thy own ground, but in heaven. It is God alone that holds thee and it in life. He that gave it is at cost tp^keep it. ' The Lord is thy strength, let him be thy song.' What can the ax>e, though sharp, do without the workman? Shall the axe say, I have cut down, or the chisel, I have carved ? Is it not the skill and art of the workman rather? When able to resist temptation, say, ' The Lord was on my side, or else I had fallen:' set up an Ebenezer, and write on it, ' Hitherto the Lord hath helped me.'
Though God promiseth in the psalm even now cited to give grace and glory to the upright, yet he will not give the glory of his grace to uprightness. 2 Sam. xxii. 24, we have David asserting his uprightness, and how he was preserved by it: ' I was also upright before him, and have kept me from mine iniquity :' ver. 25, he declares the fruit of his uprightness, how God bare testimony to it by re- warding him for it, in vindicating him before, and giving him victory over, his enemies ; ' Therefore the Lord hath recompensed me according to my righteous- ness, according to my cleanness in his eye-sight.' Now, lest he should set up himself, or applaud his own uprightness to the prejudice of God's grace, he sweetly corrects and bounds these passages, ver. 33 : ' God is my strength and power, and he maketh my way perfect.' As if the holy man had said, I pray mistake me not, I do not ascribe the victory over my enemies within me or without to myself and my uprightness; no, God did all; he is my strength and power, yea, it is he that makes my way perfect. If I be sincere more than others in my way I must thank him for it, for he makes my way perfect. He found me at first as crooked a piece, and walking in as crooked ways, as any other, but he made me and my way perfect and straight. Had God pleased, he could have made Said as perfect as David : had God left David, he would have been as crooked and false-hearted as Saul.
The last branch of the point was, sincerity hath a comforting strength in all sorts of affliction. The applicatory improvement of which shall be only this : Use. Let it teach us not to fear affliction, but hypocrisy. Believe it, friends, affliction is a harmless thing to a sincere soul : it cannot be so great as to make it inconsistent with his joy and comfort. A gracious soul in the most sharp affliction can spare his tears and pity to bestow them on the hypocrite, when in all his pomp and glory : he hath that in his bosom that gives him more com- fortable apprehensions of his own affliction than standers-by have, or can have of them, which made once a holy man, when the pangs of death were on him, to ask a servant of his, weeping by his bed-side for liim, what she meant by her fears, saying, ' Never fear that my heavenly Father will do me any luut.' Indeed affliction is not joyous to the flesh, which hath made some of God's dear children awhile to shrink ; but after they have been acquainted with the work, and the comforts which God bestows on his poor prisoners through the grate, they have learned another tune ; like the bird, that at first putting into the cage flutters, and shews her dislike of her restraint, but afterwards comes to sing more sweetly than when at liberty to fly where she pleased. Be not, therefore, so thoughtful about affliction, but careful against hypocrisy. If the bed of affliction proves hard and uneasy to thee, it is thyself that brings with thee what makes it so. Approve thyself to God, and trust him who hath promised to be his saints' bed-maker in affliction, to make it soft and easy for thee. O what a cutting word will it be in a dying hour, when thou art crying, ' Lord, Lord, have mercy on a poor creature!' to hear the Lord say, ' I know thee not:' it is not the voice of a sincere soul, but a hypocrite that howls on his bed of sorrow. What then wilt thou do, when fallen into the hands of God, with whom thou hast but juggled in thy profession, and never sincerely didst love? If that speech was so confounding to the patriarchs, ' I am Joseph, whom you sold,' that they could not endure his presence, knowing their own guilt, how intolerable will it be to hear from God's own mouth such language in a time of distress,— I am God, whom you have mocked, abused, and sold away for the enjoyment of your lusts, and do you now come to me? Have I anything for you, but a hell to tonnent you in, to all eternity ?
THE ISREASTPLATJ]: OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. Q()l
Verse 14. And having on the breastplate of righteousness.
These words present us with a second piece of armour commended to and charged upon all Christ's soldiers — a breastplate ; and the metal it is to be made of — righteousness ; concerning which a double inquiry would be made. First, What rigliteousness is here intended ? Secondly, Why compared to this piece of the soldier's armour, the breastplate ?
CHAPTER I.
CONTAINS THE EXPLICATION OF THE WORDS.