And as we must labour to. imitate holy David in doing, so likewise in suffering. We must be careful that nothing of God's displease us, as we are careful, for ourselves, that nothing of ours displease God. In doing, we ought to be careful that nothing of ours displease God ; in suffering, that nothing of God's dealing displease us ; for there is rebellion in both, in passive obedience as well as active. There is rebellion when we murmur and will not be as God will have us, as if we were wiser than he, to ap- point our own condition. Whereas we should resign ourselves, as David, ' Here I am ; let the Lord do as it pleaseth him ;' and as they said in the Acts, xxi. 14, ' The will of the Lord be done ;' and as we pray in the Lord's prayer, ' Thy will be done,' insinuating not our own. We must be content to stoop in our sufierings obediently to God, because he is ' righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works,' Ps. cxlv. 17, in all the courses he takes with us. We should be ready to justify God in all things.
Now, how did ho ' sci-vo God,' for the manner of his service ? The manner of his service was as it should be, and so ho was exemplary to us all in that. Amongst others, his service was,
1. First, Universal, to God and to men every way.
KING David's epitaph. 509
2. Secondly, It teas luiijorm. He was good in all conditions, a good shepherd, a good king, he was good in his family, &c. So the service of the children and servants of God, it must be uniform in all estates, ' to know how to want, and how to abound,' &c.,
3. And then his service was cheerful. We see how oft he rouseth up himself in the Psalms : ' Awake; my harp and lute,' &c.,
4. And lastly. His service teas sincere. It was to God. You may know his sincerity by this :
(1.) He cared not for scoffimis ; he practised duties that were scorned at. That is an evidence of sincerity, when in ill times the children of God stand to God and religion. When Michal mocked him, saith he, ' I will be yet more vile for God,' 2 Sam. vi. 22. When God may have glory, and religion defence, for men to stand for God in ill times, it is a sign of sincerity. An hypocrite will never do so. David did at all times, ' in his generation.'
(2.) And then it was a sign of sincerity, that he would appeal to God. ' Try me. Lord, if there be any way of wickedness in me,' Ps. cxxxix. 23. When a soul can go to God, and say, Lord, if there be anyway of wicked- ness in me, any secret lurking corruption in me, that may endanger the state of my soul, that I know not of, discover it to me : that is a sign that a man is in league with no sin, but his service is sincere.
(8.) A man that is not sincere hath no comfort. So much sincerity, so much comfort. If a man do not things to God in sincerity, all is lost to God. A man may have commendations of the world, as the Pharisees had, which is nothing but a kind of curse : ' You have your reward,' Mat. vi. 2 ; that is, you have it here, and shall lose it hereafter. So much concerning the life of David, in those words, ' David in his generation served the counsel or will of God.' Now, to make a perfect discourse of it, we will speak something of his end.
' He fell asleep, and was gathered to his fathers, and saw corruption.'
* He fell asleep,' that is, he died ; for sleep, in Scripture, it is a middle phrase, appliable to good and bad ; for wicked men, in Scripture, are said to sleep, and good men are said to 'sleep. Only the difference is, as the persons are ; for the sleep of wicked men it is like the sleep of a male- factor before his execution, that is ofttimes tripped in his sleep ; or like the sleep of a man in sickness, or in a mad fit. His sleep doth but con- coct the malignant humour, and after he wakes, he rageth three times more than he did before. So the sleep, the death of a carnal, wicked man, it is but a preparation to his execution ; it is but the sleep of a distempered man that wakes with more horror, and terror, and rage, than ever before. Indeed, properly the death only of the godly is a sleep. But to observe something first briefly in general.
Ohs. 1. We see here is a time of dying as well as a time of living.
There is a time to serve God in living, and there is a time to yield our souls to him, as well as a time to serve God in doing the actions and func- tions of this life.
Use 1. Which would teach us this, not to fix our thoughts too much on life. As there is a time for all things to the living, so there is a time to cease to live ; and therefore to use the world with moderation, * as though ■we used it not, knowing that the fashion of the world passeth away,' 1 Cor. vii. 31. It should teach us to serve God as well in living as in dying.