CHAPTER XXXII.—Of improving our evidences for comfort in several passages of our lives
can take our God away? Though God doth convey some comfort to us by these things, yet when they are gone, he reserves the comfort in himself still, and can convey that, and more, in a purer and sweeter way, where he plants the grace of faith to fetch it from him. Why then should we weaken our interest in God, for any thing this earth affords? What unworthy wretches are those, that to please a sinful man, or to feed a base lust, or to yield to a wicked custom will, as much as in them lieth, lose their interest in God? Such, little consider what an excellent privilege it is to have a sure refuge to fly unto in time of trouble. God wants not ways to maintain his, without being beholden to the devil. He hath all help hid in himself, and will then most shew it, when it shall make most for his own glory. If God be ours, it is a shame to be beholden to the devil, that ever it should be said, Satan by base courses hath made us rich. God thinks any outward thing too mean for his children, severed from himself, therefore he gives his Son, the express image of himself, 2 Cor. 4:4, unto them. For which cause David, when he had even studied to reckon up the number of God's choice blessings, concludes with advancing of this above all, 'yea rather happy are they whose God is the Lord,' Ps. 44:15. If this will not satisfy the soul, what can? Labour therefore to bring thy soul to this point with God, 'Lord, if thou seest it fit, take away all from me, so thou leavest me thyself: whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none on earth that I desire in comparison of thee?' Ps. 73:25.
CHAPTER XXXII.—Of improving our evidences for comfort in several passages of our lives That we lose not any measure of comfort in this so sweet a privilege, we must labour for skill to improve and implead the same in the several passages and occasions of our lives, and let it appear in the retail, that whatsoever is in God is mine. If I am in a perplexed condition, his wisdom is mine; if in great danger, his power is mine;
if I lie sighing under the burden of sin, his grace is mine; if in any want, his all-sufficiency is mine. 'My God,' saith St Paul, 'will supply all your wants,' Philip. 4:19. If in any danger, I am thine. Lord, save me, I am thine, the price of thy Son's blood; let me not be lost, thou hast given me the earnest of thy Spirit, and set thy seal upon me for thy own, let me neither lose my bargain nor thou thine. What is religion itself but a spiritual bond? whereby the soul is tied to God as its own, and then singles out of God whatsoever is needful for any occasion: and so binds God with his own covenant and promise.
Lord, thou hast made thyself to be mine, therefore now shew thyself so, and be exalted in thy wisdom, goodness, and power, for my defence. To walk comfortably in my Christian course, I need much grace, supply me out of thy rich store. I need wisdom to go in and out inoffensively before others, furnish me with thy Spirit. I need patience and comfort, thou that art the God of all consolation, bestow it on me.
In time of desertion put Christ betwixt God and thy soul, and learn to appeal, from God out of Christ, to God in Christ. Lord, look upon my
Saviour, that is near unto thee as thy son, near to me as my brother, and now intercedes at thy right hand for me. Though I have sinned, yet he hath suffered, and shed his precious blood to make my peace.
When we are in any trouble, let us still wait on him, and lie at his feet, and never let him go till he casts a gracious look upon us.
So if we be to deal with God, for the church abroad, we may allege unto him that whatsoever provocations are therein, and deformity in regard of abuses and scandals; yet it is his church, his people, his inheritance, his name is called upon, in it, and the enemies of it are his enemies. God hath engaged himself to the friends of the church, that 'they shall prosper that love it,' Ps. 122:6; and therefore we may with a holy boldness press him for a blessing upon the same.
So for our children and posterity, we may incline God to respect them, because they are under his covenant, who hath promised to be our God, and the God of our seed. 'Thine they were, thou gavest them
me: all that I have is thine; these are those children which thou of thy rich grace hast given me. They are thine more than mine; I am but a means under thee to bring them into the world, and to be a nurse unto thy children; take care therefore of thine own children, I beseech thee, especially, when I can take no care of them myself; thou slumberest not, thou diest not, I must,' John 17.
Flesh and blood think nothing is cared for, but what it seeth cared for by itself. It hath no eyes to see a guard of providence, a guard of angels. It takes no knowledge that that is best cared for, that God cares for. Those that have God for their God, have enlarged hearts as they have enlarged comforts. They have an everlasting spring that supplies them in all wants, refreshes them in all troubles, and then runs most clearly and freshly, when all other streams in the world are dried and stopped up. Were we skilful in the art of faith, to improve so great an interest, what in the world could much dismay us? Faith will set God against all.
It should fill our hearts with an holy indignation against ourselves, if either we rest in a condition wherein we cannot truly say, God is our
God, or if, when we can in some sincerity of heart say this, that we make no better advantage thereby, and maintain not ourselves answerable to such a condition. What a shame is it for a nobleman's son to live like a beggar! for a great rich man to live like a poor peasant; to famish at a banquet; to fall when we have so many stays to lay hold on! Whereas if we could make this clear to our souls, that God is ours, and then take up our thoughts with the great riches we have in him, laid open in Christ, and in the promises, we need trouble ourselves about nothing, but only get a large vessel of faith, to receive what is offered, nay, enforced upon us.
When we can say, God is our God, it is more than if we could say, heaven is mine; or whatever good the creature affords is mine. Alas! what is all this, to be able to say, God is mine, who hath in him the sweetness of all these things, and infinitely more? If God be ours, goodness itself is ours. If he be not ours, though we had all things
else, yet ere long nothing would be ours. What a wondrous comfort is this, that God hath put himself over to be ours! that a believing soul may say with as great confidence, and greater too, that God is his, than he can say his house is his, his treasure is his, his friends are his! Nothing is so much ours as God is ours, because by his being ours in covenant, all other things become ours; and if God be once ours, well may we trust in him. God and ours joined together make up the full comfort of a Christian. God! there is all to be had; but what is that to me unless he be my God? All-sufficiency with propriety* fully stayeth the soul.
David was now banished from the sanctuary, from his friends, habitation, and former comforts; but was he banished from his God?
No; God was his God still. When riches, and friends, and life itself cease to be ours, yet God never looseth his right in us, nor we our interest in him. This comfort that God is ours, reacheth unto the resurrection of our bodies and to life everlasting. God is the God of Abraham, and so of every true believer, even when his body is turned into dust. Hence it is that 'the lovingkindness of the Lord is better than life,' Ps. 63:3, because when life departs, yet we live for ever in him. When Moses saw the people drop away so fast in the wilderness, and wither like grass, 'Thou art our foundation,' saith he,
'from one generation to another; thou art God from everlasting to everlasting,' Ps. 90:2. When we leave the world, and are no more seen here, yet we have a dwelling-place in God for ever. God is ours from everlasting in election, and to everlasting in glory, protecting us here and glorifying us hereafter. David, that claimed God to be his
God, is gone, but David's God is alive. And David himself, 'though his flesh see corruption,' Acts 2:27, yet is alive in his God still.
That which is said of wily persons that are full of fetches* and windings, and turnings in the world, that such will never break, may much more truly be said of a right godly man, that hath but one grand policy to secure him in all dangers, which is to run to his God as to his tower of offence and defence; such a one will never be at a desperate loss so long as God hath any credit, because he never
faileth those that fly unto him; and that because his mercy and truth never fails. The very lame and the blind, the most shiftless † creatures, when they had gotten the strong hold of Zion, thought then they might securely 'scorn David and his host,' 2 Sam. 5:6, 7, because though they were weak in themselves, yet their hold was strong; but we see their hold failed them at length, which a Christian's will never do.
Obj. But God seems to have small care of those that are his in the world; those who believe themselves to be his jewels, are counted the offscouring of the world, and most despised.
Ans. We must know that such have a glorious life in God, but it is 'hidden with Christ in God,' Col. 3:3, from the eyes of the world, and sometimes from their own. Here they are hidden under infirmities, afflictions, and disgraces, but yet never so hidden but that God sometimes lets down a beam of comfort and strength, which they would not lose, to be freed from their present condition, though never so grievous. God comes more immediately to them now than formerly he was used; nay, even when God seems to forsake them and to be their enemy; yet they are supported with such inward strength that they are able to make good their claim with Christ their head, and cry 'My God' still. God never so departs but he always leaves somewhat behind him which draws and keeps the heart to him. We are like poor Hagar, who, when the bottle of water was spent, fell a crying, Gen. 21:17, when there was a fountain close by, but her tears hindered her from seeing it. When things go ill with us in our trades and callings, and all is spent, then our spirits droop, and we are at our wits' end, as if God were not where he was. Oh, consider, if we had all and had not God, we had nothing. If we have nothing, and have God, we have enough, for we have him that hath all, and more than all, at his command. If we had all other comforts that our hearts can desire, yet if God withdraw himself, what remains but a curse and emptiness? What makes heaven but the presence of God? and what makes hell but the absence of God? Let God be in any condition, though never so ill, yet it is comfortable; and usually we
find more of God in trouble than when we are out of trouble. The comforts of religion never come till others fail. Cordials are kept for faintings. When a curtain and a veil is drawn betwixt us and the creature, then our eyes are only upward to God, and he is more clearly seen of us.
In the division of things, God bequeaths himself to those that are his for their portion as the best portion he can give them. There are many goodly things in the world, but none of these are a Christian's portion. There is in him to supply all good and remove all ill, until the time come that we stand in need of no other good. It is our chief wisdom to know him, our holiness to love him, our happiness to enjoy him. There is in him to be had whatsoever can truly make us happy. We go to our treasure and our portion in all our wants; we live by it and value ourselves by it. God is such a portion, that the more we spend on him the more we may. 'Our strength may fail, and our heart may fail, but God is our portion for ever,' Ps. 73:26.
Everything else teaches us, by the vanity and vexation we find in them, that our happiness is not in them. They send us to God; they may make us worse, but better they cannot. Our nature is above them, and ordained for a greater good; they can go but along with us for a while, and their end swallows up all the comfort of their beginning, as Pharaoh's lean kine swallowed up the fat, Gen. 41:20.
If we have no better portion here than these things, we are like to have hell for our portion hereafter. What a shame will it be hereafter, when we are stript of all, that it should be said, Lo, this is the man that took not God for his portion. If God be once ours, he goes for ever along with us, and when earth will hold us no longer, heaven shall. Who that hath his senses about him would perish for want of water when there is a fountain by him? or for hunger, that is at a feast? God alone is a rich portion. O, then, let us labour for a large faith, as we have a large object. If we had a thousand times more faith, we should have a thousand times more increase of God's blessings. When the prophet came to the widow's house, as many vessels as she had were filled with oil, 1 Kings 17:14. We are straitened in our own faith, but not straitened in our God. It falls out
oft in this world that God's people are like Israel at the Red Sea, environed with dangers on all sides. What course have we, then, to take, but only to look up and wait for the salvation of our God? This is a breast full of consolation; let us teach our hearts to suck and draw comfort from hence.
Is God our God, and will he suffer anything to befall us for our hurt?
Will he lay any more upon us than he gives us strength to bear? Will he suffer any wind to blow upon us but for good? Doth he not set us before his face? Will a father or mother suffer a child to be wronged in their presence if they can help it? Will a friend suffer his friend to be injured if he may redress him? And will God, that hath put these affections into parents and friends, neglect the care of those he hath taken so near unto himself? No, surely. His eyes are open to look upon their condition; his ears are open to their prayers; a 'book of remembrance,' Mal. 3:16, is written of all their good desires, speeches, and actions; he hath bottles for all their tears, Ps. 56:8; their very sighs are not hid from him, Ps. 79:11; he hath written them upon the 'palms of his hands,' Isa. 49:16, and cannot but continually look upon them. Oh, let us prize the favour of so good a God, who, though he dwells on high, yet will regard things so low, and not neglect the mean estate of any; nay, especially delights to be called the 'comforter of his elect,' John 14:16, and the God of those that are in misery, and have none to fly unto but himself.
But we must know that God only thus graciously visits his own children; he visits with his choicest favours those only that fear his name, Ps. 25:14. As for those that either secretly undermine or openly oppose the cause and church of God and join with his enemies, such as savour not the things of God, but commit spiritual idolatry and adultery with God's enemies, the world and the devil,
God will answer these as once he did the Israelites, when in their necessity they would have forced acquaintance upon him, 'Go to the gods whom ye have served,' Judges 10:14, to the great men whose persons you have obeyed for advantage, to your riches, to your pleasures, which you have loved more than God or goodness. You
would not lose a base custom, an oath, a superfluity, a thing of nothing, for me; therefore, I will not own you now. Such men are more impudent than the devil himself, that will claim acquaintance with God at last when they have carried themselves as his enemies all their days. Satan could tell Paul and Silas they were 'the servants of the living God,' Acts 16:17, but he would not make that plea for himself, knowing that he was a cursed creature.
Miserable, then, is their condition who live in the world, nay, in the church, without God, Eph. 2:12. Such are in a worse estate than pagans and Jews; for, living in the house of God, they are strangers from God and from the covenant of grace; usurping the name of Christians, having, indeed, nothing to do with Christ.
Some of these, like spiritual vagabonds, as Cain, excommunicate themselves from God's presence in the use of the means, or rather like devils, that will have nothing to do with God, because they are loath to be tormented before their time. They think every good sermon an arraigning of them, and therefore keep out of reach.
Others will present themselves under the means, and carry some savour away with them of what they hear, but it is only till they meet with the next temptation, unto which they yield themselves presently slaves. These shewed themselves under a general profession, as they did, who called themselves Jews and were nothing less. But, alas! an empty title will bring an empty comfort at last. It was cold comfort to the rich man in flames, Luke 16:25, that Abraham called him son; or to Judas, that Christ called him friend, Mat. 26:50; or to the rebellious Jews, that God styles them his people, Isa. 50:2. Such as our profession is, such will our comfort be. True profession of religion is another thing than most men take it to be. It is made up of the outward duty, and the inward man too, which is, indeed, the life and soul of all. What the heart doth not in religion is not done. Quod cor non facit non fit.
God cares for no retainers that will only wear his livery, but serve themselves. 'What hast thou to do to take his name into thy mouth, and hatest to be reformed? Ps. 50:16. Saul lived in the bosom of the church, yet, being a cruel tyrant, when he was in a desperate plunge, his outward profession did him no good; and, therefore, when he was environed with his enemies he uttered this doleful complaint, 'God hath forsaken me, and the Philistines are upon me,' 1 Sam. 28:15. A pitiful case! Yet so will it be with all those that rest in an outward profession, thinking it enough to compliment* with God when their hearts are not right within them. Such will at length be forced to cry, sickness is upon me, death is upon me, hell is before me, and God hath forsaken me. I would have none of God heretofore, now God will have none of me. When David himself had offended God by numbering the people, then God counted him but plain David, 'Go and say to David,' &c., 2 Sam. 24:12; whereas before, when he purposed to build a temple, then, 'Go, tell my servant David,' 2 Sam.
7:5. When the Israelites had set up an idol, then God fathers them on Moses, 'Thy people which thou hast brought out of Egypt.' He would not own them as at other times then. They are my people still whilst they keep covenant. No care, no present comfort, in this near relation.
The price of the pearl is not known till all else be sold, and we see the necessary use of it. So the worth of God in Christ is never discerned till we see our lost and undone condition without him, till conscience flies in our faces, and drags us to the brink of hell; then, if ever we taste how good the Lord is, we will say, 'Blessed is the people whose
God is the Lord.' Heretofore I have heard of his lovingkindness, but that is not a thousandth part of what I see and feel. The joy I now apprehend is unutterable, unconceivable.
Oh then, when we have gotten our souls possessed of God, let our study be to preserve ourselves in his love, to walk close with him, that he may delight to abide with us and never forsake us! How basely doth the Scripture speak of whatsoever stands in our way! It makes nothing of them. What is man but vanity, and less than
vanity! All nations but as 'a drop of the bucket,' as the 'dust of the balance,' Isa. 40:15, things not at all considerable. Flesh looks upon them as through a multiplying glass, making them greater than they are; but faith, as God doth, sees them as nothing.
This is such a blessed condition, as may well challenge all our diligence in labouring to be assured of it; neither is it to be attained or maintained without the strength and prime of our care. I speak especially of, and in regard of, the sense and comfort of it. For the sense of God's favour will not be kept without keeping him in our best affections above all things in the world, without keeping of our hearts always close and near to him, which cannot be, without keeping a most narrow watch over our loose and unsettled hearts, that are ready to stray from God and fall to the creature. It cannot be kept without exact and circumspect walking, without constant selfdenial, without a continual preparation of spirit, to want and forsake anything that God seeth fit to take from us.
But what of all this? Can we cross ourselves, or spend our labours to better purpose? One sweet beam of God's countenance will requite all this. We beat not the air, we plough not in the sand, neither sow in a barren soil; God is no barren wilderness. Nay, he never shews so much of himself as in suffering, and parting with anything for him, and denying ourselves of that which we think stands not with his will. Great persons require great observance. We can deny ourselves, and have men's persons in great admiration, for hope of some advantage; and is any more willing and more able to advance us than the great all-sufficient God? A Christian, indeed, undergoes more troubles, takes more pains, especially with his own heart, than others do. But what are these to his gains? What return so rich as trading with God? What comfort so great as these that are fetched from the fountain? One day spent in enjoying the light of God's countenance is sweeter than a thousand without it. We see here, when David was not only shut out from all comforts, but lay under many grievances, what a fruitful use he makes of this, that God was his God. It upholdeth his dejected, it stilleth his unquiet, soul; it leadeth him to the rock that