[2.] To seek our comfort elsewhere, from earthly things, it is a vain
238 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XXVI.
and evil course. (1.) It is vain ; for God is the party with whom we have to do. In many troubles the creatures may be instruments of our woe ; but the principal party is God. Strike in with him, and you stop the mischief at the head : Prov. xvi. 7, ' When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.* In other troubles God hath a more immediate hand, as sickness and terrors of conscience ; our business then lieth not with the creatures ; in sickness, not with physicians first, but with God. In troubles of spirit we are not to quench our thirst at the next ditch, but to run to the fountain of living water ; not to take up with ordinary comforts ; that is an attempt to break prison, and to get out of the troubles be- fore God letteth us out. He is our party then, whoever be the instru- ment. (2.) It is evil that we refuse to come to God when he whip- peth us into his presence, and beateth us to the throne of grace : Dan. ix. 13, ' All this evil is come upon us, yet made we not our prayer be- fore the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.' When men are ready to die, and will not so much as confer with the physician, they are either stupid or desperate. Afflictions summon us into his presence. God sendeth a tempest after us, as after Jonah. Now that trouble which chaseth us to God is so far a sanctified trouble.
2. The hope of relief from God, who alone can and will help us. ' He put his mouth in the dust ; peradventure there is hope/ Lam. iii. 29. Xow this hope is from God's power and will.
[1.] His power. God can quicken us when we are as good as dead, because he is the well-spring of life and comfort. Other things give us life, but as water scaldeth when it is the instrument of heat ; but God alone can help us. God is the great quickener : ' That I might trust in him that raiseth the dead ; ' and ' I am the resurrection and the life.'
[2.] His will. When we are humble and tractable in our afflictions —
(1.) It is some hope if we have nothing to bring before God but our grief and misery, for he is pitiful. A beggar will uncover his sore to move your bowels. So many times all the reason that a poor pitiful afflicted person can bring for himself is lamenting his case to God, how discouraged he is, and apt to faint, as David represents his case, ' My soul cleaveth to the dust ; ' and elsewhere, Ps. Ixix. 29, ' But I am jjoor and sorrowful ; let thy salvation, 0 God, set me up on high.' Justice seeketh a fit object, but mercy a fit occasion.
(2.) It is a greater ground of hope when we are humbled under God's hand, and have a due sense of our condition ; that is, are con- vinced of our emptiness, weakness, nothingness, or emptied of self-con- ceit and carnal confidence : Deut. xxxii. 36, ' For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left.' God's judgments are to break our carnal dependencies.
(3.) Still the hope increaseth when we acknowledge his justice and wisdom in all our troubles : Lev. xxvi. 41, 'If then their un- circumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punish- ment of their iniquity,' kiss the rod wherewith they are corrected, be glad it is no worse, and see that all this cometli from a just and wise God.
VeR. 25.] SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. 239
(4.) There is further hope when we can cast ourselves upon his faithfulness and omnipotency, in the face of all discouragements. Christ's question to the man long possessed was, Mark ix. 23, ' If thou canst believe, all tilings are possible to him that believeth.' God's power is exercised when glorified by faith and dependence.
(5.) When we submit to what may be most for his glory. Carnal prayers, though never so earnest, fail when we are too earnest upon our private end, and the means which we fancy : Ps. cxv. 1, ' Not unto us, 0 Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake.'
Use. In deep calamities run to God, lay forth your case feelingly and with submission to the justice of his providence, trusting to his power, and submitting to his wisdom, without obtruding your model upon God, but leaving him to his own course ; and this is the way to speed. Take heed —
1. Of a stupid carelessness under the rod. It is a time of seeking after God, a summons to the creature to come before him. Now, if we think to sport away our trouble without looking after God's com- forts, it is a desperate security : Jer. v. 12, ' They have belied the Lord, and said. It is not he ; neither shall evil come upon us ; neither shall we see sword nor famine.'