Use. Therefore the use we are to make of it, is to discern of ourselves of what spirit we are, lohat principles we lead our lives hy ; whether by exam- ples of greatness, or multitude, or such like, it is an argument we are led by the spirit of the world and not by the Spirit of God. God's children, as they are severed from the world in condition, they are men of another world, so they are severed from the world in disposition, in their course and conversation. Therefore, from these grounds their course is contrary to the world. * But it is good for me;' ' but' is; not in the original. It is, ' And it is good for me ;' but the other is aimed at. The sense is, ' But it is good for me to draw near to God,' and so it is in the last translation (f). Thus you see what way we have made to the words. I do but touch these things, and it was necessary to say something of them, because the words are a triumphant conclusion upon the former premises.
7. And in the words, in general, observe this first of all, that God by his Spirit enahleth his children to justify icisdom by their own eaperience.
To make it good by their own experience : ' It is good for me to draw near to God.' And this is one reason why God suffers them to be shaken, and then in conflict to recover, that after recovery they may justify the truth. Nihil tarn certum, &c., nothing is so certain as that that is certain after doubting (c). Nothing is so fixed as that that is fixed after it hath been shaken, as the trees have the strongest roots, because they are most shaken with winds and tempests. Now God sufi"ers the understanding, that is, the inward man, of the best men to be shaken, and after settles them, that so they may even from experience justify all truths ; that they may say it is naught,* it is a bitter thing to sin. Satan hath abused me, and my own lust abused me, and enticed me away from God ; but I see no such good thing in sin as nature persuaded me before. As travellers will tell men you live poorly here. In such a country you may do wondrous ♦ That is, ' naughty ' = wicked.— G.
86 DAVID S CONCLUSION ; OR,
well. There you shall have plenty and respect. And when they come there, and are pinched with hunger, and disrespect, they come home with shame enough to themselves that they were so beguiled ; so it is with God's children. Sometimes he suffers them to be foiled, and lets them have the reins of their lusts awhile, to taste a little of the forbidden tree ; that after they may say with experience, it is a bitter thing to forsake God, it is better [to] go to my * former husband,' as the church saith in Hosea, when God took her in hand a little, ii. 7. Sin will be bitter at the last. So the prodigal he was suticred to range till he was whipped awhile, and then he could con- fess it was better to be in his * father's house.' God suffers his children to full into some course of sin, that afterward, by experience, they may justify good things, and be able to say that God is good.
And the judgment of such is more firm, and doth more good than those that have been kept from sinking at all. God, in his wise providence, suffers this.
Use. We should labour, therefore, to justify in our own experience all that is good. What is the reason that men are ashamed of good courses so soon ? It may be they are persuaded a little to pray, and to sanctify the Lord's day, to retire themselves from vanity and such like. Ay, but if their judgments be not settled out of the book of God, and if they have not some experience, they will not maintain this ; therefore they are driven off. Now a Christian should be able to justify against all gainsayers what- soever can be said, by his own experience. That to read the book of God, and to hear holy truths opened by men led with the Spirit of God, it is a good thing, I find God's Spirit sanctify me by it. To sanctify the Lord's- day, I find it good by experience. That where there is the communion of saints, holy conference, &c., I can justify it, if there were no Scripture for it : I find it by experience to be a blessed way to bring me to a heavenly temper, to fit me for heaven. So there is no good course, but God's chil- dren should be able, both by Scripture, and likewise by their own expe- rience, to answer all gainsayers. When either their own hearts, or others, shall oppose it, he may be able to say with the holy man here, it is no matter what you say, ' it is good for me to draw near to God.' So much for the general. To come more particularly to the words.
' It is good for me to draw near to God.'