To this we annex the idea of humility, and teachableness, and resignation to the will of our heavenly Father. In this last view more especially the behaviour of a child was beautifully exemplified in the conduct of David. He had been anointed to the kingly office by God's command; yet he waited patiently for many years without ever aspiring to the kingdom, till the Lord's time came to give it him. Though he was persecuted with murderous rage and jealousy by Saul, he would never lift up his hand against the Lord's anointed, or give occasion of offence to the government under which he lived: on the contrary, he appeals to God in this psalm, that he had not indulged any ambitious thoughts, or interfered in any affairs of state, but had acquiesced in the disposals of an all-wise Providence, even as a weaned child does in the directions and government of his mother.b To illustrate this disposition of mind we shall shew I. What those things are from which we ought to be weaned [The circumstances alluded to in the text will serve to direct our thoughts. David's indifference to all the pomp of royalty shews, that we should be weaned from pleasure, from riches, from honour, from every thing which we possess in this world. Pleasure is but ill suited to the advancement of a soul in the divine life. There are indeed pleasures which we may lawfully enjoy: but if the heart be set upon them, we cannot properly engage in that race which we are to run, or that warfare we are to maintain: nor can we have any more decisive evidence of our being still unrenewed by divine grace. Riches also may be possessed with innocence; but they must not be coveted. They should rather be considered as a snare which we are to dread, than as a blessing we are eager to obtain. They are as clay upon the feet of one that is running a race, or as a weight tied to the neck of one that is swimming for his life. There has scarcely ever occurred an instance wherein the acquisition of them has furthered the divine life; but thousands have been retarded by them, and not a few eternally destroyed.f b Ver. 1, 2. © Luke viii. 14. 2 Tim. iii. 4. Jam. v. 1, 5. 1 Tim. v. 6. d Hab. ii. 6. VOL. V. e Matt. xix. 23, 24. 3 F 1 Tim. v. 9-11. Reputation is that which men in general are most averse to sacrifice: but we must be willing to part with it, if we would be Christians indeed. If we seek the honour that cometh of men, we cannot possibly be stedfast in the faith; we shall shrink from reproach, and prove unfaithful to God in the time of trial; and being ashamed of Christ, we shall cause him to be ashamed of us, in the day of judgment.i There is not any thing, not health, or friends, or liberty, or life itself, that we should value any further than as it may be improved to the glory of God. Our hearts must be weaned from all, so as to be ready to part with every thing, whenever God, in his providence, shall call for it.] To evince that such a state is attainable, we shall shew II. What methods God uses to wean us from them [Without any indelicacy or impropriety we may observe, in allusion to the metaphor in the text, that to wean us from creature comforts, our heavenly Parent embitters them to ús, withdraws them from us, and gives us something more suitable in their stead. Such is our attachment to earthly things that we should never be willing to part from them, if they were not in some way or other embittered to us. God therefore, in mercy to us, mixes gall and worm-wood with every cup he puts into our hands. In the pursuit of pleasure, our brightest prospects become clouded, our highest gratifications cloy, and numberless unforeseen accidents arise to damp our joys, and to disappoint our expectations. In the attainment of wealth, there are many cares to corrode, many vexations to disquiet us, so that we must write on all the bags that we have amassed, "This is vanity and vexation of spirit." The acquisition of knowledge seems to promise the most permanent satisfaction; but, such is the labour requisite to attain it, and so little, after all, is within the reach of human intellect, that the wisest of men was constrained to say, "Much study is a weariness to the flesh; and he that increases knowledge, increases sorrow." Even those dear relations of life which God has given for our richest consolation, the wife of our bosom, or the fruit of our body, are not without their attendant troubles; which are designed to teach us, that "this is not our rest,' "m and that God alone is the proper portion of the soul. But notwithstanding all our disappointments, we are prone to seek our happiness in the creature; on which account God is necessitated, as it were, to deprive us of things, which, g- John v. 44. h John xii. 42, 43. Col. iii. 2. 1 John ii. 15-17. Luke siv. 26. Mark viii. 38. in Mic. ii. 10. if continued to us, would rob him of our hearts. Hence it is that the dearest of God's children are often most heavily afflicted. He sees perhaps that our health, our riches, our friends have drawn us aside from him, or impeded our progress in the divine life, or that they will prove disadvantageous to us in the issue; and therefore he lays us on a bed of languishing, or causes our "riches to fly away," or off the desire of our eyes with a stroke." But his design in all this is, to weaken our idolatrous regard for created enjoyments, and to make us seek our happiness in him alone. And thousands have had more reason to bless him for the bereavements they have experienced, than for all the bounties he ever bestowed upon them." cuts Nothing however will finally destroy our attachment to earthly things, till we have learned how much more suitable provision God has made for the souls of his people. When therefore God, by his providence, has embittered or withdrawn our comforts, he leads us, by his grace, to that fountain of consolation, the sacred Oracles. There he proposes himself to us as a reconciled God and Father in Christ. He sets before our eyes "the unsearchable riches of Christ," the "honour that cometh of God," and the "pleasures that are at his right hand for evermore;" and, having enabled us to taste of these, he makes us to despise every thing in comparison of them, and willingly to relinquish the husks of this world, for the bread that is in our Father's house.] But that we may not form a wrong opinion of our state, we shall declare III. When our souls may be said to be as a weaned child [The whole world, with respect to earthly enjoyments, are like a child either before it is weaned, or while it is weaning, or when it is altogether weaned. The generality are like a child at the breast, minding nothing but their carnal gratifications. The world, in its pleasures, riches or honours, is the one object of their desire, the one source of their comfort: they feed upon it all the day long; they fall asleep, as it were, with it in their mouths; they are clamorous for it as soon as they are awake. In their very slumbers they not unfrequently shew, how wholly their minds have been occupied with that one object. Give them their favourite gratification, and they care for nothing else: rob them of that, and not all the world can pacify them. Ps. cxix. 71, 75. [Such are they who have a fulness of earthly comforts. But others, to whom these things have been embittered, or from whom they have been withdrawn, are, like a weaning child, disquieted beyond measure: they are unhappy in themselves; and they disturb all around them with their peevishness and discontent. Having lost that in which alone they found delight, they can take comfort in nothing else: yea, because of one thing of which they are deprived, they have no enjoyment of all the other things that they possess. In vain have they more suitable and substantial blessings offered them; they have no appetite for the provisions of the gospel; they refuse that which would infinitely overbalance their loss; and they pine away in querulous lamentations, when they might be nourished with "angels' food." Some there are, however, who with David, resemble a weaned child. They are become indifferent to carnal enjoyments. They use with gratitude whatever God has bestowed; but they do not set their hearts upon it, or consider it as essential to their happiness." They suffer the loss of all earthly things with a holy resignation and composure of mind. Doubtless they have their feelings like other men: but these feelings are moderated by religion, and brought into subjection to the divine will. The more they are bereaved of earthly comforts, the more entirely do they live by faith on Christ, and the more abundantly do they grow in every grace. Afflictions drive them, not from God, but to him: and in the midst of all their bereavements they shew, that they "have meat to eat which the world knows not of," and "joys with which the stranger intermeddleth not."] APPLICATION [Let those whose hearts are set upon the world, remember, how transient and unsatisfying their enjoyments are―― Let those who are disconsolate on account of their troubles, consider for what gracious ends God has caused them to be afflicted———And let those who feel a measure of David's spirit, strive for yet higher attainments, in the assured expectation that the more they are weaned from all but God, the more will God communicate to them out of his inexhaustible fulness.] . Phil. iv. 12. Heb. xi. 24-26. P 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26. DLXXIX. THE PATIENCE OF JOB. James v. 11. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord: that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. ONE of the most singular ideas that can be suggested to a carnal mind, is that which occurs in the words immediately preceding the text; "We count them happy that endure." An ungodly man sees, that it is better to bear afflictions patiently than to sink under them; but he can scarcely conceive how afflictions, under any circumstances, can become a ground of congratulation. This difficulty, however, is solved by taking into the account "the end" of those afflictions: and it admits of easy illustration from the case of Job. In prosecuting the apostle's view of this subject, we shall consider I. The patience of Job under his afflictions Great and unparalleled were the afflictions of Job [The destruction of all his property, and all his servants, by bands of robbers, and by lightning, announced to him as it was in three different accounts, by different messengers in speedy succession, would of itself have been sufficient to overwhelm his mind, if he had not been endued with uncommon fortitude; since by this he was reduced in a moment from the height of opulence and grandeur to the lowest indigence and want.a But, distressing as these events were, what an inconceivable aggravation must they have received from the tidings delivered by a fourth messenger, the sudden death of all his children! Had he heard of only one child dying, and that by any natural disorder, it would, to such a parent, have been a fearful addition to all his other burthens: but to hear of seven sons, and three daughters, all crushed in a moment by the falling of his house, if it did not bereave him of his senses, we might well expect, that it should, at least, draw forth some murmuring, and unadvised expressions. To all these calamities were added yet others, that affected more immediately his own person; and which, in such a con a Job. i. 13-17. b Ib. ver. 18, 19. |