Hosea 14:9 (Edward Reynolds)
Ver. 9. JVlto in wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the vnys of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors shall fait therein.
These words are a most pathetical close, and, as it were, a seal which the prophet sets to all the doctrine of his whole book, and the entire course of his ministry; implying, in their general sense, first, A strong asseveration of the truth of all those things which he had in the name of God delivered to them. Secondly, An elegant and forcible excitation of the people to a sad and serious pondering of them, laying to heart the sins therein charged, the duties therein required, the judgments therein threatened, the blessings therein promised. And thirdly, A tacit complaint of the paucity of those who were “wise unto salvation,” and of the desperate use which wicked men make of the ord of God, and the ministry of his grace; namely, to stumble at it, and to turn it into an occasion of ruin to themselves.
“Wio is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them?” The interrogation here implies, 1. A secret exprobration of folly to his hearers, or the greater part of them; for so this kind of inteiTogation frequently in Scripture intimates either a negation, or at sl.Tnotaap’^s: least the rareness and difficulty of the thing spoken of: as, “Who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?” 1 Cor. ii. 16. “^Yh.o shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?” Rom. viii. 33: these are negatives. “Who knoweth the power of thine anger?” Psal. xc. 11. “Who among you will give ear to this?” Isa. xlii. 23. “Who hath beUeved our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” Isa. liii. 1: these are resti-ictives.
Who? that is, few or none are such. 2. An earnest wish and desire of the prophet. Oh that men were wise to understand these thnigs, and lay them to heart! as, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” that is, Oh that I were delivered, Kom. vii. 24. “Who will show us any good?” that is. Oh that any could do it, Psal. iv. 6. 3. A strong affirmation or demonstration wherein true wisdom does indeed consist; and what men that are truly wise will do, when the ways of God are by the ministry of his servants set forth before them; namely, ponder and consider their great and weighty import: as Jcr. ix. 12, 13, “‘Mio is the wise man, that may understand this?” namely, as it follows, “for what the land pcrisheth, and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through P And the Lord saith. Because they have forsaken my law which I si before them.” This is the character of a wise man, to trace to their proper origin the judgments that are uj)on a people, and not to allege hoh causam pro causa, a false cause. 4. A vehement awakening and quickening of the people to this dut)- of sad attendance on the words which he had spoken to them: as Exod. xxxii. 26, “AVho is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me.” And 2 Kings ix. 32, “AVho is on my side? who?” So it is as if the prophet should have said, There are none of you who have been my lpearers, but would willingly retain the reputation of men of wisdom and understanding, and would esteem it a high indignity to be handed down to all ages a.s fools and mad-men. AA’cll, I have preached amongst you many years together, (sixty are the fewest that we can well compute, some say seventy, others, above eighty,) but, alas, what entertainment has mine embassage received? what operation or success has it had amongst you? are not the calves still standing at Dan and Beth-el? do not carnal jjolicies prevail still against the express will of God? O, if there be any wise, any prudent men amongst you, (and oh that all God’s people were such!) let them, now at length in the close of my ministry, show their wisdom, by giving heed to what I have declared from the Lord, that they may learn to walk in God’s righteous ways, and may not stumble and perish, and “fall therein.”
“AVho is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? “Two words are here used to express the wisdom which God requues in those who would fruitfully hear his word; * the one importing a mental knowledge of the things, and the Other a practical and ])rudential judgment in jiondcring them, and in discerning theii- great and momentous importance to our eternal weal or woe. So the apostle prays for the Colossians, that they might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will” in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,” Col. i. 9. In mere notional things, which are only to be known for themselves, and are not further reducible to use and practice, the bare knowledge of them is sufficient. But in things the knowledge whereof is ever in order to a further end, there is required, besides the knowledge itself,t a faculty of wisdom and judgment to apply and manage that knowledge to, and for the advancement of, that end. Now, we know that theological learning is all of it practical, and has an ir.trinsical respect and a direct tendency to enforce worship and obedience: I therefore it is called “the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness,” Tit. i. 1.” The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have
Dua; sunt partes rationis secundum philosophum, una iirtarrjfxoi’tKti, altera XoyttrriKty, qiiie ratiocinamur et dehbemmus in ordine ad mures. Vide Arist. Ethic, lib. 6. cap. 2. el cap. 8.
t Oi» T(o I’thvat fiovov tppovtfioi &Wa Kui t« -wpdictKOi. Arist. Klliic. 1. 7. cap. II.
i O’t c t’ttp fitj ti’pi(TKOi/-rai l3iovi/Tii w9 ici6ai, yvwpiivall they that do his commandments,” Psal. cxi. 10. “Keep therefore” his judgments “and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding,” Deut. iv. 6. Therefore, besides the bare knowledge of truth, there is required wisdom and spiritual understanding, to direct that knowledge to those holy uses and saving ends for which it was intended.
“AVho is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them?” The doubling of the interrogation thus, augments the force of the words, and denotes that it is the supreme and most excellent act of wisdom and prudence, so to know the word and ways of God, as with a practical judgment to ponder tl;am in order to salvation.
‘For the ways of the Lord are right.” We are to understand hereby, 1. The ways of his judgments, and of his wonderful providence toward men; which, however, to the proud and contentious spirit of the wicked, they may seem perverse and inordinate, and to the eye of all men “unsearchable;” § are yet by spiritual wisdom acknowledged to be most righteous and holy, to have no crookedness or disorder in them, but to be carried on in an even and straight course to the ends whereunto his holy counsel directs them. “His work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment,” Deut. xxxii. 4. AA’hen Jeremiah desired to plead with the Lord concerning his judgments, he yet premises this as a matter unquestionable, that God was righteous in them all, Jer. xii. 1.
2. The ways of his will, word, and worship. So the word is often taken in Scripture, to signify the doctrine which men teach, as Matt. xxii. 16; Acts xiii. 10; xviii. 25; xxii. 4; and damnable heresies are called “pernicious ways,” in opposition to “the way of truth,” 2 Pet. ii. 2: and the rites or rules of corrupt worshij) are called by the prophet “The manner of Beersheba,” Amos viii. 14. ‘These ways of God are likewise veiy straight, caiTying men on in a “right” line to a happy end, Psal. xix. 8; whereas wicked ways have crookedness and perverseness in them, Psal. cxxv. 5: and this seems here chiefly to be meant, because there follows, “the just shall walk in them;” that is, they shall so ponder and judge of the righteous ways of God in his word, a.s to make choice of them for the way wherein they intend to walk, as the psalmist speaks, “I have chosen the way of truth,” Psal. exLx. 30: whereas wicked men Ijeinjr offended at the puritv of Di- .^^ ,. „
.,” ,, ,..,,• ‘t,. Child. Paraph.
vme truth, stumble and fall mto perdition.
The words thus opened, lead us to dwell especially on the powerful and pathetic call contained in them to the people of Israel, to consider maturely and obey implicitly the doctrines taught by the prophet throughout his whole ministration amongst them. The arguments which he uses aic di-awn from,
I. The character of the persons: “AVTio is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them?”
II. The nature of the doctrines taught: “For the ways of the Lord are right.”
ill. The twofold use made thereof by different kinds pf men. 1. To the just, the Lord’s ways are a way of happiness; ‘• The just shall walk in them.” 2. To the wicked, an occasion of stumbling; “The transgressors shall fall therein.”
I. The character of the persons. And here two things present themselves: 1. The one intimated, their paucity. 2. The other expressed, their prudence.
dtotrav ftij ovrti XpiffTinl/oi, kAv liyua-i &tA yXcomjc Tit TouXptaTovSitaynaTa. Justin Martyr. Apol. 2. Qui Christiani uoiniuis iipus mm a fit, Cbristianus nun esse videtur. Salvian. ilc Gubcni. Dei. lib. 1.
.Indicia Dei plernnqiic occulta, nunquuni inju8ta. .ltiir. Serni. N^. *ie Tenijiiire. ‘jV-ynt’i’j ijTnv Ofou itKaioiruvii. f”]em. AKx. Vid. Tertul. contra Marciun. lib. 2. cap. U — IG.
1. The paucity of the persons. This is intimated, as we have seen, by the interrogative form of the words, and leads us to
06s. 1. There are few who are “wise unto salvation,’’ few who seriously attend to and manage the ministry of the word to that end. If there be any accidental lenocinium to allure the fancies, or excite the curiosity or customary attendance of men on the ordinances, elegance in the speaker, novelty and quaintness in the matter, credit or advantage in the duty, on such inducements many will wait on the word: some to hear” a very lovely song,” Ezek. xxxiii. 32, others to hear some “new doctrine,” Acts xvii. 19; some for the loaves, to promote their secular advantages, John vi. 26, having one and the selfsame reason for following Christ which the Gadarenes had when they entreated him to depart from their coasts. But SSipha“tu°’t?i“” fery few there are who do it propter xe, pian. p. de Escus. nd with respect to the ijrimarv use and
Leg, 5. Rari quippe.. tp f i
boni, numero rix mtcution ot it. Our prophet seems to Th“b«™m™on«’vei do as the philosopher, who lighted a ji™ai’sai*’i’3! Candle at noon to find out a man wise indeed: he seems to “run to and fro through the streets,” and to “seek in the broad places thereof, if” he “can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth,” as the lord commanded the prophet Jeremiah, Jer. v. 1. How does the most elegant of all the prophets complain, “Who hath believed our report?” Isa. Uii. 1; xlix. 4. How does the most learned of the apostles complain, that the preaching of the gospel was esteemed “foolishness!” 1 Cor. i. 23. Noah was a preacher of righteousness to a whole world of men, and yet but “eight” persons were saved fi-om the flood, and some of them rather for their family’s sake than their own, 1 Pet. iii. 20. Paul preacned to a whole academy at Athens, and yet but very few were converted, Acts xvii. 34: some disputed, and others mocked, but few believed the things which they were not able to gainsay. Hezekiah sent messengers into all Israel to invite them to the true worship of God at Jerusalem, but they were “laughed” “to scorn, and mocked,” and a remnant only “humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem,” 2 Chron. xxx. 10, 11: Isa. xvii. 6; xxiv. 13. Though a gun be discharged at a whole flight of birds, but few are killed. Though the net be spread over the whole pond, but a few fishes are taken; many thrust their heads into the mud and the net passes over them: and so most hearers busy their heads with their own sensual or worldly thoughts, and so escape the power of the word. Out of the richest mine there is much more earth and di’oss dug than pure metal. Christ’s flock in every place is but “a little flock,” Luke xii. 32; “few chosen,” Matt. xx. 16; “few saved,” Luke xiii. 23; “few there be that find” the “narrow way which leadeth unto life,” Matt. vii. 13, 14. The basest iv. ’ lara ovo- creatiu’cs are usually the uiost uumcrous. TcSna -raviiiav ss flics and vemiiu; those that are more Generat. Anima.iib. uoblc are likewise moro rare. “The 4. cap. 4. people of the God of Abraham” are, in
the Scripture style, “princes” and “noble,” Psal. slvii. 9; Acts xvii. 11: 1 Pet. ii. 9; and how few are there of such in comparison of the vulgar sort! They are indeed many in themselves, Heb. ii. 10: Kev. vii. 9, but very few, and widely scattered, when compared with the rest of the world.
We must therefore leani not to be offended or discouraged by the paucity of sincere professors, no more
* Pudet doctos homines ex discipulis Platonis fieri discipulos Christi, &c. Vid. Aug. de Civit. Dei, 1. 10. c. 29. et 1. 1.3. c. 16. et Ep. 102.
f ‘YiraKoOovariv iljayy£Kiov irapaKovaaa-t KpiTnptov. Clem. Wen. io Protreph.
X Vultures unguento fugantur et scarabei rosa. Plin. et
than we are in a civil state by the comparative paucity of wise counsellors and politicians. It is no strange thing at all in any community to see the weaker part more numerous than the wiser. If but few attend the “right ways of the Lord,” and “walk in them,” remember it is a work of wisdom, and such wisdom as Cometh from above, and has no seeds or principles in corrupt nature out of which it might be drawn; nay, against which all the vigour of carnal reason exalts itself; so that the more natural wisdom men have, the more in danger they are to despise and undervalue the ways of God, as being better able to reason and to cavil against them,* Matt. xi. 25; Acts iv. 11; John vii. 48; 1 Cor. i. 20, 28; ii. 8; 2 Cor. x. 5, 6. Therefore,
1. In the ministry of the word we must continue our labour, “though Israel be not gathered,” Isa. xlix. 4, 5. We must stretch out our hands, though it be to “a disobedient and gainsaying people,” Rom. x. 21; Isa. lxv.
2. “Whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear,” we must speak to them, be they never so rebelUous, Ezek. ii. 7. And the reason is,. because the word is never in vain, but it doth ever “prosper in the tiling whereto” God sends “it,” Isa. Iv. 11. If men be righteous, they “walk;” if wicked, they “stumble;”t and in both there is “unto God a sweet savour,” 2 Cor. ii. 15. God’s work is accomplished, his glory promoted, the power of his gospel commended, in the one and in the other; as the virtue of a sweet savour is seen as well by the antipathy which one creature has to it, as by the refreshment which another receives from it :J the sti’ength of a rock, as by yielding fii-ra support to the house that is buUt upon it, so by breaking in pieces the ship which dashes against it; the force of the fire, as well by consuming the ih’oss as by refining the gold; the power of the water, as well in sinking the leaky as in supporting the sound ship. The pillar of the cloud was as wonderful in the darkness which it cast on the Egj-jitians, as in the light which it gave to the Israelites, Exod. xiv. 20; the power of the angel as great in striking terror into the soldiers, as in speaking comfort to the women, Matt, xxviii. 4. 5. 2. In attendance on the word, we must resolve rather to walk with the wise, though few, than to follow a multitude to do evil, and to stumble with the wicked, though they be many: rather enter the ark with a few, than venture the flood with a world of sinners; rather go three or four out of Sodom, than be burnt for company. We must not afiect a capricious or fastidious singularity in difi’ering unnecessarily from good men, being one for Paul against Apollos. another for A])ollos against Cephas; but we must ever affect a holv and pious singularity in walking contrary to evil men, in shining “as lights” “in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation,” Phil. ii. 15; for “the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour,” Prov. xii. 26. Though there be but few in the way, there will be many in the end of the journey. As the tribes and families went up divided toward Jerusalem, but when come thither, “every one of them in Zion appeareth before God,” Psal. lxxxiv. 7.
2. The prudence of the persons: and in that the prophet calls upon his hearers to attend to his doctrine by this argument, that it will be an evidence of their prudence and wisdom, we are led to
Obs. 2. True wisdom draws the heart to know aright, that is, to consider and ponder the judgments, blessings, wavs, and word of God in order to the chief ends, and according thereto to direct all the conversation:
jElian. ILavdapov poolvu xp^f’“‘’’”’ M”?”? TtXtuTHw Xtyova-L. Clem. Psedag. 1. 2. c. 8. ‘0 yap Stwikos tpuis, wmrep ol Kt’ti’Sapoi Xtyovrai to /iiv fivpoir a’TroXtiiriiv, ra if. cvauioti oioiKiLv. Plutarch. Nissen. Horn. 3. in Cantie. Tok aiKovpov oopL-t] pvptav ^KTapfiTsirSai Kai fxaivEtrdat (yov(Ti. Plutarch, in Conjugalib. Priecept.
CnAr. XIV.
“Who is wise, and he shall uiulcrstand these things? ])rudent, and he shall know them?” In God’s account, that knowledge which edifies not, is no knowledge at all, 1 Cor. viii. 2. None are his wise men who are not “wise unto salvation,” 2 Tim. iii. 15; who do not draw their wisdom frofn his word, and from his commandments, Psal. xix. 7; cxix. 98, 99; Jer. viii. 9. r 1 lis c - There is a twofold wisdom, according. cap. I. y distinction of the philosopher, ao<pia Kara /iipog and iToin oXuq. The former signifies wisdom in .some particulars: * thus we esteem every man who is excellent in his profession, a wise man, so far as concerns the managing of that profession; we account him such when he knows all the necessary principles and maxims of his business, the right ends thereof, and the pro]ier conclusions deducible from those principles, and derigible to those ends. As to the latter, aoipia hlupc, wisdom in general, and in perfection, it regards those principles, ends, and conclusions, which are universally and most transcendently necessary to a man’s chiefest and most general good: and this the philosopher calls the know- ■zmmT/H^J.”’’’ ledge of the most excellent and honourn’otfmKai’eau- *^l6 things, or of the last end and chief uan-rmi im^Tii- good of man. Now the end, by how i.c.lp. 37.rtMeia. much tile more supreme, perpetual, and p IV.. 1. 2. c. 2. ultimate it is, so much the more it has of excellency and goodness in it, as bearing thereby most exact proportion and adaptation to the soul of man; for the soul being immortal itself, can have no final satisfaction from any good wliieh is mortal and perishable: and being withal so large and unlimited, as that its reasonings and desires extend to the whole latitude of goodness, being not restrained to this or that kind, but capable of desh-ing and judging of all the difi’erent degrees of goodness which are in all the whole variety of things, it can therefore never finally acquiesce in any but the most universal and comprehensive goodness, in the nearer or more remote participation whereof consists the different goodness of all other things.
This supreme and absolute goodness can indeed be hut one, all other things being good by participation with that. “There is none good but one, that is, God,” Matt. xix. 17. But because there are two sorts of men in the world, righteous and wicked, the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent; therefore, consequently, there are two sorts of ends which these men do difi“erently pursue. The end of wicked men is a happiness which they, out of their own corrupt judgments, shape to themselves, and to which they finally carry all the motions of their souls, called in Scripture “the pleasures of sin,” and “the wages of unrighteousness,” Heb. xi. 25; 2 Pet. ii. 15; that thing, whatsoever it is, to obtain which men direct all their other endeavours, as profit, pleasure, honour, or ])ower. And there are mediums exactly projiortionable to these ends; namely, “the lust oi’ the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” 1 John ii. 16. And there is a wisdom consonant to these means, and fit to direct and manage these lusts to the attaining of those ends; which therefore the apostle calls tu ^porijfia -ijc aapK-oQ, the wisdom of the flesh or corrupt nature, Kom. viii. 7; and St. James, a wisdom “earthly, sensual, devilish,” James iii. 15: “earthly,” managing “the lust of the eyes” to the ends of gain; “sensual,” managing “the lust of the flesh” to the ends of pleasure; and “devili.sh,” managing “the pride of life” to the ends of power. But such wisdom as this God esteems very foolishness: “Jly people is foolish;” “they are sottish chiliken, and they have none understanding.” Why? “They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge,” Jer. iv. 22. Wisdom is only to that
uuxatpttip 7r/j(ls Ttva’ ov5’ uu tU ih Ttxc XoTT&Sai lyQvs t/i/itiwhich is good; he is the wisest man who is simple and ignorant in the trade of evil, Rom. xvi. 19.” If anv
man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let
him become a fool, that he may be wise,” 1 Cor. iii. 18.
On the other side, the true and ultimate end of
righteous men, is Almighty God, as most
us; or the seeking of his gloiT, that ho may lie honoured by us; and or our own confess. i. i.e. i. salvation, that we may be glorified by nHm’vrUt m’^n!m him. The fruition of him as the highest ?3’’cfp“a’”’id.^’e’ and first in senere vert, and the greatest?’“”,’Si’’’,*;.5- ^- ?°
.D ’ ,.^ 1 ^-’*lt. Dvl,l.l2.c 1.
and last m genere born, the chiefest object for the mind to rest in by knowledge, and the heart by love; this must needs be the best of all ends, both in regard of its excellency, as being „ ,;,. infinitelv and most absolutely good; and requlri”, fruuionpm in regard of its eternity, so that the soul ET Su having once possession of it, can never Sr’TiU ‘[u’j. want that happiness which flows from <i civ. Dei, hb. li. it, John vi. 27. The proper means for the obtaining of this end, is the knowledge of God in Christ, as in his word he has revealed himself, to be known, worshipped, and obeyed; for there only does he teach us the way to himself: and true wisdom is the pursuing of this means in order to that end. For though many approaches may be made toward God by the search and contemplation of the creature, yet in his word he has shown us “a more” full and “excellent way,” which only can make us “wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus,” 2 Tim. iii. 15; Prov. ix. 10; Eccl. xii. 12, 13; Jer. ix. 23, 24.
All the thoughts and wisdom of men are spent on one of these two heads, either the obtaining of the good which we want, oi’ the avoiding and declining the evil which we fear. And by how much the more excellent and difficult the good is which we want, and by how much the more pernicious and imminent the evil which we fear, by so much gi’eater is the wisdom which in both these procures the end at which we aim. Now, then, what are the most excellent good things which we want? Food is common to us vid. .trisiot de iis with other creatures; raiment, houses, <iuic bon« sunt, et
,,. ‘., qu(c melioni et
lands, possessions, common to us with mnjora. Rhetor, the worst of men: take the most admu-ed” ’ “^’ perfections which are not hea■enly, and we may find very wicked men excel in them. All men will confess the soul to be more excellent than the body; and therefore the good of the former to be more excellent than that of the latter; and its chief good to be that which most advances it toward the Fountain of goodness, where is fulness of perfection, and perpetuity of fruition. The excellency of every thing consists in two things; the perfection of beauty wherein it was made, and the perfection of use for which it was made. The beauty of man, especially in his soul, consists in this, that he was made like to God, after his image, Gen. i. 26, 27; and his end and use in this, that he was made for God, first to serve him, and after to enjoy him: for “the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself,” Psal. iv. 3. “This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise,” Isa. xliii. 21. Therefore to recover the image of God, which is in “knowledge,” “righteousness, and true holiness,” Col. iii. 10; Eph. iv. 24; to work to the service and glory of God, John xv. 8; to aspire to and enjoy the possession and fruition of God, Exod. xxxiii. 18; Phil. 1. 23; must needs be man’s greatest good; and, consequently, to attend on the means thereof must needs be his greatest wisdom.
‘lniat is the most pernicious and destructive evil which a man is in danger of? Not the loss of any out-
)j. ‘AW* to-Tt TI9 f/i(jV»jffts tv Tia irpiiyfiaTi. Philemon apud Athenxum, lib. 7. cap. 11. ct Liv. Vb. 39.
ward good things whatsoever, for they are all in their nature perishable; we enjoy them on the very condition of parting with them again; no wisdom can keep them: “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; but God shall destroy both’ it and them,” 1 Cor. vi. 1.3. Not the suffering of any outward troubles, which the best of men have suffered and triumphed over. But the greatest loss is the loss of a precious soul, which is more worth than all the world, Matt. xvi. 2G; and the greatest suffering is the wrath of God on the conscience, Psal. xc. 11; Isa. xxxiii. 14; Heb. x. 31; ISIatt. X. 28. Therefore, to avoid this danger, and to snatch this “darling from the paw of the lion,”’ is of all other the greatest wisdom. It is wisdom to deliver a “city,” EccL ix. 15; much more to deliver ‘• .souls,’’ Prov. xi. 30. Angelical, seraphical knowledge, without this, is all worth “nothing,” 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 2.
Therefore we should learn to show ourselves wise indeed, by attendance on God’s word. If the most glorious creatures for wisdom and knowledge that ever Tij nhir ^^“^ made, the blessed angels, were emgeii ei senDUs evan- ployed in publishing the law of God, i;Stoiic»piiSma“° Acts vii. 53: Gal. iii. 19, and did with sSom^iSj?.” great admiration “look into” the myshan. Grejor xyssen. teries of the gospel, and stoop down
Horn. 8. in CaiitiC. 1 p ii
Tiieophyiact. et With their laccs towards the mercv-seat,
tEcmnea.inEph.3. pg; JO. Eph. iii. 10; Exod. XXXvii.
9; it cannot but be also our chiefest wisdom to hide the word in our hearts, and to make it our companion and “counsellor,” Psal. cxix. 21. We esteem him the wisest man who follows the best and safest counsel, and that which will most preserve and promote his interest, his honour, and his conscience. Herein was Rehoboam’s weakness, that by rash and passionate counsels he suffered his honour to be stained, his interest to be weakened, and his conscience to be defiled with resolutions of violence and injustice. Now there is no counsel to be compared with that of God’s word. It enlightens the eyes, it “maketh wise the simple,” Psal. xix. 7, 8.
It is able to make a man “wise “for him-Sc?,f ‘^’’hS self, and ‘• unto salvation,” which no other “”’P?’- “”if-iis counsel can do, 2 Tim. iii. 15, 16. No
case can be put, though of never so gi’eat intricacy and perplexity, no doubt so difficult, no temptation so knotty and involved, no condition whereinto a man can be brought so desperate, no employment GO dark and uncouth, no service so arduous or full of discouragements, in all which, so far as respects conscience and salvation, there are not most clear and satisfactoiy expedients to be drawn out of God’s word, if a man have his judgment and senses after a spiritual manner exercised therein. That we are so often at a stand how to state such a question, how to satisfy such a scruple, how to clear and expedite such a difficulty, how to repel such a temptation, how to manage such an action, how to order our ways with an even and composed spu’it in the various conditions whereinto we are cast in this world, arises not from any defect in the word of God, which is “perfect,” and able to furnish us “unto every good work,” but only from our own ignorance and imperfect acquaintance with it, who know not how to draw the general rule, and to apply it to our own particular cases. And this cannot but be matter of great humiliation to us in these sad and distracted times, when, besides our civil breaches, which thi-eaten desolation to the state, there are so many and such wide divisions in the church; that, after so long enjoyment of the word of God, the Scripture should be to so many men as a sealed book, and they, like the Egj-ptians, have the dark side of this glorious pillar towards them still; that men should be ‘• tossed to and fro” like children, “and carried about with every wind of doctrine,” and suffer themselves to be bewitched, devoured, brought into bondage, spoiled, led away captive, unskilful in the word of righteousness, unable to discern good and evil, to prove and “try the spirits whether they are of God,” always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of S” “.nllS ,i™ ukus the truth; and this not only in matters cir?„;’’^,.n.VTene-’ problematical, or circumstantial, wherein !;’;’, ‘;;’„’. “.”“”vS learned and godly men may differ from Piuincii. jc supe’rone another, and yet still the peace and unity of the church be preserved, (for things of this nature ought not to be occasions of schism, or secessions from one another,) but in matters which concern life and godliness, touching the power of God’s law, the nature of free grace, the subjection of the conscience to moral precepts, confession and deprecation of sin in prayer to God; the distinguishing true Christian liberty from loose, profane, and wanton licentiousness, and a liberty to vent and publish what perverse things soever men please; the very being of churches, of ministers, of ordinances, in the world; the necessity of humiliation and solemn repentance in times of public judgments; the toleration of all kinds of religions in Christian commonwealths; the mortality of the reasonable soul, and other the like pernicious and perverse doctrines of men of corrupt minds, (the devil’s emissaries,) purposely by him stirred up to hinder and puzzle the reformation of the church. These things, I say, cannot but be matter of humiliation to all that fear God, and love the prosperity of Zion; and occasions the more earnestly to excite them to this wisdom in the text, to hear what God the Lord says, and to lay his righteous ways so to heart, as to walk stedfastly in them, and never to stumble at them, or fall from them.
Now there are two things which the prophet, in this close of his prophecy, seems to intimate should chiefly engage the attention and animate the obedience of the wise and prudent in times of trouble; namely, 1. The judgments, and, 2. The blessings, of God; his righteous ways in his threatenings against impenitent, and in his promises made to penitent, sinners. These are the things which wise and prudent men will consider in times of trouble.
1. The judgments of God. There is a twofold knowledge of them; the one natural, by sense; the other spiritual, by faith. In the former way wicked men do abundantly know the afflictions which they suffer, even to vexation and anguish of spu’it. They “fret themselves,” Isa. viii. 21; “gray hairs are here and there upon” them from very trouble and soitow, Hos. vii. 9; they gnaw “their tongues for pain,” Rev. xvi. 10; “they pine away in thek iniquities,” Lev. xxvi. 39; they are “mad” in then’ calamities, have “a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and soiTow of mind,” Deut. xxviii. 34, 65. In the latter, or spmtual sense, wicked men discern not, so they are said in the Scripture, when they burn, when they consume, when they are devoured, not to know any of this, neither to lay it to heart, Isa. xlii. 25; Hos. vii. 9; Jer. xii. 11; and the reason is, because they know it not by faith, nor in a spiritual manner, leading them to God. They see not his name, nor bear his rod, nor consider his hand and counsel, in it; nor measure his judgments by his word, nor look on them as the fi-uits of sin, leading to repentance and teaching righteousness; nor as the arguments of God’s displeasure, humbling us under his holy hand, and guiding us to seek his face, and to recover our peace with him. This is the spu-itual and prudent way of knowing judgments, !Micah vi. 9; Isa. xxvi. 8, 9; xxvii. 9; Lev. xxvi. 40 — 42. Scire est per causam scire. True wisdom looks on things in their causes; resolves judgments into their causes; our sins to be bewailed, God’s wrath to be averted; it makes this observation upon them: Now I find by experience, that God is a God of truth; often have I heard judgments threatened against sin, and now I see that God’s
threatenings are not empty wind, but that all his words have truth and substance in them. The first part of wisdom is, to see judgments in the word before they come, and to hide from them; for as faith, in regard of promises, is “the substance of things hoped for,” and can discern a being in them while they are yet but to come; so, in respect of threatenings, it is the substance of things feared, and can sec a being in judgments before they are felt. The next part of wisdom is, to see God in judgments, in the rods when they are actually come, and to know them as leading to him. And that knowledge consists in two things: fij’st, to resolve them into him as their author; for nothing can hurt us without a commission from God, Job xix. 11. Satan spoils Job of his children, the Sabeans and Chaldeans strip him of his goods; but lie looks above all these to God, acknowledging his goodness in giving, his power in taking away, and blesses his name, Job i. 21. Joseph looks from the malice of his brethren to the providence of God; “God did send me before you to preserve life,” Gen. xlv. 5. If the whale swallow Jonah, God prepares him, Jonah i. 17: and if he vomit him up again, Godspcaksuntohim,ehap. ii. 10. Secondtem Jailmiu.’us’^t ly, to dlrcct them to him as the end; to Sp’^i’S™”!? te taught by them to seek the Lord, and
D?’1. Levis’’ ‘’’“^’ ‘’° ^^’^ °” ^™ ‘” ‘’^”^ y °* ‘^’^ judgments; to be more penitent for sin, more fearful and watchful against it; to study and practise the skill of suffering as Christians, according to the will of God, that he may be glorified, Psal. xciv. 12; cxix. 67, 71; Deut. viii. 16; Zech. xiii. 9; Isa. xxvi. 9; Heb. xii. 11; 1 Pet. iv. 16, 19.
2. The blessings of God. There is a double knowledge of them; one sensual by the flesh, the other spiritual in the conscience. The former is but a brutish and epicurean feeding on them without fear, as Israel
stop the mouths and dispel the cavils of all contradicters; so that they shall “not” be “able to resist,” or speak against, the truth that is taught, John xvi. 8; Tit. i. 9, 10; Acts vi. 10; Matt. xxii. 34. And the apostle calls his ministry, a declaration and a manifestation of the truth of God to the syiiopmi «:£iconsciences of men, 1 Cor. ii. 4; 2 Cor. to.’ALii*t’’uiiT” iv. 2. And Apollos is said mightily to ‘■ have “convinced the Jews,” “showing” or demonstrating ‘• by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ,” Acts xviii. 28. Therefore the apostle calls the devoting of ourselves to God, our “reasonable service,” Rom. xii. 1; and those that obey not the word, are called “unreasonable” or absurd men, that have not wisdom to discern the truth and equity of the wavs of God, 2 Thess. ill. 2. What can be more reasonable than that he who made all things for himself should be sen’ed by the creatm-es which he made? that we should live to him who gave us our being? that the supreme will should be obeyed, the infallible truth believed? that he who can destroy should be feared? that he who rewards should be loved and trusted in? that absolute justice should vindicate itself against presumptuous disobedience, and absolute goodness extend mercy to whom it pleases? It is no marvel that the Holy Spu-it brands wicked men on“m”iIiu,’i.’“5i!’ throughout the Scripture with the dis- “‘’■ “”^ graceful title of fools, because they reject that which is the supreme rale of wisdom, and has in it the greatest perfection and exactness of reason, Jer. viii. 9.
2. In regard of their mutual agreement and harmony.f As that which is right and straight has all its parts equal and agreeing one to another, so all the parts of Divine doctrine are exactly suitable and conformed to each other. The promises of God are not yea and nay, but yea and Amen, 2 Cor. i. 19, 20.
on the quails in the wilderness; as swine, which feed However there may be seeming repugnances to a earon the fruit that falls down, but never look up to the tree whereon it grew; to use blessings as Adam did the forbidden fruit, being dralni by the beauty of them to forget God, Hos. xiii. 6. But spiritual knowledge of blessings, is to taste and see the goodness of the Lord in them: to look up to him as their author, acknowledging that it is he who “giveth” us “power to get wealth,” and every other good thing, Deut. viii. 17, 18; Psal. cxxvii. 1; ‘Prov. x. 22; and to be drawn by them unto him as their end, to the adoration of his bounty, to the admiration of his goodness, to more cheerfulness and stronger engagements to his service; to say with Jacob, He gives me bread to eat. and raiment to put on, therefore he shall be my God, Gen. xxviii. 20, 21. He “giveth” me “richly all things to enjoy,” therefore I will “tru.st in” him, 1 Tim. vi. 17. Catalogues of mercy should beget resolutions of obedience. Josh. xxiv. 2 — 14.
II. The nature of the doctrines taught. “For the ways of the Lord arc right.” This integrity the prophet urges as a motive to induce us to Cfiisider them the more matiu-ely, and obey them the more implicitly. Now the doctrine of God’s judgments, precepts, and promises, is said to be right divers ways.
1. In regard of their equity and reasonableness. There is nothing more ])rofoundly and exactly rational than true religion; and therefore conversion is called by our Saviour conviction.* “And when he,” the Spirit of truth, “is come,” JXIylti, “he will convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment,” John xvi. 8. There is a power in the word of God to
Elonchus est syllopismus cum contradictione conchisionis. Arist. Elench. 1. 8. c. 1. Et eXi’yx“” “s’ ccrta argumentatione ilisputantem vincere. Stcph. ex Platonc.
nai and captious eye, (which may seem designedly allowed for the exercise of our diligence in seai’ching, and humility in adoring, the profoundness and perfection of the word.) yet the Scriptures have no obliquity in them at all, but all the parts thereof do most intimately agree one with another, as being written by the Sphit of truth who cannot lie nor deceive, who is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”
3. In regai’d of their directness to that end for which they were revealed to men, being the strait road to eternal life, “able to build” us “up, and to give” us “an inheritance,” Acts xx. 32. In which respect the word is called “the word of this life,” Acts v. 20, and “the gospel of” “salvation,” Eph. i. 13; yea, salvation itself, John iv. 22; xii. 50; Acts xxviii. 28, as being the way to it, and the instrument of it, 2 Tim. iii. 15 — 17; James i. 21.
4. In regard of their conformity to the holy nature and will of God, which is the original rule X of all rectitude and perfection. Law is nothing but the will of the lawgiver, revealed with an intention to bind those that are under it, and for the ordering of whom it was revealed. That will being in God most holy and perfect, the law or word, which is but the discovery of it, must needs be holy and i)crfect too; therefore it is called the “acceptable and perfect will of God,” Rom. xii. 2; Col. i. 9. It is also called a “word of truth,” importing a conformity between the mind and will of the sjjeaker and the word which is spoken by him; in which resjiect it is said to be “holy, and just, and good,” Rom. vii. 12.
sacro codice affirmatur, contrarium aliquid in hoc codice positum. nullum sibi locum vindicabit, &c. Cod. de vctcre Jure cnuclcandii, 1. 2. sect. la. et 1. 3. sect. 15.
1 Non idcirco juste voluit quia futurutn justum fuit quod voluit: scd quod voluit, idcirco justum fuit quia ipse voluil, &c. Hug. cle Sacrament, lib. 1. part. 4. cap. !■.
5. In regard of their plainness and perspicuity. They are doctrines in which men may walk surely, easily, without danger of wandering, stumbling, or miscarriage; as a man is out of danger of missing a way, if it be sU’aight and direct, without any turnings, and in no great danger of falling in it, if it be plain and smooth, and no stumbling-block left in it. Now such is the word of God to those who make it their way: a “straight” way, which looks dh’ectly forward, Psal. v. 8; Heb. xii. 13. An “even” and smooth way, which has no offence or stumbling-block in it, Psal. xxvi. 12; cxix. 165. True, there are Svavotira, hard things, to exercise the study and diUgence, the faith and prayers, of the profoundest scholars; water wherein an elephant may swim. But yet, as nature has made things of greatest necessity to be most obvious and common, as ajr, water, bread, and the like; whereas things of greater rarity, as gems and jewels, are matters of honour and ornament, not of daily use: so the wisdom of God has so tempered the Scriptures, that from thence the wisest Solomon ma)- fetch jewels for ornament, and the poorest Lazarus bread for life; but those things which are of common necessity, as matters of faith, love, worship, obedience, which are universally requisite to “the common salvation,” (as the apostle expresses it, Jude 3; Tit, i. 4,) are so perspicuously set down in the Holy Scriptures, that every one who has the Spirit of Christ, has therewithal a judgment to discern so much of God’s will as shall suffice to make him believe in Christ for righteousness, and by worship and obedience serve him unto salvation.* The way of holiness is so plain that simple men are made wise enough to find it out, and “the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein,” Psal. xis. 7; Isa. xxxii. 4; xxxv. 8; Matt. xi. 25. From all which
Obs. 3. We should take heed of quarrelling with any word of God, or presuming to pass any bold and carnal censure of ours on his righteous ways. When God sets his word energetically in its power on the spii’it of any wicked man, making his conscience to hear it as the voice of God, it usually works one of these two effects: either it subdues the soul to obedience by convincing, judging, and manifesting the secrets of his heart, so that he falleth dovra on his face and worshippeth God, 1 Cor. xiv. 25; or else it does by accident excite and enrage the natural love which is in every man to his lusts, stirring up all the proud arts and reasonings which the forge of a corrupt heart can shape in defence of those lusts against the sword of the Spirit which would cut them off, as that which hinders the coui’se of a river, accidentally enrages its force, and causes it to swell and overrun the banks. And from hence arise gainsaying and contradiction against the word of gi’ace, and the ways of God, as imequal and unreasonable, too strict, too severe, too hard to be observed, Ezek. xviii. 25; snuffing at it, Mai. i. 13, gathering odious consequences from it, Rom. iii. 8, replying against it, Rom. ix. 19, 20, casting reproaches on it, Jer. xx. 8, 9, enviously swell-
* In iis quse aperte in Scripturis posita simt iuveniimtur ilia omnia quae continent fidem, moresque vivendi. Aug. de Doct. Christian, lib. 2. c. 9. et Ep. 3. ad Volusian. et contr. Ep, Petilian. cap. 5. Vid. Theodoret. serm. 8. de Martyrib. f. 12.
t Ut vernula ilia apud Senecam qua: cum caeca esset, cubiculum esse tenebrosum querebatur. ‘Ev Tm irvpiTBiv wiKpa
TrdvTa Kal &i)dri xpaivETac yfyojutyoiS (iW ouK’ETt to
TTuTov aWi TiV v6(Tov alTi.uifi.18a. Plutarch, de Animi Tranquillitate.
X SiaX.oi’Tai TTpoi Ttis £7rt0i,/ii’(is Tiju ypatptjif. Clem. Alex. Strom, lib. 7. Eh Ta ISia fisTuyovn-i Soa.lhid. KXin-TQvct Toy Kavova Ttj-s iKKXiftriai, Tali toiaii iiridufjiiaLi Kat fpiXoSotati X“P^^^;UEj/oi. Ibid. “EXkoutsi Trpdi ti)V ‘iavTwvyjynu TO ivayyiXiov, &c. Justin. MartvT. Ep. ad Zenam. Simplicitatem sermonis ecclesiastici id volimt signiticare quod ipsi sentiunt. Hieron. Ep. Vid. Aug. de Doct. Christian, lib.
, &c. Vid.
rd. serm. 3.
de Resiirrect.
ing at it, Acts xiii. 45. There are few sins more dangerous than this of picking quarrels at God’s word, and taking up weapons against it. It will prove “a burdensome stone for” “all that burden themselves with it,” Zech. xii. 3; Matt. xxi. 44. Therefore whenever our crooked and corrupt reason offers to except against the ways of God as unequal, we must presently conclude as God does, Ezek. xviii. 25, that the inequality is in us, and not in them.t ‘Vlnien a lame man stumbles in a plain path, the fault is not in the way, but in the foot. Nor is the potion, but the palate, to blame, when a feverish distemper makes that seem bitter which is indeed sweet. He that removes in a boat from the shore, in the judgment of sense sees the houses or trees on the shore totter and move, whereas the motion is in the boat, and not in them. Unclean and corrupt hearts have unclean notions of the purest things, and conceive of God as if he were altogether such a one as themselves, Psal. 1. 21.
Obs. 4. We should come to God’s word always as to a rule by which we are to measure ourselves, and take heed of wresting it to the corrupt fancies of our own evU hearts, as the apostle saith some f.^^^^ voluntas promen do “unto their own destruction,” p“” e’ n° 2 Pet. iii. 16; Acts xiii. 10. Eveiy iiem.i;d. wicked man, though not formally and explicitly, yet really and in truth, sets up his own will against God’s, resolving to do what pleases himself, and not that which may please God, and consequently follows that reason and counsel which wait upon his own will, and not that word which reveals God’s. Yet because he that will serve himself would fain deceive himself too, (that so he may do it with less regxet of conscience,) and would fain seem God’s servant, but be his own, therefore corrupt reason sets itself on work to excogitate such distinctions and evasions as may serve to reconcile God’s word and a man’s own lust together. Lust saith. Steal. God saith, No, thou shalt not steal. Carnal reason, the advocate of lust, comes in and makes some evasive distinctions; I may not steal from a neighbour, but I may weaken an enemy, or pay myself the stipend that belongs to my service, if others do not: thus most innocent men may be made a prey to violent soldiers, who use the name of public interest to palliate their own rapacity. Certainly it is a high presumption to tamper with the word of truth, and make it bear false witness in favour of our own sins; and God will bring it to a trial at last whose will shall stand, his or ours.
Ob.i. 5. “The ways of the Lord” should be the boundary, both to the ministration of the preacher, and to the faith of the hearer. 1. To us in our ministry, that we deliver nothing to the people but the “right” “ways of the Lord,”§ without any commixtures or contemperations of our own. Mixtures are useful only for either of these two purposes, either to abate something that is excessive, or to supply something that is deficient, and to collect a virtue and efficacy out of many things, each one of which alone
3. cap. 10. Scripturas tenent ad speciem, non ad salutem. De Baptism, contr. Donat. lib. 3. cap. ult. Eas secundum suum sensum legunt. De Grat. Christ, lib. 1. c. 41. Sequitur voluptatem non quam audit, sed quam attulit, et vitia sua cum coepit putare similia praeceptis, indulget illis non timide nee obscure; luxnriatur etiam inoperto capite. Sen. de Vita Beata, cap. 13. Nondura haec negUgentia Deum venerat, nee interpretando sibi quisque jusjurandum et leges aptas faciebat, sed suos potins mores ad ea accommodabat. Liv. lib. .3.
S Aurum accepisti, aurum redde; nolo mihi pro aliis alia subjicias; nolo pro auro aut impudenter plumbum, aul fraudulenter iEramenta supponas; nolo auri speciem sed naturam plane. Vincent. Lirin. Lege Cornelia cavetur ut qui in aurum vitii quid addiderit, qui argenteos nummos adulterinos flaverit, falsi crimine teneasur. L. 9. P. Leg. Cornel, de Falsis. Qui tabulam legis refi.xerit vcl quid inde immutaverit, Lege Jidiapeculatus tenetur. L. 8. P. ad Leg. Jul. Pecidat.
6S4
EXPOSITIOX OF
would have been ineffectuaL And so all heterogeneous mixtures do plainly intimate either a viciousness to be corrected, or a weakness to be supplied, in ever)- one of the simples which are by human wLsdom tempered together in order to some effect. Now it were great wickedness to charge either of these on the pure and perfect word of God, and, consequently, to use deceit and insincerity by adulterating it, either by such glosses as diminish and take away fi-om its force, as the Pharisees did in their carnal interpretations, (confuted by our Saviour, Matt. v. 21, 27, 38, 43,) or by such superinducements of human traditions as argue any defect, which they also used. Matt. xv. 2, 9. Human arts and learning are of excellent use, as instruments in the managing and searching, and as means and witnesses in the explication, of holy writ, when piously and prudently directed to such uses. But to stamp any thing of a mere human original with a Divine character, and obtrude it on the consciences of men, (as the papists do their imwritten traditions,) to bind to obedience; to take any dead child of ours (as the harlot did, 1 Kings iii. 20) and lay it in the bosom of the Scripture, and father it on God; to build any structure of ours in the road to heaven, and stop up the way; is one of the highest and most daring presumptions to which the pride of man can aspire: to erect a throne in the consciences of his fellow creatures, and to counterfeit the great seal of heaven for the countenancing of one’s own forgeries, is a sin most severely provided against by God, with special prohibitions and threatenings, Deut. sii. 32; xviii. 20; Prov. XXX. 6; Jer. xxvi. 2. This therefore must be the great care of the ministers of the gospel, to show their fidelity in delivering only the “counsel of God” to his people. Acts xx. 27; to be as the two golden pipes which received oil from the oUve branches, and then emptied it into the gold, Zech. iv. 12; first to receive from the Lord, and then to deliver to the people, Isa. xxi. 10; Ezek. ii. 7; iii. 4; 1 Cor. xi. 23; 1 Pet. iv. 11. 2. The people are hereby taught, first, to examine the doctrines of men by the rule and standard of the word, and to measure them there, that so they may not be seduced by the craftiness of deceivers, and may be the more confirmed and comforted by the doctrine of sincere teachers; for though the judgment of interpretation belong principallv to the ministers of the word, yet God has given to all believ-Tid. mvenani-d. i? judgment of discretion, to “try the fidS* cii°”a z. ^P“^**’” ‘’“d to search” the Scriptures,” “whether those things” which they hear be so, 1 John iv. 1; Acts xvii. 11; 1 Thess. v. 21; for no man is to pin his own soul and salvation, by a blind obedience, on the words of a man who may mislead him; nav, not on the words of an ‘^’Slik’’“‘’” angel, if it were possible for an angel to deceive. Gal. i. 8; 1 Kings xiii. 18, 21; but only and immediately on the Scripture: otherwise, when the “blind lead the blind,” the leader only should “fall into the ditch,” and the other go to heaven for his blind obedience in following his guides toward hell; whereas our Saviour tells us “both shall fall into the ditch,” though but one be the leader. Matt. xv. 14; xxiii. 15. Secondly, having proved all things, to “hold fast that which is good;” with all readiness to receive the righteous ways of God, and submit to them, howmean soever the instrument be in our eves, how contrary soever his message be to our wills and lusts. “When God manifests his Spirit and w-ord in the mouths
Criminosior culpa, ubi status honcstior. — Qui Chrisliani (licimur, si simile aliquid barbaronuu impuritatibus facimus, gravius crramus; atrocius enim sub sancti nominis profcssionepeccamus: ubi sublimior est prxrogativa, major est culpa, fjalyian.^ lib. 4. Pussunt nostra et barbaronuu vitia esse paria, «cu in his tamen vitiis uccessc est peccata nostra esse graviora
of his ministers, we are not to consider the vessel, but the treasure, and to receive it as from Christ, who, “unto the end of the world,” in the dispensation of his ordinances, “speaketh from heaven” unto the church. Matt, xxviii. 20; 2 Cor. v. 20; 1 Thess. ii. 13; Heb. xii. 25.
HI. The twofold use made thereof by different kinds of men.
1. To the just, the Lord’s ways are a way of happiness: “The just shall walk in them.” And this leads us to
Obs. 6. Obedience, and walking in the right ways of the Lord, is the end of the ministry; that the saints may be perfected, that the body of Christ may be edified, that men may “grow up into” Christ “in all things.” Eph. iv. 11 — 15; that their eyes may be opened, and they turned from “darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,” Acts xxvi. 16 — 18. The prophet concludes that he has “laboured in vain” if “Israel be not gathered,” Isa. xlix. 4, 5; without this “the law of the Lord” is “in rain made,” “the pen of the scribes is in vain,” Jer. viii. 8; better not know “the way of righteousness,” than, having known it, “to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto” us, 2 Pet. ii. 21. We should esteem it a great misery to be without preaching, without ordinance*, and so indeed it is; of all famine, that of the word o; the Lord is tie most dreadful; better be with GodV presence in a wilderness, than in Canaan without him. Exod. xxxiii. 15; better “the bread of adversity, and water of affliction,” than “a famine” “of hearing the words of the Lord,” Isa. xxx. 20; Amos viii. 11: this is “mischief” “upon mischief,” when “the law” doth “perish from the priest,” and “a vision j,-,j j „, j,„j ,,,. of the prophet” is sought in vain, Ezek. J’;!’’ “‘”,’” f,,“^ vii. 26; and yet it is much better to be n-iiuirircjoicztni in this case, without a teaching priest, c’iSS!^=“pSSI^ and without the law, than to enjoy them, *’’’’”• ‘’•• and not to walk answerably to them, ^^’here the word is not a savour of life, it is a “savour of death unto death,” exceedingly multiplying the damnation of those that despise it, 2’ Cor. ii.’l6; Matt. xi. 22, 24. 1. Those sins which it finds, it ripens; making them much more sinful than in other men, because committed against greater light and more mercy.* One and the same sin in a heathen, is not so heinous and hatefid as in a Christian. Those trees on which the sun constantly shines, have their fruit become riper and larger than those which grow in a shady and cold place. The rain will hasten the grow-th as well of weeds as of com, and make them ranker than in a drj- and barren ground. 2. It superadds many more and greater; for the greatest sins of all, are those which are committed against light and grace, John ix. 41; xv. 22 — 24; sins against the law and prophets, greater than those which are committed against the glimmerings of nature, Ezek. ii. 5: iii. C, 7; and sins against Christ and the gospel, greater than those against the law, Heb. ii. 2, 3; x. 28, 29: such are, unbelief, impenitency, apostacy, despising of salvation, preferring death and sin before Christ and mercy; judging ourselves unworthy of eternal life. 3. By tlicse means it both hastens and multiplies judgments. The sins of the church are much sooner ripe for the sickle than the sins of Amorites; they are “nigh unto cursing,” Heb. vi. 8; “summer fruit,” sooner shaken off than others, Amos viii. 1; Jer. i. 11, 12. Christ comes “quickly” to remove his candlestick from the abusers of it, Rev. ii. 5. The word is a rich
—NunquiJ dici de Hunnis potest, ecce quales sunt qui Christiani esse dicuntur? iiunquid de Saxonibus et Francis, ecce quid faciunt, qui se assorunt Cbristi esse cultores? Nunquid propter Mauroriun cfferos mores le sacro-sancta culpatur? — Evaogelia legunt, et impudici sunt; apostolos audiunt, et inebriaiitur; Christum sequuatur, et rapiuQt, &c. Ibid.
THE rnOPIIECY OF HOSEA. mercy in itself, but nothing makes it effectually and in the event a mercy to us but our walking in it.
Obs. 1. We never make the Scriptures the rule of our life and conversation, till we be first justified. Our obedience to the rule of the law written in the Scriptures, proceeds from those suitable impressions of holiness wi-ought in the soul by the Sphit of regeneration, which is called the writing of the law in our hearts, Jer. xxxi. 33; 2 Cor. iii. 3; or the casting of the soul into the mould of the word, vrimvuari Si sk Kagoiag £1’j ov 7rapet’60i;7£ tvitov ciSaxrK, llom. vi. 17. We are never fit to receive God’s ti’uth in the love and obedience of it, till we repent and be renewed. ‘• If God,” saith the apostle, “will give repentance to the acknowledging of the truth,” 2 Tim. ii. 25. “The wise in heart,” that is, those that are truly godly, (for none but such are in the Scriptures accounted wise men,) these “will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall,” Prov. X. 8; where by “prating “I understand cavilling, contradicting, taking exceptions at, and making objections against, the commandment, and so falling and stumbling. To such the apostle James saith, chap. i. 19, “Let every man be swift to hear,” that is, ready to learn the will and to receive the commandment of God: but ‘•■ slow to speak, slow to wrath,” that is, careful that he suffer no pride and passion to rise up and speak against the things which are taught: as Job saith, “Teach me, and I will hold my tongue,” Job vi. 24. For the only reason why men fret and swell, and speak against the truth of God, is because they will not work righteousness. “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God,” James i. 20. Therefore men are “contentious,” because they love not to “obey the truth,” Rom. ii. 8. Disobedience is the mother of gamsaying, Rom. X. 21. When we once resolve to “lay apart all filthiness,” then we will “receive with meekness the engrafted word,” James i. 21, and not before. None hear God’s words but they who are of God, John viii. 47; none hear the voice of Christ but the sheep of Christ, John x. 4, 5. Christ preached is “the power of God, and the wisdom of God,” but it is only “unto them which are called;” to others a stumbling-block, and foolishness, 1 Cor. i. 23, 24. “We speak wisdom,” saith the apostle, but it is “among them that are perfect,” 1 Cor. ii. 6. He that is subject to one prince, cares not greatly to study the laws of another; or if he do, it is in order to curiosity, and not to duty. So long as men resolve of Christ, “We will not have this man to reign over us,” Luke xix. 14, so long either they study not his word at all, or it is in order to some carnal and corrupt ends, and not to obedience or salvation.
Hereby we may try om- spiritual estate, whether we be just men or no; if we make God’s word our way, our rule, our delight, laying it up in our hearts, and labouring to be rich in it, that we may walk with more exactness. It was an ill sign of love to Christ, the blaster of the feast, when men chose rather to tend their cattle and grounds than to wait on him, Luke xiv. 18; an ill sign of valuing his doctrine, when the loss of their swine made the Gadarenes weary of his company, Luke viii. 37. There was much work to do in the house, when Maiy neglected it all, and sat at her Lord’s feet to hear his doctrine, and yet was commended by him for it. He was better pleased to see her hunger after the feast which he brought, than solicitous to provide a feast for him; more delighted in her love to his doctrine, than her sister’s care for his entertainment, Luke X. 41, 42. This is one of the surest characters of a godly man, that he makes the word in all things his rule and counsellor, labom’ii% continually to get thereby more acquaintance with God and his holy will,
Oux
u ypatpal yiyovamv aiiTols tuxi’ai dW i” aipuiuyppoGw. Athaaas. de Synod. Arim, et Seleuc.
Prov. X. 14; John xv. 7; Col. iii. 16. It is his way; and every man endeavours to be skilful in the way which he is to travel. It is his tool and instrument; every workman must have that in readiness, to measure and carry on all the parts of his work. It is his wisdom; every one would be esteemed a wise man in that which is his proper function and profession. It is the mystery and trade to which he is bound; and every man would have the reputation of skill in his own trade. It is his charter, which sccm-es all the privileges and immunities which belong to him; and every citizen would willingly know the privileges to which he has a right. It is the testament and will of Clu-ist, wherein are given unto us “exceeding great and precious promises;” and what heir or child would be ignorant of the last will of bis father? Lastly, it is the law of Christ’s kingdom; and it concerns every subject to know the duties, the rewards, the punishments, which belong to him in that relation.
2. To the wicked the holy and right ways of the Lord, in the ministry of his word, become an occasion of stumbling: “The transgressors shall fall therein.” And that in two manner of ways: 1. Of scandal, they are offended at them. 2. Of ruin, they are destroyed by them.
1. By way of scandal, they are offended at them. So it is prophesied of Christ, that as he should be for “a sanctuary” to his people, so to others, who would not trust in him, but betake themselves to their own counsels, he should be for “a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence; for a gin and for a snare,” Isa. viii. 14; “for the fall and rising again of many in Israel j and for a sign” to be “spoken against,” Luke ii. 34. So he saith of himself, “For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind,” John ix. 39. And this offence which wicked men „
.. „. Bon« res neminem
take at Christ, is irom the purity and scandafcant nisi holiness of his word, which they cannot tctS! de vdind. submit to: “a stone of stumbling” he “‘“s-^p-^- is,” and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient,” 1 Pet. ii. 8; 2 Cor. ii. 14, 15. Thus Christ preached was “a sanctuary” to Sergius Paulus the deputy, and “a stumbling-block “to Elj-mas the sorcerer;” a sanctuary “to Dionysius and Damaris, and “a stumbling-block” to the wits and philosophers of Athens; “a sanctuary “to the Gentiles that begged the preaching of the gospel, and” a stumbhng-block” to the Jews that conti’adicted and blasphemed, Acts xiii. 42, 45: the former primarily and per se; for salvation was the purpose of his coming, there was sin enough to condemn the world before; “I came not,” saith he, “to judge the world, but to save the world,” John xii. 47. The other occasionally, not by any mtrinsic evil ^■iJ-i“»°^.ii>>-5- quality in the word, which is “holy, and just, and good,” and deals with all meekness and beseechings, even towards obstinate sinners ;* but by reason of the pride and stubbornness of those men who dash against it; as that wholesome meat which ministers strength to a sound man, but feeds the disease of another that sits at the same table with him; the same light which is a pleasure to a sti’ong eye, is a pain to a weak one; the same sweet smells which delight the brain, afflict the matrix when it is distempered; and none of this by the infusion of malignant qualities, but only by an occasional working upon and exciting of those which were before present.
And there are many things in the word of God at which the corrupt hearts of wicked men are apt to stumble and be offended. As, 1. Its profundity and depth,! as containing great mysteries above the dlst Atlij loyt(Tfxoi dv&puiirlvoi diivvviiv TuQi’ia, dWa ■Trods TO ^ot/Xrlua Trjs ^icaffK’aXirtS tov TTVivfxaTO’S Ttov 6yiopiroti’iat Tt’iv iKSrc(Ttv. Justin. Exposit. Fidei.
AN EX1^0SmO OF
covery or search of created reason. Such is the pride and wantonness of sinful wit, that it knows not how to believe what it cannot comprehend, and must have all doctrines tried at its own bar, and measured by its own balance; as if a man should attempt to weigh out the earth in a pair of scales, or to empty the waters of the sea with a bucket. As soon as Paul mentioned the resurrection, presently the Athenian wits mocked his doctrine. Acts xvii. .32; and it was a great stumbling-block to Nicodemus, to hear that a man “must be born again,” John iii. 4. Sarah has mxich ado to believe beyond reason, Gen. xviii. 12; and Moses himself was a little staggered by this temptation, Numb. xi. 21, 22. A very hard thing it is for busy and inquisitive reason to rest in an i /3d9og, “Oh the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” and to adore the unsearchableness of his judgments, though even human laws tell us that the reason of law is not always to be inquired into.* The great heresies against the highest mysteries of Christian religion, the Trinity, the two natures of Christ, the hy])Ostatical union, the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, had their first rise among the Grecians, who were then the masters of wit and learning, and esteemed the rest of the world barbarous; t and the old exception which they were wont to take at the doctrine of Clu’istianity, was its “foolishness,” 1 Cor. i. 23.
2. Its sanctity and strictness, as contrary to the carnal wills and aft’ections of men: for as corruption deifies reason in the way of wisdom, not willingly allowing any mysteries above its own scrutiny and comprehension; so does it deify will with respect to liberty and power, and loves not to have any authority set over that which may confine or restrain it. As Joshua said to Israel, “Ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God,” Josh. xxiv. 19, we may say of the law. We cannot submit to the law, because it is a holy law. “The carnal mind” “is not,” cannot be, “subject to the law of God,” Kom. viii. 7. Heat and cold will ever be oflfensive to one another; and such are flesh and Spirit, Gal. V. IT. Therefore, ordinarily, the arguments against the ways of God have been drawn from politic or carnal interests. Jeroboam will not worship at Jerusalem, lest Israel revolt to the house of David, 1 Kings xii. 27. Amos must not prophesy against the idolatry of Israel, for “the land is not able to bear all his words,” Amos vii. 10. The Jews conclude Christ must not be let alone, lest “the Romans” “come and take away both” their “place and nation,” John xi. 48. Demetrius and the craftsmen will by no means have Diana spoken against, because by making shrines for her they got their wealth. Acts six. 24, 25. Corruption will “close with religion a great way, and “hear gladly,” and do “many things” willingly, and part with much to escape damnation; but there is a particular point of rigour and strictness in every unregenerate man’s case, which, when pressed close upon, causes him to stumble, and to bo oft’ended, and to break the ticaty. The hypocrites in the prophet will give “rams,” and “rivers of oil,” and their “first-bom,” “the fruit of” their “body for the sin of” their “sou!:” “but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with” their “God;” to do away “the treasures of wicketbiess,” “the scant measure,” “the bag of deceitful weights,” “violence,” “lies,” the “deceitful” “tongue,” “the statutes of Omri,” or “the works of the house of Ahab;” durussernio, this is intolerable: they will rather venture “smiting” and “desolation,” than be held to terms .so Bcvere, Micah vi. G — IG. The young man will come to Christ, yea, i-un to him, and kneel, and desire instruc-
* OitSt yap 0V9 Avdponroi vofiovi TiQitrrat Td fvXoyov airXwv lyova-i Kal ‘jravroTt ^aivofifvov. Plutarch tie sera numinis vindicti. Non omnium quoe a majoribus coustitutation touching the way to eternal life, and walk with much care in observation of the commandments; but if he must ])art with all, and instead of great possessions, take up a cross and follow Christ, and fare as he fared, this is indeed a hard saying; he that came “running,” went away “grieved” and “sad,” and on this one point do he and Christ part, Mark x. 17, 22. Herod will hear John gladly, and do many things, and observe and reverence him as a just and holy man; but in the case of Herodia,s he must be excused, on this issue he and salvation shake hands, “Mark vi. 20, 27. Tills is the difl’erence between hypocritical and sincere conversion: that goes far, and parts with much, and proceeds to almost; but when it comes to the very turning point, and ultimate act of regeneration, it then plays the part of “an unwise son,” and stays “long in the place of the breaking forth of children,” Hos. xiii. 13; as a foolish merchant, who, in a rich bargain of a thousand pounds, breaks upon a difference of twenty shillings. But the other is contented to part with all, to suffer the loss of all, to carry on the treaty to a full and final conclusion, to have all the armour of the strong man taken from him, that Christ may divide the spoils, Luke xi. 22; Psal. cxix. 128; to do the hardest duties if they be commanded, Gen. xxii. 3.
3. The seaiching, convincing, and penetrating quality which is in the word, is a great matter of offence to wicked men, when it cuts them to the heai’t, as Stephen’s sermon did his hearers, Acts vii. 54. Light is of a discovering and manifesting property, Eph. v. 13, and for that reason is hated by “every one that doeth evil,” John iii. 20; for though the pleasure of sin to a wicked man be sweet, yet there is bitterness in its root and issue; he who loves to enjoy the pleasure cannot endure to hear of the guilt. Now the work of th9»^vord is to “take” men “in their own heart,” Ezek. xiv. 5; to make “manifest” to a man “the secrets of his heart,” 1 Cor. xiv. 25; to pierce like arrows “the heart of the king’s enemies,” Psal. xiv. 5; to divide asunder the “soul and spirit,” “the joints and marrow,” and to be ‘■ a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart,” Heb. iv. 12: Isa. xlix. 2. This act of discovery cannot but exceedingly gall the spii-its of wicked men; it is like the voice of God unto Adam in Paradise, Adam, “where art thou?” Gen. iii. 9; or like the voice of Ahijali to the wife of Jeroboam, “I am sent to thee with heavy tidings,” 1 Kings xiv. 6.
4. The plainness and simplicity of the gospel is likewise matter of offence to the wicked, 2 Cor. x. 10; and that partly for the preceding reason; for the more plain the word is, the more immediate access has it to the conscience, and the more effect upon it. Mere human elegance, fineness of wit, and delicacy of expression, oftentimes stop at fancy, and take possession of that, as the body of Asahel caused the passers-by to stand still and gaze, 2 Sam. ii. 23. And wicked men can be contented to admit the word any whither, so they can keep it out of their conscience, which is its only proper subject, 2 Cor. iv. 2. When I hear men magnify quaint and polite discourses in the ministrj’ of the word, and speak against sermons that are plain and wholesome, I look upon it not so much as an act of pride, (though the wisdom of the flesh is very apt to scorn the simplicity of the gospel,) but indeed as an act of fear and cowardice; because, where all other external trimmings and dresses arc wanting to tickle the fancy, there the word has the more weighty and downright operation on the conscience, and must consequently the more startle and terrify.
5. The great diflidlilty, and indeed impossibility, of
sunt ratin rcddi potest, et ideo rationes corumque cuustituunliir, inquiri non oportct. P. lib. 1. T. 4. Leg. 211, 21.
t Vid. Hooker, lib. 5. 3. Mater omnium hxreticoruinsupcrbia. Aug. de Gen. contr. Manichfcos, lib. 2. cap. 8.
obeying the word in its strictness and rigour, is another ground of scandal; that God in his word should command men to do that which indeed cannot be done. This was matter of astonishment to the disciples themselves, when our Saviour told them that it was “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the lungdom of God,” Mark x. 25. This was the cavil of the disputant in the apostle against the counsels of God, “Why doth he yet find fault?” if he harden whom he will, why does he complain of our hardness, which it is impossible for us to prevent, because none can resist his will? Rom. ix. 19. Now to this scandal we answer, fii-st, that the law of God was not originally,* nor is it intrinsically or in the natm-e of the thing, impossible; but accidentally, and by reason of natui’al corruption, which is enmity against it. A burden may be very portable in itself, which he who is a cripple may not be able to bear. The defect is not in the law, but in us, Rom. viii. 3. Secondly, that of this impossibility there may be made a most excellei.t use,t that being convinced of impotency in ourselves, we may have recourse to the perfect obedience and righteousness of Christ, to pai-don all our violations of it, Gal. iii. 21, 24. Thirdly, being regenerated and endued with the Spirit of Christ, the law becomes evangelically possible to us again; J yea, not only possible, but sweet and easy, Rom. lii. 22; 1 John v. 3; Matt. xi. 30: though impossible to the purpose of justification and legal covenant, which require perfection of obedience under pain of the curse. Gal. iii. 10; in which sense it is a yoke which cannot be borne. Acts xv. 10, a commandment which cannot be endured, Heb. xii. 20; yet possible to the purpose of the acceptation of our sernces done in obedience to it, the spiritual part of them being presented by the intercession, and the carnal defects covered by the righteousness, of Christ, in whom the Father is always well pleased. Fourthly, if any wicked man presume to harden himself in the practice of sin under this pretence, that it is impossible for him to avoid it, because God hardeneth “whom he will,” though the apostolical increpation be answer sufiicient, “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?” Rom. ix. 20; yet he must further know, that he is not only hardened judicially by the sentence of God, Cor ifipideiira non ‘^“‘’ most wilHngly also by his own stubsignificat nisi d.iris- born lovB of sin, and giving himself over et advtrsiis Deura to sinning with all gi’eediness, and theredfGS!’ct”L.b*iub. by actively brings on himself those indis- ‘■ ‘*■ positions to diitj-, so that the law being
impossible to be performed by him is indeed no other than he would himself have it to be, as bearing an active enmity and antipathy unto it.
6. The mercy and free grace of God in the promises are to wicked men an occasion of stumbling, while they turn it into “lasciviousness,” and “continue in sin that grace may abound,” Rom. vi. 1; Jude 4; and venture to make work for the blood of Christ, not being led by “the goodness of God” “to repentance,” but hardening themselves in impenitency because God is good, Rom. li. 4. There is not any thing at which wicked men more ordinarily stumble than at mercy, as gluttons surfeit most on the greatest dainties; venturing upon this ground to go on in sin, because they cannot out-sin mercy; and to put off repentance from day to day, because they are still under the ofl’ers of mercy;
* Non fuit impossibile ^uando praeeeptum est, seel stultitiapeccantis impossibile sibi fecit. Gul. Paris, de Vitiis et Peccat, cap. 10. Neque euirn sue vitio non implebatur le.^, sed vitio prudentiae carnis. Aug. de Spir. et Lit. cap. 19.
t Nee latuit praeceptorem prcecepti pondus hominnm excedere vires; sed judicavit utile ex hoc ipso suae illos insufficicnliaa admoneri — Ergo mandando impossibilia non prcevaricatores homines fecit sed humiles, ut crane os obstruatur, et
making mercy not a sanctuary to which to fly from sin, but a sanctuary to protect and countenance sin; and so by profane and desperate presumption turning the very mercy of God into a judgment, and savour of death unto themselves, pretending liberty from sin that they may continue in it, and abuse God by his own gifts, Deut. xxix. 19, 20; Numb. xv. 30.
7. The thi-eatenings of God set forth in his word, and executed in his judgments on wicked men, are great occasions of stumbling to them, when they are not thereby, with Manasses, humbled under God’s mighty hand, but, with Pharaoh, hardened the more in their stubbornness against him. There is such desperate wickedness in the hearts of some men, that they can even sit down and rest in the resolutions of perishing, resolving to enjoy the nipaia’pino, Bacpleasures of sin while they may: “To- ai’ils.’ioeesii’t’.iihemorrow we die,” therefore in the mean ^’^eUib’i’;’’’ c*?.“‘’’ time “let us eat and diink,” 1 Cor. xv. 32. “Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?” 2 Kings vi. 33. There are three men in the Scripture that have a special brand or mark of ignominy set upon them, Cain, Dathan, and Ahaz. “The Lord set a mark upon Cain,” Gen. iv. 15. “This is that Dathan,” and, “This is that king Ahaz,” Numb. xxvi. 9; 2 Chron. xxviii. 22. And if we examine the reasons, we shall find that the sin of stubbornness had a special hand in it. Cain’s offering was not accepted, on this he grew wroth and sullen, and stubborn against God’s gentle warning, and slew his brother. Dathan and his companions, sent for by Moses, return a proud and stubborn answer, “We will not come up,” “we will not come up,” Numb. xvi. 12, 14. Ahaz, greatly distressed by the king of Syria, by the Edomites, by the Philistines, by the Assyrian, and in the midst of all this distress stubborn still, and trespassing “yet more against the Lord,” 2 Chrpn. xxviii. 22. It is one of the saddest symptoms in the world for a man, or a nation, not to be humbled under the correcting hand of God, but, like an anvil, to grow harder under blows; and a most sure argument that God win not give over, but go on to multiply his judgments still, for he will overcome when he judgeth, and therefore will judge till he overcome. In musical notes there are but eight degrees, and then the same are repeated again; and philosophers, when they distinguish degrees in qualities, usually make the eighth degree the highest: but in the wrath of God against those who impenitently and stubbornly stand out against his judgments, we shall find no fewer than eight and twenty degrees threatened by God himself; “I will punish you seven times more,” and yet “seven times more,” and again, “yet seven times,” and once more, “seven times for your sins,” Lev. xxvi. 18, 21, 24, 28. Thus wicked men do not only stumble at the word by way of scandal, but also,
2. By way of ruin, because they are sure in the end to be destroyed thereby; for the rock stands still, the ship that dashes against it only is broken. God’s word is and will be too hard for the pride of men; the more they resist it, the mightier will it appear in their condemnation. The weak corn which yields to the wind is not harmed by it; but the proud oak which resists it is many times broken in pieces. The soul which submits to the word is saved by it; the soul which rebels against it is sure to perish. Therefore since the
subditus fiat onmis mundus Deo, quia ex operibus legis non justificabitur omnis caro coram illo: accipientes quippe mandatum, et sentientes defectum, clamabimus in ccehuu et miserebitur nosti-i Deus. Bernard. Ser. 50. in Cantic.
i Lex data, ut gratia quaereretur, gratia data ut lex impleretur. Aug, de Sp, et Lit. c, 19. Omnia tiant charitati facilia. De Nat. et Grat. cap. 69. De Grat. Christ, cap. 9. De Grat. et Lib. Arb. cap. 15.
Cii.vr. XIV.
word conies not to any man in vain, but rctmns glory to God either in his conversion or in his hardening, it greatly concerns evei-y man to come to it with meek, penitent, docile, tractable, believing, obedient resolutions; and to consider how vain and desperate a thing it is for a potsherd to strive with a rod of iron; for the pride and wrath of man to give a challenge to the justice and power of God; for briers and thorns to set themselves in battle against fire. As “our God is a consuming fue” himself, so his law is “a fiery law,” Heb. xii. 29; Deut. xxxiii. 2; and his word in the mouths of his ministers “a fire,” Jer. v. 14; xxiii. 29. If we be “gold” it will “purify” us; if “thorns,” it will “devour” and feed upon us. “This is the condemnation,” saith our Saviour, “that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because then- deeds were evil,” John iii. 19. There was condemnation in the world before, while it lay in darkness and in mischief, and knew not whither it went; but not so heavy condemnation as that which grows out of light. When physic, which should remove the disease, co-operates with’ it, then death comes with the more pain and the more speed. The stronger the conviction of sin is, the deeper will be the wTath against it, if it be not by repentance avoided. No surfeit more dangerous than that of bread, no judgment more terrible than that which grows out of mercy known and despised: “The word that I have spoken,” saith Girist, “the same shall judge” you “in the last day,” John xii. 48. Every principle of truth which is by the word begotten in the hearts of disobedient sinners, and is held down and suppressed by unrighteousness, lies there like fire
raked up under ashes, which at that great day will kindle into an unquenchable flame. The word can bring much of hell upon the spirit of impenitent sinners here; it can hew, and cut, and pierce, and burn, and torment, and root out, and pull down, and destroy, and strike with trembling and amazement, sinners the proudest and most secure, Hos. vi. 5; Acts vii. 54; Hcb. iv. 12; Isa. xlix. 2; Psal. xlv. 5; Rev. xi. 5, 10; Jer. i. 10; 2 Cor. X. 4; Acts xxiv. 2.5. We need no messenger from the dead to tell us of the torments there. All tlic rhetoric in hell cannot set forth hell more to the life than Moses and the prophets have done aheady, Luke xvi. 31. But oh what a hell will it be at last, when the word which warned us of it shall throw us into it! when every offer of mercy which we have refused, and every threatening of wrath which we have despised, shall accompany us to the tribunal of Christ to testify against us, and into the fire of hell to upbraid us with our own perdition! Oh the doleful condition of impenitent sinners! if they have not the word they perish for the want, and if they have it they perish doubly for the contempt of it. Oh that men would consider the teiTor of the Lord and be persuaded; and that they would learn so much wisdom as not to arm the very mercy of God against themselves ‘A bj-idge is made to give us a safe passage over a dangerous river, but he who stumbles on the bridge is in danger to fall into the river. The word is given as a means to carry us over hell into heaven, but he who stumbles and quarrels at this means shall fall in thither, from whence otherwise he had been delivered by it.