Occafioned by the Death of Mrs MARY FALL, late Wife of the Reverend Mr JAMES FALL of Watford, Herts. Preached April 13, 1739. ISAIAH XXX. 21. This is the way, walk ye in it HIS part of Ifaiah's prophecy was delivered by him at a time when Sennacherib, king of Affyria, had invaded the land of Judea, and was about to besiege the city of Jerufalem; which ftruck the inhabitants with great confternation, and put them on contriving different methods for their fecurity. Some of them thought of going down to Egypt, or of fending to that nation for affiftance, in this their time of extremity: for.which they are fharply reproved in the beginning of this chapter: and are told, that their ftrength was to fit ftill", that is, to be quiet and easy, and abide in the city of Jerufalem; and not once think of betaking themselves elsewhere; when they might affure themselves of protection and safety: but this meffage from God, by the prophet, was flighted by them; For thus faith the Lord God, the holy one of Ifrael, In returning and ret fhall ye be faved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength, and ye would not. Wherefore they are threatened with swift ruin and destruction. But as the Lord always had a compaffionate regard to his dear children, the remnant, according to the election of grace among that people; fo he always took care to give out gracious promises for their relief and fupport in the worft of times. Accordingly it is faid in the context; And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you; and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you; he will defer the execution of his judgments; he will not ftir up all his wrath; but when the fet time is come, he will arise and have mercy on you; for the Lord is a God of judgment, who can do nothing but what is just and right, and every thing well and wifely; who always acts according to justice, with judgment and wisdom, and also with clemency, goodness and mercy; in which sense the word judgment is fometimes used: as when the prophet fays, O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, left thou bring me to nothing a. And because the Lord is, in this fenfe, a God of judgment, it is a great encouVOL. I. 3 G ragement ₺ Ver. 15. ■ Ifaiah xxx. 7. Ver. 18. d Jer. x. 24. ragement to persons to wait for him, and trust in him; blessed are all they that wait for him, who place their hope and confidence in him, and not in men; who make ufe of no illicit methods, nor apply to others for help and affiftance in time of diftrefs; for the people fhall dwell in Zion, at Jerufalem; that is, în fafety, without fear of their enemies; thou shalt weep no more, or not long; be, God, will be very gracious to thee, at the voice of thy cry, prayer and fupplication to him; when he shall bear it, he will answer thee, fooner or later, in his own time: and though the Lord give you the bread of adverfity, and the water of affliction, either now, at this prefent time, or hereafter, in the Babylonifh captivity; yet fhall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more; or as others read the words, thy rain fhall not be removed from thee; for one and the fame word' fignifies both rain and a teacher; because, doctrine from the mouth of the teacher, drops like rain upon the tender herb, and as showers on the grafs; and is here to be understood of the rain of spiritual doctrine; fo that the fense is much the fame, and the meaning of the words this; that though the people of God should be attended with bodily afflictions, they fhould have spiritual confolation; and though they might have a fatnine of bread and water, yet not of hearing the word of the Lord. Thine eyes fhall fee thy teachers, in their proper places, doing the proper work of their office; and thine ears fhall bear a voice behind thee, faying; This is the way, walk ye in it. The Lord will open thine ears to difcipline, and thine heart to attend to the things fpoken by him in the word of the gofpel; when thou turneft out of his way, to the right hand or the left. The word being faid to be behind them, points out their declenfions and backflidings, who had faid to the prophets, get ye out of the way; turn afide out of the path; caufe the holy one of Ifrael to cease from before us. And it is thought by fome", to be an allufion to schoolmafters, who ftand behind their scholars, or at their back, to guide, teach, and inftruct them. Others think, the reference is to fhepherds following their flocks; who, when they obferve any of the fheep going out of the way, call them back; or rather, the expreffion feems to be borrowed from travellers; who coming to a place where are feveral ways, and being at a lofs which to take, are inclined to turn to the right hand, or the left, when they are called to by perfons behind them, at a distance from them, directing them in the right way; and fuch is this here directed to. • Calvin, Munster, &c. The Joel ii. 23. Quod fi ibi fignificat pluviam, metaphorice notabitur is, qui de cælo defcendit & irrigat ad juftitiam. Coccei Lexic. in Rad, p 339. g Ver. It. ↳ Deum vero hic pædagogo comparat, qui pueros fibi ante oculos ftatuit, ut eos melius formet atque regat. Calvin. in loc. Loquitur autem ad fimilitudinem paftoris; qui oves aberrantes a tergo inclamans ad viam revocat, & illæ audita voce ejus in ordinem redeunt. Mufculus in loc. So the Chaldee paraphrase explains the words, NIPAT NIIN, this is the right way; The observation I make on the text is this: That the word of God, or gospel of Chrift, is a full and fure direction to the people of God, as to the way in which they should walk. This is the more fure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed'. This is a lamp unto your feet, and a light unto your paths". It is the rule of faith. and practice; by which the whole walk and converfation of the faints, both in faith and holiness, is to be directed. We are to follow God and not men; the Bible, and not the doctrines and inventions of men. Though a majority may be on one fide of the question, we are not to follow a multitude to do evil. All the world wondered after the beast". Nor are riches and learning to have any influence upon us, or weight with us, to incline us one way or another; were thefe a rule of judgment, our Lord must have been rejected as an impoftor and deceiver. Have any of the rulers, the heads and governors of the people, civil or ecclefiaftical, or of the Pharifees, that learned body of men, believed on him? But this people, who knoweth not the law, are curfed°; a company of poor illiterate and contemptible perfons. Not the traditions of men, the productions of carnal reason, natural fchemes, or philofophical quirks, are to be regarded by us, but the word of Chrift: Beware, left any man spoil you through philofophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Chrift. Nor are education-principles to be trusted to and depended upon, without examination; nor are we to be governed by the customs of the people, which are generally vain; but to the law and to the testimony, if men speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. We should fearch the feriptures, as the noble Bereans did, to fee whether the things spoken are fo or no; for they are they which testify of Christ, of his person and offices, of his grace, blood, righteoufnefs, facrifice and fatisfaction, and of the way of salvation by him; they are the standard to which all doctrines and practices are to be brought, and by which they are to be tried; and these contain full and fure directions with refpect to both; they are profitable for do&trine, for reproof, for correction, for inftruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. If any are at a lofs about the way in which they fhould walk; let them examine the way-marks, the fcriptures, the word of God, and gospel of Chrift; let them ftand in the ways, and fee and ask for the old paths; Where is the good way, and walk therein ". The method I fhall take in the profecution of this fubject, will be as follows: I. I fhall with which agree the comments of R. Sol. Jarchi, R. David Kimchi, and R. Aben Ezra, in loc. Though the Arabic verfion, following the Septuagint, reprefents them as the words of feducers, directing to a wrong way. 1 2 Pet. i. 19. + Col. ii. 8. 2 Tim. iii. 16. 3 G 2 m Pfalm cxix. 105. n Rev. xiii. 3. 4 Jer. x.3. John vii. 48, 49. John v. 39. Acts xvii. 11. "Jer. vi. 16. I. I fhall give fome further account of the word, said to be behind, which directs to the way in which the people of God should walk. II. Shew what that way is which this word directs to. III. Inquire what is meant by walking in the way which is exhorted to. And, IV. Obferve fome advantages which arife to perfons walking in this way, and which may be confidered as encouragements to them to walk in it. I. I fhall give fome further account of the word behind, which directs the faints to walk in the right way. And by this we are to understand, not the word spoken by angels"; which is the law that was given to Mofes, by the difpo fition of angels *. When God appeared on mount Sinai, it was with great folemnity and majesty; he came with ten thousands of faints, his holy ones, the angels; from his right hand went a fiery law; which was received by those ministring fpirits, and was ordained, or difpofed of by them, in the band of a mediator2; which mediator was Mofes. But though a word spoken by them, and delivered out with so much folemnity, required the strictest attention and regard; yet this is not the word intended here; for that was a voice of words which they that beard, intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more; for they could not endure that which was commanded: it was a voice of terror, and devoid of mercy; it accufed of fin; pronounced men guilty; curfed them on account of it, and was a miniftration of condemnation and death. But the word in our text, is the ftill finall voice of the gospel, the voice of Chrift; which his fheep hear, and are capable of diftinguishing from the voice of a ftranger it is a word clothed with power, and is effectual to many great and wonderful purposes; it is a foul-shaking, and heart-breaking voice. What is faid of the voice of the Lord, may, in fome fenfe, be applied to this; The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty; the voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. This is a means not only of awakening and convincing, but alfo of quickening finners, dead in trefpaffes and fins: The hour is coming, and now is, fays Chrift, when the dead fhall bear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live; yea, it is a foul-comforting and reviving word to his people; it is the voice of the cbarmers, charming exceeding wifely; it allures the hearts of believers; it ravishes their fouls; it raifes and engages their affections, and fills their minds with inexpreffible delight and pleasure; it is a voice of love, grace and mercy. This word may be confidered as fpoken and delivered by the minifters of Chrift, who are ambaffadors for him, and stand in his ftead: when they preach his gofpel, he speaks in them, and by them; fo that he that hears them hears him; and he that defpifes them, defpifes him. Now this word, whether it be confidered as lying in the Bible, or as fpoken by Chrift, or as delivered by his faithful ministers, is, 1. The word of God. It comes from him, was dictated by him, is the breath of the Almighty, was given forth by divine infpiration; the writers of it were moved by the holy Ghoft; what is faid by David of himfelf, is as true of all the rest of the penmen of the facred fcriptures; the Spirit of the Lord fpake by me, and his word was in my tongue: fo that what they wrote was not their own, but God's yea, what our Lord Jefus Chrift delivered, as the great prophet in Ifrael, was not his own, but his Father's: The word which you hear, says he, is not mine, but the Father's which fent me. And fo what the true and faithful minifters of Chrift preach, agreeable to the fcriptures of truth, and the gospel of Chrift, is to be regarded and received, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. And, indeed, the wonderful things which are done by it, and which can be afcribed to nothing elfe but the power of God going along with it, bear a testimony to it, and prove it to be his; fuch as quickening of dead finners, opening blind eyes, unftopping deaf ears, foftening hard hearts, fubduing rebellious wills, reconciling minds which were enmity to God, to Christ, to his gofpel, ordinances and people; and delivering fouls out of the power of darkness, and tranflating them into the kingdom of God's dear Son.. 2. It is the word of truth". The fcriptures, in which it lies, are the fcriptures of truth; it comes from the God of truth: the sum and substance of it is Christ, who is the truth. It is opened and applied, and men are guided into it by the Spirit of truth. It confifts of a fet and chain of truths which are infeparably connected together; the principal of which lies in thofe words; This is a faithful faying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jefus Chrift came into the world to fave finners, of whom I am chief'. 3. It is the word of reconciliation. It gives the plan and model of reconciliation, as it was drawn in the divine mind and counfel from everlasting it points out this as the work cut out for the Meffiah before he came; and acquaints us, that he affumed human nature in order to do it; and that the elect of God, even while they were enemies, were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; and that he has actually, and compleatly, made peace for them by the blood of his crofs; whence the gospel is called, The gospel of peace, and the word preaching peace by Jefus Chrift, who is Lord of all'. 4. It is the word of righteousness"; not only because it teaches and engages men to live righteously and foberly, but because therein is revealed the righte |