O with what warm and enlarged affections should you express your thankfulness to the God of your salvation ! and say as David, "What *' am I, O Lord God, and what is my father's house, that thou '' shouldst do such great things for me T' Was such a life as mine worth the working of so many wonders to save it ? O Lord, tliou knowest it has been a Ufe spent in vanity. Thy glory hath not been precious in mine eyes, but my life hath been precious in thine eyes. Many more useful,' and less sinful than myself have perished, and I am saved. O Lord, shew me the designs and gracious ends of these deliverances. Surely there is some great thing to be done by me, or else so great a salvation had not been wrought for me. The Lord saw in what a sad case my poor soul was, to be summoned imme- diately before his judgment-seat : that if I had gone down under all my guilt, I had sunk to the bottom of hell : But thou, in love to my soul, hast delivered it from the pit of corruption, that I might yet enjoy a season for salvation, and be once more entrusted with the precious talents of time and means. O that I may not reject or abuse the grace of God in this new instrument, as I have too often done in the former ! let me not live as one delivered to commit all these abominations !
And now after all that is come upon me for my evils, seeing thou, my God, hast punished me so much less than my iniquities deserve ; and hast given me such a deliverance as this, should I again dare to break thy commandments ? Ezra ix. 13, 14. " O let this new mercy *' produce a new heart and hfe !''
SEAMAN'S PRESEP%VATIVE
SERMON III. Psalm cxxxix. 9, 10.
If I take the wings of the viorning, and dwellin the uttermost part of the sea ; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
An this psalm the omnipresence and omniscience of God are the subjects of the Psahiiisf s meditation ; and these attributes are here promiscuously discoursed, not only because of the near affinity that is betwixt their natures, but because tiie one is the demonstration of the other : It is evident God knows all things, because he fills all places. Touching the omniscience of God, he discovers the infinite perfection of that attribute by the particular and exact notion it takes of all our ways: ver. 3. " Thou compassest my paths, and " art acquainted with all my ways." Of all our words; verse 4. " There is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest ** it altogether." Yea, of all our thoughts; and that not only in the instant of their conception, but long before they were conceived; verse 2. " Thou understandest my thoughts afar off," even from eternity. Thus he displays the omniscience of God : And then to make demonstration of the truth and certainty of this doctrine of God's omniscience, he proves it from his omnipresence : q. d. He that fills all things cannot but know all things. Now God's presence fills heaven, yea, and hell too, verse 8. And all parts of the earth and sea, even the remotest, verse 9, 10. And therefore no creature, nor action of any creature, can escape his cognizance. It is not here as among men ; if a malefactor be condemned by the laws of one kingdom, he may escape by flying into another; but it is far other- wise here ; for saith the Psalmist, (personating a guilty fugitive en- deavouring to make an escape from the arrest of God's justice), " If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost " parts of the sea ; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right " hand shall hold me."
In which words you have these two things mainly remarkable.
1. The greatest security and encouragement to a sinner supposed.
2. That supposed security and encouragement utterly destroyed. 1. The greatest security and encouragement to a sinner supposed ; Vol. V. A a
372 THE seaman's i*reservative;
" If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost " parts of the sea."'* Where two things seem to offer towards his protection.
First, The place ; the remotest part of the sea ; by which you are to understand the most obscure nook in the creation ; farthest removed from an inspection or observation.
And, Secondly, his swift and speedy flight after the commission of sin, to this supposed refuge and sanctuary : It is here supposed, that a sinner should fly as swift as the light of the sun, which in a mo- ment shines from the east to the west, and so the meaning is, could I flee with a celerity equal to the sun, or his beams of light, which breaking forth in the morning, do in an instant enlighten the re- motest parts of the hemisphere : Could I as swiftly flee to the most obscure, remote, solitary place in all the world. 'Thus the sinner's security is supposed.
2. This supposed security and encouragem.ent is utterly destroyed; " Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right-hand shall hold *' me."" ^ The leading hand of God is not here to be understood, as a directing or guiding hand, to shew the fugitive sinner the way of his escape ; but contrarily, *' Thy hand shall lead me," as a keeper leads his prisoner back to the place of custody, from which he endeavoured to escape. And the following clause is exigetical : " Thy right hand shall hold,'"' or detain me, viz. in strict custody. So that the sum of all is this:
Doct. TJtat the zchoU icorld ciffo7'ds no place qfsecresy or security Jbr a sinner to escape the observing eye and 7'ighteous hand of God. Jonah fled from the Lord to Tarshish ; but could he escape so? No, the Lord sent a storm after him, which brought back the fugi- tive, Jonah i. 3, 4. We read, Isa. xxix. 15. of such " as dig deep, " to hide their counsels from the Lord,"" i. e. They plot, contrive, and study to conceal their wicked designs, to sin with greatest secresy and security. But what can possibly be a covering from Him to whose sight all things are naked and manifest.'' Where can a sinner be hid from him whose presence fills heaven and earth ? Jer. xxiii. 25. The scripture gives full proof to this great truth. It is clear from Prov. XV. 3. " The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil " and the good." And again, Job xxxiv. 21, 22. " For his eyes are " upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings ; there is no " darkness, nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may " hide themselves." Whoever goes about to conceal a sin in secret, attempts a foolish and impossible design, Psal. xliv. 21. " Shall not " God search this out ? For he knoweth the secrets of the heart:
• He alludes to the swiftest of all motion, even that of light, which springs in a mo- ment from east to west. Calvin.
f Non accipitur deducere pro viam monstrare .- sed deducet 7nc maims tua tanquem custos captivum sibi commissum deduxit. Vatab.
* IN' FOREIGN COUNTUIES. 073
*^ For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole " earth," 2 Chron. xvi. 9.
Now in the handhng of this point I purpose to shew you,