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despise God and Christ, and their salvation.

Should a wise man be

troubled because mad men rail at him? if they glory in their shame (Phil. iii. 19), we must not be ashamed of our glory, nor ashamed to be found praying rather than sinning. If they think you fools for preferring Heaven before inconsiderable vanities, remember they can no more judge of these things than a blind man of colours.

7. If some dishonour, others will honour us who are better able to judge: "In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord" (Psalm xv. 4). Some have as low an opinion of the world, as the carnal world hath of the certainty of God's word. They who labour to bring piety and godliness into a creditable esteem and reputation, will pay a hearty honour and respect to every good and godly man: "By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report, as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold we live; as chastened, and not killed" (2 Cor. vi. 8, 9); contumeliously used by some, and reverently by others; vilified and contemned, counted deceivers by some, yet owned by others as faithful dispensers of the truth of God; not esteemed and looked on by some, by others owned and valued: thus God dispenseth the lot of his servants.

8. A Christian should be satisfied in the approbation of God, and the honour he puts upon him: "How can ye believe, that receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only" (John v. 44). If God hath taken him into his family, and hath put his image upon him, and admitted him into present communion with him, and giveth him the testimony of his Spirit to assure him of his adoption here, and will hereafter receive him into eternal glory, this is enough and more than enough to counterbalance all the scorn of the world, and the disgrace they would put upon us. If God approve us, should we be dejected at the scorn of a fool? is the approbation of the eternal God so small in our eyes, that everything can weigh it down, and cast the balance with us? Alas, their scorning and dishonouring is nothing to the honour which God puts upon us.

9. There is a time when the promised crown shall be set upon our heads, and who will be ashamed then, the scoffer, or the serious worshipper of Christ? God is resolved to honour Christ's faithful servants: "If any man honoureth me, him will my Father honour" (John xii. 26). He will honour us at death, that is our private entrance into Heaven; but he will much more honour us, more publicly at the day of judgment, when we shall be owned: "I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels" (Rev. iii. 5), and Christ shall be admired for the glory he puts upon a poor worm, "When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe" (2 Thes. i. 10). The wicked shall be reckoned with, called to an account by Christ: "The Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against them" (Jude 14, 15); yea, judged by the saints: "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?" (1 Cor. vi. 2.) "The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning" (Psalm xlix. 14), that is, in the morning of the resurrection the saints shall be assumed by God to assist in judicature, and shall arise in a glorious manner, when the earth shall give up her dead. If this be

not enough for us to counterbalance the scorn of the world, we are not Christians.

USE. It is to persuade us to hold on our course, notwithstanding all the scorns and reproaches which are cast upon the despised ways of God. Now to this end I shall give you some directions.

1. Be sure that you are in God's way, and that you have his law to justify your practice, and that you do not make his religion ridiculous by putting his glorious name-upon any foolish fancies of your own. A man that differs from the rest of Christians had need of a very clear light, that he may honour so much of Christianity as is owned, and may be able to vindicate his own particular way wherein he is engaged. The world is loath to own anything of God, and needless dissents justify their prejudice. I know a Christian is not infallible; besides his general godly course, he may have his particular slips and errors; yet, because the world is apt to take prejudice, we should not but upon the constraining evidence of con science, enter upon any ways of dissent or contest, lest we justify their general hatred of godliness by our particular error.

2. Take up the ways of God without a bias, and look straight forward in a course of godliness: "Let thine eyes look right on, and thine eye-lids straight before thee" (Prov. iv. 25); that is, look not asquint upon any secular encouragements, but have thine eye to the end of the journey; make God as thy witness, so thy master and judge.

3. Take heed of the first declinings. God's saints may decline somewhat in an hour of temptation, and yet be sincere in the main. Now, evil is best stopped in the beginning: "Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners, lest ye be weary and faint in your mind" (Heb. xii. 3). Weariness is a lesser, and fainting a higher degree of deficiency. I am weary before I faint, before the vital power retireth, and leaveth the outward part senseless.

4. Since the proud scoff, encounter pride with humility. Mocking is far more grievous to the proud who stand upon their honour, than to the lowly and humble: therefore be not too desirous of the applause of men, especially of the blind and ungodly world; make no great matter of their contempt, and scorn, or slander.

SERMON LVIII.

VERSE 52.—I remembered thy judgments of old, O Lord; and have comforted myself.

The man of God had complained in the former verse, that the proud had him greatly in derision; his help against that temptation is recorded in this verse; where observe,

1. David's practice, "I remembered thy judgments of old."

2. The effect of that meditation, "and have comforted myself."

The explication will be by answering two questions.

1st, What is meant by mishphatim, judgments? The word is used in Scripture either for laws enacted, or judgments executed according to those laws. The one may be called the judgments of his mouth, as, "Remember his marvellous works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth" (Psalm cv. 5), the other, the judgments of his hand.

As both will bear the name of judgments, so both may be said to be "of old." His decrees and statutes which have an eternal equity in them, and were graven upon the heart of man in innocency, may well be said to be of old and because from the beginning of the world God hath been punishing the wicked, and delivering the godly in due time, his judiciary dispensations may be said to be so also. The matter is not much whether we interpret it of, either his statutes or decrees, for they both contain matter of comfort, and we may see the ruin of the wicked in the word, if we see it not in Providence. Yet I rather interpret it of those righteous acts recorded in Scripture, which God as a just judge hath executed in all ages, according to the promises and threatenings annexed to his laws. Only in that sense I must note to you, judgments imply his mercies in the deliverance of his righteous servants, as well as his punishments on the wicked the seasonable interpositions of his relief for the one in their greatest distresses, as well as his just vengeance on the other notwithstanding their highest prosperities.

2ndly, What is meant by comfort? heart against evil, when either,1. Faith is confirmed,

2. Love to God increased,

3. Hope made more lively.

Comfort is the strengthening the

Now these providences of God suited to his word, comforted David, had more power and force to confirm and increase these graces, than all the atheistical scoffs to shake them: for he concluded from these instances, that though the wicked flourish, they shall perish; and though the godly be afflicted, they shall be rewarded: and so his faith and hope and love to God, and adherence to his ways was much encouraged. Comfort is sometimes spoken of in Scripture as an impression of the comforting spirit, sometimes as a result from an act of our meditation; as here, "I comforted myself." These things are not contrary but subordinate. It is our duty to meditate on God's word and providence, and God blesseth it by the influence of his grace; and the Spirit may be said to comfort us, and we also may be said to comfort ourselves.

DOCTRINE. That the remembrance of God's former dealings with his people, and their enemies in all ages, is a great relief in distress.

The man of God is here represented as lying under the scorns and oppressions of the wicked. What did he do to relieve himself? "I remembered thy judgments of old, and have comforted myself." So elsewhere, this was his practice: "I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times" (Psalm lxxvii. 5); again, "I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will medidate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings" (verses 11, 12); yet again, "I remember the days of old, I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands" (Psalm cxliii. 5). Thus did David often consider with what equity and righteousness, with what power and goodness, God carried on the work of his providence toward his people of old. The like he presseth on others: "Remember the marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth" (Psalm cv. 5). Surely it is our duty, and it will be our comfort and relief.

I shall dispatch the point in these considerations.

1. That there is a righteous God that governeth the world. All things

are not hurled up and down by chance, as if the benefit we receive were only a good hit, and the misery a mere misfortune. No; all things are ordered by a powerful, wise, and just God; his word doth not only discover this to us, but his works: "So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth" (Psalm lviii. 11); that is, many times there are such providences, that all that behold them, shall see, and say, that godliness and holiness are matters of advantage and benefit in this world, abstracted from the rewards to come; and so an infallible evidence that the world is not governed by chance, but administered by an almighty, all-wise, and most just Providence. So elsewhere: "The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth" (Psalm ix. 16). By some eminent instances God showeth himself to be the judge of the world, and keepeth a petty sessions, before the day of general assizes. Upon this account, the saints beg the Lord to take off the veil from his providence, and to appear in protecting, and delivering his children, and punishing their adversaries: "O thou Judge of the earth, show thyself" (Psalm xciv. 1, 2). He is the supreme governor of the world, to whom it belongeth to do right.

2. This righteous God hath made a law according to which he will govern, and established it as the rule of commerce between him and his creatures. The precept is the rule of our duty; the sanction is the rule of his proceedings; so that by this law we know what we must do, and what we may expect from him. Man is not made to be lawless, and ungoverned, but hath a conscience of good and evil, for without the knowledge of God's will, we cannot obey him; nor can we know his will, unless it be some way or other revealed. No man in his wits can expect that God should speak to us immediately and by oracle; we cannot endure his voice, nor can we see him, and live: therefore, he revealed his mind by the light of nature, and by Scripture, which giveth us a clearer and more perfect knowledge of his will. Certainly those that live under that dispensation, must expect that God will deal with them according to the tenour of it. The Apostle telleth us: "As many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law" (Rom. ii. 12). God hath been explicit and clear with them, to tell them what they should do, and what they should expect.

3. In the course of his dispensations he hath showed from the beginning of the world unto this day, that he is not unmindful of this law, that the observance of this rule bringeth suitable blessings, and the violation of it the threatened judgments: "The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness, and unrighteousness of men" (Rom. i. 18). The impious, and the unrighteous, are breakers of either table, and the wrath of God is denounced and executed upon both, if there be any notorious violation of either. For, in the day of God's patience, he is not quick and severe upon the world: "Every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward" (Heb. ii. 2); thereby his word is owned. Execution we say is the life of the law, it is but words without it, and can neither be a ground of sufficient hope in the promises, nor fear in the comminations. When punishments are inflicted it striketh a greater terror; when the offenders are punished, the observers rewarded, then it is a sure rule of commerce between us and God.

4. That the remembrance of the most illustrious examples of his justice, power, and goodness, should comfort us, though we do not perfectly feel the effects of his righteous government.

(1.) I will prove we are apt to suspect God's righteous administrations when we see not the effects of it; when the godly are oppressed with divers calamities, and the wicked live a life of pomp and ease, flourishing in prosperity and power, according to their own hearts' desire, they are apt to think that God taketh no care of worldly affairs, or were indifferent to good and evil, as those profane atheists: "Every one that doth evil, is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in him; or, Where is the God of judgment?" (Mal. ii. 17.) As if God took pleasure in wicked men, and were no impartial judge, or had no providence at all, or hand in the government of the world. Temptations to atheism begin ordinarily at the matter of God's providence. First, men carve out a providence of their own; that God loveth none but whom he dealeth kindly with in the matters of the world; and if his dispensations be cross to their apprehensions, then his providence is not just. Nay, the people of God themselves are so offended, that they break out into such words as these: "How doth God know? is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world, they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency" (Psalm lxxiii. 11-13). They dispute within themselves, Doth God indeed so discern and take notice of all this? how cometh it about that he permitteth them? for it is visible that the wicked enjoy the greatest tranquillity and prosperity, and have the wealth and greatness of the world heaped upon them: then what reward for purity of hearts or hands, or the strict exercise of godliness? Till God doth arise, and apply himself to vindicate his law, these are the thoughts and workings of men's hearts; at least it is a great vexation and trouble even to the godly, and doth tempt them to such imaginations and surmises of God.

(2.) I shall prove that the remembrance of his judgments of old is one means to confirm the heart, for so we are enabled to tarry till God's judgments be brought to the effect. We see only the beginning, and so, like hasty spectators, will not tarry till the last act, when all errors shall be redressed. We shall make quite another judgment of Providence, when we see it altogether, and do not judge of it by parts. Surely then they shall see, there is " a reward for the righteous; there is a God that judgeth in the earth." At first none seem so much to lose their labour, and to be disregarded by God as the righteous, or to be more hardly dealt withal; but let us not be too hasty in judging God's work, while it is a-doing, but tarry to the end of things. In the word of God we have not only promises, which are more firm than Heaven and earth, but instances and examples of the afflictions of the righteous, and their deliverance: therefore, let us but suspend our censure, till God hath put his last hand unto the work, and then you will see, that if his people seem to be forsaken for a while, it is that they may be received for ever. All is wont to end well with the children of God, let God alone with his own methods; after a walk in the wilderness, he will bring his people into a land of rest.

But more particularly why his judgments of old are a comfort and a relief to us.

1. It is some relief to the soul to translate the thoughts from the present scene of things, and to consider former times. One cause of men's

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