Part I
PART I.
Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant,
that walketh in darkness, and hath no light ? Let him trust in the name
of tJie Lord, and stay upon his God. Behold, all ye that kindle afire, that compass yourselves about ivith sparks ; ivalk in the light of your
fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This ye shall have of mine
hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow. ISA. L. 10, 11.
The words paraphrased. WE have in these words a true believer in his worst, and natural men in
their best condition, set forth together unto our view; and withal the
power of true faith, as it alone upholdeth him in the saddest hour of dark
ness that can befall him, opposed unto and compared with the falseness of
their presumptuous confidence, in their greatest security ; together with the
differing supports of either ; the one in ver. 10, the other in ver. 11.
First, take a true believer, who hath had the least beam of the light of
the glory of God, which shines in the face of Christ, 2 Cor. iv. 6, let in
upon his soul, and his heart so taken with that sight as it became eternally divorced from all things here below, and resolved to adventure all his future
hopes of comfort and happiness in the enjoyment of that light of God s countenance alone : which that he may enjoy, he feareth to offend the Lord more than hell, and endeavoureth as truly
( to obey the voice of his ser
vants/ as ever he desires to attain unto that happiness. Think with your
selves, what is the worst thing, next to the eternal loss of God, really and
indeed, that can be supposed to befall this man. What worse than to have
that cranny, through which he first espied that beam, to be as it were clean
shut up, the light of God s countenance withdrawn ; yea, all light and ap pearance to him of his own graces withheld and overclouded ; the face of heaven so overcast with darkness that neither sunlight nor starlight appeareth to him, so as he hath no light ; yea, further, finds his soul beset and be
sieged round with all the powers of hell and darkness, and the terrors of the
Almighty shot into his soul ? And he, thus quite left, walking in this dark
ness, is filled with strong fears and jealousies that God is not his God j nay, questioning whether he ever will be ; yea, apprehending, by the wrath he
23G A CHILD OP LIGHT WALKING IX DARKNESS. [PAET I.
feels, God to be become Ms enemy, Psalm Ixxvii. 7. All this is set forth to us here as the very estate of one who feareth the Lord and obeys him ; and is comprehended in these words, that walketh in darkness, and hath no
light. You see him at his worst. In which forlorn condition, what is there to be found to relieve and sup port this man ? But only one thing, which is here held forth to him,
* the name of the Lord, for him to trust and stay himself upon ; both that name of God, Exod. xxxiv. 6, The Lord God, gracious and merciful, &c., and that name of Christ which is called, Jer. xxiii. 6, Jehovah our righteous ness. Both or either of which, he, by the naked hand of faith laying hold
upon, may now make use of as of a staff, (as David compares it, Psalm xxiii.
; ) whilst he thus walks in darkness, and through the valley of the sha dow of death, safely to trust and stay himself upon, so as in the end to come forth to see light in God s light for evermore, Psalm xxxvL 9. You see likewise the prop of his soul in this condition.
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On the contrary, let us behold, as all are here called to do, the best and most secure of unregenerate men, encompassed about with all means and
supports of confidence and comfort, whether of legal righteousness of their
own, which these Jews made boast of, together with the addition of all
worldly and outward comforts , both which the prophet here compares to
fire and sparks, as preserving light and comfort in them. As, (1.) Let their
lives and natural dispositions abound with never so many sparks of legal righteousness, which themselves have kindled : for so he compares all those
several acts and performances of natural and acquired righteousness, struck out and educed from the powers of natural principles improved, which make a great blaze in a man s own opinion and esteem ; which yet, not proceeding from the Holy Ghost baptizing them as with fire and renewing them, nor from internal principles of regeneration, which Christ compares to fire, Mark
ix. 4.9, are all in God s account but as a sacrifice offered up with strange
fire, which was forbidden, and are here said to be of their own kindling. And such were the sparks in the light of which these Jews walked, who went about to establish their own righteousness, Rom. x. 3, and with con
fidence trusted therein, and not on the name of the Lord. And further,
(2.) Let those men be surrounded and encompassed about with the greatest splendour of worldly glory, and abound in all those good things this world can afford them, the comforts whereof, Solomon, Eccles. vii. 6, in like man ner compares to a fire of thorns, and the pleasures of it to the crackling of
thorns, as here to sparks, and let them keep never so good fires to warm and cheer themselves withal, lay on as much every day as shall even encom
pass them about with sparks ; and in the light and confidence of both these
let them walk for many years, despising that other poor believer that feareth to be found in his own righteousness, and refuseth to be comforted by any of these : yet, let them know, says Christ, who is brought in as the speaker
here, that when they have thus walked presumptuously and securely, and even walked themselves weary, as it is Isa. xl. 31, weary of all their own
ways and pleasures, as they will be one day ; and then at their deathbeds think to lie down and rest them ; they shall lie down indeed, says Christ, and their bed shall be of my making and providing, This you shall have of my hand ; you shall lie down, but in a bed of sorrow and despair, in which
they shall lie down never to rise again.
CHAP. I.] A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DAKKNESS. 237