walks carefully before God, is reproached by the world for a deceiver
and a hypocrite, that he can appeal to God, with whom his life is hid,
and say, “My record is on high; though my friends, or my enemies, may
scorn or deride me, yet he knoweth the way that I take, and the secret
exercises of my hidden life: He knows my longings and breathings of soul
after him, and that nothing but his love can satisfy me: He knows my
diligence and my holy labour to please him: He knows the wrestlings and
the conflicts that I go through hourly, to maintain my close walking
with my God: He knows that I live, though it is but a feeble life; and
the charges of the world against me are false and malicious.” It is with
a relish of holy pleasure that the christian sometimes, in secret,
appeals to our Lord Jesus Christ, as Peter did, and says, _Lord, thou
who knowest all things, knowest that I love thee_, John xxi. 17.
IIId Consolation. It is a matter of unspeakable comfort to a christian,
that the most terrible things to a sinner, are become the greatest
blessings to a saint: And these are death and judgment. What can be more
dreadful to those who know not God than those two words are; for they
put an eternal end to all their present pleasures, and to all their
hopes. But what greater happiness can a saint wish or hope for, than
death and judgment will put him in possession of? The one carries his
soul upward where his life is, that is, to God and Christ in heaven; the
other brings his life down to earth, where his body is, for Christ shall
then come to raise his dust from the grave.
I confess, I finished my former discourse on this text, with a
meditation on death and judgment; how the gloom which hung around the
saint in this life, is all dispelled at that blessed hour; and he who
was unknown and despised among men, stands forth with honour amongst
admiring angels: His hidden manner of life is for ever at an end. But in
this discourse the secret and glorious springs of his life, _viz._ God
and Christ, will naturally lead us to the same delightful meditations of
futurity, as the hidden manner of it has done; and there is so rich a
variety of new and transporting scenes and ideas attending that subject,
that I have no need to tire you with unpleasing repetition, though I
resume the glorious theme.
Let my consolations proceed then, and let the saints rejoice. At the
moment of death, the soul may say, “Farewel, for ever, sins and sorrows,
and perplexities; farewell, temptations of the alluring, and the
affrighting kind; neither the vanities, nor the terrors of this world,
shall reach me any more; for I shall from this moment for ever dwell
where my joy, my life is. All my springs are in God, and I shall be for
ever with him.”—And when the morning of the resurrection dawns upon the
world, and the day of judgment appears, the body of a christian shall be
called out of the dust, and shall bid farewell for ever to death and
darkness; to disease and pain, to all the fruits of sin, and all the
effects of the curse. Christ, who is the resurrection and the life,
stands up a complete conqueror over all the powers of the grave: He bids
the sacred dust, arise and live; the dust obeys, and revives; the whole
saint appears exulting in life; the date of his immortality then begins,
and his life shall run on to everlasting ages.
Methinks such lively views of death should incline us rather to desire
to depart from the body, that we may dwell with Christ. Death is but a
flight of the soul where its divine life is. Why should we make it a
matter of fear then, to be absent from the body, if we are immediately
present with the Lord! Methinks, under the influence of such meditations
of the resurrection, faith should breathe, and long for the last
appearance of Christ, and rejoice in the language of holy Job: _I know
that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon
the earth_; Job xix. 25. A christian should send his hopes and his
wishes forward to meet the chariot-wheels of our Lord Jesus the Judge;
for the day of his appearance is but the display of our life, and the
perfection of our blessedness. _When Christ, who is our life, shall
appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory_; Col. iii. 4. My
thoughts kindle at the sound of that blessed promise, and I long to let
contemplation loose on a theme so divinely glorious. If ever the pomp of
language be indulged, and the magnificence of words, it must be to
display this bright solemnity, this illustrious appearance, which
outshines all the pomp of words, and the utmost magnificence of
language. Come, my friends, let us meditate the sacred conformity of the
saints to Christ, first, in their hidden, and then in their glorious
life; as he was on earth, so are they; both hated of the world, both
unknown in it. The disciples must be trained up for public honours, as
their Master was, in this hideous and howling wilderness, in caves of
darkness, or rather in a den of savages. They must follow the Captain of
their salvation through a thousand dangers and sufferings; and they
shall receive their crown too, and a glory like that which arrays their
divine Leader.
O may I never think it hard to trace the footsteps of my Lord, though it
be in a miry, or a thorny way! May I never repine at poverty and
meanness of circumstance in my present pilgrimage! nor think it strange
if the world scorn and abuse me, or if Satan, the foul spirit, should
assault and buffet me sorely! Dare I hope to appear in glory, when
Christ, who is my life appears; and can I not bear to attend him in
sufferings and shame? Am I better than my blessed Lord? What poor
attendants had the Son of God, at his first entrance into our world! How
mean was every thing that belonged to him on earth! What vile and
despicable raiment, unworthy of the Prince of glory! What coarse
provision, and sorry furniture, to entertain incarnate godhead! And how
impious was the treatment he found among men, and impudent temptations
from the same foul spirit! He had snares, sorrows, and temptations,
watching all around him: The sorrows of death compassed him about, and
the powers of darkness crowded him with their envious assaults; earth
and hell were at once engaged against him; they hung him bleeding on a
cursed and infamous tree, lifted on high to be made a more public
gazing-stock, and an object of wider scorn! Blessed Saviour! how divine
was thy patience to endure all these indignities, and not call for thy
Father’s legions, nor thy own thunder.
But, this was the hour of thy appointed combat, the place of thy
voluntary obscurity, and the season of thy hidden life; and thy saints
must bear thy resemblance in both worlds. How unspeakable were thy past
sorrows! and thy present glories all unspeakable! How infinitely
different were these dark and mournful scenes, from the joys and honours
thou hast purchased by those very sufferings! Sacred honours and joys
without alloy, which thou art now possessed of as their great
forerunner, and hast made ready for thy subjects in thy own kingdom!
What robes of light shall array thy followers in that day; What bright
planet, or brighter star, shall be the place of thy dwelling? or shall
all those shining worlds be mansions of various residence, as thou shalt
lead thy saints successively through the vast and numerous provinces of
thy boundless dominion? Sorrow, sin, and temptation, shall be named no
more, unless to triumph over them in immortal songs. The fairest spirits
of light, in their own heavenly forms, shall be the companions and
attendants of the children of God. Jesus, the Lord of glory, is their
king and head, the leader of their triumph, and the pattern of their
exaltation. Jesus shall appear in his meridian lustre, as the Sun of
Righteousness in the noon of heaven; yet the beams of his influence
shall be gentle as the morning-star. There needs no other sun in that
upper world; the Lamb is the light thereof. Jesus, the ornament of
paradise, and the delight of God, shall be the eternal and beatific
object of their senses, and their souls; they must be _where he is, to
behold his glory_.
The blessed God shall dwell among them, and lay out upon them the riches
of his own all-sufficiency, riches of wisdom, grace, and power,
all-suprising, and all-infinite. Divine power shall then reveal all the
glory that has been laid up for them, of old, in the purposes of God, or
in the promises of the book of life. But it was fit it should be hidden
there, while the time of their probation lasted; it was fit they should
live by faith, and under some degrees of darkness, while the ages of sin
and temptation were rolling away: It was divinely proper that eternal
life should not break forth; nor the splendours of the third heaven be
made too conspicuous, till the six thousand years of mortality and death
had finished their revolutions round the lower skies, and had answered
the scheme of divine counsel and judgment, on a world where sin had
entered.
But life and heaven must not be hid for ever. The almighty word, in that
day, shall bid the ancient decree bring forth, and the promise unfold
itself in public light. What new worlds of unseen felicity! what scenes
of delight, and celestial blessings, never yet revealed to the race of
Adam! When the rivers of pleasure, that had run under ground from the
earth’s foundation, shall break up in immortal fountains.
Mercy and truth shall lavish out upon men with an unsparing hand all
those treasures of life which were hid in God, and in the gospel for
them. The All-wise shall please himself in making so noble creatures,
out of so mean materials, dust and ashes. Glorified saints are
master-pieces of divine skill; and the blessed original, or first
exemplar of them, the man Jesus, is the perfection of the contrivance of
God; here he has abounded in all wisdom and prudence. Then the
inhabitants of upper worlds shall see an illustrious and holy creation,
rising out of the ruins of this wretched globe, involved all in guilt,
and weltering in penal fire. When this scene opens, what sounding
acclamations shall echo from world to world, and new universal honours
be paid to Divine wisdom! The morning-stars shall sing together again,
and those holy armies shout for joy. The grace of God descending to
earth, in days past, had in some measure prepared his children for
glory: But in that day he shall enlarge their capacities, both of sense
and of mind, to an inconceivable extent, and shall fill the powers of
their glorified nature with the fruits of his love, new and old.
And what if the limits of our capacity shall be for ever stretching
themselves on all sides, and for ever drinking in larger measures of
glory; What an astonishing state of ever-growing pleasure! What an
eternal advance of our heaven! The godhead is an infinite ocean of life
and blessedness, and finite vessels may be for ever swelling, and for
ever filling in that sea of all-sufficiency. There must be no tiresome
satiety in that everlasting entertainment. God shall create the joys of
his saints ever fresh: He shall throw open his endless stores of
blessing, unknown even to the first rank of angels; and feast the sons
and daughters of men with pleasures a-kin to those which were prepared
for the Son of God. For verily he took not upon him the nature of
angels, but the likeness of sinful flesh: And when he shall appear the
second time without sin to our salvation, we shall then be made like
him, for we shall see him as he is. _Amen._
HYMN FOR SERMONS IX. and X.
_The Hidden Life of a Christian._
O happy soul, that lives on high,
While men lie groveling here!
His hopes are fix’d above the sky,
And faith forbids his fear.
His conscience knows no secret stings,
While grace and joy combine
To form a life, whose holy springs
Are hidden and divine.
He waits in secret on his God;
His God in secret sees:
Let earth be all in arms abroad,
He dwells in heavenly peace.
His pleasures rise from things unseen,
Beyond this world and time,
Where neither eyes nor ears have been,
Nor thoughts of mortals climb.
He wants no pomp, nor royal throne
To raise his figure here;
Content, and pleased to live unknown,
Till Christ his life appear.
He looks to heaven’s eternal hills,
To meet that glorious day;
Dear Lord, how slow thy chariot-wheels!
How long is thy delay!
Footnote 23:
The bible, of old, was written on several sheets of parchment tacked
together, and rolled up in a volume.
SERMON XI.
_Nearness to God the Felicity of Creatures._
PSALM lxv. 4.—Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to
approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts.
THE FIRST PART.
It was an elegant address that the queen of Sheba made to Solomon, when
she had surveyed the magnificence of his court, and heard his wisdom;
“Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, who stand
continually before thee!” 1 Kings x. 8. And there was much truth and
honour in her speech. But the harp of David strikes a diviner note;
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, O God, that he may approach unto
thee, and dwell in thy courts, in the holy sanctuary.
Whether, in these words, the Psalmist blesses those levites and priests,
whose duty it was to attend the ark, and to dwell near the tabernacle,
or whether he pronounces blessedness on every man of Israel, whose
habitation nigh the ark gave him frequent opportunities to attend at
that solemn worship, is not very necessary to determine. Either of these
may be called dwelling in the courts of God. But it is most probable,
that the sacred writer designs the second sense of the word, and that he
includes himself in the desire or possession of this blessedness, though
he was neither a priest nor a levite; for he uses the same phrase in
several places, and applies it to himself; Ps. xxvii. 4. _One thing have
I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life._ Ps. xxiii. 6.—_I will dwell
in the house of the Lord for ever._ By which he intimates, that he would
seek the most frequent opportunities of approaching God in public
worship.
It is sufficient to my present purpose, that the holy Psalmist makes the
_blessedness of man_ to depend upon his _near approaches to God_.
Here we should remember that God is necessarily near to all his
creatures, by his infinite knowledge, by his preserving and governing
power: _He is not far from every one of us: for in him we live, and
move, and have our being_; Acts xvii. 27, 28. But the privilege which
David speaks of in my text, is a _peculiar approach of a creature to
God_, which is a fruit of divine choice and favour. The souls who enjoy
this blessing are chosen to it, and by divine providence and mercy are
_caused to approach him_. What further explication of this phrase is
necessary, will be sufficiently given in the following parts of the
discourse.
Let this then be the doctrine which I shall attempt to confirm and
improve, _viz._
Doctrine. Nearness to God is the foundation of a creature’s happiness.
This may be proved with ease, if we consider, what it is that makes an
intelligent being happy: and how well such an approach to God furnishes
us with all the means of attaining it. The ingredients of happiness are
these three: 1. The contemplation of the most excellent object: 2. The
love of the chiefest good: 3. And a delightful sense of being beloved by
an all-sufficient power, or an almighty friend.
1. The contemplation of the most excellent object. And he who is nearest
to God, has the fairest advantages of this kind. The understanding is a
noble faculty of our natures; truth is its proper food; and truth, in
all the boundless varieties and beauties of it, is the object of its
pursuit, when it is refined from sensualities.
This is the delight of the _philosopher_, to search all the hidden
wonders of nature, and pursue truth with a most pleasurable and restless
fatigue: For this he climbs the heavens, traces the planetary and the
starry worlds: For this he pries into the bowels of the earth, and
sounds the depths of the ocean; and when, with immense toil of mind, he
has found out some unknown natural truth, how are all the powers of his
soul charmed within him, and he exults, as it were, in a little
paradise!
But the souls who are admitted to draw nearest to God, contemplate
infinite truth in its original. They converse with that divine
artificer, who spread abroad these curtains of heaven, who moulded this
globe of earth, and furnished the upper and the lower worlds with all
their admirable varieties. He is a God of glory and beauty in himself,
as well as the author of all the beauties of nature. All his
perfections, as well as his works, yield heavenly matter for
contemplation: He eminently contains in himself all the amazing scenes
of nature, and the more transporting wonders of the world of grace;
those mysteries wherein _he has abounded in all wisdom and prudence_:
How the ruined sons of Adam were rescued from death, by the Son of God
dying in their stead; how Satan was baffled in his most subtle designs,
and the deepest policies of hell undermined, when the prince of darkness
destroyed his own kingdom, by persuading men to put the Son of God to
death.
What a divine pleasure is it to converse with that wisdom which laid the
eternal scheme of all these wonders, and of ten thousand more unknown
beauties in the transactions of providence and grace, with which the
blessed minds above are feasted to satisfaction! And besides all these
God has reserved in himself a hidden world of new scenes to open
hereafter, and an everlasting profusion of new wonders to display before
the eyes of his favourites. Heaven is described by _seeing God_, by
_beholding him face to face_, and by _knowing_ him in the way and manner
in which _we are known_; 1 Cor. xiii. 12. And he is pleased to indulge
some taste of this felicity to his children in this life, by mediums and
glasses, by types and figures, by his word and ordinances, under the
enlightening beams of his spirit. This is the _beauty of the Lord_, for
the view of which David desired to _dwell in_ the sanctuary; Ps. xxvii.
4, that he might see the power and glory of God continually, as he had
sometimes seen it there: that he might behold his beauty, and talk of
his glorious goodness in his holy temple. O _how great is his goodness!
and how great is his beauty_; Zech. ix. 17.
But contemplation alone cannot make a creature happy: This only
entertains the understanding, which is but one faculty of our natures:
the will and affections must have their proper entertainment too. Their
beatific exercise may be comprized in the word love, either in the
out-goings, or the returns of it: And this leads me to the following
particulars:
II. The next ingredient of a creature’s happiness, is, the love of the
chiefest good. And those _whom God chooses, and causes to approach
himself_, when they are under divine illuminations, see so much beauty
and excellency in his nature, his power and wisdom, and so many lovely
glories in his overflowing grace, that they cannot but love him above
all things; and this love is a great part of their heaven. What sweeter
pleasure is there in this lower world, than to give a loose to the
affectionate powers of the soul, to converse with the most amiable and
most desired object, to feed upon it without ceasing, and to dwell with
it perpetually? But the most relishing enjoyments of this kind that
mortality admits of, in the pursuit or possession of created good, are
but faint and feeble shadows of the blessedness of holy souls in the
love of God, who is the most amiable, and the best of beings: Therefore
_they love him with all their heart and soul, with all their mind and
strength_; and if they had more powers in nature that could be employed
in love, they should all be laid out in the search and fruition of this
first and best-beloved: for there are endless stores, and treasures of
unknown loveliness in the godhead, to excite and entertain for ever the
fresh efforts of the most exalted love. But for me to know, and to love
the best of beings, cannot make me completely happy, unless I am
_beloved_ of him also, and unless I _feel_ that he loves me. Happiness
requires mutual love.
III. The third ingredient therefore of our felicity, and that which
perfects the blessedness of a creature, is, the delightful sense of the
love of an almighty friend. To know, to love, and to be beloved by such
a being, must complete our bliss; one who hath all beauty, and all
goodness in himself; one who can free us from every pain, secure us
against every peril, and confer upon us every pleasure. This is the
perfection of our heaven, when all these are enjoyed in a perfect
degree, without any alloy. Now such is the state of those who _are
chosen and caused to approach unto God_, so as to know him, and love
him; that they have the chiefest advantages to obtain the assurance and
taste of his love. The man whom the Psalmist pronounces blessed in my
text, hopes for this pleasure in _the house of God_, that he shall be
_satisfied with the_ divine _goodness_ there.
The _loving-kindness_ of God is life, or something _better than life_;
Ps. lxiii. 3. and to have a sensation of this loving-kindness, is to
feel that I live. To think, to know, and to be assured that I am
beloved, by an all-sufficient power, _who can do more_ for me _than I
can ask or think_, in life, and death, and in eternity, and to have
pleasing and spiritual sensations of _this shed abroad in the heart_;
this raises the christian near to the upper heaven, while he dwells on
earth, and he _rejoices with joy unspeakable, and full glory_.
Some may object here and say, Is it no part of our blessedness then to
love the saints, to rejoice in their love, to contemplate the works of
God, and his wonders in creation and providence? Answer, Yes surely; and
we have allowed it before: But when we take true satisfaction in any of
these, it is as they proceed from God, as they relate to God, and lead
our souls to centre in him; for God, who is the first cause, must be the
last end of all, and no creatures, as divided from him, can make us
either holy or happy.
I proceed to make some improvement of the few thoughts I have delivered
on this subject.
I. My first reflection should be upon the scale of blessedness, or the
several degrees of felicity that creatures are possessed of, according
to their advancing approaches toward God: But my meditations dilate
themselves here to so large an extent, as makes it necessary to adjourn
this thought to the next discourse. I proceed therefore to the
II. Reflection, What unknown evil is contained in the nature of every
sin, for it divides the creature from God and from happiness? It may be
said to every soul on earth, as it was once said to Israel; _Your
iniquities have separated between you and your God_; Is. lix. 2. What a
world of endless mischief was comprized in the first sin of Adam,
whereby this lower creation was, as it were, cut off from God at once?
Man was at first happy in the image and love of his Maker, a-kin to him
by nature and creation, as a son to a father: Adam was _the Son of God_;
Luke iii. 38. and he enjoyed the privilege and the pleasure of holy
nearness to God, and humble converse with him. He read the name of his
Maker in all his works; he could contemplate divine wisdom, power, and
goodness there; he loved his Creator with all his soul, and was happy in
his Creator’s love. But when sin entered, Adam fled from his heavenly
Father, and his friend; _he hid himself among the trees in the garden_,
when the voice of the Lord called after him, _Adam, where art thou?_ And
it has been the dismal description of sinners ever since, that they are
_afar off from God_.
O what tongue can express, or what heart can conceive, the immense load,
and everlasting train of mischiefs and miseries, that lie heavy on poor
mankind, and have pursued human nature, in all the infinite members and
branches of it, through all ages and nations, for almost six thousand
years? All these were introduced by man’s first disobedience. We are a
sinful race of creatures, born in the likeness of the original sinner;
We come into the world _estranged from God, and go astray from the
womb_; for we were _shapen_ in iniquity, and conceived in sin; Ps.
lviii. 3. and li. 5. It is the temper and spirit of mankind, by nature,
to desire an absence from God, and to wish their own misery; Job xxi.
14. “What is the Almighty that we should serve him?—Depart from us, for
we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.” By nature we love him not, nor
do we seek after his love. This is your state, and this mine by nature:
These are our hateful and deplorable circumstances, and yet we go on to
aggravate our own guilt, to run further from God hourly, and to make
haste to everlasting wretchedness, if divine grace prevent us not.