God's Delight in the Progress of the Upright
Part 2 God's Delight in the Progress of the Upright
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Especially in Magistrates uprightness and constancy in ways of justice and righteousness in these Apostatizing Times, notwithstanding all discouragements, oppositions, etc.
Presented in a Sermon before the House of Commons at their last monthly Fast, London, December 26, 1648, by Thomas Brooks.
Job 17:8-9 "The righteous shall persevere in his way, and he who has clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. Upright men shall be astonished at this, for the Innocent shall stir up himself against the Hypocrite."
Num. 35:33 "'Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it."
The Epistle Dedicatory
This work was too high for me; and, as it is now done by so weak a hand, is too low for so many judicious eyes to look down to. Yet, according to your command, I have published these notes, which I humbly present to you. They were once in your ear, they are now in your eye, and may the Lord ever keep them in your hearts! Solomon bids us "buy the truth," but does not tell us what it must cost, because we must get it, though it be ever so dear. We should love it both shining and scorching. The desire of my soul is, that you may deal so with those truths which here in all humbleness is presented to you. Oh, that we may be all doers of the word, and not hearers only, lest we deceive our own souls! When I stood upon my watch to see what the Lord would say unto me, that I might speak unto you a word in season, that is, with a due concurrence and observation of all circumstances, of time, place, people, etc., He directed me to make this discovery of upright hearts' progress in the ways of God, notwithstanding all afflictions, etc., which befall them; which gives me hope that God intended to send home into your hearts some light and influence from this truth, to encourage and keep up your spirits against all the opposition which you may find in the cause of God and the kingdom, and to maintain your zeal and forwardness therein, that justice and judgment may run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
If justice does not work the salvation of sinners' souls—yet it will work to the restraining of their sin—the measure of their wickedness will be less. And yet, I desire that justice and clemency may go together. Nero's speech has great praise, who, when he was to subscribe to the death of a man condemned, would say, "I wish I did not know how to write." I hope there be a generation that will not abuse that liberty that shall be granted them according to the word—but will, in the midst of all their liberties, be faithful servants to peace and concord, according to that which Calvin writes to Farel, "I hope God will arise in you, and cause you to do his work his own way." May the Lord God guide you, and give everyone of you to act like the angels of God—cheerfully, freely, readily, sincerely, and unweariedly in your generation, that in all your ways Christ may own you, and that all the godly of the land may rise up and call you blessed; and let the blessing of him who was in the bush be upon you and yours forever; and let all the precious sons of Zion who love the God of heaven, who is the Savior of this nation, say Amen.
In all humble service for Christ,
Thomas Brooks.
God's Delight in the Progress of the Upright
"Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from your ways." Psalm 44:18.
The word that is rendered "heart," both in the Old and New Testament, does signify the understanding, mind, will, affections, conscience, the whole soul. "Our heart is not turned back." Our understandings and minds are the same as they were in a summer's day, though now we be in a winter's storm—though now we be afflicted, tossed, broken, and persecuted—yet notwithstanding, "our heart is not turned back"—our mind, will, affections, and conscience, our whole soul, is the same now as before. "Our heart is not turned backward, neither have our steps declined from your ways."
"Our heart is not turned back." This notes their progress in the ways of well-doing; for the old saying is, Not to go forward is to go backward. "Neither have our steps declined from your ways." It notes their settled course of walking in the ways of God; and, in short, the sum of all is, though we have been afflicted, tossed, broken and persecuted—yet our hearts have held on in the ways of the Lord, and we have not departed from our God. "Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from your ways."
There is but one observation that I shall speak to this day, and that is this: Upright hearts will persevere in the ways of God, and in the ways of well-doing, notwithstanding all afflictions, troubles, and discouragements they meet with. That is the sum and the scope of this verse here. The church was afflicted, tossed, broken, and persecuted; and yet this is still the theme of the song, "Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from your ways."
I judge it a point seasonable in every respect. I shall only eye the scriptures that prove it, and then open it to you. The scriptures that prove it are these: Psalm 119:23-24; Josh. 24:15; Neh. 4:13, 17 compared; Mal. 3:13-17; 2 Cor. 11:23-30. These scriptures speak out this truth, that upright hearts will persevere in the ways of God, and in the ways of well-doing, notwithstanding all the afflictions, troubles, and discouragements they meet with. For the opening of the point, I shall premise these three things—
First, I shall premise something concerning upright hearts.
Secondly, I shall premise something concerning the ways of God.
Thirdly, The reasons why upright hearts will persevere in the ways of God, in the ways of well-doing, notwithstanding all the afflictions, troubles, and discouragements they meet with.
1. I shall premise these four things concerning upright hearts—
1. First, An upright heart hates all SINS, even those which he cannot conquer; and he loves all divine TRUTHS, even those which he cannot practice. An upright heart, he hates all SIN. All sin strikes at God, at his holiness, as well as at an upright man's happiness. All sin strikes at God's glory, as well as at the soul's comfort; therefore the soul strikes at all sin. All sins, in the eye of an upright heart, are traitors to the crown and dignity of the Lord Jesus; therefore the soul rises in arms against all. An upright heart, he looks upon sin to be a universal evil. An upright heart, he looks upon sin as that which has thrown down the most righteous man in the world, as Noah; as that which has thrown down the bestbeliever in the world, as Abraham; as that which has thrown down the best king in the world, as David; as that which has thrown down the best apostle in the world, as Paul. It looks upon sin as that which has thrown down the strongest, as Samson; and the wisest, as Solomon; and the meekest, as Moses; and the patientest, as Job; and so his soul rises against it. In Psalm 119:104, "I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path." The original word signifies to hate with a deadly and irreconcilable hatred; to hate so as that nothing will satisfy but the destruction of the thing hated. It is the same Hebrew word that is used to express Absalom's hatred of Amnon for defiling of sister Tamar, "My soul hates him."
An unsound heart, a rotten heart, strikes at some sins—and yet falls in with others; he cries down pride and ignorance—and yet falls in with oppression and cruelty; he cries down tyranny and injustice in others—and yet plays the tyrant and unjust one himself. There are men who are blinded by Satan, and he has them by the hand, and the Lord knows where he will lead them.
And as an upright heart hates all sins, even those he cannot conquer, so an upright soul loves all TRUTHS, even those that he cannot practice. Every word of the Lord is just and righteous in the eye of an upright soul; he loves all truth strongly, though he can practice no truth but very weakly. Every word of grace is glorious, every line of grace is very glorious. Truth is sweetness to him; where one truth is sweet, there every truth is sweet to an upright soul. In Psalm 119:127-128, says David there, "I have loved your commandments above gold; yes, above fine gold: I esteem all your precepts concerning all things to be right." That is the first thing.
2. Secondly, Upright hearts serve God, and seek God more for that internal worth and that eternal good that is in him, than for any external good they receive from him. Just so, it was with upright Job. The devil, in Job 1, would gladly charge Job that his heart was not right with God, that God had made a hedge about him, and therefore Job served him. The Lord therefore gives Satan liberty to break down that hedge, that Job's uprightness might appear, and that it might appear to all the world, that Job served God for that internal and eternal worth that was in him—namely, holiness, wisdom, and goodness. Therefore, when that hedge was down, and Job was stripped of all—yet in ver. 21, "The Lord has given," says he, "and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Oh, upright Job served God for that internal and eternal worth that is in him; and therefore, though all his outward goods were lost, his soul could bless God.
But an unsound heart, a rotten heart, serves God and seeks good merely for some external good it has from him, or expects to receive by him. That is a true saying, "Few men seek God for himself—but for some other thing." Like those in Hosea 7:14, "When they howled," says God, "upon their beds, it was for grain, and wine, and oil, and they rebelled against me." It was not for any internal or eternal worth in me, it was not for that holiness, wisdom, faithfulness, purity, and glory that is in me—but they seek me for loaves, for grain, and wine, and oil, and they rebelled against me.
3. Upright hearts are most exercised and most busied and taken up about the inward man, about the inside—observing that, reforming that, examining that, watching that. An upright heart knows that his soul is Christ's throne, his chamber of presence; and therefore, above all, the upright heart is most diligent to observe that none sit upon that throne but Christ, and that none come into that chamber of presence but Christ, that no scepter be advanced there but the scepter of Christ; he is most careful of the inside. In Psalm 86:11, "Incline my heart to fear your name;" Psalm 119:36, "Let my heart be sound in your statutes;" and so in ver. 80 and ver. 112 of the same psalm.
Now an unsound heart, a rotten heart, is most taken up about the outside,—informing that, and reforming that, and watching of that—but as for the inside, there is no eye cast to see how all stands there. The devil may bear rule; any may come into the soul and domineer and oppose the scepter of Christ. Just so, an unsound soul is taken up merely about the outside. That same exhortation of Solomon is strong upon an upright heart: Proverbs 4:23, "Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." The original has it more elegantly, "Before all, or above all keeping, keep your heart; for out of it is the goings forth of lives." This duty that Solomon presse, is a duty that an upright heart above all, endeavors to practice. Above all and before all, he guards his soul; he looks to his inward parts, how he thrives and grows, how he stands God-ward, Christ-ward, heaven-ward, and holiness-ward.
4. Upright hearts in their constant course are unwavering hearts. An upright heart in his constant course is an unwavering heart. All the ways of an upright soul are as commentaries one upon another; and look, "as face answers face," as Solomon speaks, so the ways of an upright heart do one answer another. Christ sits at the stern of the soul, and guides the soul into those ways which are most like to himself: 2 Chron. 34:2, "Josiah, he walked in all the ways of the Lord, as his father David did; he turned neither to the right hand nor to the left." In all his ways he behaved evenly.
But an unsound heart, a rotten heart, is a very wavering heart. You shall have one way wherein he walks to speak him out an angel, another to speak him a very sinful man, and a third to speak him a devil. Now he is for God, afterwards against God; now for justice and righteousness, at another time for injustice and unrighteousness. But an upright heart is an unwavering heart. Let heaven and earth meet, let trials come, temptations and afflictions come, he keeps his ground, he is an unwavering heart, So much concerning the first thing.
2. Secondly, concerning the WAYS of God, I shall briefly premise these five things—
1. First, The ways of God are RIGHTEOUS ways, the ways of God are BLESSED ways. Proverbs 8:20, "I lead in the way of righteousness, and in the midst of the paths of judgment;" and in the 33rd verse of that same chapter, "Hearken unto me now therefore, O you children, for blessed are those who keep your ways." The ways of God are blessedways; they bring in temporal, spiritual, and eternal blessings upon all who walk in them. They are righteous ways; they lead to righteousness, to the love of righteousness, to the practice of righteousness, to a delight in righteousness. As for the ways of profaneness, pride, hypocrisy, formality, and apostasy, these are none of the ways of God; they are unrighteous ways, cursed ways, and they bring nothing but curses and crosses upon all who walk in them. Those who walk in these ways are nowhere secure—but are every moment liable to the thunderbolts of divine displeasure.
2. Secondly, The ways of God are SOUL-REFRESHING ways. Oh, they yield the soul abundance of refreshing and sweetness, who walks in them. In Jer. 6:16, "Ask for the old way, the good old way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest,"—"you shall find refreshing to your souls," as the original has it. If a man's soul is tired and weary, the ways of the Lord will refresh it; if it is dead and dull, the ways of the Lord will quicken it; if he is fainting, the ways of the Lord will be as a cordial to him.
3. Thirdly, The ways of the Lord are TRANSCENDENT ways, ways that transcend all other ways. What is darkness, compared to light? What are pebbles, compared to pearls? What is dross, compared to gold? No more are the choicest ways of the creature, compared to the ways of God: 4:8-9, "My ways are not as your ways, nor my thoughts as your thoughts—but as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts, and my ways above your ways." What is said of wisdom, Proverbs 3:15, "that she is more precious than rubies, and that all the things we can desire are not to be compared to her," the same may be affirmed of the ways of God. Oh! they are more precious than rubies, and all other ways are not to be compared to them.
4. Fourthly, The ways of God are SOUL-STRENGTHENING ways, ways that yield strength to the soul. In Proverbs 10:29, "The way of the Lord is strength to the upright." That is—the way of the Lord makes strong. The original word signifies to confirm, to make strong. Oh, the ways of the Lord confirm upright hearts, they make upright hearts strong, strong to withstand temptations, strong to conquer corruptions, strong to rejoice under afflictions, strong to perform the most heavenly duties, strong to improve the most spiritual mercies. The ways of the Lord make strong, they confirm such hearts as walk in them.
5. Fifthly and lastly, the ways of the Lord are AFFLICTED, perplexed, and persecuted ways. Mat. 7:14, "Strait is the gate," etc. The original word signifies perplexed, afflicted, persecuted; and the way is made strait by afflictions and troubles and persecutions. And so in Acts 19:9, "This way is everywhere evil spoken of;" and in Acts 24:14, "In the way that you call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers." The ways of God are afflicted, persecuted, and perplexed ways. And so much for the second thing.
Part 2 God's Delight in the Progress of the Upright
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