to God. It makes our gold to become dross, it soils our duties, and
bespots our souls. A carnal and unsteady frame shows an indifferency
of spirit at best; and lukewarmness is as ungrateful to God, as heavy
and nauseous meat is to the stomach; he “spews them out of his mouth”
(Rev. iii. 16). As our gracious God doth overlook infirmities where
intentions are good, and endeavors serious and strong; so he loathes
the services where the frames are stark naught (Ps. lxvi. 18): “If
I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer.”
Lukewarm and indifferent services stink in the nostrils of God. The
heart seems to loathe God when it starts from him upon every occasion,
when it is unwilling to employ itself about, and stick close to him:
and can God be pleased with such a frame? The {a271} more of the
heart and spirit is in any service, the more real goodness there
is in it, and the more savory it is to God; the less of the heart
and spirit, the less of goodness, and the more nauseous to God, who
loves righteousness and “truth in the inward parts” (Ps. li. 6).
And therefore infinite goodness and holiness cannot but hate worship
presented to him with deceitful, carnal, and flitting affections; they
must be more nauseous to God, than a putrefied carcass can be to man;
they are the profanings of that which should be the habitation of the
Spirit; they make the spirit, the seat of duty, a filthy dunghill;
and are as loathsome to God, as money‑changers in the temple were to
our Saviour. We see the evil of carnal frames, and the necessity and
benefit of spiritual frames: for further help in this last, let us
practise these following directions:
1. Keep up spiritual frames out of worship. To avoid low affections,
we must keep our hearts as much as we can in a settled elevation. If
we admit unworthy dispositions at one time, we shall not easily be rid
of them in another;[529] as he that would not be bitten with gnats in
the night, must keep his windows shut in the day: when they are once
entered, it is not easy to expel them; in which respect, one adviseth
to be such out of worship as we would be in worship. If we mix
spiritual affections with our worldly employments, worldly affections
will not mingle themselves so easily with our heavenly engagements.
If our hearts be spiritual in our outward calling, they will scarce be
carnal in our religious service. If “we walk in the Spirit, we shall
not fulfil the lusts of the flesh” (Gal. v. 16). A spiritual walk in
the day will hinder carnal lustings in worship. The fire was to be
kept alive upon the altar, when sacrifices were not offered, from
morning till night, from night till morning, as well as in the very
time of sacrifice. A spiritual life and vigor out of worship would
render it at its season sweet and easy, and preserve a spontaneity
and preparedness to it, and make it both natural and pleasant to us.
Anything that doth unhinge and discompose our spirits, is inconsistent
with religious services, which are to be performed with the greatest
sedateness and gravity. All irregular passions disturb the serenity of
the spirit, and open the door for Satan: saith the apostle (Eph. iv.
26, 27), “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath; neither give place
to the devil.” Where wrath breaks the lock, the devil will quickly
be over the threshold; and though they be allayed, yet they leave
the heart sometime after, like the sea rolling and swelling after
the storm is ceased. Mixture with ill company leaves a tincture upon
us in worship. Ephraim’s allying himself with the Gentiles, bred an
indifferency in religion (Hos. vii. 8): “Ephraim hath mixed himself
with the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned:” it will make our
hearts, and consequently our services, half dough, as well as half
baked; these and the like, make the Holy Spirit withdraw himself, and
then the soul is like a wind‑bound vessel, and can make no way. When
the sun departs from us, it carries its beams away with it; then “doth
darkness spread itself over the earth, and the beasts of the forests
creep out” (Ps. civ. 20). When the Spirit withdraws awhile from a
good man, it carries {272} away (though not habitual, yet) much of
the exciting and assisting grace; and then carnal dispositions perk
up themselves from the bosom of natural corruption. To be spiritual
in worship, we must bar the door at other times against that which
is contrary to it; as he that would not be infected with a contagious
disease, carries some preservative about with him, and inures himself
to good scents. To this end, be much in secret ejaculations to God;
these are the purest nights of the soul, that have more of fervor and
less of carnality; they preserve a liveliness in the spirit, and make
it more fit to perform solemn stated worship with greater freedom and
activity; a constant use of this would make our whole lives, lives of
worship. As frequent sinful acts strengthen habits of sin, so frequent
religious acts strengthen habits of grace.
2. Excite and exercise particularly a love to God, and dependence on
him. Love is a commanding affection, a uniting grace; it draws all
the faculties of the soul to one centre. The soul that loves God, when
it hath to do with him, is bound to the beloved object; it can mind
nothing else during such impressions. When the affection is set to
the worship of God, everything the soul hath will be bestowed upon it;
as David’s disposition was to the temple (1 Chron. xxix. 3). Carnal
frames, like the fowls, will be lighting upon the sacrifice, but not
when it is inflamed; though the scent of the flesh invite them, yet
the heat of the fire drives them to their distance. A flaming love
will singe the flies that endeavor to interrupt and disturb us. The
happiness of heaven consists in a full attraction of the soul to God,
by his glorious influence upon it; there will be such a diffusion of
his goodness throughout the souls of the blessed, as will unite the
affections perfectly to him; these affections which are scattered here,
will be there gathered into one flame, moving to him, and centering in
him: therefore, the more of a heavenly frame possesses our affections
here, the more settled and uniform will our hearts be in all their
motions to God, and operations about him. Excite a dependence on him:
(Prov. xvi. 3) “Commit thy works to the Lord, and thy thoughts shall
be established.” Let us go out in God’s strength, and not in our own;
vain is the help of man in anything, and vain is the help of the heart.
It is through God only we can do valiantly in spiritual concerns as
well as temporal; the want of this makes but slight impressions upon
the spirit.
3. Nourish right conceptions of the majesty of God in your minds.
Let us consider that we are drawing to God, the most amiable object,
the best of beings, worthy of infinite honor, and highly meriting the
highest affections we can give; a God that made the world by a word,
that upholds the great frame of heaven and earth; a Majesty above
the conceptions of angels; who uses not his power to strike us to our
deserved punishment, but his love and bounty to allure us; a God that
gave all the creatures to serve us, and can, in a trice, make them as
much our enemies as he hath now made them our servants. Let us view
him in his greatness, and in his goodness, that our hearts may have a
true value of the worship of so great a majesty, and count it the most
worthy employment with all diligence to attend upon him. When we have
a fear of God, it will make our worship {a273} serious; when we have
a joy in God, it will make our worship durable. Our affections will be
raised when we represent God in the most reverential, endearing, and
obliging circumstances. We honor the majesty of God, when we consider
him with due reverence according to the greatness and perfection of
his works, and in this reverence of his majesty doth worship chiefly
consist. Low thoughts of God will make low frames in us before him.
If we thought God an infinite glorious Spirit, how would our hearts
be lower than our knees in his presence! How humbly, how believingly
pleading is the Psalmist, when he considers God to be without
comparison in the heavens; to whom none of the sons of the mighty
can be likened; when there was none like to him in strength and
faithfulness round about (Ps. lxxxix 6‒8). We should have also deep
impressions of the omniscience of God, and remember we have to deal
with a God that searcheth the heart and trieth the reins, to whom the
most secret temper is as visible as the loudest words are audible;
that though man judges by outward expressions, God judges by inward
affections. As the law of God regulates the inward frames of the heart,
so the eye of God pitches upon the inward intentions of the soul.
If God were visibly present with us, should we not approach to him
with strong affections, summon our spirits to attend upon him, behave
ourselves modestly before him? Let us consider he is as really present
with us, as if he were visible to us; let us, therefore, preserve
a strong sense of the presence of God. No man, but one out of his
wits, when he were in the presence of a prince, and making a speech
to him, would break off at every period, and run after the catching of
butterflies. Remember in all worship you are before the Lord, to whom
all things are open and naked.
4. Let us take heed of inordinate desires after the world. As the
world steals away a man’s heart from the word, so it doth from all
other worship; “It chokes the word” (Matt. xiii. 27); it stifles all
the spiritual breathings after God in every duty; the edge of the soul
is blunted by it, and made too dull for such sublime exercises. The
apostle’s rule in prayer, when he joins “sobriety with watching unto
prayer” (1 Pet. iv. 7), is of concern in all worship, sobriety in the
pursuit and use of all worldly things. A man drunk with worldly fumes
cannot watch, cannot be heavenly, affectionate, spiritual in service.
There is a magnetic force in the earth to hinder our flights to heaven.
Birds, when they take their first flights from the earth, have more
flutterings of their wings, than when they are mounted further in the
air, and got more without the sphere of the earth’s attractiveness:
the motion of their wings is more steady, that you can perceive them
stir; they move like a ship with a full gale. The world is a clog
upon the soul, and a bar to spiritual frames; it is as hard to elevate
the heart to God in the midst of a hurry of worldly affairs, as it is
difficult to meditate when we are near a great noise of waters falling
from a precipice, or in the midst of a volley of muskets. Thick clayey
affections bemire the heart, and make it unfit for such high flights
it is to take in worship; therefore, get your hearts clear from
worldly thoughts and desires, if you would be more spiritual in
worship.
{a274} 5. Let us be deeply sensible of our present wants, and the
supplies we may meet with in worship. Cold affections to the things we
would have will grow cooler; weakness of desire for the communications
in worship, will freeze our hearts at the time of worship, and make
way for vain and foolish diversions. A beggar that is ready to perish,
and knows he is next door to ruin, will not slightly and dully beg an
alms, and will not be diverted from his importunity by every slight
call, or the moving of an atom in the air. Is it pardon we would have?
let us apprehend the blackness of sin, with the aggravations of it
as it respects God; let us be deeply sensible of the want of pardon
and worth of mercy, and get your affections into such a frame as
a condemned man would do; let us consider, that as we are now at
the throne of God’s grace, we shall shortly be at the bar of God’s
justice; and if the soul should be forlorn there, how fixedly and
earnestly would it plead for mercy! Let us endeavor to stir up the
same affections now, which we have seen some dying men have, and
which we suppose despairing souls would have done at God’s tribunal.
We must be sensible that the life or death of our souls depends upon
worship.[530] Would we not be ashamed to be ridiculous in our carriage
while we are eating; and shall we not be ashamed to be cold or garish
before God, when the salvation of our souls, as well as the honor of
God, is concerned? If we did see the heaps of sins, the eternity of
punishment due to them; if we did see an angry and offended Judge; if
we did see the riches of mercy, the glorious outgoings of God in the
sanctuary, the blessed doles he gives out to men when they spiritually
attend upon him, both the one and the other would make us perform our
duties humbly, sincerely, earnestly, and affectionately, and wait upon
him with our whole souls, to have misery averted, and mercy bestowed.
Let our sense of this be encouraged by the consideration of our
Saviour presenting his merits; with what affection doth he present his
merits, his blood shed upon the cross, now in heaven? And shall our
hearts be cold and frozen, flitting and unsteady, when his affections
are so much concerned? Christ doth not present any man’s case and
duties without a sense of his wants; and shall we have none of
our own? Let me add this; let us affect our hearts with a sense of
what supplies we have met with in former worship; the delightful
remembrance of what converse we have had with God in former worship
would spiritualize our hearts for the present worship. Had Peter had
a view of Christ’s glory in the mount fresh in his thoughts, he would
not so easily have turned his back upon his Master, nor would the
Israelites have been at leisure for their idolatry, had they preserved
the sense of the majesty of God discovered in his late thunders from
Mount Sinai.
6. If anything intrudes that may choke the worship, cast it speedily
out. We cannot hinder Satan and our own corruption from presenting
coolers to us, but we may hinder the success of them; we cannot hinder
the gnats from buzzing about us when we are in our business, but we
may prevent them from settling upon us. A man that is running on a
considerable errand, will shun all unnecessary discourse, that may
make him forget or loiter in his business. What {a275} though there
may be something offered that is good in itself, yet if it hath a
tendency to despoil God of his honor, and ourselves of the spiritual
intentness in worship, send it away. Those that weed a field of
corn, examine not the nature and particular virtues of the weeds, but
consider only how they choke the corn, to which the native juice of
the soil is designed. Consider what you are about; and if anything
interpose that may divert you, or cool your affections in your present
worship, cast it out.
7. As to private worship, let us lay hold of the most melting
opportunities and frames. When we find our hearts in a more than
ordinary spiritual frame, let us look upon it as a call from God to
attend him; such impressions and notions are God’s voice, inviting
us into communion with him in some particular act of worship, and
promising us some success in it. When the Psalmist had a secret
motion to “seek God’s face” (Ps. xxvii. 8), and complied with it,
the issue is the encouragement of his heart, which breaks out into
an exhortation to others to be of good courage, and wait on the Lord
(v. 13, 14): “Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall
strengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.” One blow will do more
on the iron when it is hot, than a hundred when it is cold; melted
metals may be stamped with any impression; but, once hardened, will
with difficulty be brought into the figure we intend.[531]
8. Let us examine ourselves at the end of every act of worship, and
chide ourselves for any carnality we perceive in them. Let us take a
review of them, and examine the reason, why art thou so low and carnal,
O my soul? as David did of his disquietedness (Ps. xlii. 5): “Why art
thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me?”
If any unworthy frames have surprised us in worship, let us seek them
out after worship; call them to the bar; make an exact scrutiny into
the causes of them, that we may prevent their incursions another time;
let our pulses beat quick by way of anger and indignation against
them; this would be a repairing what hath been amiss; otherwise they
may grow, and clog an after‑worship more than they did a former.
Daily examination is an antidote against the temptations of the
following day, and constant examination of ourselves after duty is a
preservative against vain encroachments in following duties; and upon
the finding them out, let us apply the blood of Christ by faith for
our cure, and draw strength from the death of Christ for the conquest
of them, and let us also be humbled for them. God lifts up the humble;
when we are humbled for our carnal frames in one duty, we shall find
ourselves by the grace of God more elevated in the next.
{a276} DISCOURSE V.
ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
PSALM xc. 2.――Before the mountains were brought forth, or
ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from
everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
THE title of this psalm is a prayer; the author, Moses. Some think
not only this, but the ten following psalms, were composed by him. The
title wherewith he is dignified is, “The man of God,” as also in Deut.
xxxiii. 1. One inspired by him to be his interpreter, and deliver his
oracles; one particularly directed by him;[532] one who as a servant
did diligently employ himself in his master’s business, and acted for
the glory of God;[533] he was the minister of the Old Testament, and
the prophet of the New.[534]
There are two parts of this psalm. 1. A complaint of the frailty of
man’s life in general (v. 3‒6); and then a particular complaint of
the condition of the church (v. 8‒10). 2. A prayer (v. 12). But before
he speaks of the shortness of human life, he fortifies them by the
consideration of the refuge they had, and should find in God (v. 1):
“Lord, thou hast been our dwelling‑place in all generations.” We have
had no settled abode in the earth, since the time of Abraham’s being
called out from Ur of the Chaldees. We have had Canaan in a promise,
we have it not yet in possession; we have been exposed to the
cruelties of an oppressing enemy, and the incommodities of a desert
wilderness; we have wanted the fruits of the earth, but not the dews
of heaven. “Thou hast been our dwelling‑place in all generations.”
Abraham was under thy conduct; Isaac and Jacob under thy care; their
posterity was multiplied by thee, and that under their oppressions.
Thou hast been our shield against dangers, our security in the times
of trouble; when we were pursued to the Red Sea, it was not a creature
delivered us; and when we feared the pinching of our bowels in the
desert, it was no creature rained manna upon us. Thou hast been
our dwelling‑place; thou hast kept open house for us, sheltered us
against storms, and preserved us from mischief, as a house doth an
inhabitant from wind and weather; and that not in one or two, but in
all generations. Some think an allusion is here made to the ark, to
which they were to have recourse in all emergencies. Our refuge and
defence hath not been from created things; not from the ark, but from
the God of the ark. Observe,
1. God is a perpetual refuge and security to his people. His
providence is not confined to one generation; it is not one age {a277}
only that tastes of his bounty and compassion. His eye never yet slept,
nor hath he suffered the little ship of his church to be swallowed up,
though it hath been tossed upon the waves; he hath always been a haven
to preserve us, a house to secure us; he hath always had compassions
to pity us, and power to protect us; he hath had a face to shine,
when the world hath had an angry countenance to frown.[535] He brought
Enoch home by an extraordinary translation from a brutish world; and
when he was resolved to reckon with men for their brutish lives, he
lodged Noah, the phœnix of the world, in an ark, and kept him alive
as a spark in the midst of many waters, whereby to rekindle a church
in the world; in all generations he is a dwelling‑place to secure his
people here, or entertain them above. His providence is not wearied,
nor his care fainting; he never wanted will to relieve us, “for he
hath been our refuge,” nor ever can want power to support us, “for he
is a God from everlasting to everlasting.” The church never wanted a
pilot to steer her, and a rock to shelter her, and dash in pieces the
waves which threaten her.
2. How worthy is it to remember former benefits, when we come to
beg for new. Never were the records of God’s mercies so exactly
revised, as when his people have stood in need of new editions of
his power. How necessary are our wants to stir us up to pay the rent
of thankfulness in arrear! He renders himself doubly unworthy of the
mercies he wants, that doth not gratefully acknowledge the mercies he
hath received. God scarce promised any deliverance to the Israelites,
and they, in their distress, scarce prayed for any deliverance; but
that from Egypt was mentioned on both sides, by God to encourage them,
and by them to acknowledge their confidence in him. The greater our
dangers, the more we should call to mind God’s former kindness. We
are not only thankfully to acknowledge the mercies bestowed upon our
persons, or in our age, but those of former times. “Thou hast been our
dwelling‑place in all generations.” Moses was not living in the former
generations, yet he appropriates the former mercies to the present age.
Mercies, as well as generations, proceed out of the loins of those
that have gone before. All mankind are but one Adam; the whole church
but one body. In the second verse he backs his former consideration.
1. By the greatness of his power in forming the world. 2. By the
boundlessness of his duration: “From everlasting to everlasting.” As
thou hast been our dwelling‑place, and expended upon us the strength
of thy power and riches of thy love, so we have no reason to doubt
the continuance on thy part, if we be not wanting on our parts; for
the vast mountains and fruitful earth are the works of thy hands, and
there is less power requisite for our relief, than there was for their
creation; and though so much strength hath been upon various occasions
manifested, yet thy arm is not weakened, for “from everlasting to
everlasting thou art God.”[536] Thou hast always been God, and no
time can be assigned as the beginning of thy being.[537] The mountains
are not of so long a standing as thyself; they are {a278} the effects
of thy power, and therefore cannot be equal to thy duration; since
they are the effects, they suppose the precedency of their cause.
If we would look back, we can reach no further than the beginning of
the creation, and account the years from the first foundation of the
world; but after that we must lose ourselves in the abyss of eternity;
we have no cue to guide our thoughts; we can see no bounds in thy
eternity. But as for man, he traverseth the world a few days, and
by thy order pronounced concerning all men, returns to the dust, and
moulders into the grave. By mountains, some understand angels, as
being creatures of a more elevated nature; by earth, they understand
human nature, the earth being the habitation of men. There is no
need to divert in this place from the letter to such a sense. The
description seems to be poetical, and amounts to this: he neither
began with the beginning of time, nor will expire with the end of it;
he did not begin when he made himself known to our fathers, but his
being did precede the creation of the world, before any created being
was formed, and any time settled.[538] “Before the mountains were
brought forth,” or before they were begotten or born; the word being
used in those senses in Scripture; before they stood up higher than
the rest of the earthly mass God had created. It seems that mountains
were not casually cast up by the force of the deluge softening the
ground, and driving several parcels of it together, to grow up into a
massy body, as the sea doth the sand in several places; but they were
at first formed by God. The eternity of God is here described,
1. In his priority: “Before the world.”
2. In the extension of his duration: “From everlasting to everlasting
thou art God.” He was before the world, yet he neither began nor ends;
he is not a temporary, but an eternal God; it takes in both parts
of eternity, what was before the creation of the world, and what is
after; though the eternity of God be one permanent state, without
succession, yet the spirit of God, suiting himself to the weakness
of our conception, divides it into two parts; one past before the
foundation of the world, another to come after the destruction of the
world; as he did exist before all ages, and as he will exist after
all ages. Many truths lie couched in the verse.
1. The world hath a beginning of being: it was not from eternity, it
was once nothing; had it been of a very long duration, some records
would have remained of some memorable actions done of a longer date
than any extant. 2. The world owes its being to the creating power of
God: “Thou hast formed it” out of nothing into being; Thou, that is,
God; it could not spring into being of itself; it was nothing; it must
have a former. 3. God was in being before the world: the cause must
be before the effect; that word which gives being, must be before
that which receives being. 4. This Being was from eternity: “From
everlasting.” 5. This Being shall endure to eternity: “To everlasting.”
6. There is but one God, one eternal: “From everlasting to everlasting,
thou art {a279} God.” None else but one hath the property of eternity;
the gods of the heathen cannot lay claim to it.