[4.] God will not always bear with them that are an abomination to him, but hath his times of showing his hatred of them and their evil ■courses ; for if they are an abomination to him, and he never show it, they need not care, and so it inferreth not only a possibility, but a certainty of their destruction : Ps. xcii. 7, ' When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed for ever.' The end of all their flourishing and temporal prosperity is perdition ; yea, their very prosperity, as it ferments their lusts, and hardens their hearts, and encourageth them to acts of violence, becometh one means to draw on their ruin the sooner : Ps. Ixxiii. 17, ' I went into the sanctuary of God, then under- stood I their end.' God's vengeances are due to them, and one time or other shall be inflicted : Ps. xxxvii. 13, ' His day is coming ; ' Ps. xxxvii. 38, ' But the transgressor shall be destroyed together ; the end of the wicked shall be cut off.' Though long deferred, vengeance cometh at last, to the full, and cuts them off. You think providence doth not deal righteously because the unworthy are exalted and the worthy depressed ; tarry but a while, and you will have no cause to complain, or grow weary of godliness, or to cry up a confederacy with evil men.
382 SERMON UPON PROVERBS HI. 30, 31.
Who would envy those that climb up the ladder for execution, or are- carried to the top of a rock to be thrown down thence and broken in pieces, or think Haman preferred because advanced above others on a high gallows ? Would you envy a man on the gallows because he standeth above the rest of the company ?
2. The state of the suffering godly. Wicked men, you see, are under God's displeasure, which will one day break out upon them, and consume all their temporal happiness ; but in what state are the godly ? consider their future hopes and their present enjoyments, they need not envy them.
[1.] Their future hopes. Their possessions are not to be compared with your hopes : Ps. xvii. 14, 15, * From men which are thy hand^ 0 Lord, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life^ and whose belly is filled with the hid treasure ; they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. But as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness ; I shall be satisfied, when I awake,, with thy likeness.' Men are dazzled with the splendour of worldly happiness, and think it a fine thing to be well fed, and well clad, and well attended, but this is all for them and theirs ; and shall we envy I' them for this, that they have more for back and belly than we have, a little pomp of living, especially when such great things be provided for us in Christ ? Alas ! what is a more plentiful table to the everlasting fruition of God ; the pomp of the world to the honour Christ will put on us at the day of judgment, when he shall be admired in his saints ; the favour of princes to seeing God face to face ; vainglory to ever- lasting glory ; their momentary pleasures, which pass away suddenly as a dream, to that everlasting pleasure at God's right hand ; a little decking and adorning of the body, to be satisfied with his likeness^ and to walk with God in white ?
[2.] Present enjoyments. Here I take in the notion of the text,. *His secret is with the righteous.' There is some difference what should be meant by ' the secret of the Lord.' Sometimes it noteth —
(1.) Spiritual illumination, or the knowledge of God's will : Ps. XXV. 14, ' The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him ; he will teach them his covenant' They know more of God's mind than others do, and they know it not only literally, but spiritually ; that is, by the lively light of the Spirit, not disciplinarily. Now this is a great favour, that God doth so love them, that he doth admit them to his arcana: John XV. 15, ' I have called you friends ; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known to you.' It is a greater evidence of God's friendship to understand his counsel in the word, and to be acquainted with the mysteries of godliness, than all the success, power, and great- ness of the world. Christ gave his Spirit to the rest of the apostles, but his purse to the son of perdition. Some have knowledge and eminent gifts, others wealth and honour ; yea, though they which increase knowledge increase sorrow, yet the knowledge of a despised, hated truths though it expose us to sufferings, is better than to flourish in opposi- tion against the ways of God, through our ignorance, obstinacy, and blind prejudice. And will you, that are directed in the way of salvation, advanced to know God, and the tenor of his will, far more than the blind, carnal, careless world, envy them that are only acquainted with