Ohj. Ay, but nature is propped up with art.
Ans. It may be so for a time, but that is patchery. It may be for a time. If natm-al delights fail, much more will artificial ; if true fire can- not warm a man, and give him relief, painted fire cannot do it. But so it is that natural and artificial things fail in time. Let a man's eye be made of glass in spectacles, and that which is made of flesh as the natural eye, both the natural and artificial eyes, both turn to dust at length. Let a man have a leg, a crutch of wood, or a leg of flesh, as the natural leg, yet both come to dust and ashes in time. All natural and artificial things decay at the last.
Obj. Ay, but carnal delights will help a man.
Ans. Least of all : if wine will not comfort a man, poison will not. Now all carnal pleasures and delights are poison. Where shall we go then for comfort and delight? Yet above all the creatures, there be joys I confess to be had, that will drink up all tears, all sorrows ; there be comforts to be had, that will carry a man over all discouragements and grievances ; there be everlasting joys, unutterable comforts, inconceivable hopes, and peace of conscience, that will carry a man through sickness, and through pain, and through poverty and shame, through death and all, and will never give him over ; a peace that will be with a man in his bed, that will run with him when he flies before the enemy ; a peace that will follow him to his grave, and beyond the grave ; a peace that will live with him when he dies, that will follow him to the throne and tribunal of Christ, and will set a crown of glory and grace upon him at the last. These joys and comforts be to be had. Oh make out for them, my brethren ; seek the joys that are spiritual, seek the comforts of the Scriptures, rejoice in this, * that your names are written in heaven,' Luke x. 20 ; rejoice in this, 'that God is your Father ; rejoice that Christ dwells in you ; rejoice that heaven is yours, that Christ is yours, that God is yours, that the promises and the cove- nant is yours ; and these be the joys that no man can take from you, that nothing can take from you. These will make you rejoice in sorrow, these will make you live in death. As I said before, labour for these that may carry you over all troubles, and miseries, and terrors whatsoever. That is another point. There are divers others I was thinking to have said some- thing to, for I intended no more but only to give you some general heads, some words of instruction in general out of this large text ; but I know not bow the'Hime hath overslipped us in speaking this little that we have ; and therefore we will go no further at this time.
THE VANITY OF THE CKEATURE. 47
NOTES.
(a) P. 37. ' " How many," saith the Original, " are the days of my years ?" ' So commonly in the margin of our English Bible, ' How many days are the years of my life ?' Cf. Ps. xc. 12.
(6) P. 38, ' The heathen had some to call upon them,' &c. Cf. Note z, Vol. II. p. 435.
(c) P. 43. ' Keepers of the house,' &c. It is interesting to compare this inciden- tal exposition of a difficult figurative passage, with modern interpretations, e. g., Wardlaw, Macdonald (of America), Moses Stuart, and Ginsburg. Sibbes differs somewhat. G.
DISCOURAGEMENT'S RECOVERY.
VOL. vti.
DISCOURAGEMENT'S RECOVERY.
NOTE.
' Discouragement's Recovery ' forms No. 2 of the Sermons in the first edition of the Saint's Cordials (1629). It was withdrawn in the two subsequent editions. Valuable and suggestive in itself, this sermon has the additional interest of being from a verbally parallel text with that on which 'The Soul's Conflict' is based; and is thus, in all probability, its first form. The separate title-page is given be- low* G.
* DISCOVRAGEMENTS RECOVERIE. WHEREIN THE Sovle BY REFLEXI- ON OF THE STRENGTH OF VNDEESTAN-
ding, quarrelling with it selfe, is at length reduced
and charged to doe that, which must and should be the
true vpshot of all Distempers.
Vpkightnes Hath Boldnes.
PsAL. 81. 21, 22.
Blesed be the Lord, for he hath shewed me his maruellous kindnesse in a strong Citie.
I said in mine haste, 1 am cut of from before thine eyes, neuerthelessc thou heardest the voice of my supplications, when I cryed vnto thee.
LONDON,
Printed in the yearo 1 G 2 9.
DISCOURAGEMENT'S RECOYERY.
Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul f and ivhy art thou disquieted within me ? hope in God ; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my counle- nance, and my God. — Ps. XLIII. 5.
This psalm was penned by David, which shews the passions of his soul ; for God's children know the estate of their own souls for the strengthening of their trust and bettering their obedience. Now this is the difference between psalms and other places of Scripture. Other scriptures speak mostly from God to us ; but in the Psalms, this holy man doth speak mostly to God and his own soul ; so that this psalm is an expostulation of David with his own soul in a troubled estate, when being banished from the house of God, he expostulates the matter with his soul : ' Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul ? and why art thou disquieted within me ? ' The words contain,