LECTURE VI.

Ver. 13. O spare me, that I may recover ftrength, before I go hence, and be no more.

WHY

HY is it that we do not extremely hate that which we fo defperately love, fin? For the deformity of itself is unfpeakable; and befides, it is the cause of all our woes: Sin hath opened the fluices, and lets in all the deluges of forrows, which makes the life of poor man nothing else but vanity and mifery; fo that the meaneft orator in the world may be eloquent enough on that fubject. What is our life, but a continual fucceffion of many deaths? Though we should fay nothing of all the bitterneffes and vexations that are hatched under the sweetest pleasures in the world, this one thing is enough, the multitudes of difeafes and pains, the variety of diftempers, that those houses we are lodged in are expofed to. Poor creatures are oft-times toffed betwixt two, the fear of death, and the tediousness of life; and under these fears they cannot tell which to choose. Holy men are not exempted from fome apprehenfions of God's difpleafure because of their fins; and that may make them cry out with David, Ofpare me, that I may recover ftrength, before I go bence, and be no more. Or, perhaps, this may be a defire, not fo much fimply for the prolonging of life, as for the intermitting of his pain; to have ease from the present smart: the extreme torment of fome fickness may draw the most fixed and confident fpirits to cry out very earnestly for a little breathing; or rather, if it be the defire of a recovery, and the spinning out of the thread of his life a little longer, furely he intended to employ it for God and his fervice; but long life was fuitable to the promises of that time; fo Hezekiah, Ifa. xxxviii. There is no doubt these holy men, under the law, knew fomewhat of the

ftate

state of immortality, Heb. xi.; they, calling themfelves Strangers on earth, argued that they were no ftrangers to thefe thoughts; but it cannot be denied, that that doctrine was but darkly laid out in these times; it is Chrift Jefus that bath brought life and immortality to light, who did illuminate life and immortality, that before ftood in the dark.

Surely the defire of life is, for the most part, fenfual and bafe, when men defife that they may ftill enjoy their animal pleasures, and are loath to be parted from them. They are pleased to term it, a defire to live and repent; and yet few do it when they are fpared; like evil debtors, who defire forbearance from one term to another, but with no defign at all to pay. But there is a natural defire of life, something of abhorrence of nature against the diffolution of these tabernacles. We are loath to go forth, like children who are afraid to walk in the dark, not knowing what may be there. In fome, fuch a defire of life may be very reasonable; being furprised by fickness, and apprehenfions of death, and fin unpardoned, they may defire a little time before they enter into eternity; for that change is not a thing to be hazarded upon a few days or hours preparation: I will not fay that death-bed repentance is altogether defperate, but certainly it is very dangerous, and to be suspected; and therefore, the defire of a little time longer, in such a case, may be very allowable.

I will not deny but it is poffible, even for a believer, to be taken in fuch a pofture, that it may be very uncomfortable to him to be carried off fo, through the affrightments of death, and his darkness as to his after-state. On the other hand, it is an argument of a good measure of spirituality and height of the love of God, to defire to depart, and be diffolved, in the midft of health, and the affluence of worldly comforts; but for men to defire and with to be dead, when they are troubled and vexed with any thing, is but a childish folly, flowing from a discontented mind,

which being over, they defire nothing less than to die. It is true there may be a natural defire of death, which at fometimes hath fhined in the fpirits of fome natural men; and there is much reason for it, not only to be freed from the evils and troubles of this life, but even from those things which many of this foolish world account their happiness, fenfual pleafures, to eat and drink, and to be hungry again; and ftill to round that fame courfe, which, to fouls that are raised above sensual things, are burdensome and grievous.

But there is a spiritual defire of death, which is very becoming a Chriftian; for Jefus Chrift hath not only opened very clearly the doctrine of eternal life, but he himself hath paffed through death, and lain down in the grave; he hath perfumed that paffage, and warmed that bed for us; fo that it is sweet and amiable for a Chriftian to pass through and follow him, and to be where he is. It is a ftrange thing, that the fouls of Chriftians have not a continual defire to go to that company which is above, (finding fo much difcord and difagreement among the best of men that are here); to go to the spirits of just men made perfect, where there is light and love, and nothing elfe, to go to the company of angels, an higher rank of bleffed spirits, but most of all, to go to God, and to Jefus the Mediator of the New Teftament. And, to fay nothing pofitively of that glory, (for the truth is, we can fay nothing of it), the very evils that death delivers the true Christian from, may make him long for it; for fuch an one may fay, "I fhall die, and go to a more "excellent country, where I shall be happy for ever, "that is, I fhall die no more, I fhall forrow no more, "I fhall be fick no more; and, which is yet more "confiderable, I fhall doubt no more, and fhall be "tempted no more; and, which is the chiefeft of all, "I fhall fin no more."

End of the Lectures on Pfalm xxxix.

EXPOSITORY LECTURES

ON

ISAIAH VI.

LECTURE I. on Ver. 1-5.

HE divifion of this chapter (were that to any great purpose) may be stated thus:

TH

the

I. The prophet's vifion, from ver 1. to the 3. In year that king Uzziah died I faw alfo the Lord fitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2. Above it stood the feraphims: each one bad fix wings; with twain be covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3. And one cried unto another, and faid, Holy, boly, holy is the Lord of bofts; the whole earth is full of his glory.

II. The effects of it upon him, relating to his calling, from ver. 4.-13. And the pofts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the boufe was filled with fmoke, &c.

In the vifion, befides the circumftances of time and place fpecified, ver. 1. we have a glorious representation of the majefty of God, ver. 2. A suitable acclamation, a voice of praise being joined with it, ver. 3, 4

The effects of it on the prophet towards his calling are three, viz. I. His preparation; II. His miffion; III. His meffage. I. The preparation, in these two particulars: 1. Humiliation : 2. Purification, ver. 6, 7. a deep conviction, and then effectual removal of pollution.

VOL. II.

3 D

II.

II. In his miffion we have three things: 1. God's inquiry for a meffenger, ver. 8. former part. 2. The prophet's offer of himfelf, the latter part of ver. 8. 3. God's acceptance, ver. 9. former part. III. His meffage, a heavy commination, from ver. 9.-——12. yet allayed with a gracious mitigation, ver. 13. The judgment very lafting and wafting, yet a remnant referved.

Ver. 1. In the year that king Uzziah died I faw alf the Lord fitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

I faw.] Obferve the freedom of God in his choice of men to be near him and know him; and in the measuring out the degrees of difcovery unto those men differently, fome had extraordinary revelations; and though prophetic vifions now cease, yet there are ce tainly higher and clearer corrufcations of God upon fome fouls, than many others, that yet are children of light, and partake of a meafure of that light fhining within them; thus we are not carvers and choofers, and therefore are not peremptorily to defire any thing in kind or meafue that is fingular, that were pride and folly; but above all things we are to efteem, and fubmiffively defire ftill more and more knowledge of God, and humbly to wait and keep open the paffage of light, not to close the windows, not to be indulgent to any known fin, or impure affection, that will foon obftruct it: Into a filthy foul wifdom will not enter.

In the year that king Uzziah died I faw the Lord on his throne.] There is another king named here, to denote the time by, but he was a difeafed and a dying king, who lived fome years a leper, and then died. Men may speak in a court ftyle of vain withes, O king live for ever: But this King here on the throne, is indeed the King immortal, the ever living God.

God