Chapter 3. Showing That the Best Things Work for Good to the Godly
1. The best things work for good to the Godly: There are eight of these.
1. Gods Attributes work for good; these three in particular.
1. Gods Power works for good. It is a glorious power, Colossians 1:11, and it is engaged for the good of the Elect. Out of this strong comes forth sweetness. The Power of God works for good four ways.
- 1. In supporting us in misery. - 2. In supplying our wants. - 3. In subduing our corruptions. - 4. In conquering our enemies.
Gods Power works for good,
1. In supporting us in misery, Deuteronomy 33:27. Underneath are the everlasting Arms. What upheld Daniel in the Lions Den? Jonah in the Whales Belly? The three Children in the Furnace? Only the power of God. Is it not strange to see a bruised Reed grow and flourish? How is a weak Christian able, not only to endure affliction, but rejoice in it? He is upheld by the Arms of the Almighty, 2 Corinthians 12:9. My strength is made perfect in weakness.
2. In supplying our wants. God creates comforts when means fail: He that brought food to the Prophet Elijah by the unnatural Ravens, will bring sustenance to his people. God can preserve the Oil in the Cruse, 1 Kings 17:14. The Lord made the Sun on Ahaz's Dial go ten degrees backward: So when our outward comforts are declining, and it is almost Sun-setting, God often causes a revival, and brings the Sun many degrees backward.
3. In subduing our corruptions: Micah 7:19. He will subdue our iniquities. The Hebrew word is He will put them under the yoke. Is your sin strong? God is powerful, he will break the head of this Leviathan. Is your heart hard? God will dissolve that stone in Christs blood, Job 23:16. The Almighty makes my heart soft. When we say as Jehoshaphat, We have no might against this great Army, the Lord goes up with us, and helps us to fight our battles; he strikes off the heads of those Goliath-lusts which are too strong for us.
4. In conquering our enemies. He stains the pride, and breaks the confidence of adversaries, Psalm 2:9. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. There is rage in the Enemy, malice in the Devil, but power in God. How easily can he rout all the Forces of the wicked! 2 Chronicles 14:11. It is nothing for Thee Lord to help. Gods power is on his Churches side, Deuteronomy 33:29. Happy art thou O Israel, O people saved by the Lord, who is the shield of thy help, and the sword of thy excellency.
2. The Wisdom of God works for good. Gods wisdom is our Oracle to instruct us. As he is the Mighty God, so the Counsellor, Isaiah 9:6. We are often times in the dark, and in matters intricate and doubtful, know not which way to take; here God comes in with light, Psalm 32:8. I will guide thee with mine eye. EYE, there is put for Gods wisdom. Whence is it the Saints can see further than the most quick-sighted Politicians? They foresee an evil, and hide themselves, they see Satans Sophisms; this is Gods wisdom is the Pillar of fire to go before, and guide them.
3. The Goodness of God works for good two ways. 1. Gods goodness is a means to make us good, Romans 2:4. The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. The goodness of God is a spiritual Sun-beam to melt the heart into tears. Oh says the soul, Hath God been so good to me? Hath he reprieved me so long from Hell, and shall I grieve his Spirit any more? Shall I sin against Goodness? 2. The goodness of God works for good, as it ushers in all our blessings. The daily favors we receive, are the silver streams which flow from the Fountains of Gods goodness. This Divine Attribute of Goodness, brings in two sorts of blessings. 1. Common Blessings. All partake of these; the bad as well as the good: This sweet dew falls upon the Thistle, as well as the Rose, Psalm 33:5. 2. Crowning Blessings. These only the godly partake of, Psalm 103:4. Who crowneth us with loving kindness. Thus the blessed Attributes of God work for good to the Saints.
2. The Promises of God work for good. The Promises are Dei Chirographum (as Austin calls them) a Bill of Gods hand; is it not good to have security? The Promises are the Breasts of the Gospel; and is not the Breast for the good of the Infant? They are called Precious Promises, 2 Peter 1:4. They are as Aquavitae to a soul that is ready to faint. Cardan says, Every precious stone has some virtue latent in it: The Promises are full of virtue, and that especially in four Cases.
1. Are we under the guilt of sin? There is a Promise, Exodus 34:6. The Lord, the Lord merciful, gracious, etc. where God does as it were put on his glorious Embroidery, and hold out the Golden Scepter, to encourage poor trembling sinners to come to him. The Lord Merciful. God is more willing to pardon, than to punish: Mercy does more multiply in him, than sin in us: Mercy is his Nature. The Bee naturally gives honey; it stings only when it is provoked. But says the guilty sinner, I cannot deserve mercy: but he is Gracious; he shows mercy, not because we deserve mercy, but because he delights in mercy. But what is that to me? Perhaps my name is not in the pardon: He keeps mercy for thousands; the Exchequer of mercy is not exhausted: God has Treasures lying by, and why may not you come in for a Childs part? This Promise is as Bezoar-stone.
2. Are we under the defilement of sin? There is a Promise working for good, Hosea 14:14. I will heal their back-slidings. God will not only bestow mercy, but grace. And he has made a Promise of sending his Spirit, Isaiah 44:3, which for its sanctifying nature, is in Scripture compared sometimes to Water, which cleanses the Vessel; sometimes to the Word, which is the Fan to winnow and purify the Air; sometimes to Fire, which does refine Metals: Thus the Spirit of God shall cleanse and consecrate the soul, making it partake of the Divine Nature.
3. Are we in great dangers? There's a Promise works for our good, Psalm 91:15. I will be with him in trouble. God does not use to bring his people into troubles, and leave them there, but will stand by them, he will hold their head and heart when they are fainting. And there is another Promise, Psalm 37:39. He is their strength in the time of trouble. Oh says the soul, I shall faint in the day of trial; but God will be the strength of our heart, he will join his forces with us; either he will make his hand lighter, or our faith stronger.
4. Do we fear outward wants? There is a Promise, Psalm 34:10. They that fear the Lord, shall not want any good thing. If it be good for us, we shall have it; if it be not good for us, then, the not having of it, is good. Exodus 23:25. I will bless your bread, and your water. This blessing falls as the honey-dew upon the leaf, it sweetens what little we possess. Let me want the Venison, so I may have the Blessing. Question. But I fear I shall not get a livelihood? Answer. Peruse that Scripture, Psalm 37:25. I have been young, and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his Seed begging bread. How must we understand this? 1. David speaks it as his own observation; he never beheld such an Eclipse, he never saw a godly man brought so low, that he had not a bit of bread to put in his mouth. 2. David never saw the righteous and their Seed lacking. Though the Lord might try godly Parents a while by want, yet not their Seed too: The Seed of the godly shall be provided for. 3. David never saw the righteous begging of bread, and forsaken: Though he might be reduced to great straits, yet not forsaken; still he is an heir of Heaven, and God loves him. Thus, in all these Cases, the Promises work for good.
How do the Promises work for good?
1. They are food for Faith; and that which strengthens Faith works for good. The Promises are the Breast-milk of Faith; Faith sucks nourishment from them, as the child by drawing the Breast. Genesis 32:7. Jacob feared exceedingly: His spirits were ready to faint; now he goes to the Promise, verse 12. Lord, thou hast said, thou wilt do me good. This Promise was his food; he got so much strength by sucking this Promise, that he was able to wrestle with the Lord all night in prayer, and would not let him go till he had blessed him.
2. The Promises are springs of joy. There is more in the Promise to comfort, than in the world to perplex. Ursin was comforted by that Promise, John 10:29. No man shall pluck them out of my Fathers hands. The Promises are Cordials in a fainting fit, Psalm 119:92. Unless thy Word had been my delight, I had perished in my affliction. The Promises are as Cork to the Net, to bear up the heart from sinking in the deep waters of distress.
3. The Mercies of God work for good to the godly.
1. Temporal Mercies, as Health, Prosperity. Mercy works most kindly upon an ingenious soul.
1 The mercies of God humble: 2 Samuel 7:18. Then went King David in, and sat before the Lord, and said, Who am I, O Lord God? and what is my fathers house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? Lord, whence is such honor conferred upon me, that I should be King? That I who did follow the Sheep, should go in and out before thy people? So says a gracious heart, Lord, what am I, that it should be better with me than others? That I should drink of the fruit of the Vine, when others drink, not only a Cup of Wormwood, but a Cup of Blood? What am I, that I should have those mercies, which others want, who are better than I? Lord, whence is it, that notwithstanding all my unworthiness, a fresh Tide of mercy comes in every day? The mercies of God make a sinner proud, but a Saint humble.
2. The mercies of God have a melting influence upon the soul, they dissolve it in love to God . Gods Judgments make us fear him, his mercies make us love him. How was Saul wrought upon by kindness! David had him at the advantage, and might have cut off, not only the skirt of his Robe, but his head; yet he spares his life: This kindness melted Sauls heart, 1 Samuel 24:16. Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lift up his voice, and wept. Such a melting influence has Gods mercy, it makes the eyes drop with tears of love.
3. The mercies of God make the heart fruitful. When you lay out more cost upon a field, it bears a better crop. A gracious soul honours the Lord with his Substance; he does not do with his mercies, as Israel with their Jewels and Ear-Rings, make a Golden Calf; but as Solomon did with the money thrown into the Treasury, build a Temple for the Lord. The Golden showers of mercy cause fertility.
4. The mercies of God make the heart thankful: Psalm 116:12, 13. Quid retribuam Domino? What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me? I will take the Cup of salvation. David alludes to the people of Israel, who at their Peace-Offerings did use to take a Cup in their hands, and give thanks to God for Deliverances. Every mercy is an Alms of Free Grace; and this enlarges the soul in gratitude. A good Christian is not a Grave to bury Gods mercies, but a Temple to sing his praise. If every Bird in its Kind (as Ambrose speaks) does chirp forth thankfulness to its Maker; much more will an ingenious Christian, whose life is enriched and perfumed with mercy.
5. The mercies of God quicken: As they are Load-stones to love, so Whet-stones to obedience: Psalm 119:9. I will walk before the Lord in the Land of the living. He that takes a review of his blessings, looks upon himself as a person engaged for God; he argues from the sweetness of mercy, to the swiftness of duty; he spends and is spent for Christ; he dedicates his life to God. Among the Romans, when one had redeemed another, he was ever afterwards to serve him. A soul encompassed with mercy is zealously active in Gods service.
6. The mercies of God work compassion to others. A Christian is a temporal Saviour; he feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits the Widow and Orphan in their distress; the backs and bellies of the poor, are the furrows where he sows the golden Seeds of his Charity: Psalm 112.5. A good man shows favor, and lends: Charity drops from him freely, as Myrrh from the Tree. Thus to the godly, the mercies of God work for good, they are wings to lift them up to Heaven.
2. Spiritual mercies work for good: The blessed Ordinances. 1. The Word Preached works for good; it is a savor of life, it is verbum cum unctione, it is a soul-transforming Word, it assimilates the heart into Christ's likeness, it is the breeder of Assurance, 1 Thessalonians 1.5. Our Gospel came to you, not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance: It is vehiculum salutis, the Chariot of Salvation.
2. Prayer works for good. Prayer is the Bellows of the affections, it blows up holy desires and ardors of soul: Prayer has power with God, Isaiah 45.11. Command ye me. It is a Key that unlocks the Treasury of God's Bowels. Prayer keeps the heart open to God, and shut to sin; it assuages the intemperate heats and swellings of lust. It was Luther's counsel to a friend, when he perceived a temptation begin to arise, to betake himself to Prayer. Prayer is Bombarda Christianorum, the Christians Gun, which they discharge against their enemies. Prayer is the Pancreston, the Sovereign Medicine of the soul: Prayer sanctifies every mercy, 1 Timothy 4.5. It is the dispeller of sorrow: by venting the grief it eases the heart. When Hannah had prayed, she went away, and was no more sad, 1 Samuel 1.18. And if it has these rare effects, then it works for good.
3. The Lord's Supper works for good: It is an Emblem of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, Revelation 19.9. and an Earnest of that Communion we shall have with Christ in Glory; it is a feast of fat things; it gives us bread from Heaven, such as does not only preserve life, but prevent death. It has glorious effects in the hearts of the Godly; it quickens their Affections, strengthens their Graces, mortifies their Corruptions, revives their Hopes, increases their Joy. Luther says, It is as great a work to comfort a dejected soul, as to raise the dead to life; yet this may, and sometimes is done to the souls of the Godly in the blessed Supper. The Sacrament has a peculiar excellency above the Word preached. In the Word there is the Breath of God, in the Sacrament the Blood of God; in the Word we hear his Voice, in the Sacrament we have his kiss. The Word proceeds out of God's mouth, the Sacrament out of his sides.
4. The Graces of the Spirit work for good. Grace is to the soul as light to the eye, as health to the body. Grace does to the soul as a virtuous wife does to her husband, Proverbs 31.12. She will do him good all the days of her life. How incomparably useful are the Graces! Faith and Fear go hand in hand; Faith keeps the heart cheerful, Fear keeps the heart serious; Faith keeps the heart from sinking in despair, Fear keeps it from floating in presumption; all the Graces display themselves in their beauty: Hope is the Helmet, 1 Thessalonians 5.8. Meekness the Ornament, 1 Peter 3.4. Love the Bond of perfectness, Colossians 3.14. The Saints' Graces are Weapons to defend them, Wings to elevate them, Jewels to enrich them, Spices to perfume them, Stars to adorn them, Cordials to refresh them: And does not all this work for good? The Graces are our Evidences for Heaven; is it not good to have our Evidences ready at the hour of death?
5. The Creatures of God work for good to the Godly. 1. Creatures inanimate, Judges 5.20. The Stars in their course fought against Sisera; the Stars as the Host of God gathered in a Battalion, and by their influences raising terrible tempests, did as it were conspire the ruin of Sisera and his Army. 2. Creatures animate. The Angels, those noble Citizens and Princes of Heaven, work for the good of the Saints. The good Angels are ready to do all offices of love to the people of God, Hebrews 1.14. Are they not all ministering Spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Some of the Fathers are of opinion, that every Believer has his tutelar Angel; it needs no hot debate, it may suffice that we know the whole Hierarchy of Angels is employed for the good of the Saints. The good Angels do service to the Saints:
1. In life. The Angel did comfort the Virgin Mary, Luke 1.28. The Angel did stop the mouths of the Lions that they could not hurt Daniel, Daniel 6.22. A Christian has an invisible Guard about him, the Tutelage, and Guardian-ship of Angels, Psalm 91.11. He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. The Angels are of the Saints' Life-guard, yea, the chief of the Angels; Are they not all ministering spirits? The highest Angels take care of the lowest Saints.
2. At death. The Angels are about the Saints' sick-beds to comfort them. As God comforts by his Spirit, so by his Angels. Christ in his Agony was refreshed by an Angel, Luke 24.45. So are Believers in the agony of death: And when the Saints' breath expires, their souls are carried up to Heaven by a Convoy of Angels, Luke 16.22.
3. At the day of Judgment. 1. The Angels shall open the Saints' Graves, and dig away the earth from their bodies, and shall conduct them into the presence of Christ, when they shall be made like his glorious body, Matthew 24.31. He shall send his Angels, and they shall gather together his Elect, from the four winds, from the one end of Heaven to the other. 2. The Angels at the day of Judgment shall rid the Godly of all their enemies. Here the Saints are plagued with enemies, Psalm 38.20. They are mine adversaries, because I follow the thing that good is: well, the Angels will shortly give God's people a Writ of ease, and set them free from all their enemies: Matthew 13.38. The tares are the children of the wicked one, the harvest is the end of the world, the reapers are the Angels; as therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world, the Son of man shall send forth his Angels, and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things which offend, and them which do iniquity, and cast them into a furnace of fire. At the day of Judgment the Angels of God will take the wicked, which are the Tares, and will bundle them up, and throw them into Hell-furnace, and then the Godly will not be troubled with enemies any more: Thus the good Angels work for good. See here the honor and dignity of a Believer, he has God's name written upon him, Revelation 3.12. the Holy Ghost dwelling in him, 2 Timothy 1.14. and a Guard of Angels attending him.
Insuper nostro lateri ministros, caelitus addis.
6. The Communion of Saints works for good, 2 Corinthians 1.24. We are helpers of your joy. One Christian conversing with another, is a means to confirm him: As the stones in an Arch help to strengthen one another; one Christian by imparting his experiences does heat and quicken another, Hebrews 10.24. Let us provoke one another to love, and good works: How does Grace flourish by holy conference! A Christian by good discourse drops that oil upon another as makes the Lamp of his Faith burn the brighter.
7. Christ's intercession works for good. Christ is in Heaven as Aaron with his golden plate upon his forehead, and his precious incense, and he prays for all Believers as well as he did for the Apostles, John 17.20. Neither pray I for these alone, but for all them that shall believe in me. When a Christian is weak, and can hardly pray for himself, Jesus Christ is praying for him; and he prays for three things. 1. That the Saints may be kept from sin, verse 15. I pray that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. We live in the world as in a Pest-house; Christ prays that his Saints may not be infected with the contagious evil of the times. 2. For his people's progress in holiness, verse 17. Sanctify them: Let them have constant supplies of the Spirit, and be anointed with fresh oil. 3. For their glorification, verse 24. Father, I will that those which thou hast given me, be with me where I am. Christ is not content till the Saints are in his arms. This prayer which he made on Earth, is the Copy and Pattern of his prayer in Heaven. What a comfort is this, when Satan is tempting, Christ is praying! this works for good.
Christ's prayer takes away the sins of our prayers. As a child (says Saint Ambrose) that is willing to present his father with a Posy, goes into the Garden, and there gathers some Flowers and some Weeds together, but coming to his mother, she picks out the Weeds, and binds up the Flowers, and so it is presented to the Father. Thus when we have put up our prayers, Christ comes, and picks away the Weeds, the sin of our prayer, and presents nothing but Flowers to his Father, which are a sweet smelling savor.
8. The joint stock of the Saints' prayers work for good to the Godly. The Saints pray for all the Members of the body Mystical; their prayers prevail much. 1. They prevail for recovery out of sickness, James 5.15. The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. 2. For victory over enemies, Isaiah 37.4. Lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left, verse 36. Then the Angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the Camp of the Assyrians, one hundred and eighty-five thousand. 3. For deliverance out of prison, Acts 12.5. Prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him; verse 7. And behold the Angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison, and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, and his chains fell off. The Angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer fetched the Angel. 4. For forgiveness of sin, Job 42.8. My servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept. Thus the prayers of the Saints work for good to the Body Mystical. And this is no small privilege to a Child of God, that he has a constant Trade of Prayer driven for him. When he comes into any Town or Corporation, he may say, I have some Prayer here, nay, all the world over I have a stock of prayer going for me; when I am indisposed, and out of tune, others are praying for me, who are quick and lively. Thus the best things work for good to the people of God.
