The Earth in the Covenant
God hath put the earth into the covenant. Though the saints have not their reward in this life, their portion in this world, yet this world also is theirs, “The meek shall inherit the earth,’ Matt. v. 5. “« Things present, and things to come, all are yours,” 1 Cor. iii. 22.
I, The good things present.
II. The evil things present.
I. The good things present, ‘ Houses and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, now in this time,’ Mark x. 30. “Length of days are in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour,” Prov. iii. 16. Houses, and lands, and riches, and honours, where are they?
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Who are the poor of this world, the houseless, har. bourless, and friendless? Who have wo, and want, and shame, and sorrow? Who are strangers and pilgrims, dwelling in tents, driven into corners, into dens, and caves, hunted up and down upon the mountains of the earth? ‘To whom is hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, but to the meek of the earth? Is this to inherit the earth? All theirs, when nothing theirs? yet they do inherit the earth. For:
1. They shall ever have as much as will suffice thein, and that is as much as all. They shall not want any thing, but what they may want, “your Father knoweth that you have need of these things;” and he knows how much they need. More than needs, is more than enough; and more than enough is a prejudice. Many men have too much; too much money, too much esteem, too many friends;; more than they can bear; so much as to sink them, and drown them in perdition and destruction.
Christians shall have enough; they shall never be in such a needy state, but whatever is necessary for them in all the earth they shall have it. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof;”? and he hath said, that those that seek him shall not want any thing that is good, Psa. xxxiv. 10. If the whole world can supply them out of all its store they shall be supplied.
2. What they have, they have a better and further title to, than any others in the world. Though the dominion be not founded in grace, yet, by grace, it is established. What they have descends upon them not barely by providence, but by promise, Heb. i. 2. Christ is heir of all things, and they are fellow-heirs with Christ. A little coming from the promise hath more in it than the greatest abundance that is only handed down by common providence; that which comes in from the promise, comes in with a blessing; if thou hast but a handful, thou hast a blessing in thy hand; if thou hast
but a corner, thou hast a blessing in thy corner. A
little from love is a great blessing. Thou hast God in every morsel thou eatest, and in every drop that thou drinkest; a drop from heaven will tum thy bran into the finest flour, and thy water into wine.
Oh what serene and quiet lives, how void of care, distracting care, might the saints live in the world! What are the burdens that do gall our backs? what are the briers that tear our flesh? what are the thorns that pierce through our hearts ordinarily, but the cares of this life? What shall I eat? what shall L drink? wherewith shall I be clothed? where shall I dwell? how little have I for to-day? what for to-morrow? what for hereafter? how shall I secure what I have? when this is gone, whence shall I be supplied? Thus do we go on, piercing ourselves through with many sorrows. Our cares for supply eat up what we have; our thoughts cut deeper than our wants; we cannot at so cheap a rate fear, as we often bear the want of all things.
And why take ye thought? “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof;” and he hath said, All this is yours, you shall want nothing.” You have not only your providence to live upon;’ you have also the promise before you, and this hath all things in it; all is yours. What for to-morrow? what for hereafter? Why, what saith the promise? Thou shalt want nothing, neither thou nor thine. Never saw I the righteous forsaken, nor their seed begging their bread.”
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Hast thou two worlds made sure to thee, and.
canst thou want? thou mayest as well whine, and make a pitiful cry at a full table, O where shall I
have my next morsel? as under such a full promise,
O where shall I have my next meal? Oh how much beneath the spirit of christianity are the carking anxious lives of too many christians, you do not believe, you do not believe; you talk of your covenant-right, of your part in the promise, of living by faith; but where is any such thmg? Can you trust God for your souls, and can you not trust him for your bodies, for your children? Believe, and you will make as much, and be satisfied as well, with a penny in the promise, with a meal in the promise, with house in the promise, as with a penny in your purse, or a meal in your cupboard.
What dost thou get by all thy cares “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?” one farthing to his store? If thou lose nothing by them, thou mayest surely put all thy gains into thine eyes; tears and trouble are all they will add to thee. Be quiet, and nothing will ail thee; let not any straits sting thee before they are; want not before thou wantest; let not the winter’s frost nip thee, while it is yet summer.
Know when thou art well, and be content, All is thine; if thou inheritest thy God, thou inheritest the earth, nothing of all its store shall be kept back from thee, that is necessary for thee; only thou must not look to be thine own carver; thy God will carve out what thou needest, Let enough suffice thee, and thou shalt never have too little. Thou shalt never have so little, but thou mayest say, this little is enough.
What if what thou wantest in water, be made up
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in wine? If thou hast but little in bran, but the more in flour? A short meal with a smile from Heaven, thou mayest count no fast, but a feast; a Jittle oil in the cruse, how far will it go with a smile, the blessing of the covenant? If the upper spring run freely, thou mayest abate a nether spring. Let my beloved comfort me with his apples, and
stay me with his flagons; and let the rest be as little and as coarse as it will, Let the promise be my portion, let the pipes be kept open to my soul, and then the least pittance for this carcass shall suffice me. O, my Lord, let me feed with thee, and I will not quarrel whatever my fare be. Let my ee be from thy table, and then be it much or ittle, — let me hear thy voice, “I am thine, and with me all things;” and I am content to be at thy allowance. Let thy deed of gift stand sure to me, put in my children’s names there, and I ask no more for myself or them. Hold thy peace, keep silence, O my anxious soul, know when thou art well; be in nothing careful, the Lord is at hand.
IL. The evil things of this earth are theirs, The cross is in the covenant. “If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then - will I visit their transgressions with a rod, and their
iniquity with stripes,” Psa. lxxxix. 30 — 34.
1, The covenant hath its cfoss. The doctrine of the gospel is the doctrine of the cross, the preaching of the gospel is the preaching of the cross, 1 Cor. i. The mysteries of a crucified Jesus, and of his crucified saints, do fill up the whole New Testament. The cross is not only imposed upon the saints as their burden, but bequeathed unto them as a legacy. It is given unto them as an honour and a privilege, “Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.” Phil. i, 29. It is joimed with the most glorious gift, the gift of faith. Yea, and it is a greater
gift than this. To suffer in faith is more than barely
to believe.
2. By virtue of the covenant the cross is a blessing. The word is now changed; it is no longer cursed, but blessed is every one that hangeth on this tree. ‘ Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and: shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake,” Matt. v. 10,11. Why, where is the blessedness? or wherein stands it? It stands in these things:
(1.) In the separation of the cross from the curse.
(2.) In the sanctification of the cross to its ends.
(3.) In the proportioning of the cross to their needs and strength.
(4.) In the special comforts of the cross.
(1.) The cross is separated from the curse. There is something in this. To be able to say under the sorest of afflictions, This scourge is no scorpion; this is no curse, it is but a cross. Our Lord bare both the cross and the curse together, and that made his cup so bitter; but now he hath divided them; the curse he hath left upon sinners, and laid only the naked cross on his saints. The crosses of reprobate sinners are all curses. Every affliction is a curse; there is wrath in all their sufferings, there is venom upon every arrow, there is vengeance in every dart, every rod is a serpent to them. Thou who art of the number of Christ’s implacable enemies, when he comes to fall upon thee, and to grind thee under
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his hand, thou wouldest have a word of comfort to be spoken to thee in thy sorrow! no, no, there is no comfort can be spoken; thou mayest say of every dart he smites thee with, This is sent of God, to revenge himself upon me. The crosses of the impenitent are all curses; but the saints’ curses are all come to. be but crosses. Though men curse, the Lord will not curse; whatever troubles come upon thee, though there be vinegar in them, yet there is no yenom in them; though there be anguish in them, yet there is no wrath in them; though they be ill-looked, yet there is no ill-will in them; they come upon no ill intent, nor shall have any evil issue, The smitings of the wicked are to thee as the smitings of the righteous were to the psalmist, a precious balm. “Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness, it shall be an excellent oil; it shall not break mine head,” Psa. cxli. 5. And thou mayest say, Let the wicked smite me; smite me with the tongue, with the fist of wickedness, or what they will, it shall not break mine head, much less mine heart; it shall be a kindness to me, an excellent oil,. (2) The cross is sanctified to its ends. It hath many holy and excellent ends, and it shall prosper; jt shall accomplish its ends. The cross is laid on the saints, sometimes to prove them, sumetimes to reprove them; to humble them, to purge them, &c. * and whatever it is sent to them for, it shall not return in vain. |“As the word, so the rod, shall accomplish that for which he pleases that sent it. By this the iniquity of Jacob shall be purged.” (3.) The cross is proportioned to their needs and strength, ‘I will correct thee in measure, but I will not leave thee altogether unpunished,’
58 — s Thow EARTH IN THE COVENANT.
Jer.xxx. 11. Just so much as will serve shall suffice; -the wise physician hath respect both to the need, and to the strength of the patient. “I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth; lest the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made,” Isa. lvii. 16. The apostle tells the saints, Heb. x. 36. that they have need of patience; and their experience tells them, they have need of something to exercise their patience. And their needs are different; some are knotty pieces, and need more; others are tender, and upon them less will serve. The stubborn child must have more ‘stripes; the shaking of the rod will do more on ‘some spirits than the smart of it on others; but all need something. Let him only that is without sin, say, I have no need of shame and sorrow. The
Lord will neither over, nor under do; every one’
shall have his load, and no more; no more than they can bear, and no less than their need requires. The Lord delights not in his children’s tears, he doth not afilict willingly, nor grieve the children of men; but yet he had rather they cry than perish.
Wonder not, christians, that your tender Lord puts. you to pain, and that your pains are so sharp and
so many; “‘ Your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.” It is a mercy that he will chastise; you may put your corrections among your mercies. His breakings of you are his blessings, his woundings are your cures; and by your own, as by your Lord’s stripes, you are healed, And when you shall review, and read over all his darker providences, and behold the wisdom and tenderness which is attempered with his severities, evidenced in his laying on so much, and yet no more than was needful, you will then write down with the
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THE EARTH IN THE COVENANT. 59
psalmist, “Thou in very faithfulness hast afflicted me.”
O my Lord, let me not want thy staff nor thy rod, “neither a friend nor an enemy; neither a calm nor ‘a storm; neither food nor medicine: if my disease ‘be too strong for my physic, let me have yet a stronger poticn; if my wanton heart will not yet be tamed, put on more fetters, a heavier load; load upon load, weight upon weight, and till thou seest, let me never say it is enough. Let me never be sick of my remedy till I be cured of my disease. Let me rather suffer by the hand of a devil, than
perish by the hand of a lust. Spare not, Lord, cease not, Lord, to smite thy servant, till thou hast thereby smitten down all mine enemies. Peace, plenty, ease; what! that I may have to spend upon my lusts! to wax wanton against my God! Such peace I will not have.
Pain, trouble, want, any thing rather than peace, upon such terms. Correct me, O Lord, yet m - judgment, but not in thy fury, lest I be consumed and brought to nothing.
(4.) The cross hath its special comforts. -& Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all
comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation,
that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of
Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is
for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual
in the enduring of the same sufferings, which we I also suffer; or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation: and our hope of you is stedfast; knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation,” 2 Cor. 1. 3 — 7.
- The comforts of the cross are often the sweetest and the fullest that the saints ever taste on this side the crown. The first draught is often bitter: the green cross is heavy, and it is necessary it should be so. As it is with some medicinal waters, it works by its weight; it must be a heavy yoke that will tame an unruly neck; if it gall not, it will not heal; it is the smart of the rod that stills the child. Think not your burdens will lie easy, when first laid on, and think not much if they do not. The first conflict with temptations may put you to a harder brunt than you are aware. It must be so, that it may be for your good afterward. So my physic will work, I am content it make me sick. Tribulation worketh patience; that it cannot do unless it pains. It is observable that it is not said, that the cross -worketh patience, but the tribulation, the pinching of the cross, or the pain the cross puts us to; this is patience, a quiet bearing that pain which the flesh when touched puts us to. When we feel the thorns and the nails, when the iron enters into our souls, when it pricks and smarts, then it will work. The green cross is heavy; a prison or a wilderness will look uncouth at the first, but when your Lord comes in and visits you, then the sweet, the pleasure comes: and the more frowns at the threshold, the more kisses you may expect afterwards. Christ doth not always meet his saints in the porch; the devil’s parlour, the inner prison is his banqueting house, the dungeon his wine-cellar; there they drink and are satisfied. The stocks and the rack are the organs that make them the sweetest music, Many a saint hath been sadly disappointed at the first, hoping to meet with Christ at the door; but behold! a dreadful sight; behold! sin lieth at the door; all his sins, all that ever he did against Christ, all his -unthankfulness, unfaithfulness, unkindness, rebellion against his Lord, stand forth and stare him in the face. Christians, beware of sin now; it will meet you in the day of adversity, the cross will tell you all that ever you did. I remember my faults this day: now [ remember all my pleasant things; my sabbaths, my ordinances, my liberty, the dear society I once enjoyed, but trifled and wasted away. Oh my pride and my wantonness, my idleness, my earthlmess, my hypocrisy, wherefore are you come thus to affright and torment me? Lord, whither am I come? Oh how dreadful is this place! Is this my
prison-entertainment? -Are these my prison-comforts? Oh what a hard lodging am I like to have with such companions! Oh the wormwood and the gall! a dark habitation, a bitter cup indeed is now given unto me, Is this the comfort of the cross? Are these the sweets so much talked of? Yet be not dismayed, as roughly as thou art handled at the door, it is better within; the devil is going out in this storm; thy sins meet thee now, but it is only to shake hands and part; after this agony, expect thie angels to come and minister to thee. Complain not if thou yet find no sweet, thou hast not drank deep enough; the next draught the sugar may come; in the next room thou mayest meet thy Lord, and then tell me, if it be short of all that hath been told thee.
But shall I give you a more particular view of some of the special comforts of the cross, or our sufferings for Christ? I shall only first premise a
F word, to let you understand what I mean by the sufferings of Christ. We then suffer for Christ, when we suffer for Christ’s cause; when we suffer because we will be christians, we will be holy and righteous; when we suffer because we will not sin; and when we suffer upon Christ’s call, when he cuts out a cross for us, and lays it on. Then Christ calls us to suffering, when he puts us to this choice, either to suffer or to sin; when our backs or our consciences must suffer; when we must suffer, or he must suffer by us. “If any man will be my disciple, let him take up his cross.” Christ is not, and christians must not be prodigal of their blood; their blood is his; their estates, their names, their liberties, are all his, and to him they must be accountable how they part with them. It is not every cross that thou canst call “thy’ cross; we must not leave our way to seek a cross: when Christ hath laid a cross athwart a christian’s way that he should go, and he must either make a stand, or turn aside, or submit his neck to it; then he says, There is thy cross, take it up and get thee gone. Whatever cross be before thee, if thou hast a way open to avoid it without sin; that is none of thy cross, thou mayest not take it up, or if thou dost, thou wilt have no thanks for thy pains.
Christians should be wary here. Though it be an argument of a gracious spirit, to be always of a ready and forward mind to suffer for Christ; and when he demands, Who will go with me? who will bear my cross? cheerfully to answer, I will go, Lord, let me bear it; yet should we take heed, that as we hang not back, when he says, Go, so that we run not before he send us. Though it be a high honour to suffer for the gospel, yet no man taketh this honour upon himself, but he that is called of God. I would not go to a prison without
a mittimus from Heaven, lest, if my suffering be of
‘myself, I be there left to shift for myself. If Christ should meet me in prison or in banishment, and
demand of me, “What dost thou here, Elijah? Friend, how camest thou in hither?” What should I say, if I could not say this, Thou, Lord, hast brought me hither? my conscience, my duty hath brought me in?
- But understand me here with this caution, that when the cause for the main is Christ’s, but the call seems doubtful; yet when the sufferer hath carefully mquired the mind of God, truly follows the dictates of conscience, sincerely designs the honour of Christ and his gospel, although he should err in some circumstances of his case, and for fear of iniquity should choose affliction, when possibly he might
have avoided both; God will surely wink at his mistakes, own his sufferings, and greatly accept and reward his readiness of mind.
Yet still take heed of careless or wilful errors: take heed of preparing nails for thine own cross; thorns, scourges, spears for thine own head or heart. Take heed both how thou shunnest, and how thou espousest a suffering state.
Go not in upon heedless mistakes; go not in for good company, much less upon any carnal designs;
Tet not thy pride, or ostentation, or the bias of any
fleshly respects, lead thee into the house of correc-
tion, lest thou find them the rods to lash thee when
thou art there.
Christians consider, if there be not sometimes some uncomfortable miscarriages in this matter; and whether it hath not been the lot of some of
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Christ’s (with how much justice or charity let the Lord be judge) to be censured and reproached as unfaithful or as fearful on no other account but for walking by this rule: not to go to prison without a warrant, that is, not to cast themselves into a suffering state, whilst God hath left a way open to escape, without sin. I confess the more dangerous and the more ordinary error is on the other hand; we are more apt (especially when afflictions are more sharp and bite in earnest, and then will be the great trial) rather sinfully to shift ourselves ot them, than unwarrantably to run ourselves upon them; but yet let it be considered, whether here be not an error on this hand also.
It is true, where the cause is the same as to the main, different circumstances may make that to be one man’s sin, which is another man’s duty; yea, that may be a duty to the same man at one time, which, supposing him in different circumstances, might have been his sin at another. And it is not seldom, through the unavoidable difference of our apprehensions, and the difficulty of discerning our cases, that christians equally careful to know and do the will of God, when the case and the circumstances also are mostly the same, do judge differently about their call to suffermg. Here let no man be so tyrannical to others, as to expect that they should go cross to their own, to comply with their brethren’s judgments and consciences. Let us not put one another on this unmerciful necessity, either to break our peace with God, or our friends. Let it be sufficient to us, faithfully to follow our own light, without judging or quarreling with those who are otherwise minded. Beware of bitterness. Be not cruel to consciences; smite not with the tongue, nor ‘et an evil thought arise in thine heart, upon any such account as this, Thine arrows will recoil and fly back in thine own face. Blemish not thine own sufferings by blasting thy brother’s liberty. Let not the wariness of some be condemned for cowardice, nor the forwardness of others for pride or hypocrisy; but let us be clothed with humility, let us put on a spirit of self-suspicion and charity to our brethren; and let this christian frame be the more studiously maintained, by how much the more our differing practices, according to the variety of our apprehensions, seem to condemn each other, and so provoke to uncomfortable schisms and contentions; and by how much the more pernicious such schisms are likely to prove in the issue.
These things premised, I shall now show you what the special comforts of the cross are. You may expect your suffering state to be sweetened with,
[1.] A more plentiful diffusion of special grace. Grace is a comfort; it is never better with the saints
than when that flourishes. The joy of the harvest is howling to the joy of grace; he is not a christian that cannot say, It is summer, when these flowers appear in their beauty. Flourishing faith and love have their glorious joys, 1 Pet. i. 8. The springs
-» of grace are a resurrection from the dead; and
there is no such spring as after a shower. Oh how green do the herbs then look! the withering flowers do then lift up the head; never so many stars appear, nor with such lustre as in a frosty night; grind the spices, and their fragrancy flows out. Saints are never more saints than in the house of bondage, or the land of their pilgrimage; out winter-weather makes us warm at heart. “As our outward man perishes, our inward man is renewed Fg day by day,” 2 Cor. iv. 16. Persecution is the time of life. ‘+ We are delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our mortal flesh,” 2 Cor. iv. 11. Decayed soul, comfort thine heart, the cross comes; now thou shalt live, now thou shalt recover. This weakness will strengthen the things that remain, and are ready to die. Now faith, and love, and patience, and courage, that have so long hung the wing, lift up the head, the day of your redemption draweth nigh; this night is your day of hope.
[2.] A more clear revelation. of special love. Lovest thou me, Lord? there is enough. Let me hear thy voice, let me see thy face. Kiss me with the kisses of thy mouth. Thy loving-kindness is better than life; send forth thy light and thy truth, let these tell me, thou lovest me. Thy love-sick spouse is sick for love; O when wilt thou say, “Thou knowest that I love thee?” Why, come up with me on the cross, that withered tree bears more blossoms of love, than all the green trees of the field. The whole gospel is hung upon the cross. Where our Lord hung, there is sin nailed, the curse vacated, death vanquished; pardon, peace, joy. glory, showed forth in open sight. There is love with all its tokens, go up and take. Fear not to be baptized with thy Lord’s baptism, nor to drink of his cup; this cup also is the communion of the blood of Christ. Come with me into the wilderness, there will I speak comfortably to thee. When thou most wantest it, where thou wilt most value it, there will I show thee my loves. -
Our Lord loves not to have love slighted; the full soul loathes the honeycomb; thou hast yet too many lovers to bid thy Lord welcome; he keeps his best wine till all thine own be soured; then it will
relish, and then thou shalt have it. His oil is for thy wounds. The child never knows so much of the parents’ hearts and compassions as when it is sick, or in distress; then every look is love, every word
is pity and compassion. O the compassion of Christ’s heart towards his afflicted children! when thou knowest hatred, then look to know love. When thou art persecuted, when thou art cast out, and trodden under foot of men, then will he take thee in and cherish thee.; [3.] A more full manifestation of glory. There is not a prison into which the saints are cast, but hath a window in the palace. Calvary becomes a Tabor, where they have a sight of their Lord in his glory. Golgotha becomes a Pisgah, where they may look over Jordan into the land of promise. Hast thou known little of heaven? thou hast not yet been in the deep. Of Stephen, the first gospel-martyr, it is said, “He looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,” Acts vii. 55. And, “All that sat in the council, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel,” chap. vi. 15. Such an admirable splendour and serenity in his countenance, as spake him rather an angel than a man. Oh what a heaven was there within that cast out such a divine lustre on his face! his” joy was too big for his heart, his face must have its share; yea, his very adversaries, at second hand, behold the glory of God.
He looked up and saw heaven opened. Looking down, he might see hell opened, all his tormentors about him; the jaws of death ready to devour and swallow him up: but looking up, he saw heaven opened, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Oh there he is, for whose sake is all this. My beloved, my beloved is yonder. Behold the region of light, whither this dark tempest is wafting me; his hell and his heaven meet, but the light swallows up the dark. Hell ceases to be hell, where heaven appears to be heaven. ‘This is the portion of suffering saints. When you read what is written of those armies of martyrs that have gone before; of their unspeakable joys, their undaunted courage, their admirable boldness; of their cheering their - friends, coufounding their foes, their rejoicing in their stripes, singing in their stocks, leaping in their chains, boasting of their bonds, kissing their stakes, embracing the flames, riding up in triumph in their chariots of fire, not repenting of their faith, nor accepting of deliverance ; — what doth this speak, but that their eyes, as well as their anchor, are within the vail, whither Christ their fore-runner is gone before them? Oh who would not be with them” Who would fear sufferings?
Soul, what art thou afraid of? whither art thou running? from what art thou hiding thyself? what is thine ease, or thy liberty, or thy quiet? why so loth to loose from this shore? launch forth into the deep. Fear not transportation into thy house of bondage; when thou art once there, it is but look up and thou art in Paradise.
Such are the sufferings of Christ, this is the cross of the covenant.
[4.] In sum; as that which comprehends all the rest, a more manifest exhibition of Christ’s special presence, “I am with thee to save thee,” Jer. xxx. 11. “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee,” Isa, xliii. 2. Through fire and water thou must go; (“we went through fire and - water into a wealthy place;’?) but wherever thou goest, he will go with thee. When the bush was on fire, the Lord was in the bush; when the three children were in the furnace, the Son of God was there with them. “In all their afflictions he was afflicted, he saved them by the angel of his presence; in his love and his pity, he redeemed them, and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old,” Isa. lxiii. 9. Though all men forsook me, the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, 2 Tim. iv. 16, 17. The saints shall never have this to charge upon the Lord; “I was in prison, and thou visit- edst me not.”,;. He is ever with them; to bear their burdens, and ease their shoulders; to plead their cause, and main- - tain their innocence; to wash their stripes, to wipe off their tears, to heal their wounds, to bind up their broken bones, to revive their weary spirits, to perfume their prisons, to lighten their dungeons, to lead them in their wanderings, to converse with ‘them in their solitudes, to give down from above, in divine smiles, in illapses of spiritual joys, assurances of dearest love, tenderest care, melting sympathy, gracious acceptance, to give down from above - whatever is wanting beneath. In fine, to preserve them from falling by the presence of his grace, till he present them faultless before the presence of his glory. Oh it is good being with Christ any where. Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest and causest thy flocks to rest at noon. Where thou feedest? yea, where thou art, whether feeding or fasting, whether rejoicing or mourning; where thou causest thy flocks to rest at noon; yea, and where thou sufferest thy flocks to be scattered in the night. Where thy flocks are, thou art not far away; tell me where thou feedest, tell me where thou art. My beloved that feedeth among the lilies, feedeth sometimes among the thorns. When his love is a lily among thorns, there he feedeth. He feedeth among thorns; he feedeth with his sheep, ne feedeth with his lambs wherever they feed; when darkness, and desolation, and devils, and death feed upon them, even then he feedeth them, and takes his feeding with them.
Oh wherever my Lord is, there let my lot fall. Let me dwell amongst the thorns, so my dwelling be with my Lord amongst the lilies. Let me wander amongst the mountains, whilst he is with me tellmg all my wanderings. Let me be scourged, so he will wash my stripes; let me. weep, so he will wipe off my tears; I would not want wounds, whilst I have such oil to pour in. Come all ye thieves and robbers, I fear you not, my dear Samaritan comes by; come ye bulls of Bashan, ye boars of the forest, let my Beloved kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, and I regard it not, though you kick me with the heel. O my Lord, bring me where thou feedest, let me live in thy face, let me feel thy smiles upon my heart, let me love thee, tell me thou lovest
me, rememberest, pitiest, acceptest, takest care for me, and then choose my condition, my dwelling, and entertainment for me. ‘
Fainting christian, lift up thine eyes, comfort
thine heart; here is that thou fearest and tormentest thyself withal. Here is the inside of that formidable cross, the light side of those dark clouds, the sunny side of that shady thorny hedge that so wounds
and afflicts thine heart. Fear not, be strong and
of a good courage. ‘Thou still sayest, Woe is me, I can find no such thing. Ah, Lord God, doth he
not speak parables? O that I were assured it might
be thus with me. Why art thou in covenant? Believe, and all is thine. I believe, and therefore have I spoken; believe, and thou shalt see the salvation of God; as sure as the cross is thine, all the comforts of the cross are settled upon thee. Read over all the gracious words thou hast before thine eyes; view over all the instances of suffering saints
- that have gone before thee, on whom these good words have been made good; in conspicuous increases of divine grace, in the signal discoveries of divine loves in the clearest and fullest revelation o
divine glory, in the intimate sense of the divine” presence, quickening, enlarging, encouraging, supporting their spirits in the darkest dens, in the
’ sharpest conflict, with reproaches, mockings, bonds.
banishments, torments, and deaths; and know that
all these things are written for thy learning, that thou through patience and comfort of the scriptures
mayest have hope.
Read over Isa. li. ‘‘ Hearken to me ye that fallow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord, look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole
of the pit whence ye are digged. For the Lord shall
comfort Sion, he will comfort all her waste places;
he will make her wilderness like Eden, and all her deserts like the garden of the Lord; joy and glad-
ness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the ’ voice of melody, lift up your eyes to the heavens,”
&e, “Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye
+ not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings: for the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation. I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass? and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth, and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?” ver. 7, 8. 12, 13. “I, even I, am he,” &c. “And where is the fury of the oppressor?”? Where is the fury of the. oppressor? Where is it not rather? Is it not im the house, and in the field? Is it not in the city, and in the villages? Is it not upon my cattle, upon my purse, upon my body, upon my-children, upon my friends? Where is not the fury of the oppressor? But when thou rememberest the Lord thy Maker, the oath, the promise, and cov nant of God, the presence, protection, and comfort of thy God, — when thou rememberest this, then, “Where is the fury of the oppressor?”’