-K Ka,, TO fi,iTv,/j.,t

6C4

OF THE IMMORTALITY

nay, if even the raathematical demonatrationa
are exarained by the atrict rules and ideaa of
Ariatode, the greateat part of thera will be
found imperfect and defective. The saying
of that philoaopher ia, therefore, wise and
applicable to many cases : " Demonstrations
are net to be expected in all cases, but so far
as the aubject wiU admit ef thera."* But.
if we were well acquainted with the nature
Vand eaaence ef the aoul, or even ita preciae
method of operation on the body, it ia highly
probable we could draw from hence evident
and undeniable demonatrations ef that im
mortality which we are now asserting :
whereaa, ap long aa the mind ef man ia ao
little acquainted with ita ewn nature, we muat
not expect any auch.
But that unquenchable thirst of the aoul,
we have already raentioned, ia a atrong proof
of ita divine nature ; a thirat not to be allay
ed with the impure and turbid watera of any
earthly good, er of all worldly enjoymenta
taken together. It thirsts after the never-
failing fountain of good, according to that of
the P.salmiat, "Aa the hart panteth after
Ihe water-brooks :"-{¦ it thirata after a good,
inviaible, iraraaterial, and imraortal, to the
enjoyment whereof the rainiatry of a body ia
ao far frora being abaplutely necessary, that
it feels itself shut up, and cenfined by that
tp which it is now united, aa by a partitien-
waU, and groana under the pressure of it.
And thoae aoula, that are quite inaenaible of
this thirst, are certainly buried in the body,
as in the carcaae of an impure hog ; nor have
they 80 entirely diveated theraaelves of this
appetite we have mentioned, nor can they
ppssibly divest themselves pf it, ap aa npt to
feel it aeverely, to their great raiaery, aooner
or later, either when tbey awake out of their
lethargy within the body, or when they are
obliged to leave it. To conclude : nobody,
I believe, will deny, that we are te forra our
judgraent ef the true nature of the huraan
raind, not frera the aloth and atupidity of the
most degenerate and vilest of men, but frora
the aentiraents and fervent desires of the best
and wiseat of the species.
These sentiments, concerning the iraraor
tality of the aoul in ita future exiatence, not
only include no irapeasibility or abaurdity in
thera, but are alao every way agreeable te
sound reason, wiadom, and virtue, te the
Divine economy, and the natural wiahea and
deairea of men ; wherefore raoat nations have,
with the greateat reason, universally adopted
thera, and the wiaeat in all countriea, and in
all agea, have cheerfully erabraced thera.
And though they could net confirm them
with ariy argumeut of ineaiatible force, yet
they felt aoraething within them that corres-

Oux IV rrxo-lv xirtitilin xiTy,Ttev,
tl TO UTOXilJ.
salm xiii- 1.

aXA (^' OTo

ponded with thia doctrine, and alwaya looked
upon it aa meat beautiful and worthy ef ere-
dit. " Nobody," says Atticus in Cicero,
" shall drive me frora the iraraortaUty of the
aoul."* And Seneca'a worda are, " I took
pleasure to inquire into the eternity of the
soul, and even, indeed, to beUeve it. I re.
signed myself to so glorioua a hope, for now
I begin to despise the reraains ef a broken
constitution, as being tp rempve into that
immensity ef time, and into the posseasion
of endlesa ages."-f- O, how much does the
soul gain by this removal !
As for you, young gentleraen, I doubt not
but yeu will erabrace this doctrine, not only
as agreeable to reaaon, but aa it is an article
of the Chriatian faith. I only put you iu
raind to revolve it often within yourselves,.
and with a serious disposition of mind ; for
yeu will find it the strongest incitement to
wisdora, good raorals, and true piety ; nor
can yeu iraagine any thing that wiU more ef
fectually divert yeu frem a foolish admira
tion of preaent and periahing things, and
frem the allureraenta and aordid pleaaurea of
thia earthly body. Conaider, I pray you,
how unbecoraing it is to make a heaven-horn
soul, that is te live for ever, a slave to the
meanest, vilest, and raost trifling things ;
and, as it were, to thrust down to the kit.
chen a prince that is obliged to leave his
country only for a short tirae. St. Bernard
pathetically addresses hiraself to the body in
favour of the aoul, perauading it te treat the
latter honourably, net only en account ef its
dignity, but also fer the advantage that there.
by will redound to tbe body itself. " Thou
hast a rioble guest, O fiesh ! a mest noble
one indeed, and aU thy safety depends upon
its salvation : it will certainly remember thee
for good, if theu serve it well ; and when it
coraes to ita Lord, it wiU put him in mind
of thee, and the raighty God himaelf will
ceme to make thee, -who art now a vUe bedy,
like unto hia glorioua one ; and O wretched
fleah. He who came in huraility and obscu.
rity to redeera souls, wiU corae in great ma.
jesty to glorify thee, and every eye shall see
him-":}: Be raindful, therefore, young gen
tleraen, ef your 'better part, and accustom it
te think of its own eternity ; alwaya and
every wbere having its eyes flxed upen that
werld te which it is most nearly related.
And thus it will look down, aa from on
* Me nemo de immortalitate depellet.
t Juvabat de seternitate animarum quairere, imo
mehercule credere : dabam me spei tantse, jam enim
reliquias infiactaj setatis contemnebam, in immensum
illud temnus, et in possessionem omnis avi transiturus
Sev. Epfs. 102.
t Nobilem hospitem habc-s, O caro ! nobilcm valde,
et tota tua salus de ejus salute pendet : omnino etiam
memor erit tui in bonum. si bene seivieris illi : et cum
pervencrit ad Domimim suum, suggeret ei de te, ct
veniet ipse Dominu^irtutum, et te vile corpus con-
figurabit corporisuo glorloso, qui ad animas redinien-
das humilis ante venerat, et occultus, pro te gloTlfi-
caiido, O misera cajo, sublimis veniet et manifestus

OF THE SOUL.

5B3

high, en aU thoae things which the world
considera aa lofty and exalted, and wiU see
them under his feet ; and of all the things
which are confined within the narrow verge
of this present life, it will have nething to
desire, and nething to fear-

LECTURE VL
Ofthe HAPPINESS ofthe life to come.
Of all the thoughts ef raen, there is cer
tainly none that raore often occur to a serious
mind, that has its own interest at heart, than
that to which aU others are subordinate and
subservient, with regard to the intention, the
ultiraate and most desfrable end ef all our
toils and cares, and even ef Ufe itself. And
-hia important thought wiU the more closely
beaet the mind, the more sharp-sighted it is
in prying into the real torments, the delusive
hopes, and the false joys of this our wretch
ed atate ; which is indeed ao miserable, that
it can never be aufiiciently lamented : and
aa for laughter amidat ae many sorrows, dan
gers and fears, it must be considered as down.
right raadneaa. Such was the opinion of
the wisest of kinga : " I have aaid of laugh
ter," saya he, " it ia raad ; and of mirth,
what doth it ?"* We have, therefore, no
cause to be rauch aurpriaed at the bitter cora-
Jilainta which a grievoua weight of afflictiona
has extorted, even frora great and good raen
nay, it is rather a wonder if tbe same cauaea
de net often oblige ua to repeat thera.
If we look about ua, how often are we
shocked to obaerve either the calamities of
our country or the sad disaatera of our rela
tiona and frienda, whom we have daily oc
caaion to mourn, either aa groaning under the
preaaurea ef poverty, pining away under Ian-
guiahing diseasea, tonnented by acute ones,
or canied off by death, whUe we ouraelvea
are, in like raanner, very soon to draw teara
ftora the eyes of others ! Nay, hew often
are we a burden to ourselves, and groan hea
vily under afiiictions of our own, that press
hard upon our eatatea, our bodies, or our
rainds I Even those who seera to meet with
the fewest and the least inconveniences in this
Ufe, and dazzle the eyes of spectatera with
the brightness of a seemingly constant and
uniform felicity ; besides that they often suf
fer frera secret vexations and cares, which
destroy their inward peace, and prey upon
their disfrcssed hearts ; bow uncertain, weak,
and brittie, is that falae happiness which ap.
pears about them, and, when it shines bright.
eat, how eaaily ia it broken to piecea ! So
that it has been justly said, " They want I
• Eccles. a 2. I

another felicity, to aecure that which they are
afready poaaeaaed of."* If, after all, there
are aome whoae minda are hardened againat
all the forma and appearancea of extemal
things, and that leek down with equal cpn
terapt upen aU the events ef this world, whe
ther of a dreadful or engaging aspect, even
thia diapoaition of raind doea net make them
happy : nor do they think tbemaslves so ;
they have atill soraething to make them uu-
easy — the obacure darkueaa that everapreads
their minds, their ignorance of heavenly
thinga, and the atrength of their camal af
fectiona, not yet entirely aubdued. And
though theae we are now apeaking of are by
far the noblest and most beautiful part of
the huraan race, yet, if they had not within
them tbat blessed hope of removing hence,
in a little tirae, to the regions of Ught, the
raore severely they feel the straits and af
flictiona to which their aeula are expoaed by
being shut up in thia nanow, earthly cottage,
so rauch they certainly would be more miae
rable than the rest of mankind.
As eft, therefore, as we reflect upon these
things, we ahaUfind that the whole comes to
thia ene concluaion : " There ia certainly
aorae end. "-I- There ia, to be sure, sorae
end auited to the nature of raan, and worthy
of it ; aerae particular, coraplete, and per.
manent geod : and aince n e in vain look
for it within the nanow verge of thia Ufe,
and among the raany raiaeries that awarm
en it frora beginning to end, we must of ne
ceasity conclude, that there ia certainly some
more fruitful country, and a more laating life,
to which our felicity ia reaerved, and int»
which we ahall be received when we remove
hence. Thia ia not our reat, nor have we any
place of reaideiice here ; it ia the region of
fleaa and gnata ; and wliUe we search for
happineaa among theae raean and periahing
things, we are not only sure to be diaappoint.
ed, but alao not to eacape thoae miseries
which, in great riumbera, continuaUy beset
ua, se that we may apply to ourselvea the
saying of the famous artist, cenfined in the
island ef Crete, and truly aay, " The earth
and the sea are shut up against us, and nei.
ther of them can favour our escape ; the way
to heaven ia alone open, and this way we will
strive to go."$
Thus far we have advanced by degrees,
and very lately we have discoursed upon the
immortality of the soul, to which we have
added the resunection of eur earthly body,
by way of appendix. It reraains that we new
inquire into the happiness of the Ufe to ceme.
Yet, I own, I ara alraost detened frora
entering upon this inquiry by the vast eb.
scurity and sublimity of the subject, which
* Alia felicitate ad illam felicitattm tucndam opus
est. \ Ea-Tlv xea ti Tl\ei.
$ Nee tellus nostras, neo patet unda fuiyffi,
Restat iter coeli, ctelo tentabimus ire;

566

OF THE HAPPINESS

LECT. vi.

in ita nature ia audi, that we can neither
understand it, nor, if we could, can it be ex.
preased in words. The divine apostle, who
had had sorae glimpse of thia felicity, de.
scribea it no otherwise than by bis silence,
caUing the words he heard, " unapeakable,
and such aa it was not lawful for a man to
utter."* And if he neither could nor would
express what he saw, far be it frem ua bold
ly to force ourselves into, or intrude upon,
what we have net seen ; especially as the
same apostle, in another place, acquaints us,
for our future caution, that thia waa unwar
rantably done by aome rash and forward
peraona in hia own time. But aince in the
sacred archivea ef thia new world, however
inviaible and unknown to us, we have aome
raapa and descriptiona of it auited to our ca
pacity ; we are not only allowed te look at
them, but, as they were drawn for that very
purpose, it would certainly be the greateat
ingratitude, aa well aa the higheat negligence
in ua, not to raake aorae irapreveraent ef
them. Here, however, we rauat reraeraber
what a great odda there ia between the de
acription of a kingdora in a amall and imper
fect map, and the extent and beauty of that
very kingdom, when viewed by the traveUer'a
eye ; and how rauch greater the difference
muat be between the felicity ef that heavenly
kingdom to which we are aapiring, and all,
even the most striking figurative expressions,
taken from the thinga of this earth, that are
used to convey some faint and imperfect no
tion of it to our rainds. What are these
things, the false glare and shadpws wherepf
in tbia earth, are pursued with auch keen
and furious irapetuosity — riches, honours,
pleasurea? All these in their justeat, pureat,
and aublimeat aenae, are comprehended in
this blessed life : it is a treaaure that can
neither fail nor be canied away by force or
fraud : it is an inheritance uncorrupted and
undefiled, a crown that fadeth not away, a
never-failing streara of joy and delight : it
ia a maniage-feast, and of aU others the most
joyous and raost sumptuous ; ene that always
satiafies, and never cloya the appetite ; it ia
an eternal spring, and an everlasting light,
a day without an evening : it is a paradise,
where the Uliea are always white and full
blown, the saffron blooming, the trees sweat
out their balsams, and tbe tree of life in the
midat thereof : it is a city where the houses
are built of living pearls, the gatea of pre
cious stones, and the atreeta paved with the
purest gold ; yet aU these are nothing but
tbe veila of the happineas to he revealed
en that raoat bleased day ; nay, the light
itaelf, which we have mentioned araong the
reat, theugh it be the raoat beautiful orna
ment ef thia viaible world, is at best but a
shadow ef that heavenly glory ; and how
* AepriTX, ^yjf^xTX, & oux l^av xvll.oiTu X^By.^lrxl.
i Cor. xii. 4.

amaU soever that portion of this inaccessibfe
brightneas may be, which, in the sacred
Scriptures, shines upon ns through these
veils, it certainly very weU deaerves that we
ahould often tum out eyea towarda it, and
view it with the closest attention.
Now, the firat thing that neceaaarily oc
cura in the cor>stitution of happiness, is a
full and complete deliverance from every evil
and every grievance ; which we may aa cer
tainly expect to meet with in that heavenly
life, aa it ia impossible to be attained while
we spjpum here belnw. All tears shaU be
wiped away from our eyea, and every cauae
and occaaion of teara for ever removed from
our aight. There, there are no tumults, no
wars, no poverty, no death nor diaease ;
there, there ia neither mourning nor fear,
nor sin, which is the source and fountain of
aU other evils- There is neither violence
within doors nor without, nor any complaint
in the streets of that blesaed city ; there, no
friend goes out, nor eneray comes in- 2.
Full vigour of body and mind, health, beau
ty, purity, and perfect tranquiUity. 3. The
most delightful society ef angels, prophets,
apostlea, martyrs, aud all the aaints ; among
whom there are no reproaches, contentions,
controversies, nor party-apirit, because there
are, there, none of the aources whence they
cau apring, nor any thing to encourage their
growth ; for there ia, there, particularly, no
ignorance, no blind aelf-love, no vain-gloi-y
nor envy, which ia quite excluded from
thoae divine regiona ; but, on the contrary,
perfect charity, whereby every one, together
with his own felicity, enjoys that of his
neighbours, and is happy in the one as well
aa the otber : hence there ia among them a
kind ef infinite reflection and multiplication
of happinesa, like that ef a spacioua hall
adorned with gold and precioua stonea, dig
nified with a full asaembly of kinga and po-
tentatea, and having ita walls quite covered
with the brightest looking-glaaaes. 4- But
what infinitely exceeda, and quite eclipses
all the rest, ia that boundleas ocean ef hap
piness which results from the beatific vision
of the ever-blessed God ; without which,
neither the tranquillity they enjoy, nor the
society of saints, nor the jiossessien of any
particular finite good, nor indeed of all
such taken together, can satisfy the soul, or
make it completely happy. The manner of
thia enjoyment we can only expect to under
atand when we enter upon the full poaaeaaion
of it ; tiU tben, to diapute and raise many
questions about it, is nothing but vain,
foeUsh talking, and fighting with phantoms
of our ewn brain. But the schoolmen, who
confine the whole of this felicity to bare
speculation, er, as tbey caU it, an inielleciiial
act,* are in this, as in many other cases,
guilty of great presumption, and their ceii-
* Actus intellectualis.

(.ECT. VI-
clusion ia built upon a very weak foundation.
Fer although contemplation be the highest
^nd noblest act of the raind, yet coraplete
happnieas neceaaarily requirea some preaent
good suited to the whole raan, the whole soul
and all ita facultiea. Ner is it any objection
to thia decfrine, that the whole of thia felicity
is coramonly comprehended in acripture
under the tenn ef viaion ; for the mental
viaion, or conteraplation of the primary and
infinite geod, meat properly aignifiea, or, at
least, includes in it, the fuU enjoyraent of
tbat good ; and the observation of the Rab
bins coricerriing scripture-phrases, " That
words expressirig the senses, include also
the affections naturaUy arising from those
sensationa,"* ia very well knewn. Th
knowing ia often put for approving and
loving ; and seeing fer enjoying and attain
ing. " Taate and aee that God ia good,'
says the Psalmiat ; and in fact, it ia ne
small pleaaure to lovera to dweU together,
and mutually te enjoy the sight of one an
pther. " Nothing ia more agreeable to
lovers, tban to Uve together. "-f-
We must, therefore, by all meana con
clude, that tbia beatific viaion includes in it
not only a diatlnct and intuitive knowledge
of God, but, 80 to apeak, auch a knowledge
as givea us the enjoyment of that mest per
fect Being, and, in sorae sense, unitea us to
him ; fer such a vision it raust of necessity
be, that converts that leve of the Infinite
Good, whicb blazes in the souls of the aainta
into full poaaeaaion, tbat crowna all their
richea, and fiUs thera with an abundant and
overflowing-ftilness of joy that venta itaelf in
everlaating bleasinga and senga of praise.
- And this ia the only doctrine, if you be
lieve it, (and I raake no doubt but you do,)
this, I say, ia the only doctrine that wiU
tranaport your whole aoula, and raiae them
up on high. Hence you wiU leam to tram
ple under feet all the turbid and rauddy
pleaaurea of the fleah, and all the allureraenta
and aplendid triflea of the preaent world.
However thoae earthly enjoyraenta that are
swelled up by falae naraea and the strength
of imaginatiori, to a vast size, raay appear
grand and beautiful, and still greater and
more engaging te those that are unacquaint
ed with them ; hew amaU, how inconaidera-
ble do they all appear to a seul that leeks
for a heavenly country, that expecta te ahare
the jeya of angela, and haa ita thoughta con
stantly employed about theae objects! To
conclude : the raore the soul withdraws, se
to speak, frora the body, and retirea within
itaelf, the raore it rises above itaelf, and tbe
more cloaely it cleaves te God, tbe mere the
life it lives, in this earth, resembles that
which it wiU enjoy in heaven, and the larger
foretaatea it haa of the firat-fruits of that
* Verba sensus connotant affectus.
t OuSiv oii'oi TUV ^iXoiv ^s TO ffvi^v,

OF THE LIFE TO COME,

667

bleaaed harveat. Aspire, therefore, to holi.
ness, young gentlemen, " without which no
raan shall see the Lord."

LECTURE VIL
Of the Being of God.
Though, on raoat subjects, the opinions
of men are various, and often quite opposite,
inaorauch that tbey aeem lo be raore remark
able for the vast variety of their aentiraents
than that of their facea and languages ; there
are however two thinga, wherein aU nations
are agreed, and in which there aeema te be
a perfect harraony throughout the whole
huraan race — the desire of happiness and
a sense of religion. The forraer no man
deairea to ahake eff; and though aorae,
poasibly, would willingly part with the latter,
it is net in their power to eradicate it entire
ly ; they cannot banish God altogether out
of tbeir thoughts, nor extinguish every
apark ef religion within them. It ia cer
tainly true, that for the meat part thia desire
of happiness wanders in darknesa frora one
object to another, without fixing upon any ;
and the senae of religion ia either auffered to
lie inactive ordeviatea into auperatition. Yet
the great Creator of the world employs these
two, aa the materiala of a fallen building, to
repair the ruina of the huraan race, and as
handlea whereby he drawa hia earthen veaael
out of the deep gulf of misery into which it
ia fallen. Of tbe former of theae, that ia felicity, we
have already apoken en another occasion :
we shall therefore now, with divine aaaiat
ance, employ some part of our time in con
sidering that sense ef religion that is natu
rally irapressed uppn tbe mind of man.
Nor wiU our lahour, I imagine, be unpro
fitably employed in coUecting together those
few general principlea, in which so many,
and so very dissirailar forms ef religion and
aentiraents, extremely different, harmonious
ly agree : fer as every science most proper
ly begins with universal propoaitiona, and
thinga more generally known ; so, in the
present case, besides the other advantagea,
it will be ne small aupport to a weak and
wavering mind, that, amidst all tbe disputes
and contentions subsisting between the
varioua secta and parties in religion, the
great and necessary articles, at leaat, of eur
faith, are eatablished in aorae particulara, by
the general conaent of mankind, and, in all
the reat, by that ofthe whole Chriatian world.
I would therefore raost earneatly wiah that
your minda, " rooted and establib^ied in the

668

OF THE BEING OF GOD.

faitii,"* were firmly united in this delight
ful bond of religion, which, like a golden
chain, will be no burden, but an omaraent ;
net a yoke ef slavery, but a badge of true
and generoua liberty. I would, by no meana,
have you to be Chriatiana, upon the authori.
ty of mere tradition or education, and the
example and precepta of parenta and raasters,
but ftpra a full conviction of your own under
standings, and a fervent diapoaition of the
will and affectiona proceeding therefrom ;
" for piety ia the sole and only good among
mankind,"-|- and you can expect none of the
fruits of religion, unleaa the root of it be weU
laid, and fimily eatabliahed by faith ; " for
all the virtues are the daughters ef faith,"^:
says Clemens Alexandrinus.
Lucretius, with very ill advised praiaea,
extols his favourite Grecian philoaopher as
oue faUen down from heaven to be the deli
verer of raankind, and dispel their distress
ing tenors and feara, because he had fancied
he had found out an effectual method to
banish all religion entirely out of the minds
of raen. And to say tbe truth, in no age
have there been wanting brulish soula, too
rauch enslaved to their corporeal aenaea, that
would wiah theae opinions te be true ; yet,
.^after all, there are very few of them who are
able to perauade theraaelves of the truth of
these vicious principles, which, with great
irapudence and importunity, they commonly
inculcate upon others ; they belch out, with
full mouth, their foolish dreama, eften in di
rect oppoaition to conscience and knowledge ;
and, what they unhappily would wish to be
true, they can scarcely, if at all, beUeve
tliemselves. You are acquainted with Ho-
race's Recantation, wherein he tella ua
" that he had been long bigoted to the mad
teneta of tbe Epicurean philoaophy ; but
found himaelf at laat obliged to alter his
sentiments, and deny aU he had asserted
before."§ Sorae soula leae the whole exercise of their
reason, because they inforra bodiea that la
bour under the defect of teraperaraent er
of proper organa; yet you continue to give
the eld definition ef man, and call him a
rational creature ; and ahould any one think
proper to call bira a religious creature, he
would, te be sure, have aa rauch reason on
hia side, and need net fear hia opinion would
be rejected, becauae of a few madraen whe
laugh at religion. Nor ia it improbable, aa
some of the ancients have asserted, that
those few among the Greeks, who were
called Atheista, had not that epithet because

* U}piiaifttveo; xxi ^itxio'jfji.tv6Uf ivTii wittii. Coloss.
.1. 7.
t 'Ev yx^ XXI [/.ovev iv xvdgutrois ayaSov v) tuo'iQiix.
TrismegisL i TlxTai yx^ x^iTxi vriTTlat; ^vyxTl^i;.
§ Parcus Deorum cui tor, et iutrequens

Inaanientis dum sapientiK
CoiisuUuB erro. &c.

Od nxxiv. lib. I.

lECT, vr»;
they abaolutely denied the being of God,
but only because they rejected, and juady
laughed at, the fictitious and ridiculous
deities of the nations.
Of aU the institutions and customs re.
ceived among raen, we meet with nothing
more soleran and general than that of re
ligion, and sacred rites performed to tiie
honour ef sorae deity ; wbich is a very strong
argument, tbat that persuasion, in preference
to any other, is written, nay, rather engraven,
in strong and indelible characters upon the
mind of man. This ia, aa it were, the name
ef the great Creator stamped upon the
noblest of all bis visible works, that thus
man may acknowledge bimself to be his ;
and (concluding, from the inscription he
finds impressed upon hia rairid, that what
belonga to Ged, ought in strict justice to
be reatored to hira) be wholly reunited to
hia firat principle, that immenae ocean of
goodneas whence he took hia rise.* The
distemper that has invaded mankind ia, in
deed, grieveus and epidemical ; it consists
in a raean and degenerate love to the body
and corporeal thinga ; and, in conaequence
of thia, a atupid and brutiah forgetfulness of
God, though he can never be entirely blotted
out ofthe mind. This forgetfulness a few,
and but very few, alarmed and awakened
by the Divine rod, early ahake eff; and even
in the raost stupid, and auch aa are buried
in the deepest aleep, tbe original impression
sometimes diacovera itaelf, when tbey are
under the preaaure of aorae grievoua cala
raity, or on tbe approach of danger, and
eapeciaUy upen a near prospect ef death : then
the thoughts of God, that had lain hid,
and been long suppressed, forced out by the
weight of pain, and the impressions of fear,
cpme to be reraerabered, and the whole
soul being, as it were, roused out of its long
and deep sleep, raen begin to look about
them, inquire what the matter is, and seri
ously reflect whence they came, and whither
they axe going- Then the truth comea natu-
rally from their hearts- The atorray sea
alarraed even profane sailors so much, that
they awakened the sleeping Prophet ;
" Awake," say they, " thou sleeper, and
call upon thy God-"
But however weak and imperfect this
original or innate knowledge ofGod may be,
it diacovera itaelf every wbere ao far, at least,
that you can meet with no man, or aociety
ef raen, that, by some forra of wor.ship or
ceremonies, do not acknowledge a Deity, and,
according to their capacity, and the custom
of their country, pay him homage. It is
true, seme late travellers have reported, that,
in that part of the new world called Brazil,
there are aorae tribea ef the natives, among
whom yeu can discover no syraptoras that
they have the least sense of a Deity : but,
* Tm tou &iOU TU &IW.

LECT. VII.
besides that the truth of thia report is very
far from being well ascertained, and that the
obaervation might have been too precipitately
made by new cemera, who had not raade auf-
ficierit inquiry — even suppoaing it to be true,
it is not of sucb consequence, when opposed
to all the rest of the world, and the univeraal
agreement of aU natiooa arid agea upou this
aubject, that the least regard should be paid
te it. Ner raust we iraagiue that it, at aU,
lessens the weight of this great argument,
which bas been g'eneraUy, and raeat juatiy,
urged, both by ancienta and moderna, to ea-
tabliah die firat and comraon foundationa of
religion. New, whoever accurately considers this
universal senae ef religion of which we have
been speaking, wiU find that it coraprehends
in it theae particulars : 1 . That there is a
God- 2. That he is te be worshipped. 3.
Which is a consequence of the forraer, that
he regards the affairs ef raen. 4. That he
has given them a law, enforced by rewards
and punishments ; and, that the distribution
of these is, in a very great measure, reserved
te a life different from that we live in this
earth, is the firm belief, if net ef all, at least
ofthe generaUty of mankind. And though
our present purpose does not require that we
should confirm tbe truth of aU theae poiuts
with thoae strong arguments that might be
urged in their favour ; but rather, that we
should take them for granted, aa being auf-
ficieritly eatabliahed by the common conaent
of mankind ; we shaU, however, aubjoin a
few thoughts on each of them, separately,
with as great brevity and perspicuity as we
can- 1. That there is a God. And here
I cannot help fearing, that when we endea
vour to confirm this leading truth, with re-
-gard to the first, and uncreated Being, by a
long and laboured series of arguraents, we
may seera, instead ef a service, to do a kind
of injury to God and raan beth. For why
should we uae the pitiful light of a candle to
diacover the sun, and eagerly go about to
prove the being ef Hira who gave beirig to
every thing elae ; who alone exiats necesaa-
rily, nay, we may boldly say, who alone
exiata ; seeing aU other things were by him
extracted out of nothing, and, when corapar
ed with hira, they are nothing, and even lesa
than nething, and vanity ! And would not
any raan think hiraself insulted, should it
be suspected tbat he doubted of the being
of Him, without whom he could neither
-doubt ner think, nor be at all ? This per
suasion, without doubt, is innate, and strong
ly impressed upon the mind of man, if any
thing at aU can be said to be so.* Ner does
Jamblicus scruple to say, " That te know
God ia our very being :"-)• and in another
• Primum visibile lux, et primum inteUigibile Deus,
t Esse nostru.Ti est Deum cognoscere-

OF THE BEING OF GOD.

.^(1!)

place, " That it is the very being ef the aoul
te know God, on whom it dependa."* Nor
would he think amisa, who, in this, should
eapouae tbe opinion of Plato ; for to know
thia ia nothing more than to caU to reraera
brance what waa forraerly impreaaed upon
tbe mind ; and when one forgets it, which,
alas 1 is too much the case of us all, he has
aa raany reraerabrancera, ao to apeak, within
hira, aa he haa membera ; and aa many with
eut him aa the individuals of the vast variety
of creatures te be aeen around him. Let,
therefore, the indolent aoul that haa alraoat
forget Ged, berouaed up, and every now and
then aay to itaelf, " Behold this beautiful
starry heaven," Scc.
But because we have too many of that sort
of fools that aay in their heart, " There ia no
God," and if we are " net te anawer a feel,
so aa te be like unto him ;" yet we are, by
aU raeana, to '' anawer hira according te his
foUy, leat he be wiae in his own conceit ;"
again, because a crirainal forgetfulneaa of
thia leading truth is the sole source of all the
wickedneaa in the world ; and, finaUy, be
cauae it raay not be quite unprofitable nor
unpleasant, even te the best of raen, seme-
times to recollect their thoughts on this sub
ject ; but, on the contrary, a very pleasant
exercise to every weU-diapesed mind, to re
flect en what a solid and unshaken founda
tion the whole fabric of reUgion is built, and
to think and speak ef tbe eternal Fountain
of Goodness, and of aU other beings, and
conaequently of his necessary existence : we
reckon it will not be araiss to give a few
thoughta upen it. Therefore, not to inaist
upon several arguments, which are urged
with great advantage on this aubject, we
shaU only produce ene or two, and shaU rea
son thua :
It 18 by aU means neceasary that there
sheuld be some etemal Being, otherwise no
thing could ever have been ; since it must
be a most shocking contradiction to say, that
any thing could have produced itself out of
nothing. But if we say, that any thing ex
isted frem etemity, it is most agreeable to
reaaon that that should be an eternal Mind,
or thinking Being, that ao the nebleat pro
perty raay be aacribed to the raost exalted
Being- Nay, that eternal Being must, of
absolute neceaaity, excel in wiadom and
pewer, and, indeed, in every other perfection ; ,
since it raust itaelf be uncreated, and the
cauae and origin of all the creatures, other
wise aome diificulty wiU remain concerning
their production. And thua all the parta of
the universe, taken singly, suggest arguments
in favour of their Creator.
The beautiful order of the univerae, and
the mutual relation that aubaista between aU
its parts, present ua with another strong and
# Esse anim.ffi, est quoddam intelligere. scilicet
Deum, unda dejUHidec.

570

OF THE BEING OF GOD.

LECT. VII.i

convincing argument. This order ia itaelf
an effect, and, indeed, a wonderful one ; and
it ia alao evidently distinct frem the things
theraaelvea, taken aingly ; therefore it muat
proceed from aorae cauae, and a cauae en
dowed with superior wiadom ; fer it would
be the greateat foUy, aa well as impudence,
to say it could be owing to mere chance.
Now, it could not proceed frora man, ner
could it be ewing to any concert or mutual
agreeraent between the things themselves,
separately considered ; aeeing the greateat
part ef them are evidently incapable of con
sultation and concert : it muat therefore pro
ceed from ene superior Being, and that being
ia God, '* who commanded the atara to move
by stated lawa, the fruita ef the earth to be
produced at different aeaaons, the changeable
moon to shine with borrowed Ught, and the
sun with his own."*
He is the monarch ef the universe, and the
raost absolute raonarch in nature : for who
else assigned to every rank of creatures its
particular forra and uses, so that the stara,
subjected to ne huraan authority or lawa,
ahould be placed on high, and aerve to bring
about to the earth, and the inhabitanta
thereof, the regular returna of day and night,
and diatinguiah the aeaaona ef the year ? Let
us take, in particular, any one species of aub
lunary things, for inatance raan, the nebleat
of all, and see hew he carae by the form
wherewith be ia veated, that frarae or conati
tution of bedy, that vigour ef raind, and that
precise rank in the nature of things, which
he now obtaina, and ne other. He raust,
certainly, either have raade choice of these
things for hiraself, or raust have had them
assigned hira by another ; whora we rauat
consider as- the principal actor aud sole archi.
tect ef the whole fabric. That he raade
choice of thera fer hiraseltj nobody will ima
gine ; fer, either he raade this choice before
he had any existence ef his ewn, or after he
began to be : but it ia not eaay to aay which
of these suppositions ia raoat abaurd. It re
raaina, therefore, that he rauat be indebted
for aU he enjoys, to the mere good pleasure
of hla great and all-wiae Creator, who ftaraed
his earthly body in such a wonderful and
Burpriaing raanner, aniraated hira with hia
own breath, and tbus introduced hira into
this great palace of his, which we now be
hold ; where his manifold wisdom, raeat
properly ab called, diaplaya itself so glorious
ly in the whole raachine, and in every one of
its wonderfully variegated parts.
The flrst arguraent, taken frora the very
-being of thinga, may be further illuatrated by
the aame instance of raan : for unless the
first man waa created, we raust suppose an in-

., Qui lege moveri

.Sidera, gul fruges diversa tempore nasci.
Qui variam Phceben alieno jusserit igne
Compleri, solemque suo.

flnite series of generations from etemity, and
ao tbe human race raust be supppaed inde-
pendent, and tp pwe ita being tp itself; but,
by this hyppthesis, mankind came into the
world by generation, t'nerefore every indivi.
dual of the race owes its being to another ;
conaequently the whole race is from itself,
and at the same time frora another ; which
is absurd. Therefore the hypothesis im
pUes a plain and evident contradiction. " 0!
iraraense wisdom, that produced tbe world I
Let us for ever admire the riches and skil.
ef thy right-hand ;"• often viewing with at.
tention thy wonders, and, while we view
them, frequently crying out with the divine
Paalmiat, " O Lord, how manifold are thy
works ! iin wiadora haat theu made them aU.
Tbe earth ia full ef thy riches !"f " From
everlasting to everlasting thou art God, and
besides thee, there is ne ether."J And wilh
Hermea : " The Father of all, being him.
aelf understanding, life, and brightness,
created man like himself, and cherished him
as his own son. Thou Creator ef universal
nature, whe hast extended the earth, whe
peisest the heavens, and comraandest the
waters to flow from all the parts ef the sea,
we praiae thee, whe art the one exalted God,
for by thy will all things arc perfected."||
Tbe aame author aaaerta, that God was prior
to humid nature.
In vain would any one endeaveur to evade
the force of our arguraent, by substituting
nature iu the place ef God, aa the princi
pal cauae of tbis beautiful order : for either
by nature, he underatanda the particular
frarae and compeaitien of every single thing,
which would be saying nothing at aU te the
purpose in hand, because it is evident, that
thia manifold nature, which in most inatan.
cea is quite void ef reason, could never be
the cauae of that beautiful order and har
mony which is every where conspicuous
throughout the whole aystem ; or he meana
an universal and intelligent nature, disposing
and prdering every thing tp advantage. But
this ia only another name for Ged ; of whom
it may be aaid, in a aacred aenae, that he, as
an' iniinite Nature and Mind, pervades and
flUs all his works. Net as an informing
forra, according tp the expressipn of the
schools, and as the part of a cpmpounded
whole, which ia the idleat fiction that can be
imagined ; for, at tbia rate, he must not on
ly be a part ef tbe vilest insects, but alsp pf
stPcks and stpnes, and clpds pf earth ; but a
pure, unmixed nature, which prders and gp-
verns all things with the greatest freedpm and
* O ! immensa, opifex rerum, sapientia ! dextrje
Divitias artemque tuse miremur m ajvum.
t Psalm civ. 24. t Psalm xc. 2.
[I 'O wxvToiv IlaTwf , 0 vavs uv ?au>j XXI ^u;. xmnuijirt
IxvO^aiicoiv ou Vi^xrU'y, U( liloii Toxe'j, Hxi^Vjs ^UTtoit Ktittjh,
0 iTr.^xt Tr,v y,/tv xxi eu^xvov x^tfI,xiroci xxi uriTU^xs to
yXuXU llSwg f| «UT0U TOU UXiXVOU UTX^X^IV, UfA,Vbl//,t* (Tt, TJ
Tuv, XXI TO IV, reu yx^ fiouhcfjotvau Tcivrui tii.utxi.

OF TflE BEING OF GOD.

671

wisdom, and supports them with unwearied
and idmighty power. In this acceptation,
when you name Nature, you mean God.
Seneca'a words are very apposite to thia pur.
poae : " AVhitbersoever yeu turn yourself,
you see Ged meeting yeu ; nothing excludes
his presence ; he fills all hia worka ; there
fore it is in vain for thee, most ungrateful of
aU men, to aay, thou art not indebted to
God, but te Nature, becauae they are, jn
fact, the sarae. If thou hadat recei\ed any
thing from Seneca, and should aay, thou
owedst it te Ann<eus or Lucius, thou would.
eat not thereby change thy creditor, but only
his narae ; becauae, -whether thou mention.
est his name or sirname,' his person is still
the same."*
An evident and most natural consequence
of thia univeraal and neceasary idea of a God,
ia his unity. AU that raention the term
God, intend to convey by it the idea of tbe
firat, most exalted, necessarily existent, and
infinitely perfect Being; and it is plain,
there can he but one Being endued with all
these perfections. Nay, even the Polytheism
that prevailed among the Heathen nations,
was not canied so far, but that they acknow
ledged one God, by way of erainence,' aa au-
preme, and abaolutely abeve all the reat,
whom they atyled the greateat and beat ef
Beings, and tbe Father ef goda and men.
From hira aU the reat bad their being and
all that tbey were, and from hira also they
had the title of goda, but still in a liraited
and aubordinate aenae. In cenfirraatiori ef
thia, we raeet with very raany of the cleareat
teatiraoniea, with regard to the unity of God,
in the worka of aU the Heathen authora.
That of Sophoclea is very reraarkable :
" There ia indeed," aaya he, " one God, and
but one, who has raade the heavens, and the
wide-extended earth, the blue surges of the
sea, and the strength of the winds."-j-
Aa to the myatery of the sacred Trinity,
which haa a near and necessary connexion
with the preaent subject, I always thought it
was to be received and adored with the
raost hurable faith, but by no means to be
curiouiily searched into, or perplexed with
the absurd queationa of the acbeolraen- We
fell by an arrogant arabition after knowledge ;
by mere faith we riae again, and are rein
stated ; and thi8-«iyatery, indeed, rather than
any ether, aeeraa to be a tree of knowledge,
prohibited to ua while we sojourn in these
• Quacunque te flexeris, ibi Deum vides accun-entem
tibi, nihil ab Illo vacat ; opus suum ipse implet : ergo
nihil agis, ingratissime martalium, qui te negas Deo
debere, sed Naturse, quia eidem est utrumque offlcium.
Si quid 4 Seneca acceplsses, et .tanseo tediceres deheie
vel Lucio, non creditarem mutares, sed nomen, quo
niam sive nomen ejus dicas, sive piKnomen, sive cog-
namen, idem tamen ipse est. Seneca, 4, De Benet.
t El; TXli M?.7iBtlXITIV, th ttIV ©Eflf,
'Of ou.xvov T tTtU%i XXI yxixv t,oxxzxv,
XIOVTOU Tl XX^OXOV OlifMO XXVtfMOV filXS'

mortal bodies. This raoat profound mystery,
though ebacurely represented by the shadows
ef the Old Testament, rather than clearly re
vealed, was not unknown to the meat an
cient and celebrated doctora among the Jews,
nor altogether unatteated, however ebalinate-
ly later authors may raaintain the contrary.
Nay, learned men have observed, that the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghoat, are expresaly
acknowledged in the books of the Cabalista,
and they produce surprising thinga to this
purpoae out of the book Zohar, which is as
cribed to R. Simeon, Ben Joch, and some
other Cabalistical writera. Nay, the book
juat now mentioned, after aaying a great deal
conceming the Three-in-one essence, adds,
" That this secret wiU net be revealed to all
tiU the coming of the Mesaiaa."* I inaisi
not upon what is aaid of the name conaiating
of twelve lettera, and another larger one of
forty-two, aa containing a fiiUer explication
of that raoat aacred narae, which tbey called
" Hararaephoraah."-|- Ner is it iraprobable, that sorae dawn at
leaat of thia rayatery had reached even the
Heathen philoaophera. There are sorae who
think tbey can prove, by arguraenta of no
inconsiderable weight, that Anaxagoras, by
his voui or raind, raeant nothing but the Son,
or Wisdom that raade the world. But the
testimonies are clearer, which yeu find, fre
quentiy araong tbe Platonic philoaopliers,
conceming tbe Three subsisting from one ;^
raoreover, they all call the self -existent Being,
the creating word, or the mind and the
soul ofthe world.\\ But the words of the
Egyptian Herraea are very aurpriaing : " The
raind, which is God, together with his word,
produced another creating mind ; nor de
they differ frem one another, for their union
is life."§ But what we new insist upen is, the plain
and evident neceaaity ef one Supreme, and
therefore ef one only Principle of all things,
and the harraoriious agreement of raankind
in the beUef of the absolute necessity of this
aame Principle.
This ia tbe God whom we adraire, whom
we worahip, whora we entirely love, or, at
least, whom we desire to leve above all things,
whom we can neither expreaa in worda, nor
conceive in our thoughta ; and the leaa we
are capable ef theae thinga, ao much the
more neceasary it is te adore him with the
profoundeat huraUity, and leve him with the
greatest intentnesa and fervour.
* Hoc arcanum non revelabitur unicuique, quous
que venerit Messias.
f Maim, Mor. Nev. par. i. c. 16.
? IIe^I T^IOJV E§ IvOS U^tJlTTXVTm-
i To xUTO, ov TOV Srif^iouzyov Aoyav, seu vouv, xxi T^v
TOU xofffjoou ,^uxr,v.
§'0 voui ®eof x<Ttxur,fft Xoyu sri.ev vouv Siof.ciousytv,
xX'x' ou h'iiCTXVTxl «3-' x>.Xr,'AUv, 'tvuffis yx. TOUTUf
tlTTIV ii Zoti:.

572

OF THE WORSHIP OF GOD,

LECTURE VIIL

Of the WORSHIP of GOD, PROVIDENCE, and
ihe law given to man.
Though I thought it by no meana proper
to proceed without taking notice of the argu
raenta that aerved to confirm the first and
leading truth of religion, and the general
consent of mankind with regard to it ; yet
the end I chiefiy proposed to myself, was to
examine this consent, and point out its foi^e,
and the use to which it ought te be appUed ;
to call off your rainda frora the nuraberleaa
diaputea about religion, to the contemplation
of this universal agreement, as into a raore
quiet and peaceable country ; and to shew
you, what I wish I could effectuaUy convince
you of, that there is raere weight and force
in this universal harraony and consent of
raankind in a few of the great and universal
principles, to confirm eur rainds in the sura
and substance ef religion, than the innuraer
able diaputea that atiU aubaiat witb regard te
the other pointa, ought te have te diacourage
us in the exercise of true piety, or in the least
to weaken our faith.
In consequence ef this, it wiU be proper to
lay before you the other propoaitiona contain
ed in this general consent of mankind, with
regard to religion. New, the first ef these
being, " That there is one, and but one,
Eternal Principle of all things ;" frem this
it will raost naturally follow, '^ that this
Principle or Deity is te be honoured with
some worship ;" and ftom these two taken
together, it muat be, with the aame neceasity,
concluded, '^ that there is a providence, or,
that God doth not despise or neglect the
werld which he has created, and mankind,
by whom he eught to be, and actually is
worahipped, but governa thera with the most
watchful and perfect wisdora."
AU raankind acknowledge, that aorae kind
of worship ia due to Ged, and to perforra it
ia by all meana worthy of man : and upon
the minda of all ia atrongly irapreaaed that
sentiraent which Lactantius expreased, with
great perspicuity and brevity, in these words,
" To know God is wiadfcm, and to worship
him, justice."*
In thia worahip aome things are natural,
and therefore of mere geiieral use among all
nations, such as vows and prayers, hymna
and praiaes ; as also sorae bodily gestures,
especially such aa seem raost proper to express
reverence and respect. All the rest, for the
most part, actually conaist of ceremoniea,
either of divine institution er human inven
tion. Of thia sort are aacrificea, the use
whereof, in old tiraes, very much prevailed
in all nations, and still continuea in the
greater part of the werld.
¦ Deum nosse, s.-iiisnlia ; calere, justitla-

LECT. VIII.
A Majeaty se exalted, no doubt, deserves
the higheat honoiir and the sublimest praisea
on his own account ; but still, if men were
net perauaded that the testimonies of homage
and respect they offer to Ged, were knewn to
him, and accepted of bim, even on this ac
count aU huraan piety would cool, and pre.
aently diaappear. And, indeed, prayers and
vows, whereby we implore the Divine asaiat
ance, and aoUcit blessings from above, of
fered to a God who neither hears nor in the
least regards thera, would be an instance of
the greatest folly ; nor is it to be imagined,
that aU nations would ever have agreed in
the extravagant cuatora of addreasing them
selves to gods that did net hear.
Supposing, therefere, any religion or di
vine worahip, it immediately feUowa there
from, that there ia also a providence. This
waa acknowledged of old, and ia stiU ac
knowledged by the generality of aU nations,
throughout the world, and tbe moat famous
philoaophers. There were, indeed, particular
men, and aorae whole aects, that denied it :
others, wbo acknowledged a kind of provi.
dence, confined it to the heavens, among
whora was Aristotle, aa appeara from hia
book De Mundo ; which notion ia justly
alighted by Nazianzen, who caUs it a mere
liraited providence-* Others allowed it some
place in the things of this world, but only
extended it to generals, in oppoaitipn to in.
dividuals ; but others, with the greatest jua.
tice, acknowledged that all things, even the
most minute and inconsiderable, were the
objects of it. " He fills hia own work, nor
ia he only ever it, but alao in it-"-|- More
over, if we aacrihe to God the origin of thia
fabric, and aU things in it, it wUl be most
absurd and inconaiatent to deny him the pre
servation and govemment of it ; for if he
doea not preaerve and govern his creatures,
it rauat be either becauae he cannot, or be
cause he will not ; but hia infinite power and
wisdom make it iraposaible to doubt of the
forraer, and his infinite goodneas of the
latter. Tbe worda of Epictetua are admir.
able : " There were five great men," said
he^ " of whicii number were Ulysaes- and
Socratea, who aaid that they could not ao much
aa raove without the knowledge of Ged ;"J
and in another place, " If I waa a nightin
gale, I would act the part of a nightingale ;
if a swan, that of a swan ; now that I am a
reasonable creature, it ia my duty to praiae
God."|| It would be needleaa to ahew, that so great
a fabric could not stand witheut sorae being
* yVix^oXoyov v^evoixv.
t Opus suum ipse implet, nee solum prajest, sed
inest, X Ill/X!rTei it iiv ,jv XXI Oiuirinvs, xxi Xaix^xTV,e, ol-
XiyovTti, on ouii irt XviOai xivoujxtvoi. Arrian. lib. 1.
cap. 12. XIi^i Evx^tirrtp'tait, &c.
[I El youv x^^ojv r.^ooiv, t^atouv tx _T*jf x'oievof, it
TK Tnu xuxvou vuv St Xoyixo! tl[.t,l, UU.VIIV /*i ill
ibid- can. 16.

i TM t>\4* '

tECT. VIH.

AND THE LAW GIVEN TOMAN.

67,3

properly qualified te watch over it ; that ihe
unerring courae of the stars ia net tbe effect
ef bUnd fortune ; that what chance sets en
foot is eften put out ef order, and aoon falls
to pieces ; that, therefere, this uriening and
regular velocity is owing to tbe infiuence of
a fixed, eternal law. It is, te be sure, a
very great miracle, merely to knew so great
a multitude, and auch a vast variety of
tilings, net only particular towns, but alao
proviucea and Icingdoma, even the whole
earth, aU the myriada of creaturea that crawl
upen the eartii, and aU their thoughta ; in a
word, at the aarae instant to hear and see aU
that happens* on both heraispheres ef this
globe : how much more wonderful raust it
be, te rule and govern aU these at once, and,
as it were, with one glance of the eye I
When we conaider this, raay we not cry out
with the poet, " O thou great Creator of
heaven and earth, whe governeat the werld
with constarit and unening sway, who bid-
dest time to flow throughout ages, and con.
tinuing unmoved thyself, givest motion to
every thing elae," &c.?-t-
It is also a great comfort to have the faitii
of thia providence conatantly inipresaed upon
the raind, ae aa to have recourse te it in the
midat of all confuaiona, whether pubUc or
private, and aU calaraitiea ftora witheut or
ftom within ; to be able to aay. The great
King, who ia also my Father, is the au
preme ruler ef aU theae thinga, and with hira
all my intereata are aecure ; te stand flrm,
with Moses, when no relief appears, and te
look for the salvation of God$ frera en high ;
and, flnally, in every distress, when aU hope
of human aaaistanceia awaUowed up in deapair,
to have the remarkable aaying of the Father of
- the faithfuj ataraped upon the mind, and te
silence aU fears with these comfortable words,
" God will provide. " In a werd, there ia
nothing that can se effectually conform the
heart ef raan, and his inraost thoughta, and
conaequently the whole tenor ef hia Ufe, to
the most perfect rule of religion and piety,
than a flrra belief arid frequent meditation
en thia Divine Providence, that auperintemja
and governa the werld. He who is flrmly
persuaded, that an exalted God of inflnite
wisdom and purity is constantly present with
him, arid aeea all that he thinka or acta, will,
to be sure, have ne occaaion to overawe his
mind with the imaginary presence of a
LaeUus or a Cato. Joaephua aasigna thia aa
the source or root of Abel's purity : " In all
hia actions," says he, " he considered that
God waa preaent with him, and therefore
made virtue hia constant atudy."§
* TIxvt' i^og(cu, XXI trxvT laxxoutiv,
- 1 O I qui perpetua raundum ratione gubernas
Terrarum ccelique Satar, qui tempus ab asvo,
' Irejubes; stabilisque manens das cuncta moveri.
Boeth. de Con. Philosoph. lib. iii. metr. 9.
X Vere ©(,, xto /.ttixxvvf,
5 rraff-i* Totf ir' xuTou T^XTTOootvoii ^ra^tivxi tov Qtov
VOfA,,ZoiV, X^tTYii reotVOllTO- .-\nlig. lib. 1. Cap. 3.

Moreover, the Heatheri nations acknow
ledge this superintendence of Divine Pro
vidence ever human affairs in tbis very re
spect, arid that it ia exercised in obaerving
the morala of raankind, and distributing re.
wards and punishraents. But this supposes
some law er rule, either revealed from hea.
ven, or stamped upon the hearts ef men, to
be the measure and test of moral good and
evil, that is, virtue and vice. Man, there
fore, is not a lawleas creature,* but capable
ef a law, and actually born under one, which
he himself is also ready to own. '' We are
bern in a kingdom," says the Rabbinical
philosopher, " and to obey God ia liberty."-)-
But tbis doctrine, however perspicuous and
clear in itself, seems to be a little obscured
by ene cloud, that is, the extraordinary suc
cess which bad raen often raeet with, and
the misfortunes and calaraities to which vir
tue is frequently exposed. The saying of
Brutus, " O ! wretched virtue ; theu art
regarded aa nothing," &c.$ ia well known ;
aa are alao these elegant verses ef the poet,
containing a lively picture of the perplexity
of a mind wavering, and at a less upon this
subject: " My mind," aaya he, "haa eften
been perplexed with diflicultiea and doubta,
whether the goda regard the affaira ef this
earth, or whether there was no providence at
all, &c — For when I conaidered the order
and dispoaition of the world, and tbe bound-
ariea aet to the sea — I thence concluded,
that all thinga were aecured by the provi
dence of God, &c. — But when I saw the
affairs ef men involved in se rauch darkness
and confuaion," &c.§
But not to inaiat upon a great many ether
conaiderationa, which even the philosophy of
the Heathena suggested, in vindication of the
doctrine of a providence ; there is one consi
deration of great weight to be set in oppoai.
tion te the whole of thia prejudice, viz. that
it is an evidence of a raah and forward raind,
to pass sentence upon things that are npt yet
perfect and brought to a final conclusion,
which even the Roman Stoic and the philo
sopher ef ChBeronea insist upon, at large, pn
this aubject. If we will judge frpm eventa,
let us put pff tbe cauae, and delay sentence,
tiU the whple series pf these events ccrae be
fore ua ; and let ua not paaa aentence upon a
aucceaaful tyrant, while he ia triumphant
before our eyea, and v/hile we are quite igno
rant of the fate tbat raay be awaiting hiraaelf
or his son, or at leaat his raore remote poste-
* %rev XVOfLOV. *
t In regno nati sumus, Deo parere, libertas.
X ii T-Kvif^Mv XBITVI, 015 ouhiv, &c. ^
§ Sepe mihi dubiam traxit sententia mentem
Curarent superi terras, &c.
Nam cum dispasiti tjuEesissem foKlera mundi
Pra2scriptosque maris fmes—
 hinc omnia rebar
Consilia firmata Dei, i5ec.
Sed cum res hominum tanta caligine vaJvi
Aspicerem, &c- Claudian ii? Huiinum, lib. I

674

OF THE PLEASURE

LECT. tx.

rity- The ways of Divine justice are wonder
ful- " Punishment stalks silently, and with '
a slew pace : it will, however, at laat I
overtake the wicked."* But, after all, if
we expect another acene of thinga to be ex
hibited, not here, but in the world to come,
the who'e diapute, concerning the eventa of
thia abort and precarioua life, immediately
diaappeara, and coraea to nothing- And, to
conclude, the conaent of wise raen, states, and
nations on this aubject, thougb it ia net quite
unanimoua and universal, ia very great, and
ought to have the greateat weight.
But aU tbeae raaxima we have raentioned,
are more clearly taught and raore firraly be
lieved in the Chriatian religion, which ia of
undoubted truth ; it haa alao aome doctrinea
peculiar to itaelf, -f- annexed to the former,
and moat closely connected with thera, in
which the whole Christian werld, though by
far too rauch divided with regard to other
disputed articlea, are unanimoualy agreed,
and firmly united together ; but ef thia here.
after.

UECTURE IX-
Of the Pleasure and Utiliiy of 'REt-ioiott,
Though the author of the following paa.
sage was a great proficient in the mad phi.
losophy ef Epicurus, yet be had truth
strongly on bis side, when he said, " That
nothing was raore pleasant than to be station
ed on the lofty teraples, weU defended and
secured by the pure and peaceable doctrines
of the wiae philosophers."^
Now, can any doctrine be iraagined raore
wise, raore pure and peaceable, and raere
sacred, than that which flowed from the
moat perfect Fountain of wiadom and purity,
wbich waa aent down frora heaven to earth,
that it might guide all ita followera to that
happy place whence it took its rise ? It is,
to be sure, the wisdom of raankind lo knew
God, and their indiapenaable duty to wer-
sliip hira ; without this, men ofthe brighteat
parta and greateat learning, aeera to be bom
with excellent talenta, only to make thera
selves raiserable ; and, according to the ex
preasion ef the wiaeat of kinga, " He tbat
increaaeth knowledge, increaseth sonow."§
We raust, therefore, first of all, consider thia
na a aure and settled point, that reUgion is
the sole feundatiori of human peace and
felicity. Tbis even the profane scoffers at
* -^lyxxxi ^^xiliTeSicTTUXOuo-x fA,X^,,^ll TOUS xxxout
OTXV TUX^,
f Kujiwf Sajaf.
:{:  Bene quam munita tenere
Edita doctrina sapientum templa sorena. Lucret.
§ Qui scientiam, auget cruciatum. Eccles, i, 18.

reUgion are, in some aort, obliged to ewn,
though rauch against their will, even while
they are pointing tbeir wit against it ; for
nothing is raore common to be heard from
thera, than tbat the whole doctrine of religion
waa invented by apme wiae men, tp encourage
the practice of juatice and virtue through the
world. Surely then, religion, whatever else
may be aaid of it, rauat be a matter ef the
higheat value, since it is found necessary to
aecure advantagea of ao verygreat iraportance.
But, in the raean time, how unhappy ia the
caae of integrity and virtue, if what they
want te support them ia merely fictitious,
and they cannot keep their ground but by
meana of a raonatroua forgery 1 But far be
it from ua te entertain auch an abaurdity 1
For tbe firat rule of righteousness cannot be
otherwiae than right, nor is there any thing
raore nearly aUied, nor raore friendly to
virtue, than truth.
But religion ia not only, highly conducive
to all the great advantagea of human life,
but is alao, at the aame time, raoat pleasant
and delightful. Nay, if it is so uaeful, and
abaolutely necessary to the interests of virtue,
it must, for this very reason, be also pleasant,
unleaa ene will call in queatiori a maxim
universaUy approved by aU wiae men, "That
life cannot he agreeahle without virtue :"*
a maxim of auch irrefragable and undoubted
truth, that it waa adopted even by Epicurus
himself. How great, therefore, muat have beeu thf.
raadneaa of that noted Grecian philoaopher,
who, while he openly raaintained the dignity
and pleasantness of virtue, at the sarae time
employed the wbole force ofhis underatand
ing, te ruin and aap its foundations 1 For,
that this was his fixed purpose, Lucretius -
not only owns, but also beaata of it, and
leada him with ill.adviaed praiaea, for endea
vouring, tlirough the whole course of his
phUoaophy, to free the minds of men from
all the bonda and tiea of religion : aa if
there were no poaaible way to make tbem
happy and free, witheut involving them in
the guilt of aacrilege and atheism ; aa if to
eradicate all sense of a Deity out of the
raind, were tbe only way to free it from the
heavieat chains arid fettera ; theugh inreali.
ty, thia would be effectuaUy robbing man
of aU hia valuable jewela, ef his golden
crown and chain, all the riches, ornaments,
and pleaaurea of bia life : wbich is inculcated
at large, and with great eloquence, by a
greater and more divine raaster of wiadom,
the royal author ef the Proverba, who,
speaking of the precepta of religion, says,
" They shall be an ornament of grace unto
thine head, and chains about thy neck :"•!•
and of religion under the name of wisdom,
" If theu aeekeat her aa ailver, and searchest
* OuK tivxi r,Sieoi Zr,v xvtu ty,{ xfftTtjt.
i Prov. i, 9,

AND UTILITY OF RELIGION.

LECT. IXi
for ber as for hidden treasure."* " Happy
is the raan tbat findeth wiadora, and the raan
that getteth understanding. For the raer
chandise of it ia better tban tbe merchandise
of silver, and the gain thereef tban fine
gpld."-|- " Wisdom ia the principal thing,
therefore get wiadom : and with all thy get
ting, get underatanding."^ And it is, in
deed, very plain, that if it were poaaible
entirely to dissolve aU the bonds and ties of
reUgion ; yet, that it should be so, would,
certainly, be the intereat of none but the
worat and raoat abandoned part of raankind.
All the good and wiae, if the raatterwere freely
left to theirchoice, would rather have the world
* governed by the auprerae and raost perfect Be-
ing, mankind aubjected to hia juat and righ-
teoua laws, and aU the affairs of raen super
intended by bis watchful providence, than that
it should be otherwise. Nor do they believe
the doctrines of religiori witb aversiori, or ariy
sort of reluctaricy, but erabrace thera with
pleasure, and are excessively glad to find thera
true. So that, if it was possible te abolish
thera entirely, and any person, out of raere
geed-wiU to thera, should attempt te do it,
they weuld leek upen the favour as highly
prejudicial to their interest, and think his
good.will raore hurtful than the keenest ha
tred. Nor weuld any one, in his wits, cheese
to live in the werld at large, and without
any sort ef governraent, more than he would
think it eligible to be put on board a ship
witheut a helm or pilot, and, in this condi
tion, to be tossed amidst recks and quick-
sanda. On the other hand, can any thing
give greater conaolation, or more aubatantial
joy,§ than to be firmly persuaded, not only
that there ia an infinitely good and wiae
Being, but alao that thia Being preaerves
and continually governs the universe, which
himself haa fraraed, and holds the reUis of
aU things in his powerful hand ; that he is
our Father ; that we and all our interests are
hia conatant concern; and that, after we
have sojourned a short while here below, we
shaU be again taken into his iraraediate pre
aence ? Or can this wretched life be attend
ed with any sort ef aatiafaction, if it is di
vested ef this divine faith, and bereaved of
such a blesaed hope ?
Moreover, every one that thinks a generous
fortitude and purity of mind preferable to
the charms and muddy pleasures of the flesh,
finds all the prtcepts ef reUgion net only not
grievous, but exceeding pleasant, and ex
tremely delightful. So that, upen the
whole, the saying of Hermea is very consis-
tent with the nature of things : " There is
one, and but one geod thing among men,
arid tbat is reUgiori."|| Even the vulgar
• Prov. ii. 4. . ,. . , . .
t Prov. xiii, 14. t Ibid. iv. 7.
§ ^iu Tl TOuToiv ^x^ijox f/.tliev XV XxZoiS' ^
% Ev XXI U.OVOV, tv KvB^arcoif ayxBov, ^ turo.llM.

575

could not bear the degenerate expression of
the player, who called out upon the stage,
" Money is tbe chief geod among man
kind."* But sheuld any one say, " Religion
is the principal good of mankind," no ob.
jection could be raade against it ; -|- for,
without deubt, it is tbe only object, the
beauties whereof engage the leve beth of
God and raan.
But the principal things in religion, as I
have frequently observed, are " juat concep
tiona of God." Now, conceming thia infinite
Being, seme things are knewn by the light
of nature and reason, othera only by the
revelation which he hath been pleaaed te make
of himself from heaven. That there is a
God, is tbe distinct voice of every man, and
of every thing without him : hew rauch
raore, then, shall we be confirmed in the
belief ef thia truth, if we attentively view the
whole creation, and the wonderful order and
harmoriy tbat aubaiat betweeu aU the parts
of the whole systera ! It is quite unnecesaary
to ahew, that ao great a fabric could never
have been brought into being without an all-
wiae and powerful Creator ; ner could it now
aubaiat without tbe sarae Almighty Being to
aupport and preserve it. " Let men, there-
fore, make thia tbeir conatant atudy," says
Lactantius, " even te knew their coraraon
Parent and Lerd, whose power can never be
perfectiy known, whoae greatneaa cannot be
fathoraed, nor hia etemity coraprehended. "$
When the raind of raan with its facultiea,
coraea to be once intenaely fixed upon him,
all ether objecta diaappearing, and being as
it were reraoved quite out ef sight, it ia en
tirely at a stand and overpowered, nor can
it possibly proceed further. But concerning
the doctrine of this vaat volurae of the worka
of God, and that still brighter light which
shines forth in the Scriptures, we ahall speak
more fuUy hereafter.

LECTURE X.

Of ihe Decrees of God.
As the glory and brightneaa ofthe Divine
Majesty is so great, that tbe strongest human
eye cannot bear the direct rays ef it, he has
exhibited hiraaelf to be viewed in the glass
of thoae worka which he created at firat, and,
by his unwearied hand, continuaUy supperts
and governs ; nor are we aUowed to view his
etemal counsela and purpoaea through any
• Pecunia magnum generis humani bonum.
f Oux tar xVTiivttv ovStv.
i ut Parentem suum Dominumque cagnoscant.
cuius nee virtus EEstimari potest, nee magnitude per-
splci, nee leternitas comprehendi.

576

OF THE DECREES OF GOD.

LECT, XJ

Other medium but this. Se that, in our cate-
chiaraa, especially the shorter one, designed
for the instruction of the ignorant, it might,
perhaps, bave been fuU aa proper to have
paaaed over the awful apeculation concerning
the Divine decreea, and to have proceeded.
directly, to the consideration of the wprks pf
Ged ; but the thoughts you find in it, on
thia subject, are few, sober, clear, and eer
tain : and, in explaining tbem, I think it
most reasonable and moat aafe to confine cur.
selvea within theae Umita, in any audience
whatever, but eapeciaUy in this cpngregatipn,
conaiating of youths, not to say, in a great
raeaaure, of beys- Seeing, therefore, the de
crees ef God are raentioned in our Catechism,
and it would not be proper te pass over in
silence a matter of so great raoment, I shall
accordingly lay before you aome few thoughts
upon this arduous subject-
And here, if any where, we ought, accord
ing to the coraraon saying, to reaaon but in
few words. I should, indeed, think it very
improper to de otherwiae ; for auch theoriea
ougbt to be cautioualy touched rather than
be apun out te a great length. One thing
we raay confidently aaaert, that all thoae
thinga which the great Creator producea in
different perioda of' time, were perfectly
known to hira, and, aa it were, preaent with
him from eternity ; and every thing that hap-
pena throughout the several ages of the
world, proceeds in the same order, and the
aame preciae raanner, aa the Eternal Mind
at firat intended it ahould ; that none of his
counsels can be disappointed or rendered in
effectual, or in the least changed or altered
by any event whatsoever. " Known to God
are aU his works,"* saya the apostle in tbe
council of Jerusalem ; and the son of Sfrach,
" Ged sees frora everlasting to everlasting,
and nething is wonderful in his aight."-|-
Nothing ia new er unexpected to him ; no
thing can come to pasa that he haa net fore
aeen ; and his firat thoughts are so wise, that
tbey admit no second onea that can be aup-
posed wiser. And " this stability and im-
mutabiUty of the Divine decreea,"."!: ia as
serted even by the Roman philoaopher : " It
ia neceasary," saya he, " that the same thinga
be always pleasing to Him who can never be
pleaaed but with what ia beat-"(|
Every artiat, to be aure, as yeu also well
know, worka according to sorae pattern,
which is the immediate object of his raind ;
and this pattern, in the aU-wiae Creator, raust
necessarily be entirely perfect, and every way
complete. And if this ia what Plato intend.
ed by his ideas, which not a few, and those
* Nota sunt Deo ab initio omnia sua opera, .'icts
XV. is.
t A seculo in seculum respicit Deus, et nihil est
mirabile in conspectu ejus.
t To x.u,iTaSxv]T0v XXI xxivijTov arag ^iiaiv ^ouXlu-
fMiruv- II Necesse est Uli cadem semper plr.cerc, cui nisi
optima placere non possunt.

by ne raeans unleamed, think very likely ;
his own scholar, tbe great Staglrite, and your
favourite philosopher, had surely ne reason,
so often and so bitterly, to inveigh against
tbem. Be tbis as it may, aU that acknow
ledge God te be the author of this wonderful
fabric, and all those thiugs in it which suc
ceed one anether in their turns, cannet possi
bly doubt, that he has brought and continues
to bring them aU about, according te that
most perfect pattern subsisting in his eteriial
councils ; and those things thatwe caU casoal,
are all unalterably fixed and determined to
him. For, according to that of the philoso
pher, " Where there is most wiadom, there
is least chance,"* and therefore, surely,
where there is infinite wisdom, there is no
thing left to chance at all.
This maxim, concerning the eternal coun
cils of the Supreme Sovereign of tbe world,
besides that it every where shines clearly in
the booka of the sacred Scriptures, ia also,
in itaelf, se evident and consiatent witb rea
aon, that we raeet with it in almost all the
werks of tbe philosophers, and eften, also,
in these of the poets. Nor dees it appear,
that they raean any thing else, at least, for
the raoat part, by the terra fate : though you
raay raeet with sorae things in their werks,
which, I own, aound a littie harsh, aud can
scarcely be aufficiently aeftened by any, even
the moat favourable interpretation.
But whatever elae may seem to be compre*
hended under the term fate, whether taken
in the mathematical or physical sense, as
aome are pleased to diatinguiah it, muat, at
laat, of necessity be resolved into the appoint
ment and good pleasure of the Supreme Go
vernor of the world. If even the blundering
astrologera and fertune-teUers acknowledge
that the wiae man has dominion over the
atara ; how much mere evident ia it, that all
these things, and all their pewer and in-
fiuence,'are subject and subservient to the de
creea of the AU-wiae God ! Whence the
aaying ef the Hebrews, " There ia no planet
to Israel'."-|-
And according as aU these things in the
heavens abeve and the earth beneath, are
daily regulated and directed by the Etemal
King ; in the sarae precise manner were they
all from eternity ordered and disposed by
hira, " who worketh aU things according to
the counael ef hia ewn will," J who is more
ancient than the aea and the mountaina, or
even the heavena themselves.
These things we are wananted and safe
to believe ; but what perverseness, or rather
madness, is it te endeavour te break into the
aacred repoaitoriea of heaven, and pretend
to accommodate thoae secrets of the Divine
kingdom te the measures and methods of our
* Ubi plus eat sapientiEe, ibi minus est casus.
t Nan esse planetam Israeli.
X Qui cuncta cxequitui secundum consilium volun.
tatissuffi. ;-i II- i. 11

OF THE DECREES OF GOD.

677

weak capacities ! To say the trutii, I ac
knowledge that I ara astonished, and greatly
_at a loss, when I hear leamed men, and pro-
fos.sors of theology, talking presumptuoualy
about the order of the Divine decreea, and
when I read such thinga in their works.
Paul, considering tbis awful subject " as an
immense sea, was astonished at it, and view
ing the vaat abyaa, atarted back, and cried
out with a loud voice, " O the depth !"* &c.
Nor is there much mere sobriety or modera
tion in the many notions that are entertained,
and tbe disputes that are commonly raised
about reconciling these divine decrees with
the liberty and free-wUl of raan.
It is indeed true, that neither religion nor
right reason will auffer the actions and de-
signs of men, and consequently, even the
very motions of the will, to be exempted frora
the erapire of the counsel and good pleaaure
of God. Even the booka ef the Heathens
are filled with raost express testiraonies of
the most abaolute sovereignty of Ged, even
with regard to these. The aentimenta ef
Homer are well known ;-t- and with hira
agreea the tragic poet Euripides. " O Ju
piter," says he, " why are we, wretched raor
tals, called wise ? For we depend entirely
upon thee, and we de -whatever theu intend-
eat we ahould.":!:
And it would be easy to bring together a
vaat coUection of such sayings, but these are
suificient for our present purpose.
They alwaya seeraed to me to act a very
ridiculous part,l| who contend, that the ef
fect of the Divine decree is absolutely ine
concileable with human liberty ; because the
natural and necessary Uberty ef a rational crea
ture is to act or cheese frem a rational mo
tive, or spontaneously, and ef purpose. §
Hut who sees not, that, on the supposition
of the most absolute decree, this Uberty ia
not taken away, but rather establiahed and
corifirraed ? Fer the decree is, that such an
one shall make choice of, er do seme parti.
cular thing freely. And whoever pretends to
deny, that whatever is dene or chosen, whe.
ther good er indifferent, is so dene or chosen,
or, at least, may be so, eapouses an absur
dity. But, in a word, the great diff-culty
in aU this dispute is that with regard to the
origin of evil. Some distinguish, and just
ly, tbe substance of the action, as you call
it, or that which is physical in the actiori,
frora the raorality of it. This is of some
weight, but whether it takes a>vay the whole
diflaculty, I will not pretend to say. Believe
* 'O JlxtiXos iurm^ ff$es ^tXxyoe XTti^ov, iXiyyixo-xt
XXI BxSui liuv xxxvti, xvlTni'/iTiv luOtoi;, XXI i^tyxXx
aviio-iio-iv.ii^oiv, il ^xBo;, Sic. Chrys.
} Toiof yxfi voBs ta-Tiv, &c.
± il ZtVTI lyiTX TOUS TxXxIrroiio'J:,
^^ovtiv XOyouTi ; Sou yxf t^r,^T,/,fitBot,
AsUUtV Tl TOlXUT XV TU TVyXXVTit ^tXuV. 1«»T,
1.734. ¦
! Avovi'Tois, pugnarc.
$ Te txoua-iov 0ouX.

me, young gentlemen, it is an abyss, it is .in
abyss never to be perfectly sounded by any
plunimot of human understanding. Should
any one aay, " I am not to be blamed, but
Jove and Fate,"* he will not get off ao, but
may be nonpluaaed by turning his own wit
againat hira. Tbe servant Of Zeno, the Stoic
philosopher, being caught in an act of theft,
either with a design to ridicule hia raaster's
doctrine, er te avail hiraself ef it, in order to
evade puniahment, aaid, " It was ray fate tn
be a thief:" "and to be puniahed fer it,"
said Zene.-|- Wherefore, if you will take ray
advice, withdraw your rainda ftora a curioua
aearch into thia mystery, and tum thera direct
ly to the atudy of piety, and a due revereuce
to the awful raajesty of God. Think and
apeak of God and bia aecreta with fear and
trerabUng, but dispute very little abeut thera ;
and, if you would not undo yourselves, beware
of disputing with hira. If you transgress in
any thing, blarae yourselves ; if yeu do any
good, or repent of evil, offer thanksgiving to
God. Thia is what I earneatly recomraend
to you ; in this I acquiesce rayself : and to
thia, when rauch toased and distressed with
doubt and difficultiea, I had recourae, aa to
a aafe harbour. If any of yeu think proper,
he may apply to raen of greater learning ;
but let him take care he meet not with such
as have raore ftowardness and preaumption.

LECTURE XL
Of ihe Creation of ihe World,
Whoever looka upon thia great aystem
of the universe, of which he himself is but
a very sraall part, with a little more than or
dinary attention, unless hia mind- is become
quite brutish within him, it wiU, of neceaai
ty, put him upon considering whence this
beautiful frame of things proceeded, and
what was ita first original ; er, in the werds
of the poet, " From what principlea aU the
elements were formed, and how the various
parta of the werld at firat carae together." $
Now, aa we have abeady ebaerved in our
diaaertation conceming God, that the raind
riaea directly frem the consideration of this
visible world, to tbat ef its invisible Creator ; -
so from the contemplation of the first and
infinite Mind, it descends to thia viaible
fabric ; and, again, the contemplation of
thia latter deterraines it to retum with the
* Oux tyoi X iTioi iifju, xXKx Zius xxi Mei^x.
t In falls mihi, inquit, fuit furari. Et caadi, inquit
Zeno- +  — ^  Quibusque exordia prinns
Omnia, et ipsa tener mundi concreverit orbis.
Via. Eel. vL
1 a ,

573

OF THE CREATION

LECT. XI.

greateat pleaaure and aatisfaction te that
eternal Fountain of Goodness and of every
thing that exiats. Nor is this a vicioua and
faulty circle, but the constant courae of a
pioua aoul traveUing, aa it were, backwarda
and forwarda frora earth to heaven, and frora
heaven te earth ; a notion quite sirailar to
that ofthe angels ascending and descending
upon tbe ladder which Jacob saw in his vi
aion. But thia conteraplation, by all meana,
requires a pure and divine temper of mind,
according to the maxim of the philosopher :
" He that would see Ged and goodness,
muat firat be hiraaelf good, and like the
Deity."* And thoae who have the eyes ef
their rainds pure and bright, wUl sooner be
able to read in those objects that are expoaed
te the outward eye, the great and evident
charactera of his etemal pewer and Godhead.
We ahall therefore new advance aome
thoughta upen the creation, which waa the
firat and meat atupendoua of aU the Divine
worka ; and the rather, that aome of the
philoaophera, who were, to be sure, poaitive in
aaaerting the being of a Ged, did not acknow
ledge hira to be the author or creator of the
world. Aa fer ua, according to that of the Epis
tie to the Hebrewa, " by faith we understand
that the worlds were framed by the word of
God."-f- Of thia we have a diatlnct history
in the first book of Moses, and of the Sacred
Scriptures, which we receive as divine- And
this sarae doctrine the prophets and apos
tlea, and, together with thera, aU the sacred
writers, frequently repeat in their aerraona
and writings, aa the great foundation ef
faith, and of all true religion ; for which
reason, it eught to be dUigently inculcated
upon the minds of aU, even those of the
most ignorant, as far as they are able to con
ceive and believe it ; though, to be sure, it
<;entaiiis in it so many raysteries, that they
are sufficient not only to exercise the most
acute and leamed understandinga, but even
far exceed their capacitiea, and quite over
power them : which the Jewiah doctora aeem
to have been se aenaible, er, if T may use
the expreaaion, ao over aenaible of, that they
admitted not their diaciplea to look into the
three first chapters of Genesis, till they aniv
ed at the age required, in order te enter upen
the priestly office.
Although the faith of this doctrine imme
diately depends upen the authority and tes
timony of the Supreme God of truth, for, aa
St. Arabroae expresses it, " To whom sbould
I give greater credit concerning God, than
to Ged hiraself ?":}: it is however so agree
able to reaaon, that if any one choose to enter
into the dispute, he will find the strongest
arguments presenting themselves in cenfir-
1 * Tivto-Ou Se a-gajTOr ^tetiw trxe xxi xaXos ii fiiT-Xu
S-ixo-utOxi @lov Tt XXI xxXov. Plot.
t XtlOTll vOUfilV KXT,]^TItr8xl TOUS XtOIVXS f'VifJOXTI &IBU.
Chap. xi. S.
. t Cui «nim m.-igis de Dec, quam Deo credam ?

mation of the faith of it ; but those on the
oppoaite aide, if any such there be that deserve
the name, quite frivolous, and of no manner
of force. Tatian declared, tbat no argument
raore effectuaUy determined him te beUeve
the Scriptures, and embrace the Christian
faith, " than the coriaisterit, iriteUigible
account they give of the creation of the
univerae."* Let any one that pleasea, choose what
other opinion he will adopt upon this aub.
ject, er, as it is a matter ef doubt and ob.
scurity, any of the other hypotheses he
thinka raoat feaaible. Is he for the atoms
of Epicurus, dancing at random in an empty
apace, and, after innumerable trials, throw.
ing theraselves at last into the beautiful fabric
which we behold, and that merely by a kind
of lucky hit, er fortunate throw of the dice,
witheut any Araphion with his harp, to
charra them by bia muaic, and lead them
into the building ? To aay the trath, the
Greek philoaopher had dreamed theae things
very prettily, or, according to raore probable
accounta, bonowed them from two other
blundering philosophera, Democritua and
Leucippua, though he used all possible att
te conceal it, that he raight have to- himself
the whole glory ef this noble invention. But
whoever first invented or published this hy.
pothesis, hew, I pray, will he persuade us
that things are actuaUy so ? By what convinc.
ing arguments will he prove tbem ? Or what
credible witneaaes will be produce to atteat his
facts ? For it would neither be modest nor
decent for him ner hia followera to expecj
implicit faith in a raatter purely phUoaephi.
cal and phyaical, and at the same time, of
ao great importance ; especiaUy as it is theit
coraraon raethod smartly to ridicule and
aupercilieualy to deapiae the rest ef raankind,
aa being, according to their opinion, toe
credulous in raattera of religion. But what
we have now said is raore than enough upon
an hypothesis se ailly, raonatroua, and incon
aiatent. After leaving the Epicureans, there is no
other noted shift, that I know of, remaining
for one that rejects the doctrine of the crea
tion, but only that fiction of the Peripatetic
school, conceming the etemity of the world.
This, Aristotle is said to have bonowed from
a Pythagorean philosopher, naraed OceUus
Lucanus, whe, in that instance, aeeras to
have deserted not only the doctrine of his
raaater Pythagoraa, but alao that ef aU the
raore ancient philosophera. It is true, two
or three others are naraed — Parmenie, Mc-
lissus. Sec, who are suspected to have been
of the same sentiments with' Ocellus ; but
this ia a matter ef uncertainty, and therefore
to be left undetermined. And indeed, both
Ariatotle and OceUus seera to have dpne
this at randpm, pr withput prpof, as they
* T* iuxxTx}.v,,iTov Tv)i TOV wxnTot iroiv/Viae' Tnliail

OF THE WORLD,

079

have advanced no arguraenta in favour ef
their new doctrine, that can be thought very
favourable, much leaa cogent and convincing.
It ia aurely impoaaible to demonatrate the
truth ef their opinion a priori, nor did theae
authora atterapt it. They only endeavoured
to muster up some difficulties against the
production of the world in tirae, the great
weakness whereof any one, who is but toler
ably acquainted with the Christian religion,
will easUy perceive. Aristotle's arguraents
rather make against some notions eapoused
by the eld philoaophers, er rather forged by
bimself, than againat the doctrine of the crea
tion. Nay, he himaelf aoraetimea speaka
with great diffidence of hia own opinion on
thia subject, particularly in his topics, where,
among other logical problems, he proposes
thia as one, viz. " Whether the world ex
isted frera eternity or not,"*
On the contrary, that the world has
evident inarks of novelty, ia acknowledged
by Lucretiua in a remarkable paaaage of hia
poema, which is very weU known. " Be.
sides," says he, " if the earth and the
heavens were net originaUy created, but
.existed frora etemity, why did not earUer
poets describe the remarkable actiona of
their times long before the Theban war and
the destruction of Troy ? But in my epi.
nien, tbe univerae is not ef old standing, the
world is but a late estabUshment, and it is
not long since it had ita beginning ;"-|- and
more to tbat purpose.
If we duly consider the matter, and ac.
knowledge the course of the stars, not only
to be owing to a first mover, but also that
the whole fabric, with all the creatures there
in, derive their exiatence frera aome Supreme
Mind, who is tbe only fountain of being ;
we must certainly conclude, that that self-
existent principle, or source of aU beings, is
by aU raeans eternal ; but there is no neces
sity at aU that we should suppose all other
things to be coeval with it ; nay, ifit is notab
solutely necessary, it is at least highly reason
able and consistent to beUeve the contrary.
For, that tbis world, corapounded of se
many and such heterogeneous parts, should
proceed, by way ef natural and necessary
emanation, from that ene first, purest, and
most simple Nature, nobody, I iraagine,
could believe, or in the least suspect. Can
it poaaibly be thought, that raortality sbould
proceed frora the Imraortal, conuption frora
the Inconuptible, and, what ought never to
be so much as mentioned, even worms, the
vilest animalcules, and mest abject insects,
ftom the best, most exalted, and most
* TioTleov 0 xoffpooi xiSios, r fl«* ,
t Prseterea si nulla fuit genitahs origo
Terras et Cceli, semnerque aterna fuere.
Cur supra bellum Thebanum et funera Trojffi,
Non alias alii quoque res cecinere Poeta; ?
Verum, ut opinor, habet novitatem summa, re
censque . ,. -
Natura est mundi, neque pndem e.\ordia cepit.

blessed Majeaty ? But if ho produced all
these things freely, merely out of hia good
pleaaure, and with the facility that conatant.
ly attenda almighty power ; how much more
cenaiatent ia it to believe that this was
dene in time, than to imagine it waa frera
eternity !
It ia a very difficult matter te argue <it all
about that, the nature whereof our meat en
larged thoughts can never comprehend. And
theugh, among phUosophera and divinea, it
ia diaputed, whether such a production from
eternity is poaaible er not ; there ia probably
aoraething concealed in the nature of the
thing, though unknown te ua, that might
suggest a demonstration ef the impoasibiUty
ef thia conceit ; for what is finite in bulk,
pewer, and every other respect, seeras acarce
ly capable of thia infinity of duration ; and
divinea generaUy place etemity among the
incommunicable attributes of Ged, as they
are called. It aeeraa, to be sure, most agree
able to reason, and, for aught we knew, it is
absolutely neceasary, that in all external
productiona, by a free agent, the cause
ahould be, even in time, prior te tbe effect,
that ia, that there must have been aome
point of time wherein the being producing
did, but the thing produced did not,
exiat. Aa to tbe eternd generation, which
we believe, it is within God hiraself, nor
does it constitute any thing without him, er
different from hia nature and eaaence. More
over, the external production ef a created
being ef a nature vaatly different frora the
agent tiiat is supposed to produce it, and
te act freely in that production, implies, in
its forraal conception, as the achoola express
it, a translation frem nonentity into being ;
whence it seems necessarUy to fellow, that
there must have been some point of time,
wherein that created being did not exist.
The notions of the Platonists concerning
pre-exiatent raatter, do not concern the pre
sent subject ; but, to be sure, they are aa
idle and erapty as the imaginary eternity of
the world in its present form. Aa angels
were not produced out of raatter, it ia surely
surprising that those who aaaert their crea
tion by Ged, should find difficulty in ac
knowledging the production ef other thinga
witheut pre-exiatent raatter, er even of raatter
itaelf. The celebrated maxim of the phi
loaophera, " That out of nothing, nothing is
produced," we receive, but in a different and
sounder aenae, namely, tbat nothing can be
produced but either from pre-exiatent matter,
or by a productive power, in wbich it was
virtually contained. And, in tbia senae,
this famous maxira afforda an invincible de-
monatratien a posteriori, for the subject is
not capable ef any other, to prove that there
muat be some Being that existed before any
creature, and the Unity and Etemity pf
tbat Being.

580

OF THE CREATION

LECT, XI.

The great Creator of the world, bavin.
all thinga virtuaUy in himaelf, needed neither
matter nor instrumenta in order to produce
them : " By the word of the Lord were the
heavens raade, and all the heat ef thera by
the breath of hia mouth."* Theae were his
levers and tools, the word of the Lord, or
that effectual act of hia. will, which gave
being to aU things. -f " The mighty Lord
of aU called directly lo his holy, intelligent,
and creating word. Let there be a aun, and
a sun iraraediately appeared," &c.J Here
he spoke, and it waa dene, " the werd and
the effect ahewed theraaelvea together." || If
you aak, what raoved Infinite Goodness to
perforra this great work ? I answer, that
very goodneaa you raention : for if, aa tbey
aay, it ia the nature of goodneaa to he always
communicative ; that goodneas, to be aure,
must be tbe moat diffuaive which ia in itself
greateat, richeat, and so very iraraense, that
it cannot be in the least dirainished, much
less exhausted, by the greatest munificence.
Here there is no danger that that should
happen, which Cicero prudently cautions
against, in the case of human goodness,
namely, " Tbat liberality sheuld undo it-
aelf."§ For that liberality rauat be imraortal
and endless, the treasures whereof are in
finite. Nor is it to be doubted, but frera thia very
goodness, together with the iraraenae pewer
and wiadom which ahine forth ao brightly in
(he creation and aU the creatures, an iraraense
weight of glory is reflected upen the Creator
himaelf, and the aource of aU theae perfec
tiona ; nor rauat it be denied, that the raani-
fold wiadora of God propoaed this end like
wise. And there is nething more certain
than that, frora aU theae taken together, hia
worka, hia benevolent and diffuaive goodneaa,
his power and wisdora iUusteated in tbe crea
tion, and the glory that continually results
therefrom, ftora hia wiae counaela, and his
own raost perfect nature, whence aU these
thinga flew ; nothing ia more certain, I say,
than that, from aU these taken together, the
Divine Majesty enjoys an etemal and inex
pressible deUght and aatisfaction : and thua
all thinga return to that vaat and iraraenae
ocean, ftom whence they at first topk their
rise, according to the expression in the Pro-
verba, " He hath made all thinga for hira
aelf :"^ and the words of the song in the Re-
velatien are raost express to thia purpoae :
" Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory,
and honour, and power ; for thou haat creat.
ed aU things, and for thy pleaaure they' are,
and were created."** Nor could it indeed
be otherwise, than that he who is the be-
• Psalm xxxiii. 6. 1 U-xvtxcx'os, _
t 'O Je vrxvTuv Ku^ies tuOtois upoiv^.in tu exurou xyvifi
KXI voviTu XXI ivifJ.iouiyixu Xoyu EffTOi y,J.iot, xxi &f*ai
Tp fxvxi, &c. '1 rismeg.
i- Aiix iTOi, x/LtMtiyov. 
6 Ne liberalitale pel-cat liberahtas.

ginning of aU thinga, ahould also be the end
of all ; a wonderful beginning without a be.
ginning, and an end without an end. So
that, as the author of the Epistle te the He.
brews reasons coriceming the oath of God
" As he could swear by no greater, he swore
by Hiraself;" in Uke manner we may argue
here, as he could propose no greater end or
deaign, he propoaed Himaelf. It was the
saying of Epicurus, " That the wise man
does every thing for his own sake :"• we,
who are otherwise taught, should rather say,
that tbe wise raan decs nothing for his own
sake, but aU fer that of Ged. But the most
exalted, to be sure, and the wisest of all
beinga, becauae he ia ao, must of necesaity
do all thinga for himaelf ; yet, at the same
time, aU his dispenaatious towards his crea.
tures are mest bountiful and benevolent.
That the world was raade directly and
immediately for man, ia the decteine, not
only of the Stoica, but also of the raaster of
the Peripatetic school : " We are," says he,
" in sorae respect, the end of aU things. "f
And in anether place, " Nature haa made
aU things for the sake of man. "J Cicero
speaka to the same purpose ;|| and Lactan.
tins mere fuUy than either. § But Moses
gives the greateat light en this subject, not
only in his history of the creation, but also
in Deuteronomy, wherein he warns the
laraeUtea against worahipping of angels, for
this reason ; because, says he, " they were
created for the service of raan :" and the sun,
in Hebrew, is caUed Shemesh, which signi.
fles a sen'ant.
But O 1 whither do our bearts steay ?
Ought we not to dwell upen this pleasant con.
teraplation, and even die in it ? I should
chooae te be quite lost in it, and te be ren.
dered altogether insensible, and, as it were,
dead to those earthly trifles that make a
noise around ua. O aweet reciprocation of
rautual deUghta ! " The Lord shaU rejoice
in his worka,"^ saya tbe Paalmiat : and pre
aently after, " My meditation pf him ahall
be sweet : I wiU be glad in the Lerd."*'
Let ua leok aoraetimea to the heavena, seme-
times to the aea, and the earth, with the
animala and planta that are therein, and very
Pften te ouraelves ; and in all theae, and in
every thing else, but in ourselvea particulars
ly, let ua ipnteraplate God, the coraraon Fa.
ther ef aU, and eur raeat exalted Creator,
and let our conteraplation excite our love.
They who have aent the ignorant and un.
leamed to picturea and imagea, aa books pro
per for their fristruction, have not acted very '
wisely, ner has that expedient tumed out

* Sapientem omnia facere siii causa.
- t Sumus enim et nas quodammodo omnium finis.
2 Phys. tit. 23.
X Natura hominum gratia omnia fecit-
n De Legibus.
§ Sol irrequietis cursibus et spatiis inequalibusorbee
canficit, &c. ad finem capitis. De Ira Dei, p. 13, 14.
H Psalm civ. 31. •• Ibid, ver, 34.

OF THE WORLD.

fi»l

happily or luckily for the advantage of that
part of mankind ; but surely this great ve.
lume, er system, which is always open, and
exposed to the view of all, is admirably ad
apted to the instruction bodi of the vulgar
and the wiae ; so tbat Chryaoatom had good
reason to call it, " The great book for the
learned and unlearned."* And the aaying
of St- BaaU is very much te the purpose :
" From the beauty of thoae thinga which
are obvious to tbe eyea of all, we acknow.
ledge that hia inexpressible beauty excels
that of all the creaturea ; and from the magni.
tude of thoae sensible bodies that aunound
us, we concli^de the inflnite and iraraenae
goodneas of their Creator, whose plenitude
of power exceeds all thought, as well as ex-
pi-essien-"-|- For this very end, it evidentiy appears, all
things were raade, and we are the only visi
ble beings that are capable of this contera-
piation : " The world, says St. Basil, is a
school, or serainary, very proper for the in
struction of rational souls in the knowledge
of Ged."J We have also the angels, those
ministers ef flre, te be spectators with us on
this theafre. But will any of us venture to
conjecture what they felt, and what adraira
tion aeized thera, when they beheld those new
kinda of creatures rising into being, and
those unexpected acenea, that were succeaaive-
ly added to the preceding onea, en each of
the aix days ef that flrst reraarkable week,
" When belaid the foundations ofthe earth,
and placed the comer stone thereof; when the
moming stars sang together, and aU the sens
of God shouted for joy |]?"
But O the stupidity of mankind I AU
these stupendous objects are daUy around ua :
but because they are constantiy expoaed to
our view, they never affect our minda : ao
natural is it for us te admire new, rather than
grasd objects. Therefore the vaat raultitude
of afcira which diversify the beauty of tbia
iramenae body, doea not call the peeple toge
ther ; but wben any change happena therein,
the eyea ef aU are fixed upon the heavena.
" Nobody looks at the sun, but wben he is
obscured ; nobody observes the moon, but
wben she is eclipsed ; then nature seeras to
be in danger, then vain superstition is alarra
ed, and every one is afraid for hiraself."§
" But surely," says St. Bemard, concerning
tbe sun and raoon, " these are great miracles,
* hiCXiov fAlyia-Tov xxi ihurxis xxi ffo^ms.
t E« TOU XXXkoUS TdJV O^U//AVUV TOV UTl^XX}.OV tVVOU/AtSx
XXI tx TOU fMylBoUS tuv XtoS'OTUV TOUTUV XXI ITi^iy^X^TUV
ttUf/.xTuv xvxKoyiZufAtSx xvrti^ev xxi uvt^^ylbvt xxi
trxa-xv Sixvaixv tv tu tXtiSii T',if ixuTOu ouvxf^tue
urt^ZxivovTx, Alex. Horn. i.
X O xoa-f-oos -^uxuv Xoyixuv ZiSxirxxXtlOv xxi ttk
^toyvua'ixs fraiSEU-rw/ev. Ibid.
n Jvb xxxviii. 6, 7.
§ Sol spectatorem, nisi cum deficit non habet;
nemo observatlunam nisi laborantem ; tunc oi-bes con-
clamant, tunc pro se quisque, superslitione vana, tre-
pidat Sen.

very great to be sure ; but the first produc.
tion or creation of aU thinga, ia a vast mira
cle, and raakes it easy to beUeve aU the reat ;
30 that, after it, nothing pught tp excite eur
wonder."*

LECTURE XII.
Of the Creation of Man.
This great theatre being buUt, besides
those spectators which had been but lately
placed in the higher seats, it pleased the
Suprerae Creator and Lerd to have another
corapany below, aa it were in the area. Theae
he caUed forth into being by creation, and
man was introduced into this area, " te be a
spectator of him and of his works ; yet net
a spectator only, but also to be the interpre
ter ef them."-f Nor yet was man placed
therein merely to be a spectator and an in
terpreter ; but also, in a great meaaure, te be
poaaeaaor and lord thereof; er, aa it were,
the Creator'a " substitute," J in a spacious
and convenient houae ready built, and stored
with all aorta of useful furniture.
New, that man himself is a grand and
noble piece of workmanship, appeara even
from thia circumatance, that the raoat wiae
operator, when he waa going to create him,
thought fit te preface his design with these
worda, " Let ua raake man. So that he waa
created, uot merely by a word of command
like the rest ef the creaturea, but by a con.
sultatiou ofthe blessed Trinity."])
And, indeed, man is a wonderful composi.
tion, the conjunction of heaven and earth ;
The breath of God, and the dust of the
ground ;" the bond of union between the
visible and invisible world, and truly a
" world in miniature, a kind of mixed world,
nearly related to the other two."§ Nor ia
he only a Uvely epitome and repreaentation
ofthe greater world, but alao dignified with
the image of his great Creator. He made
the heavens and the earth, the sea and the
atara, and then all sorts of living creatures ;
but, in the werds of the poet, " a mere di.
vine creature, and raore capable ef elevated
aentiraents, waa yet wanting, and one that
* Magna sunt hsec mu-acula, magna nimis ita est ;
miraculum autem immensum est ipsa prima omnium
praductio, seu creatio, quse miraculorum omnium adeo
facilem fidem facit, ut post earn nihil sit mirmn.
t 'iis S-tXTTiV TE XUTOU XXI TUV XUTOU t^yUV, XXI OU
/Aovov H-ixTnv xXkx KXI t^vjyyiT'r.v. Arrian.
X 'X!Toxxrxo,TXTev,
II Faciamus haminem. Utnon solo jubenlis ser
mone sicut teliqua, sed cousilio sanctas Tlinitatis con-
ditus sit, .Arnob,
§ MiKgoxoirf,oos, filxrcs tis xo,tu,os, cuyyiw^s tuv iut
Koo'/xuv. Greg. Nysd.

532

OF THE CREATION OF MAN-

LECT, xri.

could rule over the rest ; therefore man was
born, &c-"*
The reat of the creaturea, according to the
obaervation ef the schoolmen, which is not
amiaa, had the irapreaaiori of the Divirie foot
staraped upou thera, but not the iraage ef
the Deity- Theae he created, and, reviewing
thera, found thera to be good, yet he did net
reat in them ; but, upon the creation of raan,
the aabbath immediately followed- He made
raan, and then rested, having a creature cap
able of knowing that he was hia Creator, one
that could worship hira, and celebrate his
aabbath ; whoae sins, if he should commit
any, he might forgive, and send, clothed with
human nature, hia only-begotten Son, "in
whom he ia abaolutely well pleaaed," and
over whom, as the persen that fulfilled hia
geod pleaaure, he rejoices for ever, to redeera
hia favourite creature. By the production ef
raan, the suprerae Creator exhibited hiraself
in the most admirable light, and, at the same
tirae, had a creature capable of admiring and
loving him ; and, as St. Ambrose observes,
" ene that was under obligation to love his
Creator the more ardently, the more wonder
fully he perceived himself to be made."-|-
" And raan," aays tbe sarae author, "was
made a two-footed animal, that he might be,
aa it were, one of the inhabitanta of the air,
that he raight aapire at high thinga, and fly
with the winga of aublirae thoughts- "J
And, indeed, the structure of man is an
instance of wonderful art and ingenuity, whe
ther you consider the symmetry of hia whole
fabric taken together, or all hia parta and
merabera aeparately. Gregory Nyaaen apeaka
very rauch to the purpoae, wben he says,
" The frame of man is awful, and hard to
be explained, and contains in it a Uvely re
presentation ef raany of the hidden rayateriea
of God." II How wonderful is even the
structure of his bedy, whicb, after aU, is but
the earthen case of his soul ! Accordingly
it is in the Chaldaic language caUed Nidne,
which signifles a sheath- How far dees the
workraanship exceed the raaterials ! And
bow juatly raay we aay, " What a glorious
creature, out of the raeaneat eleraenta !"§
The Faalmiat's mind seeras to have dwelt
npon thia raeditation, till be was quite loat
in it : " How fearfully," aays he, " and won
derfully ara I made !" And that celebrated
physician whe studied nature with such un-
wearied application, in his book upon the
* Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius altse,
Deerat adhuc, et quod dominari in castera passet,
Natus homo est- Ovid, 1 Met.
t Et quidem tanto ardentius amaret Conditorem,
quanta mirabilius se ab eo conditum inteiijgeret.
± Et factus est homo bipes, ut sit unus quasi de vo
la tilibus, qui alta visu petal, et quodam remigio volitet
sublimum cogitationum.
R 'H TOU xva^urou xxTxrxtur, ^aZt^x tk xxi Suiri^u%v-
turos XXI xoXXx XXI xxoxiutfx tv xuTyi f^uo-rvj^ix &,ou
litixuviZourx, 5 Oiot li OIS, I

structure of the human body, iri which, after
all, there ia nething divine, often expresses
his adrairation in these worda : " Who ia
worthy to praiae the wiadom and power of
the Creator ?"* and raany ether auch ex.
claraatiena. The Chriatian writers, how.
ever, are raost full upon this subject, parti
cularly St. BasU, St. Chrysostom, and others,
whe cany their observations ae far as the
naila, and hair, eapeciaUy that on the eye
Uds. And Nyssen, on tbe werds, " Let us
raake man," bas the following observation :
" Man is a grand and noble creature  How
can man be said to be any great matter, see-
ing he is a raortal creature, subject to a great
many passions ; ftom the time of bfrth, to
that of his old age, expoaed to a vaat many
evila and distresses, and of whom it ia writ.
ten, ' Lord, what ia raan, that thou should
est be mindful of him ?' &c- The history
we have ef the production of man, delivered
me frora this difficulty ; for we are told, that
God took 'some ofthe dust of the earth, and
out of it formed man : frem these words, I
understood, that raan was at ence nothing,
and yet something very grand. "-|- He in
tended te say, that the materials out of wbich
man waa raade, were low, and, as it were,
nothing ; but, if you conaider the wonderful
workmanahip, hew great waa the honour con
fened upon him ! The "earth did not apon-
taneoualy produce man aa it did graaahop-
pers ; God did net corarait the production
of this er that particular creature te his rai
nistering powers ; no, the gracious Creator
took the earth inhis own hand-"t But be
sidea the noble frame of hia body, though it
waa made of the duat of the earth, that di.
vine breath, and, by raeans ef it, the in
fusion of a precious soul, mixes heaveri and
earth together ; not, indeed, in the common
acceptation ef tbat term, aa if thinga so vaat.
ly different, were promiscuously jumbled to
gether, and the order of nature subverted ;
iiut only iraplying, that the two parts of tbe
human constitution are compounded with in-
expreaaible art, and joined in a cloae union.
As to the raisery of the huraan race, and the
contemptible figure in which the life of man
appears, it is te be ascribed to another source,
very different from the earthly materials out
of which hia body was made. That he was
created happy, beautiful, and honourable, he
owed to his great and good Creator ; but he
himself ia the author of his own misery.
And hence it ia, that theugh, with regard to
* Tis ixxvos iTTi Tyiv A,o,IJ.IBueyeu e'O^IXVTl XXI iuvx-
/,01V irxivliv ;
t Mtyx 0 xvB^oiTOs xooi tijxiov- AXXx vrus fiiyx o xv
fIguTOS } To lvixr,^ov Zuov, to jiou.iois frxSto'iv Li^oxtl/ltvov,
TO ix ytvvT,(nus tis yy,ixs [Au^iuv xxxaiv tir/J-ov t^xvrXouv.
Tlt^l ou tlTVJTXI. Kyg;E, T/s t^TIV 0 xvO^UTOs, OTI ^Ifx.vviirx1f
XUTOU ; &C- AXXx looi tv)v toixutt,v iix^cQ-oe-iv tXwriv
la-TOPix Tv,s yivvr.a'tus tou xvBpuirou xvxyvuirdtio'K, &c.
Orat. ii.
X Oux ^ fv] xUTOi^xTUs uinriQ rous TiTTiyxs E|ECf«<ri,,
xXX OVX tin to5e xal ToSt Toi'ooxi XtlTougyiKxi; huvK/A-
to'iv, xXX' liix x'-i^i (piXoTtxvti yviv tXxCtv,

OF THE CREATION OF MAN.

JiBS

hia original and pure nature, we ought, for
the strongest reasons, to spealt more honoura-
bly of him, than of any ether part ef the vi
sible world ; yet, if wc view him, " in his
present circumstances,"* no p.-irt of tiie crea
tion, te be sure, deserves to be lamented in
more mournful strains.
But what worda can expreas, what thought
can cpraprehend, the dignity and ppwers pf
that heavenly spul that inhabits tbis earthly
bedy, and that divine image that is ataraped
upon it ? The philoaophers of all ages and
nationa have been inquiring into the nature
of it, and have net yet found it out.
A great raany have alao arauaed them
selves with toe whimsical conjecturea and
fancies, and endeavoured te discover, by very
diff'erent methods, a figure of the blesaed
Trinity in the faculties of tbe soul. Nor
waa Methodiua satisfied with finding a re
presentation of this raystery in the soul ef
every particular raan, but also iraagined he
had discovered it in the three firat peraena of
the huraan race, namely, Adara, Eve, and
their firat-bom son, because in thera be found
unbegotten, begotten, and proceeding, as al
ao unity of nature, and the origination ef .all
mankind. But not to inaist upon these, it
is certain, the rational, er intellectual, and
immortal seul, so long aa it retiiined ita ori
ginal purity, was adomed with the lively and
refulgent image of tho Father of apirita, ita
eternal Creator ; but afterwarda, when it be
came polluted ,ind atained with ain, this
image, though not iraraediately quite ruined,
was, however, miserably obscured and defac
ed. It ia true, the beautiful and erect frame
ofthe human body, which gives it an advan
tage over all other creatures, and sorae other
external gr,acea that raan poaaeases, may pos
sibly be some reflected rays ef the Divine ex
cellence ; but I should hardly call them the
image ef God : as St. Ambrose well ob
serves, " How can flesh, which ia but earth,
be aaid to be raade after the image ef Ged,
in whora there ia no earth at all ! And ahall
we be aaid to be Uke God, because we are of
a' higher rank than sheep and dogs ?"-|-
The dominion over the rest of the crea
tures whicii raan enjoys, ia a kind of faint
shadow of the abaolute and uiiliraited sway
ofthe supreme Majesty ofhciiven and earth.
I dare not, however, venture to say, it is tiiat
image of which we are speaking ; but, as
those who draw tiie picture of a king, .after
laying down the lineamenta of the face .and
body, use to add the purple robe, .and other
enaigns of royalty, this dominion may cer
tainly supply the place of these, widi regard
te thia image of God on man. But the live-
ly colours in which the iraage itself ia drawn,
* OlOS vuv &gOTOS tlTTlV- . .
t Caro terra est: qui dicatur ad imaeinem Dei
facta, cum in Deo terra non sit ? Et an eo Dei similes
diceinur, quia damnlis atque ovibus celsiores smnus?

are " Purity," aaya Nyascn, " absence ef
evil, understanding, and speech."" For
even the eternal Sen, and the wiadom of the
Father, seema to be intended by the philoso
phers under the term of the creating mind ;f
arid by the divine apostle Jolm, be Is called
the Word: to dicse we have very gppd
grpund tp add charity, aa iieihing can bo
named that rendera man liker to Ged ;J for
" God ia leve, and the fountain of ii."|| It
ia trae, charity is a valu.able diapoaition of
the mind, but it alao diacovera itself in die
frame of the human body ; for raan was
raade quite defenceless, having neither horns,
claws, nor ating, but naked and harmleaa,
and, as it were, entirely forraed for raeekneaa,
peace, and charity.
The same author, apeaking of the iraage
of God on raan, expresses hiraaelf as follows :
." Wherefore, tbat yeu raay be like Ged, ex.
erciae liberality and beneflcence, atudy to be
innocent, avoid every crirae, subdue all the
motiona of ain — conquer all the beasts diat
are within you- What, you will aay, have
I beaata within me ? Yea, you have beaats,
and a vaat nuraber of them- And, that you
raay net think I intend to inault you, ia anger
an inconaiderable beaat when it barka in your
heart ? What is deceit, when it liea hid in
a cunning raind ; is it net a fox ? Is not
the raan who is furiously bent upon calumny,
a scorpion ? Is not the person who is eager
ly set on resentment and revenge, a most
venoraous viper ? What do you say of a
covetous raan ; is he net a ravenous wolf ?
And is not the luxurious man, as the pro.
phet expresses it, a neighing horse ? Nay,
there iano wild beaat but ia found within ua ;
and do you conaider yourself as Lord and
Prince of the wild beasts, becauae you com.
mand those that are without, though you
never think of subduing, or setting bounds
to those that are within you ? What advan
tage have you by your reason, which enables
you to overcome lions, if, after all, you your
self are overcome by anger ? To what pur
poae do you rule over the birds, and catch
them with gins, if you yourself, with the in
constancy of a bird, are hurried hither and
thither, and, sometimes flying high, are en
snared by pride, sometiraea brought down,
and caught by pleaaure ? But as it is
sharaeful for him who rules over nationa, to
be a alave at home, and for the man who aits
at the helm ef the atate, to be meanly aub
jected to the beck ef a contemptible harlot,
or even ef an imperious wife ; will it not be,
in like raanner, diagraceful for you who ex
erciae dorainion ever the beasts that are with
out you, te be subject to a great many, and

*- KxBx^oTus, xxxou xXXoT^iuc-is, VOUS, KXI Xoyof.
t A'/ipoiouayou.&'.otihi.aTi.%ov.
AyxT-/i 0 ©EOS, XXI xyxxr,s rTjyv].

584

OF PROVIDENCE.

LECT. XIII.

those of the worst sort, that rpar and domi
neer in your diaterapered mind ?"•
I ahall, laat ef all, here subjoin, what aerae
of the ancients have ebaerved, namely, that
tbe nature of the human soul, as it lies hid
out of sight, and to us quite unknown, bears
an evident reaemblance to that of Ged, who
is himself unaearchable and paat finding
out.-h But when we have well conaidered all these
things, and the many other thougbta of thia
kind, that raay occur ; raay we not cry out,
how aurpriaing and shocking ia the raadneaa
and foUy ef mankind ; the far greater part
whereof, aa if they had quite forgot their ori
ginal and native dignity, diaparage them
selvea se far aa to puraue the raeanest objects,
and sharaefuUy plunge themselves in mud !
The werds ef Epictetus are divine, and
have a wonderful savour of piety : '^ You go
to the city of Olympia," says he, " to see
seme ef the werks of Phidias ; but you have
ne ambition to convene, in order to under
stand and look at those werks which raay be
seen without travelUng at aU. Will you
never underatand what yeu are, nor why you
were brought into the world ; nor, finaUy,
what that ia which you have now an oppor
tunity to view and contemplate ?"^ And
in anedier place, " For if we were wiae, what
have we elae to de, both in pubUc and in
private, but to praiae and celebrate the Deity,
and te retum our thanka to hira ? Ought
we not, while we are digging, ploughing, and
eating, to sing te God thia hyran— Great is
the Lord, whe haa provided us with these
nccesaaries of life ?" &c.
As for you, young gentlemen, I would
have you to be aenaible of the honour and
dignity of your original atate, and to be deep
ly impressed with the indignity .and disgrace
of your nature, now fallen and vitiated, and
dwell particularly upon the contemplation ef
it. Suffer not the great honour and dignity
of the huraan race, which is to know the
eternal and inviaible God, to acknowledge
him, love him, and worship hira, to decay
and die away within yeu : this, alas ! is tbe
way of the far greater part of the world ; but
do you live in continual reraerabrance of your
original, and aaaert your claim to heaven, as
being eriginally frora it, and aoon to retum
to it again.
* ®iu ouv 0/Aoios ttrvi Six t-.;? x?*'<^roT,,^TOs, Six rvie
xvt^xxKixs. Six xoivuviks, poiiro^ov/.TOs av xxi XXTXX-
^XTUV TUV rxdotV TUV tvSoV  «g%( ^Y.^IUV. 'Vl OUV EgE/f,
tyu ^,/i^ix ixu tv ifj.xuTU ; K«i [jUi^ix iroXuv e^Xov Iv trol
^,^,iiuv ixtis, XXI fJ/n iiZ^iv vofjLivxi tlvxi TO Xtyofolvev.
ilOTOV ^Yi^lOV lOTIVO ^UfJOOS OTXV UXXXTy} T,/-, XX^im, &C,
t Kxt' tixovu TurrlKViv rou xvuvuuov, xxi xyvu.ie-TOV
Blou. X Eis OXuf-OTIXV fJOtV XffoSv.fiUTt, Iv' tiS'/.Tl TO l^ynv TOU
OElJlOy — OTOU Sl OuS' XT0Svi///-/lO'KI Xi'lX ITTIV. TXUTX St
H-lxaxffSxi XXI xxTxvotio-xi oux ITiUuft-ViiTiT^, oux xiirOvi-
noOt TOIVUV OUTt TlVtS EOTE, OUTt t^TI Tl ytyOVUTl, OUT HTI
Tl TOUTO lOTIV tl^' 0 T'OV ^IXV WX^tlX^^UTl J ATY, Ub. i.
cap. 6.

LECTURE XIIL
Of Providence.

The decfrines we have been handling,
are the great supports of faith, piety, and the
whole of religion ; wherefore it is most juat,
that the zeal and care ef the scholars should
concur with that pf their teachera, to have
thera weU secured in the mind and affections:
" For » weak foundation," aa the lawyers
observe, " ia the rnfri of the work."* There
are two principal pUlara, and, aa it were, the
Jachin and Beaz ef the Uving temples of
God, whicii the apoatle to the Hebrews lays
down in these words : " He that cometh to
God," (under which expression is compre
hended every devout affection, and every act
ef reUgious worship,) "must beUeve that
God is, and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligentiy seek hira."
" That God is," net only implies that he is
etemal and self-existent ; but also, that he
is, to aU other beings, tbe spring and fonn.
tain of what they are, and what they have,
and, consequently, that he is the wise and
ppwerful Creator of angels and men, and even
of the whole universe ; this is the .first par
ticular, " that Ged is." The second, " That
he is a rewarder ef them that diUgently seek
him," ascertains the providence and govern
ment of God, exemplified in its most emi
nent effect, with regard to raankind. For
providence extends fiirther than tbis, and
comprehends in it a constant preservation
and support of all things,>visible and invisi
ble, whether in heaven or earth, aud the so
vereign govemment and disposal of them.
Mechanics, when they have completed houses,
ships, and other works they have been en
gaged in, leave thera to take their fate in
the world, and, for the mest part, give them
selves no further trouble abeut the accidents
that may befal tbem. Bnt the Supreme Ar
chitect and wise Creator, never forsakes the
work of his hands, but keeps his arms con
tinuaUy about it, to preaerve it ; sita at the
helm to rule and govern it ; ia himself in
every part of it, and fills the whole with his
preaence. So gTeat a fabric could not possi.
bly stand, without aome guardian and ruler ;
ner can thia be any other than the Creator
himself: for who can pay a greater regard
to it, aupport it more effectuaUy, or govern it
with greater wiadom, than he wbo made it ?
" Nething can be more perfect than God,
therefore it ia necessary the world sbould be
governed by him,"-j- says Cicero. And,
" they who take away Providence, though
they acknpwledge God in wprds, iri fact
deny him."$
* Debile enim fundamentum fallit opus.
f Nihil Deo prassLantius, ab ea igitur regi necesse
est. X Qui Pravidentiam negant, verbis licet Deum po-
nunt, reipsa loilunt.

OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

6»5

If we believe that aU things were produc.
ed out of nothing ; the consequence is, that
by the sarae powerful band that created thera,
they must be preserved and supported, to
keep thera frem falUng back into their pri.
mitive nothing. It must be also owned, that,
by tiie sarae powerful hand, the regular mo
tions ef the stars, the contexture of the ele
mentary world, the various kinds of creatures,
and the uninterrupted succession of their
generations, are continued and preserved.
Ner is Divine Providence to be confined
within the heavens, or in the lower world re-
strained to the care of generals, in oppesitioa
to individuals ; although the Peripatetic
school incUned too much to this opinion,
and even the raaster of tbat school, Aristotle
himself, in his often quoted book, if it really
be his, De Mundo. For, that Providence
extends to all things in this lower globe,
frem the highest to the lowest, and compre
hends within its sphere particular, as well as
general things, the least as well as the great
est, ia confirmed not only by tbe doctrine of
the Sacred Scripture, but alao by the testi
mony of all sound philoaophy.
Therefore, in maintaining the docfrine of
Providence, we affirra, 1st, Tbat the Eternal
Mind haa an abaolute and perfect knowledge
of aU things in general, and every single ene
In particular ; nor does he see only those
that are actuaUy present, as they appear in
tbeir order upon the stage ef the world ; but
at one view comprehends '* all that are paat,
aa weU as to ceme, as if they were all actu
aUy preaent before him."* This the ancient
phUoaopber Thalea ia aaid to have asserted
expreaaly, even with regard to the hidden
raotiona and meat aecret thoughta of tbe hu
man raind ; for being aaked, " If any one
that doea evil, can conceal it frem God;"-
he answered, " No, not even his evil
thoughts."-f- " Nothing ia left unprovid
ed for," says St- BasU, " nothing is over
looked by God; hia watchful eye seea all
things ; he ia preaent every where, to give
salvation to aU-"4: Epictetua haa alao aerae
very divine thoughta upen this subject- §
And here, was any one to reflect serious
ly en the vast number of affaira that are con-
stantly in agitation in one province, or even
in one city, the many political schemes and
prejects, the multiplicity of law matters, the
still greater nuraber of family affairs, and all
the particulars comprehended under ao many
general heada, he would be amazed and over.
powered with the thoughts ef a knowledge
so incomprehensively extensive- This was
the very thought which excited the divine
• Tx T tOVTX, TX T* la-O-OfZlvX, iT^O T lOVTX-
t El @tOV TIS Xxdoi XXKOV Tl tT^XOOUV ; AXX' IV^t
SlXVOOU/MiVOS- X OuSiVXIT^OVOKTOV, OuStV Vlf/,tXvilAlVOV JFX^X &l^' rxVTX
rXOTtUtI 0 XXOIfJO%T0S O^dxXfAOS, ITXITI ^X^iTTI, O'KO^iri'^UV
tXXITTU T'OV TUTVfBIXV,
\ .Vrr. lib i- cap. xii.

Psalmist's adrairation, arid made hira cry
out with worider and astonishment, " Such
knowledge is toe wonderful fer rae ; it ia
high, I cannot attain unte it !"*
'idly, He not pnly knpws all things, and
takes notice of thera, but he also rules and
govems them : " He hath done whatever he
pleased in the heavens arid the earth," says
the Psalraist : arid, " He worketh aU
things," says the apostie, " according to the
counsel ofhis own wiU :" be dees aU things
according to his pleasure, but that pleasure
is influenced by his reason ; all things ab
solutely, but yet aU things with the greatest
justice, sanctity, and prudence-
He views and govems the actions ef raan
in a particular manner ; he hath given bim
a law ; he hath proposed rewards, and an.
nexed punishments to enforce it, and engage
man's obedience. And having diacovered,
aa it were, an extraordinary concern about
bim, when he raade hira, aa we have observ
ed upen the words, " Let us make man ;"
in Uke manner, he still continues lo raain
tain an uncoraraon good-will towards bira ;
and, so to speak, an anxious concern about
hira : so that one ef the ancients meat juat
ly called man, " God's favourite creature."
And he spoke much to the purpose, who
said, " God is neither a lover of horses, nor
of birds, but of mankind,"-|- With regard to
the justice of the suprerae govemraent of
Providence, we raeet with a great deal, even
in the ancient poets-
" O father Jove," saya .ffischylua, " thou
reigneat in heaven, theu takest notice of the
raah and wicked actiona of goda and men-
Thy care even extenda to the wild beaats ;
theu observeat the wronga done them, and
aecureat their privilegea-" J
" Though justice," says Euripides,
" comes late, it ia stiU juatice ; it liea hid,
aa it were, in ambuah, tiU it finda an oppor
tunity to inflict due punishment upon the
wicked man-"||
" Dost thou think," aays .^schylua, " to
get the better of the Divine knowledge, and
that juatice atanda at a diatanpe ftora the hu
man race ? She ia near at hand, and aees
without being seen ; ahe knowa who ought
to be puniahed ; but when ahe will audden
ly fall upon the wicked, that thou knoweat
net."§ " The weight of justice," aays the aame
* Psalm cxxxix. 6.
t 'O @tos ou IfiXlTwos, ouSt (fiXoivIs, xXXx 0iXxv^uret,
t il Zeu <rXTt^, %su, ffov fjltv OU^XVOU Z^XTOf,
2[i S' Egy iToo^xviuv XXI xvB^utuv cgoef
Aiu^yx xxStfAlirTX, Sol xxi ^ij^luv
'yZ^is rl XXI Six*j fotXti.
0 Aixx Tot oixx Xiovios.
AAA' OfMUf tiTOTta'oux
EXx^lv, OTXV tx'il
Tiv XTtovj B^oTOiv.
§ AoXtIS TX ^tUV ^UV'.'iTX VI-A'Oirxi crOTl
Kxi Tr,v Sixvjv tou fjlxx^ xreixti,rt)xi ^goTuv .
'H S* lyyus ttrrlv- cux t-^ufj^lvi, S' o;a
Ov Xi'^, xoXvttiv T oiStv AXX' t,u-K oixH.^ o-fc
'OlTiTXV X^-,u fAoXouiTX ZloXlf'/j x:iXoUS.

580

OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

LECT. Xlll.'

author, in another place, " falla upon aorae
quickly in the day tirae ; it liea in wait fer
sorae sins till the twilight ; the longer it is
delayed, the severer the punishraent ; ac
cordingly, sorae are consigned to eternal
night."* There are two difficulties, however, on
thia head, which are not easily solved : 1st,
The succesa tbat commonly attenda the
Wicked in thia world, and the evil to which
the good are exposed. On this aubject, even
tbe philosophers, pleading the cauae of God,
wbich, if we take their word, they thought
a matter of no great difficulty, advanced a
great many things. Seneca tells ua, " There
ia a aettled friendahip, nay, a near relation
and airaiUtude, between God and good men
he ia even their father ; but, in tbeir educa
tion, he inurea thera to hardahipa : when
therefore yeu aee thera atruggling with diffi
cultiea, sweating, and employed in up-hiU
work, while the wicked, on the other hand,
are in high apirita, and awim in pleaaurea ;
consider, that we are pleaaed with raodeaty
in our children, and forwardneaa in our
alavea : the former we keep under by aevere
discipline, while we encourage impudence
in the latter. Be perauaded tbat God takea
the sarae method ; he doea not pamper the
good raan with delicious fare, but tries hira ;
he accuatoma him to hardahipa, and," whicii
is a wonderful expression in a Heathen,
" PREPARES HIM FOU HIMSELF. "-(- And
in anether place, " Those luxurious peraona,
whora he aeema te indulge and to apare, he
reaervea fer evils to ceme. For you are
mistaken, if you think any ene excepted ;
the raan who has been long spared, wiU
at laat bave his portion of raiaery; and be
that seeras to have been disraissed, is only
delayed for a tirae,"J and a vast deal raere
to this purpose. The sarae sort of senti
raents we raeet with in Plutarch ; " God
takea the aame method," says he, " with
good men, that teachers do with their
scholars, when they exact raore than ordinary
of those children of whora they have the
greatest hopes."§ And it ia a noble thought
* 'PoTV! S' tTitrxoirti Sixxt
TxYtlx rou; y.tv tv ipxli.

TxS-

, f/ATXiiCf^lu crxoTou

VltVU, XiOVI^OVT XXV fiiUtl;
Tous S' xx^xvTOs (xti vu^
t Inter bonas viros ac Deum est amicitia, imo
necessitudo, et similitudo ; ima ille earum pater, sed
durius eos educat : cum itaque, eos videris laborare,
sudare, et arduum ascendere, m^.los autem laicivire,
et voluptatibus fluere ; cogita, filiorum nos modeslia
delectari^ vemularura licentia : illos disciplinatristiori
contineri, horum ali audaciam. Idem tibi de Deo
liqueat, bimum virum deliciis nan innutrit, experitur,
tidurat, ct arm ij.L0M,pR.a5PARAT-
X Eos autem quibus indulgere videtur, quibus par
cere, molles Venturis mails seivat. Erratis enim si
quem judicatis exreptum, veniet ad ilium diu felicem
sua portio. Et qui videtur dimissus esse, delatus est.
Sbn. de Gubem. Mundi.
§ Hanc rationem Deus sequitur in bonis viris, quam
in discipuils suis priEceptores, qui plus laboris ab iis
cxigunl, in quibus certior spes e-it. Pint. Heji tuv
fi^xOtoi; Tiu.:„^a,.iAliu„

which we raeet with in the sarae author :
" If he who transgresses in the raorning,"
says he, " is punished in the evening, you
will not say in this case, justice is slow ;
but to God one, or even several ages, are but
as one day-"* Hew near is this to St.
Peter's saying en the sarae subject !-|-
2dly, 'The other point upon this subject
which perplexes raen fond of controversy,
and is perplexed by thera, is how te recon.
cile huraan liberty with Divine Providence,
wbich we have taken notice of before. But
to both these difficultiea, and to aU others
that may occur upon the subject, I would
oppose the aaying of St- Auguatine : " Let
ua grant that he can do aerae thinga which
we cannot understand-''^
What a raelancholy thing would it be to
Uve in a werld wbere anarchy reigned ! It
weuld certainly be a woeful aituation to aU ;
but raore eapeciaUy, to the best and most
inoffensive part ef mankind. It would have
been no great privilege to have been born intp
a wprld without Ged, and without Providence;
for if there was no Suprerae Ruler of the
world, then undoubtedly the wickedness of
raen would reign without any curb or impe
diment, and the great and powerful would
unavoid.ably devour the weak and helpleas,
" aa the great fiahea often eat up the amall,
and the hawk makea havock among the
weaker birda-"§
- It may be objected, tbat thia ftequently
happens even in the preaent werld, aa appeara
from the propheciea of Habakkuk ; j] but the
prophet, iraraediately after, aaaerts, that
there is a Supreme Power which holda the
reina in the raidat ef these inegularities :
and though they are aoraetimea permitted,
yet there is a deterrainate tirae appointed for
setting aU things to righta again, which the
just man expecta, and, tiU it comea, Uvea by
faith. ^ Some passages of Ariston'a Iambics
are admirable te thia purpose.
*' A. Be patient : for God uses to sup
port worthy raen, such as you are, in a re-
markable manner : and unleaa thoae who act
in a becoming manner, are te receive some
great reward, to what purpose ia it, pray, to
cultivate piety any longer ? B, I wiah that
it may be the caae : but I tep pften aee
thoae who conform themaelvea to tbe rules
of piety and virtue, oppressed by calamity ;
while those who mind nething but what
they arc prompted to by private intereat and
profit, thrive and flouriah much better than
we. A, Fer the preaent it ia ao, indeed ;
but it becomes us to look a great way forward,
* Si qui mane peccavit, vespers puniatur, tardum
hoc nan dices, at Deo seculum, vel etiam plura secuLo.
pro die uno.
t 2 Pet. iii. 8.
X Demijs ilium aliquod facere, et nos nan posse
ntelliger*. §  Pisces ut ssepo miiiutas

I Hab. ch. i.

ipitev,d, ch

U Ibid, ch. II.

LECT, xitr.

OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

J5S7

and wait till the world has corapleted ita fuU
revolution ; for it ia by no means true, that
tbis life is entirely under the dominion of
bUnd chance, or fortune, though many enter
tain this wicked notion; and the corrupt
part of mankind, from this consideration,
encourage themselvea in imraorality ; but
tbe virtues of the geod will meet with a pro
per reward, and the wicked will be puniahed
for thefr Crimea ; for nothing happens with
out the will of Heaven,"*
What the poets sometimes advance con
cerning a Supreme Fate which governa all
things, they often ascribe to God ; though
now and tben they forget theraaelvea, and
aubject even the Supreme Being to their
Fate, as the Stoic philoaophers did also
but possibly they both had a sound meaning,
theugh it was couched under words that
sound a Uttie harsh ; and thia raeaning now
and then breaka forth, particularly when
they celebrate God, fer diapoaing all things,
by an eternal law, according te his ewn good
pleasure, and thereby raake him the Supreme
and Universal Govemor, subject to ne other,
but, in sorae reapecta, to hiraself, or te hia
decreea ; whicb, if you understand thera in a
EOund sense, ia aU that they can mean by their
ro^urxrov, and tbeir to a.fjitTx^x.yirou, Tbe
same judgment ia to be pasaed with regard
to what we find said abeut Fortune ; for
either that word aignifies nothing at all, er
you raust understand by it the Suprerae
Mind, freely disposing of all things ; and
this is very clearly attested by the following
exceUent verses of Menander :
" Cease to improve your rainds, fer the raind
ef man is nething at aU- The government
of all things is solely in the hands of fortune ;
whether this fortune be a mind, or the spirit
ef God, or whatever elae it ia, it carriea all
before it ; human prudence is but a vapour,
a mere trifle," &c--|-
We have also a great raany proofs, that
in the opinion of the eld poeta, fate and for
tune were precisely the sarae ; ene instance
whereof we meet with in the following pas
sage : " Fortune and Fate, Pericles, are the
givers ef aU that man enjoys." J
And, instead ef the terraa fate and fortune,
they aoraetimea uaed the word Necessity.
But aU these were but other names, though
iU-choaen, fer Providence. Euripides, hav-
ing said a great deal couceming fate or
necesaity, at laat resolves the whole into this :
" Jupiter executes, with tbee, all he had
decreed before, " §
* A. 0ago-Ei. ^ovjBliv rrxri roiffiv xylols
E/fttflEVO ©EOff, &c.
t tixurxirSl vouv txovrts, ovStv yx^ trXtov
AvO^UTWOS vous ITTIV, xXX' 0 TS!s TUXW*
Eit tffTi TOUTO ^vtufAX 3-e;iv, tiTt vous.
Tout' ten txvtx xxi xuQt.vuv. xxi ffr^tipov
Vixi ira^BV- vt vgovoix S' ii ^vn^r,, xxTvos,
V.XI tfXviVXipos, iStc.
X XixVTX TOXVl XXI fjooi^x, Tll^ixXtls , xvO^t biSuffx,
§ T^Kiyxp Zius 0, TJ vluo-y,, . . 
2uv COI TOUTO TsXiur«. Eurip. m Alccsti.:te. .

And Homer's words are very remarkable :
Jupiter," saya he, " increaaea or dirainish.
ea the valour of men, aa he thinka proper ;
for he ia the meat powerful of all-"*
And in another place, " Jove, frera
Olyrapus, diatributea happiness to good
and bad men in general, and every one in
particular, aa he himself thinks proper-"-]-
Let us, therefore, leok upon God as our
father, and venture to trust him with eur
all ; let us ask and beg of hira what we
want, and look for auppUes from ne other
quarter. Thia the indulgent father in Te
rence deaired, and much more our heavenly
Father. And surely every thing is better
conducted by a dutiful love and confidence,
than by an ignoble and aervile fear ; and we
are very injurious beth to him and ourselves,
when we think not, that all things, on his
part, are managed with the greatest goodness
and bounty. It is a true test of religion and
obedience, when, with honourable thoughts,
and a firra confidence iu our Father, we ab
solutely depend upon him, and serve hira
from a principle of love. " Be not," says
Auguatine, " a froward boy, in the houae of
the beat of fathers ; loving him when he is
fond of thee, and hating him when he gives
thee chaatiaement ; aa if, in both caaes, he
did net intend te provide an inheritance for
i!nee,"X If we suppose this Providence to
be the wisest and the best, it is neceaaary
that, in every inatance, our willa ahould be
perfectly submissive to its designs ; other.
wise we prefer our own pleaaure to the will
of heaven, which appeara very unnatural-
St Auguatine, on the expresaion upright in
heart, which we frequently meet witb in the
Psalma, raakea an exceUent observation :
" If ypu cheerfully embrace," aaya he, " the
Divine will in acme thinga, but in pthers
would rather prefer your own, you are crook
ed in heart, and weuld net have your crook
ed inclinationa conformed to his upright in-
tentiona, but, on the contrary, would bend
hia upright will to youra- "§

LECTURE XIV.
O/ Christ the Saviour.
It is acknowledged that the publication
ef the gespel is exceedingly agreeable, and
* Zius S" x^tT-ov xvSata-o-iv oiptXXti Tt lAivuOti rt
'Ottus xtv t9tXv,ffiv, 0 yxe xxotiittos x-txvtuv-
Hom. IL XX.
t ZtUS y XUTOt VtfJOll OXGOV OXul^^lOS XvU^U^OIlTIV
EtrOXois rSE XXXOITIV, OTUS EflsAfjo-Ev ixxtrru.
Hom. Odyss. vi.
X Ne sis puer insulsus in domo optimi patris, amana
patrem, si tibi blanditur, et odio habens, quando te-
flagellat, quasi non et blandiens et flagellans heredi
tatem parel. „ , , .
§ Si voluntatem divhiam m quibusdam amplecteris,
in aliis tuam malles, curvus es corde, et non vis cut-
vam tuam voluntatem ad illius rectam dirigero, sed
iUius rectam vis ad tuam curvain incurvare.

588

OF CHRIST IHE SAVIOUR.

perfectly answers its original name, which
signifie^iGoed Tidings. How much aweeter
ia this joyful news, than the mest ravishing
and deUghtful concerts of music ! Nay,
these are the best tidings that, were ever
heard in any age of the world I Oh, happy
shepherds, to whom this news was sent down
from heaven ! Ye, to be sure, though
watching in the fields, exposed to the
severe cold of tbe night, were in this more
happy than kings that slept at their ease in
gUded beda, that the wenderfu} nativity of
the Supreme King, begotten frora etemity,
that nativity which brought aalvation to the
whole world, was first coramunicated to you,
and just at the time it happened. " Be
held," aays the angel, " I bring you glad
tidings of great joy, which shaU be to all
people; for unto you is bom this day a
Saviour."* And immediately a great com
pany of- the heavenly host joined the angel,
and in your hearing sung, " Glory to God
in the bigbest."-)- And, indeed, in the
stricteat truth, " A raeat extraordinary
child waa aent down frera the lofty heavena,"
Sect Whence alao hia narae was aent down along
with hira : " His narae shall be called Jesus ;
for he shall save hia people from their aina."
" O svreet name of Jeaua," says St. Bemard,
" honey in the mouth, melody in the eara,
and heaUng to the heart." This ia the
Saviour, who, though we were ao raiaerable,
and so justly raiserable, yet would not suff'er
us to periah quite. Nor did he only put
on our nature, but alao our aina ; that is,
in a legal aense, our guilt being tranaferred
to hira ; whence we not only read, " that
the word waa raade flesh ;"§ but alao, " that
He waa raade sin for us, who knew no sin;"||
and even, as we have it in the Epiatle to the
Galatiana, that he was made a curse,% that
from him an etemal blessing and felicity
might be derived te us. The spotiesa Larab
of Ged bore our sins, that were devolved
upon hira ; by thus bearing thera, he de
stroyed thera ; and by dying for thera,
gained a complete victory over death. And
hew wonderful ia tbe gradation of the blesa
inga he procured for ua 1 He not only deU-
vered ua frera a prison and death, but pre,
sents us with a kingdora ; according te that
ef the Psalmist : ** Who redeemeth thee
frora destructien ; whe crowneth thee with
loving-kindneaa and tender mercies-"**
I believe there ia none ao atupid or inaen.
sible, as to deny that these tidings are very
agreeable and pleasing te the ear. But we
raay, not without seme reason, suspect ef the
greatest part of nominal Chriatiana, who com
monly receive theae trutha with great ap.
-• Luke ii. 10, 11. t Ibid. 14.
± Jam nova progenies ctelo deraittitur alio, & c.
VivG Ed.
§ John i, 14. 12 Cor. v. 12.
TI GaL iii. '3. ** Psalm ciii. 4.

plause, that it may be aaid to them, without
any injuatice, " What is aU this to you ?"
These privileges are truly great and mani.
fold, and indifferently directed te all te whom
they are preached, uidess they reject them,
and shut the deer against happiness offering
te come in : and this js riot only the case of
a great part of mankind, but they also im.
pose upen themselves by false hopes, as if it
were enough to hear ef these great blessings,
and dreara theraselves happy, because these
aounds bad reached thefr ears. But O un.
happy men ! What wiU aU these immense
riches aignify to yeu, I muat indeed aay, if
yeu are not allowed to uae them, but rather,
if you know not how to avail yourselves of
thera ?
I therefore eameatiy wish that these words
of the goapel were well fixed in your minds :
" He was in the world, and the world was
made by him, and the world knew him not.
He came unto his own, and his own received
him net ; but as many as received him, to
thera gave he pewer te become the sona of
God."* In him all the teeasures of wiadom and
knowledge are hid, and witheut him there is
nothing but emptiness ; " because in him all
fulness doth dwell." But what advantage
can it be to ua te hear theae riches of our
Jesus spoken of at great length, and to ex,
ceUent purpose, or even to speak, of them our
selvea, if, all the while, we talk of them as a
geod foreign to ua, and in which we have no
concern, becauae our hearta are not yet open
te receive hira ? What, pray, would the
most accurate deacription ef the Fortu
nate lalands, as they are caUed, or aU the
wealth of the Indies, and the new world, with
its golden minea, signify to a poor man half
naked, atruggling with aU the rigoura of cold
and hunger ? Should one, in these circum.
atances, I say, hear er read of these immense
treasures ; er ahould any one describe them
to hira in the raost striking manner, either
by werd of raouth, or witb the advantage of
an accurate peri ; cari it be doubted, but this
erapty display of richea, thia phantom of
wealth and affluence, would raake his sense
of want and misery the mpre intolerable ; un.
lesa it be auppoaed, that deapair had already
reduced him to a state of insenaibiUty ?
What further enhances the misery of these
who hear of thia treasure, and think ef it to
ne purpose, is this, that there is none of them
who is not miserable by choice, " and a beg.
gar in the midst ef the greatest wealth ;" and
not only raiaerable by choice, but obatinate.
ly so, from an invincible and distracted fond-
neas for the immediate cauSes of hia misery :
" Fer who but a downright madraan would
reject such golden offera ?"f
» John i. 10—12.
+ Quis enim nisi mentis inops oblatum hoc respuat
aurum ?

LECT. XV.

OF REGENERATION.

689

Te give a brief and plain state of the
caae : To those that sincerely and with all
their hearta receive him, Christ is all things ;
to those that receive him net, nothing.
For, how can any good, however suitable or
extensive, be actually enjoyed ; or, indeed,
any such enjoyraent conceived, without some
kind of union between tbat good and the
peraon supposed te stand in need ef it ? " Be
hold," says the Psalmiat, " all those that
are far from thee, ahaU perish." To be uni
ted to God, is the great and the only geod
of mankind ; and the only meana of tbis
union ia Jeaua, in whatever aenae you take
it : he ought truly te be caUed tbe union of
unions ; who, that he might witii the great
er consiatency and the raore cloaely unite our
aoula to God, did not disdain to unite him.
self to a human body.
The great business ef our life, therefore,
young gentiemen, is thia acceptance of Christ,
and this inaeparable union with him, which
we are now recomraending. Thrice happy,
and more than thrice happy, are they who
are joined with hira in thia undivided union,
which no coraplainta, nor even the day of
death, can diaaolve ; nay, the laat day is
happy above aU other days, for this very rea
son, that it fully and finally completes this
union, and is ao far from diaaolving it, that
it renders it absolutely perfect and everlaat
ing. But tbat it may be coeval with etemity,
and last for ever, it is absolutely neceaaary
that this union ahould have ita beginning in
thia abort and fleeting Ufe. And, pray, wbat
hindera thoae of ua that have net entered into
thia union before, to enter into it without de
lay  seeing the bountiful Jesus not only re
jects none that come Unto him, but also offers
himaelf te aU that do net wUfuUy reject him,
and standing at the dcror, eamestly bega te
be admitted ? O ! " why do not theae ever
laating doora open, tbat the king of glery
may enter,"* and reign within ua ? Nay,
though he were to be aought in a far coun
try, and with great labour, why should we
delay, and what unhappy chaina detain ua ?
Why do we not, after shaking them all off,
and even ourselvea, go as it were out ef our
selves, and seek him incesaandy tUl we find
him ? Then rejoicing over him, say with
the heavenly spouse, " I held hira, and would
not let him go ;" and further add, with the
same spouSe, that blessed expresaion, " My
beloved is mine, and I am his." And, in
deed, this propriety is alway reciprocal. No
man fruly receives .Tesus, that does net, at
the sarae time, deUver up hiraself wheUy to
hira. Among aU tbe advantages we pursue,
there is nothing comparable to this exchange.
Our gain is iraraense from both, net only
frem the acceptance of hira, but alao frora
sunendering ourselves to hira : so long as
« Psalra xxiv

this is delayed, we are the most abject slaves ;
when one has delivered himself up te Christ,
then and then only he is truly free, and be.
comes master ef , hiraself. 'Why should we
wander about to no purpose ? To hira let
us tum our eyes, on hira fix our thoughts,
that he, whe is ours by the donation of the
Father, and his own free gift, may be ours
by a cheerful and joyous acceptance. As St.
Bernard says on these words ef the prophet,
" ' Te us a child is bern, te us a sen is given :'
Let ua, therefore, raake uae ef what ia oura,"
aaith he, "fer our own advantage."* So tben,
let him be oura by possession and use,-^ and
let us be his for ever, never forgettfrig bow
dearly he has bought us.

LECTURE XV.
Of Regeneratiok.
The Platonists divide the world into two,
the sensible and intellectual werld ; they im
agine the one to be the type of the other, and
tbat sensible and spiritual things are stamp
ed, as it were, with the same starap or seal.
These sentiments are not unUke the notions
which the masters ef the cabaUstical doctrine
among the Jews held concerning God's
scphiroth and seal ; therewith, according to
them, aU the worlds, and every thing in them,
are stamped and sealed ; and these are pro-
bably near akin to what Lord Bacon of Ver
ulam caUs his parallela signacula, and sym-
bolizantes schematismi. According to this
hypothesis, these parables and metaphors,
wbich are often taken frora natural things to
illustrate such aa are divine, will not be
aimilitudes taken entirely at pleaaure ; but
are eften, in a great meaaure, founded in na-
ture and the thinga themselvea. Be this as
it may, that great change which happena in
the soula of raen by a real and effectual con
veraion to God, is illuatrated in the Hely
Scriptures by several reraarkable changea,
beth natural and civU, particularly by a de
liverance from chains, prison and slavery ;
by a transition from one kingdom io an
other, and from darkness into light ; by o
restoration from death io life ; by a new
creation ; by a marriage ; and by adoption
and regeneration. Conceming thia great
change, as it is irepresented under the last of
theae figures, we propose, with Divine assis.
tance, to offer a few thoughts frem these
words of St. John's Gespel, which we have
abeady mentioned : " To as raany as receiv
ed him, to tbem gave he power, or the pri-
• Puer natus est nobis, filius nobis datus est : Ut»
mur, inquit, nostro in utilitatem nostram,
1 Viv^ki XXI xiviirli.

SiW

OF BEGENEB.4TI0N.

LECT. XV,

yilege, te become the aona ef God."* To
gether with theae worda of eur Savieur in
another place of the aarae Gospel, " Except
a raan be bem again of water and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter irito the kingdom of
God."f If, indeed, we consider the nature and the
original ef raan, it ia not witheut reaaon that
he is called the son of God, according to that
paaaage which the apoatle, in his short, but
mest weighty Serraou te the Athenians,
quotes ftora the poet Aratus, and at the same
time approves of, " for we are aU his off-
spring."$ Our first parent, in St. Luke's
Goapel, is also expresaly caUed ihe son of
God,§ not only becauae he was created im
mediately by God, without any earthly father,
but alao on account ofthe Divine iraage that
waa originaUy impreaaed upon the human
nature. And thia glorioua title, which diatinguiah.
es him frora all other corporeal beinga, he
haa in coinmen with the angela, who are alao
so called in several places in the book ef
Job. II It ia indeed true, to uae tbe worda
of St. Baail, " That every piece of work
manahip bears sorae raark or character of
the workraan who raade it :"^ for I should
rather choose, in this case, to use the werd
mark or character than likeness : but of
man alone it ia aaid, " Let ua raake hira
after our own image-" And thia distinction
is not improperly expreaaed by the school
men, who aay, as we bave already ohaerved,
that aU the other worka ef God are stamped
with the print ef his foot ; but only raan, ef
all the visible creation, honoured with the
image or likeness ofhis face- And, indeed,
on account of this iraage or reserablance it
is, that he is in dignity very nearly equal to
the angels, theugh raade inferior te them.
Here it is te be observed, that this inferio
rity ia but little — " Who was made," aaith
the Apoatle, " a little lower than the
angela :"*• so that, with regard to his body,
he ia nearly related te tbe brute creatures,
and only a little auperior to thera with regard
to .temperament, and the beautiful elegance
of hia frame, but raade out ef the very same
materiala, the same raoiat and aoft clay,
taken frora the boaem of their great and com-
luen raother ; whereaa, to uae the worda of
the poet, " The aoul is the breath of God,
which takea ita riae frera heaven, and ia cloaely
united te his earthly body, like a light shut
up in a dark cavern. "-|--I-
That divine part of the human coraposi
tion derives ita original frora the Father of

: Tou yxp XXI ytvos lirfjotv.
Lulie lil. 38.

t Ibid. iii. 3.

li Job i. 6, and xxxviii. 7-
^ n«w TO t'yx^ofitvov txtiv TIVX tou TtXTOVOS Turov,
*• Heb. ii. 9.
tf -VuX'vi S' Efl-TlV XVjfJ,X ®tOU, XXI fLll^lV XVtTXvf
Qu^xvi-0 x^ovloio, ^xos a'TVjXuyyi xxXu^Stv. Naz. de Anima.

Spirits, in the sarae raanner with those mi.
nisters of fire who are net cenfined to cor
poreal vehicles ; concerning whom the oracle,
having acknowledged ene Supreme and Di.
vine Majesty, immediately aubjoina ; " and
we arigels are but a small part ef God,"*
And with regard to this principle which
excels in man, which actuaUy constitutes the
man, and on account of which he most traly
deaervea that narae, he ia a noble and divine
animal ; and whatever aome fanciful and
proud men may boast concerning their
farailiea, " if we conaider eur original, and
that God was the author of the human kind,
none of Adam's race can becaUed ignoble."-f-
But if, on the other hand, we regard our
woeful fall, whicb was the consequence of
sin, we are aU degenerate ; we have aU fallen
frora the highest honour into the greatest
disgrace, and the deepest gulph ef all sorts
of miaery ; we have given away our hberty
and greatest dignity, in exchange fer the
most sharaeful and- most deplorable bondage ;
instead of the sons of God, we are become the
slaves of Satan ; and if we want to know to
what family we belong, the Apostie wiU teU
us, " That we are children of wrath, and sons
of disobedience." J ,
But, as the overfiowing Fountain of good-
ness and bounty did not choose that so noble
a monument of bis wisdom should be entire.
ly ruined by this dismal faU ; could any one
be more proper to raise it up again, or better
qualified to restore men te the dignity ef ths
sens of God, tban his ewn etemal Son, whn
is the most perfect and express image of the
Father ? Ner does this glorious persen de.
cline the severe service : though he was the
son ef hia Father's leve, tbe heir and lord
of the whole universe ; though he raight be
called the delight of his raost exalted Fa
ther and of all blessed spirits, and now, with
the greateat juatice, the darling of the human
kind ; yet he left hia Father'a boaem, and,
O wonderful condescensiori ! became the aon
of raan, that raen might, anew, become the
aona of Ged : whence he is also caUed the
second Adam, because he recovered all that
was lost by the firat.
That all who sincerely receive him, might
be again admitted into tbe embraces of the
Father, and no more be caUed the children
ef wrath, he himself subraitted to the punish.
ment due to our disobedience ; and, by bear.
irig it, removed our guilt, and pacified jus
tice. He also went into the flaraea of divine
wrath to deliver ua from them ; and by a
plentiful atreara of his mest precious blood,
quite extinguiahed them. He Ukewiae took
effectual care that those who were now no
* Vlixgvi Sl ®iou fzi^is xyytXoi vfAtis,
T Si primordia nostra,
Auctoremque Deum species,
Nullus degener extat.
Boeth. de Cons. Phil. lib. iii. met. 6.
X'Tioi xTtiSiiete XXI Tixvx o.yr^e, Eph. ii. 2. 3,

OF REGENERATION.

6U1

longer te be called children of wrath, should
alao cease to he children of disobedience, by
pouring out upon them a plentiful effuaion of
hia aanctifying spirit ; that their hearts being
thereby purged ftom all impure affections,
and the love ef earthly things, tbey might,
under the influence of the same good Spirit,
cheerfully lead a life of sincere and univeraal
obedience. Now, it cannot be doubted that
these who are ao actuated and conducted by
the Divine Spirit, are truly the sons of God,
Whence that apirit whereby they call God
their Father, and witb confidence apply to
him aa sucb, is called the spirit of adoption.
Moreover, this wonderful restoration is
often called adoption, not only to distinguish
it frora the natural and incoraparable dignity
which belongs to the only-begotten Sen
but also because we by no means derive thia
privUege frem nature, but absolutely from
the free donatien of the Father, through the
mediation of hia only Son. We raust not,
however, conclude from tbis, that this pri
vilege has nething more in it than an honour
able title, or, as tbey call it, an external re
lation ; for it is net only inseparably connect
ed witb a real and intemal change, but witb
a remarkable renovation, and as it were, a
transformation ef aU the faculties of the
soul, nay, even of the wbole man. You
accordingly find these worda applied to this
.purpose by tbe apostle Paul, in his epistie to
the Romans.* And, to conclude, it ia with
a view to convince us, that, together with
the title of sona, the Spirit of God is given
to believers, and they are inwardly renewed
thereby, that we so often in acripture meet
with thia regeneration which is the aubject
pf our preaent diacourae.
If we consider the Uves ef men, we shaU
be apt to imagine, that the geuerality of
mankind whe Uve in the werld under the
name of Christians, think it sufiicient for
them to be called by this name, and dream
pf nothing further. The coraraon sort of
mankind hear with pleaaure and delight ef
free remission of sina, imputed righteouaneaa,
ef the dignity of the sona of Ged, and the
eternal inheritance annexed to that dignity ;
but when they are told, that repentance, a
new heart, and a new life, conterapt ef the
world and the pleaaures pf the fieah, fasting
and prayer, are abaplutely necessary for a
Christian, " Theae are hard aayinga ; wbo
can bear thera ?" Though, at the aarae
time, it muat be aaid, that they whe do net
regard theae necessary duties wiU have no
share in the reward annexed to thera.
There are raany things which distinguish
this divine adoption from that which obtaina
among raen. 1st, The forraer ia not an ex
pedient te supply the want of chUdren, which
is commonly the caae among men ; fer God
has his only-begotten Sen, who is incompar-
* Romans xii. 2.

ably preferable to all the reat taken together,
who is iraraortal as hia Father ; and though,
ftora a principle of wonderful huraility, he
condescended to become mortal, and even to
die, yet he rose again frem the dead, and
liveth for ever. From hira ia derived
all that felicity wbich our heavenly Father
is pleaaed to confer upon us, out of his
raere grace and bounty, through the raerits
and mediation of his dear Son. And is
there any one, on whom this feUcity is be.
stewed, whe will not freely acknowledge
himself to be quite unworthy ef so great an
honour ?*
Yet such honour has the eternal and in
comprehensible love ef Ged condescended to
bestow on us, wbo are quite unworthy and
undeserving; and in this also, the divine
adoption differa from that which is cuatoraary
araong raen, who generaUy chooae the raoat
deaerving they can raeet with. But aU thoae
whom God maketh choice of, are unworthy,
and some even are reraarkably ae. 2dly,
Men generally adept but one a-piec.e, or at
raoat a few ; but divine adoption adraits into
the heavenly family a meat numeroua host,
extending even unto myriads, that Jesus,
whe ia the head of the faraily, ** may be
the first-bom among many brethren." And,
%dly, they are all heirs ; whence it ia aaid,
in another place, " That be might bring
raany aona into glory." Nor ia the inheri
tance ef any individual in the least diminiah
ed in conaequence of ao vaat a multitude of
heira ; for it is an inheritance in Ught, and
every one has the whole of it- Nor do the
children come into the poaaeaaion of thia in
heritance by the death of the Father, but
every one, when he dies himaelf; for the
Father is immortal, and, according te the
apoatle, the " only ene that haa iraraor
tality ;" thatis, in an absolute, priraary, and
independent sense. Nay, he hiraself ia the
etemal inheritance of hia aona, and deatli
alone bringa thera into hia presence, and
adraita them into the full enjoyment of hira.
ithly. Which I would have particularly
observed, this divine adoption is net a raatter
ef mere external honour, ner aimply the be-
atewing ef richea and an inheritance; but
alwaya attended with a real internal change
ef the raan hiraaelf, to a being quite differ.
ent from what he waa before ; which ia alao
recorded in Sacred Scripture, concerning
Saul, when he waa anointed king : but ihis
human adoption can by no meana perforra.
This laat, in the choice ef a proper object,
juatly pays regard te merit ; for though the
richeat, and even the beat ef men, raay clothe
richly the peraori whora he has thought pro.
per to adopt, and get him inatructed in the
beat principlea and rulea of conduct ; yet he
cannot effectually divest him of his innate
* Hand equidem tali- me digiinr honore.
virg, i£neid, L

592

OF REGENERATION.

LECT. XV.

diapositions, or those raanners that have be.
come natural by custom : he cannot forra
his raind te noble actions, or plant within
hira the principles of fortitude and virtue.
But he that formed the heart of raan, can
reforra it at his pleasure : and this he ac
tually does. Whenever he adraita a peraon
into hia royal family, he, at the same time,
endows him with royal and divine disposi
tions : and therefore, if he honours any
peraon with his love, that person, thereby,
becoraes deserving ; becauae, if he waa not
so before, he raakes him so ; he stamps his
own image upon him, in true and lively
colours ; and as he is hely himself, he
makes bim holy Ukewise. Hence it is, that
this heavenly adoption is no leaa properly,
truly, or frequently, in the Sacred Scriptures,
called regeneration,*
And though a Jew, and a celebrated
doctor of the Jewish law, excepted against
this doctrine, when it was proposed to him
under tbis name ; yet neither all of that na
tion, ngr even the Gentile philosophers, were
quite unacquainted with it. Rabbi Israel
calls the proaelytea, new-born Jews. And
theae passages which we frequentiy meet
with conceming the seed ef Abrahara, and,
in the prophets, concerning the nuraerous
converts that were to be made te the church,
are by their Rabbins, and the Chaldee para
phrasts, applied te this spiritual generation.
which they beUeved would remarkably take
place in the days of Messiah ; particularly
these two pasaagea in the Psalms, in one
whereof the spiritual sons of the church are
compared to the drops ef the morning dew,-^
net only en account of ita celeatial purity,
but also with regard to the vast raultitude
of thera. Sorae ef theae doctors also obaerve,
that tbe nuraber of proaelytes would be so
great in tbe days ef the Meaaiah, that the
church, oraitting the cereraony of a circura
cision, would receive them into its boaora,
and initiate thera by ablution or baptiara.
Concerning tbis renovation of the mind,
Philo Judasua says expresaly, " God, who
ia unbegotten hiraaelf, and begets all thinga,
sows his aeed, aa it were, with hia own
band," &C.J Hieroclea, and other Pytha
gorean philosophera, treat also of thia raoral
or rayatical regeneration ; and under tbis
very narae Plutarch alao raakes mention ef
it, and defines it to be " the mortification
of inational and inegular appetites ;" and
Seneca's words relative to this subject are,
" The famiUea of the arts and sciences are
the raost noble ; choose into which ef them
you will be adopted ; for by this meana we
may be born accprding tp pur own choice ;
nor wiU yeu be adopted into the narae onlyj
but alao into the gooda ofthe family."§
• UxXiyyivimx, t Psalm xiv. 16 i ex. 3.
:j: Aytvvvijos o ®tos, xxi tx rufivrxvTX y^vvuv, ffirti^tl
f/.tv TOUTO TO ylivvifjox TOlSiev, &C.
§ Nobilissimai sunt ingeniorum families, eligo iu

la not alsp the cprampn custpra that pre.
vailed ampng the ancients, ef hPnpuring
tbeir herpes, and thpse men whe were re.
raarkable fer exalted virtue, with the title of
sons of God, a plain aUusion to this adop.
tion we have under our consideration ? And
what we have observed on the philoaophers,
who acknowledged thia raoral er metaphor!.
cal regeneration, ia ao very true, that it gave
a handle to tbe fictiona of theae ancient here.
tiea, who evaded the whole doctrine and
faith of the laat resunection,' by putting this
figurative sense upon it. As to what the
Roraan philosopher observes, that we may
be born in this raanner at our own pleasure
or discretion, though, te be aure, it ia not
without our conaent, yet it doea not altogether,
nor principally, depend upon us ; our sacred
and apostoUc doctrine preaenta ua with much
raore just and pure notions on this-subject,
when it teaches us, tbat " of hia own will
he begat ua by the word ef truth."* This
ia alao repreaented in expreas terms in those
words of the gospel which immediately
foUow the paaaage we mentioned at the be.
ginning ef tbia discourse, " which were born,
net of blood, ner of the wiU of the fleah, nor
of the wiU of raen, but ef God."-)- And,
with great propriety, there is immediately
added another generation still more wonder.
ful and myaterioua, whicii is the principle
and source of this renovation of ours, *' the
Werd was raade flesh." For to this end,
God waa pleaaed to clothe himaelf with our
flesh, that he niight put his Spirit within
ua, whereby we, though carnal in conse-
quence of the conuption of our nature, might
be born again into a new, spiritual, and
divine Ufe. The Hely Ghost, by overaha.
dewing the Bleaaed Virgin, was, in a very
particular raanner, the author of the human
nature of the Son of God, and to the virtue
anti divine power of the aame Spirit aU the
adopted children ef the Deity owe their new
birth. And as creation goes sometimes
under the name of generation, for instance,
in the worda ef Moaes, " of the rock tbat
begat thee thou art unmindful, and haSt
forgotten the God that formed thee ;"J
that book also of the Bible, which, from
the flrst werd of it, is called Bereshith, is
by the Greeks naraed Genesis, and in the
oldest copy ef the Septuagint, the Genera
tion of ihe World, And, in the beginning
of it, Moaea, apeaking ef the creation of the
world, says, " These are tbe generations
of the heaven and the earth."§ Se, on the
other hand, this spiritual generation is caUed
creation, and with an additional epithet, the
new creation ; it has also, for its author, the
sarae powerful Spirit of God whe of old sat
quam adscisci veils, hac enim ratione, nobis ad arbi-
trium nostrum nascl licet, nee in na.-nen tantum adop-
taberis, sed et in ipsa bono.
» James i. 18. t John i. 1.1.
X Doilt. xxxii. 18. S Gen. ii. 4.

OF REGENERATION.

60.1

upon tbe face of the waters as a bird upon its
young, or, as St. Basil renders it, hatched ;
so also in coriversion the sarae Spirit rests
upon our unformed minds, that are Ufeless,
unprepared, and nothing at all but emptiness
and obscurity, and out of this darkuess
bririgs forth light, whicb was the flrst arid
moat beautiful ornament of the universe ; te
which the apostle alao aUudes in hia aecond
epiade to the Corinthiana.* The resunec
tion of the- dead ia alao tbe pecuUar work ef
this enUvening Spfrit ef God ; and to hira
the apoatle Peter expreaaly ascribes the re-
sunection of Christ; " for Christ also,"
says he, " hath once suffered for sins, the
just for the unjust, that he raight bring ua
to God, being put to death in tbe fleah,
but quickened by the Spfrit."-(- And here,
again, there is a mutual exchange of namea ;
for, in the gospel according to Matthew, the
resunection of the dead is caUed regenera-
tion : " Verily I say unte you," says eur
Lord, '^ that ye which have foUowed me in
the regeneration, when the Son of Man
sliaU sit on the throne of his glery, ye also
shaU sit upon twelve thienes."$ Here, in
Ihe regeneration must be connected with
the following words, and by no means with
those tbat go before. And that this was a
common method of speaking among tbe Jews,
appears frem Josephus : " To those," says
he, " whose fate it is to die for observing
the law, God has given -the privilegea of
being bom again, and enjoying a more
happy Ufe, so that they are gainers by the
exchange."§ Iu Uke manner Philo aaith,
" We shall hasten to the regeneration after
death," &c. JI On the other hand, it is very
weU known, that thia spiritual regeneration
we are spealiing of, is often in Scripture call
ed tbe resunection.
Of this resunection the word ofthe gospel
is, as it were, the trumpet ; and, at the sarae
time, tbe immortal seed of this new birth,
and therefere of immortaUty itaelf. Thus
it is represented by the apostle Peter, ^ and
by the apostle James, who expressly tells us,
" that he hath begot us with the werd of
truth."** Now the enUvening virtue and
plastic power of this word is derived ftom
the Holy Ghost, who is the true apring and
fountairi of this new Ufe. Nor are the moat
extended powera of the human raind, or the
strength of its understanding, any raore able
to reatore this lifewithin it, even upon hear
ing the glad tidings'of the gospel, than it was
capable of producing itaelf at firat, or of being
the author of its own being, or after death of
restoring itself to life.
To this exalted dignity are admitted tbe
• 2 Cor, iv. 6. t 1 Peter iii. 18. X Matt xix. 28.
§ Toil u:rt^ vofiuv Slx^-XxxStVTUV xvroOxvoua't iSuKlv
i ©EOS yivtirSxi Tt xxXlv xxi /3(ov aCAttvu XmZuv tx vrt^l-
T^oTTis. Lib. 1. cont. App.
H Els trxXiyytvwmv igfioviffOfAtv uatx tok hxvXTOv, &C
H 1 Peter {.S3. *» James 1. 18.

humble, the poor, the obscure, the ignorant
barbarians, slaves, sinners, whom the world
leok upon as nething, and bold in the great
eat conterapt : of these nothing is required but
true and sincere faith ; no learning, nor noble
extract, nor any subraiaaion to the Mosaic
law ; but upon every raan, of whatever rank
or condition, who believea this word, he in
retum beatowa thia dignity, " tbat they
should become the sons of God ;" that is,
that what Christ was by nature, they should
become by grace. Now, what is more aub.
lime and exalted than thia honour, that those
who were forraerly children of Satan, and
heirs of hell, sheuld by faitb alone be raade
" the aons ef God, brethren of Chriat, and
joint heira of the heavenly kingdom ?" If
the sacred fire of the Roraana happened at
any time to be extinguished, it could only be
lighted again at the rays of the sun. The
life of souls, to be sure, is a sacred fiame of
divine love ; tbis fiame, as we are now bom
into the ftoward race ef faUen mankind, is,
alas 1 but too fruly and unhappily extln.
guiahed, and by no meana to be kindled
again, but by the enUvening light and heat
of the Sun of Righteousness, who ia most
auspiciously arisen upon us.

LECTURE XVI.
Of Regeneration.
The great conuption of mankind, and
their innate diapoaition to every sort of wick.
edneaa, even the doctors of the Heathen na
tiona, that is, their philosophers and theole-
gers, and thefr poets also, were sensible of,
and acknowledged ; though they were quite
ignorant of tbe source from which this cala-
mity was derived. They all own, " That it
is natural to man to sin ;"* even your fa
vourite philosopher, who prevails in the
achoola, declarea, i!nat we s.re strongly inclin
ed to vice ;-|- and, apeaking of the charms
and aUurementa of forbidden pleasures, he ob
serves, that mankind by nature " is easily
caught in these snares. "J The Roraan phi
losopher takes notice, " That the way to vice
ia not only a descent, but a downright preci
pice." §
And the coraic poet, " That mankind has
always been, in every respect, a deceitful,
subtle creature. "II
The satirist likewise obaervea, " That we
are all easily prevailed on to imitate things
* lufJO^UTOV tlVXI TOIS XvB^UVOIS TO M^agTttVEJV
X MuxxTx&oeous. Arisl. Eth. ii.
i EuBviVXTOV tivxi urro tuv toioutoiv.
§ Ad vitia, non tantum pronum iter, sed et prseceps
. H AoXEgOf /AlV Xtl XXTX irXVTX Sv] TgOTOC
Xltiuxtv xvSeuTOi. 2 P

bO-i

OF REGENERATION.

LECT. xvr.

tbat are, in their nature, wicked and dis
graceful."* And the Lyric poet, " That the human
race, bold to attempt the greateat dangers,
rushes witb irapetuosity upon forbidden
criraea. "¦)-
All the wise raen araong the Heathens ex-
erted their utraost to reraedy this evil by pre
cepts and institutions of philosophy, but te
very little purpose. They could not, by aU
their arts and aU their precepts, make others
better ; nay, witb regard to raeat of tbem, we
may say, nor even theraaelvea. But, " when
there waa ne wisdora in tbe earth," says
Lactantius, " that blessed doctor was sent
down ftom beaven, who is the way, the truth,
and the life,":]: and, by an alraighty power,
eft'ected what all othera had atterapted in vain-
It ia not at all to be doubted, but the end
propoaed by philoaophy, waa to renew and to
reforra raankind, and to reduce the ceurse of
their Uvea to a confonnity with the precepta
of wiadora and virtue. Whence the coraraon
definition given of philosophy is, " That it
is the rule of life, and the art or science of
living uprightly." To thia purpoae Seneca
saya, " Philosophy is the law of living ho
nestiy and uprightly." True religion, te be
sure, haa the aame tendency : but it promotes
ita end with much greater force and better
succeas ; becauae ita princ^lea are much raere
exalted, its precepts and instructions are of
greater purity, and it is, beaidea, attended
with a divine pewer, whereby it raakea ita
way into the hearta ef raen, and purifiea thera
witb the greatest force and efficacy ; and yet,
at the aarae tirae, with tbe meat wonderful
pleaaure and delight. And thia is the re.
generation of which we are apeaking, and
whereof we have already ebaerved, that phi.
loaophy acknowledged it, even under tbe
aame name ; but that it effected it, we abso
lutely deny- Now, it is evident from the
very name, that we are to underatand by it
an Inward change, and that a very reraarka.
ble ene. And aince God is called the au
thor and aource ef this change, whatever the
philoaophera may have diaputed, pro and con,
conceming the origin ef moral virtue, we are
by no raeans te doubt, but tbis sacred and
divine change upon the heart of man is pro
duced by an infiuence truly divine : and thia
was even Plato's opinion concerning virtue :
ner do I imagine you are unacquainted with it.
The same philosopher, and several others be
aides hira, expressly asaerted, that virtue waa a
kind of iraage or likeneas of God, nay, that
it waa the effect of inapiratien, and partook,
in aorae respect, of a kind of divine nature.

- Dociles imitandis

Turpibus et pravis omnes sumus- Juv. Sat. xiv.
t  Auifex omnia perpeti.
Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas.
Hon. Od. lib. I.
X Sed cum nulla esset sapientia in terris, missus est
ccelo doctor ille, via, veritasj et vita.

" No mind can be rightly diapoaed without
divine influence," aays Seneca:' and it was
the saying of the Pythagorean phUosophers,
" That the end of raan ia te be raade like to
God."-!- " Thia mind," aaya Triamegiatus,
" ia God in raan, and therefore aome of the
number of men are gods. "J And a Utde
further on, " In whatever souls the Mind
presides, it illusfrates them with its own
brightness, opposing their immoralities and
mad inclinations : just, as a leamed physi.
clan inflicts pain upen the bedy of his pa.
tient, by burning and cutting it, in order to
recover it te health ; in the sarae manner,
the mind afflicts a voluptuous seul, that it
may puU up pleasure by tbe very roots ; for
aU diaeaaea of the aoiil proceed from it : im.
piety ia the aevereat diateraper of the soul."§
What wonder is it then, if these very
thoughta are expreaaed in the more divine
oraclea of the Sacred Scripturea, more fuUy,
and with greater cleameaa ? And thia con.
forraation of the huraan raind to the Divine
nature, ia coramonly repreaented therein aa
the great buaineaa and the end of aU religion.
What was raore eften inculcated upen the
ancient church of the Jews, than these worda,
" Be ye hely, becauae I am hely ?" And
that the aame ambition ia recoraraended to
Chriatiana, appears frora the first aemion we
raeet with in "the gospel of our Lord and Sa.
viour, whe carae down to thia earth, that be
might reatore the Divine iraage upon men.
" Be raerciful," says he, " aa your Father,
whe is in heaven, ia merciful." And, ac
cording to Luke, " Be perfect, as your Fa.
ther is perfect." And again, " Blessed are
the pure in heart," And, indeed, tbia is
the true beauty of the heart, and its true no
bility ; but vice introduces degeneracy, and
deformity alao.
Now, the more the mind disengages and
withdraws itaelf from matter that pollutes it, <\
that is, from the body it inhabits, the purer
and raore divine it constantly becomes ; be.
cauae it attaina to a greater resemblance with
the Father of spirits ; and, as the aposde
Peter expresaea it, " partakea more fully ef
the Divine nature." Hence it ia, that the
apoatle Paul warns us at so great length, and
in such atrong terras, againat 'living after
the fiesh, aa the very death ef the aoul, and
direcdy oppoaite to the renewed nature ef a
Chriatian. He that ia bora of God, ia en
dued with a greatness of soul, that makes him
easily despise, and consider as nothing, those
thinga wbich he prized at a very high rate
before : he considers heaven as his country ;
even while he lives aa a atranger on thia
* Nulla sine Deo bona mens eit.
t TlXos XvB^UTOU OfiOIOITIS @ltfl.
X 'OuTOs 0 vous tv f/.iv eovSguTOis ®lo: ttrrlv, Sie kxi
TlVtS TUV XvB^UIOIv 3-EOI tlO'l. TrlSsn, s-lo, TOU XOIVaO
VTBOS TXT,
§ 'OiTxis XV VUV -^uvxis, "Sic.
H At< T,;f uXvis /SogGogaT*;.

LECT. XVI.

OF REGENERATION.

5,95

earth, he aapirea at tiie higheat objects, and,
flying up towards heaven, with soaring wings,
koks down with contempt upen the earth."*
And yet, with all this subliraity of raind,
he joins the deepest humility. But all the
allurements of sin, " though they continue
to have the sarae appearance they had be-
fore,"-)- and poasibly throw theraselves in hia
way, aa the very aarae that were formerly dear
to him, he wiU reject with indignation, and
give them the aame anawer that St. Arabroae
teUs ua waa given by a young convert to hia
miateess, with whom he had forraerly lived
in great faraiUarity ; " though you may be
the same, I am not the sarae I waa before.":]:
Lactantiua elegantly aeta forth the wonder
ful pewer ef religion in thia aspect : « Give
me," aaya he, " a man that is passionate, a
slanderer, one that is headstrong and un-
manageahle, with a very few of the worda ef
God, I will make hira as quiet as a lamb.
Give me a covetous, avaricious, or cloae hand
ed persen, I will preaently make hira liberal,
and obUge hira to give away his money in
large quantities with his own hands. Give
me ene that is afraid of pain, or of death, he
shaU, in a very littie time, despise crosses,
flames, and even Phalaris's bull. Shew me
a luatful peraen, an adulterer, a complete de
bauchee, you ahaU preaently see him sober,
chaste, and temperate." § So great is tbe
power of divine wisdom, that, as soon aa it
is infused into the human breast, it presently
expels foUy, which is the source and foun
tain of sin, and so changes the whole man.
so refines, and, as it were, renews him, that
you would not know hira to be the sarae. It
is prophesied of the days of the Messiah,
" That the wolf aod the lamb shaU lie down
together, and the leopard feed with the kid.'
The gospel has a wonderful effect in soft
ening even the roughest dispositious, arid
" there is none so wild, but he may he tara-
ed, if he will but patiently give attention to
this wholesome dectrine-"||
Now, whether you call this renovation or
change of the mind repentance, or divine
love, it raakes no difference ; for aU these,
and indeed all the Christian graces in ge
neral, are at bottora one and the same ; and,
taken together, constitute what we may call
the health and vigour of ihe mind, the term
under which Aristo of Chios coraprehended
all the moral virtues. The apostle Paul, in

¦ udam

Spemit huraum fugiente penna,
t Etsi illis facies, qua; fuit ante, manet,
X At ego certe nan sum ego.
§ Da mihi virum qui sit iracundus, maledicus, ef-
frsenatus, paucissimis Dei verbis tam placidum quam
ovem reddam. Da cupidum, avarum, tenacem, jam
tibi eum liberalem dabo, et pecuniam suam propriis
plenisque manibus largientum. Da timidum doloris
ac mortis ; jam cruces, et ignes, et Phalaridis taurum
contemnet. Da libidinosum, adulterum.Ganeonem ;
jam sObrium, castum, continentem videbis.
n Nemo adeo ferus est, ut non mitescere possit,
Huic modo doctrinae patientem commodct aurem.

his second epistle to the Corinthians, de.
scribes these adopted children of God by
their repentance ;• in tbe epistie to the Ro
mans, tbey are characterised by their leve ;f
and in the passage of St. John's gospel we
have mentioned afready, by their faith ;J
but whatever name it is conveyed by, "the
change itself is effected by the right-hand of
the Meat High." Aa te the raanner of this
divine operation, to raiae raany diaputes abeut
it, and raake raany curioua diaquisitions with
regard te it, weuld be not only quite ifeed-
leaa, but even abaurd. Soloraon, in hia Ec.
cleaiaatea, givea sorae grave admonitions with
regard to the secret proceaaea of nature in
forming the foetus in the worab, § to convirice
us of our blindneaa with reapect to the other
werks ef God : hew rauch more hidden and
intricate, and even paat our finding out, ia
thia regeneration, which is purely apiritual !
Tbis is what eur Saviour alao teaches us,
when he compares thia new birth to the un.
cenfined and unknown turnings and revolu.
tions of the wind ; a similitude wbich Solo
mon had Ughtly touched before, in that pas
sage ef the Ecclesiastes to wbich we just now
aUuded. O ! that we felt within ourselves
this blessed change, though we should re
main ignorant with regard to the manner of
it ; aince we are sufiiciently apprised of one
thing, which it is greatly our interest fre
quently and seriously to reflect upon : " Un
leaa a man be born again, he cannot aee the
kingdom of Ged." Thia apiritual progeny
ia alao compared to the dew, the generation
whereof ia hidden and undiacovered. " Hath
the rain a father, and who hath begotten the
drops of the dew ?"|| Good raen are also
caUed children of light, ^ and light in the
Lord,** But it is from the Father of lights
himself, and frora his only-begotten Son,
that theae atars (for this title of the angels
may, without injustice, be applied to them)
derive all the Ught they enjoy. Now the
nature oflight is very iijtricate, and the eraa-
nation and raanner of its production is yet
a secret even to the most sharp-sighted of
these who have made nature their study, and
no satisfactory theory of it has yet appear.
ed. But whatever it is, it waa produced by
that firat and powerful word of eternal, un
created light, " Let there be light." By tbe
aarae powerful werd of the Alraighty Father,
thete immediately springa up in the mind,
which was formerly quite involved in the
darkness of ignorance and enor, a divine and
immortal Ught, which is the life ef men, and,
in effect, the true regeneration. And because
this is the riioat effectual raeana of purifying
the soul, it ia aacribed to the water, and to
the apirit. For thia illumination of the Holy
Ghost is, indeed, the inward baptism of the

* 2 Cor. vi. 17,18.
Xidtm i. 12.
II Job xxxiii. 28. H 1 Thess.

+ Rora. viii. 28.
§ Eccles. xi. fi
5. •• Epll. V. 8.

bOG

OF TRUE FELICITY, &c.

spirit ; but in the priraitive times of Chris-
tianity, the baptism of water, on account ef
tho supposed concunence of the Spirit, was
comraonly caUed the illumination, and ^ the
soleran seasons appointed for the celebration
of tills mystery, the days of illumination er
light. And in the very same manner, the
baptisra of the Hely Ghost, is by John the
Baptist caUed the baptism of fire, on ac
count of the wonderful influence it has in
illurainating and purifying the soul. It is,
to be sure, a celestial flre quite invisible to
our eyes, and ef such a nature, that the aecret
coramunicationa of it to our soula cannot be
inveatigated ; but the aura of all is what
followa. It seeraed geod te inflnite Goodness and
Wiadora, to form a noble piece of coin out of
clay, and to atamp his own image upon it.
with thia inacription, " The earthly aon ef
God :" thia ia what we caU man. But alaa !
bow soon did this piece of coin faU back to
clay again, and thereby lest that frue image,
and had the inscription sbaraefiiUy blotted
out ! Frora that tirae, raan, who was forraer
ly a divine creature, and an angel clothed
with flesh, became entirely fleably, and in
reaUty a brute : the soul, that noble and ce
lestial inhabitant of hia earthly body, became
new quite iraraersed in raatter, and, as it
'were, entirely converted into flesh, as if it
had drunk of the river Lethe ; or, like the
son ef an illusfrious family, canied away in
infancy to a far country, it is quite ignorant
of its present misery, or the liberty and feli
city it has lost, becomes an abject slave, de
graded to the vilest eraployraents, which it
naturally and with pleasure perforras ; be
cauae having loat aU sense of its native ex
ceUency and dignity, and forgotten its hea
venly original, it now reUshes nothing but
earthly things, and, catching at present ad
vantages, disregards etemal enjoyraents, aa
altogether unknown, or removed quite out of
aight. But if in any particular aoul, either
from some apark ef its native exceUency still
remaining alive, or any indistinct report that
reaches it, some desires or eraotions towards
the recovery of its native liberty shpuld
ariae ; yet, as it haa np sufficient strength pf
its pwn, nor finds any way open that can lead
to so great a blessing, these ineffectual wish
es corae to nothing, and the unhappy soul,
having lost its hopes, languiahesin its chains,
and is at laat quite atupifled.
Philoaophy, as we have already observed,
perceiving that raan waa born to higher viewa
than this world affords, atterapted to raiae
him frora hia present dejection, secure his
claira to heaven, and restore hira te a con.
ferraity and Ukeness to Ged ; but in vain.
To redeera the sons ef man, and restore thera
to what they had lost, it was necessary tbat
the eternal Son of God should corae dijjvn
from heaven. Our fall was easily brought

LECT. XVII,
about, but our restoration was a work ef the
greatest difficulty, and only to be performed
by the powerful band of God ; there are but
few whom the exalted Father of Spirits has
loved, and Christ has raised up to heaven.
He is the source whence the Spirit of Gea
flows down to ua ; he ia the fountain pf that
new life and aanctifled nature, by which we
rapunt tpwarda Gpd, whereby we evercome
the wprld, and in cpnsequence thereof, ere
admitted into heaven. And happy, tp be
sure, are these traly noble souls, whose fate
it is to be thus bern again, te be admitted
into the chofrs of the hely angels, and to be
clothed with those glpripus rpbes that are
whiter than snpw r they wiU fpUow the Lamb
wherever he gees, and he wiU lead them to
the crystal streams, and even to the fountain
of Ufe itself.
But aU these, that are to be the attendants
of the Larab,^ in those blessed pastures which
are to be met with in his heavenly country,
must of necessity, even whUe they Uve in
this lower world, be foUowers of him in his
hurable innocence and purity.
Thisspotless, holy, and pure Lamb ofGod,
is the guide and shepherd ef a pure and holy
flock, a flock dear to God, and of distin
guished beauty ; but the shepherd is still
more beautiful than they,* But the impure
goats and uncleanly hogs be beholds at a
distance, and leaves them to unclean spirits,
to be poaaeaaed by thera at pleasure, and
afterwards to be precipitated into the deptb
of miaery ; unleaa it be determined to de
liver sorae of tbem frera that ahockirig form,
by a woriderful arid divine change, and to
convert thera into laraba, which ia effected in
proper tirae, by the iriflueuce of the Holy
Ghoat. whence they are called the holy,
pure, arid divine sons ef God ; and aU love
to earthly things, aU camal, impure affec
tions, are banished out of these hearta which
are, as it were, temples consecrated hence.
forth to God : " for the dweUing-place of tlie
Hely One must be holy also."-*-

LECTURE XVIL
Of Tr'je Felicity and Eternal
Punishment.
O HOW inaipid and unsatisfactory are all
the pleaaurea ef this earthly life, which we
now Uve, in respect ef that incomparable and
altogether heavenly deUght, wbich attends
the meditation and contemplation of divine
thinga ! When mortala are thua employed,.
they eat the bread pf angela ; and if there
* Formosi pecoris custos formosior
i' Ayiou yx^ tiyiov tsiv waE^Ttjg/cc

LECT. xvn.

ETERfJAL PUNISHMENT.

6,97

are any who de not reUsh the sweetness of' stantly devour it, and, as if it was stiU empty
thia food, it is because the divine part pf their and unsatisfied, wpuld require spmething
comppsitipn is becprae brutish, and, forget, raore. And indeed, by this insatiable thirst.

ting its original, lies buried in earth and
mud. But though the soul is reduced to
these woeful circumatances, it is not yet so
entirely divested of itself, but it stUl retains
some faint reraains of its heavenly original
and more exalted nature ; inaorauch, that
it cannot acquiesce in, or be at all satisfied
with those fading enjoyments wherewith itis
sunounded, nor think itaelf bappy or eaay in
the greatest abundance of earthly comforta.
And though, poaaibly, it may not be fully
aensible ef what it wants ; yet it perceives,
not withput spme pain and uneasiness, that
something is still wanting to make it happy.
The trath is, besides that great and unknown
good, even those whom, by an abuse of that
term, we caU most happy, are in want pf a
great many things: for if we leok nanowly
into the condition of thpse whp are anived
at the highest pitch pf earthly splendpur, we
shaU certainly find sprae defect and iraperfec.
tion in it, and be obUged to conclude with
the poet, " Tbat since the earth began to be
inhabited by men, a fuU cup of good things,
witheut any mixture of evil, never fell to the
share of one man ; a graceful body is often
dishonoured by bad raorals, and a mind of
uncommon beauty is aoraetimea joined to a
deformed body," &c.*
But what we call the chief and suprerae
good must, of necessity, be complete, and en
tirely free frora every defect ; and therefore,
what ia not in every respect perfect, properly
speaking, is not perfect at aU. The happi
ness of rich and great men, which the poor
admire and respect, is only a gaudy and
splendid species of misery. What St. Ber
nard says of the rash and iU-founded opinion
which tbe generality of mankind fonn of
the Uves of the saints, from the iraperfect
knowledge they have of tbem, " They see
our cresses, but they see not pur comforts, "-]-
may be here inverted : we see the advantages
of thoae men that are puffed ap with riches
and honours, but we see net thefr troubles
and vexations. " I wiah, I wiah," says ene,
" that those who desire richea, would con
sult with rich raen; (Jiey would then be
sure to be of another opinion. "4:
I wUl apend no raore tirae in describirig
or laraeriting the wretched atate of raarikirid
on thia eardi, because it would auswer no
-end. For, suppose a more complete aaaera-
blage of aublunary enjoyraenta, and a raere
perfect ayatera of earthly feUcity tiian ever
the sun beheld, the mind of raan would in-
•  Etenim mortalibus ex quo
Tellus capta coli, nunquam smcera Uonorum
Sors uUiconcessa viro; quem corpus honesUC
Dedecorant mores ; animus quem pulchrior orhat
Corpus deslituit, &c .
t Cruces nostra vident, unctiones non vident.
tOtinam, utinam qui divitias appelunt, cum dt
vltibus deliberai-eut ; certe vola mutamit.

the raind of raan discovers its natural excel
lency and dignity ; for thus it proves, that
all things here below are insufficient to
aatisfy, or make it happy ; and ita capacity
ia ae great and extenaive, that it cannot be
fiUed by the whole of thia viaible frame of
thinga. For, aa St, Augustiue observea,
" Tbou hast made us, O Lerd, fer thyself,
and our hearts are restless till they return to
thee."* The mind that makes God its
refuge, after it has been much tossed to and
fro, and distressed in the werld, enjoys per
fect peace and absolute security ; and it is
the fate of those, and those only, who put
into this safe harbour, to have, what the
same St. Augustine caUs a very great matter,
" The frailty of man, together with the se
curity of God."t
Therefore, it is not without reaaon that
the royal Paalraiat beaata net of hia victories,
nor the aplendour of hia royal crown, but of
this one advantage ; " The Lord is the
portion of mine inheritance, and ef my cup
thou maintaineat the lot :" and on the
juatest grounda he immediately adda, " The
lines have fallen to me in pleasant places ;
yea, I bave a goqdly heritage.''^ And it
is quite agreeable to reason, that what im
proves and completes any thing elae, muat be
itaelf more complete and perfect : 80 that the
mind ef man can neither be made happy by
earthly enjoymenta, which are aU far inferior
to it in dignity, ner be ao in itself. Nay,
neither can the angela, though ef a mere
perfect and aublirae nature, confer feUcity
either upon men or theraaelvea ; but both
they and we have our happineas lodged in
that Etemal Mind which alone is its own
felicity : nor is it possible for us to find it
any where elae, but in our union with that
original Wisdom and Goodness ftom wbich
we at firat took our riae. Away then with
all the fictitioua schemea of felicity proposed
by the phUoaephers, even thoae of them that
were raost artfuUy contrived ; for even Aris-
tetle's perfection of virtue, aa weU as what
the Stoics fancied concerning their wiae raen,
are raere fictiona. They are nething but
drearas and fancies, that ought to be banish
ed to Utopia ; for what they describe is no
where to be found among raen ; and, if it
were, it weuld not constitute complete feUci-
ty. Se far indeed they are to be ceraraended,
that they caU in the raind from external enjoy.
ments to itaelf; but in thia they are defec
tive, that when the mind ia returned to itself,
they cany it ne further, nor direct it to as-
cend, as it were, above itself. They some-
• Fecisti nos, Domine, propter te, et inqulctum
est cor nostrum donee in te redeat. ..,„_-
1 Habere fragilitatem hominis et securitatem Dei:
1 Paalm A-vi J, 6.

.!!!!

OF TRUE FELICI'SY AND

tiraes, it is true, drop such expressions as
these : " That there can be no geod diape-
sition of the raind without Ged ;"• and that,
in order to be bappy, the soul raust be raised
up to divine things : they also tell ua, " That
the wise man loves God raost of all, arid fer
this reason ia the raoat happy raan.-f- But
tbeae expressions tbey drop only at random,
aud by the bye. O ! how much fuller and
clearer are the instructions of the teacher
sent down from heaven — *' Bleaaed are the
pure in heart, for they shaU see Ged l"t
But becauas tbe purest rainds ef the
saints, while thefy sojourn in this earth, still
retain some raixture of earthly drosa, and
arise not to perfect purity ; therefere, they
cannet yet enjoy the fuU vision of God, nor,
cunsequently, that perfect happinesa which
la inseparably connected with it. " For
they see only darkly, and through a glass ;"§
but witb the advantage even ef thia obacure
light, they direct their ateps, and go on
cheerful and unwearied : tbe long-wished.
for day wiU at length corae, when they will
be admitted into the fulleat light. That
day, which the unhappy men ef thia world
dread aa their laat, the sona of light wiah
for, aa their nativity into an endleas life, and
embrace it with the greatest joy when it
comes. And this, indeed, seems to me te
be the atrongeat argument for another life,
and an imraortality te corae. Fer since no
complete er absolutely perfect happinesa ia
to be found in thia life, it muat certainly
follow, that either there ia no such thing to
be had any where, or we muat live again
somewhere, after our period here ia out.
And, O ! what foola are we, and slow of
heart to believe, that think so rately, and
with such coolneaa, of that blessed country ;
and that in tbia parched and thiraty land,
where even thoae who are ao happy, have
only aome foretastes of that suprerae happi
neaa ; but when they reraove hence, " They
shall be abundantly aatiafied, (or, aa the
word ought to be tran.slated, intoxicated, ||)
O Lord, with the fatneaa of thy houae, and
thou ahalt raake thera drink of the river of
thy pleaaurea :"5[ thua the divine Paalmiat
expresaea it ; and, to be sure, it is very sur
prising, that the great and ancient philoso
pher Pythagoras, in coraraunicating his
thoughts upon the aame aubject, should hap
pen to fall upon the very same figure : for he
used to proraise theae of hia diaciplea that
conducted themselves right in thia life, tbat
they should be continuaUy drunk** in that
which is te corae.
But what we bave said forraerly of the
felicity ef the life to corae, and aU that we
* Nullam posse esse sine Deo bonam mentem.
t A^x 0 ffotfis &to^iXtffTXTOe, XXI Six touto tuSxi.uov
tO-TXTOt. i Matthew v. 3.
5 1 f'or. xiii. 12. || Itieliriabuntur.
•j l's;ilin xxxvi. 9. •* M£(/r,» xivvxc.

LECT. XVII,
could say, were we to treat of die same sub.
ject over again, is but mere trifling. And
yet it is not disagreeable to hear children
speak, even with stammering, about the dig.
nity ef their father, and ofthe riches and mag.
nificence of his inheritance. It is pleasant and
decent to speak of our native country, eveh
while we are sojourning in aforeign land : but,
fer the preaent, I ahaU inaiat ne longw on this
aubject, but, turning tbe tables, lay before
you that dreadful puniahment which stands
in oppoaition te this happiness, by present.
ing yeu only with a tranaient view pf the
future misery of the wicked ; and though
this is indeed a raoat unpleasant task, yet
nothing but our own careleasneas and inat
tention can render it useless.
Here, firat of all, it is to be observed,
that as, in thia Ufe, there ia no perfect fell.
city ; so' neither here is there any complete
raisery. Those whom we leok upon as the
moat wretched in thia worid, have their suf.
ferings chequered with many intervals of
ease ; but the misery to come admits of no
abatement ; it ia all of a piece, without ad.
mitting of any mixture ef reUef. They are
aurely raad with their notions wbo here talk
of the advantages of being or existence, and
contend that it is more desirable " to be
miserable, than not to be at aU."* For my
part, I ara fully satisfied, they can never
persuade any man of the truth of their asser.
tion ; ner even believe it themselves, when
they think seriously on the subject. But
not to insiat on this, it is certain, that aH
kinds of delight are for ever banished from
that eternal and ftightful priaon. There is
there ne Ught, no day, ner sleep, which is
the blessing of tiie night : and, indeed, no.
thing at aU but places full ef darkness, pre.
cipices, nakedness, and aU kinds of honor ;
no entertainments, merry meetinga, nor any
sensible pleasure : and to be for ever separa
ted frem aU such, must be-no amaU miaery,
eapeciaUy to thoae who used te paaa their
tirae araidst such scenes of rairth and joUity,
and iraagined themselves in some measure
happy therein ; and that tbe remembrance
of this may distreaa them the raore, tbey
will be continually haunted with a thought
that wiU cleave tp thera Uke a wprra devpur
ing their bpwela, and conatantly keep tbem
in mind, that out of a distracted foridness
for theae fleeting pleaaurea, which have now
flown away, without hope ef returning, they
have loat those joys that are heavenly and
etemal, whereof they will have some know
ledge ; but. what, kind of knowledge that
will be, and hew far extended to enhance
their torments, is net ours to detennine.
But whe wiU attempt te exjiress the excess
of their misery, or describe those strearaa of
briraatone, and eternal flaraea of Divine
wrath ? Or rather, who will not iremble, I
* Miserum esse quam pon esse.

LECT. XVIII.
say, not in describing them, but even in
thinking of them, and be quite overpowered
with an idea so sliocking ?
That I may no further attempt " te speak
thinga unutterable,* and to derogate from
a grand subject by inadequate " exprea
aiona ;"¦(¦ beheld now, my dear youths, if
you beUeve these things, behold, I say, you
have now Ufe and death laid before you ;
choose for yourselves. And that yeu may
not put off a matter of such importance, con
aider these things, pray aeriously, and aay to
youraelvea, conceming the vaniahing ahadowa
of external things. How long will these en
joyments last ? O ! how soon wiU they pass !
Even while I am speaking these words, while
I am thinking of them, they fly paat me. Ia
any one oppreaaed with calaraitiea ? Let hira
say cheerfully, with a remarkably good man,
" Lord, while I am here, kiU rae, burn rae,
only apare me there.":J; Is there any araong
you of weak capacity, unhappy in expreSaing
himaelf, of an unfavourable aspect, or deform
ed in body ? Let bim say witb hiraself, It
ia a matter ef small consequence : I shall
soon leave this habitation ; and, if I am but
gopd myself, be soon removed to the man
sions of the blessed. Let these thoughts
prevent his being dejected in raind, or over
come with too much sonow. If any one is
distinguished by a good understanding, or
outward beauty, or riches, let him reflect,
and seriously consider, how seen aU excel
lencies ef this kind wiU pass away, that he
may net be vain, or lifted up by the advan
tages of fortune. Let it be the chief care and
study ef you aU, to avoid the works of dark-
ness, that so you may escape utter and eter.
nal darkness ; erabrace with open and cheer
ful hearts that divine light which hath shone
ftom heaven ; that, when you are divested
of these bodies, you may be received into
the glorious mansions of that blessed and per
fect light.

LECTURE XVIIL
Ofthe Christiak Religion, and thai it
is the true Way to Happiness.
I CONTESS, young gentleraen, that when.
ever I think on the subject, I cannot help
wondering at the indolence and raadness of
mankind ; for though we boast that, to order
our affairs with prudence and discretion, and
conduct our lives according to the principles
of reason, is the great privilege and omaraent
of our nature that distinguishes us ftom the
* Tx xXxX-vjTX XxXtlffSxl, '
i Magnamodistenuare parvis.
X Domine, hic ure, ceede, modo ibi parcas.

OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

5»9
brute creatures ; bow few are there, that, in
this respect, act like men that propose to
theraselves an end, and direct all their actions
to the attainment of it ! It is very certain,
that the greatest part of marikind, with a folly
something more than chUdish, go in quest of
painted butterflies, or coramonly pursue the
birds with stpnes and clods ; and even those
whe spin out their lives to the utmost extent
of pld age, fpr the mpst part gain Uttle by it,
but pnly this, that they raay be caUed very
aged chUdren,* being aa ignprant aa infanta
why they carae intp the wprld, and what will
becpme pf them when they leave it. Of all
queatipna, therefere, none can be more pro.
perly propoaed te you, who are juat upon the
verge of manhood, I mean entering upon a
rational life, than thia. Whither are you
going ? What good have you in view ? To
what end do yeu purpose to live ? For hence,
poasibly, your rainda may be excited within
yeu to an eamest desire after that perfect and
supreme good, arid yeu raay not content
yourselves with cool apeculationa upon thia
subject, as ifit were a logical er philosophi.
cal problem, that falls in your way of course ;
but with that applicatiori that is proper in a
questiou concerning a matter of the greatest
moraent, where it highly concerns us to be
weU informed, and where the highest rewards
and greatest dangers are proposed to our view
And, in this hope, I have eften addressed
myself to you upon the subject of happiness,
er the suprerae good, at different periods of
time, entertaining you in the intervals with
essays and auitable exhortationa upon ether
subjects ; yet so as te observe a kind of ire.
thod, and keep up a connexion throughout
the whole. I have taken notice of tbe narae
and general notion of happiness, the univer.
sal desires and wiahea whereby raen are ex,
cited to the pursuit of it, the no leaa univer.
sal, becauae natural, ignorance of mankind,
and their enora and raiatakes in the search
of it. Whence it happena, that, aa they all
run in the wrong rpad, the faater they ad.
vance, the further they depart frem it ; and,
like thoae who ply the eara in a boat, tbey
look one way and move anether. And though
it seeraed alraost unneceaaary, as facts suffi.
ciently demonatrate the truth of eur aasertion,
yet by a brief recapitulation, wherein we took
notice only of the principal heads and classes
of things, we proved that happiness is by no
means te be found in this earth, nor in ariy
earthly enjoyments whatsoever. And thia ia
no raore than aU, even foola aa weU as wiae
raen, are wiUing to ewn ; they not only pro
nounce one another unhappy, but, with re
gard to thia Ufe, all of them in general, and
every one for hiraaelf in particular, acknow.
ledge that they are ao ; and, in this reapect,
experience fully juatiflea their belief : ao that,
* iixiSls xoXvxiovioi,

coo

OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

if there were no further prospect, I .im apt to
believe aU mankind would agree in that com.
mon saying, " That if manliind were appriz
ed before-hand ef tbe nature ef this life, and
it were left to their own option, none would
accept of it."* As the immortaUty ef the
seul has a near connexion with this subject,
and ia a natural conaequence from it, we.
therefore, in the next place, beatowed aome
time in illuatratiiig that doctrine. In the
laat place, we advanced aome thoughts upen
future happiness and raiaery, se far as is
consistent with the weakness of our capaci.
ties to comprehend things so little known,
and to express such as are, in a great mea
sure, ineffable.
Having treated of these things according
to our measure, it reraains that we now in
quire about the way which directly leads into
that happy city, er to that happiness which
is reserved in the heavena. This is a great
and important article, comprehending the end
and deaign of our life, as weU as the hopea
and coraforta of it ; and ia very proper to be
Srat treated of in a catechetical, or, indeed,
any raethodical system of theology, as ap
pears ftora reason and precedents : for by
thia diacuasion we are iraraediately introduc
ed into tbe whole doctrine of true religion.
Accordingly, tbe first question in the gene
rally-received Catechiara, which yeu have in
your hands, ia, " What ia your only conao
lation in life and in death ?"-]¦ And the firal
question of another Catechism, which not
long ago was used, particularly fri this Univer
sity, is, " What is the only way to true feli
city ?"$ For the salvation and bappiriess of
mankind, in sabcrdination te the glery of
God, which ia, to be sure, the aupreme end
of all, is the peculiar and genuine scope ef
theology ; and frem it the definition ef this
science seems te be raeat properly drawn :
nor do I iraagine that any one ia ao weak as
from hence te conclude that it ought to be
called anthropology, rather than theology :
for though it not only treats of the happineaa
of mankind, but alao haa thia happines, as
haa been ebaerved, for its chief end and de
sign ; yet, with good reason, and on many
accounts, it has obtained this raore sublime
tide. It haa God for ita author, whora the
wiaeat of raen would in vain atterapt to find
out, but ftora the revelation he haa made ef
himaelf ; every auch atterapt being as vain aa
It weuld be to look fer the aun in the night
time, by the light of a candle ; fer the for
mer, like the latter, can only be aeen by hia
own Ught. God cannot be known but ao
far aa he reveals himself : which Sophocles
has also admirably well expressed : " You
will never," says he, " understand those di-
* Vitam hanc, scientibus daretur, neminem accep-
turum. — Senfca. ,
t QuiE est unica tua consolatlo in vita et in morte ?
X Qua; est unica ad veram felicitatem via ^

LECT. XVIIL
vine things which the gods have thought
proper to conceal, even though you should
ransack all nature."*
Nor has this sacred science God for its
author only, but also for its subject and its
ultimate end, because the knowledge of him,
and his worship, comprehends the whole of
religion ; the beatific viaion ef him includes
in it the whole ef our happiness, and that
happiness is at last resolved into the divine
grace and bounty.
I should therefore choose to give this brief
and clear definition of theology, namely,
" That it is a divine doctrine, directnig man
to real felicity, as his chief end, and conduct-
irig hira to it by the way of trae reUgion."
I call it a doctrine, because it is not con
sidered here as a habit in the raind, but as a
suraraary of celestial truth. I call it a di
vine doctrine, fer all the reasons already
raentioned ; because, for instance, it is frem
God ; be is the subject of it, and it all ter.
minates in him at last. I call it a doctrine
directing man, ior I confine my notion of it
to that doctrine only which was aent down
ftom heaven fer that purpose. What signify
then these distinctions, which are indeed
sounding, but quite tedious and foreign to
the purpose, that divide theology into arch
etypal and ectypal, and again into the theo.
logy of the church militant, and that ofthe
church triumphant ? What they caU arch.-
etypal theology is very improperly so named ;
for it is that perfect knowledge whicb God
has of himself:-): and the theology of the
church triumphant, ought rather to be caUed
the beatific vision of God.j: The theology
in question, "is that day spring from on high,
which hath visited us, to give light to them
whicii sit in darkneaa, and in the shadow of
death, to guide our feet in tbe way of peace."||
That peace ia true happinesa, and the way ef
peace is true religion : conceming which I
shaU' offer a few thoughts, and very briefly.
First of aU, you are to observe, that man is
not a lawless creature, but capable of a law,
and actuaUy subject te ene. This expres.
sion conveys ne harsh ner dishonourable idea;
nay, this subjection is so far ftom being a
burden, tbat it ia the greateat honour. To
be capable ef a law, ia the mark and ema.
ment of an inteUigent, rational aoul, and that
which distiuguiahes it ftom the brutes ; it
evidently supposes a reaerablance to Ged, and
an intercourae with heaven ; and to live ac
tuaUy under the direction of religion and the
law, is the great honour and ornament of hu
man life, and what distinguiahes it from the
irregular conduct of the brute creation. For, ,
aa the poet expresses it, " One beast de-
vours another, flshes prey upon fishes, and
birds upori birda, becauae they are aubject
* AXX' oil yxg XV TX B-tix, x^u^ttovtos ©Eew,
MxOois XV, ouh' tl 9XVT iTt^tXSois trxo-Tuv,
i ImTirofix, X 0Sll^^l«- I Luke i. 78. 79-

lECT. XVIII.

OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

COI

to no law : but raankind live under a just
law, which makes tbeir condition far prefer,
able."* The brute creatures devour one another
without blame, because they have no law ;
but, as Juvenal observes, " Men alone, of
aU other earthly creaturea, aa they derive their
reason from the highest heaven, are venera
ble for tbeir understanding, which renders
them capable of inquiring into divine things,
and qualifies them fer learning arts, and re
ducing them to practice."-)-
And hence it appears, tiiat we were bem
subjects to reUgion and an etemal law ef na
ture. Fer since eur blessed Creator has
thought proper to endue us with a mind and
understanding, and powers sufficient fer that
purpose, to be sure we are bound by an indis
pensible law, te acknowledge the priraary and
etemal Fountain of eur own being, and of
aU created things, to love bim above aU other
objects, and obey his coraraands without re
serve or exception. So that in this very law
of nature is founded a strong obligation upon
us to give due obedience to every divine posi
tive institution, which he shaU think proper
to add for securing the purposes ef religion
.«nd equity. Wherefore, when .our first
parents, by eating-the forhidden fruit, trans
gressed the symbolical command, intended as
ji proof of their obedience, by that very act
they most baaely breke the primary and great
law ot nature, which is the foundation of re
ligion, and of every other law whatever.
It is not my intention to speak here ef our
redemption by the Messias, the only-begotten
Son of Ged the Creator ; it is sufficient for
eur present purpose to observe, that our great
Redeemer haa indeed deUvered us from the
chains of ain and death, buthaa, byne means.
dissolved the bonda of religion, and the ever
laating law of nature : nay, theae are, in many
reapects, strengthened and confirmed by this
redemption ; and a cheerful subraission to
them by virtue of bis Spfrit, which is poured
ont upon us, is a great part of that royal li
berty of the sens ef Ged, which is secured te
us by his raeans, as, by iraitating his exam
ple, we arrive at the full possession of it,
which is reserved for us in the heavenly king
dom- The way, therefore, to happiness, which
we are in search of, is true religion, and such,
in a very remarkable manner, is that of the
Christians. On the Truth, and exceUence of this reli
gion you have a great many leamed writers,
both ancient and raodern. And, indeed, it
is exceeding plain, frera its own internal evi-
• Ij:&w-i fUv XXI B-n^tri, XXI oiaivois tstivivois
EffStIV mXX'oXJUJS, t^tl O-J SlXVj tITTIV est" XUTOtS,
, AvOiorroifl y iSotxt Sixnv, *l tTO}tXov x^io-rr,
' TlVtTX.
t  'Venerabile soli
Sortiti ingenium divinonimque capaces,
.Atque exercendis, capiendisque artibus apte
bensum k coelesti demissum traximus arce.
Jov. Sat XV. '

dence, that ef all the forms of religion* that
ever the world aaw, there is none more ex
cellent than tbat of Christianity, which we
profess, wherein we glory, and in which we
think ourselves happy, araidst all tbe trou
bles of the werld : there is none that is raore
certain and infallible with regard to its his
tory, raore sublime with regard to its rays
teries, raere pure and perfect in its precepta,
or more venerable for tbe grave simplicity of
its rites and worship ; nay, it appears evi
dent, that this religion alone is in every re
spect incoraparably preferable to every other.
It reraains, young Gentleraen — What do you
think I ara going to say ? It remaina, that
we become true Christians. I repeat it
again, if we wiU be bappy. Let us be Chris
tians. You will aay. Your wiah ia eaaily
satisfied, you have your deaire, we are all
Christians already. I wish it raay be so !
I wiU net, however, object to any particular
persen upon this head ; but every one of
yeu, by a short trial, wherein he will be beth
witness and judge, may settle this important
point within himself. We are all Chris
tians. Be it so. But are we peer in spirit ?
Are we humble, raeek, and pure in heart ?
De we pray witheut ceasing ? Have we
nailed aU our camal appetites and desires to
eur Saviour's croaa, " Uving no longer te our
selves, but te bira that died fer us ?" This
is the true description of a Chriatian, by the
teatimony of that goapel wbich we acknow
ledge to be Chriat's. And those who are en
tire atrangera to these dispoaitiona of raind,
know net, to be sure, the way of peace.
Theae I eameatly entreat and beaeech to
rouse theraselves, and shake off their indo
lence and aloth, lest, by indulging the vile
desires of the fieah, they lose their aeula for
ever. But if there are any araong you, and,
indeed, I beUeve there are sorae, who'with
aU their hearts aspire to theae Chriatian vir
tuea, and, by tbeir meana, te that kingdora
which can never be shaken ;-|- " Be strong
in the Lerd, have your loins girt abeut witb
trath, and be sober, and hope te the end."
You will never repent ef this hely warfare,
wbere the battle is se short, the victory so
certain, and your triumphal crown, and the
peace procured by this conflict, will last fo*
ever

LECTURE XIX.
Thai HoUness is ihe only Happiness on
ihis Earth.
The joumey we are engaged in is in.
deed great, and the way up-hiU ; but the
glorious prize which is set before us, is also

©o,iO-;tiJ«P-

t ArxXiuTov

f;o2

HOLINESS THE ONLV

great, and our great and valiant Captain,
who haa long age aacended up en high, sup
pUea ua witb strength. If our courage at
any time faila ua, let ua fix our eyea upori
bim, arid, accordirig te the advice ef the
Apostle, iri hia divirie Epiatle to the He
brews, " Look unto Jesus," reraoving eur
eyes frera all inferior objects, that, being
carried up aloft, they raay be fixed upon
him, which the original words seem to ira
port ;* then, being supported by tbe Spirit
of Christ, we shaU overcome all those ob
stacles in our way that seem most difficult
to our indolent and effeminate fiesh. And'
though the way frora tbe earth towards hea.
ven is by no raeans easy, yet even the very
difficulty will give us pleasure, when our
bearts are thus eagerly engaged and power
fully supported. Even difficulties and hard
ships are attended with particular pleasure,
when they faU in tbe way of a courageous
mind ; and, as the poet expresses it, " Ser
pents, thirat, and burning sands, are pleaaing
to virtue. Patience delights in hardahipa ;
and honour, when it is dearly purchased, is
poaaeaaed with greater satiafactien."-|-
If what we are told concerning that glori
ous city obtain credit with us, we ahaU cheer
fully travel towarda it, ner ahaU we be at aU
deterred by the difficulties that may be in tbe
way- But, however, aa it ia true, and more
suitable to the weakneaa of our ininds, that
are rather apt to be affected with things pre.
sent and near, thari such as are at a great
distance, we ought not te pass over in silence,
that the way to the happineas reserved in
heaven, which leads through thia earth, ia
¦lot only agreeable, becauae of the bleaaed
proapect it opens and -the glorious end to
whicb it conducts, but also fer its own sake,
and on account of the innate pleasure to be
found in it, far preferable te any other way
of life tbat can be made choice of, or, indeed,
iraagined. " Nay, that we raay net, by low
expressions,^: derogate frera a matter aegrand
and ao couapicuoua, that holineaa and true
religion which leada direcdy to the higheat
felicity, ia itaelf the only happinesa, aa far
as it can be enjoyed on this earth. What
ever naturaUy tends to the attainment of any
other advantage, participatea, in seme mea
sure, of the nature ef that advantage. Now,
this way to perfect felicity, if any thing can
be ao, ia a meana that, in a very great raea
aure, participates of the nature of ita end;§
nay, it ia the beginning of that happineaa, it
is alao te be considered as a part of it, and
differs from it, in its completest atate, net so
rauch in kind as in degree : ao that in Scrip.
ture it has the aame naraea : aa, for inatance,
*Eis Ivjtrouv x^^UfAlv. Heb. Xll. 2.
-t-  Serpens, sitis, ardor arense
Dulcia virtuti. Gaudet patientia duris :
Laitius est quoties magno sibi constat honeslum.
Lucan, lib. ix. il.
\ MixgoXoyix. § Xu.XfutTTXrov

in that passage of the EvangeUat, " This Is
life etemal, that tbey raight know thee, the
only true God ;"* that ia, not only the way
to eternal life, but also the beginning and
ffrst rudiments of it, seeing the anme know.
ledge when completed, or the fuU beatific
viaion of God, is etemal Ufi» in its fulness
and perfection. Nor doea the divine apostie
raake any diatinction between these two ;
" Now," saya he, " we aee darkly through a
glaaa, but then we ahall aee openly," or, aa
he expreaaea it, " face to face. Now I know
in part, but then I ahaU knew, aa I alao am
known. "-|- That celeatial life ia called an in.
heritance in light,^. and the heira ef it, even
while they are aojouming in thia earth, chil
dren of lighi,§ and, expresaly, Ught in the
Lord. " You were," says the apoatle,
" sometirae darkness, but new are ye light
in tbe Lerd.!'|| They wiU be there per.
fectly holy, and witheut spot ; and even here
they are caUed hely, and, in aorae reapect,
they are ao. Hence it ia, that thoae who
are reaUy and truly good and pious, are in
Scripture often called bleased, though they
are not fully and perfectly so : " Blessed is
the man that feareth the Lord ;"^ and,
" Blesaed are the undefiled in the way."**
Even tbe philosophers give their testiraony
te this trath, and their aentiraents en the
subject are not altogether to be rejected : foi
they, alraoat unanimoualy, are agreed, that
felicity, ao far aa it can be enjoyed in diia
life, consists solely, or at leaat principally,
in virtue : but aa to their aaaertipn, tbat this
virtue ia perfect in a perfect life, it ia rather
expressing what were tp be wished than de.
scribing things as they are. They might
have said, with mpre truth and justice, that
it is iraperfect in an iraperfect life ; which,
nn dpubt, would have satisfied them, if they
had knewn that it was to be made perfectin
another place and another life that truly de.
serves the name, and will be complete and
perfect. In thia, however, we heartily agree
with thera, that virtue, or, aa we rather
choose to express it, piety, which is abaolute.
ly the aum and substance of all virtues and
all wiadom, ia the only happineas ef this life,
ao far aa it ia capable thereof.
And if we aerioualy consider this aubject
but a little, we ahall find the aaying of the
wiae king Solomon, conceming this wisdom,
to be unexceptienahly true. " Her ways are
ways of pleasantness, and aU her paths are
peace." Doth religion require any thing of ua
mere than that we live aoberly, righteously,
and godly in tbia preaent world ? Now,
what, pray, can there be rapre pleasant pr
peaceable than these ? Temperance is al.
waya at leiaure, luxury always in a hurry ;

h

.rohn xvii. 3. t 1 Cor. xiii. 12. t Col. i. 12.
1 Thess. V. 5. II Eph. v. Ij, % Ps. cxii. I
i^sal. cxix. 1.

lECT. XIX.

HAPPINESS ON EARTH.

C03

the latter weakens the body and poUutes the
soul; the fprmer is the sanctity, purity, aud
spund state of both. It is ene of Epi.
curas' fixed maxims, " That life can never
be pleasant without virtue."* Vices seize
upon men with the violence and rage of
furies ; but tbe Christian virtues replenish
the breast which they Inhabit, with a heaven.
ly peace and abundant joy, and thereby
render it like that of an angel. Tbe slaves
of pleasure and camal affections have within
them, even now, an earnest of future tor
ments ; so that in this present Ufe, we may
truly apply to them that expression in the
Revelation, " They that worship the beast
have no rest day nor night." " There is
perpetual peace with the humble," says the
raost devout h Kempis ; " but the proud and
the covetous are never at rest."-|-
If we speak of charity, which is the root
and spring of juatice, what a lasting pleasure
does it diffiise through the seul ! " Envy,"
as the saying is, " bas no days ef festivity :"J
it enjoys not even its ewn advantages, while
it is tormented with those it sees in the pos
session ef others ; but charity is happy not
only in its ewn enjoyments, but also in those
of others, even as if they were its own ; nay,
/t is then most happy in the enjoyraent of
its own good things, when, by liberaUty, it
makes thera the property of ethers ; in short,
itis a godlike vfrtue. § There is nothing
raore divine in raan, " than to wish well to
men, and to do good to aa many as one pos
aibly can ;|1 but piety, which worships God
vrith constant prayer, and celebrates hira with
the highest praises, raises raan above himself,
and gives him rank among the angels. And
contemplation, which is, indeed, the raost
" genuine and purest pleasure of the human
soul, and the very surarait of felicity, is no
where so sublime and enriched as it will be
found te be in true reUgion, where it may
expatiate in a system of divine truths most
extensive, clear, and infaUibly certain ; rays
teries that are most profound, and hopes that
are the most exalted : and he that can render
these subjects familiar to bis mind, even on
this earth, enjoys a Ufe replete with heavenly
pleasure. I might enlarge greatly ou this subject,
and add a great raany ether considerations
te tiiose I have afready offered ; but I shaU
onlv further observe, that that sweet virtue
of contentinent, so effectual for quieting the
raind, which philosophy sought for in vain,
reUgion alone has found ; and alao discover
ed, that it takes its rise from a firra confi
dence in the almighty power of Divine Pro-
* AvEU xetTr,s oux tivxi viSlus Crw
t Jugis pax cum bumih, superbus autem et avarus
nunquam quiescunt.
:; Invidia festos dies non agit.
5 AetT'o Q-iotixtX.os. . . . -. ,
II Omnibus bene velle, et quam plurimis pcssit bene
facere

vidence. Fer what ia there that can possi.
bly give uneaainess to him who comraita
hiraself entirely to that Paternal Goodness
and Wisdora which he knowa to be infinite,
and aecurely devolves the care ef aU his con.
cems upon it ?
If any of you object, (what has been ob.
aerved before,) that we often aee good raen
meet with severe treatment, and also read
that " many are the afflictions of the just :"*
I answer. Do you not also read what irame.
diately follows, " But the Lord delivereth
hira out of them all ?"-|- And it weuld be
madneaa to deny thitt tbia raore than cora-
penaatea the other. But neither are the
wicked quite exempted from the miafortunes
and calaraities of life ; and when they fall
upen them, they have nothing to support
them under such preaaurea, none to extricate
or deliver them.
But a trae Chriatian, encouraged by a
good conacience, and depending upon the
Divine favour, beara with patience all theae
evila, by tbe eflfarta of generous love and un.
shaken faith : they all seem light to him ;
he despises what he suffers, while he waits
with patience fer the object of his hope ; and
indeed, what, either in Ufe or in death, can
he be afraid of, " whose Ufe is hid with
Christ in God ;" and of whom it raay be
justly said, without exaggeration, " If the
werld should be crushed, and broken to
pieces, he weuld be undaunted, even while
the rains fell upon his head ?"J

LECTURE XX.
Of our Happiness, particularly that it
lies in God, who alone can direct us to
the true Way of attaining io it ; that
this Way he has discovered in the Sa
cred Scriptures, the divine Authority
whereof is asserted and illustrated.
These two expressions, " That there is
a beginning, and that there is also an end,"§
convey matters great in themselvea, and
which eught to be conaidered aa ef vaat im-
portance to ua. It is absolutely neceaaary,
that there ahould be aome one principal of all
thinga ; and by an equal degree of necea
aity, thia principal rauat be, of all others, the
greateat and the best. It is also necessary that
he who gave being to aU things, raust have
propoaed to himaelf aome end to be attained
by the production and diapoaal of thera :
but, aa tbe end of the beat of aU agents raust

« Psalm CXXXIV. 19.
X Si fractus illabatur orbis
Impavidum ferient ruinae.
§ LOTIV x^a Til x^x^' XXI tJTIV xsx

t Ibid.
Hon.

604

OUR HAPPINESS IN GOD.

LECT. XX.

itself alao be the highest and the best, this
end can be no other than hiraself. And the
reaaening of the author of tbe Epiatle to the
Hebrews, concerning the oath of God, may
also be appUed to thia caae : " Aa he had
no greater to awear by," says the apostle,
" he swore by himaelf." In like manner,
as he had no greater or better end te propose,
be proposed himself. " He hath made all
thinga fer himaelf," says fhe author ef the
book of Proverbs, " even the wicked for tbe
day of evil."* And the apostle Paul, in
his Epistle to the Roraana, givea us a lively
description of that incomparable cfrcle, the
most complete of aU figures : " Of him, and
through him, and to hira, are aU things, to
whom be glory for ever. Araen. "-j-
New man, the omaraent and master-piece
of aU the visible creation, by extraordinary
art, and in a method pecuUar te himaelf, re
turns to his first original, and bas his Creator
not only for the principal of his being, and of
his well-being, but also for his end. Thus, by
a wonderful instance of wisdom and goodneaa,
God has ao connected his ewn glory with eur
happineaa, that we cannot properly intend or
deaire the one, but the ether muat foUew ef
courae, and our feUcity ia at last reaolved into
hia etemal glory. The other werks ef God
aerve te promote his honour ; but raan, by
rational knowledge and wiU, offers hiraself
and aU that be has as a sacrifice te his Crea
tor. From his knowledge of him, he ia in
duced to love bim ; and in conaequence of
his love, he attains at last to the enjoyment
of him. And it is the wisdom aa weU aa
the happineas of man, to propose to himaelf,
aa the acope and ultimate end ef hia Ufe, tbat
very thing whicb hia exalted Creator had
propoaed before.
But, that we may proceed graduaUy in
our apeculations upon tbis subject, we must
first conclude, that there is a proper end in
tended for raan ; that this end is suited to
his nature, and perfectly accoraraodated to
aU his wants and desires, that so tbe princi
pal part of this wonderful fabric raay not be
quite inegular, and labour under a raanifest
imperfection. Nor can there be a mere important specu
lation, nor one more worthy ef man, than
tbat which concerns his own end, and that
good which is fully and perfectly suited to
hia circuraatancea. Chance or fortune muat,
of necessity, have a great influence in our
life, when we live at random ; we must,
therefore, if we be wise, or rather, that we
may be wise, proppse tp ouraelves an end, to
which all our actions ought to have a refer
ence, and by which, as a certain fixed atar,
we are to direct our course. But it is sur
prising te obaerve, how rauch aU the wiaeat
raen among the Heathena were perplexed in
their inquiries after thia end, and into how
• Prov. xvi. 4. t Rom. xi. 3S.

many different opinions they were divided
about it. Of this, however, we bave spoken
at great length in another place.
Now, to be brief, it is necessary that this
good or end sheuld be " perfect, suitable, net
easily taken away, nay, such as we can by no
means be deprived of; and, finaUy, it must
conaist of such thinga aa have a particular
relation te the soul, and not of eittemal en.
joyraents."* Whence " slavish and brutal
pleasures,"-)- vain and perishing honours and
riches, which only serve te support and pro^
raote the forraer, are, in this inquiry, justly,
and without the least hesitation, hissed off
the stage by aU sound philosophers ; who
with great unanimity acknowledge, that eur
feUcity consists solely, er at least principaUy,
in virtue. But your favourite philosopher
Aristotle, and the Peripatetics, who are his
followera, aeem to deubt whether virtue alone
be sufficient for tbis purpose, and net to be
very consistent with themselvea. The Stoics,
whe proceeded with greater courage, and act.
ed more like men, affirmed, that virtue waa
fully aufficient for this purpose, without the
helps and supplements required by the for.
mer. And that, while they bestowed sucb
high praises on virtue, they might net aeem
to have quite forgotten God, they not onlysaid
that vfrtue was something divine, in whicb
they were joined by Aristotle, but alao con
cluded, that their wise man did aU things,
" with a direct reference to God."$ It waa
also a general maxira with the followers of
Plato, " That the end of raan is to be, as
far as possible, raade like unto God."§ And
Plato hiraself, in his aecond book ef laws, and
in his Phsedo, asserts, that raan's chief good
is the knowledge of ihe truth : yet, as this
knowledge ia not perfect in the' preaent Ufe, •
he is of opinion, that it can scarcely be said
ef any man, that he is happy here below ;
but there is hope to be entertained conceming
the dead, provided they are purified before
they leave the world. But there are two
things particularly with regard te thia ques.
tion, which eur religion and most precious
faith teaches with incomparably greater fill.
ness and evidence than all the schools and
books of the philosophers.
1. That our feUcity is not to terminate in
ourselvea, but in God. " Bleaaed is the man
that feareth the Lerd ;"|1 and, " The pure
in heart ahaU aee God."51' " To seek God,"
saya St. Auguatine, " is to desire happiness,
and to find hira is that happiness."**
2. That our happineaa is not confined
within the Umits of this abort life, nor doea
it end with it : on the contrary, it is acarce
* TtXtiov, XXI xuTTQxis, XXI Suirx^xi^trov, imo ot.at-
Qxl^tTOV, KXI TfiJl' 3-Egl '^UX'nS, XXI OU TOIV tXTOS.
t AvS^XToSuSus XXI ^Vl^luStlS viSoVXt.
X Met-' xvx^o^xs tis TO. ®EOV-
§ TtXos xvO^oirou e[AOiuris ®tu xxtx to Suvxtov,
II Psalm cxh. 1- U Matt. v. 8.
** Seculio Dei appetitus beatitatis, consecutio bej>
titis

OUR HAPPINESS TN GOD.

COS

begun in thia world ; but when the present
life comes to a period, tben thia happineas is
completed, and becoraes etemal. Our Ufe
on tbia earth, therefore, ia only ao far happy,
aa it haa a resemblance to that we shall enjoy
in heaven, and becoraes, as it were, an ear-
nest of it : that is, when it is eraployed in
pure and sincere piety, in obedience to the
wiU ef God, and an arabition to proraote
his glory, till we anive at that happy state,
where our hunger and thirst shall be abun-
dantly aatisfied, and yet our appetites never
cloyed. For it is evident, that raan, in this life,
becomes se much the raore perfect and happy,
iu proportion as he has his raind and affec
tions mere thoroughly conformed to the piit.
tern of that most bleased and perfect life ;
and tbis is, indeed, the great ambition of a
trae Christian ; this is his study, which he
ceases not te pursue with ardour day and
night ; nor does he let so much as one day
pass, without copying some lines of that per
fect pattern ; and the more he advances in
purity of mind, the greater progress he makes
in the knowledge and contemplation ef divine
things. But whe will insfruct us with regard to
the raeans of reaching this blessed mark ?
Who wiU shew us how we may attain thia
conformity to God, and raost effectually pre
raote his honour and glory, so that at last we
•nay come to the enjoyraent of hira in that
endless life, and be fbr ever satisfied -*ith the
Beatific vision ef him ? What faithful guide
shall we find te direct us in this way ? Surely
he himself muat be our leader ; there is no
other besides him, that can answer our pur
pose. It is he alone that acquaints ua witb
his own nature, as far aa it is neceaaary for
ua to know it ; and he alone that directa us
to the way wherein he chooaea to be wor.
shipped. "Ged cannot be known but, by
his own revelation of himself."* When' he
is pleased to wrap himself up in a cloud, nei
ther man in his original Integrity, nay, nor
even the angels, can know or investigate bis
nature or his intentions. We are, indeed,
acquainted in the sacred recorda, " That the
heavena declare the glery of God :"-)- and
thia, te be sure, is very true in certain re
specta, but they de by no means declare the
hidden mysteries of the Creator, nor his in
tentions, and the manner of that worship and
service he requires ftom hia reaaouable crea
tures. And therefore the Psalmist, having
begun the Psalra with the voice and declara
tion of the heavens, immediately after men
tions another Ught much clearer than the sun
himself, and a volume or book raore perfect
tban the language of all the spheres. No
thing is more certain, than that the docfrine
which leads us to God, must take its rise
* Non potest Deus, nisi de Deo, utelligi,
t Psalm xix. i. I

frera him ; for by no art whatever can the
waters be made to rise higher than their foun
tain. It was therefore absolutely necessary,
fer the purpose I have mentioned, that some
revelation concerning Ged should be raade
to mankirid by hiraaelf; arid, accordingly,
he did reveal himaelf to them from the be
ginning ; and tbeae revelationa the father of
liea mimicked by theae delusions of his that
were published by the Heathen oracles. The
Divine Wisdom, in revealing himself te man
kind, has thought proper, at different periods
of time, to make use of different raethods and
ways, or, according to that of the Epistle to
the Hebrews, " at sundry times, arid in divers
manners ;"* but at last it seeraed gppd tp
hira, that this sacred dpctrine sheuld be cpra
mitted tp writing, that with the greater cer
tainty and purity it might be handed down
te succeeding ages. If we consider his ab
solute pov/er, it would, certainly have been
as easy for bim to bave preserved tbis doc-
tririo pure and entire, without coramitting it
to writing ; but, for the mest part, he has
been pleased to make use of raeans naturaUy
suited and adapted te his purposes, and dis.
poses all things so aa effectuaUy to secure his
enda, yet in an eaay, natural manner, suited
to our capacities and conceptions of things.
If any one would prove, that these books
which we receive as such, are in fact the re
positories ef this sacred and celestial dec-
trine, the most proper raethod he could take
would be, first, to shew, that the sacred his.
tory and doctrines contained in thera are
true ; and then, frora their own testiraony,
conclude thera divine.
For, tbe truth of our religion being once
well established, it is, to be sure, a most juat
poatulation, and such as ought not to be
denied to any sect ef men, that, in thia in.
atance, the teatiraony of the Christian church
should be believed, when it points out the
books wherein the sum and substance of that
religion ere originally and authenticaUy de
posited. -)-
The truth of the sacred history being once
granted, the divinity of the doctrine will na
turally follow of courae ; aa tbe history raen
tions ao many and se great miraclea that
were wrought iu confirmation ofthe doctrine ;
theae particularly that were performed in
proof of the Old Testament, by Moses the
servant of God, by whose ministry the law
was given to the Jews ; and those that were
wrought in confirmation ef the New by Jesus
Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, and
author ef the evangeUc law ; as also those
that were wrought by his servants the Apos.
des, and other Christians : aud abaolutely
to deny the force of all these, weuld be an
instance of irapudence and obstinacy so great,
tiiat the keenest enemies of the Christian
* HoXuiM^us XXI voXuT^ortus
+ AuBlVTIKOIS.

COG

OUR HAPPINESS IN GOD.

name of old did not venture upon it. But
the Scriptures have two great evideqcea of
their divinity — their own intemal character,
and that external teatimony. There are two
things which principally prove their intemal
character. '
1. The incomparable subliraity and purity
of the doctrine they contain : for in vain will
yeu look for auch profound rayateries, and
such pure and hely precepta, any where else.
2. The inimitable and evidently divine
majesty of the atyle, attended, at the aame
time, with a surpriaing and wonderful aim
plicity. Their voice ia not the voice of raan ;
but the whole ef them, notwithatanding their
great extent, sounds something more grand
than can be expected from the mouths of
mortal raen- Nor ought we to pass over that
divine efficacy wliich the Scriptures have,
not only to raove the rainds ef raen, but also,
by a divine operation,* to change thera into
something quite different from what they
were before ; according te that of Lactantius,
*^ Give me a fierce, cruel, and passionate
man, with a few of the words of God I will
make bira as meek as a larab," Scc,-\- And
the external testiraony afready raentioned
has, to be sure, as much weight as any thing
of that kind can possibly have. Who would
deny to the regular succession ef the Catholic
church, the credit ef a witness ? Who, on
the other hand, would claim the authority
of a judge and arbitrator ? It weuld be quite
siUy te ascribe to the church a deciaive power,
as if, when a book were first presented to it,
or brought out of any place, where it had
been long concealed, it could iraraediately
pronounce whether that book was divine
authority >r not. The church is only a wit
neaa with regard to thoae booka we acknow
ledge, and its testiraony extends no farther
tban tbat they were received, in the first ages
of Christianity, as aacred and divinely in.
apired, and aa auch handed down frora age
to age, te the church that now is ; and he
that weuld venture to diacredit thia teatimony
muat have a heart of lead, and a face of braaa.
There ia ne occasion to dispute ao fiercely
abeut the inward testimony of the Holy
Ghost : for I am persuaded that those who
talk abeut it, underatand nothing raore by
it, than that the Holy Spirit produces in the
hearts of raen that faith whereby they cheer
fuUy and aincerely receive theae booka, and
the doctrine contained in thera, aa divine ;
because such a faith either includea, in tbe
very notion of it, or at least ia neceaaarily
connected with, a religious frarae ef tbe
mind, and a sincere diapoaition to universal
obedience. " And he that believeth," as
the apoatle John expreasea it, " has thia tes
tiraony in hiraself,"t though he cannet con.
* &tou^yot fi.i.TX,xea^uffti.
\ Da mihi ferum, .V c, ut supra.
X 1 John V 10-

vey or transfer it to othera. Now, to assert
the neceaaity ef such an internal teatimony,
ia nothing more tban to say, tbat whatever
evidence the Scripture may have in itaelf, or
ftom other considerations, yet the divine faith
of this truth must be from above. And he
that would deny thia, would therebv plainly
diacover, tbat he was an entire stranger to
that faith hiraself. " Tbe Scripture," saya
Thomaa a Kerapia, " muat aurely be believ.
ed and underatood by raeana of the a<ime
Spirit by whora it waa at firat delivered."*
And, as St. Augustine expresses it, "the
only effectual teacher is he who has bia
chair in heaven, and yet instructs the bearts
of raen on this earth. "-j- The same Divine
Spirit plants fiiith in the raind, together with
the proper intelligence of divine things, and
daily augments and improves these disposi.
tions. This great gift ofthe Spirit ia, there.
fore, to be sought by fervent and constant
prayer ; and tbe Son of God, who is truth
itaelf, haa assured us, that his moat bounti^
ful Father wUl give it to thoae that ask hirn.
Ariatotle has told ua, " That divine inspira.
tion is to be sought hy sacrifices."J And it
is no less true, " that the faith and under.
atanding of thinga revealed by divine inspi
ration are to be aought by prayer."§ Vano
teUa ua, that he wrote first ef human, and
then ef divine institutions, because societies
ef men existed firat, and the latter were in.
atituted by thera. True religion, on die
contrary, inatead of being inatituted by any
city er aociety on earth, hath inatituted a
city altogether heavenly and divine, and 'u
itaelf inapfred by God, whe is the giver of
eternal life to all that worahip him in ain.
cerity. ||
It is truly aurpriaing to obaerve, bow dif.
ferently this religion was ef old received
araong men, and wbat different entertainment
it meeta with even to this day, though the
doctrine haa been alwaya the sarae, though
it ia atiU enforced by the aame argu,ments,
and bas the same difficulties and prejudice*
to struggle with. When tbe divine apostle
preached in the Areopagus at Athens, a
great many raocked and ridiculed him ;
others aaid, " We will hear tbee again o!
thia matter ; but eertain men clave unto him
and believed."^ And that we may not think
that tbia faith in theae who believed waa ow.
ing to tbeir uncomraon penetration or saga.
city on the one hand, or their weakness and
siraplicity on the ether, ofthe Iwo mention.
ed in Scripture tbat believed on this occaaion,
the one waa a philosopher, and the other a

* Eodem certe spiritu, et credenda et mtelligenda
sacra scriptura, quo tradita est,
t Qui cathedram habet in coelo, corda docet in terris.
X To ^to-rvtutrrov Txis ^uTixis Zvt'otiov.
§ T«W TUV a-torvtUO-TUV TITTIV XXJ tTUVtO'lV EUX»'»
^T.TV-TteV- (I St. Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. vi. c. iii.
U Acts xvii. 32, 34.

OUR HAPPINESS IN GOD.

fiOT

woman. Now, though, without doubt, hu
man Uberty is to be allowed its due weight
in this raatter ; yet we cannot help acknow
ledging, that a certain influence or energy*
seems to diacover itaelf here.
The baaia of religion is faith ; just appre
hensions er right notions-\' of Ged, ac
cprding tp Epictetus. St. Ignatius says,
" Faith is the beginning pf life, and love
tbe end of it i"$ and the words of the Apes-
tie are, " He that cometh te Ged, rauat
beUeve that he is, and that he ia a rewarder
ef tbem tbat diligentiy aeek hira ;" se that
the giving ef a law te raan, and the enforcing
it with the motives of rewards and punish
raents, is not iuconsiatent with the fiUal,
diaintereated obedience of a rational creature,
even in a state of innocence.
AU true and lively faith begets love ; and
thus that heavenly light is the vehicle of heat :
and aa, by thia means, trae faith bas a tenden
cy to the practice of obedience, so all true obe
dience depends upon faith, and flews frem it ;
but it also proceeds from love, becauae faith
ffrat producea love, and then worka by it.
AU knowledge ef raysteries ia vain, and of no
value; unleaa it have' an influence upon the
affections, and thereby en the whole conduct
of Ufe. The lurainaries of heaven are placed
en high ; but they are se placed, that they
may shine and perform their periods fer the
benefit of this earth. §
1. We must believe that God is : this
truth is written in capital letters on every
page of tbe sacred books of Scripture : for
all things that are therein deUvered by
Ged, and conceming him, confirm this, and
take it for a primary and undoubted princi
ple. But these sacred books acknowledge
another more universal evidence of this lead
ing truth, and an evidence quite distinct
frem theirs, to which they refer aU, even the
meat obatinate unbelievera, and these that
are entirely ignorant of this celestial doctrine,
for fuU conviction. ||
As it ia quite plain, that the testimony of
the written word wiU have Uttle or no influ
ence upon men who have not received the
least tincture ef divine faith ; should any per
sen, disputing with them, reason lafter thia
manner, there ia a God, becauae thia is aa-
serted in tbe Sacred Scripturea, and their
teatimony muat by aU meana be believed.
becauae they are the word of God ; an argu
ment of thia kind, to be sure, would have

the submission due to their real dignity and
divine authenticity, receive light and edifica.
lion frera thera on every article of faith, and
with regard to the whole systera of religion
in general : let hira also, in congratulation
te their exalted Author, cry out, " With
thee, O Lord, is the fountain ef life : and
in thy light we shall see light."* And let
hira that desires te be net only a norainal
proficient in theology, but a real lover of
God, and also te be taught ef hira,-f- resolve
within hiraself, above all things, to make
this Sacred Volume his constant study, mix.
ing his reading with ftequeut and fervent
prayer ; for if these are omitted, his labour
wiU be altogether in vain, supposing him te
be ever se well versed, not only in these
books, but also te have all the advantages
that can be had frem the knowledge of Ian.
guages, and tbe aaaiatance of comraentatora
and interpreters. Different men have differ
ent views in reading this book ; aa in the
sarae field tbe ox looks fer graaa, the hound
for a hare, and the atork fer a Uzard. Seme,
fend of critical reraarks, pick up nothing
but little atonea and ahella. Othera run in
pursuit of sublime mysteries, giving thera
selves but very little trouble abeut the pre
cepts and instructiona that are clear and
evident ; and theae plunge themaelvea into a
pit that has no bottom. But the genuine
disciples ef this trae wisdora are those who
make it their daily employment to purify
their hearts by the water of these fountaina,
and reduce their whole Uvea to a conforraity
with this heavenly doctrine. Tbey desire
not to knew theae things only, that they may
have the reputation of knowledge, or to be
distinguished in the world : but that their
soula raay be healed, and thefr atepa directed,
ao that tbey raay be led, through the paths
ef righteousness, te the glorioua felicity which
ia aet before tbem.
The aura of all is, that eur felicity lies
solely and entirely in that bleased God wbo
is also the fountain and source of our being ;
that the ouly meana ef our union with bim
ia true reUgion ; and this again consists in
our entertaining just notions of God, wor
shipping hira acceptably, and endeavouring
after a conatant and unwearied obedience to
all his coraraanda, according to that moat
pure arid perfect rule laid down in theae
divine books, which we profeas to receive as
such. Let us, therefore, have constantly

no other effect, but to expose the person fixed in our rainds these words of the Psal-
that urged it te the ridicule of Atheists and raist, " Bleaaed are the undefiled in the way,
Unbelievera; because it evidently begs the that- walk in the way of the Lerd. Thou
questidn, and runs into a vicious circle. He, hast commanded us to keep thy precepts
therefore, that weuld bring over sucb per- diUgently. O ! that ray waya were directed
aons te the faith, rauat reason after a quite to keep thy statutes." J
different raanner. But let hiin, on the other i
hand, who oiiee accepts these books withj * P^^'Ji; jf^! i",' 4, -'.. t t'^.e^ -' *^«*'S«-«
*0£i«V TlVOt fjLOlootV vel lViQrit<X.V. f Og^*' VVO>i.V,-\'lli-
Rom. i. 2U.

COB

OF THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES.

LECT. XXL

LECTURE XXI.
Of the Divine Attributes.
Of all the maxima that are naturaUy writ.
ten on the heart of man, there ia none raore
certain or mere univeraaUy known, than
THAT GOD IS ; Concerning which I gave a
dissertation some time ago. But of all the
secreta and hidden thinga of nature, which
have been the aubject of human study and
inquiry, there ia nething, by a prodigious
odds, so difficult or unsearchable, as to know
WHAT he is. Tbe saying of St. Augus
tine, concerning time, is weU known in the
schools ; with how much greater truth might
it be aaid of Him who ia raore ancient than
time, " and who bid time flew from the be
ginning !"* that he hath " made darkness
his hiding place, and araidst tbat darkness
dweUs In Ught inaccessible,"-)- which, to our
eyes, is to be sure mere dark than darkness
itself. " O the divine darkness 1 "J says
a great man ; and anether mest acutely,
" If yeu divide or cut asunder this darkness,
who wiU shine forth ?"§ When, therefore,
we are to apeak of him, let ua alwaya caU to
remembrance the adraonition which bids us
" speak with reverence and fear." || For what
can we say that ia worthy of hira, since raan,
when he speaka of God, is but a blind per
son describing Ught ? Yet, blind as we are,
there is one thing we raay, with great truth,
say of that glorious light, and let ua frequent
ly repeat it : O when will that bleased day
shine forth, which shall deliver the soul ftom
thoae thick integumenta of fleah, that, like
scalea on tbe eye, obatruct ita aight, and
shaU introduce it into a full and open view
of lhat priraitive, eternal light ? Perhapa
the properest answer we could give to the
question. What ia God ? would be to ob.
serve a meat profound silence : or, if we
should think proper te answer any thing, it
ought to be something next to this absolute
silence ; namely, God is ; which gives us a
higher and better idea ef him, thari any
thing we can either express or conceive.
Theological writers mention three me
thods, whereby men corae to some kind of
knowiedge of God theraselves, and commu*
riicate that knowledge te others, namely, the
way oi negation, the way of causation, and
tbe way ef eminenee : yet the very terms
that are used to express these ways, shew
what a faint knowledge of the invisible Being
is to be attained by them ; so that the two
luit raay be justly reduced to the first, and
all our knowledge of this kind caUed nega
tive. Fer, to pretend to give any explana-
»  Qui tempus ab aevo
Ire jubet- Boeth. de Cons. Phil. lit), iii. met. 9.
t Psalm xviii. 11. ij: fl to B'tiov o-xotos.
§ Av TO axOTOS TlfAVfJ, TIS XVXO'T^XTTlTXI ;
i AxXU PAV tv Ooi^.

tion of the Divine essence, aa distinct from
what we call his atfributes, weuld be a re.
finement so absurd, that, under the appear.
ance of more accurate knowledge, it weuld
beteay our ignorance tbe mere : and so un.
accountable weuld it be to attempt any such
thing witb regard te the unsearchable ma.
jesty of God, that, possibly, the most tower
ing and exalted genius en earth eught frankly
to acknowledge, that we know neither our
own easence, nor that ef any other creature
even tbe meaneat and moat contemptible.
Though in the achools they distinguish the
Divine attributes or excellencies, and that
by no meana improperly, into communicable
and incomraunicable ; yet we ought so to
guard thia diatinction, aa always to remem.
ber, that thoae which are called communicable,
when appUed to God, are not only to be un.
derstood, in a manner, incommunicable, and
quite pecuUar to himaelf, but alao, that in
him they are, in reality, infinitely different
frora those virtuea ; or rather in a matter
where the diaparity of the aubjecta ia so very
great, those shadows of virtues, that go under
the same names, either in raen pr angels ;
for it is npt only true, that aU things, in the
infinite and eternal Being, are infinite and
etemal, but tbey are also, though in a man
ner quite inexpressible, bimself. He is good
without quaUty, great without quantity, &c.
He is geod in such a sense as to be called by
the EvangeUst the only good Being.* H€
is also the only wise Being ; " To the only
wise Ged," saith the Apostle. And the same
Apostle tells us, in another place, " That
he only hath immortality," that is, " from
his own nature, and net frora the will or dia.
position of another."-|- " If we are con
sidered aa joined te, or united with Ged,"
says an ancient writer ef great note, " we
have a being, we live, and in aome aort are
wiae : but if we are compared witb God, we
have no wiadora at aU, nor do we Uve, or ao
much aa have any existence. "J All other
things were by Hira brought out of nothuig,
in consequence of a ftee act ef his wiU, by
raeans of his infinite power ; so that they
raay be justly called mere contingencies, and
be is the only necessarily existent Being.
Nay, he is the only really existent Being.
To ovTots ov, or, aa Plotinua expreaaes it, ra
vort^ovTcos ov. Thua also tbe Septuagint speaks
ef hira, aa the only exiatent Being, § and ao
alao does the Heathen poet.jl This is like
wise impUed in the exalted name .lehovah,
which expresses his being, and that he bas
it from himself ; but wbat that being is, or
wherein its essence, so to speak, consists, it
• Matthew xix. 17.
+ E| oixiixs 0uTtus, OUK eS iTi^ov 0ouXv,,irtus,
X Deo si conjunglmur, sumus, vivimus, sapimus_
Deo si comparamur, nee sapimus omnino, nee vivi'
mus, imo nee suinus. Greg. IMag. Mor.
§ Oo..-
I Ov^E TIS IrS' irt^os xoifli .l,otyttXou ^xciXvee

L5CT. XXI.
does not say ; nor, if it did, could we at all
conceive it. Nay, so far is that name ftom
discovering what bis being is, that it plainly
insinuates, that bis existence is hid, and co
vered with a veil. / am who I am ; or, I
am what I am.* As if he had said, I myself
know what I am, but you neither know ner
can know it ; and if I sheuld declare where
in ray being consists, you could not conceive
it. He has, however, manifested in his
works and in his werd what it is our interest
to know, "That he is the Lord Ged, mer-
ciful and gracious, abundant in goodness and
truth." We call him a raost pure Spirit, and mean
tp say, that he is of a nature entirely incor-
poreal ; yet this word, in the Greek, Hebrew,
and aU other languages, according to its pri.
mitive and natural signification, conveys no
ether idea, than that of a gentle gale, or
wind, which every one knows to be a body,
though rarified to a very great degree ; so that
when we speak of that infinite purity, all
words fail us ; and even when we think of it,
aU the refineraents of the acutest understand
ing are quite at a stand, and become entirely
useless. It is, in every respect, as necessary
to acknowledge his eternity, as his being ;
provided that when we mention the term God,
we mean by it the first being, supposing that
expression to include also his self-existence.
This idea ef a first and eternal Being is
again inseparably connected with an infinite
degree of all possible perfection, together with
immutabiUty, and absolute perseverance there
in. But all these are treated of, at great
Jength, intheological books, whereof you have
a very large coUection
In like manner, if we suppose Gpd to be
the ffrst of all beings, we must, unavoidably,
therefrom conclude his unity : as te thein.
effable Trinity subsisting in this Unity, a
mystery discovered only by the Sacred Scrip
tures, especiaUy in the New Testament,
where it is more clearly revealed than in the
Old, let others boldly pry into it, if they
please"; while we receive it with an humble
faith, and think it sufficient for us to admire
and adore.
The other attributes, that used to be men
tioned on this subject, may be supposed to
be perfectly comprehended under the foUow
ing three, viz. power, wisdom, and goodness :
for holiness, justice, mercy, infinite bounty,
Scc. may be, with great propriety, ranked
under the general terra oi goodness.
But rather than insist upen metaphysical
speculations, let us, while we walk daily in
these pleasant fields, be constantly culUng
fresh and never-fading flowers. " When tbe
Psalmist cries out, ' Great is the Lord, and
greatly to be praised, and of bis greatness
there is no end ;'-)- he wanted to shew," saith
St. Augustine, " how great he is ; but how
• Exodus iii. 14 t I'salm cxlv. 3.

OF THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES.

enn

can this be done ? Thougn ne repeated,
great, great, the whole day, it would have
been te litde purpose, for he raust have end-
ed at last, because the day weuld have end.
ed ; but his greatness was before the be.
ginning of days, and will reach beyond the
end of time."* The poet expresses hiraself
admirably well : " I will praise thee, O
blessed God, with my vpice, I will praise
thee, alsp, witb silence. Fpr thpu, O inex.
pressible Father, who canst never he known,
understandeat the ailence of the mind, as well
as any words or expressions. "-|-

LECTURE XXIL
How to regulate Life according to the
Rules of Religion'.
I have new, at different times, addreaaed
rayself to you upon aeveral subjecta of great
iraportance, and of the utmoat neceasity ;
though what I have hitherto said was oidy
designed as a preface, or introduction, to
vhat I further proposed. But te attempt to
prosecute this design at the very end of the
year, would be quite iraproper, and to little
or no purpose ; I sbaU, therefere, altogether
forbear entering upon it, and, fer thia time,
lay before you a few advices wbich may be
uaeful, not only in order to eraploy to greatei
advantage the raonths ef vacation that are
now at hand, but also the better to regulate
your whole Uves.
And my first advice ahaU be, to avoid too
much sleep, which wastes the moming hours,
that are most proper for study, as well as for
the exercisea of religion ; and atupifiea and
eriervatea the steerigth of body and mind. I
remember, tbat the famous abbot of Claire.
vaux,J when he found the friars sleeping
immoderately, uaed to say, " That they slept
Uke tbe secular clergy. "§ And theugh we
do not adrait of the severe rales te which the
raonks subjected theraselves, we must at
least aUow, that the measure and degree of
sleep, and other bodily refteshraents, suit.
able for a young raan devoted to study and
devotion, is very far different from that ex.
cess in which the common sort of mankind
indulge theraselves.
Another advice, which is akin to and
nearly connected with the former, shaU be,
* Volebat dicere quam magnus sit, sed hoc qui fier
potest ? Etsi tola die magnum diceret, parum esset,
flniret enim aliquando, quia finiretur dies, niagnitudo
autem illius ante dies, et ultra dies.
t 'TfjLvu Ci fjoxxa^, Toffx xxi Clyxs
Kflii Six 9UVXS. Aius vot^xs-
'T/i^oi ct f-oxxxp, ilxTt^ xyvuCTi,
KxiSixciyxt- UXTI{ XffVITt,
'OCX yxe tfuvxs =iyn- Hymno- 4ta
X St. Bernard. § Seculariter dormire.
2Q

010

OF A RELIGIOUS LIFE.

LECT. XXIt.

to observe temperance in eating and drink-
.ng : for raoderation in sleeping generaUy
followa sobriety in eating, and other aensual
gratifications ; but that thick cloud of va
poura, tbat ariaea from a full stomach, muat
of neceaaity overwhelm all the animal apirita,
and keep them long locked up in an indo
lent, inactive state. Therefore the Greeks,
not without reaaon, expreaa theae two duties,
to be sober, and io be watchful, indiffererit-:
ly by the sarae term. And the apostie Peter,
that he might raake his connexion raore evi
dent, uses, indeed, two worda for thia pur.
poae ; but exhorta to theae duties, aa cloaely
connected together, or rather aa if they were
in aorae reapect but one, — Be sober, be vigi
lant.* And, in the aame epiatle, having
aubatituted another word fer aobriety, he ex-
presses watchfulness by the same werd he
had put for sobriety in the other place, — Be
sober, and waich.-\' Beth these dispositions
are se appUed to the mind, aa to include a
sober and watchful state of the bedy and
aenaea ; as this is exceeding useful, riay,
quite necessary, in order te a conespondent
frame of the mind ; and that diapoaition,
both ef bedy and raind, not only aubaervient,
but alao riecessary, to piety and constancy
in prayer ; " Be sober, and watch unto
prayer."J "When the body ia reduced to ita lighteat
¦and moat active atate, still, as it is corrupti
ble, it is, to be aure, a burden to the raind ;
how much raore muat it be ao, when it is de
pressed with an immoderate load of meat
and drink ; and, in consequence ef thia, of
sleep ! Nor can the mind rouae itaelf, er
uae the winga of contemplation and prayer
with fteedom, when it is overpowered with ao
heavy a load : nay, neither can it raake any
remarkable progreas in the study of human
literature, but wiU move alowly, and embar-
raaaed, be at a atand, like a wheel-carriage in
deep clay. The Greeks veryjustly express
ed the virtue we are now recommending, by
the terra co/(P(ocmvi, it being, as your fa
vourite philosopher § observes in his Ethics.
the great preservative of the mind. He is
certainly a very great enemy te his ewn un
derstanding, that lives high, and indulges
himself iu luxury. " A fat beUy is seldom
accompanied with an acute understand-
ing-"|| Nor is it my intention in tbis only to wam
you against drunkenneaa and luxury : I
would wilUngly hope, that auch an advice
would be superfluous to you : but, in this
conflict, I would willingly cany you to such
a pitch of victory, that, at your ordinary and
least delicious meals, you weuld always
stop aome degi'cea within the bounda to which
* Nij-J'osrs, y^Yiye^ncxTt, -
t ^U^^OVVjCXTt, XXI VV.-^XTl, 1 Pct. iV, ?.
t Eis Toes r^octuxxs. § Aristotle.
D UxXlIX yxCTVig XtTTOt ou TIKTll VOOV.

your appetite would cany yeu. Conaider
that, aa Cato said, " the belly has no ears,"*
but it has a mouth, into which a bridle must
be put, and, therefere, I address not myself
to it, but to the directirig mind that is set
over it, which, for that reason, eught to go
vern the body, with all its aenaea, and curb
them at ita pleaaure. St. Bernard's words
are admirable te this purpose : " A prudent
mind, devoted te Ged, eught se te act in its
body, as the master ef a family iri his own
house- He ought uot te suffer his flesh to
be, as Soloraon expreaaes it, like a brawling
woman, nor any camal appetite to act Uke a
rebelUous aervant ; but te inure them to obe
dience and patience. He raust not have his
senses fer his guides, but bring them into
subjection and subserviency to reason and re
Ugion. He muat, by aU raeans, bave his
house and faraily so ordered and weU dis
ciplined, that he can aay to one. Go, and he
goeth, and to another, Come, and he cometh ;
and to his servarit the body. Do thia, and
it doeth what it ia bid, without murrauring.
The body rauat alao be treated with a Uttie
hardahip, that it raay not be disobedient to
the raind-"-!- "Fpr. he," aaith Splomon,
" that delicately bringeth up his servant
from a child, shaU have him become a re
bellious son at laat."$ This is what I would
have you aspire to for a conquest over your
flesh, and all ita luata : for they carry on a
deadly war againat your aouls ; and their de.
sires are then meat to be resisted, when they
flatter moat- What an unhappy and dis-
honourable inveraion of nature it ia, when
the fieah commands, and tbe mind ia in aub.
jection ; — when the fleah, which is vile, gross,
earthly, and soon to be the food of worms,
govems "the soul, that is the breath pf
Gpd !" &c-§
Anpther thing I wpuld have yeu beware
ef, is immoderate speech. The evila of the
tongue are raany ; but the ahorteat way to
find a reraedy for thera all, is te stiidy si
lence, and avoid, aa the poet expresaea it,
" exceasive prating, and a vaat desfre of
apeaking-"|| " He ia a perfect man," as the apostle
James expreaaea it, " wbo offenda not in
word ;"^ and therefore, doubtless, he that
speaks least, offenda in thia respect more
• Ventrem nan habere aures-
X Sic prudens et Deo dicatus animus habere se debet
in corpore suo, sicut paterfamilias in domo sua- Non
habeat, sicut Solomon dicit, mulierem litigiosam
camera snara, nee ullum appetitum carnis ut servum
rebellem, sed ad obedientiam et patienliam assuefac-
tum Habeat sensus suos non duces, sed rationi ct
religion! servientes et sequaces ; habeat omnem omnino
domum vel familiam suam sic ordinatam, et disci-
piinEe subditam, ut dicat huic, Vade, et vadat ; et alii,
Veni, et veniat ; et servo carport, Facito hoc, et sine
murmure fiat quad jubetur ; et paulo certe durius
tractandum est corpus,'ne animo male pareat.
X, Prov. xxix. 21.
^Vuxvi S' eo-t;v x'o/xx ®lou, &C.
n Impraba jjarrijiilas, studlumqiie immane loquendi
ir James iii. 2.

LECT. XXII.
rarely. " But in tile multitude of words,"
as the wise raan observes, " there wanta not
airi."* To spe,ik much, and alao to the
purpose, seldom faUs to the share of one
man.-)- Now, that we may avoid loquacity,
we must love solitude, and render it famiUar ;
that so every one may have an opportunity
te apeak rauch to himself, and little to other
people. " We must, to be sure," aays k
Kempis, " be in charity with all men ; but
it ia not expedient to be familiar with every
one,"J General and indiacriminate conver
aation with every one we meet, is a mean
and siUy thing. Even when we proraiae
ouraelves comfort and aatisfaction from free
converaation, we often retum from auch in
terviews with uneaaineaa ; er at least, bave
spoken and heard such things as, upen ae
rious reflection, may juatly give ua concern.
But if we would secure eur tongues and
senses, or keep safe our hearts and all the
isauea of Ufe, we must be ftequeut at prayer,
in the moming, at noon, and at night, or
oftener throughout the day, and continually
walk as in the presence of God ; always re
membering, that he observes not only our
worda and actions, but also takes notice of
our raost secret thoughts. This is the sura
and substance of true piety : for he who is
always sensible that that pure and aU-seeing
Eye is coritiriually upon him, will never ven
ture to sin, with set purpose, er full consent
of mind. This sense of the Divine pre
sence would certainly make eur life en this
eardi like that of the angels ; for, according
to our Lord's expresaion, it ia their pecuUar
advantage, " continuaUy to behold the face
of eur Father, who ia in heaven." By thia
raeans Joseph escaped the anarea laid for him
by hia imperious mistress ; and, as if he had
thrown water upon it, extinguiahed that flery
dart with thia aeaaonable reflection, " Shall
I do this great wickedness, and ain againat
Ged ?"§ He might have eacaped the eyea of
raen, but he atood in awe of that Inviaible Eye,
frora whicb nothing can be hid. We read of a
good raan ef old, whe got the better of a
teraptation of the same kind, by tbe same
serious consideration ; for, being canied ftora
one chamber to another, by the woraan tbat
tempted hira, he still demanded a place of
greater secrecy, tiU having brought him te
the raoat retired place of tbe whole houae.
Here, aaid ahe, ne peraon will find us out,
no eye can aee ua. To thia he answered.
Will no eye see ? Will not that of God
perceive us ? By which aaying, he hiraself
escaped the anare, and, by the influence of
divine grace, brought the sinful woraan to
repentance. But now,
?Prov. X. 19. ¦¦
-f X-u^is TO r' litniv troXXx xxi tx xeu^ix.
X charitas certe habenda est erga omnes, sed familla-
rilas non expedit-
S Gen- xxxix. 9,

OF A RELIGIOUS LIFE.

611

Let us pray

Praise waits for tiiee, O Lord, in Zion ;
and to be employed in paying thee that tri
bute, ia a becoming and pleasant exerciae :
it is due to tbee ftora aU the works of thy
hands, but particularly proper from thy aaints
and celestial spfrits. Elevate, O Lord, our
minds, that they may not grovel en the earth,
and plunge theraselves in the mire ; but,
being carried upwards, raay taste the plea
surea of thy house, that exalted house of
thine, the inhabitanta whereof are continually
singing thy praises. Their praisea add no
thing te thee, but they theraaelves are per
fectly happy therein. While tbey behold
thy boundless goodneas, witheut any veil,
adraire thy uncreated beauty, and celebrate
the praisea thereof throughout aU ages ; grant
us, that we raay walk in the patha of holinesa,
and, according, to eur meaaure, exalt thy
name, even on thia earth, until we alao be
translated into the glorious asaembly of those
whe serve thee in thy higher house.
Reraeraber thy goodneas and thy covenant
to thy church raiUtant upon this earth, and
expoaed to dangera araidat ao raany eneraies :
yet we beUeve, that, notwithstanding all
these dangers, it wiU be safe at laat : it raay
be diatreaaed, and plunged in the watera, but
it cannot be quite overwhelraed, or flnally
periah. Pour out- thy bleaaing upon thia our
nation, our city, and univeraity. We depend
upon thee, O Father, without whose hand
we ahould net have been, and witheut whose
favour we can never be happy. Inspire our
hearts with gladness, thou, who alone art the
fountain ef solid, pure, and permanent joy,
and lead us, by the paths of righteouaness
and grace, to the rest and Ught of glory, for
the sake of thy Son, our Redeemer, Jesua
Christ. Amen.

LECTURE XXUL
Of Purity of Life.
In every act ef religious worahip, what a
great advantage would it be fo remember
that saying of our great Maater, whicii no
body ia altogether ignorant of, and yet acarce
any know aa tbey ought, " That God, whora
we worship, is a Spirit, and therefore to be
worshipped in spfrit and in truth !"* He ia
a Spirit, a most pure Spirit, and the Father
of spirits : he is truth, primitive fruth, and
the raost pure fountain of aU truth : " Bu t
we aU have erred in heart."-|- We are in
deed spirita, but apirita iraraersed in flesh ;
• John iv. 24.
t 'Hfi.lis 9e itoXXoi xxfSifo -rXciuu-ivoi

612

OF PURITY OF LIFE.

LECT. XXIII,

nay, aa it were, converted into fleah, and,
tiie light of truth being extingniahed within
us, quite involved in the darkness of enor :
and, what still sets us in greater opposition
to the truth, every thing about us is false
and delusive ; " There is no soundness."*
How improper, therefore, are we, who are
deceitful and carnal,-\ to worship that Spirit
of supreme truth ! Though we pray and
fast often, yet all our sacrifices, as they are
poUuted by the impure hands wherewith we
offer them, must be offensive and unaccept
able to God ; and the more they are multi
plied,, the more the pure and spotless Deity
raust complain of thera, as the grievance is
thereby enhanced. Thus, by his prophet,
be coraplained of bis people ef old : " Your
new moons," saith he, " and your appointed
feasts, my soul hateth : they are a trouble to
me ; I am weary te bear them. Therefere,
when yeu spread forth your hands, I will
hide mine eyes from you, and, as it were,
turn my back upen you with disdain. But,
if you will wash you, aud make you clean,
then come, and let us reason together.":}:
Aa if he had aaid, then let us converse to
gether, and if there be any difference between
ua, let us talk over the raatter and setile it
in a friendly raanner, that our coraplaints
may be tumed into rautual embraces, and aU
your aina being freely and fuUy forgiven,
yeu may be restored to perfect innocence :
" Though your sins be as scarlet, they shaU
be as white as snow ; theugh they be redder
than crimson, they shall be whiter than wool :
wash yourselves, and I will also wash you,
and moat completely wipe away all your
itaina." But, that we may be the better provided
for thia uaeful and altogether neceasary ex
erciae of cleanaing our hearta and ways, and
apply to it with the greater vigour, let us
dwell a little upon tbat sacred expression in
the Psalms, " Wherewith shall a young
man purify his way ?" The answer is, " By
taking heed thereto according to thy word."§
In thia question, several things offer them
selves te our observation.
1. That, without controversy,^^ purity of
life, er cenversation, is a raost beautiful and
desirable attainracrit, and that it must, by
all means, begin at tbe very fountain, that
IS, the heart ; whence, aa Solomon obaervea,
" proceed tbe iaaues of Ufe." In the be
ginning of the Paalra, they are pronounced
bleaaed, " Who are pure, er undefiled in
the way, whe walk in the law of the Lord."
And, in another place, " Traly God is geod
to Israel," says the Psalmist, " even to auch
»a are of a clean heart."^ And the words
of our Savieur to this purpose are, " Blesaed

• OuStv uyltS'
t ^X^IXOI XXI -^lUTTXI.
8 Psalm cxix. 9
"I Psalm Ixxiii. i.

* Isaaih 1. 14—16, 18.
II 'OfjiaXoyouiMvus,

are the pure in heart, for they shall aee God."*
Nor is tbe true and genuine beauty of die
seul any thing distinct frem this purity and
sanctity ; this is the true image of its great
Creator ; that golden crown, wbich mest un.
happily dropt off the head of man, when he
fell: so that, with the greatest justice, we may
laraent and say, " Wee unto us that we have
sinned." And it is the general design and
intention of aU religion, all its mysteries,
and all its precepts, tbat this crown may be
again reatored, at least, to some part of the
human race, and this image again stamped
upon thera ; which image, when fully com.
pleted, and for ever cenfiiraed, will certainly
constitute a great part of tbat happiness we
now hope for, and aspire after. Then, we
trust, we shaU attain to a more full cenfor.
mity and resemblance to onr beloved Head.
And, even in this way-faring state, the more
deeply and thoroughly our aeula are tinctured
with the divine fiame ef charity, joined wilh
thia beautiful purity, the more we resemble
Him " who is white and ruddy, and fafrer
than the sens of men." The Father ef
raercies has raade chpice ef us, that we may
be holy ; the Son of God, blessed fer ever,
has ence for all shed hia hloed upon earth,
in order to purify us, and daily poura out
his Spirit frora heaven upon us, for the same
purpose. But to consider the matter as it is in it
self, where ia the peraon that does not, even
by the force of natural instinct, disdain filth
and nastiness, or at least prefer to it purity
and neatness of bedy ? New, as the soul
greatly excels the body, so much the more
desirable is it, that it shpuld be found in a
state of beauty and purity. In Uke manner,
were we to travel a journey, who weuld not
prefer the plain and clean way to one that
was rough and dirty ? But the way of life,
which ia not the caae in other matters, will
be altogether auch as you would have it, er
choose to make it. 'With God's assistance,
and the influence of his grace, a good man
is at pains to purify his own way ; but men
of an impure and beastly diapoaition, who
delight to waUow in the mite, may always
easily obtain tbeir aordid wish. But I hope
that yeu, disdaining such a brutish indignity,
wiU, in preference to every thing else, give
your most serious attention to this inquiry,
by what means even young raen and boys
may purify their way, and, avoiding tbe
dirty paths of the commen sort of mankind,
walk in such as are more pleasant and agree.
able. 2. Observe, lhat purity is not such an
easy^atter, that it may faU by chance in
the way of tbeae that are not in queat of it,
but a work of great art and industry. Hence
you may also leam, that the way, even of
• Mat hiw V

LECT. XXIII-

OF PURITY OF LIFE.

Cl,3

young men or boys," stand very much in
need of this careful attention. It is indeed
true, that, in seme reapect, the reforraation
of youth is easier, and sooner accomplished,
in tbat they are not accustomed to shameful
and wicked ways, nor confirmed in sinful
habits ; but there are other regards, where.
in it is more difficult to reduce that period of
Ufe topurity, particularly as it is more strong
ly impressed with the outward objects that
sunound it, and easily disposed to imbibe
the very worst : the examples and incite
ments to vice beset youth in greater abun
dance, and those ef that age are more apt to
faU in with thera.
But, whatever may be said of tbe easiness
ot difficulty ef reforming youth and child-
hoed, it ia evident frora thia queation, which,
without doubt, is proposed with wisdom and
seriousness, that this raatter is within the
verge of possibiUty, and of the nuraber of
such as are fit to he attempted. Youth is
net so headstrong, nor childhood so foolish,
but by proper means they can be bent and
formed tp virtue and piety. Nptwithstand.
ing the irregular desires and forwardness f
ol j'puth, and that madness, whpreby tbey
are hunied tp fprbidden enjpyments, there
are wnrds and expreaaipns that cau spothe
this impetupsity, even such, that by thera
youth can tame and cpmppse itself, " By at
tending IP itself and its ways, accprding to
thy word ;" that raatchless word, which con
tains all those particular words and expres
sions, net only that are proper te purify and
quiet all the raotions and affections ef the
Boul, but also, by a certain divine pewer, are
wonderfully efficacious fer that purpose. And
what waa aaid of old conceming Sparta and
its diacipline, may be, with much greater
truth, aaaerted ef the divine law and true
religion, viz. that it had a surpriaing power
to tame and subdue mankind,^ And this
leads us directly to the answer of the ques
tion in the text ; " By attending thereto,
according to thy word."
This is not, therefore, to be done accord
ing to our philosophy, but according to thy
word, O Etemal Light, Truth, and Purity !
The philosophy of the Heathens, it is true
contains seme raoral inateuctiona and pre
cepts, that are by no means despicable ; but
this is only se far as they are agreeable to
the word of God and the divine law, though
tbe phUosophers themselves knew nothing of
it ; but the only perfect system of moral phi
losophy that ought to be universaUy receiv
ed, is the doctrine of Christianity. Thi:
the ancient fathers of the primitive church
have asserted, and fully proved, to the ho-
nour of OUI religiori. But those who spend
their Uves in the study of phUosophy, can
• The Hebrew word used in the text, properly sig
nifies a boy.
f Axx'xivos, xlxfiOXCTOS- X Ax^xrifjoZiOTOv.

neUher reform themselves nor others, if na
ture be but a littie obstinate ; and iheir wis.
dom, when it dees its utmost, ratiier cen.
ceals vices than eradicates thera ; but tbe
divine precepts make so great a change upen
the man, and, subduing his eld habita, so
reform him, that you would net knew him
tobe the sarae. If any of you, then, aspire
to this purity of raind and way, yeu raust,
with aU possible care, conform yourself, and
every thing about you, to the instructions
and precepts of this divine woid. Nor think
this a hard saying ; for the study ef purity
has nothing in it tbat ia unpleaaant or dis.
agreeable, unleaa you think it a grievance to
become like unto God.
Conaider now, young men, nay, you who,
without offence, will suffer youraelvea to be
called boys ; consider, I aay, wherein con.
slats that true wisdom, which deserves to be
pursued with the most earneat study and ap.
plication, and whereby, if you will, you may
far exceed those that are your superiors in
years ; be arabitious to attain the advan.
tage mentioned in tbe text, and consequent.
ly tbe condition upon which it depends, for
they are inaeparably connected together ; re
concile your minds to a strjct attention to
your waya, according to the divine word,
and by thia meana, (which ia a very rare at.
tainment,) you will reconcile youth, and
even childhood, to the purity here recom.
raended : account the divine word and pre.
cepts preferable to your daUy food ; yea, let
thera be dearer to you than your eyes, and
even tban life itself.

LECTURE XXIV.
Before the Communion.
It is the advice of the wiae man, " Dwell
at home, or with yourself;" and theugh
there are very few that do this, yet it is aur.
priaing, that the greateat part of mankind
cannot be prevailed upon, at leaat, to viait
theraaelves sometimes ; but, according te
the saying ef the wise Solomon, " The eyes
of the fool are in the ends of the earth." It
is the peculiar property of the human mind,
and its signal privilege, to refiect upon it.
self; yet we, fooUshly neglecting this most
valuable gift, confened upon us by our Crea.
tor, and the great omaraent of eur nature,
spend our lives in a brutish thoughtlessness.
Were a raan net only to turn in upon hira.
self, carefully to search and exaraine his own
heart, arid daily endeaveur to iraprove it
raore and raore in purity, but also te excite
others, with whom he conversed, te this laud
able practice, by seasonable advice and af-

C14

EXHORTATION BEFORE

LECT. XXIV.

feeling exhortations, he would certainly think
hiraself very happy in these exercisea. Now,
theugh this expedient is never unaeasonable,
yet it will be particularly proper, on such an
occasion aa thia, te try it upon youraelvea, aa
you are not ignorant, that it is the great
apostolical rule, with respect to all that are
called to celebrate the divine raysteries,
" that every raan examine himself, and ao let
him eat ef that bread, and drink of that cup."*
I do not here intend a full appUcation of
thia myatery, but only to put you in mind,
that, in order to a saving uae and participa
tion thereof, a twofold judgraent rauat, of
necessity, be forraed : the first, witb respect
to our own aoula ; and the other, to that of
the Lord's body. These the apostle con
siders as closely connected together, and
therefore expreaaea beth by the aame word.
Tbe trial we are to make of ourselves, is
indeed expressed by the word ^oxifjoxl^uv,
which aignifiea to prove, er to try ; but im.
mediately after he expresses it by judging
ourselves, " for if we would judge ourselves.
&c. ;"-j- whereas, in the preceding verses.
he had mentioned the other judgraent to be
formed, and expressed it by the sarae word
"SixK^tyziv, which signifies to judge er dis-
cem : " Net discerning the Lord's body."^
And this is that which renders a vast many
unworthy of so great an honour ; they ap
proach this heavenly feast, without forraing
a right judgraent, either ef theraselves er of
it ; but, that we form a judgment of our
selves, it is necessary that we firat bring our
selves te an impartial trial ; and, te be sure,
I sheuld rauch rather adviae you to thia in
ward aelf-examination, and heartily wiah I
could perauade you to it, than that yeu ahould
content ypuraelvea with a Ufeleaa trial pf ypur
raerapry, by repeating cprapesitiona on this
subject. Consider with yourselves, pray, and think
seriously, what raadness, what unaccounta
ble folly it is, to trifle with the majesty of the
Most High God, and te offer to Inflnite
AVisdom the sacrifices of distraction andfeUy!
Shall we, wbo are but insignificant worms,
" thus provoke the Almighty King to jea
lousy,"! ^s if we were atronger than he, and,
of purpose, run eur heada, as it were, agaiust
that power, the alighteat tpuch whereof would
cruah us to dust ? Do we net knew, that
the same Ged who ia an enUvening and sav
ing light te aU that worship with humble
piety, ia, nevertheless, a consuraing fire to aU
the irapieus and profane, who poUute his
sacrifices with irapure hearts and unclean
hands ; and that these eapeciaUy who have
been erapleyed in his church, and in the di
vine offices, yet have not experienced his in.
fluence aa a pure and shining Ught, will un
avoidably feel hira as a flaming fire ? Let
* 1 Cor. xi. 20. t Ej yx^ IxuTous Silxflvofotv.
X M,, SlxXflVUV TO CUfiOX TOV )^u.iou. § Tlxfx^vXouv.

his saints rejoice and exult before Ged, foi
this he not only allows, but even commands ;
yet let even thoae of them whe have made
the greateat advancea in holineaa, remember
that thia holy Snd spiritual joy is to be join.
ed with hely fear and trembung : nay, die
greater progress tbey have made in hoUnesa,
the more deeply will they feel thia impressed
upon thefr minda, ao that they can by no
raeans forget it. " The great eye ia over
ua, let ua be afraid."* Great ia our God,
and holy ; even the angels worship him.
Let his saints approach hira, but with humi.
Uty and fear ; but, as for the slothful, and
thoae that are iraraeraed in guilt, that secure.
ly and with pleasure indulge themselves in
irapure affections, let them net dare to come
near. Yet, if there are any, lej their guilt
and poUution be ever so great, who find aris.
irig withiri them a hearty aversiori to their
own impurity, and an eamest desire after ho
Uneaa ; behold there ia opened for you a liv
ing and pure fountain, raeat effectual for
cleansing and washing away aU sort of stains,
as well as for refreahing languishing and
thirsty soula. And he that is the Uving and
never faiUng Fountain of purity and grace,
encouragea, caUa, and exherts yeu to come to
bim : " Corae unto rae, aU ye that are
athirst," &c. And again, "AU that the
Father giveth rae, shall corae unto me ; and
hira that cometh unto me I wiU, by ne means,
reject er caat out."-|-
Aak youraelvea, therefore, what you would
be at, and with what diappsitipna yeu come
to this mest sacred table. Say, whither art
thou going, and what seekest thou, O my
soul ? Fer it would be an instance of the
raost extravagant sloth and foUy te set about
a raatter of so great importanoe, and so sen.
ous, witheut any end, witheut the prospect
of any advantage, and therefore without any
serious tum of raind, or as one doing nething:
yet this is the case of vast numbers that meet
together in divine assemblies, and at this
holy aacrament. Is it any wonder, tbat thote
should find nothing, who abaolutely bave no
thing in view ; and that he who is bound for
ne harbour should meet with no favourable
wind ? They give theraaelves up te the tor-
rent of custora, and steer not their course to
any particular port, but fluctuate and know
not whither they are carried ; or, if they are
alarmed with any sting of conscience, it is
only a kind of inconsiderate and inegular
raotion, and reaches no further than the ex.
terier surface of sacred institutions. But,
as for you, who, according to the expression
ofthe angels, " Seek llesus, fear npt ;" you
wiU certainly flnd hira, and in hira all things :
" for it hath pleased the Father, that in him
aU fulness ahould dweU ;"$ so that in him
there is no vacuity, and witheut hira nothing
* O.Uf^x /4.tyx, Tfioooluuiv. t John vl. 37,
X Col- i, 19, '

I.ECT. XXIV.

THE COMMUNION.

(!l,"i

elae but emptiness and vanity. Let us em.
brace him, therefore, with our whole hearta,
and on him alone let ua depend and rely.
Let his death, which we commemorate by
this mystery, extinguish in us all worldly
affections : may we feel his divine power
working us into a conformity to his sacred
image ; and having eur strength, aa it were,
renewed by hia raeana, let ua travel to.
wards our heavenly country, constantly fol
lowing him with a resolute and accelerated
pace. The concern of purifying the heart in good
earneat, taking proper meaaurea for conforming
the life to the rules ofthe gespel, ia equaUy in
cumbent upon all. For thia is the great arid true
design ef all divine worship, and of all reli
gious institutions ; though the greater part
of mankind satisfy theraselves with the out-
ward surface of them, and therefore catch no.
thing but shadows in religion itaelf, aa well
aa in the other concerna of life. We have
public prayera, and solemn sacraraents : yet
if, amidst aU these, one should look fer the
true and lively characters of Chriatian faith,
or, in tbe vast nurabers that attend these in.
stitutions, he should search for those that, in
the courae ef their lives, approve themselvea
the trae followera of their great Master, he
weuld find reaaon to compare thera to " a few
persons, awimming at a great distance from
one another, in a vast ocean."*
It has heen observed long ago by one,
" that in Reme itself he had found nothing
ef Rome ;"-|- which, with too great truth,
might be applied to reUgion, about which
we make so great a bustle at preaent : mere
is scarcely any thing at all of reUgion in it ;
unleas, we iraagine that religion cenaiats of
worda, as a grove dees of trees. For, if we sup
pose it lies in the mortification of sin, unfeign.
ed humUity, brotherly charity, and a noble
contempt of the world and the flesh, " whi
ther has it gene and left us ?"$ As for you,
young gentlemen, if you would apply to this
matter in good earnest, yeu rauat of necea
aity beatow sorae time and paina upon it, and
not fondly dream, that such great advautagea
can be met witb by chance, or in consequence
of a negligent and superflcial inquiry. If
we are te alter the course of our Uves for the
time to come, we must look narrowly into
our conduct during the preceding part of it ;
for the meaaurea to be taken for the future
are, in a great degree, suggested by what is
past. He acta wiaely, and is a happy raan,
who frequently, nay daily, reviews his words
and actions ; because he wiU, doubtless, per-
form the same duty with greater ease and
to better purpose, wben he ia called te it
with raore than ordinary soleranity. And,
• Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto,
f- Se in Roma, RomfE nihil invenisse.
t ll,,U TOTE -Jif^xs XXTlXlirtV ;

therefore, they who have experienced how
pleaaant this work is, and what a mixture of
utility ia joiried wilh this pleaaure, will ap
ply to it with a cheerful mind, whenever
opportunity requirea it. Aa to othera, they
raust of necessity set about it aorae time of
other : I aay of neceaaity, if I ara allowed
tp aay it ia neceasary tp avoid the wrath to
corae, and to obtain peace and salvation.
Repentance may possibly appear a laborious
and unpleaaant work te eur indolence, and
to repent, may aeem a harah expreaaion ; to
perish, however, is still more harsh ; but a
ainful raan bas ne other choice. Our Lord,
who is truth itself, being acquainted with
the cruel execution performed by Herod upon
the Galileans, takes this opportunity to de
clare to his hearers, that, " unless they re
pented, they should all likewise perish."*
The Saviour ef the world, it is trae, carae
fer this very purpose, that he might save
those that were miaerable and loat, frora tbe
fatal neceaaity of being utterly undone ; but
he never intended to take away the happy
and pleaaant necessity of repentance : nay-
he strengthened the obligation to it, and im
posed it as a duty inseparably connected with
grace and happiness ; and this connexion he
net only preached in expressions to the same
purpoae with his forerunner John the Bap
tist, but even in the very sarae words ; " Re
pent ye, fer the kingdora ef heaven is at
hand-"-|- And in anether place, having
told ua that he carae, " not to caU the righ
teoua, but ainnera,"^: he iraraediately adds,
te what he called those ainnera ; not a liberty
of indulging theraaelves in sin, but frora ain
to repentance. Hia blood, which was shed
on the crosa, is indeed a balsam more pre
cious than all the balm of Gilead and Ara
bia, and all the ointraents ef the whole
world ; but it is solely intended for curing
the contrite in heart.
But, alas 1 that gross ignorance of God
that overclouds our mind, is the great and
unhappy cause of the guilt we have contract
ed, and of that irapenitence which engages
us to continue in it. Had raen but the least
knowledge how disagreeable and hateful all
sinful pollution renders us te his eternal and
infinite purity ; and, on the other hand,
what a likeness to hira we attain by holiness,
and bow araiable we are thereby rendered in
his sight, they weuld look upen this as the
only valuable attainraent ; they would pur
sue it with the most vigorous efforts of their
rainds, and weuld raake it tbeir constant
study day and night, tbat, according to the
divine advice ef the Apostie, " being cleans.
ed from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
they raight perfect hoUnesa in the fear of
God."§ • Luke xiii. 3. f Matt, iv. 7. X Matt, ix 13.
§ 2 Cor. vii. 1

€16

EXHORTATION TO THE STUDENTS.

An Exhortation to the Students, upon their
return to ihe University after ihe Vaca
tion. We are at last returned, and some for the
first time, brought hither by that Supreme
Hand which holds the reina ef this univerae,
which rules the stormy winds and sweUing
sea, and distributes peace and war to nations,
according to its pleasure. The great Lord
of the universe, and Father of raankind,
while he rules the world with absolute sway,
doea not despise tbis little flock, provided
we look up unto hira, and hurably pray,
that we raay feel the favourable effects of hia
preaence and bounty ; nay, he wiU not dis
dain to dweU within ua, and in our hearta,
unleaa we, through folly, and ignorance of
our true happiness, ahut the doer againat
hira when he offera to come in. He ia the
Mest High, yet haa choaen the humble
heart for the raost agreeable place of hia re
sidence On thia earth : but the proud and
haughty, who look with diadain on their in
feriera, he, en his part, despises, and be
holds, aa it were, afar off. He is raost holy,
and dwells in no hearts but such as are purg
ed frora the drosa of earthly affectiona ; and
that theae raay be holy, and really capable
of receiving his sacred Majeaty, they muat
of neceaaity be purified. " Knew ye net,"
aaya the divine apostle, ^* that you, even
your bodiea, are the templea ef the Holy
Ghost,"* and therefore are to be preserved
pure and holy ? But the mind that dweU
within ihem, must be atiU more holy, as
being the priest that, with constant and un
wearied piety, offers up the sacrifices and
sweet incense of pious affections, cheerful
obedience, ardent prayers, and divirie praisea,
to the Deity of that teraple.
Of your studiea aud exotic learning, I in
tend not to aay much. Tbe knowledge, I
own, lhat men of letters, who are the m.oat
indefatigable in atudy, and have the advan,
tage of the greateat abilitiea, can poaaiby at
tain to, is at best but very amaU. But
aince the knowledge ef languagea and scien
cea, however inconaiderable it raay be, is the
business of this aociety of oura, and of that
period of years you are to paaa here, let us
de, I pray, as the Hebrews express it, " the
work of the day while tbe day laata ;"-|-
" for tirae alipa ailentiy away, and every suc
ceeding hour is attended with greater diaad-
vantagea than that which went before it.":J:
Study to acquire sucb a philoaophy aa ia
not barren and babbUng, but solid and true ;
not such an one aa fioata upon the surface of
endless verbal controversies, but ene that en
ters into the nature of thinga ; fer he spoke
geod aense, that aaid. " The philosophy of
* 1 Cor. vi. 19. X Onus diei in die suo,
X Tempus n.-im taciturn subruif, horaque
Senincr prBelcriU deterior subit.

the Greeks was a raere jargon and noise of
words."* You, who are engaged in philosophical
inquiries, ought te remember in the mean
time, that you are not so strictly confined to
that study, but yeu raay, at the same time,
become proficients in elocution ; and, in
deed, it is proper yeu sheuld. I weuld,
therefore, have you to apply to both these
studies with equal attention, that you may
not only attain seme knowledge of nature,
but also be in a condition to communicate
your sentiraents with ease upen thoae aubjecta
yeu underatand, and clothe your thoughts
with words and expressions ; without which,
all your knowledge wiU differ but very Uttle
frora buried ignorance.
In joining these two studies together, you
have not only reaaon for your guide, but also
Ariatotle hiraaelf for your exaraple ; for we
are told, that it was hia cuatom te walk up
and down in the school in the morning,
teaching philoaophy, particularly these apecu
lative and raore obacure points which in that
age were called rationes acroamaticte, and
thua he waa eraployed, tUl the hour appoint
ed for anointing and going to exerciae :¦)- but
after dinner, he applied to the more entei-
taining arta of perauaaion, and made hia
scholars declaim upon such subjecta as he
appointed them.
But to retum to ray own preiince ; for,
to say tbe truth, I reckon all otber things
foreign to ray purpoae : whatever you do,
with regard te the other studies, give always
the preference to sacred Christian philoso-
phy ; which is, indeed, the chief philosophy,
and bas the pre-erainence over every other
science, because it holds Christ to be the
head,X *' in whora all the treasures of wis
dora and knowledge are hid." This the apoa.
tie teUs us, was not the case ef those false
Chriatiana in hia tirae, whose philosophy re
garded only sorae idle superatitiona and vain
ebaervationa. Cultivate, therefore, I say,
this Sacred Wisdora sent down from hea-
ven, " Let thia be your main study ;§ fer
its mysteries are the-raest profound, ita pre-
cepta the moat pure, and, at the same time,
the most pleaaant. In this study, a weak
understanding will be no disadvantage, if
you have but a wiUing raind, and ardent de.
sirea. Here, if any where, the observation
holds, " That if you love learning, you can.
not fail to raake great progress tnerein."l|
For sorae, that have applied with great in
dustry to human philosophy, have found it
to be like a disdainful mistreaa, and lost
their labour ; but divine philosophy invites
and encourages even these of (he meaneat
parta. * *^iXico^ix EXXv.voiv, Xoyuv iJ'O^o?
t yiiX^I TOO xXtlfJOXTOS. X 'its Xtipx)AlV X^XTll.
§ Ev TXVT'fi tCTt-
n Exv '{IS ifiXofMitStts, tff'fl voXujumSvis, Isoc. ad Dem.

EXHORTATION TO THE STUDENTS,

cn

And, indeed, it raay bene sraall comfort
nnd relief to young raen of slew capacities,
whe make bilt little progress in huraan
sciences, even when they apply to thera with
tbe mest excessive labour aud diligence, that
this heavenly doctrine, theugh it be the most
exalted in its own nature, is not only acces
sible to thoae of the loweat and raeanest parts,
but they are cheerfully adraitted to it, gra
ciously received, prefened to tliose tbat are
proud of their learning, and very often ad
vanced to higher degrees of knowledge there
in ; according to that of the Psalraist, " The
law of tbe Lerd is pure, enlightening the
eyes ; tbe entrance of his word giveth light,
it givedi alao understanding untp the sira.
pie."* Ypu therefpre, whora sorae very for-
ward-f- youths leave far behind in other stu
dies, talce courage ; and to wipe off this stain,
if it be one, and corapensate this discourage
ment, make tbis your refuge ; you cannot
possibly arrive at an equal pitch of eloquence
or philosophy with some others ; but what
hinders yeu, pray, from being as pious, as
modest, as meek and humble, as holy and
pure in heart, as any other person what
ever ? And, by this means, in a very short
time, you will be corapletely happy in the
enjoyment ef God, and live for ever in the
bles.sed society of angels, ,ind apirits ef just
men made perfect.
But if you want to make a happy progress
in this wisdom, youraust, to be sure, declare
war against all the lusts of the world and the
flesh, which enervate your minds, weaken
your strength, and deprive yeu of all disposi
tion and fitneaa for imbibing thia pure and
immaculate doctrine. How stupid is it to
catch so greedily at advantages so vanishing
and fleeting in their nature, if, indeed, they
can be carried advantagea at all : " Advan
tages that are carried hither and thither, hur
ried from place to place by the uncertainty
of their nature, and eften fly away before diey
can he ppssessed !"J An author, reraarka
ble for hia attainmenta in religion, juatly criea
out, "0! what peace and tranquillity raight aspire
he posaeaa, who could be prevailed upou to
cut off all vairi arixiety, and only think of
thoae things that are ef a divine and saving
nature !"§ Peace and tranquiUity is, with

out doubt, what we all seek afler, yet thera
are very few diat know the way te it, though
it be quite plain and open. It ia indeed no
wonder, that the blind, who wander about
without a guide, ahould mistake the plainest
and raeat open path ; but we have an in
faUible guide, and a raost valiant leader, let
us foUow hira alone ; for he that treadeth in
bis steps, can never walk in darkness.

Let us pray.

Psalm cxix. 130.

T AiXXoToSiS.

+ 1 « xvu XXI XXTOI ^t^OfitVX, XXI ^l^lT^t-TOfJOlVX, XXI
TglV XYi^QyiVXI XfTIOVTX.
§ O qui omnem vanam solicitudinem amputaret, ct
salutaria duntaxat ac divina cogitaret, quantam quie
tem et pacem possideret 1

O ! INVISIBLE God, who seest all things ;
eternal light, before whora all darkness is
light, and in comparison with whora every
other light is but darknesa. The weak eyes
of eur understanding canuot bear the open
and full rays of thy inaccessible light ; and
yet, witheut some glimpses ef tbat light from
heaven, we can never direct eur steps, no»*
proceed towards that country which is the
habitation oflight. May it therefere please
thee, O Father of lights, to send forth thy
light and thy truth, that they may lead us
directly to thy holy mountain. Thou art
good, and the Fountain of goodness ; give us
understanding, that we may keep thy pre
cepts. That part of eur past lives, whicb we
have loat in purauing shadows, ia enough,
and indeed tee rauch ; bring back eur aeula
into the patha of Ufe, and let the wonderful
sweetneaa thereef, which far exceeds all the
pleaaurea ef thia earth, powerfully, yet plea
santly, preaerve ua frora being drawn aaide
therefrora by any temptation frora ain or the
world. Purify, we pray thee, our souls frem
all impure imaginationa, tbat thy most beau
tiful and hely image may be again renewed
within ua, and by centeraplating thy glorioua
perfectiona, we may feel daily iraproved with
in us, that divine siraiUtude, the perfection
whereof, we hope, wiU at last raake us for
ever happy in that full and beatific viaion we
after. Till thia meat bleaaed day
break, and the shadows fly away, let thy
Spirit be continuaUy with us, and maj' we
feel the powerful effects ef His divine grace
constantly directing and supporting eur steps,
that all our endeavours, not only in this ao
ciety, but throughout the whole remaining
part of our Uvea, may serve to promote the
honour of thy blessed name, through Jesus
Christ our Lord, Amen.

EXHORTATIONS

CANDIDATES

FOR THE DEGREE OP

MASTER or ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.

EXHORTATIONS, &c

EXHORTATION L
Were I allowed to apeak freely what I
sincerely think ef moat of the affafrs of hu
man Ufe, even thoae that are accounted of
the higheat importance, and transacted with
the greatest eagemess and bustle, I should
be apt to say, " that a great noise is made
about the merest trifles :"• but if you should
take this amiss, as a Uttle unseasonable upon
the preaent occasion, and an insult upon your
solemnity, I hope you wiU the more easily
forgive me, that I place in the sarae rank
with this phUosophical convention of youra,
the most famoua councils and general aaaera-
bUes of princes and great men ; and aay of
their golden crowns, aa well as your crowns
of laurel, " that they are thinga of no value,
and not wortb the purchaaing."-)- Even the
triumphal, iriaugural, or nuptial proceaaions
of the greateat kings and geherals of armies,
with whatever pomp and magnificence, as
WeU as, art, they may be set off, they are,
after all, so far trae representations of their
false, paiiited, and tinsel happiness, that,
while we look at them, they fly away ; and,
in a very short time, they are followed
by tbeir funeral processions, which are
the friumphs ef death over those who have
themselves teiumphed during their lives.
The scenes are shifted, the actors also dis
appear ; and, in the same manner, the great
est shows of this vain world Ukewise pass
away. Let ua, that we may lop off the luxu
riant branches of our vines, take a nearer
view of this object, and remember, that what
we now caU a laurel crown, will soon be fol
lowed by cypress wreaths : it wiU be also
proper to consider how raany, who, in their
time, were employed as we are now, have
long ago acted their parts, and are now con
signed to a long oblivion ; as also, what vast
numbers of the rising generation are fol
lowing us at the heels, and, as it were,
pushing us forward to tbe same land of for
getfulness ; who, while they are hurrying us
away, are at the same time hastening thither
themselves. AU that we see, aU that we do,
• Magno tonatu magnas nugas.
t ^XtrvOU CXtue OUK xv STflXIfAVV, I

and all that we are, are but mere dreams;
and if we are not sensible of this trath, it is
because we are still asleep : none but minds
that are awake can discern it; they, and
they only, can perceive and despise these il
lusions* oi the night. In the mean time,
nothing hinders us frera subraitting te these,
and other such custoraary formaUties, provid
ed our doing it interfere not with matters ef
much greater importance, and prospects ef a
different and more exalted nature. What is
it, pray, to which, with the raost ardent wish.
es, yeu have been aspiring, throughout the
whole course of these four last years ? Here
yeu have a cap and a titie, and nothing at all
raore. ' But, perhapa, taking this araiss, yeu
secretly blarae me in your hearts, and wiah
me to congratulate you upen the honour yeu
have obtained. I cheerfuUy comply with
your deaire, and am wilUng to explain ray
aelf. Theae sraall presenta are not the prin.
cipal reward of your labours, nor the chief
end of your studies ; but honorary raarks
and badges of that erudition and knowledge
wherewith your minds have been stored by
the unintenupted labours of four whole
years. But whatever attainments in leam-
ing you have reached, I would have you se
riously to reflect, how inconsiderable they are,
and how Uttle they differ from nothing ; nay,
if what we know, is compared with what we
know not, it will be found even vastly less
than nothing : at least, it is an argument of
little knowledge, and tbe sign of a vain and
weak mind, to be puffed up with an overbear
ing opinion of our own knowledge : while on
the contrary, it is an evidence of great pro
ficiency in knowledge, to be sensible of our
ignorance and inabiUty. " He is the wisest
man," says Plato, " who knows himself to
be very ill qualified for the attainment of
wisdom."-t- Whatever be in this, we eften
find the sciences and arts which you culti
vate, te be useless, and entirely banen, with
regard to the advantages ef Ufe ; and, gene-
rally speaking, these other profcasions that
are ilUterate and iUiberal, nay even unlaw
ful, meet with better treatment, and a great
* Ef/.!Tl£iyf,OXTX,
t 'OuTOs'^o^TXTOs ocris tyvuxtv on ouStvos x^^os ton
x£oi coouov. Philo. apol. Sacr.

622

EXHORTATION L

er encouragement, than what we call the li
beral arta. " He that ventures upon the sea,
is enriched by his voyages : he that engages
in war, glitters with gold : the mean parasite
lies drunk en a rich bed ; and even he, who
endeavours to corrupt raanied woraen, is re
warded for his villany. Learning alone
starves in tattered rags, and invokes the a-
bandoned arts in vairi."*
But as soraetimes the learned meet with a
better fate, you, young gentlemen, I ima-
gine, entertain better hopes with regard to
your fortune ; ner would I discourage them,
yet I would gladly raoderate them a Uttle by
this wholesome advice ; lean not upon a
broken reed, neither let any one who values
his peace, his real dignity, and hia aatiafac
tion, give himself up to hopes that are un
certain, frail, and deceitful. The hu
man race are, perhaps, the only creatures
that by this means become a torment to
themselves ; for, as we always graap at fu
turity, we vainly promiae ourselves raany
and great things, in which, as coraraonly
happens, being for tbe raost part disappoint.
ed, we must, of necessity, pay for our fool
ish pleasure witb a proportionate degree ef
pain. Thus, the greatest part of mankind
find the whole ef this wretched Ufe chequer
ed with deluaive joya and real torraenta, iU-
greunded hopea, and feara equally iraagi
nary : amidat theae, we Uve in continual aus-
pense, and die so too.
But a few, alas ! a few only, yet sorae
who think raere justly, having set their
hearts upen heavenly enjoymenta, take plea
aure in deapiaing, with a proper greatneas (rf
mind, and trampling upon, the fading enjoy
menta of thia world. Tbeae make it tbeir
only study, and exert their utmoat efforts,
that, having the more divine part of their
composition weaned from the world and the
flesh, they may be brought to a reaerablance
and union with the holy and aupreme God,
the Father of spiriis, by purity, piety, and
an habitual contemplation of divine objecta ;
and thia, to be aure, ia the principal thing,
with a noble arabition whereof I would have
your minds inflamed ; and whatever profes
sion or manner of life you devote yourselves
to, it is my eamest exhortation and request,
tbat yeu weuld raake this your constant and
principal study. Fly, if you have any re
gard te ray advice, fly far frora that contro
versial, contentious school-divinity, which, in
fact, conaiata in fraitleaa diaputea about worda,
and rather deserves the narae of vain and
fooliah talking.
Alraost all raankind are conatantly catch
ing at aomething more than they poaaeaa, and
* Qui pelago credit, magno se foenare tollit :
Qui pugnas et castra petit, prsecingitur auro ;
Vilis adulator plcto jacet ebrius oslro ;
Et qui sollicitat nuptas, ad prjemia peccat.
Sola pruinosis harret facundia pannis,
Atque inopi lingua desertas in vocat artes.

torment theraaelves In vain ; nor is our rest
to be found araong these enjoyments of, the
world, where aU things are covered with a
deluge ef vanity, as with a flood of fiuctua.
ting, reatleaa watera ; and the aoul, flying
about, looking in vain fer a place on which
it may set its foot, most unhappily loses ita
tirae, its labour, and itaelf at last, like " the
birds in the days of the flood, which having
long sought for land, till their strength was
quite exhausted, fell down at last, and pe.
rished in the waters."*
O ! how greatly preferable to these bush
es, and briars, and thoms, are tbe delightful
fields of the gospel, wherein pleasure and pro
fit are agreeably raixed together, whence you
raay leam the way to everlasting peace, that
poverty of spirit, which is the only true rich
es, that purity of heart, which is our greatest
beauty, ,and that inexpressible satisfaction,
which attends the exercise of charity, humi
lity, and raeekness ! When your minds are
stored and adorned with these graces, they
will enjoy the raost pleasing tranquiUity, even
araidat the noiae and turaulta of thia preaent
Ufe ; and yeu wiU be, to uae the words of
Tertullian, candidates for eternity ; a title
inflnitely more glorious and sublime, than
what haa been thia day confened upon you.
And that great and last day, wbich is as
rauch dreaded by the alaves erf tbis present
world, will be the raost happy and auspicious
te yeu ; as it will deliver you ftora a dark,
dismal prison, and place you in the regions
of the most full aud marvellous light.

Let us pray.
Most exalted Ged, who hast alone creat
ed, and dost govern this whole frame, anil
aU the inhabitants thereef, visible and invisi
ble, whose narae is ailone wonderful, and to
be celebrated with the highest praise, as it ia
indeed above all praise and admiration. Let
the heavens, the earth, and aU the elements,
praise thee ; let darkness, light, and aU the
returns of days and years, and all the varie-
ties and vicissitudes of things, praise thee ;
let the angels praise thee, the arch.angels,
and all the blessed court of heaven, whose
very happinesa it is, that they are constantly
employed in celebrating thy praiaes. Wc
confeaa, O Lord, that we are ef aU creaturea
the most uuworthy to praiae tbee ; yet, of aU
others, we are uuder tbe greateat ebUgatious
to do it ; nay, tiie more unworthy we are,
our obligatiori ia so rauch the greater. From
this duty, however unqualified we may be,
we can hy no means abstain, nor indeed
ought we. Let our soula bleas thee, and all
that ia within ua praiae thy holy narae, who
forgivest all our sins, and healeat all our dis-
• Quscsitisqne diu terris ubi sistere detur.
In mare lassatls volncris vagn decidit alls.

EXHORTATION II.

eases, who deliverest our souls ftora destruc.
tion, and crowneat thera with bounty and
tender mercies. Tbou searchest the heart,
O Lord, and perfectiy knewest the meat in
timate receaaea ef it : reject not those prayers
which theu perceiveat to be the voice and
tbe wishes of the heart : now it is the great
requeat ef onr hearta, unleas they alwaya de
ceive ua, that they may be weaned frem aU
earthly and periahing enjoymenta ; and if
there is any thing to which they cleave with
more tban ordinary force, may they be pull.
ed away ftom it by thy Almighty hand, that
they may be joined to thee for ever in an in.
separable maniage.cevenant ; and, in eur be.
bcdf, we have nothing more te ask. We
only add, in behalf of thy church, that it
may be protected under the shadow of thy
wings, ahd every where, throughout the
world, watered by thy heavenly dew, that the
spirit and beat of worldly hatred against it
may be cooled, and ita inteatine diviaiona,
whereby it ia much more grievoualy acorched,
extinguished. Bleas this nation, thia city,
and thia university, in which we beg thou
wouldat be pleased to reside, as in a garden
dedicated to thy name, through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Araen.

EXHORTATION IL
Would you have me to speak the truth
with fteedom and brevity ? The whole werld
ia a kind of atage, and its inhabitants mere
actors. As te thia little farce ef yours, it is
now very near a conclusion, and you are upen
the point of applying to the spectators for
their applause. Should any superciliously
decline paying this amall tribute,* you aure-
.ly may, with great eaae, retort their conterapt
upon themselvea, merely by sayirig, " Let
your aeverity faU heavy on thoae who adraire
their own perforraancea ; as to thia affair of
oura, we know it is nothing at all :" for 1
WiU not allow myself to doubt but you are
very sensible, that there is indeed nothing
in it.
It would, to be sure, be very improper,
especially as the evening approaches, to de
tain yeu and my ether hearers with a loug
arid tedious discourse, when you are already
more than enough fatigued, and almost quite
tired out, with hearing, I shaU therefore
only put you in mind of one thing, and that
in a few words. Let not this solemn ioy,-\-
bowever agreeable to youthful minds, so far
impose upon you, as te set yeu a.drearaing
of great advantages and.pleaaurea to be met
witb in this new period of life you are enter.
ing upon. Look round you, if you please,
*E.xvev. i EvXrxiyM,x.

623
and take a near and exact survey of all the
different stationa of life that are set before yeu.
If yeu enterupon any of the stationa of active
life, what ia thia but jumping into a buab of
thorns, where you can have no hope of en
joying quiet, and yet cannet easily get out
again ? But if you rather choose to enter
upon some new branch of acience, alaa ! what
a smaU measure ef knowledge ia te be thus
obtained, witb what vaat labour ia even that
little to he purchaaed, and hew often, after
iraraense toil and difficulty, wiU it be found,
tbat truth ia atill at a diatance, and not yet
extracted out ef the well I * 'We indeed be
Ueve that the aoul breathed into man when
he waa firat made, waa pure, full of light,
and every way worthy ofits divine original:
but ah ! Father of mankind, how aoon, and
how rauch was he changed from what he
was at firat 1 He foolishly gave ear to tile
fatal seducer, and that very moment waa
aeized upon by death, whereby he at ence
lest his purity, his light or truth, and, to
gether witb himself, ruined us also.
Now, since that period, what do you cora-
raoidy meet with among men of wisdom and
learning, aa they would wiah to be accounted,
but fighting and bickering in the dark ?
And while they dispute, with the greatest
heat, but at random, concerning the truth,
that tiuth escapes out of their hands, and
instead of it, both parties put up with vain
shadows or phantoms of it, and, according
to tbe proverb, embrace a cloud instead of
Juno. But, since we are forced to own, that even
the raost contemptible and rainutest thinga
in nature, often put all eur philoaophical
subtlety to a nonplus, what ignorance and
fooliah presumption-f is it for ua te aim at
ranaacking the most hidden receaaea of divine
thinga, and boldly attempt to scan tbe divine
decreea, and the other raoat profou.,1 rays-
teriea of religion, by the imperfect and scanty
measures of our understandinga ! Whither
would the preauraption of man huny him,
while it prorapta hira to pry into every aecret
and hidden thing, and leave nothing at aU
unattempted !
A a for you, young gentleraen, eapeciaUy
thoae of you that intend to devote youraelves
to theological studies, it is ray eamest ad
vice and requeat to you, that you fly far
frora that infectious curiosity wbich weuld
lead yeu into the depths of that controversial,
contentious theology, which, if any doctrine
at all deserves the name, may be truly term
ed, " science falsely so called."J And
that you may not, in this reapect, be im-
poaed upen by the coraraon reputation ef
acuteness and learning, I confidentiy affirm,
tbat, to understand and be master of those
trifling disputes tbat prevail in the schools,
• E.K TOU $uOou n xXviOtix. t AuQxSiixs.
t "ViuSuvulAos yvucis. '

024

EXHORTATION IIL

is an evidence of a very raean understanding ;
while, en the contrary, it is an argument ef a
genius truly great, entirely to slight and de
spise them, and to walk in the light of pure
and peaceable truth, which is far above the
dark and cloudy region of controversial dis-
putes. But, you will aay, itia neceasary,
in order to the defence of trath, to oppoae
errors, and blunt the weapons of sophists.
Be it so ; but our di.sputes ougbt te be raau-
aged with few words, for naked truth is most
effectual for ita own defence, and when it is
ence weU understood, its natural light dispels
all the darkness of enor : " for aU things
that are reproved, are made manifest by the
light,"* aaith the apostle. Your favourite
philo.soplier has told ua, " That what ia
atraight diacovera beth rectitude and obli
quity." And Clemens Alexandrinus has
very juatly observed, " that the ancient phi
losophers were not greatly diapoaed to dia
putea or doubting : but the latter philoso
phera among the Greeks, out of a vain desire
to enhance their reputation, engaged se far in
wrangling and contention, that their works
became quite useleaa and trifling."-|-
There ia but one useful controversy and
diapute, one sort of war, raost noble in ita
nature, or most worthy of a. Christian, and
this net to be carried on against enemies at
a great diatance, but auch aa are bred within
our own breasts ; against theae it is most
reasonable to wage an endleas war, and thera
i t ia our duty te peraecute to death. Let ua
all, children, young raen and old, exert our
aelvea vigoroualy in thia warfare ; let our
vices die before us, that death may not flnd
us indolent, defiled, and wallowing in the
inire ; for then it will be raost truly, and to
our great raisery, death te us : whereas, to
thoae aanctified aouls, who are conformed te
Christ, and conquerors by hia meana, it rather
is to be called life, as it delivers them frora
their wanderinga and vicea, frora aU kinds of
evils, and frora that death which is final and
eternal.

Let us pray.
Eternal God, who art constantly ador
ed by thrones and powera, by seraphira and
cherubim, we confeaa that theu art moat wor
thy te be praiaed ; but we of aU othera are the
raoat unworthy to be eraployed in ahewing
forth thy praiae. Hew can poUuted bodies
and impure souls, wbich, taken together, are
nothing but mere sinks of sin, praise thee,
the pure and holy Majesty ef heaven ? Yet,
how can these bodies which thou haat won
derfully formed, and these soula which theu
* Eph. V. 13.
t 'Oti ci vxXxiotxtoi tuv fiXoco^otv ouSt iti to x/M)i-
GtitUV KXI XTO^tlV l^i^OVTO, xXX' 01 TUV TXf 'EXXvtC,
v^'UTt^OI, ufro ^iXoTI.UIXS xlvTis XXI XTlXous, l>tyx,ilKus
«j[A« XXI t^lCTIKUS, US TT.V XXiVjCTOV t^XyOVTXl fXuxglXV-

haat inspired, which owe entirely to thine
unmerited favour all that they are, all that
they posaeaa, and aU that they hope for,
forhear praising thee, their wiae and bounti
ful Creator and Father? Let our souls,
therefore, and all that ia withiu us, bless thy
holy narae ; yea, let aU our bones say, O
Lord, who is Uke thee ; whe is like unte
thee ? Far be it, most gracious Father,
from our hearts, to harbour any thing that
is displeasing to thee : let them be, as i!
were, temples dedicated to thy service,
thoroughly purged frem every idol and image,
ftom every object of impure love and earthly
affection. Let our inoat gracioua King and
Redeemer dwell and reign within ua ; may
he take full poaaeaaion of us by his Spirit,
and govern all our actions. May he extend
his peaceable and saving kingdom through.
out the whole habitable world, ftom the
rising of the sun to the going down thereof.
Let the nations acknowledge their King,
and the isles be glad in bim, and particular
ly tbat which we inhabit, with those in lis
neighbourhood ; and, that they may be truly
blesaed in hira, raay they daily aubrait, more
perfectly and dutifully, to hia golden aceptre,
and the holy laws of bia gospel. Bless this
nation and city, and this our university ;
may it be continually watered with the dew
ef thy Spirit, and plentifuUy produce fruit
acceptable in thy sight, through Jeaua Christ
our Lord. Amen.

EXHORTATION IIL
This day, which haa been the object of
your earnest wiahea, throughout the ceurse
of four whole years, is now almost over, and
hastening to a cloae. What haa it produced-
for your advantage ? Can he that has reap
ed moat successfully of you all, say he has
fiUed his arms with sheaves ? Though pos
sibly you weuld excuse rae to express my
self with great freedora on this occaaion, yet
I will not take the Uberty to depreciate too
much your paat studies, the apecimens you
have given to-day of your abUitiea, and the
degree that haa beeri confened upen yeu.
Thia at leaat, I imagine, I may 8.iy witheut
offence, the moat of those things we greedily
catch at, and labour meat earnestly te obtain,
and censequentiy even your philosophy, is a
real and demonstrative truth of tbat great
paradox, thai ihere is a vacuity in ihe na
ture of things. And, in trath, bow great is
this vacuity, seeing even the human race ia
no inconsiderable part ef it ! Though tiiis
day ia marked with more than ordinary so-
lemnity, it is, after aU, but the concluaion
and period of a nuraber of days that have

EXHORTATION III,

G25

been idly spent, and is itself elapsing to little
or no purpose, aa well aa the reat. But O I
how glorioua muat that bleaaed day be,
which aU purified souls, and audi aa are
dear te God, earneatly long for throughout
the whole ef this periahing life, and constant
ly wait, with a kind of impatience, until it
dawn, and the shadows fly away !
I ara, indeed, of opinion, that those of
you who think most justly, will readily own,
your attainments, hitherto, are ef no great
moment. But, posaibly, henceforth you in
tend to begin life, as it were, anew ; you aa
pire te greater matters, and entertain views
worthy of human nature ; you already begin
to live, and te be wise ; yeu form deairea,
and conceive hopes ef rising te arts, riches,
and honours : aU this is very well. Yet
there is one consideration I would have yeu
to admit among these ingenious projects and
designs. What if death should come upen
you, and looking, with an envious eye, upon
this towering prospect, put a stop te a project
that extends itaelf ao far into futurity, and,
like a spider's web, entirely destroy it with
a gentle breath of wind ? Nor would thia
be any prodigy, er indeed an exteaordinary
event, but the coraraon fate of alraost all raan
kind. '* We are always resolving to live,
and yet never set about life in geod earnest."*
Archimedes was not singular in hia fate ;
but a great part of mankind die unexpected-
ly, while they are poring upon the figures
they have deacribed in the aand. O wretch
ed mortala ! who having condemned them
selves, as it were, to the mines, aeem to make
it their chief atudy te prevent their ever re
gaining their liberty. Hence new employ
ments are assumed in the place of old ones ;
and, as the Roman phUosopher truly ex
preaaea it, " one hope aucceeds another, one
instance of ambition makes way for another ;
and we never desire an end of our misery,
but only that it may change ita outward
form."-|- When we cease to be candidates,
and to fatigue ourselves in soUciting intereat,
we begin to give our votea and intereat to
thoae who solicit ua in their turn : when we are
wearied of the frouble of proaecuting crimes
at the bar, we commence judges ouraelvea ;
and he who ia grown old in tbe raanageraent
ef other raen's affaira for money, ia at laat
employed in improving hia own wealth.
" At the age of fifty," aaya one, " I will re
tire and take my eaae ; or, the aixtieth
year ef my life ahall entirely disengage me
ftora pubhc offices and business." Fool !
art thou net asharaed to reserve to thyaelf
the laat remains and dregs of Ufe ? Who
will stand surety, that thou shalt live so
long ? And what immense felly is it, so far
to forget mortaUty, as to think ef beginning
* Victuros agimus semper, nee vivimus unquam. _
t Spes spem excipit, ambitionem arabitio et raiseri-
arum nan quffiritur finis, sed schema tantum mutatur

to live at that period ef years to which a few
only attain !
As for you, young gentlemen, I heartily
wish you raay think mere justly; let your
souls, aa it were, retire into themselves, and
dwell at horae ; and having shaken off the
trifies that malte a bustle and noise around
yeu, consider seriously, tbat the remaining
part of your life is long only in ene respect,
(and in this indeed its length raay be justly
coraplained of,) that it ia fraught with every
aort of misery and aflUction, and has nothing
agreeable in it, but the study of heavenly wis
dora alone ; for every thing else ia vanity."*
Look abeut yeu and aee, whether there is
any thing worthy of your affection, and whe
ther every thing you see does net rather ex.
cite your indignation and aversion. At
home are contentions and disputes ; abroad,
in the fields, robbers ; clamour and noiae at
the bar ; wickedness in the camp ; hypo.
crisy in the church ; and vexation or lament
able miatakea every where. Araong the
rich and great there are false and inconstant
ftiendahipa, bitter enmities, erivy, fraud, and
falaehood ; and carea in great nurabers,
flutter round the raoat atately and sumptuous
palaces. What a considerable part of mankind are
struggUng with open and sharp afflictions !
To whatever side you turn yourself, what do
you comraonly hear but laraentation and
raounung ? How raany coraplaints of the
poor, that are distressed for want of daily
bread, er drag a meat wretched life under
the grievoua oppreaaion of powerful tyrants !
How frequent are the groans ef the sick and
languishing ! How great the multitude ef
those that laraent their friends and relations
canied off by death, and wiU themselves, in
a short time, and for the same reason, be la
raented by othera ? And, to conclude, how
innumerable are the miseries and afflictions
ef varioua kinda, that seem alternately te re
echo to ene another ! Can it be any wonder,
then, that a life of thia kind ahould some
times force, even from a wise raan, such ex
pressions of sonow and concern as the fol-
lowing : " O mother, why didst thou bring
me forth, te be oppressed with afflictions and
aonowa ? Why didst theu introduce rae into
a life fuU of briara and thoms ?"-f
But you are now phUosophera, and amidst
these diamal calaraities, you comfort your
selves with the inward and hidden riches ef
wisdom, and the sciences you have acquired.
The sciences ! Tell ua in what part of the
earth they are to be found. Let us knew,
pray, where they dwell, tbat we may flock
thither in great numbers. I kuow, indeed,
where there is abundance of noise, with vara
and idle words, and a jarring of opinions,
* T« Sl xXXx TUtfOS-
t M>)T£0, tlJOVl,TI ti.' tTIXTlS, Mtl T0\U^6XB0V tTlXTlf •
TuTTl pot TuSl Sioi Suxxs xxxvOofe^ifi i
' 2 R

1)2(1

EXHORTATION IV.

between contending disputants ; I know
where ignorance, under the diaguise of a
gown and a beard, haa obtained the title of
science ; but, where true knowledge is te be
found, I know not. We grope in the dark,
and though it ia truth only we are in queat
of, we fall into innumerable enors. But,
whatever may be our case with respect te the
knowledge of nature, as to that of heavenly
and divine thinga, let ua cheerfuUy embrace
that rich preaent which Inflnite Goodneas
haa made ua, and be thankful that the day-
apring frora en high hath visited us. " Be.
cause there was no wiadora on this earth,"
saya I^actantiua, " he sent a teacher frera
heaven."* Hira let ua feUow as our guide ;
for he that followa his direction, shall not
walk iu darkness.

Let us pray.
Infinite, eternal Creator, and King of
heaven aud earth, bodies and apirita, whe,
being unmoved thyaelf, moveat all thinga,
and changeat thera at thy pleaaure, while
theu reraainest thyself altogether unchange.
able ; who supportest aU things by thy power
ful hand, and govemest thera by thy nod,
the greatest as well as the least ; se that the
greatest are no burden to thee, ner dost thou
contemn the least. Behold ! the nations be
fore thee are as the drop of the bucket, and
like the sraall dust of the balance ; and these
isles of ours, with all the rest in the world,
are, in thy sight, but a very Uttle thing.
Yet tbou deignest to be present in our aa-
serabliea, and take notice efour affafra, which
are very inconaiderable. Let our souls adore
tbee, and fall down, with the greatest hurai
lity, at the feotatool of thy throne, continu
aUy intreating thy grace, and constantly of
fering thee glory. Our praises add nothing
to thee ; but they exalt ourse^es, enhance
our happiness, and unite us with the society
of angels ; yet thou receivest them with a
gracious hand, as most acceptable sacrifices,
and incenae of a aweet-amelling aavour. Let
ua celebrate thee, O Lord, who art great,
and greatly te be praised. Let all nations
praiae tbee, from therising of the sun te the go-
ing down thereof. Set our hearts on flre with
the flames of thy divine love, that they may
wholly ascend te thee as bumt-efferings, and
nething ef ours may remain with us. O !
bleaaed transmigration, where the blind con
fidence of the flesh is transformed into a live-
ly and pure faith, that has no dependence
but upon thee alone ; where self-love, and
the love of the world, is exchanged for the
love of thy infinite beauty : when our wiU
shaU centre in thine, and be altogether absorb
ed by it. Let this change, O bountiful Fa-
* Cum nulla in terris esset sapientia, e coelo misit
doclorem.

ther, be brought about, for it is a change only
te be effected by the pewer of thy hand ; and
as soon as our souls are made sensible ef it,
thy praise shall be fer ever sounded within
us, as in temples devoted te thy aervice.
Let thy whole church, O Lord, flourish
and rejoice in the Ught ef thy favour. Be
favourable to this eur university, city, and
nation. Dispel, we pray thee, the thick
clouda, and quiet the winds and storms ; for
when they rage most, and make the greatest
noise, they knew thy voice, and obey it.
Theu art tbe only God of peace, who creat.
est it with » word, and makest righteous.
ness and peace mutually te kiss ene another.
We depend upon thee only ; and to thee
alone we render praise and glory, aa far as
we can, through Jesus Christ. Araen.

EXHORTATION IV
OtjR life is but a point, and even lesa than
a point ; but aa it ia not a raathematical
point, aa they call it, nor quite indiviaible,
when we divide it into minute parts, it ap.
peara aoraething considerable, and assumes
the imaginary appearance ef a large space
of time ; nay, according te Aristotle's no.
tion, it appeara diviaible in infinitum. Be.
aides theae coraraon and idle diviaiona of hu.
man Ufe, into the four stagea of childhood,
youth, manhood, and old age, and into perioda
often years, which auppoae the yet amaUer
diviaiona ef years and months ; men have
raany various ways ef distributing the periods
ef their Ufe, accordirig te the different oc-
cupatioris and atudiea they have been engag
ed in, tbe reraarkable everita that have hap-
peried to thera, and the several alterations
and revolutions in the ceurse of their lives.
And I doubt not but you, young gentlemen,
look upon thia present inatant of time aa the ,
beginning of a new peried ef your life ; you
have ray leave to do so, provided you serious.
ly conaider, at tbe aarae tirae, that the whole
ef the life we live in thia werld, ia of a frail
and fleeting nature, and, in aome respect,
nothing at all. And into whatever parts er
periods we divide it, if we consider the mi.
series and lamentable calamities with which
it is fraught, the life, even of a child, may
seera too long ; but, if we consider the time
only, we rauat conclude the life of the eldeat
raan te be exceeding abort and fleeting.
A great part of mankind ne sooner look
upon theraselves to be capable of worldly af
fairs, and think on entering upon seme pio-
fession suitable to a state ef manhood, but
they are cut off, in the very beginning of
their course, by an unforeseen and untiraely
death ; and, to be sure, this is the great dis.

EXHORTATION IV.

C23

temper of young, and even of old raen, tiiat,
by their deairea and deaigna, they launcti
out a great way into futurity, and fenn a
series of projects for many years to corae ;
while, in tbe raean time, they rarely, or at
least very auperficially, consider, how foolish
and precarioua it is to depend upon to-mor
row, and how soon this present form ef ours
may disappear ; how seen we may return
to our original dust ; " And that very day,"
as theroyal prophet warna ua, "our thoughta,
even the wiaeat and best-concerted thoughta
ofthe greateat men, and raost exalted princes,
perish." And this I take particular notice
of, that no such iUusiou may get possession
pf your rainds : for it is net the comraon sort
of mankind only that impose upon theraaelves
in this reapect, but the generaUty ef thoae
who deaire to he accounted net only raen of
learning, but also adepta in wisdom, and ac
tuaUy paas for sucb. Net that 1 weuld pro
hibit your making an early and prudent
choice, under the divine direction, of the em
ployraent and profeaaion of life you intend
to pursue ; nay, I would use every argument
te p'erauade you to make use ef such a choice,
and wben you have made it, to prosecute the
intention of it with the greatest diligence
and activity. I only put you upon your
.guard, net to entertain many and towering
hopea in this world, nor form a long series of
coriuected projecta ; becauae you will find
them aU mere vain and fleeting than iUuaiona
of the night : aorae neceaaary raeans will fail,
some favourable opportunity be missed ;
after aU your industry, the expected event
may not happen, or tbe thread ef your Ufe
may be cut, and thereby aU your projecta
rendered abortive. And, theugh your life
ahould be drawn out to ever se great
length, and succesa conatantly anawer your
expectations, yet yeu know, and I wiah you
would reraeraber it, the fatal day will corae
at last, perhaps when it is least expected ;
and that fatal and final day, I aay, will at
last ceme, when we muat leave all our enjoy
menta, and aU our achemes, thoae we are
new canying on, and thoae we have brought
to perfection, aa well as thoae that are only
begun, and thoae that subsist only in hopes
and ideas.
And these very arguraents, that have been
used to confine your rainds frera indulging
theraselves in toe remote prospects, will also
.serve to persuade yeu, in another sense, to
look much farther ; net with regard to world
Iy enjoyments, for such prospects, strictly
speaking, cannot be caUed long, but to look
far beyond aU earthly and perishing things,
to thoae that are heavenly and eternal : and
those that wUl not raise their eyea to such
objects, as the apostle Peter expresses it,
"are blind, and cannot see afar off."
But of you, my dear youths, I expect

many worda to perauade yeu to induatry, and
a continual progresa in human atudiea, and
philoaophical learning. If the violence and
infelicity of the time haa deprived you ef any
part of tbat period of yeara uauaUy employ
ed in theae atudiea at thia university, you
will surely repair that loss, aa soon aa poaai
ble, by your aubaequent reading and appli
cation. But, if no auch miafortune had
happened, you are not, I believe, ignorant,
that our achools are only intended for laying
the foundationa ef thoae atudiea, upon which
yeara and indefatigable induatry are to raiae
the auperstructure of raore coraplete erudition ;
which, by the accession of the Divine Spirit,
raay be consecrated into a temple for God.
And this is what I would recommend to
your esteem, and your earnest desirea, be
yond any other atudy whatever, " That yeu
may be holy, because our God is hely ;"
tbat, when you leave this university, thoae
with whom you converae, may net find you
puffed up with pride, on account of a little
auperficial learning, nor bigotted, talkative,
er fond of entering into unaeasonable dis
putes ; but conaider yeu all aa patterns and
examplea of piety, purity, temperance, rao
deaty, and all Chriatian virtuea ; particular
ly that huraility that ahone so brightly in
Chriat hiraself, and which he eameatly ex
herts all hia diaciplea te learn frora hira. I
will not suspect, that any one of you will
turn out to be an imraodest peraon, a glut-
ten or drunkard, or, in any shape, impious
and profane ; but I eameatly exhort and be
aeech you, ray dear young raen, to make it,
above all other thinga, your principal atudy,
to have your hearis purged frera aU irapure
and ignoble love ef the world and the flesh,
that, in this earth, yeu may live to God
only ; and then, to be sure, when you re
raove out of it, you wiU Uve with hira fer
ever in heaven.
May the honorary title yeu have thia day
received, be happy and auapicieus ; but I
earneatly pray the Father of lighta, that he
weuld deign to beatow upon yeu a title raore
aeUd and exalted than ia in the pewer ef man
to give, that you may be caUed the aona of
God, and tbat your converaation may be auit
able te ae great a narae, and ao glorioua a
Father.

Let us pray.
Eternal King, thy throne is establiah
ed and imraovable frora everlaating, and will
continue ao throughout all the agea of etemi
ty : before the mountains were brought forth,
before thou hadst formed the earth and the
world, even from everlaating to everlasting,
thou art God. All things tbat exiat, whether
visible or invisible, derive frem thee their

better thinga; I need not, I iraagine, use being, and all that they possess, and they

(128

EXHORTATION T,

all, from the least to the greatest, are subser
vient te thy purposes, who art their suprerae
King and Father ; raany of them, indeed,
act without knowledge, or design, yet serve
tbee witb a constant and unening obedience ;
others pay their homage from principles of
reason and inclination, and all the rest are
forced to promote thy intentions, theugh by
constraint, and against their wiUs. Thou
art great, O Lord, thou art great, and great
ly to be praised, and of thy greatness there
ia no end. The heavens are far raised above
tbe earth, but thy majeaty ia much farther
exalted above all eur thoughta and concep
tiona. Irapreaa, we pray thee, en eur hearta,
most bountiful Father, a profound aenae of
our meanness and insignificancy ; and make
us acceptable to tbee, through tiiy grace, in
thy beloved Jeaus, blotting out all eur sins
by the blood of his cress, and purifying eur
•learts by the effusion of thy Spirit from on
high, illuminate, most gracioua God, thia
assembly ef ours by the Ught of thy divine
favour, and let thy effectual blessing, we pray
thee, attend the work we are now employed
about, (by thy approbation, and the gracioua
diapoaition of thy providerice,) and may the
reault of all be te the glory of thy narae,
through Jeaua Christ our Lord. Araen.

EXHORTATION V.
The coraplaint, with regard to the variety
of all periahing and transitory enjoyraenta,
whicb has been long general araong mankind,
ia indeed juat and well-founded ; but it ia
no less true, that the vanity which resides in
the heart ef man himself, exceeds every
thing of that kind we observe in the other
parts of the viaible creation : For, among aU
the creaturea that we see around us, we can
find nething so fleeting and inconsistent ; it
flutters hither and thither, and, forsaking
that only perfect good which is truly suited
10 its nature and circumstances, graapa at
phantoms and ahadows of happiness, which
it purauea with a foUy raore than childish.
Man wanders abeut on this earth ; he
hopes, he wishes, he seeks, he gropes and
feels about hira ; he desires ; he is hot, he
is cold, he is bUnd, and complains that evil
abounds every where ; yet he is, himself,
the cause of those evUs whicb rage in the
world, but most of aU in his own breast ;
and therefore being tossed between the waves
thereof, that roll continually within and with
out him, he leads a restless and disordered
life, until he be at last swaUowed up in the
unavoidable gulf of death. It is, moreover,
Ihe shame and folly* of the human race,
* AZtXTnix,

that the greatest part of them do not resolve
upen any fixed and settled method of Ufe,
but, like the brute creatures, Uve and die
without design, and without proposing any
reasonable end. For how few are there, that
seriously and frequently conaider with them
aelvea, whence they came, whither they are
going, and what ia the purpose of their life ;
who are daily reviewing the atate of their ewn
minda, and often deacend into themaelvea,
that they may as frequently aacend, by their
thoughts and meditations, to their exalted
Father, and their heavenly country; who
take their atation upen temporal thinga, and
view theae that are etemal 1 Yet these are
the only men tbat can be fruly said te Uve,
and they only can be accounted wise.
And te this it is, ray dear youths, that I
would wilUngly engage your souls ; nay, I
heartily wish they were canied thither by
the flery chariots of celestial wisdom. Let
the comraon sort of raankind adraire mean
things ; let them place their hopes on riches,
honours and arts, and spend their Uves in the
pursuit of them,; but let your aouls be in
flaraed with a far higher arabition. Yet I
would not altogether prohibit you these pur
suits ; I only deaire you te be moderate in
thera. These enjoyments are neither great
in themselves, nor permanent ; but it ia sur
priaing, hew rauch vanity ia inflated by them.
What a conceited, vain nething, ia the crea
ture we caU raan 1 For, because few are ca
pable of diacerning true blessings, which are
soUd and intrinsically beautiful, therefore the
superflcial onea, and auch aa are ef no value
at all, are catched at ; and thoae who, in any
raeaaure, attain to the possession of them, are
puffed up and elated thereby.
If we conaider thinga as they are, it is an
evidence ef a very wrong turn of mind to
beast of titles and fame, as tbey are no part
ef ourselves, nor can we depend upon thera.
But he that is elevated witli a fond conceit
ef hia own knowledge, ia a stranger to the
nature ef things, and particularly te himself ;
since he knows uot that the highest pitch of
huraan knowledge eught, in reaUty, rather
to be caUed ignorance. Hew araall and in.
conaiderable is the extent of our knowledge !
Even the meat contemptible thinga in nature
are sufficient to expose the greatneaa of our
ignorance. And with respect to divine
thinga, who dares to deny, " that the knew.
ledge mankind have of them, is next to
nothing ?"* Because the weak eyes of our
understanding, confined, aa they are, within
such nanow houses of clay, cannot bear the
piercing Ught of divine things ; therefore
the Fountain of aU wisdom hath thought
proper te communicate such imperfect dis-
ceveries of himself, as are barely sufficient
te direct eur steps to the superior regions-^-
• 'iis ouStv x^vd^uro'Ci TUV B-liuv caftf,
t TTEJTEgae Su.UKTX,

EXHORTATION VI,

629

of perfect light. And whoever believes thia
truth, wiU, doubtless, make it bis chief care
and principal study, constantly to foUow this
lamp of divine light, that shines in darkness,
and not to deviate from it, either to the right
hand er to the left. It is, indeed, my epi.
nien, that no man of ingenuity ought to de
spise the atudy of philoaophy, or the know
ledge ef languages, or grammar itaelf;
thougb, to be aure, a raore expeditious and
successful method of teaching thera were
much to be wished : but what I would re
commend with the greatest earnestneaa, and
persuade you te, if poaaible, is, that yeu
weuld inaeparably unite with auch measures
of learning and iraproveraents of your rainds
as yeu can attain, purity of religion, divine
love, moderation ef seul, and an agreeable,
inoffensive behaviour. For you are not igno
rant, what a low and empty figure the highest
attainraents in human sciences must make,
if they be corapared with the dignity and
duration of the soul ef man ; for however
considerable they may be in themselves, yet,
with regard te their use, and their whole
deaign, they are confined within the abort
apace of thia periahing life. But the aoul,
whicb reaaons, whicb is employed in learning
and teaching, in a few days will for ever bid
fareweU to all these thinga, and remove to
another country. O how iricenaiderable are
all arta and sciencea, aU eloquence and phi
losophy, when compared with a cautioua con
cern that our last exit out of this world may
be bappy and auapicieus, and tbat we may
depart out ef thia life candidates ef iraraor
taUty, at which we can never arrive but by
the heautlful way of holinesa.

Let us pray.
Infinite and etemal God, who inhabit
est thick darkness, and light inacceaaible,
whom no mortal hath aeen, nor can see ; yet
all thy works evidently declare and proclaim
thy wisdom, thy pewer, and thy infinite
goodness. And, when we contemplate theae
thy perfectiona, what ia it our souls can de
sire, but that they raay love thee, worship
thee, aeiTe thee, for ever proclaira thy praises,
and 'Celebrate thy exalted name, which is
above aU praiae, . and all admiration ? Thy
throne ia constantly surrounded with thou
sanda and ten thouaands ef glorified spirita,
who continually adore thee, and cry out,
without ceasing. Holy, holy, holy. Lord
God Almighty, who was, who ia, and who
ia to come. Let othera aeek what they wiU,
and find and erabrace what they cari ; may
we have alwaya thia one fixed and settled
purpose, that it ia good fer ua to draw near
to God. Let the seas roar, the earth be
ahaken, and all things go te ruin and con
fusion ; yet the aoul that adherea to God

will remain safe and quiet, and shall not be
moved for ever. O blessed seul ! tbat bas
tbee for its reat, and aU ita salvation ; it ahall
be like a tree planted by tbe rivers of water,
it shaU uot fear wheri heat cometh, nor shall
it be uneasy in a year ef drought. It is our
eamest petitien and prayer, O Father, that
thy hands may leoaen all our chains, and
effectually deliver our soula from aU the
snares and allureraenta of the werld and the
flesh, and that, by that sarae bountiful and
raost powerful hand of thine, they may be
fer ever united to thee, through thy only be
gotten Son, who is our union and our peace.
Be favourably present, moat gracious God,
with this assembly of ours, that whatever we
undertake, in obedience to thy wiU, raay be
canied te perfection by tbe aid of thy grace,
and tend to the glory of thy name, through
Jesua Chriat our Lord. Amen.

EXHORTATION VL
I Ani not ignorant, that it is one of tbe
common arta ef life, to aet off our own things
with all tbe pomp we can ; and if there is
any worth in thera, by no meana te deprecate
it, but rather te endeavour, with all our
raight, to enhance their value as rauch aa
poasible ; nay, those ef them which are quite
vain and worthless, we use to magnify with
pompous expreaaiona, and daub with false
coloura, and to de otherwise ia reckoned a
kind of rastic simplicity. But you, young
gentleraen, who are acquainted with my
manner, will, I iraagine, easily forgive this
indifference of mine ; and therefore I say, it
-there are any that despise theae perforraances
of OUTS, we leave thera at full liberty, for we
ouraelves held thera in contempt before ;
but, to speak freely, together with thera, we
undervalued aU worldly things : " They are
all made of the sarae mean ra.aterials."*
O Ufe, short with regard to duration, long
in consideration ef thy miaeries, involved in
darkness, beset with snares, still fluctuating
between false joys and real torments, ground
less -hopes and fears equally iraaginary, yet
fooliahly, and even to diatraction, loved by
raoat. We' will not die, and yet we know
not how to "Uve. Our preaent possessions
are loathsome as food te a man in a fever,
and we greedily catch at future enjoyments,
which, when they corae to be preaent, will
be received with the sarae indifference : for,
among the advantages of this fleeting life,
nothing is equally agreeable to those who
have it in posseaaion, and thoae whe have it
only in deaire and hope.
'Vl''e are all in general of such » nature,
• MxvTX [iix xoiis.

()30

EXHORTATION Vl.

that we are weary of ouraelves, and, what we
lately preferred to every thing else, upon ex.
perience we reject. This inconstancy is un
doubtedly a sign of a raind distempered,
forcibly drawn away from its centre, and se
parated frora its only durable rest. Nor
need you go far, young gentleraen, to look
for an instance of this diateraper ; let any of
you deacend into himself, (which very few
do, and even they but rarely,) he wUl flnd
it within hira : upon a very sUght inquiry,
he will surely be sensible of it ; for, passing
other considerations, with what ferverit wish
es have you, in your hearts, lenged for this
day 1 Yet I forewarn you, that aU your plea
aure wiU either die with the day itself, which
is now fast drawing to a close, or but for a
very short time survive it. And, aa com
monly happena, it will be aucceeded by the
anxious cares of beginning life, aa it were,
anew, or, which ia much mere grieveus and
unhappy, and from which, I earnestly pray,
you may be all effectually preserved, by those
teraptations arid allurements ef vice which
tend te debauch and ruin you ; for these
allurements, after the raanner ef aorae robbera,
attack the unwary and unexperienced with
blandiahraenta and careaaes, that thereby they
raay have an opportunity to undo them. If
therefore, aa soon as ye enter upen a life of
freedom, those deceitful and deadly pleasures
of aenae terapt yeu with their deluaive arailea,
I would put you in raind, how unworthy it
ia of a free and generoua mind, eapeciaUy that
of a Chriatian, to become an abject slave,
and submit to the moat ahameful bendage ;
hew disgraceful and wretched a choice it is,
to becorae the slave of a mad, distracted
master ;* and how much more generoua and
exalted ia the pleaaure of despising them all,
and trampling thera under feet, when they
come in corapetition with the pure and per
manent delights of divine leve 1
Aa to exalted degreea ef honour, and heaps
of richea, the idola of all ranka of raankind,
which they worahip with the rage ef enthu
aiasm and riiadness, we net only apply te
thera what waa ebaerved of old conceming
Herculea' atatue, and aay, " they bave ne
thing divine in thera ;"-t- but alao, that they
are entirely void of real goodneas. Even
those who have the greatest experierice of
thera, are at last obliged te ewn this : the
force ef truth extorts the confesaion, though
they raake it witb regret and againat their
will. All the beauty and brightneaa of these
idols reaerabie the decorations of a atage, '
that dazzle the eyea of the vulgar, and the ,
enjoyment of them is in reality but a splen
did kind of slavery, and gilded raisery. It
is a pathetic expression of St. Bernard, " O !
ambition, the torture of the arabitious, how
happena it, that though theu torraenteat all.

* AouXav ytvi
'¦ 'its ouSlv tl

'6x1 vxQxtf^ovauvTos Stc^Torou,
I S-E<0>.

thou yet raakest thyself agreeable to all ?"•
O how eaaily dees even the least gUmpse of
eternal and infinite beauty raze out of the
mind aU the impressions made upon it by
the objects we daily converse with on this
earth, and turn its admiration of them into
conterapt and diadain !
But if any one, having thoroughly examin
ed and deapised these ahadowa, reaolvea sole^
ly to puraue a raere complete knowledge of
things and feUow the streams of learning,
we. cannot deny, that he judges more justly ;
yet, after aU, raust know, if he is wise, or at
least he ought te knew, that he may be wise,
" what vanity and auperfluity ia te be met
with even here :"-|- for often, when one has
applied himaelf te his books and atudiea
with the greatest assiduity, and almost apent
hia Ufe upon them, aU hia paina evaporate
into sraoke, and the labour of years ia en
tirely lost. And, what ia moat of all to be
lamented, thia ia aometiraea the case with
reapect to theology, which ia the chief of all
arta and aciencea, aa ao large a portion of
that vineyard is stiU poaaeaaed with briars
and thorns. How raany are the disputes
and controversies, how many the trifiing ar
guments and cavila, which poasibly may
have aoraething of the aharpneaa of thorns,
but undoubtedly a great dealof their barren-
neaa and their hurtful quality 1- A philoao
pher of old aeverely reprovea the aophiatera of
hia time in theae worda : " What waa for-
merly the love of wisdom, is new become the
love of words. "J We, tobe sure, may sub
stitute, in place ef this, a complaint stiU
more bitter, that what was theology before,
is now become foolish talking ; and that
many of our divines, though they serve one
Ged, and that the God of peace, " yet split
into partiea upen the lighteat occasions, and
with great irapiety divide the whole world
into faction6."§ And I am rauch afraid,
thia evil, in a great raeasure, derives its origi-
nal frora the education ef youth in achoola
and coUegea. For the moat part of raen
raanage thia buaineaa, aa if disputing was
the end of learning, aa fighting ia the design
of going to war : hence the youth, when
they enter the achool, begin disputing, which
never ends but with their life. Death im.
poses silence, and so, at last, " these fierce
paaaiona ef their minda, and these inveterate
contentioria, are compoaed to rest by tbe
weight of a little duat thrown upon tbem."||
As for you, young gentlemen, if my ear
neat wishes and sincere advice can bave any
weight with you, yeu will early extricate
* O ! ambitio, ambientiuin crux, quomodo omnes
torquens omnibus places ?
t [loXXx ten xtvx XXI viptt^yx,
X Qua; philosophia fuit, lacta philologia est,
g ^XlioVTXI, XXI XOCfAOV oXnv TtfAVOUCIV xdlC/iUS.
I] Hi motus animorum, atque hac certamina tanta
I'ulveris exigui jaclu conipressa quiescunt. VrRG, GeoTg. iv

EXHORTATION VIL

C3l

vonrselvea out of tiiese flaraea of contention,
that your minds, being lighted up by the
pure and celeatial fire of the Divine Spirit,
may ahine forth in bolineas, and burn with
the meat fervent charity.

Let us pray.
HoNOun and praiae are due to thee, O
infinite God ! Thia is the universal voice of
aU the blessed spirita on high, and all the
saints on earth : Worthy art thou, O Lord,
to receive glory, and honour, and power, be
cause tbou hast created all thinga, and for
thy pleaaure they are. We, here before
thee, with united hearta and affections, offer
tbee, as we can, the sacrifice of gratitude,
love, aud praiae. How much are we indebt
ed to tbee for ourselves, and for all tbat we
posseaa ! for in thee we live, move, and have
our being. Thou hast redeeraed us frora
our sins, having given the Sen of thy love,
as a aacrifice and ransora for our aouls ; the
chastisement of our peace feU upon him, and
by hia atripes we are healed. On thia con.
sideration, we acknowledge, we are no longer
at eur ewn diapoaal, aince we are bought
wilh a price, and ao very great a price, that
we may glorify thee, .0 Father, and thy Son,
in our souls and our bodies, which are ao
justly thine. ' May we devote ourselves to
tbee, through the whole reraaining part of
our Ufe, and diadain the irapure and ignoble
slavery of sin, the world, and the fiesh, that,
in all things, we raay demean ourselvea as
becomes the aona ef God, and the heirs of
thy celeatial kingdom, and raake, daily,
greater progreaa in eur journey towarda the
.happy poaaeaaion thereof.
Bleaa thy church, and our nation, and
thia eur univeraity : raay it be thine, we pray
thee. We entreat thou wouldeat become our
father, our protector, and our auprerae teach
er, who haat thy chair in heaven, and teach
eat the hearta of raen on thia earth. May
the youth flouriah under thy inatruction,
that they may be not only learned, but eape
ciaUy upright, pious, and true Christians,
entirely devoted to the honour of thy narae,
through eur Lord Jesua Chriat. Araen.

EXHORTATION VIL
These academical exerciaea of oura are,
to be sure, no great matter, nor do we raake
any high account of them ; yet, after all, we
set no higher, perhaps even a leaa value, up
on the buatiirig affaira of mankind, which
make a much greater noiae, and the farces
that are acted upon the raere exalted theatres

ef the world, whicb, to speak my sentiraents
in a few words, are for the most part out
wardly raore pompous than these of ours, but
inwardly equally vain, and more insignificant
than the buay amuaementa of children play
ing en the sands, and eagerly building little
bouses, which, with giddy levity, they in
stantly puU down again, * Or if you chooae
to be raore aevere upon the fraitleaa labours
of raankind, and their buay and irregular
raotiona backward and forward, and from one
place to another, you may, with a great man,
that knew all theae thinga by experience,
compare them to the fiuttering of frightened
flies, the toilsome hurry of ihe ants, and the
motions of puppets.'^ But he that, araidst
all the confusions and commotions which
happen in huraan affaira here below, haa re
course to divine conteraplation, and the hopes
of etemity, as the lofty, irapregnable tower
of true wisdom, " ia the only peraon that en
joya unintenupted ease and tranquiUity, like
the heavenly bodiea, which conatantly raove
on in tbeir orbita, and are never, by any vio
lence, diverted from their course.''^
And, indeed, what wonder is it, that he
can eaaily view all the dreadful appearances
of thia wretched life, with a reaolute and
steady countenance, who, by frequent inter
views and daily cenversation with death it
aelf, which we call the k'mg of terrors, § haa
rendered it faraiUar te him, and thereby not
only diveated it of ita tenors, but alao placed
it in a beautiful, pleaaant, and quite araiable
Ught. By thia raeans, he diea daily, and,
doubtieaa, before he suffers a natural death,
he diea in a more exalted aense of the word,
by withdrawing, as far as is possible, bis
raind frora the incumbrance of earthly thinga,
and, even while it lodgea in the body, wean
ing it frora all the worldly objects that are
placed about bim. And, in this very sense,
philosophy of old waa moat properiy called
the meditation of death,\\ wbich the Roman
orator haa, iri my opinion, explained with
great propriety, and the precision of a philo
aopher. " What ia it we do," says he,
" when we withdraw the raind from pleaaure,
that ia, the body, from eur raeana and aub
stance that ia the aervant of tbe body, that
providea for its wants, from the coraraon
wealth, and every kind of business ; what is
it we then do, I say, but recall it to itself,
and obUge it to atay at home ? Now, to
withdraw the mind frora the body, ia no
thing else but to learn to die."^ Let ua,
*¦ 'iis OTE ti; ,itxfJ,x8ov cuvxyv Txis xyxi ^xXxrcvis,
'Of ETtJ ouv STO(*IO-EV xSu^fAXTX, VOTItTOICIV
A-i xueis cuvtxtuct irociv xxi x'S"' «"«'{'»''-
1 tJlui'!uuvi!rTOr,^^lvuvSlxS•ouxs. iJ.uifOv,xuv TXXXITO-
lixs XXI xxOotfoeixs, xxt o-iyiXXxflx vluiOcrxCTOufLlvx.
X Otia solus agit, sicut itclestia semper ,.
Incancussasuovolvunlursideralapsu. Luc. liD ii-
6 <fpixuStirTXTr,v sl«ons- II MsXlrr 3-i«>«roi..
% Quid aliud agimus, cum a voluptale, ul est a cor-
nore tum a re ftmiliiiii qua ministra est et fanuila
rorpiris, cum a republica, cum a negotio omni sf^yer*
mus animuin, quia tum agbnus (inquam) nisi illiun

6,''.2

EXHORTATION VIL

tiierefore, reason thus, if you wUl take my
advice, and separate ourselves frera our bodies,
that is, let us accustom ourselves fo die :
thia, even while we aojoum on this earth,
will be to the aoul a life like to that which
it will enjoy in heaven, and, being delivered
frora these fetters, we shall move at a better
rate, the courae of our aouls will be leas re.
tarded in our journey to that happy place, at
which, v/hen we anive, we can then, aud
tnen only, be truly said to Uve ; fer this life
is but a kind of death, the miseries whereof
I could paint, if it were seasonable ; but, to
be sure, it was most juatly called a life of
ihe greatest misery* by Dionysius the Areo.
pagite, or whoever was the author of that
book that goea under hia name.
And, indeed, young gentlemen, I am of
opinion, that auch a view and meditation of
death will net be unsuitable, or improper,
even for yeu, though you are in the prirae of
life, and your minds in their full vigour ;
nay, I would gladly hope, yeu yourselves
will not iraagine it would, nor be at all of
fended at rae, as if, by mentioning tbat
inauspicious word unseaaonably, I disturbed
your preseut joy, drew a kind ef black cloud
over this bright day of festivity, or aeeraed
to mix among your laurela, a branch ef the
hated cypreas. For a wiae man would not
willingly ewe hia joy te madneaa, nor think
it a pleasure, foolishly to forget the situation
of his affairs.
The wiae raan alone feela true joy, and
real wisdom is the attainraent of a Chriatian
cnly, whe bears with life, but hopes fer
death ; and paaaea through all the atorras
and tempesta of the former with an undaunt
ed mind, but with the moat fervent wiahea
looks for the latter, aa the aecure port, and the
fair havens-^' in the higheat aenae of the ex
preaaion ; whose mind ia hurable, and, at the
same tirae, exalted, neither depending upen
foreign, tliat ia, extemal advantages, nor
puffed up with hia own ; and neither elevat.
ed nor depreased by any turna or viciaaitudea
of fortune.
He ia the wise raan who reliahea things
as they really are ; whoia not, with tbe com
men aort of mankind, that are alwaya chil
dren, terrified by bugbears; nor pleased with
painted ratilea ; who has a greatneaa of soul,
vastly superior to all fading and periahing
thinga,; who judgea of hia improveraenta by
hia life, and thinka he knows every thing
he does net covet, and every thing he dees
not fear. The only thing he desirea, ia
the favour and countenance of the Supreme
King ; the only thing he feara, ia his dis
pleasure ; and, without deubt, a mind of
this cast must, of necessity, be the habita
tion of constant aerenity, exalted joy, and
atl seipsum advocamus, et secum esse cogimus ? .'^e-
cci nere autem a corpore animum, necquicquam aliud
Ch-t iiiiam cmori discere.
• ilaXuTXlftTTXT'OV tuy.V. t KxXOUS XI.U.IVXS

gladneaa apringing from on high. And
this is tbe raan that is truly possessed of
that tranquillity and happy disposition of
mind,* which the Philosophers boast of,
the Divines recommend, but few attain.
And though he wiU neither wilUngly auffer
hiraaelf to be caUed a philosopher, nor a phi.
lologer, yet he ia, in reality, well versed in
the things of God,-^ and, by a kind of di,
vine influence and instruction,^ has attain.
ed to the light of pure and peaceable truth ;
where he passea hia days in the greatest
quietness and serenity, far above the cloudy
and stormy regiona of controveray and dispu.
tation. If any of yeu has been thua instructed,
he haa certainly attained the higheat of all
arts, and has entered upon the mest glorioua
liberty, even before he hath received any
Univeraity degree. But the reat, though
they are presentiy to have the title ef Master
of Arts, still continue a siUy, servile set ef
men, under a heavy yoke of bondage, where
by even their minda will be cramped with
oppressive laws, far raore intolerable than
any diacipline, however severe. None of
you, I iraagine, is so excessively blinded
with self-conceit,% so ignorant ofthe nature
ef thinga, and unacquainted with himself,
aa te dreara that he ia aheady a philosopher,
or be puffed up with an extravagant opinion
of his own knowledge, because he has gone
through the ordinary exerciaea at the Univer
sity ; though, to apeak the truth, the philo-
aophy which prevaila in the achools, is ef a
vain, airy nature, and mere apt to inspire the
mind with pride, than te improve it. Aa it
ia ray earneat prayer, se it ia also the object
of my hope, that you wiU retire frora the
Serainary, with youririinda excited to a keen
and wholeaerae thirat after frue erudition,
rather than blown up with the wUdfire ef
acience, falaely se called : and, what of all
other attainraents is ef greatest consequence,
that you will leave ua, deeply affected with
the moat ardent leve of heavenly wisdom.
Whatever may be your fate, with reapect to
other things, it is ray earnest request, that it
raay be your higheat ambition and your prin
cipal atudy, to be true Chriatiana ; that ia,
to be humble, meek, pure, hely, and follow
era ef your mest auspicious Captain, the
Larab, wherever he goeth ; for he that fol-
loweth hira ahaU net waUt in darkneas, but
be conducted, through the raorning light of
Divine grace, to the meridian and never.end.
ing brightness of glory.

Let us pray.
Eternal Father ef mercies and of lights,
the onlyrest of the immortal souls which thou

* EuBvtJ.lxv XXI yxXYiVr,v.
X ©Eije Tlvl fJ^'iiix XXI SiSxxyi,

X ©Eflff-OSJOf.
it.oaxiux.

EXHORTATION VIII.

CSS

host created, and their never-failing consola
tion, into what by.patha of error de our
souls divert, and to what dangers are they
exposed on every hand, when they stray away
from thee 1 But while they keep within thy
hiding-place, O Most High, tbey are Safe
under the ahadow of thy winga. O how
happy are they, and how weU do they live,
who pass their whole Uves in that secret
abode, where tbey may continuaUy refresh
themselves with the deUcious fruits of thy
love, and shew forth thy praise ; where tiiey
may taste and aee that tbou art good, O
liOrd, and be thoroughly persuaded of the
immense riches of thy bounty, which all our
miseries cannot exceed, ner our poverty ex-
hau!>t ; nay, which tbe constant effusion ef
them upon the whole universe, and all its
parts, cannot in the least diminish 1 As
for us, who are before thee, tiie most unwor
thy of all thy creatures, yet at the sarae time,
the most excessively leaded with aU the in
stances of thy goodness, can we avoid crying
out with the united voices of eur hearts,
Let praise be ascribed to tbe Lord, because
he is good, and his mercy endure ih fer ever ?
Who shall declare the great and wonderful
works of God, who shaU shew forth his
praiae; wborulethby hia powerfer ever, and hia
eyea observe the nationa, that the rebellious
may not exalt theraaelves ; who restores our
souls to life, and suffers not our feet te be
moved ? But, on the ether band, alas ! hew
justly may our aengs be interrupted with bit
ter lamentatiena, that, under auch atrong and
constant rays ef his bounty, our hearts are so
cold towards hira ! O hew faint and languid
is our leve te him ! How very little, or near
te nothing, is the v/hole of that flame which.
we feel within us ; and, as that love faila
within ua, we miaplace our affections upon
the things around ua ; and aa we foUow
vanity, we become vain and miserable at the
same time. But raay thy Spirit, O Lord,
whom we humbly and earnestly beg of tbee,
descending into our hearts, inspire us tho
roughly with Ufe, vigour, and celestial purity.
Please to enlighten thy church throughout
the whole habitable world, and particularly
in these ialanda, with the continued light of
thy countenance : if theu apply thy healing
hand, we shaU presently be whole ; nor need
we look to any quarter for other remedies
than theae we have always found te be more
powerful than our raost obstinate distempers.
Bless this city, and this celebrated university.
Grant, raost gracious Father, that the nura-
bers of youth we send out frora it tbis day,
and every year, raay be, by thy effectual
grace, consecrated and devoted te thy service.
Forbid, we pray thee, that they should either
be the raeans of spreading poUution araong
thy people, or suffer themselves to be tainted
with the infection of a wicked world ; but
let this fountain of learning be coutimiallv

enriched witii thy heavenly influences, that
it raay constantly supply pure nnd limpid
streams, for the welfare and improvement ef
thy church and peeple, to the glory of thy
exalted name, through eur Lord .lesua Chriat ;
to whora, with thee, and the Hely Spirit, be
honour, praiae, and glory, world without
end. Amen.

EXHORTATION VIIL
Amidst these arauaementa, we are unhap.
pily losing a day. Yet some piart of the
weight of this coraplaint is removed, when
we conaider, that, whUe the greateat part of
raankind are bustling in crowds, and places
of traffic, or, as they would have us believe,
in affairs of great importance, we are b-ifling
eur tirae raere innocently than they. But
what should hinder us ftora closing this last
scene in a serious raanner, that is, frora tum.
ing our eyea to mere divine objecta, whereby,
though we are fatigued witii other mattera,
we may terminate the work of this day, and
the day itaelf, agreeably ; aa the beama of
the aun uae te give raore than ordinary de.
light, when he ia near his setting ?
You are now initiated into the philosophy,
such as it is, that prevaila in the schools,
and, I imagine, intend, with all possible dis
patch, to apply to higher studies. But O !
how pitiful and scanty are all those things
which beaet us before, behind, and en every
side 1 The bustling we observe, is nothing
but the hunying ef ants eagerly engaged in
their little labours. Tbe raind muat aurely
have degenerated, and forgotten ita original
aa effectuaUy as if it had drunk of the river
Lethe, if, extricating itself out of all these
mean concems and designs, as ao raany
anarea laid for it, and riaing above the whole
of thia viaible werld, it does net return te its
Father's bosom, where it may conteraplate
his etemal beauty, where conteraplation will
inflame love, and love be crowned with the
posseaaion ef the beloved object. But, in
the contemplation of this glorioua object,
how great caution and moderation of mind
ia necessary, that, by prying presumptuoualy
into his secret councils, or his nature, and
rashly breaking into the sanctuary of light,*
we be riot quite involved in darkness ! And,
with regard to what the infinite, indepen.
dent, and necessarily existent Being,-\- has
thought proper to communicate to us con
cerning himself, and we are concerned to
knew, even that is by no raeana to be ob-
acured by curious, impertinent queationa,
nor perjilexed with the anogance of diaputa-
tion ; becauae by such means, instead of
* Elf TOS TOU iUTOS xSuTX. f Tw OVTUg OVTI.

B34

EXHORTATION VIIL

enlarging our knowledge, we are in the fafr
way te itnow nething at all ; but readily to
be received by hurable faith, and entertained
with raeek and pious affectiona. And if in
theae uoticea of him, that are comraunicated
to ua, we raeet with any thing obacure, and
hard to be underatood, auch difficulties will
be happily got over, not by perplexed con
troveraiea, but by constant and fervent prayer.
" He will come to underatand," aays, ad
mirably well, the famoua biahop of Hippo,*
" who knocka by prayer, net he who, hy
quap-elling, makea a noiae at the gate of
truth."-]- But what can we, who are raortal
creatures, understand, with regard to the in
expressible Being we now apeak of, eape
ciaUy while we aojoum in theae dark priaona
of clay, but only tbia, that we can by ne
meana comprehend hira ? For though, in
thinking of bira, we reraove frera our idea
all aort of iraperfection, and collect together
every perceivable perfection, and adore the
whole with the higheat titlea, we rauat,
after all, acknowledge, tbat we have said
nothing, and that our conceptions are no
thing te the purpose. Let us, therefore, in
general acknowledge hira to be the imraov.
able Being, that moveth every thing ; the
irarautable God, that changeth aU things at
Ilia pleaaure ; the infinite and etemal foun.
tain ef all good, and of all exiatence, and the
Lord and aole ruler of the world.
If yeu, then, my dear youths, a-spire te
genuine Christianity, that is, the knowledge-
of God and divine thinga,J I weuld have
you consider, that the raind muat firat be
recalled, and engaged to tum in upon itaelf,
before it can be raiaed up towarda Ged, ac
cording to that expression of St. Bernard,
" May I retum from external thinga to theae
that are within myself, and frera theae again
riae to these that are ef a more exalted na-
ture."§ But the greatest part of raen Uve
abroad, and are, truly, atrangera at home ;
you may aooner find them any where, than
with theraaelvea. Now, ia not thia real raad
neas, and tbe highest degree of inaenaibility ?
Yet, after all, they aeera to have aorae
reaaon in their madness, when they thus atray
away from theraselves, since they can see no
thing within tbem that, by its promising as
pect, can give them pleaaure er delight.
Every thing there ia ugly, frightful, and fuU
of naatineaa, which they would rather be ig
norant ef, than be at the paina to purgeaway ;
and therefere prefer a alothful forgetfulneaa
of their miaery, to the trouble and labour of
regaining happineaa. But hew prepoaterous
ia the moat diligent atudy and the highest
knowledge, when we neglect that ef our.
* St. Augustine.
f Intclligetquiorando pulsat, non qui rix.-;ndo ob-
strepit ad ostium veritatis.
X ®tOfro'ixv-
§ Ab extciinribus ad interiora red'-am, ab interici'i-
bus ad superioT.i ascendam. I

selves ! The Roraan philosopher, ridiculing
the graramarians of his tirae, observes,
" that they inquired narrowly into the mis-
fortunes ef Ulysses, but were quite ignorant
of their own."* The sentiments of a wise
and pious man are quite different, and I
wish you may adopt thera. It is hia princi
pal care to be thoroughly acquainted with
himaelf, he watchea ever his ewn waya, he
improvea and cultivates his heart aa a garden,
nay, a garden conaecrated to the King of
kinga, whe takes particular delight in it ; he
carefuUy nuraea the heavenly plants and
flowers, and roots up aU the wild and noxious
weeds, that he may be able to say, with the
greater confldence, " Let ray beloved come
into his own garden, and be pleased to eat of
his fruits." And when, upon tbis invitation,
the great King, in the fulness of his good^
ness, deacenda into the mind, tbe seul may
then eaaily aacend with hira, aa it were, in a
chariot of flre, and look down upon the earth,
and aU earthly things, with conterapt and
disdain : " Then rising above the rainy re
gions, it sees the storras faUing beneath its
feet, and traraplea upon the hidden thun.
der."-|-

Let us pray.
Whatever aatiafaction we look for with
out thee, O heavenly Father, ia mere delu.
sion and vanity ; yet, though we have se
often experienced this, we have not, to this
day, learned to renounce this vain and fruit
less labour, tbat we may depend upon thee,
who alone canst give full aud complete satis
faction to the souls of men. We pray, tbere.>
fore, that by thy Almighty hand, theu would
est so effectuaUy join and unite eur hearts to
thee, that they may never be separated any
raore. How unhappy are they who forsake
thee, and whose hearts depart frem thy waya I
They ahall be like ahrubs in the desert, they
shall net see when good coraeth, but dweU
in a parched and barren land. Blessed, on
tbe contrary, is he wbo hath placed bis con
fidence iri thee ; he shaU be like a tree plant
ed by the rivers ef water, be shall not be
afraid when heat coraeth, nor be uneasy in
tbe time of drought. Take frora us, O Lord,
whatever earthly enjoyraents thou shalt think
proper ; there is ene thing will abundantly
raake up all our losses, let Christ dwell in
eur hearts by faith, and the rays of thy fa
vour continually refresh us in the face of
thine Anointed ; in this event, we have nO'-
thing raere te ask, but, with grateful minda,
ahall for ever celebrate thy bounty, and all
our bones shall say, Who is like unto thee,
O Lord, who ia like unto thee ?
* Ulvssis mala explorant, ignorant .sua.
t Celsior exsurgens pluviis, nimbosque cadentcs
bub pedibus cernens, et coeca tonitrua calcans.

VALEDICTORY ORATION.

035

Let thy church be glad in thee, and all in
tills nation, and every where throughout the
world, that regard and leve thy name ; by
the power and efficacy of the goapel, raay
their nuraber be daily augraented, and let
the gifta ef thy grace be alao increaaed in
thera all. Bleaa tbis university ; let it be
like a garden watered by thy heavenly hand,
that thy tender shoots may grew, and in due
time produce abundant fruit, to the eternal
honour of thy raoat glorious name, through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Araen.

VALEDICTORY ORATION.
Though this, I iraagine, is the last ad
dress I shall ever have occasion te raake te
you, I wiU not detain you long frem your
studies, nor encroach on the tirae allowed
you for recreation. This ia, to be sure, the
first time that some of you have heard me ;
but I have a great many othera to bear wit
ness of the constant deaign of all ray disser.
tations in this place. They will testify, that
the intention of aU ray diacouraea waa, " that
Ihe form of sound words,"* thatia, the Chria-
tiari doctrine, and consequently the fear and
love of God, raight net only be impressed,
but also engraven upon your hearta in laat
ing and indelible charactera ; and that you
might not only admit aa a truth, but alao
pay the highest regard to this indisputable
maxim, " that piety and religion is the only
real good among men."-|- Moreover, that
your minda might be the leas encumbered
in their application to this grand study of
religion, and tbe raore expeditious in their
progreaa therein, I conatantly endeavoured,
with all poaaible warrath, to divert you frora
those banen and thorny questiona and dia
putes, that have infected the whole of theo
logy : and this at a tirae, when the greatest
part of divinea and profeaaora, and thoae of no
smaU reputation, engaging furiously in such
controveraiea, " have split into parties, and
unhappily divided the whole world."J It
waa my conatant practice to eatabliah those
great and uncontroverted articles of our hely
reUgion, which are but few and clear ; some
part whereof are confirraed by the comraon
consent ef nations, and of all the huraan
race ; and all the rest by the unaniraous
voice ef the whole Christian world. Of the
first sort are tbeae we have often advanced in
treating of the being and perfectiona of the
One auprerae and eternal Principle, and the
production of aU thinga by bira ; the conti
nual preaervation and governraent of the werld
^TyixivovTUv Xoyuv tutos-
t'OTi tv XXI fjoovov tv xvd^uTOts xyxQov n luctSttx.
- 2 Jf,/»OVT0ii , xxt XOCtXOV OXOV Tll/,VOUTIV xOtCUUf.

by his providence ; the law of Ged given to
raankind, and the rewards and punishraenta
annexed to it. The other claas ef the grand
articlea of religion are indeed peculiar te
Chriatian Philoaophy, but believed in com
raon by aU the profeaaora of that reUgion.
These are the great foundationa ef eur faith,
and of all our hope and joy, wjth regard te
the incarnation of the Son of God, hia death
and reaunection for the deatruction of sin,
and consequently ef death ; his ascension
into the highest heavens, with that sarae
fleah ef oura, in which he died, and his exal.
tation there above all ranka of angela, domi
nions, and thrones, &c,;^ whence we expect
he will return in great glory, in that day,
when he wiU be glorious in aU his saints,
and admfred in those that believe. Aa many,
therefore, aa desire to receive hira in this hia
laat raanifestation, with joy and exultation,
muat of neceasity be holy, and, in confor
mity to their moat perfect and glorious Head,
aober, pioua, upright, and live in fuU con
terapt of thia periahing trauaitory world, their
ewn mortal fleah, and the aordid pleaaures
of both : in a word, all the enjoyments which
the mean and servile adraire, they rauat
traraple under foot and despise. For who.
ever will atrive for tbis victory, and strive so
as at last te obtain it, the Lord wiU own hira
for his aervant, and the great Master will ac.
knowledge hira for his disciple. He will at.
tain a lilceneas te God in thia earth, and,
after a short conflict, will triuraph in the
Divine presence for ever. These are tbe doc
trines which it is our intereat to knew, and
in the obaervation ef which our happineaa
will be aecured. To theae you will turn
your thoughta, young gentlemen, if you are
wiae ; nay, te theae you ought to give due at-
tention, thatyoumaybewiae : theae phantoma
we catch at, fly away ; thia shadow of a life
we now live, is likewiae on the wing. Theae
thinga that are without the verge ef aenae,
and above ita reach, are tbe only aolid and
laating enjoyments. " Why are ye fond of
these earthly thinga," aaya St. Bernard,
" which are neither true riches, nor are they
yours ? If tbey are youra," continues he,
" take them with you."* And Lactantiua
admirably well obaervea, that, " whoever pre-
fera the life of tiie aoul, muat, of necessity,
despise that of the body ; ner can he aspire
to the highest geod, unless he deapiae ad
vantages of an inferior kind. For the all-
wise God did not chooae that we ahould at.
tain to imraortality in a soft, indolent way,
but that we should gain that inexpressible
reward of etemal life with the highest diffi
culty aniaevereat labour."-]- And, that you
* Quid terrena haec amplectimini, quae nee verae divl-
tiae sunt, nee vestras ? Si vestras sunt, toUite vobiscum.
t Quisquis animffi vitam m.aluerit, corporis vitam
cantemnat necesse est, nee aliter aspirate adsummum
poterit bonum, nisi quse sunt ima dcspexerit Noluit
enim saoientissimus Deus, nos immortalitatem dell

e:it!

VALEDICTORY ORATION.

may net be diacouraged, remeraber tiie great
Redeemer of aoula, your exalted Captain,
hath gene before you, and we have te do
with an eneray already conquered. Let us
only follow him with courage and activity,
and we have no ground to doubt of victory.
And indeed it ia a victory truly worthy of a
Christian, te aubdue the barbaroua train of
our appetitea, and aubject them to the empire
of reaaon and religion ; while, on the other
hand, it is the raost ahameful bondage to
have the mere divine part efour compoaition
meanly subjected te an ignoble, earthly body.
Now, this victory can only be aecured by
atedfaat believing, vigereua opposition to our
spiritual enemiea, unwearied watching, and
inceaaant prayer. Let prayer be net only the
key that opens the day, and the lock tbat
shuts out the night ; but let it be alao, frora
morning to night, eur ataff and stay in all our
labours, and to enable ua to go cheerfully up
into the mount of Ood. Prayer bringa con.
solation to the languiahing aoul, drivea away
the devil, and ia the great raediura, whereby
all grace and peace is ceraraunicated te us.
With regard to your reading, let it be your
. particular care to be farailiarly acquainted
witb the Sacred Scriptures above all ether
books whatever ; for frora thence you wiU
truly derive light for your direction, and
sacred provisions for your support on your
journey. In subordination to these you may
also use the writings ef pious men that are
agreeable to them ; for these also you may
improve to your advantage, and particularly
that little book of h Kempis, Of ihe Imi
tation of Christ,* " since the sum and sub.
stance of religion conaists in imitating the
Being that is the object of yuur wer-
Ehip."f Jlay eur dear Redeeraer Jesus impreaa
upon your rainda a lively repreaentation of
bia own raeek and iraraaculate heart, that,
in that great and laat day, he may, by thia
mark, know yeu to be his, and, together
witb all the reat of bia aealed and redeemed
onea, adrait you into tiie manaiona of eternal
bliss. Amen.

Let us prug.

cate ac inoiliter assequi, sed ad illud Vila; eterufc in-
eiiarrabile prajmium summa cum diUicultate, et
magnis laboribus pervenire,
* De Imitatione Christi.
f Summa religionis est imitari quem colis.

Eternal Creator, and aupreme Governor
ef the world, aongs of praiae are due to thee
in Zion ; nay, as thou art infinitely superior
to all our senga and hymna, even silence in
Zion redounda to thy praise. Let the socle-
tiea of angela be rather employed in ainging
thy praises ; but let us, with silence and as.
tonishraent, fall down at the feotatool of thy
throne, while they are taken up in the repeti-
tion of their celebrated doxology. Holy, holy,
holy. Lord God of Hosts, who flUeat heaven
and earth with thy glory ! But O that we
had within ua proper powera for exalting that
moat sacred narae ! that name, which, ac
cording te their measure, ia celebrated by aU
the parta of this visible werld which surround
us, the heaven, the stars, the winds, therivers,
the earth, the ocean, and all the creatures
therein. Thou surely didst at first implant
in us souls and powers fer this purpose, su.
perior to the rest ef the visible creation ; as
we were then not only qualified to offer thee
praises founded on the rational conviction of
our mind, and animated by the affectiona of
our heart ; but also capable of pronouncing
raore articulately even the praises that reault
from aU the rest of thy visible works. But,
alas I these heavenly aeula, theae principles
proceeding from a divine original, we have
raeat deeply immersed in mire and dirt, ner
ia any hand able to extoicate them out of
thia raud, or cleanae them frera their poUu
tion, but thine. O meat exalted and boun
tiful Father, if thou wilt gracioualy pleaae
to grant ua thia grace and favour, we shall
then offer thee new songs ef praise aa incenae,
and ouraelves, thus renewed, aa a burnt.effer.
ing : and all the rest ef our time in this
world we shaU live net to ouraelves, but
whoUy te him whe died for ua.
May thy church, throughout the whole
earth, and especially in theae islands, be aup
ported by thy raoat powerful hand, and con
tinuaUy be made to rejeice in the Ught of
thy gracious countenance. Let our king be
joyful in thee, and, as he depends upon thy
bounty, let hira never be moved; let his
throne be established in piety and righteous.
ness, and let peace, and the gospel ef peace,
be the constant blessings of his kingdoms,
through Jesus Christ our Lord ; to whom,
with thee, and the Holy Spirit, be praise,
honour, and glory, now, and for everraore.
Amen.

A MODEST DEFENCE
OF
MODERATE EPISCOPACY,
As established in Scotland at the Restoration of Ki-ng Charles II,

I, Episcopal government, managed in
conjimction with preabytera, preabyteriea,
and Synods, is not contrary to the rule of
Scripture, or the exaraple of the priraitive
church, but most agreeable to beth.
II. Yea, it is not contrary to that new
covenant which is pretended hy so many as
the main, if not the only, reaaon of their
scrapling ; and fer their sakes it ia necesaary
te add this : fer, notwithstanding the many
Inegularities beth in the matter and ferm ef
that covenant, and in the illegal and violent
ways ef pressing and prosecuting of it ; yet
te them whe stiU remain under the conacience
of ita fuU force and obligation, and in that
some are incenvinceably perauaded, it ia cer.
tainly most pertinent, if it be true, to declare
the consistence of tbe preaent govemraent,
even witb that obUgation.
And as beth of these assertions, I believe,
upen the exactest (if irapartial and irapas-
sienate) inquiry, wiU be found te be in thera
aelvea true, so they are owned by the gene
rality of the Preabyterians in England, aa
themselves have published their opiniona in
print, with thia title. Two Papers of Pro
posals, humbly presented to his Majesty,
by ihe Reverend Ministers of ihe Presby
terian Persuasion, printed at London, anno
1661. Besides other pasaages in thoae papera to
the aame purpoae, in pp. 11 and 12, are theae
words : " And aa these are our general ends
and motives, so we are induced to insist
upon the form of a synodical government,
conjunct with a fixed presidency or episcopa
cy ; for these reaaona :
" 1. We have reaaon to beUeve, that no
other terms wiU be so generaUy agreed on, &c.
" 2. It being agreeable to the Scripture
and the priraitive govemraent, is likeliest to
be the way of a raere universal concord, if
ever the churches en earth anive at such a
blessing : however, it will be raost accepta
ble te God and well-informed consciences.
" 3.' It wiU promote the practice of di^cU

pUne and godUness without diacord, and pro.
mote order without hindering diacipline and
godlineas. " 4. And it is net to be silenced (though
in sorae respects we are loath to mention it),
that it wiU save the nations from the viola
tion of the solemn vew and covenant, with
out wronging the church at all, or breaking
any oath," &c.
Aud a Uttle after, they add, " That the
prelacy disclaimed in that covenant, waa the
engroasing the sole power of ordination and
jurisdiction ; and exercising ef the whole
discipline absolutely by bishops themselves,
and their delegates, chancellors, sunegates,
and officials, &c., excluding wholly the pas
tors ef particular churches ftora all share in it.
And there ia one ef prirae note amongat
them, who, in a large treatiae of church-
governraent, dees clearly evidence, that this
waa the mind beth of the parliament ef Eng
land, and of the assembly of divines at
Westminster, as they themselves did ex
pressly declare it in the adraitting of the
covenant. That they understood it not to be
against all Episcopacy ; but only against
that particular frarae, as it is worded in the
article itself.* As for our present raodel in
Scotland, and the way ef managing it, what.
soever is amiaa, (and it can be no wrong to
raake that auppoaitien, concerning any
church on earth,) the brethren that are dis.
aatiafied had poaaibly better acquitted their
duty, by free admonitiona and aignificatiens
ef their ewn senae in aU things, than by
leaving their stationa, which is the only thing
that has made the breach, — I fear very hard
to cure, and in huraan appearance near to
incurable. But there is much charity due
to thoae foUowing their own consciences ;
and they owe, and I hope they pay, the
same back again to those that do the aame
• Baxter of Church Govemment, Pt. ill. Ch. 1. tit.
n 274. " An Episcopacy desirable for the refoimation,
preservation, and peace of the churches, a fixed prsi-
Mdeot. durante vita," See pp. 297 and 330, ibid.

A DEFENCE OF MODERATE EPISCOPACY.

638in another way. And whatsoever may be
the readiest and happiest way ef reuniting
these "that are naturally so minded, the Lerd
reveal it to them in due tirae.
This one word I shall add : That this
difference should arise to a great height, may
seera soraewhat strange to any man that
calmly considera, that there is in thia church
no change at all, neither in the decteine nor
worship ; no, nor in the substance (rf the dis.
cipline itaelf ; but when it falla on matter
eaaily inflamraable, a Uttle aparkle, hew great
a fire wiU it kindle !
Oh ! who weuld net long fer the ahadows
of the evening, from all these poor, childish
contests ?
But aome wiU say that we are engaged
against prelacy by covenant, and therefore
cannot yield to so much as you do, without
peijury. Ans. That this is wholly untrue, I must
deraonstrate. When that covenant was pre
sented to the asserably with the bare narae of
prelacy joined to popery, raany contrair and
reverend divines deaired that the. word pre
lacy raight be explained, becauae it waa not
all Epiacepacy they were againat ; and
thereupon the following clauae, in the paren.
theais, was given by the way of explication,
in these words : CThat the church govern
ment by archbishops, bishops, their Chan
ceUors, and comraiaaaries, deans and chap
ters, arch-deacons, and aU the other eccle
siastical officers depending on that hierar.
chy :) by whicb it appears, that it was only
the English hierarchy or ftarae that was co
venanted against ; and that which waa then
existent, that waa taken down.
II. When the Houae of Lorda took the
covenant, Mr. Thomas Coleman,- who gave
it to them, did so explain it, and profess that
it was not their intent to covenant againat all
Episcopacy ; and upon this expUcation it
was taken ; and certainly the parUament was
most capable of giving the due sense of it,
seeing it was they that did impose it.
IIL And it could not be aU Episcopacy
tbat was excluded, because a parochial Epis
copacy was at that sarae tirae used and ap
proved comraonly in England.
IV. And in Scotland they had used the
help ef visiters, for the reformation of their
churches, coramitting the care ef a country
er circuit te sorae ene man, who was aa high
a sort of Episcopacy at least aa any I am
pleading fer ; besides that, they had mode
rators in all their synods, which were tempo
rary bishops.
V. Also the chief divines of the late
asaembly at Westminster, tbat recoraraend.
ed tbat covenant to the nations, have
professed their ewn judgraent for such a rae.
derate Episcopacy aa I am here defending,
and therefore they never intended the exclu.
sion of this by covenant.

After tbe sarae author saith, " As we
have prelacy to be aware of, ao we have the
contrary extrerae to avoid, and the church's
peace, if it raay be so procured ; and aa we
rauat not take down the miniatry, leat it
prepare men for Episcopacy, ao neither must
we be against any profitable use and exercise
of the ministry, or deairable order amongst
them, for fear of introducing prelacy," See,
There ia anether that has wrote a treatise
en purpose, and that zealoua enough, con
cerning the obligation of tbe league and
covenant, under the name of Theophilua
Timercua, and yet therein it is expressly as.
serted, that however at first view it might
appear, that tbe parliament had renounced
all Episcopacy, yet, upon exacter inquiry, it
waa evident te the author, that that very
acruple waa made by aome merabers in par.
Uament, and resolved, with the consent of
their brethren in Scotland, that the covenant
waa only intended againat prelacy, aa it was
then in being in England, leaving a latitude
for Epiacepacy, &c.
It should be noted, that wben that cove
nant was framed, there was ne Episcopacy
at all in being in Scotland, but in England
only ; se that the extirpation of that frame
only could then be raerely intended.
Likewise it sheuld be considered of,
theugh there are in Scotland at present the
naraea of dean and chapter and commis.
aariea ; yet that none oi these de exercise a'
all any part of the discipline under thai
narae, neither any other, as chanceUor ei
sunogate, &c., by delegation from biahopa,
with total excluaion of the community of
Preabytera frera all power and ahare in it,
which ia the greateat point of difference be
tween that raodel and thia with us, and im-
porta 80 rauch as to the main of discipline.
I do not deny that the generaUty of the
people, even of ministers in Scotland, when
they took the covenant, did underatand that
article, aa against all Epiacepacy whatsoever,
even the raeat moderate; especiaUy if it
should be reatored under .the expreas name of
biahopa and archbiahopa ; never conaidering
how different the nature and model, and the
way of exerciaing it, might be thought on
under theae namea ; and that the due regu
lating ofthe thing is much raore to be regard.
ed, than either the returning or altering the
name. But though they did not then con
sider any such thing, yet certainly it con
cerns them now to consider it, when it is
repreaented to them, that not only the words
of the oath itself de very genuinely consist
with such a qualified and distinctive senae ;
but that the very cempoaera and iraposera ef
it, er a conaiderable part of them, did ao un
deratand and intend it ; and unleas tbey can
make it appear, that the Epiacepacy now in
queation with ua in Scotland, is either con.
trary to the word of God, or to that mitigai-

A DEFENCE OF MODERATE EPISCOPACY.

039

ed sense of their own oath, it would aeera
more suitable to Christian charity and rao-
detation, rather te yield to it, as tolerable at
least, than to continue so inflexibly to their
first mistakes, and excessive zeal for love of
it, as te divide frora the church, and break
the bond of peace.
It may likewise be granted, that some
Earned men in England, who have refused
to take the covenant, did possibly except
against tbat article of it, as signifying the
total renunciation and aboUtion of Episcopacy ;
and seeing that was the real event and con-
sequence of it, and they having many other
strong and weighty reasons for refusing it,
it is ne wonder that they were Uttie curious
to inquire what passed araong the contrivers
of it, and what distinction or different senses,
either tbe werds ef that article raight adrait,
er those contrivers might intend by them.
' And the truth is, that, besides many other
evils, the iniquity and unhappiness of such
oaths and covenants lie much in this, that
being commonly framed by persons that even
amongst themselves are not fuUy ef one
mind, but have their different opinions and
interests to serve, (and it was so even in
this,) they comraonly patched up ao raany
several articles and clauses, and those too of
so versatile and ambiguous terms, that they
prove mest wretched snares and thickets of
briars and thoms to the consciences ef these
who are engaged in thera, and matter of end
leas contentions and disputes amongst thera,
about the frue sense and intendment, and
the ties and obligationa of thoae doubtful
clauaea : eapeciaUy in auch alteratiena and
revolutions of affaira aa always may, and
often do even within few years, foUew after
them ; for the models and productions of
such devices are not usuaUy long-Uved. And
whatsoever may be said for thefr excuse iu

whole or in part, who (in yielding to tho
power that preaaed it, and the general opi
nion of this church at tbe tirae) did take that
covenant in the most moderate and least
schismatical aenae that the terma can admit ;
yet I know net wbat can be said to clear
tbem ef a very great ain, that not only fram
ed such an engine, but violently imposed it
upon all ranks of men ; not miniatera and
ether public peraena only, but the whole
body and coraraunity of the peeple, thereby
engaging audi droves ef peor ignorant per.
aons to tbey knew not what, and (te speak
freely) to audi a hodge-podge of thinga of
varioua concemraenta, religioua and civil, as
church discipline and government, the pri.
vileges ef parUaments and liberties ef sub
jects, and condign punishraent of raaUg.
nanta ; thinga hard enough for the wiaeat
and moat learned to draw the juat linea ef,
and te give plain definitiona and decisions of
thera, and therefere certainly, aa far off frora the
reach ef poorcountry people'a underatanding,
as ftom the true intereat of their aeula — and
yet to tie them by a religioua oath, either to
know all, or to contend for them blindfold,
without knowing of thera. Where will there
be instanced a greater oppression and tyranny
over conaciencea than thia ? Certainly, they
tbat now govern in tbia church cannot be
charged with any thing near, er like unto
it ; for whatsoever they require ef entrants
te the rainistry, they require neither subscrip.
tions nor oatha ef rainiaters afready entered,
and far leaa of the whole body of the people.
And it were ingenioualy done to take aerae
notice of any point of raoderation, or what
aoever elae is really commendable, even in
these we account our greateat enemies, and
net to take any party in tiie werld for the
abaolute atandard and unfaUing rule of trutii
and righteouaness in all things.

MEDITATIONS,
CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL,
ON
PSALMS iv. xxxii. and cxxx.
Now first iranslated from the Latin.

2S

MEDITATIONS,
CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL,
On psalm iv.

Title, To the chief Musician on Neginoth,
a Psalm of David.
Many ef the calaraities of geod raen look
like miaeries, which yet en the whole appear
to have conduced gready te their happineas ;
witneaa the raany prayera which they peured
out in thoae calamitiea ; the many seasonable
and ahining deliverances which aucceeded
them, and tbe many hymna ef praiae they
sung to God their deliverer : so that they
seem to have been cast into the fire on pur
pose that the odour of their graces might dif
fuse itaelf all abroad.
The seventy Greek interpretera seem to
have read the word which we render to the
Chief Muaician, aomething different frora the
reading of eur present Hebrew copy, that is,
Lemeneiz, instead of Lemeneizoth ; and
therefore they render it, n; riXos, as the
Latin doea in finem, to the end. Frora
whence the Greek and Latin fathera imagin
ed, that all^the Psalras which bear this in
scription refer to the Meaaiah, the great end
and the accompli.shment of aU thinga ; a
aentiment wbich waa rather pious than judi
cious, and led them often te wreat aeveral
paaaagea in the Paalma by violent and unna
tural glosses. Yet I would not morosely re-
jectall interpretationa of that kind, aeeirig the
Apoatlea themaelvea apply to Christ many
paaaages out of the Psalras and other books
-of the Old Testaraent, whicb, if we had net
been assured of it by their authority, we

O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn
my glory into shame ?"* And what fol
lows they explain witb the same reference :
Know thai the Lord has in a wonderful
manner separated his Holy One unlo him.
self. Others however render the titie in a
different manner (victori) to the conqueror.
Moderna translate it pneceniori or prtefecto
musica, to the chief muaidan, or hira who
presided over the band of musiciana, which,
after all, seems tbe most natural interpretal
tion. The word Neginoth, which is aorae.
timea rendered atringed inatruments, did. no
doubt, signify inatrumenta of muaic which
were atruck to give thefr sound, as Nehiloth,
in the title of Psalra v., aeeraa, though not
without sorae littie inegularity in the ety.
mology, to aignify instruments of wind rausic.
The Psalm was written by David, as a aum.
mary of the prayer he had peured out before
God, when aome exceeding great afHiction
aeeraed te besiege hira on every side, whether
it were the peraecution of Saul, or the con.
apiracy of Absalora hia aon.
Ver. 1. Hear me when I call, O God of my righte
ousness : thou hast enlarged me when I was in
distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my
prayer.
Hear me.} Behold the aanctuary to which
thia good man betook himaelf in aU the afllic
tiona of hia life ; a aanctuary which, there
fore, he aets eff, by accumulating a variety
of expressive titlea aU to the aame purpoae.
Paalm xviii. 1 : My rock, my fortress, my

should hardly have iraagined to have had] strength, my deliverer, my buckler. Sec. lie
any reference to hira. Nor is it prohahlel is indeed a place of refuse io his children ;
that they enumerated all the predictions of and therefore, as Solomon expresaea it, Prov.

the Meaaiah, which are to be found in tbe
prophetic writings, but only a very amaU
part of them, while they eften aaaure ua that
all tbe aacred writers principaUy centre in
him ; and it ia certain the paaaage out of
thia Paalm, which Auatin and some others
suppose to refer to Christ, raay be applied to
him without any force upon the expression,

xiv. 26, In the fear of the Lord is strong
confidence. There seeras soraething of an
lenigma in that expression, confldence in
fear, yet the thing itself is raost true. And
again, Proverbs xviii. 10, The name of the
* They read it eravi corde, os expressive of (he stu
pidity of heart which the rejecting cf Christ and liis
gespel manifests.

644

MEDITATIONS

Lord is a strong tower ; ihe righteous run.
neth into it, and is safe. And thoy who
kne-w not tbis refuge, are raiserable ; and
when any danger arises, they run hither and
thither, as Antonius beautifuUy expresses it,
;x.viuv ortTof/,tvo)v oix^^o^xic, " They fly and
flutter tbey knew not whither.'' The life of
man upen eartii is a warfare ; and it is much
better, in the midst of eneraies and dangers,
to be acquainted with ene fortress than with
many inns. He that knows how to pray raay
be pressed, but cannet be overwhelraed.*
Hear me, O Lord, hear my prayer, ] H e
did not think it enough te bave said this
once, but he redoubled it. He whe prays
indeed, is seriously engaged in the matter,
and not only seriously but vehemently toe,
and urges the address becauae he himself is
urged by hia necessities and difficulties, and
the ardent motion of his own desire and af
fection : and let it be observed, tbat tbeae are
the only prayera that mount en high, and
offer a kind of grateful violence to heaven.
Nor doea the Divine goodneaa grant any
thing witb greater readineaa and delight,
than the blessings which seem, if I raay be
allowed the expression, to be forced out and
extorted by the raost fervent prayer. So that
TertuUian used to say, " That when we pray
eagerly, we do as it were combine in a re
solute band, and lay siege to God hiraself."-!-
These are tbe perpetual sacrifices in the
temple of God (S-ucixj y.oyixxi') — rational
victims, prayers and intermingled vowa, flow
ing ftora an upright and pure heart. But
he who presents hia petitiona coldly, aeeraa
to beapeak a denial : for ia it to be wonder
ed at, that we do not prevail on God to hear
our prayera, when we hardly hear thera our
aelves while we offer thera ? Hew can we
suppose that such devotions ahould penetrate
heaven, or aacend up to it ? How should
they ascend, wnon they de net so much as
go forth frora eur ewn bosoma, but, Uke
wretched abortives, die in the very birth ?
But why do I say that they do not go out
frora the inward receaaea of eur boaoms ?
Alas I they are only formed en the surface
of our lips, and they expire there ; quite dif
ferent frem what Homer aacribea to his wise
and eloquent Ulysses, when he aaya,
OiT« TI f,ityxX.,iv tx crn&ioj nu.
Forth from his breast he poured amightycry.
Thou God of my righteousness.] " O God,
who art righteous thyself, and art the patron
of my righteouaneaa, of ray righteous cauae,
and of ray righteoua life ;" — for it ia necessary
that both ahould concur, if we desire to ad
dresa our prayera to God with any confidence :
not that, depending upen this righteousnesa,
we should seek the Divine aid and favour aa a
matter of juat debt ; for then, as tbe apoatle
* Premi potest, non potest oppriml.
t Precantes veluti 8lii)ato agmine Deum obsidere.

arguea, it were no more ofgrace, Eom. xl.
6. Our prophet is certainly very far from
boaating of his merits ; fer here he so men
tions hia righteouaneaa, as at the aame time
to cast hiraself upon the Divine mercy :
Have mercy upon me, exercise thy propi
tious clemency towards me ; and this ia in.
deed the genuine temper of one who truly
praya with sincerity and humUity ; fer pot.
luted hands are an abomination to the
Lord, and he hates the heart thai is puffed
up ; he beholds the proud afar off, as the
celebrated parable of the Pharisee and Pub.
Ucan (Luke xviii.,) ia, you knew, intended
to teach ua. Thou art noi a God that hast
pleasure in wickedness. If I regard ini
quity in my heart, the Lord will not hear
me. But the righteous Lord loveth righ
teousness, and his countenance beholds ihe
upright. Whereaa the worda of tbe wicked,
when he prays, are but aa a fan, er aa bel.
Iowa, to blow up the Divine diapleasure into
a fiame : for how can he appease God, who
doea not at aU please him ? Or hew can he
pleaae, who is indeed himaelf displeased witb
God, and who utterly disregards his pure
laws, and that holiness which ia ao dear to
hira ?
Thou hast enlarged me when I was in
distress.] " 1 bave often experienced both
the richea of thy bounty, and tbe power of
thy hand ; and I derive confidence ftom
thence, becauae thou art irarautable, and
canst never be wearied, by rescuing thy ser.
vants frora the dangers that sunound them,"
The exaraples we have heard of divine aid
granted to othera in their diatreaa ahould
animate us ; aa David recoUected, Psalm
xxii, 4, Our fathers trusted in thee ; they
trusted in thee, and ihou didst deliver them.
But our own personal experiences are later
and nearer, and be who treaaurea them up
in his memory, not only thereby expresses
hia gratitude to God, but wisely conaults
his own intereat ; for he enjoya all those
benefita ef Divine favour twice, or rather aa
often as he needs, and pleasea to renew the
enjoyment of them : and he not only sup.
ports his faith in new dangers, hy surveying
God's former interpositions, but by laying
them open before Ged in bumble prayer, he
more eamestly implores and raore effectuaUy
obtaina_new onea. By a secret kind ef mag.
netisra, he draws one benefit by another ; he
calla out, and aa it were aUurea the Divine
favour by itself.
Thou hasi enlarged me.] The redeeem-
ed of the Lord may especially say se, in re
ference to that grand and principal deliver.
ance, by which they are snatched ftom tbe
borders of hell, frora the jaws of etemal
death. The remembrance of so great salva.
tion may weU excite songs of perpetual
praise to be ascribed (Deo liberatori) to
God the deliverer : and by this deliverance,

VEll, 2.

ON PSALM IV.

(i46

so much mere illustrious than any of the
rest, they may be encouraged, in the cenfi.
dence of faitb, to urge and hope for the aids
ofhis savirig arra in every other exigency.
One thing more raay be observed here,
but it is so very obvious, that I shall only
just mention it, as what needs not to be
much inculcated ; that he who has not been
accustomed to prayer when the pleasant gales
of prosperity have been breathing upen hira,
will have littie skiU and confidence in apply
ing bimself to it, when the storms ef adver
sity arise ; as Xenophon well observed in the
peraen of Cyrua.*

Vbr. 2. O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn
my glory into sbame ? How long will ye love
vanity, aud seek after leasing ? Selah.

JnsTLY may we adraire the force and the
speed with which prayer fiies up to heavd'n,
and brings down anawera from thence ; kftx
tvos, a.fi.x i^yov — no sooner said than done.
If not as to the accoraplishraent of the thing
itaelf, which perhaps may be mere opportune
in seme future hour, yet at least in clear,
firm hope, and sfreng confidence, aent frora
above irito a praying soul. Prayer soara above
the violence and impiety of men, and with a
awift wing commita itaelf to heaven, with
happy omen, if I may aUude to what the
learned teU us of the augury of the ancients,
whicii I shaU not minutely discuss. Fervent
prayera atretch forth a ateong, wide-extended
wing ; and while the birda of night hover
beneath, they mount aloft, and point out as
it were the proper seata to which we ahould
aapire. For certainly there is nothing
that cuts the air ao awiftly, nothing that
takea so sublirae, so happy, and so auspi.
cious a flight, as prayer, which bears the
soul upon ita piniona, and leaves far behind
aU the dangers, and even the delights of
this lew werld of oura. Behold thia holy
man, that juat before was crying to Ged in
the midst of distress, and with urgent imper.
tunity intreating that he raight be heard,
now, as if he were already posaeaaed of aU be
bad asked, taking upon hira boldly to rebuke
hia eneraies, bow highly aoever they were ex.
alted, and how potent aoever they might be
everi in the royal palace !
O ye sons of men.] The Hebrew phrase
here used, bene Isch, properly speaking,
signifies noble men, great raen, as persons of
Plebeian rank are called bene Adam,*
" Whoever you are, and however iUustrious
by birth, or infiatcd with pride, er perhaps
forraidable en both accounts, your greatness
ia false, and when it is raost blown up, ia
mest likely to burat : that is a sound and
stable degree of honour to which Ged haa
• Hx^x Ta» S-eftin T^xxrixtvTt^os xy livj uctrt^ xeu
T«j' Xvtl.UTUV, OCTie /^ OtTOTt tV XSO^OIS UTI, TflTE XOX-
XKtUOl, xXX' OTt XilCTX T^XTTOI, TOTt flMXlCTX TOtV »tUV
potu.v-f,Teti. X .Accoi-dinf^Iy, the Latin renders it, not filix Jiontt-
num, tiut/ilii virorum.

deatined hia servants, whom you inault and
deride. Tbe height of your honour and
vanishing glory, from the exaltation of which
you look down upen rae, will, if you desire
I should courageously speak tbe trath, only
render your future fall more grievous ana
fatal, which he whoae destruction you aeek
with such inaatiable rage, aees indeed, but
does not wiah ; nay, he rather wishes tbat
this raisery may be averted frora you, and
that, by a return to the exercise of your right
mind, it may be totally prevented ; and
therefore he gives you thia admonition, lest
while yeu are deriding him, unexpected de-
structiou should come upon you, and your
laughter should prove ef tbe Sardonic kind,
which nothing can quiet till it end in death.*
You have indeed great strength and deep
counsel, but these thinga are only the blan
diahraenta ef your ruin, and tbe aplendid pre
lude of that misery which ia hovering over
you. You have spent time enough, (and,
alaa ! how rauch raore thari enough !) in
giving chaae to auch vanitiea ; at laat re
gard the raan who in the moat disinterested
raanner adraeniahes you of the raoat impor
tant trutha."
How long will ye turn my glory into
ihame ?] The Septuagint appears to bave
read theae werds something dift'erent from
our copies, but the serise ia, rievertheless,
much the aame ;* and though the Psalmist,
in the affair which he had in view, apeaks
only of a few, the words themselves have
such an expreaaive dignity, and are in truth
so unhappily extensive, that without doing
any the least violence to them, they may be
considered as an admonition to all mankind — .
O ye sons of men, how long will ye love va
nity and Ues 9 I" or, indeed, what are all
these things which we foolish mortals pur-
sue, with such contention and ardour of spi
rit, but, as ari ancient expresses it, " Trifles
that are but like the shadow ef smoke ?"-f
But we are to speak of this hereafter. In
the mean tirae let ua attend to the worda be
fore ua, How long will ye turn my glory into
shame ? The things which are the brightest
omaraenta of huraan nature, and which alone
conatitute its very glory, are holiness, piety,
and faith ; and theae are treated as if they
were the raost deapicable and ignominious
things in the whole world. Among Chria-
tiana, or theae who are called by the name,
It ia the greatest of all acandala to be a Chria
tian indeed. We bave long aince loat the
true naraea of thinga ; candid siraplicity of
manners is despised as rusticity ; lively reli
gion is caUed the delirious dream of auper-
stitieus notions ; and gentieneaa, duUneaa
and stupidity : whUe pride has usurped the
* They render it, *' Howlongare yeslowofhe:irt?"
'Eus troTt ^xtuxxtSioi i and the Latins, Usqiiptjuo gruii-
sorde? Instead cf Kebtidi iejtelcisseh, they read litibiiit
tektessi. t <PAt5ovK xtravTx xxi xxwou oxtxi.

64«

MEDITATIONS

VEH. 3.

ii.irae of magnaniraity, and craft that of wis
dora. Tbus we tum true glory into sharae,
and sharae into glory ; and because few are
able to diacern wbat tenda to their eternal
happineaa, they aquander away the whole
day of tbis short life in purauing and catch
ing at the falae and flctitioua forras of it ;
yea, they aeek a lie, lying vanity. And they
whe heap up riches, seera te be wise both te
theraaelvea and othera ; but ob ! how far
frora it, and with bow base alie do tbey impose
upen themselves ! For these riches are spent
upon gratifying thefr palate, and ministering
in other reapecta to their luxury. Into how
foul a gulf de they throw what they have la.
bowred se eagerly te gain ! Or, if they
irboard up their wealth, how aeon do they paaa
over the property to their heira 1 Men hunt
after fame and vain glory ; and when they
seem to have caught it, feed upon air, and
become the slaves of all, even the raeanest,
for a thing of nought. And as for pleasure,
who ia so senseless as not te know bow de
ceitful a lie it proves at last ? It drivea raen
into a weak frenzy, to run after the raeat tri
fling objecta of purauit, which fly ftora them
Uke beea, who, if they are taken, yield but
a drop of honey, and repay the spoil ef it
with a painful sting ; a ating which, alaa !
reachea the very heart. Beligion is a high,
sublirae thing, royal, unconquerable, unwea
ried ; but pleasure is low, aervUe, weak and
withering. Religion is neither attended with
sickly diaguat in the enjoyment, nor bitter
repentance in the reflection ; but what the
world calla pleasure ia attended with both.
" Hear, my young frienda, hear the divine
voice or celeatial wiadora caUing yeu with
fervent affection, and a loud cry ftora the
trackleaa waya ef enor and precipicea of
raiaery. , How long, doea ahe aay, how long
will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing ?
He that seeks rae shaU not be wearied in
running hither and thither, but shall find rae,
sitting at his door and waiting adraittance ;
and he who finda rae need aeek nothing else,
unleaa he be ene whora a life of real happi
neas canuot satiafy." Oh ! tbat the indefa
tigable labour and industry with whicb men
puraue fiattering and uncertain enjoymenta,
may stir up your rainda to exert at leaat an
equal diligence in this aublirae and moat
bleaaed purauit ! For if, as St. Chryaoatom
apeaka, it may aeem indecent for me to preas
you farther to such an attachraent to tbeae
objecta as they require, it wiU be a lovely
thing to give it witheut farther solicitation.
But te proceed :
How long will you hve vanity, and seek
after leasing ?] Can any ene deny that this
is tbe character ef almost every thing that is
to be found in huraan life ? Sheuld a man
proclaim that in every couipany with a leud
voice, he weuld aoon pasa for a lunatic ; but
certainly he might reproach thera with tbe

general madneaa which reigns among man-
kind, not only among the vulgar that he
meeta with in the atreeta, but the philosophers
disputing in the school, the counseUors plead
ing in eur courts of judicature, yea the sena
tors and nobles that sit in the most august
assembly. And ob ! how happy are they,
of whatever order, whom the harid of God
draws out ofthe crowd, and turns tbeir minds
from these varioua, lying, and trauaitory va
nitiea, to tbe purauit of true and laating good !
Happy tbey whom he, by a wonderful inter
position of grace in tbeir favour, sets apart
aa dear to hiraaelf. Which leads to the 3d

-Vkr. 3. But know that tbe Lord hath set apaft
him that is godly for himself : the Lord will hear
me when 1 c^l unto him.

The Prophet had this great support both
of hia faith and of hia kingdom, the'immuta-
ble and unahaken decree of the Supreme and
Univeraal King ; and it ia the firm establish
ment of David'a infinitely greater Son, in
his throne and kingdora : / will declare
the decree, Paalra ii. 7. In thia verae, and
there, we may moat properly understand it ef
both ; more immediately of David as the
type, but chiefly and in its consuraraate aense,
aa refening to Christ the Lord, and having
ita full end and accorapUahraent in his end
less and etemal kingdora. He is, by way of
erainence, God's holy One, holy and harm
less, undefiled, separate from sinners, Heb.
vii. 26. And whoever they are who endea
vour to oppose themselves to the Divine pur
poses, betray the mest desperate raadness,
and on whatever strength or counsel they de
pend in the enterprise, like waves dashed
against the solid rock, they ahall be broken
in pieces, by wbat they vainly atterapt to
break. And on this basis does the whole
safety ef the whole church rest, and that of
all God's saints, of aU those whom he seta
apart for himaelf ; and, as the forra ef the
original here has been thought to iraply,
wonderfully aeparatea as his peculiar people
and treasure, the sacred charge of Christ, the
great ahepherd and bishop ef soula, which all
the powera of earth, and gates ef hell, abaU
in vain atterapt to wreat from bim. And this
is the confldence en which believers should
repose theraaelves. They never trust to
theraselves, er their own strength or virtues,
but they often redouble that cry. Thou,
Lord, ari my rock and my fortress, and
my deliverer. And blessed, O Lord, is ihe
man who trusteth in ihee ; Psalm xviii. 2.
xxxiv. 8 ; who raust previously and necea
aarily deapair firat of himaelf, as considered
in himself alone ; as the great apoatle says.
When I am weak, then am I strongest of
alli 2 Cer. xii. 10. According to tbat live-

, vra. 3.

-ON PSALM IV.

(117

ly and just expression, " Faith which is en-
dangered in security, is secure in danger."*
The Psalmist adds, the Lord will hear
me wben I call,] From the Divine decree
and favour, he promises not to himself an
entire freedom frora aU and every atterapt of
his enemies, but assurea himself that God
will be preaent in the midst of his calamities ;
present and propitious, net to the indolent
and drowsy soul, but to tbat which soUcits
his assistance by prayer ; and this is the de-
termination of every godly man, whom the
Lord haa aet apart far hiraaelf, that hewiUcall
upon Ood without ceaaing ; and that, if
any unusual difficulty arise, he wUl call upou
him raere fervendy.. Thence it appears, hew
entirely aU eur safety depends upon prayer
yet all our prayers, and those of the whole
church, are sustained by those prayers of our
great King and Priest, as Auguatine aaya in
reference to tbat known story in the Evange
Usts, Because the waves rise, ihe ship may
be tossed, but because Christ prays, ii can-
nut be sunk,-\
Vbr. 4. Stand iu awe, and sin not; commune
with your own heart on your bed, and be still.
Solah.
Oh most friendly counsel ! which is here
offered to enemies. This is indeed over-
coming hatred and injury with the very best
of favours — by far the moat noble kind of
victory. A sublime and heavenly mind, like
tbe upper region of the world, is not only it.
self always calm and serene, as being inac.
cesaible te every breath ef injury and turbu
lent irapression, but it also continually aheds
down its benign influences without distinc-
tion on all below it, on the evil andthe good,
the just and the unjust. Stand in awe —
the Hebrew arid Greek, be ye -moved ; arid
aa this emotion may arise, either frem anger,
fear, or any other affection of the raind, the
Septuagint renders it, be ye angry, and sin
not, a maxim which Paul finding to his pur-
- pose, inserts in bis epistle te the Ephesians,
iv. 26. Nevertheless, the author of this
Psalm here seems more apparently to deraand
their fear rather than their anger, and accord-
¦ ingly the Targura explains it, fear him, that
is, God, and sin not ; Kimchi, fear tlie Lord
-who htith chosen me king ; and Abenezra,
fear God and despise not my glory ; for thai
great King will require the derision at the
liniid ofthe deriders.
The passions are the inmost wheels of
this machine which we call man, whose mo
tiona all the reat of life follows, and aU the
enors bf this career of ours proceed from
their irregularity. Of so great importance
is it that every one rightly determine what
he should desire, and hope, and fear. And
* Fides qua: in securltate periclitatur. in periculis
secura est.
t Quia insurgunt fluctus, potest turbari navicula;
sed ciuia Christus orat, nan potest mergi.

from the time that man lost the ingenuity of
his disposition, and became like a wild ass's
colt, the use of fear is become very great.
It ia true that they who are bern again-, and
who reaUy are the sons of God, are especial.
ly led by the sweet and noble energy of this
divine priri ciple, arid therefore it is the aay-
ing of the beloved apoatle, that perfect love,
or charity, casteth out fear, 1 John iv. 18.
But as the geuerality of mankind are either
entirely destitute of this divine love, or possess
it only in a very low and imperfect degree, so
it is certain, tbat with regard to him, whose
heart is most entirely fired with thia celestial
flame, we may understand the words as sig
nifying, that in such an ene this great and
fervent leve dees indeed cast out aU despair.
ings, and diffident fears, but not that of a
pious and reverential awe. Alas ! most of
us, under pretence of avoiding a servUe
terror, perversely shake off the bonds of holy
and ingenuous fear, and becorae obstinate
and self-willed ; whereas, when we look into
the word of Ged, we shall find the hoUest
raeri there tremble in the Divine presence,
and sometimes acknowledge even great
honor ef mind. Pa. cxix. 120, My fiesh
trembleth for fear of ihee, and I am afraid
of thy judgments. Job xxxi. 23, Destruc
tion from God was a terror to me, and be
cause of his excellency I could not endure
In thia aenae, aa David declarea, Pa. xix, 9.
The fear of the Lord is clean, and endureth
for ever, endurea in the raoat happy agree-
raent with perfect love. Nor ia it only to
remain in apirita that inhabit flesh, but in
all the angelic choirs, pure and happy aa
they are. Nay, the profourid reverence of
that etemal and tremendoua Majeaty flouriah-
ea arid reigns raost of all there ; for in pro.
portion to the degree in which the knowledge
is clearer and vision raere distinct, is the
veneration and the fear more deep and
humble. How reaaonable then muat it be,
that mortal men, beset with sore temptations
and dangers, sheuld, as Hezekiah expresseth
it, walk softly and tremble before that in
finite Majesty, at whose voice the earth is
shaken, and at whoae rebuke the pillars of
heaven are moved. With great propriety
did ene of the ancienta say, " Fear is tbe
first awaddling-band ef new-born wiadom,"*
or, aa tbe Scripture expreaaea it. The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It
is observed, tbat the original word there
made uae of, signifiea both the beginning and
the top, and in both aenaea it ia meat true :
the author juat raentioned adrairably aaya,
" Do they caU auch an ene unlearned ? It
is the only wisdora I know to fear God ; it
is the beginning of wiadom and end of all
diacourse, aa Soloraon deacribes it ; it is in
deed the ro orxv, the whole raatter, the wbole
concem of raan, and it is all in all ; feat
• "O SoSos. ^iUTOV Ttjs cotfixs CTx^yxvov Greg. Naz.

640 God."* And elstwhere he adds, " This
fear ia mest aalutary to men, but at the aarae
tirae raoat rare, superlatively so."-(- And
once mere, " It is," says be, " the greatest
-of all good things to fear God, and the un-
godly, in falling from it, shall not be permit
ted long to continue the abuse of his own
foUy."J Well therefore ia it here added,'
sin not. Thia fear ia the water ofthe aanc-
.tuary; to quench all the flames of concupis
cence ; this (says Bemard) is the arrow
i ihat strikes through all ihe desires of the
flesh. Hence arose Abraham's fear and
, apprehension among strangers. Surely, aaya
he, the fear of God is -not' in this place,
Gen. XX. 1 1.
But in order to produce thia fear, it Is
necesaary that we ahould bave right concep
tiona of God — that nothing irapure can pleaae
hira, because he ia holiness itself; that no
thing secret can be concealed ftora him,
because he is light ; nor can any sinner
surely be raad enough to hope he ahall ea
cape the long hand of hia righteoua Judge
and suprerae King, whoae power is iraraense,
and who cannot be a respecter of persons.
What evil then can escape with impunity ?
Thou, O Lord, thou only art to be feared ;
and who can stand before thee when ence
thou ari angry ? Psalra Ixxvi. 7-
Commune with your own heart.] Or,
as some render it, examine yourselves. Oh !
how few do this 1 Men live abroad and are
indeed strangers at home, the great raark of
huraan madnesa — to deUght in apeaking and
hearing of what concerns othera, while no
aingle peraon will attempt to deacend into
hiraself. § Yet this faculty, which we call
reflection, is the peculiar privilege of huraan
nature, and to be borne on wholly by extemal
objects, is indeed brutal. And oh ! what
heapa of disorder, what odious filthiness, rauat
there neceaaarily be in a breaat wbich ia never
looked into, and cleanaed out .' Dear youtha,
if araidat all your other studiea, you do not
"earn to coraraune with your own aelvea,
whatever you know, or rather, whatever you
iraagine you know, I would not purchaae it
at the expence of a atraw.
On your bed. ] Or, as some would render
it, in your secrei chambers, when free from
the noiae ofthe world, and huniea of their
daily buainesa. An ancient aaid, " The
reflections ofthe night are deepeat."]] And
it has been observed, that David in the 19th
Paalra, aacribea apeech to the day, and wia-
* XvXlStUTOV ovopoxTouri ; MjttV COlftXV OtSiX, TO ifoCti-
6x1 @tov- x'x^ Tt yat^ co^ixs, (foios Ku^iou, xxi TtXos
Xoyow TO axv xxout. tip,} -ZoXf^Ofjouv, rov &tov ipoQov,
Greg. Naz. Or. xxviii.
t OoCos Ss &tOU, XvB^utTUV CUTY,^IOS, CTKVIOS St, CTX-
VIUrXTOS- t AyxOovyl f/,tv fAtyicrov luXxStlcBxi &16V' otiTt^
xciGvis ixtTtcuv, ou iroXuv Xit,vov tti ietVTOu fjuo^t^ xxtx-
Xl'ociTxi, 3 Ut nemo in sese tentat descendere, nemo,
U BxBuTt^xl yxi lUXToe o.ivks

MEDITATIONS veh. 3 ,
dom to the silent ni^ht. It is ati excellent
advice of Pythagoras, and the verses lhat
contain it do indeed deserve to be called
golden, " That we should not allow our
selves to g*© to sleep, till we have seriously re
volved the actions of the day, and asked
ourselves. What have I done amiss ? What
good have T done, or neglected to do ? that
so we may reprove ourselves for what has
been wrong, and take the comfort of what
has been as it onght."*
And hestill.'\ This refers not so much tothe
tongue as to the mind, for what does an exter
nal silence signify, if the inward affections
be turbulent ? A sedate and composed mind,
is necessacy In order to know ourselves, and
know God. As it is hinted in Psalm xlvi.,
Be still, and know that I am God, Such
wisdom both deserves and demands a vacant
soul ; it will not, as it were, thrust itself in
to a coj-ner, nor inhabit a polluted or un
quiet breast. God was not in the whirl-
wind, nor thefire>, but in ihe small still voic&,
1 Kings xix. 12. JThe Holy Spirit is peace
ful and pacific, but wicked men are turbu
lent and stormy, driven like the sea, whose
waves are tossed about, and throw up con
tinually mire and dirt. Impurity is the in
separable attendant of this inquietude, but
the wisdom that is from ahove, is first pure,
then peaceable^ ayvn, f^siTo. tipt)vix*]y pacific^
James iii. 1 7 ; and in that blessed country
to which it teaches us to aspire, there is the
most perfect and everlasting cohabitation of
purity and peace.
Ver. 5. OfTex the sacrifices of righteousness, anrt
put your trust in the Lord.
The mind of man is earthly, I say, f'lo;
vvv (i^oroi Eiirif as mortals now are, en
tangled in the folds of flesh and sense ; it
knows not how to rise to things celestial and
divine : and when it is stimulated with some
sense of the etemal Deity, and the worship
due tohim, it generally slides into some light
er offices and external rites, bow carelessly
soever perfonned, and there it rests. But
God is a Spirit, and requires to be wor^
* The original, with Mr. Rowe'3 translation and
paraphrase, is as follows :
M*i S' v^vDV fMiXciftoitriv En-* ofvtfvtairi ^^otr^i^xtrOKh
Tl^iv Toiv ¦*) fvtvi^ivav ioyiuv t^i; sxettrrov esrsAf/tiv.
Hti ircegEftjv; ri h' tei^ea ; ti fJt,6f ^iov ovx triXtCTet ;
A^^oi/Xvivos h' «fro KT°uTau itri^tOi xeti yttSTEo-fiiTa,
J,et not the stealing god of sleep surprise,
'Nor creep in slumhers on thy weary eyes.
Ere every action of the fonner day
Strictly thou dost and righteously survey.
With reverence at thy own tribunal stand.
And answer justly to thy own demand,
Where have I been ? In what have I transgre.''h'd ?
What good, or ill. has^this day's life expresed ?
Where have I fail'd in what I ought to do?
In what to God, to man, or to myself I owe ?
Inquire severe, whate'er from first to last.
Frora morning's dawn till ev'ning's gloom has past
If evil were thy deeds, repenting mourn,
And let tliy'soUl with strong remorse be torn.
If good, the good with peace of mind repay, )
And to tiy secret self with pleasure say, J
" R^oice, my heart, for all went well to-day." )

ON PSALM IV.

049

thipped in spirit and in truth ; and the
solemn viaible sacrifices, wben inatituted by
the command of Him the great Invisible,
are to be preaented by every pioua peraon
with all humble and obedient regard ; yet
the chief labour ia te be employed on the
pure, sublime worship and obedience ef the
mind. The heathen Philoaophers objected
te the primitive Chriatiana, that they did not
sacrifice ; to which some of the early Apo
logists reply thua : " The Former and Parent
of the whole univerae has ne need of incense
and of blood, Tbe greatast sacrifice we can
present to him, is to knew who has stretch
ed out the heavens, who bas laid the foun
dations of the earth, who baa gathered to
gether the waters into the hollow of the sea,
and divided thelight from the darkneaa, form
ed the whole' animal werld, and the human
species, and who governs them all by b's
nod ; and that, acknowledging him such an
immense and omnipotent Being, we ahould
hft up pure and holy handa to him."* And
the truth of thia sentiment bas generally pre
vailed throughout all agea, and even in tbe
Jewish church, while the obligation te sacri
fice did yet continue, with all the laborious
institution of external worahip ; bolineas and
jighteouaness, and integrity of heart and life,
' were acknowledged to be the moat eaaential
/lart of religion ; theugh, alas ! while all con
fesaed it in worda, there were very few that
aet themaelves seriously to perform it. Hence
arose the neceaaity ef inculcating this lesson
80 frequently, Ps. 1., Isa. i., xxix.; &c., and
what ia there taught at large, ia here hinted
in thia short clauae. Since the temple haa
been demoliahed, and the prieata with their
sacrificea have ceaaed, the Jewa themaelvea
have inatituted in tbe place of thia the eflfer-
ing ef the lip, with the commemoration only
of ancient aacrifice, persuaded that this would
be equally effectual, and have appointed three
daily lessons, calling him, who diligently re
cites them, a aon of eternal life.
Offer the sacrifices of righteousness.] It
is no improbable conjecture ef seme com
mentators, that David here refera to the con
fidence and boaat of seme ef Saul's courtiera,
in thoae aacrificea and that aolemn worship
frem which their envy had perhapa baniahed
him. It is certainly much eaaier te sacrifice
a ram or a bullock, than te slay anger er
ambition, easier indeed to heap up whole he-
eatoroba of animals, than te resign one brutal
affection er concupiscence, yea, eaaier to pre
aent all eur goods than ourselves as living
sacrificea, though that is -undoubtedly our
reaaonable aervice. The Moaaic aacrificea,
though inatituted by God, borrowed all their
value from that evening victim which waa to
be alain in tbe end of the world, whe was
himself the aacrifice and the altar, and the
one only High Priest after ihe order of
* Athen.-^toras.

Melchizedeck ; who yet instituted a perpe
tual aucceaaion of thoae whe ahould be a royal
priesthood, the whole seriea of which priesta
in their succeeding generations are daily of
fering to God the Father of Spirits, the pure
and spiritual sacrifice ef righteousness, moat
acceptable to him, aa paaaing through the
hand ef the great High Priest, who incessant.
ly miniatera in that high and holy aanctuary ;
as Bernard excellently apeaka,* " Nothing,
Lord, that ia thine can suffice me without
thyself, nor can any thing that is mine with
eut myself be pleaaing to thee." And Au.
gustine, -|- " Let thy flre entirely conaume
me, ae that nething ef me may remain to
myself." AnJ this one Holocauat compre
hends all the sacrificea ef righteouaneaa ; the
underatanding, thelove, all the affectiona and
faculties of the aoul, and organs efour bodies ;
all our words, actions and thoughts, prayers
and vows, hymns and thanksgivings, piety,
modesty, charity, and the whole choir of
virtuea, exerciaed in a diligent and harpio-
nieua obaervation of all his precepta. These
are victims and perfumea of incense worthy so
pure a Deity, who eats not ihe fiesh of bulls,
nor drinks the blood of goats ; who if he
were himgry would not ask us, since all
ihe beasts of the forest are his, and the
cattle upon a thousand hills. Offer unto
God thanksgivings, and pay thy vows unto
the Most High. For he that offereth
praise glorifies him, and io him thai orders
his conversation aright, will he show the
salvation of God,
Even the Heathen philoaophera and poets
saw and taught, that these aacrificea of a
pioua mind were moat fit for a rational wor-
ahipper, and muat be meat fit for God, to
whom they are addreaaed, " Strange in
deed would it be," aaya Socratea, " if tbe
goda ahould look to the gift and aacrifice,
and not to the aoul." And paaaages ef Ho-
racej and Persuag to thia purpoae are ao;
well known, that they need not be repeated.
The language ef tbe aon ef Sirach ia also
agreeable to it, Eccl. xxxv. 1, 3. " He tbat
keepeth the law bringeth offerings enough ;
he that taketh heed to the commandment
offereth a peace offering. He that requiteth
a good turn offereth fine flour, and he that
gives alms sacrificeth praise. To depart
from wickedness ia a thing pleaaing to the
Lord, and te foraake unrighteouaness ia a
propitiation." '
And put your trust in the Lord.] Tbia
very truat with which the mind reposea itself
»Nec mill! tua sufBciunt sine te, nee tibi placent
mea sine me. .. ., -
t Totum meconsumat ignis luns, nihil mei remaneat
mihi. ± Immunis aram si tctipt manus,
Non sumptuosa blandior hostia
Mollibit aversos Penateis,
Farre pio. et saliente mica
S Compositum jus fasqueaniral, sanctosque reressus
Mentis, et incoctum generoso pectus honesto.
Hiec cede ut admoveam templis, et farre litaba

650

MEDITATIONS

upon God, ia both the great conaolation of a
good man, and the great aacrifice of piety and
righteouaneaa. The faith of Abraham was a
sacrificemuch dearer to God, t.ot only than the
ram which he actually offered, but even than
his deareat aon whom he had brought te the
altar. He was strong in faith, aays tbe a-
poatle, and so he gave glory to God, And
again, only they who offer to God the aacri
fice of righteousneas, can ri;ly upen him with
a true and solid confidence. Net that these
sacrificea, theugh the choiceat and beat of
all, can pretend to any merit, but becauae
they are the mest genuine aigns and moat
certain aeala of a aoul in covenant with God,
se that there is indeed a mutual signing ;
Ged offering the dearest pledgea of hia fa
vour 10 us, and we in like manner, aa ia moat
fit, rendering all that we have, and all that
we are, to him, with the moat humble and
grateful heart ; and certainly thia union, and
perpetual, undivided friendahip, ia the true
tufu//.ia of the holy aoul, that temperature
which alone can give it aolid tranquillity and
felicity, aa it follows presently after in thia
Paalm. VEn. 6. There be many that say. Who wiD shew us
any good ? Lord, lift up the light of thy coun
tenance upon us.
The Psalmiat now returna to himaelf and
hia own affaira, and having aufficiently ad-
moniahed hia enemiea conceming the true
and only good, enforcea his exhertation by
bis example, that if they thought fit they
niight follow it ; for this ia tbe moat effica-
cieua manner of teaching. But if they would
not, that he might at least enjoy the benefit
of bia own counael, and wrapping himself up
in his ewn happinesa, might from tbat emin
ence, look down upen all the vain and wretch
ed pursuits ef the mad vulgar. Like drunk
en men, they reel and atagger frem place te
place : they often fall down upon their face,
and atrike and daab themaelvea againat what
they desired te embrace. Through all their
life, with an unstable pace, they catch at
flying forma of good ; and after all their falla
and their bruises, they cry out again and
again. Who will shew us any good ? And
when tbey behold any new species or shadow
of it, tbey immediately run to it. Nay per
haps so light and various are tbey in their
purauit, they return again to that in which
they had been frequently deceived, and wbich
they had aa eften abandoned. Rabbi Solo
mon parapbraaea tbe worda thus : " When
larael aaw the nationa proaperoua," he aaid,
" Who will ahew ua like prosperity ? But
David -says. Envy them net, we bave a sub
limer proaperity in the light of the Divine
countenance.** *' Tbat ia good,** says the
great Philosopher of the achoola, " which all
puraue." The various affections and deairea
of the mind, are aa tbe pulae and natural re-

apiration ; but certain internal principles,
whicb, not inwrought by nature, are after.
warda received and deeply engraved upon
the heart, are the springs of that motion ;
our different opinions of different things do
nevertheleaa all meet in thia, " Thatwe would
aee good." But they who select from the
varioua objecta that preaent themaelvea, a
suitable, complete and substantial geod, and,
neglecting every thing elae, bend all their
purauita to that, are the only wiae and happy
men. Thia the Psalmist professes he did, and
freely invites all that pleaaed te join and take
part with bira in tbeae deairea and purauita,
well knowing tbat the happineaa was abun
dantly sufficient fer many, fer al! that would
apply themaelvea to it, and such as could not
at all be diminished by being imparted ; for
it waa indeed the xurx^xis xxXov, the aelf-
sufficient and all-aufficient good, which was
ene of the titlea tbat aome of the wiser Hea
thena gave their Jupiter : but he of whom
we apeak ia the living and the true God ; nor
ia there any otber good whataoever adequate
to the human mind ; and what we aay of
hia infinite aufficiency, is moat aptly aignified
by thia adumbration which the Paalmiat
uses, I aay, by the adumbration of light ;
nor do I think fit to correct it as an incon
gruoua expression, for light ia indeed as it
were the ahadow ef God, and that fulneaa of
supreme geod which ia in him, ia in aome
degree ahadowed out by light, which entirely
illuatratea with the full atream of ita raya all
who behold it, and is net broke into little
fragments, to be sparingly distributed to
each. Many aeek many things ; they pur
sue any good with uncertain and ignorant
desires, but we have fixed upon the one pe
tition we .should insist upen, for in this ene
la all ; Lord, lift up the light of thy counte
nance upon^ us. Oh 1 rich, grand and in
comparable desire ! without this, all the
proudeat palacea ef monarcha are gloomy
caverna, dark as hell, and all the riches of
all tbe earth mere indigence. This is the
proper light of the intellectual world, and
it puts gladness into tbe heart, as it foUews.
Vj!R, 7- Thou hast put gladness into my heart more
than in the time that their corn and their wine
increased. Gladness into my heart.] To whicb
the gross delighta of earthly thinga cannot
reach ; they stick aa it were before the
tbreahold. Corn and wine are only the re-
freahnient of these mean, frail earthly bodies,
and tbe support ef thia corporeal and terrene
life, but have nothing cvyytvyje, congenial
with, and a-kin to, the heaven-born Spirit. It
is aaid indeed, that bread strengthens man's
heart, and wine makes ii glad; but the heart
there apoken ef is that which is the spring
ef animal life and natural spirit ; wbere.ts, to

VEH. 7-

ON PSALM IV.

601

that heart which holda the preference in
human nature, which may therefore be called
the nyt/iovixn, the governing part, there ia
nothing which givea light and gladneaa, be
neath the eternal Father of lighta and of
spirita. He cheriahes the languiahing soul
witb the rays ef his love, and satiafiea it
with the conaolationa of his Spiiit, as with a
kind of heavenly nectar er nepenthe, that
while it confides in hia safety, lays all its
carea and fears asleep, and lulls it into deep
peace, and calm aweet repoae, witheut which,
if the mind be a little agitated, no gentle
breeze of harmony, no melody of birda or
harp, can bring on the pleaaing alui^iber,
during which nevertheleas the heart awakea.
Oh happy man, wbo betakes his wbole soul
to God, and dees not only choose him above
all, but in the place of all, waiting only on
him 1 Happy man who, having been choaen
by him with preventing leve and unmerited
ben^nity, embracea his ample all-sufficient
Creator for his inheritance, and his wealth ;
vften repeating witb sacred tranaport, Deus
meus et omnia I my God and my all 1 Thia ia
the man that has enough ; and therefore, to al
lude to the words ofthe poet, " Heis net dis.
quieted by theraging ofthe sea, ner any aeverity
oftheaeasons, whatever stara may riae andset.*
God fixea hia gracious dwelling in the pore
and holy soul, wbich haa learned to despise
the vanity of richea, and makes it calm in
the midst of hurries, and aecure in the deep.
cat solicitudea. And not merely to find,
but even to aeek after God, is better to auch
a soul, inexpressibly better, than ta poaaeas
the richest treaaure, the moat extenaive em
pire, ot to have all the variety of senaual
pleaaurea waiting upon ita beck.

-Neque

TumultuoBum solicitat mare.
Net- saivus .Arcturi cadentis
Impetus, aut orientb Hoidi. Hon. lil). iii. od, L

I remember to have read of aome military
officers, whe crosaing the Nile in the aame
boat with the two Macarii of Egypt, aaid
te them, in allusion to their name, " Yeu
are indeed happy whe laugh at the world.**
" Yes,** said they, " it is evident that we
are happy, not merely in name but in
reality ; but you are unhappy, whom tbe
world deridea, aa ^oer creatures whom it
sees entangled in its snares.**
St. Augustine alao quotes from Politian a
similar example of a Pretorian aoldic, wbo,
walking out with hia comrade, found in a
cottage into which he accidentally came, a
book containing the life ef the hermit An
thony, and when he had read a little in it,
looking npon his friend, said, " Te wbat
are we taking so much paina to arrive ?
M'^hat do we aeek ? For what do we go
through the fatiguea ef a military life ? The
higheat of our hopea at court must be, to
ahare aome extraordinary degree of the em.
perer*a favour ; and how frail and dangerous
a aituation ia that ! And through how
many ether previoua dangera muat we pass
to it ; and how aoon will all the advantages
we can hope from it be over ! But I may
thia moment, if I pleaae, become the friend
and favourite of God." And he had no
sooner uttered these words, than they both
reaolved upon quitting the world, that they
might give up all the remainder of their days
to religion.
Holy men in former ages did wondera in
conquering tbe world and themaelves ; but
we, unhappy, degenerate, drowsy creatures
aa we are, bluah to hear that they did what
we cannot or will not do. We are indeed in-
clined te diabelieve thefacts, and rather choose
te deny their virtues, than to confeaa our own
indolence and cowardice.

MEDITATIONS

ON PSALM xxxii.

Ver, 1. Blessed is the man whose transgression is
forgiven, and whose sin is covered.
Oh 1 the pure, the overflowing, the in
comparably aweet fountain of Scripture 1
" Hence light we draw, and fill the Sacred cup ;'*
Whereaa the aprings of philosophy in human
affaira are not very clear, and in divine, they
are quite turbid and muddy ;- which one of
the greatest orators and philosophera among
them all freely confeaaea : " I think,'* saya
he, " we are net only blind te true wiadom,
but are very dull and alow ef apprehenaion
even in thoae things which seem to be dis
cerned and understood. ""I* Nor is tbia to
be wondered at ; for there would be little
difference between thinga human and divine,
if the dim eye ef our reaaon were aufficient
to diacover their aecreta. One of the ancienta
excellently aaya, " If you examine things
ever so accurately, you will never be able to
diacover them if God keepa them veiled.":}:
It would be a vain and ridiculoua labour
to light up a great number ef lantberna and
torchea, and go out and leok for the aun in
the night ; but when the appointed hour of
morning comea, he riaes, as of his ewn accord.
and freely manifeata himself by his own
lustre, to every beholder. Tbe wiaeat ef the
Heathena undertook to find out the Supreme
Being, and the Supreme Good ; but wander
ing through the devioua ways ef multiplied
errors, they could attain to neither. Nor
waa it the least of their errors, that they
sought them as two different thinga, when
Tt ia moat certain that beth are united in
One. Fer it ia the only and ultimate hap
pinesa of man to be united to that flrat and
supreme Being and Good, from which he
drew hia original. But since there has ae
sad a distance and disagreement arisen be-
* H ine lucem haurire est et pocpla sacra.
-^ Milii non modo ?.d sapientiam caeci videmur, sed
ad ea ipsa, quae aliqua ex parte cerni videantur, hebe
tes et obtusi. Sen.
^ AXX' ou yx^ XV TX ^llx x^ixttovtos ®iou
MxHois XV, OuS' tl TxvT uxl^tXBois CKoxuv. Soph.

tween Ged and man, by our deplorable apos.
tacy from him, there-could not be the least
hope of attaining that union, did net infinite
goodness and mercy propose the full and free
pardon of our offences. So that tbe true deter
mination ef this grand queation abeut happi<
neas, is evidently thia — Blessed and happy is
ihat man whose transgression is forgiven,
and whose sin is covered. Innocence was
the firat meana of obtaining happineaa ; which
being once violated, the only plank that can
aave ua after our shipwreck, is repentance
and remiaaion ; which two thinga the whole
acripture assures us, that the Divine wisdom
haa connected, aa with an adamantine baud.
And this Psalm whicb is now before ua, is
a signal declaration of it, which aince it in
culcates so grand a topic of religion, xv^ixv
io^xv, may well be atyled aa it ia Maschil,
a lesson of instruction : for as St. Augus
tine well observes, " Tbat ia inatruction in
deed, which teachea us that man ianot aaved
by the merit ef hia worka, but by the grace
of God.'**
Blessed.] Or O ! bleased man ! er O !
the felicity of that man ! and te denote tbe
moat entire, supreme and perfect bleased
neaa. -I- He only has attained to complete
felicity, whose numerous debts are remitted ;
theugh far from being able te pay them, he
could not so much aa reckon them up ; and
bleaaed is he that knows it, aa the proverb
ia, " No man ia happy but he whe thinks
himaelf so.*'f
The man whose iniquity is forgiven.]
As tbe word is nesevi, it might be rendered,
Bles.ied is the man who is eased ofthe heavy
burden of his sin, A burden indeed toe
heavy fer the atrongeat man upon earth ;" a
burden ao dreadfully great, that God'a an
gela are net able te atand under it : fer many
* Qua intelligitur non meritis operum, sed Del
gratia hominem liberari.
t As the eldnhant, to denote its vast built, is spoken
of in the plural number Behemnth.
X Non est beatus qui se non putat.

VEH, 2.

ON PSALI\I XXXU.

653

of the chief ef them were preased down to
hell by it, and can rise no more. But though
no giant en earth or in heaven could bear it, a
Iamb subjected bimself to it : but iiwasalamb
without blemish and without spot, burdened
with no load of hia ewn sin, nor atained with
the leaat spot of pollution. The Lamb of
God, the Son of God, who is himaelf God,
ia he o xi^uv rnv xftoaenxv rov xocf^oti, who
takes away all the aina of the werld, aa one
sin ; taking tbe burden upen himaelf, he
beara it and carries it away.
Covered.] That sinners may more clear
ly apprehend, aud more easily and firmly be
lieve a thing which seems so difficult to ad
mit, as tbe free and full remiaaion of sin, it
is painted out by varioua beautiful exprea-
,aions and figures in the sacred Scripturea —
washing, cleansing, blotting out, scattering
like ffl cloud, entirely forgetting, casting into
the bottom of the sea, and here by that of
taking away and covering, and by that
phraae which explaina both, of noi irhput-
ing them ; and this expression of covering
them, is with great propriety added to tbe
former phrase ef lightening the ainner of
the burden of them : and that there may be
no fear of their returning again, or coming
into sight, when God haa not only "taken the
heavy load from our shoulders, but for ever
hidden it from his own eyea, and the veil of
mercy haa taken it away ; that great covering
of divine love, which ia large enough to over
spread so many and so great offences. Thus
it does aa it were turn away the penetrating
eye ef his justice, which the most secret ini
quity could not elude, did net he bimself in
pity voluntarily avert it.
But you will knew what is our propitia
tory, what the covering of the mercy-seat,
even Jesus who was typified by that Caporeth
in the temple, which the Septuagint rendera
ixxcrn^iot iorihfox. a ¦projAt'iatory cover.
ing; by which title our great Redeemer
ia marked out, Rom. iii. 25, as the same
Hebrew word Caphar signifies both to cover
and io expiate.* But that the thing may be
mere evident and certain, the thought is. re
peated again in the second verae.
Ver. 2.. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord im
puteth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no
guile,
Aben-ezra paraphrases it, of lolioie sins
God doct not think, does net regard them,^ao
aa to bring tbem into judgment ; reckoning
them as if they were not, ou f^vj XoyiZ,zrxi,
does not Cimnt or calculate them, or charge
them io account ; dees net require for them
the debt of punishment. To us the remis-
¦ * It is to be observed, the Hebrew words Esetiol
haccopher, which some render a iHuster of cnmphire.
Cant L 14, may with a Uttle variation in the reading,
i e. reading it, Ish col haccapher, be rendered, a man

cfall kinds of redemptiim, or of att expiation : so the
Targum interprets it by expiation, and, by the way,
some assert that this Psalm used to be sung on the day
of expiation.

aion is entirely free, eur Spenser having taken
upen him the whole busineaa of paying the
ranaom. His suffering ia our impunity, hia
bond our freedom, and his chastisement our
peace ; and therefore the Prophet says, The
chaslisemeut of our peace wa* upon him, and
by his stripes ive are. he-alcd. Distracted
creaturea that we are, to indulge those ains
which breught death upon our dear Re
deemer, and te be se cold in our affections le
that Redeemer who died for these sina 1
This weighty sentence, ef itself so admira
ble, Paul renders yet more illuatrioua, by in
serting it into his reasoninga on the topic of
justification, aa a celebrated testimony of that
great article of eur faith. David, says he,
thus describeth the bleaaedneaa ef that man,
saying. Blessed i.t he whose iniquities are for
given, Se that thia is David's opinion con
cerning true happiness ; he says not, blessed
are thoae that reign over kingdoma ; blesaed
are those generals whe are renowned for their
martial bravery and aucceaa, though he him
aelf had both these titles te beast ef. It is
not the encomiums ef tlie greateat multitudes,
nor the breath of popular applauae, ner any
other degree of human honour, which entitles
a man to this character. It is net said,
blessed is he who ploughs many thouaand
acrea of land, or who has heaped together
mountains of gold and silver ; not he who
haa married a beautiful and rich woman, or,
which in his age, or even now in theae eaat-
ern countriea might be the caae, he who was
poaaeaaed of many auch ; nor bleaaed ia he
whe underatands the secrets of nature, or
even the mysteries ef religion : but. Oh !
happy man whose sins are pardoned, and
to whom ihe L^d does not impute iniquity,
and in whose spirit ihere is no guile ;
whose breaat is full, not ef feigned repent
ance, but of a fervent leve of holiness, and
hatred ef sin. This makes life happy, nay
absolutely blesaed : but alas ! when we in
culcate theae thinga, we aing to tbe deaf.
The ignorance and folly of mankind will not
ceaae to pronounce the proud and the cove-
tousbappy, and thoae wbo triumph in succeaa
ful wickedneas, and who, in chaae of theae
lying shadows of happineaa, destroy their
days and their years, and their souls.
" Alas," saya the wiae Roman, "how little
do seme who thirat moat impatiently after
glory, - know what it ia, or where te be
sought !"* which is equally applicable te
that true calm and aerenity of mind which
all pursue, but few are able to attain. But
as fer us who enjoy the celeatial inatruction
of this aacred volume, if we are ignorant of
it, our ignorance ia quite inexcuaable, obati
nate and affected, aince we are wilfully blind
in the clearest and most refulgentlight. This
points out that good which can completely
« Quam ignorant homines glorlae cupidi, quce ea Mt
aut q,uemadmodum petenda I Sew

srA

JIEDITATIONS

VER, 3

fill all the moat extended capacities of the
human soul, and whicb we generally seek
for in vain on all sides, catching at it wbere
it is not to be found, but ever neglecting if
where alone it is. But is it then poaaible at
ence te be solidly and completely happy ?
You have not merely the ideaa of it, but the
thing itaelf, not only clearly pointed out, but
most freely offered, with divine munificence ;
so that if you do not obstinately reject the
offer, it must be your own ; and this happi
ness consists in returning to the favour and
friendship of Ged, who mest mercifully grants
us the free pardon of all eur sins, if we de
with unfeigned repentance, and a heart free
of all guile, not only humbly confess and la
ment them, but entirely forsake, and with
implacable hatred, fer ever renounce them.
il jxxKx^, tu^aiu&iv TE XXI oXQios — all the
names, all the variety of felicities, bliaa,
and happineaa, are accumulated en that
man who haa known this change of the right
hand of the Most High,* on whom thia
bright day of expiation and pardon has beam
ed. He easily looks down from en high en
all the empty titlea and falae images of earth
ly happinesa ; and when he is bereaved of
them all, yea, and beaet en every side with
what the world calls miafortunea and afflic
tiona, ceaaes net to be happy. In aorrow he
is joyful, in poverty rich, and in chains free ;
when be aeema buried deep, ao that not one
ray of the aun can reach him, he ia aurround
ed with radiant luatre ; when overwhelmed
with ignominy, he gloriea ; and in death it
self he Uvea, he conquera, he triumpha.
What can be heavy to that man, who ia eased
of the intolerable burden of ain ? How ani
mated was that saying ef Luther, " Smite,
Lord, smite ; for thou hast absolved me frem
my sins !*'-|- Whoae anger should he fear
whe knowa that God is propitious to him,
that supreme King, •whose •wrath is indeed the
messenger of death, but the light of his coun
tenance is life ; whe joys all by the rays ef his
favour, and by one smile disperses the dark
est cloud, and calms the most turbulent tem
pest ?
But we muat now obaerve the complica
tion of a two-fold good, in conatituting tbia
felicity ; for we have two thinga here con.
nected, aa conspiring to make the person
spoken of bleaaed : Tbe free remiaaion ef
sin, and the inward purification of the heart.
This simplicity, xifiXorns, ia a moat ex
cellent part of purity, opposed to all wicked
ness and arta of deceit : and, in common
speech, that which is aimple, and haa ne
foreign mixture, is called pure. Pardon pre
aenta us aa juat and innocent before our
Judge ; and that sanctity is not to be regard-
? Alluding to Ps, Ixxvii, 10, where the vuIgate ren
ders SewiA change, mutatio dextra Excelsi, and seve
ral other versions nearly agree with it.
? Feri, Domine. feri ; nam a peccatis absolvlsti me.

ed as constituting any part ef our justifying
righteousness before God, nor aa only the
condition er aign ef our felicity, but truly
and properly a part of it. Purity is the ac-
compliahmentef our felicity, begun on earth,
and to be cenaummated in heaven : that pu
rity, I say, wbich ia begun here, and shall
there be consummated. But if any one think
he can divide theae two thinga, which the
hand of God haa joined by ao inaeparable a
bond, itis a vain dream. Nay, by attempting
to separate these two parta ef happineaa, he
will, in fact, only exclude himself frem the
whole. Jeaus, our victorious Savieur, has
snatched ua from the jawa of etemal death ;
but to be delivered from the cruel tyranny
and bonda of ain, and te be breught into the
bleased liberty of tbe aona of God, waa ano
ther eaaential part of our redemption ; and if
any ene doea net embrace thia with equal
alacrity and delight as the ether benefit, he
is a wretched alave of the most mean and
ignoble apirit ; and being equally unworthy
of both parts of this stupendous deliverance,
he will justly forfeit and lose both. And
this is the epidemical Antinomianiam ef the
Christian world, because they who labour
under it have nething but the name of Chris
tians ; they gladly hear of the parden of
their sina and tbe aalvation of their aoul.sj,
while they ar" averae te the doctrine ef holi
neaa and repentance. It is a disagreeable
meaaage, a hard saying, and who can bear
it $ But oh ! the incomparable charms of
holiness I to be deaired not only for the pake
of other benefits, which come in its train, bu\
especially for itself: se that he who is not
transported with a most ardent love te it, is
blind, and deserves te be thrust into the mill,
to tread that uncomfortable round, and to
grind there ; deserves to be a slave for ever
— aince he knowa nothow to uae liberty when
offered to him. Shall the Stoic say, " The
aervant of philosophy ia truly free ;*'• and
ahall we acruple te aaaert the same concern
ing pure religion and evangelical holiness ?
Now this freedom from guile, that fair sim
plicity, of wbich the Psalmist speaks, ia dc.
servedly reckoned among the chief endow
ments of a pure soul, and is here named in.
stead ef all the reat, aa nething is more like
to that God who inspects tbe very heart ; in
nothing do we so much reaemble him ; and
therefere it ia most agreeable to him, becauae
most like him. He is the moat simple of
all beinga, and ia indeed truth itself, and
therefore he desires iruth in the inward
parts, and hatea a heart anda heart, aa the
Hebrew phraae ia te expreas these that are
doifble-hearted. And how much our bless
ed Redeemer esteems this simplicity, we may
learn frem the eamestnesa with which he in.
culcatea it upon hia diaciplea, that they
ahould be simple as doves, Matth. x. 10.
• Qui philosophic Inservit, est vei-6 liber.

VEH. 2.

ON PSALM XXXII.

655

AVe may alao learn it from the honourable
testimony he bears to his character in Na.
thanael, when he pronounces him, John i.
47, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is
no guile ; and especially frem his own per.
feet example, as it is said of him, I Pet. ii.
22, He did no sin, neither was guile found
in his mouth. Perhapa the Psalmist might
the mere willingly mention this virtue, as he
reflected with penitential distress en his crafty
and cruel attempt of covering that adultery
which he had committed with the veil of
murder. But, however that was, it ia cer
tain, that this guileless sincerity of heart
holds the first rank in the gracea tbat attend
true repentance. It may be sometimes our
duty to open our sins te men, by an ingenu-
,ous confession ; but it is always our duty to
do It to God : who promises to cover them
only on this condition, that we de sincerely
uncover them ouraelvea. But if we affect
that wbich is his part, he will, to our un
speakable damage, do tbat which he had as
signed to us. If we hide them, he will bring
them into open light, and will diacuaa and
examine each with the greater severity.
" He," says Ambrose, " wbo burdens him
self, makes his error ao much the lighter.*'*
" In proportion to the degree,*' says Tertul
lian, " in which you are unwilling to apare
yourself, God will apare you."-|- But what
madneaa is it to attempt to conceal any ac.
tion from him, frem whom, as Thales wise
ly declarea, " yeu cannot ao much as conceal
a thought !**$ But, net now to inaiat upon
the imposaibility of a concealment, a wise
man would not wiah to cover his wounds and
hia diaease from that physician, frem whose
skilful hand he might otherwise receive heal
ing ; and this is what the Psalmist present
ly after, for eur instruction, confesses.
Vbr. 3. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old,
through my roaring all the day long.
While he suppressed the ingenuous voice
of confession, the continuaUy increaaing
weight of his calamity extorted frem him a
voice of roaring ; " while I would not speak
as it became a guilty man, I was compelled
even to bellow like a beast.'*§ Nevertheleaa,
thia wild roaring did not move the Divine
compassion, nor atone his displeasure.
Ver. 4. For day and night thine hand was heavy
upon me ; my moisture is tumed into the drought
of summer.
Hitherto that voice was wanting, to
which tbe bowels ef the father always echo
back, the voice of a sen full of reverence, and
ready to confess his errors ; without which,
criea and lamentations in miaery, are no more
regarded in the aight of Ged, than the howl-
• Allevat errores ille qui se onerat.
t Quantum tibi non peperceris, tantum tibi parcet
Deus, t'Ov ou XxvSxvtis ouSt Sixvou.ootvos.
§ Dum nolui loqui, ut hominem reum decet, mugire
coactus sum ut utum.

Ing of dogs ; according to that expreaaion of
Hoaea vii. 14, They have not cried unto
me with their heart, when they howled upon
iheir beds. A dog howls when he ia hungry,
or when he ia laahed : but from a aon, when
he is chastened, acknewledgmenta of hia
fault, and deprecations ef bia father*3 dia
pleaaure, are expected ; and when the son
thua acknewledgea hia offence, and intreats
for pardon, it ia the part of a compaaaionate
father to forgive, and to spare. Nor de we
indeed confeaa eur offences to our Father, as
if he were not perfectly acquainted with
them, but we fly to him who requires wa
should repent, that he may not shew ua by
punishment, these things which we avoid
ahewing te him by confeaaion. " I confeaa
ed unto tbe Lord," aaya Auguatine, " to
whom all the abyss of my ain and misery lay
open : se that if I did net confess whatever
was hidden in my heart, I should not hide
myself from him, but him frem me."*
Thy hand was heavy upon me.] That
hand, which wben pressing is se heavy, when
raising, is so aweet and powerful, (Psalm
xxxvii. 24,) and when scattering its bleaa
inga, 60 full and ao ample, Paalm civ. 28.
cxlv. 16. He weuld not at first be humbled
by the confession of his iniquity, and there
fore he is humbled by the weight of tbe band
of God. Oh powerful hand ! beyond all
comparison, more grievous than any other
hand to press down, and mere powerful to
raise up. He whe suppreaaea hia sina witb.
out cenfesaing them,
Vulntts alit venis et ctBca carpitur igne,
" Conceals an inward wound, and burns with secret
flre. "
Under the appearance of aparing, he ia in.
deed cruel to himself; and when he has
drunk down iniquity, and keeps it within,
and it is net covered by the Divine forgive
ness, it is like a poison, which conaumea tbe
marrow in tbe midat of hia bonea, and drier.
up the vital moiature. Itmay, perhapa, oc
casion mere present pain to draw out the
point of the weapon wbich sticks in the flesh ;
but to neglect it, will occaaion greater danger,
and more future torment : nor will the dart
fall out by hia running hither and thither,
but, on the contrary, aa the poet expreaaes
it with respect to the wounded deer, it fixes
deeper and deeper, -j- ,'
But the only hewing herb that the sinner
can find is true repentance and humble con
feaaion, not that which acknowledges ain in
a few slight words, wben it has hardly look.
ed upon it and known it ; but that which
proceeds frem a previous, true and vivid com.
punction of soul, and is inaeparably attend
ed with renovation and purity of heart an3
* Et tibi, Domine, cuius oculis nuda abyssus, quid
occultum esset in me si non conSterer, non me tibi
absconderem, sed te mihi.
+  Ilia fuga sylvas saltusque peragrat
Dyctaeos, hiEiet lateri lethalis arundo.

656

MEDITATIONS

VEB. 6,

life, so as comprehending thia, it is some
times put for tbe whole of repentance, 1 John
'¦ 9i if we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just toforgive us our sins, and tocleanse
us from all unrighteousness. And se in the
psalm before us,
Vbr. 5, 1 acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine
iniquity have I not hitt. I said, I will coufess
my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou for
gavest the iniquity of my sin.
True and genuine repentance hath eyes
as it were en beth sides, tjrpocM xix oticw
(iXtorti ; it looks back on aina already
committed, to lament them ; it looka for
ward, and humbly reaolvea no more to com
mit what it haa lamented ; and each of these
is expressed by each of the werds by which
repentance is signified, f-otrxfitXttx and ,«£-
rxvoia, which words are therefore used pro-
miacueu,sly, both by the sacred writers and by
others. So that the received difference be
tween them seema to me to have little foun
dation ; for Phavorinus interprets the word
fAiTavoix, an anguiah of aoul, under a con-
scieuaneaa of having acted a foolish and
abaurd part, and the Latin has the aame aig-
nification, if we will admit the judgment of
Gelliua, who seems to have been a very ac
curate critic in affairs of that nature. He
observes, " We are said to repent of things,
whether our own actions, or those of ethers,
which have been performed by eur advice er
instigation, which do afterwarda displease
us ; ao that we change our judgment concern
ing them."* But we will waive all further
concern about worda ; the thing itaelf de-
manda our greatest attention. I entirely
agree with bim who said, " I had rather feel
the inward working of repentance, than know
the most accurate deacription and definition
ef it."-|- Yet how averse ainnera are to thia
free though useful and salutary confession ef
ain, abundantly appeara from thia example
ef so great a man aa the Paalmiat, when
taken in this unhappy anare ; for he confeaa
ea that he lay long aa senaeleaa and atupid
in that quagmire into which he was fallen,
and that it was with difficulty that he waa
as it were racked into a confesaion, by auch
exquisite torturea both of bcdy and mind.
On the other hand, the gracioua readineaa of
the Father of mercies to grant pardon, is so
much the mere evident, as on the first word
ef confeasion that he uttered, or rather
the firat purpoae that he formed in hia
mind, immediately the pardon, the full
and free pardon, came down aigned, aa in
the court ef heaven — / said, I will confess,
and ihou forgavest, O admirable clemency !
It requiresnething but that the offender should
* Pcenitere tum dicere solemus, cum quae ipsi feci
mus, aut quse de nostra voluntate nostroque consilio
facta sunt, ea nobis post incipiunt (Jisplicere, senten

tiamque in iis nostram demutamus.
t Malo sentire compunctionem

linitionera. Thom. h Kempis, L. i. C- '

quam scire t-jus de

plead guilty, and thia not that it may more
freely punish, but more liberally forgive. He
requires that we should condemn ourselves,
that ao he may absolve ua.
Ve r. 6. For this shall every one that is godly pray
unto thee, in a time when thou mayest be found :
Surely in the floods of great waters, they shall not
come nigh unto him.
This ia the joyful mesaage, this is the
great doctrine of the goapel, which opena the
firat deor of hope to pinnera ; that God is
capable of being appeaaed, yea that he ia ac.
tually appeaaed ; that he freely offera peace
and favour to tbeae who have deserted bim,
when tbey return to his obedience ; that he
runs forth to meet them, and to receive them
with a most affectionate embrace j and hav.
ing so importunately intreated our retum,
will net despise those who are treading back
with prayera and teara the fatal path which
their folly had choaen. Thia ia what we ao
frequently read in scripture, that the Lord is
gracious and very merciful, slow to anger
and ready to pardon. If he were not auch,
wbo could dare to approach him ? But seeing
he is auch a God, who sheuld refuae or delay
hia retum ? Surely every rational and pious
mind will without delay invoke se gentle
and mild a Lord ; wilt pray lo him while
he is exorable, or aa tbe Hebrew expresses
it, in a time of finding ; fer he who promises
pardon, doea not promiae to-morrow. There
are the tempora fundi, certain timea in which
he may he apoken with, and a certain ap.
pointed day of pardon and grace, which if
a man by atupid perveraeneas despise, er bj
sloth neglect, surely he is justly overwhelmed
with eternal night and miaery, and must ne.
cessarily perish by the deluge ef divine
wrath — since he has contemned and derided
that ark of salvation which was prepared, and
in which, whoever enters into it shall be
aafe, while the world ia periahing. Though
all be ene unbounded aea — a aea without
shore; yet, as it ia here aaid, the greateat
inundation, ihe floods of deep waters shall
noi come nigh unto him. This the Psalmist
exhorta those that have experienced it to
teach, and determinea himself so to retain it
with deep attention, and firm faith in his own
mind, aa iu the foUowing verse.
Verse 7- Thou art my hiding-place,
thou haat been, and wilt everbe so. T/iou'hasl
.¦surrounded, and thou wilt surround me wilh
songs of deliverance, even me who waa so
aun-ounded with clamours of sin. Where
he further intimatea, that aonga of praiae are
perpetually to be offered to God eur deliverer.
And, that these faithful admonitiona and
counaela may meet with greater .atterition aud
regard, he offera himself to ua aa a moat be-
nevolent teacher and leader.
Verse 8 — 11. I will instruct ihee, and '
teach thee in Ihe way in which thou shalt
go, Sfc] See to ii, only that thou be tract-

VEII. 8, &c.

ON PSALM XXXir,

fi.iV

able, and do not with a brutal obstinacy and
fierceness repel thia friendly and wise counael,
aa only capable of being governed by violence,
like a mule or unbroken horse, which must
be held in by bit and bridle. Such indeed
are the greateat part of men, whom the phi
loaophera, with great aeverity indeed, but
with too much juatice, called l^ouysvri xv^^o-
oru(tf, " wild bulls with human facea."
But it ia added, aa the sum of all admoni
tion, and the great axiom mest worthy of re-
garcl, that many sorrows shall be to ihe wick
ed ; the Septuagint renders it, many are ihe
scourges of the sinner ;* but Mercy shall
embrace those ihat hope in the Lord. And
tbe Psalm concludes with this as the burden
of it — Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and
shout for joy, all ye ihat are upright in
heart. Truly, my dear friends, -t" I have no-
* IlaXAau fixcrtyls xux^roiXeu.
t The word Juvenes, or my dear youths, occurs
here and in several other pl.-ices, as these lectures were
delivered to a society of young theological students ;

thing farther to wish for mysdf or yeu, than
that we may heartily believe these things,
for then it will be impoaaible that we shoultl
not with open arma embrace true religion, and
claap it te ourhearts; since nature teaches
every one to desire happineaa, and to fly from
miaery. So that Epicurus himaelf would
teach ua to lay held en joy and pleaaure, aa
tbe TO ¦TT^QiTov oixiiov, or firat and proper good.
Tbis, therefore, let us lay down aa a certain
principle, and ever adhere to it, that we may
not, like brute beasts, remain in subjection
te the flesh — that aafety, and joy, and all hap
pineaa, ia tbe property ef him who is possessed
ef virtue, and that all virtue ia comprehended
in true piety ; and let us remember what the
Prophet adds, (according to the Greek trans
lators,*) aa the neceasary consequence of
this principle, tbat to the wicked there can
be no joy.
but it did not seem necessary to make the trauglation
so exactly literal.
* Ovk ten xxiiuv tois xitiZici.

2 T

MEDITATIONS

ON PSALM cxxx.

Vbr. 1. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, i
O Lord.
It is undoubtedly beth an useful and plea-
sant employment, to observe the motions of
great and heroic minds, in great and arduous
affaira ; but that mind only ia truly great,
and auperior to the whole world, which dees
in the mest placid manner subject itaelf to
God, securely casting all its burdens and
cares upon him ; in all the uncertain altera
tions of human affairs, looking at his hand,
and fixing its regard upon tbat alone. Such
/be royal prophet David declares himaelf
every where to have been, and no where more
evidently than in thia Paalm, which aeema
to have been compoaed by him. He lifts up
hia head amidat aurrounding wavea, and,
directing hia face and hia voice to heaven,
he says. Out of the depths, O Lord, do I
cry unto ihee. For so I would render it,
as he does not seem to expreaa a past fact,
but, as the Hebrew idiom importa, a prayer
which he was now actually preaenting.
Out of the depths.] Being aa it were im
mersed and overwhelmed in an abyss ef
misery and calamitiea. It ia indeed the
native lot of man, to be born to trouble, as
the spark (the children of the coal, aa the
original expreasion aignifiea) to fly upward.
Life and grief are congenial ;* hut men who
are bern again, aeem, in a redoubled proper.
tion, to be twice born to trouble ; with so
many and ae great evila are they as it were
laden, beyond all other men, and that to
such a degree, that tbey may aeem as it
were sometimes to be oppressed with them.
And if any think this is atrange, aurely, as
the Apoatle expreaaes it, he cannot see afar
off, fooioorx^ii, at best, he only looks at the
surfaces of things, and cannot penetrate far
into thoae depths. For even the philoao
phera themaelves, untaught by divine revela
tion, investigated admirable reaaons for such
dispensations of providence, and undertook
* 'Hi xfx cuyylvns ten Xurv, xtu fiios.

in this respect boldly to plead the cause of
God. " God (says the Roman aage) loves
hia ewn peeple truly, but be lovea them
severely ; as the manner in whicb fathers
express their love te their children, is ge.
nerally very different from that of mothers ;
they order them to be called up early te their
studies, and suffer them not to be idle in
these days when their usual busineaa ia in.
terrupted ; but aometimea put them en la.
bouring till the aweat flowa down, and some.
times by their discipline excite tbeir tears ;
while the mother fondles them in her boaem,
keeps them in the shade, and knows not bow
to consent that they ahould weep or grieve or
i labour. Ged beara the heart of a Father to
geod men, and there is strength rather than
tenderness in his love ; they are therefore
exercised with labours, sorrows, and losses,
that they may grow robust : whereas, were
they te be fattened by luxurieua fare, and in.
dulged in indolence, they weuld not only
sink under fatiguea, but be burdened with
their own unwieldy bulk."* Preaently after
he quetea a remarkable saying of Demetrius
the Cynic, -l" te thia purpoae, " He seema
to be the unbappieat of mankind, who has
never been exerciaed with adveraity, aa be
cannet have had an opportunity of trying the
strength of his own mind.** To wish to
pass life without it, is to be ignorant of ene
part ef nature, ao that I may pronounce
thee to be miaerable, if thou haat never been
miaerable. If theu hast paaaed through
life without ever struggling with an enemy,
* Vere suos amat et severe Deus. Multo aliter
patres, aliter matres indulgent ; illi liberos ad studia
obeunda mature excitari jubent, feriatis quoque diebus
non patiuntur otiosos, et ssepe sudorem illis, et inter
dum lachrymas excutiunt : at matres fovere in sinu,
in umbra contlnere volunt ; nunquam flere, nunquam
trtstari, nunquam laborare. Patrium habet Deus
adversus bonos viros animum, et illos fortius amat :
et operibus, doloribus. ac damnis exagitantur, ut
verum colligant robur. Languent per inertiam sagi-
nati ? nee labore tantum, scdet mole, et ipso sui onera
defiitunt. Sen.
t Nihil mihi videtur infelicius eo, cui nihil unquam
evei.erit adversi ; non licuit illi se experiri

VF.n. 1,

MEDITATIONS ON PSALM CXXX,

659

no one, uot even thou thyself, canat know
whether thou art able to make any reaiatance ;
whereas, in afflictions, we experience, not
se much wbat eur own atrength ia, aa wbat
is tbe strength of God in us : and what the
aid of divine grace is, which often bears us
up under tbem to a aurpriaing degree, and
makes us joyful by a happy exit ; ao that we
shall be able to aay. My God, my strength,
and my deliverer. Thua the church be
comea conapicueua in the midat of the flames,
like the burning bush, through the good
will of him that dwelt in it, and when it
seema to be overwhelmed with watera, God
brings it out of them, cleanaed and beauti
fied ; mergas profunda, pulchrior exilit — ^he
plunges it in the deep, and it rises fairer than
before. We will net here maintain that paradox
of the Stoics, That evils which happen to
good men, are not to be called evils at all ;
which, however, is capable of a very good
sense, since religion teaches us, that the great
eat evils are changed, and work together for
good ; which comea almoat to the aame
thing, and perhapa waa the true meaning of
tbe Stoica. Baniahment and poverty are
indeed evila in one sense, i. e. they have
something hard and grievoua in them : but
when they fall en a good and brave man,
tbey aeem to lay aaide the malignity of their
nature, and become tame and gentle. The
very sharpneaa of them excitea and exerciaea
virtue : by exciting, they increase it, ao that
the root ef faith shoots the atronger, and
fixea the deeper, and thereby adds new
strength to fortitude and patience ; and as
we aee in thia example before ua, affliction
does, by a happy kind ef necessity, drive the
soul to confess ita sin, te fly aa it were te
aeek its refuge under the wing of the Divine
goodneaa, and to fix ita hope upon Ged ;
and thia is certainly one great advantage
which the pious soul gains by adversity, that
it calls away the affections from earth and
earthly things, or rather tears them away,
when obstinately adhering to them. It is
necessary that they suffer auch hardships as
theae, aa one expreaaes it,* lest they sbould
love thia inconvenient stable, in wbich they
are now obliged to lodge, as if it were their
own house. It is neceasary that they should
perceive that theyare strangers and foreign,
ers upon earth, that they may more fre
quently, and with mere ardent desire, groan
after that better country, and often repeat it,
»/«()? ^iXoi, oixos a^itrros, — dear home I most
desirable home ! The children and heira
of the kingdom, must be weaned by worm
wood, leat they ahould be ao enchanted by
the allurements of the flesh, and the poiaonous
sweetness of secular enjoymenta, as to barter
away the true and pure joy of their blessed
* Expedit omnino ut hic dura exneriantur, ne
stabulum ament pro domo sua.

hope, for tbia false, polluted, and deadly joy ;
and leat, diaaolved in pleaaure, the heaven-
born soul should be broke under the yoke of
this pemicious flesh, tbe root of so many
passions.* Lastly, we aee how much vigour
and vehemence affliction adda te prayer : for
the divine Paalmiat, the deeper he ainka,
criea te God in ao much the louder accents,
out of ihe deeps have I cried.
Thia prayer containa these precious virtues,
which, in a grateful temperature, render
every prayer acceptable to God — faith, fervour,
and humility. Faith, in that he prays out
of the deeps : fervour, in that he cries ; and
beth again expresaed in the next word, faith,
aa in tbe midat ef aurrounding calamitiea he
doea not despair of redreaa, fervour, aa he
urgea it with repeated importunity, and the
same word uttered again and again. And,
to complete all, humility expreaaes itself in
what follows, where he apeaka aa one that
felt himaelf sinking, aa ene whe was plunged
in a aea of iniquitiea, aa well aa calamitiea,
and acknewledgea he was so overwhelmed
with them, as to be unable to stand, unleas
aupported by pure mercy and grace. If thou.
Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who shall
stand ? Thua here again, faith manifests
itaelf more clearly, together with ita kindred
affections of hope and charity, whicb, like
three graces, join tbeir hands, and by an in
separable union support each otber. Yeu
have faith in the 4th verse, there is forgive
ness w'lth thee ; hope in the 5th, I wait for
the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in thy
word do I hope ; charity in the 7th and
8th, wbere he doea in a most benevolent
manner invite all larael to a communion of
the aame faith and hope ; and in order to
confirm them more abundantly, doea in a
mest animated manner proclaim the riches
of the Divine benignity. Such ia the com.
poaition of thia excellent prayer, which, thus
compounded, like a pillar of aromatic smoke
from myrrh, frankincense, and every other
mest fragrant perfume, ascends grateful to the
throne of God. And tbis yeu may take in.
stead of the analysis ef tbe remaining veraea,
which to handle by a more minute diasection
ef words, and to clothe in the trite phrases of
the schools, to apeak freely, would be aa bar.
ren and useless as it is easy and puerile.
And, indeed, I cannot but form the same
judgment cf the commen way ef catching at
a multitude ef observations from any scrip.
ture, and of preaaing it with violence, aa if
remarks were to be estimated by number
rather than weight, propriety, and uae. But
here let every one follow hia own geniua and
taate ; for we are willing te give the liberty we
take, Veniam damus petimusque vicissim.
Out of the depths.] O ! the immortal
power of divine faitb, which lives and
breathes in the midst of tha waves, in which
• ^xii oXovi, vexStuv ^lix troXvcxiStoiv

ceo

MEDITATIONS

VEB, I,

it may be plunged, but cannot be sunk
under any of tbe hugeat biUowa ; but raiaea
itaelf, and the soul in which it reaides, and
emerges and swiras above all, fiXXos m xZx'jr-
TicTos, (like cork which will still be above
water,) having thia in common with that
divine love, of which Solomon apeaka in
bia Song, that many waters cannot quench
it. Whatever great thinga the Stoica may
apeak ef their wiae men, and whatever all
philoaophy may aay of fortitude, it is divine
faith that truly and heartily performa all, by
wbich the geod man, though atript ef every
help and comfort, wrapa himaelf up as it
were, not in hia own virtue and atrength,
but in that ef Ged ; and hence it ia that he
cannot be conquered by any tyranny, by any
threateninga, by any calamities of life, by
any fear of death ; fer he leana upen Omni
potence. The Lord, aaya he, is my light
and my salvation, whom shall I fear 9
The Lord is the strength of my life, of
whom shall I be afraid 9 Let war aviae, let
tbe enemy meaaure out hia tenta againat me,
I, aaya fait>, am aecure under the shadow
of the Most High, and, embracing bim, I
will fear nothing.
You have here the Psalmiat crying with
confidence out of the deeps. Behold alao
the prophet Jonah indeed, and, as we say,
literally, in the depths, and in a circumatance
which might bave greater efficacy to ahake
his faith, tban the sea itself, than the bowels
of the fish, or any ether depth into which he
might be caat, as he was net entirely free
from blame, but with the intermingling
guilt of hia own perveraeneaa ; yet among all
these discouragements, his faith is net swal
lowed up : / have cried unto thee in my
distress, and from the very belly of hell.
. Thou hast cast me into the deep, and all
thy waves were going over me. So that I
might truly say, / am cast oui from thy
-sight, yet at the same tirae I said, / will
look again toward the temple of thy holiness.
I went down to the root and cavern of the
mountains ; the abyas surrounded me ; yet
when ray seul was thus overwhelmed within
me, I remembered the Lord. Yeu have,
among others, an excellent exaraple ef faith
in David, I Sam. xxx., when the invading
enemy had burnt Ziklag, had carried the
women captive, and the people, in the mad-
ness of their rage and grief, spake of atoning
David himself ; yet besieged witb all these
miseries, be strengthens himself in ihe Lord
his God. Nor can any thing have greater
depth and strength than that expression of
Job, Though he slay me, yei will I tritst
in him ; not only when fainting aud dying,
but while expiring, as it were, ef the wound
which I bad received from tbe hand of God
himaelf, yet will I hope for life and salva
tion, from that very hand which haa given
me death ; and in the jaws ef death* would

aend rae out thia last word with the last
breath, and with my departing aoul, " De
stroy not, O Lord, one that trusteth in thee.*'
Nor is thia confidence of a pioua soul, an
opinion fluctuating among the wavea, er a
light conjecture that it ahall raiae its head
above them ; but a certain, flrm, and infal
lible assurance. Tbat is a vulgar and weak
word of comfort, " Te-raorrow may be better
tban to-day.*'* But the language ef divine
faith ia atronger and firmer, even when deep
calls unto deep, and most certainly deter
mines that it will not be in vain : and, there
fore, in the 42d Psalm, not dubious and
trembling, but with aateadyvoice, he alienees
all the noiay tumults of an agitated mind,
and saya. Repose thyself on God, for I
shall still praise him ; er, as it may be ren
dered, / am going to praise "him ; q. d.
" Amidst all thoae tempests whicb rage about
me, I am thinking of that hymn of praise
which I ahall pay to him for my deliverance,
and for tbe happy exit out of all my aorrows."
Though at present we have nothing in aight
but darkness, and whirlwinds, and rocks,
and the raging, foaming sea, let the skill
and power of the great Pilot be opposed to
all these. And what the Psalmiat aaya else
where of sailors, may evidently be applied
to thoae that go down imo this sea ; they
gain this by their dangers, that they see the
werks ef thia great Pilot in the abyaa, arid
contemplate these wonders in the deep.
And he who gives bimself up te Hia care^
and fixea hia eye aud hope wholly en bim,
though he be, er rather seem te be, ship
wrecked, and loae all his goods, yet if he
doea net make shipwreck of faith, he loaea
nothing that ia properly hia ewn. Nay, when
he ia awallewed up in the abyaa of death, he
doea net periah, but swima through it, to the
further abore ef eternity, where he finds a
banquet, a palace prepared for him, and a
kingdom ihat cannot be moved, but remains
to endleaa agea.
/ cried.] Prayer is the natural and genuine
voice of , the children of God; and aa the
Latin word oratio properly signifies articu
late speech, aa it distinguiahea man from
other animala, ao in thia other signification
it expreaaea that by which the godly are dia-
tinguiahed frora the reaf of mankind. It is
the proper idiom of the citizens of heaven :
others may recite aome words of prayer, but
they do net pray. As parrots and other
birds, by the industry of their teacher, raay
leam te iraitate human voicea, yet they do
net apeak ; there ia aomething wanting in
all their meat skilful chattering, which ia the
very thing that ia also wanting in the Ian.
guage ef moat that are said te pray, and
that ia mind and meaning, affectiona corre.
apondent to the worda, or rather to wbich
the words may conform, aa to their original
* T »;(; xu^iov tear xuiivov.

1,2.

ON PSALM nxxx.

66!

cauae, and of which they may be the true
index and sign. The apirit ef thia world
knowa not how te pray, nor doea a apirit ef
adoption and liberty knew how to forbear
praying ; the spirit of adoption, says the
apostle, by which we cry, Abba, Father ;
ner can they wbo are newly bern by that
spirit, live without frequent prayer. Prayer
is to them as the natural and neceasary re
spiration of that new and divine life, aa, Lara.
iii. 56, tum not away from my breathing :
the Hebrew werd there raade uae of, leru-
hethi, properly- aignifies the vital respiration
of animals. Yet notwithatanding all thia,
what we said above is true, and evidently
appears from the pasaage before ua, that af
fliction often adds vigour to prayers, how
lively and assiduoua aoever they may have
been before. Let it be so, that prayer ia the
natural language of believing aolils, by wbich
they daily atldreaa their heavenly Father ;
yet when they are preased with any uncora-
mon pain or danger, il is ne less natural that
this voice sheuld be louder tban ordinary,
and should be raiaed into a cry ; it is, in
deed, the breath of faith and heavenly affec
tiona, and when they are vehemently preaaed
by any burden, and almost expiring under
it, they breathe quicker than before, and with
greater effort. Thus they whe have been
uaed to the greateat heighta of daily devo
tion, yet in surrounding calamities pray more
fervently and raere frequently than ordinary,
and this is to be nurabered among the chief
benefita attending afflictiona ; and it would
surely be well worth our while to experience
all the hardeat preasures ef them, if we may
gain this ; that the languor, and sloth, and
stupidity, into which eur minds and our soula
are ready insensibly to aink, while all is calra
and serene about us, may be happily ahaken
off by aomething which the world may call
an unhappy event ; that some more violent
gust of wind may fan the sacred flarae, that
aeema almoat extinguiahed, and blow it up
into greater ardour. It will be happy for ua,
that, with the Paalmiat, we ahould aorae
tiraea sink in deep waters, that ao we, who
in proaperity do but whiaper or rautter out
our prayers, may from ihe depths cry aloud
unto him. O how frequently and how ar
dently did David pray in the deserts and the
caves ! And it is he who here cries out ef
the deep, and perhaps these deep recesses are
these from which he was now crying ; but
when secure amidst the ease and delights of
the court, and walking at leisure on hia
house-top, was tempted by hia own wandering
eyes, and having intermitted the fervour of
prayer, burnt with impure fiies. Our vowa
are cruel to ouraelvea, if they demand no
thing but gentle zephyra, and flowery fields,
and calm repoae, aa the lot of eur life ; fer
these pleaaant thinga often prove the moat
dangeroua enemies teeur nobler and dearer life.

Oh ! hew true is that saying "tbat faith
is safe when in danger, and in danger when
aecure; and prayer fervent in atraita, but in
joyful and proaperoua circumatancca, if not
quite cold and dead, at least lukewarm I"
Oh ! happy atraita, if they hinder the mind
from flowing forth upen earthly objecta, and
mingling itself with the mire ; if they fa
vour our correapondence with heaven, and
quicken our love to celeatial objecta, without
which, what we call life may more properly
deaerve the narae of death.
Vbr. 2. Lord, hear my voice, let thine ears be at
tentive to the voice of my supplications.
We aee that he was not only in earneat,
which comparatively few that pray are, but
that his deaires were vehement, and kuidled
into a flame, which ia the case of yet fewer.
The smoke of the incenae will net rise to
heaven, unlesa it be kindled on the altar ;
and hence it ia that a great part of our pray
era vanish like an empty sound, and are dia.
aipated in the air. Nor is it wonderful, as
we have elsewhere observed, that theae peti
tions do net ascend which hardly go out,
that ge not forth from the depth of the breast,
and therefere they rise not on high, but are
born and die upon tbe lips. And how should
they live when they have no principle of life,
neither the constancy of faith nor the love of
zeal ? And if he who asks timoroualy, sa
much more he that aaka with cold indiffer
ence, may aeem to bespeak a denial.
It ia not the much speaking and the vain
repetition condemned in tbe gospel, to re
double the same worda again and again, pro
vided it be not from want of care and affec
tion, but if, on the contrary, it proceed from
tbe vehemence and exuberance of it. The
great Apostle tella us, ihat he besought the
Lord thrice ; and the Lord of ihe Apostle,
and our Lord, prayed in the garden again
and' again, speaking the same words.
He that pours out his werds, inattentive to
what he is about, aeems to me te pray long,
if he utters but two sentences ; though his
words be ever se few and well chosen, yet
is he himself foolish and verbose. For what
can be mere feobah than the empty noiae
even of the best worda, when they express
nothing of the mind ? But he who conti
nues long in prayer, and urges the sarae peti
tiona again and again, bursting out frera the
fervour of an inflamed breast, he, truly,
prays in a vivid and solid manner, and in a
manner most acceptable to God ; and what
Fabius saya of hia orator, may, with great
propriety, be applied te him : Pectus est,
quod disertum facit, et vis mentis — It ia the
heart, and ihe energy ofthe mind, that makes
a raan truly eloquent.
Hear me, ] The great Author of natura
and ef all things, doea nothing in vain ; he
inatituted -not this law, and, if I may ao ex
preaa it, art of' praying, as a vain and insig-

e(!2

MEDITATIONS

vnn. 2.

nificant thing, but endows it with a wonder
ful efficacy, fer producing the greateat and
happieat conaequences. He weuld have it
to be the key by which all the treaaurea of
heaven should be opened ; he has construct.
ed it as a powerful machine, by which we
may, with easy and pleasant labour, remove
frem us the mest dire and unhappy machi-
nationa ef eur enemy, and may with equal
eaae draw to ouraelvea what is most propi-
tieua and advantageoua. Heaven and earth,
and all the eleraents, obey and minister to the
hands which are eften lifted up to heaven in
earneat prayer. Yea, all the works, and,
which ia yet raore and greater, all the werds
of God obey it. Well known in the aacred
Scripturea are the examplea of Moaea and
Joahua : and which Jamea (v. 17) particu
larly mentions ef Elijah, whom he expresaly
calla ofioioorxhsi a man subject to like in
firmities with ourselves, that he might illus
trate the admirable force of prayer, by the
common and human weakness of the peraon
by whom it waa offered. And that Chria
tian legion under Antoninua is well knewn
and juatly celebrated, which, for the aingular
ardour and efficacy of its prayera, obtained
the name of xi^xuvoZoXos, the thundering
icgiorij It is true indeed, that our deaires and
bearts are open to God, when our tongues
are entirely silent, and that he has a paternal
regard te all our concerns ; nor de we utter
our petitions to him, as if he were ignorant
or negligent of our necesaitiea and desirea,
for we well know tbat he aeea and beara
every tbing^ravT* t(po^oo xxi rtxvir torxxovti,
It ia also true tbat hia counaela are all fixed
and immoveable ; but it can by no meana be
inferred from tbeae premiaes, that the buai
neaa of prayer ia vain and needleaa ; and if
any ene would repreaent theae things aa
superseding prayer, surely he deceivea bim
self, and by all hia reaaonings would make
out nething, unless it were to convict hira
aelf of a vaat ingratitude to the Divine muni
ficence, and a most ahameful uiiworthinesa
of ao excellent a gift.
Ought not thia intercourse of men with
Ood by prayer to be raost reverently and
gratefully received and cultivated by all,
and numbered araong the chief favoura
ofthe divine, and dignities of the human
nature ? And truly this, as much as any
thing tbat can be imagined, is a lamentable
argument ef the stupidity of man, in thia
fallen state, that auch an honour ia ae little
regarded. Opportunitiea of converaing with
noblea er princea of the earth, are rare and
short ; and if a man of inferior station be
admitted to such a favour, he glories in it,
as if he were raiaed to heaven ; though they
are but images made ef the same clay with
himaelf, and only set upon a basia a little
lligher than the rest : but the liberty of daily

and free converse with the King of heaven
ia neglected for every trifle, and indeed is
counted as nothing, thougb his very aspect
alone fills so many myriada of bleaaed spiritii
above with full and perpetual felicity.
Again, ia it not most reasonable to ac
knowledge, by this apiritual sacrifice ef
prayer, hia infinite pewer and goodneaa, and
that moat providential care by which be
governa all human affairs ? And when our
very being and life depend upen him, and all
the comfort and happineas of life, hew con
gruous is it to exhibit this sign and token of
his holding us by tbe band, and ef our being
borne up by hira ! Again, what sweeter leni.
tive ef all theae miaeries with which moral
life 80 continually abounda, can be invented,
than thia, to pour out all our care and trouble
into his bosom, as that of a most faithful
friend and affectionate father ? Then doea
the good man lay bimself down to sleep with
aweet composure, in the midat ef waves and
storms, when he haa lulled all the care and
sorrows of his heart to sleep, by pouring out
his prayer to God. And, once mere, hew
pleasant is it, that these benefita, which are
of ae great a value both en their own account,
and that ofthe Divine benignity from whence
they come, ahould be delivered into our
banda, marked as it were with thia grateful
inacription, Thai they have been obtained by
prayer !
Hear, O Lord.] It is certain that the
greater part of men, as tbey babble out vain,
languid, and inefficacious prayers, most un.
worthy tbe ear ef the blessed God ; so tbey
seem in seme degree to set a juat eatimate
upon them, neither hoping for any aucceaa
from tbem, nor indeed seeming to be at all
solicitous abeut it, but committing tbem to
the wind, as vain words, which in truth they
are. But far be it from a wise and pious
man, that he should so fooliahly and coldly
trifle in ao serious an affair ; bia prayer has
a certain tendency and acope, at wbich he
airaa with aaaiduoua and repeated deairea,
and doth not only pray that he may pray,
but that be may obtain an answer : and aa he
flrmly believea that it may be obtained, so
he firraly, and conatantly, and eagerly, urges
his petition, that he may not flatter hiniaelf
with an empty hope ; for it cannot be, that
any pioua and reasonable desire should be
directed toward the throne ef God in vain,
since he has been pleaaed to aaaume it among
hia titlea, tbat he is a God hearing prayer.
And certainly, though the good man does not
always obtain tbe very thing that he aska, yet
pure and right petitiona never aacend in vain ;
but be who presenta them, either obtaina the
thing he asks, or receivea, instead of wbat is
pleasing, what ia truly profitable, and, instead
ofthe things that he wishes fer, thoae that are
upon the whole the fitteat and best, and that
in the fitteat and best time : therefere the

VEH. 2. ON PSALM CXXX
vehemence of prayer ia to be attempered with
patience and long-suffering expectation. We
often put ourselves as it were out ef breath
witb the eagerneaa of speaking, and are pre
sently weary, if we do not immediately ob
tain eur request. Our prayera are often like
those of the damsel who danced before Herod,
/ will that thou presently give me this or
that ; whereaa he that prays fervently, urges
this, that God weuld make haate te help
him ; but, in the mean time, aa he believea,
will not make haste, nor will he auffer, if
the delay be ever so long, tbat a apeech like
that of the Impioua king of larael sbould es
cape him — This evil is of the Lord, and
why should I wait for the Lord any longer 9
2 Kings vi. 33.
But O ! how necesaary ia it, that aouls
worshipping so pure a God, sheuld be purged
frem all the earthly dregs of irapure affec.
tiena 1 moat true ia that oracle ef the Paalm.
1st, // / regard iniquity in mj/ heart, the
Lord will not hear my prayer. The handa
muat be washed in innocence before they can
be lifted up to him witb acceptance. Draw
near to God, aaya the apoatle James, and he
will draw near to you ; but in order te thia,
he aubjoina. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners,
and purify your hearts, ye hypocrites, er
ye double-minded, whe are the impurest of
all. Theae thinga we only briefly auggest ;
but I beaeech you, ray dear charge, that ye
embrace this divine study, that you labour
to obtain this aacred art, whicb ia the best
and only way ef being enriched with all the
mest valuable blessings, even thoae of a celea
tial origin and tendency. O think ! it ia
nothing unpleasant, nothing low and con
temptible, to which you are new invited ;
on the contrary, tbat there is nothing more
delightful, nething mere sublime, than to
meditate upon heavenly objects, to converse
with God, and from thence te imbibe a con
tempt of this low and transitory world, to
be raised abeve all perishing enjoyments, and
to taste the prelibations of that celestial life
itself. But how accurately soever the precepta of
thia divine oratory raay be delivered, none
will effectually receive them, unleas they are
taught the skill by God hitaself. We must
pray that we may be able to pray, and draw
aa it were frora that superior academy, that
faculty of pure and pious speech which fliea
as with a swift, ready, and natural motion,
to heaven frem whence it came, and bringa
down with it the meat precious gifts into the
bosom of tbe person tbat utters it ; and, by
the way, it is a most certain truth, that the
greatest bleaaings are much more eaaily ob
tained frem the great God, whe ia ao muni
ficent in his gifta, than others of a meaner
nature ; so that it were an argument of a low
and abject mind, not to ask something noble
nnd excellent : covet earneatly the beat gifts, I

6G3
in thia aense. If we ask only thinga ef a
low and trifling nature, unworthy auch a
giver, he may anawer, aa a prince did,
" Theae are not royal gifta," oa /ixciXixov rt
ioo^cov ! but if we aak thoae things tbat are
moat precioua and valuable — grace and glory,
there will be no room te fear that denial, oux
xv6^uorivov TO Xrnjofox, it is not fit for a man
to receive it. If you who are evil know how
to give good gifts to your children, how much
more your heavenly Father ! Surely he is
goodness itself, and he only givea what is
good; and the better those thinga are that
we aak, the more freely and cheerfully dees
be beatow them ; and you know, Luke, re-
peating the aame speech, expresses it, by say.
ing. He shall give the Holy Spirit to ihem
that ask it i than which nothing more noble
can be either deaired or beatowed.
Ver. 3. If thou. Lord, shouldest mark iniquities,
O Lord, who shall stand t
Among all the virtuea which are neceaaary
te offer up our prayera with acceptance, none
ascend with greater velocity, and rise higher,
than that very humility which causes them,
as it were, to deacend the deepeat of all : nor
ia there any more indubitable argument of
humility, tban a conacience which groans
ander tbe burden of ita own ain and guilt,
among all tbe abyss of calamities, crying ea.
pecially from thia depth. And thua we aes
the Paalmiat, while he involvea all other
evila, how great soever they might be, under
one common title, fixed upon this to expa.
tiate upon it at large. If ihou. Lord, should
est mark iniquities, &c- Thua, if any one
deaire to mount raore readily and mere favour
ably from the depth ef calamity, let him cry
frora this depth of profound huraility, and
plead a penitent aenae ef ain ; for though of
all iraaginable depths, that ef sin be the
raost remote from tbe mest high and raost
holy God, yet tbe depth ofthe humble aoul,
depressed under the weight of sin, is nearest
of all to the deep bowels of Divine mercy ;
so that tbe werds of the Psalmist may not
improperly be accommodated to this, though
in a aenae something different frera thatwhich
in tbeir connexion they bear, deep calls unto
deep ; and, by an harmonious kind of anti-
phony, if I may be allowed the expresaion,
they do meat muaically anawer to each other.
One might have been ready perhapa to
imagine, from the vehemence with which he
begins bia addreaa, and from hia groanings,
as it were, ao thick and ao short, that he was
something of a bold petitioner, that he bad
aome confidence in himaelf; thathe preaum
ed to knock aa it were ao often and ao loud
at the door ef Divine mercy. But what he
here adda plainly shewa, that tbis was far frora
being the case — " Hear me, O Lord, hear
me ; and I urge the requeat, becauae necea
sity preasea urgently upon me. Not that I

6G4

MEDITATIONS

VEn. 3,

iim, or judge myself to be, one whe can raerit
thine aaaiatance ; but tbat I stand in such
need of it, that if it be not granted me, I
roust perish. So far am I frora being, or ap
pearing te myaelf worthy ef thy help, that,
beheld I am overwhelmed with ain more than
with sorrows. It is free mercy that I invoke,
and I beseech thee, that in order te thy hear.
ing the voice of my prayer, thou wouldest net
hearken to the cry of my sins. Wash away the
One, that thou mayeat gracioualy smile upen
the other: for, // thou. Lord, shouldest mark
iniquity, who could stand 9 Intimating,
that if be were drawn out of the other deptha,
yet if hia ains continued unremitted, he could
find no place on which to- stand; yea, if it
were possible for him in that case to fly away,
and hide himself, yet he would rather plunge
himself into theae depths again, and weuld
rather be, as it were, buried and lost in floods
of the greatest calamities, than meet the mere
dreadful flame ef the Divine anger and in
dignation. But thia humble acknowledgment of hia
ewn unworthiness and pollution, is so far
from being inconsistent with the pious con
fidence ef prayer, that it ia not only con
gruoua, but even as it were congenial to 't,
and inaeparable, ao aa to be moat agreeab.e
te that great King whom it addreaaes. Hu
mility and contrition of heart is often thought
by men to be the mark of a low and abject
mind, and, as such, is often deapiaed by them;
but nothing ia more honourable in the sight
of God. "He," says Augustine, "will
bow down his ear, if thou dost not lift up thy
neck."* There is certainly no raore effica
cious method ef supplicating and obtaining
grace, than to do it, if I may ae apeak, sub
forma pauperis, confeaaing and pleading our
poverty. He finda the moat easy access into
the court of heaven, who meets tbe most fre
quent repulses en earth. Nay, if I may so
express myself, the heavenly court sits and
resides in him. The two chief temples and
palacea of the great King are' that r^icayiov,
thrice holy place, in the third heaven, and
the hurable and contrite heart upon earth.
The beat raanner of praying, therefore, ia that
which ia made up of faith, fear, and humili
ty. By the equal libration of these winga,
the soul raounts on high, wbile that of fear
does not sink too low, nor tbat ef confidence
rise too higb.-|- By these we are daily and
hpuily to soar to God ; and care must be
taken that these wings of the soul be net
dragged down by excess, nor scorched by
lust, nor clogged and glued together, as it
were, by cevetousneaa, or any other terrene
and viscid affection. But let ua new a little
more particularly aee what thia confession of
the Prophet was.
* Inclinat aurem Deus, si tu non erigis cervicem.
. t Oratio timida ccelum non attingit, temeraria re-
tillt, et vi sua frangilur. Bernard,

// thou. Lord, shouldest mark iniquity,
O Lord, who could sland ?] An uninstructed
and incautious reader might perhaps ima..
gine, that the Psalmist was here seeking fer
refuge in a crowd, and desirous of sheltering
himself under the common let of human na.
ture ; at least, that be weuld endeaveur to
find aome lew excuae for himaelf, in the men
tion of its univeraal degeneracy. But the
design of the sacred writer is far different
from tbis. He confeaaea, that whatever he,
or any other persen, en a transient and in
attentive glance, raay imagine of hia inne-
cence, yet when the eye of the mind ia di
rected inward in a aerioua and fixed manner,
then be seea the aum and bulk of his sins
to be so immensely great, that he ia even
struck into aatoniahment by it ; so that he
finds himaelf beaet aa it were on every side
with arraed troops, which cut off all poasibi-
lity of escape, otherwise than by flying to
Divine raercy^ and to the freedora ef pardon
ing grace. He perceivea himaelf unable to
bear the examination of an awakened con
acience, exerciaing itaelf in impartial self-re
flection ; and arguing frora thence bow much
less he would be able to endure .the penetra
ting eye and strict scrutiny of the Divine
justice, he criea out, aa it were, in horror and
trembling, under an apprehenaion of it, //
thou. Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, &c.
He aeea himaelf overwhelmed with crimes,
held at bay, as it were, by bia ains on every
aide, which rear around him like se many
savage creaturea juat ready to devour him.
And he that does not see this to be his ewn
case, is either almost blind, or lives abroad,
and never descends into hia own breast.
Gross offences alone atrike the eye of our
fellow creaturea ; but wben we aerioualy con
aider that we bave to do with an all-aeeing
Judge, who looks at once through every
covering, and aees the moat aecret recesaea
ef our hearta ; who considers not only what
may be concealed from men, but even from
ourselves, se as raoat clearly to diacover every
the leaat atain and speck of our inmost soul, •
and whose infinite holiness must also abhor
it, — ia it poaaible that any ene ahould be ao
infatuated, aa, in auch a view, still te retain
a false and foolish conceit ef hia ewn inno.
cence ? It cannet be doubted, that they who
daily and accurately aurvey themselvea and
their own hearta, though they may indeed
eacape many of thoae evila which the genera
lity ef mankind, who live aa it were by chance,
fall into ; yet, in conaequence ef that very
care and atudy, aee ao much the more clearly
tbeir own impurity, and contract a greater
abhorrence of theraaelvea, and a mere reve
rent dread of the Divine judgments. And
it ia certain that the holier any ene is, the
viler will he be in his own eyes ; and I may
also add, the viler he is in his own eyes, thq
more dear, precioua, and honourable will be-

VEn. 3.

ON PSALM CXXX.

600

be in the sight of God. But where is the
heart, yea, I may say, where is the forehead
of the generality of mankind, who boast of
it as if it were aome great matter te be free
from the infamy of the moat atrocioua Crimea ?
Have they not continually the reward of this
their egregious virtue ? "I have net com
mitted murder and robbery. You are not
gibbeted for the food of crows and ravens."*
But they who bring the whole ef their con
duct, their deeds and th'eir worda, the glances
of their eye, and all the inward workings of
their affections, and examine them by the
pure and strait rule of tbe Divine law, so as
to perceive hew many and how great errors
attend every moat cautious day ; and they
who feel bow wavering and weak their faitb
ia, how luke-warm at least, if not how cold.
their piety and charity, how ardent theit leve
of this world still continues, how untamed
the flesh, hew unguarded tbe senses, hew
unbridled the affections, how attentive their
hearts to trifles, while in prayer so light and
so wandering ; they, I aay, whe perceive and
reflect on this, with what poignant grief,
with what overwhelming sbame, must they
be aeized, and how earneatly and hew justly
iviU they cry out. If thou. Lord, shouldest
mark iniquity, who could stand 9
If thou shouldest mark.] If thou ahould
eat inquire and acrutinize, and then should
«st retain and impute ; fer the Hebrew werd
importa both. If theu ahouldeat inquire,
thou wouldest find aomething ef Iniquity
, in the mest righteous of mankind, and when
thou hast found it, if thou shouldest retain
it, and call him to an account for it, he
could by no means free himself of the charge,
or expiate the crime. Inquiring, tbou would
est easily find iniquity ; but he by tbe mest
diligent inquiry, would be able te discover
no ranaom, and therefore will be unable to
atand, wiU have no place on which to set bis
foot, butwiUfallby the irresistible judgments
of thy law, and sentence ef thy justice.
There have been great disputes one way
and another abeut the merit ef good werks ;
but I truly think, they whe have laboriously
engaged in them, bave been very idly, though
very eagerly, employed about nothing ; aiiice
the more aober of the achoelmen themselves
acknowledge there can be ne such thing aa
meriting from the bleaaed God, iu the hu
man, or, to speak mere accurately, in any crea
ted nature whatsoever ; nay, se far from any
poasibility of merit, there can be no room for re
ward any otherwise tban ofthe sovereign plea
aure and gracioua kindness of God. And the
more ancient writera, when they uae the word
merit, mean nothing by it, but a certain cor
relate to that reward, whicii God beth pre
mises and beatowa, of mere grace and benig
nity ; otherwise, in order to constitute what
is properly ciilled merit, many things raust
« Furtum non feci. .Mon pascis in cruce corvos.

concur which no man in bis senaes will pre-
aume te attribute to human works, though
ever so excellent, particularly that the thing
done muat net previoualy be matter of debt,
and muat be entire, er eur own act, unassist
ed by foreign aid ; it must also be perfectly
good, and bear an adequate proportion to the
reward claimed in consequence ef it : if all
these thinga do net concur, the act cannot
poaaibly ariae to merit. Whereaa, I think,
-no one will venture te assert that any one of
these can take place in any human action
whatever. But why should I enlarge here,
when one aingle circumatance overthrows all
tbeae titlea ? The moat righteoua of mankind
would not be able te stand, if hia werks were
weighed in the balance of atrict justice ; bow
much leaa then could they deaerve that im
menae glory whicb ia now in queation ! Nor
ia this only to be denied concerning the un
believer and the sinner, but concerning the
righteoua and pious believer, who is not only
free from all the guilt of hia former impeni-i
tence and rebellion, but endowed with the
gift ef the Spirit. The interrogation here
expreaaes the most vehement negation, and
signifies that no mortal, in whatever degree
he is placed, if he be called te the atrict ex
amination of Divine juatice, without daily
and repeated forgiveneaa, could be able to
keep his atanding, and much leas could be
arise to that glorious height. " That raerit,"
aaya Bernard, "on which my hope reliea, con
aists in theae three things — the love of adop
tion, the truth of the proraiae, and the pewer
of ita performance."* Thia is tbe threefold
cord which cannot be broken.
Vbr, 4, But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou
mayest be feared.
This is the genuine method of divine
grace ; it first demands a mind void of all
confidence in itself, that so it may be filled
with a pure and entire trust in God ; for
though that blind aelf-cenfidence, whicb is
ae natural te us, be flatulent and empty, yet
while it poaaeaaea the mind, it ia, aa it were,
blown up by it, and tbat awelling ahakea off
every thing more aolid, and preventa ita ac-
cess even wben it aeema to aurround ua on
every aide. Yea, it seems that the riches
ahd magnificence of divine grace cannot with
80 rauch decency communicate itaelf, when
it is as it were straitened by tbe receiver ;
for since it is so great as to be able to fill
every thing, it requires a free and ample
«pace, in which to dilate itaelf. He whe, in
the first original of the new-born world,
brought all things out of nothing, acts like
himself in the regeneration and restoration
of mankind to holiness. The Holy Spirit
finda nothing but Tohu va Bohu, nothing
but what ia without form and void; and
• -Vleritum, cui innititiir spes mea, tribus hlsce con-
stat-charilate adoptionis, veritate promissionis, et
potestate rtdditionis.

666

MEDITATIONS

whoever of mankind perceives and acknew
ledgea this to be hia caae, may be aaaured
that the Spirit of God already begina to move
upen him, to impregnate the face of the
abyaa ; and tnen it is said concerning them.
Let there be light, and ihere is Ught, even
that light by which they aee themaelvea un
formed and dark, and destitute of every thing
that is good. It is a great sign of a aoul
beginning to emerge from its misery, to give
up every hope ef emerging from it, except.
that ene whicb arises frem free mercy alone,
and in this sense, it may truly be said, as it
is by the Poet,
JJna salus miseris nullam sperare salutem ,-
** Tl'.e wretched find no safety but despair:"
i. e, in themaelvea, in their own righteoua
ness or innocence, their ewn induatry in
fulfilling the law, or any expiat ion tbey can
make for the breach of it. And what the
Apostle saya of hia ewn danger, may proper
ly enough be applied to a confeaaion of the
soul, preased under the burden of ita ewn
guilt : We had received the sentence of
death in ourselves, thai we might not trust
in ourselves, but in God that raises the
dead. For the exclamation before ua beara
a remarkable reaemblance to that expression,
// ihou. Lord, shouldest mark iniquity, O
Lord, who could stand 9 But ihere is for
giveness with ihee, thai thou mayest be
feared. He that frora justice found not
any ground upen which he might atand,
finds in mercy a place from which he may
rise again ; and this ia the remedy of all eur
grief and diatress, and in thia aense we must
be sick that we may recover, and must die
tbat we may live. Grace exerts its pewer,
where nature and art, and all the excellency
and strength of human nature fail ; ner doea
any soul celebrate the Divine benignity more
signally than those who are snatched as it
were out of the flames, when they are begin
ning te seize them, and being rescued frem
the very jaws of hell, return te life again,
and breathe in the land of the living.
That trite distinction of ain, into raortal
and venial, wbich is ao common ainong the
schoolmen, ia not only vain and deatitute of
all support from the word of Ged, but is in
deed very faulty, and, far frem being itaelf
venial, well deaerves to be exploded as
mortal, for that raalignant infiuence which
it haa upon the morala ef men. If the mest
open danger of the Divine displeasure, and
of eternal death, cannot binder tbe bold race
of raen from rushing on headlong te every
crime,* and breaking all the barriers of duly
which God haa preacribed them, will it net
add great licentiouaneas to all the crowd and
tumult of headstrong deairea, when aome

condemning sentence of the Divine law ?
But what I here oppose is tbia : give me the
holiest man upon earth, the man who of all
othera stands at the remotest distance, beth in
the affections of his mind and conduct of
hia life, frera theae sina which they acknow
ledge aa raortal, willhenotdeeplyfeel hia need
of daily forgiveneaa, from the multiplied pol-
lutiena ef his daily infirmities ? He truly
accounta no sin little, which ia committed
against the great and" ever-bleaaed God, nor
any pardon little, which he knowa to proceed
ftom hia infinite grace. Nor will he promise
hiraaelf the parden of the leaat fault which
he indulges ; ner will he deapair of obtaining
a pardon of the greatest, for which he is
truly penitent. And thia is the law of grace.
The Poet said with a great deal of justice,
" That no ainner is absolved by himself,"*
because he ia aa it were turned informer
againat himaelf; yet in another sense the
sinner ia abaolved by that very aelf-accusa-
tion ; nnd, sorrowing for his sins, ia freed
from the guilt of them ; for it is not by any
meana to be conceived, that any one can
return into favour with God, unless he
return te Ged ; nor that any ene can re.
tum te God, unless he renounce every
ain, whicb if he does, tbey are all entirely
forgiven, and those which he eagerly desires
te cast bebind his back, shall never riae
up to condemn him te his face, before the
tribunal of the Divine justice. Tbia senti.
ment runa through all the evangelical dis-
couraea of the Prophets, by wbich, aa su
many heralds, they call a rebellious people to
return to the allegiance of Ged tbeir supreme
King : Return, ye backsliding children,
and I will heal your backsUdings, Yea,
the very Fountain of Grace, the Lerd ef the
propheta, who is himself the great Author
and Sura of the gospel doctrine, as aoon aa
ever he came forth to publish thia grace, said.
Repent, f'or ihe kingdom of heaven is al
hand. Nor can any raind that is not fallen
into utter madneas and complete diatraction,
dream of a pardon, how ample and glorioua
soever, to be imparted te a sinner that will
not repent or return : nor indeed can it so
much as be wiahed. For, how unworthy
weuld it be of the Divine Majesty and
Wisdom, to throw away such precioua gracea
en those whe ae obstinately despise tbem 1
Bui ihere is forgiveness with him, — apud
ilium ; which ia added with the utmoat pro.
priety. With him there ia a treaaure of
mercy laid up, to be imparted moat freely
and richly to every humble sinner tbat ap
pliea to him for it. Ner is the diapensing
grace in thia way at all inconsistent with
the richea and freedom of it, aince the great-

sins are aaid to be by their own nature, and «st aina and meat aggravated Crimea are ab
in the wbole kind of them, free from the'fl"tely forgiven, without any penalty er
I nne whatsoever impoaed upon the onender ;

* Aud.ix omnia perpeti
Gens humana, rtilt, per vetitum nefas.

* Se indice nemo nocens absolvitur.

VEB. 4-

ON PSALM XXXIL

667

yet on this most reaaonable and happy con. and to us, though guilty, Impunity. And
dition, that they who are thus received into! having thus made peace, that concord might
-r»:_:_. i-...i .v..., J ., . aftef^jrarjs Continue and prevail, he animates
all that partake of this blessed peace, by
hia own new, pure, and divine Spirit, that
they might not only be engaged sincerely to
endeavour diligently to observe the sacred
precepts ef the law, but might love tbem,
and cordially embrace them ; and, en the
other hand, he hath tempered the severity
of tbe law towards all those that are received
into favour, that their diligent, pious, and
affectionate observance of the law, though
not entirely complete, should by our indul.
gent Father be most graciously accepted,
even as if it were perfect ; and ao the honour
of the Divine Legislator is secure among
men, and his peace descends upon tbem ;
and this ia what our text obaervea, There is
forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be
feared. It is well known that tbe fear of God is
coramonly uaed in acripture to signify, not
only the whole ef hia worahip, but all pious
affections whataoever ; and, conaequently,
the whole of true religion. And aome
tranalate the expreaaion here, that ihou
mayest be reverently worshipped ; and it
ia thua used with the greateat propriety. I
apeak of that fear, which ia se far frera
denoting that servile, hostile dread and
terror which some might think of, that, on
tbe contrary, it entirely excludes it, being
properly a reverence tempered with love.
Yet I do not think that we are to exclude
all dread of puniahment and vindictive jus
tice, under the name of a aervile and diain.
genuoua fear ; nay, I apprehend sucb a fear
to be very neceaaary, even te thoae who moat
ardently love, ae long aa tbey live in tbe fleah,
in order to tarae and rein in the petulancy of
it ; yea, love itself places fear as a kind of bit
and bridle to tbe flesh. Paalm cxix. 128.
My flesh trembles for fear of ihee, and I
am afraid of thy judgments. Heb. xii.
28, 29, Let us serve God with reverence
and godly fear ; for our God is a consum
ing fire. This ia the fear wbich is called
the beginning of wisdom, and marked
with other very high titles of honour in tbe
sacred scripture ; without which, we can
neither conceive the beginning of divine wor
ship and true piety, nor puraue the improve
ment of it.
As thia holy and pure fear ia the compend
and aumraary of religion, so this pardon and
free remission of sina is tbe great foundation
and support of that fear and religion. As the
whole human race is defiled witb ain, the
deapair of pardon would entirely drive ua
away from God, and, precluding all waya of
retuming, would plunge the offender head
long into etemal baniahment and eternal
hatred. ith thee is forgiveness, that thoumayesl

the Divine favour, should express their
grateful acknowledgments for it, by love,
obedience, and sanctity of life. Neither is
this forgiveness the less free and gracious,
because Jesus Christ as our Surety and Re
deemer haa paid the price of it, having been
appointed for and destined to this great and
arduoua work by the Father. For, what
does tbat great Father of mercies herein, but,
in order te our complete discharge, by one
certain and ever-te-be-admired way, satisfy
himself of his own, by fastening his only-
begotten Son to the cross ? The repository
of tbis treaaure ia opened, the whole price ia
poured out at once, that great price of re
demption, more precioua than all the treaaurea,
than all ihe mines of gold in the world, or
even the whole world itself. But they who
anxiously debate the point, whether God
could aimply and absolutely pardon sin with
out any price, do but trifle; for, whatever
may be supposed concerning that, who ia
there that will deny that this way ef the sal
vation of men wbich God has chosen, ia ae
full of atupendoua myatery, and so illustrioua,
if I may ao speak, for that trine, and to ua
most benign aapect of wiadom, juatice, and
mercy, tbat nothing can be thought ef more
worthy the Divine Majesty, nothing sweeter,
nothing more munificent with respect to
unworthy man ? So tbat it will appear
Atbanasiua apeaks very prudently when he
saya, " We eught net in thia matter at
much to consider the abaolute pewer of Ged
¦a what is meat advantageous to man, and
what moat worthy the Divine Being."*
It waa fit that our wise Creator should
give us a law, and that law waa beth useful
and pleasant to those who would carefully
observe it ; but when once violated, there
would necessarily arise a fatal enmity be.
tween the law and transgresaora, an enmity
which would continually become pregreaaive,
and gather new atrength in the progresa ;
but as for our obstinacy, wbat is it mete tban
^^os xEVT^x XctxTiZ,tiv, to kick against the
pricks 9 The law is inviolably safe in its
own sanctity, dignity, and immortality ;
but we, by striving against it, what do we
gain but iniquity, diagrace, and death ? Se
that if there were no umpire to interpose,
there would be no hope, but that the whole
human kind should perish. But that bleaa
ed and efficacious Intercessor came frem en
high ; and certainly he was himself a Divine
Person who could compose auch a controver
sy, and wbo, joining by an indissoluble union,
his hifinitely better with eur miaerable and mor
tal nature, did 80, by a moat wonderful method,
render to the lawaU ita accuracy of obedience,
• Owj; ouTus Sti tv TOVTOi TU tr^vyfAXTl TO &rrXus TOU
^tou Suvxtov XoyiitcBxt, us w tois xvlj^uvois XucirtXt
CTl^OV, XXI TXVU yt OfAUS ^tOT^'.TtCTltiOV,

66<)

MEDITATIONS

Ver, 4

be feared ; that men may not dread thee,
and flee thee, as an inexorable judge and
enemy ; but may reverence, love, and serve
thee, as a mild and gracious Lord, aa a most
merciful and loving Father. And thia is
that joyful message of the gespel, to which
ainnera run, aa aeon aa they hear and under.
atand it, prostrating themaelves with all hu
mility at the feet of se mild a Lord, and so
gracious a king. " For no ene," as Ambrose
says, " will think of repenting, but he who
hopea for indulgence."* Thia merciful Ged
calls back to his favour, those that are aa it
were flying from it, saying. Return, ye apo
states and rebels, and I will pardon and
heal your backsUdings, And they, as if their
bowels sounded to the unison note of mercy,
with reciprocal penitence and leve, anawer
Behold we come unto ihee, for ihou art Je
hovah our God. And thia is that which the
great Meaaenger and Author ef eur aalva
tion preached and aet forth ; Repent, saya
he, for the kingdom of heaven is ai hand.
You are not now puraued by wrath and ven
geance, threatening utterly to extirpate yeu
arid cut you off, but the kingdom of heaven,
the dispensation ef love, raercy, and grace,
opena ita bosom te embrace you, and freely
offera you the full pardon of all your former
obatinacy and rebellion. Behold the com
paaaionate father meeting that prodigal sen
which has ao basely run frora him, while yet
afar eff, en hia return ; and inatead of chid
ing and upbraiding bim, burying aa it were
not only all hia aina, but even his very con.
feaaion, as in a deluge of leve, amidst the
tenderest embraces, kisses and tears. Make
me io hear, saya David, the voice of joy and
gladness, thai ihe bones which thou hast
broken may rejoice. By that lamentable
fiiU, he had aa it were daahed himself againat
tbe reck of divine juatice, ao that all his
bones were broken ; but what a voice of joy
and gladness ia that which ahould reatore
full aoundneaa and atrength to bonea which
had aa it were been cruahed and ahattered to
pieces ! Surely it is no other voice than that
so often uaed by our Saviour in the goapel.
Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven
thee. That waa the grace, aofter than oil,
sweeter than roses, which flowed from his
iips into the sinner's wounds, and beingpour-
ed into the contrite heart, not only heals but
blessea it, yea, and marks it out for eternal
bleasedness. But, alas 1 the greater part of
sinners aleep in their miaery, and though
their distempers are mortal, feel them net.
It is therefore ne great wonder that thia
grace, thia precious, this invaluable remedy,
ia deapiaed by tbem. But O ! how aweet
ia the voice of pardon to a aoul groaning
under the burden of ain I

• Nemo medit.ibitur pienilentiam. nisi qui spera
verit indulgenliara.

— —  Qualepcr tBstum
Vulcis aqiUB saliente situm restin(;uere rivo.
"Sweet as the living stream to summer thirst."
But, aa ene well expreaaea it, " He that baa
never known diacomfert, knows not what cen.
solation meana. Men ef this world, entan.
gled in the cares of life, and in ita crimes, in
sensible of misery, attend not te mercy."*
But if any who imagine themselves partakers
ef this forgiveness do not at the same time
feel their hearta atruck with a pioua fear of
the Divine Majeaty, let them know that their
joys are self-invented dreams, since it is for
this very end that there is forgiveness with
God, even that he may be feared.
In the remainder of this Psalm the autho*
asserts hia confidence in Ged, and labours to
confirm and establish that ef all trpebelievera
Ner. 5. 1 wait for the Lord, my soul dolh wait, and
in his word do I hcpe.
6. My soul waiteth forthe Lord, more than they
that watch for the moming : I say, more than
they that watch for the morning.
7, Let Israel hope in the Lord ; for with the Lord
there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemp
tion.
8. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
/ wait for ihe Lord, ] Witb thee ia mercy.
They wbo heartily believe thi^, are drawn by
that aweet and amiable force, and desire to
be partakers of it. And certainly there is no
true faith in the doctrine of salvation, imlesa it
be attended with this magnetic force, by
which it draws tbe soul to God. One would
think it would be impoaaible, where this ef
fect ia not produced, that there ahould be so
much aa an hiatorical faith ; and, aurely, it
ia contrary te, and inconaiatent with, the ra-
tional nature, to aee se desirable and excel.
lent a geod laid down as it were before ua,
and freely effered, without running meal
freely te embrace it, witb open arms and an
ardent impetueaity of soul.
The faitb, therefore, of vulgar and merely
nominal Christians, ia quite dead, and de-
serves not the name of faith at all. I mean
that which is not sufficient to excite them
earnestly te desire aud expect that divine
grace wbich they aay they believe. True and
lively faith ia the eye of the inner man, which
beholds an infinitely amiable Ged, the lucid
and perpetual fountain of grace, and by tbe
view is immediately kindled into most fer
vent love. That divine light which ia aent
from heaven into the seul, ia the vehicle of
heat toe, and by its ardent rays, presently
aeta tbe heart on fire ; the flame rises su
blime, and beara all the affectiona ef the
mind with it, to tbat consummate beauty
whicb it renders visible.
When a philoaopher waa asked, why that
which ia fair attracta our love ? he anawer
ed, " It is the queation of a blind man,"
* Quisquis autem desolationem non novit, nee con
solationem agnoscere potest. Homines seculi negotiis
et flagitiis implicati, dum miseriam non senliunl.
misericordiam non attendunt Bern,

VER. 5, &c.

ON PSALM XXXII,

669

Tu^pxou tgoiTti/ix, Well then might the Psal
mist, when he has beeu contemplating the
Divine goodness, repreaent himself aa quite
tranaported with ita charraa, q. d. " It ia ne
thing earthly, nothing mortal, that is the
object of ray wish ; my soul hangs on the
Lord alone ; it thirsts for ihee, and till it
arrives at the enjoyment of thee, it will atill
be waiting. Haaten, Lerd, teaupport andcem-
fort me, for I am sick with love ; nor is there
any thing in heaven or earth besides thee, O
Lord, which can aatiate or delight this soul
of mine, pierced through aa it were with thia
sacred paasion. And thougb I am, and feel
myself to be, most unworthy of loving thee, or
of hoping ever to enjoy thee, yet my mean.
neaa and vileneaa, even when compared with
thine immenae majeaty and aublimity, do not
deter me so much aa thy boundless cle
mency and goodness, added te thy truth,
while I have thy word of promise before
mine eyes for my support, sustains me, and
animates my courage ; therefere, while my
love and deaire are raoat ardent, I will, never
theleaa, expect and wait with inward pati
ence and peraeverance. And though a heart
which lovea like raine, raust find a delay
grievous, yet unahaken hope ahall alleviate
that aickneaa of the soul. Just as ihey that
watch for the morning, however they may
be afflicted with the darkness and coldness
of the night, are constantly supported with
the assured hope that the dawn will come,
and tbe day arise in all its glory."
Nor does the Paalraiat envy othera their
share in theae felicities whicb arise frora leve
and hope ; on the contrary, with a cheerful
and liberal mind, he invites all to this im
menae ocean ef richea, not ahut up, but free
to all ; Lei Israel hope in the Lord. And,
lest the confluence of such vaat numbera
should auggest any fears of straitness and
want, he confidently declares that there is
wealth enough, and more than enough, te
supply all their necessities ; for with ihe
Lord, says he, ihere is mercy, and with him
plenteous redemption ; grace rich and co
pious enough te support all sinners, and to
forgive all sins, and all that apply to it shall
infallibly find that he redeems larael frora
all hia iniquitiea. The eye of faith is by no
meana evil, but bright and sparkling with
unbounded charity ; it wishes all good to all,
and, above all, wishes them a beatific union
with the Supreme and Infinite Good. As
in that kingdom of glory there is no malig.

nity, no envy, becauae there can be no atrait.
neaa, but according to that emphatical say
ing ef eur bleased Saviour, There are many
mansions, there is boundleaa apace, and the
seats of pious soula are not marked out in
any narrow boundarlea, but in an ample
court ; ae even in the previoua kingdom and
banquet of grace, our heavenly Father's house
ia magnificent, both on account of its am
plitude, and the rich provision which it con
tains. Let me beseech yeu, therefore, strictly to
examine your own soula, inquire what it is
that they chiefly wish, hope, and desire ;
whether they give chace aa it were to every
painted fly ; whether, forsaking the foun
tain of living waters, tbey are digging for
themselves cisterna of clay, and theae leaky
tee, with great and unprofitable labour. O !
wretched deceitfulneaa of every earthly hope,
which mocka and deludes us so much the
raore in proportion to the extravagance of its
promiaea. Bleased are thej', and only they,
who fix their eyes and their aouls above, and
aay, with the Paalmiat, Lord, I wait on
thee, my soul does wait, and in thy word do
I trust ; and aa elaewhere. And now. Lord,
what wait I for 9 my hope is in thee.
Happy they wbo have quitted all thoae low
deaires and pursuits, which are unworthy of
a generous and imraortal spirit, and have
fixed their love on one; whose heart and
hopes are set upon that ene, in whom all
things excellent meet and centre. A cheer.
ful joy alwaya shinea on their face ; nor do
their cheeka glow with the ahame of repulse
and diaappointment. While we are wander.
ing hither and thither, in the vicioua and
perplexed>pur8uit of flattering objecta, what
frequent lamentation, what fond complaint
of delusive fortune, and that tragical outcry,
ICO, 101, TpxufjoxTv bi':orcaiuvoiv, of grlcvous and
painful wounds ; what crowds ef feara and
carea divide the mind, and hurry it now one
way, and now another I But when we flx
our hope and our heart on the only support,
on the only true and all-aufficient good, all
ia aafe, ana tiic aoul treada firm, aa it were,
while the whole globe tremblea. Let exter
nal things be borne thia way or that, there is
peace within ; nor when all methods bave
been examined, can any ether be found for
the establiahment ef the raind, than that it
sbould lay all its stress upon the ene imraove.
able and immutable Reck.

SERMON, PREACHED TO
THE CLERGY.

SERMON, &c.

2 Cor. v. 20.

Now then tee are amha,ssadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by
us ; lee pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God,

" It is appointed unto all men once to die,
and after that to come to judgment," aaith
the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Two sad neceaaitiea to sinful man. This
laat, nature's light diacovera not ; but the
other, though it be seldom deep iu our
thoughts, is almoat always before eur eyes :
and though few seriously reraember it, yet
none can be ignorant of it. ' Against tbis
known and univeraal evil, the chief of the
heathen moralists, the Stoics, have much en.
deavoured to arm themselves ; and othera
bave bent tbe strength ef tbeir wits to maater
/he fear of death, and have made themselves
and some of their hearers conquerora in ira
agination : but when the king of terrora
really appeared, he dashed their ateut rese-
lutiena, and tumed all their big worda and
looks into appalment. And the truth ia,
there are ne reaaonings in the world able te
argue a man into a willingness to part with
a present being, without some hopes at leaat
«f one more happy ; nor will any contented
ly dislodge, fhough they dwell never ao
meanly, except upon terms of changing foj
the better. The Chriatian tlien (not nomi
nal, but really se) ia the only man tbat can
-look death immediately in the face ; for he
¦knows assuredly that he shall remove to " a
house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens-*' This discourse beginning this chapter,
occasioned by tbe end of the former, continues
to tbe I2th verse, where the apostle subjoins
an apology for his high and confident man.
ner of speaking ; which apology servea like
wiae for a very pertinent re-entry to the main
diacourae of the former chapter, concerning
the worth and work of the ministry. But

because of the apostle's frequent, yet sea.
sonable digresaiona, pjoleptic and exegetic,
divera may medel the analysis after divers
manners. Te take then th.e diacourae aa it liea here
together, abatract-from precedent and conae-
quent, I think (with subraisaion) it may be
divided into these two heads : first. The
apostle's resolution for death ; secondly,
flis courae and manner of life : each aup
ported with their proper grounds, or reaaons :
tbe former to ver. 9, the other to tbe end of
the chapter.
The resolution ia ao strong, that he ex.
preaaea it by the worda of earnest desiring
and groaning; and thia reaolution for death,
apringa frora hia asaurance of life after
death. " We know .that, if our earthly
houae of this tabernacle were dissolved, we
have a building of God, not raade with
handa, etemal in the heavena." He speaks
in his own and his colleagues' naraes : and
the whole matter of both is set forth by an
elegant, centinued metaphor. Both the de
aire and the assurance causing it are illus
trated by their chief cause, ver. 5, " New
he that hath wrought us for the aelf.aame
thing ia Ged, who also hath given unto us
the earnest of the Spirit." Both in his gra
cioua purpose for fhisj hath he raade us, and
in a pledge of performance he hath given us
earnest, even his Spirit. Tben by their
subordinate cause, faith ; ver. "J, " For we
walk by faith, net by sight." His course
and purjiose ; for he beth signifieth whar
he doth, and how he intends te continue t«
,do. Hia courae and purpose of life are, in ge
neral, to walk acceptably in tbis abaence

074

A SERMON

ftom the Lord : ver. 9, " Wherefore we
labour, that whether preaent or absent, we
may be accepted of hira." And in particu
lar, walking diligently and faithfully in the
miniatry, vers- 11 — 18, "Knowing, there
fore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade
men ; but we are made manifest unto God,
and I trust alao are made manifeat in your
conaciencea," &c. One reaaon of thia ceurse
and purpoae ia implied in that illative (^lO)
which knits this part with the former. And
indeed, a good frame of life hath a inoat
neceaaary connexion with a strong resolution
for death and assurance of life eternal ; and
they mutually cauae one another. That a
pioua life givea strength againat death, and
hope of eternal life, none will deny : nor is
it lesa true, that that assurance animates and
stirs up to obedience ; se tar is it from
cauaing sloth, that it is tbe only spur to ac
ceptable walking, *' We are confident,** aaith
he, ver. 8 ; " wherefore we labour to be ac
cepted," ver, 9-
Thia purpose is further backed with a
double reason, viz. of two pioua affectiona :
the one of fear, ver. II, ** Knowing there
fore the terror of tbe Lord,*' &c. ; the other
of love, ver. 1 4, " For the love of Christ
constraineth ua," &c. That of fear, ariaing
from the conaideration of the judgment-aeat
of Christ ; that of love, from the thoughta
of hia death ; ver. 14, " For that leve of
God conatraineth ua, becauae we thus judge,
that if one died for all, then were all dead.
And he died fer all, that they which live,
ahould net henceforth live unte themaelves,
but unte him who died for thera, and roae
again." Theae are the reaaona tbat atir up
this erainent apoatle to a atudy of acceptable
walking in all thinga, eapeciaUy in his
special calling, the rainistry ef reconciliation :
approving hiraaelf therein to hia God, and
aa much as raay be te the consciences ef the
peeple ; saying and doing all thinga with
intention of bia glory and their good ; free
from vain.glory ; not apeaking for him self, no,
nor living te hiraaelf; but to Him tbat died
for him, and roae again. Not poaaeaaed with
carnal reapecta touching hiraself or others ;
no, nor entertaining carnal conaiderationa of
Chriat hiraself, aa being aacended, and
therefore te be conaidered and conversed with
after a new manner (spiritually) by all tbeae
that are new creaturea in him, and reconciled
to God by him, through tbe ministry of the
word of reconciliation ; which reconciliation !
God hiraself hath thua affected, " He hath
made hira to be ain for ua, who knew no
sin ; that we raight be made the righteous
neaa of Ged in him." Who knew no ain
practically, knew none ; altogether ftee frem
sin, not only from commisaion and consent,
but frera the very first and leaat motiona of
sin. And, indeed, none was thus fit to be
made ain, but one who knew none, au im.

maculate Larab. " Jl^de hira te be sin ;"
net by conatraint, not beside his knowledge
and consent. The Heathena observed, that
their aacrifices were auccessleas and unhappy
when the beasts came unwillingly to the
altar. We need net fear in this point ;
our blesaed sacrifice, wbo was also priest
and altar, offered up himself cheerfully.
" Then aaid he, Le, I ceme te do thy will,"
Heb. X. 7- " And I lay down ray life,"
aaith the good ahepherd, .lobn x, 11. "To
be sin ;" not only te take the aimilitude of
sinful flesh, becoming man for man's sake,
and to be " numbered with transgressors,"
as the prophet speaks, Isaiah liii. 12, " and
te bear the sin of many," but the imputed
guilt and inflicted punishment of sin; and
these sina ef many made him imputatively
an exceedingly great ainner, and therefore
said te have been " made sin," by reason
of tbis imputation ; whereupon followed his
suffering as a sacrifice. And I conceive,
that the reason why the word that in the
firat language signifiea ain, ia aometimea
taken for the sacrifice, ia, because the con.
fessed sins were, as it were, tranaferred and
laid upen the heada of tbe legal aacrificea ;
and 80 aaith the prophet, " The Lord hath
laid en him the iniquity ef us all," laaiah
liii. 6. He waa then made sin, primarily
by imputation of, and conaequently by
auffering for, our sins, as our expiatory aa
crifice. " He made him ain for us," in our
stead, and for eur good ; to-wit, eur redemp
tion, as follows, " that we might be made,"
or become, yivoftivoi ; but be it made, yivoi-
fjii6bi, itia no otherwiae than Christ was made
sin imputatively : and if this inference need
help, each word that follows will confirm
it. Righteousnesa, not righteoua ; te ahew
the perfection of it, not te urge ita unity.
Righteousness, not righteouanesses ; as inti-
mating that it is but one righteousness,
whereby we are all juatified of Ged ; not
our own ; in hira, net in ouraelves. All
which makes it clear, as it were written with
the sun-beams, that by the most gracious
exchange, as he took our sins, he bath given
us his righteousness. It ia true, this ia
always accompanied with holiness inherent,
but imperfect; By that imputed righteous-
ness, the apouae ef Christ is clear aa tbe aun,
all luminous ; but in regard of infuaed righ
teouaneaa, ahe ia only fair aa the moon ;
but tbe ene half light, and that appearing
unequally tee, waxing and waning, and hav
ing spots at its fulneaa here below. She is
holy in thia regard, but righteouaness in the
other righteouaneaa ef Ged ; his by appoint
ing, his by gift and application, and his by
acceptance of God in him ; that is, ita being
in him who ia called " the Lord our righte
ouaneaa ;" in him, in whom the Father ac-
quiesceth, and is well pleased : " Blessed are
they that trust in him."

TO THE CLERGY.

675

But to the former, ver. 20, " Now tben
we are ambassadors for Christ, as though
God did beseech you by us ; we pray yeu in
Chriat'a stead, be ye reconciled unto God.**
Here we bave all the parties requiaite in the
treaty of reconciliation ; Ged, though offend
ed, aeeking peace with men, his creatures,
and by sin become rebels (" as though God
beseeched you") ; Chriat, the only procurer,
and likewiae the chief arab.issador of this
peace ; and then, laatly, have we the aub-
delegated meaaengera of thia peace, " We,
as ambasaadors for Christ." We, the apos
tles and all the miniatera of the gespel : for
as in their singularities and exfraordinariea
they had ne successors, for that ia repugnant ;
so in theae things wherein they have succes
sors, all true ministera of tbe word are audi
The apoatle himaelf calls thia embaasy " the
ministry of reconciliation ;" ver. 18, "And
all thinga are of God, who hath reconciled us
to himaelf by Jesus Christ, and given to us
the word of reconciliation." Ambasaadora
for Christ, that is, in his stead. In thia
verse we have the office ef the rainistry under
the name of arabassadors ; and their meaaage,
the delivery whereof is the execution of
their office, entreaty of men to be reconciled
to God. Both the office and raeaaage backed
with due authority or warrant : the office's
warrant is, we are ambaaaaders for Chriat,
er in hia atead, that ia, aubordinate to h im
by his ewn ordination ; the warrant of the
message is God'a own will that aent them,
for it is his mind to beseech yeu by us. But
to resume the first division, whereof each of
its two parts will afford a suitable propoai
tion ; and upon these two propositiona I
shall insist in what remaina to be said.
The first propoaition ia this, from the
oflice ; ministera ef the gospel are true am-
oaasadora under Chriat frora Ged to man.
Aa aoon as man had divested himself of
God's image, hia shameful nakedneaa made
him run into tbe thickets ; nor could he ever
aince then look his Maker directly in the face,
nor endure te hear hia immediate voice : there
fore when God himaelf would come and dwell
among raen, bevelled his Deity with huraan
flesh ; there he stood behind the wall, and
shewed himself through the trellises. " Let
ua not hear again the voice, nor let us aee
this great fire any more, that we die net,"
said the people at Horeb ; and the Lerd,
that knew their mould, aaid, " they have
aaid lyell : I will raise them up a prophet,''
said God, " from among their brethren, like
unto thee;" and he did so. A a he came
for man'a good, ao for the same end went he
away again : " It ia expedient fer you," aaith
Jesua, " that I go away," John xvi. 7-
And since that time he bath continued to
aend unto men, men yet liker themselvea
than he waa ; men subject to like infirmities,
sin net excepted. " Even as my Father

sent mo, ao send I you," aaith be, John xx. 21.
But the loss in this change were intolerable,
did he not allay it somewhat by sending bis
Spirit upon those men whom he aenda to
men: "If I depart, I will aend him unto
you," saith he, John xvi. 7. Ho ia gone in
deed, aa was neceasary ; but being ascended,
lie caused gifts to deacend upon men: " Some
ho gave to be apostles, aomeprophets, and aome
evangelists, and some pastors and teachera ;
all for the work of tho ministry, and that for
the perfecting the saints, and the edifying ef
hia body," Eph. iv. 11, 12.
Thus, then, Ged treats with man in a hu
man way, draws not his own to him by im
mediate revelations, nor rejects he the rest
by express words from heaven : but while he
sends his ambassadors indifferently te both,
works differently in them. And the admira
ble variety of effects of the same message,
after the same manner, and at the aame time
delivered, de not a little set forth and com
mend that same TroXvTrotKtXos (Tocjita tou
®£0V, "manifold wisdom of God:" that his
-word should melt the hearta of some, and more
violently break the hearts of others; harden
and blind some, mollify and enlighten others;
convince those whom yet it converts not, and
hy its majesty, (though in the moutha of
simple men,) it should bridle and restrain
many of all ranks whom it renews not;
moulding and framing them to an external
conformity and square carriage, whereby tho
world, and the church of Ged in it especially,
is much advantaged.
And the lustre of all theae effects is ex
ceedingly set off by the quality of the mes
sengers, being but to the world's eye con
temptible men. But had it not been more
congruous to tbe grandeur of thia great King,
te have aent angels, hia miniatering apirita,.
te be the miniatera of the word ? Had he not
better have uaed tbeae precious veaaela for
hia chief trea.sure, than to have concredited
it to veaaela of earth, net te aay te diacredit
it by so doing ? No, his thoughts are not as
ours ; yea, they are farthest above ours when
they seera to be farthest below them. And
if we look again, we shall find it more glori
oua to have conquered ao many kingdoras,
and brought them te our King, the Lord
Jeaus, by the preaching of a few fishermen,
and such like, than if he had dene it by
those active apirita. The meanneaa of the
raeana, raises exceedingly the glory of the
Sovereign's cauae. Thua we aee how the
sending of raen in this embassy was requi.
site fer the frailty of man, and how well it
suits with the glory ef God.
APPLICATION.
Hence may be deduced some necessary
things for all in general, something in par.

678

A SERMON

ticular for these ambassadors, and something
fbr those to whom tbey are sent.
1. First, it may persuade all to entertain
more respectful thoughts ef this function
than most raen do. Seme apeak out their
disrespect ; othera, though not expreaaing it
in worda, have it lurking in their breaata,
and appearing in their practicea. Te inatance
in one error or two that raany labour under,
springing evidently frem a lew esteem of thia
calling : Are there net divers pretenders to
it, who being (and poasibly finding thera
selves) inaufficient fer all other eraployraenta,
have recourae to thia, making no doubt of
their sufficiencv for it ? Yea, such there are
too many ; their worldly friends being guilty
either of begetting in them, or of fomenting
thia preaumption. On the ether aide, are
there not othera, who having aome advantage
of outward rank, or inward endowraenta,
would think themselves, and be thought by
those that have interest in them, to be ex
ceedingly disparaged if this calling were men.
tioned to them ; and would ceunt it a great
abasing, yea, a lesing of themselvea, to em.
brace it ?
Againat theae two gross miatakea, may
very appositely be opposed thia ; " We are
ambaasadors for Chriat ;" from which ex
preaaion it ia meat evident, tbat the miniatry
both requires the best and ablest, and de.
•erves them ; that the refuse and abjects of
men cannot be worthy of it, nor it unworthy
ofthe choicest. It requires able men, because
they are te be ambassadors ; and this will
follow ef itself. Again, consider whose am
baaaadors, and in what buainess, — the am
bassadors of the King ef kings, in the weighty
matter ef treating peace betwixt bim and
mankind. Shall it be said of bis ambas
.sadors, as Cato said to those who were aent
by the Romana te Bithynia, counting three
wants that were amongst them, viz. that they
had neither feet, ner head, nor heart ?
Itis true, God may (and aoraetiraes, especi.
ally in extraordinary tiraes) make uae of un
lettered and low-qualified men ; but tben be
inlaya their defects by singular aupply ; there.
fore that ia no rule for ua in the ordinary vo.
cation. It is a piece of God'a prerogative te
uae unlikely meana without diaadvantage ;
any thing ia a fit inatrument in hia bands ;
but we are to chooae the fitteat and best raeanS;
beth in our own affairs, and in his service ;
and if in any, this eminent service ef em
bassy requires a special choice. If bodily
integrity was requisite in tbe servera at the
altar under the law, shall we think that the
mentally blind and lame are good enough
for tbe miniatration under the gespel, which
exceeds in worth and glory ? Who is suf
ficient for these thinga ? saith the great
doctor ofthe Gentiles. Our practice seema
to answer, Any body. And it ia obacrvable,
that carclessneaa in thia kind is usually tbe

companion of falae worship, and too much
care of decking, trimming, and making gay
tbe externals of it. It is said ef Jeroboam,
that he made high places, but priests ofthe
lowest of tbe peeple. As he said of " golden
cups and wooden priests," we may say of
that church which values them se much, 
they are well looked to, neatly adorned, but
their priests highly ignorant. This function
requires able men, being a weighty charge ;
and is worthy of thera, being highly honour.
able ; and, doubtieaa, there is egregious pro.
faneness in the contrary thoughts. The
Heathen can style thoae stonea mere happy
than common ones, that are choaen for the
building of temnlea ; and araong thoae, the
altar.stenes are happiest. And shall net we
account truly happy, these living stonea that
are hewn out fer God'a building, and chiefly
(ao to speak) the altar-stones, the messengers
ef peace ? What can be more honourable
tban to serve the highest Lord in the chief.
est functions ef hia house ? How ought we
to account of an ambasaador's place, when
king David eateemed so highly ef a door
keeper's office in thia King'a court ?
2. We are ambassadors. Thia may cor
rect another error in the werld, though ac
counted by thoae that entertain it, a choice
piece of policy for God. It la thia : tbe mi
nistry being ao mean a thing in the world's
eye, and ao obnoxious to contempt, it ia ex
pedient te be raised and brought into credit
by annexed exceaaive dignitiea, high titles
of honour, and suitable revenues. It is true,
that penury and want of competencies in tem
porals, in thoae that bring an etemal treasure,
argues base ingratitude, and is moat unworthy
ef well-constituted churches ; but where the
remedy exceeds too far, it becoraea worse than
the disease, being compounded of camal pru
dence and arabition, both ef which are enmity
to God. And this I take te have been one
of Germany's provoking sins, and Rome's
predorainant ain. For theae incongruoua
honoura, te speak it in a word, raiaing aome
from contempt, teach them to contemn and
insult over their brethren ; to say nothing ef
their affronting of higher quality, yea, of
princes and kings themselves, while they
pretend te be the only supporters of their
crowna. And if thia their inaolency in ad-
vancement devolve them back again into con.
tempt, and their honour become their shame,
they may thank themselves for it. Their
Master taught them another method of at.
taining due esteem : he bath given honour
enough to those whom he hatli made his am.
bassadors ; and if men contemn this, he
takes tbe indignity aa done to himaelf, and
he ia able enough tovindicatehia own honour.
Let men eateem ef ua aa the rainiatera of
Chriat ; here is all the esteem that St. Paul
requirea, and they are unworthy of this that
are not content with it. Tbeir best way is.

TO THE CLERGY.

67-

wbom God employs, to study hia glory, and he
will not fail to honour thoae who honour him.
And this leada me fitly in frora the con
v)ction ef theae comraon errora, to a word ef
particular exhortation to tbeae ambasaadors,
from tbe nature of their calling se expreaaed.
And it binda upon thera chiefly theae four
dudes: I. piety; 2. prudence; 3. fidelity;
4. magnanimity. Firat, piety in two steps
or degrees : first, to see that they be friends
with God ; secondly, to labour to be inward
with him. Firat, to aee that they be friends
witb God ; fer it no way suits that they be
ambasaadors fer reconciliation, whe are not
themselves reconciled : it is certain auch will
move both coldly and auccessleaaly in the work
What He can do extraordinarily, wbo doth
always wbat he wills in heaven and earth, we
question not. He can convey grace by tbem
to whom he gives none ; he can cauae them
to carry this treasure, and have no ahare in
it ; carry the letter, and not know what ia in
it ; and make them, se to apeak, equivocal
causes of converaion.
Bnt uaually he converta thoae whom he
makes the happy atrengtheners of their bre
thren. We think, that they who savingly
know not Christ, sheuld net be fit te raake
other men acquainted with him. He that
can tell men what Ged hath dene for bis aoul,
ia the likelieat to bring their aoula te Ged :
hardly can he apeak te tbe heart, that speaks
not frem it. Si vis me flere, &c. Before
tbe cock crews to others, he claps his winga,
and rouaes up hiraaelf. How can a frozen-
hearted preacher warra his hearera* hearts,
and enkindle them with the love of God ?
But he whom the love of Chriat conatraina,
hia lively recoraraendations of Chriat, and
apeeches ef love, ahall aweetly constrain ethers
to love him. Above all loves, it is most true
of thia, that none can speak senaibly of it but
thoae that have felt it. Our moat exquiaite
pulpit oratera, yea, apeak they with the
tonguea of men and of angela, without the
experience ef hia leve, are not fit ambassadors
fer Chriat ; for hia embaaay ia a leve-treaty
Such m.en are but sounding braaa, and tink.
ling cymbala ; the aublimeat and best con
trived of their diacouraes, glow-worm like, or
as those foolish fires, may have some light
with them ; heat they have none. When a
man speaks of reconciliation and happiness,
as if he had some interest therein himself;
when his werds are animated with affection ;
as he is likely to beget seme affection where
there ia none, so a pioua hearer that ia already
gamed to Christ, finds the embassy drawing
hhn effectually nearer heaven ; blowing tbat
divine fire that is within him, and causing it
to mount upwards. '* As in water, face an.
swereth to face ; so doth the heart of man to
man," aaith the wise raan, Prov. xxvii. 19.
There is a certain peculiar sympathy and
sweet correspondence betwixt souls that lodge

the same spirit ; those that are united to the
same head, Christ, by reconciliation, find
their bearts agreed, and they relish the dis.
courses one of another. Thus important is
it every way, beth for begetting and strength.
eni!^ of grace, that theambaaaador thereof be
a reconciled person. Aa he muat see that he
be friends with God, se he must also labour
to be inward with God ; for though the em-,
baasy be the aame in great part in the mouths
ef all God's ambasaadora, yet there ia a world
of mysterious particulara contained in it, and
they raeet with many intricate pieces in their
particular treatiea with men'a consciences ;
and in these know they the will of the King
their Blaster, more er less clearly, according
as they are raere or less intiraate with him
How knew divine Moaes so much of the
Lerd's will, but by much converse with him ?
Theae arabaaaadera, te the end that they raay
do se, muat labour for integrity. Hia secret
is with the righteous. For humility — ^he is
farailiar indeed with the lowly ; he takes up
house with them : " With auch a one will
I dwell, saith the Lord." God's choice ac.
quaintance are humble men. For tbe apirit
ef meekness ; he we named was eminent in
thia, and ao in familiarity with hia God.
Chriat aingularly loves the raeek and lowly,
they are so like himself One thing they
muat mainly take heed ef, if they aapire to a
hely familiarity with God — earthly.minded.
neaa. If no aervant of the god ef mammon
can aerve thia God in point of common er.
vice, bow much less can he be fit for Such
an eminent employment as an embaaay, and
enjoy intimacy requiaite for that employment?
Theae meaaengera ahould come near the life
of angela, alwaya beholding the face ef the
Father ef Lighta ; but if their affectiona be
engaged to the world, their facea will atill be
that way. Fly high they may aometimea, in
aome speculations ef their own ; but, like the
eagle, for all their soaring, their eye will still
be upon some prey, some carrion here be.
low- Upright, meek, hurable, and heavenly
minds, then, muat the arabaaaadera of this
great King have, and ao obtain hia intimacy :
mounting upon thoae winga of prayer and
meditation, and having the eye of faith up.
wards. Thus shall they learn raore ef hia
choiceat mysteries in one hour, than by many
days poring upon casuists, and schoolmen,
and such like. This ought to be done, I
confess ; but, abeve all, tbe ether must net be
omitted. Their chief study should be that ef
their commisaion, the hely Scripturea. The
way te apeak akilfully frem Ged, is eften to
hear hira speak. " The Lord hath given rae
the tongue efthelearaed," saith the evangelic
prophet, (chieflyintending Christ,) "te speak
a word in due season to the weary." (Aye,
that is the learnedest tongue when all ia
done.) But how ? — " He wakeneth morn
ing by moming, he wakeneth raine ear to

678

A SERMON

hear aa the leamed," Isaiah 1. 4. Thua we see
liow these ambasaadora have need to be frienda,
and intimate friends with their Lord. For if
they be muoh with God in the mount, their re
turns to raen will be with brightness in their
faces, and the law both in their hands anff in
their lives, and their doetrine ahall be heavenly.
2. The aecond requisite of these ambasaa
dors, ia prudence, or dexterity to manage
their Master's business. Wise princes and
statea, in choosing their ambaaaaders, above
other kinds of learning, have respect to prac
tical abilities; and they that can best read
the several geniuses and dispositions of seve
ral nations and particular men, and accord
ingly knew how to treat with every one ac
cording to their temper, to apeak to thera in
their own language, are judged the fitteat
men for that employment.
Great is the diversity of humours among
men ; some are timorous, some rash, some
avaricious, some ambitious, seme slow and
leaden, others precipitant and mercurial, and
many other varieties. Now, to know how to
deal with each of these in their own kind,
for the advancement of hia master'a buainess,
is a special discretion in an ambassador. And
theae ambaasadora we speak ef, have as much
need of it as any: they have men of all, both
outward and inward differences, to deal with;
and the same men so different from them
aelves at divers times, that they are hardly
the same ; aome ignorant, others learned ;
aome weak, othera strong ; aome secure with
false preaumptiona, ethers tormented with
falae fears : and much prudent consideration
of these differences, and accommodating
themselves thereunto in the matter and man
ner of their diacourses, is very expedient in
their treatiea. " Of some have compassion, '
plucking them out of the fire, making a dif
ference." "What elae is St. Paul's "becom
ing all thinga to all men, that he raight win
some?" And this policy ia far different
from temporizing, and compliance with evil,
which in no case can be tolerated in these am
bassadors, for that is disadvantageous to their
buaineaa : it may be the way of their own
promotion, but it is not the way to advance
their Master's kingdom, which end should be
the square of all tlieir contrivances ; and with
it nothing will auit but what is upright. A
kind of guile they may use, but it muat carry
their King's impreaa ; it muat be a holy guile ;
and such the ministera of the goapel not only
may, but ought to study. Fishers of men
they are, and why may they not uae certain
baits, and a diversity of them ? But aa their
catching is net destructive, but saving, so
must all their baits be. They must quarter
dove-like simplicity and serpentine wisdom
together; as He commanded them tliat sent
them on this embassy.
3. Tbeir third uuty is fidelity; and that

both in the matter of their embassy, and in
the manner ef delivering it. In tbe matter,
they muat look to their cemraiasien, and de
clare the whole counsel ef Ged, not adding
ner abating any thing. We know how hein-
ously kings take the preauraption of their
arabasaadora in tbia kind ; though reaaon be
pretended, and perhapa justly, yet even then
they account obedience better than sacrifice ;
yea, seme ef them have been so precise and
tender ef their prerogative, that they preferred
a damageable affront to their commands,
before a profitable breach of them. And
abeve all kings, thia King who ia above
them all, hath good reaaon te be punctual in
this : for princes' instruction may be imper
fect, and, as things may fall out, prejudicial
to their purpose ; but his are most complete,
and always so suitable to hia end, that they
cannot be bettered. The matter, then, of the
embaaay ia unalterable, in tbat theae ambaa
sadors must be faithful. Faithful also in
the manner of delivering it, with singleness
and diligence : with singleness, free from
by-respects, not seeking their own honour or
advantage, but their Maater'a ; abasing
themaelves where need ia, that he may be
magnified ; never hazarding the leaat part
of his rights for the greateat benefit >that
could accrue to themaelves. The treachery
of an ambassador is, ef all, most intolerable
— to deceive under trust. If any that bear
the name of God'a legatea, think to deceive
hira, they deceive themaelvea ; he cannot be
mocked. Tbey muat all appear before hia
judgment-aeat, and be unveiled before men
and angela. Knowing, therefore, the terrora
of the Lerd, let them go about his work witb
candour and singleness of heart, and with
diligence. " He that is diligent in his work
shall stand before princes," aaith the wise
prince, Prov. sxii. 29.
The great Prince of Peace shall admit
those to atand eminently before him, that are
diligent in hia embasay ef peace. Such are
tbey who make it their meat and drink, aa
Chriat himaelf did — that accept all occaaiona
to treat with men for God. 'Phat oracle.like
preaching of one aerraon or two in a year,
ia far from tbis sedulity and inatancy in
treating, which are requiaite in God'a ambas.
sadora. The prince of darkneaa hath more
induatrioua agents tban such ; they compasa
aea and land to make a proaelyte ; they hold
te it, and are content te loae many. a labour,
that aorae one raay proaper. And thia may
raeet with the discontent that aorae ministera
take at tbeir great pains and little success.
We see Satan's ministers can comport with
thia. Since it ia no just exception against
God's work, still be in thy business, and
refer the iaaue to thy Master. " Wait en
Ged, and do good,*' saith the royal Psal.
miat, xxxvii. 3. " Sew thy seed in the mom.
ing, and in the evening withhold not thy

TO THE CLERGY.

C79

hand ; fer thou knowest not which will
proaper," saith the wise son, Eccles- xi. 6.
As the moralists sp ^ak of benefits, a man
must leae many worda among the people,
that aome ene raay net be loat : " I am all
thinga to all,** saith our Apoatle, " that I
may gain some," ] Cor. ix. 20. And
though, in continuing diligent, thy diligence
should continue fruitless to others, to tbee
it ahall not be so. Thy God is a discreet
Lord : as be hath not put events into thy
hand, he will not exact them at thy bands ;
thou art to be accountable for planting and
watering, but not fer tbe increase- Be net
wanting in thy task, and thou shalt not want
thy recompence. Shouldest thou be forced
to say with the prophet, " I have laboured
in vain, and spent ray strength for nought,"
(Isaiah xlix. 4,) in regard of success, yet
if thou hast laboured — so laboured as to
spend thy strength in that service, tbou
mayest add with him, " Yet surely my judge
ment ia with the Lord, and my work with
my Ged."
4. The last duty recemraendable to these
ambassadors, is magnanimity, whicb is ne
less needful than tbe preceding. Many a
difficulty and discourageraent is to be en
countered in this service, and, which is worse,
seme temptations of proaperity and advance
ment. If you persiat to plead freely for
your Maater, you shall be the very mark of
the world's enmity. What mischief is there
that Christ hath net foretold his diaciplea to
expect at their handa ? For Christ circum.
vent^ no man into hia service ; he tella thera
what they ahall meet with : " They shall
proaecute you through their courta, eccleaias.-
tical and civil ; deliver you up to councils,
and scourge yeu in synagogues, and accuae
you before governors and kinga ; yea, they
shall think they do God good aervice when
they kill you," his own ambassadors. Many
mountains ate to be clirabed in going this
embassy, and the rage ef many a tempest
to be endured. His animis opus est, et pec
tore firmo. Courage, then, ambassadors of
the Most High ; see if you can riae above
the world, and tread upon her frowninga with
one foot, and her deceitful smilings with
the other ; slight her proffers, and contemn
likewiae her contempts. There is honour
enough in the employment, to cause you to
anawer all oppoaitiona witb diadain. Let it
be as irapossible to turn yen aaide from your
integrity, aa the aun from its ceurse ; fer
that message which you carry shall be
glorious in the end — it shall conquer all op
posite powera. When you seem exposed in
your voyage to the fury of the winds and
wavea, remember what you carry ; Casarem
vehis, et fortunam ejus, as he aaid ; it can
not suffer shipwreck. Let no sufferings dis
may you ; for a generous ambassador will
always account it far raore honourable to

auffer the worst thinga for doing the beat
service he can to hia master, than to enjoy
tbe world's best rewards for the leaat point
ef dialeyalfy. And if ever Maater waa
worthy the auffering for, youra is. Happy
are you when tbey persecute yeu for his sake,
as himself hath told. There are honourable
examplea to look back to — " So did they to
the propheta ;" and a precioua recompence
to look forward lo^" Great is your reward
in heaven,** Matthew v. 12. Our blesaed
Redeemer refuaed no hardahips for the work.
ing this peace, which is your embaaay ; he
knew what entertainraent did abide him in
the world, what contempta would be put
upon bim by marikind, which he came to
redeem ; he knew of the full cup of hia
Father*a wrath, that be waa to drink for them ;
yet reaolution arising from love, climbed over
all these raountains, and, happily conquering
all theae difficultiea, attained the desired end.
Worthy ambaaaaders, follow this generoua
Leader, in promulgating the peace be hath
purchased ; tread in his steps who " endured
the cross and despised the ahame ;** and
your journey*s end ahall be auitable to bia
who " is set down at the right hand of fhe
Father.*' Well did St. Paul study thia
copy, when he said, " I know that bonds
abide me every where ; but I care for none
of these thinga, se that I may finish my
course with joy," Acts xx. 22, 25. The
looking over that great end, is the great
means of aurmounting the hardest thinga
that intervene. The eyeing of that much,
will make an undaunted arabassador : and
that this lesson of courage ia very pertinent
fer tbem, will appear by Chriat'a ewn urging
it upon the first legatea he sent out, when be
dwelt here below : " Fear not," aaith he,
" thera that can kill the bedy," &c. Matt. x.
28 ; where methinka he propounda, aa the
chief incentive of courage to theae ambaaaa.
dora, the joint conaideration of these to whom
they are sent, and of him that sends them :
for, seriously considered, it must needs be
found most incongruous, that ambassadors
of God sbould be afraid to speak to raen.
Pear not them ; the utmost tbey can do
reacheth no farther than the tabernach'a of
clay ; nor can they teuch that without per.
mission ; not a hair of tbeir head falls with
out the notice of their Master. But suppose
tbe highest, let thera kill the bedy ; thither
goea their rage, and no further. " But fear
hira that can kill both bedy and aoul ;" fear
not, but fear. Aa thia fear hath better cauae,
80 it is the only expelling cauae of the other
fear. Nothing begeta such generous and
undaunted spirits aa the fear of God ; no
other fear, none of theae base ones that tor-
raent worldly men, dare claim room where
that fear lodgeth. The only cause of theae
legates' fears, is the inconsideration ef their
Master ; would tbey remember him, it would

6«0

A SERMON, &c.

fenneble their spirita to encounter the hardest
evils of life, and death itself, conrageoualy,
in bis service. Tbeir reward is preaerved
for them, and they fer it ; yea, it alone puts
them into fuU possession ; for their Master,
beyond all kinga, hath this privilege; he
can not only reatore life leat in his aervice,
but for a life aubject te death, yea, a dying
life, iraraortality ; and for their sufferings,
light and momentary, an etemal weight of
glory. Let them be impoverished in his
service, it is the best bargain in the world
to lose all for him. Let them be scourged
and stigmatized for the ignominy of these
sufferings, the apirit of glery shall reat upon
them. If that Persian prince could ao prize
his Zopyrus, who was mangled in his ser-
vice, how much more will this Lord eateera
those that suffer so fer him ! He is the ten.
dereat King over his servants in the world ;
they that touch them, teuch the apple of hia
eye. Let his messengers, then, despise the
worst the world can do against tbem ; yea,
let tbem say of death as he said of it te his
adversariea, Anytus and Alelitus, " Kill me
they may, Ijut they cannot hurt me."
The lessons to those to whom these am

basaadors are sent, ate, first, of not indigni.
fying them. Remember David and the king
of Amraen. No king resents this se much
as Ged : " He tbat despiseth yon, despiseth
me." 2. Secondly, slight not their meaaage ;
know whence it coraes. This not diacern.
ing of holy things is the pest of Christians :
the Apostle apecified it in the Lerd's bedy ;
it is se in tbe Lord*s word ; he condescends,
in using earthly creatures, to explain the
choicest of heavenly mysteries ) and earthen
veasela, to convey these treasures. And if
that which he intended for their advantage,
the wretched sons of men make it a stum.
bling block ; and if they contemn the grace,
fer tbe meanness of the persona that are made
(5oriveyers and instruments of it, what may
they expect ?
3. Thirdly, respect even the ambassadors
for His sake whom they represent, " count
ing them worthy of double honour ;*' for
this is^ the will of your Lord and tbeir Lord,
your King and their King. And to tbis
King immortal, be all honour, and glery,
and praiae, by all tbe churches, world with
out end ! Amen.

LETTERS, &c.

Sin,

No. I.

I SEE there is no place, city nor country,
valley nor mountain, free from that aentence
so early paased upon the earth for man's
cause, " thorns and briars shalt thou bring
forth ;" but he that is well shod walks on
tbe safelier till he coraes where there are
none : but seeing that ia not here, we are to
uae the greater coolneaa and deliberation in
our removes. If your present company be
some way irksome, a greater aolitude may
Drove more ao : only if God both sensibly
fits you for it, and points clearly out tbe way
to it, follow him ; otherwiae my advice
sheuld be not to haaten too rauch, and par
ticularly at ne hand so to haaten aa to run
iu debt for it ; fot I speak it on experience,
he that sets up any where in debt, it will
keep him possibly wrestling at and under
many years ; but if you let your incomes do
their ewn buaineaa, pian piano, as they come
to your hand, you will find it rauch easier
to do, and sweeter when it is dene : mean
while I know you can digest all a little long
er, aa hitherto you bave done. — To your
other point touching bapti,sm, freely ray
thought is, it is a weak notion taken up on
trust almost generally, to consider se much,
er at all, the qualifications of the parents.
Either it ia a benefit te infanta, or it ia not,
If none, why then adminiafered at all ? But
if it be, tben why should the peor innocents
be prejudged of it for the parent's cauae, if
he profess but so much of a Christian as to
offer his child to that ordinance ? For that
it is the parent's faith gives the child a right
to it, is neither clear from Scripture, ner any
sound reason ; yet in tbat I heartily approve
your thoughts that yon would make it, as
It most fitly may be, an active inducement
to the parents to knew Him and His doc
trine, and live conformed to it, unto whose
name they desire their children to be baptiz
ed. But in this, and the ether business,
and in all things, I am confident that good
Hand, to which I know you have given up
yourself, will graciously guide you 
 they raiscany that desire to
h  , . will but his, Oh let it [

still entirely be so with you and your reaign.
ed Friend,
R. L.
*Tis well our great journey ia going en, and
will quickly set ua where we would be.
The business you write of is to you one
signal atep ef it, marked out by that So
vereign Hand whicb, I deubt not, will
lead you in it, and all along through
what remains, to whom I know you are
conatantly 

No. II.

Sin,

Some days age I received aerae lines from
you, and tbey were very welcome ; for I know
no better news can corae from any comer of
the earth, than of a aoul attempting to over
come the world and ita owi.. self, and in any
degree prevailing and reaolving atill onwarda ;
all the projecta and conqueats of the werld
are not to be naraed to it. Oh ! what a wea-
riness is it to live amongat men, and find ao
few men ; and amongat Chriatiana, and so
few Chriatians ; ao much talk and ao little
action ; religion turned almost to a tune and
air of words : and, araidst all eur pretty dis.
courses, pusillaniraous and base, and so easily .
dragged into the mire, self and flesh, and
pride and pasaion domineering, while we
apeak ef being in Christ, and clothed with
him, and believe it because we speak it ao
eften and ao confidently ! Well, I know you
are not willing lo be thua gulled, and having
some glances of the beauty of Holiness, aim
no lower tban perfection, wbich in end we
hope to attain ; and in the meanwhile, the
sraaUest advances towards it are worth more
tban crowns and aceptrea. I believe that you
often think on thoae words of tbe bleaaed
champion Paul, I Cor. ix. 24, &c. There
is a noble gueat within us. Oh 1 let all our
business be to entertain hira honourably, and
to live in celeatial love within, that will make
all thinga without be very conteraptible in

682

LETTERS.

our eyes  I should rove on did not I stop
myself, it falling out well too for that, to be
hard upon the peat hours, ere I thought of |
writing. Therefore Good-night, is all I add ;
for whatsoever hour it comes to your hand,
I believe you are as aenaible as I that it is
StiU night ; but the comfort ia, it drawa nigh
towards that bright raorning that ahall raake
amends. Your weary Fellow-pilgrira, R. L.
It raay be Mr. Ogle did not think me in
eamest when I deaired hira to spy out a
hermitage for rae ; but if ene reraote enough
were effered, I know not how it might
terapt rae- Meanwhile it is well ; but if
you say any thing of thia, then it will cost
you withal the reraerabering my aervice
to him and the reat. — If you write aga'n,
I pray yeu lead not the back ef your let
ters with any raere than thia, Te Mr.
Robert Leighton, at Edinburgh; for by
that it will not fail to find rae out, and
tliat anawera the end, and you see I give
yeu exaraple.

Ne. IU.

Sir,

Thouoh I desired yeu to forbear for a while
tbe paina of sending me the book you spoke
of, I know it was your kindness preaaed you
te aend it, and I thank yeu. I cannot aay
I have read it through, but divers passages
ef it I have ; and though I approve the de
sign of it and all such writings ao far as I
understand, and what I understand not, ad
venture not to judge of, but rather implicile
think the best of it, yet I rauat confeaa, tbeir
loweat rulea that are laid aa the foundation
of their structure, I find of most use ; and,
could I duly follow them, either I should
¦ inaensibly be raised to these greater sublirai
ties they speak of, if the great Lover of soula
aaw any auch thing geod for me, or I ahould
humbly and contentedly live without them,
which possibly would de aa well till the day
come ef fulleat and purest' intuitive life,
which I live in the hopes of aa not far off
Meanwhile I think 1 have at a venture given
up with the contemptible deaires and designs
of this present world, and must have either
something beyond thera all, or nothing at
all ; and though this (io^Scgojoros uX'/i, thia
base clod of earth I carry atill depreaaea me,
I am glad that even becauae it doea ao, I|
loathe and deapiae it ; and weuld say, major'i
sum, ei ad majora genitus, quam ut mari-
cipium sim istis corpusculis I have sent^

yeu two little pieces of hiatory, wherein it
may be yeu wiU find smaU relish, but tbe
hazard is small ; and, however, I pray you
do not send them back te me at all, for I
have enough of that kind. The one is of a
good pen, and an acquaintance and friend of
youra, Paulus Noloneas, and hia Life of
Martin ef Toura, I think yeu will reliah,
and I believe ia not in your Vit(B Patrum,
The ether, Valerius Maximus, I conceived,
would cloy you the le s, because it is of so
much variety ef selected examples, and the
stages are se short, you may begin and leave
off where you will, without wearying. But
when aU ia done, there is one only bleaaed
atory wherein our aouls muat dwell and take
up their reat; for amongat allthe rest f,e
aball not read, Venite ad me, omnes lassi et
laboran'es, et ego vobis requiem prestabo ;
and never any yet tbat tried him, but found
him aa good aa his word : to whose aweet
embraces I recommend you, and desire to
meet you there. Youra,

K. L.

Oct- 24, 16.59.

No. IV-

Siu,

The answer I intended your letter waa a
visit, and that net en passant. Though I
spoke and once had thoughts of Newcastle
for sorae days, my last purpose waa no fur.
ther than Ingram, unleaa it had been witb
yeu to Wittingham, to aee your honeat
neighbour Mr. Hume ; wbich if you think
of it when you meet, it may be you wiU tell
bim. Nor was this a mere thought, for I
was en my way towards you as far aa Girt-
glekirk, whence I returned back lo my lodge,
finding myself not weU, by reason, I think,
of net -scarce having been en horseback twice
theae raany months. 1 ara yet in a little
disteraper ; ef which, theugh I apprehend
no great height nor long continuance, yet I
am doubtful whether I shall again, this va
cation, attempt any further than Pentland
Hills. But it is no matter ; blessed be He
in whora souls raay meet and concentre in
constant rest, and in renewed thoughta and
deairea interviait, every day, in despite of
large lumps of earth. And, in much greater
matt-.-ra, how little imports tbe defeat of our
purposea aa to any thing without ua, if it
pleaae him to ahine on and advance our great
buaineas within ! O ! what is all the world
to it, te that bright purity we aapire te, and
the bleased eternity we hope fer I And how
great reason have we to say, roon magna re
linquo, magna sequor ! I thank you for

LETTERS.

683

the notice of your capuchin ; hut I alraoat
knew tbat he waa not here before I looked.
It is true the variety ofhis book refreshes ua,
and by the happy wording, the sarae things
not only please, but soraetimes profit ua ;
but tbey tell us no new thing, except it raay
be some such thing aa, I confess, I under
stand not, ef essential unions and sleeps of
the soul ; whicb because I understand thera
not, would rather disorder and hinder than
advance me ; and therefore I begin to be
unwiUing to look over these and such like,
unless I would piek out here and there such
thinga as I am capable ef, and not raeet
witb tbeae ateep aacents which I dare net
venture on. But dear a Kempis ia a way
to it, and oh ! tbat I could daily study mere,
and attain more aublirae, bumble devotion
there drawn te the life  raeat
soaring treatises I have ever yet met with,
find any th  certain and solid use
that is there not plainly and Di 
proque est paucis opua et  paucis
libria ad bona me  could we onee
thoroughly deapiae our own baae flesh, and
the vain opinion of the world, and live in
the Divine wiU, as dead to all things beside,
and gladly take the lowest room, he can, if
he please, call for us to go up higher- Oh,
but the miaery to have ain, luat, and pride,
»nd self-will, and aelf-luve, and deaire of
esteera amongat men, not only living, but,
rtlas, lively and strong ; and yet, however it
be, let us not faint in our minda, for in the
name ef the Lord we shall destroy them.
And in the meantirae, blessed—ever blessed
be his narae, who hath called ua te fight
under hia royal atandard, and given us to
resolve to live and die there. Amen.
Your Fellow-soldier, R. L.

No. V.
Dear Brother,
I wrote to you lately, and troubled you
witb tbe story of my preaent and daily grow
ing unhealthinesa, which cannot add much,
but aomething it does, to my wonted long
ings for the evening, not without hopes that
it shaU likewiae prove a bright and aweet
moming. Meanwhile it ia ne great matter
where I paaa the few houra that remain, yet
I told you I had seme thoughta of spending
them nearer you, but bave not yet reaelved ;
but that and aU ahall be diapoaed of aa ia
beat. Mr. Aird, who gives you this, I
believe, yeu have beard me apeak of, aa one
acquainted with my free thoughts, and that
hath himself a free, unprejudiced soul, and:

loves truth and devotion whereaoever he finds
it, even in the greateat crowd ef error or
auperatition about it. He hath a cell and
a prevision amongst tbe hilla in the border
of England, but is threatened with a removal,
upon the title of an eld incumbent, who is
at London or near it. If yeu be acquainted
with Dr. Cozens, bishop ef Durham, er can
recoramend hira to him by any that is,
if he himaelf desire it ; or in any other way
can assist him, I entreat it of you. Mrs.
Abernethy tells me ber son ia in the King's
Life-Guards : if you meet witb hira, and by
recommending him to my Lerd Gerrard'i
favour, who commands it, or in any thing
elae you can do hira good, you will oblige
beth me and the honeat v/idow. She makea
often mention of you. Cher Frire, Adieu.
R. L.
March 5.
For Sir Ellis Leighton.
at St. James's,

No- VI-
Dear Friend,
I WISH, after your reaolution taken, and I
think cvv 9tif, you had barred the door en all
auggeationa from without and within, that
miglit bave changed or in the leaat diaturbed
it. Sure I am the reason tbat convinced
you is StiU tbe same, that what you may do,
you raay alao proraiae if it be required ; and
I believe the deaign was ae like to make you
serviceable to God, and to souls that he
hath bought, tbat yeu would never bave
had just reason to repent it. I'he like 1
dare not say of you now recoiling ; and if I
might again prevail with you, I entreat you
to re-advise tbe thing betwixt God and your
own heart, and that cleared, as much as
you can, from all mist, both ef the fancy of
others and your own melancholy. If you
would meet me at Culrnss or Lithgow any
tirae the next week, and send me word what
day or hour yeu choose, I would endeavour
not te fail, or if coming to Edinburgh to
speak with you (though at this tirae weU I
cannot) raight be likely to do any help te
wards dispelling the cloud that hath overca.st
your raind, I weuld not grudge the pains.
All I can do at thia diatance, ia to look
up to beaven, wbo alo:ie powerfully can do
it, and in his bleased band I leave it, and
you, and rayself, and all tbat concems ua,
and all tbe world ; and whataoever you do,
never doubt tbe unalterable affection of
Your Friend, R. L.

684

LETTERS.

Ne. VII.

Sir,

What the opportunity ia that may en-
gage you where you are, aeeing you expreaa it
not, I cannot particularly knew : but what
aoever it is, I ahaU be glad if it auit your
mind, and if I could de you any real furthe
rance in any such thing, I think I need not
tell you how ready the occaaion would find
me. Here I aee nothing at preaent worth
the thinking on for you, unleaa you have a
mind to try a courae of tilting for a Regency
in PhUoaophy, aa they call it, which ia likely
to be vacant here very ahortly, Mr. Wise
man being upon the point of leaving it and
going te sleep. If yeu flnd <t stomach te
it, all I can promiae ia, endeavour to see fair
play ; and if you make one you would be
sure to win, if it depended en tbe wishea of,
Sir, Your Friend and Servant.

No. VIII

Sir,

I SHOULD please myself very rauch in
doing any thing towarda your repoae ; but
there ia nothing auch aa 1 wish within my
reach, nor within my view. The huraanity
place will either not be vacant, er if it be, I
think we shall break itfor sorae reason. Of
the other I wrote to you, yeu can only judge
whether it auits your genius and inclination ;
neither (if it did) have I power to premise
any thing but heavy endeavours if I see it
feasible, having ne asaurance of prevailing.
But one thing I am sure of, and so are you,
and it is enough, tbat te them that fear the
Lerd and trust in him, no geod thing shall
be wanting. The chooaing of aorae dubieua
ateps of our way raay new and then be a
little troublesome, but the corafort ia, the
journey will be quickly dene, and then we
hope to be where there are no desirea nor
deliberationa ef change ef quartera. I am,
Youra.
I auppese you bave heard of Mr. Andrew
Gray's death. He has got the start of
us, but not for long. I am Ukely te preach
to-morrow (God willing) in our own Hall,
where for tbe present meets one of the
Town Congregations.

Ne. IX.

Sin,

I think you knew the reason of my for

bearing to write ; fbr yeu c.innot but know
that letters sent by the post are broken open
very frequently, if not constantly ef late; and
other way I knew none. I often entreated that
favour ef my John to inquire at your sisters
how you were, if she did hear, and if ahe
knew any safe convey of lettera to you ; but
he did aa he uaea to do in divera of the few
letter services I have for bira, and I am be.
holden to his neglects. Meanwhile my not
forgetting you, you may be assured of, while
I ahaU continue to remember myaelf. When
I think how little or nothing it ia my letters
speak other tban seme abort werd, dropped
aa it comea, reflecting to you aome of your
own thougbta, I am pained with your rec^
koning them any thing at aU. Your impart
ing tbe particulars relating to youraelf, theugh
in extrinaic thinga, I do very heartily thank
you for ; for auch communications are a re
doubling the pleasure in them : and seeing
our great Father's love descends to the or-
dering of the low concernments of our life,
we were very unwise and ungrateful not to
obaerve thera, who hath made flies with so
rauch art, and is truly magnus in minimis.
Courage, it shall be weU ; we fellow a con
quering general ; yea, whe hath conquered
already ; et qui semel vicit pro nobis, semper
vicet in nobis. For myself at present, I am,
(as we uae to say,) that ia, thia little con
temptible lodge ef mine ia, not very well ;
but that wiU paaa aorae way or other, aa it
ia best ; and even while the indisposition
lasts. Oh ! how much doth it heighten the
sweet relish of peace within, of which I can.
not speak highly ; for to you I speak juat aa
it is. But methinka I find & grewing con.
terapt ef all thia world, and conaequently
aome further degreea ef that quiet which is
only subject to disturbance by our inordinate
fanciea and deairea, and receding from tbe
bleaaed centre ef our rest : for hurries of
ihe world §ou know the way, Isa. xxvi. 20 ;
and in these retiring rooms we meet and be
aafe and quiet. That you may apeak of the
ahock aeeming to threaten your Order, I am
not afraid of at all, neitherfor you nor myself,
nor the generality of tbe reat ; but you may
be assured, that, in that caae, tbe lot of thoae
in my pesture wiU be the same with youra.
Sed Jehovah regnat, circuiior Gentis ei
cum reliquis etiam ins-ula. FareweU, dear
Brother. Youra.

Ne. X.
Dear Friend,
Whether you know the particular pur-
port ofthe enclosed you sent rae, I know not ;

LETTERS.

685

but it is to quit Ten Pounds sterling sup.
poaed due to me ftoiu the party that pleads
inability : aiid doubtieaa your recommenda
tion, together with the charity of the thing,
(if it siiaU appear to be ao,) would eaaily
give law te rae for a greater sura than that.
But the truth ia, there ia a raain raistake in
the buainess, for it is not payable te rae, and
therefore no way in my pewer, for my Lord
Bargeny hath a lease of all my Uttle dues
' in these parta for nineteen yeara, upon very
eaay temis aa they inform me ; yet whether
he will conaider that so as to make auch an
abateraent of what ia now his due and net
mine, I cannot teU ; neither bave I any
power to carve upen what is his without pay
ing it back, or some way compenaing it to
him rayself ; and yet even that I ahall not
decline, if, after you and I both know the
more particular atate of the buainesa and the
persen, you shall judge it reaaonable. Thia
ia aU I can say to that at present ; and I will
not enter upon any other discourae by this ;
for the truth ia, there is Uttle te be said and
rauch te be done. You and I are, I trust,
upon a design that wiU reflect a very low es
timate upon all below it, and it shall certain.
ly succeed if we be careful to stick to our
Leader, and foUow him.
Pray for
Your poor Friend and Servant, R. L.
March, 1670.
To the Rev. Mr. Aird, 'I
Minister at Tory. /

Ne- XI.
Dear Friend,
I AM very aerry fer the indisposition you
are under, but I aaaure yeu I do not value
myaelf, ner any thing I aay or de either upon
this or any other occasion, worth your pains
of writing, far less on a journey hither ; yet
I should gladly enjoy your mistake in think
ing otherwise, if I was in a posture capable
of the pleasure othera have of your abode
under my roof for aome longer time. The
peraons you mention in order te that affair,
&c  I have net seen nor heard any thing
from any of thera since my last, nor expect
tbat I shall tUl the beginning of June, at
Edinburgh, where I intend (Ged wilUng)
to be, and desire, if it may be, to see you
there, I have thoughts ef going thither
somewhat before that tirae, and therefore, if
I did not signify such te you, I fear you
might miaa me if you came bither-
As for the buaineas, it ia very aafe, with
aU eur other intereats of Time and Eternity,
in our Blesaed Father'a hand, of aU Fathers
the wiaeat and the best. He. 1 am sure.

can mould either your heart or theira you
have to do withal, aa he thinks fit, and it
shall be as it is best to be ; therefore if we
were together, I sheuld not very eagerly dis
pute the matter with yeu, far less will I by
scribbling. Let your heart keep near to hira,
and be daily purging out all that raay inter
pose and obstruct our closest union, and we
have nothing elae io care for. This raoment
is pesting away, and that blessed day is
haatening forward tbat shaU complete lhat
union. Pray for your lame Fellow-traveller, R. L.
I ahould chide yeu, if I could de it aharply
enough, for entertaining the least thought
of any such jealouay, aa I think very in.
congruoua with the strength' and rautual
confidence ef aolid friendahip.
Received at Carmarthen, 14th Mav, 1668,

No. XII.

Sir,

Waving all other diacourse till raeeting,
though yeu are poasibly enaraoured with
your vacancy, yet if you find any return of
appetite to employment in the rainiatry, I
ara once again to offer you an invitation, for
there is a place or two now vacant at my dis
poaal. If ia true it ia by the removal of the
former incumbents againat their wiU, but
yeu are not guilty of that bysucceeding them,
nor 1 by giving a call to any that wUl ; for
you may be sure they are net within the
bounds I have charge of, but in ether dio
ceses. There is one place indeed in my
precincts now vacant, and yet undisposed ef,
by the voluntary remove of a young raan that
was in it to a better benefice, and this is
Ukewise in my hand ; but it ia so wretched
ly mean a prevision, that I ara aahamed to
name it, little I think abeve five hundred
marks a-year. If the many instances ef tbat
kind you have read have made you in leve
with voluntary poverty, there you may have
it ; but wheresoever you are or ahall be for
the reat of your tirae, I hope yeu are advan
cing in that bleaaed poverty of spirit that is
the only true height and greatneaa of apirit
in all the werld entitUng to a crown, " for
theirs is the kingdora of heaven." Oh !
what are the scraps that the great ones of
this world are scrarabUng for compared with
that pretension I I pray you, aa you find an
opportunity, though poaaibly little or no in
cUnation to it, yet beatow one line or two
upon Your poor Friend and Servant, K. L,
Edinburgh, .lULV 5, 1662.
To Mr Jamks Ajru.

686

LETTERS-

No. XIII-

SlR,

I LONG to hear hew you dispose ef yourself
ifit be determined. If stiU in 'suspense, I
atiU wish you the favourable irapression of
that hand to which I know yeu have de
liver'd up yourself ; if yeu be resolved upen
a removal, and incline te the like charge
hereupon a fair caU, I desire to know it,
by the first opportunity, for I hear there is
soraewhat of that kind in the Weat likely
to be at ray diapoaal ; I would not have
thia unaettle your propension to stay where
you are, if yeu find any thing within you,
for thorna grow every where, and frera aU
thinga below : and to a aoul tranaplanted
out of itaelf into the root of Jeaae, peace
growa every ^here too, from him who ia caU
ed our Peace, and whom we atill find the
more to be ao, the more entirely we Uve to
him, being dead to this world, and self, and
all thinga beaidea him. Oh 1 when ahall it
be ? Well, let all the world go aa it will,
let thia be our only pursuit and ambition,
and te all other thinga fiat voluntas tua,
Domine — that both ia painful in sorae in-
stance is the dubiousness.

No. XIV.
Dear Friend,
Being at present not well, I shaU say ne
more but that I take these communications
as a singular act of the truest kindneaa and
friendahip, and heartily thank you for them,
and am glad to find tbat there are aome soula
in this werld truly sick of it all, that being,
in my opinion, a very happy symptom and
prognostic ef a prevailing health — auch a de
gree of it at leaat as may be had in the dis
eased, defiled cottages wherein we dweU,
and may be to us a certain pledge of real be
ginning ef that full health we look for at
our reraoval, and therefore have ao rauch rea
son to long and wish earnestly and aigh and
groan for that day, and yet have no leaa rea
son to wait patiently for it. Pray for
Your poor Friend,
2lst M*RCH, 16C9. R. L.

No. XV.
Dear Friend,
I WAS refreshed by tbe account of your feaat
in your former, of which I truat I was par
ticipant as to the blessing of it, for though
absent, I was heartily with you in desire.
The accident your letter acquaints me with,
I think concerns you Uttle or nothing ; for
if there was any offence in the printing it,
it reata upon him that procured it, and the
printer ; but fer instructing your own flock

in what way you judge mest accommodated
te them, who can blarae yeu ? However,
when I raeet with tbe archbishop, I shall
(Ged wiUing) represent the business te him
as it is, if I find it needful ; but if you
think it hath corae to bis knowledge, and
that with some misrepert and disguise, J be-
lieve it might not be araiss for you to give
hira the true and ingenuous account yourself
by a letter, for, it may be, seme weeks may
pass before I see him.
But Oh ! how quickly will aU these thinga
be gone, and even at present a look beyond
them raakes them disappear ! Let us man.
age eur waya aa prudently and profitably to
our main end aa we can, and let the world
descant as they wiU. Bleaaed are the up
right in heart, for their great Jqdge and
Maater aees into the heart, and cannot mia
take thera. Pray fer Your peer Friend, R. L.

No. XVI.
Dear Friend,
I DO very rauch coramend the activenesa of
your charity in the journey you have taken ;^
for the succeaa, though I had much deaire
and some Uttle hopea of better, yet I auapect
ed how it raight prove, unleaa this one cen
sideration, tlieextrerae necessity efthia churcl
at thia time, did prevail with eur friend lo
de violence to himaelf. I hope yeu beth par
don me for the very reason that I raoved it,
and that I am but to be angry or impatient
at it, I could not pardon myaelf. I look te
Him who makea every thing beautiful in ita
aeaaon, and remember that aaying of hia,
" Your time is alwaya ready, but my time ia
net yet." Aa we are to forbear forbidden
fruita at aU times, so net to pull the beat
fruit in hia garden till he aUowa ua, and some
way signifiea he thinka them duly ripe for uae.
I do heartily thank yeu for the kindneaa of
communicating the incloaed lettera : for
next to what ia within rae, the painful re
fiecting I have on thia werld ia, that there
is ao small a part ef mankind in whose
breaata auch thoughta are stirring, and am
aoraewhat relieved, when I meet with any
thing of that kind, and long to meet witb
raore, or be gone where no sucb wishes are
needful. O ! this dark night ia very long ;
but blessed hope ef that bright morning with- ,
out cloud that is hastening forward. Well,
ne mere, but pray for
Your poor Friend and Servant, 11. L.
I beseech you pain me not again with so
excessively canonical a auperacriptien ef
your letters, for there ia no need of it
though they were to pass through twenty

LETTERS.

687

hands. Since I wrote this I received
another ef yours for Mr. Blair. Tlie
truth is, for this next year I am already
engaged to one that both needa aud de
serves a Uttle help, and am beapoke fer
another to aucceed the year after, but have
net abaolutely promiaed, and I therefere
am at a Uttle mere Uberty to conaider it
againat that tirae, if it please God to con
tinue me here so long ; for the youth you
name you may be assured, if it can fall en
that side, his relation to eur brother and
your recommendation will bave very much
weight te make it ao, aud that is all I can
say ef it at present.
For my Rev. Brother Mr. Aird, \
Minister at Torriburn. )

No. XVIL

Sill,

I WISH I could punctuaUy resolve you con-
cerning that freedora of coraraencing to
that exceUent work which yeu desire ; but
the truth is, though I believe they are not
there ao atrait-laced by far as here, yet you
having never exercised at all in pubUc, I am
not sure they would net all enquire concern
ing tbat, but it ia likely nothing weuld be re
quired whicii (if you be not auperatitious on
the otber hand) would treuble you. If you
thought fit in the mean time to spend sorae
weeks in that place you apeak ef, and to uae
theUberty of it in exercising, itmight possibly
pass fer what you would avoid in the ether.
And if a feir invitation shall come. He to
whom you have resigned yourself will direct
you. Sir,
- Your very affectionate Friend.
To my own motions or atay, as I am in a
most quiet indifferency myself, you, I am
sure, may much more easily be so. We
are at sea, and cannet expect stiU to sail
within apeech, ne nor within sight, but
we hope to arrive at the aame " fair
havens."

No. XVIII.

Sin,

There is one here come from Ireland
to inquire after able young men fer the
Miniatry, whom they invite thither, sending
them transport-money, and assuring tbem
of a liberal and certain provision there. He
they aent hath been wi* me, and waa deair
oua to knew if I could recommend any.
It came into ray thoughts to give you notice,
that if you flnd any incUnation that way, I

may know. I will not adviae you, much
lesa press you in it, but leave you whoUy to
t^e freedom of your ewn thoughts and choice,
and to the beat band to determine tbem. I
believe tbey expect of thoae that go, an en.
gaging to a pastoral charge ; but whether
for aome time they may not give a little
liberty to aome or to one at least in a freer
posture te preach, or whether their pastoral
engageraent be ao indissolubly fast as here,
I know not. Yeu will think on that, and
if you judge it worth se much, let me bear
frora yeu bow you relish it- However, I
wish you as te myaelf much happy auccess
and advanceraent in your great design-
Your Friend to serve you.

No. XIX

Sm,

The Lords ofthe Council having appoint.
ed aome Miniatera frora other parta, to
preach in auch cburchea within the diocese
of Glasgow as do raost need their help, I
desire the Reverend Mr. James Aird,
iVlinister ef Terry, to bestow his pains in
that circuit that lies eastward frera Hamil
ton or thereabouta, and particularly in tbe
Kirk ef Carluke ; not doubting that the
Miniater thereef, and others in the Uke caae,
wiU very gladly receive and eameatly intreat
what help he can do towarda the bringing of
their peeple to frequent the pubUc ordinances,
and the removing of their prejudices and
calming of tbeir paaaiona, that they may with
one heart worahip that one Lord whoae name
we all profeaa to love and honour. R. Leighton.
Glasgow, Sept. 17, 1670.
Thia is to recomraend te tbe kind recep
tion and assistance of the Gentlemen and
Ministers, to whose parishes he shall resort,
for preaching of the Gespel, within the
diocese of Glasgow, our Reverend Brother
Mr. Lawrence Charteris, Minister at Bar,
being nominated and appointed by the Lords
of Council, with aome ethers frora other
parta fer that effect.
Glasgow, Sept. 20, 1670.
To Mr. Charteris are recommended with.
in the Presbytery of Paisley theae Kirka,
Neelson, Kilbarchan, — vacant.
Likewiae, if bia health permit,
Killelen, and Kilmacome, — theugh not
vacant. R. Leighton.
Oct- 19,1670-

FINIS.

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