[2.] Observe, to be hated and rejected of God should be esteemed by «8 as one of the greatest calamities that can befall a poor creature, as to be accepted with him one of the greatest blessings : Ps. iv. 6, 7, * There be many that say, Who will show us any good ? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us ; thou hast put gladness in my heait more than in the time when their corn and wine increased.'
380 SERMON UPON PROVERBS III. 30, 31.
(1.) On one side we have the matter compared, their good things, their corn and wine ; not sinful, but lawful comforts. (2.) It is pro- posed with a supposition of increase, not in the wane. (3.) For the time, take it at best, when this joy is most lively, at the time of vintage- and harvest. (4.) The persons, their corn and wine ; not different godly men, in whom these things are refracted and broken, not the- same godly man, in whom these different desires are found. On the other side, there is — (1.) The matter and ground of gladness, the light of God's countenance : Jer. ii. 13, ' My people have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns,' &c. They drink of the cistern, you of the fountain ; they rejoice not in God, but his gifts, and those not saving, but the common sort, such as riches^ pleasures, honours ; and in these, not as the effects of God's bounty, but as happening to them in the ordinary course of second causes ; a» they rejoice in an uncertain good, so in an uncertain author. You rejoice in God, in his best gifts, his love and grace. (2.) The author, ' Thou hast put ; ' allowed by God, wrought by him : Eom. xiv. 17, ' Joy m the Holy Ghost,' stirred up by his Spirit. Their joy is neither God's allowance nor God's work. (3.) The subject and seat, ' Into my heart ; ' not to tickle the senses, but delight the heart ; not as the morning dew, but as a soaking shower. (4.) The measure, more pure, more sublime, or more cheering, that is, of a stronger efficacy, which not only over- Cometh the sense of present infelicity, but the fear of death, hell, and, judgment to come : Heb. vi. 18, ia-yypav irapaKKijaiv, * Strong consola- tion.' They dance about the brink of hell, have their secret gripes ; and will you envy them, as if your condition were not much better ? When God hath given yOu the feast, will you be troubled that others should have the scraps and fragments of his bounty ?
[3.] Observe, from the supposition of God's abomination of their persons and courses, that he can when he pleaseth easily ruin and destroy them, which must needs infer at least an uncomfortable uncertainty in their condition. The wicked being objects of God's. hatred, the easiness of their destruction is often asserted in scripture : Job V. 3, ' I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation ; ' Ps. xxxvii. 20, ' But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs ; they shall consume, into smoke they shall consume away/ The fire licketh up the fat of lambs, which is not a very solid substance, but easily melted ; so shall their glory vanish and be consumed in God's wrath, when he is pleased to let it out upon them : Ps. xxxvii. 2, ' They shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.' Though they seem to be in a prosperous condition for the present, as grass while it is growing^ is very green, yet they are soon cut down by the scythe of Providence, and then presently fade, and are carried away as grass from the place where it grew : Ps. cxviii. 12, ' They are quenched as the fire of thorns.* Though for the time it burnetii and flameth extremely, yet they are soon consumed, and are turned into dust and ashes : Ps. Ixxiii. 18,. ' Surely thou didst set them in slippery places.' And it is notable that all these places do intimate that God can easily destroy them, and usually doth, when they are at their prime ; and that they are never nearer their ruin, than when they come to the height of their exaltation.
SERMON UPON PROVERBS III. 30, 31. 381
As the sun declineth presently when it cometh to the highest point of the zenith ; as grass, when it cometh to its full growth, it beginneth to wither ; as the sacrifice is first fatted, and then killed before the Lord ; so enemies are permitted to prosper, and grow great and proud, and tiien are cut off. Or as thorns die, and are extinguished by their own blaze, so in slippery places, the higher they go, the nearer to their downfall and ruin ; as men on the top of an hill, and there have no firm footing, they slip and fall, and by the highness of the ground are more sorely bruised. And as by the expressions of scripture, so by God's providence it appeareth how easily he can subdue wicked men. God did not bring down Egypt by bears, and lions, and crocodiles, but flies, frogs, and lice. The walls of Jericho fell, not with force of arms and engines of battery, but rams' horns, Josh. vi. 6 ; the tents of Midian with trumpets and earthen pitchers. Judges vii. 7. The city of Nesibis was freed from a long siege only by gnats, at the prayers of his people, when Sapores king of Persia thought to have his will upon them, as Theodoret witnesseth. God sent such clouds and swarms of them, which flying into the mouths of their elephants and horses, dis- turbed their whole camp. And should we envy them to whom God ■oweth an evil turn, and can so easily ruin, though nothing appeareth of it ? Once more, observe how the scripture representeth the uncertain condition of the wicked with the stable condition of the godly : Prov. xi. 28, ' He that trusteth in his riches shall fall, but the righteous shall flourish as a branch.' The one is compared to a leaf, the other to a branch. So Prov. xii. 12, ' The wicked desireth the net of evil men, but the root of the righteous yieldeth fruit.' Men who have no grounds in them of piety and godliness are for the present only ; and when they see the prosperity of the wicked, and how they thrive in their evil designs, taking up men as fishes in the waters, they are willing to get into the net too, even run with company ; but the root of the righteous, which hath its growth underground, not seen by fleshly eyes, this root will grow up again, and yield abundance.