fions. But this great difadvantage they have, all their hopes are but heaps of delufions and lies, and either they die and obtain them not, or if they obtain them, yet they obtain them not, they are so far fhort of what they fancied and imagined of them before-hand. But the hope of the children of God, as it is without fail fure, fo it is inconceivably full and fatisfying, far beyond what the largeft apprehenfion of any man is able to reach. Hope in God! what is wanting there?

This hope lodges only in the pure heart; it is a precious liquor that can only be kept in a clean veffel, and that which is not fo, cannot receive it; but what it seems to receive, it corrupts and destroys. It is a confidence arifing from peace, agreement and friendship, which cannot be betwixt the God of purity, and those who allow unholiness in themselves. It is a strange impudence for men to talk of their truft and hope in God, who are in perfect hoftility against him; bold fellows go through dangers here, but it will not be fo hereafter, Jer. ii. 27. They turn to me the back and not the face; yet, in their trouble, they fay, Arife and fave us; they do it as confidently as if they never had despised God; but they mistake the matter, it is not fo. Go and cry, fays he, to the gods whom ye have chofen, Judg. x. 14. When men come to die, then they catch hold of the mercy of God; but from that their filthy hands are beat off, there is no help for them there, and fo they fall down to the pit. An holy fear of God, and a happy hope in him, are commonly linked together; Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy, Pfal. xxxiii. 18.

And even in thofe who are more purified from fin, yet too large draughts of lawful pleafures do clog the fpirits, and make this hope grow exceeding weak; furely the more we fill ourselves with these things, we leave the lefs appetite for the confolations of this bleffed hope. They cannot know the excellency of

this hope, who labour not to keep it unmixed; it is beft alone, as the richest wines and oils, which are the worse of mixtures. Be fober and hope, 1 Pet. i. 13.; keep your mind fober, and your hope fhall be pure. Any thing or perfon that leans on two fupporters, whereof the one is whole and found, and the other broken or crooked, that which is unfound breaks, though the other remain whole, and they fall; whereas the one that was whole had been fufficient: Thus it is, when we divide our hopes betwixt God and this present world, or any other good, those that place their whole hopes on God, they gather in all their defires to him; the ftreams of their affections are not scattered and left in the muddy ditches of the world, they do not fall into finking pools, but being gathered into one main torrent, they run on in that channel to the fea of his eternal goodness.

My hope is in thee.] We cannot choose but all of us think that God is immensely good in himself; but that which is nearer, whereon our hearts most rife, is a relative goodness, that he is good to us, and that he is fo perfectly and completely good, that having made choice of him, and obtained union with him, we need no more. Were once the hearts of the children of men perfuaded of this, all their deliberations were at an end, they would not only choose no other, but defer no longer to fix on him. And what can trouble the foul that is thus eftablished? No change or overturning of outward things; though the frame of the world itfelf were fhaken to pieces, yet still the bottom of this hope is Him that changeth not: And whatever thy preffures be, poverty, ficknefs, or difquiet of mind, thou mayeft draw abundant confolation from Him in whom thou haft placed thy hope. There is only one thing that cruelly affaults it by the way, and that is the guilt of fin. All afflictions and troubles we meet with are not able to mar this hope or quench it; for where it is ftrong, it either breaks through them, or flies above them:

They

They cannot overcome it, for there is no affliction inconfiftent with the love of God, yea, the sharpeft affliction may fometimes have the cleareft characters of his love upon it; but it is fin that prefents him as angry to the view of the foul. When he looks through that cloud, he seems to be an enemy; and when we apprehend him in that afpect, we are af frighted, and presently apprehend a ftorm; but even in this cafe, this hope apprehends his mercy. And thus David here,

LECTURE V.

Ver. 8. Deliver me from all my tranfgreffions; make me not the reproach of the foolish.

TH

HIS is indeed the bafis and foundation of all our other hopes, the free pardon of our fins; but none must entertain these fins, if they defire to be pardoned. Repentance and remiffion of fins are ftill linked together in the Scriptures; and he that would have fin pardoned, and yet live in it, or retain the love of it, would have God and fin reconciled together, and that can never be. David finds his fins preffing him down; he fees them as an army of men fet in battle array about him; and whither flies he for a deliverance? even to Him whom he had offended.

Ver. 10, 11. Remove thy ftroke away from me; I am confumed by the blow of thine hand. When thou with rebukes doft correct man for iniquity, thou makeft his beauty to confume away like a moth: Surely every man is vanity. Selah.] We are naturally very partial judges of ourselves; and, as if we were not fufficiently able by nature, we study and devise by art to deceive ourselves. We are ready to reckon any good that is in us to the full, nay, to multiply it beyond what it is; and yet to help this, we ufe commonly

to

to look on those who have lefs goodness in them, who are weaker, more foolish and worfe than ourselves; and fo we magnify the sense of our own worth and goodness by that comparison. And as in the goodnefs we have, or imagine we have, fo likewife in the evils we fuffer, we ufe to extol them very much in conceit. We account our lighteft afflictions very great; and to heighten our thoughts of them, we do readily take a view of those who are more at ease, and lefs afflicted than ourselves; and, by these devices, we nourish in ourselves pride, by the overweaning conceit of our goodness; and impatience, by the over-feeling fenfe of our evils. But if we would help ourselves by comparison, we fhould do well to view these perfons who are, or have been, eminent for holiness, recorded in holy writ, or whom we know in our own times, or have heard of in former; and by this means we fhould leffen the great opinion we have of our own worth; and fo likewife fhould we confider the many inftances of great calamities and forrows, which would tend to quiet our minds, and enable us to poffefs our fouls in patience, under the little burden of trials that lies upon us: And, especially, we fhall find thofe inftances to fall in together, that as perfons have been very eminent in holiness, they have also been eminent in fuffering very fore strokes and fharp fcourges from the hand of God. If we would think on their confuming blows and broken bones, their bones burnt as an hearth, and their flesh withered as grafs ; certainly we should entertain our thoughts fometimes with wonder of God's indulgence to us, that we are fo little afflicted, when fo many of the children of men, and fo many of the children of God, fuffer so many and so hard things; and this would very much add to the stock of our praises. We fhould not think that we are more innocent in not deferving these things that are inflicted on others, but rather, that He who thus measures out to them and to us, knows our fize, and fees how weak

we

we are in comparison of them; and that therefore he is indulgent to us, not because we are better, but because we are weaker, and are not able to bear fo much as he lays on the ftronger fhoulders. Even in the fharpest of these rods there is mercy. It is a privilege to the fheep that is ready to wander, to be beaten into the right way. When thou art corrected, think that thereby thy fins are to be purged out, thy paffions and lufts to be crucified by these pains; and certainly he that finds any cure of the evils of his spirit by the hardeft fufferings of his flesh, gets a very gainful bargain. If thou account fin thy greatest unhappiness and mifchief, thou wilt be glad to have it removed on any terms. There is at least in the time of affliction a ceffation from fome fins; the raging luft of ambition and pride do cease, when a man is laid upon his back; and these very ceffations are fome advantages. But there is one great benefit of affliction, which follows in the text, that it gives him the true measure of himself.

When with rebukes thou doft correct man, thou makest his beauty to confume away like a moth: Surely every man is vanity. Selah.] Man at his beft eftate is altogether vanity; but at his lowest eftate it appears beft unto him, how much vanity he is, and how much vanity he was at his best eftate, feeing he was then capable of fuch a change, to fall fo low from fuch a height. As that great man who was feeking new conquefts, when he fell upon the fand, and faw the print of his own body, "Why, fays he, fo fmall a "parcel of earth will ferve me, who am seeking af"ter new kingdoms." Thus it is, when a man is brought down, then he hath the right measure of himself, when he fees how vain a thing he is.

Thus the Pfalmift reprefents it here, both as an argument to move God to compaffion, and to inftruct himself and other men. So Job xiii. 25. Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro with the wind? and wilt thou pursue dry stubble? Pfal. ciii, 14. For be knoweth