stretch, we must lie down and rest, and confess the great
incomprehensible. How far this sublime transport of joy is varied in
each subsistence: how far their mutual knowledge of each others’
properties, or their mutual delight in each others’ love, is distinct in
each divine person, is a secret too high for the present determination
of our language and our thoughts, it commands our judgment into silence,
and our whole souls into wonder and adoration[27].
Thus we have traced the streams of happiness that flow amongst the
creatures in endless variety, to their original and eternal fountain,
God himself: He is the all-sufficient spring of blessedness as well as
of being, to all the intellectual worlds; and he is everlastingly
self-sufficient for his own being and blessedness.
But are not we told in scripture, that _God delights in the works of his
hands_, that _he takes pleasure in his saints_, that _he rejoices in
Zion_, and _rests in his love_ to his church; that Jesus Christ, even as
man and Mediator, is the _beloved of his soul, in whom he is
well-pleased_? Yes, surely, this is one way whereby he represents his
own divine satisfactions in our language, and after the manner of men.
But we must not imagine that he ever goes out of himself, and descends
to creatures, as though he needed any thing from them, who are all
before him as nothing, and less than nothing, and vanity. It is from his
own wisdom, power, and goodness, as they appear in all his works, that
his delight arises; and it is in these glories of his nature, and in the
gracious purposes of his will, as they are manifested in his works, that
the saints and angels, and all the happy ranks of beings, find their
highest satisfaction. It is in the contemplation of God, and in the
exercises and sensations of divine love, that all supreme felicity
consists, so far as we are capable of being acquainted with it.
The only reflection with which I shall conclude the subject, is this,
that communion with God, which has been impiously ridiculed by the
profane wits of the last and the present age, is no such visionary and
fantastic notion as they imagine; but as it is founded in the words of
scripture, so it may be explained with great ease and evidence to the
satisfaction of human reason. That it is founded in scripture, appears
sufficiently in several verses of the xvii. chapter of St. John’s
gospel, where the divine union and blessedness of the Father and the
Son, are made a pattern of our union to God, and our blessedness; John
xvii. 21, 22, 23-26. _That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in
me, and I in thee; that they may be one in us_: And in this sense, but
in a lower degree, even here on earth, _our communion, or fellowship, is
with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ_; 1 John i. 3. Though our
communion with Christ includes also some particular varieties in it,
which is not my present business to explain.
That this doctrine is exactly agreeable to reason, may be thus
demonstrated:
We use the word communion, when two or more persons partake of the same
thing. So friends have communion in one table when they dine together:
Christians have communion in one sermon, in one prayer, or one
sacrament, when they join together in those parts of worship; and the
saints have communion with God in blessedness, when they rejoice in the
same object of contemplation and love. God surveys himself, he is
pleased with his own glories, delights in himself as the highest and the
noblest object; he trusts in his own right-hand of power, he leans upon
his own understanding, he rests in his own counsels and purposes, he
feels and he acknowledges all his own infinite perfections, and thus he
enjoys them all. Thus also is our blessedness frequently set forth in
scripture. It is our happiness to know God, to contemplate his glories,
so far as they are revealed; to love him and his goodness, to trust in
his wisdom, and lean securely on his strength? to feel the workings of
divine powers and graces in and upon us, and to make acknowledgment of
them all to God. Thus the image of God is restored to us in holiness and
in happiness: Thus we are said to be holy as God is holy; and thus also
we are blessed as God is blessed.
But though we are admitted to this amazing privilege, and hold communion
with God, in the same object of contemplation and love, yet we must
still remember, with humble adoration, that his holiness and his
happiness, does infinitely exceed ours. The pleasures which arise from
his knowledge, and his love of himself, are as far above our taste, or
all our ideas of blessedness, as heaven is higher than the earth, or as
God is above the creature.
There is another sense also of this phrase, communion or fellowship with
God, which has been used by many pious writers, when they make it to
signify the same thing as converse with God; and this also depends upon
our nearness, or approach to him: As when a christian, in secret, pours
out his whole heart before God, and is made sensible of his gracious
presence, by the sweet influences of instruction, sanctification, or
comfort. When man speaks, and God answers, there is a sacred communion,
between God and man; Is. lviii. 9. _Thou shalt call, and the Lord shall
answer._ This holy David often enjoyed, and always sought after it. When
the soul, in secret, complains of perplexity and darkness, and God is
pleased to give some secret hints of direction and advice; when the soul
mourns before God, confessing guilt, and the weakness of grace, and some
divine promise is impressed upon the mind by the Holy Spirit, whence the
christian derives peace of conscience, and strength to fulfil duty, and
to resist mighty temptations: These certainly are seasons of converse or
communion with God.
So when, in public worship, we address God with our souls in fervent
prayer, and while we hear the word of God spoken to us by his ministers,
we receive an answer to those prayers in the convincing and sanctifying
impressions which the word makes upon the heart; this is also an hour of
secret communion. So at the supper of the Lord, when with hope and joy
we receive the bread and the wine, as divine seals of the faithfulness
of God’s covenant, and when we transact those solemn affairs also as
seals of our faith and love, and our engagements to be the Lord’s; we
may properly be said to hold _fellowship, or communion with him_.
What swift advances of holiness doth the saint feel in his heart, and
practise in his life, after such seasons of devotion! What glory doth he
give to religion in a dark and sinful world! What unknown pleasure doth
he find in such approaches to God! And he moves swiftly onward in his
way to heaven, by such daily receipts of mercy, and returns of praise.
These are powerful motives that will make him persist in his holy
practice and joy, in scorn of all the mockery and ridicule of a profane
age of infidels. So the moon holds bright communion with the sun, the
sovereign planet; so she receives and reflects his beams; she shines
gloriously in a dark hemisphere, and moves onward sublime in her
heavenly course, regardless of all the barking animals that betray their
senseless malice.
This blessed privilege and pleasure of converse with God, which is
enjoyed by the saints on earth, is doubtless the pleasure and the
privilege of the spirits of the just made perfect, and of angels near
the throne, but in a much higher degree: When they address the Majesty
of Heaven in the forms of celestial worship, and receive immediate and
sensible tokens of divine acceptance; or when they take their orders and
commissions from the throne for some particular errand, or high
employment, and return again to make their humble report there: These
are glorious seasons of converse with their Maker.
Much more glorious communion of this kind does the man Christ Jesus
enjoy with God, in transacting all the vast and illustrious affairs of
his commission; a commission large as the extent of his Father’s
kingdom, full of majesty and justice, terror and grace; a divine
commission to govern, to redeem, and to save, or to punish and destroy
millions of mankind, as well as to rule all his unknown dominions in the
upper and nether worlds.
But in what manner this communion between the Father and Christ is
maintained, we know not; nor can we guess in what manner, or in what
degree such sort of converse or communion as this is practised, or is
possible, between the three glorious persons of the ever-blessed
Trinity. These are mysteries wrapt up in sacred darkness, and the
explication of them surrounded with dangers. A particular knowledge of
these divine unsearchables, any farther than scripture has revealed
them, is by no means necessary either to begin, or to maintain our state
of grace. Let us content ourselves a few years longer with humble
ignorance, and we shall have brighter discoveries in the future world,
if it be necessary there to fulfil our happiness, and to complete our
state of glory.
HYMN FOR SERMON XII.
_The Scale of Blessedness; or Blessed Saints, Blessed Saviour, and
Blessed Trinity._
Ascend, my soul, by just degrees,
Let contemplation rove
O’er all the rising ranks of bliss,
Here, and in worlds above.
Blest is the nation near to God,
Where he makes known his ways:
Blest are the men whose feet have trod
His lower courts of grace.
Blest were the levite and the priest,
Who near his altar stood;
Blest are the saints from sin releas’d,
And reconcil’d with blood.
Blest are the souls dismiss’d from clay,
Before his face they stand:
Blest angels in their bright array,
Attend his great command.
Jesus is more divinely blest,
Where man to godhead join’d,
Hath joys transcending all the rest,
More noble and refin’d.
But, O what words or thoughts can trace
The blessed Three in one!
Here rest my spirit, and confess
The infinite unknown.
Footnote 24:
These expressions may be sufficiently justified, if we consider
Jepthah’s rash vow of sacrifice, which fell upon his only child; and
Samson’s rude or unbecoming conduct in his amours with the Philistine
woman at Timnah, the harlot at Gaza, and his Delilah at Sorek, his
bloody quarrels, and his manner of life. The learned and pious Dr.
Owen, as I have often been informed by his intimate friend Sir John
Hartopp, called him a rude believer. He might have a strong faith of
miracles; Heb. xi. 22. but a small share of that faith which purifies
the heart.
Footnote 25:
I know the word blessed, when it is applied to God or Christ,
generally signifies, that they are the objects of our blessing or
praise, and it is thus translated from the originals, ברוך or
ευλογητος: But in our tongue this word signifies also happy, and the
original words אשרי and Μακαριος are frequently rendered blessed, to
signify happiness, as in my text. Though, if our translators had
always observed the distinction, the precise lease of the original had
better appeared.
Footnote 26:
See the note toward the end of this part of the sermon, p. 151.
Footnote 27:
This discourse was delivered above twenty years ago, and the reader
will observe some warmer efforts of imagination than riper years would
indulge on a theme so sublime and abstruse. Since I have searched most
studiously into this mystery of late, I have learned more of my own
ignorance: so that when I speak of these unsearchables, I abate much
of my younger assurance; nor do my later thoughts venture so far into
the particular modes of explaining this sacred distinction in the
godhead. There appears to me good reason to doubt, where there can be
three distinct and different principles of consciousness, and three
distinct and different wills in the one God, the one infinite Spirit.
I was afraid to assert it in this sermon heretofore, and I am more
afraid to assert it now. Reason and scripture join to teach me, that
there can be but one God, and this God is a Spirit. What distinctions
may be in this one Spirit, I know not: Yet, since I am fully
established in the belief of the Deity of the blessed Three, though I
know not the manner of explication, I dare let this discourse appear
now in the world, as being agreeable so far to my present sentiments
on this subject. A larger and more particular account of my most
mature thought on the doctrine of the holy Trinity, may be seen in the
last sermon of my third volume.—_April 8, 1729._
TWO SERMONS
_On our Appearance before God here and hereafter._
Delivered in Sir Thomas Abney’s Family at Theobalds in Hertfordshire, at
the Evening-worship, Nov. 25, and Dec. 9, 1716.
_To the Right Worshipful_ Sir Thomas Abney, Knt. and Alderman of London.
WORTHY SIR,
While you were restrained by the laws of men from public worship in that
way which you have chosen, I also suffered the same restraint, by the
providence of God confining me to long sickness; during which time I
enjoyed in your excellent family, many happy conveniences, toward the
ease of my affliction, and the recovery of my health.
I thought it therefore a necessary piece of christian gratitude, that
some of the first-fruits of my labours should be devoted to your
service; and with this view I attempted such meditations as might be
well suited to my own circumstances of confinement, as well as to yours;
that I might speak more sensibly from the heart to your spiritual
advantage, and to the profit of all your household.
Since that time it has pleased the providence of God to take off your
restraint entirely, by the repeal of that unrighteous law, and to give
you the pleasures of his sanctuary; yet the review of these discourses,
through the operation of the blessed Spirit, may renew some useful
meditations, when offered from the press as a testimony of public
thankfulness, and in this new form proposed to your perusal, by,
SIR,
Your most affectionate,
And obedient servant,
Under many obligations,
I. WATTS.
SERMON XIII.
_Appearance before God here and hereafter._
PSALM xlii. 2.—When shall I come and appear before God.
THE FIRST PART.
The holy Psalmist was now absent from his usual place of public worship,
and restrained from coming near to the ark of God which was the token of
the divine presence in the days of the Jewish church; and when he had
been meditating on his past and present circumstances in this respect,
both what he enjoyed heretofore, and what he was deprived of now, he
breaks out into a divine rapture: _As the hart panteth after the
water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God._ And he goes on to
describe the frame of his spirit in this holy song: The substance and
sense of the whole psalm is, as it were, epitomized and drawn up into
these few words, _when shall I come and appear before God?_ I shall not
spend time to shew in how many senses man may be said _to appear before
God_; but shall content myself to say, that in this place it signifies
attendance on public worship, in the place where it was usually
celebrated and performed. In the words of the Psalmist we may find the
temper of his heart expressed under these two general heads.
I. A belief of the special presence of God in his ordinances of public
worship.—II. An earnest longing after them on that account.
I shall enlarge a little on each of these, and make remarks as I go
along, under each head.
_First_, The words express David’s firm belief of the special presence
of God in his ordinances, insomuch that he calls an attendance on them,
an appearance before God. We are always in the view of God, and _every
creature is naked and open_ in his sight, and for ever appears before
him as the all-seeing and all-knowing Creator and Governor of all
things; but it is a peculiar, a gracious, and favourable presence of God
that belongs to his sanctuary, his appointed worship: God is taking
special notice of our carriage toward him, and manifesting his designs
of special mercy towards us.
David well knew this, that the great end of appointing public worship,
was, that there might be a communication between God and man, who were
so dreadfully separated by sin: He knew the gracious promise, that where
God _recorded his name, there would he come and meet his people, and
bless them_; Ex. xx. 24. He knew what sensible tokens of divine presence
were found in the sanctuary; there was _the ark of God, and the
mercy-seat that covered it_, upon which God dwelt in a bright shining
_cloud_ between the golden _cherubims_, to signify his dwelling in light
among the glorious angels in heaven; beside the many sweet experiences
which David had of sensible discoveries of God in counsel and grace,
strength and consolation, in his public worship.
And have not christians, under the gospel, as great a reason to expect
the special presence of God among them in his ordinances! Are they not
appointed on purpose to bring God near to us, and to bring us near to
God? Have we not an express promise of God himself, dwelling in flesh,
that _where two or three are gathered together in his name, he will be
in the midst of them_; Mat. xviii. 20. and is not Christ worthy of
credit? Have we not his word there published and preached? Doth not God
appear there very eminently, in the glory of his truth, in the beauty of
his holiness, in the purity of his commands, in the terror of his
threatenings, in the sweetness of his promises, in the wonders of his
wisdom and power, and more amazing works of his grace and love? Doth not
the Lord discover himself there in the majesty of his government, in the
miracles of his providence, and the divine glory of his fore-knowledge
in prophecies exactly fulfilled? Surely that man must be blind indeed,
who sees not God in the scriptures.
Will you say, “All this may be seen and read at home in private, as well
as in a public assembly?” But you must remember that even the written
word of God was communicated to the most part of mankind only in public
worship, for some thousands of years: for before the art of printing was
invented, one bible was scarce to be found in several hundred houses,
and very few of the common people were capable of reading; nor could
they know the written word, but by their attendance on the public
ministrations of it. And in our day, how many are they who either do, or
will know very little of religion, but what they hear at church.
Besides the written word of God is given to be expounded by his
ministers, that the gospel being preached at large, and the truths of it
being particularly applied, his presence and glory may appear therein.
Many parts of scripture are so obscure, that God stands, as it were,
behind a veil, or a curtain, till, in the ministry of the word, the
sense is explained, the veil removed, and God stands forth to sight in
the open glories of his majesty, or his mercy. It was for this purpose
that Christ, at his departure from earth, engaged the promise of his
presence with his ministers in the preaching of his gospel. _Lo I am
with you always even to the end of the world_; Mat. xxviii. 20. And is
not this sufficient ground for men to expect and hope to see God there?
Besides all this, have not christians enjoyed blessed experiences of the
presence of God _in his sanctuary, in the assemblies of his saints_? One
can say, “I was all darkness and ignorance, and there I found divine
light, discovering to me my sin and misery, and his salvation.” Another
can say, I was _dead in sin_, and found my soul raised to a divine life
there; “I was mourning and despairing, and there I found a word of
support and holy joy, such as no mere words of men could convey into me;
and I am forced to confess _God was in this place of a truth_;” 1 Cor.
xiv. 25.
Remarks on the first head.—I. How much should we guard hypocrisy in
divine worship, because it is an appearance before God? We do then, in a
solemn manner, set ourselves before God, and, as it were, humbly call
God to look upon us, and take notice of our hearts. Let us remember
this, every one of us, when we go to public worship, we do in effect say
to God, “O Lord, we are always in thy sight, but in a special manner we
now come to shew thee our hearts, to acquaint thee humbly with our
wants, our sorrows, and our sins, our desires and hopes;” and _God will
not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain; He is a jealous God,
he will not be mocked_; Gal. vi. 7. _He is a Spirit, and he will be
worshipped in spirit and in truth_; John iv. 24. He is sharp-sighted, he
sees through our souls, and knows the ends and designs of our coming,
whether to see creatures, and be seen of them, or to see himself, our
Creator: Whether to observe the modes, dress, and behaviour of our
fellow-creatures on earth, or to learn the will of God, and the mode of
heaven. Suppose Jesus Christ, in his human nature, were there, whose
_eyes are as a flame of fire_, and through your countenances can discern
the most secret thought of your souls, would you not stand in awe of his
majesty? Would not this glorious appearance fix the most vain and
fluttering imagination in a pious solemnity? How solicitously would you
watch over your minds, lest they wander from worship! How carefully
would you keep your hearts! Or suppose you saw the holy angels there
which attend the churches in worship, would you not be ashamed to trifle
in their presence? And has not the spiritual presence of the great God
as much real, though invisible awfulness and majesty in it!
How do persons both of the polite and the vulgar world, all agree to
dress fine and gay, and make the best figure of all the week, to appear
before men on the day of the Lord? But let us remember that we come not
only before men, but before the living God, in whose sight, ornaments of
the body are of no account, and, O, what pains ought we to take, to put
on our best ornaments of the mind! To see that our graces all shine,
when we are to stand before God! And not to suffer one vain thought, one
corrupt affection to work in us; nor _a spot or blemish_, if possible,
to be found upon us!
Alas! what millions of hypocrites have we in the world? How many may we
fear in every congregation? How many come to attend at prayers, but
never seek to join in their own wishes and desires with the words of him
who speaks? How many voices follow the tune in a psalm, but their souls
feel no joy, no inward elevation of praise? How many hear the word as
the word of man, and their hearts have no sense of God speaking to them?
_They sit before God as his people, but their heart goes after their
covetousness_; Ezek. xxxiii. 31. after their idols of business, or
carnal pleasure, after every vain object of their eyes, or vainer images
of the fancy. Let us take heed therefore, how we shut our eyes, or
harden our hearts against a present and a speaking God; _for the word of
the Lord is quick and powerful_; God speaking by his eternal word, or by
his ministers in the sanctuary, pierces the secret recesses of the soul
and spirit: God sits there: _discerning the intents and thoughts of the
heart; all things are naked and open before his eyes with whom we have
to do_; Heb. iv. 13.
II. Remark. In attendance on public worship, we should fix all our hope
and expectation of profit upon the presence of God in it; for the design
of ordinances is to bring us to _appear before God_. Now, if in things
of this life, God should be our chief hope, much more in things of
another; Ps. lxii. 5. _My soul, wait thou only upon God, my expectation
is from him._
How ready are we, even in spiritual concernments, to depend on outward
forms and ceremonials! and to hope, or despair of success, according to
some circumstantial attendants on worship? One is ready to say, “If it
were a nice enquiry into some deep doctrine, I should get something by
hearing the word.” Another complains, “Alas! If it had been a sermon of
grace and privileges, I had not been so careless in my attention, nor
wasted my time.” And a third satisfies his conscience with this, “If I
had heard moral duties enforced powerfully on our practice, then I could
profit by the preaching; or if he who ministers had but more skill in
composing, more fervency of speech, more warmth in delivery, more
graceful pronunciations, more strength of argument; surely I should feel
more lasting impressions of religion under every sermon.” And thus we go
on from week to week, and worship without any sensible benefit, because
we seek all from men.