CHAPTER XXIX.—Of God's manifold salvation for his people, and why open, or expressed in the countena
By this it will appear to what good purposes we had a being here in the world, and were brought into communion with Christ by the gospel. The carriage of all things to the right end shews whose we are, and whither we tend. It abundantly appears by God's revealing of himself many ways to us, as by promises, sacraments, sabbaths,
&c., that he intended to raise up our hearts to this heavenly duty. The whole gracious dispensation of God in Christ tends to this, that our carriage should be nothing else but an expression of thankfulness to him; that by a free, cheerful, and gracious disposition, we might shew we are the people of God's free grace, set at liberty from the spirit of bondage, to serve him without fear, Luke 1:74, with a voluntary, child-like service, all the days of our lives.
CHAPTER XXIX.—Of God's manifold salvation for his people, and why open, or expressed in the countenance I proceed.
He is the salvation of my countenance.
As David strengthens his trust in God, by reason fetched from the future goodness of God, apprehended by faith, so he strengthens that reason with another reason fetched from God, whom he apprehends here as the salvation of his countenance. We need reason against reason, and reason upon reason, to steel and strengthen the soul against the onset of contrary reasons.
He is the salvation of my countenance; that is, he will so save as I to shall see, and my enemies shall see it; and upon seeing, my countenance shall he cheered and lifted up; God's saving kindness shall be read in my countenance, so that all who look on me shall say,
God hath spoken peace to my soul, as well as brought peace to my condition.
He saith not salvation, but salvations (j); because as our life is subject to many miseries, in soul, body, and state, public and private,
&c., so God hath many salvations. If we have a thousand troubles, he hath a thousand ways of help, Mille mali species, mille salutis erunt.
As he hath more blessings than one, so he hath more salvations than one. He saves our souls from sin, our bodies from danger, and our estates from trouble. He is the Redeemer of his people; and not only so, but 'with him is plenteous redemption,' Ps. 130:7, of all persons, of all parts both of body and soul, from all ill, both of sin and misery, for all times, both now and hereafter. He is an everlasting salvation.
David doth not say, God will save me; but God is salvation itself, and nothing but salvation. Our sins only stop the current of his mercy, but it being above all our sins, will soon scatter that cloud, remove that stop, and then we shall see and feel nothing but salvation from the Lord. 'All his ways are mercy and peace,' Ps. 25:10, to a repentant soul that casts itself upon him.
Christ himself is nothing else but salvation clothed in our flesh. So old Simeon conceived of him, when he had him in his arms, Luke
2:29, and was willing thereupon to yield up his spirit to God, having seen Christ, the Salvation of God. When we embrace Christ in the arms of our faith, we embrace nothing but salvation. He makes up that sweet name given him by his Father, and brought from heaven by an angel to the full, Luke 2:14; a name in the faith of which it is impossible for any believing soul to sink.
The devil, in trouble, presents God to us as a revenging destroyer, and unbelief presents him under a false vizard; but the skill of faith is, to present him as a Saviour clothed with salvation. We should not so much look what destruction the devil and his threaten, as what salvation God promiseth. To God belong 'the issues of death,' Ps.
68:20; and of all other troubles, which are lesser deaths. Cannot he that hath vouchsafed an issue in Christ from eternal death, vouchsafe an issue from all temporal evils? If he will raise our bodies, cannot he raise our conditions? He that brought us into trouble can easily make
a way out of it when he pleaseth. This should be a ground of resolute and absolute obedience, even in our greatest extremities, considering
God will either deliver us from death, or by death, and at length out of death.
So then, when we are in any danger, we see whither to go for salvation, even to him that is nothing else but salvation; but then we must trust in him, as David doth, and conceive of him as salvation, that we may trust in him. If we will not trust in salvation, what will we trust in? and if salvation itself cannot save us, what can? Out of salvation there is nothing but destruction, which those that seek it anywhere out of God, are sure to meet with. How pitiful then is their case, who go to a destroyer for salvation! that seek for help from hell!
Here also we see to whom to return praise in all our deliverances, even to the God of our salvation. The Virgin Mary was stirred up to magnify the Lord; but why? 'Her spirit rejoiced in God her Saviour,'
Luke 1:47. Whosoever is the instrument of any good, yet salvation is of the Lord; whatsoever brings it, he sends it. Hence in their holy feasts for any deliverance, the cup they drank was called the cup of salvation; and therefore David when he summons his thoughts, what to render unto God, he resolves upon this, to take 'the cup of salvation,' Ps. 116:13. But always remember this, that when we think of God as salvation, we must think of him as he is in Christ to his. For so everything in God is saving, even his most terrible attributes of justice and power. Out of Christ, the sweetest things in God are terrible. Salvation itself will not save out of Christ, who is the only way of salvation, called the way, the truth, and the life, John 14:6.
David addeth, 'He is the salvation of my countenance,' that is, he will first speak salvation to my soul, and say, I am thy salvation; and when the heart is cheered, which is as it were the sun of this little world, the beams of that joy will shine in the countenance. True joy begins at the centre, and so passeth to the circumference, the outward man. The countenance is as the glass of the soul, wherein you may see the naked face of the soul, according as the several
affections thereof stand. In the countenance of an understanding creature, you may see more than a bare countenance. The spirit of one man may see the countenance of another's inner man in his outward countenance; which hath a speech of its own, and declares what the heart saith, and how it is affected.
Quest. But how comes God to be the salvation of our countenance?
Ans. I answer, God only graciously shines in the face of Jesus Christ, which we with the eye of faith beholding, receive those beams of his grace, and reflect them back again. God shineth upon us first, and we shine in that light of his countenance upon us. 'The joy of salvation,'
Ps. 51:12, especially of spiritual and eternal salvation, is the only true joy: all other salvations end at last in destruction, and are no further comfortable than they issue from God's saving love.
God will have the body partake with the soul. As in matter of grief, so in matter of joy, the lantern shines in the light of the candle within.
2. Again, God brings forth the joy of the heart into the countenance, for the further spreading and multiplying of joy to others.
Next unto the sight of the sweet countenance of God, is the beholding of the cheerful countenance of a Christian friend, rejoicing from true grounds. Whence it is that the joy of one becomes the joy of many, and the joys of many meet in one; by which means, as many lights together make the greater light, so many lightsome spirits make the greater light of spirit: and God receiveth the more praise, which makes him so much to delight in the prosperity of his children.
Hence it is, that in any deliverance of God's people, 'the righteous do compass them about,' Ps. 142:7, to know 'what God hath done for their souls;' and keep a spiritual feast with them in partaking of their joy. And the godly have cause to joy in the deliverance of other
Christians, because they suffered in their afflictions, and it may be in their sins the cause of them, which made them somewhat ashamed.
Whence it is, that David's great desire was, that 'those who feared
God might not be ashamed because of him,' Ps. 69:6: insinuating that those who fear God's name are ashamed of the falls of God's people. Now when God delivers them, this reproach is removed, and those that had part in their sorrow have part in their joy.
3. Again, God will have salvation so open, that it shall appear in the countenance of his people, the more to daunt and vex the enemies.
Cainish hypocrites hang down their heads, when God lifts up the countenance of their brethren. When the countenance of God's children clears up, then their enemies' hearts and looks are cloudy.
Jerusalem's joy is Babylon's sorrow. It is with the church and her enemies as it is with a balance, the scales whereof, when one is up, the other is down. Whilst God's people are under a cloud, carnal people insult over them, as if they were men deserted of God.
Whereupon they hang down their heads, and the rather, because they think that by reason of their sin, Christ and his religion will suffer with them. Hence David's care was, that the miseries of God's people 'should not be told in Gath,' 2 Sam. 1:20. The chief reason why the enemies of the church gnash their teeth at the sight of God's gracious dealing, is, that they take the rising of the church to be a presage of their ruin: a lesson which Haman's wife had learned,
Esther 6:13.
This is a comfort to us in these times of Jacob's trouble and Zion's sorrow. The captivity of the church shall return, 'as rivers in the south,' Ps. 126:1. Therefore the church may say, 'Rejoice not over me,
O my enemy; though I am fallen, I shall rise again,' Mic. 7:8. Though Christ's spouse be now as black as the pots, yet she shall be as white as the dove, Ps. 68:13. If there were not great dangers, where were the glory of God's great deliverance? The church at length will be as 'a cup of trembling,' and as 'a burdensome stone,' Zech. 12:2. The blood of the saints cry, their enemies' violence cries, the prayers of the church cry, for deliverance and vengeance upon the enemies of the church; and as that 'importunate widow,' Luke 11:5, will at length prevail. Shall the importunity of one poor woman prevail with an unrighteous judge, and shall not the prayers of many that cry unto
the righteous God take effect? If there were armies of prayers, as there are armies of men, we should see the stream of things turned another way. A few Moseses in the mount would do more good than many soldiers in the valley. If we would lift up our hearts and hands to God, he would lift up our countenance. But alas! we either pray not, or cross our own prayers, for want of love to the truth of God and his people.
It is we that keep antichrist and his faction alive, to plague the unthankful world. The strength he hath is not from his own cause, but from our want of zeal. We hinder those hallelujahs by private brabbles,* coldness and indifferency in religion. The church begins at this time a little to lift up her head again. Now is the time to follow
God with prayers, that he would perfect his work, and plead his own cause; that he would be revenged not only of ours, but his enemies; that he would wholly free his church from that miserable bondage.
These beginnings give our faith some hold to be encouraged to go to God, for the fulfilling of his gracious promise, that the church may rejoice in the salvation of the Lord. God doth but look for some to seek unto him; Christ doth but stay until he is awaked by our prayers. But it is to be feared that God hath not yet perfected his work in Zion. The church is not yet fully prepared for a full and glorious deliverance. If God had once his ends in the humiliation of the church for sins past, with resolution of reformation for the time to come, then this age, perhaps, might 'see the salvation of the Lord,' which the generations to come shall be witness of, 'we should see
Zion in her perfect beauty,' Ps. 50:2. The generations of those that came out of Egypt saw and enjoyed the pleasant land which their progenitors were shut out of; who by reason of their murmuring and looking back to Egypt, and forgetfulness of the wonders which God had done for and before them, perished in the wilderness.
Use. There is little cause, therefore, of envying the present flourishing of the enemies of the church, and of joining and colluding* with them; for it will prove the wisest resolution to resolve to fall and rise with the church of Christ, considering the enemies