01 - Chapter 01

CHAPTER I.

Shewing that Negative Goodness is but a broken Title to Heaven. AS the book of the Canticles is called the Song of Songs by an Hebraism, it being the most excellent; so this psalm may not unfitly be entitled, the Psalm of Psalms, for it contains in it the very pith and quintessence of Christianity. What Hierom saith of Paul’s epistles, the same may I of this psalm; it is short for the composure, but full of length and strength for the matter. This psalm carries blessedness in the frontispiece; it begins where we all hope to end: it may well be called A Christian’s Guide, for it discovers the quicksands where the wicked sink down in perdition, verse 1. and the firm ground on which the saints tread to glory, verse 2. The text is an epitome and breviary of religion, ’But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.’ Every word hath its emphasis; I begin with the first word But. This But is full of spiritual wine, we will broach it and taste a little, then proceed.

But] This is a term of opposition. The godly man is described.

I. By way of negation, in three particulars. (1.) ’He walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly;’ he is none of their council; he neither gives bad counsel, nor takes it. (2.) ’He standeth not in the way of sinners.’ He will not stand among those who shall not be able to ’stand in the judgment,’ verse 5. (3.) ’He sitteth not in the seat of the scornful.’ Let it be a chair of state, he will not sit in it, he knows it will prove very uneasy at last. The word sitting implies, 1. An habit in sin, Psalms 50:20. ’Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother.’

2. Sitting implies familiarity with sinners, Psalms 26:4. ’I have not sat with vain persons;’ that is, I do not haunt their company. The godly man shakes off all intimacy with the wicked. He may traffic with them, not associate; he may be civil to them, as neighbours, but not twist into a cord of friendship: diamonds and stones may lie together, but they will not solder and cement.

II. The godly man is described by way of position or rather opposition, ’But his delight is in the law of the Lord.’ From this word But observe, That negative goodness is not sufficient to entitle us to heaven. To be no scorner, is good, but it is not enough. There are some in the world whose religion runs all upon negatives; they are not drunkards, they are not swearers, and for this they do bless themselves. See how that pharisee vapours, Luke 18:11. ’God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,’ &c. Alas, the not being scandalous will no more make a good christian than a cypher will make a sum. The godly man goes further, ’he sits not in the seat of the scorner, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. We are bid, not only to ’cease from evil, but to do good,’ Psalms 34:14. It will be a poor plea at last, Lord, I kept myself from being spotted with gross sin. I did no hurt; but what good is there in thee? It is not enough for the servant of the vineyard that he doth no hurt there, he doth not break the trees, or destroy the hedges; if he doth not work in the vineyard, he loseth his pay; it is not enough for us to say at the last day, we have done no hurt, we have lived in no gross sin; but what good have we done in the vineyard? where is the grace we have gotten? if we cannot shew this, we shall lose our pay, and miss of salvation.

Use. Do not content yourselves with the negative part of religion; many build their hopes for heaven upon this cracked foundation, they are given to no vice, none can charge them with any foul miscarriages, and these are their letters of credence to shew; to such persons I say three things.

1. You may not be outwardly bad, and yet not inwardly good. You may be as far from grace as from vice; though none can say, black is your eye, yet your soul may be dyed black. Though your hands be not working iniquity, your heads may be plotting it. Though you do not hang out your bush, yet you may secretly vend your commodity: a tree may be full of vermin, yet the fair leaves may cover them that they are not seen; so the fair leaves of civility may hide you from the eye of man, but God sees the vermin of pride, unbelief, covetousness in your heart: ’ye are they, saith Christ, that justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts,’ Luke 16:15. A man may not be morally evil, yet not spiritually good. He may be free from gross enormity, yet full of secret enmity against God; like the snake, which though it be of a fine colour, yet hath its sting.

2. If you are only negatively good, God makes no reckoning of you; you are as so many cyphers in God’s Arithmetic, and he writes down no cyphers in the book of life: Take a piece of brass, though it be not so bad metal as lead or iron, yet not being so good as silver, there is little reckoning made of it, it will not pass for current coin; though thou art not profane, yet not being of the right metal, wanting the stamp of holiness upon thee, thou wilt never pass current, God slights thee, thou art but a brass Christian.

3. A man may as well go to hell for not doing good, as for doing evil; he that bears not good fruit is as well fuel for hell, as he that bears bad; Matthew 3:10. ’Every tree which beareth not good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire. One may as well die with not eating food, as with poison, a ground may as well be spoiled for want of good seed as with having tares sown in it; they that were not active in works of charity, were sadly sentenced: ’Depart from me ye cursed, &c. for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat,’ Matthew 25:41-42. It is not said ye took away my meat from me, but ’ye gave me no meat.’ Why were the foolish virgins shut out? They had done no hurt, they had not broken their lamps, aye, but they ’took no oil in their lamps,’ Matthew 25:3. Their wanting oil was the indictment: Therefore let not any man build his hope for heaven upon negatives. This is building upon the sand; the sand is bad to build on; it will not cement; but suppose a man should finish an house upon it, what is the issue? the flood comes, viz. persecution, and the force of this flood will drive away the sand and make the house fall; and the wind blows, the breath of the Lord as a mighty wind will blow such a sandy building into hell; be afraid then to rest in the privative part of religion, launch forth further, be eminently holy. So I come to the next words, but ’his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.’