John Owen · 23 of 157

Sermon III. Jeremiah xv. 19, 20. · Part 2

In the words observe four things, —

I. God’s direction to the prophet, and in him to all that do his work in such a season as this described: “Let them return to thee; return not thou to them.”

II. Their assistance and supportment in pursuance of that direction: “I will make thee to this people a brasen fenced wall.”

III. The opposition, with its success and issue, which in that way they should meet withal: “They shall fight against thee, but shall not prevail.”

IV. Their consolation and success from the presence of the Lord: “For I am with thee to deliver thee,” etc.

I. There is God’s direction.

Many difficulties in this troublesome season was the prophet intricated withal. The people would not be prevailed with to come up to the mind of God; — they continuing in their stubbornness, the Lord would not be prevailed with to avert the threatened desolation. What now shall he do? To stand out against the bulk of the people suits not his earthly interest; — to couple with them answers not the discharge of his office; — to wait upon them any longer is fruitless; — to give up himself to their ways, comfortless. Hence his complaints, hence his moanings; — better lie down and sink under the burden, than always to swim against the stream of an unreformable multitude. In this strait the Lord comes in with his direction: “Let them return unto thee,” etc. Keep thy station, perform thy duty, comply not with the children of backsliding. But whatever be the issue, if there be any closing wrought, let it be by working them off from their ways of folly. All condescension on thy part, where the work of God is to be done, is in opposition to him. If they return, embrace them freely; if not, do thy duty constantly.

That which is spoken immediately to the prophet, I shall hold out to all, acting in the name and authority of God, in this general proposition:—

Observation. Plausible compliances of men in authority with those against whom they are employed, are treacherous contrivances against the God of heaven, by whom they are employed.

If God be so provoked that he curseth him who doth his work negligently, what is he by them that do it treacherously? — when he gives a sword into the hands of men, and they thrust it into his own bowels, his glory and honour, those things so dear to him? He that is intrusted with it, and dares not do justice on every one that dares do injustice, is afraid of the creature, but makes very bold with the Creator. Prov. xxv. 2, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.” That which God aimeth to be glorious in, to manifest his attributes by, is the concealing and covering our iniquities in Christ; but if the magistrate will have glory, if he will not bring upon himself dishonour by dishonouring God, he is to search and find out the transgressions with whose cognizance he is intrusted, and to give unto them condign retribution. If the Lord curse them who come not forth to his help against the mighty, Judges v. 23 — what is their due who, being called forth by him, do yet help the mighty against him? For a man to take part with the kingdom’s enemies, is no small crime; but for a commission-officer to run from them by whom he is commissionated, to take part with the adversary, is death without mercy. Yet have not some in our days arrived at that stupendous impudence, that when, as private persons, they have declaimed against the enemies of the nation, and by that means got themselves into authority, they have made use of that authority to comply with and uphold those by an opposition to whom they got into their authority? which is no less than an atheistical attempt to personate the Almighty, unto such iniquities as without his appearance they dare not own. But “he that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord,” Prov. xvii. 15; and not only to the Lord, but to good men also: “He that saith to the wicked, Thou art righteous; him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him,” Prov. xxiv. 24.

I speak only as to the general (for me, let all particulars find mercy), with a sad remembrance of the late workings of things amongst us, with those vile, sordid compliances, which grew upon the spirits of magistrates and ministers, with those whose garments were dyed with the blood of God’s saints and precious ones, — as formerly they were called, for now these names are become terms of reproach. And would this complying went alone; but pretences and accusations must be found out against such as follow with them. When they begin to call darkness light, they will ere long call light darkness; by which means our eyes have seen men of their own accord laying down the weapons wherewith at first they fought against opposers, and taking up them which were used against themselves; as hath happened more than once to penmen, both in our own and our neighbour nation.

Now, this revolting from principles of religion and righteousness, to a compliance with any sinful way or person, is a treacherous opposition to the God of heaven. For, —

It cannot be done but by preferring the creature before the Creator, especially in those things which are the proximate causes of deviation.

Two principal causes I have observed of this crooked walking.

(1.) Fear.

(2.) That desire of perishing things which hath a mixture of covetousness and ambition.

The first maketh men waxy what they do against men; the other maketh them weary of doing any thing for God, as whereby their sordid ends are not like to be accomplished.

(1.) Fear. When once magistrates begin to listen after “quid sequitur’s,” and so to withdraw from doing good for fear of suffering evil, paths of wickedness are quickly returned unto, and the authority of God despised. “Let this man go, and take heed of Cæsar,” John xix. 12, did more prevail on Pilate’s treacherous heart than all the other clamours of the Jews. Yea, was not the whole Sanhedrim swayed to desperate villainy for fear the Romans should come and take away their kingdom? John xi. 48. When men begin once to distrust that God will leave them in the briers, to wrestle it out themselves (for unbelief lieth at the bottom of carnal fear), they quickly turn themselves to contrivances of their own for their own safety, their own prosperity; which commonly is by obliging those unto them by compliances, in an opposition to whom they might oblige the Almighty to their assistance. Surely they conclude he wants either truth or power to support them in his employment.

If a prince should send an ambassador to a foreign state, to treat about peace, or to denounce war; who, when he comes there, distrusting his master’s power to make good his undertaking, should comply and wind up his interest with them to whom he was sent, suffering his sovereign’s errand to fall to the ground, — would he not be esteemed as arrant a traitor as ever lived? And yet, though this be clipped coin among men, it is put upon the Lord every day as current.

From this principle of carnal fear and unbelief, — trembling for a man that shall die, and the son of man that shall be as grass, forgetting the Lord our maker, Isa. li. 12, — are all those prudential follies which exercise the minds of most men in authority, making them, especially in times of difficulties, to regulate and square all their proceedings by what suits their own safety and particular interests, — counselling, advising, working for themselves, quite forgetting by whom they are intrusted, and whose business they should do.

(2.) A desire of perishing things tempered with covetousness and ambition. Hence was the sparing of the fat cattle and of Agag by Saul, 1 Sam. xv. 1.

When those two qualifications close on any, they are diametrically opposed to that frame which of God is required in them, — viz., “That they should be men fearing God, and hating covetousness.” The first will go far, being only a contrivance for safety; but if this latter take hold of any, being a consultation to exalt themselves, it quickly carrieth them beyond all bounds whatsoever. The Lord grant that hereafter there may be no such complaints in this nation, or [that they] may be causeless, as have been heretofore, — viz., that we have poured out our prayers, jeoparded our lives, wasted our estates, spent our blood, to serve the lusts and compass the designs of ambitious, ungodly men!

The many ways whereby these things intrench upon the spirits of men, to bias them from the paths of the Lord, I shall not insist upon; it is enough that I have touched upon the obvious causes of deviation, and manifested them to be treacheries against the God of all authority.

Use. Be exhorted to beware of relapses, with all their causes and inducements, and to be constant to the way of righteousness; and this I shall hold out unto you in two particulars.

1. Labour to recover others, even all that were ever distinguished and called by the name of the Lord, from their late fearful returning to sinful compliances with the enemies of God and the nation. I speak not of men’s persons, but of their ways. For three years this people have been eminently sick of the folly of backsliding, and without some special cordial are like to perish in it, as far as I know.

Look upon the estate of this people as they were differenced seven years ago, so for some continuance, and as they are now; and you shall find in how many things we have returned to others, and not one instance to be given of their return to us. That this may be clear, take some particulars.

(1.) In words and expressions; — those are “index animi.” Turn them over, and you may find what is in the whole heart. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Now, is not that language, are not those very expressions which filled the mouths of the common adversaries only, grown also terms of reproach upon the tongues of men that suffered sometimes under them, and counted it their honour so to do? Hence that common exprobration, A parliament of saints, an army of saints, and such like derisions of God’s ways, — now plentiful with them who sat sometimes and took sweet counsel with us. Ah! had it not been more for the honour of God that we had kept our station until others had come to us, — so to have exalted the name and profession of the gospel, — than that we should so return to them as to join with them in making the paths of Christ a reproach? Had it not been better for us, with Judah, to continue “ruling with God, and to be faithful with the saints,” Hos. xi. 12, than to stand in the congregation of the mockers, and to sit in the seat of the scornful? What shall we say, when the saints of God “are as signs and wonders [to be spoken against] in Israel?” Isa. viii. 18. O that men would remember how they have left their first station, when themselves use those reproaches unto others which for the same cause themselves formerly bare with comfort! It is bitterness to consider how the gospel is scandalized by this woful return of ministers and people, by casting scriptural expressions by way of scorn on those with whom they were sometimes in the like kind companions of contempt. Surely in this we are returned to them, and not they to us.

(2.) In actions, and those, —

[1.] Of religion. Not only in opinion, but practice also, are we here under a vile return. We are become the lions, and the very same thoughts [are] entertained by us against others as were exercised towards ourselves. Are not others as unworthy to live upon their native soil in our judgments, as we ourselves in the judgments of them formerly over us? Are not groans for liberty, by the warmth of favour, in a few years hatched into attempts for tyranny? And for practice, what hold hath former superstition, in observing days and times, laid upon the many of the people again! Witness the late solemn superstition, and many things of the like nature.

[2.] For civil things, the closing of so many formerly otherwise engaged with the adverse party in the late rebellion, with the lukewarm deportment of others at the same time, is a sufficient demonstration of it. And may not the Lord justly complain of all this? “What iniquity have you seen in me or my ways, that you are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?” Jer. ii. 5. “Why have you changed your glory for that which doth not profit,” verse 11. “Have I been a dry heath or a barren wilderness to you?” Oh, that men should find no more sweetness in following the Lamb under wonderful protections, but that they should thus turn aside into every wilderness! What indignity is this to the ways of God! I could give you many reasons of it; but I have done what I intended, — a little hinted that we are a returning people, that so you might be exhorted to help for a recovery. And how shall that be?

2. By your own keeping close to the paths of righteousness. If you return not, others will look about again. This breach, this evil is of you; within your own walls was the fountain of our backsliding. Would you be the repairers of breaches, the restorers of paths for men to walk in? — do these two things:—

(1.) Turn not to the ways of such as the Lord hath blasted under your eyes. And these may be referred to three heads.

[1.] Oppression; [2.] Self-seeking; [3.] Contrivances for persecution.

[1.] Oppression. How detestable a crime it is in the eyes of the Almighty, — what effects it hath upon men, “making wise men mad!” Eccles. vii. 7, — how frequently it closeth in the calamitous ruin of the oppressors themselves, — are things known to all. Whether it hath not been exercised in this nation, both in general by unnecessary impositions, and in particular by unwarrantable pressures, let the mournful cries of all sorts of people testify. Should you now return to such ways as these, would not the anger of the Lord smoke against you? Make it, I beseech you, your design to relieve the whole, by all means possible, and to relieve particulars, yea, even of the adverse party where too much overborne. O let it be considered by you, that it be not considered upon you! I know the things you are necessitated to are not to be supported by the air. It is only what is unnecessary as to you, or insupportable as to others, that requires your speedy reforming; that so it may be said of you as of Neh. v. 14, 15. And for particulars (pray pardon my folly and boldness), I heartily desire a committee of your honourable House might sit once a-week, to relieve poor men that have been oppressed by men sometimes enjoying parliamentary authority.

[2.] Self-seeking, when men can be content to lay a nation low, that they may set up themselves upon the heaps and ruins thereof. Have not some sought to advance themselves under that power which, with the lives and blood of the people, they have opposed; seeming to be troubled at former things, not because they were done, but because they were not done by them? But innocent blood will be found a tottering foundation for men to build their honours, greatness, and preferments upon. O return not in this unto any! If men serve themselves of the nation, they must expect that the nation will serve itself upon them. The best security you can possibly have that the people will perform their duty in obedience, is the witness of your own consciences that you have discharged your duty towards them, — in seeking their good by your own trouble, and not your own advantages in their trouble. I doubt not but that in this your practice makes the admonition a commendation; otherwise the word spoken will certainly witness against you.

[3.] Contrivances for persecution. How were the hearts of all men hardened like the nether millstone, and their thoughts did grind blood and revenge against their brethren! What colours, what pretences, had men invented to prepare a way for the rolling of their garments in the tears, yea, blood of Christians! The Lord so keep your spirits from a compliance herein, that withal the bow be not too much bent on the other side, — which is not impossible.

Be there a backsliding upon your spirit to these, or such-like things as these, the Lord will walk contrary to you; and were you “as the signet upon his hand,” he would pluck you off.

(2.) Return not to the open enemies of our peace. I could here enlarge myself, to support your spirits in the work mentioned, Job xxix. 14, 15; but I must go on to the following parts of my text. And therefore, —

II. I pass from the direction given to the supportment and assistance promised: “I will make thee to this people a brasen and a fenced wall.”

An implied objection, which the prophet might put in, upon his charge to keep so close to the rule of righteousness, is here removed. If I must thus abide by it, to execute whatsoever the Lord calls me out unto, not shrinking nor staggering at the greatest undertakings, what will become of me in the issue? will it not be destructive to stand out against a confirmed people? No, saith the Lord, it shall not be; “I will make thee,” etc.

Observation. God will certainly give prevailing strength and unconquerable defence unto persons constantly discharging the duties of righteousness, especially when undertaken in times of difficulty and opposition.

The like engagement to this you have made to Ezekiel chap. iii. 8, 9. Neither was it so to the prophets alone, but to magistrates also. When Joshua undertook the regency of Israel in a difficult time, he takes off his fear and diffidence with this very encouragement, Josh. i. 5. He saith, he will make them a wall, — the best defence against opposition; and that not a weak, tottering wall, that might easily be cast down, but a brazen wall, that must needs be impregnable. What engines can possibly prevail against a wall of brass? And to make it more secure, this brazen wall shall be fenced with all manner of fortifications and ammunition; so that the veriest coward in the world, being behind such a wall, may, without dread or terror, apply himself to that which he findeth to do. God will so secure the instruments of his glory against a backsliding people, in holding up the ways of his truth and righteousness, that all attempts against them shall be vain, and the most timorous spirit may be secure, provided he go not out of the Lord’s way; for if they be found beyond the line, the brazen wall, they may easily be surprised. And, indeed, who but a fool would run from the shelter of a brazen wall, to hide himself in a little stubble? And yet so do all who run to their own wisdom, from the most hazardous engagement that any of the ways of God can possibly lead them unto. It is a sure word, and forever to be rested upon, which the Lord gives in to Asa, 2 Chron. xv. 2, “The Lord is with you, while ye be with him.” An unbiased magistracy shall never want God’s continued presence. Very Jeroboam himself receives a promise, upon condition of close walking with God in righteous administrations, of having a house built him like the house of David, 1 Kings xi. 38. What a wall was God to Moses in that great undertaking, of being instrumental for the delivery of Israel from a bondage and slavery of four hundred years’ continuance? Pharaoh was against him, whom he had deprived of his sovereignty and dominion over the people. And what a provocation the depriving of sovereignty is unto potentates needs no demonstration: to the corruption of nature which inclines to heights and exaltations, in imitation of the fountain whence it flows, they have also the corruption of state and condition, which hath always inclined to absoluteness and tyranny. All Egypt was against him, as being by him visibly destroyed, wasted, spoiled, robbed, and at length smitten in the apple of the eye, by the loss of their first-born. And if this be not enough, that the king and people whom he opposed were his enemies, — the very people for whose sakes he set himself to oppose the others, they also rise up against him, yea, seek to destroy him. One time they appeal to God for justice against him, Exod. v. 21, “The Lord look upon you, and judge.” They appeal to the righteous God to witness that he had not fulfilled what he promised them, — to wit, liberty, safety, and freedom from oppression; but that rather by his means their burdens were increased: and in this they were so confident (like some amongst us), that they appealed unto God for the equity of their complaints. Afterward, being reduced to a strait, such as they could not see how possibly they should be extricated from, without utter ruin (like our present condition in the apprehension of some), they cry out upon him for the whole design of bringing them into the wilderness, and affirm positively, that though they had perished in their former slavery, it had been better for them than to have followed him in this new and dangerous engagement, Exod. xiv. 11, 12; — that generation being, as Calvin observes, so inured to bondage, that they were altogether unfit to bear with the workings and pangs of their approaching liberty. Afterward, do they want drink? — Moses is the cause. Do they want meat? — this Moses would starve them, Exod. xv. 24, xvi. 7. He could not let them alone by the flesh-pots of Egypt; for this they are ready to stone him, Exod. xvii. 3. At this day, have we too much rain, or too short a harvest? — it is laid on the shoulders of the present government. It was no otherwise of old. At length this people came to that height, as, being frightened by the opposition they heard of and framed to themselves in that place whither Moses would carry them, they presently enter into a conspiracy and revolt, consulting to cast off his government, and choose new commanders, and with a violent hand to return to their former condition, Num. xiv. 4, — an attempt as frequent as fruitless among ourselves. When this would not do, at length, upon the occasion of taking off Korah and his company, they assemble themselves together, and lay, not imprisonment, but murder to his charge; and that of “the people of the Lord,” Num. xvi. 41. Now, what was the issue of all those oppositions? what effect had they? how did the power of Pharaoh, the revenge of Egypt, the backsliding of Israel prevail? Why, God made this one Moses a fenced brazen wall to them all; he was never in the least measure prevailed against; — so long as he was with God, God was with him, no matter who was against him.

One thing only would I commend to your consideration, — viz., that this Moses, thus preserved, thus delivered, thus protected, falling into one deviation, in one thing, from close following the Lord, was taken off from enjoying the closure and fruit of all his labour, Num. xx. 12. Otherwise he followed the Lord in a difficult season, and did not want unconquerable supportment. Take heed of the smallest turning aside from God. Oh! lose not the fruit of all your labour, for self, for a lust, or any thing that may turn you aside!

Now, the Lord will do this, —

1. Because of his own engagement.

2. For our encouragement.

1. Because of his own engagement. And that is twofold.

(1.) Of truth and fidelity.

(2.) Of honour and glory.

(1.) His truth and veracity is engaged in it. “Those that honour him, he will honour,” 1 Sam. ii. 30. If men honour him with obedience, he will honour them with preservation. “He will be with them, while they are with him,” 2 Chron. xv. 2. While they are with him in constancy of duty, he will be with them to keep them in safety. He will never leave them, nor forsake them, Josh. i. 5. “No weapon that is formed against them shall prosper,” Isa. liv. 17. Now, God is never as the waters that fail to any that upon his engagements wait for him; he will not shame the faces of them that put their trust in him. Why should our unbelieving spirits charge that upon the God of truth which we dare not impute to a man that is a worm, a liar? Will a man fail in his engagement unto him who, upon that engagement, undertakes a difficult employment for his sake? The truth is, it is either want of sincerity in our working, or want of faith in dependence, that makes us at any time come short of the utmost tittle that is in any of the Lord’s engagements.

[1.] We want sincerity, and do the Lord’s work, but with our own aims and ends, like Jehu; — no wonder if we be left to ourselves for our wages and defence.

[2.] We want faith, also, in the Lord’s work, — turn to our own counsels for supportment: no marvel if we come short of assistance. “If we will not believe, we shall not be established.”

Look to sincerity in working, and faith in dependence; God’s truth and fidelity will carry him out to give you unconquerable supportment:— deflexion from these will be your destruction. You that are working on a new bottom, work also on new principles; put not new wine into old bottles, new designs into old hearts.

(2.) He is engaged in point of honour. If they miscarry in his way, what will he do for his great name? Yea, so tender is the Lord herein of his glory, that when he hath been exceedingly provoked to remove men out of his presence, yet because they have been called by his name, and have visibly held forth a following after him, he would not suffer them to be trodden down, lest the enemy should exalt themselves, and say, Where is now their God? They shall not take from him the honour of former deliverances and protections. In such a nation as this, if the Lord now, upon manifold provocations, should give up parliament, people, army, to calamity and ruin, would not the glory of former counsels, successes, deliverances, be utterly lost? would not men say it was not the Lord, but chance that happened to them?

2. For our encouragement. The ways of God are oftentimes attended with so many difficulties, so much opposition, that they must be embraced merely because his; no other motive in the world can suit them to us. I mean, for such as keep them immixed from their own carnal and corrupt interests. Now, because the Lord will not take off the hardship and difficulty of them, lest he should not have the honour of carrying on his work against tumultuating opposition, he secures poor weaklings of comfortable assistance and answerable success, lest his work should be wholly neglected. It is true, the Lord, as our sovereign master, may justly require a close labouring in all his ways without the least sweetening endearments put upon them, only as they are his, whose we are, who hath a dominion over us. But yet, as a tender father, — in which relation he delights to exercise his will towards his own in Christ, — he pitieth our infirmities, knowing that we are but dust; and therefore, to invite us into the dark, into ways laboursome and toilsome to flesh and blood, he gives us in this security, — that we shall be as a fenced brazen wall to the opposing sons of men.

Use 1. To discover the vanity and folly of all opposition to men called forth of God to his work, and walking in his ways. Would you not think him mad that should strike with his fist, and run with his head against a fenced brazen wall, to cast it down? Is he like to have any success, but the battering of his flesh, and the beating out of his brains? What do the waves obtain by dashing themselves with noise and dread against a rock, but their own beating to pieces? What prevails a man by shooting his arrows against the sky, but a return upon his own head? Nor is the most powerful opposition to the ways of God like to meet with better success God looks no otherwise upon opposers than you would do upon a man attempting to thrust down a fenced brazen wall with his fingers. Therefore it is said, that in their proudest attempts, strongest assaults, deepest counsels, combinations, and associations, “he laughs them to scorn,” derides their folly, contemns their fury, lets them sweat in vain, until their day be come, Ps. ii. How birthless in our own, as well as other generations, have been their swelling conceptions! What, then, is it that prevails upon men to break through so many disappointments against the Lord as they do? — doubtless that of Isa. xxiii. 9, “Surely the Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.” God gives up men unto it, that he may leave no earthly glory or honour without pollution or contempt. And therefore hath opposition in our days been turned upon so many hands, that God might leave no glory without contempt: yet with this difference, that if the Lord will own them, he will recover them from their opposition; as has happened of late to the ministry of one, and will happen ere long to the ministry of another nation. When the Lord hath a little stained the pride of their glory, they shall be brought home again by the spirit of judgment and burning; but if he own them not, they shall perish under the opposition. And when it hath been wheeled about on all sorts of men, the end will be.