"The path." But let us now see what he will show us: "The
path." We must know, that as men have many paths out of their highway—the world—but they all end in destruction; so God hath many paths
out of his highway, the word, but they all end in salvation. Let us oppose
ours to his (as indeed they are opposite), and see how they agree. Ours
are not worth marking, his marked with an attendite, to begin withal;
ours bloody, his unpolluted; ours crooked, his straight; ours lead
to hell, his to heaven. Have not we strayed then? We had need to turn
and take another path, and that quickly: we may well say, semitas nostrus,. . . vis tus . Well, here is the Book, and here are the ways before you;
and he will show you. Here is semita mandatorum, in the one
hundred-and-nineteenth Psalm, verse thirty-five: here is semita pacifica
(Proverbs 3:17); here is semita aequitatis (Proverbs 4:11); here is semita
justitiae (Psalm 23:3); here is semita judicii (Proverbs 17:23); and many
others. These are, every one of them, God's ways; but these are somewhat
too many and too far off: we must seek the way where all these meet, and
that will bring us into "the path;" these are many, but I will show you
yet "a more excellent way," saith Paul. 1 Corinthians 12:31.
We must begin to enter at via mandatorum; for till then we are in the
dark and can distinguish no ways, whether they be good or bad. But there
we shall meet with a lantern and a light in it. Thy commandment is a
lantern, and thy law a light. Proverbs 6:23. Carry this with thee (as a
good man should, lex Dei in corde ejus ); and it will bring thee into the
way. And see how careful our Guide is; for lest the wind should blow
out this light, he hath put it into a lantern to preserve it. For the fear,
or sanction, of the "commandments," preserves the memory of the law in our
hearts, as a lantern doth a light burning within it. The law is the light,
and the commandment the lantern. So that neither flattering Zephyrus, nor
blustering Boreas shall be able to blow it out, so long as the fear of the
sanction keeps it in. This is lucerna pedibus (Psalm 119:105); and will
not only show thee where thou shalt tread, but what pace thou shalt keep.
When thou hast this light, take Jeremy's counsel; enquire for semita
antiqua, before thou goest any further. "Stand (saith he) in the ways, and
behold and ask for the old way; which is the good way, and walk therein, and
ye shall find rest for your souls." This will bring you some whither where
you may rest awhile. And whither is that? Trace this path, and you
shall find this "old way" to run quite through all the Old Testament till it
end in the New, the gospel of peace, and there is rest. And that this is
so Paul affirms. For the law, which is the "old way," is but the pedagogue
to the gospel. This then is "a more excellent way" than the law, the
ceremonies whereof in respect of this were called "beggarly rudiments."
When we come there, we shall find the way pleasant and very light, so that
we shall plainly see before us that very path, that only path, "the path
of life" ( semita vitae ), in which the gospel ends, as the law ends in the
gospel. Now what is semita vitae that we seek for? "All the ways of God
are truth," saith David. Psalm 119:151. He doth not say they are verae,
or veritates, but veritas; all one truth. So, all the ways of God end
in one truth. Semita vitae, then, is truth. And so sure a way to life
is truth, that John says, he had "no greater joy: than to hear that his
sons "walked in truth." 3 John 1:3. "No greater joy:" for it brings them
certainly to a joy, than which there is none greater. Via veritatis is
"the gospel of truth," but semita vitae is the truth itself. Of these,
Esay prophesied, "et erit ibi semita et via," etc. "There shall be a
path, and a way;" and the way shall be called holy, the proper epithet of
the gospel: "the holy gospel," that is the way. But the path is the
epitome of this way (called in our text, by way of excellence, "the
path," in the singular); than which there is no other. "The gospel of your
salvation," saith Paul, is "the word of truth;" and "thy word is truth,"
saith our Saviour to his Father. Truth, then, is "the path of life,"
for it is the epitome of the gospel, which is the way. This is that truth
which Pilate (unhappy man) asked after, but never stayed to be resolved of.
He himself is the word; the word is the truth; and the truth is "the path
of life," trodden by all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs and
confessors, that ever went to heaven before us. The abstract of the gospel,
the gate of heaven, semita vitae, "the path of life," even Jesus Christ
the righteous, who hath beaten the way for us, gone himself before us, and
left us the prints of his footsteps for us to follow, where he himself sits
ready to receive us. So, the law is the light, the gospel is the way, and
Christ is "the path of life." — William Austin, 1637.
Verse 11. It is Christ's triumphing in the consideration of his
exaltation, and taking pleasure in the fruits of his sufferings: "Thou wilt
show me the paths of life." God hath now opened the way to paradise, which
was stopped up by a flaming sword, and made the path plain by admitting into
heaven the head of the believing world. This is a part of the joy of the
soul of Christ; he hath now a fulness of joy, a satisfying delight instead
of an overwhelming sorrow; a "fulness of joy," not only some sparks and
drops as he had now and then in his debased condition; and that in the
presence of his Father. His soul is fed and nourished with a perpetual
vision of God, in whose face he beholds no more frowns, no more designs of
treating him as a servant but such smiles that shall give a perpetual
succession of joy to him, and fill his soul with fresh and pure flames.
Pleasures they are, pleasantness in comparison whereof the greatest joys in
this life are anguish and horrors. His soul hath joys without mixture,
pleasures without number, a fulness without want, a constancy without
interruption, and a perpetuity without end.— Stephen Charnock.
Verse 11. "In thy presence," etc. To the blessed soul resting in
Abraham's bosom, there shall be given an immortal, impassible, resplendent,
perfect, and glorious body. Oh, what a happy meeting will this be, what a
sweet greeting between the soul and the body, the nearest and dearest
acquaintance that ever were! What a welcome will that soul give to her
beloved body! Blessed be thou (will she say), for thou hast aided me to the
glory I have enjoyed since I parted with thee; blessed art thou that
sufferedst thyself to be mortified, giving "thy members as weapons of
righteousness unto God." Romans 6:13. Cheer up thyself, for now the time
of labour is past, and the time of rest is come. Thou wast sown and buried
in the dust of earth with ignominy, but now raised in glory; sown in
weakness, but raised in power; sown a natural body, but raised a spiritual
body; sown in corruption, but raised in incorruption. 1 Corinthians 15:43.
O my dear companion and familiar, we took sweet counsel together, we two
have walked together as friends on God's house (Psalm 55:14). for when I
prayed inwardly, thou didst attend my devotions with bowed knees and
lifted-up hands outwardly. We two have been fellow labourers in the works
of the Lord, we two have suffered together, and now we two shall ever reign
together; I will enter again into thee, and so both of us together will
enter into our Master's joy, where we shall have pleasures at his right
hand for evermore .
The saints, entered as it were into the chambers of God's presence,
shall have joy to their ears in hearing their own commendating and praise,
"Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21); and in hearing the
divine language of heavenly Canaan; for our bodies shall be vera et viva,
perfect like Christ's glorious body, who did both hear other and speak
himself after his resurrection, as it is apparent in the gospel's history.
Now, then, if the words of the wise spoken in due places be like "apples of
gold with pictures of silver" (Proverbs 25:11). if the mellifluous speech of
Origen, the silver trumpet of Hillary, the golden mouth of Chrysostom,
bewitched as it were their auditory with exceeding great delight; if the
gracious eloquence of heathen orators, whose tongues were never touched with
a coal from God's altar, could steal away the hearts of their hearers, and
carry them up and down whither they would, what a "fulness of joy" will it
be to hear not only the sanctified, but also the glorified tongues of saints
and angels in the kingdom of glory? . . . . . Bonaventure fondly reports at
all adventure, that St. Francis hearing an angel a little while playing on a
harp, was so moved with extraordinary delight, that he thought himself in
another world. Oh! what a "fulness of joy" will it be to hear more than
twelve legions of angels, accompanied with a number of happy saints which no
man is able to number, all at once sing together, "Hallelujah, holy, holy,
holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." "And every
creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such
as are in the sea, and all them that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing,
and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Revelation 4:8; 5:13. If the voices
of mortal men, and the sound of cornet, trumpet, harp, sackbut, psaltery,
dulcimer, and other well-tuned instruments of music, passing through our
dull ears in this world be so powerful, that all our affections are
diversely transported according to the divers kinds of harmony, then how
shall we be ravished in God's presence when we shall hear heavenly airs with
heavenly ears!
Concerning "fulness of joy" to the rest of the senses, I find a very
little or nothing in holy Scriptures, and therefore seeing God's Spirit will
not have a pen to write, I may not have a tongue to speak. Divines in
general affirm, that the smelling, and taste, and feeling, shall have joy
proportionable to their blessed estate, for this corruptible must put on
incorruption, and this mortal immortality; the body which is sown in
weakness is to be raised in power; it is sown a natural body, but it is
raised a spiritual body; buried in dishonour, raised in glory; that is,
capable of good, and, as being impassible, no way subject to suffer evil,
insomuch that it cannot be hurt if it should be cast into hell fire, no more
than Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego, were hurt in the burning oven. In one
word, God is not only to the souls, but also to the bodies of the saints,
all in all things; a glass to their sight, honey to their taste, music to
their hearing, balm to their smelling.— John Boys.
Verse 11. "In thy presence is fulness of joy." The saints on earth are
all but viatores, wayfaring men, wandering pilgrims far from home; but the
saints in heaven are comprehensores, safely arrived at the end of their
journey. All we here present for the present, are but mere strangers in the
midst of danger, we are losing ourselves and losing our lives in the land of
the dying. But ere long, we may find our lives and ourselves again in
heaven with the Lord of life, being found of him in the land of the living.
If when we die, we be in the Lord of life, our souls are sure to be bound up
in the bundle of life, that so when we live again we may be sure to find
them in the life of the Lord. Now we have but a dram, but a scruple, but a
grain of happiness, to an ounce, to a pound, to a thousand weight of
heaviness; now we have but a drop of joy to an ocean of sorrow; but a moment
of ease to an age of pain; but then (as St. Austin very sweetly in his
Soliloquies ), we shall have endless ease, without any pain, true happiness
without any heaviness, the greatest measure of felicity without the least of
misery, the fullest measure of joy that may be, without any mixture of
grief. Here therefore (as St. Gregory the divine adviseth us), let us ease
our heaviest loads of sufferings, and sweeten our bitterest cups of sorrows
with the continual meditation and constant expectation of the fulness of
joy in the presence of God, and of the pleasure at his right hand for
evermore.
"In thy presence, IS," etc., there it is, not there it was,
nor there it may be, nor there it will be, but there it is, there it is
without cessation or intercision, there it always hath been, and is, and
must be. It is an assertion aeternae veritatis, that is always true, it may
at any time be said that there it is. "In thy presence is the fulness
of joy;" and herein consists the consummation of felicity; for what does any
man here present wish for more than joy? And what measure of joy can any
man wish for more than fulness of joy? And what kind of fulness would any
man wish for rather than this fulness, the fulness kat exochn? And where
would any man wish to enjoy this fulness of joy rather than in the presence