* It is Amos (iii. 3j, not Solomon, who says this. — G.
NOTES.
(a) P. 53. ' The word in the original shews it is the nature of sorrow,' &c. More exactly the rendering is. ' Why wilt thou cast down,' &c., = dejection, self-rebuked.
(b) P. Gl. ' Salvation.' See Note /, Vol. I. p. 294. ' G.
THE SAINT'S HAPPINESS.
VOL. VTI,
THE SAINT'S HAPPINESS.
NOTE.
' The Saint's Happiness' forms one of the four ' Sermons' appended to ' The Saint's Comforts,' concerning which see Note, Vol. VI. page 160. Its title-page is given below.* Each of the four Sermons has separate pagination, but they do not appear to have been issued separately. G.
* THE SAINTS HAPPINESSE :
Shewing mans Happi-
nesse is in Communion
with God.
With the meanes, and trialls
of our Communion with God,
being the substance of
divers Sermons.
By that Faithful! and Keve- rend Divine, E. Sibbes, D.D. and sometime Preacher to the Ho- norable Societie of Grayes-Inne.
Printed at London, by Tho. Cotes, and are to be sold by Peter Cole. 1637.
THE SAINT'S HAPPINESS.
But it is good for me to draw near to God. — Ps. LXXIII. 28.
This psalm is a psalm of Asaph, or of David, commended to Asaph, who was a seer and a singer. It represents one in a conflict afterward recovered, and in a triumphant conclusion. It begins abruptly, as if he had gained this truth : Say flesh and Satan what they can, yet this I am resolved of, I find God is yet good to Israel. Then he discovers what was the cause of this conflict. It was his weakness and doubt of God's promises in ver. 13, occasioned from the great prosperity that the wicked enjoyed, described from the 2d verse to the 13th. Then he sets down his recovery in the 17th verse. He went into the sanctuary, and saw what God meant to do with them at last. Then follows the accomplishment of the victory in the 23d verse. I am continually with thee. Thou hast holden me up. Thou wilt guide me now and bring me to glory. Therefore there is none in heaven but thee. Though nature may be surprised, yet God is my help ; and for the wicked, they shall perish ; nay, thou hast destroyed them. Therefore ' it is good for me to draw nigh to God.'
Now from that which hath been laid open we may observe,
Doct. First, That God's dearest children are exercised with sharp conflicts in the faith of principles, yea, of God's providence. This should comfort such as God sufiers to cast forth mire and dirt of incredulity. It is the common case of God's dearest children, yea, of the prophets of God, David, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk, and therefore we ought not to be dejected too much ; and the rather because, — which also we may note in the second place, —
Doct. [Second,] God's children, though they he thus low, yet they shall recover, and after recovery comes a triumph. They may begin to slip a little, but still God's hand is under them, and his goodness ever lower than they can fall ; and this should teach us to discern of our estates aright, and to expect such conflicts, yet to know that still God's Spirit will not be wanting to check and repress such thoughts in the fittest time. Contrarily it is a principle to wicked men to doubt of God's providence, and therefore they sufi"er such temptations to rule in them.
In the next place observe,
Doct. [Third,] The ivayfor a Christian to recover his ground in time of temp- tation, is for him to enter into God's sanctuary, and not to give liberty to his
68 THE saint's happiness.
thoughts to range in, considering the present estate that he is in ; but look to former experiences, in himself, in others ; see the promises and apply them ; it shall go well with the righteous, but woe to the wicked, it shall not go well with them. This is to go into the sanctuary ; and happy man thou art, and in high favour, whom God admitteth so near to him. The world will tell thee of corn, and wine, and oil, and how great and glorious men are here ; but the sanctuary will shew thee they are set in slippery places. Carnal reason will tell thee God hath left the earth ; he sees not, he governs not, all are out of order. But the sanctuary will shew thee all things are beautiful in their time, Eccles. iii. 11. Mark the end of the righteous, Ps. xxxiii. 37. See Joseph, once a prisoner, after lord of Egypt ; Lazarus, once contemned and despised, after in Abraham's bosom ; Christ himself, once a rebuke and scorn of all on the cross, but now triumphing on ' the right hand of God, far above all principalities and power,' Eph. i. 21. All God's ways are mercy and truth, though we seem never so much forsaken for the present. Again, from David's observing the state of wicked men, — it is said, he saw the prosperity of wicked men, — we may gather,
Doct. [Fourth,] Whether it he the eye of faith or the eye of sense, all serveth'to bring us nearer to God. God represents to the outward view of his children the example of his justice on others, to draw his children nearer home ; and it is one main reason why God suifers variety of conditions in men, that his children may gain experience from seeing their behaviour and by convers- ing with them.