Gospel-love, heart-purity, and the flourishing of the righteous being the last sermon of the…

By Table, he means the good things upon their table: when they have a full table, a plentiful table. And so all outward prosperity, saith he, it shall be a snare to them. And that which should have been for their good: that is, that which in the nature of it is for their good, It shall be an occasion for their falling: they shall grow more hardened by it, more proud by it, and more impenitent by it, and more strangers to God by it. But now when the Lord speaks of a righteous man, here the thing which was appointed for his snare, as the troubles and persecutions which lye upon him in the world, shall be a table to him; his very ⟨p. 119⟩snares shall be a table to his inner man, where his Graces shall come and feed, and grow fat, and flourish, and increase. The things which the men of the world have devised for his falling, they shall be to him an occasion of good. This is wonderful, and we are to bless the Lord for it, when we find such effects of it: when we see it so in others, or have any experience of it in our selves, that our afflictions do not snare us, but are a table to our Graces. That's another thing, to give God the glory of it; for it is not in the nature of these things to do it. No, things would work quite otherwise, but that God is wonderful in his Counsels, and excellent in his workings towards his people: they would rather drive us from God, and destroy our graces.

By Table, he means the good things upon their table: when they have a full table, a plentiful table. And so all outward prosperity, saith he, it shall be a snare to them. And that which should have been for their good: that is, that which in the nature of it is for their good, It shall be an occasion for their falling: they shall grow more hardned by it, more proud by it, and more impenitent by it, and more strangers to God by it. But now when the Lord speaks of a righteous man, here the thing which was appointed for his snare, as the troubles and persecutions which lye upon him in the world, shall be a table to him; his very ⟨p. 119⟩snares shall be a table to his inner man, where his Graces shall come and feed, and grow fat, and flourish, and increase. The things which the men of the world have devised for his falling, they shall be to him an occasion of good. This is wonderful, and we are to bless the Lord for it, when we find such effects of it: when we see it so in others, or have any experience of it in our selves, that our afflictions do not snare us, but are a table to our Graces. That's another thing, to give God the glory of it; for it is not in the nature of these things to do it. No, things would work quite otherwise, but that God is wonderful in his Counsels, and excellent in his workings towards his people: they would rather drive us from God, and destroy our graces.