absolute goodness of God, as it is the excellency of his nature,
is the object of praise: the relative goodness of God, as he is our
benefactor, is the object of thankfulness. This was always a debt
due from man to God; he had obligations in the time of his integrity,
and was then to render it; he is not less, but more obliged to it in
the state of corruption; the benefits being the greater, by how much
the more unworthy he is of them by reason of his revolt. The bounty
bestowed upon an enemy that merits the contrary, ought to be received
with a greater resentment than that bestowed on a friend, who is not
unworthy of testimonies of respect. Gratitude to God is the duty of
every creature that hath a sense of itself; the more excellent being
any enjoy the more devout ought to be the acknowledgment. How often
doth David stir up, not only himself, but summon all creatures, even
the insensible ones, to join in the concert! He calls to the “deeps,
fire, hail, snow, mountains and hills,” to bear a part in this work of
praise (Ps. cxlviii.); not that they are able to do it actively, but to
show that man is to call in the whole creation to assist him passively,
and should have so much charity to all creatures, as to receive what
they offer, and so much affection to God, as to present to him what
he receives from him. Snow and hail cannot bless and praise God, but
man ought to praise God for those things wherein there is a mixture of
trouble and inconvenience, something to molest our sense, as well as
something that improves the earth for fruit. This God requires of us:
for this he instituted several offerings, and required a little portion
of fruits to be presented to him, as an acknowledgment they held the
whole from his bounty. And the end of the festival days among the Jews
was to revive the memory of those signal acts wherein his power for
them, and his goodness to them, had been extraordinarily evident; it
is no more but our mouths to praise him, and our hand to obey him, that
he exacts at our hands. He commands us not to expend what he allows us
in the erecting stately temples to his honor; all the coin he requires
to be paid with for his expense is the “offering of thanksgiving”
(Ps. l. 14): and this we ought to do as much as we can, since we cannot
do it as much as he merits, for “who can show forth all his praise?”
(Ps. cvi. 2.) If we have the fruit of his goodness, it is fit he
should have the “fruit of our lips” (Heb. xiii. 15): the least kindness
should inflame our souls with a kindly resentment. Though some of his
benefits have a brighter, some a darker, aspect towards us, yet they
all come from this common spring; his goodness shines in all; there
are the footsteps of goodness in the least, as well as the smiles of
goodness in the greatest; the meanest therefore is not to pass without
a regard of the Author. As the glory of God is more illustrious in
some creatures than in others, yet it glitters in all, and the lowest
as well as the highest administers matter of praise; but they are not
only little things, but the choicer favors he has bestowed upon us. How
much doth it deserve our acknowledgment, that he should contrive our
recovery, when we had plotted our ruin! that when he did from eternity
behold the crimes wherewith we would incense him, he should not,
according to the rights of justice, cast us into hell, but prize us at
{b353} the rate of the blood and life of his only Son, in value above
the blood of men and lives of angels! How should we bless that God,
that we have yet a gospel among us, that we are not driven into the
utmost regions, that we can attend upon him in the face of the sun, and
not forced to the secret obscurities of the night! Whatsoever we enjoy,
whatsoever we receive, we must own him as the Donor, and read his hand
in it. Rob him not of any praise to give to an instrument. No man hath
wherewithal to do us good, nor a heart to do us good, nor opportunities
of benefitting us without him. When the cripple received the soundness
of his limbs from Peter, he praised the hand that sent it, not the hand
that brought it (Acts iii. 6): he “praised God” (ver. 8). When we want
anything that is good, let the goodness of Divine nature move us to
David’s practice, to “thirst after God” (Ps. xlii. 1): and when we feel
the motions of his goodness to us, let us imitate the temper of the
same holy man (Ps. ciii. 2): “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget
not all his benefits.” It is an unworthy carriage to deal with him as
a traveller doth with a fountain, kneel down to drink of it when he is
thirsty, and turn his back upon it, and perhaps never think of it more
after he is satisfied. 4. And, lastly, Imitate this goodness of God.
If his goodness hath such an influence upon us as to make us love him,
it will also move us with an ardent zeal to imitate him in it. Christ
makes this use from the doctrine of Divine goodness (Matt. v. 44, 45):
“Do good to them that hate you, that you may be the children of your
Father which is in heaven; for he makes his sun to rise on the evil
and on the good.” As holiness is a resemblance of God’s purity, so
charity is a resemblance of God’s goodness; and this our Saviour calls
perfection (ver. 48): “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father,
which is in heaven, is perfect.” As God would not be a perfect God
without goodness, so neither can any be a perfect Christian without
kindness; charity and love being the splendor and loveliness of all
Christian graces, as goodness is the splendor and loveliness of all
Divine attributes. This and holiness are ordered in the Scripture to be
the grand patterns of our imitation. Imitate the goodness of God in two
things.
(1.) In relieving and assisting others in distress. Let our heart be
as large in the capacity of creatures, as God’s is in the capacity of
a Creator. A large heart from him to us, and a strait heart from us to
others, will not suit: let us not think any so far below us as to be
unworthy of our care, since God thinks none that are infinitely distant
from him too mean for his. His infinite glory mounts him above the
creature, but his infinite goodness stoops him to the meanest works of
his hands. As he lets not the transgressions of prosperity pass without
punishment, so he lets not the distress of his afflicted people pass
him without support. Shall God provide for the ease of beasts, and
shall not we have some tenderness towards those that are of the same
blood with ourselves, and have as good blood to boast of as runs in
the veins of the mightiest monarch on earth; and as mean, and as little
as they are, can lay claim to as ancient a pedigree as the stateliest
prince in the world, who cannot ascend to {b354} ancestors beyond
Adam? Shall we glut ourselves with Divine beneficence to us, and wear
his livery only on our own backs, forgetting the afflictions of some
dear Joseph; when God, who hath an unblemished felicity in his own
nature, looks out of himself to view and relieve the miseries of poor
creatures? Why hath God increased the doles of his treasures to some
more than others? Was it merely for themselves, or rather that they
might have a bottom to attain the honor of imitating him? Shall we
embezzle his goods to our own use, as if we were absolute proprietors,
and not stewards entrusted for others? Shall we make a difficulty to
part with something to others, out of that abundance he hath bestowed
upon any of us? Did not his goodness strip his Son of the glory of
heaven for a time to enrich us? and shall we shrug when we are to part
with a little to pleasure him? It is not very becoming for any to be
backward in supplying the necessities of others with a few morsels, who
have had the happiness to have had their greatest necessities supplied
with his Son’s blood. He demands not that we should strip ourselves of
all for others, but of a pittance, something of superfluity, which will
turn more to our account than what is vainly and unprofitably consumed
on our backs and bellies. If he hath given much to any of us, it is
rather to lay aside part of the income for his service; else we would
monopolize Divine goodness to ourselves, and seem to distrust under our
present experiments his future kindness, as though the last thing he
gave us was attended with this language, Hoard up this, and expect no
more from me; use it only to the glutting your avarice, and feeding
your ambition: which would be against the whole scope of Divine
goodness. If we do not endeavor to write after the comely copy he hath
set us, we may provoke him to harden himself against us, and in wrath
bestow that on the fire, or on our enemies, which his goodness hath
imparted to us for his glory, and the supplying the necessities of poor
creatures. And, on the contrary, he is so delighted with this kind of
imitation of him, that a cup of cold water, when there is no more to be
done, shall not be unrewarded.
(2.) Imitate God in his goodness, in a kindness to our worst
enemies. The best man is more unworthy to receive anything from God
than the worst can be to receive from us. How kind is God to those
that blaspheme him, and gives them the same sun, and the same showers,
that he doth to the best men in the world! Is it not more our glory
to imitate God in “doing good to those that hate us,” than to imitate
the men of the world in requiting evil, by a return of a sevenfold
mischief? This would be a goodness which would vanquish the hearts of
men, and render us greater than Alexanders and Cæsars, who did only
triumph over miserable carcasses; yea, it is to triumph over ourselves
in being good against the sentiments of corrupt nature. Revenge makes
us slaves to our passions, as much as the offenders, and good returns
render us victorious over our adversaries (Rom. xii. 21): “Be not
overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” When we took up our
arms against God, his goodness contrived not our ruin, but our recovery.
This is such a goodness of God as could not be discovered in an
innocent state; while man {b355} had continued in his duty, he could
not have been guilty of an enmity; and God could not but affect him,
unless he had denied himself: so this of being good to our enemies
could never have been practised in a state of rectitude; since, where
was a perfect innocence, there could be no spark of enmity to one
another. It can be no disparagement to any man’s dignity to cast his
influences on his greatest opposers, since God, who acts for his own
glory, thinks not himself disparaged by sending forth the streams of
his bounty on the wickedest persons, who are far meaner to him than
those of the same blood can be to us. Who hath the worse thoughts of
the sun, for shining upon the earth, that sends up vapors to cloud it?
it can be no disgrace to resemble God; if his hand and bowels be open
to us, let not ours be shut to any.
{b356} DISCOURSE XIII.
ON GOD’S DOMINION.
PSALM ciii. 19.――The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens:
and his kingdom ruleth over all.
THE Psalm begins with the praise of God, wherein the penman excites his
soul to a right and elevated management of so great a duty (ver. 1):
“Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy
name:” and because himself and all men were insufficient to offer up a
praise to God answerable to the greatness of his benefits, he summons
in the end of the psalm the angels, and all creatures, to join in
concert with him. Observe,
1. As man is too shallow a creature to comprehend the excellency of
God, so he is too dull and scanty a creature to offer up a due praise
to God, both in regard of the excellency of his nature, and the
multitude and greatness of his benefits.
2. We are apt to forget Divine benefits: our souls must therefore be
often jogged, and roused up. “All that is within me,” every power of my
rational, and every affection of my sensitive part: all his faculties,
all his thoughts. Our souls will hang back from God in every duty, much
more in this, if we lay not a strict charge upon them. We are so void
of a pure and entire love to God, that we have no mind to those duties.
Wants will spur us on to prayer, but a pure love to God can only
spirit us to praise. We are more ready to reach out a hand to receive
his mercies, than to lift up our hearts to recognize them after the
receipt. After the Psalmist had summoned his own soul to this task,
he enumerates the Divine blessings received by him, to awaken his
soul by a sense of them to so noble a work. He begins at the first and
foundation mercy to himself, the pardon of his sin and justification of
his person, the renewing of his sickly and languishing nature (ver. 3):
“Who forgives all thy iniquities, and heals all thy diseases.”
His redemption from death, or eternal destruction; his expected
glorification thereupon, which he speaks of with that certainty, as
if it were present (ver. 4): “Who redeems thy life from destruction,
who crowns thee with loving‑kindness and tender mercies.” He makes his
progress to the mercy manifested to the church in the protection of
it against, or delivery of it from, oppressions (ver. 6): “The Lord
executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.” In
the discovery of his will and law, and the glory of his merciful name
to it (ver. 7, 8): “He made known his ways unto Moses, and his acts
unto the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow
to anger, and plenteous in mercy:” {b357} which latter words may refer
also to the free and unmerited spring of the benefits he had reckoned
up: _viz._, the mercy of God, which he mentions also (ver. 10): “He
hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities;” and then extols the perfection of Divine mercy, in
the pardoning of sin (ver. 11, 12); the paternal tenderness of God
(ver. 13); the eternity of his mercy (ver. 17); but restrains it to the
proper object (ver. 11, 17), “to them that fear him;” _i. e._ to them
that believe in him. _Fear_ being the word commonly used for _faith_ in
the Old Testament, under the legal dispensation, wherein the spirit of
bondage was more eminent than the spirit of adoption, and their fear
more than their confidence. Observe,
1. All true blessings grow up from the pardon of sin (ver. 3): “Who
forgives all thine iniquities.” That is the first blessing, the top
and crown of all other favors, which draws all other blessings after
it, and sweetens all other blessings with it. The principal intent of
Christ was expiation of sin, redemption from iniquity; the purchase of
other blessings was consequent upon it. Pardon of sin is every blessing
virtually, and in the root and spring it flows from the favor of God,
and is such a gift as cannot be tainted with a curse, as outward things
may.
2. Where sin is pardoned, the soul is renewed (ver. 3): “Who heals all
thy diseases.” Where guilt is remitted, the deformity and sickness of
the soul is cured. Forgiveness is a teeming mercy; it never goes single;
when we have an interest in Christ, as bearing the chastisement of our
peace, we receive also a balsam from his blood, to heal the wounds we
feel in our nature. (Isa. liii. 5): “The chastisement of our peace was
upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.” As there is a guilt in
sin, which binds us over to punishment, so there is a contagion in sin,
which fills us with pestilent diseases; when the one is removed, the
other is cured. We should not know how to love the one without the
other. The renewing the soul is necessary for a delightful relish of
the other blessings of God. A condemned malefactor, infected with a
leprosy, or any other loathsome distemper, if pardoned, could take
little comfort in his freedom from the gibbet without a cure of his
plague.
3. God is the sole and sovereign Author of all spiritual blessings:
“Who forgives all thy iniquities, and heals all thy diseases.” He
refers all to God, nothing to himself in his own merit and strength.
All, not the pardon of one sin merited by me, not the cure of one
disease can I owe to my own power, and the strength of my freewill,
and the operations of nature. He, and he alone is the Prince of pardon,
the Physician that restores me, the Redeemer that delivers me; it is a
sacrilege to divide the praise between God and ourselves. God only can
knock off our fetters, expel our distempers, and restore a deformed
soul to its decayed beauty.
4. Gracious souls will bless God as much for sanctification as for
justification. The initials of sanctification (and there are no more
in this life) are worthy of solemn acknowledgment. It is a sign of
growth in grace when our hymns are made up of acknowledgments of God’s
sanctifying, as well as pardoning grace. In blessing God {b358} for the
one, we rather show a love to ourselves; in blessing God for the other,
we cast out a pure beam of love to God: because, by purifying grace,
we are fitted to the service of our Maker, prepared to every good work
which is delightful to him; by the other, we are eased in ourselves.
Pardon fills us with inward peace, but sanctification fills us with
an activity for God. Nothing is so capable of setting the soul in
a heavenly tune, as the consideration of God as a pardoner and as a
healer.
5. Where sin is pardoned, the punishment is remitted (ver. 3, 4): “Who
forgives all thy iniquities, and redeems thy life from destruction.”
A malefactor’s pardon puts an end to his chains, frees him from the
stench of the dungeon, and fear of the gibbet. Pardon is nothing else
but the remitting of guilt, and guilt is nothing else but an obligation
to punishment as a penal debt for sin. A creditor’s tearing a bond
frees the debtor from payment and rigor.
6. Growth in grace is always annexed to true sanctification. So that
“thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (ver. 5). Interpreters trouble
themselves much about the manner of the eagle’s renewing its youth,
and regaining its vigor: he speaks best that saith, the Psalmist speaks
only according to the opinion of the vulgar, and his design was not
to write a natural history.[993] Growth always accompanies grace, as
well as it doth nature in the body; not that it is without its qualms
and languishing fits, as children are not, but still their distempers
make them grow. Grace is not an idle, but an active principle. It is
not like the Psalmist means it of the strength of the body, or the
prosperity and stability of his government, but the vigor of his grace
and comfort, since they are spiritual blessings here that are the
matter of his song. The healing the disease conduceth to the sprouting
up and flourishing of the body. It is the nature of grace to go from
strength to strength.
7. When sin is pardoned, it is perfectly pardoned. “As far as the
east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from
us” (ver. 11, 12). The east and west are the greatest distance in the
world; the terms can never meet together. When sin is pardoned, it is
never charged again; the guilt of it can no more return, than east can
become west, or west become east.
8. Obedience is necessary to an interest in the mercy of God. “The
mercy of the Lord is to them that fear him, to them that remember his
commandments, to do them” (ver. 17). Commands are to be remembered
in order to practice; a vain speculation is not the intent of the
publication of them.
After the Psalmist had enumerated the benefits of God, he reflects upon
the greatness of God, and considers him on his throne encompassed with
the angels, the ministers of his providence. “The Lord hath prepared
his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all” (ver. 19). He
brings in this of his dominion just after he had largely treated of his
mercy. Either,
1. To signify, That God is not only to be praised for his mercy, but
for his majesty, both for the height and extent of his authority.
2. To extol the greatness of his mercy and pity. What I have
{b359} said now, O my soul, of the mercy of God, and his paternal pity,
is commended by his majesty; his grandeur hinders not his clemency:
though his throne be high, his bowels are tender. He looks down upon
his meanest servants from the height of his glory. Since his majesty
is infinite, his mercy must be as great as his majesty. It must be a
greater pity lodging in his breast, than what is in any creature, since
it is not damped by the greatness of his sovereignty.
3. To render his mercy more comfortable. The mercy I have spoken
of, O my soul, is not the mercy of a subject, but of a sovereign.
An executioner may torture a criminal, and strip him of his life, and
a vulgar pity cannot relieve him, but the clemency of the prince can
perfectly pardon him. It is that God who hath none above him to control
him, none below him to resist him, that hath performed all the acts
of grace to thee. If God by his supreme authority pardons us, who can
reverse it? If all the subjects of God in the world should pardon us,
and God withhold his grant, what will it profit us? Take comfort, O my
soul, since God from his throne in the highest, and that God who rules
over every particular of the creation, hath granted and sealed thy
pardon to thee. What would his grace signify, if he were not a monarch,
extending his royal empire over everything, and swaying all by his
sceptre?
4. To render the Psalmist’s confidence more firm in any pressures.
Ver. 15, 16. He had considered the misery of man in the shortness of
his life; his place should know him no more; he should never return to
his authority, employments, opportunities, that death would take from
him; but, howsoever, the mercy and majesty of God were the ground of
his confidence. He draws himself from poring upon any calamities which
may assault him, to heaven, the place where God orders all things that
are done on the earth. He is able to protect us from our dangers, and
to deliver us from our distresses; whatsoever miseries thou mayest lie
under, O my soul, cast thy eye up to heaven, and see a pitying God in a
majestic authority: a God who can perform what he hath promised to them
that fear him, since he hath a throne above the heavens, and bears sway
over all that envy thy happiness, and would stain thy felicity: a God
whose authority cannot be curtailed and dismembered by any. When the
prophet solicits the sounding of the Divine bowels, he urgeth him by
his dwelling in heaven, the habitation of his holiness (Isa. lxiii. 15).
His kingdom ruleth over all: there is none therefore hath any authority
to make him break his covenant, or violate his promise.
5. As an incentive to obedience. The Lord is merciful, saith he, to
them “that remember his commandments to do them” (ver. 17, 18): and
then brings in the text as an encouragement to observe his precepts.
He hath a majesty that deserves it from us, and an authority to protect
us in it. If a king in a small spot of earth is to be obeyed by his
subjects, how much more is God, who is more majestic than all the
angels in heaven, and monarchs on earth; who hath a majesty to exact
our obedience, and a mercy to allure it! We should not set upon the
performance of any duty, without an eye lifted up to God as a great
king. It would make us willing to serve him; the more noble the person,
the more honorable and {b360} powerful the prince, the more glorious
is his service. A view of God upon his throne will make us think his
service our privilege, his precepts our ornaments, and obedience to him
the greatest honor and nobility. It will make us weighty and serious in
our performances: it would stake us down to any duty. The reason we are
so loose and unmannerly in the carriage of our souls before God, is
because we consider him not as a “great King” (Mal. i. 14). “Our Father,
which art in heaven,” in regard of his majesty, is the preface to
prayer.
Let us now consider the words in themselves. “The Lord hath prepared
his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.”
_The Lord hath prepared._――The word signifies “established,” as well
as “prepared,” and might so be rendered. Due preparation is a natural
way to the establishment of a thing: hasty resolves break and moulder.
This notes, 1. The infiniteness of his authority. He prepares it, none
else for him. It is a dominion that originally resides in his nature,
not derived from any by birth or commission; he alone prepared it.
He is the sole cause of his own kingdom; his authority therefore is
unbounded, as infinite as his nature: none can set laws to him, because
none but himself prepared his throne for him. As he will not impair
his own happiness, so he will not abridge himself of his own authority.
2. Readiness to exercise it upon due occasions. He hath prepared
his throne: he is not at a loss; he needs not stay for a commission
or instructions from any how to act. He hath all things ready for
the assistance of his people; he hath rewards and punishments; his
treasures and axes, the great marks of authority lying by him, the
one for the good, the other for the wicked. His “mercy he keeps by him
for thousands” (Exod. xxxiv. 7). His “arrows” he hath prepared by him
for rebels (Ps. vii. 13). 3. Wise management of it. It is prepared;
preparations imply prudence; the government of God is not a rash and
heady authority. A prince upon his throne, a judge upon the bench,
manages things with the greatest discretion, or should be supposed
so to do. 4. Successfulness and duration of it. He hath prepared or
established. It is fixed, not tottering; it is an immovable dominion;
all the strugglings of men and devils cannot overturn it, nor so much
as shake it. It is established above the reach of obstinate rebels; he
cannot be deposed from it, he cannot be mated in it. His dominion, as
himself, abides forever. And as his counsel, so his authority, shall
stand, and “he will do all his pleasure” (Isa. xlvi. 10).